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quickspinner · 5 years ago

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Second Chance - Ch 7 Why Wait

“Luka.”

“Nngh.”

“Lukaaaa.”

“Hnh?”

“Wake up so I can kiss you goodbye, you jerk.”

“It’s the weekend, where are you even going?” he mumbled.

“Brunch with my parents. Are you sure you don’t want to come?”

“Marinette,” he moaned. “Your parents are amazing, you’re amazing, you’re gorgeous, I’m so in love with you, but that concert last night killed me. I’ll beg their forgiveness later, but please, please, please just let me sleep.”

He couldn’t see her pouting, but somehow he knew she was. Too tired to question whether one could hear a pout, Luka raised up with only one eye open, pressed a kiss in the general vicinity of her mouth, and then buried his face in the pillow with a groan. Even so, he smiled as he felt her soft lips on his bare shoulder.

“I love you too, vampire boyfriend,” she teased.

“Love you,” he muttered as he pulled the blanket over his head to hide his grin. He was too tired to be this happy, damnit.

***

Having Marinette there when he woke was one of Luka’s favorite things about the weekend, so he may have done a little pouting himself when he dragged out of bed. Luka had tried adjusting his hours a bit to make more time with her, and had been moderately successful until his next round of scheduled performances, which quickly put him back on night owl hours.

Still, they made it work, and the last few months had seen a great deal of improvement in Luka’s life, even with Marinette now working more standard hours. She’d declined to work with Adrien at Gabriel, and had negotiated a very favorable contract with another major design house, but she still had to work when everyone else was working. Luka had plenty to fill his time when she wasn’t around, especially with tour season quickly approaching, but he’d also taken Marinette’s advice and devoted more time to his personal life outside of her.

He’d started getting together with Ivan every few weeks, and he’d been drawn into Marinette’s circle of friends as well. Adrien has been by to see them a few times with minimal awkwardness. They’d had dinner several times with Alya and Nino, and as Nino also had a career in music that frequently meant he worked odd hours, he and Luka had struck up the beginnings of a friendship outside of their girls. Anarka was back in Paris, and she always had time to see him when he was bored or frustrated, or when he just wanted to get away from the reporters who’d been dogging him ever since his relationship went public. Luka secretly loved watching his mother tell off the paparazzi who had the audacity to set up around her boat, just before she cast off and left them on the bank as she sailed them out of reach, her booming laugh echoing across the water.

He’d found more of a balance, just as Marinette had suggested, and Luka felt much better for it. Lucille took the dip in his efficiency in stride, even though it made managing his schedule more work. “You couldn’t keep the pace you were on forever,” she’d said briskly when he’d apologized. “It’s fine for you to be human, especially if it means you’re writing more songs.”

He was, he had almost a full album’s worth of tracks at least partially written, and the ones he’d demoed for the producers had been well received. At home, Marinette had helped him turn his apartment into something more personal and comfortable for them both. The windows now sported curtains Marinette had sewed herself, dark blue in his bedroom and cheerful red in the living room. There were throw pillows on the couch and leafy, living plants here and there (Marinette promised to help him keep these alive). A knit blanket lay over the back of the couch whenever they weren’t wrapped in it. Framed prints of Luka’s album covers were artfully hung in the living room, and pictures of friends and family were scattered on the walls of the hallways and bedroom.

Technically, Marinette didn’t live with him, but the distinction at this point was a fine one. His spare bedroom was littered with her projects. The clothes she wore most often were in his closet and dresser. Her cosmetics competed for space with his in the vanity and there was a neat row of sweet-smelling bottles with pictures of flowers and fruit on them lined up along his bathtub. His kitchen cabinets housed at least half her collection of mugs that she had picked up in the various places she had visited, most handmade or hand painted and all far more colorful than anything he owned.

Most importantly, Marinette slept in his bed almost every night, allowing them to take advantage of every mutually convenient moment in their very different schedules. Maybe he couldn’t wake up with her and maybe she was almost always asleep when he came to bed, but Lucille worked his schedule to keep their overlapping hours open, or at least booked with tasks he could do at home.

Luka sank down on the couch, leaning back into the soft blanket, and tried really hard not to think about the tour starting in...crap, it was barely a month now. He sighed and let his head fall back with a little groan. He got homesick on tour at the best of times. It was going to be even harder now. He smiled at the ceiling. At least he’d have something really worth coming home to.

Luka perked up at the sound of a key in the door.

“You haven’t even gotten up the energy to make coffee yet?” Marinette teased when she saw him. “You really are tired. Fear not, your savior has arrived.” She waggled a large to go cup at him.

“God, I love you,” Luka sighed, reaching his arms toward her. She came to him and perched on his knee, kissed him, and offered him the coffee.

“I have pastries too if you’re hungry.”

“Mm,” Luka took the coffee, but nuzzled into her neck. “I’d rather have woken up with you, but I’ll take it.”

“I gave you the chance to wake up with me and you begged me to let you sleep.”

“You know what I meant. How are your parents?”

“Same as always,” she smiled brightly. “How was the show? You were too wiped out when you got home to tell me. This was the benefit show for the children’s hospital, right? The one Rose works with?”

“Yeah. It was amazing,” Luka shook his head. “So much energy in the crowd, it felt fantastic. Pretty emotional, though, with the speakers and all, so I really just had nothing left when it was over.” He sighed. “Those people are amazing. There was so much strength—“ he stopped, choked up, and cleared his throat. “It was a lot,” he finished thickly.

Marinette kissed him softly, giving him a tender look, and then got off his lap, heading for the kitchen. “We can take it easy today if you want. Do you have to work?”

“First weekend of the month is fan mail weekend,” he reminded her, accepting the plate and napkin she brought him. “So, yes, but I can work around whatever else we decide to do.” Marinette put the box of pastries on the coffee table near him, and then pulled out her sketchbook. She settled with her back against the arm of the couch and her feet in his lap.

“I don’t mind. You know I think it’s great that you make time to answer your fan mail.”

How is this my life? Luka wondered as he selected a pastry and put it on his plate. It was good, it was comfortable, it was right, and Luka was suddenly struck by the thought that he never wanted it to end.

Luka didn’t realize how he was staring at her until Marinette spoke.

“What are you thinking about so hard?” Marinette asked him without looking up from her sketchbook.

“I want to marry you.”

Marinette straightened and set her pencil down to look at him. She didn’t whip her her head up and stare wide-eyed, which he took as a good sign, so he set his plate down on the coffee table and continued.

“I love you and there’s no doubt in my mind that you’re the one I want to be with. I want this—“ he motioned between them, “—all the time, forever. So I’d like to know how you feel about it. If it’s something you think you might want someday too.”

Marinette rapped a fingernail on her sketchbook. “Someday?”

“Or today.” Luka quipped with a shrug. “I’m sure we could make that happen.” He was mostly kidding, but his eyes widened slightly as Marinette frowned and pulled out her phone. He waited, a weird feeling curling in his stomach as she swiped and scrolled and chewed her lip.

Then she looked up at him and his pulse shot up so rapidly that he nearly didn’t hear her over the pounding.

“I’m sorry, can you say that again?” he managed.

“I said I don’t think today will work, but we can do next Friday. I think everyone we’d need is free.”

Luka could barely breathe as he stared at her. “You want to get married next Friday?”

Marinette smirked at his expression. “Yep.”

Her smirk softened at the smile that bloomed on his face. Luka leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees. “Who are you and what have you done with Marinette queen-of-overthinking Dupain-Cheng?”

She mimicked his pose, leaning in until her nose was nearly brushing his. “She doesn’t live here anymore. Meet the new resident, Marinette not-stupid-enough-to-miss-her-second-chance Couffaine.”

He nearly tackled her in his enthusiasm to kiss her. Marinette shoved him off, laughing. “We don’t have time for kissing, we’ve got phone calls to make.”

“Right.” He whipped out his phone. “Lucille! Hey, listen, Marinette and I are getting married next Friday. Call her in an hour and whatever she wants, you make it happen. If you get stuck on anything, call Penny. In fact, call Penny anyway and tell her she and Jagged are invited.”

“Oh,” Lucille said blankly, and then “Oh! Yes, okay. Um, budget?”

“Break the bank, I don’t care. Just don’t kill anyone, don’t get anyone fired, and try not to make too many threats. Okay?” He grinned at Marinette, who had her own phone to her ear but still heard enough to wrinkle her nose at him.

“You take all the fun out of everything.” Lucille drawled.

“You’re the best, Lu, I’ll call you later and check in.”

“How much does she hate me?” Marinette asked in a whisper, holding her own phone at arm’s length while Alya screamed.

“She wasn’t even phased. She lives for stuff like this.” Luka grinned. “It’s good for her resume. And I’ve been so low maintenance that I’ve earned a few outrageous demands.” He kissed her temple. “I’ve gotta go.”

“What? Where are you going?”

“Gonna grab Juleka and go find a ring.”

“What? Luka, you don’t have to do that, it’s barely two weeks, I don’t need a ring.”

He leaned in and kissed her, caressing her face tenderly. “I’m gonna do it anyway. Unless you want to come pick it out?”

“No,” Marinette said faintly, “No, whatever you pick is fine, just—don’t go overboard.”

He kissed her again. “Okay. But when Lucille calls, you tell her what you want and don’t worry about the money.” Another kiss, and Luka giggled against her lips. “I’ve never been able to say that before. I want you to have the wedding of your dreams even if it is on short notice.”

“Isn’t there anything you want?” Marinette asked, looking concerned.

“I want you, Marinette,” he breathed, and then grinned. “I want to dance with you. I want my guitar and an amp handy. I’d really like to not wear a tie, I hate those things. But mostly I just want you there and as happy as you can possibly be. Everything else is negotiable.”

“Oh my God, girl,” Alya screeched over the phone. “I take back everything I just said, marry that boy pronto.”

Luka laughed. “Hi Alya! Bye Alya!” He kissed Marinette one more time, grabbed his jacket, headed out of his door and straight over to Juleka’s, and pounded a little more forcefully than was probably necessary. Rose opened the door, looking surprised.

“Luka, what's going on? Is everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine, Rose,” he said, smiling like his face would split. He leaned past her and hollered, “Jules! Get decent and get out here, I need to go buy Marinette a ring and you’re coming with me.”

Rose squealed, covering her mouth with her hands. Luka winked at her. “You’re welcome to come too, Rose.”

“That’s amazing Luka, I’m so happy for you!” She threw her arms around his neck. “Oh! Have you planned how you’re going to ask her?”

“Already did. We’re getting married next Friday.” His brow furrowed. “Shit, I better call Maman.”

Rose just gaped at him with her mouth open. Then she screeched and ran back into the apartment, screaming for Juleka. Luka chuckled and stepped inside, shutting the door. He pulled out his phone and called his mother. Anarka sounded simultaneously exasperated and delighted, but she promised to be there and that was all Luka cared about. By the time he was off the phone with her, Juleka had emerged, dressed in nondescript black without her usual lace accents, her hair pulled back in a knot that hid most of the color and her purple tipped bangs tucked under a hat. She said nothing, just wrapped her arms around him. He folded around her and returned the hug. When they separated, she reached up and smacked the back of his head, then walked out the door without looking back to see if he and Rose were following.

“The press is going to be all over you,” Juleka mumbled as they got in the car. “They’ve been staking out the building ever since that premier. They’re going to follow us.”

Luka made a face. “Yeah, I know. I’m hoping we can make it look like we’re shopping for you, but if they do, they do. Lucille will have to find a way to keep them off my back.”

“With the tour about to kick off, they’re going to say it’s a publicity stunt,” Juleka persisted, looking sideways at him.

“I don’t care what they say, never have.”

“They’ll probably dig up whatever they can about Marinette. Probably your old girlfriends, too.”

Luka shrugged. “Everyone has a past, it doesn’t matter. As long as none of them show up at the wedding I couldn’t care less.”

“Marinette might care.”

“I’ll talk to her about it when we get home.” He hesitated. “Although I guess we didn’t really talk about—” he stopped and pulled out his phone.

Marinette picked up immediately. “Hey.”

“Hey,” he replied, unable to help smiling at the sound of her voice. “Listen, before I do this I just wanna make sure, you know the press is going to get wind of this right? Even if I manage to cover up what I’m doing, something is bound to leak if we do this in a hurry.”

“I suppose you’re right, but at least they’ll only have a couple weeks to freak out. Better than planning a wedding for months under that kind of scrutiny.”

“You’re right. We should probably just make a statement,” Luka mused. “I’ll talk to Lucille about putting one out once you’ve talked to everyone you need to. I just wanted to make sure you were okay with everything because the second I walk into a jewelry store, there are going to be rumors, even if we try to make it look like we’re shopping for Juleka.”

“I told you you didn’t have to.”

“You’re not cheating me out of getting to do this just because you’re impatient,” Luka told her, laughing.

“I didn’t expect you to be so traditional,” Marinette giggled.

“I’m not,” Luka chuckled. “Keep the traditions that make you happy, throw the rest out, I don’t care. But this one makes me happy, so I’m doing it and you can’t stop me. I mean, I guess you could decide not to wear it, I’d survive. But I still want to pick one out and give it to you. If you don’t want to wear it I guess we could frame it and hang it on the wall or something.”

Marinette’s laugh was rich and full and brought a dopey grin to his face that he knew he would catch hell for later. “I’ll wear it,” she giggled. “I will. Whatever makes you happy, Luka.”

“You make me happy,” he told her, ignoring his companions as Juleka made gagging noises and Rose shushed her, giggling.

***

When Luka got home carrying a tiny pretentious bag full of fancy tissue paper, he found Marinette waiting on him with a strange looking box on the coffee table and a “we need to talk” expression. His excitement turned to ice in his stomach and he came into the room a little warily. “Hey. Something up?”

Marinette smiled tightly. “Nothing disastrous. Just a conversation we need to have before we go through with this whole thing. I figured we’d better do it now before we let Lucille loose on Paris.”

Luka frowned. “Okay. You know, I’m ready any time, but I can wait, we don’t have to rush into this if you’re not—”

“I am,” Marinette interrupted him. “But I need to make sure you are too, and that can’t be true until we’ve talked about this. Come sit down.” She patted the couch next to her.

Luka sat, eyeing the box on the table. “Please tell me these aren’t the ashes of your enemies. That would be a little creepy.”

Marinette laughed and patted his hand. “Not hardly.” Marinette leaned forward and did something to the box. A series of compartments opened seemingly on their own, revealing...jewelry? He glanced at her, still puzzled, until she lifted a familiar green bracelet from the box and his eyes widened.

It had been nearly seven years since the defeat of Hawkmoth—not a terribly long time in the span of global history, but Luka found now that trying to remember those days was like trying to remember a dream. The bracelet Marinette held was the one point of clarity. Luka remembered what it was and what it did, but had a hard time remembering why it mattered.

“The Miraculous magic,” Marinette told him matter-of-factly, watching his expressions shift. “It doesn’t actually erase anything that happened, or any record of it happening, it just makes it hard to think about. If you tried hard enough, and long enough, you would still remember everything.You’d just be easily distracted and constantly wondering what the point is of trying to remember. It’s been a real blessing for people whose akumatizations were especially difficult, and even more so for Adrien.”

Luka blinked at her for a moment, and then gasped. “Adrien’s father was Hawkmoth.”

Marinette nodded, and then shrugged. “Thanks to the magic, people forget. Or rather, as I said, they just don’t think about it. He hasn’t faced nearly as much persecution as he would have otherwise. Here, it’ll be easier to have this discussion once I give you this.”

She put the bracelet in his hand and he was nearly blinded by a flash of blue-green light. The slight fog in his mind cleared instantly, the clarity suddenly flooding back into his thoughts. Luka remembered everything now. He blinked away tears from the light and the rush of memories and stared into familiar yellow eyes. “Sass,” he breathed.

“Ssssalutationsss, Luka,” the snake kwami smiled, showing his tiny fangs. “My how you’ve grown. Humansss change ssso quickly.” He put his flipper hands on Luka’s finger. “It isss good to sssee you, my friend.”

“Luka Couffaine,” Marinette intoned quietly. “I present to you the Miraculous of the snake, which gives the power of Second Chance. You will use it for the greater good, and for the protection of the Miracle Box and its Guardian.” She smiled and shrugged. “That would be me.”

Luka looked up from the bracelet in his hand. “Thank you, Ladybug.”

Marinette’s smile widened. “You knew the whole time, didn’t you?”

“I guessed,” he admitted. “I wasn’t ever totally sure, but I figured it was safer that way.” He rubbed his forehead. “I don’t know how I’d forgotten until now.”

Marinette raised her hands slightly. “Magic.”

“Right.” Luka shook his head. “Weird.” He slid the bracelet over his arm, watching in mild surprise as it flashed and turned into a silver band decorated with Celtic knotwork. “It’s different,” he observed.

“The disssguise adaptsss,” Sass agreed. “You are different now, so the disssguise isss different.”

“Huh. That design, though, it’s almost as if—.” Luka reached into the little bag full of tissue paper he’d left at his feet, and pulled out a small box. Marinette’s eyes widened, and, regaining some of his earlier enthusiasm, Luka felt a goofy, lovesick smile spread over his face as he opened the little box, and held the wrist bearing the snake Miraculous up next to the ring. The little platinum ring had a repeating Celtic knot pattern around the band and a small but beautiful channel-set sapphire in the center. The Miraculous bore a similar knot pattern repeating across the bracelet.

“Oh,” Marinette gasped lightly. Luka took the ring out of the box and took Marinette’s hand.

“May I?” he asked tenderly, and she beamed at him.

“Yes.”

Luka slid the ring on her finger. “I thought you would prefer something flat.” He grinned at her. “See, I’m not as traditional as you think. I liked it so much that I had them reserve the matching wedding bands for us, but you don’t like them, we can go pick something else together.”

“It’s perfect, I love it,” Marinette breathed, smiling up at him. “And this is a good thing,” she added, picking up his arm to look at the bracelet, and then holding her own hand next to it to compare it to her ring. “Since it matches, if anyone asks, it was my engagement gift to you. That gives you an excuse to always have it on you.” She smiled. “It’s sort of true, anyway.”

