#playwright restaurant

[nalyra-dreaming]

COMMENTS on 2x07 - SPOILERS

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . *FIRST OFF: GOD HAVE I CRIED *No breath, no relief, all the pain This… contains a lot of swearing. . . . . . . .

The fucking rat box - there is a significant time gap between Claudia being shoved in there and her on stage. I BET that will become "that" time frame later, when Armand.... finally gets to it.

Btw, the iron boxes... an iron entrapment. I'm not sure if deliberate, but there is a piece of lore from Blood Communion that could come into play here IF they should pick it up again, later on

I’m glad they made the mental influence clear right away. Like… it’s not even subtle. And Lestat acting weird AF isn’t subtle either. It’s clear. It’s scripted. It’s the “last play”. It’s been “designed, and rehearsed.”

The Achilles’ heel slashed is so… vicious

Louis sensing and smelling Lestat… oh honey

Like that they referred to “the old place” for the other theater

Them making him swear on her diary is sooooo…💀

Santiago is so PLEASED when Lestat returns to script lol… we don’t see it but I wonder how many of the jury it took

A story of love... 💀

They are using the music box music … the fuckers

Awwww Armand being “punished” to watch… nawwwwww glad Daniel is not buying it either... and by Sam, the playwright... with a scythe... nawww. Okay, everybody buying that after that little restaurant display raise their hands, lmao.

That Lestat sleeping in the dirt is just... wrong. We already KNOW he returned to Paris twice. Another hint!!!

The repeated hint at the “ancient blood”… very on the nose

Their eye contact

Them trying to make it seem as if Louis “hunted” Lestat… lmao. As if Louis could have if Lestat would not have wanted him to????

Santiago prompting Lestat…. they seem to have pushed the narrative into his mind

on a random note: the blue contacts look so much better this season???

Oh…. Lestat SNAPPING at “fags” - loved it - so fantastically intense and creepy

“where lies their disgust now”?

Lestat making that man feel what he feels - WHY didn’t you just show this to Louis?????

THE HAIR CHANGED!!! There is that strand again! And the perfect hair in other scenes!!! INFLUENCED!! Manipulated!! I’ve been fucking saying.

OOOOHHHHH MY GOD Claudia’s turning … Louis knowing about the laws, did Louis really promise to stay???? I mean that’s just bargaining, and Louis just… begging… oh god, AND THEN THE FUCKING CUT TO ARMAND’s LOOK OH YOU FUCKER

“you were manipulated into it”… yeah. Say it, Santiago

God. Lestat there. And Louis the way he sees him.

Lestat confirming that Louis did not share affection with him anymore, as said, for years

Yeah, no, Lestat’s pose there for the Antoinette reveal is totally… natural 💀

God, Claudia cackling at Lestat saying “she’s the best of my vampiric self”… 😭

Ep5 revisit. Uhhhhh boy did they expand on what we already knew. And I KNEW something happened in the coffin room that made Lestat snap!! I KNEW IT! Okay, they kept the weird logistics of the fall (for now at least), but… yeah. This makes at least… more sense than before, I guess. Also, Lestat fully breaking script and admitting it. KNOWING he had hurt Louis there. Knowing. (I still stand by the Amel theory for the outside part and the comment in 1x06. Since they are taking from Prince Lestat….)

“A wolf congratulated for not killing her pup”!!!!!!!!

Louis is wearing something other than black again!!!!

“and then - something real” - and Armand chiming in… how… inconspicuous 💅🏼

A Stoning. Indeed.

I’m not sure how much I believe of them waking Lestat tbh… like... with the supposed trial rehearsals... and the crossing over... nawwwww

That eating blood with a spoon is so… inefficient. Like, they drink so much more???? What kind of blood is that to savor it like that? Must be special??? Or it's just show.

Oh god. Madeleine choosing Claudia. She is my coven. God.

Ugh. Lestat breaking script for Claudia. AND BY GOD I HOPE CLAUDIA FULFILLS THAT PROMISE

Oohhhhwwwwwww and Armand working SO HARD ON SAVING LOUIS!!!!! YOU LITTLE…. GNAAAHHHHH I don’t even have a word. "bites something"

God the pebbles/rocks. The entombment. And the SAME stones at the Dubai tree…

Lestat, swaying on his feet

So. Armand tells us of Claudia facing her death bravely. And defiantly. And the stare of shock and pain on Lestat’s face. Armand… the last to know the truth… for now. -.-

PREVIEW

And Armand getting Louis out.. afterwards. When… the coven did not care anymore, right??????? Mh hmmm.

Louis getting their asses

Louis going to kill Lestat??? MHHHH

EPISODE INSIDER

"it’s a fake setup - props in a play". Yeah. THAT.

Claudia doesn’t give an inch - "she knows she’s right"

“She has Lestat’s blood - if they do anything, it’s come back with a vengeance”!!!!!!!!!!! YES PLEASE 😭

Claudia’s death represents Louis’ last connection to this world

“[Claudia] was a brilliant vampire.

IN - fucking - DEED

God, what an episode.

I am... somewhat irritated that the reshot the turning and did not really revisit murder night, because the discrepancies there still stand. Except they have always intended to return to it in s3, which might make sense. Still. A bit weird, all of it. And Lestat breaking out of the control and script to admit to hurting Louis. 😭

God.

[thealogie]

I was sitting at the counter at this great Thai place in London and my neighbor is one of those super friendly American dudes. We’re chatting, he’s telling me how this is his favorite restaurant and recommending all these dishes to me. I get to gushing to him about all the great theatre I’m seeing and making all these recommendations. And then I ask him what he does and he’s like “I’m actually a playwright and songwriter” and it turns out he wrote and performed a great play I really wanted to see back in New York but I missed it so he sent me the recording 🥺

[thatsonemorbidcorvid]

“Many of the women in Heterodoxy moved in corresponding circles and maintained similar beliefs. They were “veterans of social reform efforts,” writes Scutts in Hotbed, and they belonged to “leagues, associations, societies and organizations of all stripes.” A large number were public figures—influential lawyers, journalists, playwrights or physicians, some of whom were the only women in their fields—and often had their names in the papers for the work they were performing. Many members were also involved in a wide variety of women’s rights issues, from promoting the use of birth control to advocating for immigrant mothers.

Heterodoxy met every other Saturday to discuss such issues and see how members might collaborate and cultivate networks of reform. Gatherings were considered a safe space for women to talk, exchange ideas and take action.”

In the early 20th century, New York City’s Greenwich Village earned a reputation as America’s bohemia, a neighborhood where everyone from artists and poets to activists and organizers came to pursue their dreams.

“In the Village, it was so easy to bump into great minds, to go from one restaurant to another, to a meeting house, to work for a meeting or to a gallery,” says Joanna Scutts, author of Hotbed: Bohemian Greenwich Village and the Secret Club That Sparked Modern Feminism. Here was a community where rents were still affordable, creative individuality thrived, urban diversity and radical experiments were the norm, and bohemian dissenters could come and go as they pleased.

Such a neighborhood was the ideal breeding ground for Heterodoxy, a secret society that paved the way for modern feminism. The female debating club’s name referred to the many unorthodox women among its members. These individuals “questioned forms of orthodoxy in culture, in politics, in philosophy—and in sexuality,” noted ThoughtCo. in 2017.

Born as part of the initial wave of modern feminism that emerged during the 19th and early 20th centuries with suffrage at its center, the radical ideologies debated at Heterodoxy gatherings extended well beyond the scope of a women’s right to vote. In fact, Heterodoxy had only one requirement for membership: that a woman “not be orthodox in her opinion.”

“The Heterodoxy club and the work that it did was very much interconnected with what was going on in the neighborhood,” says Andrew Berman, executive director of Village Preservation, a nonprofit dedicated to documenting and preserving the distinct heritage of Greenwich Village. “With the suffrage movement already beginning to crest, women had started considering how they could free themselves from the generations and generations of structures that had been placed upon them.”

Unitarian minister Marie Jenney Howe founded Heterodoxy in 1912, two years after she and her husband, progressive reformer Frederic C. Howe, moved to the Village. “Howe was already in her 40s,” says Scutts, “and just got to know people through her husband’s professional connections, and during meetings and networks where progressive groups were very active at the time.”

Howe’s mindset on feminism was clear: “We intend simply to be ourselves,” she once said, “not just our little female selves, but our whole big human selves.”

Many of the women in Heterodoxy moved in corresponding circles and maintained similar beliefs. They were “veterans of social reform efforts,” writes Scutts in Hotbed, and they belonged to “leagues, associations, societies and organizations of all stripes.” A large number were public figures—influential lawyers, journalists, playwrights or physicians, some of whom were the only women in their fields—and often had their names in the papers for the work they were performing. Many members were also involved in a wide variety of women’s rights issues, from promoting the use of birth control to advocating for immigrant mothers.

Heterodoxy met every other Saturday to discuss such issues and see how members might collaborate and cultivate networks of reform. Gatherings were considered a safe space for women to talk, exchange ideas and take action. Jessica Campbell, a visual artist whose exhibition on Heterodoxy is currently on display at Philadelphia’s Fabric Workshop and Museum, says, “Their meetings were taking place without any kind of recording or public record. It was this privacy that allowed the women to speak freely.”

Scutts adds, “The freedom to disagree was very important to them.”

With 25 charter members, Heterodoxy included individuals of diverse backgrounds, including lesbian and bisexual women, labor radicals and socialites, and artists and nurses. Meetings were often held in the basement of Polly’s, a MacDougal Street hangout established by anarchist Polly Holladay. Here, at what Berman calls a “sort of nexus for progressive, artistic, intellectual and political thought,” the women would gather at wooden tables to discuss issues like fair employment and fair wages, reproductive rights, and the antiwar movement. The meetings often went on for hours, with each typically revolving around a specific subject determined in advance.

Reflecting on these get-togethers later in life, memoirist Mabel Dodge Luhan described them as gatherings of “fine, daring, rather joyous and independent women, … women who did things and did them openly.”

Occasionally, Heterodoxy hosted guest speakers, like modern birth control pioneer Margaret Sanger, who later became president of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, and anarchist Emma Goldman, known for championing everything from free love to the right of labor to organize.

While the topics discussed at each meeting remained confidential, many of Heterodoxy’s members were quite open about their involvement with the club. “Before I’d even heard of Heterodoxy,” says Scutts, “I had been working in the New-York Historical Society, researching for an [exhibition on] how radical politics had influenced a branch of the suffrage movement. That’s when I began noticing many of the same women’s names in overlapping causes. I then realized that they were all associated with this particular club.”

These women included labor lawyer, suffragist, socialist and journalist Crystal Eastman, who in 1920 co-founded the American Civil Liberties Union to defend the rights of all people nationwide, and playwright Susan Glaspell, a key player in the development of modern American theater.

Other notable alumni were feminist icon Charlotte Perkins Gilman, whose 1892 short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” illustrates the mental and physical struggles associated with postpartum depression, and feminist psychoanalyst Beatrice M. Hinkle, the first woman physician in the United States to hold a public health position. Lou Rogers, the suffrage cartoonist whose work was used as a basis for the design of Wonder Woman, was a member of Heterodoxy, as was Jewish socialist activist Rose Pastor Stokes.

Grace Nail Johnson, an advocate for civil rights and an influential figure in the Harlem Renaissance, was Heterodoxy’s only Black member. Howe “had personally written to and invited her,” says Scutts, “as sort of a representation of her race. It’s an unusual case, because racial integration was quite uncommon at the time.”

While exceptions did exist, the majority of Heterodoxy’s members were middle class or wealthy, and the bulk of them had obtained undergraduate degrees—still very much a rarity for women in the early 20th century. Some even held graduate degrees in fields like medicine, law and the social sciences. These were women with the leisure time to participate in political causes, says Scutts, and who could afford to take risks, both literally and figuratively. But while political activism and the ability to discuss topics overtly were both part of Heterodoxy’s overall ethos, most of its members were decidedly left-leaning, and almost all were radical in their ideologies. “Even if the meetings promoted an openness to disagree,” says Scutts, “it wasn’t like these were women from across the political spectrum.”

Rather, they were women who inspired and spurred each other on. For example, about one-third of the club’s members were divorced—a process that was still “incredibly difficult, expensive and even scandalous” at the time, says Scutts. The club acted as somewhat of a support network for them, “just by the virtue of having people around you that are saying, ‘I’ve gone through the process. You can, too, and survive.’”

