#Rosie cole

[rocketorca]

My new tats! I asked for the NGE Spear of Longinus and the Spear of Cassius but make them magical girl.

Artist is Rosie Cole at Needlework Tattoo Co in Michigan.

[willstafford]

Austen and Ostentation

SENSE AND SENSIBILITY The Attic Theatre, Stratford upon Avon, Friday 16th June 2023 Jane Austen’s beloved novel from 1811 is brought to life in this elegant adaptation by the reliably excellent Tread The Boards.  Director John-Robert Partridge goes all out with the accents and mannerisms of the time, his job made easier by the judicious choice of splendid costumes.  It’s a good-looking…

[mrkimmy-101]

[restlesschilled]

Oooh sorry we actually stole your girlfriend from your wedding and used her as a genetic code for a ruthless army of clones… yeah she’s in a suspended chamber in a 30 year coma sorry

[bucketsofmonsters]

Where the Light Enters - Part 6

cw: unreliable narrator, hurt/comfort, slow burn, eventual sex, enemies to lovers, past childhood sexual assault, past sex trafficking, referenced noncon, past nonconsensual body modification, happy ending, the tags look scary but this is mainly a story about recovery

Cole/Female Inquisitor

word count: 3k

ao3 link

Masterlist

She hated that she still had nightmares. She could tamp down every other emotion she’d ever had, but in the throes of unconsciousness there was nothing to be done. 

She never even had nightmares about anything interesting, nothing particularly unique or horrifying. 

It was usually just days. Random days from her past that she hardly remembered, completely and entirely unimportant. 

She wished there were elaborate, horrific nightmares. At least then she’d have an excuse for why she bolted awake in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. 

This time, when she woke, she was pinned under Iron Bull’s arm. 

Of all the partners she’d ever had, he was by far the most irritating to sneak away from. 

He always clung to her in his sleep, like he was a child and she was his favorite toy. He had massive arms and even if he hadn’t been holding onto her for dear life, it would have been hard to sneak off. As it stood, it was near impossible to get out of his grip. 

She’d developed a system, over the past months, as he insisted she fall asleep in his bed more and more often. She’d wiggle and wiggle as much as she could, slowly slipping a pillow into his grip alongside her. And then she’d slide out against the pillow, leaving it in his grasp.

It took forever, and by the time she had managed it most of the panic from her nightmare had settled into her usual numbness, but she figured as long as she was out she might as well get some air. 

And then there was the matter of leaving his room. 

Bull’s door was incessantly squeaky. He said he’d chosen this room for that reason specifically, so no one could sneak up on him. It made her feel like she was in prison. 

So, the first time she’d been set on escaping, she’d done the only thing she could think to do. She climbed out the window. 

It was a room on such a high level that she would never risk climbing down, she wasn’t nearly graceful enough for that. 

But the roof was fairly flat and he was on the top floor, so sometimes she scrambled up there, kicking her feet against the wall to help her with the pull up she needed to do that her arms couldn’t quite manage on their own, when she couldn’t stomach being in his room all night. 

Tonight was one of those nights. She jumped up, grabbing the ledge and kicking off the wall until she managed to heave herself onto the roof. 

And as she crawled the last bit of the way up, looking for some peace, she found something else. She found Cole. 

She wasn’t even surprised to see Cole sitting up there, waiting for her. 

“You couldn’t have helped me up?” she asked with a huff, embarrassed that she was a little out of breath from her climb.

“It’s good for you. If you want to be an archer you need strong arms.”

“Be careful with that,” she warned him playfully. “If I get too strong, maybe I’ll stop missing.”

He shook his head. “I can move faster than you can think to shoot.”

“Just have to stop thinking then,” she said, settling down beside him as they talked. No matter how irritating he was, this was better than being down there with Bull. 

The view from the roof was beautiful. They could see mountains sprawling around them, miles and miles of rock. She knew below them lay a river but it was out of sight, blocked by the walls that kept them safe. 

More importantly than that, they could see the stars. 

She laid back as Cole stared down at her, catching his curious face out of the corner of her eye. 

“What?” she asked. “You don’t like the stars?���

“I don’t think about them. You don’t like the stars,” he informed her, as if she didn’t already know. 

“I don’t, but they’re something to look at. Better than nothing.”

He did not move to join her, content to just stare down at her as she looked up. 

She didn’t chastise him for it. She’d complained enough about his staring and he could see in her mind, he knew it was off putting. If he was doing it still, he had decided to do it regardless of what she thought.

“I don’t understand why it’s bad to look at you,” he said.

“It’s not bad to look, it’s just bad to stare.”

“Whenever I look, people think I’m staring. I don’t know how to stop.”

“It’s those big owl eyes you’ve got,” she said, widening her own eyes for purely demonstrational purposes. “It makes you scary.”

“I don’t want to be scary.”

She shrugged. “Should’ve reconsidered being a spirit then. What’re you doing out here anyways? Don’t you have important spirit duties to attend to? Have you drugged all the people you needed to drug for the night?”

He ignored her teasing, as he often did. She supposed it lost some of its bite when you could see right into someone’s head and pluck out the idea that they didn’t really mean it. “You dream loud,” he said. “I don’t like watching you hurt but you need to sleep.”

“How long have you been up here?”

“Since it started. Just in case.”

“How considerate,” she said, half meaning it. 

“Do you remember what Vivienne said?” he blurted out. “About me?”

She nodded. “I think she’s wrong about you, just for the record. Not that it matters.”

He pushed past everything she’d said, instead announcing, “I did that.”

“What, hurt mages? That’s fine, you know me, that’s not something I care about. I’m sure you meant well. I don’t think you know how not to mean well.”

“No, put people down. Like she wanted to do to me.”

Rosemary sat up with a jolt. “What?”

“I didn’t know the hurt could stop. I thought I was helping. And then I knew better but I killed people who hurt others. Now I know you and I think maybe I was wrong again.”

“You weren’t,” she insisted. “Nothing wrong with hurting people who hurt people. I mean, not me of course, but others.”

