#also Austria as a teacher is funny

[a-random-person-on-the-interent]

Nation Revealed AU Where Nations Have Human Identities.

Okay this idea has been stuck in my head for over a week now so I have to rant about it

okay so some Nations have human jobs, and all have human identities. so some Nations go to school while some have jobs, I personally think Austria would be a music teacher, and Greece would work at an animal shelter!

So in a nation reveal au, imagine the chaos with their co-workers/school friends when it does get revealed!

Hong Kong's school friend: hey Leon you're not the NP of Hong Kong are you?

Hong Kong: No, we don't even know if we have a NP

Hong Kong's school friend: yeah we do NP England confirmed it

Hong Kong: Umm

Hong Kongs school friend: and we even have a picture of them, look

Hong Kong: shit...

Or Austria's students finding out and just asking him so many questions

Austria: for the last time me and Hungary are not dating or married!

Austria: Yes I did fight in wars, now on to music

Austria: yes I met Motzart.

Austria: why are you so concerned about my love life, yes I did marry Spain but we are divorced... he ended up dating my sister (Hungary and Austira are siblings in my AU)

Austria: Yes nations can have kids, I have two, now for homework-

Or America working at a police station and his coworkers are freaked out that he has killed people... and fought in the civil war.

Like this would be comedy gold (IMO) especially if you mixed it with a monster AU (I will most definitely post more about this AU)

[mrsparrasblog]

Highschool AU pt.2

Summary: You and your Brother moved away from Austria because of your parents Divorce, making you attend Northbridge Academy in Exeter, England. On your first day you meet the bullied Simon Riley and the overly extroverted John MacTavish. As if dealing with puberty, sports and your grades wasn't hard enough you fell in love not only with your Bestfriend Simon but also with Johnny, that Johnny was in love with both of you didn't make the Dynamic better

Pt.1

November 1990

As the days passed, you fell into a comfortable routine. You made a point to sit next to Simon in every class, despite Johnny's attempts to claim the seat besides you. You got used to Johnny though; he was funny and surprisingly smart. He even beat you in physics once, which made you incredibly mad. You always wanted to excel in academics; sometimes it felt like it was the only thing you were good at—getting good grades. If you couldn't be good at that, what special thing would be left in you?

"Lizzie, it's just an A, who cares if it's not an A+? You won't die from it," Simon nagged. He never understood your drive to excel in school. He wasn’t bad himself, though; he mostly got Bs, especially in math, history, and chemistry. He had some Cs in English and Housekeeping —claiming it was unimportant for him that he did poorly in sewing. He was right, though; that's why you didn’t pick that incredibly dumb subject and chose advanced German instead, which was like a free pass for you. Unfortunately, you were in the same class as John, the annoying new friend of your brother. He was always so flirty, although he was cute.

"How do you know? Maybe I'll fall dead on the ground in the next second."

"Would be a blessing for some of us," Simon replied. After a few weeks of school, you were surprised to find out that Simon wasn’t like he looked. He wasn’t shy and uncomfortable; he pulled lots of jokes—bad ones—next to you. Worse, his humor was dry and mean, making you chuckle all the time, which he secretly loved.

"You're an idiot, Si."

"And still, I'm your favorite, Lizzie."

"Only because Johnny isn’t a real challenge to you."

"Don’t let Johnny hear that; he will be mad."

"Maybe he needs a bit of an ego shrink," You laughed.

Simon and you walked towards your table. It was like in all those American movies you watched when you were allowed to watch TV. Tiffany and her squad had their own table, and then there were tables full of footballers where Kyle sat most of the time, except when Johnny begged him to sit with you. Michael, like the perfect big brother he was, was always where you were. And where Michael was, John and sometimes Nik would be, if he didn’t spend 90% of his time in detention.

Every Thursday was mail delivery day, the best part of the week. You always looked forward to a letter from Dad. He told you about all the different places he visited for work, and there was always a postcard in the letter. You had over 120 postcards, all placed on the wall of your dorm. At least that made you feel at home. Northbridge Academy wasn’t as bad as you feared at the beginning. The teachers were great, the school was fun, and you had Simon and Johnny. The only downside was my dorm mates. While the boys were more than lucky despite Si complaining about Michael's snoring, they still had a nice group. Meanwhile, you were stuck with Tiffany, Laurie, and Anne in a room, and it was even worse than you imagined.

Simon opened his mail, and his expression changed. He tried to regain his composure quickly, but he couldn't fool me. You knew something was up, so you poked him under the table, trying to get his mail. Surprisingly, he gave it to you without any further resistance, and for once, You wished he hadn’t.

Hello Simon, Im on a camping trip with your Mom and Thomas. Don´t bother coming over the long weekend. We wont be there. Stay at your trust fund school. Dad 

"Si—"

"No, Lizzie." He stood up and left the table, surprising everyone else who hadn’t noticed anything. Typical boys. You followed him into his dorm and sat next to him on the bed.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"It's not a big deal, Lizzie. They're just on vacation."

"Is it?"

"Lizzie."

"You know you could come with Mich and me. Mom wouldn’t mind at all; she loves hosting people and all that stuff. We can spend more time together, and you don’t need to stay in this musty room—like, really, do you boys even clean?" You laughed at the chaos of the room. Everywhere, there were paint stains, football shoes, and, on what you guessed was Nik’s and John’s bed, an E-guitar was placed.

"Lizzie, it’s okay. You know I can practice a bit before the start of ice hockey season."

"Pleaseeeeeeee." You looked at him with puppy eyes. I needed him to come with me.

"Okay, but only this once." He agreed, and you gave him a big bear hug.

SIMONS POV 

"Whit dae ye mean ye gang hame wi' Ellie?"

"Was invited," I said shortly.

"Was invited too," John chimed in, while he tuned his guitar, making noises not safe for humanity.

"How come is a' body invited 'cept me?" Johnny started to whine. The answer would be easy for anyone with eyes: she doesn’t like his flirting, she is scared of things like this, and asking her to marry him after she gave him a cookie wasn’t the smartest choice.

"I wasn’t invited," Kyle replied shortly.

"You're not invited, Johnny, 'cause ye need to tone it down with my sister. She is only 13; she doesn’t care about boys right now. And asking her at any chance if she wants to marry you makes her scared. Ye don’t know anything about girls, do ye?" That was the most words I've heard from König since, well, ever, but he was right. Johnny needed to tone it down. I didn’t like how Lizzie felt insecure whenever he did it and clung to me. The truth is Lizzie wasn’t afraid of him or anything; she even liked Johnny as a friend. She just thought his advances were jokes. Johnny liked to joke a lot, giving him the reputation of a class clown. And so, his big gestures for her felt like a joke to her, especially since she was so insecure at heart. I just never understood why? She was smart, funny, much cooler than any other girl, and she was pretty, not that I would ever tell that to someone.

"Just trying to be good, König," Johnny muttered.

"If ye weren’t a lovesick little puppy, he’d probably punch you into oblivion," John mentioned.

"You can come too, Johnny," König replied, still giving him the big brother glance.

"Sweet."

"Wait, how do we all fit in a car?" I asked, afraid that Johnny would take my place, and I needed to stay here. But everyone just looked at me weirdly, and I didn’t know why.

The next day, on our way to Lizzie's house, I finally knew why. There was a fucking limousine with black windows, probably bulletproof, like in James Bond movies. A small man in his 50s walked outside of the car wearing a black suit and smiling as he walked towards Lizzie, taking her baggage from her hands.

"He doesn’t look like Lizzie’s Dad," I said. It was true; they didn’t look similar, but still, she hugged him like you’d hug a family member, I guess?

John started to laugh. "You really don’t know a lot about Beth." Beth? Why did he call my Lizzie Beth? That was a shitty name.

"I know a lot about her."

"Not about her world, little one." I hated it when people reduced me for my small frame. I didn’t want to be the skinny short boy walking behind Lizzie all the time in need of her support. At least she didn’t see me that way.

"Si, John, Johnny, that’s Alfred, he is our family, Butler," Lizzie said, smiling at Alfred like he was a family member more than a Butler.

We sat down in the limo. Lizzie, of course, sat next to me, much to the dislike of Johnny. He kinda grew on me, though; he was funny and extroverted, and he wasn’t as posh as Kyle, who was a nice bloke but just didn’t get it. He was always complaining, as if he had problems, of course, he hadn’t. He was rich, good at football, and good-looking.

Lizzie fell asleep after a while, her head resting on my shoulder. I didn’t dare to move for the rest of the ride. She looked so peaceful when she didn’t move her lips and spoke.

"Mate, that's unfair. Why does Lizzie sleep on you instead of me?" Johnny whined, but I ignored him. "I liked her first, brocade and everything, Simon."

"You don’t call dips on my sister, or I'll cut your tongue out," König spoke calmly. He was confusing me; he was mostly silent but always threatened everyone who came too close to Lizzie. He never threatened me though, of course not; no one saw a threat in me.

We arrived at a big white mansion, almost looking like the Buckingham Palace. I knew Lizzie was rich, but this rich? I should probably search Kortac up, what they did, and how her dad must be so rich.

John only shrugged as if it was nothing, making me feel like I was the dumb one. This wasn’t normal; why are they acting like this?

As I stepped into Lizzie's villa, my jaw practically hit the floor. I mean, I've seen big houses before, but this was something else. The entrance was like walking into a palace or something. The marble floors were so shiny

; I could see my reflection in them. And those pillars! They were taller than any trees I've ever seen, reaching up to a ceiling painted with fancy designs that made me feel like I was in a museum.

I couldn't help but gawk as I made my way through the place. The living room was like a dream. Soft, velvet couches and chairs were everywhere, so plush you could practically sink into them. Paintings and tapestries covered the walls, like something out of a history book. And don't even get me started on the fireplace! It was huge, with flames dancing and crackling like something out of a movie. All around were paintings that probably cost more than Mom's salary as a nurse.

The dining room was even more posh. A long, mahogany table stretched out in front of me, set with fancy plates and silverware that looked like they belonged in a museum. A chandelier hung overhead, sparkling with crystals and casting a warm light over everything.

In the kitchen, everything was shiny and new. Stainless steel appliances lined the walls, and there were bowls of fruit and baskets of bread everywhere. It smelled amazing, like something out of a cooking show. Chefs walked around the house; they had fucking chefs? I thought the Butler was much, but they had more staff. Didn’t rich people know how to cook for themselves?

As I wandered around, I couldn't help but feel a little jealous. I mean, we have a house; it's nice and all, but it's nothing like this. Lizzie's family must be really rich to live in a place like this. But as much as I envied her, I couldn't help but feel grateful that she was my friend, never judging me because of my scholarship like Tiffany did, and by the looks of it, Tiffany wasn’t even half as wealthy as Lizzie and König are.

"Mutter, Vater, Ich dachte Papa ist in Salzburg gerade," König said. He sounded more confident when he spoke German.

Lizzie's parents looked like nice people; her Dad was the tallest man I've ever seen and looked a bit intimidating, while her mom looked a lot like Lizzie herself, just older.

"Dein Vater hat gehört, ihr kommt hier her und ist direkt gekommen," her dad replied.

"Also, seid ihr nicht wieder zusammen?" Lizzie’s voice sounded so different in German, but she still sounded nice and soft.

"Nein, und sprech Englisch, das ist unhöflich gegenüber deinen Gästen," her mom scolded, her voice too loud for the small room.

"So, who do we have here?" Lizzie’s father asked curiously.

"I'm John Price, sir."

"Oh, like William Price?"

"Yes, that's my old man."

"We worked together quite a bit for his campaign."

"Wait, my dad worked with Kortac?" John lost the color of his face, and I really needed to know what the fuck Kortac is.

"I'm Johnny MacTavish."

"Well, didn’t hear of your family," Lizzie’s dad mustered Johnny.

"Richard, be nice," Lizzie’s mom scolded, in a tone too loud for the room. "Okay, and you are?" She gestured to me.

"Simon Riley, nice to meet you both, sir," I replied politely, shaking his hand, only to get my hand crushed.

As I followed Lizzie's family into the dining room, I couldn't believe my eyes. The table was like something out of a fancy restaurant, but way bigger. There were so many dishes spread out that I had never seen or tried before. I mean, I knew what a salad was and some of the other stuff, but there were these little black things in jars that Lizzie's dad called "caviar." I had no idea what that was, but everyone seemed to be enjoying it, so I tried a tiny bit. It was salty and kinda strange, definitely not like anything I'd ever eaten. Johnny looked as confused as me; of course, the academy had fancy food, but this was weird. And so much different from what mom cooked for us, and I longed for her lasagna right now.

Then there were all these different forks and spoons and knives laid out next to the plates. I was used to just one fork and one spoon at home, but here, it was like a whole set of tools just for eating. I glanced over at Lizzie, who noticed my confusion and tried to discreetly explain which fork to use for which course. But I could tell I was still getting it wrong.

Lizzie's family seemed used to all this fancy stuff, chatting away as they effortlessly used their array of utensils. Meanwhile, I was struggling not to knock over a glass or use the wrong fork. Her mom smiled kindly at me and offered some advice on what to try next, but I couldn't shake the feeling of being out of place. John and König, of course, knew how to act. I noticed how Lizzie’s dad liked John, but Lizzie’s mom definitely liked me.

It was strange; they were so familiar with each other, chatting at dinner and laughing, listening to Lizzie ramble about the school teaching shitty German. It was so different than at home; no one screamed, no one cried, and, most importantly, no one punched each other.

Johnny and I slept in one of the various guest chambers, and it was so comfortable, the best sleep I've ever had until I heard Lizzie scream from next door. I ran towards her room; I didn’t know what was wrong, but I needed to find out.

She lay in her luxurious room, whining and shaking in her sleep. I always thought rich families like these never had any problems, but here she was having night terrors.

I sat next to her in bed, brushing my hand towards her silky hair. "I'm here, Lizzie, everything is good."

"Please don’t kill me; I don’t know anything," she cried, and then König walked in, pushing me to the side while grabbing her in his bulky arms, whispering to her something in German until she calmed down and slept peacefully again. Now, all of us stood in her room. I just wanted to comfort Lizzie, telling her everything would be fine again.

"What was this?" John asked.

"Nightmares."

"That’s more than nightmares, mate," Johnny said, earning a death glare from König. I didn’t know what I thought, but I stood up and walked towards her bed again, cuddling her like Mom and Dad always did. For the first time, I could protect someone, and I’d protect her like she protected me.

"LEAVE."

"No, she is my best friend; I won’t leave." Slowly, after minutes, John and Johnny climbed into Lizzie’s bed. All of us wanted to comfort the girl who gave us everything every day. And so all five of us played together in the bed, eager to protect her from whatever haunted her. It was nice; having her in my arms was the last thought before I slowly drifted into a peaceful sleep.

[95jezzica]

It's kind of funny, because in general human AUs I have a pretty good idea of what most of the Germanics would likely work with.

Prussia & Germany: Car mechanics. (To absolutely no one's surprise). 😂 xD Austria: Strict private music teacher (perhaps for adults? Not sure he'd have the patience for young children messing around). Switzerland: Ranger/forest guard. Also a licensed hunter. (Mainly does protective hunting where's there's no real other choice). Liechtenstein: Tailor/Sewer, and owning her own business.

Norway: Crazy rich Stock Market Master, (but also has an education in Economy Lawyer). Denmark: Electrician. Holy smokes it fits him so well. 😂 xD Sweden: Carpenter, who also dabbles into sewing, glass-blowing, house construction/building and different smithings as hobbies. Ice/Lad/Kugel/Sea: Still in school, but give them time. 😂 xD

Bonus: Hungary: Some kind of lawyer, though not sure what kind. Don't think she'd be the same kind of lawyer as Norway though. Finland: Plumber & licensed hunter. Former military. Is considering switching/educating himself to a forest ranger/nature guide instead. England: Struggling. 😂 Okay, no, I think his dream job would be to become a librarian, but he's currently enjoying his job as one of Liechtenstein's tailors.

.

