#did you know Sophie speaks 6 languages | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

tellthemeerkatsitsfine · 2 years ago

Text

I downloaded this episode after it aired last night, but I’m glad I saved it for today to watch it. Last night, I’d have gone through it quickly, knowing I needed to be up at 6 AM the next morning for the last day of a work placement. Today, I have just finished my work placement, celebrating the fact that I managed to get through it without a single breakdown, and have all the time I like (for now) to relax and watch these things the way they are meant to be watched: slowly, with many pauses to appreciate the masterpiece in front of me.

So in light of that, here are thoughts on Taskmaster s13e08, written as I watch it:

- The loveliest thing to hold above your head - I haven’t seen any of the prizes yet, but if anyone pulled a Katy Wix, they should win this one. And by “pulled a Katy Wix”, I mean “borrowed, or perhaps just stole, a Taskmaster trophy from a previous winner, like Katy did to Kerry Godliman”.

- Okay fine, Sophie Duker’s tiny stand-up participation trophy is so adorable that it’s possibly better than an actual Taskmaster trophy. Good entry.

- I absolutely love how funny Alex finds Ardal’s explanation of his prize. Can just see him thinking “Aw shit, why have I never incorporated a ping-pong paddle into the opening bits of this show?”

- Bridget’s parasol is genuinely very nice, but I can’t get past her referring to a child throughout her story as “it”. Very strange, quite funny, on brand for Bridget.

- Holy shit! Holy shit! When they read the first task and just said “Learn Swedish”, I didn’t dare hope. But then they added that there will be a conversation with a Swedish person. Surely this means... surely this means... they wouldn’t sully the good man’s legacy by bringing in a different Swedish person, so does this mean... fucking Fred?!? Are we getting Fred back after all this time? Fred’s the best! I’ve missed him! Fred!

- Okay now that I’ve had that initial reaction, I can say I also like this task. A twist on their previous Swedish-based Fred interactions, in which they had to navigate the language barrier from their own side. This time they are, quite literally, speaking his language. That’s fun.

- This season has a bunch of tasks that have “Your time started when” instructions, so there’s some time when they think they’re just messing around but actually the clock is running down. I’m sure that did not help the Chris Ramsey paranoia, that is by now well established to be a running theme of season 13.

- I love how clearly Alex relished getting to deadpan, “Please come and talk to a Swedish person.” So far, this episode has highlighted two things that fit deeply within Alex’s sense of humour: the image of someone holding a ping-pong paddle high while people follow them around, and to pretend it’s normal to refer to his friend Fred only as “the Swedish guy” or “the Swede”. The latter is a source of humour that was tapped to great effect in the first few seasons, and I’m so pleased they’re bringing it back.

- Now that I see their setup (Fred on an iPad, which makes sense as they did say at some point that the reason he stopped appearing on the show is he moved back to Sweden), I’m disappointed that none of these contestants seem technologically incompetent enough to give us some Mel Giedroyc-like moments. I still laugh so hard when I remember the way she approached the tablet like it was a potentially dangerous foreign object, and could not get the hang of talking into it as though Fred were in the room with her. Unfortunately, Chris, Sophie, Judi, Bridget, and even Ardal are likely to well versed in how to do video calls like a normal person.

- Chris seemed to have started strong, immediately knowing how to answer “How are you?” That’s a good strategy, working out what the Swede is likely to say when a panel show has told him to have a conversation with some Anglophone comedians, and coming up with simple replies. I say Chris started strong because he did go downhill quite quickly after that. Though to be fair, I understood what he meant when he took one look at Fred and said he’d immediately forgotten it all. I feel like I could also spend 15 minutes carefully learning Swedish phrases according to my strategic predictions about what will come in handy, and then my mind would go totally blank when expected to recall them in the room.

- Oh shit, there’s a title drop from Judi. She’s named a lot of episodes this season.

- Well, not a great start overall (I mean, it was good from a comedy perspective, not great for, as Alex suggested Fred’s season four task could do, improving Britain’s relations with Europe). Judi said a bunch of words that sounded a bit like they could be something but I’m pretty sure they were gibberish, and Chris lost his mind.

- “Contestant knows they’ve done badly, and this contestant is competitive enough to be upset when they’ve done badly from a points perspective, as well as self-conscious enough to just be upset that they failed so hard on television” - that is a genre of Taskmaster images that I always enjoy.

It’s especially funny when it’s contrasted with another contestant who has also done badly, but this one is uninterested in the competitive side of Taskmaster and unconcerned about whether they appear to be bad at whatever silly things happen on this show, so they’re much more collected about it. Think Ed Gamble and David Baddiel when Ed was killing flies and David was just sitting there saying (I paraphrase, but not much) “I mean I’m terrible at this game but I’m not going to lose sleep over it, what’s wrong with you?”

We don’t often get both those contrasting images into the same screenshot, but it’s lovely when it happens.

- I like Alex letting us know that Fred is back by “genuinely popular demand”. Like, “I know it sounds like we’re doing a bit, but seriously, people fucking loved Fred.” Damn right they did.

- Oh shit, Ardal sounds like he’s spoken some Swedish-like language before. Right off the bat he has a bit of the accent going and sounds so much less awkward than the others.

- I’ve just thought of something: the task said the phrase book and tablet had to stay in the caravan. Didn’t say anything else had to. I’d have copied stuff from the book onto some paper and brought that with me.

- It is amazingly funny that 1) Ardal felt like had to change his name to something that sounded Swedish, and 2) he went with Sven Johansson. He just took Scarlett Johansson and tried to make it sound like a boy’s name, right?

- The fact that all these people have had to ask Fred his name tells you how many previous Taskmaster seasons they have not watched.

- Did Ardal just ask Fred if he is a herring? No Ardal, Fred was the guy from seasons 1-4, Herring wasn’t until season 10.

- Ardal and Sophie both seem to have taken a more proactive approach, just learning the stuff they want to say and then saying it, rather than learning some phrases that could be helpful and then awkwardly trying to fit them in. Which works a lot better than the previous attempts, though one could argue that it makes for less of a reciprocal conversation. I guess they’ve both asked questions though, so that’s some back and forth. Even if Ardal’s questioning revolved around whether the guy is a herring.

- Sophie has informed the guy that she is both pregnant and hungry. It occurs to me that Fred would probably have no reason to disbelieve her, it’s such a weird thing to say if it isn’t true, and perfectly plausible that Taskmaster could have brought on a pregnant contestant, and she’d learned how to declare that as a piece of conversation. He probably assumed she really was pregnant until Alex would have told him otherwise afterward. I don’t know why, but that makes it so much funnier.

- If Ardal’s story in the studio is true, then I’m impressed that he managed to accurately recite a Swedish song he heard one night while drunk and knowing he’d need to remember it for later. If it isn’t true, then how the hell did he know that song?

- Chris, Judi, and Sophie have just talked shit about Fred the Swede, so they’re all dead to me now. Ardal O’Hanlon for Taskmaster season 13 champion, because you do not disrespect Fred on my watch! (I’m like 96% joking.)

- Ah, Bridget is calling her brother. I did wonder if, before implementing this task, they checked whether any of the contestants actually speak Swedish. That would be such a big advantage that it would really mess up the task. I guess they might have checked that, but they didn’t control for whether any of them know any Swedish speakers. Or Sofie Hagen, who was close enough to Swedish for Katherine Ryan. I wonder if Bridget’s brother knows actual Swedish, or just a vaguely Nordic language.

- So, this has always been a debatable issue on Taskmaster - is unauthorized phone use cheating (I say “unauthorized” to differentiate it from something like that season 12 task when they had to keep someone on a call, and were told to use their phones)? They’re not banned in the actual rules, so they’re not technically cheating, but they are against the spirit of the game. There’s a good argument that Katherine Ryan phoning up Sofie Hagen in the season 2 task was sort of bullshit, which is especially controversial given that she won the whole season by such a narrow margin.

I feel like the general consensus is that phone use is okay if it’s funny, enhances the task performance by enough to be justified, and doesn’t make the difference between winning a task or losing it. Otherwise, it might not be cheating, but it’s not exactly a respectable way to win. And I don’t think Bridget’s use was justified here. Any of them could have just brought their phone in and used a translation app, if there were fine. I feel like writing phrases down on paper would have been a creative way around the task’s wording, but bringing a phone just makes it pointless.

- Okay, I think that scoring is fair enough. If they were going on best language demonstration alone, obviously Bridget should win. I like the idea of allowing her move that didn’t technically break the rules, but knocking her down a place and giving the five points to Ardal.

- “Stick your tongue out as far as it will go, and keep it out until further notice.” I haven’t heard the next part yet, but that line and the setup with the weird food makes this feel like early seasons of Taskmaster. Along the lines of the pie identifying task in season one or something. The tongue being out suggests a straightforward gross-out challenge like how they used to collect sweat or tears. Sort of season 7 vibes too, like the one about not blinking. That along with Fred being back makes this feel like a classic episode.

- Right, now that I’ve heard the entire task’s instructions, I only have three words to say about that: What the fuck?

- I’m sorry, I tried to tell myself not to write this point, but I can’t help saying, I’m glad Sophie Duker is queer, because if she didn’t occasionally find herself having sex with people who have vulvas, that would be a waste of that massive tongue. I’m sorry for pointing that out once and I promise I won’t do it again.

Conversely... I guess it’s good that Bridget’s straight? I’m not sure I believe her tongue is actually that short, that’s ridiculous. How does she eat food?

- Wow. Alex did not give us a content warning before Daisy May Cooper ate watermelon out of Richard Herring’s hand in season 10, or before the awful manipulating objects with the tongue task from season 11. They showed that clip of Lee Mack’s tongue so many times that it’s burned into my brain, and no warning first. So the question is: is what’s coming up somehow worse than all that, or did Alex give us that warning because there were complaints about how gross Lee’s tongue was and they were told they had to warn people next time?

So far in this episode, Alex has had to clarify that he was being genuine about two things: “No, seriously, people really did popularly demand the return of Fred,” and, “No, seriously, you should actually look away from this next task if you’re easily grossed out by human spit.”

- Jesus Christ. I’ve just finished watching Judi and Ardal go and what the fuck? Yeah that was pretty bad. Definitely worse than Lee. Maybe not quite worse than Daisy and Richard, but fucking close.

- Now that I’ve had a minute to think about it, I can say I think the strategy has to be just a quick touch of the tongue. Not a proper lick, just put the tip against the food and pull it away fast. Though I guess the other good thing to do would be to put your tongue back in your mouth as soon as Alex finishes reading the instructions, like Katherine Ryan with the egg task in season 2, and say “Yeah my dignity is worth more than this.” But given that the two people we’ve seen so far are the least competitive in this season and even they gave it as shot, I assume no one walked away from this with (to quote a season 5 episode, my references are all over the place right now) dignity intact.

- So they’ve saved Sophie “massive tongue” Duker for last (I almost made the nickname something more explicitly related to the use for that tongue that I suggested earlier, and I’d like credit for the restraint I showed in not sticking with that). I think this will be good.

- Chris gets it, has done exactly what I suggested as the best strategy (well, aside from deciding that the only winning move is not to play). Bridget has, of course, done the opposite of that.

- Okay, maybe Bridget’s tongue really is that short. Because I think she just screwed over by that - she lost the task when her tongue slipped back into her mouth, but it happened pretty much accidentally because it was barely out to begin with. I didn’t know people could have tongues that short.

- I’m really sorry for preserving something so disgustingly horrifying with a screenshot, but the look of pure hatred in Chris Ramsey’s eyes as he glared up at Alex during that task was very funny. You can just see him thinking “Why did I spend all those years wanting to come on this fucking show?”

- Okay, let’s fucking go. Let’s see if Sophie, as the size of her tongue and her position in the running order suggests, going to do something special.

- Alex Horne: We’ve reached the ten-minute mark.

Me: Holy Jesus hell, let us all bow down before our queen.

I realize ten minutes is less time than some of the previous totals, but all the others were dying by this point. Sophie looks like she could go forever. I compared this to the blinking task in season 7, and Sophie is very much the Rhod Gilbert With His Eyes Taped Open For Seven Fucking Minutes of keeping her tongue out. I mean that as the highest possible compliment.

- Alex Horne: Which is the worst one?

Sophie Duker:

Again, I’m sorry for preserving that image. But the fact that Sophie can conjure up that kind of roast while having kept her tongue out for that fucking long is genuinely impressive. Everything about this is genuinely impressive. Absolutely horrifying. Genuinely impressive.

Alex said before Sophie’s turn that Chris was the leader up until then. So I assume Sophie will beat him by one point in this task, with her taking five and him taking four. It’ll be very fitting if she beats him by that one point in the overall scores across the season. This is a level of commitment that means she deserves to win the whole thing. And to have some nice lukewarm water for her tongue as soon as this is over. Jesus Christ.

- I’m so sorry, I have to post another screenshot of this horror show because look at this shit. She’s nearly finished the fucking popsicle!

Also, look at Alex’s face. I think this is one of the few times I’ve ever seen him genuinely put off by something a contestant’s done. I loved when he told Sophie, “I’m not making you do this,” and he keeps reminding her that she can stop at any point. I’m pretty sure he passed beyond his normal character and is now just genuinely concerned for her well being.

First eating the entire vulva made of butter, and now this. Sophie Duker did not come on Taskmaster to fuck around.

- Jesus hell. Twenty-six minutes. I don’t think I could keep my tongue out for half that long even without the challenge of licking that stuff. And I’m not going to fucking try.

- “I don’t think I know who I am if I’m not licking those things anymore.” - Sophie Duker

- God damn. I’m not one to advocate bonus points normally, I think they should be used very sparingly, but Sophie should have gotten one there.

- The third task is fun, a nice creative break after that straightforward physical gross-out one. I think we need this. Let’s watch them all find some stylish accessories and keep their bodily fluids inside their bodies.

- And Judi makes Alex do the entire task for her again. Her combined laziness during the actual tasks with bullshit in the studio has been a fun bit this season.

- Well this is not a great episode to be Chris Ramsey. I just watched that whole sequence of him wandering around before coming out in Alex’s shoes and a cowboy hat, and that was amazingly funny.

I love that Chris Ramsey approaches this show with so much care and paranoia and attention to detail and making sure he hasn’t missed anything at all, and often it really pays off, but sometimes it just backfires. Like here, when he loses his mind and gets so fixated on finding the answer that he’s convinced is hidden somewhere that it doesn’t occur to him to try the obvious. At one point he grabbed a giant hanger or something and asked, “Is that a clue” - he was looking for something Alex had hidden. And was looking so hard that he forgot he was allowed to make stuff.

Something like that happening because of a contestant being so competitive his brain shut down - that’s peak Taskmaster.

- Okay, I went to put away my laundry after writing that previous point, and that gave me time to think about how the hell he could have had such a big gap in his understanding despite being so focused, and how this is basically just sports psych 101. Ed Gamble talks on the podcast about how things seem so obvious when you look back and have seen everyone else, but in the moment, it’s just you there, and sometimes things don’t click. And that is an interesting look at human behaviour because it’s how things happen when you in things actually matter too.

This is a silly comparison, because Taskmaster is just a comedy show and of course sports are real things of material importance (that’s definitely true and I won’t be told otherwise, they’re not just all meaningless social constructs, I need something to believe in), but that is a phenomenon that’s really common in highly competitive sports. As a coach I have studied the way being put on the spot creates panic and panic creates tunnel vision and slower reaction times and adrenaline dumping that further shuts down the more complex cognitive functions so they zero in on one thing and can process nothing else, and that’s why you can have an athlete perform incredibly well on less important days but fall apart on more important ones. I’ve learned in coaching courses about how to increase an athlete’s focus when needed, but also how to decrease it when it passes a certain threshold and starts being psychologically detrimental.

I guess this is obvious, you don’t have to be a competitive coach or athlete to know that sometimes people choke under pressure. But this was an example of Chris’ brain spectacularly failing him, just missing something incredibly obvious even though he’s the one who spends most of him time obsessively making sure he doesn’t miss anything, and I find it interesting that there actually entire fields of study dedicated to understanding why this sort of catastrophic failure occurs at times like that.

- Major David Baddiel vibes from Ardal here. Even aside from the general season 9 vibes, as this is reminiscent of the tasks in which they had to make legs and make part of their body extra long.

- Love that Judi really did just come out in a bunch of shoes stuck together and a bunch of hats stuck together. She kept to her original plan of making Alex do all the work.

- Finally, someone taking this task the correct amount of seriously!

Which is really quite seriously, enough to be a real effort in and do something cool, but not so seriously that they forget what arts and crafts are. I feel like this task was basically made for Bridget, great job.

- Sophie is being saved for last again. If that is, as I suspect, because she did something great, then this is a very good episode for her. Following from last week, the momentum is on her side going into the final two episodes.

- Sophie, what the fuck?

I mean, I guess the size of the hat is debatable, but you have to give her the longest shoes and style point. No one said she had to do an entire character, but that’s the sort of thing Sophie Duker delivers.

- I would complain about Ardal getting the pity point for style, but my girl Sophie’s having a good day, so it’s all right.

- Ooh, another team live task. I like that they’ve started including those.

