#ongoing debate with my wife

[beyscape]

pillow talk

Aemond Tagaryen x reader

Summary: Aemond's wife is upset when Prince Regent does not pay attention to her, so she takes the matters into her own hands.

Word Count: 1.6k

A/N: Mostly fluff with some mild suggestive content, just something quick!! Requests are open for more Aemond—we can never have too much of Aemond, tbh.

“Are you too busy for your wife, my Prince? Or shall I say Prince Regent?” You raised an eyebrow at Aemond, the slight smirk on your lips not quite reaching your eyes.

“I must finish reading this, wife.” Aemond did not look up from the papers he was bent over, not even deigning to answer your teasing.

You rounded the bed with a disappointed hum, taking in the figure of your husband; he had already shrugged off his leathers he was fond of wearing during the day, his sword and daggers discarded around the room. Now remaining in his linen breeches and shirt, he had even thrown off his eyepatch in an annoyed huff; beneath his furrowed brows, the sapphire gleamed in the candlelight that illuminated your chambers.

Careful to not disturb the papers strewn on the bed, you sat down next to him, head tilted to the side. “Urgent matters?” You asked, though you had a feeling that you knew the answer. 

Being named Prince Regent had placed a great burden on his shoulders—those very same shoulders that were now tense as Aemond bent over the papers, the very same shoulders you loved to run your fingernails over as he made love to you.

Your husband only hummed in response. You tried not to feel hurt—you understood it, after all; how much he had waited for this moment, to finally be in charge, to finally have power over the way the Realm was ruled, and yet…

And yet.

You still felt hurt by the way his attention had shifted off of you completely—even when he shared your bed at night it was to spend couple hours in fitful sleep, he would come to the bed long after you had already fallen asleep and would often be already awake and busy with his duties long before the sunlight would break through the windows. 

“Aemond…” You sighed, lips pursed in annoyance. “Have your duties not disrupted our lives enough? Must they join us in bed also?” 

“Just a moment more,” His low voice trailed off, his focus on the papers unbroken; it was all-too-clear that your words had not even registered with the Prince Regent. 

You looked at him for another moment, watching the way his jaw tensed and the way his eye trailed the words of some war report or another from the Realm. He was bent over the documents, his long, unbound hair falling off of his shoulder like a silky curtain. 

“Fine, then.” A huff escaped your lips. “I am going to bed.” You blew off the candle by your bedside before laying down, your irritation with your husband growing rapidly as he still did not grace you with a single word or look of acknowledgement. 

You laid there for a moment, listening to the crackling of the fire and the occasional shifting of papers.Any other night the sounds, accompanied by the deep, steady breathing of Aemond, would have lulled you to sleep—but not this time. Not this night, certainly not after having been all but ignored by your husband for days on end. 

Unable to stand the silence and Aemond’s treatment of you any longer, you knew you had to do something, anything to finally snap him out of his deep focus. Quietly, your hand trailed to Aemond’s side of the bed, your fingers gripping the edge of his pillow. You held your breath for a moment, a silent debate ongoing within you, trying to estimate his potential anger and your chances of finally getting some quality time with your husband.

Your desire for the latter greatly exceeded your fear of the former—so you did what you had to do. You smacked Aemond’s tense shoulders with his pillow. 

Aemond’s hands stilled as a moment stretched between the two of you. His head turned towards you ever-so-slightly, brows still furrowed. “Did you just… hit me? With a pillow?” He asked, incredulous. 

You shrugged at him. “Whatever else was a displeased wife to do? Seemed like the tamest of the options I considered.” You raised an eyebrow, a gesture of a slight challenge. 

Aemond let the paper clutched in his hands fall back onto the bed, blending in with the rest of the documents. In a flash his slender hand was wrapped around your ankle, you let out a shriek as Aemond pulled you towards himself; suddenly the previously monumental duties were forgotten as his hands travelled the length of your body rapidly, teasing and tickling at every turn and moment. 

A wicked glint was in his eye as he rendered you a breathless mess—laughter came out of your lips in gasps as you tried to hold onto his arms in a vain attempt to stop him. “Aemond—I,” you breathed, “Stop, I’m sorry, stop!”

Accepting your retreat Aemond stopped, pinning your hands above your head, a slight smirk still playing on his lips. “You cheeky, insolent thing,” he chastised, leaning in as he hovered over your figure on the bed. “However shall you pay for this, wife?”

“I think I already have,” your chest heaved beneath him, still smiling as you tried to catch your breath.

He looked at you for a moment, his eye tracing your face with a careful look—one that was hungry to take in every little breath you take, every little expression on your face. His smirk faded, leaving its place to a look that seemed��apologetic, almost.

It was such an unfamiliar look on the handsome face of your husband, it sent a sudden pang of ache through you. You tilted your head a little to the side, taking in his pensive expression, the way you could practically see him process his thoughts and figure out the best way to express them. Such an intimate knowledge this was—to know Aemond so well was a privilege no one else had… Not a single soul in the Realm but you.

“I suppose,” He began, tentatively. “I suppose I have not had much time for you, as of late.” His thumb rubbed the skin of your pinned up wrist; it was still unbelievable, how the smallest of Aemond’s touches managed to affect you so monumentally. 

“Any time, more like,” You offered with a pout, his gaze immediately falling to your lips.

He hummed, a low and guttural sound—his sombre air tinged with desire set a flame burning in the pit of your stomach. “Then I am the one who should make it up to you.” 

Aemond’s head dipped down, pressing a long kiss to your lips. He let go of your pinned wrists in favour of his hand cupping your cheek, his other hand running down your side to tighten on your waist. He pulled you closer, deepening the kiss, his weight pressing down on you. One of your hands sneaked into his hair while the other wrapped around his shoulder—you held onto him as though if you let go, the world would shift from underneath you. 

He pulled back slightly, reluctantly, to inhale, his eye never leaving your face. “Are you truly displeased with me?” He asked, his voice tainted with a vulnerable insecurity that never surfaced outside of the confines of your chambers. 

“Aemond,” you sighed, raising your face to press a kiss to his jaw, then to the corner of his mouth. His eyes fluttered close at the contact, your name tumbled out of his lips as a plea, as a prayer. “I have missed you is all. I am not vexed with you.” 

He looked into your eyes deeply, looking for any signs of insincerity or deception; he nodded once, twice, when he only found unwavering affection. Aemond dipped down to kiss you again and again, the first one being heart-achingly tender. 

“There was…” You said in between kisses, “a matter of making it up to me?” 

“Indeed,” His kisses trailed down your skin, his lips finding the spot connecting your neck to your shoulder. “I am in your service, dear wife.”

Your head tilted back almost instinctively, overcome with the desire to give him more access to you—to give him everything and anything he asked for. 

“Tell me what you want,” he breathed as his kisses continued to trail down, his gravelly voice reverberating against your skin.

“You,” a small gasp escaped your lips as his hand caressed the length of your leg, travelling up, up, up until he reached his destination and squeezed in triumph. “No more teasing. I just want you.”

Aemond pulled back with a satisfied little smirk that widened when you whined at the absence of his touch and his kisses. “As my dear wife wishes.” 

He looked down at your figure sprawled on the bed with a distinct hunger in his eye—like his appetite would never be sated, no matter how much he devoured you, like he would never be able to get enough of you. 

