#I just died of secondhand embarrassment | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

oizysian · 2 months

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Yooo can't remember, are your requests open? If so may I request a fic for the following prompt? Totally cool if you're not interested in the prompt or don't want to write it or anything (Also sorry if none of this makes sense, I'm a little floaty 🍃 trying to go to sleep)

Actress!Wanda at a comic con (specifically Wanda, not Elizabeth, pls) or something and R is in line for autographs. Maybe the person in front of her has a magazine photo of Wanda in a bikini at a beach, and he is asking her to sign it in a rather sleazy way, and Wanda makes a bit of a face but does it anyway. R is next, and word vomit apologizes or something for his behavior and swears she would never try to view Wanda in that way, and says most fans arent like that. Wanda, amused but also finding R attractive asks her "what if I wanted you to view me that way?"

And R's brain just sort of shuts down but she wants to make Wanda happy so she's just like "oh. I guess. If that.. makes.. you.. happy..?" And Wanda is super amused by how clearly subby R is.

It doesn't have to go anywhere, my floaty brain just said "here, have this".

Sexiest Woman of the Year | Wanda Maximoff

Pairing: Actress!Wanda Maximoff x Fem!Reader

Warnings: man pig, secondhand embarrassment

Word count: ~660

•

I couldn’t believe I was finally going to meet THE Wanda Maximoff. I was beyond excited. She was my favorite actress and I came to this con just to see her.

I had been standing in line for a while now, but my excitement kept me from complaining about my aching feet or my tired legs.

I had an action figure, in the box, for her to sign - one of her characters from her most famous movie where she played a kick ass superhero that did backflips and saved the world from evil.

I kept wiping my sweaty palms on my pants as I waited, my stomach and my heart felt as though they were going to explode.

“And she looks super fucking hot in this picture.” I heard the guy in front of me telling the guy ahead of him.

I tried not to pay attention, but his words were so disgusting and we were so close to meeting her, I was getting secondhand embarrassment.

He stepped up to the table where she smiled brightly at him, taking the photo from him and looking down at it.

“This is the hottest photo of you.” He told her and my face went red with anger and embarrassment.

“Thank you.” She said awkwardly, uncapping her pen and getting ready to sign it. “Who shall I make it out to?”

“Mike.” He responded, wiggling his eyebrows at her. “Your sexiest fan.”

“Yeah …” she smiled politely, biting back a grimace, signing the photograph and handing it back to him.

“Thanks!” He said as he took it back, looking it over before winking at her. “You deserved Sexiest Woman of the Year, Wanda.”

He walked off and I could’ve died right then and there. I almost felt like crying, I was so embarrassed.

I walked up to her, head bowed, afraid to look her in the eye after what just happened.

“Hi.” She greeted me sweetly and my head shot up, cheeks beet red.

“Hi, I’m really sorry about that guy - I swear not all of your fans are like that. He was super gross and I swear I’d never look at you like that.”

She stared at me for a moment before smiling, placing her chin in her palm and watching me carefully.

“What if I wanted you to look at me like that?”

If it was possible, my cheeks got redder. I felt the heat rise up to my ears and I was almost sure I misheard her. From the look on her face, I knew I had heard her correctly, and I stuttered before speaking.

“Oh. I-I guess if you … wanted me to … I could.”

She looked thoroughly amused at my answer, reaching her hand out for my action figure. I handed it over wordlessly and she signed it, giving it back carefully. She extended her hand towards me and I took it.

“I’m Wanda.” She said, as if I didn’t know.

“Y/N.”

“Y/N.” She took her pen and flipped my hand over, writing something on the back of it. “Give me a call sometime, Y/N.” She said with a wink.

My mind completely froze as I looked down at the digits on my hand. Wanda Maximoff just gave me her number. Oh my god.

“Yes ma’am.” I said before I could stop myself and she smiled widely at me.

“That’s a good girl.”

My face burned for the hundredth time today and she gave my hand a squeeze before letting go. I took my action figure in both hands and mustered up a smile, my nerves absolutely out of control at this point - I didn’t know if I was going to be sick or pass out. She winked at me and I nearly fainted right there, taking my signed figure and scurrying off, her giggles the last thing I heard as the events of the past ten minutes replayed in my head endlessly.

#oizysian writes #wanda maximoff x y/n #wanda maximoff x fem!reader #wanda maximoff x female reader #wanda maximoff x you #wanda maximoff x reader #wanda maximoff fanfiction #wanda maximoff

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hannie-dul-set · 10 months

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YOU’RE MY BUCKET LIST.

p — SHEN QUANRUI x fem! reader. g — humor, fluff, lovestruck! ricky trying his darnest to be cool. w — swearing, secondhand embarrassment what did you expect from me. 2.8k words.

note — rewriting the backstory of his leopard print shirt. my loser idolverse is expanding. no one is safe. who should i throw into the depths of patheticness next.

ricky doesn’t believe in bucket lists.

what need is there for a list of things he wants and wants to do before he dies when he can get and do everything he wants in an instant? if he wants to go bungee jumping, he can go to gangwon-do this afternoon. if he wants to date, he’s got a couple dozen numbers he can pick and choose to call. if he’s craving for authentic italian wine right out of the cellar, he can book a flight and visit all of europe with his phone as his only luggage.

he lacks nothing, and therefore he wants nothing. ricky doesn’t believe in bucket lists— he didn’t believe in bucket lists. at least not until that damned day of reckoning, when the nonexistence of his list suddenly came to existence, harboring one thing and one thing only.

there’s only one thing he’d like to tick off before he dies. one thing he wants as soon as possible. something that isn’t instantaneously achievable. something that unfamiliarly feels out of his grasp.

ricky, more than anything in the world, wants you to take him fucking seriously.

“you’re so pretty today.”

is what he says, the moment you enter the office. well, two moments after you enter the office because he had to take the first moment to admire how pretty you are before verbalizing it. he’s down horrendous, he knows— totally outside of the image he’s perfectly curated for the past six months since entering university. you’re the chair of his department’s council, a third year, and by some mystical force or another (read: being stupidly whipped) he volunteered to help prepare for a department event and managed to drag the rest of his friends into it.

said friends being gyuvin and gunwook, who are looking at him in judgment and disgust after completing his daily routine of complimenting your face.

“aw, how cute,” is your reply. ricky wracks his brain for another word for pretty, but you’re quick to move one and leave him in the dust. “thank you, ricky! you’re so sweet. anyway, matthew, how’s the—”

gyuvin snorts. “hey, at least she thinks you’re cute.” ricky throws him a punch but it falls weak from the mental damage.

cute. he hates it. he’s grown to hate it after it became the symbol of you thinking of him as nothing but your cute junior. are his daily compliments not enough of a giveaway that’s he’s lowkey fucking in love with you? what else do you want? a truckload of roses? a barbershop quartet illustrating through song how stupidly down bad ricky shen is for his unbothered senior?

knowing you, even if he gets on stage in front of the whole university and perform a three-act play of how he fell, head first with scraped knees, into the tunnel of torture that is you and your pretty smile, you’d probably just ruffle his hair and coo, “good job! you’re so talented, angel!” because he’s so cute, so lovely, so never going to be boyfriend-able in your eyes and it eats his despairing soul.

maybe if he rips his heart out of his chest and you see the gaping, you-shaped hole it’ll leave behind, you might finally get the idea.

“quit being a drama queen,” gunwook says, throwing a ball at ricky’s bedroom door that’s been locked shut for a good hour now. it bounces right back into his palm and gyuvin is laying flat on the floor next to him. “it could be that she knows you’re into her, but she’s just trying to reject your advances gently because she doesn’t want to hurt you.”

gunwook and gyuvin hear a crash from inside ricky’s room.

“that’s— that’s, no. i don’t even want to think about that!”

they’re waiting for him to finish changing (if he is just changing. the crashes in his room are becoming sources of concern). you invited them for a nice buffet dinner to celebrate the success of the event. however, the three of them are already thirty minutes late for the restaurant appointment, and hanbin had to come over and pick them up with taerae in tow after hearing the news that ricky shen— cool guy extraordinaire— is having a breakdown over a girl.

there are now four men waiting in front of ricky’s locked bedroom. gyuvin gets sick and tired and starts banging on the door. “hurry up! do you want to keep the love of your life waiting?”

“damn, you guys were serious,” taerae posits. “is he actually in love with her?”

“i’m afraid so,” gunwook solemnly shakes his head.

hanbin hits another concerned knock on his door, and lo and behold, ricky finally cracks open his bedroom door and walks out—

walks out in an ensemble that they can only unanimously describe as jarring.

leopard print. leather pants. gold chain necklace. a pair of shades are hanging on the way too low cut shirt and they wonder if he’s gonna wear them indoors. he’s got a leather jacket folded over his arm and it’s twenty four fucking degrees.

