#i like to think theyre just slightly pointed enough for it to go unnoticed by anyone

[aidenwaites]

People who draw Alistair with pointy elven ears are so so correct

[fagtigerclaw]

ok this au mostly corresponds with my wc rewrite/au in which the events, world, and characters are altered immensely. this plays more as a murder mystery than the current arc, at least imo as it focuses more on that since the problems with the code are completely removed from this bc there isnt really a code in this au. nightheart and sunbeam still deal with their respective personal issues, and theyre thrown into the murder stuff which affects their lives as they try to figure things out.

anyway frostpaw is related to mistystar and her family is sort of the result of the shadowclan and riverclan integration era, which is slightly longer in this au. diff clan relationships arent discouraged nor looked down upon, however families from different clans (or often even within the same clan) may not like each other for some reason and will be averse towards blending families. but with the shadowclan/riverclan integration, both clans were joined as one which brought forth many changes and ultimately altered the ways these clans funtioned individually. primrosepaw is actually alive here long enough to be the mother of curlfeather and podlight, before dying of illness.

frostpaw chooses to become a medicine cat apprentice to mothwing, with the desire to be closer to starclan, and frostpaw looks up to mothwing greatly but also envies her. so it is important to note that starclan (and the place of no stars) has very little power in the living world, it kind of functions as it did early warriors where they have very little influence on events and communication is difficult and rare. yet the clowders believe in them and they are largely apart of their culture. so mothwing's hesitance to believe in the power of starclan makes more sense. it isnt uncommon for most cats to feel this way and worshipping starclan isnt forced on others, but depending on your family they may feel sort of shocked or disappointed. mothwing is well respected and she doesn't ever tell cats about her feelings towards starclan, not only because she doesnt want to hurt or discourage anyone but also she wants to feel like starclan is there for her but wants proof. but one day she confesses this to frostpaw prior to the night the med cats meet at the moonpool, which shocks frostpaw but she agrees to keep this to herself. frostpaw prays and prays all night for mothpool, hoping that starclan will help her guide her mentor to better the clan and set things right.

the next night when they go to moonpool, frostpaw doesnt get her response from starclan and she feels betrayed. mothwing tries to assure her that she should not expect starclan to speak with her immediately and that perhaps they will come to her in time, but frostpaw does not believe her and knows even mothwing does not believe this herself.

now i dont really have anything set to go through with this bc like i said this is still being planned and will change, but basically at some point frostpaw just gets what she believes is a sign from starclan that she should lead riverclan due to her devotion. she finds like a chance to kill mistystar who is severely ill due to her age and being on her final life, by purposely giving her the wrong herbs which goes unnoticed by the clan. she is the one who proposes the idea to let the med cats temporarily lead the clan with reedwhiskers disappearance (which she plays a part in), but instead podlight is chosen to be temp leader as he is a respected warrior. frostpaw is pretty jealous and wants to train to be a better fighter, with the intent to take down podlight. i think that mothwing eventually gets bad vibes from frostpaw but brushes it off as frostpaw has always been a strange kid.

i think at some point frostpaws schemes affect the other clans which is when nightheart and sunbeam kind of come in but not sure how to make that work.

idk idk it kind of sucks now but i have really good scenes in my head i wanna write down maybe post but basically frostpaw is extremely devoted to starclan but her desire to become leader causes her to drift from her faith and instead she worships herself her own ideals, and her relationship with her family and clanmmates largely influences her emotions and actions. she just becomes super deadly and cold and eventually bored. nightheart is the main one to face her and sunbeam kind of helps but i like to think of her as a super pathetic sopping wet kinda guy in like a sillier way than nightheart if that makes sense.

i never elaborated on my evil frostpaw au hold on

[foolzstar]

fuck it, i said i would do it so here: why free range farms aren’t nearly as ethical as you think.

keep in mind that i am not an expert, however family rescued a bunch of chickens and have been keeping them for years, plus ive done research on what corperations do, as well as done research from the charity who we rescued these birds from, its not loads, but its definetly enough to compile a bunch of facts into a post just so that people can be more aware, but anyways:

1) free range hens only get to live around 18 months. this is because all farms care about is productivity, and a hens peak egg laying time is between 6-18 months in the standard conditions. some can lay every other day well into being three years old, but for the most part with the average hen, it starts to slow down around 18 months, and so unless the chickens are rescued, theyre killed on mass, usually by being gassed.

