#let’s pretend it’s august 😁

[saturngalore]

CRUSH ON YOU 🌈

[shy-urban-hobbit]

Am I writing birthday fluff because it's my own birthday? Maybe 😁

Lambert/Aiden

pre-slash/platonic

"Birthday tradition." Aiden answered with a shrug as he popped another piece into his mouth before offering to Lambert as they sat in the shade and out of the summer heat. It wasn't unusual to see Aiden with sweet things but his tastes usually ran to anything and everything fruit based, not plain, unadorned honey cake. Which is what had prompted Lambert to ask about it in the first place.

"My mother. We had jack shit when I was a kid, but I remember she'd always surprise me with a honey cake on my birthday." He smiled softly at the warm memory, "It became a bit of a tradition also that I'd pretend I had no idea what it was she was hiding behind her back and try and guess the most outlandish shit I could come up with. Had to find substitutes after I got taken to the Caravan but as soon as I was walking the path and free to come and go." He gestured to the remaining sliver sat between them.

"You've never mentioned before it's your birthday today."

Aiden laughed, spraying crumbs, "Well it's the first year you've actually been with me for it, so it's never been worth mentioning before now. What about yours, since we're on the subject?

Lambert felt the slight jealousy that had manifested at Aiden's story morph into something a little harder as he stared straight ahead at a rather unfortunate squirrel which now found itself on the receiving end of a Witcher's scowl.

"Ah. Forget I asked."

Lambert shrugged as he leaned back on his hands, "Eh. I'm not the first one who doesn't know and I'm not gonna be the last. Half the other boys at Kaer Morhen had no fucking idea about theirs either, same with the caravan I bet." He grabbed up the last piece of cake and swallowed it without tasting before continuing, "Some of 'em who were a bit more sentimental about it would pick a significant date and use that, but that wasn't for me." Why would it be when everything significant or monumental in his long life so far was a day he'd rather forget: the day he got dragged to Kaer Morhen, the day he lost Voltehre, the day he survived The Grasses....all days he still sometimes had nightmares about.

"Well. Be sure to let me know if that ever changes."

"Hmm."

Aiden yawned as Lambert shook him awake for his turn on watch. Usually they wouldn't bother with such things with their enhanced senses but considering they were experiencing an unusually high number of contracts right now they didn't want to tempt fate by being complacent.

"Anything?" He asked

Lambert shook his head, "All quiet apart from a nosey badger."

Aiden gave him a pat on the shoulder as he moved to take Lambert's place against the trunk of a huge oak tree.

"August 9th."

"What?"

"My birthday. Let's just say it's August 9th."

Aiden couldn't help his smirk, "Isn't that the date-"

"The date some arsehole Cat stole half of my contract three years ago and then refused to leave me the fuck alone? Yeah. Don't read too much into it."

"Whatever you say, Lambert. Whatever you say." Aiden replied, settling against the trunk and trying to figure out what sweet treat Lambert would like best for his upcoming birthday.

[ahufflepuffhobbit]

Yay Robyn! 😁 Happy to see you on my dash again. So what about 4+H? 👀

All I can think about is a fight scene, which I think is the most cliched, but here we go! I changed the dialogue prompt a tiny bit, but I'm sure you won't mind :)

Send me some august mashups!

A Poorly Timed Confession

For some reason, Bilbo was still in the midst of the battle. Gandalf had long since gone off towards Dale to find out more of what was happening, and he had tried to get Bilbo to go with him, but... Well, Bilbo couldn't. Thorin and the others were still inside the mountain, and he needed to try again to get Thorin to see reason. Even if it meant that his dwarf would kill him.

With his ring on, he slipped between orcs, elves, and dwarrow alike, though he had more close calls than he would have liked. The massive gates were in sight, and he knew that his rope was still at the base of it. He wasn't relishing the idea of climbing up the face of it for the second time in less than a day, but he would do it.

He had made it through the worst of the fighting when the gate burst forward. It was lucky that Bilbo was invisible, because he froze and just stared as the gate crumbled. Coming out from it, he could see the Company, and Thorin... Thorin was leading them. His Thorin. No crazed gold-lust was in his eyes - Bilbo couldn't see a lick of gold on him at all!

Bilbo ran forward with a grin on his face and tore his ring off when he was halfway. He saw Thorin do a double take as he appeared, but then Bilbo had met up with them and then ran along with them, back into the battle. He was immediately put in the center of the Company, so he was only dealing with the orcs that managed to get past his friends, which was not many.

