#jen answers stuff

[silverofthunder]

Unpopular opinion: People seem to have forgotten Ghost is about the music. The people that stir up some shit only care what's canon or not although it's only meant to be a fun gimmick. Our beloved Tobias doesn't know what's going on with his canon and makes shit up as he goes, and we too as the fans should do the same without hating on each other and starting witch hunts.

strongly agree | agree | neutral | disagree | strongly disagree

oh, this exactly! i think the lore and stuff is just a nice bonus but the main thing is obviously the music. without it there wouldn't be Ghost. the line between canon and fanon is so blurred nowadays but it shouldn't matter if something is canon or not. the point is to be inspired and share our thoughts because it's fun and brings us together.

...

send me UNPOPULAR opinions (or popular, it doesn't matter) and i'll rate them

[beautifulhigh]

It just occurred to me that the polo scene doesn't get much love as it should. I know it's very short but just the thirst in Alex’s eyes, the way you can see his mouth dry while watching Henry ride that horse and his oh so sexy smile. I feel like that scene required a major dissection, and no one does it better so I came calling.

You know what? I'm doing this one now. I know I said I would do a meta on Henry Fox and I would do a meta on the New Year's Eve party but this is in my inbox now and yeah, let's talk about the polo scene.

(I'm also doing this now so I don't have another thing on my To Do pile, and your kind words made my shitty day a little better so thank you.)

Short scene, not a short meta.

In the book when he and Henry are in his bedroom, Alex has this little moment of clouds parting, sun beaming, angels chorus revelation:

In an instant of sudden, vivid clarity, he can’t believe he ever thought he was straight.

And while movie!Alex doesn't have the same bi awakening that book!Alex does. this is very much his moment of "oh I am very not straight at all" and that is valid of him.

(As this is a Jen meta, we shall also be talking about everything else because you do not analyse a text in isolation.)

This interview talks about the editing of the polo match:

Nick [Moore], my new editor coming in, took a look and he says, “I wanna try something with that polo match.” He spent a weekend of his own time doing something, and then he was ready to show me. He sat me down and said, “I’ve done something crazy.”

And we went from filmed scripted scenes and a lead in, to "bagpipes intensify" and it works SO well for where these boys are in this new stage of their relationship.

Our establishing shots are of the teams, the horses, the uniforms. This is Henry's world and Alex is about to step into it (which is a reversal of Henry at the NYE party - I swear I will write that meta once I have all the gif posts I want to link to) and it's all quick cuts and sharp transitions and moving shots. The pace has been set for Alex to enter.

We pick him out in the crowd but he's lost as quickly as we spot him. He's one of many here and it's all too quick to stay with him.

Firstly, you will never convince me that he didn't pick the tightest trousers he could find. Henry's comment about him being a mouthful is foreshadowed, right there.

ANYWAY

He walks in, he's looking around, he's doing up his jacket as a form of protection. Alex is the proverbial fish out of the proverbial water (and I have a meta about water if you're interested) and we're straight back in with the quick edits. Horses, polo sticks, this is not a game most people know how to play. Alex certainly doesn't. He's doing up his jacket and he is uncomfortable.

He is not a stranger to a suit, and that is certainly not something that is ill fitting. It is circumstance, not clothing.

And then we get our first clear shot of Henry. Only it's not clear, not at first. He literally comes into focus.

Stick aloft, mouth open, like he's a walking riding metaphor.

And Alex's face changes.

Yeah. He is definitely not straight.

From then on we stay with Henry. We, in Alex's viewpoint, have found him. And so we track Henry through the game and it's just generic horse legs if we're looking at anything else. The only player we/Alex see is Henry.

Here, Henry is leading. Going in first, checking it's clear, knowing Alex will follow him. Henry leads, Alex follows. Into the garden, into the bed, into the sexual component of their relationship. Alex admits to Henry right from the start that this is new to him:

“I’ve, uh,” Alex begins. “I’ve never actually done this before.” “Alex,” Henry says, reaching down to stroke at Alex’s hair, “you don’t have to, I’m—” “No, I want to,” Alex says, tugging at Henry’s waistband. “I just need you to tell me if it’s awful.” Henry is speechless again, looking as if he can’t believe his fucking luck. “Okay. Of course.”

When it comes to being with a man? Henry leads, Alex follows.

And then the pacing and editing kicks off. We intercut to the tempo of the bagpipes between the match and the hook up and Henry is leading the charge on both.

He's in charge and Alex is LOVING it:

Turns out being on the receiving end of Henry’s royal authority is an extreme fucking turn-on.

This is risky and the most dangerous thing they have done so far. Amy walking in on them in the Red Room is one thing - book!Alex is VERY thankful for the staff NDAs when it comes to what they know about him and Henry - but neither of them care here. And Alex is very much letting Henry take the lead and set the pace.

Which, given how long Henry has wanted Alex, wanted this, and how he's not able to live and love (at this point) as openly as Alex is, giving Henry this control means that not only can Alex continue his education in this mlm era of his life, but he's giving Henry all of the freedom he can. God Bless America or something.

We intercut the make out scene with shots of things being hit, the hard slamming of one thing against another, of riders in saddles. The hands may be a metaphor for sex in the Paris scene but we have it here as well.

Alex is fully on board by this point and he's not letting Henry set the full agenda. In his White House bedroom we got the scene of Henry going down on Alex (and there is no way that it was a one-way exchange given how long they were there) so now? It's his turn.

