#pre-samwell

[xxlittle0birdxx]

Random Check Please head canon…

Jack saw Bitty in one of his last figure skating competitions while idly channel surfing one blustery January Saturday afternoon. Jack doesn’t normally watch figure skating, but short blonde guy with a flair for the dramatic caught his eye. He didn’t catch the skater’s name, but he was impressed with his speed on the ice. Jack didn’t watch the full routine, and changed the channel before he got a good look at the skater’s face.

It never occurred to him that it’s the short, blonde hockey player that showed up at Samwell his junior year.

Not until Shitty stumbled across a YouTube video and shared the link on the group chat.

[deckthehaus]

Thank you to everyone who participated in Deck the Haus 2023! Without further ado, here are our wonderful creators!

❄️❄️❄️❄️

advent by montrealmadison ( @montrealmadison )

Alone This Holiday by EarlGayTea711

call of the champions by nostalgicplant ( @ohyoufool )

Can You Crash a Party If You Have an Invite, How to Go Home with a Man, and Other Things in Kent Parson's Search History by hwaelweg ( @thoughtsofthegirlwiththecurl )

Cardinal by iknowwhyulikeoscarwilde

(Do It on My) Twin Bed by hwaelweg ( @thoughtsofthegirlwiththecurl )

Early Memories by Lutzgocelly ( @lutzgocelly )

Holiday Spirits by bonepicker ( @siocliath )

I’ll Be Home For Christmas by RabbitRunnah ( @doggernaut )

“It’s Just a Little Snow…” by coluanprime ( @abeansblog )

It Started at the Office by JustLookFrightenedAndScuttle ( @justlookfrightened )

Merry and Bright by iknowwhyulikeoscarwilde

Pre-Christmas Epiphany by JustLookFrightenedAndScuttle ( @justlookfrightened )

Safe Places by EarlGayTea711

so, kiss me by cricketnationrise ( @cricketnationrise )

[podfic] The Pond, Jan. 25 by misswhimsy ( @missanniewhimsy )

The darkest evening of the year by Lutzgocelly ( @lutzgocelly )

The Gift That Keeps on Giving by bonepicker ( @siocliath )

The Mating Rituals of Samwell Men’s Hockey by iknowwhyulikeoscarwilde

Ugly Christmas Sweater by impulsewriter ( @transwicky )

We’ll tell our stories on these walls by Lutzgocelly ( @lutzgocelly )

❄️❄️❄️❄️

Please let us know if there are any mistakes on the tumblr handles so we can update the post! Happy New Year!

[justlookfrightened]

It's that time of year. Looking for Christmas fic? I’ve written a couple, and several more where Christmas is part of the story. 

Thank you to @doggernaut for the tag!

Christmas fics:

If you’re looking for a remix of a classic Christmas movie

It’s Wonderful Ice (pre-Zimbits; T; 23,786 words)

The hockey Haus, and indeed, all of Samwell Men’s Hockey, is threatened by a combination of carelessness and nefarious machinations. But maybe Jack could save them by sacrificing himself. A strange trip with a metaphysical goalie shows him the error of his ways. Also has an accompanying Spotify fanmix.

If you want to hear Jack and Bitty work things out like adults

Toyota Shopping (Zimbits; G; 5,577 wds)Someone posts a photo of Jack and Bitty at a car dealership; Bitty tries to explain why it’s a bad idea for Jack to buy him a car for Christmas

Fics in which Christmas makes an appearance:

Zimbits bingo card (Zimbits, G, 5,695 wds)

Meet-cute, starts in summer, ends at Christmas

Neighbors, Part 3: Holidays (Zimbits; T; 36,337 wds)

Third part of AU series in which Jack and Bitty meet as neighbors in Providence. This part follows their established relationship through a year of holidays.

Find the whole series here.

Three visits (Zimbits; E; 27,664 wds)

Part of the Summer and Fall 2015 series, which runs from Jack’s graduation through the next spring. This fic centers on a series of visits in December and January. Christmas is the first chapter.

Find the whole series here.

In which Christmas tourtière makes an appearance:

Baker Man, Part 1-Jack (Zimbits; T; 2,908)

Baker Man Part II-Eric (Zimbits; T; 3619)

These pieces explore a series of time-travel events from Jack and Bitty’s points of view; note that the events are in opposite order, because that’s the way Jack and Bitty experience them.

