#Contract Law Consideration

[lawlessons]

Dunlop v Selfridge [1915]

Dunlop v Selfridge [1915]

Contract Law – Consideration Dunlop v Selfridge [1915] AC 847 is a case that examines damages and consideration as part of privity of contract in English Contract Law. Dunlop v Selfridge Facts Dunlop, who is a tire manufacturer, agreed with their dealer to not sell tires below their recommended retail price, known as RRP. It was required by this agreement that their dealer must also obtain…

[chilapis]

leon brainrot over in the way that it is no longer entirely exclusive and i’m being tossed like an infernal tennis ball between the two.

[mindhunterlaw]

AGREEMENT AND CONTRACT, INDIAN CONTRACT ACT 1872

[lnk-and-lnspiration]

The Business of Writing: Navigating Contracts, Royalties, and Taxes

Writing is not just about creativity, but also about the business side of things. As an author, it’s important to understand the legal and financial aspects of the publishing industry, including contracts, royalties, and taxes. Here are some tips for navigating the business of writing: Contracts: Review publishing contracts carefully and make sure you understand the terms and conditions before…

[jymwahuwu]

You've spent most of your life being viewed as imperfect because you're a Beta. Your heat doesn't draw sideways glances from Alphas and Omegas, but you can only suffer in silence, sweating and rubbing your legs. Omega/Alpha exes all claim to have found "better".

One day, your planet with a super low fertility rate enacted a new law. You must have at least one baby or you will be fined or... worse punished every month.

You don’t want to be tied up and dangling from cock or forced into a knot all week long! At this time, a caring and considerate man is willing to help you... He claims that his name is Jing Yuan/Aventurine. You thought this was just a contract, a kind of help, but you found that he really seemed to... want you, a Beta. Carrying his baby...

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

I'm Irish but work for a UK based company. The English treat us the way that architecture lady did ALL THE TIME. Literally don't bother to know basic things like when our bank holidays are, what relevant laws and industry practices are different in Ireland vs England, we've been assigned HR people who don't know anything about Irish employment law, given 'benefits' we couldn't use because we weren't in the UK, hosted in-person meetings in our offices where English guests keep saying 'here in the UK', we get paid less because instead of adjusting our wages to euro they just changed out the pound sign for a euro sign in our contracts, they refuse to let us use local suppliers for office supplies etc so everything takes longer to arrive and costs more than it does for the rest of the company, during a recent rebrand we were refused a budget for (legally required) Irish-language signage, the list goes on and on.

The irony is that because of the nature of our work we have constant meetings and workshops about acceptance of different nationalities and learning not to discriminate but if we try bringing up how we're discriminated against we get laughed at.

We have colleagues in an office in Scotland who get similar treatment so at least there's some solidarity there, but it's exhausting. It feels like we're fighting a constant battle. And the response we always get to complaints is just 'oh oops silly us' if we get any at all.

English entitlement is very very real and I don't blame you for reaching the end of your rope with that woman.

Oh Jesus Christ that sounds exhausting. And yeah, very familiar. Wales often gets included with the English south west when companies try to do countrywide provision, and what really stands out is the utter lack of consideration or respect for the language and bilingual signage, and Welsh road infrastructure not allowing easy or cheap travel in the same way. "Everyone get to Bristol for this meeting" is far, far harder for mid and north Wales than anywhere else. Plus, getting called a Taffy just casually. Super fun.

My sister used to work for a nationwide charity, actually, based in London. She took over as the organiser for their eight nationwide conferences a year. And the people in the Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish offices loved her, because she was the first one in years who remembered that they existed, and made an effort to get the conferences to them at least SOME of the time; and the English offices complained each time she did. They thought four should be London (it's easiest to get to!), three in northern England (that's diversity!), and one in Northern Ireland (different landmass so begrudgingly accepted every other year) was reasonable.

Gah. Frustrating as fuck.

[exoluxionlove]

[INFO] EXO Chen, Baekhyun, and Xiumin file lawsuit to terminate exclusive contract with SM.

Rough translation via Papago:

"◆ The full text of the group EXO's members Baekhyun, Xiumin, and Chen (Byun Baekhyun, Kim Minseok, and Kim Jongdae)'s notice of termination of the exclusive contract against SM Entertainment.

━

This is Lee Jae-hak, a lawyer for Lin, a law firm that acted as legal representatives for Baekhyun, Xiumin, and Chen (Byun Baek-hyun, Kim Min-seok, Kim Jong-dae, hereinafter referred to as "artists"). In the following, the legal representative would like to share the artist's position on the exclusive contract between the artists and SM Entertainment Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "SM"). Artists have previously sent content certificates to SM seven times from March 21 to recently through our legal representative, and through this, we have repeatedly requested transparent settlement data and copies of settlement grounds.

It is the artist's minimum right to request an accurate and transparent basis for settlement of accounts that have been unclear, and SM is also an obligation to comply with the exclusive contract and the Pop Culture and Arts Industry Development Act. However, SM maintained its unfair position that it could not provide a copy of the data.

At the same time, SM has repeatedly committed extremely unfair tyranny, claiming a long contract period of at least 17 or 18 years by signing a long-term contract with artists for more than 12 to 13 years and then having them sign a follow-up exclusive contract again.

Artists feel that SM is forcing artists to sign so-called slave contracts based on their superior status for more than 20 years, including a considerable amount of training.

I would like to convey the various injustices that artists have not been able to tell you through the position below.

<1> Artists' position on activities so far and SM's refusal to provide settlement data

1. Artists have previously signed a long-term exclusive contract with SM for more than 12 to 13 years and have been working diligently as members of EXO.

2. During the long-term exclusive contract period as above, artists have only trusted SM's explanation of the settlement amount that is settled every time, and have received the settlement amount by looking at the data unilaterally prepared by SM without specific and objective evidence. In response, artists have recently formally requested copies of settlement data and settlement grounds several times through their agents, but SM replied that they cannot provide copies of the data.

3. SM is obligated to provide artists with settlement data and settlement grounds, including total income details, expenses subject to deduction, and amount subject to deduction, under the existing exclusive contract, under the Pop Culture and Arts Industry Development Act. In addition, the settlement cycle under the above exclusive contract arrives twice a year, so the above settlement data and settlement basis must also be provided twice a year. However, during the exclusive contract period of 12 or 13 years, SM has not properly provided such settlement data and settlement grounds to artists.

4. According to the precedent, the exclusive contract is based on a high degree of trust. If the agency fails to fulfill its obligation to provide settlement data, the celebrity will not be properly guaranteed the right to review and dispute the profit settlement. In addition, despite several requests through an agent's lawyer, SM has already failed to comply with the obligation to provide data, resulting in a reason for termination of the existing exclusive contract.

