#olive bough

[incorrect-ionians]

Remo, attempting to use an ATM: Why’s my card not working...?

Remo: What the-? It’s all scratched up! How-?!

Remo: ...Ohhhhhh. Right.

[FLASHBACK~]

Kyuubi, wiggling the card along the side of a door: C’mon, get in there!

Remo: Is that my ATM card??

Kyuubi: Yeah! I’m showing Olive and Tontu how they can open any locked door with a simple credit card.

Tontu: I’m not sure I need to know this.

Kyuubi: Then why did you sign up for Kyuubi's Life Skills Workshop?

Tontu: I thought it would be more about organizing my closet?

Olive: I’m just here to network. [holds a hand out to Remo] Hello. I’m Olive. What do you do for work?

[FLASHBACK ENDS~]

Remo: Oh my god I hate that workshop...

[hazard100]

Spoilers for Curious Curios Season 2 Her grief shall swallow you whole...

[outism-had-a-purpose]

*crawls out of an air vent*

Hey. Hey stop screaming. What if the golden bough in Outis' canto is found connected to her and Penelope's olive tree bed. What then. waht tthene wil uoy do.

[benmillerfanblog]

Johnny English

The Coronation Scene

[librarycards]

I enjoy many poets whose work I’d call “warm.” I love Billy Collins and Mary Oliver, for example, but I would not depend on them to tell me their whole truth. They prefer, perhaps, to please me, to wish me well, to enable me. There is a place for them on my shelves. After a hard day, tired in the evening, I will reach for them. But they don’t give me that shuddering thrill. They do not, like certain close friends of mine, stop me mid-sentence to challenge the bullshit I’ve been speaking. They do not lock eyes with me and tell me what’s really on their mind. They will never change my life. [...] Cold art, when it enacts the moment of death over and over, isn’t interested in death in itself, but wants to remind us of death. We are, as at a funeral, not the corpse but the attendees. The life force still surges within us. Cold art doesn’t urge us toward nihilism, but reminds us to live now, to get things done, that we are vital. This is the wisdom of it. Without such reminders we risk becoming fools, like Lear. Cold art is not harmful or bad at all, but provides a useful counterpoint to “happiness” in our society, which is severely overemphasized. Our existence naturally oscillates between warm and cold. This oscillation must be allowed, or the pendulum will break. When that deep cold is invoked—in a poem, a song, a painting, a voice on the subway—the windless ice forest wakes within me. And it’s in me always, the cold. The spiritual, psychic cold. While driving my motorcycle through the potholed streets of Philadelphia, while leading a poetry workshop, while chatting to my mother, while eating dinner, while watching Netflix with Tiina. That cold forest, its myriad frozen boughs, bristles within me.

John Wall Barger, In the Cold Theatre of the Poem.

[emphasis added]

[littlemisspascal]

New Writers added to The Pedro Library 🐼

@wrathkitty @perotovar

New Works Added ✨

Many fics aren’t appearing in the tags when searching. If I miss yours, please let me know 💗 Or add me to your taglist cuz I love being tagged 😊

As always, if you would like me to remove your work from the rec list, please let know and I’ll remove them asap 😊

@javier-pena Javier The Hostage

@janaispunk Javier Like Snow on the Beach

@morallyinept Whiskey Glorification / Joel Endure and Survive / Pero Tovar’s Treats

@penvisions Whiskey By the Firelight

@beskarandblasters Frankie Storm Surge / Joel Help Wanted / Oberyn Doves in the Wind 

@undercoverpena Frankie Sunrise / Joel Don’t Move, Honey / Lucien Met You Once, Saw You Thrice

@inept-the-magnificent Frankie Tagged and Bagged

@joelalorian Frankie Beneath the Silent Boughs, Whispers of Danger Flow 

@burntheedges Frankie Do You Feel It Too?

