#i need to read tda again

[wikitpowers]

my sobh copy is apparently supposed to arrive this week… PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE LET IT BE TODAY

[garvalhaminho]

forgot to post my thoughts while reading the first chapter of tlkof as someone who has only ever read tda and tid (translated from chaotic portuguese)

thais??? who??

dru likes learning by understanding how things work, relatable (SHE'S LITERALLY ME)

she's learning about downworlders and can ask magnus for help, but specifically cristina (the diva who loved studying faeries!!), mark and helen (icon) and kieran and i love that for her 💞 like yes give her one thing she can take advantage of

SHE'S GOT HER MOTHER ELEANOR'S JACKET !! I REPEAT SHE'S GOT HER MOTHER ELEANOR'S JACKET !!

not her dyeing her hair black (ate)

"thais always looked glamorous in her gear" 🤨 no look i know friends can find each other pretty and beautiful etc but when it's ya literature.....it's usually the censored version of "hot as fuck" JUST SAYING

DRU IS 5'3 YAAA WE'VE GOT THE SAME HEIGHT (i think, i'm not american)

i already love dru and thais's friendship 🫶 they match each others freak

dru trains to forget everything she's gone through 😭

oh already the preppy guys and fuckboys (mason hardcastle)

"dru and thais didn't need to ask each other; they knew already they'd be a team" awwww i already know i'm gonna love their friendship

paige ashdown when i see you in the street (no but like an ableist and fatphobic bully? i'll fight that fucker with my bare hands)

thais speaking portuguese in the middle of nowhere i love it

OH AND THE FUCKBOY IS HER EX AND HE SUCKS, if it was me and i had classes with him i'd literally throw myself off a bridge

dru inventing "sex crocodile",,, she's too iconic i fear

"nothing scared [dru}. nothing in a movie, anyway." babygirl 😭 i remember her like mentioning how she liked horror movies but the horror depicted would never be as bad as the real life horror she's experienced

dru still talks to kit 😭 no like imagine your sister still talks to your situationship of two weeks from three years ago, i'd jump off a bridge (yet again)

"there's no danger. we're on academy grounds" famous last words

"she tugged gently at a dangling lock in her friend's hair" THAT'S LITERALLY A MICROTROPE IN ROMANCE MOVIES

"she cursed silently, imagining every bad word she could think of and some she was pretty sure she'd just made up." let dru say fuck pleaseeee. just once. as a little treat, she deserves it

"she wondered for a moment if she should mention that her brother, mark, was the consort of the unseelie king" not her trying to use her connections

ASH SHOWING UP AND HUMILIATING THE LITTLE FAERIE MEN 😭 he slayed i fear

no yeah he's literally royalty he's literally a prince (get that bag girl!!)

dru thinking that ash's eyes were like the sea glass julian loved......oh how i love this family

"'how do you know my name?' she demanded. his eyes narrowed. 'you must be joking,' he said. 'you've forgotten? you can't have forgotten.'" of course she's forgotten a random guy she was with for two minutes three years ago, she has a life, YOU'RE just a SIMP

ash getting yelled at and reprimanded by his daddy or whatever but still literally helping his crush and sending her away to safety 🙏 and your man can't even text you back

julian and emma leaving london to take care of their child drusilla blackthorn

OH AND JULIAN'S GONNA NEED A LOT A THERAPY AFTER THREE BOOKS OF HIS KIDS GETTING THEMSELVES IN TROUBLE

he didn't even sleep during the three nights she was missing 😭

i fear i might become thais/dru shipper under the right circumstances

[steamworksfairy]

So I have a fanfic idea for KitTy, right? And I was thinking it wasn't the most original. That so many people must have written something like this, right?

And I was like, "This is going to need me to go through the timeline. I might even have to read tda again to make sure I have as many details as I can right." Which is why I looked through ao3. Because that would be a lot of work. I'm insane enough for it, but I didn't want to write this particular idea if a lot of people were already writing it.

Imagine my surprise when I looked through ao3 and saw that no one seemed to have thought of it. I'm insane enough for this, so I'm writing it. Especially since I need to hype myself up even further for twp, and this will most definitely help. So yeah, it's time for me to do a great deal of reading. Gotta feed my fellow KitTy shippers as we wait for more twp news to come out.

[jrosa82fanposts]

I was going to try talking about a non- tsc related topic but I keep seeing something that's driving me crazy.

SPOILERS FOR CH 1 OF TWP BOOK 1 BELOW

okay so why does everyone assume Dru forgot Ash. Like I can't count the number of times I've had a dream, woken up, and if I didn't think really hard about it, I would forget the whole thing. As far as Dru is aware that one meeting with Ash was like a weird dream or something? (Might be wrong haven't re-read tda recently).

Also it's been over a year since that happened, why would she obsess over a single meeting? Just seems like everyone is assuming the most dramatic outcome and I'm over hear like 'lol Ash is still thinking about her and Dru barely remembers him' (although note she did remember him she just had a moment where she was like "What was that guy's name again?" Which I think is fair because names are hard.

Maybe Ash remembers cause he hasn't got much to occupy his time with while Dru literally had a battle and family drama to think about right after their meeting.

Idk but I hope everyone who thinks that is wrong because that idea would be so "angst for the sake of angst" and I don't need that when Kit and Ty will be giving all the angst with their miscommunication and misunderstandings (very much feel like the Herondales are cursed to suffer angst before they're allowed to be in a happy relationship and I'm not looking forward to that but it is what it is).

This isn't meant to drag anyone's ideas BTW I'd just like someone to give me a deeper analysis on why they think she forgot him when it's something that hasn't been mentioned explicitly (ie we'd need another scene of her meeting Ash soon after and being like "who is this complete stranger and why do i feel like i should know his name?"). Like if Aureline (hope I spelled that right) had made someone keep forgetting her, I feel like it would have been brought up. Feel free to share your thoughts.

<3J

[darcyolsson]

In the shadowhunter universe i think the circle has the most amount of fucked up relationships. Like everybodys got complex outside the norm relationships with at least two other members. The circle is so fascinating to me. The most popular and charismatic guy is evil and the few people who figure it out takes forever to do so. People are properly rebelling against their parents. They make themself a big menace as teenagers. And on the other side youve got the downworlders reaction to this. Tessa and Magnus are heartbroken. They give up on Stephen. There is so much going on but we are given so little.

YEAH i think the circle is such an underexplored aspect of the tsc universe!! i highly doubt we'll ever get any sort of series or even a full side book dedicated to them but the tidbits of info we do have from the short stories are so fascinating. it honestly brought some much-needed nuance to the tmi parents, bc even though we do have a few details about what went down (like the circle originally not being anti-downworlders, but sort of gradually moving in that direction after valentine's father died) i did feel like tmi left me wondering a bit how they all ended up as a part of an extremist group.

my favourite thing about the circle is that, at least at the start, they all have very similar views to the tmi gang: that the clave is corrupt in many ways (objectively true), and needs to be reformed. especially in tftsa it's a statement we hear simon say over and over and over again and i just LOVE that juxtaposition, the implication that if a different kind of person had gotten a hold of simon & clary and even the rest of the gang they could've ended up exactly like their parents.

and tbh, i just love reading about the circle and their drama and misery, lol. i love it when characters act really terribly i love it when characters manipulate & get manipulated and are then eaten alive by guilt. the evil we love is a gem, just robert experiencing flop after flop and ruining everyone's lives. and then becoming miserable for the rest of his life because of it. genuinely very fun. i think cc does morally gray characters very well (when she wants to, which is rarely </3) and i just love to watch miserable people be miserable what can i say!!

also, so true what you said about fucked up relationships. the circle didnt fit into the big love web i made for all of tsc because there's nothing linking them to any of the tmi/tid/tda/etc characters (thank god lmfao), but behold, i made them their own tiny love dodecahedron for funsies:

is it more contained than the 74-people big tsc love web*? perhaps. is it any less insane? absolutely not.

*which, by the way, misses many people, as i've found out in my tmi and novella reread. but they dont fit on there so i'll have to recreate it in its entirety if i want everyone to fit, which is not something i want to spend my time doing, because i am insane but not that insane

[celticcrossanon]

Can a peerage be removed?

Yes, it is possible to remove a peerage. However, as described in Gadd’s Peerage Law, once the Crown has granted a peerage it is “very difficult to deprive the holder of it”.

