#white London

[holland-vosijk-antari]

wonder how many people in red london would have white or grey london heritage? surely people made some Connections back when there was open travel between londons? besides, all it takes is one particularly slutty antari a hundred or so years ago laying pipe in more than one london to make quite a bunch of descendents.

[chron0ph0bia]

the way holland and the white londoners refer to red london as "the cruel one"

[ravencromwell]

some scattered disability and White London thoughts:

Schwab missed a hundred thousand opportunities for disability rep; this is a bleak, apocalyptic landscape where one of the prevalent currencies is blood, and both children and adults are frequently attacked for their power.

Sign language. Look. Most magicians need to speak to focus their power, though Schwab makes clear it's more a way to keep up concentration than a necessity (take Lila's tiger, tiger, burning bright. So I wanna see that taken to its logical conclusion: tongues removed because many. many people think they! are the source of power, or at least where immense magic will nest.

Therefore: A thriving culture of sign language, where everyone is at least semi-fluent.

Holland, watching Talya's hands trace the old stories in gorgeous, fluid arcs with her hands as her face takes on a million expressions. Later, finishing them beneath the blankets, fingers tracing words intohis skin in the dark.

Holland stands out as much because his Antariness has allowed him to avoid disability as for the power itself.

Way the fuck more prosthetics particularly prosthetic hands considering how so many people carve element-control runes directly on their skin. Take away your hands, and some enemies would think they could take away your ability to fight.

Lethally sharp hooks for hands, with the runes carved directly into the metal and the most ruthless fighters absolutely willing ready and able to gouge out your eyes with their prosthetics.

Consequently: prosthetic care. Eventually, you have to take your hand/hands off; moisturize the stumps etc. Who you choose to be that vulnerable with says a thousand things about your character. (and the moments when you don't particularly *choose* it but you need to anyway because you've had it on too long and the skin is blistering; infection in Makt would be deadly.

The irritations of amputations. I know from some other characters I've researched for: things like washing your hair with only one functioning hand: an absolute bitch.

Anemia. In AGOS, part of what Ojka says Osaron's powers does is "warm her blood". Everyone in that city must be A. constantly cold; and not cold like a coat can fix. Cold from poor circulation and generally "weak" blood. People who have an affinity with bone magic (Athos, Vortalis, Holland himself) would have a significant advantage because everyone else is moving just slightly sluggishly, always dragging at the weight of exhaustion. It's part of what would make Talya's dancing so fucking _impressive, that she moves like that even despite the headaches, dizziness, etc.

Holland as Antari: essentially a fucking human heated blanket to anyone who isn't afraid to be so close to y'know the extremely dangerous magician.

God, there's so. so much more, but my brain is swiss cheese. But I at least wanted to start the ball rolling, because I feel like this's a corner of fandom that's just _bursting with possibilities.

[onaloyveonce]

Holland Vosijk

[crookedcrowclub]

the way adsom begins with “kell wore a very peculiar coat” and acol ends with “kell wore a coat that billowed in the wind” oh i’m gonna need a minute 😭

[badassbutterfly1987]

Research is a funny thing: you start by looking up how widespread ondol were in late Joseon period (no longer reserved for the upper class), then you end up looking into the Little Ice Age, 1816 the Year without a Summer, and the Kyŏngsin Famine.

No idea if any of these will become relevant for writing but you know how it is.

[danielgrant]

Creepy London 🤍

[pinkcupboardwitch]

@muffinworry @ravencromwell @dr-dendritic-trees

we should talk more about cities that are vampires. cities that are cold and wet and sink into your bones and stay there. cities that are hungry and want to live. dead cities that dont know they're dead and suck the life force of their people to maintain the delusion. cities with harbors that are actually mouths; one-way entries. cities that are devastatingly lonely and see consumption as love

[undr]

J. A. Hampton. London. 1947

[goryhorroor]

“horror movies were reborn in the 1930s. sound revolutionized cinema across the board and had a huge impact on the horror genre— and not just in the form of dialogue. sound effects added an extra dimension to terror, from creaking doors to echoing footsteps to the rumbling of castle thunder. music cues built suspense or signaled the presence of a threat. as screen storytelling moved away from symbolism towards realism, the dreamlike wraiths of silent cinema were replaced by monsters that grunted, groaned and howled.”

