#past!earl

[earlgraytay]

So, you've probably all seen this post going around, about how The Chuds Want Gentleman's Clubs (but can't afford to go to the things called "gentlemen's clubs" today, so wouldn't have been able to in the past either). And I hate to say it, but that post isn't accurate.

The things we call "gentlemen's clubs" today and the things that were called "gentleman's clubs" in the past are not the same thing; the one is descended from the other, but they used to be a lot more common and served a purpose that they don't really serve anymore.

The modern equivalent of the historical gentleman's club isn't the thing currently called a gentleman's club; it's the premium airport lounge. And by losing the concept for all but the turbo-rich, I think we genuinely have lost something! Let me explain.

(NOTA BENE: This is mostly about England and from about 1880-1930, and most of my experience with this is from fiction written in that era. I know enough to know what I don't know, but I also know menswear guy is wrong about this.)

So- gentlemen's clubs started in *wiggles hands* the late 1700s, and mostly served a particular purpose: they were places you could stay in a city if you mostly lived in the country, instead of staying in lodgings or owning your own place. Finding a place to stay in London was kind of a misery at the best of times, and owning your own house in Town wasn't practical for a lot of people, even rich people. If you were, say, a young man, just starting out in life, and you hadn't inherited your father's wealth but also weren't set up to live on your own? Having a place you were guaranteed to be able to stay was a fucking godsend. And as time went on, even people who lived in London most of the time started joining clubs, because they served another important purpose- they were a place you could go if you didn't particularly want to be at home, for whatever reason.

The way that historical gentlemen's clubs worked is, you got recommended to the club by a friend who was a member, you paid dues to the club, and in exchange, you'd get to use the club's facilities. * Most gentlemen's clubs had, at minimum, a dining room (with waitstaff, natch), a library, a couple of nice places to sit and hang out, a game room, and a bar. Many of them also had rooms you could sleep in overnight, fitness equipment, or stuff related to the club members' interests. Most of them had a room or two where you could invite friends who weren't part of your club and spend time with them. In the era where phones were a thing, a lot of them had a phone. You could write letters there and get your mail sent there.

Here's the thing: in the period I know best, gentlemen's clubs weren't just for the turbo-rich. They were the province of rich guys, yes- you had to be a 'gentleman' and know the right people to get in. But men who were doctor/lawyer/software-developer rich were most likely members of a gentlemen's club. Anyone who was rich enough to travel regularly was part of at least one club, because having somewhere to crash when you were going between (say) London and Delhi and back again was worth the cost.

Most gentlemen's clubs were owned by their members- not an outside corporate body. The club leaders were elected, usually by a small committee.

And a lot of gentlemen's clubs founded around specific interests, as time went on. There were gentlemen's clubs specifically for Guys Who Were Really Into Radio. There were clubs specifically for men who spent a lot of time traveling. There were clubs specifically for dudes who wanted to talk your ear off and clubs for old dudes who mostly wanted to nod off in their chairs and talk about The War and clubs for dudes who did not want to be percieved at all.

There were clubs for men who were really into science, or the arts, or sports. And one perk of being in a club like this is that you had access to equipment that you might not have been able to buy on your own. You didn't have to shell out for an entire library of scientific and medical books; you could go to your club and read in the library there. If your club had, say, an art studio, you could go paint at your club and not have to keep a studio space of your own.

There were gentlemen's clubs specifically oriented around specific political or social views. There were socialist clubs. (And a lot of them admitted women, which was !!!SCANDALOUS!!!) Like, they were still the province of goddamn rich people, there were a lot of trust fund baby socialists and not many working people, but there were socialist social clubs.

...I don't want to pretend that gentlemen's clubs were some kind of idyllic haven. 99% of these clubs were For Men, and For The Right Sort Of Men at that; if you didn't have a friend who was a member, or you weren't "respectable" enough, you didn't get to join. There's a reason that most of these clubs are gone now. Part of the point was excluding the Wrong Sort of People, and that became gauche over time. After a certain point, being part of a club became a thing for stodgy, out-of-touch rich men- not just "men who happened to have enough money to be part of a club"- and so most of the men who could join one didn't, and people stopped forming new ones. Only Old Money assholes (who will continue to do what they've always done, current trends be damned) keep the concept alive.

But like... the thing that replaced gentlemen's clubs for 99% of the people who would have had one a hundred years ago... is the premium airport lounge, and the premium gym membership, and the ~coworking hub~.** Anyone can join, yeah, as long as they're able to pay. You pay a corporation a chunk of money for similar amenities, and the amenities are ... fine? But because the entity is driven by profit, most of the money you're paying them goes into running their other business concerns and paying their CEOs a fat paycheck.