Thorin was a sight. He was beautiful and deadly, and Bilbo couldn't wipe the smile off his own face for anything. Even as he managed to stab an orc, he couldn't help but let out a breathless laugh as Thorin let out a cheer in front of him. Their eyes met, and Bilbo wanted to say how proud he was of Thorin, how happy he was, how light he was. What came out was, "I love you."

Even if it wasn't what he meant to say, he didn't take it back, and let himself enjoy the stunned look on Thorin's face for a moment before he went after another orc. It only took Thorin another second to come back into the fight. Bilbo honestly can't remember anything else that happened. His entire focus was on having Thorin fight side by side with him, their eyes constantly meeting each other's over all the gore.

At some point, the ground shook, Beorn arrived, Azog was killed by Dale on Ravenhill while the Company handled the main battle on the field.

And then it was over.

As soon as there were no more orcs within sight of them, Thorin wrapped Bilbo in his arms. He could feel Thorin's lips against the hollow of his throat, but he didn't make a move to bring his lips closer to where Bilbo wanted them. "I love you," Thorin breathed. "I am... ashamed. Can we forget that any of this happened?"

Bilbo's arms tightened around Thorin's waist. Part of him wanted to agree, to just forget the mountain and it's cursed gold entirely. To just pretend. Bilbo let out a sigh. "No," he said with a small shake of his head. Thorin tensed in his arms, but Bilbo wouldn't let him go. He turned his head towards the dwarf, so his lips brushed against a bearded cheek as he spoke. "We can only move forward, together, with everything we know now. I love you, Thorin, and we will get past this together."

All at once, Thorin relaxed and finally turned his head towards Bilbo's. "Aye, we can do that," Thorin replied before he brushed his lips over Bilbo's tentatively.

[truthundressing]

I live in the US and ever since I read angus thongs and perfect snogging in middle school I’ve wanted to understand how British school works. I think we can exchange some information here 🤣 ok so in the US it’s like this: every year you’re in a “grade”, and the school year starts in late August or early September and ends in late May or early June, with a two week break around Christmas that they try to pretend is secular. The first “grade” is “Kindergarten” which you typically start at age 5, so usually everyone is having the same birthday over the course of the school year, but not everyone’s birthday falls just so, and some people skip or repeat grades. After Kindergarten the grades go up like normal i.e. “first grade” “second grade” etc. and the grades are divided up into “schools”. There’s usually elementary (K-5), middle (6-8), and high (9-12) school, but a lot of places alter the delineations or add more. For example, I had intermediate school (5-6), middle school (7-8), junior high (9-10), and high school (11-12) but that’s a bit ridiculous. Then once you graduate 12th grade, you get your high school diploma, and you can go to what we call college at that point, which is “higher education”. There are requirements to “get in” to college, and it costs money to attend. You usually have to take some racist tests and get good scores and send your scores off with applications to colleges and pray that you get accepted by a college that doesn’t cost a million dollars an hour. You are required by law to go to grade school (K-12) but if you drop out you can take a test called the GED to prove you Know Enough and it’s the equivalent of a high school diploma but you don’t have to suffer in actual high school. So how does British school work? I’m thrilled to find out wtf gcse means 🤩 lmao <3

ohhhhh my god ok yes !! lets exchange!!this makes so much sense but i still have so many questions skdjsk i have 2 american cousins so i feel like i should know way more than i do😭😭.

so with the classes you take, how does that work do you just get to choose as many as you want or do you have required classes? and what is an AP class, like is it more advanced? and do ppl take them to help with college applications or smthn? also (sorry im just so curious😭) what is a gpa? like... i have never understood how that works or why its needed lmao.

ok so with english schools we have 'years' but you start at age 4 in reception in primary school. After reception you start year 1, 2 etc and primary school is reception to year 6 (age 4-11). Then in year 6 (age 11) you take these exams called SATs (for maths, english comprehension and english grammar/spelling) which are to help determine your grade targets once you start secondary school, but also if you apply to private secondary schools or even some public schools getting good SATs results helps you get in.

So then secondary school is age 11 to 16 or 18 (depending lmao its a bit complicated). At 16 you do GCSE's which are exams to help you get into sixth form or college (not equivalent to college in the US). At 14 you can choose the subjects you want to take for GCSE's which again is based on your targets. So for example everyone has to take english, maths and at least one science but i had quite high targets so had to follow the baccalaureate where i was required to take all three sciences, a language and either geography or history but then could also choose 2 others (i took food technology and computer science😁). Then you study just those subjects for the next two years, with the exception of P.E. and R.E (religious education🙄) which everyone has to take up to age 16 but you don't have to take the exam for.