@prolix-yuy Frankie Olive Branch

@swiftispunk Joel Didn’t Catch My Bloody Nose

@alwaysmicado Joel Pretty Eyes + Two Hearts, One Bond

@mermaidgirl30 Joel Pulled by the Scarlet Reins

@frenchiereading Joel Wedding in the Apocalypse 

@criticallyacclaimedstranger Joel My Place or Yours?

@milla-frenchy Joel A Summer with the Millers / Javier And All That Could Have Been

@aurorawritestoescape Joel I Know Better Than To Call You Mine

@stylesispunk Joel You gave me something to lose’

@joelscruff Joel Imperfect For You

@eff4freddie Joel After She Left 

@ozarkthedog Joel Video Games

@alltheirdamn Joel Give Me Tonight

@wardenparker @absurdthirst Marcus M “I’ll protect you”

@pedrito-friskito Marcus P Fortnight

@absurdthirst @storiesofthefandomlovers Maxwell Pretty Woman

@wildemaven Tim Confessions 

@psychedelic-ink Dieter Eat Me 

@missredherring Dieter No Solo Riders

@eupheme Dieter Cabin Down Below

@flightlessangelwings Din A Perfect Day 

@mellowswriting Din New Perspective

@lady-of-glass-and-bone Din Sway The Stars Which Dazzle Like Pearls 

@nerdieforpedro Pero Fire and Fury

[ruknowhere]

“None of your knowledge, your reading, your connections will be of any use here: two legs suffice, and big eyes to see with. Walk alone, across mountains or through forests. You are nobody to the hills or the thick boughs heavy with greenery. You are no longer a role, or a status, not even an individual, but a body, a body that feels sharp stones on the paths, the caress of long grass and the freshness of the wind. When you walk, the world has neither present nor future: nothing but the cycle of mornings and evenings. Always the same thing to do all day: walk. But the walker who marvels while walking (the blue of the rocks in a July evening light, the silvery green of olive leaves at noon, the violet morning hills) has no past, no plans, no experience. He has within him the eternal child. While walking I am but a simple gaze.”

Frédéric Gros - A Philosophy of Walking.

Boris Shcherbakov - Towards Evening, Lake Malenec, 1978.

source: Ravenous Butterflies

[is-the-thing-actually-jewish]

Okay i saw your answer on etrogs so it made me wonder: etrog vs rimon, which is more Jewish?? (I’m not actually invested in a definite answer, but I’m VERY invested in the debate)

Rating: HERE’S THE DEBATE YOU WANTED 

Answering this question necessarily requires a working definition of what makes something “more” or “less” Jewish, and what that definition is results in several different answers with their corresponding justifications. Does “more Jewish” mean “more important to Judaism religiously”? Or “more important to Jewish culture?” Or “belonging uniquely to Jews as opposed to any other enthno-religious group?” So, here goes: 

More religiously important: ETROG. The etrog, also known as the citron, is one of the four species critical to the celebration of the Festival of Sukkot. Leviticus 23:40 commands that “on the first day [of Sukkot] you shall take the product of hadar trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before your God seven days.” “Hadar” translates to “splendor” or “beauty” and is traditionally read to refer to the etrog tree. Interestingly, the Jerusalem Talmud suggests the possibility that “hadar tree” could refer to pomegranates before dismissing it, as the pomegranate has a “beautiful fruit but not beautiful wood,” (or possibly vice versa, scribal texts disagree), whereas the etrog has both beautiful fruit and beautiful wood, along a beautiful scent. (Jerusalem Talmud Sukkah 3:5:2). All that aside, there is mitzvah d’orieta (a religious obligation directly from the Torah, as opposed to an obligation established by the rabbis, a mitzvah d’rabbanan) that requires the use of the etrog, whereas all religious use of the pomegranate, such as at a Tu B’shvat Seder or as a siman on Rosh HaShanah, have merely the force of minhag (religious custom, not law). 