Peerages are created by letters patent: a legal document issued by the Sovereign and adorned with the Great Seal. The Great Seal (formally known as the Great Seal of the Realm) is the chief seal of the Crown. It is used to show the monarch’s approval of state documents. As explained in Halsbury’s Laws of England, the Crown does not have the power to cancel a peerage once it has been created.

A peerage can only be removed by an act of parliament. The most recent act that did this was the Titles Deprivation Act 1917 (TDA).

Celta, the above excerpt is from <lordslibrary.parliament.uk> re: who has the authority to bestow/create peerage titles (the Crown, by Letters Patent) and who has the authority to then remove peerage titles (Parliament, by an Act of Parliament). 

I agree that the removal of the Sussex titles should be the result of an egregious/treasonous act (by the Sussexes) that is supported by objective, hard evidence and that cannot be gaslighted by them as being r*cially motivated. Objective, scientific proof of surrogacy concerning A’s/L’s births (eg, DNA or medical records) would do the trick. Interfering in the LoS is treason, yes?

*

Hi Nonny,

I have discovered that apparently there is a difference between normal peerage titles (to which the above applies) and royal peerage titles, and apparently The King can remove the royal peerage titles but not the normal ones. I know the HRH Prince/Princess titles have to be removed by the King; parliament can not touch those AFAIK.

Objective proof of the surrogacy should do the trick, in my mind at least. Somewhere (and I have no idea where, and I can’t find it again) I remember reading a piece of legislation of the UK that said, clearly, that any attempt to interfere with the Line of Succession results in that person and their children being removed from the Line of Succession. A concealed surrogacy is definitely an attempt to interfere with the Line of Succession imo, as surrogate children are not eligible to be in the Line of Succession by law, and so if that is proven then under UK law Harry will lose his place in the Line of Succession and so will his kids. That would be another reason to remove the titles - you don’t need an HRH Prince/Princess when you are no longer in the line to the throne, do you?

[im-out-of-it]

PSA: TLH RANT AND HEAVY ON THE ANTI CC RANT EXTRA EXTRA READ ALL ABOUT IT LONG

I always love when I see “what happened to TLH” posts because CC happened????

it’s funny when they play off how every series CC does is some masterpiece. TLH could have been better if it wasn’t in CC’s hand and this is just a fact

actually paying attention to Alastair and Thomas and not making the whole thing about James and Cordelia

doing Matthew better and not making him apologize for liking Cordelia and getting rid of that whole triangle. his whole trauma and addiction to drinking just kinda doesn’t get that much page time because holy shit, we must focus on James now!!!!!!

if you’re going to give James trauma, write it better and actually have him process shit

make Alastair a main character as well as Thomas and Matthew I don’t care they’re my favs

fix whatever Anna and Ari were to be because that was not it

Christophe didn’t need to die and it was absolute illegal and a crime to not get to see Gabriel and Cecily reaction. I don’t care if Will and Tessa need to fuck asap. I don’t know anyone who gives a fuck. the fact that hey this needs to be about James was atrocious. if you’re going to kill someone who is beloved (to me) at least have the audacity to grieve them. CHRISTOPHER DESERVED BETTER

like if this series was in the hands of an lgbtq+ author who didn’t spend the whole thing on miscommunication, not processing trauma, stupid James and Cordelia shit where they don’t seem to have much chemistry or any reason to be together, Cordelia and Lucie not talking and being parabatai, not giving Alastair pov, making everything about James, not grieving Kit, making everything else about Will and Tessa because apparently we didn’t get enough from them and haven’t suffered enough, having Ari and Anna together without actually fixing their shit, treating Alastair like shit because Cordelia has James on her mind, jesses trauma and overlooking it, “villain” arc for Tatiana, Gabriel and Gideon not getting enough page time, and so on

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Matthew Thomas Alastair should have had more focus. I’m sorry but I don’t care about James and Cordelia nonsense. like I really don’t. I feel for his trauma but I got so tired of seeing the word bracelet and Grace and pity. if I see those words, it’ll be too soon. I don’t know why a 50+ woman is oversexualizing a teen girl and pushing the gays in the back. AGAIN. yes thomastair is treated so much better than Malec but it still needed so much improvement

“what did go wrong?” I don’t know CC keeps writing the same shit over and over again and gets away with it lmao if you look at her all series, they all have things in common. repetitive tropes, miscommunication, barely any worldbuilding, putting white abusive toxic golden eyed herondale boys first, while pushing everyone in the back. that goes as for putting heterosexual couples as the main couple and having them matter more than the lgbtq+ ones. (Malec gets shoved in the back, thomastair is pushed behind James and Cordelia, no one is in the lgbtq+ in TID that I can think of, and Emma and Julian dominate TDA.) heterosexual couples get more page time, get more intimate scenes while lgbtq+ barely get 1/3 of that

example: there are pages worth of James and cordelia having dinner with her family and just a few sentences of Alastair having dinner with others Thomas’s family. when Thomas gets arrested, it’s in James pov where that whole thing should have been about Thomas. Cordelia has a pov about Alastair’s most private moments- his scenes with Charles for example, that should have been Alastair’s thoughts

James and cordelia have pages and pages worth of intimate scenes while thomastair and Anna/Ari barely have a few pages out of the whole of chain of thorns, and they rarely have any intimate scenes in the whole series.

I can’t think of any Malec scenes where it was just them and not having inappropriate pov while CLACE had literally (I’m guessing) hundreds of pages worth of content. not just intimate but that whole series is about them. and she doesn’t stop there, she makes sure to include another jace in another series, while attempting to force CLACE into TDA where it has nothing to do with them

CC treats her lgbtq+ characters and couples like absolute utter shit and gives more screen time to her heterosexual couples. and this also goes to her POC characters and none of them can ever be 100%, like they at least have to be half white or if they aren’t some sort of white, they turn out to be a villain (looking at ya TEC) CC acts like she cares about any character that’s not white or in the lgbtq+ community but her writing tells a different story

this also goes to people with disabilities, people who get adopted, and so on (Jem, Ari, and Grace)

and no one is ever allowed to be mad at the main characters aka jace clary Will Tessa James Cordelia (I haven’t read TDA in ages so I’m ignoring that) for long because if they are mad at them, then they are the villain. everyone has to worship CLACE and Tessa and will so fucking hard (and James and Cordelia) and they always have to put their concerns first but their own. Alec is a definite yes. Jace is still his most inner thoughts and Alec is not his own person. it’s like CC wants everyone to be obsessed with a herondale because she is. and it takes over the stir and ruins it (they don’t ever own up to anything and learn and it’s frustrating)

she has the same patterns over and over again. you can literally see the same shit happening again. there is some kind of incest and unprocessed trauma in EVERY SINGLE BLOODY BOOK

I’m just being honest but I don’t think she would or will ever change her ways. she’s written TMI, TID, TDA, TLH and they are similar in many ways. I’m sure TWP is going to be a repeat and of course she will make everyone suffer another jace 🙄 her stand-alone series aren’t as bad because there are other writers involved but she still desperately adds her spin to it. I was told once that Alec is barely 18 when he and Magnus have sex, and Magnus literally chases a barely 18 year old Alec. and with her regular series and stand alones, she forgets or doesn’t think of what she writes so when you go back to the regular series, things don’t add up. (Malec being healthy in TEC but being toxic in TMI because hey it must be about jace)

I don’t know this is just a rant because this (TLH) could’ve been so much more but CC obviously lost interest. you can tell when the author of a book doesn’t care about it. IT FUCKING SHOWS. and many people were disappointed by TLH because Kit gets left behind and ignored, James and Cordelia seem to matter more than anyone, and there is one pov of Alastair and it’s only one page. like it is very disappointing and I write a lot about it because it could’ve been so much more

I just simply can’t forgive not grieving Kit, not letting Matthew process anything, not featuring more of thomastair, and just the general treatment of Alastair. if you didn’t know what to write, take a fucking break because we love these characters so stop ruining and destroying them

and I went a tad off about just the general what the actual fuck is CC because she ruins everything she touches. all of her series could’ve been more in the hands of a better competent writer and I’ll die on that fucking hill

