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ordinaryschmuck · 3 years

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What I Thought About "Through The Looking Glass Ruins" from The Owl House

Salutations, random people on the internet who most certainly won’t read this! I am an Ordinary Schmuck! I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons!

When Disney announced episode titles/synopsis for the new season (On a day that left my head SPINNING!), there was one episode that I knew deep down that would cause controversy and discourse amongst the fandom. And that episode was "Through the Looking Glass Ruins." Not because it would be bad, far from it. Instead, because the episode was a Gus episode with a Lumity subplot, that meant that discourse would start as fans decide which story they prefer more. A situation that, might I add, would result in no winners.

Do you prefer the Lumity plotline? Well, guess what! You're a racist who chose to talk about an overrated ship rather than a heavily underrated character who just so happens to be a person of color.

Do you prefer Gus' plotline? Well, guess what! You're a homophobe who decided to shine a light on a character who's underrated for a reason instead of praising a ship that just so happens to involve two girls.

Either side you pick is going to result in making people mad. The only way to avoid that is by explaining in heavy detail that you still enjoyed one side despite preferring the other. Even if you loved both, you'll most certainly have to explain to everyone that you mean it and that you're neither racist nor homophobic. And all I have to say is this: F that.

F that S in the A right now.

Because I, or anybody else for that matter, shouldn't have to explain myself when it comes to saying why I prefer one plot line or the other. I shouldn't have to prevent getting ripped apart by some bulls**t, black and white mentality of people who can't accept that others like a show for different reasons than they do.

You wanna know what I think about "Through the Looking Glass Ruins?" Well, continue reading to find out. You'll have to make your way through spoilers, but it's the only way for you to learn why I consider this episode not worth any discourse that I'm already certain is cropping up.

Now, let's review, shall we?

WHAT I LIKED

The Opening Scene: I'm kind of digging how snappy and to the point these opening scenes are getting. In the span of what has to be less than a minute, we're given all the information we need to know: Gus is insecure about his illusion magic because he accidentally got Willow injured. It's a great way of setting up why Gus wants to prove himself to the Glandus students and a great way of showing how much Willow's friendship means to him. Look at how he's reacting a few days after the incident. He's still mopey and guilty about it, and I feel bad for the little guy.

Gus in General: And while we're already talking about him, let's give this episode a round of applause for giving Gus the spotlight without having him screw over his friends...except for Willow.

"Through the Looking Glass Ruins" really fleshes Gus out much more so than past episodes. As I said, it plays heavily into his own insecurities while proving how he's capable as an illusionist. He's also the best possible outlet to explore more about what illusionist magic can really do. It can't hurt anybody or work well in a fight. Instead, its strengths lie in the act of convincingly tricking others into thinking that something that should be fake is actually real. And Gus got to prove he really is a super witch because of his illusions through a jaw-dropping scene that's as dark as it was enthralling. The fact that he did it all by himself, without the help of an illusion elder who was right there, is honestly even more impressive. A lot of people aren't that interested in Gus as a character, but I feel like, after this episode, he certainly won a few more fans over.

Willow Getting Injured and Missing the Episode: This is a smart move, in my opinion. Willow acts as the voice of reason in the friend group, so if she tagged along with Luz and Gus right away, she would have easily talked Gus out of joining the Glandus kids on a dangerous quest. I love Willow, she's a solid character, but writing her out is really the only way the plot could have progressed.

(I also love that she wasn't mad in the slightest over Gus getting her hurt. She has every right to be, but she also understands that it was an accident, and Gus wouldn't do anything to purposefully hurt her. And that's sweet!)

King’s Prerecorded Message for Gus: That's just adorable. We need more cute friendship moments between these two, DAMN IT!

Gus Being Sick of Luz’s S**t: Of all the characters I expected to get sick of the whole Lumity situation, Gus wasn't really one of them. I'd always thought it'd be Willow, primarily because the rest of the fandom latched onto that idea, but for Gus, I'd figured he'd be more supportive rather than annoyed. That being said, seeing him call Luz out for borrowing his library card to see Amity (Not ask her out. Just to see her) is not only a hilarious moment for Gus but also an adorable moment for Luz. It's something I would never have seen coming, but now that I have it, I want more. GIVE ME MORE!

(Sorry if I'm being a little intense)

Luz Trying to Cheer Up Gus: It's moments like this that prove why Luz is my favorite character.

Willow might have the most common sense out of the group, but it's Luz who still has the biggest heart. She knows her friend is down in the dumps, so Luz pulls out all the stops in cheering him up. Whether it's researching the first-ever human (really surprised he wasn't the tiniest bit excited about that, by the way) and lending him glyphs for his mission to help show up Mattholomule. She may be slow in the romantic relationship department, but episodes like this prove that she excels with a platonic friendship.

Bria: I consider Amar adorably optimistic, and I have no strong feelings for Gavin, one or the other. But with Bria? Holy hell, did the writers do everything they should with her!

At first, it seems like she'll be a generic nice girl for Gus to have a crush on. Only for that writing to be a perfect twist into how she's kind of the worst. You see hints of her true personality in the overly sweet way she threatens to force Amar to eat a bug he gets distracted by. A viewer's initial reaction to that would be to think that while she's sweet, she still means business. But no, it's actually a perfect way to reveal her true intentions while hiding them at the same time. Bria may be rotten to the core, but with how perfectly executed this twist was, I can't help but adore her contribution.

Mattholomule: ...I would sooner expect to have gone insane before believing that this little s**t weasel would make his way onto my good side. Despite that, here we are in episode five of the new season, and I like Mattholomule now.

The reveal that Glandus High forces students to believe that the strong survive and the weak are inferior explains so much for Mattholomule's thirst for power in "Something Ventured, Someone Framed." It doesn't excuse his actions, not by a long shot, but it definitely paints a clearer picture. It also explains his treatment of Gus, as well as Mattholomule's reasoning to help him. Because of Glandus High inserting a "the strong survive" mentality into Mattholomule, he belittles Gus due to thinking that illusion magic makes Gus weak. But after seeing how they're both stooges to Bria's mistreatment, he's quick to apologize and willingly helps Gus out. In the process, the two of them create a believable and cute friendship...a friendship that is absolutely going to be interpreted as something else by the fandom...which is something that I'm more than supportive of--HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?! I WENT FROM ONE OF THE BIGGEST GUSTOLOMULE DENIERS TO ONE OF ITS SUPPORTERS IN LESS THAN A DAY! HOW DO THESE WRITERS MANAGE TO TAKE ELEMENTS THAT WERE ONCE ON MY S**T LIST TO THEN MAKING ME MORE THAN OK WITH THEM!

IT'S INSANE!

Mostly impressive.

BUT ALSO INSANE!

Edric and Emira: More so than ever, I am so happy that the writers took their course correction with Edric and Emira. These two work so much better as supporting characters rather than minor antagonists like several fans thought they would be after their treatment of Amity in "Lost in Language." They're quick to pick up on Luz and Amity's mutual affections for one another and do their part to help their friend and baby sister out. It's wholesome to watch, and, you know what, I'm gonna go ahead and say it: Edric and Emira Blight are much better mischievous twin characters than Fred and George Weasley. As much as I adore Fred and George, there is an issue how they're always referred to as Fred and George, not Fred or George. It's because their personalities are as identical as they are, so separating them is pointless. With Edric and Emira, they have enough individuality that you could enjoy them separately as much as you could seeing them together. Emira is more emotionally supportive in how she listens to Amity vent her frustrations about her feelings, while Edric is more of a doofus who can't take a hint to save his life. It creates a great set of characters who can potentially work well on their own. I hope they get explored more at some point, but for now, I'm happy with the cute moments these two offered already.

Lumity Moments: BUUUUUUUUUUUUT, nothing compares to the cuteness of these two.

I don't care if I'll be called a racist for it because these! Moments! These moments are the highlights of "Through the Looking Glass Ruins" for me! Seeing these two interact in this episode, now that the pining is mutual, was everything I could have ever hoped for, and so much more. Seriously, how can you complain about anything about all of this when you get cute bits like:

Luz getting flustered of seeing Amity with her hair down

Amity risking her job to help Luz

Amity being motivated to find the diary due to the possibility of a date with Luz in the human realm

Luz going through hell and back to get Amity her job back

All of the blushing

And that F**KING KISS AT THE END HOLY SH--Don't you dare think I'm not going to further discuss that. DON'T YOU DARE!

Gus' story was entertaining with how it surprised me in all the right ways, don't get me wrong. But seeing Luz and Amity's relationship develop more and more always fills my heart with glee that, believe it or not, I'm always going to remember it more. I love you, Gus, but I love Lumity more.

Philip Whittabeen: So we finally have a name to the alleged human who was here years ago, and we get properly introduced to him through a really visually appealing animation change. I'm personally curious to see where the writers go with him, but it's too early to say if his inclusion will be worth something. But I will say one thing, though. One thing, and then I'm going to move on.

Here it is:

Philip sounds eerily similar to Emperor Belos to me.

That is all I'm going to say about that.

Luz’s Sentences in Spanish: I want to give a personal shout-out to mi buen amigo @l-egionaire for pointing this out because there are some things to analyze in what Luz says in Spanish in this episode. Knowing what she means, it's clear that they are ideals that Camila instilled into Luz. Ideals that possibly show a lot about Camila's personality on top of revealing where Luz got her hopeful optimism and sense of determination. It's the second sentence that Luz says later on that I really want to delve deep into:

"Nada funcionará a menos que lo haga funcionar."

Translated, that means "Nothing will work unless you make it work." Again, this proves the dedication that Luz has filled into her soul, but to me, it says a lot about Luz's dedication to Amity. She wants to make this relationship work but fully understands that it won't unless she puts in the effort. It's a sweet sentiment that says so much about how Luz feels about Amity that some fans might not be able to pick up on if they don't speak Spanish. Or, in my case, have a good friend who finds the translation for you (thanks again @l-egionaire).

The Galderstones: Pretty interesting concept, I'm not going to lie. It's also interesting that of all the types of witches in the Boiling Isles, it was illusionists who were the ones that guard over the Galderstones. Because illusion magic can't really harm anyone, it makes a weird type of sense that they would be the ones to keep the Galderstones out of the wrong hands. And, even better, it showcases Gus' strength as an illusionist when he was able to take down Bria, who was hopped up on Galderstone power, through that same "harmless" magic. It just goes to show that if you have a big enough brain, you don't need to overpower somebody. You need to outthink them.

Malphus Being a Surprisingly Cool Dude: What can I say? I'm a sucker for expectation subversion.

Luz and Amity Crying: First of all, a HUGE round of applause to VAs Sarah-Nicole Robles and Mae Whitman through their vocal performances in this scene! They really sold how upset and broken apart Luz and Amity were due to their feelings for each other messing things up. More so with Sarah-Nicole.

Second, this might be the closest these two have gotten to a confession so far ("so far" being the keyword). I specifically latch onto Amity's expression after hearing Luz agree that she's always weird around Amity. In one way, it looks like Amity is surprised to see she made Luz cry, but in another, it could be that she realizes that perhaps that Luz has feelings for her as well. Or, at least, that's how I interpreted things. The thing about art is that there's no one interpretation to agree on. And that's what this scene is: Art. It's performed, written, and animated well, that no matter how you look at it, it's a masterpiece.

“I’ll call the hounds”: One line. One line was all it took for me to love the Keeper of the Looking Glass Graveyard.

Amity Dyes her Hair: I always assumed that Amity would let her original hair color grow out as defiance to Odalia. But dying it lavender? Thus crafting her own identity without having her be compared to either Odalia or Alador?

...yeah, that's brilliant. Whoever thought of that, you are a genius and deserve all of the credit that comes from it.

ALL of the credit.

Amity Kisses Luz on the Cheek!: I'll save my "Wha-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo" for an actual kiss, but for now, THIS IS AWESOME!

This moment, much like other Lumity moments, was everything I could have ever expected and so much more:

Amity's instant panic after realizing she seriously just did that

Ed and Em looking fondly at their sister taking such a big step

The look on Luz's face, which may or may not hint that she realizes that the feelings are more than mutual

And the fact that Luz's legs give out soon after Amity leaves

It was adorable as all forms of hell, and it was a perfect way to end such a perfect episode...or, at least, an almost perfect episode. I do have some issues.

WHAT I DISLIKED

Mattholomule Helping Gus too Easily: The Glandus kids were right there, in-ear and eye-shot, yet did nothing as Mattholomule effortlessly helped Gus and the Keeper escape...how?

Gavin falling for Gus’ Illusion: I want to laugh at how stupidly easy that was...but it's too stupidly easy for me to forgive.

And that’s about it. Just two nitpicks that don’t really take away that much enjoyment from the episode

IN CONCLUSION

"Through the Looking Glass Ruins" keeps Season Two's winning streak going by being another solid A. It fleshes out characters, develops cute relationships, and keeps the story going despite being so character-driven. It's easily more than worth the time...but it's not worth any discourse that comes from some fans preferring one plot over the other.

I highly doubt that some people are racist for loving the Lumity plotline or homophobic for loving Gus'. Maybe some people are, but also consider that maybe, just maybe, a person loves a ship because it's their favorite, or a person likes a character cause he's their favorite.

Which.

Is.

Fine.

There's no definitive way to like a series, and demanding that people like it for the same reasons you do is not worth anything. Because, believe it or not, even Dana Terrace doesn't care how people love her show. In the AMA she did, when a fan asked if she's upset about fans obsessing over Amity's crush on Luz, this is her word for word reaction:

"Not at all! No, the main focus of the series will never be on any romantic thread but that doesn't mean those threads aren't important. And I'm thrilled that people connect to our characters!"

THERE YOU HAVE IT! The creator herself fully admits that she doesn't care what fans latch onto. She's just glad to have people who like the show in the first place! So don't create discourse just because some people enjoy a part of an episode more than others. The second you get that through your heads, the sooner we can all move on with our lives.

(Also, that's five episodes in a row that are hits. And, man, is that stinker going to hit harder because of it.)

#the owl house #the owl house season two #the owl house reviews #gus porter #mattolomule #luz noceda #amity blight #lumity #edric and emira #edric blight #emira blight #what i thought about

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woah-were-halfway-there · 4 years

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The Sweetest of Them All

A/N: just another little bonus part of the AFTR universe that I came up with out of nowhere. Also, I left this as third person instead of second. Enjoy!

Word Count: 3.2k

Y/N has never been a big fan of Valentine's Day.

To her, it was overrated and expensive. But, she'd be lying if she said she didn't love the fact that it gave an extra reason to love on Auston a ridiculous amount. Sure, she did that every day, but to be fair, she loved how the title of Valentine's Day added a bit more fun and excitement to something she'd normally do any other day. It felt different for some reason, so even though she didn't love the so-called holiday, she still tried to plan something special for it every year.

Admittedly, she and Auston almost got competitive about it with trying to one-up the other with affection. They didn't care about gifts. They cared about the time they spent together and the thoughtfulness behind it.

Usually, it was Y/N that came up with something ridiculously sweet for Valentine's Day to do for Auston. However, this year, he had her beat.

For some odd reason, Y/N woke up very early that day. Maybe it was the baby waking her, or perhaps it was her internal clock saying sleep was no longer necessary. But, regardless, she was awake much earlier than usual. She also knew Mia wasn't awake or else she would've heard her, so she took that time to lie back in bed and relax for a few minutes on her own.

The bed felt incredibly empty, given that Auston was with the Leafs in Washington and wasn't expected to be back in Toronto until late that night. Frank was a good cuddle buddy alternative, but sometimes the Goldendoodle just wasn't enough when Y/N was missing her man. Of course, this was one of the days when she missed him a lot, so she took that as an excuse to text Auston and at least get this so-called holiday kicked off.

Y/N Happy Valentine's Day, Aus 🥰 can't wait to see you tonight

She wasn't expecting him to message back right away, seeing as it was only 7:30 in the morning, but much to her surprise, he did.

Auston Happy Valentine's Day, babe 💕 Can't wait to see you either. Did the flowers for Mia get delivered?

Y/N Yes, they got here last night. They're beautiful. I set them on the kitchen counter, so once she's awake and we go downstairs, she'll see her little V-Day gift from you

Auston Perfect. I got part of your Valentine's thing with me right now too. Ready for it?

Y/N Is it going to make me cry?

Auston Probably

Y/N Great. Hit me with your best shot

She stared at her phone screen for a moment, expecting it to light up with the notification of an incoming FaceTime call from her husband or a picture, but instead, he sent her a link. But not just any link, it was the link to the video recording of a new Spittin' Chiclets podcast episode that was over an hour-long called 'Love Day: Part One.'

Confused, but also insanely curious, Y/N then leaned over to grab her laptop from the bedside table and got into the most comfortable position her growing baby bump would allow so she could watch the video like that. As soon as she was about to press play, her phone buzzed with another text.

Auston This was filmed a couple of weeks ago when the Chiclets guys were in Toronto. They interviewed at least 10 different guys in the league at different times, and they're kind of long, which is why there's more than one part. Just watch the intro, then I'm the first interview. Mitch is on part 2 if you want to watch that as well, but yeah... call me when you're done 💕

Still unsure of how to process what was going on, Y/N just shook her head and followed the link.

The video started with Biz, Whit and Rear sat all-around a table, each wearing a different red, white or pink shirt with heart-shaped balloons positioned behind them. Empty bottles of Pink Whitney sat on the table, acting as vases for bouquets of roses, making Y/N roll her eyes and chuckle at how far these guys would go for good product placement. But, she kept watching, and unsurprisingly, Biz was the first to speak.

