#an open relationship or he wants monogamy and then let boston go

[chaos0pikachu]

idk maybe I'm wildin but maybe Boston's whore ways don't need to be fixed. Maybe Boston's flaws have nothing to do with being a ho. Maybe he doesn't need to be "fixed" or "tamed" by Nick into monogamy. but idk idk maybe I'm wildin

[le-trash-prince]

Okay I am sooooo nervous about Boston getting his hoe card rescinded by the narrative. I’d be less nervous if there were more time left in the show, but with only one episode remaining who knows what could happen 😭 It would just not sit well with me to hear Nick say that Boston doesn’t need to change only to not commit to that statement. I’m very tired of seeing monogamy framed as the only shape a relationship can take. It makes my heart sink to my stomach and my feelings about this episode are all over the place. Again, I really just need to wait and see how the final episode goes.

An open relationship is my ideal for Boston, however, I do maintain as I’ve said before that Boston and Nick need time to focus on each other, so I can’t be mad about Boston saying he’s only interested in Nick. We saw in this ep that Nick is too uncertain of Boston’s feelings to feel secure whenever Boston even so much as looks at someone else.

Even when Boston is asking Nick to be his boyfriend, Nick is too scared to believe it. He’s got to get to a point of really understanding that Boston does actually love him, and that goes doubly with an LDR looming in the near future. Non-monogamy only works with a strong foundation of emotional security, and Nick is not there right now. Honestly I’m not sure he’s even at the point of being able to handle a monogamous relationship if it’s LDR. Dating Boston just to say goodbye when he leaves could destroy Nick.

But is one episode enough time to cover that much ground without a time-skip? I don’t know lmfaooo I’m honestly so nervous because I would really hate to see Boston punished by the narrative for sleeping around and then not have those societal expectations inverted. He’s owed a big apology from his friends, but I’m also getting tired of Nick’s comments.

The way Nick constantly criticizes Boston’s habits to shield his own insecurity is a problem, and I really do want to see more growth from him in that department. If Boston weren’t prone to hooking up with strangers—he never would have gotten to know Nick in the first place. I truly hope Nick can see that someday. But that kind of understanding can take years to develop, so again I’m just 😬😬😬

I do think Boston is earnest in saying that he doesn’t want to sleep with anyone other than Nick because why would he need to right now? But I can’t see him being happy with that forever, and I hope Nick can see that too. They want to make each other happy, but I don’t buy that monogamy for life will make Boston happy.

With things continuing to remain unresolved with Dan, I do wonder if Nick will decide in the end that he’s too scared for a LDR with Boston, meaning things don’t pick up between them for a while. (Or if he will miraculously come to the understanding that enjoying his time with Dan doesn’t invalidate his feelings for Boston and the same would go for Boston’s feelings haha I wish)

I also wonder if BostonNick may simply date with the intention of breaking up after four months, which I’ve seen people do irl (and I’ve also seen people decide at the end of that period to give LDR a shot anyways because they don’t want to let go).

Admission of mutual feelings is usually enough to secure a ship in a romcom, but Only Friends doesn’t fall under that genre. Even if it’s based off of a real relationship—real life can take so many directions and real people make so many different choices that it’s hard to say what could happen.

Anyways I’ve got more thoughts to unpack regarding Nick’s feelings on TopBoston so I need to do that this week.

ETA: Please don't bring book spoilers thank u

[hughungrybear]

Me watching Only Friends Final EP (12):

1. Ray-Sand-Boeing gives me possible throuple vibes 😂 However, with Ray's questions, I don't think he'll be truly down with it (Even after all his teasing that he would not mind a threesome).

2. Sand, your indecision putting you in that spot. You are not being fair to anyone, especially with Ray. And here, I thought Ray is the trash one.

3. Mew, don't ask Cheum for any relationship-related advice. I said it before, but that girl is a hopeless romantic idiot.

4. Oooh, Ray is never going to give up Sand to Boeing now.

5. Cheum, why the fvck do you care? You are still an idiot. I can't believe at the end of this all, I'm symphatizing with the self-professed a**hole, Boston.

6. The change in Top seems rather sudden and excessive. I really want to see the uncut version just to make sense of it all. Cross fingers P'Jojo will do it for the DVD version.

