#/s france is treating me well

[boinin]

*screaming*

HIOOOORIIIIIIII 😫😭😆😁🥳🔥⚽

*confused, normal volume*

Sendooooou? 🤨🤔🤷‍♀️🥳🍣

*quietly*

Kiyora 😔

[blondieeu]

"Black wives are for grown folk." todoroki s.

to me, shoto screams the “black wives are for grown folk” thing going on right now.

shoto first understood it while attending a jazz themed party that was thrown by the agency for someone’s quirk. when he saw you in the corner of the room he knew he needed to come up to you with his best game, come up respectful.

"excuse me ma'am? you look timeless in that dress."

he's older now, in his early 30’s and he’s killing it as #3 hero. his rebellious face is long gone and he’s accomplished so much in the past twenty years, as well as being married!

i can see him being married to a dark skinned woman who knows how to handle herself well, independence being so sexy to him. she’s got this beautiful fro that covers half her face and she’s always wearing a pretty maroon colored lipstick.

and he takes you outttttt, since you've been with him you've visited france, nigeria, rome, the bahamas, trinidad and tobago, bora bora, the whole europe in general, one time he even took you to puerto rico!

whenever the two of you go out onto the red carpet for pictures, he's got a hand around your waist that's unmoving and even from time to time fixing your fro since over the years of being together you taught him how to do your hair.

if someone talks to his wife a certain way, he's very quick to correct them or even scold them because "a women with such beauty shouldn't be spoken to so casually and should be treated with respect." as he says. even if it's the reporters, interviewers, shoto wouldn't even have cared if it was his father.

"so todoroki, with your career at its peak whats something you and your woman-"

"my wife."

"um, yeah sorry. your wife, are looking forward to?"

"children"

blondieeu xx

[violetrainbow412-blog]

Devil's night [S. R.]

Spencer Reid x fem!reader

word count: 4k

summary: Spencer is excited about his Halloween plans and you join him.

Directly based on episode 6x06, because I felt so bad about how the team behaves with Spencer that I needed to do something

“I see someone’s feeling spooky today,” Morgan smiled, looking you up and down.

You were wearing a cardigan knitted with various prints related to the time of year; pumpkins, ghosts, black cats, and candy corn, over a bright purple skirt and tall boots. Normally you would dress more formally due to the implied dress code the FBI operated under, but it was the weekend and Halloween was around the corner, so you could skip a suit day to wear one of those many scary-related items you had. After all, Halloween was your favorite holiday of the year. It was fun for everyone when you were a child, but as you grew up, your love for said celebration became a little weirder for others, so when you became an adult, you didn't think anyone shared such excitement about the date. Well, that is until you met Spencer Reid.

“It became a little more commercialized in the 1950s with trick-or-treating, and today it rivals only Christmas in terms of popularity” you heard him say, as he walked in with an already quite annoyed Emily Prentiss.

You knew that sometimes Spencer talked too much, but you hated that the rest of your coworkers got upset like that when he was talking about something that he was passionate about. Now the subject was, clearly, the next date.

"All I asked was what he was doing this weekend" she complained to Rossi. Spencer ignored her and continued with his cathedra as he settled into the empty space next to you.

“I'm toying with the notion of either going to the Edgar Allan Poe Shadow Puppet theater or the re-enactment of the XIX century Phantasmagoria,” he said and your heart did a little skip. You and Reid had argued on a few occasions, outside of work, about Poe’s works and although you didn't know what the second thing he had mentioned was, it sounded very interesting.

“What is a Phantasmagoria?” you asked nicely and when your partner noticed your presence he smiled widely, as if he was just noticing you in the room. The others all pouted in anticipation of the explanation to come and you hoped Spencer hadn't noticed.

“Phantasmagorias are these amazing pre-cinema projected ghost shows invented in France, where the showman attempted to spook the audience using science magic” he explained to you, while he took a seat and waved his hands from side to side. You were completely unaware of the term so you slightly parted your lips in astonishment.

"Sounds interesting"

"I have an extra ticket, do you want to come with me?" he asked you, almost immediately, with the biggest smile of all. Honestly, the invitation took you by surprise, especially who was asking, and Spencer seemed to see it on your face. “I mean, if you don't have plans this weekend. You can say no if you want."

“I'd really love to,” you exclaimed, so he wouldn't get the wrong idea, and watched his eyes sparkle with joy as he nodded.

The others wanted to make fun of it a bit, but Garcia didn't give them time to when she handed you the case files. When Hotch told you that you were going to fly to Detroit, your partner complained loudly and his gaze inevitably went to you, since you were supposed to have made plans together literally three minutes ago, but knowing that the unsub only attacked during these three days of the year. You had no choice but to accept your fate. You have never gone from feeling completely happy to being so disappointed in such a short time.

"I guess you better forget what I just told you," Reid sighed, as you left the conference room.

"Maybe we'll make it on time, when is the show?"

"This Sunday. The puppet theater is at 9:00 pm, the last Phantasmagoria show is at 11:00 pm. None are sold out yet"

"If we get back in time enough, I'll accompany you both, what do you say?" you muttered, trying to be as positive as possible, as you took your friend's arm with both hands and gave it a friendly squeeze. Spencer was taller than you, but thanks to the boots you were wearing and the extra inches they gave you, your eyes were almost at the level of his “Don't be discouraged.”

"I like your clothes today," he suddenly murmured. Sometimes he would give you those kinds of sweet compliments, perhaps as thanks for the kindness with which you always treated him, and you would almost always blush "The drawings are beautiful. Do you know why pumpkins became so representative?"

"Jack-o'-lantern," you replied, rather proud of yourself for knowing the answer.

"But did you know that in the original story it wasn't a pumpkin but a turnip?" he said and you were silent. But he didn't make fun of you for it, instead he saw a new opportunity to impress you "Yeah, you see, in the original legend Stingy Jack..."

The rest of the team, who was in front of you, shared knowing looks as if they were pitying you for having activated the doctor's rambling mode, but the truth was that you were fascinated with every word that came out of his mouth. Sometimes you couldn't believe how there was someone as intelligent in the world as your cute companion and as he spoke you prayed, perhaps with all your might, that you could catch the unsub in time to be able to fulfill the plans in the ones he had included for the weekend.

Almost as if by divine handiwork, the case was solved just in time for the plane to land and you two to rush home to get dressed for the theater. Hotch was even sympathetic to you and told you that the paperwork could wait for Monday just because he had heard of your plans, which you were immensely grateful for.

Spencer was happy that you agreed to go out with him, especially since the idea of asking you out was completely impulsive. It was true that he had an extra ticket but he never thought of having the courage to ask you to accompany him, much less did he think that you would be interested in it, since he was regularly ignored by his colleagues at work. It was something he had never discussed with anyone, only his beloved and gone Elle, but it haunted him almost every day.

Luckily for him, Spencer had prepared the wardrobe he wanted to wear in advance, and all he had to do was take a warm shower, shave, and put on some cream and cologne to get ready. In addition to, of course, styling his short hair as best he could.

He felt particularly concerned by his appearance that night and he pondered whether you would think he looked silly wearing a 19th century French suit. He had bought it last month and it was stored with his costume collection, which no one on the team knew about yet and he didn't intend for that to change.

He had offered to pick you up and when he got to your building, he felt strangely nervous. The doorman was a kind older man that he had seen a couple of times, so when he said that he was looking for you, the man called you on the phone to let you know.

They were silent for a few moments and he began to rock on his heels to kill some time.

“Will you take her trick-or-treating?” the doorman, Tony, joked. Spencer didn't take it the wrong way, instead he laughed it off.

"It's not the plan, but if someone takes pity on us and gives us some I won't complain" he replied and now it was the employee's turn to laugh.

"I've seen you before, are you her boyfriend?"

“Coworkers,” Spencer clarified, with a smile.

"Ah, so you're also a policeman?" although it wasn't the proper term, Spencer didn't know if you had hidden your real job for personal reasons, so he held back from explaining to the man that you were actually a profiler.

"Yes, something like that"

Tony wanted to ask more questions, but the sound of the elevator caught the attention of both men and revealed your figure.

"No fucking way," you breathed, looking your friend up and down and if he hadn't gone dumbfounded, he probably would have said the same thing "Look at you!"

"Where did you get that?" he asked in amazement. Although Spencer had thought that you would show up in a costume, he hadn't expected to see you like this. 

"You don’t like it?"

"No, I love it" he hastened to say, when he heard the insecurity in your voice "It's just… I didn't expect to see you as a 19th-century French lady"

You were wearing a beautiful black dress with lace details that obviously alluded to the fashion of the time, black satin gloves, plus a discreet hat on your well-groomed hair and boots that Reid had seen before, but they made a great combination with the outfit. The man's surprise was because he had invited you with such short notice and yet you had gotten the perfect costume and not only that, but one that conveniently matched his.

“And I didn't expect to see you as a French gentleman either” you laughed, as you reached out to wrap him in a hug "I guess it was pure fate"

“Or the fact that we are going to see a recreation of a 19th-century show. Our brains thought the same thing.”

“It doesn't sound so charming when you say it like that" you complained amused and he realized it was true "Shall we go? I don’t want to be late"

Spencer nodded and immediately offered you his arm to hold onto as you walked, a gesture that made you believe you were really entering a time tunnel.

