#3 marla house

[toxicanonymity]

EVERY INCH 3.

4.4k words, m!ghostface x f!reader

Every inch 🔪 Every inch 2 🔪 MASTERLIST

SUMMARY: Ghostface watches you and calls you. He gets bored, and one of your friends gets killed. You try to swear ghostface off, but he stalks you. You want revenge.

A/N: THANK YOU for all the love. Masked Ghostface, inspired by canon gfs & night walks. HC who you want. Enough recap in the first paragraph to read as a one shot.

WARNINGS: I8+ noncon p in v, exhibitionism, voyeurism, gun play, choking, degradation, slut shaming, drugs, creampie, noncon breeding, phone sex, masturbation, knife play, a modicum of canon-typical plot/violence. Gf calls himself daddy. DEAD DOVE. NO USE OF Y/N. Starts in GHOSTFACE POV.

You aren't doing yourself any favors by thinking about him every time you get off. You should get on tinder. Go on another date. Get a boyfriend. But there's too much now. You've got a video of him whimpering with his cock out after you had your way with him, and a picture of him with cum all over his robe a minute later. And then there's the mirror pic he took in your bathroom. He's behind you, holding you naked in front of him.  There's a look of arousal on your face, and you must be so ashamed, but you keep coming back to look at it every night. . .and you're not the only one. 

Ghostface air dropped it to himself right after he took the pic. You should really be more careful with your settings. And your blinds, and your curtains. But you don't wanna be more careful, do you?  You've got everything the cops could need to put him away. You even had his DNA, and you kept it to yourself. Allll to yourself. And you’d like to have more of it, wouldn't you? It's fascinating, really, how bad you want his cock. 

You haven't heard from him in weeks, but he still comes by every once in a while.  He sees your neighbor check in on you, and you keep looking at the time on your apple watch until he leaves.  He sees you try on your slutty Halloween costumes– your backside looks best in that tight ass nurse dress, but god damn, your tits in that pleather.  What a pretty pussy you are. Meow.  He sees you get dressed for bed, and just in time. 

You check your phone and glance out your bedroom window before you take out your vibrator.  Ghostface takes out his cock and lifts his mask to spit on it. This is his season, you know. You must think about him all the time. Every time you see one of those phony Stab costumes. Every time you carve a pumpkin.  He lets you get a head start building to your climax. God damn, you want that cock, and you do an awful job hiding it when you see the call from a restricted number.  You look at your phone, biting your lip, and let it ring for a few seconds before you wet your lips and answer it. But you don't say anything.  Ohh, playin’ hard to get, are ya?

Ghostface admires the stiffness of his cock in his hand and strokes it while he watches you try not to speak first.  It's quite the game of chicken–at least a full minute of silence. He breathes heavier as he strokes himself, and then he hears the buzz of your toy. 

"Mmm, good kitty."

"What do you want?" Your breathing is heavy, too. 

"Wanna know how bad ya want this cock."

"Is your cock all you think about?"

He breathes a laugh. "That'd make two of us, wouldn't it?" 

You scoff, still touching yourself, teasing your clit with your vibrator.  

"Yeah that's it," he pants, and you arch your back. "Come for daddy."  You come so fast it's pitiful. 

You're easy. Too easy. He's getting bored. 

You're a bad, bad girl, and he wants to find out how bad. You know, he's never much cared for your "friend" Marla. He suspects you don't either, based on the way you tense at her hug in the bookstore.

—-----you-------

A DILF cop comes by your house. Must be new to the force since you've never seen him. You're used to them checking on you. The COP asks if he can come in, probably trying to be thorough,  you think.  But he asks you to take a seat, and he sits down next to you on your sofa.  When he has trouble meeting your eyes, your pulse quickens. 

He knows. He must know somehow. He knows you're a sick fuck who has phone sex with ghostface and gets off to his dick pics every night. Maybe he even knows you fucked him. He might even know you forced him. You're blanking on excuses if they find the photos in your phone. The cop leans forward and his biceps strain the short sleeves of his tan uniform.  He wrings his large, veiny hands as he turns his head to look at you.  Finally, his big brown eyes meet your gaze, and he tells you, "He's back. Got a crime scene down the block"

The relief lasts about ten seconds, and then you don't have to feign your horror. The blood rushes from your head to your pounding heart. You foolishly thought his killing days might be behind him. 

"Officer. . ." 

"Call me Javi."

"How do you know it's him, Javi?" You challenge him. 

"You really wanna know?" He raises his eyebrows at you. 

"It's him, sweetheart." He puts a big, warm hand on your upper back, then slides it up to squeeze your shoulder. "Got someone who can stay with ya?"

You take a few seconds to answer, then whisper, “yeah.” 

"Well, if not . . . " he sighs and leans way back on the sofa to reach into his uniform pants for his wallet. "Got a pen?" 

He writes his personal number on a business card and leaves it with you.  As you let him out the front door, sirens are wailing. 

Later, you see the crime scene online. Marla isn't just dead, she's stabbed, slit, and bled dry. The water runs red in the fountain you pass every day on the way out of your neighborhood.  A needed reminder of the sicko you’re dealing with. 

Over the next few days, you delete the ghostface photos and the video. You get a call from a restricted number and don’t answer it. You get a text from an unsaved number: don’t tell me you thought I changed. 

You delete it. When you’re leaving the neighborhood one day, you spot Javi in an unmarked car. When you get to your destination, you text him “why are you following me?” 

Like a boomer, he calls you instead of texting back.  You don’t answer. Then he replies, “Why don’t you have company? You shouldn’t be alone.” 

You send back, “If I have company, will you leave me alone?”

“I can give you some space, sure. But I have a job to do.”

“And what’s that?”

“Keeping you safe.”

—--

You’re not going to let ghostface control your life. You don’t know what would happen if you ran into him now, and you try not to think about it, although you do find yourself going into the trash folder on your phone to look at what you deleted. You make plans to go out with friends. It’s the first weekend of October, and there’s a huge Halloween festival. You put on your nurse costume.

An hour before your friends arrive, your doorbell rings. You look at your app and it’s Javi. Well, this is awkward, you think as you finish pulling up your black, thigh-high fishnets. You answer the door and let Javi in, trying not to let your eyes linger on the way his arms stretch his sleeves. You decline to sit down. 

“Look, if you’re gonna go out, you should carry this,” he says, then looks you up and down and his gaze lingers on your cleavage. You clear your throat. He swallows and gives a subtle smile like yeah so what?  “Gonna wear a purse?” he asks. 

“Wasn’t planning on it.” You roll your eyes. 

You reluctantly change into the cat costume and wear a bat purse. You go out with your friends and everyone gets way too drunk. Your friend Sam gets in an altercation after a frat party, and your other friends have to restrain her and walk her home. You’re tired and you don’t want to deal with it. You insist you’ll be fine since you’re armed.  You decide to walk a couple blocks before you order your ride home so you can wait somewhere with more people around. 

—--ghostface—-

You filthy little slut. Are you enjoying yourself? Ignoring him, playing hard to get, acting like you’re not flattered, then teasing him, prancing around Woodsboro looking like a handjob costs $20. Walking alone through an alley – you really are a dumb bitch, aren’t you? 

Ghostface knows where you’re headed. He’s seen you take this route before, so he gets ahead of you and waits.  He’s vaping in the shadows behind a fire escape in the alley. When he hears the click of your slutty boots, he hits send: a dark alley? lmao. He hears the ding on your phone and the click of your heels slows down right before you reach the fire escape.  no point running, he sends. Then he brings the vape pen under his mask and sucks in a mouth full of smoke, and your phone illuminates your face and your eyes widen.

—--you—--

The alley smells like weed. You’re reading the texts when ghostace appears from behind the fire escape, coming at you with his robe flowing behind him.  He only has one glove on. His gloved hand grabs your throat and he pins you to the wall. You choke and gasp for air. He tilts his mask and a small amount of smoke billows out of the dark mesh at the top of his long, black mouth. He eases up on your throat only to move his hand to your jaw and tighten his grip, squeezing your cheeks to keep your mouth open as the smoke billows thicker and closer. His mask is only an inch from your mouth. You close your eyes and breathe in, and as he releases the smoke into your mouth, your clit throbs.  You've got butterflies in your chest, being close to him again. You cough. 

"Good girl," he says as he relaxes his grip on your jaw.  Then his knee nudges your purse out of the way and wedges your thighs open. 

“Bet ya miss me more than Marla, don’t ya?”

If only he wasn’t right. There’s a fire burning in the pit of your stomach just being close to him. But Javi will probably be here any minute, and you need to put up a fight so they won't be onto you. You abruptly knee ghostface in the groin. He grunts and falls backward only slightly. 

"Bad kitty." He takes you by the throat again as you try to fight back. “Bad, bad girl.” He hasn't brandished his knife, but you know he has it. You can't get your gun out quickly enough. You look at your phone and it flies out of your hand as Ghostface grabs your wrist. 

He lets go of you and picks your phone up off the ground, then walks away, robe trailing behind him as he disappears into the night.  

You try to follow him, but he loses you. The audacity–he shotguns you, gets you all riled up, takes your phone, and leaves you, just assuming you won’t do anything about it. Assuming you’ll chase him. You think about the fountain scene. You think about him leaving you. Rage eclipses your desire. If you see him, you might actually shoot him.  Now all you have is your metro card to get home, and luckily you’re close enough to the train station.  

–-

Scattered groups of drunk college students stumble around, bicker, and laugh. 

The train doors are open and you jog to make it in time, just barely squeezing in before the door closes behind you.  The car is full, but not packed. A Freddy Kruger makes room for you, and you stand with your hand braced on the pole. You get a message on your apple watch, meaning ghostface must be in bluetooth distance. 

always wanted to see you on the pole. 

You look behind you, and there he is, sitting at the back of the car.  You should run, but you’re gonna get your phone back at the very least. There’s too much damage he could do with what’s on it.  As the passengers finish unloading, you discreetly open your purse and put your hand on your gun, then set your sights on ghostface, who’s manspreading and sitting back.  The only other company in the back of the train car is a Michael Myers who looks to be passed out drunk. 

You take out the gun and turn the safety off as you approach ghostface in your slutty cat costume. He pulls back his head and cowers in an exaggerated oh, i’m scared move. He stays quiet, for once. 

“My phone,” you tell him. 

He looks around, pretending like he has no idea what you’re talking about. 

“Now,” you order and put your finger on the trigger. He takes a phone out of his pocket, but it’s not yours. 

“What the hell’s wrong with you,” you ask. The train jolts and you’re propelled onto him.  You brace yourself with your free hand on his strong shoulder, and when you feel his hard muscle, butterflies swarm to your core. If he isn’t going to offer up your phone, you’ll have to find it yourself.  You press the muzzle of the gun into his neck, through the fabric of his mask. He freezes. You reach under his robe and pat him down, finding nothing in the front pockets of his jeans. You should check his back pockets, but first you grab his crotch while you’re at it and laugh when he’s semi-hard. 

“Cock’s the only thing you’re good for, and this is what you’ve got for me?” His mask tilts down, watching you grope him.  You savor the feeling of control. “Worthless,” you spit.  Desire bubbles between your thighs as you feel him harden in your grip. Fuck it, you’re gonna take him one last time. You don’t want the last memory of all this to be him dominating you in your bathroom. You wanna go out on top. You fumble with his button and zipper with your free hand, then command, “Take it out.” 

He tilts his mask at you, then looks behind you as though seeing who’s around. 

“No one’s looking,” you mutter. “Stop fucking around.” You hold the gun to his neck and he urgently takes his hard cock out. You reach down for it. It’s thick and warm in your hand. “Don’t feel half as big as ya look on camera,” you tell him. “Pretty sad.” You spit in your hand and reach for his cock again. “So desperate for my attention,” you mock him. “You’ll do anything, wont ya?”

This is fine, you tell yourself, You’ll tell the cops he forced you, and then you’ll even have his DNA, and they can catch him, and this can all be over. . .after one last ride. 

You put your knees on the seat on either side of him.  You hover over his cock and use your free hand to run the head through your dripping folds, then you sink onto him and bottom out with ease. His cock twitches against your walls, and a shiver races down your spine. Your nipples harden, visible even through your pleather top.  The sheer arousal pisses you off.  He feels too good. A man like this doesn't deserve to be so good at dicking you down, without even trying. Without doing anything.  You move up and down him, and he does exactly nothing. He knows it gets you off. You hate how full he makes you feel. You resent the incomparable pleasure that will linger in your mind, in your whole body, for days. Maybe forever. 

He moans soft enough that the voice changer doesn't pick it up. You wince at the sound of his humanity. 

Something comes over you. “Shut the fuck up,” you tell him as you bring yourself down on his cock again. . “I don't wanna hear your voice." You raise yourself up. "I don’t wanna know who you are." You roll your hips into him.  "I don’t fucking care. I don’t care about you at all," you bite, fucking yourself on his cock, dripping wetter and wetter.  You keep degrading him as you fuck him.  "You’re nothing to me." In your lower belly, a climax is building.  "You’re a faceless cock. Always have been.” He sits motionless as you ride him harder. Maybe it was the weed, but you can’t get enough.

When the train reaches the next stop, you tug down your dress as much as you can and sit still on his cock. You hide the gun between your bodies.

Your watch dings with a notification–an unsaved number. 

how's the 🍆

A shadow eclipses you from behind, and you hear the snap of a picture. Your face goes ice cold. 

"Oh you're a reeeeeal bad girl, aren't ya?" The real ghostface says behind you. All the hair on your body stands up, and your heart pounds as you look at the costume in front of you. The lack of gloves, the quality of fabric, the jeans under it. The cock of a stranger twitches inside you and the gun shakes in your hand. "What the fuck," you mutter. You start to get off the man, but the real ghostface slams you back down on him. 

"Oh don't stop now, kitty. " 

He holds you down on the man's cock. "Lovin’ this Halloween special. sure he is, too. Ain't ya, buddy?" 

"What the hell’s goin' on," the man mutters in a regular voice.

You’re about to berate the man for deceiving you. "You let me,"  then you feel the heavy weight of the gun in your hand and stop short, shame rushing into every blood vessel of your body. 

"Better finish what ya started," the real Ghostface says. "A happy customer won't snitch, right brother?"

When you don't move, Ghostface says, "god damnit," then squats down and wraps his arm around you. "Do I have to do everything?" He lifts you up a little, so the man's cock almost falls out, then drops you back down. He lifts you up and down the man's hard cock, and it's horrifically erotic having Ghostface fuck you on another man's dick. The real Ghostface cock is hard against your back. 

Ghostface adjusts his grip and grabs a tit as he forces you up and down.  The man’s Stab mask tilts down, watching his cock disappear into you again and again. Your lips part, and a moan slips out. 

"Oh, you filthy, filthy girl," Ghostface chides. 

"Shut up," you snap as Ghostface sheaths the man’s cock with you again. 

"Gonna cum for him, pumpkin? Milk his cock?"  

No, God no, this random guy can't cum inside you. Your body stiffens and you shake your head no.

"Oh, c'mon, kitty." 

"No," you whimper.

Ghostface sighs in exasperation and one of his arms leaves your torso for a moment. Then he points his knife at the man you're riding. "Ten seconds." 

Ghostface holds the knife to your throat as he keeps manhandling you on the guy's cock, counting down, "ten," he lifts and lowers you, "nine," stuffing you with the man's cock, "eight,"  and he's only at "seven," when the man flattens his back and arms against the subway seats and shudders as he lifts his hips into you. Ghostface forces you down, and you cry, "no," drowned out by the man's groan as he cums.  You moan at his pulsations. It's sick, disgustingly hot, getting pumped full of this stranger's cum on a subway car with Ghostface holding a knife to your throat. Your spine arches and you begin to convulse, milking the stranger’s cock just like Ghostface told you to. 

"Hellll yeahhh." Ghostface gropes your tit. His cock twitches against your back. He addresses the stranger, "She's hot for a serial rapist, right?" as he lets your weight fully down onto the man. He lets you push yourself off the man, and ghostface holds you by your neck so you won't run.  As the man's cock flops sloppily onto his open jeans, Ghostface tells him, "now get the fuck outta here." The man in the ghostface mask is still zipping up his pants when Ghostface adds, "this one needs a real big cock." Then Ghostface asks you, "don't ya, pumpkin?" And takes the man's seat. 

