#i had to research so much british history for this

[vazaha-tya]

sharing my notes again!

i'm trying to make my worldbuilding make sense while i write the next chapter of ex nihilo and oh boy, it's not easy, my outline is so disorganised and i forgot about some stuff i included in the early chapters, it's terrible

but i'm having fun! so here we go, the clarifications on terms i've been using in my fic:

House: Magical family recognised by the government. In Magical Britain - also called Albion by the most old-fashioned-, it is generally used for Houses with a title or connexion to the Lordly Council and later the Wizengamot.

Clan: Magical community with common ancestry that is recognised by its government. The clan’s head acts like a Head of House. 

Coven: Old magical practice dated from the times before the construction of the first magical schools and institutes, consisting of wixen of the same religions and practices gathering to perform magic, socialise and educate their youngest members. While it is still common to form covens in some places, most magical communities only form temporary covens to perform rituals.

Ancient House/Clan: House/Clan whose lineage can be traced more than forty generations. They were given seats on the Lordly Council after the extinction of several Noble Houses and Clans during the reign of William the Conqueror to compensate for the induction of French Houses into the Council and maintain a native majority

Noble House/Clan: In Magical Britain, it designates a House or Clan that was granted a seat on the Lordly Council of Albion. It tends to refer to similar positions of power in other magical communities.

Ancient and Noble House/Clan: In Magical Britain, it refers to a House old enough to have sworn allegiance and been titled by the Pendragon dynasty before its extinction in the sixth century. Exceptions are noted for Houses like the Malfoys, Rosiers, Sinclairs and Lestranges who came from France with their titles and Houses that merged with Ancient and Noble British Houses but kept their names like Houses Nott and Potter.

Lordly Council of Albion: Founded after the deaths of Arthur and Mordred Pendragon (marking the end of the last Magical Dynasty of Albion in the 6th century) out of the survivors of the Knights of the Round Table, it was the sole mode of magical government on the Isle until its dissolution in the 18th Century following the civil war started in opposition of the Dark Lord Ramsey Lestrange. It was repurposed into the Wizengamot and the position of Minister of Magic was created to work alongside it.

#i had to research so much british history for this #but i'm very proud of my ideas for the french houses #so the timeline is like: pendagrons with united magical-muggle britain #then the muggle cerdic dynasty which the lordly council pretended didn't exist #then william the conqueror shows up with french wizards and forces their integration into his reign #until the status of secrecy is implemented in the seventeenth century #where the lordly council gets really high and mighty now that they don't have to play nice with muggles #resulting in the birth of a lestrange dark lord #and a civil war #which ends with the creation of the minister of magic #ex nihilo au #tya rambles #tya writes

[jewish-sideblog]

I think people forget that the Nazis never said they were the bad guys. If someone says, hey, I’m evil! You don’t let them take over your country. They presented themselves as scientific, not hateful. By their own account, they were progressives, and the superiority of White Europe over the other races was a proven and immutable fact. They had scientists and archaeologists and historians to prove it. They didn’t tell people they wanted to kill the Jews because they were hateful. They manufactured evidence to frame us for very real tragedies, and they had methodological research to prove that we were genetically predisposed to misconduct. Wouldn’t you believe that?

Hollywood has spent the last 80 years portraying the Nazis as an obvious and intimidating evil. That’s a good thing in some ways, because we want general audiences to recognize that they were evil. But we also want them to be able to recognize how and why they came to power. Not by self-describing themselves as an evil empire, but by convincing people that they were the good guys and the saviors. They hosted the Olympics. Several European countries capitulated and volunteered themselves to the Empire. There were American and British Fascist Parties. They had broad public support. Hollywood never shows that part, so general audiences never learn to recognize the actual signs of antisemitism.

People today think they can’t possibly be antisemitic, because they’re leftist! They abhor bigotry! They could never comprehend Nazi ideology coming from the mouth of a bisexual college student wearing a graphic tee and jeans. How could they? The only depiction of antisemites they’ve ever seen have been gaunt, pale, middle-aged men in black leather trench coats with skulls on their caps.

If the Nazis time-travelled from the 1930s and wanted to take power now, they’d change their original tactics, but not by much. They would target countries suffering from an identity crisis and an economic collapse. They would portray themselves as the pinnacle of what that society considers progressive. Back then, it was race science. These days it’s performative wokeness. Once they’d garnered enough respect and reputation, they’d begin manufacturing propaganda and lies to manipulate people’s anger and fears at a single target— Jews.

If the Nazis made an actual return, they wouldn’t look like neo-Nazis. They wouldn’t be nearly as obvious about their hatred. Their evil wouldn’t give them yellow eyes, and no suspenseful music would play when they walked in the room. They’d be friendly. They’d look like you. They would learn what things your community fears and what things you already hate. They would lie and fabricate evidence to connect the rich elites and the imperialists you revile to a single source of unequivocal Jewish evil. It wouldn’t be hard— they already have two-thousand years of institutional antisemitism they can rely on to paint their picture.

If you’re curious why antisemitism today is coming from grassroots organizations, young, liberal college campuses, suburban neighborhoods with pride flags and All Are Welcome Here signs? That’s why. It’s because, as a global society, we’ve forgotten that the world didn’t used to see the Nazis as bad guys. And what is forgotten about history is doomed to be repeated.

[putthatfuckingfootdown]

"My country's history is one of manufactured suffering. I was a boy when the Tudors burned any food the rebels under O'Neil might think to eat. We starved; everyone starved. Mouths on the dead stained green from chewing nettles. You get resourceful in a famine. My parents... died early, left me and my sister - catching rats. The rats ran out quick... fed my sister on my blood... kept her alive an extra, two weeks. I didn't sleep for three days to protect her body from the starving til the ground thawed. I cut out her kidneys... and buried her. Fat cap on 'em like a pea. I haven't eaten a single meal, since, my mind didn't go to that bite. Was the last thing I ever did because I had to. I control my life now.

Every bite."

This quote from Fowler has been on my mind for a week or more and I only found time to research it now. I thought for sure, this was something I'd have learned about, being British and learning about the Royal family and the Tudors in particular being one of those things that British kids learn about.

I was in secondary school in the 2000s so it might've changed since, but we never learned about the Irish famines or the Nine Years War. Considering I'd already checked that guns existed in Japan in the stated time frame and that the borders were closed by the shogun, I figured this was based in reality, but maybe with an artistic exaggeration.

Turns out it's not. Like, it's not even close to exaggeration.

I love things that make me research things, but I didn't think I was gonna read so much unbelievably awful information. Much, much more in the source:

No wonder Fowler is the way he is. Talk about serious, SERIOUS trauma.

#abijah fowler #abijah fowler bes #blue eye samurai #bes

[matan4il]

To the person who wants us to differentiate the modern political movement that came to be called Zionism, and the Zionist nature of Judaism, I'll address you politely, even though your assertion that I must be a teenager (quick search of my blog would show you that I work at a Holocaust museum, education and research center, that also studies the history of the Jewish people in general, so... not a sound assumption) is very insulting and condescending.

Sure, we can distinguish the thousands of years old Zionist nature of Judaism from the modern political movement that came to be referred to as Zionism.

But do you understand that the modern political movement wouldn't exist without the fact that Judaism has ALWAYS been Zionist? That the distinction is, to a degree, an artificial one, especially in the context of anti-Zionists claiming that Judaism is incompatible with Zionism, which is a lie. With that claim, they mean to deny the very right of Israel to exist as a liberation and land back movement of the Jewish people, and while they're at it, they are de-legitimizing every Zionist movement ever, whether modern or not, they're de-legitimizing every Jew who had returned to Israel, even just as an individual, because they are denying the very Zionist nature of Judaism.

I'll attach at the end an attempt at demonstrating why the distinction is somewhat artificial in this context.

But before that, I'll address some of your other claims. You said that Zionism is a secular movement, and religious Jews are opposed to it. While some ultraorthodox Jews are indeed opposed to active Zionism, and prefer a passive wait for the Mashiach, they too are Zionist in the non-modern-political-movement sense (they still believe and pray for the Mashich to bring all Jews back to Israel and re-establish Jewish sovereignty in this land, not to keep them in the diaspora). And they do not represent all religious Jews. The modern political Zionist movement was very much joined by religious Jews, such as a political organization called "Ha'Mizrachi," which was established in 1902. Their Zionism was connected to the actions and writings of rabbis who preceded many secular Zionist leaders like Herzl (first published a Zionist pamphlet in 1896), such as Rabbi Shmuel Mohilever (first established Ha'Mizrachi as a spiritual and educational pro-Zionist center in 1893), Rabbi Yehuda Alkalai (published "Minchat Yehuda," a Zionist call for Jews to return to Israel in 1840, and established the Society for the Settlement of Eretz Yisrael in 1852), and Rabbi Zvi Kalischer (asked Mayer Amschel Rothschild to help with the purchase of land in Israel for Jews to return there in 1836, and published the Zionist book Drishat Zion in 1862). Even among ultraorthodox Jews, there are Zionist ones. Some of them were a part of Ha'Mizrachi organization. During the British rule in Israel, there were ultraorthodox Jews who actively helped the Zionist underground movements, the Etzel and the Hagana, and in a 2022 poll, 76% of Chassidic Jews defined themselves as Zionist.