5. Despite the artists' earnest request to provide a copy of the settlement data by May 31st through several proofs of contents, SM was forced to notify SM that the existing exclusive contract would be terminated on June 1st.

6. If SM paid the artist the settlement money accurately, there would be no reason not to provide the settlement data and settlement basis. SM's failure to provide these settlement data and settlement grounds is a strong proof that SM did not pay the artists properly, and the artists will take all civil and criminal legal actions against SM, including filing a settlement claim.

7. Also, if you haven't provided settlement data and settlement basis to other SM artists, as in the case of artists (Baekhyun, Xiumin, Chen), this may not just be a problem for Baekhyun, Xiumin, and Chen, but for all SM artists in the end.

8. In fact, it is very difficult for Baekhyun, Xiumin, and Chen to file a legal dispute against SM, a large company, but they started with the heart and courage to replace the various doubts that many SM artists have.

<2 > Artist's position on unreasonably long-term contracts and further extension attempts

1. Previously, artists have signed exclusive contracts with SM for more than 12 to 13 years. This is too different from the standard contract for pop culture artists (singer-centered) announced by the Fair Trade Commission based on the seven-year contract period, and it is unilaterally disadvantageous to artists beyond the minimum reasonable extent.

2. SM already has 13 years of contract, including an extended period in the provisional disposition of the TVXQ case, and the reasonable violation of the Seoul Central Law is that SM uses its superior position to exercise unfair control and excessively violate its economic freedom and basic rights. In the case, the court again pointed out that it is very difficult for idol stars, such as applicants (TVX members), to continue their popularity in their 30s and beyond.

3. As such, the existing exclusive contract seriously restricts personal rights for an excessively long period of time and constitutes "an act of unfairly using the position of the transaction" in Article 45 (1) 6 of the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act. In addition, due to the type of unfair trade practices in attached Table 2 of the Enforcement Decree of the same Act, such a long-term compulsion corresponds to "compelling profit provision" or "providing disadvantages (setting unfavorable transaction conditions)" in the above attached Table.

4. Furthermore, SM made artists sign an exclusive contract to extend their debut date by 7 years and an additional 3 years if they are overseas. However, in the case of K-pop artists in Korea, it takes at least months and years to make their debut, and overseas activities are a natural premise. Furthermore, even though Xiumin and Chen were members who planned to work in China from the beginning, the exclusive contract, which adds three years if they work abroad, forced them to sign a long-term contract of more than 10 years based on the date of the exclusive contract from the beginning.

5. On the other hand, SM is trying to claim a minimum contract period of 17 years or 18 years by having artists sign a follow-up exclusive contract again, not even enough to sign an exclusive contract for 12 to 13 years as above. This is SM's repeatedly committing extremely unjust tyranny against artists.

6. In the process of sealing a subsequent exclusive contract, the artists were unable to negotiate properly under the existing exclusive contract, and it was difficult to set the terms of the contract or reflect their wishes on an equal footing. In the case of a provisional disposition in the TVXQ case, the court should have been able to stop the existing negotiations and negotiate with other entertainment agencies other than SM if the applicants (TV TVXQ members) only passively signed the exclusive contract form presented by SM, Even if an extension agreement was reached after the applicants (TVXI members) established their position as entertainers, applicants who were already bound by the existing exclusive contract could not strengthen their bargaining power. (Refer to the Seoul Central District Court on February 15, 2011).

7. It is also pointed out that such subsequent signing of exclusive contracts constitutes "an act of unfairly using the status of the transaction" in Article 45 (1) 6 of the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act. As such, the long-term compulsion using a subsequent exclusive contract is considered to correspond separately to the "compulsory provision of profits" or "unprofitable provision of transaction conditions" in attached Table 2 of the Enforcement Decree of the same Act.

8. Also, I understand that this long-term exclusive contract is in a similar situation not only for Baekhyun, Xiumin, and Chen, but also for most artists from SM.

9. Baekhyun, Xiumin, and Chen are seriously considering filing a lawsuit against the Fair Trade Commission for the long-term signing of existing exclusive contracts and subsequent exclusive contracts.

<3> A message to the fans

1. I'm sorry for causing so much concern to the fans about this, and I can't help but feel sorry.

2. Due to the difference in position with SM, we are inevitably pushing for legal action, but we will do our best to find wise measures so that fans do not worry too much and resolve the dispute well.

3. In fact, we are very scared and scared of this moment because we want to make a small voice about injustice that we have not been able to tell you before.

4. We hope you will be interested in our words and our hard courage. Once again, we sincerely thank our fans for supporting us for a long time."

Source

[constantlymisspelled]

The SUPERCOMMANDO CODEX - DRAFT

CONTENTS

Mandalorian Code Interpretation [link is found here]