“But you hurt people and you’re a person,” he insisted. “Sometimes you help but mostly you just are. I don’t know if it’s your fault and I think I don’t care. I didn’t know I could do that.”

“I think I’m confusing you,” she said quietly. “I think once you get away from me for a while, you’ll be right back to your weird little spirit ways.”

“I don’t want to go back,” he insisted. “I remember things now, I care instead of just do. Sometimes I hurt. I thought only they could do that but I feel it in me and I don’t want to stop feeling it because then I can’t understand it right anymore.”

She wanted to understand him, she realized. She was trying to puzzle the words together, to figure out what emotion he could possibly be feeling. 

Maybe they were both becoming used to caring. 

He nodded, whether to himself or at her thought, she wasn’t sure. And then he asked, “Can you say something honest?”

She froze up. “No,” she said, and she hated the bit of regret that sat inside her as she said it. “I won’t.”

He nodded and dropped the topic, looking off at the mountain range. 

She hated how the way he didn’t push calmed her and tried to fight the way she relaxed into his company so easily after. 

“You want to kiss me,” he said, still looking out at the mountains as he spoke. “It’s very distracting.”

She reeled back. “No I don’t.”

She considered his words. Did she? He wasn’t one to lie, especially about things he saw in people’s heads, but surely this wasn’t true. She would know if she wanted to kiss someone. 

She’d imagined it, of course. But she’d imagined kissing a lot of people. She’d never actually wanted to do it before. 

She imagined it for practical reasons. She imagined how people would want to be kissed, what they wanted from her. It was all to prepare herself, not out of any desire. 

But then, kissing Cole wouldn’t get her anything. He couldn’t be tricked like that. She’d known that as long as she’d known him. So why did she imagine kissing him? 

And then she thought about it even more, turning the thought over in her mind. 

With other people, it was about what they wanted. She’d never thought that far with Cole, never imagined what kind of performance he’d enjoy. 

All she’d considered had been how it might feel, how awkward and stumbling he would be, how his lips would probably be chapped, how he wouldn’t know where to put his hands, how even without words he’d be able to understand her the whole way through. 

Oh god, maybe she did want to kiss Cole. She’d never actually wanted to kiss anyone before. 

It was out of some sick curiosity about the spirit, she was sure, but want was want.

“Do I?” she asked, desperately attempting to puzzle it out.

“You do.” He stated it so matter of factly and she believed him. 

“Sorry I’ve been distracting you.”

“It’s fine. No one’s ever wanted to kiss me before. I keep wondering what it’s like.”

It certainly wasn’t an expression of real romantic interest, but then again, neither was her desire. Maybe their wants were rooted in the same thing, in a mutual vague curiosity. There was nothing wrong with that. 

“We could try,” she said, trying desperately to sound casual. 

He nodded and moved towards her, not one to sit and discuss when a decision had been made. 

His lips were softer than she thought they’d be. She’d been convinced they’d be chapped. 

And he was warmer than he had been, she realized, remembering how inhumanly cool his skin had felt when they’d first met. It was a warm night, maybe he was like a lizard, changing his body temperature with the days.

And as they kissed, he stayed absolutely still. 

It was like kissing a statue, he was completely frozen against her. 

She pulled back, taking him in, the way he seemed completely frozen. “You alright?” she asked, poking his cheek and half expecting him to topple over as she did. 

That seemed to shake him out of it. “I didn’t do good.” 

She laughed. “You did fine, relax.”

“I want to try again,” he insisted. “I thought something in me would take over like in Varric’s books but it didn’t. I have to do things on purpose or I don’t do anything.”

“You’ve read Varric’s books?”

He shook his head. “He thinks loud when he writes.” And then, a little softer, he added, “He thinks we should kiss.”

“Who, Varric?”

Cole nodded and they were still so close that the brim of his had tapped her on the head as he did. “Yes. He thought it before you did.” 

She considered taking the hat off before they kissed again but it felt wrong, like taking one of his limbs.

“So we are kissing again?” Cole asked, perking up.

“If you’d like to.”

He leaned a little closer, as if about to kiss her, before pulling back again and asking. “Should I close my eyes?” 

She giggled at that, at the thought that he’d been staring at her with those big eyes, even while they kissed. There really was no escaping them. 

“Yeah,” she admitted, as funny as she found the idea. “You probably should.”

This time, when their lips pressed together, he melted into the kiss, leaning into her as his lips opened slightly to welcome her own. 

He kissed her back in what she was sure was an imitation of all her half-forgotten memories of kissing. He stumbled his way through it, like he had trouble translating the memories to his own body. He got bolder the longer it went on, exploring a little as she kissed him, soft and slow. 

And then he stiffened and pulled back, eyes wide. 

“You’re with the Iron Bull,” he said, like he’d somehow forgotten. “You hate it but he doesn’t and he doesn’t know. You’ve made me hurt him too.”

She scrunched up her nose. “I didn’t make you do anything. Besides, I don’t think he’d even care much. He doesn’t seem one for committed long-term relationships.”

“I don’t like secrets. I need to tell him.”

“If you tell him, I will never forgive you,” she said, and she meant every word of it. 

He stared at her, and for the first time in a long time, she squirmed under his gaze. 

Finally, he asked, “Are we friends?”

“I don’t know,” she said honestly. “I’m not sure I’d be able to tell.”

He nodded. “You wouldn’t. And you told me something honest. I won’t tell him.”

“Thank you,” she said, reaching over and giving his hand a squeeze. 

“I liked kissing you,” he said

“That’s good. Maybe you should try kissing someone you won’t feel horribly guilty about kissing next time,” she suggested. 

He shook his head. “I don’t think I want to if it’s not you.”

She tried not to think about that, about what that could mean. 

Because to be honest, it felt dangerously close to her typical relationships with men, leveraging the affection she’d tricked them into to keep her safe. She’d thought Cole was different, that he was the one person she could not pull into that trap. But if he wanted to kiss her…

“Not like that,” he said, something almost akin to panic washing over his face. “Never like that. I’d never let it be like that.”