According to Campbell, Heterodoxy’s new inductees were often asked to share a story about their upbringing with the club’s other members. This approach “helped to break down barriers that might otherwise be there due to their ranging political views and professional allegiances,” the artist says.

The Heterodoxy club usually went on hiatus during the summer months, when members relocated to places like Provincetown, Massachusetts, a seasonal outpost for Greenwich Village residents. As the years progressed, meetings eventually moved to Tuesdays, and the club began changing shape, becoming less radical in tandem with the Village’s own shifting energy. Women secured the right to vote with the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920, displacing the momentum that fueled the suffrage movement; around this same time, the Red Scare saw the arrests and deportations of unionists and immigrants. Rent prices in the neighborhood also increased dramatically, driving out the Village’s bohemian spirit. As the club’s core members continued aging, Heterodoxy became more about continuing friendships than debating radical ideologies.

“These women were not all young when they started to meet,” says Scutts in the “Lost Ladies of Lit” podcast. “You know, it’s 20, 30 years later, and so they stayed in touch, but they never really found the second generation or third generation to keep it going in a new form.”

By the early 1940s, the biweekly meetings of Heterodoxy were no more. Still, the club’s legacy lives on, even beyond the scope of modern feminism.

“These days, it’s so easy to dehumanize people when you’re only hearing one facet of their belief system,” says Campbell. “But the ability to change your mind and debate freely like the women of Heterodoxy, without any public record? It’s an interesting model for rethinking the way we talk about problems and interact with other people today.”

[freedelusionshere]

Carmy has been gaslit

Gaslighting is a form of manipulation and psychological control. It occurs when someone deliberately feeds false information to make the victim question their memory, perception, and sanity. Gaslighting can lead to confusion, anxiety, isolation, and depression

The phrase originated from a 1938 mystery thriller, Gas Light, written by British playwright Patrick Hamilton. The play was later made into a popular movie starring Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer. In the film, husband Gregory manipulates his adoring wife Paula into believing she can no longer trust her own perceptions of reality.

Claire does several of these behaviors to Carmy throughout the course of S2 and in the background of S3. The resulting dream-like memories in S3 are evidence that the gaslighting of Carmy worked. Some examples of these techniques (and there are others) include:

Lie and exaggerate

Repetition

Form codependent relationships

Escalate when challenged

Some very specific examples of how Claire did this:

Using the Faks to track him down when she gets the fake number, repeatedly asking him about why he gave her the fake number until he accepts her version of reality.

She knows he's opening a restaurant, but gets him to ditch work to help her, and even when she meets all his friends and family at the restaurant and knows they are doing hard labor to make this work, draws his attention away from that and even advises him on his menu to make dishes like his abusive mother made to "heal him". Again, the reality she wants to see. The menu she wants for him.

When he breaks up with her, she repeats to her girlfriends "he done me wrong" stories to make them all sympathize with her and not that he was having a breakdown while trapped in a walk-in to make him and others doubt his version of events and even call him "crazy".

I'm guessing some of the others will show up in S4 after a confrontation takes place. But just because someone talks in a soft voice doesn't mean they're not a narcissist.

[blues824]

I love the way you write the headcanons about the First Years + Ortho going to the reader's world! Could you do the same with the Second Years, please?

Riddle Rosehearts

Favorite Country/City: He would love to go visit Stratford-Upon-Avon in England, as he is one to enjoy being in the city of one of the most famous playwrights and authors in history: William Shakespeare. Also, there is tea available at most shops, so he will still be able to follow the Queen of Hearts’ rules.

Favorite Cuisine/Dish: Again, his favorite dish is strawberry tarts, and they apparently originate in France as tarts were used to showcase the seasonal not-berries. That aside, he also does appreciate French cuisine as a whole.

Favorite Drink: Again, he enjoys tea, but I think he would like strawberry lemonade. More specifically, the strawberry lemonade from those restaurants that put those slices of strawberries into the drink.

Favorite Souvenir: A small Shakespeare bust that he can place on a bookshelf as a book holder.

Favorite Singers/Songs: He absolutely loves classical music, specifically from the Classical Era. He prefers the classics: Bach, Beethoven, Marianna Martines, etc. Favorite song would be Für Elise, by Ludwig van Beethoven.

Favorite Movie: The Phantom of the Opera, but the 1927 silent film version.

Ruggie Bucchi

Favorite Country/City: I originally was going to say that he would have liked Luxembourg because it’s one of the richest countries in the world, but I decided that would be too easy. I feel like he would love to go to Cairo in Egypt. It’s very rich in history and culture, and I’ve heard they have good food (someone confirm, plz).

Favorite Cuisine/Dish: His favorite food is donuts, and I looked it up and they apparently originate from either Ancient Greece/Rome or Medieval Arab chefs. That being said, either cuisines (Greek, Italian, or Middle Eastern) would be his favorite. He has a very diverse palate.

Favorite Drink: Depending on if he prefers coffee or tea, he would like either Mazboot or even Zjada coffee, or karkade (please correct me on any of this, I am not from the Middle East and have never been so if it’s incorrect you can tell me. Got this info from online).

Favorite Souvenir: A small, handmade pot that he found at one of the markets. He thought it looked interesting and thus purchased it. The vendor was really kind as well.

Favorite Singers/Songs: This is kind of hard, but AMERICAN HORROR SHOW by SNOW WIFE would be his favorite, meaning hyperpop would be his favorite genre. He gives me TikTok boy vibes for some reason, and he would also like most songs that popped up on his FYP.

Favorite Movie: Lion King, and I’m not trying to be funny. He just likes the “It’s not funny, Ed”, where Ed erupts even more into laughter. It makes him snicker a bit as well. Maybe I was trying to be funny.

Azul Ashengrotto

Favorite Country/City: He would love the township of Cavendish in Prince Edward Island, Canada. It’s got the ocean, it’s got the small town vibes, and it inspired L.M. Montgomery’s fictional town of Avonlea in Anne of Green Gables. Speaking of, he would totally resonate with Anne because they both entered a society that they weren’t knowledgeable of the norms of. 

Favorite Cuisine/Dish: Because he loves fried chicken, I would say his favorite cuisine is that of the Southern United States. You can’t go wrong with coleslaw, cornbread, green beans, mashed potatoes, and Southern hospitality.

Favorite Drink: Iced Tea, specifically from the Southern states as well. If we’re talking about cocktails, then Long Island Iced Tea would be his go-to. However, he prefers to drink at home because he doesn’t have to call anyone to pick him up.

Favorite Souvenir: It’s stated that he likes collecting coins, so yeah.

Favorite Singers/Songs: This man loves Elvis Presley’s music, and no one can fight me on this. He’s a bit of a hopeless romantic, so he loves either Heartbreak Hotel or Can’t Help Falling in Love is his favorite song.

Favorite Movie: Romeo and Juliet, the one starring Leonardo DiCaprio. The movie’s great, the actor not so much. He’s a bit of a hopeless romantic, as I stated before, so he would very much like a Romeo to his Juliet. Mans wants to be in a tower with a window sill and he wants someone to be standing below to talk to in a romantic way.

Jade Leech

Favorite Country/City: He loved going scuba diving in the Mariana Trench, and since the Trench is located between Hawaii and the Philippines, I think he would love staying in the Philippines. The city he favors would be Boracay, even though it’s in the middle of the Philippine Islands and a bit further from the East.

Favorite Cuisine/Dish: His favorite dish is octopus carpaccio, and it’s kind of obvious that it’s Italian. He does enjoy Italian cuisine as a whole as well. However, if we are taking the octopus components of the dish, then I believe he would also be a lover of Japanese cuisine.

Favorite Drink: It is recommended that with octopus carpaccio, you should have a Pinot noir, and he agrees. However, if he’s just going to a bar, he would order a limoncello spritz. It’s typically a post-dinner drink, and he likes the lemon flavor along with the kind-of-like-soda, kind-of-like-wine game that the drink offers him.

Favorite Souvenir: He loves smaller, easily portable trinkets, so as basic as it is he loves collecting keychains and magnets. His favorite keychain is a shell that had a hole in it, and a small child actually handed it to him out of nowhere. He got a ring and attached it to his backpack.

Favorite Singers/Songs: His favorite song is 24 / 7 / 365, by Surfaces. It’s laidback, it’s chill, and he likes it. Songs that remind him of the beach are ones that he likes. He plays it when he’s attending to his terrariums. 

Favorite Movie: Jaws, and none of the sequels. All the sequels suck. He has watched the first Jaws so many times that he sings along with Quint when he starts singing “Farewell and Adieu You Fair Spanish Ladies”. 

Floyd Leech

Favorite Country/City: He wants to go places where he can do things whenever it strikes him. He would also want to go somewhere with clear water. Thus, I believe he would love to go to Tahiti. There’s a market, he can go scuba diving with whales and sharks, he can go surfing, he can go to the museum, and if he wants to stay in his hotel room then he can.

Favorite Cuisine/Dish: His favorite dish is Takoyaki, so I think it’s safe to assume that he likes Japanese cuisine. However, it is stated that shiitake mushrooms come from mountainous regions in China, Japan, Indonesia, and Taiwan, so he likes any dishes without the mentioned mushrooms.

Favorite Drink: As funny as it is, Sex on the Beach, as it’s a summer drink that he loves to enjoy on the beach. Also, he has the emotional maturity of a 7th grade boy, and the name was hilarious to him. 

Favorite Souvenir: Two little figurines of a guy and a girl dancing with each other. They fit together in a way that was complex, making it a puzzle of sorts.

Favorite Singers/Songs: Either Laffy Taffy or Sneaky Link 2.0 are his favorite songs. This man is searching for his Mrs. Bubblegum. He is looking to be somebody’s sneaky link. He lives for drama, and no one can tell me otherwise.

Favorite Movie: The Meg, because who doesn’t love a giant, prehistoric shark that escapes from the gaseous layer at the bottom of the Mariana Trench? He has sharp teeth like the megalodon, and he likes the jumpscare where the shark jumps up.

Kalim Al-Asim

Favorite Country/City: He loves tropical areas, but he loved the Bahamas and the capital of Nassau the most. The resort there was great, and the people were very friendly. It was a laid back time, and it was not even a five minute walk to the beach. Plus, coconuts grow there apparently (correct me if I’m wrong), and coconut juice is his favorite food.

Favorite Cuisine/Dish: A lot of Thai food, specifically the desserts, use the flesh of the coconut, so I think I have substantial evidence to say that he does like Thai food. He would be very hesitant to try Thai curry, though… unless he had somebody to try it with him.

Favorite Drink: Piña Colada, doesn’t matter if it’s virgin or not. He loves the song that accompanies it as well. Anyways, the drink is a very fruit-filled drink. He thinks it’s the right amount of sweetness, so he loves to enjoy it.

Favorite Souvenir: A singular photograph, as he somehow found himself involved in a volunteer program and he took a picture with children from one of the villages he was volunteering at.

Favorite Singers/Songs: He also likes songs that remind him of the beach, and I stated that he probably likes the song Escape (The Piña Colada Song), but it’s not his favorite. His favorite song would be Celebration, by Maffio, Farruko, and Akon (feat. Ky-Mani Marley).

Favorite Movie: I have a feeling that he would love the movie Shrek. It’s funny, a lot of memes have been made from all the movies, all the sequels are great. What’s not to love about the movie(s)?

Jamil Viper

Favorite Country/City: He gives me a vibe that I resonate with on the historical front, so I would think he would like to visit somewhere in the Middle East, as that is where ancient Mesopotamia was. Specifically, he would love to visit Ur, in Iraq. Not only is it located in a desert (familiar territory), but it’s one of (if not the) first cities in the world.

Favorite Cuisine/Dish: Unlike Kalim, he loves curry, so that gives me reason to believe that he would enjoy Indian cuisine the most. Syrian food comes in second for him (I spend a lot of time at my friend’s Syrian house and they make good food… I’m hungry now).

Favorite Drink: This was difficult, but I feel like he would move towards margaritas, and not just because of the song. Because curry can be spicy, I would say he likes a spicy margarita as well. His favorite non-alcoholic drink would be a mangonada.

Favorite Souvenir: All the books he picked up to learn different languages. He learned along the way as well, and all of the books have annotations within them so he has them for future reference.

