#mistaken identity except it's john and philip

[hamiltrash2097-blog]

Three Pints--?

(for @avenoire a random continuation of this and this 

ISTG I’m dying at how easily that could happen.I think you forgot a pair thouuggh. I couldn’t resist-

Take note this is not anywhere near accurate to history cause Laurens was v dead when Philip was 19.)

Summer is  a season Philip enjoys because he could spend time outside writing poetry under the shade of the trees. But not today...today it’s unbearably hot. Philip wears his hair down enjoying the breeze ruffling his unruly curls. Not today...today it’s humid making his hair frizzy coupled with the unbearable heat it was not a day to have hair sticking to his sweaty neck. “It has to be 80 degrees!” Philip huffed his sleeves rolled up to his elbows and coat over his arm. His satchel sat on his shoulder he having  planned to walk by the pond to get inspiration while his mother spent time with his aunts. The 19 year old wiped sweat off his brow feeling some drip from the tip of his nose. His hair stuck to his forehead falling into his eyes. “Ugh...” Philip brushed it back only to have it fall back onto his face again. “I can’t deal with this!” Philip grumbled irritated after the fifth time he had to brush his curly hair out of his eyes. he stopped beneath a small birch tree and rifled through his bag, “I know I have one in here...” After a few minutes he pulled a hair tie from his bag triumphantly. He pulled his frizzy hair back into a ponytail a few rebellious stands falling onto his forehead and ears. He sighed continuing to make his way home; it’s  hot and he needs to change into some lighter clothing before returning to the park.

Not too far away Lafayette and Mulligan walked towards a bar both wanting to forget the events that transpired earlier. The couple had agreed not to speak of Laf being kissed  by Madison or Hercules being hugged by Jefferson. “Knew he was secretly soft.” Hercules said pulling at his caret to ease the heat his new suit caused. Laf nods smiling his own shirt partially unbuttoned and sleeves rolled up. “Let’s drown our sorrows and the heat in liquor huh?” Hercules said right as Pip rounded the corner. Hamilton had always joked with his son that he could be mistaken for his friend John Laurens with his hair up. Philip tried to sound southern making  his entire family burst into a fit of laughter. Never once did Pip think he would ever actually be mistaken for the Lieutenant Colonel; fate seemed to have other ideas for the 19 year old. As he rounded the corner near one of his father’s favorite taverns he was spotted by Mulligan one of his father’s closest friends. “Well fate has smiled upon us today! Laurens you’re back early!” Pip looked at them confused, “Uh sir  with all  due respect I think you’re-” Mulligan laughed, “Sir? God you really have been all business. Time to loosen up don’t ya think?” Philip tried again to point out the mistaken identity, “Er I think you have the wrong-” Lafayette grasped his shoulder steering him toward the cool tavern, “Mon ami I know my friends when I see them.” Philip was led inside being unable to free himself of the older man’s grasp without being rude. So he ended up sitting across from Lafayette at a table in the cooler corner of the bar. Mulligan called for a server to bring them three Sam Adams; Philip felt sweat drip down his neck when the beer was placed in front of him. “To great friends.” Laf cheered leaving Pip to join the toast but freezing the glass against his lips when he realized he had to now take a sip. 

“What’s wrong Johnny boy? You love Sam Adams!” Hercules said already on his second beer. “Come  mon ami join the festivities!” Laf patted Philip on the back hard forcing him to swallow the entirety of glass pressed against his lips. He gagged a bit on the liquid going down his throat. “Laf not so hard what if he chokes?” Hercules said still sober. “He won’t will you John?” Philip coughed, “I’m not-” Laf laughed, “See he’s fiine~” Hercules smiled ordering his third Philip staring at the empty glass slightly confused but realized trying to correct them was hopeless. “Drink up John the day is young!” Laf giggled. “B-but-!” Pip squeaked. “Aweee listen to him stutter did you meet a pretty belle down south hmmm?” Laf teased and Philip’s mind turned to his girlfriend Theo; he turned scarlet thinking of her beautiful face. “He diiiid~ Look at his red cheeks!” Hercules laughed. “Our little John is in looove~” Philip was very embarrassed covering his face with his hands. “Awe don’t hide from us John tell us bout her!” Philip blinked stuttering about how she’s a beautiful woman with caramel skin and chocolate brown eyes that sparkle when she sings. “You ‘ave fallen hard mon ami.” Laf laughs and Philip nods his head. “Let’s have another round to you finding love!” Hercules put another beer in front of Philip. “Drink up it’s on us tonight!” Philip was now in a position where he could not refuse the alcohol in front of him without being seen as rude and ungrateful. He took a breath and swallowed down the ale letting out a breath afterwards. “That’s more like it!” Philip smiled sheepishly hoping vainly that two was enough but of course a third was put before him, “Maybe tonight you can get through three pints eyyy Johnny boy?” Philip sighed but put on a brave smile, “Sure maybe so?” They cheered when Philip downed his third without a problem. Philip was beginning to feel the buzz of the alcohol in his system and smiled loosening up, “Only three?” he giggled. “Get this man anther beer!” Three  beers later Philip was completely drunk and leaning on Lafayette singing the national anthem drunkenly Hercules joining in. The two adults had finally washed away the weird day they’d had and Philip was fully relaxed for the first time in a while. He finally understands why his dad goes drinking once a week. 

