#turn around bright eyes!

[memendoemori]

Listening to 80s power ballads like we have GOT to go back to this. The people yearn for a Total Eclipse of the Heart renaissance

[nostalgia-tblr]

i liked the use of 'holding out for a hero' at a point where we thought sylvie was the baddy and so it was being 'ironic' but then it turns out no it's not she actually was the good guy in that scenario and ALSO the show was still playing silly buggers misleading us with assumed pronouns at that point and the mismatch kind of flags that up. and it turns out "our princess" is indeed the focus of a great battle and she's going to save herself thanks very much.

[ceevee5]

Nothing she could do / But totally eclipsed by the lettuce.

[makemeimmortalwithahug]

charles and edwin singing together "total eclipse of the heart" at karaoke. that's it that's the post

[your3fundamentaltruths]

2 Years of turn around, bright eyes!

Thank you SO much to everyone who has read, commented on, and otherwise engaged with turn around, bright eyes! It has been quite the ride to plot out and write and I've loved hearing your thoughts and theories and been made to blush by your exceedingly kind words. Thank you for sticking with me!

Since I did not get a new chapter ready in time for the actual anniversary date on April 15th, I'm dropping a flashback from an upcoming chapter.

Without further ado . . .

He is eight when baby Colin’s arrival on a blustery January morning makes him an eldest – rather than merely elder – brother. 

The last night it would only be they two Bridgerton boys, Benedict sneaks into his room and stays through the night. They sleep top and tail, fitfully, until tiredness overtakes even their unease at hearing their mother’s cries of pain as she struggles to bring their new sibling into the world. 

Early the next morning, as the light of dawn begins to peek through his curtains, Anthony awakens to find their father hovering over his bed, a bundle of blankets in his arms that cannot be anything other than the new baby.

“Good morning, Anthony,” says Papa in a scratchy voice as Benedict slowly stirs to wakefulness. 

“Morning,” he mumbles. “May I see?”

“Once Benedict budges up, I’ll sit.”

He kicks his younger brother in the shin, which wakes him up properly. 

Benedict scowls at him, but he mirrors his stance, sitting up to make room for Papa and – 

“This is your brother,” Papa says softly once he’s settled down between them, the baby cradled gently in his arms. “Colin.”

Two children whose names start with A for the elder and B for the younger might be a coincidence; choosing a name beginning with C for the third officially makes it a pattern. Nose crinkling, he tilts his head in question. 

Papa grins. “Your mama insisted.”

“Mm,” he murmurs noncommittally. He would never dream of criticizing Mama, but it’s really rather silly. Oh well. He looks more closely at his new brother. 

He isn’t sure what he expected, precisely, but the baby looks . . . like a baby, with chubby pink cheeks and a little fuzz of indeterminate color on his head.

Papa laughs when he makes that observation aloud. “He’ll grow into himself eventually and we’ll get to know him and his personality properly. Give it some time.”

“His eyes are like mine,” Benedict says smugly when their new brother blinks open his eyes for a few moments. 

He frowns; Benedict isn’t quite right (the baby’s eyes are a much darker shade of blue) but they are blue, so he is – and it seems will continue to be – the odd one out with his dark, dark eyes. “No, they’re not –”

“Either way, they might well change,” Father interrupts, well-practiced at defusing their disputes. “Babies’ eyes often do.”

(Colin’s will not. They stay the same dark blue he entered the world with, the same dark blue with which Eloise, Francesca, and eventually Hyacinth will all be born – their mother’s dark blue. 

Only when Gregory comes along will one of his younger siblings finally share his eye color.)

Papa clears his throat. “You are both big brothers now. That is a very serious thing. You will need to teach him everything you know and guide him so that he grows to be a good, kind boy as I try to teach you to be.”

He and Benedict exchange solemn looks, their fingers ghosting over the edge of the blanket and not quite touching their baby brother’s tiny fingers; they can sense at least some of the import of Papa’s statement based on his tone, before turning to Papa and nodding seriously.

“We will,” he says fiercely – if quietly, so as not to startle baby Colin, who startles him by wrapping his little fist around his index finger.

And stealing his heart.

For as long as he can remember, Benedict has been his best friend and his partner in crime, but he knows in that moment that Colin will be something entirely different.

(He does not know then that it will be Colin with whom he makes nearly all his worst mistakes as a brother.)

[deebrisbyfish]

This is a strip that I debated back and forth on regarding the use of a punchline. Ultimately, I decided that it didn't need anything more than the visual. Hopefully, I'm right and the gag plays. I was an insomniac for the majority of my life until I got on hormones, but every now and again, this still drives me nuts. Such is life.

