#the only two ladies that mattered in 2017

[lizzybeth1986]

Rose Gold

Book: The Royal Romance

Pairing: Hana Lee x Kiara Theron

Rating: PG

Word Count: 4, 304 words

Content Warning: Mention of Gun Violence, Character Injury.

Summary: Six months after King Liam and Queen Esther's wedding, Hana and Kiara take their next big step as a couple.

A/N: Set in the P&Tverse. Since P&T spans the timelines of Books 2 and 3 (the Engagement Tour and the Unity Tour + Liam & Esther's wedding), most of this fic takes place after the series is meant to end, and there are references to things that happen there that aren't canon.

The first half of the fic, however, takes place just before the group reunites with the MC and Drake at the safe house (TRR3, Ch 1).

I've borrowed a few elements from Hana's own engagement to the MC in the books: the rose gold ring, the coin throwing ritual at the foundation and the proposal at the lake.

Tagging @hanaleeappreciationweek for Day 5: Romance, @choicesficwriterscreations for FoTW and LGBTQ Archive, and @choicesmaychallenge24 for Hera: Marriage

October 14th, 2017. Half past Midnight.

Foolishness. Sheer foolishness.

The voice inwardly chiding her right now sounded suspiciously like her mother; for that reason alone she was desperate to ignore it.

But what else would one call an impulse to jump out of a car that could take her in complete secrecy to the city's best safe house, only to race to Argyros and Sons - Cordonia's premier jewellery store - for a gift she wasn't even sure would be accepted...a promise she wasn't even sure its intended recipient would want?

"Looking for something specific, Your Grace?"

Surprised, Hana looked up from the case displaying an assortment of glittering diamond rings. The eyes that met hers in a speculative survey were ocean-blue, marked by wizened crow's feet. It was at the tip of her tongue to correct him (Lady Hana, sir!) when she spotted the Twitter feed on the iPhone in his hand.

News sure does travel fast around the Capitol!

But no sooner had that thought left her head, than the riptide of memories began to flood her.

The Homecoming Ball. Hors d'oeuvres. Speeches. Fireworks. Announcements. Please welcome Esther DuPont, Duchess of Valtoria, and Hana Lee, Duchess of Krysanthe. Cheers. Expectant Gazes. And then...

Darkness. Gunshots. The acrid taste of fear.

Hana bit back a grimace. How long would memories of tonight haunt her? How long would it be before she heard people address her by her new title, without memories of the violence that followed?

She held her handbag with a sudden death-grip, forcing herself to breathe. To push forth happier, sweeter memories.

Unbidden, comes the one memory that had managed to keep her sane this night.

Her laughter.

Sharp. Raucous. Loud. Jarring against the tinkling sounds of cutlery and glassware, as far away as one could get from the soft, windchime quality of delicate laughter, that every female courtier was taught to emulate.

She thought she'd known love until that moment, fool that she was. Thought that no matter who she dated, no matter how distant she'd be from those memories of the social season - Esther would somehow remain her first and forever love.

Until she had taken that one fateful look at Kiara's wildly joyous face, heard her cackle - the kind one would never normally dare to do at court - and realized with piercing clarity that if she were to compare her feelings for these two women, they would be nowhere close.

Her love for Esther had all the subdued warmth of a crackling bonfire. But these newfound feelings for Kiara?? They made her feel like she was plunging herself headfirst into a raging volcano.

Something within Hana had trembled violently in that moment; some premonition that felt searing in its finality.

Kiara was the one. She was all Hana had ever wanted, without knowing it; all that Hana would ever want, from now till eternity. The one in whose arms she would want to stir awake, every day for the rest of her life.

Kiara Thorne, or no one. Kiara Thorne, or lifelong loneliness.

The phrase rang in her ears like a verdict: final, eternal, unchangeable.

When Hana opened her eyes, she found to her consternation that they were blurry from unshed tears. Quickly blinking them away, she noted dully how different the rings on the display now looked.

Certainly she must have moved to another part of the store without knowing. Where before she'd seen glittering, brilliant, ostentatious diamonds, set in white gold and platinum...now she saw stones nestled in the embrace of a warmer, almost blush-toned metal.

Rose gold.

The metal that was all the rage in her mother's birthplace Bethulia, for its delicate shimmer and soft pink hue. Mama had told her often enough in her childhood that their barony's love for it went far beyond just the colour...that her mother - Hana's Nanimaa - loved it for being such a perfect union of gold, silver and copper...

A whisper of a memory of Nanimaa, the one time she'd ever seen her. At a fountain, glowing from the glimmer of abandoned coins.

It took her less than a minute to find exactly what she didn't know she'd been looking for. Had you asked the jeweller about her, he would have told you that the newly appointed Duchess of Krysanthe had chosen her ring with the greatest confidence. The confidence of a woman who had probably wooed her beloved, confessed her love, basked in the joy of being loved back.

A confidence Hana didn't feel.

When she returned to the limo, she was greeted with the sight of a pensive Liam, rubbing the frown between his brows absently with his fingers. A telltale muscle jumped inside his jaw.

"Any news?" Hana whispered, almost dreading the answer.

"Yes," his voice was grainy from exhaustion and guilt. "Three people injured. Bastien, Esther's press secretary, and...."

"And?" Her voice had gone small and high, that a fearful child's.

"And Lady Kiara. She was..."

Hana blinked once, then blinked again. Liam's mouth was moving, yet no sound seemed to come out. All that she could hear was a low, keening noise, like a muffled siren...or like the moan of a woman in terrible pain.

Kiara. Kiara. Kiara.

--

May 12th, 2018. Afternoon.

"How far from the palace are you taking us?" Kiara asks, her voice alight with laughter.

"Not even outside its gates," Hana replies, grinning. Kiara looks down at their fingers laced together, palms almost touching.

They've been together for just six months, and still somehow, the lines on Hana's palm feel as familiar to her now as her own. Without even looking she can conjure up the memory of the heartline on Hana's left palm at a moment's notice - long and deep, starting from her index finger, suggesting she would be a wonderful lover with a very fruitful love experience - and her marriage line, stretching from one end of her palm all the way to her ring finger...suggesting friendly in-laws.

(The thought of luring Hana to marry her under the premise of palmistry is sounding more and more tempting by the minute)

Involuntarily - perhaps to stop herself from checking her trouser pockets once again for that tiny box she took from her vault today - Kiara's hand tightens around Hana's.

Can she dare to hope that fortunate beloved could be her?

She steals a glance in Hana's direction, noting with alarm that her fingers are trembling in Kiara's hand.

"We're here," she says, her voice suddenly small and quivering against the gurgle of water in the courtyard fountain. It's been a palace fixture for several decades now - ornate and imposing - a legacy from King Liam's formidable grandmother, the late Queen Mother Cassandra. According to Kiara's father, the woman had married into the family as a young princess from Monterisso, and for her foreignness alone was expected to be crushed by the strictures of the palace and the expectations of her people - yet in a decade's time she had somehow became the most imposing figure there! There was very little in the palace that didn't have her stamp of approval first.

As they come closer, Kiara sees the one thing Queen Mother Cassandra may not have predicted when this fountain was built - the glimmer of coins, all gleaming in the sunlight like they were minted just yesterday.

Her own smile begins to tremble on her lips, even as she notices Hana swallow a telltale nervous lump in her throat. For the first time since they have gotten here, Kiara notices that Hana's other hand is fisted around something. Something that could very likely be the same coins they just saw in the fountain.

She takes that hand gently in hers, knowing now how nervous Hana must feel; knowing that if they complete the ancient lover's ritual that she so hoped to do today, there will be no going back. She uncoils Hana's fisted hand, finger by quivering finger, watching her face as her breathing quickens. She smiles again - a smile more aimed at reassurance than amusement.

"Are we going to do what I think we're going to do today, ma moité?"

For several seconds, Hana doesn't respond. The three coins in her hand (Heavy. Ornate. Engraved with apples. Ancient) are proof enough. The answer, when it finally comes - almost like it is torn out of her throat for fear that Kiara's feelings may not match her own - is barely audible.

"Only if this is what you want too."

Gold. Silver. Copper. Tossed in one after the other in an ancient lover's ritual - one that Kiara knows only because she'd learned about it from her mother, who'd had friends in Bethulia where this ritual was most popular. Maman and Baba themselves had done it on a trip there when she was a teenager, still squirming over her parents' ability to still act like swoony romantics in their (and this would be said well out of their earshot) "fucking forties!".

Wiser now, Kiara feels the same anticipatory tingles that her parents must have felt back then.

This ritual wasn't for the faint of heart in ancient days. You did it only when you were certain. When you looked at your lover and knew that a life without them wasn't a life worth living.

Well, Kiara muses as she watches a hundred emotions flit in a second over Hana's face, I think I've known that long enough. I've known ever since I saw you fight your father in Shanghai, even when you knew it would cost you everything. Since that one moment, I've been yours.

Planting a tender kiss on the corner of Hana's mouth, she takes the coins. "Ready when you are," she whispers softly.

Hana swallows again, her eyes glistening and moist and relieved all at once. In a silk pouch that dangles from her wrist, she fishes for three coins identical to the ones on Kiara's palm. She breathes deep once, twice, three times.

Kiara links their free hands, grips them tight as they turn their backs to the fountain. Hana looks up, a question in her eyes.

"For friendship!" Kiara says, tossing the copper coin into the fountain. Faint memories of something that almost feels like another lifetime glimmer and fade in her memory. Applewood, sipping water, giggling over their favourite fruits and flowers. The Beaumont Bash. Watching from the sidelines as Hana did the verbel equivalent of ripping out Olivia Nevrakis' spine at the Coronation Ball.

Hana takes out the silver coin, and waits for Kiara to holds up hers'. "For love?"

Engagement tour. Fearing Hana would hate her in Fydelia, but never understanding why that should suddenly matter. Standing with her against a bridge in Paris, each mourning their lost loves.

Finally learning what love really was, when she opened her eyes and truly saw Hana for the very first time.

Kiara nods, touching her forehead to Hana's. "Par amour." Their coins splash in unison in the water.

Her girlfriend lets out a watery giggle as she takes out the final coin, glittering and golden on her palm. Her voice breaks a little as she tosses it behind her. "For...bel- belonging".

Kiara's own sigh releases in a shudder as she lets the final pledge sink in.

There were very few places in the world that truly felt like home to Hana. Not the place where she was born, not the barony that could have been her legacy. It took her months to even find comfort or security in her future in Cordonia - much less belonging.

Without a moment's thought, and without releasing the golden coin in her hand, she cups Hana's face and kisses her. Hana shudders and buries her hands in Kiara's hair, her lips trembling against the unspoken promises in her lover's.

"For belonging," Kiara says it like it is a vow. "And I don't care how long it takes - I give my word right now. I'll never let you feel like you have lost your home. Ever." Another kiss - this time on Hana's temple. "I hope you will always find one. In me."

Hana's smile is warm and dreamlike, her eyes closed as if to savour this moment, her fingers playing with Kiara's curls. She barely notices the sound of Kiara's gold coin landing in the fountain. "I love you, Kiki."

Kiara chuckles at her teasing use of the nickname, brushing Hana's nose with her own. "Together forever?"

Their hands, now free, close around each other. "Together forever."

It's quiet now, except for the sound of collard doves, the rustle of leaves and branches in a light breeze, and their breathing. The air smells of wildflowers, citrus and a subtle floral scent that Kiara knows to be the perfume Hana has been using for months. Orange Blossom. She grins as she remembers. It's a scent Hana has often loved to wear, just for her.

Hana's thumb feathers lightly over the ring finger on Kiara's left hand, almost as if to commit the bare space on it to her memory. Kiara doesn't miss that gaze - bright-eyed and soaked in longing - and how it mirrors a need she has felt ever since they landed at the Capitol last week.

Kiara swallows. She had wanted to take things slow, she really did. Woo her, bathe her in every luxury possible, make this trip even more unforgettable than Hana could ever imagine, and then spring this surprise on her - like a kirsch-soaked cherry topping on an already very tempting Black Forest Cake.

But...but that gaze of Hana's has always been Kiara's undoing.

Simply, she says, "come with me."

Puzzled, Hana looks up. "Where?"

"To Lake Sôse," Kiara whispers, wasting not one more moment and grabbing her hand. Hana lets out a nervous, slightly incredulous laugh as she allows herself to be pulled along.

Kiara isn't sure why she's suddenly rushing this. When she thinks of the elaborate plans she'd been constructing all week - chocolate-dipped strawberries and champagne at one of the Capital's premier restaurants, flowers everywhere, a proposal at the hedge maze with a picture together by the swing to commemorate the occasion - she wants to laugh. She isn't even sure why Lake Sôse was the first place she'd thought of just now.

She takes a deep breath, and grounds herself. Uncommonly impulsive though it may be, her decision has been made. There is even a part of her that seems to prefer it to happen this way!Kiara has never been one for last minute changes of plan...but ever since she fell in love with Hana, she's learned to expect - and enjoy - the unexpected.

It's only when she sees the shine in Hana's eyes that she realises why her mind took the turn it did.

Lake Sôse. The one place Hana Lee has always chosen for solace and comfort. The one place in the Capitol where she felt the most at home. It had been here, Hana told Kiara once, that King Liam had told her his plans to appoint her Duchess of Krysanthe. It was here, hours later, that she'd shared that momentous news with her best friend Esther; where Esther - herself aglow with love and a newfound purpose - hugged Hana and told her that the world would now be Hana's oyster.

She'd brought Kiara to this lake for the first time the day after King Liam and Queen Esther's wedding, following a night when the queen herself had been kidnapped, and Hana had joined the king's entourage to rescue her.

