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In which real life is less Friar Tuck and more friars wtf

I've been trawling historical documents and caught some very fishy bait. Partly because I was asked about connections between the Greyfriars aka the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor and Greyfriars house aka no.9 Friar Street, Worcester. This tale of devilry, from 1535 in the reign of Henry VIII, is from two surviving fragments of correspondence that were brought to the personal attention of Thomas Cromwell - his handwriting is on the back.

A connection beyond probably being neighbours is that a witness claimed one of the Friars Minor, 'Dr' Hanedon, confessed to the attempted murder of his neighbour living at no.9, Thomas Twesell. The confession, possibly while drunk, was in front of innkeeper Nicholas Mokoke of the Cardinal's Hat inn / tavern in Worcester. Hanedon was being investigated by Cromwell's auditors for 'vicious living', and being 'to the evil example of all Christian people', when he attempted to murder wealthy local civic dignitary (and Cromwell's auditor?) Thomas Twesell by gathering a gang of fellow friars to accost Twesell in the street and stab him with a 'dagger' on the feast of the Conversion of St Paul (25 Jan). The friars reputedly cried off because Twesell was accompanied by his servant (i.e. an armed man and potential witness).

Anne Mokoke (Moorcock?), the daughter of the Cardinal's Hat innkeeper, testified that Hanedon ~neither feared God nor the shame of the world~, and there are two separately witnessed accounts of him trying to seduce unwilling women, including the partially successful abduction of a married woman to a brothel! The Friary itself is referred to by the letter's author as 'more like a house of vicious and incontinent living than a religious place.'

Note that all this evidence gathering was to a particular purpose as the Dissolution of the Monasteries happened 1536-41, however even the 'marshal' of the prior of Worcester seems to have been willing to testify (£?) against Hanedon for the abduction. All very suspect: trust nobody!!1!! Except goodwife Anne who was correct that the whole business is extremely unedifying from beginning to end.

/dispatches from C16th

Current Music: Man on the Moon - REM

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if you believe they put a man on the moon

Bullet points because I don't do coherent segues!

# I am not going to talk about how many hours I am working this week, suffice to say it's ridiculous. One shift was my own fault for taking it on, but the rest were not.

Maybe I'll whine about it next week.

# I was supposed to have counselling today, but I got a text from my counsellor very early on saying she was sorry, but she had to postpone our session because she wasn't feeling well. Which is fair! And also I'm relieved, because I didn't have anything specific to talk about, apart from telling her how my new meds are going. I'm hoping next time I speak to her, I will have a bigger update for her/something else to talk about, hopefully.

# I'm changing my mind about what I want to do with (some of) the walls in my house - I was originally going to wallpaper upstairs and paint downstairs, but now I think I might just paint the lot? Especially because I think the colour I picked for the hallway has been discontinued??? I have one can of it, but that won't be enough for all the walls that will need doing.

But it's annoying, because they've literally made this colour FOR YEARS, and now I choose it as the one I want, I can't get it anywhere!

(There is a similar colour by the same company, which hopefully is still in production, so I can get that, but I am currently very >:( at it all).

I don't know what I will do with the wallpaper I haven't used, though. (I did think about partially papering the front bedroom, but idk right now).

# Wyrdwood season 2 starts on Friday! I am very excite!! I won't get to watch it till at least Sunday evening, but I am excite all the same!

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: somewhere
Current Music: Patrick Shiroishi and Zachary Paul - At The Moment Of Being Heard

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AKC Courtneyyyyyy Culture Festival #185: Patalee Prasertteerachai

I am unprepared for this era in a way that is surprisingly exciting when it comes to my reading about members such as Patalee Prasertteerachai and groups such as BNK48, but it is maybe not as exciting for you, the reader, who maybe are expecting me to have some authority on the matter! Alas! I have none.