The train comes to a stop and as the man scurries out of the subway car, he warns other riders not to board the car. He’s removing his mask as the train pulls away, but you don’t get to see him.  Ghostface takes the man's seat and hikes up his robe, revealing his pj pants.  He takes his cock out and manhandles you onto his lap.  You hover. You're not about to hop on his dick, but let’s face it, you’re not gonna put up a fight, either. You're tired. You're confused. You're horny as hell. There must be something in that weed. 

Out the window, everyone is staring as the train slowly pulls away. 

Ghostface hikes your dress all the way up and stares between your legs with the stranger's cum seeping out of you.  

"Look at this mess," he catches the cum with the flat of the knife, cool against your folds. He slowly drags the knife toward himself, then angles it up toward your mound. Then he takes the knife off you.  He wraps his hand around your ass and the handle of the knife rests against your skin.  “Now sit on daddy’s cock.” 

He lifts you onto his cock. He hesitates with his tip notched at your entrance, and you twitch with need. Then he pulls you down, and his thick cock stretches you – a pleasant, easy stretch – as you sink onto him. He's bigger than the cock you just had. 

"What's my favorite movie?" He asks, then begins to move you on his cock. He holds you still. You're dying for friction. "Strangers on a train," he answers for you, and you ignore him.   "Hitchcock's overrated,” Ghostface says. “Now I've got my *own*.” Great, he took a video, too.  This is bad for you, really bad, but all you can think about is the big, hard cock inside you.  He's still not moving, and neither are you.  Your clit is throbbing. You begin to rock your hips as the train slows down . 

Ghostface slaps your ass with his bare hand. "Made for the screen, baby." His hips begin to move under you, finally. You close your eyes, feeling his thick shaft pump in and out of you, sliding with ease through the other man's cum. "Sure can take a cock."  He feels so fucking good.  Why did he have to kill again? Why can't he just fuck you? God his cock feels good. "Bet ya coulda taken us both," ghostface says and his cock twitches inside you. "Ohh, fuck." The train stops. He puts down his knife and takes the gun from you. "Yeah, this hole could take two, no problem." His crude words are making you throb more. You feel people watching from the train window, and your face is hot, but you can't get enough of this cock. "Maybe that's what this filthy cunt needs. Two cocks." Your walls twitch around him. "Ooohhh, like the sound'a that, don't ya?"  You feel an orgasm building in your gut. "Hell yeah, dirty girl."  

The train leaves the station again. “Maybe next time I’ll bring a friend.” he brings the gun to your face. He prods your cheek with the muzzle. Then nudges your lips open and you groan in protest. 

"Give it a kiss, pumpkin'"  You pull your head back and turn your cheek. Your heart is beating out of your chest. Your vision is blurry. Your body is dizzy with pleasure and adrenaline. Ghostface gives up on putting the gun in your mouth. He drags the cool metal down your face, around your neck, to your back, then keeps dragging it down. Then he slouches down in the seat and adjusts your angle on top of him, pulling you tighter against his chest. 

His massive, ungloved hand lifts your ass cheeks out of the way and spreads you wide. He brings you upward, letting most of his cock out, then you feel the cool metal at your dripping entrance. He wedges the cold muzzle of the gun into your pussy right alongside his cock. "Yeah, take it, kitty." 

You groan as he pulls you down on his cock and the gun. What has he done to you? Why is this so hot? "Yeah, knew ya could take two cocks." To your horror, you find your hips rocking. "Fuck yeah," he growls. The barrel of the gun is cool against the back wall of your cunt, and your hole is squeezing his cock tighter now. He wriggles the gun around in a circular motion against his cock. "Ohh yeah."  The train speeds up. "Hold on tight," he warns. He begins to manhandle you on his cock and the gun. You're on the edge. Your asshole tightens and tension swells in your core. 

"Fuck," you whisper. 

He feels it. "Yeah, that's right." You hold your breath. "Cum for me, pumpkin, or I'll make you into pie." Your climax overtakes you and you wince as you clench around the gun and his cock. 

"Goooood giirl," he says with your body jerking around his. "There's daddy's little slut." Wave after wave hits you and your cunt squeezes him and the gun.  He holds you tighter against him and lifts you enough to slide the gun out, leaving your exhausted cunt looser around him. “Yeah, plenty’a room for two.”  You're still having aftershocks. They're not fading, like another one could build. You reach for your clit. "Needy, needy cunt." You rub yourself and he rocks you on his cock until you cum again. 

"Hell yeah," he moans when you clench around him.  Then he erupts inside you with a groan. His cock pulses against your walls as his warm spend mixes with the other man's. "Yeahhh." His cum goes on and on. "Fuck, yeahh." 

As soon as he's finished coming, he pulls you off his lap. He tucks his cock back in his PJs. The train rolls to a stop. 

He pats your lower belly.  “Won’t know who's the father," he chides, "but at least ya know who's daddy."

—

-

Next: EVERY INCH 4

May 2024 update - I have 3 more parts outlined.

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

THANK YOU FOR READING. If you want more parts, reblogs and comments make all the difference.

Now that you know what happens, it's a solid re-read. Especially when reader is degrading him 😭 lmk your thoughts when you come back to reread lol.

if you liked this smut, you could check out raider Joel meanwhile.

Also BTW gasolinerainbowpuddles is responsible for giving me the kink of degradation about unknown paternity starting with the fic liquid gold which is amazing.

[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

The Dollhouse 1

Warnings: this fic will include dark content such as fear, coercion, violence, noncon/dubcon, and possible untagged elements. My warnings are not exhaustive, enter at your own risk. 

This is a dark!fic and explicit. 18+ only. Your media consumption is your own responsibility. Warnings have been given. DO NOT PROCEED if these matters upset you. 

Summary: Five girls move into a shared residence for the upcoming school year but not all is as it seems. 

Characters: Jonathan Pine, Captain Syverson, Steve Abnesti, Lloyd Hansen, and Peter Parker 

This fic features five named readers; Ann, Lulu, Polly, Barbie, and Molly. This chapter features Ann and Lulu. Please note that characters may switch but will maintain second-person POV.

Note: I know I shouldn't but I say that every time.

As per usual, I humbly request your thoughts! Reblogs are always appreciated and welcomed, not only do I see them easier but it lets other people see my work. Thanks to everyone who reads this one and thank you for all your energy.<3 

Love you all until you can’t stand it. Take care. 💖 

Finally, you’re going to college but it can’t be a smooth transition. No, there’s always a hurdle in the road. You have your acceptance and your tuition scraped together, and there’s only one box left unticked; housing.  

It’s as if the ad was meant for you. ‘Book your room now. Single rooms available for campus students.’ 

Maybe people are right when they say your devices are listening to you. Still, you can’t exactly pass up the opportunity. All summer you searched yet just like the rest of your life, you’re running behind. 

The response is so quick, you almost can’t believe it’s real. It isn’t, not yet. It’s just an offer of a walk-through. You’ve done a dozen of those at least and each time, the room went to someone else. But you have to try. You can’t just give up, not after everything you’ve gone through to get here. 

Better late than never. That could be your motto. You should get it inscribed in Latin on something. Maybe a jacket? Are letterman’s out of style? 

You head out for the noon-hour meeting with the building manager. The posting said it was a new development. Hopefully, that means you don’t have to deal with anyone elses' leftover grime. Not that you’re picky. You’ve lived in worse. 

You let Marla know you’re heading out. Your mom’s friend will be even more ecstatic if you get this one. Neither of you expected you to be crashing for so long. It’s getting a bit crowded with her own kids still under the same roof. 

You catch the downtown route and get the connection just before it drives off. The building is slightly off-campus. You don’t mind. You're a bit too old to be kept awake by the frat house ragers. The reminder sparks another swell of insecurity. 

High school feels distant and you feel a bit pathetic running to catch up from behind. You’ll be older than most of the freshmen, even those who took a gap year. At least you’re doing it. Yeah, that’s something. An achievement is still that even if it’s not on the same schedule as everyone else. 

You miss your stop and curse yourself. It’s only a block away from where you need to be but you’re getting close to twelve as you spot the same building from the ad.

It’s a nice place. Modern and sleek. You wonder why anyone would convert it to student housing. Financially, it’s likely a windfall yet students do have a way of ruining a good thing. 

As you come up the walk, the curtain flutters in one of the windows. The boxy building isn’t quite as big as the on-campus dorms. That’s another relief. Not having to deal with the crush of students. 

The more you think about it, the more this seems like the perfect opportunity. You don’t want to get your hopes up. You know better. 

The door opens before you can reach it. You falter as a lithe man breezes through and grins in your direction. His blond hair pales in the sunlight and his blue eyes twinkle. He’s at least a decade, maybe two, older than you but he’s not aged poorly. 

“Ah, you must be Ann,” he extends his arm in a formal greeting, “Jonathan, we emailed.” 

“Oh, yes,” you shake his hand and show your teeth sheepishly. “Sorry if I’m late.” 

“Right on time,” he lets go and checks his watch. “I thought we could have our tour and then get to the usual questions. You understand, we have a strict screening process for residents. We can never be too careful.” 

He turns and strides back to the door and opens it, waiting for you as he steps to the side. You approach as he beckons within. 

“It is as much about out safety as those we choose to live here. We have seen the recent scandals at the college and what with the world the way it is. He tuts as you precede him through the door. His accent soothes your bubbling nerves. 

The entry way is tidy and neat. There’s a shelf of cubbies for shoes and a rack opposite with at least a dozen hooks for jackets and the like. You kick the dirt on your soles onto the mat. 

“You may leave your shoes on for the tour. We will have the house cleaned prior to move-in day. Of course, once you and your flat mates are in-house, it will be up to you to determine house rules.” He points you ahead. “Of course, if you choose to stay with us.” 

“Right, er, yeah, makes sense.” 

“Is this your first year?” He asks. His overly cordial manner helps ease you. 

“Mhmm, um, finally. I had to delay it a bit but happy to finally be going to school,” you explain. 

“Never too late to do something new,” he remarks. He gestures into the front room. 

“We’ve two common rooms, seeing as there will be six residents. We would like you to have all the amenities as a typical building. You see, this is a pilot program. We’ve a government grant for development of student housing.” 

You nod. You don’t really care about the money behind it but you appreciate his explanation. You’d rather know more than you need to. 

“A sitting area; television, sofas, perfect for a movie night, should you choose to spend a night in.” He lets you look around as he keeps to the wall and waits, “in the next,” he leads you on, “some games. Table tennis. A table should you wish to partake in any other sort of gaming.” 

The place is nice. Everything is brand new and shiny. There’s a shelf of board games by the sleek black table with chairs. The ping pong table has four paddles and there’s a basket of balls on a wall shelf. It’s all arranged so perfectly. 

You carry on into the kitchen. It’s huge. You marvel at the pale blue and black aesthetic, accented in silver and crystal. It’s immaculate. A bit much for college kids. 

“Uh,” you turn to him and twiddle your fingers, “did I read the rent correctly? I don’t know if I can afford this.” 

“Yes, two-hundred plus utilities. As I’ve said, we get a supplement from the government for housing students.” 

“Oh, sure, makes sense,” you sway and look around again. 

“There are a few things to go over, do let me know if you have any questions as we go,” he stands back as you tentatively explore without touching anything. “We’ve continuous security in place. You may see any of our staff on the grounds throughout your day. You will of course be acquainted on move-in. And we have on-site maintenance.” 

You nod as you listen and he takes you back around to the entryway and shows you the bedrooms on the other side of the house, only two down there, four upstairs according to him. He allows you even to peek into the bathroom behind the staircase. 

“Now, before I go through the typical questions, there is one condition I might confirm before wasting your time,” he says. “It was in the application but I do like to double-check these things. You are comfortable with co-ed residence? A mix of boys, girls, and all?” 

“Yeah, sure,” you smile.  

It’s not ideal. You’ve never really lived with men but you can make it work. 

“Splendid, well, how about we go and see the verandah? It is a sunny day and I hate to miss the sunlight, especially as autumn approaches so quickly.” 

“Oh, okay,” you agree and reroute as he directs you with an open hand. “This place is really nice.” 

“Thank you. I’ve overseen the design myself so I will happily accept that praise,” he chuckles as he trails after you. “Oh, you’ve not even seen the garden.” 

As if the flight wasn’t enough, you’re met with an endless wait in line to have your visa and documents checked before you can leave the airport. Even after all that, you’re far from settled. 

You pull out your notebook as the signs bring you down to the underground station. It’s neat that there’s a whole set of tracks right underneath the airport. Everything about this new place is so astounding but scary... 

You check your scribbles and stop at the wall map to confirm the information. Your platform is a little further down. You better hurry! 

You drag your bag behind you as you scurry down the scuzzy concrete, your carry-on bouncing on your shoulder. It won’t be long, you just need to get to the town centre and go from there. You can’t wait to see your room.  

You hope the real thing lives up to the pictures. The man on the video chat seemed honest. He was friendly. Jonathan... or maybe Jaime. Oh! You shouldn’t forget. 

You're out of breath as you reach the train door. It's like it's waiting for you as once you board, the compartment door shuts. You find a seat and keep your suitcase stuffed in front of you. It's already cramped without the luggage.  

You keep an eye on the digital banner near the exit. You won't miss your stop. When it comes, you're the first up and waiting to get off. 

Outside, you're swept up in vertigo. The distance between you and home finally catches up to you. You're really there. All on your own. 

You're shaky as you take out your notebook and your phone. You just need to go around the corner... every twist and turn is written down. From the airport to the station to your residence. 

Your bag rolls and rattles as you go down the next street. You recognise the house from the pictures. The lawns are vibrant and green and the front gate adds a homey touch. 

You stop just outside and scroll through your emails. Jonathan said to call when you got there as he'd have the key for you. You find his number and tap it, your phone popping open the call screen. You wait, there's no answer. Hmmm. 

The sudden roar of a motor and blast of air startles you. You look over the hedges at the man with a leaf blower. He clears the trimmings of the finely-groomed bushes. As you glance over, he spots you and shuts off the gadget. 

You smile, tight-lipped and teetering, as he approaches. It's not Jonathan. This man is much the opposite, burly, bald, and bearded. 

"Can I help ya?" He asks in a drawl. 

"Oh, sorry," you giggle nervously "I must look like a mouse in a swimming pool. I'm looking for Jonathan Pine." 

He tilts his head slightly, a squint as he seems to chew on his thoughts. 

"He's 'round. I can get him for ya. Can I get who's askin'?" 

"Oh, Lulu. I'm supposed to be moving in, sir," you push your shoulders up as another uneasy trill crawls from your throat. 

"Ah, you best come on in," he goes to the gate and unlatches it, "here." As you near, he reaches out and grabs the handle of your rolling bag, "you come far?" 

You let him drag the overpacked suitcase. Your shoulders are killing you. You follow him down the paved walk. 

"Yes, I flew in. From overseas," you answer. 

"Shoulda known. You sound like him." 

You laugh again. Your accent is not as refined as Jonathan's but certainly is nothing close to the local one either. 

"Name's Sy, I fix this place up and all. Do the garden, unclog the sink," you stops at the door and sets your bag to stand on it's own. "I'll get Jon for ya." 

You nod and he disappears through the front door. You sway as you peer around. The place is amazing. The facade is just as gleaming as the advert and the gardens are lovely. You've always liked oak trees and you're sure the leaves will be a beautiful shade of copper once the seasons change. 

The door opens again and startles you back to the present. You look up as Sy dips his chin in your direction and keeps the door open. A familiar face emerges and a tiny bit of pressure lifts off your chest. You're definitely in the right place.  

"A pleasure to finally meet in person," Jonathan offers his hand. You shake it and a giggle crackles in your throat, the habit harder to suppress as your stress mounts. "I am glad that you made it and I trust you had a safe journey?" 

"Oh, yes, sir, yes," you answer, "thanks." 

