#Katherine was her gay awakening

[kaimelypowaaah]

She’ll forever be my gay awakening ✨🩵

[knockoff-conlon]

80's newsies!!

and it's your typical shitty coming of age story. it follows jack and his group of friends (race, albert, crutchie, finch, tommy boy, and katherine) in high school. they get a new kid at their school and race immediately asks him to go to the arcade with their friend group. race introduces him to everyone.

davey meets jack. is a little enamored by him. tries to hide it because being gay in the 80s in high school was interesting. jack doesn't understand that he's allowed to be gay/bi and doesn't realize that's what he feels for davey. they fall in love through the course of the story. but they have a huge falling out when davey kisses him for the first time cause jack freaks the fuck out and shoves him away, yelling that's he's not a fag. they get back together though after race punches jack in the face and makes him go after davey again. then they're gay together.

race meanwhile meets a jock, spot, who looks all bitchy and mean but is really nice and doesn't mind the fact that race shoves a camera in everyone's face, no matter who they are. race hangs out with spot a lot and learns all about him and his life. race will sometimes blow off his friends to go to spot's house. they fall in love too but they only get together at the very end when race invites spot to his and his friends' grad party they're holding for themselves. they kiss there and the story is pretty much over at that point.

albert is already with finch at the beginning of the story. that's a large part of the reason jack realizes he's gay. they're publicly out at school and albert has multiple times beat the shit out of people for going after him or finch.

katherine is a year older than everyone and already in uni. she gets an open ending. she moves in with sarah as friends for her second year of university and sarah's third. they have lots of tension but they don't get together during the course of the story itself.

crutchie stays the ho we all know bro is and he goes to uni as a fuck boy. he's very respectful toward women, he just likes sex. (get it crutchie, living his best life out there, isn't he???)

tommy boy moves away for university at the end and gives crutchie a little kiss on the cheek as he leaves. crutchie has a gay awakening but he does not in fact make a move on tommy boy before the story ends.

[pickastitch]

Hai i want to listen to you talk about gem again. Any thoughts on empires s1 gem ? (If u already told me then tell me again plz n thank u <3 )

confession time, the s1 e!gem that is always brainrotting is pretty different from canon s1 e!gem (from what i can remember) so i'm going to talk about my pantheon au version of gem

i like to think gem would say, "it's free to be a hater" after sausage or fwhip does some stupid shit. on a more serious note, i feel there has to be some genuine resentment towards them two for dragging her into their bs, even if it's not a lot it is there. gem killing sausage in that one important lore bit was so cathartic to her

gem really admires katherine mainly because of how non involved she is with everything. she always feels the need to help everyone (see my gem character analysis post), and the fact that katherine just steps back is enviable to her

in my head, gem also uses a lot more fire magic than she does in the series; this contracts nicely with katherine's nature magic. gandalf, her cat, will decide if they like a person or not, and that will be gem's first impression of a person. it's quite hard to break from it too

now i'm going to dip in to some hc s8 territory, but it will come back to esmp s1. at the start of the series, gem has no clue she is bi and false is actually her gay awakening. gem looks up to her a lot, and she watches her run away and leave her friends behind. this leads to her reaction during the rapture (season ending), where she only takes fwhip because he directly asked, instead of helping out everybody. like come on, they both fly away on their base defining organic

fwhip and gem were royalty, but because gender roles, their parents were forcing gem to be king (trans roseblings tust), gem felt like her only option was to run away. when she finds out about the crown made by fwhip, she is a little uncomfortable with the concept but doesn't say anything. though when others try to convince her she should get it gem is beyond pissed

before she ran away, pearl showed her all about rifts (it has something to do with amethyst shards, but that's a whole different post) and offers to take her to hermitcraft, which she refuses. until she wants to run away and then goes to the place she wants to set up her village and then goes to another world while everyone is searching for her

gem's relationship with shrub is very unique because she so wants to just yell at them for bringing xornoth to the overworld and then spreading it across her place. on the other hand, she sees herself in them as someone who also ran away from home. but then that gets ruined when she is infected with xornoth via shrub

when she still lived with her family, pearl and sausage lived in neighboring empires, and they all grew up together. gem and sausage dated a bit when they were really young, so they are exs on technicality. most of her romantic feelings have gone away, but whenever sausage firts with her, a crush appears for a day and then goes away. she hates this more than anything else. then they grow up, and gem realizes she likes women and then realize she likes pearl specifically. and then pearl and sausage get together (actually qpr, but gem doesn't know that), and she swears off of romance

and the connection to the void and the end and all that stuff is a pretty important part of this au but ehhhh y'know

[nerdyvocals]

Steady, Steady

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply

Category: F/F

Fandom: Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies (TV)

Relationships: (past) Lydia/Summer Stock Girl, (briefly) Cynthia Zdunowski/Lydia

Characters: Lydia (Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies), Original Characters, Cynthia Zdunowski, Mr. Vaughan (Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies), (Mentioned) Floyd, (Mentioned) Arthur

Additional Tags: Angst, First Kiss, First Love, Period-Typical Homophobia, Gay Awakening, First Breakup, Kinda?, Author Is Sleep Deprived, Panic Attacks, vomit warning, Author poorly explains the Stanislavski System

Language: English

Stats: Published: 2023-06-23, Words: 4,961, Chapters: 1/1

Summary:

They say you never forget your first love. That's not always for good reason.

(Or, a Lydia character study.)

Title from 'Steady, Steady' by The Crane Wives.

Notes:

Should I be writing my research proposal? Yes. Did I write this instead? Also yes.

(Also shout out to '(this night's a perfect shade of) dark blue' by ytsson for putting 'The Importance of Being Earnest back in my head.)'

Mind the tags, there is a slight emetophobia risk toward the end, as well as a description of a panic attack, and, of course, 1950s homophobia.

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Lydia was thirteen the first time she went to summer stock. Her parents had so far entertained her love of theatre by allowing her to participate in school plays, but it had taken a semester of begging for them to allow her to apply for summer stock theatres, plus an additional month when she revealed she had gotten accepted to a theatre camp in the northern-most corner of the state, in a forest that straddled the state line into Oregon. Of course, being an only child meant she was the favorite by default, and there was little they wouldn’t indulge for their rising star.

This camp was catered toward junior high students, teaching them the ins and outs of the professional theatre world, beginning with an audition and technical workshop and ending with a production the campers put on themselves (with the help of the college-age counselors—the actual summer stock employees).

They were to put on an Oscar Wilde classic, The Importance of Being Earnest, and Lydia had been awarded the role of Miss Prism. It was at dinner that night, after the casting announcement was made, that she met Katherine Thompson.

Of course, she knew of Katherine. How could she not? She was a year older, a returning camper, and the daughter of a veteran of the camp. Everyone spoke very highly of her.  She was tall, with dark eyes and light hair that never seemed to have a strand out of place, despite the oppressive summer heat. She carried herself with a confidence Lydia admired and aspired to. And it was with that confidence that she plopped herself down across from Lydia at the picnic table, offering a hand in greeting and a slightly gap-toothed smile.

“I saw your audition. Not bad, for a first-year. You had an excellent stage presence once you got passed your jitters. Between you and me,” she offered a conspiratorial wink, “You’re about the only one of the new batch with any real promise.”

She had this way of speaking that drew Lydia in. She flushed, flattered even though she couldn’t really tell if she was being complimented or insulted. She took the offered hand in her own shaking fingers, thanking the other girl, voice wavering over her name.

Her hand was smooth and soft. She smiled at Lydia’s stutter. “Please,” she replied, “My friends call me Kitty.”

(Continue reading on AO3!)

