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charlidos · 4 months

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THE CHRONICLES OF THE CUNTYBAGO

I love the lore of the Fellowship, I can't get enough of it. And it's really turned into a kind of myth, hasn't it? The stories have been established, from being told again and again. Regardless if it's not the whole truth, or even not true at all. The lore has a life of its own. And it changes, depedning on who's talking, and over time.

The lore of the (inappropriately named) Cuntybago is a favourite; that famed make-up trailer bus where Orlando spent so much time with Viggo (hours and hours for years and years if you listen to Orlando) absorbing everything Viggo did.

So here's the Ultimate (very long) Cuntybago Post.

The Cuntybago is apparently where all the after-work parties happened. Most of what actually happened on it is still secret, private events not to be shared; after hours, after some wine/whisky drinking. What kind of special stuff was in the drawers? What did they really smoke? And, most intriguingly, who exactly was left onboard when everyone were ordered to get out... (Erm, V&O, perhaps?)I'm sure there are many more photos from the bus. Like a photo of Viggo & Orlando - which has yet to be seen. Oh, to have been a fly on that wall!

(A clip from the last day of the reshoots, in 2003. Because it's the time the bus has been talked about the most. Even if I'm unsure if this is the actual Cuntybago or not. Since it doesn't look green...)

Mortensen and Orlando Bloom spent much of their off-time on a green bus they named the "Cunty-Bago." Instead of the standard luxury lodging demanded by most stars on set, Viggo and co-star Orlando Bloom shared a converted bus while filming Rings. Viggo stocked the bus with a wine cellar and wallpapered the inside with candid behind-the-scenes photos. A source on the set said the bus was the site of frequent cast parties, with the motto, "Everyone is welcome, but when it's time to go, get out!" Indeed, they formed a club — The Cunty-Bago Club. [Viggo, Sean and Orlando] shared a make-up Winnebago, and through hours of beard and pointy-ear application formulated the rules of their society — most of which boil down to getting gossip and posting it on. [on what? I think the text is cut?]

There are very few quotes from Viggo. If you read his old interviews about life on set it sounds like he mostly worked 6 days a week, 14 hours a day. And in his free time, he went camping and fishing by himself and just drove around to get some me-time. That's it. It all sounds like mostly work and no play for Viggo. Cementing this image of him being ever serene, wise and a hard working method actor who never stopped being Aragorn. But then, we have the stories of this bus, which shows his wilder side...

(Viggo in ponytails, with a glass of wine and banana, in front of that mirror covered in photographs. They both took a lot of photos on set, so I guess a bunch of those photos are Orlando's.)

All Viggo's said is this:

"It was a crazy small bus." "Everything had cunt. It was 'cunt this' and 'cunt that'. We had a cuntmas tree, and we had cuntmas angels."

(Orlando on the makeup bus. )

Orlando has mostly mentioned the bus in passing, as he loves on Viggo, his great hero. And in his words, it always sounds like it was just the two of them... (when in fact it was from time to time also shared with Sean B, Bernard and Liv - but only Viggo & Orlando were there the whole time).

[Me and Viggo would] sit next to each other for a couple or hours each morning in a make-up truck. You get to know someone that way, more than by being in scenes with them. I used to sit next to him on the make-up bus, and find myself just staring at him while he was having his make-up done and drawing in his book or writing his notes. I would find myself fascinated. When I went back for re-shoots, I was on my own and he wasn't sitting there, and I suddenly was sitting in the makeup bus that we'd been driving around in for 18 months in New Zealand and got really emotional and felt that it was kind of weird to be there without him there and sort of reflected on all of the happy conversations and chats and glasses of wine and talks that we would have at the end of the day or whatever. He really had a huge impact on my life as an actor.

But he did say a few specific things too:

"Ahhh yes, the bus. It was mine, all mine. It was my precious." Bloom christened the bus the "C-word" when the makeup artist was fuming about someone and asked Bloom's advice. "You should kick him in the cunt and tell him to fuck off!" Viggo just lost it for half an hour. He kept saying, 'What did you say?' [The bus] became all about "the word. We took that word and took all of its power away. We made it the most loving word in the world. If you were a true cunt, you were the most amazing person in the world. It was a very free-spirited bus. It came about because me and Viggo kept being moved around, and we ended up on this bus one day. And the actors were fed up and we said, "This is it. This is our home and we are not moving. If they come, tell them to go away."

And finally from Orlando's IG in 2019 (obviously, to this day, a very important part of his life):

Our fondly named makeup bus, christened by Noreen my makeup artist and Viggo Mortensen, was, and remains in my heart and memory the most female and male empowered, joyful, disreputable and yet totally respectful place of work and creativity ever. Hours spent in the the makeup chair to apply ear’s and wigs and contacts." (They can't even agree who named it, Noreen never got any credit back then...)

(From the reshoots in 2003, Viggo gives Orlando some love and points out the photo message from Orlando on the mirror. But I want to know, who put up the pic of O with Brad Pitt? From this clip.)

The comments from everyone else in the cast about life on the Cuntybago are actually more enlightening. The rowdy gang reveal another side of life on set and of Viggo: as a drinking, partying prankster who loves crude language. It's definitely part of the fascination with Viggo. He's never one to talk about these things himself.

(I think they're wearing the special cuntebago t-shirts here. No idea from whence.)

Bernard Hill:

You are not supposed to know about it!" "There were five or six of us - Viggo, Orlando and Sean [Bean]. Liv came in and out [of the group]. Viggo has this special kind of crudeness that he is capable of. We were in the same make up bus [along with Bloom]. When I came back [from a break] it was called the Cuntybago. It was our private club. We had wine tasting sessions and had lots of parties. We also kept lots of food in there. Anything that was out [on the table], you could have. You could drink it, eat it, borrow it, smoke it… but don´t go looking in any drawers. That´s where we kept our 'special stuff'! [The Cuntybago bar would on occasion open very early] like 6:30am. There were days that we needed it. [I've made life-long friends with] everybody who was in the Cuntybago. Leaving the first time was such a huge wrench. Especially because of the Cuntybago, it was like our club. Fortunately we managed to get it back for Return of the king reshoots, so ROTK was the Return of the Cuntybago. We actually drove it out onto the streets for Viggo’s farewell. Viggo didn’t know we were going to do it, and when it started moving, you should have seen his face. I kept shouting, “Cunty libre! Cunty libre!” And the bus start leaving—we were breaking free. For propriety’s sake it was called the C-Bago Club, because you couldn’t put Cunty on the call sheet. Sean Bean came in, Liv was also a part of it. As soon as I get back to England I’m going to start the C-Bago web site: Orlando will do fashion and Viggo will do current affairs. I’ll probably do gossip — you know, the social calendar. Liv will do Hollywood and Sean Bean will do the art of war. It’ll be our little corner of the world.

youtube

(Bernard & Orlando Bloom getting make-up done. Here's the green bus again.)

Elijah:

Cuntybago is an amalgamation of 'Winnebago' and Viggo Mortensen´s cuss word of choice. I've gained an appreciation of the word cunt. Negative words - the best thing is to diffuse them by using and taking the meaning away. Cunt! Cunt! It's a great, great word. Very forceful. [Viggo] became utterly fascinated with it and it became the word of the film. Their Winnebago for makeup was called the Cuntybago. I was not a part of the Cuntybago unfortunately - it was the makeup room of Orlando, Viggo and Sean Bean - but it was a lovely place to visit. Cuntybago T-shirts were made up. There was a Cunty Christmas and we had a Cunty Christmas tree, all this stuff. Cate Blanchett [who plays the elf queen Galadriel] was deemed Her Cuntliness. I think we were all secretly jealous of the Cuntybago. I was anyway. I loved the atmosphere. Any place that had Viggo in the centre was always an interesting place to be… And that was where all the alcohol was. It was just spending all of that time with brits and Aussies. The word ‘Cunt’ came up quite a lot. I was fascinated by that and how it could become not so dirty. It’s one of the few swear words that still shock people." Is that why you called Cate Blanchett “Her Cuntliness? “Not my creation. She was called that by Viggo Mortensen. I put the blame on him. It was used during the making of the movie and seems a bit silly now. Wood says that his Cuntybago T-shirt is home in a drawer. "It's too big for me. I'm a small guy."

(A few photos up on the mirror in front of Viggo. I'm guessing it's Henry on the toilet (aww!), and Viggo and Orlando doing something something... Sharing a cigarette? Extinguishing a cigarette on Viggo's tongue? It looks kind of erotic. And who's the other dude?)

Billy:

"On Lord of the rings we'd go to Viggo and Orlando's trailer which was called The Cuntybago. Viggo was good for getting Irish whiskey, which was great but I keep trying to educate him on malt whisky. (To Billy it was just V&O's trailer. Like it's where they lived together...) Hobbits, an elf, a King of Men, maybe a dwarf. And quite a few times a wizard, sometimes a princess. Ha ha! That's enough to make anyone feel pissed. We had some good times on that one, some great times."

Peter Jackson:

"The actors had a spiritual connection to it. I liked the way they had photographs [Mortensen and Bloom] taken behind-the-scenes, plastered all over the walls."

(From the reshoots, I think. Beautifully blurry.)

Liv Tyler:

I can't believe he [Mortensen] talked about that. That was our private world. There was a lot of liquor on that bus. But the funniest thing about this bus is that this thing was a beast. It was so tiny; nothing worked. If they ever washed our hair it would go from scalding hot to freezing cold. There was no heat. Our makeup trailer became the center of things. It was given a really bad name that I cannot repeat. There were pranks, most of them also too dirty to tell. I love them all, all my costars. We would hang out mostly in the hair-and-makeup trailer, and after work at dinner. We would eat all the time and drink wine and laugh. I think that a lot of that was the friendships that we made with each other and the fact that we all needed each other. It was vital that we all had each other to survive and to be able to laugh. Everybody had a really good sense of humor, thank God. We'd be constantly making jokes and decorating the trailer with ridiculous things and being rude and that was our sort of little bubble of escape in our makeup trailer.

(Photo by Liv, in the bus. You can see all the polaroids and stuff behind the unicorn elf.)

Cate Blanchett:

Viggo is the funkiest person I've ever met. I am far too polite to . . . he had this thing he called "the cunty-bago" . . . no, I guess I shouldn't go into that. So, yeah, he's incredible, very funny.

So, I can't quite figure out which bus The Cuntybago actually is: the green one Orlando is seen exiting? Or the yellow-ish one seen in the vids from the reshoots? Because they aren't the same. And in the vid from the final day, Bernard says the bus he drove on that last day was the same they'd had "for years" and which never moved before. While Orlando said they drove The Cuntybago around "for 18 months". So which bus was it? And did they drive the bus around or not? Or was it stationary? It's a mystery.

(This is the green bus - but is it the make-up trailer? Same as in the vid with Bernard.)

