#Beach Weather Review

[my-coven-is-claudia]

hyping myself up to go somewhere i’ve never been to before

[elizabethrobertajones]

summer scions!! I absolutely love the new portraits for all their smug happy expressions. Except Y'shtola, who is not going to deign to give a camera a proper saucy look because that's silly. Urianger is smirking twice as hard on her behalf.

Glam review under the cut!

I unlocked Alphinaud first of the twins and didn't know Alisaie had a little necktie yet, so I'm deducting a point from my first impression because the sheer delight that he had a silly little necktie of some sort no matter the situation delighted me so thoroughly. Since they're still engaging in matchy twin dressing to some degree, I have to assume they either like it and won't admit it after digging in so hard, or Ameliance sent them off with cute outfits and matching backpacks, and they still don't really shop for themselves.

He's got the practical watch/compass gloves which are good for a technically proficient Sage and probably the most practical gear he's ever worn except for when he was poncho Alphy, but wearing ankle-length jeans seem like the least weather-appropriate choice of the Scions if we assume their average skin coverage is a good weathervane for the temperature in Tural. I chalk it up to teenage awkwardness.

8/10 unless he and Alisaie chose their outfits themselves, in which case it's a 9/10

I think Alisaie is the only Scion to keep a single piece of their default gear, and those are her usual gloves. She's colour-matched around it.

Because of the gloves and boots, she looks the most ready for hardcore hiking, somehow, and her matching Alphinaud with a cute button down shirt with rolled up sleeves along with that particular choice of baggier shorts (when she normally wears more form fitting shorts) do give me the closest to butch vibes it's probably likely to get for main characters. So I'm giving her an extra point I stole from Alphinaud for the lesbian vibes.

9/10 or 10/10 if she made these choices all by herself.

Everything about this cracks me up, from his portrait above to the image of him tanking open shirted once he pulls mobs.

Believe it or not, he's getting an additional point for those shoes simply because the competition in practicality in tanking is G'raha.

I had a moment of excitement when I thought the necklace was pink because that's always a cute Ryne/Minfillia thing fanartists give him with ribbons and such, but once I got zoomed in on him it was red, so I guess he's just been shopping. Although, the turquoise shorts are her eye colour and the actual large diamond shapes are secretly Mothercrystal coded in those colours, which just cracks me up that you can pick out one of the worse days of his life (Urianger's grand Warrior of Darkness plan) in his Chill Summer Beach Vibes look.

Douchebag beach bro shell bracelet as well, which really makes me double down on him and Urianger spending way too much on tourist bait along the stalls in the Famous Turali Market. The hat and sunglasses are giving him one of the Most tourist-y looks thematically reflecting how a lot of the Scion guys were just here to hang out, narratively or literally. Maybe he's trying not to get such an intense tan again, which is the only reason he's not entirely topless.

11/10 I could not stop laughing when I got him and Urianger to 100 and Beheld The Brilliance in the same moment.

Please note the raised sunglasses in Urianger's portrait, which are not the model his character uses.

I am delighted that I had been incorporating that island watch into my healer glams on both the logic you need to know your clock positionals but also they're largely the smarty pants jobs (WHM being vibes only aside - it gets its own glams :P). And here's Urianger and Alphinaud both using watches.

Now, I had a moment of being vaguely disappointed he had trousers not a skirt or something else swishy and androgynous, but then I did realise that I, a nonbinary weirdo who relates to Urianger since he made me nonbinary, have actually gone to a couple of garden parties dressed in some variation of this exact outfit of light trousers and a nice button up. Plus, the earrings are in both ears, so no "Google, which ear is the gay one?", these are just straight up cute femme dangly earrings with his favourite little dudes on.

More importantly, the colours he's repping are those of Lopporit Radio. He probably tunes in every night for his broadcasts :')

Mirrored sunglasses for the guy notorious for keeping thoughts and plans close to his chest and choosing deliberately to be enigmatic even when it serves zero purpose except for I guess gender affirming care. (The gender is Weird Bitch.)

I can't tell how I feel about those dad sandals. I suppose it depends if he's wearing them like a fashion model (brand new and clean with perfect pedicured feet) or if those are REALLY dad at the beach-like and, since I'm not a foot person, this for me is only a choice between "not off-putting" and "AURGH".

9/10 the proximity to Thancred hauls him up several points of misgivings I had, and the lopporit shout outs are killing me :')

I unlocked Y'shtola last and holy fuck I am a lesbian. I don't even recognise where those boots come from, so either a really expensive glam or something I just have not stumbled on. She has toe rings I think? And painted nails? I have no idea if the garter (?) is part of the boots glam or a custom thing as result of not recognising the boots and how much of them is normal. I feel like they customised a lot on her anyway - the back of her top has purple beads that match her staff (not dyable on the real piece)

and I think the necklace has to be part of the top instead of a separate necklace piece with the way it hangs, AND the bracelets are a glove piece with the original summer glam, but I assume they're layered with the false nails, also in the glove slot. All in all it's giving the sort of effort which is starting to creep up to what I'd expect from the modding community not the game. I mean, not THAT good but getting close. Baby steps towards what fandom can make :P

She really is god's favourite meow meow.

Anyway I can't really judge this fairly because it's really hot and I love her so I'm just going to give it 100/10 and move on. :)

how did I get a picture where Estinien looks like he's stooping to get in the frame...

The fact he has Azure Dragoon Blue Top and then Violently Nidhogg Fuchsia shorts is the colour theory that absolutely killed me. When he lights up during his burst and starts glowing pink all over his shorts are like. Taking him over like the eye once did I think.

love a guy who can embrace his past trauma and dress to match all that has passed before and all that he intends to do now (kill something large and tasty, grill it on the beach, fall asleep with a beer in hand until the waves come in and wake him up).

I gave him that wooden bracelet in the glam he has on my desktop screen so once again I'm feeling weirdly vindicated.

Other details: no ponytail despite the warm weather because he's got enough ventilation. The fact there's cactaurs on his shirt when he's on record for eating them is amazing. We should imagine he's wearing his jobstone like that pendant (since he's one of the only guys with a confirmed jobstone despite being the Guy Without A Job notoriously that one time.)

Unlike Thancred's hat and sunglasses combo, which seems fun and boisterous somehow, he seems the most walled off of all the sunglasses wearers even though he's not the most mysterious. The visor really helps make it a sort of wall. Maybe just because his terse upfront personality and somehow despite his clothes horse habits THIS amount of whimsy seems the most out of character at first glance, but he DOES look uncomfortable to me.

Somehow I find everything about this outfit excellent for his character but also like maybe he was forced into it, everyone cornering him and telling him the Scion Beach Party was a mandatory work event and he was not allowed to beg off of it and he did put some work in expressing himself but also is going to go find a much quieter corner to lurk in for the day, when not competing with Thancred (can't grill, loves it) for the barbeque (Estinien can grill, would only do it because the threat of Thancred doing it wrong is too high).

confused 7/10 mostly because I think Krile is blackmailing him and not because I don't love everything about this.

Here's how G'reenha Tia can still win -

Anyway here's the deducted point for tanking in flip flops (PERFECTLY acceptable BLM gear btw but he's Mr Versatile.)

(I joke but the main character of my novels is a flip-flop wearing menace who could and would tank in them)

Between the padlock and key necklace and the woven bracelet right after we all went feral over the Thavnarian bracelets for couples thing so recently (and Corvos is just across the water!) he's absolutely dripping cutie pie love interest coding yet again.

(Also yes I know the lock and key thing is very funny because we were introduced to him learning he was a fancy key to a big door.)

Gains a point back because the other green g'raha thing is I'm pretty sure people use this shirt glam because it kinda looks like it has weed on it.

Don't quote me on that, vibes only.

Anyway he came colour coordinated (with his original eye colour and hair colour not the bright Allagan dalamud red dye that goes with his normal outfit) so so precise and neat, like he's going to some sort of formal event, and even with flip flops he really does seem incredibly put together like the twins or Y'shtola, just for full outfit cohesiveness.

As someone who would hold G'raha's hand on the romantic gondola vibe, 10/10.

3 out of 10 and a huge cringe if you would not. He's got to stop Striving.

Hey it's the star of the show!! Adorable hairstyle out, cute plot-important earring on, and wearing her exact character colours but adorable beach wear :)

I love that she looks kind of like she went to the girls for advice and got the top from Y'shtola and the shorts from Alisaie, and she probably was very serious and stressed about getting this right even though there's no rules and no one's judging her -

oops.