Strength is Life

Honor is Life

Loyalty is Life

Death is Life

2. Honourable Conduct [link is found here]

Honour in self

Honour in the Community

Honour in the Galaxy

Honour Amongst Clan

Honour in Partnership

Honour in Leadership

Honour in Combat

3. Adoption Law [link is found here]

The Legal Definition of Foundling

Foundling Procedure

Disownment of Parent

Community Adoption

Adoption regarding criminal activities

Adoption regarding marital conditions

Adoption Consent

4. Marriage and Divorce [link is found here]

Spouse Definition

Spousal Privileges

Conditions for Legal Engagement

Consent and Age Restrictions

Conditions for Legal Marriage

Conditions for Legal Divorce

Children, Clan and House Considerations

5. Resolnare [link is found here]

The Six Tennent’s Broader accepted conditions

Way Followers Interpretation

Naasaade Interpretation and Redemption of Vows

Noncombatant Interpretations

The Mandalorian Healer’s Code

The Mandalorian Armourer's Code

Codes recognised in Conjunction

6. Clan and House [link is found here]

Definition of House

Responsibilities of House

Definition of Clan

Responsibilities of Clan

Requirements needed to be declared Alor of Clan

Requirements needed to be declared Alor of House

Requirements needed to be declared a Major House

7. Language Protectorate [link is found here]

Mando’a in Practice

Rights to change, add or remove words

Script usage and recognition in Mandalorian Space

8. The Position of Manda’lor [link is found here]

Requirements needed to be a candidate for Manda’lor

Responsibilities

Oversight

Commanding body

Restrictions, Compliance and Declarations of Misconduct

9. Education and Cultural development [link is found here]

The Education Responsibilities of Clans

The Education responsibilities of Schools and facilities

Freed Re-education programs and foundations

Religious and cultural rights within education systems

Parental rights throughout education

10. Electoral Process [link is found here]

The Court of Houses

The Sector Governors

The System Governors

The Astro Body Governors

District Electoral Members

Electoral Voters

Voting conditions

Overseers of the Ballot

Postal Elections

Voting Eligibility

Right and Responsibility

Conditions for Referendum, Re-election and Hung Parliamentary Votes

11. Court of Law

Family Court

Criminal Justice Court

Court of Appeal

Military Court

Financial and Business Court

Public Courts

12. Responsibility and due process

Parental Responsibility

Personal Responsibility

Political Responsibility

Financial Responsibility

Military Responsibility

Adoption Due Process

Engagement and Marriage Due Process

Divorce and Separation Due Process

Election Eligibility Due Process

Firearms Licensing Due Process

Verdgoten and Adult Graduation Due Process

Election Results Due Process

Parental Disownment Due Process

Clan and House Formation Due Process

13. Foreign interaction and policy

Foreign Ambassador acceptance

Externa; Ambassadors abroad

Foreign Currency and Exchange

Border Security

Digital Security and Programming Policy

Citizenship and Visa Acceptance

14. Employment within and outside of the sector

Legal age and parameters of employment

Contract and procedure for levels of employment

Foreign policy for Mando'ade working abroad

Foreign policy for outsiders working in Mandalore

15. Property and payment

Land ownership and tenancy

Forms of payment accepted in legal contract

Ownership and registration of vehicles

Ownership and registration of Firearms

Ownership and registration of Non-sentient Animals

Copyright, fair trade and artistic license

16. Beskar

Donations to Foundlings

Ownership

Sacred right to wear beskar as armour

Conditions for percentage declared

Rights to mine and export

Religious significance

17. Recognised Mandalorian Sects and Coverts

Traditionalists

Haat Mando’ade

Naasaade

Way Followers

Creed Bound

Silver Children

18. Armour and Weapon Classifications

Military Issue

Military Grade

Civilian Use

Hunter and Mercenary Equipment

Trade and Specialist Equipment

Journeyman, Protectorate

19. Criminal sentencing

Theft

Grievous bodily harm

Assault

Rape

Murder

Manslaughter

Negligence

Criminal Negligence

Medical Malpractice

War Crimes

Demagolkase - War Crimes against children

Sentient Trafficking and experimentation

Financial Misconduct and Tax Evasion

20. Military and Law Enforcement

Military

Mandalorian Protectors

Journeyman Protectors

Home Guard

Manda'yaim Reserve

21. Land Rights and Conservation

Land Ownership

Sale and Redistribution of land

Declaration of Sacred Places

Sector Council Lands, Protectorate Lands, Crown Lands and Stock Routes

Protected Areas

Water Ways

Tenancy, Lodging, and Temporary Accommodations

Public Areas

Squatters' Rights

Sanctioned and unsanctioned terraforming

22. Commerce, Business and Integrity

Currency and Zones

Business Licenses and Legal Procedure

External business practice

Monopoly businesses and Mega Businesses

Banking within the Sector

23. Discrimination [link is found here]

Species

Sex

Religious Interpretation

Language

Ability

24. Closing Statements

Manda'lor Jaster Mereel [link is found here]

The Translator

25. References

Regarding headcanons for Houses; [link is found here]

26. Contacts and Relevant Supervising Personnel of Note

[This post will be altered as I go, and as amendments are made]

[lawlessons]

Thomas v Thomas (1842)

Thomas v Thomas (1842)

Contract Law – Consideration Thomas v Thomas (1842) 2 QB 851 is an English Contract Law case concerning consideration as part of the formation of a contract. Thomas v Thomas Facts The claimant in this case was looking to have his wife be able to live in his house for the rest of her life, this was his wish. He did not include this as part of his will however. When he died, the executor of…

[chilapis]

Hi handsome ❤️❤️ WHEN would this example be applicable

[butchgtow]

Introduction to Armchair Activism

Current feelings about the state of radblr.

Fundamentals

"Yes, Everyone on the Internet Is a Loser." Luke Smith. Sep 3, 2022. YouTube.

An activist movement can be a place to build community with like-minded people, but action is its foremost purpose, not community. To allow yourself and other activists to remain effective, you are obliged to abandon your personal dislikes of other individual activists. Disagreements are worth discussion, but interpersonal toxicity is not.

Connect with in-person community and do not unhealthily over-prioritize online community. Over-prioritization of online community is self-harm.

Luke is a loser, but his channel is teeming with entry-level digital literacy information and advice pertaining to healthy use of technology for us cyborgs.

"Surveillance Self-Defense: Tips, Tools and How-Tos For Safer Online Communication." Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Hackblossom, outdated, is discontinued. The EFF project Surveillance Self-Defense is up-to-date, comprehensive, and follows personal educational principles of simplicity and concision.

To learn more about general (not focused solely on personal action) cybersecurity, visit Cybersecurity by Codecademy and Cyber Security Tutorial by W3Schools. Both contain further segueways into other important digital literacies.

Direct recommendation: Install and set up the linux distribution Tails on a cheap flash drive.

Direct recommendation: Develop your own home network security schema.

Direct recommendation: Always enable 2FA security for Tumblr, disable active / inactive status sharing, and learn to queue reblogs and posts to protect against others' interpretations of your time zone.

Direct recommendation: It's both possible and relatively simple to host your own instance of a search engine using SearXNG.

Zero-Knowledge Architecture.

As a remote activist (even if also a hybrid activist), none of your action should be taken on, using, or interfacing with non-zero-knowledge-architecture services. Tumblr is, of course, a risk in and of itself, but you should not be using services provided by companies such as Google, Microsoft, or any others based in or with servers hosted in 13-eyes agreement nations.

Search for services (email, word processor, cloud storage) which emphasize zero-knowledge architecture. Businesses whose services are structured as such cannot hand over your data and information, as they cannot access it in the first place. If they cannot access the majority of your metadata, either - all the better.

Communications for Armchair Activism

"Technical Writing." Google.

Contained within the linked page at Google Developers, the self-paced, online, pre-class material for courses Technical Writing One, Technical Writing Two, and Tech Writing for Accessibility teach activists to communicate technical concepts in plain English.

"Plain Language." U.S. General Services Administration.

Plain language is strictly defined by U.S. government agencies, which are required to communicate in it for simplicity and quick, thorough comprehension of information.

"Explore Business Law." Study.com.

Extensive courses are offered to quickly uptake principles of business law such as antitrust law, contract law, financial legislation, copyright law, etc. Legal literacy is often the difference between unethical action of a business and its inaction. Legal literacy is also often the difference between consideration and investment in your policy idea and lack thereof.

"Business Communication." Study.com.

Now that you're able to communicate your prioritized information, you may also initiate writing with bells and whistles. While other activists care most about the information itself, business communication allows you to communicate your ideas and needs to those who you must convince worthiness of investment to and win over.