Biz: "For Valentines Day this year, we wanted to do something different. Something more soft. So, we're going to tell, well, I guess, show some love stories."

Whit: "Bet you all didn't know that some of the greatest love stories to ever be told have happened to some of the guys that play in the NHL. Don't believe me? Guess you'll have to listen to find out what they are."

Rear: "We asked some players to come in and talk to us about their relationship stories and give as many details as they were willing to give. And let me tell you, they were great. To start us off, we have Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs telling us his fairytale romance."

The video then clipped to a shot of Biz sitting next to Auston in what Y/N assumed was the hotel downtown that the Chiclets guys were staying at. Auston wasn't dressed extravagantly or anything, just wore a grey hoodie, black pants, and his signature Raiders snapback.

Y/N immediately recognized his outfit. She remembered Auston coming home in those same clothes early one afternoon after he did some running around downtown with Mia, and started thinking of how not once did he mention doing anything for the podcast. He kept this very on the down low, and Y/N was excited to see how it would all play out.

Biz: "Alright, with us today, we have none other than the Leafs number 34, Auston Matthews. Welcome back to the show, Auston. How ya doin?"

Auston: "I'm great. Thanks for having me. How are you guys?"

Whit and Rear: "Good."

Biz: "Great, real good. Now, Auston, you know what you're here to talk about, right?"

Auston: (chuckling) "You're acting like you didn't spend the last week blowing up my phone until I agreed to do this."

Biz: "Amazing! You do know. So, here's how it's all going to go down. We've got a list of questions about your relationship with your significant other. Your obvious better half. And are going to take turns asking them so the people listening at home can get a bit of insight on your, and I quote, iconic love story. Why don't you give us a little summary of your relationship before we dive in?"

Auston: (hesitantly) "Sure, okay. So, my wife Y/N and I have been married for almost two years now. Our anniversary is at the end of July. She accidentally forgot it last year, which I haven't let her live down. Y/N, babe, this is your six month in advance warning that our anniversary is indeed coming up again this year… She's going to hate that I mentioned that. We, uh, we've been together since my first season in Toronto, so for a pretty long time now, and it's been amazing. We have a daughter, Amelia, but everyone just calls her Mia unless she's in trouble. She just turned two on January 25th, and we have our second baby on the way. They're due to be making their grand appearance in late June. We also have our firstborn, Frank, the Goldendoodle. Can't forget about him. But, yeah, that's my little family."

Whit: (nodding along with Biz and Rear) "Fair enough. Now, how and when did you and Y/N meet exactly?"

Auston: "We met on the night of my first NHL game back in 2016. She was at that game."

Biz: "Oh, yeah? Was she there for a reason?"

Auston gave him an unimpressed look.

Biz: "What?"

Auston: "You know why she was there!"

Biz: (shrugging) "Our listeners don't. C'mon, refresh my memory. Was she there to cheer someone else on?"

Auston: (shaking his head) "Yeah. She, uh, she's a cousin of one of my teammates, so she was there with their family to watch him during our first game."

Biz: (grinning widely) "What teammate?"

Auston: "The one out in the hallway keeping my daughter occupied while you keep being annoying and asking me questions you already know the answer to."

Everyone laughed at that, including Y/N, as she shifted onto her side, being mindful of her growing bump that seemingly became more noticeable each day, and got comfortable as she braced herself for what the rest of this interview would entail.

Biz: (still laughing): "Just to clarify for everyone who still doesn't know, he's talking about Mitch Marner."

Auston: "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up."

Rear: "I take it that Mitch and Mia get along really well? I haven't heard a peep from her since you came in here."

Auston: "Oh, she loves him. Yeah, that's her Mitchy, alright. Him and Steph, who you will hear all about once Mitch comes in here, are Mia's godparents and some of her favourite people."

Whit: "That's awesome. And how was that at first, though, being romantically involved with one of your teammates' family members? Sounds like grounds for some chaos, if I'm honest."

Auston: "It sure made meeting the family a bit more nerve-wracking. I'm just kidding. No, it was fine. It was definitely a little awkward at first trying to figure out how I was going to tell Mitch that I wanted to date his cousin. Like, he and Y/N are very close. Always have been. And the last thing both me and Y/N wanted was for Mitch to be uncomfortable. He did handle it really well, though. It's because of him I was even able to get to know her in the first place, which I'll never be able to thank him enough for."

Rear: "Now, you're a pretty private guy. You post the odd picture of your little family from time to time. Y/N is rather private, as well. So, really, no one knows your guys' story other than those who have lived it with you or watched it unfold. I'm sure many people will jump right on the chance to listen to this, seeing as you and Y/N are one of the most beloved couples in the NHL. But, what exactly made you want to come on here, give a bit of insight into your private life, and talk about it all?"

Auston: "Well, for one, Biz would not stop asking me to do it. Literally kept calling and texting me for days until I finally agreed."

Whit: "Shocker."

Biz: "Hey, now."

Auston: (chuckling) "That and also I figured, why not. I love my wife, and I love our little story. It's nice to think back on everything that's happened and see how it all got us to where we are now. With all the ups and the downs, its uh, it's been an amazing ride for sure, and I wouldn't change it for a thing. Also, it's for Valentine's Day. I haven't told her I'm doing this, so when you guys drop the episode, I'm just going to send it to her without much context."

Whit: "Do you think she'll cry?"

Auston: "Absolutely. I know this kind of thing would make her tear up regularly, but those pregnancy hormones have got her bad. Without a doubt, she's going to call me crying once she's done watching this."

Y/N scoffed as he said that and grabbed some tissues to wipe away the waterworks she already felt coming on.

Biz: "I've met Y/N many times now. The first time being back in what, 2018?"

The screen then showed an old picture of Biz sitting in a restaurant with his arm wrapped around Y/N's shoulders, both smiling widely as they held up their drinks, with Auston seemingly moping off to the side a little bit. Y/N chuckled at the image, instantly thinking back to the day she first met Paul Bissonnette and how wild it was before the photo faded away and showed the guys again.

Biz: "Yeah, it was when she was in Scottsdale visiting you during the summer. Great girl, completely out of Auston's league."

Auston: "Hey!"

Biz: "I'll never forget you sassing her when she commented on how hot Arizona was, with her being Canadian and all, but damn she was fast putting you in your place by calling you a, what was it?"

Auston: (grumbling) "Desert Boy."

Everyone burst out laughing again, except Auston, who just rolled his eyes and sighed dramatically.

Auston: "Whatever. She sasses me all the time when I complain about the snow, but the one time I do it back, I get called a Desert Boy and can never live it down."

Biz: (still laughing) "Ugh, amazing. Okay, moving on because we don't have much time and can probably fit in like two more questions. So, Auston, tell us how you knew that Y/N was the end game for you. How did you know that she was the one?"

Auston: "Oh, man. I don't even know how to explain it. Growing up, you see all these movies and shows, or read books where people always find someone who is their soulmate. Their perfect match. And I never knew what the feeling of finding that person was because I had never experienced it. My mom would tell me that when I did find that person, I'd know. That it'll be such an intense feeling, and to be honest, I didn't believe her. Until I met Y/N, I know that sounds cheesy, but it's true. The first time I met her, something drew me in, and I knew I wanted to get to know her better right away. Mitch spoke so highly of her, so did the other guys on the team that had already met her and over the first couple of months of us knowing each other, I saw what they meant. She quickly became one of my best friends ever. When we started dating, I saw more of how good a person she is, which attracted me even more. She is so selfless and caring for everyone around her; it truly blows my mind. I had never seen my family welcome a girl I introduced them to as quickly as they did her, and I trust their judgment the most. But even if they didn't do that, I know they would have accepted her regardless because, honestly, I probably seemed like a lovesick idiot. I still do. Y/N became this significant light in my life that I knew I wanted to be there forever. I began thinking about what it'd be like spending the rest of my life with her. Then it became something that I knew I needed. I can't imagine my life without her, and I never want to. She makes me so happy and has given me more than I could ever thank her for. I'll never understand how I, of all people, was the one to capture her massive heart, but I do know how lucky I am."

As he spoke, the screen showed a little picture slideshow of Y/N and Auston over the years of their relationship. It started with one that Ema took the first time Y/N had ever gone to Scottsdale. Y/N was sitting on the edge of a pool, and her legs dipped into the water. Auston stood between them as he wrapped his arms around her middle and leaned against her while looking over at where Ema stood taking the picture. The next one was from a Christmas party where the two were under a mistletoe as Auston leaned Y/N back and was kissing her cheek as she laughed and held onto him for dear life. There was a picture of them with Auston's family, one of them with Mitch and Steph, and another of Auston with his arms around Nate and Mya, Y/N's younger brother and sister, as the three smiled at the camera and Y/N was in the background looking confused.

The last few pictures were a bit more recent. They showed Y/N holding Frank as a puppy, a maternity photo of her and Auston posing when she was pregnant with Mia, and one of them on their wedding day with Mia and the rest of the gang. Then, the slideshow concluded with a very recent picture of them taken just a couple of weeks prior at Mia's birthday party, where Auston has his arms wrapped around Y/N from the back, showcasing her growing belly. At the same time, she leaned against him and glanced over her shoulder at him lovingly. The photos then went away and showed the guys again as Auston finished speaking.

Auston was right. Y/N was full-on bawling by that point.

All the guys were smiling as Auston finished saying his thing, but were soon interrupted by a knocking noise followed by a door opening.

Mitch: (offscreen) "Wait, no! Don't let her in!"

Mia: (also offscreen) "Daddy!"

Mia then came into the frame as she ran towards Auston, not caring about what was going on or who was there. Auston was quick reacting as he smiled widely and scooped Mia right up into his arms, making sure to place multiple kisses on her cheek as she giggled and squirmed in his hold, while Mitch became visible too and shrugged.

Auston: "Hi, mini. I missed you. Did you have fun with Mitchy?"

Mia: "Yeah! Where's mommy, daddy?"

Auston: "She's at home, baby girl. I'm almost done, then we can go get a Timbit while we wait for Mitch to be done. Sounds good?"

Mia: (knuckling at her eyes, tiredly) "Mhmm."

Rear: "This is adorable."

Biz: "Hi, Mia."

Mia: (shyly while hiding against Auston's chest a bit) "Hi, Biz."

Whit: (laughing) "Okay, I think we've kept you long enough now, Auston. Is there anything else you and Mia would like to say to Y/N?"

Auston: "Yes. Happy Valentine's Day, babe. I love you so much, and I'm sorry I'm not there right now. You're going to hear a lot more from me on actual Valentine's Day, but for right now, I think that's just about it. Mia, can you blow a kiss to the camera so mommy can see it and say 'happy Love Day!'"

Mia: (blows the kiss) "Happy Love Day, mommy!"

Auston: "Can you tell her that you love her?"

Mia: "Love you!"

Auston and Mia then waved to the camera and said bye as the clip faded out, and a new interview of another NHLer began playing.

Y/N's heart felt so full. She couldn't stop crying over how much she loved her family and how badly she needed to hear something like that. Life had been particularly hard on her as of late and seemed to keep throwing her curveballs, but this, this was exactly what she needed. To be reminded of how loved she is and that she genuinely is never alone.

She then grabbed her phone to call Auston and remind him of how much she loved him, that day and every day. The two talked for a few minutes before Y/N was pretty sure she could hear Mia waking up. After saying their goodbyes, Y/N found herself thinking about how, regardless of how she feels about the actual day, this was a Valentine's Day she will never forget.

#auston matthews fanfiction #nhl imagines #hockey rpf #nhl rpf #auston matthews imagine #auston matthews imagines #nhl fanfiction #nhl imagine #toronto maple leafs fanfiction #nhl headcanon #hockey fanfiction #hockey imagines #hockey imagine

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epitheterasedgen · 3 years

Text

heck it. self-indulgence time.

✨EE aspec headcanons✨

(obviously, romance mentions below! a few of the characters are Token Allos (TM))

Molly: the aroace kid who's always like "yeah I don't really get romance but I guess I'll get it when I'm older" and keeps saying that until she's almost 30 and finally someone's like "wow you've never dated before?! are you aro/ace?" and she's like "oh huh I guess I probably am" and then it's never a big deal again

she's also super grossed out by the concept of sex, even well into adulthood, which is Yet Another Reason why it is absolutely perfect for Percy to adopt her because it's just a topic that Never comes up in their household

Sylvie: honestly the only character I don't have a solid grasp on in terms of attraction, though I HC swap!Sylvie as alloaro so I guess canon Sylvie is probably the same, it's just not relevant yet since he's young and a late bloomer in terms of hormones. plus he's just focused on his work more than anything else

Gio: I fear what Jello is going to do to him in the future, bc this boy gives off the MOST oblivious aromantic vibes EVER and I know Jello's track record. but listen idc what happens in canon, Giovanni's dream future is to live with all his Boys as platonic housemates and he has no idea he's aro because romance literally isn't something he even THINKS about. he's probably also ace with the same reasoning

Mera: my Token Allo (TM). she's a die-hard hopeless romantic and moronsexual, but that's not really headcanon that's just canon I mean cmon—

Indus: it took me a stupidly long time to realize that my interpretation of Indus is just "romance-positive partnering aro" because that's not a genre I dip into a lot but it sure fits him. he doesn't really! understand romance?? or actually feel "romantic" attraction. but he likes Lady Mera and he'd do anything to make her happy! :D so if she wants him to bring her flowers and a candlelit dinner, he'll do it!! she just better be prepared for him to pick a bunch of dandelion weeds and accidentally set the table on fire

...actually now that I'm typing this out, it explains why Mera/Indus bothers me so much less than other ships aghasdkflgh

Percy: realistically she's just the Oblivious Aroace (TM) along with Giovanni. same as Gio she has no idea she's aroace because it's just not even something she Thinks about, but if someone gave her a vocabulary lesson she'd be like "oh yes that fits me :)" and continue to not perceive romantic advancements even if they hit her in the face. she's already married to JUSTICE, sorry everyone <3

(I portray her as more apothiromantic/romance-repulsed on my RP blog but that's just because projecting onto Percy is cheaper than therapy)

Ramsey: ok highkey my headcanons on Ramsey shift depending on the AU (don't ask how many AUs I have hahaha) but normally he falls somewhere in the range of "allo ally" who Knows All The Terms (from spending so much time online) and is probably the person who gives Percy a vocabulary lesson despite being allo himself

Zora: as much as I'd LOVE to see an aspec Zora, I think she'd look and act a bit different from canon Zora. I swear I didn't mean to make both main antagonists the Token Allos, but they're also the ones most fans want to date so y'know what, whatever. I personally think cowboys are overrated but y'all go crazy

Howie: CANON AROACE KING... specifically I imagine him as anti-romance, not because it repulses him, but because all that time you waste on "love" could be used for DOING YOUR JOB!!! (in a serious setting I'd say Howie isn't ideal aro rep bc he embodies a lot of negative stereotypes about aros, but EE is a comedy and people need to lighten up about the fact that EVERYONE is gonna have weirdly exaggerated personality traits; the show literally wouldn't be funny if they didn't; seriously guys leave Jello alone about the rep)

Meryl: ok she's not in EE but this is MY blog and I pick the comfort characters! anyway Meryl experiences a lot of alterous attraction AKA she has trouble distinguishing between very different forms of attraction (platonic/romantic/sensual/sexual/ect.) and they all just sorta blur together into one big Anxious Mess (TM). as opposed to Percy and Gio, she spends a LOT of time thinking about this and trying to figure out What she's feeling, but it never helps and at this point she's pretty much given up trying. she just needs a hug ok

in various AUs I've put her in romantic, platonic, QPP, and co-parental relationships, and she's pretty much happy with whatever :)

Eros: I feel the need to include him because I included Meryl, also bc while he is allo as heck and has definitely dated in the past, he's also just a super uplifting guy who uses flirting as a form of affection and to make people feel good. he's one of those "somehow weirdly pure" characters because he's so unabashed about everything and most of his flirting is sphallolalia, which is one of my new favorite words I just learned and means "flirting that leads nowhere." he also just has a deep appreciation for a good laugh, and a lot of his joke wells are pickup lines!

#aspec headcanons #hmmm do I tag this with anything else?#nah

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fanfic-corner · 4 years

Text

Sabriel

I genuinely have no idea where this ship came from, but it is pretty cute, and I was curious to read a couple fics of them. Besides, I’m currently on season 13 and we deserve more Gabriel content in this time of stress. All of these also have Destiel in them, but which one the fic is focused on varies. I hope you enjoy them!

Rewriting the Book by MonPetitTresor on AO3. (37,224 words).

Tags: Dimension Travel, Alternate Universe, Gabriel in the Bunker, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Sam Remembers Hell, PTSD, Post-Gadreel, Mark of Cain, Hurt Sam, Scared Sam, Emotionally Repressed, Sam Has Panic Attacks, The Cage.

My Rating: 5 stars.

Description: When Sam gets a little too close to stopping Metatron’s plans, the angel decides to use some of his extra juice to get Sam out of his way by sending him to a completely different reality. He never could’ve predicted what Sam might find there – or what he might bring back home with him.

Notes: The trauma in this was written so well, and it is part of what made this amazing. It was really respectful, realistic, and clearly well researched. And, as a bonus, an excellent plot!

In All Your Borrowed Finery by vanishingact on AO3. (67,950 words).

Tags: Winged Dean Winchester, Winged Sam Winchester, Winged Castiel, Winged Gabriel, Spells & Enchantments, Hunters & Hunting, Case Fic, Harpies, Canon-Typical Violence, Major Character Injury, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Fluff and Humor and Smut and Angst, Wingfic, Fan art.