And she knew that. She’d figured it out, it wasn’t an instinct borne of pure emotion. She wouldn’t trust it if it was. 

Cole, factually, wasn’t like that. For better or for worse. 

And she’d kissed him anyway. 

“I need to go back in,” she said, knowing Cole was reading her disappointment off her and hating him for it. “Bull’s going to wake up soon.”

He nodded. “He sleeps light, the Qun makes sure of it. Sneaking in the night, the sound of a floorboard, sword unsheathing. Another attack, always another attack. No sleep over enemy lines.”

“Yeah, that.” She looked down at the balcony forlornly. No matter how gently she tried to let herself down, she always hurt her ankle. 

“Could you lend me a hand?” she asked as she turned back to Cole, but instead found an empty roof behind her, the spirit gone once more. 

She rolled her eyes and dropped down, holding on to the ledge for several seconds before working up the nerve to drop that last little bit. 

Her knees buckled as she fell, a familiar soreness blooming in her ankle. 

She tucked herself in bed beside Bull and he pulled her towards him again, none the wiser to her little escapade. 

She waited, unable to sleep, until he woke behind her. 

She pretended to be asleep, as she always did in the mornings, waiting for him to wake her. 

He didn’t for a while, instead just staring down at her, observing quietly. 

She was good at pretending to be asleep, had gotten a lot of practice in it over the years. There was nothing that displayed vulnerability better to people, nothing that fostered protectiveness more than the peaceful face of a sleeping girl. 

Eventually, Bull did wake her, poking her gently in the side. 

“Can’t sleep all day,” he said, his voice low and rumbly. 

She pretended to ease herself awake, arching into him with a little stretch. “I really wish I could. I can’t believe I have to head out a little past sunrise to go close some stupid rifts." She had no idea what time it actually was but took a best guess, trying to get herself out of there as quickly as she could. 

Bull froze next to her and she cheered internally. He had an absurdly good sense of time and she assumed she was right on the mark. “You should have told me. You’re running late.”

She jolted out of bed. “Am I? Oh my god.”

She gave Bull a kiss and got ready in a flurry, bolting down the stairs with a lightness in her step. 

She almost ran square into Cole as she did, him appearing right in front of her.

“Are we leaving?” he asked, and she nodded excitedly. 

“We are, go find someone to take with us and let’s get out of here. Preferably someone who doesn’t like Bull.”

He nodded and then faded out of existence once more. 

She ran off to grab Dorian, figuring he was a safe bet. Dorian wouldn’t tell Bull because he hates Qunari. He pretended sometimes that he didn’t but it was flimsy at best. She could see the disgust painted across his face when they spoke.

She wasn’t sure who Cole would bring, her bets being on Varric or Solas. Honestly, anyone would be fine, so long as they weren’t someone who would go tattling to Bull if her and Cole were a little closer than they should be on this mission. 

Inexplicably, Cole returned with a furious Vivienne in tow. “I have someone,” he announced. “Can we leave?”

She buried her head in her hands. “Why would you do this?”

“Inquisitor,” Vivienne said, a thinly veiled anger present under the fake niceness dripping from her voice. “Why is your spirit stealing me away from my work saying you need me for something?”

Dorian laughed a good natured laugh. “I think the Inquisitor expected him to return with a companion less virulently opposed to him.”

Her smile failed to hide a grimace. “The spirit has taken a liking to me then. Oh, joy.”

Vivienne wasn’t technically a bad choice, she supposed. She wouldn’t say anything to Bull because she knew well enough to keep secrets to herself unless pushed, and Rosemary would never push her. She might tell the chantry that she was befriending a demon but Rosemary suspected she’d already told them that and nothing had happened so far. 

It would be a long trip, but it would be a long trip without Bull. “Alright,” she said. “I guess you’re coming with us. And who knows, Madame de Fer, maybe you’ll take a liking to him. He has a way of surprising people.”

[elkaseltzer]

"Was Jacques-Louis David in Hell? Could he be commissioned to paint 'The Death of the Radio Demon' in place of Marat?"

maybe he cant BUT I CAN!!!!!!!!!

jk this is a gift not a com

based off of part 8 of We Should've Been Enemies by @soot-and-salt

[greenribbon]

Girls, girls, girls, please. It's the big night. Come on.

[pro-logue-epi-logue]

RANDOM DEVIL'S NIGHT THOUGHTS

~NUMBER 27~

Has anyone read Rukus by LJ shen, (and if you hadn't and want too BE PREPARED TO GET HEARTBROKEN !)

yeah so,

Dean Cole = Will Grayson III

Although, Dean is wayyyyyy nicer and awesome to Rosie than Will ever was to Emory.

Dean is wayyyyyy way way more caring.

And Dean is also funnier than Will.

So many similarities-

"But Rosie fucking hated me. So, I stayed single."

This is what Dean said about Rosie.

TEL ME THIS ISN'T WILL ABOUT EMMY!! YOU CAN'T!!

Dean didn’t date anyone for 11 years.

Will didn't date anyone for since he saw em and specially after the night at the cove, so for 12 years he didn't date anyone.

"You need to stop hitting on me.” Her voice was painfully flat.

He got rejected Just like Will.

They both are in love for YEARS! JUST. Like. Willemmy. And guess what, Rosie loves him but is trying so hard to keep him away, just like Emory did.

" Is English not your native tongue? Should I say no in another language? I don’t speak Asshole fluently, but I can try"

Emory would be so proud of Rosie.

Rosie hated my guts, and for a good reason. Every time Baby LeBlanc saw my face, she saw empty fun; a stoner who got to where he was because his daddy was a famous lawyer, and his last name was Cole, and the Coles donated enough money to Harvard to feed the better half of Africa, so my future was paved for me before I even knew how to spell the word entitled.

Isn't this what Will used to think Emmy thought of him .

Everyone was setting down roots and playing grown-ups.