I'm way late to the party, so consider yourself tagged if you haven't been yet!

[horizon-verizon]

https://x.com/rhaenicentwin/status/1791621994053603489

They are always Rhaenicent fans…

Well, we are all entitled to have opinions even if I will never understand some or see how some are clearly just motivated by racism, sexism, etc.

And there's something to be said about how some of these characters on the black side are boring because the writers have removed some scenes we find out about a whole ass year after the first season. Plus, they simply didn't develop them or explore the children of the first set of characters enough in the first season: Baela and Rhaena, esp the latter, had almost no lines.

It's still a bit crazy when they try to argue the moral character or just plain "coolness" for "interestingness" of the greens when the "interestingness" of the green character(s) they like are really about either how physically attractive they find them or from the show's deliberate giving black traits to greens to "balance" the sides out in their misunderstanding or just noncaring about why the greens and the blacks are characterized the way they are towards this tale about misogyny and how it frames "deserving".

There's Jace, who the writers thought it'd make sense to have him not understand High Valyrian in all the time he's lived with High Valyrian-speaking people since birth (Rhaenyra, Laenor [esp with Rhaenys as his mother, and Daemon) who would all have been very proud of their heritage.

Then there is the fact they chose to emphasize how Aemond was the one to devote himself to "philosophies" and try to be the ideal "prince" or educate himself in being a proper leader...

when that has canonically more been Jace, who had the more reason to really apply himself because of the pressure of people's doubting his parentage and the belief of bastards not deserving/capable of inheriting certain types of leadership.

Aemond might have been a second son, but he was still legitimate and the son of a woman who is in her "proper" place as the consort to the King instead of a woman who is the first heir/woman also thought to be undeserving of the position. And not primarily because she's suspected of having had extramarital relationships but because she is female. The extramarital relationships and having children not her husbands are really just additional excuses made against her, to argue that she is not "responsible" and doesn't act like a "good" woman to be the next ruler of their society. Aemond doesn't have all of this to contend with, just his family's jealousy and desire to reinforce patriarchal authority.

Aemond canonically believes that it is his & his brothers' birthright, the throne. He was described/proven as "fierce" and very impulsive--more than Daemon--not just because he was much younger and eager to prove his martial and masculine prowess but also because his side of the family is so much less free & unconditional with their love in lieu of their more obsessed compulsion to "take back" what they thought should have been theirs by virtue of their male children's very existences. Further proven by how manically both he and Aegon insulted Rhaenyra or were fixated by going head to head against Daemon in the book.

In Westeros, there is actually a bit of a stigma of noblemen being "too" scholarly and not focusing more on being skilled at martial practices, especially swordsmanship. Because, again, that's how men get their glory and obtain more resources aside from inheritance or gifts. Look to how Pre-warrior Rhaegar the musician and Samwell Tarly are described by the people and historical writers and you will understand.

Therefore, I tend to think canon!Aemond would be less inclined to actually study "philosophies", and even if he did, he'd likely just read those that don't expand his world view but those that reaffirm his idea of his birthright & copy those medievalesque authors who aren't the sort of philosophers that try to challenge status quo like some people ight have assumed?

Would Aemond care to really ponder and reflect over men like Benedict rivers, who lived as a bastard of a Bracken and a Blackwood but became a king anyway to begin a long line of Justman kings? Or would that be Jace?

Jace, of the two, would have an equanimity and knowledge that Aemond just wouldn't have. And that also makes me dislike how much they didn not really show Jace having to battle between his frustrations, fears, and how he regulates his emotions and how ehe might slip up to contextualize his relationship with his family, esp with Luke. who we see him seemingly mistreat or at least unfailry take his anger out on with no apology. And "seemingly" because again, we are not given any other scenes of his development and interactions with his family. That and his fighting w/Aemond in episode 8 give more leeway to the impression that Jace is not as leader-quality as he should b, esp in comparison to Aemond (for some people, I still thought Aemond wasn't either, but the points that it leaves more room for that impression).

