Under the Raptor's Wing

They released an album too! I don't think this song is on it but the rest of their stuff is SO GOOD !!

okay kids storytime with uncle Kei

So I work at Scarborough Renaissance Festival down in Texas and in 2025 I ran the Village Pub Sing show at the end of the day. It's a fun time, the house band plays songs, everyone sings along, there's toasts and limericks, the crowd is invited to play too, you get the vibe, yeah?

So there we are one day, taking toasts from the crowd, when this table of people holds up a mug and declares they have a musical toast. "A musical toast?!" choruses the band, intrigued.

My friends, these folks proceed to give us the most beautiful toast in five-part harmony that I have ever fucking heard. It was to the point that our music director - on stage with me playing the pennywhistle - looked at me and asked 'do you want to ask if they'll sing for us?'

Y'all. We do not invite rando patrons onto our stage to perform. That was the kind of impression that one toast made on us.

Naturally I said Fuck Yes, so I went over to ask if they had a song they'd like to perform for the company.

They fucking took over our stage and it was the best goddamned moment of my life. Our stage was tiny [and has since been demolished] and barely had enough room for all of them to stand on it at once. Their energy over-fucking-flowed into the pub and probably that entire half of the festival. We-the-band were rocking tf out and having a goddamned BLAST.

They had not named themselves officially yet at this point, because when I asked how I should announce them they just asked to be called BFM or the Bailey Family.

We found out in talking to them, after the show and after our closing ceremonies, that they wanted to start trying to get out there on the faire circuit, so our music director and I made sure to introduce them to our then-Entertainment Director right then. He ended up giving them them a limited performance run for the rest of the faire. That was when they began actively using the name Fortress Dwellers.

Y'all, they didn't even have a stage, because all of ours were pretty much booked. He had them performing in the lanes, at a specific spot, and they fucking owned it, drawing and holding crowds, gaining fans and a following left and right, and they came back to our pub sing for the final show that Memorial Day and I could not have been more thrilled for them [so I thought]

Now they're actually touring faires and festivals, they're getting out there and living their dream, they came back and took over our largest stage this year and they fucking owned it and I honestly could not be happier for or more proud of them and I am hoping to god that they come back for the full run next year; they said they want to start doing full runs at some faires, so fingers crossed we're one of them!

It was fascination, I know ♪〜

Seeing you alone with the moonlight above ♪〜

I got to try some new archery, and I LOVE IT!

Screenshot via Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net on bluesky

Tldr Amnesty International, global human rights organisation, published a report called 'A growing threat: the anti-rights movement in the UK'. In it is detailed, amongst others, a whole bunch of transphobic groups and organisations, including Beira's Place, JK Rowling's trans exclusionary sexual violence support service. JK Rowling threw a shit fit and got Amnesty to take the report down by threatening libel. This was obviously not enough, because you can't appease a fascist, so now she's going to bankroll a bunch of lawsuits anyway through the JK Rowling Women's Fund.*

You can read an archived version of the report here, please save it and share it.