#shona x charlotte

[sapphiccharacterstournament]

Canon Sapphic Characters Tournament Round 1 (Bracket 6)

[skatehepburn]

hello i wrote ten thousand words about shona o’keefe going to therapy 

[danzonho]

Charlotte & Shona at This Way Up S01E01

[dclarkadmin]

🌹

Turns out, ending your engagement (or having your engagement ended) about two weeks before a national lockdown is not ideal. For a lot of reasons, actually, but having to wade through it with only Aine-over-Zoom as emotional support is frankly, so shit that Shona thinks she would never have even spoken a word to either Vish or Charlotte if she’d ever been able to anticipate such bullshit.

[helebing]

This Way Up AU: Charlotte, Shona, Aine and Bradley attending their first pride parade together // promoted

[smithy-smith]

I love This Way Up series 2. Did it go the exact way I hoped? No. But I honestly think that I appreciated how much more real and three dimensional the characters all felt as a result of that. Although some aspects of the series felt a touch clunkier than S1, I think a lot of that can be put down to the fact that they had to work under some pretty strict COVID restrictions while filming. I’d be interested to know how Aisling Bea envisioned this series going before it had to be written to work during lockdown and if that meant significant changes to the scripts.

Anyway, more thoughts under the cut…

Shona & Áine : 10/10 sibling dynamic. They love each other so much. Are they verging on co-dependent? Probably a little bit, but it works for them. They would both kill each other and kill for each other at a moment’s notice, and I love that for them. Their interactions feel so real and you can truly get a sense of their deep love and affection for each other. If I tried to list all of my favourite Áine and Shona moments then I’d be here all day, but some highlights are: the whole time that  Áine is ‘helping’ Shona to unpack, the haemorrhoid, and also Áine and Shona lying on the floor together at the end. S1 was so much of Shona being there for Áine (understandably!) that it’s amazing to see that get flipped, and for it to be made explicitly clear that this isn’t just a case of the younger sibling relying totally on the older one. They need each other, and that’s wonderful!

Shona/Charlotte: I feel like we got more confirmation of something I’d sort of suspected- that Charlotte wasn’t Shona’s first foray into sleeping with other women, but that it was probably the first time that feelings got involved. I get the impression that she’s probably had one night stands with women, but relationships with men, and so as soon as Charlotte said that she was falling for her, Shona completely panicked. Charlotte was right to feel hurt and used, and that whole scene where they had it out in the office was so raw and painful. I’m glad they went down that route, and that it is clear that if they do reconcile then they’ll need to do a lot of work to get there. Ideally, I’d love that to be the outcome, but I’m happy to be along for the ride whatever happens at this point!

Shona/Vish: I love Vish, I think he’s sweet, but it still feels like he and Shona are on different pages. Maybe even different books, at least when it comes to their relationship. Him being away for this series really worked, as it allowed Shona to miss him and feel like she wants to connect with him, without the reality of him actually being around. I think it’s clear that she’s burying a lot of her feelings and it’s much easier for her to do that if he isn’t there. I really want see the fallout of that voice note…

Áine/Richard: God love them, but they need to sit down and actually talk. I think they’re super sweet together and that they could be really good for each other, but it’s obvious that Áine is having issues with telling Richard about rehab and her breakdown, and that she’s kind of terrified about what telling him will mean. (I get it. I too get that anxious panicky feeling every time I’m about to talk to other people about my mental health issues. I dread the thought of watching their face change in real time as they realise what a fucked-up mess I actually am…) Richard on the other hand is still dealing with the fact that he became the father of a teenager overnight, and is clearly still struggling to regain a sense of control over his identity as a result. That, combined with his intense level of Repressed British Awkwardness™ is definitely having an impact on how they communicate with each other. Him telling Étienne without talking to Áine first is the peak example of this- that is 100% a conversation they should have had with each other first, even though ultimately it was the right thing to do at this point. Fingers crossed that we’ll get a S3 as I really want to see if that communication issue gets resolved, or if it will be the death of their relationship… They had some really cute moments this series, and some moments with more honest and open communication, so I’m hopeful that they might be able to work things out, it definitely seems like that is an option for them!

Áine/Bradley: I LOVED that we got more Áine and Bradley time this series! Their flatmate dynamic in S1 was great, it very much seemed to sit in the ‘we’re friendly, but we’re not 100% certain that we are friends’ category, and his loud relationship with Emma was clearly a bit of an awkward sticking point, for obvious reasons! But this series they’ve spent more time together on screen and they are clearly solid friends- with potentially something more simmering away… I loved him giving Áine advice on how to be sexy and flirt with Richard when they were having problems, and his obvious acceptance of all her quirks as a housemate. In the fundraiser ep he was not feeling Richard’s vibes, which was understandable given Áine’s obvious insecurity and worries, and let’s be honest, what he’s heard about Richard so far probably hasn’t been the most flattering or reassuring! Áine turning to Bradley when she found out about Tom dying, knowing that he would be there and support her! The fact that he already knows about rehab, and it doesn’t seem to make a difference to how he treats her! Plus, that conversation at the end?? When he was saying ‘wouldn’t it be nice to be with someone you can relax with’?? It definitely seems like he is working through some stuff of his own, and that maybe he is starting to potentially see  Áine as that person… At the moment, it feels like their relationship is teetering on the cusp- if it tips one way he can fit into the protective ‘older brother’ friend mould, looking out for  Áine and supporting her. Or it could tip the other way and they could perhaps be at the beginning of something more romantic…

Étienne: he is so big! I’m hazarding a guess that he wasn’t in this series as much because it’s easier to send him off to France so that they don’t have to worry about exposing the child actor to COVID, but perhaps that was always the plan. His relationship with Richard seems to be improving slightly, but is obviously still a bit difficult for them both to negotiate. Again, fingers crossed for a S3 where he can be more involved, as I really want to see the fallout from Richard telling him about his relationship with Áine, and the change of tutors. God I wish Richard had waited for Áine before he did anything!