Hoop

I have known about Bangkok’s BNK48 for a while now but it wasn’t until this year, during lonely lunchbreaks at my current job, craving some kind of connexion with the things I love as part of my daily routine, that I found myself watching a handful of BNK videos. Their 2021 cover of NMB48’s Warota People is probably my favourite, as it makes less sense than the original in an especially charming way, and the now sadly graduated Chayanan Jedpeenongruamjai, a CGM48 trainee, is probably my favourite member in that video. I don’t want to wish to mischaracterise Thailand’s culture with my lack of understanding, but I find the manner and style of the presentation of BNK48 to be very affirming. I’m writing this entry just at the end of June and the beginning of July, so I’m sure you can join the dots.

Patalee, nicknamed ‘Hoop’ by friends and/or management, I’m unsure which, had been with BNK for roughly a year when Warota People, the lead promotional video of the group’s third album of the same name was released. Already a potential candidate for the reality TV show, Idol Paradise, she didn’t follow through with it having applied for BNK at the same time, and, fortunately for us, passing the auditions. From early spring a year later, she began to appear more regularly in the group’s line-up, making it to the ‘front member’ selection of eleventh single, Sayonara Crawl, a cover of the AKB original, and finding herself promoted to Team BIII and with a concurrent position in Team NV a few months after, a position she held until 2023.

Patalee rose to prominence pretty quickly, you guys! With a number of B sides in which she featured as centre and a W centre with CGM48’s Vithita Srasreesom for a version of Kibouteki Refrain, she has more often than not, appeared primarily on the group’s covers, those releases I imagine that, due to familiarity, have the most crossover appeal for international audiences. A mere handful of months after gaining her official membership of BIII, she was made the group’s captain, becoming the overall captain of BNK48 just a few months later, in March 2024. Although this is a role she has now relinquished, it feels like there has been a definite push to keep Patalee prominent in BNK, so it should come as no real surprise that she was selected for the senbatsu of AKB’s upcoming sixty-sixth single—that attempt at crossover appeal was clearly the first step in what is happening now!

Friends, throughout these past few months, I have developed a soft spot for BNK. I don’t think I will follow them too closely, but they do inspire in me a sense of camaraderie in that, despite the appeal to fans of Japanese pop culture, they feel like they are striving hard to become their own thing also. I’m really excited to see what part Patalee will play in AKB’s new single!

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In which there are heroes, hearing, and habitat, week 27

- Quote: "When lions have historians, then hunters will cease to be heroes." - Zeinab Badawi's version of an African proverb first made famous in Europe by Chinua Achebe.

- My favourite Glasto quote was from Seun Kuti: "I know you want to free Palestine, free Congo, free Sudan, free Iran. It’s a new one every week. Free Europe. Free Europe from right-wing extremism, from fascism, from racism. Free Europe from imperialism."

- Hearing: earlier this week there was either a school sports day in the field out the back of my house or a fantastical battle between children and dogs. The next day there was either another sporting event further along the valley or an epic battle between cows and sheep. Or my hearing is going, or the valley has rly weird acoustics when the rocks are hot and the earth is dry.

- Secondhand bookmarker: a handwritten note, on an individually dyed sheet of paper, fell out of a used book I bought. It was from Grandma N to Dear Farly to thank the "very kind boy" for sharing his "special eggs" from his own chickens and "they must be very happy to be living in your garden now after their sad life before".

( Birb, Health, blah blah )

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: somewhere
Current Music: Nicole Dollanganger - Angels of Porn

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FIC: Kimi to Idol Pretty Cure♪ - Seasons in the Abyss

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

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Films watched Matariki weekend

The Count of Monte Cristo (2024)

Part 1 of my weekend of revenge!! Although the film spent quite a long time pre-revenge, which was a little bit frustrating to me. I’m not watching a Count of Monte Cristo adaptation for Dantès’ pre-Count life.

( Read more... )

Ballerina (2025)

Revenge part 2, the John Wick spinoff. I’ve only seen the first and last John Wick movies, so some of the world building stuff may have gone over my head.