A night that Kiara - in constant fear of losing her forever - had recklessly kissed Hana. In public. In front of the entire court. Braving gazes of teasing approval from Kiara's parents, and near-murderous glares from Hana's. The night everyone outside of Hana's friend circle finally realized the two were a couple.

Kiara remembers the day after that like it was yesterday. Something must have changed fundamentally in Hana that night, because the fear seemed to have gone, and with it the compulsive need for hiding and subterfuge and constantly looking over her shoulder. It was as if Hana had faced what she'd thought was the worst thing that could happen to her, and realized she really was strong enough to face that fear.

You're my safe place among people, Hana told her that morning, her fingers lacing through Kiara's. The one I feel most at home with. I want to bring my safe space..to the place in Cordonia I've always felt safest in.

It is afternoon, and the yellow crocuses behind them exude a warm, buttery golden glow in the sunlight. Hana lets out a breathless, incredulous laugh. "You seem like a woman in a very huge rush today, Lady Thorne."

Kiara's own laughter in response is high-pitched and halting. She tries to hide the moistness of her palms as she makes a blind grab for the small velvet box in her purse. "Believe me, this wasn't the way I'd planned this to go at all."

Intrigued, Hana's eyes follow Kiara's hands, and her eyes widen as she recognises the familiar deep blue velvet, the embossed silver lettering on top. Argyros and Sons.

"Is that --"

"Yes," Kiara says, clearing her throat, "I'd been planning this. All week. It was going to be romantic, elaborate, I was going to sweep you off your feet. Just like I'd planned to ask you out seven months ago."

Hana lets out a watery giggle. We all know how that turned out, don't we, qīn'ài de? Kiara can almost hear her saying.

But the humour stops almost immediately when she looks at the box again, and suddenly Hana seems too still, too shocked...too far off from how Kiara hoped she would react.

Kiara lets out a deep breath, then lets the words gush out of her. She's too scared to stop, too terrified to think - the fear that she may be doing too much too soon is so overwhelming that she knows if she stops she won't be able to bring herself to do this for a long, long time to come. The humiliation would be too strong.

"I'm not one for impulse. I never have been. I've never felt comfortable with anything if I didn't have a plan for it first."

Kiara gives herself a moment to half-smile at the irony of it all. Approaching Hana Lee with a smile and a bottle of water, after that first eventful bite of a Cordonian Ruby was definitely an impulse. So were half the things she had done with Hana since. So will many, many, many of the things they may wind up doing together, if (if!) this leap of faith works in her favour.

She looks up at Hana to see if she's laughing at the memory too. She isn't. In fact, Kiara isn't even sure Hana's reacting yet to what she's saying. Perfectly still, her eyes never moving from the box, so wide that they would go bloodshot if they were widened any further. Kiara swallows, and finds that her throat feels suddenly, inexplicably sore.

"I could never tell what it was about you that changed all that. I still don't. All I know is that...around you, Hana, I feel so much more brave. To let go of the need to plan and organize. To not be too afraid of what will follow - whether it goes in my favour or not. I find myself not just willing, but eager, to trust my gut."

Kiara's eyes search every inch of Hana's face as she opens the box, revealing the ring inside. It's a gorgeous piece, all platinum and sparkling diamonds. The smaller stones form a cluster around a massive one, leading the viewer to believe they are seeing a glittering snowflake, fallen fresh from the heavens.

Kiara had known the minute she saw the ring that it was the one. That it would remind them of the first time they confessed their love. Of their very first date, of the first time they shared Hana's cup of homemade hot chocolate. Of why the two of them will always love winters.

Hana's fingers move, trembling, towards her mouth, her face suddenly flushed. She remembers it too.

"Hana Lee," A frisson of fear slithers down Kiara's spine. "Will you marry me?"

When Hana finally opens her mouth, several seconds later, Kiara has to strain to hear her voice.

"I - I -" her eyes dart away from Kiara as if she's just remembered something important - her beautiful bronzed skin suddenly a little drained of colour. The next few words, she says in a "I.... I'll be back. Give me five minutes? I...just remembered something."

She leaves without waiting for an answer.

Kiara sinks into the grass, covering her face in her hands.

What have I just done?

--

All the way back from her room in the palace to the lake, the pouch hanging from her wrist feeling only a slight bit heavier, Hana cannot stop mentally kicking herself.

"You fool! You imbecile! Bèn dàn!!" Hana curses herself as she speeds up her sprint into a run, "What happened to your tongue? What kind of reaction was that?? What will Kiara think?"

Her mind now sprints miles ahead of her feet, racing in panicked ferocity over the possibilities.

With any luck, Kiara could still be waiting - puzzled and perhaps a little worried. Or she could be actively panicking, the way she does (on very rare occasions) when a plan goes terribly wrong.

Or...or...

Hana holds the silk pouch from her wrist in a deathlike grip as she speeds up towards Lake Sôse. Or.

The thought of that lovely, open space completely devoid of Kiara, of that beguiling combination of rose and jasmine emanating from her favourite Dior J'adore perfume, makes Hana's stomach drop to her feet.

It isn't until she sees that that heartbreakingly familiar figure of Kiara's, hunched over the grass, that Hana allows herself to breathe.

Kiara is there. Shoulders bent, head buried in her hands, almost stumbling as she tries to get up when she sees Hana.

Morose. Defeated. But still there.

Without another thought, Hana rushes into Kiara's arms, almost knocking her off her feet.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," Hana whispers against her hair. "I wasn't trying to run away. I really had to get something. For you."

Kiara pulls back to look into her eyes, and when she does Hana's heart twists at the sight of unshed tears. "I thought I'd scared you off."

Hana's own laughter quavers, pitched high in disbelief. "I've just pledged myself to you this afternoon, body and soul, at the palace fountain. This -" she lifts Kiara's left hand to her chest, her thumb caressing the empty space on her beloved's ring finger " - just makes it so much more real."

Kiara's arms wrap around her, pulling Hana flush to her. Hana can feel Kiara shake as she giggles in response. "...you mean to say that I'd have saved myself so much stress if I'd just remembered those coins."

"Yes, qīn'ài de, a thousand times yes." She cups Kiara's face, pressing their foreheads together. "Place that ring where it belongs, Kiki. I can't wait to see it on my finger."

Hana holds her tight until Kiara's breathing becomes slower, calmer. She raises her newly-adorned hand for Kiara to see - marvelling at how the ring really mimics the glow of a snow crystal in the winter sun.

When they part, shyly, reluctantly, Hana begins to fiddle with the silk pouch.

"Here's what I'd gone to bring."

Kiara's eyes brighten at the sight of the box in her hand; a wave of warmth floods through Hana in anticipation of her response. Kiara gasps the minute she opens the box, revealing a delicate, intricately carved rose gold ring, flanked by small diamonds on all four corners, cradling a bigger one at the center.

"Rose gold," Kiara murmurs in wonder.

"Yes," Hana brushes her fingers over Kiara's knuckles. She'd told her once, long ago, how revered that metal was in her home province Bethulia. How Bethulian jewellers and goldsmiths and young women swore by the rosy hue it exuded. How it was a perfect amalgamation of three precious metals - all highly valued in the province. How tied it was to their folktales and bridal rituals.

"Copper..silver...gold." Kiara's tears glitter like diamonds before she lets them fall. "For friendship. For love. For belonging."

Hana smiles, her hand still stroking Kiara's cheek. "You remembered."

Kiara rolls her still-moist eyes, trying hard not to sniff - it would take out all the humour in this situation. "It's hard to forget a ritual we'd performed just ten minutes ago, ma moité."

"I'd planned to give you this ring a week from now," Hana says, shaking her head at her own impulsiveness as the ring she'd chosen on a fanciful whim so long ago, now finds its home. "I've been holding onto it for far too long."

Kiara caresses the stone on her own finger lovingly, admiring the way the rose gold glows on her skin. When she speaks, her voice is breathless in anticipation. "How long?"

For several minutes, Hana's only response is to pull Kiara back in her arms again. Her hand slides slowly, almost with a tinge of regret, down the dip of Kiara's waist on her left side. The wound that had once served as a constant, searing reminder of so much (of her vulnerability, of her inability to run from pain, of what she'd once considered her failures), has healed in more ways than one - only a faded scar that Hana never fails to kiss, now remains.

"For seven months," Hana's voice shakes at the memory, "Since the night after Homecoming Ball."

With a choked sob, Kiara enfolds Hana into her arms, almost as if she'd want to absorb her into every cell of her body. Fervently, reverently, she presses her lips all over Hana's face - her eyelids, her cheeks, the bridge of her nose, all the little-known, barely-noticed parts of her. It takes her a while - perhaps too long, in Hana's opinion - for Kiara's lips to meet hers, but she welcomes the sweet torture of waiting.

"Mon cœur," Kiara says between kisses, "ma raison de vivre."

When they part, the two women keep each other's hands interlinked, one left hand over the other. Neither of them will remember how long they stay at the lake; only that they never want this joy, this warm afterglow of seeing their dreams come true...to end.

The empty spaces on their ring fingers, over which they'd each stolen such secret, hungry glances today, now bear the mark of their lovers. Now bear the most tangible signs of their love, their memories, their promises, their commitment.

Together forever.

--

Translation:

Ma moité - a romantic endearment in French, meaning "my other half"

Qīn'ài de - Mandarin Chinese for "my dear"/"darling"

Bèn dàn - Mandarin Chinese cuss word that means "stupid egg!"

Mon cœur - French endearment, meaning "my heart"

Ma raison de vivre - French for "my reason to live"

--

References for Hana and Kiara's engagement rings:

Kiara:

(Source: Maxine Jewellery)

Hana:

(Source: This article on engagement rings, but the actual pic itself came from Blue Rose Photography)

[pinkscaped]

͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏͏ ͏ ͏ ͏✧˖°☀️ . . ࣪. SUNLITE was a South Korean girl group under Flowerbank Entertainment. Debuting in 2017 after the conclusion of their survival show, Finding the Sun, which is the only Flowerbank-hosted survival show. Originally debuting as a six-piece, the group would fail to gain the public's attention until two years into their career and the departure of one of their members, Lucy.

They would hit virality in early 2020 with their TikTok classic, Cupid, skyrocketing the once nugu girl group to stardom. Flowerbank worked quickly to keep the hype around the girls, keeping them booked and busy throughout all of 2020 and 2021.

Despite their success domestically and internationally, Sunlite would lose another member, Mina, at the end of 2021, citing "contractual disagreements" as the reason for her departure. Quickly, netizens would notice the remaining members liking posts shading Mina and calling her deadweight and that Sunlite would be better without her. Mina, the remaining four members, and Flowerbank have never commented on this matter besides snide comments the members would make.

Now a four-piece, Sunlite is Flowerbank's favorite homegrown success story. Flowerbank often mentions their organic growth and natural progression to where they are now in the industry. All four members have resigned their contracts with Flowerbank and plan to stay a group until they're little old ladies.

͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏͏ ͏ ͏ ͏✧˖°☀️ . . ࣪. BASIC INFO ?!

DEBUT DATE: MAY 9TH 2017.

FANDOM NAME: LULITES

YEARS ACTIVE: 2017 - CURRENT; 5 years active.

DISCOGRAPHY:

͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏͏ ͏ ͏ ͏✧˖°☀️ . . ࣪. THE LINEUP ?!

TYLER RODRIGUEZ, 1999 ... Tyler originally began her idol journey under BigHit, being a member of the now scrapped girl group LUVZYOU. LuvzYou never got off the ground, being scrapped just four months before their supposed debut. Tyler, though left devastated, refused to give up on her dream and applied to compete in Finding The Sun. On FTS, she'd grow a dedicated fanbase, being praised for her dedication, humor, and talents, finishing the program in third place. Tyler is a well-known and respected producer, going under the alias ITZTY, and has worked with many Flowerbank groups as well as ITZY, ZB1, Enhypen, Aespa, and many more. She is the FACE OF THE GROUP, the MAIN RAPPER, the PRODUCER, and the LEAD VOCALIST of Sunlite.

JEONG MIHEE, 1997 ... Mihee was one of Flowerbank's longest trainees, training for seven years by the time she went on Finding The Sun. After showing her undying dedication to performing, Mihee would finish the show in first place, becoming the group's center. She would go on to debut solo in 2022 with "ILY2," which was produced by Tyler. Mihee is the first one to defend the members of Sunlite online and soothe any tensions between them and the former members. She is often referred to as "Mother" by their fanbase. She is the CENTER, the MAIN VOCALIST, and the LEAD DANCER of Sunlite.

STAR VORAPAT, 2000 ... Star was simply born to be a star. Noted as having the hardest time on Finding The Sun, being massively disliked by netizens for her "mean look" and "blunt attitude," she would end up finishing in 6th place thanks to international voting. Despite her initial rocky start with netizens, the internet slowly grew fond of her the more she was able to show her talents and her fierce dedication to Sunlite. However, she is a divisive character amongst the fans due to her initiating the feud between Sunlite and former member Mina and refusing to let up or let it go. She recently made her acting debut in Thailand, starring in the GL "Flowers in the Ocean.". She is the MAIN DANCER, the LEAD RAPPER, and the LEAD VOCALIST of Sunlite.

SARAH "SIYU" SONG, 2001 ... Born in sunny California, Sarah, professionally known by her Korean name Siyu, was born to a musical actress mother and a stage director father. With her natural abilities, Siyu began trying out for K-pop companies at the age of 12 with the help of her mother, being accepted by SM, JYP, and Jellyfish Entertainment, but she turned them all down to train under Flowerbank. While on Finding The Sun, Siyu would be a favorite amongst Knetz for her sweet attitude, visuals, and heavenly vocals. She would end up finishing the show in second place. Siyu has the most OSTs under her belt, being more known for her OSTs than being in Sunlite for a while. Though she has over 30 OSTs to her name, she has yet to debut solo, claiming she "hasn't found her sound yet.". Siyu is the MAIN VOCALIST, the VISUAL, and MAKNAE of Sunlite.