“Enjoy your night”

"Thanks, Tony! Don't scare too many kids and don't eat too much candy,” you waved, blowing him a kiss as you followed Spencer out the door.

He guided you to his car and opened the passenger door for you and then he got in himself to start the engine and get going.

"I really can't believe that we got a couple's costume by pure coincidence"

“Couple costume?”

“Yes, they are those costumes of the same theme that you use with a couple. You know, like the people who dress up as Fred and Daphne or Morticia and Gomez”

Spencer didn't know the last couple, but he did have a vague recollection that the first ones mentioned were from Scooby Doo due to the cartoons he came from as a child.

"Oh" he sighed "Yes, get it”

“Honestly this was a last-minute thing. My downstairs neighbor studies theater and we are good friends, so I asked her if she had anything in her curiosities bag that could help me and she pulled out this dress. It was enough to adjust it a little" you told him, putting both hands on the neck of your dress and smiling from ear to ear "I couldn't believe it, it was really a stroke of luck”

"It looks so pretty on you," he said suddenly, looking away from the road just for a moment to check that you had heard him. "I don't think I told you when I saw you, but that's what I thought."

"Thank you then," you smiled, feeling your cheeks warm a little.

Spencer started talking to you about the creation of puppet theaters and, of course, the Poe stories you were going to witness, with you interrupting him only to point out some decoration along the way that you thought was cute. On Halloween you almost always preferred to stay at home to watch horror movies or go down to the hall to distribute candy to the youngest children, with very discreet costumes to avoid the evil looks of adults. But now you were excited to be doing this with Spencer, who was maybe the only person you knew who wouldn't make fun of you under any circumstances. Your relationship was based on a certain complicity, perhaps more than you had with any member of your unit.

Arriving at the site, he reopened your door and offered you his hand to help you down, which you took without complaining. Once you were outside, he repeated the gesture from when he picked you up from your building and in this way you walked to the entrance, where a woman disguised as who you assumed was Berenice (a Poe character) sold you a couple of tickets.

It was a lovely show and when you weren't looking at the puppets you took the time to admire your companion, whose eyes revealed the emotion of a child. You never thought the doctor was fond of a thing like this and now that you had discovered it you found it quite adorable. As you left you asked him if he was a Muppets fan by any chance and, to your surprise, he was. Spencer even told you that he had a couple of Kermit the Frog items that his mom bought him when he was little, but he also told you not to tell anyone or he'd be embarrassed and you pinky promised him.

You still had an hour between the two shows so you decided to go to a nearby park where there were lots of food stalls: candy apples, popcorn, candy, lemonade, and you even got to one where a Hispanic woman offered you pieces of candied pumpkin. You had to take off your gloves (which he kept carefully in his jacket) when you bought a few pieces of this last one for the two of you and when you tried it you agreed that it was delicious. The woman told you that in Mexico, her country of origin, she always served them to her children with a glass of milk.

Spencer spared no expense just to fulfill all your cravings, even though you refused, so when you got in the car to go to the Phantasmagoria your stomach was pretty full. The place where it would take place was a gray tent in the open air, with a dais in front and several wooden benches arranged so that enough people could fit in. As you had arrived with some time, you took a seat on a bench in the second row and waited patiently for the show to start.

Suddenly all the lights around you went out, leaving only the ones pointing to the front of the stage, and a presenter dressed as a magician appeared.

“For many centuries, wandering spirits have inhabited the world unseen by the human eye, always confined to the world of shadows…” his voice was mesmerizing and kept you on the edge of your seat, watching him carefully “but for a certain time of the year, their magic grows and they are able to cross the barrier that separates us…”

The entire tent was filled with smoke and the audience, including you, looked around trying to figure out what would happen. The presenter continued giving his gloomy monologue and, although you didn’t imagine how, you even felt that the temperature decreased a little with each word he said. Suddenly even the lights that were pointed at him began to dim and by the time he finished explaining to you the whole place was in complete darkness.

There was silence for a moment to build tension and then there was an explosion that made you jump in place. To tell you the truth, you didn't expect much from the show, you thought that being a recreation it would have many shortcomings, but when the first figure appeared on the roof your heart skipped a beat.

You weren't a scared person under normal circumstances and your resistance to the horrifying images you saw at work on a daily basis shows this, but this time perhaps all the environmental components of that night were what made you feel that way. A loud laugh resounded and then another pair of specters appeared, this time flying at the height of the audience and even passing through some of you.

Spencer's reaction was nothing like the rest. Despite his fear of the dark he was totally fascinated by all the images, his mind already working to decipher the magic trick that was being performed. What finally got his breath caught was the feel of your hand searching his. He was still shielding your gloves so he could feel the cool temperature of your fingers, as opposed to how warm he was in comparison. Even knowing that doing that was a reflex act due to fear, he stopped paying attention to the show to look at your hand on top of his, with that noticeable difference in size.

Just as you had admired him during the puppet show, he took the time to observe your expressions now. Your face lit up from time to time by the illusions around you and every time you startled you squeezed his hand harder, in addition to adjusting your body against his as if you were looking for some kind of protection. Spencer had gone out with friends many times and of course with the rest of his female colleagues at work, however none of them had behaved like you were doing. He wasn’t bothered by your behavior, but rather intrigued, since you seemed quite comfortable taking refuge in him to feel safe. Although he knew how to identify qualities in people, he sometimes had a hard time crossing the line of identifying them to really admire them. When he thought of JJ, he thought of a charismatic woman. When he thought of Emily, he thought of intelligence. And when he thought of Penelope, he always saw joy and optimism. But when he thought of you, there were too many qualities to focus on just one: he thought of kindness, calmness, creativity, wit, beauty, empathy... what a big heart you had and how at the end of the day you were perhaps the only one who could make him smile. When he invited you to join him, he did it because he knew you had the same feeling towards scary things, but now that you were there, looking so pretty and holding his hand tightly, he thought maybe there was something else going on between you. You were the closest thing he had to a best friend, though he had never said so verbally, and that night he wanted to be nowhere else but by your side.

Only when the lights came back on did he realize that the spectacle had been forgotten to him, since the whole time he had been looking at you.

“That was all for today, my friends. Thank you for these wonderful performances and remember to recommend us to your friends the next time we're in town. Have a spooky night, all of you."

“I can't believe it, did you see all that? It was just awesome! I didn't think it was going to be this good” you said, completely excited, as you turned in his direction. Apparently you weren't even aware that your hands were clasped until he got up from the seat and helped you imitate him with that grip. Though you thought of apologizing for that, you didn't, fearing to embarrass yourself further.

“It was amazing, even for me it was hard to figure out the trick”

“Why do you want to figure it out? admit it's only magic, doctor. Sometimes life is” you laughed, grabbing his arm for the third time like a happy wife would her husband.

You are something magical, he thought, with the words on the tip of his tongue, but not daring to say them to you. 

Although the night was late, the movement in the streets was still the same and Spencer considered asking if you wanted to go somewhere else, but the yawn that escaped you made him think that the best thing for both of us would be to go home to rest. After all, the case had exhausted you.

"Back to your house, right?" he asked, just to be sure and you nodded with a smile.

The road wasn’t long, you only had to take care of the naughty at night so as not to receive any damage, so when you least expected it, you were already in front of your building. Although you intended to say goodbye, Spencer told you that he would accompany you to the door of your apartment just to make sure that you arrived completely safely, because he knew better than anyone how much could happen to a woman alone, even if it was such a short journey, and he didn't want to risk you. Tony was still awake and greeted you nicely as you walked in, so you could then get on the elevator and press the necessary button.

“I seriously have no words to thank you for today, Spencer. Except for that one time I ended up in the hospital for eating so much candy, this has been my best Halloween ever,” you admitted with a laugh, as you leaned in for a big hug.

"Thank you for accompanying me. I'm really glad you had fun, because I had a great time too”

There was a dead space between you, in which you just looked at each other with a smile. It wasn't an exaggeration to say that the night had been wonderful and maybe it was just that you two were trying to drag it out as long as possible.

“Spencer”

"Yeah?"

"Before you go, can I ask you something?"

"Whatever" he responded immediately. He got a little nervous thinking that he wouldn't be able to satisfy your curiosity by ignoring the topic you were going to ask him about and hoped that wasn't the case.

You waited another second before speaking.

"How frowned upon do you think it was for 1800s society for a woman to steal a kiss from her companion?"

Spencer's eyes danced a little in his sockets and you thought he was processing your request in disguise, until he looked at you again and spoke with complete assurance:

“Very frowned upon, surely. At that time, it was usual for men to court women, who were very repressed from making their own decisions or living their sexuality as they pleased. A woman who kissed a man was considered indecent."

You wanted to correct him, tease him or, as a last resort, simply pull him by his shirt and plant the kiss you had wanted to give him all the way. But you didn't do any of that, you just laughed softly and enjoyed his smirk for telling you the right answer.

“I was afraid of that. It's good to know” said this, you carefully approached him and placed a small kiss on his cheek, seeing him slightly surprised by the act “See you tomorrow at work. Call me when you get home”

"I will do that. Rest and see you later"

"Bye”

Just as he said, he called you a few minutes later to announce that he had arrived at his destination so you could sleep peacefully.

Spencer didn't realize that you had explicitly asked for a kiss until Morgan told him and while his friend laughed, he felt like the luckiest guy of all and, at the same time, the dumbest.

taglist: @navs-bhat @reidwritings @tricia-shifting14

[alpaca-clouds]

The Haitian Revolution

Yeah, okay. I guess to properly do the history thing, I also have to talk about the Haitian Revolution, don't I? Given that it is so important for the backstory of both Annette and Edouard.

