#fabled feminists

[marscia]

an ode to slow reading; join slow days book club on fable for contemporary lit fic reads and the occasional nonfiction 🤎 (think elena ferrante, elif batuman, joan didion, eve babitz, annie ernaux, etc.)

please note that members should be over 18 years old to join. also: this is meant to be a cozy/intimate book club, so basic rules apply. hope to see you there 🫶🏻

[fairiepunk]

I’m working on covering my favorite overalls in patches and such!

[TERFs, Anti-MOGAI, and Minors DNI]

[carlocarrasco]

Gears of War: E-Day was the pleasant surprise of the 2024 Xbox Games Showcase

Welcome back Xbox fans, geeks and gamers! With the exception of a certain 3rd party games that turned out to be a creative misfires respectively, the 2024 Xbox Games Showcase (also referred to as Xbox Showcase) was clearly a powerful showcase of future games on the Xbox ecosystem and the 1st party games of Team Xbox displayed is the most exciting bunch yet! As mentioned before, we are now…

[saturdaynightspecialpresentation]

Poor Things

First of all, Emma Stone’s performance is as good as everybody is saying. Stone takes a very difficult role that easily could have gone very, very wrong and makes it look like the most effortless thing in the world.

I have been looking at the reviews, good and bad, and I think that the minority of people who didn’t vibe with this movie had slightly skewed expectations.

Poor Things starts out at Tetsuo The Iron Man levels of fucked up, but by the end it has dropped to Edward Scissor hands levels of fucked up. This is probably plenty of weirdness for the average movie-goer, but true connoisseurs of mondo cinema should calibrate their expectations.

Second, apparently this is being talked up as a sort of feminist coming of age fable chronicling an everywoman’s sexual awakening and liberation, and it really isn’t that, and I think if you are hoping for that you’ll come away disappointed.

Better, I think, to look at it as an autistic coming of age fable and power fantasy, which I think it does a tremendous job at.

Very minor spoilers under the cut; really, this is more an essay about what I thought the film was about than a review, my review would be that it's somehow simultaneously a feel-good crowd-pleaser AND a movie where an adult woman with the brain of a toddler stabs the eyes out of a corpse with a scalpel and then plays with its penis (I wasn't kidding with the Tetsuo comparison)

Honestly now that I've actually written that out I have maybe underestimated how impressive it is that Yorgos Lanthimos made a movie where that happens on screen but somehow basically everybody loves the movie.

In terms of sex, we do watch Bella discover sex, but she very quickly comes to a conclusion about her relationship with it which never once changes throughout the rest of the movie:

She likes it, she likes it more with an attractive partner, she is utterly lacking in any kind of sexual jealousy, and she doesn't attach too much more to it than that.

This is an odd comparison, but Bella treats sex the way Joey did on Friends. A man acting this way is a sitcom cliche, but a woman acting the same way…

This is a film that is really, really not interested in the real-world consequences of this kind of sex; in fact, given that a pregnancy is the inciting incident of the film, it came off a little weird to me that the possibility of a pregnancy or STD was never really addressed (unless there was a line or two that I missed while I was in the bathroom).

For the most part, though, I was able to get past it by just thinking of it as a heightened world. The sets and settings are extremely artificial, and ultimately I figured, “Hey, if I can buy this kind of thing as harmless and fun in a sitcom, I can buy it in this other kind of heightened reality.

I will say, I don't think Bella is meant to be an every-woman, and that there's textual support for this in the film itself.

All of the women Bella deals with in some way question her approach to sex, making it clear, sometimes through explicit dialog, other times more reading between the lines, that her approach to sex is not for them.

If there’s any particularly feminist message in the film, it’s that when confronted with Bella’s bizarre approach to the world, none of the women get angry at her, and most of the men she meets do.

But Bella’s relationships with other women aren’t really the meat of the film, that’s more about her relationship with men, and particularly the way that they feel, deep in their bones, that they should have control over any woman that they have sex with.

Duncan Wedderburn, when he first discovers Bella and convinces her to go away with him, thinks he is tricking and seducing a beautiful naif who he can use and then discard when he tires of her. Their relationship disintegrates as it becomes clear that Bella hasn’t been tricked at all; she wanted exactly what he was able to give, a chance to sow her wild oats by having some no strings attached sex with an attractive, likable person in an exciting foreign city.

This makes Wedderburn increasingly unhappy and unhinged (He says at one point that he has become what he hates, a “grasping succubus”) much to Bella’s growing consternation. She has no idea why he can’t simply be happy having sex with her and otherwise letting her do what she wants, and he is so committed to a certain vision of gender roles that he can’t even begin to explain it, he can only lash out in frustration.

And that I think is the meatier part of the film; Bella doesn’t so much flout social expectations as she is simply totally unaware that they exist. 

Honestly I think the character isn’t so much coded as autistic as she just is autistic. Bella is a woman who is basically totally unaware of social expectations and constantly taken aback to discover that they exist.

More than that, she has to figure out a way to work around the fact that many of the people who become most enraged by her are also so totally lacking in self-reflection, and view their social situation as so normal, so self-evidently obvious that they cannot explain to her why it is she has made them angry. They suddenly fly into rages that clearly perplex Bella and which they themselves don’t even bother to explain, because they regard their own ideas as self-evident.

Bella is an idealized autistic hero; personally as outlandish as she is I don’t really think the film expects us to take the side of anybody else, and I think there are some fairly subtle and accurate bits of autistic behavior on her part.

She responds to life as a kind of social experiment, attempting to parse out a set of logical rules and, especially in the latter parts of the movie, she often justifies her actions with a perfectly sensible internal logic that the emotional men in her life can’t parse out. Late in the film, when she and Wedderburn are destitute, she prostitutes herself for 30 francs, and with implacable logic, explains the two reasons that Wedderburn ought to be quite happy she has done so: First, her john was much worse at sex than Wedderburn, which ought to satisfy his ego, and second, they now have 30 francs and the potential to earn more.

Wedderburn does not appreciate her logical approach.

Another thing that strikes me as very true is that Bella has a very odd theory of mind for other people. There’s a scene where, traumatized by the unspeakable poverty and suffering she sees in Alexandria, she puts all of Wedderburn’s money in a box and rushes out to give it to the poor. Unfortunately the ship is leaving, but two port attendants tell her that they will be staying on the island, and would be happy to deliver a package. She tells them that she has a big box filled with money and they should give it to the island’s poor, and they agree to do so. Now, the film never tells us one way or another whether they keep their word; but Bella herself retains an iron certainty that they did exactly what she asked them to. Now, we know Bella understands what lying and deceit are, because we’ve seen her trick people before, like when she chloroforms McCandles to run away with Wedderburn. But it never once occurs to her that these sailors might do something similar. Call it paradoxical, but that kind of thinking is common in autistic people.

There’s also the scene where the self-professed cynic Harry Astley shows her the suffering in Alexandria; he admits, when he sees how terribly it has affected her, that he didn’t tell her simply because he thought it was the truth of the world, but that her attitude made him angry, and he wanted to hurt her. A very common part of the autistic coming of age is the slow realization that not everything people tell you is part of a dispassionate, scientific search for the truth.

