#i have three subplots going on in my head

[cienie-isengardu]

Mortal Kombat 1 Behind the Scenes AU: Lin Kuei Life - when duty calls, p. 1

Author's notes: in this AU, Lin Kuei are helping Cage to make the movie about Mortal Kombat Tournament & Earthrealm's struggles to keep peace with other realms. However Sub-Zero and his family are still first and foremost Earthrealm's Protector and its first line of defense. Duty always calls unexpectedly, and so sometimes Sub-Zero is unavailable for filming the scenes while Sektor is usually taking his place then.

(Kuai Liang seen in background still didn't hear the news...)

[Earlier posts, from #1 to #52] [Shao learns about Paid Leave (p. 2)] [Johnny’s complaint] [The problems with Smoke’s powers] [Dark Sub-Zero] [Say ‘cheese’!] [Haunted mansion] [Sektor & Cyrax - Scenography (4)] [Shang Tsung’s commentary] [Just one more take! + bonus] [Bi-Han, NO! - Cat on film set] [Bi-Han, NO! - Purrfected] [Bi-Han, Sektor & Cyrax - Scenography (5)] [Bi-Han, NO! - Madam Bo’s “help” during filming scene] [Dark Sub-Zero, p.2] [Saibot’s hug] [I SAID I’M SORRY!] [Shang Tsung and Kuai Liang for once agreeing on something] [Reassurance] [Ketchup & Mustard, p. 1] [The Dating Issues] [Ketchup & Mustard, p. 2] [Cyrax’s brother] [Gathering the actors] [“LIN KUEI”] [Bi-Han's complaint] [This is what we cryomancers call a fun!]

[writingquestionsanswered]

Do you have any advice for writing with adhd? I can craft these elaborate storyline in my head, but the minute I try to write any of them down I get bored. (Or is that just regular writer block?) It's really discouraging, because I feel like my mind is moving faster then my head, and any time I try to bring any of my ideas to life it just disipates.

Writing with ADHD: 5 Game Changers for Me

Here are some things that have been game changers for me as a writer with ADHD: [Edit: everyone's ADHD is different. This is just what works for me. It may not work for you...]

Planning: It's different for everyone with ADHD, but for me it's essential to spend time planning my story before I start writing. I like to flesh out as much as possible concerning plot, timeline, setting, world, characters and arcs, subplots, and themes.

Summary, Outline, and Scene List: Three items that are critical for me to have in hand before I sit down to write are a beginning to end summary of the story detailing all plot events as far as I know, an outline loosely based on the story structure template/s that feel right for the story (for example, I may use elements of Save the Cat! and some elements of of the Six-Stage Plot Structure), which helps me navigate my plot and hit the relevant plot points. And finally, I need a detailed scene list/timeline combo which lists chapter, scene, date/time, POV character, location, and a one to two sentence summary of what happens in the scene, including the character's goal in the scene, the scene's conflict, and the scene's resolution or how it carries into a later scene.

Gamifying: When I'm struggling with a particular time period or project, it can help me to gamify things. You can do this using a game board strategy, the Yahtzee Method, making a list of bench marks that serve as "levels," race against yourself by trying to bet the previous day's goal, etc. The key to gamifying is to set reasonable benchmarks and give yourself periodic rewards. Rewards can be anything from buying yourself a boba, watching a favorite TV show episode, an hour of playing your favorite game, or going to a movie. Some people like to go to the dollar store and buy a lot of small fun things and use those as rewards. Whatever works for you! Sometimes, turning it into a game with tangible progress and rewards can keep you motivated.

Setting Up a Routine: Although I have my general daily routine, I am without a doubt more productive when I can stick to a more specific routine that includes writing time. For me that works out to writing early in the day before other distractions start ramping up. When I put on my music, sit down with some coffee and a snack, and pull up my manuscript, my brain knows it's time to get to work. That doesn't always mean the work happens, but it's much more likely I'll get something done.

Minimizing Distractions: Anything that can be a distraction when I write is problematic. For that reason, I only listen to music without words and advertising. I turn off my phone or leave it in the other room. If possible, I try to use placeholders for things I need to look up. If I absolutely have to look something up and I get distracted by headlines, interesting articles or videos, or other things, I bookmark them in a special folder and immediately close the window. That way, I know I can go back to them later (I almost never do...) And, for me, as much as I love Scrivener and the ability to organize by chapter, have quick access to character profiles and photos, toggle between scene cards and my story... it's just too distracting for me. I'll sit down to write a chapter, then decide I need to re-do my scene cards, or cast characters, or do mood boards for every location in my story.

For that reason, writing in Word works best [for me] It's simple and there's nothing to distract me. Any story references I might need while writing, such as character profiles and photos, mood boards and aesthetics, setting inspiration photos, etc. are all organized in a special folder, categorized into sub-folders, so I can go straight to the required reference.

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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[willalove75]

Alcina's New Maid Pt. 12 Lady Dimitrescu x Reader

Summary: You and Alcina are becoming closer, something the both of you are happy about. With the good comes the angst, from two phone calls from Heisenberg, one phone call from Mother Miranda and another encounter with Stefana, things take a bit of a nosedive.

Warnings: 18+ minors DNI

Tags: Fluff, angst, canon violence, blood

Notes: Part 12! I've been looking forward to writing this since I started!! This subplot was one of the first ideas I came up with when I was first brainstorming this fic! I hope you all like it💕

Click here for the rest of the series

Things between you and Alcina continued to progress, the two of you spent some more time together rebuilding your relationship and you've been spending more time with the girls as well. Even though you're still not having dinner with them every night, you've been joining them most nights. A few days ago Alcina asked you to join them for breakfast and when you woke up the next morning, you found a note on your nightstand.

Y/n, You had mentioned that there were mornings you would skip breakfast with us just so you can receive a note from me on your tray. It gave me inexplicable joy when I saw that you had kept every letter and to see how much you cherish them. If it's alright with you, I hope you continue to join us for breakfast and in return, I will continue writing you letters in the mornings. The girls miss having you around during meals, as do I. All my love, Alcina

For some reason, this letter meant more to you than the rest of them, even though they were all so special to you. This letter again proved to you that she's been listening, hearing what you've had to say and that she's been taking action. After you put the letter in the drawer with the rest of them, you get up, get yourself ready and head downstairs for breakfast.

As you walk towards the stairs, you can see Alcina just ahead of you, making her way down. She must have heard your heartbeat because as soon as you saw her, she stopped and turned around towards you.

"Good morning." She says with a smile.

"Good morning!"

"How did you sleep last night?"

"Like a rock, how was your night?"

"Uneventful, thankfully. I was able to get some much needed work done."

At this point, you're on the landing of the stairwell and Alcina is closer to the bottom of the stairs. From where you are, you're almost eye-level with her. Alcina tucks a strand of hair behind your ear and cups your face. She gazes into your eyes lovingly and you return the look. When she pulls her hand away, you reach out your arms to hug her. She happily leans in and wraps her arms around your waist and lifts you up as you wrap yours around her neck. You take a deep breath in while you're in her embrace, your nose filling with the scent of her hypnotizing perfume. On your exhale you relax into her and she tightens her hold on you just a bit. You pull away a bit so you can look at her and the two of you look into each others eyes again for a moment. Alcina smiles at you and places a soft kiss on your cheek, you immediately feel a light blush develop and you kiss her back on her cheek. She hugs you tightly again and cradles the back of your head.

"Oh, my love." She whispers so softly you almost missed it.

You hum and nuzzle into the crook of her neck.

Both of you were so invested in the moment you were having, neither of you noticed Stefana passing through the main hall. Her body tenses up as she glares at you in Lady Dimitrescu's arms. She quickly makes her way into another room before either of you notice her.

"How about we go eat?" Alcina says, placing a kiss on the side of your head. Nodding into her, you give her one more squeeze before she puts you down. The two of you walk towards the dining room, three swarms of flies meeting you at the door as you walk in.

"Good morning daughters." Alcina says as she takes her seat at the head of the table.

"Good morning mother." The three girls reply, all three of them still half asleep.

"What do you girls have planned for today?" She asks.

"Sleep." Cassandra says as she rests her face in her hand and closes her eyes.

"Cass! You said you would help me train!" Daniela says with a pout.

Cassandra grumbles and Bela looks over at Daniela.

"Dani I can help you today if you want."

"Really?!" Daniela all but shouts.

"Of course! Mama what are your plans for the day?" Bela asks Alcina.

"I have work to do, as per usual. Actually, y/n, I was wondering if you were able to help me with a few things today, if you don't mind of course."

"Not at all, I'd love to help." You say with a smile.

The three girls give each other small smiles that don't quite go unnoticed.

After breakfast, Alcina leads you up to her study.

"Thank you very much for assisting me today."

"Of course, I'm happy to give you a hand with whatever you need."

Alcina bends down and kisses the top of your head.

"Thank you my sweet. Unfortunately my filing has seemed to get away from me once again. You remember where everything needs to be filed, yes?"

"Yup!"

"Wonderful, I'm sorry to say that there's much more filing that needs to get done today than there was previously and I know how monotonous it can be."

"Alcina, really, it's okay." You say, turning towards her and looking up. "I don't mind, plus, I enjoy doing tedious things like this. I'm just happy I can help you somehow."

She bends down again and cups your face, placing a soft kiss on your forehead.

"Thank you."

You look around to see a handful of large stacks of papers around the room. This will definitely take you some time, but truthfully you're just happy to be around Alcina again without your heart feeling like it's shattering inside of your chest. After clearing a spot on the floor, you sit down and get to work, separating the papers like you did last time, making little piles. Alcina sits at her desk and shuffles through the paperwork in front of her.

It takes you almost two hours to sort through and organize all of the papers. Truthfully, you were surprised at how quickly the time went by, you felt so relaxed being around Alcina, she seemed to be relaxed as well in your presence. Well, as relaxed as she can be as she deciphers the chicken scratch on the letters from the mayor of the village.

"It is incredible how someone so unintelligent hasn't accidentally set fire to the entire village yet." She says to herself, frustrated.

A chuckle escapes from you before you're able to hold it back and Alcina side eyes you and smirks.

"Sorry." You say softly, pursing your lips to hold back more laughter.

"Something funny?" She asks, her tone is stern but her eyes have a playful look to them.

"Nope, not at all." You say as you file away a stack of papers.

"Mhm." She mutters as she arches an eyebrow.

Alcina puts the paper down onto her desk and rolls her neck out. You can feel her eyes on you while you file away another pile and you turn to look at her.

"May I help you?" You playfully ask.

She smirks and inches her finger towards you, signaling for you to walk over to her. Alcina cups her hand under your jaw and lifts your face to look up at hers. Her thumb caresses your cheek and you involuntary close your eyes and smile, when you open your eyes again you're met with Alcina's gorgeous gold irises.

"You are a very efficient helper my dear."

"I'm glad you think so."

"Come." She says, patting her lap. You smile and walk closer, Alcina lifts you up and sits you in her lap facing her. She leans back in her chair a bit and laces her fingers together behind your lower back, her thumbs gently caressing your sides.

Alcina tucks a strand of hair behind your ear and cups your face. After she looks at you for a moment she wraps her arms around you and pulls you into her, you hear her sigh and relax into you when she buries her face into your neck. You respond by wrapping your arms around her waist and holding her close.

"Are you okay?" You ask.

"Mhm." She mumbles before placing a kiss on your neck. She sits back up and looks down at you. "Yes, I'm alright. I just- I-" She looks away, furrowing her brow and biting her lip. You smile up at her and study her face as she works through her thought. Alcina isn't the best at being vulnerable, it's something you've known for a long time now. Although she's gotten much better at expressing herself and being vulnerable with you, old habits do indeed die hard. She wants to say "I missed you, I missed this." but she's having a difficult time forming the words.

Instead, you decide to wrap your arms around her again and rest your head on her chest, holding onto her tightly. She responds by doing the same, resting her chin on top of your head, gently running her hand up and down your back.

"I missed you too Alci." You say quietly.

Alcina's breath hitches in her throat, it's the first time you've called her by her nickname since everything happened. She never expected to become emotional when you called her that again, truthfully, she never really thought about you calling her Alci again. Not that she didn't want you to, it was just never something that crossed her mind as monumental. But hearing you call her that nearly brought tears to her eyes, the sense of familiarity, the feeling of closeness you get when the one you love calls you by your nickname hit her like a ton of bricks. Such a simple thing showed how comfortable you were with her once again and she had never been so grateful to hear that name before in her life. She cradles the back of your head and places a kiss on the top of it before resting her cheek there.

Alcina opens her mouth to say something and is interrupted by the phone. You can feel the low growl in her chest, aggravated that the moment was interrupted. Placing a hand against your back to secure you against her, she leans forward and picks up the phone.

"Lady D-" you feel her body tense underneath you and a louder growl emerges from the back of her throat. "Heisenberg. What do you want?" You can't hear whoever is on the other end of the line but whoever it is, she doesn't seem happy to be talking to them. "I don't care what your mutts-" . . . "They what? . . . And why are you just making me aware of this? . . . Have you spoken to Mother Miranda about- will you stop interrupting me! . . . Fine. . . . No I will not . . . Because it's your dirty mutts who found them! . . . Stop acting like a child and do your job! . . . You've wasted enough of my precious time, goodbye."

Alcina all but slams the phone down and pinches the bridge of her nose and inhales deeply, slowly exhaling. Looking up at her, you can see the stress of the conversation slowly melt away as she grounds herself. She opens her eyes and looks back down at you and gently smiles.

"Is everything okay?"

"Yes, I apologize for the interruption. That was my idiot younger brother, Karl Heisenberg. I hope you never have this misfortune of meeting him but unfortunately he's a parasite that's difficult to get rid of."

"I didn't know you had a brother."

"He's not my biological brother, heavens no, sharing genetics with that imbecil?" She says with a laugh. "I would rather die than be blood related to that child. He is one of the four lords."

"Oh, I thought the name was familiar."

"Yes, we were all brought together by Mother Miranda to rule over the village."

"Gotcha. Was everything okay? You seemed a little concerned."