2) despite being free range, the conditions theyre kept in are still incredibly poor. hens are kept on mass, with anywhere from 50-200 hens per coop (or in the uk, barn, as due to the risk of avian flu, all free range hens have had to be kept in barns) the conditions, whilst not as bad as battery farms, are still not cleaned regularly enough, and due to the large flock sizes, many of the hens are forced to fight for food, leaving many of them malnurished, almost all of the hens that we rescued a few weeks ago were underweight, with one of them dying recently due to this.

As well as this, in order to lessen the chances of any of the hens escaping, almost all the hens have thier wings clipped so theyre unable to properly fly, and in some cases, the birds beaks also get clipped, and due to being kept in such large masses, many medical issues the birds my face go unnoticed, things like potential infections, deformities that could affect their wellbeing, or any illness are either ignored or have them killed for it because, same with the reasons their lifespans tend to be so short, it lessens productivity. 

3) flock sizes, whiilst i did mention them in the previous pont, flock sizes are technically be a whole factor on its own because of how it impacts the chickens behavior.

hens have this thing called a pecking order, a heriarchy that basically decided between the hens, whos number one depending on how strong they are. this determinds things like who gets to eat food first, who gets the nicest bedding, as well as who gets to be quite literally, pecked at the least. the pecking order is decided through a physical fight, the lower down on the pecking order a hen is, the more theyre picked on, feathers plucked out, open wounds, you name it. in smaller, more tame flocks, this tends to be alright, feather plucking is kept to a minimum because the fight for who gets the nicest thing is less dire. 

in the case of farmed hens, where hundreds of hens are fighting over who gets the most food, the fighting can get brutal, most of our hens came to us with missing festhers around their butts, necks, heads, even our healthiest bird, peach, still came with many of her feathers missing that we are trying to help grow back.

...

i understand that they may only be a few points, but theyre very major points that do affect chickens wellbeings on a large scale.

in no way am i saying to never eat an egg again, my family eats eggs almost every day (we’ve had to with the 3-4 eggs a day we have piling up in our kitchen) and being vegan isnt an option for most people, in most cases is actually more detrimental to the planet if you measure it by water consumption and food miles with how far things like soy beans, almonds and coconuts have, but i feel as though its important to be aware of the conditions that your food comes from, not to guilt you out of wanting to eat them, but to make you think of little things that you can do to make the demand for eggs from mass productions slightly less.

not everyone has the privalige to do so, i know that im incredibly lucky that the flat my family lives in has such open rules about pets and has such a large garden in the suburbs where conditions are great for raising hens, but if it is a possiblilty i really do recomend trying to do anything you can, no matter how small.

buy from local farms or from farmers markets, where the people selling their produce tend to do it on a much smaller scale than most corperations. adopt hens, chickens are actually amazing pets, that when raised properly make amazing companions, i could probably make an entire post for a guide to raising chickens going through all the different breeds, how much space they need, eggs, life spans, the works, i may be a ninjago fan account but i could definetly be a chicken blog if given the oppertunity.

the saying peta likes to shove down our throats that theres “no such thing as an ethical egg” is bullshit, and, corperations are to blame for most of climate change and the harm that is done to animals, but small acts done by everyone can still make a difference

[babysizedfics]

I know the dark sides kinda accidentally bullied Virgil for regressing but did they know/realise that he has autism? Did they know how to help his sensory issues or did he just have to try and cope himself?

