#one: Renn's my favourite because of just how much he reminds me of my partner

[mo-ok]

My Favourite Episode Of:

Engine Sentai Go-Onger Grand Prix 25 ~ Goodbye Mother

[tothelasthoursofmylife]

4th Anniversary Stuff

I had quite the long day yesterday and now I am a day late^^’

But, well, anyway... Watchdog of the Queen turned four yesterday! Yey!

I have been terrible again with updates in the last few months, so if you’re still here and waiting - thank you! Life and university kept me busy and exhausted lately (and I was, to my surprise, picked for a zine!), but I’m still working on the next chapter and have no intention of dropping this story anytime soon! Not when it is still keeping my brain busy.

I think I’m always getting so melodramatic and repetitive in these posts^^’ Sorry...

Well, last year, I put together some trivia and notes and I thought I would do the same this year! But that’s not everything...

When I started writing this fic, I created a file to collect little bits and pieces as I thought of them. So far, I have 258 snippets in that file^^’ Some are just a sentence long, others some pages. And I thought that, if someone’s interested, you can send me a number between 11 and 258 and I’ll post either the entire thing or part of it. However, if it’s just a sentence or a joke I have saved for later, I will reserve not to post it. (And it’s from 11 to 258 and from 1 to 258 because the first ten are just too old and irrelevant.)

Thank you so much for sticking with me for four years now! And let’s hope for many more^^

Story

The little “add-on” about Oscar and Cloudia on the intermission chapter was actually supposed to be much longer. It would have not just been about Cloudia returning to the townhouse and talking to Oscar there after she met Cedric for the first time, but it would have been an extended version of the entire first three chapters. It was supposed to start with the morning before Cloudia went to that party and end with her conversation with Oscar. It even had a proper name: “The Countess, Once Again.” But I thought it would be too long and too boring, so I just kept the last part of it. I did like the beginning part when Cloudia woke up; I was quite sad to cut it. (I wrote it in late 2017/early 2018… while it was snowing! *sigh*)

While finishing the general outline and concept of Arc 4, I thought about roughly basing it on a fairy-tale, and because it’s set in France, I thought about picking a French fairy-tale. (Also the term “fairy-tale” was actually introduced by Madame d’Aulnoy, a Frenchwoman, so it would have been perfect!) Unfortunately, it did not work out because the arc became too stuffed with other things.

Originally, they were supposed to go to Réchicourt-le-Château, not Nanteuil-la-Forêt, but I changed it to cut their travelling time shorter. They were also supposed to stay at the proper Château Dupont, rather than at an acquaintance’s place. I changed it because I thought it would be too silly to say that, of all places, Nicodemus Townsend was spotted/the Clockmaker is living so close to where Cloudia’s relatives live. I just couldn’t do that – not after reading Villette…

Very early on, Townsend was to appear from the start of Arc 4. He was still the one who stole Queen Victoria’s super-secret box, but it would not have been so blatant. Instead, Townsend would aide Cloudia and Cedric and try to divert the investigation from himself. Cloudia was actually supposed to start liking Townsend (for some reasons), much to Cedric’s chagrin, but this particular aspect was so silly, I scrapped it all and rearranged it.

Originally, the last chapter (Mystery), the next chapter (Malady), and the one coming after it were one chapter. Please remind me to provide a word count for them when I have finished all three. What was I thinking…

Cloudia was lamenting about having apparently lost her family ring in the intermission chapter… Actually, I planned for Cedric to give her the ring in Faint and Low, wrote it into my outline, but I somehow forgot including it. Thankfully, I did not forget to make him return it to her in the intermission.

While working on the intermission, I thought about writing that Cedric and Milton met every now and then in the past year and became more acquainted with each other. Like, Cedric would come to Cloudia when she was extra busy, she would send him to town with Thomas, and they would run into Milton and Wentworth. But then, I finalised Milton’s story and decided that it would be better to say that he did not set foot into England since his villa was destroyed.