“Sort of true?”

“Well, like I said, I figured I needed to talk to you about this before we really went through with things,” Marinette sighed. “And Tikki and I agreed that if we’re going to make a home and a family together, you should be protected, and empowered to protect us, so...” She waved a hand at the bracelet.

“Tikki?” Luka asked, feeling rather overwhelmed.

“Tikki,” Marinette called, and a tiny red kwami zipped up from her side to haven between them. “Luka, meet Tikki, the kwami of creation,” Marinette gestured. “She’s the source of that energy you kept noticing, by the way.”

“That’s only partially true,” Tikki interjected. “Marinette has a strong creative spirit on her own, which makes her very well suited to be Ladybug. The resonance you feel is because we’re so closely attuned.” She smiled, zipping close to examine Luka’s face. “You wouldn’t be able to sense it at all if you weren’t a true creative spirit too.”

Sass hissed a quiet laugh and perched on his shoulder, tail curling around Luka’s neck. “Don’t get greedy, Tikki. Thisss one isss mine.” Tikki rolled her eyes, giggling, and zipped back to Marinette.

“So, if you haven’t changed your mind after learning about all this unexpected craziness that comes attached to me,” Marinette was trying to be positive, he could tell, but there was still an edge of apprehension in her smile. “The bracelet is yours.”

“Of course I haven’t,” Luka exclaimed, putting his hand on hers. “I mean, I’m not saying this all isn’t kind of heavy, and it makes me nervous that we’re—that I’m in the public eye so much. But if you’re okay with this, then so am I. I trust your judgement.”

Marinette flipped her hair. “I plan to be famous with or without you, mister rock star, so don’t go playing the martyr.” She smiled at him and squeezed his hand. “We’ll make it work. Just like everything else. The butterfly and the peacock have been recovered and repaired, there’s no reason for anyone to come after the Miraculous now that the magic is nudging people’s thoughts away from it, and no one but Adrien knows I was Ladybug, so no one would even know where to start looking. We should be fine, this is just a precaution.”

Luka blinked at her for a moment, putting things together. “Adrien is Chat Noir,” he said after a moment. Sass chuckled from his shoulder.

“Yep,” Marinette smiled. “It’s the only Miraculous not in my possession. I couldn’t bear to take Plagg from him after everything that happened. Most of the kwamis prefer to stay in the Miracle Box unless they have a bearer, but sometimes they like to come out and have a chat and they’ll probably all want to meet you sooner or later, so just be prepared and try not to scream.” She narrowed her eyes slightly and pointed a finger at Sass and Tikki. “And you tell them the bedroom is a kwami-free zone, got it? Divine being or not, the first kwami that interrupts us is going to find themselves sealed in their Miraculous and dropped to the bottom of the Seine.”

Luka blushed as the kwamis tittered.

“So, uh…” Luka rubbed a hand through his hair, dropping his chin to his chest as he tried to process. “You got any more bombs to drop on me?”

“This was the big one,” Marinette giggled. “Nothing else but the usual stuff left. Money, living arrangements, future plans, kids.” She paused. “You’re okay with kids, right?”

Luka’s head snapped up and he stared at her, wide-eyed. “You want to have children...with me?”

Marinette sat back slightly and she blinked at him. “I mean, not right now, but in a few years, yeah. Is that...not something you want?”

Luka was having trouble processing. “It’s...honestly not something I thought I could have.”

She tilted her head. “Why not?”

“I’m...I didn’t...I mean, I haven’t exactly had the best example. Or...any example, really.” Luka rubbed a hand through his hair sheepishly. “I mean it sounds kind of stupid when I say it out loud, but I guess that’s always how I felt in the back of my mind. I guess I’ve never been serious enough with anyone to give it any real thought.”

Marinette relaxed a little, and though there was still tension in her forehead, her eyes were soft. “Why wouldn’t anyone think you’d make a great dad? You’re kind, thoughtful, committed, gentle, respectful, supportive, protective. I could go on. Any daughter would be lucky to have you for a father,” she said, taking his hand and squeezing it. “And I can’t think of anyone I’d rather have teaching my sons how to be kind, compassionate, respectful men.”

Shit, he was going to cry and he still couldn’t look away from her.

“And if it helps, you’ll have a father now. My father. I know he’d be thrilled if you asked his advice. Most importantly,” she said, leaning in, “You have a huge heart and so much love to give. I know you’ll be fine. And when the time comes, we’ll figure it out together.”

Luka was reminded of his own words to Ivan and smiled faintly.

“But is that what you want, Luka?” Marinette squeezed his hand. “That’s kind of an important question.”

“I—yes, absolutely,” he breathed. A little girl with his eyes and Marinette’s smile and a too-big guitar in her arms, or a little boy covered in flour as he learned how to make bread from his grandparents—he’d never thought about it before but now that he had, he absolutely wanted it.

Marinette relaxed, and her smile turned blinding. “Good.”

For a moment, they just looked at each other, and then Luka took her face in his hands and kissed her—or started to, before realizing his abrupt movement had tumbled Sass off his shoulder. Luka had completely forgotten the kwamis were there. He’d also forgotten they could float, he nearly knocked Marinette in the face as he scrambled to catch Sass, who caught himself and levitated, chuckling at Luka’s floundering and apologies.

“He’s fine,” Marinette reassured Luka, laughing, and then she grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him back to her lips. “And so am I. Come back here, already.”

The tittering kwamis made a discreet retreat as the newly engaged couple embraced.

***

The rest of the day was consumed with phone calls and a lot of screaming. The next day, Marinette wasted no time getting moved in for good. Luka had a stupid grin on his face the whole day and didn’t make even the slightest effort to hide it.

“I don’t know why you’re so excited,” Marinette giggled. “I practically lived here anyway. The only real difference is now I have to find somewhere to put all my crap.”

“It’s an important difference,” Luka protested. “And I know even though I told you to feel at home, you still think of this as my place.”

“It is—was your place.”

“And now it’s really our place, and that’s why it matters,” Luka told her, and then he sighed. “I almost wish we could get a new place that we picked out together,” he mused.

“Luka, this apartment is amazing, it’s perfect for what you need, and you love it,” Marinette said practically. “I’ll fit myself in, you’ll see.”

“You shouldn’t have to fit yourself in around me, though.” Luka rubbed the back of his neck. “It doesn’t seem fair.”

“Stop worrying about it, Luka,” Marinette told him, picking up a pile of clothes and carrying them into the bedroom. “You’ll be gone on tour for months, remember? That’s plenty of time for me to get rid of your stuff.”

Luka huffed a laugh at that. Nope, there was no wiping the stupid grin off his face and it was pointless to try.

A knock on his door startled him, and he and Marinette looked at each other.

“Juleka?” Marinette suggested.

Luka shook his head and got up to answer the door. “She’s shooting a new cosmetic ad this week, and Rose always goes with her when she’s got to be on camera. Maybe a delivery? Usually security calls me first though.”

Marinette shrugged and picked up another pile of clothes to carry to the bedroom.

Luka opened the door and blinked, momentarily speechless.

“Hey,” Adrien grinned, hands in his pockets. “I brought Marinette a wedding present.” There was a small knot of people behind him with expressions of longsuffering and a bright red ribbon tied around the whole group with a big bow. Luka glanced over them in puzzlement, and then, recognizing a couple of faces, he turned and called into the apartment.

“Marinette? I think you’d better take this delivery personally.”

“What?” Marinette’s voice came from his bedroom.

“Come on out here.”

She came, but pouting. “Luka, I still have so much to do.”

Luka just stepped aside and opened the door wide. Marinette stopped and went pale as she took in the scene. Then she looked at Adrien. “What did you do?” she asked flatly.

“A little bird told me you were making an exception on your stupid polciy about wearing your own designs for the wedding,” Adrien said with a flicker of a smile. “I thought you might need a little help with your dress, given your frankly insane timeline.” Marinette stared at him, and Adrien quickly added, “And before you go off on me, I’m paying them, and they volunteered.”

“They won’t even all fit in here!” Marinette gasped, and Adrien chuckled and tossed her a key. Her hand snapped up to catch it, proving her superhero retirement hadn’t diminished her reflexes in the least.

“They come with a workspace,” Adrien said smugly. He raised a cautionary finger at Luka. “You’re not allowed. No peeking before the big day.”

“I think I can handle it,” Luka said wryly. He smiled at Marinette’s still gobsmacked expression and kissed her cheek. “I’ll go in the bedroom so you can haul out all those supplies I know you bought without me watching.” He held out a fist to Adrien. “Thanks Adrien.”

“Congratulations, Luka.” Adrien bumped his fist with a bittersweet smile that Luka couldn’t really fault him for.

Luka looked at Francis in the middle of the group. “Make sure she takes breaks to eat for me, okay?” Francis nodded vigorously.

Marinette made a few more inarticulate noises that ended in a huge hug for Adrien and as Luka retreated to the bedroom, he could hear her giving orders to get that stupid ribbon off those poor people, what is wrong with you, you big dork?

***

The next few days were...weird. Luka was walking on a cloud most of the time, going through the motions of his everyday routine with giddy disregard for what he was actually doing, only really tuning in to answer questions periodically from Marinette and Lucille about wedding arrangements or preferences. Even the press mobs didn’t bother him as much as usual, as tedious as it was to have to have his bodyguards follow him around everywhere he went just so he could get in the door. He made time to have dinner with Marinette and Tom and Sabine, letting the warmth of their happiness flow over him. He took Marinette to have breakfast on the boat with Anarka, too. They got on as well as they ever had in that ‘live and let live’ way that both of them shared.

However, having little tiny flying creatures pop up at random was a little unsettling even when he knew it was coming. Most of them were perfectly pleasant little...god-things. Some of them were more eccentric than others. The ones who hadn’t gotten out of the box much were zipping all over the apartment, fascinated especially with Luka’s music gear. He shared a cup of tea with Wayzz and Sass, and Wayzz answered some of his questions about what it meant for Marinette to be the Guardian. Trixx was perfectly pleasant to speak to, but rearranged Luka’s pick collection while no one was looking. Duusu popped up in his studio and they had a little jam session, Duusu dancing manically in the air while Luka shredded. Kaalki examined Luka’s album covers and awards and proclaimed him sufficiently exceptional. Sass and Tikki together had to chase Xuppu back into the Miracle Box, and that was a trip and a half, watching them zip around phasing through anything in their way, before Tikki had sufficiently intimidated Xuppu from causing any further chaos. One afternoon he opened his eyes from his meditation and found a small circle of tiny gods gathered around him, mirroring his meditation pose.

“They like you,” Marinette confided in him one night, sliding behind him on the couch and draping herself over his back. “They say you have good energy, and they like your music. Kwamis sing, you know?”

“Really?” Luka lifted his eyebrows slightly.

“Yes, when they’re separated, they do some kind of magic singing to connect with each other.” She nuzzled his neck affectionately. “The novelty will wear off in a while and they won’t be around so much.”

“I don’t mind,” Luka said, picking a few notes thoughtfully on the guitar. “They’re cute, and mostly they’re just...there. It’s a bit strange, but I’ll get used to it.” He leaned his head back to press his cheek against her hair.

He’d grown to love playing with her wrapped around his back. Sometimes he played whatever she requested. Sometimes he played her the sappiest love songs he could think of, until they lost themselves in laughter and kisses. But her song was still his favorite, being tuned in completely to her, playing for the sheer joy of it, with her pressed close against him, silent and still except for her quiet breath and soft touches against his skin.

“I love you,” he said softly, smiling as he played.

“I love you too.”

“I’m gonna marry you, weird entourage of tiny god-fairies and all.”

“I’m so lucky,” Marinette sighed, and he sensed the shift in her emotion even before he heard her voice go rough and her arms tighten around him. “I’m so lucky, Luka. I love you so much. I almost wish I could just marry you in the morning, but my parents would kill me and Lucille would probably have an aneurysm if we changed the plans at this point.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Luka sighed contentedly, turning his face to nuzzle and kiss her cheek. “We can make it.”

***

The next day, Sass was asleep on Luka’s amp in a small nest of soft fiber scraps pilfered from Marinette’s workroom. The snake kwami found the vibrations soothing, which was convenient, Luka thought, since he spent so much time playing. Suddenly Sass stirred and sat up, and gave a smile that was somehow gentle despite the fangs. “Nooroo. Welcome, friend.”

Luka looked up but saw nothing.

“There isss no need for fear,” Sass said soothingly. “Pleassse join usss.”

A small purple face peeped around the door frame. The kwami eyed Sass, and then turned his eyes to Luka. He shrank back behind the door when he saw Luka’s gaze on him. The edge of a butterfly wing visible over Nooroo’s shoulder explained a lot, and Luka’s eyes widened slightly.

“Hello,” Luka said as gently as he could. “You can come in if you want. You’re very welcome here.” Nooroo didn’t move, and Luka went back to his guitar, playing something soft and soothing, watching out of the corner of his eye but trying not to be too obvious about it.

“I know you can sssensse him,” Luka heard Sass say. “You know you have nothing to fear. But if you are not ready, we will not take offenssse.”

Another moment, and the butterfly kwami slipped inside, skirting the wall toward Sass’s nest.

“He feels gentle,” Nooroo said, very quietly, as he settled next to Sass.

“He isss,” Sass soothed, curling his tail protectively around his friend. “Ressst, if you like. You are sssafe here.”

Nooroo cuddled up next to Sass, his tiny expression enough to break Luka’s heart. “Safe,” he murmured, a little doubtfully.

Luka swallowed hard. He couldn’t imagine what the kwami suffered at the hands of Hawkmoth. Luka was empathetic by nature and practice, and that could be painful enough in the wrong situations, but Nooroo literally sensed emotion. To be forced to feel out the worst emotions he could find day after day must have been incredibly painful. Not to mention serving Gabriel Agreste was no picnic. One only had to look at Adrien’s issues to imagine how much worse it would be for a creature Gabriel believed to be nothing more than a tool. No wonder Nooroo had preferred the quiet, passionless world of the Miracle Box for years after Gabriel’s defeat.

Luka wondered if the kwami could feel his pity, and tried to decide what would be the most soothing for him. After a moment of thought, Luka began to play an old Scottish lullaby from his childhood, one that he associated with warmth and safety and his mother’s boundless love. He darted a glance at Sass and the little snake gave a tiny nod of approval.

He wasn’t sure how long he’d been playing before Marinette appeared in the doorway, looking concerned. “You okay?” she asked softly. “You usually play that when you’re upset.”

“Fine,” Luka smiled at her. “Just felt like relaxing a bit.” He flicked his eyes toward the kwami nest. She followed his gaze.

“Nooroo,” Marinette said, face lighting up. “I’m glad to see you.”

Nooroo shrank into himself a bit. “Thank you, Guardian. I felt it would at least be polite to meet your intended.” He paused, looking between Luka and Marinette with a thoughtful expression. “I have seen great love twisted into selfishness and isolation,” Nooroo said solemnly. “But this is a soft love, a...generous love. It makes room for many. It is...good.”

Luka smiled. “There’s room for you too, Nooroo, whenever you feel the need of it. You’re always welcome.”

Nooroo nodded. “Thank you.”

“I’ll leave you to it,” Marinette smiled, and blew him a kiss. Tikki slipped around her to join Sass and Nooroo. Tikki hugged the butterfly and Sass patted his friend gently. Between the two of them, he seemed to relax a bit more. Luka smiled to himself.

Yeah, it was a little weird, but when in his life had he ever been “normal” anyway?

***

The two weeks somehow went slow and fast all at once. Luka remembered the feeling well; he’d felt the same in the last few weeks before his first tour.

Friday morning saw their apartment invaded by a horde of women. Alya, Sabine, Rose, and Juleka took Marinette over to the girls’ apartment to get ready, leaving Luka to the tender mercies of his mother to make sure that he was ready and presentable on time. Luka rolled his eyes and refrained from pointing out that it was Marinette who had the reputation for chronic lateness, and that Anarka was the last person he would have picked to enforce order.

Still, he was glad Anarka was there. She went straight for his music studio and picked up his guitar, playing old tunes he remembered from his childhood. It soothed his jitters a little bit. It wasn’t that Luka was nervous or afraid exactly, he just...wanted to get on with it. He wanted to marry Marinette.

“It’s my wedding day,” he said softly to the mirror, just to make it real. “I’m marrying Marinette today.”

“You are,” Sass agreed, hovering beside him. “Are you ready?”

“So ready,” sighed Luka. “More than ready. Why can’t we already be married ready.”

It still felt surreal as he mechanically dressed himself. His suit had been provided by Marinette’s employer, as a bribe to let Marinette off work early for all the things that had to be done over the last couple of weeks, and for the wedding today, but Marinette had done the fittings herself, so it looked impeccable on him. It included a vest, but as he had requested, no tie.

“All right, let’s have a look at ye,” Anarka said, stumping around him. “Can’t be having you looking sloppy for yer bride, eh?” When she had circled him twice, brushed some imaginary dust from his shoulder, she sighed and said, “Well, I guess yer grown up after all, me boy.”

“I love you, Maman,” he said, smiling fondly at her, pretending he hadn’t seen her eyes watering behind her glasses. She returned the smile in kind, and then hugged him tight.

“Come on,” she said. “Play with yer old Maman for a bit. Those girls’ll be forever getting ready, and you’ll just fret if ye do nothing.”

“That sounds great, Maman,” Luka said with relief, going to retrieve his old guitar.

They played duets until Juleka came to tell them that Marinette and the car were ready. The original Couffaines indulged in a quick group hug, and then Luka hugged them each individually again.

“You’ll get wrinkled,” Juleka chided in a mumble. She looked up at him and he looked back at her and for a long moment they were silent. She didn’t need to speak for him to know how happy she was for him, and how relieved, and how much she wished for his happiness. He didn’t have to say anything for her to know how much he loved her and that he would always take care of her and that she would always be his sister.

“Come on,” she said at last, voice thick. “Let’s go get you married.”

Lucille took a step forward from where she stood by the door, clipboard in hand. “I sent everybody else down to the cars already so you two can have a moment. We’ll be waiting for you downstairs.”

