a kiss on the top of the head. / protective older sister vibes
⤷ @dutyworn ✧ wren shepard.
Things had started to become... easier over the last few months. Where Anderson had got the idea of bringing another girl under his wing to try and get Kat out of her shell, she hadn't the faintest idea... but she knew if anyone asked her what had made the biggest difference to her after Mindoir, she certainly would have said that it was Wren's presence.
And to think all of it had started with a sobbing, teary-eyed haircut. Kat, unable to handle the memories that came with her long, waist-length hair, aggressively lopping it off into a chunky, uneven mess. But a little bonding later, and Wren had fixed it into a cute, shoulder-length bob that didn't look like a child had tried to cut their own hair.
She’d been quiet most of the day; she knew Wren was leaving in a couple of weeks, now that everything for her enlistment had gone through. Kat’s wouldn’t be far behind; granted, she needed a bit more training, given her biotics, but surely, with time and training… maybe they’d end up deployed together, at some point. Until then Kat had finally gone back to her drawing, quietly sketching in a corner of the apartment near a window. She was glad Anderson’s London apartment had the view that it did; it gave her the perfect view to start back at her sketching, something she hadn’t been able to pick back up since her time on Mindoir.
“Mmm?” The gesture was unexpected, causing Kat to sit more upright, looking around. She’d barely noticed that Wren had come to sit by her; she’d been so engrossed in her artistic endeavours that she’d missed the other girl making her way over. Blinking a few times, Katrina tried to process the situation, not entirely understanding what was going on.
"What was that for?"
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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.
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౨ৎ DELICATE
“sometimes i wonder, when you sleep are you ever dreaming of me? sometimes when I look into your eyes, i pretend you're mine all the damn time” - taylor swift (smau)
contains: charlie bushnell x fem!reader who is best friends with taylor swift and stars in the music video of getaway car (taylor’s version)
description: how are we feeling about the tortured poets department??!?!!!??? have i already ordered the vinyl and cd? yes. btw, the link to join my taglist is in my pinned post
requested by: it wont let me tag who requested arggh!
liked by taylorswift, iamcharliebushnell and others
yn.ln my reputations never been worse so, u must like me for me 😉
tagged iamcharliebushnell
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user1 i know gal did not just say a reputation reference in the prime of reputation tv speculations as a friend of taylor swift
iamcharliebushnell a delicate reference i see
↳ yn.ln i’ve taught u well
user2 GUYS I CANT THE FIRST PIC WHERE DO I FIND A MAN LIKE THIS
↳ yn.ln idk i found him in the streets, guess it was a lucky pick 🤷♀️
user3 taylor swift liked!!!!! I think we r getting rep tv
↳ user4 no i dont think so bc i reckon it would be super secretive like they wouldnt just have her friend say it for her you know what i mean
↳ user3 let a girl dream 💔
dior.n.goodjohn u guys are so cute it makes me sick to my stomach and want to vomit
↳ leahsavajeffries i second that
↳ iamcharliebushnell so is this a compliment..? orr
user5 i LOVE how wherever one percy jackson cast member goes EVERYONE else follows
↳ dior.n.goodjohn u assume im here for charlie? yn is my bae 😘
↳ yn.ln love ya 😘
↳ iamcharliebushnell 🧍
user6 THE SHOES OMG?!
user7 can we talk ab charlie in the last pic omg
↳ yn.ln ikr 🤭
taylorswift its been a long time coming…
tagged yn.ln
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user1 WHAT OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD
selenagomez so proud of u girl 🐍
user2 SET OFF THE ALARMS OMGOMGOMG
yn.ln TAYLOR ILY
haimtheband OH YES
user3 WHY IS YN TAGGED IN THIS OH MY GOD WHATS HAPPENING
user4 READY FOR IT TV IS REAL
blakelively 🖤🖤🖤
user5 THE PHOTOS OMG THIS IS INSANE
sabrinacarpenter YOU GO TAYLOR
↳ user2 i love the swiftverse
user6 do u guys reckon yn will be in a delicate mv??
↳ user7 babe theres already a delicate mv
teddysphotos cant wait!!
user8 the hole for kanye west has just dug so much deeper
comments:
user1 nothing good starts in a getaway car!!
user2 this is everything i imagined and more
user3 YN IN IT?!!
↳ user4 OMG AND THE BRIDGE SCENE
user5 this is too iconic i fear
user6 yn winning at life
↳ user3 PLS i want whatever manifestation method shes got
user7 SNAKES
Liked by dior.n.goodjohn, taylor swift and others
yn.ln im sure you’ve seen getaway car by now, and if you haven’t what are you doing?
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user1 taylor swift and yn ln in a reputation music video together is my roman empire
iamcharliebushnell did u, did u just happen to forget to tell me u were in this mv? 😊😊
↳ yn.ln it was a secreeeettt!
↳ iamcharliebushnell even from me? 😥
↳ user2 👀
↳ yn.ln charlie u r the biggest talker ever if i told i this would be out in a second
↳ aryansimhadri she has a great point
↳ iamcharliebushnell what?!
↳ yn.ln see! Totally justified!
↳ iamcharliebushnell ur not getting away with this one yn 😡
yn.ln guys if i dont post this week charlies killed me, call the police
↳ leahsavajeffries LMAO
taylorswift love you!
↳ yn.ln ugh impossible i love you more
user3 gal took the memo and embodied it
tag list: @lostinhisworld @lizziesfirstwife
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