You also made the assertion that the modern political movement of Zionism is European. Again, while many of its founders were from Europe, many Jews from Arab and Muslim countries came to Israel as a part of the modern Zionist movement. Please don't erase them. And why would they be a part of this movement? Because of the intrinsically Zionist nature of Judaism. Yemenite Jews didn't need to be a part of the founding fathers of the modern political movement, in order to be a part of the movement, and to see it as a fulfilment of ancient Jewish prophecies, when they were brought to Israel in a special operation in 1952. In fact, there was a Zionist Yemenite movement of return in 1881, following a verse in the Bible, in the Song of Songs book, that they believed told them they had to return to Israel during this year. Many of them settled in a village close to the Temple Mount, which the Arabs refer to as Silwan, a mispronunciation of the ancient Hebrew name Shiloach (that can be found in the Bible). These Yemenite Jews were ethnically cleansed by the Arabs during the 1936-1939 anti-Zionist, anti-Jewish riots. And when Jews tried to return to Kfar Ha'Shiloach, anti-Zionists attacked that as "colonization," too. Anti-Zionists make NO distinction between Jews returning to Israel from Europe, and Jews returning to it from Arab and Muslim countries. We're all just "Zionists" and "incompatible with Judaism," no matter how much our Zionism is derived from our Jewish identity, and no matter that we are native to this land, not colonizers.

You asked, "how can judaism be 'inherently zionist' when the idea of a jewish state has only existed for less than 200 of those years?" and I will ask you, what's unclear when I say that Zionism is about Jewish sovereignty in the Jewish ancestral homeland, which is an idea that I showed was inherent to Jewish tradition and religion? There were Jewish kingdoms here (the unified kingdom, the Kingdom of Israel, the Kingdom of Yehudah, and the Hasmonean Kingdom), that fulfilled that idea long before there was a Jewish state, and the Jewish state is a direct (and yes, modern) continuation of those ancient Jewish kingdoms (I mean, of course that's the modern reincarnation, we're not going to build a Jewish kingdom now, just so no one can use the accusation that a Jewish state is a modern concept... and I'm sort of weirded out by the fact that I have to defend the right of Jews to implement modern reincarnations of their traditional notions... Also, pretty sure that if we went with the old version and tried to set up a Jewish kingdom, we'd be crucified for being backwards), because it is founded on the same exact principle, that we get to self rule in our own ancestral land. Denying that is erasing Jewish history and parts of Jewish identity.

You said, "our connection to the land does not need to be mediated through a political body the majority of us have absolutely no say in," and I wanna ask you, does every German in the world (or at least most) have to live in Germany, and have a say in it as a citizen, for the nation state of the German people to have the right to exist? Same for every other nation state out there.

You called Israel, "a country younger than our grandparents, and for that matter any other country too," which is untrue on several levels. The state might be younger than some grandparents, but its right to exist is an ancient one, connected to those thousands of years old kingdoms, and in that sense, the modern state of Israel being founded in 1948 is no different to the modern state of India being founded in 1947. Would you tell Indians that their state has no right to exist, erasing its connection to previous forms of Indian self rule in that land, just because those weren't a modern state? Would you offend them by suggesting that the age of their modern state is a factor in its legitimacy? No. But for some reason, you feel comfortable doing that when it comes to the modern Jewish state. While we're at it, whether the current self rule of Palestinians constitutes a state is a matter of debate, but let's say that it counts, and that a Palestinian state started existing when they began self ruling in 1994 following the Oslo accords (the first time ever in history when Arabs in Israel self ruled, rather than be a colony serving a metropole situated in some other Arab or Muslim country), that would make their state not only younger than our grandparents, it would make it younger than quite a few Tumblr users. But I bet you wouldn't say that this de-legitimizes the right of a Palestinian state to exist. Yet you feel it's perfectly okay to say such things about Israel. You should ask yourself why can you accept others, but not a Jewish state. For the record, here's some modern states younger than Israel, that you would never dream to de-legitimize based on their age: Malaysia (1957), Singapore (1965), Zimbabwe (as Rhodesia, 1965), Bangladesh (1971), Guinea-Bissau (1973), Comoros (1975), Lithuania (1990), Latvia (1990), Belarus (1990), Armenia (1990), Georgia (1991), Croatia (1991), Slovenia (1991), Ukraine (1991), Moldova (1991), Uzbekistan (1991), Macedonia (1991), Azerbaijan (1991), Slovakia (1992), Montenegro (2006).

***

Okay, a small demonstration of how artificial the distinction between modern political Zionism and historical Zionism is...

Where do we put the start of the modern political movement of Zionism, what is the date when it began?

A lot of people would suggest that it started with Herzl. He's often referred to as "the father of Zionism" (that's incorrect. It would be more accurate to refer to him as "the father of diplomatic Zionism"). Herzl was actually an assimilationist Jew, who believed Jews in Europe should aspire to be like all other Europeans, erase the difference between them and the non-Jews (relinquishing our tradition, culture, religion, everything that makes us unique and a contribution to the richness of the human experience), and rely on the equal rights that Europeans would grant us. He believed in this, but experiencing antisemitism in the cosmopolitan Vienna, as well as covering the Dreyfus trial (when a Jewish officer was convicted of treason, and shamefully exiled, despite his many years of loyal service to his country, just because he was a Jew), he came to publish (as I mentioned) a Zionist pamphlet in 1896.

So, shall we count the start of the modern political movement of Zionism as 1896?

But the term "Zionism" as the name of the movement was actually coined in 1890, by Nathan Birnbaum!

So, shall we count the start of the modern political movement of Zionism as 1890?

But for the term to be coined, it had to describe something that already existed. And in fact, many Zionist groups, counted as a part of the modern political movement, were already active by that time. For example, some people start counting the new Yishuv in Eretz Yisrael as starting with the arrival in Israel of the Zionist Bilu group, in 1882 (they were established in January of that year, and despite being secular Jews, they were drawing from Jewish tradition, naming themselves after a biblical verse from the book of Isaiah. Because like I said, modern political Zionism wouldn't exist without the ancient Zionist nature of Judaism).

So, shall we count the start of the modern political movement of Zionism as 1882?

But that doesn't work either, because by the time the Bilu group arrived in Israel, the first Jewish moshava (a Zionist form of settlement based on values of agriculture and communality), Petach Tikva (sometimes nicknamed "the mother of moshavot"), was already established in 1878.

So, shall we count the start of the modern political movement of Zionism as 1878?

But how did this new movement of Zionists know to work the land, if in the diaspora, for hundreds of years, Jews were prohibited from being farmers, so they would have no claim to the land they worked? Well, many young Zionists learned how to do this work thanks to a Jewish agricultural school called Mikveh Yisrael, which was founded in 1870.

So, shall we count the start of the modern political movement of Zionism as 1870?

But a part of why Mikvah Yisrael was established, was the poor condition of Jews in Jerusalem. By the time demographic surveys were conducted in the 1840's, Jews were the biggest religious group in the Old City of Jerusalem, and so overcrowded that it made their lives much harder, sometimes even endangered (like when a plague would break out). The Jewish minister Moshe Montefiore started building neighborhoods for Jews outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem in 1860, moving Jews out of the old Yishuv and into a new form of settling in the land of Israel, outside the "protecting" walls of the four cities holy to Judaism, and into the idea that they can and should use agriculture to sustain themselves outside these cities, and re-connect with their land.

So, shall we count the start of the modern political movement of Zionism as 1860?

But the first victim of anti-Zionist terrorism in the land of Israel is actually considered to be Rabbi Shlomo Avraham Zalman Zoref, who was murdered by Arabs in 1851 for his Zionist efforts to help in the settlement of Jews in Israel and in the restoring of Jewish religious life in the Old City of Jerusalem through diplomatic efforts vis a vis Muhamad Ali Pasha, the Egyptian occupier of the Land of Israel at the time, and by enlisting the help of the consuls of Russia and Austria (by the way, one of his grandsons was among the founders of Petach Tikva).

So, shall we count the start of the modern political movement of Zionism as 1851?

But his diplomatic Zionist efforts, for which he was murdered, didn't start at the time of his death, they go back to when he managed to get that permit from Muhamad Ali Pasha in 1836 for Jews to re-build the Ashkenazi community in the Old City of Jerusalem, which had been destroyed by Muslims over a hundred years earlier.

So, shall we count the start of the modern political movement of Zionism as 1836?

But where did that Ashkenazi Jewish community, which Rabbi Zoref tried to restore, come from? Rabbi Yehuda Ha'Chassid successfully called Jews to return to Israel, and he did manage to inspire many to follow him as he started his own journey to Israel in 1697, and managed to buy land for his community in the Old City of Jerusalem, which was joined by Jews already living there. This WAS a form of a semi-modern Zionist movement. And it IS quite connected to what came later, in more modern times.

Or another example. Dona Garcia Nassi was a crypto Jew from Portugal, whose family had fled the Spanish Inquisition, only for the Portuguese Inquisition to grow stronger and harsher, driving her and a part of her family to Istanbul. There, they could stop pretending to be converts to Christianity, they got to publicly return to their Jewish identity. She did a lot for Jews, and in 1561, she used her financial and political ties to ask the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the First to lease land in Israel, for Jews to self rule there. She first asked for land in Jerusalem, was refused, and so she ended up leasing land in Tiberias instead, helping to re-build the city and the Jewish community there, and allowing for a movement of Jews to return to Israel and settle in Tiberias. It's another type of semi-modern Zionist movement striving for Jewish sovereignty in Israel, in whatever form they could get it.

So where do we draw the line? How do we say, these Jews returning to Israel count as Zionist, but those don't? One of my best friends is a Jew from Morocco, his family was religious and fiercely Zionist, and your ask erased them. How do we accept a narrative that looks at thousands of years of Jews returning to Israel, from all sorts of backgrounds, and from all sorts of countries, and yet doesn't recognize that they all returned for the same reason, drawing from the same Jewish foundation? How do we not see that the separation is an artificial one?

