allroundher

[allroundher]

beep boop, ok penny now lives at @10power :)

[allroundher]

hello good morning, i did decide that i'm gonna remake penny to be a t.ed l.asso / r.ichmond women's oc so :) gonna spend the morning setting her up probably. feel free to give this a like & i'll follow you from the wip

[allroundher]

ㅤ“ Me? Weird athlete spooked? ” Penny makes her best incredulous face, which doesn't suit her in the slightest. She seems to know it - she's got a silly grin on a moment later. “ Nah, I trust you. ” There are people she doesn't. Lots, in fact, and the vast majority of them are media. But she has no reservations about Robotski - how could she? Who values the woman's game any better than a woman footballer? Penny soon has a more sincere smile on her face. “ Never done, like, a podcast, though, so... if running through t' questions might help or whatever, I'm up for it, like. ”

" sorry i'm -- a little distracted about now. " fingers drum on the sides of her thighs, bleached brow furrowed -- she was thinking about the podcast, about her recent retirement and a whole heap of other swirling emotions in her brain, " i just wanted to come and say thank you for offering to do this season of pitches, yeah? thought i could run through some of the questions for you so you don't get all weird athlete spooked when it comes down to it. hah. " @allroundher

[allroundher]

"stop saying r.ichmond w.fc" yeah but r.ichmond w.fc

[allroundher]

@becoach. one liner sc.

ㅤ“ Reading owt good? ” Penny hates media days. There's a lot of hanging around and not much doing anything. She is, however, as chatty as ever. And maybe looking for some recommendations.

[allroundher]

like for a one-liner, perhaps!

[allroundher]

ㅤ“ Um, it's a British tradition to go to t' beach and freeze your tits off, actually. I've had ice creams in December. ” God, she'd love to winter in Australia. Especially with Ruby. Unfortunately, they're both footballers - in England, no less, so they get to miss what Penny can only assume is the amazing Australian summer and stick with the horrendous English winter. That's life, eh? Penny's just lucky that she loves her job. “ Anyway, I'm northern. If I let cold ruin me fun, I'd never do owt. Sounds you like you need to toughen up, to me. ”

❝ i know, pen, it'd be torture, but you'll come, yeah? get away from your miserable english winter and spend summer in 'straya. ❞ the thought makes ruby grin; there's limited free time to do anything, during the world fucking cup, and she'd like to show penny where she grew up. and to not be freezing cold in december for once. her laugh is easy and real. ❝ went down to brighton once, nearly got frostbite standing on the beach. dunno why you bother having them. ❞

[allroundher]

still thinking about "well, i knew i was gonna love you / and for a while, you thought you wanted me to" and thinking about, honestly, penny realising she isn't really into the sort of... long-term, serious romantic relationships sort of deal. even when she's spent most of her life being told that she'll meet the perfect somebody someday and get married and settle down.

she likes being with people, she likes being in peoples' spaces and spending the night with them and stuff, but then when things kind of turn serious-serious, she's completely not about it. after laura, especially, i think, she just doesn't want to be involved in that kind of thing at all, and there's been a few people who have - in her words - "ruined a good thing" by trying to get official with it or whatever.

and especially, she has such a resentment toward being treated as someone's something. the reason her relationship with laura ends so badly is because penny can't stand being referred to as "laura whittaker's girlfriend" instead of a person in her own right with her whole life and career. even when that's not necessarily what's happening, it's kind of just how it strikes her and she really doesn't like it. (she could have handled the break up with laura better, but penny is oftentimes blunt when she shouldn't be, and unfortunately this was one of those times.)

enough of her siblings have gotten married & had kids to the point where her parents don't really mind that relationships don't seem to be for her (or at least aren't pestering her about grandkids). her mum sometimes talks about how she's worried penny's lonely - but then penny just points out that she has her friends and her teammates, and why don't they count?

ultimately, she's just not interested in being anyone's girlfriend - and she's definitely not interested in being anyone's wife. and none of this is to say that she doesn't care about the people that she sees or has flings with or whatever. she does, actually! there are probably even a couple of people she's been seeing on a very casual basis for a while, people who she really likes and likes spending time with. it works for her, it makes her happy. and i'm sure there's a few people who make comments about it, but what business of theirs is that anyway?

