#also thinking about whether or not to order takeaway for dinner

[katsu28]

slow down, be here

pairing: lando norris x reader

summary: after a long, frustrating day of training, a night in with you is just what lando needs to leave it all in his rearview mirror (2.4k)

warnings: teensy but of swearing, reader is in university but major is unspecified, lando being a certified menace

a/n: i was gonna post this sometime next week but the lando girlies (aka me) need some comfort after today's shitshow. may or may not have been entirely inspired by that video of lando in the white singlet. that look (however fleeting) did things to me okay

You’re sitting at the kitchen counter when you hear Lando’s key in the door, one leg drawn up towards your chest, the other swinging aimlessly as you revise your notes last minute. 

Well, more specifically, when you hear him drop his keys on the floor in search of the correct one right before he inserts it into the lock. You’ve loved him and lived with him long enough to know it’s something he does everyday without fail. Whether it’s because he’s got clumsy hands or he’s Pavloved himself into dropping them at the same spot, you don’t think too much about it. The key drop signals that Lando is home. 

What also signals that he’s home is the way he lets out the strangest sound you’ve ever heard as he lets the door swing shut behind him after he’s let himself in—something between a sigh and a whine mixed with a guttural groan. 

“In here!” You call, taking the cap of your pen out from between your teeth. It only takes a few seconds until Lando emerges from the hallway, socked feet dragging himself towards where you’re sitting with a soft smile aimed at his rumpled state. “Hi, love.” 

He plops down on the stool next to you unceremoniously, hooking his foot under the bar of yours to tug you as close as possible to him on instinct. His chin finds the dip between your neck and shoulder to nestle into, and the deflating sigh he lets out once he’s situated himself to his liking sends a shiver through you. “Hi.” He mumbles, voice muffled. 

“Heard you’ve had quite a day.” You stroke a hand over his curls, smoothing them away from his forehead gently. Oscar had shot you a heads up text a little bit before Lando had arrived, saying that Lando might seem a bit put out when he got home. Something about a handful of tests not going the way they wanted, strategies not working out the way they planned. It sounds like enough to drive anyone crazy, but Lando is the type of person to take things especially hard. 

Lando lets out a vague sound of acknowledgement. You can tell he’s exhausted and frustrated, and you know exactly what he needs to wind down after days like these. “I’ll order takeaway for dinner. You go shower. It’ll probably be here by the time you finish up.” 

He gives a more content sigh this time, pressing a kiss to your pulse point. The tips of his hair tickle your cheek as he does so. “You’re a gem, darling.” 

“Tell me something I don’t know.” You tease, pushing him away playfully. He’s smiling big at you when you meet his gaze, something beyond fondness behind his eyes despite the tiredness as he does. “What?” 

“I love you.” 

“Love you too, stinky. Now go. Wash up before I make an executive decision and order sushi.” 

That gets your boyfriend scrambling to his feet fast, aiming a horrified look your way as he books it down the hallway. “You monster!” 

You chuckle quietly, busying yourself with finding Lando’s favorite Italian spot on your delivery app. Soon enough, the food is ordered and all you have to do now is wait.  

Lando reemerges from the bedroom just as you pull open the front door to grab the food from the delivery person. He figures you’ve got it handled by the way you’re chatting nicely with them, so he busies himself with drinks. 

There’s a bottle on top of the fridge that looks vaguely fancy, and though Lando doesn’t know much about wine, Charles had gifted him the bottle a while ago for his birthday. He trusts Charles’ taste. 

He does his best to sound out the French on the label and shrugs, snagging two wine glasses to go along with it. By the time he finishes pouring a generous amount in each glass, you’ve just closed the door, joining him in the kitchen with a massive bag of food. His brows fly into his hairline at the sight. 

You twist your lips to the side in thought, wrinkling your nose as you study the bulging paper bag. “I might’ve ordered too much.” 

“Good thing I always rise to the occasion.” 

You glance up at him, setting it down on the counter in favor of sidling over to where he is, not even fighting the smitten grin stretching your lips as you maneuver yourself between him and the marble. 

His curls are damp, messily towel ruffled and starting to frizz as they air dry. He already looks more at ease, comfier than ever in a pair of loose black sweatpants and a white singlet. You make a mental note to remind him to wear white more. It makes his tan skin glow, and it makes you not want to take your eyes off him. 

Your fingers skate along the exposed skin of his chest, stopping once to push into those dimples in his cheeks that you love so much before moving up to link around the back of his neck. His hands find their way to your waist at the same time, sliding coyly under the hem of your shirt to rest on your bare skin. 

In one fell swoop, you’re up on the counter, Lando nudging his way between your knees. He kisses you languidly, like he has all the time in the world to explore your mouth; long, slow kisses mixed in with brief pecks until you’re all but melting against him. He’s familiar and solid under your touch, all flexing muscle and warm skin as your hands run along his arms. 

After a while, Lando’s focus shifts to trailing open mouthed kisses down the side of your neck. On instinct, you tilt your head to give him more space to work and he takes it gladly, focusing on that one spot just below your ear that he knows for a fact works on you every time. 

You sigh appreciatively at the pressure of his lips against your skin, the way his teeth nip at that sweet spot but his tongue sneaks out to soothe the sting just as quick. 

Your fingers dig into his biceps as he continues his venture, but when he starts kissing along your shoulder, you squeeze a little harder. As much as you want to continue this, you remember you’ve got food waiting for both of you. He stops immediately, perfect lips pouted, eyes wide when he comes back up to gauge your reaction. 

“Eat first, kiss later.” You explain, peeling him off you (albeit a bit reluctantly) before hopping off the countertop. He whines something unintelligible as you unload the food, but as soon as you push a container of his favorite pasta towards him, he seems to forget his disappointment. 

The silence as you eat is comfortable, both of you seemingly more hungry than you thought you were as the food and wine begin to disappear. All the while, the space between the two of you grows smaller and smaller, until your elbows start to bump each other with each bite you take. 

You’ve mastered the art of enjoying each other’s company without having to say a word. 

“Were you revising earlier? When I came home?” He asks after a while, jabbing his fork in the direction of your notes. A few strands of pasta splatter onto the counter with the action and you tsk, nudging him with your foot. The last thing you want is sauce all over your papers. 

“Yeah, I was. Just some final practicing, see if anything needs tweaking before I have to present my thesis.” 

“I’m sure it’s perfect. You’ve been working on it for ages.” 

You spear a chunk of tomato with your fork, dragging it around in the sauce aimlessly. “I dunno. Everything is there, but it still feels like something’s missing.” 

“Present it to me.” 

“What?” 

“Pretend I’m the university board, or whatever, and present it to me. Maybe you’ll figure out what’s missing if you act like it’s the real thing.” 

“Really? You’d do that for me?” 

Lando scoffs, looking offended. “Baby, I’d do anything for you. Go on, do your little scholar thing for me. I’ll be the best fake board you’ve ever seen.” You gnaw on your lip, unsure. The idea seems silly, but it’ll probably work. “C’mon, bub. You’ve got a genius brain up there in that pretty head of yours, let me see it in action.” 

“Okay. Okay, fine, but you can’t be mean! You have to be nice, ‘cause I’m already freaking the fuck out about having to present next week and I don’t think I can deal with—” 

“First of all, I’m never mean to you. Second of all, get the fuck up there before I take my offer back.” 

You stick your tongue out at Lando whilst you grab your papers at the other end of the counter, feigning swatting him with them as he bounces his way over to the couch. He settles in right smack dab on the middle cushion, grabbing a pillow to hug while you do a quick once over of everything. Then you’re ready. 

You stumble through your introduction a little bit, but the words start flowing a few sentences into the body of your research—days, weeks, months of work having burned them straight into your brain. The longer you talk, the more comfortable you become, which gives you the confidence to set aside your notes for once. Part of you feels like you’re about to clam up and forget everything any second now, but you don’t. You forge on like you were born to. 

All that comes to a halt when you hasten a glance over at Lando, who’s staring at you without a thought behind those gorgeous eyes of his, smiling goofily at you. 

“Lando!” You whine, pouting. “Have you even heard a word I’ve said?” 

Lando blinks a few times like he’s coming back down to Earth, letting a sheepish grin creep its way across his face. “Not really.” 

“Seriously?” 

“I’m sorry! You just look really pretty when you talk about things you’re passionate about. It’s hard to focus on words when I look at you.” 

Well, you can’t exactly be mad at him when he’s sweet like that. Besides, you didn’t think he’d understand half of what you were saying anyways, and you’ve found the answer to your problems. Nothing was missing. Lando was right, you’re fully prepared for your thesis presentation. You just needed to get your nerves out of the way. 

“Worst fake board ever.�� You huff. 

“But I just said you look pretty!” 

You prop a hand on your hip. “Flattery will get you nowhere, Norris.” 

“Oh yeah? Nowhere, really?” He rises from his seat, creeping towards you with that glint in his eyes you know far too well. You know what he’s about to do, and you’re about ready to make a run for it. 

He bridges the gap between the two of you faster than you think possible, catching you around the waist right before you can make your great escape down the hallway, hoisting you off your feet with ease despite your wriggling around like a fish out of water, and hauling you over to the couch. He tosses you over the back of it just as easily, following suit before you can scramble away. 

Realistically, you should've anticipated the whip fast reflexes of a professional racing driver. Having a faster reaction time than the average person is part of the job description. 

“Lando, no!!!” You squeal, already breaking into a fit of uncontrollable laughter. 

“Maybe flattery won’t get me anywhere, but I know what might!” He pins you down against the cushions with your knees clamped between his own as he digs his fingers into your sides viciously, ignoring your pleas in favor of grinning wickedly. 

“I give up! I give up, please—” You gasp, squirming under his relentless torture. One of his hands comes up to pin both your wrists down easily, probably so you don't punch him in the face trying to escape. (You’ve done it once before, purely by accident, but Lando’s never let you forget it.) 

“Say that you love me.” 

“You already know I do!” 

“Wanna hear you say it.” He insists, jabbing you in the side threateningly. 

You shake your head frantically. You’re near tears at this point, stomach hurting from laughing so much. There’s no point in dragging it out any longer, especially when sweet, sweet freedom is as easy as telling the love of your life that you love him. “I love you!” 

“What was that?” He tilts his head, brows raising expectantly. 

“I love you, Lando Norris.” You repeat, as steady as you can despite your breathlessness. That seems to satisfy him. 

He gives it up entirely, wedging himself between you and the back of the couch, making himself comfortable as you try to catch your breath. You roll over onto your side so you’re facing him, allowing him more space to nuzzle against you. “You’re a dickhead.” 

“I’m your dickhead, and you love me.” He replies smugly, burying his face into the crook of your neck. His arms worm their way underneath you and link up behind your back, legs tangling with yours. At this point, you’re not sure where you end and he begins, which is just the way Lando always likes it. 

“Against my better nature, I do.” You sigh, dropping a kiss to the top of his head. He hums sleepily, exhaling in deep comfort. “I’m sorry you had a rough go of it today.”

“S’fine. Nothing you’ve got to be sorry about. You’ve already made it better.” He mumbles. He already sounds like he's about to drift off.

“D’you want to talk about it?” 

Lando lifts his head to look up at you, blinking slowly. He offers you a small smile. “Not really. Just wanna lay here with you and forget about it all.” 

“Okay.” You say softly. 

You might not be able to help him with everything in life, but this, you can do. You thread one hand through his hair, smoothing through his curls in that one way you know he loves. Your other hand comes up around his back, fingers scratching a gentle path up and down his spine. 

If Lando was a cat, he’d be purring right now. 

Instead he opts for an appreciative groan, pushing his nose back into the warm nook he’d created. His lips press against your skin—once, twice, a third time for good measure. “Thank you.” 

Whether he’s thanking you for scratching his back or for just being here for him on the days he feels like he’s not at his best, you’re not sure, but either way you give him a tight squeeze and another kiss in lieu of a response. 

You’ll do anything if it means making sure he knows you’ve always got him. 

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[poetry-protest-pornography]

Okay, okay. I can't stop thinking about Kang and his approval seeking.

He plays a part to maintain his grandma's adoration, he tries so hard to do things that his dad will be proud of only to have the man shoot down every attempt.

And then, there's Sailom.

Even when he was actively bullying him, he was mostly angry that Sailom wasn't reacting the way he wanted him to. Sailom wasn't afraid of him, he wasn't giving in, he wasn't even properly mad. Sailom didn't give Kang a good grade in bullying him.

And now that they're... Whatever they are, Kang has rapidly shifted to wanting Sailom's positive attention and approval.

They do the money dance again when Kang leaves Sailom's house, only this time, Kang frames it as an almost apology:

When Sailom insists he won't keep the money unless Kang accepts his tutoring, Kang has a whole little moral crisis about standing him up (after carefully smiling and laughing off the comments from Max about how much he enjoys his own hot tutor), Kang shows up to the library hours late, and (after a fortifying breath) actually apologizes:

And then, when Sailom assures him that he wasn't waiting on him, Kang asks to dive into studying with this face:

After completing his assessments, we get this:

Look at those pleading eyes. Please please please tell me I did good.

And when Sailom's first reaction is confirmation? Look at how happy Kang is? Look at how he lights up!:

And then, the reveal:

He failed to get Sailom's approval, and he's devastated.