And then I go look at the rest and be like... "Uh... Would it be too stereotypical if I made Japan a mangaka or working with something related to IT?" , because I don't have a clear idea what everyone else would be working with yet. 😂 xD

[tilbageidanmark]

MOVIES I WATCHED THIS WEEK (#195):

What an unusual film experience!

A PUBLIC PROSECUTOR AND A TEACHER is the very last silent film from Korea (made in 1948!), a morality tale and a flowery melodrama. A kindhearted teacher helps a very poor student of her, a hungry orphan. Years later, she's accused of an accidental murder, and he, who's grown to be a successful lawyer, thanks to her help, is able to save her from a guilty verdict.

But the wordless story is explained via the voice of an overly-emotional orator, "The Last Crying Byeonsa", who gives a running commentary of every detail of the story, in a most unusual way. It is reminiscent of old traditions of oral story-telling. His sorrowful and plaintive interpretation makes this an unbearable tragedy, and the most memorable aspect of this film. (Via).

🍿

"Say, you haven't happen to see a white.... Wang?!"

MURDER BY DEATH was a spoof of the Agatha Christie-type whodunit mysteries, with an ensemble cast that included a rare performance by Truman Capote, a youngish, gayish James Cromwell, and another of Peter Seller's offensive Charlie Chan impressions. it was full of all the old whodunit cliches, down to the blind butler, done in a mid-70's Woody Allen joke style. The only somehow-original point was the opening title sequence which was composed of Charles Addams caricatures. 2/10.

RIP, MAGGIE SMITH!

🍿

6 MORE WITH ISABELLE HUPPERT:

8 WOMEN (2002) is another whodunit murder mystery, but very different. A delightful feminine Christmas comedy, taking place in an isolated snowbound estate, played by an all women cast. Eight of the best French actresses of the day, including sisters Catherine Deneuve and Isabelle Huppert, the gorgeous Virginie Ledoyen, Fanny Ardent and teenage Ludivine Sagnier ham it up. Full of surprises, the best one is that every so often, somebody suddenly starts singing and dancing, (like the Clip Above), or as in 'Toi jamais' or the final shot with Georges Brassens' 'Il n'y a pas d'amour heureux'. Also, nearly everyone secretly is or at least ends up gay! 8/10.

🍿 (Re-visiting the PARC MONCEAU episode from 'Paris, je t'aime', just to see the cutest Ludivine Sagnier again. This was the Alfonso Cuarón short when she was Nick Nolte's daughter.)

🍿 MAMA WEED, my first stylish, fun film by French director Jean-Paul Salomé. A wonderful crime comedy where Isabelle Huppert is a badass Arabic-French translator working for the Narcotic department of the police, but who "Breaks bad" and learns how to deal. Like ‘Personal Shopper’ it ends in the deserts of Oman. 9/10.

🍿 Hotel Vivier Cinémathèque looks like a glamorous short riddle, where Huppert is presenting 5 interactive gaming scenarios, Fantasy, Crime, Comedy, Horror and Animation. But actually it's a whimsical presentation of the 2021 spring collection by some fancy shoe designer.

🍿 "Austria is a country that produces neuroses and also produces culture".

MICHAEL H – PROFESSION: DIRECTOR is an insightful 2013 documentary about director Michael Haneke. It starts with 'Amour' and goes back all the way to 'The Seventh Continent'. Obviously it contains references and interviews with Isabelle Huppert who starred in his 'Time of the wolf' and 'The piano teacher'.

I'm glad that I've seen all his movies [except of 'Funny Games', naturally] so I don't have to watch them again.

🍿 SCÉNARIO DE 'SAUVE QUI PEUT LA VIE, a visual essay proposed by J-L Godard in connection with his 'Every man for himself' (1980). I only watched it because of Isabelle Huppert. His usual stream of consciousness approach mixing up movements, snippets of sounds, words, montage of ideas, unfinished conversations, colours... 1/10

🍿 I was ready to hate the short 3D installation VIRTUAL EMBALMING (2020), "a digital remembrance as a document for the future", but I didn't. Huppert and 2 other women were asked how they wanted to be remembered, and the artist built interesting, artsy alters to their visions.

🍿

It was obvious that the new "Crime Comedy" WOLFS is a mediocre piece of junk from its very first scene when frantic Amy Ryan kept hysterically talking to herself, and from when her "fixer" arrives, and finds a cliched parking spot right in front of her posh NYC hotel. It's a low-rent, uninspired, boring 'Michael Clayton' clone about a 'cleaner', where even the Croatian folk dancing scene felt forced and joyless. Like a copy of a copy of a copy, degraded through the endless, talent-less story-telling. 3/10.

🍿

40'S NOIR WITH LIZABETH SCOTT AND BURT LANCASTER X 2:

🍿 "I'm Mrs. Alexis Richardson."

"You say that like it was spelt in capital letters."

"Ha. Sit down."

Are you telling me or asking me?"

"Please. You know, you're quite an attractive man."

"Keep goin'."

"How far do you want me to go?"

"I'm at the plate. You're doin' the pitching."

I discovered Lizabeth Scott, the beautiful actress with the "smoky voice", because her long Wikipedia page is unusually extensive. She never made it "BIG", but made it big enough to star in 22 hard-boiled, mid-tiered Noir classics in the 40's and 50's.

In I WALK ALONE (1947), good guy Burt Lancaster, released from 14 years in prison, confronts his ex-buddy, bad guy Kirk Douglas. Scott is the sultry nightclub singer, dangling as a bait. Deception, betrayal, retribution... 6/10.

🍿 DESERT FURY is a strange melodramatic Western Noir which is played out in glorious Technicolor. It got beautiful 19 year old Lizabeth Scott who can't get along with her casino owner mom Mary Astor. There's good-guy sheriff Burt Lancaster who's in love with her. And then there's two gangsters who come to their Nevada desert town, who are blatantly a gay couple. They had been together for 15 years, and now one of them falls for young Scott. It's bulky 1947 cars and giant shoulder pads for the ladies, with a Miklos Rosza score working overtime, but it's all so mixed up, with such unclear message.

🍿

X-RAY (1977), my 10th by Krzysztof Kieślowski, in which men that are being treated for tuberculosis at a sanatorium share their thoughts about their lives.

🍿

THE ONE AND ONLY, my 7th film by favorite director Susanne Bier. A frothy romantic comedy, which was both critical and a huge commercial success in Denmark when it came out in 1999. With the always-delectable Sidse Babett-Knudsen, but everybody else on the cast was utterly forgettable, and the story was as cliched and boring as can be. 2/10. [*Female Director*]

🍿

Buster Keaton's 1921 THE PLAYHOUSE is remembered mostly for the first half, in which he plays all the roles, dozen or more, of an elaborate variety show. In the second part he falls in love with a twin. At one point he is dressed and made up as a chimpanzee.

🍿

THE WAY THE EAGLE SHITS is an anti-capitalist screed, an angry cry about wealth inequality and unjust distribution of assets, and it doesn't mince words, or use euphemisms. The Poor are fucked, it shows, in 1975 and today.

🍿

KONCERT, an early, whimsical film by Hungarian István Szabó, which was nominated for an Oscar in 1962. 3 guys on a piano bicycle ride by the Danube, and people join them in an impromptu performance. 2/10.

🍿

MUYBRIDGE'S STRINGS (2011), my second artsy animation by Koji Yamamura (After 'Franz Kafka’s a Country Doctor'). A mixed-up theoretical metaphor about (one of) the fathers of motion pictures. The 'Strings' are the ones his horses triggered galloping in front of the battery of cameras, which took the photographs that later created the illusion of movement. 2/10.

🍿

"I want an unwritten life..."

THE BROTHERS BLOOM (2008), my third strike-out from Rian Johnson (After the 2 boring Benoit Blanc stories). Always looking for a good grifters story, but I couldn't get into this one, even after 3 attempts, and had to bail out midway.

🍿  

(ALL MY FILM REVIEWS - HERE).

[best-non-english-word-torunament]

Round two: 爆炸, bào zhà vs Aufhebung

爆炸, bào zhà (Mandarin Chinese)

[paʊ ʈʂa]

Translation: explosion

Chinese is a Sino-Tibetan macrolanguage (a dialect continuum consisting of different varieties that are distinct languages based the criterium of mutual intelligibility, but commonly referred to as a single language) with around 1 350 300 000 speakers that consists of 16 recognised languages, often referred to as dialects. Out of these, Mandarin Chinese is the largest, as 70% of Chinese speakers have it as their native language. The Beijing dialect of Mandarin forms the basis of Standard Chinese, which is the national language and taught in schools all over China.

Motivation 1: Super fun to say (BAO ZHA allows for some intense chest yells!!), lovely meaning, has become a joke among my friend group and our Chinese teacher thinks it's very funny

Motivation 2: Explode is an inherently funny word. Also me and my friends learned this word back in like Chinese ii (super early on, we were still learning basic grammar) and our Chinese teacher does not like it very much. Once they got in trouble for putting it in a presentation that was being graded for our ib myp certificate (international baccalaureate; bigshot honors program).

Note: This was submitted as Mandarin Chinese by at least one of the four submitters of this one word (thank you for sparing me the detective work). The two best motivations were put on the post

Aufhebung (German)

[ˈaʊ̯fˌheːbʊŋ]

Translation: There is no English equivalent; it can be translated as "to sublate", "to abolish", "to transcend", or "to supercede" (also "to pick up", "to raise", "to keep", "to preserve", "to end", "to annul", or "to pocket").

German is an Indo-European language belonging to the Germanic branch and spoken in Germany by 80 600 000 people and 133 250 000 people worldwide. Or is it? That is true for Standard German, which is part of the Continental West Germanic dialect continuum stretching from the Netherlands to Austria, and including High, Middle and Low German dialects as well as Dutch. Standard German is a High German variety (High German refers to dialects and languages in southern Germany, Switzerland and Austria). Parts of the continuum aren’t mutually intelligible, but sinch Standard German has been the writing norm for centuries and used in education, media and administration, people can understand each other anyway since some regional differences have mellowed in the last generations, although some Low German dialects in the north are closer to Dutch than High German dialects in southern Germany.

Motivation: It's a unique German word that's important for Marxist and Hegelian philosophy, conveying the idea of the death of something while still maintaining the old within the new; to simultaneously abolish while preserving.

[throbbingwish]

Oh god I don't know if I can catch everything up to speed, but I've changed a lottttt. I go to a community school transition program now to get me back into school. Actually one of my teachers was in Phantom Sydney, and as someone who loves POTO it's always so great to hear his stories. Currently, my celebrity crush is Jimmi Simpson; he's just so charming, funny, he has this air about him that's so likeable. He has such a nice sounding voice, perfect lips (his upper lip is bigger than his lower lip! How cool is that. I think that's such an attractive feature...), the most beautiful nose (I just love love LOVEEE medium-big upturned noses. Upturned noses in general, the best nose on a man.), he's very talented as an actor and has been in some great shows (I actually first started loving him in 2022, when I watched USS Callister in Black Mirror. Actually that's what reignited my crush on him recently with its rewatch!) his gorgeous hair, his beautiful beautiful blue eyes and the fact that he listens to SMOG!!!!! I found out in an article, and honestly that's so good. I'm a fan of Bill Callahan and knowing he listens to Smog is a win for me. I don't know if he still does, but in the article he said he did. He also wears glasses! Gosh, I could go on all day but I don't want to waste your time. Currently my top artists are Jack Ladder, PJ Harvey, John Cale, Roxy Music, Bill Callahan, Scott Walker, David Sylvian, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (Yes I know, Nick Cave and PJ Harvey, scandalous) and The Blue Nile. But I think spotify stats is a bit off on the ranking. Jack Ladder I have definitely been listening to most; I am OBSESSED with the song Susan. I actually found it around a year ago and loved it, but then in May started listening again and could not stop. It's actually become my top song of all time on spotify. That's how much I listen to it, and it never gets old. Cold Feet is such a nostalgic song too, it makes me feel some things. Its such a night song, I want to drive with it through the cool air near nature and sky at autumn/winters night with my lover in the car. If only I had a lover, I would cherish him completely. And as I said I've been listening to Bill Callahan, The Wind And The Dove is stuck in my head and all you'd hear if you stepped into my mind would be "I am a child of linger on, I peer through the window gone" just repeating and repeating on the loud speaker at mind terminal. I wonder if I was there, what plane would I catch. There would be so many to choose. Obviously, I get free access as the owner of the land, but my mind is wild and free and expands to many different places with my millions of thoughts, ideas, aspirations, feelings, interests, etc. I could take a world tour and reflect on all of this. I can imagine the floors as warm and my eyes calm and cool, steady guided to reflection plane. I just love that its Winter now by the way, I love all the months, Winter has its special charm. I'd always want to make love in a field near the mountains at night time during winter, with the cool breeze on me. I really do love nature. I love the bush, I love the mountains and towering trees in Washington and Appalachia, the beauty of the Blue Mountains, of course Austria and Switzerland and China is so beautiful too. I could go on and on. Most importantly, I love the mountains, hills, fields, trees, and the country. I also like lakes if they're surrounded by trees like in coming of age films. Speaking of film, I want to watch Wristcutters: A Love Story. It's next on my list. I might as well go, its getting late at 1am. My eyes hurt and I need glasses. I'm glad I get to post this, I'll probably read back on it later.

[widgenstain]

@nextraordinaire tagged me like a month ago but even after eleven years on this site I can’t respond on time to memes, somehow?

1. are you named after anyone?

Yes, my paternal grandmother and my godmother, as it is usual for good Catholic girls.

2. when was the last time you cried?

can’t remember, probably a year ago out of anger? I hardly ever cry, which was really funny when I was fired, because they somewhat expected me to cry and... no? Not even if I was actually sad?

3. do you have kids?

No. And I’m not sure anymore how I feel about that.

4. do you use sarcasm a lot?

Way too much.

5. what’s the first thing you notice about people?

The way they carry themselves. Like, I can spot my father 100 metres away in a crowd like that, despite my failing eyesight. I look at how people walk and stand.Then the eyes. 

6. what’s your eye color?

Had a drunk recently wax on about my beautiful brown eyes. Fucker, they’re green, they only look brown because of my central heterochromia.

7. scary movies or happy endings?

going to give the same answer as the person before me: neither. ambiguous/open endings, please.

8. any special talents?

I can reach the top shelves, but also fold myself into one? I’m tall yet bendy.

9. where were you born?

Austria.

10. what are your hobbies?

wasting time on the internet, cycling, reading, being social.

11. have you any pets?

no. aside from the cats that visit my garden and the adorable songbirds that soon will end up in their stomachs, I don’t have any pet. (Also I’m so sorry nextra!)

12. what sports do you play/have you played?

so many, the ones I like most are the brutal ones, like martial arts and field hockey. A little known fact about me though is that I did ballet for roughly 8 years and was asked to be a cheerleader for a professional but small basketball team. So I can do both.

13. how tall are you?

6′.

14. favorite subject in school?

Always depended on the teacher, I was a nerd and good in all of them.

15. dream job?

Andrew Scott’s professional armpit sniffer.

tagging everyone who reads this, seriously, I mean it, tag me if you’re done!

[snenby-with-two-daggers]

And another thing, cultures change. Over mere decades. There was a post from someone who learned Italian from their grandmother who emigrated when she was adult and when they went to Italy and spoke the grandmother’s Italian, locals looked at them funny because the language was outdated. The specific local culture of your ancestors who migrated in America may not even exist anymore or was changed plank by plank to the point of being a different ship in nearly everything but name. And cultures merge.