For practicality’s sake, the couple and their witnesses were all going to City Hall together in the limo, while the others went ahead to the reception. Lucille ushered Juleka and Anarka our and to the elevator, leaving Luka alone.

Well. Not quite alone. Suddenly there was a small floating rainbow of tiny gods stretched across his living room. “We give you all the blessings we can bestow on this day,” Wayzz spoke for them.

“Oh, it’s so beautiful!” cried Duusu, darting back and forth in her excitement. “Love is so beautiful!”

“Thanks, friends,” Luka smiled. “Really.” Wayzz nodded, and the kwamis zipped back out of the room, except for Sass, who took his place in Luka’s pocket.

Luka crossed the hall to Juleka’s apartment and stood there for a moment, just trying to breathe, outside the door.

“She isss the sssame woman you loved yesssterday,” Sass said quietly, peeping out from his pocket.

“Yeah,” Luka said with a lopsided smile. “But now she’s all dressed up and we’re getting married.”

The kwami chuckled. “Indeed.”

“Okay,” Luka said, feeling his breathing speed up in spite of himself. “Okay, here we go.” He knocked on the door, and then let himself in.

“Marinette?” he called softly.

“In here,” she answered, and he went a little further into the apartment. She was standing in the light of the living room window, nearly glowing in her fitted white dress, her modest train artfully arranged behind her. Her hair was elaborately piled up and adorned with a tiara that he recognized as Rose’s. Her miraculous was in her ears, of course, and the blue seaglass pendant lay against her collarbone.

Marinette smiled with trembling lips. “They posed me like a statue and made me promise not to move until you came in.”

“You look stunning,” he told her honestly. “I’m almost afraid to touch you.”

She held her hands out to him and he quickly crossed the room to take them. “You’re shaking,” he observed.

“I’m going to lose my mind if we don’t do this soon,” she admitted, and they laughed together.

Luka raised her fingers to his lips and kissed all of them reverently. “Then let’s go, before we both fall to pieces,” he said, offering her his arm.

***

The ride to City Hall was a blur. All he remembered was Marinette’s fingers gripping his as tightly as he held hers.

Once they stepped inside, everything seemed to go in fast forward until he heard the mayor say, “I now pronounce you husband and wife.”

The words gave Luka a swooping feeling in his stomach and his knees went weak. He looked at Marinette and she met his eyes with the same awed look on her face. Then they both broke into huge smiles and threw their arms around each other. Luka sighed deeply as he hugged her, the butterflies in his stomach disappearing into a profound sense of relief that felt like stepping into his apartment for the first time after a three-month tour. ”I love you,” he whispered into her hair, and felt her snuggle closer. Then she lifted her face and he kissed her reverently. The mayor had to clear his throat before Luka could manage to let her go. As soon as he did, she was enveloped by her parents. Luka wiped his eyes discreetly as Lucille shuffled them off to another room, and chuckled when he saw Juleka doing the same.

Heaven help them if the world ever found out what a bunch of softies the Couffaines were under their punk-goth-pirate exteriors.

Juleka hugged Marinette and gave Luka a wicked smile over his new wife’s shoulder. “Marinette’s my favorite,” Juleka told him smugly. Luka just laughed and put his arms around the both of them, kissing each on the top of her head, and then turned to give Rose the same treatment. The moment he turned away from her he was caught up into the most epic bear hug of his life courtesy of Tom. He’d have laughed again if he could get enough air. Sabine pounced as soon as Tom set his feet back on the ground, and damn if the small woman didn’t hug him almost as hard as Tom.

“Whew,” Luka put his hand on his chest when Sabine released him and grinned at Marinette. At his wife. “I’m going to have to step up my hug game now that I’m part of the family.”

Marinette giggled and moved toward him, but Juleka caught her arm. “Nuh-uh. We’ve got a party to get to and if you go over there now it’ll take a crowbar to separate you.” She spun Marinette towards the door. “Let me remind you that Maman is waiting, and keeping Maman waiting with nothing to entertain her is unwise.”

Rose gasped and Luka winced. “She’s right, we better go,” he admitted, offering his hand—to his wife.

“If we must,” Marinette sighed, but she was smiling brightly as she put her hand in his. “I suppose your adoring fans and annoying followers are waiting for us too.”

Luka grinned at her. “Just this once, shall we give them what they want?”

Marinette flashed him a grin. “Lead the way, husband.” He had to grab her up and kiss her for that, much to Lucille’s frustration, and it took another minute to get her smoothed back out and camera ready.

Luka didn’t make the least effort to hide his joy or his love for Marinette as they emerged from City Hall into the bright morning light and cascade of camera clicks together, hand in hand. He wanted everyone to see it. They smiled and waved, and Luka bent Marinette back (not into a full dip this time, just enough to make the folds of her dress fall in elegant points toward the ground, like they’d practiced) and kissed her tenderly. Then he bent down and she jumped on his back, the two of them laughing as he piggybacked her through the path their security team cut to the limo, trailed by the long-suffering Lucille and the rest of the wedding party.

Luka waved everyone else into the limo before him, and then turned and waved one more time to his fans, though he couldn’t see much past the cameras. Then he slid into the car next to Marinette and locked their fingers together.

Somehow Marinette and Lucille had conspired to rent them a boat instead of a party hall. The Liberty was too small to hold all the guests, but Lucille had found them a boat with a stage and a largely flat deck made for dancing. It had the benefit of letting them have their wedding outdoors while keeping them secure from party crashers and reporters. The Seine had always been a huge part of Luka’s life, and he was glad to be on the water for such a momentous occasion.

Most of the guests were already on the boat, and Luka made his grand entrance over a gangplank decorated in flowers and ribbons with Anarka on his arm, trailed by Juleka and Rose, and then Marinette’s parents escorted her across.

The ship cast off and everything was a whirl for a while. They exchanged rings on the stage and spoke simple, sincere vows in front of all their gathered friends and loved ones. Luka danced with both his mother and sister, a three-person Scottish reel they’d danced together since he was a child, performed this time with so much gusto and at such a tempo that it left all three of them laughing and breathless (he had no idea where Nino had dug up that track but he was going to have to get a copy). Tom waltzed Marinette around the room with such enthusiasm that Luka wasn’t entirely sure her feet actually touched the floor at any point.

Then Marinette was in his arms again, and he was so lost in her eyes that he missed Jagged beginning to play at the piano until her smile turned teasing and her eyebrows lifted. Luka wasn’t the best dancer, but it didn’t matter; all he wanted was to hold her close and let the music move them. Marinette seemed to feel the same, resting her head on his shoulder with a little sigh of contentment as the rest of the party was invited to join them on the dance floor.

Luka gave her up to Adrien for a dance with only a little reluctance. Luka understood now better than he ever had how deep their bond ran. Before Adrien took Marinette to the dance floor, he leaned close to Luka and held open his coat for a moment. “Plagg wants to talk to you,” Adrien whispered, and a black blur shot from his coat to Luka’s. “Better find somewhere private, he’s not patient,” Adrien warned.

Luka excused himself at the first opportunity to the men’s room, which was thankfully empty, and the black blur popped out of his coat and hovered in front of him, looking unimpressed. “So,” the little cat kwami said, more intimidating than anything that cute had a right to be. “You married my Guardian.”

Luka nodded warily. “I did.”

“I know Sass is all about second chances and that crap,” Plagg said, rolling to float on his back for a moment, and then sitting up to hover right in front of Luka’s eyes, his own cat-green eyes narrowed. “I’m just telling you now, I don’t go for that. I’m destruction, you got it? There won’t be any second chances with me. So you better take care of my Guardian, understand?”

Luka lifted his eyebrows. “Did you have this talk with Adrien?”

“One, that’s none of your business. Two, my kitten has extenuating circumstances. Three, you bet your ass we had words about what went down before. But I like him, so all I did was give him shit luck for a few months. You can ask him how much fun that was.” Plagg narrowed his eyes again. “I don’t like you. I don’t know you. If I hear from Marinette or Tikki that you stepped one single toe out of line—”

“Are you quite finissshed?” Sass popped his head out of Luka’s breast pocket. “Enough posssturing, cat. You made your point. The Guardian isss resssponsssible for much greater decisionsss than this. Do you trussst her judgement so little?” Sass huffed, and Luka would have said the kwami stuck his nose in the air if he’d had one. “Or mine?”

“Yeah well I’ve been around for a few thousand cycles longer than you, fangs, and even smart women can be stupid about the men they love,” Plagg spat. “So there’s no harm in making things clear from the start, right?”

“Fine,” Sass huffed. “You have done ssso. Now return to your bearer and leave mine to me.”

The little cat folded his flipper arms and did stick his nose in the air. Before the cat could say anything else, Luka interrupted. “Plagg—Thanks. For everything you and Chat Noir did back then. For all that I’m sure you do for Adrien now. And especially for looking out for Marinette. I really appreciate it.”

“Didn’t do it for you,” Plagg mumbled.

“Even so. Come on, let’s get you back to Adrien. I want my wife back. No offense, but I don’t think this was a fair trade.” Luka grinned.

Plagg made a noise that might have been a chuckle if he weren’t trying to act tough, and zipped back under cover.

“Charming friend you’ve got there,” Luka commented as he found Adrien.

“Sorry,” Adrien shrugged. “I hope he wasn’t too awful.”

“It was fine.” Luka stepped close for a moment to let Plagg slip back, and then moved away. “All the same, I think you can keep him and I’ll go find my wife.”

Adrien grinned. “She had her ‘up to something’ grin on, so good luck with that.”

“Oh boy,” Luka sighed, but he was grinning as he said it. He hunted through the crowd, stopping for handshakes and backslaps and congratulations. Really, considering the short notice they’d given, a surprising number of people had been able to attend. There were a fair number of industry people here that Luka had felt kind of obligated to invite, but the crowd was mostly friends and loved ones of friends, and that was perfect.

He finally found Marinette conspiring with Nino. “Now what are you up to?” Luka asked, slipping an arm around his wife.

Marinette grinned up at him. “I just think we should take a quick peek back at where all this started.”

“Oh my God,” Luka laughed, as the big screen over the currently empty stage lit up and a familiar kittycorn logo flashed up on screen. “You didn’t.”

“Of course I did,” Marinette giggled, as Kitty Section’s very first music video played, the one they had sent to Bob Roth’s contest all those years ago.

“Wow, that brings back memories,” Luka sighed. He looked at the stage, and then spotted Juleka moving through the crowd near him. “Hey Jules,” he bellowed, more than loud enough to get her attention. She turned toward him with an exasperated expression and Luka nodded at the stage with a grin. “What do you think?”

Juleka grinned back. “I’ll get Rose.”

“Nino, tell them to get the mics live up there,” Luka instructed, and then he kissed Marinette’s cheek and headed for the stage. Juleka and Rose were right behind him as he picked up his guitar and slung it over his shoulder. He stepped up to the microphone and tapped it. “Turn me up guys,” he hollered, waving at the sound techs. They jumped to it and the microphone crackled to life. “There we go,” Luka grinned. “Adrien, come on up here. Hey Mylène,” Luka called. “Can I borrow Ivan for a minute?” Mylène smiled and shooed Ivan toward the stage. “Come on up here big guy.” Ivan rubbed the back of his neck, smiling shyly, but the way he spun the drumsticks between his fingers told Luka he wasn’t too out of practice.

“All right,” Luka surveyed his former bandmates, every one of them grinning widely, even Juleka. “You ready, Rose?” At her thumbs up, he grinned back at Ivan. “Count us off, man. No, wait,” he held up a hand, and turned back to the crowd. “We’re still missing somebody. Marinette, get up here, baby.” He grinned. “You’ve always been my unicorn.” There was a chorus of “aww’s” and a few laughing “eews” as Marinette made her way to the stage. She came to stand beside Luka, and he put his arm around her waist and kissed her temple. “All right, let’s do this. Go for it, Ivan.” He released Marinette and slid his guitar into position.

“YOU KNOW I LOVE UNICORNS,” Rose belted, proving the years had not diminished her lung capacity in the slightest. Luka joined in, improvising a harmony to the old but familiar vocals as he sang to a laughing Marinette. It wasn’t a perfect performance, they were all a little rusty, but it was more fun than Luka had had in years.

Afterwards, Adrien and Ivan relinquished their places to Luka’s regular backup, and he had someone bring up a stool for Marinette so she could be comfortable. He wanted her close to him. She put her hands over his mouth in surprise as he played the opening riff he’d been working on, and he winked at her as he stepped up to the mic. This was his first ever performance of Lightning on the Water and he wanted it to be perfect. Luka knew how to play an audience, but this one time, he ignored them and sang just for Marinette. The crowd of guests was nearly silent as his guitar mimicked sparks dancing over the water, and he sang in low, smokey tones about the draw of deadly beauty, buzzing over his skin, the desire to dive deep and never come up again.

The silence lasted for a long moment after he finished.

He was still staring into Marinette’s eyes when a whoop came from the crowd that he immediately recognized as Jagged. “Now that’s a hit, kid!” the older rock star hollered. “I’m pissed I didn’t write it myself!”

Everyone laughed, and the atmosphere lightened. “You can go down if you want,” Luka whispered to Marinette, and she shook her head.

“Just this once, I want to stay up here with you for a while,” she whispered back, squeezing his arm.

“Kiss her!” someone screamed (Marinette’s grandmother, Luka thought), and laughing, Luka did.

“What do you want me to play next?” he asked her, and she pulled him down to speak in his ear. “Yeah, I can play it,” Luka chuckled. “Too bad Clara couldn’t make it, but we’ll make do.” He stepped back to the mic. “You guys remember this one, right?” He played the opening to Miraculous.

The guests remembered the song and the dance that went with it, and Marinette danced beside him as they belted the lyrics into the microphone together. Luka had to catch the stand once when she knocked into it, but he was well versed in keeping things rolling over those kinds of incidents, so aside from a little laughter, the show went on.

Luka hadn’t planned a set list, hadn’t exactly planned an impromptu concert at all, but this was who he was, and this was what he did. When his heart got too full, it overflowed in music, and it was pouring over today. And this wasn’t like the concerts he was used to playing. This was his friends and the people he loved, a party just like they used to have in the old days. They rolled through song after song, some he’d written and some of their old favorites from other artists, some that came to his mind and others shouted at him from the crowd, and he let his happiness and love shine through in all of them. He bounced with the drumbeat pounded behind him as he belted, “I don’t care what people might think, I got your name in permanent ink—” Marinette leaned up to sing the next line with him. “Baby this ship ain't never gonna sink!” they hollered into the mic together, and he went on as Marinette laughed, dancing with her hands over her head and the beads on her white dress sparkling in the sun, “Just kiss me like nobody’s watching! Yeah people are talking, it doesn’t matter what they say. Just kiss me in the middle of the street to let the whole world see that there’s nobody else for me!”

Of course Jagged couldn’t stay out of things for long, but by the time he leapt up on the stage, Luka was ready to let him take over. He held his wife’s hand as they went back down for more dancing and hugs and congratulations, but it was all a haze to Luka after that. Playing had finally drained off all that excess buzz he’d been carrying around all day and tucked his soul back into his body, and he just felt...peace. Peace, and maybe a little bit of impatience to be back at home with the love of his life and the weight of this day.

Jagged relinquished the stage at last to Anarka, Juleka, and Rose, who sang a beautiful three part harmony of The Parting Glass as the ship came back into dock, and then it was a long string of goodbyes and la bise before they finally found themselves alone in the car back to Luka’s apartment—their apartment.

It felt intensely quiet after all the excitement, and Luka found himself grateful for it. He slipped his arms around Marinette’s waist and she lay against his chest. They cuddled in silence all the way home. As soon as they were out of the limo, Luka scooped her up. Marinette protested, laughing, as he carried her into the building, up the elevator, and all the way up to the apartment.

“You’re wearing yourself out for nothing,” Marinette told him as she dug through his pocket, looking for his keys.

“All that time at the gym might as well be good for something,” he said as she unlocked the door for them. “You’re heavier than you look with all that superhero muscle, but you’re still pretty light.” Marinette pushed the door open, and he carried her inside.

Luka set her down gently on the couch, and then sank down beside her, stroking her cheek tenderly. They kissed softly for a moment, and then curled together again. Sass and Tikki zipped out of their hiding places, and with a quick cheek cuddle for each of them and a whisper of congratulations, the kwamis made themselves scarce. The hem of Marinette's dress was grey with dirt, her hair was coming loose, and when she smiled up at him he could see the exhaustion on her face. Luka smoothed the loose hair away from her eyes. “We’re married,” he said softly.

“Yeah,” she smiled up at him.

“Now what?"

“I don’t know,” Marinette put her hands under her chin on his chest and blinked up at him. “Never been married before. It was fun but I’m kind of worn out. Maybe you can help me get out of all this stuff and we can go take a nice warm bath and relax, and we’ll see how we feel after that.”

“That sounds amazing.” He nuzzled her temple. “My wife is a genius.”

Marinette giggled. “My husband is a sweetheart.”

“God, say that again,” Luka breathed, putting his arms around her.

“My husband,” Marinette murmured, smiling.

“My wife.”

“Marinette D.C. Couffaine.”

“I love it.” He kissed her softly, and then couldn’t make himself pull away until he was out of breath. “Let’s get the bath running, and then I’ll help you get rid of all this stuff.”

Marinette giggled. “I should warn you there are about fifty thousand pins in my hair. It might take a while.”

“Then the bath should be full by the time we’re done.” He cupped her face and kissed her. “I love you so much, Marinette.”

“Don’t make me cry before we get the makeup off, Luka,” Marinette smiled shakily.

“You know I don’t care,” he scoffed. “Come on.” Luka pulled her up gently.

Luka sat her down at the vanity, turned on the bath water, and then crouched beside her and helped her clean the makeup from her face. Together they found and removed all of the pins in her hair, and Luka brushed it carefully. One by one he unhooked the seemingly unending line of buttons down the back of her dress and helped her out of it, and he quickly became distracted with kissing and touching her, until she pushed him away, giggling, to turn off the bath before it ran over. Marinette slipped on a robe and left him, pouting slightly, to get undressed on his own. He forgave her though when she came back with two glasses of champagne and slipped into the bath with him.

