be strong, woman, be strong

[incandescens]

And in this part of Britain, she writes, the Old Faith hates the Hermetics. And the Hermetics look down upon the Messianic Voices, who disdain the Valdaermen, who, veritably, do most profoundly distrust the Spirit-Talkers, and lo, the Spirit-Talkers don't really like the Old Faith that much.

Because conflict is good.

And when incandescens is asked why she has so tackily appalling a book as Rollo Ahmed's The Black Art (introduction by Dennis Wheatley) on her shelf, she says, because it provides helpful inspiration in cases like this. This is just precisely the sort of source I need when it comes to (inaccurate) legends of witchcraft and ghost stories and werewolves and nasty, nasty stuff, with the author shaking his head and throwing up his hands in great and liberal detail.

Speaking (as we weren't) of Konzen in the bath, I'm now getting vague urges to write what would actually happen if some of those characters walked in on him in the bath. Well, no, I know that some of them wouldn't without major violence to the character, and in fact the whole point was that he never actually realised that he had temporarily become a thing of beauty and a joy forever, but . . . eh. I know that it would be a dj-ish sort of thing to do. Perhaps Gitenshidou should draw it. Especially if it involved Tenpou or Homura.

Mind heading downhill. Feh. Must finish Dark Ages stuff. Be strong, woman, be strong, you've almost finished Scotland. (Must not betray country, cries Phedre. Which reminds me, must order Kushiel's Avatar, which I seem to recall should be out any time now. Quite a good yuri seme-uke pairing there. Heroine's the uke. Villainess is the seme. Must... not... betray... country...)

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Pennethorne Hughes, the name pops into her head. Wrong, possibly inimically so, and useful. Oh, and intellectually revolting, but that goes with the territory.

Yes, that story (http://homepages.tcp.co.uk/~maya/fanfic/syviews.html) of yours is a dj. Glad you realized.
-mjj

[incandescens]

Exactly. Sometimes a good -- er, make that thorough-going -- appalling if inaccurate fiction is more interesting as background (for what is in any case fictional) than strict historical reality.

I realised it was a dj shortly after finishing it. Gag dj, but dj. Ah well, if it works . . . :)

[(Anonymous)]

But the best kind of gag, one that works with the characters' uhh characters rather than forcing them into a one-size-fits-all funny hat. (And *here* we have Konzen in sailor fuku and *here* we have him eating ramen...) Like the one where Gokuu hears Gojou call Sanzou a homo and goes to ask Hakkai what that means and Hakkai sweats and smiles and says 'Uhh it's short for uhh- HOMOSAPIENS! Intelligent man capable of thought!' so IIRC Gokuu goes to tell Sanzou that Gojou said he was an intelligent man capable of thought, thereby confusing him very much indeed.

And yes, I've always thought cultural constructs of history- flat misinterpretations and cultural myth- far more resonant for fic than 'history' itself. Unless you mean what actually happened, which is weirder by far. A Regency romance heroine could never say 'Tell it to the marines,' but Fanny Burney did.
-mjj

[incandescens]

That would definitely confuse Sanzou. The last thing that any of that team tends to call each other (except perhaps Hakkai) is intelligent . . .

The problem with the weirder-than-fiction parts of history is that people tend not to believe them when you actually try to put them into the background. I suppose one could term this ironic. :)