#story of cora and rae

[exhuastedpigeon]

Derek hale

Rae!!!! YOU KNOW I LOVE DEREK.

First impression Who is this sad, angsty man and how can I protect him? Immediately I was like... he has so much trauma.

Impression now WHO IS THIS SAD MAN AND HOW COME NO ONE HAS GIVEN HIM A PROPER HUG! As you know I haven't seen the movie, but oh my god if that's how he ends up clearly NO ONE HUGGED HIM.

Favorite moment Him giving up his alpha spark to save Cora's life. Truly the most beautiful moment. He gave up power for her because he loved her so much.

Idea for a story DEREK GOES TO THERAPY !!!!

Unpopular opinion Derek was supposed to be 19 in the pilot them changing him to older (like 22 I think??) because they realized how creepy the Kate story line was is so lame. I love the idea of Derek being 19 and a CHILD along with them, but because he was a couple years older they all think of him as an 'adult'.

Idk, the whole thing just makes me so annoyed and I wish they would have left him as 19.

Favorite relationship I mean... Stiles duh.

But with his family I love his relationship with Cora. She came back and she was so mad at him but he did nothing but keep loving her and keep trying to make it up to her. and then saving her life!!

Favorite headcanon Going back to the Derek was 19 thing, I headcanon him as still being that age and only being 3 years older than the main cast because it's so fun.

Send Me a Character

[fullocoal]

Sweater weather 🥋

[theteaisaddictive]

gotta say, i am liking truth of the divine much more than i liked axiom’s end (and by no stretch of the imagination did i hate axiom’s end)

[andallthatmishigas]

opening lines meme

Rules: List the first lines of your last 20 stories. (If you have less than 20, just list them all!) See if there are any patterns. Choose your favorite opening line. Tag some people to play the next round!

Tagged by @rahleeyah

1. Cora heard the dressing gong and left her book in the library. 

2. Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham, stood in the library and looked out over the beautiful lawns and trees that made up the grounds of his beloved Downton Abbey.

3. Two girls dead this time.

4. Phyllis Baxter sat in the servant's hall with some mending for Her Ladyship, doing her best to stay quiet and do her work as always.

5. Jean came home from the shops one day in December surprised to see Doctor Blake's old Holden in the drive.

6. It started in October.

7. Jennifer stood at the high-top table nursing a beer, trying not to be bombarded by the thoughts of those around her.

8. Watching her sleep, with the lines of her face smoothed out and her skin smooth and looking so young, he could see her as she was when they first met.

9. She insisted she was fine.

10. It was late.

11. "Alright, no one bother me," Don announced as he walked out of his office into the bullpen.

12. Don never knew what to do with things like this.

13. The sound of a key in the lock hardly caused him to look up.

14. It was agony.

15. "We shouldn't be doing this," he warned.

16. The house never used to be so cold.

17. The first year of their marriage had not been easy.

18. Tom went upstairs to check on the baby.

19.  Lucien Blake wiped the remaining shaving foam off his face and checked the mirror to ensure he'd gotten a clean line on his beard.

20. Cora sat a few feet back from the edge of the pond with her legs stretched out before her and leaning back on her hands pressed firm into the cool grass.

Favorite: probably 8 (Happy Morning, SVU Tuckson) and 3 (Recommended at the Price, Downton assassins AU) and 20 (Something New, Downton Cora’s 60th birthday)

Patterns: I like to start with something blunt to just get us right in where we’re supposed to be, a bit of setting of tone and just diving right into where we’re at.  Which is pretty much my MO for starting a story.  Let’s get in, let’s do this.

i will tag @doctoraliceharvey @blossom--of--snow @rae-gar-targaryen @yesmadamepresident @bella-caecilia

[randomestfandoms-ocs]

Teen Wolf Masterlist (K-Z)

(A-J)

Name: Kailani Mahealani

Story: The Whole Of The Moon

Species: Redacted

Face claim:  Auli’i Cravalho

Name: Kiana Tate

Story: Wild Girl

Species: Werecoyote

Face claim:  Phoebe Tonkin

Love Interest: Isaac Lahey & Scott McCall

Summary: It was pure luck that had kept Kiana Tate out of the accident that killed her mother and sisters.  Pure luck and severe food poisoning.   But really, Kiana was never sure if being the one to live made her the lucky one or not — after all, she was the one left behind.  For the next several years, it was just Kiana and her dad, and she was okay with that.  Really, she was okay with that.  She had to be.  But one day, everything changes.  A girl is found dead in the woods; Scott and Stiles start acting weirder than usual, mountain lions start attacking people left and right; and, to top it all off, she’s losing her mind.  How else could anyone explain the hulking beast that she keeps thinking she sees, or the red eyes stalking her from the edge of the forest?

Name: Lanie Benson

Story: Golden

Species: Human

Face claim:  Meg Donnelly

Love Interest: Liam Dunbar

Summary: Lanie Benson was, and had always been, as normal as normal could be.  Sure, she lived in a supernatural hotspot, but she wasn’t a part of that world — in fact, she only knew that it existed because of a prank, leaving her alone in the preserve in the middle of the night, face to face with a real life werewolf.  But that wasn’t her world, so she’d smiled and waved and raced back home, pretending it had never happened.  She never wanted anything to do with any of the things that go bump in the night, so why, once she realises that Liam Dunbar is the newest werewolf in town, can’t she stay away?

Name: Luna Hale

Story: Beautiful Ghosts

Species: Werewitch

Face claim:  Danielle Campbell

Love interest: Isaac Lahey, eventual Scott McCall

Summary:  When the Hale House burned down, Cora ran.  Laura and Derek ran too, the other way.  They didn’t even check for survivors; but there were two. Peter Hale, barely conscious, shielding his then seven year old niece with his body.  While Peter would be comatose for almost a decade, Luna only had to heal from the burns and smoke inhalation, before she was immediately taken in by her godmother–Claudia Stilinski.  She changed her name to Stilinski, of course, in case any hunters tried to finish the job, and most of Beacon Hills didn’t know that she’d ever been anyone else.  And she could have maintained that illusion for the rest of her life, had her idiot brother not dragged she and their best friend Scott out to look for a body.

Name: Natasha Reyes

Story: Rebirth

Species: Redacted

Face claim:  Zoey Deutch

Love Interest: Derek Hale

Summary: Despite expectations, Natasha Reyes had never resented her sister. Yes, her parents paid a lot more attention to Erica, but Erica was also sick and needed a lot more help. She would never blame Erica for that, and she was perfectly fine with the way things were. At least, until Erica suddenly stopped being sick, got super hot and bitchy, and started treating Natasha like shit. But just when Natasha started to get used to the new status quo, she got hit by a car. And Natasha Reyes died.