“what do you think?” ricky asks, eyes proud, expectant, and sparkly. hanbin doesn’t have the heart to break it to him. “i read somewhere that the pattern symbolizes, uh, confidence and sexiness, i think. this will make her stop thinking that i’m cute, right?”

“yeah,” gyuvin replies. “she’ll think you’re hideous instead.”

“google tells me that the leopard print is a symbol of, and i quote, absolute femininity.” gunwook has his eyes trained on his phone. he looks up and gives ricky a once-over. “if you’re trying to go for the femme fatale look, then you’re doing a good job.”

it takes a moment for ricky to react.

when he does, his reaction consists of grabbing onto the hem of his allegedly ugly shirt and starts pulling it over his head.

“whoa, whoa, whoa— what are you doing?!”

gunwook quickly tries to stop him from stripping. gyuvin is laughing his ass off. taerae has a hand covering his mouth. hanbin is stressed. “quit picking on him! ricky, you look fine!” ricky is not fine. his styled hair is not disheveled and he’s visibly upset and sulking. gyuvin is losing his mind. he’s on the floor and hitting the ground.

“are you trying to be cute right now?” taerae asks. this just scrunches up ricky’s brows even more and makes his bottom lip jut forward.

“n...no…?”

“well, shit,” taerae laments. “it’s a genetic disease. she’s never gonna take you seriously.”

the only emotion ricky knows is despair.

he’s supposed to be hot and sexy and handsome, why can’t you see that? do you have a pink filter when you look at him, or something? is that it? that’s gotta be it, right? because why else would you be so unaffected when he feigns nonchalance, brushing through his hair at a precise timing when he notices you starting to turn to his direction. it’s your heart that should be beating like crazy when he greets you with a half-smile and a nod— not his, not his, not his when you return it with a full-smile, so bright and beaming, of your own.

“oh, you’re finally here!”

ricky doesn’t believe in bucket lists. he lives in the moment. he doesn’t want things so desperately to the point where he writes them down on a checklist taped to his desk. the list definitely doesn’t have the words “get miss department chair to fall in love with me” written on it with scrawled letters. and he doesn’t didn’t give himself a deadline to date you by the end of the year.

he’s given himself until the day he dies because the moment he met you was the first time he imagined watching someone walking down the aisle.

yes, he’s down bad. yes, he sings hopelessly devoted to you in the shower five times a week and replaced the word you with your name. yes, gyuvin has a recording.

“ah, we’ve been waiting for you, kids,“ you say once they’ve all settled on their seats. kids. he scoffs. insult to injury. he’s pouting and picking on a plate of galbi. he feels like shit even though you’re sitting right across him all pretty and sweet like the strawberry shortcake you ordered— which he’s trying his damn best to not steal a slice from because he’s pretty sure you’re just gonna go, “oh! you really like strawberries, don’t you? so cute,” and he’d much rather choose physical over emotional torment, thank you very much.

“they were caught up in something,” taerae responds to your initial statement. your eyes gloss over them with curiosity.

“why? what took you guys so long?”

four sets of eyes are on ricky and his patterned shirt. the bossam wrap in his mouth won’t swallow down his throat. it was too late for him to change out of the symbol of femininity. mid-strip, hanbin got a text from you so he got dragged out, guilty in leopard prints and gold, out of his apartment.

don’t you fucking dare, ricky glares at the suspicious look gyuvin is wearing as he brings a glass of water to his lips. gyuvin clears his throat, “we had to wait for ricky who was dressing to impress y—” and is subsequently elbowed and chokes on his water.

hot. ricky feels hot. not the sexy kind, but the icky embarrassing kind because he wants to cover his burning face and stab gyuvin with a fork in the process.

“oh?” you voice out from across the table. you’re plucking out wads of tissue paper for a dying gyubin but your eyes are trained on him. oh my god. he wants to rip this shirt off and die, but he can’t do that. he can’t. he hasn’t been working out enough lately due to stress. “not everyone can pull off animal prints. it looks really good on you.”

huh.

“and you’re not wearing your usual silver! you look cool today, ricky.”

oh.

what.

“you really think so?” gyuvin, who has now recovered, eggs you on further in behalf of his malfunctioning friend. there’s steam rising to the ceiling and it’s not from the open grill. he exchanges glances with gunwook and taerae. they catch the signal and press on. “doesn’t he look—”

“—would you dare say—”

“—handsome?”

“hot?”

“sexy?”

you let out something in between a cough and a laugh.

they don’t miss the flustered jitter filtering the sound coming out of your throat.

mission success.

“ahaha, what are you kids saying?” ricky doesn’t miss it either. the initial shock of you not calling him cute has worn off and now it’s up to him to finish what his friends have started. he doesn’t miss the way you try to brush them off while fanning your face with your free hand, the way you reach out for a glass of water with the other and there’s a nervous bob in your throat when you swallow. “a—anyway, let’s make a toast for the success of our event!”

when he clinks his glass with yours, ricky maintains eye contact amidst the noise of the cheers. his gaze is deep and you’re caught off guard— escaping with a laugh and turning away as you down half of your beer glass in one go. holy crap. holy shit, it’s working.

ricky can see it. there’s hope for his bucket list. he’s gonna swear by leopard shirts and gold chain necklaces if he continues to get this kind of reaction from you.

“it’s not because of the ugly shirt.”

gyuvin snaps him back to sanity once dinner concluded and they start leaving the restaurant. “it’s because we manipulated her brain waves into finally noticing that you’re hot,” gunwook inserts. they’re all outside now. you’re bidding the other members goodbye and gunwook nudges him forward. “you’re welcome. you owe us a meal.”

now, even with the newfound confidence and hope, ricky’s knees still buckle when he approaches you from behind. why is the back of your head still pretty? why?

at the moment, it’s taerae’s turn to receive your goodbyes, wedged between two cars, one of them his. he notices ricky’s looming nervous wreck of a presence from over your shoulder. “ah, and this is my cue to leave,” he says. “thanks for the meal, miss chair. get home safe.”

“you too, taerae! thanks!”

when you turn around, you bump into him. maybe he intended it, maybe not, but god damn the uncharacteristic flutter of your surprised eyes is destroying his plans to act cool, act nonchalant, act totally unaffected with how prettily you’re looking at him under the dim parking lot lights and the night sky. “oh!” you exclaim after reformatting, after putting on your doting senior voice again and it kills him because that’s a night of progress down the drain. “are you kids heading out now? oh, sorry, this is your car, right? i’ll get out of the way.”

he frowns. totally uncool, perfectly non-nonchalant, and completely affected but he doesn’t care anymore.

“what do you think of me?”

the words jump out before he knows it. screw his bucket list. he’s gonna proclaim his undying love for you even if it kills him.

you blink. “what?” a laugh bubbles from your throat— a mix of trying-to-brush-him-off but nervous at the same time. “ricky, what do you mean?”

his face is knotting up. he’s totally pouting right now which he’d rather be caught dead than doing, but he’s now twice the dead man. ricky takes a step forward. you take a step back until no more steps can be taken because your back hits against his car, and he’s grasping at the straws desperate to get even an ounce of a hint of a sign that you’re finally taking him seriously. “what do you think of me?” he repeats, voice a little lower this time. your expression is completely taken over by peaches of fluster, this time. no sign of the composure you’ve usually perfectly maintained.

“oh, uhm.” your hands are unsure and held hostage in the air because his arms serve as a barricade around you, palms pressed tightly against the cold glass of the front seat window. you’re nipping at your bottom lip. ricky just died thrice. “what—what i think of you? well, uh, you’re a very good, very cute, very hardworking junior that i adore, and i—i appreciate all the help you’ve offered to the counci— oh!”

ricky lets out a noise and buries his nose into the crook of your neck, arms that were once caging you are now completely wrapped around your waist. he’s putting all of his weight onto you. he is a corpse. he mumbles something unintelligible into you skin and you ask him to repeat it. “i don’t like it,” he says more clearly, still muffled, whiney all the same. “i’m not cute. i’m cool and handsome and totally in love with you but you just don’t get it.”

it’s quiet. ricky is anticipating the worst, which would be you calling him lame and a loser, but you don’t do that. you don’t push him off either.

“how can i not think you’re cute when you act like this?”

instead you pull him in closer. his eyes widen, and he feels your fingers digging into his hair, a tender touch on his nape, and he feels himself melting and turning into stone at the same time.

“i never thought you were being serious every time you greeted me by calling me pretty. i thought you were just being playful and trying to earn extra points from me,” you hum. he sinks further. the only thing propping him up is you. “but calling someone pretty every day is barely a confession, ricky. how was i supposed to get anything from that? gosh, you’re so cute.”

“it usually works,” he mumbles. he doesn’t want to show you his face. he probably looks stupid right now. “i thought my new shirt worked too. gyuvin and gunwook don’t agree.”