KIM "LUCY" SUJI, 1998 ... Lucy was very quiet while in Sunlite. Though noted for having a beautiful voice and ranking fifth on Finding The Sun, her performance left much to be desired, and she was often picked on by netizens online. She was the center of a hate train in 2018 when a clip of her performing went viral for being "lazy" and missing a few of the steps. Though her members, specifically Mihee and Tyler, would defend her online and in person, the hate seemed to follow whatever Lucy would do. She was given the nickname "the prettiest dozen" by alleged fans, even being referred to it at fansigns. Due to this, Lucy would go on hiatus in 2019 for depression and anxiety before completely withdrawing from the group just a few months later. While still under Flowerbank as a songwriter, Lucy has not been seen publicly since she deactivated her Instagram in 2021. She was the group's MAIN VOCALIST and SUB-RAPPER.

LEE MINA, 2001 ... Mina is a very divisive character in the fandom. Called a "firecracker" by her former members, Mina showed a highly skilled level of performing and rapping but had a hard time working with others. She would often argue with leaders of her team on Finding The Sun, finding it difficult to do things that weren't the way she wanted them. Despite this, Mina would end up ranking fourth on the show, earning herself quite a dedicated fanbase. Mina's problematic behavior has been documented from even before the group's debut, a stan account allegedly belonging to Mina would expose her for being a troll and saying very nasty things about various groups, taunting idols for their looks, and spreading malicious rumors about them. Though Flowerbank denied this account belonged to Mina, fans still believe there's enough evidence to connect the account to her as well as various instances of her being just an overall not nice person. Despite these claims, the girls would defend her and would tell people to leave Mina alone. That was until her abrupt departure in 2021 when the liking of shady tweets about her began. Mina has been shady towards Sunlite herself, stating she never liked their music and is glad she's an actress now and not a "cheap idol". Mina was the group's MAIN RAPPER, LEAD DANCER, and SUB-VOCALIST.

[violets-in-her-arms-writes]

WIP introduction : Par Amour de la Vengeance

Titre : Par amour de la Vengeance

Genre : urban fantasy

Status : third version

Target wordcount : 100k (but only ~50k will be written by me since it's a project with my best friend 🥰)

Actual wordcount : 11 683 (as of 05/11/2023)

TW : blood, violence

Synopsis :

Revenge. That's what keeps us alive, what keeps us from being swallowed up. It helps us preserve our past. The past that made us suffer so much. We made mistakes, we have wounded others, we have lied, we have betrayed. And we are all of this at once: two women wounded, two women betrayed. Two errors of nature that should never have been allowed to exist. But here we are. Our hearts and our magic are the essence of our survival. Our hearts may be black, dry or atrophied, our magics perverted or hesitant, but they have preserved us from the ravages of time. Few understand our way of life. But it doesn't matter. Revenge guides our steps. And that's the only thing they need to know about us. We are the Ravens of the Shadows. The common folk knows it, and no one looks any further. And yet, we sometimes hesitate…

Please don't judge this (terrible) synopsis. It's from 2013 and I took it straight from our wattpad story (which hasn't been updated since 2017...). I'll rewrite it later because it explains nothing about what is actually going on, but later because right now my brain is fried and it's time for me to sleep XD

Settings : a government agency in charge of regulating the uses of magic and the relationships with the other dimensions/species ; a house that will never be a home again ; a shack in the middle of bumfuck nowhere, France

Characters:

Lorelei Douxruisseau || [15 000+] || bisexual || Red Witch, High Priestess to the Goddess of Revenge || clinically insane ; if "danger? I laugh in the face of danger" was a person ; half-magic half-tree ; most powerful witch to ever walk the earth

→ Dalia Ravens || [80+, looks 40] || bisexual || Red Witch || Lorelei mortal persona ; functional human being ; competency kink ; actually has feelings

Némésis || goddess of revenge || teetering on the brink of insanity ; doesn't emote right ; cold and calculating

Arianna Shadows || [400] || straight || former black witch || currently trying to cleanse her magic ; in love with a dead man ; eaten by guilt

Prudence Ruthven || [37] || bisexual || black witch || head of the torture department ; coldblooded ; done with Dalia's shit but willing to tolerate it because she's hot ; mother of two

J��rgen Ruthven || [37] || bisexual || werewolf || stress is for the weak ; family-oriented ; paperwork is afraid of him ; father of two

Rélina Ravens || [15] || lesbian || water witch || Dalia's long-suffering daughter ; doesn't understand how potions work ; ran away from her posh school to run after her mother ; thinks Arianna is the worst™

Other characters include several temperamental familiars, dozens of well-meaning agents, ghosts from the past, a dead man walking, several goddesses and a flesh-eating old lady.

[PLAYLIST] [PINTEREST BOARD] [GENERAL TAG]

So this is my NaNo project for this year, but it's technically an old story since my best friend and I started writing it in 2011.

[woodsfae]

If I Had A Nickel For Every Time I Was Forcibly Re-Traumatized During A Work Training I'd Only Have Two Nickels, But It's Weird That It Happened Twice

#1: MCC, 2017ish

In 2017, I got hired to work as a crewleader for the Montana Conservation Corps (MCC) as a replacement for some dude who washed out of the crewleader training by taking the digeridoo he brought with him and walked into the mountains for three days for some bs white man's appropriative spiritual quest instead of...y'know...attending training.

So I came in late, but still more experienced than anyone but one other crewleader I met, and was immediately put into a week of 8-hour-a-day training out at a classically folksy campground several hours into the middle of a rural, wooded area. Some of the training was great, especially the modules led by the indigenous staff members. I use what I learned in the Racial Justice module lead by two members of the Blackfoot nation and one member of the Little Shell Chippewa nation regularly, and look back on it as a highlight of that week. Not only in regards to the information I was provided, but the way they were taught.

The Wilderness First Responder training, lead by "Wild Bill and Lady Louise," however, was even more folksy, anecdote-laden, and self-congratulatory than you can imagine. I technically learned one thing in that training, which was comprised of at least 50% egotistical, self-aggrandizing personal stories of questionable educational quality. Most of the trainings lay somewhere between these two examples. But not the training on recognizing domestic abuse. That was one was not only extremely bad, but badly mis-handled.

"Michal, what could be wrong about teaching youth crewleaders how to recognize signs of domestic abuse in the vulnerable youth you were entrusted with?" my strawman example commenter cries out. Well. I'll tell you since you asked.

A woman who ran a women's shelter got up and told graphic stories about battered women and children, presumably thinking that horrifying people with the depravity of cishet mankind was enough of a training, without recognizing that the statistics she was quoting at us also applied to us. Part-way through the recitation of all the ways abusive family members can harm people in their household, I recognized that I was having flashbacks about my time as a child in a household that was so ludicrously abusive, many people have told me I must be lying about my own life because they can't believe any parent is that comically, over-the-top evil. And so I sensibly got out of my metal, folding chair -- also sensibly selected towards the back of the seating after I saw the topic in the folded, paper handout we were provided with of the day's proceedings -- and went to go take a little walk around the building to hopefully shake myself out of this little C-PTSD triggered response, and come back once I was feeling less disassociated.

I got as far as the door. Some fucking white, male staff member literally jumped in front of the door to physically block me from leaving and then told me that I was not allowed to leave a training.

I said OK, but I am experiencing a PTSD episode from the subject material and need a moment to compose myself.

This did not persuade him to stop, and may I reiterate, physically blocking the door for me to leave.

I reasoned with him with the type of calmness under duress only acquired by getting PTSD: Sir. I was abused as a child. This is distressing subject matter for me to hear. I am disassociating because of my PTSD, because I was abused much as this presenter is currently describing. I need to go outside and attempt to stop disassociating.

He said that if I left he would mark me as having not completed this training, which was required to continue being employed by MCC.

As I only had about $100 in my bank account, and rent due in a week for which I was relying on my impending, Americorps stipend (as I recall, around $700 a month) to cover, I returned to my seat and continued violently disassociating.

The next module was choose-your-own-but-a-free-period-is-not-allowed, and so I picked one that looked interesting, and was also lead by an indigenous woman. There was some kind of team building exercise, that I cannot clearly recall, due to said violent disassociation. It was something to do with balancing pipes, I think. The trainer noticed I could not physically make the pipes do the thing and drew me aside.

That last module triggered my PTSD badly, I told her, and: I am struggling to stop disassociating.

She sent me to go spend as much time as I needed to gather myself. Still badly effected by the previous, white male staffmember threatening my employment, I only went behind a nearby camp vehicle, sat, and tried to pull myself together. She came to check on me again, and confided that she was also triggered by the presentation, having had domestic abuse in her history. Her kindness and openness made me cry, and the solidarity helped me regain a little footing. I said I was planning to complain about the lack of trigger warnings and for not allowing for a recovery break, and she said she would, too.

In my next free period, I went around and talked to the new acquaintances I had made so far in training, most of whom had un-ideal childhoods. There are plenty of seasonal workers who have great, stable backgrounds. They tend to be on summer break from college, or are between a bachelor's and a grad program. But a lot of the time seasonal workers are people who have unstable personal histories, who have seasonal jobs and no safety nets because they were poor, or queer, otherwise discriminated against, or any combination thereof. People who take $700 a month, physically demanding temporary jobs are either extremely privileged, or extremely disadvantaged. As a member of the latter group, I can assure you we sniff each other out in a matter of hours, and sometimes seconds.

Well, to cut a long story slightly less long, I wrote a letter of personal complaint, persuaded a half a dozen other people to personally complain, a few from the privileged, non-triggered contingent, merely on the moral merits of the argument. MCC gave a formal apology -- two, actually -- and an offer to for anyone who was upset to talk to a staff member. One of the people who gave an apology on behalf of the organization was the indigenous woman who told me the presentation was triggering for her which, if it wasn't fully her decision, is extremely fucked up. I did speak to some of the staff members. But I do not think it endeared me to anyone in the organization for later reasons that can only be told in separate tales. Because for some fucking reason (being flat broke and owing rent), I did not quit and continued to work for MCC through the rest of the season.

#2: In 2024 I was hired at [redacted]. Let's call it the climate change nonprofit (CC). My training at CC went fine until it didn't. Then, I joined a training for how to form a persuasive argument that adapts to the scenario. We learned some stuff. We watched a video. Then a "trigger warning: self harm" slide come on the screen and one of the trainers said we ought to leave the training if we thought we needed to, now or partway through the video, and they would simply let us know when it was done, wait for us to rejoin, and continue the training.

Having come from, as previously stated, a comically-extremely abusive background, which did come along with a free serving of self-harming, I thought about it, then braced myself for unknown levels of self harm education. Mostly I was confused as to why a climate change video came with a self harm trigger warning.

It was mistagged. What it actually was, was a speech by a white, queer man, who opened by describing a death by suicide, due to homophobic revenge porn lifestreaming. And then the speaker's experience of being called a f*g at age seven by a teacher. And more homophobia. And then a call to action to not be in the closet but to be out so you can help people who aren't out, by being openly gay. Then a breakdown by a professor in a class as to why this was an effective emotional appeal (I beg to differ. It half made me want to go back in the closet, so effectively did it call back to my childhood being called a Demon-Possessed-Lesbian-Whore by my own mother, before I'd even processed what gender meant as an abstract concept).

Needless to say, I was fucking triggered. I froze, and did not leave the training. A bit later we were given 10 minutes to write an elevator pitch based on the information of how to make an elevator pitch, and a scenario in which to set it.

Fueled by the power of two-decades-of-using-writing-as-a-trauma-processing-tool and also my oldest superpower, spite, I wrote an elevator pitch with the emotional hook of "I enjoy not having an asthma attack from wildfire smoke," and pivoted it to "we have the state constitutional right to clean air will you join us in electing politicians who won't amend the state constitution to remove that right." It went well.

And then, because I am constitutionally incapable of biting my tongue when someone does something fucked up, I wrote an extremely civil email with extremely academically formal language objecting to the lack of correct trigger warnings, and using a such a traumatically unrelated topic as suicidal ideation due to intense homophobic violence to climate change to teach us how to write a persuasive pitch to get people to volunteer for climate causes. By talking about how long it takes a queer person to fall 500 feet to their death of despair. Because that's emotionally equivalent to whomever decided that including those videos in the training was a great idea.

My supervisors at CC both expressed their regret as to the inaccurate tagging and explicit homophobic violence. I personally checked in with the other openly queer person in my training group and they said they were messed up by it too. They didn't seem keen on also sending feedback, but I recognize I have a Personality Type that is out of the norm (stubborn as hell and twice as obstinate. About injustice, anyways).

What. Even. Is. My. Life. I asked my partner if he'd ever had a similar experience with a work training being on an innapropriately-insensitive-about-societal-violence topic and he, knowing both sets of events and agreeing they're fucked up, was like "?Absolutely NOT." So I'm pretty sure this isn't a normal experience.

It's weird that it happened twice, right?

If anyone at [redacted] organization sees this and recognizes the scenario, please note that this is anonymized so there's no way anyone could connect this to your -- I'm sure generally lovely -- nonprofit, and also I need this job a lot. Due to said disadvantaged background featuring comically-absurd levels of childhood abuse.