(Here in the reshoots, the bus is yellow-ish? And completely different. Looks more like a Winnebago than the green one really... So which one is The Cuntybago?)

ETA: it's the green striped one! Here's it's on the Cuntybago shirt:

That's all I have found about this infamous, mythical place, where all the magic happened, as they say. If anyone has info to add, please do! I want this post to be comprehensive!

#viggo mortensen #orlando bloom #lord of the rings #viggorli #the lore of the rings #elijah wood #bernard hill #billy boyd #liv tyler #The Cuntybago #lotr cast #lotrips

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ashxketchum · 8 months

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MY DEPRESSION HAS BEEN CURED MY SKIN IS CLEAR MY CROPS ARE FLOURISHING ALL BECAUSE OF THIS ONE IMAGE THIS IS THE YEAR OF ADVENTURE PANDERING LETS FUCKIN GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Let's break this down one by one ~

This is such a good Sora fit I don't even know how to explain how very much OG Sora this is, the pink tones of the overall sporty outfit perfectly capture all levels of her personality. To top it off she's sharing flower themed cream sandwiches with Piyomon AAAHHH the subtle reference okay merch team you can take a w. Not to mention Sora is perfectly matching with Taichi and the fruit in her sandwich is orange stoooopppp itttt!!!!!

TAICHI OMG who is dressing this boy because that's the most he's ever jocked as a 11 year old. The sweatshirt, cargo pants, matching wristband and the sense to put his goggles down, he is winning the sporty casual fashion show for sure. And of course him and Agumon are enjoying some chicken popcorn, love how they weren't even subtle with the packaging art we all know Japan's favourite fried chicken brand anyway 🤣

Yamato. YAMATO. Y A M A T O. You're 11 can you tone down the cool guy heartthrob behaviour for a minute because I am losing my mind THE DOGTAG CHAIN IM GONNA SCREEAAAMMM ACTUALLY I AM SCREAAAMING AAAAHHHHHHH. He looks so good, there is absolutely no wrong element in his entire outfit, everything is perfectly paired up, a fashionista is among us. The little thumbs up over the onigiri that Gabumon is offering him?? Is he telling Gabumon that he's okay with having one and Gabumon can have the rest because that's the sweet, protective, kind, caring baby he is at heart???🥹🥹🥹The blue and green gradient in the background tho?? Mimato math is mathing bestiesss 🤣

Takeru is just a lil guy, but such a perfect lil guy!!! I like how his outfit has the similar green shade as his anime outfit but they still chose to gave him a new beanie instead which doesn't really match the colour tone of the rest of the fit but it's Takeru so we know that he can pull any hat off and that's what he does!!! Him and Patamon sharing burgers, okay mood, but why is he looking so surprised? I need to know what happened, did he spill some sauce on his overalls? Was the burger too hot to bite? WHAT HAPPENED TAKERU????? 😢

Jou, I see you paired up the plaid pants with a nice long, muted, warm toned jacket BUT I SEE THAT PURPLE SHIRT POKING IN FROM INSIDE and excuse me sir but why that purple with the plaid 😭 I need to see a version where Jou isn't wearing the jacket so I can make an informed rating on this outfit but may I add that in the full merch pic he has paired this look with green and white sneakers...I cannot defend you I am sorry Jou, please try brown loafers next time 😭 But outfit aside, Jou eating a taiyaki with Gomamon is lowkey funny I just know that Gomamon cracked a Marching Fishes joke at least once.

Koushiro...I will not go into detail but I will say it's cute that you have a sweater with a little K on it, it's also very cute that there is a splash of orange in your outfit, who's attention are you vying for it isn't subtle at all bby boy and I am grateful you matched your shoes to your sweater even if the socks are definitely a choice and that blue with orange is also definitely another choice. Good to see your are making choices. I like that him and Tentomon are sharing dango, it's always nice to see Koushiro's fondness towards Japanese traditional snacks hinted at in some way.

MIMI. QUEEN. SLAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY!!!! YOU NEVER EVER MISS MY SWEET BEAUTIFUL BABY GIRL. The pastel tones matched with the grey stockings for contrast, that beret and the fuzzy hem boots, you just know she shops at Takashimaya and Isetan and anything below it will just not do 👏🏻 Plus Sora and Mimi are wearing the same tones, which probably means that they pre-planned the outfits together, cuties!!! Also Crepe is such a Mimi™️ choice of dessert but I always get teary eyes when I see Palmon mimic Mimi's gestures, there is just so much love and admiration between them for each other, pure childish wonder 💚 And the crepe even has a cutesy character face on it, which kinda looks like Monzaemon, though I can't be sure but if it is then another win for a subtle reference. Not to mention both Yamato and Mimi look like they've dressed in a more cool and elegant style than the rest like they might be on their way to a date THE MIMAT MATH IS MATHING YALLL!!!

Hikari looks super cute, I think there isn't much official art of her in casual clothing for OG stuff so it's nice to see her in a more cutesy fit suited to her age. The hairband matching the cardigan is such a nice touch!! I can't recall any other casual outfit for OG design Hikari except the War Game and Memorial Party dress, so I think this would be the first time we see Hikari with a hairband and it just looks adorable. Of course she is sharing an ice cream with Tailmon, it's kinda their brand now but like Takeru she's making a surprised expression, perhaps she wasn't expecting Tailmon to offer her a bite of her ice cream?

To conclude, this is probably the best OG artwork we've gotten since Idk maybe the Rainy Day stationery series. This will be sold in advance at the Kamio Store booth at Anime Japan 2024. No other details were mentioned, but the event booth sale feels like a pre-sale before the goods become available more widely at other outlets, hopefully, at some stores that international fans have access too as well.

Thank you for coming to my TedTalk.

Ayushi out.

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nadinediary · 1 year

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Corporate Fashion with 𝒩adine.

As of the beginning of 2023, I got promoted to coordinator at my job, making me a full-time corporate girlie. I wanted to share some fashion tips and advice for my other entry-level girls who are new to the corporate workplace. To begin, Looking at your workplace guidelines on work attire is important. My agency is lenient, not having restrictions on footwear or colours, so keep that in mind throughout the post. I’ll provide reference photos (the images aren’t mine).

Beauty

Most corporate occupations have this silent rule that women have to wear makeup. Fortunately, that isn't the case at my place of work. I wear makeup to work because I want to. I like to keep my makeup simple and light.

I don't wear foundation, but I do use concealer for my hyperpigmentation. I apply it under my eyes, on the corners of my mouth and any acne scars. For my brows, I like to keep my natural brow shape, just lightly filling in and brushing them. For blush, I use cream on my cheeks and nose bridge.

I have dark skin, so most brown lip liners aren’t dark enough for me, so I use a combination of black and brown liners paired with a sheer pink gloss. I finish off my makeup, highlighting my nose and cheekbones. I've made it a part of my beauty routine to get my lashes done, and I usually go with a cat hybrid set.

I used to have long, stiletto French nails, but lately, I've been learning the guitar, so I've kept my nails short with red gel polish.

As for hair I almost always have my hair in protective styles most notably cornrows, but when my hair is out of braids I have it in a low bun. I’ve recently bought a kinky straight wig that I’ve cut and customised similarly to the reference photo, and I’m so in love with it.

Basics

From satin blouses to pencil skirts, the basics include all the trusty fashion essentials for the office. Sticking to neutral when working in a corporate workspace is always safe. If you love colours like me, I’d advise you to include coloured pieces such as turtlenecks, blouses or scarves to brighten your outfit.

As for inspiration, I think you can’t go wrong with a matching set. My favourite set is a white waistcoat paired with a long pencil skirt; I also have a similar waistcoat and pants set in grey. I wear slip-on loafers during warmer weather, and during cooler temperatures, I will wear boots and a turtleneck underneath the waistcoat or a trench coat.

Dressing for the Weather

Regarding weather, for winter, you can switch out your summer blouses and linen shirts for high-neck tops, turtlenecks and knit sweater vests to layer. I'm Australian, so our winters can feel much colder. Therefore I usually wear tweed blazers and coats. I own three trench coats for work; one in black, one in beige and the other in white; I rotate between the three.

I suggest having neutral-coloured outerwear so you can reuse and style them with more pieces. I have a stereotypical girly style so I love tweed sets paired with stockings and a nice pair of boots or heels when the weather gets cold.

As for Summer, I like to focus on the fabric of the pieces I own, prioritising breathable and lightweight textures such as; cotton, linen, silk or satin. Pairing my tops with loose-fitted, lightweight pants and silk skirts. You can throw on a blazer when it's feeling a bit cooler. It’s important to learn how to style your body type, I'm a pear shape, so I have wider hips with a smaller upper body and waist. I like showing my figure, so I usually wear fitted high-waisted trousers, shorts and skirts.

Accessories & Essentials

I love my loafers; as previously mentioned, I wear slip-on loafers during warmer weather, but for those who have to wear heels for work, you can never go wrong with a sturdy pair of sling-back heels. I like shopping for my work shoes at Charles and Keith; they are affordable and good quality.

I've recently switched from a shoulder bag to a backpack for my back health; I previously used a Burberry shoulder bag, but I've since switched to an Ecosusi women's vintage backpack in black.

I’m a maximalist to the core although I like to keep my jewellery minimal for work, My staples are some thick gold hoops, my Casio gold watch and my gold cross necklace, which I pair with a few rings and bracelets, that’s all.

Good luck to all my corporate baddies and nine-to-five girlies.

Sincerely,

𝒩adine.

#fashion #cooperate

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apple-salad · 1 year

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Mary Magdalene’s Faltetto/Farutetto Dress: Remnants of 2017

Mary Magdalene recently made a few sample and leftover stock items available for purchase on their website, and I was very, very lucky to be able to get not one, but both colours that I had been wanting for years.

In this post, I’d like to share some pretty pictures of these pieces (especially the “new” colours which we have seen so rarely), but also talk about a little bit of my history (and Mary Magdalene’s history) with these dresses. Because I feel like this little-known knowledge must be documented somewhere....

Companion posts: 2023 Faltetto unboxing+some details (mist and navy), initial worn post, petticoat/bustle post

Note: while this dress is most often known by the name of “Farutetto” due to this translation being used on Lolibrary, I will be calling it “Faltetto” since Mary Magdalene has translated it this way on their website.

Table of Contents

Prologue Rambles: Mary Magdalene (the brand)

Faltetto (2017)

Faltetto (2018/Le Panier event)

Le Panier/Fée d’une Fleur incident

Faltetto (2022)

Faltetto (2023/Samples)

Unboxing

Faltetto comparisons

Epilogue Rambles: Mary Magdalene’s Future

Faltetto dress. This dress design was first released in 2011, with a rerelease in 2014 that included a new colour, amethyst (a purple). This was basically Mary Magdalene’s last good year, with no more original main piece designs being released since. I don’t think anyone knows for sure why Mary Magdalene dropped off after this, but common theories are factory issues or management issues. The brand has pretty much been on life support since, with demand outpacing a near-nonexistent supply.