Everyone but us

WILLEMMY! Flashback

The only thing that is not similar is how DeanRosie end. 😭😭

[suddenfossilfightersheadcanons]

some quick queer fossil fighters headcanons

-Several vivosaurs have been treated throughout the ages as queer icons. Generally, dromaeosauridae, particularly Dilopho, Breme, and Nychus, are seen as representative of all forms of queerness. Moreover, Aopteryx, Proto, and Guam, who are gifted with the ability to transform into yet more glorious iterations of themselves, are commonly used in trans iconography. Shanshan tends to be used as a transmasc icon solely, while Guam is usually used for transfem iconography. Aopteryx is used dually as a generalised trans icon and as a representation of nonbinary Fossil Fighters. Also; Sinopteryx is often incorporated into lesbian iconography.

-Most assume that Holt, for his love of V-raptor, would be gay. They're not wrong that he's queer, but his specific brand of queerness is asexuality.

-Dinaurians have more complex chromosomes than humans, so have their own approach to classifying both sex and gender. While there exist both female and male Dinaurian phenotypes, these phenotypes don't always match with their BC/CC chromosome distributions—environmental influence plays a far greater part in Dinaurian than human puberty, so BC males and females both exist, as do CC males and females, and BC and CC intersex Dinaurians. While Dinaurian standards of masculinity and femininity exist, they present more guidelines than cultural imperatives—as such, many Dinaurians fit into neither box socially or biologically, and this is broadly considered normative. Human ideas of straightness, gayness, and bisexuality thus don't always translate well into Dinaurian culture, as the idea of inherently being attracted to especially stringent expressions of certain chromosomal phenotypes just doesn't compute when those phenotypes aren't straightforward. Dinaurians might mention preferring masculinity or femininity somewhat if asked about their sexualities, but are more likely to emphasise personality, intellect, or specific nondimorphic physical characteristics. That is, most dinaurians are sapiosexual and pansexual to some degree, but pansexuality doesn't tend to entirely translate as a cultural construct.

-Near the Hare Club, Cranial Isle has a small hangout room labelled 'the Aopteryx Club'. It's a de facto space for trans Fossil Fighters to meet up and trade anecdotes, and Terry insists on setting aside a portion of the Fighter Station housekeeping budget to make sure the Aopteryx Club is furnished as well as possible.

-Terry is gay, and Cole is a bisexual who long assumed himself to be the sole queer man worth his own attention. The two attended highschool together, and slowly, ever so slowly, have been seen becoming more and more affectionate with each other in public.

-Lola is nonbinary and aroace, but doesn't tend to mention her gender identity unless asked. She's seldom felt quite comfortable with they/them pronouns, but considers herself human before she considers herself in any way female. Though she's ace, she absolutely adores gossiping about others' love lives, and has made every effort possible to nudge Cole closer to Terry.

-Lester is nonbinary and transmasc (he/they pronouns). He and Lola spend a great deal of time making music after hours at the Aopteryx club.

-Pauleen and Dina are lesbian. Oh so very lesbian. Dina is usually entirely oblivious to any male expressions of attraction towards her. Pauleen is not oblivious when men adore her, but tends to be upfront about seldom returning feelings.

-Rupert and Dino are gay. Oh so very gay. From a marketing perspective, Rupert's father didn't disapprove of his son's sexuality—rather, he despised his son's choice in partner, and feared that Rupert and Dino's public affection for each other would drive away potential clients for FossilDig. Rupert managed to allay most of his father's worries by pointing out that FossilDig could likely buy into rainbow capitalism more now, but look less conspicuous doing so. Nevertheless, Rupert's father remained too stuffy to follow through on such a business venture, and pride month sales remain anodyne. Joe Wildwest, meanwhile, not only dotes on his son, but has been absolutely vocal about LGBT rights since he noticed that Dino was gay. 'Noticed', rather than 'was told', since Dino never really came out—he just happened to have a first crush on a male, rather than female, classmate, and the family rolled with it from there.

-In the Patrol Team, Todd is the token straight on thin ice.

-P. A. Leon is gloriously and gorgeously aroace. Though she dated as a young woman, she came to realise she better enjoyed time spent alone with her Kraftwerk and Gary Numan records than time spent together with partners. Her team comprises solely dromaesauridae, and as such, long before she used the term 'asexual' on radio, many celebrated her apparent queerness.

-Diggins and Beth are both trans, and Diggins was the first person to popularise Aopteryx as a symbol of transness.

-Joe describes himself as straight, but also swoons over 70s & 80s rockstars. He's as straight as a 70s rockstar can be—that is, functionally bicurious at minimum. An, uh, 'extremely devoted ally'.

-Though Stryker gives extremely little away to the press, he's always been openly gay. It's not something he's ever wished to conceal; as such, he's the first openly queer head of the Wardens.

-Dahlia and Penny are probably the most prominent resident sapphic couple at INTERFOL.

[ghostlysundae]

I bring adoptive Fauna and Earth siblings

[gyrovagi]

i do think caden has relatively speaking a really straightforward quasi-'normal' friendship with vivienne but at the same time it's . like they do like each other genuinely! they're similar in a way that means they get along and they for real hang out and tastefully gossip. but both of them are so used to maintaining a certain distance from other people that i don't think either of them are even aware of the fact that it's there. neither of them can bear to be vulnerable. even when viv loses bastien which is something she just has no control over, even then she keeps her cards so close to her chest. and caden doesn't have any qualms about getting her the wyvern heart and he is deeply sympathetic for her loss but it's like. they both like each other for the people they are but this precludes 'true' closeness and vulnerability, because that's something neither of them allow themself, and neither of them are interested in changing that in themself or in each other. hm.

[forensicated]

(Just noted there's no talk an inspector or a sgt acting up to cover Gina's absence... I realise that they're trying to ignore it given whats about to happen and that it means that June is the highest ranking uniformed officer for several episodes outside of the super for quite a while with only Yvonne as acting Sgt to cover for Smithy)

Smiffina Episodes - Episode 383

Smithy wakes to find Louise sat at the end of the bed staring at him, going over her witness statement. She worries as the case is due to start the next day so it's their last day together. She asks Smithy if he's really sure because she knows his job means a lot to him. He smiles, telling her it does - but not as much as she does. All they have to do is get through the next six months apart.