“Let’s have another *hic* round!” Hercules cheered but before he could order the drinks the door opened revealing Lieutenant John Laurens looking tired and stressed. “They’re over there.” The bar tender told John who nodded walking over to his friends. Laf looked up seeing John standing behind Philip, “Heh I must be wasted to see double?” Hercules laughed stumbling off to get more booze. “Double...?” John walked around the chair and saw a very drunk Philip. “Oh my god!” John cried in shock; the poor boy had more than gone half way to three pints. “What’s wrong?” Laf slurred. “You got Alex’s son drunk that’s what!” John hissed. “Alex’s...son...?” He blinked a few times, “Wait...JOHN?!” John winced at his volume and Pip jumped startled. “But then who...?” he slurred his vision focusing enough to see Philip. “Oh merde...”  John pinched the bridge of his nose, “Oh shit is right Laf. Alex won’t be happy.” “I k-kept *hic* trying to *hic tell them...” Philip squeaked. “I believe it. Your father raised you to be polite and honest.” Pip nods weakly. “Come on Pip let’s get you home.” Philip almost fell over trying to stand. John sighed pulling Pip’s arm over his shoulder and grabbing his bag and coat leaving his own belongings in their place. He helped Philip wobble out into the sunlight. “M’ sorry Mr. Laurens...” Philip hiccuped. “Why are you sorry? It’s not your fault we look alike.” “Shoulda refused the drinks...” Philip said the fresh air slightly clearing his hazy mind. “Probably would have had them forced on you regardless I know my idiot friends are overbearing at times.” “Is that why only once a week?” Philip asked. “Yes” John replied. Philip began to sober up the longer they walked stopping once to throw up but seemed a bit better after. “Ugh...” he whimpered. “Low tolerance. You get that from your father.” Pip wiped his mouth, “’s a lightweight?” Pip asked not completely sober. “Yes I drag him home most nights.” John laughed. 

“Mom must get mad?” Pip asked. “Your mother is used to it. We invited her once. Your aunt Angelica is a completely different person when drunk.” Pip smiled weakly still leaning on Laurens’ shoulder. They arrived back to the house and Pip was barely awake. John knocked surprised his friend answered the door. “I can explain once he’s safe in bed?” John sighed. “Okay” Alexander helped John get Pip to bed before raising a brow at his friend. “ Jesus when you said we looked alike Alexander...” John rubbed his temples. “So the tailor and the french moron got him drunk mistaking him for you?” Alex summed up. “Alas i admit it.” Alexander hugged his friend, “I’m glad you’re back safely.” John blushed. While Alexander is married with two children he still has feelings for him. “I think I’ll go grab my things and come back if that is all right?” Alex nods and John leaves returning with his things ten minutes later.  Alexander smiled offering John iced tea which was gladly accepted. Alexander also still held feelings for John but never went beyond hugging or sneaking a kiss on the cheek like a French greeting. “he is going to need painkillers in the morning like some people.” Alexander rolled his eyes setting his glasses aside. “I’m a lightweight I admit it.” John laughed and then told Alexander of his progress in the south. “That is amazing.” Alex replied sipping his tea as his wife and sister in law returned. The two men recounted what happened to Philip and Angelica slapped her palm to her forehead. “Those idiots.” 

Eliza sighed but smiled glad John is home safely. “So why are they drinking it’s not Saturday.” Angelica asked. “Well if you were kissed by Madison and hugged by Jefferson being mistaken for said people I’d think you’d want to erase that memory.” They gaped and then began to laugh. “Oh god I’d feel bad but OH MY GOD!” Angelica laughed. Eliza giggled as well finding it funny. “That white house is getting more gay ever day that passes.” John shook his head. They all agreed it was an evening spent laughing and enjoying summer. Philip did eventually come downstairs saying his head hurt. “You are my son indeed.” Alexander laughed softly giving him some painkillers. “And here I thought you were joking about me looking like your friend pa.” John patted his shoulder and they told him why the others were drinking, “Oh god.” Philip laughed. “Jefferson screamed.” Alexander hummed. “Even better.” John laughed. “We all make dumb mistakes but that is just sad.” Angelica said. “Agreed.” The others hummed. It was very awkward at work the next day and Hamilton had to bite his cheek to keep from laughing at how flustered the Secretary of State was. Washington himself asked why and his booming laughter was heard across the white house making the not so secret gay couple flush in embarrassment. “Never again” The two swore. Herc and Laf thought the same as they suffered through their hangovers. 

Misplacing identities...a very cruel joke indeed. 

[minervacasterly]

Queen Mary (I) Tudor -The Woman behind the Legend of 'Bloody Mary'

"As Mary continued to face Protestant treason she became even more ruthless, with the infamous burnings intended to eliminate what she perceived as a stubborn and destabilising minority. In our context we see Mary's actions as those of a fanatic. In her context she was eliminating fanatics, and of the most dangerous kind, incorrigible rebels against God and queen. But Mary also had to work positively, to build a future, and this unravelled in the face of her infertility and declining health. She failed in her ultimate duty to produce a child and this meant, once again, that the wider family was key to the future. Mary's preferred choice as her heir, was Margaret Douglas, could not compete with the claims of Henry VIII's second daughter and, as Elizabeth took note, it was the knowledge that she would succeed her sister that fueled the disorder and rebellion against Mary. With the loss of Calais in the last year of Mary's life it would be easy for her enemies to paint the young, Protestant Elizabeth's accession as a brilliant new dawn. It is as such that it is still projected. Mary remains associated with her late seventeenth-century sobriquet 'Bloody Mary', and an infamous recent advertisement for the London Dungeon depicted her face transforming into a demon-zombie. Elizabeth, by contrast, has been played in films by a series of beautiful actresses: Elizabeth is ever Cate Blanchett, fairy queen, to Mary's bitter, grey-faced Kathy Burke. Yet these sisters were neither simple heroines nor villains. Both were rulers of their time and we can only understand Elizabeth if we see, as she did, what the Tudor sisters had in common and how she could learn from Mary's example. Most significant for Elizabeth was the fact that Mary's Protestant enemies had sought to redefine the nature of a 'true' king. They argued that religion was more important than blood, or victory in battles -a true king was Protestant- and that all women were by nature unsuited to rule over men. Elizabeth's response was to offer her ordinary subjects a theatrical representation of herself as a 'true' ruler: the seeds of which had been sown by Mary herself in her speech during the Wyatt revolt, in which she is a mother who loves her subjects as if they were her children. Here was a female authority figure accepted as part of the divine order." ~Leanda de Lisle, TUDOR