7. Boston and Nick 😌. I guess, all the sweetness is due to having a literal deadline to their relationship.

8. Yeah, Ray is the kind of crazy that no one would want to mess with. It also does not hurt that he came from a rich and powerful family that consequences to his actions almost mean nothing to him (I mean, he is even slightly enjoying his "punishment"/social work with kids). Boeing messed with the wrong crazy 😂

9. Top and Ray. Both are crazy rich (former) a**holes. It's a match made in bff heaven 😅😅😅

10. Boeing, dude, there are plenty of fishes in the ocean. Go pick unattached ones LOL. Preferably far away from this friend group 😂😂😂😂

11. Oh. My. Gawd. Boston, what the fvck are you doing? I guess, he is just allergic to monogamy. I just wished he didn't promised Nick he'll temporarily commit.

12. Yeah, Nick. Listen to Sand. If open relatioships is not your thing, then Boston is just not for you. Let him go. Try Daddy Dan instead. 😅

13. This might be the most awkward New Year's Eve party ever with half the group slept with each other at some point 😅 Also, playing Truth or Dare with this group is probably a recipe for disaster.

14. So, I guess this means Nick accepts whatever Boston can give 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

15. I saw that movie (Begin Again starring Keira Knightley and Mark Ruffalo)!!! 10 out of 10 would highly recommend. 👍👍👍👍

16. For a moment, I thought Boston would be giving Nick a plane ticket to New York. But I think this outcome is for the best. Nick should really love himself more than Boston (or anyone, for that matter). And Boston should stop making promises he could never keep.

17. Fire alarm killing the mood and bringing Top's old trauma. I guess, this is to bring things into full circle. Although, I don't believe this scene is necessary. P'Jojo could have cut this one and retain the scenes where Top's transformation began 😐

18. Mummy Yo and Daddy Plug giving their blessing to their adopted children 😂

Ah, so that's where Mixx came in 😂😂😂 And no, as much as I enjoyed this series, I really don't want a season 2. It's not good for my heart. Or sanity 😅😅😅😅

[uomo-accattivante]

Excellent article about bringing a re-make of Ingmar Bergman’s Scenes from a Marriage to fruition, and the twenty-year friendship that Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain share:

There were days on the shoot for “Scenes From a Marriage,” a five-episode limited series that premieres Sept. 12 on HBO, when Oscar Isaac resented the crew.

The problem wasn’t the crew members themselves, he told me on a video call in March. But the work required of him and his co-star, Jessica Chastain, was so unsparingly intimate — “And difficult!” Chastain added from a neighboring Zoom window — that every time a camera operator or a makeup artist appeared, it felt like an intrusion.

On his other projects, Isaac had felt comfortably distant from the characters and their circumstances — interplanetary intrigue, rogue A.I. But “Scenes” surveys monogamy and parenthood, familiar territory. Sometimes Isaac would film a bedtime scene with his onscreen child (Lily Jane) and then go home and tuck his own child into the same model of bed as the one used onset, accessorized with the same bunny lamp, and not know exactly where art ended and life began.

“It was just a lot,” he said.

Chastain agreed, though she put it more strongly. “I mean, I cried every day for four months,” she said.

Isaac, 42, and Chastain, 44, have known each other since their days at the Juilliard School. And they have channeled two decades of friendship, admiration and a shared and obsessional devotion to craft into what Michael Ellenberg, one of the series’s executive producers, called “five hours of naked, raw performance.” (That nudity is metaphorical, mostly.)

“For me it definitely felt incredibly personal,” Chastain said on the call in the spring, about a month after filming had ended. “That’s why I don’t know if I have another one like this in me. Yeah, I can’t decide that. I can’t even talk about it without. …” She turned away from the screen. (It was one of several times during the call that I felt as if I were intruding, too.)

The original “Scenes From a Marriage,” created by Ingmar Bergman, debuted on Swedish television in 1973. Bergman’s first television series, its six episodes trace the dissolution of a middle-class marriage. Starring Liv Ullmann, Bergman’s ex, it drew on his own past relationships, though not always directly.

“When it comes to Bergman, the relationship between autobiography and fiction is extremely complicated,” said Jan Holmberg, the chief executive of the Ingmar Bergman Foundation.

A sensation in Sweden, it was seen by most of the adult population. And yes, sure, correlation does not imply causation, but after its debut, Swedish divorce were rumored to have doubled. Holmberg remembers watching a rerun as a 10-year-old.