But many people want to just watch the show and not really engage with the themes of ASoIaF or think about stuff too "deeply". Or they already see some stupid shit in the writing and want to stay "positive" about it and enjoy the show, so If they express such I tend to leave them to it because I don't want to ruin their fun. As long as they don't say actually prejudiced stuff, and I don't just mean racist, sexist, etc. stuff. i mean where people severely try to make one feel guilty for actually understanding the story GRRM set out to make with the Dance. Like Daemon's fatherhood and the constant "he was a groomer" to try and somehow negate the effect of his presence in the black children's later post-Dance actions (Maiden's Ball). Some people either never read the book and/or do not plan on it. Or they have and they either quickly took Gyldayn's/Mushroom/Septon Eustace/Munkun/Orwyle's interpretations of mysterious/non-mysterious events to be unbiased fact. OR they read it and don't really compare the blacks to the greens and how/why they might do the things that they do themselves because, admittedly, the text is built from biased interpretations and thus it feels often like a futile pursuit sometimes with some specific phenomena that the book covers. Finally, some don't look to the So Spake Martin website for research or GRRM's own blog to see how he talks about his characters in F&B's Dance portion.

Therefore, it's not just Rhaenicent fans but some from Aegon stan circles and team black. People want to just watch the show 🤷🏻‍♂️.

[forabeatofadrum]

Do you have zimbits fic recs? I’ve never really gotten into Check Please fic, but I just got Madison in the mail and now I wanna read more zimbits but don’t know where to start!

YOU GOT MADISON?????? ASAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHH!!! My order hasn't been shipped yet so no spoilers, but you ask and you shall receive. It got long, so I am putting it under a cut in no particular order. ALSO the new Tumblr post maker is absolutely fucking terrible and it took so long to format this because of it. The whole idea of creating "blocks" in posts is stupid and it doesn't function well ANYWAY FIC TIME.

Set Your Old Heart Free by IBoatedHere

Jack doesn’t find Bitty after graduation. They don’t kiss. Jack doesn't go to Madison for the 4th. They still fall in love.

It's a simple premise, but so well executed. I uhhh always cry at the end and I love to read Jack's thoughts.

when it’s over (you’re the start) by @whoacanada

Jack goes to sleep in Providence next to his boyfriend and wakes up in Montréal to discover he's been in a coma since 2009. Refusing to believe Samwell, Bitty, and the Falconers were all a dream, Jack tracks down the real Shitty, Lardo, Ransom, and Holster to find they’ve shared the same group hallucination for years. Now, they’re on a mission to find Bitty, the love of Jack’s non-existent life, and the only member of SMH they can’t seem to get in contact with.

What it says on the tin. It is a "what if" story and it is great.

i'll see you with your laughter lines by the_one_that_fell

Eric Bittle was fourteen when his soulmate died.

They'd never even gotten to meet.

This is a great story, but heed the warnings. It's an interesting spin on the soulmate trope, because yeah, you can argue that Jack died when he overdosed, even if it was just for a small moment.

like a handprint on my heart by the_one_that_fell

"Dude, we've got an over-competitive golf dad, a badass art freak, a pre-med lax bro on the verge of a breakdown, a chronically naked rugby player, a beat-boxing giant, and an itty-bitty, baking figure skater - there's no way we came together accidentally. This was fate."

"Or it's the normal progression of human beings making friends. Chill out, bro."

(Or, the one where no one plays hockey, but it still manages to bring them all together.)

I have so much to say about this story. SO MUCH. It once gave me a breakdown when I was feeling super lonely, cause the fic is about friendship. Zimbits is just a part of it, though. Everyone gets a moment to shine and it's so good.

don't you look charming (here in the eye of a hurricane) by @whoacanada

In 2009, Jack Zimmermann doesn't just walk away from his future, he packs a bag and runs.

ANGST ANGST ANGST!! This fic captivated me so much. I don't know what else to say!!!

My Words on Your Skin by There_Once_Was_A_Girl

Jack and Bitty have a unique soul connection, they can write back and forth to each other by writing on their own skin. They know each other long before they've ever met. But when Jack overdoses Bitty thinks he's lost the love of his life forever.