[canonically47]

canonically47.tumblr.com/post/742593997706559488

this one

okay well total drama has a LOT of obvious mistakes and most of them come from the time in which it was written and published and the rushed season of only 13 instead of 26 episodes starting with ROTI

i also feel like they treat their characters and ships very badly, making them go right back where they started if they ever get any growth, which rarely happens. or their development is too sudden and not believable. priya, max, scarlett, that mini-arc shasmine had about splitting the money, aleheather in TDWT, prileb in TD 2024...

i rewatched ROTI and the girls were mistreated horribly. what can you expect from a season where the finalists are two guys? dakota’s internal issues were never discussed further than a funny haha moment when dawn read her aura, dawn never got to do anything for her team and her elimination was rushed, jo’s internalized mysoginy was a haha joke and never adressed properly, zoey had a whole villain-and-back-to-hero arc and STILL didn’t make finale???

also i hate when they introduce some groups and never further develop them, or develop them very little. lindsay, beth and ezekiel could’ve been an ICONIC trio. i miss leshawna and gwen’s friendship so much, and same goes for bowie and emma. jo and brick had so much potential to become allies or at least frenemies, amy and sammy were not handled well, THE E-SCOPE TRIO!!! i’m in shambles

so if i wrote TDI i’d just give the characters some proper development, more moments to shine, more fun relationships with the others. this show is based on its characters, they’re the stars!! so why not make them shine instead of burn??

gen 1 is too much work to rewrite but i’d keep TDI about the same except have a leshawna vs gwen finale, with leshawna as a ‘canon’ winner. TDA would have a harold vs lindsay finale with harold as the ‘official’ winner.

in TDWT i’d cut the duncney-gwuncan arc, make duncan never come back cuz fuck that guy, gwourtney wins. sierra gets better development. noah makes merge and fulfills his schemer role, constantly sabotaging alejandro. they become frenemies. aleheather still wins and goes to finale. alejandro doesn’t get the robot costume and we don’t hear from him again until TDAS.

for ROTI, would make jo a proper antagonist and make her butt heads with scott when the merge happened. my final six for ROTI would be scott, jo, zoey, brick, lightning and anne maria. yes, brick and anne maria, you read that right.

i still think scott shouldn’t make finale, and jo only if she got development. so maybe the merge could happen just two episodes earlier to get more stuff out of them, so the merge would include cameron and mike. scott would go before jo, and jo would be left to fend for herself after scott got cameron eliminated. this is where i would make her develop a friendship with anne maria and brick. get zoey in there and you have the anti-scott alliance. they get him out (NO TRAUMA CHAIR NEEDED, HE WILL BE FINE) and then lightning, then the girls unite against brick. sorry man.

the finale would be between two of the girls, i’d like to see jomaria or joey fight, jo needs that development. the one who gets out previously is an insta-elimination and not decided by the others.

and voilá! jo gets development and some healthy friendships! her and brick could also get together but maybe in another season. this season is for her alone to shine, she deserves it.

oh, and that’s the main thing about ROTI - i’d give them two more seasons. they deserve a WT-esque season.

i’d completely rewrite TDPI. make rodney first diss when the girls are disgusted by him (and also shit him cuz fuck him), dave an earlier boot, get beardo like third or fourth cuz i wanna see more of him, give scarlett a proper character arc instead of a rushed one throughout just one episode, make max a bit smarter and let him become a ‘hero’ rather than a villain he wants to be by rescuing everyone from scarlett since he knows her weaknesses best...

my ideal final five are shawn, jasmine, max, topher and ella. also my five favorites so no wonder. i’ll explain their arcs.

topher - 5th: shawn and jasmine, as well as max and ella, become duos after the scarlett incident (maybe it happens earlier?), and topher is outside of any alliance. plus he was getting kinda annoying, not to mention he gave chris too many ideas for challenges. damn it, topher!

ella - 4th: when she is forbidden from singing, she still goes behind chris’ back and does it, only that she intercepts sugar’s note and burns it. sugar is an earlier boot than originally because ella realizes she just hates her guts and she’s trying to befriend her for nothing. when ella stops singing, she puts her head in the game more than usual, but her refusal to hurt animals and serenade them instead gets her out eventually, by chris, not by the others.

max - 3rd: with no alliance and a softer spot than usual, he gets out at his own, last challenge.

finale: shawn vs jasmine

the same conflict about splitting the money, only that it comes earlier and is developed more. for one, chris shows jasmine the confessionals right after max’s voting ceremony.

shawn’s helper ends up being ella, but she’s been watching from playa des losers and is unhappy with how shawn treated jasmine. meanwhile, max is jasmine’s helper. max and jasmine sabotage shawn, ella doesn’t help him, but then when max and ella are given the controls for the island, they both realize the gravity of what they’ve done when they see shawn and jasmine buried in snow.

both jasmine and shawn get an ending. in both endings, jasmine gets out of the snow, doesn’t pay attention to the finish line, and goes to search for shawn, who pops out in confusion. the two have a heart-to-heart interrupted by chris to announce the race is still happening, and they have ten seconds left. in shawn’s ending, jasmine just nods to him and he crosses; in jasmine’s ending, shawn insists she crosses. pretty similar endings, the outcome is about the same, but i like to think jasmine’s is the ‘canon’ one.

and then they get another season!

so, our seasons are...

gen 1 - 3 seasons: total drama island, total drama action, total drama world tour

gen 2 - 3 seasons: total drama revenge of the island, total drama retour, total drama cruise or lose

gen 3 - 2 seasons: total drama pahkitew island, total drama reaction

gen 1 x gen 2 x gen 3: total drama all stars

TDAS would include eight contestants of each generation. gen 1 gets heather, alejandro, owen, noah, gwen, courtney, sierra, and leshawna. gen 2 gets jo, anne maria, zoey, mike, brick, cameron, lightning and scott. gen 3 gets shawn, jasmine, topher, max, ella, sugar, sammy and scarlett.

and then for the reboot i’d just make bowie win for the first season. the second season would have more development.

emma and bowie become friends again. mkulia become reluctant allies but still dislike each other. eventually they warm up to each other tho 👀. ripaxel also happens over the course of more episodes. couples butt heads - mkulia, rajbow and ripaxel - but mkulia dominate the game. short ripaxel-mkulia alliance in which they get out prileb (who have a better development trust), wayne and bowie.

damien gets to keep his immunity idol but doesn’t need to use it until the final five: axel, julia, mk, damien and raj. the girls unite against him, but he and raj voted for julia, so you can imagine mk is unhappy, but damien wins immunity. yikes.

so finale time is damien, raj and axel. everyone gets an ending, but damien is the ‘canon’ winner because HE DESERVED IT COME ON.

[princepotatosack]

Hello one and all and welcome to the The Duchess Affair name post. This is a list of period-accurate given names you can give your MC if you need some inspiration or want to know what kinds of names ladies had back then. I've combed through the 1809 edition of Debrett's Peerage for names of noblewomen in the 1600s and 1700s in Britain, which is where I'm taking the liberty of assuming TDA is set.

As always, you can drop any questions in my inbox, I love love love playing reference librarian :-)

Most names in this period either came from the Bible or from literature. The Bible was the most common book owned and read, so Biblical names were frequently seen. Some nobles liked to show off how cultured and educated they were by naming their children after mythological figures or characters from poetry and history, but most people of all classes named children after ancestors or loved ones (which explains why it seems like it was the same dozen names getting passed around again and again.)

Very common names -- the majority of women back then had one of these names:

Anne

Caroline

Catharine (not a typo – this was the standard spelling in the 1700s!)

