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lichenes · 1 month

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Amour amour

Vincent has a strange fixation with your *gestures wildly*... CW: estabilished relationship, french people, kissing, tooth rotting fluff, LOTS of physical contact, sfw (nothing happens just some tension) Vincent Renzi x gn!reader wc: 562

_____✿°•∘ɷ∘•°✿ … ✿°•∘ɷ∘•°✿ … ✿°•∘ɷ∘•°✿ … ✿°•∘ɷ∘•°✿_____

Wherever you went it seemed that Vincent went there too. He seemed to be following you like a lost puppy, a lovesick expression painted on his face. You were chalking it up to you being in the honeymoon stage of your relationship but didn't expect for this state to turn into your everyday life.

Vincent entered the room you were in, wearing only the pyjama pants he bought as a pis aller to convince you he had some sense of style which didn't consist only of elaborately patterned shawls. He gave you a knowing smile. "Bonjour." He said in a low, sultry voice immediately breaking character and bursting into laughter.

You amused him by giggling and sat up on the bed you were previously laying on, extending your arms towards his presence. Vincent obliged and with a slight chuckle he got closer to you in a few strides pressing his bare chest to your face and embracing your head.

"Very comfortable..." you mused, a laugh threatening to escape your lips, words muffled by his tight hug. "Shhhh..." he shushed you and started stroking your hair. You relaxed into his touch putting your arms around his waist.

You stayed like this for a few moments more before the day had to start fully. After you let go Vincent crouched down to be on your lever and put his hand on your cheek gently caressing it with his thumb. Both your hands wandered towards his silver locks which looked especially alluring.

Tugging on them he released a content whine. "Careful." He mused as he got closer. Every time it was the same with him, he knew exactly how to sweep you off your feet without even trying. Vincent put both his hands on your cheeks and gave you the sweetest kiss imaginable, not wanting to overwhelm you in the morning.

When he turned to walk away you grabbed his hand and he turned around questioningly. "Chéri?" You stood up and got closer to him and put your hands around his neck, smiling, you ghosted your lips over his and immediately turned around walking away towards the kitchen.

His lips chased yours but never quite got to catch up to them. Vincent followed suit and entered the kitchen where you were just putting the kettle on.

"Ah you're cruel..." He feigned affront, putting his hand on his chest. Your back was against the kitchen counter and you chuckled at his theatricals. He went up to you and stole a kiss which you teased him with before, knocking the air out of you with the fervency of it.

Vincent pulled away clearly pleased with himself grinning wildly. Your face was hot from all the affection you recieved, clearly enjoying it. It was your turn to put your hands on his cheeks. Just as you were about to say something he chimed. "You're so pretty sunshine." Your cheeks got even hotter.

Sunshine. It was one of Vincent's favourite pet names for you because it made you the most flustered. Your blushes, stolen glaces, the way it made him feel transcended humanity's understanding of love. Goddess was a word that didn't do you justice.

You were more like an eldrich benevolent force which was the only thing he got out of bed for. You chuckled into the kiss. "Ah Vincent Renzi, the man you are..." you sighed contently.

_____✿°•∘ɷ∘•°✿ … ✿°•∘ɷ∘•°✿ … ✿°•∘ɷ∘•°✿ … ✿°•∘ɷ∘•°✿_____ masterlist

#x reader #vincent renzi x reader #vincent renzi #anatomy of a fall #swann #swann arlaud #vincent renzi x gn!reader #one shot

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lepetitdragonvert · 6 months

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Wonderful Stories for Children, translated from the Danish by Mary Howitt

Chapman and Hall

1846

#hans andersen #hans christian andersen #fairy story #children's literature #vintage illustration #old illustration #1846 #swann #river #lake #boat #cygne #nef #nacelle #esquif #lac #eau #water

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boanerges20 · 5 months

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Mal & Robbie Swann, 1984

#motorcycle #mal #robbie #swann #motolegends #1984 #sport bike #racing #motorsports #built for speed #ride hard or go home #moto love #lifestyle

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chic-beyond-the-wall · 3 months

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What a lady of house Swann would wear

#game of thrones #asoiaf #a song of ice and fire #asoif/got #house of the dragon #headcanon #hotd #fashion #odile swann #gulian swann #swann #house swann #the stormlands #westeros #asoiaf fashion

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helyiios · 2 months

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swann is a french news anchor, servan is a french politician :)

#yvaintive #ocs #my ocs #swann #servan #doodle

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marinebeccarelli · 5 hours

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Lyon, décembre 2022 © marinebeccarelli

#film photography #filmisnotdead #35mm color film #analog photography #konica pop #kodak portra #kodak portra 400 #film 35mm #lyon #sunset #swann

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oddrayofmoonlight · 1 year

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Swann is the nerdiest version of Huffman.

