#this is from OPH1

[writer-ish]

Hi lovely, 16, 27, 40; Ethan x MC please and thank youuuu <3

cliche tropes + prompts list #16. I need a date for this wedding (couldn’t get this one in, sorry!) #27. Help me I’m being hit on at a bar please be my fake boyfriend for a second #40. “You saved my life.”

Ethan nursed his scotch, contemplating for the fifth time that evening whether or not he should just call it a night. 

He was a firm believer in creating a buffer—a space between work and home where he could decompress, unwind, and leave the stresses of his day at the bottom of a scotch glass. 

Sometimes he had Reggie to vent to. Sometimes he only had his conflicted thoughts and worries and a stiff drink. And sometimes—

He glanced up surreptitiously. 

Sometimes he had other company to occupy him. 

Tonight, however, Dr. Brooke Spiers was currently occupying another part of the bar. No time for a grumpy attending who only badgered her about work. He wondered if she felt stuck now—held captive by the secret that only the two of them shared. Or maybe she was still pissed at him for assigning her to that difficult patient. 

He felt his jaw tense at the thought of Mr. Platt, that insufferable asshole. 

Ethan was big enough to admit when he’d made a mistake—at least, big enough to admit it to himself, if not anyone else—and assigning her to Mr. Platt to be spoken down to, degraded, and treated like crap was not quite the lesson he’d wanted to teach. 

Obviously the prick was a misogynist on top of a general piece of shit, because even though Ethan had found him irritating and borderline rude at first assessment, he hadn’t anticipated the level of crass disrespect she’d have to endure. 

He cringed, inwardly. 

Yeah, that was likely it, he thought. She was avoiding him because she was pissed. 

And he probably deserved it. 

He downed the rest of his scotch in one gulp and then slid the empty glass away from him. 

Reggie noticed from the other side of the bar and raised an eyebrow. 

Ethan understood the unspoken question and hesitated briefly, before giving a single nod. 

Within seconds, a fresh scotch, neat, was placed in front of him.

Ethan sighed. 

He refused to look up at Brooke again, so instead he tried to picture what she was doing. 

He had seen her earlier with the majority of her friends and he knew that now that number had dwindled to only one or two of them. She was probably at the dart board with that first-year surgeon she always hung around with. Or maybe in one of the booths on the other side, talking to the small one who had tricked him about Dr. Toussaint. (He remembered that particular moment with irritation and a twinge of begrudging respect.)

Go home, he thought, annoyed, taking a swig of his drink.

She had work early tomorrow morning—not that he had memorized her schedule—and he knew, much as he didn’t even want to admit it to himself, that the reason why he stayed at that bar had more to do with her presence there, even apart from him, and less to do with his need for a “buffer”. 

Downing the last dregs of his scotch, he decided to collect whatever shreds of dignity he had left and head home once and for all. 

Just as he’d reached for his jacket, he felt someone slide in the seat next to him and link their arm through his. 

Looking over with vexation, his anger quickly turned to surprise when he saw who it was. 

Dr. Brooke Spiers herself, looking up at him with a mixture of hope and desperation. 

“Hi…babe.” She almost choked out the second word, her cheeks infused with a rosy blush, teeth gritted in a painful-looking smile. 

Ethan felt his jaw slacken and his mouth drop open slightly. What in god’s name—? 

“Helpme,” she ground out, teeth still clenched together tightly. 

Alarm bells went off in his head. Help her? What the hell was going on, help her with what—?

“Help me I’m being hit on and I need you to be my fake boyfriend for a sec,” she hissed, looking over her shoulder. 

Ethan followed the direction of her gaze, just in time to see another patron he didn’t recognize approaching them. 

Instinctively, he put his arm around her shoulders and drew her closer to him. Brooke leaned into him, enough so he could catch the sweet scent of her hair as it tickled his nose slightly. 

He ducked his head so that he could talk to her without their friend seeing what he was saying. He felt his lips inadvertently brush her temple as he spoke. 

“How’s this?” he asked quietly. 

He saw her throat work as she swallowed. 

“Uh—good. Really good. Thank you,” she whispered back, tilting her head to look up at him. 

She took in a soft breath, as though she had just realized how close their faces were. All it would take for their lips to touch, would be for him to lean forward just ever-so-slightly— 

“Oh.” A new voice interrupted them and they both looked up, nonplussed. “Sorry, I didn’t realize you—”

“Uh, yeah,” Brooke said, clearing her throat slightly. “This is my, uh—”

“Her boyfriend,” Ethan spoke up, levelling the stranger with a hard look. The guy looked harmless enough, but if Brooke had needed an excuse to get out of conversation with him, then there was probably a good reason as to why. So Ethan wasn’t going to take any chances. 