"Yes, everything is fine for now. It's nothing I cannot handle and nothing I want you worrying your pretty little mind about." She says, gently booping your nose. You crinkle your nose and smile in response.

Her eyes wander from your face back to her desk and she sighs.

"As much as I would love to sit here all day with you, unfortunately I have some things to finish that cannot wait any longer."

"It's okay, I still have some filing left to do anyway."

Alcina kisses you on the forehead and lifts you from her lap. As she lifts you, the phone rings again. She puts you down and she picks up the phone.

"Mother Miranda, what a lovely surprise." She says with her best customer service voice. You look over at Alcina and she looks at you.

"Do you want me to go?" You mouth, pointing at the door.

Alcina shakes her head "no" so you continue to file away the papers.

"Yes, I just spoke with him. . . . Well yes, it is quite concerning but from the information I received, it's nothing we haven't dealt with previously. . . . Of course. . . . Yes next week is fine. . . . What?" The tone of her voice drastically changes and her wide eyes glance over to you. "Yes, she is still my handmaiden. . . . Mother Miranda, I must insist-" . . . "Yes Mother Miranda, I will make sure she is there. . . . Thank you Mother Miranda, goodbye."

Alcina hangs up and brings her hands up and gently rubs her face, sliding them back towards her temples where she massages them for a moment. She sits up, dropping her hands and turns towards you.

"Mother Miranda is requesting your presence for a meeting with the rest of the Lords next week."

"What? Me? Why?"

"She says she would like you to take notes for the meeting, however I can't help but feel she's testing me in some way."

"Why would she be testing you?"

"I have a feeling she believes that you are more than a simple handmaiden to me. I believe she wants you there to test my loyalty, as well as yours quite frankly."

"What's the meeting about? Does it have to do with whatever Heisenberg called about?"

"Yes, his lycans regularly patrol the forests and they've come across a group of hunters. Which is not uncommon, however there were more than usual."

"Hunters?"

"Yes, there are groups of men, usually, that try to hunt us. Well, myself and the girls more often than anyone else." Dread fills your chest for a moment and Alcina immediately picks up on it. "Which is exactly why I did not want to tell you to begin with, but given you'll be in the meeting we're having next week to discuss the matter, you have a right to know. But don't worry, they've never gotten past the castle walls and none of us have been seriously injured in decades. They're usually smaller groups of five to eight hunters, but the group the lycans spotted had about a dozen. They were able to take care of most of them so the threat is neutralized for now, but its still cause for concern."

"What happened when you were seriously hurt?"

"That my dear is a conversation for another day."

"Okay."

"I could use a drink." She says, lighting a cigarette.

"Do you want me to go down to the kitchen and get you some wine?"

"Absolutely not, last time you went down there on your own you were almost killed. I'll have Zina bring it up along with a pot of tea."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes." She said, leaving no room for argument in her voice.

Alcina picks up the phone and calls down to the kitchen, taking a drag from her cigarette. Exhaling the smoke from her nose, the rest escapes from between her lips as she begins to speak.

"Yes, would you please send up a bottle of wine to my study? As well as a pot of tea with two cups please. Thank you."

You go back to filing and Alcina continues her paperwork, taking drags mindlessly from her cigarette.

A few minutes later there's a knock on the door.

"Come in." Alcina says.

Zina walks into the room with a large tray. A bottle of wine, a wine glass, a large pot of tea, milk, sugar, a flask of what's probably blood and two teacups sitting on it.

"Good morning my Lady." Zina says, placing the tray on the table near the door.

"Good morning Zina."

Zina looks up at you and shoots you a wink. She pours her a glass of wine and brings the glass and bottle to her desk.

"How did you possibly know which I wanted first?" Alcina says with a chuckle as she takes the glass and swirls the contents in it before smelling it and taking a big sip.

"Just a hunch." Zina says before turning around, heading back to the tray. Alcina smirks at her and goes back to her paperwork. "How would you like your tea, y/n?"

"Oh, you don't have-"

"Please, I insist." Zina says.

You tell her how you want your tea and she walks over to you and hands you the cup and saucer.

"Thank you." You say, taking it from her.

"Tea my Lady?"

"Not right now, thank you."

"Is there anything else you need from me my Lady?"

"I don't believe so, thank you Zina."

"My pleasure."

As Zina leaves the phone rings again, visibly annoyed, Alcina downs the rest of her wine and answers.

"Yes? . . . Heisenberg." She growls. "What do you want?! . . . Absolutely not! I don't want those mutts anywhere near my castle! . . . Then clean up your own messes!" She slams the phone down onto the receiver and balls her hands into fists. "That man-child is so infuriating!" She says out loud.

"Y/n," she says, bringing her hands to her temples.

"Yeah?"

"Do me favor love, take two very large steps to your right."

"Uh, okay." You say as you take a few steps, putting about five feet of distance between you and the spot you were occupying.

Alcina growls and grabs her wine glass and launches it across the room into the wall, it shatters as it makes contact, sending shards of glass everywhere.

"Thank you dear."

"I'm gonna go grab a broom." You say.

As you walk past her, she reaches her arm out and wraps it around your waist and pulls you into her. She leans her head into the crook of your neck and takes a deep inhale, your hand slides to the back of her head and you can feel her relax as she exhales. When she pulls away you gently cup her face and gaze into her gorgeous gold eyes.

"You okay?"

"Yes, thank you." She leans in and kisses your forehead. When her lips leave your skin, you hold one side of her face and stand up on your tip toes and kiss her on the cheek. Alcina closes her eyes and leans into you a little.

"My sweet girl."

"I'll be right back, okay?" You say, your thumb gently caressing her cheek.

"No dawdling." She says with a wink.

"Never." You respond with a smile.

Closing the door to her study behind you, you check one of the closets in the hallway for a broom but can't find one. The maids must have them. You decide to check the closet in the main hall, that one usually has extra supplies and a few brooms.

As you start to walk down the stairs you see Stefana walk across the main hall. You freeze for a moment and she looks up and sees you, the look on her face immediately hardens as she glares at you. She changes direction and heads towards the stairs. For a moment you consider turning around and running back to Alcina's study but you don't. You're so fed up with dealing with Stefana, with avoiding her, with having to sneak around the castle hoping you won't run into her. Things between you and Alcina are going really well and she's right, you shouldn't have to be afraid in your own home. So you decide to continue your descent down the stairs and try to walk past her when you get to the landing. Stefana steps in front of you and doesn't let you past her.

"You fucking bitch." She growls at you. "What the fuck did I tell you? Stay away from her."

"No." You say, looking her in the eye. "She told you to leave me alone, if you really loved her, you'd listen to her."

"You stole EVERYTHING from me!" She yells.

"I stole nothing. If you should be mad at anyone, you should be mad at the Lady, I did nothing to you, I never did anything to you."

"You're going to pay for what you did to me!"

"You're insane, leave me alone or the Lady is going to make sure whatever you're thinking of doing will be the last thing you ever do."

"Stefana!" You hear a voice yell from behind you. You turn around to see Zina standing at the top of the stairs. "Leave the girl alone."

"NO! She stole her from me!" She yells at her.

"She did no such thing. I warned you and you didn't listen. Your errors are not her fault."

"I LOVE HER!"

"She doesn't love you." Zina says.

You step around Stefana and try to walk away but she grabs your arm and turns you towards her.

"She's going to love me again, mark my words."

"You're fucking cra-" you're cut off when she backhands you across the face.

"Stefana!" Zina yells.

In shock, your hand cups your face and you look into Stefana's eyes, they're dark, angry, unhinged. You see something snap inside of her and she shoves you backwards. Fear shoots through your body as you feel yourself fall, the world goes into slow motion and you try to steady yourself but you just fall further and further back. In an instant everything speeds up you instinctively put your arm back to brace yourself and the second you hit the step you feel something snap and you cry out in pain. After that you feel the world spin as your body hits every step on the way down. You don't even feel like you're in your own body, you're aware of every time your body makes contact with a step, and you know it's painful, but you don't feel any pain, but somehow you know the pain is there. At some point you definitely hit your head but all you can think is that the room is spinning more than it should and that you're falling for too long.

You roll off of the last step and onto the floor, you can barely open your eyes but when you do you see Zina at the top of the steps, a horrified look on her face and you see Stefana, she has an absolute crazed look on hers as she stares down at you, smiling with the most terrifying smile you've ever seen on someone.

You think you hear Zina scream "MY LADY!" but your heartbeat is so loud in your ears you're not even sure she spoke. Stefana starts walking down the stairs and your eyes close, you feel like you were unconscious for a little while but when you open them again, Stefana is just a few feet away from you.

"Just die already!!" She screams. You see her leg swing back and she kicks you in the stomach. In a split second it feels like all of the air was forced out of your body and you can't breathe for a few seconds. Instinctively, your arms cover your stomach to protect yourself and you see her reel back to kick you again and you close your eyes.

"Y/N!!"

A horrified scream rings throughout the castle, so powerful you could have sworn you felt the vibrations through the floor. You open your eyes and first notice Stefana turning around to face where the scream came from. The next thing you see is Alcina at the top of the stairs, you've never seen her look so scared before in your life. Her fear morphs into unbridled anger when her gaze shifts from you to Stefana. Alcina begins to walk down the stairs, she could have ran down them but time seems to slow down and speed up randomly.

"Alci," you try to say, but your voice is weak and the room spins again.

Alcina is shaking, from both anger and fear as she descends the stairs. As she gets towards the bottom she unsheathes her claws and plunges them into Stefana.

Your vision gets blurry but you can hear Alcina's calws, looking up at Stefana as she faces Alcina. She twitches and a split second later you see Alcina's claws come out through the middle of her back, your vision comes back clearly and you lay there, horrified. You open your mouth to scream but nothing happens.

Alcina lifts Stefana up, bringing her up to her eye level.

"I warned you." Alcina growls. "I told you the next time you so much as breathe in her direction, it would be the last breath you take."

"I love you." Stefana says. "She wasn't worthy of you love, I was."

"You are not worthy of anything."

"At least my blood will help sustain you." She says, her voice rapidly weakening.

"I would never taint my wine with blood as disgusting as yours." Alcina sneers.

Stefana's face twists into a look of horror, of deceit, of heartbreak.

"I loved you, mistress."

"I never loved you, vermin."

Alcina retracts her claws and Stefana plummets to the ground. Her body twitches for a moment before she becomes still.

You watch in horror as Stefana's body falls in front of you, she killed her. Alcina killed her. The blood pools around her body as is pours out from the wounds from Alcina's claws and as you stare at it, you begin to disconnect from the world, from the pain that was starting to creep up on you, from everything.

Alcina steps over Stefana's body and kneels on the floor next to you.

"Y/n," she says as her voice trembles. She goes to touch you but pulls her hands away, afraid to injure you further.

You look up at her and see the tears in her eyes, the fear on her face. She just brutally killed someone in front of you and she's worried about you? You try to sit up but the moment you move anything pain shoots through your entire body.

"No no no love, don't move, don't move honey." She touches your cheek like you're made of the most fragile glass in the world.

Your eyes close, you're not sure if they closed for a few seconds or a few minutes again but when you open them, Stefana's body is still in front of you. Staring at the pool of blood around her, you see more out of the corner of your eye. When you look you see more next to you, you're confused for a second before realizing that you're laying in a small pool of your own blood. Fear courses through your body again and you begin to cry. As you cry, you feel the pain in your stomach and it was as if feeling that one pain was a switch because suddenly, you feel pain everywhere.

"Shhh love, it's okay, you're okay." Alcina says.

Looking up at her you can see the tears rolling down her cheeks. When you gaze back forward, you see Stefana again and it clicks in your mind again that Alcina killed her.

"You killed her." You say softly as you cry. "She's dead, you killed her." Crying harder, you continue to repeat yourself like a broken record.

"I know, I know, it's okay, you're okay, you're safe. You're safe my love."

Every cell in your body feels like its in pain and all you want to do is stop staring at the body in front of you but you can't seem to pry your eyes away from it.

"Daughters!!" Alcina yell out. She turns around and see's the three girls standing behind her. How long were they there for? Alcina thinks for a split second. They must have been there long enough because Daniela has tears running down her face, Bela is standing next to her with her arm wrapped around her shoulder trying to comfort her even though Bela has a horrified look on her own face. If she was thinking clearly, Alcina would realize that she's never seen Cassandra look so angry in her entire life, the look in her eyes is terrifying.

"Someone get rid of this!" She yells, gesturing to the body. "And don't put her anywhere near my distillery. I don't want a drop of her in any of my wine!"

"What do you want us to do with her?" Cassandra asks, her voice is steady, so steady it's almost scary, and cold.

"I don't care just get rid of it!"

Cassandra turns into a swarm and appears next to the body, an evil smile crosses her face before she turns into another swarm and surrounds Stefana, the flies completely cover the body and Cassandra flies towards the dungeon stairs and disappears.

You lay on the ground, still hyperventilating.

"Y/n," Alcina says softly, "just breathe." A whimper escapes from you as you try to breathe in. "I know it hurts love, I know, just keep trying to breathe for me, okay?"

"Mamă, ce facem?" Daniela softly says. (Mama, what do we do?)

Alcina turns towards her girls.

"One of you call Donna, tell her to bring every healing herb and salve she says immediately."

"Should we call uncle Sal?"

"Absolutely not, I cannot trust him to keep this from Miranda."

"What else?" Bela asks.

"Get someone to clean this damn mess up!"

The girls disperse and Alcina turns back towards you, you've stopped hyperventilating but you're still crying.

"Y/n, what hurts? I need you to tell me where you're hurt."

"Everything hurts." You cry.

"I have to lift you off of the floor, okay? I'm going to be as gentle as I can but it's going to hurt, okay love?"

Nodding your head as you cry, you brace yourself. Alcina carefully slides her hands underneath you and lifts you bridal style into her arms. As she's lifting you, you cry out from the pain of being moved but as soon as she pulls you into her it subsides. She slowly stands up and begins walking up the stairs. Zina is on the landing, standing there in shock with tears in her eyes. She looks up at Lady Dimitrescu as she walks by.