But it's more than that, too. He's realizing -- a little bit, at least, and it really comes together for him later with his dad -- that the way he's skating through life, the way he's letting his dad's lack of expectation and faith in him turn him into someone without direction, someone who can't meet simple expectations, even when they really want to, is making him miserable. The lack of effort has put him at a real disadvantage, he is woefully behind in school.

And for someone who puts a lot of work into coming off as the smartest, coolest, most in control guy in the room, he is at a loss. And all that wrong-footedness gets all wrapped up in his getting about Sailom. So first, he runs, and then, he doubles down on needing Sailom ('s approval).

We get the renewed commitment for tutoring when he shows up early. We get "let me drive you home", complete with "hold on tight " and both of them looking unbearably soft while the other can't see them. We get the dinner date with extra takeaway to share with Saifah. We get ... This:

And then later, after so much vulnerability and a whole ass chase, and a disaster of a surprise party, there's this:

Kang, getting a taste of what Sailom's attention feels like, of what meeting his expectations might gain him, and looking absolutely lost about it.

Kang has been trying to do well to prove himself to his dad, and his dad just constantly undercuts his efforts, and we see him give up, even after spending this whole episode fighting against the apathy and associated failures and disappointments that that has gotten him so far. But Sailom won't let him.

Sailom literally fights him in order to get him to keep going, to keep trying. Sailom sets himself as the motivation, as Kang's reason to keep going (Sailom took a very long pause when Kang asked "Do you want me to say I want you to be proud of me?" and let that particular word problem start working itself out in the background, and the answer came out "Yes" sometime thereafter).

And Kang is overwhelmed by the prospect of having someone's expectations, of being able to earn someone's approval.

And Sailom is overwhelmed by all the things he's feeling for this boy he literally spit on last week, but has now discovered is a whole mess, and also soft sad-boy under all that (I am on the fence as to whether he knew Kang was Umbrella Boy before he saw the picture).

They are both feeling so many things, and half of them are confusion, and I am also feeling many things.

[realcube]

YOU GOT: SHINSUKE KITA (time-skip)

˚ʚ♡ɞ˚ matchup for @louddelusionaltale

˚ʚ♡ɞ˚ if you would like a matchup, read this!

'Ideal partner would be someone who doesnt rush things and doesnt mind waiting for me to get comfortable around them.'

𓆩♡𓆪 okay so these first few hcs are gonna be quick BUT

𓆩♡𓆪 this so kita

𓆩♡𓆪 unbothered king 🙏🙌

𓆩♡𓆪 tbh he's not used to crushing hard so he might be a bit awkward during pre-dating stage

𓆩♡𓆪 he'll probably talk about his crush on you to like.. the rice weevils

𓆩♡𓆪 basically he'll keep to himself

𓆩♡𓆪and you can take all the time you need to get comfortable around him

𓆩♡𓆪 he honestly doesn't mind

𓆩♡𓆪 in fact it's probably for the best bc it will give him some time to figure out how to act normal in a relationship haha

𓆩♡𓆪 but yeah he is so patient with you and would wait for you for several years if thats what it takes

𓆩♡𓆪 though he does warm up to you pretty fast

︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵

'Someone who can just take it slow and sit in silence without saying much, so no need to always be doing something.'

𓆩♡𓆪 he is very calm and lowkey

𓆩♡𓆪 so he agrees that y'all don't always have to be doing something together to be bonding

𓆩♡𓆪 or interacting

𓆩♡𓆪 (though he does love talking to you more than anything bc you just get him)

𓆩♡𓆪 but also sometimes work at th efarm has just DRAINED his energy so he's too tired to talk when he comes home and just wants to eat dinner or relax in silence

𓆩♡𓆪 and he loves that you get and silence with you is never awkward or a bad thing

𓆩♡𓆪 though even when you are doing things seperately, he will pause occasionally to stare at you for a couple moments and just admire you , with a small smile on his face

𓆩♡𓆪 and then go back to whatever he was doing

𓆩♡𓆪 if you catch him doing this, he won't even waver though, he'll just continue to gaze at you with that lovey-dovey look in his eyes

︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵

'A lil something I'd like to include is my inclination to sneak up and scare anybody I can.'

𓆩♡𓆪 kita is very observant so idkk if sneaking up on his would work

𓆩♡𓆪 i think most of the time he would expect it and stare at you like this 🙂 when you go 'boo!'

𓆩♡𓆪 and you're disappointed </3 but he thinks it's sweet you try so hard though he doesn't fully understand the purpose of what you're doing

𓆩♡𓆪 however, maybe a couple of months into the relationship, you're finally able to catch him off-guard and scare him

𓆩♡𓆪 his reaction is a bit underwhelming. he just perks up a bit, his eyes widen and you hear a small gasp. it's nothing crazy funny like screaming or anything

𓆩♡𓆪 BUT after trying so hard it's suchhh a satisfying feeling of success that ofc you are super happy about it

𓆩♡𓆪 and kita after seeing you joyful was so pleased

𓆩♡𓆪 now whenever you try to sneak up on his, regardless whether he is actually frightened by it, he will try to give some sort of reaction of shock

𓆩♡𓆪 just to see you smileeee😭

︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵

'As for the first date, ideally having food and chilling. Maybe something like getting food then going to the supermarket to browse for dessert, relax in the park and get to know each other over a game of cards'

𓆩♡𓆪 yess y'all can go to onigiri miya !!! get some of the good stuff !!!

𓆩♡𓆪 kita would be a big fan of the takeaway food aspect

𓆩♡𓆪 massive hc that he is health food freak but he lovesss junk food a lil too much so getting to eat something GOOD for once with you would be like a dream come true

𓆩♡𓆪 definitely the sharing type; would let you have as many bites out of his meat bun as you want

𓆩♡𓆪 also the type to switch meals with you if you realise that what he ordered tastes better than what you ordered 😫

𓆩♡𓆪 king!!

𓆩♡𓆪 but also he is so enamoured by you that when you are taking bites of his food , he looks at you like this 🙂 which seems cute but it's a bit awkward when you have sauce on your lips and he's just intent on staring at you

𓆩♡𓆪 he would love to browse for desserts with you and pick out the best ones

𓆩♡𓆪 he would tell you all about his recipes and how he knows how to make some of the things and would ask you a ton of questions when he finds out that you bake/cook too

𓆩♡𓆪 also he would use this as his gateway to smoothly ask you on a second date by offering that you come over to his house and teach him some of the dishes you know ;)

𓆩♡𓆪 he's just too fly like that

𓆩♡𓆪 and when you pick out desserts for after your meal, y'all will definitely be walking out that shop with like 2 lemon tarts, 10 macaroon, 4 stuffed cookies, 7 regular cookies, 12 doughnuts, a whole cheesecake and a partridge in a pear tree

𓆩♡𓆪 like you just can't help yourself, it all looks so scrumptious

𓆩♡𓆪 and you can go to the park and play food critic

𓆩♡𓆪 okay maybe not on the first date actually

𓆩♡𓆪 kita wouldn't want you to think he is pompous hater

𓆩♡𓆪 but on later dates , once you've both established a shared pallette for desserts

𓆩♡𓆪 kita will test the waters with compliment sandwiches like 'these brownies are tasty but they are a bit dry. good for the price though' 👀

𓆩♡𓆪 and if you reciprocate, then you can both have discussions about your store-bought desserts and what ingredients you guys would've added to make them tastier

𓆩♡𓆪 ALSO another window for kita to ask you on a date to come other to his house so you guys can make improved versions of the desserts you're eating

𓆩♡𓆪 as for a game of cards , he would so enjoy that, especially accompied with casual coversation

𓆩♡𓆪 i can't imagine him getting overly competitive with it

𓆩♡𓆪 even if you did beat him, he probably wouldn't be all too bothered by it and just ask for a rematch

𓆩♡𓆪 he's probably more focused on the conversation than the game anyway , though he can multi-task

𓆩♡𓆪 he wouldn't want to lose by too much , or else you might think he's hopeless lol

𓆩♡𓆪 and he'd LOVE it if you were to teach him a new game that he doesn't know how to play

𓆩♡𓆪 bonding experience !!!

𓆩♡𓆪 just you being so patient and sweet to him when explaining the rules does something to this poor man lol

︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵

'As for love languages I'd list acts of service and quality time on the giving front, and words of affirmation and physical touch, whether its only in private or public for receiving.'

𓆩♡𓆪 OMG kita receiving acts of service would alter his brain chemistry lol

𓆩♡𓆪 like he's not used to people , especially women , going out of their way to do something for him

𓆩♡𓆪 whether that be helping him clean his house or pick up the groceries .. he has to take a moment to process

𓆩♡𓆪 and don't get him wrong he appreciates it so much btu he doesn't even know where to start when express how grateful he is

𓆩♡𓆪 he just thinks it's so touching that you care about him so much to do him favours like that without expecting anything in return

𓆩♡𓆪 spending time with suna+atsumu makes him think that favours are transactional 😅

𓆩♡𓆪 again it's soo beyond him and it actually makes him blush

𓆩♡𓆪 like hugs and kisses he's cool with .. but doing his dishes?? DAMN you've got him bright red

𓆩♡𓆪 ik this is so typical but i feel like kita covers all the love language bases to some degree

𓆩♡𓆪 because he is such a sweetie and very kind so he is consistently telling you how much you mean to him

𓆩♡𓆪 and he can be very cold/honest but that only helps him in the words of affirmation respect

𓆩♡𓆪 bc it means he's more likely to say what's on his mind and you know he isn't exaggerating when he says you're the prettiest person he's ever laid eyes upon

𓆩♡𓆪 you never get anything but the whole truth with kita

𓆩♡𓆪 as for physical touch , he is mostly private BUT he isn't like anti-pda

𓆩♡𓆪 he doesn't see anything wrong with a little bit of hand-holding in public and little kisses on the cheek

𓆩♡𓆪 especially bc sometimes you are so cute he literally can't help himself??

𓆩♡𓆪 omg and he does this thing whenever he think y'all are having a 'moment' where he puts his hands on your shoulders and gazes into your eyes for a solid 5 seconds before he pulls you into a hug

𓆩♡𓆪 call that the kita buffering period

𓆩♡𓆪 also this is soo cheesy and typical but also imagine cooking with kita and y'all are cooking like soup or something and gets a spoonful and feeds it to you while holding your chin?????

𓆩♡𓆪 OR cooking with kita and he rests his chin on top of your head while you are stirring a pot or smth

𓆩♡𓆪 but yeah he isn't overly extravagant with his touch , but he does appreciate cute little intimate moments like that

︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵

for @louddelusionaltale: okkk such a hard pick bc when you said you like low iq , i thought maybeee ushi ?? bc kita is canonically like one of the smartest characters in hq 😭 BUT you're love languages match kita so much more (he is probs a lot better at WOA than ushi) AND kita would match your love of cooking+the market a lot more bc he is a farmer n all.

[notoneopinion]

Self Care Tips After a Long Day

Personally, I have been having a lot of these 'long days' recently, and these tips have been saving my sanity. So I thought I'd share them with you! Christmas is coming up, a lot of us are taking on extra or longer shifts at work to be able to afford the presents we need to buy, so hopefully some of this advice will come in handy.

1. Treat yourself!

A pretty simple one, but it really is very important. I sometimes treat myself with a coffee after work, because there is nothing better than a hit of caffeine after a twelve and a half hour shift, let me tell you. If I don't feel like spending money, I'll come home and watch a movie, lay out a few packets of crisps to enjoy whilst I relax. It really is a thing of just unwinding after a particularly long day, making sure your body gets that rest it deserves.

2. Journal

This really is one of the biggest self-care tips you will get. Anyone who knows anything about taking care of your mind knows that writing out your feelings is a great way to sort out your emotions. It can also be very relaxing, which is perfect after a long day. I love making a Scene of it, too - lighting a candle, putting on some music or a nice YouTube video in the background, and just sitting down at my table in cosy pyjamas to write about my day. I personally go with the old brain-dump method, but there's a ton of different ways to journal that you can look into, whether that be fun prompts, lists, or a brain-dump, like me!

3. Sit in silence.

Genuinely, just sit in silence. Come home, get into comfy clothes, and just sit. Stare at a wall. Play with a fidget toy. Put noise-cancelling headphones on and just be present in your own space. I find myself doing this mostly due to my autism; I kind of have no choice in the matter, considering my brain tends to shut down after a long day, and all I can really do is sit in silence. But it's not a bad thing, and I recommend trying to do it for anyone who might be feeling a little overwhelmed. The silence can do wonders.

4. Have a bath/shower.

I'm a shower girlie, personally, but that's only because I don't actually have a bath.

Either way, getting washed and clean and feeling fresh is an ultimate form of self care!!!! It might take a bit of motivation to actually get yourself into the shower (trust me, I know) but once you do it, you'll feel incredible. I'm personally not a big fan of the whole Everything Shower thing - I think I'm just too lazy to get everything scrubbed, shaved and moisturised, and if you're the same, there's nothing wrong with that. Wash your hair. Put some soap on those limbs. Just feel the hot water on your skin, maybe do a bit of skin care afterwards if you're feeling up to it. But getting washed and fresh will make you feel ten times better, and might even wake you up a bit if that's what you need!

5. Meal prep.

I live by this.