I live in Czechia, half of former Czechoslovakia, you may have heard about it in history class before ww2 started. There was and still is strong push about “we czechs are pure slavs!” bullshit. Czech are one of the most mixed populations in europe. Half of traditional czech food is german, or germans saw it here, we will not find out about which way it was. Despite the strong degermanization after ww2, some german words are still used in informal language, especially in the western regions, in a time when most people here can’t speak german. Austria, or Vienna specifically (according to my german teacher who lived in Vienna for years and taught czech language there), is very similar in that. Some of the traditional food (mostly bringed there in the 19th century after people gained the right to move where they wanted without the owner of the land they are registered to approving it) keeps the czech names with botched german pronunciation. Apparently was a situation where elected officials from Prague had some kind if meeting with those from Vienna and the prague’s ones had mostly german surnames and a lot of vienese ones had germanised czech surnames. Apparently there is a saying in Vienna that you’re not true citizen of Vienna if your grandmother wasn’t czech. Somehow, in both countries the nacionalist parties are somehow sucessfull with their ethnic/cultural bullshits. It’s laughable and so obviously full of shit. And what takes the crown, Victor Orban, prime minister of Hungary, those people who used to be nomads just like Huns and later Mongolians, to my knowledge also ethnically originating from Asia, in his Hitler-like speech (I’m not exaggerating. Even some of his own prople said it was too much a said it sounded like him) claimed Hungarians to be white. Don’t get me wrong, they were culturally assimilated a lot and mixed with local and neighbor populations. But it seems that there are some specifically hungarian/nomadic asian tribes facial features that often prevailed, like hooded eyes (maybe the finnish have them too) and if someone has them here they often have some hungarian ancestors. Aside of that, the fact that hungarians got to europe in a few waves more close to the year 1000 than 0, is widely known and, to my knowledge, kind of important part of national identity. And he tries to erase that.

Whew, this got out of hand. Sorry about that.

'White Americans don't have any culture, they're just [normal/boring/generic/empty]. 'Culture' is when you're quaint and exotic and have interesting ethnic foods and holidays." is such a grating bit of nonsense to have somehow become progressive commonsense in a lot of places.

[a-mag-a-day]

MAG 68 - folding laundry

"Thanks for letting me do this. I mean, I know you let anyone record a statement. That’s why you’re the Magnus Institute!" - Shots fired, haha xD

"Never had the academic chops to get access to your library or anything, but when all those statements were leaked back in ‘99" - <.< I wonder if it was a coincident that the Magnus Institute in Manchester burned down in 1999 in the Magnus Protocol or if there is any connection to this incident.

"So I’m kind of an artist. I like to use the detritus of mankind’s time on this planet to craft its own reflection back at itself, you know? So I take what others consider garbage and use it to send a message to the puppetmasters and fat cats who hold our lives in the palm of their hand and play with our society like a chess game. A message of art. You know what I’m talking about." - Actually I don't… and I graduated art school. So, does he take trash, make it into art and then sells it to rich people? If they don't consider you a super duper artsy-genius with a famous name, they probably won't care.

"And when you’re making art, you don’t need to be picky. If something’s not perfect, you can make it perfect. You use the beauty inside of you to reach in and pull the beauty out of the object. Sometimes by breaking it more; sometimes by repairing it just enough. And, once, by setting it on fire." - Oh god, that statement-giver sounds like my art teachers…

"I think his name’s Gus. Or Al. He looks like a Gus or an Al." - -__-

I just wanna say Jonny is playing this self-centered, overly confident art guy on speed extremely well. My brain is constantly trying to shut down.

"Don’t know who owned it before, might have even have been a library copy but the sticker was mostly torn off." - lol

Is there static during the passage from the book?

"I asked the corporal for his name, and was told that that was Private Amherst. Fitting enough, I remarked, that he should be named for a dealer in smallpox" (/later in the post-statement segment "Another point is a link that Treeves brings up which I had not considered, that of Jeffrey Amherst, an 18th century baronet who is most remembered for deliberately providing blankets infected with smallpox to Native American tribes during the so-called French and Indian Wars, leading to a devastating epidemic.") - So here's the thing. I didn't know there was an actual Amherst (Jeffery instead of John, but still) with a history in using diseases as weapon. In Austria we learn about prehistoric times, antiquity (a lot about Romans), medieval times, Renaissance, (everything about Central Europe and Mediterranean region) industrial revolution and then we learn 3 years about the first and second world war. I have almost no knowledge about the History of Britain. Even less the US, especially not in detail. I know that there was a discourse about using the name of a rl historical figure who actually did a lot of harm.

I love how these are stories withing a story within a story XD

"Be careful carrying it, though, those old pages are kind of sharp." - Oh no…

"Insects and disease. No clear connection, other than the fact that they somehow feel similar. They both make one feel distinctly unclean." - And that's all there is. It feels right. There is no clear line between the Fears. I love how this works! Soft magic systems are such an underused concept that can work so, so well!

"I’m in the tunnels. I was exploring and I got lost." - LMAO

"There were a couple of spiders, so I changed routes and found, I think it’s a gas main." - <.<

"I didn’t prepare for – AAH" - Jon getting scared is extremely funny! That little scream xD

NOT!SASHA "Hard to focus." / JON "The place plays odd tricks with your mind. When I saw Sasha down there, for a moment it was like I didn’t recognize her. She seemed… far too tall somehow." - Hmmm, so do the tunnels also affect other Fears? It's well known that it blocks the Eye, but the Not!Them also seemed to have a hard time? On the contrary the Corruption seemed to have had a field trip down there, the worms were faster and quieter in the tunnels, which was better for them to get to they prey.

Hmm the corruption getting stronger down there is an interesting question. What powers get lost in these tunnels and what powers are more potent? Is there consistency in how they are affected?

[peterpparkerwrites]

far from love - part six

warnings: language, fighting, jealousy jealousyyy pairing: peter parker x silk!reader word count: 5.5k

masterlist ~ requests are closed ~ part seven

~

"What the hell happened last night?" Were MJ's first words to you the next morning when the class had gathered for breakfast.

It was only a few hours ago that you had left Peter on that rooftop, and you didn't sleep at all when you were back to your hotel room. Not that you had much time if you wanted to, anyway, since the class was meant to be up early to head for Paris.

But you knew that plan was going to have to change if Fury needed you and Peter in Prague.

"Nothing," you shrugged, shaking your head. "Just gave Peter shit for running off yesterday, that's all."

"You haven't talked to him in months," MJ said flatly, not buying it, "And you were gone the whole night. Was it something to do with Silk-"

"Don't want to talk about it right now, MJ," you interrupted her, in case anyone was listening.

Fury hadn't lied when he said he would find a way to get you and Peter to Prague without alerting your classmates. Your teacher chaperones had magically gotten funds and a ride up to the city from Venice. It was a long one, but soon enough you were all shuttled into a bus that was conveniently provided by the tour group company, though you seriously doubted that after taking one look at the driver.

You hadn't talked to Peter since early that morning, and you didn't plan to until you both got to Prague. He was sitting in the back messing with something, but you pretended not to care. It was probably whatever it was that Tony Stark had left for him.

Brad had squeezed himself in between you and MJ and was taking up the whole time on the bus to talk with her, which you found a little bit funny.

"Alright, bathroom breaks!" One of your teachers announced as the bus came to a stop in some town in Austria. You glanced at your phone and saw a message from an unknown number that told you to go to one of the buildings.

Once everyone was shuffled off the bus, you made eye contact with Peter and nodded toward the building. He went with you after checking to make sure no classmates noticed.

"Got the text?" You asked as he neared by, and he nodded. "What do you think it is?"

"I don't know," he shrugged, and you followed him into the building, shutting the door behind you.

There was a woman in a stealth outfit sitting with two cases at a table, and she stood up when you both came in.

She stared at you both for a second before holding out the two cases. When you both opened them, you saw that they were new suits. You took yours out carefully, not liking the design as much as the one Peter gave you, but it would do. The black would definitely help you blend in.

"Try it on, now," she said in a heavy accent, and you exchanged a look with Peter.

"Can we not wait until-"

"Now!" She cut you off, making Peter jump as he took his shirt off.

"I am not changing right now-" You protested again, making Peter also hesitate.

"Fine, but try on before tonight," the woman huffed, taking her things and leaving. You stared blankly at Peter, who was still paused with his shirt in his hands.

"Dude, put your shirt back on," you said with an eye roll, turning for the door but freezing when it opened first.

"Oh whoa, uh," Brad stuttered looking at shirtless Peter behind you and then you, his eyes widening. "Um. I thought this was a bathroom..."

"This is so not what it looks like," Peter said quickly, but Brad, for some reason, got his phone out and took a picture.

"Hey!" You snapped, trying to grab his phone but he already slid it back into his pocket.

"Sorry guys, but I like MJ, and I know you were trying to get with her," he directed at Peter, "I can't pretend I didn't see this."

"Wait, Brad-"

He had already left as you let out a frustrated noise, "I'm going to kill him."

"He can't show MJ that," Peter said, making you frown a little. "We need to get it off his phone."

"I'll sit next to MJ on the bus and distract her so that he can't show her, but I don't know of any other way," you muttered, shaking your head. "Let's go before he gets the chance."

You were able to sit next to MJ this time, giving Brad a hard look when he tried to get his old seat back, and he gave up. You thought Brad was a nice guy, but this was pretty beyond the line.

For the next few hours, you were able to distract MJ enough so that Brad couldn't get a word in even when he tried. You noticed him looking on his phone and getting frustrated, and you wondered if maybe he didn't get a good picture or something.

By the end of the ride, he seemingly gave up and was the first off the bus, seeming annoyed.

"That was way too long of a ride," MJ complained as you followed her off the bus.

"Agreed," you mumbled, making eye contact with Peter as he followed Ned and Betty off the bus. Why was he wearing glasses?

It seemed like ages later that you were all putting your things away in your hotel rooms, which were a lot nicer than the ones in Venice. MJ hung out with you as you were getting your things situated, despite everyone having separate rooms. She was quiet as you both put your things away, you trying to discretely stuff your new suit into your bag for when the class went out later.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on with you and Peter?"

"Later," you promised, though you were secretly hoping she would just drop the whole thing. You couldn't tell her the truth without her knowing that Peter was-

"Does it have to do with the fact that Peter is Spider-Man?" She said flatly, and you stared at her. "Y/N, come on, if I could figure out you were Silk, I could easily figure it out about Peter."

Your mouth was gaped open but you didn't get the chance to even think of a reply, because someone knocked on your door.

"Hey, Y/N, we need to-" Peter poked his head in the door that was already partially open. "Oh, uh, hey MJ."

You stared at him for a minute while MJ looked between the two of you. "Um, what's up?"

"We uh, need to go..." his voice trailed off, "Mr. Harrington wants us to go, uh, scope out the square where the carnival is gonna be. For safety reasons..."

"Peter, she knows," you caved, knowing his terrible lying wasn't going to save you both from MJ knowing your secrets. "She knows I'm Silk and apparently she knows you're Spider-Man."

"What?" He squeaked out, much to MJ's satisfaction it seemed, as a smirk rose on her face. "But-I-"

"We don't have time to talk about it," you grabbed your bag, facing MJ, "We have to go do...a thing. Please cover for us?"

"Of course," she easily agreed, eyeing your bags. "Does it have to do with the water monster in Venice?"

"We can explain later," you promised, grabbing Peter by the arm and dragging him out of your room, "Bye!"

You were both able to sneak out easily, changing into your suits before heading toward the building Maria Hill texted you both to meet at. Peter seemed quiet since he realized MJ knew his secret, but you didn't know what to say, so it was mostly silent as you both wandered the streets of Prague.

"I almost blew up the bus," Peter blurted suddenly, and you gave him a look.

"Excuse me?"

"What Tony left me," he held out his hand, showing the pair of glasses you saw him wearing earlier. "They're really high tech, and I don't know how to use them, and I was trying to have it get Brad to delete that photo of us off his phone since it could access people's phones but instead it issued a missile strike on him and I barely stopped it-"

"Okay," you cut him off, "Enough said. Did you get it deleted?"

"Yes," he bit his lip, "And-and it was only because it might expose our identities, not-not because he was gonna show it to MJ, I mean our suits were probably shown in the picture, and then-"

"Peter, you don't need to explain," you muttered, shaking your head, "Can we just focus on the job at hand?"

"Yeah, 'course," he agreed quietly, tucking the glasses away.

A while later, you were both listening to Fury go over the plan multiple times. It was getting a little tiring, and you could tell Peter was just as worried as you were when they talked about where the fire monster was meant to show up.

In the middle of the carnival square.

"Sorry, am I boring you both?" Fury suddenly stated, making you blink back into focus.

"They're not bored," Beck said, a bit of sarcasm in his tone, "They're just thinking about how you basically kidnapped them."

"They had obstacles, and I took care of them," Fury defended himself, glaring at Peter. "If you were listening, what's the plan?"

"I'll be in the cathedral tower, keeping watch," He said, glancing at you, "Y/N will be on the opposite side in one of the alleys. And then when the fire monster attacks, uh, Mr. Beck and I-"

"My name is Mysterio," Beck said flatly, but he widened his eyes with a small smile to show that he was teasing, making you crack a grin.

"Mysterio and I will move in, while Y/N covers back and helps civilians out," Peter finished, also smiling a little.

"And they refuse to evacuate despite our warnings," Hill shook her head, "Idiots."

"Peter, Y/N, listen to me," Mysterio became serious again, seeing both of your hesitations, "The best hope you have, the only hope...is to stop it here, now. No matter what the cost. Maneuver it away from civilians if you can. But most importantly, keep it away from metal. If it gets too big, it'll be able to draw power from the earth's core. After that, there's no way to stop it."

"Hey man, our friends are going to be out there," Peter protested.

"The carnival is right where the fire elemental will show up," you backed him up, starting to get worried. "We'll be putting them in danger."

"You're worried aboutus hurting your friends?" Fury scoffed, looking at Peter, "You? Who called a drone strike on your own school tourbus? Stark gave you a multi-million dollar intelligence system. Andthe first thing you do with it, is try to blow up your friends. It's clear tome that you two are not ready for this."

Peter cringed a little under the criticism, and you agreed that that was pretty harsh. Instead of replying, he just trudged out the door, and Beck shook his head and followed him out.

"You gonna walk out, too?" Fury huffed when he noticed you hadn't moved.

"You dragged us here to help you, so that judgement of us not being ready should have been decided long before this," you said harshly, and Fury gave you a disbelieving look. "We're going to help because that's what you asked, and you don't have a right to tell us we aren't ready when you're the one that made us come here."

You followed Peter and Mysterio out, trying to control your anger.

It was hard to tell which direction they went in, but you followed that ever constant magnet that seemed to pull you towards wherever Peter was. You wished it would go away - you hated that connection to him now. But it did help you find him easily enough, perched on a ledge sitting next to Mysterio, who seemed to be cheering him up.

You were glad at least one of these people was on your side.

Mysterio noticed you coming up and winked, floating upwards, "I'll leave you two to it. I'll see you guys at the square, one hour."

Peter glanced up as you sat next to him, your anger calming down a little. "I gave Fury shit for saying that."

"Thanks," he sighed, fumbling with the glasses in his hands. "He's right, though. I don't deserve these."

"Hey," you shook your head, "He's wrong. It's not your fault Tony didn't leave an instructions manual. With time, I'm sure you'll know how to use them properly."

He didn't seem to agree with you, but he didn't say anything else, either. "I'm gonna see if E.D.I.T.H. can find a way to get our friends out of the square for the fight."

"Good idea," you nodded, pausing. "Edith?"

"It's what these are called," he held up the glasses, putting them on, "Stands for 'Even Dead I'm The Hero'."

You cracked a smile, "That sounds like Tony Stark."

"Sure does," he agreed, his smile a little more forced.

You decided to leave him alone while he figured out the glasses, knowing it would be best to get ready. Also, you didn't want to feel the intense pull between you both anymore - your senses were driving you crazy, and it just seemed to make it worse, when it usually made it better.

An hour later, you were perched at the far end of the square, waiting for the monster to show up.

Peter had been successful in getting E.D.I.T.H. to get your friends away from the carnival. Instead, they'd all be watching a four hour long opera. You felt bad about that, but it was better than them being in the middle of all the danger.

"L/N, Parker, you both on comms?"

"Yes," you replied, hearing Peter's answer a second after yours.

"Energy spiking," You heard Hill's voice, "We have seismic activity."

You tensed as you noticed the ground start to shift, and suddenly flames were erupting in the middle of the square. You jumped into action immediately, yelling at people to get out of the way as you saw Mysterio float down, starting to fight the flames as they took the vague shape of a monster.