- I thought I’d let this live task play through before pausing it to write stuff, to be honest because it’s getting late and I’m tired from a long day at work and decided to wrap this post up, but I do have to pause it briefly to say they’ve just finished writing this first words and we haven’t seen the women’s words yet but I love the look of concern, which is presumably based on hearing the men’s words and realizing her interpretation of the task was way off.

Judi, what the fuck did you do?

- I mean, Judi isn’t all that competitive. So this one can’t be blamed on some sports psych scientific stuff, Judi just forgot how many legs birds have.

Absolutely hilarious, well done. Perfect facial expressions and body language to match. Judi Love is so much funnier than I used to give her credit for.

- The way Ardal relished reading the word “knob” out loud - also worth pausing the video again to point out. Very funny.

- Bridget looks almost as pleased with herself for the “Purple Rain” joke as Ardal was with himself for writing “knob”. This is a fun task that way, gives the comedians a chance to think of a joke in the moment, write it down, and then enjoy sharing it with everyone. Which is sometimes genuinely adorable.

- This is a lovely screenshot:

- Judi Love and Bridget Christie, working out that they both wiped out “penis” from their list of things that are nice to put in your mouth:

- Solid episode, I really enjoyed that, and I’m still so pleased about Fred. Sophie has a six-point lead over Bridget and an eight-point lead going into the final two episodes, I think she can hold it but it’ll probably be close. I like that this season is competitive to the end, excited for the final two episodes. Also going to bed now. I had a long day, and it’s time to try not to see tongues with spit dangling from them in my nightmares!

9 notes · View notes

scuttling · 3 years ago

Text

Interview

Fandom: Criminal Minds Pairing: Aaron Hotchner/Latina OFC Sophie Cortes Word Count: 1,729 Tags: SFW, Pre-relationship, First meetings Summary: Aaron finally gets the greenlight to hire a new agent. Collection: Sophie Cortes timeline, 0-6 Months at the BAU (See Masterlist for reading order) A/N: Sophie and Reid are partners, because I love them! Link to AO3 or read below!

It takes two months for Hotch to convince Section Chief Strauss to open a requisition for a new member in the BAU. There was a lot of paperwork to be filled out, including detailed explanations as to why he felt the team needed another profiler. He thought it was obvious: for all they do work together as a cohesive unit, Morgan and Elle were technically partners, and when she left, Prentiss took her place. Reid doesn’t have a partner, which makes him feel like a third wheel, sometimes.

(He won’t admit to it, but Hotch notices things. It’s kind of his job.)

Needless to say, the position becomes available, but it takes another couple of months—and several interviews—for Hotch to find the right person to fill it.

Agent Cortes comes highly recommended by the Intelligence Section’s unit chief, someone he worked on a case with in his early days at the BAU; she is young, just 29, but she is more than qualified, and the referring agent is someone whose opinion he respects, so he’s hopeful.

Gideon sits in on the interview because he respects his opinion, too, although Hotch will make the final decision.

Cortes is Latina, petite and polite, with a firm handshake, a warm smile, and dark, striking eyes. Gideon looks at her with somewhat passive interest (something only Gideon can pull off) as they go over the highlights of her resume.

“You have bachelor's degrees in Psychology and Sociology, and master’s degrees in Behavioral Science and Criminology, all from the University of Chicago. How did you manage all of that, at your age?” Hotch asks, wondering if maybe she is gifted like Reid.

“A lot of hard work,” she replies, and it’s an answer he likes. “I graduated high school, enrolled in a dual major program and completed the bachelors’ at 22. Then I was hired onto the Chicago Police Department, and I worked there and got my Criminology degree at the same time. The Behavioral Science degree came after; I began it in person, and they let me finish online when I moved here to join the FBI.”

“What interested you about behavioral science?”

“I grew up in a city that was rich with diversity, but I still noticed that certain people were susceptible to falling into certain patterns, and became curious about why we as people do the things we do. I was already interested in criminal justice, so it seemed a natural path to take.” He nods, jots down a couple of notes before looking back up.

“Tell us about your time with the Chicago Police Department.”

“I went through training while finishing my Criminology degree, worked a beat for about six months before being assigned to the Intelligence Unit; my sergeant found value in the way I was able to get people talking, and a large part of my work was with criminal informants. I worked in Intelligence for three and a half years, and for the last two I was on the Tactical Response Team as well.”

“Tactical Response—that’s SWAT?”

“Yes, sir.”

“How did you end up in SWAT?” Gideon asks, speaking up for the first time; she looks over at him for the first time, as well. “I mean no offense, you’re clearly more than capable, you’re just… small.” She gives him a brief smile.

“Well, there was a hostage situation, the team leader determined that we could get a vantage point from an air duct... and I was the only one who fit.”

“You don’t seem resentful of that,” Hotch notices, a bit surprised. It’s not an origin sorry everyone would be proud of. Her eyes turn back to him.

“I find it’s more important what you do with your time somewhere than how you got there. I contributed to many successful responses over the course of two years that had nothing to do with my size.” It is a great answer, and he holds back a smile of his own, simply nods.

“So you left Chicago to join the bureau; did you have your sights set on any department in particular?”

“I was torn between Language Analysis and Intelligence and ended up somewhere in the middle.”

“Intelligence because of your background, why Language Analysis?” Gideon asks.

“I speak 6: English, Spanish, and Italian as my native languages, plus Russian, French, and German. I have an ear for them.”

“Impressive,” Gideon says, nodding, lips pressed together. Cortes smiles, modest.

“It’s helpful; more than 30% of the population of Chicago speaks a language other than English at home.” Hotch does crack a smile at that, because the statistic reminds him of Reid.

“How would you describe your current role with Intelligence?”

“The official title is Intelligence Liaison. I’m part of a team that travels domestically and internationally, to law enforcement or government agencies, to debrief them on threats we’ve identified, or potential threat activity, and to help them formulate offensive countermeasures.” There is a lot of experience there that would translate well to the BAU, that much is clear. If anything, she may be overqualified, but they would never turn down the help.

“What’s the most frustrating part of your job?” It’s a question he always throws in, because true frustrations—and how one handles them—can say a lot about a person.

“When they don’t listen and people die. I do my best to make sure it doesn’t happen often.” He looks up from the form to the woman, who, in that moment, shows the things she’s seen all over her face. They’re gone from one blink to the next, and he breaks eye contact to choose his next question. No follow up needed there.

“It sounds like you have experience interacting with law enforcement, which is important here at the BAU. We can’t work on a case unless we are invited by the agency with jurisdiction, so maintaining healthy relationships is vital. We have a communications liaison who deals directly with police departments, sheriff’s stations, FBI field offices, and the media, but knowing how to handle them is a big part of the job.” It’s not a question as much as a confirmation, and she nods.

“I’m confident in my ability to interact with other law enforcement in a direct but respectful way. It’s something I’ve done a lot of as Intelligence Liaison.” He has one final question, and though he’s already more than pleased with the interview, the answer will make or break his decision.

“Why the BAU?”

“Curiosity is what got me interested in behavioral science, but it’s empathy that makes me interested in the BAU. My current work helps to save lives, but it’s all very large scale, and it can be detached, cold. I can be detached and impartial when I need to be, but I can’t deny it would feel like a better use of my skill set to make a more tangible difference.” He agrees, can already tell that she would thrive in the environment of their unit, and it’s just the kind of answer he’s looking for; he takes a few more notes, glances over at Gideon for input.

“Anything else you’d like to ask?”

“I think we’ve covered it,” he says, and he stands abruptly, which makes Agent Cortes stand as well. Hotch follows suit. “Nice to meet you. He’ll be in touch,” Gideon adds, shaking her hand briefly and leaving the room. She is left looking a little lost, and Hotch steps around the desk.

“I apologize for him, he’s a little…”

“Capricious?” she offers with a smile, and he laughs lightly.

“That’s accurate, actually. Please don’t take it personally.”

“I won’t. I’ve heard a lot about him, so he kind of lives up to my expectations.” She tilts her head, looking curious. “You don’t, though. Unit Chief Roberts told me you would be stoic; I expected someone much more aloof, but you’re actually rather warm.” He is a bit surprised by her directness, even more so that she would find him... warm.

“I doubt that my colleagues would agree with your assessment,” he says, thinking of the number of less than kind words used to describe him in the past. She just smiles again.

“I guess you really do need me on your team, then.”

He finds it hard not to agree.

“There are a few more things we’ll need from you, such as a psychological evaluation, recent performance reviews, a physical. I’ll be in touch with Agent Roberts, and then you, if we determine you are the right fit. I’ll see you out,” he adds, gesturing to the door, and she follows. The team, who was not yet in the bullpen when she arrived, looks on, curious, as they head to the glass double doors.

“Thank you for the opportunity to interview. I hope to hear from you soon,” she says with another firm handshake, and he nods.

“We’ll be in touch. It’s a pleasure to have made your acquaintance.”

“Likewise, Agent Hotchner.” She gets onto the elevator, and he heads back to the bullpen, stops specifically at Reid’s desk, though everyone is nearby.

“Congratulations, Reid: you’ve officially got a partner.” Reid smiles, looking pleased.

“Who is she?”

“Special Agent Sophia Cortes. She currently works for Intelligence. Bachelors’ in Psychology and Sociology, Masters’ in Criminology and Behavioral Sciences. Fluent in six languages. Got her start at Chicago PD like you, Morgan—Intelligence there too. And SWAT.”

“SWAT?” Morgan echoes, impressed. “She’s gotta be 5’2” out of those heels.”

“She’s got glowing reviews from her superiors there, and from her unit chief: he called her resilient, determined, empathetic, a team player. She’s good at communicating with law enforcement, victims, even unsubs. The BAU is the right place for her. We’ll just be waiting on paperwork to make it official.” He crosses his arms, leans back against the filing cabinet. “I’d have introduced you, but she doesn’t know she’s being offered the job just yet.”

“She must have made quite an impression on you for you to decide on the spot,” Prentiss says, and he nods his head in agreement.

“I think she’ll fit in well. I saw a little bit of each of you in her, and she’s very…” He tries to think of one word to sum up the woman he just interviewed, and decides with a half-smile: “warm.”

#aaron hotchner x original female character #hotch x original female character #latina original female character #aaron hotchner #aaron hotchner fanfic #criminal minds #criminal minds fanfic #aaron hotchner x reader #aaron hotchner x female reader #hotch x female reader #hotch x reader

71 notes · View notes

missymurphy1985 · 3 years ago

Text

The Umbrella Girl (part 6)

The Aftermath of your night with Cillian...

Taglist @queenshelby @margoo0 @being-worthy @peakyscillian @ntmynouis @janelongxox @elenavampire21 @noctvrnalmoth @ysmmsy

Warnings - language, mentions of baby loss, smut (this got long... Sorry!!)

The morning after your night with Cillian had gone incredibly well, considering. Your mum was surprised to see him the following morning, but she was one of the most liberal people you knew - and she adored Cillian too, especially after the cooked breakfast he'd knocked up. Emily had arrived home with Steph later that day and Steph pulled you to one side to talk to you alone.

"Lisa's gone crazy y/n.. she's already contacted the Sun, the story's going live tomorrow morning... It's all over social media.." You took a deep breath and Steph hugged you tight. The sound of Cillian's phone in the background interrupted you, you had a feeling you knew who it was. He came into the living room to join the two of you so Emily and your mum didn't overhear anything in the kitchen. Steph left the two of you alone.

"All you have is one side of the story Mr Grayson.... No I'm not prepared to give a statement yet..... Yes I'm aware of the implications... Again, I'm not interested in giving a statement... Call me again and I'll have your job Grayson, delete my number!" You could see the anger rising in his eyes and you swiftly took the phone from him before he said something he'd regret and ended the call, turning his phone off. He wrapped his arms round you and held you tight, you could feel the emotion rising in him.

"It's okay. It'll be okay... I promise..." Suddenly two little arms wrapped round you both, Emily looked up at the two of you sadly.

"Cillian crying?" She whispered, and he lifted her up into his arms to give her a big hug. Your heart lurched watching your child wrap her arms round his neck tight.

"I'm better now I've had that hug Emily... Thank you." He kissed her cheek affectionately and smiled at you, nodding. He was okay. For now.

"I'm gonna head home y/n... I have a feeling my publicist will want a word or two. I'll call you later, okay?" He kissed you, still holding Emily who giggled at him as he tickled under her ribs. "You gonna take care of your mama?" She nodded and he placed her back on the floor letting her run back into the kitchen. Saying a quick goodbye to your mum and Steph, he kissed you again before opening the front door. He quickly came back inside and closed it again.

"Fucking press are out there y/n... There's dozens of them... The fuck do I do?"

"Shit... Did they see you?"

"I think so.." he ran his fingers through his hair and leaned against the wall.

"Stay here. Call your publicist from my room upstairs, tell him EVERYTHING. He needs to know before it comes out tomorrow.. he'll know what to do?" Cillian nodded, and headed upstairs, turning his phone back on.

CILLIAN MURPHY IN BABY SCANDAL!!

Former Peaky Blinders Personal Assistant Lisa Tyler reveals she lost her and Cillian's baby as a result of the stress caused when he refused to have anything to do with their baby... even going as far as to claim she wasn't even pregnant. Their affair began six months before Murphy's wife, Cassie, left him, speculating she found out about the affair which led to their divorce last year. Murphy is yet to make a formal statement, however he did threaten to have our entertainment reporter, Len Grayson, fired yesterday when we contacted him. His temper clearly something he needs to keep in check.

Cillian's head sank into his hands, he couldn't read the rest. The front page even had a blurred out screenshot of the sex tape Lisa had made, next to a photo of Lisa holding a baby scan photo - not her scan, clearly, she was only 2 weeks pregnant when the miscarriage happened, but for the purposes of the story the image just added to the drama.

There were reports the tape was now all over the internet - the date mark clearly photoshopped to make it look like it had been filmed months before it actually was, but the untrained eye wouldn't spot that. She'd given the Sun all of the details - nothing left out. His publicist had gone ballistic the day before when Cillian told him. Even his ex wife had called him to berate him. His family didn't believe a word of it - they of course knew the truth and were standing by him unconditionally.

You sat next to him on your bed and held his hand. He hadn't left your house since Friday night, too worried about facing the paparazzi outside, but he needed a change of clothes - he had to face them today whether he liked it or not.

"Want me to come with you?" You asked him, resting your head on his shoulder.

"No.. I can't drag you into this any more than I already have y/n.. this isn't fair.. you don't deserve this. Emily doesn't deserve this..."

"Don't you dare Cillian... Don't you dare push me away now!" He looked into your eyes and put his hands either side of your face.

"I couldn't push you away now if I tried.. please don't leave me y/n?"

"I told you, I'm not going anywhere! Come on. We need to do this sooner or later... Hand in hand, remember?" You stood up, taking his hand and led him down the stairs. Your mum with Emily in the living room. You both walked in hand in hand, and Emily rushed to Cillian. The two of them had spent the weekend playing tea parties and dolls, they'd become thick as thieves. He'd charmed your mum all weekend, cooking meals and helping with the cleaning - you were worried your mum loved him more than you did, because that's exactly how you felt. You wanted him completely, and had fallen for him hard.

He put Emily down and looked to you.

"You sure you want to do this?"

"Shut up, Murphy." He laughed, and kissed your hand, leaning in to kiss your cheek. Leaving your mum and daughter in the living room you both made your way outside to the waiting reporters, statement ready. You wouldn't speak, simply hold his hand for support and let him do it.

Approaching the cameras, Cillian took a breath and told his side. Essentially repeating everything he'd told you that day in Sophie's trailer, but with less emotion. His publicist had warned him not to get emotional - the papers would simply rip him apart even more. You stood to the side, hand in his, squeezing it now and then, as he came to the end of his speech.

"This lady has completely bowled me over. Without her, I couldn't have faced you today," he looked back at you and cleared his throat. "I'd ask, politely, that you give us space. Respect the privacy I've always requested in good faith. Allow us to deal with this privately and together. What's been said about me isn't all true. I was never unfaithful to my wife of 21 years.

I have made mistakes. Show me a man who hasn't? I have hurt people. I have disappointed people. I have let people down. What happened with Lisa and the baby was tragic... It was a tragic accident. Yes, I was angry. Yes, I doubted the baby was mine, and no, I'm not proud of my actions. I've nothing else to say on the matter, and I repeat, respectfully, that I'd appreciate privacy for myself and my family now. Thank you." You both made your way to his car, ignoring the barrage of questions from the paparazzi, and Cillian kissed your cheek before getting in and driving away. You walked back into the house, closed the door and fell into your mum's waiting arms, finally letting out the tears you'd been holding all weekend.

That week's filming was, fortunately, smooth sailing. Not a single person on Peaky believed the venom Lisa had been spouting in the media, and even Cillian's ex wife had been convinced of his innocence over a course of phone calls and texts. Anto had instructed that you cancel any media interviews Cillian had planned in order for him to keep as low a profile as possible. For the most part, it was business as usual. You were all meant to have a week's break, but with the situation as it was, it was agreed across the cast and crew that the sooner you all finished filming the better so the week off was cancelled. As disappointed as Cillian was not to be going home to Dublin for a week, it meant an extra week with you, so he wasn't complaining too much.