There’s also a scene in a whorehouse in which Bella argues that it would make more sense to have the women decide who is to sleep with the johns, so that then the john could be more confident that the girl was attracted to him, which he must doubt if he chooses. You can tell I’m autistic because I immediately had the thought, “Well, but the johns would probably be worried that nobody would choose them.”

One of Bella’s fellow working girls instead tells her, “Some of them like the fact that we don’t have a choice”.

[emaistome]

Alicent and her "liberation"

I wholeheartedly believe that to tell a feminist story, you have to at least tell a story that make sense, this is unfortunately not what Ryan Condal and his team did with Alicent Hightower, in season two of HOTD.

I kept defending them and their choices, until that last scene of season two, and although it breaks my heart that Alicent “sacrificed” Aegon, I have to admit that the things she said around it bother me a bit more.

Before anything, I want to point out that the patriarchy is not some fable, some story that they tell women to make them be submissive; it’s a setting that affects the lives of every living woman in the world (both the real world and asoif). It restricts the freedom of women, and put their very lives at stakes all the time. It manifests itself everywhere, so much that it’s easy to make people believe that “It’s just the order of things”. Sure, women can try to fight against these rules, like Rhaenyra (to a certain extent) who did not care about the prejudice against women and their sexuality, and vied for the throne despite having bastards. Or like Rhaenys, Visenya and Alyssane who despite all of their faults, did try to make the lives of women in the seven kingdoms better.

Alicent did believe that men were more fit to rule, while she thought that women were supposed to “guide them gently”. Although she believed that Rhaenyra should sit the Iron Throne, and she also tried to be named regent, so it’s inconsistent, but I digress. However, I don’t blame her for that. Alicent did not make these rules; these rules existed long before she was born, and that’s what she has been taught since she was a child. Alicent suffered a lot from them. In fact all her life, all she did was trying to make a better life for herself and her children under these rules. For the entire season one, Alicent was shown as the person who suffered more from gendered oppression in the show. Her reasoning for taking the throne was valid her actions were understandable and motivated by self preservation. If they Rhaenyra took it, she would need to kill all of Alicent’s children.

Somehow, season two episode height, had her apologizing for all the actions she made out of self-preservation. And you can smell that some 21st century writer was the mind behind her reasoning, but I’ll say more on that later.

Multiple people in charge of the show, talked about Alicent needing to be humbled. Why does she need to be humbled and apologize for her sins? While a man like Viserys, who cut his wife to take a child out of her and raped Alicent is glorified. They had her recite all the misogynistic criticism the general audience had against her, and apologize for it.

Alicent tried to be the perfect friend for Rhaenyra, more than she should have. For some reason people still find ways to blame her. She was groomed since she was 14 by Viserys and Otto; she is blamed for that, as if she had any agency in the situation.

Alicent should betray her family, disobey her father to protect Rhaenyra, do the opposite of what she was told since she was a child. And it would still not mean anything because neither her, nor Rhaenyra have power in the situation.

She was raped by Viserys as a 15/16 years old girl, again it must be her fault as a 15 years old girl, and she manipulated poor old Viserys who had no idea that he was grooming a young girl. And they always use the argument that it was fine at the time. The discourse around it resembles the discourse around Lolita when it was first published more than 50 years ago, and people still haven’t moved from blaming young girls for the actions of the men around them.

If they have a little bit of conscience, they will tell you that they feel bad for Alicent when she was a child, but not for the adult she became. But the adult is the direct result of the abuse that she suffered when she was a child. And again she fears that her children could be killed, a valid fear. Why would I blame her for doing what she could to save her family? Apparently Ryan Condal and Sara Heiss, think that she should apologize for that. “I lost my way; or rather it was taken away from me.” Implies that she realizes that getting married and having babies was never what she wanted, but something that was forced on her. But in the same scene (just like in the entire season), she praises Viserys even thought he was the main person who took her agency away from her. And I understand that victims can cope by idealizing their abusers, but viserys did not abuse only her, he abused her and her children, and clearly didn’t value her sacrifices. I think it came to that point where she didn’t even need a “liberation arc” to realize that, yet she still praises him.

Let’s talk about her plans to run away. This is where the writing started to feel the most like a 21st century pseudo-feminist was in charge of this writing and was more attached to the idea of Alicent being free, instead of real freedom. Alicent planned to runaway with her daughter and her granddaughter to “breathe the open air, and finally be free”, but she doesn’t plan any money? It’s as if they were trying to make her sound dumb because Aegon and Larys were also planning to runaway but somehow they knew they had money somewhere. But Alicent? Nothing. I’m actually not nitpicking. The patriarchy actively refuses to grant women power or money, so that they could stay bound to the men around them, to their family. And she doesn’t have any skill to survive when she “wanders in the wilderness” she was raised a highborn lady in a castle life in the wilderness, without any family to protect her would kill her and her autistic daughter and granddaughter. Women usually stay in abusive environments not only because they were brainwashed, but also because they feared that the world outside might be less kinder to them. It takes a minimum of logic to understand that the patriarchy can’t be kinder to a lowborn unknown woman than Alicent who sat in the royal small council, where only her and Rhaenyra sat as women in the seven kingdoms. She is still top two, of the most privileged women in Westeros, running away would not make her situation better.

We have a a history of women actually running away from Westeros and not being free from the patriarchy. Saerra was sold to a brothel, Jorah’s wife was some man’s concubine and Daenerys, had all her money being stolen and was sold as a child bride to Khal Drogo.

There is not a single way to make that scene work, it’s not feminist, as it realizes nothing but making one of the most intelligent characters appear very dumb. And I’d rather have Alicent be misogynistic and intelligent than having her be liberated and dumb. Women in real life can be misogynistic and perpetuate the system that made them suffer because that the only way they can survive. But also how can I blame her for her own oppression, how can I ask her to apologize for her actions as a victim.

[whencyclopedia]

Marie de France

Marie de France (wrote c. 1160-1215 CE) was a multilingual poet and translator, the first female poet of France, and a highly influential literary voice of 12th-century CE Europe. She is credited with establishing the literary genre of chivalric literature (though this is contested), contributing to the development of the Arthurian Legend, and developing the Breton lais (a short poem) as an art form. Marie's published works include:

Lais (including the Arthurian works Chevrefueil and Lanval)

Aesop's Fables (a translation from Middle English to French) and other fables

St. Patrick's Purgatory (also known as The Legend of the Purgatory of St. Patrick)

She was trilingual, writing in the Francien (Parisian) dialect with a command of Latin and Middle English. Her lais were developed from the earlier Breton lais poetic form and so she must have also known Celtic Breton and been acquainted with Brittany. Her works influenced later poets, notably Geoffrey Chaucer, and her imagery in St. Patrick's Purgatory would be used by later writers in depictions of the Christian afterlife.