"Sy," he glances at the other man who promptly retreats. 

"Well then, please, let us get you set. You are the first to arrive. Of course, there is no trouble accommodating you early given the circumstances. Such a far way to travel. You must be terribly tired." 

"Oh, a little, but excited too." You go to grab your suitcase but he's much quicker.  

He directs you in first and follows as he rolls your bag with him. 

"I've put you upstairs but if the first floor is preferable, we can rearrange," he explains. 

"Upstairs is fine!" You squeak in a tone higher than your usual tenor. 

"Ah, I recall my first time abroad myself, it was surely nerve-racking. Don't be shy, eh, it does help to have someone who understands the plight, hm?" 

"Thank you, sir. Yes, it's... it's all so new." 

"Mm, you needn't call me sir, Jonathan is fine enough," he insists as you begin up the stairs. "Perhaps you won't feel so out of place once the others come." 

[biilodyfangs]

fight club/soapshipping headcanons i found in fics that i like + my own headcanons :p

TYLER

middle child tyler ♡

rarely talks about his siblings and his mother but when he does the narrator truly appreciates it and listens carefully

used petnames as a joke a couple of times then started using them seriously

probably got into a fight on twitter once just for fun but got bored easily

unironically watches youtube videos/tiktoks of people making soap

sometimes he forgets he even has a phone

tries different soap scents. loves the ones that smell like coffee

expresses love through actions. he made a soap specifically for the narrator with a scent he ONCE vaguely said he liked

sees something dangerous to do and says "you dare me?" then proceeds to do it even if no one dares him

likes the smell of gasoline

he loves to lean on the narrator's shoulder when they are standing for a long time, when they are sitting at a bar or when they are lying in bed and the narrator is reading a magazine

made the narrator REALLY mad during sex once and realized he loved it

feeds stray cats and dogs

NARRATOR

territorial, WILL bite tyler, 0 hesitation (tyler laughs and bites back)

aroace spectrum

sneaks into the movie theater in hope that a boring movie will help him sleep. he brings tyler with him sometimes but tyler ends up actually liking the movies and talking about them on their way home

melatonin gummies do not help him but he likes them so he eats them anyway

ended up trying marla's dress seriously and he kinda liked it but he never wore it again

"i probably have 3 different mental disorders but tyler needs me to make soap so it's not important right now"

"tyler we are NOT blowing up ikea...we can break a few things tho"

"this edible ain't shit" [ends up telling marla he actually really cares about her as a friend and he was jealous of her and tyler having sex]

skips fight club night just to piss tyler off when he's upset

rolls his eyes when tyler calls him "man" or "dude" like they aren't literally boyfriends (he actually finds it funny and smiles right after)

^ same with "psycho boy"

SOAPSHIPPING

first kiss probably happened during/after a fight

they have little couple fights in front of space monkeys and they're all freaking confused

never actually got together, it just kinda happened

during a fight marla yelled at them to go to couple therapy, they looked at each other and laughed

they kiss every morning and every time one of them has to leave the house

[lucky-clover-gazette]

kings rising highlights & annotations

chapter 5

indented text is from the book. some quotes have commentary, some do not. some comments are serious, and some are definitely not. most of them will only make sense to people who have read the series. and, like, there are spoilers. so please read the books first if you're interested!

also: part of the reason i'm doing such a close reading is to study cs pacat's style, especially in terms of how she does romance and erotica. there are "craft notes" that might seem weird, like i'm being redundant or restating something rather than analyzing, but those are more things that i want to remember/take away from the writing!

i'm going to tag these longer posts with "sam reads capri" in case anyone wants to read them all at once.

this is a google doc i wrote with overall content warnings for the captive prince series. it's not perfect, but i do think it's important to include.

Meetings of this kind could take months to arrange; the speed at which it happened now was dizzying, if you did not know Laurent.

i like how damen has immediately fallen back into his book 1 & early book 2 habit of giving laurent backhanded compliments

He sat on the audience throne, with a single oak seat empty beside him and Nikandros standing behind him.

you know, damen, i can think of someone who has recent experience with oak chairs…

When prince met prince there were protocols to observe. You did not greet each other alone in a diaphanous tent. Or thrown to the ground in chains in a palace viewing chamber.

and yet, given the choice between protocol and hanging out with laurent in a tent… i think damen is seriously struggling with which he would truly prefer. if not already decided, in his heart

The last time Akielon and Veretian royalty had met ceremonially had been six years ago, at Marlas, when the Regent had surrendered to Damen’s father, King Theomedes. Out of respect to the Veretians, Damen had not been present, but he remembered the satisfaction of knowing that Veretian royalty was bending its knee to his father. He had liked it. He had probably liked it, he thought, about as much as his men disliked what was happening today, and for the same reasons.

“he had liked it.” ouch. but also showing the subjectivity of damen and laurent’s shared history

It was not like the ecstatic entries Laurent had made into the towns and villages of Vere. No one swooned or cheered or threw flowers at his feet. The camp was silent.

Laurent strolled in, beautifully;

He came down the path that was cleared for him, as though walking unmolested through an Akielon camp was simply his right.

because it is, because he made it so 💅

Damen’s own men watched as a man might watch his enemy sauntering into his house, unable to prevent it.

“sauntering” perfect word choice

‘My brother of Akielos,’ said Laurent.

i know the “brother” thing is part of the “language of kings,” but it’s extra awkward between laurent and damen because 1) damen killed laurent’s actual brother and 2) they’ve literally fucked

Everyone knew that in the Akielon language, princes of foreign nations addressed each other in the fraternal.

and everyone also knows that damen killed laurent’s brother, and that damen and laurent fucked, so it’s weird for them too!

‘Our brother of Vere,’ said Damen.

oooh, damianos has to use the royal “we” since he’s king, further removing himself from his individual identity as damen. part of the kingship/“kingdom or this” theme, which we’re seeing a lot in book 3, for obvious reasons

He recognised Guion, the Regent’s most loyal Councillor, who, sometime in the last three days, had switched sides.

don’t worry about it

Damen lifted his hand, offering it palm up, with fingers outstretched. Laurent lifted his own hand calmly, resting it atop Damen’s. Their fingers met. He could feel the eyes of every Akielon in the tent on him. They proceeded slowly. Laurent’s fingers rested infinitesimally above his own. He felt the moment when the men around him realised what was going to happen. Reaching the dais, they sat, facing outward, the twin oak seats now twin thrones.

of course they had to make this announcement in the most dramatic, shocking, and tense manner possible. like idk, someone could have explained the alliance with words first, just to make sure everyone’s on the same page when the two leaders sit down beside each other. i get that this wordless performance might simply be the appropriate protocol, but damen and laurent still somehow manage to make it feel inappropriate for the occasion.

‘We have called you here today to witness our accord,’ said Damen, in a clear voice that carried over the noise.

i think i read somewhere that pacat compared this scene to a wedding, and that would totally make sense, both with the way its written and the way damen and laurent are allergic to conventional romance story plot beats. like yeah, this WOULD be their wedding, wouldn’t it.

‘Today we mark the alliance of our nations against those pretenders and usurpers who seek to assail our thrones.’

same energy as suspended twitter user donald j trump saying “i would like to extend my best wishes to all, even the haters and losers, on this special date, september 11th.”

Laurent settled in as though the place had been made for him, and adopted the posture he typically favoured, one leg straight out before him, a fine-boned wrist balanced on the arm of the throne.

cunt (affectionate)

Explosions of outrage, furious exclamations, there were hands on the hilts of swords. Laurent did not look particularly concerned by this, or anything.

Coiled and personal, Laurent’s gift was a Veretian whip, made of gold.

i remember reading this for the first time and saying “GIRLLLL” out loud to my cat

He remembered Laurent’s hand giving a little tug on the rod, infuriating, more than that. He remembered having his legs kicked apart, his hands bound, the thick wood of the post against his chest, the lash about to fall on his back. He remembered Laurent, arranging himself against the opposite wall, settling his shoulders there, positioning himself to watch every slightest expression on Damen’s face. His gaze swung to Laurent. He knew he had flushed, he could feel the heat in his own cheeks. In front of the gathered generals, he couldn’t say, What have you done?

there is a strategic advantage to this move on laurent’s part (to be revealed in a minute), but it’s also just him being a petty bitch and trying to make damen flustered/triggered on the throne

Inside the tent, Akielon men and women were looking at one another questioningly, others craning their necks to see.

and actually, this gesture from laurent also tells damen something else: “you thought i was evil for flogging you, my brother’s killer? then refuse my offer for revenge against men who murdered your people, in front of your bloodthirsty nation who want to see it happen. where’s your moral high ground now, bitch.”

‘The whip and the men are Vere’s gift to Akielos,’ said Laurent, and then he turned his melting blue eyes on Damen. ‘The first fifty lashes are my gift to you.’

wouldn’t be the first time laurent gifted damen laurent lashes out of spite. which i’m sure laurent is very smug about, saying this now.

He couldn’t have stopped it, even if he had wanted to.

i do think some of laurent’s revenge here is putting damen in the same powerful/powerless position he (laurent) had been in for seven years in arles. just because laurent was a prince, doesn’t mean he wasn’t a captive too. ultimately, it was laurent's innate responsibility to his people, felt as a prince, that kept him from just leaving entirely. but in order to stay and survive, he had to play dirty and adapt with his uncle's depraved court.

now a king, damen finds himself similarly bound to his duties, in a time of war without the support of his father. and laurent gets some kind of satisfaction in reminding damen of this fall from grace by forcing him to endure the depravity of his own court.

A part of Damen’s mind recognised how perfectly this gift had been judged, the exquisite virtuosity of it: Laurent was delivering him a backhanded blow with one hand, and with the other, caressing his generals as a man scratches a dog under the chin.

isander foreshadowing. the ethical implications of that entire thing are going to be soooo tricky to unpack when i get to it

Damen heard himself say, ‘Vere is generous.’ ‘After all,’ Laurent held his gaze, ‘I remember what you like.’ The stripped men were tied down.

jesus FUCKING christ.

okay. here’s the thing. there’s literally no plausible interpretation of “i remember what you like” that makes this diplomatic or professional. the contrast of damen being so careful and disciplined with his language, and laurent just shooting out these insanely personal disses like it’s no big deal, is SOOOOOOO…

like. what the fuck is the audience thinking when they hear that line. it would be like watching a broadcast of two real-life world leaders doing a diplomatic ceremony, and one of them is like "i look forward to our partnership" and the other goes, at full volume and in the same exact tone of voice, "i know. you told me that last night."

Damen felt his pulse speed up as he realised he was going to watch Laurent have ten men flayed alive in front of him.

although i do seem to recall damen saying to himself back in like book 2 that he’d seen plenty of akielion soldiers flayed (flogged? is it the same thing?) as punished, and even commanded it once or twice, so…

‘Furthermore,’ said Laurent, his voice pitched to carry, ‘Fortaine’s bounty is yours. Its physicians will tend to your wounded. Its storehouses will feed your men. The Akielon victory at Charcy was hard-won. All that Vere gained while you fought is yours, and it is deserved. I will not profit from any hardship that befalls the rightful King of Akielos or his people.’

laurent is so smart. he knows how to work a crowd, even when it’s full of people who despise him. and he’s not even breaking a sweat.

You will lose Straton. You will lose Makedon, Nikandros had said, but he hadn’t counted on the fact that Laurent would arrive, and begin, dangerously, to control everything.

Bloody and pulped, the men, who were no longer men, were cut from the whipping blocks. That took time too, because more than one handler was needed to lift each man, and no one was quite certain which of the men were unconscious and which were dead.

you know, maybe no one should flay or flog anyone else. like, as a general rule. have we thought of that?

Damen said, ‘We have a personal gift too.’

the return of the antagonistic lamen “yes, and!” one of the few things from book 1 i truly miss

(also, i’m glad damen didn’t come into this tableau full intending to be professional and respectful. like he planned some petty freak shit too, in advance. he is still ant with a bindle, but he has his pride. he’s always had pride, even as a slave, especially as a slave. and if damen can’t have laurent as a lover or a friend, he can at least “enjoy” engaging in weird mind games with him instead. in a way, it’s kind of enrichment for them both.)

Last night, in the evening darkness of the tent, he had pulled this gift from his packs and looked down at it, feeling its weight in his hands. Once or twice before, he had thought about this moment. In his most private thoughts, he’d imagined it happening with the two of them alone together.

okay, never mind, i massively overestimated the spiteful pettiness from damen here :( he wanted to do this in another way, lovingly and privately. he's only doing it here and now because he has to, in order to earn his army's respect. ant with a bindle, through and through.

it’s okay buddy, you can marry laurent again post-canon. and then you won’t even be figuratively divorced while doing it!

He hadn’t imagined it like this, the private made public, and painful. He didn’t have Laurent’s ability to hurt with what mattered most.

and that's why this series works. see my long essay about damen as the heart of the series in chapter 4.

‘Every man here knows that you kept us as a slave,’ said Damen. He said it loudly enough that all those gathered in the pavilion tent could hear. ‘We wear your cuff on our wrist. But today, the Prince of Vere will prove himself our equal.’

THE ROYAL “WE” 💀 💀 💀

you know, technically it was kastor, an akielion, who made damen a slave and gave him specifically to laurent. they didn’t even have slaves in vere before akielos gifted them one. just sayin

He gestured and one of his squires came forward. It was still wrapped in cloth. He felt the sudden tension in Laurent, though there was no outward change. Damen said, ‘You asked for it, once.’ The squire drew back the cloth to reveal a gold cuff. He felt rather than saw the tightness in Laurent. The cuff, unmistakably, was the twin to the one Damen wore, altered last night by a blacksmith for Laurent’s finer wrist. Damen said, ‘Wear it for me.’ For a moment he thought Laurent wasn’t going to do it. But in public, Laurent had no recourse to refusal. Laurent extended his hand. And then waited, palm outstretched, his eyes lifting to meet Damen’s. Laurent said, ‘Put it on me.’

the fact that this isn’t even damen being mean, but just painfully earnest and hurt and yearning, clearly not what laurent expected at all… :( damen is refusing to play dirty, no matter how hard laurent goads him. and he doesn’t even want to hurt laurent, in fact he almost seems to long for him. that’s probably what surprises and confuses this self-loathing mean girl era laurent the most. he keeps trying (and succeeding) to push damen away, but damen still refuses to push back.

also, lamen hr complaint #7, made by everyone present besides damen and laurent. nothing specific, but just a vague feeling of "uh, was it professional to make us watch and participate in this?" after the fact

Every pair of eyes in the tent was on him. Damen took Laurent’s wrist in his hand. He would have to unlace the fabric and push the sleeve back. He could feel the devouring gazes of the Akielons in the tent, as hungry for this as they had been for the whipping. Rumours of Damen’s enslavement in Vere had spread like fire through the camp. To see the Veretian Prince wear the gold cuff of a palace bed slave in turn was shocking, intimate, a symbol of Damen’s ownership.

i love how these books manage to make things unbelievably hot, even when they have nothing to do with sex. they might as well be fucking right now and it would feel less intimate and personal. which actually might be the entire point of the veretian pets and akielion slaves being so horny on main all the time, to serve as a contrast to the deep eroticism of this.

Laurent’s blue eyes remained cool, but under Damen’s thumb, Laurent’s pulse was rabbit fast.

laurent came here expecting to control a crowd, not to be emotionally compromised and vulnerable in front of one. and he’s probably even more flustered/upset about the fact that damen was able to make him feel and react like this so publicly, without even appearing to have malicious or vindictive intent. what laurent serves as poison, is what damen serves him back as medicine. and while laurent can handle an angry crowd just fine, he has no means with which to defend himself from damen’s endearing love and care.

He pushed back the fabric. It was more bare skin than Laurent had ever shown in public, on display to the entire tent.

“you look like a whore” <3

another accidental damen reverse card, calling back to the way damen was publicly exposed in book 1. not even meant to hurt laurent but still probably landing like revenge.

‘Help me regain my kingdom, and I’ll see you King of Vere.’ Damen fitted the cuff to Laurent’s left wrist.

his teeny tiny little wrist…

‘I’m overjoyed to wear a gift that reminds me of you,’ said Laurent.

he may be flustered, but he’s still That Bitch.