I think... as exclusionary as gentlemen's clubs were back in the day, there's the seed of a good idea there. I think the guys who wish they were still an attainable thing for a middle-class person have a point, and I wish we could inject some fucking nuance into this conversation.

A community-owned space that gives you a place to crash when you need one, has community-owned resources for its members, and isn't beholden to a corporation is a good thing. Third spaces that don't have to turn a profit are a damn good thing.

At the end of the day, my politics are 'everyone should get to have the kind of luxuries that were historically reserved for the rich'. Everyone should get to have the best life has to offer- leisure, beauty, good craftsmanship, and community. And so, you know, if this kind of community space sounds like a thing you'd like to have, maybe it's something you could work towards creating, too.

*TBF, this is still how they work today! But the networks are much smaller.

**I do find it very funny that apparently one of the biggest problems facing the few remaining Actual Gentlemen's Clubs (TM) is that people are trying to use their space to telework-- a lot of them are trying to ban laptops and business talk to "keep the club's character" (read: "we're too rich to have to work here").

[redbootsindoriath]

A cast of characters I put together for fun over the course of like a week. The setting is supposed to be some kind of generic medieval fantasy. I tried to be as historical as I could with the clothes and armor, but didn't hold myself to a strict time period or location and instead went with a vague "European middle ages".

While I personally am fond of the whole grimdark fantasy thing, I love how colorful the real middle ages could be and I wanted to be sure I was sticking to that as closely as I could manage.

[rolfe-dewolfe-fan-page]

Thought this fit

[sunshine-and-her-ikevil-stuff]

Toxic yaoi

Toxic. Yaoi

[chaoticace2005]

D Gray Man family trees are so fun to think about

So... with Allen there's Cross who was his master and Mana who adopted him, but then we have the additional complexity from the last chapter.

Allen is both Past!Allen but also a product of Past!Allen as well as possibly Past!Lavi (given the same hair color) due to Apocryphos’ fuckery.

In the case that this is true, and Allen is partly a product of Past!Lavi, then there would be the Bookman to consider. Bookman likely raised Past!Lavi, which would sort of make him Allen’s grandpa. And with current Lavi… Bookman also raised him which could arguably make him Past!Lavi’s younger brother and Allen’s uncle, or if he’s a product of Past!Lavi make him his pseudo-brother, or if he IS Past!Lavi make him his pseudo-father?

So basically Lavi could arguably be Allen’s pseudo-brother, uncle, or father. So, that’s fun.

Then we get to the Noah side, which is somehow more complicated.

Mana is the Earl, so the Earl is also Allen’s father. But Mana is also a product of the previous Earl (Adam), making the Earl Allen’s grandpa. Nea is Mana’s brother, so Allen’s uncle, and their sharing a body.

We have no idea what’s up with Tyki, if it’s a coincidence he looks like Nea or if he’s a clone or what. But he also was with the Earl for a while (in some translations 10+ years) so the Earl could have helped raise him, making Allen his adoptive brother. But if Tyki somehow a product of Nea that would make Allen his cousin.

And genetically if Tyki is a clone of Nea, the identical twin of Mana, that would also mean he’s genetically similar to Mana, Allen’s adoptive father. Who seems to be genetically similar to Adam, the first Earl.

So Tyki is either Allen’s brother or cousin. In the case that he’s Allen’s cousin, that would make Sheryl and his kids also cousins. But if he’s Allen’s brother… that means Sheryl is sort of also his brother, and Road and Wisely are his niece/nephews and…

Sorry Allen, family dinners are gonna be a shitshow.

In summary-

Past!Allen- Allen, Allen's "producer"

Past!Lavi- Aid in producing Allen (assumption 1)

Bookman- Allen's "grandpa" (1, assumes Past!Lavi was raised by Bookman)

Lavi- Allen's brother (1, assuming he is also a product of Past!Lavi), Allen's uncle (1, he is NOT a product of past!Lavi but was raised by Bookman), Allen's "father" (1, he is an alternate form of Past!Lavi, in which case he may also still be Allen's "brother")

Cross- Master

Apocryphos- Creepy fuck who did stuff

Mana/Earl- Allen's adoptive father

Adam/Earl- Allen's adoptive grandpa

Nea- Allen's uncle and also possessing him

Tyki- Allen's cousin (if he's a product of Nea), brother (assumption 2: if raised by the Earl/Mana), may be a clone of his uncle (who is identical to Allen's adoptive father and grandfather?)

Cheryl- Allen's quasi-brother (2, if Tyki was raised by the Earl), cousin (if Tyki a product of Nea), uncle?

Road and Wisely- Allen's quasi-niece/nephews (2), Allen's cousins

[aubadeatelier]

This year 2024, a bunch of people in the DGM fandom gathered for a secret santa event-- or a Secret Lero Gift event rather! I made one for cylinderhat/ms_anya. They're on Twitter! please show their amazing art some love!

