#rudolph and elliot are not my ocs

[conquerthenight]

Lydia de Winter headcanons sorted by the all the AU’s of Say My Name I’ve written.

TW: Discussions of depression, suicide, death, and child abuse

Say My Name (sans “Your Clone”)

- Her date of birth is December of 1915

- Yes, I realize that means she was born (and conceived) during WWI, but we’re gonna get around that by saying Maxim was summoned to the war either during Rebecca’s pregnancy or shortly after Lydia was born.

- She was named after Lydia Bennet from Pride and Prejudice because Rebecca liked the Lydia/Wickham subplot more than the other love stories.

- She attended a seminary for girls in London from the ages of 6 to 9, after Rebecca’s death she was educated by a governess, tutors, etc. I realize that absolutely none of that features in my fics other than brief mentions but it is happening.

- Some time during the events of Rebecca, Lydia stops referring to Rebecca as her mother and transitions to calling her Rebecca. Maxim doesn’t give a fuck about it.

- Maxim also doesn’t give a fuck period. Lydia doesn’t forgive him for his neglect for a while, but acknowledges that he’s at least remorseful (post confession). Things are very awkward between them until well into the exile period and they didn’t truly become close until after Ellison and Katherine were born.

- Lydia briefly resented Ellison and Kate because they had the childhood she never got, but she got over it due to bonding with them and the maturity that comes with adulthood.

- Ellison and Kate were the prime age for playing with legos when they were first invented in the 30’s. Lydia stepped on a few once and it hurt so from then on whoever she got mad at someone she always threatened them by saying she hopes they step on a lego.

- She once muttered this during an argument with Maxim. Maxim immediately started laughing because he thought it was a creative threat.

- Lydia is bisexual, even though she does end up with a man, @eeleeisgay’s OC Anthony Helencourt.

- Ileana immediately approved of Anthony. Maxim took a bit of convincing because he wanted to be certain that Anthony wasn’t just with Lydia because he wanted Manderley.

- Even after the events of Rebecca, Lydia struggled with putting a lot of pressure on herself, putting on a brave face, and asking for help from others, as well as bouts of depression for the rest of her life.

- The thing that won Maxim over with Anthony and Lydia’s relationship was that Anthony had a positive effect on Lydia’s mental health and he was able to help bring her back down to earth. Basically Anthony is best husband and a supportive king.

- Lydia hyphenated her last name when she married Anthony partially to compromise with her parents and her in laws but partially because “Helencourt-de Winter sounds beautiful anyways, I’ll just take both names”. Anthony did the same.

- Strangers sometimes mistook Lydia and Ileana for sisters instead of a stepmother and stepdaughter once Lydia hit puberty and thus had her growth spurt. Ileana also looked young for her age until she reached middle age so that along with their 11 year age gap didn’t help either. It led to some very awkward conversations.

- Favell and Beatrice both taught Lydia to curse at a very young age, separately of course.

- Maxim made allowances for Beatrice when she did that, he often sighed and said things like “that’s the last time I let you around my child” but never really meant it. However he openly badmouthed Favell for doing the same thing.

- Lydia only curses when she’s really pissed or emotional. In normal conversation sometimes she’ll let a few “damns” slip, but nothing more.

- Post blackmail, Lydia wants nothing to do with Favell because she realizes that he’s too similar to Rebecca but he just hides it better and isn’t a dick to children.

- While Lydia does initially feel betrayed when she hears Danny burned down Manderley, during the de Winters’ exile she realizes just how bad Danny’s mental state was and forgives her for it.

- Being away from Manderley also made Lydia realize that Danny never intended to make Lydia uncomfortable by bringing up or praising Rebecca in front of her. She comes to the conclusion that while Danny did hurt her by doing that, it was Danny’s way of coping with her loss and she can’t bring herself to fault her for that.

- Ileana understands Lydia’s sympathy for Danny, Maxim doesn’t. This is a source of tension between Lydia and Maxim, particularly once they decide to rebuild Manderley until shortly after they move back in.

- During the exile, Lydia knows not to talk about Manderley in front of Maxim, but she does sometimes do so with Ileana.