Smithy arrives late to work to find June has taken the briefing for him. He does however have to go out on the beat with Laura and a police dog who is 'visiting' to help catch street dealers. It's clearly the last thing he wants to do and he's barely listening as Laura chats away about the dog has been trained to do.

"He's named Bongo." ".... Who is?" "The dog!" "... oh of course!"

Smithy's in such a world of his own, he doesn't spot Bongo alerting the officers and his handler to someone who has drugs on them and has to be called back by Laura. The man, Tom, is found in possession of drugs insists they aren't his but those of his friend, Andy, whos jacket it actually is. It's a large amount - dealing levels rather than own usage. Smithy and Laura take him back to the house that the two men share - it's huge and definitely not the usual student house. Andy insists he knows nothing about it so both are arrested. At the station, the Tom tells Smithy that he's at uni to become a solicitor and that he knows they're his friends drugs and asks Smithy not to tell Andy that it was him who grassed him up. Smithy speaks to the Andy who - on hearing that Tom can't practice law with a conviction - takes the flack... only for Laura to find a huge amount of cannabis in the garage of the house the men share just as Tom is about to be released? Who is really to blame? Or are they both in it together?

Tom still claims innocence when Smithy and Suzi interview him, insisting he didn't know that there was even a door in the hallway to the garage, never mind at least 50 cannabis plants growing behind it! Andy admits that he smokes a little and deals a little but refuses to admit to producing it. He tells Smithy and Suzi that he pays £25 quid a week rent and has never even met the landlord as his friend deals with the house stuff.

Zain interrupts to tell the officers that the landlords official details don't exist but he knows the name as the man has form for cannabis. However, the is a development. One of the boys also has a key on their keyring for the padlock of the door... It's the original arrest, Tom. Tom is now trying to insist that that is why the rent must be so cheap for the boys - £50 a week for a huge house to share and the landlord only visits once a month to collect it! It must be the landlord growing it! When confronted with his keys and the padlock, Tom now wants a solicitor. "Yeah, thought you might." Smithy smirks.

After speaking to his solicitor, Tom confesses. Cheap rent, fabulous house all in exchange for looking after the landlords cannabis stash. All he had to do was check the temperature, water the plants and help the landlord bag it up when he called. He's in year three of his degree course and he insists he doesn't touch the stuff but needed the money as he's already £20K in debt. Smithy informs him he can kiss it goodbye as he's likely heading straight into prison... Tom panics and offers to set up the landlord so they can catch him and prosecute him instead. Smithy tells Zain and the visiting officers from the drugs squad that they've got Tom to call the landlord to tell him the police are sniffing round so he needs to move it. When the landlord leaves the premises they're going to follow him to see where he takes them before moving in. Zain worries that Tom will disappear - but Smithy insists that he has too much to lose.

The team arrest the landlord at the warehouse that he takes the plants to and forces him back inside to search it - only for them to find quiiiite the little market place! "Wow!" indeed, Zain!

"Just personal use is it, Sir?"

It turns out that the student property is just one of four that he's got going but he insists he's only a middle man and just grows the stuff, forced to by a Chinese gang and has offered to turn informant to make them go easier on him.

A jubilant Smithy finishes for the day and heads out to meet Louise... and this is where I instantly start whimpering. She's not at the hotel so he rings her to find out where she is. After leaving her a voicemail he returns to the car, only to be abducted at gunpoint and forced into the car...

Yvonne and Tony are called to the scene of an RTA - outside the hotel that Louise had been staying in - and find Louise being worked on by paramedics, only for them to be unable to revive her. They do a PNC check on the number plate left at the scene - it's from Smithy's car.

Yvonne worries and tells Tony they have to go find Smithy and that they're going to check his flat. She tries to call him but he doesn't answer. They get called to a car that has driven down a bank and crashed a short distance away... It's Smithy. He's unconscious, stinking of alcohol and in the driver's seat.

[claudia1829things]

"GENTLEMAN JACK" Season Two (2022) Episodes Ranking

Below is my ranking of the Season Two episodes from the HBO series, "GENTLEMEN JACK". Based on the diaries of Anne Lister and created by Sally Wainwright, the series starred Suranne Jones and Sophie Rundle:

"GENTLEMAN JACK" SEASON TWO (2022) EPISODES RANKING

(2.05) "A Lucky and Narrow Escape" - The Yorkshire town of Halifax is smashed to pieces by a mob hungry for political change. But Tory landowner Anne Lister refuses to keep a low profile.

2. (2.08) "It's Not Illegal" - In the series finale, Anne's marriage to Ann Walker is in serious danger when the latter's brother-in-law, Captain John Sutherland arrives from Scotland determined to destroy Anne's reputation.

3. (2.04) "I'm Not the Other Woman, She Is" - Anne is drawn back into her complicated past with former lover Mariana Lawson during a trip to Lawton Hall. Back at Shibden with her in-laws, Ann receives a visitor.

4. (2.04) "Two Jacks Don't Suit" - In France, Ann Walker is shocked by details about Anne Lister's complicated relationship with Mariana.

5. (2.07) "What's All That Got to do with Jesus Though?" - Ann's determination to divide the family estate angers Captain Sutherland, who is increasingly disturbed by Anne's involvement with his sister-in-law.

6. (2.06) "I Can Be as a Meteor in Your Life" - In the face of a campaign to destroy their relationship, serious cracks are appearing in the Lister-Walker marriage.

7. (2.01) "Faith Is All" - Anne's revelation that her new wife is moving in with her in Shibden, shocks the latter's relatives.

8. (2.03) "Tripe All Over the Place, Presumably" - Anne throws herself into public life in Halifax, but privately she struggles to resist Mariana's magnetic pull.

[bucketsofmonsters]

Where the Light Enters - Part 5

cw: unreliable narrator, hurt/comfort, slow burn, eventual sex, enemies to lovers, past childhood sexual assault, past sex trafficking, referenced noncon, past nonconsensual body modification, happy ending, the tags look scary but this is mainly a story about recovery

Cole/Female Inquisitor

word count: 4k

ao3 link

Masterlist

With their spat mostly over, Rosemary was back to dragging Cole along with her on their missions.