Milton and Cloudia met at a reception in 1846 because, years ago in English class, my teacher talked about how “receptions are little parties,” I jotted it down and thought “that might be a good place for their first meeting!” But, according to Wikipedia, “Formal receptions are parties that are designed to receive a large number of guests, often at prestigious venues [..]. The hosts and any guests of honor form a receiving line in order of precedence near the entrance. Each guest is announced to the host who greets each one in turn as he or she arrives. Each guest properly speaks little more than his name (if necessary) and a conventional greeting or congratulation to each person in the receiving line. In this way, the line of guests progresses steadily without unnecessary delay. After formally receiving each guest in this fashion, the hosts may mingle with the guests.” – which is not really what I had in mind back then. But I had already said that they met at a reception, so there was no going back.

 There will be a total of three side stories for this arc. The Poker Game was the first. The second will come sometime in the middle after certain pieces of information were revealed. The last will come right after the arc wrapped up.

“The Earl, Reckless” and “The Siblings, Partners” are actually the first two pieces in a little series of five stories about Vincent and Francis. I hope to get out the third next year!

There will be a few more stories about them, but they won’t belong to that collection because they won’t be very readable as “standalone” fics. One of them is the pirate story which was mentioned in the second zucchini bonus chapter.

 Names

Anaïs was always supposed to be a girl, but her name used to be Amable because it means “lovable” and I thought it’s such a cute name! Turned out it’s a boy’s name, so I changed it last-minute to Anaïs after the character from The Amazing World of Gumball.

Her aunt Sylviane was originally named Renée. I changed it because I remembered that “Renée” is the name of one of the musketeers in Barbie and The Three Musketeers, and I really dislike that movie.

Aurèle used to be named Gervais. But then, I named another character Gervais and forgot that I already had a character with the same name. Because I had worked more with the second Gervais in my head, I decided to rename the first one to Aurèle. At some point, I cut out the “final” Gervais (who was the original Clockmaker) though and replaced him with the current Clockmaker. So, there’s currently nobody with the name “Gervais” in the story…

I am actually quite lazy when it comes to picking names for any secondary characters. The names of the Dupont servants and most names of the inhabitants of Nanteuil-la-Forêt were generated with a random French name generator.

As I already said, I like naming characters after other fictional characters. I often base their personalities and stories on them as well. When I read a book or comic, or watched a movie or show which I did not like, I name and base characters who get killed, villain characters, annoying characters etc. after the characters from that book/comic/movie/show I did not like. For example, Maven, Manon, Axel, and Brenton were named and based on characters from Red Queen. Maven is, obviously, Maven. Manon is Mare, but her name is from Miraculous Ladybug because she was supposed to be the “puppeteer.” Axel Shade is named after Shade. (But his middle names are from The Infernal Devices which I do like.) Brenton is based on Cal. I chose the name “Von Brandt” because “Brand” means fire or blaze and Maven has fire powers in Red Queen. (-1/10 would not recommend that book.)

Nicer characters are, in turn, named after characters from media I liked. For example, Dahlia, Duke, Cas, the man Cas talked to in Duke’s tavern, and Lucas Renn are named/based after/on characters from A Darker Shade of Magic. Dahlia is Lila. Duke is Barron. Cas is Kell. The man he talked to is Ned. Lucas Renn is Alucard Emery (whose nickname is “Luc”).

 Characters

Milton is my least favourite character to write because he has no humorous bone in his body. (Almost) everyone else is joking around, but I simply cannot picture him doing the same. At least, he can talk in waterfalls like most others – even if it’s in a different way. (This does not mean that I dislike Milton as a character! It just makes his dialogue a bit more challenging because he’s always very kind and never sarcastic. He’s the kind of person who, if you were to stab them, would calmly and softly tell you that it’s fine and that they have no ill-feelings for you even though they are literally dying and you are just a random thug.)

His rain-induced-heartache-memory-return is based on a similar thing a friend of my father’s has. When I was little – like six or seven – he and his family were visiting us. It was raining, and he explained that he had a heart operation many years ago on a rainy day and now, every time it rains, his heart phantom-pains. For some reason, it stuck with me, and I eventually decided to give Milton the same condition.

Townsend was a Frenchman (“Nicodème Etienne Bellamy”) for a very short time period because I thought “The arc is set in France, shouldn’t it have a French villain?” But then, I realised that it made no sense why a Frenchman should steal the Queen’s super-secret box and changed it back.

