#edit: changed george's color.....it looks better now~

[hertwood]

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[temporoom]

It all began with alchemy...

An analysis of the alchemy behind The Case Study of Vanitas.

Part 1: Basis of alchemy | Part 2: Theories (1) | Part 3: Theories (3)

This post uses elements from my previous post about alchemy, I would recommend you to read it before this one to help you understand what I’m writing about better.

Hi! It’s been a while (way too long tbh I’m sorry), I’m back with my alchemical stuffs. Last time, I gave you some basis on alchemy and how some of its theme can fit in the universe of VnC. This time, we will refine those in order to form theories about the story and what its future could be. So, what did we deduced last time which could help us in this endeavor?

Here are the things we established about VnC and alchemy:

The concept of multiple plans forming our universe and our being. (Human world, Altus, and the World Formula) Including a device capable of linking them to one another (The Book of Vanitas, the d’Apchier’s Organ), as well as the potential Christian imagery of this concept (The Tower of Babel, and the Garden of Eden).

The entire vampire race being issued from some form Chrysopoeia (transmutation of lead to gold), apart from Chloé d’Apchier (Argyropoeia), Luca Oriflamme (Aqua Regia), and Noé Archiviste (Philosopher’s Stone). (EDIT: There has been the recent addition of Loki Oriflamme who has dark blue eyes, however given that I started my research before his color palette was revealed I still don’t know what to associate him to.)

The presence of symbolic components capable of producing a Philosopher’s Stone, such as Mercury (Luna, Vanitas, Chloé…) and Sulfur (Faustina, Jeanne, Jean-Jacques…), and the different steps of the Magnum Opus being incarnated by characters in the story (Vanitas is Nigredo, Jeanne is Albedo, Dominique is Citrinas, Noé is Rubedo).

Now that all of those pieces of information are set, let’s work them out to form one Alchemical Theory, which should be either capable of explaining how the VnC universe work, and/or predict what should happen in future chapters. Let’s go!

Who is the alchemist?

Since the moment VnC introduced us to alchemy, most fans have been asking this question: who is Paracelsus? Is he still alive? What was the actual results of the Babel event caused by him?

Because those are recurrent questions, and the ones people expect me to answer the most with those posts, I’ll try my best to do so here. But let me change the question a bit then. Rather than ask who is Paracelsus, let’s ask, who is the Alchemist? Or even, who were the alchemists? The ones at the source of Babel.

Knowing who those alchemists were doesn’t require any alchemical knowledge, just some historical knowledge. We have most of the names already after all (you’ll see).

For a start, let’s look at the only piece of evidence we currently have: this panel in chapter 7. In it, we can see on the far-left Paracelsus, as well as his “helpers”: a bearded man, a dark-haired woman, and a blond man. Now, I will make a wild conjecture to guess their names:

The bearded man is Johann Georg Faust, contemporary of Paracelsus, and the main inspiration for Goethe’s tragedy Faust. (The play probably being the source of Faustina’s name). I couldn’t find a famous woman born in the 15th century for our dark-haired alchemist, I could make an entire post what her identity might be for the story, but this not today’s post subject. Finally, our blond man is none other than the Count of St. Germain, our dear Teacher. Look at his hair, it’s the same. (Not just that, but given the claims of the man himself, he could have been a contemporary of Paracelsus).

Now that we have established who is and who isn’t Paracelsus, we can go back to our main subject. Don’t worry, those three will come back at some point. But right now, I’m mostly trying to make conclusions with the information I had previously given to you all.

So, who is the alchemist? Who is the core of the VnC universe? We already have our answers from my previous post: Luna. Luna is the alchemist.

Luna fits all the criteria of the transformed alchemist:

They do not correspond to any forms of binarity: they are neither a woman or a man, both in appearance and mentality; they aren’t a human or a vampire either. (The resolution of contraries, the hermaphrodite)

They have a device capable of linking the physical world to the world formula: the Book of Vanitas. (The wish of being linked back to God)

They were exiled from an “Eden” and feared. (The link with God being severed)

The name given to them by others, Vanitas, is a form of art piece meant to remind of someone’s mortality. What a fitting name to insult an alchemist who had the arrogance of wishing to go beyond mortality. “No matter how long your life shall be, you too, will die one day.” (One of the alchemists’ goals, especially in Asia, was the creation of an Elixir of Long Life – more often called Elixir of Immortality in English-speaking countries, though the elixir itself does not grant it).

However, as I’ve mentioned at the beginning of this post, Luna can be associated with one of the catalysts of the Magnum Opus: the mercury. In that case, they are not the transformed alchemist, but rather a product of their experiments. But do we have a second possibility for the transformed alchemist? Of course we do, and you know him well: the Count of St. Germain.

Does not fit binary standards by always changing of appearances.

Considers themselves to be above humans and vampires alike, their true nature is still undetermined.

They are thematically associated with a golden color, gold being the result of Chrysopoeia, one of the abilities of the Philosopher’s Stone. Just like any alchemists, he could have been transformed from lead to gold (spiritually) by some sort of Philosopher’s Stone.

So, we now have two potential original alchemists at the core of VnC, one of which has most certainly been part of the events of Babel. What could that potentially mean? Well, on one hand, if we followed the color coding, the only true original alchemist should be the Teacher, given his gold. Making of Luna simply one of the catalysts of the Magnum Opus (representing the mercury), so, while they could have been one of the actors of Babel, they are not the alchemist at its source. But on the other hand, Luna is the one who has all the details which makes of them a transformed alchemist.

Could both of them be alchemists? Could they both be actors of the Babel event, as helpers of Paracelsus? Could perhaps the two other actors of this event, Paracelsus and who I named Faust, could still be alive and transformed into vampires? If that was the case, then the house that Luna took Mikhail and XXXX into could potentially belong to one of those two. But will we ever meet them, or know what happened to them?

In any cases, the presence of alchemists makes one thing clear: if there are successful alchemists, then there are Philosopher’s Stones.

 Who is the Philosopher’s Stone?

Let’s hop right into our second part about the Philosopher’s Stone. The presence of a successful alchemist is the first proof to the presence of a Philosopher’s Stone around, the second proof of its presence is of course the omnipresence of the Chrysopoeia amongst vampires. If you have forgotten what Chrysopoeia is, it’s the process of turning base metals (lead) into noble ones (gold) using the Philosopher’s Stone.

Who is the Philosopher’s Stone then? Well, there is the simple answer, and the more complex one. I’ll start with the latter.

All vampires are Philosopher’s Stones.

Vampires in the VnC universe are smaller scaled version of Philosopher’s Stone by definition, their eyes can turn red (typically considered the color of the stone), they can rewrite the formula around them (transmutation), and the simple fact that they drink blood could be considered a side effect of the last stage of the Magnum Opus, the Rubedo, which is often called “staining in blood”.

However, following this logic, all vampires should have more agency on themselves. Which they don’t. First, they are affected by the Chrysopoeia, taking away their statue as Philosopher’s Stone, and reducing them to metals. The red in their eyes could then be simply the “trademark” of the original Philosopher’s stone. Second, if they were Philosopher’s Stones capable of turning base metals into noble ones… Then they should have the power to turn humans into vampires. Currently, in the story, they aren’t capable of such a feat.

So, rather than thinking all vampires are Philosopher’s Stone, let’s change that reasoning into vampires are the ones capable of being affected by the Philosopher’s Stone. In other words: humans are the alchemists, who can only be changed during the process of fabrication (the event of Babel and the years following it), while vampires are the metals transformed by the now complete Philosopher’s Stone. This order is to be remembered: always humans to vampire, to changes within vampires amongst themselves.

So now, here is the simple and obvious answer to who is the Philosopher’s Stone: Faustina, first Vampire of the Crimson Moon and Queen of Vampires.

The obvious about Faustina being the Philosopher’s Stone of VnC world is her link to its surrounding Chrysopoeia.

The Teacher has been by her side at the very start and is defined by his gold. He is her transformed alchemist.

The closer a vampire is in rank to her, the more often their eyes are gold. The only exceptions to this rule are Luca and his brother Loki, who have respectively green and dark blue eyes; and Jeanne, who is not someone of high rank but has somehow golden eyes as well. (We could also potentially count Ruthven since he was not born into nobility). Otherwise, most vampires have eyes with the color of base metals such as copper (brown) or lead (black). Again, the only exceptions to this rule are Noé Archiviste, who has purple eyes, and Chloé d’Apchier, who has silver eyes (or light blue depending on the point of view). In any cases, ranks or not, this happens too often to ignore the obvious Chrysopoeia.

Clearly Faustina is an active stone, still affecting the formula around her to produces alchemical transmutations. You could even argue that maybe her malnomen, Naenia, creates curse-bearer because of that power. It’s after all a malnomen which affects other vampires surrounding her. A form of corrupted Philosopher’s Stone.

What should speak to you more, however, is the homunculus imagery surrounding her.

It starts with what has been shown of her in the manga. Her first apparition is in an artificial tube filled with liquid, and since then this is where we assume her core is. (I say core since I don’t know if it’s actually her body or a clone of her body and the real one still in the castle). It then follows with her name, Faustina.

Faustina is both the name of a renowned roman empress, and the feminine Latin form of Fausto, which refers to the term Faustian, itself in reference to a renowned character of the German folklore: Faust.

Yes, here he comes again, Faust (I told you we would talk about that guy again). Now that we circled back to him, we need to decide how far we should push our research. Should we go at the source of the character of Faust? Or perhaps analyze the theater piece written by Goethe? To make that decision, I decided to look at the Wikipedia page for Faust in Japanese… They only talk about the one from Goethe’s works, so we’ll go with this one! :D (If the occasion present itself, don’t worry, I’ll talk about the source of the tale of Faust).

So, who is Faust? Well, Faust, the fictional character, is an alchemist who has come to a point where he is unhappy with his life and his research when a mysterious devilish entity, called Mephistopheles, appears to him and proposes to make a pact in exchange for his soul. The pact would last for twenty-four years, during which Faust could have anything he wants, and once he feels like he has accomplished all that he needed to, Mephistopheles would take his soul with him in hell to make of Faust a servant of the Devil. The story written by Goethe is separated into two plays, the first one being about Faust’ liaison with a woman called Gretchen, while the second is a philosophical adventure in search of salvation. This second play includes the presence of a homunculus created by Faust’s servant, Wagner, and serves to parallel Faust’s goal to become a spirit, since its own goal is to become human. However, the glass flask containing it falls over and breaks and kills it.

Yeah… We got all the clues needed to link Faust to Faustina here: the pact with a devilish entity, as well as the presence of the homunculus. (There’s a few other stuff, but please read the Wikipedia page for that). Though I admit I’m probably making a far stretch here, or am I? After all, the first mentions of homunculus are in Paracelsus works, a contemporary of the real-life inspiration for Faust. If in VnC, they had decided to work together, why would it be strange to suppose they created a homunculus together?

 Okay, that’s enough Faustina talk! We have a second Philospher’s Stone at hand! The one named Noé Archiviste.

The orphan, the king in purple… The stone has many names, it’s strange that some of them fits Noé so well, don’t you think? Purple isn’t associated to many things in alchemy, actually, only one: the Philosopher’s Stone. Last time, I had mentioned that Noé was the potential new Philosopher’s Stone, but did not went into too much details about this, so now I will!

Noé Archiviste is not a complete Philosopher’s Stone, I’ll say it right now, he is only one in the making. But he has already some of the characteristics needed to become one:

Is under the supervision of an alchemist. Teacher, of course, but you can also consider Vanitas as Noé’s alchemist given that he inherited most of Luna’s traits (lack of binarity proven to us by Murr; a device capable of linking him to the formula, the book of Vanitas; as well as the name Vanitas). But unlike Luna and Teacher, Vanitas is, like Noé, waiting to be transformed. It’s not just Noé’s Magnum Opus, but also Vanitas’ one. (in an alchemical sense I need to remind)

His purple eyes already establish him as going through the transformation, making him immune to the Chrysopoeia alongside Luca, Loki and Chloé. Purple is also one of the colors used to refer to the stone.

He is thematically associated with the last stage of the Magnum Opus: the Rubedo. Also called the “tainting in purple” or the “staining in blood” stage.

However, what proves that he is not a complete Philosopher’s Stone is his inability to affect the vampires surrounding him in a Chrysopoeia… Not in a literal sense at least. Noé does manage to bring out the best in the people around him to make their darkened spirit into gold. You can see it with Vanitas and Roland in the Chasseur Arc, but also with Jean-Jacques in the Gevaudan arc, and finally Dominique (in a way) and Vanitas (again) in the Hunter in the Dark arc. We can also see him attempt a form of psychological Chrysopoeia with Astolfo but failing.

Though what makes it the more evident is the entirety of the story structure set in VnC for each arc and the story overall…

 The Case Study of Vanitas’s story structure

Last post, I explained to you that each of our four main characters could be associated to one of the four stages of the Magnum Opus: Vanitas for the Nigredo, Jeanne for the Albedo, Dominique for the Citrinas, and Noé for the Rubedo. Let me push this further by adding something: each of our four main characters have a dedicated arc which corresponds to the Magnum Opus step they are associated to, and those arcs themselves can be restructured into a form of Magnum Opus themselves.

This is not a first, plenty of stories in English literature are based on alchemical structures, one of the most famous being… Oh, Romeo and Juliet, you know, one of MochiJun’s inspirations for writing a story after Pandora Hearts?

Anyway, let’s go back to our main subject, so, how does alchemy appear in VnC? Well, each arc can be cut into four different clear parts, each associated with a step of the Magnum Opus:

Nigredo: The darkest and lowest point of our character. They start divided (figuratively or literally), have different goals and different mindsets, and visibly something is bothering them.

Albedo: The clarification and purification of our character. They overcame the darkness of the nigredo to find the reasons behind their quest and gain new clues about what they should do next.

Citrinas: The awakening of our characters, after being tossed around because of their doubts in the nigredo and the revelations made during the albedo, they finally stand up thanks to the help of another character and set their mind on their goal without letting themselves be bothered by their doubts.

Rubedo: The final point of our characters. The arc is technically finished, and the situation is calming down, however, those calm scenes are disrupted by bite scenes in order to “spill blood” and complete the process.

You then rinse and repeat. How does that present itself withing the story then?

The Bal Masqué arc technically serves as the beginning stage for Noé, he is still at his prima materia stage and has not gone through the Magnum Opus yet. However, the arc has still the narrative structure of the Magnum Opus (most likely because it’s a common narrative structure for Japanese media):

Nigredo: The introduction to the characters set them as being literally divided for now. Each has their past and need to find a way to overcome it. Their views of the world are shaped by it.

Albedo: Dominique reveals that Noé was an orphan bought at the black market, and Vanitas reveals that the vampire of the Blue Moon has bitten him and made him a member of their clan. Clarifications are made about the past of the characters here. However, the true albedo is when Vanitas purifies (quite literally) Noé while he his spiraling into his past.

Citrinas: Harsh awakening of Noé and Jeanne by Vanitas, the first after killing a cursed child, the latter after forcing her to drink his blood.

Rubedo: Conclusion of the arc through the “What is Love?” chapter during which Jeanne drinks Vanitas’s blood, and Dominique Noé’s one.

The Chasseur Arc is the beginning of the Magnum Opus, it’s the Nigredo arc, focused on Vanitas. Everything is defined by its darkness and the color black: the color of their clothes, the dirtiness of the catacombs, as well as the themes (human experimentations).

Nigredo: Characters are figuratively divided. Vanitas wants to push away Noé, Noé wants to understand Vanitas.

Albedo: Vanitas reveals his past as a chasseur, as well as how his parents were killed. The true albedo is when they manage to communicate with Roland to clarify their reasons for infiltrating the catacombs.

Citrinas: Vanitas is awakened from his flash-back of Mikhail by Noé.

Rubedo: While Vanitas gets his blood drank by Jeanne, Noé gets his blood drank by Ruthven.

The Gévaudan arc is the Albedo arc, focused on Jeanne. It’s defined by its whiteness: Jeanne’s clothes, the snow, Chloé’s hair and eyes... Since the Albedo is one of the stages you can stop at to obtain a lesser stone capable of turning base metals into silver, naturally, the antagonist of this arc comes from Argryopoeia, (Chloé).

Nigredo: The characters are literally divided, Dominique in Paris, Jeanne stuck with Vanitas, and Noé in Chloé’s castle.

Albedo: Jeanne tells Vanitas her past with Chloé. Later on, when Noé is forced to drink Jean-Jacques’s blood and learn about the true nature of the beast, meanwhile Vanitas is getting his information through Dante. The true albedo, of course, is when Chloé clarifies her reasons for her actions and forces Naenia to take a physical form. (It’s metaphorically represented by Naenia going from black to white, nigredo to albedo)

Citrinas: Jeanne is awakened from her spiraling despair by Vanitas, who was inspired by Noé.

Rubedo: Jeanne drinks Vanitas’ blood out of happiness, Dominique has drunk someone’s blood out of despair.

The Hunter in the Dark arc is the Citrinas arc, focused on Dominique. It’s defined by the color yellow (gold): Dominique’s outfit/eyes/cover (volume 8), the lights of the amusement parc, the color of Teacher’s powers. It’s time to wake up from the dream… To become something greater.

Nigredo: Characters are psychologically divided. Dominique is focused on her trauma and her desire to protect Noé, Noé is also caught up in his trauma and his desire to protect Dominique. Vanitas is spiraling because of the return of Mikhail… Jeanne is having a fun time.

Albedo: Mikhail revealing his common past with Vanitas and how they met the Vampire of the Blue Moon, Luna. Mikhail also represents the Albedo through his white hair and grey eyes. His presence is meant to clarify what is unclear.

Citrinas: Dominique being awakened from her dissociative state by Jeanne and Noé, Vanitas being awakened from his hypnosis by Noé.

Rubedo: …?

And that’s right, the current arc is still not over! Which means that we have a missing step in our cycle. It also means that the next arc will be the Rubedo arc, focused on Noé, and defined by the color red… Maybe an arc in Altus? To parallel the first arc.

Conclusion :

So, what new clues did we get from this breakdown?

About alchemists, we have four roaming around the VnC world:

The alchemists of the Blue Moon, symbolized by the Nigredo, the beginning, and the mercury. The first one is Luna, who has made our current Vanitas their heir, and as such the new alchemist of the Blue Moon.

The alchemist of Crimson Moon, symbolized by the Albedo, the Rubedo, and the sulfur. I’ll suppose the first one was Faust, their heir was Faustina, and the current contender for the role is Ruthven (making of Faustina his homunculus).

The alchemist of the Golden Moon, symbolized by the Chrysopoeia, gold and transmutation. The count of St.-Germain is the one and only representant of this role.

Finally, Paracelsus, the Original Alchemist. His role and his symbolics are unknown for now, but I know we will meet him at some point.

About the Philosopher’s Stone, we have two roaming around the VnC world:

Faustina, Queen of Vampires, the stone tainted in blood, capable of Chrysopoeia, the corrupted stone.

Noé Archiviste, the Archiviste, the king in purple, the orphan, still unfinished, but will soon awaken to his true potential/nature.