“i think it’s cool.”

you finally pry him off, hands on his shoulders and he feels himself buckling. he’s pretty sure he looks stupid right now— pink and flushed and dizzy, but your face harbors no judgment. “i think i prefer the shirt owner over the shirt though.” only a familiar gaze of fondness and god, he’s so in love and you finally understand that. “now, why the hell are gyuvin and gunwook still loitering out here?”

ricky didn’t believe in bucket lists. at least not until that damned day of reckoning, when the nonexistence of his list suddenly came to existence, harboring one thing and one thing only.

now, he’s got that one thing crossed out. he’s thinking of adding more.

YOU’RE MY BUCKET LIST. © hannie-dul-set, 2023.

#zb1 x reader #zerobaseone x reader #shen ricky x reader #zb1 ricky x reader #zb1 imagines #zerobaseone imagines #shen quanrui imagines #shen ricky imagines #zb1 ricky imagines #zb1 fluff #zerobaseone fluff #shen ricky fluff #shen quanrui x reader #shen quanrui fluff #zb1 ricky fluff #zb1 scenarios #zb1 x you

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brrypiiix · 24 days

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The Cellmates

They have a ton more info already ready( 2 arcs, 3 big events and fully written lore) but simple introduction (they are criminals with more darker themes to them so please be aware)

Extra Info

Funkenstein - funk troll

Phaser - funk troll

Cinder - pop troll

Current - techno troll

Maverick - rock troll

Funkenstein will 100% kill you

Cinder will 100% kill you

Maverick is 70% likely to kill you

Phaser and Current the only ones who dont aim to kill unless special occasion

• Maverick was arrested like a week or two after the second movie, and was one of the leading causes for the royals to get together and come up with a solution about the major major criminals in each of their tribe

• Current was arrested three weeks after the second movie. Hertz group got to cocky and thought that Vibe City was perfect to make a bunch of money selling drugs there and thought it’d be easy so they were fast to try it

• Phaser at 18 was arrested a month after the second movie

• Funkenstein maybe was arrested by the end of the first month

• Cinder was arrested a couple months after the third movie

Funkenstein - High class surgeon and professor thats always secretly been fucked up and good at hiding what he’s been doing until authorities finally found out

Maverick - Brutal, highly well known hitman, one of the earliest caught and caused the royals to make a big decision of where to throw the really fucked up criminals

Current - Drug addict who was in a little drug dealing gang lead by his boyfriend Hertz, until their first major attempt to sneak drugs into Funk City and Current was left behind during their escape through the sewers/under parts of the city

Phaser - Extremely high level hacker and inventor. So much so that after he was arrested the Funk military took his inventions to use for themselves. He was caught due to a very certain altercation between him and his ex who so happened to be Darnell, prince of Funk. It caused an accident and Phaser to be arrested and thats how they found out all of his majorly fucked up crimes

Cinder - Boyband crazed fan gone wrong.

Also the cellmates lore has 2 arcs and 3 major events:

The Meeting Arc

The Great Escape

The Mansion Arc

The Sirens Tear

Last one is a surprise

Bonus Info on some of the Cellmates. I’ll cover more later

Extra info on Funkenstein - He has a little brother named Willie who died at the age of like 5-6 due to sickness When Funkenstein was just 12-13. He was the only one Funkenstein felt a sense of love and care for. Funkenstein’s dad also was majorly horrible and enforced Funkenstein’s behavior to be more formal bc he came from a rich family. He’s also a monster compared to other trolls. Trolls are normally 6 inches, Phaser is 6 1/2 and Funkenstein is 7 inches. He’s also able to break shit like nothing. Also him being a high class surgeon makes it to where he knows how to kill someone instantly and does it with no expression no remorse. When he was arrested he hasnt experimented on anyone since except for a few exceptions. But beforehand whenever he’d experiment on someone he’d just turn the radio onto some old asf tunes, sometimes whistle along maybe, and just go about it at his own pace unbothered by the victims antics.

Extra Phaser info - Bro jams out to songs even on heists and his ass always gets in trouble. Maverick and him have the type of relationship where Phaser says or does some stupid shit and Maverick either beats his ass, punches him down or tries to. Phaser can also moonwalk. I need that to be known. Phaser also is a fucking king at cooking, but thats only because his parents heavily neglected him as a child so much so that he had to learn how to cook on his own. And yet Phaser’s favorite food is pizza and he’ll drag the others to the nearest pizza arcade to get some

Extra info on Current - Extremely co-dependent, weakness is gemstones or anything shiny, you get secondhand embarrassment from him because sometimes he’s just out of it and runs into things like a trashcan or a wall and sometimes knocks himself out with that. He’s also venomous

#dreamworks trolls #fanart #trolls band together #trolls 3 #digital artwork #trolls fanart #trolls oc #trolls ocs #trolls fandom #trolls tumblr #my art #my ocs #The Cellmates #Trolls The Cellmates #trolls world tour #trolls 2

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coochiequeens · 3 months

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‘100% feminist’: how Eleanor Rathbone invented child benefit – and changed women’s lives for ever

She was an MP and author with a formidable reputation, fighting for the rights of women and refugees, and opposing the appeasement of Hitler. Why isn’t she better known today?

Ladies please reblog to give her the recognition she deserves

By Susanna Rustin Thu 4 Jul 2024

My used copy of the first edition of The Disinherited Family arrives in the post from a secondhand bookseller in Lancashire. A dark blue hardback inscribed with the name of its first owner, Miss M Marshall, and the year of publication, 1924, it cost just £12.99. I am not a collector of old tomes but am thrilled to have this one. It has a case to be considered among the most important feminist economics books ever written.

Its centenary has so far received little, if any, attention. Yet the arguments it sets out are the reason nearly all mothers in the UK receive child benefit from the government. Its author, Eleanor Rathbone, was one of the most influential women in politics in the first half of the 20th century. She led the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship (Nusec, the main suffragist organisation, also formerly known as the National Union of Women Suffrage Societies) from 1919, when Millicent Fawcett stood down, until the roughly five million women who were not enfranchised in 1918 gained the vote 10 years later. In 1929, aged 57, she became an MP, and remained in parliament until her death in 1946. While there, she built up a formidable reputation based on her advocacy for women’s rights, welfare reform and the rights of refugees, and her opposition to the appeasement of Hitler.

It would not be true to say that Eleanor Rathbone has been forgotten. Her portrait by James Gunn hangs in the National Portrait Gallery. Twenty years ago she was the subject of a fine biography and she is remembered at Somerville college, Oxford – where she studied in the 1890s and ran a society called the Associated Prigs. (While the name was a joke, Rathbone did have a priggish side – as well as being an original thinker, tremendous campaigner, and stubborn, sensitive personality.) She also features in Rachel Reeves’s book The Women Who Made Modern Economics, although Reeves – who hopes shortly to become the UK’s first female chancellor – pays more attention to her contemporary, Beatrice Webb.

A thrilling tome … The Disinherited Family by Eleanor Rathbone. Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian

But Rathbone, who came from a wealthy dynasty of nonconformist merchants, does not have anything like the name-recognition of the Pankhursts or Millicent Fawcett, or of pioneering politicians including Nancy Astor and Ellen Wilkinson. Nor does she enjoy the cachet of writers such as Virginia Woolf, whose polemic about women’s opportunities, A Room of One’s Own, was published five years after Rathbone’s magnum opus.

There are many reasons for Rathbone’s relative obscurity. One is that she was the first woman elected to parliament as an independent (and one of a handful of men at the time). Thus there is no political party with an interest in turning her into an icon. Having spent the past three years writing a book about the British women’s movement, I am embarrassed to admit that when I started, I didn’t know who she was.

Rathbone was not the first person to propose state benefits paid to mothers. The endowment of motherhood or family allowances, as the policy was known, was written about by the Swedish feminist Ellen Key, and tried out as a project of the Fabian Women’s Group, who published their findings in a pamphlet in 1912. But Rathbone pushed the idea to the forefront. A first attempt to get Nusec to adopt it was knocked back in 1921, and she then spent three years conducting research. The title she gave the book she produced, The Disinherited Family, reflected her view that women and children were being deprived of their rightful share of the country’s wealth.

The problem, as she saw it, was one of distribution. While the wage system in industrialised countries treated all workers on a given pay grade the same, some households needed more money than others. While unions argued for higher wages across the board, Rathbone believed the state should supplement the incomes of larger families. She opened the book with an archly phrased rhetorical question: “Whether there is any subject in the world of equal importance that has received so little consideration as the economic status of the family?” She went on to accuse economists of behaving as if they were “self-propagating bachelors” – so little did the lives of mothers appear to interest them.

Rathbone’s twin aims were to end wives’ dependence on husbands and reward their domestic labour. Family allowances paid directly to them could either be spent on housekeeping or childcare, enabling them to go out to work. Ellen Wilkinson, the radical Labour MP for Middlesbrough (and future minister for education), was among early supporters. William Beveridge read the book when he was director of the London School of Economics, declared himself a convert and introduced one of the first schemes of family-linked payments for his staff.