[zalrb]

“I could give you the tour,” Katherine continued. “There isn’t an inch of this place where I haven’t taken him.” 

He’d walked away from her, angry and anguished, but he hadn’t left the cabin. He wasn’t going far, not after the attack. He’d stayed around, making sure they were safe inside, making sure she felt OK, making her tea, getting her blankets, but he was quiet and contemplative, silently agonizing over their conversation, a desperation, a wordless indignation at what she’d revealed to him about her deal with Elijah. And when they’d gotten into bed, Stefan lying on his side, facing away from her, Elena staring up at the ceiling, she lay next to him for exactly five minutes before shaking her head and sighing.  

THIS IS SO IN CHARACTER IM SPEECHLESS

“I can’t go to sleep like this,” she said. “With you angry at me. I--” She turned so she could face him, though all she saw was his back. “Stefan, please try to under---” 

He’d rolled over and kissed her with an earnestness that moved her to immediately put her arms around his neck.

OMFG GSKSHSKSNSNSNS I KNOW YOU HATE THEM BUT MY GAY ASS IS FUCKING ECSTATIC RIGHT NOW, ITS GIVING CALZONA AND IM LIVING FOR IT

the whole sex scene.... just... wow.

me wondering how i got here

CAUSE THIS IS FUCKING HEAVEN

His determination to make her feel him, feel what it was to be alive, had her grabbing at him, pulling at the sheets, whimpering and begging, answering his pleas with pleas of her own. He’d awakened every atom in her body to him, and feeling his heart beat wildly against her chest had in turn made her wild and overwhelmed --- a mess of sensations. She was overcome with the singular feeling that she could never, ever give this up, she never wanted to live without this. He rocked into her deeper and deeper as if to say, So then stay with me, stay with me, stay with me … 

“It must kill you to want him back and know he wants nothing to do with you,” said Katherine now.

“And now he’s gone,” said Elena simply. “I didn’t think about that, not really, because I’ve never thought of him being gone, never thought about how much that would …” She took another sip so the vodka would burn away the anguish she felt. She paused, as if she were trying to gather her words. “I think the only thing that would be worse is being with him and never being loved by him.” She looked at Katherine, her eyes hardened. A harshness twisted her face.

“So you should tell me, how does that feel? Do you think it’s worse?” 

LMFAO WHOS PLAYING WITH FIRE NOW

“You think that you and him actually have something. You think it’s, oh my God,” she put her drink back down, walked across the room and reached out to touch Katherine’s shoulder, “you think it’s special.” 

“He did none of that with you,” she said finally. “If you are special to him, Katherine, it’s for all the wrong reasons. You’re the bitch who ruined his life.”

“No,” said Katherine, inching closer to Elena, staring her dead in the eye. “I’m the only one he’s sleeping with right now. I’m that bitch.” Katherine didn’t know if it was rage or heartbreak that flickered in Elena’s eyes but it was enough to satisfy her. “You can let yourself out,” she said as she slipped out of the living room. 

DAMN LOL, everytime elena and katherine fight i feel like im watching a tennis match LOL

the back and fourth is amazing and ON TOP OF THAT very thought provoking. they have me questioning whether katherine really IS special to stefan or not. i can see both sides lol but thats probably just me being a libra

He’d walked away from her, angry and anguished, but he hadn’t left the cabin. He wasn’t going far, not after the attack. He’d stayed around, making sure they were safe inside, making sure she felt OK, making her tea, getting her blankets, but he was quiet and contemplative, silently agonizing over their conversation, a desperation, a wordless indignation at what she’d revealed to him about her deal with Elijah. And when they’d gotten into bed, Stefan lying on his side, facing away from her, Elena staring up at the ceiling, she lay next to him for exactly five minutes before shaking her head and sighing.  

THIS IS SO IN CHARACTER IM SPEECHLESS

Well because he does it in 4x02 after finding out that she blood-shared with Damon (not knowing she was sired into doing it and into not telling him)

like he's mad but he's still going to be there for her

“I can’t go to sleep like this,” she said. “With you angry at me. I--” She turned so she could face him, though all she saw was his back. “Stefan, please try to under---” 

He’d rolled over and kissed her with an earnestness that moved her to immediately put her arms around his neck.

OMFG GSKSHSKSNSNSNS I KNOW YOU HATE THEM BUT MY GAY ASS IS FUCKING ECSTATIC RIGHT NOW, ITS GIVING CALZONA AND IM LIVING FOR IT

the whole sex scene.... just... wow.

Well, we've spoken about how my SEx scenes are underrated in this fic because of Steferine but it's really fun to show the difference between the two of them and I think this might be one of my favourite SEx scenes I've written. This entire fic was me being like I've written dozens of sex scenes for SE and for SK, how am I going to do these ones differently?

the back and fourth is amazing and ON TOP OF THAT very thought provoking. they have me questioning whether katherine really IS special to stefan or not. i can see both sides lol but thats probably just me being a libra

ROFLMAO. Maybe not special but maybe ... specific/particular.

[gayestyugiohcharacter]

gonna submit some zexal characters that i don’t think i’ve seen so far (keeping in mind my memory is atrocious lol)

Ryoga Kamishiro / Reginald Kastle as both gay and trans masc (both non canon) he was one of my gender awakenings so i cannot see him as cis

Cathy Katherine as (non canon) lesbian. a lot of her interactions with Kotori come off as more flirty than teasing to me

Charlie McCoy/McCay has strong bisexual vibes to me (non canon)

controversial but Mr. Heartland is some flavor of queer (non canon)

Kyoji Yagumo from the manga. not even a particular headcanon just his vibes. very “this character is LGBT; what like all at once”

and last but not least, Vector as (non canon) gay and a trans guy. he is like enemies to lovers soulmates with Nasch. also i don’t have it but there’s a frame where he looks like he has boobs so that’s cool.

all ygo characters can be gay if you just believe in the heart of the cards or whatever, but these are the ones i wanted to share

third vote for shark, second vote for vector, everyone else is added!

[ao3feed-newsies]

Was This What Love Felt Like?

by, AboveTheFold by AboveTheFold Davey introduces Sarah to his new best friend, Katherine Plumber. Sarah takes a liking to her in a way that she doesn’t expect. Words: 602, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Series: Part 101 of Queer Stories, Part 7 of Sapphic September Fandoms: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken Rating: General Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: F/F Characters: Sarah Jacobs (Newsies), Katherine Plumber Pulitzer, David Jacobs, Les Jacobs Relationships: Sarah Jacobs/Katherine Plumber Pulitzer Additional Tags: Falling In Love, Gay Awakening, Lesbian awakening, Crush at First Sight, First Crush, Sexuality Crisis, Lesbian Sarah Jacobs (Newsies), Sarah Jacobs Appreciation (Newsies), Sarah Jacobs-centric (Newsies), Katherine Plumber Pulitzer Appreciation, David Jacobs & Katherine Plumber Pulitzer Friendship, Good Brother David Jacobs read : https://ift.tt/mPnocag - September 29, 2023 at 10:57AM

[omvimo]

Its just the start of Shelby’s episode and we are already getting Nature Wives hints.

[octaviasdread]

any girls! dark academia movie recs? i really struggle to find anything not about a group of boys (as much as I love them)

SO MANY!!! This is probably a far more detailed answer than you were expecting but this is a popular question and I want to keep a list for myself and others.

Feel free to add to it/give opinions. I've tried to give a tw for anything I can remember

Girls! Dark Academia Movies/TV Shows

Mona Lisa Smile (2003)

1950s Women’s college

Art professor! Julia Roberts

She’s legit the female Mr Keating of the art & college world

Feminism vs. Tradition

Maggie Gyllenhall x Ginnifer Goodwin; their characters were more than friends. Fight me.