The cuff locked into place. He didn’t withdraw his wrist, just left it leaned on the arm of the throne, laces open and gold cuff in full view.

it’s like they have those matching t shirts that say “i’m hers” and “i’m his,” except damen’s would say “i’m his” and laurent’s would say “i’m terrified of attachment” and then “i’m his” in significantly smaller text

Horns were blown the length of the ranks, and refreshments were brought. All that had to happen now was for Damen to endure the rest of the welcoming ceremony, and at the end, sign their treaty.

damen and laurent just invented divorced marriage! truly trailblazers of their time

A series of display fights were performed, marking the occasion with disciplined choreography. Laurent watched with polite attention, and underneath that, possibly real attention, as it would suit him to catalogue Akielon fighting techniques.

they should have a homoerotic fight sequence instead of a first dance

Across from Makedon, Vannes was taking refreshments. Vannes had been the Regent’s Ambassador to the all-female court of the Vaskian Empress, who it was said ripped men apart with her leopards for public sport.

VANNES HIIIIIII VANNES!!!!! THE GIRLS ARE HEREEEEEEE!!!!!!

(can you tell that i'm getting tired of the almost entirely male cast)

He thought of the delicate dealings with the Vaskian clans that Laurent had engineered, all along their ride south. He said, ‘Are you going to tell me what won Vannes to your side?’ Laurent said, ‘It’s no secret. She is to be the first member of my Council.’

laurent feminism win. any person of any gender can be politically valuable.

(i have more complex thoughts on women in this series, which i’ve written about before. i do think laurent feels a genuine sense of solidarity with most women in this series, specifically the disempowered ones like loyse and the sex workers at the brothel. but vannes is a special case, because she’s cruel and sadistic just like the men in power, so i don’t think laurent promising her a place in his council has anything more to do with her gender than the fact that the misogynistic regent wouldn’t do the same.)

‘And Guion?’ ‘I threatened his sons. He took it seriously. I had already killed one of them.’

“i had already killed one of them.”

laurent says this flippantly, but it's kind of freudian slip. laurent admits here that he sees himself as directly responsible for aimeric’s suicide. which is… a very laurent thing to think, and then to weaponize against himself inside his own head. i think a big part of the reason laurent is able to take insults so carelessly, and even insult himself as a deflection, is that he knows that nobody knows him better than himself, and that he’s thought worse things of himself than anyone else possibly could.

‘If this is truly an alliance between equals,’ said Makedon, ‘it’s a pity we can’t see a display of Veretian fighting.’ You are seeing one right now and you don’t even know it, thought Damen.

wait the first dance thing was a joke, but maybe i just vaguely recalled it actually happening??

also, love that thought from damen. perfect read of the scene, although i think people are probably a little more aware of their freakiness than damen seems to assume.

‘Or a contest,’ Makedon said. ‘Veretian against Akielon.’ ‘Are you proposing to challenge Lady Vannes to a duel?’ said Laurent.

kind of a desperate thing for laurent to say. a weak snarky deflection, basically admitting that he does not want to fight damen in front of everyone right now.

Blue eyes met brown. Laurent was relaxed on the throne, and Damen was too aware of what Makedon saw: a youth, less than half his age; a princeling who shirked battle; a courtier with lazy, indoor elegance.

despite appearances, damen knows that laurent is an excellent fighter and a suitable match for himself. again with the backhanded compliment!!

‘But we are like brothers.’ Laurent smiled. Damen felt Laurent’s fingertips touch his; their fingers slid into one another.

“alive brothers, to be precise. not that i’d know anything about having one of those, right, husband?”

side note, i 100% see post-canon laurent calling damen “husband” just as much as his actual name. it’s the perfect mix of condescending, performative, affectionate, and possessive. between them it would almost feel like an inside joke, which we all know damen and laurent enjoy. perfect.

He knew from long experience when Laurent was repressing everything into a single hard kernel of distaste.

for a second i was like, “why is laurent so against this, when he’s a good fighter?” but then i remembered that he got fucking stabbed in the shoulder like two days ago

Heralds brought the document, ink on paper, written in two languages, side by side so that neither one was atop the other. It was simply worded. It did not contain endless clauses and subclauses. It was a brief declaration: Vere and Akielos, united against their usurpers, allied in friendship and common cause.

not the marriage certificate…

He signed it. Laurent signed it. Damianos V and Laurent R, with a big loopy L.

oh of COURSE laurent makes a big loopy L, and of course damen makes specific note of it.

also, help. what the fuck do the letters stand for. they don’t have last names. i thought “V” could be like a roman numeral or something, but what the fuck is “R.” i know i could look this up and probably figure it out on my own, and so i will momentarily, but i did just want to say here that i’m stumped.

okay, got it. apparently R stands for “roi,” the french word for king, and v stands for “vasileus,” the greek word for king. fair enough!

‘To our wondrous union,’ said Laurent.

CUNT

And the Akielons were filing out too, the officers and the generals, the dismissed slaves, until he was alone with Nikandros, whose eyes were on him, furious, and with all the flat knowledge of an old friend.

nik private twitter vent #9, he livetweeted the lamen divorce wedding. also, a note on the nik private twitter bit: damen follows him, and is just happy that nik has a space to express himself :)

‘You gave him Delpha,’ said Nikandros. ‘It wasn’t—’ ‘A bedding gift?’ said Nikandros. ‘You go too far.’

to be fair, laurent would totally be down to negotiate land ownership with weird sex games

‘Do I? I remember Ianestra. And Ianora,’ said Nikandros. ‘And Eunides’s daughter. And Kyra the girl from the village—’

HE HAS A LIST.

‘That’s enough. I won’t talk about this.’

nikandros: why does the prince of vere call you babygirl damen: that’s enough. i won’t talk about this

‘You don’t need to talk, I have seen him,’ said Nikandros. ‘I don’t care what you’ve seen. It’s not what you think.’

nikandros saw that laurent was blonde and immediately heard the vine boom sound effect

‘I think he is beautiful and unobtainable, when your whole life, you’ve never had a refusal,’ said Nikandros.

not wrong, but not right either. damen genuinely loves and respects laurent, like as person and not just as a fuck. and pretty much anyone damen has wanted to have sex with in life has immediately agreed, because he’s a prince. being disinterested in sex without deep personal connection, and being a prince himself, laurent is different from damen's previous partners. he's less unobtainable, and more just, like, evenly-matched.

‘You have committed Akielos to an alliance because the Prince of Vere has blue eyes and blond hair.’

… multiple things can be true. those aren’t the only reasons.

damen likes blondes #9

And then, in a terrible voice, ‘How many times does Akielos have to suffer because you can’t keep your—’

nik private twitter vent #10:

Damen was angry, he wanted to smash the glass beneath his fingers. To let the pain of the glass cut into him.

having a “hurt” by nine inch nails moment. a “no children” by the mountain goats moment. yeah, i should make the lamen divorce playlists

‘Do you think—for a moment that I’d . . . Nothing,’ he said, ‘is more important to me than Akielos.’

i don’t want to be neglectful of the “kingdom or this” theme, because it does come up a lot. it’s just that, at this point, i don’t have much to add.

‘He is the Prince of Vere! He doesn’t care about Akielos! Are you saying you aren’t swayed by the thought of having him? Open your eyes, Damianos!’

nikandros, the slave sex user, should shut the fuck up about damen yearning for his “unobtainable” equal. damen isn’t the only one here with a blind spot.

‘You want him. It’s natural. He looks like one of the statues Nereus has in his garden, and he’s a prince of your own rank. He dislikes you, but dislike can have its own appeal,’ said Nikandros. ‘So bed him. Satisfy your curiosity. Then, when you have seen that mounting one blond is much like mounting another, move on.’

this is fucking infuriating. laurent is so much more than his pretty appearance, and a lot of his insecurity and problems with vulnerability revolve around the way people view him as a sexual object. his relationship with damen was founded on mutual respect and personal understanding. and damen knows this, and i’m sure he’s infuriated too. looking forward to his response.

The silence went on a moment too long.

looking forward to his response.

He had no intention of putting any of it in words. I told him I was a slave, and he pretended to believe me. I kissed him on the battlements. He had his servants bring me to his bed. It was our last night together, and he gave himself to me. He knew all the while it happened that I was the man who killed his brother.

right, damen is still confused by laurent more than anything else at this point. he doesn’t know where either of them stand. the only thing he recalls here is a sense of disorientation, trying to align what he’s learned about laurent’s internal workings with the way he’d interacted with damen physically and emotionally. and the puzzle pieces don’t fit, so he doesn’t want to think or talk about it. and he doesn’t really blame nikandros for his confusion or crass description of laurent, because damen still doesn’t understand how laurent could have even allowed any of the sexual things between them to happen in the first place.

also, unfortunately, i think we can gather from the way nikandros speaks here that damen has spoken this way about partners in the past. and that’s probably part of why it doesn’t bother him as viscerally as it bothers me.

‘Yes I lay with him,’ said Damen. ‘It was one night. He barely relaxed the whole time. I will admit I—wanted him.

and this probably isn’t how damen is used to talking about sexual partners, so it comes out awkward and insecure and weirdly earnest. better than being a douchebag, so i’m calling it character development.

'But he is the Prince of Vere and I am the King of Akielos. This is a political alliance. He approaches it without emotion. So do I.’

ngl this is frustrating, esp when i’m reading so slowly and taking notes… not a problem with the writing at all, but just 😬 😬 😬 how many times do i have to point out that these two men are emotionally unintelligent and needlessly evasive before they figure out their shit, put down their defenses, and talk to each other

‘It’s not the same.’ ‘Laurent is not Jokaste?’

😬 😬 😬

i am trying not to waste too much of my time with this scene but he’s wrong, we all know nik is wrong by implying they’re the same because we know laurent better than nik does etc etc etc oh my god this is exactly why there’s a trial scene at the end and damen gets to be laurent’s defense attorney isn’t it

‘I do. I know,’ said Damen, ‘who he is, and that it means I cannot have him.’

you’re literally a king, if anyone is qualified to CHANGE THAT it’s you

‘No. Listen Damianos. You trust blindly. You see the world in absolutes—if you believe someone a foe, nothing will dissuade you from arming up to fight. But when you give your affections . . . When you give a man your loyalty, your faith in him is unswerving. You would fight for him with your last breath, you would hear no word spoken against him, and you would go to the grave with his spear in your side.’

this is true, at least. nik knows damianos well, he just doesn’t know laurent or our damen. but as i myself have commented, damianos and damen are ultimately both the same guy, even though he’s evolved throughout the series.

‘And are you so different?’ said Damen. ‘I know what it means that you are riding with me. I know that if I am wrong you will lose everything.’

“i will fight for him just as you fight for me, so i suppose that makes us both noble fools.”

He said, ‘The Prince of Vere.’ When he looked at Damen again, it was a sidelong glance under his raised brows, and for a moment they were boys again, on the sawdust, throwing spears that fell six feet short of the men’s hide targets.

“i can’t believe you hit that.”

‘Can you imagine,’ said Nikandros, ‘what your father would say if he knew?’

this feels more playful than the previous conversation, a bit lighter. both an admonishment and like a “ooooooh you’re so baaaaad >:)”

‘Yes,’ said Damen. ‘Which girl from the village was called Kyra?’ ‘They all were. Damianos. You can’t trust him.’

having a hard time reading this. my best interpretation: damen’s question is a reference to the chillest part of the previous conversation, nik’s list, in order to un-harsh the vibe. poking fun at nik for keeping a list, and poking fun at himself for having a type.

nik’s response is still pretty unchill, implying that all the people on that list are interchangeable and harmless. unlike laurent, who damen needs to get over because he’s untrustworthy and dangerous, despite also being pretty and blonde.

‘I know that.’ He finished the wine. Outside, there were hours of daylight left, and work to be done.

damen has been pretty consistently self-aware about the fact that he can’t trust laurent to be entirely honest about his intentions or plans, but he (damen) still cares for him (laurent) regardless. and he’s been living with that conflict and just kind of saying “this is fine” like the dog in that meme. this scene, i think, is nikandros basically walking into the room and trying to extinguish the fire. which nik is uniquely capable of doing, because he understands damen enough to notice the things that his friend is ignoring.

‘You’ve spent a morning with him and you’re warning me off. Just wait,’ said Damen, ‘until you’ve spent a full day with him.’ ‘You mean that he improves with time?’ ‘Not exactly,’ said Damen.

damen loves his blonde nightmare malewife so much <3 nik is going to scream into a paper bag

[esmestarz]

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚ INTRO ˚୨୧⋆｡˚ ⋆

about me ─ ★

esme

she/her

infp

bisexual

i can play on the electric guitar and piano !!

i used to do ballet but now i do belly dancing

i love listening to music esp rap, metal (any type tbfr) and rock, my fav animal is a cat and I'm pretty sure that's it

stuff ─ ★

if you want me to write for a character that isn't on the list feel free to ask me and I'll write for them if possible <3

i will write smut, fem reader, gn reader, platonic and romantic relationships

i will not write rape, incest, gore, threesome, gang bang, male reader, character x character, character x oc, poly relationships, specified race reader

what and who i write for ─ 𐙚⋅˚₊‧

MOVIES ─ ★

black swan

- nina sayers

- lily

diary of a wimpy kid

- rodrick heffley

harry potter

- hermione granger

- harry potter

- draco malfoy

- luna lovegod

- ron weasley

- theodore nott

- tom riddle

scream

- tatum riley

- sidney prescott

- billy loomis

- stu marcher

- samantha carpenter

- tara carpenter

- amber freeman

- anika kayko

- ethan landry

- gale weathers

- jill roberts

- kirby reed

- chad meeks-martin

- mindy meeks-martin

life as a house

- sam monroe

awake

- clay beresford

casper

- casper mcfadden

fight club

- marla singer

- tyler durden

star wars

- anakin skywalker

- padmé amidala

narnia

- edmund pevensie

- peter pevensie

seasquatch squad

- jeremy sumpter

SERIES ─ ★

pretty little liars

- emily fields

- alison dilaurentis

- hanna marin

- spencer hastings

gossip girl

- blair waldorf

- serena van der woodsen

- georgina sparks

outerbanks

- rafe cameron

- sarah cameron

- jj maybanks

- kiara carrera

- pope heyward

- john b routledge

seaquest dsv

- lucas wolenczak

the babysitters club

- sam thomas

- kristy thomas

- stacey mcgill

- claudia kishi

- dawn schafer

shameless

- carl gallagher

- fiona gallagher

- debbie gallagher

malcolm in the middle

- malcolm wilkerson

- reese wilkerson

- francis wilkerson

my babysitters a vampire

- rory keaner

- ethan morgan

- sarah fox

ruby and the well

- sam price

- mina amani

- ruby o'reilly

KDRAMA ─ ★

all of us are dead

- choi nam-ra

- lee su-hyeok

- lee cheong-san

- lee na-yeon

- nam on-jo

sweet home

- yoon ji-su

- lee eun-yoo

- cha hyun-soo

KPOP ─ ★

aespa

- karina

- winter

- ningning

- giselle

twice

- nayeon

- chaeyoung

- momo

- mina

- sana

- jihyo

- dahyun

- jeongyeon

- tzuyu

le sserafim

- sakura

- yunjin

- chaewon

- kazuha

- eunchae

gidle

- soyeon

- minnie

- shuhua

- miyeon

- yuqi

nmixx

- sullyoon

- lily

- kyujin

- haewon

- jiwoo

- bae

new jeans

- danielle

- haerin

- minji

- hyein

- hanni

GAMES ─ ★

the last of us

- ellie williams

fatal frame

- yuri kozukata

- rui kagamiya

cry of fear

- simon henriksson

resident evil

- leon s kennedy

- jill valentine

- ada wong

- claire redfield

- bela dimitrescu

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Happy Memorial Day

Veterans and Active Service Members who support Conservatives and/or Trump, let's have a chat. I'm going to run a few things by you and see if they sit right with you....