Marie's works were popular in aristocratic circles but frequently featured lower-class characters as more worthy and noble than their supposed social superiors and always cast women as strong central characters. Her vision of female equality has led to her designation as a proto-feminist in the modern day, and her works remain as popular as they were in her lifetime.

Identity

Her actual name is unknown – `Marie de France' is a pen name given her only in the 16th century CE. All that is known of her comes from her work in which she identifies herself as Marie from France. Based on details in her work including knowledge of place names and geography, and the sources she drew from, scholars have determined that Marie spent a significant amount of time in England at the court of Henry II (r. 1154-1189 CE) and his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine (l. c. 1122-1204 CE).

Scholars suggest Marie may have been Henry's half-sister who perhaps followed him from Normandy to England when he was crowned king in 1154 CE. The Lais of Marie de France are dedicated to “a noble king” who is most likely Henry II but precisely how Marie meant this dedication is unclear. Marie's poetry often features women imprisoned or otherwise poorly treated by men and this theme mirrors Henry's relationship with Eleanor.

Throughout their marriage, Henry was unfaithful to his wife numerous times and carried on an open affair with the noblewoman Rosamund Clifford. When Henry's sons rebelled in 1173-1174 CE with Eleanor's support, the king had her imprisoned for the next 16 years. This same sort of relationship, often with similar details, appears in a number of Marie's works. Further, Henry does not seem to have been as fond of poetry and poets as his wife was and so an interpretation of Marie's dedication as sarcastic is probable.

In modern-day scholarship, Marie is almost always credited with establishing the genre of chivalric literature, but this seems unlikely as her works clearly draw on a pre-existing tradition of courtly love literature whose central motifs she inverts. In courtly love poetry, the knight is seen rescuing the damsel in distress; in Marie's works, the knight is often the one who has imprisoned her in the first place or, sometimes, the one in need of rescue.

Continue reading...

[animefeminist]

Fushigi Yugi: Adolescence Apotheosis

SPOILERS for the entirety of the Fushigi Yugi TV series. 

CONTENT WARNING for discussions of sexual assault and emotional abuse.

Editor's Note: Yuu Watase is x-gender and, per the US publisher of her work, continues to use she/her pronouns in translation.

Yuu Watase was only 22 when she started writing Fushigi Yugi, and it shows. For better and worse, it’s obviously the work of a young, inexperienced writer. It’s a raw, emotional, often frustrating narrative driven more by feelings than logic.

On the other hand, Watase’s youth gives her an insight into the teenage psyche that many more polished narratives lack. Fushigi Yugi uses isekai trappings and the relationship between Miaka and Yui to explore common sources of desire and anxiety for teenage girls along with their potential consequences, both positive and negative. By tapping into the mentality of its audience and providing reassurance in its conclusion, Fushigi Yugi serves the function of a fable or fairy tale.

Escaping Anxiety in Another World

At fifteen, protagonist Miaka and her best friend Yui face a major transitional period in their lives. Japanese students prepare for high school entrance exams in the equivalent of ninth grade, and the school they get into can play a major role in determining the rest of their lives. Despite an increased interest in sex, romantic relationships are considered a waste of precious studying time. Friendships are on the cusp of breaking apart because people may get into different schools.

Read it at Anime Feminist!

[ovwechoes]

Recommending novels/books based on your support main! This is literally an excuse just to talk about the book's I've gotten through off my reading list this past week. My asks are open and any/all thoughts or opinions are welcome. TWs for any of the books mentioned will be listed as well. They're under the cut - enjoy!

Ana Amari: Ana used to find reading boring, often passing the time through other means. However, she's always found herself thinking about ‘Women Who Run With the Wolves’ by Clarissa Pinkola Estés. The book explores the wild woman archetype, and explores mythology, fables and fairy tales throughout, helping her to feel some form of escapism. The themes of resilience, feminine strength and intuition make this a book that Ana would definitely recommend to you! Applicable TW/CWs are as follows: sexual assault/violence, trauma, emotional abuse, death and grief, self-harm, mental health struggles, dark or disturbing imagery and cultural sensitivity (some of the mythology may be inaccurate).

Jean-Baptiste Augustin: With Baptiste's natural interest in healthcare/medical practices, the human body, and science with a hint of action and suspense, I think he'd recommend ‘Annihilation’ by Jeff VanderMeer to people similar to him or enjoy his character. It's the first book in the Southern Reach trilogy, and explores an expedition into an area known as Area X; a surreal place where psychological and physical expectations and limits are stretched and distorted throughout the novel. He enjoys the thrill the book provided him, and enjoyed the movie adaptation just as much. It's one that hasn't been able to leave his mind, and he won't stop talking about it when he rereads it every so often or if he's asked about it. Applicable TW/CWs are as follows: body horror, psychological horror, death and violence, suicide, isolation/despair, loss of identity, insanity, and disturbing imagery.

Brigitte Lindholm: With Brigitte's life experiences, and her need to understand other walks of life (and partially because I headcanon her as wlw), I like to imagine Brigitte holds the novel ‘Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit’ by Jeanette Winterson close to her heart, helping to explore her own identity in a personal, retrospective way. The book explores the life of the protagonist with her adoptive, religious parents and her deviation from religion as she explores her identity in Britain. It's a coming-of-age novel that Brigitte found changed her perspective on certain things, and she would recommend it to anyone wanting to read something that's not the standard teenage autobiography. Applicable TW/CWs are as follows: religious trauma, homophobia, emotional abuse, isolation and rejection, struggles with identity and psychological distress.

Illari Quispe Ruiz: Illari enjoys feminist books in my opinion, and enjoys dystopian novels that explore realities possibly not far from her own. It's something she's always enjoyed, with ‘The Power’ by Naomi Alderman being her favourite. She'd recommend it to anyone who enjoyed her character or was similar to her, and her reasons for it are understandable. This novel explores a world where women develop the power to control and produce electricity from their bodies/hands. This causes dramatic shifts in power dynamics within society, and explores the ways in which society would be different for women especially, with the moral questions lingering in the back of the reader's mind. Illari appreciates the outlook the book provides, and the ways in which it poses questions that shake your own morality. Applicable TW/CWs are as follows: sexual assault and r-pe, violence, torture, abuse of power, death and murder, religious extremism, trauma and psychological distress.

Kiriko Kamori: Kiriko enjoys introspection, and enjoys the idea of the afterlife as well as this. It's something she considers a lot, and about the life she'll be leaving behind in the future when her death comes closer. So, she would recommend ‘A Short Stay in Hell’ by William Blackwood to those similar to her or like her character - it explores the idea that hell isn't the stereotypical place with fire and burning, but a version where it's inhabitants have to endure a endless, meaningless and monotonous existence in a bureaucratic afterlife. Kiriko appreciates the way in which the novel sort of pokes fun at bureaucracy in real life/reality, and how much it degrades the human soul to do the same things each and every day. It definitely gave her a midlife crisis too early, but she thinks that everyone should read it at least once in their life. Applicable TW/CWs are as follows: existential dread/despair, psychological distress, administrative and bureaucratic frustration, depiction of hell, isolation and loneliness.