Just like the other soulmate AU fic above, this takes the soulmate idea and runs with it. What do you do when you believe the other is dead?

you’ve got my number by ambrosius

It’s not as if Jack was totally inept when it came to technology. He could handle his Tweeter (Tweety? Twits? Twitter? Did it really matter?) just fine and if he’s honest, he much preferred texting to calling most days. So when he gets added to a group chat full of strangers, well, he’s pretty sure he can handle whatever comes next.

This one is so good. I am a bitch for epistolary stuff and I am glad it exists.

Graduation Dayby IBoatedHere

It takes Jack 50 days to finally see what's been right in front of him for the past two years.

Groundhog Day AU, but make it Zimbits. Jack doesn't kiss Bitty when he graduates, and that's fine, right? Well, looks like the universe disagrees. Also this fic has a real good platonic Jackshit moment.

Will Wonders Never Cease by @porcupine-girl

Eric has landed his dream job: social media manager for the Providence Falconers! Not only does he get paid to tweet, for an NHL team at that, but it’s a job where he’ll be able to make good use of his magic - when nobody’s looking, of course. Everyone on the Falconers is a joy to work with… with the notable exception of Jack Zimmermann. Eric understands that Jack doesn’t like social media, but he could certainly be a little more polite about it.

Luckily, Eric has support from his Samwell buddies, as well as his best friend - a man whose face he’s never seen, and whose name he doesn’t know. They met on an online forum where witches can gather anonymously, since it isn’t safe for them to advertise their existence in a world where magic isn’t trusted. They’ve been friends for years now, but Eric is only just starting to realize that he might have deeper feelings for someone he can never meet face-to-face.

THIS FIC!!! Jenna, I don't know if you read my fic Ebb & Flow, but I mentioned this fic in the author's note, because it was a huge inspiration. It's a secret identity magical She Loves Me AU. It sounds bonkers, but it is so goooood.

if you're going through hell (keep going) by @whoacanada

Eighteen years ago, Samwell suffered the tragic loss of one of their most promising young athletes. Ever since rumors have circulated that the school is haunted by the ghost of Eric Bittle. At least, that’s the only way anyone can seem to explain why the locker rooms smell like freshly baked apple pie on game days instead of the usual, omnipresent hockey funk.

Now in the twilight of his career, Jack Zimmermann is facing his own mortality and the last item on his bucket list?

Return to Samwell and disprove the rumor that his long-dead boyfriend is haunting Faber Memorial Rink.

MAIN CHARACTER DEATH!!! WARNING!!! And not like the previous soulmate AUs where the one thinks the other is dead. Bitty dies and Jack moved on, but he has to face the past, because people claim Bitty's ghost is real. Jack decides to find out himself.

Inertia by @foryouandbits

At the age of seven, Eric Bittle is tackled so hard in peewee football, it feels as though he's been knocked into another dimension. At the encouragement of his father, he avoids contact sports until he receives a scholarship to play hockey at Samwell University. The result is the same: every check on the ice hurts so much that Eric hallucinates another world. Eric spends the rest of his freshman year attempting to prove himself to his captain and his coaches. He questions his worth, his talent, and his sanity, and in his search for answers, he uncovers long-hidden secrets that change everything he has ever known.

I loved this one. It is an interesting take on dimension travel and Coach in this story is so great as well. I highly recommend it.

Ice Crew Please! by @petals42

Jack Zimmermann was drafted first by the Providence Falconers when he was eighteen years old. He is good at hockey. Very good. His team won the Cup his second year and now, in his third year, they are looking good. Jack should be on top of the world. And some days, he manages to convince himself he is.

He’s not, of course.

Enter the Ice Crew.

AKA: The Ice Crew AU

This sorta!fic is a fic about friendship thawing Jack Zimmermann's heart. Jack realises he's kind of a dick towards the ice crew of the Falcs and so he gets to know them, including Bitty. It's a good fucking friendship fic.

All shall know the wonder by me, lol

When Bitty decides to skate on Sunday mornings, he didn’t expect to meet a nice, handsome man who cannot hear. The Sunday mornings lead to a deep friendship that slowly leads to more.

Yes, I am finishing this list with a shameless self-promotion. I have 28 fics on AO3, 27 of them being Zimbits (one Holsom) and this is my favourite. Yeehaw.