( Read more... )

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In which I read therefore I am

- To Read shelves 1 July 2025 count is 69 (down from 90 on 1 Jan), so hypothetically less than six months of reading.

- Reading: 74 books to 2 July 2025.

72. Fashionable 2025 numerical typo 3, the second from Inventing the Renaissance, which is a good ratio considering the quantity of words and dates in this doorstop, "Marcellus II (1501-5)", nope, but the idea of a Boss Baby Ghost Pope in 1555 is amusing.

00. My third DNF of 2025, on short story 4 of 14.

73. Thirsty Mermaids, by Kat Leyh, 2021, comics (adult), 4.5/5
In search of booze, a found-family pod of three merfolk take their fun and friendship to the human seaside, or rather shoreside, where they discover dreadful human inventions such as "capitalism" and "jobs". They also discover they can't just go back to being mermaids. This story is very much about the diverse friends they make along the way, lol. Warning: yes, Kat Leyh who helped create Lumberjanes but this is a grown-up comic.

- To Read [ALLCAPS in original typography]: y'all will be pleased to know I've acquired a 1959 girls' own comics annual with stories titled "The GAY ADVENTURERS and the Roman Curios" and "Friends of The GAY HIGHWAYMAN", and a 1960 annual featuring "Baffled by Those Two Boy Campers".

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: somewhere
Current Music: Insect Warfare - Mind Ripper

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AKC Courtneyyyyyy Culture Festival #184: Shania Gracia

I am going to lay it out on the table so there can be no misunderstanding: I’m not going to write about every member of the overseas sister groups. I just don’t know enough about these groups, and, several years in, I think they are big enough to have their own fans, their own followings, and I don’t think I could really justice when talking about that, however, AKB48’s sixty-sixth single is going to be with us in a few months, and with that comes the long overdue inclusion of members from the further afield overseas groups in the senbatsu as part of the anniversary celebrations so it would be remise of me not to talk about those members. tl;dr Shania Gracia.

Gracia!

JKT48’s third generation debuted in 2014 about a month after my favourite member of the group, Cindy, left the group under a cloud. Arriving as a trainee, Gracia was promoted alongside her peers to Team T when the group was formed in January a year later, Harugon being appointed as captain of the team as the group’s longest serving member at that time. In mid-2016, Gracia appeared in the senbatsu for Mae Shika Mukanee (Hanya Lihat Ke Depan) before the group’s shuffle event in September that saw her join Team KIII.

JKT’s teams have a history of being disbanded and reformed, a practice that feels a little unsettling to me as Team T presently has no members at all in 2025. I don’t think this suggests that we’re going to see AKB move away from the generation system any time soon, yet I could also see management changing course for this kind of thing after the anniversary.

This speedrunning of JKT history and of Gracia’s time thus far in the group possibly fails to take in the extent of her popularity as it feels like she is a big deal in Jakarta with notable celebrities amongst the coterie of her fans and birthday wishes from former politicians. Although the former third generation is presently down to just two members—Gracia and Feni Fitriyanti, who is on hiatus as of August, and whom we probably should talk about at some point due to QUADLIPS, a sort of international UNLAME that AKS rolled out last year—it feels very much like their introduction was the beginning of JKT48 gaining their own identity with Gracia’s being very much an important factor in that process.

Having gone from captain of KIII in 2020 to presently acting as the captain of the group as a whole, it feels like AKS are banking on both Gracia and Feni in the hopes that their popularity in Indonesia will translate into popularity in Japan.

I don’t know, friends! At the time of writing this, I am literally second-guessing what will happen with the sixty-sixth single and how that release will set the stage for AKB in the future. Gracia continues to rank in the senbatsu during JKT’s general elections, and she has continued to appear with regularity on releases since 2016. Like Feni, in terms of where Gracia is as an idol, it feels like the only options left for her in future are either graduation or international success, whichever comes first.