Name: Percy Flowers

Story: Eternal

Species: Demigoddess

Face claim:  Vanessa Morgan

Love Interest: Scott McCall

Summary: When Percy said that she wanted to end things with Brett, she didn’t mean that she wanted him to be nearly murdered by supernatural assassins, thank you. But nonetheless, the near assassination set her off on a path that she never could have seen coming; a path of family mysteries, cute werewolves, dead pools, and an impossible heritage. Her only comfort is knowing that Amara is in the same boat as she is, even if it means that they’re both on a hit list now too.

Name: Phoebe Winchester

Story: Untitled

Face claim: Lily Collins

*supernatural crossover

Name: Rae Archambeau

Story: Untitled

Species: Redacted

Face claim: Alisha Wainwright

Love interest: Derek Hale

Name: Raegan Stilinski

Story: Regrets Collect

Species: Human

Face claim: Jennifer Morrison

Love interest: Chris Argent

Summary:  Raegan Stilinski had never planned on moving back to Beacon Hills.  She had graduated high school, and then fled to pursue her dream of working for the FBI.  She kept in touch with her older brother, went to Claudia’s funeral, and Stiles spend a month every summer staying with her, but Beacon Hills was in her past, and Raegan was looking forward.  Until her latest assignment sends her straight back home to investigate the recent oddities in the usually quiet small town.  Stiles being in the middle of it doesn’t surprise her in the slightest but coming face to face with her ex boyfriend Chris, and finding out that he’s somehow involved in the whole mess?  Well, that might be a bit of a surprise.

Name: Raffi Connery

Story: Feral

Species: Redacted

Face claim: Kiernan Shipka

Name: Rianna Deaton

Story: True North

Species: Druid

Face claim: Kat Graham

Love Interest: Derek Hale

Summary: Rianna Deaton had loved Beacon Hills, she really did.  She had loved growing up with her brother Alan, had loved training to be the Hales’ future emissary, and had loved Derek Hale with all her heart.  But when the fire claimed almost the entire Hale pack, Rianna had to leave.  With Derek and Laura gone, Peter in a coma, and everyone else dead, the ghosts of her lost family were too much for her to take.  So she called her sister, who talked Deucalion into letting the young druid travel with the Alpha Pack.  They were horrible, and Rianna hated it, but she forced herself to put up with it — there was no place for her in Beacon Hills anymore.  Or so she thought, until the whispers reached her ear that Derek Hale was the new alpha of Beacon Hills, and Rianna knew that it was time to go home.

Name: Jarosława “Scout” Stilinski

Story: (When We Fall) We Rise Again

Species: Redacted

Face claim: Lucy Hale

Love Interest: Isaac Lahey & Scott McCall

Summary: The Stilinski twins are survivors, they always have been.  Sure, roll your eyes, the spastic nerdy loser and his vapidly popular twin sister, survivors?  But they are.  They survived losing their mother.  They survived their father’s period of alcoholism.  They survived being on opposite ends of the social ladder in high school.  And now Stiles is pulling away from Scout, and keeping secrets for the first time in their lives.  But, they’ll survive that too, even if it’s the last thing they do.  The Stilinski twins have survived everything life has thrown at them, they can survive werewolves, hunters, and long lost family secrets.

Name: Selena McCall

Story: The Moon And Her Wolf

AO3 | FFNet | Wattpad

Species: Human

Face claim:  Emeraude Toubia

Love interest: Derek Hale

Summary:  The moment she turned 18, Selena McCall was out of Beacon Hills and on her way to New York. Religion, mythology, and occultism had fascinated her ever since she found out about the werewolves in Beacon Hills and it was a no brainer to choose NYU, with one of the best programs she could find. Imagine her shock, though, when she sits next to Derek Hale on her first day, the same Derek Hale who’d been her best friend right up until the point he disappeared off the face of the Earth. It took no time at all to rekindle their bond, or to find a second family with the last surviving Hales. Everything is perfect. Then Laura goes missing. Selena is right by Derek’s side the moment he starts for California, determined to find her pseudo-sister. Except, back in her home town, nothing is how she left it, and Selena finds herself torn between her baby brother and her best friend, with no clue how to keep either, let alone both, of them alive.

Name: Sylvia Hale

Story: H(a)unt

Species: Werewolf

Face claim:  Claire Holt

Love Interest: Avril Argent

Summary: After her family was brutally murdered in a fire, and her father left comatose, Sylvia Hale never wanted to set foot in Beacon Hills again. No, she would have happily spent the rest of her life on the other side of the country with Derek and Laura. But then Laura has to go back, and goes missing, and Sylvia finds herself back in the one place she swore to never return to. She thought that she could handle it, that they could find Laura and go home. But Laura is dead, and the Argents are back, and Sylvia wouldn’t know how to handle any of that without Avril Argent coming into the picture.

Name: Terra Smith

Story: When The Kill Time Comes

Species: Elemental

Face claim:  Shay Mitchell

Love interest: Stiles Stilinski & Scott McCall

Summary: Terra Smith barely remembered her life before Eichen House. She has one, she knew that much, but in her earliest, her parents were dropping her on the front steps of the asylum, where she would spend the next decade being experimented on with no hope of reprieve.  No hope, that is, until the mysterious Stiles Stilinski shows up one day.  She doesn’t talk to him, she’s not allowed out of her room, but apparently he noticed her, and soon she finds herself out of Eichen House and among his friends. Before Terra can even get over the shock of being free for the first time she can remember, she’s learning that not only do supernatural creatures exist, but that she is one, and that the lifetime of experiments was Eichen House trying to find out what she was.  She’ll deal with that mystery soon enough, but first apparently they need to figure out who’s behind this apparent Dead Pool of supernatural creatures.

Name: Trix Stilinski

Story: Untitled

Face claim: Liana Liberato

Love Interest: Liam Dunbar & Theo Raeken

*supernatural crossover

Name: Willa Morgenstern

Story: Silver Moon

Species: Redacted

Face claim:  Olivia Holt

Love Interest: Stiles Stilinski

Summary: Willa Morgenstern was happy to live her life in relative anonymity, alongside Scott and Stiles.  She was happy to stay out of the spotlight, to blend into the crowd.  And then something happened to Scott, and everything changed.  Not only were her best friends suddenly keeping secrets from her, but people were dying because of it.  And just when she thought it couldn’t get any worse, she started to glow.