“It was a rude awakening to adult life,” he said.

The writer and director Hagai Levi saw it as a teenager, on Israeli public television, during a stint on a kibbutz. “I was shocked,” he said. The series taught him that a television series could be radical, that it could be art. When he created “BeTipul,” the Israeli precursor to “In Treatment,” he used “Scenes” as proof of the concept “that two people can talk for an hour and it can work,” Levi said. (Strangely, “Scenes” also inspired the prime-time soap “Dallas.”)

So when Daniel Bergman, Ingmar Bergman’s youngest son, approached Levi about a remake, he was immediately interested.

But the project languished, in part because loving a show isn’t reason enough to adapt it. Divorce is common now — in Sweden, and elsewhere — and the relationship politics of the original series, in which the male character deserts his wife and young children for an academic post, haven’t aged particularly well.

Then about two years ago, Levi had a revelation. He would swap the gender roles. A woman who leaves her marriage and child in pursuit of freedom (with a very hot Israeli entrepreneur in place of a visiting professorship) might still provoke conversation and interest.

So the Marianne and Johan of the original became Mira and Jonathan, with a Boston suburb (re-created in a warehouse just north of New York City), stepping in for the Stockholm of the original. Jonathan remains an academic though Mira, a lawyer in the original, is now a businesswoman who out-earns him.

Casting began in early 2020. After Isaac met with Levi, he wrote to Chastain to tell her about the project. She wasn’t available. The producers cast Michelle Williams. But the pandemic reshuffled everyone’s schedules. When production was ready to resume, Williams was no longer free. Chastain was. “That was for me the most amazing miracle,” Levi said.

Isaac and Chastain met in the early 2000s at Juilliard. He was in his first year; she, in her third. He first saw her in a scene from a classical tragedy, slapping men in the face as Helen of Troy. He was friendly with her then-boyfriend, and they soon became friends themselves, bonding through the shared trauma of an acting curriculum designed to break its students down and then build them back up again. Isaac remembered her as “a real force of nature and solid, completely solid, with an incredible amount of integrity,” he said.

In the next window, Chastain blushed. “He was super talented,” she said. “But talented in a way that wasn’t expected, that’s challenging and pushing against constructs and ideas.” She introduced him to her manager, and they celebrated each other’s early successes and went to each other’s premieres. (A few of those photos are used in “Scenes From a Marriage” as set dressing.)

In 2013, Chastain was cast in J.C. Chandor’s “A Most Violent Year,”opposite Javier Bardem. When Bardem dropped out, Chastain campaigned for Isaac to have the role. Weeks before shooting, they began to meet, fleshing out the back story of their characters — a husband and wife trying to corner the heating oil market in 1981 New York — the details of the marriage, business, life.

It was their first time working together, and each felt a bond that went deeper than a parallel education and approach. “Something connects us that’s stronger than any ideas of character or story or any of that,” Isaac said. “There’s something else that’s more about like, a shared existence.”

Chandor noticed how they would support each other on set, and challenge each other, too, giving each other the freedom to take the characters’ relationship to dark and dangerous places. “They have this innate trust with each other,” Chandor said.

That trust eliminated the need for actorly tricks or shortcuts, in part because they know each other’s tricks too well. Their motto, Isaac said, was, “Let’s figure this [expletive] out together and see what’s the most honest thing we can do.”

Moni Yakim, Juilliard’s celebrated movement instructor, has followed their careers closely and he noted what he called the “magnetism and spiritual connection” that they suggested onscreen in the film.

“It’s a kind of chemistry,” Yakim said. “They can read each other’s mind and you as an audience, you can sense it.”

Telepathy takes work. When they knew that shooting “Scenes From a Marriage” could begin, Chastain bought a copy of “All About Us,” a guided journal for couples, and filled in her sections in character as Mira. Isaac brought it home and showed it to his wife, the filmmaker Elvira Lind.

“She was like, ‘You finally found your match,’” Isaac recalled. “’Someone that is as big of a nerd as you are.’”

The actors rehearsed, with Levi and on their own, talking their way through each long scene, helping each other through the anguished parts. When production had to halt for two weeks, they rehearsed then, too.

Watching these actors work reminded Amy Herzog, a writer and executive producer on the series, of race horses in full gallop. “These are two people who have so much training and skill,” she said. “Because it’s an athletic feat, what they were being asked to do.”

