#tlwl

[pwaise-hestia]

This

[leojurand]

i think i miss my wife (gelis van borselen)

[brinstar-real-estate]

yknow, I'd seen people say things to the effect of "The Ladies Who Lunch is kind of an odd song in Company, every other song is about romantic relationships and this one song is randomly about upper-middle class new york women as a species" and I'd just kinda gone "huh yeah that is weird," and like, you read Finishing The Hat (the book not the song) and Sondheim talks about how he wrote the song and the character of Joanne specifically for Elaine Stritch, and not about how the song fits into Company as a whole, so you say "ok he made this song for Elaine Stritch and that's why it doesn't really fit with the rest of the show" but like... it DOES fit. I realized why just tonight while listening to it.

The start of the song is Joanne sarcastically tearing into her peers for their silly little routines and foolish little lives, and then she turns her scathing eye on herself: "and here's to the girls who just watch / aren't they the best / when they get depressed it's a bottle of scotch / plus a little jest / another chance to disapprove / another brilliant zinger / another reason not to move / another vodka stinger" (emphasis mine). This is so clearly about Bobby. The whole show up to this point, he's been watching other people's relationships, drawing his own conclusions and reasons why he can't commit emotionally. Even as he dates people and desperately asks Amy to marry him, he's remaining emotionally distant, stagnant, while all his friends let themselves marry and grow in and out of relationships. Similarly, Joanne is detached from the society she critiques in her song. The point that The Ladies Who Lunch gets to by the end is that Joanne is not a neutral third party, she's not above it all, and her sitting back and laughing at these ladies is worthy of the same scorn she gives their trivial worries. And as a fellow outsider, she can understand Bobby more than his other friends, and she's in the unique position to push him towards understanding that his passivity and tight grip on his heart have consequences, and that playing it safe and non-committal in love will keep him from forming the deep emotional connection he craves. and I think that's pretty neat. Joanne is a cool character

[userlando]

loooved the carlos fic<3

thank you!!! that makes me super happy!! 🤍🥰

[userlando]

thank you my honey!! literally what have I done in my past life to deserve you 🥺🫶🏼

bee stop i was taking a break from writing and saw the carlos fic you reposted and now im stuck😭

i couldn’t not repost it it was a masterpiece😭 everybody say thank you to @userlando

[orangeshipper]

Gemini ch 44

"All through last night, he was mine."

😭

I don't know why this has taken up residence in my brain, but here we are. Buckle in.

HENRY.

The kid just had no chance. Did Katelina ever really care for him? I don't get the impression she did. He would be a constant reminder of Nicholas, and the fact that she had/chose to then marry Simon, who she loathed. Simon only cared for his looks, and his skills, and his hatred.

Literally the only time Simon shows pride in Henry is when he shows aggression or hatred towards Nicholas, even as a small child. Simon was so egotistical he was PLEASED to let his SMALL CHILD watch him in bed with countless women, and pleased when Henry grew up beautiful and keen to do the same. He may have been proud of what Henry could do, his horsemanship and military skills as he grew, but never of who he was or what he could be. He's even derisive over Henry showing independence and aptitude in Gemini over his horse breeding scheme, which (if I've got it right) Nicholas engineered for Henry to do something worthwhile for himself.

He just never had a chance, growing up in the hatred of Simon and Jordan. But he loved them and only wanted to please them.

And then you get to TLWL and Gemini, and Nicholas tries SO HARD, just to get this kid to be a decent, non-hateful human being, to use his skills and talents and intelligence, always recognising how Henry worships Simon & Jordan (who just belittle him constantly), and hates him.

In Gemini then Henry slowly, slowly, starts to get it... To see the value of teamwork. To smile. To challenge himself and achieve things he's proud of. To perhaps not hate, not all the time. That there is worth in himself, in perhaps friends, in perhaps family. He starts to think of others instead of himself, just sometimes. He still desperately, over all, wants to make his father proud of him.

He's the same age as Francis in GoK and I cannot get over that... the potential he had, to have been brilliant.

Yes he's a little shit still but CAN YOU BLAME HIM with what he's had to live with 😭

And Nicholas is BROKEN.

The truth was that no rescue was possible while Simon lived, and his father. From these two, loved and hated and feared, Henry derived his coherent being: they represented all that he was, all he wanted to be. Subtracted from the St Pols, Henry would have found no highway to happiness. He would have ceased to exist.

He had ceased to exist.

