#shadowdance | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

millenari · 6 months

Note

If you could make one permanent change to a cats replica production what would it be?

You know... kind of a simple answer, but I would want modern productions to include the Alonzo shadowdance again.

I'm honestly not sure where that bit of choreo originated-- I wanted to say US Tour 5 but then I remembered that this video included it and that was a British 90s performance, so I have no clue where or when it came from off the top of my head. And I know people tend to associate the shadowdance with Demlonzo/ give it a romantic context but I like that bit a lot, regardless of what Demeter's relationship with Alonzo looks like.

I really like the ambiguity of it. Is that supposed to be Macavity's shadow, looming over Demeter as she sings about him? Is there no metaphor at hand and that's genuinely supposed to be actual Alonzo? If so, why him? Alonzo is usually cast as a dancer primarily, so it would make sense if they picked him for no other reason than the actor's skill, but it doesn't feel like a coincidence that he's involved in the Macavity fight And is something of a protector And is often the one to directly 'save' Demeter during the fight (by picking her up and carrying her off in the beginning, usually, or by prying Macavity off of her at the end in the bway revival).

idk, there's something about it, romantic or not. That Alonzo may share Demeter's fear, or may feel some kind of responsibility for her, or may be trying to share that vulnerability and anxiety. 'Bearing the burden' together, so to speak.

(It reminds me of how in Midsommar the cultpeople™ would echo dani's crying and screaming as a way to kind of share her pain and make it a community thing. That was kind of predatory at the heart of it bc it was. you know. a cult. but you know what I mean)

I also like that Alonzo is there. I've always kind of got the impression that the boys all leave the stage during this part to search for Macavity-- I don't love the implication there that none of the female cats can apparently fend for themselves and seek Mac out along with the Strong Manly Men™, (You could argue that the grown queens are all hanging back to keep an eye on the kittens and Alonzo's watching Demeter specifically but that's only a step better tbh) but if you are going to go that route it makes sense to leave someone who can defend with the girls.

(Unrelated but for similar reasons I like how in US Tour 5 you can see Pounce and Tumble* backup dancing along with the other girls: listen, if Cassandra apparently can't go out there with the Men™ and look for Macavity, then the babey boys shouldn't be able to either.

*Not actually sure if it was them: It mightve been Pounce/Tumble and Alonzo instead, but there's two boys in the backup and three options, so I'm choosing to believe it was Pounce and Tumble.)

So yes, there's a lot to dig your teeth into with that bit. It also just looks cool, and on top of all of that: I love when male cats mirror female cats, and I also love Alonzo being slutty. 🙏

#i thought about saying 'add gay cats' but i felt that was too ambiguous #and of course when i say 'gay cats' i mean some piece of choreo or such that makes it *obvious* it's an m/m or f/f attraction #something like the bombadance- you know. something that cant be 'gal pals'd by more conservative viewers #but i dont have any ideas of what that would look like specifically #but anyways thank you for the ask! :D #cats fan on main

21 notes · View notes

mermaidsirennikita · 2 months

Note

could you recommend some old fashioned historical romance books like bodice ripper vibes?

For sure!

I would definitely recommend trying the four J's, of course.

Johanna Lindsey—admittedly the one I'm least acquainted with even though she GOT ME INTO THIS SHIT and I own five billion of her books in paperback (and one in hardback) but she was hugely influential for a reason, so...

My favorite of the ones I read is Fires of Winter, but I admit that is extremely noncon for the first half or so. Maybe what you're looking for, then? It's a viking book in which the heroine is a Celtic woman kidnapped and enslaved in the beginning. The hero is a viking warrior/noble who does assault her, but then they fall in love. She's super defiant. There's a lot of fucking crazy shit that happens (someone might fight a bear)? Hidden pregnancy, her hating his ass until she doesn't, enemies to lovers to the maaax whole nine yards.

A softer Lindsey would be the western Angel, which is about a heroine who accidentally starts a war between feuding families and then has to have a hired gun as her bodyguard. She shoots his hat off when they first meet and owns a panther. He's all "grr I've killed five billion people" but is actually a massive softie. You could technically call their first time dubcon (it's a marriage of convenience that's supposed to be temporary but he gets horny, basically) but she's very into it.

Judith McNaught--A CLASSIQUE. Whitney, My Love is probably most iconic for being a bodice ripper, but it's VERY intense and has a true alpha alpha alpha ASSHOLE hero who horsewhips the heroine at one point and rapes her at another. There is an edited edition out there without this. WML is very influential, but it's not an easy read.