You were sat in Cillian's trailer, a cold, miserable Friday morning. The story had been out for nearly a week and the media circus was showing no signs of calming down. There were even random women sharing 'kiss and tell' stories now that were completely false, Cillian had never even met these women, never mind had sex with them. His head was laid back on the sofa cushions his hands over his eyes rubbing them tightly. He hadn't slept properly since Sunday. You made your way over to sit across his knees and pulled his upper body into your own, holding him tight to your chest as you stroked his hair gently.

"You need sleep Cill, you're not doing yourself any favours. Plus, Steph is sick of wasting her expensive eye cream on you covering those suitcases under your eyes," you chuckled, making him laugh a little under you. He ran his hands softly up your back making you shudder. You hadn't slept together since Sunday either - his mind too preoccupied.

His hands soon snaked underneath your t-shirt, making you arch you hips slightly closer to his. He lifted you off him, and sat you on the sofa next to him. You were about to ask what he was doing, before his body was hovering over yours, his lips attacking your neck. Your fingers began unbuckling his belt and jeans, pulling them down to his ankles allowing his hard cock to spring in front of you. Without missing a beat, you took him into your mouth, his hands gripping the back of the sofa behind you as you licked slowly up his shaft. Pumping the base of his cock with one hand and taking the tip into your mouth, bobbing your head over him quickly. This was not going to be your usual slow, sensual session, but neither of you wanted that right now.

"I'm not coming in your mouth y/n... Turn around..." he pulled you up and bent you over the sofa, your skirt now hitched up over your waist and your underwear pulled down to your ankles. He ran his tongue slowly against your slit, his hands squeezing your thighs. You were already wet for him after days of no physical contact.

"I need you inside me Cillian, please...." You raised your hips up, he groaned as pushed himself inside you until you felt him flush against your thighs. His thrusts quickly becoming hard and fast, pounding into you as you gripped onto the sofa, panting his name.

"Stop... Wanna ride you... Sit down..." He spun the two of you round, never leaving your warm core as he sat on the sofa, you were now on top of him with your back pushed forwards. You held onto the table in front of you for leverage and moved your hips in circles over his thick length, buried deep inside you. He pulled you back into his chest, his hand now between your legs rubbing your clit as he thrust up into you sharp, hard, and fast. The new angle hitting your sweet spot inside with a new level of intensity.

"Fuck... I'm gonna come Cillian... Don't stop..." Your walls clenched around him as you came harder than ever, your juices flowing from you onto the sofa underneath, his release following quickly with a deep, gutteral groan. He rested his head on your shoulder, and you felt his breathing becoming shallow, before his eyes closed softly into a deep sleep. You eased yourself off him slowly and cleaned yourself up, before laying him down on the sofa with a cushion under his head and a blanket over his half naked body. He barely made a sound as he slept. Kissing him gently on the head, you straighted out your clothes before heading out of the trailer. Luckily he wasn't due on any scenes for a couple of hours at least.

Your phone pinged with a group message to you and Cillian from his sister, Orla, you could see 4 missed calls from her too. Opening the message, you nearly dropped your phone in shock.. a video of Cillian's house in Dublin... Surrounded by fire engines and police cars, smoke bellowing from a window downstairs...

The scream from the trailer behind you could've woken the dead...

#cillian smut #cillian x fem!reader #cillian murphy x reader #cillian murphy

46 notes · View notes

choicesficwriterscreations · 4 years ago

Text

450 Followers: Meet The Writer

Hello there! We’re back with another Meet The Writer Q&A and it’s our pleasure to introduce a fellow Brazilian fanfic author for our ninth interview:

Blog: @julia-highstorms Name (or petname): Julia/Ju Birthday: July 9 Nationality: Brazilian 🇧🇷 Current residency: I'm one of the 12 million people living in São Paulo, Brazil Languages you speak: Brazilian Portuguese, English and a bit of Japanese Masterlist: Julia’s choices fanfiction masterlist

1. Is there a meaning behind your url name? Yes! For those who have been following me for a while, they already know that I used to change my URL according to the Choices character I was stanning at the time but it was a PAIN to fix all my fanfics links 😩 so I decided to finally create an unique URL that I wouldn't get tired of. So I mixed my two surnames together and it (basically) means Highstorms. I loved it 😌

2. When did you start playing Choices? What's the first book you played? 2017 I believe. TRR book 1 was about to debut. YEAH. It was the Freshman Book 1.

3. When did you decide to join Choices fandom? December 21 2017. ILITW was in its last chapters and I was obsessed with it. I wanted to talk about it with other people, but I didn't know anyone who also played Choices. So I found the fandom on Tumblr and decided to join. I miss all my friends I made back then and we all went nuts with ILITW finale together 😩 Good times

4. Go back to your archive and tell us what was your first post on your Choices blog was about. My first post was about how I loved ILITW and how everyone was fucked up sjddndossok also a lot of reblogs about MAKE NOAH AN LI 🗣️

5. How long have you been writing fanfiction? I started writing fanfictions in my senior year of high school, although I attempted to write my own stories when I was younger, around 12-13.

6. Share the first fanfic you wrote with us. Do you still like it or would you change anything about it? My first fanfic ever is about The Maine, it was my favorite band back then slfjdfodj but my first Choices fanfic is If Jane Was Here (ILITW told by Noah) Chapter 1. I AM SO PROUD OF IT. Of course, there are some things I would change. Like adding even more angst. Having finished writing it way sooner. But I'm super proud of it overall. My first (and so far only) Choices long series I've ever finished. Wow.

7. What are your favorite Choices books to write about? Definitely Open Heart just because of Bryce Lahela and Rei (my MC). OPH has become a mess, but I love Bryce too much. I loved the It Lives anthology too and enjoyed writing about. And I'm hyped for my upcoming Blades AU series!

8. What is your specialty as a fanfic writer? Oooh I guess it is rewriting certain scenes or events of the books or thinking about AUs. Since ILITW I have enjoyed doing this. Writing on another character's point of view of the events that have happened (the whole If Jane Was Here series, that is ILITW told by Noah's POV). Or adding some depth to a certain scene (did something like this with Julia, my ILB MC, and Tom's relationship. And with Rei and Bryce's). Or even rewriting the story to fit better with my MC's personality (Rei, OPH MC).

9. What aspect of your writing do you most enjoy to see praised? When people say they like my MC's, Rei (OPH MC) and Luxia (Blades MC). Before, whenever I played Choices, I didn't care much about the MCs because they're all generic (which makes sense because we're the ones playing it). They're always the happy go lucky friend that tries to fix everyone's problems and every LI is in love with them. Boooooring. Rei was my first MC that I created a whole non-canon personality to her, and that's why she's my baby 🥺 and when people commented that they felt represented by Rei, that she felt more realistic than PB's usual MC, well, that was my peak as a writer lol so they're basically OC's, with their own personalities and temperaments.

10. Do you participate in any writing events or challenges throughout the year? If so, what do you like about them? I do, but I wish I could participate more often! The prompts are what I like the most, because they give me ideas that I'd have never thought to write about before.

11. Are there any writers (published authors and/or fanfic writers) who influenced your writing? Meg Cabot was my favorite author growing up and I read some of Sophie Kinsella’s books too, so probably my love for adding a bit of comedy, silly little things in my fanfics came from them. I love Jane Austen too. And last but not least, my flair for angst definitely came from reading Fruits Basket, my favorite manga ever. There’s so much angst in Furuba dodksdishd Takaya Natsuki-sensei really enjoys it. I recommend reading her other manga series, Twinkle Stars, too.

12. What element of writing do you struggle with most? Actually writing lmao. You know, taking the plot out of my mind and typing it down on Google Docs. Writing is hard, takes too much time and I'm lazy 😩 I wish I could just transfer my ideas to a document and it's done. No need to write, no need to revise, etc. I love the final product, but I hate the process.

13. Do you have any abandoned WIPs? What made you abandon them? A BUNCH OAJDSKDKD 🤦 Either because my inspiration to write it has faded or because I don't want to spend my whole time writing.

14. You’re applying for the fanfic writer of the year award. What five fanfics do you put in your portfolio? Oooooh great question! I must put:

If Jane Was Here - Alternative ending (ILITW): this is the only finale I accept sorrynotsorry

Too Little Too Late - Jax x MC (Bloodbound): I wanted to feel hurt. People cried. I loved it sclkdsdjsops

The Loudest One - Bryce x F!MC (Open Heart): I wrote this one for CFWC Kinktober! And honestly, this is the best smut scene I have written. I’m quite proud about it.

Satisfied - Jax x Lily (Bloodbound): it was fun writing for my crack ship! My babies. And the first smut scene I have ever written. I’m glad it was with these two. I still can’t get over the fact that either one of them dies in BB’s finale. I cannot accept skfjdpd

Lullaby - Tyril x Elf!F!MC (Blades): don’t get me wrong, I love Tyril and his goth lordling mysterious elf boy personality and the first time he and MC made out was HOT but… I missed a bit of clousure before, you know? It felt a bit sudden to me, so I wrote a couple of fanfics showing their growing interest and attraction towards one another. This one is a light cute one and I really like it.

15. Do you create original content aside from fanfiction (original stories, art, etc)? I sometimes draw some fanarts in which you can see by searching for #occasional drawings on my Tumblr.

Do you want to contribute with questions/ideas for the next Meet The Writer Q&A? Send us a message.

Thanks for reading! Reblog to share your appreciation for @julia-highstorms ❤️

#choices fic writers creations #cfwc meet the writer #450 followers #blades fanfic #bloodbound fanfic #it lives in the woods fanfic #open heart fanfic

42 notes · View notes

rockinlibrarian · 3 years ago

Text

Fic Writer Review

@pixiedane tagged everyone on this, and considering I've been wallowing in my sudden Being Into Fanfic lately (though to be honest I've been READING a lot lately more than writing), see this link, I figured I'd take her up on the challenge. You, too, may take ME up on the challenge if YOU have been writing fic!

how many works do you have on AO3? 19. That's much less than @pixiedane! I'm a baby fic writer!

what’s your total AO3 word count? 66,239

how many fandoms have you written for and what are they? There are technically seven listed, but "Marvel Cinematic Universe," "The Avengers (Marvel Movies)," "Captain America (Movies)," and "Agent Carter (TV)" all apply to the same fic, so really just 4. But that doesn't count fandoms I've written but not completed (and therefore posted) for. So there are more to come. Maybe. Sometime.

what are your top 5 fics by kudos? *

"On the End of Endgame," 51 kudos, because I'm right and Marvel doesn't understand their own time travel rules and 51 people KNOW it!

"The Puppy-Fly Effect," 39 kudos, because it's Back to the Future, the most mainstream property I've written for! So people see it and say, "oh, I've actually seen that one" and they're more likely to read it!

"The Invitation: an Epilogue," 22 kudos, which is pretty good since this is my newest fic on there. It's a Howl's Moving Castle (BOOK, PLEASE, OBVIOUSLY) epilogue, so considering it's not a RECENT thing it just keeps getting slow and steady readership. I myself have been reading a lot of Howl fic lately, and people are getting comments on their decade-old stories from me now, so I imagine this one also will slow and steadily keep accumulating hits and kudos.

"Kerry and the Meaning of Life," 20 kudos. I'm honestly not sure why this is, by far, my most kudoed Legion FX fic. It's the first one I ever wrote, and got me started on the whole writing-the-entire-Loudermilk-coming-of-age rabbit hole I fell into to begin with, but I've only improved over time, I think, but even after I'd posted other Loudermilk backstory I think is objectively better, this one still gets the most!

"Syd's (Third) Childhood Begins," 15 kudos, because when people finish watching Legion FX the NATURAL move is to seek out fix-it fic. I wouldn't say this is fix-it really as much as ensure-the-ending-is-actually-happy-it, but I did use the "fix-it" tag, and at least one of the commenters DID say they immediately came on AO3 "looking for pretty much exactly this"...

do you respond to comments, why or why not? Absolutely, because I know what it feels like NOT to get comments, and also what it feels like to-- I don't know, I just get paranoid, if people don't respond to me, I think stuff like "Did I say something wrong? Do they not care about my opinion? Am I invisible?" so I'm Do Unto Others-y about it, even if all I can think of to say is "Thank you!"

what’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending? Well, I haven't actually posted (read: finished) the ending yet, but it's definitely "Exploration of the Astral Plane," because that's just Legion FX canon. No spoilers, Oliver Bird starts out the show having gotten lost decades ago, and this is the story of HOW he got lost, and his friends didn't KNOW if they'd ever see him again, so the paragraphs I've written of the end do make me quite teary! The fic's really fun despite the canonically sad ending, though, honest!

do you write crossovers? if so what is the craziest one you’ve written? I have not written one YET, if I recall, unless you count the several mildly interconnected IPs involved in the Pipeweed Mafia Stories, which isn't even posted because I feel uncomfortable posting Real People fic online, but crossovers are fun and I really enjoy reading them, especially when the writer successfully blends things together while being true to the characters. Just today I read a hilarious one blending The Good Place and Harry Potter!

have you ever received hate on a fic? Gosh, this is such an ironic question. I wouldn't say that I WISH I received hate on a fic, but my fics aren't even NOTICED enough to receive hate! I already feel paranoid-- Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria, you know how it is-- when I don't receive LIKE on a fic! It's LIKE receiving hate for me, because my brain goes into "Does nobody like it? Does nobody care? Are they all too nice to say it's terrible?" mode, so, yeah.

do you write smut? if so what kind? Absolutely not. My demisexual self hates reading it, definitely not writing it. I struggled enough writing just a taste of what a horny, slutty teenager who-talks-too-much Oliver Bird would have been in this AU, and that's mild!

have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I'm aware of. That would really suck, wouldn't it, if someone stole my work and ended up getting MORE LIKES AND COMMENTS THAN ME on it.

have you ever had a fic translated? Also not that I'm aware of, and if I'm not aware of it but it happened I guess that would answer the "stolen" question, too.

have you ever co-written a fic before? Ever in my entire life, I feel like I must have, but not anything I've posted online then

what’s your all time favorite ship? Hmm. Honestly, there are ships I defend passionately if the topic comes up, but I'm not sure I have a favorite just on my own. Especially as I hate smut, so I avoid seeking out specifically shipping stories. But, since I have been reading a lot of HMC fic lately, I should mention that Howl and Sophie ARE one of my absolute favorite fictional couples, but that's just how DWJ wrote them, and I can tell you unfortunately that not all fanfic writers QUITE nail that chemistry...

what’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will? Speaking of The Good Place, I really do wish I could write the novelization, and maybe I'd write some pieces of it longer than the few paragraphs I have written? But I doubt I ever will, let alone to the point of FINISHING...

what are your writing strengths? Fanfic wise, I like to THINK I understand the characters very well, at least! Writing in general? I think it's just my quirky voice? I'm the only me.

what are your writing weaknesses? Oh, very much FINISHING. But beyond that, it's pulling teeth to get me to fill out the story sometimes. I tend to draft with dialogue, and then I have to go back and fill in what's actually happening AROUND the dialogue, and sometimes I'd rather not.

what are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic? At first I was like, I don't KNOW any other languages well enough to do this! And then I remembered the Firefly fic I have mostly written but not completed yet, and you know how in the show their speech is peppered with random Mandarin phrases? My husband has the Firefly RPG book and there's an appendix of Mandarin phrases you might hear in the Firefly universe, and I DID incorporate a few of those phrases into my dialogue, just from that appendix and it's probably horrible, but it fit the universe...

what was the first fandom you wrote for? EVER? The earliest I'm sure about is the Ducktales fic I found in an old Girl Scout manual that I must have written when I was 11 or 12. The first fandom I ever posted on AO3, in response to an exchange, was Legion FX of course, but that wasn't until the ripe old age of 40.

what’s your favorite fic you’ve written? I'm going to give this one to "Two (or Three) Mutant Freaks Against the Fourth Grade" just because it has gotten the least number of hits of ANY of my posts, INCLUDING THE PLACEHOLDER WITH NO WORDS IN IT, so it needs more love. And it really is one of my favorites, because it's just a sweet little story about nerds making friends, and I love rereading it.

*This made me curious which fics got the most kudos comparative to their HITS, because the Endgame one has WHOA more hits than any other fic, but it's over a thousand, which doesn't make 51 kudos look so good anymore. Percentage-wise, it's less than 5%, which seems to be where most of my fics hit when you do the math-- between 4% and 8% kudos-to-hits. The exceptions, jumping up to about 18% each, are the BttF and HMC fics, and, curiously, my beloved childhood friend AU mentioned in the last question-- it may have the least number of HITS (22), but that helps the math when you consider it's got 4 kudos. The HIGHEST percentage kudos-to-hits is its sequel, the childhood-friends-as-teenagers-AU fic mentioned in question 5**-- it's got 6 kudos and only 29 hits, so that's about 20%! Apparently people LIKE when I have to write a sex-crazed adolescent boy. COME ON, people! (The story is actually about Asexuality so I guess it really isn't people just wishing I'd write smut).

**Oh, I just noticed the numbers renumbered themselves when I put bullet points in the middle of the original question 3 there, so this is actually the answer to question 8? But it SAYS FIVE.