[allroundher]

ㅤJamie's got Penny laughing with his description of kids, which isn't technically wrong but is definitely one way to go about describing them. But Jamie's good like that. He says absolutely wild shit with complete and utter sincerity. Obviously, given that they come from complete opposite ends of Manchester, it makes sense that they haven't known each other longer, before London. But Penny thinks that's a shame. Sitting up here in the stadium, listening to him talk, it makes her wish she'd known him longer. Maybe not as long as she's known Samreen - she bets Jamie would've been a right fucking annoying teenager - but... hell.

ㅤBetween Tanya and Jamie, Penny knows she's lucked out at Richmond. She doesn't take it for granted.

ㅤ“ Me nephew's just started playing football. ” Tom's son. He's a right little fucking idiot too, the kind of kid whose idea of being a defender is breaking your ankles even when you're twice his size and a professional footballer. He'll learn. “ Yeah. Fucking tiny just about covers it, and all. ” She laughs. “ I think he'd lose his mind if you taught him owt, though, like. - I've been spreading t' good word about you. But he's not quite a Richmond boy yet, sorry. City runs in t' family a bit, y'know? ”

He should probably be at home right now, probably getting rest. As the sun is starting to dip below the horizon, Jamie closes his eyes. He can hear the cheers. He can hear the laughter, the boos, the shouts, the elation. He can hear disappointment, too. When the ball hits off the post. When the referee makes a shit call against Richmond. It's all so beautiful, the game that they play. It brings him emotions that he's never felt elsewhere. He's never felt so himself the way he feels when he's on a pitch. His teammates nearby. His coaches by the bench. His friends and family in the stands. He's the luckiest boy in the world, he thinks. Richmond 'til he dies.

"I've heard it once or twice," he replies with a fond grin, looking over at her. It usually came from his mum, but that's beside the point. He knows she's right - he's seen kids on Richmond Green wearing his shirts, or shirts in Richmond blue, Richmond red, Richmond yellow, the way Jamie had his Chelsea blue shirt growing up because he could never afford the proper Adidas shirt. They'd be better off pretending to be Sam, or Dani, or Isaac, in Jamie's mind, but he's honoured that they've chosen him to look up to, the way Jamie had chosen Roy. He wonders if there's another little boy in Manchester supporting a southern team the way Jamie had twenty years ago. He hopes there is.

"Oh - erm, yeah. Yeah, I'd love that," he answers honestly. He knows that Phoebe attends Richmond Primary, but he doubts he could just show up and talk to the kids without any planning beforehand. "I've gotta talk t'Keeley about settin' something up like that. I do help out with camps in the summer, up in Manchester, though. One of the first things I do after England duty in the off-season." It's still mad to him, the Jamie Tartt Football Camp - come as you are, boots and kits provided. Helping kids like himself, like Yashvi, get into football. Get opportunities with the City and United Academies. He hopes he's changed some lives that way. "I love kids. Seriously - I do. They're just, like, little people with little baby fingers - you seen their boots before?" He holds his hands up, palms facing each other, and laughs. "Fucking tiny, they are."

[allroundher]

it's just tom (derogatory) right now and also a major wip / a sideblog but @themlions

[allroundher]

ㅤPenny wonders if there will ever be a time where Jamie isn't completely winning her over. It's fascinating, the way a man can leave two completely different impressions on two different people - on Penny, who is so glad she got to know him, and Tom, who would roll his eyes and pretend to gag at the sincerity currently on display. All because it's Jamie Tartt saying the words.

ㅤShe sits with her feet on the back of the seat in front of her, arms around her knees, looking down at the pitch far below and thinking of the kids who come to the football and start dreaming dreams. And the young lads who sometimes filter into the women's matches, wearing their last-season Richmond shirts, and how many of them have Jamie's name emblazoned on the back.

ㅤ“ Has anyone told you that you're quite sweet, Jamie Tartt? ” It's a compliment. It couldn't be anything else. “ Those kids fucking worship you. Bet they run 'round on t' playground, pretending they're you. ” She's smiling because she knows it's true. Not bad for Manchester boy, is he? After a moment, she asks: “ You ever thought about going to schools and stuff? Me and Ruby do that sometimes with t' women's team. Trying to get little girls into football. Can't imagine you'd not go down a treat. ”

@allroundher asked //

❛ everything looks so beautiful from up here. ❜ [ from here ! ]