My favourite editing choice?

We then cut to Henry's arse bouncing in that saddle. If the Paris scene is making love? This is them fucking. Henry is bouncing away, riding for all he's worth, chasing down his singular aim with precision and determination.

It's innuendo at its finest.

I love this shot. We're looking up at them - we're just like Alex who is now looking up at Henry due to his new vantage point (#NoLongerTaller) - and we see Alex is fully crowding up into Henry's space. And they are right by the door. There is no cover, no escape. Anyone coming in has fully caught them. Please let there be a PPO or a Secret Service be just outside. Please. For their sanity if not mine.

But even if there isn't for some insane reason, they don't care. They are so lost in each other, so caught up in this moment, that they aren't FSOTUS and the Prince Of Wales. They aren't boys with status and expectations. They're just two consenting adults who are testing the boundaries of what public indecency actually means.

They are really going for it now. Henry's arm is tensed with the effort of keeping Alex close, his hand is splayed on Henry's back to give him contact with more of him. They are not letting go. Diving all in like it's a nod to the Olympic event where they met in the book.

And when they come up for air it's because Alex is... well... about to go diving.

Those fingers make VERY quick work of the belt and what he is doing with his hands and those fingers is further evidence in the "this is them fucking" category.

And then the frame which I'm guessing inspired Cordelia's ask to me:

LOOK AT THAT FACE. Look at those fucking eyelashes. But Alex is wanting and he is wanting hard for Henry. Pun intended. He's got a plan for this, he's got a To Do list for those Very Bad Things he promised/threatened Henry with all those weeks ago.

And it will have been weeks. The State Dinner was around February time based on the texts (end of January at the latest) and then Henry says the polo match is "next month" (which would put it end of February, early March because we would not say 'next month' if it were next week, regardless of when the month starts) and so it's been weeks since they hooked up in Alex's room. Weeks of having to just text and email and maybe venture into video calls.

None of that would compare to being together.

This is the first time that Alex has gotten his hands on Henry since his bedroom and he's desperate to get more than his hands on him.

And this shot as Alex pulls Henry's trousers down is fucking pornographic. Matthew López, did you direct Nick to act like this or was it his choice? Go watch his expression as Alex is pulling the offending clothing out of the way and tell me that this isn't pornographic.

And then we cut to the not-at-all subtle shot of Henry well, making the shot. With ease and power and the ball shooting out of frame. Something something orgasm metaphor something release.

There's even a little wisp as he makes the shot. If this post isn't flagged for mature content I'll be surprised.

Next shot?

Congrats on not getting caught, on the sex, on the most smut-filled-while-almost-fully-clothed-sex scene I've ever had the joy of frame-by-framing through.

Alex is doing up his tie again but he's not uncomfortable. And Henry is so fucking happy I could cry. Because he just hooked up with this guy, in semi-public, and got away with it. They are firmly in Henry's world here, a world where he can't be out and proud, and he got to have something he wanted. And, maybe crucially, no one knows about it. His privacy is intact.

But more importantly, this thing he's got with Alex is something. It's not a one night stand. Alex came here specifically for him, because he asked him to. Because Alex wanted to see him, be with him. This wasn't an obligation, this wasn't something set up by anyone for show and to do damage control. This was for them, and them alone.

Look at these smug bastards. Look at them. Gettin' their rocks off and making puns about being hungry and eating like they didn't just devour each other.

BUT

I gotta bring the feels here 'cause it's me.

Henry attended the State dinner because he was expected to, because that was in place before the New Year's kiss. It was an obligation and in both the movie and the book he had been ghosting Alex. And then Alex grabbed him in the Red Room and they hooked up and at the end of that scene Henry nervously asks Alex if he wants to be his guest at the polo event. Alex doesn't actually say yes - he says he doesn't know how to play polo, there's a comment about it being safer if he's on the sidelines - but leaving aside any fear that he would stand Henry up this is the first time they have made plans with the intention of seeing each other, of being together in this way.

This is, for want of a better term, kinda like a date.

Alex turned up, Henry put out, and they're very much committing to seeing where this path will take them. (Forever. It'll take them to forever.)

Alex isn't straight, Henry is very much in love, and they're embracing that giddy phase of a relationship where you just can't keep your hands off each other. And we fade from this to Paris where they're on another kind of date and then there's another kind of sex scene and it's a speedrun of their relationship on screen like they weren't indulging in foreplay with all the text flirting.

Which, by the way, don't think I didn't notice that Henry's jersey number was 4. Four-play indeed.

(Thanks for this, Cordelia, I needed something like this to soothe my brain.)

[kyonite]

enjoy almost 2k of jen being very down bad for a woman who doesn't like her very much (or so she thinks)

[jenniferstolzer]

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

Psychonauts - The Hornblower Incident - Chapter 69

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

Psychonauts - The Hornblower Incident - Chapter 69

Jaoquin

Raz and Hollis run down to Medical for Jaoquin Leblanc's interrogation and hopefully some answers.

Tumblr's Ao3 link formatting broke again. I'm thinking it's because I'm on Bing on this computer. I hate Bing. Anyway this chapter's later than I said it would be because it's super important and really long. Hopefully you guys will get answers to some of the questions plaguing the team.