Anti-Zionism is antisemitic in so many ways, and one of them is exactly what this narrative does to so many Jews who were proud, and wanted to be counted as Zionist, precisely because to them it was an expression of their Jewish identity.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

#israel #antisemitism #israeli #israel news #israel under attack #israel under fire #terrorism #anti terrorism #hamas #antisemitic #antisemites #jews #jew #judaism #jumblr #frumblr #jewish #resources

[tomorrcwz]

𝐒𝐏𝐈𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐒, 𝐀𝐀𝟐𝟑 + 𝐆𝐑𝟔𝟑

part two

revenge always tastes better when celebrated with your right hand and his lover

warnings: mafia topics such as planned murder, coarse language, cheating on reader, unnamed fiance because I couldn't think of a fitting name, sex mentioned, sexual acts (fingering)

a whimper climbed up your throat, treating to surface into the cold air of the storage hall lined with supercars, pricey motorcycles and vintage cars, and bitter tears welled in your half closed eyes but you did remember your promise to your little self years ago that no man was granted to see them spill over, not even the man who had claimed to love you for a lifetime. alas his understanding of love was different to yours, sickly twisted — if he held the love he repeatedly said to have, why did he cozy up to a woman who wasn't you?

he knew you were a busy woman and he enjoyed the perks of your success even though he didn't exactly know what you worked as nor how much you made in a year; since the beginning of your relationship you both shared an unsaid understanding that he hadn't to task and he was absolutely fine with it. the beautiful man was more or less an armcandy, or as your right hand alex used to say your sugar babe; eventually your partner proposed which wasn't as romantic as you had hoped for but it was your fault, you could've shared that side of yourself to him.

you had been in a negotiation with leclerc, head of the monegasque mafia, aswell as verstappen and hamilton, respective heads of the dutch and british mafia when clement, your man responsible to observe certain people and media outlets, signalled you with a touch to his watch that something was up. the french leaned against the wall next to armstrong, a guy of hamilton. the pair of them were kind of friends in that sense of joining each other on social gathering, they might have fucked too because the air between them screamed like sexual tension.

as the negotiation came to an end and the tension left the room, small talkes between various people raised — only hamilton stood up, stretched his hand to each of the heads still sitting at the large wooden table, claiming he was awaited home for dinner.

after walking him out yourself and returning to you other guests you noticed the closeness between charles and max. they had a lot of history, fighting when they were under training as young boys which then blossomed into a friendship, or more. you wouldn't ask, observe their actions whilst minding your business.

you didn't sit down, letting arthur, charles' younger brother take your seat because your mind was focused on clem's new information. slowly you made your way across the room to him, coming to an halt with a raised eyebrow at the kiwi standing next to him. he nodded at you and made space so you could exchange a private moment.

"what is it, novalak?", you mumbled, eyes roaming the room.

he wordlessly gave you his phone, one you had given him specifically to research. opened was a chat between himself and one of his team, plainly showing off a series of pictues where your fiance sat with a woman on his lap in a fancy club where you once partied together. no guilt showed on his face causing your cheeks to heat up.

"that bastard."

alex, ever present, meet your eyes. the thai clearly read your expression, the embarrassment and fury printed on your face — not that anyone else could observe that as you had only pinched your eyebrows together but he knew you for a decade. there wasn't an emotion and situation he couldn't read.

clem put his phone away without commenting on the situation; he knew his place and he also knew that only alex and george were allowed to joke with you.

the rest of the day you entertained your guest, presenting them traditional cuisine and showing the eager arthur your car park. in the morning all traces of guests were gone, leaving you with your problem at hand.

tuesday arrived, the date you and your partner had set last week went painfully long and you had only one thing on your mind: murder.

"want to come over at my place?", you sweetly asked, making doe eyes at him. his once stunning blue icy eyes looked awfully disgusting, the hair too long and the beard unkempt. you didn't know what you saw in him and why you thought he'd be the right man on your side.

a cooky smirk etched on his lips as he leaned forward. "sure whenever. want daddy to fuck you good?", he whispered, trying to look seductive but failing miserably.

you stood up, hand sloting in his sweaty one, lulling him to your cherry red ferrari charles had gifted you on your birthday, claiming that it was a missing piece in your collection which in fact was true and you had happily accepted the gift.

the drive was smooth, your passenger way to concentrated on his phone to notice the new route; if you were to throw away trash than it had to happen somewhere you wouldn't have to clean up much. ideal for your plans was your car park as the ground was easy to clean; you pitied the man a bit for the trust he held in a jug to notice that his secret wasn't one anymore.

he looked up, taking in the trees aligning the narrow bumby road. "Where are we going?"

keeping the eyes on the road, your left hand touched his thigh. "Oh babe, you see I purchased a new house and I thought we could christening it", you purred. you felt his cook grow under your fingertips and smiled; he made it so easy for you, you could watch a series after the finished job.

arriving at the gates, one of your men behind the counter of the small cabin that where to your right, let you easily drive through and you ran up the car to the storage hall, parking it in its designated spot.

as soon as the motor's smooth purrs stopped, your partner opened his door, leaving you alone as he walked up to a rolls royce silver shadow. he touched the car without a thought in the word, to absorbed in a fantasy to even notice two man walking in, one opening the door of the ferrari you sat in, giving a hand to pull you out of it while the other pulled out a gun, resting it against his side.

george waited for the man to move back in the aisle; no one wanted to clean the cars and the liar wasnt worthy to leave a nasty damage in one of your cars — dennis, young mechanic and passionate car lover, would surely have your head if there was only a hair on the hood of one of them. you wouldn't want to see the norwegian truly angry, he was more on the softer side, a reason why you took him in and kept him away from the dirty business.

"why don't we fuck in one of these cars, maybe the aston, before taking it to the bedroom, sugar?", your fiance asked, turning around to walk in the middle of the aisle where you wanted him to be, gaze fixed on another supercar.

the brunette brit raised his gun, pointing it to the other man's head, blue eyes flitting to you, waiting for his timing.

you sent him a smile, relaxing the shoulders. simultaneously alex stepped up to you, one hand resting comfortably against the small of your back, resulting in you grabbing his hand and placing it lower to lay against your rear.

his eyes widened at your bold gesture; back when you were teenagers you used to fuck around but then you were appointed head of the family and the sex stopped. he pinched your ass through the silky blush coloured dress you wore before gliding down to cup your pussy which was already wet, getting a silent moan out of you.

it wasn't a normal day; you were about to see george murder your scumbag of a partner in a fitted dress pants which graced you with the delicious sight of his well trained thighs and the dark half opened shirt clung to the muscles of his back. and then there was alex, dressed the same, hair fluffy and lips slightly swollen, indicating that george must have kissed him stupid prior. you also hadn't had sex for weeks and the self love only could do so much.

all things combined you were desperate and you were ready to move onto the next man or in this case men.

"sorry mate, we already fucked in the aston", alex spoke into the silence, frightening the man. the thai pushed a finger between your plush lips, gathering the wetness on the tip to tap it against your mouth, intensly watching as you sucked his finger. your head fell onto his shoulder, eyes interlocked with his; you hallowed your cheeks and ran your tongue up and down his finger, letting him decide the pace.

"You're such a pretty little slut, y/n", he groaned.

your fiancé let out an angry scream, ready to throw his fist but he didn't get a chance to take a step. george already pulled the trigger, shoting right in the forehead.

"what an idiot", the brunette muttered. you giggled at his words, pulling alex' hand away. someone else would clean up the mess in the morning.

"you both joining me in the bedroom tonight? wanna celebrate a new chapter. "

#aa23 #gr63 #f1 imagine #f1 x reader #f1 smut #alex albon x reader #george russell x reader #alex albon imagine #george russell imagine

[qsycomplainsalot]

Re: Pervertin or how German Supersoldiers High on Crack travelled through Space and Time Buy my Book

I came across a post on the bird site yesterday calling into attention the use of pervitin, more or less adderall, among German troops during WW2. For context pervitin tablets were indeed issued to a lot of military personnel back in those days, specifically to aircraft pilot and sometimes tank crews on long missions. The drug as some of you may have heard keeps you awake and alert, along with a slew of side effects and a non negligible chance of addiction. In a discussion that brought to view just how willing people are to buy into Nazi propaganda in the year of our f*cking lord 2023, I pointed out a few things, uphill and having to indulge a lot of sidetracking. The use of pervitin has always been a little overstated ever since it came to the internet's attention, and I certainly would never call it a key component of the Blitzkrieg when, in the theaters of war where actual Blitzkrieg was employed, its success was more due to a combination of innovative doctrines, intact fuel supplies and a big fat helping of dumb luck. It was a bold move highly relying on capturing enemy fuel depots with fast, surprise deep strikes supported by a lot of armored and air forces, and it was only sustainable in neighboring, industrialized countries. One can argue if the USSR was industrialized at the time, but it stopped mattering when the Russians removed their entire industry from the West to beyond the Ural mountains. The Blitz stalled there.

"But if it didn't work, then why did the Nazis do it so often ?" Well the answer to that is twofold. The first, longer answer is that Nazis were a bunch of f*cking morons. Maybe not one by one, but as a government in charge of military procurement, they were one bunch of goofy motherf*ckers. Gaggle of functional shit-for-brains really. The Nazis gave every one of their tanks in the middle of the war two coats of anti-magnetic paint, which took almost a full day to cure, despite being the only major nation to use magnetic antitank mines. The Nazis kept using slave labor drawn from their prisoners of war, including in the manufacturing of their overengineered armored vehicles, resulting in poor quality products or, you know, a few rivets in your magnificent Tiger tank being replaced by a cigarette butt. The Nazis spent more than half the cost of a strategic bomber on every V2 rocket, not including design costs, for less than half the payload. It ended up killing more Germans and slave workers than British people in London, for literally no strategic or tactical result with 0.4 person killed per every rocket. The second, shorter answer is that pervitin was not used that much. A lot of the arguments trying to boost its importance come from a single book, "Blitzed" by Norman Ohler, now available in twenty languages apparently, where grand claims are made by a historian who was probably more than a little tired of seeing Buzzfeed rack in the big bucks instead of him.