I was given the prompt of Mana organizing a play and making everyone participate and this somehow turned into playing a little bit of dress up with the characters. (Yes, that is an interpretation of a 'younger' Cross in a dress. And yes, it was fun to design!)

Happy Holidays everyone and may the year ahead be promising and wonderful!

[lesbian-vampyre]

showbiz 45th anniversary yay (i drew all of these back to back im gonna pass out)

[earl-grey-crow]

"and wherever she goes, I go, even to hell" just a witch and her undead idiot

[millifaceagain]

I found the best NPC in all of Dragon Age the Veilguard. Juanita a fruit(?) merchant in Treviso. She has a best friend name Mariana. She has a very Antivan way of solving the problem of her husband the Earl.

I want to think that her best friend Mariana co-owns her road side stand where they sell Seleny ham and strawberry jam.

[mariocki]

Doctor X (1932)

"If you ask me, I think Dr. Xavier is using very unethical methods."

"Necessity has no ethics, sir."

[earlgraytay]

I really wish that people had a better grasp on what The Average Person's Life was like pre-industrialization. If you're living in the global North the odds are good that your life is, in fact, better than a medieval king- yes, even with the political stuff- and would make your ancestors cry wild tears of envy.

The things that suck about your life are things that suck about the baseline human condition (at least since the invention of agriculture, but that's 10,000 years of humanity). Yes, including all the political stuff.

The baseline human condition is "being terrified of losing the harvest and starving", compared to that, losing a job is no big deal. (It's bad, it can be life-upendingly bad, but it's still not "you are guaranteed to die if you screw this up" bad for most people.)

The baseline human condition is "getting kicked around by a tin pot dictator", whether that be a king, a baron, a warlord, or a chief; it's taken centuries of social technology to get the world to a point where that's Not Normal.

The baseline human condition is "losing multiple siblings and/or children at a young age to diseases that are entirely preventable". That's a shocking tragedy now. The baseline human condition is "being in the pathway of said tinpot dictator's wars of conquest" and having to deal with soldiers' pillage, looting, and worse (even if they're nominally on your side). That is, again, a shocking tragedy-- it still happens, and happens in way too much of the world, but no one is going to tell you that it's normal.

I'm not saying that we can sit back and rest on our laurels. We can't. I've been calling the pre-industrial world the "baseline human condition" for a reason- unless you're very, very careful, that's what your society eventually reverts to. It takes a lot of people working very hard to make sure you don't have to live at the baseline human condition, and if you start slacking on that, you start backsliding into it.

How we treat each other- and how we use the technology, material and social, that we've developed to make things easier- matters. We can make the world even better than it is now. We can also make it significantly worse. The choice is ours.

...But if you know that you can reliably have food regardless of the season, you don't live in fear of a random attack killing you tomorrow, and you can listen to music on command whenever you want? You do actually live a better life than a medieval king. Because even kings and emperors were much closer to the baseline human condition than a random farm worker in Bumfuck, Iowa is today.

[maskedjoker]

I have a new theory set myself and one of my partners has come up with. Currently working on drafting and adding sources for it, but hopefully it will be up in a few days. I can't promise anything but if all goes well I may be more active in the coming weeks

[teehee-vibes]

Sometimes, I think I want Grizzly to put more gay men in Riptide.

Other times, I remember Dark Puckered Hole and reevaluate.

[thetonsource]

@thetonsource presents: a victorian holiday novella selection ❄️

“there’s this man. he’s had his eye on me for months, but i haven’t always treated him kindly.” her words faltered. “he gave me the truth for christmas. the first time—and the second time—and the third time he offered it, i couldn’t take it. how do i let him know…” her voice faltered. “how do i let him know that i want nobody but him?”

a kiss for midwinter by courtney milan

“i might not have the same body you became acquainted with, the same scars or history. i don’t have the hands that touched you. the mouth that tasted you, not exactly. but i have the soul that adored you from the first moment i laid eyes on you.”

the earl of christmas past by kerrigan byrne

“i’m not a man given to great expressions of emotion. it’s not how i was raised. it’s not how i’ve lived my life. but i do feel things deeply. i may not always show it, but i do.”

a holiday by gaslight by mimi matthews

[sunshine-and-her-ikevil-stuff]

This event is making me wonder who's more popular. Elbert or Alfons

Definitely not so I can get a higher ranking and maybe finally get a gacha ticket

[poupeesdecirque]

This year I was somehow blessed with plenty of christmas themed ideas and they all wanted to be drawn, all at once.

First my idea was just one for Allen because of his birthday. Then i thought something to honor my little fic 'Silent night' from last year and then ... Noah shenanigans while making a gingerbread hous.... tent.

The last one was the most fun of them all.