#branks

Warnings: none

Pairing: Branks (-shared- OC x Pranks)

Word count: 810

Summary: Pranks and Bray cuddle in a hammock while Pranks admires everything about Bray

A/N: Shapa and I came up with how we view the Gremlin Kids (Pranks, Missy, and Imag) and we decided Pranks needed a boyfriend so we came up with Bray. Bray is the most adorable thing ever I love him- Bray is a very soft pastel boy (he's also kinda a Logicality child- but Sha and I haven't completely said that's for sure yet- while Pranks, Missy, and Imag are prinxiety children) and he also has ADHD. His big hyperfixations are animals and animated things (big ones include Winnie the Pooh and Steven Universe) and he is just about the most adorable thing ever. Oh! And Pranks is like 17 or 18 and Bray is a year younger (so 16 or 17)

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Pranks smiled softly as he looked down to Bray, who was laying on his chest, asleep. Pranks very slowly rocked the hammock, one of his legs on the ground to do so.

They had only been together for about a month, but this sort of thing was normal for the pair. Bray was very touch oriented. He needed physical reassurances far more than he needed verbal reassurances. Sometimes, Pranks and Bray wouldn't speak, only cuddling and non-verbally communicating. Bray often came up to Pranks for cuddles, even far before they dated or even had feelings for each other.

There were many things Pranks absolutely loved about Bray. He loved how Bray often would rant about the things he loved, no matter the circumstance. When he gets excited, Pranks could listen to him for hours. And the small stims he gives are just about the best thing for Pranks. He loved when Bray would come up to him for no reason and cuddle. He loved when Bray would randomly run up to him, say "love you!", kiss his cheek, and run away again. Most of the times it was in the hallway between classes. He loved the way Bray video calls him every night and talks until he falls asleep.

October is the month that Flower Wishes visits the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic.

In Boscastle, in Cornwall, England.

Here is Flower Wishes looking at a scold’s bridle.  A bit about it, from the information card:

Scold’s Bridle or Branks. The scold’s bridle was not solely used on suspected witches. Its primary use was for scolds (women who were argumentative, gossipy, nagging). Some of these women may also have been accused of witchcraft but some may not. It is sometimes very difficult to distinguish between a scold and a witch as both here said to use words to hurt and both were seen as wild, uncontrolable women in a society dominated by men. For this reason the historian James Sharpe has referred to “...the witch, and her sister, the scold”.

 Someone on my Facebook friends list just shared a post from "Historic photographs."   The image was of an "Insanity mask."  It was a full face mask made of metal that gets locked in place and has holes for breathing.  This device (as you may guess from the name) was used on insane prisoners much like what you see in Silence of the lambs.   It was to prevent spitting and biting. 

The image description, however, claimed that these devices were used "against women who nagged, gossiped, and lied."  No, That's a Scold's Bridle.   It's literally in the name...  The Scold's Bridle AKA the branks were physically designed to make speech difficult or impossible (think of the device used on Loki at the end of Avengers).

It often had a small “Bit” or tongue depressor on the inside to forcibly hold the tongue down, or worse the insert over the tongue had a spike so if you tried to move your tongue you could seriously injure yourself.   

Anyway, the Insanity Mask photo and description that wrongfully described it as having the function of a Scold's Bridle has been shared four thousand times and commented about a LOT with no one correcting the description.   Lots of sarcastic comments about having a friend who should wear one but not a single correction.

If you look up Seventeenth century Insanity mask you'll see it doesn't actually prevent speech.   It just makes biting and spitting impossible.  The names are pretty straight forward.  Insanity mask. I'm not sure how you'd confuse that with a scold's bridle and get it shared four thousand times without anyone even trying to Google it to be sure.  This is like confusing Hannibal Lecter's mask in Silence of the lambs with the device fitted onto Loki in Avengers.   \

October 30th 1567 saw  Bessie Tailieffir ordered to be ‘brankit’.

Brankit ,or the Brank(s)  has a few names, another two being a scold’s bridle, sometimes called a witch’s bridle.

The device was used to humiliate women who “by brawling and wrangling amongst her neighbours breaks the public peace, increases discord and becomes a public nuisance to the neighbourhood."

In short, women who gossiped with their neighbors with no purpose other than to offend, ridicule or lie about someone else were subject to this torture.

Husbands could request local Baillies to have the branks applied to ‘nagging’ wives. Incredibly, the crime of being ‘a scold’, a woman deemed to be annoying or vexatious, was not dropped from the statute books in Britain until 1967.

So back to oor Bessie, her crime was to say of Bailie Thomas Hunter, ‘he had in his house ane false stoup”  It’s not explained who Hunter was exactly, but I suspect he was a publican as stoup is a flagon or beaker for drink, so she accused him of selling short measures, it was proved to be a false accusation, hence the Branks were fitted  and she was “set on the cross for an hour” The cross being the Mercat. This was one of the earliest records of the branks being used as a punishment.