"The blackening of Mary's name began in Elizabeth's reign and gathered force at the end of the 17th century, when James II compounded the view that Catholic monarchs were a disaster for England. But it was really the enduring popularity of John Foxe which shaped the view of her that has persisted for 450 years. Attempts to soften her image have been made, but their tendency to depict her as a sad little woman who would have been better off as the Tudor equivalent of a housewife is almost as distasteful as the legend of Bloody Mary. To dismiss her life as nothing more than a personal tragedy is both patronizing and mistaken. One of the main themes of Mary's existence is the triumph of determination over adversity. She lived in a violent, intolerant age, surrounded by the intrigues of a time when men and women gambled their lives for advancement at court. Deceit, like ambition, was endemic among the power-seekers of mid-Tudor England who passed, in procession, through her life. Pride, stubbornness and an instinct for survival saw her through tribulations that would have destroyed a lesser woman. Her bravery put her on the throne and kept her there, so that when she died she was able to bequeath to Elizabeth a precious legacy that is often overlooked: she had demonstrated that a woman could rule in her own right. The vilification of Mary has obscured the many areas of continuity between her rule and those of the other Tudors. Today, despite the fact that much more is known about her reign, she is still the most maligned and misunderstood of English monarchs. For Mary Tudor, the first queen of England, truth has not been the daughter of time." ~Linda Porter, THE MYTH OF BLOODY MARY

"Foxe's account would shape the popular narrative of Mary's reign for the next four hundred and fifty years. Generations of schoolchildren would grow up knowing the first Queen of England only as "Bloody Mary", a Catholic tyrant who sent nearly three hundred Protestants to their deaths, a point made satirically in W. C. Sellar and R. J. Yeatman's 1930s parody 1066 and All That. Mary's presence in a recent survey of the most evil men and women in history is testament to Foxe's enduring legacy. But there is, of course, a different Mary: a woman marked by suffering, devout in her faith and exceptional in her courage. From a childhood in which she was adored and feted and then violently rejected, a fighter was born. Her resolve almost cost her her life as her father, and then her brother, sought to subjugate her to their wills. Yet Mary maintained her faith and self-belief. Despite repeated attempts to deprive her of her life and right to the throne, the warrior princess turned victor and became the warrior princess turned victor and became the warrior queen. The boldness and scale of her achievements are often overlooked. The campaign that Mary led in the summer of 1553 would prove to be the only successful revolt against central government in sixteenth-century England. She, like her grandfather Henry VII and grandmother Isabella of Castile, had to flight for her throne. In the moment of crisis she proved decisive, courageous, and "Herculean" -and won the support of the English people as the legitimate Tudor heir. Mary was a conscientious, hardworking queen who was determined to be closely involved in government business and policy making. She would rise "at daybrea when, after saying her prayers and hearing mass in private," she would "transact business incessantly until after midnight." As rebels thereatend teh capital in January 1554 and she was urged to flee, Mary stood firm and successfully rallied Londoners to her defense. She was also a woman who lived by her conscience and was prepared to die for her faith. And she expected the same of others. Her religious defiance was matched by a personal infatuation with Phililp, her Spanish husband. Her love for him and dependence on her "true father", the Emperor Charles V, was unwavering. Her determination to honor her husband's will led England into an unpopular war with France and the loss of Calais. There was no fruit of the union, and so at her premature death there was no Catholic heir. Her own phantom pregnancies, together with epidemics and harvest failures across the country, left her undermined and unpopular. Her life, always one of tragic contrast, ended in personal tragedy as Philip abandoned her, never to return, even as his queen lay dying. In many ways Mary failed as a woman but triumphed as a queen. She ruled with the full measure of royal majesty and achieved much of what she set out to do. She won her rightful throne, married her Spanish prince, and restored the country to Roman Catholicism. The Spanish marriage was a match with the most powerful ruling house in Europe, and the highly favorable marriage treaty ultimately won the support of the English government. She had defeated the rebels and preserved the Tudor monarchy. Her Catholicism was not simply conservative but influenced by her humanist education and showed many signs of broad acceptance before she died. She was an intelligent, politically adept, and resolute monarch who proved to be very much her own woman. Thanks to Mary, John Aylmer, in exile in Switzerland, could confidently assert that "it is not in England so dangerous a matter to have a woman ruler, as men take it to be." By securing the throne following Edward's attempts to bar both his sisters, she ensured that the crown continued along the legal line of Tudor succession. Mary laid down other important precedents that would benefit her sister. Upon her accession as the first queen regnant of England, she redefined royal ritual and law, thereby establishing that a female ruler, married or unmarried, would enjoy identical power and authority to male monarchs. Mary was the Tudor trailblazer, a politiccal pioneer whose reign redefined the English monarchy." ~Anna Whitelock, MARY TUDOR: PRINCESS, BASTARD, QUEEN

Furthermore, as the country shifted from Catholicism to Protestantism, people began to find it easier to vilify her. During the Victorian age, England was at its height. People would say that the sun never set on the English Empire, and as a result, there was a growing sense of nationalism. Previously beloved figures like Queen Elizabeth I, Kings Edward III, Henry V, among others, were no longer kings and queens for people to admire and look upon but national symbols of pride, who were almost god-like. Edward III's victories against the French, Henry V's conquest of France, Elizabeth's Protestantism and victory against Spain with the Spanish Armada and other Catholic rivals, were extolled, and glorified, while Mary I's foreign ancestry was looked down upon. Ironically, all of these monarchs were also foreign in one way or another. You can say that Queen Elizabeth I wasn't because her parents were English, but what about her paternal ancestry, or her maternal one? No matter which way you look at it, she had foreign ancestry as much as any monarch. In fact, the Victorian era's own monarch, was of foreign descent as well! Victoria wasn't even an English name. She was named after her mother, Victoria of the Saxe-Coburg clan who was German and she married her cousin, who was also German. It was very common for royals to marry other royals, which meant that their offspring would be of foreign descent. In Mary's time this wouldn't be a reason to look down on her, on the contrary, she could point to her royal ancestors, be they foreign or not, with pride as a sign of how much royal blood flowed through her veins, making her eligible to be her father's heir. But as it has been pointed out before, times change and with it, so does our view of every historical figure.