And finally, that the story is leading us towards the inevitable awakening of Noé as the new Philosopher’s Stone of the universe of VnC, with his transformed alchemist: Vanitas.

 This was longer than expected, so, against all expectations, there shall be a third and final post about my alchemical analysis: Religion and how it entails to the alchemy of The Case Study of Vanitas. The conclusion of my posts about alchemy.

[killmebythebeach]

A bunch of head cannons (Maybe too much). Also in talking about the characters.

I think Dream is that one design where his skin is just the static tv screen. He just constantly emits that fuzzy noise, Sam crafted him the smile mask that he can see through so he doesn't scare people.

George is just kind of the server itself. He's the same species as Hannah, but a mushroom and more powerful. If he stays awake too long, the server just kind of freezes. This is also a reason XD keeps him sleeping, it's his way of talking to George and he thinks the server is like his soap opera of mortals.

Callahan is sort of like the person who makes sure George doesn't get killed or dies while asleep, making sure he's surrounded by mushrooms and such. Deer hybrid <3

Alyssa joined the server because she knew all her friends were idiots and didn't want them to die immediately. But once the elections rolled around, she felt the pressure of choosing sides and ran away to the desert, only keeping contact with Ponk. She actually lives just a couple miles from Foolish's summer home. Her communicator actually died after a couple months and she had no way of charging it, so she lost contact with everyone.

Sapnap is a magma cube hybrid and can jump higher than most, his natural temperature runs hotter, and is fire proof. Bad found him in the nether when he was maybe 10-15 years old.

Sam was actually a normal creeper, but gained player like sentience from being struck by lightning. Instead of becoming charged, he gained intelligence and met the others on the server. Callahan taught him some Redstone, but from there he figured out a lot on his own. He's also a creeper centaur.

Ponk is actually a descendant of a fairy, a lemon tree. Their mask was also a gift from Sam because after the second or third time their tree was burnt, their immune system was weakened a considerable amount. Alyssa also wore her mask for them.

Bad is a size shifting demon from the nether, more specifically soul sand desert. He uses soul fire to gain strength, so because the egg died when near it, he was just a little weaker than normal. Because he's a demon he needs a tie to the overworld to stay there, he tied his soul and lives to Skeppy.

Tommy was grown in a lab to be a hero, project: THESEUS. The lab gave him small enhancements, like slightly stronger and just a bit more resilient, to make the Above Average Boy (TM). He then ran away to meet Wilbur. When Dream asked Wilbur if he wanted to come to the server, he asked if Tommy could go first to see what it was like. He also actually really likes gardening and making up funny songs to Wilbur playing guitar. He also made funny lyrics for his discs, but he's still a bit scared to take them out of his ender chest. Other than bringing attachment, Dream also exiled Tommy to see what his lab enhancements could do.

Tubbo is an adaptive hybrid! His hair was blond, shifting to brown when Wilbur found him, getting blue eyes from Tommy, growing small horns under Schlatt, parts of his skin being static when Dream was "helping" him with his presidency, and parts of his scars tinging black and green from Ranboo and Micheal. Tubbo also helped Wilbur write part of the anthem. He likes living in the snow because the Manberg flag had magma blocks on it, casting a heatwave over the country, and after L'Manburg blew up it got really hot from the exposed stone in direct sun.

Fundy can actually hold his breath for a very long time and swim very well because of Sally teaching him and his salmon genes. The yellow things on his hat are actually shells, and the stripes on his jacket are trans colors. Also with his dreams, he saw Eret was going to betray them but didn't think it was real, or didn't want to. He also saw Wilbur blow up L'Manburg but chose not to believe it, thinking his father could still be saved. He actually saw pretty much everything, but didn't quite understand what they were until after doomsday.

The necklace Punz wears is one of those picture lockets, but he lost the picture and can't remember what it was. The first time Dream paid him was when Dream asked for help and Punz made an off hand joke about getting money, and then Dream thought he was being serious. Him, Dream, and Sapnap were like brothers, and Punz got sadder every time he saw Dream pushing people away and diving deeper into darkness.

Purpled is an aliensent to see if the planet was colonizable, but then crashed and was stranded, all his communications down and his ship barely able to hover fifty feet off the ground. When Quackity blew it up, he essentially got rid of his chance of ever going home. Purpled's species can shapeshift, so he turned himself into the first person he saw, Punz. Eventually before trying to communicate with the native life forms, he edited his form a little so they weren't identical, keeping purple eyes and antennae, changing the colors slightly, and changing the voice up. When he moves away from the main SMP, Ponk makes sure to check up on him and that he has a way to check his communicator.

Wilbur came a month after sending Tommy. His father being a patron of life and his mother the goddess of death, he met in the middle being born as a human. The only reason Ghostbur was as active and present as he was was because he was so connected to both life and death. Since his corpse was decaying for as long as it was, Wilbur is now super weak, his flesh is thin and his eyes are rotted and gone. Much like Ghostbur, Wilbur in limbo saw what people said about him, and Ghostbur could hear that from the back of his head. Now Wilbur can hear what people say about Ghostbur and he hates it, not wanting to be connected to what he thinks like a shell of himself.

Schlatt is a ram (duh) and actually does the fainting goat thing. So when he died of a heart attack, no one knew at first if he was actually dead or not. His alcoholism stems from the revive book, as the possibility of tampering with death made him existential and scared, so to cope he drank. There are also a ton of other stuff other than revival in the book, but it's in galactic.

Skeppy was just a normal human, but after making the pact with Bad, Bad put a spell on him. Parts of him turned into diamond, protecting both his and Bad's lives. He however, is unaware of this. With the egg, he would just sit on it, the diamonds chipping away to make room for the vines.

Eret was cursed by the Wither Cult, giving them white eyes and a slowly deteriorating memory. Not sure what to do, Foolish dropped them off at the SMP. Sometimes they would dream about old memories from before the curse, but it was just glimpses so he could never tell what they meant. Once they were king, they made the Herobrine shrine subconsciously, not really sure what it was after. They also had a strange affinity of beacons and resurrection, some of their memories resurfacing when they tried to help Phil and Ghostbur revive Wilbur after doomsday. The reason people are more scared of their eyes than any other wierd eyes was because he generally looks like a normal human, but the wither along with their Herobrine origins creates an uncanny valley that people are shocked by.

Jack had red and blue irises before crawling out of hell, but after coming back the whites of his eyes also turned red and blue. He always wears 3d glasses so no one noticed, but he just thought no one cared enough to mention it. He also has a bunch of scars and burn marks that no one but him can see, therefore no one asks about them or thinks something is wrong, cementing the idea that no one cares about him.

Niki is a blaze hybrid (stole this from @/420technoblazeit) whose fire hair color changes based on strong emotion, something she bond with Tubbo for as a fellow shifter. A soft yellow in L'Manburg, brighter orange in Manburg, hot pink on Doomsday, a soul fire blue with the syndicate (which Techno hates), and a dead grey when she found out Wilbur was alive. She was also old child hood friends with Ranboo and Eret, leaving Ranboo for the SMP. Ranboo, unfortunatly, doesn't remember much more than her name. She also knows galactic from Ranboo, so she talks about her troubles to Shy the Enderman. She doesn't really know how to talk to Puffy anymore after Doomsday or finding out how she wants to protect Tommy.

Quackity can perfectly replicate someone's voice and, with a lot of effort, can completely change his form to another player. He also has very small yellow wings, too small to fly, so he almost always hides them. He used to constantly change his voice for jokes with Karl, Sapnap, and George, but he doesn't like doing it now in Las Nevadas, as he sees it as unprofessional. However, sometimes he uses when he visits Dream, changing his voice to people like George and Sapnap to make torture more effective.

In the In Between and Other Side, Karl actually looks like his old skin, or his natural state (the big purple one that inspired his sweater). But most of the time in the normal world, he looks human. With effort he can bring out the interdemential being thing, something only Quackity and Sapnap know about. The more he time travels, the easier it becomes to change, and he's even started defaulting to the other form.

HBomb is actually just a normal news reporter, sent to interview and record what's going on in the server, his first big story being the election. Upon Doomsday, the stress of seeing everyone alone, fighting, and disconnected, he ran away from the world, essentially becoming a cat lady. His undercover reporter persona is actually the cat maid. He eventually came back to the server to see how he could help after Doomsday, befriending Niki again and living with her in the underground city.

Techno is a piglin, so he's scared of soul fire. He forgot to tell Phil before he decorated the syndicate room, so he just suffers in silence. He also does better when around a lot of gold, like in the nether, and he feels drained and slightly weaker without it. Instead of just putting gold around the area (it would ruin his property value), he just hibernates. He has an emerald earing, like all of the syndicate, but his is a locket that unfolds into pictures of the syndicate.

Ant always wears a red hoodie, now ruined by the egg, that used to be Red's. On Red's death anniversary, him, Bad, Skeppy, and Sam would make cake and put flowers on his grave. He missed the last one because it was during the egg, but for a brief moment after Puffy killed him he saw Red. Red then promptly and bluntly told him to stop being a pussy (haha, cat) and that he shouldn't do all this just to get him back, one of Ant's motivators to make amends with the people he hurt while with the egg. Ant is also a shapeshifter, but can only turn into a cat.

Phil actually used to work under Foolish as a patron of life but then he had a son with the goddess of death, so his title was removed so he could be with her and he became an Angel of Death. Kristin noticed how sad he was after being released, so she gifted him wings. They were however, destroyed on November 16th. His chat also serves as messenger pigeons, which were used to send letters to Wilbur.

Connor is actually just a hedgehog who somehow befriended Schlatt. Even before the haunted mansion, Karl vented to him about his time travel troubles, not knowing he was a sentient player. As a hedgehog, no one really cares where he goes, so he goes outside the server limits to meet his friends from the haunted mansion.

Puffy is a distant relative of Schlatt, but instead of politics she went into piracy. With her mom, she went travelling the seas. One say, a storm came and wiped out her ship, her crew, her mom, everything but her. The reason she survived was because Foolish saw her and saved her. Unfortunately, Puffy hit hee head in the crash and doesn't remember anything.

Vikkstar is the equivalent of a big time celebrity, so of course his endorsement of POG2020 was a big deal.

Lazarbeam is literally just a ginger bread cookie.

Ranboo has actually met a lot of the smp before actually joining. He's met Niki, Fundy, Eret, Punz, and Dream at least. He also sees the inverted colors Enderman see. His suit was actually a gift from Eret before they forgot how to tailor. He got the crown from Techno after joining the syndicate, claiming he didn't want any syndicate members to look like trash.

Foolish came to the server most recently to check up on Eret, but he couldn't bring himself to leave again. When Puffy adopts him, he can't say no because he remembers saving her. His initial goal was to kill an ender dragon to claim the XD title and become a full god like DreamXD, but after realising someone already killed it he went into his totem if death phase. Upon meeting Eret, he got over it and they went on some silly adventures, Foolish now taking a more peaceful route.

Hannah is essentially a weaker George, as her power is tied to the plants themselves and not the entire server. She however has a lot more physical power because rose dryads like to fight because they have thorns. Since roses can be taken out a lot easier, she is essentially a glass canon. Also when around any plant, she can make it grow faster than normal.

Any guest on the server? Corpse, Pokimane, Lil Nas? They were all Slimecicle. That's how he knows where everyone is from, even outside of Las Nevadas. No one else knows this. He's also ancient, if he met Phil they would probably recognise eachother. There was an actual Charlie Slimecicle who was not a slime, but after being launched into orbit this Slimecicle decided to impersonate him.

Michael Mcchill is a sort of bounty hunter. He came to the server after hearing of all the crime, assuming there'd be a lot of bounties to collect. However, he soon learned that no one really cares if you commit a crime. He then took to reading news articles made by HBomb to see if there were any past open bounties. But after reading for a while about the server's wronguns, mostly Dream, he began to sympathise with them. And he's also a speedrunner, so maybe he could help with some bounties across other servers!

This was a very long post and i apologize, but it was so fun to finally write all these thoughts down! I hope you liked them! I can't even fit all the tags I want.

[imaginemcyt]

georgenotfound dating headcanons

cc!georgenotfound x gn!reader

tw: maybe like one swear word?

so george has a hard time showing affection and emotion. we know this, and it probably won’t change when you get into a relationship.

i feel like him asking you out either comes out of absolutely nowhere because you didn’t know he liked you like that, OR he’s super awkward around you and it’s super obvious.

either that or you have to ask him out because he’s too awkward and would rather just die than risk your rejection.

you’ve probably already been friends for a long time before dating, so he’s already relatively comfortable around you, but it’s different now.

if you’re from the uk, it’s casual movie dates at his place.

if you’re long distance, it’s a netflix party and facetiming until you fall asleep.

and i mean a lot of facetiming.

like, every day/night, before one of you goes to sleep, just to hear the other’s voice and then falling asleep together.

because your wack sleep schedules are synched.

you’d be the first to say “i love you”, and it wouldn’t be until you’ve been dating for a while. you know him well, and you know how he gets with that kind of thing.

you’d been nervous to say it but he was glad you did, because that meant you felt the same and he didn’t have to worry about you leaving.

he didn’t want to scare you off but he also knew that he had fallen in love with you, which scared him a little bit.

but he really did love you, a whole lot.

and if you end up living together, be used to him rolling into bed at five am and sleeping until three pm.

if you have an accent, expect him to playfully make fun of it and mock it. especially if it’s an american accent.

or words you say that are different in the uk.

“and then he tripped over the sidewalk.” “the SiDeWaLk?”

he notices the weirdest things, such as when you switch up the chapstick you’re using, or if the smell of your shampoo is different.

“did you get a new conditioner or something?” “uh, yeah…?”

i think george’s love language is acts of service. since he has a hard time expressing his love in words or physical touch, he does things like clean the house while you’re at work, even though he’d much rather be sleeping or playing video games. or he would attempt to cook you something, or put away groceries when you come home.

when it comes to physical affection, it’s usually pretty simple. hand holding? sure! hugs? less frequent but if you really want one, okay. kisses? even less frequent, not because he doesn’t love them, but because he feels super awkward and nervous about them.

when he does kiss you, it’s usually a quick peck where he’ll hold the sides of your face and just *smooch* and then turn away and make himself busy with whatever happens to be nearby.

on occasion, though, like when he’s jealous or insecure, he’ll give you a long and passionate kiss, just to let you know he loves you and can be everything you need. sometimes he does it when he feels like he doesn’t show you his appreciation enough.

if we’re talking cuddling, there isn’t really a lot of that. he’ll put his arm around you when watching a movie, but that’s about it.

when you guys go to sleep, he usually faces away from you and just *gog snoring noises*.

someone on here wrote that george would kick you playfully and giggle about it and i 100% agree, sadly i don’t remember who it was but credits to them for thinking of that and blessing us all.

you take a lot of candid pictures of him.

you also call him pretty a lot, which he gets flustered about before muttering something along the lines of “no you”.

going to the beach together and looking for cool rocks.

he asks you to tell him what color something is a lot.

“y/n!!! what color is this?” “purple” “thank you :)”

he talks to dream about everything, which means talking to him about you a lot. telling dream about his feelings for you (which he already knew), asking for advice on how to ask you out, talking about that cute thing you did the other day, or the funny thing you said earlier.

dream calls him a simp, which he responds to with an eye roll and the words “you’re an idiot.”

your identity would be kept a secret from the fans for a while, to protect you from getting hate or threats of any kind. all they knew was that george had a s/o, and that he wanted his privacy respected.

after keeping you a secret for a while, george asked if you wanted to join him for a stream, to which you were surprised but agreed to.

you got a little bit of hate from simps and stans who thought george deserved better (which is bullshit) but you knew they were just jealous and didn’t know you.

the rest of them, however, adored you. edits and ship art would be made after that stream, and you would appear as a guest on other streams going forward.

a/n: god he’s pretty.

[hozner]

I keep thinking about how and why the break up happened and so far my theory is this:

Holt and Kevin had very strict covid protocols at home to which they adhered religiously. While Kevin could work from home, Ray still had to go work at the precinct, so Holt decided that since he had to leave the house anyway he would take care of all outside chores such as grocery shopping, walking Cheddar etc. I could see Holt shift into safe house mode where he decides that in order to keep Kevin safe from the virus, he has to keep him in designated Kevin zones. Their house is big enough. Kevin has his own rooms, they obviously can’t touch, shouldn’t be anywhere near each other - this might be the first time the verbal warning when entering a room was implemented. Of course all of this drives them nuts. Kevin wants to go out. He hates that his husband who statistically is more at risk than him is constantly in danger. He feels helpless and useless and trapped. So he probably breaks protocol at some point and they clash over that.

And then there is the murder of George Floyd and the protests. We know Kevin has always disliked the NYPD. I think at this point - given their policy to be honest with each other, no matter how hurtful the truth - he might actually tell Holt exactly how he feels about his career. He might go into lecture mode and pretty much lay out to his husband how he now thinks that the ways in which Holt has helped individuals in their community ultimately contributed to keeping a terrible system in place. I could see Kevin urge his husband to quit the force. In his opinion Holt is putting his life in danger for people who might literally kill him if they met him out of uniform - and get away with it.

Holt isn’t ready to hear it. He’s conflicted, but he has given decades of his life to the NYPD. He still wants to believe that he can change the system from the inside. He worked his ass off to make captain as a black homosexual man and he feels a responsibility to stay because if he leaves, another old white guy is going to take his place and surely that would be worse. He has sacrificed so much for this - to which Kevin is like, how much more are you willing to sacrifice? (Your marriage???) Where does it end?

At some point when Kevin is in lecture mode, Holt’s defiance is bound to kick in. How dare Kevin pretend to know what he is talking about? Kevin is white. He’s super priviliged, not just because of the color of his skin but also his entire background (given what we know about him, i’d wager he comes from money). Also, he can work from home during the pandemic. How much of the turmoil Ray is in in even affects him? Also, yes, the NYPD is racist, but what isn’t? How many students of color does Kevin have? Are they treated equally?  Racism is in schools, in hospitals, in courtrooms - it is just more visible in the police because they are actually out in the streets. All of society is racist, all of society needs people like Holt in positions of power. Kevin argues that Holt and people like him are just being used as propaganda material. They didn’t give him any real power, they didn’t make him commissioner.

They fight and fight - over the phone on facetime while in the same house- I picture all of this going down pre-vaccine - and after a while they realize how tired and miserable they’re making each other. It’s already an awful time, filled with stress and anxiety. I’d like to think that at the bottom of their conflict is still the overwhelming desire to protect each other. Holt wants Kevin to stay inside because of covid, Kevin wants Holt to quit because, well, the NYPD is killing him. But at some point they both can no longer deny seeing the evidence of how much they’re just draining what little energy they have left.

So they stop talking and it doesn’t really help, but at least they spend less time and energy on fighting. They’re both deeply miserable and heartbroken, and throw themselves into their work and they tell themselves that this is better, that the other person is better off without them. They can’t stand to look at each other because it hurts too much.

After a week of silence they take stock. He looks a little healthier, a little less tired, a little less like shit, they think. After two weeks that’s pretty much scientific evidence. Can’t be ignored.

They decide to separate.