A softer one would ironically be the medieval A Kingdom of Dreams, in which the heroine is a nightmare Scottish woman kidnapped by the English hedro, who quickly realizes that she's A Lot. Forced marriage, bickering galore, it's honestly very funny and has a FABULOUS ending. Tons of chemistry.

Julie Garwood--The Bride, obviously! Scottish border marriage, the hero is an iconically hot yet somewhat socially awkward laird who takes the English heroine to his home in an arranged situation, and she's very HARUMPH about it until she adapts and exhibits her healer talents, thus winning everyone over. Also, he won't bed her until she wears his plaid!!! Has one of the greatest MINE moments every committed to text. "What do we call her?" "You call her MINE"

Jude Deveraux--This one is a time travel book, but it still counts because of how much time is spent in the medieval era, imo. A Knight in Shining Armor. The heroine is a woman in the 80s whose fiance abandons her on vacation (lol) and she sobs in a church, which brings a knight in shining armor to her rescue. Except he's kind of a ridiculous loser? She ends up back in his time due to Twists.

I would also recommend Anne Stuart books like To Love a Dark Lord, Shadowdance, and A Rose at Midnight are great, though they are pretty dark... So be careful, proceed with caution. But so good!

Laura Kinsale is great! She's a beautiful writer, and she'll give you the ASSHOLE heroes. But an incredible story, too. Try Flowers from the Storm and For My Lady's Heart, then Shadowheart.

Elizabeth Lowell's medieval trilogy is fabulous and gives full bodice ripper vibes.

#romance novel blogging #romance novels #book recs

10 notes · View notes

talonabraxas · 10 months

Text

New Moon in Scorpio

November 13, 2023, is a time of profound emotional transformation.

Scorpio heightens both our emotions and intuitive knowing this new Moon, giving us the keys to crafting a new vision for the future.

Shadowdance art by Richard F. Lack

The Meaning of Love Both light and shadow are the dance of Love. Love has no cause; it is the astrolabe of God's secrets. Lover and Loving are inseparable and timeless.

--Rumi

Hecate, 1st house Virgo Venus, 2nd house Libra Lilith, 3 house Scorpio Moon/Sun/Venus all conjunct, 3rd house Scorpio Mercury, 4th house Sagittarius Pluto, 5th house Capricorn Saturn, 7th house Pisces Neptune, 7th house Pisces Jupiter. 9th house Taurus Black Moon Lilith, 12 house Leo.

36 notes · View notes

kaidynsarell · 3 months

Text

Chapter 6-Of Honey and Pine

💛🌲💛🌲💛🌲💛🌲💛🌲💛🌲💛🌲💛

Paring- Sebastian Sallow x Female OC

Rating-This story is rated overall 🔞 (Ch 6 is SFW)

Tags-hurt/angst

The full chapter can be found below the cut (2.4k words)

Ongoing Fic

Chapters 1-9 can be found on WP and AO3

Art by the darling @ravenbronze

Saturday, 10th September 1892

It was strange what could happen to words when one read them over and over again. Stared until they melded together, flattened over one another, and lost meaning entirely.

I cured Anne of the curse.

Since the end of Fifth year, there had been two universal truths that held precedence in her mind. Two statements that had taken over the place where the threat of Ranrok's rebellion and the Keeper trials had shadowd each decision she made and every action she took. One set of anxieties traded for another.

Anne was dying, and Sebastian was gone.

Now, in the space of six words, the truths that had colored her life since Sebastian left had been flipped on its head, and beyond the shock where she'd thought she would have found solid ground, she was left unbalanced and unsteady. Trembling fingers flattened over the rough texture. Pressed against the parchment as though she might unscramble his sentence to find some other meaning behind it.

I cured Anne of the curse.

As though touching it might let the ink seep into her fingers and solidify the sentence as something more than a distant fantasy—a delicate hope they'd clung to with aching fingers—something that lived amongst shooting stars—wishes only truly hoped for in the softest of whispers lest they be snatched away with the wind.

Clara traced the words again and again until the inked symbols danced over one another on the page, twisted and swirling, her eyes bleary with strain and lack of sleep. The unspoken how traced to the edges of her fingertips but failed to grasp her quill to solidify the question into writing.

Clara folded the parchment and let it fall against the sea of green. Her quill had disappeared somewhere in the blankets. She would no doubt find it at some point, along with a mess of black ink, and she only had the vague thought that 'scourgify' ought to work to remove it before she slumped back against the mattress.