That's it for now. There's a lot more in my Check, Please! fic tag. Also, hi to the people I have @'ed. If y'all know the tumblr URLs of some writers mentioned on this post, lemme know so I can add them.

[agentrouka-blog]

so much of asoiaf is a conversation with other epic fantasies + fairy tales, i was wondering if you have any thoughts on the patterns for what kind of tropes grrm likes to clearly subvert and break vs which he likes to expand and elevate but still largely adhere to (like how he plays with beauty and the beast, the image of princesses in towers, and boy kings)

Hi anon!

I'm not enough of a scholar to do this ask proper justice. I lack the background in literary history to put the various literary influences (and historical and biblical and mythological...) into a relationship with each other. From his own interviews, GRRM has always been attracted to both dark drama and literary romanticism, acting out complex soap operas with his turtles and swooning over "radiant" Elizabeth Taylor in Ivanhoe as a young boy. He loves Shakespeare and superhero comic series. ASOIAF seems like an intuitive, self-indulgent playground for swirling it all into a tasty soup.

Generally speaking, GRRM seems attracted to the idea of interrogating what makes tropes or scenarios tick from the inside, and he sometimes allows them to disintegrate in order to show what doesn't work. Where a trope is a mere clichè. It's the same way he tries showcasing why certain behaviors are productive and creative while others are destructive and ultimately futile. It's not so much the specific tropes as the way he uses them.

What does it mean to command supernatural powers, practically and philosophically? Dragons? Warging? What's the personal motivation of the unfathomable apocalypse moving toward humanity? Where is the line at which conflict veers over into plain abuse in popular romantic tropes? What specifically marks the inherent difference between a hero and a villain ("the hero of the other side")? Can we tell if that difference blurs and disappears? What does it take for genre conditioning to give way to objective information?

GRRM lets the Beauty and the Beast trope disintegrate with Sansa and Sandor because mere familiar imagery doesn't bridge the fact that a grown adult is terrorizing, sexually harrassing and assaulting a pre-teen. There is no romance there, though some are blinded by the shape of the box to what's actually inside it.

GRRM uses the imagery to explore a dynamic between idealism in the face of oppression vs. a self-serving cynicism born from disillusionment. Instead of romance, it becomes a confrontaton of values, which Beauty wins. Sansa stays true to herself while the cynical Beast ends up in an existential crisis about his life choices. The same is, ultimately, true of Jaime and Brienne. If there is a hidden prince underneath the mantle of a Beast(ling), his true identity is yet to be revealed. Ahem.

Princesses in Towers occupy a range from Sansa Stark over Lyanna Stark and Val and Arianne Martell and they are all different, with varying ambitions amd levels of personal power, and you're invited to conclude that maybe it's not the princess that's the problem but the fact that people keep putting her into towers at all.

Warrior maid with a sword - badass, or maybe the purest way to examine what it means to choose - truly choose - to wield a tool designed to kill other people? What is she doing to herself that boys are never even allowed to question - lest they be condemned as a waste of space like Samwell? What might justify this choice?

How many people can a character rape or murder before the reader questions their hero status if the author doesn't explicitly point it out? POV trap, do your magic.

Basically, GRRM puts a trope on a table and raises a scalpel to take it apart, and maybe he puts it back together again, depending on what he finds.

[cricketnationrise]

Congratulations!!!!! 🎉🎉🎉🌟🌟🌟✨✨✨ May I request 6:02 AM, the Haus, and the Waffles? Thank you!!! Your writing exudes such comfort and warmth, thank you for sharing!!! 💖💖🥧🥧

jioapfjncjd thank you! have a cozy waffle stack for your afternoon 💜🦗

read the rest of Ficlet Fest 3 on AO3 here

🏒🏒🏒🏒

the haus, 6:02am

There’s probably at least one activity that’s worse than a February, pre-sunrise endurance practice, but right now River’s brain is so frozen both from the cold and from tiredness that he can’t actually think of one.

They haven’t even left The Haus yet, still waiting on the seniors to make their way up/downstairs, but River’s already mentally written off the rest of his day. He can’t possibly focus on anything other than warm drinks and blankets after practice today. Thank fuck it’s the weekend – if he had classes after this, he might actually scream.