Edit: Based on what Holt said in the first ep, I think Kevin suggested the separation (secretly hoping it would wake Raymond up and make him protest, say he still loved him and needed him etc., but instead it just completely crushed Holt and when he did not fight it, Kevin was hurt and angry and went through with it).

They don’t shake hands on it because of covid.

[literaphobe]

Two questions:

1. What do you feel about CorpsexSykunno ship?

I feel like it's MarkiplierxJacksepticeye all over again, starts out innocent and turns uncomfortable.

(Also I think real people shipping is gross in general)

2. Dream smp makes me so nervous, not necessarily because of any of the members but due to (1) the history of online teams dominated (and lead) by male influencers, (2) minecraft youtube's general history of exploiting fans. I feel like it's going to end badly. You seem to be enjoying it tho, and it's definitely up my alley, should I get into it?

1. Corpse and Sykkuno are not comfortable being shipped! Neither of them are okay with being shipped with ANY of their friends in general, so like, don’t do it, or if u do like. i guess just don’t say anything about it? it’s really not hard to just enjoy their friendship. like it’s an endearing friendship n there’s nothing wrong w liking it. but. nothing more u know. plus both of them have made it clear on several occasions that they’re both straight and my gaydar agrees JFKDKDK like they’re just. Friends. Who care about each other :)

I definitely think it’s not like the markiplier x jacksepticeye situation, because for one u have jack himself telling people not to ship etc etc and also BECAUSE of that u have people actively policing any form of shipping. it’s honestly gotten to the point where it’s annoying but i genuinely don’t think it’s that big a problem, plus the rising popularity of the amigops puts less pressure on one-on-one corpse + sykkuno interactions, since people now wanna see all four of them play games together n not just corpse n sykkuno!

2. I get why Dream SMP would make u nervous. An interesting thing I realized when I started finding out more about people on that server is that there’s marginally more poc on it than I previously thought and also A LOTTTTT more lgbt+ people than i previously thought. Like genuinely why are so many of u so gay. And like that affects the stories being told obviously. Like. I don’t think it’s perfect n I don’t follow EVERY person on the SMP, just like i obviously don’t know everything about every minecraft YouTuber like fkdkdkdk i would say the only people i watch are dream, george, quackity (and even then i haven’t seen most of quackity’s YouTube videos) and like I’ve seen a couple of tommyinnit’s videos Fjdjdjdj and sapnap obviously but he has like 10 videos and i watch Karl’s streams if certain people are on it. yeah i think that’s about it like i do like the feral boys (dream george karl quackity sapnap) and i have seen maybe one or two skeppy videos

Anyway I get ur concerns about online circles dominated by male influencers too. but quite frankly compared to past circles ive seen its genuinely not that bad and also. In terms of holding them accountable, I think mcyttwt makes VERY sure of that (which honestly has devolved into a problem. because privileged haters will dig up stuff on creators that either a. has been addressed properly or b. is just. several years old and i don’t like how minorities are being weaponized. also i cannot stress how little i care that some minecraft YouTuber said the r slur 10 years ago when they literally never do it now. like. i worry so much because so many of these stans who think they’re ‘educating’ are just wearing themselves out n burning themselves out. so many of them are minors too)

but like. the people i am kept up w definitely do take responsibility and accountability. like dream especially gets accused of stuff that’s either fake/not him or something that’s just like out of this world (e.g. accused of queerbaiting. w george. interestingly no one ever accuses george directly of doing this) and no matter what he like addresses it properly and accordingly. like looking at his journey as a creator over the past year he’s grown a LOT and changed so much and matured a lot and i think like. looking at how much he’s blowing up and how much more of a following he’ll gain. I feel much better that it’s him who has this following as compared to. Certain people. And like. It’s upsetting to see how a lot of people have this impression of him that’s objectively false? Due to all the fake stuff that gets spread by haters (most often white for some reason???)? Because genuinely he’s not the creator we need to be so worried about?

Anyway in terms of getting into mcyts in the dream smp. I knew who Dream was because he’s played among us w the amigops a lot n they all like him because he’s just a good natured amicable person. I vaguely knew who george was because of dnf n also people putting his stupid face on my tl all the time. I thought he was pretty n hated that I thought that. I don’t care anymore tho. Like what’s wrong w looking at pretty people. I deserve it. Anyway! I got into their videos through GEORGE first, funnily. I think Minecraft, But I’m Not Colorblind Anymore was the first one I watched and it’s very very good. It’s endearing because it’s George trying out colorblind glasses for the first time n he’s nervous but Dream is there with him to make him feel more comfortable. And also Dream is so happy n emotional (he talks about tearing up at the thought of George being able to see colors properly) and their friendship is just very endearing. The video starts w george taking a colorblind test and we find out he has protan colorblindness (severity: STRONG which makes them crack jokes about how George is SO strong 😤)

anyway these losers. Decide to test the colorblind glasses on colors in MINECRAFT because of course that’s the whole video and it’s really heartwarming to see George learn how colors look like again n Dream just being excited about it the whole time n then George taking the colorblind test again at the end but with the glasses on... n then u go on to watch more george videos but it’s the ANIMAL CHALLENGES. like George Speedruns Minecraft But His Friend Is (Insert Animal, This Animal Is Always Dream) and like...... yeah so I watched a bunch of George’s videos n I went onto dream’s channel out of curiosity

And i was like. What the fuck. These videos are so WEIRDLY named. What the fuck is Finale, Finale Rematch, Grand Finale???? But dream has adhd too and in hindsight I absolutely would’ve titled the videos in a similarly confusing way. Anyway dreams manhunt videos are...... a work of art. I swear to god like even if u don’t know jackshit about minecraft they are very entertaining and weirdly impressive.

Basically in Minecraft Manhunt: Dream has to beat the game, but his friends are there trying to kill him. If they kill him even ONCE, they win n the video ends. He’s allowed to kill them repeatedly though. Manhunt started with one hunter (George, to one’s surprise), then two hunters (Sapnap and George), three (Sapnap, George, BadBoyHalo), and now four (Sapnap, George, BadBoyHalo, Antfrost). The next stage is possibly 5 hunters but idk who is the fifth yet. Anyway the thing that’s so entertaining about minecraft manhunt is:

1) Dream’s Parkour & PVP skills, which he developed and trained over such a short period of time n got REALLY good, it’s satisfying to watch him do risky maneuvers n succeed, the ways he’ll jump from a high place but clutch w either water, blocks, horses, boats, scaffolding, etc, to escape from the hunters

2) Dream’s TRAPS, like he actually does research for possible plans n traps he could do to counter the hunters, since there’s so many of them and only one of him, and he can’t just fight them in combat exclusively, since he’ll lose eventually if he gets ganged up on. I won’t spoil any of his traps, but they’re very good and also very dramatic. It’s amazing

3) The banter and taunting!! The lies and tricks!! They’re all really close so it’s easy for them to crack jokes during a lull where neither party is engaged in a fight, they’re all on the same VC so they can potentially say stuff to trick each other, or they can hear the other team say stuff that gives them an edge

4) The editing. Like the pacing is incredible, and all the bgm used is SO good at setting the atmosphere n making things more tense n exciting etc. like “dream’s manhunt music” is honestly a meme at this point but he actually unironically uses it and it unironically makes the videos better. Also dream edits all the manhunt videos by himself!! he doesn’t hire editors to do it for him or anything

idk what else to say but yeah I watch most of dream n george’s YouTube videos and they’re in most of each other’s videos and I like their dynamic a lot!! Especially since they still have not met in real life but already know they want to like live together (forever, according to George), and it like reminds me of the friendships I have because most of my close friendships have been made online. And like. They remind me that online friendships aren’t actually inferior. That’s it :) sorry this is so long

[kuroosmikasavolleyball]

Her Game

Abendrot

(n) the color of the sky when the sun is setting; a certain afterglow.

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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

previous | next | masterlist |

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a/n: I’m so sorry this is late! I got really busy with school work and other stuff and Part 4 wasn’t ready to post on Sunday. Here it is though, I hope you enjoy. This is the second to last part of the series(I think). I hope you understand the connection to the series title now a little bit but it gets better😏 I don’t know if this counts as slow-burn but…yeah. Anyways, feel free to like, republish, and message me. Requests and taglists are open! This is a safe and loving place for everyone and any hate will be shut down. Enjoy reading<3

Part 4 summary: Ravenclaw and Slytherin verse in the second and last quidditch game of the season. New strategies, doubt, nervousness from what happened earlier is bundled up for (Y/N), and all she needs to focus on is winning this game. Will Slytherin take the win and bragging rights, or will Ravenclaw emerge victorious?

pairing: cedric x fem!reader(in ravenclaw)

genre: fluff

warnings: uh nothing

word count: 1.6k(how did this happen-)

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“What’s got your mood down the drain?”

Kimball peers at (Y/N)’s woeful face, “Don’t tell me you’re nervous; this new plan has already got me shaky.”

She would’ve told Kimball what had happened last night if Roger wasn’t right next to her.

(Y/N) leans her head on the palm of her hand. “It’s nothing. Can we just continue planning, please?” Roger looks at her, a bit worried as well.

“Maybe..this plan should stay a draft. I’ll go tell the team.” Roger almost gets up but (Y/N) stops him. “No, wait. I’m ok; I promise. Let’s do this.”

Fred and George walk in and (Y/N) speaks, “Just gimme a sec.” and goes towards them.

“Hey hey! How’s my favorite Ravenclaw?” Fred ruffles her hair and she swats the hand away.

“She’s..ok I guess. Kimball and Roger came up with a plan yesterday and somehow the whole team liked it. We’re gonna test it out during the pre-game practice but I’m a little terrified.”

“You smarties always come up with something, huh? Don’t worry about it; you’ll be great. I even got my special edition Ravenclaw hat!” George playfully lifts a blue and bronze homemade hat made by Mrs. Weasley. (Y/N) has the same kind for Gryffindor, but she’s smart enough not to wear it in public.

“You don’t have to cheer me up; I’m fine. By the way, have you seen Ced? He hasn’t come down for breakfast yet.”

“Nope, we haven’t; he must be off on his ~prefect duties~.”

George scrunches up his face in disgust.

They say their goodbyes and head to the Gryffindor table. Just as (Y/N) is about to go looking for Cedric, he walks in with a painful expression.

“God, I should’ve listened to you, these hangovers are not worth it.”

Huh? How is that his first sentence? Doesn’t he rememb-

“You ok? You know you have nothing to be nervous about today, right? Ravenclaw will definitely win.”

“Oh yeah, yeah I’m fine. I just..do you remember last night at all?”

Cedric cocks his head to the side. “Uh.. a bit. I remember coming into the Ravenclaw common room, we played a drinking game..then it gets fuzzy. But I remember you walking me to my common room; thanks for that.”

Oh? He..doesn’t remember.

“Ah ok..that was most of the night so you didn’t miss too much. Go eat and drink water; you’ll feel better.”

The warmth in her ears and cheeks felt a bit too overwhelming once in the Ravenclaw locker room. Normally, a quidditch game wouldn’t have struck up such nervousness in (Y/N), or just the Ravenclaw team in general. They knew how to calm down in time for the game and bring all their assets to the table. Except now, there was only one match that determined everything.

Roger was almost roaring. “Alright guys! I know we’re all a little on edge right now, but let’s get to the point. We know Slytherin plays a dirty game but we’re staying fair. Don’t let rage take you over, think and focus, we got this. Let’s go out there and win this!”

He continued to give separate instructions to the beaters, the keeper, and the seeker. He turned to (Y/N) and Kimball, firing up to go.

“Before you say anything, Davies. We know what to do, we’ll try the plan out right now during the practice, ok? Now calm down.”

Kimball was surprisingly stable today and it was no doubt she was going to have a good match. Roger visibly deflated but kept a smug look in his face.

Hooch told them Ravenclaw was going first for practice so the team kicked off into the air.

(Y/N)’s hair was tied back and the breeze tickled her face. She missed this feeling; so freeing and beautiful.

Before long, Kimball nodded towards (Y/N) and took off. She stayed higher up and Roger acted as an opponent chaser. They released the Snitch, the Bludgers, and the Quaffle, and started a mock game. Roger zoomed past (Y/N) and she went behind him. Kimball followed (Y/N) but from above. (Y/N) stole the Quaffle and headed to the three goals, where their Keeper stayed, and scored.

(Y/N) kept the Quaffle and tried to score again, but Roger stole the ball and that’s when Kimball came into the playing area. She quickly picked the ball from Roger and scored while (Y/N) flew up. This was their plan; have one chaser on the pitch and the other two above, following the movements. As soon as the ball was stolen or the chaser runs out of stamina, another substitutes in. If all three chasers from the other team started tagging the one chaser, the other two will come down to help. Roger had checked with Hooch to see if the tactic broke any rules and she allowed the Ravenclaw team to use it.

The Slytherin team practiced regularly and it was a relief to not see any crazy strategies.

We can win this.

The houses filed in, chattering their heads off as the teams got ready to enter the field. The Ravenclaw team was introduced and they flew up, similar to the Slytherin team except for Lee’s backhanded comments.

“The game is the last one of the season! But don’t worry, I’m sure the Triwizard Tournament will be entertaining! Let’s get on now; today’s match is Ravenclaw vs. Slytherin. I hope you all cheer for the right team!”

He got a slight warning from Mcgonagall and that was it. Marcus Flint and the other players were all mounted on their fancy brooms; (Y/N) was a tad jealous, but her Comet 290 did the job. Hooch gave warnings and blew the whistle, and before (Y/N) knew it, the game began.

The strategy had worked so far except for a short period where Draco Malfoy was chasing the Snitch and almost crashed into (Y/N) and Kimball, who were waiting above and had to move away really quickly.

Roger was running out of breath and (Y/N) noticed, so she flew down after telling Kimball and took his spot. A red-haired Slytherin chaser had the Quaffle, so (Y/N) speeded towards them. One of the beaters hit a Bludger towards the chaser and (Y/N) swooped in to take the Quaffle when they were distracted.

“Nice hit, Jason!” She yelled as she went past him, dodging Marcus Flint.

“and…(Y/L/N) scores! The score is now 50-35 with Ravenclaw in the lead.”

Cheers grew even louder and (Y/N) swore she locked eyes with Cedric as she flew past the Hufflepuff tower.

Ravenclaw’s seeker, Cho Chang was a little quiet and the year below (Y/N), but she was amazing on the field. There was a point in time last year where Cedric took an interest to her, but it faded..(Y/N) hopes.

The game was similar to the last, taking a long time and the players started to lose energy. As the year had just started, it was fall and the sun set earlier. The breeze up above was chilly and the chasers of Ravenclaw went back to the regular strategy, even though the one they were using didn’t require a lot of stamina, they were getting tired of having to fly up and down. The score was 140-145 with Slytherin in the lead.

It was a little early for the sun to have set completely but the horizon line was blending. (Y/N) remembered a time where Cedric told her a word for this scenery...abendrot. The violent tango of the blue and orange hues made for a majestic view.

She was temporarily distracted since Roger had the Quaffle when she heard Lee’s voice booming, “Just as Davies scores..Chang is closing in on the snitch..SHE’S CAUGHT IT! RAVENCLAW WINS!”

The team quickly flew down and cheered for Cho, but it felt like a mutual celebration since everyone did so well. Kimball hugged (Y/N) tight and whispered about how her legs are going to be so sore.

They giggled amongst themselves until George’s voice ripped through the crowd and screamed (Y/N)’s name. The other houses were rushing up too, congratulating their friends and other players. (Y/N) was lifted and hugged by the twins and she spotted Cedric running up.

“Hell, if you think our game was good, this was amazing!” Fred laughed and set her down.

“I feel like most people weren’t watching towards the end since it was so long.”

Cedric finally caught up and spoke, “Nonsense, (Y/N). You did so well today, especially when you swooped in near the goal when Warrington had the Quaffle; you just stole it and dropped it in. He didn’t even realize.” A smile graced his face.

He noticed details..

“(Y/N)? You okay?”

“..Thanks! Yeah..um, sorry that was a really long game so I’m just tired.”

The twins and Cedric went back to their common room as Ravenclaw celebrated in a more calm way than Hufflepuff did.

A few students sat around the fireplace, but most of the players went to bed early.

“Did you see Malfoy’s face? He looked like he was about to kill someone with that grimace.” Inglebee chattered.

Kimball and (Y/N) went back to the dorms after signaling to their friends that they’re going because they couldn’t keep their eyes open.

(Y/N) thought back to how the sky looked when the sun kissed the mountains in the distance and fell asleep thinking about the fond memory of today and of when she learned from a certain someone about what that sunset is called. Abendrot.

previous | next |  masterlist

[fivefootab1tch]

#BlackLivesMatter Donation Commission for @sp00kydraws , who donated to ActBlue & the Official George Floyd Memorial Fund! Thank you for everything you do, sp00ks~♡

*** EDIT 6/22/2020 ***

hey y'all i've learned a lot from the commentary on this post (https://13thead.tumblr.com/post/620761999447572480/i-think-nonblack-people-should-stop-making-blm) and wanna ask everyone to support black artists instead of putting any more notes on this post.

i'm glad to have helped a lot of you feel loved and seen and to have produced an art that's struck a personal chord in y'all, but i have light skin privilege and realize it's poor allyship on my part to continue my activism this way.

i'll be removing blm tags from my artwork and commissions post as well as redirect anyone looking to commission me based on my blm-inspired posts to black artists.

nonetheless, i'll remain motivated by the personal & intersectional powerlessness that inspired me to do this to continue my activism. as a gay, trans, disabled, poor, & neurodivergent nonbinary person of color, i'll create another commissions post centering around the issues that pertain to me so i can ethically continue commissioning to donate to causes. as my situation stands now it's one of the very few ways i can contribute, but doing so while taking up space within a movement not explicitly meant for me isn't the right thing to do. supporting and amplifying their voices (in this case BLACK voices) is.

thanks for reading through this y'all~ below are some resources i found that can help y'all find black artists to uplift & support ♡

blog archives:

http://blackartists.tumblr.com

http://officialblackartistspace.tumblr.com

http://drawingwhileblack.tumblr.com

http://youngblackartists.tumblr.com

http://blackartiststudio.tumblr.com

black artists:

http://kermitcurry.tumblr.com

http://aner-bananer.tumblr.com

http://mistajonz.tumblr.com

http://stefanoterry.tumblr.com

http://dr3am-girl.tumblr.com

http://benalsyght.tumblr.com

tags:

#blackartists

#blackart

#drawingwhileblack

♡ if you are a black artist and want me to add you to this list as well as refer potential clients to you, please tell me ♡

i'd also like to extend a final thank you to the black voices within and beyond the black lives matter movement. i'm in awe of your courage & resiliency. i'll do better and keep doing my part in changing the world so it does better by y'all, too

[velvetthunder1999]

All the time on Earth

Part 3 - The Yule Ball

Summary: Your date leaves you during the Yule Ball, but luckily, George is there to save the day - and your night.