Current Mood: okay
Current Location: somewhere
Current Music: Shiroishi / Golia / Fujioka / Cline - Left Eye Moon

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Natsu no Christmas!! 🎄🎉🎁💝🍰

Merry Christmas in July!! 🎄🎉🎁💝🍰 When was it that I started to be able to only write a certain kind of story in winter and summer? It's not that I do not love spring and autumn, yet somehow, they feel somewhat less than. I recently read The Frolic of the Beasts by Mishima which struck me as the perfect summer story in its depiction of the heat, of the sea, and of disfunction. Iwai Shunji's Fireworks, Should We See it from the Side or the Bottom? similarly feels like it evokes the unease of the warmer months, of struggling to come to terms with things, as does all of Higurashi. Maybe this is something I've trying to wrestle with for a few years now. Regardless, there is a certain kind of story that only seems to make sense in summer or winter.

Over Christmas, I wrote a lot in the early hours of the morning, more things that I could post for Write Whatever the Heck You Want, Courtney!, more things than I could post without alienating you, friends. In summer and winter, there's an unsettled feeling that comes over me that seems to descend from either the extreme heat or the extreme cold, and I think I might get closer to writing "true yuri" during these moments. This isn't to say I have succeeded at all, but in these seasons, I try to write matters outside of the usual nonsense that I post—or maybe I just present the themes I usually do in a way that strips them bare of their usual window dressing. Christmas is about the unwrapping, so they say. This month, I'm going to post some of that stuff, and also, presumably write a lot more. Sometimes, I think you have to push yourself to write things in a different way in order to improve so... I'm going to do that once more.

precuretokuprompt is running once again this month, the next batch of episodes for Write More Power Rangers falls at the end of the month, so I'll still do that usual things, but whilst the weather is warm, whilst the sun is high, whilst our lips still carry the taste of shaved ice and watermelon, of fruit popsicles and lollies, I thought I'd take some time out to try and articulate a now familiar sort of ennui.

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Squid Game s3 e5

I am not going to watch the final episode tonight, but this post is just to say

finally

( finally )

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In which our heroine walked from 1490 to 1858 by feet, map, and giant raccoon

Having left the cafe at Greyfriars I decided to attempt another flan so consulted a randomised Oblique Strategy card for inspiration and received "Bridges -build -burn". There are plenty of bridges in Worcester, over roads, railway, canal, and rivers. I've crossed many of them. But there's one newly built bridge over the River Severn that I hadn't visited and it has a cafe besides. Will I make it? Will I accidentally burn it down? Will I die en route and my viking-themed burning boat burial pass underneath as it carries me to my final destination? Spoiler: not that last one. XD

Walking along roads familiar from previous flanage, I was surprised to find an alley I'd never noticed before. Obviously I turned along it, which was lucky because my diverted route brought me to a mural of a GIANT raccoon:

( Bricks, box, waterworks, bridge )

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In which there are 52 times Our Heroine improves her habitat (hopefully), week 26

- Pride: I have GAY Marmite! In the UK, branded goods claiming a tiny percentage of their profits go to charity fundraising aren't uncommon, and Christmas / Easter branded items happen but I don't generally see event themed goods in High Street shops. However, my supermarket delivery this week included rainbow, Elton John, anti-AIDS, rebranded Marmite! Need to know: the Elton John AIDS Foundation is banned in Russia, and the EJAF knows where Lesotho is. It takes me ages to eat my way through a whole jar so I'll have cheering GAY Marmite to increase my happiness every time I open my eye-level kitchen cupboard for a long time. :-)

- Habitat: I sorted out and re-dyed everything old that could be renewed. I love the moment when all my favourites look at their best again.

- Pop: f'Keith Starmer and Lisa Nandy's attempts at government censorship of pop music are going about as well as British government censorship of popular media usually does (see also Lady Chatterley's Lover, Spycatcher, &c). "It’s upsetting that the way this country is going keeps our music relevant!"