If we're being honest here, when it comes to trusting Donald Trump on anything related to the military (or in general for that matter), maybe just don't. You've heard all this talk about how those on the left are "communists" or "fascists," meanwhile, for all you 2nd Amendment folk, here's Trump back in 2018 saying, "take the guns first, due process second."

Question: Did you know that Trump made his 2nd wife, Marla Maples, sign a prenup that would have cut off all child support if their daughter, Tiffany, joined the military? In fact, not a single member of Trump's family tree has ever served in the military; this spans 5 generations, and every branch of the family tree. Apparently, the whole reason his grandfather immigrated to America was to avoid military service.

In his 2015 biography, Trump says: “I felt that I was in the military in the true sense because I dealt with those people,” because he went to a military-style academy and that he has “more training militarily than a lot of the guys that go into the military." Matter of fact, according to Trump, he knows more about ISIS than American generals.

This self-proclaimed "military genius intellect" in action?

In 2017, he sent commandos into an ambush due to lack of intel and then sent contractors in to pick them up, resulting in a commando being left behind, tortured, and executed. Trump reportedly approved the mission because "Bannon told him that Obama didn’t have the guts to do it."

When retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal criticized Trump on his withdrawal of troops from Syria, Trump attacked him saying that he "got fired like a dog by Obama" and is "known for [a] big, dumb mouth." Let's not even get into the botched Afghanistan withdrawal...Oh, and it was definitely strategic and totally not an accident when he revealed the faces, names, and location of SEAL Team 5 on Twitter.

SIDE NOTE: If conservatives only remember 13 of the 2,420 service members that died fighting in Afghanistan over the past 20 years, then aren't they really just scapegoating your demographic?

If we're being frank, it's not just Donald that you shouldn't trust, either. It never has been, he's just a useful mouthpiece for the GOP and corporate America's impulses. Conservatives don't really care about the troops, if we're being honest with each other. You've been fed this lie that it's the liberals that hate you, when most of us don't (can't speak for everyone). You're just being used as a cudgel against people who are looking out for your own best interests. It's quite obvious and sad, actually, how much they love using the military as canon fodder for their propaganda.

When COVID reared its head in 2020, Capt. Crozier of the USS Theodore Roosevelt wrote a letter pleading with 10 navy officers (3 were Admirals within his chain of command, 7 were to other captains on the Roosevelt), asking to offload most of the sailors on the Roosevelt in order to allow for social distancing and the sanitizing of the ship due to how crowded it was. On March 30, 2020, the day Capt. Crozier sent his letter, cases peaked as 736 of 4,085 sailors on the ship had tested positive for COVID-19, a 25% infection rate. The following day, his letter was leaked to the press. Trump attacks Crozier's letter calling it “terrible” and "not appropriate” leading the Secretary of the Navy to remove Capt. Crozier from his post. Later in the pandemic, on June 24, 2020, the White House ended the National Guard's deployments to assist the American people during the COVID-19 pandemic, which just so happened to be the day before thousands of National Guard members would qualify for early retirement and education benefits under the Post-9/11 GI bill. Convenient.

Then, in the midst of all that, he visits the troops deployed in Iraq and claims that he's giving them all a 10% raise and that it's their first raise in over a decade. False on both accounts. What actually happened was that he tried to give the military a raise that was lower than the standard living adjustment. Congress told him that idea wasn't going to work. Then, after Congress had to force him to give the military an actual raise, Trump of course lied about it, claiming that it was larger than Obama’s. (Not the first time, probably...)

This is just a guy who wants to claim he made the call, just to see his name pop up on the chyron. He admitted he believed that his administration's assassination of al-Baghdadi was more significant than the Obama administration's assassination of Osama Bin Laden.

Still think he's a patriot?

On ⁠October 8th, 2019, Trump planned to withdraw from the Open Skies treaty, giving Russia the ability to target our military aircraft. Then in 2020, the New York Times published an Op-ed on CIA intelligence claiming that Putin was paying the Taliban for the bounties he reportedly placed on US Soldiers heads, Trump said he never mentioned the rumors when meeting with Putin later that year. The validity of the intel has since been ruled inconclusive. Trump, however, also directed the CIA to share counterintelligence with their Russian counterparts despite the Russians also arming the Taliban.

Friendly reminder that in May 2019, Trump also got the bright idea to pardon war criminals Eddie Gallagher, Mathew Golsteyn, and Matthew Behenna. A few weeks later, on July 31, 2019, Trump ordered the US Navy to rescind the medals given to prosecutors who failed to convict Gallagher.

This is the same guy who demanded that US military chiefs stand next to him and made the U.S. Navy Blue Angels violate ethics rules by having them do a fly-over at his 4th of July campaign rally, really patriotic right? I mean, who else would be more preoccupied with an intelligence briefing when the leader of the free world could be ordering a milkshake? Does this sound like a "leader of men"? Because blocking a veteran group on Twitter because they criticized you and hurt your feelings, doesn't fit my mental image of "leader." Actually, kinda sounds more akin to a dictator than the Commander in Chief. Not to mention how often he likes to cozy up to dictators and autocrats.

For example: when the alt right protesters stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, Trump demanded that the National Guard protect his supporters. Meanwhile, the US Army recently concluded that the DC National Guard misused their helicopters in 2020 when they flew them too low over BLM protestors, one reportedly "hovered under 100 ft."

Remember when Trump refused to sign his party’s funding bill, which caused the government to shut down from December 22, 2018 to January 25, 2019? This temporary shut down would force the members of the US Coast Guard to go without pay, otherwise they would be listed AWOL. This led to service members relying on food pantries to eat. Somehow, though, Trump's appointees ended up with a $10,000 raise.

But don't worry, it only took him 2 years of being in office and 154 vacation days at his various properties before he finally visited the troops in December of 2018. Later, the following June, Trump sent additional troops to the border to paint the fence for a better “aesthetic appearance.” Don't let this distract you from the fact that under his administration, we saw more illegal border crossings than before. (You know, just in case that was another reason you were planning on voting for him.)

Halfway through his presidency, he used troops as a political prop for optics during the midterms by sending them on a "phantom mission'' to the border and made them miss out on Thanksgiving with their families in 2018. Of course, in typical Trump fashion, he then called troops on Thanksgiving and told them he’s most thankful for himself. Even though he stopped using troops as a political prop immediately after the midterms, the troops remained in their muddy camps at the border.

Then, in early 2019, Trump tried diverting military housing funds to pay for the border wall, but a federal judge subsequently denied this. Later that July, SCOTUS ruled that Trump could in fact divert military housing funds to pay for his wall, as well as funding from military pensions and Afghan Security Forces.

That same July, Trump denied a US Marine with 6 years of service entry into the United States for his scheduled citizenship interview. The next month, his administration looked to change the policy which granted citizenship for children of deployed US troops. This change would no longer grant automatic American citizenship to children born overseas during US military deployments, including US troops posted abroad for years at a time.

Imagine coming to America to fight for a country that isn't yours on the promise of citizenship, only to be deported. But don't worry, your family isn't safe either! Trump once deported a spouse of a fallen US Army soldier killed in Afghanistan, leaving their daughter parentless. The US has thankfully overturned this as of April 16, 2019. His administration actually doubled the rejection rate for veterans requesting family deportation protections.

Not surprising, considering this is the same administration that deported veterans, too. Hell, ICE even tried to deport a US-born Marine. He later ordered the discharge of active-duty immigrant troops with good records who were already promised citizenship, just so he could say he was tough on immigration.

Or how about just before the 2018 holidays, when they discharged 2 Air Force members living with HIV? Or how his administration denied female troops access to birth control to reportedly "limit sexual activity"? In 2019, he even banned service members from serving based on gender identity, but this has since been reversed by the Biden administration.

Trump even urged the officials in Florida to not count mail-in votes, specifically those of the actively deployed.

You know, I kinda get the sense that Trump and his MAGA lackeys seem to simultaneously dislike and fetishize being in the military, because that seems to be all you are to them: drones, existing to shoot, be shot at, and die for America, a manifestation of their own gun fetish. The moment you remind them that you aren't just professional killers but human beings who need social services or housing benefits, they lash out.

Here's another FACT for you: over a decade, Trump sought to kick veterans of Fifth Avenue because he found them unsightly nuisances outside of Trump Tower. In 1991, he was even quoted saying, “While disabled veterans should be given every opportunity to earn a living, is it fair to do so to the detriment of the city as a whole or its tax paying citizens and businesses?”

During the Trump administration, the VA in Atlanta purged 200,000 veterans’ healthcare applications due to known administrative errors within VA’s enrollment process and enrollment system. When making changes to the VA at a meeting in Mar-a-Lago, Trump recruited Bruce Moskowitz, a Palm Beach doctor; Ike Perlmutter, the chairman of Marvel Entertainment; and Marc Sherman, an attorney; to run it. None of them have experience with the military or veterans. These shitheads ended up trying to sell veteran's medical records.

Trump increasingly privatized the VA, leading to longer waits and higher taxpayer costs. For example, in January 2016, Trump sent funds raised from a veterans’ benefit to the Donald J. Trump Foundation instead of the promised veteran’s charities. The foundation has since been ordered shut down because of fraud and Trump had to pay $2 million in damages as of November 2019.

When a man was caught swindling veterans’ pensions for high-interest “cash advances,” Trump’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau fined him $1. As a reminder, the Trump administration’s goal was to dismantle the CFPB, installing Mick Mulvaney as the director, who publicly stated the bureau should be disbanded.

Eventually, his administration tried to slash disability and unemployment benefits for Veterans, and eliminate the Extraschedular Individual Unemployability (TDIU) from the VA. Trump even changed the GI Bill through his Forever GI Act back in 2018. This change caused the VA to miss veteran benefits, including housing allowances and forced many veterans to run out of food and rent.

Ironically, at one of his rallies in 2016, Trump accepted a Purple Heart from a veteran supporter in the crowd. He said to the crowd: “I always wanted to get the Purple Heart. This was much easier.” Earlier in 1998, Mr. Bone Spurs himself was quoted saying having unprotected sex was his "own personal Vietnam." I guess naturally, when it comes to stolen valor, no one knows it better than Trump.

Don't think his contempt stops when you've died for our country, either. He apparently could care less, unless he can make it about him. Once while at a cemetery to pay respects to the fallen soldiers on the anniversary of D-Day, Trump started his commemoration speech by attacking a private citizen, Bette Midler, following later with an attack on Robert Muller, former FBI special counsel and a Vietnam War veteran. (Speaking of Vietnam, did I mention that Trump had dodged the draft 5 times, 4 for college and 1 by having a doctor diagnose him with bone spurs?) Then later, while in Europe in 2018, he didn’t even attend a ceremony at a US cemetery commemorating the end of WWI due to the rain – every other world leader went anyway.

He's insulted Gold Star families. Both, Myeshia Johnson — a gold star widow and the Khan family—gold star parents, have negative stories about being contacted by Trump. To add salt to the wound, he even forgot a fallen soldier’s name during a call to his pregnant widow. In fact, under the Trump Tax Plan, some Gold Star families had to pay increased taxes on the death benefits they received. The surviving family of US Navy Lt. Cmdr. Landon Jones in particular, went from paying $1,100 in 2017 to $5,400 in 2019.

In an apparent attack directed at the late-Sen. John McCain, Trump said he doesn’t consider POWs heroes because they were caught. Specifically, he said he "prefers people who were not caught." I mean, Trump even turned away Navy Sailors from his 2019 Memorial Day speech in Japan because they were from the destroyer USS John S. McCain. Trump initially ordered the USS John S. McCain out of sight during his visit, which led to the ship’s name subsequently being covered. Then, on March 20, 2019, after Sen. McCain's passing, Trump complained that he was never thanked for the funeral. But really, how spiteful can you actually be?

Maybe it's because I'm such a lib, but the most damning for me, is the deafening silence if you're a POC veteran. Remember Army Spc. Vanessa Guillén? Remember 2nd Lt. Caron Nazario?

10 Benghazi investigations, 0 into the Fort Hood murders. Can you guess who blocked that? I wonder what conservatives would be saying about Lt. Nazario if he had happened to have kneeled next to Colin Kaepernick?

Conservatives seem to support and/or believe in an abstract, fetishized version of the troops, all fueled by handshakes, prayers and yellow ribbons. Y'all hear about how libs strip money away from the military, because "we don't care" or whatever Fox News is saying, right? Meanwhile, here's Rep. Pat Fallon (R-TX) sitting on the House Armed Service Committee and using his position on the committee to make over 90 trades of stock, some in a major defense contractor, earning millions of dollars in the process.

Do you honestly believe that any conservative, let alone Trump, thinks you should even have the benefits of healthcare?

$725 billion annual military budget, but instead everything goes to the NSA, the CIA, the DHS, ICE...How many times were we lied to about help coming with regards to the VA? This is the best help we can give our veterans? Is this a joke? “You can count on us to serve, but we can’t count on the VA to make a deadline,” as one veteran said. No one steals from service members while lying through their teeth like these MAGA conservatives or Trump!

Let's not pretend he's an advocate for mental health, either; look no further than Ashli Babbitt. Talk about being used as a political prop! (Sadly, nearly 1 in 5 of those arrested for storming the US Capitol have served.) They only seem to like you when you're a martyr, it seems. But he's just pulling on your heart strings, making you feel like this is the next Pat Tillman.

Do you ever ask yourself why it always seems to always suddenly shift from "lives spent" to "lives wasted" whenever the other guy's in office?

Speaking of lives being used for political gain, how many of you enlisted after 9/11? Never forget how the GOP fought tooth and nail to not have to pay for 9/11 first responders medical treatments.

Bennington College published documents showing the US military ordered the clandestine burning of over 20m pounds of AFFF (Aqueous Film Forming Foam) and AFFF waste between 2016-2020, emitting these toxins into the air and onto nearby communities, farms, and waterways.

Is this the America that you signed up to fight for? Cuz if not, then vote like it.

Here's to hoping y'all read this and choose to make a difference again.

[finchers-ipad]

Can u share any Tyler hcs you never shared before :D!!!!!!!? If u have any. He’s always on my mind!!

i have a few bouncing around in my skull rn:

-he has this weird mysterious past that he doesn’t really talk about, not because he doesn’t want to necessarily he just doesn’t think about it. this would lead to really funny situations where him and the narrator are lying in bed or something and the narrator traces his fingers on a scar on Tyler’s chest and say “where did you get this, did you have surgery or something?” and tyler would nonchalantly say “nah i got stabbed by this guy” the narrator would look exactly like this emoji upon hearing that: 😧. this works in another situation like tyler walking in on the narrator reading and the narrator would be like “did you know that in Spain they have this holiday where they throw tomatoes at each other?” tyler would just be like “uh yeah i lived there for 2 years” like it was common knowledge.

- he would love to go to concerts/shows even if it’s an artist he doesn’t know. when he was younger he attended a lot of punk shows and thats kind of the environment he hung out the most. thinking about of the narrator and Tyler would both love radiohead (semi based on the fact that Brad Pitt and Ed Norton love radiohead but i do feel like radiohead is a common ground in Tyler and the narrators music tastes) and how they would go and see them live in 2003.

- i feel like he is a sentimental person but would rather die than openly show it. he keeps little rings that Marla leaves at the house, takes polaroids often and either puts them up around the house or has a pile of them, keeps little doodles that the narrator makes while he is on the phone etc.

- he’s definitely attempted to brew his own beer before in the basement of paper street just to keep himself occupied and maybe sell it. after waiting four weeks for the beer to be ready and hyping it up to the narrator, they both take a drink and immediately throw up. he learns to stick to soap making.

- this is kind of more of a soapshipping thing but this is what i have been thinking about lately. i don’t know how this would work in terms of film switching from reels to digital and how that would kind of put Tyler out of a job BUT, let’s just say he gets paid to sit on his ass in the projection booth and click play. he is forced to watch ‘twilight’ when it comes out as apart of his job and thinks it is the worst film he has ever seen.

he basically sprints home to tell the narrator about it “man i kid you not he is this old vampire dude but in the body of this young guy trying to fuck this 17 year old it’s weird” and the narrator doesn’t believe him on how bad and cringe it is so Tyler sneaks him into work to watch it, and they laugh the whole way through to the point where you can hear them both laughing IN the theatre. and they go back to watch it like 3 more times taking a drink every time something awkward happens to the point where they are blackout drunk.