Why didn't I do that so far? Because the Haitian Revolution is super hard to talk about because of the sources. A bit issue is that for a good part of it we only have French sources, that are not always the most... neutral. Because a lot of the rebelling slaves had never learned to write. As such, we actually do not know a lot about the side of the rebels until some Free Blacks started to take their side and lead the rebellion.

But I know a bit.

So, let me explain what I know.

Haiti (St. Domingue specifically, the French side of the island) was build exclusively on slave work. There were plantation there for indigo, sugar and coffee for the most part. And those plantation were very important for the French economy. And of course it was slaves working those plantations.

On the island there was a three class system (though if we are honest, it was a four class system).

Whites, who were free people and citizens of France. (Though in truth there was a difference between the plantation owning whites and those whites, who were not of the owning class.)

Free Black people. What differed in Haiti from the US for example is that it happened quite often that children of rape (white owners on Black slaves) would be freed and even adopted as children. While not considered citizens, they could own things, including their own plantations. (Yes, there were quite a few of these that owned slaves.)

Slaves, who outnumbered all other people on the island somewhere between seven to one and ten to one.

Now, most slaves did not survive the first three years after getting to the island. Many died in fact in their first year, because the working conditions were so harsh, they often did not receive food, were severely punished (through it receiving infections and such), and of course there was just the general issue of sicknesses.

There were people rebelling a long while and from what we know (again, there is so little in terms of sources) there were some escaped slaves living in the mountains and at times using guirella tactics. But there was not quite the move for a widespread rebellion starting...

That was until the French Revolution started. Once more the gentle reminder: The French Revolution took a long while to brew and originally was not a violent revolution, it only became violent in response to the violent oppression of it. Now, the people on St. Domingue were instructed not to talk about the Revolution, because some folks rightly assumed that it might give people ideas. Especially as among the Revolutionaries there was a big discussion about the abolition of slavery.

But in the end... Well, it did not work out and the freed slaves banded together for a proper uprising in 1791.

It is this uprising that we see in Nocturne. I have seen some people being very shocked in the human on human violence we see there, because folks are really whimpy when it comes to that. So, a little explanation: Originally (in the 1791) uprising the slave uprising was once again not very violent. Almost everyone who got killed was connected to immense abuses of slaves. The rebels tried to spare everyone who treated their slaves kindly. As such within that first uprising only 400 whites got killed, compared to 4000 Black people, as the French were much better armed.

Still, the rebels managed to capture part of the island.

It should be noted: This is probably around the time when Annette and Edouard left. They captured some plantation, and freed quite a few more slaves.

There would follow quite a bit of back and forth then. Especially between Haiti and the French Republic. And I would not be surprised if we were to see that in the coming season(s).

Mostly, because the Revolitionaries went back and forth between whether Free Black people could be citizens who got to vote or not. Making the Free Blacks, who originally were against the revolution, more and more take the side of the rebels.

And yes, it would get more and more violent. Because France and then later Britain, too (who did not agree with France on many things - but on saving slavery) threw thousands upon thousand of soldiers in fighting down the revolution with extreme violence, leading the Haitian Revolutionaries to answer this violence with their own violence.

But for the love of God, do not go there and be like: "Ugh, violence. Violence bad." Like, fuck that. I said that about Isaac before as well: Slaves freeing themselves have the right to use whatever violence necessary for that.

[lady0ctavia]

What They're Like When Their S/O is Sick (Allies)

Headcanons for how the Hetalia men would act when their S/O is sick.

America: As far as Alfred F. Jones is concerned, food and entertainment is the best medicine! He'll bring you all your favorite snacks and set up some of your favorite movies. You'll have to be the one to remind him that, while snacks and movies are nice and all, what you really need is medicine. Real medicine. He'll comply and get you what you need, but he'd also insist on cuddling with you the rest of the day while the two of you eat and watch a movie. He doesn't care if he gets sick or not. He just wants to find a way to add some joy to a miserable time.

England: Arthur is similar to Ludwig in that he's an expert caregiver while keeping his distance. He'll get you whatever medicines you need and keep an eye on your temperature. He'll make you hot soup and herbal tea but will make it a point to keep enough distance between you two to keep from getting sick. Arthur is the kind of person who seldom ever gets sick, but when he does, it's pretty bad.

France: Francis is... Kind of a mixed bag, really. While he absolutely wants to help you get better, he's also a bit queasy at the sight of mucus and the sound of vomiting. He'll absolutely be getting you the medicine you need and will stick around to keep you company. But if crap starts shooting out of your face, don't expect him to stay in the room.

Russia: Okay, Ivan essentially acts like a doting mom when you're sick. At first, he'll do the whole 'placing the back of his hand on your forehead to make sure you're actually sick' thing. Once he realizes you're sick, he'll make it his responsibility to get you well again. Making you hot cider, tea, or soup, bringing you multiple brands of different medicines, checking your temperature, setting up a humidifier, the whole nine yards. While he won't cuddle you during this time (which absolutely kills him), he will sit by your side and rub his hand up and down your back.

China: While Ivan acts like a doting mom, Yao acts more like a strict parent. At first, he won't take your illness very seriously. Not because he doesn't care, but because he's someone who, even when sick, will still get up and work hard every day. He only stays in bed if he physically cannot move. So if you can still physically move, you're up and working. But if not, he's gonna insist you stay in bed as he tries to treat you using traditional Chinese medicine.

Canada: Okay, but honestly? The exact same as Ivan. Read the one for Ivan/Russia, and there you go. That's Matthieu. (I swear this isn't me trying to be lazy, this is just the reality. I see their caregiving styles as the exact same).

[newtonsheffield]

Kate, honey, winning a match doesn't mean you can't be sad and insecure. You can. And you can talk about this with Anthony. He is there for you, ready to support you, no judgement. And wouldn't you do the same for him? You absolutely would. So do yourself a favour and talk to him. Let him take care of you. 🙏🏽

They are both so used to dealing with everything on their own (despite the fact that they do feel the support of their respective families) that they keep harbouring their true feelings. It is so easy for them to show love and trust and support towards other people. But it's like they don't believe they are worthy of being on the receiving end of such affections.

I think this is the nicest thing about where their relationship grows to. The fact that Kate can be in another country to Anthony and she has a day where she feels overwhelmed, or insecure, or stressed and the first person she calls is Anthony.

Some days she’s already got him on the phone when she leaves practice.

“Hey what’s up, Babe?”

Hearing his voice makes her want to cry sometimes. “I just um… sorry, you’re probably busy.”

“I’m not busy.” Anthony said firmly, “I’m never busy if you need me.”

Kate let out a shuddering breath, relaxing against the cushions of the sofa in her hotel room. “I just really needed to hear your voice today.”

“Want to talk about it?”

“Not really.”

Anthony was silent for a moment before he clicked his tongue, “Well, do you want to hear about how I’m now friends with the voice that lives in your fridge?”

Kate let out a watery chuckle, swiping at her tears. “I didn’t know my fridge had a voice.”

“It does! I’ve named her Pam. She’s ordered me a steak from M&S for tonight. Very excited about it.”

Kate took another deep breath, “I love you. I miss you. I fucking hate clay courts and my ankle still feels weird and I hate being photographed with Tom because they always try to start shit.”

She could hear Anthony rustling around before he cleared his throat, “Okay. I’ll see you soon.”

“You won’t be here for weeks.” It ached in her chest, the distance after being so used to seeing him every day.

“Well I just booked a train because it’s Friday, and I can come and spend the weekend and then come back here.”

Kate’s breath caught in her throat. “What?”

“Babe, France is… so close you can swim there. You want me there so I’m coming. I’ll just have to get Pam to cancel my steak.”

“I’ll buy you one when you get here.” Kate breathed, “I love you.”

“Love you too.” Anthony hummed, “Oh! We can go to Disneyland and take cute pictures together!”

Kate but back a smile, “Yeah we can. Thank you.”

“Nothing to thank me for. Stay in the phone with me while I pack and we can stay on the phone while we’re on the train. I’ve treated myself to business premiere. Very exciting.”

“Are you sure if it’s alright if I hear the conversation between you and your new girlfriend Pam?”

“Of course just cover your ears.”

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Phyllis Chesler

Finally, Pierre Rehov’s Pogrom(s): Could America Be Next? will appear on Oct. 7, on major platforms such as Apple TV, Google Plus, Amazon Prime and Tubi TV. 

Rehov’s Pogrom(s), is something of a masterpiece. The footage is extraordinary, as is the music and cinematography. The interviews are poignant, such as the one with Yossi Landau of Zaka, with expert insights from people like Mordechai Kedar (an expert on Islamist groups), Nitsana Darshan Leitner (president of Sherut HaDin), Michael Milstein (head of the Palestinian Studies Forum at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University) and others.

Rehov also includes an on-camera interview with Yuval Bitton, the former head of intelligence for the Israeli Prison Service. Bitton got to know Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar very well when he was incarcerated and helped save Sinwar’s life. To our credit but also our detriment, this is what Jews do. We save lives.