But others were strongly opposed. Conservative objections to such a radical expansion of the state were predictable. But they were echoed by liberal feminists including Millicent Fawcett, who called the plan “a step in the direction of practical socialism”. Trade unions preferred to push for a living wage, while some male MPs thought the policy undermined the role of men as breadwinners. Labour and the Trades Union Congress (TUC) finally swung behind family allowances in 1942. As the war drew to a close, Rathbone led a backbench rebellion against ministers who wanted to pay the benefit to fathers instead.

Rathbone celebrates the Silver Jubilee of the Women’s Vote in London, 20 February 1943. Photograph: Picture Post/Getty Images

It is for this signature policy that she is most often remembered today. At a time when hundreds of thousands of children have been pushed into poverty by the two-child limit on benefit payments, Rathbone’s advocacy on behalf of larger families could hardly be more relevant. The limit, devised by George Osborne, applies to universal and child tax credits – and not child benefit itself. But Rishi Sunak’s government announced changes to the latter in this year’s budget. From 2026, eligibility will be assessed on a household rather than individual basis. This is intended to limit payments to better-off, dual-income families. But the UK Women’s Budget Group and others have objected on grounds that child benefit should retain its original purpose of directly remunerating primary carers (the vast majority of them mothers) for the work of rearing children. It remains to be seen whether this plan will be carried through by the next government.

Rathbone once told the House of Commons she was “100% feminist”, and few MPs have been as single-minded in their commitment to women’s causes. As president of Nusec (the law-abiding wing of the suffrage campaign), she played a vital role in finishing the job of winning votes for women.

The last few years have seen a resurgence of interest in women’s suffrage, partly due to the centenary of the first women’s suffrage act. Thanks to a brilliant campaign by Caroline Criado Perez, a statue of Millicent Fawcett, the nonmilitant suffragist leader, now stands in Westminster, a few minutes walk from the bronze memorial of Emmeline Pankhurst erected in 1930. Suffragette direct action has long been a source of fascination. What is less well known is that militants played little part in the movement after 1918. It was law-abiding constitutionalists – suffragists rather than suffragettes – who pushed through the 1920s to win votes for the younger and poorer women who did not yet have them. Rathbone helped lead this final phase of the campaign, along with Conservative MP Nancy Astor and others.

Rathbone was highly critical of the militants, and once claimed that they “came within an inch of wrecking the suffrage movement, perhaps for a generation”. Today, with climate groups including Just Stop Oil copying the suffragette tactic of vandalising paintings, it is worth remembering that many women’s suffrage campaigners opposed such methods.

Schismatic though it was, the suffrage movement at least had a shared goal. An even greater challenge for feminists in the 1920s was agreeing on future priorities. Equal pay, parental rights and an end to the sexual double standard were among demands that had broad support. After the arrival in the House of Commons of the first female MPs, legislative successes included the removal of the bar on women’s entry to the professions, new rights for mothers and widows’ pensions. But there were also fierce disagreements.

Tensions between class and sexual politics were longstanding, with some on the left regarding feminism as a distraction. The Labour MP Marion Phillips, for example, thought membership of single-sex groups placed women “in danger of getting their political opinions muddled”. There was also renewed conflict over protective legislation – the name given to employment laws that differentiated between men and women. While such measures included maternity leave and safety rules for pregnant women, many feminists believed their true purpose was to keep jobs for men – and prevent female workers from competing.

Underlying such arguments was the question of whether women, once enfranchised, should strive for equal treatment, or push for measures designed to address their specific needs. As the debate grew more heated, partisans on either side gave themselves the labels of “old” and “new” feminists. While the former, also called equalitarians, wanted to focus on the obstacles that prevented women from participating in public life on the same terms as men, the new feminists led by Rathbone sought to pioneer an innovative, woman-centred politics. Since this brought to the fore issues such as reproductive health and mothers’ poverty, it is known as “maternalist feminism”.

Rathbone and other Liverpool suffragettes campaigning in 1910. Photograph: Shawshots/Alamy

The faultline extended beyond Britain. But Rathbone and her foes had some of the angriest clashes. At one international convention, Lady Rhondda, a wealthy former suffragette, used a speech to deride rivals who chose to “putter away” at welfare work, instead of the issues she considered important.

The specific policy points at issue have, of course, changed over the past century. But arguments about how much emphasis feminists should place on biological differences between men and women carry on.

Eleanor Rathbone did not live long enough to see the welfare state, including child benefit paid to mothers, take root in postwar Britain. Her election to parliament coincided with the Depression, and the lengthening shadows of fascism and nazism meant that she, like her colleagues, became preoccupied with foreign affairs. In the general election of 1935, the number of female MPs fell from 15 to nine, meaning Rathbone’s was one of just a handful of women’s voices. She used hers to oppose the policy of appeasement, and support the rights of refugees, including those escaping Franco’s Spain. During the war she helped run an extra-parliamentary “woman-power committee”, which advocated for female workers.

She also became a supporter of Indian women’s rights, though her liberal imperialism led to tensions with Indian feminists. During the war she angered India’s most eminent writer, Rabindranath Tagore, and its future prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, when she attacked the Congress party’s policy of noncooperation with Britain’s war effort. Tagore criticised what he called the “sheer insolent self-complacency” of her demand that the anti-colonial struggle should be set aside while Britain fought Germany.

Rathbone turned down a damehood. After their first shared house in Westminster was bombed, she and her life partner, the Scottish social worker Elizabeth Macadam, moved around the corner to a flat on Tufton Street (Macadam destroyed their letters, meaning that Rathbone’s intimate life remains obscure, but historians believe the relationship was platonic). From there they moved to a larger, quieter house in Highgate. On 2 January 1946, Rathbone suddenly died.

Rathbone’s blue plaque at Tufton Court. Photograph: PjrPlaques/Alamy

A blue plaque on Tufton Street commemorates her as the “pioneer of family allowances” – providing an alternative claim on posterity for an address more commonly associated with the Brexit campaign, since a house a few doors down became its headquarters. She is remembered, too, in Liverpool, where her experience of dispersing welfare to desperately poor soldiers’ wives in the first world war changed the course of her life, and where one of her former homes is being restored by the university.

I don’t believe in ghosts. But walking in Westminster recently, I imagined her hastening across St James’s Park to one of her meetings at Nancy Astor’s house near the London Library. Today, suffragettes are celebrated for their innovative direct action. But Rathbone blazed a trail, too, with her dedication as a campaigner, writer, lobbyist and “100% feminist” parliamentarian.

Sexed: A History of British Feminism by Susanna Rustin is published by Polity Press (£20). To support the Guardian order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply

#Eleanor Rathbone #The Disinherited Family #Books by women #Books about women #Child benefit #National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship (Nusec)#Rachel Reeve #The Women Who Made Modern Economics #Women in politics #UK #Seed: A History of British Feminism #Susan Rustin

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ardously · 3 months

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For people who haven't read Gaiman's books...yeah. Neverwhere has an obvious author self insert (something something boring whinging white male who women inexplicably find incredibly attractive) who finds a magical injured teenage girl (she's fourteen) and it's such uncomfortably realistic grooming that I didn't even notice it until I read it again as an adult. Just. Oh yeah they're in a relationship by the end lol.

Sidebar he writes a female warrior in this same book and is constantly describing her "delicious caramel skin" or whatever and describes her breasts in her DEATH SCENE. His writing is so utterly masturbatory that I feel secondhand embarrassment that anyone would want this sort of thing published.

In American Gods, he has an entire digression from the plot to detail how the main character's cheating whore wife died in a car accident bc she was giving her affair partner a blow job. The MC is all coolly detached and only slightly sad about the death the narrative implies she deserved. This is shown as some kind of "grace" on his part btw.

That's not the worst part! The worst part is definitely the sexually aggressive teenaged native american girl (oh, sorry, "20sish", since calling her "barely legal" would be too obvious) who keeps throwing herself all over the adult male protag (he's 32) for no reason. Ofc the epilogue implies the protag is stalking her and giving her flowers to pursue a relationship...how sweet. I could mention how basically every other female character is just fodder for sexual violence and shock value, but honestly, it's the background radiation of all of his work. A deep-seated, cynical amusement that women pretend to be anything more than sex toys and whores, which ofc the author espouses again and again is a woman's true nature. He is a liberal misogynist through and through.

This, of course, doesn't even touch upon the homophobia, but I've seen that discussed far more often than the truly vile misogyny openly on display whenever Gaiman picks up a pen.

#Neil Gaiman #this is not a discussion #I've read the books many times and yeah he can die lmaooooo

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renewedmotionforjudgment · 23 days

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Since AO3 is still weird with me, posting the textfic portion of chapter 3 of "But Darling, Stay with Me" (SOKP modern lawyer AU) with @xiakeponz here. Also, this whole fic is potentially just group therapy for law school.