Favorite Singers/Songs: He likes breakdancing, so he likes any song he can breakdance to. I am not very involved within this genre of music, so after doing some research I have come to the conclusion that he would love the song The Witch, by the Bamboos.

Favorite Movie: Footloose, as it’s a movie about dancing and rock music being banned. He saw it because it looked interesting, and he learned the Footloose dance. Also, the song Holdin’ Out For a Hero makes him feel like he wants to be someone’s hero.

Silver

Favorite Country/City: Carrickfergus, as it holds the Carrickfergus Castle. It may be a Norman castle, but it’s because of the history (and the fact that he may be based off of both the Princess and the Prince and thus deserves a castle {personal opinion}) that he enjoys his time in the town.

Favorite Cuisine/Dish: This is the first time I’ve actually dove into investigating Silver’s likes and dislikes, and apparently he likes mushroom risotto, which is thought to originate from the Italian region of Lombardy.

Favorite Drink: He strikes me as the type to like wine, and not the bitter stuff. He likes sweeter wines, especially white wines as they pair nicely with the risotto he loves.

Favorite Souvenir: A journal, in which he writes about his many journeys around the world. 

Favorite Singers/Songs: I think he is a Swiftie. That being said, his favorite song would be Love Story, as he is looking for his Juliet. However, he is not one of those over-excited fans who will tear someone up for saying they don’t like Taylor Swift’s songs. He will just judge them quietly.

Favorite Movie: Gladiator, partially for the plot, partially for Russel Crowe. It reminds him of the training he had to go through as a knight.

[indestructibleheart]

Hi, fam! Okay, so I'm going to be out at an appointment tomorrow morning, so I'm kicking this off a little bit early. It's technically Wednesday in several timezones and very nearly Wednesday in mine. I'm... also a bit eager to share this, ngl.

I know that I've shared a lot of angst lately, but I swear that's not all I'm doing. 😅 In fact, the actor/playwright AU decided to wallop me in the face out of nowhere after sitting in my WIP folder for months. I'm really excited about it, so I'm gonna share the first scene!

(Also, those of you who have been to New York with me will recognize my favorite brunch spot in this scene lmao.)

---

You probably didn't even know I was in the room, but I noticed you straight away. You were talking with your friends, happy and animated and fully alive—a person living in dimensions I couldn’t access—and so beautiful. Your hair was longer then. You were the center of attention, but you weren’t afraid. You had a yellow ipê-amarelo in your pocket. I thought, this is the most incredible thing I have ever seen; I'd better keep it a safe distance away from me. I thought, if someone like that ever loved me, it would set me on fire.

INT. MOM'S KITCHEN & BAR - HELL'S KITCHEN - LATE MORNING

"I'm telling y'all," Alex is saying, punctuating with dangerously large bites of his pancake burrito. "The dude's a dick." 

It's been two hours since the nightmare audition, but Alex has been on this tirade since June and Nora first slid into the retro diner chairs across from him (at least forty-five minutes ago).

They're at Mom's: a restaurant-bar in midtown that can only be described as millennial nostalgia incarnate. The trio fell in love with it two years back—post-karaoke, stumbling in right before closing—when Alex saw God in their Fruity Pebble pancakes.  Since then, it's been his favorite place to eat his feelings.

Mom's is just really fucking comforting in general, honestly; whether it's the televisions cycling through episodes of 'Rugrats,' 'Dexter's Laboratory,' and 'Hey, Arnold!' or  the rainbow straws and Lisa-Frank-looking menus, Alex can't be sure. It doesn't hurt that they've made friends with several of the waitstaff, including an eccentric bartender, Pez, whose pink hair and painted nails fit right in with the decor. 

Today, it's the combination of breakfast sausage, bacon, eggs and cheese wrapped up in a syrup-soaked pancake that's really doing something for him. It could also be the margarita the size of his face, which Pez placed in front of him before making himself uncharacteristically scarce. But it's fine. He's probably just busy.

Alex won't admit it out loud, but what really helps is having June and Nora here to talk to… even though Nora is scrolling on her phone.

"I'm sorry," June says. She pokes an ice cube with her straw, and Alex watches as it bobs around her mimosa like a buoy. "That sounds like it sucked, but if he's really that rude… maybe you didn't want to work with him anyway."

Nora doesn't look up as she pops a home fry into her mouth. 

"Several sources say he's difficult to work with," she adds, evidently reading about Henry on the internet. "Though, in his defense, his dad did just die, like, three years ago… and there was that whole thing when he came out after. Remember?"

Alex does remember. Henry's grandmother, Mary Mountchristen, runs a pretty major company that used to own half the theatres on the West End. When Henry came out last year, she tried blacklisting his shows from her properties to punish him—which totally backfired when it got around. At least a dozen other queer writers and producers started talking about how they were also denied the space, and Mary was stoned on the streets of the theatre district. Like, metaphorically. 

Alex, Nora, and June had just moved to New York, but between June's position at Newsday and both Alex and Nora on the audition circuit, it was all anyone in their new circles could talk about. They were some of the first to know when the Mountchristens were bought out of their properties and Henry moved to the States.

This show is the first of Henry's being produced here—and it's autobiographical, which Alex has to admit is pretty fucking baller. So, yeah, Nora's not wrong. He has reason to be standoffish. Still, it doesn't explain why Alex was only halfway through his audition monologue when Henry abruptly stood up and exited stage left as if pursued by a bear.

He shoves another forkful into his mouth. "It's just, like, they're the only people who let me into the room," he says, barely finishing chewing. "Nobody wants to take me seriously, and I really thought this was my shot, you know?"

June and Nora both know Alex is having a hard time landing serious roles after growing up on a sitcom—Nora more than most, as his former co-star. What they don't know is that losing this role, specifically, feels like a kick to the stomach. From the moment Alex saw the script, he wanted to be a part of it. He can't even explain why, and now he'll never figure it out. Henry wouldn't give him a chance.

"It wasn't your only shot, and you know it." Nora fixes him with a look. "Seriously, I get it—I do—but it's just one play, buddy."

June nods. "Something will happen for you, baby brother."

At that, Alex finally groans. "Okay, calling me baby brother doesn't help me feel better about the entertainment industry infantili—"

"—itty bitty, teeny weeny—"

Alex throws a home fry at her face. 

It bounces off her forehead and into the giant gauntlet holding her mimosa with a very unappetizing splash. Just as Alex throws his hands into the air with a victorious whoop, his phone buzzes on the table. 

A glance is all it takes for him to see that it's his agent, Zahra.

"Damn," he says, deflating. There goes that upswing. "You answer it."

June balks. "Me?"

"I don't need to hear how fucking badly it went. Trust me, I got the message." Alex blinks innocently, like he's six years old again, asking her to lie to their mom about that broken vase. "Please, Bug? Besides, Zahra actually likes you."

"Everyone likes me." June rolls her eyes, but she caves—answering the phone with a haughty, "Alex Claremont-Diaz's office," before breaking into a smile. "Yeah, Z. It's me… No, Alex is feeling a little sensitive today."

(He throws another home fry at her. This one misses.)

To her credit, June's face remains totally blank as Zahra no doubt tells her how Alex insulted Henry Fox's name and all of his inbred ancestors just by showing up, or whatever—which is extremely annoying and unhelpful—but, once she says goodbye and sets the phone back down on the table, her face breaks out into a grin.

"Guess you didn't suck too bad," she says. "They want you for the part."

He doesn't know if it's Nora throwing herself at him or the shock that knocks him onto the floor.

Tagging some lovelies. If you haven't been tagged and you want to be, consider this your tag!

@anchoredarchangel, @barbiediaz, @cha-melodius, @cricketnationrise, @guillermosfamiliar, @hgejfmw-hgejhsf, @hippolotamus, @inexplicablymine, @jettestar, @junebugclaremontdiaz, @kiwiana-writes, @lizzie-bennetdarcy, @missgeevious, @mulderscully, @myheartalivewrites, @ninzied, @nontoxic-writes, @notspecialbabe, @priincebutt, @rmd-writes, @rosedavid, @three-drink-amy, @treluna4, @vanillahigh00, @welcometololaland, @orchidscript, @ships-to-sail, @stereopticons

[imgonzoingrightnow]

I’ve unlocked the secret bonus the nanny episodes. (I found out the Russian version of the nanny has an additional 25 episodes and a season 7 and I translated the season 7 episodes synopsis. Furthermore I’m transcribing and translating um.. at least one episode)

Here are the episodes synopsis for all 40 season 7 episodes. And a guide on the names and stuff.

Constantine - Niles

Zhanna - CC

Maxim - Maxwell

Vika - Fran

Shatalins- Sheffields 

Denis - Brighton 

Masha - Maggie 

Ksyusha - Gracie

Baba Nadia - Yetta

Prutkovsky- Morty I think idk  

Galya- Val

Liubov Grigorievna- 

Season 7 episodes (some exist in original show) 

1: According to urban planning plans, the Shatalins' house is subject to demolition. Vika took up the housing issue. However, none of the houses viewed suits the newly-made Mrs. Shatalina. Vladimir Vladimirovich Prutkovsky unexpectedly manages to solve the outcome of the struggle for real estate.

2: According to urban planning plans, the Shatalins' house is subject to demolition. Vika took up the housing issue. However, none of the houses viewed suits the newly-made Mrs. Shatalina. Vladimir Vladimirovich Prutkovsky unexpectedly manages to solve the outcome of the struggle for real estate.

3: Shatalin Jr. fights there and admits that he wants to follow in his father's footsteps. But Denis will have to wait with his production career and first go... to the Suvorov school. Zhanna has a new suitor.

4: Vicky's noisy behavior at the moment of intimacy with Maxim becomes the cause of their quarrel. Shatalin will still have to reconsider his conservative views. To achieve cooperation with a famous American playwright, Maxim just needs to become more uninhibited.

5: To appear at a meeting with school friends accompanied by a young handsome man, Zhanna turns to an escort agency. Extremely upset Konstantin tells Vika about everything. Together they find a way out of a situation that is offensive to him.

6: For several months Maxim has not been able to find a sponsor for his new production. Vika suffers from his inattention. Having fallen under the influence of Prutkovsky, Maxim became a fan of gambling and restaurants. What will make Shatalina return to his old life?

7: A neighbor, the mother of a prodigy boy Moti, comes to visit Vika. Motya demonstrates talents in all areas at the same time: from playing chess and musical instruments to acrobatics. Vika decides to start developing Shatalin's children immediately. Denis and Masha manage to turn away, but Ksyusha is forced to learn to play the cello. Moreover, the insatiable Vika makes Ksyusha a participant in the television contest of young talents, where she fails with a bang...

8: Denis came on vacation from the Suvorovsky school and asks his father to let him and his friends go to St. Petersburg. Maxim refuses. Vika intervenes, but also gets a refusal. Denis touches Vika: he says that his father does not take her opinion into account, and that she is still just a nanny. Baba Nadia and Prutkovsky advise Vika to get her way by refusing Maxim to have sex. But in the bedroom, seeing Maxim, Vika can't stand it herself and pounces on him. The next day, Vika hires a new nanny, and she, on Konstantin's advice, goes to the club for a prestigious party. But there she finds neither friends nor a decent occupation. In her absence, children have questions in which only she can help. The new nanny, feeling unnecessary, quits. In the evening, Maxim confesses to Vika that he loves her both as a wife and as a nanny.

9: Maxim believes that Vika allows children too much, moreover, she defends Maxim's interests. Masha brings her boyfriend Mikhail to visit. Maxim is conservative, Vika is on the contrary. There is a quarrel. By night, the passions had subsided. But the next day Maxim finds out that Masha decided to move in with Misha and, what is even more outrageous, Vika allowed her to do so. A storm eruped. Vika went to see her dad for advice. Dad's advice helped. The family is together again. Moral foundations have not been violated.

10: Vika receives a long-awaited invitation to the party of Rublev's wives. There she finds out that it's not enough to be just the wife of a rich man. A woman must necessarily have her own business: a club, an art gallery or a restaurant. Vika decides to open a restaurant. Maxim gives her money for premises and promotion. Finally, the restaurant is ready to receive the first visitors. But there are no visitors. To attract the public, Vika will repurpose her establishment into a Peruvian restaurant. But the exotic doesn't attract customers. Zhanna invites restaurant critics to write positive reviews about the restaurant. Zhanna's sudden benevolence alarms Vika. And not for nothing! However, Zhanna's cunning eventually turns into a benefit...