Niran Pruksamanee / Lifeweaver: With the type of person Niran is, he would want to understand other walks of life, and explore realities far from his own but pose questions that relate to his own. He enjoys being left with his own questions about himself, and enjoys having those discussions with his soul about his identity or those around him. It's something he's always enjoyed, with the novel ‘The Left Hand of Darkness’ by Ursula k. Le Guin sparking this especially. Niran would recommend it to anyone with gender or sexuality questions within themselves, or anyone who shares the same passion for understanding humans in fictional worlds. The book explores a reality in which inhabitants of a planet can change their gender at their own will, exploring themes of identity, human connections and empathy. It left a stain on his mind for weeks after he finished it, and he would always recommend it to those similar to him or people who admire/like his character. Applicable TW/CWs are as follows: sexual assault, psychological and physical trauma, gender and identity, cultural/societal oppression, isolation and alienation, death and conflict.

Lúcio Correia Dos Santos: Lucio has values regarding acceptance, community, and finding your place in society with support from others that he always holds dear to his heart. As such, he loves to explore stories with these themes. One of the books he'd recommend to anyone likeminded or those who like his character enough to main him would be ‘The House in the Cerulean Sea’ by TJ Klune. It's a heart-warming fantasy novel about a caseworker who works with magical children, discovering a new sense of belonging and companionship in the process. It's a meaningful book to Lucio, and he loves to talk about it any chance he gets. Applicable TW/CWs are as follows: child abuse/neglect, discrimination, prejudice, trauma, emotional distress, loss and grief.

Angela Ziegler / Mercy: Honestly, I can imagine Angela being a splatterpunk fan, which is a genre that explores the human body's limits in a grotesque, gory and horror-filled way. As such, a book she would recommend to someone who shares this interest and enjoys her character too is ‘Earthlings’ By Sayaka Murata. It's a novel that explores the life of a young child, who believes she's been gifted magical powers from her plush hedgehog called Piyyut. It explores this, and how trauma impacts a child's brain when it comes to development, connecting with other people and morality in society. The ending wasn't at all what Angela was expecting, telling other Overwatch members about the horrors she read (that she also really enjoyed because of the implications left with the themes) and she would recommend it until she couldn't speak anymore. However, she knows that this book can often be too much for people with it's explicit details. So for those she knows wouldn't be able to handle the themes in ‘Earthlings’, she would recommend a dystopian novel such as ‘1984’ by George Orwell as Angela enjoys exploring realities that aren't far from the ones currently happening (or are about to happen. TW/CWs for Earthlings are as follows: mental health issues, childhood trauma, child abuse, sexual assault/abuse, sexual violence, family abuse/neglect, isolation and alienation, incestuous relationships, and generally disturbing content and themes. TW/CWs for 1984 are as follows: totalitarian control/oppression, psychological torture, physical torture and violence, oppressive ideology, propaganda, censorship and erasure of history,  isolation and loneliness, dystopian and despairing themes.

Moira O'Deorian: Moira's also the type to enjoy horror books, but likes to explore serial killer themes with unconventional methods of killing. She enjoys exploring the psyche of people who kill, and enjoys the perspectives that they provide. It's always something she's loved, and so she would recommend ‘A Certain Hunger’ by Chelsea G. Summers to anyone who likes her character enough to main her or shares her personality/interests. It's a mock-autobiography that explores the life of a food critic that has an unusual and disturbing hobby: she's a serial killer who targets and devours her victims. It's an exploration of femininity, with the lines between pleasure, violence and pain blurring the more that the protagonist explores her life in each chapter. Moira loved the ways in which the violence was weaved into the love stories, and would recommend it to anyone who wanted to read something new. Applicable TW/CWs are as follows: cannibalism, sexual violence, murder and violence, psychological distress, dark humour and satire, and explorations of morality.

Tekhartha Zenyatta: Zenyatta doesn't often read, and when he does it's mostly spiritualism-related content. However, he would always recommend to people similar to him or people that enjoy his character/personality the novel ‘The Name of the Wind’ by Patrick Rothfuss. The novel is about Kvothe, a gifted man who's on a quest for knowledge, personal growth and and intelligence. It gave Zenyatta a new perspective on things, continuing to grow his understanding of humanity in a different, unconventional way. He appreciates the outlooks and themes the book presented him with, and he enjoys the way it showed him more about humanity. Applicable TW/CWs are as follows: violence, child abuse, sexual assault/coercion, death and grief, trauma, psychological distress, and abuse of power.

[yourchemicallyimbalancedromance]

Introduction!! 💜🌙

(Because I keep forgetting to post it lol)

First and foremost, the owner of this blog stands with PALESTINE. #FREEPALESTINE🇵🇸

Hi! I’m Fable, but you can call me fae if we’re close :] I’m sixteen and I’ve been a fander since 2017-2018, so about…6-7 years? I’m glad to be here :))

Artists I love:

-Lana Del Rey

-Ethel Cain

-Taylor Swift

-The Weeknd

-NF

-MCR (My Chemical Romance)

-I Prevail

-Fall Out Boy

-P!ATD (Panic! At The Disco) (read: I do not support Brendon Urie)

-Paramore

{You’ll probably see me reblogging Taylor and Ethel Cain related posts most often :D}

Fandoms/Fanbases I am in:

-Sanders Sides

-Swifties

-Daughters Of Cain

-MRIH (My Roommate Is Hades)

Things I’m fine with being tagged in:

-Sanders sides x Reader (angst or fluff either is fine :D)

-Prinxiety/Analogical fanfic and/or one shots, etc.

-art

-Remy and/or Emile fanfic/art/oneshots/etc.!! I love finding these kinds of posts considering they aren’t core sides

-basically anything sanders sides related EXCEPT for ANYTHING NSFW and/or RemRom

DNI

-Transphobes

-homophobes

-TERFs

-people that ship/interact with RemRom content (ew)

-misogynists

-basically if you’re just a bad person who supports horrible things/causes, DNI.

Please interact list:

-Fanders

-Inclusionary Feminists

-people who love music

-VIRGIL KINNIES JDKDOXOWOFJWOJFKS

-orange side theorists!!

I’ll usually post/reblog:

-sanders sides theories/opinions

-funny incorrect quotes

-art (sometimes sanders sides related sometimes not)

-fanfic

-quotes (again, sometimes sanders sides related, sometimes not.)

Boundaries:

-totally fine with DMs as long as you’re fine with my response being few and far between, I’m not good with small talk or starting conversations and I need tone tags sooo

-totally fine with spam liking/reblogging! I love seeing that people like what I post :DD

-please please do not criticize my writing! I haven’t written in a very long time and I’m just now starting back up again, please bare with me!

Writing masterlist<3

[babybutchianthe]

quick message for those who love to vaguepost about me: you are correct, my entire schtick is that i bounced off actual feminist literature and turned my focus to analysing tlt as a feminist work because it's the only thing at my reading level. i want to force you to read tlt as a moral fable of sorts because i am a sick and twisted individual whose understanding of morality is dependent on narratives spoonfeeding me ethics. i am unapologetic about this due to my aforementioned lack of moral understanding :|

[fairiepunk]

The patriarchy told me

At 11 years old

That the hair growing under my arms was

“disgusting”

was

“ugly”

was

“not ladylike”

So I became a man,

Not necessarily for that reason,

But because it showed me that manhood was something I’d perform better than womanhood.