- When Ellison comes out to Lydia as lesbian, Lydia is immediately supportive of her sister. She even refers to Ellison’s longtime girlfriend, Anne, as her sister in law.

Your Clone, Your Strange Creation (SPOILERS AHEAD, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED)

- Lydia was never sent to school in London and was educated from home from the start. This is why she was home to witness Rebecca’s murder.

- Despite the positive relationship between Ileana and Lydia, Lydia never ends up referring to Ileana with any maternal terms (mother, mama, mum, etc). After everything she’s dealt with she doesn’t really feel right putting a concrete label on it.

- Lydia also never stops referring to Rebecca by her given name. No one has a problem with it, even Danny understands why she does it.

- A similar thing happens with Maxim as well. In the first few chapters she refers to him as Papa, then she transitions to Father (if you read the Beatrice side story you’ll have the full context), and eventually after the trial she’ll refer to him as Maxim because she’ll finally feel like she’s allowed to denounce him for everything he did (and didn’t do) since Rebecca’s murder.

- She’s a full on queer ally. Full on doesn’t even think twice about the fact that Ileana and Danny are both women when she figures out they’re in love.

- Danny feels very strongly that she has to redeem herself for viewing Rebecca through a rose colored lens and somewhat projecting that onto Lydia.

- Lydia forgives her for it immediately following her disclosure about the murder and her role in it due to Danny admitting that not only did Maxim fail her as a parent, but so did Rebecca.

- Although Lydia knows Danny’s first name from chapter 12 onwards, she doesn’t use it and opts to keep calling her Danny. Danny is chill about it because she knows how awkward it would be for them both if Lydia used her first name.

- Lydia affectionately teases Ileana and Danny about them being awful at being subtle about their relationship.

- As soon as they’re able to forgo the whole housekeeper/charge relationship, Danny is a lot more openly affectionate with Lydia.

- Lydia has never seen Danny with her hair open before so when she does for the first time she goes 😱 and Ileana giggles and says she had a similar reaction.

- Lydia never forgives Rebecca or Maxim for being the worst parents ever, but she does eventually understand that the fact that she shares traits with them doesn’t need to be a bad thing.

- Danny is the reason she comes to that conclusion in the first place.

- Lydia deals with nightmares, mostly of the night of Rebecca’s murder, Maxim coming after her for spilling about the murder, and Danny and Ileana leaving her.

The Ones They Left Behind/Mama’s Boy (LIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED)

(Established with help from @alicesbread)

- Lydia and Rudolph are both unreliable narrators when it comes to the other’s relationship with their parents.

- Maxim up and leaving Manderley to hop around Europe during the year after Rebecca’s death caused Lydia to develop a fear of abandonment. She blames herself for him leaving because she thinks she either did something wrong or hindered his ability to move on.

- Bea, Giles, Danny, and even Frank try to assure her that this isn’t true but Lydia doesn’t really believe them.

- When she shuts down due to her mental state, she only ever talks to Rudolph (and in rare cases Bea, but that takes a lot of coaxing).

- As with the other two AU’s, Lydia is supportive af when Rudolph comes out to her.

- Neither of us have delved into Lydia’s relationship with her brother Elliot (also @alicesbread’s OC), but Lydia is very much relieved when he’s born because that means Manderley won’t be her burden to carry. Won’t say much else because it’ll be a major spoiler.

- She lovingly makes fun of Rudolph for falling for Elliot because “I guess it runs in your family to fall for a de Winter”.

- Rudolph probably finds something to lovingly tease Lydia about as well but I’ll leave that one to alicesbread.

- This is specific only to TOTLB, but when they were children (post Rebecca’s death, pre costume ball) Anthony didn’t like Rudolph because Rudolph defended Rebecca. Not sure if the boys ever actually met, but even if Lydia didn’t like that either, she didn’t tolerate Anthony badmouthing Rudolph.

