#tanger looking darling as ever

[seventyones]

G went private on IG so he could post pictures like this, I’m 100% sure

[eusuntgratie]

🔀 tanger and flower

i'm sorry for the SIGNIFICANT delay, nonnie! also, vero inserted herself; i hope that's okay.

Girl Talk popping up in my spotify in the year of our lord 2023? alright.

read on ao3 | send me a 🔀 & a ship and i'll shuffle a playlist and write you a little somethin'

Marc-André’s pleasantly drunk, still floating from the cup win as much as the cocktail of champagne and beer and god knows what else he’s consumed since that last save. He still can’t believe it. He can see every play, every save, every shot, play behind his eyes every time he closes them. Can still feel the cup in his hands. It feels like it must’ve happened to someone else.

He’d left Vero chatting with Sid a while ago to go take a piss and then gotten derailed on the way back, getting pulled into a few conversations, a few hugs, and somehow ending up with a half-full bottle of lukewarm champagne in his hand. He’s feeling great.

He can’t find Vero where he left her in the kitchen, so he goes outside to search by the pool. Maybe Sid finally got her in there; he’d been teasing her earlier about it. He hears her laugh before he see her, and his eyes snap to her face. She’s the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen. She’s sprawled in Tanger’s lap, her head thrown back, long brown hair hanging behind her, eyes squeezed shut tight, and her gorgeous mouth split in a huge smile as her laugh echoes across the pool deck.

Tanger’s undoutedly as drunk as he is, but he’s a hand wrapped protectively around her back ensuring she doesn’t tip too far backwards as she laughs. The other is gripping her thigh, the one closest to him. He gets stuck on his way over to them watching the way Kris’s fingers dig into the denim of her jeans to keep her still. Everything’s moving in slow motion when she picks her head up and beams at Kris, catching his terribly bearded cheek in her delicate hand and pulling him close to kiss his cheek.

They look at each other for a beat, and suddenly Marc-André is moving again. If he wasn’t quite so drunk, or quite so desperate to have Vero’s hands on him, or Tanger’s, he would stay where he was and watch them awhile longer. He’s always loved watching beautiful people. But it’s late and he’s drunk and he’s got no idea when enough endorphins will wear off and leave him exhausted, so he crosses the pool deck quickly and stands by Kris’s feet.

“Can’t leave you alone for a minute,” he says teasingly to Vero.

She gives him a sly smile. “Why, darling? Because I’ll end up in a beautiful man’s lap?” she responds in soft, teasing French.

Tanger kisses her cheek and murmurs something he doesn’t quite catch in her ear. His fingers tighten on her thigh.

“Can’t let you have all the fun without me,” he answers.

Tanger looks up at him then. “You���re right. I think you deserve to celebrate.”

Vero watches them both before smiling at him. “Shall I leave you to it then?”

“No, my love,” he answers immediately. “I think maybe we should celebrate together.”

Kris’s eyes darken and Vero bites her lip, and Marc-André’ knows that whatever happens tonight, he’ll never forget it.

[funky-sea-cryptid]

Fanfic Writer Interview

tysm for the tag lola!!!!

im putting my responses below a cut bc i tend to ramble all the time

How many works do you have on AO3

62 :3

Your top five stories by kudos/likes

1. noli me tangere

2. space ghost (coast to coast)

3. movement tethys

4. malcolms terrible no good very bad day

5. the awful edges where you end

I don’t know how that fourth one got so popular im looking back and. 😭

Do you respond to comment? Why or why not?

I love answering comments it makes me so happy and also im a bit of an attention whore (to my detriment sometimes)

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

oh jeez uhhh man fuck the way I love writing angst but most of the fics I write end happily for the most part uhhh fuck I think it might be either distance or salvation

What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

ohh this one’s also hard ummm id say bathtime or prophecized? I love bathtime it is my second favorite in the rarepair week series.