11: Things are not going well at Vicky's restaurant, and the workforce, consisting mainly of Viki's relatives and friends, goes on strike. And at this time, Maxim comes up with the idea to stage the musical "Bremen Town Musicians" in the style of "chanson" and invite the star of this specific genre - Sergei Kylo to the main role. As a result, the musical fails. Sergei Kylo's "Roop", which financed the production, is dissatisfied and demands a refund. Shatalin's life is under threat. But Vika finds a way out, and the musical, which failed on the theater stage, with great success called "Bremen Tourers" begins to go on the stage of restaurants!…

12: There was a disappearance in the theater where Maxim stages the musical. To find the thief, Zhanna gets Maxim's permission to rumage through the biographies of employees. And he finds out that Vika never graduated from school, and Konstantin has a criminal record. In order to improve her reputation and get a certificate, Vika goes to the senior class of the school where Masha studies. Vic's school is the center of attention. She has a lot of friends and suitors. And she spends all her free time with them. She really likes going back to school. What about Masha? She's not in their company. None of her former friends pay attention to her. And Masha is doing homework alone. The passing of the laboratory chemistry workshop is approaching. Will Vika hand it in?

13: Maxim and Zhanna are preparing a new comedy production with the role of a butler. And Konstantin really wants to play this role. But Maxim is categorically against the fact that the family participates in his productions. Zhanna still persuades Maxim to listen to Konstantin. Why does she need it? To once again rejoice over him. Konstantin fails at the audition. Konstantin and Vika are indignant, they consider it unfair. They have an idea to deceive and make fun of Maxim and Zhanna. Vika, having changed into a man, successfully passes the audition for the role of a butler. And he is already going to take off his wig and beard, but after hearing words of delight from the producers, promises of a bright future and the amount of fees, he decides to wait.

14: His university friend, a lucky businessman Vlad Sablin, came to Maxim. They get drunk all evening, and the next day Maxim goes on a business trip urgently. Vlad comes to the house and tells Vika that Maxim hastily forgot to write him a check for half a million dollars. Vika writes a check, Zhanna objects. On the same day, Vika and Zhanna find out that Vlad is all in debt. Zhanna rubs her hands - finally Vika is thrown out of the house. Vika goes to Vlad's house in despair. Vlad is ready to return the money, but an inner voice tells Vika that he should be given a chance. Meanwhile, Konstantin receives a letter about the inheritance. He will inherit the title and estate. Konstantin became proud, stopped working, started shopping expensive. Later it turns out that there are plenty of other applicants for the title, and the estate is unprofitable.

15: Vika continues to revolve in the company of Rublev wives and look for a decent occupation. Now she announces that she is going to open an art gallery. From her neighbors, Vika finds out that it is now fashionable to discover new names among the gallery workers. Vika makes everyone at home to demonstrate their painting skills. The result does not please Vika and she turns to a professional artist. But the situation there is no better. As a result, Maxim's youthful drawings are demonstrated at the opening of the gallery. But the fire alarm goes off and the pictures are flooded with water...

16: Maxim wants to involve one of the stars, Sergei Kurnosov, in his production. Meanwhile, journalist Makar Polivalov writes an unpleasant article about the upcoming production. They say that all famous actors refused to participate in it. But if Kurnosov reads this article, he can also refuse. Maxim finds the strength to restrainedly ask Polivalov on the phone to change his mind and not write such articles anymore. At this moment, Vika bursts into the office, grabs the phone, is rude to Polivalova and hangs up. The next day, an article appears that completely discredits Maxim's plans. In it, Polivalov operates with information that was known only to the household. Vika and Konstantin suspect Zhanna's suitor. To report this, Vika again bursts into Maxim's office, where he is just going to sign a contract with Kurnosov. Maxim asks her to come out, but Vika, seeing Kurnosov, asks for an autograph. And just on the newspaper with an article that Kurnosov shouldn't have seen.

17: Vika dreams of a status car. Maxim is ready to buy her a car on condition that Vika gets a license. Vika offers Maxim to just buy her a license, as all her acquaintances do. But Maxim is categorically against it. Then Vika buys the license herself, but tells Maxim that she honestly passed all the exams. Maxim wants to check for himself how Vika drives the car. Vicky has only a few days to prepare and hand over Maxim driving. She takes night driving lessons from Konstantin. Maxim, who doesn't know why Vika runs away to the butler at night, starts to get jealous...

18: It seems to Vika that her relationship with Maxim has lost its former novelty. Maxim has completely earned money, pays little attention to her, sex has become commonplace. The children and Konstantin leave for the weekend, Vika and Maxim stay home alone. Vika wants to use this chance to light the fire of love and voluptuousness again. But it turns out to be not so easy.

19: At night, a Labrador dog is found in the Shatalins' yard. Ksyusha is delighted and wants to keep her. Vika follows her lead. Maxim is categorically against it and asks everyone to actively join the search for the owner. Zhanna notices that the dog looks like Koni, the Prime Minister's dog. After Zhanna's call, his friend from the Prime Minister's security has no doubts. What luck! Now they will meet the prime minister. But grandma Nadia disappoints everyone - the prime minister has a bitch, and this is the cable. Masha finds a photo of Nikolai Baskov's dog on the Internet. And the night guest looks a lot like him. Maybe his master is Baskov?

20: Maxim is waiting for a visit from his old friend from Paris - Countess Tarnovskaya. Vika is convinced that the Countess is an old woman. But it turns out that the countess is Maxim's childhood friend and his age. Appearing in the Shatalins' house, she begins to seduce Maxim. Vika is jealous and buys herself a fake family tree, according to which the Prutkovskys are an ancient Polish noble family. It comes to the fact that Vika is presented to the Moscow noble assembly. Dad, who appeared at the wrong time, involuntarily contributes to the exposition of Wiki. Maxim saves the situation.

21: Vika is watching the new neighbors. It seems to her that they are Chinese spies. Vika connects Galya to the spy. They get their hands on a parcel addressed to the neighbors. Opening the parcel, Galya and Vika find warm socks and lard in it. They decide that it is through lard that the neighboring spies get important information. To "split" them, Vika invites neighbors to visit. Here she tries to give her neighbor a drink, but the neighbor doesn't let her do it. Cunning questions also do not bring results. Galya starts entertaining the neighbors alone, while Vika does a search in the neighbor's house. Galya dances in front of the neighbors, sings, shows the shadow theater... At this time Maxim returns. After that, all misunderstandings are resolved. The fact is that the neighbors behaved so intensely with Vika only because of her strange behavior they considered Vika a spy...

22: Konstantin suffers because Zhanna doesn't pay attention to him. To interest her, Konstantin composes a story about the fact that he has a twin brother, with whom they were separated in early childhood. Now this brother is a major American producer. Having glued his mustache, Konstantin portrays his own brother and even has success with Zhanna. It comes to the point that Konstantin begins to be jealous of Jeanne for himself, that is, his fictional brother. He leads Zhanna to a restaurant, where the deception is revealed.

23: Vika takes Galya with her to the next meeting of Rublev's wives to look better against her background. At this meeting, Vika criticizes the book, the author of which is the Rublev lady present here, writing under a pseudonym. She offers Vika to write at least one book herself. Vika agrees. But her personal literary talents are clearly lacking and Vika turns to a professional - an unemployed writer Kolbaskin for help. Meanwhile, Galya is becoming an increasingly popular figure in a social party and even displacing Vika from there...

24: Maxim is extremely unhappy with what the press writes about Viki's scandalous antics. And he advises her to behave more cautiously and not to undermine his image. The family returns from a picnic and discovers that they forgot their dad in the forest. After a while, he appears all in soot. He says he extinguished a forest fire alone. No one believes him. But the next day TV correspondents come to the Shatalin's house and invite Prutkovsky to the TV show to tell about his feat. A very good moment to raise Vicky's image. Vika persuades her father to say that they extinguished the fire together and goes to the studio with him.

25: Maxim trusts Vika to organize the presentation of the new musical. Zhanna is convinced that Vika will not be able to cope. And if anything, Zhanna will help her not to cope. Vika and Galya surprisingly quickly find a room, musicians - everything so that the presentation takes place at the highest level. But Vika accidentally leaves her mobile phone in the living room. The administrator is calling her. Zhanna takes the phone. The administrator asks to confirm the order by five o'clock, otherwise he will cancel everything. Zhanna promises that she will certainly give Vika all the information. He writes a note to Vika in incomprehensible handwriting and hides it under a pile of papers so that Vika can't notice it right away. The presentation is under threat of disruption.

26: It seems to Gala that she is being chased by a maniac. And Vicky's credit card is running out of money. Maxim doesn't want to tell Vika the code from his safe, because he's sure that Vika will forget it. Vika swears that she will be able to remember the code. Maxim names the combination of numbers, and says that there will be a gift for Vicky in the safe. She will have to get this gift for dinner. But Vika forgets the code. In order not to embarrass himself in front of Maxim, Vika decides to break into the safe. Prutkovsky recommends Vika to contact their relative - a professional bear cub named Grizzly. He blows up the safe and instead of Vic's gift he finds only a burnt fragment of something unknown…

27: Vika meets her old acquaintance Katya, who is now known as Evelina Gimenei, a specialist in family relations and author of books on this topic. Vika persuades Maxim to take a training course on strengthening marriage. But it turns out that these activities are a way to get as much money as possible from trusting couples...

28: Zhanna is having a charity ball. Arriving there, Maxim finds out that he is declared "the prettiest bachelor of show business", and every dance with him brings a decent amount to the fund. When the news about it reaches Vicky, she breaks her head and rushes to the ball.

29: Maxim and Zhanna are going to fly to Paris on business, and Vika wins a voucher "Honey Weekend in the Cleopatra Cave" - a former pioneer camp, and now an elite holiday home. Many Wikin acquaintances have already visited this place and were satisfied. Maxim and Zhanna's trip to Paris is disrupted. Maxim goes with Vika to the "Cleopatra's Cave", where instead of the promised exotics, they are waiting for a completely "Soviet" service and stupid contests. And Zhanna remains to find out with Konstantin: which of them was more often "threwn" in her personal life.

30: The old chair that Maxim got from his great-grandmother turned out to belong to Prince Dolgoruky himself. Maxim gives a chair to the museum in the hope of becoming a member of its board of trustees. The solemn ceremony of his acceptance as a member of the trusteeship The council should take place in a few days. Ksyusha breaks Vika to go to the museum and look at her great-grandmother's chair. In the museum, Vika is photographed next to an armchair, accidentally drops a massive candlestick and it smashes the chair to pieces.

31: Vika and Maxim are invited to the wedding of Vikina's cousin. But Maxim's plans suddenly change. Together with Zhanna, he flies to Jurmala for a competition of young performers. In Jurmala, it turns out that all the hotels are overcrowded and one of the rooms they booked was occupied by Alla Pugacheva. Maxim and Zhanna will have to spend the night in the same room. It's about the night. Maxim and Zhanna decide who will sleep where. At this moment, jealous Vika climbs out from under the bed. And immediately an equally jealous Konstantin appears from the closet. Now they will have to spend the night in one room for four. And who stayed at home with the children then?

32: The Shatalins have new neighbors, the Kuskov family couple. He is an oil oligarch, she is a famous ballerina in the past. And also their daughter Juliet is the heiress to the oil and gas throne. Ksyusha comes to her house with Juliet and Konstantin treats the girls with his signature pancakes. Juliet is delighted. Vika dreams of getting to know such status neighbors better. She sneaks to their housewarming party and even invites the Kuskovs to her place. Vika is aware that the Kuskovs annually arrange a yacht trip for their friends and want to get into this circle. The Kuskovs really invite you to take part in the cruise, but not Maxim's Vikui, but... Konstantin. Konstantin also receives a tempting offer to work as a butler for the Kuskovs.

33: Vika has nothing to do. The children are already adults and do without it. Konstantin does all the housework. At this time, a bell rings in the Shatalins' house. The little girl got the wrong number. She says mom forgot to pick her up from school. Vika rushes to the rescue and brings the girl to her place. When it turns out that today is the girl's birthday, Vika arranges a real holiday for her: with a chic cake, a clown, pony riding and even an elephant. In the midst of the holiday, Maxim appears and has found the girl's mother. It turns out that the girl's birthday was a few months ago, and these calls from school to an unfamiliar number are just a way to have an interesting time, since the girl's mother is in business and is at work all the time. Nevertheless, Vika and the girl break up as friends. 