Anyway the ballet shoes are adorable and go with all the cute picto spins and twirls :)

I think the strict colour scheme does speak to the slight lack of fleshing out she got so far in the story (we don't really have any real character reason that picto in particular spoke to her and this glam isn't one of the many fun takes people had on how to dress to meet that brief ). I don't think DT did more than just repeat that she's serious and sweet and trying really hard to get out of her shell and be more fun and creative and also she's been practicing dodging really hard she shouts mid-Trust combat (bless her). But ALSO getting out of the shell is really hard and she only found out everything and got some closure in the final level 100 quests so there wasn't really much to do with her after that.

This is like her First Non-Plot-Critical Whimsy Moment and losing the hood or any cat ears entirely (and there are perfectly functional cat ears to wear in game) is a good step considering we know she wears it precisely because she needed a sort of advance PR campaign to make her look cute and approachable before she opened her mouth and started bringing down the vibe (serious scary children are SO funny though and i love that for her). Having the same top as Y'shtola is a good thing for trying to make her less childish and have her trying to show that now as she takes this huge step out from the background. I mean, it still has a slight sense of her costuming herself and pushing herself out of comfort zones as she always does, but it's 100% in character so I adore it.

1000/10 because Krile is great and there's so much going on here and it's so fun when a character's whole personality is a costume and then they're like aurgh wait do I even want that??

[slytherheign]

SNOW ON THE BEACH | tasm!peter parker

PREQUEL TO A WALK TO REMEMBER.

CAN ALSO BE READ AS A ONE-SHOT.

PAIRING: tasm!peter parker x reader

WORD COUNT: 1.8k

SUMMARY: you start to see your best friend in a different way at the same time the snow starts to fall.

WARNINGS: doubts and unspoken feelings. let me know if i missed any warnings. [⚠︎︎RATING: G]

AUTHOR’S NOTE: inspired by taylor swift’s song with the same title. as written above, this is a prequel to another fic of mine but this can also be read as a standalone. THIS IS A GENDER NEUTRAL FIC but if you see something that pertains to a specific gender then pls reach out so i can change it!

DESTINATION: Sweet Street | GO BACK TO THE STATION. CLICK HERE FOR ALL THINGS SOTB (reviews, commentary, etc. about this fic).

It was late November and the neighborhood was gearing up for the upcoming winter season. Normally, you would stay home for moments like this, staring at the window as you waited for the snow to fall. However, this time was different because your best friend had other plans. He all but pulled you up from your couch where you were peacefully taking a nap to lead you out of your house. Apparently, for him, this kind of weather was perfect for walking along the beach.

You and Peter have known each other ever since you were children. The moment your family moved into his town, he was the first kid who wanted to be your friend. There was no question why you instantly became best friends. Since then, you have shared everything from secrets to dreams. 

Always inseparable, rarely without the other.

Always been “just best friends.”

But a shift has shown itself—unspoken feelings that simmered beneath the surface that neither of you fully understood or dared to acknowledge. For you, it started in your third year of high school, and since then have lingered every time you were with him. As much as you hoped it would go away at some point, it unfortunately didn’t. And it certainly wouldn’t go away right now as he walked with you along the coast, your hand in his, intertwined.

The beach was secluded under the cloak of night, where the only light came from the stars scattered across the sky like pocketfuls of glitter. The ocean whispered against the shore, the waves reflecting the moonlight in a soft, silver glow. The air was cool, almost cold, but not unwelcoming, like the gentle feeling of his hand. The atmosphere is filled with indescribable magic, a surreal blend of familiarity and something entirely new. You recognized a spot you used to visit as kids—a large driftwood log, half-buried in the sand—and nudged Peter to look at it.

“Remember when we used to sit at that spot when we were kids?” you asked.

“How can I possibly forget? That’s where you first told me you wanted to travel the world,” he chuckled. “Remember that spot?” he pointed at the spot to the side of the large driftwood log.

“That’s where we built that crazy sandcastle,” you giggled, cheeks flushed from the chill in the air. “I swear, we thought we could actually live in it forever.”

Peter laughed, his breath was visible in the night air. “And then the tide came in and washed it away. We were probably devastated for like, what—ten minutes?”

“More like ten seconds,” you replied, eyes sparkling with mischief. You turned to him, a playful grin on your face. “We just ran back into the water, forgetting all about it.”

He smiled at the memory, squeezing your hand gently. The temperature dropped as you strolled further down the beach, sending a shiver down your spine. Peter noticed and let go of your hand so he could shrug off his jacket and drape it around your shoulders. The warmth of his gesture seeped through, but you didn’t miss how he decided not to hold your hand again.

“Thanks, Pete,” you said softly. Your heart fluttered in your chest for the kind gesture but you already missed holding his hand. For a second, you were about to reach for his hand but he pulled it away from you to stuff it in his jeans.

In the quiet of the moment, you felt a sudden ache in your chest. You turned to look at him but he was staring straight ahead. He seemed deep in thought and you didn’t bother interrupting him. Besides, thoughts of your own began to find their way into your head at the same time. 

You didn’t know what was wrong with you lately. Every time you see him, you feel this… weird flutter in your chest. It was like your heart was trying to tell you something, but you couldn’t understand it. You have been best friends for so long. He was always there, always the one you could count on, always the one who made you laugh when you were feeling down. But now… now it felt different. You couldn’t help but notice the little things when he was around. The way his eyes crinkled when he laughed, the way he always knew exactly what to say to make you feel better. And when he wasn’t around, you’d find yourself missing him more than you ever did before. But missing your best friend was normal, right?

But then, why did it hurt so much every time you saw him with someone else? Why did it feel like your heart was being squeezed when he talked to other girls? You should be happy for him, you should want him to be happy. But instead, you feel… jealous? Was it jealousy? You didn’t even know… but you hated it. You hated that you felt this way because it didn’t make any sense.

Life was emotionally abusive but he was the one guiding light that gave you inspiration to wake up every day. You’ve been through everything together, from heartbreaks to triumphs, and you always leaned on each other for support—because that’s what best friends did.

Just best friends. It was all you've ever been.

So, why couldn’t you stop thinking about what it would be like if… if you were more than that? What would it feel like to touch his hair when he sleeps, to look into his eyes that were reminiscent of flying saucers from another planet for hours, to know the feeling of his lips on yours? But then, what if you were wrong? What if this was just some passing thing, and you would ruin everything by saying something? What if he didn’t feel the same way? What if you lose him? You couldn’t stand that. You couldn’t stand losing him. But if you didn’t say anything, how would you ever know? How would you ever figure out what these feelings were? Maybe… you were just overthinking everything. Maybe this was just a phase that would pass if you just ignored it long enough… but what if it wasn’t? What if this was something real, something worth risking everything for?

You wished you could figure out what your heart was trying to tell you. Because right now, it felt like it was screaming, and you were too scared to listen.

You just wished you knew what to do. 

Then, unexpectedly, delicate flakes began to fall from the darkened sky, dancing down like tiny stars coming to rest on the earth. At first, it felt unreal—a gentle winter blanket spreading across the beach, contrasting the warm feeling that was in your chest. Other than the falling snow, the sky above was clear, except for a faint, otherworldly glow on the horizon, it reminded you of the aurora borealis, though neither of you have ever seen it in person.

“It’s snowing,” Peter whispered as he looked up, his eyes wide with wonder. The snow gathered in his tousled hair, and you couldn’t help but laugh at his astonishment. You both paused, turning your faces to the sky, letting the soft flakes melt on both of your skin. 

“Snow on the beach,” he mused.

“I know. It’s weird… but beautiful,” you replied.

Peter looked at you without you noticing, catching a fleeting moment when the moonlight seemed to illuminate your face from within, making your features soft and almost ethereal. He smiled.

“It is beautiful…” he agreed. 

You turned your face just to see him staring at you.

For a moment, it felt like time had stopped, everything around the two of you faded into a serene silence. You saw that the same wonder you had was reflected in his eyes. And suddenly, all your doubts were cast aside. There was a vulnerability in his expression that you had never noticed before, a silent question that mirrored your own feelings. 

Peter reached out, enveloping your hands with his. The touch was electric, sending a shockwave of awareness through both of you. You paused, holding your breath, afraid to move, afraid to speak, as if knowing that this moment might shatter everything between the two of you.

