#the serenessa from this episode...

[inlovewith-icecream]

B and P for Gossip Girl

B - A pairing–platonic, romantic or sexual–that you initially didn’t consider, but someone changed your mind.

Dan/Nate (and all three apply here lmao); which is a pairing I wouldn’t have originally considered because if left to my own devices, but looking through fandom content of them has turned me another way than I originally was (and inspired me to go revisit their canon relationship which is amazing, now I love it haha)

P - Invent a random AU for any fandom

Hmmm gonna obsess over Vanessa bc why not <3 buuttt Blairnessa becoming actual friends. They have that brief moment at the end of 3x06 but then they’re never together again :/. Like - Vanessa already being friends with Serena (Serenessa <3) and there being an entire episode dedicated to the fact that…Blair struggles to make friends (only to ad in that jab “I’ve never heard [Vanessa] before in my life”…great going GG writers). Anyways, yes - Blair warming up to Vanessa and realizing ‘huh, maybe Serena was right about you, you’re not so bad’, and Vanessa (with very understandable caution and hopefully in this AU after seeing some growth and accountability from Blair) starts to see the ways they’re similar in terms of insecurities and even common interests. Plus the friend group of Serena/Vanessa/Blair (+ hell even Jenny bc why not <3 - with none of that S4 bullshit bc that’s bs, on both V and J’s behalf). (Also sapphic!Vanessa and Vanlivia together bc why not?)

alsooo something I HAVE been considering is (only very hypothetically bc im not trying to straightwash + the overall problematic tone of the show buuttt) Scream Queens!Dair AU where Hester and Chanel = Dan and Blair

[mrs-nate-humphrey]

rewatched “roman holiday” for christmas and

vanessa’s helping serena with dan’s christmas present felt more like she had a crush on serena, or like she had a crush on dan-and-serena in that bi polyam way that dan was thinking of serena-and-nate having sex but okay okay 

vanessa was so cute in this episode. she was just :D

so many good sibling moments!!! “you did the right thing, jen” & the hug made me tear up AGAIN. and serena & eric’s non-verbal communication, like the looks they exchange over the whole bart & lily thing... beautiful 

rufus sitting on the fire escape to call lily was... weirdly hilarious. like. that’s annexed to dan’s room. why are you sitting there. what are you doing, mr humphrey. sir.

lily helping dan & jenny with the tree!!!! that was so precious. 

blair in this episode.... *screams*. tbh i’ve been putting off watching this one because the way she treats roman makes me >:/ but i think her dad handled it pretty well after eleanor talked to him.

“she gets scheming from her mother and idealistic dreaming from her father” or whatever i can’t look it up verbatim i just. got literal chills it was just So Much  

speaking of eleanor. “i’m spending christmas with my family” ALSO gave me chills. 

you know what else made me physically tremble? serena in that little room with the projected snow, in the pretty dress, smiling at dan 

derena in high school being all honeymooney and genuinely liking each other is something i will forever be soft about 

but just the whole moment - serena sitting there, smiling, dan looking at her and smiling back, all of it 

blair & serena!! “thank you for totally not being helpful at all” / blair’s little smile and shrug like. she knows she’s not being helpful and she doesn’t care, but she and serena are just smiling at each other, and like. a good best friend moment!!

serena & vanessa interactions - i said this already i think but it bears repeating - god tier. the way serena enters vanessa’s coffee shop to ask for help. the way vanessa smiles and glows when she sees serena. the way serena is all sheepish and ‘please help’ and vanessa is like ‘i actually like you’. it was so so so soft.

i disagree with blair, actually. i don’t think vanessa likes dan. or if she does - not as much as she likes serena. 

OH I FORGOT TO MENTION - the fact that after eleanor & harold realise that blair is the one who called freddy, blair’s sad and she’s on her bed and she calls nate and gets voicemail. i just. nate & blair’s friendship (tho were they dating at the time? maybe) is so important to me and it made my heart ache a little that she reached out to nate and didn’t get him

the rufus/alison break-up gave me such future derena vibes tbh. like the entire speech he gives her about ‘we want it to work but it will not’ or whatever it was - sometimes the best intentions aren’t enough! sometimes you & your partner are just not compatible! 

because i’m me, i was glad that we didn’t get much chuck. but sad we didn’t get nate, other than the voicemail. and that picture at the end.

the first time i watched this the way it ended stressed me out SO MUCH? bart and that ring?? lily being like :O ... i hate to say it but even on rewatch i feel weird about the end. just. unsettled. 

still. fun episode. merry christmas if you celebrate, happy holidays if you don’t!!! 

[terrainofheartfelt]

WIP Tag Game

tagged by @lucbian (thank you!!!)