My Rating: 5 stars.

Description: Dean finds an interesting symbol in Kevin's angel tablet notes and, against Sam's counselling, uses it in the heat of battle with a pair of angelic assassins. Side effects include pain, disorientation, and uncontrollable new appendages for the Winchesters. A disgruntled Castiel and a delighted Gabriel show up to help. Hunting (and life) gets interesting when wings are involved.

Notes: Okay this was literally adorable and you can not convince me otherwise. Every time I read a fic with everyone’s favourite archangel, I miss him just a bit more.

Black Swans by omphalos and Wolfling on AO3. (66,455 words).

Tags: Post-Apocalypse, Road Trip, Blasphemy.

My Rating: 5 stars.

Description: A post-apocalyptic road trip with a still recovering archangel wasn't how Sam had envisioned the aftermath of their big plan, but it sure beat a lot of the alternatives.

Notes: This was absolutely brilliant, so well written, and the plot was phenomenal! The misunderstanding was painful, and the original characters were great.

omni gladio ancipiti by lifevolutionary on AO3. (10,892 words).

Tags: Wingfic, Telepathy, Psychic Bond.

My Rating: 5 stars.

Description: The archangel Gabriel had never chosen a Bearer for his sword. Until now.

Notes: This was so freaking sweet, and I love the idea of Sam just casually having a flaming sword.

Dies Irae, or Something by AlchemyAlice on AO3. (51,223 words).

Tags: Alternate Universe - Apocalypse, Blasphemy, Alternate Universe - Canon, Biblical References.

My Rating: 5 stars.

Description: It starts with headaches, and it ends in a clusterfuck. So, business as usual, Apocalypse-wise.

Notes: I know it says Good Omens as well, but it is just a brief mention of Aziraphale and Crowley, so you don’t need to know anything about it! And this fic was written beautifully. Is it bad that I miss the apocalypse days?

That One Time Sam Winchester Googled Something Weird and It Had Pretty Awesome Results by quitepossiblyjanuary on AO3. (2,587 words).

Tags: Romantic Fluff, First Kiss, Stars, Humor, Courtship, Short & Sweet.

My Rating: 4 stars.

Description: In which Sam Googles something and his curiosity doesn't kill the cat. Or him. Or anyone. It's a pretty awesome feeling.

Notes: This was so adorable! Gabe was so sweet, and his mind reading skills made me laugh.

Bing Crosby’s Pennies From Heaven by twentysomething on AO3. (9,613 words).

Tags: Castiel, Dean Winchester, Gabriel, Sam Winchester, Bobby Singer, Death.

My Rating: 4 stars.

Description: Sam always asks inappropriate, poorly-timed questions, so what comes out of his mouth doesn't exactly surprise himself. "Where were you?"

Notes: This was brilliant - the little gifts that Gabe left for Sam were adorable, and I burst out laughing at the image of trying to get Bobby’s wheelchair on top of a toilet.

‘Star Wars is Overrated’ by leftdragonpainter on AO3. (38,186 words).

Tags: Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Pining, Drinking, Writer Castiel, Mechanic Dean, Neighbours, Swearing, Winchester Logic, Big Brother Gabriel, Clueless Dean, College Student Sam, Awkward Dates, Pie, Dean Cooks, Slow Burn, Injured Sam, Fixing Cars, Emotional Constipation, Angst, Confessions, Smut, Love Confessions, Temporary Amnesia, Star Trek References, Star Wars References, Angst with a Happy Ending.

My Rating: 4 stars.

Description: When Dean Winchester turned sixteen he was disappointed by the words that appeared on his chest. He never expected that it would take so much to find his soulmate. He never expected to not remember meeting them…

Notes: Every time I thought I knew what was going to happen, it either went in the complete opposite direction or something totally different happened, and I loved it.

Start Quoting Shakespeare and We’re Done by pyrebi on AO3. (15,579 words).

Tags: Romantic Comedy, Misunderstanding, Banter, Libraries, Food, Ridiculousness, Alternate Universe - Library, Alternate Universe - Human.

My Rating: 4 stars.

Description: In which Dean has the hots for a librarian named Cas, Cas may or may not have the hots for a mechanic named Dean, and Gabriel joins Sam in the peanut gallery in the hopes that he might just get to do a horizontal tango of his own.

Notes: Damn, the misunderstandings in this were so unbelievably painful. Overall, though, it was very funny and quite cute. Also, I love the idea of Gabe owning a sweet store.

Bring it On Home by lilyleia78 on AO3. (34,482 words).

Tags: Romance, Alternate Universe, Drama, Bonding, Angelic Soulbond, Angels, Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale.

My Rating: 3 stars.

Description: When John sells his sons to Heaven in exchange for the Colt, Dean and Sam find themselves separated from each other and in the care of two very different angels. Dean and Cas work together to find out why Heaven wants Sam and how they can reunite the brothers - all the while growing closer every day. Meanwhile Sam should hate Gabriel and his endless string of conquests, but Gabriel's twisted sense of humor and attractive smile inspire something much more complicated.

Notes: First of all, I would like to say that John absolutely does not deserve any redemption or forgiveness in this fic, but okay. The idea - especially the Sabriel side - was a little creepy, but it was executed fairly well.

Our Mornings by entanglednow on AO3. (2,155 words).

Tags: Morning After.

My Rating: 3 stars.

Description: That would be the sound of his brother having sex with an angel three rooms away.

Notes: This was fairly cute, but a bit short for my tastes.

And, for all the Sabriel fans who don’t ship Destiel:

Highway of Love (Or: How Sam Winchester Learned to Stop Worrying and Relax Already) by Jassy on AO3. (24,536 words).

Tags: Sam Winchester, Dean Winchester, Bobby Singer, The Trickster.

My Rating: 5 stars.

Description: AU. Sam noticed a few things weren't quite right after they killed the Trickster. After going back to check things out, his life will never be the same.

Notes: This was probably the first Sabriel fic I ever read, and honestly I just didn’t understand it. I mean, not complaining, because I’ve read Mystrade fics before and we all know they don’t even share a scene, but I was still confused. Then, I read a really nicely done thing on Instagram explaining it, and I kind of got it. So I read this, and I really enjoyed it, and now I ship Sabriel.

So, they may be this fandom’s crack ship, but I hope you enjoyed this edition of Destiel + other ships. I’m thinking that I might do a Saileen one in the future, because she may have only been in one episode I have watched but oh boy she was an icon, and it’s good for my heart to ship things that actually happen (I think. No one tell me otherwise. I will cry).

#sabriel #ficrecs #fanfic #spn fanfiction #spnfamily #supernatural #destiel

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hedgefairy · 4 years

Text

Okay, I know, I know, it's already old news, everybody and their uncle in the costuming community has already talked it over, but anyhoo, I made notes when I crawled my way through effing Bridgerton and I will be damned if I don't vomit them onto this site. I have 32 pages of this shit, I'm not gonna throw that away.

I'm also typing this on my phone because I'm stuck on a trainride that's just doubled in length because this is the 2021 Northern German snow storm. What, there's snowflakes on the rails? We cannot possibly keep up our schedule, say goodbye to 90% of the connections.

Okay, on to Bridgerton, Episode 1

We're in Britain (oh, London, okay), allegedly 1813. I see people who are clearly meant to be asympatico, but is this size incusivity I spot there? Daring! Gasp! Me li...

Oh wait, no. The character is promptly shamed for her figure (which is mostly caused by the horrible cut of her dress. Every size can look great in Regency garb, but never mind, we need to make the "fat one" look bad!).

Also, no shifts under the stays. Why. There was obviously enough budget, don't tell me you couldn't afford a few strappy tops - it's not like the rest is historically accurate, so it would have sufficed to send some poor underpaid intern to H&M and get some. Nvm, that wouldn't be sexay.

Wait, is the garishly dressed (always a sign of a character of bad character in a costume drama) woman Delphine from Selfridge? Does she always have to play bitches? That's not nice, and just because she has a recognisable face, which by modern (read: americanised) standards is not favourable enough. Ugh. But I like the actress, so I'll let it slide (for now).

Lol, buttocks.

Not sure about the girls' dresses. Also, the Queen is a WOC, cool!

Oh no, one of the Featherington sisters faints! But that's okay because the Featheringtons are just comic relief and foil anyway.

I get weird incest vibes from the Bridgertons.

So the court is clearly 18th century and the show is set in the 1810s. I've by now seen several explanations for this decision, I still think it robs the Queen of reproductions of her actual historical gowns which were heavily inspired by the 18th century but so. Magnificently. Weird. It would have been so neat, and more of a "hey, I'm kinda out of touch with things" vibe, but hey, I'm not the one getting paid for making those taffeta gowns here (her hair is glorious, tho).

I'm very into the intro.

That Regency gossip girl is a real b, not unlike the Dowager Countess of Downton (unpopular opinion, I think she's pretty overrated, yes, I like Maggie Smith).

Again, no shifts.

Where do I know the "pragmatic" Bridgerton sister from? Ah, it's The Paradise. And Jonathan Strange. (Wait, she's my age. And she's supposed to be a teenager. Man, do I love a good Dawson casting. I like the actress, though, she has a face ™!).

Aaaah. We get it. She's the spirited one. She also doesn't care about dresses because she's not like other girls™. I really like her voice (but she still doesn't sound like a teenager).

The heck is up with Lady F's dress and that of her friend? Oh, yeah. Antagonist fashion.

Of course the Featheringtons are Horrid Hags™ aside from Penny who's nice, but the pudgy one (at least we don't get a case of "she's not conventionally attractive so she's bad").

Oooh, the cousin! Supposed to suck, but ofc she's a stunner, and only Penny (who's the nice one, remember!) is delighted to have her around. She's also a POC, which is nice but apparently that means she does not follow fashion, hair-wise. I would have loved to see some Regency hair on her, it would have been so pretty *cries in Greek updo*

Ugh, we're still in Ep. 1, typing this on my phone was a bad idea.

Lady Danbury and the Duke guy are delightful with each other (more POC! So neat!).

The girl the oldest Bridgerbro screws is apparently a singer, which isn't up to status for his doucheship, and she doesn't wear a shift.

The music at the ball sounds like something from the Top 40s, but I'm woefully ignorant of contemporary music charts so I can't tell what it is. I like it when they do that in historical-ish works, making well-known pop or rock stuff work for the ambience (ugh, that dance scene to Golden Years in Knight's Tale. My heart. In a good way.)

I dig the Ducktail hair of Penny's crush. Oh, wait, that's a Bridgerbro. I don't quite get why the hair trends of the time don't apply to the POC characters or extras, but seeing how most white characters also show a shameful disregard for the weirdnes and gloriosity (that's not a word) that is early 1800s hair (the 1830s take the cake, tho) despite those hairdos being basically designed for white people hair, I don't think I care much (well, I do, but about all of them). Overall the hair is horrid and not very 1810s. Let's just leave it at that.

Like a good old romance novel (I've since been told that Bridgerton is supposed to be a pastiche of such novels, but I really couldn't tell from the series, not at all, and I'm not inclined to read the books) we have

a pretty, kind, superpure daughter of the main family

the mean matriarch (could have been an aunt, too, but here she's the mum) of the rivalling or antagonist family

a spirited daughter of the main family (in most romance novels this would be our heroine but so far she refreshingly lacks a love interest and pretty daughter seems to get the most screen time)

a Horrid Suitor™

a Hot Suitor™ who doesn't want attention

a really good and doting good parent

Lol, misheard Greece for Grease with Ducktail Bridgerbro, whose name is Colin, apparently. This is funny because of his Danny Zuko memorial hair.

Overall a bit too much bling for my taste, and too few pearls. It looks like an episode of My Super Sweet Sixteen with a Regency theme.

Of course the romance is going to be the Pretty One aka. Daphne and the Duke and he's even bros with her eldest bro. Wait, are they exes? I can haz bi? No? Aww, shucks. Maybe in another episode (spoiler: no).

Okay, WHAT is it with Lady F's dresses and hair. Like, she reminds me of Mars Attacks. Which, as you might remember, was not set in the Regency period.

Lord B (Bridgerbro the Eldest) sucks, he's screwing Opera Girl without any intention of marrying her but he's bitchy about his sister being ogled by his Eton (or wherever) bestie?

Oh, I'm in Hamburg now. And my train back home got canceled, so back to Berlin it is because there's not a single option to get to Hanover tonight, at least that's what the lady from the train station is saying, "oh well, you'll have to go back and try again tomorrow", so that's awesome...

Honestly, if it weren't so late and I didn't have things to do at home I'd find this terribly exciting.

Back to Bridgerton!

Where were we? Ah.

I can't even read my own annotation. Something about George III. I think I was upset about how they totally ignored that it's called Regency because George IV acted as the regent king, and he doesn't even feature in the series, I guess because they wanted to play up the Queen? Not a fan, because thanks to Horrible Histories I'm quite fond of that guy.

Again, no shifts.

Oh, look, it's Horrid Suitor™, destined for leftovers.

The Featherington cousin gets all the attention but no fleshed-out character.

Penny Featherington's dog is named Lord Byron, which ❤️

I like the Duke! He's there, drinking in his club (even though they're a patriarchal remnant of the past I have a weird appreciation for stuffy Gentlemen's Clubs, I blame Bertie Wooster and the Drones), calling Lord B out for his general fuckery.

Oh no, Ducktail Colin is more into the Cousin than Penny, who obviously pines for him!

Thank you, Lord B, for enabling Horrid Suitor™. Nobody asked you to be such a fucktwit.

The Queen is, of course, a bit of a bitch, but patronage from cool Lady *scrolls up for name* Danbury ensues for Protagonist Girl™ Daphne.

"I wish they had found a better trend language", what the heck did I even mean by that? That's what you get for just scribbling down notes while watching and simultaneously sewing. 18th century pants, in case you wanted to know.

Cousin is angry, probably because Lady F behaves like Cinderella's evil stepmother, because Cousin is prettier than her daughters and gets, like, all the suitors because Lord B bitched away everyone who wanted to get into Daphne's dowry ifyouknowwhatImeanwinkwinknudgenudge, right across the street into Cousins parlour.

The Bridgertons are annoyingly perfect. Ugh.

Oh look, it's "banter" between Daphne and Dukey! It's so Pride & Prejudice! It's almost a tiny bit Shakespeare! I put banter in parentheses because wow, nope, I'm not getting any chemistry here.

Uh, Lady B calls out Lord B (aka. her son aka. Bridgerbro the Eldest) for his screwery with Opera Girl and his outpimpery of his sister to Horrid Suitor™, buuuurrrrrnnn. He promptly calls of his affair with Opera Girl.

No shifts!

Penny gets to dance with Ducktail Colin at the thing! Good for her, but it's a country dance with jumping and fun, because she's a) the pudgy character and b) a Featherington, so it can't be something romantic and pretty (I personally like country dances, but they aren't protagonist dances).

Oooh, Cousin had her period, oh no, oh snap, oh she didn't, because she's PREGNANT! Shit, that's problematic, and not because she's an unmarried woman in the 1810s, but because she gets close to no lines at all so far, and suddenly she's pregnant and telling Lady F that she sucks for being privileged, violence ensues, this is ugly. Man, I get what some critics mean by "the POC actors*actresses get all the problems" and that not exactly being great.

Horrid Suitor™ makes property claims about Daphne, eeewwwww, thanks to Lord B's general suckiness, ewww, r@pe attempt ensues, was that really necessary? It doesn't really fit in with the rest of the series and generally nope, yay, broken nose! (which was indeed totally necessary). Nice one, and probably the only scene so far (spoiler: overall) in which I actually like Daphne. Dukey thinks a mean left hook is attractive, and, generally speaking, he's not wrong.

Daphne and Dukey come up with a pseudo-shakespearean plot to pretend to be totally into each other so she can attract suitors by being not available and he gets not to have fangirls by being not available, and as someone who has read a few too many historical-ish bodice rippers I know exactly where this is going. I mean, come on.

I can't see enough of the following choreography to complain about it. Man, I miss historical dance classes.

And that concludes Ep. 1! Finally! Thank you for getting this far, sorry for all of it (especially typos, it's the bane of unwanted autocorrect), I guess?

Update on the train situation: I've been told by the ticket control person that I shouldn't get my hopes up until noon tomorrow.

To be continued,

because I didn't take these 32 pages of notes for nothing.

#Bridgerton #Hedgewatch #historical costuming #Well not really because wow these costumes #Thank you for travelling with Deutsche Bahn #2021 norther Germany snow storm #Trainwriting #Snarky commentary #I wish I was better at captions but it's late and I've been wearing a mask for four hours straight now and I'm hungry #Bridgerbore

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atlafan · 5 years

Note

Maybe for a non brits blurb you could write something about getting to know Harry and like going from friends to something more with him? I feel like it’s overlooked but i know I would be flipping out given his dating history and general aura of power. He just seems low key intimidating to date if that makes sense.

a/n: this was me laughing when I read this. We love a good friends to lovers fic baby!! This is gonna have some nice cliches to keep us warm on this cold ass February evening. Okay this ended up being way longer than I thought. (fluff and a wee bit of smut towards the end.)

Getting Social

You had hit the jackpot. Social media was your passion, and after having low paying job after low paying job, a friend of yours in the PR world had connected you with Jeff. Harry Styles barely used his social media anymore, and when he did, his fans went into a frenzy, like over a simple tweet of the word “DO”. There was no deeper meaning to this, other than that he was half asleep trying to tweet something entirely different.

