If you're reading this...

go write three sentences on your current writing project.

….damn it

It will forever haunt me that I cannot share this joke with everyone I meet

Art by Tea Me

The thing with the Mari Lwyd, though, is that it's being... I don't know, 'appropriated' is the wrong word, but certainly turned into something it isn't.

Thing is, this is a folk tradition in the Welsh language, and that's the most important aspect of it. I feel partly responsible for this, because I accidentally became a bit of an expert on the topic of the Mari Lwyd in a post that escaped Tumblr containment, and I clearly didn't stress it strongly enough there (in my defence, I wrote that post for ten likes and some attention); but this is a Welsh language tradition, conducted in Welsh, using Welsh language poetic forms that are older than the entire English language, and also a very specific sung melody (with a very specific first verse; that's Cân y Fari). It is not actually a 'rap battle'. It's not a recited poem. It is not any old rhyme scheme however you want.

It is not in English.

Given the extensive and frankly ongoing attempts by England to wipe out Welsh, and its attendant cultural traditions, the Mari is being revived across Wales as an act of linguistic-cultural defiance. She's a symbol of Welsh language culture, specifically; an icon to remind that we are a distinct people, with our own culture and traditions, and in spite of everyone and everything, we're still here. Separating her from that by removing the Welsh is, to put it mildly, wildly disrespectful.

...but it IS what I'm increasingly seeing, both online and in real world Mari Lwyd festivals. She's gained enormous pop-culture popularity in recent years, which is fantastic; but she's also been reduced from the tradition to just an aesthetic now.

So many people are talking/drawing about her as though she's a cryptid or a mythological figure, rather than the folk practice of shoving a skull on a stick and pretending to be a naughty horse for cheese and drunken larks. And I get it! It's an intriguing visual! Some of the artwork is great! But this is not what she is. She's not a Krampus equivalent for your Dark Christmas aesthetic.

I see people writing their own version of the pwnco (though never called the pwnco; almost always called some variant on 'Mari Lwyd rap battle'), and as fun as these are, they are never even written in the meter and poetic rules of Cân y Fari, much less in Welsh, and they never conclude with the promise to behave before letting the Mari into the house. The pwnco is the central part to the tradition; this is the Welsh language part, the bit that's important and matters.

Mari Lwyd festivals are increasingly just English wassail festivals with a Mari or two present. The Swansea one last weekend didn't even include a Mari trying to break into a building (insert Shrek meme); there was no pwnco at all. Even in the Chepstow ones, they didn't do actual Cân y Fari; just a couple of recited verses. Instead, the Maris are just an aesthetic, a way to make it look a bit more Welsh, without having to commit to the unfashionable inconvenience of actually including Welsh.

And I don't really know what the answers are to these. I can tell you what I'd like - I'd like art to include the Welsh somewhere, maybe incorporating the first line of Cân y Fari like this one did, to keep it connected to the actual Welsh tradition (or other Welsh, if other phrases are preferred). I'd like people who want to write their version of the pwnco to respect the actual tradition of it by using Cân y Fari's meter and rhyme scheme, finishing with the promise to behave, and actually calling it the pwnco rather than a rap battle (and preferably in Welsh, though I do understand that's not always possible lol). I'd like to see the festivals actually observe the tradition, and include a link on the booking website to an audio clip of Cân y Fari and the words to the first verse, so attendees who want to can learn it ahead of time. I don't know how feasible any of that is, of course! But that's what I'd like to see.

I don't know. This is rambly. But it's something I've been thinking about - and increasingly nettled by - for a while. There's was something so affirming and wonderful at first about seeing the Mari's climb into international recognition, but it's very much turned to dismay by now, because she's important to my endangered culture and yet that's the part that everyone apparently wants to drop for being too awkward and ruining the aesthetic. It's very frustrating.

If you're reading this...

go write three sentences on your current writing project.

….damn it

Fairy selfie

May the 4th be with You: A Poem for Star Wars Day

For the Star Wars Day (May the Fourth / May the Force Be With You) there was shared (with the permission of the Pratchett Estate ) a Terry Pratchett story from the Star Wars Universe that was only published in a newspaper 45 years ago! Very excited to read a new Terry's piece! :)❤ (tweet)

Also, Terry Pratchett writing fanfiction 45 years ago, can I hear a wahoo? :)

Wyoming, one of the most useless states in the union, has decided to make itself even more useless by disenfranchising about a quarter of the electorate in hopes of cementing its shitty republican majority and bloody senators.

any followers who live there and didn't vote previously:

You are the adventurer who went on an epic quest and defeated the evil king, all to gain the sacred amulet and use its one wish to revive your sister. Now everyone expects you to accept her death and use the wish to undo the damage instead. You refuse.