Mary Magdalene has always been a small brand, with a very small number of each release being produced. Secondhand prices for many coveted items are incredibly high, making for an overall depressing outlook on the brand, and in similar ways classic lolita in general, which currently appears to have a much smaller number of wearers than the other two main substyles sweet and gothic.

Mary Magdalene is the brand that got me into lolita, and remains my favourite, beloved brand--and I think many others feel the same. It feels both rewarding and disheartening to obtain some items directly from the brand (a first for me). I have always tried to keep an eye on the brand’s activities since releases started dropping off, but as updates started dwindling to once a year, or sometimes once every two years, I don’t always stay on top of it.

Still, Mary Magdalene’s activities around 2017~2018 in China are largely unknown or misunderstood, so I hope writing about what I know may provide some knowledge to the community.

Finally, into the Faltetto content. The Faltetto dress was actually rereleased in 2017 at an event in Guangdong (I believe it was an anime/culture event with some Japanese lolita brand guests, but I can no longer remember the details). As far as I know, it was intended as an early reservation/MTO with a general reservation intended to be made available to the public shortly afterwards. Mary Lou OP was also available to reserve, with a few new colours. The general reservation did actually happen for this dress later in 2017, but Faltetto never did. Which is only the start of difficulties with this release...

Promotional image of the event. I’m glad I saved this, because it doesn’t seem to be viewable on weibo anymore.

Two new colours were introduced:「枣红色」, or what would later become known as “maroon”; and 「雪灰色」”snow gray”, or what would also later be revealed to be “mist”. The maroon colourway was supposed to be an event limited colour, though I don’t know if this meant that it was originally intended to be only available for the event or maybe only available at the event + the online shop (it seemed like historically Mary Magdalene limited colourways were “online shop limited” or “online shop and KERA shop limited”, so it would be rare for a colour to not be available online)

I think a lot more people ordered the maroon colour vs. the mist, as I have seen the maroon a few times on xianyu since, but never the mist. Red is a lucky colour, so it makes sense. But I had always been in love with the mist. I came very close to reserving the mist through two levels of SS (CN SS talking to a event SS via xianyu), but the fees and conversion rate made me balk (I was quoted about $430 USD for everything but international shipping, which in retrospect was probably worth it to not live through the heartache. For reference, the event sell price was 2127 RMB), plus I thought that Mary Magdalene themselves would make the dress available sometime soon, so I never followed through. Terrible regret on that one.

The dresses were scheduled for shipment some time near the end of 2017, but production was slightly delayed into spring of 2018. I believe that the dresses didn’t necessarily ship out all at once, so some of the orders that were fulfilled later came with a free headdress.

The picture of the maroon headdress I have saved seems to be the Claudia Headdress with ivory side ribbons instead of red ones. The picture of the mist that I have saved seems to be totally different, with one single strip of lace (similar to Rose Cameo Headdress, except without the ruffles) used for the hairband part.

This is a picture of my regular release Claudia headdress, which has red side ribbons (I am trying to avoid posting pictures that aren’t mine if I can). The lace matches that used for the free headdresses, although the included hairband was a very thin ribbon-covered wire band, not a plastic one.

A couple weibo users posted pictures of their mist, and knowing that the dress both exists and basically doesn’t gave me terrible heartache....I wouldn’t doubt if it gave you, the reader, terrible heartache too, since the numbers remain few. But I believe some hope out there exists that Mary Magdalene will have a larger reservation intake for these someday...

I later found the maroon secondhand on xianyu in 2018, and purchased it.

The dress has a few differences from my (probably older) other Faltettos. I’ve added a few comparison photos at the end of this post, as well as a few comparison pictures in my unboxing post.

About halfway through 2018, a new lolita magazine, “Le Panier”, was released. A number of other lolita blogs have posts on the magazine, but the general concept was a more premium, artistic “high fashion” lolita magazine. The magazine was published in a Chinese and Japanese version. Mary Magdalene was featured in the magazine (which was a surprising and very rare thing to see), in just one page:

Not the best picture of this page, but hopefully it’s readable. The dress is indicated as “Faltetto Dress 2018″. I also forgot that there were a number of coords in the magazine styled to each sister in “Little Women” (I wouldn’t say all of them hit the mark, but lolita works okay for Meg).

Midori Fukasawa wearing Faltetto in mist. The coord uses a brooch and tights from Mary Magdalene’s personal collection seen in a number of their other stock photos. The blouse is Faltetto Blouse, bonnet is Bisque Doll Bonnet and the shoes are Lace-up Ribbon Strap Shoes. While I think Mary Magdalene’s intentions here are genuine, the description just feels like betrayal.

2017年にイベントで先行発売。人気を呼んだファルテットドレスのミストカラーが、ついに一般でも発売に。

This page is, I think, proof enough that Mary Magdalene definitely intended to open a general reservation for Faltetto at the time. Along with the publication of the first volume of the magazine, Le Panier announced and held a large tea party in Shanghai, featuring many Japanese brands as guests (including Mary Magdalene, Metamorphose, Victorian Maiden, Juliette et Justine...), as well as touting exclusive items and reservations. And this was the start of the problems...

It’s hard to not bring up Le Panier without also mentioning the Juliette et Justine Fée d’Une Fleur incident. This is in fact also relevant to me, as I preordered that dress💧

I can’t remember all the information regarding the incident, but to keep things hopefully brief, it boils down to the dress not being what was promised.

Fée d’une fleur is quite a coveted dress in China (and it is incredibly rare, being from 2008, I believe was made to order by reservations, and also was expensive for the time), and it sounds like lolitas had been requesting JetJ to rerelease it for some time. Soupir d’ange had been released a few years prior with similar design elements, but was not the same (notably, the skirt “petals” are not placed and do not drape in the same lovely way). It seemed unlikely that the original would ever be rereleased because apparently the original pattern had been lost, and manufacture would be incredibly costly.

So when Le Panier announced that JetJ would be taking exclusive reservations for the Fée d’une Fleur, Chinese lolitas were incredibly excited. The original Fée d’une fleur stock image was used in Le Panier’s announcement post.

Among this, reservations for Faltetto were presented for two new colourways:

Navy and a lilac (I do not know the official colour name, but one Chinese poster called it “light purple”. And yes, the provided photo quality was extremely bad).

The price for Fée d’une fleur was significantly higher than previous (original price: 37800 JPY, le panier price: 4600 RMB [converts to about 77400 yen at the time]), which I think bothered people, but the bigger problem appeared at the event...

The sample Fée d’une fleur looked nothing like the original that was promised.

The sample dress can be seen in the background of this catwalk picture.

The colours and drape were just off. The response was so bad that Le Panier had the designer of Juliette et Justine come up and promise that it will be exactly like the original. But few seemed to be convinced.

I ended up going ahead with the preorder anyway, because I had already paid my SS. I didn’t mind the differences as long as the colour was corrected on the final product. Juliette et Justine ended up releasing reservations for this “Fée d’une Fleur 2018″ to the general public, with a "lavender pink” colorway as well.

By the way, the price on JetJ’s website for this was ¥68000 without tax (¥73440 with tax, which I think was 8% at the time). Le Panier later did also give those who reserved a discount of I think 300 RMB off the original list price because of the price difference (I can no longer remember exactly how much, it was maybe 300-400 RMB).

There were two blue colorways released. The one on the right, “sax blue” was the one shipped to Le Panier reservees and was labeled on the site as the colour of the original, while the one of the left, “mint” reminds me more of the sample...I wonder if it was meant to evoke the original 2008 dress better with a more pronounced difference between colorations (it still feels off, though)

Le Panier reservations received a few extra gifts: a matching floral brooch-clip (with small JetJ charm) and some Le Panier gifts (I chose the JetJ rabbit tote, which I believe was a gift available for a small additional fee with the Chinese release of the magazine, and washi tape selection). I also think the Le Panier reservations shipped first, but that’s whatever. I almost would have preferred the lower JPY converted price without SS fees and getting points from JetJ’s site, but the brooch is nice with the dress, I guess, and the dress itself turned out okay as long as you knew what you were signing up for (the stock photos of this 2018 release were accurate to what was shipped).

To this day I’ve never used the tote. I think it says Le Panier on it.

Closer look at the washi tape and the back of the brooch with JetJ charm. Le Panier made (I think) 3 types of washi tape with 3 different brands, and I think I was randomly given this JetJ one. No idea why we weren’t able to get all 3, but whatever.

The final dress still has some shortcuts taken like a few tulle/mesh petal panels instead of all chiffon, and the length is also very long (ankle length on me, vs mid calf for the original). Also, the petal placement is still wrong (closer to soupir d’ange), but it looks okay if you don’t think about it too hard.

My old fairy coord (from 2018) with Fée d’une Fleur 2018.

And now, back to Faltetto again...

Mary Magdalene designer Rieko Tanaka herself attended the event, which was nice to see. A booth was set up with a few stock items (notably Aria Fleur, which went on sale on the Mary Magdalene website in 2022. At that time, a few of the OP variations were sold out, so I can only assume they sold out here. Other pieces for sale were a single Copine Georgette JSK in pink, and a preview of the rerelease of Arabesque Rose).

Price for the navy or lilac Faltetto was 2000 RMB, plus shipping fees from Japan. Depending on the ticket level purchased, 2 or 1 piece per colour could be reserved (I think the might have later been increased to 3?). Apparently, these colours were supposed to be limited to the Le Panier event.

A sample version of the lilac Faltetto was on display, and the navy was shown during the fashion show.

The bodice lace on this faltetto is the same as mine! I think the navy sample sold in 2023 is likely be the very same as this one presented in 2018.

I am unsure if I should upload a photo of the lilac here as I think the photos I saved were posted by individual participants of the event, but I’ll consider it if someone would really like to see it (the colour is quite similar to the grainy stock above).

I wonder now why Mary Magdalene didn’t post the sample of the lilac for sale along with all the other faltetto samples, but it may be because the lilac was missing the lace/braid at the front (for the event, the detachable bows were placed there to make the area less lacking).

I am quite fond of navy colourways, so upon hearing that a navy faltetto was something that was going to exist, I searched for an SS for it (I think I used Chinese Lolita Updates because I didn’t want to use two levels of SS), paid the deposit, and waited.

It looks like this particular attendee/SS reserved the maximum of 3 dresses for VIP ticketholders.

I can’t remember if the dresses had an estimated ship date, but they’ll ship when they’re ready...

...right?

After much silence, in 2019, about a year exactly since the event, Le Panier announced that Mary Magdalene would not be able to produce the dresses, and everyone would be refunded. Mary Magdalene posted an informational notice on their website, which had an unfortunate translation error:

This follow up was added later:

I’m surprised that it doesn’t seem to be common knowledge what the “gift” that Mary Magdalene gave to people who reserved, but it is very minor--a small Mary Magdalene logo mirror.