Phew ok😅then at 16 you go to sixth form or college. Sixth form is either its own building or part of a secondary school and you have to take either A-levels or BTECs, both are qualifications but you need A-levels to get into university. BTEC's are more career focused i believe, so things like engineering, construction, media, IT etc. A-levels are basically just your usual schools subjects and you can take 3 (sometimes 4) and then when you apply to uni they have specific requirements. Like if you want to study medicine you need an alevel in biology and chemistry for example. Then colleges are only for 16-18yr olds, they offer courses that are again more career focused, for example by 17yr old brother is in college atm doing photography.

The school year is pretty similar here i think, we have a 6 week summer holiday, 2 weeks at christmas and 2 at easter but we also have half-terms which is basically a week off in the middle of each term (so in october, february and may/june). University is completely different though bc we dont get the half-terms :(

I thinkkkkk thats everything😅honestly who decided to make its so comlplex skdjsksl and i didnt even get into the types of schools like private/religious etc😅😅

ALSO angus, thongs and perfect snogging is an iconic read😌

[insomniactalks]

Hi there! Just to start, I want you and all Rinas to know that it's perfectly fine to engage with anything I may post in the Rina tag, even if you disagree! If I show up in your tag, it's only fair you get to engage too. 😊

The theory for EJ being the one to deliver the chocolates was pretty popular on Twitter and Tumblr after 2.11 aired, I think maybe back in July or August? The Ricky delivering the chocolates theory is more recent I believe. Both theories just gained traction at different times in the fandom. 🤷🏽‍♀️

You're right in that by 2.03, Gina felt like Ricky was the only one who would understand what she was going through (given their complicated relationships with their moms and being so far away from them). So she feels more comfortable talking to him at this point in her arc. It's a totally plausible theory that maybe Ricky called/texted Gina's mom and that's how she remembers to give her daughter a Valentine's Day gift. I just don't think it's likely that Ricky would have Terri's contact information, but it's possible. It's true that Terri coulda asked Ashlyn to help her, but I think you're forgetting she had plans with Big Red that day at Slices. The next logical step for Terri would be to contact EJ because he's Ashlyn's cousin and she may have the Caswell's contact info in case of emergency since Gina's living with Ash. (BTW I claimed the special and sweet gesture is ultimately from her mom, not any boy.)

Say Ricky was the one to take the initiative in his relationship with Gina, for once, and actually helped deliver the chocolates. Why wouldn't he fess up to that in 2.04? If he was the one to deliver it, why not save her from that embarrassment in the following weeks from that incident? Gina's biggest insecurity in terms of romantic relationships has been misreading the signs. Instead of letting her know he helped her mom out (if he did deliver the choco), he sarcastically jokes about it in 2.04 ("What? Do I have to send you a random box of chocolates to prove it?") At this point in the season, the jokes about the choco are too soon because the wound is still fresh for Gina. You could see throughout 2.04 Gina is not comfortable joking about it, so she pretends to be okay with it and laughs it off ("Its become a running/inside joke between us. It's funny") she says as she puts on a fake smile with pain behind her eyes (I don't know how to put pictures or GIFs😂 Sorry).

Wouldn't it ultimately make things even worse between Rina if Ricky did deliver the chocolates but never fessed up to it? The chocolates would go from being an initially sweet gesture to a really inconsiderate one if Ricky knew and didn't tell her. It would just feed into Gina's insecurity of misreading romantic signs in a potential relationship.

I guess Rinas and Portwells will have to agree to disagree on chocolategate until the show proves us otherwise (if they ever do 🤔)! Hope you can see the rationale behind my analysis/theory, even if you disagree. 😁

going through rina tumblr, but i read some theory about ej being the one that delivered the chocolates (and let me tell you i've never see anybody thinking it was him... i guess the ricky theory is the most famous? lol)

even if i disagree because EJ and Gina weren't that close yet in that episode, and the Rina scene makes more sense... i wanted to talk about something here.

in this episode Gina went to talk about her mom's tradition TO RICKY. "is just there's some things that i tell you that i don't tell nobody else". Ricky was the only one who knew how she was feeling that day. now, if we have to compare:

if EJ was the one delivering the chocolates, the only way for him to do that is because of Gina's mom, she needs someone to help her, so he does. where would be the Special and Sweet Gesture in that if it wasn't because of ~him. she 'likes a sweet gesture' but this comes from her mom. she could've asked Ashlyn to do it too, so what.

if Ricky was the one delivering the chocolates, he would be the one that talked to Gina's mom about it. it was HIS iniciative. Gina says that it seems like her mom forgot... so Ricky texting/calling her and reminding her about it is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. that would be a sweet gesture from both, her mom AND Ricky. he wouldn't just be the deliver of the chocolates, but he took big part of the gesture.

now that's what i would call Sweet Gesture.