[ruminativerabbi]

Sri Lanka, Paris

Passover and Easter are unrelated festivals that derive from different traditions, but that’s not how it seems to many in the Christian world. That most of the world calls Easter by a name related to Pesach (cf. French “Pâques” or Danish “Påske”) is part of it. As surely also is the assumption, widely believed yet almost definitely not historically correct, that the Last Supper described in the Gospels was a Passover seder or some version of a seder. (For an exhaustive consideration of every aspect of that issue, which apparently remains a delicate one even today in some circles, click here.) Even the use of the word “passion” to describe the suffering of Jesus provided some fuel for this particular fire, at least in antiquity, since the Greek word for “to suffer,” pascho, is phonically almost identical to Pascha, the name for Passover in the spoken Aramaic of ancient Jewish times.

Given the proximity of the festivals this year and in light of the above, I would like to write this week specifically about two events that have befallen the Christian world just recently and explain how they appear to someone reading the news through Jewish eyeglasses.

First, Sri Lanka. The numbers keep rising. First, “more than 100” dead, then “more than 200,” now, as I write on Wednesday, a minimal figure of 321—minimal in the sense that many of those hurt in the explosions—more than 500 in their own right—are not expected to survive and only haven’t succumbed to their wounds yet. It’s far away. It’s not a country Americans think of daily. No one on the radio, including the BBC World Service, seems to know whether the first word in the country’s name is pronounced “shree,” or “sree.”  (In all fairness to the Brits, when they seized the place and unilaterally made it part of their empire, they called it Ceylon, which name everybody knew how to pronounce.) And yet…the sense of familiarity and shared humanity that incidents like this bring in their terrible wake seemed to overwhelm the rest of the details. Most Americans, I’m sure, couldn’t even say easily what language they speak in Sri Lanka or what the capital city is, let alone whether a majority of the citizens are Buddhist, Hindu, or something else entirely. Indeed, it felt at first like a terribly bad thing that had happened to other people. But then, just as the extent of the carnage was becoming known came the even more startling detail that the attacks on the three churches and four hotels were apparently planned as a kind of response to the assault on the two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in the course of which fifty Muslim worshipers were murdered. And with that single detail everything changed.

The single ideational concept that justifies terrorism in the mind of the terrorist is the ultimate fungibility of human life. Since I’ve been dealing in SAT words these last few weeks, I’ll add another: fungibility is the principle according to which things are deemed solely to have ascribed, not intrinsic, value. Paper money is the easiest example to seize: if I lend you five dollars on Monday and you come back on Tuesday to return the five dollars to me, I can’t sue you in court because the five-dollar bill you returned to me is not the same five-dollar bill I lent to you. But this is not so because it would make no sense to borrow money you were not planning to spend. It’s true because money in our culture is deemed fully fungible and, as a result, the paper bills we use as currency are supposed to have as their sole value the sum they represent, the sum ascribed to them by law. As a result every single five-dollar bill is deemed the equivalent of every other one and you can’t complain if you deposit a fiver in the bank one day and then receive a different bill from the bank the next day when you show up to withdraw your money.

This principle also applies to the eggs you borrow from a neighbor or the cup of sugar, but ethical people would never apply it to human life. To justify terror, however, is to do exactly that and willingly to ignore the fact that none of those people in church on Easter morning in Sri Lanka was responsible for the massacre in New Zealand and thus to feel justified in opening fire because you consider Christians to be as fungible as five-dollar bills and the shooter in Christchurch was presumed at least in some sense to have been a Christian. And that underlying notion makes it a humanitarian issue, not a Sri Lankan one or even a Christian one. This perverse line of logic is not unknown to Americans and it is certainly not unknown to Israelis: when someone is irritated by some or another Israeli policy and chooses to express that pique by blowing up a discotheque despite the fact that none of the young people on the dance floor was responsible for the policy in question—that too is an example of treating human life fungibly.

As a result, attempting to wave away events like this weekend’s horror in Sri Lanka as nothing more than the violent crime of an insane person is to miss the point: if the government is right to consider credible the statement by the Islamic State’s Amaq News Agency tying the Sri Lankan bombings to the shooting in Christchurch, then the principled effort to eradicate terrorist groups and to banish their nation-state sponsors from the forum of nations is not only a practical response, but a deeply moral one. There are, of course, crazy people in the world who do crazy things. We Americans have had lots of examples of that in these last several decades! But terror is not craziness at all: by resting on the ideational foundation that considers all human life truly to be fungible and thus devoid of intrinsic value, terrorism comes to represent the ultimate devaluation of God’s greatest gift. As we approach the end of Passover and prepare to commemorate the destruction of Pharaoh’s armies in the sea, we should all take a moment to reflect on a deep, if unsettling, scriptural truth: violence undertaken to dominate or to oppress is wrong and fully sinful, but acting forcefully to combat evil is both ethically justifiable and, speaking morally, wholly right. Americans know this. Israelis certainly know it and so do New Zealanders. And now Sri Lankans have had the same lesson brutally brought to their own doorstep.

I brought a whole different set of emotions to my contemplation of the fire that destroyed such a significant part of the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. It is, arguably, one of the most stunning pieces of Gothic architecture in the world and is surely one of the world’s truly great cathedrals. It took a hundred years to build. (Work was undertaken in 1160, but the project only drew to its conclusion a full century later in 1260.) There’s no reason for that specific detail to confound—work on St. John the Divine on Amsterdam Avenue began in 1892 and the project still isn’t anywhere near finished—yet it somehow feels challenging nevertheless to think of a project spanning that much time and involving that many people. And all of it happening so long ago, and in an age without power tools, bulldozers, or electricity! For Jewish onlookers, on the other hand, the cathedral shimmers in a slightly different light.