[3sportsguns]

The Fantasy Football Headset 2016; Wrapping the Season

BG - A bit late but it's time to wrap the season for both my Keeper and Dynasty Fantasy Football teams. In the two leagues I covered both ends of the spectrum taking home a back-to-back Keeper championship and finishing second to last in the Dynasty League. In both leagues I made a trade before the playoffs and I already made a move to 'improve' my Dynasty roster for next season.

           Starting with the Dynasty League, since finishing near the bottom isn't normally a thing for me. I was able to take advantage of a team making a playoff push to improve my team. Running back was a position that was thin across the league and, with my team sitting near the bottom, I was looking to move LeGarrette Blount for a long term piece. A friend of mine in the league had Travis Kelce and Jimmy Graham and was looking for a RB boost heading into the playoffs. I was able to swap Blount for Graham and lock up my TE position. Graham was the number four scoring TE and I have him paired with Cameron Brate, the number eight scoring TE, going forward. Blount was going to be a decision for me when it came to trimming the roster so I was happy to make a move and lock up the position.

           If you followed up the Fantasy Football Headset you would know my WR position was something I felt very confident about but ended up being a big let down for me. I drafted Keenan Allen, Kelvin Benjamin, Sterling Sheppard and Allen Robinson. Allen went down in game one and Benjamin and Robinson were big busts this season. At the end of the season I had also added, Tyreek Hill (our league rewards returning points), Tyler Boyd, Marqise Lee and Malcom Mitchell. Mitchell and Lee I'm not sure when it comes to roster cuts but the rest were players to hang on to and plenty of depth to made a move.

           I drafted the top four (we start three WR and Flex) with the potential hope of making a move, especially after my RB position ended up so thin. Luckily, I was able to pair up with my dad, who finished last, to take Mark Ingram off his hands. He finished as the eighth highest scoring RB but was really up and down at the end of the season with Tim Hightower taking carries. We swapped Ingram for Benjamin and I felt like it was a win for me. Out of my three studs I felt most confident that Benjamin was number three on that list and I got a potentially top 10 RB that could really give my team a shot in the arm.

           Ingram now leads my running back position that also has Dion Lewis, C. J. Anderson, Duke Johnson and Theo Riddick. It is an ugly position, even in PPR, so I was happy to be able to get the Saints RB to boost the position. And with the number two overall pick I'll be looking at rookies like Leonard Fournette, Dalvin Cook and Christian McCaffrey to pair with Ingram as my two lead backs. Fingers crossed for a bounce back from Anderson and hopefully Riddick comes back to do his thing, but Lewis could very likely be cut after James White's Super Bowl performance and Johnson is nothing more than a bench piece at best right now.

           In Keeper League I made a pair of trades early in the season that helped carry my team (Blount for Stefon Diggs and Frank Gore for Larry Fitzgerald), but my two biggest additions were Jordan Howard and Matt Ryan. Ryan sat on the waiver wire for about half the season and someone gave up on Howard when the OC couldn't figure out to use him. The nice thing about the keeper league (we keep two) is that assets are easier to acquire heading into the playoffs and I flipped Isaiah Crowell and Tyreek Hill for Latavius Murray and Kyle Rudolph and all it cost me was a swap of 4th and 8th round picks with the guy that finished 5th in the league. I moved down four spots in those rounds for two players I started championship week.

           It was actually a tight league this season. We play 13 regular season weeks and had four people finish 5-8, two at 6-7 and two at 7-6. The team that finished second was 9-4 (and the points champ) and I finished 10-3. Even in the playoffs it was ugly with three of the four teams finishing with under 90 points. I had 88 and the 3 and 4 seeds scored 73 and 70 while the 2 seed dropped 155. Luckily, I got him in the championship round by the slim margin of 122-118, and that was going against Ezekiel Elliot.

           After the several keeper swapping last season I think it is quite evident we brought the league closer together so, while I'm pumped to get the championship, it definitely proves you need some luck as I was able to escape the rash of injuries that went around. Now we get ready for the draft and the decision on keepers and possibly some more swaps. And for Dynasty it is 100% about the draft with the league set to keep 15 players on their 20 man rosters. I'll be taking a look at players as the draft get ready and this summer we'll have a new rookie rankings as we get ready for the next season.