Rules: List all of your WIPs and tag as many people as the WIPs and whichever fic you (followers/anyone reading this) find interesting, you can ask about it and I'll either tell you about it or post a snippet or both!

okay well, um...there are so many...so many...I'm going by the "most recent" sorting feature on my google docs

Dair Pride & Prejudice AU [working title: (the more you say) the less I know]: I've talked about this one before but, y'all know. Dan as Lizzie, Blair as Darcy, the van der Humphreys as the Bennet Family, romcom shenanagins ensue. I recently got a couple more ideas sparked that I'm excited to plug in, the most fun about writing an au like this is puzzling out which characters can fit into which roles of the original, and there a few that have me really just *does mr. burns "excellent" hand thing*

Postcanon fic (currently titled "Spitefueled jenate endgame fic" in my docs): Blair POV, but centered around Jenny & Nate reconnecting at Derena's engagement party, and how it indirectly serves as a catalyst for Blair getting out of her marriage to chip wiskers. Dair endgame, but not much Dan, mostly Blair pining and making amends with Jenny. musicians!Humphreys are involved. may take a WHILE because there's heavy shit to untangle. I was feeling neutral about this fic idea and then the antis were about and now I'm like "I will write this!" also Dan isn't gossip girl bc the medallion says that's dumb so we're not gonna do that.

Dair - In I know a place where your heart can be safe series (aka the Milo-verse): a pwp oneshot of Dair's honeymoon. Involves extreme sappiness, Italy, and a polaroid camera

And you can have this heart to break - my s4 Date AU, or, the next installment of the work, that is, title will be some Billy Joel lyric lifted from "And So It Goes": this is a Dan x Nate-centric au of s4, which also involves justice for the Blenny friendship, Serenessa, Blair x Raina Thorpe, and none for chip wiskers bye. this is the next "episode" as it were, and will cover Saints & Sinners and the fallout of it. Drama ensues, but there's also lots of himbos-in-love fluff to compensate.

a Dilfs!Date fic: Inspired by these headcanons I wrote, the story of how Dan and Nate Humphrey meet their kids. I burnt myself out on the kid fic a lil bit but this is a sweet sweet one that I want to get back to soon.

series Mouthful of Forevers - next work: such a lot of world to see: the multi-chap sequel to gladly beyond any experience, spanning the next year of Dan & Blair's adventures in Europe together. It starts with their fabulous summer Eurail trip, most notably finally going to Rome together, and having what I've been calling in my head the "post-mortem" talk of why they broke up the first time (and I think it may be one of my favorite things I've ever written), later chapters will include: the Love Letters I shared a long long time ago, Rufus & Lily's 5 year wedding anniversary, Scott's wedding weekend, and Dan's graduation from Oxford (and wherever he decides to move next, wink-wonk).

Untitled Blenny fic (current title in my docs is "blenny fic: hookup at date wedding"): Jenny POV. Dan & Nate invite their close friends and family along to their annual summer beach vacation, during which they're getting married. Jen & Blair reconnect. Includes married!Date fluff, wlw yearning & sexual tension, and of course a teensy dose Alison Humphrey apologism.

tagging (with lots of love but no pressure whatsoever): @strideofpride, @insistonyourcupofstars, @natearchie, @mysteriesofloves

[mrs-nate-humphrey]

Serenessa

who wakes up first in the morning: vanessa, usually, because she feels like the kind of person to have a solid sleep schedule. but like i said in the blairena thing, i think serena would sometimes randomly be up at 4 and unable to go back to sleep, etc etc.

who’s the first to fall asleep at night: vanessa again. she just has the vibes of one of those "early to bed early to rise" people - not in a pretentious way, just like, she got into the habit & it works for her

what they playfully tease each other over: it is always COMPLIMENTS. "oh you are so good at that, no wonder everyone else doesn't even have the guts to try out" and "you look so good today, how dare you" and "shut the fuck up, i am the one who's lucky to have you" and "no no no don't put yourself down excuse me have you met yourself, why would you SAY that". idk they're just very wholesome, i feel like they wouldn't say mean things abt each other even as jokes, which is... rare energy within these chaotic gg characters. affirmative girlfriends ftw!

what they do when the other’s having a bad day: cuddles, hugs, blanket fort. they just hold each other, i think, and spend a lot of time silently being in the same space. after a while of just. lying on a blanket and feeling the other person run their hands through their hair, the person who's having a bad day quietly explains what's happening. vanessa is a problem fixer, so she would immediately brainstorm solutions, but only if this is the sort of thing wherein serena wants that. serena is more of an emotion-validatey person, so she would likely try and find outlets to channel vanessa's feelings (you wanna go outside and swing a baseball bat at a scarecrow until you feel better?) but i think their way of supporting their partner would also depend on the crisis. they're both very creative people, they will adapt.

