#Bard Performance

[lesbianelsas]

How long would you be gone? - Maybe four or five years, or… Maybe a little less, if I study real hard.

Xena: Warrior Princess - 1x13 "Athens City Academy of the Performing Bards"

[heybiji]

My dungeons and dragons bard's backstory involves her having had a meltdown on stage in front of an audience of aristocrats. See, she thought she heard people laughing and whispering in the crowd—turns out it was one of those ghosts she's been ignoring for years. The sheer embarrassment was enough for her to skip town for a while.

[lilyblisslys]

Ok so important question: thinking about dnd classes, wouldn’t strippers and sexworkers count as a kind of bard? If bards can be non musical (poetry, literary, etc) wouldn’t sexwork be part of that as a means of entertainment?

[mmothmanners]

Ris'daer performing as The Nightingale of Menzoberranzan.

He does a lot of audience interaction/face touching if allowed. It's how he wins their hearts.

[dash-n-step]

It's finally here....

[saucywendeee]

The Professor and The Bard

[help-help-i-need-an-adult]

“Geralt, darling…”

“Hmmm”

“I noticed your communication skills have greatly improved over the last few months. You use your words instead of just grunting far more these days. I’m very proud of you.”

“Thank you, Jaskier.”

“As such, I was thinking that perhaps it is time for another lesson in verbal communication.”

“Is that so.”

“Yes! It is so! Now, I realize this is a lesson usually given to performers, such as myself, but I think it is one you could greatly benefit from.”

Geralt sighs. Knowing that Jaskier will simply continue to pester him if he doesn’t agree, Geralt says, “If you think I would benefit from the lesson, I’ll to do my best to learn.”

Before, he would have told the bard to fuck off, but ever since the mountain, Geralt had been trying to put in an effort to do better. Doing better meant communicating better. The need for that had only increased when, a year ago, Geralt had finally gotten up the courage to kiss Jaskier and their relationship had been forever changed. In a good way. The kind of good way Geralt didn’t want to lose ever again.

“Excellent! In that case I see no reason not to start that lesson now.”

Geralt did. They were walking the path and Geralt was walking beside Jaskier; guiding Roach by her reigns. Ciri was away, somewhere safe with Yennifer and learning to control her magic, but that didn’t mean there weren’t still threats. He had to remain vigilant in case of an attack or a monster, and trying to focus on what Jaskier was saying would be distracting.

But, on the other hand, they were on a section of road surrounded by fields. For miles, there would be very few places for bandits or any monster too deadly to hide. Geralt would almost certainly see them long before they became a threat. So, he agreed.

“Alright. I’m listening.”

“Ok. So there are 5 organs of communication.” Geralt watched from the corner of his eye as Jaskier counted them off on his fingers.

The head

The heart

The gut

The groin

The arms

“You’re very good with the 1st and the 5th organs. The head refers to things you state. They are a matter of fact. No ifs ands or buts about them. You’ve proven to excel at this in the past several months. And the arms refer to non-verbal communication that is instead conveyed through action. Again. You excel at this.”

To prove his point, and to be an ass, Geralt raises an eyebrow at him and smirks while spreading the arm that is currently not busy guiding Roach.

Jaskier laughs and gently smacks the arm now extended towards him. “Yes. Exactly. However, you are lacking in the other three departments.”

Lowering his arm, Geralt asks, “so how do I go about fixing that? I’m not even sure I completely understand how the first 4 work. I’m communicating with my mouth and voice. Is that what you mean by head? And if that’s the case, I would have thought I was doing just fine with groin.”

Jaskier swats his arm again.

“Yes and no. In that regard, what you’re doing with your groin falls under arms.”

“Hmm.”

“Let me give you examples.”

Jaskier seems to take a moment to think.

“If I was going to tell you ‘I want you to come here’ there are 5 different ways I could go about that.”

“The 5th being arms. I could simply make eye contact with you. Point at you and then the ground. You would understand what that meant, yes?”

“Yes, Geralt exactly. The 1st one being head where I simply say to you ‘I want you to come here.’ And you would understand it to be a simple request.”

“Hmm.”

“But, if I were to make the same statement using my heart,” Jaskier’s eyes got bigger and his posture less ridged. When he continued, his voice was soft and breathy like when they’re lying together at night and just talking, “I want you to come here.”