With a few lingering apologies and a backwards glance, the guy left them alone. 

Brooke let out a deep sigh. “Thank god.” She looked up at him, green eyes twinkling. “You saved my life.”

Ethan cleared his throat. “I, uh, wouldn’t go that far.” He shifted slightly and then realized he still had his arm wrapped tightly around her. “Oh—”

“Oh!” She pulled back and he moved his arm at the same time, clearing his throat again. 

“I—” She tucked her hair behind her ears and gave him a small smile. “Thanks again. Feels so silly, but the guy just would not take a hint and I kind of told him—” Colour rose in her cheeks again. “I mean, I saw you sitting there, and I sort of pointed you out and implied we were together, but he wasn’t backing off, so—” She shrugged. “Thanks for the help.”

“I’m happy to keep you from all manner of assholes,” he said, gruffly. 

She looked up at him in surprise. “Oh, really? Because—” The words “Mr. Platt” flashed in front of his eyes like a neon sign and he knew she saw it, too. 

“Yes,” he stressed. “Really. From now on.” I promise. He hoped his eyes conveyed the words he couldn’t bring himself to say. 

She twisted her lips as she regarded him assessingly. Finally, she nodded. “Sounds like a plan.” She shrugged her purse onto her shoulders and slid off the barstool. “Thanks again.” She gave him a small smile that still dazzled him to the core, as much as wished it didn’t. “See you tomorrow.” 

“Yeah, see you.” He gave her an awkward nod as she left, turning to watch as she met up again with her small friend. As they left, the other intern turned and looked over her shoulder, meeting his eyes for a brief but contemplative glance, before tilting her head to say something to Brooke. Both girls laughed softly as they walked out. 

Thoughts of redheads, difficult patients, and an upcoming conference in Miami swam through his mind, making him feel unsteady even as he turned back around. 

Immediately he saw Reggie standing directly in front of him, arms braced on the bar. His friend looked pointedly at the now-empty entrance and then back at Ethan, dark eyes boring into his very soul. 

“Another one for the road?” he drawled, after a beat. 

Ethan sighed, deeply. He couldn’t hide anything from Reggie. 

“Another one for the road,” he conceded.

[mvalentine]

this is such a pure moment 🥺

[bryceslahela]

Fine I’ll say it: LOA Gabe is what OPH Ethan wishes he could be. There’s something so wrong about us hooking up with our boss/clients/every single coworker we have, but for whatever reason Laws doesn’t make it feel as terrible. if Gabe was replaced with Ramsay then I firmly believe laws would’ve been a flop idk. Maybe it’s the pretty privilege or maybe it’s that we do genuinely get good screen time w aislynn as well as the random hookups

i think it’s because gabe is assertive, focused and actually does his job. ethan was a whiny crybaby who demanded respect without doing anything to deserve it. i hated the way he went from a good character in oph1 to a literal bastardisation of himself. it was excruciating to watch. gabe is different mostly because mc doesn’t have to save him from anything like oph mc had to save ethan from his own mistakes.

[cardinalnuggets]

From replaying the first 2 chapters of oph1, the one thing that is blatantly clear is how the writing of oph3 isn’t anywhere close to being in the same league. Oph1 is so well-balanced and cohesive. They manage to give us time to interact with all the LIs (except Raf who we haven’t met yet), introduce all our friends/other characters who are going to be important in this story AND still deliver a great medical case. Nobody and no part of the story is sidelined. It all works together in harmony so everyone can find something about it they enjoy. THAT was why I fell in love with this book. It’s so so wonderful to be reminded of that so I don’t lose all of that to the anger I’ve been feeling over the later books.

[ratanslily]

a hand of friendship

pairing: aurora x f!mc

a/n: its set in oph1, chapter 2. i dont think we saw aurora in Donahue's so i was like, why not write it? tbh i wanted to submit this for the oph book club but its late ig lmao idk.

----------------------------------------------

Aurora arrived at Donahue's, shoulders tired after a long day (of getting lectured by her aunt, again.)

She glanced around and found the devil herself, Amelia Cunningham.

(not her again....)

She sneaked her way into a deserted seat, far away from the vicinity of her "partner". From the corner of her eye she could see the zealous girl throwing darts with the surgery interns, then dancing her heart out with Jackie and taking shots with her group. how could one keep this energy after such a tired day? she directed her focus towards her drink, sighing, "These interns.."

"you're an intern too, you know?"

"what the- how even did you find me??"

