Dag Fangirls

we're looking to create an AI policy, and when we were talking about this, my boss (older millennial) was genuinely shocked to hear that younger people do not (seem) to view AI positively (a la the recent commencement speakers being booed)

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Question 1/3

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CoAi Week 2026 Day 3 Prompt:

Zinnia: Loyalty

The zinnia generally represents loyalty, lasting affection, and endurance. Known in Japan as hyakunichisou (flower of 100 days), its meanings are deeply tied to its ability to continuously bloom through the harsh summer heat.

Cool anecdote: Zinnias were the first plants grown as part of a formal NASA experiment using the Veggie plant-growth system aboard the International Space Station!

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Ok my Apothecary fam, this is gonna be a long post but a positive one, so bear with me :3

I’ve loved historical fiction since forever, especially when it’s not centered around Western/white history. But loving the genre comes with a lot of frustration too. Depending on who’s writing, when they’re writing, and how well they researched (or didn’t), it can easily fall into stereotyping or misinformation.

Recently, I read two historical novels set in empires that depicted versions of a harem:

📖 Alamut by Vladimir Bartol, set in medieval Iran, and

📖 The Architect’s Apprentice by Elif Shafak, in Ottoman Istanbul.

Both stories include spaces where women live together, sometimes as concubines, nobles, queens, wifes. Sometimes as political actors, sometimes just as plot devices. And both got me thinking: why did I hate those depictions, but love the inner palace in The Apothecary Diaries? Honestly, the way this story handles gendered spaces of power feels smarter, more complex, and more real than a lot of so-called “serious” historical novels.

⚠️ I'm manga + anime only (for now), and this is based on that part of the series (I’ve read up to ch. 80.2 and watched both seasons). Please do not spoil me in the discussions <3

Orientalism vs nuance — how fiction fails (and why this manga doesn’t)

"Harem" is a loaded term in the West. It’s shaped far more by the Western colonial imagination than by actual historical realities. Yes, polygynous systems existed in many empires : Rajput and Mughal India, Qing China, the Ottoman empire, Persia, Egypt, etc. The word harem once meant protection, intimacy, and even a form of soft power. But colonial narratives twisted it into a fantasy, full of sex, silence, and subjugation.

In Alamut, women are brainwashed playthings in a pleasure fortress. Drugs, alcohol, and softcore orgies make it feel like a colonial fever dream. This doesn't surprise me because Vladimir Bartol, the author of the novel, never went to Persia and everything he wrote was inspired by Marco Pollo's writing. Oh ! Another white traveler.

In The Architect’s Apprentice, things are less cartoonish, but still... uneasy. The harem remains this mysterious closed space, romanticized and framed through the male narrator’s gaze. Eventhough the author Elif Shafak, is turkish and a women, I feel that some of her writing does carry stereotypes. And honestly? Even when we’re part of the cultures being depicted, many of us still carry a Western gaze. That’s colonization. That’s the power of dominant narratives.

So I always feel tense when fiction tackles these gendered spaces — especially when it exoticizes women of color as either voiceless victims or sexualized enigmas. Queerness is often fetishized in these depictions too — as a kind of Orientalist fantasy layered over the women’s bodies.

But The Apothecary Diaries? It avoids all that. It doesn’t pretend these systems were fair or ideal. But it also doesn’t pretend they were empty cages.

The inner palace is a social world, not an orgie in disguise

What I love in Apothecary Diaries is that the inner palace isn’t just a backdrop for seduction.

It’s full of life, of power games, alliances, daily routines, and deeply human connections. You see friendships, rivalries, maternal bonds. You see court ladies trained in arts, etiquette, sometimes even politics. Gyokuyou helping Lihua when they are both pregnant. The bond between Lishu and Ah Duo, as a mother-daughter relationship. Maomao’s friendship with Xiaolan and Shisui. All of it builds a world where women are active agents, even in constrained roles.

So many stories rely on shock value when depicting women in these systems : rape, abuse, trauma. Not to say these things didn’t happen, but they’re so often presented in voyeuristic, almost titillating ways.

The Apothecary Diaries shows us something rarer: the real problems and emotional costs of those systems, without sensationalizing them.

The quiet pain of Gyokuyou, who knows she’ll never have the emperor to herself.

Fuyou, a princess who uses the inner palace as a hiding place, waiting for her beloved, and cleverly tricking the emperor into leaving her alone.

Lihua’s illness, shaped by the grief of losing her child.

These stories show us that suffering here isn’t always loud or dramatic. Sometimes it’s slow, soft, made of waiting and quiet resignation.

And yes, even the deeply disturbing behavior of the previous emperor is part of this reality. His pedophilia was known and frowned upon, yet tolerated, simply because he held ultimate power. No one could stop him. That’s part of the horror too.

The ecosystem of the inner palace and the lives of its women reflect the world outside: sorority, friendship, sisterhood, but also rivalry, violence, loneliness, and class divides.

It’s complex. And that’s exactly what makes it such a compelling story.