Logic.

Learn it through and through. Start with fallacies if you're better at language and work your way backwards to discrete mathematics; start with discrete mathematics if you're better at maths and work your way forwards to fallacies, critical literacy, and media literacy. State that which you intend to state. Recognize empiricism and rationalism for what they are. Congratulations: you are both a mathematician and a law student.

Economic Literacy for Armchair Activism

"Microeconomics." Khan Academy.

"Macroeconomics." Khan Academy.

The globe operates on profitability. Women's unpaid labor is a massive slice of the profitability pie. While it's possible to enact change without understanding all that drives the events around you, it's impossible to direct or meaningfully manipulate the events around you beyond your scope of comprehension.

Understand economics or be a sheep to every movement you're active in and to every storm that rolls your way.

[metamatar]

[...] the bill, as it stands, "criminalises and regulates constitutionally acceptable behaviours" and introduces elements of moral policing. The representatives highlight concerns about autonomy and choice, particularly regarding adult consenting cohabitation, commonly referred to as "live-in relationships". They assert that the bill's provisions would erode the hard-won rights of women and undermine their struggles for equality within both domestic and public spheres.

Critics point out that while the bill claims to offer uniformity across religious lines, it disproportionately targets the Muslim minority community, criminalising aspects of their personal and marital practices without adequately incorporating positive and progressive elements from Muslim family law. The bill's focus on rectifying perceived defects in Muslim law while ignoring similar issues within Hindu family laws has raised concerns about bias and selective application. “Majorly, it seeks to introduce changes in the provisions that are perceived as defective in the Muslim law, such as unequal inheritance, polygamy and the practice of halala ( by which a person can only remarry his divorced spouse after she has married someone else, consummated the marriage and thereafter obtained a divorce). In one sense the Bill has terminated the application of Muslim family law and has further criminalised the Muslim man and woman. Ironically, the Bill has not incorporated positive and progressive aspects of Muslim law such as the compulsory payment of mehr by the husband to the wife which provides financial security of the wife, nikahnama (marriage contract) which allows for the spouses to add legally binding conditions that are mutually acceptable, and a 1/3 limit rule for willing away property. Had the intention of the Bill genuinely been to bring about gender justice, such provisions could have been extended to women of all communities,” an excerpt from the statement reads.

Furthermore, the bill's silence on critical issues such as custody, guardianship, and adoption of children, as well as the rights of queer and transgender persons within families, has been deemed unacceptable by the women's groups. They argue that the bill's failure to address these issues reflects a lack of inclusivity and consideration for marginalised communities. Of particular concern is the retention of archaic provisions, such as the restitution of conjugal rights, which has been challenged for its constitutional validity. Critics argue that such provisions perpetuate gender-based violence and undermine fundamental rights, including the right to live with dignity and freedom of choice. The groups also maintain that this law denies or takes away fundamental rights.

Even the existing provision of women's right to reside in their matrimonial homes has been taken away. “Thus rights to equality, right to live and livelihood and to live with dignity, right to freedom of speech and expression, freedom of conscience and right to freely profess, practice and propagate religion, have become casualties under this Bill,” the statement reads.

[north-blue-hearts]

Heart of Gold

CisFem Reader x Trafalgar Law

CW: ptsd, trauma, depictions/implications of suicide and suicidal ideation, language, violence, blood, canonical character death, mature themes and events 18+

@mfreedomstuff

Chapter 18: Priorities

You were sitting in your room back on the Tang. Law’s suggestion about switching hearts had flustered you at first, and then worried you. It seemed such a powerfully intimate act, to literally trade your heart with his, and then have his heart in your chest.

But if his theory was only mostly correct, then that means he’d experience the same pain and fear that you had felt when you’d tried to step onto the island. It wasn’t like the pain remained, once you got back on the ship, but you didn’t like the idea of anyone else having to risk experiencing it. Law thought you were hung up on the idea of having his heart in your chest, either thinking it too intimate or unsanitary.

Your argument had barely been an argument in the strictest sense, but you did want some space to consider the variables yourself. If it worked, neither of you would have a gaping hole in your chest. Neither one of you would experience pain or terror while being on land. From an objective standpoint it was a solid answer to all the practical issues of your problem.

There was nothing to give away the fact that your heart wasn’t with you, and nothing to stop you both from trying to research why there was an issue in the first place. You weren’t sure if you were flattered or concerned by Law’s apparent trust in you. To give his heart to you like that.

The romantic connotations of the thought bubbled up in your brain and you could feel the blood rush making you dizzy. You weren’t some twitter-patted teenager, giggling in the corner during a ball as your eyes slipped from one well-dressed bachelor to the next, but love was still relatively new to you.

Love as the common folk knew it.

Love without consideration of family or political ties. Without concern of progeny or contracts. This was not a formal relationship, one where you’d both work to maintain your own happiness, and the happiness of your partner, for little more than keeping court gossip in check in the worst of circumstances.

Shoving your face back into your pillow and groaning you were beginning to realize that maybe Law wasn’t entirely incorrect about your biggest hangup with his plan. It didn’t invalidate your concerns about him experiencing pain in your place, and there was just as much of a possibility that you’d be the one to have to deal with it.

That’s what the experimenting was for, after all. Sorting out what the parameters were of what you were dealing with, in hopes of figuring out how to fix it all. The end goal of which was currently two pronged. First and foremost was why your body, or just your heart, was reacting to the islands with such fear. Secondary to that was a way to reverse the immortality placed on you by your friend.

Frankly, you didn’t have the luxury of being embarrassed about any of it, and it was a kindness of Law’s that he was letting you effectively waste time walking yourself through your tumultuous emotions. Not that his help would make the process go any faster.

Setting the pillow aside, you got off your bed and headed out of your room. It would be time to eat soon, and you needed to talk to Law privately before the crew was nearby. Your relationship was by no means a secret, but you didn’t need Shachi or Clione to overhear that you were too embarrassed to do something. You felt like, good natured or not, you may not hear the end of it from either of them.

When you reached Law’s cabin, you noticed the door was already open. Pushing it open further you peeked inside, seeing the captain lost in a book. It was interesting to you, how easily he slipped into the role of academic, doctor, pirate, and self. They were all parts of him, but he put so much of his focus into what he was immediately doing that you could always see a palpable shift from one to the other.

“Captain,” you say the word softly, stepping into the room. Law grunts, it’s an acknowledgment to show he’s not ignoring you, but he doesn’t approve the title from you. Suppressing the smile on your lips you shut the door behind you and stand across from him, staying on the far side of the desk. “This island, or the next, I’d like to work through those experiments when you’re ready.”

“When I’m ready.” He states dryly, looking up at you for a moment before looking back down at the book.