"My lady, I'm- I'm so sorry. I should-"

"None of this is your fault Zina, please don't blame yourself. The blame is to be placed on her" Alcina says, nodding towards the pool of blood where Stefana was. "and myself. I should have done something much sooner, I never should have let it go this far." Zina goes to speak but Alcina cuts her off. "Take the rest of the day off, that's an order."

"Yes my Lady."

Zina begins to descend the stairs and Alcina carries you into her bedroom.

Alcina sits on her bed and cradles you as you continue to cry. You're not even sure why you're crying, if it's from the pain, watching Alcina kill Stefana, all of the fear you felt in such a short amount of time, everything combined or for no reason at all. The only thing you can do is grab onto Alcina's cream dress with one blood stained hand like your life depended on it while you cradle your other arm and cry. She gently rocks you as she tries to soothe you, careful she doesn't injure you further or aggravate your injuries.

"It's okay, you're safe now, okay? You're safe now." She says, pressing the most gentle kiss to your forehead as a tear rolls down her cheek. "I'm so sorry," Alcina whispers. "I'm so sorry for not protecting you. I'm so sorry."

[bitchcakegreen]

I finally watched all four episodes of season 3 part 1 and I have thoughts, as a fan and as a screenwriter/former romance novelist, and professional director. I didn’t have netflix but I got it for this season. I did this kinds of analyzations and such during Game of Thrones. Hopefully people enjoy reading. Full disclosure, I have not read any of the Bridgerton books. (I’m about three chapters into Romancing Mr. Bridgerton)

First off, give me all the Pen and Colin all the time. I’ve been hoping they get together from season 1 and I’m so happy Shondaland didn’t make us wait another season, as the books go in a different order. There’s a lot of subtle nuance to Pen and Colin’s scenes, Colin always seeking out Pen wherever they are, the tent pastry scene followed by Colin clearly eating the same pastry as Pen did. The tent scene was freaking hot. I said what I said. Things of this nature make their love affair so lush. It’s that journey to getting to the carriage scene that’s so thrilling.

I didn’t mind Francesca’s subplot or the Mondrich one but I do agree with many I’ve seen here that the subplots almost took over. There was a lot of emphasis placed on things other than Pen and Colin which annoyed me somewhat. Hopefully when we get to part 2 there will be more intense focus on Polin and the subplots are just rotating around them because right now, with the pacing of these first four episodes, it’s the opposite. Polin feel as if they are somewhat an afterthought.

The Cressida redemption movement I don’t think will last into part 2. I think all this work is to try and make the audience sympathize with her and then when she goes after Pen, Pen as Lady D, and so forth we are supposed to think “OH! But she was being so nice.” Hopefully I’m wrong and they follow through on her storyline because if they don’t…they wasted a lot of time and storyline on her instead of focusing on Polin.

I’m ambivalent about Lord Debling, so meh. Sorry about it.

Anthony and Kate - absolutely unnecessary but I know why they brought them in. One, he is the Viscount so he would be around. Two, they are fan favorite. I get it. I accept it. It was just wasted real estate for me. But to each their own.

I love Mr. Finch and I LOVED he got to be such a beaming brother-in-law for Pen in the green dress. I do wish they hadn’t shown us the dress reveal in the trailer. It would have been such an awestruck moment for us to see it first in the show. Sweeping cape removal and glittering loveliness.

Pen’s sisters and their race to get pregnant. It’s all a setup for Pen to be pregnant first or with the male heir by the end of the season. Cute but really long winded in getting there. There is a now since deleted promo clip of Pen, with Colin standing behind her, where she takes his hand and places it on her stomach. So we’re getting a pregnancy nod somewhere next part. May even be why she faints in whatever scene they show in the trailer for part 2.

Eloise needs to get her head out of her butt. I don’t think she’s angry Pen is LW but more angry that she didn’t figure out Pen was Whistledown sooner. She’s mad that Pen didn’t try to see her during the offseason, yet she tells her at the end of season 2 to get the fuck out of her life. Get it together Eloise. I love Eloise, don’t get me wrong, I adore her. I just want her to stop acting like an ass and TALK to Pen.

There is discourse about the second Colin threesome scene, but there really shouldn’t be. There’s a reason for it. It showcases that Colin is done with the charade he’s been playing all season. He isn’t the bon vivant, dashing rake he’s supposed to be. It’s jarring but it’s a scene with a purpose.

All the Polin scenes are delightful. The balloon scene might be my favorite - the pastry scene I include in this. And of course the first kiss and the carriage scene (which lives in my head on repeat) but I have to say, I wanted more Polin screen time. I think if we spliced all the Polin scenes together we see that out of four hours of film, they have maybe a cumulative 1 hour of screen time. Which isn’t much for a couple that is the lead of the season. Hopefully the ratio will be better in part two.

Merit badges and raises to the Featherington coachmen and to Pen’s maid Rae. They are MVPs and are totally gossiping about Polin. You know that tea was flowing in the servant’s quarters about the carriage ride…

Scenes I hope we get in part 2.

1. Full on sexfest with Pen and Colin, the likes to rival Daphne and Simon.

2. Whistledown reveal to Colin. First I want him angry - that passionate angry we use in romance novels. The kind where the hero is always “I’m so mad at you right now I can’t see straight but I need you writhing with passion underneath me screaming my name RIGHT NOW!” kind of angry. I want ripped corsets and torn skirts. If you know you know.

3. Pen and Eloise make up.

4. Big stupid lavish wedding.

5. More unhinged Queen Charlotte wigs. Because reasons.

Sorry this was such a long post, but I needed to get my thoughts out. Thanks for reading if you made it this far. Now excuse me while I go watch part 1 elevenity million more times.

[reidsrambles]

An Invisible Locket

Chapter 8: Epilogue

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Fem!BAU!Reader // Secret relationship

Description: You work with your best friend and your boyfriend. The only problem is, nobody knows Spencer Reid is your boyfriend of over a year. When you find out that Spencer's getting sent out on a case immediately after getting back to Quantico, impulses take over. (Content/Warnings below the cut)

Content/Warnings: [18+ MDNI], smut, oral sex (M & F receiving), PIV sex, unprotected sex within an established relationship, unplanned pregnancy, discussions of abortion (in a pro-choice context, though Reader ends up choosing to stay pregnant), minor mentions of alcohol and cancer.

As for the crime subplot, much of it is very canon-typical (referenced child abuse & grooming by an extended family member (non-sexual), violence, blood/gore, drugs. As always, please feel free to let me know if I miss any CWs!

A/N: This fic is obviously heavy on the Spencer and Reader relationship, but it's also got a significant Garcia best friend plot line and crime plot line. This fic also features an unplanned Reader pregnancy. Reader debates abortion and is pro-choice, but ultimately ends up keeping the pregnancy. If any of that isn't up your alley, please feel free to skip this fic!

Names used: Baby, baby girl, good/sweet/pretty girl, daddy, good boy (once), my love.

Words (this chapter): 1.8 K

Words (total): 29.1 K

“Mama, why are we at your work?”

You look down at your 3-year-old daughter walking beside you, her little hand in yours. She’s wearing one of Penelope’s (many) gifted outfits. Her hair is tied into a neat ponytail, adorned by a pink, bejeweled headband. She’s wearing a pink t-shirt that says “I love my aunt” on it in sparkly letters. To round out the outfit with even more pink and sparkle, Penelope bought her a flowy skirt which has an opaque, base layer of fabric, topped off with a few layers of a stretchy, sparkly, baby pink mesh.

When she runs, the fabric moves with her, and she loves that it’s comfortable and pretty. Plus, she just loves anything that her Auntie P gives her.

“We’re at mama’s work to go visit daddy and Auntie P, baby.”

You just got into the elevator, two kids in tow, and you’re feeling pretty proud of yourself (and very tired). Your 6-week-old son is fast asleep in his car seat, and this is your first time physically back in the building after having him. Spencer was able to take the first month off to be with you and the baby, but then, he had to go back.

When you had your daughter, over three years ago, Section Chief Strauss actually went easier on you than you had expected. Maybe, the fact that she’s a mother herself softened her to you? Who knows.

Penelope threw you a baby shower—one much more extravagant than you’d told her she could—and Strauss actually accepted the invite. Penelope has since been allowed to utilize technical analysts from other units on an as-needed basis when you’re off or on maternity leave.

As you exit the elevator, your daughter tries to take off, already knowing where your office is down the hall.

“Woah, hold your horses there, kiddo. What did I say about holding mama’s hand when we’re not at home?”

“I have to hold your hand unless you say I can let go,” she recites.

“Mhm. And why is that important?”

“So I stay safe.”

“And now I have to keep track of you and your baby brother, so I need you to keep being the best big sister—”

Your daughter’s attention is instantly ripped from your grasp as Penelope yells to her from down the hall.

“Where’s my little princess at?”

“Auntie P!” she shrieks, running to her.

Penelope picks her up and holds her, your daughter laying her head on Penelope’s shoulder.

“Auntie P, can we go to the fluffy chair in your office?” The bean bag chair in your office has been there nearly five years at this point and it’s still going strong.

“We have to go find your daddy first so everyone can meet your baby brother, my little love bug.”

You and Penelope bring the kids into the bullpen, and Derek is the first to spot you. “Hey, Y/N! Welcome back!”

Not before long, everyone is gathered around you, greeting you with hugs and congratulations.

When your daughter spots Spencer, she wriggles out of Penelope’s arms to run over to him.

“Daddy, daddy! Look at what Auntie P got me!”

She runs into his arms, and he lifts her into the air, spinning her around.

“I’ve missed you so much, baby! Show me what Auntie P got you while everyone meets your brother.”

JJ was the first to hold your son, and, after passing him off to an elated Emily, she comes over to you and Spencer, giving you a big hug.

“He’s such a cutie. Congrats, you guys. So, when should I expect number three?”

“We might be two-and-done. You were right about going from one kid to two. If you and Will didn’t have her over for a sleepover with the boys last week, I think Spence and I would be sleepwalking right now.”

Penelope stayed the night, waking up with the baby, and you and Spencer slept a solid nine hours. You woke up feeling like an entirely new woman.

“What about you and Will?” Spencer asks, bouncing your daughter on his hip. “Do you think you’ll have anymore?”

“Nah. I think we’re good with the two. We don’t want to be outnumbered. Plus, dividing things by two kids is much easier than by three.”

You nod your head. “That’s a good point. She’s already mad that mom and dad’s attention has been split.”

“Does she still have the Spencer Build-A-Bear?”

“She sleeps with it every night when he’s gone. She brings her ‘mom bear’ with her too when she goes to daycare.”

Last year, your daughter started having trouble sleeping every time Spencer was away on a case. You performed some plushie surgery to remove the voice boxes from the bears, and then they were passed onto her.

You’ll never forget the message Spencer recorded for you.

“Y/N, words can’t accurately convey just how much you mean to me. I love you so much that it honestly terrifies me sometimes. How can I love you as much as I do? But when I look at you, I see home. You’re my home. You’re my safety. I see our future in your eyes, and it’s so incredibly bright. I love you endlessly, baby.”

You listened to the message the first night after Spencer left to visit his mom. You pressed the bear’s paw and cried listening to it. You listened each night after, as well. Hugging the bear to your chest, Spencer’s recorded words lulled you to sleep when he couldn’t do so, himself.

You’re no child psychologist, but you’re hoping that having two Build-A-Bears acting as surrogate parents isn’t harmful to your daughter’s development or anything.

Dave, who’s the one holding your son now, gently shuffles over to you as fast as he’s able to.

“Someone needs his mom! We’ve got a fussy kiddo over here!”

“Guys, I love your kids, but this is why I’ll stick to my cat,” Emily says, plugging her ears as your son begins to cry.

“I’m amazed he lasted that long, honestly,” Spencer says.

You take your son from Dave, thanking him for the numerous frozen, single-serve portions of homemade lasagna he brought after you came home from the hospital. After you had your daughter, you guys had to buy another freezer because you could practically live off the amount of food Dave made you. He did the same for JJ and Will when their boys were born, as well.

“Anytime, sweetheart. You and Spencer need to come over for dinner soon. I’ve got a new arugula pesto recipe I want you guys to try.”

You thank him again and get your kids ready to head home, your son fast asleep again in his car seat after some milk. Penelope spends about as much time at your place as she does hers right now, but saying goodbye to everyone else tugs at your heartstrings a bit.

You love your kids more than life itself, but you do miss spending time with your work family. Once your son is a little bit older, you’ll be back. There’s only six weeks left of maternity leave anyway, so you’re soaking up this time with your babies.

You kiss Spencer goodbye. He’ll be home in a few hours, thankfully. Everyone says their goodbyes before returning to work duties. The BAU is remotely consulting on a case right now, Spencer said.

Thinking back to a few short years ago, sneaking around with Spencer and hiding your relationship feels like a hazy memory, faded to sepia with the passage of time. It really hasn’t been that long, but life for you and Spencer has changed a lot in that span.

You knew Spencer would be a great dad, but you didn’t expect having kids to have such a positive effect on your relationship. You’d (pessimistically) expected parenthood to only strain your relationship, but seeing Spencer as a dad has just grown your love and respect for him. His admiration for you has only grown as well. His near-constant praise for you as a mother and partner gives you strength on the more-difficult days.

When you were about six months pregnant with your son, Spencer planned a road trip to a few hours west, where the skies were darker. You packed up your grandfather’s telescope, and his three-year-old great-granddaughter got to use it for the first time.

Will she remember it? No, but watching Spencer gleefully teach her about space had you falling in love all over again. Your daughter was asleep in his arms in about 30 minutes, but then you got to geek out over the sights while Spencer watched on, smiling wholeheartedly and gently bouncing his sleeping child.

You’ll forever cherish moments like those, reminiscing about them when your kids have long grown.

A wedding will come at some point, but for now, there’s no rush. Your family is your family, marriage certificate or not. You’d marry each other in a split second, but for now, you both are content focusing on enjoying life as a new family of four.