EDIT 31 oct 2020: this info is slightly outdated now as i have decided vee does not get diagnosed until he is 14

This is a little bit heavy so scroll past if u want fluffy happy stuff!! mention of internalised ableism

Janus was basically his father so yeah he definitely knew Vee was autistic and accommodated him to the best of his ability at the time - but he wasn't the most educated on the smaller aspects of autistic life, he knew the big things like meltdowns (which he was adequate at getting virgil through) and stimming (he actively encouraged it but did tease virgil about being embarrassed about it which only made v more embarrassed) and vee not liking certain textures or bright lights (not necessarily an issue in their house) but he wasn't that aware of the things that go unnoticed like small sensitivities to food and poor emotional regulation and other things i can't think of atm.

He was guilty of thinking Vee was simply picky and fussy as a child and didn't really click that it was just another part of being autistic and should have been taken more seriously. Also Janus thought it was standard for Virgil to have a proper meltdown every week, but once vee moves to the light sides its more like once every 4 weeks because its a much more accommodating environment

Also he is canonically pretty selfish, I'm not sure he would have actually sat down to research accounts of autism from autistic peoples persoectives, he probably researched just the standard medical info and considered that enough

(quickly mentioning here that janus is not bitter that virgil left. he was at first but when he saw how much better virgil was doing in the other house he was satisfied that virgil was where he belonged, even if it was still upsetting to him that it wasn't with him. it's not until he wants in on the regression family dynamic that he recognises he COULD have helped virgil feel better in the dark sides house, and begins to educate himself on virgils specific needs so that he wont make the same mistakes again as nana janus)

back when vee was a child Janus explained to remus what autism is and Remus was pretty indifferent tbh he didn't really listen and janus didn't explain vee's specific needs in detail. remus was not very considerate or observant, so tended to accidentally trigger virgil's sensory overload by being loud and stuff. occasionally he felt a little bad about it but would just roll his eyes - but he wouldn't do any loud pranks for at least a few hours after. he never made things harder for vee on purpose out of cruelty, he just wasn't necessarily willing to adapt his behaviour for the sake of virgil if it meant he wouldn't personally have as much fun.

as much as janus knew how to get virgil through a meltdown, virgil had to deal with all the smaller details on his own. he had to pick certain foods off his plate and wear ear plugs when the others refused to turn down the volume on their horror movies and he struggled a lot with internalised ableism because no one helped him with these things so he thought it would be burdensome for him to ask for help but he also realised he wasnt coping well on his own and really wanted help, he just wouldnt let himself ask for it

in conclusion, they were aware of his autism and didnt make fun of it in any way because thats mean. Still, they weren't very educated on it or considerate at the time and didn't adapt the environement much to make it easier for virgil to cope, which is one of the things that led up to virgil moving out

I want to point out again that these are realistic experiences that explore a family who did not have the tools to effectively make things easier for Vee at the time, it is not abuse and it is not "unsympathetic", though it was undereducated and inconsiderate - A lot of the reason things were so bad in the house was because the dark sides just dont communicate effectively.

janus and remus are awkward with feelings, their idea of a heart to heart is grumbling a slight reassurance veiled in 8 layers of sarcasm then immediately calling each other names to brighten the atmosphere. theyre the friends who say they thoroughly hate you when you make them laugh and they threaten to decapitate each other as a form flattery. and they dont need to change that about thrmselves, some people are just like that, to janus and remus thats their favourite way of communicating and showing affection and it makes them happy. its just a bad match with virgil who is very sensitive to even the slightest insinuation that someone doesnt like him. janus and remus arent bad people they just are not the right people for virgil to live with

I am basing this specific storyline/concept on my experiences with my family and their gradual acceptance and understanding of me being autistic. Yes it would be nice if every family instantly knew exactly how to make things easier for someone who is autistic but it's just not always that idealistic. It's not black and white, it's not either 100% supportive or 100% abusive. it's not always a linear line, sometimes families make mistakes and accidentally make things worse at some point, but what matters is they recognise and acknowledge them, apologise sincerely, educate themselves and unlearn misconceptions, and work to be better in the future!