There’s a thump and then a muffled groan breaks the creaking quiet of the kitchen and, despite how little he’s looking forward to today, River can’t help the small smile that tugs at his lips. Hops and Louis, one on their own chairs staring forlornly into space, are now slumped together, their heads resting on a tangle of their arms. They’re a pile of Samwell red covered limbs and they’re cute as fuck. He takes a quick picture for Samwell_Sleepers, the submit-only Instagram that no one but Ford knows he runs. River watches them fondly for a moment before joining them, he and Louis bracketing Hops like parentheses.

The seniors are definitely going to make fun of them, calling them a pile of puppies or a waffle stack or something else silly, but River can’t bring himself to care very much – content to just be in this bubble of peace with his friends for as long as possible.

[kulturegroupie]

Discover Jimmy Page pt. 2

I'm gonna join a band: The Yardbirds days

from pageysartgallery

One week after quitting his lucrative career as a session musician, Jimmy found himself at the right place and time - backstage at an Oxford Yardbirds show, just as bassist Paul Samwell-Smith announced he was leaving the band. Jeff Beck asked him if he would temporarily join in to replace Samwell-Smith, and Page agreed, not knowing that Beck had something else in mind.

Jimmy would keep showing up at the studio for session work throughout his entire career, every now and then, when his other musical commitments made it possible.

But this was not the first time Jimmy was offered to play in the Yardbirds: in fact, the other band members were trying to secure him a place in the band as early as 1964.

“The very first time … [Yardbirds manager] Giorgio Gomelsky said that Eric was going to have a ‘holiday,’ and I could step in and replace him. The way he put it to me, it just seemed really distasteful and I refused - Eric had been a friend of mine and I couldn’t possibly be party to that.”

– Jimmy Page, Trouser Press interview, 1977

When Clapton left the group in 1965, The Yardbirds again turned to Page, who turned them down a second time, recommending his pal Beck instead. However, by the time the infamous 1966 gig in Oxford took place, things seemed to have changed quite a bit.

Page got his third offer to join The Yardbirds in 1966 following Samwell-Smith's department, and on the way home from the show Jimmy had attended, Beck asked him if he’d finally join and take his place until they could find another bassist. Page agreed, thinking he’d sit in until they found someone to play the instrument. However, Beck's plans were different:

“Jimmy wasn’t a bass player, but the only way I could get him involved was by insisting that it would be okay for him to take over on bass in order for the band to continue. Gradually — within a week, I think — we were talking about doing dueling guitar leads.”

– Jeff Beck, from ‘Light and Shade: Conversations with Jimmy Page’

“Beck had often said to me, ‘It would be really great if you could join the band.’ But I just didn't think it was a possibility in any way. In addition, since I'd turned the offer down a couple of times already, I didn't know how the rest of them would feel about me joining.”

– Jimmy Page, Trouser Press interview, 1977

“[Yardbirds Drummer] Jim McCarty says I was so desperate to get out of the studio that I'd have played drums”

– Jimmy Page, Rolling Stone interview

The Yardbirds took the stage for the first time with Page as a member on June 21, 1966, at London’s Marquee Club. After that, rhythm guitarist Chris Dreja learned the bass guitar and Page played second guitar to his buddy Beck.

Sadly, the Page-Beck lineup was short-lived, with only a few recordings featuring their twin guitar style. I have collected each one of these tracks and put them in a little playlist, which I'm linking here:

Beck was booted from the band later in 1966. Page remained the band’s lead guitarist until the Yardbirds took on new members and morphed into Led Zeppelin two years later.

During these two years, Jimmy would transform The Yardbirds into psychedelic blues heaven, pushing them into new experimental territories, aided by his now famous violin bow. However, this would not appear on their only studio album recorded with him, in favour of a more radio friendly sound - as dictated by their new-hired producer Mickie Most. This would be one of the reasons for the band's demise.

The album, “Little Games” (released July 1967) was a commercial and critical non-entity, despite containing some interesting tracks. One of these is “Glimpses”, a piece featuring bowed guitars, pre-recorded noise loops and a hypnotic wah-wah guitar groove with Page credited as the main writer.

By 1968, everyone in the band was inspired to pursue other projects - except for Jimmy.