[gemmaswife]

i love how i’m like the only person ever to make jensen on dawsons creek content because EVERYONE steals them. i’ve seen my gifs making the rounds on insta, twitter, tiktok, even fucking threads lol

[letmetellyouaboutmyfeels]

I saw your post about that interview with Oliver and Aisha, and I LOVE YOUR TAGS! I was very pissed off at first and absolutely disgusted by the interview, because I tought: what the hell? Are you actually laughing this entire situation away in a "Okay, that's done, LET'S GO NEXT" kind of thing? But your take lightens up so much. You'd say that a man as Tim Minnear is smarter then this, but apparently, he isn't. This cast works 5 to 6 days a week with each other and has become family, that is one of the reasons why this show is so, so good. JEN'S KIDS CALL KENNY UNCLE KENNY FOR CHRIST'S SAKE!! I hope for Tim and the future of Nashville's sake, he fixes this shit, but he probably won't.

I'm glad that my response to that previous ask could help you feel better about the interview. The thing to remember with actors is that they have to be professional. For example, Oliver admitting during season seven that he basically said "let Buck be bi or I'll do it myself without permission" was HUGE. Actors do as they're told. The fact that he got SO blunt about bi!Buck and about previous attempts to make Buck bi and so on during season seven interviews was pretty jaw-dropping.

So if anyone seems lighthearted or overly polite or casual during an interview, it's almost always because they need to keep their jobs and have it hammered into their heads to not ever show anger or frustration. They can't make the show look bad. This is often why it takes a long time for actors to speak seriously about any issues with a show or things they disagreed with at the time, and so relatedly, it takes fans a long time to get vindication, ha ha.

It's not even that anyone signs NDAs all the time, although that can be a thing - it's that badmouthing your job just is a bad look and it can make the people in charge want to fire you, so you could be out of a job. I remember when the Game of Thrones season finale came out and how HARD the cast struggled to hide their disdain and upset in the moment.

Unfortunately, as I detailed in a previous post - I honestly think power has gone to Tim's head. FOX really did not appreciate 911 and made a lot of demands on them - for example, they didn't allow Buddie to go canon or bi!Buck, and they pushed Oliver front and center on interviews while shoving the rest of the cast aside. At the same time, honestly, the reason the show was good was that Tim had good writers around him who could temper or persuade him away from his stupider ideas, or simply take it and spin that shit into gold.

So Tim went to Lone Star, where he had pretty much total creative control. FOX let that show fail, but they also as far as I know did not impose on him the demands they did with OG.

In my opinion, this created an environment where Tim did not realize that he needs strong writers around him - it made him think he was a genius who was set up to fail by the network. So when the jump was made to ABC, Tim stopped listening to anyone. He did whatever the fuck he wanted. Some of this was good, like bi!Buck and a clear set up for Buddie canon. Some of it was not (don't get me started).

So now, we're here. It's unfortunately an old, old story. You let power get to you and you stop seeing the people under your care as people. It's all about what you what. And given how the cast used to talk about Tim that just... honestly breaks my heart. Not for him. Never for him. I'm not interested in the tragedy of a mediocre white man who got too big of a head. But for the cast. And to be professional, they have to be careful in how they speak. It's their job.

I wouldn't be surprised if in five years or so, we get them being a lot more open and harsher in their feelings around it. But right now we must be kind and remember the bad situation they're in. Because no, it's not going to get better. Unless someone with even bigger pants like ABC executives or perhaps Ryan Murphy (HAHAHAHAHA) steps in and verbally slaps Tim silly to put him in line, he's not going to stop this kind of nonsense. And given how he ran Lone Star, I have zero hope for Nashville.

Anyway - sorry I'm so long winded all the time. I'm glad that I could help you see the interview in a new and better light, that means a lot.

[zepskies]

Would you ever write any C.J. Braxton fics? I absolutely loved his character and I think there’s so much potential there, whether it be something fluffy or smut (I honestly just wanna find a fic where he gets into his backstory with the reader and she comforts him, or even something between him and the reader that is similar with what happened between him and Jen when he was debating drinking at Pacey’s party) I just feel like his character has so much potential for really good fics:)

Ooh interesting...

I recently watched Dawson's Creek and I enjoyed S6 a lot! I also thought CJ's character was very interesting, and I loved him and Jen together (I'll never forgive the writers for how they left his ending with Jen unexplained before what happens in the last episode).

I've debated writing some CJ x Jen, but CJ x reader would be fun as well...

I won't say I'll never write for his character, but I've got a lot going on right now as far as WIPs I'm currently writing vs. ones I plan to write.

However, I will keep this in mind for when things slow down for me. 😉

(Because to be fair, he is adorable. ❤️)

Oh my God, what a youngin' loll.

[phantomoftheorpheum]

hi!! 😊 i liked that christian was a major red herring. it was nice to be validated even though i was expecting it. i like christian but i think he is a little too similar to tabby to be interesting as a love interest. they are the male and female versions of each other 🤣

johnny deserved better. although i think he was a little too understanding with imogen at times, he knew she was going through it and i respect him for that. the way she demanded to see his texts and look at his search history was such a red flag. of course i get it in this context but irl that would not be okay. maybe imogen need to be single for a while.

i don’t like jen. i will never like jen. she’s manipulative and a liar. i will never excuse how she deflected and made noa the bad guy in the conversation where noa attempted to confront her about robbing shawn’s house. how their shippers ignore that problematic behavior is beyond me. i’m sad that she will be in season 3. at least i’m not alone in this as i’ve seen a lot of people complaining about this ship in the pll original sin instagram comments. i hope the writers hear our complaints. it has made noa my least favorite liar when i used to love her.

Hi! I agree!