Rehov’s footage confirms how well Palestinian terrorists, even those with blood on their hands, are treated in Israeli jails. They are well-fed, decently housed, allowed to join each other for prayer five times a day, allowed to have visitors and mail, and are given medical and dental care. This footage makes me a little crazy as I think about how Hamas treats its prisoners, aka our precious hostages.

Pogrom(s) captures the historical hatred and violence against Jews by pagans, Christians and Muslims, which places Oct. 7 in “context.” He reminds us that Muslims were the first to order Jews to wear a yellow patch, and many centuries later, the Nazis followed suit. In the film’s vast sweep of history, Rehov also includes the Turkish Muslim genocide of the Armenians (something that the Turks still refuse to acknowledge); the collaboration of Arabs with Nazis during the Shoah; and the well-funded disinformation campaign about this very history in secular Western universities and in mosques, churches and even in certain synagogues and Jewish organizations for Palestine.  

Rehov’s family had lived in Algeria for 500 years. Still, he heard about, witnessed and endured Muslim terrorist attacks, farhuds against native Algerians, French-born Algerians and Algerian Jews. He lost many relatives in one such Muslim pogrom and, in 1961, together with 250,000 other Jews, Rehov was exiled from his birthplace. He fled to France, where he was met with anti-Algerian and anti-Jewish hatred and was cursed as a “dirty Jew.” Rehov eventually left France, came to the United States and then moved to Israel.

[commsroom]

happy birthday! ive been meaning to ask for a while if you have any spare minkowski thoughts, just in general. if not, are there any other characters in w359 that you see as trans or queer?

thank you!! sorry for not getting to this one on my birthday; i've been trying to come up with some minkowski thoughts for you, but i'm not sure if they'll be new!! one of my favorite things about minkowski is how much she really, truly has "guilty pleasures" in the most typical sense. when emma sherr-ziarko said the track name "minkowski watching 50 shades of gray with a tub of ice cream and enjoying it nonironically" informed her perception of the character, etc. i love that. all of the best characters are self-contradicting in very real and human ways, and minkowski has a ton of that. her love of musical theater gives us such insight into her interior world; she treats so much of her life like these separate, practiced "roles" to play, as if there can be clear divisions between them.

minkowski is a great leader, but she's not a natural leader, and - in fact - everything that does ultimately make her a person worth following is completely at odds with how she tries to lead, or how she thinks it's supposed to be done. i think she was in a dozen different clubs in high school, but didn't really have friends. i think she could get really into historical reenactment (and i would love for eiffel, hera, and minkowski to go to a ren faire - i think they'd all enjoy that, but for very different reasons.) i think minkowski earnestly believes in the concept of a "cheat day" and marks when she allows herself to eat a whole bunch of ice cream on her calendar - this is horrifying to eiffel, but she finds it sincerely motivating. i think minkowski's interior decorating sense is at least 30% more "live, laugh, love" than anyone else around her would be able to take seriously. she's the kind of person who needs everything in her house properly labelled and put away in the same place every time. eiffel is the kind of person who leaves everything out, all over the place, and forgets it exists if someone puts it away. making them live together is hilarious. i think minkowski likes romcoms and hallmark christmas movies; she's easily moved by very sappy media, and very defensive / embarrassed about that. she's used to being mocked for her taste, and for how it goes against her image as a career military woman. i do not think hera would share her taste in movies at all, but minkowski + hera girls' night is very important to me.

what else... oh!! i've talked to my friend @hephaestuscrew a lot about minkowski's parents, and i agree with the assessment that they are probably... pretty laid back? like, the kind of people who encouraged her to be whatever she wanted to be - the pressure she puts on herself to make something of herself is the kind of person she is, and a message she got from the world at large more than her parents, i think. her dad's first name has an anglicized spelling as well, so i think there's something kind of... well, there's something that rings true about minkowski trying to hold onto these parts of her heritage that her parents aren't as concerned about. koudelka's a czech name; we don't know anything about him, but i wonder if maybe she made that connection with him at least partially because they were both american children of (at least one) eastern european parent(s) in paris. and her mother is french, she learned french before she learned english, but we don't really know if she spent time in france before that. there's a sense of displacement to that.

(as for the other part, well... i'm not sure! obviously jacobi is gay, and i would generally agree lovelace and maxwell are as well. i think eiffel is technically bi, but he's straight culture bi. i think it would be difficult to get minkowski to really examine her sexuality. whatever kepler's sexuality is, i think he's done his best to close himself off from any sincere desire. my thoughts on hera's sexuality would require a whole other post, but obviously i read her as trans. there isn't really anyone else i think of as trans, but that's not to say it's impossible - they're mostly military or military-adjacent people born in the 70s and 80s; by and large i think they're coming to these topics of identity from a different perspective from those of us on tumblr dot com. but i think doug eiffel is one of the most cis characters i can imagine.)

[blues824]

Continuing the TWST Boys Go to Reader's World??? headcanons, can I have the Third Years this time?

Reader is mentioned and only pronouns used are secondary pronouns. The amount of research going into this 😥😥

Trey Clover

Favorite Country/City: A lot of treats that he makes are from France, so I believe he would love being on the tasting side of the whole ordeal. Plus, candied violets (originally called violettes cristallisees) originate from there as well. As for his favorite city, it’s basic but it’s Paris. It’s the dessert capital of France, so yeah.

Favorite Cuisine/Dish: He is a bit of a connoisseur when it comes to multiple different cuisines, as people from all over have come to his family’s bakery. However, if he had to choose one, it would have to be Spanish cuisine. He just strikes me as the type. French food would come in second, but we are going by entrees and not desserts.

Favorite Drink: I feel like he would be a bit tired of tea, and coffee goes well with a lot of sweets but sometimes he wants something else. So, hot chocolate is a great go-to. Plus, you can spike it with bourbon or rum and many other things, and he prefers bourbon.

Favorite Souvenir: A cognac that he has used to cook multiple different things. He picked it up at a small shop in France, and the brandy is great for making sauces and for deglazing a pan. He rarely drinks it, but it’s of great quality.

Favorite Singers/Songs: He is an old soul, and with that being said, he likes older music. I feel like he would like songs in different languages as well. So, I think he would like the song Nunca es Suficiente, the Natalia Lafourcade version.

Favorite Movie: He doesn’t have a favorite movie, but rather favorite shows. He loves Nailed It!, Zumbo’s Just Desserts, Sugar Rush, but most importantly: The Great British Baking Show.

Cater Diamond

Favorite Country/City: This guy is hard because he would want to go absolutely everywhere and he would love everywhere he travels to. However, he would say that he loved Japan the most, as the people were very friendly and it was the first time he actually tried hard to learn the language so that he could be respectful.

Favorite Cuisine/Dish: His canonical favorite food is spicy ramen, so I would say Japanese cuisine would be his favorite. But, he has a more diverse taste than just that, so he would probably like Eastern Asian cuisine as a whole. It has a lot of savory and spicy foods that he absolutely loves.

Favorite Drink: He is also a margarita lover, and even though a lot of them are sweet, they are still delicious. However, he orders salt rather than sugar on the rim of the cup because he doesn’t want extra sweetness from sugar.

Favorite Souvenir: He picked up a pair of chopsticks that he always uses. He has finally got chopstick etiquette down, and the set he purchased at a souvenir shop served as a reminder of his hard work.

Favorite Singers/Songs: He is so into both K-Pop and J-Pop that it’s not even funny. He is one of those fans that will tear you up if you didn’t know the words, their meaning, who all the members in the specific group are, etc.

Favorite Movie: I had no idea he was into skateboarding, so I have to say that his favorite movie is Dogtown and Z-Boys. It’s a documentary-type film about the Zephyr skateboard team who helped develop modern skateboarding in the ‘70’s.

Leona Kingscholar

Favorite Country/City: He is not one to travel voluntarily, so you would have to drag him places. He does want to spoil you, so he will (hesitantly) go along with you. If he had to choose a favorite, it would be Sudan. He doesn’t have a favorite city, but rather a favorite state: the River Nile state. It holds the Meroë Pyramids, and he thought it was pretty cool that Sudan has the most pyramids in the world.

Favorite Cuisine: Pretty far from Sudan, but Argentinian food would be his favorite. They are known for having the best beef, and Leona loves having a good steak. The only downside is that it’s usually served with a few veggies or a chimichurri sauce composed of vegetables.

Favorite Drink: He doesn’t really care, so I would think that he likes beer. He strikes me as the type to have a glass bottle of beer that he holds nearer to his hip; the traditional uncle (Unca) pose.

Favorite Souvenir: When he first went to Sudan, he dressed to fit along with local traditions. He wore a jalabiya in order to maintain modesty, and he actually liked it and hung it in his closet for the next time he visited a country that prefers modesty.

Favorite Singers/Songs: It started as him getting into his edgy phase, but he did not want to go emo. He prefers rock, specifically AC/DC. His favorite song is Highway to Hell.

Favorite Movie: He usually falls asleep during every movie he watches. However, he did like the movie Silence of the Lambs. The way it left him disturbed and on-guard as well as made him want to stay awake is the reason why he would like such a gruesome movie.

Vil Schoenheit

Favorite Country/City: Cologne, Germany. I’ve always wanted to visit, and it was one of my hyperfixations for a while, but that’s besides the point. The point is that Vil strives for perfection. Part of that is smelling great. Surprise, surprise: cologne originates from Cologne. However, the Cologne Cathedral was beautiful as well.