Charlotte

Diana

Elizabeth

Frances

Georgiana

Henrietta

Isabella

Jane

Louisa

Margaret

Maria (pronounced like “Mariah”)

Martha

Mary

Sarah

Sophia

Less common but not unheard-of names:

Agnes

Alathea

Albinia/Albina

Alicia/Alice

Amelia/ Emilia/Emily

Arabella

Augusta

Barbara

Bridget

Cassandra

Cecilia/Cecily

Clarissa

Constance/Constantia

Dorothea/Dorothy

Eleanor

Emma

Gertrude

Grace

Harriet/Harriott

Hester

Honora/Honoria

Jemima

Judith

Julia

Juliana

Lavinia

Laetitia/Letitia

Laura

Lucy

Marianna/Marianne

Matilda

Penelope

Priscilla

Rachael

Rebecca

Susan/Susanna/Susannah

Theodosia

Theresa

Thomasina/Thomasine

Rarities and oddities -- I only came across these names once or twice each, use them to add a bit of flavor and eccentricity!!!:

Abigail

Amabel/Amabella

Amantha

Anastasia

Angelica

Annabella

Antonia

Araminta

Beatrix

Camilla

Christiana/Christina

Clara

Clementia/Clementina

Dulcibella

Esme

Ethelred

Eugenia

Felicia

Flavia

Flora

Florentia

Frederica

Gabriella

Helen/Helena

Horatia

Josepha

Leonora

Madelina

Margaretta

Narcissa

Octavia

Olivia

Philadelphia

Rose

Selina

Sibella/Sibilla/Sibylla

Tryphena

Urania

Winifred

And just for fun, some extremely British sounding surnames I found that made me chuckle aristocratically:

Beckington

Cavendish

Chatham

Courtenay

Dalrymple

Darlington

Fortescue

Gainsborough

Kingscote

Lovelace

Mountstuart

Ogilvie

Pembroke

Pierrepont

Posonby

Tattershall

Twisleton

Wentworth

Willoughby

Wriothesley

[purplebass]

Congrats 🎉💜 How about "You are my family" with Blackdale? 🤗

I really hope you like this 🥰 You are one of the few people I know who gets them the same way as I do, and I hope this will bring you happiness. It has a little hurt/comfort in it, but also parallels with TDA, so I think you would like it ✨👀🫶🏻

Read on AO3

For the Ghost That I Used To Be

London, 1904

“I feel like I should go to Chiswick,” Jesse announced to Lucie as they lounged on the loveseat by the window of his bedroom, after a long day he spent outside helping her father. “To, you know, sort things out. Or whatever is left of them.” 

It was not too long after Belial had been defeated, and that everyone had reunited in the gardens of what used to be Jesse’s house to bury things from their past. They all knew that they would never truly move on, but they were trying to. They had to try. Some moved on with their significant others. While some others, like his dear sister Grace, by putting her passion into science. 

“Do you think there is something left to save there?” Lucie inquired, dubious. “The place is in ruins, and I wonder if Tat-, your mother –” she shook her head and sighed. “That woman didn’t get rid of stuff that belonged to you or to your sister while you were away.” 

Every time she had to say Tatiana Blackthorn’s name, she didn’t know how to address her. That woman didn’t deserve to be acknowledged as his or Grace’s mother, because she never acted like a mother throughout their lives. Lucie tried as much as she could to avoid speaking about her, unless it was Jesse who mentioned her during a conversation, which was rare. 

“You can say her name, Lucie,” Jesse said earnestly, his expression neutral. 

Lucie opened her mouth to talk, but only a sigh came out, as if she wanted to say something but thought it was better not to. “I’m sorry, Jesse, but,” she bit her lip to silence herself. Instead of continuing, she took his hand.

 “What are you apologizing for?” he squinted at her. “You’re doing it again.”

“What?”

“You don’t want her name to come up in conversation, and as much as it is thoughtful and sweet, and you don’t want me to get hurt, I,” he inclined his head and a hint of a smile appeared on his lips, “can handle the truth, nor I don’t want to be protected from it. Tatiana Blackthorn was an awful human being and even though I would’ve left her to rot in an isolated jail cell in the Silent City instead of killing her, death is what she deserves for what she did.”

“Would you have spared her, why?” Lucie raised her voice, suddenly curious. They had never discussed the topic too much and she never dared to ask about that in casual conversation. She expected him to talk when and if he was ready. “It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it.”

Jesse frowned, and held his breath, his lips pursed. Lucie could tell it wasn’t easy for him, and she kept holding his hand, the summer breeze ruffling his dark hair off his forehead. 

I am here if you want to open up. I am willing to listen. I am willing to be a safe harbor for you. I am willing to let you cry on my shoulder if you need to. I’m willing to love you twice as much as that woman should’ve loved you. Even more. I would love you…

“I do not condone anything she did,” he began, gazing up at her, looking her in the eyes. “But I do believe in mercy. Sparing someone’s life not as an act of forgiveness, but of penance. Death is easy,” he wrinkled his nose disapprovingly. “It doesn’t matter how painful it is that you die, peace comes at some point, for most,” he forced a smile, and Lucie knew he was talking about himself too, and about his seven years stuck on the threshold between peace and misery. All because of his own mother, who had waited for the moment he would be old enough so his body could sustain the parasite. Belial. “You’re a corpse. You cannot atone for your sins, if you die, can you?” he asked rhetorically. “While if you live,” he heaved a deep sigh, and his voice came out uncharacteristically detached and far away, cold. “You will live the rest of your life with your guilt, haunted by the ghost of what you did. I find it the most effective punishment.”

“I know you would’ve stopped her if you could have,” Lucie moved closer to him and started stroking his back, feeling the tension in his bones as she did so, trying to ease some of it with her touch. 

“What angers me the most is that the Clave had evidence to shackle her, to indict her, to even banish her –” he glanced up, his tone bitter. His shoulders shook, and when he turned to her, his eyes had a haunted look. “If only I hadn’t been stubborn, they could’ve stopped her.”

The pale glow of the night behind him made him look ghostly again, but also ethereal. A boy who defeated death and came back stronger. A boy who barely showed his resentment, although Lucie knew, he still harbored some in the depths of his soul. Some of his frustration was also aimed at himself, for not having been there physically to stop his mother. For being left in the dark about it all.

He probably still blamed himself for wanting to become a shadowhunter, and the angelic magic clashing with what was inside of him, leading him to his death. His uselessness as a ghost. That was what he meant with his last sentence, and Lucie’s heart grieved for him. She loved him so much and it destroyed her when he felt like this. But it also made her fist clench in anger because of Tatiana, who didn’t just ruin Jesse’s life, but the lives of many others. 

Lucie understood him well, even though there were sides to him that she still didn’t know, and that she was still learning day after day. Jesse didn’t show much of a temper because he knew how to manage his indignation well, but that wouldn’t disappear overnight. And it was the reason Lucie probably avoided the topic. It wasn’t easy to discuss, it didn’t matter that he was confident that he could handle it. 

“Alas, we will never know that,” Lucie replied sincerely. “They could’ve still favored her. In the eyes of the Clave, she was the one who had been wronged, and she knew how to plead her case,” she said firmly, trying not to shake with fury. “Even if you had been alive at the time, and tried to stop her, I’m sure she would’ve found something so she could throw you to the wolves.”

Jesse’s face fell. She didn’t mean to be too blunt, but he needed to know, since they were talking. “I assume you’re right,” he told her after a long beat. “I think you are right, Lucie. I –” he took in a sharp breath, “I was always meant to be none other than a pawn in her revenge. Mistook her refusal for me to join the shadowhunters as a way for her to protect me from those she said hurt her the most. For love,” he said, dejected. “When in truth, I was one of her means for revenge. One of her possessions.”

Tears welled up in his eyes and she gently started wiping them with her fingers. He closed his eyes, and leaned his cheek into her hand. She drove his face to her shoulder, and he nestled his cheek there. There was so much Lucie wanted to say to him. Yet, she thought everything she wanted to tell him came down to the only words that encompassed all the possible sentences that ran in her head. “I love you, Jesse. I love you.” 

He wept silently until he had enough. Lucie stood beside him on the loveseat, threading her fingers in his hair, trying to soothe him, to tell him it was okay. She didn’t know how much time they had been there. The door to his bedroom was not completely shut, and she wondered if her parents might have come to check on them, and heard him cry. 

“I believe that I can still find some of my belongings and family heirlooms at Chiswick,” Jesse whispered after a while, his head still on her shoulder. Lucie nodded. “And if we don’t, it won’t matter.”

“We can go whenever you feel like it,” Lucie answered quietly, her hand quietly caressing his hair. She wanted to add if you want me to come with you, but she thought it was a given. 

“We can go the day after tomorrow, at noon,” he told her. “With the light.”

“Sounds perfect to me,” she agreed, and kissed the top of his head. 