I haven’t even touched on the exciting development of Áine and James going into business together, and what that would mean for Áine’s personal growth. (Also her friendship with James! Hooray for Áine having more friends!) But this is already HELLA long so maybe I’ll dig into that another time :) 

Fingers crossed for S3, I think there’s still so much left to explore with these characters, and I hope that we get the chance to see that!

[dixie84]

Patiently waiting for the lesbian explosion… I mean, s2 of TWU to begin 🤪🌈

[sapphicscholar]

Summary: post-season 2 fic where Shona moves in with Aine and Bradley for lockdown and finds her way back to Charlotte over Zoom calls and late-night texts

Fic Preview:

Everything seems to happen all at once. From a faraway disease that has a few people donning masks in what Shona thinks of as, perhaps, a somewhat paranoid choice, to empty grocery store shelves and cancelled travel and a full-on lockdown in what feels like a matter of days.

Shona registers it all as vague, staticky background noise to the implosion of her life as she thought she knew it.

There was the voice note. The teary, panicked confession to Aine. The long hours waiting for Vish’s plane to land, waiting to see if he would heed her follow-up text, a nonchalant, “Feel free to disregard the voice note – wrong message!” (He did not, simply scrolling through his notifications in order and feeling nearly as betrayed by Shona’s attempt at waving it off and hiding it forever as he was about the realization that all those late nights with Charlotte had been something more.)

The fight was nothing like their other fights. Shona likes bickering as much as the next person, finds there’s something cathartic about getting to say the things aloud that she’d been taught all her childhood to repress, shove down, never dredge up. (Never forgive, never forget, never talk about it had been the unofficial household motto, and look at how that had worked out for all of them.) But what could she say for herself? I was scared? I panicked? Everything was moving too fast, so I did the one thing I could to destroy it? They were all defenses she’d tried with herself, some excuse for behavior that she couldn’t make sense of—or wouldn’t, perhaps, because there was one explanation that seemed to make all the pieces fall into place, but she couldn’t…no, it simply could not be.

She couldn’t blame Vish for ending things. He was a decent man. Perhaps not perfect for her, but for a long while he’d made her happy. For a while she thought they made each other happy. Until she found someone who made her happier. Until he decided that what they had could be more, could be better, regardless of the fact that all those grand plans were scaffolded on all the things Shona had always told him she didn’t want.

With the pandemic making headlines and creeping into every corner of life, it was easy enough to cancel the wedding, let everyone assume they were simply playing things safe, not trusting the whole “10 week” timeline they’d been fed. Shona wasn’t naïve enough to think no one would find out the truth, but she’d be long gone by then.

By the time lockdown was announced, Shona had moved out of Vish’s house with its heated floors and massive garden and complete and utter isolation from the life she’d built for herself in the city. Not that she had anywhere to go back to—not when her old apartment had been snatched up as soon as she moved out. The handful of apartments still on the market downtown were cramped and overpriced, most of them requiring full rent and security deposit to be paid sight unseen, and Shona hadn’t been that stupid since her early 20s.

Which is how she finds herself taking Zoom call after Zoom call with panicked Trust Together clients from the one corner of Aine’s bedroom that she has tidied enough to feel okay about showing on camera. No pile-of-shit boyfriend in frame. Besides, now Shona occupies that side of the bed, so there’s a reason for the mess to be moved each night, no matter how quickly it creeps back up every morning.

Read the rest on AO3!

[purpleplaid17]

Shona & Charlotte

This Way Up S1

[daantaat]

[lesbiangracehanson]

if this way up s3 has a million believers, i’m one of them 🙏 if this way up s3 has 5 believers, i’m one of them 🙏 if this way up s3 has 1 believer, that one is me 🙏 if this way up s3 has no believers, i’m no longer alive 🙏 if the world is against this way up s3, i’m against the world 🙏

[danzonho]

DI Charlotte & DS Shona O’keefe

Inspired by this beautiful moodboard by @helebing

[booasaur]

This Way Up (2019) - 2x02

[helebing]

Sorry to leave you at the frat party on your own.

No, go, go, but can we hang out again? Is that uncool to ask?

This Way Up AU: Charlotte is a military officer who got injured during her last tour. She's staying at the base meanwhile her squad is deployed. She meets Shona, who got married last minute to move to the garrison with her military boyfirend, Vish. She asks her to hang out again.

[anyabantikvids]

Charlotte & Shona | Fools

[barbiedisdain]

Are we ready for season 2 of this way up because I don’t fucking think sooooo