End note; I was called out by a bird siter after the conversation that inspired this post for even beginning to fact-check this, which they considered, and I quote, "fangirling over nazi stats". I cannot stress this enough, learning the 'bad' parts of history does not make you bad person, it is how you interact with the resulting knowledge. Unlike what they implied, I had to look for those supporting evidence. I had a hunch that such a grabbing headline about super-drugs would be fake, I knew offhand that V2 rockets killed more blues than reds, but when I had to research all that jazz about Nazis and their superweapons it was to dunk on them, not make another History Channel documentary about a time-travelling bell. Stay critical, fascists can eat shit.

#history #ww2 #rambling #rant

[bidisastersanji]

The Old Guard x One piece AU got my brain going brrr and i'm gonna make it your problem now. Center of the matter is I want Zoro and Sanji to meet kind of like Nicki and Joe did (discovering their immortality by fighting on opposite sides and killing each other over and over and then becoming eternal lovers) so I went and did some research for the entire Straw hat crew. Main thing is I wanted to link them to historical events that will give them the right motivations and backgrounds! so here we GOOO

Sanji and Zoro: Because Japan has an isolationist past, the only battle I could find that would work is the Cagayan battles of 1582 in Jakarta between Spanish-Philippine forces vs Japanese pirates (a.k.a Wokou, which are basically pirate ronin) Sanji would thus be a reluctant "Rodelero" sent to South East Asia by his noble family (jokes on them he loves being in the middle of the spice trade and he hates being part of a noble family funding the conquistadores) who one day finds himself fighting a mysterious Wokou samurai Zoro. They're partly isolated from their respective camps when they first kill each other, and again, and again, until they realise they should by all means be dead but they keep healing. After a couple decades of -against all odds- running into each other everywhere, they reluctantly decide to try and figure out what the heck's happened to them together- struggling to communicate at first, then learning each others' language over the following decade, then falling in love and becoming inseparable. This makes Zoro and Sanji both over 400 years old, and they are the same age. Zoro learns about so many sword techniques and Sanji about different cuisines/ leg-centric fighting styles during this time.

all the other straw hats and their historical periods under the cut!

Robin as an Egyptian scholar who died during the burning of the Library of Alexandria in 48 BC/ was killed for researching something forbidden during the declining years of the Roman Period (early 200s) and found out she was immortal this way, making her around 2 millennia old. She spends her time recording history and traveling the world and encountering new cultures. Her long time enemy is religious obscurantism, and the Catholic church spends a lot of resources trying to kill her. (they have conspiracy boards about this immortal witch in the Vatican)

Brook: so ancient he doesn't remember much, other that he came from Kerma culture (2500 BC), loved music, and that his entire village had died from an illness, but he came back. His memory isn't great but if there's one thing he's loved in his Millennia of existence is discovering and learning how to play all the instruments that he could find. He mostly hangs in Vienna nowadays as a music teacher.

Jinbei is a Samoan chieftain from around 1000 BC who one day died during a battle with a Fijian chieftain. When he came back from death he assumed Tagaloa chose him. He loves navigating, sailing, exploring and going on voyages with his people. In more recent times (post european contact) he was forced to ally with the US Navy to protect his people.

Nami: Irish lass from around 800 who's coastal, tiny village was about to be raided by Vikings from Sweden. She made a deal with their chieftain Arlong to go with them and map out the British isles for them to help their raids be more effective and targeted, in exchange for not killing people in her village, and that she would make back the plunder they did not get from this town for them. She started to join their raids to try and make this money, but she died in battle. She came back and they believed her to be some kind of Valkyrie or Einherjer brought back to midgard. She took over the raider's leadership- also Norsemen always had women handle money, which works great here. During her time as an immortal she travels, seeks treasure, double crosses people etc.

Usopp a young double agent/CIA spy from the Cold War who died on a mission. He tragically could not return to his love Kaya because he was afraid of putting her in danger by revealing he was alive to the spies that killed him. He relocates and starts anew constantly, his entire life a web of lies. He's a great marksman/sniper.

Chopper died young of the Bubonic plague in medieval Europe. He resuscitated, tragically his father is infected as well and he's unable to save him- motivating him to get to the bottom of this disease, he decides to become a doctor. Looking like a 15 year old for centuries doesn't make this task easy and he has to hide a lot.

Franky is an American veteran of WWI who was heavily disfigured first, and died later (which is why he's not fully healed and needs prosthetics). He's heavily anti-government from having been sent to fight in such a meaningless war that sacrificed young men like cannon fodder. He learned to fix himself up and make prosthetics and masks for veterans, got into making tech stuff

Luffy is a modern, 21st century 20 something year old from Brazil's favelas. He dies in a gun violence incident (maybe linked to a drug war/gang war where he's been trying to protect his neighbourhood) and comes back, experiencing visions of others like him. He's resolute to find them and make a crew, thinking that with all of them together, maybe they can help liberate the world from opressors and inequality

#it's one am #but i couldnt stop #did all the research i could to match each straw hat with a nice historic period #one piece au #zosan au #zosan fic idea #one piece fic idea #zoro x sanji #i just want the star crossed immortal lovers with lots of lore and cool adventures as #new immortal luffy just goes around collecting these people who have no idea there's others like them #and them going around liberating people #like the scariest undying ten people army that they are #the old guard one piece au #the old guard au #immortal straw hats #straw hat crew #zosan

[decolonize-the-left]

i was thinking about your whiteness post, and i wanna add how the idea of whiteness has lead to an almost bastardized and commercialized version of christianity

i don't celebrate christmas as a muslim because it's not my religious holiday to celebrate, but the amount of times people have said "you should still celebrate it! christmas is not religious holiday anymore!" is wild. like, that's your saviour? wdym christmas isn't a religious holiday???

it's not like this with other christian dominions, so i find it insane that the countries that scream about jesus all the time also treats his 'birthday' (there's so much debate on his date of birth) is just another holiday. the same thing for easter and i don't hear a word about lent either.

this probably isn't a new thought, but given that it's been another season of peoples pity because i don't celebrate christmas, its been on my mind.

anywho, i hope you're having a wonderful day!! <333

I 100% agree

I think much like a government, Christianity in the West has been co-opted by white supremacists.

I have a whole theory and special interest about it so let me soap box for a second.

Doing research even on the Bible the last few months and the KJV print is where that becomes obvious to me. Some of the wording changed to make obedience and subservience to the king a virtue. It linked holiness to serving someone other than God or yourself.

And that's not to say it didn't have issues before that or that the KJV is the sole cause (it is one of the most popular versions tho). But rather an observable point in history where we can see the Bible being wielded as a tool to make the masses more easily controlled.

It stopped being about God and spirituality a long time ago.

Further, the guy who translated it for King James is now considered the patriarch of puritanism. And that was caused when the King repudiated papal authority and transformed the Church of Rome into a state Church of England.

Yeah. They literally colonized the church.

See also:

The main difference between the Catholic Church and the Church of England is that Anglicans do not recognize the pope as the head of the Christian faith. Instead, the head of the Church of England is the British monarch.

The puritans who showed up on Turtle Island? Those were the same extremist puritans who didn't want to share church with Catholics that the king didn't want to deal with either. They thought the church being inclusive to Catholics was a religious affront and they wanted more reforms about it.

But then

Under Charles I, Calvinist teachings were undermined and bishops became less tolerant of Puritan views and more willing to enforce the use of controversial ceremonies. New controls were placed on Puritan preaching, and some ministers were suspended or removed from their livings. Increasingly, many Puritans concluded that they had no choice but to emigrate

Every time I hear "Starbucks cups are a christians tradition" I'm reminded of puritans screeching about how being inclusive of Catholics was a personal attack on their rights.

And when I see some megachurch doing this

Or when I hear about how Christianity feels more like a cult people want you to join and less like a peace driven religion about Jesus

Or when people have experiences like yours.

...it feels so obvious that focus of Western Christianity is actually about normalizing political ideas and they lure you into that by going "look how fun our parades are" and "aren't chocolate eggs fun?"

Jesus is a Trojan horse.

It's how you end up with so many "religious" people who'd willingly die for their country but shoot their neighbor. Conversely, it's how you end up with so many non-religious people saying it's not religious at all and bring people together actually.

Because its just parades.

Right?

#asked #answered #cultural Christianity #whiteness #colonization #i love asks like these #tysm for sending it

[historianroo]

a short list of historical figures who were queer: because I need people to understand that queer people have always been here.

with sources, because I am, after all, a historian.

Most of these figures are musicans, it is because I am studying to be a historical musicologist (basically a music historian).

Leonard Berenstein– (1918-1990) Composer, conductor, musician. Known for his musical West Side Story. Most likely a gay man, perhaps bisexual. While there are plenty of letters and first hand confirmations that exist, this Guardian article conveys the information well enough.

Pytor Illich Tchaikovsky– (1840-1892) Russian composer, best known for his ballets: Swan Lake, and the Nutcracker, as well as his 1812 Overture, which features canon fire (and has become a meme on Tumblr). A gay man, as confirmed by multiple historians that have dedicated their life to his research, and by me, who spent a few weeks translating letters that talk about his love for men and his fear of what that would do to his life. This article talks about John Wiley (a historian) had to say about it.

Benjamin Britten– (1913-1976) Known for his vocal compositions, if you are an english classically trained vocalist you know Britten's compositions. Known especially for his War Requiem and his opera Peter Grimes. He and fellow musician Peter Pears had a long lived relationship. This article speaks about it more.

Ethel Smyth– (1857-1944) A lifelong disrupter, demanded (rightly so) for people to listen to her music in a time where women were not given the space to compose. A lesbian who fought for the right for women to perform and be a part of orchestras and conductor her own works when women conducters were few and far between. This article, written by a woman, speaks on her life well.