34: Vika dreams of getting into the prestigious Rublev fitness club, which is run by a handsome man from glossy magazines Tony Prince. And here's a lucky case - his car suddenly catches fire right in front of the Shatalins' house and Konstantin saves his idol. But the money lying in the glove box can't be saved. Tony saved this money for filming a methodical film about fitness. Vika decides to produce this movie. Maxim agrees after some hesitation. Vika and Tony become business partners. But then Vika notices that Tony shows no business interest in her at all.

35: Galya broke up with another suitor and is now in a deep depression. She moves to Vika's house, and in a couple of days all the household members moan from her whining and whims. Maxim demands that Vika kick out Galya. But Vika feels sorry for her friend and leaves the house with her. Maxim regrets that he behaved so heartlessly. And the enterprising Prutkovsky lures considerable sums from Maxim - allegedly in order to persuade Vika to return. In the end, everything falls into place. Galya is brought out of depression by the shawarma seller, and Maxim and Vika are together again.

36: Maxim's musical should go on tour to St. Petersburg. But the trip is on the verge of collapse, since the star of the musical, actress Olga Bobkova, can't go. Vika manages to find out the reason for the refusal - the star has a small son who has no one to leave with. No nanny can stand talking to a little bully for more than a day. Vika decides to shake up the old and work as a nanny. The actress is ready to go on tour. She brings her son to the Shatalins' house and it turns out that this "baby" is already sixteen years old! At the same time, he behaves like a six-year-old child. However, Vika shows a remarkable pedagogical talent and in two days the boy is literally unrecognizable!..

37: Konstantin decides to sell Maxim a play written by his friend and become a co-producer of the production. And all this in order to get rich and attract Zhanna's attention. But Maxim reacted to it coldly. Vika advises Konstantin to just confess his feelings to Zhanna. Konstantin believes that he can't do it until he gets rich. Then Vika offers Konstantin her help in staging the play. They pretend to be Maxim and Zhanna and start the production. A devastating article appears in the yellow press, which lists all their mistakes and miscalculations. This is a serious blow to the image of the Shatalin agency. Vika plays a scene of despair in front of Max and reports failure. Maxim is correcting the situation. After the successful premiere, Konstantin proposes to Zhanna.

38: Vika and the doctors were wrong - there was no pregnancy. It's just that Vika ate too far. Vika and Maxim decide to correct this mistake and conceive a child. Dad believes that Max's sperm at his age are no longer so active and advises Vika to turn to the Chinese doctor Fu. Vika buys the necessary roots from Dr. Fu to increase sperm activity and a whole box of special almond cookies for mutual attraction. Vika and Max don't get out of bed. Vika constantly checks whether she is pregnant with the help of a test. By chance, the cookie gets to Konstantin and Zhanna and a passion flares up between them.

39: Vika still wants a baby and is worried that she can't get pregnant. It seems to Maxim that it has turned into an obsession. He offers Vika to get distracted, go to the ski resort, where he was invited, among others, by the Prime Minister of Russia himself. Vika is delighted - she will get acquainted with the Prime Minister himself. Before the gala dinner, Maxim is afraid that Vika will blunt out something. However, at dinner, the premiere liked Vicky's immediacy so much that he invited Vic to go skiing with him a few days later. Maxim, on the contrary, he sheditated, carried all sorts of nonsense, which is why after the meeting he began to worry even more. Maxim teaches Vik to go skiing. Suddenly, Vika can't resist and rolls down at great speed. Maxim is behind her. As a result, they find themselves waist-deep in snow in a crevice. Afraid of freezing, they warm each other with love. A few days later, when there are only a few hours left before the walk with the prime minister, Vika finds out that she is pregnant. And he is in a hurry not to the prime minister, but to Maxim, to "the main man in his life".

[fromthenortheast]

OC Open Tag Questionaire

tagged by @48lexr, thank you very much! (this is also open tag for everyone!)

Doing this with my four main OC's: Marilag, Raem, Agapito and Dayang.

1. What's your favorite restaurant? If you don't have one, what's your favorite food?

Marilag, playwright: Ooh, I love specifically the restaurant by the seaside, they sell ricecakes, my favorite. Riceckes are great whenever you have a hectic work and can't go outside, such as making scripts and other endeavors such as fixing costumes for the plays.

Raem, fisherman: Same with Marilag, but I hated ricecakes. Would prefer sinigang and other soup over anything. I go there especially when the evening strikes before I go out fishing in the sea.

Agapito, healer: O-oh...I don't have one, I am not allowed outside. But I love pastries and bread with meat fillings inside. I always eat them whenever I can, though not always...it isn't in the right diet for healers, as the Church would say.

Dayang, Imperial Princess: A favorite of mine is the restaurant by the capital, near the Church. It is called 'Southern Delicacies'. It is where many noblemen would flock over for other business meetings, but I would say that the view is much more better than the food or the people there.

2. How many languages do you speak? Do you speak English? How many forms of those languages do you speak?

Marilag, playwright: Hmm, I speak three of them. Golangi-La is my main language, a language of the moon eaters (bakunawa) and a form of a language of the fae. However it is banned in the empire so I speak the human tongue. I also speak English, though very broken. I have some audiences from the northern empires who speak those languages...

Raem, fisherman: I speak only two. Butlong was my main language, until I got swept by the capital and so I began to speak the human tongue. You cannot speak the language of the tree dwellers to mortals, you know? And also, English? What's that?

Agapito, healer: Around five. First is the human tongue; then the language of the fae (I speak its two forms) and the sirens. I also speak foreign languages such as English and the language of the eastern empires. It is important to do so the Church is diverse in its followers.

Dayang, Imperial Princess: I speak six languages. I spoke the human tongue; two forms of Uslok, a language of the tree dwellers; English and two foreign languages. I was heavily taught by scholars and the Empress (unfortunately) in order to understand the diplomats that always dwell in our court.

3. What does magic mean for you?

Marilag, playwright: Magic is art. Plain and simple. It is an art of life, a gift of the gods for us to use in the good of everyone and to showcase the beauty of life in every form.

Raem, fisherman: Pretty poetic, sister. Anyways, magic for me is something of an advantage, mostly. It can slap you in the face if you even try to use it for evil, I've seen it. And its entertaining.

Agapito, healer: Well, magic is sort of life itself. A component, you see.

Dayang, Imperial Princess: Magic by definition of the Shamans is a component of life aside from soil, water and air. It is a dangerous weapon, while also a beautiful form of art, as Marilag have said.

*when they say human tongue they do not mean the general human tongue but rather their main language in the empire that humans speak.

*these are my characters in my wip, butchered tongue

Tagging @dreambigdreamz + @writing-mechanical-monsters + open tag! Answer these questions below:

Who is the person they would go to for advice when it comes to either romance or other problems in life?

What kind of music do they listen to or like to listen to in the distance if ever?

What would be the first thing they do if danger suddenly comes to them? Do they run? Do they freeze in panic? Do they use their magic?

[ladycharles]

Oh Boy track by track part 2 - Hands (Hamlet context dump incoming)

"Oh Boy" the play is a twisted disco version of Hamlet that unfolds in small town Ontario, and so "Hands" is a track that is about my impression of Claudius, in this case renamed Colonel Uncle Arvin by Kosta, the playwright.

Arvin/Claudius is portrayed as a military man, his kingdom a disco bar (Colonel Uncle Arvin's Family Style Restaurant and Dancehall) in small town Ontario rather than all of Denmark. He is deeply inhibited, brutish, scheming, and prone to emotional outbursts that he barely masks with a deep cynicism.

This song was composed for his entrance - a dance solo. He is a limbering, awkwardly masculine dancer and so I wanted the track to feature an uneven rhythm despite the rigid 4/4 of disco - hence the chorus bassline actually comes in before the drums instead of being locked in, creating a sense of pulling against the beat as if to wrest control of the rhythm like the feelings of anger and anxiety driving him.

And so the lyrics too follow the theme of his internal conflict. I know anxiety and panic, and the song recounts the feelings of being controlled by anxiety, the "commotion" being the loss of control of a meltdown or panic attack.

Men like Arvin do not wear their emotions on their sleeve, so I couldn't make it direct. Instead I tried to write as the older, more inhibited generations do - using poetic language to obscure the meaning. This is the realm of "feeling like a shadow/drifting like a leaf*" not "I spend my waking hours haunting my own life/I made the one I love start crying tonight**"

The track was mixed and edited by Mark Plati, who produced David Bowie's Earthling and Toy albums and who I actually saw play guitar for him when I was 13 and had the luck of seeing Bowie in Toronto. He is an incredibly talented musical mind and much like Erin Tonkon did to my other tracks he worked some magic to where it really came alive compares to my rough mix. It's amazing being able to have these experienced and brilliant hands on deck, and I learned a lot from both of them.

An example of Plati's work with Bowie - check out the explosion of the chorus, what a dynamic track. Loved this one in my youth.

*Move On - Bowie

**Spiteful Intervention - of Montreal

[nalyra-dreaming]

I still don't really understand - what is the coven's motivation for doing this?

The coven is held to laws that Louis and Claudia were not held to and that created friction.

But ultimately this happens because Armand wanted to get rid of Claudia and wanted Louis to himself. AND he used Louis to get rid of his coven in the process.

And that is just all there is to it, unfortunately.

Armand did not love her. That's why she died.

Armand loves Louis. That's why he lives.

The coven... does what Armand wants it to. You don't think a vampire who froze whole restaurants and put his coven to sleep with a single exclamation is actually held by their resident playwright with a prop scythe, do you :)

[phoenixyfriend]

141 Prompts (and a reference list of other prompt lists)

A mix of normal/standard AUs and a few Funky Ones. Send one or more characters and a prompt, and maybe you'll get a drabble!

I needed to break them up due to post limitations, but any one of these can theoretically be used for (almost) any other dynamic. The numbers do reset, though, so if you send one to a person, be sure to include either the section or the prompt!

Reminder: You send prompts to people in the ask box, not through replies.

ROMANTIC

Met at the Gym

Niche Academic Field AU

Food-based Small Business Owner and their New Regular

Author and Editor

Mystery Author and Serial Killer

Cosplayer and Creator of the series they're cosplaying from (author, actor, whatever)

Made out while in costume at a Halloween Party

Renaissance Playwright/Artist/Artisan/Creator and their Wealthy Patron

One Night Stand but the next morning you learn it's your CEO's kid

Bodyguard AU

Whoops I accidentally became a Sugar Baby

Whoops I accidentally fell in love with the sex worker I've been involved with (OnlyFans, exotic dancer, full-service, whatever)

Rich person pretends to be poor, secures a date with actual working-class person

Celebrity Romance

Con Artist and the person who saw through their grift

We each don't speak the other's language, but we both speak Klingon or Ancient Greek or Latin or something so we're making do

Sexy Repairman

Hot Single Parent and babysitter/nanny

Pilot and Flight Attendant

Model and Designer

Accidental Pregnancy

Fake Dating

Fake Married

Marriage of Convenience

Green Card Marriage

Arranged Marriage

Age Difference Marriage

Mistaken for Cheating

Casanova in Love

Only One Bed

The Perfect Student/Citizen and the one with a motorcycle and tattoos and piercings (and a heart of gold)

"My parents are out of town, you up?"

Just saw an ex at an event, started making out with the hottest person in arm's reach and now we're dating?