#Swann #genshin #genshin impact #knights of favonius #my art

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youalmostcapturedjacksparrow · 1 year

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𝕁𝕒𝕔𝕜 𝕊𝕡𝕒𝕣𝕣𝕠𝕨'𝕤 ℝ𝕠𝕤𝕖 ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝟞

Chapter 6: On Our way

General POV

We actually did it Rosemary thought to herself.

We commandeered a ship. And the interceptor none the less.

She was well supplied and an easy ship to handle. She was a really fast vessel so she was almost flying over the waves.

Jack was a really easygoing captain. He told Will and Rosemary exactly what they needed to do. And helped them out.

It was really weird. But Jack was kinda nice. He was polite and gave Rosemary the captain's quarters.

So she would be as comfortable as she could.

He threatened her just a few days ago but he seemed like a completely different person. Or atleast that how he comes off now.

'My mother raised me by herself.' Will told Jack while he was polishing his sword.

'After she died, I came out here, looking for my father.'

'Is that so?' Jack said while looking at the sails and tightening them.

'My father, Bill Turner?' Will said as he put his sword down and walked after Jack.

Rosemary was reading a book she found In the captain's quarters and sat against the mast.

But she looked up when Will stood up and walked after Jack.

'It was only after you learned my name that you agreed to help.

Since that's what I wanted, I didn't press the matter.

I'm not a simpleton, Jack. You knew my father.' Will was standing behind Jack making himself stand up straight. He wanted to know these answers.

Ever since Will came into the life of Rosemary and Elizabeth, he had been their big brother helped them in any way he could. He had loved Elizabeth from the moment he met her. And Rosemary was like sister to him. They are best friends. And she knew how hard it had been on him, that he knew nothing about his father.

Rosemary's POV

Good for you Will. Rosemary thought to herself.

I closed my book and stood up. I wanted to see this. I have known Will for eight years. And I have known every struggle he had from not knowing what happened or where his father is.

And I wanted to be there for him. Every step of the way.

So I walked up the stairs to the upper deck.

When I heard Jack say.

'I knew him.' Jack turned around towards Will and looked him in the eyes.

'Probarly one of the few who knew him as William Turner.

Everyone else just called him ' Bootstrap' or 'Bootstrap Bill' Jack said as he walked past will towards the helm.

'Bootstrap?' Will said to himself

'Good man. Good pirate.' Jack said while getting the rope of the helm. To get control over the stir'

I stood still.

Did Jack just say 'good pirate'? I thought to myself and laid my hand on my mouth. Because it was hanging open.

' I swear you look just like him.' Jack said to Will before getting his focus back to the helm.

'I'ts not true. He was a merchant sailor.' Will said not even doubting for a second Jack might have had a point there.

'A good, respectable man who obeyed the law. '

Jack was rolling his eyes while Will spoke about his father. And I was trying to hold back my chuckle.

I thought it was horrible for Will to learn that his father was not the man who he thought he was.

But goddamn this was a scene I liked to watch.

Jack swinged back towards Will.

'He was a bloody pirate, a scallywag' Jack said a little irritated and turned back to the sea.

While Will took out his sword and pointed it at Jack.

'My father was not a pirate!'

Which made Jack look up and roll his eyes even more then before. I could see him count to five before saying ' Put it away, son. '

'It's not worth you getting beat again.'

'You didn't beat me. You ignored the rules of engagement.' Will spat at him.

'In a fair fight, I'd kill you. '

'That's not incentive for me to fight fair, is it?' Jack said while he turned towards Will.

I was looking at this scene play out.

I was rooting for Will getting the answers he needed to. But I didn't thought it would take a turn like this. But before I could collect my thoughts and break into this conversation.