Francis Poulenc– (1899-1963) A Parisian man with a marked love of mostly men, but did father one daughter and dedicated a few compositions to her mother. This article speaks well on his love.

Alan Turing– (1912-1954) A gay icon of mine, Turing was a British Mathmetician and codebreaker who you have to thank for your phone and for the earlier end of the second World War. This article speaks about his life, as well as the film Imitation Game (2014) discusses it to some extent.

Freddie Mercury–(1946-1991) The beloved lead singer of the band Queen was a notourious queer icon, who had many love affairs with men but did say that he loved one woman when he was younger, for this reason, I will not say whether he was bisexual or gay. But a queer icon nonetheless. This article discusses the topic.

David Bowie– (1947-2016) A performer I have always loved and dearly miss, who is known for his bisexuality and fantastic outfits. This Billboard article discusses his sexuality. But it is important to note, that he came out as gay first, and then bisexual, which does not mean he was changing his mind or wanting to conform, but instead was becoming more comfortable with his own sexuality as he aged, something that should be a more generally accepted thing.

Leonardo da Vinci– (1452-1519) While there are guesses about this mans sexuality, it is generally believed and agreed upon that he was at least queer. While more research must be done, this article speaks on the subject well enough.

There are plenty more that I could talk about and that I want to talk about but that would take so long.

The most important thing: Queer people have always been here, and they are amazing and beautiful and deserved so much better than what history gave them.

Please reply with more (and sources) if you have them.

#queer history #queer #historians will say they were close friends #history #i cried while working on this #because this means so much to me

[krisstheidiot]

1-Character Intros 1.0

A/N:- It's a lot but I thought this would be more of an effective background and context than in pics so yeah spare me guys I wrote this with half my usual braincell lol

@series directory

Name: Y/N Holmes

Age: 18

Year: Freshmen (Fall Sem)

Major: Double major in Computer science and Film Studies with a minor in Fashion Design.

Extracurriculars: Student Rep in the student council, Tennis, Theatre, Writing.

Vibes: Chaotic Academia, Occasionally casual chic, Smiley, Crack most of the time, Spontaneous, Very Indecisive, Sarcasm goes undetected as jokes, Every word is laced with sarcasm so good luck, history is full of how to pull off crimes but its for research nothing much.

Background: Part French(Maternal) and part British-Korean(Paternal), Skipped two years when she was a kid but then took a gap before applying for college, met Seungmin and Han in 7th grade, Mom is a famous fashion designer, Dad a surgeon, during the gap she took she had gone on a trip around Europe with her mom and made friends in France during the month she stayed there.

Name: Kim Seungmin

Age: 20

Year: Sophomore

Major: Double major in Journalism and Media Arts.

Extracurriculars: Treasurer(Student Council), Runs the campus newsletter, Photography club, Baseball.

Vibes: Smart Casual look, Citycore, Straightforward, does not believe in delulu, Sarcastic mean but funny in a way, will sassy shit on people who bother the people he cares about, pretty smile, is very sentimental inside, book boyfriend coded to the T. (*Mom I want one*)

Name: Han Jisung

Age: 20

Year: Sophomore

Major: Double major in Audio Engineering and Music Technology

Extracurriculars: Extra curriculars head(student council), Music, Part of the band called 3racha on campus, Also the campus radio show host with the other two from 3racha called "Racha Talks"

Vibes: Grunge, graphic tees with blazers, Beatles, Chaos, Very shinchan coded lol, Sirius black outfits, Emo boy x Indie, funny but the stupid kind, Will snort at a funeral, under the surface he is very feeling like very, likes anime, will force you to watch silent voice and then proceed to cry like a baby though ofc you would too, Taps his knee to calm his anxiety.

Name: Bang (Christopher) Chan

Age: 22

Year: Senior

Major: Double major in Music Production and Audio Engineering.

Extracurriculars: President(student council), Music, Part of the band called 3racha on campus, Also the campus radio show host with the other two from 3racha called "Racha Talks".

Vibes: Black, Casual Neat, Comfort is fashion core, Protective, Nice, sweet, Caring, will smile at you for no reason at all, Cry and the person who did it will be 6 feet under, Mans is a walking green flag y'all, Father of 7, Aussie Aussie Aussie, Kangaroo, Very huggable.

Name: Lee Minho

Age: 21

Year: Junior

Major: Major in Dance and Minor in Culinary Arts

Extracurriculars: Vice president(School council), Dance team, Volunteers at the animal shelter.

Vibes: Casual comfortable, does not like being extravagant, add cat fur on every piece of clothing, Convenient chic fashion, Sass in a very aggressive manner, Mans has evil written all over that attractive ass smirk on his face but in a good way ofc, Will not take anyone's shit, prefers cats to humans but honestly who doesn't, Cat butler to his three fur babies(we Stan).

Name: Seo Changbin

Age: 21

Year: Junior

Major: Music technology and Production

Extracurriculars: Secretary(Student Council), Music, Part of the band called 3racha on campus, Also the campus radio show host with the other two from 3racha called "Racha Talks".

Vibes: Black again, But make it more edgy, beanies, gym buddy, will fight someone for you, Mans is strong and fit, intimidating at first look but girl don't kid me he is the sweetest when you get to know him, Badtz Maru but slay, will bring you to eat with him because why the hell not.

Name: Hwang Hyunjin

Age: 20

Year: Sophomore

Major: Fine Arts and Dance.

Extracurriculars: Arts, Dance team, Soccer team.

Vibes: Artsy light academia, Fancy, luxury, part times as a model(flex), Sassy, Judgy sometimes, Side eye 10x, Fears Minho, Sad eater, Seungmin biased, Procrastinates too much, Laughs at every thing you say, Laughing while clapping 100x.

Name: Lee Felix (Yongbok)

Age: 20

Year: Sophomore

Major: Culinary arts.

Extracurriculars: Gaming club, Dance team, E-culture club.

Vibes: Fancy, colourful, pastels, bright, Deep voice baby face, So sunshiney all the time that you might melt from the warmth he radiates, mans is fixated on levelling up in his games, will help you build your pc, rgb went brr, streams a lot on twitch, shouting ensues whenever he is playing headphones recommended to protect your eardrums.

Name: Yang Jeongin

Age: 19

Year: Freshmen(Spring Sem)

Major: Fashion Design

Extracurriculars: Soccer team, Theatre(Costume design), Campus volunteer for extra merits.

Vibes: Modern chic, very stylish, ootd's all the time, very confident somehow and will judge people just because, Sass king, Baby bread, is very much the maknae on top even if he isn't the youngest in a setting, also models part time yay!, this guy will bully you about your height ofc in association with Seungmin.

Name: Simon Daneu

Age: 25

Occupation: CEO of a company specialising in Games and Software called Solyx.

Background: Y/N's Cousin brother but is closer to a real one because of their bond, Part French(Paternal) and part American-Korean(Maternal).

Vibes: Formal casual, Polo shirts, Button ups, corduroy pants, very chic, very overprotective as well, will spoil with no hesitation, still will bully as well with no hesitation whatsoever, likes mocking his younger sisters and brother, will pull out his card even you need the most trivial things because with him no one pays.

Name: Noelle Daneu

Age: 20

Occupation: Famous chef/baker, Owns a line of cafes and bakery/patisseries called 'The Dusk' around that are viral for their desserts and specials, also a model.

Background: Simon's younger sister, Y/N's cousin sister but is closer to a real one because of their bond, Part French(Paternal) and part American-Korean(Maternal).

Vibes: Light academia, Boss girl look, Is very funny, will spoil her younger sibs, Y/N is her baby sister and will be spoiled to bits, besties, Is very sassy which is very much a family trait honestly.

Name: Theo Holmes

Age: 9

Background: Y/N's lil brother, is a elementary student, lives in Seoul, very much rich kid but the good kind.

Vibes: Whatever mom buys lol, acts way too smug for his won good, will get bonked if he doesn't behave, finds it funny when y/n is annoyed and it makes his life a bit better to see her irritated, will tease y/n and then will whine when faced with retaliation, fights like they were enemies and then the very next minute will be giggling around like idiots.

Name: Amelia Wallis

Age: 19

Background: Y/N's bestie from Paris(met when y/n was on the Europe trip)

Vibes: Confident, cool, fashionable, always looking out for y/n, will hit someone for her.

Name: Mattheo Grey

Age: 20

Background: Y/N's bestie from Paris(met when y/n was on the Europe trip)

Vibes: Dark academia, poems, research papers, theatre kid, Hamilton.

Name: Elliot Wesley

Age: 19

Background: Y/N's bestie from London(met when y/n was on the Europe trip and then proceeded to become friends with Mattheo and Amelia)

Vibes: Smug, confident, bold, proud, country club fashion, tennis partners with y/n when she was in London, is very annoying when he wants to be.

Series Taglist:- @hyunverse , @nujeskz , @queen-in-the-shadows , @phtogravi , @authentic-65 , @rylea08 ,......

#skz #au #chan #bang chan #hwang hyunjin #hyunjin #changbin #felix #jisung #ongoing #lee know #lee minho #seo changbin #han jisung #lee felix #yang jeongin #skz smau #stray kids au #social media au #stray kids smau #stray kids #itzy #smau #reader x skz #itzy smau #college au #university au #txt #enhypen #le sserafim

[devils-acre]

Historically Accurate POTC Designs, Maybe??

Tried drawing some historically accurate Pirates of the Caribbean designs, with my best effort(s?) to keep the spirit of the original costumes!

Research rabbit holes below:

I set the clothes in the late 1720's, 1728-1731. At this time, coats were very full—almost skirt-like—with big cuffs, and the waistcoats sometimes had long sleeves!

For Will, I decided to give him just a waistcoat since most of his costumes in the movie don't have an overcoat, and it makes more sense for a blacksmith, I think! I also decided not to give him a wig since I don't think he would be wealthy enough or be able to work with one.