6 notes · View notes

tomhiddlestonfanfic · 4 years ago

Text

A Step Too Far? Chapter Two The New Secretary

Ch. 1 - Ch. 2 - Ch. 3 - Ch. 4 - Ch. 5 - Ch. 6 - Ch. 7 - Ch. 8 - Ch. 9

TITLE: A Step Too Far? NUMBER OF CHAPTERS/ONE SHOT: 2/? WHICH TOM CHARACTER: Stepfather Tom OTHER CHARACTERS: Benedict Cumberbatch, Andrew Scott PAIRING: Tom/OFC, Benedict Cumberbatch/OFC GENRE: Drama SUMMARY: A step too far; when you’ve gone beyond acceptable limits… Nina is a twenty year old girl with a problem; she’s painfully attracted to her stepfather (Tom Hiddleston). One day, she finds porn on his computer with girls looking a lot like herself, and she can’t help but wondering if he feels the same sexual attraction to her as she does to him. That same day, Tom has a very attractive colleague over for dinner (Benedict Cumberbatch). One thing leads to another and Nina finds herself becoming their new secretary. Will her flirtatious behaviour be kept in check or will she end up taking things a step too far? FEEDBACK: Please, give feedback! AUTHOR’S NOTE: Thank you for reading! Just let me know if you want to be on the taglist for this story.

CHAPTER TWO The New Secretary

Nina smiled as she was shown her desk at the office. She was actually going to work there, like a real grownup, rather than sitting at home trying to figure out what to do with her life. She was really excited about her new job and paid close attention to everything her precursor was telling her. She was determined to do well, to show Tom that he was wrong about her.

"Hello, Nina at Odinson Enterprise, how can I help you?" Nina answered her first phone call. She was instructed to answer in either swedish or english depending on which phone that rang. She had answered the swedish phone, but the woman on the other end was speaking english.

"Hello, this is Sophie, Ben's wife. I would like you to leave him a message for me," the woman at the other end of the phone said.

"Okay, Sophie, what's the message?" Nina asked, grabbing a pen and paper.

"Could you tell him to pick up my parents at the airport at twenty past three, their flight number is seven hundred and six. Tell him it's important," Sophie requested.

"Of course, Sophie. Was that all?" Nina wondered.

"That's all," Sophie replied.

"Have a good day," Nina said, a bit unsure how to finish the call.

"Thanks. You too," Sophie replied politely.

"Thank you. Bye," Nina said.

"Bye." The phone hung up and Nina was almost shaking with excitement at how she had managed to finish the rather simple task of taking a message. Now she just had to present it to Benedict, or mister Cumberbatch as she was now required to address him when in the presence of others.

"Andrea," Nina said excitedly. "I have a message for mister Cumberbatch, what do I do?"

"You check the diary and try to find a good moment to deliver the message to him," Andrea said helpfully and showed her the diary.

"Seems like he's a busy man," Nina noted as she looked through the day's schedule. "Will he even have time to pick up Sophie's parents at the airport?"

"Let me see," Andrea offered and looked at Nina's notes. She went ahead and opened Tom's diary. "Tom could take the meeting at three."

"Okay, good," Nina replied. "So when do we inform them?"

"You can inform them now. Ask Tom first if he can take the meeting, and then inform Ben when you know for sure," Andrea instructed.

"Okay, thank you, Andrea," Nina said appreciatively and headed towards Tom's office. Andrea cleared her throat.

"Don't forget to bring him his ten o clock coffee," she reminded her.

"Oh, thank you. Do I bring Ben coffee as well?" Nina asked insecurely.

"He usually takes his coffee nearer to eleven on Mondays," Andrea replied.

"Oh God, it seems like I have a lot to learn," Nina commented as she scribbled down the coffee times in her little notepad.

"You're a quick learner, you'll do just fine," Andrea assured her. "By the end of the week, you'll be more than ready to take over for me."

"Thank you, Andrea," Nina said appreciatively, beginning to feel as though she might have been overconfident with accepting the job on such short notice.

Nina grabbed the cup of coffee that Andrea had prepared for Tom and went to knock on his office door before opening it.

"Hi, Tom," Nina said with a smile as she walked inside his office, leaving the door half open behind her.

"Hi, Nina. Thank you very much," Tom said courteously as she sat the cup of coffee down his desk. "How's your first day?"

"Informative," she replied in swedish, unable to come up with the english word for it.

"You could say enlightening or informative," Tom said helpfully. Nina smiled. They often did this; helped each other with finding the right words when speaking each others' languages.

"It's been very enlightening, thank you for asking. How's your day?" Nina asked.

"Busy as always," Tom told her with a slight sigh.

"About that, we were wondering if you could take today's three o' clock meeting," she asked.

"I'm sorry, but no. I can't, because then I won't be able to make it to your mother's ultrasound," Tom replied.

"Is that today?" Nina asked excitedly. "Are you going to check if it's a boy or a girl?"

"That's for your mother to decide," Tom told her with a smile.

"I'll let Andrea know you can't make the meeting. See you around," Nina told him breezily and left his office, feeling excited about the baby. "Tom couldn't take the three o' clock meeting," she informed Andrea. "He's going to an ultrasound."

"Oh, right. I completely forgot about that," Andrea said embarrassedly and instinctively touched her own sizable abdomen at the mention of the ultrasound. She opened a third diary on the desk. "Let's see if Andrew can take it," she said and Nina went up to peek over her shoulder.

"Looks like he can move the paperwork to some other time and take the meeting. Why don't you bring him a cup of tea and ask him?" Andrea instructed.

"Oh, okay," Nina replied and grabbed the cup of tea that Andrea had somehow found the time to prepare in between all the other tasks and phone calls. With a growing sense of nervousness, Nina walked up to the door and knocked. She waited for a response before carefully opening the door. "Good morning, mister Scott," she greeted him politely. "I'm Nina and hopefully I'll be your new secretary starting next week."

"Oh, hi, Nina. By all means, feel free to call me Andrew when it's just the two of us," he told her mirthfully.

"Okay Andrew. I have a little question for you. Could you take Ben's three o' clock meeting today so he can pick up his parents in law at the airport?" Nina wondered.

"What did I have planned for three o' clock?" Andrew asked.

"Paperwork," Nina replied.

"Right, I do have a lot of paperwork to do. But I'll do it, if you could do me a favour, Nina," Andrew said cagily.

"What is the favour?" Nina asked.

"Could you stay behind today to help me with the paperwork? Of course you'll get paid for it," Andrew requested.

"Sure. I don't really have any experience, but I'll do my best," Nina told him.

"All the more reason for you to do it. You could use the practice," Andrew replied and smiled appreciatively as she put the teacup down in front of him. "Thank you, Nina."

"You're welcome," Nina replied before taking her leave. 'He said yes,' she mouthed at Andrea who was on the phone and made the thumbs up to her. Nina walked up to Benedict's office with the note in her hand and knocked on the door.

"Come in," came his voice from the other side of the door. Nina smiled to herself as she opened the door and shut it behind her.

"Good morning, Ben," she greeted him cheerfully.

"Good morning, Nina," Benedict replied with a smile as he averted his gaze from the computer screen. "How's your first day at work?"

"Enlightening," Nina replied with a smile. "But I feel like I have a lot to learn."

"You'll do just fine, I'm sure," Benedict assured her.

"I sure hope so," Nina said. "I have a message for you from your wife," she added and handed him the piece of paper.

"Nice handwriting, it's easy to read," Benedict commended. "Don't I have a meeting at three?"

"You did, but Andrew said he could take it for you," Nina informed him with a smile.

"That's great. Thank you," Benedict said appreciatively. "Could you please bring me a cup of coffee?" he requested.

"Of course," Nina replied and instantly went to fetch him a coffee. When she came back, he smiled at her as she put down the cup of coffee on the desk in front of him, making sure to show off her cleavage in the process. “There you go, mister Cumberbatch,” she had practiced and was now able to say his last name with a straight face.

“Thank you, miss Andersson,” Benedict replied in a businesslike tone. She grinned at him in response.

"Do you need anything else?" she asked, gently touching his shoulder.

"Actually, I was wondering if you could stay behind today and help me with some paperwork," he requested.

"I already promised Andrew I would help him, but maybe tomorrow?" she offered.

"Tomorrow is good," Benedict agreed and Nina smiled before leaving his office. She threw a glance over her shoulder and caught him indiscreetly checking her ass out. She winked at him before shutting the door.

The day went by quickly since Andrea constantly kept her busy with various tasks. There were a lot of things to learn, such as the three men's busy schedules and about their habits and preferences.

"Tomorrow will be easier," Andrea assured her once the working day had come to an end.

"I still have to help Andrew with some paperwork," Nina remembered and sighed as she reached into her bag for yet another energy drink.

"You drink a lot of those," Andrea remarked.

"I need them," Nina said defensively.

"You're addicted to them," Andrea smiled.

"I probably am," Nina agreed with a shrug.

"How about tomorrow, you try drinking coffee instead," Andrea suggested.

"Just coffee?" Nina questioned.

"Just coffee," Andrea replied.

"Now you're being too hard on the rookie," Nina complained.

"At least I'm not worse than Andrew who asked you to work late on your first day," Andrea told her. "Don't forget the laptop, most of the paperwork is digitalised."

“Right. See you tomorrow,” Nina replied.

“See you tomorrow.”

Nina bit her lip nervously as she approached Andrew’s office. He was the only one left there except for herself. He was handsome. He was about the same height as Nina, had friendly brown eyes, brown hair and an expressive face. When he was happy, his entire being seemed to light up, and when he was angry he looked like a thundercloud. She had seen him angry once during that first day, and that was when he came back from a lunch meeting. As she knocked on the door, she hoped to find sunshine Andrew on the other side.

“Hi, Nina. Are you ready for some paperwork?” Andrew asked her from behind the desk. He looked tired, but he seemed to be in a good mood.

"Sure. Can I get you something before we begin. Tea? Coffee?" Nina offered.

"No thanks, I'm good," Andrew replied with a smile and motioned for her to sit down in the chair in front of his dark wooden desk. Nina sat down, put her work computer down and looked at him expectantly. "I think you're supposed to open the lid first," Andrew told her humorously.

"Right," Nina said with a blush as she opened the lid, put it on and typed in the password on the computer. She felt a bit awkward around Andrew. He was very charismatic, but she hadn't noticed him looking at her the way other men had throughout the day. She probably wasn't his type. "Has Andrea shown you how to file records yet?"

"Briefly," Nina said.

"Here, I'll show you," Andrew offered and walked up behind her, leaning over her as he showed her what to do and how to do it. She felt the scent of his musky cologne, and swallowed slightly as she thought about how attractive he was. She hadn't really tried flirting with him, because he seemed so serious about his work. But now he seemed more relaxed than before.

"I think I've got it now," Nina finally told him after a few minutes' demonstration of the filing system.

"Show me," Andrew instructed and Nina successfully filed a record. "Great. Keep going and I'll answer some mail. Let me know if you have any questions."

Nina kept filing records until Andrew finally announced that they were done for the day. She let out a sigh of relief and got herself ready to leave.

"Do you want a ride home?" Andrew offered as they left the building together.

"Sure, if it's not any trouble," Nina said.

"Not at all," Andrew smiled. Nina made sure to show off her cleavage as she got in the car, but noticed that he was not interested in the least. "Perhaps you should wear a top with a higher neckline tomorrow, your breasts are almost falling out," he remarked amusedly.

"They are?" Nina asked and looked down at her breasts. He was right, they were nearly bursting out of her bra and top. "Damn it, I must have gained weight," she muttered to herself as she examined her body.

"You're beautiful and definitely don't need to worry about your weight, Nina," Andrew assured her with a sympathetic look in his eyes. "Don't become a slave to unhealthy ideals," he advised as he started the car.

"Easy for you to say, you're a man," Nina muttered. She felt close to tears as she was disgusted by her own body.

"Don't be sad, Nina. I find you very attractive, I just don't swing that way," Andrew told her in an attempt to comfort her.

"Are you saying you're gay?" she asked with a frown.

"Yes," Andrew affirmed.

"Thanks for telling me," she said appreciatively.

"I shouldn't have to tell you that in order for you not to get sad," Andrew said honestly. "What I'm trying to say is that you shouldn't look for men's affirmation so much. You are great just the way you are, no matter if someone is checking you out or not."

"Thanks, Andrew. I really appreciate you saying that," Nina replied with a sad smile. "I'll wear more appropriate clothes to work, I don't want anyone to think I'm not serious about this job, because I am."

"After all that filing you did today, you can't be anything but serious about this job," Andrew praised. "If you want an idea about what to wear, just look at what Andrea's wearing."

"Maternity clothes?" Nina asked, causing him to laugh.

"You know what I mean," he said.

"Dress shirt and pants?" Nina asked.

"That would be nice. Or a skirt. The skirt you're wearing now is perfectly fine. It's a good length. Just think higher neckline with your tops," Andrew advised as he stopped the car outside her house.

"Thanks Andrew," Nina told him with a warm smile before exiting the car.

"I'll see you tomorrow," he said cheerfully.

"Yeah, see you tomorrow," Nina replied before heading inside her house.

"There's some food for you on the stove," her mother greeted her once she got through the door.

"Thanks, but I'm not hungry," Nina declined before hurrying up to her room to examine herself in the mirror. Tears filled her eyes as she decided that she needed to lose some weight.

Previous Chapter - Next Chapter

#tom hiddleston #andrew scott #benedict cumberbatch #stepfather tom hiddleston #secretary #drama

26 notes · View notes

colossalsummer · 4 years ago

Text

KOTLC book one READ ALONG part 1 of 5

I read the first Keeper of the Lost Cities book and annotated every page. Here are the highlights. (Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3/ Part 4/ Part 5)

Chapter 1

He didn’t seem to realize that unless the giant dinosaur replicas came to life and started eating people, no one cared. Me, the resident paleontology nut: Shut up Sophie I care

Fitz: "Tell me something. Do you really think that’s what they look like? It’s a little absurd, isn’t it?" Please make a good dinosaur reconstruction I’m begging you

Chapter 2

Fitz’s body broke her fall as she landed across his chest. Sophie: And that’s how I met your father

Chapter 3

What was he going to do, whisk her away to some magic elf land?

Fitz: “All of the Lost Cities are real–but not how you picture them, I’m sure.” OOOOHHH that’s the name of… the book… I see now

Humans broke the law all the time. We’re wild rowdy boys we’ll mess u up

Fitz: “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. Who came up with that?” Sophie: “Uh, Albert Einstein.” Fitz: “Huh. Never heard of him. But he was wrong.”

Fitz: “The slowest elf can still trump a human—even one with no proper education.” Kinda racist of you but go off I guess

Chapter 4

Sophie: “Then why are we hiding?” Fitz: “We’re dressed like humans. Humans are forbidden in the lost cities—especially here, in Lumenaria…” You’re on some kind of government mission, don’t you have a hall pass

Sophie opened her mouth to defend her race, but she could see Fitz’s point. War, crime, famine—humans had a lot of problems. OH like elves don’t have problems

Sophie: “But… I’ve been hearing thoughts since I was five.” “Five?” Lol knock him down a peg

Fitz: “You heard me?” Sophie: “Was I not supposed to?” Fitz: “No one else can.” OH HO HO

Sophie: “How will I find you?” Fitz: “Don’t worry, I’ll find you.” Not creepy

Chapter 5

She tugged out an eyelash. Not healthy

Okay. If she’s an elf is she not like… ‘Well my parents must be part elf at least.’ Like why would you not immediately be like ‘Um are we elves?’

You could be normal, like your sister. OOF DIRECT HIT

No one understood how she and Sophie could be sisters—especially Sophie. Even their parents wondered about it in their thoughts.

The silverware slipped through Sophie’s fingers. Whoop there it is

And if they weren’t her family… who was? How are her parents confused about this

Sophie: “Was I adopted?” Thank you

Her mom laughed as her mind flashed back to the twelve hours of very painful labor she’d endured. Okaaay

Did they get magically parasitized? Like a cuckoo bird?

Chapter 6

Is Forkle a magical protector? Somebody around here is.

Suspicious Stranger, Definitely Not An Elf: “I don’t suppose you’d be willing to carry her back to my sister’s house. It’s just a few blocks away, and she seems to like you better than she likes me.” RED FLAG RED FLAG

Sure hope Forkle isn’t gonna die…

Sophie: “How am I supposed to trust you when you won’t even tell me anything?” Yeah thanks, this

She gestured to the tree, but there was no one around. No thoughts nearby, either. - Did she imagine it? You saw a boy disappear once, just go with your gut baby

*Fitz ganks Sophie from school to whisk her to elf land* Can’t you wait until lunch or a free period and make up an excuse like an orthodontist appointment or something

Chapter 7

Alden: “I see Fitz wasn’t kidding about the brown eyes. Most unusual.” You as racist as your son? Let’s find out

“Humans,” Alden muttered. I see

Alden: “Kidnapping is a human crime. I’ve never heard of an elf even considering such a thing, much less trying it. What made you think it was one of us?” Of course not we’re perfect whomp whomp

Alden: “We would never have servants. The gnomes choose to live with us because it’s safer in our world. And they help in our gardens because they enjoy it. We’re privileged to have them.” Don’t come at me with that self righteousness, it was a legitimate question all things considered

…everything she’d seen in the elvin world spoke of wealth. Girl you know there’s an underbelly

As Sophie met his cold gaze, she could see what Alden meant about Bronte being hard to impress.