And after a while, I found there were still remnants of womanhood inside of me.

Still pieces of me that felt like the girl I grew up as.

I wondered if I should push her away,

For fear of doing womanhood wrong again.

However, the older I get

The queerer I become,

The more I realize

There is no wrong way to be myself,

And that means being both man and woman.

And that means never shaving when I don’t want to.

At 22, I love my pits.

I love the way hair grows from my chest and belly and face.

I love being soft, and I love being chivalrous.

I love being man and woman and everything in between.

And the patriarchy can’t tell me shit, anymore.

-I Love My Pits, 5/20/24

[itsagrimm]

Research Special

I have been asked to share my notes and references to 'He Who Comes from under the Water'. So here is my ongoing list of myths, fables, tales, practices or customs i have referenced so far.

People from central & eastern Europe are explicitly invited to add, argue or disagree with stuff they are familiar with.

Disclaimer: While I enjoy many traditional stories & practices, this is not a trad life safe space. Regressive misanthropes, fascists, right wingers, racists, anti-feminists and science deniers be gone. Romanticism may be my personal escapism and access to some of my heritage, which I am willing to share with you. But this is not a white supremacists playground in fairy tale costume. You guys are always the evil in my stories. Stay away.

König is a Vodyanoy or водяно́й. It's a re-occurring character and entity in many eastern European and slavic stories. There is not one version of Vodyanoy. Depending on the region and story they are all slightly different with Western Slavs leaning to a more elegant (?) Vodník who might even pass as human, likes tobacco offerings and tea pots to keep souls in, while the eastern Slavs tend to have more stories of a wild king who fears nothing and "enslaves" aka drowns anyone who crosses his kingdom. What most of these stories share is that this very powerful entity, is playful and open to bargains or games. It's possible that many fairy tales and characters stem from old pagan gods and traditions which explain the amount of power and connection to the land. The name Vodyanoy is literally translatable as 'he who comes from under the water'.

The heron & the fox is a fable written by Aesop. I would also like to add that the fox is a re-occuring fable animal in may central & eastern European stories in which it is considered a clever animal. Also in at least Russian the fox often is considered female while the german stories tend to name the fox as male.

Curses and being cursed here in this context is a more central European witch hunt reference. The villager Ivar wants readers property and goes after her, claiming she is cursed and due to being a woman not allowed to own the land of her family. During Medieval times in central Europe many peasant women owned the land in the same way as men did, being bound to the same expectations of service and work. Not saying that peasant women in the central European Middle Ages had many personal liberties bc simply the concept of personal liberties and governance was a different one, but since they were expected to work the land in the same way as men did, it is odd to not allow the reader to work the land of her dead family. Claiming something as unprovable as being cursed, is at least in the historic context more a post medieval attempt to strategically disenfranchise the vulnerable female coded reader by playing up religious, mostly christian fears, to get her land. Witch hunts were not a massive phenomenon in Eastern Europe, but rather common Modern Times occurrences until the 18th century especially in german speaking regions where they noticeably affected disenfranchised groups like women*, the poor, the sick, jewish communities, migrants, ... This is in basically in any german history class book for school. But I can also recommend this or this.

The idea of marriages between human women and male animal/magical beings/gods/spirits/etc is very common theme appearing nearly everywhere on the globe. I concentrated on german tales about animal-human-marriages, especially tales from the Gebrüder Grimm Collection. The Gebrüder Grimm fairy tale collection is a collection of german tales from 1812. Unlike the Disney retellings of fairy tales this german collection is brütäl, meaning it never really got reworded much since the 18th century, mirroring what the brothers considered a fine and acceptable story to tell to kids. In the 18th century. As you can imagine that was very different to what we consider appropriate for kids now. Anyway, I did a closer reading on the german "Froschkönig", "Schneeweißchen & Rosenrot" and the "Eisenhans" tales. They include cursed swamp being, cursed bear and cursed frog. Especially in Froschkönig the princess is the vocal point of the story while being forced into a marriage with a frog. Also, the story has many sexual undertones and especially the early male psychologist carl jung had a blast writing about a young woman's sexuality, ignoring her lack of agency in the whole scenario (wtf carl.). Eisenhans is different for it is about a prince and is essentially the male, more action including version but it includes a dangerous but also somewhat helpful underwater being which drowns whoever comes to it. Finally "Schneeweißchen & Rosenrot" shows a bear as a protector for the then later brides. As you can guess I draw a lot of the psychological impacts especially from Froschkönig for the Reader perspective. Also, lot's of food references.

Female owlets cry ‘Kowitt!” which sounds like the german ‘komm mit’ / ‘come with me’. Therefore, it is said in German folklore that the owlets are birds of death wanting to take a soul with them or warning of the impending death of those who listen to it because it was heard so much around the dead and dying. Owlets and many other nightly birds of prey were hunted because of that in German speaking regions. The real reason for owlets crying around the dead is a different one: the lights of the wake for the dead drew the birds in at night.

Herbs might be something we consider magical now during an honestly odd revival of new age mysticism. But it likely wasn't magical per se in the same way for European central & eastern people in the undefined past. Of course there are stories and legend about magical herbs like the herb 'Moly' in the Odyssee. But the use of herbs just to flavour food can be found in the Edda the same way teas and foods are used to help with flavouring food, keeping healthy and curing sickness till this day without being magical. It's just practical to use what is at hand. Reader drinking a sage tea, which is a wild plant widely available basically everywhere is exactly that. If you want to try it, i recommend adding some honey. But please don't buy white sage just to make tea from it. That's wasteful considering the importance white sage has in other practices I am not familiar with when one can use Common Sage.

Because hair in whatever length or form is beautiful but requires work, many traditional hair styles for longer hair from the especially the eastern European region include ‘косы’ or braids/plaits. It's a very practical way of keeping your hair tidy and out of the way during a days work. Head coverings for female presenting people from the region also play an important role. The most known ones are head scarfs known as 'платки', they are beautiful scarfs with often flowery motives. Depending on the region of origin the patterns will be different. Платки used to be associated with being married and being older but not so much anymore as it can also be just worn as protection against the elements or as an accessory. Платки also play a role in various religious practices for both christian and muslims as well as cultural pride so I recommend doing serious research before just wearing this type of head covering just because you find it beautiful. I remember being called names for wearing this traditional dress so for someone just to take it and 'play' with it without learning more first, feels off to me. Another important head wear I plan on referencing is the 'кокошник' which is something like a crown or tiara worn by mostly married female presenting people. I remember seeing the кокошник drawn on basically all queens and princesses in my fairy tale books as a kid so you bet I will give reader one.