“I don’t think I told you with everything else that was going on,” he commented as she leaned back against him, “My album proposal was approved. They loved the demo tracks I did.”

“Of course they did,” Marinette sighed, laying her head back on his shoulder. “What are you going to call it?”

“Second Chance,” he told her with a smile.

Marinette craned her neck to smile back at him. “Perfect.”

#quickspins #second chance #backlog #lukanette #i am lukanette trash i admit it #luka couffaine #marinette dupain-cheng #miraculousladybug #miraculous ladybug #mlfics

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aspiestvmusings · 5 years ago

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TMS S3: GROUP A

THE MASKED SINGER SEASON 3 GROUP A/ GROUP 1: (contestants 1 - 6)

EP 3x01: CLUES & MORE: RECAP for remaining 5:

SPOILERS BELOW!!!

KANGAROO

CLUES:

Location: Outdoors: “Australia”

Location: Next to a /in a yard of a “peach coloured” building with arch/vault-style architecture

VISUAL CLUES:

Sign: OUTBACK (with the U being in the shape of horseshoe)

Sign: Yellow “road sign” with an arrow pointing down (”spiraling down”)

MIB as papparazzi/press following her - taking pics, media attention (for “the wrong reasons”)

Gramophone on a tree branch

Boxing bag - the kangaroo boxing/hitting the boxing bag

Jump rope - the kangaroo jumping over a jump rope (made of a vine...held by MIB)

AUDIO CLUES/VOICE OVER:

”Like most of you watching, I’m a survivor.”

“I recently lost a person, who held my familys heart together. Then, by my own admission, I found myself in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.”

“But I’m here to do what kangaroos do best - bounce back.”

“I have to fight for my family. And show them that bullies never win.”

“I am beyond terrified - I’ve never done anything like this before. But I’m not about to lose the chance to realize the dream I’ve always had.”

“To all the survivors out there -- This one’s for you.”

ON STAGE CLUES:

Song choice: “Dancing on My Own” by Robyn

Look/Costume: The kangaroo has a pouch (indicates female), but also has a red/silver boxing outfit & gloves (indicates male). Outfit colours: red & silver. Important: there is a crown on the back of her robe.

Stage: hexagon-shaped mirrors (5 of them) surrounding her/behind her [if my other guess is correct, then that stage design is a “clue”]

Height: Tall-ish...almost the same height as host Nick. A bit shorter, around 175cm, probably.

Mic hand: Right

Talking: “One of my greatest fears is being vulnerable. And this year I’ve had no other option than to be vulnerable. But...with this kangaroo costume I feel like I can get my superpowers back.” + [breathes in/sighs heavily before the song starts]

GUESSES:

I HAVE NO NAMES OF MY OWN. -- I thought she was this certain female artist, because the voice kinda seemed familair (sounded like hers to me), but none of the clues and other things seemed to fit. And after checking the clues it seems to confirm it cannot be her, cause nothing matches. Also... to me she doesn’t sound like any of the singers I thoughts she could be based on the clues, so... I havent actually figured her out...

I think people online are correct, and it’s a certain “reality star” (gramophone = reference to her dad being a sound engineer on a well-known past TV show) Though I am considering a few more options - mostly other reality stars/youtubers/family members of celebs... particularily one name. If my guess here is correct, then just like Llama, she would have a connection to a previous TMS contestant...but since I am not that familiar with her singing voice, I cannot be sure. But she has lost family members in the past few years, she has been in a media scandal, and you can even explain the australia thing kinda... so...until I hear more of her, I’ve got one name mainly in mind. But I wont name it until I’ve heard her sing at least once more.

POSSIBLE MEANING OF CLUES.

Survivor = the title of a “Destiny’s Child” hit song

Lost a family member recently = either her family member (parent, grandparent?) died or they parted ways (were cut ouf of each others lives)

Gramophone = possibly a reference to a Grammy nomination/win. Or just music/sound/audio

Outback = possible connection to Australia

“spiraling down” road sign + papparazzi following her = she’s been in a media scandal “recently”

Crown = King/Queen

LLAMA

CLUES:

Location: Radio station/Mixing studio - mixing console (close up)

Location: Pottery making “class”

VISUAL CLUES:

Mixing console - close up of a studio/radio station mixing console

23.3 The Wool (name of the radio station/show)

Red lightbulb in the studio

Photo of a bull (the animal)

Playing cards: Ace of Spaces & Jack of Spades). Two black suit cards showing (Jack Black)

Sounds of Seattle - title of a vinyl album

Romancing a llama: pottery

AUDIO CLUES/VOICE OVER:

"Mi-Mi-Mi-Mi-Mix it up!”

“Good morning, Nerd herd! You’re listening to The Wool. Where we’re all cool. No Bull.”

“I’m here for one reason only - to have a laugh. And what’s funnier than a Llama? (laughs at his own joke)”

“You may call me a joker. But I’d like to get serious for a minute. The song I’m singing tonight is my favourite track for celebrating love with that... special someone. There’s nothing like being swept up by it’s deep, profound lyrics. It’s a tune that really gets me in the mood for romance. I can’t wait to sing it for you tonight.”

“Llama out!”

ON STAGE CLUES:

Song choice: “She Bangs” by Ricky Martin

Look/Costume: Dressed as a tourist - “hawaiian” style shirt,, photo camera around his neck. Llamas tongue out of his mounth, on the side.

Height: he is around 180cm - about the same height as host Nick (their shoulders are on about the same height)

Mic hand: Left

Talking: “umm.. This whole costume just spoke to me... My vibe... I wear digs like this in real life.” (answering the question about his costume & it’s looks)

GUESSES:

Drew Carey (TV host/comedian/actor...)

POSSIBLE MEANING OF CLUES.

23.3 Wool = His show (The Drew Carey Show) had, during it’s 9-season long run, a total of 233 episodes.

Photo canera prop = His hobby is photography. Actually, it’s more than just a hobby - he has been accredited press photographer during many (sports) events.

Radio = He was a radio operator during the time he served in the Marine Corps. Also..he’s hosted a radio show (radio DJ) during his later career

Red light in the room = photography reference. In the DarkRoom red light is used when developing photo film/photographs.

Buddha figurine (Dalai Lama/Llama joke) = He is a buddhist.

Joker = he is a joker aka comedian

Seattle = He is the co-owner of a Seattle Football Club.

Playing cards = He took part in the celebrity poker game in 2003, where he did better than Jack Black did (played against Jack Black)

Nerd herd = He did take part in Zack levis (Chuck) “Nerd herd” lightsaber race one time at a Comic-Con convention.

Nerd herd = his show (DCS) & character were/was about nerds/was a nerd

Llama’s side tongue = early in his stand-up comedy days he had a joke with a side-tie (it looked visually very similar to what the llama’s tongue looks like - he just added some wires & tape to do “the trick” of swinging the tie to the side)

BONUS: He knows last years winner, “The Fox Mask” - they did “Whose Line is it Anyway” together, so... connection...

SPOILER ALERT: Llama is the mask who will be voted off next - in ep 2 (on Wed, Feb 5th). But while his voice might not be as trained as some other contestants, I loved his stage energy, and the comedy/fun he brought! One more song coming from him! And no, I am not sharing some secret info - they “accidentally” revealed the first two contestants, who get unmasked, so it’s been revealed by the network...for those, who notice small details...

MISS MONSTER

CLUES:

Location: Lady’s restroom/bathroom. The moster getting ready (coming hair, applying hairspray...)

Location: school hallway - lockers

VISUAL CLUES:

Sign: (image) ladies restroom

Itmes on the counter in bathroom/dressing room: Furspray (hairsray) can, pink bottle of some beauty product, three crystals (stones), a piece of sequin fabric

Key/Keychain: a single (old style) key with a keychain that says “FUN” #FUN #KEY = FUNKY = “QUEEN OF FUNK”

Purple furry diary/good luck charm/cosmetics bag/pencil box (with a face + kitty ears & unicorn horn) + a glittery pen

Lockers: Lockers numbered 10 (the ones she opens) & 11 (the one next to it)...with no other lockers having numbers on them

Miss Monster Locker: filled with images of S1 Monster, scrapbook flowers..etc...

Piece of paper on the locker door: Monster Hits.

Photograph of a cityscape (skyline with many skyscrapers) on the locker door [if I could only see the image better to know which city it is on it, that’d be one more clue]

AUDIO CLUES/VOICE OVER:

“When you become famous, people want you to look or act in a certain way. They forget that you started off as just a shy little monster.”

“It didn’t take long for me to be misunderstood. So I’m here to set the record straight. Just like my favourite creature in Season 1 did. The Monster. He made me feel. He re-wrote his story. It was fire!"

“And now this performer in pink wants to follow in his furry footsteps, But darlings... I’m nervous. Will you still love me without knowing my name?”

ON STAGE CLUES:

Song choice: “Something to Talk about” by Bonnie Raitt

Look/Costume: pink & purple/violet furry costume with a bowtie

Height: she is short-ish (shorter than host Nick). She looks very short (barely 5 feet - more Dolly P. height 152cm than Chaka K height 162cm)

Mic hand: Right

Talking: NO ON-STAGE TALKING!

GUESSES:

Chaka Khan

Dolly Parton (since the total number of Grammy noms that the 18 contestants have in combined in 69 & Robot as the first revealed one has had 24-25 of them, that leaves only 44-45 for everyone else, that rules out this person, because she alone has had 46 nominations...compared to C. Khan’s 22 noms)

POSSIBLE MEANING OF CLUES.

Number 10 = She has 10 Grammy Awards/wins. (interestinly: both D. Parton & C. Khan have 10 Grammy wins!)

Monster Hits = she has had (many) hit songs during her career

He made me feel = She has a song by the title “I Feel You” (1984 hit)

It was fire = She has a song by the title “Through the Fire” (1985)

Will you love me - that is (word for word) the title of of her her hit songs, “Will You Love Me?” (2007)

It was fire = She wrote the hit song “Fule to the Flame” (1967 hit) for Skeeter Davis.

Will you still love me? = She has/wrote a song titled “I will always love you”

Furspray/Hairsray = he was/is known for her big hair/haircut (managing that probably takes lots of hairspray)

FUN = FUN(K) #FUN KEY [FUN:KI] - she’s kinda the “queen of funk” (one of her albums is titled “FUNk This” (btw: Pun intended by her!)

TURTLE

CLUES

Location: school’s track & field event (Balzano Track Field) - contestants getting ready to run. The slow turtle surrounded by fast bunnies, all preparing for the event. [Slow & steady (turtle) wins the race]

Location: Schools track & field event - BANG! The race begings. The three other contestants (MIB as bunnies - wearing pink bunny ears - starting the race with a head start, all jumping on their blue bouncy balls)

VISUAL CLUES:

Turtle vs bunnies

BANG! in comic style - to mark the start of the race

The others (three bunnies) bouncing on blue balls whe n the race begins

Surf board - the turtle poliching/cleaning his poink & blue surf board

Pins on the track...popping the blue jumpy balls

Grilling burgers on an (outside) grill...on the track field.

Turtle crossing the finish line first (bunnies just going in circles, being stopped by pins on the way, or other reasons), as he has time to do other things & take it slowly, and then still get there first...with a burger in hand & winning the golden medal.

AUDIO CLUES/VOICE OVER:

"At the starting-line of my career I was surrounded by other hungry new-comers. It felt like everyone around me was fighting tooth-and-nail for the dream. And I watched as many of those stars burned too brightly, too quickly, and then fizzled down”

“I’m a turtle, because I’m always taking it step-by-step.”

“Slow and steady wins the race. But now I feel like I’m ready to break out of my shell. After years of preparation I would love to make a big splash. So I don’t want anyone to cross that finish line before me.”

ON STAGE CLUES:

Song choice: “Kiss from a Rose” by Seal

Look/Costume: Punk/Rock-style, dressed in leather (pants, jacket), has a spike (hair)

Height: Short-ish (shorter than host Nick) - seems around 175cm. Small in size.

Mic hand: Right

Talking: “It’s hot. It’s really hot. And it’s heavy!” (when answering how doesn it feel to be in that costume and perform in it)

GUESSES

Jesse McCartney

Joey McIntyre PS. I tried connecting the voice to any boy-bands (of 1990s & 2000s), but I coukdnt. Even after some “research” - listening to each possible candidate...and IMO it’s none of them. The voices dont match, the heights doesn’t match---But it did sound like someone, who for me was a one-hit-wonder. Yeah, I only know that one song (and one more) from him... but voice seemed familiar.

POSSIBLE MEANING OF CLUES:

Surf board = that he is a surfer; that he is from Cali/Australia/somewhere which is known as being popular among surfers; that he has won Teen Choice Award(s) (this award in in the shape of a surfboard)

being surrounded by other new-comers at the start of his career = either he got his start through a (singing) competition and was one of many contestants fighting for the win AND/OR he got his start in a “boy-band” and was one of the youngsters looking for fame...

Surf board = Teen Choice Awards - winning several TCAs for his first/biggest hit song/album in 2005, and more. And he’s played a surfer character on a TV show

BSB references/connection - he was the opening act in 2005 for BSB during the European part of the tour.

Dream = he started in a boy-band with the name “Dream Street”

on stage presence/body language (movements) = very similar to J.M.

WHITE TIGER

CLUES:

Location: Football field. Tiger striking a power/winners pose.

Location: School hallway, lockers. Tiger walking in, shoving everyone out of his way.

Locatrion: School library (sitting behind a table, with his legs on the table)

Location: School hallway, lockers. MIB trying to get him to audition for TMS. MIB (fans) taking selfies with him.

VISUAL CLUES:

Golden plate/sign with text: Ultimate champion for clam shucking: 51 clams” (next to a golden clam shell)

Sign/ad on the wall: “Masked Singer tryouts 5/3.” + images of three past masks included: Eagle, Lion & Raven. Plus the text: “Hurry. Not for long" also written on it.

Sign on the all with images of past US presidents, including Abe Lincolns & the text/quote “Four Score and Seven Years Ago...”

The TMS golden mask throphee shown next to the lockers (as Tiger says “let’s party!”)

AUDIO CLUES/VOICEOVER:

“Ready to meet your next champion? My entire life I’ve sought out perfection, so choosing a mask with unlimited power like the White Tiger was a no-brainer.”

“I’ve had a giant career full of accomplishments. But when I imagine being on stage (and) singing, I’m a big old scared cat.*

“It’s been a while since I did something that scared me, so I’m here to concour yet anither challenge.”

“What’s my motivation? My fans! I don’t wanna let them down."

“So now I’m ready to get in that ring and smash the competition.”

“Let’s party!”

ON STAGE CLUES:

Song choice “Ice Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice

Look/Costume: Dressed in “Egyptian style"

Height: very tall & big (much taller than host Nick) - over 190cm, looks about 2m tall

Mic hand: R & L (alternates)

Talking: “It’s the most powerful I’ve ever felt. Like I can concour anything. I never wanna take it off” (when answering what did it feel like when he first put on the costume/mask)

POSSIBLE MEANING OF CLUES:

He played during the 51st (51 clams) & 53rd (5/3) Super Bowl games.

The three past TMS masks shown are all animals that are parts of names of existing football teams: Ravens, Eagles, Lions. Meaning he is an athlete & specifically plays american football (NFL)

The Lincoln quote translates to “87 years ago...”, so number 87 is the clue here. This could be a reference to player No. 87.

He has had a very succesful career in his own field (sports). Singing is not his main job.

IF the voice-overs were done later, not during initial filming, then it’s possible that “smash” relates to the person smashing a lego-statue of a TV host during 2019/2020 New Years. Which in itself was supposed to be about his famous “Gronk Spike” during football games.

A tiger (albeit “regular”, not white) was one of the characters & costumes + name of the sports team in the Katy Perry video “Swish Swich”, where this athlete also appeared.

The Golden (Golden Mask) trophe - most likely a reference to his many wins (the trophees he/his team has won)

GUESSES:

Rob Gronkowski (Gronk, athlete, 198cm) = 99% certain it’s him

Because of the height alone (seems to be around/almost 2m = 6 feet 5) there are not that many possibilities at all. Even if we don’t listen to that voice or consider the clues. Based on height alone it can basiclaly be only one of these names: Dave Bautista (198cm); The Rock (196cm); Hulk Hogan (201cm); Tyler Perry (196cm); Brad Garrett (204cm); Joe Manganiello (196cm); Jeff Goldblum (194cm); Jason Mamoa (193cm); Tom Brady (193cm)..or the likes...

Even other possible names, like the ones listed by the panel, are not valid guesses, because of their height: John Cena for example is actually only 185cm tall. Also... several of these tall men are bigger/more muscular, so that makes it even easier to determine the name based on only the physical appeance...without even listening to the clues.

ROBOT

First mask to be voted out in ep 1

Havent listed his clues, cause there’s no use for them anymore, as he was voted off.

With his 86 tattoos he makes up for about half of all the 160 tattoos the 18 contestants have combined. With his 24-25 Grammy nominations he makes up about 1/3 of all the 69 noms the 18 contestants have combined. And quite many of the 88 gold records the 18 contestants have combined, belong to him (I don’t know the exact number, but most/all of his 10+ albums have gone gold, I think) - exact number depends on how they count it for this list.

<<<<< THIS IS WHAT GOES ON IN MY HEAD AFTER EVERY TMS SHOW/EPISODE. THIS IS HOW I CATEGORIZE THE INFO I HAVE INTO FOLDERS IN MY MIND. THIS IS HOW SPECIFIC I AM, AND HOW INTO DETAILS I GO. THIS IS HOW MUCH I PAY ATTENTION (while, most likely, missing a ton of more hints that I’ll only notice during re-watch) I JUST DECIDED TO WRITE IT DOWN...FOR ONCE.