Warnings: None, Fluff

Word count: 2K

George Weasley x Reader

Song featuring: Magic Works - The Weird Sisters

Masterlist

- Edited for grammar -

Red dress with golden laces — you were dressing up in the house’s colors. You let your hair down and checked yourself in the mirror once again before you headed down the stairs. The common room was already full of people, in front of your eyes were dresses and robes mixed together into a beautiful range of colors. You waved to a few familiar faces, then opened the Fat Lady and went to meet your date for the night.

Two days after the McLaggen incident you already had a Durmstrang boy asking to be your escort. You didn’t know him at all, but you said yes, hoping that you’ll have a great night. You knew Ginny’s desire to go with Harry hadn’t worked out, but you didn’t have any secret crushes so you were just happy to go with anyone.

As you walked down the stairs you spotted your date talking to a Beauxbatons girl with a big smile on his face. You were a bit unsure whether you should intervene or not, but then the boy saw you and waved.

“Hi,” you said, not as nervous as you had imagined to be. “How are you?”

“Good evening” he said with his thick accent. “May I?”

He offered his arm and you grabbed it gently, letting him leading you to the Great Hall.

“I’m sorry, but I think I forgot your name,” you admitted, trying not to feel embarrassed.

“It’s Alexander,” he said. “And you are?”

“Oh, it’s Y/N”.

He nodded and didn’t say anything else. You were a bit surprised by his calm attitude. You thought he’d smile at you, or compliment your dress at least but it didn’t seem to be the case. Alexander was searching the room and when he found his friends he just lead you there and started talking to them.

You were not quite sure what to do with yourself. Luckily, the four champions entered the Great Hall with their partners, opening the ball with a dance. You smiled at Hermione. She looked really pretty.

When others started to join the champions, you felt Alexander’s hand on your arm. He shot a polite smile at you while leading you to the other dancers, but you somehow felt the whole situation as an obligatory thing. You two didn’t talk the entire time. Soon it started to bother you how he was only looking over your shoulder, gesturing to his friends behind you.

“So, er — Do you enjoy being here this year?” you tried to start a conversation. He looked at you almost in wonder, like he was just now realizing that the two of you were dancing. He nodded.

“Yes, yes, very beautiful. I’ll be right back, okay?”

He let go of your waist and turned to is friends.

“Oh, er — okay,” you said in confusion but he couldn’t hear it. He was already at the other side of the room.

You felt a bit embarrassed standing there on your own while dancers were bumping into you, so you decided to flee. You walked to one of the tables where you could get drinks and searched for something you’d like. You held a glass in your hand and as you turned around you saw Alexander, laughing while dancing with the Beauxbatons girl he had been talking with before. Your jaw dropped in outrage.

“Close your mouth, otherwise something’s gonna fly into it.”

The familiar voice belonged to a familiar face. You looked at the boy and said in total disbelief:

“My partner is dancing with someone else!”

George turned around to the way you were pointing. Seeing the boy he snorted. “Well, not a big loss if you ask me.”

“Well, I didn’t ask you,” you said, taking the piss. He shrugged, smiling.

“Maybe you should have. Then you’d have a better partner. What are you drinking?”

You looked at the empty glass in your hand.

“Butterbeer, please.”

He poured you and himself a glass, then he drank half of it. You were watching him, wondering.

“So where is your partner?”

“Er — somewhere around there I guess,” he pointed at the farthest corner of the room. “We got separated and to tell you the truth, neither of us wanted to find the other again.”

“I see. Why did you come with her then?”

“I didn’t think it was a big deal.” he shook his head. “The whole ball, actually.”

You didn’t have an answer to that so you nodded and drank. George was looking at your face the whole time.

“So is there anything like this where you live?” he asked.

“A muggle ball, you mean?” you asked. He nodded. “I wouldn’t really know. I don’t attend those.”

“Why not?”

“Er — they are a bit different than this.”

“Really? How?”

“Well, reason number one, I am not really welcome at them.”

You saw on his face that he expected anything but this. His eyes grew big in surprise.

“What do you mean?”

You decided to give him the shorter version.

“Well, my parents don’t really — er — like me.”

“Wait, what?” he put down his glass, his full attention on you. “I didn’t know that.”

“Why would you know that?” you asked, confused. “I don’t talk to you and your brother.”

“Yeah, but I… hold on a second. Me and my brother?” his eyes were full of suspicion. Then he spoke like he just uncovered a secret. “You don’t even know which one am I, do you?”

It was your turn to be suspicious.

“Why the hell would I not know?”

“Cause there’s only a very few people who do.” He sounded quite proud.

“You’re only twins, it’s not like you’re the only pair on Earth,” you rolled your eyes. A cheeky smile appeared on the boy’s face.

“Then tell me who do you think I am.”

You crossed your arms and raised an eyebrow.

“I’m not telling you.”

“Which means you don’t know.”

“No, it means that I’m not playing your game. I know who you are. Let’s move on.”

“Sure,” he was still smiling. “So why do you think your parents don’t like you?”

“I don’t just think, it’s a fact.”

“But why?”

His smile disappeared, his face seemed more genuine. You cleared your throat and only looked him in the eye after you finished your drink.

“Well, I’m a witch, you know. And where I come from witches are not very welcome.”

“Why?”

“Er — do you remember those stories Binns told us about muggles hunting down witches in the past cause they feared them?”

“I guess.”

“Yeah, we are those people. My parents, I mean. They live in the past, really. They’re not hurting anyone but they still think I’m a disgrace.”

“You’re joking?”

“No. I’m serious.”

“I’m really sorry.”

“Thanks.”

“At least here you can be with friends.”

“Yeah, and listen to Malfoy giving me shit for being muggleborn.”

He snorted.

“Muggleborn my ass. More like smuggle-born.”

You almost choked on your drink.

“Wait, what?” you could hardly breathe from laughing. George nodded cheerfully.

“You didn’t know? Quite a lot of people call you ‘the smuggleborn girl’. Because you can get them everything they need.

“No way!”

“Yeah.” He changed his voice to sound like a kid “‘Hey, do you know where can I get that pen that has four colors?’ — ‘Yeah, try ask the smuggleborn girl.’ — ‘But I thought she was just a myth!’”

You couldn’ t hold back anymore. Your laugh was loud and joyful, and George seemed to be quite proud of himself while listening to it. He poured you another drink and raised his own to make a toast.

“To smuggleborns.”

You chuckled.

“To smuggleborns.”

“We would be happy to collaborate with you on business matters, dear Y/N,” his style reminded you to his prefect brother’s who would always order people around in the hallway during his student years. “May our cooperation leave thousands of customers satisfied.”

You both drank and you started to feel warmth in your chest, probably caused by the consumed butterbeers. It was nice talking to George, and you didn’t mind at all that Alexander had ditched you in the first ten minutes.

You stayed there for over an hour just talking and laughing about the silliest things. The Great Hall slowly started to get emptier as the night went on. You and George were at your fourth butterbeer when the music started to slow down and the band announced that they were finishing up.

You looked at the others; only a few couples stayed and swayed slowly to the music.

“Looks like it’s ending.”

“Yeah.” George put down his drink and offered his hand to you. “You wanna dance?”

He caught you off guard, but a smile appeared on your face.

“Really?”

“Yeah, it’s the last song. C’mon.”

He took your hand and lead you to the dance floor. He placed one hand on your waist as McGonagall had taught you all, his other hand grabbed yours. The music was sweet, the tune was caressing your soul. Everything else seemed to disappear and you felt nothing but delight.

——

George was not the best dancer there is, but he enjoyed dancing with you. He was careful not to step on your feet, but that was he’s only concern, really. He felt free, he felt relaxed and… and… and you were really pretty.

“You look really pretty tonight” he said, his throat a bit dry.

Your face lit up. Your smile was pretty, too.

“Thank you” you said.

“You’re also dancing way better than I am.”

“Really? I didn’t notice.”

George had to laugh at your lie. His chest was heating up. Must be all the drinking. Suddenly he wished you had told him who do you think he was. He wished you knew who you were dancing with.

So believe that magic works,

Don’t be afraid of being hurt,

Don’t let this magic die,

The answer’s there - oh, just look in her eyes

You suddenly let go of his hand and his palm felt quite empty. A moment later you raised your arms and put them around his neck.

“Is this okay?” you asked.

“Yeah,” he said, placing both hands on your waist.

He didn’t know what the bloody hell was going on. He couldn’t think straight. He felt lost in the moment and he was perfectly fine with it.

When the song ended and you let go of him to applause the band, he felt like he was waking up from a dream. He felt dizzy, he suddenly regretted drinking that much. He wanted to talk to you more, but he also needed to lie down for some reason. He looked at you, smile on his face.

“Can I walk you back?”

“Yeah, I mean we’re going to the same place anyway,” you said cheekily.

“Witty,” he rolled his eyes then gestured towards the door. “After you.”

He left the Great Hall with you by his side. He was incredibly pleased with the night. The Beauxbatons girl leaving him behind was the best thing that could’ve happened to him. He had never really thought about you before, you were in your own world and he was in his. But now you seemed to be quite pleasent to be around.

You gave the password to the Fat Lady and entered to the common room. After taking a few steps George took a deep breath to say goodbye to you, but you spoke first.

“Thank you for the dance. I had a great time.”

George nodded, still feeling a little bit dizzy.

“Yeah, me too.”

“Well —  see you later then.”

“See ya.”

You waved him goodbye and walked to the stairs. You were on the second step when you seemed to remember something and stopped. You turned around, that cheeky smile on your face as you looked him in the eye.

“Good night, George.”

And with that you disappeared behind the door. George didn’t even realize what happened until ten minutes later when he was lying in his bed, under the covers.

You knew.

——

The next day you wanted to sleep in, but your stomach demanded otherwise. You got up, got dressed and walked down the stairs.

“Finally. We’ve been waiting for you for ages!”

You looked quite surprised at Fred, who was getting up from the couch with a grunt.

“George says, it would be smart for us to work together.”

You looked at George who was trying to hide his smile.

“You wanna go get breakfast?” he said.

You nodded, then opened the Fat Lady.

“Yeah. Let’s go.”

[moon-riverandme]

And in the Beginning There was... Light, Film Rolls, and Controversy.

Watching old movies has always been one of my favorite pastimes. I love the cracks in the film, the oddly tinted placements of color, the quick, scattered movements of the actors, and the slice of an intertitle. It all just makes sense when I think of those first filmmakers who were trying to make sense of their new medium. In my journey through film, I will start at the beginning. Well, sort of the beginning. Our main topic of discussion takes place in 1903. So we’ve skipped over a few years… 15 to be exact. I’ll sum them up now because if I miss a beat I’ll ruin the scene.

Let's start in October of 1888 when Louis Le Prince has just recorded the very first film. It’s short yet scenic; his family gathers in a garden and for the first time ever - they move. A man walks across the screen, the rigid bustles and day dress of two women sway as they turn away from the camera - ergo we have a moving image years before Edison would invent the kinetoscope. Of course, most don’t know of Le Prince and in school I never heard his name mentioned. In fact, I only heard of him through a Buzzfeed Unsolved video. So what happened? Why did history remember the names Edison and Lumière but not Le Prince?

There were many entries in the race to create the first film. And of course, there are arguments as to what cinema is in comparison to a bunch of still photographs played one after another. Strange, I think is this argument. For film is a series of stills or frames played one right after the other. Nevertheless, in 1878, we have the famous images of a galloping horse caught by twelve cameras set up by Muybridge to capture motion and to study animal locomotion. Motion but not a movie. What we needed was a camera that had a single lens capable of capturing a point of view. That’s what Le Prince did. Unfortunately, as history would see it, he mysteriously disappeared on a train to Paris in September 1890 right before his first public screening in New York carrying luggage that contained all of his work. Neither Le Prince or the luggage has ever been found. Quite the coincidence.

There are a few theories: Le Prince committing suicide, Le Prince’s own brother killing him, Le Prince fleeing due to his sexuality being outed but none have stuck... except one. Le Prince’s widow, Lizzie, believed Edison, his biggest competitor in the race, had him assassinated. The evidence? The discovery of Edison’s journal containing the following entry, which has been proven authentic. It read:

“Eric called me today from Dijon. It has been done. Prince is no more. This is good news but I flinched when he told me. Murder is not my thing. I'm an inventor and my inventions for moving images can now move forward.”

Take of that what you will.

Today, we are taught that Edison’s kinetoscope launched the novel medium of moving pictures into our familiar. When it was invented in 1891 by Edison and Dickson, the kinetoscope was a peepshow-like device with a "sight opening" on top that one viewer at a time could look into and watch a moving picture. Think about it like looking into a microscope - very different from how we view films now both in method and price, it was 50 cents for access to all films at a given venue.

In 1897, an improvement on Edison's device arose. Invented by the Lumière brothers, the cinematograph contained both a camera, projector, and hand crank. Now, audiences could sit and screen films. I'll circle back to Edison as he connects to our 1903 topic. But first, let's take a stop with the Lumière brothers.

Auguste and Louis Lumière are credited as the first filmmakers. Their documentary-esque films Workers Leaving The Lumière Factory and Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat are milestones in cinema. Known as travelogues or actualités, they showed the casual and working life of people in the mid to late 1890's. These shorts were even screened to audiences who jumped out of their seats at a train onscreen because they thought it would actually hit them. The Lumière Brothers took their screening all over the world, from Paris, to India, and China.

Watching these films, it's hard not to put yourself in the shoes of a passerby, a random person whose name we don't know, who exists in a few frames before disappearing to time. Like a fossil, it's interesting to examine what life was like back then. I love seeing the clothing. Everyone is so formal, at least compared to the laid back air of today. Even so, in the 1890’s people were moving away from the Victorian Era and into the “New Woman” Era. High necklines and longer sleeves were replaced by the open neck and short sleeves as morning turned to dusk. High chiffons under feathered hats were popular as was the shirtwaist style for work. All of these visible in the Lumière films.

Where we jump from reportage to fiction is where we jump from Lumière to Porter. And back to Edison, who had Porter working for him. Projectionist and electrician turned director, Edwin S. Porter was the brains behind many of the mechanics and techniques that have become so highly engrained in the making of films that the idea of them being novel seems almost impossible. In 1899, Porter became head of moving picture production at the Edison Manufacturing Company and throughout his career, which spanned about 15 years, he made more than 70 short films. So lets look at a few of them in detail.

Jack and the Beanstalk (1902)

You'll see that a lot of the narrative ideas for these early films spun directly out of fairytales. For an audience, fairytales were a familiarity. Thus, they were able to stitch together what they already knew about the characters and stories and better understand these new moving pictures. And Porter knew this from his work as a projectionist. He knew what engaged the audience most. And that wasn't just story, it was technique. Porter's films were revolutionary for what would become known as editing, at that time just cutting film. Simplistic and impactful, he knew how to compact time and create magic. Objects and people appear and disappear in a single cut. The camera remains still, a wide shot, and on a tripod but what's in front of it changes slightly, making for magical realism. For example, once Jack makes it back down to earth after descending the beanstalk, he grabs an ax and starts chopping it down. He's got to do this or the giant chasing him will make it down too. So he swings the ax a few times with all his might. From a large beanstalk, ripe with leaves, reaching up to the sky, we immediately cut to a destroyed one. The fact that we end one cut with Jack in the same position as we start the next, keeps from disrupting the audience even though everything else onscreen has changed. We've condensed time, Jack has saved the day, and the Giant has fallen to his death. Porter would expand on this editing style, perfecting it, discovering cross-cutting.

Life of an American Fireman (1903)

Cross-cutting or parallel action is so integral to editing that it happens in just about every film. Simply, two separate events are occurring - say, a woman trying to escape a fire inside of her house and firefighters rushing in a horse carriage to save her. These two events, perceived to be happening at the same time, are stitched together through editing so that the audience experiences both. Cut to the woman in her house as the fire inches closer to her. Cut to the firefighters rushing up the stairs. Will they get there? Will they save her? Cross-cutting serves to create tension and set the rhythm of a scene. Eventually, the two spatial points of view merge and the conflict should be resolved. This originates in Porter's films and Life of An American Fireman is the first one that shows it off.

Let's cut back to the first shot of this film, it's a trick shot. A sleepy fireman dreams of a mother putting her daughter to bed. Abruptly, the fire alarm is set off and he wakes up. Instead of cutting from the fireman dozing off in his chair to a separate shot of the mother, which would create confusion on whether the fireman was dreaming, Porter uses double exposure to frame the dream above the fireman shoulder. Double exposure had been employed by photographers since the 1860's to produce dreamy situations in otherwise ordinary places but in film, it first appears in Georges Méliès Four Heads are Better Than One. When we see the house aflame for the first time in Life of an American Fireman, the same mother and daughter from the dream pair reappear. The fireman's premonition connects back to the main drama of the story.

The Great Train Robbery (1903)

In this film we take the leap from a theatrical approach to cinematography, where the camera simply watches the action at a long-shot or observing eye, to being involved in the action. One way that Porter does this is by integrating the pan.

Panning is a technique that moves a camera side to side in a fixed location. We haven't taken the camera off of a tripod or stepped forward in anyway, we are simply turning left or right on the horizontal axis. If we took a step forward and followed a character or action we'd have a tracking shot. But we aren't there yet so plant your feet in the ground for now. Porter uses pans to reveal. The first pan is executed about six minutes into the film. The robbers jump off the caboose with their stolen goods and make a run for it. But where are they going? Queue the pan and we find out it's down some steep hills and into a forest. The subsequent shot is them in the thicket of a forest. Running passed the camera until all but one have exited camera left. But how will they get out? Queue the second pan to reveal horses - their getaway plan. This pan is masterfully done. I love the way Porter keeps his camera static and just observes the tumbling, running robbers until only one is left onscreen. Then and only then does he pan left to reveal the horses. By leaving only one person onscreen, not only does the audience have less to track but so does the camera. Simplifying the frame down to only the necessities of the action, one robber running away in a forest, amplifies the pan and makes the reveal feel complete - we reunite with the group of robbers and horses.

Depending on which version of the film you watch, you might be surprised by waves of color among a sea of black and white. Tinting whole films blue, amber, or sepia has been around since the origins of moving pictures, but in The Great Train Robbery, Porter selects specific actions or objects to tint. This was all done by hand.

Color is one big manipulator. Think of light blue and you'll likely picture endless summer skies; an air of calm. How about Green? I picture the tangled tree webs of a jungle - adventure, growth, the smell of dew on fresh leaves, nature. Now red. Explosions, fire, burst of emotion. Yellow? A bright, morning sun, a blooming sunflower, happiness, positivity, a new start. Early filmmakers used color to bring attention to specific objects, people, and actions. They used it to draw out an emotion from the viewer. They used it to connect themes of violence, love, and happiness. And they used it to spice up their frame.

Porter hand paints the explosion of a train lockbox bright orange and a deep red. The smokey pops from gunshots are also a fiery red. The dress of a dancing woman is bright yellow. The coat of another girl is a rich purple. The addition of color cultivates realism but also gives the film a flair of the imaginary.

So, we have the creative process of tinting to enhance the visual characteristics of a story and we have panning to push forward the important aspects of a narrative. Let's add a few more ingredients to our recipe.

Because the story cuts back and forth between the robbers, the operator, and the posse of men who will eventually hunt down the robbers, it has parallel action. Three separate storylines, integrated through the edit, that coverage at the end. Now that we have the way in which the story is cut and delivered, how about some specific effects?