Women navigating patriarchy with intelligence and strategy

Yes, the system is patriarchal. Of course it is. The emperor decides, men rule. But within this system, women still find ways to carve out space — to survive, to strategize, sometimes even to thrive like Gyokuyou.

Some rely on wit, alliances, or sheer luck to stay afloat. Others, like Shenmei, actively choose this world, seeking honor, influence, and status, even when their heart lies elsewhere. They become part of the palace’s political machinery, navigating its codes and ambitions like anyone else trying to rise within empire.

And then there are those like Lishu, quietly protected — not because of their own agency, but because the palace, for all its rules, still offers more safety than the world beyond its walls.

And what I found particularly brilliant is how the series draws parallels between the inner palace and the pleasure quarters.

Both are systems where women are sexualized, yes. But both also offer women a kind of agency. The courtesans of the red light district, much like Indian tawaifs or Japanese geishas, are shown choosing who to marry, managing their careers, teaching the arts — even sexual education.

Remember when Maomao teaches a noblewoman about sex based on what she learned from the brothel? That’s cultural memory, feminine expertise, and class intersection all in one.

Class, gender, and masculinity deconstructed

I also love how the story explores declassed masculinities.

By that, I mean men who don’t sit at the top of the patriarchal hierarchy. They don’t hold full institutional power, nor do they always benefit from sexual or social dominance.

Take the eunuchs, for example. In a lot of Western fiction, eunuchs are mocked, caricatured, or reduced to tragic figures. But The Apothecary Diaries offers a much richer range of portrayals.

We have two doctors: one naïve and kind, Guen and, the other competent and respected, Luomen. There’s also Gaoshun, who has a family — something rare to see in fiction for an eunuch but historically accurate ! These characters are layered, each have different stories. Some are influential and respected. They represent a masculinity that exists outside the norm — marginalized, yes, but far from powerless.

Even Jinshi, with his complicated background, plays with gender expectations. He’s perceived as delicate, elegant, “too beautiful to be taken seriously” — which creates a tension between his apparent softness and his hidden political strength. He performs fragility to disarm people, while holding real authority.

Lihaku, on the other hand, is more of a traditional male figure but his tenderness, his devotion to Pailin, and his friendship with Maomao make him stand out. As a man from a lower class, he also faces barriers and prejudice. He doesn't coast on masculine privilege alone — he has to fight for space in this strategic, stratified society.

Even the current emperor isn’t reduced to a brutish patriarch who exploits women. He cares for Lishu, Gyokuyou, and Ah-Duo in different ways — as a father, a companion, a partner in trust. He’s witty, clever, emotionally attuned. But he too is trapped by his role. He has to marry for political reasons. We see this when he visits Lolan because her family is powerful — despite clearly having no physical interest in her and no admiration for her personality. It’s duty, not desire.

None of these men fit the traditional mold of patriarchal power.

And that’s what makes it so refreshing. The Apothecary Diaries doesn’t just explore how women survive under patriarchy. It also shows how men who don’t fit the dominant script navigate it too.

Some of this is clearly designed to appeal to modern audiences — no, this isn’t 100% historically accurate. But it still breaks many stereotypes about men in palace life with harems. They’re not just simping 25/7 for the women. They’re not defined solely by desire or power over the harem. They have their own lives, their own griefs, and their own constraints. And that’s rare to see.

When the Gaze Isn’t Male or White

Western historical dramas like Versailles, The Tudors, or The Crown are full of royal mistresses, political marriages, lovers used as pawns. And yet. We don’t exoticize Anne Boleyn the same way we exoticize, say, Hürrem Sultan or Nur Jahan.

The reason? Racism. We romanticize white women’s sexuality and political maneuvering, but frame women of color in imperial settings as either victims or temptresses. It’s tiring.

I honestly think this complexity in The Apothecary Diaries and how it breaks stereotypes, is one of the reasons the anime is so popular. It has layers. And one major reason is that the story is told through the eyes of a woman.

Maomao doesn’t romanticize or demonize the Inner Palace or the Pleasure District. She observes with curiosity, empathy, and sharp analysis. It brings in a rare kind of female gaze: one that sees both pain and resilience, both survival and ambition.

That’s the beauty of Maomao’s narration. It doesn’t flatten or moralize, it understands.

These types of point of view are essentials in fiction. Because how we tell history affects how we see each other. Because stories like The Apothecary Diaries offer us a view of the past that isn’t filtered through a white, Christian, male lens.

In the first chapter of JLA’s “Divided We Fall Arc” both Clark and Bruce reveal their civilian identities to the rest of the League. This is post “Tower of Babel” where nobody but Clark still trusts Batman, and in order to start building trust again, Clark urges Bruce to unmask himself to the rest of the team because Bruce obviously knows who everyone else is. Bruce agrees on one condition, Clark has to “unmask” himself as well.

When the big reveal goes down, Kyle Rayner says it best re: Clark being Superman: “He doesn’t…wear a mask. I never even…thought he had a…day job…”

That’s right, the canon reason why nobody makes the connection between Superman and Clark Kent is because nobody thinks that Superman HAS a civilian identity.