For the Jews of France, the twelfth century was a terrible time. When work on the cathedral was still in its third decade, King Philip II expelled the Jews of France from his territory, apparently without the slightest interest in knowing or caring where they went once they left. When work on the cathedral was about halfway done, a council convened by Pope Innocent III—called the Third Lateran Council because it met at Rome’s Lateran Palace—disqualified Jews across Europe from holding public office, required Jews (and Muslims too) to wear distinctive dress so that they could not be mistaken in the street for Christians, and banned Jews from almost every profitable profession except pawnbroking and the sale of old clothes. But it wasn’t solely their economic lives that were under attack, but their intellectual lives as well: on March 3, 1240, when Notre Dame was a mere twenty years away from completion, church officials burst into synagogues across France—March 3 was a Shabbat in 1240—and carted off entire Jewish libraries. Eventually the king of France, Louis IX—who is recognized as a saint both in the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches, and who is the St. Louis after whom the city in Missouri is named—insisted that the Talmud itself be put on trial. The ancient work was defended by a quartet of able rabbis, but the verdict was a foregone conclusion and then, on a day that lives on in infamy as one of the pre-Shoah world’s most outrageous acts of violent anti-Semitism, twenty-four cartloads of books—some 10,000 volumes, including irreplaceable works that would be considered of inestimable value today—all twenty-four cartloads of books were burnt in public on the Place de Grève, now called the Place de l’Hôtel de Ville, just across the river from…Notre Dame de Paris.

Notre Dame itself features one of the most hateful of all anti-Semitic symbols on its front façade, where are depicted Synagoga and Ecclesia (“Church”) as a pair of very different women, the one (Synagoga, of course) dressed in rags, a snake covering her eyes, a broken scepter in her hand, and the tablets of the law slipping from her grasp, and the other, Ecclesia, depicted as a proud, attractive woman standing fully erect while carrying a wine chalice in one hand and a staff with a cross at its top in the other. The insult couldn’t be more clearly put. Nor has it lost its punch over the centuries: even though the statues were destroyed during the Revolution, they were both were restored and replaced during the nineteenth century. They’re still there too, inviting any eagle-eyed visitor to learn the lesson they were set in place to teach: that Judaism is defunct, dead, and disgraced, whereas Christianity is triumphantly and gloriously dominant.

So when I look at Notre Dame and feel the same pang of regret all civilized people surely do when a world-class work of architecture is damaged, I also recall the world that gave birth to Notre Dame and its harshness, its cruelty, its violence and its deeply engrained prejudice against Jews and against Judaism. And I think of poor Synagoga as well, and wonder what she would have to say if she were somehow able to shove the serpent aside and open her stony eyes onto the world. Would the fact that she’s still on display all these centuries later surprise her? And what would she have to say to the thirteen million visitors who walk by her on their way into France’s most famous cathedral? Would the resurgence of anti-Semitism in France surprise her? Would the existence of an independent Israel? Would anything? Those are the questions that the fire at Notre Dame prompts me to ponder on these coming final days of Pesach. 

[prinzenhasserin]

Rare Male Slash Exchange

Dear Creator!

I had so much fun doing this exchange last year, and please don’t feel obligated to use my prompts. This letter is just in case you might want to poke at some more of my likes. Generally, I’m open to a lot, and will be happy with any rating from gen to explicit.

My AO3 account is here. My prompts are pretty ridiculous in places. That’s just how my mind works! Feel free to play them entirely straight, or subvert them to your heart’s desire. I’m not so much a fan of darkfic, exceptions apply for hopeful/happy resolutions.

Feel also free to include other characters or OCs as side-characters, if they are necessary because of plot reasons. ❤️

(If this letter cribs a lot from my other letters, it’s because I’m lazy, and my likes don’t change around that much :D You can find some of my other letters under the exchange letter tag. I hope you have fun creating!)

Likes:

loyalty 

odd couples! 

found family, dysfunctional families that nevertheless love each other 

historical stories for same-sex pairings that aren't unhappy but that fit with the society of the time (so like, spinster ladies living together; bachelors-for-life); I also like homophobia-free societies! 

cultural differences! age differences! height differences! 

heists, rescue missions 

character driven narratives 

dragons, fairy tales, magical realism, urban fantasy 

Space AUs 

competent characters 

people not realising they’re the most competent at their job/hobby

people failing their way to success 

happy endings, earning your happy ending, open yet hopeful endings 

cynical humour 

mutual pining 

everything is better in suits, corsetry, fancy dresses 

crossdressing 

Identity shenanigans (secret identities, mistaken identities) 

Blatant Lies 

Enemies becoming friends and/or lovers 

outsider POV 

epistolary, poetry, unusual narrative formats 

orange/blue morality (that is, not entirely human morality); grey/grey morality 

non-verbal expressions of affection 

Kinks I’m always down for:

wall sex

shifting power dynamics

semi-public sex

lots of foreplay, drawn out orgasms, edging

desperate sex, drunk sex, we-just-can’t-help-it!sex, sex for life-affirming

sex toys

sex toys in public (though I get embarrassed if someone else notices)

DNWs:

infidelity in mentioned pairings

suicide

permanent character death

Specific Art Likes:

sketches!

textures!

background!

lavishly designed worlds and setting!

Kisses! Sleeping Together!

Trees!

Colours! Black and White! Sepia!

Explicit art! beauty spots and scars! hair!

Astreiant (fanart+fanfic)

Philip Eslingen/Nicolas Rathe

I'd love something exploring why the city has decided on calling Eslingen Rathe's "black dog", or maybe a scenario where Caiazzo uses Eslingen's relationship with Rathe as a distraction leading to much angst (but pls don't end on a unhappy resolution) Rescuing each other from uncomfortable situations/criminals/too much work?

How Rathe deals with Eslingen's coming promotion to the City Guard would also be great! Or even an AU, where they meet later--do they still find each other? (Other very intriguing AU ideas: integrating soulmates into the already pretty wacky magic system of Astreiant, an arranged marriage AU because Caiazzo and the surintendant want to unite Astreiant's lawful element with it's unlawful element...)

for art I'd love some costume porn, but also a spotlight on Eslingen's long hair, or Rathe's ratty exterior, and their contrast to each other. really, illustrating any scene would be amazing

Cowboy Bebop (fanart+fanfic)

Spike Spiegel/Vicious

The whole mysterious past these two have going on with each other is very intriguing to me, and while I'm much more of a fan of enemies to lovers, the other way around is also good. Was Julia just a beard? Did Vicious resent their relationship? How did they come to feel so violently about each other? did Vicious keep Spike as a pet, that also happens to be really good at murder?