You are so right about Christian! I should have trusted my 2x01/2x02 gut that he was a red herring, but then I got so suspicious of the fact that no one was suspicious of him when they obviously should be. jksdhfksdf. I'm still baffled by how Tabby didn't think to put either Wes or Christian on their original suspect list, considering their love of horror and the masks stuff, but I'm just gonna have to learn to accept that. I'm glad Christian was good too, though. I never wanted him to be bad, just was very suspicious he might be. They definitely gave him some dialogue that pointed his way. But he was a good red herring! He worked until the finale when they started getting suspicious and then I knew it wasn't him.

I have said it once and I will say it again, Johnny is quite literally the chillest dude on the planet (😂 this will never stop being funny to me, I am sorry). I'm also glad that he's not bad because I think he's an enjoyable addition to the cast and I hope he is in next season (again, assuming they get a next season) because we still know almost nothing about him, so they could do a lot of fun things with his character. But I do think Imogen needs to take some time, regardless of the Johnny stuff (I mean, he really should NOT want to date her ever again because she nearly killed him??) because this was a mess. I also think all the girls (but particularly Imogen and Tabby) do still need mental healthcare, but obviously not with Dr. Sullivan.

Aaaaahhh, the Jen stuff. I just kept thinking there was going to be some sort of reveal/resolution that made the Jen stuff feel like it worked in the season and had a reason to be there. I had so many possible scenarios I was willing to accept. and yet, they managed to find one which was none of them??? I can't believe I sat through so much love triangle crap for literally no payout. I hate love triangles and the only redeeming quality is that they usually have a big blowout scene when it all comes out, but they didn't even give us that???? It will be interesting (assuming they get a season 3) to see if they respond to the criticism like they did with the Ezra thing, because a lot of people feel Noa's carelessness about the situation (and she was super, super manipulative towards Shawn throughout this, as well) ruined her character for them. Now, I think it's fine to tear a character down and need to build them back up, and I think it's good to see the Liars engage in flawed behavior, the problem I have here is... they (the show) have given no indication that they think they actually DID tear Noa's character down? Like, I am sorry, but her behavior was flat out cruel and she felt a tiny bit bad about it for like 2 seconds and faced absolutely 0 consequences, and that, not that she made some terrible decisions, is the real problem here. It's not "tearing a character down to build them back up" or even "giving a character flaws" if those things are never acknowledged as flaws and terrible behavior in the first place? Ugh. There was just so much potential with this storyline (literally so much!) and they just threw it all straight in the trash.

[etoiline]

1, 2, 11, and 18 for the book ask!

How many books did you read this year? Goodreads says 44, so far. I'm going to try to read some short stories before the end of the year, try to get to a nice round number, or at least a slightly more respectable one (to me, anyway). I will not make it to my Reading Challenge goal, for certain, and that is almost certainly due to spyscrapper brainrot (both writing for them and reading fic about them). Those two boys will not leave my head, even after a year and a half.

Did you reread anything? What? Said reading challenge data says I reread 13 books this year, and they're all stalwart favorites. I did series rereads of Jim Butcher's Codex Alera and Brent Weeks' Lightbringer purely for comfort. I also reread Mary Robinette Kowal's Lady Astronaut books because the 4th book is coming out next year (and because they're amazing hard sci-fi stories, you should definitely read them). Becky Chambers' The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet is another beautiful reread, somehow managing to blend plausible space science with delightful and emotional interpersonal drama. I reread the first book of the Percy Jackson series (and finally read through the rest of the series) because of @kennexara. And Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary got a reread because of news of the movie (also because it's a damn good book that, despite the most of it being between one human and one alien, is an amazing study of interaction). I am currently rereading book 1 of the Stormlight Archive, The Way of Kings, though it's anybody's guess if I'll manage to finish it before the end of the year to have it count as reread this year, because BrandoSando writes thousand-page behemoths, but I do intend to do a series reread before reading the 5th book, which just came out.

What was your favorite book that has been out for a while, but you just now read? I don't know about favorite, but I did enjoy finally getting around to reading the Percy Jackson books (the first series anyway, lol). I read the first one long long ago when I was still buying physical books in stores, but never got around to finishing them. To save Kennie the trouble of explaining everyone's relationships I finally checked them out of the library :)

How many books did you buy? I tend to read most of my books through my local libraries' Libby ebook lending programs, so I don't buy a whole lot of books anymore. I did, however, finally pick up the ebook copies of one of my favorite series ever, The Lighthouse Duet by Carol Berg. Those of you who like your fantasy with an entire helping of nature metaphors will probably appreciate these books. I like them so much that one of my bridesmaids carried the first book in this duology down the aisle instead of flowers. I also bought the aforementioned 5th book in the Stormlight Archive, but it won't get read for months and months. And I backed MRK's Lady Astronaut short story anthology/the 4th book kickstarter; though these books won't arrive until next year, so you can decide whether you count those as being "bought" this year. I also bought a few cookbooks and the deluxe version of the Jedi Survivor art book (who's surprised).

-> end of year book asks!

[timdrakesstaff]

SURVEY:

🐄guy here question for the masses(Tim's 5 followers)

i am a fictive but i am soooo cool and mysterious. what do you guys think my source media might be 🧐🧐

[silverofthunder]

8, 26, 32 with the Writer Asks!

8. Which character(s) do you find easiest to write?

i would say Copia. i have written most about him so it has gotten easier and of course there are a lot of videos of him so it's been easier to figure out his personality.