[wh0-is-lily]

Sharon Tate in a Halston hat for Harper’s Bazaar Photographed by Neal Barr, 1967

[holland-vosijk-antari]

I've been thinking about how white london probably has different kinds of physical affection to red and grey, I can't imagine hugging being common among people who are casual friends like it is in a lot of places here (I'm talking from the pov of someone from an area not too far away from real london so i get that this isnt the case everywhere lol) hugging requires a certain trust that the person you are hugging is doing anything nefarious with their hands - like stabbing you in the back for instance... so i like to think that in white london where trust is about as thin on the ground as magic, hugging is a massive declaration of trust in which you may as well tell the other you love them.

on an additional note it makes me wonder about what affections would be commonplace, would a kiss on the cheek be a more common greeting to someone you care for? would people give a short bow as a greeting towards an acquaintance? (both things very common in many places in this world too so not exactly strange?) or are people simply all-or-nothing with their affections, giving all their affection to one or two people who have their absolute trust and not showing any at all otherwise?

when it comes to greeting a stranger i was taught in my martial arts classes to introduce myself with both hands visible and to shake hands with both of my hands as a sign of respect within the culture so i wonder if that kind of action would be common in makt - dont hide your hands when trying to gain someones trust or they will think you are hiding something...

[robotpussy]

apparently riots are have been planned to take place in London this Wednesday. I needed people to stop saying "they can't try that in London 🙄" like 3 years ago. they ALWAYS do shit like this in London. why do people think because a area is diverse, bigots won't attempt their shit in those places? I hate it when people are shocked there bigoted hate crimes can happen in London that doesn't mean shit!!

[ravencromwell]

Mid-way through art history last semester, I discovered the "Mayan Lintels 24-26". Prior to that moment, my familiarity with blood sacrifice had been a fatal event, meant as act of last resort or immense devotion. But these made me familiar with the idea of less drastic, if equally poignant ritual practices of minor bloodletting.

Which inevitably drew me back to Holland's moment at the stream in ACOL. It's easy to identify this as an idiosyncratic ritual of his own invention, particularly because he says he didn't pray and wouldn't know who to pray to. But as my historian brain thinks more and more of Holland as deeply shaped by culture, because there is always culture even in the apocalypse, rather than creating a revitalized society entirely from whole cloth, I become increasingly fascinated by this as Holland practicing alone what was meant to be congregational. In many an organized religion, action itself is the prayer rather than liturgy. And Vortalis has a fascinating line about "fools waiting for the Someday King to return" as though it's far from uncommon, though not shall we graciously say, not a mainstream view to put a great deal of weight behind the tales.

As we see when Holland describes Alox's runes, to "bind escaping magic" is the paramount way of survival in Makt—Vortalis says they have become a society fearful of any magic they cannot control.

Yet, there is immense power in willingly spilt blood—not just for Antari, but magicians more generally. Look, after all, at Maxim's spell to craft a golem army—one of its requirements was protracted blood loss by the caster.

What a powerful message it would send, in a benighted world, to willingly spill the most precious of your own resources. What better manifested prayer to call the Someday King to incarnate, to prove there were still those willing to buck societal trends, and thus a society worth saving? [To some believers, it might be less about calling to a yet-born magician than calling to magic itself, trying to pour enough back into the land this numinous force might feel safe enough to cease endlessly retreating.) A circle, spilling blood onto barren ground, not for food or shelter, but just to give magic back to the land.

A fairly commonplace ritual, performed on two days of historical significance or the Solstices/equinoxes etc., just after the Cataclysm that has faded into rarity but not quite extinction in an increasing desperate world. Which Holland practices alone on different days (and mayhap in a different place, though it would _also make sense for the site of any larger rituals to be the Silver Wood, given Holland's irritated: 'This is a sacred place' when Vor flicks ash everywhere to goad him.) After all, the greatest source of magic coming into bleed all over your ritual might prove too powerful a temptation for even the best-intentioned folk to have a slice of the bounty. 

[eroticlamb]

People on King’s Road, London, 1971 ♡ Photographed by John Hendy

[xxnelli]

So I guess all the rumors are true,

You know I love a London boy... ✨️

(featuring biblically accurate firstprince)