She was still pouting, of course, but in her defense he was the only person she could show her anger to. She had a lot of pouting pent up and she’d jump at any excuse to use it. 

Cole didn’t mind. He could clearly tell it was being done good-naturedly and watched her huff and puff with the closest thing to amusement Cole could muster shining in his eyes. 

One time he blurted out, “The inside doesn’t match the outside. You’re happy.” His voice was tinged with what she might confuse for glee if she didn’t know him better than that.

He showed up ready to head out with her after she hadn’t so much as told him they were leaving and she didn’t address it, preparing to head out alongside him. 

They were off to meet some mage who had sent them a letter. At least she thought the mage had sent a letter, she hadn’t been fully paying attention. 

Her name was Vivienne. She was sure of that much. 

She wasn’t sure of a lot of things about this new mage, but she knew one distinct pro that she had. She was not Solas. 

She wasn’t sure who to bring in the attempt to recruit her. They were going to a fancy party so she assumed this Vivienne was higher class, but that didn’t tell her much. 

So she did the safe thing. She grabbed her two other mages. At the very least, she’d gathered that there was a tumultuous relationship between mages and non mages so they probably wouldn’t hurt on that front. 

But Josephine had made it incredibly clear that Vivienne wanted to speak with her and only her, so when they arrived at a massive house that sprawled over a lush landscape with masked party goers drifting in and out of the doors, she allowed the doorman to lead her to the room she needed to be in and she planted all three of them outside it.  

She said, as clearly as she could, “Stay here. Listen for me, if you hear anything that sounds even slightly awry come inside but otherwise, just stay.” 

And then she went inside, all alone. 

The woman inside turned immediately to greet her. 

The room was meticulously furnished, all done in shades of silver and light blue. They matched Vivienne’s clothes perfectly, like the house was built around her. 

Vivienne had an elaborate dress on, covered in beads and embroidery and a thousand other things that gave her a headache to look at. The set of fabric horns atop her head matched it perfectly. The smile she wore was meticulously practiced, perfectly polite. 

“Inquisitor,” she said, and gave her a gracious nod. 

Rosemary smiled, a mirror of the one Vivienne had given her. “Madame Vivienne. I’ve heard you’re interested in aiding the Inquisition.”

“I am,” she said, and her voice exuded both elegance and snobbishness at once. Rosemary thought maybe that was the most honest part of her. “I admire your cause and I think you could use my expertise.”

“Of course we could.”

Before she could get another word out, Cole was standing between them. 

Vivienne reeled back. “Who is this?” she demanded. “I asked for a private meeting.”

He looked at the door, and once more she could get no read on his emotions. He was such a mystery to her, it was endlessly frustrating. “Their thoughts were too loud,” he announced to them, “and it was tiring to make eyes brush past, calm, unconcerned. I don’t need to make her forget. You can see me.”

He was mostly addressing Rosemary as he spoke, and she wondered what was wrong with him. He almost seemed overwhelmed, eyes a little cloudier than what she was accustomed to seeing from him. 

Vivienne’s eyes roved over him. “Eyes brush… What are you, young man? Are you some sort of spy? Where were you hiding?”

Rosemary was ready to agree with her as quickly as she could. She was beginning to see that it was certainly a better assumption than the alternative. 

He turned to Vivienne, his gaze curious. “You’re both lying, layers and layers and layers, the real words buried too deep to mean anything. You can’t speak that way. Nothing gets said.”

She evaluated him coldly, worry lines creasing her otherwise flawless face. “Are you in my head? Inquisitor, tell me you did not bring a demon into my home.”

Rosemary said “I did not,” at the exact time that Cole said, “I’m a spirit.”

She seemed taken aback by their insolence. “But you did bring him?”

Before she got the chance to respond, Vivienne was speaking again. 

“He should be put to death.”

“What?” Rosemary asked, reeling back a little. 

“You heard me. I will not work with an organization that works with demons.” 

Cole seemed hurt by the word demon more than he was concerned with the demand that he be put to death. He repeated once more, “I am a spirit.”

She scoffed. “If the Inquisition believes that is enough to make this creature docile it must be staffed entirely by fools.” 

“Well maybe if you joined,” Rosemary said softly. “We would have a better head on our shoulders.”

Her tone was softer than it should have been, a little out of place in the argument that had begun brewing. It had to be to fight down the bile that had begun rising in her. 

This never used to happen. She never used to react emotionally to things like this but even as she put on a calm face, she felt the beginnings of anger curl in her. 

It was this horrible creature. He’d done something to her, somehow shoved her back towards humanity.

All of this would have been so much easier if she’d just been able to slit his throat back when they’d met. 

“Have him killed,” Madame Vivienne insisted.

If only she knew that if that was a choice, the spirit would have been dead long ago.

As she went to speak, to respond with something, anything, to smooth this all over, the door flew open and Solas and Dorian walked in, clearly looking desperately for Cole. 

Vivienne took one look at them with their staffs on their backs and then turned her nose up at the pair of them. “You have mages in your employ too, alongside a demon, with seemingly no safeguards. My advice is clearly needed.”

Dorian groaned. “And what safeguards do you think mages should be constrained under? You know, in Tevinter, mages would never allow themselves to be subjugated like you are.”

“In Tevinter,” Vivienne retorted, “corruption runs rampant. Here we are not quite so barbaric.”

He scoffed, “Barbaric is what you do to misbehaving mages.”

“Better than allowing them to become possessed by demons like this,” she said, gesturing over at Cole as she spoke, “with no consequences. The templars are not always correct, but your idea of circles is ineffectual at best.”

“Cole is no demon,” Solas decided to chime in, cutting off the venom that was clearly about to exit Dorian's mouth. “He is a spirit, and he deserves the same respect as you or I. He is no threat to mages.”

Vivienne laughed, a high, condescending thing. “No threat? You’re a fool, you all are.”

Rosemary wondered quietly if it were even possible to have picked a worse team for this mission. 