Penelope and your BAU family have been by your side at every step of this journey, even when they weren’t aware of the relationship or pregnancy. The dynamic around the BAU changed slightly once everything became public knowledge (you had to fill out a few forms as well). As you could have predicted, Spencer’s bond with the team has only deepened, though. Derek and Dave still call him “kid”, but nobody’s surprised by that.

Since becoming a mother, you and Penelope have actually developed an even better flow at work. You’re glad that your job isn’t in jeopardy anymore, either. Finding out you were pregnant with your son was definitely a much less-stressful experience considering you knew everything at work would run smoothly (and, he was planned).

After connecting with technical analysts from different units, word of Penelope’s genius got around fast. She started hosting seminars to teach her tricks to technical analysts from across the bureau.

Your colleagues have done so much to support you and Spencer, and your kids. Your daughter loves all of them and they’ve made such an effort to be a presence in her life in some capacity. Since you announced your pregnancy with your son, they’ve showered you with even more love and support. Between free childcare, gifts, homemade food, and even just emotional support, you could never repay everyone.

Parenthood would have been a more difficult endeavor for you and Spencer if you didn’t have your BAU family along for the ride.

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[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 9/24/2024

you might be wondering “is my dear friend tumblr user girlfriendsofthegalaxy still unemployed?” the answer is yes. take this cat off my hands please i don’t think he’s causing the unemployment but he certainly isn’t helping

listening

via Wendy @dying-suffering-french-stalkers, Huoy Meas' ប្រគល់ក្ដីស្នេហ៍មកខ្ញុំវិញ. figuring out what this incredibly zippy Cambodian rock song is named and what it's about was really difficult bc spotify is a bane upon this earth and won't let you fucking copy-paste and OCR was not working on the Khmer script. i ended up listening to the first couple seconds of each of her songs on apple music, and finally figured out this roughly translates to Give Me Back My Love and is about begging a fuckboy for closure.

via the spotify discover weekly, Night Club's Pretty Girls Do Ugly Things. all Night Club's songs sound the same so if you like one, great news! i had this song on for a full gregorian hour bc, i am only a tiny bit ashamed to say, i was storyboarding a The Man With No Name fancam to this. i think it would go pretty hard.

Smoke you like a cigarette Choke you like a lariat Fatalistic tourniquet Do you want more?

-

reading

thank you mackintosh.

i did not Adore any of these comics from the library. i sort of enjoyed Night of the Ghoul, a one-volume TPB by Scott Snyder and Francesco Francavilla. i think ive blogged about this before but every once in a while i'll get a bee in my bonnet to read some horror comics even though i am a giant baby about horror movies.

Night of the Ghoul is about how you can't save your dad from PTSD but also about a lost horror film and also about the extremely dad behavior of tracking down every scrap of info about an auteur. there's also a monster.

the subtle art changes from present day to the remains of the film to the non-film flashbacks are well done, imo. the cover screams mignola but the inside pages are really fun pulp nonsense. i love a piece of genre writing that rolls around and delights in being a piece of genre writing.

im doing my level best not to get sucked into tiktok but i DO love watching this lady revive antique nail polish and look for dupes for shades from like the 20s. she found an almost exact dupe for a shade produced during wwii which is crazy insane to me!!!

-

watching

The Asphalt Jungle (1950, dir. Huston), it's a very painterly heist noir. i even like Sterling Hayden in one of the more prominent roles, even though i think he generally has the appeal of undercooked dough.

much like Fritz Lang's M, it presents the criminal element of the city as its own class with its own reputation and reference systems. it got in some trouble with the censors for having a VERY clearly laid out heist plan and execution. it's also got the babiest Marilyn Monroe in one of her earliest roles

this was such a gloriously messy movie. everyone is such a fucking mess. this woman only known as Doll is heartbreakingly, head over heels in love with Sterling Hayden's character. she's a little flighty and bumbling and silly, but determined! they're constantly orbiting the gravitational weight of her desire for this man and desire for a real life with this man. and that's just one subplot! she has maybe five minutes total screentime! she should have gotten a supporting actress oscar!!! everyone acted their fucking hearts out and it was so much fun to watch!

-

playing

monument valley is in the netflix games library this month (i don't actually know what their liscencing agreements would even look like, they and the studios they worked with were very tightlipped about that when they were rolling this out three years ago) but i assume it's going to be on the service for a while. i have never played this game, which makes me feel a little bit like a bad gamer. you can tell it's ten years old from some of the color and texture choices, but WOW did literally everyone take inspiration from this game.

this is the platonic ideal of a phone game. i get why everyone went insane about it and there was a brief boom of geometry-based puzzle mobile games. it is MUCH much harder now to get people to pay money to play a game that has a planned endpoint and planned number of levels, so netflix is a good home for it.

i was often frustrated but always delighted. the level below involves making something happening that made me genuinely gasp out loud in glee. well worth the annoyance of downloading the netflix app and scrolling through the poorly labeled and poorly sorted carousel of games.

great retrospective, a bit about how you need to have tiny teams go off and just kind of fuck around and bring weird stuff back, and a lot about how they actually designed the levels

The end result had a pixel-perfect axonometric aesthetic that not only went hard on its references to Dutch master artist and printmaker Maurits Cornelis Escher, but also dug deep into classic video game design, going right back to early arcade machines and 8-bit titles. Each of the ten levels is like a piece of fine furniture, built with invisible dovetail joints and inlaid with marquetry, stuffed with secret compartments and little design flourishes. Gray cites the world of theatre and stage design, as well as graphics, as important keystones in the way the levels were constructed. ‘Ken would always talk about flower arranging, and how you frame a silhouette of a level on the screen,’ he says.

-

making

update on the Phantom Menace fabric: pinked the raw edges and threw it in the laundry again with a very large quantity of vinegar. 50% poly was too high for it to really do anything, which is interesting. it didn’t lessen the seam edge effects either, which is a little annoying bc the seams were so gigantic and that’s a good chunk of fabric to lose. i am going to buy a camp shirt pattern at some point when i have money again but for now it goes in The Box

also! thrifted a pack of o-rings for jars for a dollar and finally put my grains etc in my pretty jars. they’re going to live in the pantry but today they live out on the countertop

[souryogurt64]

pete's evil book had a cut abortion subplot?

Okay this is not PROVEN this is speculative all in my head but there is a character named John Miller who becomes the narrator's best friend. Shortly after we are introduced to John Miller he announces to the narrator that he is on the run because he dipped out on his girlfriend when she got pregnant and the girlfriend had a miscarriage because of him.

The Disaster literally never brings this up again and the narrator has virtually no emotional reaction or inner monologue about this. They also never discuss this again. However. A billion pages later, whenever the narrator is about to kill himself or doing something insane, he starts talking about John Miller's Dead Baby. He specifically calls it a dead baby three different times. I know that losing a child you want is like very terrible and different from an abortion. However. This is a really bizarre way and very strong language for the narrator to describe something that happened to the ex girlfriend of someone he just met, especially when John Miller was not physically there when she lost the baby and heard about this after the fact.

The other half of this is that there is also a very awful alleged journal entry from Pete Wentz's alleged secret online diaries. It's not clear what exactly it is and it's not completely explicit but it appears to be about a girl getting pregnant, possibly on purpose, with a baby, probably aborting it, and faking a miscarriage, then telling him she did this. This is like not an okay way to talk at all period especially in context of his dating life and how this girl was probably like 19 max

Either he 1) wrote this about a real woman, which is abhorrent and unforgivable and he should rot in hell 2) is getting high and writing fanfiction about made up women doing this to him for fun, which is pathetic or 3) this was cut from his horrible book because You Cannot Publish This. It's probably some combination of the above but I feel interpreting this as from his horrible flop book is the most charitable explanation for why this exists.

Also, Pete's writing is really repetitive because like F. Scott Fitzgerald said, writers tend to have one story they tell over and over in a million different ways but a lot of things mentioned in this like all hotels being the same and "No, my plane didn't crash this time" remind me of parts of the book, and there's a bit about a pharmacist before this that reminds me of the book as well.

The book is also frequently criticized for having no plot (true) and there's no real reason or explanation given for why the narrator and his girlfriend are not working out and why they're fighting so much beyond her wanting to go to college and he .... doesn't like this for some reason but also has no desire to commit to her. It's also semi confirmed the book was supposed to have a successful suicide and Fall Out Boy's management said no, and both Pete Wentz and the ghostwriter seem to have a lot of feelings about this book and the editing process so I wonder if that wasn't the only thing cut.

So yes, I am a Pete Wentz's Horrible Book Had a Pro Life Subplot truther. When I was 15 and read this book for the first time I vividly remember reading all the dead baby lines and knowing something was not quite right. Also if this plot ever existed it was literally the Zootopia Abortion Comic before the Zootopia Abortion Comic existed

[heart2beom]

colon and a parenthesis

pairing: bestfriend!beomgyu x f!reader

genre: fluff, light hearted angst/comfort, best friends to ...lovers? drabble (an attempt), best friends who live together!!

synopsis: getting played has got to be the worst feeling ever. for you, you go through that heartbreak every other month. and now you're wailing on your best friend's shoulder again, for the hundredth time, ruining his hoodie. again.

a/n: "he doesn't deserve you" i'm such a basic bitch because the way i squeal over this line...was watching this show that is totally devoid of any romance subplot but i was okay with it because its a good show!! then this cute guy playing the best friend role just says this and im folding. like im being serious, i would've asked what we were. anyways ahahahahahaha, enjoy this as i slave myself into finishing my other bf2l beomgyu fic.

"Why do you look like that?"

You blink, processing his words before turning around, cereal box in hand. "What? What do I look like?" You pat your free hand around your face in attempt to figure out what incited that reaction. If it's an unwanted pimple, you're going to go insane.

Beomgyu huffs out a laugh through his nose, still eating his cereal. "I don't know, it's like you didn't get sleep for the past three decades."

He doesn't catch the roll of your eyes since he's focused on his phone, eating his breakfast but you still make sure to do it anyway. You pour the lucky charms in the bowl, the mention of your tired state gets you fighting the large grin overtaking your face. Reason?

You haven't slept a wink last night, inevitably a bad choice since you have morning classes, but digressing, it had to be the most magical of all nights. You recently got Mingi's number, the cute boy in your Music Comp class, who you've been notably crushing on for weeks.

Beomgyu knows this, obviously since you practically tell him everything, but what he doesn't know is that you've done some progression with your pining.

Other than the fact that he's cute, you find out he's also quite funny and witty, all throughout yesterday's overnight chat. Mingi's absolutely perfect. Like a prince charming. You don't even care that you have to spend extra time covering up your under eyes, it's what comes with the package that is Song Mingi.

You set your cereal on the kitchen island, sitting on the stool next to Beomgyu. Checking your phone for umpteenth time today, reading through the texts from last night still makes you smile a little too hard at the realization that yesterday night was in fact real.

You catch Beomgyu turning his head to you, brows furrowed like he was thinking of what to say, still chewing his food. "So?"

You lay your phone face down, "So what?"

"What happened?"

You realize he's talking about your dark circles. "Nothing, nothing happened. Was just studying all night," your eyes look up from your bowl of cereal to Beomgyu's doubtful eyes. "You know, pointing these things out to a woman is very disrespectful."

He laughs, and turns away shaking his head. Beomgyu was equally as tired looking so it wasn't like he had the right to make a comment. His ginger hair had strands poking out everywhere, dark circles even more evident under his eyes. It made sense, he worked late night shifts, and when he didn't, he'd stay up all night anyway, playing video games.

Yesterday he didn't have work, so you were very graciously blessed with having to hear his usual shenanigans through the walls of your room. He had an issue with keeping his emotions on the low when it came to games, which proved to be a nightmare. But thankfully, you were able to filter out his yelling with every response from Mingi.

"I heard you."

You furrow your brows, glancing to Beomgyu. "Huh? Heard what?"

He gets up, done with his breakfast, heading to the sink. "You were giggling all night. It was really weird," he mentions and your eyes widen, slowly chewing your food. Were you really that loud? How embarrassing. "Even weirder now that I know you were studying."

You throw your head back, groaning—of course he didn't buy your lie. "Beomgyu," you drawl.

"No, no, if you wish to keep your life private, keep it private." He was faking his hurt, but you also know there's some truth to it. Sharing things with each other, with no filter, has always been a staple to your relationship. And it's not like you were the type to be private anyway, so it worked out in the end.

"We were texting all night," you start, the dreamy vision of his face clouds your mind as your eyes sparkle at the thought, "Me and Mingi."

Beomgyu halts, his back faced to you— you don't read too much into it before he finally turns around. "Mingi as in... Music Comp Mingi?"

You flutter your lashes, nodding, barely biting down your smile. "He's a total A-plus heartthrob." you swoon.

Beomgyu lays his forearm on the countertop, standing across of you, tilting his head and a scrunch of his face like he’s willing to debate on that. "Yeah, but didn't Yeonjun happen like, two months ago?"

Yeonjun. The upperclassman you dated for six entire months, probably your longest relationship ever. Which is a little sad, at least for a sophomore in college. The added duration of your relationship made the breakup sting a lot more, as well as the fact that you wholeheartedly believed you'd end up marrying him at some point in the future.

Your smile droops, gaze fallen to the sad looking soggy cereal. "Hey, no, I mean, Y/N I'm just worried, but if you're—if you're over him, Mingi is good for you!" You slowly look up at Beomgyu, and you manage a smile on one end of your lips.

"You think so? Mingi's pretty nice, right?"

He huffs out a laugh through his nose again, he's been doing it a lot more often. "You stayed up all night talking to him, you're in love with him."

You break into a smile, eyes back on your spoon. "Shut up."

He points an accusatory finger, "Your ears just got red, oh my god, you are in love with him!"

You roll your eyes, quickly adjusting your hair to cover your ears. He shakes his head in awe, "You're actually hopeless."

"I'm sorry that he's literally the reincarnation of a prince charming. I can't help it."

"You say that about everyone." That was half true. You never said it about Sunwoo. "Anyways, you guys made plans, right?"