Jack motioned to me to hold on, and he pulled around the helm. Which made the mast fly towards them. Jack ducked and I was holding on to the stairs.

But poor Will didn't had the opportunity to do so. So he caught the helm against his ribs and flew off the ship holding the mast.

'JACK WHAT THE HELL' I cursed at him.

'You cant just throw Will overboard!?

We need him!!' I was shouting

Jack took Will's sword of the ground and made a hand signal to me. That I needed to stay quiet so I did.

'Now as long as you're just hanging there, pay attention.' Jack said towards Will.

'The only rules that really matter are these:

What a man can do and what a man can't do.

For instance, you can accept that your father was a pirate and a good man, or you can't but pirate is in your blood boy, so you'll have to square with that someday.

Now me for example, I can let you drown. But I can't sail this ship to Tortuga only with Miss Rivers Savvy?'

'so' Jack said towards a really confused looking Will.

Jack swung back the helm so the mast was once again above the deck and Will could let himself fall on the ground.

I was about to run towards Will and scold to Jack. When Jack was holding his hand out towards me to stay put. And put Will's sword towards him.

'Can you sail under the command of a pirate? '

Jack threw the sword up and catches the front putting the handle towards Will.

'Or can you not?'

Will took the sword from Jack and looked up to him.

I was standing behind Jack my eyebrow raised towards Will

'Tortuga! ' I squeeled while putting my hands up.

'I'ts been so long since I've been there!'

Jack turned around towards me.

'Excuse me?

What would a lass like you, need to go to a place like Tortuga' Jack said with an eyebrow raised while looking me up and down.

'Jack Jack Jack. ' I said while shaking my head.

'How do you even think I have pants and a corset and even a blouse on me.

I went there once for a type of fabric I needed for a weddingdress and it was nowhere to be found except for Tortuga.

And I loved it there. So well I went back a few times.' I simply said. While tying my hair up in a high ponytail.

'Well Miss Rivers' Jack said with a smirk

'Please just call me Rose now' I said with a soft smile.

'Well Rose ' Jack said willingly

'I would have never thought you of all people went to Tortuga. Please tell me a bit more about yourself'

Will was rolling his eyes but sat up and stayed silent nodding to me to tell my story.

'Hmm, I'm not really a telling my story kind of girl. But since Barbossa already know's im around I don't see any problem anymore.

Well where to begin. My father was Commodore Rivers. He served for Mr.Swann

And did his job amazingly. He had me with my mother who was in London and watched Elizabeth when Mr. Swann was out for work.

Lizzy's mom passed fare before Lizzy could even speak. So she grow up with me.

But on one of the most easy journey's my father could have had. He got in a deep fog and the wind took up. And all of a sudden without a warning they were attacked.

By a ship with black sails. Captain Barbossa had heard that my father shipped expensive bottles for the king of England. And I think he wanted to take that to profit from.

Or it was just wrong place wrong time. '

I shrugged my shoulders.

'And well my dad fought to the bitter end. But lost against the captain of the Black Pearl.' I said with my eyes closed.

'And long story short. My mom killed herself. Mr. Swann wasn't having me staying alone in London as an orphan. So he took me in, when he went of to be governor of Port Royal.

He raised me and got me a good job.

That's it nothing really weird' I shrugged my shoulders and Will was shaking his head.

Jack was looking at me. You could see that he was thinking about something to say. But then saw land and smirked.

'Well here we are. Tortuga'

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reasoningdaily · 11 months

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The First Self-Proclaimed Drag Queen Was a Formerly Enslaved Man

In the late 19th century, William Dorsey Swann’s private balls attracted unwelcome attention from authorities and the press

In the late 1880s, a formerly enslaved man named William Dorsey Swann started hosting private balls known as drags, a name possibly derived from “grand rag,” an antiquated term for masquerade balls. Held in secret in Washington, D.C., these parties soon caught authorities’ attention.

As the Washington Criticreported in January 1887, police officers who raided one such gathering were surprised to encounter six Black men “dressed in elegant female attire,” including “corsets, bustles, long hose and slippers.” The following April, the Evening Starreported on a raid that targeted men in “female attire of many colors,” as well as “gaudy costumes of silk and satin.” On both occasions, authorities arrested the party guests and charged them with “being suspicious characters.”