Does not end how you expect

Strike!/All I Wanna Do/The Hairy Bird (1998)

MY FAVOURITE!!!

Free on YouTube under one of its various names

Comedy

1960s all girls boarding school

Young Kirsten Dunst

Group of girls plot to sabotage a merger with a boys school less prestigious than their own

Secret attic clubhouse meetings of the D.A.R aka Daughters of the American Ravioli (eaten cold, ew)

girls get political & advocate for their rights using ANY elaborate and chaotic scheme

TW: eating disorder, vomiting & creepy male teacher but the girls plot against him too

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)

based on a short book I read for uni by Muriel Spark

1930s girls school in Edinburgh

Scottish teacher! Maggie Smith, controversial with a focus on romantic ideals

Spoiler alert, the liberal teacher is actually a fascist

Her group of fave students has cult- vibes and it’s fascinating

Picnic at Hanging Rock

1970s movie or 2018 mini series

Never watched either but I plan to

Wild Child (2008)

00s romcom every UK teen girl loves

Emma Roberts as the spoiled rich American teenager sent to a strict English boarding school

Plots to get herself expelled but oh no she’s making friends with the girls who help her

And the headmistress has a hot son, and he’s nice??? Double oh no

ICONIC SCENES

Everything! Goes! Wrong!

omg she burns the school down

Feel good, comfort, nostalgia

St Trinians (2007)

English girls boarding school

The kids are all criminals, no joke

So are the teachers

CHAOTIC

gay awakening for british girls

Art heist pulled off by school girls

Government tries to shut them down but oh no, the education minister & the headmistress are ex-lovers

Colin Firth x Rupert Everett in drag

Superior cast: Jodie Whittaker, Gemma Arterton, Juno Temple, Stephen Fry, Colin Firth, etc...

embodies the phrase 'problematic fave'

St Trinians 2: The Legend of Fritton’s Gold (2009)

Mystery, pirate ancestors, hidden treasure

omg Shakespeare was a woman

girls disguised as boys to infiltrate and rob the posh boys school

Villain! David Tennant in that ICONIC boat scene

Teen girls vs. ancient misogynist brotherhood

like the first film but MORE chaotic and BETTER!???

The Falling (2014)

1960s all girls school

best friends! but its unrequited love

Agoraphobic + distant mother aka mommy issues

Sudden death and the school suppresses/ignores the students grief, sparking mass hysteria & a fainting epidemic in the girls

Cast: Maisie Williams (GoT) & Florence Pugh (Little Women) & Joe Cole (Peaky Blinders)

TW: teen pregnancy, death, vomiting, underage s*x, sibling inc*st, past s*xual assault

READ THE PLOT SUMMARY FIRST

The Book Thief (2013)

Based on an amazing book by Markus Zusak

set in 1940s Nazi Germany

Daughter of a communist whose family were taken by the Nazis/died is fostered by an older couple who teach her to read & she paints a dictionary on the basement walls

Coming of age story about a compulsive book thief. No joke, this kid steals books from banned book burnings and breaks into the mayor's library through the window

Family hides the Jewish son of an old friend in their basement and he helps her to start writing about her experiences in the war

TW: death, bombings, WW2 anti-semitism

Mary Shelley (2017)

Overall good & roughly biographical

Pretty costumes and aesthetic

Modern feminist take on Mary Shelly in her own time period

So many INACCURACIES for the drama so don’t take it as truth

Percy Shelley slander and not all of it is justified

Cast: Elle Fanning, Douglas Booth, and Maisie Williams

The Secret Garden (1993)

Based on a fave childhood book

1901 colonial India & Yorkshire, England

Orphaned, spoilt & neglected girl sent to live with her reclusive Uncle in the English countryside

Gothic elements, mysteries, secret doors/passages/locked gardens

local boy with a flock of animals, magic, kids chanting around a fire and all around immaculate vibes

Happy ending!!!

Hidden Figures (2016)

African-American women as mathematicians for NASA

1960s space project

Women balancing a career and family obligations

Deals with racial & gender discrimination

Loosely based on the lives of Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughan who worked for NASA as engineers & mathematicians

Anne of Green Gables (1985) & sequel (1987)

Adaptation L.M. Montgomery’s ‘Anne of Green Gables’ books

Canada (late 1890s/early 1900s)

Highly imaginative & bookworm orphan is adopted by a reclusive elderly brother and sister duo

Small town & school years comedic drama

Unrequited Enemies -> Friends -> lovers

Inspiring new woman teacher

Girls re-enact Tennyson’s poem and nearly drown for the aesthetic™

Dramatic poetry reading with INTENSE 👀eye contact👀

Writer! Anne & English teacher! Anne dealing with unruly girls school antics

Collette (2018)

biographical drama on french writer Sidonie-Gabrielle Collette

Victorian & Edwardian era France

More talented than her husband so she ghostwrites for him

Fight for creative ownership of her wildly successful novels

Affairs with a woman called Georgie and also with Missy, born female but masculine presenting

Cast: Keira Knightly, Dominic West, Eleanor Tomlinson (Poldark)

Enola Holmes (2020)

Netflix book adaptation

Younger sister of Sherlock Holmes

Victorian era! feminism/suffragettes

Mother-daughter focus

Mystery, adventure, secret codes, teens running away & escaping from (and eventually fighting) assassins

Cast: Helena Bonham Carter, Henry Cavill, Sam Claflin, Fiona Shaw, Millie Bobby Brown

Ginger & Rosa (2012)

1960s England

best friends since literal birth navigating troubled teen years

poet & anti-nuclear activist! Ginger

off the rails but also catholic! Rosa

Shout out to Mark & Mark the gay godfathers we all want

family troubles 

TW: older man has an affair with a 17 yr old

Testament of Youth (2014)

based on WW1 memoir by Vera Brittain

young woman (writer & poetry lover) escapes traditional family & goes to study at Oxford University

abandons to become a war nurse

romance, tragedy and war trauma

Cast: Alicia Vikander, Kit Harrington (GoT), Taron Edgerton (Rocketman), Colin Morgan (Merlin)

Little Women (2019)

Writer! Jo & Artist! Amy

Mother/daughter focus and sister dynamics

the March sisters’ theatre club is *chefs kiss*

champagne problems edits of Jo x Laurie are a mood

Ambivalent ending perfectly captures Louisa May Alcott’s dilemma with the book the movie is based on

set in 1860s America

ALL STAR CAST and a Greta Gerwig masterpeice

Lady Bird (2017)

coming of age in early 2002/2003 Sacramento, California

all girls catholic school

writer! Christine aka Lady Bird wants to get outta town and start her life again at college 'in a city with culture'

Mother/daughter dynamics - so realistic!

I live for that Jesus car stunt & the nun's reaction

school theatre program

Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Timothee Chalamet, Beanie Feldstein

Another Greta Gerwig gem

Beguiled (2017)

Virginia, civil war era

Girls school with only five students and two teachers left

Find an injured Union army soldier & bring him inside

Women & teenagers want his attention (v. problematic) before uniting against him

(tbh you'll either love it, hate it, or watch once & forget it)

Sofia Coppola film so its very feminine gaze

TW: violence, death, underage

Legally Blonde (2001)

No questions will be taken

Elle Woods was the blue print

TV series:

House of Anubis (2011-2013)

I know it’s a kids/young teen show but I still unironically love it

ANCIENT EGYPT!!!!