You fall quiet, eyes widening before quickly breaking eye contact with Beomgyu, clearing your throat. A few beats of silence and before you know it, Beomgyu grabs your phone, and is typing in your passcode.

You jump off your seat, "Beomgyu! Don't text him! I swear to god—" You have always made a mental note to change your passcode, but your memory fails you each time. And now you're bearing the consequences.

It quickly turns into a game of cat and mouse the more you go after him—each time, he's directly across from you as he focuses on typing as quickly as he could. Even when you calculate to run the opposite direction, Beomgyu is faster, quickly having the kitchen's island in between you both again.

"Mingi, the love of my life, I proposition you with a date at Gorae's—" he announces aloud, reading off the screen.

You rush to his side in his moment of weakness, reaching to grab your phone but Beomgyu's quick to react, raising his arm high enough for you to struggle to get your phone. God darn his height.

"Give me my phone you ass!"

"—and I want to marry you and have nine babies with you in a cottage far away from the world, my love!"

If he sent that, you'd jump off the balcony of your flat. No doubt. So, you attack him with your most effective weapon.

"And—shit. Oh my god, oh my god Y/N—" He wheezes, he's calm drowsiness dissipating, and he's quick to retreat, hands shielding themselves from your evil fingers. But you don't stop, a mischievous smile breaching your lips, because god is it fun to be the one to tease for once.

You aim for his sides, unprotected and perfect for your fingers to start tickling. His giggles are boisterous as he weakly attempts to stop your hands, but you don't let, "Punishment for being a little bitch."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry— oh my god, have mercy!" he manages to muster between his fit of laughter.

His contagious laugh bubbles one up from you until you hear a ping, and you realize that he might've actually sent that in! In horror, you grab your phone from Beomgyu's loose hold, who was still attempting to calm his laugh down, wiping under his waterline.

You check your messages, and it's in fact one from Mingi. "Beomgyu! Did you actually send him something?" you yell anxiously, eyes wide.

You don't give him time to respond, deciding to rip the bandaid, clicking on your chat. Hesitantly you read the messages after the 'goodnight' you've sent yesterday.

Your brows crease flatten as you read the two messages Beomgyu sent.

"I had fun talking. Maybe we should hang sometime?" you look up from your phone, "Who says that?"

He shrugs, wiping his hand on his sweats, "Probably, I don't know, sane people. What'd he say?"

You smile, looking back at the text Mingi had sent in response. "I'd like that. He'd like that. With a smiley face."

A conflicting smile is on his face as he says, "He'd like that with a smiley face?"

You roll your eyes, it's a terrible attempt at a joke, "A smiley face. Colon and a closing parenthesis."

He lets out an oh of realization as if he truly did not know, nodding. "Good luck, thank me when the wedding happens." he comments, walking into the living room you think— you don't really care. Too far gone as you re-read three simple words. And a colon paired with a closing parenthesis.

You really wish it'd work out this time.

—------------------------------

You don't exactly remember when you started to consider Beomgyu to be one of, if not, your closest friend.

The time he had stayed on a call with you throughout the entire night, on a school night, falling asleep after the spell of drowsiness won against both of your wills to continue talking? It magically seemed like you could endlessly talk, about anything, everything and nothing at the same time, with Beomgyu.

The time your eyes miracally found each other, in heaps of awkward situations? Like when you both ended up being third wheels to your pining friends, or when a party seemed too much for comfort.

Or when Beomgyu confided to you that he spent days learning makeup through lengthy youtube tutorials to help you out with applying it for prom?

Maybe the time you celebrated your graduation by choosing to invite over Beomgyu's family? No, you think it's probably the time you realized the only person you thought of when meaning to ask someone to move in with you—possibly the biggest next life step— was none other than your goofy, sort of odd, friend.

Or maybe it's now.

When you open the door, a heavish Beomgyu with his chest rising and falling, like he just ran a marathon, iris darting quickly going over your state before crashing you straight into his embrace, a hand gently on the back of your head. "I'm here."

You were holding it before he showed up, really holding it. But the warmth of Beomgyu's body against yours is enough for you to break. Your shoulders shake as you silently sob onto Beomgyu's, and his hold on you loosens, the previous panic slowing as he pat your back soothingly.

You knew Beomgyu, he's always been hyper aware of feelings, his own and others. This time, he set aside his own to make it easier for you to let out yours—you always notice when he does this.

His breathing is unstable against your hair, still attempting to catch it. "Why are you here? Don't you have work?" your words come out as a muffle, especially with the way your head is buried against his hoodie.

"You called, idiot."

"I called to ask if you could get milk on your way." You were in the mood for hot chocolate, your comfort drink, but to your absolute dismay, there was no milk. And you strongly preferred your hot chocolate with milk.

Beomgyu only hums in acknowledgement as if to say, yes, you're correct. You did only ask him to get milk.

Your emotions are one of a rollercoaster, once again sobbing like a child, before you pull your head away slowly, sniffling as you look up at him, your hands still wrapped around his waist. "You called in sick?"

His silence makes you feel uneasy, he could just say yes. Or no. Your brows raise. "Did you just ...run out?" you yell, almost pulling away from him completely, but he has senses for things like this —quickly pulling your head into his chest again. You groan.

"Now's not the time to lecture me." he mumbles into your hair.

After a little thinking, you decide to not fight him, giving in to his embrace. You could talk to him about his rash decision skills later, now, you want to be a little more selfish.

You're not sure where it went wrong with Mingi, and you don't really want to think about it. Your lips tremble against the soft fabric, more tears spilling down your cheeks, snot running.

"Can I blow my nose?" you ask. Beomgyu's a tinge hesitant before he just sighs. "Be gross all you want."

It felt like eternity standing there, in front of your door, Beomgyu's hand wrapped around you, and yours around his. He doesn't ask questions, he only stays silent unless you said something first. Usually saying incoherent things about Mingi, how you thought it'd end well, how he was everything to you, your moon, the sun that shone brightly. All through the occasional hiccups and sniffles of your crying session.

"I swear, Mingi—"

Suddenly Beomgyu exhales, his hands falling from your back to pull your head away from his chest. You guess it isn't a pretty look, with your bloodshot eyes, and gross snot messy on your face. But he doesn't hesitate to rub a thumb over your cheek.

"You know he doesn't deserve a minute of your time, Y/N. He doesn't deserve you. Like at all."

You furrow your brows. You don't believe a word. "You've barely met him, how would you know that I don't deserve him? And he realized that, which is why—"

He cuts your self wallow of deprecation off with a violent shake of his head. "Stupid. I've met you. I know you. That's enough information for me to make judgement."

"That's..." tears well up in your waterline again before you bury your head in his hoodie again, "That's so cheesy Beomgyu. Thank you."

You can feel his smile, somehow, it's like you're both connected by a string. "I'm serious, you're the best person I know. Flaws? Everyone has them, you do too, but you're ...still somehow the best person I know. If Mingi can't see that— if, impossibly, no one else can see that, then they don't deserve you. You know that?"

You nod meekly, soaking up his words. Millions of things could be said in response, something that could tell him how much highly you think of him too, but the dry of your throat prevents you from so.

"Tell me a joke." you say instead.

He ponders a bit before landing on one. "Can I be the parenthesis to your colon?"

You look up at him, silent, before you weakly hit his chest, laughing. When Mingi asked you to be his girlfriend, he said those exact words, and you had came home, raving all about it to Beomgyu, even though deep down, you found it a little ...too cheesy for your taste.

Beomgyu held the same opinion, except he was vocal about it. Making fun of the line for an entire weeks worth.

"Too soon."

He scratches the back of his head, a sorry smile on his face, "Yeah?"

You don't know if this breakup would be worse than the one you had with Yeonjun—only time could tell. All you knew was that no matter what it'd feel like—hell, like you were walking on pins and needles, like drowning in hot soup; Beomgyu would be by your side. That alone is enough, something that reminded you that this feeling would go away eventually.

ending a/n: you're done!! this might have to be considered the longest proclaimed drabble ever lol (2.6k words this is not a drabble) but anyways, like always, thoughts are appreciated.

[sgiandubh]

Finalmente leggo qualcosa che è perfettamente in linea con il mio pensiero. Ho letto i libri della Gabaldon( non l’ultimo pubblicato) e sinceramente mi è piaciuto il primo e poi la curiosità mi ha portato verso gli altri . La prima stagione è stata perfetta come ambientazione, costumi , luci e realismo recitativo. Ho sempre pensato che si poteva terminare con la stagione tre . Ho continuato a guardare le nuove serie per vedere se si ripeteva il miracolo della prima ma non è più successo . Forse la sceneggiatura , le scenografie, i costumi , la regia , gli attori, non lo so… recupereranno con le ultime ?Arrivero’ alla fine perché spero si vada ad una recitazione di cuore e non solo di buona tecnica . Grazie per essere qui con noi .

Dear (returning) @findanserwers,

Tante, tante grazie (mille!) per le tue belle parole - finalmente qualcuno ha capito perfettamente che quello che volevo dire era la mia opinione e solo la mia opinione! Ma prima, permettimi di tradurre ciò che mi hai così gentilmente inviato:

'I am finally reading something that is perfectly in line with my thoughts. I read Gabaldon's books (not the latest published) and honestly I liked the first one and then curiosity led me to the others. The first season was perfect in terms of setting, costumes, lights and acting realism. I always thought that it could end with season three. I continued to watch the new series to see if the miracle of the first one would be repeated but it never happened again. Maybe the script, the sets, the costumes, the direction, the actors, I don't know… will they catch up with the latest ones? I'll get to the end because I hope we'll go to heartfelt acting and not just good technique. Thank you for being here with us.'

Oh, darling: thank you for reading me and thank you for sending such an honest and positive message. I have very few things to add to it, in reality and I think you hit the nail on the head when you told me that you were hoping OL will end with 'heartfelt action, not just good technique'. I dare to think that this is what keeps us all still around - this hope the series and its cast could finally find a way to redeem and perhaps even free themselves from contrived acting and a terrible, terrible story line. At this point, I am very much tempted to add some more, but I will spare my judgement until we reach that much talked about Lord John/Claire subplot, lest people would accuse me of groundless charge against Gabaldon and her Masterpiece. Ahem.

Since Everest is apparently all the rage in this fandom, right now, may I recommend with all my heart Terzani's last travelogue, Un altro giro di giostra/One More Ride on the Merry-Go-Round? I discovered him many years ago, prompted by a very adamant Someone, and I have to tell you I have seldom read something more deep and beautiful and true about the Himalayas and the mystique surrounding it.

You are (always, always) welcome.

[tobiasdrake]

Nobody liked Mako and Korra's romance until Korrasami became popular.

...

I had a bigger point I was going to make. This was actually about Agatha All Along originally. But I kinda lost my train of thought and derailed into another station.

And this is all that's left of it. Just. A reminder, for anyone who remembers the bitter fandom rivalry between Korrasami shippers and Makorra Endgame shippers, that nobody ever actually liked Mako and Korra's romance until The Gays reared their heads.

The Makorra subplot was the single most reviled storyline in Avatar history. It was universally loathed by the fandom and everybody cheered when it was finally done away with.

But after fans watching season three started going, "You know, Korra and Asami would be really cute together. It kinda feels like they're going somewhere with this...." suddenly Makorra received a surge in retaliatory popularity. 2014 Avatar discourse was an intense shipping war between the LGBT ship and the most hated straight ship in the fandom.

Nobody liked the ship. But they'd rather have more of it than the emasculation of Mako "losing" to The Gays.

[legendary-defender-of-fandoms]

Some Spoiler Free Thoughts on Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

It’s obvious that everyone had the time of their lives working on this movie! You could see the joy in Willem Dafoe’s eyes in every scene he was in.

Much like the first movie, the cartoon, and the musical, every single character is a goddamn weirdo. And I am HERE for it! Give me your weirdos, your oddballs, your nonconformists.

The effects. Dear God, it was SO fucking refreshing to see stop motion animation, real-ass puppets, prosthetics, makeup, props, EVERYTHING!!!! Years from now, people can go through the Warner Brothers Studio Lot or their prop warehouses & find all the amazing stuff they made for this movie, and say “Holy crap, they made real shit for that movie!” No mocap pajamas or tennis balls on sticks for Mr. Burton. Take notes, Disney - THIS is the good shit we want more of!

The shrunken head guys are obviously piggy-backing off the Minions success. But they’re not in the movie for very long & don’t say anything, so it’s tolerable. Also Bob is best boy.

It’s important to remember that Movie Beetlejuice is NOT Musical Beetlejuice. I went in to this sequel knowing they were two VERY different interpretations & continuities, and I wasn’t expecting Movie Beetlejuice to suddenly grow a conscience or get all sentimental because of the musical. And I’m not saying one version of Beetlejuice is better or worse than the others - I think it’s awesome how there can be three wildly different & beloved takes on a single character. But you can’t forget that they are different, especially when Movie Beetlejuice does some things that Musical Beetlejuice would never, or even Cartoon Beetlejuice would have some moral questions about. It’s best to think of it as a Multi Verse - on one timeline Beetlejuice is a shameless pervert who lives to make others uncomfortable, on another Beetlejuice is a chaos gremlin who’s always down for a little mischief, and on the third Beetlejuice is a demon who just wants a hug, a friend, and an orgy.

All that being said, it can’t be denied that the musical had SOME influence on the sequel. It might be reaching to say that one of Lydia’s lyrics from “Say My Name” managed to work its way into the movie, but everyone acknowledges that a major plot thread from the musical was adapted to the movie as one of the many subplots. And while I think the movie did ok with it, the musical handled it far better.

[lizzybeth1986]

Maxwell and Penelope: When You Like Your Side Character So Much, You Gift Her a Shiny New LI

Series - TRR's Alternative LIs: The Romances that Didn't Happen

Previous - Liam and Olivia: When You Prefer the Side Character to the Main

A/N: There won't be a lot of exploration on Maxwell x Penelope, as there is very little the pair gets in canon. I will be largely looking at their individual characterizations and the changes and retcons made there. There will be a lot of exploration on Penelope x Ezekiel.