Peter swung above your head, landing on another building and shooting a web at a fire hydrant. The water burst upwards and sprayed over the monster and some of the people running away, but it didn't seem to do much other than irritate the elemental.

The monster let out a roar and swatted it's hand to where Peter was perched, making him flip back over it's head. You ducked as it threw more stones, and you ran to where Peter landed, helping him up.

"So, water isn't helping," you said tensely, "What other ideas you got?"

"Oh shit," was his only answer, and you focused on where he was looking, "Beck, he got the carousel, he's getting bigger!"

You noticed he was right - the monster's hands gripped the metal and it started shifting, somehow becoming even bigger. "Oh God."

You and Peter tried to shoot your webs at the monster, but it didn't do anything other than singe them. Mysterio jumped in front of you both at the last minute and put up a green force field, giving you a few extra minutes.

"You kids alright?" He asked breathlessly, and you both flinched as the monster's fists hit the force field.

"Time for plan B," you said, looking at Peter, "There has to be some other way."

"Something it can't absorb," Peter finished for you.

"Okay, you guys go left, I'll go right. Hit him with whatever you can find that isn't metal. Now!"

Mysterio broke the force field and Peter tugged you with him toward the left. You held onto him as he shot a web at an adjacent building and pulled you both upwards away from the fire. While he swung you both away, you shot some webs at various stone chunks on the ground and aimed them for the monster, but it still wasn't enough.

"Beck, now!" Peter yelled, and Mysterio flew back towards the monster and hit him with as many green energy blasts as he could.

"That hurt him, keep the distractions up!" He yelled as he flew by again, avoiding a fiery arm.

Peter landed you both on a lamp post, and starting webbing up large pieces of rubble to swing at the monster. You helped him and did the same thing, but it was clear that Beck was the only one doing any damage.

"Oh my God," you muttered, staring at the ferris wheel as your senses started going off. "There's people in there."

"Is that..." Peter tensed next to you, and before he could finish, you shot a web and swung over to it. Ned and Betty were in one of the carriages.

"Beck, we need to keep it away from the ferris wheel!" You heard Peter on comms as you got there, starting to web the wheel to the other building as it shifted towards the ground. The people inside were screaming, and Ned and Betty looked just as terrified.

"This is exactly what I didn't want to happen," Peter grumbled as he came up next to you, helping you secure the wheel. "Why didn't they stay with the class?"

"It's too late to question that now," you said breathlessly, flipping back over him to secure one last web. "We need to get them out-"

"No!" Mysterio suddenly yelled, and you both looked back to where the monster was now twice as big as before.

"It's too late," you muttered, hands tightening on your webs.

Mysterio's mask slid back, and he turned to look at you both. "Whatever happens, I'm glad I met you both."

"What?" Your heartbeat skipped a beat, "What are you doing?"

"What I should've done last time," he said firmly. His mask slid back on and his hands swirled with more green mist than you had ever seen him use before.

"Beck, don't do it!" Peter protested, but the ferris wheel shuddered again and you both had to pull your webs. Mysterio let out a yell and dived headfirst into the monster.

You both cringed as the monster exploded into green mist, and was suddenly gone. Peter jumped down and ran to where Mysterio was laying on the ground, and you followed him one the wheel was secured.

"Oh, thank God," you sighed in relief when you saw him help Beck up, who looked singed but otherwise okay. "Don't do that again, you scared us."

"So, it's over?" Peter asked hopefully, and Mysterio gave a pained nod as he stood up.

"That's the last of them."

"But not the last threat we'll ever face," Fury stepped out with Hill. You noticed the rest of their team helping the people out of the ferris wheel. "Hill and I are going to our Berlin headquarters. Mr. Beck, we'd be honored if you joined us."

"I might just take you up on that," he cracked a small smile, and Fury turned to you and Peter, his expression hardening.

"You both got skill, but neither of you wanted to be here."

"Mr. Fury, we-" Fury held up his hand and cut Peter off.

"I'd love to have you both in Berlin, but you've got to decide whether you're going tostep up or not," he turned to Peter, "Stark chose you. He made you an Avenger. I need that. The worldneeds that. Maybe Stark was wrong. Was he? The choice is yours."

You couldn't see Peter's expression, but that had to hurt. You wanted to snap at Fury again, but he was already leaving with Hill and the rest of his team, and you were sure you wouldn't be seeing him again anyway.

"Let's go get a drink," Mysterio patted you both on your shoulders.

"We can't drink," Peter protested.

"We need to celebrate," Beck grinned, "I'll order you guys juice boxes."

"Very funny," you rolled your eyes, "But you guys go, I-I should go back to the hotel. The teacher's might've noticed we were both gone and it would be suspicious if we came back together."

Something was bothering you, and your senses were still going off, trying to warn you that something wasn't right. You needed some space from both of them if you were going to get them to relax, since the danger was over.

"Fine, go on back, I'll make sure Peter doesn't have too much juice," Beck winked, and you frowned at how easily he agreed to that.

"Wait-" Peter protested, but you just waved him off.

"Go, have fun, I'll catch up with you later," you said, your tone making it final. Peter still hesitated, but Beck threw an arm over his shoulders and steered him towards a small bar, and you knew he would be in safe hands.

It wasn't until nearly an hour later that Peter came back, trudging downstairs to where you were sitting on one of the hotel couches in the main sitting room. Your classmates were scattered elsewhere around the hotel.

"How was drinks?" You asked hesitantly, and Peter shrugged. He seemed off.

"They were fine," he said hesitantly, "I just-"

"Peter," MJ's voice startled you both, and her eyes darted between you two. "Can I have a word?"

"Yeah, 'course," Peter jumped up quicker than you thought was necessary, and you pretended that didn't bother you. "Uh, I'll be right back, Y/N."

"Sure," you tried not to grit your teeth as they both headed outside the hotel, and you definitely tried not to think about what they could be talking about.

"So," Ned's voice almost made you jump as he sat next to you on one of the benches. "Silk, huh?"

Your shoulders slumped, "Yeah, I forgot that I basically told you that."

"Y/N, that is so cool!" He started rambling about it, but you didn't have the heart to really listen or respond properly, instead focused on the door that MJ and Peter had walked through.

You weren't stupid. You knew how Peter felt about MJ. And while MJ was a hard book to read, you had a feeling that the feelings were mutual. You remembered Spider-Man - Peter, whatever - saying that he had feelings for someone else, and that's why he couldn't be with you.

Which brought you back to why you were wanting to get on a plane and go home already.

"I mean, when I caught Peter in the suit I had dropped the entire lego death star, it had taken so long to build too-"

"Hey Ned, look at these pictures!" Betty's voice suddenly interrupted him, and you were kind of glad he was distracted from rambling to you.

But as soon as you started heading for the stairs, you nearly bumped into Peter on his way back in with MJ, though you didn't see where she went.

"Oh, hey," he said a little nervously, making you raise an eyebrow.

"Good talk with MJ?" You hoped it didn't come out as harsh as it seemed to, but Peter shrugged.

"Yeah, I guess," he bit his lip.

"Cool."

"Yeah."

"Well, maybe I should go to bed-"

"Actually, since the bad stuff is over..." Peter started, and your jaw clenched when you realized what he was implying. "Want to take a walk?"

You didn't want to talk about it. In fact, you didn't plan on talking about it when you got home, either - you just hoped avoiding him would work. But you promised him that once you both stopped the elementals, then you would talk to him - so you just nodded and followed him out the same door he and MJ had just walked through.

Neither of you said anything for a while, just walking along one of the many bridges over the river. The night was a lot more peaceful than it had been a few hours before.

"Why don't you start," you suggested, "I don't really have anything to say until I hear your side."

"You said I wasn't a superhero," he sounded dejected, and you remembered the exact moment he was talking about - the last time he was your best friend.

"Peter, how was I supposed to know you were Spider-Man?" You asked softly, "I didn't mean it as a dig, I meant it literally at the time-"

"No, I know," he sighed, "I just...it really put into perspective that you didn't know I was a superhero. You didn't know that I did have the capability to stop him from-"

"You could not have stopped Thanos," you cut him off, "It took all of the Avengers and a ton of other heroes to do that."

"That's not my point," he argued, running a hand down his face. "You were a separate part of my life that I wanted to keep safe and...normal. With Ned and May it's always Spider-Man this, Spider-Man that...but you were my friend because I was Peter, not Spider-Man. When you said that I wasn't a hero, I realized that I wouldn't be able to keep you separate from that if I kept you in my life, and I didn't want anything to happen to you like it happened to Uncle Ben, and Tony. So I had to let you go."

You clenched your jaw, trying to process his words and understand them from his point of view. But just because you could understand his side, didn't mean it was right.

And a lot of what he did after the fact was still inexcusable.

"But that wasn't all I did," he continued, as if being able to read your mind as you resisted tearing up, thinking about the last conversation you had with him before you knew he was Spider-Man.

"Do you not realize how fucked up it was to mess with my feelings the way you did?" You sniffed, not meeting his eyes but knowing they were full of guilt. "You just let me tell you how I felt about you when I thought you were a different person, and then you kissed me when I didn't know it was you, and then you tell me you don't feel that way and-and that was so fucked up, Peter."

"I know, I know," he tugged at his hair, "I kept messing up. I kept trying to find a way to not hurt you but I kept doing the opposite, and I am so sorry. I wanted to be your friend again, but I didn't want you to like me like that anymore. I had feelings for MJ, or at least, I thought I did."

He hesitated, "That night, when you were sitting that close to me, I just... I don't know what happened. Ever since you got bit and we started building a friendship again, it's felt like there's this pull between us and I always want to be around you. Before the bite, I didn't want you to get mixed up in my Spider-Man business, and then when you were Silk and told me your feelings, I thought of a way to try and be your friend again but not hurt you when I didn't reciprocate your feelings. But now that we got close again I realized that maybe...I always felt that way about you. Not maybe, I have always felt that way about you, and I-I still do."

Your head was already starting to hurt from the beginning of this conversation, but his last sentence about maybe having feelings for you this whole time made you want to scream into a pillow. Again.

"Maybe you should go back to your room, Peter," you struggled to say, trying not to meet his eyes in case you broke down. He stared at you blankly for a minute.

"W-What? But I-"

"You lied. About so much. I need some space, so please, just go back to the hotel," you said again, knowing you shouldn't keep avoiding your problems like this, but you couldn't even look at Peter after everything he just said.

"I don't want to walk away from you again," he protested, but you just shook your head.

"I need space and time to think about everything you just said to me, this is way too much after the last two days. If you won't go back I will, but please just give me some space for the rest of this trip."

"Y/N, I-"

Suddenly something fell out of his pocket and onto the ground, and the both of you stumbled back as the fire monster came out of nowhere in front of you.

"Shit!" You nearly tripped trying to back up from where the monster was...but then you realized it was completely different. "What the hell?"

"How..." Peter's voice trailed off as you both stared at the monster, but it wasn't like it was in the square a few hours ago...it was a projection. For one, it was ten times smaller, and it was flickering as though the whole image wasn't there. It only moved in one motion, and there wasn't any sound, either.

Peter slowly went up to the projector and nudged it with his foot, and suddenly the projection flickered and vanished. You both stared at each other in shock.

"Where...where did you get that?"

"MJ," Peter's face turned red as he said it, making your frown deepen. "Uh, when she asked to talk to me alone earlier, she-she said she found this and thought it was from when we were fighting the elemental-"

"And you didn't start the conversation with this?' You demanded, picking the projector up.

"I didn't know that's what it was!" He protested, "How was I supposed to know-"

"We need to find Fury," you said quickly, stuffing it in your pocket, "You know what this means, right?"

"It was all an illusion," he seemed to read your mind, "Beck created them all, he must've, he knew all about them. But why?"

"I don't know, but we need to go figure it out."

"Right."

You were both quick to get to your hotel room, managing to dodge MJ and Ned's questioning looks. Luckily your teachers seemed to be preoccupied with getting tickets home straight away.

"Get E.D.I.T.H. out, maybe she can track him!" You suggested as you both got into your room, but Peter's expression fell. Right away you paused, feeling his stressed energy just get ten times worse. "Where are the glasses, Peter?"

"I-I don't have them. I gave them to Beck."

"What?" You nearly screeched, and Peter flinched. "Why the hell would you do that?"

"I-I just, I don't deserve them, okay!" He defended himself, "I never should've gotten them. I fucking left them on the floor of the bar, if I can't keep track of a multi million dollar pair of glasses, then I shouldn't have them! And Beck had just saved everyone and he said they looked stupid on me and when he tried them on I realized that in Tony's note maybe they weren't meant for me because I can't be the next Iron Man, Y/N, I'm not even good at being Spider-Man!"

You were silent for a minute after his rant, and he just sat down on your bed and put his head in his hands. You hadn't realized over the last few days how stressed and anxious this trip probably made him, and you certainly didn't realize how much he thought he had to live up to Tony. The comments from Fury seemed to bother him, but you didn't realize the extent.

"I'm sorry," you said after a few seconds, sitting next to him, "I shouldn't have gotten angry at you, I probably would have done the same. But you have to see that he set you up for you to give them to him, right? He manipulated you, he manipulated all of us."

"I know," he sighed, seeming to have calmed down, "We need to go get him. What are we going to tell the teachers?"

"My mom and your aunt wanted us both back immediately so they booked us direct tickets home," You said quickly, "It's a shitty plan but that's the most believable thing I could come up with."

"They're probably a mess right now anyway trying to get everyone home," Peter agreed, "It sucks, but it might work."

He was right, it did suck, but at this point it was the best you could come up with. You both needed to get to Fury in Berlin and tell him what happened so you could stop Beck from whatever he was going to use E.D.I.T.H. for.

You had to put the entire conversation you just had with him on the back burner for this.

"Go get dressed. We need to find a way to Germany, fast."

~

tag list:

@somefuckshit1 @hufflepuffseeker @nocturnalms @sanniesdiary @peter-parkers-passport @chosuah01 @runawaywithmyghost @baby-bi-bi-bi-yeah

[ask-void-life]

Tell us about your friends Gordon!

Maybe talking about them will help me feel better.

There's my teacher and friend, Isaac Kleiner. He's a very intelligent man, but also very clumsy and honestly a bit wacky. Which I like about him :) he's such a nice and fun person and I'm glad he taught me most of what I know about physics. He's kinda like a father figure to me I suppose. He's done so much to help me out both in college and afterwards. He also offered me a job when I was. Hm. Bored as hell in Austria. So that was nice :D

And there's Eli Vance, Kleiner's best friend and work partner. He's... he's such a dad. I mean, he IS a dad, but his demeanor is so paternal. He's a really kind guy. But of course, being Kleiner's friend, he does have some fun in him too. The two of them get up to trouble around Black Mesa sometimes with Azian and it's hilarious.

Azian Vance!! She's so nice :) I don't see her as much as Doc and Vance, but I think she's so cool. She's the one that keeps the other two in line, but not in a mean way. She often joins in on their antics. The other scientists at Black Mesa don't like us all too much because we like to have fun.

And there's Barney Calhoun, a security guard at Black Mesa and my best friend. He was the first person I met at work and we immediately became friends :)

Barney is so... sure of himself, it's charming, honestly. And he will always go out of his way to help people out. It's sometimes concerning because he tends to care for others more than himself. Good thing the others and I are around to look after him.

He and I often race each other in the vents around the facility. This originally started because Doc constantly locks his keys in his lab and we found we could get in there through the vents. It's all really funny, not gonna lie.

Barney's one of the best friends I've ever had in my life. I feel like we can talk about anything. He's told me how he wants to be a musician one day and create music to bring people together, I've told him how I'd like to be one of the people to help create the world's first teleportation devices. We both wholeheartedly believe in one another.

That reminds me... I remember Barney saying he wanted to tell me something important after the test. He seemed happy, but also... nervous?? I wonder what he was going to tell me. I wonder if he'll ever get to tell me now... I sure did mess up, huh.