The words spun over one another behind her eyelids.

I did it, Ara

I cured Anne of the curse.

Sleep did not grace her presence, and all thoughts of the Cherrywood box and Dreamless Sleep Draught were pushed aside. Left to the darkest corners of her mind.

Anne's owl came before the sunrise.

><><><><><><><><

The pulse of apparition saw she and Ominis outside the Sallow home as the early morning sky painted shades of palest pinks and lilac purples across the thatched roof and caressed the curling wisps of candyfloss clouds.

They'd only just reached the door when the indigo was flung open, and the scent of caramel and vanilla launched at her in a mass of gigging cinnamon waves. The abrupt force of Anne's hug nearly sent her off balance, and it was only with a careful set of oddly coordinated steps that they managed to stay upright.

Clara pulled back and tipped her nose up. Fingers tapped to the tops of Anne's shoulders, and in the pale whispers of sunlight, she could see the newfound fullness in the woman's cheeks and the rose flush that colored them. The wide grin that masked none of the pain, Clara had grown so used to seeing tucked behind the heaviness of her eyelids and hidden at the corners of her mouth where her smiles had always disclosed the lies that lay beneath.

Her fingers squeezed the woman's shoulders, pressing down the soft warmth of her arms until she settled against her hands and pulled them into her own. " Anne... you look..." Healthy? Happy? "How do you feel?"

Her grin only widened. " Brilliant, really! I'd grown so used to the pain; I'd almost forgotten what it was like not to feel it."

Clara waited for the subtle wince to crease the corner of her eyes—the slight bending in her abdomen or the minute clenching in her hand—any of the tale-tell signs she'd come to routinely search for when she knew the brunette would rather cut out her own tongue than admit she was hurting.

She was so focused on searching Anne's face that she almost didn't notice subtle movements behind her—the careful footsteps within the shadows of Sallow's home—until Anne stepped around her and launched herself toward Ominis. Clara only registered the little "ooof" as the blond caught the newly spry woman before Sebastian stepped out of the shadows.

He stopped in the doorway. Fingers clutched at the edges of his sleeve. Worried against the fabric of his cable-knit sweater and his throat bobbed once.

Eyes locked with hers.

"Hello, Sweetheart."

Whispered words echoed between splatters of ink on parchment.

Odd how time could stand still within a fraction of a moment. In the single breath his gaze found hers and held her while everything else moved around them.

He looked more different than she'd expected. Older than the almost eighteen he should have been. His hair was longer now, falling in soft cinnamon-brown curls nearly to his shoulders. His skin was tanned, sunkissed red across his cheeks and the tip of his nose, and sprinkled with more freckles than she'd ever seen on him. It did little to distract from the way his face had hardened and thinned or the shadowed darkness that folded through his eyes.

It left her the most disconcerted.

Clara knew Sebastian's eyes. He'd laughed at her when she'd said she wanted to paint them, but he'd not protested much when she'd knelt in front of him and taken his face in her hands. His cheeks had been warm and squished under her fingers. They'd been fuller back then. Still clinging to the remnants of boyhood.

"They're just brown," He'd said. " It's nothing special."

But Sebastian was never 'Just anything,' and his eyes were no different. She'd studied them intensely. Knew them perfectly. Every shade and hue. She knew the precise color of chestnut she needed to mix with the tiniest dab of dark umber. The shade of crushed pine that bled out from his pupils and the exact pattern of the swirls as two colors melted into one another. She knew if the sunlight hit them at just the right angle, she would find flecks of honeyed gold sprinkled through his iris. As though his freckles would not see themselves contained to his skin.

It was gone.

All of it.

The soft chesnut, the swirling pine, and the flecks of honey were left darkened and solid, replaced by an inpenetrable wall too tall and wide for her to see past.

She had only read briefly of occlumancy, but if one could visualize it, Clara was certain it would be found folded over Sebastian's features. She couldn't place exactly why the idea of it coiled hot inside her chest and burned at the back of her throat.

Wherever he'd gone, whatever he'd been through, the boy who'd left to save his sister was not the man who had returned.

"Sebastian?"

The sharp clip of Ominis' voice snapped Clara's attention over her shoulder to where the blond stood beside Anne. She had looped her fingers around his elbow and settled her head below his shoulder. He was the tallest of them, and even with Anne now standing at her full height, the top of her head barely reached his chin.

Clara didn't miss the heavy tension that settled between the two men.