On the pallet, his face was uncovered. Now, the features were stern: set in the timeless disdain of the dead. Before, the softness had said something different. Perhaps, with the last flicker of life, the boy had felt the touch of Simon’s gathering arms, and had seen the face of his father, come for him.

The storm broke for Nicholas then. The black pillar of grief with its debris crashed upon him unawares, overwhelming in its ferocity; worse than the sorrow for his people at Nancy, for Godscalc or even for Umar and Marian; Felix; Zacco… reaching back beyond that, to a bottomless misery he could not remember; beating him down as he crouched. He wanted to scream. He could not keep silent.

Anselm Adorne, hearing, set his lips but did not come near. Andro Wodman, forced awake, clenched his eyes to shut out the anguish.

and

How distressed would he be? How distressed had Nicholas been?

Andro knew. ‘I have never before,’ Wodman had said, ‘heard a man’s heart break with pity like that; and I hope I never have to again.’

DOROTHYYYYYY the way she writes grief... you can just feel every ounce of it.

And all through a night, just one night, Nicholas got to have Henry as his. In death, in a cold abbey, after carrying him there himself, and is sodding GRATEFUL for that 😭

:: Side note - am I correct that Kathi doesn't know about Henry being Nicholas' son? I can't recall it ever coming up between them, which strikes me as odd when they're so close - like such a huge, fundamental part of Nicholas for her to not understand...

Ok I think I'm done 😂

[spideyhexx]

MIKE FAIST IN SOTR?!:!3&2&:$8: WHAT WHERE WHEN HOW TLWL ME 😭😭😭

IDK just that that thing has been fairly reliable but we don’t know who the lead of the book even is😭

[emeraldoo]

ok wait it'd be kinda funny to set my instrafgram note to eb that one skng "fuck you j wont do wat you yell me!! Fuck you i wotn do what syou tlwl me!!" u know???

[mandelene]

Hey I recently read your fic “the lessons we learn” and I just want to thank you for it. It really hit close to home, especially chapter 4. I’m not going to go into it but I’ve had serve health problems the last few years so arthur’s feeling about his diagnosis felt like mine. I’ve never really been able to express them so seeing it written down helped me a lot. Thanks again and keep up the good work xx

Thanks so much for sharing, and I hope you’re taking care of yourself and doing well! 💖 I’m happy the story was able to help, if even in just a small way.

Sending lots of love and good vibes! :)

[soooop]

Waiting for @mandelene to post the next chapter of TLWL be like:

[dc408dxtr]

Wanna join in on the fun in the hot tub? If you’ve been following my coverage of MTV and related goodies on DCBLOG, six times in the past few years I have been able to feature the made for YouTube series created by @theandresrodriguez & his @dre.media productions. That spans all ten seasons of his flagship Caucus Challenge show, and its Real World-like spinoff The Life We Live. And tonight in the current season of the ladder in the Rocky Mountains, we had a scene like this that spawned memories of that famous hot tub threesome in the Vegas Palms suite almost 20 years ago. Check out all of his awesome content and all those episodes on his YouTube channel there - and next week is the season 5 finale of TLWL… and that means, a review of the season will be forthcoming after they leave town. Related to this, we got quite a spring ahead in MTV land - The Challenge Double Agents in its second half, Floribama Shore kicking off this week, Real World’s New York reunion next week, Teen Mom going on now, and some other things. Keep up with it all at DC408Dxtr.blogspot.com… and if you like it, tell a friend. #TLWL #thelifewelive #TLWLCOS #CaucusChallenge #youtube #hottub (at Colorado Springs, Colorado) https://www.instagram.com/p/CLqPLMfj2yS/?igshid=68gt7jhbda45

[leojurand]

so obsessed with this... gelis being not normal at all about nicholas and also kinda right in most of the things she says, nicholas goading her... gelis snapping like that because he didn't pay attention to her for 2 seconds

[toushirolwl]

There much more from where this came from, just stay tuned

[kidfoundonstreets]

i do hagve fnags kinda tho confirmed by ny sisbling and pointy ears so ill live

[userlando]

THE LOVE WE LEFT IS INCREDIBLE AND EVERYTHING I EVER WANTED IN A FIC!!! seriously it's such a great read and i'm gonna come back to it over and over, you're really talented and i'm glad i found your blog 💕

THANK YOU 😭 you’re so nice, this made me very happy!! it’s probably one of my fave fics I’ve written, I’m so proud of it so it fills me with joy that you enjoyed it!! I’m glad you found me 🫶🏼

[euclydya]

i um.

i thought... i thought tje "lied" in elfen lied was pronounced like. lie'd. as in, "this person lied about something".

hello.