BUT... unless I decide to cut some sleep time to do this again, I am probabky not gonna do this after every episode. Possibly for the first episode of every Group (so beside ep 1, also ep 4 & ep 7)

#THE MASKED SINGER #TMS #SPOILER #TMS SPOILER #TMS US #THE MASKED SINGER USA #THE MASKED SINGER SEASON 3 #TMS S3 #TMS SEASON 3 #THE MASKED SINGER S3 #MASKED SINGER

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skincarestudies-blog · 7 years ago

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Back to the Basics:

Ever since I figured out the difference between slippers and sneakers, I’ve wanted a multi-step skin and makeup routine. I don’t know; it’s something about the elegant/cute/aesthetic packaging drawing me in, and instant gratification after application that always encouraged my unhealthy obsession with skincare products. Something about buying the next new thing and throwing it into my cupboard, always satisfied a little sense of my pride.

Fast forward a couple of years, and I have come to the realisation that less is indeed more. As years passed, and products have lived and perished on my vanity, I have come to the conclusion that no, I do not need 5 products to moisturise my skin. Shocker, right? Especially since I consider myself a young individual, I should be asking myself do I really need this anti-aging serum that just hit the market? I’ve already got a gentle cleanser in the evening, so do I really need another one for the morning? It’s these kind of questions we must be asking ourselves before we make a purchase on the new hottest toner. Because in all honesty, if we strip our skin care routine to the essentials we need cleanser, moisturiser, and protection (for the AM).

I’m aiming this post specifically towards the younger audiences and people who may just be starting to get into skincare. I understand that it’s hard to decipher all this new technology and science that companies have come out with over the recent years- now with the biggest boom of revolutionary cosmetic products since the early 2000s. Statistics have demonstrated that from 2012, the global cosmetic market have seen a shift in the consumer demographic age range from the older to younger audiences. To keep up with the change, companies have changed marketing strategies that would appeal to their new audience through strategies of all natural and readily more acne fighting products. However, encouraging a young and/or uneducated audience to buy unnecessary products can only spell more bad than good.

Cleanser:

Role: “A cleanser is a facial care product that is used to remove make-up*, dead skin cells, oil, dirt, and other types of pollutants from the skin of the face. This helps to unclog pores and prevent skin conditions such as acne” Cleanser - Wikipedia

It is important to understand that a cleanser’s role is not to solve all your skin’s problems. It’s role is to cleanse the uppermost part of your skin, and that because it is not left on your skin for prolonged periods of time its ingredients cannot reach far into the layers of the skin.

When looking for a cleanser, it is important to understand what your skin needs and what your skin type demands. If you’re dry-sensitive skin is breaking out, and you’ve been doing tons of research on the best acne cleansers but not taking into account your skin type you can cause more trouble than when you started.

Things to look at: pH of your cleanser (this should be in the 5.5-6.5 range), top most ingredients (this determines what ingredients that are going to mostly affect you), and the options available to you. I personally hate the idea that the more expensive a product is, the more time was taken into the formulation. While this is true in SOME cases, spending $50 on a cleanser that does the exact same thing with the exact same ingredients as a cleanser that is $15 will always boggle my balls.

Recommendations: 1. CeraVe Hydrating cleanser 2. COSRX Low pH Good Morning Gel Cleanse (even though it says good morning you can use it at night) 3. klairs Rich Moist Foaming Cleanser 4. Mario Badescu Enzyme Cleansing Gel 5. Ego Azclear Action Foaming wash - (what I’m using at the moment) 6. Neogen Green Tea Real Fresh Foam Cleanser

Note:

* I personally do not rely on my cleanser to remove makeup and sunscreen, as most of my cleansers are extremely gentle and I know the role is more to remove excess sebum and dirt not makeup. I use an oil based cleanser before my water based cleanser to remove the most upper layer of collected oil, dirt, makeup, and sunscreen.

I personally do not enjoy a cleanser completely and unnecessarily stripping my skin of its natural oils. In my opinion, a cleanser should be able to perform its role without having to compromise our natural skin barrier- this means without highly irritating ingredients, leaving a tight and dry feel, and being terribly difficult to remove.

Moisturiser:

Role: “Moisturizers or emollients are complex mixtures of chemical agents specially designed to make the external layers of the skin softer and more pliable. They increase the skin's hydration by reducing evaporation.” Moisturizer - Wikipedia

THIS IS NECESSARY GUYS. I cannot stress enough that regardless of your skin type if you are not moisturising your skin after cleansing (or in general) that your natural barrier could potentially be suffering immensely! I’m not going to go into the science of moisturisers in this post (maybe another one) but the general idea of a moisturiser is to trap the essential nutrients and moisture or restoring the lost moisture. If you are cleansing (which you should be) you are already washing away a good percentage of your natural moisture, so it is important for you to be restoring the skin’s natural moisture.

Moisturisers can also provide the skin with extra benefits with anti-aging and antioxidant properties.

It is also important to know the fine line between moisturising enough and too much. Too much moisture can unfortunately result in more acne as the thick layer of occlusives/humectants may not allow for the skin to breath. I personally have found myself crossing this line a lot.

Oils are a a quick and light way to achieve a plump and smooth texture. Looking for thin and dry oils specifically aimed towards acne prone skin can help with sebum production and provide the skin with added healing properties.

Recommendations: 1. La Roche-Posay Toleriane Ultra Overnight Moisturiser 2. La Roche-Posay Toleriane Riche (heard amazing reviews about this one, it’s worth a go for those with sensitive/combo/dry-flaky skin) 3. Ego QV Skin Lotion 4. COSRX Advanced Snail 92 All In One Cream 5. Aloe Vera Gel 6. Dr Dennis Gross Hyaluronic Moisture Cushion

Sunscreen:

Role: Sunscreen, also known as sunblock and suntan lotion, is a lotion, spray, gel or other topical product that absorbs or reflects some of the sun's ultraviolet radiation and thus helps protect against sunburn. Wikipedia

I personally can’t say much about this step other than it is vital to the health and longevity of your skin. I haven’t done too much research on what can happen to you if you don’t use sunscreen, other than darkening your acne scars and skin irritation after treatments if not used. As I live in Australia, it is paramount that I use sunscreen everyday to reduce the chances of developing skin cancer (this applies to all regions of the world too).

There are two types of sunscreens: physical and chemical. The latter is the one you all probably see the most in stores as it does not leave that greasy white cast that everyone hates. However, I prefer physical sunscreens over chemical ones as instead of absorbing into my skin and causing irritation they sit on top and protect my skin via ingredients that I trust more (i.e zinc and titanium dioxide).

Recommendations:* 1. COSRX Aloe Soothing Sun Cream SPF50+ PA+++ 2. Biore UV Aqua Rich Watery Essence Sunscreen SPF 50+ PA+++ 3. Ego Sunsense Sensitive Invisible SPF50+ 4. L’Oreal Dermo-Expertise UV Perfect 12H Longlasting UVA/UVB Protector SPF50+/Pa+++

Note:

*I don’t actually have a lot of recommendations, because I find that I breakout from sunscreens very easily. My experiences with both physical and chemical sunscreens have not been the best, and while I do prefer physical they still tend to lean towards the negative effects more.

Now I’m not gonna be some up-herself-messiah that comes raining down with knowledge while simultaneously practising everything that I speak of. No, I don’t only use 2-3 products everyday, how will I satisfy the urge to pour oil all over myself? A bit of an exaggeration, I admit, but after years of products it’s hard to go back. What I want to get across though, is that it is not impossible, and that every once in awhile it is necessary for us to give our skin a break. May it be a reaction from a new product or the seasons playing with your skin, I believe once we strip our skin care regimens down to the basics, we can restore our skin’s natural barrier.

TL;DR: Our skin is smart guys, give it some credit.

#skincare #skin #care #study #studyblr #cleanse #moisture

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decodealin · 4 years ago

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7 Top Strategies For Choosing The Perfect Wardrobe

Possessing appropriate storage is absolutely key to turning your bedroom into a clutter-free sanctuary, along with a carefully selected wardrobe is the thing of furniture most likely to provide scope for more organized living.

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So, to start with, the very first question to ask yourself is what type of storage space do you mostly need? Hanging space for clothing, shelves for shoes, drawers for smaller clothes products, cosmetics or other Wardrobe Accessories India, or a mix?

Once you've set out exactly what your wardrobe will be used for, you can consider the functionality it needs to offer, which will help guide both the exterior and interior specification you need it to match.

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Knowing the duration of hanging space you will roughly have to have in proportion to the kind of clothing you have is important. If you are going to store long coats, evening dresses and dressing gowns in the wardrobe rather than elsewhere in the home, you'll almost certainly require accessories which optimise the entire height of the apparel, although suits, short dresses and jumpers can hang comfortably on half-height railings, which instantly doubles the amount of hanging room.

When it has to do with drawers and shelves, again think carefully about everything you will, mostly, be storing on them. Many dividers today offer super-innovative interior designs with built-in shoe racks, jewellery drawers, and adjustable cubbyholes that enhance organisation options, reduce clutter and possibly eliminate the need for additional furniture in the bedroom. And many equipments are easy to buy. Because decodeal are offers Pull Out Pantry, Pull Out Kitchen, etc.

The thickness of shelves is also a consideration -- past a certain stage, having a deeper shelf produces a black hole where clothes disappear, which means that you may struggle to find things right at the back!

Best Tip 3) Size

Consider precisely where on your bedroom the wardrobe is going to proceed, and be very sure of this; a large piece of furniture is often difficult to move around (and impossible if it's a fitted layout -- obviously!) And many rooms only have one suitable location for a product of this size, therefore it ought to match perfectly.

Most manufacturers make wardrobes to get at least 45cm of thickness, that should be enough to give you the choice to possess ample shelf, hanging and drawer space.

If your budget permits, my tip would be to go as large as possible however -- you can never have enough storage space -- but in sensible limitations, so think almost about if there'll be sufficient clearance space to easily open doors, walk around and match your additional items of furniture in comfortably.

Also go as tall as you can towards the ceiling to increase storage. This space can be useful for stashing spare bedding, seasonal or occasional things which don't need daily usage.

Best Tip 4) Forms of Clothing

As soon as you've pinpointed your performance requirements, you should begin considering the varieties of wardrobe which are available.

Fitted designs are fantastic for rooms with strange angles, awkward alcoves, or sloping ceilings; available from specialist suppliers, they are normally custom-made and much more expensive.

Free-standing wardrobes are versatile when considering design and cost; they're often available for quicker delivery and can be moved from room to room, or house to house, if needed. The Principal types to choose from are:

Two-door panel dividers: these generally follow a pretty standard design in which the inside is divided in half with one side as drawers and another with rails.

Three-door panel wardrobes: offering a bit more space, this layout comprises another compartment of railings or shelving.

Hinged doors are more common though, and imply that you could mount a mirror or additional hooks/ racks around the interior.

Doorless: a frame-stand lets you make a display as well as shop clothing. Easily collapsible and movable, standalone rails can be used in addition to a traditional wardrobe, but do appeal to quite a specific,'on-trend', flavor.

Best Tip 5) Design

As a larand dominant piece of furniture, the design of this wardrobe contributes greatly to the overall theme and taste of the bedroom.

The different styles available are endless, from timeless, versatile classics, to high-gloss, slick modern; from ornate French boudoir to minimalist Scandinavian chic.

Little touches like the grips can have an impact on the wardrobe's overall appeal; whether you go for elaborate glass knobs, slim brushed-chrome handles, cupped insets or ring pulls, and these delicate accomplices can be customisable and help to hone the overall stylistics.

Also think about if you would like to match your wardrobe with other pieces of furniture such as a bedside cupboard, chest of drawers or vanity. Should you prefer these to be matching, check if the apparel is part of a suite.

Best Tip 6) Material and Finish

The material, color and surface finish of your wardrobe is a massive contributor to its design and also the amount of practicality it can offer. There are many choices available, such as modular options which means that you can mix and match to create a bespoke look unique to you!

Strong wood: one of the most used materials, strong wood is solid and solid, with each kind bringing a different feel and effect.

MDF or particleboard: common options these days, they're cost-effective, inexpensive and reasonably durable wardrobe materials.

High gloss finish: showcasing a sleek, modern look to your room, this glistening finish is mainly available in either black, white or very light colours.

Glass and mirrors: through reflecting the light, opaque glass or mirror adds an additional dimension to the room, making a glowing impact which complements most interior décor.

Painted finish: readily available in many colours, painted wardrobes can also be treated with different distinct finishes, tailoring it to exude a rustic, refreshing, elaborate or boho look, based upon your design preference.

Top Tip 7) Practicality

As a bulky item of furniture with features that can vary greatly from product to product, there are some other logistical factors on the'ideal wardrobe checklist' that I would highly recommend considering before you make a purchase:

Double check sizes and dimensions: it's very easy to underestimate how much space a bit of furniture like this can take up, therefore check and check again when it comes to measuring measurements and the total amount of clearance space needed. Plotting the shape out on the floor with masking tape is obviously helpful as you want.

Delivery: check with the retailer if shipping costs are included, and that this includes carrying the dresses to the last destination in the area -- you do not need it left unattended when it ought to go into a third-floor bedroom! Quantify halls, stairs and doors to make certain you can fit the wardrobe through comfortably; if the space is quite limited you might have to take into account a flat package.

Meeting: wardrobes are usually heavy and bulky, so you can require assistance (and patience!) To build. Pre-assembled products will save yourself time but are usually pricier, and more challenging to manoeuvre into place.

Safety: as a tall, freestanding item, ensure that you are able to securely fasten the wardrobe to the wall or anchor it to the ground when you've got young kids who are tempted to use it as a climbing frame!

#Pull Out Pantry #Pull Out Kitchen #Wardrobe Accessories India #Wardrobe Accessories Online #Kitchen Organiser Rack

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titconao3 · 7 years ago

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tagged by @theleafpile & @m0urningd0ves

1. Name? i've been titC in fandom since my first days around.

2. Nickname? None.

3. Height? 1m57/58, so less than 5 ft 2

4. Orientation? oh dear. Mostly ace, more or less aro... not 100% for either but it's just a lot of bother and anxiety for, well, what? it usually feels very fake to me, but apparently i'm in a minority here ;-) i don't "get" it, & it also means feeling estranged from a lot of what seems to obsess everyone. It all seems illogical, frankly ;-) how are you supposed to only show the best part of yourself but not lie about yourself, at the same time? this is really not making sense. At least mating dances in the animal kingdoms don't hide it between so many embellishments. (me: a cold fish.) No, i don't want to bang this or that performer; no, i don't feel anything other than aesthetic appreciation if i see someone pleasing to my eye or ear etc. Like i'd feel for a statue or a beautiful landscape? It makes navigating some fan sites at best annoying and confusing, at worst... ew. And yet i also write romance, go figure. i do believe it informs the way i write these feelings, though - focusing on visible etc, physical manifestations of emotions because that's the St Thomas in me: i don't believe it if it can't be seen / heard / touched. Putting myself in someone else's head makes it easier to understand, perhaps? i'm also one of those people who need a lot of alone, quiet, time; and not just "in separate rooms" alone. That is not alone for me, there's still a need to perform an awareness i can't entirely just, well, be. Yes, that includes friends and family.

5. Nationality? baguette, béret & wine.

6. Favourite fruit? not big on fruit, unless i can add them in a salad or cook them with vegetables like apples.

7. Favourite season? i don't do well when it's hot.

8. Favourite flower? *sneezes*

9. Favourite scent? *sneezes* not fond of smells i associate with food when it's not food (bread baking in the oven, fine; chocolate-scented shower gel: NOPE). I like things that are a bit spicy, not flowery, not too sweet, or like rain in forest things? But scents are like sounds, i am most comfortable with none, except when i specifically go looking for it. For example, i don't wear perfumes, i prefer unscented (or if i must "medically" scented cosmetics etc), i hate Lush shops with a passion, etc.

10. Favourite colour? depends on my mood.

11. Favourite animal? i don't really care? yay, beasties, yay, no beasties.

12. Coffee, tea, or hot chocolate? all the coffees, all the teas. Most of the time i find hot choc too rich / heavy / sweet.

13. Average hours of sleep? variable. My schedule is a mess.

14. Dogs or cats? both, but i wouldn't have a pet. i don't have the time, space, patience, etc.

15. Favourite fictional character? too many to count (or choose from)!

16. Number of blankets you sleep with? as many as i can get away with, depending on the weather.

17. Dream trip? i'm easy.

18. Blog created? a year and a half ago, i think? i had an LJ back the the early 2000s. Also have another blog on another website, about nail polish mostly.

19. Number of followers? about 100 i guess? i don't even know why they'd follow me, because i actualyl rarely post Lucifer stuff.

20. Random fact? uuuuh... RAM REM rim ROM rum all exist. Pat, pet, pit, pot, put too. that's fun. It's fun, right?

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marychronicles · 7 years ago

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The Sunday Currently | 08

Wow. I can’t hardly believe that it’s the first Sunday of 2018 and I’m writing my first proper blog post for the year. How’s the first week of the year holding you up, babies? I’ve had a pretty great and happy start this year, compared to my previous New Years. The only thing that’s changed is that, I am not writing the NY resolutions anymore, I feel like I’m too old for that haha but I’m definitely killing some old habits & staying away from my phone as much as possible. I’m also planning for a quick “get away from the city” trip this year with my Family of course. How about you guys? What are your plans for 2018?

CURRENTLY

Writing

- hmm.. absolutely nothing, sadly. Except for this one obviously; I know I’ve mentioned that I’m serious about writing, but you know, I have no idea why it’s a challenge for me. Time management is the key, I’ve been exhausted (from work) and lazy all at once. I feel sorry for myself. I haven’t even started on the third chapter of the short story I told you guys about; but I’ll let you know if I’ll ever make progress on that.

Reading

- a newly discovered blog by Steph (socialspying.com) she’s an amazing blogger and you should check her blog and follow her on social media. (Don’t tell her I said this haha)

- tweets from @FemaleBloggerRT. This is where I’ve discovered Steph’s blog and I’m also discovering a lot of female bloggers who are just so amazing at what they do. If you fancy blogging or you just started blogging, I think you might want to check this account.