But training and skill and the “All About Us” book hadn’t really prepared them for the emotional impact of actually shooting “Scenes From a Marriage.” Both actors normally compartmentalize when they work, putting up psychic partitions between their roles and themselves. But this time, the partitions weren’t up to code.

“I knew I was in trouble the very first week,” Chastain said.

She couldn’t hide how the scripts affected her, especially from someone who knows her as well as Isaac does. “I just felt so exposed,” she said. “This to me, more than anything I’ve ever worked on, was definitely the most open I’ve ever been.”

“It felt so dangerous,” she said.

I visited the set in February (after multiple Covid-19 tests and health screenings) during a final day of filming. It was the quietest set I had ever seen: The atmosphere was subdued, reverent almost, a crew and a studio space stripped down to only what two actors would need to do the most passionate and demanding work of their careers.

Isaac didn’t know if he would watch the completed series. “It really is the first time ever, where I’ve done something where I’m totally fine never seeing this thing,” he said. “Because I’ve really lived through it. And in some ways I don’t want whatever they decide to put together to change my experience of it, which was just so intense.”

The cameras captured that intensity. Though Chastain isn’t Mira and Isaac isn’t Jonathan, each drew on personal experience — their parents’ marriages, past relationships — in ways they never had. Sometimes work on the show felt like acting, and sometimes the work wasn’t even conscious. There’s a scene in the harrowing fourth episode in which they both lie crumpled on the floor, an identical stress vein bulging in each forehead.

“It’s my go-to move, the throbbing forehead vein,” Isaac said on a follow-up video call last month. Chastain riffed on the joke: “That was our third year at Juilliard, the throb.”

By then, it had been five months since the shoot wrapped. Life had returned to something like normal. Jokes were possible again. Both of them seemed looser, more relaxed. (Isaac had already poured himself one tequila shot and was ready for another.) No one cried.

Chastain had watched the show with her husband. And Isaac, despite his initial reluctance, had watched it, too. It didn’t seem to have changed his experience.

“I’ve never done anything like it,” he said. “And I can’t imagine doing anything like it again.”

###

[everlarkchristmasgifts]

A/N I had a super hard time with this one and any sort of fluidity, so sorry if it’s come out garbled: It felt like trying to untangle my hair after a night of tossing and turning, and I didn’t want to ask anyone to beta read on Christmas Eve so I finally just gave up and hit submit.

Part Two for the Pasty White Raisin Follow Up Christmas Drabbles done for @everlarkchristmasgifts. Part One is here.

Rating: T

_______________

Eleven Days to Christmas - Secret Santa Exchange

The clang of the bell over the door brought Peeta out from the back of the bakery.  The customer already had his face glued to the case with the day’s remaining cinnamon rolls.  They were each the size of plates, and covered with syrup glaze and walnut halves.

“Can I help you?”

“Yeah. You can tell me whether it’s possible to have an sugar crash that’s existential, or if it’s just a thought in my head.”

“Sorry?”

The guy laughed at his own joke and came over to the counter. He looked friendly, but also exuded a confidence that made Peeta, run down as he was, feel less so.

“Are there walnuts inside those? Or just on the top?”

“Walnuts throughout.”

“Walnuts throughout,” the man parroted with an appreciative nod. “I like you. Walnuts throughout.”

When he didn’t say or do anything else, Peeta cleared his throat and suggested, “Do you want me to box one up for you?”

“Maybe. I’m looking for Peter.”

“You mean Peeta.”

“Ah, Peet-ah. He’s got the Boston thing going on!”

Peeta tried to smile, but smiling was hard. Too many orders, too many hours. Too old of a story. Rue usually worked part time, but had needed two extra days off that week because of finals. Thom was still technically full time, but he’d been out sick on and off for the last two months because his mother was ill. Cashmere had quit right before Thanksgiving. And Katniss…

Well, he’d run Katniss off.

The last two days the operation had been a solo show.

“Actually, it is ‘Peeta,’ not Peter. And that’s me. I know, blame my parents.” He needed to get back to work. “What can I do for you?”

The man gave him an appraising once over that bordered on invasive, followed by a nod of approval. “So you’re the one.  I can see it. I can totally see it.”

Peeta cleared his throat and shifted a little on his feet.

“Uh… The one what?”

“Katniss’ ‘There can be only One.’ Aside from me, of course.”