The tapestry their childhood fingers had woven with the innocence of love and friendship had been left tattered and threadbare—a tapestry Sebastian had torn with his own bleeding fingers. Interwoven with tangled threads of hurt and betrayal, and attempting to patch it with hasty apologies would do little to mend what had started to fray long before Sebastian had ever added murder to his repertoire of sins.

"Hey, mate." Sebastian's attempt at a casual tone fluttered through the air and faltered somewhere as he made half a move to step forward and seemed to think better of it.

Ominis only narrowed his eyes. "I thought Anne said you'd cured it?"

Sebastian's brows lowered, thick and heavy over those dark, impenetrable orbs. "I did cure her."

" Then why do..." The rest of it fell away midsentence. Head tilted slightly. Something twitched between his brows and Clara only just caught the slight tension at the corner of his jaw.

" I'm fine, Ominis. I'm okay. The curse is gone. I can feel it!" Only the soft hum of Anne's voice seemed to soften the crease between his brows as she gathered his hands and lifted his fingers to her face.

The corners of his mouth tugged upward. " Yes, of course. I know, darling." He placed a kiss between her brows, to the tip of her nose, one to each of her cheeks, and Clara turned away.

It was far more affection than she was used to seeing from him in a public setting.

On her other side, Sebastian made a disgusted sort of face and mimed wretching. Under different circumstances, she might have found Sebastian's antics amusing, but the soft bubbles of laughter cowered beneath the hot anger coiled to burst at the back of her throat, and she clenched her fingernails against her palms.

It wasn't the emotion she'd expected to find here. She'd not been angry when she'd finally opened his letter and written back to him. She'd not even truly been angry with any of his responses. Amused, irritated, infuriated at times, but never angry.

Not really.

But now it burned hot and red and threatened eruption with every breath that slipped between her teeth.

" I don't understand. How did you do it?" Ominis had straightened himself from Anne's hold and turned with uncanny accuracy to where Sebastian still stood in the doorway.

He shifted slightly against the door frame, fingers fidgeting against the bottom of his sleeve.

" Potions," Anne offered simply.

"A series of potions." Sebastian started, " Came across the recipes while traveling. They're ancient, really. Nothing that would have been taught in European medicine. Which is why neither St. Mungo's nor Nurse Blainy would have known to suggest it. They're bloody difficult to brew, and you can't even find the majority of the ingredients on this continent. Hell, some ingredients have gone extinct since the recipe was invented, but I managed to find adequate substitutes and ..." He gestured vaguely toward his twin.

Clara didn't turn to the other woman. Her eyes still locked on Sebastian and the solid, dark umber wall that hid all that was him even as he stood before her.

" They actually worked," she finished. " It took a few days for the effects to register fully, but..."

" A few days?" Confusion laced through Ominis' words pulled them higher, and elongated the normally staccatoed cadene. " How long hav.."

" How long have you been here?" The hot coil snapped in an instant, and despite the heat that had burned for so long the words bit sharp and icy against Clara's tongue.

" Sebbie got here on Monday. I got his owl after you both left last week and..."

" No." She jerked her hand up and only just turned in time to see Anne's eyebrows shoot into her hairline at the dismissal. Clara was rude, and she was certain Ominis, or if she were actually unlucky, Anne herself would have choice words for her later. " How long have you fucking been here, Sebastian? Near Hogwarts? Close enough we could have apparated to you?"

"Elmore..."

"Tell me!"

He worked his jaw only a moment before his shoulders dropped, and he sagged against the door frame. " A couple of months"

" Months! And you couldn't have written to us? You couldn't have told me that? How many times did I ask you where you were?"

"I couldn't..."

" You asked him?" The icy snap of Ominis's voice tore Clara's attention from Sebastian. " I thought we weren't able to contact him? We sent owls and got nothing. How long have you two been talking behind my back?"

" Ominis, it's not the same as..."

"Is it not? Is it not the exact same? The pair of you keeping secrets again, after everything that's happened! Hurt tasted sour and traced the curves of his syllables.

She would have to deal with it later.

Clara forced her gaze away from them and back to Sebastian, who'd still not moved from his place against the doorframe. " So what happens now?"

" We've spoken to Professor Black and Professor Weasley. Arrangements have been made, and Anne and I will both be returning to Hogwarts starting on Monday." He was looking at her again. Those dark eyes solid, impenetrable and wholly unfamiliar.

" It's like that, then? You leave out of nowhere and think you can just drop in, and everything will just go back to normal?"

She didn't know when she'd started yelling or when the stinging behind her eyes had begun to pool below her lashline.