More important to Jewish culture: RIMON. Pomegranates feature in a huge amount of Jewish art, especially as decoration on pretty much any Jewish ritual item. You can find them on everything from ketubot (marriage contracts) to hanukkiot (hanukkah menorahs). I’ve seen pomegranate tallitot, pomegranate mezuzot, pomegranate tzedakah boxes, etc. Personally, in my house, we have four different pomegranate mezuzot, a pomegranate hand-washing cup for ritual handwashing, pomegranate candlesticks, a pomegranate kiddush cup, and, ironically enough, an etrog box decorated with— you guessed it— pomegranates. (I also have pomegranate earrings and pomegranate socks, thank you fiance) (At the time of this writing, this blog is also a Jewish thing decorated with pomegranates). A search for “pomegranate” on Judaica.com offers 197 results, whereas a search for “etrog” turns up 4 actual lulav and etrog sets, plus 13 decorative boxes designed to safely hold one’s etrog during sukkot and not as decoration at all. 

Pomegranates are one of the seven species biblically associated with the land of Israel, along with wheat, barley, grapes, fig, olives, and dates (Deuteronomy 8:8)-- a list that does not include etrogim. They are also an important motif throughout Shir haShirim (Song of Songs), in which the lovers frequently compare each other’s beauty to that of a pomegranate. Pomegranates symbolize beauty, fertility, fecundity, mitzvot, and merit, as in the annual Rosh HaShanah wish that “our merits be as plentiful as the seeds of the pomegranate.” A common (though inaccurate) bit of folk wisdom gives the number of seeds in a pomegranate as 613, one for each of the commandments given in the Torah. 

In a particularly entertaining digression in the Talmud (Bava Metzia 8a) in which the rabbis are comparing their physical attributes (yes, this means exactly what you think it does), the narrative voice pauses to explain that if you want to understand just how unbelievably gorgeous Rabbi Yochanan was, you should take a “silver goblet from the smithy and fill it with red pomegranate seeds and place a diadem of red roses upon the lip of the goblet, and position it between the sunlight and shade. That luster is a semblance of Rabbi Yoḥanan’s beauty.” Does this really support my thesis? As minor evidence at most, but I will seize any opportunity to share that description. 

Meanwhile, the etrog does not appear as a symbol or decoration in and of itself, only in the context of Sukkot and the other three Sukkot species. You may indeed see an etrog on the Torah curtain in Tishrei or in a panel of stained glass in the synagogue… but you’ll only know it’s an etrog because it has the lulav right next to it, generally as part of an array of holiday-related symbols. (I do, in fact, also own an etrog earring, but just the one— the other one is a lulav, thank you sibling.) There are a plethora of midrashim on what exactly the etrog symbolizes, but always as part of a set. For example, it’s often associated with the heart, to go along with the palm frond’s spine, the myrtle’s mouth, and the willow’s eye. As my fiance put it, “If you see a pomegranate on something, there’s a decent chance it’s Jewish. But without the lulav, an etrog just looks like a lemon, and there’s nothing particularly Jewish about lemons.” 

Belonging Uniquely to Jews: ETROG. The citron is widely agreed to be one of three “true” members of the citrus family, along with the mandarin and pomelo, with all others the results of hybridization. Archeological and primary-document research confirms that the citron originated in eastern India and southern China, and was found in Sumerian ruins dating from more than six thousand years ago. It is referenced in the Vajasaneiy Samhita, a compilation of Vedic religion texts, called Yajur-Veda (ca. 1200-1000 B.C.E), and early Greek and Latin writers describe the citron clearly, mentioning its use as an antidote to poisons and a way to ward off moths from one’s clothes.* However, a 2015 study found evidence that the diffusion of the citron throughout southern Italy and the surrounding region dated to the destruction of the Second Temple and subsequent Jewish diaspora. The study concludes that their results “evidence the special role played by Jews in the spread of the citron as the authentic sacred fruit used in their Tabernacles ritual.”* It is worth noting that there is a variety of citron known as “Buddha’s Hand” that may be used as offerings in Buddhist temples, but it looks so dramatically different from what we know as an etrog as to be a different item entirely (and, indeed, multiple rabbis have ruled that it should not be used for fulfilling the mitzvah). Thus, the etrog is inextricably and uniquely linked to Jews. 