"I have my ways", Amelia smiled-- more like a drunk-smile-- and then stumbled into a seat beside her, the tray on her hand landing on the table with a huge THUD!

"State your business, Cunningham. and leave me alone"

Amelia looked at Aurora, she looked beautiful in the light, with a cute red jacket over a floral shirt, paired with jeans. Her hair was tied back in a neat ponytail.

"Wow, you do clean up well."

"I- Amelia- I-", Aurora fumbled for words as Amelia smirked at her, knowingly. Regaining herself, she scrunched her nose as she glared at her, retorting,

"If you want to talk to my aunt, flattery won't work on me."

"Jeez Aurora, do you assume that EVERYONE on this planet wants to talk to you for your aunt??"

She actually thought that way. Ever since she arrived at Edenbrook, everyone wanted to gain advantage of her family name by talking to her. This caused her to close herself in a bubble, shutting everyone out. but she could feel the bubble weakening, all due to Amelia.

"Yes. And im sure you're the same as them."

"Girl, I'm just here to offer a hand of friendship to you." She extended her hand towards a very surprised Aurora, who froze in place. With Aurora showing no signs of shaking her hand, she withdrew it, offering one of the rainbow shot glasses instead.

"Here, a shot for you, cherry red in colour."

"I hate that colour so much", Aurora fumed as Amelia laughed good-naturedly. Looking at her jacket once more, she stood up, walking away.

"Something tells me you'll need this shot more than me.."

Confused, Aurora glanced down at her jacket and observed the colour. To her horror, it was red. She felt embarassment creeping up to her head.

(yikes. yikes. YIKES.)

From a safe distance, Amelia watched Aurora down the glass in one go. She may have not accepted her hand of friendship, but she did accept the glass (in a way), which was.. a nice start, wasn't it?

[aestheteasteria]

Open Heart ends today....

I must say that this was one of the most controversial series of all times, from racist plots to queer-baiting everything happened in Open Heart, not to mention ever so often there would be some kind of discourse or anon-hate going on about certain characters.

I didn't read Book 3 since second part of the series just made me lose interest.

Some sweetest characters along with awesome friendship dynamic OPH1 had would be missed dearly. On one hand I'm happy it's ending, on other it's kind of bittersweet. It was a hell of a ride, cheers to those who made it until the very end! 🥂

[jamespotterthefirst]

I think even if WEH was written post-Covid, it wouldn't be mentioned. There's no fun way to include a pandemic in a lighthearted romance game! I didn't realise that WEH was meant to be in 2020 though, but it at least shows that OPH is meant to be set from 2019 to 2020, as I believe WEH (based on the text Ethan gets from MC and his office) is meant to take place at the same time as OPH1.

And he was already a SIMP for MC.

Smiling at their text 😩

[kcnnarys]

I'm also in the camp enjoying oph3. I'm really surprised to see so many ramseynators dunking on it when we're getting so much content. And I really don't think oph3 is as much of a drop in quality from the rest of the series as it's made out to be even if it's not as good as oph1. As much as I love that book it's not like it's a literary masterpiece ya know? At the end of the day these are mobile apps we're dealing with here 😅

ramseynators gonna ramseynate 🤣🤣💯 for real though i know most people thought book 2 was complete ass but it's my favourite book in the series and on the app heh .......

[lizzybeth1986]

If you haven’t romanced Rafael in OpH1, now he’s grouped with Aurora, Sienna and Kyra and you basically get the same dialogue without the romantic gestures. At first I tought that could a great way to give the players more control over their relationships with just a few additional lines but then it hit me. I have kissed one member of this group and that’s Sienna. I’ve also flirted with Kyra every chance I had and I fell in love with Aurora the moment she appeared. (1+)

I love that you pointed this out, anon! Very recently, I did my only playthrough for Open Heart, without diamonds, and I could tell even without spending diamonds how much Ethan was getting and how little the other LIs would get in comparison. Which makes the situation with Rafael even more disgusting because the team itself rigged the process by which a certain character could become "popular"/earn more money. If you look at the LI balance in Book 1 itself, Ethan gets opportunities upon opportunities with him alone where you can bond and find out more about him and gain an advantage in your job (this trend seems to continue in Book 2), Bryce and Jackie's scenes are often split between the two, the team uses the competition drama to pretty much write Jackie out of the story as much as possible, and barely gives much to Rafael either. How do you expect a character to rake in money then if you're not going to put in the effort?