[lewis-winters]

Hi! i really enjoy your daemon au and i-ve gone and watched the new his dark materials series because of it. i love your take on daemons and was wondering if you have nymore headcanons for the other boys? what's luz's daemon? liptons? how do you pick their names? are there any daemons who Re the same sex as their humans? you dont have to rwply if you dont want to i just wanted to tell you i enjoy your world very much!!

Oh, hi! I’m glad you’re watching the new His Dark Materials adaptation! It’s pretty good, huh?

I do have headcanons for not just most of the boys but for the world itself. Though I also call it His Dark Materials!AU alongside daemon!AU it’s actually more the latter than the former. The only things I carried over into this AU from the original world of His Dark Materials are the existence of daemons, the fact that daemons are made of Dust particles, and the existence of witches. The magisterium or any kind of theocracy doesn’t exist. The authority and the angels also do not carry over. Instead, our own religions exist, but there’s just as much emphasis on spiritualism and mysticism as there is on moralism, which I believe would be the natural development of religion in this world where your soul/daemon, the spiritual aspect of you, is literally there for everybody else to see.

All of the boys have small or medium sized daemons, the biggest probably belonging to that of Ron and Tab, who have an Ocelot daemon and a sheepdog daemon respectively. The reason for this being that small or medium sized daemons are easily carried and they, alongside bird or other kinds of flying daemons, are preferred by the airborne. You still gotta jump out of a perfectly good airplane largely undetected. Can’t do that with an elephant daemon. 

Ok. This got real long so I’m putting the rest under the cut. tw: mentions of death, trauma, and mutilation.

Some of the younger boys’ daemons haven’t settled. Miller, Hashey, Garcia, and Jackson. Hashey and Garcia’s settle in Hageneu. Miller and Jackson never get the chance.

Shifty’s daemon, Myrtle, is a Capybara. But he doesn’t know that. Every time somebody asked him what his daemon was, he’d shrug, say ‘Don’t rightly know,’ then leave it at that. What can he do? Capybara’s aren’t native to Virginia and he’s never been out of Virginia. Webster was the one to tell him that Myrtle was a Capybara because he’d read about them in a book somewhere that one time. Myrtle was startled by this and said; “I thought I was some kind of dog!” that was one of the few times she ever spoke out-loud during the whole war.

As I’ve said before in this post, Lew’s daemon is a chameleon named Amalthea. For all of the events of episode 9, Lew kept her in his pocket and that scared almost everybody shitless, because it made it seem like he was walking around without a daemon. The replacements assigned to them around that time, like O’Keefe, thought he didn’t have a soul. He never bothered to correct them because that meant letting Amalthea out, and the idea of her being in the open and vulnerable made him especially ill. He’d rather people thought he was soulless than allow himself and Amalthea to get hurt again. Which is so Lewis.

Skip has a hummingbird daemon named Ilaria, which is a name that means happiness and joy. This daemon-human duo wasn’t hard for me to figure out. It just fits.

Malarkey’s daemon is an artic hare with a summer coat named Felis. She’s settled, but after Foy and after losing Skip and Alex and Buck, she changes again. Subtlely, of course, and not wholely. She stays an artic hare, but instead of a summer coat, she permanently has a winter coat.

It’s not uncommon in this world for your daemon to change after severe trauma. I bet as the field of psychology expands, so does the understanding of trauma’s effects on the soul expand. There’s many studies on the changing of once settled daemons in relation to soldiers’ PTSD.

Buck’s daemon, a male bald eagle named Romulus, changes entirely. Still a bird, but instead of an eagle, he turns into a snowy owl. Before the war, he was a chatty daemon. After, he barely speaks and only does so to Buck and, very rarely, to those close to them.

Eugene Sledge’s male daemon, Daecon goes from a blood hound and gets turned into a Luzon bleeding heart-- which, I know is on the nose but it’s just. It’s such a cool bird, ya’ll. I’ve seen one up-close and ever since that day, I have not known any peace. The shift would be painful and would happen very slowly. It was actually horrific and was a trauma in and of itself. That was the last time they ever changed, though.

I also headcanon that the longer you’ve been settled, the harder and more painful the shift.

Merriell Shelton’s daemon settles in Gloucester. Into what, I’m not sure yet, but a part of me thinks she’s settled into some kind of big cat from the rain forests. Either a cloud leopard or a jaguar. Her name’s Charlotte but he calls her Lottie. Don’t ask me why. It just fits.

That being said, I have some Thoughts about people with big cat daemons. They’re usually aloof. Like, they make a very impactful first impression but they’re mostly solitary individuals who are weird af and difficult to get to know. It takes a really special person to tame a human with a big cat daemon. Once you earn their trust, that’s for life. They’re also really self-assured and are very secure in their sense of self. There is almost little to no tension between big cat daemons and their humans, and if there is, it gets explosive.

Ron Speirs has a big cat daemon, a female Ocelot named Aurele. She never talks, not even to Ron. They have this silent gaze/telepathy going on. Ron also takes on a couple of animalistic traits because of it. They could also... stretch their bond really far? Which is scary as fuck. People think he’s the son of a witch who, in her desperation to make him immortal, made him go through the ritual that allows a witch and her daemon to part for long periods of time and great distances. This is not true. Ron and Aurele just have really high pain tolerance.

Eugene Roe, on the other hand, is the son of a witch. His maman, however, did not make him go through the ritual because he’s not her first son. She knows the pain of outliving her sons well. She loves him all the same but understands that he will die well before her. Eugene’s daemon is a male kinkajou named Louis. Which is both a surprise and also not. For much of the war there’s a lot of tension there. Louis craves connection with others, Roe needs isolation to keep their sanity. It kind of turns into this thing where, if you wanted to comfort Roe or be close to him, you’d have to go through his daemon instead.

Babe’s daemon is a squirrel. A very chatty female russian squirrel named Abigail. They talk to each other a lot, and Abby talks to other people a lot too. Sometimes, she even answers in lieu of Babe. They’re both very blunt and very out there, no hiding with Babe and Abby. It used to get them into a lot of trouble with the nuns at school, who believed that daemons are only meant to be seen and not heard. A+ Catholic repression.

George’s daemon was a little tricky to me. I know his daemon is female and that her name is Thalia. I also know that she can fly. My first thought was: Parrot, either a hyacinth macaw or a white cockatoo. But, I also really like the idea of George having a Butterfly daemon. Particularly one that looks like a leaf when her wings are folded up but is brilliantly jewel toned when she opens them. In the end, I opted for George entering the army, having not settled just yet, and he and Thalia are this kind of double-act, where she shifts into whatever form is necessary for the punchline of the joke. She only settles into a parrot (idk still what kind) after their first jump and all the excitement in Carentan. A gradual thing. They don’t even notice until just before the jump in Holland. When they miss someone, Thalia will mimic that person’s voice. First, it was George’s mama and the voice of her daemon, both speaking in rapid fire portugese. Later on, in Austria, Thalia starts imitating all the friends they’ve lost. Sometimes she’ll sound like Skip. Other times, she’ll sound like Bill. It takes a very long time for her to break this habit. To the point wherein she and George don’t even remember what her real voice sounds like.

Lip’s daemon settled really early and is a female Bonobo named Jane. Has been since he was ten and made man of the house. This, like Skip and Ilaria, was very easy for me to figure out.

Dick’s daemon is a Caracara raptor bird. I’m still figuring out the specifics so she doesn’t have a name yet. Sorry.

As mentioned, Tab has a sheepdog daemon named Marisa who enjoys keeping him and everybody else in check. Have you met a sheepdog? They will literally herd you. It doesn’t matter if you are not a lamb or a sheep. They will nip at your heels until you go where they want to go. That’s Marisa. She’ll nip at Tab’s heels, she’ll nip at everybody else’s heels. If you are going somewhere she does not want you to go she will make sure you know her displeasure. 

It is also super funny when she looks Tab in the eye and goes “Down, boy.” It never fails to make Tab go red and make everybody else laugh. 

Harry’s daemon-- and don’t get mad at me-- but Harry’s daemon is a Scottish Terrier named Saoirse. He carries her around strapped to his chest during jumps. It’s fucking cute. Don’t say that to their faces though because they will lose all respect for you. It’s a daemon suited more to a teacher than it is to a soldier, that’s for sure.

Bill’s daemon is a pit-bull named Darla. Scary looking one, too, with a very bawdy sense of humor. She will growl at you and pretend to bite and you will be very scared but she only does it as a joke. She’s honestly really cool. When Bill and Babe are walking around together, Abby likes to perch on top of Darla’s head. It’s adorable. Sometimes, when Abby gets too much, Darla carries her around in her mouth. It’s still cute. But only to them, everybody else finds it vaguely horrifying.

I know there’s this taboo of humans not touching other humans’ daemons but it’s kinda difficult in such close-quarters like theirs. It is also heavily implied in the original text of Philip Pullman, that the no-touching thing is a cultural thing. Like, I think in religions that deal a lot in repression like Catholicism or Protestantism, the touching of another’s daemon is a no-no and is only reserved for the most intimate of relations (i.e. marriage). But I feel like religions such as Judaism, Wiccan, Paganism, or even some branches of Folk-Catholicism encourage touch/celebrate that connection between two humans. Neither of these two beliefs are wrong, of course. It’s just a cultural thing and they carry with them both pros and cons.

I bet Lieb grew up very used to his daemon being touched by his mother and father or older siblings. It’s not taboo to him, though he recognizes that it’s taboo to others. He doesn’t get it though, and is constantly rolling his eyes every time somebody gasps when they accidentally touch someone’s daemon.

A lot of the boys just kinda ignore the touching daemons thing until they get used to it.

I’m not sure what Lieb’s daemon is or what her name is, too. I know she’s a social kind of daemon-- not solitary like a big cat or a reptile (like snakes). I thought maybe a wolf, but a wolf daemon is too... large and there are a lot of connotations attached to it. I think Lieb’s daemon is something medium-sized and unassuming. Not a dog. Not a domestic cat either. A part of me thinks flightless bird, but no. Not that either. Give me time. I’ll figure her out. As of now, I’m thinking either a marsupial or a canidae/fox but not quite. She’s a mammal, that much I know. Just don’t know what kind.

Grant’s daemon is a male domestic cat named Saladin. He’s either an Abyssinian or a Bengal. Either way, he’s really cool. Like super cool. They’re both super duper cool.

And... that’s kinda it. That’s all I have for now. I’m really sorry it got so long, anon. I get really excited when talking about daemons. It’s character study but with animals! Thank you for giving me this opportunity to ramble. This is where I leave you.

[sabbaticallife84]

“Going to the mountains is going home.” -John Muir

July 1st. My favorite July 1st in a long time. It was a cool day. I had a delicious lunch with my aunt. I had bratwurst, kartofel und Sauerkraut, cola, cause it was too early to drink wine. 

I didn’t have a phone, no pictures of maps or much direction, so I wanted to do something not that far from where I was staying. My aunt described this beautiful walk I could take around Wolfgangsee, the lake we were staying next to. I thought that sounded ideal. There was a cute town and then another cute town along the lake that I would run in to if I was lucky. So I decided to do that walk. On my way out of town, I saw a cute little second hand shop and they had good backpacks. I decided I needed a little bit of a bigger day pack than I had brought. I found a cute back pack and it looked sturdy and high quality. I asked the owner how much it was. He looked me up and down and said “eight euro”. So that was a steal! This bag was nice, sturdy, good Austrian quality and I was getting it for 8 euro! Yay, this was going to be a great day! I walked down a side walk to the left to try to find the path around the lake. 

The path around the lake was really nice and flat. I saw these happy fish swimming in the shallows. The woods around me consisted of lindens, beech trees, pine trees, vines and was so green and cool and perfect. The temperature  lovely. 

I walked out of town, to Fürberg. When I got to Fürberg, I wasn’t sure I was there until I saw a sign on the guest house and realized this was it! I decided I wanted to sit at this beautiful cafe and have a delicious coffee and a piece of cake. My waiter was having a slow day. He came over to my table to have a chat. He said it was “dead” there, that day. We talked about how their busy season was more like July 15-end of August. We talked about how the kids weren’t out of school yet in Austria. He said his son was 11 years old and he was anxiously awaiting July 9th, when school would be out for them. My waiter was from Hungary. He shared that his son was struggling with learning German but had taught himself English with tv and movies. His teacher had asked his dad who in their family spoke English at home and when he said, “No one.” The teacher was surprised cause his sons English was so good. The waiter went on to tell me about some beautiful sights to see in Hungary and one was the Plattensee in Hungary. We talked about Covid. His friend was an orthopedic doctor and he said his friend did that kind of specialty to avoid the really sick and infected people. I was explaining how our ortho unit had changed into a covid unit. The waiters were wearing bright white shirts and lederhosen. The waitresses were wearing the traditional dress from Austria, the dirndl. The staff looked very festive in their outfits. I ordered this delicious cake and coffee. I asked the waiter if I could go back to the back and see which kinds of cakes they had or what they looked like. I saw this delicious cake I needed to try. So I ordered that piece with whipped cream. 

The couple next to me asked what kind of cake I had ordered. They called the waiter over and ordered it. I realized as the waiter brought it out, I didn’t tell them I had ordered it with whipped cream. So then I told them, they called the waiter back over and ordered whipped cream. Then the waiter didn’t disappoint. He brought this big bowl of whipped cream for them. Sitting there, I was looking that the clear bright blue water of the lake. It reminded me of emerald lake in BC. It’s almost green. It was really gorgeous. Happy fish swimming in the shallows, The perfect path around the lake. Surrounded by lindens, buchenwald, pine trees. The temperature was cool and perfect. 

After Fürberg, I was walking down the path and saw a group of teenage boys with a six pack and a couple of bottles walking into the forest. I thought it was fun, and I remembered when I was a teenager in Germany and had similar experiences after school. Then “The girl on the Train” came to my mind I was all of a sudden nervous. Not that this exact thing happened in that book, but it was just kind of creepy. These guys fueled by alcohol and maybe wanting to cause trouble, who knows what they might do. I don’t know why my mind went ominous. I waited a bit to let them walk ahead of me. The path was changing from a flat path to a steeper path. It started to feel like ‘Lake View’, this hike in Priest Lake, Idaho. The path started to go up and down, with large stair cases up and down. 

    I learned that back in the 1500′s, supposedly, a man was trying to take his ox to the market for slaughter, when it ran away. The man grabbed the ox’s tail and followed him into the water. Back then, people couldn’t swim and the man would have sank and drowned if he wasn’t holding on to the ox’s tail.  But luckily he survived, the ox swam a ways and then back into shore. Then the man or someone built a little beautiful white shrine thing on this tiny island. It was called the Ochsenkreutz (Ox cross). The water was clear and turquoise around it. The color was crazy and the water was super clear and beautiful. 

I walked up the path, down the path. The forest was beautiful, quiet, except for the occasional rustle. I actually sometimes felt like I wasn’t alone. I would stop and look around, and would be totally alone. Eventually I figured out that 1.) the wind in the trees sounded like people, 2.) my new backpack had a little zipper clinking on my back, 3.) there were little brown mice running around and rustling in the leaves and that sounded like footsteps. This forest reminded me of Outlander or of Robin Hood. It was deep and green. It was so beautiful and I kept imagining at any moment the rustling would reveal a man carrying a bow with arrows, walking out of the forest towards me. I eventually made it to a bit of a bigger memorial thing on the main land called the Hochszeitkreutz. (the wedding cross) There were three people in wet suits and a girl down below in the lake who had just jumped. These brave souls were jumping off high rocks into the turqouise water below. This sweet teenage kid was standing, looking over the cliff and trying to amp himself up to go. The man, maybe his father, uncle or coach had a camera on video mode trained on him for the jump. But the young guy hesitated. I stopped to read the sign on the bench about the memorial site. You could tell that I freaked the teenager out and he thought I was watching him. I finished reading and walked off. There was a bench looking out at the water and a man was sitting on the bench reading his book. 