"Yeah, it's peaceful, innit?" Jamie asks, his hands folded between them. He's led them to the very top row of the stands of the Dogtrack, looking down at the quiet pitch. It won't be quiet in the morning, when Richmond hosts City for the first time since their treble win, but, for now, Jamie lets himself relax in the temporary peace and quiet of his second home. "I never had this, as a kid. The experience of watching a match from all the way up here, I mean. Especially not before I started playing. But... tomorrow... there'll prolly be a little lad in blue and red and yellow, sitting right 'round here, with the money he's saved up from doin' the dishes or... or however kids get money, I don't know, and he's going to have the time of his fucking life. And I'm gonna be way down there," he points a finger, "and I'm gonna be thinking about that little boy, and... maybe his dreams of bein' a Greyhound someday." He digs his toes into the ground in front of his chair. "I play for 'em. The little boys with dreams. They're what motivate me. And... fuck, Power, I wanna win for 'em. I really do."

[allroundher]

i am Also thinking about t.ed l.asso au penny and learning to stop defining herself by how well she fits into the family legacy, to stop defining herself by m.an c.ity's apparent complete disinterest in her. the way that c.ity / her grandfather rejects her & the way that l.iverpool embraces her (and i would like to think always holds her in their hearts, in the way that fans don't forget players who do good by them). and the way that she's on the first ever r.ichmond women's squad, and how that's not about following any legacy at all but creating a new one. the way that penny is so much more than her grandfather's legacy - which he's tried so hard and so unfairly to keep from her - and eventually she even realises this. she can leave him behind, it's okay. there's no place for a man like tommy braithwaite around the women's game.

[allroundher]

also i do think penny is so Overwhelmed with emotion when she smashes the first of her granddad's records that she actually shouts something & nobody can actually tell if she was shouting "fuck yeah!!!" or "fuck you!!!" but the usual suspects all take issue w/ how she celebrated anyway. she doesn't care.

penny smashing her granddad's records, her brother's - that means a lot to her in a way that she can't really explain to the pundits who ask her how she feels about it, and even if she could she wouldn't.

[allroundher]

anyway, thinking about penny & her granddad and the fact that his disapproval and all the bullshit he tells her just hangs over her and drags her down after her biggest failures. she's always pre-emptively figuring out what he's going to say before she's even spoken to him, he's always that little voice in the back of her head telling her that she really isn't good enough, that she shouldn't even bother, that there's no point to anything that she does.

he's not right. he's never been right. but at her lowest moments, penny actually does start to wonder if maybe he has a point, if her career's been for nothing and she shouldn't just give it all in now.

[allroundher]

ㅤ“ Yeah, ” Penny says. And that's the thing with football - with every sport she's played, given her heart to completely and utterly. You can put your absolute heart and soul into something, leave everything you have out there on the field, and you'll still be outplayed. Selfishly, she wishes she'd had the chance to go out there and make a difference - as if she would have been the magic piece who made all the difference. She's got Tommy Braithwaite's blood in her veins, though, and that has to count for something. Except for the fact that it doesn't.

ㅤFor once, Penny doesn't know what to say. There isn't actually any making this better. The World Cup is done, over: they are not world champions. They're just the team that fucked it all when it was on the line.

ㅤ“ Fucking football, eh? ” she says finally. There's something almost like levity in her tone, even if she's devastated. They'll be going home soon and, Christ, she doesn't want to face the English public - the English press. She doesn't want to hear any of the shit her granddad's gonna say, about how she isn't good enough. And she definitely doesn't want to hear Tom take his side yet again. Penny wrinkles her nose, shakes her head. And finally, she decides that she does want that physical contact after all. “ Come here, give us an hug. ”

her body feels as though it's been hit by a truck, chest sore and head starting to pound -- she really thought they had a chance.. really thought she could bring it home. not just for herself, but for the whole nation, for their teams back home.. it made her chest ache thinking of that goal kick she usually smashed out the park, something so easy, that had gone just that little bit awry. makes her throat ache with impending tears.

penny's foot brings her out of her daze, though her eyes don't move, she still sits statuesque. she'd been sobbing on the pitch in mary earps' arms not long ago.

" thank you, pen.. i just.. " wasn't great enough. " they played better. "

[allroundher]

also for reasons i don't understand, i'm having band au thoughts and i simply think someone should workshop this w/ me

[allroundher]

i promise i'm writing now but i do need you all to be thinking positive manchester thoughts tomorrow, strictly for cr.icket reasons lmao