[fretbored34]

So "bright eyes" is just a euphemism for electrocution? 🤨

[joejoeba]

oh I love that one Cyndi Lauper song (accidentally creates a short story about grief and such)

[gratuiciel]

the 3rd division's new captain

[apostacism]

i wasn't going to make a rook until we actually get the game because for me it is a fool's errand to try and design a character in a vacuum before i know the themes i want them to exemplify but if we can play as a city elf.............. ESPECIALLY if we can play as an orlesian.......... very compelled by the idea of a rook who saw the inquisitor in person as a child and imprinted upon her

[helielune]

powder keg (full under the cut)

[fiumedivita]

Currently sobbing in bed because of an incredibly beautiful, but also deeply heartbreaking, fanfiction

[cr-yellow]

I am actually so sad that I won’t be able to post an update for Turn Around on the eclipse in the U.S. on Monday. 🥲😔😔

[mettywiththenotes]

Turn your ass around club

[your3fundamentaltruths]

so, TABE did not prepare me AT ALL for Eloise being a better friend to Penelope during their breakup than she ever was when they were bffs in the first two seasons, lol. I'm so curious about your thoughts on Peneloise and the Cressida of it all and the Eloise-Colin sibling relationship in s3, because I think we had similar thoughts about Eloise in the show post s2, such that I was SHOOK by how much more I liked her in s3.

I think I was still processing when I first saw this ask and I realize it came in after Part 1 but before Part 2, while my thoughts on Eloise in S3 and the related topics you mentioned include both parts:

I appreciated that she kept LW to herself

I was annoyed by how rude she was about Colin's thoughtful gift for her, especially when no one else in the family makes the same effort

I appreciated that she scolded Cressida for messing with Penelope at the four seasons ball

I appreciated the way Cressida called her out multiple times, including for making assumptions about her (admittedly not unreasonable ones) when Eloise's carelessness was the actual reason the gossip about Polin's lessons spread the very same night Colin confided in her ---> I do think this also served to show why it wasn't unreasonable for Pen to think she should not share her secrets with Eloise

I appreciated Colin calling her out for befriending Cressida and for spreading his and Penelope's business (for no good reason)

I appreciated that she called on Penelope to check on her after Penelope reported the story in LW but thought it rather rich of her not to admit that she had a role in the gossip getting out in the first place. Even if she didn't know it to be her own fault entirely at that point, she still was the one who broke her brother's confidence and would have been the one who enabled Cressida to spread gossip.

I did not love that she helped Cressida try and attract Dealing's interest after clearly understanding that Penelope had been looking to marry and it being clear that Debling was Penelope's only option (at that time) after the lessons debacle. (And I say that as someone who is passionately anti-Pebling.)

Also . . . did not love how she shooed Cressida away from the ballon and showed no concern for Pen. (Yes, it was narratively necessary that Pen remain in the way of the balloon, but it would have been nice to see her show a smidge of concern for Pen's physical safety even if she did not/could not do anything about it.)

I understand her being surprised and concerned, even angered, by the Polin engagement, but I was so annoyed with her at the way she handled her LW ultimatum (not only because she drove Penelope to the point of a panic attack but because she also spoiled the evening for Colin), not to mention that wild conspiratorial spiral into thinking Penelope used her to get at Colin. (I say, like a hypocrite LMAO.) That said, I'm glad she didn't pull a TABE Eloise (again, narratively necessary that she not do so, but still).

I would have appreciated some acknowledgement of the fact that she has often not been a particularly kind or caring sister to Colin in the past and this is new territory for her - and that it is to his credit that he has such concern for her and her feelings when that is not reciprocated until this season. (I also wonder if it would have been had there not been the connection to someone she was close to and an issue that had impacted her and on which she had very strong opinions.)

Honestly wanted to reach through the screen when she flippantly tells Penelope that for whatever reason Colin truly believes her loves her. Like why was that necessary?

The fact that after hounding Penelope to tell Colin the truth on her timeline, she talks Penelope out of doing so because she suddenly realizes that it would be hard to tell Colin (and likely selfishly does not want him to know that she knew and did not tell him) kills me. And what kills me even more is the fact that Penelope writing one more column to help fix the mess Eloise has made with a desperate Cressida (which Eloise could have handled so much better) is what leads to Colin discovering the truth Eloise talked her out sharing and that that is the moment (the one time Penelope asks her for help) when Eloise decides to butt out, after spending all season butting in, without at least offering anything in the way of of sympathy or apology or a moment of kindness. Like no wonder Penelope doesn't rely on her? (And isn't that exactly what she did with Cressida, who was practically begging for help and sympathy, landing them in the mess in the first place?)

Did not love that it was so easily dismissed that she befriended Cressida to hurt Pen and at the same time would have wanted to see her need to grapple with the fact that Cressida actually wasn't a bad friend to her and that she was a poor friend to Cressida in some of the ways she was a poor friend to Pen. To be honest, that is part of the growth I had hoped for out of her storyline with Cressida - a realization that Pen's actions and flaws weren't the only issue in their friendship because some of the same issues replicated themselves in her other friendship and that she needs to work on the way she treats others.

TLDR: While this wasn't clearly acknowledged, I think Eloise has a lot of growing to do and the Peneloise resolution did not feel entirely earned so I'm curious to see what they do next with her.

[whosname]

Zura at karaoke. My brain won't let me focus so I did a fast sketch.

Totally forgot this video had ninjas (i mean) Zura and Zenzo don't interact a lot on canon, but I think our hemorrhoids ninja would totally help with the inflatable background dancers.