 I didn’t wait for him to jump in and then I started walking home. I also never saw those teenage boys again. It started to rain. I was soaked after 30 minutes of walking in it. I had a rain coat on so my chest, and stomach were dry. My heads, wrists, thighs, legs, and feet were squelching wet. I ducked into an Italian restaurant, that was very popular and buzzing with people. You could tell that this place was well liked by locals and tourists alike. I asked the hostess for a table and she said at the moment, they didn’t have anything. I thanked them and went to leave and keep walking. Some other customers called to me from a table and said the hostess had called me back. I waited on their covered porch and the hostess kept motioning for me to wait. I waited like 5-10 minutes and then got a table. It was great.  

   The server/owner and hostess/server were really sweet women and they were working so hard. Running and running. They smiled at each other and all the customers and they worked as a team, even though they were slammed. It was impressive. I got to see the other fun tables with friends and families at them (Yes I was a creeper, but what else did I have to do? ;-) ). A family was celebrating their youngest daughters birthday. It was so funny, cause the littlest girl had eaten her dinner and she was running around and running around and wanted to leave the restaurant and play outside with her grandmother. But the whole family was trying to entertain and cajole her so she would stay long enough for... the staff to come out with her cake with a sparkler candle on top. And then the whole restaurant sang “happy birthday” in English. Then the staff sang it in Italian. It was really cool. The girl was super happy and excited, until a few minutes in, she decided she didn’t like her mango cake creation and she was bouncing around again. Finally her grandmother did take her outside to run around and play and work off some of her energy. 

  I ate delicious caprese salad and pizza. It was so yummy. I also drank my new favorite drink, a Hugo Spritz. It’s light and sparkly and sweet. Then I walked back to my Aunts house. It was a really fun day! 

“And we will meet in the woods far far away from this hustle and bustle... and share love and sunshine.” -Avijeet Das

[himbo-buckley]

Sex, Intimacy and Buddie (better known as I have a lot of feelings about this show, some of which are related to the before mentioned topics) - Part 5

Hej alla,

hur cool att du är här! Vad kul!

(Kay, that’s it, all the Swedish I remember from two semesters of not really studying, so it’s probably also wrong, uups?)

(Still passed though.)

You guys! We made it! And please, do not imagine this read to you in a happy voice. I am sobbing. I already miss it!

(Also, if you do imagine how I might sound please consider due to several unforseeable circumstances of student exchanges in my youth I have a very weird mixture of British and American English, which basically translates to sounding like either of those doing a bad impression of the other accent - or you know, Australian.)

I’m really having a hard time finishing this meta because I loved doing it so much and I loved talking to all of ya’ll so much. This is a sad moment. (HEY, what if ya’ll came and visited my askbox and I get to discuss random stuff with you!)

Just a fair warning now, somewhere hidden in the middle: this thing is fucking long! We are talking longer than Season 2, so be warned!

Anyways, in case someone is new:

part 1 - part 2 - part 3 - part 4

And some general info:

This meta was supposed to be a lot shorter and only talk about how both Buck and Eddie use sex to distract their respective partners from whatever topic they actually wanted to talk about but since I decided to rewatch the show to make sure I don’t miss any such scenes, it has exploded a bit and taken on more topics

I should also mention that I am a Buddie shipper and while I tried, you will find several references and arguments for the ship in this Meta, not all of which necessarily call for a romantic pairing but just: These two are deeply connected and you cannot look at one without discussing the other and they are each other’s strongest emotional connection.

I should also preface this by saying that the whole of the 118 has some obvious intimacy / commitment issues except Bobby (which is sort of surprising) but *John Mulaney voice* we don’t have time to unpack all of that!

On another note I cuss a little in this Meta because my parents let me listen to TicTacToe as a small child and after that it never stuck that cussing is wrong so, uhm, parental supervision is advised or something

This Meta has FIVE parts. Season 1 and 2 make up one part each, while Season 3, due to something pesky called feelings and the fact that I can’t shut up, has been split in three parts: Part 3 aka Season 3A, which spans 3.01 - 3.10, Part 4 which spans 3.11 - 3.17 and this part which is officially only one episode - but still manages to be just as long. Yay! (Sorry.)

And now for the last time for now: part 5 (also called „You’re a godless, half-witted himbo, Evan Buckley, and I wish I loved you less so I could talk about it more“)

Episode 3.18:

My oh my, this episode.

I loved it but I also … didn’t.

It was way too much and at times felt a little rushed and the pacing was just weird.

I mean I loved the party but did we really need 5 min of it? Did we really need Josh’s storyline and Michael’s so randomly in the middle of the episode? Could we have gotten a longer apology scene? Why the weird phone call?

Let’s talks about all of that! (It’s why you clicked read more, right?)

Ya’ll, I gotta be honest, I am from Europe and I regularly go to places via train and while it’s better than a bus, I can’t see anyone falling in love with that! I am just gonna assume Abby did not go by train in Germany. Or Austria. Or Italy. Listen, I like trains just fine but man, do they not look like what we see here!

But also, as someone who has watched Community, the train lady saying „This isn’t Subway“ in an Episode where the human embodiment of Subway acts is very very funny to me.

I feel like I don’t have to point out how significant the cut from Abby saying „They stopped waiting for me a long time ago“ to Buck and Eddie discussing Chris is. Everyone has talked about it by now. But yes, it registered, as did the fact that Abby is dating a single father - while Buck is apparently basically dating a single father. But, you know, that probably means nothing! *chugs a whole bottle of wine*

The co-parenting was very cute and honestly I feel for Christopher and Carla and the firefam is Buddie does happen because they will try to out-protect each other and it will be glorious and also Chris might never get to leave the nest ever. That poor boy.

Sidenote: We as a fandom have not talked enough about Eddie’s reaction to Bobby yodelling and I think that’s very tragic of us. Because his reaction is the best, all: „Is he - should I - no, you know what, fuck it, Eddie, ignore this, that’s too much, you can not unpack all of this, just move on. Brush it off!“

Just watch his face ya’ll, it’s great! (He will be talking to Frank about this, I know it.)

Sidenote: Also Eddie in 3.15 / 3.15. / 3.17 / 3.18 > any other Eddie, and no, I do not take criticism. That boy has always been fine but the military hair cut or what ever is doing things to me as do his happy eyes and the smiles - my god, the smiles!

It does seem significant though the way the show focused so heavily on Buck’s reaction and - as it had been the case since „Eddie Begins“ - we basically don’t see Eddie without Buck and that’s weird. That feels pointed and important, the fact that after realising, who his family is, Eddie basically never leaves Buck’s side if they are at work.

Also the way Chimney and Bobby look at each other in between, yeah, again, making fun of Christopher’s dads! Like, even if you don’t read this as Buddie, you cannot not read this scene as somewhat confirming the „Buck is Christopher’s other parent“-thing. And I know I answered an ask on Tuesday(?) where I said he wasn’t really but yeah, he is getting there. The whole season spent a lot of time focusing on Buck’s relationship with Christopher and even if it isn’t about Buddie, I still think it will cause trouble in Season 4 if Eddie begins dating again, specifically Chris’ teacher.

I also need to talk about Eddie and control, because like I said in part 4 Eddie needs to learn to let go of Christopher a little which is what we see here happening, specifically through the lens of making Buck even more overprotective than Eddie to really cement the fact in all our minds that Eddie is trying to let his son have some freedom. I am so proud of him, you guys! He just signed up for the worst two weeks of his life, he will be dying on the inside out of concern and Buck will pester him every two seconds about whether or not Chris is fine. This is why these three haven’t been to Disneyland, ya’ll! Eddie wouldn’t be able to handle it without murdering either Buck or himself. I’m sorry.

And speaking of how the episode is cut:

One thing I love about 911 is the way it always makes me consider new character pairings and connections I myself would have never thought of, in the context of this episode: Athena, Josh - and Eddie.

And look, the Athena and Josh thing is daunting enough but you can probably still catch my train of thought, because both are recent victims of assault and the episode shows them dealing with trauma and confronting their attacker, even though in Athena’s case it was just theoretical. But now you’re probably wondering, okay, why Eddie?

Well, for starters, what the episode made me realise, whether on purpose on not through cutting from scene to scene is how many similarities there are between Eddie and Athena, both of them always trying to be in control, both of them more prone to violence / more okay with violence than the others, both soft underneath, both with a tendency to let anger take over, both considered to be extremely capable, both with an intense need for control, both straight talker.

And now I will obviously not pretend that letting your child go to sleep away camp for two weeks is similar too confronting your assailant who beat you up, but still: facing fears and letting go of control vs. finding different ways to regain control is the theme for these three in the episode (or this Season in Eddie’s case) and I like it.

I really like what they did with Athena in general in this episode, because, while I don’t think we will see her as a civilian in Season 4, I am confident they will address her trauma and PTSD - especially if they only do a short time jump of say three months and not jump all the way to January / February which is when it might air if we’re lucky.

And I do think the comparison between her and Josh is very nicely done as both characters did the whole brushing it off / moving forward / I am not fazed by any of it thing, as we as viewers clearly saw what utter bullshit this was.

Which of course connects nicely to Mr. „Brush it off and move on“ who has spent a whole season learning to not just move on but to talk about it. A lesson he might have learned? At least that’s what the episode made me think, from the way he came to Buck / the firefam to talk about Christopher and camp to the way he so clearly tried to get Buck to open up about Abby. Jup, that is some motherforking growth right there!

I also wanna say hi to Brooke Shields and say I hope we see her again, cause her character seemed interesting!

And I do appreciate Athena herself addressing the fact that she messed up a little by not calling for back-up right away. This is not meant in a victim blaming way, I just think Athena is very used to handling everything on her own and not asking for help and it is interesting to see how that changes, now that it has backfired on her once.

And now we are getting into the Abby of it all and if anyone reading this is anti Buddie or severely pro Abby this is the moment to either leave or scroll down some more, because ya’ll I won’t really hold back!

(I think.)

I wanna begin by saying, uhm, Abigail, honey? Can you not read what is written on Eddie’s and everyone else’s helmets? Yes, he is from the 118, it literally says so on like every article of clothing he is wearing, omg!

(Writers, do better, that made an already unlikeable character seem downright stupid.)

Now it is very interesting, that the first person we see Abby interact with directly from the main cast (I’m counting the phone call with Maddie as indirectly) is Eddie who doesn’t know who Abby is but who is close enough to Buck to know the second he sees her who she is. The episode spends just as much time focusing on his reaction to Abby as 3.15 did on Buck’s reaction and tbh that feels … fairly non platonic. Of course we can always go back to „Stuck“ and remember what Hen said about Tatiana but still. That was one scene, here we have several scenes highlighting Eddie’s reaction to Abby and just, what do you want me to do with this, Tim?

I mean, the meeting scene literally goes like this:

Eddie *talking to Abby* > cut to Buck, coming closer > Buck: „Abby?“ > cut to both Abby and *Eddie* > Abby: „Buck?“ while the camera is still on her and Eddie > cut to just Eddie’s face having a realisation > cut to Buck

That is some very extreme focus if we’re being honest.

Also her panic reminds everyone of Buck in 3.15, right? The way she is screaming, disregarding her own safety, all desperate to get to her fiancé. Yeah.

I like how Eddie lets them talk and then steps in when he realises Buck is too shocked and only then rushes off, nearly touching Buck. Too be honest I didn’t realise his hand didn’t make contact until I saw some gifs of the scene.

Also the way Oliver plays this scene? The whole scene is so painful and I love it a lot, his whole delivery is so very painful, from the way he says „We’ll find him.“ to the „Um, what’s his name?“ to the „No. Oh. Don’t worry about it.“ because you can actually see him go through all the emotions from devastation to being so very pissed off and then locking that shit down!

Listen, I know it was teased that Buck had to grapple between being a professional and his personal feelings and I think this episode is him being a professional, because this is Buck and Buck cares so for Buck being a professional means risking his life for some guy on the train, regardless of his promise and who he is engaged to.  

Sidenote: This episode really brought home why Eddie is a firefighter and not a paramedic, because his bedside manner is shit. „This is gonna hurt a little“. Way to downplay, dude!

Also, while I do love the idea of Buck getting to be Captain one day, I think this episode shows why he won’t be. Because even when he is being professional and having great ideas Buck still cares too much and is unable to make the hard decisions. Compare it to Eddie, who, yes, does say „If we have to choose“, but also is willing to make the choice. Because sometimes you have to. (And now I’m crying a little and oh my, this is why I do not work in any job that has me make such decisions because I could not imagine living with myself if I did.)

I do think however Buck did good, from the way he talked to Sam being his usual self and all.

I’m also such a fan of smart Buck and him standing up for himself with Bobby because he doesn’t get to do this often enough and because it is important for him as a character to learn to trust his own judgement and not depend so much on Bobby’s approval. So yay, my baby is growing up!

(Also, obviously Bobby’s worry was also about Buck and not just Athena, we’ve had half a season of Bobby doing the most to „protect“ Buck, mostly against his will, so I really like that Buck got to do the rescue his way in the end, because it shows growth on both sides.)

Now, Eddie and his dramatic reaction in this scene, first of all:

I wanna take a moment to remember the fact that Edmundo Diaz, my main man, my love, my absolute ray of grey sunshine, apparently lacks any kind of self-awareness - or he would stop acting all high and mighty around Buck because the second Buck is out of view he like, drops any pre-tense of having critical thinking skills or something akin to self-preservation and does the next thing that enters his bird brain no matter the consequences. So a moment of silence for Hen, Chimney and Bobby and all they had to go through in the 6/7 months between Buck getting crushed by a ladder truck and coming back to work, because Buck? They can at least make fun of. Or tell him: yo, bro, you being stupid!

You can’t do that with Eddie - because when Eddie does stupid he gone nearly die but like in a heroic way where he still ends up saving himself and you have to be impressed. Urgh, the nerve!

So, you know what, how about, Mr. Edmundo Diaz, you do not judge Buck for wanting to save people and risk his own life UNTIL WE HAVE FORGOTTEN ABOUT YOU CUTTING THAT MOTHERFORKING ROPE? Got me? Thanks. (I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed, dude.)

(But then again EVERY MOTHERFORKING CHARACTER ON THIS DAMN SHOW SUFFERS FROM CRAZY STUPID DISEASE and no, I do not take any criticism.)

Also I loved Eddie’s dialog and how clearly the whole thing about the promise slipped out if the way his hands closed are anything to go by (or was he imagining punching some sense either into himself or Buck because in both cases: Call Frank, Eddie!). Anyway the way he just left, like, „I can not deal with ya’ll’s stupidity, I am leaving!“ has me shook! That is the top tear entertainment I expect from my favourite show and I love them for it!

I do love how both Buck and Eddie are in protector mode in this episode, Buck with Sam and Abby and Eddie with Buck, especially because if we’re being honest, which we are (this is a safe space ya’ll), Eddie is the one being far more unprofessional! For his standards, of course.

But this is the closest Eddie has come to showing some form of violence since 3a viewed chronologically (because 3.15 happened mostly in the past) yet Buck is just being is usual too caring self. It’s telling and it’s interesting and I’m just gonna say one thing:

„No one is good when it’s personal.“ - because for Buck with Sam it isn’t really personal (though that won’t hit him until later) but for Eddie it kinda is because he is worried about Buck. (And now I did spell it out! But, oh well, I did say we were gonna do some Buddie right around here!)

Sidenote: what exactly was the meaning / reason of that phone call between Abby and her stepdaughter? We already knew Sam had children and from the was she was looking outside they could have had her just see Buck and step out of the tent to watch the rescue, so why do it this way I ask? Why this incredibly unnecessary phone call that felt so very awkward?

Also I am not gonna talk about that scene right now, because I get mad every single time!

So I will just leave a link to what I’ve said about this scene so far here *and* give you the notes I took on this scene:

ALWAYS READY TO DIE

godless heathen of a man he makes me so angry i hate him i hate this show I wanna leave

EVAN BUCKLEY LOOKS GOD IN THE EYES AND SAYS NAH BRO NOT TODAY

(It’s not like his suicidal tendencies are relevant to this meta anyways because like I said a few paragraphs ago: The whole firefam has them! )

Also, for the first time ever: here is a picture I took while watching the show because what are these two extras doing? Why are they touching like that? Who are they and will we see them again? Does my brain get easily distracted by completely unrelated things?