[zhouszishu]

the sisters drama anon here: thank you to the people in the comments, i'll check those dramas/movies out! and if you know some good dramas about a female friendship then i'd like a rec as well please and thank you 🤲

IM SO SORRY THIS RESPONSE IS MONTHS LATE im still in bar study hell at the moment

(1) delicious romance (2021)

probably one of my favorite female-centric female friendship dramas in recent years i love all the ladies so much!!

it was extremely easy to binge and in my opinion, very heartwarming, relatable, and funny

a huge plus is how it handles a lot issues that a lot of women face in a very mature yet still lighthearted way

there is also a movie sequel (although i haven't watched it yet so cannot speak to its quality)

(2) remembramce of things past (2021) - tw for suicide

first things first -- if zhou yutong has a million fans, then i am one of them. if zhou yutong has ten fans, then i am one of them. if zhou yutong has only one fan, then that is me. if zhou yutong has no fans, then that means i am no longer on this earth. if the world is against zhou yutong, then i am against the world.

an urban slice of life drama centering around the lives of a group women in beijing and from the first episode you already know just how heart-wrenching this drama will be

definitely very heavy at times but all the characters are so compelling despite their seemingly very ordinary lives and these women feel so real because of all their flaws and struggles

also i am in love with zhou yutong i will literally watch almost anything just for her

(3) faithful (2023) - tw for sexual assault

heed the trigger warning -- the story is very heavy due to its subject matter

this drama is not about female friendships technically but the relationship between the two female leads is so central and important to the story and honestly the driving force behind the plot so it counts

the drama isn't perfect but i think that it is a very meaningful exploration of the injustice victims face when they speak out on sexual assault and just how difficult it is for victims to obtain justice in a world that cares more about protecting rapists than believing victims

it portrays the many ways in which victims are punished for daring speak up and fight for themselves and how the justice system and society are culpable in further traumatizing the victims

like this drama was so difficult to watch at times and can be quite triggering so please take care of yourself if you end up watching!!

by the last episode i was bawling like a baby

(4) the story of minglan (2018)

I HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS ABOUT MINGLAN TO THIS DAY AND GET THE URGE TO REWATCH ALL 63 EPISODES LIKE EVERY YEAR EVEN THOUGH I DON'T HAVE THE TIME FOR IT

okay again not a female-friendship drama but it is female-centric

such a great slice-of-life drama about the inner lives of women with really rich, detailed storytelling and so many complex women AND UGH I LOVE IT SO MUCH

like the story treats their female characters with so much care and love and the writing allows you to understand all their motivations, and show you how these women, even if they are cruel, scheming, and manipulative, are not passive victims of their circumstances but are doing what they can to exert agency and control in their lives in order to protect themselves and their loved ones

also i lovelovelovelove the main couple so much they're up there as one of my favorite cdrama couples of all time

one day i will manage a full rewatch so that i can re-gif all of my favorite scenes in better quality :)

(5) ode to joy (2016) and ode to joy 2 (2017)

about five women who enter each other's lives because they all live on the same floor of an apartment building in shanghai -- they don't all start out as friends but over time do overcome their differences and become close friends

similar to remembrance of things past in the how it explores issues of career, family, and love but just as good and compelling

some of the ladies are difficult to love at first but by the end i was rooting for them all and enjoyed watching them all grow

(6) twenty your life on (2020)

drama centers around the lives of a group of college-aged girls and explores their struggles as they enter adulthood

it's not a groundbreaking drama but still quite a fun, light-hearted watch that i enjoyed a lot

i loved the girls' friendships so much and was rooting for them all by the end

there is a season 2 but again, i have not watched so cannot speak on its quality

[ruiniel]

Second meeting

Fandom: Castlevania series (2017-2021)

Relationship: Carmilla x Lisa

Characters: Carmilla, Lisa, kid!Alucard

Rating: G

Tags: Carmilla POV, Crack, Kid!Alucard, Lisa and Carmilla making small talk, Carmilla low-key crushing on Lisa idk, mature language

Also on ao3

Summary:

The randomness continues. Practicing warm-ups & ended up with this scene of Carmilla being out of her element while waiting for an audience with Dracula. crack, yes, crack

AN: this is for the anon who asked me to write a continuation to Frost. While I wrote this one a while ago and it has nothing to do with 'Frost', thought it would be fun to share another oneshot featuring these two here. What canna do, they're a fav crackship

It would be an outrageous insult if strenuous circumstances did not coerce her into this.

Carmilla’s stare burns holes in the back of the woman’s head, as if the right amount of staring could make Lisa implode.

Wishful thinking, a part of her whines, the part that sometimes has the unpleasant effect of reminding the vampire that she, too, was once human. She watches, calmly, in wait, as the doctor works her mixtures and blends and takes notes after notes, that frantic style humans have of marking everything onto something lasting longer than they.

Dracula has her waiting here like some lowly debtor, and now she’s stuck with his family of all things. Has the old man finally gone mad, procreating and... and settling with one of them, not even turning them? Not to mention handing over his knowledge for free to make them stronger.

And there's the brat, too, stealing curious glances at her for a while now. The last time they met, he was a dollop of a child. Now he’s still somewhere around the snotty age, a hatchling no older than ten, perhaps. Carmilla taps her nails over the long dark table she's leaning against. She must be dying of boredom indeed, allowing her thoughts to drift away when what she must do, is observe. These two are her liege’s most trusted possessions as it were, his only weakness.

"Is it terribly chilly in Styria this time of year?"

Carmilla winces, for some stupid reason having not expected Lisa Țepeș to strike up a conversation. But the woman gives the vampire a brief look that is both well-meaning and assured, and as such...

… For-god’s-sake.

The rules of hospitality must be upheld on both ends. "It’s always cold in Styria, lady Țepeș," and she smiles in a manner that leaves no doubt about it.

The woman stares her in the eye, and as much as that annoys her one supposes it’s expected from a human with such gall as to play house with Dracula of all people. "When there are no blizzards, there are storms, and with our limited resourcing…" The borders are harder to guard against greedy upstarts, food is more difficult to obtain. Humans are a crafty bunch, too, they know how to hide and fight, sometimes do it well. Styria’s mountains aren’t as populated and thus less bountiful than in dear old Wallachia, and the bastards don’t know how good they have it here. "... everyone struggles. Even us vampires."

"I’m sorry to hear," says Lisa, and did she just mean it? Carmilla resists the urge to roll her eyes as she tends to at displays of inane courtesies. "But either way, I’m sure my husband will be able to assist."

Assist. Not a word to ever describe Dracula in her known memory. It takes some strength of character to admit she is somewhat taken aback by the certainty of Lisa's tone. But she will not pick at matters of state with a human, even if this human exhibits some manner of intelligence and wit.

"Oh!"

There's coughing and arms waving, and Lisa flapping sheets of parchment at a thick yellowish smoke rising up in the air that might just smell like the sulfurs of Hell because it makes her gag;  she barely manages to keep her poise, hating them all the way. "What's happening?" she straightens, more alarmed than she cares to admit.

"The usual, don't worry."

The brat has spoken. She glances sideways at him, sees that ridiculously bright mop of hair pinned up with a purple bow like he's somebody's awful little surprise.

"Everything's fine!" Lisa is opening windows, looking abashed as she smiles over her shoulder at Carmilla, and doesn't that feel strange. "I've only botched certain quantities for this solution which means I must— oh, excuse me, I'll be right back."

Carmilla starts pondering whether she really, really needs Dracula's aid this time. Maybe Morana can think something up after all. Maybe they can retrieve those lands even with their odds of three to one.

"Adrian will keep you company," Lisa adds, rushing out of the wide laboratory and reception space.

"How lovely," the vampire mutters, rubbing at her temples. How she misses the good old nights, when such official matters involved a somber reception in a throne room, and leery, jealous power-grabby assholes she'd cut down one by one. When fucking Dracula knew whose side he was on.

"I've never met a queen before."

The spawn, it croaks. He's not looking up from his place at a desk, holding a piece of black chalk in his hand and hashing the roots of a flower or weed or some other such nonsense.

Carmilla huffs, a snark rolling so easily off her tongue only to recall that letting an immeasurably irksome pup peeve her would be a poor reflection on any such queenly qualities indeed. "In Styria," she answers with emphasis, "we do not jealously guard power. We rule as a council."

"So," the child frowns, taking up another page, "you’re not a queen," he states matter-of-factly. His nose is still in his scribbles and his heels thump against the wooden bench as Carmilla stares at him.

Why you impudent little rat.

"I am but—. We each have a part," she drawls, cursing Dracula again in her mind for good measure. "As a quartet."

"Hm." A shrug. "All right."

She's spared further pains with the return of Lisa, who makes an appearance with a few dusty scrolls under her arm and an urgent look on her face.

[snowbatsims]

Pastell Legacy - Sims 4 catchup post

So, a while back, I did a recap post of the old sims 3 side of this legacy, in case I would start posting more stuff on my simblr about that.

And now I think it's time to do it for the sims 4 side of it!

We'll start with the beginnings: Anne and Edda Pastell. (photo from 2017)

They're sisters! While Anne was the founder of my Sims 3 legacy (linked above), I figured it would be fun to say she actually had a sister all along, and just do her side of the legacy in the Sims 4. Because sure, why not.

This side will probably be played somewhat like a really loose not-so-berry, just without the rules. Still doing some color theming on the heirs, subtly or not.

At some point, Edda joined the Avant Gardes. That's where she met Gunther Munch, whom some of you may know already. They got along well, and ended up getting married. probably because they're both nerds

However, it turns out Edda was carrying a curse of some sort. And so, their firstborn baby Rune was born a vampire. His vampiric traits slowly showed up over time, really ramping up with puberty. People are still unsure about the details on how he was like this in the first place, and Rune has no idea either. This is just the way he is.

He ended up moving out - moving in with some vampire friends he met instead. I have posted a bunch of my gameplay with them already.

In fact, they're the reason the actual legacy game stalled for so long. I love these dorks, you see :3 And since they're immortal, we'll still be checking in with them from time to time, mostly in intermissions.

Anyway, onto the rest of this generation!

Next up is Rune's younger redhead brother Snorre. He was a completely normal mortal human, much to the parents' relief. As for how his life went; he married a nice lady and had two pairs of twins! One pair was from an alien abduction, funnily enough. He's also already dead, but his children are still around as adults.

[pictured: snorre's twin pairs - ingrid and inger, saga and sagn]

Then,

Frøya. Also human. Since this legacy was originally intended as a matriarchy, it was the oldest girl who ended up being the heir... well, "girl" in Frøya's case. She's nonbinary; she/they pronouns. They're still alive currently, as an elder, and they have been known to be a bit eccentric. She got married to their husband somewhat unceremoniously at the love festival a while back.

So yep. Three kids in this generation, surely that was enough, right??

NOPE.

After the birth of these three, Gunther somehow got abducted by aliens, and came back with grey alien twins. Their names are Odin and Frigg.

Anyway.

Here, have some old art of the gen 2 siblings, which I drew:

Anyway! Now we're at gen 3.

Frøya and Nobuya had a pair of identical twins: Ravn and Kråke. Which, honestly, is really just Norwegian for Raven and Crow. (my game is in norwegian you see)

Ravn was always the smart kid at school. Kråke was more of a troublemaker. Still, these two are very close and care for each other.

So really, you'd think Ravn would be the heir, but she denounced it and decided to go live her own life with her wife instead. She's very much a lesbian, and the thought of being forced to have a kid is just not in her books. The parents respected that.

Meanwhile, Kråke is a trans man. His situation is not much better, but he was determined to have a kid anyway; after all, who else was going to do it? He was so ready for this... and then, his fiancé suddenly died to a stovefire and Kråke's world shattered to the ground.

He's okay, really, it's fine - no. He's not okay. He must get his beloved Rolf back, no matter what. It's the only thing that matters to him anymore.

Anyway yeah he's kind of a sopping wet cat of a man at the moment. That's our protagonist this generation. Let's go.

Also, since you read all the way to the end, thank you!

Here's a link to the whole family tree while I work on putting a proper graphic together :3

[FAMILY TREE]

[opeothalmologist]

The Ellison Files: 1 - Edge of A Small World

by peonneswrites/opeothalmologist

Fandom: The Magnus Archives

Tags: Old person (reluctantly) in a found family; The Vast appearance; fear avatars

Warnings: Spoilers for The Magnus Archives Season 3 (worldbuilding reveals). Mention of suicide attempts; mention of strangling oneself; astrophobia-triggering content; contemplation of meaninglessness/nihilism

Gordon Ellison is a researcher at the Usher Foundation assigned to preparing the Archive of its new San Francisco building. But quickly he receives another task: take care of the Siblings Verne, two avatars of The Vast and The Dark.

Archive Of Our Own Link

Author's Note (Start): This is written in a transcript-like format to mimic TMA's audio format. If you'd like to make a podfic adaptation, please tell me in my askbox! Cover illustration is by me.

[The tape recorder clicks open.]

ELLISON

Recording the statement of Astrid 'Asta' Verne—regarding an incident at a Los Angeles cinema in winter 2017. Recorded by Gordon Ellison of the Usher Foundation, San Francisco, on January 17th 2018.

You may start, Verne.

ASTA

You can call me Asta, y’know. Only my teachers use my surname, especially Mister Yang.

Or you can be my mom and call me my full name, like, [imitates mother’s voice] “ASTRID JANET VERNE!” when you’re angry.

ELLISON

Make the statement, please.

ASTA

Right. Back to the point, back to the point. As you said, I fell off a cinema roof.

I just fell. But there was more to it before that.

My big brother Van was there that day. He’s mostly away, at college in the east coast. Last year, he came home.

[Asta's clothes rustle as she turns to Ellison.]

Oh, you said something about using full names? His is Sullivan Verne. At first we called him Sully, but he said he’d liked not to sound like a Monsters Inc. character. So it’s Van instead.