In shots where the action occurs inside the prop train, which is not moving but the audience is meant to believe it is, Porter uses double exposure to ground his location in reality. He filmed exterior, moving shots and layered them onto the static train shots. In the '30s this would become known as "rear projection".

Additionally, Porter creatively placed his camera in new ways to produce frames that diverged from the typical wide shot; bringing the viewer closer into the action. For example, at about 2 minutes and 50 seconds in, the camera is propped on top of the engine car roof while a sneaking robber crawls passed and kills a fireman.

At last we arrive at the final shot. Diverging from the narrative, Porter set this up to look like a wanted poster. It is filmed in a medium close-up, which serves to focus all attention on the subject by filming them waist-up, having them fill up most of the frame, and blocking out the surrounding environment. The robber points his revolver right at the camera and shoots six times. If you've ever seen Goodfellas, Martin Scorsese recreates this at the end with Joe Pesci. Seemingly, the purpose was to shoot the audience. To tell them even though all of these robbers were killed in the end, their spirit doesn't die. It says "I'm warning you- it's still dangerous out there." Funny enough, this wasn't even the original intention. The shot was promotional and where it ended up in the film was entirely up to the projectionist. It could've just as well been placed at the beginning if they wanted. Even so, the break in the fourth wall and punch of dramatics that ended the film still prevail through cinema history today. Completing the recipe for one the first Westerns, ripe with shootouts, chase sequences, bandits, and suspense.

The Kleptomaniac (1905)

When moving pictures are void of sound and spoken dialogue it's a bit difficult to understand what characters are doing onscreen. Heightened emotional and physicalized acting made up for this. Through facial expressions and over the top, exaggerated body movements, audiences could connect the dots to figure out what was going on in a scene. But in 1903, Porter directed Uncle Tom's Cabin and introduced intertitles, words that would appear printed onscreen. Early iterations of intertitles read like book chapters. They described the main action that was about to take place in the scene. In Uncle Tom's Cabin some examples include: "The Escape of Eliza", "Rescue of Eva", and "Tom and Eva in the Garden. In The Kleptomaniac, intertitles state location and give context to where we are, which is helpful because without them, I don't think I could follow what was going on - at all.

Location is such a main element in this film that intertitles are practically non negotiable. "Leaving Home", "Arriving at the Store", "Home of Thief", and "Court Room Scene", prepare us with the information that is necessary to fully understand the purpose of each scene. The department store shot isn't clear-cut. It could've been a mail room or an office. If we miss that it's a department store that our main character is visiting (and stealing from), we miss the connection to the thief stealing food later on in the film and thus miss the whole theme of class disparities. The intertitles supplement for lack of onscreen information and sound. They would be used regularly in the silent era, branching into dialogue intertitles and expositionary intertitles before dying out with the advent of sound.

[heartsloving]

As Long As You’re Safe

Spencer Reid x Reader (spouse)

Summary: When an unsub targets Reid, the team struggles to find a way to get him out of the situation before things get out of hand and the only way for things to end is for him to talk to the unsub and try to reason with them. The reader, however, is having none of it. 

A/N: with this being the first fanfic I’ve ever written, please be nice. I know it might not be good but I’m doing my best. there’s a saying that the more you write, the better you’ll get. I’m getting there. I hope it’s at least somewhat enjoyable :)) 

Warnings: None, really, some violence, angst, but not much

Word Count: 3,535

Edited? Slightly

* credit for the gif goes to the person who made it *

As Long As You’re Safe

“To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved.” - George MacDonald

You can hear the distant sound of speeding cars as you sit on a park bench. While you watch the children play on the playground, you can smell the damp ground from the rain and the smell of apple cinnamon from the food cart that parks nearby the park. The sky is dark when you look up, dark clouds surrounding the park. When you look straight ahead, you can see the sun about to set, the sky illuminating an orange and red color. You let out a sigh as you watch the children run around, wishing you can feel more carefree like the children do. The case that you are working on is extremely difficult, especially when it involves a member of the team putting themselves in more danger than they really need. You understand that it’s part of the job, but there are other ways to approach the case. This case, however, doesn’t have another way that doesn't involve hurting the victims, much to your dismay.

The unsub, which you and the team found out to be twenty-nine year old Nicole Renner who worked at a retail store before she got fired by her own mother a couple of weeks before the attacks, requested to see one of the members from your team in person otherwise, the woman she was holding captive would die. The team eventually agreed to meet her tomorrow afternoon and that was that. The team agreed, you didn’t. Under different circumstances, you would agree but having the one person that you truly love meet up with the unsub, unarmed and vulnerable, that was something you didn’t want to agree with. Not that you wanted another member of your team to go instead, you wanted to find another way. But there was just nothing that could be done to change Nicole’s mind. After the deal was made, you left the room in a hurry, ignoring the worried looks the team was giving you as you walked out.

Now, you’re at the park that you went to as a child, watching kids run around and laugh with no worrying thoughts crossing their minds. You frown as you feel tears gather in your eyes and you hastily wipe them away when you hear footsteps behind you. You feel the person sit next to you and glance up briefly and make eye contact with JJ before dropping your gaze to your folded hands in front of you. 

“Hey,” JJ says gently. “I thought I would find you here.”

You sniff. “Does the team need me?” You hate the fact that your voice cracked at the end.

JJ smiles softly. “They’ll be fine. How are you holding up? I know this is hard for you.”

You start fiddling with the wedding ring you had on your left hand. You smile at the thought of your wedding. That was the day you married your best friend. Letting your smile fall from the thought of what may happen tomorrow, you shrug. JJ notices but doesn’t say anything. “I just--what could the unsub want with Spencer?”

“I don’t know. But I do know that we’re not letting him go alone.” She grabs your hand. “Y/N, I know that you’re worried. We all are. We don’t know what to expect. But we’re family and family doesn’t leave each other behind. We’ll be there.”

You think back to what Nicole said. “I know, I just don’t want him to get hurt because of it.” You shake your head. “I know he’s been through situations like this, but I just can’t help but feel like something bad is going to happen.”

“That’s the thing about this job. It’s never easy. Bad things happen. It happens all the time. But you just have to find the good in every situation. Things don’t always turn out the way we want it to, and we need to learn how to adapt. We find ways to cope and we do our best to make the next situation better. Most importantly, we’re all here for each other. We have each other’s back.” JJ pauses to let her words sink in. “I’m sure Spence will be fine, Y/N. He’s smart, he’ll find a way to bring Nicole in and bring the hostage to safety while making sure he stays safe as well. And we’ll be around the corner. Once we believe things are out of hand, we can jump in. But you and I both know that he’s got this.”

You nod because of course, you know that. He’s been in the BAU longer than you have and you’ve seen him in action. You know he’ll be fine. It’s just your thoughts nagging at you and you worry. You try to smile but you’re sure it looks more like a grimace. “I know. Thanks, JJ.”

JJ squeezes your hand. “You don’t need to thank me.” Just then, her phone buzzes, and she pulls it out and reads the text. “Duty calls. You coming?”

“I’m just going to stay here for a little while longer if that’s okay. I just need a minute.”

JJ nods knowingly, standing up. “Of course. I’ll see you later.”

She puts a hand on your shoulder for a moment before walking away. You sigh as you again watch the children, deep in thoughts.

You become so lost in thought that you didn’t realize how late it is until you look up from the silence and see that everyone has gone home. You decide to text JJ that you are heading home. You are no use to the team when you’re worrying too much of what could go wrong and you can already picture yourself protesting with every idea the team proposes, so you decide that it is best for you to get some rest. Putting your keys on the key hook by the door, you take off your jacket and hang it in the closet next to Spencer’s black jacket. You can vividly remember Spencer surprising you with your first house together after you got married. It was a special day, something that you know you’ll always remember, and a picture sitting on the table beside the closet is proof enough. You stand there for a moment before closing the closet door and making your way towards yours and Spencer’s room. After getting ready, you lay in bed and close your eyes, but you know that you’re not getting sleep anytime soon. Too much is on your mind and you can feel tears starting to form.

You don’t know how long you’ve been laying in bed, but you can hear the front door open and close and you know it’s Spencer. Your eyes -- that’s still wet from unshed tears -- remain closed, but you can hear his footsteps come closer until it stops. You are laying on your side and you almost jump when you feel his hand brush a strand of hair out of your face. You can almost picture the small frown on his face, considering that you left so abruptly. His hand lingers on your head for a moment before he removes them. You hear the bathroom door closing softly and you quickly move your hand up to wipe the tears, relieved that it’s too dark for him to notice the tears that were falling when he was standing at your side of the bed. The sound of water running fills your ears and you let the soothing sound almost rock you to sleep. After a while, you feel a pair of lips on the side of your head and you can faintly hear Spencer saying, “Good night, Y/N, I love you,” before sleep overtakes you.

++++++

The sound of birds chirping outside wakes you up and you slowly open your eyes. Sun peeks out from the curtains and you move your hand up to close it. You lay back down and turn your head to the side and see your husband, Spencer, sleeping soundly on his back. He looks peaceful, all the worry lines on his forehead are gone. You know how tense he gets sometimes in some cases and you just wish you could take away the stress. You also know that he hasn’t been getting a lot of sleep lately, so you’re glad that he was able to get some this night. You’re watching his eyes fluttering from his closed lids before you remember what is to take place this afternoon. Laying back, you again feel tears gather in your eyes and you scold yourself for being so weak. You know he’s going to be fine. You know it deep down. You just can’t help worrying about what could happen if he took one wrong step. You manage to stifle your sob but you can’t help the gasp that falls out of your mouth. You cover your mouth and sniffle, closing your eyes as you groan internally. He for sure heard that.

And he did. You feel his hand on your arm, but you don’t open your eyes for the fear that he might judge you. “Y/N?” You feel the bed shuffle, most likely him turning to his side to look at you better. You open your eyes and sure enough, your eyes meet his. “You’re crying. Why are you crying?”

“I-I’m sorry for waking you,” You whisper. You try turning away but his hand on his arm prevents you from doing so. “I-I’ll be okay. Just go back to sleep.” Your voice cracks. Great, he for sure won’t leave you alone now. You glance at the clock. Six am. “It’s still early.”

“I know you say that you’ll be okay but after being with you for four years, one hundred and fifteen days, twenty-one hours, and thirty minutes, I know you tend to say you’re okay when you’re not.” He looks at you, pauses, and moves his hand that was on your arm up to wipe the tears that managed to fall from your face. “Now can you tell me what’s really wrong?” After a long pause, he adds, “Please?”

You let out a shaky breath, closing your eyes to brace yourself. You feel tears escape your eyes, but Spencer wipes them away before they can fall any further. Opening your eyes, you turn and face Spencer, who is looking at you with furrowed eyebrows.”I, um, It’s--sorry.” You look up to prevent any more tears from falling. Spencer waits patiently like he always does. “It’s just--I’m scared that something bad will happen today. I know that I’m overthinking things, I know I always do, I’m just scared I--”

“Hey,” Spencer says softly, his thumb stroking your cheek. He pulls you in a hug. It took a while for him to be more accepting of any kind of touching but after some help, he eventually opened up more. “I’ll be okay. You got my back, right? You’ll be there?” You nod. “Then I’ll be alright. Trust me, with you and the team behind me, knowing that I have people I love and trust there watching my back will help a lot. Besides, I already talked to her once, I think I can talk to her again.”

You pull back, your eyebrows lowering. “What?”

“All I’m saying is, I’ll be fine knowing that you’ve got my back. You don’t have to worry about me.”

“Honey, you know I will always worry about you. We swore an oath at the altar where we’ll look after our well-being. I wouldn’t break it then and I’m not breaking it now, but that’s not the point.” You look at him closely. “You talked to the unsub before? Why didn’t you tell me?”

Spencer frowns. “She wasn’t an unsub the first time I talked to her. She was fine, she acted as any other people would. She helps the homeless, she cares for her siblings, she was never violent towards anyone. We talked about microbiology, surprisingly, and how it helps the world. Normal conversation.” He pauses. “Maybe I can bring her out again.”

“You’ve always wanted to help others when they don’t realize they need it. That’s what I love about you. But you know you can’t save everyone, right? I’m glad you’re trying, honestly, I’m happy you’re trying. I just don’t want to lose you. I can’t lose you. I love you.”

He brings you close and plants a kiss on your lips. “I love you too. And you won’t lose me. I know what I’m doing. I just want to try.” You see him bite his lip. 

You move your hand and use your thumb to move his bottom lip away from his teeth. You leave your thumb there for a second before letting your hand fall to his chest. “What? What is it?”

He looks at you, his eyes moving between yours. His hair is still a mess and in the morning sunlight that manages to escape from the curtains, he looks at peace despite what is about to happen in a couple of hours. “I guess I’m asking you to trust me,” he says. 

“Spen,” You say softly. “You know I’ll always trust you.”

Spencer clears his throat, his eyes never leaving yours. “I know. But I want you to trust me with this. I’ve run the probability of getting the hostage to safety while making sure her weapon never hits me or the hostage. I know what I’m doing. You won’t lose me,” he reassures you. “I know I can’t promise anything, but I can promise you one thing. I promise I’ll be careful. You just have to trust me on this one. I’ll be fine.”

You sigh. “Okay. I trust you, but I’m coming in if things go south.” You raise a brow. “And you can’t stop me.”

He lets out a small laugh. “I know I can’t.” He sobers up, looking at you intensely. “Thank you.” 

You nod. “You’ll be careful, right?”

“Always.”

++++++

“Everyone in position?” You hear Hotch say in his earpiece. He looks at the distance and you look with him. From here, you can see Nicole with a woman being held at gunpoint. You and the team are close enough if you need to step in but far enough to respect Nicole’s request. 

Before you left the FBI Headquarters, JJ made sure you know what the plan is. You and the team along with a few police officers will stay a good distance away from the situation with guns in hand while Spencer goes and detains the unsub as soon as he gets the chance. There was no way to hide an earpiece, so the team needs to look more closely at Nicole’s actions. It’s not ideal, but that’s what they have to do if they want to stop Nicole from killing anyone else. Should things go south, the team will step in. Otherwise, it’s all Spencer. 

After hearing everyone say their affirmatives, Hotch turns to Spencer. No one mentions the small amount of concern in his eyes that he didn’t manage to hide fast enough. “Reid, you ready?”

Spencer turns to look at the team. “Yeah.” His gaze falls on you and smiles reassuringly. He takes your hand and gives it a quick squeeze. “Yeah, I am.”

“Remember,” Rossi says, leaving his hand on his shoulder. “Try to sympathize with her first, give her a reason to trust you. We need to make sure that her attention is on you and not the hostage. Get the hostage away from her the moment you can.”

“And when you do,” Prentiss adds in, “Talk to her, reason with her, whatever you can. We need that gun away from you as much as we can. From what we could gather, she won’t hurt you unless she feels threatened. We know that her mother would constantly say hurtful things. Let her know that you don’t want to hurt her.”

“We’ve got your back, Spence,” JJ says firmly. “All of us here, Garcia too. We won’t let you get hurt. Not if we can help it.”

“Good luck, kid,” Morgan says, concern still clear in his voice. “Let me know when you want me to jump in. Because I will.”

Spencer nods. “Thanks, but I think I got this.” He turns and begins to walk towards Nicole, his hands clearly in the air. 

You glance at your team to see them watching Spencer with the same worry in their eyes as you. 

Please, you think to yourself, hoping someone, anyone, is hearing you. Please keep him safe. 

You watch as Nicole glances around. You swear her eyes meet yours but you think it’s just the trick of the wind. She’s yelling. About what? No one knows but Spencer. You can’t see what he’s saying but whatever it is, it seems to calm her down a bit and her hand that’s holding the gun begins to shake. After a moment of tense waiting, you see Nicole push the hostage aside and the hostage takes a chance and runs towards you. Prentiss meets her a quarter away and leads her to one of the paramedics that arrived on the scene a couple of minutes ago. 

Turning back, you watch the unsub wave her hand wildly around her, gesturing to you and the team. Spencer’s hands are in front of him and you know he’s speaking softly. You can almost imagine his voice. It has always calmed you down. From the looks of it, it was calming her down as well but barely. You feel yourself move forward when she raises the gun, but JJ stops you before you can go anywhere. She tells you to wait and after a tense moment, you finally relax — not fully, only slightly — when Nicole drops her gun and puts her face in her hands. 

Spencer steps forward slowly and gently moves her until they’re walking toward the team, no handcuffs. You assume that it is to prevent her from feeling threatened. You wait anxiously as they get closer. She is looking down but when she gets close enough, Nicole looks up and meets your eyes. A moment passes before fury crosses her face and she moves before anyone could stop her. She grabs the front of your shirt and slams you on the side of the car. Her face is close to yours and you lean your head back to get away from her. But Morgan pulls her off the moment your head slams on the window, shattering it. He struggles to get her hands behind her back but eventually manages to get her hands cuffed. 

“You’re next,” she growls at you as she is moved to a police car. “Just you wait.”

The moment she’s gone, Spencer rushes over to you and gently holds your face in his hands, examining you and making sure that there aren’t any more injuries. The team comes in shortly after, making sure that glass wasn’t stuck on you. You tell them that you’re alright and it’s true, but they don’t stop coddling until they’re satisfied that you are indeed alright. Once satisfied, they finally step back but Spencer still remains by your side. The team eventually moves away, some to where Nicole was standing and some to the news broadcasters standing a few feet away from the crime scene, leaving you and Spencer. 

He turns to you. “Are you sure you’re alright? Or are you just saying that to get the attention off you?”

“I’m fine, I promise.” You smile at him. “You did it. Like I knew you could. My mind just didn’t let me see it until it knows that you’re safe.”

He returns the smile but you know it isn’t genuine. You can see the guilt in his eyes. “I-I knew I should’ve handcuffed her but I didn’t want her to feel threatened. And look where that got me. Y/N, I’m so sorry. You trusted me and you got hurt. If I-”

You cut in. “You didn’t know. And for the record, I trust you. I trusted you in the past, I trust you now, and I’ll trust you in the future. You got her, Spen. And whatever happens, happens. It’s part of this job and part of life. Nothing is ever known. It’s okay.”

Spencer looks in front of him before moving his gaze back to you. “I do know one thing though.”

“And what’s that?”

You see his gaze harden slightly. “I won’t let her touch you again. Or anyone else.”

You wrap your arms around him and lean your head on his chest. You hear the soft thumps of his heart and that’s when you finally feel your body relax. He’s safe, you’re safe. Everything’s good. He tightens his hold on you and you feel him kiss the crown of your head. You smile. You may not know what the future holds, and that’s okay. What matters is what’s happening now and now, you’re in the arms of your husband. And that’s all you can ever ask for. 

“The point of power is always in the present moment.” - Louise L. Hay

[nomanwalksalone]

BASTARDIZATION

by Réginald-Jérôme de Mans

Today’s topic has everything to do with bastards, illegitimate marriages of heretical ideas that could make #menswear purists blanche. As with much of what’s viewed as heresy or blasphemy against classic menswear, the garment pictured springs forth from the 1960s, both directly and indirectly.  Bastardization, of course, is all about that indirectness, that genealogical “collateral” line. And yet mutts are sometimes the most beautiful and intelligent of animals… at least to this beholder.