Modern day with Victorian era links to treasure hunters & Egyptian research expeditions (stealing from tombs)

Chosen one plot lines, curses, kidnapping, mysteries, secret tunnels under the school, elixir of life

Teens have investigate & protect themselves cus oh no the TEACHERS are involved in some shady stuff

new American kid at British boarding school is the actual premise not just a fanfic au

Nostalgic, light-hearted, funny, and kinda cheesy but I will accept no criticism

The Alienist (2018 -now)

Mid 1890s, New York

Woman’s private detective agency (Season 2)

Serial killer mystery

Woman secretary turns detective and teams up with a criminal psychiatrist and a newspaper editor to solve crime

TW: violence, child pr*stit*tion

Cast: Dakota Fanning, Luke Evans, Daniel Bruhl

The Queen’s Gambit (2020)

Woman chess prodigy

1950s & 1960s

TW: drug & alcohol abuse

Gentleman Jack (2019 - now)

Based on the diaries of Anne Lister

Victorian Yorkshire, England

Upper-class lesbians

Confident, suit wearing! Anne Lister x shy! Ann Walker

Business woman! Anne running the family mines

Cast: Suranne Jones (Doctor Foster) & Sophie Rundle (Peaky Blinders)

TW: violence

Gilmore Girls (2000-2007)

bubbly/ambitious single mom + intelligent daughter

bookworm! Rory Gilmore gets into a prestigious private school and then an Ivy League college

Small town drama is comedic gold

Fast dialogue packed with pop culture and literary references

Comforting & nostalgic

TEAM JESS

Anne with an E (2017-2019)

Loose adaptation of L.M. Montgomery’s ‘Anne of Green Gables’ books

they completely change the plot lines but it’s still very good content!

Orphan girl with trauma and a love of books/poetry is adopted by an elderly brother & sister duo, bringing light and fresh ideas to a rural community

Feminism, girls writing club, lgbtq safe spaces, girls eduction, black/indigenous representation

Miss Stacy as THAT inspiring teacher

Aunt Josephine’s lavish gay parties have my heart

TW: creepy male teacher tries to marry a student, racial discrimination, indigenous assimilation school

Victoria (2016-2019)

Adaption of Queen Victoria’s life

Victoria navigating her political, royal, and personal life

Albert’s involvement with The Great Exhibition, 1851 (on cultural + industrial innovations)

Alfred Paget x Edward Drummond is exquisite

Gorgeous costumes and aesthetics

TW: bury your gays trope

Derry Girls (2018-now)

1990s Northern Ireland during the troubles

Comedy, episodes 20-25 mins long

English boy sent to an all girls Catholic school with his cousin

✨Dead Poets Society parody episode ✨with a free-spirited female teacher

Sister Michael, the sarcastic nun who hates her job & reads the exorcist for giggles

Wee anxious lesbian! Clare Devlin (plus her friends wearing rainbow pins)

Badass with bad ideas! Michelle Mallon

Main Character! Erin Quinn

Lovable weirdo who would fight a polar bear! Orla McCool

Wee English fella & honorary Derry girl! James Maguire

Dickinson (2019-now)

Loose adaption of the poet Emily Dickinson’s life

Set in 19th century Massachusetts, US

Historical drama with modern dialogue & music that works SEAMLESSLY

gives a great understanding of Emily Dickinson’s poems

💕Vintage gays! Emily x Sue💕

Theatre club, writing, poetry, dressing as men to sneak into lectures, love letters, teen drama, feminism, and an underground abolitionist journal as a brief side plot in season 2

Wiz Khalifa plays death in a horse drawn carriage

TW: opium use

A Series of Unfortunate Events (2017-2019)

Based on great childhood books

Bookworm! brother, Inventor! sister, and baby sister with sharp teeth

Mystery, secret organisations, orphaned siblings figuring things out & fending for themselves against the villain after their fortune

Adults either cartoon evil, comedically incompetent, or SPIES

Boarding school, library owner, scientific researcher, and theatre episodes

Ambiguous time period which is really fun to try and pin point

Killing Eve (2018-now)

Classic detective who has homoerotic tension with the assassin she is tracking down

British Detective! Eve Polastri figures out the notorious assassin MI5 are investigating is a woman, is fired & then put on a secret MI6 case with a small team

Assassin! Villanelle, a psychopath with a tragic past and a mastery of both accents & fashion

Woman MI6 boss! Carolyn Martens, head of Russian section

Travel Europe following Villanelle’s killings and escaping the assassins sent by Villanelle’s organisation

‘You’re supposed to be my enemy and moral opposite but omg you’re the only one smart enough to get me and why am I obsessed with you????'

🚨 GO IN FOR A KISS AND THEN STAB YOUR ENEMY 🚨

Cable Girls/Las chicas del cable (2017-2020)

Spanish drama set in 1920s Madrid

Four young women at a telecommunications company form a group of friends and help navigate the difficult situations they are all in

Secret identities, dangerous pasts, murder, crime, lgbtq couple & throuple, trans man character, feminism/suffragists

girls commit crimes for humanitarian reasons and cover! it! up!

UNDERRATED SHOW!!!!

Gorgeous costumes and set

Haven’t finished it yet and I’m catching up

TW: abuse, violence, death

Outlander (2014 - now)

haven’t watched yet but plan to

Woman time travels to Scotland, 1743

Rebel highlanders, pirates, British colonies, American revolutionary war

Time jumps between 18th & 20th century

[lightsaroundyourvanity]

Ksbdjdk Okay I'm really really sorry for sending ANOTHER ask but also, I would kill for book recs because I finished the sun also rises last week and I'm dying, I need more (even though the amount of books on my to-read list is already way too much lmao)

the sun also rises is one of my favourites!! tbh i have some very controversial hemingway opinions (in that i love him lmao.... my cat is named after his son!) if you liked that I'd also rec~

fitzgerald - very different writing style, but deals with a lot of similar themes. the great gatsby, of course, but for this particular rec list i would suggest tender is the night

save me the waltz which was zelda fitzgerald's only published book and the things she does with imagery is just??? god she was so underrated

a moveable feast -- this is hemingway's memoirs from his time living in 1920s paris and it is one of my all time favourite books, i've read in a thousand times. THE book to read if you want something else flavoured like the sun also rises though

nightwood by djuna barnes, a brilliant modernist writer (this book has the added benefit of being terribly gay)

their eyes were watching god by zora neale hurston -- an all time classic of the harlem renaissance. janie crawford is a protagonist that will stick with you forever

everybody behaved badly is a newer book that is sort of a biography of the writing of the sun also rises

the autobiography of alice b. toklas which is kind of like gertrude stein's a moveable feast (all of her contemporaries hated it lmao)

mrs dalloway by virginia woolf if another of my favourites, another brilliant modernist novel

the short stories of katherine mansfield -- hemingway was a huge fan! and i think you can see that reflected a lot in his work

all of anais nin's paris diaries <3 <3 <3

the awakening by kate chopin predates modernism slightly but i think heralded its coming in a lot of ways

the overcoat and other stories by nikolai gogol -- this might be the wildest swing on this list, but i think there are so many stylistic and emotional similarities between hem's work and gogol's. again, hemingway was a fan, and i think you can really see it comparing them! the overcoat is also just such a lovely, bitter, human little story

i'd be completely remiss if i didn't at least mention ulysses by james joyce here but it is frankly an exhausting book to get through. don't get me wrong it can be completely rewarding! but it's also exhausting lol

[ravnlghtft]

Alvin Ailey born on January 5th 1931, in Rogers, Texas, at the height of the Great Depression in the violently racist and segregated south, during his youth Ailey was barred from interacting with mainstream society. Abandoned by his father when he was three months old, Ailey and his mother were forced to work in cotton fields and as domestics in white homes—the only employment available to them. As an escape, Ailey found refuge in the church, sneaking out at night to watch adults dance, and in writing a journal, a practice that he maintained his entire life. Even this could not shield him from a shiftless childhood spent moving from town to town as his mother sought employment, being abandoned with relatives whenever she took off on her own, or watching her get raped at the hands of a white man when he was five years old.