This segment is also known as - I think I died of secondhand embarrassment writing this because akd;fhas;kfh my worst nightmare is TEXTING THE WRONG PERSON.

Putting stuff behind cut because it's lengthy. (also, I am crying in big boobs because every bra for cup sizes D and above is just ... beige. Lots and lots of beige).

POV: when you're Xie Wei and you're editor in chief of the law review and you've put your phone on mute because oh wow, look at all of these pompous ass attorneys trying to submit their law review articles. And then you unmute your phone to see 20 something unread messages from your crush cousin's friend (whose number you obviously have just in case as an emergency contact for your cousin) and it contains an holy amount of bra pictures.

All typos are mine Jiang Xuening's.

(pictures left to right)

#story of kunning palace #SOKP modern / lawyer AU #my fics #literally just me pinning cute bras on pinterest and crying that i can't wear them #and cute tops

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commsroom · 4 months

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Hello! How much pop culture knowledge do you think Hera has? Has she seen star wars?

hi! that's an interesting question. the simplified answer is that she doesn't have pop culture knowledge - the only media she has any firsthand knowledge of is whatever goddard deigned to give her access to. she's never been on the internet. most likely, the only movie she's ever seen is home alone 2. but that gets fuzzier - and more complicated - when you ask what, exactly, she has in her databanks. what's on the hephaestus's servers? "my databanks indicate janis joplin died in -"? that's pop culture trivia. "well, i don't know what i want, but i know how to get it" is a fun punchline, but there's no way she's actually heard anarchy in the u.k. - is she just remembering and quoting a previous reference back at eiffel? even recognizing bach - does she have prior knowledge of classical music? does she have access to sheet music and the ability to read it? i'd believe that as something cutter would consider useful... education? socialization? for lack of better terms, but we don't have much information on what goddard AIs are exposed to pre-assignment.

i hold to the belief that hera's claim that she's going through "all the writing - i think it's all in here, more or less" stems from an inability to really conceptualize just how much writing there might be. her whole life has been split between high security goddard labs and deep space, and she's met, like, a dozen people ever. i think it would be entirely reasonable for her to see a few thousand books of historical and literary significance and to think, well, that's probably most of it, right? probably everything important, anyway. (and i think she'll be very embarrassed and very overwhelmed when she realizes.)

and then, well. of course, there's eiffel. he speaks in pop culture references to the point it's practically a second language; of course hera has picked up a ton of secondhand knowledge just from connecting the dots and inferring what he's trying to say. hera hasn't seen star wars (though it's maybe inevitable she will, back on earth), but she's heard eiffel talk about star wars and describe star wars to her beat by beat and reenact scenes from star wars from memory (his own voices and sound effects included), so she probably feels like she's seen star wars. ... more or less.

#thank you for asking!! i love an excuse to talk about hera #i feel like... hm. i think the best way to approach most aspects of her characterization is just to treat her as a very sheltered woman #because... she is. but also because trying to determine any definite limits re: what she knows - or what she SHOULD know -#if you try to approach it entirely literally. is always going to run into some contradictions. if that makes sense #like. being in minkowski's play is another example. hera calls it a classic of 19th century comic opera and is learning her lines but #do they have the script for pirates of penzance?#... did minkowski try to write it up from memory?#asks

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yourlegacysnotyourstosee · 11 months

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I took notes on my thoughts while watching Nerdy Prudes Must Die because I did the same for Black Friday

DAMN Jon said “I am a TENOR”

I literally can’t get over how good he sounds

AHHHHHH LAUREN!!!!!

Bro these songs SLAP

Damn Mariahs hair is so long

Pete is such a mood

I’m literally terrified of being pantsed so bad

BRUH NOT MICRO-PETER

Omg hey Kim

When Cory enthusiastically agrees I’m dying

Omg Max likes Grace???????

Wait that’s so cute

Wait why’s he kinda fine

“His name is Jesus Christ” HELP 💀💀💀💀💀

It’s giving Apex Predator (from Mean Girls)

Damn these HARMONIES THO

My jaw is on the floor the way Cory is talking to her

“How am I supposed to study without listening to Spotify?” ME LMFAO

I KNOW HE DID NOT JUST MAKE AN ISSAC NEWTON JOKE

The way hes like “this is about thermodynamics” me me me. I hate when people make jokes about the things we’re not even talking about.

“NANI” NO WAY HE SAID THAT HELP💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀I LITERALLY CANNOT BREATHE 💀💀💀💀💀💀

Study date????????

Joey Richter my beloved ❤️❤️❤️

When Max enters and the crowd cheers

“Rondevuch”

Max literally has a God complex

Why is Kim everyones mom?

“Walen place”?????

“Mom will you pass the butt stuff????” HELP SHES BEEN CORRUPTED

NO WAY SHES FANTASIZING ABOUT MAX JAGERMAN

LITERALLY WHAT

Awwww Grace is experiencing Catholic Guilt™ ❤️❤️❤️

Girl wdym “he’s gotta go”???

Laurens character is bisexual???????

“WAIFU MATERIAL”?????? I literally can’t get over Jons character

Wait Grace is a little fucked up actually

Wait since the Waylons built hatchetfield high and the starlight theater, could they have cursed the town somehow? Like I know about the evil brothers or whatever, but I’m not super familiar with the lore

Wait I kind of love Grace now

Mariah slays

“Am I reading as Ghost, or Lin Manuel Miranda?” AWWWWWW❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

“Your fucking useless Pete.” Tgwdlm???? In MY npmd???? It’s more likely than you think

I’m very suspicious about how fast they seemed to put the plan together…

I know the plan wont work and Im so nervous I’m getting secondhand embarrassment so bad rn

“Skele-ens”

I need Max Jagerman actually

Awwww Max is a Theater Kid ❤️❤️❤️

AW FUCK HE DIED

HOLY FUCK HE DIED

GIRL WTF IS WRONG WITH GRACE

I love how upbeat this song is

WHYD SHE CUT HIS NIPPLES OFF WTF

Omg Dan and Donna!

Slay Mayor Lauter

His reaction to being asked to the game is giving- “she asked me for the time” “no way” “way :D”

THE NIGHTHAWKS MASCOT 💀💀💀💀

FUCK CLIVESDALE

DAMN THEYRE IN THE SPLITS GOOD FOR THEM

I like that the football team has only 2 players

I love when actors walk through the audience, but ESPECIALLY here when hes stalking Richie bro looks so good

Listen I know he’s about to kill Richie but HES SO FINE HELP

Im literally so Gay bro

THE SMOKE CLUB!!!!!!

THE NIGHTMARE TIME THEME

When she says hes not hot anymore girl speak for yoursef

Please let Grace swear

Oh fuck they’re giving themselves away

Grace Chastity said “acab”

Cory needs more songs

MAN IN A HURRY RETURNS!!!!!

Damn who is this girl in a trenchcoat 😍😍😍

GERALD OH MY GOD

Random side note but what happened to Robert? I was just thinking about how I wish we could see Hidgens again but is Robert still a part of Starkid anymore? Is he on to Bigger and Better things? Does anyone know what those are? I’d love to continue to support him.

Edit: NVM NVM I TAKE IT BACK I DO NOT WANT TO SUPPORT ROBERT MANION NO NO NO SIR

The invisible bird. Literally high school theater

“Heahs the thang about ah bahbecue”

“Ah wawna remember who ah ayum”

Ruth is so real for not know when to do the lights bc the cue lines were wrong

Ugh Laurens voice is so good and I know ive said that about pretty much everyone but it’s true

I know shes about to die rn

The red lighting gave it away

THE WAY HE LOOKS INTO CAMERA AFTER HE KILLS HER I NEED HIM SO BAD

Why did Kim scream like that

Awww Grace has religious trauma now ❤️❤️❤️

THE COPS THEME

OH MY GOD PAUL AND EMMA!!!!!!!!!

He gave her his number❤️❤️❤️

Hot chocolate boy!!!!!!!! I knew Peter was the hot chocolate boy but still

This duet is EVERYTHING

Obsessed with the fact he called MARIAH ROSE FAITH a MEAN GIRL

“Axe wielding maniacs?”

The Waylons did not dig that shit very deep…

OH FUCK THEY HAVE TO SUMMIN THE LORDS IN BLACK

I KNEW THE WAYLONS BUILT LAKESIDE MALL

im so sorry Zombie Max is So Fine

WIGGLY

THEY HAVE HUMAN FORMS??????

“Let me check my Christmas list”

“What do you want steph?” MORE tgwdlm? In MY npmd?