For (Captain) Jack, I really just wanted to give him shoes with red heels. They were popular in the 17th century, but carried over to the early 18th!  Wearing them meant you were in favor with King Louis XIV (who ruled at the time) and were rich enough to wear the color red. Since Jack is obviously none of those things I thought it’d be funny—he probably stole them. The T on his hand was supposed to be the equivalent to the P brand Jack has in the movies. Branding was a thing, just not for pirates! A T burned on the hand was for “thief.” Usually brands were like a warning, and if the offender committed another crime then they would be hanged—pirates, however, didn’t get a second chance.

For Elizabeth, her dress was hard to research. Technically the popular gown at the time was a Robe Volante, but I don’t like the way it looks so I found a different one haha :D What I could find from a few paintings was what apparently is called a “round gown” and was often worn with some sort of belt or ribbon thing at the middle. Not sure what that part is called, maybe a girdle? Technically, a mantua would be closer to the purple-red gown Barbossa gives Elizabeth, since it has fabric bunched up in the back, but I thought a different style could work too.

Elizabeth’s pirate outfit is just based off of what I could find for general 18th-century sailor’s clothes, which were difficult to find for the 1720s in particular, but didn’t seem to change much throughout the decade. However fashionable, boots (sadly) weren’t actually worn by pirates, and most sailors would go barefoot or just wear the current fashionable shoe at the time! She would also probably be wearing a knit hat, but I thought the tricorne was too iconic to take away.

And, lastly, for Norrington! He’s wearing a Ramillies wig (named after the battle of Ramillies in 1706) which was the style for people in the military, or really for anyone who couldn’t wear a full periwig (the really big curly wigs.) And for his clothes, since British Navy Uniforms weren’t introduced until 1748, I just put him in blue and gold.

And that’s it! I’m only a very amateur fashion history enthusiast and could be wrong about a lot, so if anyone knows anything about 1720-30s fashion or anything like that feel free to let me know about any mistakes or other interesting historical facts!

#potc #potc fanart #character design #18th century #pirates #historical fashion #pirates of the caribbean #james norrington #elizabeth swann #jack sparrow #will turner #18th century fashion #1720s #pirate #these literally took forever :) #I forgot how leg proportions work #my art

[wolfiesmoon]

About the languages in TWST

Since i'm a bit of a language nerd, i like to think about the languages in TWST and who would speak which one in my spare time instead of being normal. I didn't do a whole bunch of research for this one and am mostly pulling things out of my brain so by all means let me know if I made a mistake anywhere or missed something.

(This is why you'll get a rare theory post from me about this instead of my usual fics 🤭)

It's shown that some real languages exist in TWST canon like french (spoken by Rook) and by the fact that Yuu can communicate with the characters just fine even tho they're in a different world, implying the language they speak is known to us.

Which brings me to my first point, the language everyone collectively speaks in NRC (and other big gatherings of mixed cultures) is english. Much like the real world, english is considered the "universal language" in TWST and is the one most people learn as their second language in schools. The game is in japanese so the japanese players can understand it, obviously, but they do imply that a japan-esque country exists through the new years events so I would say they speak japanese exclusively there and english in general.

And yes, this does mean I think some characters have accents when speaking english.

There's also other languages that are implied by the fact that Ruggie learned 10 languages just to negotiate with people in them, though it isn't known if they're real languages or fictional ones. Point is, there's at least ten.

Now, to the fun part. I based a lot of my HCS on existing Disney movie native language videos and theories but some are just my own personal thoughts hehe

Riddle, Trey, Chenya and Ace all speak british english. This one's pretty simple, Alice in wonderland takes place in England so that makes the choice obvious.

Cater is from the Shaftlands and his family did move around a lot when he was a kid so giving him an exact language is sorta hard because the Shaftlands are so varied in culture (and language too, by that logic). But for simplicity I'll just say he knows some other european languages aside from English. For this same reason I don't really think he has an accent.

Leona's mother tongue is Zulu since the Lion King was dubbed in Zulu, making it the first african language to get a full-feature dub made for it (aside from egyptian arabic). That wasn't exactly relevant but I just wanted to mention it. But since he's a prince and has access to a lot of education from an early age, he learned other languages as a child including English, which is why he doesn't have an accent.

Ruggie also speaks Zulu, but considering the thing I mentioned earlier, I think he also speaks other african languages like Xhosa or Swahili or Fulani as well as some non-african languages to some degree. I do think he speaks English with an accent, since he speaks differently to the other characters even in the japanese dub. (I know it was most likely done to make him sound more hyena-like i guess but let me have my moment!!)

Jack speaks German since he comes from the same neighborhood as Vil (I'll elaborate more in Vil's part). I do like to think he has a slight accent though hehe.

For Jade, Floyd and Azul I had a bit of trouble deciding on what language to assign them (by that I mean I'm still undecided), but maybe I would assign them a more northern language since they come from a northern part of the coral sea??? then again languages on the surface might not have a bearing on languages in the sea, especially since humans and merfolk couldn't interact well throughout history...

Kalim and Jamil are both obvious, they speak Arabic. Not much to say here haha.

Vil speaks German since Snow White takes place in Germany AND his surname is German. He doesn't have much of an accent if any at all because he learned english early on to be able to film movies in english for a wider global appeal.

Now for Epel I could really have fun. I know saying this kinda retcons the fact that his dialect is in the same language as the one everyone speaks (so English), but I believe he speaks in Plattdeutsch or Low German which can be quite difficult to understand when spoken in it's true form. He could speak a totally different dialect of a different language but I went w German because of continuity and also I feel like it'd make for a funnier dynamic with Vil. Defo has a bit of an accent.

Neige is a native french speaker simply going off his french name, though I do think he knows how to speak german as well (mostly because I want my "snow white takes place in germany" copium for Neige). I don't think it's been confirmed where Neige is from tho.

Now for Rook, since he was born in Sunset Savana, he also speaks Zulu as his first language. He's a mysterious fellow and all and could have learned french for a different motive, but I have a far more interesting HC. Since he's Neige's biggest fanboy, he learned french because Neige speaks it and he associates Neige with beauty. (and also haven't we all tried learning korean for our kpop bias at some point???)

Idia and Ortho are another obvious one, the language being Greek. Hercules takes place in Greece, obviously, and the Island of Woe still has some Greek architecture so I'd assume the language stayed too. Idia doesn't have much of an accent because being chronically online gives u exposure to so much english you don't retain an accent (assuming he's been on the internet since he was a little boy). Ortho? Maybe? Idia could have removed an accent on purpose when making a voicebox for Ortho or he could have kept it in for accuracy sake.

Malleus and the Diasomnia gang are another hard one to place. Sleeping Beauty takes place in France, but somehow saying they speak french feels wrong. I feel like they speak some fantasy language that doesn't exist. I would say give them the language where fae originate in folklore if I had to give them a real language but SOOOO many different folklores have them that it'd be hard to pick one.

Rollo speaks French, really obvious.

Let me know about your opinions and thoughts on this and help me figure out what to do with Octavinelle and Diasomnia since i am LOST on them 😭

#˗ˏˋ ★ ꕤ 「Wolfie’s posts」 ꕤ ★ ��ˊ˗ #twisted wonderland #twst #disney twisted wonderland #disney twst #heartslabyul #savanaclaw #octavinelle #scarabia #ignyhide #diasomnia #pomefiore #twst headcanons #twst hcs #twisted wonderland hcs

[foggynitefic]

Drop Them Bones Chapter 9: Hard and Fast

This one's a doozy...

Hard and Fast

To be sure of, without a doubt, without debate History: In seafaring times, the term ‘hard and fast’ was used to describe a vessel that was beached on land and unable to be moved. [Don’t lie. Absolutely none of us thought it meant that. None of us.]

So, funny thing. Since posting Chapter 8, I had a wonderful long weekend in Manhattan, followed by the worst stomach flu I’ve gotten in at least a decade. Then, after a few weeks recovering from that, I partially dislocated my knee and sprained my MCL. Full damage assessment still TBD in a couple months, but I have a care plan for now.

What I’ve posted as Chapter 9 was supposed to be ten pages max plus additional scenes, and then this happened. So, I have 6k words of Chapter 10 already because I split Chapter 9 in half, and I’ve had the final scene in Chapter 10 (originally intended for Chapter 6, hah!) written for the last three months…

I currently have 9 more chapters planned out, but as this adventure has shown me, that’s more like guidelines. This chapter would have been out sooner, but reference above, and in retrospect, this chapter’s title also describes me in seafaring times right now…

Notes

At least I’m recuperating and back to excessive research spiraling:

If you have the equipment, time, and inclination, you too can om a gator nom. I have only ever outsourced my gator dining experience to trustworthy restaurants, because I’m happy to compensate people accordingly for their labor and gator meat is fucking expensive to have shipped up north.

I’ve mostly encountered alligator fried or in etouffees in restaurants, and if you can’t source alligator or just think they’re too cute to eat (look at them faces!), they do taste like a fishy chicken, but less swampy than frog, and have the consistency of a pork chop. So, imo, you can substitute either white chicken meat or pork to about the same effects in all the recipes except the whole smoked gator. Alligator meat is very lean and easy to dry out, though (flashbacks to straw-like fried, breaded nonsense on that one trip to Florida…) The Daily Beast has an article from 2019 that goes into more detail on taste, etc. I’m not going to link to any of the butchering videos I watched to make this fic, but if you’re interested, deermeatfordinner on Youtube has a good one.