“I assure you, the only fool here,” Solas practically hissed. “Is you.”

“I’m sure the people will be glad to know that the ones trying to protect us from the fade have a pet demon running around, unchecked, with their mages. Do the templars know about this, Inquisitor? It seems like something they would very much be interested in.”

“The templars are wrong,” Cole snapped, and it was more emotion than she’d ever heard from him before. “The ones who remember you are people are not templars for it. They say you can’t be a templar and be kind. Cullen had to leave.”

“What is the mad demon blathering about now? Words like this, against your allies? You treat this demon like a pup and yet you have not even properly taught him to heel.”

“They have trained me,” Cole insisted. “I move silent, shrouded, but together. We move as one when the knife sinks in.”

“Tell me you have not armed this thing,” she said, sounding more and more outraged by the second. “I demand you have it taken care of.”

Solas reeled back. “Taken care of? Tell me that does not mean what I think it does. You cannot be entertaining this nonsense.”

“Solas,” Rosemary said, fighting to keep her voice measured, “We need her.”

“We do not need someone who lacks humanity like this. Your soul is lined with rot, Madame de Fer, and I am no longer left wondering how you could thrive in those wretched circles.”

Solas grabbed Cole’s arm and attempted to pull him out of the room. Cole fought against it, planting his feet. 

“She’s afraid,” he said, tugging against Solas’s hold. “Seeing me causes the hurt. I would not hurt her. I only harmed mages when I didn’t know, when I thought taking them away was the same as helping.”

Vivienne’s eyes widened and Rosemary suddenly wished Solas could pull harder. 

Vivienne showed few signs of being ill composed, still carrying herself with the same carefully considered weight she always did. The only sign that something was wrong lay in her breaths, how they had started to come just barely quicker. It was hardly enough to notice, at least to most people who weren’t focused on reading every little tell every other person displayed. 

“He admits it,” she said, and her tone was haughty. “He admits he’s hurt mages. Will you still do nothing?”

“He hasn’t hurt anyone,” she insisted, wishing with all her might that she could scream that she wished she could have killed him. That yes, spirits were manipulative, he’d manipulated her into letting him stay and then manipulated her once again, without her so much as realizing, into having her emotions bubble back up to the surface. 

“They did that themself,” Cole said, and she wished they were alone and she could snap at him that this most certainly was not the time to be rooting around in her head. “They wanted to see the air again. You let them with me and they remembered what it was like to be restless.”

She shot Solas a pointed look, incapable of tamping it down any longer. “Please remove yourself and Cole from the premises. You too, Dorian. Your presence is no longer necessary.”

Dorian moved towards the door, where Solas still had his hand firmly gripping around Cole’s forearm. 

“Does he really hurt mages?” Dorian asked as he headed for the door, and Rosemary didn’t know what the truth was.

“He does not,” she said with confidence. “He is kept on a short leash. It was let out today when it should not have been, and now he is being removed. The consequences of this will be discussed.”

Solas managed to pull Cole out the door. He’d mostly stopped fighting it, just staring at her from below that stupid hat with those massive eyes that peered right through her. 

She sighed, desperately attempting to adjust her plan to the disaster that had unfolded. 

Vivienne let out a laugh devoid of any humor, one that seemed to announce how absurd all of that had been and how above it all she felt. 

“Well,” she said. “You most certainly have developed a fascinating little army, haven’t you.”

She shrugged. “The templars are our army. Them, I chose. Solas and Cole I was strongarmed into keeping. I am not the all encompassing ruler the rumors make me out to be.”

Vivinne evaluated her carefully. “No?”

“Absolutely not.” And then, in the name of salvaging this relationship and collecting the mage that she had heard was the strongest in the land, she did one of the only things she could rarely bring herself to do. She told the truth. 

“I have no love for mages. I was victimized by unrestrained mages, you know. I didn’t always look like this.”

Vivienne scoffed a little. “What, young and beautiful?”

She nodded and fought the urge to throw up. “It was an awful thing. Blood magic, I believe you call it here. They twisted me up, molded me into what they wanted me to look like. Men, mages, whoever you’d like to blame it on. I know how dangerous they are and if I had my way, we’d have our own circle to prevent anything like that happening here. I chose the templars. I understand every word you say. I know templars could never incite cruelty like that, could never live up to the wretched actions a mage, unrestrained, is capable of. I have no love for mages and I respect your thoughts on the subject. I think you could be a guiding force for us, even if I have been pushed into housing a spirit in order to learn the enemy’s mind.”

Most of it, of course, was nonsense. Most of everything she said was nonsense. 

In all honesty, she couldn’t have cared less about mages, and what those mages had done to her was far from the worst thing that had happened to her. She would have taken in every rebel mage and allowed them to learn every bit of blood magic they wanted if she thought it would keep her safer than she would have been without them. 

But there was enough truth shining through, enough of a sliver of vulnerability, that she could see it shift something in Vivienne. 

“I am sorry to hear that, my dear. In a proper circle, that never would have been allowed to happen. It is good to hear someone speaking sense.”

“Will you join us?” she asked gently, trying to not push too much. “I only want what is best for Thedas and I think we need you.”

“I will. And tell your spirit that if he comes sniffing around me he will be put down.”

She nodded, and as she did it felt almost like a bow. “Of course. There’s nothing else I’d like more.”

She left Madame de Fer’s mansion feeling exhausted. 

Dorian, Cole, and Solas were all waiting just outside the grounds. She nodded at them and the two mages looked incredibly displeased, Solas raising his hands to rub at his temples as Dorian rolled his eyes. 

Cole’s head perked up when she approached, blurting out words as he pulled them from her mind. “The truth shines through like sun through leaves, but it burns. It hurts even when you say it doesn’t, the face in the mirror being wrong. They say it’s a mercy, that no one ever touched the you that was. You wonder what she would think of the girl they formed.”

Solas and Dorian glanced between the two of them, trying to decipher the words. 

She was too tired to try and spin them into anything. 

And then an arrow landed between her feet and she was back in action, her exhaustion falling away. 

