#wordmage girl

[theladyragnell]

Nervous embarrassment around them for Eponine and Cosette?

Éponine doesn’t rest any part of her identity on being cool. She takes a little pride, maybe, in the way Gavroche still seems to think she is even at the age when his guardian absolutely should not be cool, or in the way Marius calls her a badass and actually seems to mean it, but it doesn’t really matter because it’s not really true, or something she does on purpose. It’s all just bluster, she’s always known that, all her raised eyebrows and pointed silences, but people read it like she’s unbothered and too cool to acknowledge all the shit she has to deal with.

It’s still disconcerting, though, the way it all goes away the second she’s around Cosette.

Cosette, who looks like she should be a fucking TikTok influencer, too pretty to be real, but who’s too genuine to ever pull that off. Who volunteers, who bakes cookies and shares them around like she’s anxious to please her new friends, who ducks out of evening gatherings to call her father and wish him goodnight like it’s something she wants to do and not a weird obligation. Anything Éponine is, she’s pretty much the opposite, and with the history between them, she shouldn’t give Éponine the time of day, but she still does. One week of awkwardness when Marius introduced them and then she was fine, sought Éponine out to clear the air, and now Éponine gets cookies and offers to babysit and Cosette sitting next to her on the rare occasion she makes a meeting or a party.

And Éponine is completely unable to deal with any of it. Maybe it’s the guilt, from being the favored child when Cosette wasn’t. Maybe it’s that Cosette won’t let her apologize without getting this look on her face like she wants to say sorry too. Whatever it is, it glues Éponine’s tongue to the roof of her mouth whenever she tries talking to her.

“She is gorgeous,” says Marius when she complains, with the easy unself-consciousness of a man who pined over Cosette for a solid three months before Cosette apologetically told him she’s gay, another thing Éponine tries not to think about too closely. “So maybe that’s why you have trouble talking to her?”

“I don’t get like that with people I like,” says Éponine, to a guy who never once noticed how much she wanted him until her and Grantaire’s sadsack crush support group got her over him and got Grantaire to get off his ass and make a move.

“Yes, but it’s Cosette. She’s not like anybody else.”

She isn’t, and Éponine doesn’t know what to do with that, doesn’t know what Cosette wants her to do with that, when she sits down next to Éponine whenever there’s a free chair at her side and doesn’t mind when every word Éponine says is choked off and she fumbles her drinks and almost falls over when she makes the mistake of tipping her chair back.

Mentioning it to Marius is probably a mistake, because after that, he is way more inclined to call Cosette over and give his chair up to her, so Éponine is suddenly spending twice as much time with her, and the exposure therapy isn’t helping. Her only comfort is that her freezing up is way easier to deal with than if she shared Grantaire’s tendency for word vomit.

Cosette notices. Of course she does. She sees the way Éponine is with everyone else and the way Éponine is with her, and she gets this pinched little line between her brows like she’s getting all the wrong conclusions, but she still keeps seeking Éponine out, so maybe they aren’t all wrong. Or maybe she’s like Marius, going for exposure therapy, though Éponine still wonders why.

And she keeps choking and blushing and looking away, can’t help it, can’t keep her cool.

Cosette walks her home after a meeting, like that’s who Éponine is, like she lives down the street from the fifties sockhop, like Cosette’s not the one deserving of that kind of care, but she insists, and Éponine is tongue-tied, so Éponine doesn’t find a way to say no. And they walk, and Éponine feels stupidly like Cosette is carrying her nonexistent books, but Cosette is walking with her arms swinging easily, and Éponine has hers stuffed in her pockets, because Cosette is walking just close enough that their hands would brush if Éponine let hers swing too.

“It’s just me,” says Cosette at Éponine’s door, all earnest and sweet and ducking her head until Éponine is meeting her eyes squarely. “It’s just me, and I don’t want to scare you.”

Éponine has seen so much shit, and the idea of Cosette and her doe eyes scaring her should be laughable. But maybe, at the heart of it, that’s what this is. Cosette matters too much, deserves too much, for Éponine to feel okay fucking this up. “You’re not ‘just’ anything,” she says, and it comes out whispery and weak, but at least it comes out. “And that’s what’s scary.”

“Well,” Cosette smiles, and now she’s blushing a little, just faintly pink where the streetlights hit her, so at least Éponine isn’t alone in it. “Maybe we just … do this. Go slow. And it will get a little less scary for both of us. But there’s no rush, okay?”

Éponine manages to take her hand out of her pocket and put it on Cosette’s arms for a few seconds until she starts feeling stupid not being able to move in any closer and lets go. “Okay,” she says, and smiles stupidly in response to Cosette’s smile before she walks away and goes inside and feels just a little bit lighter.

In the end, maybe that’s better than being cool.