While in bed that night, Lucie thought about everything that she and Jesse had talked about, and decided that the only thing she could be thankful to Tatiana Blackthorn for was that she gave birth to him. If it was for her, she would’ve killed her several times, or made a voodoo doll to inflict pain on her. Not only because she had sent Jesse to his death. Because she had also destroyed Grace’s life, because she had killed Christopher. Because she decided to burn all the bridges her uncles had tried to build to reach her. She hoped that Jesse could find closure someday. She would try to show him the love she thought he deserved.

Chiswick was even messier than how Lucie remembered. She recalled the last time they went there. Everyone had gathered to bury things they wanted to leave in the past. It was a symbolic action to mean a new beginning for everyone. It didn’t magically erase what had happened, no enchantment could. Trying to start anew was the only option in order to survive. 

Jesse immersed himself completely in his new life as a shadowhunter. He often helped around the Institute, and Will and Tessa also started mentoring him because they noticed he could follow in their footsteps in the future. Of this, Lucie was ecstatic. More than half a year before he didn’t have a future, and knowing he could potentially get her parents’ position someday made her happy. 

She grinned, and looked up at Jesse as they entered the main foyer of the house. She held his hand – something they both liked to do whenever they were out together – and she tightened her grip on an instinct when they crossed the threshold. Jesse exchanged her smile, but Lucie could tell he was a little on edge. They never returned to this place after they buried their belongings, and, without anyone taking care of the house, it gathered even more dust. 

“We should start looking in my grandfather’s study,” Jesse announced, and lead the way. 

Several hours later, they gathered some things that Jesse thought were worth taking away. A couple of old books he had cherished. Some other things he used while he was little. The rest, they arranged on a table but they were unsure whether they needed them or not. 

“I wonder what this is doing here,” Lucie said when they were looking in the attic, where Jesse told her he used to hide most of the things he didn’t want his mother to find as a child. She showed the portrait she had found to him. “I think this is her,” she told Jesse. 

“Her, who? She does look like a Blackthorn, but I don’t know her. Her portrait was never hung on the wall with the others.”

“Annabel,” Lucie whispered, looking at the back of the portrait. There was a date scribbled over, perhaps of when the artist had painted her. “The woman Malcolm used to love.”

“Oh, that Annabel,” he asserted, frowning at his girlfriend. “The one you wanted to find for him.” 

Lucie nodded, glancing at the portrait. She told Jesse about her promise to Malcolm and how she couldn’t fulfill it because she lost her power. She waited to tell him because she thought it wasn’t important, since she couldn’t keep her promise anyway, and it wasn’t like the warlock had helped raise him. That was the original pact. 

But then she realized that she didn’t want to keep things from Jesse, who was reserved but always sincere. To her, a good relationship needed to be built on mutual trust and honesty, which she believed they had. Her secret with Malcolm was the only thing she had kept from him, and she felt the need to free herself from the weight of it.

“I wanted to help Malcolm,” Lucie admitted, her hands twisting on her lap. “I could’ve helped him like I helped you.”

“I’m sure you would have,” Jesse tensed in his seat, and he sighed in frustration. “What could’ve happened to you, if you had? You’ve slept for days after you raised me. Occasionally waking up but still unconscious,” he closed his eyes briefly, the memory of that time in Cornwall still haunted him to this day. “I could have lost you,” he said in a broken voice, flinching, as if only thinking about that made him panic. “You could have gotten hurt,” he added, shaking his head again.

She knew he would get upset. He didn’t want Lucie to risk her life to bring back someone else. She already risked enough for trying with him, and even if he was thankful, he would’ve never wanted her to try again. 

“Yes, your ancestor,” Lucie continued. “Oh, there is something here,” she realized, touching the back of the portrait. A tiny wooden box was built behind the canvas, which opened when she picked on the lock. “I wonder what this is,” she said, picking up a small leather bound book. 

Jesse came closer and he started looking. “This looks like a diary,” he said, opening the first page. “No, it isn’t,” he corrected himself. “It is a poem. A poem by Edgar Allan Poe. He is a mundane poet.”

Lucie peered at the small volume. “My parents would be delighted to see this,” she marveled at the precise scribbles. “It is a poem, indeed. What’s the name? Annabel… Lee,” she gazed at Jesse, who wore the same surprised expression as hers. “Could have been…?”

“Written by Poe to that Annabel? I don’t have a clue,” he shrugged. “But anything is possible. Otherwise, why would it be hidden behind her portrait?”

“And, most of all, who could have hid it here?” Lucie inquired, trying to make an impression of the famous character Sherlock Holmes, a detective written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 

“Give it to the members of the Blackthorn family to still make noise even after they’re dead,” Jesse remarked with a giggle. “What an astounding family.”

They laughed together, and it was liberating. She was afraid that it would be hard to be in his old house, surrounded by a lot of things which used to belong to his family. And indeed, she knew that it wasn’t easy for him. But at least, the mood had softened and Lucie thought that Jesse seemed relaxed after their latest find, and she was glad of it. 

“Can I keep the poem, Jesse?” Lucie asked when they finally gathered everything he meant to take with him to the London Institute. She was a little shy about asking, mostly considering their past talk about Annabel, but she still took her chances. The worse he could do would be saying no, which she would completely understand.

Jesse didn’t seem to be taken aback by the request. “I can already see your mind spinning, Lucie,” he declared, the corners of his mouth turned up into a sincere grin, which made Lucie’s cheeks flush with heat. “Keep it, if you like it. I don’t mind.”

Lucie beamed at his consent, and pushed herself up on her tiptoes to give him a kiss on the cheek. She put the small volume in the pocket of her dress for safekeeping, and then, they left.

London, 1910

During the first weeks at the Institute, several years before, Jesse tried to get used to living again. He kept himself busy, tried to distract himself from the reality of this new life, and from the overwhelming sensation of being seen. He didn’t mind being around Lucie and her parents. They respected his space and he was sure they knew how to read his mood and dealt with him accordingly. They respected him and he respected them, and always made him feel like part of their family.

Jesse remembered when he gathered the courage to go to Chiswick, and told Lucie about it. And the conversation diverted on the topic of his mother, and he broke down in front of his beloved girl, who carefully avoided talking about Tatiana not to trigger him. She was a sensitive topic, but he realized that, in order to move on, he needed to face his demons, and that included his wicked and loveless mother and the house that she had turned into his prison for years. 

They had been there before, when everyone decided to bury their belongings which were a symbol of the life they wanted to leave behind. Jesse had left his coffin behind, as he didn’t need it anymore, but he had also asked himself whether or not he would be able to move on from that part of his existence where his life couldn’t be defined as such. “It was the ghost of a life”, Lucie told him on a warm afternoon, while they discussed one of her new writing projects. “And now the ghost is finally living his life,” she added. “This is a hopeful story.”

Chiswick hadn’t changed, if not for the excess of dust covering all the surfaces like the eerie cloth of an unkind ghost. The wind, now gentle, now strong, found its way through the broken shutters, and graced the furniture with fresh air in a place otherwise dead. 

Jesse hadn’t been shocked to find his old house in such ruins. On the other hand, he thought it would be in worse condition. He considered this place lost. He hadn’t wanted to go back, but he felt like he needed to. He needed closure, and he was puzzled to see the remnants of his previous life were still there, laying untouched in the attic. Lucie also found a tiny volume with a poem, and it was part of the reason they were there that night.

As one would expect from the heads of the London Institute, there would always be some party to attend, or some people who wanted to meet him. He didn’t mind being around people, but he needed to manage the amount of time he was around people. There were some occasions when he just couldn’t bear to be among the throngs of shadowhunters, and had to catch a break. 

It didn’t happen as often now, but tonight, because of the special occasion they were celebrating, Will and Tessa had invited even more people than usual. He would hide in an alcove next to the ballroom or on the balcony, where he knew people didn’t like to venture when there was music and drinks and food in the party room. He liked the balcony, and appreciated the breath of fresh air that would breeze when out on one, without the constraints of the frame of a window. 

And Lucie always found him. They were like magnets, attracted to each other like opposite poles. He also felt that pull with her. He sensed where she was, when they were in a crowded room. He would smile at her and she would smile at him in acknowledgment. And her presence would calm him, tether him to the here and now. To the world of the living.

“Found you,” she told him playfully, not too long after he fled the ballroom teeming with inebriated shadowhunters. “Is everything okay, Jesse? You seemed distressed.”