Sophie: “Sorry, I was surprised by your ears.” LOL this must be rude as heck, like, ‘you’re so wrinkly.’

Fitz: “You eat animals?” That must be horrifying to him

“So, Sophie.” Bronte sneered her name like it bothered him to say it. “Alden tells me you’re a Telepath.” NYEHHH MISTER POTTER

Chapter 8

Bronte’s mind felt different than Fitz’s—somehow deeper. LOLLL NO THOUGHTS HEAD EMPTY

She screamed as the goblets shattered against the table and the chairs crashed to the floor, knocking Bronte flat on his back with a thunderous collision. TOUCHDOWN

“Our language is instinctive,” Alden said. “We speak from birth…” TALKING BABIES >:O

Alden: “…though to humans our language sounds like babbling.” So they’re all googoo gaga around this fancy table R/N

Sophie: “What’s a probe?” Fitz: “Just a different way to read your mind. It’s no big deal.” Just a thermometer that goes in your butt. No big deal.

Alden: “How would you like to see Atlantis?” I WOULD LIKE THAT VERY MUCH

Chapter 9

*reading the description of Atlantis* WHERE ARE THE CRAP CITIES. I KNOW YOU HAVE THEM.

She took a slow, deep breath, closed her eyes, and stepped off the edge, screaming the whole way down. Goodbye dignity miss you

…she launched out of the vortex onto an enormous sponge. It felt like being licked from head to toe by a pack of kittens… WHOA! Is this the flagella, or the spicules? I love that

A child strolled past with some kind of chicken-lizard hybrid on a leash. PLEASE BE A DINOSAUR PLEASE

“An eurypterid,” Alden explained, “A sea scorpion.” EEEEOOOEEE I LOVE IT

Chapter 10

Sophie: “I have a file?” *cough cough* surveillance state much

“Reading should be instinctive,” Alden admitted, “but maybe your human education affected you somehow…” School is brain poison, says the flat-earther’s dad

It would be so awful to be an advanced student and suddenly know nothing.

They turned down a narrow, quiet canal lined with purple trees with thick, broad leaves like kelp. Could it be prototaxite or am I dreaming?

Alden took a small, green cube from his pocket. Credit cards are better ‘cause they don’t hurt when you sit on em. Who’s the master race now?

Despite Fitz’s earlier assurances, she couldn’t help wondering if the probe would hurt. Or worse—what humiliating memories Quinlin would find. “Sure are a lot of boy bands in here…”

…Quinlin’s gaze settled on Sophie. “Brown eyes?” WOW not even gonna say hi first huh

“You lick it,” Fitz explained. “They need your DNA.” OH SO DNA ISN’T FAKE HUH FITZ

He licked a silver strip on the wall… LOL I’m CRYING there are other ways to get DNA you GUYS

Quinlin: “Was he…?” Alden: “An elf?”… “I doubt it.” Qinlin: “How can you be sure?” Why, my biases tell me so, my good man.

Alden: “Humans do so love their chemicals.” Says Mr. Big Brain over here lickin’ doorknobs

Alden, cont’d: “If they’re not lighting something on fire, they’re spilling oil into the ocean or blowing something up.” Okay that’s fair

If you want to see my notes for a specific page, send me a message and I’ll take a picture.

Stay tuned for Part 2.

#kotlc #keeper of the lost cities #read along #part one #kotlc funny #kotlc memes #kotlc sophie #kotlc fitz #kotlc book 1 #keeper 1 #shannon messenger #kotlc read along with me

33 notes · View notes

aion-rsa · 4 years ago

Text

The Pandemic in Pop Culture Trends

https://ift.tt/32wrfZT

The first year of the COVID-19 pandemic was both a universal and incredibly personal experience. While not everyone’s life in the first year of the pandemic looked the same, there have been some common joys, struggles, and tragedies. And there have been stories that have helped get us through the first year of pandemic. The global COVID-19 pandemic is not over, but it has hopefully reached a turning point. Multiple vaccines protecting against the worst of the virus have been developed and have begun to be (unevenly) distributed around the world, with Israel, the U.K., Chile, and the U.S. currently with the greatest percentages of their populations having received at least one dose. As we hopefully move into a less deadly phase of the pandemic, we’re taking a moment to look back at the TV series, games, movies, and other pop culture moments that brought comfort, distraction, critique, and catharsis for many in the pandemic’s first year, as well as some of the major trends and news stories that shaped the industry itself between March 2020 and February 2021.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

March 2020

NBA To Suspend Season Following Tonight's Games pic.twitter.com/2PTx2fkLlW

— NBA (@NBA) March 12, 2020

The NBA Suspends the Season (March 11th)

Many use the NBA’s March 11th announcement that the 2019-2020 season would be suspended until further notice as an unofficial start of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. The season would continue four months later in the “NBA Bubble,” but no one could know what the future would look like, only that things were indeed very serious for the billions-dollar professional basketball and media industry to shut down.

Everyone Watches Contagion

Though Steven Soderbergh’s pandemic thriller came out in 2011, Contagion jumped from Warner Bros.’ 270th most digitally rented movie in December 2019 to their second most rented one in February, and that trend would only continue into March. As the pandemic continued, we would see audiences turning towards more “escapist” fare, but, in the early days of this international crisis, people turned towards this matter-of-fact, fictional imagining of how a global pandemic might play out to help process their new and frightening reality.

Movie Theaters Essentially Go Dark

In addition to the immense loss of human life the COVID-19 pandemic has caused, there has also been an economic cost that will no doubt continue to impact human health and livelihood in the coming years. On March 17th, the movie theater chains Regal and AMC announced their temporary closures, an early sign of just how bad the pandemic would be for the movie theater business.

Movies in Theaters Begin Going to VOD

With movie theaters closed, studios needed to get creative about how best to distribute their movies still “in theaters.” Universal Pictures was the first to make the decision to move its new releases to a video on-demand model, bringing The Invisible Man, The Hunt, and Emma to VOD on March 20th.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is Released (March 20th)

On March 20th, Nintendo released Animal Crossing: New Horizons for Nintendo Switch, allowing players (most of whom where stuck at home) to digitally move to an island and nurture their own community. The fifth game in the Animal Crossing series, New Horizons would go on to major commercial success. It broke the console game record for most digital units sold in a single month, became the 15th best-selling video game in history, and the second best-selling game of all time in Japan. It was also the most blogged-about subject on Tumblr in 2020!

Tiger King Drops on Netflix (March 20th)

Netflix remains the largest streaming service worldwide, with over 200 million global subscribers and roughly 74 million of those subscribers in the U.S. Because of this, when a Netflix Original becomes a hit, it usually becomes a major part of online discourse, especially in the United States. This was the case for Tiger King, the true crime (and truly wild) documentary series that dropped on Netflix on March 20th. With most watchers stuck at home, the online discourse around the show felt even more intense than usual. For a few weeks, you couldn’t throw a stone without hitting a Tiger King meme.

April 2020

Quibi Launches (April 6)

While not necessarily pandemic-specific (did Quibi ever really stand a chance?), 2020 saw the launch (April 6th) and death (December 1st) of Quibi, Jeffrey Katzenberg’s short-form streaming platform that squandered $1.75 billion in investment capital and star power like Sophie Turner, Kiefer Sutherland, Idris Elba, Chrissy Teigen, Karlie Kloss, and Laura Dern before bowing out in December.

Trolls World Tour Becomes First Movie to Break Theatrical Window (April 10)

Remember when it was radical for a movie to break its theatrical window? Yeah, that was in April, when many media professionals were shocked with Universal’s decision to release Trolls World Tour, the computer animated musical comedy sequel to 2016’s Trolls, as both a limited theatrical release and via video on demand services. The move led AMC Theatres to temporarily announce that they would no longer be distributing Universal films, but the two companies quickly came to an agreement shortly after.

Extraction was a Thing (April 24)

Honestly, every week in 2020 felt like its own lifetime. Remember when Extraction, the Chris Hemsworth-helmed action-thriller, became the most watched original film in Netflix’s history? Directed by Sam Hargrave and written by MCU vet Joe Russo, the film follows a black ops mercenary who must rescue the kidnapped son of an Indian drug lord in Bangladesh. As self-reported by Netflix, the movie was watched by 99 million households in its first month of release.

May 2020

TikTok Pops

TikTok was already firmly a thing heading into 2020, but the pandemic was when more people found it—especially the olds… by which I mean millennials. In October 2019, TikTok had almost 40 million U.S. users (and 507 million global users in December 2019). By June 2020, that number was at almost 92 million in the U.S. (and 689 million globally by July 2020). This was part of a larger trend over the course of the pandemic that saw people spending more time on their mobile devics than ever before: According to a report from mobile app intelligence agency App Annie (via Social Media Today), by the end of 2020, Americans spent more time on TikTok than they did on Facebook, and the average American now spends more time per day on their mobile device (4 hours) than they do watching TV (3.7 hours).

Avatar: The Last Airbender is Released on Netflix (May 15th)

In many ways, the pandemic has been an accelerant of global processes, and this applies to pop culture as well. While we were already seeing the rise in more foreign-language TV, including anime, and the return to some major nostalgic properties due to broader and easier accessibility because of platforms like Netflix, the pandemic really ramped that process up. When all three seasons of Avatar: The Last Airbender became available on Netflix in May, the American animated TV series that originally aired on Nickelodeon from 2005 to 2008, was discovered or re-discovered by millions of viewers, becoming one of the top Tumblr fandoms of 2020. It was indicative of a larger trend of old shows becoming new again through release on major global streaming platforms.

Avatar: The Last Airbender – What Can We Expect From the New Avatar Studios?

By Shamus Kelley

Avatar: The Last Airbender Co-Creators Exit Netflix Live-Action Series

By Shamus Kelley

June 2020

Buffy Lands on All4 (June 1st)

In a year where what’s old was necessarily new again, all seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer came to UK streaming platform All4, and were broadcast on E4 every weeknight at 11pm. Elsewhere in the UK streaming market, the BBC iPlayer saw its best-ever quarter from April to June with 1.6 billion requests, an increase of 59% on the same quarter last year (according to a BBC press release).

Staged Premieres (June 10th)

As it became apparent that TV and film production would not be going back to normal anytime soon, many creators got, well, creative and began making things in lockdown. One of the best and most high-profile examples was BBC’s Staged, in which David Tennant and Michael Sheen play fictionalized versions of themselves, trying to rehearse a performance of Six Characters in Search of an Author via video chat, alongside director Simon Evans. The low-budget, high-charisma series is filmed in the actors’ real-life homes but, unlike some celebrity efforts during the pandemic (see March), strikes the right tonal note in relation to its subjects’ privilege.

July 2020

Ray Fisher Speaks Up About Alleged Abuse on the Justice League Set (July 1st)

Actor Ray Fisher raised his voice on July 1st in a tweet, calling out director Joss Whedon for alleged abuse on the Justice League set, and WB execs Geoff Johns and Jon Berg for “enabling” that alleged behavior.

Joss Wheadon’s on-set treatment of the cast and crew of Justice League was gross, abusive, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable. He was enabled, in many ways, by Geoff Johns and Jon Berg. Accountability>Entertainment

— Ray Fisher (@ray8fisher) July 1, 2020

Later, in December, Fisher would add WB exec Walter Hamada’s name to that list, following a December 11th announcement by WarnerMedia that their investigation connected to Justice League “has concluded and remedial action has been taken.”

Hamilton Blows Us All Away (July 4th)

One of the deepest cultural cuts during lockdown was the necessary elimination of live, in-person theater, which is probably one of the reasons why Hamilton, the Pulitzer Prize-winning stage musical that originally came to Broadway in 2015, made such a splash when it became available in its filmed format via Disney+. Even without a pandemic, Hamilton (and all Broadway theater) is only accessible to a select group of people, making the addition of the pop culture phenomenon in a more accessible form so very important.

From Bridgerton to Hamilton: A History of Color-Conscious Casting in Period Drama

By Amanda-Rae Prescott

Movies

Hamilton: Thomas Jefferson Controversy Explained

By David Crow

Host Becomes the Most Zeitgesty Movie of 2020 (July 30th)

Another particularly impressive entry into the “filmed from lockdown” genre that sprouted up during the first year of the pandemic was British found footage horror film Host. Written and made over 12 weeks in a pandemic and based around a haunted Zoom call, few pandemic-made stories managed to nail the balance between both frighteningly topical and escapist quite so well.

The NBA Bubble Begins

Professional sports went into their bubbles, aka tightly controlled settings in which pro sports players live, practice, and play their respective seasons—to varying degrees of success. The NBA’s Disney World bubble went into effect on July 22nd for exhibition scrimmages, before launching into the final eight games of its regular 2019-2020 season and then the 2020 NBA playoffs. Twenty-two of the NBA’s 30 teams were invited to participate and ended the bubble in October with no recorded cases of COVID-19 amongst its participating players. The MLB bubble was… less successful.

SDCC @Home: WTF Was That? (July 22)

San Diego Comic-Con is one of the most important and lucrative pop culture events of the year, bringing hundreds of thousands of people into downtown San Diego to celebrate and discuss some of the largest franchises in the world. SDCC was one of the many in-person conventions that attempted to transfer its programming online in 2020 and… it didn’t really work. Part of the fun of Comic-Con is in the excitement of the crowd and the exclusivity of the events. (Though not on Thanksgiving, thank you very much.) There is nothing quite like getting to be part of a major Hall H announcement, and watching via video chat is just not the same.

August 2020

Tenet Comes Out in the UK (August 26th)

In what was largely a year without theatrical cinema in the U.S. and the U.K., a brief respite in COVID-19 cases and therefore lockdown meant a proper theatrical release for Christopher Nolan’s latest in August 2020. Sci-fi blockbuster Tenet hit U.K. theatres on August 26th, bringing in $5.3 million domestically in its first week of release and marking the first major studio release since the pandemic began.

American Sports Leagues Go on Strike to Protest Jacob Blake Shooting

Many professional sports in the U.S. came to a temporary halt when some players and teams refused to take the field or court following the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black American who was shot in the back and paralyzed by a police officer in front of his sons on August 23rd in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The incident re-ignited ongoing protests over racism and police brutality, with which many players and teams stood in solidarity. The NBA, WNBA, MLB, and MLS all postponed games as players protested Jacob Blake’s shooting.

Chadwick Boseman Passes Away (August 28th)

In a devastating loss to American culture, Chadwick Boseman, the star of Black Panther and many other films, passed away due to complications from colon cancer, a condition with which he had been living and working since a 2016 diagnosis. Boseman was one of the most successful Black actors and creators working today.

“He … knew that his voice was now strong and people were listening and paying attention,” wrote Kelley L. Carter in The Undefeated. “And he knew that even as this moment was victorious, Hollywood still needed to be called to task on the things that make this industry problematic, even as it was in the infant phases of creating a groundbreaking blockbuster with a mostly Black cast.”

September 2020

Tenet Flops in the U.S., Hollywood Abandons Ship for Fall 2020 (September 3)

While Tenet may have been a hit in the U.K., the Nolan blockbuster flopped upon its release in the U.S., where many theaters remained closed or empty through the summer and fall. The film would make around $58 million in the U.S. and Canada, prompting Hollywood studios to further push back major releases slated for the fall.

Mulan Becomes First Disney “Premier Access” Release (Sept. 4)

After several pandemic-caused release delays, Disney’s much-anticipated, live-action adaptation of Mulan became the first “Premier Access” release for Disney+, causing a bit of a stir. In the U.S. and in some other markets, Disney forwent releasing Mulan in theaters, instead offering a “Premier Access” window on Disney+ that viewers could access for an additional fee of $29.99. While the film received middling reviews from western critics, it was not received well in China. Additionally, a #BoycottMulan movement, which started out as a response to social media comments star Liu Yifei made in support of the Hong Kong police in their (sometimes violent) suppression of pro-democracy protestors, gained some traction in the lead up to the release.

Movies

How Mulan Maintains The Animated Film’s Queerness

By Natalie Zutter

Movies

Mulan: Disney Plus Grosses Exceed $200 Million? (Report)

By David Crow

I’m Thinking of Ending Things Makes People Go “Whaaa?” (Sept. 4)

As our Rosie Fletcher wrote in the “Ending Explained” for I’m Thinking of Ending Things: “[this story is] a movie, and a book, which really requires you to watch/read twice to actually fully understand.” It’s a gloriously confusing movie, and many in September dove right into the mystery chiller adapted by Charlie Kaufman from a novel by Iain Reid. As Fletcher put in her review, the film is “a perfect storm of philosophy, ambiguity and wankery.” What’s not to love?

October 2020

Trial of the Chicago 7 Debuts on Netflix (Oct. 16)

However you may feel about Aaron Sorkin, the man knows how to make a taut political drama. Trial of the Chicago 7 is a dramatic retelling of (as it says on the tin) the 1969-70 trial of the Chicago Seven, a group of anti–Vietnam War protesters charged with conspiracy and crossing state lines with the intention of inciting riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The movie has an all-star cast of dudes, and is both written and directed by Sorkin. It made many critics’ best-of-the-year lists and made a cultural splash when it dropped on Netflix in October, after a summer of American and global protests ignited by the killing of George Floyd and other Black Americans.