[snowbellewells]

For the fanfic asks, 5 and 7 for last year's cssns werewolf fic, I forgot the title, and I'm on mobile, so it's hard for me to find it!

Thank you so much @laschatzi  for including me in the fic writer asks!

My last year’s CSSNS fic, “Run to Me (in the Dead of Night)” was the one you asked about and - shameless plug!! - it can be found here: ff.net or here: AO3, if anyone is interested! :)

5- What part of this fic was the hardest to write?

The hardest parts for me were probably the couple I attempted that were the closest to being genuinely smutty.  For me, that’s something I haven’t written much, and I feel oddly embarrassed and not sure it’s very good when I try, so those were tough.

Also, the scene where Cora and Regina blindsided Graham and Belle in the library, where I was trying to hint at Graham’s trauma in particular without being too explicit, was a different sort of challenge, but I was overall pleased with how that one worked out.

7 - Where did the title come from?

I have to fess up that I got the title for the fic from a song.  I was really struggling (as I tend to do) with what to call the story. And I was running through lots of of possibilities before I finally picked that title.  Thankfully, I had seen the AMAZING ouat fanmade video by legendarydreamer over on YouTube, using the song “We Will Never Die” by Delta Rae, which ended up giving me my title.  If you’ve never seen, oh my goodness, give it a watch:

**I would link her on Tumblr if I knew if she were on it, or what her username was, but definitely go find her on YouTube - all her videos are golden!!!

[alvisable]

My Choices’ LIs

I want to make a list of my MC’s names in Choices and their LIs. >w<

1. Kenna Allison x Michael Harrison

2. Joe Stephenson x Emma Hawkins (play twice heheh)

3. Laura x Jax Matsuo

4. Isla Winstanley x Beckett Harrington (I want to romance Griffin too, tho)

5. Edith x Adam (I want to romance Lina but she isn’t an LI :’3)

6. Lucia x Marc Antony

7. Jenny x Mr. Sinclaire

8. Seraphina Harper x Bryce Lahela (maybe Jackie too yeet I can’t choose)

9. Letta Jenkins x Ajay Bhandari

10. Leah x Becca Davenport

11. Natalie x Anna Koishi

12. Killian Wheeler x Mona

13. Cora x Quinn Kelly

14. Thalia Winter x Avery Wilshere (female)

15. Callie x Ben Park

16. Aura x Seth Levine

17. Rae x Andy Kang

18. Hazel x Drake Walker

19. Maya x Kenji Katsaros

~

I think that’s all for now. There are still so many stories that I haven’t played, and there are some I am currently playing but I haven’t decided which LI interest me the most. I’ll add more later. >3<

[1989dreamer]

Pennies and Dimes for a Kiss

Big thanks to annasakai for bidding on me (and letting me run with this idea) and thanks to @fandomcares for running this auction.

On AO3

Title and inspiration comes from Carly Rae Jepson’s Call Me Maybe.

Summary: Laura, lead singer of a garage band, sees her new next door neighbor mowing the lawn one day. Derek begs her not to make it weird.

                                                                                                                        ~ * ~

Laura was tuning Babe, her fourth-hand electric guitar, when she saw him.

He was her neighbor, recently moved in next door, and currently he was taking off his t-shirt to mop at his sweaty face.

He was pale in the way that it was early summer and the temps had finally climbed high enough for tank tops and shorts. Moles speckled his skin, stars painted across the canvas of his body. Her fingers itched to write the lyrics of him.

“Derek!” she yelled. Her brother sighed loudly, rolling his eyes. He straightened from where he’d been tinkering with Dad’s bike and strolled to where she was sitting on an overturned cooler. He deliberately wiped his hands on a grease-covered rag before deigning to ask, waspishly, “What?”

“Go get my lyric book,” she ordered him.

He glared at her. “No.”

She raised an eyebrow at him, but he only glared harder. Ever since he’d shot up about a foot and a half and started weightlifting, she hadn’t been able to boss him around as much.

It was frustrating.

Well, bossing might not work now, but Derek was not immune to her begging.

“Please?” she whined. “I need to finish this,” she stroked Babe’s frets, “for the gig tonight, but inspiration.”

Derek rolled his eyes again but loped off amiably. He returned shortly, her lyric book in one hand, a twelve pack of Mountain Dew in the other, and their younger sister Cora trailing him.

“Thank you,” Laura said, grabbing the book. She scowled at him when she noticed the large, oil-stained prints all over the cover. “Derek!”

He snickered, setting the pack of soda down. “Hey, you got your book,” he pointed out. Laura glared harder, imbuing her gaze with as much hatred as she could. Sometimes he could be such an asshole.

“Your book and no pen!” Cora crowed. Laura stuck her tongue out at her. Cora may have only just turned twelve, but apparently she wasn’t too grown up to not retaliate by blowing a raspberry in Laura’s direction.

“Why aren’t you ever as rude to Derek?” she lamented.

Cora shrugged. “He lets me do what I want.” To emphasize her point, she grabbed a can of soda and Derek didn’t stop her.

Laura sulked, useless lyric book balanced on her thigh while she fiddled with the tuning keys.

Derek watched her for a few moments before digging a pencil out of his toolbox. Laura took it without acknowledgement, setting Babe down reverently. She flipped to a fresh page and began scribbling. Derek went back to Dad’s bike, and Cora sat next to him.

Next Door Hottie was back to mowing. He hadn’t replaced his t-shirt, and Laura spent a couple of minutes watching his muscles bunch under his skin. He was lean and wiry without being narrow or small. He appeared to be about Derek’s height, with legs up to the sky and strength bunched in his forearms as he pushed the mower back and forth.

She managed to write six truly terrible lines before NDH finished mowing, guzzling water straight from the hose in his backyard.

Laura fanned herself at the display, wishing she were the water he was chugging.

Immediately she wrote: “Baby, you look like you need a drink, and honey, I’m your flavor.”

Derek’s wrench clattered by her feet, and she yelled at him about almost hitting Babe.

He rolled his eyes. “She’s on the other side of you,” he said. “You’re making it weird. Quit staring or I’ll tell him.”

“You wouldn’t,” Laura gasped, clutching dramatically at her bosom.

“Don’t pretend to be insulted.” He rolled his eyes again. At this rate, he was going to strain something. “Just. Please don’t be weird to our neighbor. You’re not the one he’ll beat up if he doesn’t like you.”

“He’s not going to be another Jackson Whittemore,” Laura said, but she winced at the reminder of their previous next door neighbor who used to beat Derek up whenever Laura did something he didn’t like—and Laura had lived to antagonize him.