I had to ask my SS to ship this to me, actually, as I think they deemed it too minor to bother spending the money to ship (shipping ended up being fairly cheap because the item was so small and light, though). It sounded like they were going to throw it away if I had not asked!

Le Panier also mentioned that they would give an extra gift and 100 RMB voucher, but I can’t remember what that was and/or if I ever used the voucher. Probably not, since all the things Le Panier sold were a bit expensive (imagine brand new Japanese brand retail prices plus SS fees, and then conversion... much easier to just buy directly from Japan)

Anyways, this whole thing just... sucked, really. Le Panier seemed to have dragged multiple brands’ names through the mud (I will not talk about it here, but there is the infamous VM Classical Doll incident as well), had a track record of numerous other hiccups and operational issues at their events/booths/sales, and overall was losing Chinese lolitas’ trust very quickly.

I should note that Mary Magdalene had attended another Chinese event some time in 2018 where they took reservations for a rerelease of Perfume Bottle, but production of that also failed with much silence from the brand (there was even going to be a new dark purple colourway). It’s very strange that the 2017 Faltettos were able to be manufactured, whilst planned pieces from 2018 weren’t, but I think these two incidents mean that the factory problems are real.

Later in 2018 Le Panier also took reservations for the rerelease of Arabesque Rose that was previewed at the event. These were in fact manufactured and shipped successfully around 2019 (+ I believe the Le Panier reservations came with a free headbow), and extra stock was uploaded to the Mary Magdalene website in 2022 as “Arabesque Rose Midi Dress”. The fabric used was identical to the original, with fewer colourways (caramel, iris and navy--no offwhite), no rose lace at the bottom, no shirring/less corset lacing loops, and slightly wider (weirder in my opinion) bows. While I am happy these were in fact produced, the rerelease looks like a sad shadow of the original, and the long bows with skinny, tight middles look like replicas (why is this type of bow so common on replicas? Not cute, in my opinion).

Le Panier continued to (attempt to) sell a few extra Mary Magdalene items on their website, but their bad reputation along with interest in Mary Magdalene being quite scarce at the time meant that selling the stock took a little while.

Le Panier’s original shop URL no longer functions, but they remain modestly active on Weibo. Le Panier volume 2 was published in late 2019, including a small report of the 2018 event, and there hasn’t been any more publications since. Perhaps Le Panier was started by a well-meaning lolita enthusiast who was a bit too ambitious and wasn’t able to manage their brand and event well. Or, perhaps it was a poorly executed plan to make a profit off of Chinese lolitas involving convincing Japanese brands to overpromise exclusive items and reservations, as well as resell Japanese lolita goods...potentially run by someone who doesn’t fully understand lolita/lolitas.

After this, Mary Magdalene went silent for a while...and maybe I don’t blame them after all these Chinese events kind of exploded on them. It’s a little disappointing how much attention and exclusivity was turned to China during this time (I was seriously mourning that Mist had turned into a “2017 China event reservation only exclusive”), but most everyone came out empty handed, so was it really that exclusive in the end...?

Mary Magdalene saw a small return to activity in 2020, with a rerelease of the Génoise coat. But, after that...silence...for 2 years.

In 2022, Faltetto in maroon was uploaded, plus a few in stock items which appeared to be leftovers or extras from Le Panier (Aria Fleur and Arabesque Rose as mentioned earlier; plus the Arabesque headbow in offwhite only which I feel like was just extra unsold stock from 2014, and some small number of perle lace bolero which MM stated explicitly that was just old stock from the original 2016 release).

This release of Faltetto was particularly interesting, as the listing stated:

今回の販売分は、通常の量産とは異なり一人の職人が一貫して製作した特別バージョンとなっております。価格の変更が御座います事を予めご了承の程お願い申し上げます。

Google translate: This sale is a special version that is consistently produced by one craftsman unlike normal mass production.

(the second portion apologizes that the price has been raised due to rising production costs, but the price difference is 30000 yen (excl. tax) vs the original 26800 yen (excl. tax), which is hardly egregious)

So, this release is not mass produced and should be quality controlled very carefully. How nice, I thought.

Although I already owned a maroon faltetto, I put in an order request through Mary Magdalene’s overseas form anyways, in the slim chance that the dress wouldn’t sell out before Mary Magdalene processed my order, and so I could perhaps compare a mass produced vs. non mass produced faltetto.

Unfortunately, the dress sold out shortly afterwards. And I received this response:

この度はご注文頂き有難うございます。大変申し訳御座いませんが、現在、「ファルテットドレス(マルーン)」の在庫は御座いません。今後、受注生産にて再販を予定しております。その際は優先的にご案内させて頂きます。 (また、今回キャンセルが発生した場合もご連絡させて頂きます) この度はご希望に添える事が出来ず大変申し訳御座いません。何かご不明な点等御座いましたら、お気軽にご連絡下さいませ。それでは、失礼致します。

Disappointing, but at least this reiterates that Mary Magdalene has an intention to have a general release/MTO of faltetto. (But it hasn’t happened...yet...)

I heard that the quality of this faltetto is good and “Mary Magdalene quality”, but I have never seen it in person. I will note that I don’t have any issues with my 2017 faltetto (aside from the fabric choice being a bit thin) and I’m not sure what would be considered “better quality” or more “individual craftman-like” than a normal faltetto.

All other items on the website sold out quickly, as expected.

And then silence again...until now. Almost a year exactly after the last update. Like before, the update came suddenly and without warning, simply mentioning that a few leftover stock/sample/B items were going to be added the next day between noon and evening (what a big help!...though, I think this was intentionally vague so that the website wouldn’t crash with condensed traffic at a scheduled time)

Special thanks to rabbitreverie to letting me know about this update. I had kind of lost hope by this point and was not checking the site regularly. We were both refreshing all night! The site update came suddenly, with some sample items already being sold out by the time I saw the update (and I think I was quite on the ball, too...). What an odd treasure trove of an update, though...I imagine the sample items were only one (and potentially one of a kind).

(In some ways, I’m just glad with this update that we finally get a better quality stock photo of mist. You don’t want to know what blurry, artifact riddled pictures I’d been gazing at before this.)

A Faltetto “2017″ was available! In maroon and mist. This lines up with the 2017 guangdong event, with likely the same product number (my maroon faltetto did not come with tags to confirm, sadly). Mary Magdalene must have made a few extra pieces of stock that they never got around to selling...maybe? It’s impossible to know how many pieces were available.

Everything on the website sold out in about 5 minutes or less, which is impressive considering there couldn’t have been many people who knew about the update. But there was also very, very little stock.

Sample Faltetto dresses were also available in a separate listing (Mary Magdalene labels the second section, mostly older items, “outlet”, with discounted prices to match the sample or flawed status of the items. But why is it cheap when people would definitely pay more?? I suppose it is the principle of the matter...).

Peacock, Amethyst, Maroon, and Navy (!) are all available as sample versions. From the provided pictures, it looks like Amethyst and Maroon are a bit more saturated than the released versions.

Of course I go for the mist and navy, given my history with the colours...and somehow I manage to check out with both of them whilst fumbling around trying to enter my information.

A few weeks later, I have them in my hands! It’s a bit of an emotional moment for me since Mist had been on my “dream dress but impossible” list since it was announced.

Given that this post is already getting so long and superfluous, I have the unboxing and detail pictures in another post.

And here is probably the most interesting part, the comparison pictures:

I have 5 Faltettos now... which is quite a lot...

Overall the dresses I own are quite similar, aside from the navy having some obvious differences due to being a sample, and the >2017 dresses having their skirt tier lace gathered with the main fabric. Note that I obviously have not laid these out in chronological release order, it just looked aesthetically pleasing in this arrangement.

I used to own a different version of the ecru faltetto, which I believe may have been an older release, and that one definitely had some more prominent differences (such as placement of the chest lace being a tiny bit lower, with the first row of embroidered dots clearly visible [like the stock photos], and the bustle loop being sewn on the same edge as opposed to being a strip folded in half [it’s hard to explain]). Thus, my brain wants to tell me that the pink and ecru faltettos I have may be from 2014, a little more on the recent side.

Anyways, I won’t comment much on the following photos since there isn’t much to say anyway (except 5 of the same dress as eye candy!)

Bodice details--always the same lace, although the colour might vary a bit between dye lots/releases

The gathered (or not) lace at the skirt.

The braid used also seems to be quite consistent.

If you look closely, the second row of stitching securing the braid down can vary a little between releases. Also, the navy has clear buttons instead of same-colour buttons, which is as expected.

They all look pretty similar from the back.

I tried to make the bustle loops of each dress visible in this photo. The way they are sewn is pretty consistent across the faltettos here that I currently own. I didn’t have the heart to untie the navy ribbon ties that had come pre-tied! But I imagine they’re about the same as all the others (the ecru is wrinkly because I had it tied up while I stored it)

While finishing up my photos, I pondered what other areas of difference might be of interest. So here’s a picture of all the linings. The mist and maroon are pretty consistent with each other, which makes sense since they are from the same year. Navy has the least nice lining (also makes sense as a sample), with pink having a satin lining similar to the others, and ecru having a thinner but potentially still satiny lining (It’s hard for me to tell looking at this photo because the dress is so wrinkled from storage)

The inner tags are also not of much interest, but dresses released in 2017 and onwards have the country of manufacture specified (Japan). It’s pretty unusual for Mary Magdalene to list where their clothes were manufactured, but it can be found on the occasional piece. While I don’t own enough modern pieces to know for sure, I have a feeling that all of their newer pieces from 2017 have the country listed.

The older dresses (in my case, pink and ecru) have a tag like above, with no country of manufacture (qnd no extra button attached). The navy has no washing tag at all--again, likely because it is a sample.

These were all the photos I thought worth taking--the interior of the dresses seemed to be quite similar when I checked them. Although, I did notice that the navy had the skirt seams pressed open, whereas all the rest have the seams pressed to one side. It makes very little to no difference to how the seam looks from the outside, so I’m not sure why it is like that (maybe a minor difference in pressing decision in a mass manufactured factory environment?)

So, now that Mary Magdalene has updated their website, what does this mean for the brand?

One depressing conclusion could be that they were clearing out stock of whatever they had left in the office, and will close soon...

But I am hopeful. Or choosing to remain hopeful, in any case. It has been over 5 years now since a rerelease of Faltetto was planned and promised, which is so long that it’s easy to conclude that those plans are dead. But...why would Mary Magdalene sell the one of a kind navy sample, the colour that was sold to way more than just one person, and cancelled on more than one person? And mist... that colourway was in a magazine, expressing to thousands of readers that they will be able to order it someday. It’s too unfair to only have some 5-10 mist and 1 navy in the world, especially with how constantly apologetic Mary Magdalene’s site messages are (heck, the “add to cart” buttons broke/displayed incorrectly after the update and MM added an apology message about that). So... could Mary Magdalene be clearing out Faltettos in preparation for a larger release of navy, maroon, mist, among others? Everyone who wants these unique colourways deserves to own them if they want, and we need more Mary Magdalene pieces in the world. I hope that a larger release of main pieces from Mary Magdalene is coming...