I came to my #menswear cropper through a love for 1960s vividness, even recognizing that its Technicolor thrills were largely phenomena confined to a privileged middle and upper class. Still, the cinematic glories of Terence Stamp, Michael Caine, David Hemmings and others made an impression on my suburban adolescent self, as did David Bailey’s photographs. And, of course, Connery’s Bond. Today James Bond is trapped in a postmodern funhouse mirror of reboots and reimaginings, licensed more to retail brand names than to kill. The more stylish heir to Connery’s infamously politically incorrect Bond is the gloriously profane cartoon hero Sterling Archer, he who coined the portmanteau word “tactleneck”, the tactical turtleneck in the deepest black and the finest materials that accompanies him on all his most sensitive missions. In a review of Archer’s and Bond’s shirtmaker Turnbull & Asser, I noted that T&A are missing out on what could be a fruitful collaboration with Archer, being as they are the inventors of another glorious bastard turtleneck from my 1960s period of inspiration.

Warren Beatty and Hemmings, who famously sported searingly striped shirts (another T&A staple) as a fashion photographer in Blow-Up, modelled it, but it was Lord (not Edward) Snowdon who made this design most famous when he was turned away from a soirée in New York City for wearing it: a tuxedo shirt made out of silk with a turtleneck collar without any space for a bow tie. The design was bizarre but awesome: the simplicity of a turtleneck meant no studs, cummerbund or waistcoat, or the aforementioned bow tie. To my mind it’s aged rather better than the ruffled front tux shirt George Lazenby sports in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.  

According to my pal @voxsartoria, this shirt’s design was the brainchild of T&A’s creative cutter at the time, Robert Clark, who had come up with other bizarrely inventive models, such as the Clarney, a hunting shirt with a cravat in the same cloth as the shirt built in. There’s no word on whether he also designed a shirt called the Charney, after Dov of ill fame, that would sexually harass the wearer.  

I hate tying a bow tie, even if thanks to Bruce Boyer’s latest book I now know that it more or less ties like a shoelace, so I wanted to have my own tactleneck, my tactical response for dealing with black tie that cuts through the fuss and bulk of putting on a dress set and a cummerbund, among other things. But bringing back an inspiration had its issues – as Jurassic Park suggested, every resuscitation results in some genetic variation. For one, T&A only offered it as a bespoke model and never came out with a ready-to-wear version, even though T&A’s currently doing all sorts of archive editions of famous designs, so it’s a design only available custom. However, as with other items of bespoke gimmickry, apparent simplicity hid significant artifice. In order not to show its closure, the T&A version buttoned up the back, something impossible to do on my own in my valet-free class and age.

No, additional bastardization was called for. I had my own shirtmaker create a new pattern for a turtleneck-collared shirt that buttoned up the side, keeping the closure out of sight but far easier to do up, rather like the buttoning on old fencing jackets (they use Velcro now). That inspiration also came from a 1960s T&A design, in this case the side-buttoning Cossack-style shirts that they popularized after having made models for Omar Sharif to wear in Doctor Zhivago (Omar was a loyal fellow who continued to patronize T&A for decades thereafter). The collar still has to button around the back, but that can be done on my own with a lot of swearing.

In true bastard fashion I did not go back to the source, to the Churchill Room at Turnbull & Asser to have this shirt made. New customers at most English shirtmakers are required to place a minimum order of three or six shirts, and I don’t have any call for that. I instead tested one of my current shirtmakers’ skills in asking him to create a completely new pattern for an odd shirt design. Among other things I knew I could trust him to fit a test shirt on me before making the actual shirt up, something the British don’t do.

A more practical query would be why I didn’t just use a knitted turtleneck in cashmere or cotton, since those stretch and don’t need to be cut and fitted.  Even at their finest, however, knits can still add more bulk under a sportcoat than a woven cloth, and they just don’t have the sheen of silk. Nor do knits usually have French cuffs for cufflinks.  (For some reasons, the original T&A design had button cuffs despite being made for black tie; I changed that.) Good silk for making shirts is rather hard to find; even though 50 years ago it seems to have been the material of choice for better business shirts and formal wear shirts, to judge by mentions in those Bond novels that helped launch Connery.  Nonetheless, silk is far more delicate and difficult to clean than, and generally doesn’t breathe nearly as well as, cotton. There are wonderful cottons available now that have some of silk’s luster and fineness, but in homage to my inspirations I too wanted this shirt in silk. I know that the cloth house David & John Anderson has a book of silks called “Jade” (their finer cotton books are named after diamonds and emeralds, so “Jade” is obviously a bow to China where silk weaving first originated). That book might as well exist in name only, as it was impossible to obtain, but DJA’s sister company Thomas Mason had a fine ivory silk twill that we made this up in.  

The result, an obvious bastardization of black tie – tieless, waistcoatless, sashless. It looked and felt exactly as I had intended – different and yet somehow elegant in its own way, at least in my own mind – the offwhite ivory color less severe than a pure white would have been, the silk’s sheen and softness elegantly replacing conventional collar and bowtie. A tactile tactic better, in my own admittedly biased view, than the dark necktie or other inglorious bastardizations that pass for creative black tie nowadays.

Quality content, like quality clothing, ages well. This article first appeared on the No Man blog in 2018.

[cxptain-carol]

𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐡𝐚𝐢𝐫 𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐬 | 𝐡𝐣𝐩

✎ summary: it’s been months since you’ve seen your friends but there’s something about harry’s long hair: you’re just itching to run your fingers through it. 

✎ pairing: fourth year!harry potter x reader

✎ word count: 1.3k

✎ warnings: reader feels a lil self-conscious for a bit

✎ genre: fluff, das it

✎ gender neutral + racially inclusive reader

✎ a/n: re-watched g.o.f. today and decided i needed to write this (also this was very quickly edited sorry). and to g.o.f. harry - you stole my heart like five years ago so here’s a fic to commemorate your long hair.

“Here,” Hermione said from your left as she handed you another plate to dry. You happily took it and began to wipe off the dripping water with the cherry-colored towel in your hand. 

You were thrilled to be back at the Burrow with Hermione after your long summer vacation to Ireland. It had been weeks since you’d seen her or Ron. Or Harry, for that matter. 

Now drying the inside of a periwinkle mug, you stared out the kitchen window at the wide-open field of green grass that surrounded the home for miles. It was a perfectly sunny day and as you stood, waiting for Ron to return with Harry, you couldn’t help but wish you were outside on your broom.

You had just picked up Quidditch last year out of curiosity, but this year you were planning on trying out for the team as a Chaser. You smiled to yourself as you remembered the afternoons Harry spent teaching you when you were just starting out. He always told you to watch the Chasers at his matches, but you soon realized that it was incredibly difficult to take your eyes off of him. 

A loud crash pulled you from your thoughts and you jumped at the sound, quickly setting down a ceramic bowl and trailing behind Hermione as she rushed to the source. Fred, George, and Ron had landed in a heap at the mouth of fireplace but hurriedly stood up, brushing off their clothes. You slumped against the door frame at Harry’s absence but managed a friendly wave at Ron as he passed you on his way into the kitchen. 

“Don’t worry, Y/N; he’ll be here soon enough,” Hermione half-whispered knowingly, her comment earning a small snicker from one of the twins. You jokingly rolled your eyes, but whipped your head around at the sound of whooshing from inside the fireplace.

Out tumbled Harry, his hands thrown out in front of him to lessen the fall as he landed at your feet. After allowing him a second to recover, you hastily held out your hand to pull him up.

Accepting your outstretched hand, Harry’s bright green eyes stared up at you as he stood up. Almost instantly, you were smiling shyly as you let go of his hand.

“Y/N,” He blinked a few times. “Hi.”

“Nice to see you again, Harry,” you replied, straightening out your lemon yellow sweater. Finally gaining the courage to look up at him, your mouth fell open.

His exceptionally messy black hair had grown quite a bit since you left: it wasn’t a short, tousled mop like last year, it was longer now, tickling his forehead and curling behind his ears in soft tufts. You almost reached out to touch it, but were reminded of Ron and Hermione’s presence as they appeared in the doorway, already arguing. Sighing at them, you grabbed Harry’s hand and began pulling him up the stairs.

“Come on, let me show you the room.”

-

After you, Harry, Hermione, and all nine Weasleys had finished dinner in the garden, the warm candles were put out and the tables cleared, leaving behind only the scent of honeysuckle in the summer air and after you spent so long staring up at the starry sky that Harry had to tug you inside, did you get to relax. 

Since Bill and Charlie were back at the Burrow, Ron’s room was filled, four beds crowding the space: one for him, and the rest for Harry and the twins. You were supposed to be sharing a room with Hermione and Ginny, but somehow you three also ended up in there.

Ron had long since fallen asleep and was softly snoring by the window, but Fred and George were still awake, tossing random objects back and forth as they discussed plans for their inventions. Hermione and Ginny had been singing along to the dusty radio that Ron left hidden under his bed before suddenly debating wizard music and Muggle songs, which you were more than happy to join in on as you avidly enjoyed both. Harry was left sitting quietly and fiddling with some trinket as he stared out the window.

Noticing this, Hermione stopped, nudged you and tilted her head in Harry’s direction. Even though you knew she was positive Harry liked you back, you wished you could say no—she even knew how shy you got around him—but you picked yourself off the floor and made your way over to Harry’s mattress, plopping down beside him.

“Your hair looks good,” you mumbled, playing with the hem of your t-shirt.

“Thanks,” he replied quietly.

“I thought it couldn’t get any better than last year but, I was wrong.” You looked up and smiled, relaxing under his emerald green gaze.

“I’m glad you like it. If my aunt was here, she’d be sharpening the kitchen scissors as we speak,” he added, earning a chuckle from you.

You felt as if you were being watched and caught Hermione’s knowing gaze. She smirked but thankfully turned back to Ginny.

“Well then, your aunt and I could not be more different,” you said definitely, now playing with Harry’s hoodie string. 

You felt your cheeks heating up as you forced yourself to talk.

“I think you look cute.” Your heart swelled as you watched his cheeks turn pink.

After a minute or two of sitting in silence (and you toying with his sweatshirt as he watched you intently), you moved to the top of the mattress, your legs laying horizontally across the bed. Setting the pillow he had been resting on aside, you gingerly picked up his head and laid it in your lap. You gently took off his glasses and almost instantly, Harry let out a little yawn and curled up under his knit blanket. Everyone else was already fast asleep.

“Can I touch your hair?” Your voice came out in a whisper.

“Mm,” Harry breathed out, which you assumed gave you the green light.

One hand rested idle beside you as the other began delicately carding through his jet-black locks, occasionally stopping to scratch his scalp at which you’d hear a hum of approval.

You turned off the lamp beside you with your free hand and gazed down at the half-asleep boy resting in your lap, your fingers still running through his long, soft hair as it tickled your skin. You felt completely at peace, now opting to form little curls in between your fingers.

Hopefully, this would be the year that you finally pluck up the courage and ask Harry out. You knew that he had a crush on Cho Chang last year but Hermione was adamant that it was over. You tried to believe her, but your own doubts kept holding you back. You couldn’t compete with Cho⁠—she was nice, pretty, and much better at Quidditch. How could Hermione be so sure that he liked you?

You stared at Harry again, his lips now slightly parted and his hair a complete mess. Chuckling, you brushed some strands out of his eyes and straightened it out, tucking some hair behind his ear. Starting to slide down a little bit, you yawned and laid your head on your arm.

“Goodnight, Harry,” you spoke in a voice just barely above a whisper.

A snicker sounded from somewhere in the room. Your eyes widened.

“Oh, Harry, you’re just so perfect; it’s like your eyes are sparkling in the moonlight. Please, please, can I touch your hair?”

Your fingers froze mid-stroke as you scowled at a dark blob that you assumed was Fred.

“I did not say that!”

It was pitch-black but you could practically hear him rolling his eyes.

“Oh please, you’re as bad as Ginny when she was eleven.” The pile of blankets a few steps away shifted, a tiny glimpse of red hair visible.

“Hey!”

[starbuckie]

Some Quarantine Lovin’ Chapter 2: Going Home

Marvel Highschool! AU

Pairing: Bucky x Reader

Warnings: Obscene amounts of fluff, kissing, swearing, kinda a lot of angst

Description: Bucky Barnes is absolutely, no doubt about it, in love with Y/N L/N. He’s loved her since the day he laid eyes on her in the third grade. He loved her when he had his own girlfriend, and when he was barely friends with her for a whole summer. And of course, in his freshman year, they are now stuck together. In a house. During a worldwide quarantine. This should be fun.

Words: 2,130 words

A/N: I am here with Chapter 2! I’m sorry that it’s short, but I think that I’m gonna have a lot of chapters with a smaller amount of words. Also, I’ve been thinking about opening asks so I can write drabbles if people request them. I don’t really know, but if anyone wants it, I’m all in to do it. And, of course, thank you to my amazing friend @transparentfestivaltiger​ for editing and reading this beforehand (go check out her series Doll, its freaking awesome). Thank you so much for reading and enjoy <3

The end of the day was very emotional. Students ran around the courtyard and halls, hugging each other, tears running out of their eyes. After all, they didn’t know how long it would be until they saw each other again. Sitting at a table, Steve, Bucky, and Y/N had joined up with Natasha, Wanda, and Sam. Bucky and Y/N had told the group their news, and they were really happy for them. “Y’know,” Sam whispered to Bucky, “if you’re staying in her room you might be able to get a chance to get a little action.”

Bucky’s eyes widened and flush took over his face. “What the hell, Sam?” Bucky slapped him, “That’s so messed up. How can you say something so crude?”

“Alright, alright, I’m sorry. But seriously, you now have this huge opportunity to tell her, and if you don’t, I swear to God I will whoop your ass into 2035. She’s been waiting on you for six years, it’s about goddamn time.”

Steve grimaced and nodded. “While I wouldn’t phrase it like our sweet Sam over here did,” Sam smiled cheekily, “I agree with what he’s saying. Go get your girl, Buck.” 

Bucky rolled his eyes, but smiled at his two friends. “Thanks for the pep talk, guys, I just don’t want to ruin this.”

Sam and Steve rolled their eyes. “James Barnes,” Sam started, “do you really not see the absolute buffoonery going on between you two? Y/N clearly loves you back. Y’all have been glued together by the hip since third grade, and don’t even get me started on how she looked at you when you wore a suit to the winter formal. She looked like she was ready to jump your bones.” Bucky blushed once again and looked down at the ground.

Steve sighed. “Look, we aren’t gonna force you into anything. But one day she’s gonna get picked up by someone else, and when that happens, I know for a fact that you’re gonna regret it. You two have practically dating for six years-”

“With the exception of Dot.” Sam interjected.

“With the exception of Dot. Also, if ‘ruining’ your friendship is what you’re worried about, then you should know that Y/N is one of the sweetest people on the planet, and she wouldn’t do anything to hurt you, even if you get turned down. But I doubt it’ll come to that.” All three boys glanced to the other end of the bench where the girls sat. Y/N was braiding Natasha’s hair, and Wanda sat on the ground, animatedly telling a story about something that happened in her English class. 

Bucky focused on Y/N. Her nimble fingers made quick work of twisting the redhead’s hair into a perfect French braid, her nails painted with a light pink. She wore a black pencil skirt and a jean jacket, and it was a change from her normal hoodie and leggings she usually wore, and Bucky thought she looked gorgeous. Her lips were stretched in a bright smile and her nose scrunched up. Y/N always hated her laugh, saying that it was more of a wheeze than anything else, but as cliché as it sounded, her laugh was like a breath of fresh air, when he didn’t even know he was drowning. 

Steve and Sam glanced at each other and smirked, realizing Bucky was once again, staring at Y/N. She realized as well, as she yelled, “Hey, Buck, enjoying the view?” He blushed even harder if that was possible, and she giggled. Natasha and Wanda joined in, knowing how lovestruck their friends were. 

After Y/N tied off Natasha’s hair, she walked over to the end of the table where the boys were and leaned her head on Bucky’s shoulder. “You ready to go, Buckaroo?” She asked with a grin. He rolled his eyes at the old nickname, but he honestly adored it when she called him that. He took her hand in his, and stood up, not even noticing Y/N’s smile grow wider. 

“Ready as I’ll ever be.” He looked over at his friends and smiled. 

Natasha checked the watch on her wrist. “We all better get going, they’re closing campus in fifteen minutes.” The six friends said goodbye to each other, tearing up because they didn’t know when they would see each other again. Y/N gave Wanda and Natasha huge hugs, with promises to FaceTime every night and Netflix party. 

“Y/N, for the last goddamn time, I swear I will not forget about you.” The Sokovian girl had been dealing with Y/N’s dramatics for years, but Wanda knew she would miss it during the quarantine. As she pulled her friend back into a tight embrace, she whispered, “God, you better tell Barnes how you feel or I’ll strangle you in your sleep with my powers.” The two girls laughed about the running joke that they had, concerning Wanda and her “powers”. Whenever Wanda went somewhere with them, something unfortunate had happened to them, such as falling down a hill or banging their knee on a table. Natasha had claimed that Wanda was a witch, and three years later they still bugged her with it. 

Natasha kissed Y/N on the cheek, knowing that they would be okay. “I love you, Y/N, be smart and give us daily updates.”

Y/N snorted. “Okay, mom.” She went to join Bucky again, grabbing his hand again. Sam and Steve stood there, and she gave them each a one-armed hug as a goodbye. “I’m going to miss you two dumbasses a whole lot.” 

“We’re gonna miss you too, girly.” Sam said with an easy smile. “Call us whenever you and Bucky aren’t busy being idiots in love.” Y/N blushed, and Bucky glared and hit him in the head. She hastily dropped his hand and completely missed the expression of hurt on Bucky’s face. 

Steve felt uncomfortable tension and broke in the conversation. “Y/N, take good care of Buck and Becca, okay?”

Y/N gave a small smile.”I wouldn’t dream of doing anything else. Talk to you soon.” With a final wave to the rest of their friends, the two friends walked away to go to Bucky’s house.

“Do you wanna take the shortcut to your house, Buck?” Y/N was determined to get Bucky and Becca to her house as fast as possible. Rain started to fall lightly as they walked through the streets of Brooklyn, and Bucky took it as an opportunity to wrap his arm around her waist and pull her closer to him. When she looked up to meet his eyes with a confused expression, he simply said, “For warmth.”

Finally making it to his house, they stood outside the door as Bucky fumbled with the key. “Hey, James?” He looked at her, and she saw the fear in his eyes. “We’re gonna be okay.” 

Giving her a small watery smile, he slid the key into the lock and twisted it. He grabbed her hand for reassurance, and walked in. The wood floors creaked under their steps, though they were practically tiptoeing already. They searched the whole house besides Becca’s closet room in the back, and not to their surprise, found that Bucky’s father wasn’t home. “Y/N, can you get Becca from her crib? I’m going to pack our things.” He started to turn around to go to his room.

“Yeah, and while you're at it leave a note or something for your dad, just in case he wonders where you are.” 