Not too long ago, I wrote an essay that I tentatively titled "Fear of the Second Book™". The essay itself was about Sloane Washington, and in that I spoke about what I called "late-arriving/late attention LIs". How some of these would be given focus late so as to make the MC anticipate getting to know them, and how some of them are written out of the story and just never given any focus after that, esp if they're female LIs and even more if they're women of colour. What happens often in PB is that some characters are set up to fail from the jump, either through lack of attention/reducing them to simply "what help can they provide to the MC"/writing them out of stories/barely ever delving into their issues, and then proceed in further books to given them even less attention because they're the "least popular".

I guess what I'm trying to say is, when I look at the "least popular LI" from a PB book nowadays, all that really strikes me is how often they set that character up to "fail" from the first book itself.

[lovelahela]

okay but setting aside all the pent up anger and rage i want to unleash on pb i'm ?? confused about sora ?? like her sprite as the same as that one resident who came to our housewarming party and played that game with landry and it's clearly not the same person so this could either mean pb give so few fucks about rafael that they reused a sprite and gave a half-assed reason to erase him as an LI or,, something else

edit: wait "so good to see you again" so IS IT the same person from our party or ??? i'm confusion AMERICA EXPLAIN

edit 2: nvm i just checked the male version of sora and i remembered that I've played as both a guy and a girl in oph1 and the one who played with landy is a girl regardless so ?????? what goes on

[lastnightsglitter]

hey, i know this is super vague, but i remember a few years ago (still in the time of bad blood) there being an audio clip of some instrumental version of bastille, and dan talking through some part of it, and the picture on the video was of bad blood extended cut. anyway, i can't find the video/song/clip anywhere and it's driving me mad. i know it is not a very good description of it at all but i was just wondering if it rings any bells with you?

i actually have no idea! was it maybe something from OPH1 or 2? if you remember anything else about it let me know and i can try to look for it for you!

does this ring a bell for anyone else? hopefully someone else knows! 

[bastillerestinsidemymind]

so I'm the anon that asked about OPH1, I've found a link that worked so you don't have to bother looking for one but thanks anyway. xx

...whoops

(seriously though, it’s no problem. Actually, finding all those old songs was pretty fun. Except for the part where i listened to Titanium again. It was somehow even worse than I remembered. But apart from that, pretty fun. Thanks for sending me on the journey, anon)

[bryceslahela]

who do you think are the worst choices li's? (apart form Ethan)

okay imma preface this by saying that i don’t necessarily think ethan is a bad li, he’s just overrated and forced but that doesn’t mean he’s inherently a bad li if that makes sense. i’m saying this as someone who previously romanced ethan in oph1 + 2.

but as that’s out of the way lemme start <3

• reed aka that doctor dude from bp. he had literally no personality???? he was bland as fuck and didn’t add anything memorable to the story.

• cassius. i’ve talked abt how much i cannot stand that man so i’ll spare you from talking about it <3

• drake aka the misogynistic freeloader.

• both of the love interests from babu. clint looked like he was trying on his first communion suit and the m!mayor was surly and ugly like.... pick a struggle 😕

• parker from ilb with his annoying ass.

• connor from ilitw. he was a college grad messing with hs students 😕😕😕 weirdo.

• poppy 🙁

• chris cause he annoyed me. idk if he specifically did something but he annoyed me anyways.

• maxwell. i just..... that man annoys me to my core.

• wyatt from that holidays book. he just.... lord. he didn’t even do anything i just hate him 😭😭😭

• becca 🙁

[braidwoods]

andrew said sub tyril rights

[kcnnarys]

Aww I love how bitchy Aurora is in oph1! Some of her lines are so funny and it makes it that much sweeter when we get to be her friend. Plus I feel like it fits her character arc well, she goes from having no faith in people because she's been burnt before to realising she can make real friends. I don't actually feel like we were forced to have a rivalry with her as such, from what I remember you could match fire with fire or be nice to her. Sorry for the long message I just really love Aurora!

omfg never apologise for loving aurora queen. i also am always happy to hear other peoples perspective and insights 🥰🥰 i dont mind the concept of he being closed off and standoffish towards everyone bc like you said it fits her character arc but to me it felt like they wanted us to hate her SO bad and wanted to push the "fighting w another woman agenda" which is so old

[infinityonhighvevo]

nebula, solar system, galaxy (:p

thenks tyler

nebula: put your itunes on shuffle, give me the first 5 songs that pop up-tiptoe by imagine dragons-odds are by barenaked ladies (NOSTALGIA FEST I FORGOT I HAD THIS SONG)-warriors by imagine dragons-falling by bastille (from oph1)-gold by imagine dragons

wow guess whomst my fave is

galaxy: are you a sun, moon or star person?one, the sun is a star, but two, how d a r e you make me choose

solar system: if you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?

o jeez probably canada or israel? idk the us is shit

(send me asks?)