Favorite Cuisine: I feel like he would like Japanese food as his go-to, as a lot of their food is a lot healthier than others and he strives to be healthy. However, he would like Greek food if he were just going off of personal preference. Briam would probably be his favorite dish.

Favorite Drink: Do smoothies count as food or drinks? People have them for breakfast as they have fruits and veggies, but you ‘drink’ a smoothie. Anyways, his favorite alcoholic drink would be a martini. He is classy and elegant, just like the drink.

Favorite Souvenir: A piece of the Berlin Wall. The history behind it fascinated Vil, and he considers it his most prized souvenir.

Favorite Singers/Songs: Lovefool by Postmodern Jukebox (feat. Haley Reinhart). He heard it from a co-star, and he liked it. Yes, he continues his career in your world.

Favorite Movie: Breakfast at Tiffany’s, as I believe that he loves Audrey Hepburn’s acting in that movie. He also likes Gentlemen Prefer Blondes because of Marilyn Monroe and her iconic character in that movie.

Rook Hunt

Favorite Country/City: The city of love, the city of lights, Paris. As much as I didn’t want to do such a basic answer, he is a connoisseur of beauty, and Paris at night is a sight to behold. Plus, he speaks French, so why not go to the motherland of the French language?

Favorite Cuisine: His favorite food is canonically liver pâté, so I believe he would love French cuisine the most. However, I would say that Danish cuisine comes second, as they have something similar (a dish that is derived from liver pâté: leverpostej).

Favorite Drink: A French 75 goes a long way with this man. He loves a champagne cocktail. They are typically for celebrations, and Rook just wishes to celebrate life and beauty as a whole. No, he’s not an alcoholic, but when he feels content and exceedingly happy he won’t hesitate in indulging himself with one glass.

Favorite Souvenir: A lavender perfume. He loves how relaxing the smell is.

Favorite Singers/Songs: His favorite song is Love Like You, by Caleb Hyles. Look at the lyrics, and you will see why lol.

Favorite Movie: The Notebook, as it’s a classic film filled with romance. You also cannot tell me that this man is not looking for the Allie to his Noah. He wants a romance story in his life, and that’s why he travels so much.

Idia Shroud

Favorite Country/City: I can’t decide between Greece and Japan, so I will say that they are tied on Idia’s list. The gamer boy doesn’t really go outside, but when he traveled to these places he absolutely loved it. He’s kind of simple, where he liked the capitals Athens and Tokyo the most.

Favorite Cuisine: His favorite food is just listed as ‘sweets’, and he hates raw fish. We are not going by desserts, but rather overall food, and luckily fish can be replaced by protein alternatives. Plus, the fish can be cooked. That being said, Chinese food would be his favorite. He loves the dragon’s beard candy.

Favorite Drink: He rarely ever drinks alcoholic drinks, as he is already very weak in build (remember his family’s curse?). Adding alcohol to the mix would be a disaster. However, he might like a light beer.

Favorite Souvenir: He likes board games, and while he was in Greece he learned to play Tavli, or Backgammon, and he purchased a board so that he could continue to play it with opponents.

Favorite Singers/Songs: He likes anime intros and outros, and like Cater he is very big on K-Pop and J-Pop, but also C-Pop and T-Pop. His favorite song is 夜に駆ける(Yoru ni Kakeru), by YOASOBI.

Favorite Movie: Your Name, as the two travel just to meet each other, but they have to get used to their new environments first.

Malleus Draconia

Favorite Country/City: He loves Denmark’s castles, but specifically the Rosenborg Castle in Copenhagen. It houses the Danish Crown Jewels as well as the Coronation Robe, and the history behind each item fascinated the draconian prince. The Notre Dame Cathedral in France comes in second for its gargoyles.

Favorite Cuisine: Again, we go by overall cuisine rather than the desserts (otherwise he would choose the cuisines that contributed to ice cream’s existence). He actually can’t choose a favorite, as all is better than Lilia’s cooking. He does have a least favorite, and it’s modern American food. His favorite type of food is street food, as it really allows him to surround himself with the locals and just be normal.

Favorite Drink: He doesn’t believe alcohol is necessary to have fun, but he will indulge himself from time to time. His favorite is a cocktail called a ‘Corpse Reviver’. It’s a morbid name, but it’s the one thing that magic can’t do. He likes when red food coloring is added, as it makes his tongue red.

Favorite Souvenir: Bro probably has enough money to actually purchase the Danish Crown Jewels as well as the English Crown Jewels tbh. Anyways, he actually treasures a book he picked up called ‘Once Upon a Broken Heart’. He was unaware that it was the first book of a sequel series, so he purchased the rest as well as the original series, ‘Caraval’.

Favorite Singers/Songs: His talent is listed as ‘stringed instruments’, but his relent would go beyond just the typical instruments you think of. Is an electric guitar not a stringed instrument? This man is in a 5 Finger Death Punch phase, favorite song being Wrong Side of Heaven.

Favorite Movie: He loves Sleeping Beauty, mostly because of that scene with Aurora and Prince Phillip where they dance together in the forest. Also, he related to Maleficent because she was not invited to see the princess.

Lilia Vanrouge

Favorite Country/City: His hobby is traveling alone, and I feel like he wouldn’t have a favorite location. He has been everywhere, and the only place he gravitated towards was Brazil. He went to that year’s Carnaval celebration and he actually really liked it. The parade floats were big and beautiful, there were many lights; it was just fun in general. The city of São Paulo comes to mind, as it’s the biggest city by population.

Favorite Cuisine: Part of why he likes Brazil is the food. Tomatoes originate from South America, and Brazil’s dishes hit different (I don’t think I’ve been to an authentic Brazilian food place, but from what I can see and from what I’ve tasted, I love it).

Favorite Drink: In the Trivia section of his Wiki page, it says that he likes potions that are said to taste bitter by everyone else. That being said, I feel like this would transfer to alcoholic drinks, so his favorite drink might be a negroni. It’s a bit bitter, so it suits his taste.

Favorite Souvenir: He picked up some spices in his travels to “better” his cooking (it didn’t help at all; his cooking still sucks even if he’s seen other people do the dishes he's trying to make).

Favorite Singers/Songs: He is what boomers would call “hip and trendy”, so he likes whatever is popular at the moment. Yes, this includes the meme songs that might go viral on TikTok, Instagram, and YT Shorts. At the time of writing this, his favorite song would be Paint the Town Red, by Doja Cat.

Favorite Movie: He liked the movie Crimson Peak. The costumes as well as the acting were amazing, and he loves learning about the Victorian Era and how both England and the United States were developing during the industrial era.

[kiuda]

DREAMBLR CENSUS 2023

Hi, hello and welcome everyone to the 2023 Dreamblr census results! 

Let me start by thanking all of you for taking part - I love looking at statistics like that and making this has been a real joy. I hope at least some of you will find the results interesting as well <3

So, first things first - some numbers. 353 people have taken part in the census. There are over 350 people that say ‘yes I am a part of Dreamblr’. That’s amazing! I am so happy to see this community thrive :D 

Now let’s get to the questions.

What continent are you from?

One of the more straightforward questions on this census. 

The results are not surprising in the slightest - over 85% of the people that have taken the survey are from North America or Europe. 5.9% come from South America, 4.8% from Asia, 1.7% from Australia and Oceania. 4 people decided not to answer and thus became citizens of Antarctica and one person comes from Africa.

What country are you from (optional)?

Before we get to the statistics, it’s important to mention a couple of things. First of all - this question was optional. The survey site let you pass without putting anything in and the question itself had the word ‘optional’ in it. Despite that 2 of the 4 people that chose Antarctica also wrote in the countries they lived in. All in all 270 out of the 353 people decided to answer this question.

Second of all. 

Americans.

For the love of everything holy. 

Please. PLEASE. Decide on one way to call your country.

As I was using google forms, the survey was sensitive to lower- and upper-case letters, which meant that in the end there were 25 versions of the your country’s name, including (but not limited) to: America, Murica (including ‘eagle noise’ once), the U.S, The U.S., u.s, U.S.A., U.S.A, United States, united states, United States of America, United states of america, US, Us, us, USA, USA! and u s of a. 

Special shoutout to the person who just wrote in ‘Arizona’ as well. 

In the end the top 10 (eh kind of) most popular countries on the survey were……

Drumroll please!!

USA - 133 

Canada - 26

Germany - 17

Poland & UK - 8

Brazil - 7

England - 6

Russia - 5

Chile, France, Sweden and the Netherlands - each with 4

As you can see, I have decided to treat ‘England’ and ‘UK’ as two different answers, since that’s how the survey responders decided to specify their countries.

What age are you?

Another straightforward question. Over 70% of us are between 18 and 25 years old. 13 are 31-45 years old and 8 people decided not to specify their age. 1 person has declared to be over 45 years old. You can see all the answers on this awesome pie chart as well!

I think it’s pretty cool how while a lot of us are young adults or even still teenagers, there are also older fandom enjoyers among us :D I hope you are all enjoying your time!!

When did you join the fandom?

First of the more fandom-specific questions. And probably the first question, where the answers genuinely surprised me!

A lot of us are OGs! Either having joined in 2019 or early/late 2020! Those people remember it all - the beginning of Dream SMP, the first vlog, Antfrost’s coming out and even the beginning of manhunts in some cases!

Out of the rest, early 2021 was another popular entry point to the fandom. Which shouldn’t surprise anyone either - it was still during the pandemic, probably the peak of Dream’s (and Dream Team’s/Dream SMP’s popularity). 