Peeta’s back stiffened.

“And you are?”

The man didn’t notice, or wasn’t phased, by Peeta’s abrupt gruffness.

“Handsome. Funny. Amazingly talented. I go by many names. In previous times, I was referred to as ‘God’s gift to women.’ But alas, now that I’m on the road to a lifetime of sweet monogamy, I go by the unassuming alter-ego Finnick Odair.” He held his hand out over the counter, joking grin giving way to an earnest smile and a lower-key manner. “Hi, good to meet you. I work with Katniss at the brewery. I’m the one she always gets your everything bagels for.”

“She’s mentioned you.”

Peeta crossed his arms but Finnick kept his hand extended until it was rude to not shake it, so he used a stronger grip than necessary.

“Road to monogamy with…Ann?” Peeta didn’t look away from Finnick for a millisecond, squeezing his hand tighter. “Or was it Annie?”

“Wow, ice, ice, baby. You sure there isn’t a Peter back there?” Finnick squeezed back, hard. “‘Cause to hear Katniss, you’re, and I quote, ‘warm and amazing,’ not Mr. I-Might-Murder-You-Where-You-Stand. And yes, it’s Annie, definitely not Katniss, if that’s what your grip is asking, so,” Finnick stared pointedly at their hands then back up, “release the hostage; it comes in peace.”

Peeta held on for an extra few beats, then released.

“Thanks.” Finnick cracked his knuckles. “Not that I don’t enjoy holding your hand, but really, I don’t enjoy holding your hand.”

Peeta smiled apologetically. “Sorry. Christmas season makes for long baking days and grumpy bakers.  Did Katniss send you to talk to me?”

“About what?”

When Peeta didn’t respond, Finnick studied him, eyes narrowing.

“Interesting.”

“What?”

“You thought I might be making a move on Katniss. Katniss hasn’t been bringing me my bagels. You think Katniss might have sent an emissary.”  He stared until Peeta reddened. “You two have had a fight that she hasn’t let on about, haven’t you?”

Peeta stared down at the worn linoleum tiles. They muttered at him about unionizing if they didn’t get better mop and wax benefits.

Finnick hmmm’d.

“So that’s why she’s been ultra reclusive lately. And here I assumed she was just having her traditional end-of-year wigout about breakage losses.”

Peeta forced himself to look back up.

“So does that mean she didn’t send you?”

“No, she didn’t.” Finnick was still analyzing him. “You know, I’d say it’s none of my business, but she’s Annie’s best friend and the closest thing I have to a sister, so really it is. What’d she do?”

“Excuse me?”

“What did she do? Shut down on you? Annie and I were worried that might happen. She avoids relationships like a golfer avoids water traps, and with how happy she’s been, we’ve both been worried she might try a runner.”

“A runner?”

“She might seem like she’s got the emotional stuntage of coal, but behind the scowl and the lasso of bookkeeping truth, she’s actually really nice… and also terrified of losing people.”

Peeta cleared his throat. “Look, I appreciate your concern, but it’s my business and hers.”

“Hang on…” Finnick’s staring was approaching full on x-ray power.  

Peeta found a rag and started wiping at the counter nervously to avoid it.

“It wasn’t her, it was you. What did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything. And it’s a private.”

“Nope, you don’t get to do that. Not where it concerns Katniss. You’ll have the entire Tribute Brewery Suicide Squad coming down on you if you break her. And trust me, you don’t want to face Mason’s interrogation techniques.”

“Mason?”

“Johanna.”

“Is that ‘Jo,’ the assistant brewmaster?”

“Yeah.”

Peeta stopped wiping the counter, and looked up.

“Shaved head, leather collar, and a tattoo of Wile E. Coyote holding a stick of dynamite that’s about to go off?”

Finnick cocked an eyebrow. “You two’ve met?”

Peeta shook his head and took a few extra wipes with his rag before standing upright and tossing it onto the counter. He crossed his arms and relaxed enough to laugh a little.

“Naw. But Katniss showed me a picture once of Jo pretending to mount one of the vats.”

Finnick cracked a laugh. “Christmas party last year. We all remember, unfortunately. And she almost got fired for it.”

“Does that mean it was a tamer Christmas Party this year?”