Once upon a time, I didn't meal prep, and I would come home at 8:30pm after a twelve hour shift full of heavy lifting and verbal abuse (lol guess what I work as) and I would immediately just order a takeaway. In the moment, this is all good - it's a treat, I deserve it, it tastes nice. But after three days of takeaways, you start feeling a little bit shit about yourself, and you're not being too kind on your wallet, either.

I started using a brief portion of my days off to meal prep for the week - just dinners, stuff I could throw in the fridge/freezer and heat up when I got home. Let me tell you, it was self care. Not only was my health improving dramatically, but my mental health was also given a break because I was no longer feeling bad about the stuff I was putting in my body. Plus, meal prepping at the start of the week (or just whenever you get a chance, really) gives you the opportunity to actually think about what you're making, so chances are you're going to be a bit more conscious about what you're putting into your body. I also enjoy cooking a great deal, so it's not even a chore on my day off - I find it quite relaxing to throw some music on, get my cook book out and just enjoy the task.

[man-down-in-hatchet-town]

Hook

Spoilers for The Case of the Greater Gatsby Episode 5, "Hook," below the cut!

I want to be a fly on the wall at the Hammermeister estate. I mean, seriously, what are those people like when just sitting at their own dinner table? Is TD capable of asking Mel to pass the salt? That night, do they brush their teeth at the same sink? Who knows!

But the real question is, do we believe that Mel has no interest in producing The Greater Gatsby? That would certainly end a lot of the theories I've tossed around. And if we can believe her, is she protecting her employees or herself? And what is her relationship with Mo in all of this? The way she said "heart attack," implies she may know more about Fitzgerald's death than she's willing to straight-up say. Assuming she's not the killer, Mo would almost certainly be her first source of information, since we know they talk. We could guess that he works for her on the side, but that would make Mel hiring Fig and Ford a little redundant, unless she has reason to distrust Mo. Which would be fair. Still, I think it's more likely that Mo’s playing his own game—maybe he went to her with the truth about Fitzy's death in order to wring some extra cash out of the situation? Or maybe she wanted to ask him, the investigating officer, for the script and he had to tell her that its missing. This something big he’s working on to earn his promotion has to be related to F. Scott—though whether he’s investigating the murder (then why all the secrecy and lies?) or ensuring its coverup remains to be seen.

But back with Mel at Fig’s and Ford’s office, the other big takeaway is that Ford has some big secret he is desperate to protect, to the point of abandoning his deeply-held principles and working for Mel (!!!!!!!!!!!). What the hell could that be? He abandoned Hollywood as a child--seemingly too young to pick up any secrets shameful for him as opposed to the adults who were making all of his choices for him. Was there some additional, secret trauma besides the typical Hollywood exploitation? From the sound of it, Ford knows exactly what is on the line, and Mel knew that Ford would know. So he other obvious question is, did Fitzgerald really put anything about Ford in his script? What could he possibly have known? Or is Mel just 100% playing/blackmailing him, returning him to the helpless pawn he was as a child actor?

Speaking of helpless pawns, Dash Gunfire is a perfect little idiot who may be the only person less suited to his job than I am to mine. Bless him. I’m also deeply intrigued by the concept of Gunfire family drama. Or are they even called the Gunfires? If so, who the hell are they? Circus folk? Do they not approve of his profession? Dash is such a bad P.I.--how has he been surviving without additional family support. And why was he listening at Ford's new door?

And that brings us to the end. Barnaby getting a death threat is certainly a plot twist—he’s neither an actor nor, as far as we know, involved with The Grapes of Wrath or a potential Greater Gatsby film. Perhaps someone wants to shut him and his paper up about something? But what does he have in common with Willie and Cliff? They are all connected to Hollywood, they all had access to F. Scott, they are now all in contact with Fig and Ford, and they all know Vivian...

Unless Barnaby's letter was actually meant for her?

Color me hooked.

[s--lag]

Share a little of my own disciplined internal medicine

The skin is stable only when the body is stable. Take-out, short videos, staying up late, emotional tension, life pressure... Take good care of your health everyone knows that, but the problem is that you can't.

Therefore, under this high-load lifestyle of modern people, some nutritional supplements are needed to maintain the stable balance of the body, which is the meaning of the existence of health products, not blowing not black.

The standard three-piece package for workers is:

Vitamins, fish oil and probiotics

When the work pressure is large, overtime and stay up late, then match a coenzyme Q10.

My own supplement regimen goes like this:

Get up early coenzyme Q10+ fish oil with meals during the concentrated work phase

Multivitamin with lunch or dinner when you eat take-out continuously

 Probiotics before going to bed, as long as I don't forget that I basically eat every day, my stomach needs to eat a little probiotics for a long time to regulate, this is the doctor's suggestion after the examination

Multivitamins and fish oil belong to the "foundation" of daily dietary supplements, whether it is cooking or ordering takeaways, the phenomenon of insufficient intake of fruits and vegetables is still very common.

Even with meat, it's hard to get enough of the recommended animal offal or good fats.

In addition to vitamins, there will be trace elements of iron, zinc and selenium, but it can only be used as a dietary supplement.

If you find that you are particularly deficient in a certain type of vitamin after a physical examination and need a large dose supplement, please consult your doctor to give you a clear plan, such as the need to eat 2000IU VD for a month (just for example).

The logic of adding fish oil is actually very simple, but many people do not understand, just heard that eating fish oil can sleep well, acne skin is suitable for eating fish oil and so on.

Most of the oils we usually eat belong to the more OMEGA-6, and fish oil can be understood as focusing on supplementing the body with a wave of OMEGA-3 to balance the two fatty acids, otherwise the body's inflammation burden will be too heavy.

If you regularly eat foods rich in omega-3s, such as high-quality Marine fish, you can actually avoid buying fish oil, which can be obtained from food.

Just do not often open fire to cook, working days are basically eating canteen or takeout, directly buy fish oil capsules or more convenient.

In recent years, the fish oil market is really big, I just ate fish oil a few years ago was 50-60%, and now my ration grade fish oil is 79% (fish oil content algorithm: omega-3 content/total weight of a capsule).

In addition to pure fish oil, compound fish oil will be a little easier to eat, such as:

VD+ fish oil is also very suitable for sedentary office workers who do not enjoy the sun (especially those who often feel poor energy and are easy to catch a cold and uncomfortable on two or three days).

Fish oil compound coenzyme Q10 is also good, I need to eat fish oil and coenzyme at the same time, will also directly eat compound, so that the daily supplement only need to eat two or three is enough.

If I eat and work regularly, make my own food ingredients in place, and have a balanced nutrition, multivitamins and fish oil may not be eaten every day

In fact, I recommend that you take supplements from the perspective of: What do I need to make up

If you really lack this substance, you really don't get enough of it from food, or you're tired and need a little energy every day, it's useful to eat this

Rather than eat must become white/do not break out/thin this purpose

We can think about it a little rationally: becoming white, not getting acne, and wanting to be thin, which is not what you can immediately achieve by eating one or two things (eating white, not getting acne and being thin, under this banner, it is really a little IQ tax

[diaryofahungrygirl]

there is often something so deeply disappointing about the experience of ordering and eating takeaway. i think the feeling of control is something i clutch onto in every area of my life and food is no exception, but the flip side of that is when i dont feel in control of other areas of my life, whether because of sickness or anxiety or just exhaustion, i often feel comforted by relinquishing control of what im eating and ordering takeaways. however, almost every time i do, outside of a few very specific and beloved places (more on this in another post), i am disappointed or at least uninspired by the way these meals taste and how i feel after eating them. this isnt to say the meals are always or even mostly bad, but when you personally feel passionate about creating food, simple or complex, paying high prices for quickly prepared or mass-produced food rarely results in the same enjoyment as a home-cooked meal made with your own personal preferences in mind.

this is all because im sick and spent the whole day looking forward to ordering takeaway for dinner because im too tired and unwell to go to the supermarket and cook a meal. i do this, spend all day thinking about dinner. i love dinner, its always the biggest and most significant meal of my day and can make or break my day overall very easily. i think this is emphasised by my history of disordered eating because i spent so long never eating full or proper meals that now i enjoy letting myself eat properly every day. so i ended up ordering indian food from a place i go often, and while it isnt terrible its also not great, sp all the time today that i spent thinking about it ended in an anti-climatic and lackluster experience. i know this shouldnt affect the way my day feels overall but it does.

this is something i need to work on, so i can enjoy takeaway for what it is- convenient at times and a treat in its own right.

[libramonthlyhoroscope1]

What does it mean when you dream about a spider

All kinds of bizarre things can happen when you close your eyes: teeth falling out at a dinner party, out-of-control cars, and yes, even creepy arachnids. So, don’t fret if your good night’s rest has turned into a Fellini film lately���specifically the kind that features uninvited eight-legged creatures. Your subconscious is a complicated place so there’s no single explanation for spiders in dreams. Having said that, we reached out to several dream experts to get the lowdown on what it might mean when you have spiders in your dreams, so read on for the full scoop. 

What does it mean when you dream about a spider

What Do Dreams About Spiders Mean?

So, some eight-legged guests have invaded your after-hours brain. (It happens.) But what does it mean when you’ve had a creepy—or even more confusing, a pleasant—dream with a spider in it? Well, it turns out the answer isn’t so cut and dry. In general, the experts agree that dreams are highly individualized experiences, and such symbols leave a lot of room for interpretation. “We are all highly individualized beings, with a whole set of experiences, history, cultural effects, preferences, and associations that color the meaning of dreams,” explains clinical psychologist Nancy Irwin. That said, here are some common themes the pros have picked up on.

1. You’re tapping into your inner strategist (or seductress)

When you think of a spider in terms of an animal totem while considering its behavior in nature, you can gain a better understanding of its symbolism in your dreams, says certified hypnotherapist and dream expert Kelly Sullivan Walden. “Some animals pounce, some intimidate, some are elusive—but the spider lures in its prey...Because everyone and everything in your dream is you, dreams of a spider [may] symbolize that you are connecting with the part of yourself that is strategic, methodical, enticing and seductive.” Sounds intriguing, right? If one of these dream weavers makes an appearance while you’re snoozing, consider that your subconscious might be trying to tell you that a methodical approach is in order when it comes to accomplishing your more complicated designs.

2. A message to let things come your way

Indeed, per Walden, “dreams of a spider are the ultimate message that you are weaving your dreams into reality.” Still this dream expert is quick to add that the takeaway could very well be that your best bet is to channel the spider’s patience: “Because spiders weave a web that draws their sustenance to them, this dream may be a message to stop running around, slow down, make your space appealing and await the energy and attention that comes to you.” (Plus, no one is going anywhere these days anyway, so we’d say that’s a pretty sound strategy to practice in waking life.)

3. Prosperity is on your mind

What do spiders have to do with prosperity? Well, not nothing, apparently. Walden points out that the anatomy of a spider is also key to understanding its symbolism in dreams, positing that its eight legs carry the same significance as the number in general—namely “abundance, prosperity and infinity.” Bottom line: Walden’s view is that no matter how you feel about these creatures in real life, a night time visit from a spider may in fact be a good omen. Or, at the very least, a message that you should follow your dreams (rather than, say, swat at them with a broom). These eight-legged friends are the original dream-weavers after all.

4. You’re feeling entangled or trapped

As mentioned above, the web-spinning nature of a spider makes it a potential symbol of empowerment. That said, Walden acknowledges that all dream occurrences are an expression of the Self. As such, you might consider what aspect of the spider the Self is identifying with when you’re lost in dreamland. Want to skip the psychoanalysis? (We get it.) Just ask yourself whether you think you are sitting pretty in a web waiting for success or feeling paralyzed with ambivalence and stuck in a rut (read: spider’s web).

5. Fear of the unknown

According to Danielle Massi, LMFT, spiders tend to represent the unknown, so “it could be that something you fear is creeping up on you and the unconscious mind is giving you a warning.” That said, Massi emphasizes that the key to understanding a spider in your dream is to ask yourself how you felt about seeing it—since dreams are subjective, the emotions tied to any symbols will help give you a clue. 

6. You have hidden emotions that need to be addressed 

Dr. Irwin says that dream images aren’t typically literal, but rather “a metaphor to draw your awareness to a feeling you are experiencing at the time of the dream.” What that means is that a spider in your dream could signify any number of feelings that your brain needs to process while you get some shut-eye. This is particularly true if you have a fear of spiders (*raises hand*), in which case they might represent “the presence of a creepy person in your life...or a fear of being petrified by COVID, finances, or some other uncontrollable factor in your life.” Again, the significance of a spider in your dream has a lot to do with what’s going on in your life, and how you feel about the creatures. Irwin emphasizes that “context is everything” and people should consider dream symbols as an invitation to connect with their own (back-burner) feelings, as a means of release and healing.

7. General anxiety is making itself known

And on that note, clinical psychotherapist and Columbia University faculty member Laurel Steinberg agrees: A dream about spiders can just be pretty straightforward. “While they are typically small in size, spiders are so creepy (and crunchy!)...[they can] invade our personal space, or worse, crawl onto our bodies. For this reason, dreams about spiders are indicative of subconscious anxiety about feeling vulnerable and out-of-control of some aspect of our lives.” Sound familiar? Yep, more than one professional has a similar take on this dream symbol, which isn’t surprising—general anxiety is very common and it has been on the rise since the pandemic struck. That said, if it starts to interfere with your quality of life—by keeping you awake or giving you stressful dreams, for example—you should absolutely talk to someone about it.