Or maybe, their relationship had always been violent, and the whole killing thing was just a courtship gone horribly wrong?

or maybe Spike meets Vicious during on of their bounty hunts, and distracts him from following the crew with sex? maybe they get locked into a treasure vault together, and need to wait for rescue, and things happen?

or maybe, possibly, despite being riddled with gunshots, Spike survives his last stand, and Vicious regrets his hasty decision of killing him, and (okay, this maybe slightly ooc) nurses him back to health?

Original Works (fanart+fanfic)

Prince/Prince of Enemy Country 

- do they know that the other one is royalty? maybe they meet on a Grand Tour, and only later find out that their countries are at war/have a contemptuous relationship? - arranged marriage to end the war? arranged marriage to remove them from the order of succession? - one of them seduces the other for political gain (and/or accidentally manages to fall in love) but also happy with just PWP! - I'd love this in every imaginable setting: set in SPACE, fantasyland, 1920s NYC, modern times, Byzantine Empire; they are fairies, bunnies, mermen, aliens, whatever

Spy/Ghost of Enemy Spy 

- (does the ghost retain a sense of loyalty? it could be interesting either way!) - ghost sex: does the ghost need to possess someone to be able to have sex, or can they influence the spy directly in some way? telepathic sex? dream sex? - does the spy try to seduce the ghost to get at the enemy's secret? does the ghost simply tell them, because he's bored and stopped caring? do they go on spy adventures together? maybe the ghost helps the spy escape from prison, because the ghost was executed because they knew too much and now they want revenge? -also consider: space ghosts.

Young Crime Boss/His Grizzled Bodyguard

- yes please. Special bonus points if the Bodyguard is smitten, but feels so much guilt, and only lets himself be very carefully seduced - I'd love this in every imaginable setting: set in SPACE, fantasyland, 1920s NYC, modern times, Byzantine Empire; they are fairies, bunnies, mermen, aliens, whatever - young boss gets kidnapped and needs rescue? bodyguard manages to get caught by the police trashing the abusive ex-boyfriend, and young boss needs to bail out the bodyguard, and pays too much money and makes the bodyguard pay by using his body?

DCU (Comics) (fanart+fanfic)

John Constantine/Bruce Wayne

I saw this in the tagset, and it's so tantalising! (I am also eagerly awaiting Batman:Damned, so if you want to create something in that direction, feel free to!) Otherwise, I don't really mind which version you write!

- John is a member of the Justice League, and so he had to have met Batman. How does that go? Bonus point if it ends with Constantine in Bruce Wayne's life and bed! - Or maybe Constantine meets the Bruce Wayne persona on one of his adventures, and expresses his utter bewilderment at posh people, as he does, and somehow they end up having sex to resolve their issues? - or perhaps, Batman needs a ritual done, and so he turns to Constantine, who convinces him that nothing can be done without a sex magic ritual?

Harry Potter (fanfic+fanart)

Orion Black/Abraxas Malfoy

--you know what would be really cool? If they had a livelong relationship with each other, and only reluctantly married to get kids (also the reason Orion Black married his cousin, perhaps? Because he was already a "confirmed bachelor"?) would also love a kinky PWP! or love letters that are only found after their death

perhaps they have a fling at school, and Voldemort blackmails them into joining his deatheaters because of it? and there's much drama, but they can't let each other go because of true love?

but also consider a complete AU, where Orion and Abraxas marry for political reasons to give the Malfoy family legitimacy or whatever; or Orion and Abraxas coming back as ghosts and really annoying the owner's of Grimmauld Place with their constant ghost banging (literally and figuratively)

Harry Potter/George Weasley

yes please. Fred can be alive (I prefer that, actually), and I prefer if Ginny wasn't fridged, but I'd really like this way of connecting Harry to the Weasley family. does it start when they are still in school? George really wants to repay Harry for the Triwizard money, and manages to con Harry into some sort of relationship because he feels like that's the only thing he's really good for?

Or, they get together after war is over, and Harry/Ginny stops working out--maybe they fall into bed with each other after a boring Ministry event, and drunkenly decide they need some excitement in their life? Or perhaps, a prank gone wrong looks them into a broom cupboard with or without sex pollen?

The love potions they sell in store are accidentally keyed to George, and Harry manages to get dosed, and somehow it works out great?

Severus Snape/Charlie Weasley

Snape needs to lay low and comes to Romania? Somehow, Snape survives Nagini and brews the best burn healing paste, of which Charlie is always in need?

Charlie comes back as Professor for Care of Magical Creatures, and manages to seduce Snape? I'd prefer if Charlie was at least 17 if they start boning while he's still in school. does it complicate Snape's spying duties? does Charlie dress up in lingerie?

Bungou Stray Dogs (fanfic+fanart)

Akutagawa Ryuunosuke/Dazai Osamu/Nakajima Atsushi 

- pls give me violent relationships based on mutual assured destruction

- i’d love a relationship based on one-upmanship, on a general push-and-pull, even all the way at the beginning in chapter 9 of the manga, where Dazai is like "My new subordinate is so much better than you ever were."—and they have such a great chemistry between all of them. I’d like it even if you split up the pairings! Each one you could do is very intriguing!

- Dazai is always so hyper-focused on pretty women, and yet, for some reason, most of the people he surrounds himself with are pretty boys, and he’s such a mastermind with all other things, it would be super intriguing to see him have this epic blindspot of how attracted he is to Atsuchi and Akutagawa— Atsuchi and Akutagawa make such great foils too, they’re such great rivals (for Dazai’s affections?)

- does someone finally look them in a room together, to make them work out their tension?

- there’s this new ability user called EL James, and their ability is sex pollen, and it surprises the three of them on a mission? alternatively, I'll take other authors with wacky powers :P

- I’d even love an AU where, say, Dazai is some rich mogul who likes to keep pets, or anything really, as long as you preserve their character dynamics. Or soulmate AUs!