9 people did not remember when they joined the fandom.

Similarly, 9 people are newbies! They’ve joined us in late 2022, while 23 joined in early 2022. 

No one has joined in 2023 yet. (or haven’t seen the census. also possible.)

Who is your main?

This is a question that I could have made better in hindsight. I think a better answer than ‘I can’t decide’ would be ‘I like them all equally’, since I was assuming that all participants of the census did like the Dream Team members either way. It’s not a big mistake, just a small note I wanted to add.

To most likely no one’s surprise - the most popular person among Dreamblr’s population is Dream (224), followed by George (63) and Sapnap (15). 51 participants couldn’t decide on one of them.

Who do you watch besides the DTeam the most (out of other mcyts)? Please list 3 people max.

This question caused more problems than I'd imagined. Guys. I was asking about other MCYT (aka Minecraft Youtubers and Streamers) besides the DTeam. That means that I had to unfortunately eliminate some answers, the most popular out of which was Hasan, who I don’t think has ever played Minecraft before.

To answer some of you, who had some doubts about who counts as a MCYT….

Yes, Wilbur Soot does count.

Yes, Charlie Slimecicle also counts.

Yes, Hermits also count.

I am also counting Ludwig, since he did make Minecraft content.

PeteZahHutt also counts.

Corpse Husband counts as well, since he is technically a DSMP member.

RTGame counts as well - again, Minecraft content on his channel.

Again - Hasan does not count.

So now, without further ado… The top 10 most popular answers!

I have also not counted answers that went over 3 people (as in, I have only counted the first 3 names).

If any of you were wondering - 8 people really wish Hasan did play Minecraft.

Which Dream content is the best content?

Another easy question with an easy answer, where most people either prefer Dream’s Youtube content or just love it all.

Quick shout out to the two people who love Dream’s music the most and two who prefer other content than specified in the survey. 

What got you into the fandom?

The toughest question to count. I did not expect so many different answers, so in the end I’ve decided to sort all the answers into a few categories (and I am sorry about that I know it’s not the best way to go about it, but here you guys can see all the answers to the question in an google spreadsheet if you want to).

dnf (answers included: ao3, heatwaves, dnf compilations on youtube or tiktok…)

manhunts (answers included: youtube recommendation of manhunts, binge watching manhunts…)

art (answers included: sad-ist animations, art in general, cosplays…)

lore (answers included: Dream SMP, lore vods…)

Other MCYT creators (answers included: SMP live, wilbur soot’s videos…)

Friend/family member recommendation

Among us streams

Twitter (answers included: seeing drama, twitter trending page…)

Other Dream Team content (answers included: other Dteam videos, tiktoks by them…)

Fandom (answers included: a tumblr mutual started posting about them, tiktok compilations, youtube compilations…)

Hot (answers included: found George/Sapnap hot)

I don’t remember

And finally. The last question of the census. The one we all have been wondering about.

Have you been here since before the face reveal?

As it turns out…

Only 2 people joined us since the face reveal!

The rest of us has known about this community and about Dream earlier and was waiting the day of the face reveal impatiently.

And that’s it! Thank you once again for taking part, hopefully my rambling won’t make this post too boring to read!

Have a great day/night! <3

[icecreamisbetterwithafork]

Hello friends! It’s been a minute, I hope the summer has been treating you well. We have been busy with summer camps, playdates with friends, lots of gardening, cooking, and trying your stay cool in this San Diego humidity and heat, which as a native I never remember the weather being this hot or humid EVER growing up here as a kid! 

On the music front, there is much to be excited for on the horizon. For starters, I just released a beautiful collaboration track, Bobby My Friend, with an artist by the name of Leo Prakash. We met down at Playa Del Carmen, last December at a Wanderlust Palmaia. Leo was there for the week accompanying the yoga classes with live music and i was sitting in for a song, during the end of my friend Schuyler Grants yoga class, for Shavasana. Leo is an insanely talented multi-instrumentalist from Mexico, but grew up part of his childhood living in an Ashram in France. I was immediately captivated with his Sitar playing. We ended up chatting after class, and exchanging info with the hopes of doing a collaboration in the future. He ended up sending me this beautiful song for his friend, the late Bobby Klein, and asked me if I would like to accompany him on it. I loved this song from the beginning, and it was also a much different style than anything I have previously done before. The song was just released a couple weeks ago, give it a listen, I love it so much. 

Aside from that, I have some other exciting collabs coming out, as well as the new music I have been working on over the past 2-3 years co-written and produced by my friend (AND no biggie, one of my fav artists of all time!!!!), Trevor Hall. The first song of that project is set to drop at the end of this month. Stay tuned for deets and links coming soon! And definitely make sure you are following along on IG where I post the most, as well as following my artist profile on Spotify if you listen there, the song will also be released everywhere else music is available. I am so excited to share this new music with you all, it’s def a been a bit of an experimental sound and journey for me. But it has also re-awakened my creative process and flow. It feels unbound and intuitive and that in itself is exciting and inspiring. 

I will keep it at that for now, many of you have expressed your fondness for the days when I wrote my Tumblr posts, so I will try to do more of that! These days are a lot different from the ones when we were in our 20’s, i was on tour, single, free and wild! But if you have any questions or topics you would like me to touch on, I would love to be sharing things that might be helpful and useful. I took a step back from social media for the last couple years, because I realize how bombarded i/we are everyday with unwanted thoughts, opinions, and just all kids of stuff flying our way. I would really love to be sharing things that nourish and support this community and inspire a loving, kind, but also keep it real kind of connection. Life seems to get so much busier in the 40’s! So if you have any thoughts on that, please let me know! 

Sending love to all! Also, if you have reached out to get a bracelet and I haven’t responded, it’s because I literally haven’t had a moment to myself all summer with my kiddo not wanting to go to camp! Lol. I am planning to do another batch that will ship in September. I will email soon or email me again at info@tristanprettyman.com

As always thank you for being here! Big love - 💗

Tristan 

[arosnowflake]

Been thinking lately about the Fanfic Writing Style(TM) and how incredibly restrictive it is because any deviation from a fairly paint-by-numbers third person POV tends to be wildly alienating to the average fanfic reader, and will actively be avoided.

This is especially obvious when you look at how first person POV fics are treated; they are automatically associated with bad quality, and people will immediately turn away from a fanfic the moment they see it's written in first person. There are reasons for this; firstly, it is true that beginning writers will often use first person because it feels a little more accessible than the other options, and most beginning writers are of course not very good yet on a technical level, especially not if they are also children, which many fanfic writers are. So the association between first person and bad quality is not entirely baseless (though, y'know. definitely at least a little mean spirited, if unintentionally so). Secondly, and this is a personal sentiment but one I've seen some people echo: first person can read weird when combined with fanfic, because fanfic often does not benefit from a closer connection with the POV character. We are here to watch blorbo do thing, it can feel a little weird when it is instead I doing the thing, y'know? This is personal preference, of course; no accounting for that.

However, regardless of the reasons, kneejerk avoidance of first person POV fics is probably one of the driving factors behind the homogenization of the fanfic writing style. It's difficult to put into words to me, but especially if you read a lot of fanfic, at some point it's obvious that most of these stories are written in the exact same way, with the same sentence structure, cadence, and metaphors. The often-mocked italicized Oh, usually used in its own paragraph, usually used in a romantic context, is an example of this: a writing quirk turned universal enough specifically in fanfic to be singled out and ridiculed for its frequency.

This style isn't inherently bad, many authors pull it off very well, but it's certainly restricting. Essentially banning the usage of the first person POV alone is already severely limiting, but even just a slightly different usage of the third person POV is discouraged if everyone is writing the exact same way.

This leads to an overarching problem in fandom, namely that all characters tend to sound the same. The style of writing is the same whether writing about a jaded 40-year-old man or a peppy 12-year-old girl. A story set in 1940's France will have more or less the same writing as a story set in 2010's America. Writers do often try to add little details to their narration to distinguish different characters, and success with this varies, but is usually limited. Narration in fandom is rarely personalized to the character, and instead falls into the homogenized fandom style more than anything else.

I don't have a specific goal with this post. I'm not necessarily saying 'we need to STOP big fandom's writing style' or whatever, I don't think that's productive or feasible. I do think that we should all, as readers, be a little more open to stuff like first person POV fics or stranger prose experiments rather than skipping over or closing out of a fic as soon as we encounter them, and as authors (if you actually care about improving your writing) I'm encouraging you to take a look at the prose style used in your fanfic and see if you could diversify it because oftentimes readers do respond positively when they see it, so I guess if there's anything to take away from this post as a call to action, it's that. But mostly this is just me musing on something I've noticed in my own fanworks recently that irritates me.

[maximumwobblerbanditdonut]

Society of the Snow ❄️

The 96th Academy Awards are upon us, with the 2024 Oscars taking place this weekend on Sunday, 10th March 2024 · Society of the Snow has been nominated for two Oscars, for Best International Feature Film, Not in the English Language as well as the best makeup and hairstyling. Society of the Snow became the third-most-prized film in Goya history after winning 12 awards at Spain's Goya Awards and winning a European Film Award but the interest is not just for the awards but for the true story behind this film/Thriller/Adventure documentary.