[camxnoel-updates]

Cameron Monaghan brought the character of Ian Gallagher to life on Showtime’s hit series, Shameless. The series aired for a total of 11 seasons after originally premiering in 2011. It ranked as the network’s no. 1 comedy, longest-running series, and had the youngest-skewing audience of any Showtime series. Monaghan also joined two legendary universes with roles in both Gotham and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, which I got to ask him about too!

The final season of SHAMELESS finds the Gallagher family and the South Side at a crossroads, with changes caused by the COVID pandemic, gentrification, and aging to reconcile. As Frank confronts his own mortality and family ties in his alcoholic and drug-induced twilight years, Lip struggles with the prospect of becoming the family’s new patriarch. Newlyweds Ian (Cameron Monaghan) and Mickey (Noel Fisher) are figuring out the rules and responsibilities of being in a committed relationship while Deb embraces her individuality and single motherhood. Carl finds an unlikely new career in law enforcement and Kevin and V struggle to decide whether a hard life on the South Side is worth fighting for.

Along with the final season, fans also got a six-episode series that featured new Shameless scenes juxtaposed with a retrospective look at each character’s journey over the prior 10 seasons, titled, Shameless Hall of Shame. The first episode followed Ian and Mickey, showcasing their unique relationship and its evolution from a teen fling into a loving, complicated marriage.

I was able to chat with the actor over zoom and ask him all of my burning questions regarding the series finale, Ian and Mickey’s future, the show’s open ending, the representation his character provided to those watching, what he kept from the set, his future projects, and so much more! Keep reading to find out everything he told me.

So first of all, I want to say a huge congrats to you for wrapping Shameless after 11 seasons and bringing this character to life, who has inspired so many and that so many relate to. I wanted to ask, what has your time on the show meant to you and how would you describe how it helped you grow as an actor?

Cameron Monaghan: I mean, it’s so difficult to distill 11 years into some sort of concise answer, but it’s meant a lot for so many reasons. I think that obviously it’s been important for my career and my life in a sense of how it’s not only given me exposure but also given all of us a platform as performers to be able to tell interesting and challenging stories and to really develop and grow. Obviously, we had a couple of old pros on the show– when I say old pros, I’m not calling them old, just that they’re professionals and they’ve been doing it for a long time, but like William H. Macy, Joan Cusack, and a number of people who had very storied careers. Then we had actors on the show who had never appeared on anything prior and for a lot of us, we were somewhere in the middle, where we’d been working for a number of years, but hadn’t been given the opportunities to really put ourselves out there in such a significant way.

So being able to get an audience over the course of 11 years– and the show grew steadily, it was a marginal success at first, but it wasn’t until like season 4 or 5 that it really started to be seen by people and really connect on a larger platform, and a lot of that had to do with Netflix. When that happens we had such an influx of people kind of saying how they related to it and I think that that’s something that I’ve really taken away– I think we’ve all taken away, to be able to hear a lot of other people’s stories and how they’ve connected these stories in entirely different ways. Everyone has had different favorite characters or storylines and they have brought their own personal experiences to that, but for people to say that they feel seen or heard in some ways by these stories, I think is very special. You know, the character that I was playing was an LGBT love story, as well as a story about mental illness, and coping and struggling with that. I had so many positive responses from people regarding those things, and it was amazing to hear people’s responses. So I think that not only was I able to grow as an actor but being able to hear that response and feedback helps you grow as a human being too. I guess that’s what one of my major takeaways is.

What was that final day of shooting like for you, and how did you feel when you officially wrapped?

It was a bit surreal. I don’t think it really set in at first. It’s always funny when you wrap on a project, I feel like it comes in waves, and with something like a TV show, you start to feel it on the last few episodes of like, “Oh, wow, it’s going to be over.” You start trying to find your little ways of saying goodbye to people and understanding that these conversations are obviously not the last for everyone; we’re still close with each other, but you start to recognize that within the context of the show they’ll be your last so that’s a difficult thing. I’ve never been particularly good at saying goodbye, you know? I feel like in general, I’m kind of a person that just likes to be like, “I’m just going to walk away from it cause I don’t know what else to do really.”

So, we were shooting pretty late at night and we were all there hanging out and cracking jokes, and it was just of like, “Oh, I guess that’s it.” We all kind of looked at each other like, “Well, what do we do now?” A bunch of us stuck around for a few hours afterward, we popped a bottle of champagne, and we sat in each others’ trailers and just kinda hung out until pretty early in the morning, the next day. Then we’ve all kind of just been hanging out and seeing each other since. Everyone’s been really busy, thankfully. So we’ve been traveling and going to different cities for work, but when we’ve been in town we’ve been trying to see each other. I had dinner with Jeremy and Ethan, who played my brothers on the show last week. Noel Fisher, I just saw yesterday. I’m going to see Shanola Hampton in a few days. We’re all still staying in touch with each other is what I’ll say.

Were you personally satisfied with the ending of the show? I think it was very open-ended, which was kind of nice and left a lot open for the future. And was there anything you wanted to see for your character that we weren’t able to?

Endings are difficult in general, but I feel like, especially with a show like Shameless, which is a show about a slice of life and sort of how existence doesn’t really fall into a perfect narrative; it tends to be messy and kind of just continue in spite of itself, and it’s a stream of these little victories and these constant mistakes. So you can’t really cap off a pure ending to a story like that. I think that what John Wells tried to do with writing it is not really conclude the stories. He concludes certain aspects, but the way that he explained it to us is he wanted it to feel like if you were walking through the streets of Chicago, maybe you might bump into these characters. Maybe they’re still out there and maybe they’re still doing things. Some of us had more resolution than others.

I would actually say that the Ian and Mickey storyline was one that did have a fair amount of resolution for the final episode. It was about their anniversary, how they were going to deal with their future, and they’ve kind of figured out some sort of life with each other. There are still large questions, whether or not they’re going to have kids and what the terms of their marriage will entail in the future, but those are questions that are lifelong questions, and ones that I think that we know these characters well enough and we understand their relationships well enough that we can draw our own conclusions for. I think there is something beautiful about the fact that the audience will project what their future for these characters will be.

I think it was a challenging final season because of so many extenuating factors in the world. All shows, businesses, everything was trying frantically to keep up with a changing landscape, and the fact that we were able to make it in spite of all of those things, I think is a victory in itself; one that we are all proud of and happy with. I do think there’s still a future, years out, where we might return to these characters and explore them further. I think that I’m happy putting them to bed for now, I think we all are, but I would like to maybe check in with these characters in 5 or 10 years, and just kind of see where they’re at and what they’re doing.

Kind of like a little Shameless movie, just to play catch up for a little bit.

Yeah, I think that’s something that is kind of more possible now with these streaming networks. They’ve done it with a few series, to sometimes success and sometimes mixed results, but I do think there is a possibility of a reunion season or something like that, depending on where the show fits into the public consciousness in a few years, you know? It’s an open question, but one I’d be excited to see.

How you would describe Ian’s evolution and journey on the show?

I think that Ian has come a long way in terms of confidence and assuredness in himself and his own decisions. I think that’s what a lot of the exploration of the character was, especially in the middle seasons between seasons like 3 to 8 or 9, are this guy who sort of just doesn’t necessarily know what he wants for himself and he’s dealing with a bunch of surprises about himself that he doesn’t necessarily understand, or hasn’t really come to terms with. I think it’s amazing to see Ian in these earlier episodes where he’s kind of getting kicked around by his relationships and by his family. He’s kind of a forgotten kid a little bit. He’s like a middle child, who’s just sort of– people aren’t really looking out for him. His brother does to a certain extent, but also his brother is kind of telling him what he wants for himself and Ian isn’t as active.

At a certain point, he starts to really come into his own as an adult and as a human being. I think it’s amazing how we see him as not only a big brother by the end of the series, but also sort of– there’s something a bit paternal about him. He becomes a bit of a father figure, even a little bit in his relationships. I think it’s interesting how Mickey was always sort of the commanding force and deciding factor for so much of the series; when Ian was really struggling with mental illness and down in the dumps, Mickey is the kind of guy who was looking after him, but by the end of the series, Mickey is a bit childlike in certain ways. Ian is kind of protecting him to a certain extent, and even with his older brother, Lip, Ian is sort of looking out for him in a slightly paternal way, which I think is kind of interesting. He really comes a long way in sort of being confident enough in himself to start looking out for other people that I think is a really great quality. It makes him a character who has made a fair amount of mistakes but mistakes that we understand, and I think that ultimately he’s a guy that I understand and really relate to because he does have this quality to him.

So I have to ask you some questions about Ian and Mickey. I personally love them together, they were one of the reasons I started watching the show. In the end, as you said, we kind of get some closure, but also an open ending with them and it’s a happy one; they’re together and celebrating their anniversary. In your head, what do you think that their future holds? Do you think kids are in the picture; do you think they’re going to be parents? Ideally, what is your version of their happy ending, if you could create it?

I think that they both still need to do some work. I would say that they need to do work as a couple in their marriage still of just defining the terms of what is it that they want financially, sexually, intimately, personally, all of these things. It’s a show full of people who aren’t great at communication or dealing with their own feelings– I mean to a certain extent, most human beings aren’t, but these guys, especially, come from a rough background and they have that tendency of just kind of wanting to push that stuff down. Ian has really opened up Mickey and Mickey to a certain extent has really opened up Ian over the course of the series, but I still don’t think they’re fully all the way there. Mickey has a lot of emotional baggage when it comes to parenthood, his father, and dealing with responsibility.

I don’t know if Mickey is fully there. Hopefully, he would be one day in the future. And hopefully, Ian would be patient enough to give him the space to make that decision and to not want to rush into it. I do think that it would be something in their future. Parenthood was a huge motivating factor for Ian earlier in the series, going so far as to steal someone’s baby at some point because he wants to be a father. I would hope that they would be able to provide that for him and for themselves, but there’s no way to know, we have to sort of make that assumption for ourselves, but I think so.

Ian and Mickey have been this fan-favorite couple that means so much to the LGBTQ+ community in terms of representation. What was the moment that you personally started rooting for them?

I think it was pretty early. I was rooting for Ian from the first episode, from the pilot, but the second that Mickey gets introduced to the show, he brought such a fun dynamic with him. Obviously, a massive amount of charisma that was coming from Noel Fisher. The scenes were always fun, exciting, and felt steeped in a lot of dramatic tension. Whether or not they were destined to be together was kind of a question that still was developing. In the first season to the third season, the Mickey character is pretty rough emotionally and physically; he is at points pretty, extremely abusive in a way that is great for a character and for a story, but if I was talking to Ian as a person in real life, I would probably say, “Get the hell away from this guy. He’s awful for you.”

But within the context of the story, we’re able to get the internal life of these characters and we understand them well enough to really want to be rooting for them and see them succeed. It builds into this pretty epic love story of these characters that really do feel kind of intertwined by fate and something greater. It feels like you have these forces pulling for them in a way that you want with every fiber of your being to see it work out for them because you care for them. So obviously, Noel and I had been rooting for these characters the entire time, but it was really fun playing some of the ridiculousness of the situations of the two of them, where they were just very at odds with each other at times. It was a joy bouncing off of each other in both the highs and the lows of the character.

Is there sort of a message that you hope their love story gives to viewers that see themselves in these characters?

Well, I think the aspects of the characters, especially for Mickey, that I’m sure a lot of people relate to, and it is sort of the greatest tragedy of the character, is how he is deeply in the closet and he feels that he can’t embrace his own self and also this beautiful love because of this situation that he’s in; a traumatic home life, specifically an abusive father, and also an environment that doesn’t allow him to be what he wants to be. I guess the message that I do hope that people who are relating to that get is that there are places where you can be accepted and there are better options for you, and sometimes that takes time, but as cliched as it is, it does get better. So hopefully people are able to find these safe environments for themselves to be able to improve the quality of life and to get better situations. I hope that people find hope in the story ultimately.

Another relationship of Ian’s that I have to discuss is his relationship with the whole Gallagher family; that was a focus of the series since day one. What was your favorite part of their dynamic and playing off that?

Obviously, the chaos of the family is always really fun to play. We had these scenes that were kind of an amazing balancing act of like 8 or 9 people in a scene, all messing around with these different storylines that are bouncing off of each other, intertwining, and you have this really biting sharp satirical dialogue that all had a very specific rhythm to it and was a sort of flow that was established early in the show that was kind of kept across the entire series; one that was a genuine joy as a performer to play. But I think that specifically the relationship that I’ve always been a fan of and I love from the start, is probably– it’s definitely one of my favorite relationships on the show– was the relationship between Ian and Lip.

There’s not a lot of depictions of brotherhood and intimacy between men that are deeply sensitive, close, and uncomplicated. Those are definitely scenes that I felt very personally moved by, of two brothers who have just had a world of shit, a lot of complicated and messed up things that have been dropped on their heads that they’ve been dealing with for the entirety of their lives, but they’ve sort of made a pact that they were just gonna be there for each other no matter what. If they weren’t there for each other, who knows if they would have survived. I think that there’s something really amazing about those scenes in that they’re just very open with each other, and that’s something that’s established right from the start and was kind of one of those key relationships for the show that survived until the very last episode and that I’m very proud of, cause I do think that those are some of my personal favorite scenes of the show.