And yes, in true Louisiana fashion, the state government does have an alligator cookbook available in PDF for free. The final page notes that funds for it came from both Florida and Louisiana, and the most approximate publication date I can find for it is 1994. Its text, graphics, and ingredients definitely look like something from the 80s or 90s…

I was not tracking that discarded crocodile and alligator fat can be used to produce biodiesel at competitive prices…

I went down a lot of interesting 1700-1800s sailing history that involved the provisions given per day to British Navy sailors, how much salt was needed to brine 100 lbs of meat, and how the brining process actually worked (floating eggs and meats, oh my!) The average alligator yields about 40 lbs of meat, so all the proportions and weights for applegators came from multiplying that by three, then adding on more layers of fat than an alligator would have because applegators can also go out in the deep sea. Yes, I know this is a fanfic for fantasy pirates on an imaginary planet. If Oda-sensei can say they’re all stronger because gravity, I can make chonky applegators.

Curing meat Wikipedia article; Quora entry (of all things) on sailor provisions; Colonies, Ships and Pirates blog; and an NIH paper with some science of curing meats; plus a definition of pellicle; and some historical pre-refrigeration context.  Salting meat Wikipedia article and smoking meat Wikipedia article. And of course, once the fancy bougie restaurants start using salt water, it’s cool again.

If you don’t have a smoker at home, here’s a stove-top smoked salmon recipe that could work with any type of fish (though, I don’t think a sweet cure would really go with white fish).

How to dehydrate food without a dehydrator ideas

Making a ground oven: I actually learned about this technique back in anthropology of food, as it’s one of the oldest cooking methods that we know of, and I’ve always wanted to try it. Darn you, local fire ordinances.

Random fandom trivia: If you’re a fan of 911 Lone Star, you may remember the first (I think) season episode of a family ground cooking in their backyard and their racist neighbor being a dick about it then getting a righteous comeuppance from the team. Is it over the top justice? Yes. Is the drama hilarious? Also, yes.

They use a technique in this chapter that I based off a New England clambake set up. Mainly, a pit on the beach with seaweed, hot rocks, and a wet sail over top, covered with sand. General bake concepts and times came from here (if you can read it through that horrible font…)

Sustainably harvesting seaweed.  Modern Farmer has a pretty informative newsletter I’ve been subscribed to for a couple years – It’s an interesting read if you’re into agriculture news (food-related technology, regulations, innovations, etc.) and like to know more about your food supply chain.

I didn’t know how to make sausage before. Behold, basic sausage tutorial!

Recipes bludgeoned in the making of this chapter:

I have never cooked gator meat or a whole pig, but here are recipes that sound like horrifying fun:

Whole Smoked Gator

But also, whole pig ground cooked

Kalua Pork  

Alligator Jerky

Songs: 

#one piece #one piece live action #zosan #opla #straw hat crew #drop them bones #drop them bones notes #foggynite #Spotify #SoundCloud

[lastweeksshirttonight]

All righty, I managed to get back home despite the hurricane, let's talk about the show.

Tl;dr - I traveled cross-country to see John Oliver and Seth Meyers. It was amazing and I am still giddy about it!! Gonna put all the details under a cut to not clog up your timeline/the tags.

(All jokes will be paraphrased/guestimated bc my adrenaline and ADHD played havoc with my memory recall, lol.)

Firstly, the Beacon Theatre is absolutely stunning. It reminds me a bit of the Theatre at Ace Hotel in LA, in that it's clearly had its old elements lovingly preserved and harkens back to an older time. It was truly a gorgeous venue.

I missed getting a pic of the other side of the stage, which had a massive sculpture of shields and spears. John made a joke about the opulence of the room not matching the entertainment for the evening, and noted that "even Coco Chanel would say to keep it to one shield". Really wish I'd thought to get a picture of it, he was not wrong.

I was extremely close to the stage - 3 rows back and dead center. I definitely had the anxious excited adrenaline jitters because of it.

I mean COME ON.

The opener was Brooks Wheelan, who I remembered from his brief stint at SNL. He talked a fair deal about that, and told a great story bit about getting fired from there and opening for John shortly after, wherein he drank an entire bottle of "HBO blood diamond whiskey" from John's dressing room and had, in Seth's later words, "a nervous breakdown". I'd heard Brooks has opened for John before and was glad I got to see him, he's a lot of fun.

He also told a joke about not wanting to learn karate because of the huge glass windows in front of every karate studio and not wanting anyone to watch him learn karate. Lots of very understanding laughter there, including from me. (Why do all these places have massive plate glass windows?!)

After Brooks was John Oliver, and y'all. Let me get this out of the way.

He is fine as hell. Look. Just LOOK. HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO DEAL WITH THIS

I would also like to take the time to gush effusively about John's mastery of set structure. The set was, aside from the typical "before we get started, I need to let you know I'm British" pseudo-opener he's used since like 2005, entirely new material -

(As an aside... !!!!!! I KNOW!!!! A FULL FUCKING HOUR OF ENTIRELY NEW MATERIAL!! THAT I WAS NEAR THE FRONT FOR!!!! I'M SO VERKLEMPT STILL YOU HAVE NO IDEA)

- and it was just beautifully written from a structural standpoint. It was pretty much all political material all centered around history and the need to understand it for context on the world as it currently stands. There were some digressions from that point but they were seamlessly woven in. He is such a goodamn incredible stand-up comedian.

A few things he talked about in his set:

That time the US dropped nukes on itself twice (which was briefly mentioned on LWT but not in this detail and not including a reenactment of a man dropping a bomb while working on a plane and him reacting to watching it roll away).

That the current British royal line of succession exists because of a "cousin-fucker who cut someone into pieces like a Benihana chef". (John told us this is something he learned researching this bit, which caused me unending joy. I love that he's making new sets!! :D)

John delights in the misery of billionaires and wished that the rocket Jeff Bezos was on would blow up. He doesn't want him to die, though. Through this he also talked about Elon Musk and his favorite fake blue check company tweets, mainly a series made by a fake Chiquita account claiming to have overthrown Brazil, followed by Chiquita saying they hadn't actually overthrown any governments since 1954.

John got booed at a Sesame Street benefit and told a killer set of jokes about Bert judging him for it. ("The man lives with Ernie! He knows chaos!")

He claims we will all know things are okay with the US again when we are all irrationally mad at Anne Hathaway for no reason again. Told an incredible story about how he just blundered into the street in LA once, almost got hit by a car, looked up, realized it was Anne Hathaway in the car, saw her wave at him, and, despite the scenario being objectively his fault, being somehow mad at her.

Shaded Dave Chappelle in an analogy about how we are not at Civil War division times because "somehow our level of division is people debating whether Chapelle's SNL monologue was okay or not", in a way that suggested it was very much not okay. 10/10 no notes.

Okay so there was one recycled bit - him being informed the Queen wanted to give him an OBE. He added to it fantastically though, by personifying the man from the embassy as the most offensively British stereotype you could possibly imagine. He said the man sounded like "if a British person rubbed a teapot and a genie came out".

There was definitely more but I could gush forever so let's move on.

Brooks came back out to introduce Seth and forgot the name of his show, lol. For a brief moment we all contemplated what Last Week Tonight with Seth Meyers would look like. (I assume the show's Adam Driver would be Stefon.)

Anyways, here is the only good photo I took of Seth.

Seth was great as well - not as good as John, but I'm very biased in that regard. The material was also pretty diametrically opposed to John's, much more domestic comedy about his wife and kids and their idiosyncracies.

I really liked Seth's energy and approach. I don't quite know how to explain this, but he had a touch of Dennis Reynolds energy to him, a restrained manicness, that was really interesting to watch. That's not my normal association with Seth's energy, either, but it was very fun. Definitely puts some of the more deranged things from his tenure as Weekend Update host in context.

Some highlights from Seth's set:

He had an amazing brick joke about doing accents as a comedian, where he imitated a Swedish accent and talked about how everyone's Swedish accent is basically the Swedish Chef from the Muppets and how the only Swedish food anyone has nearby is the meatballs at IKEA. Funny on its own, but later in the show, Seth talked about how people assume he's fully Jewish, including people on the street. He noted that he's 25% Swedish but no one comes up to him on the street and goes -insert Swedish Chef impression-. (This straight up killed the guy sitting next to me, who ended up laughing with his head in his hands for a solid 30 seconds.)

His kids eat very healthily, so when they end up going to friends' houses and eat one Skittle, they turn into demons. Literal demons. Seth's impression of an actual demon trying to undo a double-buckled car seat was the hardest I laughed at his whole set.

Seth also had a section which he claimed would be the part where he'd tell anti-trans jokes "if he was a complete asshole". I enjoyed the trans affirmation the whole evening, ngl.

Seth's family and his wife's family have very different ways of conversing at the dinner table, which directly mirrors my and my partner's family - Seth's family (like Mr. Lee's) is big on listening to everyone and contributing to conversations only when someone else has talked; Alexi's family (like mine) is constantly screaming over each other.

After Seth's set, everyone (including Brooks) came out to do a Q&A. I could not think of a song in the moment, but realized at the hotel room an hour after that I should have made @chiijohn 's evening by asking John's opinion on Planet of the Bass. :facepalm: Sorry mate!

Still, some great questions were asked, and it was about 30 minutes of just audience interaction. I've never experienced anything like it at a stand-up gig and genuinely loved it. John, of course, told people they were free to leave before the Q&A because why would they want to stay; the man is incapable of thinking anything good about himself and much as I hate his bad self-esteem, I would have been concerned if he hadn't said something to that effect.

Brooks was asked almost immediately if he remembered the name of Seth's show, which was honestly hilarious. Brooks said "I conferred with John backstage and we're both pretty sure that it's Late Night with Seth Meyers".

Someone asked how fearful Seth and John were of their shows being cancelled after one year, and Brooks snarked that he knew that feeling. (Brooks seems to have a good sense of humour about not being a huge presence on SNL.) Seth said that he wasn't super worried but that they redid his entire set (background set, not stand-up set) because Alec Baldwin said it looked like "a sushi restaurant in Burbank". (theoniontheworstpersonyouknow.jpg) John said he was told most HBO shows don't get cancelled at one season and he said "we'll see about that".