[sighs]  That day started with him telling me that. Remembering the jokes of that ‘stupid old kids’ movie’ made about him.

We went to this cool noodle place and saw a movie. A space movie with astronauts and all.

I forgot the title, but it was great. The scenes were so wide! It was almost as if space itself engulfed the whole cinema.

And it did.

Audience members around me felt more like asteroids drifting by. When they talked, it sounded like whenever rocks collide and shatter into several smaller ones.

I could tell they were talking—I knew they spoke English, yet somehow I only could hear asteroids. Their forms were asteroids, even if I rationally knew they were people. In a cinema. Around me.

Some kids in the audience ran around, at least in my head—but to my eyes they were comets. The protagonist watched them keenly, a scene in the movie. Then again , I thought, was it just a movie?

The protagonist was this super-cool astronaut lady, I think named Charlotte? Charlie? 

Either way, the movie’s outer space just grew around me. Looked a lot like virtual reality. 

I was transported to the same space Charlie was in. She was many feet away, and her back was to me. I could breathe in this place, but she was in her suit. And she didn’t see the crowd of asteroids.

Charlie said… [pauses, exhales]

"Where am I?"

I didn’t answer, because I didn’t know what to say. I wondered if she could even hear me. Then, again and more desperately:

"Where am I?"

Charlie turned and looked at me. I saw my own face in the reflection of the helmet window.

After minutes of silence, she drifted away.

"Who are you? Where am I? Do you know?" Her questions only kept on coming.

The space between us grew. I said that word already, huh? I can’t describe it any other way, let me try—extended, uh, expanded, stretched… There were more void and stars between us. It shifted weirdly, made me feel so small.

I couldn’t see Charlie anymore. It didn’t matter, because the stars around would engulf me. Planets alone were whole worlds already. Look at the Earth! Frisco’s as big as one million mes. Think of the Sun—that would be like. Nine hundred quadrillion mes?!

The asteroids floated off too. They were no longer human, just dark dots in the distance. Van was nowhere. I couldn’t see him.

My brother and I used to watch the night sky together. He was an edgy type who liked the color black. I liked the stars dotted around. It’s fate I was named Astrid.

[Asta pauses.]

The sky was so much more than me. It was infinite. I was just Asta. Do you get me, Mister Gordon? That was the exact feeling in that cinema. I didn’t believe it all was a cinema anymore. The world was so, so much more than a cinema.

It terrified me. Deeply.

And yet it was serene.

Nothing had to matter. I could just be among these stars. The Milky Way itself was only a dot, and me an atom.

I could just watch the world like a movie. And you know what? I loved it.

I was among the stars. Yes, maybe I was insignificant. One billion years is the blink of an eye to the universe.

[Asta's voice fills with awe and a strange peace] Nothing I love matters.

Nothing you care for matters.

Not this foundation, not my brother.

I was unchained, and could freely flow.

Looking for Charlie didn’t matter. I just floated there, my mind empty, and watched the scene of the growing space. It breathed with starlight, movement of plasma clouds, asteroids who were probably people that I no longer cared about.

This scene was just like earlier in the movie, when Charlie and her spacecraft had drifted through the same growing space I was seeing.

[exhales]   Soon, I let myself wander away from my spot there. The space below me felt like a roof I stood on. Stellar clouds were just like wind on my skin.

Though I knew I was jumping from the theater roof, it was letting myself go.

Then I blacked out. And Van was there, hugging me tight. I could tell we were in a hospital room because of the sound of his IV drip.

Blah blah blah, the nurse told me everything about the getting-to-the-cinema-roof-and-jumping thing. What surprised me was what happened to Van. He had… strangled himself? In the cinema, while the movie was playing and I wandered to the roof. I tried asking him about it, but he shut me up.

ELLISON

Hm.

Since we took you in, we’ve been tracking down your brother too.

ASTA

Really?

Well, it feels empty without him. And I’m the kind of person who wishes for empty!

ELLISON

Well… Van is your new legal guardian, isn’t he? He should be here. And we have more in store to tell him.

Is that all, Vern— Asta?

ASTA

Yup.

I feel brand new. It’s a new era for me!

ELLISON

Under me and the Foundation's guidance, okay?

ASTA

Yes.

ELLISON

End of statement.

Good, thank you, Asta. But don’t call me Mister Gordon again.

ASTA

Yes, sir!

ELLISON

You don’t have to call me ‘sir’ either. I told you earlier this month.

ASTA

Okay, okay. Will Gordie do? I mean, you’re like, fifty, so a nickname’d be weird. Uncle Gordie?

How about just Gordon?

GORDON

[groans]  …Fine.

[The tape recorder clicks closed.]

[The tape recorder clicks open.]

GORDON

Addendum on January 20, 2018.

I should preface—or, er, postface—this by saying that I’m just a researcher at the Usher Foundation. Not any fancy Archivist or something.

This new LA building only opened two months ago and I was assigned to take care of its budding new archive.

I have to say, getting Asta to DC then back to California was easier than expected. She still says the same strange things about insignificance and smallness and stuff, but she’s well-behaved for a kid her age. Let alone an avatar.

And, being closer to LA, I managed to get findings on the Verne cases.

According to a police officer on the scene of Sullivan’s strangling, he wasn’t attempting it on himself—yet there was no trace of a culprit either.

[Gordon pauses.]

To make matters worse, a blackout had been going on. And, of course, they found Asta minutes later.

In her case, the catch was she didn’t jump.

At least, we’re not sure about it. It was the best conclusion the police came to, but there was no witness at all who saw it with their own eyes.

And she had no injuries when she was found unconscious, lying at the entrance of the cinema. The IV drip mentioned was Sullivan’s, and she was only in the hospital to be looked after.

After this incident, Sally and Adam Verne both passed away. Sullivan became Asta’s legal guardian, but then disappeared. He was last seen in February 2017.

A month later, the Foundation tracked Asta down and took her in, seeing as she had no other family to return to.

We identified her as a new avatar of the entity they call The Vast—there’s no other explanation. She fits the bill perfectly. The Magnus Institute, our sister organization in the UK, has had a similar jumping case of their own.

We haven’t informed her of this guess yet, but somehow tells me she already knows.

Either way, nothing explains her ‘people-become-space-objects’ and ‘movie-character-becomes-real’ things.

[whispering] Her speech patterns are rubbing off on me. [sighs]

Sullivan’s still missing. I’ve heard of sightings of him, and my coworkers are doing their best, so maybe we’re closer and closer.

That all being said, the one assigned to Asta’s care is, well, me. According to Leo, it’s because I’m the closest to her and my apartment’s large enough. Shit.

[clears throat] Addendum ends.

[The tape recorder clicks closed.]

Author's Note: Thank you for reading if you got this far! The blog where I collect all my fanfiction and reblog fanfic-related stuff is @peonnes-writes.

[pashterlengkap]

GOP candidate for governor called teachers “demons” for teaching about “filthy” LGBTQ+ people

A 2021 video shows staunchly anti-LGBTQ+ GOP candidate Mark Robinson referring to LGBTQ+ people as “filthy” and calling teachers who speak to students about LGBTQ+ issues “demons.” Robinson – the Republican nominee for North Carolina governor and the state’s current lieutenant governor – was reportedly speaking at a 2021 Independence Day event held by Conservative Coalition North Carolina. Related: Man parades rainbow-painted donkey through GOP campaign rally in bizarre attack on trans people “I thought to myself, that is not a rainbow unicorn.” “I’m a little more concerned with what’s going on in our classrooms when you have these demons in there trying to teach our children about all this filthy homosexuality and transgenderism, trying to force it down their throats,” Robinson said, adding that kids are also being taught to “hate America.” Your LGBTQ+ guide to Election 2024 Stay ahead of the 2024 Election with our newsletter that covers candidates, issues, and perspectives that matter. Daily * Weekly * Good News * He also made the contradictory statement that “you have the right to be transgender, but you cannot transcend God’s creation and you are not playing on the girl’s team if you’re a man.” “When did freedom become insanity?” he asked, emphasizing his belief that there are two genders: “Two. Count them. Two. There’s two sets of DNA, male and female. That’s it.” In the same speech, he blasted the notion that racism is a problem in America, saying, “We’ve reached a point in this nation where people don’t care what you look like anymore.” He also repeatedly praised Donald Trump and said America needs to “wake up” and “tell those socialist b****rds who want to destroy this nation, ‘You will not do it on my watch, you will not do it now, you will not do it ever.” Donald Trump recently endorsed Robinson, calling him “Martin Luther King on steroids.” This is despite the fact that Robinson once called the Civil Rights Movement a communist plot to “subvert capitalism” and “to subvert free choice.” He was speaking on a podcast in 2018 and said Black protestors and white allies who had protested racist laws by eating at a racially segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter during a July 1960 protest in Greensboro, North Carolina were “ridiculous” and wrongly trying to pull “the rug out from underneath capitalism and free choice and the free market.” As the November election looms closer, a spotlight has been cast on Robinson’s long history of inflammatory comments. In March 2023, Robinson declared that God created him to battle against LGBTQ+ rights and added, “Makes me sick every time I see it — a church that flies that rainbow flag, which is a direct spit in the face of God almighty.” In 2017, he wrote on Facebook, “You CAN NOT love God and support the homosexual agenda.” In 2021, Robinson compared LGBTQ+ people to cow dung and claimed straight people are superior to gay people due to their ability to procreate. In the same sermon, he declared there are only two genders and disparaged trans people’s bodies: “I don’t care how much you cut yourself up, drug yourself up and dress yourself up, you still either one of two things — you either a man or a woman.” He also said people who support events like Drag Queen Story Hour do so because they desire to molest children. He has previously proclaimed that being gay is a step before pedophilia, that former First Lady Michelle Obama is secretly a trans woman, and that trans-affirming people are “devil-worshipping child molesters.” He also condemned gay people as an “abominable sin” in response to the 2016 Pulse massacre. Robinson created an education task force to investigate and remove LGBTQ+ literature from public schools, as well as report instances of LGBTQ+ inclusion in schools. Teachers’ names, employers, and information were released unredacted in the report, yet many of the… http://dlvr.it/T4jKbl

[goforth-ladymidnight]

✨✨✨ ✨✨

Thank you for the tag, Mathi! @highlordofkrypton

Here are my answers!

What should we call you?

You can call me Midnight, or Lady M works, too. ✨

How long have you been a Tamlin fan?

Ever since I saw the ACOTAR Official Coloring Book on the shelf. (So, 2017-ish?) I loved the illustrations of this handsome blond elf-like character (with a masquerade mask and everything, ooo, so mysterious), which led me to picking up the original novel, and now here we are!

What drew you to Tamlin?

I've always liked Beauty and the Beast retellings, so it didn't take much for me to fall in love with him. I liked Lucien's sass, but I think the moment that won me over is when Tamlin rescued Feyre from the naga. Yes, the scene is a shameless ripoff of Disney's Beauty and the Beast scene where he rescues her from the wolves, but that part of the movie was a turning point for their relationship, too. What can I say? It worked!

Do you have a favourite headcanon for our Spring Lord?

Tamlin played (and sent!) the music Feyre heard Under the Mountain, and I will die on that hill.

Who’s your favourite pairing (platonic or romantic) with Tamlin?

It's impossible for me to choose. It honestly depends on my mood! 😭 But, I will say that I'm most fond of these pairings:

Lucien x Tamlin. Okay, I'm biased, because I'm close to finishing a holiday fic featuring these two sweethearts. But their relationship is the epitome of best friends to lovers. How can I not love them for that?

Briar x Tamlin. Naming a one-off character like Briar in the third book of the series, whose name means Thorns, when Tamlin has always been the Rose?? It's like SJM is hinting that we're going to have another ACOTAR on our hands, with an actual Beast this time around. I'm a sucker for everything Beauty and the Beast, so sign me up!

Feyre x Tamlin, because no one does it better than the original. Their romance felt so earned and real, and their personalities were mirror-images of the other. Two half-wild beasts who found each other, to try to break one impossible curse. 😭 "I love you, thorns and all." SAME.

Rhysand x Tamlin. Okay. So. I haven't written anything for them myself, but once I read A Court of Lies and Resurrection, I couldn't help but root for them. These two have a lot of history, and it just makes sense that they would develop feelings along the way. Forget about Enemies to Lovers; what about Lovers to Enemies??

Honorable mention: Nesta x Tamlin. This is a rare pair, but it honestly makes so much sense to me. Yes, Nesta loves books, and Belle in Beauty and the Beast loves books, too, but there's more to it than that. Other writers have astutely noted that Nesta's power is Death, while Tamlin's is Life. ( @ae-neon, is this your theory? ) Nesta was born to be a Queen, and Tamlin was born to be a Beast. She has a sharp tongue, and he has sharp claws. Talk about a prickly pair!! I am into it.

Have you named Tamlin’s family? What are their names? (Give us your headcanons too!)

I have! But it varies depending on the AU. See below:

Tamlin's mother: Rosalin. This is the only name I can picture for her, no matter which universe she appears in. Named for the rose garden that her husband planted for her, and incorporating part of Tamlin's name. Rose + Lin.

Tamlin's father: In my fic ACOFAE, he's called Magnus. According to my favorite baby name resource, it's a name that means greatest, and it's popular in Scotland (where the Ballad of Tam Lin originates from). It's admittedly not my favorite name, but I haven't learned enough about his character to give him a different one.

Tamlin's brothers: Peter and Arthur (in my modern AU), Angus and Fergus in every other AU I've written. Their modern AU personalities are a lot more self-centered, and they bully their younger brother just because they can, but everywhere else I picture them as twin warriors who must contend with each other to eventually win their father's title. I also chose their fantasy names to emulate their father's, but that could change if I ever get around to writing a story about the Spring Court.