Bucky’s footing faltered for a moment, until he replied over his shoulder, “Why? It’s not like he cares anyway.” Y/N’s heart dropped at this, and she saw past Bucky’s cool demeanor. He had been hurting, only ever seeking his father’s approval and attention, but it never seemed to be good enough. He didn’t even have to say it out loud. She knew that the only reason Bucky pushed himself to be the best, to maintain his 4.0 GPA, honors classes, and several tiring sports, were all for his dad. He has been taking care of his sister ever since his mom died, and never got any sleep. And all for what? With her eyes watering slightly, she made her way to the closet at the back of his house.

As she passed by the rooms, she realized that she hadn’t ever spent much time in Bucky’s house. She wasn’t upset about it, but she couldn’t help but to admire the architecture and interior of it. With a sigh, Y/N opened the closet door, and came to a sight she never thought she would see. Letting out a gasp, she turned around and ran. Practically sliding into Bucky’s room, she whimpered. “Y/N, what’s wrong?” He asked, seeing the clear panic on her face. He ran forward and grabbed her hands.

“Your dad is here.” She whispered. Bucky’s face lost all its color.

“What?” Y/N nodded. 

“My mom said that if he was here, to just leave and she would bring us back late-”

“No.” He said with determination. “I’m gonna talk to him.”

Y/N’s eyes widened slightly. “Do you want me to come with you?” Bucky nodded, and they went off to talk to his dad. George Barnes sat in the small foldable chair behind the crib. “Hey, uh, Y/N, right?” He lazily asked. Bucky gulped, and Y/N squeezed his hand to reassure him. 

“Yes, sir.” She responded.

“Cut to the chase, what do you want?” George snapped.

Bucky had a hard tone in his voice when he spoke. “Y/N’s family offered to take me and Becca in during quarantine. I’ll be taking her food with me, as well as mine, so I just thought I’d let you know I’ll be with Y/N until it's all over.” His father stared at him with a wrinkled brow and confusion written all over his face. That’s when Bucky realized that his own father didn’t know about the shelter in place order. “Oh god, you don’t even know do you? I can’t say I’m surprised, dad. I’m taking Becca. Goodbye.” And with venom in his every action, he grabbed Becca and stomped away with Y/N trailing behind him.

Once he had all of his things in a duffel bag, he looked over his shoulder to find his dad looking at him. Bucky was expecting anything really, yelling, or a lecture, but Mr. Barnes only sighed and retreated to his room. Y/N bundled Becca up in a blanket and cooed at the baby. Little Becca had known Y/N ever since she was born, and had even accidentally called her mama. That was very awkward for both Bucky and her, but they managed to move past it. The two freshmen took one more look at everything in the room, and after nodding in agreement, left the house without another word.

It was about a twenty minute walk to Y/N’s house, but with the rain it took a little longer. After ten minutes of silence, she spoke.

“Bucky, are you okay?” Becca was snuggled safely in her arms, and Bucky’s arm was once again holding Y/N against him, with his duffel bag thrown over his shoulder. The two of them almost looked like a happy couple, and she had to hide back the smile at the thought. Bucky on the other hand, was content with holding her close, but the only thing he could think about is how his dad didn’t even care that he was leaving. He was nearly disappointed, but he didn’t dare say that out loud. His feelings were boiling in his chest, and he wanted to do just something, anything, to get his mind off it, so he just held her tighter.

“I’m okay.” He replied shortly, hating how it came out as soon as he said it. Y/N understood he was upset and didn’t say anything, but she would be lying if she admitted that it didn’t hurt a little bit. “God, I’m sorry Y/N, I just don’t know how to feel anymore. Just don’t wanna think about it at all.”

She nodded. “I’ll be right here whenever you wanna talk, Buck. You can always tell me anything.” Leaning her head on his shoulder, Bucky let his lips turn upwards in just the slightest, and relaxed. “Do you wanna watch Gossip Girl when we get home?”

“I swear to god, doll, you’re addicted to that show.”

“I can’t help it, Carter Baizen is simply too hot for his own good.” Bucky just chuckled at her antics, and thought about how good he would feel when he didn’t have to worry anymore.

[axwalker]

The Trade 12

Synopsis:  Liam is running for Cordonia’s presidency. To assure his victory, Constantine makes an arraignment behind his back for him to marry the rich ambassador’s daughter: Alexis O’Brien. Due to her father’s threats, she has no other option than to seduce Liam Rhys. But what happens when she falls in love with his best friend? (AU)

Pairings: DrakexMC

Warnings: I love drama and chaos so this will probably get a bit dark. In this chapter there is mention of rape, if you get triggered by this issue, don’t hesitate to send me a message and I’ll be glad to explain what happens without reading it. A lot of angst and heartbreak

Please note that this is my first series and English is not my first language. I really love ALL kinds of feedback.  Don’t hesitate to comment!

Disclaimer: Some of the dialogues and settings as well as most of the characters belong to Pixelberry (except for Alexis O’Brien and her evil father George O’Brien JR).

To catch up: Masterlist

Thanks to @pedudley​  my awesome beta reader, your comments and encouragement mean so much.  And of course, to @mskaneko​ for this beautiful mood board, and all the other great edits and mood boards 💕💕  Love you girls!!

Kiara being Kiara speaks a bit of French in this episode the translations are at the end of the chapter.

WE’RE ALMOST AT THE END!!

@burnsoslow  @mskaneko​ @drxkewalker @pedudley @fromthedeskofpaisleybleakmore @pug-bitch @lauzales @desireepow-1986 @yukinagato2012 @kingliam2019 @i-bloody-love-drake-walker @debramcg1106 @speedyoperarascalparty @drakewalker04 @ac27dj @ravenpuff02 @msjr0119 @texaskitten30​ @loveellamae​

Liam was sitting in the living room, with a scotch in his hand when Maxwell and Alexis arrived.

“Alexis, thank god you are alright. I was worr-“ he stopped himself noticing that she had been crying. “Love, I’m sorry I made you cry. Please, believe it wasn’t my intention.”

He took a step towards her, but she raised her hand, stopping him, she felt emotionally drained. “That’s not the reason I’m crying.” She stared at him “However, I do want you to think very thoroughly about the kind of wife you want because I won’t limit myself to bear your children and smile prettily at your meetings. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m very tired, we’ll talk tomorrow. Good night, Max.” she gave Maxwell a kiss on his cheek and waved at his fiancé “Good night, Liam”

Liam was about to follow her, but Maxwell grabbed his arm. Alexis had told him everything about Abigail on the ride back and he knew she needed time alone.

“Li! Can I give you some unsolicited advice?” The blond man looked at him expectantly. “Give her some space. Let her breathe, man. You’ll talk tomorrow “

Liam nodded and left the room to go bed.

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Drake was twelve years old when he arrived at the Rhys mansion to live with Constantine and his family. Bastien had convinced the President to take the Walker children after their father had died to protect him. The president had accepted to take them in and give them the best possible education, not only as a proof of his gratitude but as a magnificent publicity stunt, he knew the voters would love it.

Drake was reluctant to go with them. Regina and Constantine were both extremely cold parents and he knew her mother had never liked either of them. What if they were horrible to him, or worst, to his baby sister?

He was so nervous that not even the thrill of living with his best friend was enough to calm him. Bastien showed them their respective rooms, both twice as big as their old ones at the old Walker cabin. Savannah was even more scared than him, her heart was beating furiously, and she was clutching her teddy bear so hard that her knuckles went white.

“It’s ok Sav, we’ll be fine here, you know Li and Leo are cool” He tried to sound as mature as he could.

Savannah couldn’t stop her tears any longer. “You always tease me when you’re with them.”

He put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed it “We won’t anymore, Sav. I promise”

“I second that,” Liam poked his head into Savannah’s room. “We won’t tease you anymore Savvie. But the two of you can help us get back at Leo. Olivia and I are thinking how to prank him after he hid stinky bombs under our chairs on Livvie’s birthday. When we sat down, they exploded, and the room was reeking. Olivia was so furious she persecuted him with the knife for her cake and my dad punished us for a month” He seemed really amused by the memory.

Savannah smiled shyly behind her bear. “He really did that?”

“Yes, he also took some red coloring from the kitchen and put it on Olivia’s toothpaste, she spent the whole day with red teeth. Well, that one backfired, she was delighted when everyone thought she had been on a fight” Liam grinned at them. After losing his own mother three years before, he understood how anxious they were feeling, and he wanted them to feel welcome.

Drake smiled seeing his sister was calmer and shot a grateful look at Liam. He put his arm around Savannah’s shoulders and winked at his best friend “We will definitely think of something”

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Drake had waited a more than an hour before leaving the beach so he wouldn’t arrive at Theron’s mansion at the same time as Max and Alexis. When he finally started driving his mind drifted to the day after his mother had left. He took a deep breath remembering how sad and scared him and Sav had been and how much Liam had wanted to comfort them. All that pain because his mother had decided to abandon her own children without looking back. It astonished him that Alexis had thought that the two situations were remotely similar. She had been strong and generous, where her mother had been flaky and weak. Alexis would do anything to keep her daughter safe, his mother couldn’t care less about them.

Drake sighed thinking of her, of the roller coaster of emotions she had put him through. And now that he had finally understood the reasons behind the way she was acting, his only wish was to kill George O’Brien with his bare hands. That asshole had not only failed in protecting Alexis, but he had had the nerve of making her feel guilty and worthless. He had abandoned her when she had needed him the most and then he had forced her to give up her own daughter. His blood boiled thinking of Alexis, young, terrified and alone, and of her pain so raw, so deep despite the years. He remembered her soft voice telling him that she had never felt safe before him. That son of a bitch had to pay.

He dialed Kiara’s phone.

“Drake?”

“Hi, Kiara. I just wanted to know if Ambassador O’Brien is staying at your estate tonight with the rest of us.”

“Uhm, yes. I think my staff gave him the blue room, you know?” Kiara lowered her voice. “The one where you and I almost…”

Drake sighed, they had almost slept together ten years ago during a Beaumont Bash and she wouldn’t let it go.  “Yes, I know. Thanks Kiara”

“Wait, Drake, I think he’s-“

Drake stopped the call and speeded up, he wasn’t thinking clearly, the only thing in his mind was to teach that monster a lesson.

When he arrived at the house, he jumped out of his car and entered the mansion furiously. In less than a second he was in the room Kiara had mentioned. He slammed the doors open only to find her, sitting in the bed.

“Coucou! (1) You got me all curious, Drake. You hung up the phone so fast, I couldn’t tell you that George is out of the country. He had some business to do in France” She stood up and walked towards Drake, putting her arms around his neck. “Why are you looking for him?”

He grabbed her arms and put them away. “Something for the campaign, forget about it.”

“S’il te plaît mon chéri. Tu as l’air très énervé ! (2) It has to be something more than a simple professional matter”

“I don’t speak fucking French Kiara and is not of your business. Good night.” Drake left the room as angrily as he had entered it.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hakim Theron was satisfied that the campaign had finally reached Castelraillan. It would be much easier to carry out his plans without worrying about missing crucial information.

Penelope had proved effective, but she didn’t have the brains or the wit to take matters into her hands. Plus she had to keep an eye on him, his secret weapon, the one who would definitely destroy Liam’s presidential dreams.

Hakim hoped that the boy didn’t take his betrayal personally, it wasn’t something he had against him or even Constantine, as much as he disliked the old man. It was what was best for Cordonia. Liam wanted to change too many things too fast and that could be dangerous for his country’s stability. It would be better for everyone, if things could go back to the way they were.

He smiled seeing Alexis and Tariq’s pictures, it was ironic that Constantine had brought to his son’s campaign the woman that was going to, unknowingly, destroy it.

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Alexis got into the car that was going to take her to the rally at Castelraillan and decided to check the final details of her last speech on the ride. She sighed thinking about how much she wanted to keep on working with Liam. Ironically, he had fired her because of Drake but Drake wasn’t the reason she wanted to be part of the campaign. The reason was Liam. His passion, his ideas, and his determination to change his country inspired her and made her admire him.

“Can I come in?” She turned her head to the car’s door and saw Liam with a couple of coffees and some pastries in a box.

“My father is waiting for me in the other car, but I much rather share these cronuts with you.” He smiled charmingly.

She couldn’t suppress a smile. “Well, if you bought too many cronuts, I could always help you with that.”

He entered the car and sat next to her, opening the box. “Take one.” He handed her one of the coffees. “And here’s a latte too”

She didn’t have the heart to tell him that she drank her coffee black, no sugar. Like Drake.

“Thank you, Li.”

He leaned to give her a soft kiss stroking her cheek with his hand. “I’m sorry about your role in the campaign, Alexis, but I really think it is for the best. I know you think that it’s about Drake, but it’s not.”

She shook her head rolling her eyes.

“Well, not only,” he conceded. “If I win you are going to be the First Lady of this country. You should be focusing on preparing for that, my love.” He kissed her knuckles. “You will have a lot of charities and philanthropic work, and of course you should be planning our engagement party and our wedding. I wouldn’t expect nor want that you limit yourself to smile prettily. I need a partner, someone I can trust next to me. But being my wife won’t be easy.”

Alexis nodded, finally acknowledging what her life would be from that moment on. Fancy and uncomfortable dresses, high painful heels, endless galas, and boring meetings for the hundreds of charities she would preside but would have no real involvement in.

Alexis was going to have to accept the fact that she wasn’t her own person anymore. Her dreams of hiking and camping in the forest, traveling around the world or writing a children’s novel one day weren’t a possibility any longer. Becoming First Lady would bring a whole set of responsibilities and she would have to live with that.

However, the worst part would be learning how to live with an eternal broken heart. She focused on the view behind the window. “I know, Liam. I’ll ask Max for help to plan the party and the wedding.”

“Perfect darling. And you can also count on Regina” The limousine parked “Here we are.”

When they got out of the car, dozens of paparazzi were waiting for them. Liam put his arms around her protectively and they quickly reached the temporary campaign’s quarters that had been set for the rally.

Drake felt her presence before she walked in. She was beautiful in a simple red dress and light makeup, but her facial expression was gloomy, highly contrasting with Liam’s joyful one. After a few seconds, she saw him and her face softened immediately. They locked eyes with each other only for a moment but they both felt the electricity passing across the room and turned around grinning. She took her computer and went to work on the other side of the room.

“Drake, can you bring me the results of the last polls in Castelraillan?” Liam was with Olivia checking some numbers before his speech and had missed their exchange.

“Of course, here they are. They show how your numbers have increased since Hakim declared his support.” He handed him a USB and added trying to sound casual. “Do you have the speech? I have to double-check that all your facts are correct”

Liam went mute for a second. “Alexis has it. I’ll go ask her for it”

Olivia cocked her brow. “What? Do you need some extra cash, so you took a second job running errands?” She snorted “Don’t be ridiculous, Liam. We have to look at these polls before you start the rally. Drake is a big boy; he can go himself”

Drake went looking for Alexis and spotted her immediately on the other side of the room.

“Hey O’Brien. I need to check the speech.” He said with a soft smile.

Her breath hitched seeing him grinning at her. Those dimples. “Hi, Drake!” She felt like a teenager again. Her ability to form coherent sentences or look at him without blushing were both gone, so she feigned to be deeply interested in her computer. Drake pulled a chair and sat next to her.

He lowered his voice so only her could hear him. “How are you doing, Lexie?”

“I’m fine, Drake. Thank you. Talking really helped.” Her eyes were bright and grateful, and he had to actively fight his hand’s urge to touch her.

“I’m here for anything you need, baby.”

She looked fondly at him, but suddenly remembered where she was, and most importantly, where her fiancé was and cleared her throat, standing up.

“I’m going to take five minutes, but you can read the speech here on my computer.” She shot him a sad look before leaving. It was better that way.

The rally started one hour later, Liam went up on stage and people went crazy. Alexis smiled, he was a great politician, she might have written the speech, but it was him who was bringing it to life. The fact that he actually believed in what he was saying, definitely helped.

She saw the crowd cheer and applaud at the other side of the curtain.

All of a sudden, Drake stood up behind her, his musky scent immediately inebriating her. He leaned towards her and whispered in her ear.

“We didn’t finish our conversation, O’Brien.”

His warm breath and his low raspy voice in her ear made her shiver. “I don’t know what you mean, Walker”

He shot a glance towards the stage where Liam was talking about education.  Then he looked back at her. She was playing nervously with her chocolate hair, finally setting all of it on the left side of her head, leaving part of her neck uncovered.

The temptation was too great, he leaned towards her again and placed a small kiss on her nape while his fingertips gently brushed her back.

She closed her eyes savoring the brief moment, the feeling of Drake behind her was exhilarating and nerve-wracking at the same time.

Drake placed another small kiss but on her shoulder this time. Then he turned to her ear again.

“I need you, Lexie. Don’t shut me down again.”

She turned to him “Drake, I can’t do this. Please, don’t make it so hard.”

He didn’t take his eyes off of her.

Suddenly, a burst of applauses took them out of their bubble. Liam had finished his speech and was walking off the stage shaking hands and smiling widely at his followers.

“Come on, Drake. Let’s avoid another pissing contest. If Li sees you two together again, he’s going to lose it” Olivia glared at Alexis.

“Go with her, Drake. Please,” Alexis begged. 

He shook his head but left with Olivia.

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Maxwell sighed content. He had coordinated the whole rally with Ezequiel’s help, Kiara’s brother had been very helpful. He had asked him out, but he was too in love with Rashad to accept.

He knew that he and Kiara had broken their engagement, but he hadn’t had look for him yet. Rashad was on his own path, and he had to respect that. Lost in his thoughts, he didn’t notice the presence in front of him. He looked up and was surprised to see Rashad watching him

“Hi, Max,” He said smiling.

“Hi, Rash. How are you doing?” He grinned back.

“Fine, it’s definitely weird to be back at my ex-fiancé’s house but I’m more convinced than ever that it was the right decision. I’ve missed you.” He set his hand in Maxwell’s knee and looked him expectantly.

“Are you sure about this Rashad?” Maxwell’s eyes were full of hope “Are you ready to try something real with me? To come out for good?”

Rashad nodded “I talked to my father; he wasn’t as shocked as I would have thought. He wasn’t thrilled but he said he’ll be supportive. I think that he really, really hated Kiara, so anyone else is an upgrade for him.” He chuckled.

“Even me?” Maxwell cocked his brows inquisitively.

“You’re the most amazing man in the world, Max” Rashad pulled Maxwell’s head towards him and kissed him. “I was dying to do that”.

Maxwell smiled mischievously and took Rashad’s hand. “I’ll show you upstairs what I’m dying to do”

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The next day, Alexis was having breakfast with Liam in the main room. He wanted to make plans for their upcoming engagement party.  

Maxwell entered the room with a huge smile plastered on his face. When he saw Alexis, he took her hand forcing her to stand up, and started to spin her around the room while he sang, under Liam’s amused look.

“L is for the way you look at me

O is for the only one I see”

She cackled “Max!” He twirled her around once more before elegantly dipping her, as he finished singing.

“V is very, very extraordinary

E is even more than anyone that you adore can”

Liam laughed. “Should I be concerned about you stealing my fiancé, Max?”