You hum positively. “Indeed. I would not want to impose on you unjustly, magnanimous captain that you are, after you so kindly allowed me ample time to-.”

“Alright.” He interjects. You can see the ghost of a smile slip along his features. “You’re determined to get me to listen to that King’s Tongue babble one way or another, aren’t you?”

“I have no idea what you may mean, good sir.” You assert playfully.

“Tomorrow, as planned.” He says evenly. “Relax, eat and adjust to going about your day without your own heart in your chest.” Setting the papers he was reading aside he looks up at you properly. “Speaking of, how have you felt so far?”

“Not bad. Not great. I certainly feel a little sluggish, but I haven’t yet tried to spar with anyone.” You admit. “I can’t hear my heart beat even if I try to focus on it, and I have to admit that is a little unsettling. Will I be less sluggish with your heart in my chest?”

He shakes his head. “A little maybe, but it’s not going to be as effective as having yours back. If the swap works tomorrow, we’ll only have our own hearts on sea voyages. It’ll help cut down on the fatigue.”

“Does it get worse over time?”

“Over months, yeah, but it’s a very subtle long term shift.”

You raise your brows. “You’ve done experiments?”

Law nods. “I’ve had the fruit since I was a kid. Shachi, Penguin and Bepo are childhood friends of a sort. They let me test a lot of things over a few years while we all grew up.” He grins a bit, the old memories coming back to the surface. “I learned a lot just from us being kids too.”

“I imagine.” You sit down across from him. “Embarrassment wasn’t my only issue earlier.” You start quietly, hands folded, eyes diverted. “But it wasn’t not an issue either.”

“… Is it still an issue?”

“It is still a thing, but it’s not something that will stop me.” You admit, giving him a small smile. “It is, for what it’s worth, an issue I don’t mind having.”

“Oh?”

You lick your lips, trying to maintain some level of neutrality, or business in your tone, so as to not sound like some giddy youth. “Emotional love is a new, and thus far, interesting sensation.”

“You loved your family, didn’t you?”

“This is decidedly different, Trafalgar Law, and you know it.” You huff, crossing your arms and turning away. You can hear the smirk on his face, even if hasn’t made a sound.

“It is, and I do.” He admits, getting up and coming over to your side of the desk, leaning against it and looking down at you. “But it does make me realize we need to agree on something before going forward.”

Suddenly you find it hard to look up at him, something about his words, not even his tone, has your heart twisting. Of all the things lessened by not having it in your chest, this was not one of them.

“And that is?”

“Am I your captain first, or your lover?”

It takes a moment for the question to really sink in and you look up at him in confusion. “Isn’t that something you’d need to decide? I mean… well, as the captain.”

“What you want is just as important.”

“… You do not dismiss the inputs and wants of your crew as it is, so far as I have seen. An unquestioned and functional chain of command is a requirement for maritime success, if I am to understand it correctly.” You say all of it mostly to yourself.

“All of that is objectively true,” he agrees.

“Given our relationship I’m certainly not just a member of the crew. I wouldn’t want to receive preferential treatment in terms of the responsibilities required to be a functioning member of the crew, but I am still, er, different.” You pause and consider. “Then, a level of evenness between the two is the most ideal.”

“Indeed, but one still needs to be a priority over the other.” He insists gently. “I know what I should do, and I know what I’d like to do, but with the two at odds, I would like your input.”

“… You have to -.”

“Not what I should do,” he interrupts. “What you want.”

You breathe in deeply, letting the breath out slowly, and sit silently for a few long moments to consider your answer, and his words. There’s no wrong answer, but you aren’t entirely sure what you want either. The knee jerk reaction is to want to be seen as his partner first, his subordinate second. The objectively better option is to be seen as the subordinate first. His position as captain was just a matter of leader and subordinate between you two.

His position needed to take into consideration the crew’s lives equal to your own. But in terms of just you and him, a focus you assumed he wanted you to consider on its own, the answer didn’t change much.

“Captain first,” you say with a nod. Looking up at him you smile. “I see no reason to diminish the emotional feelings, unless a need to do so arises, but… I have literally been in stasis for centuries. This world is different enough to be almost fully alien to me.” You clear your throat. “My heart seems against the very idea of land, as it is. I need to be able, and willing, to accept your decisions and knowledge as correct.

“And you need to be sure in your decisions, whether they be between us, or concerning the entire crew. Otherwise there will be stress, I think.”

“I agree.” Law says, eyes looking away for a moment before they look back down at you. “But don’t call me captain unless there’s an outsider around.” He asserts, and you can’t suppress a giggle.

“You really don’t like formal titles, hm?”

“… The crew calls me captain, it’s fine.” He says it flatly, and moves to walk away when you grab his wrist.

You can’t look up, not at first. You can feel the heat in your face, and somehow your distant heart is still managing to thunder in your ears. “I… like saying your name.” You admit quietly. “But it’s… very intimate to me.”

He slips his fingers between yours, leaning down and kissing the top of your head. “Maybe one day, you’ll say my name in such a way, that saying it casually in front of others won’t feel so intimate.”

A small nervous sound escapes you, and as you look up to say something more his hand slips along your cheek. The soft, warm sensation stutters your thoughts and your eyes close as you nuzzle into the touch. As much as the crew was open for hugs and just contact in general, there was something heavier in the callouses of Law’s hands.

He leans your head back and kisses you. Once, twice, and a third just on the tip of your nose, smiles slipping across both of your faces as your eyes open. You had no doubt the crew knew how kind their captain was, but you did wonder idly if they knew just how soft he was.

He steps back, giving your hand a squeeze before offering to escort you to dinner. Arrival in the mess hall, despite all your efforts to appear normal and composed, had not gone unnoticed by certain members of the crew. Ikkaku slipped beside you as Clione talked to Law about something, but you weren’t sure if it was legit or a ploy to distract him.

“The Lady has a certain glow about her,” she says teasingly, helping you make a plate and moving you along the buffet style the crew utilized for most meals.

“Nothing has happened,” you assert, giving her a smile even as you stuff a small bun into her mouth when she goes to reply. “We’re still working through the steps of the experiment.” Her eyebrows raise as she pulls the bun away, chewing on a bit of it with a smirk. “What?”

“You and the cap’n are experimenting, huh?”

You blink. “Yes? We’re experimenting on -“

“(Y/N)!” Law tries to stop you, but even as you turn toward him you’re still explaining.

“-each other to see if breaking the set will solve the problem.”

“Oh.” Ikkaku says as Law deflates. “Experimenting, eh? On your bodies?” She devours the remainder of the bun in glee.

“I… am missing something.” You press your lips together.

Ikkaku nods, almost squealing in delight. “Lovers experiment.” She says.