I wrote two stories for a Kuro Advent Calendar in 2017: Waiting and Warming. They were only replacement ideas though: Waiting was the replacement for a little game I wanted to put together but did not have the time for in the end. Warming was the replacement for a clockwork/clockmaker/machinery fic which I could not make work at that time. The Clockmaker Cloudia is searching for is something of a “remnant” from that fic idea.

Actually, Kamden was supposed to be the fidgety one before I gave that trait to Milton.

Misc.

While Milton is someone who does not really hate anything or anyone, I think he would very much dislike the song “Love is an Open Door” if the fic was set in modern times.

Because my sister once asked why “I draw Cloudia with short hair when she has long hair”: I do not draw her with short hair. I draw her with barley curls and a chignon, but the chignon is never visible.

  Outtake – beginning of “The Countess, Once Again.”

The day Cloudia Phantomhive was to kill Ronan Parrish, she was tired – tired, bored, and wishing to be somewhere else.

She hadn’t slept well – she never slept well here – and her body both carved and dreaded more hours of sleep and rest. Cloudia had woken up far too early this morning and the dispute in her head had made her decide to stay awake and wait for the sun to rise – and in January, the sun was just as sleepy as she, but unlike her, it took its time to wake.

Not knowing what to do, Cloudia had taken the book she was reading from her bedside cabinet – The Chimes by Charles Dickens – but even though it was written by her favourite author, even though it was “just” a novella, she hadn’t been able to read more than a few pages. And so, until the sun rose and Lisa came, Cloudia spent her time staring into the darkness, the novella still in her hand. And when the sun had finally risen and Lisa had arrived, Cloudia nearly did not notice it; and when she was washing up and getting dressed, her head was still heavy and her body numb and she did not say a single word. Lisa did seem concerned, but Cloudia was thankful that she didn’t address it, that her concern was only shown in her gaze which Cloudia avoided.

Afterwards, Cloudia walked down the stairs to breakfast, the sun shining dimly through the ice-touched windows, and when she entered the parlour, Lisa in her wake and Newman opening the door for her, Oscar was already there.

Almost thirteen years ago, Cloudia’s father had died at the Phantomhive townhouse, and Cloudia herself had lost her memories. Since that day, Cloudia had never felt comfortable or safe or free inside the townhouse again – considering that she had ever felt like that here –, and because she was always sent back to that day whenever something triggered her – and this was even more likely at the townhouse – Eleanor and Barrington had decided that, even if she had Newman and Lisa with her, Cloudia was not to stay at the townhouse without another person. As both Barrington and Cecelia were busy and Oscar had helped her finding out about Parrish, although this “case” had been fairly clear from the very beginning, Oscar was staying with her.

“Good morning, Oscar,” Cloudia greeted him while sitting down, her own voice sounding odd to her.

“Good morning, Mylady,” he said, waiting for her to break her scone in half before he sunk his fork into his cake.

“Cake for breakfast again?” Cloudia remarked, but, instead of directly responding to her words, all Oscar said was, “Mylady, you should make sure to sleep more. Or, at all. It is not good for your health if you keep refraining from sleeping, even if it is the townhouse.”

Cloudia nodded absentmindedly and put cream on her scone. “I will when Parrish is dead and I can return to the manor,” she said, but Oscar did not reply and only ate in silence.

[socialattractionuk]

People share the most romantic things their partners have ever done for them

(Picture: Ella Byworth for Metro.co.uk)

We all love a bit of romance.

For some of us, romance is flowers and fancy dinners. For others, it’s going to the shop in the morning to bring our loved one their favourite pastry.

The beautiful thing about romance is it comes in all shapes and forms.

And so, we asked a bunch of people to tell us the most romantic things their partners have ever done for them. The answers are pretty adorable.

Like something out of a movie

‘He knew that I missed being able to see the stars when I lived up in the mountains, so for our first V-Day, he projected the night sky onto the ceiling of his parents’ boat while we ate dinner on the water.’

This literally is something from a movie…

‘Recreated our favourite scene from our favourite film, Legend, and threw lemon sherbets at my window and cited how much he loved me.