Do you write crossovers?

ive wrote a few :3.

our song our sorrow and i - black clover and the silt verses crossover

distance - bc and hunger games crossover

moth to the flame - bc and the magnus archives crossover

magna the eight/magna the first - bc and the locked tomb crossover that I’ll probably never finish 😭

skirt supremacy - every single Shakespeare play i liked and my friend told me about in high school

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

NO thank god

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I’ve only done it once, and only my wife gets to see it.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

no bc im too freaky for them

Have you ever had a fic translated?

no :(

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

ohhh I co-write more often than i don’t atp. i LOVE writing with my beautiful wife @t-f-t (hi sweetie!!!) they’re so talented and they have a way of making everything make sense when we’re plotting things out. i love watching their brain work and im so excited for our upcoming project after saintfic <3

What’s your all time favorite ship?

and if i said malduffbert.

in all seriousness i have so many. i love finessa, and rumagluck and yaminacht and briarmirrors and fanamars and patowill and rhylichtia and also malduffbert

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

ahahaaaaaaaa magna the first….. im so sorry magna the first

and also ship in a bottle which i have pretty much planned out but i doubt will ever measure up to the hypothetical animatic to the song of the same name in my head

What are your writing “strengths”?

ive been told im good at the minutiae, and i hope that’s true :> i believe im also good at dialogue and have a good grasp on 2nd person pov

What are your writing “weaknesses”?

oooo I can’t describe a setting to save my LIFE (working on it) and action/fight scenes are a huge achilles heel of mine.

What are your thoughts on writing in other languages in a fic?

Google translate is not my friend and I refuse to call it such. i generally end up doing the dialogue in italics trick ;-;

What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to?

i like to think ive written for everything i possibly want to but id like to do a rhylichtia long form with my darling :3 and im really looking forward to the patowill regency murder mystery au!!

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

don’t make me choose between my babies

i think most if not all of my friends have been tagged by lola or my wife so if you come across this feel free :3

Fanfic writer interview!

tagged by @ashenaura. Merci bien ! ;)

How many works do you have on AO3?

145.

Your top 5 stories by kudos/likes:

I'll Follow

Where The Heart Is

Your World

Everything and More

Brittlest

(... yup, it's all SAU and those numbers will never not shock me)

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Of course. It might take me forever (my inbox is staring at me dead in the eyes), but I will respond. It means the world to me and if anyone makes the effort, they deserve a response. Easy.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

I need happy endings with my angst so... yeah. I think... Yesterday I died (tomorrow's bleeding) is quite sad.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

I guess the SAU has the happiest ending. Everything And More's last chapter is literally sunshine and calmness which, yk, is needed after the whole thing.

Do you write crossovers?

I've just gotten into it! I didn't see the hype before but um that was because I never tried to mash together the right verses I think. The Arkham Horror x Black Clover crossover is very dear to me.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

*touching wood* Nope.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I've written steamy but never full smut. Well, I've written bits. But they're unpublished and I don't think I ever will publish them soooo yeah.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge, no.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! Someone translated Her Most Precious Memories in Russian (Её самые драгоценные воспоминания).

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Just like crossovers, I'm just getting into it. And just like crossovers, I'm absolutely loving it.

@kalolasfantasyworld knows. We've written that Olympics Swimming one, Silver Scorching Interdimensional Slash: the Magical Medley Relay of Doom, and we're writing the most wonderful Formula for a Crush.

What’s your all-time favorite ship?

All time favorite... royai probably.

it's just the angst... it's just the sillies... it's just the war criminals... there's a dog... they're both so stupid... i love them...

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

fhjfhds all of them. If I start a wip it's that I want to see it finished (because I want to read it). Sadly, I often don't have the motivation to. The wip list is ever growing.

What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue and internal monologues, I think.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Besides everything syntax and grammar-related because what even is English, I'd say description, especially of action scenes. It takes me forever to even dare put down a few words and I always feel like I'm describing like a 7yo would (no shade to 7yo but surely with 20 more years on this planet I should be able to do better).