“It’s a euphemism for sex,” Hakugan explains.

“Hakugan!” Shachi smacks him with his hat. “You broke the spell!”

“Kinky sex usually.” He adds before turning to Shachi. “It’s only a spell if you already know all the different ways it can be taken,” Hakugan asserts. “The magic is in not realizing you’re saying things that way while knowing you could be. You gotta give Bell all the knowledge first.” He insists as Shachi puts his hat back on. “Then you cast the magic.”

“Only you,” Ikkaku sighs, but then gives you a disarming smile. “He’s right though, it’s better when realization dawns on you from your own knowledge. But also, don’t go telling people you’re experimenting on bodies with the cap’n. It’s more graphic than the whole hand job mix up.”

“Bepo, Jean Bart, we’ll need your assistance for some of the setups.” Law says and the two nod. “The rest of you are going to make sure the Tang is in top condition before we leave. We need to travel fast and cover as many islands as we can to figure out what the cause might be.”

Penguin and Shachi look over at Ikkaku and she just sticks her tongue out at them. “Don’t give me that, Hakugan is gonna be on maintenance with the rest of us. It’s not a punishment.”

“It’s cause no one else can lift Law and Bell as fast as Bepo or Jean.” Hakugan says. “You’d tip over and fall off the gangplank.”

“See? You could’ve been running up and down that gangplank all day tomorrow with the cap’n on your shoulders.” Ikkaku asserts in triumph. “You should be thanking me.”

You look over at Law and stare for a moment. He side-eyes you, but doesn’t say anything. You were fairly certain he almost had meant it as a punishment of sorts, or at the very least just wanted most of the crew out of his hair tomorrow. Though, you supposed that if he really wanted to punish them, he would’ve made them scrape barnacles off the hull, instead of removing them with his devil fruit power like he usually did.

[zgvlt]

for your consideration azul ashengrotto x reader

summary: in which you make a joke that prompts Azul to confess his feelings for you

author's note: see end notes for more. anyway, I wrote this because of a joke my law professor made, and I genuinely could not get it out of my head, so i wrote this as a response

tags: gender neutral reader, second person pov, sfw, attempt at humor + fluff, 1.6k+ words, mentions of marriage (but nothing extensive and nothing decided), not beta read

[you can also read this on AO3]

You’ve always had the most bizarre ideas. 

Azul supposed the creativity you possessed made up for whatever prowess you lacked in magic; he’s certainly seen first hand all the ways you could get past dangerous situations with barely a scratch. He should have been used to this, used to you and your peculiarity, but then you take a seat in front of him, offering the most confounding deal.

“I was reading some of the books you have lying around here,” you began, with a mischievous smile that bordered on gorgeous, “since you were taking so long out there.”

Books? Any fiction he found himself reading was stored neatly into a storage box in his room, that or he simply borrowed them from the library—he was going to make use of the school’s resources to the fullest, after all. The only books you would have access to were books on business, on finance and law. Did you really spend your free time reading those?

That wasn’t to say you wouldn’t be capable of absorbing it, but he knew that the thickness of those pages (plus the small and terrible size of the letters) were no laughing matter. If you were curious about something, if you wanted to find any loopholes in the contracts of your odd part-time jobs, you could have just asked him. 

He wouldn’t even charge you for his services, really!

“Did you now?” Azul asked, trying to see if anything was out of place in the room. “What did you end up reading about?”

“Something very interesting, Azul,” you said with a laugh, “you hadn’t marked anything on the book yet, so maybe I actually know something you don’t for once!”

“Should I be glad you think so highly of me?” It was merely a rhetorical question—he was already smiling after all. “Well, why don’t you educate me, my boon companion? Is it some land-dwelling custom that doesn’t quite make any sense? Something either of us could possibly make use of?”

“Perhaps, you tell me if you have anything like this in the Coral Sea!”

“Go on then, I’ll be listening.”

“Do you remember how I sort of—okay, more than sort of—have a bunch of debts to you?”

Honestly, not exactly. At some point he simply stopped keeping count—rather, he stopped counting half of things he did for you as debts or exchanges and more just… ways to show his sentiments for you. 

“Of course I do,” Azul affirmed instead, not quite sure if he should be admitting right now that he saw things differently, that he was merely jesting about having you be indebted to him and whatnot. “Aren’t you fortunate I’m not imposing a deadline?”

“You can just say you don’t want to kick me out of the VIP Room anytime soon—it’s alright, I already know. You’ve had house slippers my size waiting by the door since last month.”

“I don’t need you dirtying my carpet again,” he said, having been prepared with an explanation weeks ago in case you ever asked. It always paid to be prepared in situations like this—how terrible would it be if you had caught him off-guard? “You should really make a habit of cleaning the mud off your shoes after PE.”

“It can’t be helped… but never mind that! So I owe you things. That makes me your debtor, and you’re my creditor, right?”

Azul nodded, suddenly more intrigued than he already was.

“I get where you’re coming from now. If it’s a law book, it’s definitely possible you know something I don’t,” he said, “there’s definitely some differences between law of the land and law of the sea.”

“That’s what I was thinking!” you exclaimed, seemingly excited to share something with him, something you thought he might be interested in. A part of him wondered if him thinking it was cute was purely objective or if his affections for you had finally inflicted his eyesight as well.

Not that he was going to get a third person to spectate and give him a second opinion. That was just unnecessary, even if he wouldn’t consider himself as your obligee, from your perspective he was your obligor, and as much as possible matters should be kept between the both of you.

“So, right, I have a bunch of debts. I could get rid of it by simply paying you back, or doing something for you… which, by the way, you still haven’t given me any price.”

Because he wasn’t going to, because he never counted them as contracts or obligations! Don’t most people usually want to have their debts waived?

“We can discuss that another time,” he replied with a muffled cough, “the thing you learned?”

“Right, sorry! So, I learned that… as the debtor, if I wanted to extinguish all my debts without paying, I could just get married to you?” you said, pausing for a few moments to laugh at yourself, likely at seeing his expression. Still, it didn’t seem like you quite comprehend just how astounded he was. “I mean, there’s probably a bunch of conditions I’m missing, but… Woah, Azul, why do you look so serious?”

Serious? Did he look serious? 

Honestly, rather than that, he just felt… conflicted would be the most appropriate word for it, he supposed. He understood that it was a joke, and if anyone else had said it he might have pushed out the fakest laugh he could muster before brushing it off entirely, but because it was you it was difficult for him to decipher how he should feel. 

A part of him felt flustered that, if just for a moment, you considered having that kind of relationship with him. Simultaneously, he wondered if it was right of him to feel even the smallest ounce of frustration at how easily you were able to joke about it, when he himself couldn’t quite admit his growing affection for you outside of doing things for you here and there.