Finnick laughed. “If you think the threat of being fired would tame Jo, you’ve definitely never actually met her.” After a few seconds, he leaned forward on the counter, tone lowered to something more serious, but also more open, “Look, we know about you and obviously you know about us. Even Haymitch calls you ‘The Boy,’ which means you have the official seal of approval. But even though we keep expecting an engagement announcement, every time we try to goad her into bringing you by, Kat claims you’re too busy.  So what’s the real reason you’re afraid of meeting us?”

Peeta stared down again at the linoleum.

“I’m not. I haven’t been. I just work crazy hours, and my schedule doesn’t fit with a normal person’s.”

“Baloney. She thinks you’re the greatest thing since— What’s that guy she likes on t.v.?”

“Which one?”

“She’s always yakking about with Annie after a new episode airs. He saves businesses or something.”

“Marcus? I think?”

“Yeah.” Finnick picked a half donut hole from a sample plate by the register and popped it in his mouth. “She thinks you’re the greatest thing since Mr. Marcus, and if that’s true, then over the course of a year, you’d have found time to meet us at least once. What’s really the hangup?”

“Listen, I appreciate that you’re trying to help—”

“Man, I’m proposing to Annie Christmas Eve. If there’s a blind date program for grooms to find best men, you and I have already been enrolled, so we might as well accept the arranged bro-marriage Annie and Katniss have negotiated for us and move on to the deep stuff.”

Peeta hesitated.

“Look, just looking at you it’s clear you need a break, a shave, and a good roll in the sack. Which,” he took another half donut hole, “Katniss needs, too, if for no other reason than it might get her off my back about that over-order of glassware I made last week. But more than that, you look like you need a pep talk. Katniss wouldn’t fall for a loser, so tell Mr. Odair what you did, and he’ll help you figure out how to smooth things over.”

“There’s no ‘smoothing things over.’”

“Kat still has a selfie of you two as her desktop background at work. Trust me, we can get you back in the clear.”

Peeta sighed and slumped his shoulders.

“If you didn’t come here because of Katniss and me to begin with, why are you here?”

“I miss my everything bagel. And Annie likes the sea salt ones.”

Peeta frowned. “Aside from the baked good.”

“Ah, well, see… I’m a man in need of advice. I drew Katniss’ name in the Secret Santa bag today.”

“And?”

“Annie said I’m on my own, and the only thing that comes to mind when I think of Katniss and gifts is a run to the office supply store for a stack of ledger books and fine-point Sharpies.”

“You want help buying her a gift.” Peeta wasn’t convinced.

“Yes. She doesn’t hardly drink, doesn’t go out, doesn’t have any hobbies that I’m aware of except for stalking Bambi in the woods with her bow and watching CNBC. And pretty much as far as we can tell, the only social things she does outside of work or her time with Haymitch is what we force her to do, or,” he added with meaning, “the time she spends in the company of ‘Pee-tah,’ her favorite, local, friendly neighborhood baker-man.” Finnick’s grin went wide enough to give Peeta’s own dimples a run for their money. “My real talent lies in buying lingerie. But I’m pretty sure if I bought Katniss a naughty Mrs. Claus nightie, none of us would be comfortable at Christmas ever again. Well, except for maybe Johanna. So,” he rubbed his hands together, “throw a man a life line.”

Peeta glared a little, then pulled a box flat from under the counter, folded it up, and went to retrieve one of the cinnamon rolls, then got a paper bag, went back to the baskets along the back wall and put in two everything and two sea salt bagels.  

“Have you heard of Sweet Pete’s,” he asked, after he slid the box and bag across the counter to Finnick.

“That high-end candy place over on 4th?”

“Yeah. Katniss always seems to like going there. Maybe a gift card.”

Finnick nodded. “Thanks. What else? It’s a twenty dollar limit, but she went above and beyond yesterday  helping me get the perfect present for Annie. And, she dug into her own wallet to make it happen, so I’d like to go a bit extra.”

“There’s that archery store there in the mall she loves.  Maybe they’d have something to suggest. Like some sort of bow wax or something.”

“What are you getting her for Christmas?”

Peeta ducked his head over the register to ring up the order, not offering an answer.

“A ring would be a good idea.  Speaking of,” Finnick pulled his wallet out and put a twenty down to cover the bill, “when are you and Katniss finally gonna do it?”

“Uh…” Peeta took the twenty and keyed in the cash. The drawer popped open.

“Well?”