If you were transported into the Spring Court right now, what would be your role? (Sentry, Gardener, etc.)

If it's anything like my current job, I would be in charge of shelving books in the High Lord's library! 😏 I must say, that sounds like a pretty good deal to me!

While we wait for Tamlin week, do you have any fic recommendations?

Yes, I do! I don't read as much fanfic as I would like (since my free time can either be spent in reading mode or writing mode, and lately it's been in writing mode), but here are some suggestions:

Tamsand: The aforementioned A Court of Lies and Resurrection, especially if you like lots of angst (but heed the tag warnings!!). It has a well-earned happy ending.

Feylin: My most recent favorite is Soap Bubble by @kateprincessofbluewhales. It's short and sweet and angsty and sexy all at once, and I love the evocative details.

Brilin: If you are a monsterfucker at heart, this oneshot is for you: You Can Be the Beauty and I Can Be the Monster by @lady-nestas. If you'd like something tamer, try her longfic: A Dream of Roses (WIP).

Tamcien: It sounds incredibly vain, but I'm going to suggest my own work for this one: A Second Chance. I consider it an unofficial modern-day sequel to ACOWAR, where Tamlin gets his "redemption", and he and Lucien reconnect over the holidays. I'm incredibly proud of it, considering it was my first foray into a modern AU. So if you want something to read over the holiday season, it should be done by Christmas!

I'm still keeping an eye out for Neslin fics; there are some on my TBR list, but I don't want to recommend anything that I haven't read first.

There are many talented creators in this fandom! You really can't go wrong. I love you all! 💖

Tags, but no pressure: @songofthesibyl @positivelyruined and anyone else who hasn't been tagged yet!

In the coming months, weeks and days leading up to Tamlin Week, we'll be dropping some fun community activities. Feel free to participate as much or as little as you like!

Now that we've got the prompts out of the way, it's time to get to the heart of Tamlin Week. Everyone knows our High Lord Tamlin, and you’ve met our mods, but it’s time to meet you!

Introduce yourself through the questions below, and if you know someone who’d like to participate in Tamlin week, feel free to tag them.

What should we call you? How long have you been a Tamlin fan? What drew you to Tamlin? Do you have a favourite headcanon for our Spring Lord? Who’s your favourite pairing (platonic or romantic) with Tamlin? Have you named Tamlin’s family? What are their names? (Give us your headcanons too!) If you were transported into the Spring Court right now, what would be your role? (Sentry, Gardener, etc.) While we wait for Tamlin week, do you have any fic recommendations?

Tags: (add your friends here!)

We encourage you to check the notes to say hi to old friends, and welcome new names to our community!

[bikerpoliticalreport]

Armed Suspect Arrested Near DC Home of Barack, Michelle Obama

A suspect with an arrest warrant for the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol Building who was also carrying materials to make a bomb was arrested near the Washington, D.C., home of former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama.

   According to CBS News, which quoted multiple sources, the suspect was identified as 37-year-old Taylor Taranto of Seattle, Wash.

   According to a law enforcement official who was briefed on the matter, the Secret Service identified him within blocks of Obama’s residence. After he was spotted, Taranto attempted to flee, which led to a pursuit by the Secret Service. He ran in the direction of the Obama home but was apprehended before reaching it.

   The report continued: “Taranto’s van was parked close to where he was arrested. There were multiple weapons and the materials to make some kind of explosive device akin to a Molotov cocktail, but it had not been assembled, according to law enforcement officials familiar with the details. He had said he had explosives, but first responders only found the materials to make them. U.S. officials were concerned because Taranto had made threats during recent live streams on social media against a public figure. He also had an open warrant on charges related to the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol. He wasn’t in Obama’s neighborhood by mistake, a U.S. official noted.”

   As per a senior law enforcement official, Taranto had been present in the Washington, D.C., area for a few months. He had been observed camping out in his van near the D.C. jail, where numerous defendants from the January 6 incident are being detained. Additionally, some of his live streams were seemingly uploaded while he was in the vicinity of Washington, D.C., CBS News reported.

   “Taranto has been charged with being a fugitive from justice, according to the Metropolitan Police Department,” CBS News reported, adding that it’s unclear if the Obamas were home at the time of the incident.

   Meanwhile, the Biden family has been accused of engaging in a “kickback scheme” about his son Hunter Biden’s international business transactions, according to a former Obama administration employee who has come out with the claim.

   Mike McCormick, who worked as a stenographer in the White House for 15 years, claimed that the FBI has ignored him even though he is prepared to provide a sworn statement to the federal grand jury looking into the activities of Joe Biden’s son.

   “In February, I went to the FBI and filed one of their tips on their website. If you do that, and you’re lying to them, you go to jail. I’m not lying. I’m telling the truth, and I’m not going to jail,” he said. “Joe Biden is a criminal. He was conducting malfeasance in office to enrich his family. Jake Sullivan is a conspirator in that, and there’s more… Obama officials involved in it, I believe.”

   “McCormick, who worked with Biden from 2011 to 2017, detailed a key dialogue involving the vice president, aide Jake Sullivan and the press on Air Force Two before a trip to Kyiv, Ukraine, on April 21, 2014. Sullivan, who is the current national security adviser, outlined in a White House transcript Biden’s priorities for his trip to the country, which included U.S. investment in the Ukrainian energy sector days after Hunter joined the board of Burisma Months later, and well after the trip, Congress allocated $50 million to Ukraine’s energy market,” the outlet reported.

   “I’m sitting back there with a tape recorder. Jake Sullivan comes back and somebody asks about fracking. His answer is, well, we’re bringing a lot of American assistance over for fracking. Burisma was the direct beneficiary of that fracking, and that’s what I recorded, and that’s in a White House transcript,” the former stenographer said.

   “In the transcript, you don’t know who Jake Sullivan is. It’s a senior administration official. I’m the witness that says Jake Sullivan is the guy who said it and he should be investigated because at the time Hunter Biden was on the board of Burisma and Joe Biden is bringing American taxpayer money to enrich that company and himself and his family,” he added.

[republic-world]

Kesha, Producer Dr Luke Settle Longstanding Legal Battle Over Rape And Defamation Claims

The court clash between Kesha and the Grammy-nominated producer Dr Luke has been playing out since 2014 and looming over both of their careers.

Pop star Kesha and producer Dr. Luke have settled nearly a decade of suits and countersuits over her accusation that he drugged and raped her and his claim that she made it up and defamed him, they announced Thursday, with the singer saying that “only God knows what happened that night.”

Dr. Luke, meanwhile, said he was “absolutely certain that nothing happened. I never drugged or assaulted her.” Terms of the deal were not immediately disclosed, as both she and he revealed on Instagram that they had agreed to “a resolution” of the case and to a statement from each of them. Messages seeking comment were sent to their attorneys.

“I cannot recount everything that happened,” Kesha wrote, adding that she wishes “nothing but peace to all parties involved.” Dr. Luke, in turn, said he wished her well and wanted “to put this difficult matter behind me” after years of fighting to clear his name. 

The deal averts a trial that had been scheduled for this summer over allegations that became a #MeToo cause for Kesha’s supporters and came to involve a lineup of music industry luminaries. Lady Gaga, Kelly Clarkson, Katy Perry, Pink, Avril Lavigne, Adam Levine and Taio Cruz are among those who gave testimony or sworn statements related to the case.

At the same time, the case raised important legal questions about fame and defamation. The stakes were seen as high enough that media outlets weighed in about pretrial rulings that they worried could help powerful people suppress unflattering reporting.

The court clash between the multiplatinum-selling singer and the Grammy-nominated producer has been playing out since 2014 and looming over both of their careers. The Associated Press does not generally name people who report being sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Kesha has done. 

The singer made her name — originally styled Ke$ha — with a series of swaggering, just-try-to-stop-me party anthems, beginning with 2009’s “TiK ToK.” Those early hits were produced by Dr. Luke, who founded the record label that signed a Nashville unknown named Kesha Rose Sebert at age 18.

Born Lukasz Gottwald, he has produced chart-toppers for Perry, Lavigne, Flo Rida and more. Besides notching multiple Grammy nominations, Dr. Luke has repeatedly won pop songwriter of the year awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. Kesha sued him in 2014, alleging he drugged and raped her nine years earlier and psychologically tormented her throughout their working relationship. She said he harangued her about her weight, denigrated her voice and lorded his power over her career.

“The abuse I suffered from Luke was a decade long, every day, every moment of every day,” she said during sworn questioning in 2017. According to Kesha, the ordeal sparked a flare-up of an eating disorder that led to her spending two months in a rehabilitation clinic in 2014.

Dr. Luke, who has not been charged with any crimes, responded by suing Kesha. He has asserted that she made “completely untrue and deeply hurtful” claims to tarnish him and get out of her record contract. “Any reasonable person will not believe her,” he said when questioned under oath in 2017. 

His attorneys have noted that Kesha herself said he “never made sexual advances at me” during sworn questioning in a separate lawsuit in 2011. She has since said she was “not entirely transparent” in those 2011 statements because she was terrified of Dr. Luke and felt compelled to protect him.

Kesha went five years without releasing an album during the standoff, saying she could not work with a “monster” but couldn’t get away from him because she was under contract with his label. His lawyers and the label’s attorneys maintained that she did not have to work with him personally.

She eventually returned with 2017’s “Rainbow” and two subsequent albums, all with other producers. Her most recent album, “Gag Order,” came out in May. Dr. Luke’s career also took a hit after she went public with her allegations. He has said various artists, particularly female ones, eschewed “working with someone who’s called a rapist.”

But under the name Tyson Trax, he made it back to the top of the charts in 2020 with Doja Cat’s “Say So,” garnering his first Grammy nomination since 2014. By this year, he was ASCAP’s pop songwriter of the year once again.

Along the way, Kesha’s sexual abuse-related claims were dismissed because of time limits and other legal issues, without any findings about the merits of the allegations themselves. But she countersued Dr. Luke under a New York law against bringing frivolous suits to try to intimidate critics into silence; New York’s highest court recently ruled that she could pursue those claims.

The top court, which New York calls the Court of Appeals, also declared that Dr. Luke is a “public figure” in the eyes of the law. That’s significant because the legal requirements for proving defamation are tougher for public figures than for everyday people.

Lower courts had said the producer wasn’t a public figure. Over a dozen media outlets and organizations got involved in the case to argue that those earlier rulings could end up helping famous people squash free speech and reporting on sexual abuse allegations.

Earlier in the case, Kesha was ordered to pay Dr. Luke more than $373,000 in interest on royalties she paid him years late.

For More latest entertainment news click only on www.republicworld.com

Republic World is a dynamic and most trusted source of news and information, founded by journalist and entrepreneur Arnab Goswami. We cater live and in-depth coverage of comprehensive news headlines and articles, covering a wide range of topics including India news, entertainment news, sports news and much more. Republic World features breaking news in India, current news headlines, India news live and today’s India News.

[west1rosi]

@stormbcrn asked: There can only be one Queen, and I had to choose mine. / for elinda REIGN (2013-2017) SENTENCES QUOTES .

In her mind, there was only one queen too. Elinda had it clear from the moment she realized that King Viserys would have no male issue. Not that it mattered, a royal is a royal and Rhaenyra and Daenerys had both been taught the same as a prince would, by that logic, they were both fit to rule. Rhaenyra had been promised as the heir and she would stand by her friend and lady to her dying breath. "I'm happy to hear so, your grace. "

"The queen needs you, and everyone else in her family who can be of assistence." With the loss of a father, and two children and an incoming war, she felt the weight of her lady's grief. All hands on desk, the servants spoke. Make sure they were comfortable while they all settle into the new normal. "I imagine you will be taking residence here at Dragonstone, yes?"

[quoteoftheweekblog]

QUOTATIONS - LUCY WORSLEY’S ‘JANE AUSTEN AT HOME - A BIOGRAPHY’ (FIRST PUBLISHED 2017)

First sentence:

‘To generatons of Austen worshippers, the site of Steventon Rectory is hallowed ground.’ (Worsley, 2018, p.9).

The authorial voice:

‘But then, when they were almost home, Mr Austen and Cassandra met upon the road “Jane and Charles, the two little ones of the family, who had got as far as New down to meet the chaise, & have the the pleasure of riding home in it’ ...

You must know, as Jane died so young, that this story of her life does not end happil. But do please fix in your mind this sunny scene, when she was six-and-a-half, because in this beginning there is also much that prefigures our devestating end. Imagine Jane happy, if you will, life before her, running through the Hampshire fields on a summer’s evening, eager to see Cassandra once again, and to bring her home.’ (Worsley, 2018, p.35).

On writing:

‘ ... they spent most of their time deep in the rainy countryside, writing stories because there was nothing else to do.’ (Worsley, 2018, p.48).

‘She writes about the very act of writing: “I must get a softer pen. - This is harder. I am in agonies.” “I am going to write nothing but short Sentences”, she determines, finding it hard to gather her thoughts, “Oh, dear me, when I shall ever have done?” ‘ (Worsley, 2018, p.173).

On Jane Austen:

‘Jane’s great achievement would be to let even the ordinary, flawed, human girls who read her books think that they might be heroines too.’ (Worsley, 2018, p.52).

‘One of the reasons that her novels work so well on the screen as feature films is because she conceived them like plays, scene by scene, with dialogue propelling the story forward.’ (Worsley, 2018, p.78).

‘People often long to know if the eternal spinster Jane Austen ever had sex with a man. The answer is almost certainly not.’ (Worsley, 2018, p.112).