Of course he knew you had not meant it as a way to make fun of his feelings for you, he knew simply because you were you, just as he was unsure about the possibility of you having an inkling of how he saw you, but the tricky thing about emotions was that half the time, logic wasn’t enough to stop them from being felt.

Regardless, either emotion was uncomfortable, Azul would admit to himself. As much as he wished he could resolve it without having to voice out his feelings, he at least had enough confidence that you would not put him down for it.

Besides, if he ever decided to back out of it he could easily, probably, improvise a few excuses to get him out of boiling water.

“Marriage is a serious matter. You shouldn’t just marry someone for the sake of erasing your debts,” Azul said, with what he hoped was a light enough tone to not dampen your spirit too much. He didn’t want you to misunderstand. “Especially since you’re not as indebted to me as you seem to think.”

It might have taken you a second, but you seemed to have processed his words with the way your expression shifted into confusion.

“I’m not?”

“You’ve been self-imposing it,” Azul replied, “lending you my notes, helping you study for exams… I could have put you to work in Mostro Lounge, or asked to borrow the ground floor of Ramshackle Dorm. Believe it or not, I find value in you so it’s not as if you can’t pay me, I just choose to look at these things as… actions that aren’t contractual.

“That is to say, I don’t expect anything out of it, so don’t pay me back because you feel bad or anything.”

Because that, to him, would be a far worse rejection than simply rejecting him. He hadn’t done those things because he was expecting you to fall in love with him or anything of the sort—he simply liked you, friend or otherwise.

“Of course not,” you breathed out, with an understated understanding that reassured him. “Wait, Azul, if you’re saying what I think you’re going to say… you don’t have to say it now.”

“You’re always considerate of me, aren’t you?” Azul said softly, knowing that was one of the reasons he enjoyed your company so much—the way you always managed to let him know that you cared without belittling or pitying him. “But since I’m sure you know by now, let me tell you properly.”

Azul has always envisioned confessing to you, or at the very least asking you out on a date, in a very polite and formal manner, something he would spend weeks planning behind your back. 

Perhaps he should call himself an unfortunate soul for landing in this unexpected situation, but the more he thought about it the more grateful he was for it—beyond just finally having the opportunity to finally speak his mind (and more so his heart), he’s beholden to you for looking at him not just kindly, but expectantly. 

You look at him as if you want to hear him spill every drop of his feelings onto you, and that alone gives him enough confidence to carry on.

“Debts aside… it’s not that it’s not up for consideration, if you actually want to, but aren’t we a bit too young to be thinking about that?” Azul laughed, and when you followed suit he could physically feel his heart beating faster, despite the shallowing of his ocean deep nervousness. 

“When it comes to obligations to do or not to do, one can never be forced to do an act against their will… which is why I ask, how do you feel about going on a date first?”

end notes | masterlist my other azul fic

[1] Me exposing myself as a nerd pt2. First I write about economics, then law, who knows what's next? also DISCLAIMER this is an oversimplification for fic purposes don't come for me THANK YOU! :>

[2] To talk more about what inspired me, my professor had a lecture about the extinguishment of obligations. He didn't touch too much on the marriage aspect (the law i learn about is mostly business inclined) but he joked, "if you have a debt you want gone, just get married to your creditor (and don't get a prenup, even though everyone should get a prenup regardless of how in love you are)". Everyone was laughing, including me, but I could not get over it, and as I was studying I could not get it out of my head! So I just had to write it out… with Azul as my guinea pig, obviously. Hopefully I can stop thinking about it now that it's been written.

[3] The other thing that inspired me was Azul's White Day 2022 Letter! I liked how… friendlier he just seemed this time, the character development of it! So when envisioning Azul here I wrote it out as someone who does let you figure out that you are special enough to him and not just a connection. It's not like he's just giving you free meals all the time, he still runs a business, but he's a lot more considerate and willing to help you out because you're a friend, and not because he expects something in return.

[4] Honestly at first I thought this was going to be completely "crack" and "humor", and this still was written with the intention of not being too serious, but I also think the idea of marriage isn't a joking matter to Azul because of his parents. But if this isn't your first fic by me, I think a not-too-humorous but not-too-serious tone was expected.

[5] Anyway, I don't think he's considering it anytime soon, duh he's a student, but if that's something you want it's up for consideration down the line. They weren't even together until the end (if you say yes to that date) so they don't talk about it seriously and deeply, but I did want to give a glimpse on how I thought Azul would perceive it… while leaving it open how reader would see it. Yes, reader joked about it, but I just decided to leave it up to you if they actually want to get married in the future or not, you know?

[6] In Azul's confession! Azul's one of those people I can actually see confess in different ways. Flustered and cute? I can see it, and that was the initial route I was going to go with-something accidental and cute. It didn't seem right though, so I went the other way with something edging on serious but not planned. Anyway, he probably screams about it into his pillow in his room later.

[mariacallous]

A jury in December found that Google broke US antitrust laws through deals and billing rules that gave an unfair boost to its Google Play app store. On Thursday, a judge began laying out how Google could be forced to change its business as a penalty. The remedies under consideration could drive the most consequential shakeup ever to Google’s dominance over the Android universe.

Fortnite video game developer Epic Games, which beat Google in the trial that saw a jury declare the Play store an illegal monopoly, is demanding that federal judge James Donato ban Google from contracts that deter competition. Epic also wants Google to be forced to help competing stores list more apps, giving them a competitive boost. The changes could enable Epic to realize its long-held plan to increase revenue by processing in-game purchases in Fortnite and other titles without using Google’s payment system, and marketing games via its own app store.

Google contends that Epic’s demands would threaten its users’ security and impair the businesses of partners, including Android device makers and app developers. The search company is appealing the jury’s verdict, which could delay the rollout of any penalties for many years—or void them altogether. But Google over the past few years already has had to make some costly changes in Europe and Asia due to court losses and new laws affecting the Play store, and a trial with Epic is currently underway in Australia.

“I want to be clear: Google as an illegal monopolist will have to pay some penalties,” Donato told Epic and Google at a hearing in San Francisco on Thursday. He explained that Google’s loss requires him to pry open the company’s grip on the Android ecosystem in a way that ends Google’s illegal monopoly and also removes its ill-gotten gains from years of unfair dominance.

That would mean major changes for the industry that has built up around Google’s Android operating system—and potentially more choices for consumers. It could require Google investing cash into new projects to make things right, Donato said.

Donato expressed frustration with Google’s claims that any changes would be bad for consumers and other businesses. “To jump up and down and say the new way is going to be a world no one wants to live in, it’s unfounded,” he said. But he also spent hours in the hearing quizzing two economists, one appearing on behalf of each company, about how to craft penalties for Google without being unreasonable.