As he took off his white shirt, revealing the toned slender figure beneath, you knew one thing: Prince Aemond was going to take his sweet time giving you all the attention you desired and demanded from him—that is, at least, until the morning rays brought back to the mind the weight of duty and Crown alike, until your new reality returned.

You pulled Aemond down for another kiss, letting the taste of his lips ground you to the moment—you felt aflame, your skin flush and fingers tingling with longing to touch, to feel, to hold. It was magic; it was a blessing, a curse—to want someone so much, to be rendered half-mad with just a look, a touch, a gasp. 

Damn duty and the Crown, you thought hazily as Aemond pressed a kiss to the spot above your heart—they could wait their turn. In this moment, Aemond was all yours, unburdened by the troubles of ruling the Realm, by the waging war. 

In this moment, Aemond was all yours—and you would cherish every second of it.

[mariacallous]

Rhetoric has a history. The words democracy and tyranny were debated in ancient Greece; the phrase separation of powers became important in the 17th and 18th centuries. The word vermin, as a political term, dates from the 1930s and ’40s, when both fascists and communists liked to describe their political enemies as vermin, parasites, and blood infections, as well as insects, weeds, dirt, and animals. The term has been revived and reanimated, in an American presidential campaign, with Donald Trump’s description of his opponents as “radical-left thugs” who “live like vermin.”

This language isn’t merely ugly or repellant: These words belong to a particular tradition. Adolf Hitler used these kinds of terms often. In 1938, he praised his compatriots who had helped “cleanse Germany of all those parasites who drank at the well of the despair of the Fatherland and the People.” In occupied Warsaw, a 1941 poster displayed a drawing of a louse with a caricature of a Jewish face. The slogan: “Jews are lice: they cause typhus.” Germans, by contrast, were clean, pure, healthy, and vermin-free. Hitler once described the Nazi flag as “the victorious sign of freedom and the purity of our blood.”

Stalin used the same kind of language at about the same time. He called his opponents the “enemies of the people,” implying that they were not citizens and that they enjoyed no rights. He portrayed them as vermin, pollution, filth that had to be “subjected to ongoing purification,” and he inspired his fellow communists to employ similar rhetoric. In my files, I have the notes from a 1955 meeting of the leaders of the Stasi, the East German secret police, during which one of them called for a struggle against “vermin activities” (there is, inevitably, a German word for this: Schädlingstätigkeiten), by which he meant the purge and arrest of the regime’s critics. In this same era, the Stasi forcibly moved suspicious people away from the border with West Germany, a project nicknamed “Operation Vermin.”

This kind of language was not limited to Europe. Mao Zedong also described his political opponents as “poisonous weeds.” Pol Pot spoke of “cleansing” hundreds of thousands of his compatriots so that Cambodia would be “purified.”

In each of these very different societies, the purpose of this kind of rhetoric was the same. If you connect your opponents with disease, illness, and poisoned blood, if you dehumanize them as insects or animals, if you speak of squashing them or cleansing them as if they were pests or bacteria, then you can much more easily arrest them, deprive them of rights, exclude them, or even kill them. If they are parasites, they aren’t human. If they are vermin, they don’t get to enjoy freedom of speech, or freedoms of any kind. And if you squash them, you won’t be held accountable.

Until recently, this kind of language was not a normal part of American presidential politics. Even George Wallace’s notorious, racist, neo-Confederate 1963 speech, his inaugural speech as Alabama governor and the prelude to his first presidential campaign, avoided such language. Wallace called for “segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.” But he did not speak of his political opponents as “vermin” or talk about them poisoning the nation’s blood. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, which ordered Japanese Americans into internment camps following the outbreak of World War II, spoke of “alien enemies” but not parasites.

In the 2024 campaign, that line has been crossed. Trump blurs the distinction between illegal immigrants and legal immigrants—the latter including his wife, his late ex-wife, the in-laws of his running mate, and many others. He has said of immigrants, “They’re poisoning the blood of our country” and “They’re destroying the blood of our country.” He has claimed that many have “bad genes.” He has also been more explicit: “They’re not humans; they’re animals”; they are “cold-blooded killers.” He refers more broadly to his opponents—American citizens, some of whom are elected officials—as “the enemy from within … sick people, radical-left lunatics.” Not only do they have no rights; they should be “handled by,” he has said, “if necessary, National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.”

In using this language, Trump knows exactly what he is doing. He understands which era and what kind of politics this language evokes. “I haven’t read Mein Kampf,” he declared, unprovoked, during one rally—an admission that he knows what Hitler’s manifesto contains, whether or not he has actually read it. “If you don’t use certain rhetoric,” he told an interviewer, “if you don’t use certain words, and maybe they’re not very nice words, nothing will happen.”

His talk of mass deportation is equally calculating. When he suggests that he would target both legal and illegal immigrants, or use the military arbitrarily against U.S. citizens, he does so knowing that past dictatorships have used public displays of violence to build popular support. By calling for mass violence, he hints at his admiration for these dictatorships but also demonstrates disdain for the rule of law and prepares his followers to accept the idea that his regime could, like its predecessors, break the law with impunity.

These are not jokes, and Trump is not laughing. Nor are the people around him. Delegates at the Republican National Convention held up prefabricated signs: Mass Deportation Now. Just this week, when Trump was swaying to music at a surreal rally, he did so in front of a huge slogan: Trump Was Right About Everything. This is language borrowed directly from Benito Mussolini, the Italian fascist. Soon after the rally, the scholar Ruth Ben-Ghiat posted a photograph of a building in Mussolini’s Italy displaying his slogan: Mussolini Is Always Right.

These phrases have not been put on posters and banners at random in the final weeks of an American election season. With less than three weeks left to go, most candidates would be fighting for the middle ground, for the swing voters. Trump is doing the exact opposite. Why? There can be only one answer: because he and his campaign team believe that by using the tactics of the 1930s, they can win. The deliberate dehumanization of whole groups of people; the references to police, to violence, to the “bloodbath” that Trump has said will unfold if he doesn’t win; the cultivation of hatred not only against immigrants but also against political opponents—none of this has been used successfully in modern American politics.

But neither has this rhetoric been tried in modern American politics. Several generations of American politicians have assumed that American voters, most of whom learned to pledge allegiance to the flag in school, grew up with the rule of law, and have never experienced occupation or invasion, would be resistant to this kind of language and imagery. Trump is gambling—knowingly and cynically—that we are not.

[lythevoidwitch]

I am a simple woman.

If I see SVSSS content, I will like, I will follow, and I will open another tab to read every fanfiction recommendation. (Even though I shouldn't with my 64 open tabs right now. 27 of which are ongoing ff as I patiently wait for more chapters to be released.)

That's not all though.

I'm considering getting back into writing some fanfiction for my current addiction. I have a few ideas, but I would love to hear your favorite ship, crackship, headcanons and so forth!

I'm heavily debating on a few fic ideas:

SY and SJ shenanigans : Disciples? Estranged Siblings? (LBH Sobbing in the bg)

SY as a rogue cultivator, successfully avoiding LBH for most of the plot. (Switch between LBH and SY pov?)