“I am,” he decided not to lie to her. “I just feel like –”

“Like this is too much?”

“It is,” he revealed. “Too many people tonight. I just needed to catch my breath and then I would return. And this balcony is the perfect place.”

“Do you want me to leave?”

“Not at all,” he offered her a smile. “Come here,” he opened his arm, and she nestled close to him, placing her hand on one of the lapels of his jacket. “This is much better,” he said, and secured his hand on her shoulder, lingering on Lucie’s sheer-covered arm.

“This place is the best to take a breather,” Lucie observed quietly. “I was also getting fed with people in the other room. Rosamund Wenthworth wouldn’t stop asking me where I found the material for my work, which, surprisingly, she said she enjoyed.”

“Congratulations for making Rosamund enjoy something,” Jesse commented, remembering how Lucie told him that Rosamund and her brother used to mock her for having a ghost as a friend. If Lucie didn’t like befriending ghosts, he probably wouldn’t be here today. “She and her lot seem hard to please, but they do like to intrude in people’s lives. She once cornered me to ask me about Chiswick and how I used to live there,” he huffed. “Since, according to the stories she’d heard, we only ate what grew in the greenhouse.”

“That’s such an insensitive question,” Lucie was outraged, and Jesse could only grin wider. “If only I had been there! But she doesn’t dare to say those things in front of me,” she snorted. He knew she would fight all the Rosamunds in the world for him, and his heart filled up with so much love just thinking about that. “What did you say?”

“I didn’t want to be disrespectful, so I replied that regrettably, the story she knew was incorrect,” he declared proudly. “We didn’t just eat the crops that grew in the greenhouse, we also sowed them. Unfortunately, it was just corn and beans.”

“Jesse!” Lucie objected, glancing up at him. He was laughing. “I wouldn’t come up with a better answer, if I tried. It’s easy to poke fun at Rosamund. She believes in everything you say,” she observed. “She tries to flirt, even,” she rolled her eyes. “When she has a husband and a child.”

“I don’t know about that,” his eyes sparkled with amusement at Lucie, who was rarely jealous. “Well, if she ever did, the joke is on her. I am happily taken, and I’m sure the guests your parents gathered here tonight also know it, Rosamund included.”

“She better,” Lucie smiled at him, content, nestling her head back under his welcoming arm. They stayed in silence for a while, just enjoying each other’s company and warmth. “This balcony didn’t exist before my parents started working here,” Lucie said suddenly. “When I was a child, I wondered why. It is uncommon to have balconies in Institutes, since they’re often churches. They’re more common in mansions or other private houses.”

“There are balconies at Chiswick,” Jesse said, and Lucie nodded, gazing up at him. “I even remember you sneaking in from one, when I was still a ghost.”

“I did,” she bit her lip, blushing. “By the way, I overheard my parents talk one day, and found out the reason they wanted a balcony so bad. You wouldn’t believe it.”

“The view is great?” Jesse wondered rhetorically, and Lucie shook her head. “But the view is indeed great, I have to admit it,” he said, maintaining eye contact with her. 

“I agree,” she beamed at him. “Other than that, I reckon that they’re very fond of balconies because,” she took a moment to say it, “they shared their first real kiss on one of the balconies at Chiswick. My papa’s words, not mine.”

“Ah,” Jesse said. “Now that you mention it, I can see the appeal,” he tilted his head to the side, and she couldn’t read his expression clearly. “It is indeed a private enough place for frolicking. It makes me want to kiss you.”

“Then,” Lucie muttered, “what are you waiting for?”

He made a quiet giggle of amusement and then his expression turned serious, yet sweet, as if he was trying to keep her face in his memory before closing his eyes and meeting her lips with his own. Lucie, still trying to hide in the warmth of his jacket, hugged his torso and clung on the back of his shirt. His hand cupped the side of her jaw and they shared a tender kiss which gradually grew in rhythm.  

“Perhaps we should go back inside,” he said placidly, tracing her cheek with his finger after the kiss. “Your skin is cold and your father must request our presence to cut the cake.”

Lucie huffed, still reeling from the kiss, and she tightened her hold on him. “You’re right,” she nodded. “Particularly considering that I am one of the guests of honor.”

“And you spent the last half hour with your socially anxious future husband on a balcony,” Jesse interjected with a raised eyebrow, apologetic, as the two went inside and walked towards the ballroom. “The other guest of honor.” A mix of cheerful and shouting voices could be heard from there. At least, people were enjoying themselves. 

Lucie smiled and halted her step, needing to tell him one thing before they would have to go back into the crowd of friends and family. “I’ll tell them to leave once everyone eats the engagement cake,” she promised him, fixing his tie as she spoke. “Then we can go on the balcony again, if you like. My parents wouldn’t object, since this is our night.”

Jesse nodded. “It’s too cold outside, maybe we should retreat somewhere else? We can decide later.”

“Yes, anything you want,” she said. “Jesse, did you ever –”

“Oh, I found you!” a small girl’s voice interrupted their talking. It was Cordelia and James’ younger daughter Layla. “Grandpa Will asked me to look for you!”

“Dear, did they send you by yourself? Where is your mama?” Lucie wondered, lowering to the child’s height. 

“She also asked me to look for you, saying that they were waiting for you and uncle Jesse to cut the cake! You must hurry, or we will eat everything!” Layla grabbed Lucie’s hand and she grabbed Jesse’s, their conversation cut but far from over. 

It was roughly around eleven that all their guests finally left, and only the inhabitants of the London Institute stayed behind. Will and Tessa had retreated to their room, and they told Lucie and Jesse not to stay up too late, which was something they often said out of habit, as if they were still children. Lucie was sure they would tell them even after they would become man and wife, and she didn’t mind it. She was lucky that both her parents were alive and well, and she cherished every moment with them. Not many people could say the same. 

In the end, they went into the game room. It wasn’t one of Lucie’s favorites, but the fireplace was larger than the one in their rooms and she was in need of warmth. Well, she was warm, if they asked her, but more heat wouldn’t hurt. She outstretched her arms so she could feel the heat on her palms. 

“Tonight was amazing,” Lucie commented, feeling peaceful and at ease. Jesse was in his shirtsleeves, while she still wore her evening dress. She wondered if he was as warm as she was. “I can’t believe we are finally engaged,” her tone was jovial. She glanced at her hand again, a spark of giddiness filling her heart at the sight of her ring. 

Jesse grabbed her hand and glanced at the ring he had picked. “You are breathtaking, if I haven’t told you already,” he complimented her, and she turned red. For the record, he had told her too many times to count, but he still loved to say it and for her to hear it. 

“You look good yourself,” Lucie took him all in, taking in his green eyes and their contrast with his black hair. “I can’t believe mam invited all those people, and they all came,” she leaned on the pool table, the balls scattered in different directions because somebody had probably played while the party went on and forgot to rearrange them. 

“Your parents are influential,” Jesse said. “Even those who might not approve of their union must know that it is better to keep them as friends and not foes,” he shrugged. “Even Rosamund and Thoby know.”

Lucie nodded, lost in thought. “I’m still blown away that she liked my book,” she rolled her eyes. “That anybody in that room who has read it, told me nice words about my book,” she rubbed her hands together, still in disbelief. 

“Why wouldn’t they,” Jesse held her chin between his fingers, stroking the side of her jaw. “You’ve written many things throughout the years we’ve been together. And I don’t want to pick a favorite among your writing, but to me, this is the finest. Maybe you were meant to write for children.”

“If you told me five years ago that my first published work would be a collection of shadowhunter tales for children, I wouldn’t have believed you,” she said, delighted. “And it is you I have to thank,” she stared at Jesse. “I’m beyond grateful that you let me use the book we found behind Annabel’s portrait. It was a way to remember her, since I couldn’t help her case.”

“To be fair, you didn’t need my consent to write your story,” he replied. “I still have no clue as to why the volume was behind the portrait, nor who put it there. The poem is of public domain. It was published in a newspaper, so it isn’t a secret,” he raised an eyebrow and gave her half a shrug. “I, along with Grace, are the only Blackthorns left in London. It is a great responsibility, carrying this name” he said solemnly. “You are my family, Lucie,” he offered her a smile, and held her hand. “Grace, your parents, my uncles and aunts, they are also my family. But when we get married, and after then, someday,” his eyes filled with affection and devotion, “my family will also be our children. Any children who would want to join us.”