[rosyandraw]

oh my god you have no idea how good it is to come to tumblr and discover that you, besides still posting, also still talk about capri 😭 I finished reading the posted chapters of "(not) meant for you" (And I was obviously OBSESSED because well… THIS STORY IS INCREDIBLE??? LIKE TF COULDN'T I SLEEP I WAS SO OBSESSED) and I worried about the story being unfinished forever, the fact that you're still involved in the fandom gives me a little hope that that won't happen! I'm so excited to read more of your capri stories. do you plan to continue posting fics after you finish NMFY? (especially Modern/Modern Nobility aus these are my particular favorites lol).

Anyway, sorry for the clumsy message lol, I just loved your story and thought I needed to come and check if everything was ok. You are a very good writer <3

Hey my lovely,

That's so kind, I'm really glad you enjoyed it (even if it made you lose sleep)

It isn't abandoned I am just useless and life has been hectic AF. It is nearly done, I cannot stress enough how close I am, I'm just lazy atm and renovating my house which is stressful ngl

I do have a few fics to come after NMFY yes, most of them are good to go already, I just want to finish NMFY first before I post them.

Modern AU- Very dark long fic the main themes are infidelity, hypersexuality, abuse, and mental illness (this is the one I’ve mentioned previously that currently has 2 full word pages of triggers and warnings LMAO so it really won’t be for everyone)

Modern Nobility AU - Veretian Masquerade coming of age party

Modern AU Cam boys/Only Fans

AU 1920s Gangsters

AU Roman-esque Gladiator fic

Canon Divergent - Marlas peace treaty-esque that’s a little bit D/L and a little bit D/A

Canon AU – Challis scene/post assassination attempt sexy times because why not.

So hopefully there will be something you like in those and if not, I say it all the time, but if you have something specific I love a good prompt, you never know what’s gonna spark a little bit of creative magic, you know?

So thank you my love and don't apologise, it isn't clumsy at all and I appreciate you dropping me a message, I hope you're having a fabulous day/night 💕

[marlasbreastlump]

Fight clubbers ranked by me based on how much i like them. very long.

1. Fem narrator - cuter than regular narrator (to me she looks the same except for the obvious). coworkers think shes a “mildly effete teenage boy” (via jacksprostate). she has acne from the copius amounts of foundation needed to cover her fight club bruises. she has a virgin mary complex (fears spontaneous pregnancy despite not having sex). she has a collection of 37831 kitchenwares because she doesn’t make enough money to buy furniture as a hobby, and despite this she eats mustard for dinner. if she ever had a pregnancy scare she would kill herself immediately. her morning routine is weighing herself and riding her exercise bike religiously. she’s sooo afraid of becoming a parent or married or pregnant. she has penetration anxiety. what’s not to love.

2. Fem Tyler - Looks exactly like tyler with crazier sideburns and boobs. doesnt have sex with marlon not because shes lesbian (shes not real idk i dont consider her or tyler to have any specific sexuality) but because narrators fear of pregnancy and penetration is so deep it extends to her. likes narrator more than m tyler likes m narrator but still throughly sick of her shit by the end. To me shes a coyote but she would LARP as a hyena. kind of wants to kill marlon but they’re still besties. worst boyfriend ever. Also shes very hot to me sorry.

3. Regular Narrator - The Guy of all time. truly a fascinating specimen. many many things deeply wrong with him. he took all his issues and made them into one guy. he is inertia personified. i think if he doenst kill himself post canon and survives until 2009 he has a blank grindr account where he scrolls through all the guys in the area without actually messaging any of them. but he probably is dead by then.

4. Regular Marla - I love her so dearly. Her in the book and narrator was so cute… so sad they cut out a lot of their closer moments in the movie. Idk she wants him to shove sleeping pills up his ass girl best friends forever objectively… and her calling narrator in the psych ward.. Her madonna-whore complex towards herself where she can only see herself as a human shitstain when she’s so tender… she lets tyler hurt her and she keeps coming back when narrators an asshole… she asks narrator to check her for cancer and tries to keep him awake and watches him kill a person and shes still there. what can i say it makes me ill. And she’s going to die young… everything about her is so tragic. She wants someone to love her……..

5. Male Marla/Marlon - tfw your best/only friend who semierotically puts out cigarettes on you was actually a split personality. when he’s walking with narrator through the gardens he assumes she got on meds or something because she doenst look like she wants to skin him alive anymore. as project mayhem grows he has to perform increasingly complex maneuvers to get to paper street house and narrator without getting his balls cut off.

6. Regular Tyler - “i could fix him” except “him” was also tyler and he could not, in fact, fix him. tried to get narrator to make impactful decisions and change but narrator imprinted on him like a baby duck and became totally dependent on tyler. like the idea that tyler is alive post canon but pretends to be dead because he’s so sick of narrator’s shit.

7. My fight club OC Brandon Pitchard - never actually joined fight club. tries to hook up with narrator in a gay bar september 9th 2001 and gets punched in the face. Buddhist.

[bandtrees]

tell me about milton the presidential pool boy

SEND ME A CHARACTER AND I'LL...

OFC <3 i will do these solidly in uh... the order i remember to :D yay. milt is the perfect character to do this with though because my highly specific headcanon realities for him in particular are UNMATCHED. UNDER A READMORE—

Sexuality Headcanon: BISEXUAL ICON. also polyamorous of course, and objectum - which is obviously not a feeling he has words for but it’s part of what drives his initial attraction to marla and callum, his attraction to the objects in particular while they’re a novelty. i figured it would be an interesting segue into him being desperate to keep his ‘human’ face if it already stuck out in their relationship - but in a way he finds hot, lol. til it’s not anymore of course.

fun fact, in my milton fic that lays out a lot of what i basically imagine for him, i scrapped a line during him and callum’s arguments that would have been, in response to callum becoming more obsessed with the dialup/innovation overall, him trying to reassure callum that he would’ve loved him even without his object head - but of course he wouldn’t be able to lie like that, and would hold his tongue. it would’ve been a parallel to the last milt/marla scene, buuut i couldnt find a place to squeeze it in, lol.

Gender Headcanon: plain ol cisgender gentleman 👍

A ship I have with said character: WHITE HOUSE POLYCULE MY BELOVED. i am so very fond of callum+milt+marla you have no idea the mental illness i gave myself with them. i am a huge sucker for polyamorous ships and the amount of tragic potential with literally every combination of these three drives me fucking insane.

A BROTP I have with said character: i am sure him and norm would have a lot to talk about if they ever were to personally meet, lol.

A NOTP I have with said character: ...well here’s the thing about that. jokes aside though, if i can cheat and say “an existing interpretation of a ship i do like”, i do love callum/milt a lot, but i am specifically really not into the interpretation that it was an affair situation. for a lot of reasons - only one of them is that i’m as attached to the polyamory headcanon as i am. for starters, dubious a figure as he is, i don’t think callum would Do That, both morally and because i think a lot of his personality revolves around the fact that he only really views his life in service to other people and i can’t see him being that underhanded unless it was for a cause he really thought was just. when i think the problem with him is that he abandons his personal relationships for those causes.

that and, like… it just sidelines marla in a way i don’t like. dialtown, all my love to it, kind of already has a problem with its gender ratios and such and i don’t think regaling the female character in the equation to a beard or “The Wife” or whatever is fair — not to say i think every woman has to be shipped, but i just find her having an active role in callum+milt’s relationship way more interesting than any alternative. let her fujosh it out smh. plus i’m bisexual and will always take a well-thought out m/f ship over m/m ships that are just kinda there.

A random headcanon: lax as he appears, especially compared to callum, he has a lot of resentment in that weird little heart of his. he has an obsessive attachment to his own humanity, in a “weathered and it’s all i have” sense — being in wars made it so he felt a lot of his body wasn’t his own, but he wasn’t prepared to ‘lose’ it to the dialup, either. in a world where callum managed to actually force him to get an object head, he still would’ve committed suicide… after taking crown down with him, of course.

i also like stylizing him as having a black censor bar in place of a face :] with his trademark lil hat visible ofc lol.

General Opinion over said character: I REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY FUCKING LIKE HIM. both my insanely specific headcanons and the framework that dogman themself has put down for him. he’s very interesting and some of the bleakest dialtown’s story has gotten - which inherently intrigues me a lot. i think he has potential for a perspective on dt’s story we really don’t see that much of - that being how the dialup must have felt at the time, and how genuinely horrifying it would have been.

i also, for a while - and this is really ironic coming from me - really really did not like milton. not for anything to actually do with him - i just really liked callum crown and, before learning who milton was, was incensed that so many people seemed to be more attached to what i thought was a throwaway name than his actual lore, lol. now i know better of course. now i have become fucking insane, at that

⬆ I LIKE HIM VERY MUCH

[thislovintime]

(Photo 1) Rehearsals for the Australia and Japan tour, 1968; (photos 2 & 3) 1970s, photographer unnamed.

1970s:

Q: "When you left that project [The Monkees], was it just the foresight of seeing a sinking ship, and you thought it was time to bail? Peter Tork: "No, I had no idea [whether] it was going to die or not. I didn’t have enough experience to consider the question. Obviously in retrospect the TV show was the driving factor for everything! And without the TV show the thing was nothing. But basically no. I just wanted out because I didn’t like hanging out with those guys primarily because of the music aspect of things. You know, we did the 'HEADQUARTERS' thing and Micky said that he didn’t want to do it again, what he said was 'You can’t go back,' which was pure self-history, and just all a joke. Micky just says what comes to mind when he doesn’t want to do something. He will not tell you why, and all he’ll do is just throw up a lot of smoke. Davy on the other hand said that he didn’t want to do it because he was just banging a tambourine. We’re doing fifty seven takes of the same song working on arrangements. He’s got his part down take number two! And he was sick of banging a tambourine while the rest of us hassled over our parts, and he said his arm couldn’t take it (laughs). He didn’t want to do it anymore, and so you couldn’t argue with that. Mike wants to be the boss, basically Mike is 'my way, or the highway' and there’s no room for discussion in his cosmos. And Mike basically didn’t want to join the group. He wanted to be in charge, and all I ever wanted was to be a member of a group. And after 'Headquarters' we had this moment when we tried it out and it worked okay more or less, but we didn’t seem to have whatever it took to sustain it. So I quit to pursue music for better or for worse and of course nothing was heard from me again for twenty or thirty years or something." Q: "A lot of people followed every move you made though." PT: They may have but you know, some of my great musical triumphs in between time were on fairly small scales. I tore the house down in Fairfax California..." Q: "Fairfax!" PT: "Fairfax! I lived in the Fairfax area… actually San Anselmo, but Fairfax was the base. I was in the Fairfax street choir, and I worked at the Sleeping Lady Cafe. I was in a group called Asiola [sic - Osceola] with the late Chuck Vincent, and we played the ballrooms from time to time. I tore the house down when I played the Sleeping Lady one time with just a pick-up band… tore it up. It was great! You know, but it was a small scale triumph and I didn’t know how to parlay that into anything more significant." Q: "Did you ever record any of that stuff?" PT: "I did make one tape. I don’t have a copy of it though anymore." Q: "No?" PT: "I don’t have a copy of it anymore." Q: "There goes the anthology." PT: "Yep. (laughs)" - steve-escobar dot com

"[Peter] was a really good musician and I remember him playing at the Lady. […] I’ve heard some of his live stuff on tape that he did at the Sleeping Lady and was blown away by how great he really was as a musician.” - Marla Hunt Hanson, Facebook, January 3, 2021 (x)

More about the Sleeping Lady, and Peter's gigs there (including some ads from 1973, in an older post.

[strawbrygashez]

Soapshipping winter hcs!!!!!! Bc they r on my mind… and it’s winter soon…. I don’t know how cold it actually gets where they are or if it snows but let’s just ignore that for now

————————————————————————

•The narrator has to force Tyler to put anything on for warmth. If he didn’t tell Tyler to put something on so he won’t be chilly, Tyler would go out in Booty shorts & a crop top in snow. He usually has to grab Tyler before they leave the house and force him to at least put a jacket on. (If he could have it his way, he’d put Tyler in a jacket, ear muffs, gloves, a warm hat, boots, a scarf and just like anything like that that will keep him warm 💀)

•The narrator has a huge af jacket to keep him warm when he’s walking to the office. Tyler makes fun of him a bit for it bc it’s huge on him & makes him look like a kid being forced to wear a huge jacket to school on a cold morning.

•Tyler is always warm :3 so when it’s cold out or inside the house, the narrator is glued to him.

•The narrator would make hot chocolate. He’d offer some to Tyler but Tyler says it’s gay (when he’s openly lgbt smh) He gives him a cup of it anyways & Tyler will drink it but also eat some of those little marshmallows u can put in the drink from the bag.

• Ok I have no idea if their place has a fire place but if it did, Tyler would wanna get it going but the narrator thinks the house is finally gonna burn down that way 💀 after some bickering and Tyler more than likely gets his way, they cuddle up to it together.

Tyler will make him super worried tho bc he keeps playing around and putting his own hand close to the fire to scare him. The narrator will have to yank his arm away or keep pulling him back away from it :/

•The narrators nose, cheeks and ears get so red so quickly out in the cold. Him being super pale doesn’t help this at all. Tyler thinks it’s cute but also pokes fun at him for it.

•Tyler can put up such a fight about ‘not being cold’ but he will sit there and shiver or rub at his own arms to keep warm at the same time.

The narrator on the other hand will complain about it being cold the minute he steps outside & use it as a excuse to stay close to him the whole time they are out.

•Tyler lends him his jacket if he didn’t bring one himself for some reason. He’ll be all cool about it too like the narrator is his frail girlfriend and he’s the man who will suffer for her comfort LOL

•Tyler is really good at ice skating because of course he is. He’s Tyler so he’s good at everything. The narrator on the other hand can’t skate at all and will fall first thing.

•They both would take turns shoveling the snow into a path in the mornings but more often than not Tyler is the one who does it since the narrator has to actually leave the house in the morning while Tyler works later in the day. Tyler is a early bird so he usually takes care of stuff like that in the mornings. He expects to be rewarded for shoveling it away tho which the narrator is more than eager to give.

•Marla gifted them a heated blanket. But only one so they share. It was probably specifically for the narrator because he shakes like a small dog in the cold and it made her pity him lol. Anyways it’s probably on the smaller side so the narrator has to lay on Tyler for it to cover them both.

•Tyler will make snowmen!!! ⛄️ and throw snowballs at cars, the narrator and random people.

•Yeah…Tyler is gonna do the fanfic thing. Yknow the thing. where he will kiss him or be really suggestive to the narrator when he’s cold and when he starts blushing he’s like “you feel warm yet 😏? (rizz)” narrator likes it but also loves when Tyler is sweet and just holds the narrators hand in his and rubs them.

•Tyler will eat icicles. Mostly just to hear the narrator cry that he shouldn’t do that.

•Tyler hates Christmas so much but will show up to the stupid little Christmas parties the narrator ends up going to for work. (Mostly to just cause trouble in one way or another) he might even throw on a Santa hat if they just have them there.

•The narrator is indifferent to christmas. He never really liked it or hated it. He feels sooooo badly that he needs to get Tyler a gift tho even if that will get him yelled at or worse. He just won’t learn.

If like, after years of him not listening to Tyler about getting him a gift, Tyler will think “shit. He won’t listen anyways no matter what so might as well get him something 🙄”

•Or if that’s too ooc for y’all maybe the narrator would at least try to cook a nice dinner for them on christmas. It’s something Tyler probably wouldn’t get super worked up over.

•Tyler loves the mistletoe shit tho. He puts them everywhere all over the house. The narrator yells to anyone who visits them while they are up that “THOSE ARE ONLY FOR ME AND HIM!!! YOU DONT COUNT!” Or he will just not let anyone in 😭

•Tyler sucks on candy canes in the most suggestive way ever. He makes a show out of it while looking right into the narrators eyes.