Here’s a fun three-part question: most challenging, fun, and insane storyline for you as an actor?

Most challenging would probably have to be… we reached a point in the series around season 8 and they were trying to contextualize the characters in a modern way, put them into new circumstances, but try to retain what the characters were, but they’ve moved a lot from where they originally were. We were at a point where we were getting so many new writers onto the series, and the show I feel struggled for a second, which happens with any series that’s been on for a while. It felt like there was a point where they didn’t know what they wanted to do with Ian. There were a couple of episodes where I was kind of looking at the story and being like, “What are we doing here? It doesn’t really feel like anything is happening with him and we’re kind of floating across these relationships.” I wasn’t sure what we were trying to say, but that being said, that is kind of true to life, to a certain degree, where we do find ourselves sometimes in these ruts where we don’t know what we’re doing with our relationships, our lives, and ourselves. There is a little bit of a struggle there and that is kind of real to a certain degree, and I do think having those episodes make when they started finding the way with the character and relationships again, kind of more satisfying cause he sort of loses his way and he comes back. So it was kind of a challenge, but I think it all worked out ultimately.

Craziest would have to be… so this is one that no one would even know is like a thing really, no one would even think of it as a thing, but the scene in the pilot episode, Lip and Ian jump out of like a window and they run out of a house to escape an angry parent, right? And they’re kind of running in a rush. So they run out in their socks, down the street, and it’s the middle of January in Chicago and the streets are covered in mud, water, and ice. I think it’s the first time I’ve ever felt in my life that I actually thought my feet were going to like fall off. I thought we were going to have to amputate a toe because of frostbite. We did the scene a bunch of times, and because Jeremy and I were young, we were just sort of trying to be tough, just like, “Yeah, whatever, it’s not a problem. We can do this over and over, not a big deal.” Then I definitely learned a lesson of like, when something is a problem, you have to say, it’s a problem.

Most fun… I don’t know if I can distill it to just one scene. I think the most fun was just getting to interact with all of the wildly different personalities of our show, and just kind of get to sit around and hang out with everyone. There were times that we would just be laughing so hard that one of us would start and we just end up crying, laughing. Usually, it was because of Howey cracking jokes or something like that, but it could be just the dumbest to smallest thing, but it’s the kind of thing when you become so comfortable with people, it just starts to happen. Sometimes it was just the downtime and these little small kind of boring or mundane moments that really ended up being some of my favorite experiences.

Did you take anything from the set at all?

I did. So in the final season, there’s a storyline where Frank steals Nighthawks, the Edward Hopper painting, and that was actually done in cooperation with the Art Institute of Chicago and the Edward Hopper estate. They did these really high-resolution prints of it that were then painted over by hand, and they even took pictures of the back and mimicked the way that the canvas wrapped over, the small writing, and everything. It’s a pretty damn good forgery of Nighthawks. So I stole one of those and that’s hanging up in my living room. I also stole one of the mugs cause in the show we’re always having breakfast and drinking coffee, so there are these rooster mugs and I stole one of those.

Since you’re talking to The Nerds of Color, I have to ask you about Star Wars and Gotham. What stood out to you about Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order compared to your other work, and what did it mean to you to join that iconic universe?

I mean, what stood out pretty quickly was that it had a tone all of its own. Star Wars is a very specific tone. It has sort of its own language, pacing, style, and rhythm; there’s something very specific about it, something that I’m a big fan of. I grew up watching the Star Wars movies and that was definitely… you know, anytime that you’re jumping onto something with an active and passionate fanbase it’s going to be slightly intimidating. There’s no way around that. Thankfully, I’ve at this point done enough projects with really passionate fanbases to kind of understand what that entails, which is that there’s going to be a lot of opinions. A lot of people are really excited about things and no matter what, even the smallest things, someone’s going to be very, very angry about it. That comes along with the territory, but that’s kind of fun to a certain degree; it’s fun to hear such minutiae and being examined, and these conversations are ones that are being had on set too.

There’s so much conversation between the Lucasfilm story group, Respawn, and EA, who are the production companies behind the game, and also the cast, directors, and everybody involved are sometimes discussing, “How does a person stand? How does one get onto a speeder bike? What kind of sound does this monster make?” And there’s always a genuine deference and respect to the series. We know how much people care about it. We know because we care about it a lot, and everyone on this project are huge fans of the source material. So that was exciting to be a part of, obviously; I mean, that should go without saying. It’s so freaking cool to be a Jedi and to be the face of this massive franchise, and to be able to not only be a part of a really well-known property and part of this large project but also to be able to tell an interesting and intimate story within it. For as bombastic as all of the action is, and as big as the Star Wars universe is, I feel the story of Cal Kestis and the people that he interacts with is a somewhat smaller one and a more intimate one. It’s ultimately, at least for me, a pretty emotionally resonant one and a story that I actually very much care about and relate to. I think that was probably the most exciting part about it, was being able to within the framework of this big machinery of what Star Wars is, still tell a story that might actually affect people and make them feel things, I think was just really cool.

Could you describe how it felt to take on the role of the Joker?

Exciting, intimidating, an honor, and challenging; it’s a role that I didn’t take lightly. I understood what it was, which is that a lot of the people who were seeing me in the role had never heard of me and didn’t know who I was, and it was a way to prove myself and to show off my take of what I could do with this. It was really cool too with that show that we were getting to do something that had never really been done before with the character, which is to show multiple versions and possibilities of what that character could be, and to kind of tip our hat to some of the famous stories that came before, and then kind of give a unique spin and show off some new things with it as well.

Obviously, that show was heightened to a certain degree and kind of existed in this wacky over-the-top violent, but also slightly cartoony universe that was kind of its own little thing. That was really fun to play around with it and to totally get to do something kind of different with that, something that we hadn’t seen before. But I think it was specifically really intimidating because, at that point of casting when I performed the episode in the first season of that show, no one had played the role since Heath Ledger had posthumously won the Oscar for the role. So the only people who had touched it in live-action had been Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger, which are just massive, massive shoes to fill and two people that I deeply admired. Again, it’s just sort of a case of respect and wanting to kind of come in, just do my absolute best with the material, and to try to pay a certain level of honor to the people that came before.

Anything you can tease about what you’re going to do next? Any future projects?

Absolutely. It’s always difficult with this stuff because there’s only so much you can say. I can say that I just shot a film that hasn’t been announced yet, but I was out of town shooting it for a while. It’s the starring role in the film, and that will come out to theaters in the near future. I’m also working on another project over the course of the next year that I will be working on and off for. Again, thanks to the joys of NDAs, I can’t actually say what it is. I have a movie that I will be doing in June and then also I’m starting to move a bit behind the camera as well. So I’m working on producing and starring in a feature in August or September. And I’m writing a couple of projects right now as well. So it’s a loaded year for the next year, but it’s all very exciting that’s happening.

[ichigoromi]

𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐠𝐨𝐭 𝐚 𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐮𝐞 𝐩𝐢𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐢𝐦 | 𝐒𝐚𝐤𝐮𝐬𝐚 𝐊𝐢𝐲𝐨𝐨𝐦𝐢 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐧 | 𝐇𝐚𝐢𝐤𝐲𝐮𝐮 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐧

Hmm, tongue piercings are hot.

Warning (s): may contain some suggestive themes⚠️(I think maybe under 18 dni); characters are all aged up.

Enjoy~!

Sakusa Kiyoomi

"Sakusa is never comfortable with tattoos and piercings, but his s/o has tattoos and piercings.

His family members ponder about how did he even end up with you.

You own your own pottery studio, and you make and conduct lessons there.

Occasionally, Sakusa would pop into your studio to bring lunch for you or just to hang out with you on his free day.

His friends often tease him on how did he got attracted to you and even approach you first.

You had some tattoos and several piercings on your ears.

He contacted you via Twitter, where the video of you just vibing and making some customised pieces accidentally blew up on Tik Tok and Twitter.

He tried to be cool about it but ended up being very shy.

At first, you thought it was a prank, but then it turns out to be real when you two met up for the first time after two months of talking.

You had your first date in your very own studio where you taught him pottery and had ordered some takeaway to your studio.

He fell in love with you then and has been together with you.

It has been months since you have been debating whether to get a tongue piercing.

You finally went and get it.

During your healing period, Sakusa was out of town, having games in different cities, and when he came back, your tongue piercing is permanent and healed.

Of course, you were excited to show your new piercing to your followers and your boyfriend since you are curious about his reaction.

You prepared a feast of nutritious dishes to celebrate his win and return.

Sakusa was very excited to see you again after being away for so long that he literally threw his arms around you and pulls you to his chest.

You had to pull away and make him shower first so that you two can have the feast that you prepared.

He was shocked that you even prepared a feast for him.

You two sat down, and he digs into the food you put hours and effort to make.

Watching him eat was satisfying, and he also tried to feed you too.

He noticed the sliver in your mouth.

He decided not to confront you now and do it after dinner.

After dinner, Sakusa did the dishes while you went to take a bath so that you two can hang out before going to sleep.

You came out in one of his old t-shirts and chill on the sofa, waiting for him.

"Babe, I've cut up some of the melon that you bought." He brought out a plate of sliced melons that you bought from the supermarket.

You were about to eat one of the melons when he grabs your chin and makes you face him.

"Ah, I see it. So you got it when I was away for games." You immediately slap shut your mouth and move away from him, but he successfully caged you between his arms.

You looked away, feeling guilty while he was still staring at you.

"I'm not mad but just disappointed that you didn't even inform me first." He wrapped his arms around you and collapsed on top of you.

You let out a groan when he falls on top of you, and he continues to stay on top of you without letting you go.

"Baby, I'm sorry that I got the piercing done without telling you. I was scared of your reaction since you don't really like piercings..." You let out a sigh and gently combs through his curls with your fingers.

"I'm fine if it's with you..." He mumbles softly, but you catch his words.

You start laughing, and he frowned at you. While he stares at you, ridiculous, but you continue to laugh. When you stop laughing, he was blushing furiously.

"Can I kiss you?" You straight forward ask him.

"W-what k-kind of question is that? Idiot, come here." He leans down and plants lips against yours.

You wrap your arms around his neck and slightly open your mouth; his tongue slide in effortlessly, and you gasped slightly when he sucked your tongue.

"O-Omi, too sensitive..." You whined, and he continues to peppers kisses down your neck.

Being away for two months does this to this man, and he is HUNGRY for touch. Plus, that tongue piercing of yours is turning him on to the MAX.

He removed his top, and you stare at him, wide-eyed.

"W-what are you doing?!" You stammered, but his logic was long gone.

He needed you, right now and he cannot wait anymore.

"I'm going to take you now, on the couch."

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

THANK YOU FOR READING.

STAY SAFE AND HEALTHY!

I NEED TIME TO RECOVER FROM THIS.

SEE YA!

With love,

Rosalie🍓

[mindofharry]

Thinking of the different types of love languages with harry and how we would express them </3

I think his favourite would be physical touch. Harry would constantly be touching you in some way, whether it be holding your hand or just resting his hand on the bottom of your back. It’s definitely a comfort thing for him, and you love it. It makes you feel very safe and all warm inside.

His favourite to do is a koala bear hug!! Harry would usually do this after being away for a long period of time without fully seeing you. He’d wrap his arms and legs around you, nearly pushing you to the floor. Sometimes it would happen when you’re in bed and harry’s just laying on top of you, his head resting in the nook of your neck nipping at it every couple of seconds. Another thing he does, his hugs from behind. Sometimes his arm is around your neck or other times his hands are on your stomach.

Harry likes to be near you at all times, so behind hugs while cooking dinner is almost routine. He also loves kissing behind your neck, it’s his and your favourite spot. Harry also likes all of your attention, so sometimes dinner does get forgotten. But those are your favourite days. When you’re about to cook dinner and harry practically pounces on you. At the meat you were going to take out is forgotten and takeaway is ordered instead.

Harry loves words of affirmation. You wouldn’t say he’s insecure, but your partner does need reassuring sometimes. Especially when it comes to his work. Music is his baby, and he just wants it to do well and be perfect. Sometimes harry over does it and just needs you to hype him up a bit. Something you absolutely love doing.

“Baby, this is amazing. You’re amazing” You said, running your hands through harry’s hair reassuring his insecure thoughts. The album is in the making and it’s ruining his mood this week. You hate seeing him so worked up about something he’s so in love with. Harry is so passionate about his work, he just forgets to take breaks. And down the line he really regrets it.

“Honey, the music is fantastic. You know me, i’d tell you if it was horrible” You teased placing a hand on his shoulder, harry was had his hands over his face and his elbows resting on the kitchen counter. He had just gotten home from the studio and you expected to see a happy, smiley harry styles. Instead you got a cranky, upset and insecure one. You knew exactly what to do to fix this.

A takeaway and praising everything he does for the next week.

Gifts! You love giving gifts, and harry of course like anyone else, enjoys getting them. Harry spoils you all the time, it’s another thing he loves to do. He could buy you a dress just because it’s friday, or bring home some makeup stuff because he heard you saying you wanted some to your friends.

Although he enjoys giving, he also enjoys getting.

You love making up little care packages for harry. The looks on his face when you give him the stuff is so wholesome and you would do it everyday if you had the money. And he’s always so grateful, kissing you and thanking you non stop.