The snow fell heavier and your hearts synchronized with the rhythm of the ocean. You shared a knowing smile, the kind that held a thousand unspoken words as you both realized what was happening.

Peter broke the silence first, his voice quiet but steady. “Do you ever wonder…” he started, the words hanging in the air like the snowflakes drifting down. He hesitated, searching for the right way to express the feelings in his heart. “If we could… be more?”

You felt your heart race at his words, a warmth that was stronger than any chill of the winter night spread through your body. “Yeah, I do,” you whispered, nervous yet elated. 

It was as if, for the first time, you were seeing each other in a new light, one that revealed what has always been there but was hidden beneath layers of friendship. It was beautiful, but also terrifying, like seeing snow on the beach—something that you felt shouldn't exist, yet here it was, impossibly real.

“Maybe we could try?” Peter suggested, his voice barely above a whisper.

“I’d like that,” you replied, smiling.

In an instant, everything changed. The world blurred, the periphery fading away until all that existed was the space between you. The stars, the moon, the endless ocean—they all receded into the background, insignificant compared to the look you shared. At that moment, everything clicked into place. The memories of your secret smiles and late-night conversations flooded back, but now they carried a different weight. 

“So…” he started. “Be mine?”

Peter raised a hand to brush a snowflake from your hair and you leaned into his touch with your heart pounding.

“Yes,” you answered with no hesitation.

As the snowflakes continued to drift down, you leaned into each other, closing the gap between the two of you. It was a kiss that felt like everything and nothing at the same time—gentle, hesitant, but full of the promise of what could be. The world around you seemed to hold its breath as if the very stars were watching and waiting to see what would happen next.

When you finally pulled away, the world resumed its quiet motion, but something had definitely shifted. The snow, the beach, the stars—all of it felt different, it was like the universe itself knew and played a part in what just happened and what would happen.

Neither of you spoke, afraid that words might break the spell or jinx everything. 

And in truth, you didn’t need to say anything more. The way you looked at each other, the way your forehead rested against his—said it all.

You continued to walk along the shore hand in hand, the snow crunching softly beneath your feet, leaving a trail that would soon be covered by fresh snow. The future was uncertain, but for now, you were contented in the knowledge that you’d found something beautiful—like snow on the beach.

SLYTHERHEIGN TAGLIST: @writingstoraes @joshiiieeenesx @checo2011

TASM!PETER PARKER TAGLIST: @mymilkducts @i-am-woman-strong @lauraneedstochill @jeanettexkillian @ms-mandalore @enaraism @alessandralol @sad-darksoul @sincericida @mentallystablepotato @mich0731 @logolepsic-insomniac @k0miiki @dreamsarecloserwithyou @jumilzzz @primroseparker @preciousbabypeter @myheartonthemove @rebecca-johnson-28 @silkholland @ellievickstar @okkulta @geekygamerchick @starqwerty20 ​ @the-quiet-observer @softiepeterpan @willowhaired @sflame15-blog @pompeygirl89 @remuslupinsdocs

[foxglovefaun]

for our tenth wedding anniversary my husband and I got food poisoning.

I’m still pretty upset but I’ve been thinking about it a lot, and tbh I don’t hate this concept as much as I did when we left the restaurant.

When you know someone for a long time, and you go through Some Stuff together a number of times, things like getting food poisoning on your tenth wedding anniversary is sort of like

any other day.

like

The special days are special because special things happen, not because the date scheduled a stand-out importance, you know?

our tenth anniversary is absolutely a massive milestone to be recognized! But we’re at a point where any day can be as special as any landmark date.

Like last week we went to the riverside beach on a Wednesday. I haven’t seen my spouse look so relaxed in months. The water was cool and and we stood in the river and looked at the clouds and I was happy to be alive. He couldn’t stop flirting with me and i felt so fuckin pretty.

It was just a random weekday trip, but it was spent with him, and it was one of the most beautiful days in my life. No fanciness whatsoever. Walmart water shoes, fried chicken from home, strawberries, chips and horrible shelf-stable dip, and the experience of returning a beach stand burger because they forgot to cook it.

One of the best days of my fucking life.

So do you see what I mean?

When you spend so much time with a person, dates sorta stop carrying the weight they used to. You stop putting significance on days as a number in a specific order. You start to put significance on the days that hit different, the ones that feel special, the ones where you watch yourself fall in love with that person over and over.

So last night, grieving our horrible meal and punishment for our poor choice of eating there, faced with the depressing fact that we were food poisoned for our tenth anniversary, we sat on the couch playing bathroom relay, and while the cannabis worked to settle our bellies, we laughed to the point of tears philosophizing about the Pixar Cars universe. The fact that car pope implies car crucifixion, which implies car Roman Empire, which implies car Caligula. There are tiny Volkswagens, what are they pollinating? The controversial car discourse about car Adam and car Eve and how it is a concept being dethroned by the discovery of the first wheel. The evolutionary path where some wheels evolved to be mills and other wheels evolved to be chariots, and the cartholic concept of fully-formed Italian cars being the birth of car existence.

It was so great lmao

This is marriage, if you do it right, if you’re lucky.

You can spend an important number day like your tenth wedding anniversary writing a bitter restaurant review on the toilet, relay racing between the couch and the bathroom, and talking about bullshit meme philosophy while replenishing fluids and waiting for the Imodium to kick in. And despite all those miserable activities, you still have a good time.

Because even the shittiest days feel kind of okay when you’re with your favorite person. Our wedding anniversary wasn’t “ruined.” My risotto was ruined. His pieuvre grillé was ruined. Our relationship with the restaurant was ruined. But our day wasn’t ruined. We spent it together, and we spent it laughing.

The tenth wedding anniversary material is tin, describing the resilience, durability, and flexibility of the relationship, and i think last night was a perfect lived example to why that is.

My husband and I were food poisoned for our tenth wedding anniversary, and it was just another kind of good weather.

[alwritey-aphrodite]

Babes you already know who I'm asking for 👀

#2 with Roy Kent 🫶🏽

Vacation Roy 4ever

2024 Summer Blurbs

Roy has always been the type of person to dedicate himself fully to whatever he does. He gave 110% as a player and a captain, he gives 110% as a coach, and he even gives 110% as an uncle and a boyfriend. The only area in his life where he can’t seem to give his all is self care, dedicating time for rest and relaxation that only benefits him. So, sometimes you have to get creative in the ways you nudge him to take care of himself, which is why you had planned a week-long vacation under the guise of needing a break from the gloomy London weather.

It had been easy enough to convince Roy to take the week off so he could go with you, because it would just be sad to go on a vacation all alone, and he had done some work on the plane, but it wasn’t until you arrived that he started getting suspicious. You really hadn’t planned very much, simply finding a nice house close to the beach to rent and choosing a handful of restaurants that had good reviews and interesting menus. Beyond that, you were taking it day by day, waking up without an alarm and making breakfast together before asking Roy what he wanted to do that day.

He wasn’t dumb, and he definitely caught on to your little scheme rather quickly, but he also wasn’t a heartless jerk and he recognized the care and effort you put in to make sure he took a break and had a chance to rest and relax without any of the usual pressure he placed on himself. Despite all of the chaos he was sure he would return to in London, for this week, it was just you and him and endless sunshine.

“We should get one of these back home,” you quip as you turn the handle on the outdoor shower attached to the back of the house. While it was absolutely perfect for rinsing off all of the sand that accumulated during your trips down to the ocean, it would be completely impractical in London, where the only times you’d be able to rinse off outdoors would be during the handful of weeks that comprise the annual heatwave. Here, though, the shower was absolutely perfect, and you and Roy made good use out of it.

Even though you were far too nervous to properly use the shower with the closeness of the nearby rental properties, it was perfect to cool down and get rid of most of the sand that stuck to your tacky, salt-water skin. It was the cherry on top of your tropical-vacation sundae, the type of thing you’d paste on a vision board with the expectation of never encountering one in real life. It was magical, which made you feel a little silly because it was just a shower head attached to a house, but it was sunny and warm and you were with Roy, who made everything seem magical just by existing. At least now you wouldn’t be lying when you said you had slightly selfish motivations for planning this trip.