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I did it in Formula for a Crush for Vanessa and Helena because Helena typically does it so it felt normal to As long as it's one word or one expression I don't really mind. (my Italian is non-existent and my Spanish is uhhh not good so, there's that.).

In my own work, I prefer to keep it in English and italicize. Less risk to completely fumble a whole language.

(I just realized that Zora doesn't even utter one word in French in FFAC and I'm French [I dare think I can speak and write the language relatively well]. so it's less down to messing up a language than personal preferences in writing ig..? I never really thought about it.)

What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to?

Nothing comes to mind. Rarepair Week was a great occasion to tick some of these boxes too.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

I've had this question ten thousand times and I think I reply differently every time dhjfdjskj. It's a tough one.

Right now I'm having a lot of fun with Formula for a Crush (nah, you can't tell with how much I'm talking about it).

what even is football anyway will always be very dear to me and I'll probably say it's this one.

Blue Hours (and its sequel, I might even like the sequel more simply for the rant about the dishes) is special because I loved the concept and I experienced a bit with the narration.

Thicker Than Blood because it's a longer one and it was a really non-pressure kind of fic (I expected no one to read it so I really had fun)

Yesterday I died (tomorrow's bleeding) and posing questions to a silent universe (my very thoughts a curse) for some nice Mia angst.

Lost in a storm, It’s a big office, chief, for some nice Phoenix angst.

Tell Me About Cruelty means a lot to me.

(you might realize: I cannot choose. I'm looking at the 145 fics and I'm like. they're all special to me in some way. even those I wish I could erase from the face of the earth I'm like. I like that line, that scene, that hug. it's terrible and it's wonderful.)

--

tagging (no pressure, do it if you want) @kalolasfantasyworld (because ofc I'm tagging you), @wildflowerwoodsworld

[smollandtoll]

HC: Crosbeauty AU OT3

Listen, we know we’ve done a Crosbeauty AU before, but this one has OT3 so it’s totally different. Right? right! LET’S GO! 

This HC was a lot of general ideas and moments so I did my best to make a plot out of it? 

Imagine if you will, young Sid attending school for stage makeup in Toronto. He spends the majority of his money at Sephora and on rent for a tiny downtown apartment that he splits with Flower. Living the dream!

(Sid and Flower originally met in first year while doing their tech theatre practical courses -  Flower couldn’t make a makeup bruise look semi-realistic to save his life and Sid couldn’t get his legs to stop wobbling long enough to climb the scaffolding to change the gels - so they traded favours all semester.)

Whatever is left over goes to food or camera equipment. Although it hasn’t been bad at all lately, his youtube subs have been climbing steadily, past the point of making a little side money and into the area where he is shakily not doing any work other than school and making/editing his videos.

(It helps to have a CBC darling hanging around their apartment and willing to be in his videos as a model as often as he wants. Tanger is such an attention whore, and only gets to wear full suits on the period piece he stars in - so any chance he can get to be seen in his chic clothing and any excuse he comes across to look beautiful is one he jumps at)

In any case the story really begins while Sid is WATCHING his usual youtube roll in the morning - friends, acquaintances, people he’s a fan of, whatever strikes his fancy. It’s then that he sees that Anna - a Russian beauty vlogger in her own right -  has updated her channel with a new personal video: THE BOYFRIEND TAG.

Sid is stoked because the video looks like it’s in English - not all of Anna’s are which forces him to use youtube’s dodgy translation closed captions OR just leave emojis in the comments. He also has been kind of dying to see who could possibly get to date Anna, she’s absolutely impossibly beautiful, and funny, and kind of evil. They’ve chatted online before (exchanging tips and giving each other compliments) and her boyfriend - Evgeni (a name in which Sid is unsure he even knows how to pronounce properly) always sounds like a very kind and generous man.

The thumbnail just has the title and a pair of clasped male and female hands so Sid’s interest is instantly PIQUED. He has been so curious about Evgeni and now FINALLY he gets to see.