(note: since initially drafting this, Mary Magdalene opened up reservations for another release of Génoise coat. So, I’m hopeful, but it’s not a dress yet!)

Other notes:

I recommend Tamie’s video about Mary Magdalene for a little bit of further information and a different account. Complaints and problems with LePanier actually are more numerous than just the issues that Tamie brought up (which sounds ridiculous considering how many were mentioned), but I won’t talk about them here, especially because LePanier’s presence seems to have almost disappeared.

I do not know Chinese, so my information is limited. If there are any Chinese lolitas that know more or have read more detailed posts from the Chinese communities, please let me know anytime!

66 notes · View notes

waytooinvested · 5 months

Text

Forgotten, Not Forgiven - Chapter 10

Rift era reconciliation/fix-it fic in which Kara's memories of Supergirl are stolen and Lena has to rally round to help her get them back. Starts out kind of on the angsty side but there will be more fluff down the line.

This and previous chapters are also on AO3

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Clinical trial for Q-wave brain stimulator.

Trial subject 1. Session 2

Subject now up to a stable therapeutic dose of 15 biohertz, sustained for a period of 45 minutes.

No ill effects noted.

Brain image unchanged since previous session.

Subject favours Big Belly burgers over tacos, and steals my fries.

Lena added the last sentence into her headline report summary in an unplanned and uncharacteristic fit of whimsy, and hit send before she could second guess the impulse. With all the extra hours Alex was putting in to try and keep on top of the Malefic situation (not to mention the media circus surrounding Supergirl’s official cover story), Lena knew she was feeling guilty about not being there for Kara more when she was going through something so huge. She hoped that the touch of levity (and the sheer, undeniable Kara-ness of it) would reassure Alex that her sister was doing okay, and maybe even make her smile.

Lena’s own cheeks were still aching a little with the unaccustomed amount of smiling they had been doing over the past few hours. She had been somewhat apprehensive going into the Q-wave session after the intensity of the first one, but there had been none of that this time. Kara had been in a buoyant mood after finally being allowed to hand fashion over to someone else, and while “The best (AND WORST!) food trucks in National City revealed” could hardly be called hard hitting journalism either, at least she was going to thoroughly enjoy the research process. Her good humour was infectious, and the two of them had chatted easily throughout the 45 minute treatment, stopping only twice, when they had had to abruptly drop a subject and take a few minutes to recover to avoid their laughter developing into the kind of giggle fit that would make it impossible for Kara to keep as still as she needed to.

At the end of the session they had found that neither of them were ready to abandon the conversation and head home just yet (or in Lena’s case back up to her office to put in another couple of hours on her endless to do list), and so Lena had mentioned that while the ice cream part was negotiable, taking ones research participant out for a post-trial treat was a strict requirement of her profession, and she would hate to be reported to the ethics board for neglecting her duties as a scientist.

And after all, they did need to eat.

Actually, going out with Kara was one of the few things that reminded Lena to eat a full meal these days, rather than just taking a few mouthfuls of whatever happened to be to hand when she had been focusing on something for so long that she started feeling faint and foggy (it had happened a few times recently, but now that Lena had asked Jess to stock up on smoothies and granola bars she was at least taking in enough nutrients to stop it affecting her work, and between her day to day CEO duties, the Q-Wave treatments and her latest product launch date on the horizon, she really didn’t have time for more than that).

As an extra incentive Lena had suggested that they could get something from a food truck as early research for the ‘Best of’ article, but despite the fact that she had been waxing lyrical earlier over a new taco truck she was desperate to try, Kara had instead opted for Big Belly Burgers. Lena’s favourite comfort food.

She had been touched enough to allow Kara to ‘accidentally’ steal several of her fries, until after theft-number-four her honour demanded the challenge be answered and Lena swiped a mozzarella stick from Kara’s plate in retaliation. They ended up holding a discrete but intense battle in their quiet corner of the diner that culminated in a brief fork-fencing match, which had been both incredibly undignified and, somewhat to Lena’s surprise, a lot of fun.

It didn’t hurt that she won the fencing match. She might not have brushed off her sabre for a few years now, but before she had moved to National City Lena had been a fencing champion, and had even come close to qualifying for the Olympics. The tiny, greasy battle made her think it might be time to look into taking it up again. Kara would probably enjoy it too.

Maybe Lena could even teach her...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Clinical trial for Q-wave brain stimulator.

Trial subject 1. Session 3

15 biohertz sustained for a period of 60 minutes.

No ill effects noted.

The lab setup was a little different this time.

Lena had remembered Kara’s choice in their ‘where-would-I-rather-be’ game from the first session, and had replaced the printouts stuck above the cot with a night sky projector. Not content with the random pinpoint projection of the kind made for children’s bedrooms, she had tracked down a model designed for planetariums, and the ceiling and walls of her lab had transformed into an accurate, detailed map of the night sky (absent light pollution). The effect was somewhat spoiled by the flat angles of the room rather than the graceful curve of a dome it was designed for, but even so, once the lights were off and her computer monitor brightness was turned to its lowest setting, it was impressive. It was almost startling how different it felt, actually, even to Lena, who spent almost as much time in this room as she did in her own home.

The projection managed to convey a certain amount of relative distance, making the lab seem, if not limitless, then at least far bigger than its true dimensions, while the darkness softened the shapes of furniture and equipment until they blurred into the background, eminently ignorable compared to what else there was to look at. Of course it still smelled incongruously clinical, but the background hum of efficiently running machinery was easily transformed into the quiet sighing of a breeze through trees, the occasional beep or click nothing more than passing insects.

Lena was considering whether or not to have a quick lie down on the cot (just to check the projector was perfectly aligned to give the best view from that vantage point), when she was interrupted by a small ‘oh’ from behind her, and the quiet thump of a bag dropping from slack fingers to hit the floor. She turned to find Kara standing in the doorway, her mouth hanging slightly opened as she stared upwards.

She stayed like that for several long moments, just staring and softly repeating ‘oh, oh, oh’ as she took it all in, until at last she tore her focus from the ceiling and instead turned the full force of her rapture on Lena, gazing at her as though she was a witch who had gone out and captured a real piece of the heavens just for Kara’s amusement.

‘Oh Lena, you’re… this is just…’

Kara shook her head, apparently lost for words, and although Lena knew that the look and the breathless murmur of delight were for the stars and not really for her, they were filled with such unguarded wonder that it made her blink, unprepared for the dazzle of Kara’s admiration. She felt unaccountably warm suddenly, and although she tried to remain business like as she went through the usual set up routine, it took three tries before all the sensors were perfectly aligned to begin.

When at last it was done and Kara was lying back on the cot with the Q-waves running, she gazed up again with a sigh that seemed both contented and a little wistful.

‘There are so many more than you can see from the city. I’d almost forgotten…’

She reached out a hand as if she might be able to touch the scene above her, and the projector painted the back of it with a sprinkling of stars, as if Kara was once again part of the night sky that was now so far out of her reach. She looked almost sad, and Lena wondered whether this might not have been such a good idea after all. Was she just taunting her with the illusion of something she could no longer have?

But then Kara stopped reaching upwards, and instead extended her hand towards where Lena sat with her laptop, in the shadows beyond the soft shine of simulated starlight.

‘Will you come and watch with me?’

‘I shouldn’t. I need to keep an eye on the monitor, just in case something goes wrong…’

‘Nothing will go wrong. Besides, the readouts are on your laptop aren’t they? Can’t you just bring it with you?’

Lena considered. Technically, yes, she could. Her laptop had all the controls she needed apart from the switch to actually turn the Q-waves on and off, but if she was beside Kara she could always just physically remove the cap if there was an emergency. There was no practical reason to stop her joining Kara among the stars…

Except.

Well, was it wise?

She and Kara were well beyond any possibility of romance of course, but still, stargazing. It was the classic trope from every romantic novel and movie in existence, and going over to lie beside her now might be tempting fate too far.

...But then again, they weren’t real stars.

The two of them were just in Lena’s lab, the same as they had been twice before now, and Lena was a certified genius, she was hardly likely to allow herself to forget reality, especially if she was also keeping an eye on the Q-wave readouts at the same time. And after all, she had paid an amount that she wouldn’t care to admit to for the projector, and if not now, when was she ever going to find time to make the most of it?

She gave in, and was soon settled beside the bed with her chair tipped back as far as it would go, laptop set up beside her but carefully angled away from Kara so that she couldn’t read more from the screen than she should. She checked the readouts one more time, and then Lena let herself lean back and enjoy the majesty of the universe.

It had been worth spending the extra money to get a quality model, she thought. Every constellation was picked out with breathtaking clarity, the milky way so crisp that she understood the urge to reach out and try to touch it. Of course it still wasn’t really like being outside (not when the shape of the light fixtures was so clearly discernible behind the projection), but as her breathing synced to Kara’s in the darkness, Lena still felt an echo of what she always had when she took the time to really notice the stars.

It made her feel her own smallness and insignificance in a way that she rarely experienced in her day to day life. Down here she might be nigh-infamous, the influential billionaire, high power CEO at the top of her field, respected or despised but always and inescapably known; but up there she was nothing. A tiny, fleeting blip in the vastness of space, barely there before it was gone again. It made her chest ache with the memento mori of it, but at the same time she found it strangely comforting, because on that scale it wasn’t just her that didn’t matter. The Luthor name and all that came with it was equally insignificant. Every rigid expectation, every hurt, every betrayal, every loss she had ever felt was so inconceivably tiny that if you zoomed out even a little bit they were no longer there.

It meant that if she chose to she could rip up the rule book, let her leg hair grow out and just do whatever made her happiest in the moment. The world would keep turning just the same, none the wiser to the fact that Lena Keiran Luthor was eating thick slices of mango on her balcony, dressed in nothing but the rosy glow of a rising dawn while juice ran down to her elbows; or sleeping for twelve gloriously unproductive hours before wandering out to the nearest park with a bag of defrosted peas and rolled oats for the ducks instead of attending her scheduled press conference (because even when nothing had consequences on a cosmic scale, not harming the local wildlife by feeding them bread still mattered).

It made her want to look away.

It made her want to stare forever.

It made her want to hold onto someone, to anchor herself with the undeniable, tangible physicality of life and heat and breath and the shared experience of this.

It made her want…

It made her want.

‘Do you remember the time we did this your first year here?’