Both of them like to make candy canes pointed and threaten each other with them. The narrator will bust a nut if he’s able to trace it down Tyler’s neck. Creep.

•Tyler hates Christmas music while narrator likes it. It’s not his favorite but he hums the songs if they are out somewhere where it’s playing.

•Tyler picks him and the narrator up inappropriate Christmas sweaters from the thrift store.

•They’ll MAYBE visit each other’s families for christmas. Only if they have been together a while and if either of them even talk to family they care about anymore.

•To Tylers annoyance no one shows up that much to FC in the weeks leading up to Christmas. He either makes it a rule you have to come around that time or he just lets it slide.

The narrator doesn’t give a shit bc he’s only there for Tyler lol.

[queermtl]

Queer MTL things to do: September 2024

As Montréal switches over to its fall wardrobe (and looking incredible doing so), the city’s queer scene continues in high gear! And like every month, Montréal is stuffed to the brim with events, parties and unique experiences painted in all the colours of the LGBTQ+ rainbow. From drag to community, circuit to underground, here’s some of our picks for the best LGBTQ+ things to do in the city. For further announcements, including those not announced at time of publication, follow QueerMTL on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr! Got an event coming up? DM it our way!

LEGEND

🎥 Cinema 👑 Drag 🥳 Parties 🎶 Concert ✊ Activism 🏳️‍⚧️ Trans 🏳️‍🌈 Community 😆 Comedy 🎭 Performance 💪 Sports 👯‍♀️ Dance 🎤 Karaoke 🎨 Arts 📚 Literary / Educational 👠 Ballroom / Vogue

Sunday, September 1, 2024

👠 Ballroom 4 Community and LA SERRE present ÉLÉMENTS, a 10 week exploration of Ballroom culture. For week 3, they host a SLAY PICNIC, LA SERRE—arts vivants

🥳 L Nights / Work Hard, Play Harder with Gallant, Datcha

🥳 Cirque De Boudoir, DEBASEMENT and BERLIN TECHNO presents BERLIN TECHNO FETISH 2024 with DJ Davidé, DJ Mushin and Xris Smack!, Cabaret Berlin

👑 Jimmy Moore personifies Madonna: The Celebration Tour, Cabaret Mado

👑 Le Tracy Show with Tracy Trash and special guests Marla Deer, Rawxy and Lulu Shade, Cabaret Mado

👑 Dimanche Show with Michel Dorion, Bar Le Cocktail

Tuesday, September 3, 2024

😆 Ladyfest presents Zaddies, A Drag King Comedy Show with Niko Lubie, Claude Depussy, Rev Love, Uncle Marley, Jay Show, Timothy Toxic, Casanova and Delam in Drag, Theatre MainLine 

👑 Full Gisèle : Full Tim Burton with Gisèle Lullaby and special guests Bambi Dextrous, Marla Deer, Victoire de Rockwell and Derek Wood, Cabaret Mado

👑 Adèle: Someone Like You with Sarah Winters, Bar Le Cocktail

😆 Stand Up St. Henri Open Mic focusing on women, non-binary, queer and allied comedians, Impro Montréal

Wednesday, September 4, 2024

🎭 Ladyfest hosts Pretty Funny: Burlesque vs Stand-up Comics with Velvet La Touche, Sara Quinn, Marianne Mandrusiak, Yumi Blake, Kyra Carleton, Maïté Sinave, Ri Ma and SugarVixen, Theatre MainLine

🎭 The Poly Mic open mic, Bar Notre-Dame-des-Quilles

🎭 Back to School with Bring Your Own Juice with Bring Your Own Juice, Bar Notre-Dame-des-Quilles

🥳 Soirées QUARTZ lesbian event with Rosie Bourgeoisie and DJ Douce, Club La Porte

🎨 Drink & Draw by @Hommehomo, Bar Le Cocktail

👑 Smoke & Mirrors with Sherry Vine, Cabaret Mado

Thursday, September 5, 2024

🥳 L’Orage presents Jeudi diversité !, L’Orage Club

👑 Mado Sings ABBA—50 Years of ABBA! with Mado Lamotte and special guests, Cabaret Mado

👑 Butterfly de nuit with Miss Butterfly, Bar Le Cocktail

Friday, September 6, 2024

🎭 As part of Ladyfest, Lucy Gervais and Melissa G present Cabaret Debauch with Malinka Molotov, Léo Lux, Mina Minou, Tongues, Mariam Khan and others, MainLine Theatre

😆 Ladyfest hosts A Very Pretentious Comedy Show, produced by Raquel Maestre and featuring Elspeth Wright, Marianne Mandrusiak, Mbissine, Mason Terry, Caroline Garon and Florence Trépanier, Theatre MainLine

💪 2SLGBTQ+ sports team ACC Water-Polo hosts an Open House for women, trans and non-binary folx, Cégep du Vieux-Montreal

👑 Mado Reçoit with Mado Lamotte, Sasha Baga, Bobépine, Velma Jones and Nana, Cabaret Mado

👑 Vendredi Fou with Michel Dorion, Bar Le Cocktail

Saturday, September 7, 2024

😆 Bulge and Ladyfest present Dykes on Mics with Becca Love, Laure, Sadie Moland and Raquel Maestre, MainLine Theatre 

📚 The Violet Hour Book Club reads Oliver Sacks’ On the Move: A Life, Archives gaies du Québec

🥳 Super Taste and HOMOPOP present BEYONCÉ DANCE PARTY: Virgo’s Groove with Kiara, Cabaret Berlin

🥳 After Palomosa: The Dare / Discoño with The Dare, Frost Children, Nation, Tyler Skye and Indie Sleaze in the ESPACE SAT and MJ Nebreda, Cheba Iman, mCherry and AyyBrino in the DÔME SAT, Société des arts technologiques [SAT]

🎤 Bareoke: Strip Karaoke, Café Cléopatra

👑 Jackbox Games with Uma Gahd and Selma Gahd, Bar Le Cocktail

👑 Mado Reçoit with Mado Lamotte, Sasha Baga, Bobépine, Velma Jones and Nana, Cabaret Mado

👑 Late Night with Jessie Précieuse, Cabaret Mado 

👑 Drôles de Drags with Miss Butterfly, Ciathanight, Crystal Starz or Emma Déjàvu in rotation, Bar Le Cocktail

Sunday, September 8, 2024

👠 Ballroom 4 Community and LA SERRE present ÉLÉMENTS, a 10 week exploration of Ballroom culture. For week 4, they host a DJ and Commentator workshop, LA SERRE—arts vivants

😆 Ladyfest presents LEXPERTS with Eve Parker Finley, Ray Resvick, Becca Redden, Lauren Mallory and Raquel Maestre, MainLine Theatre

😆 Ladyfest presents QT Shop Talk featuring new and seasoned comedians trying out new material with a focus on Queer and Trans comics, MainLine Theatre

💪 Montréal Roller Derby’s BOOTCAMP 2024 kicks off today with two practices per week, Patro Villeray

🎶 Helene Rose Session : Queerly Iconic! with Helene Rose, LaRude and Leo Luxe, Turbo Haüs

🎶 Andrew Jamieson's B-Side with Andrew Jamieson and Sophie Lane, The Wiggle Room

👑 Le Brunch Aux Folles with Misty Waterfalls, Bobépine and Suri Racha, Bar Social Verdun

👑 Le Tracy Show with Tracy Trash and special guests Bobépine, Lady Boom Boom and Pétula Claque, Cabaret Mado

👑 Dimanche Show : Les succès oubliés with Michel Dorion, Bar Le Cocktail

Tuesday, September 10, 2024

👑 Full Gisèle : Full Country with Gisèle Lullaby and special guests Misty Waterfalls, Foxy Lexxi Brown, Clay Thorris and Yikes Macaroni, Cabaret Mado

😆 Stand Up St. Henri Open Mic focusing on women, non-binary, queer and allied comedians, Impro Montréal

Wednesday, September 11, 2024

🏳️‍⚧️ Studio ZX and Aide aux Trans du Québec (ATQ) present Trans-Gen, a meeting for Trans folx of all ages, Place du Village

🎭 The Poly Mic open mic, Bar Notre-Dame-des-Quilles

🎭 The Alt Comedy Show hosted by Raquel Maestre, Bar Notre-Dame-des-Quilles

👑 Bonne fête Jessie 30 ans! with Jessie Précieuse and Victoire de Rockwell, Cabaret Mado

👑 Trashilaz : Édition Next Génération superstar with Infernal Desires, Moh Dafok, Val The Freak, Kitty Catcherr, Lorenzo, Swordverine, BiG SiSsY, Hailey Well and Mia Moore, Cabaret Mado

Thursday, September 12, 2024

🏳️‍🌈 Board Games evening, Robin Des Bois

🥳 L’Orage presents Jeudi diversité !, L’Orage Club

👑 Girls' Night Out with Krystella Fame and special guests Celes and Lana Dalida, Cabaret Mado

👑 Butterfly de nuit with Miss Butterfly, Bar Le Cocktail

Friday, September 13, 2024

🎥 Studio ZX, Village, Village pour Toustes and Ballroom 4 Community present a screening of the documentary KIKI starring Twiggy Pucci Garçon and Chi Chi West in Place du Village

🥳 Picket x Kadera VOL. 2 with Kebra, Jaiju, La Niña Kiwi, Rico Rica b2b Teykirisi and mCherry, Church St. John the Evangelist

👑 Mado Reçoit with Mado Lamotte, Kitana, Celes, Tracy Trash and Nana, Cabaret Mado

👑 Vendredi Fou with Michel Dorion, Bar Le Cocktail

Saturday, September 14, 2024

🥳 LEZ DANCE lesbian party with DJ Franklyne, Stock & Soda

👑 Jimmy Moore personifies Adele, Cabaret Mado

👑 Mado Reçoit with Mado Lamotte, Kitana, Celes, Tracy Trash and Nana, Cabaret Mado

👑 Drôles de Drags with Miss Butterfly, Ciathanight, Crystal Starz or Emma Déjàvu in rotation, Bar Le Cocktail

Sunday, September 15, 2024

👠 Ballroom 4 Community and LA SERRE present ÉLÉMENTS, a 10 week exploration of Ballroom culture. For week 5, they host a Ballroom: Codes & Moments workshop, LA SERRE—arts vivants

👑 Le Tracy Show with Tracy Trash and special guests Sasha Baga, Marla Deer and Crystal Starz, Cabaret Mado 

👑 Dimanche Show with Michel Dorion, Bar Le Cocktail

Tuesday, September 17, 2024

👑 Full Gisèle : Full Fashion Week with Gisèle Lullaby and special guests Lady Boom Boom, Pétula Claque, Kiara and Ladrag On-Fly, Cabaret Mado

👑 Garden of Shade : Pokémon Édition 2 with Lulu Shade, Sarah Winters, Prudence, Soleil Levant, Queen Latina, Kleopatra and Spiked Corona, Bar Le Cocktail

😆 Stand Up St. Henri Open Mic focusing on women, non-binary, queer and allied comedians, Impro Montréal

Wednesday, September 18, 2024

🏳️‍⚧️ Studio ZX and Aide aux Trans du Québec (ATQ) present Trans-Gen, a meeting for Trans folx of all ages, Place du Village

🎭 The Poly Mic open mic, Bar Notre-Dame-des-Quilles

🎭 Advice By The Fireplace Live hosted by Daniel Carin, Bar Notre-Dame-des-Quilles

🎨 Drink & Draw by @Hommehomo, Bar Le Cocktail

Thursday, September 19, 2024

🎥 Queer Cinema Club of Montréal hosts a screening of William Wyler’s The Children's Hour starring Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine, Cinema Moderne

🥳 L’Orage presents Jeudi diversité !, L’Orage Club

👑 Butterfly de nuit with Miss Butterfly, Bar Le Cocktail

Friday, September 20, 2024

📚Lancement guide coming out et questionnement, L’Euguélionne, librairie féministe

👑 Mado Reçoit with Mado Lamotte, Adriana The Bombshell, Peggy Sue, Carmen Sutra and Nana, Cabaret Mado

👑 Vendredi Fou : Soirée sans pantalon with Michel Dorion, Bar Le Cocktail

Saturday, September 21, 2024

👠 Ballroom 4 Community and LA SERRE present ÉLÉMENTS, a 10 week exploration of Ballroom culture. For week 6, they host The Éléments Kiki Ball, Parc Nicolas-Viel

🎤 Bareoke: Strip Karaoke, Café Cléopatra

🥳 Queen & Queer present QUEEN & QUEER Dance Party ⭐️ 100% Latino & Caribbean with DJ Sam, NanaZen and Empress, La Sala Rossa

👑 Jimmy Moore personifies Taylor Swift, Cabaret Mado

👑 Mado Reçoit with Mado Lamotte, Adriana The Bombshell, Peggy Sue, Carmen Sutra and Nana, Cabaret Mado

👑 Alix au pays des merveilles with Cismon Genderfuck and La Dolce Follia Bar Le Cocktail

👑 Drôles de Drags with Miss Butterfly, Ciathanight, Crystal Starz or Emma Déjàvu in rotation, Bar Le Cocktail

Sunday, September 22, 2024

👑 Le Tracy Show with Tracy Trash and special guests Kiara, Marla Deer and Jessie Précieuse, Cabaret Mado 

👑 Dimanche Show : Gala du Cocktail with Michel Dorion, Bar Le Cocktail

Tuesday, September 24, 2024

😆 Stand Up St. Henri Open Mic focusing on women, non-binary, queer and allied comedians, Impro Montréal

👑 Full Gisèle : Miss Full Gisèle Univers avec Tootsie with Gisèle Lullaby and special guests Sasha Baga, Lady Guidoune, Carmen Sutra and Velma Jones, Cabaret Mado

Wednesday, September 25, 2024

🏳️‍⚧️ Studio ZX and Aide aux Trans du Québec (ATQ) present Trans-Gen, a meeting for Trans folx of all ages, Place du Village

🎭 The Poly Mic open mic, Bar Notre-Dame-des-Quilles

🎭 The Poly Showcase hosted by Lauren Mallory, Bar Notre-Dame-des-Quilles

Thursday, September 26, 2024

🥳 L’Orage presents Jeudi diversité !, L’Orage Club 

👑 Le Sami Party with Sami Landri and special guests Sasha Baga, Lady Guidoune, and Uma Gahd, Cabaret Mado

👑 Butterfly de nuit with Miss Butterfly, Bar Le Cocktail

Friday, September 27, 2024

🥳 Laylit celebrates their 6 Year Anniversary with MNSA and others, Ausgang Plaza

👑 Mado Reçoit with Mado Lamotte, Gisèle Lullaby, Marla Deer, Pétula Claque and Nana, Cabaret Mado

👑 Vendredi Fou with Michel Dorion, Bar Le Cocktail

Saturday, September 28, 2024

🎭 Sprung: An All Rabbit Revue raising money for rabbit rescue group Sauvatage Lapin Errants with Votre Dame, Quincy Chase, Bambi Van Boom, Odala Moore, Flame Fatale, Bebe Elle, Odala Moore and Kitty Catcherr, Café Cléopatra

👑 Mado Reçoit with Mado Lamotte, Gisèle Lullaby, Marla Deer, Pétula Claque and Nana, Cabaret Mado

👑 Drôles de Drags with Miss Butterfly, Ciathanight, Crystal Starz or Emma Déjàvu in rotation, Bar Le Cocktail

Sunday, September 29, 2024

👠 Ballroom 4 Community and LA SERRE present ÉLÉMENTS, a 10 week exploration of Ballroom culture. For week 7, they host a Clips & Chill workshop, LA SERRE—arts vivants

👑 Le Tracy Show with Tracy Trash and special guests Pétula Claque, Victoire de Rockwell and Kelly Torrieli, Cabaret Mado

👑 Spécial Mireille Mathieu, Bar Le Cocktail

OTHERS / LES AUTRES

👠 Twice a month on every second Tuesday, Bring It! hosts an OTA night of ballroom and vogue with commentator and DJ. Follow their Instagram for dates and details.