[anotheroceanid]

It’s not just the writers and directors lives that are cursed, literally everything about production of those movies is cursed. If they have to film outside, the weather is always terrible (not to mention the size of the waves if they try to film along the beach), the writers trying to write the actual script STRUGGLED, the editing process was an absolute nightmare, the costumes seemed fine at first but then the actors put them on and then it seemed like the costumes constantly needed to be patched up, and on and one it goes. Apollo and the Muses making sure that anything that can go wrong during the movie does go wrong. (The movies always seem to come in way over budget and the reviews are terrible so pretty soon the adaptations stop. Until maybe one of the demigods at camp manages to get into making movies and does their own Percy movie and it’s amazing!)

That's why every movie about Greek mythology always comes out weird and get weird reviews, its Apollo, Dionysus and the muses cursing it. No way they're allowing that bullshit to become popular.

[quinnlarrabee]

Palo santo 101

Before you click play on the audio recording and blithely ignore the written guide, be sure to review the important science-based charts and insight-rich visuals sprinkled throughout it.

If you’ve ever walked into a party hosted by someone under 40 in Brooklyn, Lisbon, California, Condesa or Roma Norte, or Venice Beach and not smelled palo santo, then you probably had covid. Over the past decade palo santo has become the official scent of good vibes. It is an olfactory assurance for anyone who recognizes the scent that conversation will be limited to polyamory, regional burns, and adaptogen supplements. Despite the fact that no one ever doesn’t want to smell palo santo, it’s important to know when to use it and when to relegate your surroundings to their default odor. This guide will ensure that you know exactly how to make the most of the palo santo you carry in the shoulder bag you purchased at the Sant Jordi flea market in Ibiza during the off-season.

Like most cultural appropriations, no one who burns palo santo knows what it is, where it came from, why they use it, or why it’s even called palo santo. Let’s uncover the facts. 

Bursera Graveolens is a tree native to the dry tropical forests of South America. Its discovery by white people dates back to 1972 at a now defunct swingers resort in Quito, Ecuador, where a guest from New Jersey named Paulo Santonicola noticed a stick with a burning ember on the end of giving off a fetid, wispy trail of smoke. He pointed at the burning stick and asked the guy holding the cocaine tray, who would now be called a consent educator, “por que?”

“Plaga,” he replied, and gnashed his teeth and made a flapping-wing motion with the hand not holding the cocaine tray. Paulo brought the wood back to his central New Jersey home as a last-ditch effort to ward off the deer that were eating the tomatoes in his garden. He started burning the wood around the clock in the steamy summer of 1972, during which he and his girlfriend hosted dozens of play parties. 

“I didn’t care if people at my parties had a problem with the smell,” recounted Paulo. “Those frickin’ deer were jumping my fence and chewing through wire to eat my tomatoes. When I caught a whiff of that wood down in Quito, I thought, ‘they won’t come near my garden if I burn this shit.’” 

Mr. Santonicola had achieved some level of notoriety in the adult film industry in the early 1970s, and his parties were well attended by neo-hippies, the disco elite and the first generation of yoga professionals. Over the course of the summer, a pavlovian association formed between the scent of the wood and casual sex, and his friends started asking him for sticks so that they could take the vibe home with them. At the sunset of his porn career, he saw an opportunity not only to rebrand his legacy, distancing himself from grainy adult films with problematic titles, but also to make oceans of cash: import the wood and sell it through his readymade network of yoga instructors under his stage name, Palo Santo. 

Palo santo’s ubiquity today grew from its two foundational use cases: repelling pests and masking the odor of too many naked bodies in poorly ventilated New Jersey basements. Palo santo is still used today as a repellent of sorts to ward off bad vibes and people who do not use the word vibe in place of most nouns at the end of a question, such as scene, weather, temperature, culture, menu, rules, culture, law, opinion, suggested attire, relationship status, sexual proclivity, net worth and so on. It is also still used during group sex, but only when the group sex is intentional and/or ceremonial. There are many other ways, however, that you can improve the vibes of the world through the smoke of this wood, which was recently added to IUCN’s Red List of “near threatened” species, making it even more important to burn palo santo as a way of calling attention to its growing scarcity. 

Airplanes 

For a brief, blissful period during the pandemic, the only people who traveled were intrepid hipsters who had already contracted the virus and been instrumental in scaling it to global significance through music festivals, long-distance polycules and global nomadism. Commercial airlines from the spring of 2020 through the summer of 2021 were basically private air travel for people who know to always ask if party buffet chocolate is psycho-active. Air travel today is a much lower vibration experience, and it’s important that assertive restorative steps be taken by conscious travelers to make flying chill again. Hanging a dreamcatcher from the back of the seat in front of you and burning palo santo on the tray table is a great way of making a public flight experience feel more private. Be sure to light your palo santo only after the aircraft reaches cruising altitude, because tray tables must be stowed until then. 

Other people’s parties

Not everyone with whom you may socialize is aware of how critical palo santo is to creating and maintaining a vibe. Some less experienced hosts try to make do with incense from India, Japan or other countries that have been annexed by Brooklyn or with candles from La Labo, and it may be up to you to rescue the vibe. Back when people consumed alcohol, bringing a nice bottle of wine was a way of showing a host your appreciation, but these days bringing palo santo, immediately lighting it and waving the stick around like Harry Potter on quaaludes is the optimal way of saying thank-you to someone who has invited you into their home.  

Hospitals

While palo santo has not been proven by any form of science to deliver the healing benefits touted by people who sell or use palo santo, be assured that it does all of the things people say it does. Burning palo santo creates smoke, and smoke is pretty to watch and - like cardiovascular exercise - creates a healthy challenge for your lungs. Medical facilities are places where people go to heal, and bringing palo santo to visit a recovering friend is a beautiful contribution to not only their journey back to health but also the recovery of every patient within a twenty to fifty foot radius. 

Conscious uncoupling ceremonies

Modifying your relationship trajectory in a direction that disappoints the person you are with might seem like a low vibe experience, but you can make it a high vibe experience by burning palo santo. While explaining that the rules that you set last week for your ENM pairing have become too confining, burning palo santo will deflect negative reactions and in some cases even seduce your partner into being amenable to a situationship that has absolutely no structure, rules or expectations. This can add to your sexual abundance and also serve as a pillar in your temple of confidence that helps you acquire new lovers at floor parties. If, rather than just undefining the relationship, you are certain there is no future with the person to whom you have exposed particles of burning wood, palo santo will prevent your ex-partner from making an opposing case or lingering too long after you have had uncoupling sex. 

During sex with someone you don’t want to fall in love with you

In a rare moment of cultural relevance, Science has proven that pheromones strengthen the bonds of attraction between two or many more people during sexual activity. Sometimes, though, it is undesirable to strengthen bonds with a sex partner. Sometimes, it is optimal to maintain a totally impartial, unattached, stoic distance between the person who you are inside / is inside of you, given that attraction can lead to unintended expectations. Burning palo santo is an excellent way of muting the potency of pheromones, leveling the olfactory playing field and creating a piney through-line for all the people participating in a sexual experience. 

Any kind of intentional wellness space

Because the smell of palo santo is so potent and distracting, burning it during intentional experiences (e.g. yoga, journaling, meditation, tantra classes, tantric sex, facials or any kind of PRP therapy) compels participants to step up their intention-setting efforts. It forces deep focus and concentration, kind of like how the deafening emo whines of RY X at a RY X concert force you to lean in, cock your head and make that weird squinty-eyed, mouth-agape listening face to be able to hear the unsolicited story of how literally anyone you happen to be standing next to was in an intentional polyamorous relationship with RY X.

Ancient actually sacred genuinely authentic real cultural events that were not invented by white people to extract money from other white people

Many people who attend Burning Man have begun to explore other intentional gatherings outside of Nevada that don’t involve metallic gold body paint. Some of these gatherings are thousands of years old and are led by people who have trained their entire lives to uphold traditions that have been passed down for generations within their culture. Particularly if a gathering takes place in its country of origin (rather than being exported, diluted and branded, like an ethnic fast food franchise), you may encounter native smells that don’t smell like palo santo. In these cases, it is not only permissible but even advisable to add palo santo to everyone’s experience, which you have probably been very reluctantly allowed to attend. Burning palo santo will communicate to the religious or cultural leaders of the gathering that you are on their level and (despite having never read anything about the gathering other than first few words of the top Google result you saw while standing on the Premier Access line into your Delta flight at JFK / LAX / SFO) have a deep respect for whatever they are chanting in a language that you cannot understand while you record the most intensely sacred moments for the Instagram story that you will post at the appropriate time in your home time zone so that everyone will know that you are an internationally intentionally spiritual person who gets access to authentic cultural events. 