CW: Mentions of Penelope's actions as part of Constantine's nefarious plot against the MC in TRR1 & 2, mentions of Penelope's social anxiety.

(Screenshots from the Skylia YouTube Channel, Drake playthrough)

Compared to the other three alternative romances, Maxwell x Penelope turned out to be a bit of a one-chapter wonder. It was extremely short-lived, and the only indication that it had ever happened was one conversation between Penelope and the MC in TRR2 Ch 6, after which there is no reference to it, ever again.

In my mind there are two major factors behind this pairing being left behind, which I will get into later in this essay. However, what I find even more interesting is what the narrative and the writing team did with Penelope after they set aside that subplot. What did TRR3 give her in lieu of this alternative romance, and why, and what does it tell us about the narrative that she alone got that?

But before we can get into that, we need to look (separately) at how Maxwell and Penelope were written in TRR1, and how it culminated in the characterizations they got by TRR2.

The Evolution of (White) Side Characters

One thing that fascinates me about TRR1 is the trajectory of some of the characters, when you observe them on rereads. We often go into those rereads with a strong impression of their character type (or stereotype), before we learn to our surprise that the initial writing doesn't always match the image we carried in our heads.

In the case of some side characters, we may find traces and hints of a totally different characterization, before the team zeroed in on a trope or characteristic that may have hit the right chord with the audience. When done right, this could result in a more rounded character. But in the wrong hands, the writer may keep falling back to that one trope that made the character click, and turn them into caricatures instead.

Maxwell and Penelope are representative of different tiers of side characters, at least in TRR1 - which means that what we may expect in terms of treatment will vary as well. Even before TRR2, Maxwell was more LI-tier adjacent; until he got his LI-upgrade in TRR2, he was a frequent presence in the story and the MC's life, enough that his fans started a "Make Maxwell an LI" campaign. Penelope (along with Kiara) was a far less important character with infrequent appearances.

So of course their trajectories wouldn't be the same. It's interesting, nonetheless, to see how the writing changed over the course of the series, what parallels or complementary traits made the team consider Penelope as an alternative for Maxwell by TRR2, and why they ultimately let go of the pair after one chapter.

As we go through these stories, I think I'd like my readers to keep one thing in mind throughout - Penelope is an anomaly as a character. There are very specific things she is given that at least one other character in the same position doesn't get. Why?

I might not be able to give the answer in this specific essay, but I do think it's a question we need to keep asking ourselves as we go through her story.

Maxwell and Penelope - TRR1

A truly interesting thing about Maxwell was that he was initially not even conceptualized as a prominent character in the books! In their promotional interview for TRR2, Kara mentioned this about the creation of his character:

Excerpt from The Royal Romance: Book 2 interview.

Maxwell was initially conceptualized as a fun foil for Bertrand, the MC's tentative guide for the social season - who the writers considered too stiff and boring to stand alone as a character. Owing to his proximity to both Liam (close friend) and the MC (sponsor), it made sense that Maxwell was a part of the group scenes from the jump.

Going by the interviews, clearly Maxwell's 'fun nature' was his main USP for the writers. TRR1 does try to balance this aspect of his personality with scenes where he shows perceptiveness (such as pointing out opportunities to ally with Kiara or Penelope), but as time goes on he is viewed more and more as the 'funny guy' of the group. He also has a side-story connected with his older brother, who isn't very impressed with his work during the social season (tbh, for good reason!). This side story allows us to view him with sympathy and perhaps overlook all his failures as a sponsor (and there are many examples of this throughout TRR1. Most of the opportunities to connect with the main LIs emerge from all the times Maxwell failed to adequately guide her - teaching her the Cordonian Waltz, explaining the significance of the Regatta Race, finding the right tents, telling the MC to get swimwear for a beach party!).

Of course, because TRR2 (where the Beaumonts are her staunch allies from the jump, even before the LIs return and pledge their support shortly after) and the "Make Maxwell an LI" campaign created such a strong impression on the fandom, people remember him most as the "person who was always there for the MC".

Though he doesn't become an LI in TRR1, we do get our first ever hint of the possibility midway through the book:

(Screenshots from the HIMEME YouTube Channel)

Most of the people I know joined the TRR fandom either in the middle of Book 1, or after Books 2 or 3 - therefore, much of what I'm about to say next is down to conjecture. It is possible that either some stans did pop up in the initial chapters, resulting in the hint in Ch 8, OR that the writers tentatively teased this pairing with the dialogue at the Lythikos Ball, and were gratified enough by the response to continue teasing it. By TRR1 Chs 10 and 11, there was already plenty fanfic on Maxwell x MC. The writers were clearly encouraged enough by the response to toss a few more hints (the MC asking Maxwell about taking his shirt off at the beach, the implications of the MC telling Maxwell she is falling for someone else). Before the fandom knew it, Maxwell had already become the beneficiary of two diamond scenes focused on him in TRR1 (a flashback scene that introduced Savannah, and having fun sliding down banisters in the finale).

Penelope's trajectory in Book 1 didn't experience as meteoric a rise in popularity, but there were changes made throughout the series until she did become somewhat popular. Her trajectory could be categorised in three parts:

1. A minor noble who was very poised and proper (snobbish, if you weren't fitting in well enough)

2. Adorable ditz

3. The lady with social anxiety (TRR2)

From their entrance in TRR1 Ch 3, both Penelope and Kiara were written as extremely minor characters compared to the three frontrunners (and one female LI) of the social season. They accept early on that they don't have much of a chance in the competition, and are the first contenders (barring Hana) that the MC can get on her side. They represent the opinions and mindsets of the royal court.

Because of this, Penelope and Kiara initially appeared almost indistinguishable from each other. The only thing that seems to set them apart is perhaps the introduction Olivia gives at the Masquerade, pointing to Penelope's lineage and Kiara's linguistic skills and diplomatic pedigree. She was the titled one, Kiara was the "smart" one.

(Penelope's scenes from my failplay, in order:

1 & 2: Ch 3, while speaking about Olivia's connection to the Prince, and if you ask her and Kiara why they allow Olivia to call them 'harpies'

3 & 4: Ch 4, Penelope's response to the MC saying, "Penelope, hands off my man"

5 & 6: Ch 6, if you don't fall in line behind the Queen and bump against her instead

7: Ch 6, when Olivia is shocked that Liam chose the MC

8: Ch 8, reaction to Olivia kissing Liam)

Penelope's early scenes in TRR1 didn't showcase the traits she is now so well-known for. She wasn't the "adorable ditz" until the Applewood chapters; in fact her scenes in the first half often showed her as poised and very proper. At the Masquerade she calmly points out to the MC that there is no reason to be offended, when Olivia bluntly declares that no one else has a chance with Liam. She expects decorum from the MC when she cuts in during her dance with Liam, and even comments on the inappropriateness of some of Olivia's behaviours and cautions her when she gets a chance. If your MC makes mistakes in public in certain scenes, Penelope doesn't hesitate to laugh at her.

Her allyship scene in Ch 10 hinges on the MC's ability to convince Penelope of the advantages of supporting her, and rescuing the lady from a crab bite. She is extremely rude in certain options, and ends their conversation with the sentence "I'm not nice" if she isn't convinced the MC is worth supporting. In fact, she is allowed to call the MC a commoner wench in a certain dialogue option!

(Screenshots from my failplay. The top half shows a response to one of the MC's dialogues (she is merely sad if you choose the second one). The second is the end of the conversation when the MC asks for her support)

In a failplay especially, she can be very, very mean-spirited, which is truly ironic given her later characterization as someone who is herself uncomfortable in court and makes more than her fair share of silly mistakes. Fortunately for most of the players, the more "positive" version of the scene sounds a bit more like she's scared and uncomfortable and not equipped to handle the rigors of court. Which makes the "adorable ditz" direction that PB takes, post Regatta, a bit more believable.

Once Penelope is no longer a contender, both she and Kiara recede to the background. You don't see much of her in Applewood and Ramsford, but the little you do see primes us to view her as "sweet and silly" with a bit of a poodle obsession. Two very good examples of this is the "cheating scene" at the pie competition (TRR1 Ch12) and the aftermath of the Beaumont Bash (Ch 16). At the pie competition, Olivia and the MC can team up to distract Penelope so they trick the rival team into adding salt in their pie instead of sugar, by getting her to talk more about her poodle obsession. At the end of the Beaumont Bash, she is shown exchanging drunken chatter with a horse. The book also makes her preoccupation with poodles way more obvious, where before it was brought up only once at the Masquerade Ball.

Discrepancies between portrayals in the first book vs the latter ones is par the course for TRR. Every character has those in some way or form. Maxwell's story in TRR1 and 2 at least could make sense with enough headcanons to fill in the gaps (for why he was inefficient in his support of the MC, for why his relationship with Drake was so fraught) and his characterization is a little bit more consistent. But Penelope's, on closer observation, is a complete mess and her story doesn't make any sense when put together.

Maxwell and Penelope - TRR2

Compared to the other three pairings, Maxwell x Penelope doesn't go beyond a single chapter.

(Screenshots from Skylia's YouTube channel)

This solitary hint pops up in TRR2 Ch 6, right after the Big Clue about Penelope's social anxiety. We're given the usual options one gets for alternative LIs - a "matchmaking" one, a gently discouraging one and an insulting one, the last two of which could be read as jealousy from the MC's end. In fact, the MC's third dialogue option in this scene is so mean spirited that Hana is required to soften the blow!

There's something interesting about the matchmaking response for this scene, and I think it says plenty about the writers and the lasting impression of these characters they wanted us to have.

"You're both a bit silly...but in a way that works." It's a reading of Maxwell and Penelope that leans very strongly into their potential as comic relief, that views the two characters as alike. Both "cute", both "silly", both there to give the characters (and readers) the occasional laugh.

Is this completely accurate to their characterizations in TRR1? Probably not. But it's clearly what the writers imagined would work well for those characters.

Interestingly, TRR2 is also where the team seems to experiment more with these two characters, and finds the characterizations they think would land with the audience. Maxwell's changes are related more to the belated buildup the narrative was giving him to be an LI, and most of Penelope's was related to her role in the plot against the MC. Maxwell is given more heroic traits (eg. the Savannah storyline and his involvement in the investigation) to beef up his story a bit, and plenty of hints are scattered specifically to tease a romantic route with the MC for more than half the book. The narrative also leans far more into his position as comic relief than TRR1 does, making it his most identifiable trait.

There are tiny nods to his "perceptiveness" (Liam mentions it twice in TRR2), but he does a lot of things that you wouldn't see a TRR1 Maxwell do, like tossing a bruschetta at a foreign dignitary or playing with food to get the forgiveness of his friend (btw the Drake Maxwell friendship reads very differently from the first book; they're remarkably chilly in their vibes towards each other initially. Of course, one could headcanon what caused a rift, but that's still us doing the work instead of the writers!!).

Because so much time has to be spent bringing Maxwell's romantic route up to speed with the rest, the progress of the relationship is different from the other three and his romantic scenes cost less (until TRR3 Ch 10, his first 30 diamond scene). Much of this is par for the course for an LI who has entered the game late. In addition, the narrative also tries in TRR2 and 3 to balance his role as the MC's sponsor with his new role as LI, and it doesn't always land (eg. his excitement for Liam's proposal to the MC two chapters after becoming an LI, or his weirdly impersonal reaction in the TRR3 Ch 11 Armory diamond scene in his playthrough, in response to Madeleine mocking Liam for the MC favouring Maxwell). In part this is a result of laziness from PB's end, and in part it's because navigating Maxwell's new role itself may have been a tricky business.

Penelope's TRR2 trajectory, in contrast, is the textbook definition for "throw spaghetti against the wall and see what sticks". Hints of her involvement in the plot don't even show up until Ch 6, just one chapter prior to the reveal. The reasoning given for Penelope's actions in TRR1 - social anxiety - also directly contradicts what is shown of her during the timeline when she was supposed to have been involved in the plot. TRR1 Ch 14 and the Coronation at the finale shows her acting calm, collected and enjoying herself. A lot of Penelope's actions in TRR1 and 2 - esp at the Coronation and in Fydelia - cast an extremely poor light on her when you take into account that she knew the MC was innocent, and that she'd played a part in framing her. From the way the reveal of her condition was done, and the way we're expected to brush her wrongdoing aside immediately, it's clear that Penelope's "social anxiety" was more about tossing in a last-minute Hail Mary to excuse her actions, rather than any real interest in exploring the subject.

Given the sloppy execution of this reveal, it is entirely possible that Madeleine could have been the "lady" in initial drafts (the strongest evidence of this is TRR2 Ch 1's "constitutional clause", which is never referenced again once Madeleine is no longer a suspect), and they made a switch in the nth hour.

It is also possible that writers in the team liked Penelope enough that they wanted readers to still like her after she'd betrayed their MCs. She hasn't been referenced or mentioned in any team interviews, but the writing speaks for itself. No matter what she's done, the narrative insists the MC center her, sympathize with her, and coddle her. I will speak more at length on how in the TRR3 section.

Why did Maxwell x Penelope Not Take Off?

(The first three screenshots are from the Abhirio YouTube Channel, and the rest are from the Radiance Guardians YouTube Channel)

Unlike in the case of the other pairings, not a lot was said in the fandom about this pair either way, even among Maxwell stans. You did have the occasional "hands off my man!" post from a Maxwell shipper, but not to a great extent. At this point many of them were still unsure whether a Maxwell route would be finalized, and even kept Liam as a standby in case all that teasing from the team came to nothing.

Again, most of the theories for why this pairing had just one scene are mere conjecture, since there isn't much evidence overall. But looking at the placement of this scene and what happens before and after it, I can think of two possible reasons why it was nipped in the bud:

1. Maxwell being a late-in-the-game LI could have made balancing an actual romance route and interactions with an alternative love interest tricky in the long run. As it is, his writing was subject to gaffes and mistakes in TRR3 even without this added storyline. It's possible they decided to just ensure that they got Maxwell to the point where he could have his own 30-diamond love scene (which happened in TRR3 Ch 9 btw (half a book after Drake and Hana got their first 30-diamond scenes), and not focus on anything else.