Anyways, the way Buck answers Sam „She’s down there waiting for you.“ when he asks for Abby and his „Good to meet you Sam.“ really brings home how none of his behaviour was about Abby and all about Buck being Buck. (And now I am angry at him again, urgh, THE NERVE! Selfless fucking himbo!)

I really liked that Sam knew who Buck was and that they got to have this little interaction where he probably reevaluated the whole night because that boy just risked his life for him, the guy marrying his ex-girlfriend, and has spent the whole night being so very nice to him and talking to him. Not gonna lie, Buck is a good guy through and through and Sam probably feels like shit now.

Also Eddie coming to stand in front of Buck - I know some people think it was out of protectiveness, which got me thinking:

Tbh at first I was convinced it was a camera angle thing? Because if Eddie stood behind Buck we wouldn’t really see him. Then I thought, so why choose this angle to film it? Obviously the set had to be built a certain way so was there no other way to do it? Also why was it even important, that we saw Eddie arrive like that, couldn’t they have just changed the angle after Abby was gone to get Eddie in the frame? Why was it important that we knew that Eddie was there and 1) was putting himself physically between Abby and Buck meaning 2) that when Abby leaves with her single father, Buck is left with his single father? Why does an episode that is supposed to give Buck closure focus so much on the reactions of his non romantic partner?

(Because tbh, even if they needed to find ways to use Ryan Guzman in this Episode without adding too many scenes, they could have done it with less focus on Abby. I say this as a Buddie shipper who does recognise how important the connection Buck and Eddie have as friends is: storyline wise Bobby would have made more sense in most of these scenes and Eddie could have been used in a different way.)

I’ll leave this scene with the very nice visual of Buck running back to the traincrash and Eddie following him. These two. Like magnets.

And a quick topic change, because I do wanna talk about Michael and Doctor Hale as well in this meta, one because I found them very cute and two because I’ve now talked to a few people about Ana and Eddie and while we by now know she will probably be in Season 4, I feel like we need to compare Michael and Doctor Hale vs Eddie and Ana. Because there is such a difference in the way these love interests where introduced.

Now, of course we need to realise that Eddie and Michael are fairly different characters and Michael has way less relationship related baggage than Eddie has which is why he goes after what he wants way faster (also, carpe diem, he just found out he won’t die). Also of course, there is no moral component to address in Michael dating some doctor vs. Eddie dating his son’s teacher, but still:

Michael and Dr. Hale had one scene together and it wasn’t even overly flirty and yet, we knew where it was heading, we felt the chemistry and everyone ended the episode saying: I ship it, more of that - which they did give us, just *one* episode later. They had some awkward moments, yet the show never left a single doubt in your mind where this is heading.

Now look at Eddie and Ana:

Sidenote: I do wanna say be kind to the character and no hate, especially not to the actress! Yes, she needs to be flashed out more; no, what we saw so far does not make me ship them; no, I do not mind if they dated a little.

First of all we learned more about Doctor Hale in the two short scenes than we did about Ana in four scenes. That seems deliberate.

Second, while we do realise Eddie thinks Ana is attractive from the get go she repeatedly shuts him down by pointedly saying „Mr. Diaz“.

Third, every scene between them - and I mean every single scene - is connected to Buck in some way:

In „Fools“ we cut from Buck saying he likes being single to Eddie doing parent-teacher conference and yes, meeting some other teachers first but also Ana, showing us that while Buck is fine with being single - Eddie might not be. Also, Carla’s „blue eyes“ line which is a little clown-y, so take it with a grain of salt that it could connect us to Buck

Then of course her next scene is Eddie getting in her face about Christopher being hurt. Later in the episode we see Buck reference this on a call, meaning either Carla or Eddie told Buck about it (I am leaning a little toward Carla making fun of Eddie in front of Buck and Eddie then having to come clean about all of it, because I cannot wrap my head about the idea of Eddie telling Buck about having a crush, I’m sorry.)

Her next scene is Eddie coming to apologise to her and she gives her speech about limitations - which we can of course connect to Buck and Eddie talking about Christopher and his limitations before that and then afterwards going skateboarding with them. (It does feel a little deliberate.)

And then of course we have „Eddie Begins“ and you guys, they could have very very easily have either Carla or Buck make a joke about Mrs. Flores and Eddie’s crush in the firehouse scene, but they didn’t! And then we do get to see her at the end where she has one whole line and Eddie barely looks at her and you know what happens? They have a child ask the same question Buck asked at the beginning, making us think of Buck. Like, it would have been enough to establish Eddie doesn’t feel like a hero if the question was asked only once - twice in the span of 45 minutes constitutes a callback, meaning we are supposed to think of the other scene and that means thinking about the other person that asked, which was Buck

And yes, once Season 4 premieres and we get Eddie and Ana in this epic romance because Tim Minear wants to be the next Rick Berman, I will go back to this meta and beat my own ass. Or something.

(Listen, her returning in Season 4 does not mean endgame or the end of Buddie, it just means Eddie might get a love interest. Tbh I actually think it could get us closer to Buddie and you know what, I’m just gonna link all my Ana Flores posts here here and here now so you can read all the other stuff I, alongside some other people, said on this topic, if you’re interested because none of this has a point right now.)

Now, let’s get into the meat of things and talk about *that* scene:

Was it a good apology? No.

Did Buck deserve better? Fuck yes.

Did he get closure? Yes.

Is the way that scene was done actually perfect? I mean, ya’ll, yes? A little?

Listen, this scene was always about closure and that’s what Buck got here and that’s what Buck needed.

Buck, who in Season 1 had described Abby as the perfect woman, needed it to go down like this so he could realise she wasn’t and he could finally let her go. And that’s what it was about!

Obviously looking at Abby’s character this episode does not make her look good, like not at all and I’d be very surprised if we ever saw her again. But looking at it from Buck’s point of view it was exactly what he needed. (Not what he deserved, but yeah, if this show was about what Buck deserved it would be a whole lot different and Buddie would be canon by now.)

One thing I really loved about the scene was the way it was filmed, with LA in front of us, Abby and Buck with their backs to the camera and us only ever seeing them in profile, because it was a  private moment and this sort of made you feel like you were intruding. Like you were listening in on a conversation and I liked that a lot.

Also I think her speech about losing herself through helping people is very interesting because it contrasts her to Buck. Buck found himself in helping others and lost himself when he was no longer allowed to do that and I think that is what she means when she says she would have lost herself with him again. Because Buck is selfless and he is so selfless he inspires others to be the same, except Abby isn’t but being with Buck she would need to be and that is a problem.

Look, if you’ve followed this blog at all or maybe just read part one of the meta you have probably guessed by now that I don’t like Abby. I found her character boring. I thought she overstepped all the time. I got so mad at her for the way she treated Buck in Season 1!

Because in 1.06 she *actually* complains about him being too thoughtful and scared of messing up while calling him a *toy boy*. The truth is, after 1.05 and their first meeting, Abby no longer takes him seriously. She hardly ever takes his feelings into consideration. The relationship, from Valentines Day onward becomes all about what she wants and what she needs and our Buck is the selfless idiot who gives her his all.

I mean, she never even talked to Buck about wanting to leave, just presented him with her decision and then lived her life and never thought about him again.

And like, I think she is wrong if she thinks she’d have lost herself with him again, because Buck was what showed her that she lost herself in the first place. He helped her on the path of self-aquaintance (I guess? I’m lacking the word here), but she is right if she means the relationship wouldn’t have worked.

Because one of them would have lost themselves, though I do think it would have been Buck and not Abby. After all, Buck was the one who gave everything up from the get go and yes, Abby helped trigger him finding himself alongside Bobby and the job and she did help him stay on that path in the beginning - but in the end it was never about her at all. It was about him and him alone and the amazing person he had always been.

And I think that is what Buck realises in the scene. Despite Abby ghosting him, he still looked at her through rose coloured glasses and with fondness, but here, he realises, oh, Abby isn’t perfect. Abby isn’t like the woman I made her out to be. Abby never really cared about me. And as much as that probably hurt, this is what Buck needed to let go of her!

He needed to see that Abby wasn’t the perfect woman so he could let her go - and find himself the perfect person, someone who reciprocates and doesn’t just take. (Am I crying?)

(And look, I am not saying he already found someone like that, someone who proved in this episode how much they care about Buck and his feelings and making sure he comes home every night to his family - I’m saying he found someone who is working on being that person!)

Let’s talk about Eddie and Abby for a second, again, okay?

(Bro, how did I just get to that topic? So random! *laughs in Buddie*)

When I watched the episode my second time to take notes, I wrote one that said ‚Abby and Eddie parallels / lawsuit‘ - and I gotta be honest I barely remember what I meant. But I did still produce some thoughts (just not sure if that was where I was going with the note, so if anyone has some other ideas, please share):

You know how Abby talks about losing herself when she is with Buck? Well, I know someone who lost themselves just this season because he wasn’t with Buck! (Jup, we’re back with the lawsuit, ya’ll really thought I wouldn’t bring this up? You guys! More than 20000 words and you still don’t know me!)

It’s a very nice parallel to have Abby talking about losing herself with Buck when we saw Eddie losing himself without Buck. Because while I think Eddie himself is a selfless person just like Buck, similar to how Buck needed Abby in Season 1 as a catalyst of change so to speak, Buck was the catalyst of change for Eddie.

I talked a lot in the other parts about Eddie having problems with voicing his needs and feelings - and now please once again look at his relationship with Buck. Because here he has been doing this, not from the get go of course, Eddie didn’t take one look at Buck and his whole life was turned upside down (that was Buck looking at Eddie), but I think Buck steamrolling through Eddie’s life helped Eddie find himself. Buck, from the get go, is a calm centre for Eddie, an anchor, even after he reconnects with Shannon. Buck is who he turns to in a crisis, who he trusts with his son, with having his back.

And I think in both cases - Abby and Buck as well as Eddie and Buck - the relationship is brought to the next level through Buck’s selflessness and willingness to help. But while Abby just takes it and doesn’t really see it as the gift it is and never fully lets Buck in, Eddie does the opposite. Eddie, whether knowing or unknowing, makes himself exactly what Buck needs: someone who puts trust in him, who treats him like an equal, who opens his home and his family to him. And he also tries (and this is a big thing considering who we’re talking about right now) to be there for Buck, to be his anchor just like Buck is his - which obviously works with mixed results, because one person, no matter how hard they try can never fix the problems of someone else alone. Believe me. I’ve tried.

And wow, did that get deep and fast! Damn ya’ll and I haven’t had a drop of alcohol in like 5 days. This show really gives me all the feels!

Now, to keep me and maybe ya’ll from crying I’m gonna change the subject and talk about something else, also known as the rest of the episode:

To go back to the start of the episode, Buddie really had some extreme couple / family vibes going on, especially with Christopher in the mix. It’s telling that they included a scene of Buck and Christopher specifically and it was to remind us once again that these two have a strong bond.
I won’t go all: Buddie confirmed, this is were we are heading, ya’ll! Because as you must have realised by now I am fairly cautious when it comes to this and am always fighting to keep my own clownery at bay, but I do have to say so far nothing in this show and Season 3B specifically has read as a red flag for me, disapproving the possibility or making me feel queerbaited. Now, maybe I am just very off in my intuition and they will change gear in Season 4, but well, right now I have some hope!
I also loved the scene of Christopher going to camp and the card which reminded me of 3.01 and also, Eddie looks so good here! And he came so far, letting his son go to camp and all!

Of course I would have loved to see Buck there as well, but one, that would have been a Buddie confirmed and we’re not quite there yet and I’m glad cause right now they aren’t fully ready (in show terms, fanfiction is something different), and two this proves what I said about Buck and Christopher being connected and him having parental / fatherly feelings toward the boy but like, not being his actual father yet! Buck loves Chris and Chris loves Buck and obviously he is part of the Diaz family - but he also isn’t.

(Also: I went to something like camp when I was 11 and you think both my parents brought me? Nah, son, they didn’t. My dad brought me while my mom made breakfast.)

Now, some sidenotes to round it all off:

Karen is a gift and I really hope we see more of her because omg, I wanna be her friend, I wanna be her wife, I wanna learn about life from her! She is awesome and I will never fully forgive Hen for cheating on her, like girly, Eva isn’t even close to Karen on any level?

And speaking of Hen, I love the subplot of Chim coming to terms with her potentially leaving and deciding to help her because he was who she really needed on her side - not anyone else. I’d write a meta on their relationship but tbh it’s so consistent and unproblematic, I really don’t know what to write except: goals about 10000 times. Which isn’t that different to me finding new ways to write THE CONNECTION, if we’re being honest but oh well! Now it’s too late to stop that!

I loved Athena getting spooked by Bobby showing up behind her when she was getting a drink - talk about this show finally addressing the trauma these characters go through! And it only took, oh well, about 35 episodes. Let’s hope that is the energy they bring into Season 4.

Now the apology scene with Bobby, I do hate how Buck is once again the one apologising and especially since it’s with Bobby but I do think it was a nice scene and a great callback to 3.01. Also this episode showed a lot of growth in Bobby and Buck’s relationship. Because after 3a was all about Bobby projecting onto Buck and making decisions for him based on what he thought was the right thing, this episode not only had Buck standing up to Bobby in a healthy and adult way (no lawsuit this time!) but also Bobby giving in and letting Buck make the decision even if he disagreed. That is some motherforking growth right here and Babe, I hope you are not to disappointed with me, but if they keep Bobby like this I might actually begin to see his appeal to people (still need him to suffer the consequences of his actions, though).

But to end on a great note:

Buck is doing okay and - most importantly - MADNEY BABY!!! You guys, we knew it was coming from the promos and all but I cried! I cried so hard! I am so happy for them! These two soft characters and their amazing, open, caring, trusting, adult relationship deserves all the luck in their fictional universe!

Whew, you guys! We’ve done it! And it’s longer than Season 2 (I’m sorry, are ya’ll surprised? This episode was a lot!)

I feel like I should write some form of conclusion to this whole meta and yet my words elude me. Here are the few I have for you though:

This meta began with the idea that neither Buck nor Eddie really knew how to be emotionally intimate with a person and instead used sex as a substitute. This is no longer true for either character.

Buck has learned through his relationship with Abby, that he can be both physically and emotionally intimate with a person and he has proven how this is still true in his reaction to Taylor and his relationship with Ali, what little we saw of it. Furthermore Season 3B specifically showed that Buck, while still afraid to open up to people, is trying. I do think Season 4 is heading toward some kind of romance for him and while I am praying to several deities I do not believe in and the universe itself that it is Eddie, I am not sure. I hope so. But never the less, my shipping aside, Buck has grown tremendously in the course of 3 Seasons and I am so impressed both with his character and the way the show has so realistically done it. I love him. Even more than Buddie I hope we get to see him truly happy in Season 4, happy and settled and learning what life actually holds for him because that kid could rule the world if he wanted to.
Now, Eddie: It’s funny, when I began this meta I felt more connected to Buck, I didn’t really see myself in Eddie, I barely had a grasp on his character at times. Now? Now he is my favourite, I love his greyness, his goodness despite his faults, the way he always struggles with himself to do better, to be better because it doesn’t come naturally to him, because it has been taught to him to do the opposite. And that is so impressive. I love the growth we saw in him, the evolution, the fight to be a better man than his own role-models and I love especially how all of this was motivated by and for his son. He truly loves him more than life itself and I am so impressed with 911 subverting something that feels like a very female storyline by giving it to a man.

But of course Eddie isn’t done yet and Eddie still struggles with intimacy and opening up but he is getting there. Through Frank and Buck and for Christopher he is fighting and he is getting there and I love that for him and about him! He deserves to be happy in Season 4 just like Buck, but mostly he deserves to be at peace with himself!

And I already talked at length about Ana and their potential and linked what I thought didn’t fit in here, so I will not bore you by repeating myself and just say: wait. Wait and see. Maybe the show will surprise us. Maybe it won’t. Maybe corona will kill us all before we have a chance to see Season 4. Maybe we are in the Matrix and the blue pill is a metaphor for being trans. Life is strange!