I feel bad for not knowing all their names

Max says bitch a lot

Damn this show is long

Omg this is so sad im tearing up a lil

Max is so fucking funny

Damn Grace is seducing Max this is hilarious

Fuck Grace Chastity or kill some nerds? One of the many difficult decisions in life

He decides to fuck Grace Chastity

OH MY GOD THATS SO SMART

Thats some fuckin Macbeth level shit

Kims teacher character is so cute awwwww

Paul and Bill dance Chaperones??????

Oh nvm that’s Jason

I don’t think I ever mentioned it but the dancing is really good

It’s very clean and crisp

In the last 2 hours I very quickly developed a massive crush on Will Branner

OH FUCK

WHATS GOING ON

WHAT

#also idk how to spell most of their names #so forgive me #nerdy prudes must die #peter spankoffski #starkid #max jagerman #npmd spoilers #nerdy prudes spoilers

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mareeyeahh · 4 months

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Maybe it wasn't meant to be, unless...? Part 2

Diluc x reader, reader is implied as female

Part 1 here

I'm not a writer periodt. (Okay then so why write?) I just wrote this for funsies. If you found it weird or inconsistent let me know~

The last few rays of the sun painted the leaves and trees golden as it completely set, marking the end of another fruitful day at Dawn Winery. The farmers that have spent the day harvesting bounties from the vineyard have already headed home weary yet feeling fulfilled. The maids that may or may not have wasted their time gossiping hurried inside the manor to assist the chefs in preparing dinner.

This day was another one of those days when Kaeya pays a visit and dines with his brother, Diluc. After Weinlesefest, the two brothers have made an unspoken promise to accommodate each other when time allows it and it was always in the presence of food and drinks (non-alcohol). The two of them may just be tolerating each other's company, but nobody could ever be at peace more than Elzer and Adelinde, the two people who have closely watched the Ragvindr brothers grow up.

Kaeya arrives just before dark and the maids greet him, as Elzer led him to the dining hall where Diluc has sat down in his usual spot. The clattering of the plates and silverware echoed through the room as they dined.

"Grandmaster Varka's recent letter has been quite the talk of the city." Kaeya said in between bites. "Two knights have withdrawn from the expedition and he couldn't be more disappointed."

Diluc gave him a questioning look before swallowing his food. "I think it's unrefined for the Cavalry Captain to be gossiping about your coworker's circumstances."

"I do not engage in gossip." Kaeya scoffs. "I'm merely gathering intel."

Diluc mentally rolled his eyes at Kaeya's nonsense but just decided to humor him. "And what, pray tell, is this intel that you speak of?"

As one of the Knights of Favonius, Kaeya had to experience the secondhand embarrassment that he felt towards the two knights who resigned from their positions in the ongoing expedition. Grandmaster Varka was enraged that the Knights compromised their responsibilities in order to engage in frivolous acts. Diluc, known for his disdain and criticism towards the Knights, was not really fazed by all this.

"Grandmaster Varka is rightfully disappointed." Diluc says, cleaning up the last bits of food off his plate. "But what of the two Knights? Have they returned?"

"They reside now in Natlan as their actions bore fruit. If they didn't come clean and somehow got caught in a perilous predicament whilst on expedition, there would be greater losses." Kaeya said as he shook his head at the idea of bloodshed.

"Are you personally acquainted with them?"

"The woman used to be under the Reconnaisance company before Grandmaster Varka appointed her as one of the knights to join the expedition while the man..." Kaeya trailed off.

The drunken hand reaching for the tavern door, the fall that was anything but graceful, and the red haired man that heroically saved the poor woman, all of these played in Kaeya's mind before disclosing the information that he has.

"Apparently, the male Knight was Y/N's old lover." Kaeya wiped his mouth with a napkin. "He promised her he'd marry her if he ever came back safely from the expedition. Poor girl. No wonder she looked so gloomy that night."

Kaeya eyed Diluc for any sort of reaction, but the redhead was as stoic as a statue. Despite not knowing what the man was thinking, Kaeya understood that something must've happened the night they met. His mind was clearly racing, his eyes seemed lost but his face was stern.

"Have you seen her these days?" Kaeya asked, which brought Diluc back from his wandering thoughts.

"No." Diluc replied calmly. Now that he knows vital information about you, it made more sense why he was worried. He tried knocking on your door a few days after that night, wanting to check up on you. But your home was always empty.

He didn't want to pester you with these misplaced feelings of worry. After you graciously turned down his invitation for a meal together, he kept his distance in respect of your feelings. The last thing a woman like you needs is a man bothering her when she already said no.

But he couldn't forget that splendid figure of you that night, singing like there was no tomorrow. Your voice echoed in his mind, despite only hearing you sing once. The rich yet sweet melody that escaped your lips captivated him in a way he never thought was possible.

He shook his head in disbelief, what a fool he has become. He did not fully comprehend it but he constantly dreamt of you. There in his mind played a montage of memories that has certainly never happened in his life before. He hears you singing while out with him harvesting in the grape vineyard. Your sweet yet wordless hums fill the kitchen as you hand cooked a meal for him. The relaxing lullabies that you would sing him to sleep after a night of warm embrace. The sweet nothings you whispered into his ear as the sunshine greeted you in the morning. The laughter and melodies that was swept by the breeze as you held his child in your arms. He thought he had gone mad. Why did you tug at his heartstrings so strongly?

"You never checked up on her?" Kaeya's voice broke Diluc's train of delusional thoughts.

"I tried to but it seems that she's been away since."

Kaeya's eyes narrowed at the redhead. Diluc wasn't dodging the questions but Kaeya couldn't shake the feeling that something really must've happened between him and the woman. He scavenged for the right words to say but then thought it would be better to ask him straight.

"Did you do something to make her run off like that?" Kaeya really didn't mince his words, implied that Diluc scared the woman.

Diluc glared at the man. "No." But then he thought about it carefully. Inviting her that time may have seemed a little disrespectful now that he knows she was going through a rough breakup. It also may have come out as a man taking advantage of her intoxication to do whatever he wants.

Diluc felt bad about that. Maybe Kaeya was right. Maybe he really did scare her off.

"I did invite her out to a meal together." Diluc sighed, facepalming himself in his head. "But it must've been insensitive of me to ask her."

"You what?" Kaeya said, the words of his brother not registering in his brain. He must've heard it wrong that Diluc, the embodiment of a lone wolf and a successful yet intimidating business owner, asked a woman out to a meal.

"I invited her to have a meal together." Diluc deadpanned.

Kaeya clapped his hands over his mouth, and Adelinde who had overheard their conversation, did the same. Diluc pinched the space between his eyebrows at their dramatic reactions. He didn't want to tell anybody that he was interested in a woman because he was turned down after all and the target of his affections was nowhere to be seen. It was pointless in the end.

The dinner ended that night where Kaeya was teasing Diluc of finally experiencing puberty and Adelinde exclaiming that spring has finally come for their young Master.

***

The passage marking the end of Liyue and the start of a journey back to Mondstadt was surprisingly peaceful. You gave yourself a pat on the back for deciding to leave for Mondstadt at dawn. Monsters did not dare lurk around in broad daylight but some hilichurls were being quite a nuisance to some travelers.

It has a been almost a month since you joined the Adventurer's Guild. To be honest, you were skeptical about it at first because of how dangerous the commissions could be. You've gotten all kinds of commissions since you started, from collecting fresh slime condensate, killing and bringing back the meat of a wild boar in Dragonspine (and accidentally running into an angry Great Snowboar King), to climbing the heights of Qingyun Peak to get the freshest Qingxin flower adorned with morning dewdrops.

You didn't know how to wield any type of weapon or much less stepped out of Mondstadt so it was though you were living with your life at stake. But the dangers of today outweighed the dull life you had when you stayed at home and patiently waited for your lover who never came back.

You shake your head, memories of your past lover suddenly flooding your mind. Ever since you've started to travel, explore, meet new people and run into dangerous creatures in the wild, you finally understood why you were so depressed. You made him, the man who casually broke your heart, your world instead making him a small part of it. Looking at the vast seas and wondrous landscapes felt like your problems were only a speck of existence. The world you used to have only sheltered him and your fantasies that you two would be happily married. But now, all of that was simply a memory.

The concrete land masses that reached far as the eyes could see turned into lush green forests that brought about a familiar soothing breeze that was only known to Mondstadt greeted you as you finally reached the end of Stone Gate. A week away from home didn't seem very long but to anyone who misses it, it felt like a year. You remember having met someone who was a native of Mondstadt but now lives in Liyue during your commissions. They said it would be nice to go back but they couldn't leave the lights, the crowds, the prosperous city life in Liyue.

But as a born and bred Mondstater you were more suited to the ambience that your hometown gives. Peaceful, quiet, and relaxing. The familiar surroundings of Mondstadt was enough to calm your senses.

The horizon morphed into a fiery color a little after you reached the perimeters of Dawn Winery, signaling the end of the day.