Directed by Juan Antonio García Bayona, the Spanish-language film is about the 1972 plane crash that stranded dozens of people–most notably players of an Uruguayan rugby team–on a glacier in the Andes. But it was Pablo Vierci’s Society of the Snow, a non-fiction account of the disaster, published in 2008 and made with the full collaboration of the survivors and their families, that caught Bayona’s interest. The film is an adaptation of Pablo Vierci’s book. The cast is composed of Uruguayan and Argentine actors, most of whom are newcomers.

In case you have no idea about this film, please, let me explain: The rugby world knows very little about this story, so after watching the Rugby World Cup in France last year 2023 and seeing the resilience of the Uruguayan rugby team in the World Cup, I watched the film and read books getting more and more interested in the subject. The Snow Society tells the true story of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, a plane that crashed in the Andes in 1972, leaving a rugby team and its fans hungry and stranded for 72 days. There were 45 people on the flight, 40 passengers and 5 crew members. 19 of the passengers were members of the Old Christians Club rugby team.

Old Christians Club, or simply Old Christians, is a Uruguayan sports club from Carrasco, it is a neighbourhood of Montevideo. The club is known mostly for its rugby union team which became famous around the world due to the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crash that involved the first division team of the club in 1972. Old Christians amateur rugby team charted a Uruguayan Air Force plane to transport the team's players, friends, fans and family members to Santiago, Chile, for an exhibition match.

It is Highlighted by one of the better plane crash scenes put to film in quite some time, Bayona, who also directed The Impossible (the criminally underseen survival pic about the extremely deadly 2004 tsunami), treats the audience to an immersive, detailed, and gritty look at how the young men who were eventually rescued from the icy slopes survived for nearly two months.

That's been dramatised many times before, most notably in 1993’s “Alive”, starring Ethan Hawke, but the director J. A. Bayona’s rendition may be the most immersive take yet.

The crash scene is meticulously re-created—people being sucked out of the fuselage, bones shattering as the seats get ripped from the floor, bodies crumpling toward the cockpit. Most of the film takes place on the mountain range’s blinding snow-covered slopes, the victims’ skin bluish with frostbite, and the sound of howling winds incessantly. Almost every shot highlights the frigid, terrifying reality of what happened.

In my opinion, J.A.G. Bayona did an incredible job directing the film because I felt their stress and desperation, their fear and hope, and I feel this is one of those films that are a complete experience, one of those that makes you value everything you have and open your eyes. It’s a gruesome tale —the survivors eventually resorted to cannibalism— The survivors (and the not-lucky ones) became a life inspiration.

They wanted to live, they dreamed of living, they fought to live, they did EVERYTHING and more to achieve success, and thanks to those guts they wrote their story.

Society of the Snow is the Definitive Account of the World’s Greatest Survival Story. Waiting for a rescue team that didn't arrive, the survivors became fewer and fewer in numbers. Stranded alone on a glacier, they had to face brutal temperatures, lethal avalanches and the loss of friends and family with no access to supplies, food or water. In order to survive, they had to do the unthinkable. It wasn't until seventy-two days later that they were able to reach safety.

Eventually, two of the survivors – Nando Parrado and Roberto Canessa – were able to find help after embarking on an improbable hike into Chile, which took 10 days and saw them climb a 4,650-metre peak and travel 61km (37.9 miles) without any mountaineering gear.

Thanks to their efforts, the remaining team members were subsequently saved, and the incredible tale of survival became known as the Miracle of the Andes.

The Survivors- Sipa/Shutterstock

To increase the film’s realism, director J.A. Bayona decided to film footage at the actual crash site in the Andes, El Valle de las Lágrimas, which translates to The Valley of Tears (the name the location received after the tragedy in Chile).

The film's filming locations spanned the Catalan city of Terrassa, the rugged Sierra Nevada mountains in Spain, and the formidable Andes mountains, adding to the cinematic allure of the survival tale.

Society of the Snow appears to be a smash hit with both the critics and audiences, and is certainly one of the best Netflix films of recent times – it has a 90% Rotten Tomatoes score and 83% audience rating. If you haven't seen it yet, then I highly recommend you give it a go.

The Oscars are about to begin. The Dolby Theater in Los Angeles is already rolling out its red carpet.

#SocietyoftheSnow #JAGarcíaBayona #Director #96thAcademyAwards #Oscar #Spain #film #BestInternationalFeatureFilm #PabloVierci #Spain'sGoyaAwards #EuropeanFilmAward #Thriller #Adventure #documentary #Rugby #Uruguayanrugbyteam #Spanishlanguage#book #OldChristiansClubrugby #UruguayanAirForce #Flight57 #World’sGreatestSurvivalStory #MiracleoftheAndes

@brian-in-finance Yeah! Survivors of the Andes (1976) (Supervivientes de los Andes ) was a Mexican film directed by René Cardona, based on the 1973 book Survive! by Clay Blair, which is based on the story of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571. The film received negative criticism, not a top budget film but still they could have put in a little more effort than what they did a very poorly done.

[bazooka-overkill]

in honor of me getting absolutely zero play valentine's day i decided to rank the wii punch out boxers in order of how much i would willingly be their valentine/go on a date with them

don't take this seriously btw i made this at like 2 am :33333

list under cut

13.) king hippo

im scared of him

12.) piston honda

this is just a me thing but his eyebrows are off putting to me😭😭 if he ever pulled up w his eyebrows i think i would start crying /nsrs

no shade to piston honda btw. luv his character and i’m 100% sure he’d treat his valentine right

11.) von kaiser

CRIES he is so scary. i made a joke post about him and how he stares (specifically the stare that europeans do). no amount of roses could ever erase his stares😭😭😭

10.) don flamenco

he has carmen and i don’t wanna be a homewrecker yk

if carmen wasn’t his valentine tbh he’d be a decent valentine. a little over the top but nothing compared to a little someone else on this list

9.) soda popinski

every time i see him i think of patrick star. you think i want a valentine that looks like fucking patrick star

8.) bear hugger

i put him at no. 8 not becuz he’s a bad date/valentine but bc it’s a tie between him and aran ryan. i can’t really see bear hugger being a traditional valentine if that makes sense??? 

luv him to death tho. shout out to all three bear hugger fans

7.) aran ryan

despite his whole “i’m fucking insane” persona i believe aran ryan is,,, the better half of a valentine. sure he might light a building on fire in the shape of a heart for me (criminal charges!!! so romantic!!!😍😍) but he means well and i would take him up on an offer for valentine’s day

6.) super macho man

i’m literally only accepting his offer for the money. you know that man does NOT live frugally when it comes to valentine’s day. or just in general lmfao

5.) great tiger

if he pulled up on his magic carpet and asked me to be his valentine i’d accept in a heartbeat. who could say no to a flying carpet and a man who would get those giant flower bouquets of ur favorite flower(s)

4.) bald bull

yall might not agree with me on this but i personally believe bald bull is one of the best people for valentine's day. plus that lil tooth gap shown in his intro is legitimately so cute who could say no to that (he may be a grown man but anyways LMAO)

3.) glass joe

first off he is from france and that is the place of laaauuuuuuvvv😍😍😍 or something like that idk i didnt pay attention in geometry

second just look at him. that man is one of the top tier valentines, or just overall dates

2.) disco kid

this is a little obvious bc i put him up so highly but i luv him. he’s so silly and energetic but idk if i could match his energy

he’d probably bring his valentine to a roller rink or some shit like that. if that was me i’d probably die on the rink😭

MR SANDMAN NUMERO UNO🙏🙏🙏

this man is literally so fine yall do not understand the extent of how much i love him so much. from his design all the way down to his whole “sleep” gimmick OUUUGHHHHHHHH 

if this man asked me to be his valentine i think i would legitimately explode on the spot. im not even joking like i would explode like a fucking bomb he is so FINE TO MEE

he’d probably pull up with those giant teddy bears (yk what i’m taking about right,,) and some flowers. he is so fine to me you guys don't understand

[yandere-writer-momo]

Heart Shaped Wound: Yandere Various Baki x Reader

Chapter 12

Author’s note: Jun Guevara has finally made his official appearance. Please enjoy some quality bonding time with Hanayama.

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    (Your name)’s eyes widened at the various fancy foods presented in front of her. Hanayama folding his hands in front of him, his eyes observing her intrigue with the new culinary experience she was having.

    “I don’t even know where to start. I’ve never seen food like this before.” Hanayama smiled at her, the giant man pointing towards the closest dish to her.

     “How about you start there with wagyu beef? It’s quite delectable.” Kaoru picked up his fork, pointing them to all the different hearty meals in front of them. “I’ll order anything you’d like to try. Do you want wine or anything?”

     “I’m going to be really honest with you, Hanayama.” (Your name) nervously smiled up at the yakuza leader. “I’ve never tried any of these things before so this is all very new to me.”

     “I’ll treat you to all kinds of new experiences.” Hanayama told her, his eyes never leaving her face. “You tell me what you’d like to try and I will do my best to accommodate you.”

     (Your name) gazed at Hanayama and sweetly told him, “I want to do something for you as well. You’re always doing things for me… is there anything you want that I can give you that’s within reason?” 

      Hanayama leaned forward, his body looming over hers.

      “I’ll tell you what I want after we’re done eating.” Hanayama leaned back, the fork looking so small on his hand. 

    “Again thank you, Hanayama-“

     “Kaoru.” 

    “Hmm?”

     “You can call me by my first name when we’re alone.” Hanayama told (your name).