Peeta cleared his throat, made change, then closed the register’s drawer with quiet push. “I’m not exactly in the habit of discussing bedroom matters with people I barely know.”

“Well, getting married is a lot more than…”

They stared at each other, Peeta looking uncomfortable.

Finnick’s mouth slowly twisted into a grin.

Peeta went red.

“You mean to tell me that you two haven’t even…” Finnick laughed so hard he could barely talk, his words eventually came out bookended with wheezes, “And yet somehow she’s always contented and glowing when she talks about you. Man, you need to tell me what you put in your baked goods, ‘cause it took me two years just to get Annie to trust me enough to go out on a date.”

“Anyway,” Peeta cleared his throat and handed Finnick his change, “I need to get back to cleaning up in the back. I hope you find something good for Katniss.”

“Wow. Andy Stitzer.” Finnick was still trying to catch his breath from laughing. “You really are her ‘There can be only One,’ aren’t you?”

Once he managed to fight down his amusement, he gave Peeta a nod of genuine admiration.

“Look, you talk to Katniss, I’ll talk to Katniss. Trust me when I say she’s not the kind of woman who keeps a guy in bad graces just for the drama of it. We’ll work it out.”

Peeta hesitated.

“I’m the one who ended it.”

Finnick’s smile faded.

“What do you mean ‘ended it?’”

__________

When he finally came to the end of his very long day, Peeta found a second present waiting at his apartment door.

[mathicu-blog]

hello fam ?? i’m ac and i very much suck at intros, now you’re warned !! uh, my preferred pronouns are she/her, i’m twenty years old and reside in the gmt+1 timezone !! i’m like pretty damn excited to be here, been stalking this rp since it hit the tags, no lie !! anyway, i’m gonna tell you a bit about my son, mathieu. also if you wanna plot please hit me up or like this post !! i’ll try to have a connection page up very soon, ‘cause i have an extended weekend so hopefully i can be productive !!

( francisco lachowski. cismale. he/him. ) // did you see who walked past just then ? couldn’t really tell from the distance but i think it’s ( mathieu blake ) actually ! the ( twenty-three ) year old is a little ( airy ) if you ask me but they’re also ( charming ). i heard that when they opened the capsule, they took out the ( mp3 player ) that they’d left seventeen years ago. i wonder what that even means to them especially now that they’re a ( nightclub owner ) ?

alright so i’m gonna try to keep it short and instead just link u to his full biography, so if you’re interested, it’s right here !!

(trigger warning; slight mention of abuse and cancer) 

basically, mathieu is from brazil, was given up for adoption right when he was born ‘cause his father was abusive and his mother wasn’t gonna bring him up in a family like that so yeah, he was born mathieu navarro and still uses it in his full name. stayed at an adoption home until he was five and then he was adopted by michael and christina blake who are some rich bitches from lorfield, except they’re not actually bitches they’re really nice lol.

anyway mathieu got an mp3 player from his grandfather when he first arrived which had some of the most iconic songs on it plus a lullaby they’d used to sing at the adoption center back in brazil. his grandfather died of cancer not too long after mathieu was adopted and all but he had a really big impact on him. even at five years old mathieu became really interested in music and all, also because his grandfather and now father owns a record label it was kind of in the cards. anyway as soon as he could he picked up the guitar and he was basically a natural.

but oh well, he was always a very outgoing and sociable kid, he’d always find something to do or someone to talk to and everyone was always just drawn to him due to the vibes and energy he radiated with. but yeah he’s always been very energetic, thought to have adhd but he doesn’t, he’s perfectly normal??? anyway he was kind of a little shit growing up, like he was nice and all but he was also just super annoying and always getting on someones nerves, he’d always throw pranks and do everything he wasn’t supposed to do, and he kind of got out of hand to the point where his parents send him to a private school in los angeles where he’d live with his aunt and uncle.

la had a really shitty influence on him, to be honest he really didn’t like the city or the people at all and suffered from home sickness a lot which caused him to act out and be even more of a bigger shit than usual. he had a lot of friends or people that wanted to be his friend ‘cause he was rich and wild i guess, he knew they weren’t really there for him when all came down to him and it was proven to be right a few times as well. so yeah, he kinda grew into an asshole and forgot everything about the things that mattered until his senior year of high school when he like realized he’d have to come home soon and he’d just been nothing but a major disappointment to his parents, so he kinda picked up his grades and all but....still an asshole.