Modern SVSSS, College!! (SJ the prettiest and pettiest of college professors, he doesn't get paid enough for this. Why is his student flirting with him? Why is his student flirting with his brother? SJ might consider homicide as justifiable.)

Modern SVSSS, SY and SQH wake up from their strange dream. Find out Cucumber and Airplane know each other in rl. Ensue chaotic best friend behavior. (In the bg cue, MBJ and LBH handling this with nothing but poise and grace. I'm lying. They're doing the exact opposite. Don't worry, I'm not a monster. LBH and MBJ find their wives, eventually, probably.)

Modern Cultivators! SY and SJ didn't think they would ever run into an actual demon, demons are rare these days. They often face ghosts and spirits. Cue SY accidently waking up a good old Blackened/Sealed Lou Bing-ge. Cue (dun dun duhhh) chaos.

Demon SY? Cultivator SY? Dunno yet, SY in the Abyss. (I read an unfinished fic about SY in the abyss, and I'm obsessed with the idea of SY just absolutely trying to get LBG to speedrun the Abyss, and LBG deciding "Nuh. I'm staying here, with you". I was also considering entire Abyss ancient civilizations because I'm unhinged, and the idea of what used to be sprawling demonic kingdoms in the abyss is beautiful.)

Have you ever accidently married the emperor of the 3 realms? SY did. Now, SJ has to ask YQ for help to save his brother. (Subsequently: You ever accidently end up with a husband? LBG was surprised, too, but he has a system, a way these things work. Just because SY is a man doesn't change anything. LBH now has to make sure his frail husband doesn't die and doesn't get kidnapped by pesky cultivators.) Three povs???? SJ (trying to save his brother and getting pettier by the minute), LBG (thwarting SJ's plans, spying on his husband, general court affiar), SY (fangirling over everything, getting himself into trouble, falling into every wife plot under the sun).

These are just some ideas, some of my favorites that I've been clinging to. Free game, take em, write em if you want. The more fanfiction and content we have, the better!

I've rambled. Oh god. Lemme know your favorite, I'll probably boost it to the front of my list.

[reiderwriter]

I'm curious to hear your thoughts about the dom/sub debate when it comes to mr Spencer Reid.I personally lean towards believing he is more of a soft/rough dom depending on the day.And especially since your dom spencer fanfictions are some of my absolute favorites of all time (the margaritas part 2 had me weak on the knees),I would love to hear you profile my favorite profiler as to if he is a dom or a sub,which you believe is more true.(I know which one is like to believe to be more true😂)I would love to read your insight to his brain and how you understand him!Have a great day!! :)

Oh I would LOVE to get into it, and this is going to be a season by season break down so please bare with me lmao

Spoilers (kinda) for season 1-15 of Criminal Minds under the cut, only read up to where you are in the show!

Season One

You may be thinking "surely that is a sub" and you would be right, if he was having sex, which he is very clearly not. He graduated from his third PhD and then immediately joined the BAU, that is a virgin, your honor.

Season Two

At some point in season one, he loses his virginity. Probably to Lila Archer, maybe to Elle (no further questions, there are some amazing fanfictions that fill in this). But whoever he is doing it with is absolutely dominating him, he just doesn't know it.

Season Two Spencer is curious about BDSM, but having what he assumes is Vanilla sex (just because he isn't calling women Mommy yet, he thinks that he is having normal sex, when in reality he's like pathetically whining asking for release).

During his ongoing addiction days, I think he'd be more than happy to just switch off his brain during sex and just follow orders, do what he's told.

Season Three

A sub and he knows it. Still feels unconfident enough to not be in charge in the relationship, he likes switching his brain off when he fucks. But something does start to switch and he's suddenly a little bit more confident this season, so I can see him being a bit of a brat - talks back, doesn't follow rules, really very mouthy in front of other.

((The majority of my sub Spencer smut is set at around this time - I ❤️ whiny brats lmao))

Season Four

This is where I can see him becoming a bit more confident but I don't think he's a dom yet. I do think he's absolutely taking advantage of his leg injury and absolutely loving being ridden, not having to put in any work. I think after all this he decides he really likes the look on the other person's face when they're on the edge of ecstasy and he wants to explore drawing that out a bit.

Season Five

I think we're experimenting here. So many things have happened in his life by this point that I think he needs to gain control in some part of his life, and his sex life is just the easiest option. He's still giving switch energy, but that sudden short haircut? The brattier energy? He's suddenly coming into himself again, and he's definitely comfortable being a little more dominant now. But he's not an experienced dom yet, so I think he's just taking charge and telling his partners what to do, he's not into choking/ punishment/ degradation yet.

I can't remember if its season five or six where he points out he isn't a typical "alpha male." A lot of people take this to mean that he's calling himself a sub, which could definitely be the case, but also, I think he likes being underestimated sexually, because it makes it more exciting for him when he does get the upper hand in the relationship, which he does in that episode (he interviews the wife and then tells her that her husband killed the actual father of her child and makes her stare at their faces until she cracks and breaks down into tears. He offers her no comfort is all I'm saying... 👀)

Season Six

This is controversial, but I think from this point on, Spencer is fully a dom. He has that scare where he thinks he's "developing" Schizophrenia, and his constant headaches, he just needs release and I think he finds it in multiple beds, lmao. He does have that moment of vulnerability at the end of the season when everything happens with Emily, so I think if he's having sex it's back to Vanilla, but like really passionate, and I'm not saying that he'd fall in love with everyone who's bed he falls into but I'm just saying he needs companionship at the end of this season.

Season Seven

This season starts with him literally cutting off the board of directors at the FBI to correct them and standing by his decisions and if that isn't the biggest dick energy ever idk what is. He's angry, and he's frustrated, and he thinks the team overlooks him a little bit, so you know what he's going to do? He's going to dominate whoever he's in bed with to regain some of that control. I can see this as the time that Spencer finally really gets into more aspects of BDSM. He let's demeaning words slip out of his mouth during sex and then notes the positive reaction they get, so he keeps doing it until he can make the other person cum.

((The majority of my dom smut with Spencer is set at around this time.))

Season Eight

This isn't a Dom, this is a dumbass. I'm pretty confident that for the first half of the season, he's not having sex, because he's committed to Maeve and he never meets her. Then after she dies he's too depressed and busy to get out there. I think if he did go out and find someone to keep him company, it'd probably back to the post-Emily-Doyle arc where he just needs to feel someone close to him someone wrapped around him, someone holding him tight, so it's slow. It's passionate and it's loving, but he's still pretty detached about it. He literally doesn't care about finding a release, he'd rather just have the physical touch for a while.

Season Nine

Straight up dom. Will choke a bitch, regularly does. I can see him getting a little bit rougher now, probably gets asked to spank one of his partners and then does NOT want to stop ever doing that. Grows to lightly slapping in the face. He does literally tell Garcia that he has a dominant side, and she straight up ignores him, though, so I think he's pretty comfortable in people "underestimating" him, I guess?

When he gets shot in the last few episodes, he's literally ready to get back out there as soon as possible, and I think that applies to sexual encounters as well. When some of his other "traumatic events" happen, I can see him taking a break for a while, but with this one, he gets medical clearance and is immediately burying his head between someone's legs.

