#love and let spy

[readtilyoudie]

Expecting her to announce that she’d finally devised a way for her characters to live in perfect felicity, he was more than taken aback when she declared, “I refuse to give up my work once we’re wed.”

Surprise jerked through him, causing the reins in his hands to twitch and the horses to slow. With a soft chirrup, he urged them back to their steady pace before turning to Jane. “Who asked you to?”

Still stiff, she turned warily toward him. “I realize we had not discussed…” Beneath the lap blanket, one hand made a restless circle, a gesture that might have been intended to take in any number of things. “But I feared you might not think it proper for your countess to…”

“As it seems you may not be well acquainted with the lass, I’ll just tell you that my countess has a mind of her own. Nor am I overmuch concerned with propriety, if it comes to that.”

She weighed his response for a moment. The clip-clop of the horses’ hooves was loud in the stillness. “You’ll also be marrying a woman with a substantial fortune to her name. Though according to the law, everything I have will be yours.”

“Aye,” he agreed. “A scandal, if you ask me, but I canna change the law on my own, lass. I can only tell you I intend to order the solicitor to draw up papers to settle what’s yours however you see fit.” He shifted the reins to one hand so that he might slip the other beneath the heavy wool lap blanket in search of hers. “On our children, if you wish it,” he said, curling his fingers around one tightly balled fist.

Leaning forward just enough to peep around the fur edge of her hood, he watched her cheeks pink, and the slightest curve of a smile rise to her lips. “Do you suppose one day they’ll learn the truth and wish their inheritance had come from some more respectable source?”

“An’ who, may I ask, is raisin’ these bairns, that they haven’t the sense God gave a goose?” That earned him one of those tinkling laughs he loved so much. He squeezed her fingers again. “What’s more respectable than a book that makes folks happy?”

Who's That Earl (Love and Let Spy, #1) by Susanna Craig

[theballadofmars]

I love how mqf's oficial description is something like: a good heart who wants to help others but then you read the novel and his reaction to lqg trapping ten infected men who are crying in panic is "great now I can start to work in my experiments with decomposed people to find a cure" and gets out a lot of needles, which makes the man cry even harder.

Even if we only get bits of the other Cang Qiong sect leader's we can reach the conclusion that no one there is normal, sqq is just biased.

[alexiethymia]

like father like daughter indeed

[cartoonguy08]

FACES!!

Wanted to draw them just cuz lol. I think they’re fun to draw 🤙🤙

[lassify]

Listen. Okay. Listen. LISTEN.

Chapter 67.1: "She didn't say much about you."

Chapter 108: "Your mom loves you too."

Do you hear that? Do you smell that? Do you taste it??

Can you sense it in the air??

This is development. This is hope. This is healing. This is the very slow and torturous unification of a family torn apart by abuse and neglect.

[gearbroth]

REAL SHIT?

[the-woman-upstairs]

In the universe of the film, there is ABSOLUTELY a contingent of fans that fervently ship Argylle/Wyatt and have the dominant ship on AO3 and trade elaborate fan theories about their hidden relationship and are convinced they’re meant to be endgame but the publishers won’t allow it. Of course, they go totally BALLISTIC when they learn they’re based on the author and her boyfriend.

[sicc-nasti]

MERRY SMISSMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR

love scout, sniper and a chunk of spy's jugular <3

[skippersxfamily]

Endo writing his female characters: "women should be allowed to be strong, violent, and angry"

Endo writing his male characters: "he is pathetic for a woman"

[local-lamppost]

Something I've Been Reminded Of

Spoilers for Ch 86

Kicking off season 2 of Spy x Family we have the long awaited date of Loid and Yor-which was just lovely-and in that we got this line from Loid:

Of course, this is just him drastically missing the actual cause of Yor's poor mood, but Agent Twilight believes that he has made Yor cross with him for asking for help running the household. This is a marriage of convenience after all, not an actual partnership.