Among Epic’s requests is that Google be barred from striking deals that prevent or discourage companies from working with alternatives to its app store. In the past the company has required hardware companies that want to offer Google Play on their devices to agree not to work with or promote alternative app stores. That prevented most consumers from ever seeing other app stores, since most device makers want to offer Google’s app store, because it is the largest.

Rival app stores such as those from Amazon and Samsung also have struggled to persuade developers to list their apps outside of Google Play, because maintaining apps in multiple stores takes extra work. To even the playing field, Epic proposes that Google be required for six years to provide rival stores a way to list apps that are hosted on Google Play. That would allow people to browse alternative stores without feeling they are missing out on popular apps, giving the store a better chance of success in the long term.

“Rival app stores [would] have incentives to sign up developers so that they can get revenue streams and so that they're not dead in the water when this provision expires,” Douglas Bernheim, a Stanford University economist testifying on behalf of Epic, told Donato. “Google [would have] incentives to continue to sign up developers so that they're not at a disadvantage.”

Matthew Gentzkow, a Stanford economist on Google’s side, responded that developers could suffer harm if their apps appeared in alternative stores that have more relaxed content policies than Google’s, because in that case their apps could appear next to, say, pornography apps that Google bars. “It could undermine their brand and reputation with users,” Gentzkow said.

Donato also raised questions about how to ease Google’s requirement that apps in the Play store use Google’s billing system to process payments, one of the rules that triggered Epic’s lawsuit. And he expressed a desire to find a way to “reduce the friction,” as he called it, that users face when trying to download an app from an app store other than Play on Android devices. Google’s operating system has been found to interrupt the process with a series of warnings that bypassing Play could trigger security issues, potentially deterring people from following through with a download.

Donato is expected to hear final arguments from Google and Epic in August. He told attorneys that he would then officially issue penalties by the Labor Day holiday in September, but then corrected himself, saying they would come “promptly.”

[gemsofgreece]

What was women's position in the Byzantine Empire? I haven't searched that much, but it seems like her position wasn't any different from Ancient Greece, where they were expected to be modest, silent and it was generally preferable not to be heard (at least, women from aristocratic families).

Well you won’t find easily a medieval state which did not want women to be modest and quiet.

In spite of that, no that’s not true. The place of the woman in the society improved considerably in Byzantine times compared to the Classical era. As a sidenote, perhaps we should not generalize about Classical Greece either, especially when we apply the reality of Athens to all the Greek world without enough evidence that this is historically accurate, at a time when Athens was extremely obsessed with ¨male perfection¨.

Based on our view of things nowadays, it might seem counterintuitive, however Christianity played a huge role in this improvement. You see, the Bible through its scriptures and also the very example of Virgin Mary, whom the Byzantines (and later the Modern Greeks too) worshipped almost equally to Christ, as well as the church’s acknowledgement and veneration of women martyrs indiscriminately from men martyrs, made it clear that women were spiritually equally capable of achieving “théosis”, meaning resemble the image of God, in other words; sainthood. It was thus deemed important that women would be able to read and study the scriptures. As a result the Byzantine empire had the highest literacy rate of women in the Middle Ages.

Intercepting for those who might wonder: "But the Ancient Greek religion had gods and goddesses alike, so why wouldn't that improve the social status of women?". The answer is because in the Ancient Greek religion there was no concept of théosis, meaning any human's strive to achieve a moral perfection to resemble the image of God. The dynamics of gods and godesses were separate from those of the people, where women were left to be evaluated by and versus men alone.

Women were nowhere as confined as the women of classical Greece. Of course they should be good wives and mothers catering to their household first and foremost but they could participate in social events, festivals, go shopping, lather in the baths and have fun like men did. As wives, their status was also better, as according to Christianity all god-fearing men were supposed to be loyal to their wives and have no concubines. So, if a man really had no intention to be faithful at all, neither to his wife nor to the Christian teachings, he at least did it discreetly, and if he did not do even that, then he did not escape the judgement of the society. Divorce was hard for either spouse to ask, of course waaay more for women, but for example Justinian enforced an iconic law that if a couple wanted to take a divorce then BOTH spouses should go to monasteries and be celibate for life lol So you know, be cruel, but at least be indiscriminately cruel! 😂

Financially, dowries and inheritance remained a woman’s property after marriage unlike in classical times. If the husband died, it was the widow’s choice whether she would marry again or not and she was in charge of her children on her own whereas in classical times women had to marry their husband’s closest relative (to “protect” them and the property that had now passed on their own family). So, really no contest there. Women owned and ran businesses and signed contracts. They were employed in a wide range of professions.

As for the aristocrats, they had it much better than classical aristocrats. They did not work like lower class women, obviously, so they filled all that extra time by being pampered by their servants (female and male, sometimes eunuchs), who were usually exclusive to them. Depending on the lady’s interests, the servants would keep her entertained by playing music, reading to her, gossiping, grooming her etc Some women hired teachers to improve on their education on their own accord. Wives of important men were usually involved in political and diplomatic affairs and they were very interested in such matters. Educated women could be doctors (for women).

Nuns, who did not have the burden of taking care of the children and a husband, often became studious and pretty educated, with artistic concerns, like Kassiani. And to go back to the ask, there are accounts of Byzantine princesses being perceived in West Europe as “too talkative” and “too concerned with themselves”, so apparently Byzantium gave its aristocratic women a lot more liberty than, say, Classical Athens and also more than Western Europe did.

And then of course the Byzantine Empire was the only medieval state to have ever been reigned by four women on their own, and some of them were very consciously and ambitiously pursuing the throne. But even the empresses consorts, meaning the wives of the emperors, were also expected to be well acquainted with all the matters of the empire in case something happened to the emperor because they had to stand in his place temporarily or even serve as regents. From the 22 pages in Wikipedia about Byzantine regents, the 7 are about women, so one third, at least from the well known ones.

Women were also interested in their appearances and really took matters in their hands. Rich women would have special gardens cultivating flowers and spices to create their own perfumes. Michael Psellos writes about how Empress Zoe had essentially turned herself into a chemist, making the basements of the imperial palace a lab for perfumes and elixirs to maintain her youthful appearance.

And let’s end this with some quotes from Anna Komnene’s Alexiad (inspired by the Iliad she so loved), the chronicles of her father’s Emperor Alexius exploits in war.

12th-century manuscript of the Alexiad

The Alexiad is invaluable because it remains one of the richest sources of information historians possess about the military, social and imperial history of the Byzantine Empire.

Ah I had written before about that stuff and I meant to write something short this time but I just can’t do it when it’s about Byzantium my love adefefajdhhajhf