He chuckled. “She’s definitely a catch, but not really my type.”

“Let me guess.” She pointed her finger at him beaming. “Rashad and you’re back together?”

Liam cocked his brows in surprise. “What? Rashad is gay? Are you and Rashad together, Max?”

Alexis laughed. “You didn’t notice all those cute little looks that they’re always throwing at each other?”

“I can be slightly oblivious sometimes.” Liam smiled sheepishly

She hugged Max. “I’m so happy for you! You’re the best friend anyone can hope for, you deserve all the happiness in the world.”

“Aww! Stop, Blossom, you’re going to make me cry and I can’t have red, puffy eyes on my first day back with Rash.” He looked pensive for a second before talking again. “Actually, there’s something I wanted to run by you. I would love to bring Rashad to your engagement party as my official date.”

“I don’t even understand why you’re asking, Max. You can come with whoever you want.” She turned to Liam.

“Of course, Max. I don’t care who you bring as long as you come.”

“Aww, guys! I love you! Group hug!” He threw his arms at both of them before leaving. “I’ll go tell Rash.”

Alexis watched him go, delighted to see him so happy. She looked at Liam who was serving her a cup of coffee and put her hand on his. “You’re a good friend, Li.”

He placed the coffee maker on the table and took her chin between his thumb and index. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me, but I’m hoping that we’ll be able to take care of that with some time.” He leaned to kiss her.

“I have to run, darling. I have a lot of work to do. Will you go shopping with Max for your wedding dress?”

She shuddered but managed to give him a small smile. “Yes. We have an appointment with Ana de Luca later. That’s all I’ll be doing with my day today. It’s fascinating, isn’t it?”

He ignored the acid remark. “You’ll love her. See you later, my love.” Liam kissed her before leaving the room.

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After days of trying wedding and engagement dresses, Alexis was more than exasperated. She had never been someone who cared much about clothes and the only thing she was doing lately, was to shop.

She was even more exhausted from avoiding Drake. Every fiber of her being was pulling Alexis towards him but being close to each other was a torturous pain for both of them, so she tried to stay away from the campaign quarters as much as she could. She shuddered thinking about her engagement party. Drake would have to be there and watch her getting officially engaged with Liam. He was going to have to smile and congratulate them. She felt like screaming, the pain was getting too much to handle.

She took the keys to her car and drove to the nearest bar.

Five or six cheap whiskey glasses later, she was still sitting on a stool, incapable of moving. The moments she had spent with Drake were replaying in her head like a broken record. The day they had met, and that amazing kiss. The night stargazing or drinking whiskey in the cellar. The way he had taken care of her the night she had seen Brad again. How he had comforted when she had told him about Abigail. The conversations and the confidences they had shared. The hours spend discovering and loving each other. She missed how safe she felt with him. She craved their fights, his eyes, his kisses, his arms around her, his deep, raspy voice, his strong hands. Alexis didn’t know how she was going to do to live the rest of her life without him.  

She was getting really drunk. It would be better if she called Max to take her back to the house.

“O’Brien” The familiar, manly voice startled her.

“Drake…how-?”

“Someone recognized you and called me”. He pointed at the back of the bar where Bastien nodded at them.

“You didn’t have to come, I was going to call Max.”

He sat on the stool beside her and called the barmaid. “I’ll have the same than her.”

Then, he turned to her to stroke her face. “I’m always going to come, Lexie. Always.”

She exhaled a sad breath. “Drake, I have to marry him. I don’t want to, but I have to.”

“We have to tell him the truth, Alexis. I know him since we were kids, he’ll understand.”

She sneered. “He’ll understand that I have been lying to him for months? He’ll understand that his father and mine have been plotting behind his back? He’ll understand that he loves me but I’m ... I’m …” She ran her hand through her hair desperately.

“You what, Alexis?” He lowered his head to meet her eyes. “You what?” He cupped her face making her face him “Tell me, you what!”

“I love you, okay?! I love yo- “

He crashed his mouth with hers stroking her face with his thumbs. It was hungry, desperate. It was soft and hot and breathy,  and passionate. The heat rose in their cheeks as their tongues intertwined and they had to come out for air, breathless and giddy.  

He held her head so her forehead would rest on his “I love you too, Alexis. I love you so fucking much it actually hurts. I never thought I would be the kind of guy who would tell a girl he’s crazy about her, but here I am, mad about you.” He sighed. “Insane about you.”

Her heart was beating faster and faster. Her head kept telling her that it was a mistake but the pull to him was stronger and she kissed him over and over until they needed to come out for air again.

After a while, she came to her senses.

Her eyes watered looking at him. “The reason Liam is acting controlling and possessive is that he’s feeling insecure. And he’s right. I love you. You are the love of my life, Drake.” Drake listened to her as he softly rubbed her face. “So I can’t really blame him for acting the way he is. I know he would never hurt me. I know he loves me. But even if I tell him the truth, I have to marry him.” She took a sharp breath. “If I’m honest with him there’s two possibilities. Either he calls off the wedding and Abigail will be in danger. Or he’ll agree to marry me to help me but he will be heartbroken.” She stroked Drake’s cheek too. “Telling Liam doesn’t solve the problem; we would only break his heart even more. The only solution is to accept things as they are, Drake. I’m sorry.”  

He stared angrily at her “So that’s it? I love you, Drake but I’ll be marrying Liam in three weeks. You’re not even going to fight?”

“Don’t be unfair, Drake you know there’s nothing I can do.” Tears were falling off her cheeks as she spoke “Please, leave. I’ll call Maxwell”

She gestured the barmaid for another whiskey.

Drake stood up and turned her stool towards him, so she would be facing him. He leaned towards her taking her chin with his fingers “I would never leave, Lexie. Never. I don’t care if you marry him. I don’t care if I have to wait for the rest of my life to be with you. I won’t leave. As you long as you need me, I’ll be right here.”

She gave him a sad smile. “Even if we can only be friends?”

“Even then.” Drake returned her sad smile. “You can always count on me, baby.” He put a strand hair behind her ear, before kissing her forehead. “Now, let’s get you out of here before you drink their whole lot of whiskey”

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Three days later, Liam was getting ready for his engagement party. He put his tuxedo on and looked in the mirror. He felt nervous, he was completely in love with Alexis, but he couldn’t help but feel uncertain. He kept on trying but she seemed unattainable, always kind, and gentle but never really there with him. Liam shook his head putting those thoughts aside, they were getting married in three weeks and, then, she will be his. There was nothing to be afraid of.

Liam had arranged one limousine for the five of them so they would arrive together like a solid family. He had invited Leo to come with them too, but he said he would arrive a little later, surely drunk and with some random woman. It was exasperating but he couldn’t take care of that now.

When the car pulled over at the O’Brien’s mansion and Alexis came out, Liam grinned. She was gorgeous. He offered her his arm and took her to the limousine, with George behind them.

Constantine and Regina were already inside waiting for them with a cold champagne bottle.

Alexis sighed. Perfect! The man with no heart and the wicked witch of the east.

George spoke with a content expression on his face. “Well, we’re close to Election’s day and we’re almost sure that we will win. We should toast to that”

“A glass of champagne, dear?” Regina questioned.

She smiled politely.“Yes, Regina. Thank you” And keep them coming.

After clinking their glasses, Constantine turned to Liam “Are you ready, son? All Cordonia’s press will be there, you’ll have to give interviews and take some pictures” He paused to focus on Alexis “We all know how much you hate that dear, but you’ll have to do it tonight. Do we understand each other?”

She stared at him contemptuously. “I’m more than capable to answer some questions, Constantine but thank you so much for your concern.”

Liam grabbed her hand “Please, father. Alexis doesn’t need you to tell her what to do.” He turned to her. “By the way love, you look beautiful”

She looked at him gratefully. “Thanks, Li. You look very handsome too.”

The limousine parked at the venue chosen by Regina. Liam squeezed Alexis’s hand.

“Let’s do this”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Maxwell had everything ready. He had planned the party with Regina, after a few days, it had become clear that Alexis wasn’t at all interested in the party, or in the engagement.

He had greeted most guests and was only waiting for them. When they finally arrived, he instructed them on how to make their entrance. George came down the stairs first, then Regina and Constantine, and finally, in the middle of a round of applause, Liam, the candidate, and Alexis.

Drake was at the other end of the room with a glass of whiskey in his hand. His heart raced at the sight of her. She was breathtaking with a red strapless dress that brought attention to her breasts. It was tight, and had a long skirt with a slit that gave a tantalizing view of her tanned, long leg as she descended; her big eyes and crimson lips were framed by her shiny brown hair. She was a vision, A gorgeous vision. His mouth went dry instantly, he knew that his promise of being only his friend will be very difficult to keep.

His fist clenched seeing Liam put his arms around her and kiss her in front of everyone. In front of him. He felt like punching someone, and seeing George next to them, he knew exactly who. The rage didn’t let him see the brunette sitting next to him.

“Salut, Drake. Ca va? (2)” Kiara asked seductively.

“I have told you a thousand times how annoying it is when you switch languages like that Kiara. Pick fucking one and stick with it. It’s called commitment.”

She giggled. “I love how direct you are.” She placed her hand on his thigh “I really really love it” She started to rub his thigh, but he grabbed her hand.

“Well, I’m happy you appreciate my bluntness, you’re going to love this, I need some time alone, Kiara. Have a good night.” He turned towards the bar and asked for another whiskey.

Alexis didn’t miss anything about their exchange, her blood boiled when she saw Kiara place her hand on his thigh but smiled to herself when she saw Drake take it off. 

Liam hugged her from behind.

“How are you doing, love?”

“I would love another glass of champagne, Li,” she answered.

He signaled the waiter to come and serve them. He clinked his glass with her and kiss her on the cheek “You won’t believe how happy I’m tonight, not only I’m way ahead in the polls, but I have In my arms the most beautiful woman in the room.”

Olivia huffed. She had a thousand things to coordinate and Drake wasn’t of any help getting wasted on the bar. Of course, she understood him, even if she still loved Liam, her feelings weren’t as raw as Drakes’ and she had had years of training.  

She approached the happy couple seething, she would love to know Alexis’s intentions. It was obvious how crazily in love with Drake she was. Was she marrying Liam only for his position? Olivia had to find out.

“You have to come and talk to Francesco, the Italian’s ambassador, Liam” She shot an angry look at Alexis. “And your father is looking for you.”

Alexis seemed surprised. “What for?”

Olivia arched her brow “Do I look like your fucking secretary or do you need glasses?”

“Olivia, please,” Liam scolded her.

Alexis was about to answer with a snarky remark but when she saw Olivia’s eyes, she recognized the pain. Olivia was hurting as much as she was but for a different man.

“It’s fine, Li. I’m going to go look for my father. See you later.” 

Liam took her hand and pulled her body towards him to kiss her “See you soon my love.”

Drake stood up furious after seeing the kiss. After all the whiskey he had had to drink the only thing he cared about was talking to her. He saw her walk away from Liam and Olivia and enter the hall, he tried to pass the couples dancing in the dance-floor as fast as he could but when he was about to go out, Max called him.

Alexis reached the hall. Her father was waiting for her with an envelope in his hand. “What does this mean, Alexis?”

George threw the envelope at her. When she opened it she saw a few pictures of her from a week ago, from the night she had told Drake about Abigail. They were hugging and kissing in the photos.

“Did you have me followed? How dare you!” Alexis was furious.

George took a step towards her. “How I dare? Me?” He grabbed her arm “You’re behaving like a whore but you think that it’s me who have to explain myself to you?” He yanked her arm.

“LET.HER.GO” Drake growled. 

George laughed but freed her arm. “Prince Charming himself” He snickered. “Well, his best friend. This is a family matter, Walker. Leave.”

Drake ignored the ambassador. “Are you ok, Lexie?”

She knew Drake and she had to avoid a fight at all costs. “It’s fine, Drake. I’m fine. Really.”

“Good, baby. Go back inside.” He rolled his sleeves.

She didn’t move “Drake, please.”

Everything happened so fast that George didn’t have the time to react before he felt Drake’s fist connect with his jaw.

“You’re nothing but a piece of crap.” Drake grabbed him by his shoulder and gave him one, two, three punches in his stomach.

“You shouldn’t even be allowed to live, you piece of crap.” He slammed him against the wall. George was trying to defend himself, but the younger man was stronger and faster. “What asshole? If it’s not a defenseless woman you can’t fight?”

“Drake! Stop!” The music in the party was too loud but Maxwell and Rashad were close to the door and they had seen Drake beating the Ambassador. They both took him by his arms, using all their strength to pull him apart from George.

Drake tried to free himself. “Let me go! I‘m going to kill this motherfucker!”

George sat at the floor seething with fury. “You’ll pay for this Walker. I swear” He turned to Alexis. “Tell Constantine that I wasn’t feeling good. And you better keep your promise with Liam. Unless you prefer this filthy asshole to Abigail.”

Drake screamed at him. “Don’t you dare to threaten her”

Rashad got himself in the middle. “Come on, Drake. Let him go”

George stood up and limped away from them. 

Drake looked at Alexis. Maxwell grabbed Rashad’s shoulder. “They need to talk, Rash. Let’s go back to the ballroom.”

Alexis was beyond furious. “Why!? Why do you have to do that!? Now he’ll have something against you too. I’m not only going to be worried about Abbie. I’ll be worried sick about you too, Drake.” Her eyes watered.

He cut the distance between them, there was nothing worst for him than seeing her crying. He cupped her face and cleaned her tears with his thumbs. “I can’t let it go, baby. I told you, no one would never put a finger on you, again. After the way he’s treated you he deserved that and much more. You know that.”

“I don’t fucking care about him, Drake. You don’t know how he is, what he’s capable of.” Alexis sobbed, terrified. “I can’t lose you.” 

“He’s threatening his own daughter, Lexie. Believe me, I can imagine what he’s capable of. And I told you the other night, you will never lose me. I swear.” He kissed her lips tenderly.

She smiled through her tears, noticing his bloody knuckles. “Let’s go put some cold water on that”

Maxwell came out of the ballroom with a wet cloth. “I brought this for your hands, Drake. Lex, Liam is looking for you, he’s giving his engagement speech. You better come in first and alone” He threw an apologetic look at Drake.

Liam smiled as soon as he saw her coming through the door.

“There you are, love. Where’s your father? I wanted to give my speech now.”

“He wasn’t feeling well, Li. He won’t come back tonight so you can give the speech now.”

Liam looked at her suspiciously but didn’t reply.

He went to the top of the stairs with her. Maxwell nodded at the band on stage, so they’d announce Liam’s speech.

“Alexis and I are delighted, thrilled and honored to share our intentions for the rest of our days with you. Standing together in front of all the very special people in our lives to announce our engagement makes our private dreams public and, in a way, real. Thank you for being here, for your love and well wishes-”

Suddenly, the buzzing and noise of telephones beeping were all they could hear, but Liam made an attempt to ignore them.

“Alexis has made me the happiest man in the world. With her, by my side, I understand what the writer Francis Scott Fitzgerald meant when he said, ‘I love her, and that’s the beginning and end of everything.’-”

He stopped talking, everyone had their eyes glued either on their phone or on Alexis. She searched Drake, he was seething looking at his phone too.

Finally, among a trail of whispers and gasps, Alexis and Liam reached Drake and Maxwell and grabbed their phones. Alexis saw her world collapsing when she read the article. It was entitled “An Affair to Remember” and was illustrated by some very suggestive photos of her and Tariq the night of her attack.

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In a corner of the ballroom, Leo Rhys smiled. Hakim’s plan was working perfectly.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Kiara: 

Please honey, You were really angry (...)

Hi! How is it going?

[padme-amitabha]

Is there any part in the movies u don’t like (dialogue, plot, character) n if how would u change them

You really put me on the spot there, anon. I think 1-6 are masterpieces and it’s all carefully planned and well thought out. It’s perfect the way it is but nevertheless if I was part of the planning, I might have changed a thing or two. While these are by no means what I think should have been done, it’s more like suggestions on my part. These are relatively minor changes and I understand some of these weren’t even feasible.

o   Casting in TPM – Concepts always look better on paper and in real life you have limitations. In TPM, Natalie Portman was about 17 I think so she did come across as older than 14. But George wanted that regal presence so that’s understandable too. I think it would have been perfect if she was cast when she was 14 or 15. Don’t get me wrong I adore little Jake and will always defend him but I think (from the script/novelization) while Anakin was a sweet/kind hearted little boy he also had a more serious and mature presence. Padme remarks in the novel how his serious demeanor makes him look older than he is. While I like both interpretations, that compliments his older self and I like to think slavery did have an impact on him in some way and it showed. I think though Jake was 8/9 years old he looked a little too young to play Anakin even though he did his best. Of course, it doesn’t bother me but I did like the Anakin from the script/novelization a little bit more.

o   Special Editions – Even though I love the prequels and they are my favorite films, I’m not a big fan of the special editions. It’s mostly due to the darker color palettes which makes the scenes reddish. The bright colors and visuals of the theatrical versions were truly stunning. I’m glad they added a new soundtrack and also the different planets in the end but I didn’t think Hayden’s force ghost was appropriate or fit in the ending as I explained here. And the thing that bothers me the most: Jedi Rocks. I’m sorry but that new song with CGI creatures scare me. I die from second-hand embarrassment every time those scenes come up.

o   Adding back deleted scenes – I do understand why George had to cut off some scenes but we are taking about preference here and I like to think they happened anyway. It would’ve been great if they weren’t cut due to limited time.

o   Leia – Of course we know George was making it all up as he made the films but I would have liked to see a bit more interaction between Leia and her biological father. Also, her using the force and I would have liked it if Vader found out that he had a daughter from Luke in Empire Strikes back. Perhaps, Leia training with Yoda too and dueling her father at a different time. Leia reluctantly following Luke to meet Vader and maybe even being there with Anakin when he died. The contrast in Luke and Leia’s reactions would be have been interesting.

o   Timeline – I thought everyone changed very significantly between episodes V and VI so I wish each of the movies had a significant time jump. I mean Mark Hamill was in his thirties in ROTJ so I wouldn’t mind if it was actual age. Imagine Leia and Han getting married by then and Anakin finding out he had grandchildren too. Same with episodes II and III, the clone wars could have gone on for 10 years like the Trojan war which would explain why Anakin was so eager for the war to end. Maturing the characters would also make a smoother transition into the original trilogy. All of the movies being set ten years apart (except III and IV) would have been ideal for me.

o   Padme’s outfits – Now this is not a criticism and Trisha Biggar and the team did an excellent job in creating the outfits but there were a lot of unused concept arts where Padme had white outfits. I think the scenes where she has the Leia buns, instead of the purple shawl dress it would be great if she wore more white clothes as a throwback to Princess Leia’s iconic white dress. The Mustafar outfit was great and practical too but since ROTS relies heavily on light and dark visuals, it would be great if she wore white in the mustafar scene during the confrontation. Since Anakin wore black during the course of the entire film and they were in a hellish planet, the “angel” symbolism if she wore white would work well in my opinion.

In any case, the movies are perfect the way they are and though people criticize the dialogues I think they all have double meanings so I wouldn’t change anything else.