- Dazai manipulates them into sleeping with each other for the greater good, and only then does he notice that he kinda likes them too, and feels much angst about it, or maybe Atsuchi can’t take Akutagawa’s pining, except accidentally he sleeps with him, and then they seduce Dazai together?

- I’d also be very interested in encounters with literary figures that haven’t been seen yet

Inuyasha (fanfic+fanart)

Sesshoumaru/Inuyasha

am here for all the contrived reasons to get them together. Hate!sex? Yes! Sex Pollen? You got me! Arranged marriage by their dad to keep dog demons with dog demons? I am here!

What I like is their contemptuous relationship with each other, that nevertheless evolves – I like that they claim to not spit on the other if they were on fire, but when push comes to shove, they do help each other, and defend the other from their enemies. I like that they are halfbrothers, that they clearly recognise the power in each other, the underlying class issues, and all.

How about a small snippet of them teaming up together? Surprised by sex pollen, or a gender-changing well? time loops would be awesome! as would Inuyasha and Sesshomaru meeting again in the future, with Inuyasha time-travelling and Sesshomaru getting there the conventional way. Would also read soulmates!fic, or a sleeping beauty AU

I see both Inuyasha and Sesshomaru as fairly aggressive and forthright, and would prefer you not to characterise either of them as submissive (outside the bedroom).

The Inheritance Cycle (fanfic+fanart)

Murtagh Morzanson/Eragon Shadeslayer

Would love this at any point during canon, but please don't change the setting! Adding additional worlbuilding is really awesome, though.

- do they sleep together during their days on the run, to keep themselves warm and then it turns into more? do they get caught in an old sex pollen trap somewhere?

- Saphira and Thorn go into heat and it transfers over to their riders?

- would also love post-canon things, where Eragon goes to look for wild dragons, and finds where Murtagh went instead, or something

- AU, in which Galbatorix makes them marry while Eragon is captive, and because they said their vows in Elvish, it's still valid after they kill him, and they have to deal with hearing each others thoughts and being connected until death do them part?

The Three Musketeers - Dumas (fanfic+fanart)

d’Artagnan/Jussac

- Then, there’s also Jussac–and their rivalry is set up so well! The longstanding Cardinal’s Guard against the new impulsive Musketeer? Perfection. And then Jussac disappears, and it made me so sad. - So, rival hate!sex? Are they assigned to protect someone and have to arrange themselves with each other? Are they banding together for a greater enemy? - Is one of them blackmailed for their sexuality, and they can only go to the other for help, because nobody is going to believe the gossip they have about the other? I’d prefer if the blackmail doesn’t put emphasis on homophobia, just that the sexual behaviour was not socially acceptable. - They are wooing the same mistress. Because of reasons, they have to hide in her closet together, and the only reasonable recourse of action is banging each other. - Foiling an assassination attempt? getting imprisoned together, because they duelled in public? - I’d also be game for a total AU! But please preserve the general fucked up character dynamics, because they are what I like about this canon.

d’Artagnan/Athos

- d'Artagnan pays so much attention to Athos, and his many swings of temperament, and he has such a crush on him! It’s hard to tell if he wants to be him, or bang him, and I really really want the latter. When Athos says, he has sworn off of women, what he means is that he’s only interested in men, right? right? that is to say, I’d love canon divergence, where they end up together (and please, with the possibility of longterm happiness) - If you want to set this before Milady’s appearance, sure! If you want to set this after Milady’s appearance, I would love to see the dramatic fallout of Milady flirting with d'Artagnan, or hurt/comfort after Athos kills his wife the second time. - Treville makes them root out the Cardinal’s spies out of his ranks! They have to spend a lot of time close together; or Treville makes them go on duty together, because Athos is very experienced, and that’s not the only thing he’s experienced with ;) - d’Artagnan needs help managing the estate the King grants him, and Athos lends a helping hand I like a good helping about catholic guilt, but not just specifically about homosexuality.

[minervacasterly]