On the other side of the debate, pomegranates appear frequently in art, stories, and cultural artifacts throughout the world, particularly in the Middle and Near East. These stories range from the Ancient Greek myth of Hades and Persophone, whose consumption of pomegranate seeds kept her in the underworld for the winter each year, to a Buddhist legend of a child-eating/stealing demoness whom the Buddha convinced to only eat pomegranates and become a patron goddess of children.  Greece, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, among others, consider the pomegranate to be one of their important symbols. Traditions regarding pomegranates abound, including a Greek custom of smashing a pomegranate on the new year for good luck. They are widely considered a symbol of fertility, abundance, and good luck, similarly to their symbolism in Judaism. In short, while Jews are very into pomegranates, so are a lot of other cultures. 

*Gina Maruca, et al. “Religious and cultural significance of the citron (citrus medica L. ‘diamante’) from Calabria (South Italy): A biblical fruit of the mediterranean land.” Journal of Environmental Science and Engineering A, vol. 4, no. 4, 28 Apr. 2015, https://doi.org/10.17265/2162-5298/2015.04.006.

[clouseplayssims]

So, sim holidays.

I sat down and really focused on my mega list of things to do and implement in Edirann, and one of the bigger chunks was a functional holiday system. I plan on the general holidays being based on a mix of real holidays and sims-canon holidays, which are below the cut, and I'll be using this mod as my baseline.

But it did make me remember that I'd like religion traits, potentially with holidays of their own. My question there would be: is it possible for a trait (item in inventory essentially) to trigger pop ups at all? Like "It's x, time to begin morning prayer." etc.

Anyway, time for my rough drafts for holidays!

WINTER ---The Purge First Day of Winter Celebrate in home.

Clean all objects, place brooms outside every door, reset fields for spring. Said to purify the home and keep Our Lady of the Glitch at bay. In the evening set lighted candles at the front door.

---Winterfest ? Celebrate in home.

Sims should decorate their home, put up a traditional Winterfest tree in their front yard, and have a holiday meal. The king provides 1 butcher parcel of duck to all indentured and peasant families.

---Snow Flake Day & Bonfire Night Last Day of Winter Celebrate in home, the fields, festival grounds, and feasting grounds.

Give gifts to friends, neighbors, and family - apples, wheat and oranges favored. The king will also provide gifts. Ice skating, snow activities. Followers of Zeus should make promises for accomplishments for the year to come. Bonfires in the fields. Toast tress and crops with spiced cider. Decorate the home with evergreen boughs. Hang mistletoe above main door - it will also be hung in public spaces. Chop down tree on land and burn in small ceremony (yule log) with the mantle decorated with evergreen and dusted with flour. Keep fire going for 2 days. Common to set out gold pillar candles, wreaths, holly, poinsettias. Feasting grounds serves all who attend a turkey dinner and dessert.

SPRING ---Feast of Fools First Day of Spring Celebrate in the festival grounds.

A child sim is randomly selected as King For A Day.

---Love Day Third Day of Spring Celebrate in the field, festival grounds, and feasting grounds.

Traditional day to celebrate courtship and romance, as well as fertility and the first bloom of spring crops. Sims should send love letters, go on dates, and kiss under the mistletoe. Dancing is common, and a lucky woman will be crowned the Queen of Love & Beauty and hand out prizes. It's good luck to gather flowers on this day.

*Followers of St. Persephone should visit the grounds in hopes of creating a Luck Baby.

*Followers of Mara often marry on this day or propose. A child born on this day is considered a blessing from Mara.

---Flower Day ? Celebrate in festival grounds and feasting grounds.

A celebration of fertility and motherhood. All ladies wear flower crowns and hunt for colorful eggs. Men are expected to try and catch a live rabbit to bring good luck to their homes, presenting the rabbit to a sweetheart is considered the highest of regard. Stay up until midnight dancing and drinking around the maypole. Sims should also wake early the next morning to watch the sun rise. ( Traditional foods of the season include leafy green vegetables, dairy foods, nuts such as pumpkin, sunflower and pine, flower dishes, sprouts. Herbs and flowers of the season include daffodil, jonquils, woodruff, violet, gorse, olive, peony, iris, narcissus and all other spring flowers.)