[villainever]

Killing Eve + making worlds and workplaces for women

killing eve very frequently – and obviously quite rightly – gets discussed as a feminist screen text, but i feel like we often talk about the individual characters, how fantastic they clearly are, and how flawed/developed/multifacted/interesting they’ve grown to be. but another thing killing eve does phenomenally well is subvert power structures and institutions, and populate them with women in a way we rarely see. for example, in season 1, eve’s MI5 office is unusually gender-balanced for television (it’s her, elena, bill and frank), and when carolyn is introduced, she’s immediately painted as almost an urban legend – elena raves about how incredible she is and how much she’d love to work with her, and we’re positioned to view her with intrigue and awe. this “mysterious, unreadable, probably damaged but definitely utterly competent and slightly amoral” character would typically go to a man – probably a slightly misogynistic one who’d gradually form a “grudging respect” for the women on his new team, as the women act as a device to coax him into the New Modern World and soothe his trauma. but carolyn gives this archetype an internal makeover and new vitality, and neatly sidesteps stereotyping: she’s not a “bitchy boss”; she never yells, or insults; she’s at times eerily calm, and methodically works her way through problems. this is especially poignant when we think of male characters who rail against female leaders for being “too emotional”, and proceed to spend half the movie throwing tamper-tantrums. at the same time, though, she doesn’t feel emotionless to prove a point, or simply to be the stoic; we get a very real sense of her pragmatism and cold war-conditioning, and the interlocking mechanisms of her many layers. carolyn’s character (both her writing and shaw’s acting) are totally genius, but the main point im trying to raise here is that the parts of Mentor and Career Aspiration are inhabited by a woman, and 60yo woman going full-speed at that – not someone who’s barely 39 but treated as basically a retiree.

next, we’ve got carolyn’s boss, played by zoe wanamaker in 2x04. yes, she’s not in the show for long – although she may make a reappearance? not sure – but her value is more symbolic than anything. in her scene, we get the impression of her power (she gets to make carolyn wait :o), and while she’s also a severe older woman, she’s very much distinct from carolyn in personality, which is pretty unique; often, writers will prescribe bulk-identities to all their minor characters who fall into certain groups, out of a mix of laziness and ignorance. anyway, wanamaker’s helen is shown eating (another rant-worthy point is how the frequency and ease with which killing eve’s women are portrayed as actually eating food is tragically radical), and she lashes out at carolyn before soothing herself easily once again – she’s capricious and less reserved and measured than carolyn, but equally potent. we also get a strong vibe of a long and complex working relationship between these two, effortlessly implied by the writing and performance and even if we never double-back to it, it colours how we view carolyn and the system that i’ll (eventually) get around to making my argument about.

lastly, there’s julie, who plays the medical examiner in 2x01, and conducts the exhumation autopsy on allistair peel. she comes across as professional, capable, no-nonsense, but also warm and gallows-funny, hugging carolyn and sympathetic to eve’s slightly strange reaction to the corpse. like helen, she’s not in the show long, but it’s more her relevance as a symbol i want to discuss.

so what am i getting to by going on about carolyn and these relatively minor characters? well, i want to talk about how killing eve establishes for itself something of an ‘old girls’ club’. an ‘old boys’ club’ is the network of connections that form between (generally upperclass) men who went to the same schools or worked in the same companies, who get each other opportunities in a pay-it-forward kind of way throughout life; it’s one of the many ways that sites of privilege are maintained as sites of privilege. but with these older female characters, who all know and support each other, give each other second chances or off-the-books help, killing eve constructs its own version. through these interactions, we have the sense that carolyn is a part of a group of women across the government who ensure certain things happen at certain times for certain people.