[historical-fashion-polls]

for the purposes of this poll we're focusing on the three figures on the right

submitted by @wordmage-girl 💚❤️💛

[bestadaptationtournament]

Category: Swashbuckling contemporary fairytales

Stardust (movie)

Adapted from novel by Neil Gaiman

The original doesn't really end, just peters out, and novel Tristran is almost insufferable. The movie utilizes the dark humor of the original with beautiful imagery and more likable characters, and an actual satisfying ending. The movie also has Robert DeNiro as Captain Shakespeare, the crossdressing flying pirate! —@wordmage-girl

The Princess Bride (movie)

Adapted from novel by William Goldman

The Princess Bride is, as a novel, a complicated metatextual thing where a man recalls a fairy tale novel his father read to him as a child, and discovers the novel was a long, meandering political piece with moments of sparkling wit, action, and romance. His father just read him “the good bits”. It’s a commentary on growing up. As a movie, adapted by the novel’s author? There is no metatextual layer, it is just a pure adaptation of “the good bits”, with a light framing device to hold it all together. And it’s one of the best movies ever.

[the-knights-who-say-book]

you: don't spoil me, I'm still reading!

me, who has read the book: somebody please explain what happened?!

sldkjdlsjkdfldsfjk after i finished it a friend asked me if i caught a certain detail and even after they sent the exact quote they were talking about and i read it like 10 times i couldn't figure out what was important about it 😭😭 they had to spell it out for me

[infinite-mirrors]

Drunk doodle: courf and ferre being silly, please?

this is also going to be a reply to the anon who asked for “a courferre moment you always wanted to draw but never have,” which was a difficult request to fulfill because most of the courferre moments i’ve wanted to draw but haven’t are moments that will be in pod theory in the future! 

(more drunk doodles HERE)

[thevoicefromthestars]

What Disney princesses do you think the tscosi gang is? Obviously Brian is the little mermaid

ok SO first off most disney princesses are only rough analogues to tscosi characters, so i think the closest we can get is more or less the equivalent of ’in the disneyland AU, which tscosi character ends up cast as which disney princess’ lolsecond, i would never tell anyone their headcanon is wrong!!….but also brian is DEFINITELY belle XD i mean!!! a nerdy lover of epic books who falls for someone most of their peers find monstrous????? *krejjh* is the little mermaid, what with the whole leaving their family and culture behind because they’re just so fascinated by people and think that the species discrimination against them is wrong, and not quite fitting in but being charming af anywaysas for the others….arkady is elsa, because Melodrama™ and ‘oh NO i’m a MONSTER….OH WELL I GUESS I’M GONNA LEAN INTO THAT’

sana is tiana, on account of being one of the few disney princesses with….a human friend???? and tbh we all know how sana feels about the real treasure being the friends we made along the way. also because sana is definitely prone to Getting Shit Done but having an easier time caring about others before she takes care of herself.

as for violet….probably rapunzel? there’s a sense of - she doesn’t fully want to accept at first that the tower isn’t actually good for her, that it’s objectively HARMFUL, but she’s also brave enough to step outside even when it’s scary, and that’s absolutely violet. that’s what i think, anyways, but i will accept questions, comments, and rebuttals on all matches :D

[sarah-yyy]

Due to personal reasons, I will make the les mis fandom cry

..........you write one two a few sads and no-one lets you forget it

tell me what you think i will do due to personal reasons

[otherpens]

Top five birds

1. Varied thrush.2. Barred owl.3. Raven.4. Black-capped chickadee.5. Pileated woodpecker.

(Honourable mention to the Rufous hummingbird, ya angry wee bastards.)

[samyazaz]

Quil/Phi/Terry, spy au, please?

"So, the thing is," Phi says. "Seath wasn't supposed to be here for two more days. Our intel was wrong, or out of date, or— It doesn't matter. The point is, we ended up on an elevator together, he's seen my face, he'll recognize me, so I'm out, for this operation." She takes a deep breath. Quil is still watching her curiously. She hasn't put the pieces together yet, so Phi puts them together for her. "We're going to need you in the field. Seath is expecting a married couple, and if Terry shows up by himself—"

Now she gets it, her eyes going wide and round, her mouth pinched with uncertainty

"You can do this," Phi tells her, sure, firm. "You have the skills, we both know you do. And we'll be with you every step of the way." Phi leans forwards and lightly presses her fingers just behind Quil's ear, the one she's wearing the tiny, near-invisible earbud in. "I'll be right there with you, same as you always are for us. None of us doubt your abilities."

"What's the problem?" Quil asks quietly, because there's a reason she was chosen for her job, because she's smart and insightful and she knows how to read between the lines and understand when someone isn't saying something.

Phi glances at Terry, but there's little help he can offer her with this. "The thing is," she says again, "he's expecting Terry, and he's expecting Terry to come with his wife, and we really can't change either of those parts of the plan on such short notice. So you're going to have to convince Seath that that's who you are, for this job." She clears her throat and sits back, folds her hands on her lap so she doesn't try to reach out to Quil again. "There's no problem, if you're comfortable with that. But this is short notice to begin with, and a new role for you, and neither of us want to force you into it."