Looking for greater job prospects, Ailey’s mother departed for Los Angeles in 1941. He arrived a year later, enrolling at George Washington Carver Junior High School, and then graduating into Thomas Jefferson High School. In 1946 he had his first experience with concert dance when he saw the Katherine Dunham Dance Company and Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo perform at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Auditorium. This awakened an until then unknown spark of joy within him, though he did not become serious about dance until 1949 when his classmate and friend Carmen De Lavallade dragged him to the Melrose Avenue studio of Lester Horton.

Ailey studied a wide range of dance styles and techniques—from ballet to Native American inspired movement studies—at Horton’s school, which was one of the first racially integrated dance schools in the United States. Though Horton became his mentor, Ailey did not commit to dancing full-time; instead he pursued academic courses, studying romance languages and writing at UCLA. He continued these studies at San Francisco State in 1951. Living in San Francisco he met Maya Angelou, then known as Marguerite Johnson, with whom he formed a nightclub act called “Al and Rita”. Eventually, he returned to study dance with Horton in Los Angeles.

He joined Horton’s dance company in 1953, making his debut in Horton’s Revue Le Bal Caribe. Horton died suddenly that same year in November from a heart attack, leaving the company without leadership. In order to complete the organization’s pressing professional engagements, and because no one else was willing to, Ailey took over as artistic director and choreographer.

In 1954 De Lavallade and Ailey were recruited by Herbert Ross to join the Broadway show, House of Flowers. Ross had been hired to replace George Balanchine as the show’s choreographer and he wanted to use the pair, who had become known as a famous dance team in Los Angeles, as featured dancers. The show’s book was written and adapted by Truman Capote from one of his novellas with music from Harold Arlen and starred Pearl Bailey and Diahann Carroll. Ailey and De Lavallade met Geoffrey Holder, who performed alongside them in the chorus, during the production. Holder married De Lavallade and became a life-long artistic collaborator with Ailey. After House of Flowers closed, Ailey appeared in Harry Belafonte’s touring revue Sing, Man, Sing with Mary Hinkson as his dance partner, and the 1957 Broadway musical Jamaica, which starred Lena Horne and Ricardo Montalbán. Drawn to dance, but unable to find a choreographer whose work fulfilled him, Ailey started gathering dancers to perform his own unique vision of dance.

Alvin Ailey, a.k.a. Alvin Ailey Jr., founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT). He created AAADT and its affiliated Ailey School as havens for nurturing black artists and expressing the universality of the African-American experience through dance. His work fused theatre, modern dance, ballet, and jazz with black vernacular, creating hope-fueled choreography that continues to spread global awareness of black life in America. Ailey’s choreographic masterpiece Revelations is recognized as one of the most popular and most performed ballets in the world. In this work he blended primitive, modern and jazz elements of dance with a concern for black rural America. On July 15, 2008, the United States Congress passed a resolution designating AAADT a “vital American cultural ambassador to the World.” That same year, in recognition of AAADT’s 50th anniversary, then Mayor Michael Bloomberg declared December 4 “Alvin Ailey Day” in New York City while then Governor David Paterson honoured the organization on behalf of New York State.

Ailey loathed the label “black choreographer” and preferred being known simply as a choreographer. He was notoriously private about his life. Though gay, he kept his romantic affairs in the closet. Following the death of his friend Joyce Trisler, a failed relationship, and bouts of heavy drinking and cocaine use, Ailey suffered a mental breakdown in 1980. He was diagnosed as manic depressive, known today as bipolar disorder. During his rehabilitation, Judith Jamison served as co-director of AAADT.

Ailey died from an AIDS related illness on December 1, 1989, at the age of 58. He asked his doctor to announce that his death was caused by terminal blood dyscrasia in order to shield his mother from the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS.

Choreography

Cinco Latinos, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Kaufmann Concert Hall, New York City, 1958.

Blues Suite (also see below), Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Kaufmann Concert Hall, 1958.

Revelations, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Kaufmann ConcertHall, 1960

Three for Now, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Clark Center, New York City, 1960.

Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Clark Center, 1960.

(With Carmen De Lavallade) Roots of the Blues, Lewisohn Stadium, New York City, 1961.

Hermit Songs, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., 1963.

Ariadne, Harkness Ballet, Opera Comique, Paris, 1965.

Macumba, Harkness Ballet, Gran Teatro del Liceo, Barcelona, Spain,1966, then produced as Yemanja, Chicago Opera House, 1967.

Quintet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Church Hill Theatre, Edinburgh Festival, Scotland, 1968, then Billy Rose Theatre, New York City, 1969.

Masekela Langage, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, American Dance Festival, New London, Connecticut, 1969, then Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York City, 1969.

Streams, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Brooklyn Academy of Music, 1970.

Gymnopedies, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Brooklyn Academy of Music, 1970.

The River, American Ballet Theatre, New York State Theater, 1970.

Flowers, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, ANTA Theatre, 1971.

Myth, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, New York City Center, 1971.

Choral Dances, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, New York City Center, 1971.

Cry, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, New York City Center, 1971.

Mingus Dances, Robert Joffrey Company, New York City Center, 1971.

Mary Lou’s Mass, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, New York City Center, 1971.

Song for You, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, New York City Center, 1972.

The Lark Ascending, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, New York City Center, 1972.

Love Songs, Alvin Ailey City Center Dance Theater, New York City Center, 1972.

Shaken Angels, 10th New York Dance Festival, Delacorte Theatre, New York City, 1972.

Sea Change, American Ballet Theatre, Kennedy Center Opera House, Washington, D.C., 1972, then New York City Center, 1973.

Hidden Rites, Alvin Ailey City Center Dance Theater, New York City Center, 1973.

Archipelago, 1971,

The Mooche, 1975,

Night Creature, 1975,

Pas de “Duke”, 1976,

Memoria, 1979,

Phases, 1980

Landscape, 1981.

Stage

Acting and dancing

(Broadway debut) House of Flowers, Alvin Theatre, New York City, 1954 – Actor and dancer.

The Carefree Tree, 1955 – Actor and dancer.

Sing, Man, Sing, 1956 – Actor and dancer.

Show Boat, Marine Theatre, Jones Beach, New York, 1957 – Actor and dancer.

Jamaica, Imperial Theatre, New York City, 1957 – Actor and lead dance.

Call Me By My Rightful Name, One Sheridan Square Theatre, 1961 – Paul.

Ding Dong Bell, Westport Country Playhouse, 1961 – Negro Political Leader.

Blackstone Boulevard, Talking to You, produced as double-bill in 2 by Saroyan, East End Theatre, New York City, 1961-62.

Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright, Booth Theatre, 1962 – Clarence Morris.

Stage choreography

Carmen Jones, Theatre in the Park, 1959.

Jamaica, Music Circus, Lambertville, New Jersey, 1959.

Dark of the Moon, Lenox Hill Playhouse, 1960.

(And director) African Holiday (musical), Apollo Theatre, New York City, 1960, then produced at Howard Theatre, Washington, D.C., 1960.

Feast of Ashes (ballet), Robert Joffrey Company, Teatro San Carlos, Lisbon, Portugal, 1962, then produced at New York City Center, 1971.

Antony and Cleopatra (opera), Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, New York City, 1966.