even outside this senior boss ladies network, we have elena, eve and jess,  who support and challenge and contradict each other – all successful women with different skillsets, trajectories, relationships, etc., and none of whom are white. not only does this show pass the bechdel test in under three minutes, but that conversation is between two women of colour. one of the many things i love about killing eve is that while it acknowledges (and even leverages) the disadvantages that marginalised groups face – e.g. villanelle is able to exploit conforming to the western ideals of femininity to lure men into a false sense of security; the ghost is able to pass through places unnoticed, etc. – it never makes that the core of the narrative. it isn’t focused on reinforcing these systemic barriers over and over, which is something a lot of shows do when they’re trying to be progressive, and all they end up doing is reminding us of the setbacks we face and how it’ll be a long, arduous struggle to improve things. instead, killing eve gives a nod to this sexist, racist, homophobic reality, but sidelines it, the way minorities are so often sidelined. rather than make all eve’s bosses and colleagues men “for the realism”, it throws a few male characters in there and then focuses on the women (look how much screentime kenny and hugo get compared to jess, another first-tier secondary character). it reimagines the chain of command as belonging to women, it takes power and allocates it how it sees fit. i adore this, because if someone said to the writers, “umm… i feel like there should be more men in charge… that’s just how it is…”, their response would probably be, “so what?” it wants to spend time with complex women in complex situations, so it just puts them there; there’s no spinning of the wheels to justify how so many women got to these high-ranking jobs in an institution designed to keep them in the lobby. it certainly never pretends women don’t have to cater to men and their sensibilities (take carolyn comforting frank in season 1), but it doesn’t get caught in ‘liberal’-dude-writer “look at these (skinny/pretty/fantasy-fulfillment) women push through the system and affect change from behind the scenes by showing their cleavage to *trick* men into doing what they want ;) girlpower, ladies”. it lets women BE the scene, unapologetically, without feeling pressed to explain or defend or negotiate by stuffing an equal number of male characters in. we get konstantin and aaron peel and various ambassadors or clerks who are men, but these are all characters on the outside looking in. killing eve isn’t arranging women as spaced out and in competition with each other; aside from villanelle, they’re all on the same side (and villanelle’s temporarily teamed up with them anyway), and they work together, while still being allowed internal tensions and clear relationships. i originally just intended to talk about how killing eve built us an old girls’ club, but i had More Thoughts, so that’s why this essay doesn’t stay totally on-thesis from here on, even though it is all about women and their positions in the narrative/workplace. another note – these women, for the most part, aren’t there to be love interests. we obviously have eve/villanelle, but they both have their own fully-developed characters, plus, their love interests are each other, not men. we have carolyn, but her affairs don’t control her storyline; they flit in and out, and are of far more signifiance to the men than to her – she’s an older woman who controls her sexuality, but doesn’t have any interest in letting it overtake her work (and we don’t have that ridiculous “uptight bitch learns to put relationship with basic bro above her lifelong career dream”). we have gemma, but while her narrative function is to give niko a final straw to leave, and to push eve further, she has agency in her arc; SHE is the one who pursues niko, and she does this in a respectable and understandable way. she’s not the “sexy temptress” who “lures” him away, and nor is she an “innocent” that he actively chases. 