So of course he loads up the video and does what everyone does and skips to the part where Geno actually comes in and sits down looking flushed and awkward, hat on backwards, waving stiltedly to the camera while Anna positions him exactly how she wants him in the frame. Sid thinks he’s beautiful - not in a traditional way but he looks kind, and has a mobile face, made for emotions. He doesn’t look chiseled or like an instagram model, he looks like a real person who loves Anna very much - enough to appear on a video for the world to see even if he seems a little uncomfortable with the idea. Sid guiltily scrolls into the comments to take the general temperature of the reactions to her boyfriend and find the predictable mishmash of supportive comments Anna has liked and trolls - pretending to be helpful or no - telling Anna she could definitely do better.

Sid would restart the video and watch it properly then, learning Evgeni has a warm voice, heavily accented, and often forgets words in english and looks to Anna with puppy dog eyes to aid him. They seem to have a lot of inside jokes, they seem in love. Sid thinks they are wonderful and probably hopes reverently that one day he might have something like what they’ve created together.

So anyway he definitely sends her a heart eyes emoji and then follows it up with another message: “.......OK UR MAN THO 👀.”

Much later he gets a reply from Anna that is a long string of blushy emojis and the simple:

“You like? He like your video. Always ask if watching ‘boy with mouth for sin’. 😜”

Sid: Am I being invited to a 3way on a different continent?

Flower: I deal with the amount of shit you have in our bathroom I'm not dealing with whatever the fuck that is.

(Flower is a liar though, that shit in the bathroom is half the reason Vero puts up with him sometimes. Sid always lets her pillage whatever she needs when she stays over last minute - also his ring light is A+++.)

Meanwhile Anna is telling Sid about how she could never get G to do a lip exfoliant and apply chapstick regularly but she showed Sid's video to him and then he was like RELIGIOUS WITH HIS BLISTEX. All mouth activities have gotten like 500% better.

Anna: we owe you at least bj.

Sid: I’m definitely getting hit on.

Anna: you also teach him how to style hair, his same as you, but very thin in spots

Sid: oh, I have tips for that!

And then they definitely all meet at vidcon. Girls are like SWOONING over Tanger of course. He and Sid are sharing a booth (how does vidcon work? I’m not doing research for this, I’m going to pretend it’s like every other convention and popular makers have booths to sell merch and meet people???)  and Flower is there to like get food and water for them, take photos and some video, and awkwardly wave at people who recognize him from the background of some of Sid's videos.

(usually he shows up as just his disembodied voice yelling in french about whatever he's just burnt and Sid freezing on camera and being like "...................................FLOWER." and Flower's voice just like "....shit sorry Sid!" - youtube commenters who speak french relish in translating what he’s saying in the comments, a particular fan favourite was the time he tried to make a chocolate souffle for Vero’s birthday and could be heard muttering on and off through the whole video, so much so Sid added a disclaimer at the beginning that his roommate was being very loud and worried about his girlfriend and that the viewers should all take pity on him)

So, anyway we’re sure Anna SWANS over, just all intensely long legs, super high heels, hair flowing EVERYWHERE looking like she just came off a runway or a movie set to just EMBRACE Sid in a cloud of delicate perfume and soft hair and cheek kisses. Sid of course freezes like a deer in the headlights while Anna greets him excitedly and apologizes for her shitty english that is sounding like ….pretty great to Sid.

It’s then that Sid notices she’s towing a mildly blushing (and plushy lipped) Geno by the wrist. He’s incredibly tall (although some of it might just be an optical illusion enhanced by his long thin limbs) and looking a little freaked out by the crowd - but when Sid catches his gaze he looks happy and hopeful and maybe a little surprised.

"Oh you're the boyfriend." "I'm big fan." THEY SAY AT ONCE PROBABLY.

Anna: Sid, Zhenya. Zhenya, Sid. (introducing them like she hadn’t just met Sid herself a moment ago) Boys are going to get along so well, can just tell.