💪 Montréal Roller Derby hosts regular matches and open boot camps throughout the year. Follow their Facebook page for additional info. 

🤠 Club Bolo—Danse Country Montréal meet on Fridays at the Association sportive et communautaire du Centre-Sud.

👯 Tango/Salsa Queer holds lessons every Saturday, visit queertangomtl.com for information or contact tango.queer@hotmail.com or call +1 (514) 709-4678 for prices and signup information, Espaces des Arts.

🏐 Les Ratons-Chasseurs (Montréal’s LGBTA dodgeball group) holds regular events. Keep an eye on their Facebook for upcoming opportunities to join in and play. 

🕹Montréal Gaymers hosts regular gatherings including board game nights and gaming gatherings. Check their Facebook for what’s next!

🏃🏾Join the Out-Run run and workout club for people relating to the queer / sapphic experience. Details on their Instagram!

🐦 Bird lovers should keep their eye on Queer Birders' regularly scheduled birdwatching events and excursions. Join the Facebook group and get those binoculars at the ready.

[roadtogracelandx45]

Courage Under Fire |Pre War 3| Band of Brothers

some how I missed posting this. opps.

master list

part 2

ao3

wattpad

@marycorleone

Pre War Three 

Dec. 1941

Bill looked up when he heard the slamming of the front door that led to the Stewart house, Olivia had just stormed out of the house and was going down the short flight of steps. 

"Hey Doll, what's wrong?" he asked, pulling himself away from the small group of friends that he was with playing dice. 

"My fucking mother is what happened." She cursed, patting the pockets of her skirt for her pack of smokes, cursing again when she didn't find them. 

Amused about how flustered she was, Bill pulled his own pack out and held it out to her.

"Thanks." She muttered as she took it from him. 'She comes in and is acting like she runs the whole goddamn place. Overrides Andie."

Katherine McHale was James Stewart's ex-wife and the mother of the twins, Marla and their 5 older brothers and a woman who hated that she birthed two girls and took her anger out on Olivia who was the favorite from the time she was born.

"What is she even doing here?" He asked shrugging off his coat to put it over her shoulders, if there was one thing about Olivia that he would always remember was that she always hated the cold weather. And Philly got to be freezing compared to Charleston. 

"Mine and Bobby's 18th birthday, she thinks that because 18 years ago she had to get cut open to have us, she deserves a party too."

Bill was all too familiar with Katherine McHale, she came once or twice a year to see the kids with whatever man she was with at the time. And she always raised a fuss wherever she went. Olivia's hair wasn't done in the right style, the clothes she was wearing were too raggedy. She was too much like a tomboy, she shouldn't be chasing after her brothers or Bill and his brothers. She wasn't the perfect version of the southern belle that Katherine had envisioned.

And Katherine hated it.

"She is sleeping with Marla and me too. We have to say the rosary every night and in the morning." 

Bill couldn't help himself. He started laughing, she sounded so defeated and angry that it was almost funny.

"It's not funny Bill! She is sleeping in my bed with me! Do you know how uncomfortable that is?" She questioned as she finally lit the smoke she had in her hand, "She read my diary! While we were at school. She knows everything."  

"Everything?" Bill paused in lighting his own smoke surprised, he knew that both Stewart girls and James kept journals and recorded everything in them.

"Mhmm," She hummed through an exhale of smoke, "She threatened to send me to the convent that Aunt Cissy is thinking about joining because I lost my virginity." 

 "You what?" He was surprised and hurt that she actually did that, especially after it being such a hot-button topic for them and the whole reason why he ended up cheating on her with Evie.

"Yeah, after the deb ball." She answered, her eyes focused down the street to the mail truck that was slowly making its way down the street. From what he had been told about the party from not only Olivia but Robert who went as one of the other girls' escorts there had been a lot of drinking before, during, and after the party, and well into the morning hours. 

"Don't look at me like that Billy, it just happened." She didn't feel like she had to explain herself to him, sure, they had done everything but the deed when they were together. And she felt guilty about it but she couldn't bring herself to do it. They had tried, twice, but nothing ever came of it but frustration on Bill's part. 

"You can't really be mad about it. You slept with Evie numerous times. You made your choice and I made my own. We are both our own people." 

"I know," he admitted as she slid closer to his body for his heat, he knew there was time she wanted to forgive him and take him back then he would make the same mistake with Evie and set them back to square one. 

A place that Olivia and Evie could never get past.

Mostly out of hurt on the former's part. 

It was a vicious merry-go-round that never stopped. 

They fell into a comfortable silence, listening to the shouts of laughter and curses from the boy down the street playing dice and the quieter laughter and conversations from the older men including their fathers.  Bill almost felt at peace with her leaning against his side, humming softly. It almost felt right for them to be like this. 

"Olivia Franklin!" Katherine exclaimed coming out of the house startling them out of their peaceful moment and for those playing the dice game down the street to stop and look. 

"What are you doing?"

"What does it look like Katherine?" She sassed in return, "I am smoking. I am not fucking."

 Bill turned his head so it was buried in her hair to cover up his laughter. Sometimes she was so serious that everyone forgot that she was just a girl. 

"Olivia, who taught you how to talk like that?" Katherine put her hand on her heart trying to settle her rapidly beating heart. She held her free hand out to tick off names, "Uncle Finn, Grandpa, Great Grandpa, Great Great Grandpa, Great Grandma. My brothers."

  "Me." Bill laughed, "Henry."

"Papa G." She added with her own laugh, but with Bill's dad, it was Italian curse words, words that Bill never really picked up. 

 "Basically anyone really," Bobby added, he had come down the street with a stack of mail. He held out a smaller stack that included a small box to his twin who grinned. "You definitely made an admirer out of Nix. And his family. I am sure if he wasn't getting married on the 18th, there would be a formal engagement proposal in that stack of letters."

 His eyes went to Bill who was glowering with anger and jealousy. There had been several times in the past few months when Olivia went out with one of the other boys in their class where he had reacted the same way. Bill was very set in the mindset that Olivia was his and his alone. And her dating was messing stuff up for him. 

"I am going to go inside and read these." She said before handing the unfinished smoke to Bobby and going back into the house. 

"Nix as in Lewis Nixon? Helen's cousin?" Katherine asked, blocking her path back into the house.

"Yes. Lewis Nixon. Who is getting married in a few weeks. That I will never marry." Olivia was firm on that, she cared for Lewis and he cared for and loved spoiling her but they were both holding out for that great love.

And they knew they weren't it for each other.

 "Great guy, though, great in bed." She smirked before pushing past her mother and into the house. Her twin's laughter followed her as she shut the door and went up the stairs.

 "Katherine, just let her go." James Sr, the twins' father said having come down the street, worried that his ex-wife was going to slap his daughter again. 

"Did you hear what she said to me?" 

"I did but as of Sunday she is an adult and she can say and do what she wants."

James had always raised his daughters to be equal to his sons and she would have the same chances at least within their family if not the real world. He knew that she had dreamed of going to get her nursing degree but they couldn't afford it so she was going to settle for volunteering at the VA hospital in hopes they would hire her into their program. 

They were all too proud to take the money from Fredrick, who had been extremely adamant that a chunk of money be left to Olivia, Robert, and Marla. And that money can be used for school or weddings. 

"Do you know," Katherine spat, "that she is having premarital sex?"

James had put two and two together after the deb that he went down for, and honestly, he couldn't get mad at her for doing the same thing that her brothers had done.

"Yes, as long as she doesn't end up pregnant before she is married, it's fine." 

"I knew I should’ve raised them. She wouldn't be doing this."

"No, she would just be dead and buried in the Stewart family cemetery." Robert spat as Bill slipped past them into the house to go check on her. 

Thankfully Marla took the younger kids to the park and weren't home yet and were out of the line of fire for Katherine. 

"You don't know that Robert."

"Yes! I do! If it wouldn't have been for Lewis stepping in, you would have killed her last summer."

"That isn't true!" 

**

Bill knocked on Olivia's bedroom door once and slipped into the room just in time to see the window close. 

"You good?"

 "Fine." She returned, shrugging off his coat and holding it out to him. 

He took steps to take it back from her but instead pulled her to him, dropping the coat to the ground. 

"Bill? What're you doing?" He shook his head and pressed his lips against hers.

Finally, he kissed her like he had wanted to since she came back from Charleston.

  "We can't do this." She muttered putting her hands on his chest to push away from him.

 "Who is going to stop us babe?" She chewed on her bottom lip in thought before raising herself up on her toes and kissing him again letting him pull her in closer to him. 

Maybe she needed to stop being so straight-laced and doing things for herself. 

She had always followed the rules and was a good daughter, sister, and friend, and looked at where that got her. 

A whole lot of nowhere and hurt. 

And it was time to not be like that anymore.

***

December  7th, 1941 

South Philly 

"You are so going to hell." Marla teased her sister who came out of the confessional booth, her cheeks flushed, a smirk playing on the corner of her mouth. 

"So? Adam and Eve did the same thing. If God didn't want us to do stuff like this then he wouldn't have created man and woman or given us temptation."

The younger Stewart sister laughed and looped their elbows together, ever since this thing with Bill started, her sister became a new Olivia, one that she enjoyed. 

It was a mix of the old Olivia and the one from Charleston, so they were getting the best of both worlds.

"Did Bill say anything about what he wanted to do tonight with you and Bobby?" She asked, they were the last two to leave the church. 

Bobby had fled the first chance he got, followed quickly by their brother Lee and his pregnant wife.

 Their father had stayed home with the other grandkids who were too young to attend a full two-hour-long mass and he was using the twins' birthday party that night as another excuse to not attend church. 

Their stepmother Andie was teaching a Sunday school class so it would just be them. 

"No, he had to go right to the factory for work." She said, "He was going to try and get Bobby on too." 

"Daddy won't like that." the younger girl mused as they started down the street towards the house, "he doesn't even like you going down to the VA hospital." 

"I know he doesn't but that's the only way I can get into the nursing program. If I get picked.”

'You could just join the Red Cross."

"Shut your mouth Marla Elizabeth. You know what Great-Great Pawpaw would do if he knew his precious "Liddy" was in the Red Cross." Olivia personally thought there was nothing wrong with the Red Cross but her great-great-grandfather and in turn great grandfather had issues with it.  

"Just a suggestion." The younger girl shrugged before pausing by the corner store that had the news playing, "The Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor." 

 "What did they just say?" One of the other girls that was passing asked stopping dead in her tracks like most of the other people on the street.

"Shh." Olivia hushed as she gripped her sister's hand desperately.  

"Liv, aren't Nicholas and James there?" Marla asked, squeezing her cold fingers.

 "Nicky is. So is Uncle Tommy." She answered, "Jimmy is on the Enterprise I think." Her heart was jumping from her throat to her stomach like it was its business. 

"We need to get home now," Marla commented she knew that her father or older brothers who were still home preparing for the twins' birthday party weren't going to leave to hunt them down like they would have if they hadn't just got this news. 

 "Liv!' she demanded, pulling her hand again. The older sister nodded her head numbly and let her pull her to the house.

**

To both Olivia and Marla's surprise, Bill was sitting on the couch next to Bobby who stood up once his sisters came into the living room, he crossed the room quickly and pulled them both into hugs. 

"Everything is going to be okay." He assured them, he had been repeating that since he had turned on the radio when he got home. "I am sure they are safe." Bill held his hand out to Olivia who pulled herself away from her brother and took it. He tugged her until she was sitting on his lap.

 She curled into him almost instinctively, her fingers catching the ones that were resting on her hip. 

That's where Evie found them almost an hour later, cuddled up on the couch, lips moving in silent prayer, they had all known even without the president announcing it that they were going to war and the boys. Almost all the boys in the neighborhood could be drafted and the ones who couldn't be drafted would try and join up. They both knew Bill well enough to know that he would do this. Same with Robert. 

Evie was sure the first thing tomorrow morning Bobby would go down to the recruiter's office and join up. 

And Evie worried for Liv, the twins had never been separated by far distances. They had thought it would be good to try and separate them when she was going to Charleston but there was a fit thrown, and it was agreed that he would go with Olivia and Marla. 

Honestly, Evie couldn't see the twins not being with each other, their dad tried to separate them when Liv was going to Charleston but Bobby rarely pitched a fit for himself. Pitched one. He refused to be away from his sisters and he would have run away to be there.

It was that freaky twin thing. 

"Evie." Olivia's voice shook her out of their thoughts and she turned to look at the girl, she was surprised to see her holding her hand out to her.   The girl took it and sat down on the couch next to the couple, as messed up as it was, maybe this was something that they needed to get their friendship back on track. 

[littlesliceofimmortality]

not sure if u have said this before, but what is ur design inspiration for milton and marla? :33

thank u!!

thank YOU for asking! SMILE

ive always imagined milt as an orange to callums purple, so naturally marla was a green to complete the complementary color spectrum :-)

miltons also always had a silly hat to me, based off of the one we occasionally see callum with. hes iconic and recognizable without it (plus most fanart doesnt have it at all), so why not pass it over to milt? managing relationships in the white house can be one of the presidents "many hats" as the saying goes

it can be a gift from one to the other, but nobdoy really knows if it was from milt to callum or vice versa

even though hes very progressive (esp for the time) hes always seemed very Moral and keeps close to the rules which is why i give him short hair and a clean-shaven face, very typical for his position

he also usually wears a tie even in more casual clothes, underneath his sweater vest! Him and callum ALSO swap silly ties with fun patterns . callum has a plethora of them since he avoids solid red/blue being, yakno, from a third party and wanting to avoid republican or democratic colors

marla marla marla. she HAS to be gorgeous just absolutely stunning i KNOW it

i wanted to make her radiate confidence even as a typewriter head but also not completely sanitized by the public eye, if that makes sense. got just as busy with politicians as callum did! good for her.

she wanted to get a typewriter head as soon as she heard about it - shes a journalist after all :-D i based her head off of THIS 3d model since it just has Her vibes.... Yakno. marla actually met callum from her career as a news reporter! she drew up in dialtown and always thought he was an interesting specimen. could put him under a microscope. liked him Alot

marla and callum had natural chemistry, being flirty and being very show-y for each other. always had SOME type of relationship but never considered it seriously until callum suggested having her as his first lady

her tattoo of a bird on a music box is based off of mingus' dialouge

The last time I saw him, he actually LOOKED at me and called me 'Marla', somehow thinking that I was my late grandmother and- He asked me if I'd do it all over with him' if I was given the chance. I... obviously didn't want to tell him who I really was. That Maw-Maw was no longer with us. ...Forcing him to re-experience that heartbreak all over again, only for it to be lost alongside his fleeting lucidity, moments later. ...So, I answered as if I were her, responding just as I hope she would've. "Yes, my songbird. I would."

cute! but also the HUGE stigma against tattoos led her get more skin covering dresses

THIS IS ALOT OOPS BUT ERMM here ya go :3

[finchers-ipad]

au where there is a stray cat that looks ANCIENT (like it has completely white eyes from being blind, greasy matted fur and is long and skinny) hangs around paper street and tyler just falls head over heels in love with it.

he feeds it when going and coming from the pressman and the theatre, leaving random scraps from the restaurant on the patio for it. and the narrator DOES NOT like it, he thinks the house is already a shit hole enough without a cat. everytime tyler leaves for work the narrator is like “don’t even think about feeding that cat again 😐” and tyler is like “shut up i can do what i want :3”

tyler feeds it so much it starts coming into the house. the narrator walks into the living room where the cat is sat on tyler’s lap and he is like “NO ABSOLUTELY NOT KICK IT OUT!!”, tyler would be like “shut up she isn’t going anywhere, YOU can leave if you can’t be reasonable” and the narrator is just stood looking in shock “SHE?!?”

from that point on the cat just lives with them and the narrator starts to fall in love with it too. the narrator sits in bed reading ‘readers digest’ with the cat lying next to him. tyler walks into the room with a big smile and is like “thought you wanted me to kick her out”, the narrator just rolls his eyes. the cat also LOVES marla and only meows when she is around (she also sings to her), marla gets her a collar with spikes but that lasts for like 5 mins.