The band's final single was “Goodnight Sweet Josephine”, with an interesting B-side, “Think About It”, featuring a proto-Zeppelin riff and snippets of the “Dazed and Confused” guitar solo.

The Yardbirds played their final shows on 31 May and 1 June at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, and on 4 and 5 June at the Spring Fair at the Montgomery International Speedway in Alabama. The Los Angeles shows were documented in the bootleg “Last Rave-Up in L.A”:

The Yardbirds announced the departure of Relf and McCarty in a press release on 12 June, and Rolling Stone magazine announced the break-up by saying that Page “intends to go into solo recording work”.

Recommended album:

I absolutely recommend listening to Yardbirds '68, an album containing live tracks recorded at the Anderson Theater on 30 March 1968, as well as demos from the Columbia Recording Studio sessions in April of the same year - released in November 2017 on Jimmy's own record label.

“We thought this might be lost forever, but we’ve rediscovered it, re-mixed it. It’s of great historical importance. We’re delighted to see the release.”

– Jim McCarty, Chris Dreja and Jimmy Page, November 2017

As Jimmy joined The Yardbirds, the time he dedicated to session work understandably decreased, but a few gems were nonetheless recorded around this time. A few worth citing are “Hurdy Gurdy Man” by Donovan, his stunning contribution to Joe Cocker's album “With A Little Help From My Friends” (I recommend listening to the title track & the song “Something's Coming On”) and the soundtrack album for the film A Degree Of Murder featuring Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones and the famous pianist Nicky Hopkins:

Some memorable live performances that are available on YouTube are this one, recorded on July 22, 1966, featuring Jimmy on bass, Chris Dreja on rythm guitar and Jeff Beck on lead guitar:

Another performance close to my heart is this live version of “Dazed and Confused”, filmed on March 9, 1968:

There's also a short Jimmy interview available on Spotify, where he talks about touring and The Yardbirds' situation in 1968:

Gallery:

[ronandhermy]

thinking about the fact that jack doesn't actually have any friends pre-samwell. or at least none that he keeps in contact with. so not only did jack ghost/cut out kent he also cut out EVERYONE on his previous teams, schools, etc. which is just...incredibly sad. and would be interesting to see explored in a fic of jack trying to make amends to those people because, guess what, jack is an addict. he didn't magically stop being an addict when bitty fell in love with him. he may be sober now but there are people like kent who jack owes apologies to

[cosmic-cd]

i still need to sit down and actually write a lot of things for trainer!hazel but

one thing i'm really eager to write is her Kalos arc- which is post-SWSH. hazel and leon take a trip to kalos together with hop & sonia- sonia is researching similar energy sources to the dynamax phenomenon, beginning with mega evolution, as mega evolution and gigantamaxed pokemon share characteristics

leon wants to go to spend time training and traveling outside of galar, and specifically wants to look into mega evolution for himself, as it takes a lot of dedication and greater focus to pull off! and then they encounter red, green/leaf and blue and leon IMMEDIATELY has a new rival KJLSFGJKL

(i also wanna give leon and red opposing mega charizard forms, and i want excuses to sit down and design leon's charizard and red's charizard- i like the thought of the forms theyve taken the most affecting their normal appearances, so leon's charizard's picked up g-max charizard's markings a little bit for instance)

hazel also considers giving mega evolution a try, but her only pokemon who can mega evolve is Samwell, and. well. the poor guy is Very Anxious... but... he is a little special. and if he decides he wants to go ahead and try it, something cool might happen........

but since i decided hazel does Not go to kalos during the events of XY, i now need to sit here and figure out how to incorporate some of those story elements in post......

additionally, i'm now considering the rainbow rocket stuff from USUM as something happening a few years after hazel's alola arc, and also after SWSH (because leon will be there.)

but i'm tempted to frame it like i am with hazel in kalos and paldea, in that sonia is also visiting alola for research, and then hazel & leon get swept up into the events of episode RR (in which hazel and guzma have to reconcile. and hazel gets to hit ghetsis with the Steel Chair if nobody's holding her back)

i think though as a hypothetical so far the timeline is

Alola -> Galar -> Kalos -> Alola (modified episode RR) -> Paldea

not counting pre-alola, but i don't have a firm timeline of events after hazel has her first adventure in unova. also hisui is in there but i haven't decided when hazel and leon get eebied yet so.