Despite being in a relatively safe area, monsters still lurked dangerously near the territory, especially at night. You heard that riftwolves that were commonly found in the islands of Inazuma started appearing in Wolvendom and you were glad not to have taken that route. Instead, you walked the road by the lake that was connected to Dragonspine. It definitely made the trip back to Mondstadt longer, but a detour wouldn't hurt would it?

Your eyes reach the top of Skyfrost Nail, reminiscing the cold and merciless trips you had to do for commissions. At another angle you see the Dawn Winery's manor, that was visually warmer compared to the view of Dragonspine. The sunset made the scenery even more warmer, the skies reminding you of a certain red haired man.

Being drunk didn't stop you from remembering what had happened that night. After all, a man as brilliant as the business owner asking you out to dinner was something that happens once every few lifetimes. It didn't sit quite well with you if you accepted his invitation while you were still depressed about your ex.

If it was any other time, you would have accepted in a heartbeat. A man such as Diluc did not deserve lukewarm appreciation, to be treated second best, a mere rebound to a failed first love. If your heart wasn't in such a messy place, you would've been having meals with him.

Daydreaming about Diluc has led you to the corner of the lake where the road splits in two, one that circles around Dawn Winery and one that leads you further to Dragonspine. You snapped back to reality and spun on your feet, leaving a trail of footprints on the sand.

What you did not notice was a group of Cryo Slimes following you. Only until they shoot icicles at your feet did you notice their presence and thankfully you didn't get hit. Even though you clutched your sword and swung it against the slimes, it did not faze them. So you only did the next best thing you were good at; running for your life.

The sky grew darker as you ran and the slimes were deadset on chasing you. The largest one managed to hit your leg with its icicles and it slowed you down, the ice began to form on your hind leg. You couldn't afford to stop so you limped, your leg starting to feel heavy due to the freezing. The feeling was brutal, while your muscles still struggled to move the ice crept in and froze them in place, completely immobilizing you. The numbing pain worsened rapidly, it felt as if your muscles would rip through your skin.

The slimes quickly caught up to you as the ice reached your upper body, surrounding you. You swung your sword to scare them away but you were outnumbered. The slimes emitted cold air as they circled around you, aiding the frost that crept into your upper limbs making you drop your weapon. In an unforgiving circumstance, you were left to accept that this was your death bed.

But suddenly a large bird with its wings adorned with flames swooped in and defeated the cryo slimes one by one. Holding onto your consciousness, you see from the corner of your eye a man who expertly swung his claymore, almost gracefully like the bird you saw earlier.

The cryo slimes melted like ice on his greatsword. The leader of the pack was harder to tackle with its shield as it shot icicles at the man. It was emitting cold air, physically slowing the man's movements. Diluc sprang on his feet and jumped mid air, attacking the slime from above by suprise and successfully breaking the shield. This provided Diluc an opening and summoned his Phoenix which finally killed the slime.

"Diluc!" Another man's voice shouted from behind you. He knelt down and frantically examined your frozen state. Your consciousness was slipping as the frost reached your brain, inducing a painful brain freeze.

"No, do not use your vision." The man with an eyepatch warned the other. "You'll injure her body more."

"What am I supposed to do, let her freeze to death?"

"It would be better to gradually warm her up. We should bring her..." The voices were slowly fading away as you succumb to the pain that you felt.

***

"Prepare the fireplace at once." Diluc ordered a group of maids as he carried you in his arms with coat wrapped tightly around you.

"A warm bath would be better, brother." Kaeya suggested, instructing Adelinde as he went. "Let the ice thaw slowly to avoid startling her body with immediate changes in temperature."

Diluc inhaled deeply, calming himself as he glanced at the woman in his arms. He was in no position to argue and panicking would not help either. But your unresponsive state left him anxious. You felt like a block of ice in his arms and he feared that the frost was no longer the cause of it.

Kaeya has experienced similar situations like these considering the element that he wields and is grateful they weren't life threatening. Diluc thought it was best he let Kaeya handle it. His current composure might not stop him from doing something that could harm you further.

The maids forbade the men to come into the bath to check up on you. But with clear instructions from Kaeya, the frost from your body thawed safely. Your body was back to its original temperature and your muscles weren't rigid like steel.

But you were yet to regain consciousness. Diluc had ordered the maids to arrange a makeshift bed a safe distance from the fireplace to keep your body warm until it was able to regulate its temperature again. He never left your side, even holding your hand and using his Pyro vision to keep you warm.

He looked at your face. Your complexion was no longer pale indicating that your blood was circulating normally. Your lips that had turned deep violet due to the frost had regained its reddish color. While you were still in a deep sleep state with no signs of waking up, the man's worries subsided a little. All that matters is that you're safe now.

Still, Diluc contemplated that if he arrived a second earlier then you wouldn't be silently battling for your life like this. He inhaled sharply. If he had been a second too late to save you...

Diluc shook those thoughts out of his head. It would be for the better not to dwell on something that hadn't happened. He held your hand tighter, controlling the amount of Pyro Vision that your body absorbed. You were going to be okay. He knows it.

"Master Diluc," Elzer called him from behind, careful not to startle him. "You must rest."

"I'm fine, Elzer." Diluc replied not looking back at him.

"I can see it in my eyes, my boy. You are tired."

"You're right. But compared to what she's going through," Diluc glanced at your peaceful face. "This is nothing. I'll be fine, Elzer."

Elzer sighed in defeat. But if that's what the young master wants then he can only comply. "Please don't exert yourself too much." He said before leaving the two of you alone.

The night grew cold as the fire started to burn dimmer and dimmer. Wanting to tend the fire, Diluc released your hand, gently placing it on top of your chest before standing up. Just as he was about to walk towards the fireplace, he heard a loud gasp from you.

You shot up from the makeshift bed, your body continuing the line of action it was doing before it had gone frozen. But the sudden movement made you wince and clutched your head. The brain freeze hadn't completely gone away yet.

"W-where am I? The slimes..." You slowly looked around your surroundings, trying not to overwhelm your brain.

"Calm down." A deep voice said. You turn your head to see a man whose hair shone like flames. "You are in my manor."

"M-Master Diluc?" You sat upright, trying to look presentable in your disheveled state.

"Do not exert yourself." He crouched down and implored you to sit comfortably. "It isn't wise to immediately rise after a deep slumber."

"Archons," You took in a deep breath, racking your brain as you try to remember what had happened. The slimes surrounding you, the fear of being incapable, the pain, you couldn't help but sob. "I thought I was going to..." You clapped your hands onto your face as you trailed off.

The man beside placed his hand on your back and rubbed it in an attempt to calm you. "I'm glad we made it in time."

From your sobbing, you looked up at him. "Thank you, Master Diluc." You sniffled.

Diluc only gave you a small smile, letting you cry it out until you had enough. The warmth of his hand that stroked your back was warmer than what was perceived normal body temperature. But you figured it might've been because of his Pyro vision. It felt soothing, the warmth hitting all the right places as if it was thawing the ice in your body that was left over from the bath. Thanks to that, it didn't take long for you to calm down.

"But what were doing at the edge of the winery?" Diluc asked as he was afraid you got lost.

"I was on my home from Liyue."

Diluc did not press further as to why you were in Liyue but he understood why your home was always empty everytime he knocked on your door. He also knew you didn't want to be scolded by a stranger about the dangers that wander in the bewilderness.

He took a good look at your face and knew that the heartbroken woman who almost stumbled spectularly was no more. Despite the tears that stained your cheeks, he saw the glint in your eyes. A fierce one at that. You may have not been able to defeat the slimes but something about you told Diluc that you were willing to fight even without knowing how. Right then and there, he was in awe of you.

"I am eternally grateful to you for saving my life. If there's anything I can do to repay you-"

"You needn't do that. It is my duty to protect citizens of Mondstadt." Diluc cut you off, knowing full well what you were going to say as he has heard many times already from the mouth of others.

The pain of being shut down immediately stung quite a bit. Did you somehow hurt his feelings when he asked you out that night? Hopefully not. You cleared your throat. "It does not change the fact that I will not be here today if it weren't for you."

Escaping one's death by merely a hair's breadth was certainly not something anyone should look over upon. You still shook with fear but you tried your best to give Diluc a smile of gratitude.

"Well," Diluc mirroring your smile, something probably no one has ever seen before, "If you are so eager to repay me, I would be delighted to get to know you more?" He paused to hear your response but quickly added, "As long as it's alright with you."

Your eyes almost faltered at the sight, the beating of your heart quickened seeing his grin. "I-It would be my pleasure, Master Diluc."

"Please, call me Diluc." His chuckle emphasized the deepness of his voice, tickling your ears. "I believe this must be the third time I've said that."

***

AHHHHHH I dont know where i was going with this im sorry i said id cook but it turned out raw and bland lmao. Also, I feel like i write like I'm AI or smth lmao Istg I don't use AI to write this up. I squeezed my brain for this and this is the best I can do I guess.