Anne's curse had been cured. She was going to be okay.

" You expect us to sit here and pretend like you didn't completely abandon us?"

Abandon her.

Anne wasn't dying, and Clara should have been happy.

She shouldn't have been screaming at Sebastian, and yet her voice was tearing as the words ripped from her throat, and she couldn't see properly because her vision had melted into blurry, unfocused haze.

" We're supposed to act like we didn't spend months. Months! More than a fucking year Sebastian! Terrified you were sick or hurt or ..."

Her voice choked and faltered, and for the first time since they'd arrived, he moved from the doorframe. Stepped forward, his fingers tipped toward her, " Ara, I'm sorry....I never..."

But whatever he was going to say was lost to the wind as she spun on her heel and sprinted through the softly waving grass, past a grove of trees, and the snap of apparition deposited her at the edge of Hogwarts grounds.

The sun's light had not burned away the glittering beads of dew, still clung to blades of subtly shifting green when Clara collapsed into the grass at the edge of the forest and scattered the delicate drops in her wake.

She buried her face into her hands and ignored the salted dampness on her cheeks and the soft tremble of her shoulders.

She wasn't crying.

Anne had been cured, and Sebastian was home. He was safe, and she was happy.

She was supposed to be happy.

#sebastian sallow #hogwarts legacy #hogwarts legacy sebastian #hogwarts legacy sebastian sallow #hogwarts legacy fanfiction #anne sallow #ominis gaunt #sebastian sallow hogwarts legacy

19 notes · View notes

andmaybegayer · 6 months

Text

Last Monday of the Week 2024-03-25

Can't tell if this is allergies or if I'm sick because spring is in the air

Listening: I have been listening to The Layover podcast, the behind the scenes podcast for Jet Lag The Game. I only got into Jet Lag pretty recently because I had Nebula anyway and saw it come up. Great show, both because the premise is great (carefully designed games incorporating travel on the scale of countries) and because they can actually edit this incredibly difficult pile of footage into something readable.

The Behind The Scenes is an interesting mix of talk about the on-the-ground situation of playing the game and the filmmaking that goes on after the fact, there's some cool insight into how and why they edit the way they do and it shows why it works so well.

I think you have to have Nebula to listen to the podcast? It does just spit out an RSS feed if you ask nicely though. Thank you podcasts.

Watching: Actually watched The Gay And Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo, the video series that launched like two dozen reaction images.

youtube

It's funny, it's a well put together indie comedy series. You've probably seen most of the really standout bits already even if you don't know it already but it is worth watching as a time capsule of web comedy, it's less than two hours long all told.

Reading: Started Glory In The Thunder by 0xabad1dea. I don't know what her real name is. I've had GITT in my ebooks library forever, 0xabad1dea is the main reason I got on twitter back in like 2016 (her and a couple other software blogs) and is why my Fediverse feed is still like a quarter security researchers by weight. She's probably one of the most well known static analysis researchers in the world.

Anyway Glory In The Thunder is a gaslamp-ish fantasy, although leaning very fantasy on the gaslamps. Very teenage characters which is whiplash but only because it's been a moment. Lots of very loud characters who announce themselves and their intentions, some fun seven dimensional politics going on, and a lot of jumping back and forth in the histories of the various gods who are constantly hanging around in the plot.

I think @shieldfoss has bugged me to read this before so you'll be glad to know that I am now.

I like this, I'm about halfway through. It's easy to keep track of despite having enough fantasy names to choke a horse, although I should really stop worrying about that, I've read the Shadowdance series you really have to try to beat that one. It's also a free book, you can get it at @gloryinthethunder.

Playing: Got a VR headset. Fidgeting with said headset. Figured out how to do wireless linked VR from Linux and Windows which is good, I should have all the kinks worked out, I'll have to see how I square the onboard capabilities of the Quest 2 with having a PC and fast WiFi.

Making: Finally run through enough smaller prints on the new hotend to feel confident running off the final endcap, so that's done. The parts of the 3D printed NAS case are complete, and I have started my first pass sanding which is going to take a while because PETG is very slippery. Once that's sanded I'll take it in to the shared workshop and run through some primer layers and some paint.

Tools and Equipment: Flat network cable is a godsend if you're running it in open air in a house. Absolutely useless for pulling through walls or running in conduit, and completely bereft of shielding, but having a flat cord that can press up against frames and sideboards really does make it all neater. I ran flat cat6 for all of this.

#last monday of the week #Youtube

10 notes · View notes