26. Is there anything you’ve wanted to write, but you’ve been too scared to try?

a while back it was the dead dove stuff but now i'm not so hesitant about writing it. and smut has always been a bit hard for me, though i have written it quite a lot. but proper smut, very detailed one is still something i haven't done so i guess that goes to this "scary box" too.

32. Summarize a random fic of yours in 10 words or less.

love, friendships, intensity, family, blood, past trauma

...

writer asks

[beautifulhigh]

Hi hi!! It's unfair of me to ask you to actually write the full essay on the rwrb red room kiss scene, but I saw your tags and am very interested in at least what the main thesis would be, if you feel like sharing!! No worries if not 😊 Have a good night/day/whatever time it is where you are!

The last few weeks have been, well. They've Been™ and I'm going to use this wonderful ask to dust off my overthinking tag and write a meta post on this movie, these boys, and then hope more than three people care what I have to say.

The Red Room kiss scene is Iconic™ and Important™ and in this essay I (really) will discuss agency, framing, and why it always had to be Alex to be the one to make the move.

While book!Alex takes book!Henry to the Red Room, here he's waiting. Bundle of nervous energy. He doesn't know what to do with himself, how to hold himself, how to present himself when Henry turns up. He's backlit in this (which is a theatre technique, I see you Matthew) but it also adds to the drama and tension of the scene.

The (in)famous painting of Hamilton, about to bear witness to things.

We jump cut between Alex trying to find... something. Here he is realising his shirt has come slightly undone and he wants to try and be somewhat presentable. At least for the moment. But it speaks to Alex's physicality in this scene because he is shifting and moving so much that his clothing is shifting. There's also an interpretation that this suit represents the formality of the situation - the Prime Minister's dinner, at which he (the First Son) and the boy he wants to kiss (the actual Prinec) are supposed to be front and centre and the picture of formality.

He's coming undone in this moment because he's the First Son and he's waiting for the Prince, but he's also Alex and he's waiting for Henry.

Ah, yes. The casual lean against the wall. Fancy seeing you here, your Royal Highness, what do you think of the menu? But there's grounding here too. When you're spiralling focusing on a physical point of contact between you and and something can help ground you.

It's also a defensive stance in a way. You shall not pass, I'm not moving. Alex is claiming space and territory and he's controlling it.

"How dare you fucking kiss me, run away, ghost me, then walk into the White House like nothing changed." This is closed off, defensive, protective - probably why it's the quickest of the poses to be dismissed. He's got his back against the wall like he's scared or ready to come out fighting. And, in a way, both of those are true.

Book!Alex is mid-crisis on his bisexuality and while he logically knows he is very much into Henry, he's not gotten to the point of turning theory into reality.

Movie!Alex is more chill about being into guys, but this attraction to Henry is confusing him. He hates the guy. He wants to punch him in the mouth. With his mouth.

(What? That's literally book canon: and if he weren’t already hell-bent on destroying Henry’s infuriating idiot face with his mouth right now, he would consider doing it with his fist.)

Casual lean against the table, less staged and jarring than the extended arm against the wall.

But then Henry walks in and Alex stands to attention and he is... rapt. He is calm and composed and he is focused. We're back to the back-lit position which helps frame him with a near-halo effect.

And you can see that he is relaxed. There's a slight drop in the jaw, his shoulders are sloped and rounded. Because none on what he was trying to convey before matters. Henry is here.

"Look" he starts with - he's expecting a fight. He's expecting Alex to go off on one for the kiss, for the liberty taken. Even if Alex is willing to forget that it ever happened, take Henry's secret to the grave, Henry gets one thing right in this.

"my behaviour was appalling"

Because it was. Look, Hen, I love you and I'm with Alex in the feeling that I will go to war for you to see you happy and safe. But you did kinda kiss him without consent (harsh reading) and you did ghost him without apology (soft reading) and for a boy raised in the Royal Household that... well... it's pretty much top items on the Very Bad Behaviour list. He did not act with decorum or dignity, he did not act in the way that his status and position demands.

(That's OK, Hen. Because the boy under the linden tree wasn't the Prince. It's OK to not be him, and Alex is going to spend the rest of his life loudly loving the man, not the prince.)

"Shut up, stop talking." // “Shut up, shut all the way up, oh my God,” Alex hisses

Because even though both versions of Alex said he wanted to talk to Henry, in the moment that's the last thing he wants to do. And actions speak louder than words, right?

Why it had to be Alex

Henry needed to make the first move, that New Year's kiss, because there needed to be something to make Alex realise that this thing he's feeling is very much reciprocated, and that Henry wants it too. If Alex had kissed Henry for the first time on New Year's Eve/Day then it would have been too much of a leap. Alex, at whatever stage of his bisexual journey, has no clear idea of Henry's orientation at that party. It's only with retrospective viewing that he realises that Henry was low-key flirting, and that the sharing of these deeply personal moments wasn't just a "two bros in a hot tub" thing.

So Henry had to kiss Alex first but then he had to run because there was no way that the mostly-closeted, private Prince could accept that a) he fucking kissed a boy, b) said boy is the one he's been dreaming of since Rio/Melbourne, and c) the boy kinda?? kissed him back?? Henry will have been having a low-grade anxiety attack all through January (and trying to reclaim some control with the date he went on in the book).