Despite its countless unproven benefits and its universal appeal within a very small circle, there are certain times when palo santo should not be burned. Palo santo can trigger flashbacks for people who first encountered the scent of it during acid trips. If someone walks into your container, smells the palo santo you’re burning and begins behaving erratically, just ask them to immediately return to their own container, lest they harsh the vibe you’re cultivating. The only other times that do not call for burning palo santo are when you’re alone, and no one else will see you lighting the stick and waving it around the room, bringing it within inches of everyone’s face whether they’ve invited it or not, while making awkwardly long eye contact with them, nothing but the winding trail of smoke in front of your your vulnerable gaze, thus communicating to them that you are a spiritually endowed person and care deeply about them knowing that you are a spiritually endowed person. So, a helpful rule of thumb is this: as with masturbation, you should always and only be burning palo santo when someone is watching, otherwise what’s the point.

[eddieredmayneargentinablog]

"Eddie Redmayne: ‘I won a prize for worst performance of the year’

The Oscar-winning star of ‘The Theory of Everything’, ‘Fantastic Beasts’ and (gulp) ‘The Danish Girl’ is playing a hitman-for-hire in his new TV adaptation of ‘The Day of the Jackal’. He speaks to Adam White about famous friends, weathering backlash, and why the acting industry is ‘deeply unhealthy’

Source: Independent, Saturday 02 November 2024.

Eddie Redmayne said (excerpts):

“Often something you’ve done is just a part of a much bigger discussion, and you try to make sense of it with the understanding and comprehension of any human being.”

"You answer, you trip over, you get quoted, get misquoted, It’s all par for the course. But the way I explain it to myself is I’m just a f***ing actor. I wasn’t bred to be a politician, or a great speaker, or a particularly articulate advocate. I will, of course, sputter my way through [advocacy] for the things that I care about... but I’m just an actor.”

“There have been many years when I’d watch The White Lotus and go, ‘Why do I never get those jobs and hang out on beautiful beaches?’,” Redmayne laughs. “So I wouldn’t want to say that was the reason for taking the job, but it was pretty high up there. I’ve spent years playing Elizabethans and Victorians, or people in the 1920s or 30s. This was the first contemporary thing I think I’ve done in years. And it was nice to be able to just whip on a pair of trousers and a shirt every day, versus lots of 26-piece tweed suits.”

"At the audition, I put on my best ‘space emperor with mummy issues’ voice, and that was what came out – it was definitely a big swing".

"There was a moment in the Jupiter Ascending script that described the character’s voice. It said that his throat had been ‘gnarled out’, or something like that. So at the audition I put on my best ‘space emperor with mummy issues’ voice, and that was what came out.” The Wachowskis let him keep it for filming. “I had the most wonderful time making that film, but it was definitely a big swing. I do hear that there are people who are into [my performance], which is nice. Though I’m also conscious I have a prize somewhere for giving the worst performance of the year.” He chuckles. (It was Worst Supporting Actor at the 2016 Golden Raspberry Awards, if you’re curious.)

Does he read his own reviews? “Oh, yeah, absolutely,” he replies, without hesitation. He only finds it difficult to read them if he’s in a play, where they can’t help but impact what he’s doing night after night. “TV and film, though, often it’s so long since you did the thing that there’s a level of detachment from it. But the interesting thing about them is that I’d say most actors are harsher critics of themselves than any critic can be. It’s rare that I’m sitting reading a bad review of one of my performances, going, ‘No! They got it wrong!�� I typically sit there going, ‘Oh, yeah, I saw that too.’”

"I’m certainly more critical of my own work than most critics, I would say. So the reason I do this job is to aspire to those glimmers of something that momentarily feels real. “It sounds f***ing pretentious, but there are those moments, and sometimes they last for under a second, where you’re completely free, and you’re playing against someone, and everything is alive, and momentarily you go somewhere else.”

As for what’s next, Redmayne is unsure. Fantastic Beasts is “over, as far as I’m concerned”, so his diary is currently open. But he’s excited for the future. “I love variety, and I love pushing myself, and I hope to continue doing that,” he says. “I’ll always take a big swing, and...”

Full interview here:

[ratherembarrassing]

2025: weeks 1 + 2

starting the year off as we ended the last one: well behind on every measure!

right off the bat: the wee hours of new year's day. henny and fairy floss and chappell roan playing quietly in the background. a perfect start.

first brunch of the year: my kingdom for a horse (whitemore square, adelaide). it's gonna be the year of the waffle.

unicorn slime: the gift for a seven year old.

eight? hours in a steamy car: the fires in the grampians were forecast to kick off again, so my very brief jaunt to adelaide was over. it was hot. my stomach was angry. there was nothing but errands waiting for me. i think the eight hour drive ended up taking nine and a half.

purchases that will change your life: a new kitchen knife. the dulling of a knife is like slow boiling a frog, or whatever the saying is, but there are few things as satisfying in life as a perfectly halved sandwich.

nicole kidman, save me from the sun: i have been in the market for a rashie since about 2014, but the point is that despite being absolutely paranoid about getting sunburnt, last summer i got roasted in a 3" strip across my back and i have conceded defeat by my shoulders' inability to reach that far. anyway, there is a rashie version of nicole kidman's swimmers, and now i own it and it's great.

not that i needed it: first beach of the year was hot and entirely cloudy, which is perfect beach weather as far as i'm concerned. melbourne beaches can barely be called such a thing, but they are great for floating in the water while you have a gasbag with your pals before stuffing your faces with fish and chips.

songs i shazamed (mostly) in the car: this is an annual tradition at this point, but it's literally the reason i bought an apple watch a few years ago and i haven't shared it in a few years.

oh yeah, also tv: squid game (season 1, netflix). the next item will explain why, but i did finally watch the first season a couple of days after the second season dropped. surprised by how uninteresting i found it, which maybe tells on me more than on itself.

the blood is a metaphor: maccas was running an australian-only grown up happy meal to promo squid game season 2, which included a dalgona candy that got you a ticket in the draw for either a tracksuit or $10,000. there were four shapes, and only the golden arches were for the cash. after a couple of other shapes, one of which i got out successfully, i finally got a big M in my tin. and i was prepared. i had watched s1 now. i knew what to do: i was going to lick that sucker free. within five minutes and nowhere near to releasing the shape, my tongue was bleeding. did i stop? no. did i get the shape free? yes, but it broke. i carefully shoved the pieces back together so i could trick the scanned. it worked! "congrats, enter your details below." below: this competition is now over. motherfucker.

get that one in ya: is what i would have named the place, but fluffy torpedo is also a name for a weird flavour ice cream joint. buttermilk pancakes and maple syrup flavour was exactly as described, buttered baguette was... something else, though i couldn't say what.

also, uh: let (2024, dir. alyssa loh) sonoya mizuno in the short film version of that slightly off-putting bdsm fic that exists for every single ship.

cinema!: the brutalist (2024, dir. brady corbet). every year i manage to see the best movie of the past year right out the door of the new year. the length is daunting, but the intermission entirely mitigates it. i reviewed it on letterboxd like a wanker.

sportsball, as always: i hustled my ass out of the 3.5 hour movie to get down to some ill-planned impulse purchased tickets to day one of the ao to see my girl sabalenka have a stressful one. as circumstances have eventuated, i'm now very glad i went when i did.

[mp0625]

Sun and Sand

Pyotr Kochetkov x reader

Taglist. Masterlist.

A/N: sorry it was posted late, this is for Pyotr’s shutout on Saturday

You came down to Florida with Pyotr to support him in his second stint in the NHL this season after Andersen was sidelined. You said it was an excuse to support him but you really just wanted to go to the beach.

After the bad loss on Friday to Florida with Pyotr sitting on the bench. You were ready to get home, but you still had to go through Tampa. When you got off the plane that you took with the boys to Tampa there was a sense of dread in the air for not knowing if the game will end well or not. With Pyotr starting you were nervous as hell because you didn’t know what was going to happen. As the periods ticked away in the game, and save after save that Pyotr made, your anxiety got less and less. When the clock hit zero and the buzzer went off, you screamed your head off, and you went to celebrate with the team.

The morning after you woke up in Pyotr’s arms cuddled up, after a few minutes when you knew he was awake. You softly asked “Instead of taking the plane back with the team can we stay an extra day and go to the beach?”