oh yeah also during the la years he obtained information on his biological mother and got her address and everything, wrote her like a bazillion letters but haven’t send a single one to this date cause he’s afraid of ruining something..there’s a lot of worries tbh.

anyway, high school finished and he didn’t really wanna go home ‘cause he’d have to face his parents whom he hadn’t seen much during these years, they’d talked and all and met for holidays but he tried to avoid them ooops. parents and authorities weren’t cool in his social circle and he had an image to uphold after all, so instead he applied for berklee college of music in boston and was admitted, so swoosh to the other side of the country to start college, it was practically his dream education however it only lasted a month cause he just couldn’t handle it. it was too much theory and less action and too stiff for his liking.

still not ready to go home he moved to new york for like 3 years he lived there in a fancy ass penthouse and worked as an event coordinator for the marquee nightclub ‘cause boy knew how to make connections and pull people in for an epic night. so yeah, during these years he kinda grew more into himself, and became more sure of his future and so, when he turned 21 he moved back to lorfield to open his own nightclub thing, called the ivy, it’s like his little baby and probably the most serious thing he’s ever done or been part of so that’s pretty big. he’s still set to take over the family record label after his father and he’s quite alright with that.

personality wise, mathieu is a bit complicated, he’s a narcissist through and through. It’s his way or no way. He’s not very good at seeing things from different perspectives because in his mind he’s always right, even if he knows he’s straight up wrong he will play it off as if he’s the one right, and probably make you doubt that you’re right in the process. He’s not very good with empathy and putting other people first, if you ever come to him for comfort you will probably regret it, he’s the absolute worst at emotional comfort and he’ll just make you feel even worse than you already did. He’s very unreliable in various ways, if he seizes the opportunity to gain something for himself but stab someone in the back at the same time, he’d do it without hesitation, you can never be sure with him, don’t ever count on him to show up for anything scheduled, he probably found something more interesting to tend to last minute and didn’t bother letting you know, if you’ve done something to ever get the smallest rise out of him, he’s probably scheming your end as we speak.

He’s the type of person who bullshits his way through everything, he’s never really put much effort into anything besides his senior year of high school, everything else has come easily to him. He can talk his way out of everything, not because everything he says is actually related to the topic at hand but because he just keeps on talking, and while he did that he probably threw in a few snarky insults covered up in sarcasm and a dazzling smile. He’s a relatively smart guy, at least street smart, knows how to make his way through life and you don’t need math to do that.

He rarely does anything for the benefit of others, if he does help you it’s purely because he sees it benefiting himself as well. So basically he’s a snake. He’s not exactly malicious or cruel however, it’s more of a teasing except he means everything he says 100%. He plays everything off as a joke cause he’s incapable of taking anyone or anything serious. Will laugh at your insults or attempts to insult him, ‘cause he’s got himself on a pedestal so high he probably didn’t even hear you.

He thrives on pissing people off, whether they’ll be pissed at him or someone else for something he said is not important he just wants to shake it up a little. He lives for anything that gives the slightest bit of adrenaline and if you bore him for too long it’s a guarantee he’ll just up and leave. He’s very easily bored, of people, hobbies and generally everything. When he was a kid his parents would get him new toys every other week and his interest in them only went as far as a week. That’s the same with girls and hobbies. He’s incapable of relationships because he simply gets bored of people so quickly..also he’s just not very good a monogamy, it’s not that he doesn’t wanna settle down, but he’s just living the bachelor life right now and besides, he’s got enough in himself.

He’s a slut for drama as long as he isn’t involved. He loves stirring the pot and raise hell, watching everyone run around like headless chickens and blame each other left and right, he’s like Littlefinger in Game of Thrones whispering shit to everyone and then just watching the drama unfold, the second he’s involved however, it’s not quite as fun and he will try his very best to…slither out of it and remove himself from the situation. He makes it his business to know everyone else’s business. If you need something you can be sure Mathieu either knows, or knows someone who knows, of course that info doesn’t come free of charge. Doesn’t share anything with anyone cause he knows from personal experience that no one really gives a fuck. He hates being confronted with things and will pretty much always just finger gun his way out of everything or laugh as if you’re the idiot. In general, he’s just an entitled rich kid who’s bored with the world and loves doing everything in his power to make it just a little more interesting.

so yeaaaah, i think that’s like it ???