how they say ‘i’m sorry’ after arguments: i don't think they would ever have really bad arguments tbh. unlike dan, vanessa doesn't usually say harsh things just to hurt, even when she's at her angriest. and i think when serena gets emotionally overwhelmed she just ... shuts down. so if an argument starts getting bad they both kind of automatically move away from it going there, like, reflexively. their apologies would be lowkey too - neither of them can really stay angry with the other. kiss on the forehead, holding hands while apologising, honest + open conversation, etc. they have the sort of relationship where they both put in the work, so it's not really ever just an apology for them.

which one’s more ticklish: i feel like vanessa wouldn't be ticklish at all?

their favourite rainy day activities: going on walks in the rain, if it's not thundery. they have little raincoats and they hold hands. if it IS thundery, i think they would fool around indoors. maybe play some music and slow dance, maybe move the breakables out of the bedroom and play squash or badminton in there, maybe play dominos or jenga or twister (which always ends in sex because. i mean. they end up collapsed on each other, laughing, and it really is the natural conclusion.) vanessa sometimes makes the best hot chocolates serena has ever had (when she tells v this, v does not believe her) and serena always uses whipped cream and chocolate chips and wafers to make little snowmen in the hot chocolate. vanessa loves her.

how they surprise each other: i think filmmaking or similar processes, i forgot what That Thing is called, is canonically a common interest for them - serena works on set during a few episodes in s5, and v has been That Film Girl from the very beginning of the show. so i think they would both be very "surprise! got you tickets to this! let's go to this screening!" etc etc. but in general also they would just... surprise each other by always finding new things to do together and new ways to spend time together. it never gets old.

their most sickening shows of public affection: "uh.... serena... you've got a visible hickey on there, you should adjust - " / "do i look like i care, dan?" ok but no fr i think they would probably make out publically more than serenate did and less than derena did, if that scale helps? they are always holding hands though. this is a weird headcanon but. i can see them crumpling each other's clothes after making out in storage closets and smudging each other's make-up but like. neither of them really care. i think they'd get a thrill out of looking a little messy, knowing what their partner did that got them looking like that. well, serena more than vanessa. but serena likes seeing vanessa look disorganised, too, so vanessa stops fixing her hair/ make-up, because when serena looks at her like that, well...

[mrs-nate-humphrey]

What are your favorite episodes of gossip girl? And why are they your favorites? I love your blog btw!

ahhh i wanted to like, do a really thoughtful response to this, so i sat on it for a while. i'm thinking i'll just give you the ones off the top of my head, and whenever i think of more i'll add them! i have episodes that i love and are kind of the heart of the show, to me, and then i have episodes that i really really like, so making a list like this feels complicated, LKHDFLKG. more under the cut! <3

to begin with, i actually do have a favourite gg episode! it's 2x06. like if i could only ever watch one episode of gg for the rest of my life, it'd be that one. it has everything i vibe with! jenny being happy! blairena fight + conflict resolution! dan and nate becoming friends after a series of mishaps that are extremely ridiculous! chuck brooding while he watches dan and nate flirt with each other! like this episode was written for me. there's no other way to say it.

i loved 2x07 as a follow-up to this, but the portrayal of chuck in this one was very.... what's the right word. like if you like chuck you'll like it, kind of thing, i think. but i loved dan navigating being nate's friend, figuring out boundaries, talking to serena about nate, etc. and i loved the van der bass family drama, and eric giving lily a talk on how to be a mom. like - it's sad, and i know it's sad - but it's also real, you know?

i also really like 3x09 - i'm guessing you sent me this ask after seeing the tags on that post i reblogged. i know this is not a popular fandom opinion but i actually really liked the danlivessa triad & hoped (naively) that they would become a polycule. in fact, i made the mistake of watching 3x09 for the first time right before a 2 hour lecture and i could think of nothing else but that polycule, i even wrote a fic about the three of them (which canon very cheerfully demolished with 3x10, RIP). but that polycule aside, i loved the blairena conversation in there. this is one of those episodes where you can really truly ABSOLUTELY see why blair and serena are best friends, and how much they love each other. also!!!! all the jenny and eric cotillion drama was fascinating. like - there was a Lot happening this episode and i loved it.