Watching

- BLACK MIRROR!!! Lollies, I’m obsessed with this one. I’ve only got few episodes; I’ve watched the whole 3 episodes from Season 1, I have one episode from Season 2; and 2 episodes from it’s latest season w/c is the fourth one. I’ve watched the first episode from the 4th season too. But my favorite episode is “The Entire History of You” it’s the last episode from Season 1. Where everyone has access to a memory implant that records everything humans do, see and hear. It made me feel that it could be happening these days because Black Mirror was released in 2011. It’s futuristic and I love it.

- Girlboss. I’m on the 8th episode. :) Sophia is my spirit animal!

- Gossip Girl Season 5 & 6. Yes babies! I’m almost done with GG haha you might be thinking that I’m crazy for watching all three series at once but I do enjoy it you know? It’s like, my way of staying out of the social world even if it’s just for a couple of hours.

- Before Sunrise. I LOVE THIS MOVIE FOREVS!!! ETHAN HAWKE IS DADDY! I love Julie Delpy too. She’s beautiful. Their story is so moving and I half wish that I could be like Céline, she’s smart, spontaneous and an adventuress; I’ve always wanted to be like that. I wonder if there’s something like Céline and Jesse in real life.

Listening

- “Soul Lounge” on Spotify. This playlist is sex to my ears. My top picks are: “Penthouse Floor” “Backseat” “Grey Luh” “Turnin’ Me Up” “Cranes in the Sky” “Come Through and Chill” and a whole lot more.

- “Gold Edition” on Spotify. This one is like, the twin of “Soul Lounge” but it’s mostly R&B jams & only it has my all time faves like, “Body Party” by Ciara, “Drunk in Love” by Beyoncé ft Jay-Z “We Belong Together” by Mariah Carey and of course, “Hotline Bling” by Drake.

- “The Ones that Got Away” also on Spotify. This playlist came out when my Top Songs 2017 was made; but I was never able to listen to it ‘til last Tuesday. Well it’s the playlist consists of music that you wish you had known earlier last year. I must say it’s pretty impressive. My top picks: “I’m a Fan” by Pia Mia ft Jeremih & “Just Dance” by HONNE.

Loving

- my baby girl’s Baby Mossimo blue dress, it’s a gift from one of my closest friends. It’s the cutest sailor-like dress I’ve ever seen.

- Benefit Cosmetics’ POREfessional face primer. It saves my face from being so cakey the whole day. My make up stays a lot longer with this one. God, I’m such a late bloomer for discovering the powers of a face primer 😂

- the clothes, bags and the pair of shoes I just bought from the thrift shop the other day. Thank heavens for thrift shops! It saves a lot of money hahaha plus, you can get everything at such a cheap price you know? Not to mention, the clothes there are way better than the ones at the mall. So, why shop at the malls when you have a thrift shop nearby? #justsaying

Needing

- to save money for my daughter’s future, books, travels and more.

- to put a stop hoarding unwanted/un-needed make up/cosmetics hehee

Feeling

- blessed and grateful 😄

Thinking

- if I should go to LANY’s concert later this year. Thinking if saving up for LANY’s ticket concert is worth it. I have no idea if it’s really worth my time; I wanna see them so bad! I feel like this is my only chance to get to see them perform ever. I guess I need more time to think about it.

- about what our future is going to be like especially this year. Like man, I don’t wanna go broke and have nothing at all; that’s why I really need to freaking save every penny that’s left at the end of the day. We’re not that broke, we just don’t know how to spend money wisely, well that’s going to change this year. I have to be frugal, I mean it this time.

- about re-writing my about me page, gosh I need to do it right this time. I NEED TO WRITE. I NEED TO WRITE!

I know what’s been keeping me busy lately (besides from work) and is also the main reason I can’t focus on my writing; blame it on Netflix for being so amazing because I just keep on watching my fave TV series or movies from there. Well.. here’s what you should know about me too: I try to do everything whenever my daughter is fast asleep; I read, watch, listen to music everytime I have the chance to. Having a toddler means having less time for yourself and more time for the kid that you’re taking care of. Not that I don’t like that, I love taking care of my daughter of course. It’s just that, whenever I have my free time, I don’t write at all. I tend to do something else and I don’t know why is that, but it’s what I do. I guess I really am a lazy daisy. I can’t help it. There’s something I need to get rid of if I want to focus on writing right? Hmm.. is this means bye-bye, Netflix??? I’m gonna have to keep you posted on this babies!

In the mean time, I just wish you all a great and productive week ahead. Remember to always hold your head high!!

xoxo, Mary.

Join The Sunday Currently link-up by siddathorton!

#the sunday currently #currently #blogpost #2018

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supreme-sep · 7 years ago

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Crystal Harris Pretends To Cry While Explaining Hef Breakup

Tracie Egan Morrissey

6/17/11 11:20amFiled to: WATCH 31.1K 114

Crystal Harris continued her Runaway Bride press tour last night on Entertainment Tonight; it was her first television interview since announcing earlier this week that she would not marry Hugh Hefner as planned on Saturday. While she did try to cry during her interview, Crystal was mostly all smiles as she explained her reasons for calling off the wedding, one of them being the 60-year age difference — you know, that same 60-year age difference that everyone from awards show hosts to blogs to pundits mocked since the couple's December engagement (Crystal pretended to be offended by that mockery during her last interview with Entertainment Tonight). She says that her rumored affair with Dr. Phil's son Jordan McGraw had nothing to do with the breakup and that the two are just friends who have been working on her music career.

And in case you were wondering, Jordan had nothing to do with the dance single Crystal released earlier this week. Reply114 replies

All replies The following replies are approved. To see additional replies that are pending approval, click Show Pending. Warning: These may contain graphic material. Show pending

Burpy Boo Tracie Egan Morrissey 6/17/11 11:49am She's 25, right? So, perhaps I am naive, but why does it seem like she's had some sort of plastic surgery? Her face just doesn't really move when she speaks... or, maybe it's just that she's not particularly emotionally moved by the end of her engagement - so many possibilities! Reply

BlondeGoddess Burpy Boo 6/17/11 12:10pm Botox. Reply

thenumbler Burpy Boo 6/17/11 12:48pm It's like her lips are too huge for her to be able to talk correctly. Kind of sounds like when someone tries to cry and talk. Reply

This is an Awesome Pen Name Burpy Boo 6/17/11 12:54pm A lot of cosmetic surgeons are pushing to have Botox done *before* you get wrinkles so it can prevent wrinkles.

I know because my mother has suggested I do it to my brow-furrow area. Because I tend to furrow my brow. My husband has begged me not to because he said it's the best way to know when I'm really angry. Reply

bitchfacemcsasspants This is an Awesome Pen Name 6/17/11 1:18pm My mom told me this the other day after returning from a Botox session, and I almost laughed. Preventative Botox? Seriously? Dumbest thing I have heard lately. As if injecting bacteria into your face isn't already a dumb enough idea. Reply Show more replies in this thread

missWhaTha Tracie Egan Morrissey 6/17/11 11:32am There's something...off...about her face. I understand that's par for the course when it comes to Playmates/Hef's ladyfriends in general, but she's only how old?! She looks like the next Real Housewife of Orange County. Reply

cefdonnelly missWhaTha 6/17/11 11:42am I thought the same thing..she is 25 yet looks 40. I blame plastic surgery and unhealthy lifestyle. Also I really don't understand what's special about her. Reply

padme cefdonnelly 6/17/11 11:47am She's 25? Here I thought Hef was being more reasonable marrying an older woman. I thought she was in her late 30s at least. Remind me not to get plastic surgery on my face ever. Reply

BoxMeowBox missWhaTha 6/17/11 11:48am Her upper lip appears frozen when she speaks. Maybe she and Hef were experimenting with cryonics together. Reply

Myxomatosis missWhaTha 6/17/11 11:52am Well (and I mean this with the least amount of body snark possible when talking about someone's appearance), it's pretty clear she had her lips done, and the top one especially stretches across her face really tightly when she talks, and it looks super unnatural Reply Show more replies in this thread

lost_grrl Tracie Egan Morrissey 6/17/11 9:27pm It seems pretty clear that she planned this since the beginning...she broke it off like the day after that month's magazine went to print or something like that and there are rumors that she had planned all along to leave him at the alter in order to get publicity since the wedding was going to be filmed for a special TV show. She was said to be shopping around for a $500,000 deal for the first "Runaway Bride" interview. Does she really think that the general public is going to believe that she suddenly woke up 5 days before the wedding and realized that Hef was the Crypt Keeper or that there were other women at the Playboy Mansion? I don't know how the whole thing works...if he is really having sex with multiple women or not (I got the impression from something I saw with that Kendra girl that he does not sleep with all of his "girlfriends"...which begs the question why he would call them girlfriends otherwise) but it should have come as no surprise to her that the man she was about to marry was older than her grandfather or that there were other women willing to take her place. Sorry Crystal...I don't buy it for a second.

It makes you almost feel sorry for Hef...almost. Reply

Dumbbutnotblonde lost_grrl 6/18/11 6:03am @lost_grrl: Not to mention it was also the day her single was released.... Reply

welllahdeedah Tracie Egan Morrissey 6/17/11 11:49am The only other woman in Hef's life at this point is probably an at-home nurse, who attends to his daily shots of virgin blood and changes him every so often.

If Crystal was so jealous of the sponge-baths, she should have offered to take a PSW course. Reply

Apricot Poodle Riding Eeyore Across a Rainbow Tracie Egan Morrissey 6/17/11 2:13pm I think the interviewer's concern!face is pretty spectacular. Reply

jesbelle Apricot Poodle Riding Eeyore Across a Rainbow 6/17/11 2:41pm Watching this without the sound was really the only way to go. It's like performance art or something. "Smarmy douchebags mime emotions at one another"

Am I the only one who's uncomfortable by the camera constantly zooming in on whomever is speaking? I really don't want to get closer to either of these fools, thanks. Reply

Leahthekid jesbelle 6/17/11 10:32pm i got the feeling he hit on her afterwards. i felt like he was trying to look professional and concerned, but the whole time was thinking, she's a whore-i have an entitlement to tap that Reply

kookla Tracie Egan Morrissey 6/17/11 6:07pm If I were Jordan McGraw, I wouldn't want to be associated with that single either. And I'm not talking about the song. Reply

BabyJane Tracie Egan Morrissey 6/17/11 3:14pm I hate the fake cry. You know you're not crying. I know you're not crying. So let's just knock it off, shall we. Reply

Jessica Zimmerman Tracie Egan Morrissey 6/17/11 11:37am I use a Mac and all of a sudden over the last few weeks I can't view any of these videos. I use firefox and tried safari, anyone know what to do? Reply

GravityBringsUsDown Jessica Zimmerman 6/17/11 11:46am I use Chrome and I can see all of them on my Mac! Reply

tourist19 Jessica Zimmerman 6/17/11 11:47am I use chrome on my mac, but sometimes have that issue here. If the video doesn't load at all, but the rest of the page does usually a reload will make it appear. If the video does load, but doesn't play I generally hit play, then move the dot on the viewing bar back and forth until it kicks in. Sounds weird, but it works. Reply

Jessica Zimmerman GravityBringsUsDown 6/17/11 11:47am Good to know thanks :) I may have to get that! Reply

Slomo788 Jessica Zimmerman 6/17/11 11:48am Google Chrome. Your Mac's Flash plugin might need updating too. Reply Show more replies in this thread

SittingDuck139 Tracie Egan Morrissey 6/17/11 11:51am Lol, I hate to admit it, but here's a guy who can't help but enjoy how transparently this gal used and then dumped Hef.

Full disclosure: I am, in fact, a Hef-hater. I know, bros before hos, hate the playa not the game, (but REALLY don't really hate the playa, either, cause then you're just a jealous friggin' loser, dude). The whole guy code, I get it, I'm familiar with it, I'm generally on board with it. I usually TRY to comply — sincerely, i do.

But in Hef's case, I've never been strong enough, I guess. I hate the guy. I know what you'll say — I'm just envious of that ridiculous lifestyle of his — and I won't argue the point — I'm sure that it's to some degree true. But frankly, more than the lifestyle itself, I think it's Hef's smug, self-satisfied, flaunting of that lifestyle that really grates... I mean, enjoy, brotha, you're old, decrepit, fading, you might as well enjoy what you can while you can. But can you have the good manners to just do it a little more quietly?

Anyway, I'm kinda cheering Crystal on this one, even though I know she doesn't particularly deserve it. Call me a hata, 'cuz a hata I am. Reply

bitchfacemcsasspants SittingDuck139 6/17/11 1:14pm I don't think you're as alone as you think you are in those sentiments. I know plenty of men who think he's a repulsive old bugger. My dad has two daughters, and his thoughts on the matter pretty much revolve around how he would mutilate Heffner in 10 different ways if he even ever looked at us. Hef's just gross, most people know it, and I doubt very many people genuinely support his lifestyle. I think he's more of a laughingstock at this point than anything else. Reply

Greenspanner-in-the-Works SittingDuck139 6/17/11 1:37pm Makes me wish duck season were here, kinda, sorta, almos'. Reply

Perhaps Not SittingDuck139 6/17/11 3:44pm Um, hallelujah. Reply

bitchfacemcsasspants Greenspanner-in-the-Works 6/17/11 4:10pm Best comment ever. Reply Show more replies in this thread

nyc-caribbean-ragazza Tracie Egan Morrissey 6/17/11 11:40am He has other women in his life? Oh please. The dude can barely walk. My grandfather passed away at 96. During his 90s he seemed a lot more with it than Hef. Reply

expertdabbler nyc-caribbean-ragazza 6/17/11 12:59pm

I'm pretty sure this Anna Berglund chick is the next in line. She's been posing on red carpets with just Hef and Crystal all year even though her issue came out in January. Reply

nyc-caribbean-ragazza expertdabbler 6/17/11 1:27pm Maybe she will have a show with Hef. The one with Crystal and twins didn't do so well. I wonder if Hef still makes his "girlfriends" keep a 10:00 p.m. curfew. Reply

real_recognize_real Tracie Egan Morrissey 6/17/11 7:47pm I'm sorry the lip injections, the botox, and plastic surgery... it's too much, and it's really distracting me. She's like my age!! What you need botox and a facelift for? Those lip injections are killing me softly. If you have thin lips, you have thin lips! The lip injections on the upper lip look like she has like a thick slim upper lip. not natural at all.

It's just funny because she got all the botox and what not to look younger, but that stuff really just makes you look SO much older!

oh, beauty standards in this country. When you try to achieve them, you wind up looking worse. Reply

black and tan real_recognize_real 6/18/11 2:14am it really does blow my mind that she is 24. its a combo of the plastic surgery and "the look". it is not flattering for young women. not fresh at all.

i know women in their twenties who have had botox and fillers. they look great; they DO NOT look like this. you would never know. it isn't just the needles, its the "look"/"image" and the lifestyle. very aging. :( Reply

nowmedusa Tracie Egan Morrissey 6/17/11 11:33am No regrets? Not even for that zig-zag part? Reply

gold_gato nowmedusa 6/17/11 1:21pm Hef likes his women in the 90s. Oh, wait! Reply

talithaghetto nowmedusa 6/17/11 7:18pm Just think how much worse her roots would look if her hair had a straight part. Reply

mannequin Tracie Egan Morrissey 6/17/11 12:26pm I actually thought she sounded really genuine when she talked about the dynamics of the mansion (jealousy, cattiness, revolving girls, etc). Obviously its ridiculous that this is even this big of a deal, just my 2 cents. Reply

Dr Pamela Isley mannequin 6/17/11 10:55pm I was set to see a gold digger and what i saw was a gold digger who had just enough of something in her that she couldn't go through with it. I also thought she was pretty genuine when she talked about how the mansion works and what she realized she couldn't do or live with. Reply

ApocalypseHow Tracie Egan Morrissey 6/17/11 11:34am Hef and I have the same birthday. I take it as proof that G-d has a sense of humor. Reply

spiraloflife ApocalypseHow 6/17/11 12:02pm We have the same birthday, then! Reply

Dirk Anger ApocalypseHow 6/17/11 2:01pm Different century, though Reply

slowtraincoming Tracie Egan Morrissey 6/17/11 11:53am Wait, when did she try to cry? Reply

BrightSpark slowtraincoming 6/17/11 11:57am Around 00:50 if I would have to guess!? Reply

Leahthekid slowtraincoming 6/17/11 10:34pm oh i geuss they cut that Reply

HopeAngel Tracie Egan Morrissey 6/17/11 1:57pm I cannot BELIEVE Hugh Hefner did not tell this innocent girl that not only is he 85 years old, but that he allows other women to venture in and out of the Playboy Mansion. Just to TRICK her into marrying him! The utter nerve! She's lucky she escaped that level of deceit while she still had her integrity intact. Reply

Dumbbutnotblonde HopeAngel 6/18/11 6:06am @HopeAngel: This Reply

Samoonta Tracie Egan Morrissey 6/18/11 12:58am Ahhh, I see. Coco is likable (and she is) so her plastic surgery decisions are OK. But Crystal is unlikable (and she is) so we can all pile on and body snark on her own personal surgery choices. Cool, cool. Reply

black and tan Samoonta 6/18/11 2:11am LOL! yes.

also, how women are designated as "likeable" and "unlikeable", on this site and in the media in general, seems extremely arbitrary to me. and it is really mostly other women doing the judging/designating. Reply

Leahthekid Tracie Egan Morrissey 6/17/11 10:30pm How could she not have known about the latest playboy? seriously....besides the fact that she posed for it and was aware of the upcoming release (or possibility of one), why would she not check up on that? Reply

Dr Pamela Isley Leahthekid 6/17/11 10:52pm she didn't know it was going to be labeled "Runaway Bride," not that she was in it. Reply

person9911 Tracie Egan Morrissey 6/17/11 1:30pm Is she obliged to cry or something? Am I missing something? Reply

Ignotus person9911 6/17/11 2:54pm It's an odd title but I'm assuming their talking about the lack of emotion coming from Crystal. *shrugs* Reply

Justine Tracie Egan Morrissey 6/17/11 3:57pm Do people just say "no regrets" because it sounds badass now, with no regard for context? Reply

Leahthekid Justine 6/17/11 10:31pm because it's become totally fetch to say that. Reply

Ignotus Tracie Egan Morrissey 6/17/11 3:02pm Eh. Ever since the beginning this whole marriage and shit always seemed like a set up. I mean, he has to have as many women in that mansion as he is old. And that thing with Holly wanting to get married and have kids with Hef was weird enough. Why get married? Am I missing something. Reply

Her? Tracie Egan Morrissey 6/17/11 12:00pm "There's definitely an age difference."