2. This teaser scene came up in Ch 6. Ch 7 is when Penelope is revealed to have tricked Tariq into coming to the MC's room, and paid the photographer to take intimate photos of her. Now to be fair, the narrative does insist she be sympathized with rather than judged. But I do think a subplot like that would automatically make her an unpopular candidate for any LI, much less one who hasn't even been clearly established as an LI yet! Having Maxwell fall for a woman who did the MC dirty wouldn't reflect very well on him, social anxiety or no. In fact, in Ch 8, Maxwell's reaction to the news is the strongest - he calls Penelope "a few dogs short of a pack", "downright diabolical" and even suspects she was lying about having poodles.

3. It is just as likely that Maxwell x Penelope was never a serious consideration for the writers in the first place. Possibly, Penelope's scene here was simply another hint in a rising pile that teased a Maxwell romance route. Players often do get an added pleasure from watching their MCs mouth a catty dialogue or two to a romantic rival, so this scene may have been more for the benefit of a Maxwell stan who wanted to "fight for her man" rather than an actual possibility if he wasn't getting picked.

Whatever their reasons, Maxwell and Penelope's chances as a couple ended pretty much in the same chapter that it began. It didn't create much of an impact, and no one really seemed to notice this pairing, or the lack of it. It basically started and finished with a whimper.

TRR3 and Beyond - Penelope and Ezekiel (ft. A Flanderized Maxwell)

Penelope is an anomaly among the side characters (and even among certain mains!) in both series'. She is the only person seriously involved in the plot against the MC, who needs massive coddling to even answer our questions about her betrayal (if not, Hana has to take over for you). She is the only lady-of-the-court who can refuse to attend your wedding. She is the only lady-of-the-court who can choose to travel with the entourage to another duchy, despite not being part of the Unity Tour. She is the only one among the three former ladies-in-waiting who can openly complain about Madeleine's bullying, and expect protection against her from the group. Until TRH2, Penelope was the only side character for whom massive divergences in the narrative would be made as well, to accommodate her comfort and mental health (More on that in this essay).

She is also the only alternative LI to be "rewarded" with a brand new character, crafted specially for her.

Until TRR3 Ch 7, the fandom didn't even know Kiara had an older brother. Even though the person we know best in Castelserraillan is Kiara, we actually spend less than a minute with her, and far more time with Ezekiel Theron. There is an entire diamond scene that's about pampering and complimenting him, making him comfortable around us, getting him to open to us - even though his sister was the one injured at Homecoming Ball. And of course, the entire reason for Penelope to even be present at Kiara's estate is so that she and Zeke can be paired up by default! Even at the Food and Art Festival, Kiara's only real default dialogue apart from winning over her mother (or not), is about moving Penelope and Ezekiel's romance along.

Both Penelope and Ezekiel join the Unity Tour only by option, so the narrative puts in a great deal of effort to get the romance going (by having Penelope only stop at Kiara's estate by default) and allowing the two to still have a fledgling courtship going on if they weren't together at the Unity Tour (Penelope still gets to meet people who inspire her into dog fashion and she and Zeke still show their interest in each other, propelling the parents to discuss their match).

The only thing we know about Ezekiel, and pretty much the only thing that really matters, is that he loves animals. In a court that views Penelope's love for dogs as an oddity, Ezekiel is a character tailormade to romance her. He rarely features in scenes that don't show her (the only exception is the menagerie scene in Ch 14), he rarely has dialogue outside of his scenes with her, he doesn't even have a personality beyond what would best suit Penelope. This character exists only to romance Penelope, which is depressing esp when you consider that she is a white woman, and he is a black man - and she is clearly the only one who even matters in this relationship!

There wasn't any real reason to give Penelope a partner. "Penzekiel" doesn't really do much for the story in general, and not a lot would change if you dropped them. But the narrative deems it essential to give her a "reward", which is ironic considering what she put the MC through and how much we had to coddle her for her to even consider cooperating, either in the investigation or during the Unity Tour. Presumably this "reward" is for her "niceness" and "sweetness", which only works because the narrative completely erases her misdeeds in the social season after TRR2. She never has to remember what she did, nor does anyone in the core group remind her.

With regards to Maxwell, by TRR3 he is a full-fledged LI who gets a wedding with his MC, in certain playthroughs. Much of his playthrough focuses on trying to catch up with the other 3 LIs - you can sleep with them if they're your fiancé/ée, but you have to wait until Ch 10 to sleep with Maxwell. The narrative mentions him taking up "responsibilities" for House Beaumont in lieu of Bertrand, but without any real scenes that show us what he is doing, nor any tangible results (we will not talk about Maxwell's book here!).

He doesn't have any alternative romances. In fact even his romantic playthrough is kinda bare - his only individual scene is the Armoury scene which isn't even about him, and there were glitches that were very noticable particularly in his and Hana's playthroughs. There are no references at all to the alternative romance Maxwell was given in TRR2; it's almost as if that option had never existed.

Penelope being a romantic option for Maxwell doesn't stop the two from having friendly exchanges in TRR3 though. Maxwell was not only allowed - but expected - to treat Penelope with sympathy and respect.

(First set of screenshots is mine, the second is from Skylia's YouTube Channel)

Not only Maxwell, even Drake - who hates most nobles - is shown being extremely protective of Penelope in both TRR3 (promising Penelope to protect her against Madeleine) and TRH3 (showing anger at Guy's blackmail of Penelope and her family). The narrative is very clear that we are expected to make Penelope feel safe, even if she has never made us feel anything but unsafe.

This relationship - and the level of coddling that Penelope has always received from TRR2 onwards - continues into TRH, where she and her beau Ezekiel are shown together, there are occasional updates on their relationship when either one appears in a chapter, and where they eventually marry and start a family. An interesting pattern begins to emerge once we get into TRH.

(Screenshots from Skylia and HIMEME's YouTube Channel)

As the only courtly lady in a relationship in TRH, Penelope gets a nicer, cleaner, more luxurious and more drama-free parallel to the MC's romantic journey. Like the MC, she finds a suitor who falls for her and wants to be with her. Like the LI, he eventually stages a grand proposal for her (TRH2 Ch 18), after they have spent a significant amount of time together. Like the MC, she has a widely publicized wedding (though tbh Penelope's was better customised to her tastes, and as the MC we put even more work into her wedding than we ever did our own!! (we were both her bridesmaid and her officiant, our daughter is the flower girl, we give her the perfect bachelorette, we rescue her from her asshole ex-husband, we help her select lingerie!!!)). And when the MC announces her second pregnancy, Penelope announces to us her first. Penelope's storyline has all the romantic trappings that the MC had with her LI, but without the tension, the conspiracies, the attacks and kidnappings, or the constant fear that someone is out to get her and her family.

Penelope is basically treated like MC-lite. Quite the upgrade for a mere side character who actually did us dirty at one point.

Does Maxwell - her potential LI for all of one chapter - suffer as a result of this upgrade? Apart from the Flanderization, I would say no, he actually didn't.

He doesn't get the lavish Drake treatment, true, but he is centered in the issues that bother him. The MC, by default, has always been expected to defend him to Bertrand from TRR1 onwards, and often argues that Maxwell tried as hard as he could to help her, even when he didn't. Her sympathy towards him whenever Bertrand justifiably berates him for his negligence is by default too. And while he improves in TRR2 and (somewhat) 3, in TRH3 the entire group is thrown into this position again. Even though Maxwell exaggerates events in his friends' lives to an insulting degree in his book and the subsequent movie adaptation, the group often brushes their discomfort aside and supports him instead. And even though his lies in said book about Bertrand (TRH2 Ch 11) indirectly cause the latter to give up his lands to their father (resulting in Bartie Sr's attempt to usurp the throne), the MC spends all of the next book comforting him, involving him in her investigations, and patting his hand sympathetically while he moans about the father who killed the former queen of the country, all while ignoring the son of the woman Bartie Sr. killed, and raging against the elder brother who is secretly supporting them (even after the reveal, the group judges Bertrand heavily and even suspects him of being part of Via Imperii in TRF). Very little is said - either by Maxwell himself or by anyone else - about his role in facilitating this awful takeover.

All in all, Maxwell may have not gotten an alternative LI at the end of the day, and his overall LI path was pretty messy - but there was some thought and consideration put into his writing. The focus on Penelope and her new romance never actually harmed Maxwell.

Fandom

As I've mentioned before, Maxwell wasn't an LI in the beginning, but rose to LI status in Book 2. While the writers did make claims once in their TRF finale livestream that they had planned to make him an LI all along, I find that a bit hard to believe. From the way the hints were dropped it's way more possible that this was a development that came up once enough people in the fandom found him attractive enough to be LI material.

As the Make Maxwell an LI campaign grew in popularity, the fandom often held a rosy view of him, calling him "the only valid white guy", celebrating his queerness (as they should! It was hinted that he was pansexual in TRR2 Ch 18), showered him with sympathy and called Bertrand names for berating him. None of the nitpicking that certain other LIs would get for not supporting her properly, ever touched Maxwell. Nor did the fandom - who did criticize him quite a bit for his trashy book, and protested his Flanderization - ever view him with anything besides sympathy when he struggled to believe his father was evil, after he'd encouraged his brother to make said father the head of Beaumont House. This was the same fandom that didn't hesitate to find the most nonsensical excuses to trash Liam.

The Maxwell-Penelope scene was a fun way for some Maxwell stans to allow their MCs to act a bit possessive of him, and they were very critical of Penelope's betrayal later. But the overall response to Penelope's storyline was overwhelmingly positive. Many related to what she said about suffering from social anxiety, and especially to the lines about her emotional support poodles (ironically in another book, Sloane Washington got scant sympathy or respect despite clear indicators that she suffered from social anxiety too), and were quick to forgive.

(I must confess I was among this portion of the fandom too, but with the belief that she would address it more strongly herself in TRR3)

Fandom didn't mind buying into the canon myths that Penelope was a "sweet, naive" girl, and part of this is understandable because not many got to see what she was like in the failplay. So it was easier to presume that she would still take a little responsibility and wholeheartedly regret her actions, without seeing the failplay scenes where she is shown expecting to be treated like royalty by the woman she screwed over. Penelope and Ezekiel were viewed by most as a cute pair, with some (justifiably) liking this interracial match initially. Many readers who were fond of Penelope even criticized Kiara for being "mean" to her or "joining in Madeleine's bullying of her", when Kiara's behaviour was clearly more protective than harmful.

There was a slight rise in a general negative attitude towards Penelope in TRH3, when she could prioritise her wedding over the looming terror of the MC's child being taken away from her, and only speak up when the MC encouraged her at the altar. But very often people who made these criticisms clubbed her and Kiara together, as if they were a single unit...as if their actions and choices throughout the series were the same. As if Kiara got the same concessions and pampering that Penelope did. In reality, the choices the two women made - and the narrative treatment the two women got - couldn't be any more different.

Individually, Maxwell's and Penelope's stories show us what happens when the writers of a story lean too much towards fandom adulation, and allow it to dictate the way their stories will go. In both cases PB found a beat that the readers liked and stuck with it, never expanding beyond that one trait and causing the two to be caricatures of themselves. In Penelope's case especially, once her anxiety story resonated, the narrative used that to encourage readers to pamper her ad nauseum, and justified her lack of genuine care for anyone but herself through constant reminders of her mental health condition.

I will repeat the question I'd asked at the beginning of this essay - What did TRR3 give her in lieu of this alternative romance, and why, and what does it tell us about the narrative that she alone got that? That's a question I hope you'll keep asking in the next two essays.

Next - Hana and Madeleine: When You Reward Your Favourite Bully with One of Her Victims

[idontactuallywherepjs]

pt.3 BOOK 2!!!!

Halt is a Dad. He is such a Dad. I loved him in this book. Sending Will away on a "safe" mission (honey, you've got a big storm coming) so he can relax even in a time of war and regain trust in himself is so sweet.

He was so like, idk loving? when talking to Gilan about this mission. The vibe to me was just "I'm proud of you and trust you, you have nothing to worry about. I've seen what you've become and know you can do this"

All three of them ribbing on each other when Gilan first arrives, they're so comfy with each other!

Also recommending Horace in part because he's Will's friend and he wants to let these kids just, be kids together? I have cavities.

And THEN. They've gone on the mission. His two boys are out of the house, off on a journey and he's stuck in Araluen. And he's coping. He's coping in a very healthy and normal manner.

He's coping by throwing people into moats. Hilarious.

Arald, Rhodney and Lady Pauline put their heads together, figure out that it's empty nest syndrome, and decide to shove a happy child who needs a little bit of reassurance in his general direction: Alyss.

They think this will solve him chucking people into moats.

She tells him to do it again. Beautiful, this is so fun. Half the time they're on this mini journey Halt's thinking about Will. It's great.

I have a lot of feelings for this family can you tell?

The romance is clunky. That's like my big negative for this book. Alyss declaring when she was young that she was going to marry Will? Very cute. Her telling his dad that? Why? that's my only complaint with it why would she tell him that?

Also everyone being hung up on Pauline and Halt maybe being a thing in the past? It wasn't really confirmed, heavily implied maybe, and I think that two people who are dedicated to their jobs drifting apart and ending a relationship, then years later getting back together as they've both grown and missed the other person in that way and coming out of it stronger is a super sweet story. It'd be adorable. But it's like, thrown in there by other characters? and it's out of place almost? especially since their country just entered war?

I had a similar problem with the kiss in book one. Objectively? very sweet, i didn't mind it. But their was a lack of build up that made it a bit shoehorned in? It was a lot more obvious in this book though.

Thankfully, we don't spend all that much time on the romance subplots because those were not working at this moment.

I was very surprised when the war kicked off immediately. I was expecting it to build for at least a few books, and it to take like six to get sorted or something, but no. We're just in it now.

It didn't feel too sudden though. It felt very much like this was something Morgarath had set up over that past fifteen years, and the events of the story only started because He was finally ready, not because our heroes were ready to confront him.