Season Ten

I am only on season 9 of my rewatch, and to be completely honest, nothing of merit really happens to Spencer in Season 10 from my memory, so I'm just going to assume that he's basically the same.

The only thing that really can be cause for concern is Gideon's death, and I think that does truly fuck him up for a while, but that's anger and grief mixed together, so I can see him moving between rough fucks and slow passionate needy sex for a few months while he works through all of that.

Season Eleven

Spencer Reid vs Cat Adams is literally dom on dom crime, the entirety of Entropy is just them trying to be the one topping one another. And we know who wins that battle, so...

Definitely into pet names and calling his partners little sluts, whores, bitches etc. I don't want to say that Morgan babied him, because their relationship really developed a lot over the seasons and deserves it's own non-horny post lmao, but I think Morgan leaving really allowed the writers to let Spencer take more of a dominant role in interrogations, investigations and the like. And he's the last person who really considers Spencer a "kid" (apart from Rossi who literally thinks of them all as children) so he no longer has to, I guess justify? his sexual behavior. He's just all-in on it now.

Season Twelve

Pre-prison Spencer Reid in season twelve is a bad lover. He's inattentive, literally just chasing his own needs, probably pumping and dumping and now really paying attention to the aspects of a role that a dominant really should - the after care and looking after the person who is submitting to him. Then he goes to prison.

When he gets out, I can absolutely see the man suddenly having a breeding kink, wanting to be so close to someone, for someone to have such absolute confidence in him that he can fuck them raw and neither of them will care about the consequences. He's still a little damaged though, so I can see him oscillating between needing slow comforting sex, and harsh sex, really leaning into punishment/reward play and experimenting with different kinks, and maybe even public sex.

After he starts working at the University, I think role-playing and calling him "sir" would also really turn him on, and for a while he'd think it's a little gross as he's literally a teacher, but after a while he doesn't care anymore because it makes him feel so good.

Season 13-15

It's the same as above. He's dominant, but he still needs taking care of, but at this point he's so closed off from the world that he'll never be able to submit to someone again. So slow, sloppy, passionate sex, lasting for hours and hours is probably his way to go. I can see him being the type of soft! Dom that is just asking for "just one more" orgasm, over and over again, and then just overwhelming his partner with aftercare - running them a bath, cleaning them up, making them food or a hot drink, propping some pillows up behind them. He's a real gentleman, and I think his emotional distance could probably break a lot of hearts.

OVERALL

He goes from the whiniest virgin-sub to a bratty switch, all the way to a rough dom and then settles into being a very soft caring dom in his later years.

That's just my opinion though, and I'd love to hear what everyone else thinks!! I really didn't look too much into what happens in each of these seasons because I put approximately 0% research and 100% opinion and what I would want to see (lmao) into this, so if there's something specific that happens that has you thinking that he'd have a certain preference in any season then PLEASE tell me.

[the-bad-batch-baroness]

SENTENCE WIP GAME

I was tagged by @frostycatblr-fandom-files and @returnofthepineapple my beloveds 💚

Rules: Make a 24-hour poll with the titles of every WIP you plan to work on, even if it’s only one or two. Once the poll closes, write one sentence for every vote received on the WIP that gets the most votes.

I was really debating whether I wanted to do this or not. I'm such a busy bee, and I don't get a lot of time to work on other WIPs, but why not toss a few out there and play along?

Open tags for everyone who wants to play!

Descriptions below the cut:

Where's Mommy? (Wolffe x OFC)

Ongoing series with 20 posted chapters.

Wolffe's life is turned upside down when his wife suddenly dies while he's home on Coruscant. As Wolffe battles through his grief, he is forced to take on the role of father and mother to his four-year-old daughter Cara, who struggles to understand why her mother is gone. When Wolffe receives orders for a new deployment, he hires Lilith Sestri from a nanny service in a desperate attempt to ensure his daughter is taken care of while he's away. However, tragedy will continue to follow them throughout the rest of the war.

A Man's Worth (Tup x Fem!Reader)

Ongoing series with 3 posted chapters.

Your date-night with Tup is interrupted when your stalker finds you and won’t leave without you. Tup heroically comes to your defense but is overpowered by the assailant, and you are taken away. After your rescue, Tup struggles with his insecurities and self-worth as he tries to heal physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Infectious (TBB & Fem!Reader)

Ongoing series with 3 posted chapters.

You're completing your final practicum on Kamino as part of the experimental non-clone Combat Medic program. After graduating top of your class and being inducted into the prestigious 407th Medic Unit, you get assigned to Clone Force 99. Neither of you is excited to be working together, and tensions run high. However, those tensions dissipate when the Bad Batch unexpectedly falls ill while on a covert mission. Running against an unknown clock, it’s up to you to figure out what’s causing the illness before it ultimately kills you all.

Ace of Spades (Vampire!Thorn x Fem!Reader)

An unwritten one-shot that somewhat follows the events of Queen of Hearts.

After Thorn covers up a murder for Fox, he finds a mysterious stack of unsolved murder cases on his desk with a note saying he must solve them or the unknown source will expose the truth about what happened to the clone commanders. Thorn now races against the clock to solve the cases while trying to balance his personal life and keep Fox out of trouble.

[joseline-woodhouse]

So my wife and I had our honeymoon on Crete recently and in the museum of Heraklion we saw her:

I am obsessed!

What do you mean there was a possible Goddess of nature AND cats AND snakes and no one told me about this before??

So basically the Minoan civilization was one of the first civilisations in Europe and we know very little about them and what we know of them comes largely from the fact they were really talented artists, to the point where they have been hired by the Egyptian Pharos. They had a lot of cults on the Greek island Crete and built big labyrinth like "Palaces" there, which we by now know, probably weren't palaces at all. Most often they are assumed to have been temples, but it is subject of ongoing debate. Unrelated to the snake goddess (probably?) they found a cave on Crete filled with double edged axe heads of varying sizes, probably for religious reasons(?) because some of these sizes don't make sense as weapons or tools.

Why did Greek mythology tumblr not tell me about this?

Anyway I bought myself a tiny figure and a T-Shirt (picture below) of the snake goddess and am planning to become a collector of her merchandise now.

Anyway, I have been reading up on the Minoan culture on wiki and I advise other history or mythology nerds to do the same.

[darkmaga-returns]

Abusus Non Tollit Usum

Debate has been ongoing recently regarding the nature and extent to which wives are meant to submit to husbands, and likewise when are they duty bound to resist a wayward husband. During these discussions, David Fairchild, a Regional Director of A29, writes:

To be fair, I’ve heard many a pastor and theologian say something along these lines. My pastor may have said something along these lines. I’ve even said something along these lines. So, I want to make sure we know what is being said, what is not being said, and what should be said.

Back to the Bible

Fairchild describes the same action in several different ways. He criticizes those who, “pull out the ‘submit’ card on your wife on the regular” where “this is a go to for you.” He mentions, “Grabbing a verse” and “Using a verse.” He has in mind here a husband or elder who pulls out, goes to, grabs, or uses a verse. Fairchild is objecting to that, even though he will raise other objections.

Strictly speaking, Fairchild believes a great leader need not go to the Bible. If the Bible is a go to for you, then you’re not a great leader. So, if you are a great leader, then the Bible is not a go to for you (B⊃~L, L, ~B). And that seems, well, backwards.