It hadn’t helped Derek any that he’d been crushing on Jackson’s best friend, Danny Mahealani. In order to protect Danny from the uncool, Jackson had jumped Derek and kicked his teeth in.

Two lawsuits and the Whittemores paying for Derek’s dental work later, the Whittemores moved away.

The house next door had been empty for almost two years. Now there was a gorgeous guy mowing the overgrown yard and making Laura’s nether regions quiver in anticipation.

She was going through a dry spell since Mom caught her with the older Lahey boy last year at one of her “study” sessions. All because Cam was already eighteen and Laura had just turned seventeen.

NDH looked like he was nicely under eighteen but still mature enough to know his way around a pussy.

“No one can be another Jackson Whittemore,” Derek broke into her thoughts. He still didn’t look happy, so Laura put down her lyric book and stood up to hug him. She stole a can of soda on her way back down.

“I’ve almost got the song,” she said. “I just need—”

“Less cheese?” Cora interrupted looking pleased with herself. Laura sneered at her.

If Derek was standing up to her now and being insufferable, Cora was ten times worse.

Derek was Cora’s favorite, so to have the carefully cultivated older-sister fear dispelled so rudely, it meant that her little sister was a little shit.

“My lyrics are fine. They’re just not as fine as him.”

Derek collected his wrench, taking time to grab Laura’s can and drain it in one long swallow. “You’re being creepy again,” he told her, handing the can back to her. “Besides, don’t you have a gig tonight? Shouldn’t you be over at Jordan’s to practice?”

Laura checked her watch, swearing because he was right. “Bye, assholes,” she called as she stuffed Babe into her case and grabbed another can for the road. Parrish lived on the next street over, the back of his yard butted up to theirs. She hopped the fence, jogging to make up time.

                                                                                                                        ~ * ~

“No,” Stiles said flatly. He ignored the sad, pleading look Scott shot at him. Stiles sighed. “Do you see this?” he demanded, pointing around them. “The yard still looks like shit.”

In the not too distant neighborhood, someone began banging on drums. Stiles clenched his teeth.

He hated it here. He would have preferred to stay in his own neighborhood in Hill Valley with Scott and Harley, but with his dad’s election to Sheriff came a bigger paycheck. Dad had sold their modest two bedroom house and moved them 12.5 miles away.

Seriously, who did that?

At least since they were still in the same school district, he’d get to see his two best friends during the school year. It just sucked that since his dad had grounded him from his Jeep—something about a party with underage drinking and sex, neither of which Stiles was participating in—he hadn’t been able to visit his friends, relying instead on their texts and nightly messenger calls.

Since neither of them had vehicles or licenses, they hadn’t been able to visit either.

Scott had finally convinced his mom to drive him to Stiles’ new house for a sleepover, and now he wanted to go see some stupid cover band.

“Stiles,” Scott implored. “Please? They’re, like, the coolest. They go to our school.”

Stiles shook his head. “That just means they’re losers like us.”

“No,” Scott insisted, “they’re really cool. I mean, they’re all seniors and we’re going to be juniors.”

“Juniors are cool,” Stiles said. He wasn’t looking forward to school. If Jackson Whittemore was back from London, as the rumors were saying, then his life was over.

Jackson aka Jackass had been such a dick that he’d knocked some dumb Devenford Prep kid’s face in and had been sent to boarding school. In Europe!

And now Stiles was living in Jackass’s old house. There was no way this would end well for Stiles.

At least he could console himself with the fact that he hadn’t yet embarrassed himself in front of his hot next door neighbor.

Technically, Stiles had forty neighbors, fifteen of them to either side.

There were the Laheys on the left and the Hales on the right. Four Laheys. Eleven Hales. And only one had caught Stiles’ eye.

The middle child, Darren or Eric or something like that, was outside when Stiles and his dad came to scope out the place before his dad bought it.

Darren-Eric had been working on a motorcycle with his bulging arms on display. Stiles had walked into the clothesline post, and his dad had spent the rest of the tour alternatively laughing at him and trying to see what distracted him enough that he gave himself a black eye.

Since they’d officially moved in, Darren-Eric had worked on the bike damn near every day. And Stiles walked into the post so many times that Dad hired the boys next door—the immature Lahey brothers—to remove it.

It was a combination of his dad and Scott that inspired him to try getting Darren-Eric’s attention. His dad kept complaining about the state of the lawn—a tad bit overgrown—and Scott kept texting him stories about all the muscles he was getting by mowing his mom’s and Harley’s dad’s properties.

A neat yard and muscles. Sounded great. So Stiles spent all his time outside, pushing around a dinky mower he thought would die on him with every grunt, and trying to both catch the eye of and impress his hot neighbor.

So far, he hadn’t succeeded in anything except tanning (and making a few new muscles). Darren-Eric kept working on his bike and ignoring Stiles.

He complained once to Scott about it, and all Scott said was “Oh that sucks. Say, Mom said I could visit.”

Now they were here and Scott was still trying to get him to agree to go to the stupid band thing.

“Fine,” Scott said exasperated, “the neighbor you like? His sister is in the band. He’ll probably be there.”

“Wait,” Stiles said, gaze immediately going to the Hales’ garage. None of the kids, only three of them, two girls and the hot boy, were there. It was just the adults sitting on camp chairs, drinking beer, and shooting the shit.

“Seriously?” He’d seen the oldest girl with her guitar of course. He just hadn’t thought she’d been in the cacophonous racket emanating from the property flanking the Hales’.

Scott smiled knowingly, handing Stiles his plaid over shirt.

“I hate you,” Stiles told him.

“Uh huh, let’s go.”

They jumped the fence and cut through the empty lot behind Stiles’ yard to join the growing crowd in front of an open garage.

The guitar-girl saw them and faltered. Stiles nudged Scott and he nudged back.

Behind her, helping to run cables from the instruments to the amps was Darren-Eric. Stiles shamelessly watched him. He wanted those arms and that face. He wondered what it would be like to kiss him.

Stiles hadn’t even kissed anyone yet. Scott followed his gaze and nudged him pretty hard. Stiles knocked him back, and when he looking again Darren-Eric was nowhere in sight.

He swallowed down his disappointment. Mostly because the band was starting to play and the crowd around them started yelling.

Up close, the band was just as awful, disorganized, and ear-bleedingly bad, but in kind of a good way? Guitar-girl was also the lead singer, and she had a good voice.

Halfway through the set, the band paused for water. Then, guitar-girl grabbed her mic.

“This next song is for all the younger siblings out there—especially you, Derek.” She pointed at Darren-Eric, who was hiding behind a shapely shrub.