Oh. Geralt had always been aware of how Jaskier would talk when it was just the two of them. How it would feel different, like now.

He’s tried to do that before, but it had never quite had the same effect. Like it was just… incorrect “I’ve tried that”, he tells Jaskier, “but it just doesn’t work right.”

“You mean when you look at me very intensely and get quieter?”

“Yes.”

“Well… that is part of it. But this isn’t about volume, or what your eyes are doing. It’s about what feeling you’re letting yourself have as you say it.”

Hmmm. That made sense. Even now, when letting his thoughts be known, Geralt struggled with the emotions part.

“So what’s gut?”

“But you haven’t tried heart yet!”

Geralt leveled a look at Jaskier that made it clear he needed to move on for now.

“Oh, all right. The 3rd is statements made in reaction. There isn’t much thought to them, like a gut reaction or when you have to make a decision in the moment.” Jaskier’s voice got louder and more rushed, “I want you to come here!”

Geralt moved closer to Jaskier on instinct. The almost fear in his voice had him going before he could remember this was an example.

“Ah. I think I understand this one. It’s fear.”

“Well,” Jaskier drawled, “it can be. It can also be excitement, or anger, or any other number of emotions. Much like heart can be hurt or longing and not just love. It’s just reactionary. Truth to the heads fact.”

This was getting confusing. How could it be fear but also other things? Geralt decided he’d need time to think about this and it was probably better to keep going. “So what is groin?”

“Ah,” Jaskier’s demeanor changed once again. It was one Geralt was very familiar with, he’d watched Jaskier adapt it with men and women all over the continent for decades. He’s been on the receiving end of it as of late and had grown fond of the change in Jaskier’s stance, the sway of his hips, the light in his eyes. He’d even seen Jaskier adopt it with a particularly good meal when they’d been getting by on what Geralt could hunt for too long.

When Jaskier spoke, it was low and gravely, and sent a shiver down Geralt’s spine. “I want you to come here.”

“Desire. And not just lust.”

Jaskier’s stance and voice changed once again, the change almost jarring, “Yes! Exactly. The wanting something so badly you can feel it.”

“Hmm. That one makes more sense.”

“Yes, you aren’t terrible at groin, but you tend to only use it when you’re horny and I insist you use your words. You could be using it for so many other things. And don’t give me the you want nothing speech again. I know that’s bullshit.”

“I wasn’t going to.”

“Good!”

“I’m going to need some time to think on all of this, but in the meantime,” Geralt wrapped his free arm around Jaskier’s waist and gently pulled him into his side. Then, putting as much groin into his voice as he could, “telling me you want me got me hard. There’s no one around for miles.”

Geralt enjoyed watching a blush creep up Jaskier’s neck and hearing his heart speed up.

“Not going to say ‘no’ to that, dear witcher.”

Thanks @0dde11eth for telling me to write this

[girl4music]

I wouldn’t call the brief romantic interactions Gabrielle has with men “relationships”. With Xena you can get away with that. But not Gabrielle.

Let me put it this way… Xena is a show where they’ll show you a male and a female kissing but not allow them to have a long lasting relationship of any kind and then give you a long lasting relationship between a female and a female but won’t show you the kissing.

You have to pick and choose your wins and your losses. What matters to you more? To see an amazingly substantial, in-depth and forever-evolving dynamic or physical intimacy?

Xena literally invented straightbaiting. The opposite of queerbaiting. Don’t worry. The creators were on the right side of history. Xena and Gabrielle are the central relationship in the show no matter which way you want to interpret it. They’re the beating heart.

There’s no relationship made more of a focus than Xena and Gabrielle’s - be it romantic or platonic.

The Man-Inserts mean nothing. Trust me. If anything, they just show you how much more right Xena and Gabrielle are for each other because the show is always fucking awkward whenever a random male love interest is introduced. It doesn’t feel right.

Simply put it down to intentional straightbaiting cause the only reason they’re there is to appease the straight audience. But this show belongs to the gays/queers. The creators made sure of it.

[doriansbutt]

Maybe you found the spot on the map

But lost the kid on the way to the mark

Tell me now were you digging for gold

Or digging yourself in a hole?

Now tell me “now, where’s the head in the clouds?”

Now tell me “now, where’s the bright eyed lad?”

Now tell me “now, where’s the kid tellin’ tall tales?”