The swamp light's are another staple in many parts of the world where swamps exist. The German folklore know them as 'Irrlicht' or 'Sumpflicht' and consider them evil doers trying to lure wanderers into the dangerous swamps or just off the road. Slavic tales also associate the lights in the swamp with something bad. There is the entity of the 'боло́тник' who lives in the swamp and likes to lure people in by lighting up those fires, making animal noises and confusing wanderers by intoxicating them with gas from dangerous herbs. The боло́тник is not as common and I only read up on this creature as research for HWCFUTW since he does very similar things as the водяно́й and more stories are about him as the generally associated being ruling all types of waters.

At last:

Generally speaking I noticed a leaning in especially english speaking media to see everything slavic as culturally Russian, and everything German-speaking as from the whole of Germany. That is a dangerous simplification. If you want to learn and research more on your own about those regions and their traditions & stories i have to stress the importance of local culture and complex diversity in those regions.

Also, if you liked this I can do a follow up post about my references in my writing once I have introduced a bit more.

@thesinsoflust @kdkj122920 @die-prophetin @lillianastuff @1234ilikecowsthanyoumore

[byneddiedingo]

Udo Kier and Corinne Cléry in The Story of O (Just Jaeckin, 1975)

Cast: Corinne Cléry, Udo Kier, Anthony Steel, Jean Gaven, Christiane Minazzoli, Martine Kelly, Jean-Pierre Andréani, Gabriel Cattand, Li Sellgren, Albane Navizet, Nadine Perles, Laure Moutoussamy. Screenplay: Sébastien Japrisot, based on a novel by Dominique Aubry as Pauline Réage. Cinematography: Robert Fraisse, Yves Rodallec. Art direction: Jean-Baptiste Poirot. Film editing: Francine Pierre. Music: Pierre Bachelet. 

The interiority of novels is what makes them so difficult to film. The characters and action of a novel exist only in the mind of the reader encountering them on the page. When we see those characters and that action on the screen, they usually have a very different effect, especially when the novel and the film deal with sex. When The Story of O, a novel written by a woman, was transferred to the screen by a director who's a man, the "male gaze" inevitably informed the movie, particularly because the story is about a woman submitting to sadomasochistic discipline. So the film, whose subject matter and abundant female nudity got it banned in Britain and labeled NC-17 in the States, was also subject to charges that it was antifeminist. There are those who assert that it's actually a feminist fable, since O (Corinne Cléry) is given frequent opportunities to escape from her submissive role and asserts her equality, if not dominance, at the film's end, but they seem to be in a minority. In any case, The Story of O is not a very good movie. It's drenched in soft-core porn clichés and its soft-focus photography gives it a candy-box ambiance. On the page, the novel could be intellectually and erotically provocative. But on the screen it's just tedious and repetitive. 

[tilbageidanmark]

Movies I watched this week (#172):

"May I watch you eat?"

The taste of things is the latest French 'Food-porn' movie, following the recipe of so many before it, and paying homage especially to 'Babette's Feast', with Juliette Binoche playing the simple cook Stéphane Audran in a similar style. They knew what they were doing, romanticizing the 'olde thyme' vision of culinary bliss, making it like a summertime Renoir tableaux [but without any of the dozens of assistants needed to chop the wood, peel the potatoes, pluck the geese, and do the dishes]. Food as love.

I saw it on the same day I read this article about 'The Hottest Restaurant in France', which got me in the mood.

🍿

"I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Please forgive me..."

Samsara is not Ron Flicke's film of the same name (him of the The Qatsi Trilogy). But this 2023 film too is a meditative, spiritual essay about life, death and change. It specifically tells about the Buddhist idea of re-incarnation.

Like the Italian poem 'Le quattro volte' it transforms the philosophical concept of 'Bardo' into a visual story about a bed-ridden old Laotian woman who turns into a new-born goat in Africa after her death. And like Philip Gröning's patient 'Into Great Silence', it follows the simple life in a monastery, quietly and poetically. (Photo Above).

It tells two separate stories: A young boy reads from 'The Tibetan book of the Dead' to a dying woman in a village in Laos. And exactly at midpoint, there's an unexplained, abstract 2001 "Star Gate" light show, where the (Spanish) director asks the audience to close their eyes, and get lost in the vortex with her for about 15 minutes. Long stretch of strobe lights and strange dead sounds, as her soul travels though the afterlife into new birth. Then her spirit transmutes into an another form, as a pet goat for a young Muslim girl in Zanzibar. It's a fragile, silent and unfocused vision about the circle of life.

🍿

Thoroughbreds, my second unsettling thriller by Cory Finley (after 'Bad Education'), his accomplished debut feature. It tells of two rich, psychopathic Connecticut girls who scheme to murder, a-la Raskolnikov, the mean father of the richer one. Terrific direction choices and well-made execution, but I can't stand the young, unlikable actresses (and actors!), and their emotionally-stunted upper-class coldness left me cold too.

I loved JunePictures's lovely animated logo at the beginning!

🍿

Invention for Destruction, a Jules Verne steampunk'ish adventure fable. It was made by Karel Zeman, the "Czech Méliès", in 1958, and is considered "the most successful film in the history of Czech cinema". It's a fantasy sci-fi story that includes rollerskating camels, underwater biking pirates, a giant man-eating octopus, submarines with duck-foot paddles, Etc. It mixes real-life acting with special effect Victorian engravings and animation, including traditional, cut-out, and stop-motion, along with miniature effects and matte paintings. 4/10.

🍿

2 by French feminist Germaine Dulac:

🍿 Dulac was a radical, impressionist, avant-garde film-maker who had made ground-breaking surrealist silent films even before Buñuel and Dalí made 'The Andalusian Dog'.

The Smiling Madame Beudet (1923) is a strong feminist story of an intelligent woman unhappily married who's dreaming of killing her boorish husband. It includes a literal Chekhov's gun. [*Female Director*].

🍿 The Seashell and the Clergyman is based on an experimental story by avant-garde artist Antonin Artaud. A year before 'Un Chien Andalou', it's just as opaque & untamed. Anybody interested in early Buñuel, should visit her films. It's about the "erotic hallucinations of a priest lusting after the wife of a general." Distorted images, bizarre fantasies, impolite subversions... [*Female Director*].

🍿

Another silent era classic, made by a towering pioneer, Alice Guy Blaché's 1906 The Life of Christ. [On IMDb, Alice Guy is credited with directing 464 (!) films, producing 32 and writing 18!]. Composed of 25 individual tableaux, telling of mostly his last days, and noted for her focus on his mostly women followers. The poor baby who had to play Jesus in the manger!... [*Female Director*].

🍿

Crack-up, a confusing 1946 Film Noir, made by a second-rated director, with a terrible script and bad acting all around, including the miscast Pat O'Brien. A stolen art piece, not up to 'The Maltese Falcon' levels. 2/10.

🍿

"I was drugged and left for dead in Mexico, and all I got was this stupid T shirt."

A single re-watch this week: the sophisticated mystery The Game, again♻️. Still my favorite David Fincher film, even more than 'The social Network'. With the magnificent Memory montage opening, which was also copied successfully by the show 'Succession'. Chasing a "White Rabbit", a birthday present to remember...