While it's never made the forefront of a scene, at least not in an overtly plot heavy way, Loid is often shown doing the majority of the house work. He cooks, cleans, helps Anya study, cares for Bond, etc. He'll even make sure that dinner is ready for Yor when she comes home late. Not to say Yor doesn't do anything, she's often shown preparing drinks and will help clean up now and then, but the implication is that Loid does 90% of the chores along with raising Anya, caring for Bond, his work as a fake psychiatrist, his work as an actual spy, along with whatever day trips/misadventures the family gets up to.

But he will not ask for Yor's help, because this whole thing is a marriage of connivence; it's 'for the mission'.

Then we get chapter 86. Twilight is hurt from a gun fight with his brother-in-law, has just faced a representation of his worst traits in Winston, and gotten into a "fight" with Yor which he has no idea the cause of. Loid has officially been pushed to the limit and the moment he gets home-the moment he feels safe-the sight of Yor smiling through the threshold causes him to collapse and ask:

And Yor:

Which shocks Twilight. He is at his lowest point and is expecting for Yor to actually get upset with him, under the impression that she'll see his need for help as a burden.

Yor has always been eager to help Loid, but never wanted to overstep this unspoken boundary they have. She isn't his actual wife, not actually Anya's birth mother. She's there to keep up appearances, it's not her place to be a wife helping her husband. She will still hesitate around Anya for actions that are unavoidably motherly. It's not her place, Loid is handling it even if he's struggling.

Which is why Yor is glad to be asked for help.

How many characters both acknowledge Twilight needs help and actually offer help? Let alone with no ulterior motives. WISE is under the impression that everything they ask is within Twilight's capabilities and even Franky, the only person in his life who could be considered a friend, needs to maintain a certain distance as to not arouse suspicion for either of them.

Yor's position as mother for the Forger family has granted her both the closeness needed to see how ragged Loid's been run, but also be in a position to offer help that can be reciprocated. The only thing holding her back has been Loid not asking for assistance and her being to worried for her position in the family to ask.

And now that Loid has reached out, Yor will do all she can to ease his burdens. Even with Twilight resolving to be better, to be the perfect spy he's been slipping from, I don't think Yor's going to let him go back to bad habits. He needs help, he's asked for help, she's going to help.

Yor is going to aggressively care for Loid, and through shenanigins break down those barriers of his.

[readtilyoudie]

“Alone is dangerous.”

“No,” she countered. “Alone is safe.”

But alone was not the same as loneliness, as she well knew. Loneliness was a piece of paper held above a flame, just out of reach of that tongue of fire. For the longest time, the heat touched nothing, caused no damage. Then, in the blink of an eye, a black spot appeared in the paper, then a hole, and finally, all was ash.

Who's That Earl (Love and Let Spy, #1) by Susanna Craig

[aiura-stan]

also. strong contender for one of my favorite panels in the manga. well, at least of the torisai ones

[backpackingspace]

I am once again thinking about how odysseus who witnessed the horrors that the captured women went through (one of his main duties in the iliad was taking the women back home and making sure they were as comfortable as possible and safe because he was the only one trusted not to violate them further due to his devotion to penelope. And in the odyssey part of the reason circe sent him to the underworld was so that he'd have to listen to all these women's stories (before he could talk to the prophet) ). Who was one of the few that saw women as people and respected their space and opinions. And was then put in those exact same situations. I don't have the motivation right now to do a full literary analysis of this (I'll site the sources too) but oh man one day I'm going to write a full essay on this.

[diamondzart]

[thatcatangelwriter]

annabeth doesn't talk about what luke said when he came to her house asking her to run away with him and no matter how hard the others try she won't say anything.

[mielwriting]

The Collected Miscellany videos are solid evidence to the idea that Dainsleif, when he's not hunting down Abyss Heralds or talking to the Traveler, spends a signifcant amount of time spying on all the elemental wielders of Teyvat.

Which is hilarious to imagine as his hobby.

Doubly so when you remember a lot of people probably realized he was watching them. Venti, Zhongli, Shenhe, Yelan, Cloud Retainer, Nahida, Neuvillette.