In this moment, Alex knows all the pieces. He's played this logic game to its conclusion and he knows all the facts. 1) Henry is gay. 2) Henry is into him. 3) He's into Henry. That last fact is something Henry isn't fully aware of (or at least can't bring himself to believe it to be true) and so it has to be Alex.

He doesn't want Henry to say something that would get in the way of this, doesn't want to hear any kind of pre-prepared speech of "yeah, we're better off as friends" that always happens when the couple get too close to getting together too early in the run time. Alex is full on shutting that down, shutting Henry up, and he gives as good as he got.

"Wait a minute" // Henry’s too shocked to respond, mouth falling open slackly in a way that’s more surprise than invitation, and for a horrified moment Alex thinks he calculated all wrong, but then Henry’s kissing him back, and it’s everything.

And this time it's both of them. Framed between Hamilton and the books. The American political trailblazer and the literary. In the space between? There's our boys.

Alex's hand is on the wall again and he's controlling the space but Henry is very much in it. He's protective but in a different way.

In one frantic motion, Alex knocks the candelabra off the table next to them and pushes Henry onto it so he’s sitting with his back against—Alex looks up and almost breaks into deranged laughter—a portrait of Alexander Hamilton. Henry’s legs fall open readily and Alex crowds up between them, wrenching Henry’s head back into another searing kiss. They’re really moving now, wrecking each other’s suits, Henry’s lip caught between Alex’s teeth, the portrait’s frame rattling against the wall when Henry’s head drops back and bangs into it. Alex is at his throat, and he’s somewhere between angry and giddy, caught up in the space between years of sworn hate and something else he’s begun to suspect has always been there. It’s white-hot, and he feels crazy with it, lit up from the inside. Henry gives as good as he gets, hooking one knee around the back of Alex’s thigh for leverage, delicate royal sensibilities nowhere in the cut of his teeth. Alex has been learning for a while Henry isn’t what he thought, but it’s something else to feel it this close up, the quiet burn in him, the pent-up person under the perfect veneer who tries and pushes and wants. He drops a hand onto Henry’s thigh, feeling the electrical pulse there, the smooth fabric over hard muscle. He pushes up, up, and Henry’s hand slams down over his, digging his nails in.

The sensibility of the suits is on its way out, they're not the First Son and the Prince. And Alex is taking the lead.

Agency

Henry is somewhat passive in this - although he is fully engaged - but it's Alex who set this in motion. Pun intended. Alex who pushed him against the wall. Alex who pushed him up onto the table and hiked his leg up around his hip, Alex who is driving in. Because Alex needs Henry to know that third fact. The one he's worked out, the one that Henry is just catching up with. This isn't payback, it's not some prank. Alex Wants™.

There's a scene I'm writing in my current FirstPrince WiP in which Alex and Henry have a charged moment. And Henry wants to act on it but those princely sensibilities get in the way and he can't let himself be led into doing something that could be used against him. If Henry made all the moves then the accusation of him taking advantage, of the inherant imbalance that comes with status and titles and positions of power. So in the scene, and here, Alex takes the lead. There's no way anyone could accuse Henry of forcing Alex into doing this.

(Good luck getting Alex to do ANYTHING he doesn't want to.)

So Alex gives and Henry takes and he gets the memo very quickly.

Fact number three. Alex wants this too.

Then Movie!Amy walks in on them (which IMO is way funnier than Book!Amy hissing through a crack in the door) and these idiots try to act like they weren't redefining International Relations a second ago. Alex is by the painting, Henry is by the books. They've gone back to their sides and they're playing at being interested in what they find there. But they're not, it's all for show, someone who gives a passing glance at this point sees this part of them, this side of them The First Son and the Prince: the politician and the literary.

They're both backlit, they're in line even if it doesn't look like it, Alex is no longer on Henry's right, and they're both trying to act like the people that others could see them as.

But we - and they - know better. 1) Henry is gay. 2) Henry is into Alex. 3) Alex is into Henry.

4) Everyone is on the same page now.

(Also I know Casey talked about seeing the Red Room on a White House tour and so that's why they included a scene in that room in their book, but I cannot ignore the fact that red = love and passion and danger and fire [the counter to the water motif] and it's a warm colour designed to excite.)

[morganaspendragonss]

5. When future scholars analyse your work, which fic will they find most puzzling? 

thanks jen! 💚

i think it’ll be accidents happen (or any of my bbc atlantis fics)

this show has already been forgotten so future scholars will be scratching their heads in confusion at why people were writing fic about jason and hercules from greek mythology and pythagoras from real life flatsharing and in a polycule with medusa, ariadne and icarus (also from greek mythology)

i watched the show and i’m scratching my head at why bbc created this beautiful madness

please watch bbc atlantis

ask me some totally normal fic questions!

[pyro-les]

Jealousy- Rio Vidal X Reader

918 words - warnings: none

Based on a request by @baysha1822

"You know, Agatha put together a pretty good coven, you gotta give her that."

"I don't know the green witch is pretty weird. She's definitely hiding something." Jen replies, Lilia and Alice humming in agreement. Rio was definitely the most suspicious of the group and considering they had a witch who had a rune hiding their identity and one of the most feared witches of all time, literally known for killing her own coven it was a pretty high bar.

"We're doing alright on strength though, Y/N is clearly pretty powerful." Lilia adds to the discussion.

"Pretty cute too." Alice replies, everyone agreeing yet again as they look behind them to Y/N strolling casually along the road while chatting to Teen. What they didn't realise was Rio walking ahead of them was listening to their conversation her anger steadily growing.