SUMMER

---Leisure Day ? Celebrate at home.

Sims are to do no work on this day. They should spend the day relaxing, swimming, or exploring the festival ground. Many games are played on this day and the king awards ribbons and prizes to the winners of multiples tournaments like log rolling and axe throwing.

---Stendarr & Artemis Festival ? Celebrate at home.

Sims should do their best to earn a skill point or learn something new. Acts of charity are encouraged. This is the day before the first harvest and it is tradition to bake barley loaf on this day to eat.

---Humble Day ? Celebrate in festival grounds and feasting grounds.

The bones of St. Humble are moved to the festival grounds and displayed where they can be touched for luck before being returned to the shrine. (The custom of placing a cabbage on the doorstep of girls who had behaved imprudently through the year was a more novel method of social control. Regardless of the care they may have undertaken with their flirtations and indiscretions, they were surely to be found out on Mayday.) Foods traditionally served at this time include apples, grapes, crab-apples, pears, grains, breads and berries. Herbs and flowers favoured for the celebration include all grains, heather, blackberries and sloe.

FALL ---Harvestfest ? Celebrate in home and in fields.

Farming sims should take in their first harvest on this date. Other sims can symbolicly harvest in the royal fields. Cook a large family meal that all sims sit down and eat together. Socialize with friends and family. ( The Druids call this celebration Mea'n Fo'mhair and honor the The Green Man, the God of the Forest, by offering ciders, wines, herbs and fertilizer to trees. Symbols of Mabon include wine, gourds, pine cones, acorns, grains, corn, apples, pomegranates, ivy vines, dried seeds, tobacco, and horns of plenty. Herbs and foods associated with Mabon include acorns, benzoin, ferns, grains, honeysuckle, marigold, milkweed, myrrh, passionflower, rose, sage, Solomon's seal, thistle, vegetables, breads, nuts, apples, pomegranates, potatoes, carrots, and onions. )

*Followers of Kynareth sacrifice a small animal to the goddess.

---Spooky Day ? Celebrate in the home, field, festival grounds, and feasting grounds.

Sims should put out treats for friends and neighbors, paint faces with skull paint, and honor their dead. ( Bonfires were lit and fortune-telling were popular activities. Mask wearing was also part of the celebrations. The festivities were similar to those of Carnival, just before Lent, though on a smaller scale. There was much feasting, drinking and playing of games, as well as story telling and sometimes, plays. Cock fights, pig baiting and sport events such as racing, leaping or wrestling were other favourite activities. Food was plentiful right after the harvest. Meat, from the autumn slaughter of those animals that it was not possible to house and feed over winter, could be salted or smoked to preserve it, but sausages and other foods made from offal would not last long. They had to be consumed fairly quickly before they spoiled. It also was the day that marked the end of old contracts. Hired help moved on to new positions and there were farewell and welcoming banquets for them and the new staff.)

*Followers of Kynareth sacrifice a small animal to the goddess.

---Festival of Talos ? Celebrate in the field, festival grounds, and feasting grounds.

A large tournament is held and the best swordsman, archer, and fighter are provided places of honor at the feast and prizes from the king. ( This feast marked the sowing of wheat, the brewing of ales for winter and the preparations for the winter season. The feast of St. Michael and All Angels or Michaelmas fell about the time of the autumnal equinox. His feast was celebrated with a traditional well-fattened goose which had fed well on the stubble of the fields after the harvest. In many places, there was also a tradition of special large loaves of bread.)