There's a ghost here and I'm going to date it

Assassins after the same target

Regency Romance

Late Victorian Dueling Detectives

Silent film stars

Alien and astronaut

Magical/Mundane

Reincarnation AU

Soulmate AU: Matching Marks

Soulmate AU: First Words

Soulmate AU: Timers

Vampire and Hunter

Demon and Angel

Eldritch Being and the person they are being SO normal about

Omegaverse, but it's not Alpha Male/Omega Male

Hallmark Film AU

Disney Princess Film AU

FAMILIAL

Accidental Baby Acquisition

Take your kid to work day

Promoted to Parent

Child coming out to the parents

Parent coming out to the kids

Overprotective older sibling

Overprotective parent

Overprotective kid/younger sibling

My ex had a kid without telling me, now they're dead and the kid I didn't know about came to me (AKA The Game Plan AU)

Just received custody of my nibling(s), because their parent/my sibling is dead/in jail/just got drafted/is otherwise busy

Adopted the Antichrist

Changeling Custody Battle

Death of a distant/estranged relative resulted in a Big Inheritance

Secret/Lost/Delayed Heir (Princess Diaries AU)

Military Brat

Bonding with the stepparent

Evil stepparent

Family Small Business (restaurant, dry cleaners, bookstore, library, etc)

Mom died and now dad's lost his mind and turned into a supervillain

Mom died and now we need to bring her back to life hashtag necromancy

A parent died and now the kids are following an Inherited Map From Generations Past to find some old treasure hidden behind a stupid number of riddles

That one kid at the reunion that greets everyone with flying tackles

Backyard gardening

Building flat pack furniture with The Kids

Taking a grandparent out from the nursing home to hang out for the day

Heirlooms for the wedding

PLATONIC/GENERIC

Accidentally texted the wrong number

Roommates accidentally adopt a cat

A friend needs to sleep on the couch

Trying to be polite about the terrible meal a loved one cooked

Planning a Baby Shower

Planning a Bachelor/ette Party

Wedding planner and client

(Consoling someone who was) Left at the Altar

(Consoling someone who was) Cheated on

Just won the lottery

Ascended to godhood

Emergency Room Meeting

Maid/Janitor/Cleaner who witnessed something illegal

Amnesia

Private Investigator

Vigilante and rescued victim

Need some help hiding the body

"I would kill for you. Please ask me to kill for you."

One bets the other to do some parkour

One begs the other to not do some parkour

Wingman

Lab Partners

Heist Team

Snowed in together/Hurricane Party/Other Weather Isolation

Custom Couturier

My best friend just got turned into a baby

My best friend just got turned into a pet

Just hit a stranger with my car oh my god please be okay why the FUCK do people have their brights on

Seeing your best friend's ex at an event and making a Scene about it

Just saw an ex at an event and started having a panic attack, and you pulled me aside to calm me down, are we best friends now?

Genderswap AU

Trans AU

Role Swap AU

Can't wear my glasses (lost, damaged, at a bath house where they'd fog up, whatever) and you need to lead me around

Karaoke Party

Someone on a horrible date needs an extraction

One just walked in on the other with an arm stuck in the vending machine that ate their money

SETTING

Social Media AU

Frat/Sorority Party

Met Gala

Library AU

Museum AU

Teachers AU

Reality Competition Show AU

Dance AU

Newspaper/Journalism AU

Winter Holiday

Summer Holiday

Road Trip AU

1950s Diner

Film Noir AU

Dropped Into the Real World

Historical War AU [Asker can specify]

Wingfic AU

Daemon AU

Robot/Android AU

Pirate AU

Everyone is some kind of monster

Zombie Apocalypse

Mermaid AU

Vampires and werewolves AU

Fairy Tale AU

Magical School AU

Time Travel

Time Loop

And here they are as individual sections if you'd rather have a shorter post to reblog:

50 Romance Prompts

26 Family Prompts

37 Platonic/Gen Prompts

28 Setting Prompts

If this list doesn't work for you... try one of these! I've got a lot of AUs in my tags, and a lot of the above was cherry-picked from existing lists.

(That said, a lot of the lists do riff off of each other; I'm not exactly going to cite every instance of a soulmate AU.)

It's broken up vaguely thematically, but mostly due to post limits wrt character count, link quantity, etc.

Big List of AUs

Fanfiction Trope MASH-UP

Fanfic Trope Meme - not actually a prompt meme, but could be used as one

GUESS WHO LOVES AUS - biggest list of AUs holy shit guys

Nearly 200 writing prompts

390 Prompts!!!!

--

50 A Softer World Prompts

One Hundred Ways to Say ‘I Love You’

A (horribly cliched) au + a pairing

Arranged Marriage Prompts

Arranged Marriage Starters

Soulmate au prompts

Soulmate AU Masterlist (yes, a different one)

Just two besties who like to fool around with each other

Imagine your OTP- Things I’ve said to my SO

Fluff Meme: Cuddles Edition

Meet ugly

Have some AUs as if there aren’t enough on your dash already

Romance Tropes

--

Dialogue Prompts

A SHIP AND A NUMBER

A ship and one of these

A pairing and a number

A pairing and a line of dialogue

"I love you" Dialogue Prompt List

A number and a pairing - Kisses

A pairing and a line of dialogue - Fluffy

A pairing and a line of dialogue - Angsty

Valentine's Day Starters

I Hate Valentine’s Day Starters

Dangerous Loyalty RP Starters

--

Hurt/Comfort Prompts

Angst/Fluff Prompt List

Angsty otp AUs

Smut Sentence Starters (18+)

Nonsexual acts of Intimacy

Sharing A Bed Starters

Character(s) and a letter

Characters and a prompt

Two characters or more and a prompt

Mini prompt list

Writing Prompts

Writing Prompts (longer)

--

Weird Words Prompt List

Friendship starter sentences!

Platonic/Friendship Sentence Starters

Protective Big Brother / Friend Starters

Ridiculous Sentence Prompts

sentence starters inspired by bdylanhollis on tiktok

bad idea starters

SILLY/CRACK STARTER SENTENCES

Dialogue Prompts

WRITING PROMPTS - Dialogue prompts

Drabble Challenge! - Dialogue prompts

Prompt List - Dialogue prompts

Four Word Prompts

Five word prompts

DRABBLE PROMPTS

Deep-Ass Starters

Offensive Sentence Starters

--

Angst/Fluff Prompt List MVPs

Angst/Fluff Prompt List Part 4

Angst/Fluff Prompt List #7

Angst/Fluff Prompt List #9

Hurt/Comfort Dialogue Prompts

“Secretly we all love angst” Sentence Starters

Angsty Sentence Starters

Super Angsty Starters

Potential angst starters

Angst lines prompt

Unrequited love starters

Bittersweet reunion rp starters

Illness-Based rp Starters

Whump Dialogue Prompts Pt. 1

Whump Dialogue Prompts Pt. 2

--

‘Mulan’ quote starters

'Buffy’ quote starters

'Inuyasha' quote starters

Deadpool (2016) Sentence Starters

Death of a Bachelor Starters

--

Halloween prompts

Mermaid au sentence starters

Weird Humans Writing Prompts

Assassin AUs

Ninja/Assassin Sentence Starters

Villain or Hero Edition

Interaction Meme (more for art than writing)

30 DAY OCTP CHALLENGE

[smokeys-house]

Travel Log 12 + Reciprocal Lacuna

Passage from Puukko's Travel Log

And just like that, she's gone again. Part o’ me feels like I been shot, but another part o’ me feels like I've met with fate once more. I had a reason t’ live before, sure. Had a couple. But the biggest one felt more like a debt than a life. I been a ghost fer far too long. Now I got a new reason t’ keep kickin’, so’s I can have some new stories fer to tell Marion when I see her next.

I'm headin’ home soon. Got Arturo his money back and then some, but not without some explainin’ needed doin’. I asked Marion if she'd sail me home, but she said “I'm afraid that were I to take you home, just as soon as I'd lay eyes upon it, it would become mine as well.” She always fancied herself a poet, so she talks real pretty. Now she's a playwright, actor, director, restaurant owner, sailor and captain, all sorts o’ things. A driven woman, she is. I told her before she skips out the Adriatic t’ head back on down to Mestre and look up the man playing Baptiste Boucher. She said she needn't actors what can't fight nor sail. I told her he were a mercenary and an actor, an’ that he knew her already. I asked her t’ spook him real good fer me. We'll see what she cooks up someday, I'm sure.

She got me set up with someone what was sailing down near Moominvalley. Following that, I'm gonna hoof it over the mountain and straight back into me home. Won't have t’ see no one till I'm good ‘n ready. Midsummer’s comin’ up. I reckon I would've been asleep by now fer the season, but somehow I fear as though hibernation will evade me when I get back.

I plan on staring out at the sea the whole way home

Signed Puukko

Reciprocal Lacuna

Puukko's trip home from Italy was short-lived. The journey to Venice took her quite a lot longer than she'd anticipated, and throughout it she'd struggled and changed much. For all she'd seen and done since the Snork dropped her off, she'd only seen waves on the way home. She spent most of it silently thinking of Marion. She'd managed to replace the sinking feeling from her past with the fond memories she'd made on the Italian coast.

The constant thrum of ocean waves gave way to chirps and chitters from all of summer's creatures after she made landfall. She began the trek home in the same fashion as she had the voyage by sea, beset by thoughts. Summer's heat was abated only by the crisp mountain air as she climbed ever higher, and ever nearer her abode. With each passing familiarity, trees, plants and animals, scents and sights, her heart grew heavier. She was determined to make it home before she could carry it no longer. The wide paths that cut up the mountains narrowed and widened again. She could see the top of the tower of her house, not far off. She forced down the lump in her throat several times as she closed in.

The relative silence of the lonely mountains were ill suited to distraction for a tired mind, its peaceful nature seemed only to collude with her sorrows. To Puukko, the short distance remaining between her and her front door was an endless and terrifying path. The closer she got, the more she felt like she was being chased. She began to walk faster, feeling guilt and pain creep up within her. She felt a sharp pain in her chest, and an ache in her head. Her vision began to narrow as her breath rapidly increased pace, and her paws began to go numb. The sunny summer day seemed all but gone, fading into tunnel vision focused solely on her front porch. She stumbled as she clawed her way to her door, slamming it behind her and slumping to the ground as she caught her breath.

She sat on the ground, recovering. She took in her surroundings to calm herself. Her home was as she left it. She thought it odd that there wasn't dust, nor cobwebs, just a tidy home filled with memories and knick knacks. The familiarity was both a comfort and a curse. She shook the trail dust and panic from her fur, steadied herself, and set her things aside as she headed into her parlor for a seat. Everything was in its place, and clean. Upon the table, placed tastefully off center, was a basket. It was plain and dark in color, with all manner of shapes and colors spilling out the top. Cheeses, bottles, odds and ends, seashells, ribbons, and all things nice. Tented just before the basket was a note, and beneath it, another.

–

Dear Puukko

We all miss you dearly, and hope to see you soon. We hope you had fun on your adventure.

With love, your friends in the valley.

–

The first note was crammed full on the underside with signatures, scribbles, and doodles featuring names that she knew, and some that she didn't. The thought that she might've left it all behind for good tortured her. Puukko coughed as she held back tears, quickly moving on to the second note.

–

To Miss Puukko

I hope you don't mind, but I'm writing you a note all to myself, as well. I've taken the liberty of keeping the place clean in your absence. As of writing this, this is the third time I've stopped in. The first time was just before we went to sleep for the winter. We left you a lovely basket of things with a little inspiration from everybody. The second was just as we woke in spring, and I had to replace a few of the perishables in the basket. Pappa insisted I not go alone, and that the mountains were far too snowy to go by oneself. Moomintroll came with us, as well. He's not one to be left out, as I'm sure you know. I managed to keep the two of them away from anything sharp or shooty as you would put it. We spent a night or two here, sprucing things up for you and waiting for the snow to thaw. Now, summer has just begun.

I've reassured everyone that you'll be returning. Truth be told, for a while, I wasn't sure myself. The valley feels different without you. Though your visits were sparse, it was reassuring to know that you were up here in your cozy little home, safe. I was worried for you. But when I remember the stories you told me, and I look at all the things that tell your tale in your home, I feel a little more reassured. Whatever you found out there, or whatever found you, you are always welcome in Moominvalley. Marion, too, if she pleases.

Do stop by for a visit on your return

Moominmamma

P.S. Not that I mind the trek, but you might think about installing a post box in the valley. The postman isn't much interested in mountain climbing. Pappa could make one for you, or Too Tikki if you've met with her, she's interested in everything.

–

Tears began to spill upon the page. Just as they hit, Puukko panicked a small bit as she wiped them away, attempting to preserve the letter. For a brief moment, confusion struck her as she lifted her paw up to her eyes. It had been decades since she'd cried last. The sensation was new, and awful, but relieving. The lump in her throat that she'd continued to beat away seemed to burst as she struggled in vain to hold back the deluge of tears. She cried loud, and horribly, as the emotions she struggled to parse escaped through her eyes and into the air. She threw herself onto her couch. She was tired of being strong, and she was tired of being tired. The boiling pot of sorrow and regret fused itself with the warm feeling that made itself a home in her chest, and she smiled. For the first time since she'd been in Moominvalley, she felt not like a legend, nor a criminal, nor the stories she'd been a part of, but like a moomin. She felt, at last, at home.