Lucie couldn’t help but give him a wide smile. “Are you thinking about a number? Because I suggest we should have one child for every year you couldn’t fully live. So, seven children.”

“Are you sure? Half the job is mine,” he raised his eyebrows. “But you will have to carry them for nine months. It’s over half a year and –”

“I was joking,” Lucie giggled. “Not about having kids. I love children,” she grinned. “And I would love to have kids with you, someday. I can’t wait to start our own family. Fill the Institute or wherever you want to live with lots of Blackthorn children.”

He blushed, his heart pounding loudly in his chest. “Blackthorn children who we will read your shadowhunters tales to,” he fixed a strand of hair behind her ear. “And the best books in English literature but also of literature from all over the world.”

“And who we will teach how to spar in a duel and all the names of the different demons they may encounter at night,” she said, putting her hands behind his neck. “Including ghosts.”

“Here I thought you loved ghosts,” he said. “I’m offended.”

“What if I kissed you for offending you?” she raised an eyebrow alluringly. “Even though you are not a ghost anymore.”

“You can do it for the ghost that I used to be,” he answered. “And I’m not anymore. But please, hurry. Or I’m going to kiss you first.”

He didn’t have to ask her twice.  Lucie smirked, and soon her lips found his, joined in the perfect conclusion to an already flawless night.  

Hi! Thanks for reading everything. I hope you noticed the parallels I wanted to make, especially with Jesse and Lucie being the Blackthorns who will began the new legacy of the family once they're married. And also with Lucie writing the children's stories that we see Tavvy Blackthorn has in TDA :) I thought it would be nice if she found Poe's work and turned Annabel into a magical heroine in order to remember her, just like she did with Jesse when he used to be a ghost. I planned to add a bonus scene where Lucie and Jesse talk about her pact with Malcolm, but I will post it tomorrow, I think. I hope you enjoyed this one! I'd love to hear your thoughts <3

[hechangedtheworldforhim]

chain of thorns spoilers!

~

okay, my brain is still scattered after reading this rollercoaster of a book, but i need to write some of my thoughts down because i am living in denial

general thoughts:

-there was so little magnus, tragic

-there was so little of the adults too, like i know it’s not their story but we’re never gonna see them again

-all of the malcolm tda foreshadowing yikes

-audibly screamed in terror when matthew and cordelia kissed

-seriously their love triangle was just pissing me off

-thomas’ pov kept me going

-but alastair had like one short pov section? what?

-huge ari and winston stan though

-the christmas party scene with tatiana, i was actually so concerned

-low key love that it was grace who told cordelia the truth

-damn james and cordelia are crazy (horny james herondale shooting the doorknob like omg get it)

-you’re telling me esme hardcastle making up her own stories is the whole reason why this stupid family tree is so inaccurate??

-and like, now, it’s SUPER inaccurate

-if i don’t get an updated family tree istg i’m going to lose my mind

okay now onto the important stuff aka why do the lightwood siblings always have to suffer:

-literally wtf because i was seriously rooting for christopher and grace so hard?? and then he died?? what??

-he spent the whole book being his adorable little self and then suddenly he’s gone

-and NO ONE got to grieve properly

-the merry thieves are never going to be the same again, it felt like these books were built on the foundation of their friendship but everyone just moved on?

-like i seriously thought he was still alive or would be coming back somehow because it felt so rushed and improper

-no funeral, no ave atque vale, no scene of cecily and gabriel mourning their CHILD?!

-i’m so upset on his behalf, christopher lightwood you deserve the world

in conclusion:

alastair’s sarcasm was the only thing holding this book together for me, thank you

[vwritesaus]

I cannot WAIT to read your Thomas Grief Fic, but I feel a little bad because I also have begun a Thomas Grief Fic 😅 I'm so pumped though I feel like a lot of Thomas-related things got SUPER brushed off and it was ridiculous since he was probably the most impacted person by the main TLH deaths??? He deserves better ugh lol

gasp, excuse me you're also writing a thomas grief fic??? mate you better tag me in that shit when you post it, i need to read it so badly. there fr needs to be more thomas grieving fics bc you're so right—he deserves better. that was precisely my main thought when i first starting writing this fic eugh

and i guess it's up to us fic writers to see that's it done huh? the more the merrier i say. our boy deserves justice. tbh most of the tlh characters do :'(

"I feel like a lot of Thomas-related things got SUPER brushed off and it was ridiculous since he was probably the most impacted person by the main TLH deaths???" —SAY IT LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK ! ! ! !

yes. like intermission: grief, for example, was mainly cordelia mourning james's and matthew's disappearance into edom (which is fine. seriously, it is) but thomas got a tiny mention about how he was the last of the merry thieves in this world (london) and how alone he must feel. that just straight up broke my heart, but then it doesn't really get mentioned again?? so am i gonna delve into that a bit more in this fic? absolutely. and that's not to mention the severe lack of grieving at/mention of the fucking funeral. if livvy and robert can have theirs in tda, christopher can damn well have his in this fic

tbh there's gonna be a lot i address in this fic, you mark my words. there's just so much to say, y'know????? whether i do it successfully is another matter, but i'm gonna bloody well try

anyway, sorry for the rant, and i'm so happy you're excited for the fic, thank you!! i'm excited for yours too so please lmk when you drop it ♡

[edwinspaynes]

what type of things you dislike in written works? like repetitions, metaphors, etc

Hm, interesting question.

The thing that bothers me the most is poor character development. I'm not going to care about what happens to the characters if I don't care about them. I'm not going to care about the characters if they're 2D cutouts. This is the fastest way to make me DNF something.

I don't like tragedy, and if I learn something is a tragedy, I will immediately stop reading it unless it's like, a classic novel. Major character death is the only thing that pisses me off as much as 2D characterization. Don't make me care about a story and then ruin it all in seconds by killing people. (Bittersweet books are more than okay, and they are welcomed. Love a good bittersweet book sometimes.)

Repetitions can get annoying if the author uses the same word over and over again. It usually irritates me the most if they're consolidated into one area of the book. If it's spread out, I can usually ignore it.

I also get supremely annoyed when the author switches gears in the middle of a series. This is one of the biggest reasons I can't stand TDA. Come up with a plot and stick with it. Develop it. The worst culprit ever is Throne of Glass by SJM, which is worse than TDA could ever dream of being. Keep your original story. It was better.

I read a lot of romantasy and romance, and it annoys me when authors feel the need to come up with a million synonyms for a penis. "Love wand" "meat stick" you're cringe. Just say cock, prick, or dick. Member is okay sometimes but it's on thin fucking ice when overused.

Those are the biggest things I can think of!

[rezdragon]

Updates - October 26th 2024 (at 6 in the morning, I should be in bed)

The Disaster Archives - Everyday She's not coming off of my project queue, you will have to take her from me via a custody lawsuit. Naw, I still pick at this randomly with new ideas. I literally just worked on some stuff last week. I've got some big gaps in the story I'm trying to fill. At this point, I'm hoping to at least have a treatment for the story done by the end of the year and I promise that, as long as nothing else gets in my way, I WILL start writing this in some way by January of 2025. I have some slightly ambitious ideas for its script, but we'll see if I can make those realities somehow.

Running With the Devil Hey um... this might have accidentally gotten bumped up to "a project I'm accidentally taking seriously." It's still a goof off project, but I'm having way too much fun with it, shit's gettin' serious. Second chapter is about done and ready to be edited. Again, thus so far, this is only being posted to Sheezy. Not trying to encourage y'all over there, it's just literally the only place I can post this.

Gallery Project(s) There's another gallery around here looking for submissions, even highly encouraging gay artists (hey, that's me!). Deadline is in November and I want to finish this by the first week of November at the latest, so expect me to start this soon. I will be looking for other gallery projects to do in Spokane. It's been suggested to me to make works for Mental Health Awareness Month next year, and I'm all for doing that.

Smash Machinima - What Is It, and How It's Made After making my Joker Persona video, I got the idea that perhaps a lot of y'all don't know what Smash Machinima is. Not to mention that its history and techniques are kinda slowly dying. So in an effort to fill a gap no one asked for, I've started writing this. This is the next project I'm jumping into once I'm done with the video currently sitting in Resolve (a highlight reel of the second audio pack). I've written the "what is it" part mostly, next I have to write how it's made and then begin all of the filming for it.