Smol taglist: @ruttteerr

#genshin x reader #genshin impact #genshin diluc #diluc #diluc x reader #diluc x you #diluc ragnvindr #genshin fanfic

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redux-iterum · 9 months

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A Canine Eulogy

We put down my dog, Geno, today.

Textwall of sentiment under the cut.

Shortly, he was ill, and steadily growing worse every day at a rapid decline of a week before his death. He'd have brief moments of cheeriness, then go back to being listless, sluggish and unhappy. The vet made it clear a few days ago that there was very little chance of saving him and that his quality of life (the most dreaded phrase in a pet owner's dictionary) was poor, and only getting poorer. We made the decision to end his suffering before it got so severe he couldn't climb up the stairs into my house, or have accidents indoors, or starve himself to death (as he was starting to). It didn't feel good, not remotely, but it had to be done.

I haven't talked about Geno on this blog, so I figure the best way to pay my respects is to tell you all how great of a dog he was. Probably a bit late to introduce him, but whatever.

Geno (nicknames including Bean, Stinky Bean/Gene, Eyebrows Boy, Old Man and Geno Bon Benostein) was a dog that we never figured out the breed of. Many people, charmed by his pleasant, permanent puppyface that was always so happy to see them, would ask me his breed, and my answer was "He's got big eyebrows, that's all I know". That generally got a laugh, which was nice.

We attained Geno when he was about half a year old in a move. My pops runs a moving company, and we get all sorts of things from moves that people don't want to take with them to the new house across the state. I don't think a single piece of furniture in my house isn't secondhand, that's how much we get.

Geno in particular was our first longterm pet from a move. The lowdown is that the customers were divorcing and were viciously arguing over every single item and animal in the house. The wife threatened to take Geno to the pound, and immediately Pops offered to adopt him. I found this out when he picked me up from a sleepover in middle school and had a second dog with him, along with our first. It was quite a delightful surprise.

Our first dog was less than obedient and more than indifferent to humans, loving to destroy stuff and escape constantly. Geno, on the other hand, was only concerned about staying within eyesight of his owners, to the point of sitting on a windowsill as well as he could and staring at us through the glass until we let him in (at the time Pops was not eager to have dogs in the house). We never needed to chain him up or fence him in - he was entirely devoted to us from jump and got as close as he could at all times.

The first dog eventually died, and Geno was the sole pup of the house. He thrived in that, and he made a point to prove himself to be an excellent dog. He never had an accident in the house for many years (until age got to him), preferring to potty in the bushes or brush so that we didn't have to worry about stepping in it or even cleaning it up. He never barked or ran away or growled at visitors, nor did he knock over trash cans or even so much as get fleas during the summer. The only things we struggled with were his great hatred of other dogs and aggressive fear of wheels. The wheel thing was a little more embarrassing, because he'd bark at some poor bastard in a wheelchair who was just trying to mind his own business. Like, great, thanks, Geno. Now we look like assholes.

Geno went on many, many trips across the country with us, especially to Yellowstone, which is a yearly voyage pops and I go on. He was a treat to travel with - he just wanted to rest his head between the front seats and look at us adoringly. He went to beaches, where he didn't enjoy the coast and instead stuck with us by inches, and on moves, where customers and their new neighbors would fawn over him and he got to be the Super Special Puppy Dog, which he loved. He went more places than most people I know, and certainly ate more pizza than any other dog in the United States while we were in hotels. Maybe not healthy for him, but man did he love his 'za, and he'd stare at us with his big ol' cow eyes. How could we say no?

This dog was a major part of my life - he was around for half of it, from middle school to adulthood. I don't think I can ever get another dog that would be nearly as wonderful as him, and I don't know that I want to. I think he raised the standard too high and made every dog I take care of (I housesit for a living) somehow not as good as him, no matter how well-mannered they are. I expect that to be that way for a very long time.

His collar, I decided, will stay in my car, hooked around the rearview mirror. That way, he gets to travel with me no matter where I go. He always did thoroughly enjoy a car ride.

Moonshine will miss him greatly. She was infatuated with him no matter how much he tried to make her go away. He gave up towards the end and started being nice to her, at least. I'm just glad I've got pictures of them interacting and her demanding his affections. Those are precious memories above precious memories.

The vet techs mourned with us as we said goodbye, calling him "one of the good ones". I think that's a pretty high compliment.

I hope he's happy, wherever he is.

You were a good boy, Geno.

#readmore #pets #real talk #i speak #not warriors

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billpottsismygf · 5 months

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Episode 7 (The Very Long Stairway)! I didn't put it in my last review, but I had a strong feeling we were going to get a flashback to the start of Edwin and Charles' relationship in this one. I had wondered if it would start with it, Good Omens style, so when it didn't happen immediately I thought maybe I was wrong. I was vindicated, however! And I love the use of the Night Nurse's already established powers as a framing device for it. I got so into what was happening, though, that I forgot that was how it started and was surprised when the camera panned to her watching everything.

So, oh my god, Edwin sat and talked with Charles as he died!!!! Edwin is so incredibly kind to him and it's heartbreaking that he knew this boy was going to die in front of him, and decided to make sure he had the most calming death possible. And Charles instantly decided to stay with him. I think it's very telling that he latches onto Edwin so quickly. Charles is someone who values kindness and helping people - he literally just died because he saved another boy from being bullied - so when he understands what Edwin did for him, he knows this is a person to hang onto.

I had wondered for a while if Charles had been the one to rescue Edwin from hell, given that they met 30 years ago, the same time he got out of hell. Turns out that no, Edwin had already just got out of hell by himself, but this was still a really satisfying flashback. Speaking of their relationship, we also finally got the love confession. I really didn't want Edwin to say anything, but it went about as well as it possibly could have. Still, gah, reeling from the secondhand embarrassment and the fact that this is not the time, Edwin! I was about to be so annoyed if the thing 'worse than a demon' had caught them because they spent so long dawdling on the staircase.

The scenes in hell themselves were really effective. Loved the page ripping punishment, very Sisyphean, and in fact the entire scene that followed with Simon was so touching I had to watch the whole thing again immediately. He was a stupid boy who didn't know what he was doing, and their reconciliation reminded me a bit of Pat forgiving the boy who shot him in Ghosts. Anyway, it seems that everyone has a crush on Edwin apart from the one boy he wants. Still, Edwin and Simon reconciling and Edwin telling him that 'if you punish yourself enough, everywhere becomes hell' but that being queer doesn't have to be a punishment, was incredibly moving. Again, Edwin has empathy for him and shows him kindness.

Relatedly, I also loved the scene with Despair. The moment she came on screen, even with her face obscured, I realised who she was. She barely features in Sandman, far less than Death anyway, but I recognised her instantly. Obviously I'm intrigued about the whole 'I'll call you if ever I need you' thing, but for the purposes of this episode I really love how that scene solidified the importance of Edwin having compassion. Edwin can be very bitchy (which I love him for), and he had every right to be mean to the boy who sent him to hell, but he chose kindness instead.

Conversely, Crystal got to choose violence and I love that for her. It was very satisfying seeing her literally get to bury David. It's fitting, as well, that David once overpowered her mind and now she's using her mind to overpower him. It is, of course, 'bad for the tree' if he stays there long, so I wonder if we'll see repercussions from that further down the line.

What else? Oh, the opening scene! The Cat King is such an interesting figure. He's creepy in the way he pursues Edwin, but it feels like they're on slightly more level ground now. He's a wild card character who's not exactly a villain, but will always act in his own interests. I'll be interested to see where his character goes from here, especially now it's been established that he's less powerful than Esther. His line about how strong and great Edwin is and who does Esther think she is trying to beat him, while obviously a problem in terms of giving her ideas, was also interesting in its own right. He clearly knows a fair bit about Edwin and genuinely thinks highly of him. Until this point we've only really seen him interacting with Edwin, where he taunts him the whole time, so this has made me all the more intrigued and invested in him.

Small things:

Edwin explaining to Charles that he doesn't fall through the floor because of the vague and weird ghost rules once again gave me strong Ghosts vibes.

I continue to love Mick, so really hoping he'll be okay after his confrontation with Esther.

Maxine in hell was interesting! I thought we'd learn more about her after her death, but it was a very fleeting appearance.

I thought Jenny might actually learn about ghosts and demons and psychics (oh my), but it seems not, alas.

Simon got a blue light after Edwin left, so does that mean Death came to him? Can people in hell get closure from unfinished business and move on? Or is it something Edwin specifically is good at doing for people?

Monty's still around and doing Esther's bidding! Someone turn him back into a human, please! Maybe Crystal?

I loved Niko getting to save the day (for now) through the power of reading comprehension!

#dead boy detectives #the case of the very long stairway #final episode next!#dbd #mine #dbd mine #reactions

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