     “Thank you, Kaoru.” (Your name) smiled at him. “I appreciate everything you do.”

     Hanayama went silent, his eyes soft as he gazed at his food. She was one of the first people to genuinely be grateful for him. It’s been a long time since he’s been told he was appreciated.

     “Do you love roses?” Hanayama asked so softly that (your name) almost didn’t hear him.

     “Yes. I loved the roses you sent me. I’ve never smelled such fragrant ones.”

     “My mother was incredibly fond of roses. She used to get rose perfume imported to her from France.” Hanayama took a bite of his food, his fists curled around the silverware and his jaw firm. It seems this was a difficult topic for him to speak about.

     (Your name) placed her hand off his left hand, her eyes soft as she gazed at him.

      “It’s alright. Some things are difficult to speak about.” (Your name) smiled up at him, his eyes wide at how gentle she was to him. “I’ll wait. You said you’re going to be courting me for awhile so I can wait for you to feel more comfortable opening up to me.”

     Hanayama wasn’t used to someone being so tender to him. At least not since his mother passed away from cancer. He had a hard time opening up to people ever since. Hanayama promised himself he wouldn’t love anyone as much as he loved his mother but… why did (your name) have to be so easy to fall for?

      Hanayama grasped (your name)’s hand, his eyes staring into hers.

     “My mother passed away from cancer. I hadn’t been the same since.” Hanayama studied her expression on her face, her eyes holding such an understanding in them.

      “My father also passed away from terminal illness.” (Your name) smiled at him. “Seems we have a little bit in common.”

     Hanayama could tell (your name) used to be as close to her father as he was to his mother. He could feel himself on the edge of his seat hanging onto her every word. His pulse picking up in excitement that she was opening herself up to him a bit. And he didn’t even need to give her liquor to do so like Katsumi.

     “I held a lot of resentment towards my mother when he died. She hardly visited him or did anything for him... at least until the day he passed.” (Your name) gripped Hanayama’s hand. “When I was around sixteen, she tried marrying me off. She was worried I wouldn’t be able to be alone since there was no longer a strong male figure in my life. She hated that my father allowed me to fight. She thought I’d never date someone…”

      Hanayama ran his thumb over the palm of her hand, his eyes urging her to continue. He wanted to know more… he wanted to know everything about her.

     “I dated once. Just once and my mother hated him. I’ve never seen her so mad.” (Your name) gave Hanayama a smirk. “I did grow to like the guy but I started seeing him because it upset my mother. It was such a petty thing to do thinking back on it. Hurt my mom by running around with someone who was bad for me.”

     “Why was he bad?”

     “He was a pirate.” (Your name) told Hanayama, his brows raised. Pirate… like the ones in the movies? (Your name) giggled at Hanayama’s puzzled expression.

      “He’d steal from ships. Guns, drugs, you named it, he stole it. Killed some people too.” (Your name) took a sip from her wine. “Held people for ransom. And his final act was breaking into the White House and threatening the United States’ president. It was to make a point to the president that he wasn’t ever going to stop.”

     Hanayama didn’t know how to react because he was so much worse. He didn’t have the heart to tell her that though.

     “Don’t even worry about it, Kaoru. I have a type I like.” (Your name) joked with him. “Romantic criminals.”

     Hanayama stifled a laugh, he shouldn’t have found it amusing that she had a boyfriend prior to him, but he was happy she didn’t mind his lifestyle.

     “We’ll I’m glad I’m your type.” The two shared a smile before going back to eating. A comfortable silence forming between  them.

.

.

.

    A certain pirate sighed as he gazed at a picture of (your name) in his hands. It’s been so long since he’s last seen his beloved… he had been trying to reach her for the last few years.

     It was especially upsetting to learn that her mother had been interfering with their relationship by hiding the letters from (your name) for all these years… it was just a great thing that (your name)’s mother was so willing to tell him (your name)‘s location.

     “Japan…” Jim Guevara smirked as a salty breeze ran through his shoulder length brown hair. “I’ll see you soon (your name)…”

      A dreamy sigh escaped his lips, a box full of letters underneath his foot. He didn’t want to go see her without any proof that he had been trying to reach her. (Your name) was always so understanding after all. It’s what made her his perfect girl. Thank goodness (mother’s name) kept the letters from her soon to be son in law. 

     “We’re finally going to be reunited.”

._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._.

Author’s note: shorter chapter but I think it’s enough to get the point across. I would also like some feedback on whether or not I should add Kiyosumi Katou to the list. Thanks for reading!

[brightlight-dazzlingeyes]

the french exit | epilogue

kylian mbappé x original female character [+18]

synopsis: alice is a lonely rich girl whose biggest fear is to become a lonely rich woman. ever since they moved to paris, her fiancé doesn’t seem to be interested in her anymore. so alice decides to find comfort in the arms of another man. warnings: cheating; angst; smut; i have never been to france; minors dni.

previous chapter | masterlist

Epilogue

Life is easier when you're in love. When you feel understood and connected to another person. Alice goes home everyday to her favorite person in the world, and she doesn't have to ask: he’s always there, he’s always looking at her and understanding her. And loving her back. 

The guilt still creeps up on her, naturally. It comes sometimes in the shape of a nightmare, she jumps in bed in a cold sweat in the middle of the night and gets too scared to sleep again. Liar. Other times is during the day, under the sun, when, for a second, she thinks she forgot her engagement ring before leaving the house. And then she remembers. Liar.

A week before the date of the wedding, David announces through social media that he’s dating someone else – a French woman who works at his office – and Alice is reminded that she wasn’t alone in her wrongdoings. It was a group project. A sinful ballad played by four people. Liars.

But life is easier, still. Because she’s in love. Cat has a name now, it’s Renoir. The name was chosen after the kitten completely destroyed a homonyms book that described the famous painter's work and used to sit at the coffee table in the living room. Alice interpreted it as a sign and treats baby Renoir as the proper artist he is, ever since.

Alice is suspicious that Renoir likes Kylian more than he likes her, but she can’t blame the kitten for it, since she makes him watch a lot of PSG matches with her. It makes sense that he would nurture some sort of admiration for the talented player.

“I want you to meet my family.” Kylian asks one day, over breakfast. “I want to meet your family as well, I want us to be official.” He’s holding her hand. “I guess what I’m really asking is: do you want to be my girlfriend?”

She does, so she says yes. It’s different this time, being someone’s girlfriend, they have been living together for months, if you count the first time she brought a toothbrush and a luggage to the apartment, and you really should count since then. They are intimate with each other, they share dark secrets already, so early into the relationship and they know each other so well. The honeymoon phase is long gone. So it’s different. It 's easier.

“Here, I brought you something.”

They are getting ready for a dinner party they’re hosting. They invited their closest friends, it’s the first time they’re doing something like that. Kylian hands her a red box, it says Cartier on top. Alice gasps when she opens it – it’s a beautiful diamond necklace.

“Oh my God, Kyky, it 's gorgeous!”

“Do you love it?”

Secretly, he always wished to cover her in diamonds and jewelry. To give her a bigger ring than the other guy had. He bought the necklace when she was still with that other man, when he was still a secret. When nobody knew about them. Ever since she became his official girlfriend, he’s been waiting for the right time to give it to her.

“I love it!” Alice laughs and hugs him. “Thank you so much!”

She hasn't done her makeup or put on her dress yet, standing in the bedroom in only her bra and pantyhose. She asks him to put on the jewel for her, and he guides her to the floor length mirror, standing behind her.

“Do you think it looks good on me?” Alice asks, touching the necklace. Kylian still has his hand on her hair, holding it up. He enjoys the view, and while looking at her through the mirror, he gives her soft kisses on her neck and takes his lips up to her ear where he whispers.

“Everything looks good on you, baby.”

Alice feels him hardening in his pants, behind her.

“Kyky, we don’t have time!” She giggles. “Our friends will be here any minute now.”

“That’s why we need to take care of it now. You don’t me like this during dinner, do you?” Kylian bites her ear and goes back to the neck kisses. His hand guided her hips closer to his, rubbing himself on her, making her feel him.

“You’re evil.” He’s taking off her bra as she says that. “You know I can't resist you!”

“No, you can’t. Can you?” He laughs, she’s wearing nothing but the diamond necklace now. “My baby could never resist me.”

Kylian pushes her closer to the mirror, she has her hand and face resting on it as he starts fucking her from behind.

“Thank you.” She says as soon as he enters her. She needs him to know that she’s thankful, need him to know how happy it makes her having him inside of her, where he belongs.

“Look at yourself!” He pulls her hair and move her face so she can see, his other hand on her breast, pinching her nipple. “Look, baby. The necklace compliments your tits.” He fucks her harder, as if to prove a point, her breasts and the jewel moving according to his command. “So pretty.” Kylian’s voice is rough, they’re in a hurry and he didn’t forget. His hand finds her clit and he touches her with expertise. He knows her too well, it doesn't take long to give his girl an orgasm. “That’s right, baby, cum for me. Yes, I’m cumming too. Fuck.”

Dinner dates with friends are easier when you’re in love. They have a hand on each other at all times during the meal. ‘You two are disgusting!” – their friends point out multiple times in the evening. When Alice tells her mother about Kylian, and about the fact that they’re living together, Caroline laughs and says: “Well, if you decide to marry him at least we already have the dress!”

...

@mywhimsyjournal @lalunaenamoradasworld