Understatement of the fucking century. This whole mansion thing reeks of Waco Texas to me. The whole family was planning the wedding? Not the only woman. Women in line to be on Hef's arm next.

It sounds like the deprogrammers got to her just in time. Reply

Science and Sex, Bitches Tracie Egan Morrissey 6/17/11 12:01pm I guess her Castle of Sin must be the next mansion, just waiting for Hef to kick the bucket. Reply

Papaya432 Tracie Egan Morrissey 6/17/11 11:33am Wow... why did I click on that song? Didn't Heidi Montag already make a whole album like this? Reply

Hotpants-McGee Tracie Egan Morrissey 6/17/11 12:47pm OK, maybe the first chick that moved into the mansion could have been taken aback by the Playboy lifestyle, but after like 50 years, I think we all know what it's like there. Jealousy and cattiness will happen, sorry. Reply

helechoanarquista Tracie Egan Morrissey 6/17/11 5:37pm I don't even recognize her. Clearly she told them to go heavy on the Botox in preparation for her big media tour. Reply

kaylam89 Tracie Egan Morrissey 6/17/11 11:47am Jesus that song is annoying. Reminds me of Kim Kardashian's failed attempt at making music. Reply

JoeThursday Tracie Egan Morrissey 6/17/11 1:57pm I hate how ET uses those little cartoon ribbons to cover her already-covered lady-bits. Reply

allcomingupmilhouse Tracie Egan Morrissey 6/17/11 11:59am Is it wrong that I kinda liked that song? It's fairly reminiscent of Britney. I'm a fan. Reply

bozofish11 Tracie Egan Morrissey 6/18/11 4:52pm I bet Holly is doing her crazy dolphin laugh all over Vegas.

...Or just doing dolphins all over Vegas. Reply

ortcutt Tracie Egan Morrissey 6/17/11 7:04pm This is the most brilliant viral marketing campaign of all time. Can you believe how much free publicity Hefner has milked out of this fake romance? Reply

tinfoil-party Tracie Egan Morrissey 6/18/11 1:28pm CALCULATED, CLAIR ST. CLAIR. The word is calculated. Reply

This Lady is Brutal Tracie Egan Morrissey 6/17/11 8:46pm There is NO WAY this was ALL PLANNED IN ADVANCE! NO WAY! Reply

Perhaps Not Tracie Egan Morrissey 6/17/11 3:46pm All good points, but you know who I don't feel sorry for? Hugh Hefner. Reply

tlong1122 Tracie Egan Morrissey 6/17/11 11:33am She's pretty.

She's skeevy.

She's pretty skeevy. Reply

Proofer Tracie Egan Morrissey 6/18/11 3:03am She sounds overwhelmed. But if I looked that pretty, I'd be overwhelmed all the time. Reply

girl_ninja Tracie Egan Morrissey 6/17/11 11:30am Calucltive move? I'm sorry, I don't even know how to spell what she said. Reply

Kelfire Tracie Egan Morrissey 6/17/11 12:30pm whats up with the guttural gasping sound at 0:22 ? Reply

YouToldMe Tracie Egan Morrissey 6/18/11 7:35am She's as fake as her tits. Reply

ohmystars Tracie Egan Morrissey 6/17/11 2:03pm holy plastic surgery! Reply

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roidespd-blog · 5 years ago

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Chapter Eleven : RuPaul

“Hello ! Hello ! Hello !” RuPaul Charles (born November 17, 1960) has been a Pop culture Icon for the past 30 years as a punk rock singer turned dancer turned drag queen turned singer-songwriter turned model turned talk-show host turned occasional actor turned producer turned cosmetic guru turned all-around business powerhouse. Though there doesn’t seem to be any secrets surrounding the most famous drag performer in the world (and I’m not running a investigation blog), I do wish to retrace his steps, pay homage to a singular career as he just launched his new talk show last night (June 10th, 2019), and talk about the mistakes he made along the way as a way of learning from them all together.

THE DRAG REVOLUTION

Unless you were alive and moving around Atlanta in the 80s, you probably first put your eyes on RuPaul as an extra dancing on B-52’s “Love Shack”. Yes, he was a drag performer back then too. A starring role on a low-budget film called “Star Booty” here, appearances on a couple of documentaries there. Mostly nightclub work for a true working guuuurl.

In 1993, He recorded his debut album, Supermodel of the World, clearly stating his ambitions. His first single, “Supermodel (You Better Work)” is actually a masterpiece of dance/house music. The track and album were modest successes but attracted extreme media attention through heavy rotation on MTV. Soon, he became the first drag queen to sign a modeling contract (for cosmetics) and released his (first) autobiography, “Lettin’ It All Hang Out”. Side bar, I do believe that the first time I was made aware of RuPaul was in the 1995 movie ‘To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar”, a suck-my-bone-marrow American imitation of “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert”. It’s about three drag queens going on a road trip from New York to Hollywood to participate in the biggest Drag Pageant of America. It’s quite vulgar, not subtle for one second and put three straight male actors into drag in performances that don’t shy away from clichés. In the end, they (SPOILER ALERT) made it to the competition and who’s crowning the winner ? Miss RuPaul, anty. I used to love that movie as a kid. Didn’t get it was about drag queens though. But please, watch Priscilla, instead. End of side bar.

By 1996, VH1 gave him his own talk show “The RuPaul Show”. For 2 seasons and 100 episodes, RuPaul interviewed celebrity guests (from Diana Ross to Cher) and made history as one of the first openly gay person to host a show on national television. For the rest of the decade, he released two more albums (one being a Christmas record entitled Ho Ho Ho — priceless name) that lead to commercial failure and overall media fatigue. Because it’s fun to see you, but “different” is better in small portions.

SECOND CUMING

From 1998 to 2004, only one forgettable song from RuPaul was released. This fourth record Red Hot (2004) received little to no coverage — Although the singles kept topping the dance charts. RuPaul admitted to feeling frustrated over the lack of interest in his work during the period, noting the media wasn’t reviewing his records and putting him on magazine covers anymore. Quote “I don’t know what happened. It seemed I couldn’t get press on my album un less I was willing to play in the role that the mainstream press has assigned to gay people, which is as servants of straight ideas”.

In 2008 however, Logo came to RuPaul with an idea that changed so much lives in the process. The offered him the possibility to host and produced a reality competition program based on his brand name called RuPaul’s Drag Race. For those who still don’t know what Drag Race is (HOW DARE YOU?), the premise of the program has drag queens competing to be selected as “America’s Next Drag Superstar” in a series of mini and maxi challenges, culminating in the end of each episode to the bottom two queens lip-syncing for their motherfucking lives and the elimination of one of them. The (new) drag revolution began on February 2, 2009 with a first season that was a bit disavowed by the host himself but it was successful enough to be renewed for a second season. A then a third. And a fourth and so on. The show just ended its eleventh cycle.

The show itself had a very interesting journey. It debuted on the fringe of entertainment, a fun little anomaly for the “in” people. It developed in its first three seasons into a somewhat very solid shows, powering through better storylines, challenges and candidates. In its fourth season, it started to be critically lauded as an incredible piece of pop culture with a cast of queens out of this world. Creatively, the show peaked from season 4 to 6 (4 having the best queens, 5 the best storylines, 6 the best narrative structure). By season 7, it was a phenomenon that keeps on growing as of today.

Last September, Drag Race received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Reality-Competition Program for the first time. RuPaul himself won Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program three years in a row and each year, the audience gets bigger and bigger. The show (who has already been renewed for a 12th year) has introduced us to almost 150 queens over 145 episodes and spawned a couple of spin-off shows, some successful (Drag Race All Stars — four seasons and counting) some not so much (RuPaul’s Drag U, canceled in 2012 after three pretty uneventful seasons). A few international incarnations were made around the world, most notably the UK edition that’s about to be released in 2019 with RuPaul (and bestie Michelle Visage) returning as judges.

EVERYBODY SAY… LOVE ?

From that storyline of a Phoenix rising from its ashes, RuPaul developed into you can pretty much describe as an “Empire Incarnate”. He released 10 new albums, 8 of them serving as official and non-official soundtracks for the show (which is made of RuPaul songs from beginning to end — ROYALTIIIIIES, PEOPLE!). He created a podcast called What’s the Tee ? with Michelle Visage in 2014 as a way to revive The RuPaul Show into another form. He developed everything RuPaul from glass wear to cosmetic lines, promoting them all on the show, released 3 more books (the latest being called “GuRu”) and establishing an annual event a few years ago called ‘RuPaul’s Drag-Con’ happening in New York City and Los Angeles with most of the show’s drag queens making appearances. Basically, he’s making so, so, so much money. An impressive feat from someone who came from nothing and did something with what he had.

Unfortunately, success and worldwide exposure don’t come without their fair share of controversies. First, the fact that everything is about RuPaul, RuPaul, RuPaul (the puns, the challenges, the fact that HE gets to choose who becomes America’s Next Drag Superstar, blablablah) comes to a breaking point in 2019. After eleven years of almost non-stop self promotion, I do feel like I need to take a little break from his sphere. I mean, we had four seasons of Drag Race and Allstars in the spam of 18 months. That’s 44 episodes of intense Queen Dramas and Glitter Balls. I do feel like too much of a good thing harms the quality and appreciation of a program. Drag Race’s latest seasons weren’t as thrilling as the previous ones, mostly due to lack of imagination in challenges, weaker casts and a formula that refuses to evolve with time. As the show went on to become an actual phenomenon, it became a bit too pleasing for all crowds, including straight people. Not that it’s a bad thing that straight people can watch and appreciate the show, but adapting it for their comprehension is kind of fucked up. They should adapt to the show’s (and ours) culture. We open the window and let the song be heard, we don’t blast the door open and give the partition for free. Anyway, just an opinion.

My biggest concern with RuPaul comes from his relationship with the trans community. Drag Race has featured a number of contestants who now identity as trans women (Sonique, Carment Carrera, Jiggly Caliente, Monica Beverly Hillz, Kenya Michaels, Gia Gunn, Peppermint), some of them making their identity public while competing on the show and that’s a good thing for the trans representation around the world.

In 2014, Carmen Carrera (Season 3) and Monica Beverly Hillz (Season 5) criticized the show’s use of words “tranny” and “shemale”. Well, yes it’s bad but the show is about drag queens and they can call themselves whatever they want, right ? (That’s me trying to come up with excuses for RuPaul back in the day). They also described the announcement phrase ‘You’ve got she-mail’ as transphobic, the same year a mini challenge called “Female or She-male” was used on the show’s sixth season. Hmm, well, the producers removed that phrase and have been careful about their challenges ever since, plus RuPaul released an apology so it’s good, right ? (Me, still finding ways to find peace within myself). In 2018, RuPaul gave an interview to the Guardian in which he states that a post-transition trans woman would ‘probably not’ be accepted on the show, noting that at the time of competition Peppermint (season 9) had not yet had breast implants. Fuck. Ru. RuPaul also compared trans drag queens who had transitioned to athletes who had taken performance-enhancing drugs. Fuck. Ru. Two. He has since expressed regrets for the comments he made but I got to say, regrets won’t totally cut it. For a man who ends every season of Drag Race with a “EVERYBODY SAY LOOOOVE!” and preaches acceptance and self-love and seems to be so involved in his community, his views on the trans community are problematic. The only criteria for contestants are “Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve and Talent”, which are qualities you can also find with Trans women. Damn, don’t you know that drag queen is a vocation, NOT an identity ?

I believe that over exposure and the lack of course correction on some of this opinions could cause RuPaul’s downfall in the near future. He’s a phoenix, he’ll come back I’m sure but if he plays his cards right, he won’t have to DO come back. Last night, his new talk show, RuPaul, aired for the first time for a three-week try basis. I watched it this morning on YouTube and… Why do you have a talk show, man ? What’s in it for me to keep watching it, aside from the fact that you are a pleasant person to see for 40 minutes ? The talk show is a vanity project that probably won’t help with the overexposure I keep talking about. I do hope that in the next three weeks though, you will receive a trans person on the show and face the criticism you’ve been shamelessly ignoring on Drag Race.

From the icon who expressed so eloquently how it’s like to have an inner saboteur, to his “you can call he. You can call she. You call me regis and Kathie Lee, I don’t care ! Just as long as you call me” or his incredible “Unless they’re paying your bills, pay for bitches no mind”, I do hope you’ll reconsider some of your actions. Do a little less Drag Race, a little less self promotion. Go enjoy your ranch with your husband for a year or so, reacquaint yourself with your community and come back.

This was an homage to you, RuPaul. I do hope I won’t come to regret my words.

NOW SISSY THAT WALK (ALL THE WAY TO WYOMING)

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topmodelbarbie · 5 years ago

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FNTM Post #26: Contestant Review

Happy Friday to all! 😉😅

After 8 weeks into the competition and 9 eliminations so far, it is now time for a second progress review of our Top 5 finalists. We are only 3 photo shoots away from crowning the winner of season 10! Isn’t that crazy?!

Anyways, similar to how this was done before, I will start with an analysis of the call-out averages of our Top 5 finalists and will write a short summary on how each of them are doing so far in the competition and what they can do to progress all the way to the Final 2 and hopefully win. 👌

a) Call-out order summary and analysis

#1 Irina (Average- 3.3)

Once again, Irina ranks at the top of the pack in terms of call-out order average. However, there is a slight dip in her average score compared to her previous one in my first contestant review. I believe this is due to some of her not so stellar moments in the Fallen Angels shoot and at the go-see challenge with Anastasia Fashions, where she ranked at the bottom. However, I was completely blown away by her Jewellery Ad Campaign photo and that totally justified why she is ahead of the pack still. Moving forward, I want Irina to bring the same energy and beauty she possessed in that photo to the upcoming shoots. Because we are approaching the end of the game, there is absolutely no room for her to be complacent at all

#2 Veronica (Average- 4.4)

Veronica jumps three spots from last time to the second highest average score in the bunch. Recently, she stepped up her game and even earned a first call-out in Week 6 for her stellar performance in the Cosmetics Ad Campaign photo shoot. As mentioned before, Veronica has a very ‘modelesque’ look that is very versatile and can be molded to fit all sorts of briefs. I would like for Veronica to fully master her look and embrace the concepts she will have to encounter in future challenges or shoots. The next shoot, which is quite simplistic in its set up should prove to be quite a challenge for her and I hope that Veronica will step up to the plate

#3 Cindy (Average- 4.5)

Sometime during the mid-stage of this competition, Cindy definitely hit a bit of a road bump. Her photographs weren’t up to par with some of the other girls, which was disappointing considering her massive potential. However since then, Cindy has managed to kick it up a notch and found her way to the top of the pack. She solidified her status as a front runner after winning the go-see challenge last week and earning herself best photo in the Fashion Careers Editorial shoot. Cindy has a good chance at winning this competition as long as she stays focused and not let her recent successes get to her head. Lastly, since I will be shooting the girls close-up in the next photo shoot, Cindy needs to do everything in her power to deliver beautiful and strong facial expressions

#4 Whitney (Average- 5.1)

I am so glad that Whitney’s performances in the shoots after winning best cumulative photos in the Catalog Shoot haven’t declined. In fact, Whitney managed to gain another first call-out in Week 7 and she was called 3rd in recent panel. I have much more confidence in Whitney’s ability to perform well in the Wind and Water hair ad campaign shoot compared to her in Week 5. Approaching the upcoming photo shoot where beauty shoots or close-up shoots aren’t really her forte, I want for Whitney to have full command of her angles and bring all the confidence and experience she has to the table

#5 Sasha (Average- 5.9)

Our beautiful Sasha ranks at the bottom this week for her average score. I believe her bottom 2 appearances in Week 5 and Week 8 were mostly the cause of this. Contrary to initial beliefs, Sasha actually has the ability to crossover to high fashion but sometimes, it takes her more time and effort to do so. Her photo with Heidi Klum as well as her Fallen Angels photo conveyed a very editorial appeal and I was impressed with both shots. For future shoots, Sasha needs to avoid overthinking her poses and let everything flow naturally. Also, in the upcoming photo shoot, I have high expectations of Sasha to perform amazingly well. But considering where she stands so far, she has a steep mountain to climb tomorrow for sure

b) Conclusion

That’s the end of my review of our Top 5 girls. They’ve all gone through ups and downs in this competition but I hope that they will bring everything they’ve learned this season to the table both tomorrow and beyond. All 5 of them are gonna have great careers after this.

As a reminder, tomorrow, I will be posting the Wind photos from the Hair Ad Campaign shoot and on Sunday, the Water photos will be posted.

Looking forward to having you guys see the photos soon! Thanks for reading this review and post! 💖

Much love,

FNTMbarbie 💕

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emalia056gaming-blog · 6 years ago

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VBUCKS Possibilities and Desires

The Fortnite News

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walterdehn3-blog · 6 years ago

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Little Known Means to help VBUCKS

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keywestlou · 6 years ago

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MARY POPPINS RACISM AND TENNESSEE WILLIAMS SEXISM

Race and sex, negatives where inappropriately applied. For the moment, part of our everyday lives. Political correctness gone amuck. Overwhelmingly so.

Mary Poppins and Tennessee Williams fitting examples.

Mary Poppins a great 1964 movie. Healthful entertainment for children and adults alike. Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke starring.

White persons black faced are a no no.

Julie Andrews was black faced during a portion of the movie. A scene had her dancing on a roof top with Van Dyke and 2 children. She had been performing as a chimney sweep.

She ended up on the roof top after cleaning a chimney. Her face sporadically covered with soot. Rather than wipe it off, she powdered her nose and cheeks with the soot, thereby making her face even blacker.