She may not have known most of the coven long but she was really starting to dislike them, how dare they start talking about Y/N like that? Did they not realise who they were messing with?

Sitting around a small campfire in attempt to bond Y/N poses a new discussion topic, "what did you guys do in the blip?". A loaded topic to say the least.

The group all pause for a moment, fearing she had said something wrong Y/N started to speak again "You don't have to answer that. I don't know why I asked that, I'm sorry." For someone so powerful she sure could be pretty shy.

The awkward tension dissapears as soon as it had arisen as the group start to chuckle, mixed responses of "don't worry hun.", and "no harm done hot stuff" each reply more flirtatious then the last.

"Well as you know I was pretty busy at the start of it. Alot of backlog to get through you know." Rio spoke with a chuckle. The others all turned to look at her with curiosity, they were clearly missing something that Y/N seemed to know if her small laugh at Rio's responses was anything to go by.

"You're laughs so pretty" Jen says to Y/N, who muffles out a small "thanks, I guess." In reply. Considering how much Rio complemented the witch it was ridiculous just how awkward she was responding to them.

"It really is! Everything about you is pretty." Alice adds on honestly.

Oh this was too much, Rio thought. How dare these poor excuses for witches keep flirting with her Y/N? Did they not get the message the last gods knows how many times they tried to flirt with her only for Rio to pull her closer or change the topic.

Y/N looked over to Rio, sensing her tension rising. Trying to help calm her she says to the rest of the coven "thanks but you guys really don't need to keep complementing me so much."

Taking her statement as Y/N simply being humble Jen takes an extra step too far, " Oh your cute, do you really think you don't deserve the praise? I'm starting to think you actually don't get compliments anywhere near enough if your response is anything to go by."

Now seething with anger Rio steps in "Do you really think that? That I wouldn't compliment her enough, that I'm not enough?!"

"Chill out dude, she's just being nice" Alice replies quickly followed by Lilia asking "what do you mean, you're not enough?" Clearly the only one to pick up her specific wording other than Agatha who had been watching with a small smirk, enjoying watching the sparks fly.

Standing up with her knife in hand Rio starts to stalk towards the rest of the coven with a smile on her face "She told you to stop, is that not enough? I don't care if you're just "being nice", she's mine!"

Clearly not taking her seriously Jen keeps digging her grave "Oh I get it, you're jealous she'll like us more than you?" Looking over to Y/N still sitting awkwardly on the log across from her she adds on "what do you say cutie?"

Bringing her knife right to her throat Rio seethes out "Enough! Do you really have no care for your own life? Is this really how you'd like to go? Because I'd be more than happy to assist if that's your plan." Lilia and Alice watch with baited breath, too scared to do anything while Agatha still watches from the side letting out the occasional laugh.

Jen just smiles up at Rio, maybe she really did have a death wish.

Finally stepping in again Y/N walks towards Rio and snakes her arms around her waist hushing in her ear "It's ok baby."

Leaning back into Y/N's touch, Rio starts to calm down a bit but not letting go of her knife currently still against Jen's throat as a small drip of blood starts trailing down her chest. Y/N runs one of her hands along Rio's arm, slowly going up to hold her hand gripping her dagger and bringing her hand away from Jens throat.

Finally calm Rio puts her dagger back in it's sheath and turns towards Y/N, her hands automatically going to her waist.

"Well that was fun." Agatha finally speaks up, breaking the silence.

"What was?" Teen asks, walking towards the group, looking over curiously to Rio and Y/N now standing close together side by side.

Laughing Alice replies "Oh you have missed so much kid."

A/N: this is my first AAA fic and I wrote it pretty fast so I apologise if any of the characters a bit OOC. That being said if you did enjoy it please let me know if you'd like more Rio fics and if you have any requests my askbox is open:)

[howdeepthegrave]

Modern Agathario AU where Rio arrives a bit early to collect Agatha for their third ever date and Nicky, of all people, answers the door. Rio knew Agatha has a kid, but she was not quite prepared to meet him this soon.

"You Nick?" she finally asks.

"I am Nicky. You Rio who is gonna take my mama to the golfing?"

"Uh, minigolf, yeah."

Rio can feel this four year old judging her.

"I like your hat," Nicky says.

Rio adjusts her baseball cap and smiles.

"I like your scrunchie."

"I don't like haircuts," Nicky explains.

They just continue to stand there until Agatha appears at the top of the stairs.

"Nicholas Andrew Harkness! You know you're not allowed to answer the door on your own!"

"Mama, it's only Rio."

Agatha rushes down the stairs and pulls Nicky back, smiling at Rio.

"The sitter's not doing such a good job of sitting, I guess."

"'S okay by me. Sorry if I got here too early or..."

"No, no, it's fine, come in."

There's a teenaged boy flopped on the sofa, frantically texting as tears pour down his face. Agatha looks livid.

"William, you're here to watch Nicky!"

"I... Oh, hey Ms. Vidal."

"Hey, William. You studied up for that quiz next Tuesday?"

"Uh, yeah. I just... I've been having a rough week. Eddie and I had a fight."

Agatha goes and collects her purse and pulls out a roll of cash.

"William, just go home, okay? Here, that's everything for tonight, but only because I'm a sucker for a sad kid whose eyeliner is running."

William takes the cash and bolts, leaving Agatha, Rio, and Nicky standing in the living room.

"I pro'ly can babysit myself, Mama," Nicky says. "I will watch good cartoons only."