Derek, Stiles thought. It was a good name for him.

“Scott, give me some paper.”

“No.” Scott carried a journal everywhere. He never actually wrote in it, but he said liked to be prepared.

“Please?”

Scott relented, handing over the notebook with its severely masticated pen. Stiles tore out a page and printed his number. Below it, he added a simple, “CALL ME” and folded it up. Then he gave Scott back his journal and settled in to listen to the rest of the set.

                                                                                                                        ~ * ~

The gig had gone perfectly. Even with NDH showing up—and that was a nice ego boost, to have him staring at her during setup—and making her a little nervous.

Jordan’s cousin who usually helped them sort cables was sick, so Derek had helped. Normally, he stayed home listening to their aunts and uncles bitch about their jobs. He stuck around the whole set, glaring at her dedication of “You All Suck.” Afterward, he helped them tear down, rolling cables with a practiced ease she knew was from his theater nerd side. He wanted to be a mechanic or an actor. She wanted to be a singer. Their mother was disappointed in them both.

“Just you wait,” Jordan told Derek. “We’ll make a roadie out of you yet.” He accompanied it with a lecherous wink.

Derek pretended to laugh, sidling away from the drummer and the only one who’s mom would let him host a band out of his garage. Jordan made him uncomfortable, but Derek refused to confront him about it. Laura hadn’t figured out why yet. It drove her to frustration that he wouldn’t let her do it either.

Almost everyone in the crowd was gone when Laura looked up. Only NDH and his friend were still standing there.

Derek tapped her shoulder. “Need me?”

Laura shook her head. “Where’s my lyric book?”

Derek pulled it off a shelf and shoved it at her. He glanced at NDH and leaned in close. “Don’t be weird,” he said.

“I won’t.” All Laura was going to do was give NDH her number.

“Hey, so,” NDH said behind her, and she whipped around, paper held out defensively. He was behind her yes, but he’d grabbed Derek’s arm. “I just was curious—I mean, would you…?” he faltered, trailing off and blushing under Derek’s heavy gaze. Derek flicked his eyes to Laura and then deliberately opened a folded piece of paper in his hand. Laura saw a number and some words, looked down at her paper where all she’d written was “Call me?” She wrote down a number and slipped it into NDH’s pocket.

“Going home or not, Derek?” she knocked him with her shoulder. Derek’s face scrunched and he looked to NDH.

NDH stuck out his hand. “Hi, I’m Stiles. I just moved in next door.”

“Hi, Stiles,” Laura said. She looked from her brother to Stiles. They wore identical blushes, and she wasn’t dumb. She knew what it meant. It meant that she could write all the songs about Stiles’ attributes that she wanted but her drought would persist.

“Don’t stay out too late,” she called, shouldering Babe’s case. “And don’t do anything I wouldn’t.”

Derek groaned, covering his face.

“What would you do?” Stiles asked, innocently.

Derek groaned again. “Don’t,” he warned Laura. “Please don’t.”

Laura blew him a kiss and strolled to the fence to hop it. Her heart felt funny, like it was missing beats, but when she looked back and her brother was smiling, eyes shining at Stiles, their stances relaxed, the same blush burning both of their ears, she decided it didn’t matter. Besides, together, they made a pretty good pair.

Stiles definitely wasn’t another Jackson Whittemore, hallelujah. She couldn’t wait to tease her brother.

Maybe she would write them a song.

Maybe.

Maybe Call Me.

~ Fin ~

[katsbookcornerreads]

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[battinsonrobert-archivess]

morning ramble that may not make any sense because i am not about to proof read this shit at all.

basically, delphine's story would come first because her and richie are cloud and ama's parents and they are the clue print to everything that goes on in cloud and ama's life. and when richie dies, that's the beginning of cloud's story. and when delphine gives ama away to rita, that's the beginning of ama's. cora is raised by irena, and is like, raised to be like delphine - which will piss delphine off - but that's not valid until later. so we'll ignore that. i basically scrapped the idea of sara all-together because she just doesn't fit into any of this.

then alexander and cloud both will be part of hysteria, instead of their stories being separate. which i'm probably re-naming to the palms; because it sounds better. and like, i love the idea of alexander saving cloud when they're the same age, and he time travels for the first time, and she dies for the first time, opposed to it being a him saving her when he's older. because it's just so much cooler this way. plus, there's the whole "we've known each other since we were younger, but you never liked me like that so i never made a move" thing for them thing going on by the time they hit university.

so like in wysteria univeristy (i might change the name of that too) when cloud starts dating that paul and he ultimately kills her, and alexander brings her back to life by accident, there's the whole random conversation he and claudia have where they're both like "oh? you've been in love with me since forever? woah me too?" and it's the worse time to have a conversation becos cloud can't remember who killed her and alex doesn't know how he brought her back to life. and at first her friends, rachel and robin, think he did it since he found her and she's eating his entire kitchen. anyways, the girls go on a whole revengecapade on the guys who've wronged them in order to find out who killed cloud and eventually they they go back to thinking it's alex because paul manipulated them into getting them to think it was him, when it wasn't. and alex is distraught because he'd never. and like yeah, he'd never. and cloud believes him and the girls turn on paul, and rae ends up accidentally killing paul aka her first kill. and oddly enough, this first kill leads rae to kill more people over time, and eventually in other stories this is a plot line.

then in the before, cloud and alexander end up getting married, but their powers are what the big obstacle is in this story. from their wedding being nearly ruined due to alexander disappearing during it and coming back a year later, to their daughter going missing. just a lot of shit happens. i haven't like planned this particular story.

bury me deep though is what i want to rework to the fullest but i'm having a hard time. like i know it's retrofuturistic neon noir meets paranormal and powers......but honestly i keep changing my mind. and the dream i had gave me an idea but i don't know how i feel about it. so i'm trying to work out that. so until i do, i can't really work on bury me deep, morgue than words, love and war, or brain dead. sdkjfskdhfskdf like i am so conflicted on what i want to do or if it even makes sense. i also am not sure if 'alternate worlds alternate people' and 'sweet spot' are part of this universe. sdjhdskf so i'm stuck as fuck.

i'm rambling for myself so i can remember this. future self, if you're reading this, remember. figure your shit out please.

lol i had a cool dream and now i want to scrap my wip original ideas all together and redo them sdkjfsdkdj

why i be this way?

[lessthanthreepress]

HAVE YOU PREORDERED HEART OF STEELE, A LESS THAN THREE PRESS ANTHOLOGY, BY AVERY STILES, B.A. HUNTLEY, CHRISTINA MARIE, CORA WALKER, HEATHER MORRIS, HELENA MAEVE, AND T.S. PORTER?