La Strada, first produced at Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, 1969.

Leonard Bernstein’s Mass, Metropolitan Opera House, 1972, then John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia Academy of Music, both 1972.

Carmen, Metropolitan Opera, 1972.

Choreographed ballet, Lord Byron (opera; also see below), Juilliard School of Music, New York City, 1972.

Four Saints in Three Acts, Piccolo Met, New York City, 1973.

Director

(With William Hairston) Jerico-Jim Crow, The Sanctuary, New York City, 1964, then Greenwich Mews Theatre, 1968.

In 1968 Ailey was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts, US & Canada. In 1977 he received the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP. He received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1988, was inducted into the National Museum of Dance and Hall of Fame in 1992, inducted into the Legacy Walk in 2012, and posthumously received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama in 2014.

In August 2019, Ailey was one of the honorees inducted in the Rainbow Honor Walk, a walk of fame in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood noting LGBTQ people who have “made significant contributions in their fields.”

A crater on Mercury was named in his honor in 2012.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

[dannineedsfriends]

As shown by a previous post of myself (@dannixy), a group chat was created of a few parrlyn writers. Together,  we are cooperating in writing a (very big) set of AUS and will, hopefully, be posting unscheduled updates contributing to the tag: #Parrlyn AU Multiverse

Or, in some wise words:

SO GET YOUR BEAUTIFUL QUEEN ASSES READY FOR A PARRLYN OVERLOAD 

Everyone involved in this project will be linked just below: 

@thenameisnoone @little-bit-lost-and-found @sarahzarahh @all-my-love-cathy @politics-notmything @toomanyfamdom @dannixy

--

TRIGGER WARNING:

- sex, porn, flirting, nudity, my bad spelling smh

--

"So you're Katherine's cousin?" Parr asks, tilting her head to the side and taking a sip of the wine that had been set out on the table. The restaurant was lovely; the most exquisite decor and the food was supposedly the best in town. It was atmospheric to say the least - with the  quiet chatter and the dimmed lights and the candles. A perfect first date. 

"Yeah- she told you 'bout me?" The girl across from her, Anne, asked, cocking a brow. Though the girl was well dressed in her striped green, black and white jumpsuit, from a first glance she was definitely not well spoken. 

"Many things, yes. All good though, for the most part anyway." Catherine smiles, charmingly, tilting her head and allowing a curl to bounce over her shoulder. "You clean up well for someone who can't use a toaster without burning whatever is inside it." 

"I could say the same for you- you- you scholar-" Anne tries, rolling her eyes playfully, thumbing with the napkin in front of her. 

Parr tilts her head, watching her with a careful gaze. Her eye glints. "I always tend to ask for another spare napkin on the table if I ever eat out."

"From what I've been told, you're pretty gay for women so-"

"Oh shush. I'm no stranger to that but I always make little birds out of the napkins. They're cute and I always leave a tip with them." She smiles, turning her focus to her own napkin. "Would you like to know how to make one?"

"Have a few more glasses of wine and then I'd like to see you show me." Anne tries, eyebrows raising teasingly and running her finger gingerly over the rim of her glass. 

"By the time I've had a few more glasses of wine." she begins to flirt, lips curling into a smile. "We'll be on our way home." 

"'We'll'? You're planning on taking me home with you? I'm touched, I really am but Kitty's got it wrong, I'm not actually homeless." Anne shakes her head, shrugging and leaning back in her hair, hand leaving her wine and moving to her neck to fiddle with the black choker that resided there. Catherine couldn't help but stare at her exposed skin: her shoulders only interrupted by a thin strap, protruding collarbones casting silky shadows and Parr longed for the thought of laying a hickey just there-

"Really? I couldn't tell." She lies, blatantly. Though she had her own nonchalant tone, she was truly trying her hardest not to smile. She was pretty, like Howard had told her; less pretty and more gorgeous. What her friend had failed to mention was that her cousin was practically a goddess, apparently. 

"Wow," Anne scoffs, rolling her eyes once more, before making a show of raking her view down her body  "Rich coming from you, if I do say so myself." 

"I'll have you find, to your astonishment apparently, that I have received many compliments on my dress, this evening, none of which have been from you." Parr notes aloud. She had been wearing a light blue dress with a sweetheart neckline, not frilled but smooth. Not skin-tight but the bodice seemed to hug her curves just right to do them justice. Her skirt, however, unfurled in waves around her thighs, flowing down to the space just above her knee. It swayed as she walked and she felt elegant doing so, poised and prepared for any possible obstacle that tonight would throw at her. Over her shoulders, though, draped a thin cardigan, definitely unfit for the coldness outside, but judging on the fact that Anne was cloaked in the thinnest paper-ish material that there was, she didn't think herself foolish to be inappropriately dressed. It wasn't that Anne was cheap, or even looked it- her jumpsuit was just thin. If she stared hard enough, she could see her-

"My eyes are up here, babes." Anne's shit-eating grin stretched miles across her face. Was she getting some kind of satisfaction out of  this? 

"I was only enjoying the view." She counters, raising her glass to her lips again to stop herself from letting out a childish grin. Parr couldn't remember the last time she had continuously flirted with someone, let alone a person that she had just met. It felt nice to finally have some chemistry to get her going, if you would. 

"And yet if I did the same, I would be reprimanded?" 

"That's the biggest word I've heard you say all night." 

"Yeah. I read." She snorts, one shoulder shrugging, fingers twitching to twiddle with the fork in front of her. 

Catherine draws her brows together. "Where's the waiter, anyway? Surely we should have been at least served starters by now."

"And we were!" Anne admits, eyes lighting up. "And I did try and save some for you- but you were running late and I didn't want it to go to waste if it was cold…"

"Really? Are you kidding me?" She pinches the bridge of her nose, shaking her head. 

"Hey- if you keep frowning like that, the wind'll change and you'll stay that way."

"If I'm spending more time with you, it wouldn't need to be any different, I shouldn't think." She teases, closing her eyes momentarily to guage her reaction, and- her contact was sitting uncomfortably on her eye. When in doubt, blink until it magically gets fixed.

"You alright? You're almost crying…- if you're that upset about the starter I can just order another-" she looks genuinely concerned, and reaches to grab Parr's hand over the table. Catherine happily allows her hand to be taken by the girl in green. 

"Of course not-!" She says, perhaps a little bit louder than she should've, and then stares around her, paranoid that people were looking. They weren't, for reference. After, though, she lowers her voice. "Of course not- my contact's just moving around-"

"Contacts? You wear glasses." Anne says, an accusatory statement. 

"I figured that wearing my glasses weren't the way to go, when attempting to look pretty." Cathy shrugs, hand moving to fiddle with a golden necklace that had previously been resting against her chest. 

"What kind of frames do you have?" She asks, suddenly, slightly startling Parr from her soft stupor.

"Plain black. Classic nerd glasses."

"So you're telling me that you could've come looking like a sexy librarian?" Anne cocks an eyebrow, looking at Parr from beneath her lashes with a disapproving countenance. "And you didn't?"

The wine got caught in Catherine's throat, causing her to almost splatter it absolutely everywhere. Her cheeks burned ruby, flushing and suddenly her entire body was hot, the whole restaurant seemed a bit too close for comfort. 

"I think you've been watching too much porn." She remarks, having recovered and taken in more wine. Anne's smug smirk drops from her face, reaction completely priceless. It was a moment Catherine wanted to pause and live in just for a few more seconds, few more minutes: from what she could tell, Boleyn didn't get out-witted very often - and when she did, she had no idea what to do with herself. "What's wrong, Annie? Cat got your tongue?"