‘For Jane, then, it doesn’t matter what books you read, even if your choice is ‘trashy’ Gothic novels. It’s what you make of them, how you behave in consequence, that counts.’ (Worsley, 2018, p.230).

‘ ... the way Jane lays out her paragraphs, and the frequent use of italics to indicate which words should be stressed, were all intended to aid someone “performing” the novels aloud ... It looks like Jane’s books encouraged women’s voices to be heard: not only as words on the page, but also out loud, in real life, in the drawing rooms of late Georgian England.’ (Worsley, 2018, p.323).

‘Only with Austen did women begin to think that they wanted - no, needed - to find Mr Darcy.’ (Worsley, 2018, p.407).

On cross stitch:

‘A sampler made by a “Jane Austen” - probably in truth a member of the Kentish branch of the family - features a quotation from “The Book of Common Prayer” dated 1787. “In the Time of trouble I will call upon the Lord and he will hear me”, it reads, in tiny neat cross-stitches, a praiseworthy double-whammy celebration of the  submission of both fingers and the mind.’ (Worsley, 2018, p.53).

‘It may seem to us that there is more to life than cross-stitch, but to make things neatly was a real pleasure to the Austen ladies.’ (Worsley, 2018, p.53).

‘There was self-interest, here, too, for while stitching, ladies’ “thoughts could be their own”, rather than at the beck and call of other people ... ‘ (Worsley, 2018, p.53).

On the novel:

‘The novel was still young, an art form that had only emerged in the last few decades. Many Georgian readers looked down upon prose fiction as frothy and feminine, possible even degrading and dangerous.’ (Worsley, 2018, p.56).

‘She was not alone in forming this new habit of voracious novel reading. In each decade from the 1760s to the 1790s the number of novels by women being published jumped by 50 per cent ... It was widely believed to be a form in which female authors could excel.’ (Worsley, 2018, pp.83-4).

REFERENCE

Worsley, L. (2018 [2017] ) ‘Jane Austen at home - a biography’. London: Hodder.

[sheacouleecametoslay]

Season 9 (2017)

I've now entered the "VH1 era" of Drag Race, or what I consider to be the "mainstream era", since VH1 is a bigger network than Logo TV. I believe this was around the time Drag Race started winning Emmys too. It's also the last season to have a 42-minute runtime. And it's the first season to introduce the current finale format - the Lip Sync For The Crown. Which I have mixed opinions on. I do like the high stakes nature of it, and I understand that lip syncs are meant to be the deciding factor of who goes home every week anyways. But it renders the challenges pointless. A strong track record will get you to top 4, but if you want the crown, then lip syncing is the only skill that matters. Which can lead to the frontrunner being "robbed", and that's exactly what happens this season. The producers got lucky that Season 9's finale lip syncs were good, because that won't be the case every year. It's become all about the reveals. Despite how that finale turns out, and despite Sasha being one of my lower ranked winners, I'm actually going to declare Season 9 as my favourite Drag Race season ever. Yes, I would be a happier with a different winner, but how could you not crown Sasha after those rose petals? I live for that moment because it's so shocking. And it's become the single most iconic moment in the show's entire herstory. If the producers hadn't switched things up, then the finale would've just been a boring formality for Shea's obvious crowning. But Sasha wanted it just as badly and she gave a jaw-dropping performance to overtake the frontrunner. That's a pretty great story. Moreover, this is a stacked cast. The final 4 has three winners in it. And I'll argue that there isn't a single forgettable queen in this cast. Also, the premiere has LADY GAGA in it. I kinda love that fake out when they think she's going to be the 14th queen. And I was excited to get a Gaga-themed runway! The premiere also ends in a cliff-hanger. I would've preferred a different someone other than Cynthia to return, but there's worse options. Incidentally, this begins a three-season stretch of one returning queen being added to the cast. Season 9 has plenty of drama too, despite this being one of the nicest final 4s. Untucked was entertaining for the most part. There's Aja vs Valentina, Trinity vs Eureka, Alexis vs everyone, Nina vs Shea. This is probably the most memorable reunion too, with the whole "Fan Favourite" debacle. As for the challenges, the Gay Ball might be my favourite ball. This is just before they start shoving the ball to the beginning of the season as well. The Snatch Game is underrated; Alexis, Shea, Nina, Valentina, and Sasha all did well. Trinity had a laugh or two as well. The Kardashian Rusical went smoothly too. Alexis could've won that; and the Sasha/Trinity/Peppermint trio was a highlight. The "Category Is" ru-mix is the best ru-mix. It would've been unfair to eliminate anybody after that one. The only bad challenge was the cheerleading one since it lead to injuries. I couldn't keep tracking of what was going on it either. The morning talk shows were underwhelming too. This was not a great season for lip syncs though, although the bad ones (Charlie and Valentina) were certainly memorable. "I'd like to keep it on please". I've decided to reorganize my notes and separate my personal thoughts from the competition summary.

Queens Ranking: 14. Eureka O'Hara I sympathize with the medical evacuation, and when she cried in front of Lady Gaga, but Eureka was unbearable this season. Even during the entrances, it's like she always had something to say ("is this all fake or is it real... I meant your personality"). She openly blamed Trinity's leadership for their challenge loss, just because they had outside drama. She wanted to do ghetto accents and was immediately shut down. She got all passive aggressive about raising her hand. She constantly talked over people and interrupted them. She acted like she was always right. And she made an eating disorder joke to Valentina, and when Sasha called her out on it, Eureka had the nerve to play the victim; saying that Sasha made her look like a bad person. Sure she apologized next episode, but whatever. In the competition: I will begrudging admit that Eureka is a capable performer. She didn't let her injury stop her in the cheerleading or the Rusical. Her trashy runways weren't my thing though (the Hometown one and the sewage princess). Her faux fur was unappealing too. I liked her Gaga "Telephone" look though. 13. Charlie Hides Aside from her infamous lip sync "performance", Charlie is the least memorable Season 9 queen. She had a heavy moment talking about the AIDS epidemic too. But we never got to see the "rude crude socially unacceptable over the top" celebrity impersonator she teased in her intro. It just seemed like Charlie wasn't even trying this season. She had a defeatist attitude because of her age, even muffling it in her intro. She tried to micromanage Cynthia during the talk show planning, even directing Cynthia while it was being filmed. And lol at her telling Eureka to shut up in Untucked. In the competition: Charlie thought she was too old for cheerleading; plus her "Boozy" intro was half-hearted. She tripped over her words in the talk show and awkwardly tried to end the interview. While during the lip sync, she just stood there and did nothing, because they don't lip sync in London. She gave 0 effort. She later blamed it on a cracked rib from the cheerleading, but she got called out for her excuses at the reunion. I liked Charlie's looks though  - the big glasses entrance, the Gaga one, and I think she was overlooked in the princess challenge ("cunning linguist!"). 12. Jaymes Mansfield Jaymes' puppet entrance with that puppet voice was an instant "no" from me. I guess I'm not into campy queens. But I felt bad for Jaymes. Her storyline was about being unsure of herself. Even the other queens didn't have faith in her. Nina called her an "underdog" and Cynthia said picking her for a team was "community service". Jaymes was then taken aback by the negative critiques, and let it all out in Untucked. She explained how drag is her outlet to be more confident, but it wasn't materializing on the show. I relate to what she was going through, but performing requires confidence. In the competition: Jaymes switched roles with Alexis after fumbling rehearsal. She then looked anxious during the cheerleading performance and her somersaults didn't impress. I also didn't like her cow and sleepy Gaga runways. 11. Valentina Valentina was a contender until "I'd like to keep in on please" happened. Although I think she was praised in the wrong challenges. And at the reunion she was exposed for being fake and not taking responsibility for her toxic fans. During the show, she acted like a "nice girl" to the other queens and was a friend to Farrah in Untucked. She played a character in confessionals too - as this soft-spoken, pretentious artist. Her confessionals were so forced though - like smiling during cheerleading, praying to Guadalupe, the "I'm focused" hand motions, and blowing her nails. I rolled my eyes at the whole Guadalupe candle thing. She also wore sunglasses to cover her shaved eyebrows. Valentina had complete control over her image and composure on the show. It felt deceptive. In the competition: Valentina had gorgeous runways - the mariachi Hometown, the wedding dress, the faux fur, and the hair flowers. The Madonna censorship one was unique too. But I think her drag inexperience storyline is why she was an early favourite. Although she did maintain high energy in the cheerleading and gave reaction shots (+"I'm also corny"). It's the princess challenge placement I disagree with. But I liked her Miss Colombia in Snatch Game and her weird Roast jokes. And she surprised in the Reading mini-challenge. But then she wore a mask to cover up not knowing the words to "Greedy" and that was that... 10. Farrah Moan Farrah was known for constantly whining with that whiny voice. Like when she felt helpless looking for a work station in the premiere. Or when she had to sew an outfit. Or sobbing in Untucked after her negative critiques. Or crying when Eureka left. Or groaning with "Oh don't say that Ru." But her whining seemed harmless and nontoxic to me. They also showed her staring off into space in confessional lol. And freaking out over Gaga. And filling Valentina in on the Kardashian gossip. While at the Reunion, Farrah exposed Valentina for being a fake friend. I didn't mind Farrah though. In the competition: Farrah's runways were often polished - the Hometown headdress, the nightie, the Superbowl Madonna. I even liked the Gaga Alejandro one. But she struggled in the challenges. The princess outfit looked homemade and she looked down at a script. She messed up the handclaps in the Rusical. She was forgettable in Snatch Game. And she sighed a lot during the Roast and her jokes were too obvious. Although, she was underrated in 9021-Ho, where she got to play a whiny character lol. 9. Cynthia Lee Fontaine Shangela being brought back made sense - she proved herself the second time around. Cynthia, however, didn't really improve in Season 9? She's the same high energy chatterbox we saw in Season 8. Except this time, she inserts her "cucu" catchphrase as many times as possible. Almost like she's promoting her brand. That got really annoying. But her Season 9 stint is more memorable at least. Her origin story of "cucu" was funny. As was her speech about Eureka's broken chair. She went through a lot too, between surviving cancer and missing the night of the Pulse club attack. And she always had a positive and fun spirit on the show. In the competition: Cynthia's issue was playing Cynthia in every challenge. It worked for the cheerleading (where she had good energy) and the talk show (with the ESL grammar). But her impersonations of Kim Kardashian and Sofia Vergara were... yeah. Her Rusical lip syncing was something. And she just rambled on in the Snatch Game. 8. Aja Aja came in very confident, but she turned out to be overhyped. Shea made a comment about social media queens without the filters. And yeah, Aja was read for her make-up. Despite having a high fashion mindset and making her own outfits, she flopped a runway challenge too. Which lead to her spiraling mentally, because she was so confident about it. She had to come to terms that she wasn't a top contender. She then nastily lashed out at Valentina and Farrah on Untucked out of nowhere. She really resented Valentina's favouritism. And she threw another fit over her originally assigned role in 9021-Ho. While at the Reunion, she questioned Valentina's Miss C win. I think Aja took things too seriously and put too much pressure on herself. She got annoyed about Nina's attitude at one point too. While Sasha/Farrah confronted her early on about being loud and ignoring. In the competition: Aja's princess concept was lost on the judges (I thought Farrah was worse though). She was forgettable in the Rusical. Her and Valentina's segment in the talk show was a mess. And her acting in 9021-Ho was lacking compared to everyone else. I was let down by her runways too. The hoop skirt was the best one. She slayed both lip syncs though, including the one that sent her home! 7. Sasha Velour Imagine winning an entire season because of rose petals. Sasha sure made a memorable entrance with that scream. Her eating disorder story and being a bald queen because of her mother's cancer are both touching moments. But I mostly like Sasha for her runways and finale lip syncs. Outside of that, she comes off highbrow, creating overly complicated concepts. Like "deconstructing" the rainbow flag or putting a birdcage on her head or her intellectual humour. She's so serious outside of the challenges too. Every time an important real life story came up in the Werk Room, it would cut to a Sasha confessional where she'd talk about it. Still, she stuck up for Nina until the final 6. She also supported Aja in that one Untucked (despite calling her "loud" in the previous one). And she does have her own style. In the competition: Is Sasha the only winner to have 0 solo wins? Both of her wins are shared with Shea. She didn't even win design challenges, although I think she should've won the Makeover. Her Gaga "Applause" look, Erotica Madonna, punk rock hair, the house under the hat, and the unicorn runways stood out the most to me. The basic cowboy outfit cost her the Ball win. As far as the comedy challenges go, I just didn't get why her Marlene Dietrich in Snatch Game was funny? Her Roast had the "the thrill of just standing there" joke, but she bombed a couple jokes. She had the self-doubt story in the princess challenge, but the outfit cost her there. And her one low placement was trying too hard in 9021-Ho. 6. Alexis Michelle Alexis overstayed, but she was so ridiculous that I can't even take her seriously. She was so hungry for a challenge win and she got the delusional edit. Shea convinced her she could pull off any role. She fought Jaymes for "Floozy" and later fought Peppermint for an announcer role. She disagreed with the top 3 in almost every Untucked. She called a meeting to blame everyone for her bad outfit (annoying Farrah in the process). She gave unsolicited pointers during the 9021-Ho challenge. She got offended by fat jokes, and Ru called her out for dishing it and not taking it. She asked Tamar Braxton if she watches the show. She insinuated she was the producer for her team's pilot and took credit for Trinity's character name. She even picked a fight with Sasha at the final 5. And thought Sasha/Shea said her name to go home because she's competition. Alexis just had this very blunt, firm, assertive way of talking. Even Eureka had issues with her. But I value the entertainment she brought. In the competition: Alexis had basic runways - the Hometown handwritten messages, the faux fur, the Makeover, all 3 Ball looks. Even if she "nearly went blind" stoning the Native American one. She was definitely a stand-out in the Rusical as Kris Jenner and in the Snatch Game as Liza Minnelli. And I almost put her high for 9021-Ho. But subway/tadpole fish princess... really? And she painted herself green with a Jersey accent in the Roast. The little hat in the lip sync was fun though. 5. Trinity "The Tuck" Taylor Trinity wanted to disassociate herself from pageant queen stereotypes, and she succeeded. She was super competitive and gave off this cold, stern, firm, standoffish demeanour. She blamed it on the Botox lol. She was unsympathetic for the eliminated queens, and when she told Nina that lip syncing is her job/obligation. She got riled up when Aja came for her Madonna look. She said "whatever" to Valentina's win. She was called a dictator as team leader; with how she assigned roles and made people raise hands. I don't think it's fair to blame team leaders for other's bad performances though. She wanted to punch Eureka and later shut her down in Untucked. And she was over Nina. Trinity claimed that her bluntness came from kindness/helpfulness, but I'm not so sure. Lol at her not knowing what edges are though ("like when you mow grass?"). Still, Trinity was strong in challenges. She only cared about winning, but unapologetically so? In the competition: Trinity was multi-talented, excelling in both design and comedy challenges. She had memorable expressions during the cheerleading lifts. She had fun with the princess challenge. She stole the scene in 9021-Ho. I thought Sister Mary Koont was the funniest character in the pilots. Her America Horror Story Gaga and cop outfit were great runways too. On the flip side, Trinity was robotic in the talk show and her roast had few laughs. But she fought hard in the "I Wanna Go" lip sync. 4. Kimora Blac "Kimora Blac is everyone's sexual preference"; "what's a bloomer?"; "stoning is for ugly girls"; "what's an adjective?"; "Thank god I'm pretty"; "American's Next Top Sweatshop" 💀Kimora had this conceited and elitist persona; like she's above everyone else. And she talked so much s**t in confessionals; like about Aja's bragging or Eureka's sewer princess idea or Cynthia's "cucu". She thought cartwheeling went out of fashion after the 80s. She had other people make her outfits for her. She had a sob story about padding. And she was shocked to be marked as low as Jaymes. But the thing is - Kimora was a completely different person on Untucked. She gave a sweet goodbye to the entire group, and to Farrah in particular. So clearly Kimora was just playing a character for TV, and I found her hilarious. In the competition: Kimora had weak tumbles in the cheerleading. It felt like she would rather be doing anything other than that funky monkey. And I didn't like her sailor runway either. 3. Nina Bo'nina Brown Nina's negativity - her depression, self-doubt, and defeatism - was a major focus of the season. She thought others were against her, and it became this conspiracy theory. She had an attitude when she didn't get Blac Chyna in the Rusical and when Jennie Garth directed her in 9021-Ho. She blamed herself for Valentina's exit. She didn't feel the need to unpack her stuff. She overheard other conversations and assumed they were talking about her. She accused Shea in Untucked for doing that when we never saw it happen. At the reunion, she said they edited out. She kept mentioning how Shea was the frontrunner. The entire final 6 got tired of Nina. Their help wasn't working and she wouldn't stop being negative. Farrah also asked if she wanted to be there. Nina just wouldn't believe other people's positive words. Partly because Trinity and Peppermint (in separate episodes) hesitated to pick her for teams. I get it through. When I see myself negatively, I assume others see me the same way. And I get how Nina's unwillingness to change became draining to others. In the competition: Nina brought a unique style, even if it was arts and crafts at times. She impressed instantly with the Georgia peach and the VMAs Gaga runways. I also liked her Mickey Mouse entrance, the alien princess, the naughty nighties, and the Mary J Blige faux fur. But she faltered with the bunny Makeover. Otherwise, Nina carried her team in the talk show, she channeled Jasmine Masters in Snatch Game, and her church lady in the Roast was fine. But the TV pilot with Valentina made no sense, and her 9021-Ho acting was bumpy. She pulled through in the lip syncs until she gave up in the last one - she knew Shea wasn't losing, so why bother? 2. Peppermint The true congenial queen of Season 9. Peppermint served likeable, friendly, genuine energy. She seemed well-loved by the other queens. She tried to talk rationally with Alexis after the latter's Untucked rant. She had a heartwarming coming out as trans moment. Her story about being detained in Russia was scary too. She tried to give everyone the role they wanted in 9021-Ho, even if Aja was unhappy with hers. And Peppermint's confessionals were filled with personality, from reacting to Sasha's scream to imitating duct tape sounds to "I... can... not believe... what... they are asking us to do" to "Now you look like a bitch, playing a bitch, in the last scene." She also wasn't hesitant to speak up either, like when she disputed Alexis's producer claim. In the competition: Peppermint had the rockiest track record of the final 4. Her lows included stumbling over words in the talk show (that basic nightie should've put her bottom 2), being unable to keep character as Nene Leakes in Snatch Game, and her first two Ball looks. The leather one was great though. Her highs included using the pilot light story, embodying Britney Spears in the Rusical, and nailing the set-up/punchline format in the Roast. She kinda ate in "Category Is" as well. And Peppermint was the Lip Sync Assassin of Season 9 - both "Music" and "Macho Man" were fun. 1. Shea Couleé The narrator of Season 9 and one of the strongest competitors in the show's herstory. Shea was robbed by the new finale format. She exuded so much natural confidence, while never seeming overly stressed over the competition either. She was chill for the most part... until Nina accused her of talking behind her back. Shea denied it and shut the conversation down. She had built Nina up multiple times by showing tough love, so she felt hurt when Nina came for her. I get Shea's frustrations - it's draining when someone isn't receptive to your help, and I do believe she had the right intentions, but maybe the wrong approach. But yeah, Shea's main storyline was her relationship with Nina. She defended Nina to Farrah too. She also defended Sasha in fights and gave Alexis some constructive criticism about the green thing. In the competition: Shea slayed almost every challenge. She has 4 wins - two of which were for having good chemistry with Sasha; while her two solo wins include Blac Chyna in the Rusical, and the Gay Ball. Her construction worker outfit is probably my fave look of the season. The rainbow graffiti was good too. Shea was also one of the top performers for the cheerleading, as Naomi Campbell in Snatch Game, the older lady in 9021-Ho, that Nina joke in the Roast, and the quick rapping in "Category Is". The hotdog headpiece in the premiere was memorable too. I also liked her faux fur, the club kid, and final 4 runways. Her one time in the bottom was for her Makeover partner's floppy wig. Favourite entrance: Shea Couleé Challenge ranking: 1. "Category Is" Ru-mix (Shea > Peppermint > Sasha > Trinity) 2. Michelle Visage Roast 3. Gayest Ball 4. Snatch Game 5. Kardashian: The Rusical 6. Hometown/Lady Gaga Pageant 7. "9021-HO" (Acting) 8. TV pilot adverts 9. Crew member Makeover 10. Fairytale Princess/Sassy Sidekick (Design) (so weird) 11. Morning Talk Shows 12. Cheerleading (unsafe) Lip Sync ranking: 1. Sasha Velour vs Shea Couleé ("So Emotional") 2. Aja vs Nina Bo'nina Brown ("Finally") 3. Cynthia Lee Fontaine vs Peppermint ("Music") 4. Peppermint vs Trinity Taylor ("Stronger") 5. Alexis Michelle vs Peppermint ("Macho Man") 6. Aja vs Kimora Blac ("Holding Out For A Hero") 7. Sasha Velour vs Peppermint ("It's Not Right But It's Okay") 8. Alexis Michelle vs Farrah Moan ("Baby I'm Burnin'") 9. Charlie Hides vs Trinity Taylor ("I Wanna Go") (Trinity killed it) 10. Nina Bo'nina Brown vs Valentina ("Greedy") (iconic) 11. Top 4 Lip Sync ("U Wear It Well") 12. Jaymes Mansfield vs Kimora Blac ("Love Shack") 13. Shea Couleé vs Nina Bo'nina Brown ("Cool For The Summer") (both could've done more) 14. Cynthia Lee Fontaine vs Farrah Moan ("Woman Up") Season ranking so far: 9 > 5 > 6 > AS2 > 4 > 2 > 7 > 3 > 8 > 1 > AS1