He looked down on you with a soft smile and a kiss and said “Of course, baby.” “Is that why you packed our bathing suits?” He said with a grin.

“Maybe”

Once y’all got ready to go, you took an Uber to Clearwater beach. The sand was so white and the water so blue and warm. You swam while Pyotr read. After a while you convinced him to come swim with you. Y’all jumped the waves and swam in the salty water. After a while both of you started to get hungry, so you found a taco shop down the beach a little bit. Once y’all were filled with tacos, y’all went back out into the sun to read and nap. As it was getting dark Pytor woke you up and said “It’s getting dark we should probably head out.”

“But I’m hungry.” You said

“I’ll find somewhere to eat.” He said holding up a finger, “The phone said there is a seafood place up the road from here with good reviews.”

“Ooo let’s do that.”

When y’all got to the restaurant, it smelled delicious. As you sat down, you hadn’t realized how red you had gotten till now. “Oops I forgot to reapply sunscreen after lunch.” Once dinner was done, y’all Ubered back to your hotel, as you were getting ready for bed, you mentioned to Pyotr “Do we have to leave? The weather here is 10 times better than Raleigh.”

A/N pt 2: Yes I’ve been to Tampa and Clearwater a bunch of times that’s how I was able to put the details in.

Taglist: @studioreader @honethatty12 @slafgoalskybaby @topguncultleader @wondershells

I know I have a few people on the taglist that are new but I’m doing on this on my phone and I don’t have access to the list I’m going to tag them tomorrow when I put this on the masterlist

[3terna15unshin3]

Hey I have a request for a blurb. Matty and Este are both so career driven but what about something that makes them consider next steps? They’ve been together a few years at this point. I was just thinking about Este thinking she might be pregnant and Mattys reaction. Even if she isn’t but then they have to talk about what they both want from life and how old they are. Fluffy more than angsty?

Late

Este might be pregnant

2102 words

—

a/n: thank u sooo much for the request!!! In the past i’ve been feral at those interview clips of Matty talking about pregnancy scares and being up to have a baby and whatever so I am very much into this concept😝😝 I hope this is what u were looking for!

(I wrote a whole 15 chapter fic of this universe! read it here first if u want more Matty and Este 😌)

—

Este sighed, finally finishing her newest review and preparing it to be sent for approval. Her office was quiet, void of the few coworkers she shared it with due to the late hour. She’d called in the day before—a migraine and funny stomach holding her hostage—so she had a bit of housekeeping to deal with, and stayed past her usual time.

Once she’d packed up and left to her and Matty’s north London home, she sat in her own little world on the tube. Headphones tight over her ears. But as she stared down at her phone, the funny feeling her stomach came back.

It wasn’t uncommon for Este to get a bit motion sick; so she pressed the power button to turn off her screen. Avoiding her device would clear up the sickness eventually.

But it only got worse. So bad that when she got off at Queen’s Park Station, she walked the long way home to prolong the feeling of the evening air. Este thought about how a hundred years ago, doctors used to prescribe ‘sea air’ as a cure for being unwell. As if a walk on the beach could bypass a disease. She liked that idea, and suddenly yearned to be on the shore. To take in the smells. To eat some fish and chips. Fish and chips sounded really good, Este thought.

Matty had been working from home that day, corresponding with Jamie about some boring label stuff and hopping on call with his financial advisor. A pretty chill day, compared to the type he’d been working lately.

So, when Este arrived home, she found him on on the sofa with his nose in his laptop, Keiko crumpled against his thigh. She dropped her bag and politely shoved Keiko to the side after giving her a few pets, and took the spot in Matty’s lap instead.

“Hey.” he said with a chuckle, not even hearing her come through the door and smiling at the surprise. He buried his hand in her hair with love and studied her face that stared up at him. That’s when he noticed how the expression on her face was laced with discomfort. His eyebrows furrowed. “Is everything alright?”

Este pouted dramatically, making him roll his eyes. She giggled. “Yeah. Just feel a bit poorly from the tube home,” she explained, nuzzling deeper into his touch.

“From the tube? Since when do you get sick from the tube?”

Her shoulders shrugged. “Maybe I’m just not fully over what I was feeling yesterday.”

Matty pressed the back of his hand to her forehead. It felt normal. “Want me to run us a bath?”

She smiled at the sweet offer, and the fact that he knew that she loved a bath when feeling under the weather. But the more she considered it, the more she cringed at the thought.

“I was going to say yes, but a bath honestly sounds like the last place I’d want to be at the minute,” Este admitted.

He was taken aback. His hands grabbed Este’s shoulders to sit her upright and look at her head on. “Who are you and what have you done with my Este?”

She closed her eyes weakly and laughed—though it quickly turned to a grimace when the movement in her torso made her ache even more.

“Seriously, love! I don’t think you’ve ever declined a bath. Even last year when you had the flu and I was sure you’d pass out from the heat. You still said yes,” Matty pointed out.

“You’re right,” she agreed, “But don’t worry, I’ll just get some sleep. See how I feel tomorrow—“

“Have you had your period?”

They paused together after Matty interrupted her. It shut Este up quickly. Because she hadn’t.

She silently shook her head no in his direction. Wide eyes plastered her mug. “It’s late.”

Minds spinning, they sat quietly for another beat.

“Do you want me to go and get a test?”

-

Este took a wee on the stick. Matty set the three minute timer. And they waited.

“What if I am pregnant, Matty?”

They sat hip to hip on the edge of the bathtub as the clock counted down.

“I think I should be the one asking you that,” he responded, “Whatever you feel is right. That’s what we’ll do.”

She looked over at him in wonder and in slight apprehension. The overhead lighting casted shadows onto his face, showing its angularity and structure. It looked sharp, like it was carved out of something solid. But somehow it was sweet and soft. Peering at it was easy.

“But the next album. Tour. You either miss everything with me or you postpone your career. I couldn’t make you do that,” Este leaned her head onto his shoulder.

Matty’s hand wandered around to the opposite side of her waist and found home there. “Fuck that.” he said shortly. “There’s always time to release an album or to do a tour, darling. We can do that next year. The year after. 2040, even, if we need to. But this is right now. If you think I’d choose my ‘career’ over you, then you’re crazy.”

The timer beeped.

“I guess this is literally right now,” sighed Este, nerves bubbling throughout her body. She grabbed Matty’s chin to pull him in for a kiss. “I love you.”

“I love you more,” he said, like he always did. “By the way—if there is a baby and what you want is to walk to a clinic and get rid—then I’d also support that,”

She laughed at the way he waved his hand in casual dismissal when he said ‘get rid’, grabbing it tightly as they both stood up and prepared to look. Matty had a sheepish grin on his face after succeeding in making her laugh during such a heavy moment.

They perched their feet in front of the sink, where the test laid. And after a quiet ‘Three, two, one,’ in unison, Este flipped it over.

It was negative.

Just to be sure, she took the four other tests that came in the pack that Matty bought. They were all negative.

Este then gave her GP a call to meet with her the next day and get to the bottom of her mysterious illness; now that pregnancy was off the table (at the appointment, she would come to learn that she had developed a slight sensitivity to gluten. She would also eventually get her period—a small but loud 4 days late).

Now sat back on the sofa, Keiko sprawled across their laps, a certain weight was lifted off the both of their shoulders. But, the future still seemed up in the air.

“What if those tests were positive?” asked Este, “Do you feel ready to have a baby? Is that something you want?”

The answer was easy, for Matty. “The idea of being a dad does excite me,” he explained truthfully, “It’s just been the question of when would be the right time—because of how busy and weird my life gets. And also just the fact that none of my previous relationships got to the point of even considering it, since they haven’t been you. But I feel like me and you are cut out for anything. I’d be ready, for you.”

She smiled and grabbed his hand to fiddle with it.

“I also look at the way we are now. Passionate about our work, Keiko, living life fully. And I think that if a baby never happens to fit into the picture—whether that be by choice or just by chance—then that would be okay too. It’s me and you. It’ll work out.” Matty explained, “Do you feel ready for a baby? Or even want one?”