Borat 2 Makes (a Bigger) Fool Out of Rudy Giulilani (October 23rd)

Rarely do the paths of pop culture and politics so explicitly intersect as they did in Borat 2. The mockumentary comedy sequel came out in October, in the long, plateau-ed height of the lead up to the presidential election, and featured a scene in which Republican politician Rudy Giuliani puts his hand into his trousers in front of actress Maria Bakalova, who is impersonating a conservative journalist. While Giuliani attempted to spin the event in both the lead up to and following the release of the film on Amazon Prime, Sacha Baron Cohen told Good Morning America in an interview after the film’s release: “It is what it is. He did what he did.”

Movies

Maria Bakalova is Ready to Do Borat 3 in ‘Five Minutes’

By David Crow

Movies

Borat 2: Sacha Baron Cohen Reveals Dangerous Deleted Scene

By David Crow

The Queen’s Gambit Turns Everyone into a Chess Player (Oct. 23)

Odds are that, in October 2020, you either knew someone or were someone who watched The Queen’s Gambit and then fell hard into the world of chess. The Netflix period miniseries tracks the highs and lows of fictional chess prodigy Beth Harmon (the brilliant Anya Taylor-Joy), from her upbringing in a Kentucky orphanage in the 1950s to her time at the top of the competitive chess world in the 1960s. In its first month of release, The Queen’s Gambit became Netflix’s most-watched scripted miniseries, and sent chess set sales soaring—yet another sign of just how commercially and culturally powerful Netflix has become.

November 2020

PlayStation 5 Alleges Launches, But No One Can Get Them (Nov. 12)

Even if you aren’t a gamer, you probably heard about the release of the PlayStation 5. Though the PS5 technically became available in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North America, Singapore, and South Korea on November 12th (and worldwide a week later), the limited supply of the console made it almost impossible to find.

As Matthew Byrd wrote in his November article on the subject: “We know that the initial PS5 shortage can at least partially be attributed to a shortage of the console’s chips (as well as distribution and manufacturing problems caused by the complications related to the COVID-19 pandemic), but as we’re already seeing in Europe where some who pre-ordered a PS5 were warned they may not receive their console until 2021, Sony faces some notable additional issues moving forward.”

This is partially a story of supply and demand, and the growth of gaming in general. According to a report by market researcher SuperData (via Venture Beat), the game industry grew 12% (to $139.9 billion) in 2020, with console games revenues up 28% from 2019. While growth is expected to be slower in 2021, as fewer people will hopefully be stuck at home, more people than ever are gtting their story fix in the world of gaming.

Games

PlayStation Bets on Big Games as Game Pass Slowly Wins a Console War

By Matthew Byrd

Games

Why PlayStation Store Closing on PS3 Should Matter to You

By Matthew Byrd

December 2020

WB Announces HBO Max Release Hybrid Model (Dec. 3)

In a move that seems to be paying off, in December, Warner Bros. announced that it would be moving to a release hybrid model through 2021, putting its entire 2021 film slate on HBO Max. As David Crow explained in our film section: “The move will put all 17 of WB’s scheduled 2021 films on a ‘hybrid’ model where films will premiere on HBO Max the same day as their theatrical release in the U.S. Technically speaking, the films will still be playing in theaters, particularly in international markets without HBO Max as a streaming option, but for the first (and most lucrative) month of their release, they’ll also be available on WarnerMedia’s streamer.”

People Actually Get to Play Cyberpunk 2077, Immediately Realize It’s Broken (Dec. 10)

Hooboy, Cyberpunk 2077. In December, after literal years of anticipation, CD Projekt released action RPG video game Cyberpunk 2077 to disastrous results. While the narrative and design of the game is ambitious and has its rewards, the rollout was plagued by performance issues (particularly in the console versions) that led to player backlash and actual lawsuits.

Games

Cyberpunk 2077 Lawsuits Explained

By Matthew Byrd

Games

Cyberpunk 2077 Roadmap Proves the Game Should Have Been Delayed to 2021

By Matthew Byrd

The Mandalorian Finale Breaks the Internet (Dec. 18)

Um, spoilers.

The second season of The Mandalorian may not have technically been the most-watched series of 2020, but it certainly felt like the most-talked-about, proving that, even in the era of streaming, there’s still such a thing as appointment television. This all came to a culmination with The Mandalorian Season 2 finale, “The Rescue,” which featured an appearance from Luke Skywalker himself.

Could Durge’s Star Wars Return Lead to a Role in The Mandalorian or Book of Boba Fett?

By Joseph Baxter

How The Mandalorian Challenges Star Wars’ History of Bad Dads

By Lacy Baugher

Wonder Woman 1984 Premieres (Dec. 25)

Wonder Woman 1984 dropped on Christmas Day in the United States, and quickly became the most-watched straight-to-streaming title of 2020 (knocking Disney+’s Hamilton out of the top spot), despite its middling reviews. In the U.S., it would be the first of WB’s “hybrid model” releases, getting a simultaneous release in theaters as well as on HBO Max.

Movies

Wonder Woman 1984 Star Connie Nielsen Defends Patty Jenkins’ Vision

By Don Kaye

Movies

Does Zack Snyder’s Justice League Set Up Wonder Woman 3?

By David Crow

Bridgerton Gets Saucy (Dec. 25)

Bridgerton, Netflix’s deliciously addicting period romance based on the Julia Quinn novels, also dropped on Christmas Day, and went on to become the streamer’s most watched series ever, reaching #1 in 76 countries. The Shondaland produced drama made leading man Regé-Jean Page a global star, so much so that the announcement that he would not be returning for Season 2 (as each season focuses on a different romantic pairing featuring a member of the Bridgerton family) into a bit of a meltdown. Bridgerton has already secured another three seasons—a post-Season 1 announcement that is unprecedented for a Netflix original.

Why Bridgerton Had to Let Regé-Jean Page Go

By Amanda-Rae Prescott

Will Bridgerton Become the Next Game of Thrones?

By Kayti Burt

Soul Brings on the Feels (Dec. 25)

Called Pixar’s “most ambitious movie in years” by Den of Geek film editor David Crow, Soul was another Christmas release that brought solace to people stuck at home, many without their families, for the holidays. Directed by Pixar vet Pete Docter (Up, Monsters, Inc., Inside Out) and co-directed by Kemp Powers (One Night in Miami, Star Trek: Discovery), the film follows middle school music teacher and pianist Joe Gardner as he seeks to reunite his soul and his body after they are accidentally separated, just before his big break as a jazz musician.

January 2021

The Little Things Kicks Off WB’s 2021 Film Slate on Streaming (Jan. 29)

Fans of crime thriller and/or Denzel Washington and Rami Malek flock to HBO Max and theaters for the hybrid release of The Little Things, the first of WB’s planned 2021 slate.

Movies

The Little Things is Better Than a Seven Copycat

By Don Kaye

Movies

The Little Things and the Mystery of Denzel Washington’s Character Explained

By David Crow

February 2021

WandaVision Ensnares Us

Stop hogging the zeitgeist, Marvel!

In February, Disney+ released its first MCU show, WandaVision, and it broke the internet. The miniseries, created by Jac Schaeffer and starring Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch, wowed audiences with its clever use of the sitcom format and superhero tropes to tell a story about grief that, for all of its fantastical elements, was oh so relatable.

How WandaVision’s Doctor Strange 2 Connection Evolved

By Joseph Baxter

WandaVision: The Unanswered Questions From the Marvel Series

By Gavin Jasper

Judas and the Black Messiah Debuts (Feb. 12)

Daniel Kaluuya and Lakith Stanfield lead an all-star cast in this 1960s period piece that follows the real life story of Black Panther Party chairman Fred Hampton, who was the victim of a targeted assassination by the FBI. In a year that saw an increased mainstream awareness of Black trauma, the Oscar-nominated Judas and the Black Messiah shone a cinematic light on yet another state-led historical injustice against Black Americans.

Charisma Carpenter Speaks Her Truth

In February, actress Charisma Carpenter came forward with allegations about Joss Whedon’s alleged abuses of power during her time on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, inspired by Ray Fisher’s own efforts to seek justice and systemic reform for Whedon’s alleged behavior on Justice League.

My truth. #IStandWithRayFisher pic.twitter.com/eNjYcJ6zwP

— charisma carpenter (@AllCharisma) February 10, 2021

— Ray Fisher (@ray8fisher) July 1, 2020

Pokemania Returns

Many older millennials have spent their time during quarantine reconnecting with their childhood faves. This culminates with a massive renewed interest in Pokemon cards to the point where McDonald’s Happy Meals with Pokemon cards as toys sell out instantly.

Sponsored

Why Pokémon Has Endured For 25 Years

By Alec Bojalad

Did we miss anything? What have been the stories and pop culture trends that have helped get you through the pandemic so far? Let us know in the comments below.

The post The Pandemic in Pop Culture Trends appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3tFxFBF

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

2 notes · View notes

lightninginabottle0613 · 5 years ago

Text

20 questions

rules: answer 20 questions, tag some people, two months later, answer 20 questions, tag more people, one month later, answer 20 questions, tag mo-

tagged by: @thelandofnothing & @blue-nebulae & @harrenhollaback & @anniephl & @beautifulinsanesanity & @yanak324 & @kelleesioverhere & @livhatesolives & WHO THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO TAG IN THIS NOW LMAO

name: erin! used to hate it, now i love it!

nicknames: my dad calls me eringirl, and my best friends (and my best friends’ friends) call me moon.

zodiac sign:

height: sophie turner

language spoken: english, but this question is so funny bc i was on facetime with my dad yesterday sobbing laughing as he told me about a fake language he made up with his brothers when they were kids. it’s called the uglish luguage, and it’s literally just english, with ‘ug’ somewhere in each word. so turns out i can speak that, too

nationality: yes i am american, and yes rihanna is my president. next question

favorite season: if every day were autumn, i cannot even fathom the power i would have as a person

favorite flower: sword lilies, but also there are pansies all over my street & those are IT!!!

favorite scent(s): yo, it’s still rain. it will always be rain

favorite color: i’m really loving a soft blue these days

favorite animal: my favorite animal actually is a wolf, and i swear i’m not just saying that. when i was 14, i spent half of my summer volunteering on a wolf reservation in colorado. i’ve fed some!! and hung out w some!! the arya connection is just a cute bonus

favorite fictional characters: see this post. i’m also currently rediscovering my love for erin hannon from the office. “my last job was at a taco bell express. but then it became a full taco bell, and i don’t know. i couldn’t keep up”

coffee, tea, or hot chocolate: no one tell blithe that i waited in a starbucks drive-thru line for 20 minutes this morning for a venti cold brew i like tea now, ok!!! my moon journal recommends tea and stretching as a wind-down evening routine for aries season. so i’ve been Doing That.

average sleep hours: nothing about my sleep hours is average

dog or cat person: you must be new here

number of blankets you sleep with: just one. but the more pillows, the better

dream trip: my friend’s apartment two miles away, or my office, or the mall

blog established: established in 2015 as a half-hearted attempt at an online emo journal, repurposed in september 2019 as an arya stark thirst account

followers: a sizable collection of other arya stark thirst accounts

random fact: all of my random facts are always tied to sports somehow. i was a dancer from 3-17, i did karate from 6-12, i fenced from 13-16. i played soccer when i was 4, and that’s when i learned that i was not cut out for running.

tagging @alltheworldsinmyhead and literally anyone else who hasn’t done this yet.

stay home! 😇

#tags #get to know me #my athletic history really makes me sound like an arya ass bitch huh

25 notes · View notes

scuttling · 3 years ago

Note

I'll leave here some things I loved and some of my thoughts (I'm sure most of my thoughts will end up being thots thoughts so I'm sorry lol) Also, my English is self-taught and by accident so I'm sorry if I don't make sense, I swear I try my best 🥺🥺🥺

“You have bachelor’s degrees in Psychology and Sociology, and master’s degrees in Behavioral Science and Criminology, all from the University of Chicago. How did you manage all of that, at your age?” Hotch asks, wondering if maybe she is gifted like Reid.

Listen … that’s … that’s so hot. 🥵🥵🥵 Intelligence is so so so hot. I’m feeling warm already lol

“Tactical Response—that’s SWAT?”

“Yes, sir.”

Ooouff. Can you hear that? It’s the sound of me throwing my underwear across the room that’s my competence kink screaming!!! She’s such a badass!!! 💞💞💞😩

“I speak 6: English, Spanish, and Italian as my native languages, plus Russian, French, and German. I have an ear for them.”

Languages are so so so sexy! I also love the fact that I speak her 3 native languages!!! Like! Imagine the jokes, the innuendos, the Frankensteining of languages, the complete understanding without having to wrack your brain to try and translate something that doesn't exist in other languages!!! I’m about to go order a Sophie out of the deep web lol

“Capricious?” she offers with a smile, and he laughs lightly.

He laughed!!! HE LAUGHED!!! I love that!!! so much!!! I’m 🥺🥺🥺💞💞💞🥰🥰🥰

I’m curious if she finds him warm because she took one look at that man and started fantasizing about snuggling him. I know that’s what happened to me lol among other things 🥵🥵🥵🤭

“SWAT?” Morgan echoes, impressed. “She’s gotta be 5’2” out of those heels.”

Sophie and I are the same height! Lol

This is so cute!!! the way he pictures her and thinks about the team, how she'll fit, it they'll be comfortable and get along with here. And also love the fact that he laughs and smiles not only with her but when he thinks of her too!!! I love them so much !!! AAAAAAAAA 🥺🥺🥺💞💞💞😩😩😩

I’m so excited to re-read everything again. Can you tell? lol

Okay, I'm leaving, that's enough spam, sorry!!! 🙈

-HBL

HBL honey! First, the fact that you're self-taught is amazing! Your English is great, makes perfect sense, and even if it didn't please know you're always welcome here!! 🤍

I love that you enjoyed so much of their first meeting! I like that she was able to bring out this side of him--I think that first impressions can be so important and I think she made a good one (and so did he, clearly, if she finds him warm! It might be the snuggles. 😋) If you find a Sophie on the dark web, can you order one for me too?? And yay, shorties club! I'm also 5'2".

I don't have extensive experience with any language besides English, we were taught not to speak Spanish in the home when I was growing up, and that's something I've always regretted not taking the time to learn fluently. So maybe some day in the future I can do that! I hear it's never too late! But I think that would be something so fun to share with Sophie in all the ways you mentioned!

Thank you so much, I appreciate your commentary and feedback! And I enjoy talking to you! Take care until next time!!

#HBL 🤍#ask answered

2 notes · View notes

englishdinamica · 4 years ago

Text

30+ Golden Phrases That Are Incredibly Useful

1. Thanks so much.

This is a simple sentence you can use to thank someone.

To add detail, say:

Thanks so much + for + [noun] / [-ing verb].

For example:

Thanks so much for the birthday money.

Thanks so much for driving me home.

2. I really appreciate…

You can also use this phrase to thank someone. For example, you might say:

I really appreciate your help.

Or you can combine #1 and #2:

Thanks so much for cooking dinner. I really appreciate it.

Thanks so much. I really appreciate you cooking dinner.

3. Excuse me.

When you need to get through but there’s someone blocking your way, say “Excuse me.”

You can also say this phrase to politely get someone’s attention. For example:

Excuse me sir, you dropped your wallet.

Excuse me, do you know what time it is?

4. I’m sorry.

Use this phrase to apologize, whether for something big or small. Use “for” to give more detail. For example:

I’m sorry for being so late.

I’m sorry for the mess. I wasn’t expecting anyone today.

You can use “really” to show you’re very sorry for something:

I’m really sorry I didn’t invite you to the party.

5. What do you think?

When you want to hear someone’s opinion on a topic, use this question.

I’m not sure if we should paint the room yellow or blue. What do you think?

6. How does that sound?

If you suggest an idea or plan, use this phrase to find out what others think.

We could have dinner at 6, and then go to a movie. How does that sound?

Let’s hire a band to play music, and Brent can photograph the event. How does that sound?

7. That sounds great.

If you like an idea, you can respond to #6 with this phrase. “Great” can be replaced with any synonym, such as “awesome,” “perfect,” “excellent” or “fantastic.”

A: My mom is baking cookies this afternoon. We could go to my house and eat some. How does that sound? B: That sounds fantastic!

8. (Oh) never mind.

Let’s say someone doesn’t understand an idea you’re trying to explain. If you’ve explained it over and over and want to stop, just say “oh, never mind.” You can now talk about something else!

You can also use “never mind” to mean “it doesn’t matter” or “just forget it.” In these situations, say it with a smile and positive tone, though. Otherwise, when you say this phrase slowly with a falling low tone, it can mean you’re bothered or upset.

A: Are you going to the grocery store today? B: No, I’m not. But why—do you need something? A: Oh, never mind. It’s okay, I’ll go tomorrow.

Phrases for Learning English

As an English learner, you’ll need to tell others that English is not your first language. You’ll also need to ask native speakers to repeat phrases and words or to speak slower. The following phrases will be useful for this.