Kara’s voice was almost as soft as a starlight surrounding them – an accompaniment rather than an interruption to the peace, and Lena found herself smiling fondly at the reminder, the sharp stab of pain that usually tainted any happy memories of their shared past unexpectedly absent.

‘Oh course I do. You dragged me out in the middle of the night, insisting we go to some special perfect spot to see a meteor shower, and then we got lost hiking up the trail’.

Probably, she now realised, because Kara had only ever flown there before. She could have done so that time as well if it had just been about seeing the shooting stars, but she had wanted to include Lena in the excursion so much that she had been willing to walk a mile and a half in the dark just so they could experience it together, and Lena had agreed as if the suggestion hadn’t been completely insane. Even after knowing her only a few months, she had already been willing to do just about anything if Kara asked it of her.

‘In my defense, the trail marker was missing, and it turns out things look really different in the dark. But that meadow we found was even better, wasn’t it? With all the harebells, and then the owl flying over, it felt almost like magic’.

‘It was beautiful’.

It really had been a lovely place, but despite the scenery, all Lena had really had eyes for that night had been Kara. She had been more beautiful than any meteor shower…

‘It was. I loved sharing the stars with you’.

Lena didn’t trust herself to reply, but she couldn’t help her mind drifting back over all the other times she and Kara had shared the stars.

Warm summer nights spent laughing and sipping wine while the sky slowly darkened above them. Crisp autumn evenings when they had met up after work and decided to take the long way through the park, just for a few more minutes of starlight and conversation before they met up with everyone else for a game night. The New Years Eve when Lena had been under the weather and decided not to go to any of the various events she had had invitations to, and Kara had blown off her own party in order to keep her company. They had spent the hours before midnight sitting out on her balcony, bundled up in layers of coats and blankets, sipping hot tea instead of champagne and watching the fireworks going off across the city…

The memories were so vivid that Lena had to interrupt them before she could forget herself and reach for Kara’s hand as she had then (not that anything had come of it. Kara had simply swung their clasped hands between them and started up a verse of Auld Lang Syne, and Lena had pretended that that’s what she had intended all along).

‘Do you know any constellations?’

‘Yeah, my friend Kenny and I spent about a year in high school obsessed with star gazing, and we learned them all. Do you know them?’

‘Most of them – not all. I had a brief astronomy phase too, but my family didn’t consider it a proper science and pushed me to redirect my focus to areas that would prove more profitable later on. I enjoyed learning about the constellation myths in my free time though’.

Kara hmmm-ed gently – sympathetic without making it into a big thing.

‘Will you tell me one?’

They spent the rest of the 60 minutes swapping stories about the stars. Lena told Kara some of the livelier Greek constellation myths, and in return Kara told her about her nights of stargazing as a teenager, and the stories she had made up for herself about what she could see. Some of the myths Kara described sounded too detailed, and too strange to be all imagination, and Lena wondered whether this was a re-writing of some Kryptonian legend. She made a mental note to ask once Kara had the rest of her memories back, and then pulled up short.

Of course she couldn’t ask.

They would no longer be on speaking terms by that point. Foolish of her to forget that.

But the stars were shining, and the quiet hum of the Q-wave generator was soothing, and she couldn’t bring herself to get worked up about the slip. It didn’t matter. They were in a made up friendship in the midst of a made up universe, and all of it felt real enough for this moment.

All too soon the time was up and Lena turned the lights back on, the intimacies of her star-addled thoughts retreating into the safety of the shadows they had come from as she turned her attention back to the Q-wave programme.

And: there was something there.

Well. Maybe there was. It was hard to be sure even with the image magnified as far as it would go, but she thought there might be a couple of spots where the dark line was now very slightly less crisp. Not quite fuzzy, but getting there…

She stared at it until her eyes ached and she could no longer trust that any blurring was actually on the scan rather than an illusion of her own visual fatigue, and then she closed the file and sent it off to Alex along with a brief write-up of the session’s progress. It might be nothing, and it might not. All she knew for sure right now was that Kara felt fine, and that at that moment she was waiting for Lena to finish her report so that they could begin their evening plans, and the longer she spent worrying over an inconclusive image the less time they would have to enjoy them.

So she abandoned her laptop along with all thoughts of fuzziness that wasn’t the alcohol induced kind, and set off with Kara for their cocktail night.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Clinical trial for Q-wave brain stimulator.

Trial subject 1. Session 4

15 biohertz sustained for a period of 60 minutes.

No ill effects noted.

Subject fell asleep at approximately minute 14 of treatment, and this was maintained for the remainder of the session.

Scan evidenced definite blurring of perimeter at position 4 (noted on scan), measuring approximately 0.54mm in width. This represents a significant development over the previous treatment outcome.

Hypothesis: treatment during REM sleep may have enhanced effects compared to the same waves received while conscious.

They had used the star projector again, but with the possible-almost-blurring on the previous scan Lena had felt it prudent to keep her focus on what was happening on her screen, and had stayed at her desk this time. Without the distraction of sharing stories Kara, apparently exhausted after a broken night and a particularly grueling day at work, had quickly dozed off in the quiet peace of the simulated night sky.

And it was lucky for Supergirl that she did, because this new finding was major. A breakthrough even.

Okay, Kara hadn’t seemed to remember anything new when she woke up, but the questionable fuzzy spot on the previous scan was now a definite blurring, and progress had been much more rapid than Lena had expected.

It was exactly what they had been working towards since she had conceived the idea that first night in Al’s.

It was wonderful.

Just what she had been hoping for.

It WAS…

It had to be.

She waited until Kara was safely in the bathroom, then retreated to the privacy of the back office with her auditory scrambler to call Alex. Even with those precautions in place it was a bigger risk than she should have taken, she knew that, but she couldn’t help it.

She wanted to pass on the good news directly.

She wanted to hear someone else tell her that it was good news, so that she could believe it for herself.

‘Lulu, what’s up?’

Somehow Alex managed to audibly smirk at the use of the code name, and it was just so typically Alex of her that it managed to divert Lena briefly from the reason for her call.

‘Do you really have to call me that every time?’

‘Hey it’s your rule, I’m just abiding by it’.

A little of the panic that had been building behind Lena’s sternum was replaced with the aggravated amusement that was becoming the baseline for their interactions, and she felt her stiff shoulders relax by a few degrees even as she made her voice sound stern.

‘That’s for when there’s a risk of being overheard at your end, as you know perfectly well. Right now I know for a fact that our trial subject is not standing behind you, because she is currently in my bathroom, and I am in my locked, sound proof office’.

‘Still, it’s wise to keep in good habits’.

Lena grimaced at her phone, but she had to fight the slight tugging at the corner of her lips to do so. Alex was enjoying this code name business far too much, and it made her wish she had chosen something less innocuous than ‘Annie’ in return. Ermintrude perhaps. Or Bert. It would have been terrible for the purposes of keeping things under the radar, but it would have been fun.

‘Hey Earth to Lulu, don’t keep me in suspense! What’s happening over there?’

‘Right, sorry. I do need to be quick – I just wanted to tell you myself, I think we have some progress. There is a definite blur on the scan. It’s small, but it’s there’.

‘Wait, seriously? And Kar- uh, Katie is feeling alright? No headache or anything that might indicate a danger sign?’

‘She’s completely fine. No indication of any memories or powers coming back yet, but this is a real start’.

‘Lena this is amazing! We need to go out for a drink to celebrate!’ - she hesitated - ‘unless that would be crossing too far over the business/friendship line?’

She should have refused. Would have refused, if Alex had suggested this even last week. But now, hyped up by the imminence of success and desperate to share it with someone, she didn’t want to. She wanted to go out to a bar with Alex Danvers, have a drink and companionably provoke each other for a couple of hours while they toasted the progress of their project. And if that happened to distract her from what else success would mean for her, well, that was so much the better. Besides, what harm could it do, if all of this was going to be over soon? She might as well make the most of having someone to go out drinking with while she still had the chance.

‘In the circumstances I think a celebratory drink would be entirely appropriate. Kara and I are on our way to catch a movie right now, but I could meet you later this evening if that works for you? 8.30ish?’

‘Sure Lena, I’ll see you tonight. Have a good time with Kara’.

There was a smile in Alex’s voice as she said this, and Lena wondered exactly what she was reading into their movie date.

Not that there was anything to read.

This social time was all part of keeping Kara on board with the ongoing trial, it didn’t mean anything more than that. It couldn’t, especially now they were a step closer to this whole thing being over.

Not even if she was about to sit through a special screening of ‘The Wizard of Oz’ that she might have suggested could be a good nostalgia draw at an independent movie theatre where she had just... happened... to make a recent sizeable donation. They were after all a community institution, and The Wizard of Oz was a beloved classic. It was a worthy cause that had nothing at all to do with the fact that Kara had mentioned in passing that she had never actually had the opportunity to see her favourite movie on the big screen.

No one could prove otherwise.

Kara certainly didn’t question it. She was as excited as a puppy as they made their way to the movie theatre, apparently refreshed by her nap and practically skipping along beside Lena as she gushed about her favourite scenes, and how magical it would be to see the moment when Dorothy stepped out of sepia and into full technicolour rendered huge on the big screen.

They bought a giant bucket of buttery popcorn and settled into front row seats, and Lena found her eyes drawn as often to Kara as to the movie as the story began. She just looked so happy, it made it impossible to dwell on anything outside of this moment with her, experiencing the vicarious delight of her immersion in a well told story.

Lena knew for a fact that Kara had seen this movie dozens, if not hundreds of times, and yet she reacted to everything as if it was the first time. She glared ferociously at the threat to have Toto euthanised. She mouthed along with all the songs, gasped at the transition into Oz, and actually grabbed Lena’s hand at the first appearance of the Wicked Witch of the West, though she let go again a moment later.

She stayed transfixed, eyes shining, until the credits finished rolling and the lights came up.

‘That was uh-MAZING. Thank you so much for doing this with me Lena. I don’t know why I love that movie so much, but there’s something about that always just clicked, you know? Maybe it’s to do with being fostered. It’s not exactly like finding yourself in Oz obviously, but it was a pretty big transition to make at 13. I guess I always felt a bit like Dorothy because of it’.

‘It’s funny, I think my adoption made me relate more to the Wicked Witch of the West’.

Kara laughed disbelievingly and swatted her very gently on the arm, clearly still high on the joy of the movie and too much popcorn.

‘Lena! That’s ridiculous, you’re not a wicked witch, you’re the best!’

‘Debatable. But I suppose I’m not thinking of the original Wizard of Oz witch so much as- have you ever seen Wicked?’

‘No, I’ve wanted to forever, but it’s never come to National City, and I never got round to making the trip’.

Lena grinned.‘Okay, that settles it – I’ll find out where it’s showing next and we can take my jet’.

They would just have to fit it in before the Q-wave trial progressed too far, that was all. She could do that.

‘Fly there? You don’t have to do that for me, that’s way too much trouble! Do you even like musicals?’