Everyone loves the stories of knights: chivalry, bravery, loyalty, love gained, lost, unrequited and timeless. Daring feats, epic quests, bloody wars, and more...

LT3 Press presents, Heart of Steel, an anthology about knights, featuring fantasy, fairy tales, and paranormal stories that include LGBTQIA romance. Preorder your copy by September 19, 2017 to save 15% off the cover price and earn reward points toward your next order!

The Queen's Dragon Rider by Cora Walker—Tessandra dreamed of being the first woman in her family to join the Legion of the Bold. But that promising career in the Legion was dashed when the riderless dragon Merryn selected Tess, much to her disappointment. Now joining the queen's service, though not in the capacity she expected, Tess is about to begin her first mission—and it's already shaping up to be full of peril. The Silent Knight by Avery Stiles—As a courier, Loran has always worked alone, but her latest delivery comes with a companion: a mute knight without a name. The strange knight at first seems more hindrance and help—especially after they insist on saving the life of a brigand Loran would have preferred dead. To Tame a Dragon by Christina Marie—The Septimoan Law of War states, "No woman shall ever bear arms for king and country. Should she participate in war, her only acceptable role is that of nurse." But Floriane has no patience or time for such a law—especially once she finds herself right in the middle of a war. Blackberries and Buckthorn by TS Porter—Ser Isolde has been tasked with the underwhelming duty of escorting young Lady Siofra home from her sorceress' training. She has better things to do with her time than babysit a silly girl, but at least the matter will be simple and quickly over... The Heartless Knight by Heather Morris—Long a part of Prince Tom's inner circle, and newly knighted, still Isi is a man eternally out of place. Once a slave, always a foreigner, and that's only the start of what makes him odd to most. Confusing feelings for Tom do not remotely help. Ser Rae of Del by B.A. Huntley—The king is dead, and Rae finds herself dragged right into the heart of politics when her lover, the queen, orders her to find a rumored bastard child and bring them back at any cost. A Shieldmaiden's Vow by Helena Maeve—Setting aside her vow to defend against wickedness, a disillusioned Maud turned her back on the Order of Saint Kilda four years ago and struck out on her own. Then two of her former shield-sisters arrive in town town, hell-bent on dragging her back into the fold, and Maud's past and present collide.

All preorders are available for purchasers to download the night before the release date (at app. 7:00 p.m. the night before) and LT3 sends an email notification when you can download your copy. Reserve your copy today!

[christinaroseandrews]

Hearts of Steel features LBGTQA+ characters in a fantasy setting. All of the stories are complete and there are many standouts. Like I do with all Anthologies I read, I'll break my review down into each story.

The Queen's Dragon Rider - Cora Walker - I'm not sure I would have started the anthology with this one. It's a clean lesbian fantasy that is bigger on the fantasy than the romance elements. This story in particular had several editing errors that made it into publication and the ending is a bit abrupt. I liked Tess, Merryn, and Aria. 3 stars.

The Silent Knight - Avery Stiles - This story has the best POV character in the book. Loran is funny, interesting, and all around great. The use of a mute character was great. The romance is sort of pre-polyamorous romance with more of the focus on character growth/plot. I would have liked to have seen more with Farris (the third). Basically I liked the characters and wished this story was longer... maybe the trio facing the repercussions for the mission gone wrong? 4 stars.

To Tame a Dragon - Christina DZA Marie - I really liked this story featuring a female knight who has to hide her gender and a shapeshifter who has to hide their true nature. The symbolism was spot on and I was very satisfied with both the love story and the fantasy story. 5 stars.

Blackberries and Buckthorn - TS Porter - A knight and her companions must escort their ruler's daughter home which is more dangerous than it sounds. To say I loved this story would be an understatement. It is the best story in the anthology with well-rounded characters and even side characters. The romance made sense, even in the face of some twists. 5 stars.

The Heartless Knight - Heather Morris - This story features the lone asexual character in the anthology. While the main character is well-developed. The story itself needed more oomph. 3 stars.

Ser Rae of Del - B.A. Huntley - This story has an almost fairytale quality to it. While it could have used a better editor, it was still fun and well done. The twist was predictable, but that didn't make it less satisfying. 4 stars.

A Shieldmaiden's Vow - Helena Maeve - The other polyamorous story in the group. It was a bit confusing in parts. Especially the beginning and the ending featured a huge WTF moment. I wasn't terribly fond of the characters. 3 stars.

In all, there are a few authors I will happily check out more of their works on and this is a good taste of some up-and-coming authors.

4 stars. 

***I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley

Get it now!

[mrsjugheadjonesthethird]

Never (Reggie x Reader)

Prompt: Can you do a reggie imagine where you and him a into a huge fight and for whatever reason you think he's gonna physically hurt you so you flinch and back away and when he notices he feels awful and just kind of stares blankly at you and says something like "did you think I was gonna hit you?" Like he's almost on the verge of tears and just takes you in his arms starts apologizing over and over? Thxs

A/N: Ross will always be my beautiful Reggie. Let us hope that I do some justice with this request.

Warnings: Kinda Angsty? I tried. 

Masterlist

Never (Reggie x Reader)

It started with Betty and Veronica coming over to the almost empty table.

You had been sitting at the picnic table, munching away at some chips while your friend Ethel talked about the latest adventure she went on.

“Hey Ethel. (Y/n).” The blonde sits down next to your friend. A familiar looking book in her hand.

Veronica takes a seat and gives you a smile. “We need to talk to you, (Y/n).”

Ethel shifts in her seat as Betty slides the book over to you.

The leather bound cover touches your fingers as you slowly pull it open.

Your heart stops.

Several girls names fill your vision. Numbers listing them in groups.

Ethel. Cora. Tina. Ginger. Y/n.

Wait.

Your eyes pauses at the sight of your name.

Y/n. 10 Points. Reggie’s Girlfriend. Demanding.

Next to Noah. Another Footballer that wasn’t your boyfriend.

“That’s not all.” Veronica’s voice breaks your thoughts as she turns a couple pages.

There it was. Your Name.

Over and Over again.

It wasn’t just next to Noah’s. But Almost the whole team.

Almost all of them except your own boyfriend. Reggie’s name is nowhere to be seen.

All of the entries saying the same thing.

Y/n. 10 points. Reggie’s Girlfriend. Demanding.

Then you see it.

At the top of the page.

“The Bulldogs Very Own Whore” scrawled out in Chuck’s handwriting.