also, NONE of the women have their qualifications questioned. there is no “is carolyn experienced enough to have so much free reign?”, no “how did eve get to MI5?”. the way we’re always told to with male characters, the show expects us to accept that they’re fit for their roles. this is highlighted when eve kind of stumbles into being an authority on female assassins. she doesn’t have a phd in psych or anything, but she clearly has an affinity in her area, and she VERY quickly learns to own that. the first time carolyn calls her their resident expert, eve is a bit surprised, but then she’s just like, “huh, guess i am”, and runs with that confidence. these women are all tough, but they don’t have to dig out their own spaces. theyve got them, and the audience isn’t gently directed into wondering whether they actually should. we KNOW they should. unsurprisingly, considering much of killing eve is written/overseen by women, but this isn’t done for Woke Points. there’s no constant self-conscious grandstanding about how many women are in the series. the actors and writers talk about it in press, because theyre EXCITED, theyre THRILLED to finally have this, but that comes from a genuine place of joy to be involved in such a project, rather than a hapless grab for viewers. the female characters aren’t half-baked stocking-stuffers to net the 18-35W. theyre Actual Characters. bottom line is, isn’t it so nice? isn’t it so lovely to be watching something, and have women be in the foreground AND the background? to not have to smurfette effect, the “one of the main characters is a girl, can’t you just shut up now? smh so greedy”? to have minor female characters not as sexy set-dressing or rivals or “ew she’s ugly here’s what we don’t want our protagonist to be hahah amirite lads”? we get to see ourselves over and over, in so many different iterations. killing eve’s women aren’t just “empowered”, they HAVE POWER. they are in positions where they can use that power for good or bad or both, but they have sway and influence and we don’t have to watch a 22yo ingenue assimilate to a 98% male workplace. female characters in killing eve are REAL and PRESENT and we have an entire textured world that isn’t just modern, it’s extra-modern. we have our cake and eat it too: there are women throughout the workplace hierarchy but we still get a critique of how men manipulate the game, and both are managed expertly to ensure we get the social commentary AND get to enjoy the experience of watching women be intelligent and morally grey and sophisticated and manipulative and and AND. in conclusion, i will no longer be accepting applications from media that doesn’t have women in their cast because it “isnt realistic”. killing eve is tearing it up out there, and it’s almost overwhelmingly relieving to get to experience media like this.

*btw, im not trying to imply there are no women actually working at MI5. im sure there are many, but this is more a commentary on media interpretations (james bond, etc.), and the male dominated government landscape in general. 

[bluesfortheredj]

Gwilym and the reader have been best friends for as long as they could remember and they just did a movie together so they’re doing an interview together and he accidentally reveals a huge secret

You sit in the middle of Joe and Gwilym on a small velvet purple coloured sofa, so small in fact, that it seemed as if it were made for you three, and you lean your head back as one of the make up team applies some powder to your face to make you look a little less shiny on camera. The three of you had done two previous interviews, and by now the room was a little on the warm side, so you needed all the help you could get for the next one, although it was your last, so there was a light at the end of the tunnel thankfully.

“You okay?” Gwilym asks in a slight whisper as the make up lady moves on to Joe.

“Yeah, I’m great, you?” you smile, turning as much as you could to face him.

“Perfect,” he grins, placing his hand on your thigh and squeezing it lightly. This was nothing out of the ordinary for you two, everyone knew that you’d been friends for years before doing Bohemian Rhapsody together, and your small public displays of affection went unnoticed nowadays, especially from the rest of the cast.

“Get a room you two,” Joe smirks from beside you. Well, it went unnoticed most of the time, anyway.

“We did, but you followed us in,” Gwilym quips back, shooting Joe a playful grin over your shoulder.

“Okay, calm down boys, one more interview then we can go for a drink, yeah?” you say as you turn to the face the currently empty chair in front of you all.

“Sounds good to me,” Joe replies, “will you be joining us, Gwil?”

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world, mate,” he says, stretching his arm around the back of the sofa, and carefully placing his hand on your shoulder so that it’s not visible to the camera. His thumb strokes your t-shirt, then the interviewer enters the room, and you all stand up to greet him. He’s a young man named Harry, and his hand shakes a little when it gets to you.

“You okay, Harry?” Gwilym asks, noticing the slight shake.

“Yeah, yes, this is my first big interview though, so please forgive me if I’m a little nervous,” he smiles as he takes his seat, “feels like a job interview with you three sat opposite me!”

“Don’t worry! At least it’s not all of us, right?” you grin.

“True, very true,” he nods, “thank you.”

The camera starts to roll just as he gets his papers in order, then with a surprising air of confidence, he makes his introduction, then delivers the first question.

“Gwilym, I’ll come to you first, how was it working so closely with the Brian May?”

“Intimidating, to say the least. Although by the end of it I think I was the one freaking him out… We sort of ended up mirroring each other quite a lot, it was a little worrying,” Gwilym chuckles.

“If it weren’t for the colour of the hair, you’d never have been able to tell them apart!” Joe adds, and you laugh along with them.

“Now, (Y/N), what was it like kissing Rami in those teeth? Did they get in the way at all?”