Then, so much blushing.

We want Flower and Tanger knowing SOMETHING was going on but not exactly what...just watching with dawning beautiful comprehension, eyes pinging back and forth between these statuesque russians and their clumsy awkward darling Sid.

Okay so at some point G and Sid are going to get left alone together, in a hotel room above the convention centre. Probably Sid’s, probably for a nap or something ridiculous like that, or maybe Anna just slips out to go get her curling wand, because while Sid has a lot of beauty products his hair is pretty much wash and wear.

Anyway, somehow Sid ends up giving G a once over with his kit. It probably comes up naturally, like while Geno was poking through his entire makeshift rig Sid set up in the best lighting of the room. Humming thoughtfully at the stacked palettes of eyeshadow, running curious fingers over the fluffiest brushes. Sid inquiring about Anna’s supplies, if Geno ever ends up in her makeup like this, if she’s ever pinned him down and dealt with his eyebrows (Sid guesses no by the state of them, even though the wild & natural look is in right now). Geno would mumble about how he doesn’t let her - she does crazy things, looking like a mermaid one afternoon or a frosty queen the next - he doesn’t want to look like that.

Sid: What do you want to look like?

Geno: *deep self conscious shrug that mostly only conveys that he’d probably like to look not like what he currently does*

And then before Sid can really think about it he’s offering to try, nothing outlandish, something basic, to highlight his warm eyes maybe, clean up the lines of his mobile mouth. Basically the Tanger special - scratch that, even less than Tanger, Tanger likes to look carved and flawless like a Kardashian.

There’s always a gentle intimacy about doing someone’s makeup, focusing intently on the features of their face, feeling the down on their cheeks against the heel of your hand, touching their hair for stability. They’re quiet together as Sid works, just the sweep of his brushes and the click of the compacts, a quiet instruction to look up or down, to pout and smush. Normally Sid talks through doing makeup on others, explaining to them or to his viewers what he’s doing, but this moment seems sacred somehow.

Through it all Geno’s eye contact doesn’t waver. It’s strangely, deeply intimate, and Sid tries to recall if it felt like this when he did Flower’s makeup before, his hapless guinea pig. Tanger was always on his phone, or instagramming the whole thing live and his attention was diverted, and Sid never felt this out of control even as he was the one holding the pencil against someone elses’ eyeball.  It’s an unwavering, magnetic kind of eye contact, and as Sid leans close and smudges under one eye with his thumb, other hand bracing the back of G's head/neck that’s when Anna probably returns and they spring apart like she’d just caught Sid giving her boyfriend a lap dance.

But after processing what she’s seeing she flings herself onto the bed excitedly: "YOU GET RID OF DARK CIRCLES? I ALWAYS TRY, HE NEVER LET! WHAT ARE YOU USING?"

He and Geno probably share a meaningful look before looking away shyly and that’s the start of a beautiful friendship, relationship, throuple or something. Anna being there breaks the tension, but there’s still something hovering in the air every time they hang out. It’s probably all very torrid at first, Sid talking to Anna on a level like friends but separately talking to Geno about other deeper things - worried it might be crossing a line, worried it’s already crossed the line long ago that he feels a lot of attraction for G - but like Anna is SO BEAUTIFUL. And Geno and Anna flirt around him all the time, even while Anna leans against him while they talk and Geno makes sweet, sincere eye contact and says startlingly vulnerable things.

Sid is confusion.

To Anna, it’s completely transparent exactly what’s happening. She’s completely in favour of making this twosome a full blown party. Sid is sweet and generous and quietly funny and can do a smokey eye better than anyone she’s ever met before. And it’s really cute watching Evgeni get all flummoxed and romantic - not that she doesn’t still make him like that, but it’s all new all over again, and he’d do anything for Sidney’s pout which Anna doesn’t have any problems with taking advantage of. Zhenya’s had a very sweet and quite evident (although barely acknowledged) crush on Sid for a while, poking his head in when she’s watching Sid’s latest videos, concentrating intently doing his first ever sugar scrub to Sid’s exacting instructions, suddenly paying more attention when Anna mentions a new comment from Sid. It’s all been very tame, but very promising, and in person Sid is even more of a joy.