He loves when you get him face masks, because that means when it’s a pamper day he doesn’t have to take yours and you can do one together!

Pamper days are like there own separate love language for you and harry. If someone’s having a bad day: pamper day. If someone’s having a good dad: pamper day. You get the idea. Harry just loves sitting down with you, doing your hair and nails. Having a movie on in the background and just doing fuck all, all day.

He enjoys this the most after doing the album or maybe the weeks when the album is being mixed and finalised. Harry stresses over the smallest things so basically everyday is pamper day. Neither of you are complaining though!

Quality time is a big one for harry. And another one of his favourites. Being a singer and songwriter, he doesn’t get to spend as much time as he would like with you. If he’s not producing or singing, he’s doing interviews or performances. And if not that, then trying to catch up with other family and friends. It’s hard to make time for each other especially when you work long hours too. Later on in his life, i’d say things would be way easier when it came to quality time. But right now in his career, it’s a lot harder than he’d like to admit.

When you do see each other, you both clear your schedules for however long harry or you is in town for.

There’s never any question about it. But if there is something one that one of you can’t move, there’s never an argument. Sometimes you just can’t help work.

Quality time consists of deep chats, future home and families and work.

Harry loves talking about your day and work. He asks every time he sees you. He even wants to know about your favourite tv shows or any new gossip in the office.

Harry will definitely be THAT boyfriend 🥺

[arctichotch]

aaron hotchner x reader - fluff alphabet

feel free to send me more requests! 

warnings: alludes possibly to some nsfw stuff (dom hotch)

A ctivities - What do they like to do with their s/o? How do they spend their free time with them? 

Aaron is quite the romantic despite popular belief. Of course, neither of you actually have much free time because you’re constantly on the go with different cases but he does try his best to take advantage of the time both of you are home. He loves to whisk you away on romantic dinner dates but equally loves when you both order a takeaway and watch a movie with Jack. 

B eauty - What do they admire about their s/o? What do they think is beautiful about them?

He admires your devotion to your work, to your team, to him and to Jack. He appreciates how much you put into your work and your relationships and that your family always comes first.

C omfort - How would they help their s/o when they feel down/have a panic attack etc.?

Anything you’d like to do he’d be up for. Whether it’d be going out for a walk or sitting at home eating ice cream and watching tv. He’d be there for you. 

D reams - How do they picture their future with their s/o?

From the moment you two got together, actually even before that, he pictured a long life with you. He doesn’t want to live a single day without you by his side.

E qual - Are they the dominant one in the relationship, or rather passive?

I don’t really know how to answer this one, because like yes Hotch is dominant but like??? You are both equal in your relationship which is very important to both of you.

However in the bedroom you best believe Hotch is the dominant one.

F ight - Would they be easy to forgive their s/o? How are they fighting?

Obviously it depends on the situation. But yes, Aaron is generally very forthcoming and willing to communicate and fix things if they’re gone a bit askew. 

G ratitude - How grateful are they in general? Are they aware of what their s/o is doing for them?

He is incredibly aware of how lucky he is. He is so grateful for how you’ve integrated not only him, but also Jack into your life. He’s aware that he has more baggage than the average guy and that he spends more time working than he should so he knows that he’s lucky to have you. 

H onesty - Do they have secrets they hide from their s/o? Or do they share everything?

I don’t think Aaron is a secret-y kind of guy. I think he’d do everything he could to ensure that your life together is as honest as possible. Obviously it’s hard sometimes working together but with your personal life he does try to keep everything very honest.

I nspiration - Did their s/o change them somehow, or the other way around? Like trying out new things or helped them overcome personal problems?

I don’t think ‘change’ is necessarily the right word but you have brought out his softer side. He smiles a lot while around you and is even less uptight at work, so much so that Morgan has started to crack jokes.

J ealousy - Do they get jealous easily? How do they deal with it?

I think Aaron is too mature to experience jealousy, jealousy if you get me. But if some cop comes up and starts hitting on you while you’re working on a case he might feel a little twinge of jealousy. He might experience some insecurity but he’ll always talk it through with you

K iss - Are they a good kisser? What was the first kiss like?

This man is 100% a good kisser. He’s amazing. Your first kiss was after he drove you home after a tough case and walked you up to your door. He didn’t plan to do it, it just happened naturally.

L ove Confession - How would they confess to their s/o?

I think he’d want to have a proper conversation about it. You both work together so he would want to make sure that any relationship you two do have wouldn’t affect (or effect idk) your work relationship or the teams dynamic. He also has to think about Jack. He want to make sure there is no possibility of him getting hurt in anyway and that you were also ok with him having a kid.

M arriage - Do they want to get married? How do they propose? What would the marriage be like?

Hotch, I feel, is quite a traditional guy. Obviously his first go at marriage didn’t exactly work out so I think he’d might be a bit nervous that he’d screw it up again but other than that I think he’d love to marry you.

N icknames - What do they call their s/o?

Once again, I think he’s quite traditional so things like love or darling or honey are his go to’s

O n Cloud Nine - What are they like when they are in love? Is it obvious for others? How do they express their feelings?

He’s such a softie tbh, like a teenager in love for the very first time. Small touches, holding doors, lingering glances. And being on a team of profilers all of these things are picked up on. The team are just delighted that you both finally got together

P DA - Are they upfront about their relationship? Do they brag with their s/o in front of others? Or are they rather shy to kiss etc. when others are watching?

I think the most PDA you both show is what I said above. You both have to be professional and never want your relationship to get in the way of your work.

Q uirk - Some random ability they have that’s beneficial in a relationship.

I suppose the fact that he’s a profiler maybe. He always knows if something is wrong

R omance - How romantic are they? What would they do to make their s/o happy? Cliché or rather creative?

Hotch loves a good, classic, romantic night out. But often times you both are too tired to do much so you stay home and order a takeout. Anytime where you actually get to spend time together is good time in his eyes.

S upport - Are they helping their s/o achieve their goals? Do they believe in them?

Of course. Hotch loves to watch you work and is so proud of how much your skills have come along since you started at the BAU.

T hrill - Do they need to try out new things to spice out your relationship? Or do they prefer a certain routine?

I think with your jobs, routine is quite good, well as much routine as you can actually get. But he’s always up for new things too as long as you are.

U nderstanding - How good do they know their partner? Are they empathetic?

He knows you so well. It’s like he can read you like a book sometimes.

V alue - How important is the relationship to them? What is it’s worth in comparison to other things in their life?

It’s so important to him. You are part of his family, part of his entire life. 

W ild Card - A random Fluff Headcanon.

If this guy isn’t defined as a big cuddle monster idk what is. He’s always attached to you when you’re alone, especially at night.

X OXO - Are they very affectionate? Do they love to kiss and cuddle?

YES. very much yes. Big cuddler, big kisser, big hugger. all of it he just wants to be near you.

Y earning - How will they cope when they’re missing their partner?

Well he rarely actually gets a chance to miss you because if you’re not home together you’re on a case together.

Z eal - Are they willing to go to great lenghts for the relationship? If so, what kind of?

He’ll do what he can to always make your relationship work but he’s no idiot either. If he can see that the relationship is falling apart then, no matter how painful it is, he has to deal with it.

[tastesoftamriel]

how does table etiquette differ between races/provinces? would it apply to all the population or only in formal company?

There are many rituals and customs surrounding both cooking and eating in Tamriel, and each race is different regarding what's considered appropriate behaviour where food is concerned. Keep this list in mind if you're traveling across Tamriel, especially if you're staying with local hosts! These rules apply mostly to eating with new friends or out in public, in both formal and semi-formal settings such as homes, taverns, and restaurants. While most Tamrielic peoples are pretty forgiving of poor table manners in informal company and settings, remembering these tips will show your hosts that you're both cultured and polite! ~Talviel

Dunmer

The Dunmer are all about rank, and regardless of whether one hails from the Great Houses or the Ashlands, communal dining is a proving ground for outlanders who aren't familiar with Dunmeri customs. Traditionally, the head of the house or clan gets served (or serves themselves) first, and the serving order depends on one's political ranking, age, and social status. For example, a younger Dark Elf who's a general would be permitted to eat before an elder who is lower in social standing. However, traditional hospitality also dictates that the head of the table can give up their first serving to others as an act of honour. This is common when hosting guests, and if you are given the first serving it means you are a true guest of honour. Don't mess it up by displaying poor table etiquette!

Altmer

For the Altmer, table etiquette is everything. One wrong move at the dinner table, no matter how small, will have you disgraced throughout the Summerset Isles and will ensure you'll probably never be invited to dine at any high society soirées ever again. Even young Altmer aren't excused from the strict rules, and table etiquette is generally studied for years before any Altmer are allowed their debut in high society. It would take years to go through the intricacies of High Elf dining faux pas, but in my experience the biggest atrocity one can commit at the dining table is speaking with your mouth full and chewing with your mouth open. In fact, most meals in Altmer households and taverns alike are usually silent (this is why bards are usually employed to stop things from being too awkward). So if you're ever dining with a High Elf, don't be offended if they don't gush over the food right away- it's a case of eat first, talk later!

Orc

You're probably wondering why I even included the Orsimer at all, because most races are under the (wrongful!) impression that they have no table etiquette. However, being allowed to eat with a stronghold is a huge honour, and they have a couple of rules. Firstly, no fighting until after mealtime! Yes, every now and then someone gets mad at the dining table, but fights are reserved for after meals and they have to be taken outside. Brawling in the dining room is considered to be in extremely poor taste even for Orcs, so don't even think about it. The second rule is showing the chef appreciation at the end of the meal...by letting out a loud, healthy burp. I'm not joking! If an Orcish chef comes up to you, you should express your gratitude for your meal by belching. The louder the belch, the better the meal!

Breton

Of all the races of men, the Bretons are the fussiest when it comes to table manners. When dining in High Rock, be sure to brush up on identifying the right cutlery and glasses. Knowing the difference between a snail and a dessert fork, or which knife to use for fish or bantam guar, is sure to impress your Breton hosts and show that you care enough about their food and culture to appreciate using the correct tableware. And for the love of the Divines, please don't drink anything but wine out of a wine glass.

Khajiit

The Khajiit are fairly laid back about dining etiquette, with a few exceptions. Eating with your hands is common, but only after washing them very thoroughly beforehand! Not washing your hands before a meal is a sign of poor upbringing, bad hygiene, and being greedy. On that note, ALWAYS use a serving spoon when sprinkling moon sugar on your food! Not only is the stuff awfully sticky, but nobody wants to eat from a communal moon sugar dish that's had somebody else's fingers in it!

Imperial

The golden rule when dining in Cyrodiil is to know your wine, which is always present at every meal (yes, even at breakfast for some)! You don't have to be a sommelier, but being able to differentiate between a pinot noir and a merlot is something fairly basic that any fan of Imperial cuisine should master. Not only that, but knowing which wine to pair with your food is crucial- asking for a glass of moscato with your main, for example, is bound to cause quite a scandal. If you're ever in doubt, ask your server or the chef what they recommend to prevent the worst faux pas in the Province!

Argonian

Argonians are actually my favourite people to dine with in Tamriel, because they're extremely hospitable folk who love sharing their food! A common custom with Argonians is to have food brought out in large serving bowls which you can help yourself to, with everyone sitting in a circle on the floor around the serving dishes. Like the Khajiit, eating with your hands is common, and washing them well is a prerequisite (not only for politeness, but also because you really don't want to get swamp sickness). While you don't need to worry about how much you eat, be mindful of the elders and hatchlings at the meal, who usually get a bit more out of respect and care.

Redguard

There aren't many hard rules for eating with Redguards, but it's important to be courteous to your hosts and always offer them the first and last bites. This causes a lot of confusion for foreigners, as Redguards are known for being very pushy with their hospitality, especially when it comes to food. Don't fall for the trick though- it is customary to decline what you are offered no less than three times before you can polish off whatever's left! Accepting immediately is seen as greedy, and flat-out refusing is viewed as extremely rude and ungrateful.

Bosmer

The Bosmer, regardless of whether or not they're Green Pact compliant, are sticklers about food wastage, and for good reason! Wood Elf cuisine is usually difficult and slow to cook, and the best way to express your appreciation during mealtimes is to finish every last drop and crumb in front of you. Trust me, I know it can be difficult especially if you're not used to Bosmeri food, but please do your best to finish whatever you're given or have ordered, because your chef will be very sad rather than offended if you don't (and that's almost worse).

Nord

Finally, we return to my people. Like the Orcs, most people wouldn't think that Nords have much in the way of table manners, but there are a couple of things you should bear in mind when eating in Skyrim. Like the Bosmer, food wastage is viewed with disdain. While you're allowed to eat as much as you like (which is actually encouraged!), be sure to take only as much as you can eat. Leaving leftovers on a plate is quite the affront, but asking for a takeaway box is even worse. Not only is Nord food meant to be eaten fresh on the spot, it doesn't exactly keep well and bringing home your partially-eaten steak and potatoes is seen as stingy and cheap. If you're really struggling, it's totally acceptable to ask your Nord friends to help you out if you're close. If you don't know anyone around you, it's also acceptable to feed your leftovers and scraps to the dogs and pigs. Also, unless you're at a tavern or are told otherwise, wash your plate and put it away or your host may very well smash it over your head for presuming that they'll do it for you!