"Oh," Quil says, very softly. "No, I-- No, that would be fine, I think." She glances sidelong at Terry as she says it, turns a little pink and glances quickly away, and Phi thinks, That's interesting.

"Are you sure?" Phi asks, because there's more at stake here than just the job. There's their partnership, the three of them, and all the ways this could fall apart it if it goes poorly. They're a good team, they work well together, and Phi hates the thought of losing that.

But Quil just looks at each of them in turn and says, "Yes. I trust you," and there isn't anything for Phi to do but to sit back and let them stand, to reach for Quil's equipment so that she can do her job, and they can do theirs.

"We have dinner reservations at seven," Terry says. "We should go speak with the waitstaff and see if we could arrange to be put at a table near Seath's."

Phi nods once, sharp, professional. "All the clothes we arranged to bring are my size, you'd be swimming in them, Quil. I'll get in contact with some shops and get something sent over that's in your size. You should have something to change into for dinner by the time you get back up to your room."

"I'll meet you down there," Quil says to Terry with a glance between the two of them, and slips outside, and Phi has a moment to wish that they weren't so transparent before Terry's crossing to her.

He takes her hand in his and lifts it to press a kiss to her knuckles. "It's going to be fine," he says.

Phi takes a deep, deep breath and nods, too quick. "Of course it is. She's good, we know that."

The corner of Terry's mouth quirks up. "I didn't mean the job. But that's going to be fine, too."

She can't afford nerves or fears or worries. Not now, not while they still have a job to do. She squeezes Terry's hand in return, says, "Your wife is waiting for you," wry, and then turns back to Quil's equipment and settles the headphones over her ears, so she can hear what they hear, and she can get them through this safely, the same way Quil always does for them. Everything else can wait until after the job's finished.

[theladyragnell]

Hello, I would like an absurdly specific playlist for falling asleep with a cat on you. I add a picture of my cat as tribute.

What a sweet darling! I wish the two of you many sleepy snuggles together. Some lullaby vibes to help you along!

Shine // Bear Attack

The Wild Flowers // Cathie Ryan

Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel) // Billy Joel

[hatepotion]

That was obviously a fridge! #fridgegate #stopdiscriminationagainstfridges

Thank you for joining the cause

[idiopathicsmile]

Love: socks

I love how, every Christmas, my mom gets each of us a pair of smartwool socks. I love how this includes any guests we bring with us, like my BFF or my brother’s then-girlfriend. I love that in my family, smartwool socks have become a shorthand for “welcome home”

[jynandor]

5, 21?

5. what’s the worst headcanon you’ve ever seen?

hmm okay so what I hate the most is seeing some fans call h*n and le*a shitty parents. that’s like, the worst take.

21. do you have any star wars ocs?

no, i don’t

send me some SW asks

[the-knights-who-say-book]

Have you read Whom My Soul Loves by Rivqa Rafael? It's about a Jewish lesbian conducting an exorcism on a dybbuk. It's on Strange Horizons but once again I cannot add a link because Tumblr sucks

Yes, i love it! Included it in my free fiction round up here

Link to the story for anyone inspired to read it! It’s very cool and very good

[ace-artemis-fanartist]

Would you say it's possible to read Romancing the Inventor/Romancing the Werewolf without reading the rest of the Parasol Protectorate series before?

I’m not the best person to ask since I’m an old fan (reading Carriger books since 2011 yaaaaya) and both RtI and RtW are the stories focused on the side characters of Parasol Protectorate. Most of their characterization is built in PP.

Nevertheless, Carriger has set it up so you can read them without reading PP, but the characters that surround them are ones we know from PP, and their connections/relationships to each other may be lost to new readers. So if you jump to them just keep that in mind.

[thevoicefromthestars]

Consider: Violet/Arkady secret identity au. Kay Grisham is Violet's favorite romance novelist; Arkady Patel is her annoying neighbor who probably hates her. Alternately, Kay Grisham is an elusive, up-and-coming musician and incidentally Violet Liu, college student, works at a coffee shop across from a recording studio and has a grumpy regular who wears sunglasses and hats all the time and Kay Grisham just released a new single with some really familiar sounding lines

Consider: Violet Liu, intrepid reporter, is told to get a big scoop about the superhero troupe The Rogues or she’s fired! Wow, her boss is really obsessed with finding out the identity of these superheroes for some reason? But her superhero contact, known only as ‘K’, won’t tell her anything, and also honestly the superheroes seem pretty cool and her boss is kind of evi- HEY WAIT A MINUTE       

oh no. identity hijinks are my fave?????

WHO DO I BRIBE TO GET THESE AS FULL-LENGTH FICS

(especially the superhero one, INTREPID REPORTER VIOLET LIU PLUS THE RUMOR CREW WITH SUPERPOWERS????? SIGN ME THE HECK UP)

(also: i did not realize until today how much kay grisham sounds like a Romance Novelist(TM) name, but now i am never going to be able to unsee it)