Blood has stopped streaming from the wound bisecting your brow, but it still stings your eyes something fierce. You take your gauntlets off, grimacing as the grime and soot from battle tries to keep the metal welded to your skin. There’d been an explosion during the final fight with the king – no, the tyrant. Explosions, maybe. Your magic’s been erratic lately, the sudden growth of your mana pool far outpacing your control. You wipe your eyes with the back of your cleaner hand.

There’s pressure in your chest you’ve never felt before. You want to laugh. No, you want to scream. Your body is too tired to jump around like you did when you were a little girl, but you find yourself bouncing in place regardless. The thrill of battle and of escaping the castle as it collapsed is thrumming through your veins. You did it. You did it.

You are so happy, so devastatingly happy, that you can feel yourself shutting down. You need—you need rest. Food. Sleep.

Then you can save her. Then you can bring her back.

“Roksala,” Prince Eloyn says. You squint past the last rays of day to see him frowning at you. The ruins of the tyrant’s castle don’t appear to interest him. His eyes narrow. “Are you ignoring me?”

If you're reading this...

go write three sentences on your current writing project.

#dirty minds worldwide

Some truly amazing, brilliant people.

ANNOUNCEMENT: We're excited to share that Designing Terry Pratchett's Discworld, written and illustrated by Paul Kidby, will be published in November 2024.

An incredible celebration of Discworld art and a brilliant homage to the decades-long collaboration between Paul and Terry, the book takes readers behind the scenes of one of the great creative partnerships, packed with unseen art and the real stories behind it.

Covers and more to be revealed soon...

Shang qinghua behind you-

[ID in plain and alt text: digital drawing of shang qinghua and shen qingqiu from scum villain. shang qinghua has one hand on his hip, the other hand pointing up, eyes closed and smiling as if saying something philosophical. Above him is a speech bubble where he quotes a tumblr post by user klezmurlocs that says "calling a work of fiction 'saccharine and masturbatory' to indicate that it is awesome. just like sugar and cranking off". shen qingqiu is behind him with a murderous glare, swinging his fan towards shang qinghua as if it was a baseball bat. End ID]

(shoutout to @princess-of-purple-prose for the idea I took from her tags)

bad news about our organic cotton button shirt and button dress preorders :(

If you're reading this...

go write three sentences on your current writing project.

I keep bouncing off of watching playthroughs of Final Fantasy VII, because while there's stuff there that I really like (I know the broad strokes of the plot), I am just not vibing with the voice acting / dialogue style in the Remake and the original is mostly just text so I can't listen to it while I'm working. (I watched my way through the original yeaaaaars ago, so I'm due for a proper refresher.)

Anyway! With the disclaimer that I don't 100% know what I'm talking about: I think one of the absolute funniest potential "Sephiroth is saved" Canon Divergence AUs + "Sephiroth / Original (Audience Insert) Character" AUs would be an AU where Sephiroth gets together with Cloud's Mom.

On the Nibelheim mission, the plot forces Cloud back home for some reason, then Cloud is forced to introduce Sephiroth and Zack to his mom for whatever reason. I've seen some fics where Cloud's Mom was a teen single mom, so this woman could still be in her thirties, and even if she was older... Uh, there are arguments to be made here about Sephiroth being into a MILF. There definitely might be something resembling "mommy issues" among his many other "being a super soldier experiment from birth and later an actual child soldier" issues.

Zack, watching Sephiroth quietly hit it off with Cloud's very pretty Mom: "What... what is happening right now?"

Proceed in this Canon Diverence AU to orchestrate scenarios in which Sephiroth ends up not getting sufficiently close to the last straw that is Jenova for some reason. Some reason being partially that he's too busy flirting with / hooking up with Cloud's Mom. Sephiroth needs (excuse the pun) a fucking break. Poor Cloud Strife does NOT know what to make of his childhood hero / current boss sliding into the beginnings of a step-dad position. What the hell.