The most charitable read of Fairchild suggests he assumes a good leader has a wife, or church, who knows the Bible well enough that he need not quote or cite it in order to apply it. Unfortunately, Fairchild appears to argue that he should not quote or cite it in order to apply it. Of course, it does not follow from the fact that the husband or elder need not quote Scripture that he should not do so. More than that, wouldn’t we expect a great leader to lead in teaching and applying the Bible to his wife and church?

[astoldbychae]

One thing for sure, two things for certain...Melo has exquisite taste. I ain't gon' hold you...

Marguerite (ex-wife) // Monet (current girlfriend) // Fatima (collegiate side ting) 🙃

Melo's story ramblings below the cut

Alright, so boom…I was listening to music (when I should’ve been napping) and the playlist was GIVING…

Coco Jones “ICU” came on and it gave me a story idea and I’ve been jotting down notes since. I tend to use my random gameplay moments to guide what happens in Melo’s story and so far it’s just been fun gameplay but it’s been helpful because my ideas end up coming full circle when I press play. It’s like reassurance honestly!

Anywho, I’ve been debating how I want to write Melo’s story for THEE longest. No, seriously...way longer than I should have. I'm a recovering perfectionist and an artist whose sensitive about her shit...or whatever, so this is an ongoing battle. Dialogue is always my biggest challenge because I know exactly how I want the scene to go but I get confuzzled on who should say what and how etc…Issa work in progress and practice makes better. Right? So there’s that! But I am slowly working on his mini series/story. Emphasis on mini series because my brain gets overwhelmed when things don't have an end date. It’s literally been living rent free (with many renditions) in my notebook for damn near 3 years now. 😳

I'm prepping to do my bi-annual cc clean and prepping for the new update (once it's safe to update all the cc tings) but I have a title and have sorta kinda mapped out how many "chapters" this mini series will have. I've had to slowly start a new save for him because of the lag and I want to get into downloading more builds from the gallery and cc-ifying them myself and/or building sets myself. My pinterest board is full of ideas at this point but I'm excited.

[tfc-gal-pal]

As much as I want Buddie to be endgame and was hoping for some solid hints this season, I think that this latest Eddie-Kim (is that her name?) arc is showing us that Eddie is not ready to be in a relationship yet. With anyone.

(Some people are saying he’s not cheating and they’re going as friends (?), which I personally don’t believe because 1) would you ever ask a stranger to hang out with you for the first time at a fancy restaurant and dress up for it and 2) she reminds him of his dead wife, who he loved very much (regardless of the ongoing debate of platonic vs romantic love there). So, yes, in my opinion, he’s cheating, but not in the cut and dry way we’ve seen other characters on this show do. That’s because a part of him, subconsciously, sees her as Shannon. He’s living a delusion, a fantasy. He sees Kim as Shannon, someone he misses so so much, and he’s finally getting to see her again.)

If you’ve ever seen someone that in some way reminds you of a loved one you’ve lost, you’ll understand how disarming it is. The whole world stops and all you can do is stare. It feels exactly like how Eddie just stared at Kim for like 2 minutes straight. You might want to approach them, talk to them even. But mostly you just want to stare. It’s the closest thing you’ll ever get to seeing that person again. And you can’t get enough of it. There are characters out there that remind me of people I’ve lost and whenever I miss them a lot, I’ll watch an episode or ten but the reality is that that person is not the character and I can only stave off missing them via a proxy for so long. In my opinion, this is what Eddie is doing. And his lack of resolution around Shannon is finally becoming unavoidable.

Here’s the thing: there have always been three people in his relationships. Eddie, whichever girl he’s dating, and Shannon. He’s not just not over her dying, but also the possibility of what they could have been. Even if Shannon and Eddie hadn’t ended up working out, Eddie never got to see that through. Their relationship ended prematurely with her death. Shannon had just presented Eddie with divorce papers while Eddie had wanted her to stay permanently. If she hadn’t died, they might still be together. And Eddie hasn’t gotten over that. In order to be in a healthy relationship, he has to make peace with that and allow himself to actually move on.

Until he addresses the elephant in the room that is his unresolved feelings around Shannon and the resulting “what if”s, Eddie is going to keep running into the same problems, even if they present themselves in different ways.

[obscuredilfoff]

Propaganda below the cut!

Solomon "Doc" Saturday

He's buff. He's a scientist. He cares about animals and the environment. He loves his wife, his son, and the three Literal Cryptids that they've adopted. He went blind in one eye protecting his son. His son turns out to be the reincarnation of an evil god and he's like "Okay. He's still my son and I still love him. We just have to get the evil god out of him." He's snarky. He's trying to corral his wife away from doing insane shit, except for the rare occasions where he's the one doing insane shit. He and his wife have an ongoing science vs mysticism debate that affects every mission they go on.

Uncle Jim

he got bankrupted by his ex boyfriend's parents (ex died and the bank account was in the name of the ex) and had to build his life up from scratch. hes raising his 17 year old nephew for atleast 7 years because his sister did want to be a parent. he has bills to pay but can barely make ends meet. hes the sweetest man on the planet. he famously said 'why do you have to be gay? is it not enough to be poor?' while pursuing a guy he has a one night stand with (its famous because HES gay, hes had to fight his mildly homophobic sister about it and is estranged from her - while raising her child at her request) he nearly got punched by a pretty boy loser of a banker guy (ex bf of one night stand guy). one person is introduced as someone with a long time crush on jim and he turns him down by calling him a Good Kid. the actor for this character is 29 so its a fandom belief that hes probably at most 32 and Dramatique TM. he has so much game. the end scene of the show is him pulling one night stand by his id card, whispering dirty things in his ears and then BITING the lobe. mostest tierdest gay of the neighbourhood, we love uncle jim (additional info with no joke whatsoever because that would be soooo rude and inappropriate - jim in thai slang means pussy, which is the name of this gay elder who everyone in 1km radius wants to fuck. do what you will with this addition)

He's got two young twinks fighting over him. Is like in his late 30s but acts like he's way older. Tells one of the guys who has been in love with him for years that he's a good kid. Dick so good that he got a guy to work for him for free for like a year before he finally acknowledged that they could potentially get together (they only fucked once at the very start). Tells his gay nephew that lives with him that he shouldn't be gay since he's already poor.

[fountainpenguin]

"I have you strung... Strung in my web! Candle burning slowly by the bed..." (x)

The Candles We Light (and Should Regret)

The Pantheon of Silk and Plays AU Guide

❤️ Read on AO3

🧡 T - Ongoing multichapter

💙 Blog tag - #Silk Plays AU

💚 More MCYT AUs

“Would you… care to know what clothes I’m wearing?” Cleo turned her head, eyes still squeezed. She didn’t respond, but heard the spirit shift. Metal clicked against metal somewhere out of sight, maybe around his neck or back. “If you will have me, Cleo… take my ties and silks and draw them off. Undress me as you would a mortal man, and I am yours.” “Undress you?” The words left her in a whisper. “Is such a thing sacred?” “Yes,” he breathed, and Cleo shuddered despite herself. He gripped her arm, pulling her in. “To take my silks is to possess my heart and soul, as the skins of seal-folk. You remember, of course, how the god of travel and arts stripped the god of war and sky. Make a mortal thing of me.”