[revjohno]

RWRB: The Movie

Even before RWRB started climbing the bestseller lists back in 2019, the word was out: this one is going to be big! So Hollywood studios immediately began clamoring for movie rights, which Amazon Prime won in a sealed-bid auction. We fans then filled the internet with suggested cast lists—I was going to say, “none of which even came close to naming the actors eventually chosen, especially the principal leads.” But then a friend reminded me that he had actually suggested Rachel Hilson as Nora from the start, and (don’t read this next bit, Nick and Taylor), “I also had some great suggestions for Alex and Henry, which would have been perfect if they had gone for younger actors closer to the ages the novel specifies.” I sit corrected.

Meanwhile, we settled in to wait for an announcement that the movie was starting production, with a fervor unmatched by even the most rabid fans of the Left Behind series looking for the Second Coming. And we waited … and we waited … and we waited. First-time director Matthew Lopez, a Tony award-winning playwright who also wrote most of the script, seemed to be taking his sweet old time casting the film (though I suspect that once Nicholas Galitzine threw his hat into the ring to play Henry, no one else was even considered). And there matters sat. It didn’t take quite as long to start filming as Jesus has taken to return, but at times, it sure felt like it.

Then, with a rustling of angels’ wings and a blast from golden trumpets, the announcement came: the film had been completely cast and shooting was about to begin! Aside from the two leads, Matthew gave few particulars about who was playing whom, and almost no candid shots of scenes being filmed showed up on the web. There was a bit of flack when Rachel Hilson was announced as Nora, because of the book’s only Jewish character becoming Black. And when Queen Elizabeth II happened to die three weeks after principal shooting ended, people began speculating about the possibility of Matthew being psychic, since he had chosen to replace the novel’s Queen Mary with King James III. Obviously, it didn’t take Madame Cleo to predict that a 96-year-old lady might not survive much longer and that a male monarch would occupy the throne by the time of the movie’s premiere. But in the midst of all the mystery surrounding the film, we needed to talk about something.

Then shortly after shooting wrapped, Nicholas Galitzine was asked how faithful the movie was going to be to the novel. Somewhat nervously, I imagine (he later confessed in an interview with GQ that he never actually finished reading it, so no doubt he was a bit hazy about details), he cautioned us not to expect a carbon copy of the novel, but instead to treat the two as “entirely separate.” He then added, “I just hope that people will think of this as a fun movie.”

Sorry, Nick. RWRB is not a fun movie. Yes, like the novel, it is funny in spots (and Matthew’s script, which I felt actually improved on some of CMQ’s lines, is also remarkably faithful to the original in its general outline and inclusion of certain iconic scenes—far more than most movie adaptations). But the film is mainly concerned with serious issues, and aside from occasional lapses into preachiness, it treats these issues with sincerity, tenderness, and genuine feeling. And this is in no small part due to the performance of Nicholas Galitzine himself.

I find Nick Galitzine to be one of the most amazingly attractive human beings I have ever seen. It’s not just because of his handsome face; my admiration springs from his obvious innate decency, his endearingly goofy sense of humor, and his undeniable talent. There was no need for him to admit that he never finished the book—it’s not like we could have checked—but when asked, he told the truth, because he is an honest man. When the writer from GQ whispered that some other diners at the restaurant where they were meeting were getting irritated because Nick was being too noisy, he immediately got up on his crutches (he had chipped a bone in his ankle in an accident on the set of his latest project, Mary and George) and tottered over to apologize, an all-too rare example of consideration and good manners in this post-Trump world. When teased about his habit of calling everyone “mate” and hailing them as if they were long-lost BFF’s, Nick replied with a laugh, “Everyone is my friend—I’m just very excited to see them! I’m very enthusiastic!” I’m sure that truer words were never spoken.

Though Henry was easy to cast, the hunt for Alex took rather longer, because Matthew was searching for someone who demonstrated just the right chemistry with Nick. Then a thirty-year-old actor named Taylor Zakhar Perez put himself forward (too old, I would have thought, to play the 21-year-ol Alex; plus, at 6’2”, he was actually two inches taller than Nick, and CMQ had made a major plot point out of Henry’s superior height). But when Nick and Taylor first met, Matthew was called away for a few minutes, and he came back to find them talking nineteen to the dozen like they were old friends. At that moment, Matthew knew he had found his Alex. The possible objections were easily dealt with (Alex is no longer a college senior, but instead is now in law school, so he could easily be in his mid-twenties; and clever camera angles make Nick look taller. The script also creates a running joke out of Alex continually insisting that Henry cannot possibly be 6’2” as his fact sheet claims; and when they’re standing side-by side, Henry accuses Alex of wearing lifts.  Alex’s look of confused dismay makes us actually wonder). They are perfectly matched, and the result is screen magic.

I found Taylor to be a complete revelation. His last movie had been a quickly-forgotten (luckily for him) bomb called One Up, in which Taylor’s lines were mostly restricted to comments like, “No, girls can’t join our team! Girls can never compete with men in the field of …” (wait for it) “competitive gaming!” Huh? We’re not talking about professional wrestling or weight-lifting—we’re talking about computer games. Moreover, countless studies have shown that women’s reflexes are quicker than men’s, their brains are proportionately larger, and that men’s only real superiority is upper body strength. I thought that such ignorant sexism as Taylor’s character in One Up conveys was a thing of the past, but in a world where women can lose the right to control their own bodies at the stroke of a pen, maybe not.

Though Taylor has never before played so major a part (that I’m aware of), he acquits himself admirably here. From the moment Alex tries to persuade Nora to ditch the reception and “go do touristy things,” the role of Alex is obviously in just the right hands. As it turns out, Nora might have done well to accept Alex’s suggestion, because he gets drunk at the reception and manages to create an international incident. And I must say, I very much enjoyed Henry and Alex’s interaction at the reception. Not only was I finally able to visualize the exact sequence of events leading to the disaster with the cake; I loved Henry’s fury at Alex’s dismissal of the proper use of titles (more about this below). It may make Henry look like a snobbish prig (which is certainly how Alex sees him), but Henry doesn’t care what Alex thinks. It also shows just how far Alex can goad him. For a royal, displaying such fury is even worse than making a scene, because royals are supposed to smother their feelings and appear cool, calm, and collected, no matter how trying the circumstances. Alex may be the first person who has ever been so lippy with Henry, and he really gets under Henry’s skin by doing so. (Which he will later do in a much more literal manner ….)

Which leads me to the BIG question we all wondered about: did Nick and Taylor’s offscreen friendship translate into SIZZLING sex onscreen? Well—no. And that’s fine by me. Any time I want to watch porn, there are any number of sites I could visit (or—ahem—so they tell me). Instead, these sex scenes give us poetry—aching, tender, romantic, and beautiful, allowing us the chance to peek into the depth of the characters’ intimacy, something made possible only by the actors’ consummate artistry. (Sorry—I couldn’t resist that one.)

Their first sexual interaction happens at the New Year’s Eve party, where they spend the entire evening talking and laughing together in a way that completely excludes everyone else. But then while everyone is sharing kisses at midnight (and several beautiful women make a beeline for Alex), Alex notices the (unkissed) Henry staring at him, heartbreak writ large on his face. Henry grabs a magnum of champagne and disappears, so Alex tracks him into the frozen Rose Garden. Critics have commented that this scene is detectably CGI, but come on, people—the movie was filmed during the summer, and it’s not like they were going to fly cast and crew to South America for a true wintry landscape. Besides, the actors’ talent made them look cold, which more than met the needs of the scene.

The ensuing kiss is straight out of CMQ, and I thought Alex’s reaction to Henry’s grab-and-smooch is particularly good. At first he seems startled (though not shocked), but then he plainly starts getting into it. It is Henry who breaks away, with a look of shock and terror as he realizes what he has just done. Without a single word, Nick is able to show us exactly what Henry must be thinking: Oh, my God! I let the mask slip—again! How does this bloke always make me do exactly what I was brought up not to do—expose myself by showing my real feelings? Christ! I need to get out of here!

Now it’s up to Taylor to show Alex’s reaction to the incident. In the movie, he seems not to feel much more than mild surprise, and a vague curiosity about whether Henry might be gay. But in the book, Alex goes into full-on gay crisis mode because of his body’s immediate reaction, and he develops even more of an all-consuming obsession with Henry. CMQ devotes twenty pages to this issue, one which all LGBT’s must eventually face (and twenty pages is actually getting off easy—in my case, accepting my bisexuality took decades). But since the movie’s Alex readily acknowledges his male lovers, enjoying Henry’s kiss isn’t an issue for him at all. The only complication he now faces is coming out to his parents, though I’m sure they figured out that their son was bisexual long ago.

Then comes the White House dinner and the Red Room scene, after which Alex orders Henry to “come to my room at midnight, where I am going to do very bad things to you.” My aforementioned friend (the one with the cast list) points out that Henry unbuttons Alex’s shirt and begins kissing down his chest and stomach, and Alex leans back with a look of gratified pleasure, but then at the end of the scene, Henry is still fully dressed. (Didn’t Alex reciprocate?) Henry then invites Alex to a polo match back in the UK, at which we see the guys kissing and Alex pushing Henry onto his back and reaching down to remove Henry’s belt, and … that’s as graphic as it gets. Matthew rightly protested the movie’s “R” rating, since aside from a couple of f-bombs and a brief shot of Taylor’s bare backside, that’s it. An “R” rating? I suspect that it’s studio nervousness about a potential homophobic reaction, and if the execs are that squeamish, why did they buy the movie rights in the first place?

The final sex scene is extremely well done. Henry begins by telling Alex that he wants to make love to him, to which Alex uncomfortably replies, “Make love? Who says that anymore?” Well, maybe Henry didn’t want to scare you off,  Alex, by using the same words as he does in the book: “Please—I need you to fuck me.” But obviously, Alex intuits that this is exactly what Henry wants, because Alex says nervously, “Um—I’ve never—” to which Henry smiles and says, “Don’t worry—I went to an English boys’ boarding school,” which is a far more likely scenario for Henry to have been initiated into gay sex than a virginal 17-year-old Henry being seduced by one of his older brother’s friends.

The two lovers gaze at each other, and then they gently, almost reverently, begin to touch. It made me think of times at night when my wife and I are in bed, and I look at her asleep on the next pillow, and I touch her in exactly this way. My heart feels like it will burst, and wonder floods me as I realize that this woman, whom I have loved for all these years, actually loves me back. Can the human heart ever experience anything more wonderful than such a realization? The same knowledge shines out of the men’s eyes in this scene—I love him, and he loves me. Then the touching becomes more intense, and as the scene progresses, without a single word or sound, Nick conveys the exact moment when Taylor seemingly enters him, and precisely when the pain of initial penetration tips over into pleasure. I’ll say it again: this guy is amazing. Ever since I first started watching Nick’s movies, I have said that he can communicate more in ten seconds of silence than other actors can manage in a two-page monologue, and that is exactly what he does here. (And he still has no acting awards? I mean, really?)

Alex acknowledges to himself that making love is exactly what he has been doing with Henry all along, but by trying to share this realization he only succeeds in scaring Henry off. Henry begins deflecting every time Alex brings up their future together, a future which Henry believes to be impossible. Alex tells him, “I want to see you at a barbecue stand with sauce smeared all over your mouth, so I can lick it off,” to which Henry replies, “Don’t they have napkins in Texas?” Alex begins talking about spending time together after the election, when “we can be naked all day, and walk down the street holding hands” (presumably after they’ve put some clothes on). I loved watching Taylor’s face as he nervously suggests their eventually going public, and tries to make his declaration of love. And (as always), Nick perfectly conveys Henry’s troubled emotions, as Henry cuts Alex off by jumping into the lake. The fear on Henry’s face as he submerges himself in the water is a perfect visual metaphor for the doubts and terrors in which he is drowning.