It figured out he was Clark…and Lex fired the scientist for wasting company resources because he COULDN’T BELIEVE that Superman would ever “Pretend” to be human because it would mean pretending to be “Weak”

Coai Week 2026 Day 1 Prompt:

Lily of the Incas: Indescribable Connection

Such strong connection that language is limited when trying to explain it— If that doesn't encompass the bond between Conan & Ai, then nothing can!

Alstroemeria, commonly called the Peruvian lily or lily of the Incas, is a genus of flowering plants native to South America. There are over a 100 species of Lily of the Incas, with varying colours and stripes, and these flowers can be found in almost all types of habitat.

In Hanakotoba (the Japanese language of flowers), the "Lily of the Incas" primarily symbolizes devotion, enduring friendship, and mutual support. Because this flower’s leaves grow upside down and twist out from the stem, it represents the unpredictable twists and turns of life. It is the perfect flower to tell someone, "I've got your back".

Sounds like a sturdy and versatile flower... Just as the bond between Conan and Ai seems to have many strands to it, and ever evolving. What a great pick to start CoAi Week with - highlighting the undeniable connection of our ship!

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The request is so urgent my boss needs it by the end of the work week. Which, y'know, is 5 PM on a Friday. So I have four hours to do it.

It's a forwarded request. Somebody contacted a member of the donation team asking for help, "I need a map from the Vietnam War to use for a presentation." It's somebody she's trying to coax into giving a five figure donation to the museum.

The request was asked to the donation team member, who then emailed my boss, who then emailed and called me urgently.

This map required:

North and South Vietnam in it

All four areas that South Vietnam was divided into for military purposes ('Corps') clearly delineated

Four cities, all of them horrifically misspelled, and only identifiable because I know what battle the requester is asking about (it’s in III Corps on the border with Cambodia) (the requester danced around the battle but I’m knowledgeable enough to identify it)

Has Laos and Cambodia in it

Has the Ho Chi Minh Trail in it

So. I was mad about the 'you have literally four hours to find a map with a lot of requirements.'

I was then mad at myself about finding a copyright free map from Texas Tech University within half an hour, proving her right for asking me to do it.

Then, after I found a map that perfectly met the requirements, I was equally amazed, baffled, and horrified when I read further into the forwarded email chain.

The donation team team member they were speaking to used AI to generate a map.

The above put half of North Vietnam in South Vietnam, made the Ho Chi Minh Trail a country, made 60% of Cambodia part of South Vietnam, put the DMZ extremely high up in North Vietnam, completely disconnected the southern tip of Vietnam, misplaced all of the Corps zones, etc etc

At the very last second the donation team member had a moment of divine clarity, remembering there's three historians on payroll to ask for this kind of thing from. So she contacted my boss while saying, "I had fun with this, but I decided I should check for accuracy before I send it to the donor! I need a fact check by the end of the day, then I send it"

My boss, while not the most knowledgeable on the Vietnam War, does know her geography. She took one look, and knew it was so off she called me to tell me how urgent it is that I look at the email and respond

Crimetober 1-9

Crimetober 10-21

Crimetober 22-31

My Birds are Criminals zine is debuting at TCAF this weekend!

Find it at the Screen Tones Podcast table 244, June 6-7! I won't be there, but a bunch of the gang will be, so say hi and check out their work too.

Thanks for the ask!

PMOS(PCOS) is absolutely a full body disease and not just a fertility issue as many doctors have led us to believe. It increases your chance of other diseases like diabetes and heart disease. That’s why this name change is so important, so that it brings awareness to how these hormonal changes actually affect women/people with uteruses. It will lead to even more research and help more patients!

When searching for information, look for websites that end in .org or .edu to show they’re from a reliable scientific site. It’s best to look for articles done by colleges or hospitals, maybe government agencies. Not to say those ending in .com are completely false, they may also have good information. As with anything on the internet, take it with a grain of salt. Everyone has bias and an agenda. Also remember many in the medical research community still disagree with each other too!

Here are some sources I found that look reliable to me:

Coai Week 2026

Our annual celebration of the Conan x Ai | Shinichi x Shiho ship is starting from 25th to 31st of August this year ♡

Prompts :

Hanakotoba - Flower Language (ᴗ͈ˬᴗ͈)ꕤ.ﾟ

♡Day 1 - Lily of the Incas ☆ Indescribable Connection ♡Day 2 - Sunflower ☆ Respect & Radiance ♡Day 3 - Zinnia ☆ Loyalty ♡Day 4 - Yellow Camellia ☆ Longing ♡Day 5 - White Chrysanthemum ☆ Truth ♡Day 6 - Gardenia ☆ Secret Love ♡Day 7 - Free Choice

★ All prompts are open to personal interpretation ★

You can participate by posting or submitting any form of media such as (but not limited to) fanart, fanfiction, AMVs, Gifs, edits, headcanon lists, metas, fanmixes, cosplay, etc etc.

Please make sure to tag #coaiweek2026 so we can reblog your entry!

Shinichi :