‘Some, and I have a special soft spot for Wicked. As I said, I always kind of related to Elphaba. She’s not actually adopted like I was, but she was marked out from the beginning in her family by something she couldn’t help, and was always in the shadow of her golden-child sibling. Then when she finally goes out into the world all anyone can see is her green skin, and they brand her wicked for it no matter how hard she tries to be good. After Lex committed his crimes, the Luthor name felt a bit like that for me. Then there’s this whole bit about how she relates to the Wizard that felt very me and Lex’.

She hadn’t expected to open up like that to Kara about something she wouldn’t usually admit to, but for some reason her defenses didn’t slam up to stop her saying it. Maybe because she had just spent 102 minutes watching Kara unabashedly, purely relate to something without any kind of reservations; it had made her want to offer something in return, even if it was nothing more than a broadway musical.

Or maybe because there was a smudge on Kara’s scan, and it had made Lena realise how not-ready she was for their temporary friendship to end...

‘So Wicked is kind of like your ‘Wizard of Oz’? That’s amazing, I can’t believe I never knew we had Oz in common! But I also hate that you were ever made to feel that way about who you are’.

‘It’s fine Kara, I’m used to it. Besides, you’ll see when we watch it, it makes her strong in the end: she gains her independence and learns to rely on herself in the face of those that doubt her’.

Like Lena had done before, and would do again... After their trip to see Wicked.

Kara frowned a little, not looking entirely appeased.

‘If you say so. It makes me not like how things end for her in The Wizard of Oz though. You deserve so much better than that’.

‘You know, she isn’t really me’.

‘I know… but still’.

#supercorp #kara danvers #lena luthor #supergirl #supercorp fanfic #supergirl fanfiction #If you enjoy it consider leaving me a comment on AO3?#kara x lena #my fic #multi chapter fic #Forgotten Not Forgiven

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landofzero-archive · 1 year

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Ibara Saegusa - Private Room Chapter 4

Writer: Nishioka Maiko

Season: Autumn

(Location: Starmony Dorm Room (Ibara, Mitsuru, Midori, Tsumugi's Room))

Aira: Fuah, Aaaa…….. Good morning.

Ibara: Good morning.

Takamine-shi and Tenma-shi are both working today. I heard that they’ll be returning in the middle of the night.

Please feel free to spend time in this room as if it was your own. Though, it might be a bit difficult for you to be here with me, just the two of us.

Aira: No no! That’s not the case at all……!

To be honest, it’s more like I’m the freeloader here. You should be the one carrying on without caring too much about me, Saegusa-senpai.

I’ll take up your offer on doing whatever I’d like in here too.

Ibara: Thank you very much. That’s what I’ll do.

Aira: (……And so I said, but being together with Saegusa-senpai, just the two of us is making me nervous……!)

This reminds me of when I first found out about dorming with Sakuma-senpai and Tenshouin-senpai. I was really nervous at that time too.

I’m curious about Saegusa-senpai’s day off……♪

Since Saegusa-senpai has the image of a workaholic.

Even though he revealed how he spends his days off in Eden’s interview article, it felt like it was just a safe response.

That’s why Saegusa-senpai’s private life is still a mystery.

Besides, I just can’t help being curious about the way idols in highly popular units spend their days off!)

Ibara: …… (Doing some reading)

Aira: (I see, I see. Heh……Saegusa-senpai likes to read. I wonder what book he’s reading?

If it’s a book I’m familiar with, maybe it could help broaden the topic of conversation.

Let’s see……”Working techniques to keep a step ahead”?

……Eh, what’s that? A business book, huh? That suits Saegusa-senpai well, but if that’s the case I won’t know about it.)

Ibara: ……… (Using his tablet)

Aira: (Mm? He stopped reading the book in his hand and started looking at his tablet.

I get it~ I do that a lot too. When I’m in the middle of watching TV or a movie in my room, somehow my hand would end up touching my smartphone.

He looks so serious…… I wonder what he’s looking at?

But I know more about the internet than about books, so it might be easier to find a common interest to talk about! Since this is Saegusa-senpai, maybe he’s looking up news on the internet?

Whaat? It doesn’t look like he’s looking up news.There seems to be a lot of graphs. It’s got to be stocks then?

I usually have no affinity to them, so I barely look at them.

Ah~ stocks, huh? The stocks don't seem like a topic that we can talk about together……A shame.

Aira: (Ah, he’s back to reading again.

In that interview article I read back then……I thought he had just given a safe response.

It could be that the truth is not that he was making up the answers for the public, but he just answered as they really are.)

Ibara: ………

…… Could you please not stare so much? It’s quite uncomfortable.

Aira: Uhyaah! Y-you noticed!?

Ibara: You’ve been observing and scrutinizing me that much. I’m not that dull. If anything, I think it’s strange that you think you’ve been able to hide it.

Aira: I’m sorry~ It’s just that I thought I was going to get a glimpse of the surprising side of Saegusa-senpai’s private life, but it’s unexpectedly normal.

Ibara: I’m sorry for being an uninteresting person.

Aira: Eh!? No no!! That’s not what I meant!

I just mean that reading business books and looking at stocks isn’t that much different from what you usually do.

Ibara: But I do a lot of different other things at my usual job. I just thought I should spend my day off working on something beneficial.

Aira: Hm~mm. Now that you’ve mentioned it, in a broader sense, my own hobbies might be similar. My idol otaku knowledge could be used in certain places in my idol activities too.

Alri~ght. Then I’ll spend some time watching videos of my favourite idols……♪ I need to prepare warm tea and snacks to go with my videos!

Ah, I’ll brew some tea for you too, Saegusa-senpai.

Ibara: No, please don’t mind me.

Aira: Don’t be that way. I’ve troubled you so much. If I don’t do anything to make up for it, I won’t be able to calm down. So please don’t hesitate in accepting.

Ibara: Haa, well. In that case, I’ll be counting on you. If I remember correctly, the tea leaves are kept above that cupboard.

Aira: Got it. Please wait a moment.

On top of the cupboard……Ye~p—

( Uu……Even on my tip toes, I can’t reach it.

It’ll be so pathetic if I ask Saegusa-senpai for help because I suddenly couldn’t reach the tea leaves. After all that fuss I’ve made about it too.)

Mm?

(Ah, There’s a small stepping stool here. The seat has a mascot character on it, how cute~ That’s perfect, I’ll borrow this. Heave ho—)

Heh!? It sounds like there was a snap coming from the stool……?

Uwaaaaa!? I’m falling……!?

Previous | Directory | Next

#ensemble stars #enstars #enstars translation #ibara saegusa #aira shiratori #era: !!#type: scout

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dat-bruv-person · 2 years

Text

ıllı it's the most wonderful time of the year~

a/n: how we feeling about the holidays??? Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it <3 Also I did mean pre-Scaramouche for Kuni's one, I prefer the soft, innocent one. Fight me 😡

gn!reader, poc!reader friendly, god of gods!reader in Zhongli's section

_________ ׂׂૢ་༘࿐

Kunikuzushi is very new to the festive season, so you're obviously gonna have to teach him a thing or two. He very much enjoys the hot chocolate and marshmallows though, they're probably his favourite. During the next few days up till the actual holiday, he tries to be on his best behaviour so he doesn't get coal in his stocking. Speaking of which, you both have matching purple ones, his lighter, yours darker.

You and Ganyu make her office a little bit more festive by hanging tinsel around the corners of the ceiling. It's a nice white and blue colour scheme, nothing too much, but it still manages to feel festive. She takes peppermint tea with her to work for the holiday season, and wraps up warm because of the snow <3

Ayato and Ayaka are yet again seeking out your attention, both of them bickering about who you want to spend Christmas with the most. Of course, they can't duke it out like normal siblings and beg for you to choose because that would spoil their image. Bribery is the next best option. Ayaka wears little red scrunchies in her hair and asks for you to help her pick an outfit so that she can match with your scarf. Uh oh: does Lord Kamisato see competition? Oh well, he needs some help making cookies because Lords being humble is the new trend these days, care to try his millionaire shortbread?

Zhongli has seen many seasons go by with you, but this one seems to be a lot more memorable. He has stepped down from his godly position whilst you have not. You, the god of gods: aka the god babysitter, used to play with Guizhong in the snow, not caring about a single thing, your job was to make sure that another war didn't break out and that there was peace after all. Building snowmen with her was the best, and watching you two from afar was amusing. Alas, those were good times. Now was the time to huddle over the hearth and drink eggnog with you and Barbatos.

Out of spite, you spend Christmas with The Raiden Shogun, not Ei. You two have a great time, sure she's kinda dry, but she's good company. In my past works, I make you and Raiden besties and leave Ei out just because it's funny but I'd genuinely like to be the puppet's friend, you know? Well, Ei does not like this. She enjoys the sweets and everything, yeah, but when she sees you dressing up her puppet in a Santa hat and pretty earrings, she starts thinking that you want her puppet more than her. Hmmm, maybe you're just bonding. That's right! Bonding. Raiden seems to enjoy this though, the attention she's receiving is so much better than just setting out tasks for people to do. She thanked you by giving you a stiff hug. The poor thing's trying, okay?

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keaalu · 9 days

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WIP - ‘Kestrel Kestrel’

So apparently “WIP Wednesday” is a thing? Like I need any excuses to dump incomplete ficbits on the internet.

----

Still feeling sore and muzzy, with 55 lurking quietly next to her, monitoring her vital signs, she’d only been human again for thirty seven minutes but Kate was already on her third plate of sandwiches, crunching her way through Spacehawk’s entire stock of crispy snacks. 101 looked alarmed by how quickly his inventory was dropping but wasn’t hesitating at bringing more when she looked at him in a specific way.

“Growing a whole new skeleton really takes it out of you,” she said, accepting the offering when the zeroid trundled over pushing yet another packet of crisps towards her.

“That’s our last pack of those,” 101 informed her, trying but not quite able to keep all the reproach from his tone. “So if you need anything else you’ll need to pick something different. Like broccoli.”

“Sorry, hon.” She suspected it had probably been Hiro’s favourites she’d been happily munching her way through, if the zeroid’s manner was anything to go by. “I’ll send some more up on your next supply run.”

He chirped an acknowledgement and seemed mollified, for the moment.

“I guess it must have felt a bit like this when you got your body back after Zelda turned you into a cube, huh?” she wondered.

“Oh I don’t think my experience was anywhere near as bad as yours, ma’am,” he demurred. “Mine was more like… maybe just a very unflattering new set of clothes.”

Kate patted him on the head, anyway. “I bet it still sucked. And at least you weren’t a were-cube,” she joked, and winced.

“And it didn’t involve a trash compactor,” he agreed, and gave her fingers a bump. “Would you like a coffee? I just heard it finish brewing.”

“That would be amazing. Thank you.”