Cleo has never seen her husband; the father of her children. He only visits in the dark.

(And the tales that came before).

A Cupid/Psyche-inspired AU themed around the Limited Life and Double Life SMPs

(First 1,000 words under the cut)

Tsumugi

🐛 🕯️ 🧵

Slippers made poor riding shoes, especially over lava. But they were silk, gifted by the flicking wings of moths without number, and when you know not where you walk, you should always dress in silk. It's good enough for gods.

Scalding. Fierce. Cleo hooked her fingers in crimson neck feathers. She slid forward and back with the steady gait of the long-legged bird she'd mounted with a saddle; she lured it ever forward with a promise of mushrooms in her outstretched hand (taken beneath the sleepy eyes of a mossy-coated god). Stink burned her nostrils, but she had not the words to describe it beyond memories of eggs fallen beneath the henhouses where she'd once changed the straw.

One blemish marred her finger; already, she'd dropped her satchel and watched it burn. There went her offerings… and there went her payment for the trip back across the glittery golden pool. No other mortal creature (if there were any) could carry her across again, for all things died in lava except the long-legged birds sired by the god she'd come to see. They pranced like demigods in their crowns of ivory, wrapped in feathered robes.

Every tread rocked her forward, pressing her head to the back of the bird's rough neck. But halfway across the lava lake, her companion stopped walking. Her gift had reached its end; it would take her no further. It pecked for mushrooms in her hand. Cleo curled her fingers. The bird swayed beneath her, ruffling its wings. It stamped its legs. This blurred her vision, kicking butterflies across her fingertips. If it charged and took flight, would the saddle hold? Buckling a saddle on a bird hadn't been an easy task. She fed it many, many mushrooms; she owed a debt now to the god of sleep and dew.

"Shh, shh… It's all right. Look; here you go." Cleo brought the last bits of fungi to the bird's face, stroking its neck as it settled down again. How curious to be a pair of mortal things tangled in heat and stench. The bird fluttered, disloyal to its own footing, and Cleo pressed her knees against its huffing sides until her thighs ached up the seamlines. The silk slippers debated mutiny on her toes. Lava sizzled and crackled an arm's length away. Did sailors feel like this on sinking ships? Cleo pressed her lips together, swallowing clogged-up air. Then, lifting their head, they looked towards the platform they hadn't reached. Much too far to jump.

If she must be slain for intruding in this temple—for overhearing sacred words of bliss and passion not meant for mortal ears—then let it be on her feet, head tilted back while shadowed implications danced upon the wall. Let it be the night wife and husband called each other Mulberry, after the silk flowing in their veins. They cried that lonely word until they crushed it into dust beneath the weight of expectations. How many centuries did it take the spirits to memorize every thumbprint on each other's skin? Would they know the moth holes marking one another's hearts?

The god who dwelled in this magma-filled temple (made honorary god of hearts and husbandry by his wife) hummed beyond his veil. His wife answered him in whispers. She'd become his mulberry-thing (his blessed and beloved), as he'd become hers.

The beautiful birds were not embarrassed by their mother and father. And if the birds were not embarrassed, neither would she be. They nipped and tore at each other, still squawking at her chosen mount for devouring the mushrooms they'd brought without sharing with the flock. Cleo did what they had to, then, and tossed dirt into the lava before her. As though by miracle, the particles took solid form to shape a little platform. They dismounted the long-legged bird for this makeshift island of exile, and pet its beak until it ambled away. Its footsteps slurped with every stride.

The god of sea and fire had been married many years, rendered mortal and soft in every thread he played across his fingers. Cleo could not see his wife disrobed from her sacred silks and strewn across the loom, guarded as she was by gossamer veil, but their shadows and candles conspired to chase hidden things into light. It was known to Cleo then (in fragmented, unfinished way) how he wove with nimble fingers. He called her name ambrosia and pomegranate and Venus among the fishes, and all the things that get you drunk on life and love. She named him This thing and That thing which cannot be translated, and filthy things that can, which would have ruffled even the real god of hearts and husbandry if they chanced upon his ear. Cleo traced two finger pads across the stitch marks down her cheek. That…

That was mulberry silk, in a way the kind that ran inside her undead veins was not.

Upon the marital loom, the gods weaved a bird into life (which Cleo saw only in its shadow), and love was made. The bird squawked in hunger. Two scraggly wings spread in prayer or plea. The god hummed in pleasure and lifted the little thing in his hands. Its shadow burned imprints in the backs of Cleo's eyes. Newborn things were rarely a mortal's right to see.

On this spot—this tiny island made up of one dirt block—they would make their plea, for all they were worth. Cleo then bore their chin high and called with grand voice into the whispers of the night:

"I leave comment with the god of sea and fire, who bears my heart and leads my trail."

The murmurs stopped. The shadows fidgeted. The new bird croaked, seeking solace at his chest. The shadows slid apart again as the god lifted the candle in its dish.

"Oi! Oh, you're having a-" The spirit thrust the veil aside then, rubbing something akin to exhaustion from his eyes. "What are you on about? I took down my bridge for the night. Why have you set foot in my abode?"

❤️ Read on AO3

[razzberrydazz]

Considering my beloved Tiff is veritably a public figure in Atlantis, and also has a reasonable worry of the press slandering her over every little thing, I'm thinking of what some third party articles and tabloids about her might say. What do these third party writers say about their queen's public appearances? Some attempts are included below

"Sea Queen Sighted at the fish market!

Witnesses from the Fishmouth Gazette say they recognized the Queen's face among the customers of the fish market close. In the crowd of families buying their groceries was a regal figure shrouded in a maroon cloak and veil, a vain attempt to hide her identity. Her face is printed on the coins and currency, does she think her public would not recognize her?

The queen appeared to be alone going from shop to shop to inspect the fish herself. Where is her bodyguard? Where are her servants? Does she expect to do the job of the health inspector herself? Is she that reckless with her own life?

Another way the Queen shirks her actual responsibilities to take on others! Look citizens of Atlantis, and see your Queen wasting time playing inspector instead of pushing Bill 9.74 through the Council so that we may once again have affordable groceries to buy! Shoot down those price gouges, your majesty!"

-

"Queen Tiffany spotted in squabble with the Royal Captain!

Yesterday, reporters permitted to tour the Mereign Palace gardens stumbled upon the sight of the Captain of the Royal Guard arguing with the Queen herself! Wives they may be, the Queen's word should be final, even to her spouse!

While the reporters could not make out the meat of the argument, they witnessed a harrowing sight - the Captain brandished her rapier at the Queen! Her Majesty's own wife, threatening her! We at the Sir Mer Magazine say this insult cannot stand! We demand the Captain publicly apologize for her actions, else the Queen properly punish her for the insult!

Our city needs a strong Queen with a strong network to support her, not royal infighting!"

-

"The Queen in another spat with the Council!

This morning at the weekly council meeting with Her Majesty the Queen, what started out as normal debate devolved into shouting match as Queen Tiffany accused the councilmembers of collusion and treasonous activity for not informing her of the summit the Council attended several days before with several big heads of corporation within the city. Seeing as the current debate is on environmental protections and restrictions on the fishing trade in order to improve health factors for the public, it is telling that the council met with the heads of several fisheries without the Queen.