Agatha actually laughs at that and bends down to pick her son up onto her hip.

"Rio, I'm sorry, looks like we'll have to reschedule..."

"Couldn't we just take Nicky with us?" Rio shrugs. "It's minigolf. He might enjoy it."

Agatha looks shocked.

"You'd... You'd be okay with that?"

"Sure. So long as you are."

So they all go out to minigolf together. They have a pretty great time, they eat a little junk food, which Nicky LOVES because Mama almost never lets him have junk food, and when Nicky is tired at the end of the evening, it's Rio who carries him back to the car because, as Nicky says, "You're taller than Mama, so we'll get there faster."

When they get back to Agatha's, Rio walks with them to the door and steps inside to wait while Agatha struggles a sleeping Nicky into pajamas and puts him to bed. Agatha comes back down to tell Rio good night and thank her for putting up with Nicky.

"It was a great night," Rio assures her, "and I hope we can do it all again sometime."

Most of Agatha and Rio's dates after that are just them, but occasionally Rio arranges something so Nicky can come along too. Sometimes it's minigolf again, but sometimes it's a museum or a walk in the park or any number of other fun family activities.

When Rio decides to propose a little over a year later, she talks to Nicky about it first, just to ask if he'll help. Agatha has made it clear if and when a proposal happens, she wants no big showy stuff. She just wants it to be like a normal day. So, Rio comes over one night to cook dinner for all of them, and she lets Nicky help her. Halfway through, she hands him something from her pocket.

"Go and take this to your mom and ask her what she thinks, mijo."

So Nicky takes the item to Agatha.

"Rio said to give this to you and you should say what you think of it, Mama."

Agatha takes whatever Nicky's handing her without really looking up from her book, but the moment she realizes it's a small velvet-covered box, her heart starts to race. She opens it, sees what's inside, and dispatches Nicky back to the kitchen with her reply.

"Rio, Mama says she'll take it. She says absolutely."

They get married that summer at their friend Jen's place in the Hamptons.

[primreaperstuff]

Trying to figure out what's under the Jhesselbraum crossed out text in the Book of Bill

EDIT: Somebody figured it out! Thank you @kitcatia (and @angst-estefany for helping them out)!!! This makes a lot of what's in the post outdated or wrong here but I'll keep it for archival purposes. :D

Dunno if anybody's done this before but I figured I'd give it a shot. This is the original image.

I first went and found the font used for this. I think it's DIN Condensed Bold. This font unfortunately costs money to get onto your computer, but it is included with Adobe Suite software so if you have Photoshop or are silly like me and used Illustrator, you can access it (I know Illustrator isn't great for this stuff but I generally use GIMP and didn't feel like installing Photoshop for this one thing).

And this is the image with the letters I can figure out.

If I got this right, there are a couple of things in here that are huge.

Bill thinks (or at least thought) very highly of Jhess. He describes her as the smartest Henchmaniac. Depending on how you interpret that comment about the eyes, he either let her into the group despite not liking how many eyes she has or has sour grapes about her leaving.

Jhess did a ton of the heavy lifting for the portal project. Bill is often presumed to simply have the multiversal know-how for a lot of the physics and stuff behind the portal, but this implies that Jhess was actually the first one to figure much of this stuff out and Bill went off of what she told him.

I also want to draw your attention to a tiny detail I noticed in the name Bill gives her. It's so small that it might just be me just seeing a pattern where none exists, but I thought it worth mentioning anyway.

My first thought was, obviously, that the name given was "JESS." The first two letters are clearly J and E and the character is called Jheselbraum so that would track. But then I noticed this tiny squarish region that does not line up with how the red pen's stroke normally tapers off and is slightly whiter than the pen. It is exactly where another letter would be... and it does not line up with DIN's capital S! The capital letters in DIN that it lines up with are B, D, E, F, H, I, L, M, N, P, R, and T. The name looks like it cannot exceed 5 characters given the position of the pen stroke.

In terms of plausible names in there, these are the options:

Jeb

Jed/Jedi

Jet/Jett/Jete

Jeff

Jerry

Jerk (lol)

Jelly

Jem

Jen/Jenn

The majority of the plausible names, as you can tell, are either masculine or ungendered. Which makes me wonder-- is Jheselbraum the Unswerving trans??

Because that implies a lot. For one, I have to question why Bill is deadnaming her in that case. Is it to be hurtful or did he just legitimately never figure it out? She went on the run from him so it's likely she never updated him on her live-name. (And I mean, let's face it, "Jheselbraum" is not that far off from some of the live-names trans people choose for themselves. You guys are reviving antiquated names one transition at a time. \pos)

He also speaks rather admiringly of her, which would be odd if he was trying to insult her with her deadname, so I think it's really highlighting how little Bill actually knows-- and might underlie the real reason he crossed it out. He literally just found out she transitioned and he doesn't even know her live-name. Really undermines the whole "unlimited being with knowledge and answers" thing he claims about himself.

It would also explain what drew her to Bill in the first place. Bill already believes in 14 million genders, and he was offering to smash all the norms and rules. What have norms and rules ever done for the trans community? Seldom anything good is my impression.

Hell, maybe she wound up doing her own sex change surgery, because nobody else would do it for her, and that's why she has the skills to install a metal plate in Ford's head. (Pure speculation of course)

Or maybe I'm just overthinking a print error or false pattern or something! Who knows?

Anyway, I thought this was interesting enough to share. Not important my tailbone lol.