“For a while I wasn’t keen on it. I think it came from a place of just being scared that I wouldn’t have the chance, you know? That nobody would ever love me enough to want to start a family. In Filipino culture, it’s so common to get married and have children in your early twenties. My mum had me at 22 and I wasn’t even an accident. So when I passed that age and was not anywhere near getting married, I was kind of bitter. Angry that people wouldn’t stop asking me about it. Now I’m just in awe to share my life with someone. To be so eager to expand that adoration. So I wouldn’t be opposed having a little baby. Seems like a worth-while thing to commit to with someone you love. With you,”

Matty brought her in closer, making her cuddle against his side and beneath this arm. He planted a kiss on her temple.

“I also will say this,” restarted Este, “I don’t think I’d want more than one.”

He brushed a wavy stray hair off of her forehead. “Oh—you already know I’d spoil the first one so much that we’d have no money left to have another,” Matty joked.

She giggled, silently picturing what it would be like. How Matty would probably insist on carrying the little boy or girl everywhere and refuse to put the task on her. How if they had long hair, he’d ask Este to teach him how to plait with excitement, even though he wouldn’t be very good at it. How he would get the little one a pair of drumsticks as soon as they’re able to hold some. How him and Este would buy an endless library of story books.

“But—” Este began to clarify, quickly being interrupted by Matty who finished her sentence with her.

“Definitely not right now.” They clarified in unison.

Laughter blanketed their presence, happy that they were on the same page and that their bottom lines were the same. And that they knew to express it at the same time, in the same words. It happened often and honestly began to creep them out.

Este dragged their puppy up her body to embrace her fully and feel her soft fur against her tired cheek. The now even later hour drew Keiko tired and cuddlier; so any position they had her in would result in eventual quiet snores out of her snout. All three of them were where they felt the happiest.

“When the time comes, it’ll be fun. Being a mum to your kid. Really challenging, probably, but fun.” She decided with a grin.

Matty silently agreed, alternating between caressing his girlfriend’s soft skin and scratching Keiko’s fluffy coat. They sat quietly for a couple of minutes.

“Do you want to marry me? In the meantime?” he suddenly posed.

“What?” Shocked, Este sat up straighter. “Matty, is this a proposal?”

“If you want to marry me, then yes.” The casual tone of his voice made her laugh nervously. “Unless you want something more special, with a ring and everything. You can help me pick it out. And I can plan it, or surprise you. Just say the word so I know this is what you want, and I’ll do it. Now or later,”

Matty smiled when he felt her lips on his.

“Of course I want to marry you,” she said, “I’d marry you tomorrow if you wanted to marry me.”

There was a glint of spontaneity and realisation in his eye. Este watched him open his phone and search for the hours of operation for the nearest courthouse.

“Okay, baby, I was just being excited about the idea. Plus I’m going to the doctor’s tomorrow, to figure out this goddamn stomach that won’t rest. ‘M not sure if there’s time for a wedding,” she stopped him with sarcasm, chuckling and pecking him on the jaw.

He crossed his arms dramatically, throwing his phone the the side and sighing like a toddler. His eyes narrowed in playful anger and stared Este down.

“Suit yourself. Didn’t want to marry you anyway,” Matty joked.

She shoved him over as they burst into giggles together, continuing to banter about how big or small they wanted the wedding to be, how ugly Este thought most engagement rings were, and how there was no way Matty could make his way through written vows without crying.

And in bed that night, laying next to the love of her life, Este glanced down at her empty ring finger and childless abdomen. She thought about how she wouldn’t have it any other way—but also would have it a bunch of different ways—trusting the power of the universe to bring her exactly what it wanted to. Because of how certain she was of how great every single outcome would be, with Matty by her side.

[bigdreamsandwildthings]

Review: A Sweet Sting of Salt (Rose Sutherland)

Rating: ★★★★★/5

"It hadn’t been easy at first, when Jean’s heart still took to pounding in her chest whenever Muirin was gone for more than an hour, but over and over again she returned whole and happy, and so Jean learned what the fishermen’s wives knew: How to look to the horizon and wish for fine weather, a calm and gentle sea. To let Muirin go and hope she would be held safe by the waves, and wonder how soon she would return. Jean couldn’t have asked her to do anything else. She held her love in an open hand."

I was absolutely entranced by this lovely, lovely book.

Jean lives in Barquer's Bay, Nova Scotia, where she's the only midwife since her mentor Anneke retired. She lives her life around the births of the babies around town, and spends the rest of her time at home in her little cottage by the sea. When a cry rouses her from sleep one night, the last thing she expects to see is a woman on the beach, desperate and well-enough along in her pregnancy that the baby is almost here. Jean knows she has to help her - but Muirin has her secrets, more than Jean could guess, and she will be caught up in all of them before their time together is through.

This is my favourite kind of book. There are elements of folkloric fantasy, and it's a tableau of a period in history set in a place that I haven't read much of before. I absolutely *adored* how this book felt; I could practically feel the sting of the Nova Scotian sea on my face, feel the cold settle in my bones as winter hits. It's so wonderfully atmospheric, and the fantasy elements had me guessing at exactly what was really happening the whole time.

I adored Jean equally, too. She's a fierce woman who's been through the ringer for being a lesbian, but she's got this community of like-minded and supportive friends around her that made me ache for her. Her romance with Muirin is subtle and so well-developed. Muirin herself is so mysterious and mischievous, so quirky and sweet and adventurous, and I loved her immediately. How the two women came to understand each other even without the words to express it is written so well.

And the story! The tension! I literally couldn't put it down by the end because I absolutely HAD to know how things were going to play out. Tobias is a piece of shit and I am SO glad things went the way they did with him. I just love how things are a slow build, how you guess at what's really going on. It's masterfully written and perfectly paced, with enough slow moments in the interim that you really get to know Jean and her lifestyle and the little cottage she calls home.

I can't say enough good things about this book. I loved it so, so much.

[somber-sapphic]

Hi!!! I rarely request but your writing is so good I could not resist the urge. I love the Carina x Maya x Reader fics you posted, theres not enough writing for the Station 19 universe. I was hoping you could write another one, or even just a Carina x Maya. I feel like because Maya has such a dangerous job, Carina definitely slips into doctor mode every time she gets hurt or sick. Could you write where Maya gets sick with strep throat or something but Carina is unable to get her to Grey Sloan or the E.R (maybe they went on a vacation or there is bad weather) so she decides to examine Maya herself. (P.S. I hope you’re having a good day and if not tomorrow will be better💕💕)

17, 17A,🌸

Sickness At Sea

〖Notes: Alrighty my basement flooded and I think I've got carpal tunnel so lets write some sickfics! (PS, I love this request, I'm so sorry it took me so long to get to it, please feel free to send in another when my asks are open <;3〗

〖Summary: Maya and Carina finally get to go on a vacation. Of course that's the perfect time for Maya's immune system to give out.〗

〖Word Count: 〗

〖Pairing: Carina DeLuca x Sick Maya Bishop〗

☾Masterlists☽

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

Maya groaned and stared out the window at the crashing waves caused by the torrential downpour that was ravaging the east coast. She was inwardly cursing Carina for convincing her to come to Maine, especially when they lived so close to the beach in Seattle, but she had decided that they should leave Washington for a bit.

The two didn’t get time off together often so two weeks paid vacation at the same time was huge. So huge that her Italian girlfriend insisted that she and Maya had to see the East Coast. The blonde had argued that they could go somewhere a few hours’ drive rather than a seven-hour plane ride, but Carina had made it seem too good to refuse.

And it had been. The first week was wonderful. They’d spent time walking along the beach in the cool October weather and explored the nearby town, doing the regular touristy things. They’d found the restaurant with the best reviews and had the first proper date night in a long time, complete with fancy wine and even a violinist to serenade them.

Then the storm started. It was nice for the first day, it was relaxing. Then one day turned into two. And two into three. And how they were sitting in their beautiful house on the beach with the sea raging in front of them. There would be no walking on the sand, there would be no exploring the quiet town, there would be no anything.

The rain was coming down in sheets and Carina had been running around the house yelling in Italian about the damage and how they couldn’t stay there if the storm continued. Maya was starting to agree, it wasn’t entirely safe to be this close to the sand and she was beginning to worry that the beach would wash out.

“Car, it’ll be okay. I’ve seen beaches in Seattle handle worse than this.” The blonde croaked, wincing as the words grated against her throat. Carina, who was pacing around typing away furiously on her phone stopped and whipped around, her brow furrowing as she hyper-focused on a new target: Maya.

“What is wrong with your voice? Are you sick? Tell me your symptoms.” She had switched from panicking about the storm and settled right into her doctor persona. The firefighter rolled her eyes, trying not to wince at the action. She was finding herself wanting to let Carina do her job, but her pride was far more important than her wish for assistance.