How Rez Addison Stole My Name I definitely want to come back to this script, this was me popping off with some of the best writing I've done outside of TDA, but like I have said, this was a really painful script to write. I have to rewrite massive chunks of it, and I'm just not feeling up for that right now due to my current arrangements at home (I want to read the script out loud as I go, and I can't do that when I'm sitting in the living room with other people is the short answer).

New Concept Album (Title Undecided) Need to develop the story more before I decide on a title. I did start working on this like two weeks ago with an outline for the story, and of course the making of 1982. I'm waiting for the moment when my brain decides it wants to spend several hours doing nothing but audio editing, but I am currently having too much fun writing. Music is hard calling me though. I also want to do another Tasukete/Kintsugi style album, but I want that one to come out naturally.

The House That Raised Me Missing a lot of footage for this, and with my current hip pain problems, I'm not sure when I will get back to this. I'd like to, but ugh, this was a messy, impulsive project that I am trying to salvage at this point. I feel like I need more distance from it before I figure out what the hell is not working in it. I might post a teaser video about it to see if I can gauge interest in the project to motivate me to work on it. I can do that by Halloween at the latest.

Misc Art Project That OC meme thing I shared awhile ago is the reason I made angry Demon Ash. This is a largish project that I pick at when the partner wants me to watch things with him. Keeps my hands busy. I also want to update Ash's bio card sometime to reflect all of her funky parts, as well as make a separate version for RWTD Ash.

This seems like a lot for me to be working on, but remember I'm picking at all of these bit by bit. Sometimes I work on TDA for an hour, sometimes I work on RWTD for 5 hours, sometimes I work on The House That Raised Me for 30 minutes, I'll photoshop something for ten minutes, etc. I'm hoppin' around and having fun.

[theoldhempfarmer]

Tennessee's Hemp Derived Cannabinoid law gets bumped until October...

Dateline: 7-1-24

The deep heat here in Middle Tennessee continues to be quite fierce. So The Old Hemp Farmer is continuing to go with the Iced Indonesian coffee and frozen Costa Rican Cacao laced with Tennessee homegrown Cannabis extract which seems to take the edge off of the high temperatures. This morning, as we ease into the World of Cannabis, there are a couple things to pontificate on, first, we got our FBI reports (evidently Lee Crabtree and I aren’t criminals, which is nice to know) and so yours truly filled out our Tennessee Department of Agriculture Hemp license application and with a check sent out our application for yet another Hemp license. It’s hard to believe this Hemp license application is my 10th and Lee’s 9th. Speaking of which, this year’s Tennessee homegrown Cannabis crop is in the ground, with 95% of the work was done by the Cannabis Professional known as Lee Crabtree and he was generous enough to let The Old Hemp Farmer’s Wife to transplant as small group of Tennessee Volunteer aka Readyville God Bud that she can use for her topicals and a few batches of Hemp Pesto. TOHFW didn’t get to plant any Cannabis last year and she missed it, so did I. One of the reasons The Old Hemp Farmer got into Cannabis was to grow it. Reluctantly, I got bumped into marketing and sales, which was more important to Tennessee homegrown than yours truly working in the field. Also after 2021, quite frankly we no longer needed to grow hundreds and hundreds of pounds of high CBD Cannabis Flower. Ultimately though it doesn’t really matter much Cannabis we grow, we just love to grow the plant.

Which leaves me to the main topic at hand, today, July 1st 2024, was suppose to be when all aspects of Tennessee’s Hemp Derived Cannabinoid law - HB0403 were to be implemented and enforced. Well a funny thing happened, as the clock was starting to run out, the Tennessee Department of Agriculture and Department of Revenue decided to push back implementation and enforcement to October 1, 2024. There weren’t any concrete reasons given for this delay but one can imagine. As The Old Hemp Farmer has said from the get-go that trying to ride herd on over 2,500 Cannabis businesses (half of which are off the TDA grid) in the state of Tennessee was going to be like pushing a boulder up the side of mountain. And finally when October 1st does arrive, how will enforcement proceed? When will the TDA start testing products and how long will it take? Will there be roving groups of agents from Tennessee Department of Agricultural Cannabis division that will “en masse” start raiding stores that sell Cannabis products? And once Cannabis the TDA folks do start checking out stores, how will that work? Will they simply take stock of inventory or will there be in store judgements on products and if deemed illegal will that warrant the TDA or TBI to execute an on the spot confiscation of a stores inventory? If so, what recourse will Cannabis business owners have to challenge any rulings? Realistically, if the testing lab at the TDA has to do literally hundreds and hundreds of tests, what will be the reliability of those tests? It would be brutal to find out that your Cannabis products were confiscated and destroyed because of a misplaced decimal point. Trust me, it happens, after 10 years of reading COAs, labs occasionally make mistakes. Meanwhile until October 1st, the Cannabis professionals in Tennessee are in a kind of limbo, not knowing what exactly is going on and wondering if the implementation of HB0403 will be pushed back again? Anyway as always, Hemp Dawgs and Hemp Puppies keep one eye on the weather and the other eye on the market.

Visit our Tennessee homegrown web site to try our great products: https://www.tnhomegrown.com

The Wife's web site: https://www.theoldhempfarmerswife.com

Our Podcast - Full Contact Cannabis: https://fullcontactcannabis.podbean.com

#theoldhempfarmer#tennesseehomegrown#fullcontactcannabis#cannabisbusiness#cannabisindustry#theoldhempfarmerswife

[livvyofthelake]

well ok. so i think this one was better than a study in scarlet, it naturally should be considering a study in scarlet was our boy artie's first sherlock holmes book and the hound of the baskervilles was written like a decade later. actually idk about the time frame hold on. like 14 years later ish. and yes i know i am not reading any of these in order but the beauty of episodic storytelling is that well i don't have to do anything chronologically. also i should point out that i only happen to be reading these books and stories because i borrowed this "treasury of sherlock holmes" from my aunt to press flowers in and then i took the flowers out and i just have this book until october when i see her again. so if anyone expected me to be some kind of conisseuir you would be mistaken i just read i don't really go here... and of course, it's been said, you will never catch me watching adaptations of sherlock holmes. i don't want to do that who has the time for that... do you even fathom how many adaptations of these stories exist in the world? and based solely on what i know the most popular one is, i cannot imagine any are good. if you really made a case you could potentially convince me to watch the show with lucy liu in it but that's unlikely given that i do not have the time to be doing that. anyway back to the book. well obviously i liked it i gave it 5 stars (guy who gives everything 5 stars) HOWEVER. you would not fucking believe how much of that book is just johhny boy wandering the moors. i'm not kidding, the man was walking around those moors like he didn't have any hobbies (he doesn't). that being said i loved the setting... very gothic very creepy, i loved the almost supernatural twist (of course there are no supernatural elements to any sherlock holmes stories but there was toying with the ideas of a monster in here which was very fun to me!!), i loved the supporting characters as well, sir henry was a chill dude, the doctor guy was also a chill dude, loved that lady also. what was her name. miss stapleton, yeah she slayed, well. some things happened to her that did not slay but well i mean she was cool and i hope the best for her in the future <3 and of course john and sherlock's kit and ty swag is always unparalleled... cassie really really wantd to write some fanfiction whe she did tda huh. i've got images from the book i need to post just you wait... ideally i would have lord of shadows with me so i coul dmake silly parallel posts but that would be a little ridiculous actually so it's for the best i'm not doing that i think. but yeah. would recommend i really do think it was a sick ass book to read, would not recommend you try to read it in a single day and then not really get serious about reading it until after midnight and then you end up staying up til 4am on a self imposed deadline that makes you wish you were dead. like definitely don't do that, but i think you should all read it, or at least give her a try... i promsie my buddy john is fun to hang with he's a little freak he's sooo annoying he's awful at doing detective shit but sherlock loves him sooooo much so he keeps dragging him around in all his cases because they're best friends <3 you know the post about wanting a boyfriend not really to have a boyfriend but just to have some guy to take with you everywhere that does watever you want? that's what john is to sherlock <3 hope this helps

another classic beth book review. now that it's not 4am i have more to say about that book though stay tuned. just wanted to open with this because well it was funny <3