Siren, Colm R. McGuinness

I can’t explain the emotion this song gives me about my dragon age ttrpg character Saeed but it’s making me cry

[squidmayo]

Lae'zel, Wyll, Gale and Shadowheart watching Tav get a beating by Abdirak:

Astarion:

[gayestcowboy]

i love baldurs gate 3. i just gaslit a bunch of fish people and became their new god, mahkloompah

[rrcraft-and-lore]

Bhats (not to be confused with the surname) - the bards of India.

Who are they? What are they? And what do they?

Well, simply put, they are/were storytellers -- the bards of South Asia.

They have also served as mythographers. What is a mythographer?

Think Snorri Sturluson or Ovid.

They will collect, translate, tell, or write collections of mythic stories that carry historical importance, pass it on, share it, perform.

As the valuation and societal weight of/on castes grew, eventually bards/Bhats were split into two sorts: An upper class and lower class in whom they served.

The wealthy, higher castes had their own bhats that served in many respects for a modern western comp. like the Maesters out of game of thrones. They would tell stories tied to and recite genealogy - family history as well as educational stories, and even perform storied eulogies for the passing of family members in wealthy families. The lower class bhats would do genealogy for patrons as well as a focus more on entertainment but not necessarily education (though you can argue that because stories are educational.

Unfortunately, this division and status worsened with time with sort of an upper class privileged bard/bhat that performed praise songs, story-tellers, and revered poets, vs the lower class "puppeteers or mummers telling folk tales only" -- considered riffraff.

The upper class of bards especially served Rajput families in ensuring glory, recognition, histories of their families deeds/goodness, birth, impeccable genealogy, all of which of course was used to continue to hold on to or grow political appeal/legitimacy and social status.

At times, bhats, along with monks (particularly of Jainistic backgrounds), and those of the Hindu Brahmin caste would compete in storytelling to mold/shape perception of tales among the royalty and those they wished to convince of certain ways of thinking by telling alternative histories or tales of family lines/kings past, and deeds done by them, and the kingdoms themselves.

Note: THEY DID NOT tell alternative versions of the epics/myths.

Now, that has happened through time and travel. There are alternative/localized versions of the South Asian myths and epics in many regions and other Asian countries due to travel and time - mostly carried through by Buddhism and its spread. This includes variations in Ramayama and Mahabharata in places.

But the Bhats, pandits, Brahmins, and other forms of storytellers/priests, sages, wise ones, did not by and large contribute to that. Not at least in the example and history here which is being relegated to their performance/duties for royal families, and then public with the lower class of bhats, who sadly continued to suffer as well as the upper class with British Raj which stripped many of their honor and status and left most historical families of storytellers by caste impoverished and these are just some light notes on one part of India's diverse and rich layered storytelling history and people who did it.

This part of the world had stories told by priests, sages, poets, bards, courtesans, and more.

It's home to so many styles and structures of storytelling (I did a primer on those a while back) unique to it and some that went on to spur/inspire structures used onward.

[pcktknife]

fucking up the performance check for dancing with wyll should end in you crawling off to die in solitude

[skelevenn]

Character designs for a new DnD character for an upcoming campaign. They're a changeling Bard, big into one-man-shows with masks and marionette plays. Still on the fence about names... they have so many names.

The top one is their performing costume/persona. The tielfing on the bottom is a separate persona to be their own manager. They're very careful to keep them seeming like separate people.

There's still some details I haven't finished... but I've been working on this a long time and wanna share it already, dangit. The main thing left is the performer is supposed to have a big backpack covered in masks - very Happy Mask Salesman. And I wanted to like, officially design all their masks, and maybe costumes for their marionettes. And there are like 3 other personas... I guess I could just keep thinking of things and make this an endless list, haha oops. Don't wanna do that.

[eff-plays]

So now that I've figured out why Hira might go for Astarion ... I am now struggling to figure out why Astarion would go for them in the long run. Like, because he's barely his own person at this point, what are his preferences? Ya know? Beyond how they treat him, beyond the obvious, what about them is it that he likes? Ya know? "You were kind and patient and trusted me" is all well and good but that's still 1) related to him and 2) doesn't quite tap into the sense that he also wants them for himself for other reasons aside from wanting more of what they're doing for him. Ya know? Ya fucking know?

[simminglytimeladies]

A typical rogue and bard duo... What trouble would they cause next?