Also on a more personal note I wanna say thank you to everyone who has read and liked and reblogged and commented. I love all of you. Your support and trust in what I am saying has meant a lot and will mean just as much in the future and I do hope I get to do this again in like a year once they return!

(Also, not to sound needy but another reminder to please reblog and comment? Because I *am* actually writing this because I really wanna talk about the show and my feelings and your thoughts and you know, that can only happen if ya’ll do some reblogging)

(Or come to my ask if you are more comfortable being even more anonymous, I don’t judge - I NEVER ask question any other way!)

In diesem Sinne: hamma wieder was gelernt, recht herzlichen Dank für Ihre Aufmerksamkeit und auf Wiedersehen!

Also, of course, the tagging:

@chimbuckleys​ @angelcamael​ @greyhello​ @the-family-we-choose-118​ @ipleiade​ @sevensoulmates​

[dirt-grub]

👅🌍🍁✨

👅 fav inside joke?

GOD I know I have them but I’m so bad at thinking of them... OH I HAVE A GOOD ONE OKAY

So I have some irls and we’re very stupid. So basically one night we had stayed up late making dumb fucking what if scenarios like. What if Batman was bit by a radioactive spider. Would he be spider bat man? Bat spider man? Bat spider man man? Man man bat spider? And it kept going until we posed the question- what if Harry Potter became bat man after his parents were murdered and was also bitten by a radioactive spider? He would be man man harry spider bat. This is funny to approximately no one but us (also this was before we knew jk was a terf fuck her)

🍁 have you ever gone somewhere (ie a road trip stop, a tourist attraction) that was funny/you had something weird happen to you at?

I’ve been to Broadway and I got accidentally flashed by a rockette but like nyc is nyc ya know

I also had a gaytacular fucking time in washing DC when I was 14 because we had a school field trip and the dumbass teacher chaperones were like oh no we gotta keep the gays from gaying at the straight kids so oh I know let’s put them all in one room together... i was the only room with an odd number and it was my transhet friend and the guy who I ended up dating all through high school so this poor fucker third wheeled with us meanwhile we were holding hands in the air and space museum to the point we got mildly hate crimed (just some spicy slurs nothing physical) by some trump cucks but we were like nah we’re not dating it’s not like he’d ever like ME... morons... also fuck the military but there was one pretty memorial at night and it made me believe in love when I saw my friend in the lights of it at night but like love is dead now no more questions sorry moving on

Also my grandfather took a shit in the garden of a castle in Austria. LONG FUCKING STORY but he’s senile and does not realize it’s not the 50’s anymore and you can’t just shit in the bushes. Nobody caught him. I fear how that ended up. Also the funniest part is after our trip we had a lot of photos blown up and put on the walls and that particular castle is now on the wall of our bathroom so it really came full circle

I could go on man I’ve got Stories.. fuck dawg... that doesn’t even scratch the surface with swimming in sewage on accident at the Jersey shore, or being wanted by the lake police, or that time I went to a Weezer concert in Camden sick to my goddamn stomach in a rainstorm that turned all the lawn seats into a mudslide,

✨ whats a lyric to a song that you find really interesting?

Another one I could go on and on about... let’s see uhh

“And it is easier when you’re older to figure out he things that do and do not work / like my temper / like me and you in the back of my car”

‘And I’ll dig up your graves without skin on my bones / and I’ll carry you home / and I’ll carry you home’

Both from blue eyes like the devils water really ALL the lyrics of that song kill me so hard id recommend a listen (fair warning though there is much screaming lol)

then there’s this absolute classic which just speaks for itself... you cant get more poetic... makes me tear up tbh 

🌎 whats your LEAST favorite us state?

That I’ve been to? It’d be low hanging fruit to say New Jersey and really that’s only NORTH Jersey south Jersey is really nice although they had alligator meat at the grocery stores which is some culture shock I guess man

Uh. I haven’t really been around much let’s see. People in New Hampshire give me sass sometimes when they see my New York plates but like I haven’t been enough for that to be a specific pattern lol  Also I absolutely fucking get it you see a New York driver on the road and you’re like aw fuck that is totally fair

I’ve never been further west than Pennsylvania so idk man. I hate Ohio in principle but like idk I’ve never been lmfao. Ohio get some more things wtf is even in your state

[picturebookmakers]

Axel Scheffler

In this post, Axel takes us on a journey through his art studio and career. As well as sharing wonderful development work from some of his much-loved picturebooks, he shows us unseen sketchbook pages, early illustration commissions, etchings he made as a student, and his recent work to educate children about the coronavirus.

Visit Axel Scheffler’s website

Axel: I’m not really sure how many books I’ve illustrated in the 30+ years that I’ve been working. Over 150. I mostly work for the UK market, but occasionally I do books with German publishers. Not picturebooks though, so nothing that collides with the co-edition market.

Each of the boxes you see here contains one of my books: the sketches, illustrations, dummies, alternate versions of covers, everything.

I organised these boxes with Liz, my assistant, to have all the main books there so we can find things for exhibitions. There’s still lots of drawings in these boxes which aren’t sorted yet. Liz is such a great help, but it’s very difficult for me to keep on top of everything. I think I would probably need two Lizes, or perhaps three.

So yes, I don’t really know where to begin... I’ve got endless sketchbooks and little drawings on paper. I’ve got some really old sketchbooks I could show you.

Shall we start with The Gruffalo?

My early sketches of the Gruffalo were thought by my editor to be too scary for small children. So I had to make him a bit rounder and more ‘cuddly’. Initially, I‘d also thought that all the animals would be wearing clothes, as they often do in picturebooks. But Julia had different ideas, and to be honest I was relieved. How would I have dressed the snake?

Here’s some spreads from the dummy...

I tried a lot of alternate covers for this book; I think there were twelve in total. There’s some where the Gruffalo doesn’t even feature on the cover.

My latest book with Julia is called ‘The Smeds and The Smoos’. It was quite nice to work on because it’s so different from the other books we’ve done together. The text is a bit like a mixture between Dr Seuss and Lewis Carol; it has this nonsense element. But it’s basically Romeo and Juliet in outer space.

It’s an alien story, so I didn’t have to draw any rabbits or squirrels for a change, and I could invent more. I had more freedom. But like always, I got bored with drawing the same characters over and over again. But that’s picturebooks.

There was quite a lot of development work in the case of this book. But when it’s a story about a fox or a squirrel, I don’t do this kind of stuff. Over the years, it’s become much quicker and easier working on my books. I do far less research than I used to. Now I generally just do a quick pencil sketch then go straight to artwork.

Sometimes I have to start again because things go wrong though. This was a finished piece that was abandoned. I think I suddenly thought that the rocket was far too big or something. I do that; I work on something for ages, and then I suddenly look at it from a distance and realise that something needs redoing.

Did you spot the little Gruffalo in this picture? Since ‘The Snail and the Whale’, I’ve hidden a Gruffalo in each of my books with Julia (not ‘The Ugly Five’ though).

For almost all of the books Julia and I have done together, our editor has been Alison Green. We’re an old established team. And I’ve always worked with the publisher Kate Wilson; I followed her from Macmillan to Scholastic, and then to Nosy Crow. Julia moved from Macmillan to Scholastic, and decided to stay there. So Julia and I have some of our joint titles with Macmillan and some with Scholastic. Julia does books with other illustrators for Macmillan, and I illustrate other books for Nosy Crow.

People often ask me which of the books I’ve done with Julia is my favourite. It’s quite hard to choose, but I enjoyed working on ‘The Smartest Giant in Town’. I liked the way I could do a crazy world with animals, giants, fairytale characters, everything mixed together without anyone caring or questioning it. I’ll show you a few things from the box...

For this book, the cover was changed at the last minute. The original design had the title written on a poster stuck on a brick wall, but the sales people said they wanted a landscape, so I did another one. Years later, they used the original design for a new paperback edition, so it wasn’t completely wasted in the end.

I mentioned my endless sketchbooks earlier. I’ll show you a few of them. This was mainly me playing around without thinking about what I was doing; it wasn’t a conscious thing.

I haven’t looked at these sketchbooks for ages. It was such a long time ago. I don’t work in sketchbooks like this anymore, and I no longer doodle. But for fun, I make illustrated envelopes for friends.

I often think about doing a book with just pictures, but I’m always too busy doing other things. Posthumously, perhaps there will be time to do this. I’d also love to experiment and be more spontaneous; it’s been my dream for decades to do something completely different. But when I receive a book project, I always feel under pressure to finish it, and I’m always late with everything, so I end up doing it the way I’ve always done it.

This is my drawing table, which is and always has been too small and too messy. I think I have to accept it will always be this way.

I use Saunders Waterford paper for my illustrations. It’s funny how we all have our special paper. My rough sketches are often quite small, so I have them blown up to the correct size. Then I trace the sketches on a lightbox onto my watercolour paper. After that, I draw the outlines in black ink with a dip pen. I colour everything with Ecoline inks using brushes, and then coloured pencils on top of it (I use Faber Polychromos and Prismacolour crayons). I might then need to redraw some of the black lines, or use some white gouache for highlights.

I studied History of Art in Hamburg, but left before graduating. I realised this wasn’t what I was good at; I’m not an academic.

Then I had to do my alternative service as conscientious objector. Sixteen months. There was still conscription then; that’s how old I am. I worked with mentally ill people in their homes. It was during this time that I had a friend studying ceramics at Bath Academy of Art in England. I went to visit her. I really didn’t know what else to do, so I thought maybe I could move to Bath and go to the art school. So this is what I did. The course was Visual Communications, so it was design, printmaking, photography, all that stuff. But I realised I only wanted to do illustration.

I’d gone to art college hoping to learn something. I don’t think that necessarily happened, but drawing intensively for three years was, I think, what I had needed to do. I don’t remember actually finishing any projects though.

Here’s some drawings from my student sketchbooks. I did lots of observational drawing back then, which I don’t anymore. I did it then because they told us to. I’m an obedient person!

While I was a student, I did an exchange in New York: Cooper Union Art College for three months. These drawings are of Jewish immigrants, meeting for coffee. It was 1984, so many of them were still alive; refugees from Germany or Austria. I heard them speaking German, so that’s how I knew.

Sketchbooks are such a good way of memorising things. Nobody really knows about these sketchbooks; I used to take them to interviews, but they’ve been hidden away for years.

After I graduated, I moved to London and took my portfolio around. My art teacher had suggested I should do this to get work, so that’s what I did. In those days, you had to ring them and ask to come around. I got two commissions straight away, and it’s been busy ever since, really. I’ve always had something to do.

Here’s some of my early commissions. Starting from 1985, I guess. Very pointy noses...

I did so much of this kind of work. It was a good way of earning money quickly. Occasionally, I still do editorial. I did some Brexit drawings for the remain campaign. Sadly, it didn’t help. Maybe I wrecked everything!

I’ll say a few words about the KIND book... 38 wonderful artists donated a picture to illustrate some of the many ways children can be kind. Such as sharing their toys or helping people from other countries to feel welcome.

One pound from each book sold goes to the Three Peas charity, which supports refugees from war-torn countries. It’s been a big success so far, and Three Peas has received a lot of money from sales in the UK and co-editions.

I’d quite like to do the UNKIND book next! I think illustrators would probably enjoy that, but I don’t imagine it would sell very well.

And now for something completely different! Some etchings I made when I was a student.

People often ask me which illustrators I’m inspired by. I don’t seek any direct influence on my work, but I’ve always said that Tomi Ungerer had the greatest influence on my approach to illustration. Although his style is quite different to mine, this humour and wackiness is something that has always appealed to me. And the details.

William Steig is someone I got into later, when I was already illustrating. And Edward Gorey of course. And Saul Steinberg. I think the Czech artist Jiří Šalamoun is wonderful. And I like Eva Lindström from Sweden a lot. She’s so great.

Okay, to finish with I’ll talk about the coronavirus work I’ve been doing...

I asked myself what I could do as a children’s illustrator to inform, as well as entertain, my readers here and abroad about the coronavirus. So I was glad when Nosy Crow asked me to illustrate a book on the subject. I think it’s extremely important for children and families to have access to reliable information in this unprecedented crisis.

You can download the free digital book in English here, and in over 60 other languages here.

I also wanted to do something light-hearted to cheer people up, and I thought, “What if I imagine some of our characters in corona situations?” Julia liked the idea and wrote rhymes for the new scenes. This was really more about entertainment than serious information.

Artwork and verse © Axel Scheffler and Julia Donaldson 2020. Based on characters from ‘The Gruffalo’s Child’ (2004), ‘Charlie Cook’s Favourite Book’ (2005), ‘The Smartest Giant in Town’ (2002), and ‘The Gruffalo’ (1999) — © Macmillan Children’s Books.

And here’s one more thing: my ‘letter from lockdown’. On The Children’s Bookshow website, you’ll find lockdown letters from lots of other wonderful authors and illustrators.

Illustrations © Axel Scheffler. Post edited by dPICTUS.

Buy this picturebook

The Gruffalo

Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler

Macmillan Children’s Books, UK, 1999

‘A mouse took a stroll through the deep dark wood. A fox saw the mouse and the mouse looked good.’

Walk further into the deep dark wood, and discover what happens when a quick-witted mouse comes face to face with an owl, a snake... and a hungry Gruffalo!

‘The Gruffalo’ has become a bestselling phenomenon across the world. This award-winning rhyming story of a mouse and a monster is now a modern classic, and will enchant children for years to come.

PUBLISHED IN THE FOLLOWING LANGUAGES & DIALECTS

Afrikaans

Albanian

Arabic

Australian

Azerbaijani

Basque

Belarusian

Bengali

Breton

Bulgaria

Catalan

Chinese (Simplified)

Chinese (Traditional)

Corsu

Croatian

Czech

Danish

Doric

Dundonian

Dutch

English

Esperanto

Estonian

Faroese

Farsi

Finnish

French

Frisian

Gaelic

Galician

Georgian

German

Glasgow Scots

Greek

Guernésiais

Hebrew

Hindi

Hungarian

Iceland

Indonesian

Irish

Italian

Jèrriais

Kazakh

Kölsch

Korean

Latin

Latvian

Lithuanian

Low German

Lowland Scots

Luxembourgish

Macedonian

Maltese

Manx Gaelic

Maori

Marathi

Mexican Spanish

Mongolian

Norwegian

Orcadian Scots

Polish

Portuguese

Portuguese (Brazil)

Romanian

Russian

Sami

Schwabisch

Serbian

Sesotho

Setswana

Shetland Scots

Slovakian

Slovenian

Spanish

Swedish

Swiss German

Tamil

Thai

Turkish

Ukrainian

US English

Vietnamese

Welsh

Xhosa

Zulu

Buy this picturebook

The Smeds and The Smoos

Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler

Alison Green Books, UK, 2019

The Smeds (who are red) never mix with the Smoos (who are blue). So when a young Smed and Smoo fall in love, their families disapprove.

But peace is restored and love conquers all in this happiest of love stories. There’s even a gorgeous purple baby to celebrate!

PUBLISHED IN THE FOLLOWING LANGUAGES

Afrikaans

Catalan

Croatian

Dutch

English

Finnish

French

German

Hebrew

Hungarian

Italian

Korean

Luxenbourghish

Polish

Russian

Slovenian

Spanish

Swedish

Turkish

Ukrainian

Buy this picturebook

Kind

Alison Green, Axel Scheffler & 38 illustrators

Alison Green Books, UK, 2019

Imagine a world where everyone is kind; how can we make that come true? With gorgeous pictures by a host of top illustrators, KIND is a timely, inspiring picturebook about the many ways children can be kind, from sharing their toys and games, to helping those from other countries feel welcome.

One pound from the sale of each printed copy will go to the Three Peas charity, which gives vital help to refugees from war-torn countries.

PUBLISHED IN THE FOLLOWING LANGUAGES

Bulgarian

Catalan

Chinese (Simplified)

Chinese (Traditional)

English

French

German

Greek

Hebrew

Italian

Korean

Netherlands

Portuguese (Brazil)

Romanian

Spanish

Swedish

Turkish

Vietnamese