Jeff wanted to hire someone to handle Harry’s social media full time. Someone to post coherent thoughts and photos for him. His fans really missed having this more personal reactions. Instagram was a little easier to run, as Jeff had given you an array of photos, and a schedule. But tweets were typically on the fly thoughts. When you interviewed for the position, you didn’t think you’d ever actually meet Harry.

After you were hired, you were called for a meeting with Jeff and Harry. You were extremely nervous to meet the star. You weren’t a crazed fan or anything, you just knew he could come off as extremely intense. It was the way his brows would furrow that made you the most nervous. However, you pulled it together, and shook his hand politely when he entered the room. You were dressed in a red blouse, and long black pencil skirt. You wanted to look as professional as possible.

“Y/N, we’re so happy to have you on the team. Your work speaks for itself.” Jeff says.

“Thanks, I’m happy to be here.”

“Nice to meet you.” Harry says.

“You as well.” You smile, he smiles back.

“We just wanted to go over how all of this would work. You said you were fine with traveling?”

“Yes, no problem with that. I’m not tied down to anything here. Family lives hours from here anyways.” You shrug. Jeff and Harry look at each other, then back to you.

“No significant other?” Harry asks.

“Not at this time, no.”

“Well, that’ll definitely makes things easier.” Jeff says. “We’ve tried to hire for this position before, but the traveling can get to be a lot when you have someone waiting for you, or even a family of your own.”

“I love traveling, so it’s really no problem.”

“Great.” Jeff continues. “We loved your thoughts on the tweets, and you were absolutely right. Instagram can be a much more planned out endeavor, but Twitter is really about quick thoughts.”

“I was also thinking we could post more on his story?” The two furrow their eyebrows at you. “I know location privacy is very important, so we could turn all of his location info off. We could also post like after he’s in a particular place. We could share fan photos too..just so they know he still cares. We could do like fan photo Fridays. Just an idea.” The two look at each other again, then back at you.

“S’not a terrible idea.” Harry says. “And feel free to address me directly, Jeff doesn’t make all the decisions, love.” You blink at him, and nod. “I guess as long as I knew my location wouldn’t be compromised we could do a little more of that. How do we tackle the tweets?”

“Well, I was thinking I could just go on and retweet more? Maybe even just liking more stuff that doesn’t necessarily have to do with promotion? Your Twitter looks so robotic, it’s no fun.” You say bluntly. “Social media is supposed to be fun. I know everything you say gets all turned around, but some natural responses would be good. I mean, and sorry if this is awkward, but look at what Niall’s been doing to promote his album.”

You pull up Niall Horan’s twitter on your phone, and show Jeff and Harry. After a few moments of scrolling and smirks, they hand the phone back to you.

“As you can see, he’s having fun with it. Whether it’s really him or not, everything feels genuine, and that’s what you’re lacking, Harry, sorry to say. You may not think these things matter, but when you look at the demographic of people who follow you, I assure you, it matters.” You were proud of yourself for essentially proving your worth.

“Oh, I like her. I think this is going to work out well.” Harry says.

Things started off with you and Harry meeting on Friday mornings so you both could choose the fan photos you would share on his Instagram story. You wanted to make sure he liked the way the way he looked. Then you would have him write down any thoughts he may have had during the week that would make sense to tweet. You would use those throughout the following week to tweet out for him. Not all of them made the cut, but the fans were responding positively see him back online more.

Harry wanted you around more. The two of you got along pretty well, and you actually had more in common than you would’ve thought. You were slowly starting to become part of his circle of friends.

One night, a bunch of you were hanging out at his home in Malibu. It was raining out, but it didn’t put a damper on the fun. Everyone was hanging out in the kitchen when you got there. You were wearing a pair of jean shorts, white tennis shoes, and a cropped sweatshirt. You had slowly started dressing more casually the more you realized everyone else did.

“Hey, you made it!” Harry said, giving you a hug. Your sweatshirt was soaked from the rain.

“Hit a spot of traffic. People drive like idiots in this weather.”

“Want one of my sweatshirts to wear?” Harry’s eyes grow wide when he sees your nipples peak through the material, then coughs. You cross your arms over your chest.

“Yeah, if you don’t mind. A.C. is a little strong in here, don’t ya think?”

“It got warm where we were all sittin’. I can, turn it down. Come upstairs with me so you can pick somethin’ out.”

“Um, I think you can handle that on your own.” You smell the deliciousness from the kitchen. “I’m starving.” You walk by him, and greet everyone.

Harry returns shortly with a small towel and a new sweatshirt.

“Towel’s for your hair.” He smiles.

“Thanks Harry.” You give his shoulder a squeeze before you head into the bathroom to change. The sweatshirt he gave you was rather large and black. It completely covered down past your shorts, not that your shorts were very long to begin with.

Harry admires you as you walk by him.

“Think you could’ve given me a bigger sweatshirt, this one’s not big enough.” You nudge him. He sticks his tongue out at you. “You guys feel like moving to the living room for a movie?”

Everyone agrees with you. You knew none of you would pay attention to a movie, but it was something to do. People were getting set up on the couches, some opting for the floor. There was one large recliner left. You and Harry looked at, at each other, then back to the chair. You both raced over and sat down at the time time.

“Would you please move your big butt, I was here first.” You say playfully.

“Oh, I have a big butt?”

“A proper bubble butt!” You giggle. “Now move.”

“There’s room for the both of us.” He says with a smile.

“Not unless you wanna sit on my lap there’s not.” Harry shifts and sits on your lap. “Get off! You’re crushing me!”

“Quit overrating, I’m as light as a feather.” He jokes.

“Harry!” You whine.

“Fine.” He gets off of you. “Wanna sit on my lap?”

“Not particularly.” You say sitting sideways in the chair. “But thanks for giving up the space for me. You’re such a good little host.” You say with a slight sarcasm to your tone. He rolls his eyes at you.

“Can I get anyone anythin’ from the kitchen? Doin’ a drink run.”

Harry takes drink orders from his friends, and heads into the kitchen. You’re talking with one of the girls when Mitch comes over to you.

“Hey, Y/N?”

“Sup, Mitch?” You smile at your friend.

“Got a sec? Something I wanna talk to you about.”

“Sure!”

You get up and follow him down the hall. No one pays the two of you attention.

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah, um, this is sort of awkward, but he’s really trying.”

“Who’s trying?”

“Harry.”

“What’s he trying to do?”

“Flirt with you. He likes you, obviously.”

“That’s flirting? We act like that with each other all the time. We’re just friends, Mitch.”

“But...he likes you.”

“Has he told you?”

“Not in so many words. Haven’t you noticed he hasn’t been hooking up with randoms as often?” You roll your eyes.

Part of being Harry’s social media rep meant having to make sure his little rendezvous went unnoticed. It wasn’t like he was a sex addict or anything, but he definitely got it when he wanted it.

“I hadn’t really noticed. I try not to pay too much to his personal affairs.”

“So, you wouldn’t even give him a chance?”

“How often does this happen? A new girl is added to the friend group, and then what? He starts hooking up with them, and then it ends? Isn’t that the situation with like half of the girls in there?” Mitch sighs. “Exactly. I’m not getting mixed up with all that.”

The two of you go back into the living room, Harry had taken your sit. You stand in front of him with your hands on your hips. He thought you looked incredibly cute in the oversized sweatshirt.

“Can I help you?”

“You took my seat.”

“Technically, it’s my seat love. I own it.” You roll your eyes at him. “Lap’s still open though.” He grins at you.

“I’ll pass.” You turn around and sit on the floor in front of him.

You all decide on a movie, a romantic comedy at Harry’s request. You end up leaning back against his chair, and Harry’s legs were at either side of you. He started absentmindedly playing with your hair. You let out a soft sigh at his touch, and leaned your head back further. You would never say no to someone playing with your hair. He loved your hair too. It was long, brown (with blonde highlights that you had done every six weeks on the dot) , and it always smelled like apples. You close your eyes as his fingers continue, and you feel yourself drift off slightly. He looks over at Mitch, who gives him a thumbs up. Everyone in the room knew he had a thing for you.

You were woken up by the sound of everyone laughing at some scene. You sat up, and moved to lay on your stomach. Harry frowned at the loss of contact from you. After the movie, everyone agreed it was late, and due to the never ending rain, it would be a good idea to get going.

Harry hated going from a full house of people to no one. But everyone had their own lives, it couldn’t be about him all the time.

“Hey, do you know where my sweatshirt ended up?”

“I threw it in the dryer for a bit, one sec.” Harry left and came back with your sweatshirt.

“Thanks!” You hugged the material to your face. “Nice and warm.” You turned around to take his sweatshirt off, revealing just a cropped tank top, and then quickly put yours back on. You tossed his back to him. “Thanks again for the loaner.”

“Any time. Glad you could make it out tonight.” He smiled at you.

“Same here.” He stepped forward to hug you, but you stepped back, making his face fall. “Well, goodnight Harry.”

“Um...goodnight.”

A few weeks passed and you started picking up on more of Harry’s flirty behavior that Mitch had told you about. You found yourself always being placed next to him on flights, dinners, and wherever else he needed you to be. Your one year work anniversary was coming up, and he wanted to do something special for you. In your weekly Friday meeting, he brought it up.

“Can you believe you’ve been with me for almost a year?” You squinted at his phrasing.

“It’s been great being part of your team, Harry. Best job I’ve ever had.”

“I’m really glad we’re, um, friends too. Everyone loves you.”

“Nice of you to say.” You say, looking at your laptop.

“I was thinkin’...I’d like to celebrate our, your anniversary.” You turn to face him, and raise an eyebrow.

“What exactly were you thinking?”

“How ‘bout a holiday? Go away somewhere tropical for a bit.”

“Seems like a bit much for just a work anniversary.”

“Also an excuse to get away and relax. Been sorta stressed lately, love.”

“So, you wanna use me working for you for a year as an excuse for a vacation?”

“Don’t say it like that. You don’t work for me, you work with me.” You smirk at him. “There’s that smile.”

“Oh stop it. Look, I’ll think about it, okay? Can we get to the work that this meeting is for now?”

“Yes.” He hands you the piece of paper with the notes for some tweets.

“Why does this one have a star next to it?”

“Because I found that thought to be particularly funny, and I’ve noticed that sometimes the things I think are funny don’t always make the cut, so I wanted to make sure that made it.”

“You know, you are allowed to tweet things yourself. You don’t have to wait for me.” You laugh looking at his note. “This is pretty funny.”

“Thank you, I was pretty proud of that one.”

You agreed to a five day getaway to Aruba with Harry. You didn’t think much of it when it was just the two of you from your gang on the plane. You figured they were catching a different flight.

Harry was very sweet at the airport. He carried all of your luggage, rented a car for the two of you, and drove you to the condo you’d be staying in for the next few days.

“S’not a big place. It’s part of a timeshare association. I’m actually renting it from a friend.”

“Oh that’s fine. It’s probably bigger than all my apartments.”

“You know, you could just stay with me when we’re in Malibu. My house has so much space, it doesn’t make sense for you to pay for two different places.”

“I’m not living with you, Harry.” You squeeze his arm. “But I appreciate it.”

You get to the condo pretty quickly, and Harry takes your bags to the room after checking in. You already loved it here. It was humid, but there was a breeze, and zero paps. Harry unlocked the door. You didn’t question that it was only one room, you figured there would be a few bedrooms for everyone to stay in. The cool air hit you as you both walked in, giving some relief from the humidity.

As you walked around to explore, you got extremely confused and angry.

“Harry.”

“Yeah?”

“Why does this place only have one actual bedroom?”

“I told you it wasn’t huge.”

“Where is everyone supposed to fit?”

“What do you mean everyone?”

“Um, our friends?”

“None of them had anniversaries. This trip is just for the two of us, thought that was clear.” He shrugs, wheeling both bags of luggage into the bedroom. You snatch yours from his hand. “What?”

“Are you out of your fucking mind?!”

“What’s wrong?”

“Harry! Don’t you see what’s wrong with this picture?” You gesture to the space. “I am not staying along with you here for an entire week.”

“S’not a week, it’s five days.”

“Don’t be fresh with me.”

“You sound like my mother.” He smirks. “Would ya relax.”

“No! Where the fuck am I supposed to sleep?” He gives you a confused look, and looks at the large bed in the bedroom.

“Love, it’s a king size bed.” You start laughing out of exasperation.

“You are crazy if you think I’m sleeping in the same bed as you.”

“It’s a huge bed, we won’t even be touchin’.” You scoff. “What?”

“What do I look like an idiot? I know how you are.”

“Excuse me?” Not wanting to start an even bigger fight, you decided to let it go.

“Never mind.” You walk over to the couch in the living room, and take the pillows off. You sigh with relief. “Oh thank god.”

“What?”

“It’s a pull out. I can sleep out here, and I’ll use the hall bath.”

“Shower’s in the bedroom.” You glare at him.

“Guess we’ll have to take turns, won’t we.”

“Would ya stop bein’ a baby? We’re two adults aren’t we? No way you’ll last five nights on that thing.”

He was right. You weren’t a great sleeper when it came to traveling. An actual mattress would be much more comfortable.

“Jesus, I really hate you right now. You’ve backed me into a corner.” You wheel your luggage into the bedroom, and angrily unpack your things.

You calm down a bit when you see how beautiful the bathroom is. There was a huge tub, and a giant walk in shower. You could already see yourself relaxing in a giant bubble bath.

“Nice, isn’t it?” Harry brushes past you to put his toiletries away. “We need to go to the grocery store to pick out what we want for snacks and stuff. There’s food on site, but none of it’s complimentary. I figured we could do the breakfast buffet a couple times, but we might want stuff here for ourselves. We’ll eat out most dinners.”

“Alright, sounds good. When we get back can we go down to the pool, I need to cool off.”

“You bet.”

Harry was fun to grocery shop with. He pushed the cart while you picked out things you liked to eat. He agreed with just about everything you picked out. He paid for everything. Groceries were more expensive in Aruba. You worked together to put everything away.

Harry changed into his little yellow swim shorts and a white t-shirt while you changed into your bathing suit. It was a simple high waisted black bikini. You took the straps off the top so you wouldn’t have tan lines. You threw on a large t-shirt as a cover up, and slid on your flip flops.

“Ready?” He asks.

“Yup. What do we do for towels?”

“They’re down by the pool.” He smiles.

You both get a couple towels, and put them on your chairs. Harry was smart to remember to bring down some sunscreen. You took your shirt off, and laid it on the back of the chair. Harry’s eyes went wide looking at you. He had never seen you in such little clothing. You bend over in front of him to put your hair up in a messy bun. When you look at him he quickly looks away.

“Would you mind putting some sunscreen on my back?” You ask him.

“Um, sure.” He swallows hard, and squirts some in his hands. He rubs his hands together to warm it up, and he massages it into your shoulders and upper back.

“Can you get the bit of my lower back too?”

“Mhm.”

“And make sure to get under the top, I’ve been burned there before, no fun.”

You hold the front of your top up while Harry nervously rubs sunscreen underneath the back.

“Kay, all set.”

“Thanks.” You snatch the bottle from him, and lather the rest of yourself up. He takes his shirt off while you do this. “Turn around.”

“I’m gonna lay on m’back.”

“Still need to get those shoulders, and the back of your neck.”

Harry turns around, and bends his knees a bit so you can reach his shoulders easily. You rub all over his back, and give him a little slap when you’re done.

You put your headphones and listen to some music while Harry reads from his book. You had thoroughly calmed down from earlier. You drift and snooze for a little over an hour. You stand up and stretch once you’re awake. Harry watches you, peering up from his book.

“Gonna go for a swim.” You say to him, and he nods.

You slowly get into the heated pool, and it feels amazing. You loved swimming more than most things. Harry watches you spin around in the water, and loved the giant smile on your face. You were careful not to get your hair wet.

“Harry, come in with me, the water feels great.”

“Alright.”

Harry gets up and joins you in the water. The pool, and area, you were in was smaller than where the other pool was. There was mostly older people around you that didn’t know or care who Harry was. He ducked his head under the water, and pushed his hair back when he came back up.

It’s not that you weren’t attracted to Harry. You thought he was extremely handsome. You just knew how he was. He didn’t have the best track record with the people he dated. You enjoyed being his friend so much, you didn’t want hooking up to complicate things. You also didn’t want to risk doing anything that could lose you your job. You loved what you did every day. How many people could say that?

“It’s a nice suit, by the way.” He says, leaning against the edge of the pool.

“Oh, thanks.” You blush. “I got it at that boutique last time we were in New York.”

“You have great taste in clothes. Don’t know if I’ve ever told ya that.”

“Says the fashion icon himself.” You look away, then back at him. “What do you feel like doing for dinner tonight?”

“Gettin hungry, love?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, we could stay in tonight. I don’t know if I feel like putting proper dinner clothes on.”

“Me either, we bought plenty of food. Oh! We could have pancakes tonight.”

“Brilliant idea.”

After a little more time in the pool, you both dry off, and go back to your room. You both hang out in your bathing suits for a bit while you get all the things to make pancakes. You decide to change into a pair of jean shorts, feeling uncomfy in your bathing suit bottoms. You leave the top on though.

You and Harry giggle as you flip the the pancakes, and scarf them down.

“Feel like seein’ if there’s a movie on? We could watch it in bed.” He says. You squint at him, still annoyed about your sleeping situation. You sigh.

“Sure, just let me change into my jammies.”