Solas had a protective spell around them in an instant as Dorain positioned himself to attack and Cole stood absolutely still, not making so much as an attempt to draw his weapons. 

“It meant to miss,” he said. “Sent between the heels to announce her way.”

As he spoke a blonde elf with short, choppy hair emerged from behind a bush, bow in hand, positioned perfectly so no one from the mansion could spy her from a window. 

“The Red Jenny’s send their regards,” she said with a smile. “We want to know why you people claim to want to help and yet you keep going to the richy riches of the world instead of talking to the little people. We could do you more good. Could tell you what the actual people living here need too.”

It had been too long of a day for this. She could not bring herself to pretend to care about the ‘little people’ or whatever else this weird girl who had shot at her was talking about. 

But manpower was manpower, and at least she didn’t need to grovel to get this one to stay, so she said, “Sure, come along, join the Inquisition. I’m sure we could find a place for you.”

The girl seemed confused by how smoothly this was going. “What, just like that? Now I’m a member of your little army?”

“If you want to be, sure. And I’m sure Josephine, she’s one of my advisors, would love to hear what the people of Thedas think.”

She was, in fact, not sure Josephine would care about this at all, but she was looking for anyone she could pawn this incredibly irritating girl off to. 

The girl puffed out her chest a little, a smug sense of pride painting itself across her face. It wasn’t that far from what she’d seen in Vivienne, to be honest. She just hadn’t trained any display of real emotion out of herself the way Vivienne had.

“Brilliant. My name's Sera, by the way.”

She heard Solas do his incessant long-suffering sigh next to her and wanted to shake him by the shoulders and ask what he wanted her to do and if he cared about winning this fight at all. 

Instead she just listened as he said, “You do have a fondness for strays, don’t you?” and forced out a bashful smile. 

Then, hiding her level of malice as deep as she could, hoping Cole wouldn’t just blurt it out, she said, “You always tell me I don’t consider elves enough. Here you go Solas, this one’s for you.”

Sera scoffed. “Yeah right, I’m not an elf. Not really.”

Solas shot her an exasperated look as she smiled at him, sickly sweet. “Something for you two to discuss. Now I have important things to do, surely you can show our new recruit to Skyhold.”

Solas might well kill her in her sleep at this point, no matter how many smiles she threw his way. He’d never really fallen prey to them anyways, even before she’d begun antagonizing him as subtly as she could. 

It made her a little afraid to see that she was getting bolder. She could feel it in the way she talked to people, more willing to antagonize, honest laughs and sighs escaping more. 

She blamed Cole once again. He was ruining her perfect training. 

Solas left with Sera, despite his obvious disdain for her. Dorian wandered off too, clearly in no hurry to spend more time with the Inquisitor who had unceremoniously thrown him out and had recruited both someone he hated and a spirit who may or may not have hurt mages. 

She considered asking Cole about what he’d meant when he’d said that before realizing she didn’t care.

As they wandered into Skyhold, Bull tried to flag her down, waving at her from across the courtyard. 

Cole’s head darted around as she began to resign herself to having to go over there. 

His presence disappeared from her side and she realized he’d completely abandoned her. 

It was fair. He could probably hear all of the things she’d thought and said to Vivienne. In his position, she would have abandoned her too. 

Varric’s voice cut through her thoughts from behind her, shouting, “Hey, Rosie, come train with me. It’s been too long since you picked up anything resembling a bow.”

She saw Cole lurking behind him, staring out at her, and considered being upset at him for revealing anything to Varric. 

But then again, she was exhausted and she wasn’t sure how much of Bull she could stomach right now, so she shrugged in Iron Bull’s direction and ran over to meet Varric. 

He thrusted a bow in her hand and she sighed at the realization that despite it being a ploy from Cole, she would not be getting out of training. 

Varric gave her a pat on the back. “Cole said you needed to unwind a little.”

“He did not say that,” she said, knowing the spirit far better than that by now. 

“No,” Varric said with a laugh, “he did not. But he said something and I gleaned at least that much from it. Why, was I wrong?”

“The truth makes things worse,” Cole said. “Starts to unravel knots you thought were tied. I unravel them too, that’s what happens when I can see through them. Vivienne was right. Dead things can’t unravel knots. The string pulls tight. Things don’t count when they’re lies. They can’t hurt when they don’t happen to her. If they can’t count, why do you cry?”

She looked down at the bow, refusing to acknowledge what Cole had said. “You were right that I haven’t picked a bow in ages.”

Varric, always her favorite, chose to ignore Cole too. “Well, it’s never too late to learn. How about it Cole, you want to be the target?”

His eyes lit up as much as they ever did, shining a bit, at least the bits of them that she could see behind his hair and hat. “Yes please.”

It was a shame she wasn’t a better shot, she thought as he disappeared and then reappeared beside the targets. This whole problem could be solved right now. 

“I could not,” he said, speaking at exactly his normal volume from across the range, and she could barely hear him. She wondered if he knew he could change how loud his voice was. “I told you, I am too slippery for you.”

She notched an arrow and fired it at him as quickly as she could. 

It went nowhere near him. He disappeared and reappeared anyway, making it land even further from him. It almost felt like he was taunting her. 

When it became apparent how truly awful of a shot she was, he started doing what she could only call teasing her, disappearing as she released the bowstring and appearing barely to the left or right of her shot. 

It should have been aggravating. She couldn’t understand why it wasn’t. 

Once more he disappeared, though an arrow had not been fired. She also couldn’t tell where he’d gone, seemingly leaving the range entirely. 

A bit of shade encompassed her and she turned around to find herself under the brim of his hat. 

He looked like the cat who got the canary, inexcusably proud of himself. 

“You like me,” he whispered, a fondness in his eyes that made her sick. 

“Shut up.”

He shook his head, the ghost of a smile on his face, and then disappeared. She realized too late, as the remaining wisps of green curled around her, that he’d taken her bow with her, Varric laughing at her side.

[lighthousepigeons]

Knight: How's the most beautiful person in the world doing?

Luna: I don't know, how are yo-

Daria, from across the room: I'm great, thanks.