LOCATIONS Festival Grounds Fields Feasting Grounds Humble Shrine

[heuldoch7b]

flirting with strangers, with lives infinitely vaster yet tragically fleeting

frisson is limited to a pretty limited area, bound to the island of kyannos, which is about 15 miles across. a rather active fishing village with a small port is where they like to spend most of their time, lazing about in the towns center as a feeling made manifest of the gregarious, relaxed people of the island. many locals will spend their mid-day lunch and siesta in the center with frisson, resting under the boughs of old olive trees.

when passing fishermen take land for a night, they may be surprised to be approached by frisson, quick to make themselves known and acquainted. few resist, the strange entity charismatic as they are vexing.

[incorrect-ionians]

Marius: Tag what you’re majoring in or intend on majoring in.

Kagami: Respecting women.

Buddy: Batman.

Zugg: Minecraft.

Chax: YouTube.

Ares: In the tags, guys.

Felsic: Fuckin' weed.

Ribeye: W

Logan: Criminal justice and psychology.

Piper: I’m terrified that I’ll lock myself into an interest that I’ll no longer be passionate about in a few years like all the other areas of study that I’ve pursued over my life.

Olive: Minecraft.

Gareth: Minecraft as well.

[thebitetheapple]

...Oliver misses him. Oliver wishes he could have been there when he won big at the poker game and took the ‘old boys’ for a twelve-hour lunch to a local trattoria. Oliver can’t wait to kiss him and fuck him and hold him in bed until the sun rises and the low hanging boughs, heavy with apricots, glisten with early morning dew. Oliver loves him...

Link here

#OLEEVER

[sagescented]

Pearl & Lotus Co. is shutting down (or, at least, is taking an extended break and doesn't know when they'll come back) because of the rise in antisemitism. So they're having a store-wide sale on their earrings at the moment, which finally puts a few of them them in an affordable range for me. So I bought a set of beautiful blue mirror Hamsa ones with an Olive bough engraving on them.

I'm so excited for them to arrive.

[leohtttbriar]

"Here is the endless / wet thick / cosmos, the center / of everything—the nugget of dense sap, branching / vines, the dark burred / faintly belching / bogs. Here is swamp, here / is struggle, / closure— /pathless, seamless, peerless mud."

"My bones / knock together at the pale / joints, trying / for foothold, fingerhold, mindhold over / such slick crossings, deep / hipholes, hummocks / that sink silently into the black, slack / earthsoup. I feel    / not wet so much as / painted and glittered with the fat grassy   mires, the rich / and succulent marrows / of earth— a poor dry stick given / one more chance by the whims / of swamp water—"

"a bough / that still, after all these years, could take root, / sprout, branch out, bud— / make of its life a breathing / palace of leaves.

Mary Oliver

[rhaegang]

Soooo, re: cattonquick… thoughts on Felix and Ollie and roleplay?

Coz, like, if there’s one thing we know Oliver Quick can do damn well, it’s play a part. And it feels like roleplay would appeal to Felix’s sense of whimsy…

Oh yeah. These saltboys absolutely would roleplay. Costumes included.

And it would probably start innocently enough. Felix trying to get Oliver into increasingly elaborate costumes for fancy dress parties, etc. And then cracking jokes. But Oliver is nothing if not observant, and he sees the gleam in those gooey brown eyes.

If he was anyone else, maybe he would’ve been coy about it. Tease Felix and offer to dress as a nurse when he catches a cold, that kind of thing. Something they could both laugh off if they needed the out.

But he’s not—he’s Oliver, and he knows Felix like he knows his own self. Maybe better, considering how often Oliver’s reflection seems to change. So, one day, Felix is taken completely off guard by Oliver wearing his old boarding school uniform. The whole thing, blazer with the hand embroidery, necktie, etc. (And it’s still too long on Oliver, even though Felix hadn’t been done growing when he wore that particular uniform.) He’s seated at Felix’s desk in his room, ankles crossed, feet up on the antique varnish.