Queen Mary (I) Tudor -The Woman behind the Legend of 'Bloody Mary' "As Mary continued to face Protestant treason she became even more ruthless, with the infamous burnings intended to eliminate what she perceived as a stubborn and destabilising minority. In our context we see Mary's actions as those of a fanatic. In her context she was eliminating fanatics, and of the most dangerous kind, incorrigible rebels against God and queen. But Mary also had to work positively, to build a future, and this unravelled in the face of her infertility and declining health. She failed in her ultimate duty to produce a child and this meant, once again, that the wider family was key to the future. Mary's preferred choice as her heir, was Margaret Douglas, could not compete with the claims of Henry VIII's second daughter and, as Elizabeth took note, it was the knowledge that she would succeed her sister that fueled the disorder and rebellion against Mary. With the loss of Calais in the last year of Mary's life it would be easy for her enemies to paint the young, Protestant Elizabeth's accession as a brilliant new dawn. It is as such that it is still projected. Mary remains associated with her late seventeenth-century sobriquet 'Bloody Mary', and an infamous recent advertisement for the London Dungeon depicted her face transforming into a demon-zombie. Elizabeth, by contrast, has been played in films by a series of beautiful actresses: Elizabeth is ever Cate Blanchett, fairy queen, to Mary's bitter, grey-faced Kathy Burke. Yet these sisters were neither simple heroines nor villains. Both were rulers of their time and we can only understand Elizabeth if we see, as she did, what the Tudor sisters had in common and how she could learn from Mary's example. Most significant for Elizabeth was the fact that Mary's Protestant enemies had sought to redefine the nature of a 'true' king. They argued that religion was more important than blood, or victory in battles -a true king was Protestant- and that all women were by nature unsuited to rule over men. Elizabeth's response was to offer her ordinary subjects a theatrical representation of herself as a 'true' ruler: the seeds of which had been sown by Mary herself in her speech during the Wyatt revolt, in which she is a mother who loves her subjects as if they were her children. Here was a female authority figure accepted as part of the divine order." ~Tudor by Leanda de Lisle "The blackening of Mary's name began in Elizabeth's reign and gathered force at the end of the 17th century, when James II compounded the view that Catholic monarchs were a disaster for England. But it was really the enduring popularity of John Foxe which shaped the view of her that has persisted for 450 years. Attempts to soften her image have been made, but their tendency to depict her as a sad little woman who would have been better off as the Tudor equivalent of a housewife is almost as distasteful as the legend of Bloody Mary. To dismiss her life as nothing more than a personal tragedy is both patronizing and mistaken. One of the main themes of Mary's existence is the triumph of determination over adversity. She lived in a violent, intolerant age, surrounded by the intrigues of a time when men and women gambled their lives for advancement at court. Deceit, like ambition, was endemic among the power-seekers of mid-Tudor England who passed, in procession, through her life. Pride, stubbornness and an instinct for survival saw her through tribulations that would have destroyed a lesser woman. Her bravery put her on the throne and kept her there, so that when she died she was able to bequeath to Elizabeth a precious legacy that is often overlooked: she had demonstrated that a woman could rule in her own right. The vilification of Mary has obscured the many areas of continuity between her rule and those of the other Tudors. Today, despite the fact that much more is known about her reign, she is still the most maligned and misunderstood of English monarchs. For Mary Tudor, the first queen of England, truth has not been the daughter of time." ~The Myth of Bloody Mary by Linda Porter "Foxe's account would shape the popular narrative of Mary's reign for the next four hundred and fifty years. Generations of schoolchildren would grow up knowing the first Queen of England only as "Bloody Mary", a Catholic tyrant who sent nearly three hundred Protestants to their deaths, a point made satirically in W. C. Sellar and R. J. Yeatman's 1930s parody 1066 and All That. Mary's presence in a recent survey of the most evil men and women in history is testament to Foxe's enduring legacy. But there is, of course, a different Mary: a woman marked by suffering, devout in her faith and exceptional in her courage. From a childhood in which she was adored and feted and then violently rejected, a fighter was born. Her resolve almost cost her her life as her father, and then her brother, sought to subjugate her to their wills. Yet Mary maintained her faith and self-belief. Despite repeated attempts to deprive her of her life and right to the throne, the warrior princess turned victor and became the warrior princess turned victor and became the warrior queen. The boldness and scale of her achievements are often overlooked/ The campaign that Mary led in the summer of 1553 would prove to be the only successful revolt against central government in sixteenth-century England. She, like her grandfather Henry VII and grandmother Isabella of Castile, had to flight for her throne. In the moment of crisis she proved decisive, courageous, and "Herculean" -and won the support of the English people as the legitimate Tudor heir. Mary was a conscientious, hardworking queen who was determined to be closely involved in government business and policy making. She would rise "at daybrea when, after saying her prayers and hearing mass in private," she would "transact business incessantly until after midnight." As rebels thereatend teh capital in January 1554 and she was urged to flee, Mary stood firm and successfully rallied Londoners to her defense. She was also a woman who lived by her conscience and was prepared to die for her faith. And she expected the same of others. Her religious defiance was matched by a personal infatuation with Phililp, her Spanish husband. Her love for him and dependence on her "true father", the Emperor Charles V, was unwavering. Her determination to honor her husband's will led England into an unpopular war with France and the loss of Calais. There was no fruit of the union, and so at her premature death there was no Catholic heir. Her own phantom pregnancies, together with epidemics and harvest failures across the country, left her undermined and unpopular. Her life, always one of tragic contrast, ended in personal tragedy as Philip abandoned her, never to return, even as his queen lay dying. In many ways Mary failed as a woman but triumphed as a queen. She ruled with the full measure of royal majesty and achieved much of what she set out to do. She won her rightful throne, married her Spanish prince, and restored the country to Roman Catholicism. The Spanish marriage was a match with the most powerful ruling house in Europe, and the highly favorable marriage treaty ultimately won the support of the English government. She had defeated the rebels and preserved the Tudor monarchy. Her Catholicism was not simply conservative but influenced by her humanist education and showed many signs of broad acceptance before she died. She was an intelligent, politically adept, and resolute monarch who proved to be very much her own woman. Thanks to Mary, John Aylmer, in exile in Switzerland, could confidently assert that "it is not in England so dangerous a matter to have a woman ruler, as men take it to be." By securing the throne following Edward's attempts to bar both his sisters, she ensured that the crown continued along the legal line of Tudor succession. Mary laid down other important precedents that would benefit her sister. Upon her accession as the first queen regnant of England, she redefined royal ritual and law, thereby establishing that a female ruler, married or unmarried, would enjoy identical power and authority to male monarchs. Mary was the Tudor trailblazer, a politiccal pioneer whose reign redefined the English monarchy." ~Mary Tudor: Princess, Bastard, Queen by Anna Whitelock Furthermore, as the country shifted from Catholicism to Protestantism, people began to find it easier to vilify her. During the Victorian age, England was at its height. People would say that the sun never set on the English Empire, and as a result, there was a growing sense of nationalism. Previously beloved figures like Queen Elizabeth I, Kings Edward III, Henry V, among others, were no longer kings and queens for people to admire and look upon but national symbols of pride, who were almost god-like. Edward III's victories against the French, Henry V's conquest of France, Elizabeth's Protestantism and victory against Spain with the Spanish Armada and other Catholic rivals, were extolled, and glorified, while Mary I's foreign ancestry was looked down upon. Ironically, all of these monarchs were also foreign in one way or another. You can say that Queen Elizabeth I wasn't because her parents were English, but what about her paternal ancestry, or her maternal one? No matter which way you look at it, she had foreign ancestry as much as any monarch. In fact, the Victorian era's own monarch, was of foreign descent as well! Victoria wasn't even an English name. She was named after her mother, Victoria of the Saxe-Coburg clan who was German and she married her cousin, who was also German. It was very common for royals to marry other royals, which meant that their offspring would be of foreign descent. In Mary's time this wouldn't be a reason to look down on her, on the contrary, she could point to her royal ancestors, be they foreign or not, with pride as a sign of how much royal blood flowed through her veins, making her eligible to be her father's heir. But as it has been pointed out before, times change and with it, so does our view of every historical figure.