"Only your cat, I'd hope." 

"Oh how bold of you."

A comfortable silence seems to pass over them, hands still connected over the table, grasping onto one another with no intent of releasing them. 

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Anne breaks the gap, squeezing her fingers and downing the last of her wine, upon spying Cathy's empty glass. 

"Let's go." 

--

Anne had been giggling the whole way back to Catherine's house, giddy, and even as they stumbled up the steps she was euphoric. Her ripples of laughter only stopped when they had reached the bedroom, having already kicked off her shoes, there was hardly a moment wasted before Anne was pressed into the wall next to the door. 

Cathy had elevated her, Anne's legs wrapping around her hips, falling naturally into place as much as they could, hooked and secure as Parr's hands found her thighs. She kissed her softly at first, their first binding of intimacy short and sweet and, completely insane, she might add later. Quick dabs of kisses planted across the Boleyn girl's cheek, only to be met with a teasing grin as she finally reached her lips.

Parr moves one hand to cup her jaw, never allowing her gaze to shift from her mouth and her thumb grazing across her lips, lips painted scarlet to perfection. The perfect arch of a cupid's bow and she was sure that it was impossible to be so beautiful. She just grins once more before finally kissing her; it was warm and she just knew that she was about to be covered in her lipstick, not that she cared. If Catherine woke up with her entire body covered in Anne's red lipstick, she would be over the moon. 

Their lips moved in sync against each other, never quite at rest and it was a entirely different atmosphere when Cathy pulled away from her this time- it felt like a whole different universe. She chews on her bottom lip, lips curling mischievously as she pulls Anne off of the wall, fingers sliding across valleys of smooth skin to find the zipper at the back of her jumpsuit. 

She left a gentle kiss against her shoulder, ever so brief before helping her lover out of her clothes, leaving her practically bare and exposed to her. But as Cathy's hands find her waist again, she shakes her head and Anne grins. 

"You're not getting away that easy." Bolelyn smirks, waggling a finger teasingly and allowing it to trance down her partner's face and neck and body. And, imminently, places she had not before imagined. 

--

Cathy had awoken rather early, not by anything in particular, just naturally awakening with the softest smile playing across her lips. In front of her, lays Anne Boleyn, the sheer covers falling and resting over her hip, leaving exposed her back and shoulder blades. 

She smiles, arm reaching out, pulling herself closer to the Boleyn girl and wrapping itself around her, snug. Catherine buries her face in the crook of her neck, gently kissing the area and using her spare hand to move her hair, having been resting on her elbow. 

Anne's neck, however, was practically red-raw and turning purple in places, all over her shoulder and collarbone and she dared not check anywhere else in the girl's slumber. It was a lot more than she remembered leaving, just put it that way. That didn't stop her from gently covering her skin in kisses to wake her up. 

It took a bit longer than expected, but eventually the sleeping goddess' eyes cracked open, smiling and leaning back into Catherine's embrace. 

"Good morning~" Parr hums into her neck, giving her one last kiss before pulling away. Anne, who had previously been facing away from her, turned around and pushed her face into her lover's chest, shaking her head tiredly. "You still tired, my love?" 

"I suspected you'd be a top but I didn't think you'd be that good." Anne admits, and Cathy realised she was hiding the humiliation, not just her face. Her arm still rested around the Boleyn girl's waist, holding her softly in place. 

"And you don't think I thought the same? I can't remember the last time I was topped and genuinely enjoyed it."  Catherine sighs, closing her eyes softly as the other girls arm wraps over her. 

Anne lets out a small laugh, voice still low and drawling and sleepy, before yawning and bringing her face away so that she could look at Cathy.  

"I'm glad that I finally listened to Kitty and took you on a date." The gremlin speaks decidedly, a smile spreading across her lips as Catherine meets her eyes before kissing her softly and slowly. "You're rather affectionate, huh?"

Catherine recoils slightly, many alarms sounding in her head. She was just someone Anne had slept with, not a partner or a girlfriend or anyone that would get affectionate. 

"Yea- yeah-" She gulps, time seeming to slow. Her eyes dart across her face rapidly, frantically searching for a sign of displeasure, discomfort, annoyance. She found nothing, though. The only thing she was sure of was Anne closing the gap she had created between them, and running her fingers to draw playful drawings across Parr's exposed back. 

"So… how would you feel about a second date?"

[wolveswithoutteeth]

any book recs? ✨

of course! my goodreads has more recommendations and i’ve created shelves for certain themes/time periods/genres but here are some favorites:

fiction:

the secret history by donna tartt

the goldfinch by donna tartt

red, white & royal blue by casey mcquiston

the song of achilles by madeline miller

the hours by michael cunningham

tipping the velvet by sarah waters

deathless by catherynne m valente

the round house by louise erdrich

ghost wall by sarah moss

on earth we’re briefly gorgeous by ocean vuong

if we were villains by m.l. rio

normal people by sally rooney (the tv adaptation is now available on hulu!)

conversations with friends by sally rooney

lie with me by philippe benson

girl with a pearl earring by tracy chevalier

homegoing by yaa gyasi

trumpet by jackie kay

tin man by sarah winman

little fires everywhere by celeste ng

everything i never told you by celeste ng

burial rites by hannah kent  

the remains of the day by kazuo ishiguro

the underground railroad by colson whitehead

americanah by chimamanda ngozi adichie

young adult:

we are okay by nina lacour

everything leads to you by nina lacour

the grisha trilogy by leigh bardugo

six of crows by leigh bardugo 

the winternight trilogy by katherine arden

shatter me series by tahereh mafi 

i’ll give you the sun by jandy nelson

19th and 20th century american lit:

moby dick by herman melville

little women by louisa may alcott

behind a mask (and other stories) by louisa may alcott

cecil dreeme by theodore winthrop

the awakening by kate chopin

the house of mirth by edith wharton

ethan frome and other stories by edith wharton

giovanni’s room by james baldwin

all of toni morrison’s books! (i recommend reading her work in publication order if you can but my favorites are beloved and the song of solomon)

victorian:

the moonstone by wilkie collins

lady audley’s secret by mary elizabeth braddon

jane eyre by charlotte bronte

villette by charlotte bronte

wuthering heights by emily bronte

the picture of dorian gray by oscar wilde

middlemarch by george eliot

bleak house by charles dickens

british modernism:

wide sargasso sea by jean rhys

good morning, midnight by jean rhys

voyage in the dark by jean rhys

mrs dalloway by virginia woolf

maurice by e.m. forster

the return of the soldier by rebecca west

collected stories by katherine mansfield

rebecca by daphne du murier

poetry:

devotions by mary oliver

crush by richard siken

war of the foxes by richard siken

collected poems by edna st. vincent millay

collected poems by christina rossetti

selected poems by edith wharton

undercurrent by rita wong

the wild iris by louise gluck

useless magic: lyrics and poetry by florence welch (if you’re a fan of florence + the machine, this hardcover book is beautifully published and includes poems, lyrics, illustrations, photography, etc.)

graphic novels:

all of isabel greenberg’s books!

through the woods by emily carroll (very spooky! and the art is beautiful!)