You take out a a pair of shirts and a t-shirt. You change in the bathroom, then wash your face and brush your teeth. You take your hair out of it’s bun. Harry had changed into a pair of boxers, and was laying on the bed with one of his arms tucked behind his head, the remote in the other hand. You cross your arms over your chest, not wanting him to see you’re not wearing a bra. You had seen Harry in nothing but his boxers plenty of times, so you didn’t feel uncomfortable.

You climb onto the large bed, and set as far away form him as possible.

“So, what are we watching?”

“Think we’ll be watchin’ this marathon of Chopped. Nothin’ else good is on.”

“Sounds good to me. I’ll probably fall asleep soon anyways.” You lean over and turn your bedside table lamp off, and get under the covers.

“You’re awfully far away.”

“Don’t start with me.”

“Are you really that uncomfortable with this?”

“It’s not that I’m uncomfortable, this is just all very presumptuous of you that I’d be okay with sharing a room with you. Let alone a bed.” You keep your eyes on the TV. “Ted, get out of the fucking way! Jesus, I hate when he goes to talk to them, and then he distracts them.” Harry chuckles at how invested you get with the show.

“Oi, look at this one going for the ice cream maker, real fucking original.”

“She’s lucky she didn’t chopped from the last round with that sorry excuse for a risotto.” You both laugh.

Harry gets up to do his nightly routine, and turns his light off after getting back into bed.

“Ready for me to turn it off?”

“Sure.”

He fell asleep pretty quickly, as you lay there staring at the ceiling. How could he be so calm about all of this. You secretly wondered if he would try to cuddle with you. But at the end of the Harry was a gentleman. You finally fell asleep, but not for long.

“Mornin’.” Harry saying coming into the kitchen with a blanket wrapped around him.

“Hey.” You say eating some cereal.

“You sleep alright?”

“Meh.” You say. He frowns. “Wasn’t cause of you though. I never sleep good the first night I go somewhere.”

The two of you spend the day at the each, enjoying the beautiful sand and warm water. Harry picked you up and threw you in a couple times. You managed to grab onto him and dunk him a few times yourself. The whole day was fulled with laughter.

That night for dinner her took you to a club that had live music. You wore your hair down and wore a blue sundress. Harry wore a shirt that was mostly open and a pair of shorts. He stands and extends a hand out to you.

“What?”

“Let’s dance.” Harry never danced, he was truly on vacation mode. You had a few drinks in you, so you shrugged your shoulders and took his hands.

It was simple, fast paced dancing at first, but his hands never left yours. The band started to play a slower song. You both nervously smiled at each other. Harry’s hands went to your hips, and yours went on his shoulders. You two sink into the dance as he pulls you closer to him, leaning your head on his chest. He hums into your ear and goosebumps raise on your skin.

When you get back to the room later you struggle to unzip your dress while you’re in the bathroom. You crack the door.

“Harry.” You whine.

“Yeah, love?”

“Can you please help me?” He practically jumps from the bed. He opens the door wider. Your chest was flushed from the alcohol. His skin was already golden brown from the two days of sun.

“Turn around.” He says. You turn and move your hair. He unzips your dress for your as you cross your arms over your chest. You weren’t wearing a bra with your dress since it had one built in.

You turn to face him, your cheeks rosy.

“Need help with anythin’ else?” He asks, not breaking eye contact.

“Like what?” He shrugs his shoulders. His hand cups your cheek, you close your eyes and lean into his touch.

“Have I ever told you how beautiful you are?” You open your eyes and shake your head no. “Well, you are. You’re so beautiful. I’ve thought so since we met.”

“Oh, stop it.” You push him out of the bathroom, and close the door. Your dress falls to your feet. You change into a pair of shorts and a tank top. You walk out arms crossed over your chest. He’s sitting on the edge of your bed.

“You don’t have to keep doin’ that, I know what boobs look like.”

“You don’t need to know what my boobs look like.” You say standing in front of him.

“Why not?”

“Because we’re friends.” He scoffs. “Not to mention I fucking work for you, Harry.”

“So?”

“So?! Okay great, so let’s just fuck and then you’ll get what you want, and then you can fire me like nothing ever happened!” He stands up and gets in your face, but you step back.

“Is that really what you think of me? After all this time we’ve known each other.”

“Harry, I have seen so many people leave your hotel room over this last year, I’m exhausted just looking at you.”

“I haven’t hooked up with anyone in a while.”

“You want a fucking award?”

“Why are you so god damn stubborn? You have to like me too, you just have to.”

“Why, because you’re Harry Styles?”

“No, because you know better than anyone else. I like you, a lot. I think we should be together. It wouldn’t effect your job in the slightest.”

“This was your plan the whole time wasn’t it? Get me alone on a romantic vacation, show me this side of yourself so I’ll agree to being with you.” He doesn’t say anything. “That’s what I thought. You’re always doing sneaky shit like this. How hard would it to have been to just talk to me about how you were feeling? I’m not the sweep me off my feet kind of girl. You know what’s really sexy? Proper fucking communication.”

“Alright! I like you! I like you so much, and I have for a while. I think you’re incredibly brilliant, and yeah I do wanna fuck you. I wanna give you a proper fucking shag, you know you’re fucking gorgeous.”

“I’m not a model, you like to date models.”

“I’ve dated like one model, and that just happened to be her job.”

“Yeah, and you made an entire album about how much you loved fucking her. Kind of hard to compete with that, Harry.” You huff.

“What, are you jealous?”

“Not in the slightest.”

“Do you care about any of the other things I just said?”

“Mm, so romantic, you screaming that you wanna fuck me.” You say sarcastically.

“You don’t want to fuck me? You don’t want to even consider being with me?” His eyes were tired and sad.

“If we do this, there’s no going back, and it scares the shit out of me. What if I lose you? That would literally kill me.”

“You couldn’t lose me.” He wraps his arms around you and presses you to his chest. “I want you around me all the time, can’t you see that?” He lets go to take your face in his hands.

You weren’t sure if it was the alcohol, or the adrenaline from the argument, but what you did next took you both by surprise. It had been a while since you were intimate with someone, so you may have gotten a little too excited.

You pushed Harry, hard, so he falls on his back on his bed. You get right up on his lap straddling him. He sits himself up to look at you.

“You really want this? With me?” You ask.

“More than you could ever know.”

You lace your fingers through his hair and crash your lips to his. It felt so good it practically burned, your tongues finding each other in seconds. His hands go to your ass right away and he squeezes you with his large hands.

It felt like your clothes came off immediately, and you found your self on your back, with your legs over his shoulders. The rumors were true, he loved eating out. Every lick and flick of his tongue was done with suck expertise, it astounded you. Every groan he let out against you fucking sent you, and you found yourself moaning out his name as you came undone on his tongue.

“So sweet.” He says bringing his head up, licking his swollen lips. “I’ve wanted to know for so long what you tasted like. I’ve thought about it so many times.”

“Really?”

“More than I’d like to admit.”

He hovers over you, and rubs tip against your clit, making you both moan.

“Do you have condoms with you?”

“Um...I think so.”

“Okay, go put one on.”

“You’re not on birth control?”

“I am.” He blinks at you. “Harry, no offense, but you’ve been with a lot of people, and until you get tested, I’m not letting that thing inside me without a condom.”

He pretends to be offended, but gets off the bed to rummage for a condom. He slides it on once he finds it, and gets back on the bed.

He slowly slides inside you as you grip his shoulders. He was big, maybe even a little too big. He stays inside you for a moment, giving you some time to get used to him. He starts to move slowly as you wrap your legs around his waist.

“You don’t have to be gentle with me.” You say into his ear. “I can take it.”

“You want it hard, baby?”

“Yes, please.”

Harry pulls out of you almost the way, then slams inside you. You arch of the bed a little.

“Do it again.” He smirks, and does as you say.

He fucks you like this for the majority of the time. You tighten around him, and grind against him, coming very close to another release.

“Fuck, Harry.” Your head goes back into the pillow as you come again. You tighten yourself around. “Want you to come too.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, please come for me Harry.”

He quickens his motions, and they become sloppy. He moans out your name as he fills the condom, and collapses on top of you. You run your hands through his hair. He slowly pulls out of you and hiss at the loss of him. He gets up to dispose of the condom, then joins you once again.

Harry pulls you onto his sweaty chest to hold you.

“How was that, love?”

“Your dick is huge.” You both start giggling. “But in all seriousness, it was great.” You kiss him on the cheek. “It had, uh, been a while for me.”

“Same here, didn’t think I was gonna last as long as I did. You felt incredible.” You nuzzle into him.

“What happens now?”

“Well, we have three days left here, then it’s back to reality. I’d love to take you on a real date when we get back to California. I could cook for you at home. You know, see where it all goes.”

“Or I could just start calling you my boyfriend, and skip all that crap.” He looks down at you.

“Works for me.”

“Great. So, um, how many condoms did you bring with you?”

“Why, ready for a second round?”

You move to get on top of him, straddling his hips.

“You said you’ve thought about this before. I wanna fulfill every fantasy you’ve had.” Harry swallows hard. Amazed that he get to see this side of you.

You spent the next three days in and out of the room. You tried to enjoy the sun and warm water, but you both found yourselves wanting to just be alone and explore each other’s bodies. It was the most passionate sex you’ve ever had.

You loved what you did every day. How many people got to say that?

#harry styles #harry styles x reader #harry styles y/n #harry styles fluff #harry styles smut #fluff #smut #this was meant to be a blurb #then two hours later this happened #hope you like!

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nitrateglow · 4 years

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My god-tier Audrey Hepburn movies

I just realized I’ve technically seen all of Audrey Hepburn’s movies-- or rather, all the movies in which she was given star billing.

So, because I’m bored, here’s a list of my top ten personal favorites of her films. The criteria is simple: 1) she had to have starred in it, so nothing from her pre-Roman Holiday career counts nor does 1989′s Always, and 2) this is based on my level of enjoyment of the movie in question.

1. Wait Until Dark

Wait Until Dark possesses many merits, but Hepburn is one of its key strengths. For me, the most interesting performances are the ones able to balance seemingly opposing elements of the character in question. Here, Hepburn balances vulnerability with inner strength, insecurity and terror with courage, angry frustration with budding confidence. She makes her character seem like such a real, vital presence, like someone you would know. Also, having someone as sweet as Hepburn as the target for the cruel mind games and brutal violence of the villains makes the horror all the more terrifying.

Beyond her performance, this movie feels like it was tailor-designed to appeal to me: an intelligent and formidable villain, the everyday setting juxtaposed with a menacing atmosphere, scary scenes that don’t rely on gore, eccentric criminals, dark humor, a tight script without an ounce of fat on it. But you’ve heard me go on, so I’ll leave it there.

2. Charade

Charade is a prime example of how to mix suspense and comedy. The mystery at the heart of the movie is very clever, with twists and turns every other moment, constantly keeping the audience on their toes. Best of all, the film holds up after repeat viewings because of the delicious chemistry between Hepburn and Cary Grant, and the witty screenplay, which has such an elegant and tight structure that I seethe with envy as a writer every time I revisit this glorious thriller.

As in Wait Until Dark, Hepburn is concerned for her life as she’s terrorized by criminals, only here, they’re mostly more humorous in nature, sometimes even lovable (except Scobie, he can just jump off a cliff). She mainly gets to exercise her comedic chops, throwing off quips, sarcastic lines, and screwball banter with wonderful finesse. It makes me sad she never made more films with Cary Grant-- the two have a spark that belies the large age gap between them.

3. Roman Holiday

The character-building, naturalistic performances, and humor make Roman Holiday one of the best examples of romantic comedy. The film has both a gentle touch and a grounded maturity that make it more than just a remix of the earlier and quite similar screwball comedy It Happened One Night. To get a bit literary and pretentious, it reminds me a bit of Romeo and Juliet-- not because of the romance, but in how the movie starts as a standard screwball comedy and ends on a lyrical, wistful note you might not have expected.

Even though this was her first lead role in a feature film, I think Hepburn’s performance as Ann remains one of her strongest. Ann feels regal and dignified while also possessing the naivete and restlessness of a teenager on the brink of adulthood. It’s as fabulous a star-establishing movie as anyone could want.

4. How to Steal a Million

How to Steal a Million is pure fun. Not a moment of this caper comedy is to be taken seriously (which makes it the perfect quarantine movie if you need something to de-stress with). I always regard this movie as Charade’s even frothier spiritual successor: both films are playful, stylish, funny, and packed with romantic banter, plot twists, and colorful 1960s fashions. The main difference is that in this one, there’s no mortal threat involved and the humor gets a little more risque though not crass.

Also, how nice is it for Hepburn to be paired with a leading man closer to her age? Peter O’Toole was only three years younger than Hepburn when this was filmed. The two of them have glorious, cute chemistry.

5. The Nun’s Story

I hate the question of “objective best” anything, but if you put a gun to my head, I would say The Nun’s Story is features Hepburn’s most impressive work as an actress. For those who accuse Hepburn of being too affected, of being a mere clothes’ horse, here she is bare-faced, dressed in a nun’s habit, and playing a very reserved character whose dilemmas are largely internal. She plays her character’s spiritual conflict with an understatement that could only be considered skillful.

The film itself will likely be seen as “too slow” by most and there are a few colonial elements towards the Congo section that date it, but the film’s strengths, both from Hepburn’s performance and the mature way it presents its individual versus the system story, give it classic status. Few movies regarding organized religion are this balanced and lacking in propaganda, either for or against it.

6. Breakfast at Tiffany’s

While still Hepburn’s most iconic role, Breakfast at Tiffany’s gets called “overrated” a lot these days and fans of the original Truman Capote novella routinely dog it for making heavy changes to the source material. There’s also the, you know, gross yellowface a la Mickey Rooney that deflates every scene in which he appears. However, is the move bad? NO. It juggles zany comedy, tender romance, and rather heavy drama too well for me to consign it to the “overrated” bin. Blake Edwards was a fine director and this movie is one of his best.

And Hepburn gives a damn good performance as Holly Golightly, even if she is not the character envisioned by Capote. This character could easily be unlikable if played the wrong way-- she’s a “phony,” rather pathetic, and self-loathing despite her wit and charm. But rather than coming off as an unbearable loser, Hepburn’s Holly is a realistic, relatable loser we all love in spite of her own delusions and lashing out. She might even hit too close to home (or maybe that’s just me).

7. Funny Face

Funny Face took a few viewings to grow on me. It was one of the first Hepburn movies I ever saw (that was back in high school) and I was initially excited because it was directed by Stanley Donen who co-directed Singin’ in the Rain with Gene Kelly, a long-time favorite of mine. I expected this movie to be just as sublime and was disappointed when it didn’t hit that high mark.

Rewatching it later, I now find it very charming. It’s incredibly upbeat and relaxing, the sort of old-school movie musical that doesn’t get made anymore. Hepburn’s singing is a bit rough in the bigger numbers, but she is very sweet, a damn good dancer, and quite attractive to the point where she just takes my breath away. Fred Astaire and Kay Thompson are also wonderful and get a lot of great moments that show off their talent.

8. My Fair Lady

When considering what would go on this list, I was honestly shocked to realize how much I like this movie. I’m in the camp that considers Hepburn miscast, I find George Cukor’s direction rather stiff, and I really don’t like how the ending is changed from the original play. In spite of all this, I still really enjoy this movie for the songs, costumes, and what remains of Shaw’s brilliant satire on class and gender relations. Those three hours go by and the movie never outstays its welcome.

While I think Hepburn wasn’t the number one best choice for the part (I don’t really buy her as a crass flower girl in the beginning), she isn’t a disaster by any means. She’s still charming and sympathetic, and once she makes her transformation, you have to wonder how Higgins held it together, she’s so gorgeous. And I love the relish with which she approaches the “Just you Wait” song or the way she delivers the “move your bloomin’ arse” line at the races.

9. Sabrina

I think producers figured because of the fairy tale appeal of Roman Holiday, Hepburn would be perfect for this modern take on Cinderella, set in 1950s New York. Just like in Roman Holiday, Hepburn gets to undergo dramatic character development and show her comedic skills. It’s a cute movie, with a very charming William Holden and gorgeous black-and-white cinematography. It’s also shockingly uncynical for a Billy Wilder project.

About the closest thing this movie has to a flaw is Humphrey Bogart as Linus, the guy who Sabrina chooses in the end. This is a role Cary Grant could have played in his sleep, but Bogart clearly is not enjoying himself in some scenes. However, he isn’t movie-breakingly bad by any means. His character is meant to be a hidden softie and far more dependable than his handsomer brother, so I can buy that Sabrina would warm to him in the end.

10. They All Laughed

People tend to argue what the last “worthwhile” Hepburn movie is. Most argue it’s 1976′s Robin and Marian, while I’ve seen some go as far back as How to Steal a Million in 1966. They All Laughed, a Peter Bogdonavich comedy from 1981, gets my vote. This is a love letter to screwball comedies much like Bogdonavich’s 1972 classic What��s Up Doc, only with a far more melancholy edge.

Hepburn does not become a major presence in the movie until nearly halfway through. However, she approaches her role with a mature dignity that makes me wish she’d done more work along this line towards the end of her career. Her character comes off as an older, sadder Princess Ann from Roman Holiday. This makes the movie sound morose, but it isn’t: it ends with life going on and the characters accepting that with grace.

#lists lists lists #charade #roman holiday #how to steal a million #the nun's story #breakfast at tiffany's #funny face #my fair lady #sabrina #they all laughed #audrey hepburn #thoughts #wait until dark #old hollywood #i'll probably make more lists like these with other actors i like #so expect a buster post guys

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stitch1830 · 3 years

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ATLA Q&A

So I got tagged by @mycomfortblanket and @dannyurl but it wouldn’t let me reblog on the thread so I made a new one lol. Never really thought about these questions til now, so good exercise!