🍿

2 more selections from the US National Film Registry:

🍿 I am somebody is a 1970 documentary about a strike by 400 black hospital employees (all but 12 women) for better pay in Charleston, South Carolina. Racist discrimination against poor blacks in Amerika is so appalling and so deep, it's hard to watch. The fight for equality and civil rights never ended. 9/10. [*Female Director*].

🍿 Jammin' the Blues is a 1944 Warner Bros. jazz short featuring Lester Young and (new to me) singer Marie Bryant. Oscar nominated in 1944. 'Smokin'!

🍿

I used to really like British magician Darren Brown, and saw many of his shows. Pushed to the edge (2016) is a disturbing experiment in social compliance, a-la Stanley Milgram, taken to the extreme. With dubious morality, he manipulates an unsuspecting guy to push another man from the roof of a building. But the more elaborate the set up, the more uncomfortable it is to watch it.

🍿

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, a lame, loud, shallow music mockumentary by The Lonely Island. It had only one good number, "Fucked Bin Ladin" (which came at 46:00, exactly one hour before the end, so they did follow some script writing rules after all..) and about one million celebrity cameos, including Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney. 2/10.

🍿  

In They're Made Out Of Meat (2005) two aliens meet in a night Diner. One of them tell the other, dressed in St. Pepper-type uniform that he discovers that all people on this planet are "made out of meat". It's a cute concept, but that's the whole thing, and there's not more to it.

RIP, Terry Bisson!

🍿  

Semiotics of the Kitchen was an angry installation piece by artist Martha Rosler, at the heights of the second wave feminism years (1975). A parody of a cooking show, where the host gets more and more agitated. [*Female Director*].

🍿

(My complete movie list is here)

[shebeafancyflapjack]

Run, Little Witch (Part One)

A short horror story where I torture my oc some more.

"Oh, shhh..." Alison shrugged, throwing her hands up, "Sod it, it's my house. I can swear if I like. Shitbags!"

Cautiously, she stepped around the shards of glass that now littered her bedroom floor. Rather than bothering to go down into the kitchen to get the dustpan and brush, she crouched down to pick the pieces up one by one. Thankfully the glass had smashed in mostly big chunks. Though she still managed to cut herself slightly when she carelessly picked up one very pointy shard.

Alison was uttering her fifth filthy swear word that minute when the soot coated farmer bustled through the door.

"What's that smashing? Be there an angry mob at the door?" Mary asked, frantic.

"No, no mob. Just me being clumsy and dropping this mirror I found in the attic. Thought I could be all independent and hang it up without Mike but I guess I just failed feminists everywhere."

Alison carried the shards to her dresser table and let them slide out into an untidy pile for now. She then picked up the antique, ornately carved frame with black onyx encrusted at the corners, and propped it against the wall.

The older woman let out a blood-chilling gasp.

"Oh sweet Lord...That be Sir Pius' mirror!"

"Who?" She followed the direction of Mary's finger to the faded plaque at the top of the frame; "Ah, yeah. Who was he then? Relative of Humphrey's?"

There was no last name. Simply 'Sir Pius R.I.P'.

Mary began flapping her hands at her side, stepping backwards, eyes wider than usual.

"Oh, no, no, no. T'is very bad, Al'son. This must be remedied with great haste!"

"What be remedied? Uh, I mean," Clearly, she was spending too much time around dead people, "What you talking about?"

"Sir Pius, he...He were an evil scoundrel. One of the darkest souls that did ever walk this Earth. Even after his death, he inspired so much fear amongst the village that they did bind his soul to this mirror." Mary explained with fear and reverence in each word; "He could never harm another so long as it remains in tact. And now you've broken it and set him loose upon the land!"

"Right..." Alison nodded, squinting with skepticism; "And, can you see him around here now?"

"Well...No."

The bubbling tension of the room seemed to evaporate in an instant.

"Did you happen to pass him as you came in?"

"No, buts...Oh you thinks I be a silly wench, making up fables."

"I don't think you're silly, Mary, but you are superstitious. And I'm not saying that's always wrong because, well..." She gestured in the ghost's presence to emphasise her point; "Shows what I knew about the supernatural. But there are some things you can't base your whole life on, like worrying about stepping on a crack and breaking your mother's back."

"Which my friend Eda did and her mums back broke when she gots crushed beneath a falling tree."

"Right. Bad example. Look, just don't worry too much about it, okay. The guy's been dead for....how many years?"

"Four hundred, give or take, 'cause I can't do more numbers than thats."

"Exactly. If there were any such curse, his soul probably expired inside ages ago, like that tin of coffee Mike bought with the wrong shelf life." They'd both suffered for a week after that, constantly fighting to get to the loo.

"We mustn't take that risk, Al'son! We must ensure his soul is bound back to the mirror."

Alison could see, much like the wedding traditions, her friend wasn't going to let this go.

"And how do we do that?" She indulged, checking her watch. She was supposed to be picking Mike up from the train station, after his mate's stag weekend.

"Last time I saws them do it, they just held the mirror before his corpse and asked the Lord to seal him within the glass. That were it."

Sounded easy enough. More so than subtly throwing cake at an unsuspecting bride.

"But o'course the mirror needs to be made whole!"

"Okay, sure, once I'm back we can work on it together, like a jigsaw. It'll be fun." She smiled, doing her best to make light of it without mocking Mary; "Then you can show me how do this ritual or whatever."

"Yous leaving now?!"

She was already reaching for her shoes; "Yeah, Mike's already maxed out his credit card this weekend too much to get a taxi, apparently. I won't be long, maybe about a couple of hours, cos of the traffic."

"But...but...What if his spirit doth wreak havoc?!" Mary fretted; "We dunno what he be capable of!"

"Exactly! If he does exist, he probably can't do anything more than that Robin and Julian are capable of. Besides, you're all dead anyway - no offense - but what harm could he do to you all?"

The question seemed to make Mary pale all the more, plumes of smoke rising from her bonnet as she shuddered. Alison suspected this was more personal than she was letting on.

"Look...how about you stand guard over it for me and if you see anything poltergeisty appear then shout for the others. Okay?"

"Stand guards...Yes, I can do thats." Mary seemed to be doing her best to summon her confidence; "I ain't no scardey cat."

"That's the spirit." Bad pun aside.

"Just promise me you will fix it once you returns, please?" Mary begged. Alison gave her promise and reached for her car keys.

The crazy things she was willing to do to keep this new family of hers happy.

Honestly, what possible harm could come from breaking some tacky mirror? Seven years bad luck, she could take, just add it to her current tab. But an escaped evil spirit? It was a little bit harder to swallow.

"Good friends are there for each other! Never, ever forget that I got you and you got me so, Reach-!" Silver ceased her out of character singing and shook her head, "Damn it, Kitty!"

Why couldn't the one dead girlfriend close to her age in this house have been into cool bands, like Evanescence and Linkin Park?

Look at her, skipping down the hallway to S Club like a dork. How far she has fallen.