[deckthehaus]

Come in from the cold! Day two of reveals is here!

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[podfic] The Pond, Jan. 25 - 4:57

As he sits on the side of the Pond lacing up his skates in the dim blue light before dawn, Dex yawns, grinning at the shape his breath makes on the air.

He always pretends he’s a dragon when he can see his breath.

---

prompt: Dex, January 25th (or like middle of winter), at the pond at Samwell? Bonus sunrise if it works? or bonus Nursey because it's me and I'm obsessed

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Pre-Christmas Epiphany (15,578 words)

In which we spend lots of time in Jack's head, as he comes to some important conclusions.

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Cardinal (767 words)

Bitty tries to comfort his husband after the loss of his husband's beloved grandmother Lorraine.

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Ugly Christmas Sweater (515 words)

Deck the Haus 2023 prompt: "Any pairing; Wow That Christmas Sweater is hideous. Let's get you out of it!"

I was going to go with Kent/Whiskey, but this was funnier, so I did this instead

[zimbittle]

Jack & Kenny

Drive by Halsey

[parvuls]

I've been trying to put into words my jumbled thoughts about outwardly stoic jack, whose experiences have taught him not to be ashamed of crying, and outwardly emotional bitty, who sees crying as a weakness.

I feel like jack's need for control manifests as the need to always appear put together in front of others, but pushing through everything he has while struggling with anxiety has inevitably brought on multiple breakdowns in privacy (like, much later, right after they lose the championship in y2). and I feel like he learned that it's much more efficient (and healthy) to allow himself to cry than to hold himself together all the time and risk another public breakdown.

meanwhile bitty - who appears to be the emotionally intelligent one, who understands people and feelings much better - is seen crying only when he's really pushed to the edge, and almost always seems to be trying to hold it back. it makes me think that bitty actually hates crying, and hates that he's not always able to stop himself from doing it anyway, and sees it as a terrible weakness (growing up with coach and in that environment, I think that might be the only possibility for him).

and following that, I've had a specific scene stuck in my head for ages -- set somewhere between jack yelling at bitty during team practices and jack deciding to help bitty with checking, straightforwardly complimenting him as a player and then stating that if that's the only thing holding you back we're going to get you over it. because that's not the actions of someone who has no faith in bitty's abilities, both in playing hockey and in being able (and willing) to work past his issues.

I just keep imagining y1 freshman bitty, keeping his head high and the pretenses up despite jack's constant criticism that's really getting to him, until he finally snaps -- maybe in the loading docks, maybe hiding in some equipment room. and it's jack who finds him (by accident), stumbling onto him crying, then kind of hovering uncertainly because he doesn't know how to handle this frog and he especially doesn't know how to handle his emotions.

bitty probably wipes his tears away furiously, because he knows his captain already thinks he's weak and being caught crying would only make it worse. unbeknownst to him, jack sees this guy crying after practice and all he can think about is all of the times he was sobbing on the floor after practice, shakes and snot and all. and as he hovers he stiltedly tells bitty that it's fine. that crying shouldn't matter as long as he gets up and keeps trying afterwards.

bitty stares at him, suspicious at the somewhat kind words and grateful for them nevertheless. he looks jack straight in the eye despite the tears pooling at the corners, until jack awkwardly taps the doorframe and backs out.

and yeah, bitty doesn't like jack yet, and yeah, jack doesn't like him much, either. but this encounter suddenly paints jack's perception of bittle and his struggles with much more empathy, because his brain has made a connection between the issues they experience in this sport; and the way bittle looked him straight in the eye and nodded despite being obviously embarrassed made jack think that maybe bittle is willing to try. and if he's willing to try, then maybe jack can try with him, too.

[zimms]

hear me out, whiskey propositioned jack at least twice before he found at that jack and bitty were dating.

[omgsamwellsports]

if anyone puts taylor swift on their pre-game playlist then the bus is going to sing it loudly. we don't make the rules. if the opposing team notices us messing up bad blood, that's on them.

[carcasstohounds]

dreamland by glass animals is a bitty song. no i will not elaborate.