1. What is your favorite character?

Toph Beifong. Need I say more?

2. What is your comfort character?

Hmmm, does Appa count? If yes, then Appa. He’s a good, chill pal. I’d snuggle with him.

3. Which element would you bend if you could?

Probably earthbending. I like the fighting style of firebenders a bit more, but I think that the element of earth has more opportunities and possibilities to adapt the martial art and then also bending the different compositions of earth lol. Plus metalbending is a dope technique and I would love to be able to do that as well.

4. What’s your favorite nation?

Probably Earth Kingdom. Idk, maybe because it’s the biggest nation, so there are lots of different cities to travel to. I can’t really explain why it’s my favorite lol.

5. What makes you love ATLA the most?

Probably just the established world. If I ever try to make up my own stories, creating the setting and space the story takes place in is always the hardest for me. So the fact that there are multiple nations, maps, cities, and cultures associated with the story, and those background details are fleshed out is pretty impressive. And even as a kid I noticed that.

COULD GET YOU ATTACKED QUESTIONS

1. Who is your least favorite character in the gaang?

I think as a kid, I didn’t care for Sokka or Aang. Sokka seemed useless to the team to me as a kid and then all of a sudden he was an expert strategist in my head. And Aang bothered me because he was a bald kid with tattoos lol. Weird for my 10-year-old brain to wrap around at the time. I love both of them now, obviously, and see my flawed thought process as a kid lol. Otherwise, I never cared for Mai or Ty Lee.

2. What character do you think is severely underrated?

Mmmm, idk. No one from the Gaang seems underrated, nor do the main villains. I’ll find realms of the fandom that tend to overrate characters, so I feel like a lot of them get the love and appreciation they need. Even Cabbage Man has support. Like, okay.

Maybe Freedom Fighters? Like, all of the minor ones. They kind of come and go as they please, and they probably need more backstory than they actually get.

3. What’s your least favorite nation?

Again, as a kid I never liked that all the Air nation people were bald and had tattoos. Not the smartest logic on my end lol. But idk, I still prefer the other nations now.

4. What is your controversial ATLA opinion?

I actually struggle to watch the show now as an adult and after reading some fantastic posts on Tumblr about the show’s flaws. Obviously I shouldn’t judge the show based on bad writing near the end or series finale relationships, but I can barely watch it now without seeing the hints of romantic relationships and cringe or just... knowing that the outcome of the show isn’t what I particularly want to see. It’s easier for me to just stay in fanfiction and read about fan theories and then come up with my own outcomes.

The show used to satisfy me, but now? Not so much. I like, only watch season 2 now if I want to watch it at all, mainly for Toph and because there aren’t as many obviously displays of Aang crushing on Katara.

SHIPPING QUESTIONS

1. What’s your favorite ship and why?

Canon ships only.

JK. Taang. Taang for days. As a couple, I see them having a lighthearted relationship where they know how to balance each other. They are powerful and strong and independent on their own and certainly don’t need to be in a relationship, but they would choose to be together because they add value to their lives and want to be together. They’ve got that classic ‘opposites attract’ dynamic that isn’t like “I can’t live without you” feeling, but more like “You help me be better” feel.

Before finding Taang, I never really shipped Toph with anyone, and didn’t even know she had canon kids until like... the pandemic started lol. I just thought she’d be a badass and wreak havoc on the world and be responsible for only herself. And if I did ship her with a character, it was usually Sokka bc of the angst and canon compliance it provided. But after reading a few Taang fics, there was actually potential for her to be in a longstanding and committed relationship with someone that made sense to me. It was cool to find a ship that opened my eyes to that, because otherwise, I would’ve never assumed or thought she’d ever marry or have kids or anything.

Tokka is a close second because it got me into reading fanfiction, but idk Taang is just feels so right to me lol.

2. What’s your least favorite ship?

After reading lots of metas, I don’t like Mai/Zuko and Aang/Katara. They just rub me the wrong way now.

3. Do you sometimes self-insert?

As far as inserting myself into a romantic relationship with ATLA characters... No. Not my cup of tea.

I do sometimes create OCs that are just like... best friends with the Gaang and went through their own shit during the war. But they don’t resemble me at all. If anything, they mirror the personality of the character they’re close with, simply because I think friendships where characters have very similar personalities would be interesting. We see a lot of opposite duos, romantic and platonic, and I certainly do the same thing in my life (I have lots of friends where I am not like them at all, but we’re really close). But to see relationships where they act very similar... Interesting dynamic. They probably butt heads a lot and fight a lot, but also really understand what the other needs for help, and... yeah. Those friendships seem unappreciated to me. So I like to make those up lol.

4. What ship would you make canon if you were the creator?

I wouldn’t make ATLA about romantic relationships. If anything, I would emphasize the family aspect of the team, then let fans and audiences decide who works best with who ~after~ the show ends lol. I tend to like endings with open interpretation, and also, just based on my personal life/preference, I think it’s sometimes weird when really really close friends get together in relationships afterwards. Like, I’ll think of those friends as my family, and dating ‘practically family’ is sometimes weird imo lol. Of course, I know why those relationships tend to happen, mostly because those characters are the only ones that can relate to the war trauma they all went through, so I get that and love that aspect of it.

I would certainly lean in the direction of the Big Three: Zutara, Sukka, and Taang, just by pointing out their dynamic, having them confide in one another, or something of the sort. But no one would like, get together at the end.

My thoughts on ATLA, and I’m going to tag anyone that wants to do this! I’m looking at you. ;)

#atla #atla q&a #asking the hard hitting questions #I barely knew the answers lol #tag game

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just-like-playing-tag · 4 years

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Based on your current ask, i do like your analysic about Norman, make me know more about his prespective. But do you think Norman in love with Emma ( or do you support the ship Noremma? ) and will do anything for her even he has his own way to resolve things ?

About this

First of all: I had never really thought about this, so thank you very much Anon for prompting!

Ok I've been thinking about this a lot. To answer briefly: I believe the authors ment to leave the matter of Norman's feelings for Emma to the reader's imagination, and there isn't really a right answer. After this I'm putting a few considerations on how I personally interpret the character, but I believe it's really up to the reader. Which, at least for me, isn't that bad actually? The series never focused on romantic love, so I personally think it would have felt kinda weird to explore that aspect of Norman more in depth. I personally like it for how it is.

While reading the manga, my personal take had been that Norman had a crush on Emma back at Grace Field - one of these things you say to have when you're eleven, but that don't really mean "love" because at that age you don't even know what love is. But then, after having been parted from her for so long, it was something he somehow grow out of. Once he started being Minerva*, he had completely left behind the most childish sides of his personality to fully focus on doing the best he could to protect his family and all the children born to be cattle. Nota bene!! With that, I'm not saying he stopped loving Emma (that would be a very dumb thing to say lmao). I think he started seeing the feelings he had towards her under a different, more mature light- that may not correspond to love, but isn't any less deep. Romantically or not, Norman loves Emma.

(*Kinda irrelevant to the point but I'd like to specify: I actually think Norman leaving his child-self behind has even older roots to him taking on the Minerva facade, and exactly dates back to when Isabella announced his shipment. It was in that moment that he realized that wasn't a game, and that the escape - according to him - couldn't have taken place without having to sacrifice someone.)

But you see, these are more of headcanons, there's very few about canon to support this- it's just the idea I have of the character, and thus how I personally see him... And also how I like to interpret his feelings towards Emma.

To put it this way, this is just my headcanon to fill what I think can't be deducted from the manga. Or at least, that's what I thought until chapter 179, but that chapter made me significantly reconsider the whole thing?? It kinda delivered some details that could hint to Norman having carried his romantic feelings towards Emma till this moment. I'm talking about these panels in particular:

Maybe I was just naïve to ignore it in the past, and maybe there's been many other little hints of Norman's love for Emma I have been blind to; still, seeing this surprised me a lot. And that's simply because - as I just said - I thought Norman got over that kind of feelings; I thought he had left them at Grace Field. Practically speaking, he wouldn't have thought about them anymore, because that's not what his true feelings were. And yet here they are! Displayed as something still undeniably relevant inside of Norman. But if those feelings are still there then, what are they? I 11 y/o crush would definitely fade in two years, so you're telling me it was more than that? You're telling me a 11 years old loved someone?? Because nnnnnngghh maybe it's just me but that doesn't sound right... I personally wouldn't like it if that's how it is, that Norman meant t r u e l o v e. I don't really like the trope of children falling in love you know? Just- let children be children.

Could it be possible that Norman's childish crush over the years grow up to be something more? I guess that's a possibility! But let me be honest with you pal - it's my opinion that if you're living an apocalyptic scenario where not only you, but your entire specie isn't given to survive, then you probably don't have much time to reflect on questions like “are the feelings I had towards this one friend I had a crush on when I was 11 actually mean love?”.

Back when his life was at risk in Lambda, when he was all alone and separated from all of his friends, I find it much more likely he found the strength to go on with the constant thought that he wanted to see his family again (all of them, but especially Emma and Ray), that he loves them, and that he wants to live with them: his thoughts weren't directly focused on Emma, and as for how I see it it's likely that they didn't change much once he met her again.

It's true Emma was the reason he wanted to survive (together with the rest of his family) but peoples I... Just don't think that's enough to say that he loves her????? She's the person he's the closest to, she's his family, but that doesn't necessarily mean he romantically loves her. Maybe it's just inner me believing that romantic relationships are overrated, but still,,,

There's another aspect of the matter I want to take into account. If Norman romantically loves Emma, then what are his feelings towards Ray? It's true that Norman is shown thinking a lot more of Emma than to Ray (really, he's thoughts are always like: “Emma... oh and that one other guy - Ray - too ofc”); but between the fact that she's a person he deeply cared about who opposed his plan, that that she's the main character and the story obviously focuses more on her, and that Ray has been pretty much brushed aside the last few arcs, I think we can't take it as an hint of Norman's romantic feelings towards her.

My personal take on Norman's relationship with Ray is that Norman has the same feelings towards Ray than what he has for Emma; they're a trio, and they're ment to be together on all counts.

Tl;Dr: In my opinion, Norman and Emma are linked to an extremely deep bond; but if that bond is also equivalent of love is up to the reader.

But this is again and again only how I like it, more than something based on canon. My thoughts haven't changed much since I first catch up with the manga, that are: they are a trio that works perfectly together, and all of them have amazing chemistry; to take out one member would feel weird, and it would make everything much more unbalanced.

Now, if I support NorEmma as a ship is a different matter. I have friends and people I like in the fandom who ships them, so like... If I support them supporting their ship, I guess I can say I somehow support the ship myself (?). But yeah even though I'd like to say I ship all of the trio members equally, I admittedly ship NorEmma a bit less then the other two pairs. You have to understand... When I first started the series, I was watching this anime that looked very very cool, and all the children seemed great!! But then at the end of the second episode they slapped to my face this 11 y/I who "was in love", when I honestly was so over straight cliché and especially *children* love. It felt like someone had pour a bucket of ice on me and it kinda influenced how I saw the ship for a long time - as in, I really don't want to see them together.

But now I pretty much got over it! I saw lot of fan content that made me consider new aspects of their relationship, and now I guess they're cool, but it's just? I find the other two couples dynamics kinda more intriguing and appealing,,, but it's really just a matter of personal taste. I do generally like the trope of opposites attract you find with NorEmma, but also,, there's a significant lack of communication and understanding between Emma and Norman in the series that makes it hard for me to see them work together. Emma and Ray are often seen confronting their ideas and sharing their troubles and burdens, and it's quite canon that Norman and Ray think very alike so it comes very easy for me to think they would work just fine. But Norman has lied to Emma again and again, and I think they still have to work on communication and trust a lot.

Again, thank you very much Anon for asking!! This got quite long and includes additions from the very day you sent this till today, but it was really fun to reflect on. And thank you for your patience!!!

#It's been more than one month but one thing that still hits me hard:#Anon: refers to my rambles as “analysis”#Me: *crying* thank you #tpn norman #tpn emma #noremma #tpn #the promised neverland #tpn manga spoilers #tpn analysis #mine #Is there going to be anyone who reads all of this anyway #Lol #But it was fun!#If Tumblresses up thw paragraphs order I'm going to throw hands #people asks me stuff

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blurrypetals · 4 years

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A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas - blurrypetals review

originally posted feb. 22, 2021 - ★☆☆☆☆

This is not Sarah J. Maas's worst book, not by a long shot, but it is definitely her least fun, most unnecessary effort, and we're talking about an author who also wrote Tower of Dawn and A Court of Frost and Starlight. I have a terrible, sordid history with Maas. I started off as a fan of Throne of Glass who was then spurned for being a fan of the story and characters she started with and, ever since then, I have never been able to view her as anything more than an amateur stumbling her way through high fantasy concepts, leaving nothing but wreckage in her wake. I really hate what Throne of Glass became and consider it to be a pretty perfect What Not To Do guide as far as writing diverse yet consistent characters, writing a satisfying, sweeping narrative, and many, many other things. This series, however, seemed at first to be a strange outlier. The first three books might be overlong, trite, and have a lot of the same issues with diversity and tryhard feminism as Throne of Glass, but at the very least, they are fun. Despite all their flaws, and despite how much shit I enjoy talking about Sarah J. Maas, the first three books are an okay guilty pleasure. I think they are disgustingly overrated and too many copycats are trying to emulate it, but they're...fine. I think the novella is unnecessary and weird, but it's mostly just fanservice that seemed to wrap up Feyre and Rhysand's story, so even if I didn't like it, it at least was short and fluffy for the most part. I think there were a lot of critical mistakes made with this book, which is a shocker considering just how definitely totally competent our author is! But seriously, past the fact that this book exists at all, the biggest mistake Maas made was putting it in the third person. I think the biggest strength of the original three books was that we were in Feyre's head, experiencing things right alongside her. One nice trick of the first person perspective is that there's a sort of built-in empathy that's sort of difficult to fuck up and it really helped sell Feyre's journey. Here, we are not necessarily far from Nesta and Cassian's heads, so it genuinely confounds me that Maas decided to change that. Why not have an alternating first person POV between the two? I just don't understand. But let's get into the meat of things. What do I mean when I say this book feels unnecessary? Well, not only does it feel a bit like we're picking open a story that felt like it wrapped up pretty nicely, but everything new that does happen feels like a foregone conclusion. It was pretty readily clear from the middle of A Court of Wings and Ruin, perhaps earlier, that Nesta and Cassian are mates. I personally have never been a fan of the whole fated mates thing in this stuff, since it sucks out any semblance of romantic tension out of things, and while I never expect Maas to do the interesting or unexpected thing, it would have been nice to have maybe one couple get together who just got together despite not being mates. That said, it isn't as if the romance would have been made better by that. These two have a little bit of chemistry that isn't so bad, but it's overshadowed by their near constant and frustratingly repetitive fucking. It's actually insane how much unsexy sex is in this book. I mean, there's something to be said for Maas finally ditching the idea that she is at all trying to write for younger readers, but at what cost? Another plot point that carries a lot of the so-called tension in the novel is that of Feyre's pregnancy with her and Rhysand's son, the truly poorly named Nyx. Everyone is certain Feyre is going to die because the baby has wings and her vag is not prepared for it (I wish I was kidding) but this is another thing that feels like a foregone conclusion on arrival because A, we know Sarah J. Maas doesn't have the fucking guts to kill anyone off, let alone her precious Feyre and definitely not Rhys, who also dies if Feyre dies, and B, we already know that their son is going to be okay because of all the business with the Bone Carver. And, other than some business with a crown, a mask, and a harp, the rest of the plot centers around Nesta recovering from her PTSD. I'll begrudgingly admit, her PTSD is actually not poorly written. That said, it is very poorly handled. In the original trilogy, Rhys is upheld as this extremely kind and generous and wonderful dude who helps the broken, has trauma of his own to reckon with, and in this book, he is a fucking cunt. It is legitimately, truly shocking how disgusting and awful he is to Nesta. Yet again, we experience Sarah J. Maas's brand of so-called character development by way of performing a personality transplant that serves the half-assed plot rather than the established character. Now, where have I seen that before? Aelin? Tamlin? Chaol? Nah, can't be. Rhysand isn't the only one who treats Nesta terribly, though, it's the entire inner circle, even her fated mate, of course! The way they all treat this grieving, traumatized, abused woman is utterly sickening, and they all are treated as if they're in the right for it! It's absolutely nuts. Even though I've never cared for Nesta as a character, no one and I mean no one deserves to be treated the way Amren, Rhysand, Mor, and the rest all treat Nesta in this book. I've said this many times before, but I'll repeat what I said in my review for the last Sarah J. Maas book I read, Kingdom of Ash and it's this: Sometimes it is better to be spectacularly, hilariously awful than it is to be utterly boring and leave your reader feeling indifferent and, while this one did make me angry at points, I was mostly just bored and tired. Apathy is the worst feeling you can leave a reader with and this is not the first time Sarah J. Maas has done this to me. I know a lot of people think Sarah J. Maas hung the moon, but I am just so tired, I just do not get it. I once understood what made her books fun, but when she shits out trite excuses for romance and fantasy such as this, I can't understand why anyone could enjoy such a mediocre example of thinly veiled porn as this. Do us all a favor, Sarah, and do better. It's just sad at this point.

#a court of silver flames #a court of thorns and roses #sarah j. maas #2021 #goodreads mirror #blurrypetals

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dracula-in-purple-story · 5 years

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Romantic Idiots

How to confess to your crush(es)?