“Good morning, Headmaster,” is what Oliver says to him, tone flippant, which is such a succinct way to establish the game it leaves Felix in breathless awe. Instantly, he knows who he’s meant to be, and he has a good inkling of who this Oliver will be, as well. (Still, Felix was not anticipating he would be the one getting threatened with a caning for being such a bad, bad boy—what disgraceful sort of Headmaster lets himself be so easily seduced by his pupil? Does Headmaster need to be fucked so badly he can’t help himself? What would the faculty have to say if they saw him like this—)

The next time, It’s less clear. All Oliver does is hand Felix a pair of large, white gloves as they make their way upstairs after dinner, then walk on ahead of him. Expecting him to follow. Felix has to study the gloves a moment more before he understands the rest — he’s expected not only to follow, but to serve.

Despite having had footmen around the house his entire life, Felix is very bad at it on his first attempt. He makes too much noise, he struggles not to blurt out every cheery (or horny) thought that winnows its way through his mind. He has to be corrected, sharply, by the young master of the house. He has to be told, “You can do better than that,” before he starts to really want to do a good job.

He assists in undressing the young master and putting away his dinner jacket. He assists in drawing a bath. He waits, heart a panicked sparrow battering itself against his ribs, to be called upon to assist in something more.

The ruined gloves have to be discarded in secret.

They don’t talk about the roles they’d most like to play, not at first. Oliver only decides it’s necessary that they talk when his attempt to initiate the game with himself in a servant’s role makes Felix immediately uncomfortable.

It’s difficult for Felix to articulate why — something rambling about taking advantage, about unseemly behavior, about caring for one’s staff — but Oliver grasps the idea. Felix may not be able to put it into words, but he has an implicit understanding of his own position as one wherein he holds real power over other, very real people. The idea of abusing that power does not excite him, because there is some measure of guilt already present, a thin sheen of shame that he knows and has never done anything to change the status quo.

So, after a moment of quiet where Felix fidgets with the hem of his jersey and resists the urge to find a cigarette, Oliver asks, like he can just pluck these ideas from the ether like plums from a bough, “would you let me be your squire, then, Sir Knight?”

That…that piques Felix’s interest.

They come to the following set of understandings gradually, through lots of trial and only occasional error: they both enjoy playing the game the most when Felix begins with the upper hand and has his power taken from him, by deception or by force or by seduction; they both enjoy ridiculous, even sometimes camp scenes and scenarios where they can speak and act outrageously; and if Oliver is to be the one who is powerless, the scenario must be explicitly fantastical for Felix to stay in the moment and not get drawn into his own head.

It makes Oliver’s blood spark with static shocks the way that sometimes Felix will hold him too tightly, push him hard, call him names— the way his spoilt baronet-to-be will sometimes treat him like an object, but only, only when they couldn’t possibly be Felix and Oliver.

It makes the game that much more exciting to play whenever and however they play it. And it makes Oliver even more determined to strip away Felix’s status, his haughtiness and his causal demanding, in their more frequent play. As if he means to reassure him, even when you own me, I don’t want you to forget that I could take it all back. So you don’t need to worry, or feel guilty for the things you want to do to me when I’m at your feet, because you have no power over me I haven’t given you.

Of course…sometimes the game isn’t anything like that. Sometimes it’s cheeky — they’re married men of society, meeting for their clandestine affair, or less intense, and they take their cues from a favorite film or play, playing characters written by others.

Yes. Yes they’d definitely be into roleplay.

[radical-revolution]

None of your knowledge, your reading, your connections will be of any use here: two legs suffice, and big eyes to see with. Walk alone, across mountains or through forests. You are nobody to the hills or the thick boughs heavy with greenery. You are no longer a role, or a status, not even an individual, but a body, a body that feels sharp stones on the paths, the caress of long grass and the freshness of the wind. When you walk, the world has neither present nor future: nothing but the cycle of mornings and evenings. Always the same thing to do all day: walk. But the walker who marvels while walking (the blue of the rocks in a July evening light, the silvery green of olive leaves at noon, the violet morning hills) has no past, no plans, no experience. He has within him the eternal child. While walking I am but a simple gaze.

— Frédéric Gros, A Philosophy of Walking

Art:Tamas Stonawski