‘Still going strong and I feel the most comfortable and happiest I’ve ever felt with someone.’

When someone’s actions teaches someone everything they need to know about a person

‘Moved to my family home with me when my mum got sick. Drove her an hour to her hospital appointments whilst I worked. Adored her even though we had only been together for less than a year and was heartbroken when she died.

‘Taught me everything I needed to know about his character.’

When romance equals efficiency

‘Due to leaving my old job I’ve literally had NO money for a couple of months and my boyfriend made me a spreadsheet to organise my finances because he knows how much anxiety it’s causing me.

‘It’s the little things.’

(Picture: Ella Byworth)

This is beautiful

‘When I was really upset he took my hand, we stood in the middle of the room. He played Perfect by Ed Sheeran on his phone and slow danced with me throughout the entire song. Still makes me smile thinking about it.’

‘Still the most memorable gift’

‘On my 22nd birthday, we’d been married a year, we were completely skint, had absolutely no money, she’d only just finished a course of chemo and our house had been burgled, my only watch was stolen.

‘She went to Boots to claim on my insurance and get me a replacement watch, then got our wedding photo printed and mounted it in a tatty old frame we found lying in a cupboard in our house.

‘Still the most memorable gift, and still have it, hung up in our house.’

Boyfriend goals

‘My heel broke at work today and he went to New Look on his lunch break and brought me a brand new pair of boots and lunch to my work.’

More: Showbiz

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Lovely, right?

‘On our first date, he’d wanted to bring me a bunch of lavender, because it’s one of my favourite plants. He apparently went to “a few places” and couldn’t find any as it wasn’t in season. So he gave me a little bunch of dried lavender… and a packet of lavender seeds.’

This has melted our hearts

‘Bought me a “the night sky” frame for Valentine’s Day with the date and location we first met and fell in love, it has the stars that were in the sky over the location we were.’

When your mental health is super important to your partner

‘Ordered a big boss care package full of all my fave things to be delivered to my house when I was having a really bad time of it mental health wise.

‘Also he kept offering to drive down and see me during but I was doing the pushing-away thing, and he still stuck around.’

This woman is amazing!

‘Being deaf my girlfriend decided to learn sign language to communicate with me.

‘It was so beautiful for her to do. She is amazing.’

(Picture: Ella Byworth for Metro.co.uk)

When they’re there for you through thick and thin

‘Stayed awake for 48 straight hours while I was close to death in hospital, next to me every single second. Then after surgery, he brought me a whole care package of stuff to make my bed rest enjoyable.’

When your partner knows every little thing about you

‘He drove me to the cemetery where my grandma is buried when I was having a really bad panic attack because he remembered it’s my peaceful place.’

This is wonderful

‘Being told “I’m sticking with you” after becoming paraplegic 12 years ago and putting up with me despite my mood being so low it couldn’t get any worse after I said I’d not contest a divorce. She really loves me, as do I her!’

When the small things are actually big things

‘He de-ices my car. I know it doesn’t sound romantic but he knows I don’t function in the cold. And he’s rubbish at showing/telling his feelings.’

Beautiful

‘In the midst of a panic attack, came, gave me a hug, talked me through it, and made me dinner afterwards. Also when I’m highly stressed, he leaves little notes to remind me I can get through it.’

‘It made me fall in love with him all over again’

‘Being a great dad. Honestly, it’s made me fall in love with him all over again.’

So sweet!

‘Her first time ever seeing theatre was a play I was in. She came with a huge bouquet of flowers because she thought that was the tradition. Hands down the best feeling and the sweetest thing I could’ve wanted after an exhausting show.’

More: Dating

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Man sends woman brutal list of 'how to improve' three months after their first date

What a great idea

‘Made me a mix tape of our favourite songs (on a memory card) and hid it inside a Kinder surprise egg, then stuck it pack together and made it look good as new.’

This couple are no longer together… but the romance still stands

‘Still gives a f*** about me even though we’ve been broken up for well over three years. I lost a girlfriend but gained a lifelong friend and they happened to be the same woman.’

MORE: What to know if you’re dating someone with depression

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