I like that. He wasn't dragged out as the ultimate evil of the world, nobody can stop him except these young upstarts. He's a warlord, and he's acting like it. He didn't have much of a character, just a menacing presence for our protagonists to shiver at, but he did serve the story well.

pt 4 incoming super fast, that one will focus on the goings on in Celtica, and then pt 5 should be focusing more on the end of the book. I had a lot more to gush about in book 2 then i thought.

[angrylittletrashpanda]

On "alysmond" and "helaemond"

For some reason, there’s a petty war going on between fierce “helaemond” and “alysmond” stans. Fr, I totally don’t understand why should those ships be mutually exclusive? If “helaemond” actually becomes the show canon, I can totally see Helaena breaking up with her brother-boyfriend after B’n’C. IMO Aemond’s recklessness and long-harbored, ill-concealed hatred for Luke , contributing to Jaehaerys’ tragic death is a reason enough for Hel to stay away from him, never mind how dear the siblings (with benefits) used to be to each other. In this scenario, Aeamond could pursue a relationship with Alys, never mind his previous (more or less romantic) engagement with Helaena…

In addition, if “helaemond” is confirmed, this subplot doesn’t necessary have to be some fabulous love story. I mean the siblings *may* have been getting along with each other pretty well , and I really enjoy the idea of young Aemond having a crush on his big sister. I find it really cute, that’s all. In my opinion teenage Aemond, doubtlessly familiar with the idea of “courtly love” (I’m guessing this concept could exist in the quasi-medieval Westeros), might have enjoyed performing the role of righteous knight, worshipping his “future queen” from afar , as if there was a “secret RPG session”, going on but in his head. Frankly speaking, the young !Knight Aemond and his !Lady Helaena don’t even have to get sexually involved and their “forbidden love” could remain just cute, childish crush, as the time goes by turning into mature friendship, mutual care and understanding. Perhaps older Aemond, driven with his sense of responsibility, would want to become a proprer father figure/ role model for his little nephews and niece? I like to think well-educated, smart  Aemond, familiar with the story of Daenys the Dreamer, and keeping his sister company more often than her joke of a husband, found out Hel was a Dragon Dreamer.

On the other hand, we cannot rule out Helaena and Aemond becoming lovers, but IMO such a scenario would be pretty dark. It seems to me it could happened only if the show version of Helaena remained childless after two or three years of marriage (yet again, I am speaking about the show counterpart of the FnB Helaena, who canonically bore the twins about a year after she had wed Aegon) and Aemond started to fear someone like Larys Strong would simply get rid of Hel, so that the WIDOWED crown prince could take another bride. So, Aemond shared his fears with his sister, and the siblings agreed they ought to cuckold Aegon in order to secure Helaena’s position as the future queen, and thusly save her life… It’s possible the righteous prince Aemond , loathing the mere idea of fathering bastards, could have secretly married his sister (it could have been a traditional Valyrian ceremony, which still wouldn’t make the whole situation any romantic).  However, even as a “secretly married” couple, who could grow to quite enjoy performing their “conjugal duty”,  Aemond and Helaena could remain but “siblings with benefits” (which sounds awful, but given they’re Targaryens, it kinda makes sense) and never develop romantic feelings for each other. In this scenario, they could be still sleeping together after Aegon’s heir had been born, just out of sheer need for comfort, closeness or affection, or simply willing to reduce stress, feel better or have fun.  Messed up as Helaena and Aemond seem, they could have perceived sex as yet another form of bonding…  Whatever could have been going on between the siblings, their breakup after Jaehaerys’ death appears inevitable.

 As far as Aemond’s relationship with Alys is concerned, I wouldn’t call it an overly romantic love story, either. Let’s say it out loud – in spite of her sharp wits, charms and whatnot, Alys was a prisoner of war and even if Aemond had fallen madly in love with her, I would risk saying she wasn’t in the position to truly reciprocate his feelings. Thanks to Alys’ good looks, the prince “generously” spared her life, there’s no two ways about it, BUT however “besotted” Aemond was with Alys, becoming his “war bride” literally meant she was chosen to be a freakin’ sex slave. In my honest opinion, the woman deserved better and I don’t believe she reciprocated his love. Alys certainly was not in the position to fully consent to be the prince’s paramour, although I can totally see Aemond developing genuine romantic feelings for her – however twisted it may sound. It seems to me in the very beginning, it was just about lust, but later on, the prince could have taken to the “witch” because of her personality and even become fascinated with her supernatural powers. Frankly speaking, I am not the fan of the “Alys casting a love spell on Aemond” theory. She might have been using her totally prosy, feminine charms in order to endear the prince to her, and thusly make sure she would be treated as well as she could possibly be under so dire circumstances. And no, I don’t mean Alys was just offering Aemond sexual favors. Intelligent person she no doubt was, the “witch queen” could do her best in order to forge an emotional bond with Aemond, too. For instance listening to what the prince had to say and showing him affection. Paradoxically, learning Aemond’s story could make Alys take to the prince at least a little, since in this scenario, she could realize in spite of coming from different social backgrounds, they shared a bunch of experiences. For instance, earlier in her life, unwed and pregnant Alys, born out of wedlock herself, had been no doubt an outcast – just like Aemond the Kinslayer, having blood of his close relative on his hands. Could it be a reason enough for Alys to start sympathizing with Aemond? Yes, indeed. In addition, the “witch” had lost both her child and their father – even if  we are not familiar with the details and the moment she met Aemond Alys was probably over it. If the “helaemond” theory is confirmed, Aemond gets involved with Alys when his first “girlfriend” is also like dead to the world, not to mention the fact his son and/or nephew died gruesome death.

Here, I would like to admit I am not a fan of fetishizing Alys’ age and deeming her a “milf”. The woman was certainly more than just her looks and age. If Aemond had actually loved her – which I find highly probable  - there must have been something more than just physical attraction! In addition, in the quasi-medieval world of Ice and Fire, girls in their early teens are considered eligible maidens, so in this universe, it isn’t out of usual for women in their late, if not mid-twenties to become grandmothers! Taking the fact FnB is supposed to be a historical source by a bunch of unreliable narrators, we don’t actually know how old Alys was. If we rule out the ageless witch/ red priestess theory, we could safely assume she was, for instance, in her 40s or 30s, but knowing the Westerosi customs, well, it is still possible she was just a few years older than then-twentyish Aemond. There is also an option Alys didn’t even exist and all the war bride/captor romance was made up by pro-Black maesters and scribes, willing to paint the prince in a negative light. After all making some lowly born wet nurse his wife, Aemond would insult House Baratheon, impudently breaking the pact which had to be sealed with his marriage to Lord Borros’ daughter. You just keep in mind both the Witch Queen and Aemond’s bastard son disappear  from the “historical chronicles” shortly after the Dance ends. In addition, stressing Alys’ alleged “old age”  could have made him look ridiculous in the eyes of Westerosi readers.

Personally, I prefer to imagine Alys existed, had prophetic skills and played a significant role in Aemond’s life. Perhaps at some point, she even developed some sympathy and twisted fondness for the prince (still her captor and, yes, her rapist) but never had second thoughts about having kept it to herself that Aemond would meet his end in God’s Eye and no one could blame her for it.

To sum up, I think shipping Aemond with Helaena does not automatically make the shipper anti-“alysmond”. In my view, adding one more (for want of a better word) romantic relationship to Aemond’s arc makes sense. It could be an interesting way to show how the character’s attitude towards his love interests and his interactions with them evolve as various experiences are shaping his personality. I would never pit Helaena against Alys. They’re two different women and the fact at some points of their lives, they happened to get involved with the same guy does not make them natural born enemies. In my honest opinion, if the show version of Helaena had a chance to meet Alys (here, I mean my own idea of this character, since we don’t learn much about her from FnB and her show counterpart is still a mystery), they would become… good friends.

[glassofapplejuicee]

ok ok so the idea of a camp au has been floating around in my head forever and at this point i just need to put pen to paper! now i’ve never been to camp so keep that in mind. and god only knows if this will become an actual fleshed out fic or a WIP that will collect dust in my drive forever-

anyways, it's called Camp Spruce Trails (get it, Spruce Trails, ST?) and I'm imagining this au is still set in the mid 80s, but none of the upside down stuff happens ya know? or maybe upside down stuff happens while they're at camp? but i'm kind of leaning towards letting these guys have a normal childhood-

the camp itself is your classic 6 week sleepaway camp, there’s canoeing, arts and crafts, knot tying, competitions, campfires, etc. going to camp is a borderline religious tradition for The Party and they will do everything in their power to make sure they attend. one of their favorite parts of camp, is the staff:

Argyle Franco: 17, Kitchen, he isn’t huge with the kids but Jonathan convinced him to apply for the job, fridays are always pizza nights, he keeps to himself usually but cheers on his favorite campers during their games

Robin Buckley: 18, Blue Cabin Counselor, frazzled 24/7 but trying her best, wears the handmade jewelry from her campers like it’s made of gold, knows all the camp songs by heart, cries when camp ends, no longer allowed in the kitchen after the incident of ‘84

Nancy Wheeler: 18, Yellow Cabin Counselor, by the books and her campers know that, but they still have fun, always excels in the art competitions (much to Billy’s dismay), she's the most strict counselor however she takes great pride in her ability to get all the campers in bed by lights out

Jonathan Byers: 18, Groundskeeper(?), no one really knows his exact job title, he just sort of shows up every summer and nobody says anything, he fixes leaky pipes, kitchen appliances, pulls weeds, whatever needs done, he helps out a lot in the art cabin though

Steve Harrington: 19, Green Cabin Counselor, mostly stable but the coffee rings stained into his clipboard are telling, tries to be the "cool counselor", and if you stay on his good side you’ll be fine, however he will not hesitate to drag your ass to the office and call your parents if you step out of line

Billy Hargrove: 19, Red Cabin Counselor, parents hate him, but his campers are loyal, they demolish every single athletic competition, stole Eddie’s whistle (now annoys everyone with it), also no longer allowed in the kitchen after the incident of '84

Eddie Munson: 20, Lifeguard, but he sort of pokes his head in wherever he pleases, was deemed unfit to be a camp counselor so they stuck him as lifeguard, plays guitar around the campfire at night, multiple writes up for smoking on the job

if i were to flesh this out more into a full au fic (or more realistically, a series of ficlets??) you can bet your bottom dollar that there will be a giant love hexagon thing that will be going on as a subplot to the camp activities. i'm not even a huge multi-shipper or anything but picture it: Nancy asks Robin to watch her campers for a minute so she can go flirt with Jonathan? yeah sure why not. Nancy gets back and finds Robin sulking cause she's jealous? i'm sure Nancy would be happy to cheer Robin up with a kiss! Eddie and Argyle bump into each other smoking behind the shed? oh whoops my finger slipped and now they're shot gunning a joint. Steve find's Billy and Eddie chilling at Skull Rock? well shit now all three of 'em are making out a la Challengers.

[miz-chase]

Cam, for the character asks 😁

YES

GIVE ME A CHARACTER;

and I’ll break their ass down:

How I feel about this character

CAM is wonderful. I miss Goodman (he should have come back just for fun anyway), but I think Cam gave the lab a healthy balance by having a Grown Ass Adult who wouldn't be drawn into Nerd Bullshit over Hittites and Assyrians. Goodman, while a good politician with the FBI, was too much like the other squints for his own managerial good. She's so deadpan funny and her efforts to herd the kindergarteners that fill her lab with bullshit is deeply amusing. I also want to know EVERYTHING about her time in New York. Cam the beat cop?? Tell me MORE.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Have you heard the Good News about the gospel of ABC? Coined by @neurodiversebones, Angela/Brennan/Cam is a delightful trio, whether sexual or platonic. I drew some pictures and wrote a fic

Also Aristoo is a dreamboat (POETRY are you KIDDING me? His patience and understanding for Cam's needs and fears?) and I'm side-eyeing the fuck out of anyone who is good with Booth/Brennan but claims workplace harassment with Cam/Aristoo.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

I'm putting Cam/Booth here. Booth has very few friends and Cam is the one person who can reliably say "Seeley, you're being a fucking idiot." to him. I love that so much, he needs the reality check and having a person in the lab who is always in his corner, even though she tries to be a neutral party.

I will say, Booth is overdue to pay Camille back for all the good she's done reality-checking him. He is not there for her in the same way and that sucks. Where's the subplot where she has to crash at his place? Where's Booth taking Michelle on for Paternal Counselling? Where's the B&B and Cam/Aristoo double date? Why doesn't Booth pull Aristoo aside for the 'Prove to me you're good enough for my daughter' bullshit and end up becoming sports buds with him to support Cam?

Also putting the other Booth here. Why is everything with Jared a dead end? I would love to know more about her and Jared's relationship and seen more of them together.

My unpopular opinion about this character

She would have been in the right to fire Brennan in season 2. Cam doesn't know Brennan is the title character of the show, she's just trying to do her job and make the lab as functional and prosecutorially successful as possible. Booth talks a big game about quitting if Brennan left, but he wouldn't actually. He needs the job too much and working with the Jeffersonian is the only thing that makes him special as an agent. I bet he wouldn't even stop his sexual relationship with Cam over it, really. Angela and possibly Hodgins (TBH I doubt he actually would, he is a playboy comfortable in a "job" where he does what he wants, where he wants) might have left, which would have been annoying but not impossible to replace. Brennan is special to our hearts, but she isn't actually the only person capable of doing her work. Finding someone who could do the work, would be a better team player, and a better court presence would be SO worth it. I would love to see how this canon-divergent AU would shake out.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

Girl deserves career advancement. I would have loved (for her professionally, idk how well this would play out on-screen) for her to end up in a more formal role connecting the FBI and the Jeffersonian. She should not be stuck dealing with the daily ins-and-outs of herding neurodivergent cats. She's an experienced and competent cop, scientist, and manager, and all three of those skills combined would make her a good Director. IMO in the long run, the FBI is going to want their own lab instead of contracting out to the Jeffersonian forever. She should get to head that project as The Big Boss, not the nitty-gritty details manager.