“It was more than a little awkward,” you laugh, feeling Gwilym’s hand on your shoulder again as he stretches out once more, his long fingers tickling you slightly, “there was a certain amount of practising that had to be done beforehand, that’s for sure.”

“Is that what you call it?” Joe smirks.

“I think Lucy would have been having words with me otherwise...” you say, nudging Joe’s arm.

“Speaking of which, were there any other romances on set?” Harry asks, looking along all three of you for some kind of sign before you answered. He may be nervous, but he knew exactly what to look for.

“You mean apart from the bromance that formed between the four guys?” you answer, before anyone else opens their mouths, “they weren’t exactly subtle about it, either.”

“What can we say? It was an instant connection,” Joe smiles.

“If only we’d met a few months earlier, they definitely would have been invited to our wedding,” Gwilym laughs, then his face drops as both you and Joe turn to look at him, shocked expressions on both your faces.

“Our wedding?” Harry asks without missing a beat. Gwilym looks directly at you, his mouth moving a little, but no sound coming out of it yet, and you manage to arrange your face into one of calm, then give him a nod, keeping your face turned to him as he speaks to Harry.

“Yes,” he croaks, then clears his throat as he sits upright and places his free hand on yours, which is resting on your knee, “our wedding.”

“Well, to be honest, that’s thrown my questions completely out of the window,” Harry laughs, “how long ago was the wedding?”

“Just over a year,” Gwilym replies confidently as Joe sits there like a deer in headlights.

“Guys!” he eventually gasps, “guys!”

“I take it you had no clue?” Harry asks Joe.

“No clue at all!” he replies, still looking at you both, “I’m speechless!”

“And he’s never speechless,” Gwil adds.

“(Y/N), would you like to add anything?” Harry asks, and you finally look back up at him with a smile.

“I don’t think so, no,” you chuckle.

“So, in light of this news, I have to ask… How was it watching your wife kiss another man?” Harry smirks.

You sit back against Gwilym’s arm with a laugh, his other hand still caressing yours on your leg, and you shuffle over to rest against his side as Joe looks at you both with a smile. Thinking about it, he knew there must have been something between you at one point, or there was going to be something in the future, and he was actually impressed with how well you’d kept the secret from everyone.

“It was a challenge, I’m not going to lie. Especially as they did actually have to practise it beforehand,” he laughs, “how I stopped myself from letting this slip then, I do not know.”

“Is there any reason you’ve kept this a secret so long?” Harry asks, looking to you more than Gwilym. You feel Gwil turn towards you, his hand resting soothingly on your back, and you give a short shrug before answering.

“Not particularly,” you start, “it just sort of… happened.”

“It was such a natural progression in our lives, that it didn’t even occur to us to ‘announce’ it as such,” Gwilym adds.

“You two are too much,” Joe says, pretending to wipe tears from his face, “the sweetest damn couple I’ve ever met.”

“Stop it, you,” you laugh, playfully slapping his leg.

“I’m just really happy I was here to witness this moment,” he carries on, dabbing his cheeks with his jacket cuff as if he were crying. Gwilym reaches from behind you to give him a shove, and you all sit there laughing for a moment before regaining your composure and directing your attention back to Harry.

“I have a question,” Joe then says, turning to you both on the sofa, “when were you going to tell us?”

“Probably when we got back to normality and started wearing our wedding rings again,” Gwilym laughs, “it would be the only time we’d actually remember that we hadn’t said anything before.”

“True!” you agree, “it’d be that sudden moment of realisation that you still had no clue!”

“I’ll try not to take it too personally...” Joe winks.

“Sorry, we’ve sort of derailed your interview here, haven’t we?” you apologise with a slightly worried look on your face as you meet Harry’s gaze.

“I can forgive you, you’ve given me more than enough with your accidental reveal,” he grins.

“Me and my big mouth,” Gwilym scoffs, rolling his eyes.

“What else has he got that’s big?” Joe asks you, a devilish grin spread across his lips.

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