And make no mistake—these fears are well-grounded, and very real. Henry was born into a world where nothing matters more than hierarchy and the strict rules which govern it—thus his insistence that Alex address him correctly as “Your Royal Highness” rather than “Your Majesty,” a title reserved the monarch alone. Priggish? Pretentious? Maybe—but take away the outward forms which maintain this artificial world, and who is Henry? And if Henry insists on being himself and steps outside the royal system, the punishment will be both immediate and severe.

Prince Harry and his wife were still newlyweds expecting their first baby while CMQ was writing the novel. No one could have predicted that the devil’s bargain between the Palace and the media (which always demands a villainous royal to skewer before they publish praise about a more important one) would lead to the vicious unpopularity Meghan Markle currently suffers. The written abuse heaped upon her (greatly assisted by social media) became so severe that she firmly believes it led directly to the loss of their second child. So they felt they had to flee the country if they were going to save their marriage and their family.

But as Prince Harry describes in his memoir, Spare, they soon discovered that for doing so, within twenty-four hours of their arrival in this hemisphere, his funds were cut off and they were officially evicted from both their royal residences. The very next morning, his security detail was taken away, leaving them homeless and unprotected in a world of crazy stalkers (from whom Meghan had been receiving death threats) and intrusive paparazzi. Harry also found that a private security firm would cost him roughly six million dollars a year, which would soon eat up every penny his mother had left him. Fortunately for Harry and Meghan, friends stepped into the breach to help them, but except for a very few, his family has turned on him with silent fury and stony faces ever since. Even Prince Andrew, convicted of molesting an underage female and who must register as a sex offender anywhere he goes for the rest of his life, got more generous treatment than this. All Harry did was put his love for his wife and children above royal duty, but for doing so he has been cast into the outer darkness. And for the sin of claiming his own right to fall in love with a brown-skinned American, Henry knows he would suffer the same fate.

But RWRB is a fairy tale, so of course everything works out fine in the end. The election which Alex’s forced outing has put into doubt ends with Ellen’s victory due to a strategy devised by Alex himself. Despite intense pressure from the royal family, Henry insists on staying with Alex and acknowledging their true feelings for each other, and the entire world rallies around them. It is a triumph for love and tolerance over “the stifling suffocation of heteronormative conformity.” (I wish I didn’t have to put that line into quotation marks, but no one who knows me would ever believe that I had come up with such an erudite and well-turned phrase on my own.)

I enjoyed the film immensely. I thought the actors were top-drawer, as was Matthew’s adaptation and direction. So what didn’t I like? The watering-down of the certain characters for one, but above all, the elimination of others, especially Alex’s sister June. Please bear with me, though, because I think I have a glimmer of understanding as to why Matthew might have done this. And with his love for the book, I am sure that he did not arrive at his decisions lightly.

Let’s start with the character of Nora. In the book, she is someone “with a computer for a brain” who adopts the online persona of “a depressed lesbian poet who meets a hot yoga instructor in a speakeasy and is now marketing her own line of hand thrown fruit bowls.” But in the film, she becomes little more than a walk-on, and her brilliant, prickly presence gets watered down into a warm and loving sister surrogate (necessary since June got axed—why include June when Nora can function for both?).  Now that Nora is Alex’s supportive older sister, obviously there’s no hint of their past relationship from the book, in which “they just had to fuck to get it out of the way.” And without June, there’s also no need for a lesbian subplot. In the process, almost all of Nora’s spunkiness gets lost, and once the reception scene and the discussion with Alex about Henry’s New Year’s Eve kiss are over, she has nothing much to do but smile from the sidelines as she pairs up with Pez (who is also reduced to almost nothing—Henry’s incredibly wealthy, highly amusing and sexually ambiguous best friend barely has two lines). By reducing these characters, the movie loses the interest they both bring (Nora in particular).

This sort of character reduction is not limited to Nora and Pez. Many remaining characters get sanitized as well, if not entirely deleted. The abrasive Zahra who threatens to “staple Alex’s dick to his leg if it’ll keep it in his pants” morphs into a wisecracker who serves the essential function of calling Alex to account and dealing out the discipline he so obviously requires, but who always remains a friend. She thereby becomes much more likable—I loved the original character, but I used to wonder how someone so rude could have made it so far in politics—but in the process she becomes much more bland, and we lose most of her salty, prickly humor.

The salty-tongued Ellen, who sometimes uses her children as props and who ruthlessly cuts Alex loose when he threatens to become a campaign liability, gentles down into mere exasperated bossiness when dealing with her only child, and in the process becomes a fairly minor character. She shows none of the grit and determination that would have led her from her mother’s bar all the way to the White House. She is also still married to Alex’s father, Oscar Diaz, who has morphed from an important California senator into an undistinguished Congressman whose speeches everyone (but Alex) ignores. With Oscar and Ellen still together, the character of June loses one more necessary function: supporting and protecting Alex in the wake of their parents’ divorce, as well as her habit of challenging him for the behavior she believes may be fallout from Alex’s still-conflicting loyalties to his warring parents. But in the movie, the only hint of conflict between Mom and Dad is Oscar asking his son not to tell his mother that Oscar has been smoking out on the Truman Balcony.

And then there’s Rafael Luna. His abrasive, mentoring character gets deleted entirely, and his seeming betrayal (which causes Alex such agonized soul-searching) gets replaced with actual betrayal by a shifty investigative reporter. Luna goes undercover to expose a sexual predator and to prevent such a person from entering the White House (if only there had been this sort of double agent on the Trump campaign!). But in the movie, the guys get outed because a reporter named Miguel, a former lover of Alex’s, becomes jealous when Henry and Alex go off together at the DNC. I loved the cameo by Joy Reid (as I also loved the cameos by Rachel Maddow—and Matthew, while you were at it, why didn’t you also get Steve Kornacki?) as she pushes the reporter to explain why he had done such an underhanded thing. With all the hypocrisy and smug sanctimoniousness typical of his breed, the reporter gives a BS answer about “the public’s right, and need, to know such things about the people they elect,” which Joy immediately challenges by pointing out that (a) Alex has not been elected to anything, and (b) he has a perfect right to keep his private life just that—private.

So why did Matthew make all these changes? I think it may be for one simple reason: anyone adapting a novel for the screen must first identify the elements that made the original so popular, and, since we’re talking Hollywood, those which are also the most marketable. Every word must somehow advance the main storyline, and all subplots that distract from it must be ruthlessly eliminated. Multiple characters get condensed into one who can represent them all. There has to be a conflict engineered by the villain of the piece, but the elaborate undercover plot organized by the Richards campaign would have taken too much screen time. So it gets replaced by one which might be summarized in ten words: “Hell hath no fury like that of a lover scorned.” Of course, in a romcom, the screenplay must finally lead to a happy ending, and here we get two: in England, the lovers wave to an adoring public from the Buckingham Palace balcony; and in the US, Ellen finds out that she’s been reelected even as she and Zahra are composing her concession speech. Then Ellen, Oscar, Alex, and Henry wave at adoring supporters cheering Ellen’s victory.

RWRB the novel is only marginally a romcom; it is really a coming-of-age story, its message one of self-acceptance through self-awareness. This is what makes it so wildly popular among the YA audience at whom it is aimed, since adolescence is the time when the struggle to know and acknowledge who we really are is the most difficult. Just before the election, Nora tells Alex that he has no reason to be afraid of people’s reactions to his bisexuality; all he has to do to cement his popularity is to “Be Alex.” It’s good advice for all of us: difficult though it often is, our only real path to a full and productive life is by knowing and accepting ourselves as we are. And as a wise woman once told me, being yourself is a lot easier than being anyone else.

But self-acceptance is a particularly thorny issue for LGBT’s, even if our mothers are liberal Democrats like Ellen Claremont and our fathers are “patron saints of unisex bathrooms” like Oscar Diaz. As members of the culture into which we are born, from our very first awareness we know that there is something different about us. Something which our society teaches us is loathsome and contemptible, and which will inevitably lead to our eternal damnation. This is a pretty tough concept to handle, and we’re forced to confront it even before we enter preschool. But it’s not an issue the movie chooses to address: instead, it focuses on almost exclusively the developing romance between the two principals. This shoves the film’s entire weight onto Nick and Taylor, but fortunately these young men both have broad shoulders, and their talent is more than able to carry it. That talent also keeps us rooting for their characters’ happy ending, and if some characters and most of the subplots get cut, well, you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet.

So. Do I love the book RWRB? Of course I do—and how I wish it had been around when I was struggling with my issues as a young bisexual man in the 1970’s, since it would have saved me years of shame and pointless suffering. I would then have been much more ready for my own happy ending when Bobbie eventually entered my life. And do I love the movie RWRB? I totally do—I’m always up for a romance, and that is what Matthew, Nick, and Taylor have given us. In some ways, I actually prefer the movie (even though I know that saying this may lead to the RWRB police showing up at my doorstep to confiscate my “History, Huh?” T-shirt). You see, there’s one big problem with publishing a book with such a current, up-to-the-minute feel and format: it quickly becomes about as glossy and stylish as last year’s slang, and so when the Commemorative Edition came out in 2022, I found it curiously dated (the best part, for me, was its illustrations by Venessa Kelley). I think the movie will age a lot better, because with only minor alterations, it could be adjusted to almost any era—it’s not tied nearly so closely as is the book to the Gen Z / Millennial generation.

But to love both book and film, one has to accept the essential correctness of Nick’s original analysis: they are two separate entities, or, if you will, two sides of the same coin. One side is self-awareness and self-acceptance eventually leading to true love, and the other is true love which can only be enjoyed by reconciling societal expectations with personal integrity. So I find the book and the movie equally wonderful, just different. And I treasure them both.

[filmtheatrefanels]

Really fantastic!! Kevin Spacey together with swing singer, playwright, producer Jan Smigmator. They gave a spontaneous mini concert together with songs of Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong in a restaurant/club in Prague.🤩🎶🎙️🎉

[misfxts]

Okay item received + Perkeo, Triboulet, Canio, and Chicot (the rest of the legendary jokers from Balatro sorry for not linking them individually)

Gimme an item, any item! @brrnedoutbrrista

Putting this one under a cut because Iris wanted to infodump about EACH OF THEM.

Perkeo

"O-Oh, this Joker is named Perkeo..? I w..wonder if it's a reference to Perkeo of Heidelberg, Jester for Elector Palatine Charles III Philip... h-he's considered a m..mascot of Heidelberg, and there are many references made to him inside and out of t..the region.. ranging f-from festivals, institutions, hotels, r..restaurants and e..even traditional songs! H..He was also reportedly born with d-dwarfism.."

Triboulet

"Hmm.. t-this one is tricky..! Triboulet could be at least t..three different French jesters.. t-there's the one that served Rene of Anjou... who was also a p-playwright on top of being a j..jester.. the one that served Louis XII, and the one that served F-Francis I... they mixed up a-alot.. confused with each other.. a-also the modern translation for T..Triboulet is "Punching Bag".. taken f..from the archaic french verb "Tribouler".."

Canio

"Oooh..! This one must b..be a reference to the I-Italian Opera Pagliacci..! Canio is t..the name of the protagonist in the opera.. h-he's the leader of a t-theatre company, who murders h..his wife Nedda and h..her lover Silvio on stage during a performance.. i-it first premiered on May 21st, 1892 i..in Milan..! My p-paternal grandmother h..has a few dolls that look just like this little jester..! They're s..so cute..!"

Chicot

"Mmm, this guy was interesting... C-Chicot-- real name Jean-Antoine d'Anglerais.. h-he was the j..jester for King Henry III of France.. and later King H..Henry IV.. he was s-sharp-tongued and cunning... h-he spoke to the king without formalities... Chicot even had a military b..background, serving under Honorat II of Savoy..he was the only k..known jester allowed to carry a rapier-- and was very skilled with it..! T-There is even a recorded event where h..he successfully disarmed someone who attempted t..to make an attempt to kill Henry IV.."

[adventuressclubamericas]

New Orleans Cocktail of the Month for December - The Brandy Milk Punch

While the brandy milk punch wasn't invented in New Orleans - credit for that seems to go to the 17th century English playwright and poet, Aphra Behn - it was incredibly popular in the Big Easy during the 1700s. And remains so today! While perhaps most closely associated with the holidays, the milk punch is a staple on many New Orleans' restaurants' brunch menus - including Brennan's, who takes credit for perfecting the drink.

Aphra Behn, inventor of the brandy milk punch