Option 1 : Do not let your brain and heart clashes together and give you mixed signals. Then confess.

Option 2 : Give him/her/them an Applin or any shiny Pokemons. Then confess.

Advice : Panic if fail.

“Panic if fail? What’s that supposed to mean, Grandpa?” Hop glanced up hesitantly as he finished noting down the old man’s advice. His ex-champion brother nervously clenched around his Charmander plushies.

The grandfather smiled coyly as he went to the kitchen to pour himself a cup of tea while the brothers tried to follow behind him. Their mother chuckled at this silly scene before the grandmother answered for her husband, also smiling coyly.

“Panic as in running away like an idiot. I swear to Arceus, when I was at your age, Leon, your grandpa over there tried to asked me out by throwing a Poke Ball at my window. Poor Appletun dearie got a fright that time and refused to acknowledge him for a decade.”

“Hush, sweetheart.” the blushing old man ruffled his wife’s hair before settling down. “Our daughter-in-law got it worse than you. Am I right, Helen?”

The said woman just sighed blissfully before snorting out loud, almost making the brothers laughed if they weren’t asking for some love advices. Standing up, she shuffled through the living room to picked up her wedding photos and was reminiscing the moment.

“Mom?” the older brother asked gently as to not interrupt the moment.

“Yes, Leon?”

“How did Dad confess? It can’t be worse than Gramps’ attempt.”

“Yeah!” the younger brother butted in while grinning at the offended-looking man, “What was it like? Could it be he try to serenade? Bet he sounds goofy and passed it down to Lee!”

“Hey! I sound amazing, Hopscotch! You are just jealous!”

“Boys,” the mother smiled at her sons’ playful banter. When they finally stopped, she smiled even wilder as she recounted the fateful evening.

“Well, he didn’t serenade, for starters. But he did tried to make an A Capella with Rotoms and Dittos. Never worked out since he first practised it at the Lake of Outrage. The Rotoms snitched on him with the Dittos were making ‘He love You’ letters while I saved his arse.”

“Oof, ouchies.” Hop scrunched up his face jokingly while Leon laughed as he imagined the scenario over and over. They pulled out their own RotomPhones when they were done though.

“You better not snitch on me, dude. I must do this myself.” The ex-champion pleaded with his little bro nodding beside him.

“You got it-Roto! Don’t stutter when you confess-Roto!”

“We make sure to taped you guys so we can see who’s got the worst end of the stick-Roto!”

“ROTOMS, NO!”

The purple-haired brothers panicked as they chased their cackling phones, leaving the amused adults behind.

“I bet two thousand PokeDollars that they would failed terribly and cutely at the same time.”

“No need to bet, Mother. It’s obvious that their ability to confess is still strong in their blood.”