She hears Alison's car drive off just before the grandfather clock chimes for the hour. Seven o'clock. Once upon a time, she'd have hated having to stick to a schedule for socialising. But given how she only got to spend three nights and two days a month with her crew, she'd found herself more amiable to adapt to spend what little time she had with them all. Besides, some of the stories the others came up with could be entertaining, aside from Cap's famous Risk games and Thomas' grand epics that nearly sent her back to sleep prematurely.

She's still resisting the urge to hum more awful pop when she reaches the common room. The Captain is already there, prompt as usual, stood erect facing the window, his stick held at his tail bone.

"Evenin' Cap. Ready for Story Club?" She tapped his arm as she passed him, nothing too overly friendly. He's as picky about physical affection as she is. One of the few things they have in common.

It's not that she doesn't like being hugged or holding hands or any of that jazz, it's just when people get presumptive about it or not get when she isn't in the mood. She'd had more than a few talks with Kitty about respecting boundaries.

"It's Captain, not Cap. You should respect the titles of your superiors." The soldier spoke without looking away from the moon half-hidden behind the clouds.

Silver snorted; "That's a new one. You would have had me there if not for that voice."

Far deeper and threatening than the stern but soft authoritative tone she'd come to know so well.

"Good girls should be seen and not heard."

Silver stilled at that, feeling something close to an ice cold finger run down the back of her neck.

"Okay, that's crossing the line into creepy, please never say that again, Cap."

"I told you to call me Captain, girl!" He turned his head to glare at her, his voice rising enough to make her jump.

She recoiled back; "What the fuck? You always let Alison call you Cap."

"Because Alison is not some pagan harlot who waltzes around half naked!" He sneered as he began to step towards her; "Look at you. Have you no respect, girl?!"

Silver scoffed at that, putting her hand to her hip, resisting the urge to button up her jacket to hide her exposed belly. She didn't like way the Captain's eyes were scanning her over, top to bottom.

"Thought you'd be the last person I'd need to worry about perving over girls, let alone ones half your age." She cringed.

"Do not speak such filth. It is your kind who corrupt good, upstanding men with your sinful, seductive charms."

"Excuse you, pal, I have and would never try any of my sinful seductive charms on you or any bloke in this house, living or dead! My bread ain't buttered that way, mate! I thought you understood that!"

This entire confrontation feels like something out of a bad dream. Cap was staring at her with pure, unfiltered hatred. The worst she'd got from him over the years was exasperated annoyance. But contempt? What had she done to piss him off this much?

Was this all because Kitty wanting her to be her new singing partner instead of him? Talk about petty.

His lips thinned and curled at that.

"More debauchery. More sin. You are festered with it, you little she-demon." He hissed, "So that is what you have been doing with poor, innocent Katherine. Polluting her with your filth."

This was beyond a joke now. Silver rubbed at her elbow, "Whatever game you're playing here, just stop-."

"A game?"

Silver turned to see Kitty entering the room, with Thomas, Fanny, Pat and Julian behind her.

"Oh thank Hekate." Silver sighed and moved towards them; "Can you guys please sort this bloke out?! He's just started slagging me off and throwing all these accusations at me!"

"What accusations?" Asked Julian, more interested than she expected of him.

"Oh apparently I've been trying to corrupt Kitty with my 'sinful ways'." She rolled her eyes, waiting for them to laugh with her at how ridiculous such a claim was.

Instead, to her horror, they merely stared blankly at her.

"Have you?" Asked Thomas, flatly.

"I...No!" She denied, vehemently; "Of course I haven't! Kitty, tell them!"

All eyes shifted to the Georgian woman, whose hands were folded at her skirt, her expression unusually subdued. Like a child being put on a witness stand.

"Tell the truth, Katherine." Said Cap, his voice shifting slightly back to that paternal tone, but still not quite his own; "You're not in trouble here."

Why the fuck was she in trouble?! She hadn't done anything, she was barely awake most of the time!

Kitty raised her chin and looked at Silver.

"It's true." She began, her voice also deeper than the bright, cheerful Kitty they knew; "She tried to convince me to dance naked beneath the full moon to summon the Dark Lord. When I refused, she attempted to...force herself upon me."

"KITTY, WHAT THE FUCK-?!"

A firm hand struck her across the face.

"Hold your tongue, you vile degenerate!" Fanny scalded, hand still raised, ready to strike again if needed.

Pat and Thomas stepped in as Silver made a move towards Kitty, not that she'd been going for a physical attack, just to know what had possessed her to accuse her of something so....

She stilled. Then she looked at her friend, really looked at her. Then at the faces of the others in the room.

They were all glaring at her with the exact same expression. No gentle understanding from Pat. No sly humour from Julian. Even Fanny lacked her judgemental sneer and was glaring with pure loathing.

"What's happened to you all? Why are you being like this?" She asked, edging backwards, cheek stinging.

"We are seeing you for what you are, young lady." Fanny approached her, more robotic than how she appeared each early morning before falling out the window; "A thorn amongst our roses. A snake within Eden. A witch."

"Uhh, yeah. How is that news?! I've been open about my faith since the night I met you all, I thought we were over this!" She protested.

"Perhaps we all decided we needed time to observe you and study how much of a threat you pose." Julian explained, blandly.

They were all beginning to close in on her now, forming a semi circle as she backed against the window.

"Now we know. You have shown your true intentions to good, innocent Kitty. We shall not allow you to poison our family further." Said the Captain.

Silver glanced around at them, blood rushing to her ears. The room itself may as well have been collapsing in on her. They had her trapped.

Where was Mary? And Robin? Hell, she'd even take Humphrey, whichever bit, the head to talk some sense into these gits and the body to use as a shield.

"Look...I get the hint. I'll go back to the woods, okay? You won't have to see me again." She tried to bargain.

"It's too late for that, child. We can't risk having you run free on our land like some wild beast." Pat said, with a false attempt at sounding reasonable.

Kitty stepped forward.

"It's not too late to simply confess. Renounce Satan and ask for the Lord's forgiveness."

Silver fought the urge to stick to her principles when her safety was on the line.

"Okay, fine! I renounce Satan! There you go, will you leave me the fuck alone now!?" She tried to make a dash for the door.

The Captain stood in her way, the tree of a man that he was.

"Do you honestly expect that to be sufficient? If you won't willingly confess...Then perhaps you need it flogged out of you."

Silver watched as he tapped his palm with the end of his stick. It had never appeared anything close to threatening until this moment.

"Contain her." Captain ordered.

The men moved to grab her arms. Silver ducked and weaved back, holding up her palms before they could touch her.

"Wait, wait, just wait! Please!" She begged, "Please let me just say one thing!"

A scream, that's all needed to say. A scream as she turned and jumped through the window, landing in a fumble of hands and knees on the driveway. Then she ran. She ran faster than she'd ever moved in her whole fucking existence to escape these lunatics.

Back upstairs, the Captain stood at the window with his cohorts at his side, watching the girl race across the field, pink fringe flailing above her in the wind.

"Let's give her a head start. Been far too long since we had a good hunt." He smirked, eyes flashing onyx.