The woman had been feeling more and more weary as the week went on, but she had chalked it up to all of the things they had been doing, refusing to admit that they hadn’t been doing anything particularly strenuous. Now, after two days of doing just about nothing, she was sort of out of excuses. She was tired, her throat was killing her, her body ached, and she couldn’t deny the presence of a fever bubbling under her skin.

“It’s nothing, I’m fine. Sit, take a breath. I made coffee, you need some.” Maya said softly, lowering her voice to try to ease the pain in her throat. It didn’t help. The level of her voice didn’t matter, it was the act of simply breathing that caused her discomfort.

Carina hmphed unhappily but went to grab herself a mug, pouring what her girlfriend considered to be way too much creamer into the dark liquid, followed by what could be considered enough sugar to feed an entire town.

“How can you drink it so sweet?” She joked, trying to put a little humor into her voice as thunder clapped loudly over the small town. The EMT jumped, frightened by the suddenness of the loud sound. A blush crept across her cheeks as she glanced over at Carina, who had a concerned expression on her face.

Her brow was furrowed, and her lips pursed, looking wholly unhappy with the situation. The rain pattered down on the roof, a nearly deafening sound. It probably would’ve been relaxing if not for the sick feeling that was growing in Maya and Carina’s nerves beginning to fray.

This was supposed to be a vacation and the OBGYN really didn’t want to beat around the bush right now. She wanted to treat the woman she loved so that they could have her feeling better as soon as possible.

She wasn’t interested in playing Maya’s “embrace the pain” game and couldn’t help but feel a little guilty for even thinking that way. It wasn’t the blonde’s fault that she was so hard on herself, but it certainly didn’t make Carina’s job of taking care of her any easier.

The moment she sat down she felt Maya curl up against her, moving so smoothly that she may not have noticed if not for the way she was shivering, her muscular body trembling like a leaf. The brunette squeezed her eyes shut and sighed, pressing her head into the woman’s hair.

“You are sick Maya. Just tell me what’s wrong.” She murmured, moving so that she could hold the woman a little bit closer. Maya nestled close, humming her unhappiness as she felt tears fill her fever-clouded eyes. She really didn’t want to be crying, it was barely 8 in the morning, it was too early to be crying. Especially over a silly little sore throat.

“Bambina, please. Don’t make me play urm…twenty questions.” Carina said gently, tilting Maya’s head up so that she could look into her beautiful green orbs. The blonde blinked quickly as she held back tears, her lower lip beginning to quiver. She hadn’t realized just how bad she felt until her girlfriend had brought it up, but now it was all that she could think about.

“It hurts.” She whimpered, her voice small and full of humiliation. She hated every part of this, admitting weakness was hard enough but it was even worse that this was happening while they were on vacation. Sure, that meant she had time to recover, but she was supposed to be spending quality time with the woman she loved, not sleeping while the brunette fed her medicine. That was no fun for anyone.

“What hurts Maya?” The doctor prodded, needing far more information than what she was being given. Maya just shrugged and pulled the throw around her shoulders as she continued to stare out the large glass windows, watching as the waves ravaged the sandy shore.

“Okay, how about we switch out that coffee for tea, yeah?” The idea of swallowing anything (even her own saliva) made the woman want to cry. At this point, she didn’t even care. She sniffled back tears and tried to hide her face, embarrassed to be crying over something so trivial. She came across people every day who were in far more dire positions handling their pain or fear with so much more grace.

“I-I can’t. My throat just hurts too much.” Maya rasped, hot tears spilling down her cheeks. Her shoulders began to heave as she cried, the action just serving to hurt her throat even more. That in turn made her cry harder, which just repeated itself in a vicious cycle.

“Hey, hey, hey. I’m here. Just tell me what’s wrong amore. Let me help.” Carina pleaded, feeling so utterly helpless. She hated when her girlfriend got sick, she hated not being able to do anything as a person she loved so much suffered in silence.

“I can’t, I don’t know! M-my throat hurts! It, it shouldn’t!” The blonde spat, her words barely comprehensible through her sobs. The Italian woman put her coffee on the small table and took Maya’s hands in hers, forcing the ill firefighter to meet her eyes.

“Maya, take a deep breath. I can help you, but you need to let me. I’m a doctor, I take care of people for a living. Let me help.” she asserted, raising her eyebrows as she tried to get through to her sweet, sick girlfriend. The blonde’s lower lip was still quivering, but she managed to quiet her sobs as she matched Carina’s slow breathing.

“Good. Now, can you let me give you an exam? I will be quick.” After a few moments, Maya nodded, her breath still hitching as she tried to calm down. Maybe she was overreacting, but she had such a hard time with the out-of-control feeling that came with being sick. She would rather be put in a blazing fire than be physically incapacitated and need to rely on others for help.

True to her word, Carina’s exam took barely five minutes. She had raced to the bedroom to get her medical bag and then began to look Maya over, starting with what she figured was wrong. She looked at the back of the blonde’s throat, sighing when she saw those familiar white splotches that she’d seen all too many times.

“And a temperature of 102 degrees Fahrenheit. Which is…too high. Stupid imperial system.” She said that last part under her breath as she mentally tried to convert the imperial temperature to the metric system that she had grown up with.

Her distaste over the different systems of measuring made Maya smile a little as she leaned back against the cushions of the couch, shivering a little.

“What’s the verdict, Doc?” She teased, getting a frown out of her girlfriend. She may have felt terrible but the cute look on Carina’s face was worth the forced humor.

“We won’t know for sure until we get a culture, but I believe you have Streptococcus. The weather is too bad to go to the Urgent Care, but we will go as soon as the rain stops, okay? For now, it's Tylenol, soup, and rest.” The brunette said, sounding fully like the doctor that she was. Maya smiled a bit from where she was laying, closing her eyes as she curled back against the comfortable sofa.

“Can rest happen first?” She mumbled; the tears having taken a lot out of her. Carina made a sound in the back of her throat as she thought it over, weighing the best option here. Technically she should have Maya take the medicine to get the fever down, but it was very hard to say ‘no’ to the woman in front of her.

“I suppose. Would you rather go back to bed?” The blonde shook her head as she lay down, taking up the ample space on the couch.

“You gotta join me. ‘s the rules.” She mumbled, her voice slurring with exhaustion. Carina chuckled quietly and climbed back onto the couch, slipping her thermometer and stethoscope back into what Maya annoyingly called her “doctor bag”. She wasn’t wrong to call it that, but it irked the brunette to no end for reasons she simply could not explain.

She pushed the bag aside and lay down against Maya, wrapping an arm around her waist. She settled in, pulling a bit of the blanket up over herself, resigning that she would probably get this illness. Strep was incredibly contagious and she refused to be away from the woman she loved.

Any time they could spend together was worth a week of antibiotics.

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[overstimulated-potato-gem]

Overstimulated-potato-gem's holiday review: Thailand. Phuket Specifically.

One word: Beautiful.

Food: Easy to find Vegetarian, Halal, Vegan, Lactose Free, Gluten Free, be careful about food with nuts, seems to be very common.

Positive experiences: Warm weather, kind and caring locals, very friendly atmosphere, beautiful surroundings, lots of food options for everyone (i.e; Vegetarian, Vegan, Gluten Free, Lactose Free), laid-back attitudes, lots of recreational activities (swimming, hiking, water sports), inexpensive.

Negative experiences: Sometimes getting peer pressured into buying things, crossing roads and driving feels unsafe, some places are unsanitary, paying for toilets.

Overstimulation: Loud Noises, Humidity, Sand, Strange Smells, Sticking feeling, Sometimes Overcrowded, Small Spaces, Motion Sickness.

Recommended Activities: Bathing with Elephants, Snorkeling at Freedom Beach, Boat tours of Phi Phi Island and James Bond Island, Enjoying different restaurants.

🍃 Legal

[nx08h63bitchyobservationnerd]

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[vexx-ation]

365 Albums in 365 Days: 323/365

Date: Tuesday November 19th Album: Chit Chat Artist: Beach Weather Released: 2016 Genre: Indie Pop Review: Oh look bubbly indie pop. You'll never guess what my opinion is on this. It's certainly not similar to the 40 other modern upbeat indie pop albums I've reviewed the past year, no way. Don't even worry about it. Favorite Track: Chit Chat