9. I’m learning English.

This simple phrase tells people that English is not your native language. If you’re a total beginner, add “just started” after I: “I just started learning English.”

My name is Sophie and I’m learning English.

10. I don’t understand.

Use this phrase when you don’t understand what someone means.

Sorry, I don’t understand. The U.S. Electoral College seems very confusing!

11. Could you repeat that please?

If you’d like someone to say a word, question or phrase again, use this question. Since “to repeat” means “to say again,” you can also ask, “Could you say that again please?”

We can say “please” either at the end of the question or right after “you,” like this:

Could you please repeat that?

Could you repeat that please?

12. Could you please talk slower?

Native speakers can talk very fast. Fast English is hard to understand! This is an easy way to ask someone to speak more slowly.

Note: This phrase is not grammatically correct. However, it’s used often in everyday (casual) speech. The grammatically correct question would be, “Could you please talk more slowly?”

That’s because “slowly” is an adverb, so it describes verbs (like “talk”). “Slower” is a comparative adjective, which means it should be used to describe nouns (people, places or thing), not verbs. (For example: My car is slower than yours.)

A: You can give us a call any weekday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at five five five, two five zero eight, extension three three— B: I’m sorry, could you please talk slower?

13. Thank you. That helps a lot.

After someone starts speaking more slowly for you, thank them with this phrase.

You can use it in many other situations, too.

A: Ben, could you please make the font bigger? It’s hard for me to read the words. B: Sure! I’ll change it from size 10 to 16. How’s this? A: Thank you. That helps a lot.

14. What does _____ mean?

When you hear or see a new word, use this phrase to ask what it means.

A: What does “font” mean? B: It’s the style of letters, numbers and punctuation marks when you type. A common font in the USA is Times New Roman.

15. How do you spell that?

English spelling can be tricky, so make sure to learn this question. You could also ask someone, “Could you spell that for me?”

A: My name is Robbertah Handkerchief. B: How do you spell that?

16. What do you mean?

When you understand the words one by one, but not what they mean together, use this question. You can ask it whenever you’re confused about what someone is telling you.

A: The Smiths do have a really nice house, but the grass is always greener on the other side. B: What do you mean? A: I mean that if we had the Smith’s house, we probably wouldn’t be happier. We always think other people have better lives than us, but other people have problems too.

Phrases for Introducing Yourself and Making Friends

Here are some phrases for introducing yourself when you meet new people, and questions to learn more about them.

17. Hi! I’m [Name]. (And you?)

Here’s an informal greeting you can use when you meet new friends. If the person doesn’t tell you their name, you can ask “And you?” or “And what’s your name?”

Hi! I’m Rebecca. And you?

18. Nice to meet you.

After you learn each other’s names, it’s polite to say this phrase.

A: Hi Rebecca, I’m Chad. B: Nice to meet you, Chad. A: Nice to meet you too.

19. Where are you from?

Ask this question to find out which country someone is from. You answer this question with “I’m from ~.”

Can you answer this question in English? Say both the question and answer aloud right now. (Four times, remember?)

A: Nice to meet you, Sergio. So, where are you from? B: I’m from Spain.

20. What do you do?

Most adults ask each other this question when they meet. It means what do you do for a living (what is your job).

I think this question is boring, so I ask other questions. But many people will probably ask you this, so it’s important to know what it means.

A: What do you do, Cathleen? B: I work at the university as a financial specialist.

21. What do you like to do (in your free time)?

Instead of asking for someone’s job title, I prefer to ask what they enjoy doing. The responses (answers) are usually much more interesting!

A: So Cathleen, what do you like to do in your free time? B: I love to read and to garden. I picked two buckets of tomatoes last week!

22. What’s your phone number?

If you want to keep in contact with someone you just met, ask this question to find out their phone number. You can replace “phone number” with “email address” if you want to know their email address.

You might also hear people use the more casual “Can I get your ~?,” as in, “Can I get your phone number?”

It would be great to meet up again sometime. What’s your phone number?

23. Do you have Facebook?

Many people keep in touch (contact) through Facebook. Use this question to find out if someone has a Facebook account. You might also ask, “Are you on Facebook?”

Let’s keep in touch! Do you have Facebook?

Phrases for Work

Finally, here are seven basic phrases you might use at a job.

24. How can I help you?

If you work in customer service, you’ll use this phrase a lot. It’s also a common phrase when answering the phone.

[On the phone]: Hello, this is Rebecca speaking. How can I help you?

25. I’ll be with you in a moment.

When someone wants to see you, use this phrase if you need a minute to finish something first. If a client is waiting at a store, you can also use this phrase to show that their turn is next.

You can replace “moment” with “minute”: “I’ll be with you in (just) a minute.”

Another common phrase for this situation is “I’ll be right with you.”

Good morning! I’ll be with you in a moment.

26. What time is our meeting?

You can use this question’s structure to ask the time of any event: “What time is [event]?”

If you want to ask about a meeting on a certain day, add “on [day].” For example, “What time is our meeting on Thursday?”

What time is our meeting on Wednesday?

27. Please call me (back) at…

When you want someone to call you or to call you back (to return your call), use this phrase to give your phone number.

Hi, this is Cathleen from the financial office. I’m wondering if you found those missing receipts. Please call me back at 555-5555. Thanks!

28. (Oh really?) Actually, I thought…

When you disagree with someone, “Actually, I thought…” will make you sound kinder and more polite than saying “No” or “You’re wrong.” This phrase is useful when you have a different idea than someone else.

A: So Sam’s coming in tonight at 8, right? B: Actually, I thought he wasn’t working at all this week. A: Oh, ok. I’ll have to look at the schedule again.

29. Actually, I [verb]…

Just like in #28, you can use “actually, I…” with many different verbs: “heard,” “learned,” “am,” “can,” “can’t,” etc. You should use it for the same situation as above: when you have a different idea than someone else.

A: Did you finish the reports? B: Actually, I am running a bit behind, but they’ll be done by noon!

C: When you type, always put two spaces between sentences. D: Actually, I learned to put a single space between sentences.

30. I’m (just) about to [verb]…

When you’re going to start something very soon, you’re “just about to” do something.

I’m just about to send those faxes.

I’m about to go and pick up some coffee. Do you want anything?

These 30 phrases are just the beginning. There are many other easy English phrases you can learn as a beginner. When you’re ready, check out these posts for more:

Phrases for beginner conversation

Phrases for being positive and encouraging others

Phrases for restaurants

Phrases for traveling

Happy learning!

1 note · View note

fezsoup · 4 years ago

Text

So I was tagged in this top 10 characters thing by @voyagers-resident-catholic thanks! This was fun to do :)

1.) My No.1 fav character of all time has got to be everyone’s fav worm Jadzia Dax like... how can you not absolutely fall in love with this crazy ancient one. I would legit watch a whole spin of show dedicated to the various Dax hosts and their mishaps over the years hahah. I just love her boldness and wildness and her simultaneous wisdom and calm.

2.) Close second to all time fav characters, and also my favourite star trek captain ... Benjamin Sisko!! He is literally the most wholesome captain I mean, MAN the action, the passion, he takes no shit from anyone! Omnipotent alien tries to cause havoc?!?! He punches them in the face, never to be seen again! Far beyond the stars was objectively one of the best eps in trek history

3) SPOCK. No explanation necessary.

4.) A detour from trek now, in fourth place is Malcolm Reynolds. I woulda loved to have had several seasons of character development and slow reveal of his backstory but alas twas not be 😭😭😭😭

5.) Back to trek at no. 5 with Julian Bashir! Honestly I loved his character development arc throughout the series. Something DS9 did really well was show him learning and growing from this naive bby doc fresh out of med school ready to tackle his ‘frontier’ to this amazing well rounded man who managed to hold on to his passion for helping people despite there being a literal war on. My all time favourite scenes julian include ‘you’ve never had to wake your self up from a bad dream??’ and his face when worf and jadzia and then quark (QuArK?!?!) and Grillka come into sick bay for the same reasons hehehe. Oh and of course bursting into ops to tell everyone that he’s JUST MET A SPYYYYYYYY hahahahh

6.) Hoshi Sato! Again another character where I wanted more development and back story pllzzzz. Like why wasn’t there more eps about a character who literally got kicked out of starfleet cause she broke a SO’s arm when he confronted her about A FLOATING POKER GAME she was running!!! She is literally a child prodigy and can speak a billion languages WE DESERVED MORE HOSHI!!

7.) Now I couldn’t mention Julian and not also mention Cardassia’s favourite exile Mr Plain and Simple Garak. I mean what’s not to love, the chaos energy of pretending to not to be involved in any espionage despite knowing basically all the high up Cardassians personally. Having various skills dubiously acquired through tailoring or gardening e.g. mr I learnt klingon by doing alterations like ?!?! Idk how to express the sheer audacity of this lizard man like he knows everyone knows and yet goes through the trouble of blowing up his own shop just so Odo will investigate something. like can I just ask the chief of security NO i must put on a major pyrotechnics display its the ONLY WAY

8.) Coming in at number 8 is Kathryn Janeway! I absolutely love her for sticking to her principles even if it meant stranding her whole crew in the Delta quadrant. I loved how much she took care of her crew and the relationships between her and all the other characters <3 She was one hell of a captain for sure. Oh and also abso loved all of her hair styles omg from perf bun captain to sexy battle ruffled locks omg every single one of them was a Look

9.) Leslie Knope. I somehow related so hard to her and simultaneously found her so aspiration. I loved how much she loved her friends but also how off the rails she could get when obsessed with something

10.) And lastly my girl Sophie Hatter, chaos granny, magical genius and hat maker extraordinaire! I just loved howl’s moving castle both the book and the gibli film (tho the book more, cause grad student howl is such a vibe)

Ok don’t feel like you have to do this but I shall tag a few peeps

@itsatreklife @captaincrusher @jane-ways and @ideational-star-trek

and also anyone else who wants to :)

#tag games

4 notes · View notes

deadinsidedressage · 4 years ago

Note

Have you watched the great? How "sometimes true" is it?

Hi so first of all I took a muscle relaxer because I've pulled a muscle in my back so this might loose coherence.

Most of what I saw of it in trailers was inaccurate.

It seems they're trying to model Peter III more like the infamous very "Russian" antics of Peter I (Peter the Great) instead of having any accurate portrayal of him.

Peter III did not speak Russian as a first language or even with any fluency at the time Catherine was married to him. His mother was the daughter of Peter the Great but his father was a German duke whose family was ruling Denmark at the time. As such, Peter III was very non-Russian. He self-identified as German and his mother was part of the wave of "Western educated" nobles that greatly destabilized Russia. For one, many Russian nobles such as Catherine Petronova (Peter III's mom) spoke French as a first language, German as a second, and then finally maybe Russian as a third. Peter the Great had sought to bring Western innovations to make Russia a stronger nation but instead the royal families of Western Europe took this invitation to engage with Russia (and literally engage Russian nobles) as a way in which to slowly break the nation down. If you can marry their royals with your royals... well suddenly everyone is a German noble and you can successfully consolidate power under one European empire. Do make note that Peter the Great would have absolutely loathed Peter III and his father Charles Frederick. The entire reason we got Peter III in power in the first place was because while Peter the Great fucked (2 wives, 14 kids) he didn't successfully fuck enough to have a son outlive him to rule--- and precisely that he wasn't dying fast enough was why his eldest son Alexei briefly fucked off to Austria (so I mean no throne for you) before dying (mmmm dying from torture basically at the hands of his dad lol).

Peter the Great's immediate successor was Catherine I (his wife) as Russian has generally always operated under Tsar & Tsarina "co-rule"--- debatable how involves most tsarinas are while their husband lives but does set the precedent that should the Tsar die his wife will rule until the next in succession is old enough to take over. Catherine's death then put into power Empress Elizabeth (Peter I's eldest daughter) who by all historical accounts was a pretty solid Tsarina. Well though some stupid people will tell you Elizabeth had to stage a coup to gain power from 2 month old Ivan VI, son of her uncle Ivan V who had once upon a time co-ruled with Peter the Great before dying (possibly purposefully assassinated by his brother). Ivan V was entirely blind and senile by age 27... It was assumed that either Ivan VI would inherent these traits OR was actually illigitimate--- Ivan V was... Perhaps never all there enough to consummate his marriage. At any rate, Elizabeth had Ivan VI moved to a secure palace where he'd be allowed to live out his life under strict orders for him to be killed should anyone ever try and use him as a tool in a coup. It was the 1700s what do you want from me.

Elizabeth was Peter the Great's eldest daughter and was assumed even before Alexei's death to have some potential as a successor--- as such her education reflected it. It wasn't uncommon at all for the Russian throne to go to the eldest sister of a Tsar if he was childless, so eldest daughters were often given special tutors. She successfully navigated the War of Austrian Succession and the Seven Years War. Unfortunately, her fiancé died before her marriage AND as she was unmarried & at the time childless she could not gain a husband before her mother died and she took the throne. Yeah dudes in 1727 sucked ass and were like lmao an UNMARRIED, CHILDLESS EMPRESS OF RUSSIA??? 0/10 unfuckable her nephew is the heir apparent & there's not a high change to knock her up with a boy before he'd be able to claim the throne. 🙃

WHO WAS ELIZABETH'S NEPHEW? PETER THE FUCKING THIRD! Son of Mr. Exiled to Russia for Trying to Overthrow His Uncle as King of Sweden and Mrs. I Was Never Assumed to Have Any Political Worth By My Father So He Didn't Really Care What I Did.

As I said before, Peter III identified as a German and didn't speak fuck all Russian. He acted like a German prince and really wanted to BE a German prince. Enter Catherine II (Catherine the Great) a Prussian (is she more technically Austrian than German? who fucking remembers) princess. Empress Elizabeth actually was responsible for the matching of Catherine to Peter III. She knew that Russian needed a strong Austrian alliance since Peter III's reign would be highly scrutinized (and exploited) by the still pissed off Swedes. Catherine (then Sophie, nicknamed Fike) came from a reportedly abusive and cold mother to Russian to be wed to a drunken baby bitch boy who played with toys. Princess Joanna (Catherine's mother) immediately became a huge pain in the ass when she recognized that according to Russian custom her daughter could become Empress. Joanna was actually BANNED FROM RUSSIA FOR SPYING IN BEHALF OF THE AUSTRIAN EMPEROR by Empress Elizabeth following Catherine's arrival there. Catherine also was famously deathly ill upon her arrival to Russia and would have continued to worsen if she'd followed the medical advise prescribed by Joanna (who was anti-bloodlettting). Joanna sent a Lutheran pastor to hold a final confession for Catherine assuming she'd die and Catherine famously turned him away in favor of the Orthodox father attending to her. Empress Elizabeth fucking loved that shit. Upon getting well, Caterine converted to Orthodoxy (both her parents where BIG MAD) at which point she took the name Екатерина Алексеевна (Ekaterina Alekseyvna/ Catherine "daughter of Alexei")--- now when non-Russians take fake patronymics it's usually the russified version of their father's name or a variant of Vladimir but I've seen theorized Alexei may have been the Orthodox Father's name and I think that's more fun anyway.

Catherine hated Peter but she loved Elizabeth (mostly because of the fuck your mom be a strong woman like me) and immediately threw herself into becoming deserving of the Russian throne. She practiced her Russian lessons so long and with such frequency that she actually gave herself pneumonia. Peter though did not make the moves to he deserving off the Russian throne. He was a Lutheran, he hardly spoke Russian, and insisted on spending as much time with Germans as possible. Once his rule began he was even devising a way to give as much Russian terrority to the German royal family as possible.

Can you even believe?

Catherine had won the favor of the advisors around her husband quickly as no one loves a weak Tsar and was able to stage a coup and froce Peter III to abdicate about 6 months into Peter's actual reign. Peter III died later... Potentially in an assassination potentially not. Catherine also potentially had Ivan VI assassinated or maybe he died in a failed coup attempt by people who wanted a controllable Tsar who knows 🤷🏻‍♀️.

At any rate, no the show doesn't look accurate. I appreciate that they've taken the stance that it's not supposed to be either. There's a lot about the ways Catherine has been portrayed in media & by historians that smacks of sexism--- you often see her touted as being a huge slut who fucked her way into power but that entirely ignores that fact that she was an extremely well educated woman who got into and held power for so long by her OWN MERITS. She also was extremely dedicated to following in Peter the Great's footsteps in bringing positive aspects of Westernization to Russia without degrading the Russian culture as lesser. She never lost her Austrian accent when she spoken Russian, she was always more comfortable reading in French, and French was often the first language of her children BUT she is essentially responsible for the creation of Russia's art culture and Russian nobility actually being Russian in culture if not through ethnicity/nationality. She also did some of the largest expansions of the empire in her time which you know is good or bad depending which point you're arguing from.

2 notes · View notes

alwayschoosechocolate · 5 years ago

Text

Are we even speaking the same language? (Part 15)

Sophie moves to Seoul to become a language assistant at one of Seouls biggest music companies. Even though her Korean is far from perfect, she quickly seems to get along with some of the biggest stars in the company. But the language might not be the only barrier, she has to overcome.