The New York Times recently ran an op-ed by a Linfield College Professor. Daniel Pollack-Pelzner. Pelzner considered Julie Andrews actions racist.

Come on! Julie Andrews a racist under the circumstances? Mary Poppins likewise a racist? A step too far. Way too far!

Tennessee Williams had his day as a sexist. Though not in today’s time frame.

In 1955, Williams wrote the play 27 Wagons Full. The play was made into a movie in 1956. The movie Baby Doll. Starred Carol Baker, Karl Malden and Eli Wallach. Eli Kazan directed.

The movie received several Academy Award nominations. Kazan won for Best Director. Williams wrote and co-produced the movie.

A hit!

However considered by many at the time as the “dirtiest American made motion picture…..ever…..legally exhibited.” Especially the Catholic Church.

The movie involved 2 southern male rivals seeking the sexual charms of a 19 year old virgin child bride. Carol Baker the 19 year old. A beauty. Sensuous even when not performing.

The denounced portion showed Baker lying in a crib, wearing a short night gown, and sucking her thumb. Another incident showed Wallach with his hands on Baker’s thighs just under the night gown.

Cardinal Spellman denounced the movie from the pulpit of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Twenty million Catholics picketed the movie on its opening weekend in New York and Los Angeles. Three quarters of the theaters pulled the film.

The movie otherwise ran. Was a box office hit. Is considered today one of the 1,000 best movies ever made.

The scenes criticized would not even receive an R rating under today’s standards. The movie would not be condemned by the Catholic Church. The only adverse result was Williams carried the stigma of being a sexist for a short period of time.

Sex condemnations fly easily these days. The woman says, I accuse! The man is automatically deemed a sexist. No due process. The charge being sufficient to attribute guilt.

Not correct.

My yesterday began early evening at Dueling Bartenders. A special treat. Bobby Nesbitt was guest performer. He and Rick Dery mostly sang the songs of yesterday. The “40’s and ’50’s. The audience’s age made it appropriate.

Loved it all! Sang along with most of the tunes!

My dear friend Liz was there with Mary and Josefina. Lynda Frechette came in. Try to make her Aqua Idol Show tonight. A hit this year again!

Donna and Terri arrived later. Terri looked terrific. Her clothes color blended well. Though 100 percent blind, she can select the colors and designs of that which she wishes to wear as if she actually saw them. The Blind Association has provided her with a scanner. She scans the clothes. The scanner’s audio tells her color and design.

Amazing!

Donna had just returned from several days in New York. Her son Brett’s 50th birthday. The whole family made it to New York for the event.

Donna’s trip proved that Terri can function alone for a few days. This was the second trip Donna recently had to make. Terri did alright in each instance. Bear and friends providing some assistance along the way.

Joseph arrived. Love Joseph! A great guy! No St. John the Baptist pole last night. He was walking with a cane.

Joseph shared some bad news with me. Linda died 2 weeks ago. Linda Patchett. I mentioned her frequently when we would run into each other at Dueling Bartenders. Linda had been an optometrist her entire life. As her father before her. I purchased several pair of prescription glasses from her over the years.

I liked Linda. A quiet sweet person. Always with a smile.

I told Joseph I missed her obituary in the newspaper. He said it had not been in. She died in Miami.

The Lord is pretty old. Been around many yeas. I can visualize Linda fitting Him with reading glasses.

Mary stopped in after work. We enjoyed a drink together and then went to La Trattoria for dinner.

Packed! The season is on! People standing everywhere waiting for a table.

Tiffany bartending.

Sitting next to me at the bar was Robert Spottswood. I had not seen him in a couple of years. He and his family own and operate among other properties the Marriott Beachside. It was catch up time.

I came across a December 15th Miami Herald article this morning having to do with the cosmetic shops on Duval. The shops that are troublesome. They have the reputation of ripping off older tourists with age defying cosmetic products.

The elderly purchasers do not realize they have spent thousands of dollars till they arrive home and get a credit card bill.

A local group last Fall began picketing the shops. They appear to be Israeli owned and operated. The group has been somewhat successful. A couple of stores have returned monies to elderly customers.

The group continues to picket and protest, carry signs. Such obviously not good for business.

The Miami Herald article claimed the staff of these stores were hired and trained in Israel. Everything. How to induce the customer into the store, how to handle the sale, etc. The sales team consists generally of sweet lovely young Israeli ladies.

December 15 was Counterprotest International Holocaust Remembrance Day. One of the store owners confronted the pickets with a sign of his own. It said “Nazis.” He was charging those picketing his business with being Nazis because he was a Jew. Turned out 2 of the protesters were Jews. One had lost family in one of the concentration camps.

This mishmash carried into January. The Key West City Commission wanted to pass a set of guidelines by which the cosmetic shops were to operate. It would have passed easily. However a lone Commission person, Sam Kaufman, said wait! There may be an anti-Semitic issue here.

The matter remains up in the air. The shops continue to operate. The pickets continue to picket.

Trump’s State of the Union tonight at 8. Supposedly will be conciliatory. I’ll believe it when I see it.

My podcast Tuesday Talk with Key West Lou this evening at 9. A quick hard hitting interesting half hour. Join me. You will enjoy! www.blogtalkradio.com/key-west-lou.

I close with a Happy New Year! A Happy Lunar New Year! Today is the Chinese New Year. The beginning of the Year of the Pig.

Enjoy your day!

MARY POPPINS RACISM AND TENNESSEE WILLIAMS SEXISM was originally published on Key West Lou

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tinseltine · 6 years ago

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Look Back at the Movies of 2018

Tinsel & Tine's

Look Back at the Movies of 2018

By Le Anne Lindsay, Editor

This year feels like the fastest movie season to date. I still feel like we just stopped talking about the movies up for awards last year, like The Shape of Water, Call Me By Your Name, 3 Billboards, Lady Bird, Phantom Thread etc.. Now we already have 2019 Golden Globe Awards nominations, and Oscar noms just a month away on Jan 22, 2019. This years’ crop of movies being talked about for awards are a bit more main stream than some of those films that I just mentioned from last year, which were not your average movie-goers cup of tea. Whereas this year: A Star is Born, Bohemian Rhapsody, Green Book, Vice, Black Panther, The Favourite, these movies have more universal appeal. They’re important, but contain more humor. Even If Beale Street Could Talk with all its social implications, on the surface is a romance. Then we have a couple of family dramas like Beautiful Boy, Boy Erased & Ben is Back which no one is going to be able to keep straight, as Lucas Hedges is in two of them and two are about drug addiction, but they’re not artsy films. I'd like to thank God and the Universe for continually orchestrating my life so that every year I get to see and enjoy an abundant number of movies. Between film festivals and often going to the theater 3-4x a week. I feel I can formulate a pretty darn good end of the year list. Much of which does coincide with the movies being bandied about as noteworthy, but I threw in a couple of surprises. I’m gonna start with my least favorite movies of 2018, because it's a short list. It's always difficult for me to say I hate a movie because of the work and number of people involved in getting even a short film to the screen. But there's always a few that should have gone through a lot of reworking before being released. Then I move on to my Top 10 Favorites. This was particularly difficult to pair down this year, I had 26 movies that I really, really liked. So I have a Just Missed the Top 10 category and an Honorable Mention category. Note: Links go to my full review of the movie Hope you enjoy and hit me up on Facebook or Twitter to discuss your favorites!

Worst Movies of 2018

In order of most disliked

RED SPARROW (20th Century Fox) dir Francis Lawrence, starring Jennifer Lawrence & Joel Edgerton. Lawrence plays a Russian ex-ballet dancer turned reluctant sex spy in a poorly executed thriller set in Russia. Everything about it felt phony and forced, except for one small scene where Mary Louise Parker steals the show. SECOND ACT (STX Films)– dir Peter Segal, starring Jennifer Lopez, Leah Remini, Vanessa Hudgens, Milo Ventimiglia. A movie about a woman without a college degree lying her way up the corporate latter in a cosmetic company. Parts of it remind me of a cheap imitation of Amy Schumer’s I Feel Pretty, but Shumer had a handle on her plot devices and comedic timing. I think if they kept the main plot of Second Act on the relationship of the mother and daughter discovering each other, that could have helped a lot, but really this movie is short on charm and big on makeup caked on like colorful spackle. A WRINKLE IN TIME (Disney) dir Ava Duvernay, starring Storm Reid, Chris Pine, Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon & Mindy Kaling. This much anticipated film based on a beloved children’s novel did not translate well to film - story-wise, visually it had some good moments, but Jennifer Lee, Jeff Stockwell’s screenplay needed punching up and smoothing out all over the place. And I can’t let DuVernay entirely off the hook as the pacing of the film is way off too, but mostly, it was a waste of Oprah. LIFE OF THE PARTY (Warner Bros) dir Ben Falcone, starring Melissa McCarthy, who I love (I’ve become addicted to reruns of Mike & Molly) but this movie about a 40 something year-old woman returning to finish her degree at the same time as her daughter, went nowhere. It wasn’t at all funny, it wasn’t heartfelt, it wasn’t mother/daughter bonding, it wasn’t McCarthy run amok, it was just boring. ADRIFT (STX Films) dir Baltasar Kormákur, starring Shailene Woodley & Sam Claflin. Based on the true story of Tami Oldham’s 42-day ordeal lost at sea, but told through a cheesy story device that’s a cheat for the movie and completely unnecessary to hold the attention of the audience.

My TOP 10 Favorites Movies from 2018

1. BLACK PANTHER (Marvel Studios) dir Ryan Coogler, starring Chadwick Boseman. The movie hit theaters last February and broke all kinds of box office records, heavily featured women (Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, Letitia Wright) in key roles. Once and for all it broke down the myth that movies with a black cast don’t make money overseas. But best of all, it’s a good movie. When I saw it a 2nd time I knew it wasn’t just about the social implications. It was about enjoying something that was cinematically pleasing. 2. CRAZY RICH ASIANS (Warner Bros.) dir. Jon M. Chu, starring Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Awkwafina, Michelle Yeoh. Same goes for this movie, which I also saw in the theater twice. The ensemble works very well together, the movie has great energy, Singapore is gorgeous and it was so nice to bring a quality rom/com back to the screen. 3. GREEN BOOK (Universal Pics) dir Peter Farrelley, starring Viggo Mortensen, Mahershala Ali as Tony Vallelonga an Italian-American bouncer & African-American classical and jazz pianist Don Shirley embarking on a road trip down to the segregated south- this is the new odd couple. As much as I love a good romance, I think friendships and bromances are more interesting to watch unfold on screen. Also saw this twice and loved it even more the second go round. 4. PUZZLE (Sony Pictures Classic) dir Marc Turtletaub, starring Kelly Macdonald & Irrfan Khan a remake of an Argentina film (2010). I know most people did not get a chance to see this movie, it played at Ritz 5 for probably only a week, but it’s a quiet gem about a current day housewife living in a New York suburb who discovers she has a knack for quickly putting together jigsaw puzzles and unexpectedly finds more than just a fitting puzzle partner after answering an ad to join a competition. 5. MR SOUL! (BlackStar Film Festival) dir. Sam Pollard and Melissa Haizlip. SOUL! was a nationally televised weekly variety show that aired from 1968-1973 on PBS featuring prominent and emerging Black artists including poets, classical, pop and jazz musicians, dancers and political figures. The documentary is not only an amazing look back on seeing early performances of people who became household names, but it's also an interesting biopic on the creative host and producer Ellis Haizlip, who had his finger on the pulse of an early post-Civil Rights Movement America. 6. A STAR IS BORN (Warner Bros) dir Bradley Cooper made this classic his own and made a fantastic decision to make his partner in this endeavor Lady Gaga. Not only does their chemistry and music make this a more than engaging film. But Cooper captures up-close the backstage feeling of the entertainment industry in so many ways. 7. SORRY TO BOTHER YOU (Annapurna Pictures) dir Boots Riley, starring Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Jermaine Fowler, Omari Hardwick a lot of buzz was generated for this first time filmmaker and rightly so as Riley's style is to keep dialing up the crazy, notch by notch until you're at a full rolling boil of absurdist, off-beat, comedic Sci-fi soup with a social message. Not easy to do in one movie, but I feel he really pulled it off. 8. HOTEL ARTEMIS (Global Road) writer/dir Drew Pearce, starring Jodie Foster, Sterling K. Brown, Sofia Boutella, Jeff Goldblum, Brian Tyree Henry, Jenny Slate, Dave Bautista, and Zachary Quinto. I know I’m alone having this one on my top 10 list, but I truly enjoyed this strange action thriller. From the production design to the pre-apocalyptic setting, to the idea of taking place inside a secret high-tech hospital and supposed safe space for criminals to get patched up by an agoraphobic nurse. 9. RBG doc (Magnolia Pictures) dirs Betsy West & Julie Cohen. I saw On The Basis of Sex too and Felicity Jones is good casting as a early pioneering Ruth Bader Ginsberg, but the documentary is so much more encompassing of this remarkable woman’s life and journey. Before seeing this doc what I basically knew about this female chief Justice of the Supreme Court, I got from SNL skits and seeing some “The Notorious RBG” T-shirts. So glad to now be aware of her huge contribution to our freedoms and civil liberties. 10. LOVE, SIMON (20th Century Fox) dir Greg Berlanti, starring Nick Robinson, Katherine Langford, Jennifer Garner, Josh Duhamel - In this post "Glee", legalized Gay marriage, "Moonlight" Oscar winning, Caitlyn Jenner accepting society we live in - it's hard to figure that a movie about a young boy feeling extreme anxiety about admitting he's gay would be anything worth discussing. Yet, that's part of the value and charm of this movie along with a likeable young cast.

Just Missed the Top 10

SPIDERMAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE (Sony Pictures Releasing) dir Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman. Since Columbia still owns the rights to the Spiderman character, they like to get good mileage out of the web slinger, hence the terrible Andrew Garfield Spiderman reboot thrust on us while we were still in the throes of the Toby Maguire, Kirsten Dunst upside down kiss. Thankfully, something was worked out between Marvel and Sony so that we have the Tom Holland Spiderman of the MCU. So when I first heard about this animated Spider-verse, I was like, why? Is this necessary? Probably not. But it’s so well done I don’t question it anymore! Love the mixed media graphics and the fantastic sci-fi premise of having multiple spider people from different dimensions come together and initiate a new black/latino Spiderman into the realm. A SIMPLE FAVOR (Lionsgate) dir Paul Feig, starring Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively, Henry Golding a good campy script, some excellent costuming and unexpected humor turned this quasi-thriller into an early fall sleeper hit. A QUIET PLACE (Paramount Pictures) dir John Krasinski, starring Krasinski and Emily Blunt. A tight, emotional ride containing horror tropes, yet written for someone like me who likes to be thrilled with fear at the movies, but not up for anything too sinister that stays with me as I try to sleep. WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR (Focus Features) dir Morgan Neville. This doc on Fred Rogers, the well-liked host of the popular children's television program "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood", is an honest look at this man of principals who truly believed in the transformative power of love - love for others, but most importantly, for yourself. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE: FALLOUT (Paramount Pictures) dir Christopher McQuarrie, starring Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg this 6th installment in the Mission: Impossible film series shows there’s still A LOT of juice left in the franchise. So many amazing stunts, fun and thrills.

Honorable Mentions

(alpha order) ANT-MAN AND THE WASP (Marvel) dir Peyton Reed, starring Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas and Michelle Pfeiffer – kept pace with the original in terms of style and storytelling, while adding in more shrinking, enlarging sight gags in all the right places. BLINDSPOTTING (Lionsgate) dir Carlos López Estrada, starring Rafael Casal, Daveed Diggs – A good first effort by these screenwriters/actors, but it’s the final scene which makes the movie above average. BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY (20th Century Fox) dir Bryan Singer finished by Dexter Fletcher, starring Rami Malek, Lucy Boynton, Gwilym Lee, Ben Hardy, Joe Mazzello – seemingly Epic music biopic, not truly as good as it seems, but a fun ride. FIRST MAN - (Universal Pictures) dir Damien Chazelle, starring Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, Corey Stoll - Not as well loved as La La Land, but as far as commitment to filmmaking and vision this movie is stellar. GRINGO (Amazon Studios) dir Nash Edgerton, starring David Oyelowo, Charlize Theron, Joel Edgerton – Wish this movie had gotten more attention. It takes you on a nutty adventure showcasing Oyelowo's comedic chops. IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK (Annapurna Pictures) dir Barry Jenkins, starring KiKi Layne, Stephan James, Regina King – Beautifully directed, strong cast, wonderfully adapted from a James Baldwin novel. Didn’t make my top 10 because sometimes it’s hard to watch movies based on the themes of systemic racism.(click link for Q&A with Barry Jenkins) PETER RABBIT (Sony Pictures Releasing) dir Will Gluck, starring Rose Byrne, Domhnall Gleeson – Not just adorable, but truly entertaining. THE FAVOURITE (Fox Searchlight Pictures) dir Yorgos Lanthimos, starring Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz, Nicholas Hoult, Joe Alwyn - Stylized, female-centric period piece, balancing a delightful tone of zany ridiculousness and historical accuracy. THE HATE U GIVE (20th Century Fox) dir George Tillman Jr., starring Amandla Stenberg, Regina Hall, Russell Hornsby, KJ Apa, Common, Anthony Mackie – I really fell in love with this family unit and the messages ring clear, but not too loud. TULLY (Focus Features) dir Jason Reitman, starring Charlize Theron & Mackenzie Davis – Oddly, I condemned “Adrift” for using a similar storytelling device as “Tully”, but here it works. Besides, the meat of the story is about roads and paths started down, but not followed and wondering how you ended up being in your current life; which, I truly related too, despite not being a wife or mother. WIDOWS (20th Century) dir Steve McQueen, starring Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki, Cynthia Erivo – After “Hunger” “Shame” and “12 Years A Slave” it was a great idea for McQueen to bring his extraordinary filmmaking skills to a heist film with a touch of Lifetime movie. The climax had our audience talking back to the screen, and the actresses are all on point. I had “Widows” in my Top 10 at first, then relegated it to those that just missed the top 10, and then honorable mention. I think it kept getting pushed down just because I don’t really like the final scene. Share :)

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