Joseph’s chance find marked the beginning of a yearslong quest to uncover Swann’s story—and, with it, the history of drag in the United States. He chronicles the results of this research in an upcoming book titled House of Swann: Where Slaves Became Queens—and Changed the World. Drawing on extensive archival research, Joseph presents a compelling portrait of the nation’s first self-proclaimed drag queen. The historian proudly positions Swann as the “first queer American hero.”

The identification of Swann as the first reported drag queen in the U.S. is a “major event,” says Jen Manion, a historian at Amherst College. “LGTBQ history is hampered by the lack of diaries and personal letters and family papers, because you just don’t put [those feelings] in writing.” For much of recorded history, Manion adds, being gay or bisexual was considered “a sin; it’s illegal.”

Joseph says his research resurfaces the “experiences of queer people, … historical experiences, not fictionalized experiences, documenting them rather than speculating.” These findings, in turn, helped him pinpoint the birth of “the drag queen.”

The concept of drag “existed for some period of time unknown,” says Joseph. But the term only came into use in 19th-century Great Britain, where Joseph says it referred to “a gathering of people, particularly men, who were dressing as women.” In 1871, two members of the British aristocracy were put on trial after they were caught dressing as women in public. Authorities charged Ernest “Stella” Boulton and Frederick “Fanny” Park with “conspiring and inciting persons to commit an unnatural offense.” A jury found the defendants not guilty but handed down a minor indictment to the men for wearing women’s clothing.

Cross-dressing, which is often a component of drag, has a lengthy history on both the stage and the screen, from Elizabethan-era performances in which men played women to Japanese Kabuki theater. In the early 20th century, performers like Julian Eltinge became stars by impersonating women during the vaudeville craze. In the 1950s, Milton Berle dressed as a woman on his variety TV show, as did comedian Flip Wilson in the early 1970s. In the early 1980s, the sitcom “Bosom Buddies” starred Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari as two young men who disguise themselves as women so they can live in an inexpensive, women-only apartment building.

Historian Kathleen Casey, author of The Prettiest Girl on Stage Is a Man: Race and Gender Benders in American Vaudeville, takes a much wider view of drag. While she includes all manner of cross-dressing performances in her definition, she doesn’t think there will ever be “a stable meaning of the term ‘drag.’” Casey adds, “Drag is about race, class and sexuality as much as it is about gender. If we focus exclusively on only one of these intersections, we fail to see how drag performances are layered across time and space and can have multiple meanings for different audiences.” Drag, she says, is really about a performer’s own perspective of their work, as well as audiences’ understanding of this work.

Many of the “contemporary categories and terms that we use in modern life to describe LGBTQ people or sexual and gender minorities” date to the late 19th century, says Manion. “Lesbian,” for instance, was first used in a medical journal in 1883. The historian adds, “We debate amongst ourselves as scholars when it seems appropriate to use contemporary terms to describe things [in] the past, but in this case, these were terms used by … the people at the time as well.”

Swann was born into slavery in Washington County, Maryland, around 1858. According to a 2021 entry by Joseph in the African American National Biography, Swann was the fifth of 13 children born to enslaved housekeeper Mary Jane Younker and enslaved wheat farmer and musician Andrew Jackson “Jack” Swann. (His biological father may have been a white man, but Joseph hasn’t found definitive evidence confirming this theory.) After the Civil War ended in 1865, Swann’s parents bought a plot of land and started a farm. Encouraged to work as soon as he was old enough, the young Swann found employment as a hotel waiter. In 1880, he relocated to Washington, where he worked as a janitor and sent money back home to his family.

Like Washington more broadly, the capital’s underground queer networks were divided into white and Black communities that rarely intersected. As a 2019 report prepared for the city’s Historic Preservation Office notes, “It was a hushed fact that Lafayette Square in D.C., which is adjacent to the White House, was a known cruising spot for gay men, both Black and white,” but the majority of these individuals were only interested in liaisons with partners of the same race. An exception to this trend was Washington’s drag scene, which often attracted mixed-race audiences.