[commander-hanji-zoe]

Can I request for both Levi and Moblit moving in with their s/o in their first apartment ever. Like they have good jobs, and a good income but an appartement is not finished right away. So relationship phase where they are trying to make their house feel like a home and make ends meet. Can you write something like that for Moblit and Levi and their s/o’s ? Thank you!

Hello! You most certainly can, I apologise I went a bit off topic and more into the 'how they'd make the apartment feel like home'. But tried to bring it back round to fit the criteria! I do think they'd both be wonderful to move in with ♥

Moblit

When Moblit and his s/o finally decide to move into an apartment together, Moblit couldn’t be more excited. Due to his nature he would have to be absolutely certain before agreeing to this and therefore it’s likely he’ll have been with his partner for some time (and also discussed the move with Hanji at great lengths).

Before the move Moblit wants to plan everything to ensure nothing goes wrong, he packs up his belongings in a fashion where everything is carefully wrapped, everything is labeled and moved in order of how much the two of them will need things. He also helps his s/o with their packing, labelling etc.

Moblit buys a bag’s worth of items needed in the apartment for as soon as he and his s/o get there. It includes tea bags, milk, toilet roll, some biscuits, soap, a hand towel, air freshener, candle. He also leaves out a picture that he and his s/o bought together while on a trip away. So before they go to sleep for the first night the picture is up in the apartment and starts to feel like it’s their own.

Moblit is pretty organised and so the apartment wouldn’t be too messy for long and soon starts to feel like home.

He struggles a bit with the new routine and both him and his s/o have silly fights over the bathroom/shower in the morning. They also struggle with putting things back into the same cupboard and what to do when the other moves something they need.

But all of the above is teething issues, the same for anyone who is getting used to living with someone for the first time. Although Moblit finds it a little frustrating at first, he isn’t angry and rather he’s more worried his s/o will think it’s a bad idea and change their mind.

But due to Moblit’s kind nature and his ability to see the positive in situations, he and his s/o see the workings out of the new apartment as a fun challenge they have to figure out together and soon instead of petty arguments they have playful fights and end up dancing together in a silly fashion in their small kitchen or sharing showers.

It’ll take a few weeks to a month while he and his s/o are unpacking and figuring things out.

There’s far more takeaway than they initially imagined.

They buy little herb trays to keep in the kitchen so they can source a few fresh ingredients when they do start to cook. The first lot die as they realise they’ve both been watering them at the same time, or thinking the other one will do it. They are far more successful with the second lot, from chives to lemon balm, they have quite the selection.

When it comes to decorating, there’s a few rooms where they decide together and then they have one room which is ‘their’ project, they can choose the colour scheme for half of the room each. What they each do ends up matching.

It takes around three months for Moblit and his s/o to really settle in, be completely unpacked, decorated and used to sharing a living space. But once they’re settled Moblit thinks it was one of the best decisions they’ve ever made.

Whoever is home first starts dinner, they share the cooking/cleaning/laundering and so everything is done fairly equally with no pestering or reminders.

Either Friday or Saturday night every week is their date night, whether staying in or going out, it usually finishes with romantic dancing in the kitchen and being silly/playing pranks.

Moblit is usually the first to wake so he’ll be up and opening the curtains in the living areas, making tea/coffee, feeding any pets they have and watering plants on their balcony. He always let’s his s/o sleep in unless they really have to be up in which case he wakes them gently.

They have a flat warming party, it’s themed, likely 1920s/gangster/flapper girls themed with a table to play poker and cocktails including the old-fashioned, and dark and stormy. Hanji has never been prouder of Moblit.

Getting used to paying rent together is something new and with the bills, food, tax etc. the first few months are certainly a learning curve. They get creative with dinners and DIY, learn how to fix things instead of relying on buying new.

Baked beans on toast with a little cheese, a bowl of cereal, or soup and homemade bread that’s risen poorly end up becoming staple meals for a while until things are more settled.

But the joy of waking up next to one another means the world and makes their financial situation worth it. Having enough money to survive and occasionally treat themselves/do nice things is all they need when they have the other by their side. Moblit will frequently remind his s/o of this and just how rich they each are to have one another.

If they’re cold in winter they have a large supply of over-sized jumpers, cosy socks and blankets. And love nothing more than to cuddle up together.

Any money spare they have for small simple pleasures like coffee out, hiring a rowing boat for half hour, a few beers to drink in the park, a drive-in movie… All these things will be reflected later on in life as some of their happiest moments shared together. The simplicity and how grateful they both were for those small moments of joy, simple pleasures and to share it with one another is the greatest gift of all.

Levi

Before he and his s/o move into their new apartment, Levi cleans it from top to bottom. No area of the apartment goes untouched by him, he needs it to be perfect not just for him but also for his s/o.

Levi isn’t someone who would go into this lightly and it would take a long time (much like with Moblit) to feel ready to move into an apartment with his s/o. There would be a lot of long conversations with them about the pros and cons and Levi would want to establish some rules before they commit. Not in a controlling way you understand, more so that both he and his s/o have a chance to air any concerns and things they would want/expect from one another if they were to move in together and to ensure they were on the same page.

Levi would also want to go to the apartment with his s/o before they move to put a few homely touches in place before they technically move in so it already feels like theirs and has their ‘scent’ as it were. Even if they move into a bed and breakfast or with friends for a few nights before the apartment is ready. Levi would rather do this than try to achieve everything in one day and be in a panic.

Levi’s cool and calm nature certainly means that the move isn’t stressful, things are orderly and if anything goes wrong Levi is on hand to amend/sort and help keep his s/o calm. Although Levi isn’t into PDA, he knows just how to reach his s/o and say he’s there for her. It might be a squeeze of the shoulder, a quick hug when no one is looking, a glance with a small reassuring smile or a quick ruffle of his s/o’s hair.

The first night in the apartment sees them sleeping on a mattress on the floor surrounded by boxes. There’s a few candles lit as they haven’t topped up the electric meter (despite how organised Levi is, he curses himself a bit for that). They have a takeaway and make a fortress of pillows etc. It’s romantic in a way Levi didn’t think he’d be capable of.

Of course the first thing to be unpacked is a kettle, tea bags etc. Before any work commences they sit down and enjoy a cuppa at the kitchen table. There’s a small vase with a few flowers Levi has bought in it. That first cup of tea in the apartment is the best Levi has ever taken and it’s the moment he knows he’s made a great choice.

The first week of unpacking and sorting the apartment goes really well and the two of them work together perfectly. Within just a few days their bedroom is pretty much sorted and things start to fall into place.

Unfortunately, the rest of the unpacking doesn’t go as smoothly, everything is tidy, yes, but a lot of it is tidy in boxes. This is mostly because they’re both so busy with their jobs and agree they’d rather just unpack one box at a time to keep things tidy instead of opening loads of boxes and living in mess.

They end up writing up a Rota for painting/DIY etc. at weekends.

Levi and his s/o buy several simple recipe books and learn to cook new, simple and cheap meals together. It becomes an activity they really look forward to as it brings them closer together and often there’s little moments of laughter, sauce on the nose etc.

When they are settled and everything is in place they invite a few of their closest friends over for a sophisticated dinner party to celebrate.

Their apartment becomes quite the hub for their circle of friends with dinner parties and cocktail making classes. Levi is in his element, it takes him a while to allow others to help him clean up and trust them but with reassure from his s/o he does start to relax.

When Levi and his s/o are experiencing little income (or rather little spare cash) they like to pretend they’ve gone out for a meal.

One of their other favourite past times is going for long walks in the woods, countryside, round a lake. They take a picnic to save money with flasks of tea and a few items that they’ve made together. They also take food for the ducks/geese. Levi likes to sketch his s/o while they’re reading. They read poetry to one another, scribble little creative notes and love to roll round in the grass when no one is around.

Much like with Moblit and his s/o, some of the happiest memories Levi and s/o have from their early days of living together are these moments of making the best of what they had.

[corinnesamuels]

Teddy Wants a Treehouse

(Or, the one where Harry has a minor bout of jealousy.)

When Andromeda Tonks asked Harry and Ginny Potter to watch 4-year-old Teddy for a week, the Potters accepted without hesitation. Andromeda had been playing a tug-of-war-like game with her last living sister, working to discover if Narcissa Malfoy still had traces of the person she had once known. It was decided—after a year of awkward silences, long-forgotten happy memories, and melancholy rememberings of what had been—that the two sisters would take a holiday. Maybe after being away from everything, they could find out one way or another.

At least, she hoped.

While she knew that her surrogate family would not become close friends of the Malfoys if she and Cissy were able to rebuild their relationship, they had respected her desire to try to work things out. It was decided that Ginny would watch Teddy during the days she wasn't in training, and on the days she had to travel to Holyhead, Harry would take Teddy to the childcare wing of the Ministry. Teddy had been before on just a handful of occasions but seemed to love it each time. 

Andromeda told Teddy of the arrangement a few days before she was due to leave for Italy, and he was ecstatic.

"I's gets to stay with Harry' n Ginny for a whole week?" He had asked excitedly in the middle of breakfast. Porridge smeared across his mouth, small clumps taking residence in between strands of shockingly turquoise hair.

He was as messy an eater as his mother had been clumsy. It brought a sad smile to Andromeda's face to think about it.

When Harry and Ginny came to pick Teddy up for the week, Andromeda couldn't tell whether godfather or godson was more excited.

Ginny had no trouble stating that it was Harry.

And as Harry looked up from blowing a raspberry on Teddy's stomach, the little boy still squealing with laughter, the look on the man's face proved that his wife was most definitely correct.

But neither Andromeda, Ginny, nor Harry expected Teddy to come down with dragon pox just two days into the week. Andromeda offered to come back early, but Harry promptly refused. He almost never took days off from work and had plenty of leave accrued to stay home with Teddy. Andromeda looked skeptical during their conversation over the Floo, but Harry assured her that if he could defeat dark wizards and live through three different killing curses, he could take care of his sick godson.

He'd call over to the Burrow and have Molly help, at the very least.

"Really, Andy, we'll be fine. Enjoy your time in Italy. Everything will be fine when you get back." Harry said. His knees were beginning to ache from having to crouch down by the fireplace. Reluctantly, and with many quickly given tips for treating dragon pox and reminders about what Teddy liked and disliked, Andromeda ended the connection. Harry stood up, rubbing his knees.

"Well, Ted, it isn't the week we had planned, but let's make the most of it, shall we?"

Teddy looked up from his place on the hearth rug and began to try scratching his irritated skin, foiled by the scratch-proof gloves he had been forced to wear.

"Itchy." Teddy said grumpily.

Harry managed to get an appointment at St. Mungo's that afternoon. Harry was happy to discover that while Teddy would be a little lethargic for the next couple of days, he would be back to his usual self and ready for all the things Harry had wanted to do before the week was up. The Healer gave Teddy a salve for the irritated skin, a potion to knock the dragon pox out altogether, and a lolly for his troubles. She also had the decency not to laugh when Harry took one as well.

Not an hour after Harry and Teddy returned to the house on the outskirts of Godric's Hollow, Molly Weasley arrived with an arsenal of sickness-beating supplies—enough soup to last a week, a salve she decided was much more effective than whatever rubbish they were passing out at St. Mungo's, and a fresh set of gloves for little hands that still tried to scratch at the pockmarks.

"Mrs. Weasley, I'm green! And itchy!" Teddy said as Molly bustled into the kitchen.        

"Well indeed, you are!" Molly replied as she poured bowls of soup for him and Harry. "But not to worry dear, we'll have you right as rain in no time. Eat up! You'll need your energy. You too, Harry, dear. You're looking quite thin. A good wind might blow you away."

Harry knew better than to waste his time protesting Molly taking care of the two of them, and after one sniff of the soup, he joined in with Teddy, eating hungrily.

"Thanks for bringing us soup, Molly. I really appreciate it. I was thinking that I'd have to order takeaway this evening."

Molly looked scandalized at the thought of a sick toddler eating takeaway. "Nonsense! I'll be sure to bring some more soup over tomorrow. It will make this little one start feeling a little more like himself." She gave Teddy a pat on the head and set the dishes to washing themselves with her wand.

Molly sat with Harry and Teddy at the dinner table for a while, going into exaggerated raptures as Teddy demonstrated his abilities to write his letters and numbers.

"How smart you are, Teddy! You'll be at Hogwarts before we know it."

Teddy looked at once proud and mildly embarrassed at the statement and looked to Harry for further approval. Harry smiled and ruffled Teddy's hair. After the dishes had been washed and dried, and the kitchen looked a bit cleaner than it had when Molly had arrived (though quickly she denied any additional spellwork and proceeded to change the subject), Molly stood to leave.

"Well, I must be off." She said as she double-checked her basket to make sure she had everything. "Arthur will be home soon, and I'll need to get dinner ready. Feel better, dear." Molly kissed Teddy on the top of his head and turned to hug Harry goodbye.

"I'll be around tomorrow to check on the both of you." She said as she grabbed a handful of Floo Powder.

"Thanks again for the soup, Molly. Teddy, what do you say?"

Teddy's little green face looked from Harry to Molly and then to the fireplace. "I want to go wif you to the Burrow! Can I?"

Neither Harry nor Molly had expected that response. A little surprised, Molly looked to Harry and saw him attempt to hide the slightly crestfallen look that passed over his face. Trying to avoid letting Harry know that she had seen it, she bent down to get a little closer to Teddy's eye level.