- Birb log: 15 June, Jackdaws still flying off with beaks full of food.
16 June, juvenile ? Song Thrush in front garden (these are ringed locally and I hear them sing occasionally but I rarely see them).
25 June, Jackdaws in semi-juvenile plumage and with behaviours such as frequent vocalising and begging for food (including begging each other, lol, which helps establish the wider flock's pecking order). Most of the parents are very unimpressed with being harassed for food at this stage, although they do still voluntarily feed the kids, and adults will cheerfully put the youngsters in their place if the kids are failing to copy adult foraging behaviour or are trying to steal food the adults have found. This morning's flock was about a dozen individuals.

Current Music: Friday I'm in Love - The Cure

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watch the walls instead

So I have finally been to the doctor about my pain issues!

Aside from the migraines, I told him that I think the joint pain is fibromyalgia, mainly because I'd looked it up as one of the artists I follow on youtube mentioned having it, and I didn't know exactly what it was.

You know those times where you sit and look at something and go, "OHHH FUCK" in realisation?

Yeah. I have pretty much all of the symptoms as listed on the NHS website, which I dutifully wrote down, and took with me, so that I could tell him all of this and not sound like I was flailing.

He has prescribed me amitriptaline, which will also help with the migraines, and I have to let them know in four to six weeks how things are going.

I also like that he didn't argue with my self-diagnosis, either. I went in kind of expecting it, because I don't know the doctor in question (he is new to the practice, so I haven't seen him before). So that was nice!

And talking of NHS related stuff, I have a follow up appointment ~~next week~~ the week after next for the surgical procedure I mentioned back at the beginning of the year (this will presumably be to assess when and how it will happen, IDK. I have already had the assessment with a surgeon).

~

In other news, there really isn't any! Work continues to happen, although perhaps things are looking up soon, but I don't want to put too much optimism into that just because I'm mildly sceptical about it.

I have four days off, which is nice - this is a week I tried to book off, which is why I was given the chunk of days, I think. I still need to talk to the person in charge of the rotas about holiday for next year, so I don't end up in this position again, though (my first actual holiday for this financial year is the first week in OCTOBER).

~

That's all I've got for now. Time to go and see what I can have for dinner!

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In which our heroine travels from 2002 to 1490 by bus, feet, and time machine

It's June and therefore, like unto a salmon swimming wearily upstream to spawn, I must find a cafe according to

flaneurs challenge III.(c). This year I was hoping for 100% less fail! :D

My destination which, unlike in 2023, I had checked was actually open (lmao) was the National Trust "Old Oak" cafe in Greyfriars which is a preserved Tudor £££ brewer's £££ house £££, built 1490, in the middle of Worcester. My starting point was the Royal Voluntary Service hospital shop, built 2002, at Worcester hospital. To the time machine!

First, catch a bus... with a rly big net? Or a public transport network. Hypothetically there are several buses passing (busses kissing?) this stop but in practice the 38 is much more frequent than its rivals. The bus route passed many points I've described in previous June challenges. We also stopped for a funeral procession of a black hearse, complete with coffin and lovely bright yellow flowers, led by a woman funeral director in a formal black skirt and frock coat with a low-crowned top hat and carrying a silver-topped cane.

( Stuff what I saw (with links to some amazing art) )

Greyfriars: it's not grey and there were never any friars, but it was interesting to visit.

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: somewhere
Current Music: Nine Inch Nails - Closer

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FIC: Kamen Rider Saber - A Warm Place (Illum Tangendo)

Title: A Warm Place (Illum Tangendo)
Universe: Kamen Rider Saber, Marvel Comics RPF
Character(s): Sudo Mei, Stan Lee
Rating: U
Warnings: N/A
Summary: What if... it had been Stan Lee and not Ishinomori Shotaro in Super Hero Senki?
Length: 965 words
Author's Notes: A companion piece. also: external link.

artiste

( A Warm Place (Illum Tangendo) )