Slamming the book shut, you shove it over to the Blonde.

“(Y/n)…” Betty tries to say something but you are already halfway across the courtyard.

Reggie found you sitting on the couch curled up in a blanket with some food from Pop’s.

“(Y/n)?” He takes in the state of you and plops himself right down.

It was quiet for a while until the news traveled back around.

Reggie’s phone goes off as you got up to put in another movie.

As you turn around, you could feel the tension suffocate you.

“(Y/n), what is this?” His voice usually soft and playful is now sharp and harsh.

He shows you his phone.

Pages from the playbook. All your name.

Your heart stutters to a stop.

“Reg-” Your words fail you as you take in his confused and hurt expression.

“Almost the whole team’s on here!” His voice raises slowly but surely as the words pour out. Saying how much he cared for you. How much he gave up for you. How he could have anyone he wanted but he chose you.

You shake your head as the tears threaten to spill.

“I don’t do anything with them, Reg.” You reach for him but he moves sharply away from you. Breaking your heart a little more. “You know I was just tutoring some of them for extra credit.”

He lets out a cold laugh. “Yeah. Tutoring. In what, (Y/n)? How to sleep with someone else's girlfriend?” His warm features replaced with a cold glare.

“I didn’t cheat on you, Reggie!” You yell back and cross your arms. “You know they put a girl's name in there for the smallest things. Ethel was in there and all she did was show Chuck where a book was! I did nothing out of what I told you happened.”

He takes a quick and determined step towards you, making your heart falter.

Your stomach drops as a thought runs through your head.

He reaches for you and you find yourself flinching against his gentle touch.

The whole room stops and it’s as if the tension of the fight had fled the scene.

His expression goes blank.

“Did…” He pauses before continuing. “Did you think I was going to hit you?”

You nod as the tears run down your face.

Through your blurred vision, you could see him in the same state as you.

With tears gathering in his eyes, he slowly brings you into his arms. “I’m sorry. I would never hurt you.”

His whispers calm you down as he promises over and over again.

“Never. I will never hurt you.”

A/N: I’m going to tag my normal tag list in my other riverdale stories and let me know if you want to just be in a certain taglist or not <3 

Tag List:  @isitfuckingfridayyet @barbarachern @yazminmcd @casismyguardianangel @jealousbitxh @kindfloweroflove @lustfulskam @cat200037 @xxnaomixxblr @baasooreexiiaa @apocalypticangell @morgan--lee--currant @superoriginalteenwolf @heir-of-light-33 @mesmerizedbyblackandwhite @murderyoursoul @irrajj @fan-of-many-bands @multiversegalaxygirl @mrssstilinski @molethemollie @anotherweekinhell @katshrev @saycute1998 @milkshakejones @itsjaynebird @bangtanbookfrog242 @awesomefandomsunited @imagine-lovebug @imperfectanatomy @sgarrett49 @ashlyn-acts @annoyingsibling @xbobaaa @theselfishllama @kaylinfayezink @nooneshoney @intwoweeks @duckseverywherex @young-gh0st @royalworldtraveler @sweetmisseddreams2002 @raifusfandom @siaralovesgaming @kristinaorfanakos @rice-seedling @divastar777 @saltedpeanuts @in-need-of-a-social-life @kingpendleton @nadya0128 @thesuitelifeofjughead @gigglygaymush @darkxwithoutxlight @bex09 @frackinawesomeninja @r-ivertales @purple-alien-monkey @miss-mia-rae @masterlistts @eren-jaaaager @spooky-brendons-butt @onceuponagladerhead 

and my love: @full-dark-no-starsxx <3 

[national-theatre-scotland-blog]

Adam | Director’s Note

Director’s Note by Cora Bissett

I first became aware of Adam when he performed a short monologue about his life as part of the Citizens Theatre Community Company and Scottish Refugee Council’s production Here We Stay. When Adam got up to speak he had me engrossed and intrigued. I still remember the line ‘I was every bit a man!’. It moved me to tears. Afterwards, I went to congratulate Adam and, even then, I said I would love to put his inspiring story on stage. Over a couple of years we met for tea and I would learn more and more of the extraordinary journey he had been through.

I kept coming back to this moment where he told me he typed a question into a laptop ‘I feel like a man trapped in a woman’s body’....and a whole world community opened up to him. This ability to connect was incredible; we are so used to stories about the internet as a tool for abuse, for bullying, grooming, spying, but the flip side was that, for many people who don’t fit into their immediate physical world, the internet can connect them to a family and a community they may never otherwise find.

Around this time I landed on the idea of a digital global choir. I had been watching a fascinating TED Talk on a composer who had created such a phenomenon. This is a form where storytelling also incorporates a world community; song being the language of solidarity and shared experience. That is how the Adam World Choir came into being. Leonie Rae Gasson came on board as Project Manager and ferociously set about finding and connecting with as many trans and non-binary people as she could, inviting them to sing in the ‘choir’. She discovered more than 200 members from Nigeria to Russia, Pakistan to Norway. Each shared their own story with us; by turns achingly sad, deeply affecting, anger-inducing and joyously inspiring. In searching for the right writer to match the production I became aware of Frances Poet’s Andromache and I loved the bold, poetic direct address. I felt she was just the right person to dramatise Adam’s remarkable journey.

When I first met Adam he was adamant he didn’t want to be in the production and was just happy to lend us his story. I searched across the UK to find a trans actor to play him but I couldn’t find the right person. Then a modest little text arrived at New Year saying ‘hey Cora I’ve been thinking I might like to play ‘Adam’ would you let me audition?’ This is what we did. I am delighted we have landed on this outcome, with the ‘real’ Adam and the brilliant Neshla Caplan sharing the role of Adam and the people in his life. It has been a huge journey of learning for me; I hope it will be for you too.

Photography by Sally Jubb Photography

[andallthatmishigas]

10 favorite women in 10 different fandoms

Tagged by @olafur-neal (thank you!)

(listing these in the order they come to me, not necessarily in order of preference)

Cora Crawley (Downton Abbey)

Ruth Evershed (MI-5/Spooks)

Jean Beazley (The Doctor Blake Mysteries)

Jennifer Mapplethorpe (City Homicide)

Abbey Bartlet (The West Wing)

Emily Gilmore (Gilmore Girls)

Minerva McGonagall (Harry Potter)

Lilith Sternin (Cheers/Frasier)

Clarice Starling (Silence of the Lambs/Hannibal)

Fiona Goode (American Horror Story)

Tagging: @aboxfullofdarkness @comepraisetheinfanta @alyb253 @featherpluckn @mandalamarigold @rae-gar-targaryen

[kristablogs]

The history and mystery of America’s long-lost pickle sandwich

In this Depression-era stalwart, soft, chewy white bread (homemade or store-bought) is an ideal canvas for butter and pickles. (Jennifer May/)

Have you ever stopped to ask yourself why bread-and-butter pickles are called bread-and-butter pickles? “I thought they were called that because they’re sweeter and less vinegary,” a friend tells me. “You know, smooth as butter.”