He squeaked another little nonverbal agreement, and rolled away to get it. (She wondered if she could get away with asking for more sandwiches when he came back.)

“Tea? Oh, yes please,” she heard Hiro say, and looked up to find the lieutenant in the doorway.

“I ate all your chips, so I think I’m in trouble with your little space husband,” Kate apologised, holding the open pack out to him. Even that small action made her shoulders ache. Perhaps she ought to forego more sandwiches in favour of sleeping for a few days.

Hiro smiled and took a single crisp, but otherwise waved her off. “I once told him I particularly liked these, so now he always buys far too many, then pretends they were on offer. Then we have to somehow store four cases of them.” He settled on the floor next to her, cross legged, and nibbled the snack. “I try not to eat them too quickly, because then he panics that we are running out and buys more.” A little sigh. “There are certain nuances to human behaviour that zeroids don’t quite get, yet, and striking a balance between foods we enjoy and sensible nutritional choices appears to be one of them.”

“Well, you have plenty of ‘sensible nutritional choices’ in the form of broccoli, apparently.”

“And why do you think we have plenty of that?” Hiro gave her an arch look, then relented and took another crisp.

“Yeah, I get it.” Kate chuckled, tiredly. “So do you have an update for me?”

“I do. Not much of one, yet, but we wanted to ensure you were kept in the loop.” He held out the tablet for her.

Kate stared at the confusing mosaic of… biopsy images? “What am I looking at?”

He tapped the first image and it enlarged to a graphical representation genetic data. “Initially, when you arrived and we took a skin sample?” At her nod, he went on; “We thought that Zelda must have done something structurally to alter your DNA, but when we analysed it, it was all still human. We could not explain it. How could you be human, but categorically not human, at the same time? So we did a visual scan of your blood sample, instead. And we found… this.” He touched the screen and brought up a new image.

It was some sort of microscopy of a blood film. Kate could recognise red blood cells easily. The irregular, blobby purplish masses were probably white blood cells.

She had no idea what the scattering of angular black flecks were, though.

She felt a set of cold fingers draw up the back of her neck. “The hell are those.”

“We are still working on our analysis, but they look like very small machines of some sort. They have proved hard to extract to get under the electron microscope. Kiljoy is still working on it.”

---

“The black dots.” She let out a breath in a very long exhale. “Can you remove them?”

Hiro’s silence was all she needed to know.

“We will remove them,” he hastily added. “I just don’t know how quickly we can do it, yet.”

“Can you block them?”

“I don’t know.”

“So what you mean is, I could turn back into a bird at literally any moment. Including at the worst possible time. Like… at the controls of an aircraft.”

He took her hand and squeezed her fingers, briefly. “I’m sorry, Kate.”

The two zeroids had both converged on her as well, leaning comfortingly against her.

“It’s okay, guys.” She forced a smile. “I know it’s not your fault. I just… oh, man. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse.”

#terrahawks #wip wednesday #fiction #werekestrel

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aceleeticklish · 10 months

Note

What’s set as your phone’s lockscreen?

If you were a cookie, what kind would you be?

Is there a song you know all the lyrics to?

Describe your favourite outfit

I’m a really boring person so a lot of my lockscreen (it shuffles images) are stock, but it’s mainly my dog or pictures from holidays in Cornwall.

This is an amazing one i got at night in an empty car park in Truro, Cornwall 🥰

if i were a cookie…. Hmmmm. Probably a cinamon chocolate mash up, cause i’m warm and sweet (when i want to be) but i can be spicy and annoying 😜 A song i know all the lyrics……. If i were to sing it without the music I’d be screwed…. But, it’d be Gary Numan’s Intruder, Take That’s How did it come to this, or Robbie Williams Party Like a Russian 😅🩵 My favourite outfit would have to be, my oversized “band” t shirt from red bubble “Gary King and the Enablers” from the world’s end, my new stitch jogging bottoms and my long trench coat with my blue marine hat. Super cozy, doesn’t go tog but i give no shits. Thank you Hedgey!

#Ask meeee!#asks answered #is meez

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thiswaycomessomethingwicked · 1 year

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Potentially silly question regarding Grima: You've discussed before the idea of him loving to have pineapples around as a status symbol on account of them being something weird and exotic that no one else has, but if given the chance to not just have them kicking around for symbolic purposes and actually be served to him, do you think Grima would taste them, and if so, if he'd like it or not? And what other foods (fruit or otherwise) do you think might he consider a status symbol?

I live for silly Grima questions!

And Grima would love pineapple! it's so sweet, he'd be gung-ho for it. He would be that person who would receive one and then be grieved over whether or not he wished to put it on his table or eat it. Like receiving a work of art as a rug - do you hang it on the wall or put it on the floor and use it as it was meant to be used?

In this world with the anachronistic pineapple, I think initially Grima would never eat them. He would keep them until they weren't aesthetic anymore then they'd be fed to the goats or pigs or chickens.

However, once he had been in a decently powerful/wealthy position for long enough I think he'd take a pineapple and try and figure out how to eat it.

There would be a debate: can you eat a pineapple?

Eomer says no - they're prickly on the outside, sharp, pointy, clearly a sign they're poisonous and not to be eaten.

Grima says yes - there are prickly pointy sharp plants that are perfectly edible. It's a matter of knowing how to do it.

Eowyn has no opinion on the matter, but she holds that Grima should be the one who tries it first.

Theodred is just confused about why this matters. They have perfectly good, delightful food. There's no need to try and eat the table decorations.

Grima: but what if they taste good? Who knows. It could be fun for us.

Being a reasonably intelligent man, Grima makes his least favourite person eat a bit of the pineapple first then they all wait and see if he dies. When it's determined that he will live, Grima tries some and is like 'it's terrible. None of you should have any. I'll take care of it, don't worry.' And hoards the pineapple like the wee dragon wyrm he is.

Figuring out how to access the inner flesh of the fruit involved Grima carefully cutting small bits off then they were like 'ah, the outer layer isn't that thick so this is easy'. They were also all mightily pleased that there was no stone inside which means more pineapple to eat.

Figuring out how to propagate a pineapple would be a past-time Grima would undertake and if he managed to successfully figure it out he would be like, 'they are absolute freaks of a plant. I love them even more. Eomer, build me a greenhouse.'

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Other status symbol foods for Grima?

Certain herbs and spices would be: cinnamon, vanilla, saffron, cardamom, lemongrass, sumac, caraway, nutmeg etc.

Citrus in general - I don't see Rohan doing orangeries or anything, that would be a Gondor-style invention. So all citrus is imported which makes it rare and expensive.

Grima trying to convince Eomer to build an orangerie is now my new favourite mental image.

Grima: we could have oranges in winter, my lord! just. think about it.

Eomer is like, 'you really took on the decadent living full force, didn't you?'

'I was born on a farm in the north, my lord. I grew up living off turnips and seasonal produce that can grow in cold climes and whatever we foraged. Not that we ever foraged or poached on the local lord's land. Never.'

Anachronistic tomatoes! Certain tree nuts would be strictly imports and so therefore a delicacy (e.g., almonds).

I don't know if Rohan did class based consumption (only royalty can eat certain meats etc.), but if they did - whatever was determined to be for nobility alone would be something he'd put great stock in now having access to.

Man, this guy's diet really improved when he joined the king's household.

Grima: I ate a lot of pottage. Bread soup. Meat but more so in the autumn when we slaughtered the animals that were right for it. Turnips. Carrots. Roots for days. Cabbage. Ruffage of that sort. Berries if they were in season. Apples, when they were in season. Fish from the river sometimes. Cheese. Most everything was salted, pickled or fermented.

Eomer: I see.

Grima: but now I can eat fruit whenever I want! also we have meat with every meal and it's fresh meat, too. Not to mention wine. Also food is spiced so fancy here. Look at this ginger. This would cost five of my father's sheep. I never new cardamom existed until I came to Edoras. You even colour your jellies random colours solely because it amuses you to have them coloured! Wild.

Eomer:

Eomer: you know, I get it.

Grima: and you have white flour! Wheat! It's not rye or barley - amazing. And white ale! ugh, the lap of luxury, my lord. I will never grow tired of it. Oh, and fancy tea that I've never had before arriving in Edoras.

Other things would be jellies and custards - anything that is time and labour intensive would be a status symbol. Figs, dates - dried fruits that had to be imported would cost a pretty penny and be for the wealthy alone. Not to mention grapes and olives. Peacock and other more fanciful poultry, of course. Like the feasts would be certainly something.

I sometimes imagine, like, twenty-two year old Grima arriving in Edoras and getting absorbed into the king's household because he's one of the few fully literate people in the city and seeing a royal feast up close for the first time.

Mind blowing.

Grima: how do I eat this?

Theoden: it's an orange. Have you never had an orange before?

Grima is like, Do you think I've had an orange before?

Theoden:

Theoden: fair point.

Grima has more than one shirt in his possession and thinks he's basically a lord, now.

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Things to also consider is if there were any social constraints to when you ate certain food - such as religious festivals. Was fasting during a certain period part of Rohan's culture? Were there restrictions or taboos around grouping certain foods together? Did those restrictions apply to everyone equally or only certain groups? Was there a gendered aspect to food consumption and access?

E.g., in early medieval Scandinavia (think vikings), boys were favoured and so in lean/starvation times they were given the good food and the daughters were not. We can see in skeletal remains that within the same generation women were more likely to have suffered a starvation level of hunger at a greater percentage to men.

So, like, in Rohan if there was a lean time during his childhood was Grima fed more in comparison to his sister(s)? How does that impact someone's relationship to family? to food? etc.

Also what was the meal structure like? Did they do two meals, as was common through much of the medieval era in Europe (broad brush stroke, of course, regional variations existed and things shifted over time. E.g., Venice did dinner and supper but there was a secret, third meal between the two that was like a sort-of tea/snack break)? I suspect at a minimum it was three in Rohan since we know Gandalf et al arrived in Meduseld in the morning and Grima makes reference to Theoden's meat (i.e., his meal) being at the board. So, likely breakfast of some variation.

However, Theoden was old and infirm and that might mean he was eating different meals than he would be otherwise. How illness and age are treated in terms of food consumption is another impact to what you eat and when. (Allen Grieco was a historian who wrote a good amount about this - granted he was more in the early modern period, but his writing on food in early modern/renaissance Italy is super fascinating. Recommend Food, Social Politics and the Order of Nature in Renaissance Italy as a good starting point.)

(granted, anything from Harvard Press' "Villa I Tatti" series is worth reading if you're into the early modern and renaissance period.)

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Ok I've gone on for too long. I just. fucking love thinking about food habits and rituals and all the weird little things that impact how and what we (or Grima) eat! It's so cool!

Thank you so much for the ask! <3 <3

#grima wormtongue #grima thoughts #lotr #lord of the rings #food #world building #ask #reply #anon #Rohan

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