@mysteriesofloves has spoken on 1x04 here - i fully agree with everything she's said so i'm not going to write my own explanation. it's an episode with so much heart!!

i adore 4x16 mostly because sometimes, when uni work gets too overwhelming, i find blair in that episode extremely relatable. that's my shallow reason KLHFDLKGKL. nads has this meta here, but for me it's not even the dair of it all, it's just the thing of like- being a perfectionist! being ambitious!!! and then biting off more than you can chew and needing to admit that you fucked up - this is something i struggle with irl with tasks / duties / responsibilites, so this is kinda a comfort episode for me in that sense!

i also like 2x21 mostly because everyone is being a disaster and cyrus is just being the best! he wants things to go well! and nobody intends to cause drama, it just happens. serena's whole "dan i think i got married to some random guy!" really sends me, like, the whole episode has this vibe of surreality which is interesting to watch.

oh, i cannot neglect to mention 2x18. i love so much about that episode. the serenessa arc is so funny (there is flirting! i mean. of course there is.) nate & vanessa's fight + conflict resolution!!! blair realising that her actions have consequences & that she needs to be more mindful of that /that there are things her privilege cannot shield her from!! ngl i was really hoping that the narrative of the show would develop blair's character from there, give her some of that sweet sweet character growth.

i also, uh. i was trying to think of how i could tell you which s1 episodes i like, but the truth is the first half of s1 - i think from e01 to e12 or e13 - was just so perfect. like it really set the tone for the show, told us who these kids were, and what their messy world was like. it was so strongly done and i think for me at least, that's probably a big part of what made me actually watch the rest of the show! i wasn't planning on it. i had 40 min to kill one day and thought, why not watch the pilot of gossip girl just to kill time. clearly, as you can see, that is not what happened.

honourable mentions go to 1x09, because we really see what blair, serena & nate were like, pre-series, and 1x03, because i think that episode did a really good job at like - showing that blair was hurting serena because she was hurt while at the same time not excusing blair's actions but ALSO it's the first proper glimpse we get into blair & serena's dynamic as a whole. i also love 1x12 because we get derena talking about privilege + serena acknowledging/ understanding what that really means to some extent (the writers did them so dirty, like, they resolved this conflict already) and we ALSO get blairnessa friendship! i really wish blair & vanessa had been allies, they're both so determined in such similar ways.

the s4 dair arc esp from 4x10 to i think 4x17 (? or 4x16?) is a lot of fun. when it comes to s5, i liked 5x13 the first time i watched it (idk how it'll hold up on rewatch), 5x15, 5x16 and 5x21 (despicable b my beloved!!)

s6 sucks, but if you watch the last 5 or so minutes of 6x10 you will see nate eye-fucking dan at the derena wedding, which just goes to show that sometimes your niche gay otp CAN be canon.......people just haven't recognised it yet.

[mrs-nate-humphrey]

I'm so sorry

derenessa anon here! im very glad that you liked my submission and that i was able to contribute to the first post in your blog under the #derenessa lol. I 1000% loved your response (like every other post of yours)… derenessa queer platonic… serenessa initially getting along because of both of their love for dan and then things escalating from there (like dair!!)… dan being the one who “forces” them to be together… william shakespeare, who???

ignoring everything that happened after that whole thing, i totally wouldn’t have minded if serena had taken hilary duff’s place lol, i mean it is serena and vanessa who say that “collage is time for experitation”* right after they see dan doing his walk of shame, in another episode serena even says “when you have known someone for so long, you know, you are just more comfortable […] and i have no problem trying new things”** to vanessa (she was trying to drop a hit to her wbk!!), who is dating dan at the time, it is proven that he enjoys threesomes*** and he somehow was able to hook up with georgina after everything that happened in s1-s2 so i don’t think he has any high morals when it comes to fucking lol 💀💀 so i don’t think it would be 100% unrealistic and even if it is, headcanons exist for a reason.

oh and all of them getting together would have avoided all the jealousy problems that vanessa had later in s4 when she was dating dan 😌

anyways yeah i too can see them as friends with benefits or just friends, honestly idc, them being all happy and loving each other (either platonically or romantically) are the only things that i would need to love whatever weird dynamic they could possibly have. i would have love if derenessa had explored their dynamic more (although im honestly surprised they explored it at all) and i think it is really interesting how many possibilities there are with this trio and a little shocking that no one never really talks about them in the fandom (or at the least, in this weird pro queer polygamous space of gg tumblr) 

omg im sorry for rambling so much, i hope that you understood at least 30% of what I just said considering that more than half of this is probably just garbage and english mistakes ugh, anyways i hope you are doing well at uni and that you are having a great day!

references:

* 3x03 “The Lost Boy” - https://youtu.be/cZnAKA1zoaM

** 3x16 “The Empires Strikes Jack” - https://youtu.be/QCQt6soIUaM

*** don’t think that I need to show proof for this but…

3x10 “The Last Days Of Disco Stick” - https://youtu.be/A–MDR2adOo