We want Sid eventually -when they live in the same place, trying to make their dynamic work in the real world outside of extended vacations to visit each other- constantly doing little things for Geno's face, like a teensy bit of mascara and some foundation a bit of stippling to fill in his frankly sadly patchy beard hotness quotient up 100%. A few years later, the stippling extends to the temples.

Anna just looking on adoringly or like...Sid and Anna mildly squabbling over what look to do next while Geno just watching videos of animals snuggling and waits for them to be finished.

BONUS

Tanger was actually the one that got Sid into vlogging. Tanger loves looking at himself? and hearing himself speak? and ranting? so he like had a vlog already. It was kind of performance art, kind of show reel for casting agents at the time.

So basically he kept bothering Sid to give him touch-ups like on the day to day and Sid eventually was like "wtf man."

Tanger without bothering to explain further: VLOGS

So then Sid was like naturally interested in the makeup ones and there were no boys? at least no boys doing like chill guy makeup, and glam, AND theatre???? So he started Crosbeauty and the rest is kind of history.

[sentrava]

Introducing Tru by Hilton, a Fun New Option for Business Travelers

SVV and I are frequent road trippers. In fact, in the past year alone, we’ve spent more than 150 nights in hotels and short-term rentals, the majority for business travel, but some also for leisure. I’d be confident saying we know our stuff when it comes to what we’re looking for in the perfect business hotel, which is why I’m pretty excited about the new Tru by Hilton hotels.

This post is sponsored by Tru by Hilton. All opinions are my own.

The Tru by Hilton hotel model has slimmed down the overall costs for the business traveler by eliminating things that many itinerant nomads don’t appreciate anyway. It’s subtle, definitely, and the buildings are still gorgeous but fractionalizing expenses associated with things like room size, a restaurant/bar component or a concierge/valet service makes all the difference for us as consumers. You won’t believe the pricing difference between Tru by Hilton and a competitive brand in terms of value.

Why do I love this new concept?

It’s affordable. As a small business owner, I’m footing the bill for a lot of my expenses. And if a client isn’t paying, and I’m traveling for a work project, I’m probably not going to shell out $300 for a hotel I’m just in for a few hours a night. Tru by Hilton’s rooms range from $99 to $139 a night, which is right in my sweet spot, price-wise. (Note: Pricing varies per market.)

It offers plenty of freebies. Nothing annoys me more than having to pay for Wi-Fi when I travel; luckily, this isn’t the case with Tru by Hilton. It’s got free Internet with remote printing, as well as a complimentary coffee, tea and hot chocolate bar, plus a lavish breakfast spread with everything from donuts to bagels—and plenty of toppings.

It has awesomely designed social spaces. When I’m staying in a hotel, I’m really just in my room to sleep and shower; I get antsy stuck in my room, particularly when traveling alone. As someone who loves to work out of cafes, I like that the Tru by Hilton brand offers me a coffee shop experience without ever leaving my hotel (or having to buy a coffee every hour to justify my presence!). And the lobby is 2,880 square feet—that’s bigger than our stately old Victorian house!—so we had plenty of room to spread out and get comfortable.

The rooms feel like being in an urban boutique hotel. While I may have been 20 miles from downtown Atlanta, the modern design of my room made me feel as if I were staying right in the heart of the city. I’ve always been one who gravitates to cute boutique hotels, and Tru by Hilton felt like just that—without the hefty price point.

Tru by Hilton’s got game. And games, too! Encouraging guests to socialize is one of the brand’s pillars, so there’s a pool table, giant ConnectFour and other board games, all backed by a fun, splashy mural (and you know I love me a good mural).