There was definitely some extended riffing on Alec Baldwin being a piece of shit afterwards, while John giggled helplessly. I love John's giggling.

Seth and John's favorite Muppet is Cookie Monster. They talked about how interesting it is that you can have amazing chemistry with Muppets, and then meet the puppeteer and have literally nothing to talk about. Seth also talked about how low-tech Big Bird was, and how the late Carroll Spinney, when on SNL, held a script in one hand, the controls of Big Bird in the other, and a flashlight in his mouth to read the script.

Everyone is upset they didn't get to cover the indictments because of the Writer's Strike. John thought there were only 3, but I honestly don't know if one of them came down before the Writer's Strike and he was just referring to the ones since then. It's been a long few months for us all.

Brooks basically forces John and Seth to get out of their hotel rooms when touring. Otherwise, Seth said, "they both just sit there anxious". That tracks, especially for John, who literally said on Seth's podcast that he is physically incapable of relaxing.

When asked about their influences, John said (rather obviously) that he wouldn't have a career without Jon Stewart, and Brooks talked about how both Seth and John really uplifted him and cared for him after he got fired from SNL. Seth talked in a really lovely way about how Amy Poehler basically adopted him and got him out of his shell and was a real friend to him early on.

I really wish I'd written down every stand-up that the three of them recommended when prompted, because I've completely blanked on half of them. Seth said Joe Pera (who I also highly recommend); John recommended Maria Bamford (again, also highly recommend). He also said that most people in the room would have probably not heard of him but that the best in the UK was Daniel Kitson (paging @tellthemeerkatsitsfine to provide her recs bc she knows Kitson backwards and fronts). Brooks gave a shout to Kyle Kinane (who I am not as familiar with as I should be).

There was so much more, but honestly, I was just so in the moment that I feel like I remember things in waves. It was an amazing evening and I was honestly so blessed to be there at all.

I did not wait at the stage door or anything, because I am truly not that kind of person and have consistently been sure that if I ever met John, I'd barf on his shoes. I know on Instagram some people had gotten stage door photos, though, and I'm happy for them!

Thank you all for always being supportive of this dumb blog. I don't think I would have had the confidence to go on this cross-country journey without you all randomly egging me on all the time. It was one of the best nights of my life. 💖💖

#john oliver #seth meyers #brooks wheelan #last week tonight #last week tonight with john oliver #late night with seth meyers #stand up #lee's stream of consciousness

[historia-vitae-magistras]

Are you still doing that viking time travel au?

Part One: Bodies

One: You are Here.

Two: Here.

Author's Note: I am! So there's science I kind of completely bullshit because I just kind of stole the language from some studies I'm familiar with and probably a very shitty replica of how the British actually store archaeological material but I got so caught up in details I couldn't get it finished so it's thoroughly bullshit! The burial is based on the Repton Warrior, adjusted for fictional use ofc.

Archival Description of Burial A452 and A453 of Red Sail Hall Site

School of Archaeology - University of Oxford

Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art

Though further exploration into the site is certainly precluded by the sealing of the original site by the private owners, the four-month trial period of archaeological work on property associated with Red Sail Hall has proven themselves to be incredibly fruitful. Please review the following in-situ finds of particular significance. Of a group of 34 burials immediately south of the gardens of Red Sail Hall, the burial of an adolescent male, an extraordinary 187 centimeters is of special note. In an abutting grave was a second male inhumation, was found that of a child perhaps aged 12 standing at 134 centimeters.

The elder male was a person of obvious importance, apparently having met his end in battle or some other violent means. Likely incapacitated by a blow to the head as suggested by lacerations to the skull, the elder was then dispatched by sword cut. When measured, the damage to the vertebrae suggests the femoral artery would have most certainly been severed. The burial is in truly pagan fashion. On a silver ring around his neck was a silver Thor’s hammer between two red glass beads. A leather belt around the waist had been secured with a belt and bronze buckle with a fleece lined iron scabbard with an impressive tri-bloom pommel in classic Norse fashion. By the sword hilt there was a folding iron knife, a fixed knife with a wooden handle and halfway down the thigh was found three iron keys.

The skeleton in the abutting grave was tentatively Christian and of much poorer origin. A lead figure on a leather cord around the neck suggests Anglo-Saxon Christianity. An iron seax at the waist was of Cumbrian origin but the iron fittings of a leather quiver with bow and arrows inside found deposited at the left hand were of clearly Welsh origin. No other grave goods were found, but pollen deposites would suggest the presence of Michaelmas Daisies and Autumnal Crocus, suggesting a harvest-time burial.

Would recommend both graves for sampling and dental isotope analysis. Low-humidity storage recommended.

National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research

Oxygen Isotopes Conclusive Report of Paired Samples A452 and A453

Red Sail Hall Sample A452

Based on a framework of radiocarbon dates, the studied inhumation grave of Red Sail Hall Sample A452 upon analysis of radiocarbon determination and isotope ratio mass spectroscopy reveal an observed dietary variation of game protein intake with high amounts cereal grains primarily wheat. Noted markers of deprivation at aged 15-16 are seen. This finding is consistent with an origin of the Danish mainland of the 150-50 BCE.

Red Sail HAll Sample 453

Sample of nebulous value. Sample noted to be from a child with pre-adolescent degrading of sample in-situ. Whilst there is no clear pattern of isotopic offsets between skeletal elements, the sole first molar analyzed shows a high degree of isotopic enrichment for both δ13C and δ15N. As the first molar forms during infancy, a conclusion of high status, high protein diet can be drawn. The second sample however, suggests marked poverty and high cereal and plant based diet. This finding is consistent with an incongruous origin of the samples labeling suggesting instead the British Isles, most likely Cumbria, 1st Century CE

Conclusion signed and certified by Aroha Kaipo, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Isometric Laboratory, New Zealand.

Red Sail Hall, 21st Century

“I’m not entertaining the possibility because it’s not possible.” Arthur snapped, pacing about the kitchen. Rhys dragged his hand down his face.

“How many times do we have to go over this? Zee did the results herself!”

“Once more, I bloody suppose because I am standing right here!”

“I’m not saying I know how, I’m just saying its you. And Magnus.”

“It’s horse shit!”

“Arthur!” Rhys pressed him into a chair by the shoulders. He was practically vibrating with agitation. His leg started bouncing.

“I am not a figment of my own imagination! I’m just here!”

“Yes, you are.”

“They can’t have drug up my corpse from the back garden when I am standing right here!”

“And yet they have.”

#hws denmark #hws wales #hws england #my writing || cacoethes scribendi #Magnus || climb the roots of Yggdrasil #Rhys || my word for heaven was not yours #Arthur || stone set in the silver sea #the dangeld axe to grind: the viking age time travel au #The Viking Age || the children of wind and wolves

[sarahlizziewrites]

Re: Historical accuracy in fiction

Tl;dr: it is not your job as a fiction author to provide complete historical accuracy. It is your job to evoke a time period and communicate it. Don't get bogged down in research unless you really want to.

First of all, this is my disclaimer: I am talking about the kind of things I like to read and write. I am speaking as a historical fiction fan, author and lover of history. This is my personal taste.

Perfect historical accuracy in fiction is massively overrated. In the past have gotten stuck on writing historical fiction pieces because I felt I needed to research more. This killed my story. The piece of art that could have been amazing sat languishing on a hard drive forever.

I do not think historical fiction needs to be stunningly accurate. In fact, it's easy to see when an author has clearly over-researched their book: it reads like a history text that talks about topics your average person would have never even thought about.

Example:

What an author I read recently thought a 1st century Roman citizen would think about: Ah yes, I remember the British campaign like it was yesterday, even though it was ten years ago, in AD 61. Nero was emperor then....etc.

Me, when I think about something that happened 10 years ago: Shit, that was 10 years ago? Wait, was David Cameron PM then?

(And I know how to read and use Google.)

I'm not saying "don't research the time period you are writing in". I'm saying "research the time period you are writing in as much as you feel like doing, then forget most of it when you get in your character's head, except for what might be meaningful for them".

It is not necessarily the purpose of historical fiction to give readers a detailed and realistic version of the time period. All you really need to give them is the vibes that make them feel as though they're in that time.

I just saw a post that explained how Medieval Europeans had access to spices we might usually associate with Indian cuisine. But is that what people would expect to see in a story set in Medieval Europe? No, and you don't get to put in a little "um, actually" author's note explaining every little detail that feels incongruous but is "technically" accurate. It just feels incongruous.

However, am I going to give my Indian character who lives in London in the 1930s access to curry spices? Yes, because he'd look high and low for them and I bet he'd find a good grocer somewhere in London at that time. I haven't researched how realistic that is, and I don't really care. It will still feel in-touch with the setting, and that's all I care about.

Ever since I gave up on perfect historical accuracy, I have written so many more stories in historical settings, and I love the hell out of them. Would a Louisiana jazz band tour in the UK in 1923? Maybe. But I am definitely putting a Louisiana jazz band in my novel set in the UK in 1923 because people want to see jazz in the jazz-age novel! And so do I!

The key thing is, I've only done the level of research that I'm interested in, enough to get me comfortably embedded in the time.

The fiction author's job is to deliver on the promise of the premise. Don't get caught up accidentally writing non-fiction!

You don't have to "put in your research" to write a historical novel. You get to put in as much research as you want to, and you get to disregard the stuff that doesn't spark joy, because it's your story.

I'd love to talk about this more. Historical fiction fans, what's your taste? Have you ever read anything that felt over-researched, or anything that was under-researched to the point of taking you out of the immersion? Let me know.

#historical fiction #writers of tumblr #writeblr #writing advice #fiction writing #long post