There's our Majesty, looking out for the People, instead of for the Businesses looking to screw us over! Remember to vote for the council re-election this fall if YOU tire of the Council's machinations! Thanks to our reporters at the Atlantis Gazette for updating us on the ongoing news coverage of Council proceedings!"

-

"Queen of Atlantis seen sporting ostentatious new dress! Still wearing mourning gowns!

It's been many years since the death of our beloved and much mourned Queen Larethire II, and yet Theophania III still deigns to dress in colors of mourning for every possible occasion. We at the Flipper Fashion Magazine still have hopes her Majesty will quit the maroons and deep burgundies and opt for a cheerier color, but this season won't be the time it seems! The Royal Stylist obliges the Queen's desire to stay in Mourning, for the newest dress unveiled at her Summer Collection sports many shades of magenta pink maroon and burgundy, offset with a bright yellow corset top and poofy baby pink sleeves! Seems our Royal Stylist is into big sleeves this year, as every collection features even bigger shoulderpads and sleeve padding! Will the Queen be engulfed by her sleeves come winter? Find out come the Winter Collection!"

[lethimfertilise]

My greatest rival in the debate on whether the world can sustain food production without mineral fertilizers is my beloved wife. Whole Foods is indeed our preferred store. However, despite my respect for organic farming, I believe the world will still require a significant amount of mineral fertilizers. Yesterday, it rained all day in London, giving me plenty of time to write this detailed piece.

The Challenge of Producing Enough Agricultural Products Without Mineral Fertilisers

As the global population continues to rise, the demand for agricultural products increases alongside it. This has prompted an ongoing debate about the sustainability of agricultural practices, particularly the use of mineral fertilisers. While there is a growing interest in organic farming and other sustainable practices, there are significant challenges to producing enough agricultural products without the aid of mineral fertilisers. Here's an examination of why this is a daunting task.

One of the primary reasons for the widespread use of mineral fertilisers is the rapid depletion of soil nutrients due to intensive farming practices. Continuously cropping the same land without allowing time for natural regeneration strips the soil of essential nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, which are crucial for plant growth. Without replenishing these nutrients through fertilisation, soil becomes less fertile over time, significantly reducing yields.

The global population is expected to reach nearly 10 billion by 2050, significantly increasing the demand for food. With limited arable land available, the pressure to maximise yields from every acre is immense. Mineral fertilisers have been instrumental in boosting crop productivity to meet this demand. Without them, current agricultural land would struggle to produce the necessary quantities of food, potentially leading to food shortages and higher prices.

While organic farming and other sustainable practices offer numerous environmental benefits, scaling these methods to meet global food demand poses significant challenges. Organic methods typically require more land to produce the same amount of food as conventional farming due to lower yields. Moreover, transitioning to organic farming on a global scale would require a substantial increase in organic matter inputs, such as compost and green manure, which may not be available in sufficient quantities.

Climate change exacerbates the challenge of growing enough food without mineral fertilisers. Increasingly unpredictable weather patterns, including droughts and floods, can degrade soil quality and reduce crop yields. Mineral fertilisers can help plants better withstand these stresses by enhancing their growth and resilience. Without them, crops may be more vulnerable to climate change impacts, potentially leading to lower productivity.

Implementing sustainable agricultural practices on a large scale requires significant technological innovation and financial investment. Smallholder farmers, who produce a significant portion of the world's food, often lack access to the resources needed to transition away from mineral fertilisers. The upfront costs and learning curve associated with adopting new methods can be prohibitive, limiting the feasibility of moving away from mineral fertilizers in many parts of the world.

While the aspiration to reduce dependence on mineral fertilisers is commendable, the reality is that they currently play a critical role in global food security. To produce enough agricultural products to feed the world without them, we would need significant advancements in sustainable farming practices, technological innovation, and global cooperation. Until such solutions are developed and widely implemented, mineral fertilisers remain an essential tool in meeting the world's food needs.

[coochiequeens]

Speaking to Sky News, he (Iain Anderson) said "We need to lower the temperature on all sides of this wherever you sit on this." That is classic abuser deflection. To not fully admit to any problems on their end but to try to make it a "we" problem.

The new boss of controversial charity Stonewall has failed to condemn the abuse aimed at the Harry Potter author in a Sky News interview dubbed a 'masterclass in obfuscation'.

Stonewall's new boss has failed to turn over a new leaf in a "car crash" interview where he was confronted with the abuse from trans activists aimed at JK Rowling.

Iain Anderson has recently been announced as the new Chair of Trustees for the charity at the heart of the gender controversy. Stonewall, once regarded as the front line for gay right causes has become embroiled in the bitter divide over transgender rights and women's rights.

Speaking to Sky News, he was confronted with the vitriol and ongoing abuse hurled at prominent gender critic and women's rights advocate Rowling and others who have lost jobs because of their views. Criticised for not taking the chance to condemn the abuse, he called on those on either side of heated debate to “lower the temperature”.

Many slammed his appearance, calling him out for failing to directly answer questions on trans women's inclusion in sports but he hinted at a shift from previous hardline stances that saw the charity heavily lambasted when he claimed he supports exemptions that can be used to exclude transgender people from women's prisons and toilets. He did, however, not go into detail.

He said: "We need to lower the temperature on all sides of this wherever you sit on this.

"We need a strategy for [discussing trans rights] as opposed to megaphone diplomacy. That's what I really hope for, that's what I hope we can do in the months ahead and maybe through the election period ahead.

"I want us all to have a respectful conversation but the thing for me is I want my community to be able to fulfil the opportunities that are available to it. That's the thing that guides me in all of this."

Journalist Victoria Smith did not take kindly to his statement. She said: "Like an abusive husband telling the world he's decided to be magnanimous towards his 'troubled, difficult' wife in the hope they can 'work things out'"

Columnist Janice Turner: "This @BethRigby interview with @iain_w_anderson is a car crash. He simply will not answer a single question. A masterclass in obfuscation."

James Esses, a child rights campaigner said: "It is beyond parody that Stonewall Chair has told people to 'lower the temperature' on the trans debate. Stonewall have been stoking the flames of this fire for years now and are responsible for pushing an ideology that endangers children and women."

On the topic of banning biological males from female single-sex spaces, Mr Anderson said:"There are protections that are in place. Those protections were put in place for a very, very good reason.

"I do support these protections, absolutely. The question is, do we need to look at the legislation that's currently in place? Does it work? I think it does work."

This is a shift in Stonewall's previous stance on the issue. In 2015, the charity wrote to parliament's women and equalities select committee seeking a review of the Equality Act 2010 to "remove exemptions, such as access to single-sex spaces".

[draculasstrawhat]

Okay, so just to add a bit of context here, while this is broadly correct (though I would questions some of the further reaching comments, re: timelines, and just how much misogyny there really was in the Medieval Period - because there was still an awful lot, it just didn’t look how we expect it to) - Susannah has hit on one of the key tensions of medieval society in regards to gender, which was the extent to which saintly women were to be ADMIRED rather than EMULATED. Because saintliness, chastity, “vigour” were *absolutely* paths out of both the gender and class-based oppression women experienced - but they were not straightforwardly approved. How much they were/weren’t, how this actually played out for the lived experience of ordinary women of whatever class… is likely a matter of ongoing academic debate. It certainly was in 2009-10 when I did my MA in pretty much this. (My specialism is English society, with an overlap of broadly Northern European - but… although not identical, there were broader similarities.)