and the ocean was our sky by patrick ness 

short story collections:

the bloody chamber and other stories by angela carter

how to breathe underwater by julie orringer

by light we knew our names by anne valente

st lucy’s home for girls raised by wolves by karen russell

kissing the witch: old tales in new skins by emma donoghue

interpreter of maladies by jhumpa lahiri

the thing around your neck by chimamanda ngozi adichie

the last animal by abby geni

nonfiction/theory:

upstream: selected essays by mary oliver

into the wild by jon krakauer

hunger by roxane gay

braiding sweetgrass: indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teachings of plants by robin wall kimmerer

playing in the dark: whiteness and the literary imagination by toni morrison

in the wake: on blackness and being by christina sharpe

forms by caroline levine

touching feeling by eve kosofsky sedgwick

TBR books i’m excited to read as soon as this semester is over:

the starless sea by erin morgenstern

frankissstein by jeanette winterson

glass town by isabel greenberg

supper club by lara williams

the night watchman by louise erdrich

writers & lovers by lily king

her body and other parties by carmen maria machado

the library book by susan orlean

my life in middlemarch by rebecca mead

my year of rest and relaxation by ottessa moshfegh

the lonely city by olivia laing

the women’s prize postponed their winner announcement to september so i’ll be reading from the longlist this summer (and some previous winners/longlisters to celebrate the prize’s 25th anniversary this year!) this year’s list is really strong but a few books i’m most excited about:

hamnet by maggie o’farrell

girl, woman, other by bernadine evaristo

a thousand ships by natalie haynes

weather by jenny offill

red at the bone by jacqueline woodson

lastly, support independent book stores (if you can!) i ordered two books last month that i’m excited to read:

crude by olivia laing

a little book on form by robert haas

[foxanddanapetrie]

10 Characters That Own my Heart

I was tagged by @stoic-rose​

10 fandoms, 10 characters, 10 tags. Start a new post and list 10 characters from 10 different fandoms!

1) Dana Katherine Scully from X Files at the of the list ofc

2) Anne Lister from Gentleman Jack is the loml and she’s a real person so go research her now

3) Fox Mulder is the fucking cutest man ever fight me

4) Ruth Evershed from Spooks is a cute anxious genius and her and Harry kill me

5) Rachel Bailey from Scott and Bailey is a hot mess but i love her and support her in everything she does

6) Gillian Greenwood from Last Tango in Halifax sends me

7) Tony Stark from Iron Man makes me so proud and squeeeee

8) Stella Gibson from the fall can you please kiss me like you kissed Reed

9) Lilith Sternin from Cheers is a gay awakening

10) Marion Ravenwood from Indiana Jones makes me the definition of heart eyes

I’m tagging @absolutetosh​ @baronessblixen​ @o6666666​ and anyone else who wants to!

[thefandomlesbian]

Do you have any headcannons or things you never wrote about for tlag? It's my all-time favorite fic!!

Why thank you!

I actually have... several versions of the TLaG canon, things that do fit and that universe and some things that are like, tangential fanfic of the TLaG canon--yes, it’s a bizarre concept but I think that’s what happens when you spend more than a year writing a half a million word story. 

There will be a sequel, To Rule and Guide, and then a series of one-shots (probably, unless I decide to chapter them) after that which detail Kit’s death and Lana and Mary Eunice taking custody of his children + also features Terry, Frieda’s daughter, who goes to university in Boston and stays with them. 

I do have a lot of things for TLaG that got cut out of the original outline, and I probably won’t remember all of them, but I’ll throw in the ones I remember.

-Jasmine and Katherine were once major players, but I realized that I could reassign almost all of their appearances to Lois and Barb. Because Lois and Barb are canon characters, I opted to take that route, and I cut out the rest of the Jasmine and Katherine appearances. If I ever get the chance to rewrite, Jasmine and Katherine will be cut out of the story entirely. 

-Rachel, the woman who Lana slept with in Chapter 22, is supposed to be the prostitute Dr. Arden hired in canon to imitate Mary Eunice. Originally, she had a plot point related to this and developed an uneasy friendship/alliance with Mary Eunice and Lana, but I felt that diverged too much from the story I was trying to tell and cut her out. 

-Katherine was originally a first love interest for Mary Eunice assisting in her lesbian awakening (realizing she was attracted to women as a whole, not just Lana), but it got trimmed with the rest of Katherine’s appearances. 

-The original outline did not have any appearances for Lana’s family. I was commuting to school one early morning (had a 55 minute drive one way at that time) when I had the image of Mary Eunice carrying a little girl out of a black forest with Gus leading the way. It took a few more weeks for me to conceptualize the rest of Lana’s family and link everything together for them. 

-In the first draft of chapter 32, Frieda came out as bisexual to Lana. I eventually trimmed this and altered it so Timothy came out as gay instead because Frieda’s original dialogue made her sound like she was considering leaving John/breaking up her family after Lana’s example, and that just made me feel really icky inside to have a bisexual character insinuate she wasn’t willing to commit because of her bisexuality. 

-Gus was added on a complete whim. In the first outline, the mysterious sound they heard was a rabid raccoon that Lana had to shoot and kill. It happened that around the time I was about to start writing that chapter, one of the individuals I work with had the exact same thing happen with an extremely emaciated, neglected rottweiler--weighing sixty pounds, supposed to weigh around one hundred pounds, skin and bones, arthritic. The real Gus’s name was Gavin, and he gained weight, was conditioned well, and went into his forever home after a few months of TLC. 

-Pepper lived in the first outline, but I realized that her reappearances unnecessarily complicated things upon review. I opted to kill her off to monopolize on Mary Eunice’s emotional vulnerability so that she would be prime for the demon to take possession of her body, because technically according to Catholic canon, possession is a choice and not one I could imagine her opting into without being under extreme emotional duress and being trapped between a rock and a hard place (feeling she needed to succumb to evil in order to spare Lana’s life). 

-Sister Jude died at some point in the first outline. Upon reconsideration, I realized I had a very important role for her to play in the sequel, which I’m sure you’ll see when we get that far. 

-In TLaG, Mary Eunice did not choose to leave the sisterhood; it was forced upon her when she was defrocked. In TRaG, she is given the opportunity to choose Lana. 

[anxiousdiamond]

The Boston Girl- Anita Diamant

Where the Crawdads Sing- Delia Owens

Play it as it Lays- Joan Didion

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous- Ocean Vuong

Behind the Beautiful Forevers- Katherine Boo

Milk and Honey- Rupi Kaur

The Sun and Her Flowers- Rupi Kaur

Bad Feminist- Roxane Gay

This Side of Paradise- F. Scott Fitzgerald

A Room of One's Own- Virginia Woolf

The Color Purple- Alice Walker

The Bad Girl- Mario Vargas

The Scarlet Letter- Nathanial Hawthorne

Girl, Interrupted- Susanna Kaysen

The Awakening- Kate Chopin

To Kill a Mockingbird- Harper Lee

Their Eyes Were Watching God- Zora Neale Hurston

A Vindication of the Rights of Women- Mary Wollstonecraft

God Help The Child- Toni Morrison

On the Road- Jack Kerouac

I was told there'd be cake- Sloane Crosley

Funny Girl- Nick Hornby

The Daylight Marriage- Heidi Pitlor

My Paris Dream- Kate Betts

Educated- Tara Westover

Bird by Bird: some instructions on writing and life- Anne Lamott

Bright Lights, Big City- Jay McInerney

Girl, Wash Your Face- Rachel Hollis

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck- Mark Manson

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings- Maya Angelou

Americanah- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Everything I never told you- Celeste Ng

Little Fires Everywhere- Celeste Ng

Normal People- Sally Rooney

The Year of Less- Cait Flanders

The Drama of the Gifted Child- Alice Miller

Codependent No More- Melody Beattie

Scary Close- Donald Miller

Women Who Love Too Much- Robin Norwood

The Book of Waking up- Seth Haines

The above is 40/100 books I will be reading during my book marathon. Please feel free to send me any of your book recommendation! I still need 60 more to complete my list!!

Happy Reading! 💖