The gym is baller. I’m always training for something, but I’m usually not one to utilize a hotel gym as quite frankly, many of them just don’t have what I need. Then I met this gym. Not only does it have hand weights, kettlebells, stability balls, bands, yoga mats, cardio machines, the works, but it also has customizable workouts available through a tablet mounted on the wall.

There’s a local touch. Tru by Hilton may be nationwide, but it’s got that local feel thanks to the Tru-ly Local Wall outside of the elevator bank where guests and staff add their suggestions (we added ours, too!). As a frequent Yelper who’s always looking for the best local recs, I love that I didn’t even have to turn to my phone to hunt down the best places to eat and drink in McDonough.

There’s a market on site. The first thing SVV and I usually do upon arrival is search for a beer, and the Eat. & Sip. market had both local and domestic beers on offer, in addition to wine and gourmet snacks aplenty—and it’s open 24/7 with a connected interface that syncs directly to your cellphone.

What can you expect from the rooms?

They’re on the cozier side. The rooms at Tru by Hilton are designed similarly to a hotel room in New York City or San Francisco: They maximize storage with clever alternatives like TV shelving, an open closet and panels, but take out all the unnecessary spaces and features to make the rooms more budget-friendly for guests.

They’ve got plenty of outlets and USB ports, including at your bedside. It irks me not being able to charge my legion of electronics while I sleep, so I love when new hotel builds include plenty of places to recharge.

They’ve got sass. I’m always keeping an eye out for clever branding, and I am in love with the personal details Tru by Hilton uses throughout its rooms, common spaces and, in particular, bathrooms.

They’ve got all the amenities you could need. I never travel with shampoo, conditioner, body wash or a hair dryer, so I’m grateful for a hotel that covers all these essentials for me. And because we’re Hilton Honors members, we also got a complimentary goodie bag of snacks and bottled water upon check-in (only valid for certain levels of membership).

What we did in McDonough:

The first Tru by Hilton location to break ground was in McDonough, Georgia, not far from the Atlanta airport. While there are now more than a dozen opening and/or in the works, we visited the first location, which happened to be at the exact exit where we attended a wedding earlier this year. Through a combination of feedback on the suggestion wall and tips from friends, we had an action-packed weekend without much downtime at all.

We ate dinner on the historic square. McDonough has a darling square that’s flanked by local businesses and reminds me a lot of our own historic squares in Tennessee. We met our friend Trish for dinner at Pastamax, a beloved local trio of restaurants. She told us about so many other local points of interest, such as Atlanta Motor Speedway where her husband works, that we have a huge list for our next visit.

We found the craft beer scene. We wound up at Taco Mac for dinner the second night, thanks to the suggestion wall, and our server was so knowledgeable about beer that she let us sample an array of Georgia’s finest brews. Then, she went one step further and told us that one of the breweries was just five miles down the road, so after dinner, we headed to Jailhouse Brewing Company, where there happened to be a special event going on: a huge musical fundraiser with a band member from Collective Soul playing that evening. It was the perfect way to get a taste of the local scene, and the beer was so delicious, I brought a six-pack (and a T-shirt) back home with me.

We stocked up our wardrobes. Winter is coming, and we’re not prepared. Luckily, Tanger Outlets is just 10 minutes down the interstate from Tru by Hilton, so we found a lot of great deals at all our favorite factory stores: Banana Republic, Gap, J. Crew, Loft, Columbia and more. I am always on the lookout for a good bargain.

We headed into Atlanta and did a bit of mural-chasing. The Tru by Hilton McDonough is 30 minutes south of Atlanta, so we spent one afternoon at Ponce City Market and along the Beltline exploring Atlanta’s street art scene. There’s so much to do in the ATL, though, that you could honestly stay at this hotel a full week and just barely scratch the surface.

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While, true, this hotel may target business travelers, we found it a great place for a leisure stay, as well—and met several other travelers returning from vacation and using the Tru by Hilton as a stopover for the night.

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