[tea-with-eleni]

2017, because I'd first seen the dolls way back in middle school (think 2007 or so) and was enchanted.... and in 2017, I had just enough money in christmas funds to get a bjd. As far as I remember, I've always loved dolls though.

Can't remember the company any more, but it was on an Emilie Autumn forum. I did say it was way way back in my middle school years. The first doll I liked was a Souldoll Lily C. I have since learned souldolls are dreadful at posing. It was a very disappointing discovery.

Not really! I'm less a fan of the masculine dolls. I prefer my dolls to be quite androgynous, because, well, I'm nonbinary and I like that I can sometimes find dolls that are as well. I tend to prefer more unique looking dolls from smaller companies these days - frappzilla and atelier momoni are wonderful!

Smaller. I have my Smartdoll ladies and would not want bigger for any reason. They're honestly almost too big themselves! MSD is good, but I adore my mature tinies. Momonita and Somni are just about perfect.... hm. I should really get those two back out again....

Atelier Momoni and Frappzilla! They're both so unique looking and I love seeing what they create. They're also cute without being weird about it and they pose nicely, which is one of the best things about BJDs. :)

No real preference. I have vinyl dolls, I have resin dolls. My favorite doll growing up was a little penny wooden doll from Mast General Store (because I was secretly born in rural appalachia in about 1920, based on the books I read and my favorite toys as a child)

Yes. This is true no matter what definition you use - I have the first doll I really, truly loved and tried to make Real, Velveteen rabbit style, and my first bjd. And my first Smartdoll, for that matter! They're all on my bookshelves.

I cannot possibly choose a favorite doll you guys. But I am currently enjoying the heck out of a little Frappzilla Dandelion Bloom girl, who poses shockingly well and has been a very enjoyable project thus far. I'm glad I have a second one of their dolls to work on! I will order more. I also have been enjoying my American Girl Claudie, who might be the prettiest doll the company has ever released, and I feel a great and mighty need to get my Somni back out again.

All of my dolls are, and have only ever been, themselves. They are small people that are differently abled based on their bodies and they have personalities that organically arise from those bodies.

hehehehehe..... kinda. I am an appalachian goblin at heart, and when I lived in the hills I attended a small local doll show that was technically focused on ball jointed dolls.... if you mean the original porcelain kind. It was mostly a bunch of very sweet little old ladies. I brought my ball jointed dolls because all doll people are doll people. But, see, I have one doll that.... she's kind of got an attitude. The only wig I've ever made that suited her fully had an undercut, her kindest faceup still gave her a bit of a death glare, her default expression is a scowl, that kind of thing. One of the sweet ladies wanted a look at her double joint system. She held her for a few minutes then caught my doll's eye and visibly recoiled because of the intense expression. I guess she was used to the slightly glassy porcelain dolls.

The photography side is one of the best parts! It got me outside and moving in college. I've been pretty zonked since moving to my current job, sadly, and haven't done much in the last few years. Again, want to get back into it again.

Um. Kinda? I've moved about 700 miles with dolls.

I don't really have a grail! I actually like my collection as is. The closest I have is that I would really like a home with enough shelf space for me to properly display all of my collection at once!

A non-binary realistically sculpted (think Dollshe Diana levels of realism, but preferably with a better joint system) adult elf doll. Preferably MSD sized. I would tolerate SD sized, though.

Don't be scared of the dolls! They are expensive, but they're also expensive for a reason: basically all ball jointed dolls, smart dolls, even nicer sorts of play dolls are made to be dolls first and foremost. You can, and should, play with them. You can enjoy them. It's really hard to permanently damage one through normal wear and tear. And also don't be afraid of what anyone will say, either. If you're wandering around town carrying a doll, you may get some odd looks or compliments but the mean spirited people will assume you're too crazy to be worth being mean to. You're an adult carrying a doll, after all.

BJD 15 Questions

I remember this were popular on tumblr a while back but since I haven’t seen one in a while I decided to make my own. I made them with BJDs and similar dolls like DDs in mind but feel free to use these prompts to talk about any type of doll! You can also skip any question you don’t have an answer for.

If you post on your own blog please tag with ‘BJD 15 questions’ so I can see your answers! You can also do it on Instagram or Twitter if you like.

1. When did you get into the hobby? Do you remember the reason?

2. Related, what was one of the first dolls you remember seeing? (A photo or in person)

3. Do you have a ‘type’ of doll you gravitate towards or do you like a bit of everything?(ie general look, size, ambience)

4. Do you like bigger or smaller dolls? How big/small is your limit?

5. Do you have a favourite company? What do you like about them?

6. Do you have a preference for resin, vinyl or other?(ie ABS and other plastics)

7. Do you still have your first doll?

8. Gush about your favourite doll.

9. Do you prefer dolls based on existing characters (official or custom), dolls based on your original characters, or dolls that are just dolls?

10. Have you ever been to a doll/BJD focussed convention (eg Doll’s Party, IDoll, Doll Show, Resin Rose, L Doll, Dollism, PNW BJD Expo, Melbourne BJD Emporium etc). Would you like to? Which seems most interesting to you based on what you know?

11. How important is the photography side of the hobby to you? Do you enjoy photography and sharing photos or do you like to keep things to yourself?

12. Have you ever travelled with a doll? Would you like to?

13. What’s your grail doll? If you don’t have one, do you have a ‘bucket list’ hobby wish - something you really want to be able to do/make/experience one day?

14. A magic doll fairy appears and decides to grant you a wish. She can make the type of (non-existent) doll you wish existed finally exist in reality. What is it?

15. What’s your piece of advice for a newbie?