Forging a place for himself in the city’s queer Black community, Swann held parties that Joseph deems the first documented “drag balls” in American history. Held in secret, they provided a safe space for gender expression but were risky to attend. “A large but undetermined number managed to flee during the police raids, but the names of those arrested and jailed were printed in the papers, where the men became targets of public scorn,” wrote Joseph for the Nation in 2020. “In post-Civil War America, there was very little patience for men who subverted gender norms.” Sentences for those charged with attending drag balls ranged from around three to ten months.

Around this same time, Swann became enthralled by the “queens of freedom” crowned at Washington’s Emancipation Day parades—annual celebrations first held in April 1866. Historically, each neighborhood was represented by a woman who “personified freedom for Black people,” according to Joseph. Inspired by these queens, Swann started crowning the winners of his dance competitions the “queen of the ball,” says Joseph.

Swann also adopted the title for himself. As the Washington Critic noted on April 13, 1888, “William Dorsey, who, by the way, was the ‘queen,’” was one of 13 people arrested during a raid on a “drag party” the previous night.

“There’s this concept of drag, which is separate, and there’s the concept of queens of freedom, and in D.C. in this particular time, post-slavery, post-Reconstruction, these two concepts collide,” says Joseph. “To identify as a drag queen, which is what William Dorsey Swann did, is combining these two strains, these two cultural traditions.”

The 1880s saw a “wave of laws passed in cities all across the country explicitly banning cross-dressing,” says Manion, who adds that the rules were “applied very selectively” and were riddled with inconsistencies and contradictions. The arrests of Swann and his friends were “even more sensationalized in the press and probably drew the attention of authorities because most of the participants were Black,” Manion explains. “And this is in Jim Crow America. For queer … Black Americans to just see so much joy and freedom in their gender expression at this time was definitely seen as a threat.”

The court sentenced Swann to 300 days in prison. After serving three months of his sentence, Swann, who had pled not guilty, filed a petition for a pardon from President Grover Cleveland, says Netisha Currie, an archives specialist at the National Archives, which houses a copy of the petition. In a show of support, 30 of Swann’s friends signed the document. But U.S. Attorney A.A. Birney argued vehemently against the pardon, stating,“The prisoner was in fact convicted of the most horrible and disgusting offenses known to the law; an offense so disgusting that it is unnamed. … His evil example in the community must have been most corrupting.”

Ultimately, Cleveland denied the petition. Still, wrote Joseph for the Nation, Swann’s unsuccessful attempt to clear his name represents the earliest documented example of an American activist taking “specific legal and political steps to defend the queer community’s right to gather without the threat of criminalization, suppression or police violence.”

As Manion says, “What’s unique about [Joseph’s] work is that it captures a collective community. When we have been able to identify queer and trans figures in this era and earlier, we find them in isolation. And we can seldom connect the dots to say, ‘Oh, these two couples were friends. They always hung out.’ … We have very little evidence of collective socializing.”

No known pictures of Swann survive. But his contributions to queer activism in Washington will soon be recognized with the redesignation of a stretch of Swann Street Northwest in his honor. The street was originally named for Thomas Swann, a former Maryland governor and Baltimore mayor who bore no relation to the drag queen.

“We have seen so much anti-trans and anti-drag legislation and rhetoric around the country in a very problematic way,” says Brooke Pinto, a D.C. Council member who introduced the bill. “In Washington, D.C., where we are proud to have so many trans residents, we [need to] speak up and recognize, sometimes through symbolism, sometimes through legislation, how important these issues are.”

The bill also calls for a historic plaque to be posted in Dupont Circle, a Washington neighborhood with a rich LGBTQ history. The plaque will sit at the corner of New Hampshire Avenue, Swann Street Northwest and 17th Street Northwest.

“One of the things that’s so exciting about this case is that it is an African American man who was formerly enslaved,” says Manion. Such individuals “just don’t get … recognition in our histories of LGBTQ people, in part because we usually can’t find them in the archives. But … Swann was hiding in plain sight.”

#swann #Drag Balls #Origins of Drag Balls #DC #LGBTQ+#The First Self-Proclaimed Drag Queen Was a Formerly Enslaved Man #William Dorsey Swann #Drag Queens #origins of drag ball culture in DC

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