Characters: All seven members of BTS, paring between Namjoon x main character

Word count: 3282

Genre: romance, angst, fluff

Warnings: struggles with mental health

Comments: When the dialog is written in cursive, it’s in Korean. When it’s bold, it’s in Danish.

Masterpost with the other parts of the story, can be found here (x)

Walking to the music studios, Sophie hummed in anticipation of the evening to come. The guys were all off for the evening and the next day, so they were throwing a little get-together. Nothing big, just the guys, Cathrine, Julia, Hannah and Sophie. But it had been a long time, since Sophie had let loose a bit, and she was really looking forward to hanging out with everyone together again. After making up with Namjoon this Sunday, he had continued staying at her place, although the experience had been completely different. Instead of walking on eggshells around him, and tensing up every time he reached for her, she had found herself seeking his company, snuggling up to him on the couch as he was working, dropping by the studio for surprise visits, and they even went out for ice cream one time. They had gone back to joking around and Sophie had even opened up a little about why she left Europe. Although, she still hadn’t told him the entire story, it was a start.

Smiling at the display of figures and colors outside his studio, she punched in the code for his studio, pulling open the door to be greeted by Namjoon already facing her from his chair.

“Hi babe,” he sang with a huge grin, squinting his eyes and popping his dimples in the process.

“Hi honey,” she giggled, pulling the door close and walking into his open arms, letting him pull her onto his lap. Cupping her face, he gently pulled her lips to his in a sweet kiss. “Wow, I should come by here more often, if this is the greeting I get,” she teased, as he pulled back.

He chuckled a bit at her words, before spinning the chair back around to the computer with her still in his lap.

“Joonie, what are you doing? We need to buy alcohol on the way to the dorm, and we’re already a bit late,” Sophie asked in confusion, as she saw the open track on the computer.

“I know,” he mumbled against her hair. “I just need to finish this last part really quick. It won’t take long.”

Settling back against his chest, she decided to wait it out. Watching him work was actually something she enjoyed, so waiting a few minutes for him wasn’t a bit issue. Following the cursor moving around on the screen and feeling his warm body beneath her made her sigh out in content. She closed her eyes for a second, listening to the clicking of the mouse and Namjoons breathing. After a few minutes she realized that the clicking had stopped, so she opened her eyes in confusion. Turning around to look at Namjoon, she found him already looking at her with a soft smile on his lips.

“What?”, she asked, mirroring his smile.

“Nothing. You’re just so beautiful,” he cooed, making her roll her eyes, trying to play of the blush settling on her cheeks.

“That was so cheesy,” Sophie laughed, trying to get up off his lap, but his arms held her firmly against his chest. “Aish, Joonie. Let me go,” she squealed in between laughs, wiggling around in his embrace.

“No, not yet. I have to share you with the others for the rest of the night, so I deserve to have you alone for a bit,” he pouted at her, still holding her firmly against his chest.

“Oh my god, Joon. What’s gotten into you today?”, she giggled, as she felt him cup her blushing cheek. His warm eyes peered into hers, and his face slowly split in a grin again, as he leaned in for another kiss. As his soft lips meet hers, she melted into his kiss, letting out a sigh at the feeling.

“Nothing, I just love you a little louder today,” he whispered against her lips, as he pulled back.

“Joonie, you’re killing me with the cheesy lines,” she laughed, as she pressed a soft kiss to his cheek.

“I know, you secretly love it.”

She rolled her eyes at him, when he threw her a wink, before patting his arm.

“Alright mr. romantic, let’s go. You get me all day tomorrow, but tonight, we’re hanging out with the others as well.”

He pouted a bit but let her pull him out of his chair and out the studio.

“Ah, you smell that?”, she asked with a smirk, as they stepped out the building.

“What?”, he asked in confusion, eyebrows furrowed.

“Oxygen.” She stated matter-of-factly, making him send her an eyeroll.

“You’re so annoying,” he huffed out, pulling her into his side and pressing a kiss to her temple.

“Mmm.. You love it.”

She sent him a triumphant grin, making him shake his head at her.

“Let’s just get the alcohol and get to the dorm, so you can annoy the others instead of me,” he teased, tickling her sides.

–

“We’re here!”, Namjoon shouted out, as they entered the dorm. Hoots and screams were heard as the maknae line came barreling towards them. Jimin went straight for the bags of alcohol, while Jungkook threw himself around Namjoons neck.

“Hyung, you can’t just leave us like that! We missed you here!”, Jungkook yelled in excitement. Namjoon stumbled back a bit from the force of his weight, before awkwardly hugging him back.

“Kookie, we see each other every day,” he laughed. “You make it sound like you haven’t seen me in weeks.”

“Well, Guk hasn’t stopped asking and whining about you the whole time, so you might as well have,” Jimin called over his shoulder as he carried the alcohol into the kitchen, making Jungkook blush as bit as he pulled back from Namjoon.

“Aww, I think it’s cute, kookie,” Sophie spoke over against Taes shoulder. He hadn’t let go of her, since she and Namjoon walked through the door. “Tae, do you think, you could let me go now? I need to help Jimin with the drinks.”

He shook his head against her hair. “No. I missed you.”

“I told you, I was gonna have to share you, once we got here,” Namjoon commented, as he passed them on the way to the kitchen. Rolling her eyes at his words, she tried to pry Taes hands off her again.

“No,” he whined, as he dropped his hands to his side, pouting at her. Giggling at his cute expression, she reached up to ruffle his hair, before she walked towards the kitchen.

“I’m not going anywhere, Tae,” she called over her shoulder. “We got all night to catch up.”

“Jiminie, did you just take all the alcohol, without saying hi to me?”, Sophie teased, as she walked into the kitchen seeing Jimin already mixing drinks at the counter. Sending her a sheepish smile, he kept mixing drinks.

“Ya, you’re not even gonna say hi now?”, Jin yelled from the other side of the kitchen, where he was bent over a pot, working on dinner. “Hi, Soph. How have you been?”

Smiling as she walked over to give him a hug, she shook her head in amusement.

“I’ve been good. How about you? Do you need help with anything?”, she asked looking at the different pots on the stove.

“Nah, I’m good. Thanks for offering though. You’re the first one to do so,” he huffed out in feigned annoyance, as he shot a look at Jimin across the kitchen, who just shrugged his shoulders.

“Ya, Park Jimin. If you don’t hug me right now, we will have a serious problem,” Sophie scolded him, as she walked to him, seeing him smirk at her words, before he put the different bottles down on the counter.

“Sorry, babe,” he giggled, as he pulled her into a hug. “How are you?”

“Good, good. Great. I’ve been looking forward to tonight,” she giggled as she poured herself a glass of wine.

“Yeah, I can see that,” Jimin laughed, as he eyed her glass.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she smirked, as she put down the glass. “Did you want a glass as well?”

Widening his eyes at her answer, he doubled over in laughter, before pouring himself a cup of his newly mixed concoction and clinking it against her glass.

“Tonight is gonna be so much fun!”, he exclaimed as he downed the entire drink in one go.

“Wow, you’re moving fast in here,” Namjoon noted, as he walked into the kitchen with the rest of the bags. “I put your stuff in my room, love.”

“Thanks babe,” Sophie smiled, as she poured a glass of wine for Jin. “Do you want a glass as well?”

“I’ll wait until dinner, but thanks for the offer,” he smiled, as he wrapped his arms around her in a back hug.

Catching up with the others, as Jin finished dinner, they were joined by the rest of the girls and Hoseok. Greeting everyone with hugs, they moved to the dining table to eat, however the alcohol took up more space on the table than the food.

“I know tonight is going to be a party, but maybe we should make sure to eat something, before getting too drunk,” Hoseok noted with a laugh and a head tilt, taking in the giggling mess that was Sophie and Jimin at the table end.

“Don’t worry, baby,” Cathrine giggled as she touched his arm. “Sophie can definitely hold her liquor and we all know, that Jimin is basically a sponge.”

Jimin shot Cathrine a wink, as he clinked his glass with Sophies once more. Laughs and giggles filled the air throughout dinner. Even Julia started joking about Jungkook, who all but dropped his jaw in astonishment at her comments, making the others howl with laughter.

About 3 drinks later – 6 at Jimins end, and 5 at Sophies end – the group moved to the living room, spreading out on the sofas and the floor with all the alcohol and snacks gathered on the table. Sophie ended up beside Namjoon and Jimin on her other side. Snuggling into Namjoon, he draped an arm over her shoulder, making her giggled as she took a sip of her wine glass.

“Do you think, you should slow down maybe?”, he breathed against her neck as he placed a kiss there.

Giggling at the feeling, she shook her head. “Nope. I’m good,” she grinned at him, before he pulled her in for a kiss.

“Ew,” Jungkook exclaimed with a scrunched-up face. “Okay, new rule! No kissing or PDA tonight, please!”

“Yeah, that’s a great idea, Kook. Does that rule apply to everyone or just the couples?”, Yoongi asked in a dry tone, hinting at how Jungkook had been hanging onto Julias every word at dinner, and now had her snuggled up to him.

“Ehm,” he stuttered, blushing like a beet, as he retracted his words, making Cathrine stick her tongue out at him, before pressing a sloppy kiss to Hoseoks cheek, earning loud laughs from everybody else, and faint blush on Julias face.

As the hours passed the conversation somehow circled more and more around the topic of sex and previous partners. Feeling Sophie shift beside him, Namjoon drew her closer to his side, as he leaned in to whisper in her ear.

“What’s wrong, love? You got something to tell me?”, he smirked, as he nibbled on her ear.

She hummed in feigned contemplation, before erupting in a tipsy giggle as he pinched her side.

“Nothing, I wouldn’t have told you anyway,” she smiled at him, before putting her face in more serious folds. “We just never actually had this conversation together, and I don’t want you to think, that I kept something from you on purpose.”

“Hmm, you’re kinda freaking me out here, love,” he chuckled against her neck as he nibbled on her soft skin, before drawing back. “But I trust you. You’ve kept some things from me,” he gave her a stern look, making her look down in embarrassment. “But I trust you to be honest with me now.” Giving him a sincere smile, she pressed a long kiss to his lips, feeling his hand get lost in her hair.

“Hey! Guys!” Jimins snapping fingers in front of them forced them back to the present, and the circle watching them with wide smiles and smirks.

“Sorry,” Namjoon mumbled with a smile, rubbing his neck in embarrassment.

“So, what’s your answer?”, Tae asked them, as he grabbed another beer of the table.

“Answer for what?”, Sophie inquired.

Clicking his tongue in annoyance, Jimin gave her light shove. “You need to listen. We’re playing a new game. Starts as normal ‘never have I ever’, where you drink if you’ve done it. But then, whoever drank compares the number of times, they’ve done it. Highest number has to drink the number of sips as they’ve done it, and if the number of times is above 10, they get to hand out the remaining sips.”

“Got it?”, Yoongi smirked at them, taking a sip of his beer.

“Sure,” Sophie giggled. “Sounds fun. What was the question?”

“Never have I ever lived abroad,” Jungkook stated with a shit-eating grin, sneaking a look at Julia, who just shrugged taking a sip, along with the rest of the girls and Jin.

“Alright, what’s the numbers?”, Jimin chuckled, already foreseeing the outcome.

“Only one for me,” Cathrine stated. “The US and here.”

“Me too,” Julia chirped up. “One.”

“Me three,” Hannah giggled. “Japan and Korea. Although, I was supposed to work as a guide in Australia, but it never went through.”

“I only lived here and then my stay abroad in Australia,” Jin smirked, as he turned to Sophie.

“Fine,” Sophie giggled. “I’ll drink. But I won’t forget this, Jeon.” Glaring at Jungkook, she took three sips.

“Wait, wait, wait. That was three sips?”, Hannah exclaimed.

“Wait, three?”, Tae asked, holding up his hand, as he counted. “Germany, Korea and?”

“Well, I lived in France for a while a few years ago,” Sophie shrugged, grabbing some chips from the table.

“Alright, miss international,” Jimin mocked, as he exchanged her empty wine glass with a beer. “Your turn to ask a question.”

“Alright,” Sophie laughed, sending Namjoon a wink. “Never have I ever written a song,” she stated with a proud smirk, hearing all the guys groan, before they took a sip.

“This is gonna turn into a race between Namjoon-hyung and Yoongi-hyung,” Hoseok laughed.

“Not really,” Namjoon laughed, looking over at Yoongi. “Yoongi-hyung writes way more songs than I do.”

“But do I need an exact number?”, Yoongi groaned.

“Alright, Mr. Genius,” Hannah sighed with an eyeroll. “No need to show off. Let’s just say, that you drink 10 sips, and then you give out 10 as well.”

“Well, for that sarcasm, you get the 10 sips,” Yoongi smirked at her, making her roll her eyes once again, but Sophie noticed the faint blush on her cheeks. The sudden realization, that Yoongi was the guy Hannah slept with at the firm, made her gasp as she turned to Cathrine, getting a confirming nod.

“What’s wrong, Sophie?”, Jin asked with a glint in his eye, definitely knowing exactly what Sophie just realized.

“Nothing,” she mumbled into her beer with a grin.

“Alright, my turn,” Yoongi stated, trying to move the conversation on. “Never have I ever had sex with someone, who wasn’t born in the same country as me.”

All the girls at the table took a sip, along with Namjoon, Hoseok and Yoongi.

“You played yourself there, Yoongs,” Jin teased.

“Might be,” he chuckled. “But now I get to hear numbers.”

“Number of people or different countries?”, Hannah asked, earning snickers from the rest of the group.

“Number of different countries,” Jungkook piped up, sneaking a look at Julia.

Namjoon, Hoseok and Yoongi all had one country, Julia and Hannah had two, and Sophie had four. As everyone turned to Hannah, she couldn’t help the shit-eating grin on her face.

“Well, I’m at six so far,” she shrugged, as she took her six sips.

As the evening moved on, the music got louder and the drinks definitely got stronger – thanks to Jimin, who kept pouring more alcohol into the drinks after they had been mixed. Hannah and Hoseok started a dancing competition, Namjoon and Yoongi was discussing songs and Jimin and Sophie had turned into a giggling mess in the corner.

“Sophie, come on,” Jimin pried. “You gotta tell me something.”

“No, Jiminie!”, Sophie whined with a clumsy headshake, making Jimin laugh at her. “I’m not telling you about my sex life with Namjoon.”

“What if I tell you something about my sex life?”

“No, don’t!”, Sophie exclaimed, doubling over in a laugh. “I don’t need to know about your sex life!”

“Not even if it involves someone from the company?”, he teased, wiggling his eyebrows.

Suddenly jumping at the arms wrapping around her, Sophie let out a surprised shriek, as she felt the rumble in his chest as Namjoon chuckled.

“Why are you guys talking about our sex life?”, he smirked against her collarbone, as he pressed kisses up to her ear, making her giggle.

“Jiminie is curious,” she stated, making Jimin laugh in embarrassment, as he tried to play it off as plain drunkenness.

“Hey!”, Jungkook exclaimed drunkenly, pulling Julia closer against his side, as he looked around making sure he had everyone’s attention. “Let’s play another game.”

“What kind of game, Guk?” Jimin asked, downing his glass before opening another beer.

“Truth!”

Leaning back against the couch with a proud grin, the others exchanged confused glances, before erupting in laughter.

“Guk, what do you mean?”, Cathrine asked with a laugh.

“We take turns asking the entire group questions, and if someone doesn’t want to answer, they have to take a sip.”

Looking around the circle everyone seemed alright with the game, even though some looked at bit worried.

“Alright, you start then,” Hannah challenged him.

“If you could choose, would you rather be with someone insanely pretty, but not so intelligent. Or someone very smart but average looking?”, he stated, once again sneaking a look at Julia.

“Ya, Jungkook-ah, your questions are getting very specific. Are you by any change targeting someone specific here?”, Namjoon smirked, before groaning in pain as Sophie elbowed him in the stomach.

“Guk, did you really think anyone in this group would chose looks over intelligence?”, Taehyung laughed at his brother.

“Well, they don’t have to cancel each other out,” Sophie whispered into Namjoons ear, before placing a kiss just below his earlobe, earning a flustered grin from the guy.

The questions continued, getting more and more ridiculous, before Yoongi asked the question, that ended up tipping the entire evening.

“If both of your parents were falling off a cliff, who would you save?”, Yoongi asked with laugh, knowing that everyone in the room hated his questions.

“Hyung, come on! That’s an awful question!”, Jimin exclaimed. “I don’t want to answer that!”

“That’s why it’s fun,” Yoongi laughed waving his beer around for emphasis. Cathrine threw a worried look at Sophie, concerned about her reaction to this question. Catching her eye, Sophie just gave a soft nod to show her, that she was okay with it.

“Alright! Jimin, you go first!”, Yoongi exclaimed. “And we go against the clock.”

Jimin groaned at his words, throwing his head back against the couch. “I’m gonna drink.” Rolling his head to rest on Sophies shoulder, he sent her the biggest pout, he could muster. “Sophie, you go.”

Giggling at his cuteness, she rolled her eyes. “Alright fine,” she said, looking back at Yoongi. “Mom or dad, right?”

Yoongi smirked, expecting her to drink as well, his smile faltering, when she continued talking without missing a beat.

“Neither.”

@lidda

// Part 16 //

32 notes · View notes