“Rude, ladies. Very rude.”

~~~~~~~~~~

Now back at their shared apartment at Wyndon City, Leon was pacing around. His little bro had already went out to find his crushes. The new chairman wished he had this kind of courage. He wished, just not gonna happen. He and Raihan are just friends with a healthy rivalry of ten years! How is he going to react if he just confess out of the blue?! That’s why he got a perfect plan! Sonia had helped him devised a lot of plans. Plans related to shiny Pokemons were quickly rejected due to him being a natural shiny repellent. Flowers were also a big no, Raihan’s Pokemons tend to gobbled up flowers from his fans. Chocolate was supposed to be part of the plan, but Sonia rejected that idea because it was overrated. So this is the result. Just ask Raihan to go out with him and make sure he knows it’s a date and not a Valentine’s Day hangout. Solid A+ Plan! “Over a phone call? So outdated, Master Lee. Not gonna lie but that’s so last season,” the RotomPhone floats around in front of Leon while showcasing the contact details of his master’s dream man. “I don’t want Raihan to see my face if I ask him face to face! It’s too obvious!” “Ain’t that the plan?” “No!” “Okay, okay! Geez, you humans are so overly complicated. What happen to mating calls? It’s so much easier.” “Shut it, Rotom...” With a heavy sigh, he slouched over the single-seat coach. Maybe it’s a bad plan, but it’s the only foul-proof plan he could ever execute. “Okay,” Leon sat up and slapped both side of his cheeks to concentrate, “I’m ready! All I have to say is ‘Go out with me this evening’!” Snatching RotomPhone from the air, while apologizing, the purple-haired man pressed ‘Call’ with confidence. It rang for a few times before the Dragon Gym Leader picked up with his smooth, husky voice. The voice he should still get used to but still melt every time he heard it. “What’s up, ex-champ? Feeling lonely on Valentines?” Let’s be boyfriends. Leon’s mind went on short circuit for a bit. He didn’t respond for a minute, making the silence unbearable. “Uh, Leon? Are you there?” “LET’S DO BOYFRIENDS’ DATE!” Unfortunately, his mind ended up fusing what he initially going to said and his current thoughts. Freaking out, he ended up the call without hearing the reply. He just screwed up. He managed to screw up the only foul-proof plan. This is not what it should happen and yet, here he was. Leon stomped his way to his bedroom, slammed his door open and threw himself onto the bed in frustration. He really shouldn’t take Option 1. ~~~~~~~~~~ Arriving at the Hammerlocke Gym, Hop quickly strode towards the lift, and quickly slid his access card. He went in but not without getting bumped by Raihan, who never seems to noticed him as the top Gym Leader dashed outside with the biggest grin plastered on his face. Leon succeed, huh... The lab assistant shook his face to focus on his mission. He really put a lot of effort finding these Pokemon after all. Gramps’ advice always worked! Reaching his destination, he walked out slowly towards his so-called Rival Gang. They were grooming and playing with Zacian and Zamazenta. The Legendary Pokemon was really ease up on Victor and Gloria real quick. Hop let out his own Legendary Pokemon partner, Eternatus, scaring the occupant in the room, especially the albino-haired boy. “Hop! You idiot! Are you trying to scare me half to death?!” I wanna smooch you til I melt though. Grinning characteristically, he settled himself down between the girls, who now switched their focus on Eternatus. Victor, the new chairman’s secretary, smiled gently at him as greeting. Arceus, I would love to see your smile everyday, every time. “So, how’s the research coming up, Hop? Having such a rowdy Pokemon like this dragon must have damage the lab a few times.” Marnie smirked at Hop while throwing a Heavy Ball for it to catch. Such a graceful badass. With a super effective smirk. “Natus can shapeshift to a smaller size to roam freely so it’s not a problem,” the lab assistant answered before side-glancing his Legendary partner, “the problem would be giving Sonia a hard time to examine it.” “Typical. Seems like giving you Eternatus is the right choice. After all, I don’t think I can handle two huge responsibilities at the same time. Am I right, Zacian?” Gloria, the newly-crowned champion, winked at the Sword-wielding Warrior Pokemon. Zacian huffed out a pleased grunt, almost indicating it agreed with her. Are you trying to faint me with your adorable wink?! Finding the right time, Hop waited for the opportunity as they talked and played around. Occasionally battling or betting matches, making curry at this unusual location, talking about work. Hop had to thank Arceus when Victor popped the question. “So... today’s Valentines Day, ain’t it? You guys got some confession to make?” Silence taking over the room. Marnie and Bede tried to hide their blush but failed miserably while Gloria was looking embarrassed for once. Hop took a deep breath. “I do.” Shocking his gang again, he took out four Love Balls. Each of them had their unique designs that Hop took the time to do. “It makes me sound crazy but I think... I have a crushes on you guys. Super, duper big ones,” he slowly exclaimed as he handed them each of their own unique Love Balls, which they took it gladly. A good sign. Victor had Sobble with heart-shaped eyes drawing; Gloria had Scorbunny with its ear forming a heart-shaped drawing; Bede had a heart-shaped Solosis drawing; Marnie had Morpeko with heart-shaped cheek pouches drawing. “Hop, I hate you,” the Fairy Type Gym Leader started scowling. While Hop thought he was already damaging their friendship, the blushing albino head also threw him and the others a Love Ball. “You make me look so underprepared that it hurts.” “Me too.” The Dark Type Gym Leader joined in as she too had four Love Balls. “Me three.” The secretary chimed in, also with another four Love Balls. “I’m an idiot,” Gloria was flushed red as she took out four boxes of chocolates. The gang bursted out laughing at their rightfully-called lover. Lovers... that rings nicely to my heart. Our heart.

#One Shot #Valentines Prompts #Pokemon Sword and Shield #TrueRivalShipping #RivalGangShipping #Pokemon Trainer Victor #Pokemon Trainer Gloria #Rival Hop #Rival Marnie #Rival Bede #Champion Leon #Gym Leader Raihan #Zacian #Zamazenta #Eternatus #SWSH

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itszephoria · 4 years

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Saw this pop up and your followers ask you which ones they’re interested in. But people don’t really ask much when I post or they don’t ask the ones that might make you feel uncomfortable. And well, honestly I’m so bored that I’ve decided to break all the damn rules and just answer all the questions because I can. *shock horror*

So information dump on the ‘Be nosy’ that popped up in my feed today. If you’re interested.

Be nosy

1. What’s your sexual orientation?

Straight. But maybe for the right woman I could sway but wouldn’t go so far as to call myself bi or bi-curious though.

2. What are you obsessed with right now?

Obsessively obsessing about my health and how to get well and failing it all. Oh and anime movies on Netflix.

3. Ever done any drugs?

I do drugs everyday. But I assume this is referring to illegal. No and was strictly no up until recently. I now take marijuana oil on a regular basis for pain management. Also being stoned/high is not pleasant and I don’t understand why people would enjoy that as a leisurely pastime.

4. What piercings do you want?

I want to get my ears pierced again. Holes have closed up, but currently due to my health that’s not possible. I can’t even enjoy clipons :(

5. How many people have you kissed?

The massive number of 5.

6. Describe your dream home.

It’s tiny in the sense it has all the space I need. A cosy tiny-like home. But not one on wheels, fixed to the ground. And it would be made of all natural materials, stone and wood. It would be unique and resemble something out of a fairy tale. It would sit a beautiful clearing with only nature to view in the distance and all the animals and wildlife would stay well away because I’m pretty much terrified of all it,

7. Who are you jealous of?

Healthy, painfree people. I am jealous of past me who didn’t realise how lucky she was and miss her.

8. What’s your favorite show to binge?

I don’t binge any show on repeat. I’d rather look for a new show to watch or enjoy, there are so many. The last shows I binged in two days was Queen’s Gambit and Emily in Paris.

9. Do you watch porn?

Yep. But struggle with it because it’s overdramatic, unrealistic and would kill or someone to make porn with a decent storyline with people that can act.

I prefer to read it if I’m honest or maybe just write it for myself.

10. Do you have a secret sideblog?

Sort of? More like my other one I used I was known for all my slash writings in F1. But now I just hang out here.

11. If you could teleport anywhere in the world right now, where would you go?

No where. The world is riddled with co-vid and well, I’m probably in one of the safest countries and I’m at risk of death should I catch it. So I’ll stay here in my safe bubble.

12. What’s one of your fantasies?

I wake up tomorrow and I’m not me. I wake up and I can take a deep breath without gasping for air, I wake up in no pain, I wake up and my body isn’t terribly scared, I wake up and can have a ‘normal’ life.

13. Do you have/would you get your nipples pierced?

Nope and no desire too. Won’t that just hurt?

14. How would you spend a million dollars?

I’d by that dream house I described, set everything up to be self sufficient. Pay and travel to try every cure available for my diseases. And then bank the rest and live off interest. Or maybe donate it. I don’t want money and I don’t really want a lot of things.

15. Are you in a relationship?

Yep and it’s a struggle and am constantly fighting to prove it’s worth continuing. Oh and that’s a relationship with myself.

16. Do you follow porn blogs?

No.

17. Are you angry with anyone right now?

No, I suppose it’s more disappointed and let down by people more than angry. I’m working everyday on letting it go but it’s not easy.

18. What tattoos do you want?

I have always wanted one, but have never found something that I really loved and haven’t been imaginative enough to create something unique. The older I get though, I’m not sure I want one. I did for the longest time though think about getting a Ferrari tattooed on my inner wrist, but pleased I never did that. I don’t love the sport or Ferrari enough anymore to want a permanent reminder of that.

19. If you could change your name, would you? What would you change it to?

I am changing name actually. Hoping to action that in the next two weeks. I would have done it earlier but they closed the borders. I have a dutch sir name that has two words. It confuses every one, systems don’t get it, it has caused issues with plane tickets. And well I’ve decided no more and am dumping a portion of it.

20. What is something you’re obsessed with?

This is a duplicate. Skipping.

21. Describe your best friend.

When you meet her for the first time she can be a little crazy and wild, and she kind of scared at me first because she’s so unlike me. But as you got to know her, the *real* her she doesn’t let people see, you realise how kind and soft she is, and she’s the most empathic person I have known. She gives so much of herself to everyone, thinks so little of herself and her needs because she’s one of the most selfless people I know. I love her more than most of my family and would do anything for her.

22. Tag someone you think is hot.

Is this followers? Uh most I don’t know what they look like? I assume they’re all hot!

23. Who are five of your favorite bands/musical artists?

Don’t have any really. My music is varied and is based on my mood and really changes around. And with most bands, I generally lean towards one or two songs. This is one of those questions I really struggle with whenever I see it. Will say however, have been enjoying The Beatles recently and a bit of old school stuff.

24. What are three places you want to travel?

Japan. Norway. Canada.

25. Describe your perfect Friday night.

Generally hanging out with people I like. Enjoying a good wine, some cheese, either playing some board game or dungeons and dragons, or watching a really good movie. Good company makes any night a good night.

26. What’s your favorite season?

Autumn. One because I think it’s neglected as a choice and every season should be loved, and two because I love the colours of autumn and the colours associated with autumn.

27. What’s your pet peeve?

I’m sure I have a heap of them, but currently it’s people that have an issue with you and instead of being an adult and talking to you about them choose to silence and blank you. I’m so tired of it, I’ve quit being peacemaker in those situations, those people are no longer worthy in my book.

28. Who is the funniest person you know?

Uh... I don’t think anyone I know is super funny. Friends and family all have a good sense of humor. But out of my circle of life people I’m always told I’m the funny one, which I find the biggest joke ever.

29. What’s the most overrated movie?

Can not think of anything off the top of my head. I will say if I think a movie is getting too much hype I refuse to watch it, whether all the reviews are raving or not. It’s why I didn’t watch Harry Potter for like ten years or any of the new Star Wars movies. I just refuse to be apart of all the hype and jump on bandwagons.

30. Tag someone you want to talk to but have been too shy to message.

I’d love to talk to everyone. I’m shy to start any conversations to be honest and I think all the people I talk to regularly were the first to message me, and I love them for it.

31. Do you like paper books or ebooks better?

100% love an old fashioned paper book. The texture of the paper. The smell of a book. That being said, I don’t think I’ve picked up a proper book to read in years. I live in fan fiction more than anything or am busy writing myself.

32. If you could live in a fictional world, what world would you pick?

Any of the disney worlds, anything from the past, or verging on fantasy like. I want a simpler time not full of technology which I grow to hate more each day. The older I get the more I’m pretty sure I’ve been born in the wrong decade.

33. If money was no object, what would your wardrobe be like?

I’d build the perfect wardrobe capsule. Everything would be of high quality, not necessarily brand name and all the clothes would be sourced from ethical businesses or be handmade.

I like classic pieces, love the fashion of the 50′s and 60s and while stylish it would be comfortable to wear and everything could be worn in public (sorry comfy tracky pants).

34. What’s your coffee order?

There ain’t no coffee order. I don’t drink it. Sorry @leoni-speedyf1 I know how addicted you are to it, happy to buy you anything you like though :P

35. Do you have a crush on anyone?

In real life? No one.

36. Do you still have feelings for any of your exes?

Not romantic. I have feelings in that I hope they’re doing well, achieving what they want and they’re all happy. I didn’t have any ‘bad’ breakups and all my relationships ended very amicably.

37. Have any tattoos?

No. See above for more on this.

38. Do you drink?

Rarely. Can’t with medication and condition. But on occasion I do enjoy a good glass of red. Pinot Noir is my preference.

39. Are you a virgin?

Nope.

40. Do you have a crush on any of your mutuals?

Not in a romantic way? The ones I talk to regularly I love immensely though.

41. How many followers do you have?

42. Describe the hottest person you know.

Uh all the men I know I am not attracted to. Probably a good thing as they’re either family or partnered with a friend or family member.

43. What’s your guilty pleasure?

Can’t think of anything. I try not to feel guilt for anything I enjoy to be honest, whether it’s food or an activity. Life is too short for that.

44. Do you read erotica?

Yep. Even write it.

45. What’s the worst date you’ve ever been on?

It was a few years back. I met this guy online and we went to the city and spent most of that time just strolling next to the river for our first meet up. Why was it the worst date ever? Well it wasn’t the location that’s for sure.

The guy had two kids, and I’m a firm believer all parents have favourites, though I have yet to meet a parent that will voice that aloud. This guy, had no qualms with telling me about this favourite kid, and that wouldn’t be a problem if didn’t spend just as much putting down his younger son. It kind of left me reeling and wondering how his son felt if his dad didn’t hide just how much he didn’t like him as a person. The kid was four and the reason his dad didn’t like him was because he didn’t like bikes.

And so the guy was a bmx rider so he spent the rest of the time on our walk just pointing out all the tricks he could do. He didn’t ask about me, only talked about himself. It was also lunch time and assumed we would get something to eat together, but nope, no food was offered. And when I suggested to get something to drink because it was so hot and we’d been out in the sun for like an hour, he just took me to a subway and told me to get a drink and waved me to the line. No offer to join me, no offer to pay (which doesn’t bother me btw, but this was capping off a terrible day), no offer to get food.

I was so happy to get out of there. Didn’t speak to him again once I had left.

46. How many people do you follow?

I currently follow 59 people. I don’t follow anyone that creates drama, and try and follow only people that post about F1 as that’s all I use tumblr for now.

47. If you could marry any celebrity, who would you pick?

Either Sebastian Vettel or Ryan Reynolds. Both are married though, so I don’t think that’s going to turn into a reality anytime soon.

48. Describe your ideal partner.

I want someone that shares the same core values as me. Doesn’t want kids, isn’t super religious (grew up in a cult like religion so I avoid it now), is on the minimalist side and isn’t someone that needs new things things all the time or is desperate to replace something the moment they deem it out of date. Someone that doesn’t live their life on social media. Someone that prefers simple things, someone who is kind and giving, and someone that truly loves me - and it’s the last part that I struggle with finding more than anything with all the guys I have dated.

I am currently not looking for a partner, I am not in a place for a relationship and am fully focused on myself. And I am very content with that decision.

49. Who do you text the most?

Currently my bestie.

50. What’s your favorite kind of weather?

Clear blue skies and a warm day to enjoy the sun. But there are times when I simply love the rain, hearing it on the room, watching it fall endlessly and knowing that everything will be green from it.

#all about me #long read #tried to be open and honest

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lizziestudieshistory · 4 years

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Books of 2020 - March

Enforced isolation made me read a lot... Here are the 10 books I read!

The Way of Kings - Brandon Sanderson (The Stormlight Archive #1) We all know I adore this series - I reread it every year after all. This time I read it to annotate the text and do a proper deep-dive into the world Sanderson is creating in preparation for Rythmn of War coming out later this year.

The Binding - Bridget Collins I still don’t know how I feel about Collins’ book. It’s a historical fiction novel with a subtle hint of magical realism through the concept of Binding - using some form of magic (I’m not entirely sure how) to turn real memories into books. This concept is what made me and my uni friends buddy read this novel in the first place; it sounds fascinating, especially to bookish people like we us! However, this book is not really about book binding - it’s a love story between Emmett Farmer and Lucian Darnay.

If I’m honest the part two, which covered the original courtship of Lucian and Emmett, was the most interesting section of the novel. I thought their relationship was a bit cringey (as befits teenagers) and incredibly sweet. The romance made the novel. But it wasn’t the book we signed up for. I was expecting a book about the secrets about Binding - maybe a bit of a thriller/mystery but with beautiful writing and an ethereal setting? I was definitely expecting more information about Binding. Instead we got a angsty romance, endless cutting and gluing of endpapers for books and ONE scene of Emmett book binding that didn’t tell us what the process actually is.

For what the book actually is, which is an angsty gay romance in a very subtly magical alternate ‘Victorian’ society, it’s a decent book. If I’d known this I probably would have read it and considered it a lovely cutesy read. However, it’s not the book I was sold and it left me disappointed. I’d recommend giving it a shot, but it’s not a book I would necessarily read again...

The Scarlet Pimpernel - Baroness Orcsy This was a ridiculous, over the top, and melodramatic classic adventure story. I had so much fun reading this! The Scarlet Pimpernel is a mysterious English aristocrat who, with his band of devoted fellow gentlement, travels to France during the height of the Revolution to rescue innocent French nobles from the guillotine. However, the French are at their wits end and Chauvelin blackmails the ‘cleverest woman in Europe’, darling of English society, and French wife of Sir Percy Blakeney, Lady Marguerite Blakeney, to find out the indentity of the Scarlet Pimpernel.

From there we go on a wonderfully melodramatic romp through 18th century England and France, and watch as Marguerite tries to save the Scarlet Pimpernel. It’s a silly, over the top, novel in a similar style to The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo. I’d highly recommend it as an entry into classic literature - or just as a ridiculous fun story!

Reticence - Gail Carriger (The Custard Protocol #4) My last full length parasolverse novel was A LOT of fun. I adored Percy and Arsenic’s slightly cringey but incredibly sweet romance bloom, alongisde the exploration of the supernatural in Carriger’s version of 1890′s Japan. The Custard Protocol was my least favourite of Carriger’s three main series (plotwise at least) but Reticence was a beautiful homage to the entire parasolverse! I adored the cameos (or just the entire wedding scene, let’s face it!), silly humour, and Percy’s happy ending.

My small niggle with this novel was the plot. As with the rest of the Custard Protocol novels I felt the plot wasn’t spectacular. It was a bit thin on the ground, particularly in the first half... This series is about character, and I love all the characters, but I wanted a little bit more from all of the novels. I wanted to see a bit more of each country (and spend a little bit less time on the Spotted Custard whilst travelling through the grey...) Nevertheless, I think Reticence was the strongest of the four Custard novels and I really loved it. Carriger’s world is my comfort blanket, it makes me smile, and I adore the world she’s created - and for that I will be forever grateful to Miss Gail!

Poison or Protect - Gail Carriger (Delightfully Deadly Novellas #1) This novella was a lot darker than I was expecting from Carriger. The plot and on-screen action was just a silly and entertaining as I was expecting (Preshea goes to a house party to prevent the assassination of the Duke of Snodgrove, and stop his daughter marrying a gold digger, whilst falling in love with a dashing Scottish captain.) However, Preshea’s backstory was much darker than we usually see in the parasolverse, the only comparable one I can think of off the top of my head is Rodrigo’s abuse from the Templars! She suffered through years of abuse and neglect at the hands of her father and husbands, leaving her damaged and shying away from all relationships.

The actual romance in Poison or Protect left me a little but underwhelmed. Gavin was actually what I was expecting from Connal Maccon in the Parasol Protectorate, and I’m much more on board with his ‘gentle-giant’ style romance with Preshea. I’m personally not a huge fan of the stereotypical kilt-wearing, enormous Scottish bloke... Just not my thing...but good for Preshea if she likes that! I just wasn’t that invested.

Personally, I would have loved Preshea’s book to revolve a bit more on her relationships with women, not romantically (she has never read as bi or a lesbian) but platonically. In the Finishing School Preshea held herself aloof from the girls around her, never really having a proper friend or friendship group. Instead she was like a vampire queen surrounded by her hive - beautiful, deadly, and set above everyone around her. Preshea herself comments on it in the book! Because of this I would’ve really loved the novella to focus on Preshea learning to be friends with other women, not see them as enemies or competition, and maybe getting her man on the side. We did get this growth as a sub-plot with Lady Flo and Mis Pagril, but I think it was more important for Preshea with her Finishing School background and the abuse she suffered to find herself with other women before jumping into bed with husband number 5...

The Wilful Princess and the Piebald Prince - Robin Hobb (Realm of the Elderlings) This was a fun little novella that expanded the backstory of the Six Duchies and explained why the Witted and Wit magic are so feared in the Farseer and Tawny Man Trilogies. It’s not Hobb’s finest work, but it did flesh out the history of the Six Duchies a little bit more. The story isn’t incredibly important to the main series but I’d highly recommend for fans of Hobb’s Realm of the Elderlings and it’s best to read the tale either before of after the Tawny Man Trilogy.

Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert A disappointing classic. Madame Bovary is supposed to be selacious and scandelous. I found it tedious and irritating. Emma Bovary was one of the most uncompelling heroines I’ve read outside of Dickens - she was a selfish snob, with no redeeming characteristics for the reader to latch onto. She’s adored by her husband, but bored in her marraige because Charles is only a middle class, mediocre doctor... She is manipulated by the men around her (both lovers and the guy who lends her money, I can’t remember his name) but is also incredibly stupid in her decisions, particularly around money and her last fateful decision at the end of the book.

The language (both French and my English translation) was dry, and the pacing was off. Important parts of the novel went by in a whirl, but then there were long stretches where almost nothing happens. I’ve read similar novels that were much better with similar themes, plotlines, and much more interesting characters. I am glad I’ve read it but Madame Bovary is not a book I would read again, nor would I recommend it unless you want to cross it off your list of classics.

Winter’s Heart, Crossroads of Twilight, and Knife of Dreams - Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time #9, 10, 11) This post is incredibly long and I’ve spoken about this series at length already so I don’t really have any new criticisms to rasise. However I am slowly making my way through the rest of the Wheel of Time and I’ve now reached the end of the books solely written by Robert Jordan himself. Winter’s Heart and Crossroads of Twilight really were the height of the slump, however, I did manage to read through them both quite quickly with the amount of time I have at the moment. Both books were quite slow but had hugely important moments in them for the entire series.

Knife of Dreams was a return to form for Jordan before he died and we got the resolution to several tedious plotlines that had been running through the last few books (Perrin and Faile, Mat in Ebudar, Egwene travelling to the White Tower.) Personally, I loved Elayne’s struggle to claim the Lion Throne, however, this is one of the plotlines people tend to dislike and it had a particularly satisfying conclusion at the end of KoD. I’m incredibly excited to the series conclusion that I can see coming and I can’t wait to jump into the installments written by Brandon Sanderson in April!

Currently Reading

I’m still working through Fellowship and the Companion... It’s fallen by the wayside slightly but I am still working through it.

A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens This is my buddy read book for March/April, but it’s also a reread for me (as we know from my turbulent relationship with this book from 2019) We have just finished Book 2 Chapter 5.

The Priory of the Orange Tree - Samantha Shannon I’m not a huge fan of this book so far, however, I don’t hate it. I think the plot and world building is quite shallow (circa. 200 pages in anway), and the writing makes me feel like I’m watching the characters through a glass screen. Hopefully it will pick up a bit, but at the moment I think it’s overrated. (I don’t think it’s helping I’ve been reading a lot of brilliant epic fantasy at the moment...)

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elejahfanfic · 5 years

Text

Fanfiction

Love from the shadows

Part 2

The Originals AU story

Elijah Mikaelson x Camille O'Connell (Camilijah)

a/n: Elijah and Camille are friends and colleagues. She has a crush on him, but keeps it to herself, as Elijah is known to be quite the ladies man.

Anyway - it's a little something - I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for reading. 😀📖💕🎈

💕🎉

Morning found Camille, waking up next to Marcel, which made her freak out a bit as she realized what had happened. A Tequila shot too many. Never again. She thought as she now sneaked out of the bed and disappeared in the bathroom to get dressed.

Getting out of it in a little while, she was met by Marcell smiling with a charming smirk on, "Morning, beautiful."

"Hey" Camille said with a little gulping smile, "I - uhm- this is just one of those things, right? Not that it wasn't good -"

"Relax - yeah." Marcel said.

"Ok. Ahm - I got to go. Later."

"Later." Marcel said as Camille rushed out of the apartment.

Camille hated that she let herself gothat way. She was a girl, who loved the romantic dates. Dreamt of a big white wedding. Dreamt of Elijah. Even though she knew he was not into serious relationships. She knew his track record. Aya, Celeste, Sabine, Antoinette, Gia, to name but a few, and now Hayley, one of her bffs.

But was Elijah such womanizer, really? Or has he not found the one?

In Elijah's apartment

Hayley woke up finding the bed empty. There was a note, saying 'Great night.E.'

She also found a tray of breakfast with a flower in a little vase.

'You got style, I give you that" Hayley muttered taking the bagel, "No wonder Cami is so into you."

Elsewhere

"How are things?" Klaus said as Elijah picked up the phone.

"Fine - you? How is Paris?"

"Pretty great. So, are you coming for my birthday?"

"I certainly am. I've already booked a flight. Kol tells me you have gone into crazy mode with the party plans."

"Well, it's my 40th and I just want to splash out." Klaus said.

"And so you should. Right. I got to go. I will see you soon." Klaus said and hung up.

Finishing his coffee, Elijah went up to the window, flashing back to his conversation with his sister the other day.

Flashback

"I met Kol's girlfriend. She is so amazing and he is so wrapped up in her. I haven't seen him so in love like - actually never. It's cute. And talking about love and falling in love - it's Valentine's in a few days - I guess you will end up taking someone home - hook up - seriously, don't you think that it's about time you unfroze your heart? "

"Bex, please -" Elijah took a deep silent breath,"Love is overrated."

"You don't really believe that -" Rebekah continued, but her brother changed the subject of love and his heart to the upcoming trip to Paris.

Years back, in a church in Chicago, Elijah waited at the altar. The woman he was about to marry left him jilted. Breaking his heart. He vowed not fall for anyone again. Ever.

Putting his thoughs away, he returned to the daily tasks.

🎬

Camille pushed the one night stand with Marcel away in a box of crazy mistakes, and same as Elijah went into the working mode.

And as times progressed, working alongside him, seeing him hooking up with Hayley on a regular basis took its toll.

One evening as Davina and her met for a girly night out she splattered the big news to her friend.

"I was approached by a Firm from Boston and I decided I will take the job."

"You are not serious?" Davina looked at her friend a tad bit wide-eyed.

"I am" Camille huffed. "I need to get away - forget about Elijah - working next to him, seeing him every day and knowing that he will always be a player - it's a living Hell. "

"Well - I hate to see you go, but I get it. To get him out of your system, you need to move - but can you not go and work for another Firm here?"

"I will still see him. We have the same friends... you know" Camille explained l.

"I know" Davina said, giving her friend a warm comforting hug.

Not long after, Camille left, because loving someone from the shadows just was something her heart couldn't handle anymore.

🎇

Six months later

Camille walked in Rousseau's, and her eyes set on Elijah, who now waved at the blonde a little, somewhat surprised to see her there.

"What are you doing here?"

"Hey - I am here for the wedding. I am meeting Davina. You? How are you? I hear you have made partner?! Congratulations."

"Yes. Thank you. A drink?"

"Yeah."

"Beer?" Elijah suggested.

"Yes. Thanks."

"So, how are things in Boston?" Elijah now asked, "I still don't get how you just took off, not that I blame you. Fish&Cage are a good firm."

"The offer was too good to pass. Sorry that I left you in the learch - So, how have you been?" Camille said taking seat.

"Fine. Tell me about you and Boston? I bet you are Boston Celtics fan now. "

"No. I am still very much a Pelicans fan. Die hard, don't you know?"

"Yeah - I didn't forget it. You and Kaleb and Marcel were crazy when they played in the finals. Never seen someone so passionate about a game."

"Well, I got tickets. Wanna come?" Elijah said.

"What? You usually go with Klaus?"

"Ah, he is away with his new girfriend."

"Klaus has a girfriend?"

"Yes. Caroline Forbes."

"The Caroline Forbes?" Camille was surprised.

"Yep." Elijah took a swag of his beer. "He is thinking of proposing."

"What? OMG! I never thought that I would hear this. He found the one."

"He found the one."

"And you?" Camille now asked feeling her stomach knotting.

"Me? No. You?"

"No. Haven't found the one yet." Camille said, turning to Davina, who greet them," But, she's found the one, in Junior High already."

The women now hugged, and as Davina ordered a drink they went off to a table to talk wedding stuff. Elijah had his office colleagues arrive and he now chatred away with them.

And during the talk with Davina, Camille could not help herself but sway to look at Elijah a few times.

"You're still into him?" Davina now asked.

"What? Who? Me?" Camille said innocently.

"Yeah, you Cami!" Davina exclaimed.

"Ok. Yeah. Huh. He is still so hot. Damn." Camille said.

"Hot. And a total womanizer. Don't go there."

"I am not. I hear Hayley still hooks up with him."

"Yeah. We had a huge argument, just yesterday. She was with Jackson, too. And he is such a good guy. He didn't deserved this." Davina said.

"Ok. Let's talk bridesmaid's dresses." Camille now said to change the subject.

But, despite Camille's better judgment and all the alarms going off in her head to stay away from Elijah, she ended up accepting to go to the game.

Days after, after the game they ended up in a bar, later, celebrating the win.

"This was such a great game." Camille was still in a full on cheering mode.

"I agree. It really was. I had great fun. So, Tequila?"

"Yeah. But just one. I'll have a beer." Camille said.

As the clinked with the glasses for the win, they both downed the drink.

As a song came up on the karaoke at one moment, made Elijah suddenly grab Camille's hand getting her to the small dance area.

Swaying to the music, they joked a little about it as they now remembered the time they did a karaoke thing while they were working on a case.

"I was actually amazed that you could sing" Camille said.

"You were not bad yourself"

"Oh, please - I was so out of tune. Did you not see everyone's faces - they were silently begging me to stop"

"You just needed practice" Elijah chuckled.

"I will stick to the law - I am much better at that."

"I second that" Elijah said, and pushed her gently out into a twirl. As he pulled her back, she was flush against him. Both stopped still and looked at one another. Camille sucked a heavy breath in.

They were staring into each other’s eyes. Elijah's full lips were only inches from hers. She could feel his warm breath brushing over her skin. She had imagined standing like this with him so many times, and every one of those times, he had kissed her.

And then, it suddenly was better than any dream. His head now lowered toward hers, and his lips found hers.

His kiss, his lips firm, his tongue gentle. The shoulders under his hands went rigid with restraint, a vibration of control suddenly crept up as she kept herself in check, halting the kiss, levering back. Desire and apology cut hard lines into his face as he beamed down at her.

Tequila that was coursing strongly through her veins, hitting her head, muted the voices that were shouting, telling her this was not a good idea.

But then, overriding them, swiftly as the cat she shot both her hands in his hair, yanking his mouth to hers down. Wild, nearly desperate, she slid her tongue inside, pressing her entire body along his length.

#camilijah #elijah mikaelson #camille o'connell #fanfiction #the originals fanfiction

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