I had never questioned their name either, but rather quietly, to myself, word-associated bread-and-butter with “reliable”—just like the idiom. What reliable pickles! Always perfect for snacking, on a burger, or chopped up in an egg salad. But no, that’s not quite right either.

After decades in the dark, a lightbulb went off when I read this passage in Amy Thielen’s The New Midwestern Table (Clarkson Potter, 2013), this month’s pick for the Saveur Cookbook Club:

I realized the answer may be in the name itself: bread-and-butter pickles. Sliced pickled cucumbers layered between two slices of buttered bread was, allegedly, a Depression-era staple, due to the low cost and high availability of those ingredients. I say allegedly because there aren’t many contemporary sources that can confirm this, and those that do mention the sandwich (the blog Cottage at the Crossroads, Chef John Mitzewich of Food Wishes, and Marisa McClellan in an old Serious Eats post) report it through hearsay: “Supposedly…”; “I’ve been told…”

Why is it so difficult to find a hard, veritable source for this theory that bread-and-butter pickles were named after a sandwich? Seems simple enough, if not glaringly obvious.

The Joy of Cooking does include a recipe for bread-and-butter pickles, but no bread-and-butter pickle sandwich. Tomato lovers can, however, find a peanut butter and tomato sandwich in Irma S. Rombauer’s tome of American cooking, as well as a peanut butter and bacon sandwich, which leads to another sandwich rabbithole one could go down: the peanut butter and pickle sandwich.

There are plenty of accounts of the PB&P. The Times wrote about it in 2012, and even provided a recipe. Later, a peanut butter and mayonnaise sandwich also circulated the Internet. When I asked Jed Portman, editor of Midwesterner, he said, “I wish I had something of value to share. I’ve heard of peanut butter and pickle sandwiches, but I’ve never had one—much less the butter variant, which is intriguing.”

When a quick Google search for “bread-and-butter pickle sandwich” led me to a recipe on Smitten Kitchen, my ears perked up. But alas, the matching keywords were in a comment by a user, not by Deb Perelman herself. “I LOVE B&Bs!” the reader writes. “I make sandwiches of them on buttered white bread.”

Perhaps this is the point: The story of the bread-and-butter pickle sandwich lives not on the page, but, as many of the best foods do, in orature (oral literature). Word of mouth. Comments sections. Message boards. Facebook groups. The only way to find its elusive history, then, is to ask around.

It seems so obvious, yet when I asked my friends and even threw out a call to Twitter and Instagram (“Do you know this sandwich?”—like a wanted ad), I got multiple responses from experienced food editors and writers who said, “No, and I feel robbed.” Many others exclaimed, “Yes! But peanut butter, not butter”; “Yes! But mayo, not butter”; “Yes! But cream cheese, not butter.” Not butter, not butter, not butter.

And then ... one of my readers, Jessica Wharton, showed up in my inbox like a unicorn: Yes, bread, butter, and pickles.

Though Wharton was raised on these sandwiches, even she doesn’t know where they come from. “It’s a recipe from my great-grandmother and her family,” she tells me in an email. “I grew up in a rural farm town in Connecticut, but Connecticut honestly doesn’t seem correct to me as an origin, especially since besides my family I don’t know anyone who eats these either. It’s a thing we’ve always had every July or August when the cucumbers in the garden are ready and there are tons, and you’re not really sure what to do with all of them.”

I imagine my search for the story behind bread-and-butter pickle sandwiches will continue after the publication of this piece, and in its comments section.

For now, eager to try one myself, I made a batch of Thielen’s refrigerator bread-and-butter pickles with curry powder. I cut up some mini cucumbers (often called pickling cucumbers) and salted them to draw out moisture and to preserve their crunch. To make the pickling brine, I combined white vinegar, sugar, ginger, garlic, chile, mustard seeds, and curry powder, and brought them to a boil in a saucepan. The spicy steam filled the kitchen, like aromatherapy. After rinsing the cucumbers and draining them thoroughly, I sliced up a red onion and added it to the bowl, followed by the hot, golden brine. I let my pickles cool slightly, then packed them in old kimchi jars that were lying around and put them in the fridge.

I could only wait a few hours before making myself The Sandwich. I popped a couple slices of brioche into the toaster for a few seconds, only to soften them up. Next, I spread unsalted, room-temperature butter on one side, then laid a single layer of pickles—“overlapping slices” as Thielen suggests—on the other slice, and joined them together. I took a bite...and promptly texted three of my closest friends.

“You have to try this.”

It’s such a rare pleasure, as an adult, to experience a new taste, especially one that changes your mind about food. Who knew that pickles, for instance, could taste so much fresher, crunchier, more nuanced—leagues above the neon-green store-bought ones? Even more so when you’ve added a hint of curry powder for savory warmth? Who knew that soft buttered bread, which is already sweet and comforting on its own, could partner so seamlessly with its exact opposite: sharp, crunchy pickles? Who knew that this was the food pairing I’ve been waiting for all along?

The two together—butter and pickles—remind me of a cucumber and mayo sandwich, sure, like the kind you’d eat at English tea. In fact, Wharton wrote me back days later, after confirming with her dad, that their family tradition did indeed come from a very old recipe for English tea sandwiches. It is an entirely different experience, though, when you pickle the cucumbers yourself and swap out the mayo for butter. Its taste is surprisingly multi-dimensional, yet balanced. Whether you’re having it for afternoon tea or for a grab-and-go farmhouse lunch, the bread-and-butter pickle sandwich is, truly, the food of royals.

Update: One of the first recorded uses of the phrase “bread-and-butter pickles” can be traced back to 1923, when Omar and Cora Fanning of Illinois registered for a trademark (since expired) on the logo for their family pickles. According to a 1996 issue of the Feingold News, “Mrs. Fanning worked out an agreement with a local grocer, who gave her groceries—including bread ‘n butter—in exchange for the pickles.” Other related trademarks with the United States Patent and Trademark Office include “Betty Rae’s Bread & Butter Pickles” and “The Original Bread 'n Butter Pickles,” but no one owns just “bread and butter pickles.” Thank you to reader Nicolas Emerson for the tip.