"You want to go to the Burrow with me?" Teddy nodded eagerly. "Well, Teddy, you know you're always welcome, but Victoire won't be there." She said, thinking that Teddy must have been missing his playmate. At this, Harry squatted down and placed a hand on Teddy's back.

"Is that why you want to go to the Burrow, Ted? You want to play with Vic?"

"I want to go see the treehouse. Harry doesn't have one." Teddy said matter of factly. Harry and Molly looked outside the sitting room window. There were several trees on the property, but as Teddy had mentioned, none of them held a treehouse.

"I don't, do I?" Harry rubbed Teddy's back, mulling things over in his head. "Molly, do you mind if Teddy and I come over and camp out in the treehouse today?"

Teddy gasped with excitement and threw his little arms around Harry's neck before looking back at Molly. "Please, Mrs. Weasley!"

Molly laughed. "Of course, you can. Arthur would love to see you both. How does treacle tart sound for pudding?"

"Excellent." Harry and Teddy replied. Molly chuckled to herself and straightened back up.

After Molly disappeared into the fireplace, Harry stood up and looked around. "Well, Ted, we'd better pack some things up for us to take to the Burrow. Go grab a few things, and I'll send a note to Ginny."

A few hours later, Harry and Teddy were sitting in the treehouse on a pallet of sleeping bags and pillows, reading the latest issue of Martin Migs the Mad Muggle. Teddy loved the silly stories and was sent into a giggling fit every couple of pages. He was right in the middle of one when they heard footsteps on the treehouse ladder.

"Looks like you two are having plenty of laughs without me. Did you save me any fun?"

"Ginny!" Teddy squealed as the redhead crawled over to them in the treehouse.

"Wotcher, Ted." She grinned before placing a kiss on his turquoise fringe. "Hello, love." She said as Harry leaned over to get a kiss of his own.

"How was training?" Harry asked, ignoring Teddy's groans of "yuck!" when the kiss lasted longer than Teddy preferred.

"It was good. Gwenog mostly had us go over some new approaches to next week's match. The Tornados' new beater is starting, and he's got a wicked aim."

"Can I go to the Quidditch match? I want to see the snitch!" Teddy asked as he crawled onto Ginny's lap. Harry beamed at Teddy's mention of the snitch and sent a smug look over to Ginny.

"We'll have to check with your Gran, Ted. But wouldn't you rather get more excited about the quaffle?" Ginny asked, glancing at Harry, whose mouth was now in a straight line.

"I like them both! But snitches are really fast and they get a bazillion points!"

"I suppose that to a four-year-old, 150 and a bazillion are quite close to the same thing." Harry said. "Nice try with the quaffle bit, though."

Ginny stuck out her tongue at him and then turned back to Teddy. "Is that your new issue of Martin Migs, Ted? Is it as funny as the last?"

After the rest of Martin Migs, a few dragon coloring pages, and one and a half rounds of Babbity Rabbity and the Cackling Stump, Teddy Lupin began to doze off. Ginny rubbed his back as Harry laid him down on the sleeping bag. "Poor kid. I remember when Ron and I had dragon pox. At least we had each other to play with."

"Yeah," Harry said as Ginny moved to sit on his lap. "When he mentioned that he wanted to come over, your mum thought that he wanted to play with Victoire."

"She also mentioned that you looked a little hurt when he said it."

Harry felt himself blushing subconsciously. "I had hoped that she didn't notice that . . ." He muttered under his breath. "I thought he was bored with me at first. Then he mentioned the treehouse, and I realized that it did seem a lot cooler than being cooped up in our sitting room all day."

"He adores you, Harry," Ginny said, pressing a kiss to his lips. "Believe it or not, even more than treehouses. And quaffles, apparently." She feigned a look of disbelief. 

Harry laughed. "Apparently."

Over the next few days, Teddy returned to his normal coloring and was ruled to be back in perfect health. Harry, still on cloud nine from spending the week with his godson, decided to stay home even on the days that Ginny didn't need to go to Holyhead and squeezed as many activities in as they could into their last two days together. They got ice cream at Florean Fortescue's, went to the joke shop to play with some of George's more toddler-friendly items, and went to the cinema in London. And then, almost too soon, Andromeda returned from Italy, and it was time for Teddy to go home.

The next weekend, Ginny awoke and instinctively backed closer to Harry, only to find that Harry wasn't there. She turned over and looked around where he should be lying and, confused, glanced around the room. She didn't hear any sounds of movement in the bath, and no sounds were coming from the kitchen. Getting out of bed, she pulled on her dressing gown and walked over to where they kept their calendar in the kitchen, but his work schedule showed that he didn't have to report to the Ministry today either.

Where had he gone off to?

She noticed a cereal bowl and a used coffee mug in the sink, the tea kettle on the stove, and smiled. She hadn't been able to pick up his coffee habit in the mornings and could only tolerate the stuff when she was in dire straits. But Harry had been there and grabbed a bite to eat before he went to wherever he had gone off to and had gotten the kettle ready so that she could have tea when she woke up.

Ginny pondered this as she poured a cuppa and heard a tapping noise. She walked over to the window and saw her husband standing on a ladder by one of the sturdier trees in their yard, hammering at a set of wooden planks. Wrapping her dressing gown more securely around her, she walked outside to the tree.

"I was wondering where you had gone off to."

Harry looked down at her and grinned. "I wanted to get an early start and didn't want to wake you."

"I noticed," she said, sipping her tea and smiling at him as he went back to working on the boards. This was one of the few moments outside of their time with their friends or family that he didn't look so burdened. "What is it that you are doing, exactly?"

"Teddy wants a treehouse." He replied simply. "Could you pass me that instructions page? The one by your foot?"

Ginny picked up the instructions page and handed it to Harry. She watched as he tapped it with his wand and caused it to hover in front of him. He squinted at it briefly and picked the hammer up again. There was a sudden intake of breath, and he stuck the pad of his thumb instinctually in his mouth before looking at it.

"Splinter." He said at her concerned look. Ginny examined his thumb as she pulled his wand off of the boards and tapped twice on the small sliver of wood lodged in his hand. The splinter shot out and into the air as the skin healed itself.

"I'm pretty sure you could have gotten one that was already made." Ginny said as she placed his wand back on the planks of wood that harry was assembling. "Or done it with magic."

He shook his head. "Some things are better done by hand."

"Your hands are quite capable, from my personal experience." She smirked before taking one last sip of her tea, noticing that Harry looked quite pleased with himself at the statement.

Read the rest on ao3.

[anextraordinarymuse]

Hi ...it’s me again, with another WCTH meta

And since I am incapable of making these short and to the point, buckle up and thank you in advance if you stay for the whole rambling thing. This one deals with 8x05 (obviously). Let’s gooooo!

I loved seeing Nathan tease Bill about his uniform. It’s a great moment of levity in an otherwise serious set of storylines for Nathan so far, and I am so glad they included it. ALSO though, I appreciate that this is a side of Nathan that we get to see here and there because it ties right in to Allie’s assertion that Nathan was a lot more fun before the events that took place at Fort Clay. They’re establishing that even though we don’t always see them (or it might take some time to come out) there are these really fun and playful sides to Nathan’s personality. I love them no matter what, but I really appreciate them for how special these moments feel. And I feel like Nathan has kind of an understated humor rather than an outright goofy, in your face humor (unless kids are involved, in which case he’s just outright silly with his funny faces and dad jokes).

I have mixed feelings about the scene with Elizabeth and Lucas on the bridge. I like that they showed Lucas’s considerate side by having him choose not to attend the graduation ceremony in order to not make it uncomfortable for Nathan (and I hope they become friends eventually because they have a funny dynamic); I didn’t like that it felt like they were showing Lucas’s considerate side at the expense of Elizabeth’s. Having her play it like she didn’t even consider that it might be uncomfortable for Nathan felt disingenuous. Elizabeth has always been a thoughtful and considerate character and she has said many times that she doesn’t want to hurt Nathan or Lucas. To have her suddenly blind to the fact that having Lucas there would make it difficult for Nathan just felt wrong - especially after the scene they gave us with Nathan riding by on the horse. It made Elizabeth seem inconsiderate - which leads me into the next bullet point

They have really humanized Elizabeth this season. Is it comfortable? No. Is it my favorite? Not exactly. BUT it is good storytelling. In previous seasons Elizabeth has always been a little hard to relate to because she can come across as sanctimonious and too perfect. She’s always thoughtful, and chastises people for their mistakes but also super quick to face and fix her own. And that’s just not realistic. This season, we get to see an Elizabeth that is clearly doing things we may not agree with, and being selfish, and not realizing she’s making mistakes - or realizing it and making them anyway. When she rides away from Nathan after he tells her he loves her that’s clearly a moment of giving in to cowardice. Not only does she literally run away, we then see and learn that she’s just been flat out avoiding Nathan. (Note that I am not ragging on her character here or how she chose to handle it. Whether you want her with Lucas or Nathan, that was a moment of cowardice. She straight up runs away from her problems/an uncomfortable situation and then just ... pretends it’ll go away if she doesn’t address it). Elizabeth is also being rigid, selfish, and what sometimes feels like mean. These are normal things - everyone is like this in some way, at some time or another. Elizabeth has dismissed Nathan’s love almost out of hand simply because of his profession (and because she’s terrified); she chastises Nathan for being jealous of her being with Lucas when Nathan himself won’t just ask her out, but when he does she hesitates and then backs out ON THE WAY TO DINNER and still asks Nathan and Allie to walk her home (I am not lying when I say that this is probably the only scene in the entire show that I absolutely despise and I will not watch it); she has apparently forgotten that she doesn’t want to hurt Nathan and shows little consideration for his comfort. Now, I don’t hate Elizabeth for these things, I’m just noting that this is what we’re seeing. This is also one of the main reasons that I consider her relationship with Lucas to be an act of selfishness. She even mentioned in 8x05 that when she’s with Lucas there’s nothing weighing on her - she doesn’t have to grade papers, or be a mom first, or deal with the very real trauma and fear that come with loving Nathan. Lucas and their relationship is an escape for Elizabeth, and we’re all a little escapist at times.

On this point, I have mixed feelings: Nathan and Elizabeth’s scene in her house. There’s a lot going on here, and I have questions. When did Elizabeth leave a note for Nathan? Was it during the day and he didn’t get it until later because he and Allie were out all day? Was it in the evening, or after her date with Lucas? Because there’s a lot to unpack there if the answer is anything except she left it during the day and he didn’t get it until later. That conversation could have waited until they were on neutral ground, in the daylight. Instead, it happens in a very intimate setting. It’s night time and the lights are turned down low (and Nathan Grant looks like a whole ass snack with his unbuttoned shirt and rolled up sleeves and forget Elizabeth, that man is MINE) and everything about this scene is personal. There’s a clear undercurrent of unease and awkwardness between them and they’re clearly not on the same page, but there is a vulnerability to them and this scene that is hard to miss. Also, this scene is lit very warmly: lots of yellow and gold tones in the lighting which is mostly provided by low lamps and candles, and soft shadows. Again, it’s intimate and personal. But the real takeaway from this scene for me is the caliber of Nathan’s character. The fact that the woman he loves has just chastised him for basically doing the same thing she’s doing and not facing his problems, and then bringing up Fort Clay again, and he not only accepts that with grace but then owns up to the hurt his actions have caused with real humility and chagrin ... seriously, I’m in love with him. And I think that it’s clear that in this moment, Nathan is showing that not only is he a stellar role model for Allie, but also Elizabeth. Whether she wants it to be or not, whether she wants to admit it or not, I think Nathan is the measure of the quality that Elizabeth is looking for in a partner as well. I think that will have a hand in the undoing of Lucas and Elizabeth’s relationship. 

The dinner date with Lucas and Elizabeth is also interesting. It feels very different from her scenes with Nathan. There is little vulnerability there. They’re shy and a little nervous with each other, which is natural for a new relationship, but there’s not a lot of depth. The whole date is very romantic and reminiscent of Jack’s grand gestures - all of the candles and the fancy dinner (which we’ve seen is typical of Lucas) - but it’s almost the exact opposite of the scene she shares with Nathan. The lighting is colder, the shadows are sharper, and even their clothes are flashy. The whole thing feels very formal and easy, and their conversations are only surface deep. 

The way that Elizabeth looks at Nathan after he walks away from the graduation ceremony ... no it’s cool, she’s fine, I’m fine, we’re fine

This isn’t necessarily an observation from this episode, but more a general observation from the last few and what we know of the next few: I don’t think Elizabeth knows what she wants, or is ready for what’s happening. I think things will end with Lucas and she’ll spend a few episodes alone and trying to figure things out. My guess is that the kiss that’s teased in 8x06 won’t happen, but it will scare Elizabeth or make her realize that she’s not ready/confused/not all in. We’ll go back to the status quo - awkwardness between Elizabeth and both Nathan and Lucas as they all try to navigate each other and the situation - and then Elizabeth realizing what she wants and gathering her courage in the last three or four episodes

That’s all for now (until I realize I forgot to add things)! Overall it wasn’t my favorite episode, but it wasn’t the worst. It had great moments between other characters, some of which made me actually giggle. I am tired of this triangle, but I’m still convinced Nathan is endgame.