This is because of the ongoing tension between the ideals of monastic Christianity and the essential requirements of both the political and financial society - in that the economy and the political establishment depended ENORMOUSLY on the labour of women - reproductive, financial, administrative, etc. Being a wife was a JOB - and one of the most essential ones, in whatever class a woman found herself. One of the reasons widows often took over their late husband’s business was because they were intimately acquainted with it , and would have been involved with it from the get-go.

Being a nun could be a job, and they did a lot of significant work - especially nuns of higher class - but being a mystic, or a virgin would-be-saint essentially removed oneself from the labour pool. Your father could not marry you off to secure a political treaty, and promote his interests in your new home if you’d taken a vow of virginity. You couldn’t help your husband run his brewery if you were off having visions, or walking to Jerusalem barefoot. However much celibacy was seen as a spiritual ideal, society could not function if everyone took that path. Therefore the question of whether that vocation was genuine, or the most appropriate embodiment of virtue was often raised.

The lives of would-be virgin saints often embodied this conflict, The Book of Margery Kempe being a prime example of someone deeply embedded in society attempting to remove herself from it in this way. The trial of Joan of Arc, and the Life of Christina of Markyate (have I spelled that right?) also deal with this in great depth.

Because Christian virtue was also located in obedience (to one’s parents, to one’s husband, to one’s Priest) and the Church was a huge part of the political framework of the era - and did not want to disrupt things too much. What’s more, chastity then did not mean “no sex” in the way it does today, it meant “no unlawful sex”. Which is to say, a married couple who had procreative sex at a time when that was permitted would be behaving chastely. This was seen as an analogous good to what would now call chastity, and vitally important to prevent “unlawful” sex - which is to say adultery, fornication, etc. Which is to say, if your vow of Sexual Abstinence threatened someone else’s chastity (ie, if you swore off sex but your husband didn’t), your vow could not be virtuous, because it might lead that other person in to sin. This is all tied up with something called the Debt of Marriage, which is another one of those things academics like to argue about - but in its simplest form is that you owe it to your spouse to fulfil their carnal urges (in a lawful fashion) because otherwise they might go and try and fulfil them elsewhere.

All of which is to say that spiritual virginity or abstinence were considered virtues - but that they were also often treated with a degree of scepticism and challenge because they constituted a significant threat to the social order and the smooth running of society.

As to Elizabeth I of England’s propaganda and utilisation of certain tropes of femininity, and the political conditions surrounding the Virgin Queen, that’s another Looooong post - because that’s also quite complicated - and I’ve babbled enough here.

all RIGHT:

Why You're Writing Medieval (and Medieval-Coded) Women Wrong: A RANT

(Or, For the Love of God, People, Stop Pretending Victorian Style Gender Roles Applied to All of History)

This is a problem I see alllll over the place - I'll be reading a medieval-coded book and the women will be told they aren't allowed to fight or learn or work, that they are only supposed to get married, keep house and have babies, &c &c.

If I point this out ppl will be like "yes but there was misogyny back then! women were treated terribly!" and OK. Stop right there.

By & large, what we as a culture think of as misogyny & patriarchy is the expression prevalent in Victorian times - not medieval. (And NO, this is not me blaming Victorians for their theme park version of "medieval history". This is me blaming 21st century people for being ignorant & refusing to do their homework).

Yes, there was misogyny in medieval times, but 1) in many ways it was actually markedly less severe than Victorian misogyny, tyvm - and 2) it was of a quite different type. (Disclaimer: I am speaking specifically of Frankish, Western European medieval women rather than those in other parts of the world. This applies to a lesser extent in Byzantium and I am still learning about women in the medieval Islamic world.)

So, here are the 2 vital things to remember about women when writing medieval or medieval-coded societies

FIRST. Where in Victorian times the primary axes of prejudice were gender and race - so that a male labourer had more rights than a female of the higher classes, and a middle class white man would be treated with more respect than an African or Indian dignitary - In medieval times, the primary axis of prejudice was, overwhelmingly, class. Thus, Frankish crusader knights arguably felt more solidarity with their Muslim opponents of knightly status, than they did their own peasants. Faith and age were also medieval axes of prejudice - children and young people were exploited ruthlessly, sent into war or marriage at 15 (boys) or 12 (girls). Gender was less important.

What this meant was that a medieval woman could expect - indeed demand - to be treated more or less the same way the men of her class were. Where no ancient legal obstacle existed, such as Salic law, a king's daughter could and did expect to rule, even after marriage.

Women of the knightly class could & did arm & fight - something that required a MASSIVE outlay of money, which was obviously at their discretion & disposal. See: Sichelgaita, Isabel de Conches, the unnamed women fighting in armour as knights during the Third Crusade, as recorded by Muslim chroniclers.

Tolkien's Eowyn is a great example of this medieval attitude to class trumping race: complaining that she's being told not to fight, she stresses her class: "I am of the house of Eorl & not a serving woman". She claims her rights, not as a woman, but as a member of the warrior class and the ruling family. Similarly in Renaissance Venice a doge protested the practice which saw 80% of noble women locked into convents for life: if these had been men they would have been "born to command & govern the world". Their class ought to have exempted them from discrimination on the basis of sex.

So, tip #1 for writing medieval women: remember that their class always outweighed their gender. They might be subordinate to the men within their own class, but not to those below.

SECOND. Whereas Victorians saw women's highest calling as marriage & children - the "angel in the house" ennobling & improving their men on a spiritual but rarely practical level - Medievals by contrast prized virginity/celibacy above marriage, seeing it as a way for women to transcend their sex. Often as nuns, saints, mystics; sometimes as warriors, queens, & ladies; always as businesswomen & merchants, women could & did forge their own paths in life

When Elizabeth I claimed to have "the heart & stomach of a king" & adopted the persona of the virgin queen, this was the norm she appealed to. Women could do things; they just had to prove they were Not Like Other Girls. By Elizabeth's time things were already changing: it was the Reformation that switched the ideal to marriage, & the Enlightenment that divorced femininity from reason, aggression & public life.

For more on this topic, read Katherine Hager's article "Endowed With Manly Courage: Medieval Perceptions of Women in Combat" on women who transcended gender to occupy a liminal space as warrior/virgin/saint.

So, tip #2: remember that for medieval women, wife and mother wasn't the ideal, virgin saint was the ideal. By proving yourself "not like other girls" you could gain significant autonomy & freedom.

Finally a bonus tip: if writing about medieval women, be sure to read writing on women's issues from the time so as to understand the terms in which these women spoke about & defended their ambitions. Start with Christine de Pisan.

I learned all this doing the reading for WATCHERS OF OUTREMER, my series of historical fantasy novels set in the medieval crusader states, which were dominated by strong medieval women! Book 5, THE HOUSE OF MOURNING (forthcoming 2023) will focus, to a greater extent than any other novel I've ever yet read or written, on the experience of women during the crusades - as warriors, captives, and political leaders. I can't wait to share it with you all!