#darcy probably while writing the letter

[noonemonitorsmyscreentime]

Darcy: She hates me, she hates me. Nothing I can do to fix that right now. But over my dead body, she'll like Wickham.

[bethanydelleman]

I saw a post you reblogged at some point about Fanny being stuck in a time loop and it got me thinking: if the main men (both protagonists and antagonists) of the different Austen novels time travelled back to the day they first met their love interest/the start of the novel - whichever is latest so wentworth, knightley, and Edmund Bertram would travel to the day the main events of their novels start - who do you think would end up changing the least of the events and the most (intentionally or not)?

Because I feel like Knightley would change the least and Henry Tilney and the three S&S gents would come next. But like Wentworth would immediately throw the entire novel off track and like Darcy and Henry Crawford would come in close second trying to change their truly awful first impressions

(Also I just want to add that I really love your Austen takes and discussions 😊)

Thank you!

This is a fascinating idea. Here are my thoughts:

Wentworth just marches into Uppercross Cottage and proposes again. Doesn't even wait to be properly introduced to the family. He's getting Anne back NOW. (She says yes, of course)

I can imagine Darcy having a tiny little crisis as he decides if he really wants to be married to Elizabeth, maybe he could just not accompany Bingley to Netherfield and his life could go the way he planned... nah, he can't resist. Off to Netherfield he goes and he lets Bingley introduce him to Elizabeth at the assembly ball. Things progress unimpeded and by Christmas there is a double wedding and Wickham's character is known throughout Hertfordshire. He skips town and Lydia is packed off to Pemberley to benefit from some better society. (Side note: Mrs. Bennet would push Mr. Collins on Mary if she had any inclination that Darcy liked Elizabeth).

If Bingley knew everything, he'd never leave Jane. He'd return from London and marry her, no matter what Darcy or his sisters said. (I wrote that once actually)

Does Wickham count as a main? Because I don't want him having the ability to predict the future. Yikes on bikes!

Henry Crawford is very interesting, because does he actually understand where he went wrong? I'm not sure he does. Can he resist a flirtation with two very pretty sisters? That would be a fun fan fiction to write. Because if he went for Fanny right off the bat and she knew nothing else about him... he'd probably succeed with her, secret Edmund love or not. And she certainly wouldn't have a leg to stand on in refusing his proposal.

Does Edmund come back in the same timeline as Henry? That would be so agnsty! If not, he'd probably be doing whatever he could to keep Maria and Henry apart, but he's shockingly ineffective in canon, so would he even be able to change anything?

Henry Tilney would probably just try to prevent Catherine being sent home alone. He could easily come back early.

Mr. Knightley's best move would be to tell Robert Martin to propose in person. I doubt Harriet could have resisted. Then he could just sit back and watch everything else play out.

Honestly, I don't know if Frank Churchill would change a thing, other than making sure his final letter was posted to Jane. He enjoyed the subterfuge.

Poor Edward Ferrars has to travel back while engaged to Lucy? I feel like he wouldn't even want to relive the novel, there is nothing he can do anyway.

Colonel Brandon would probably change a lot. He could immediately save Eliza and challenge Willoughby. He might even spare Marianne from a lot of pain.

Reginald de Courcy (Lady Susan) would likely act as well and save Frederica earlier than in the novel.

[waterlogged-detective]

📝 and 👍 for darcy and the contrarian (i can't believe i didn't know about this ship. horrible)

Hell ship! Hell ship! Hell ship!

Right? I can't remember what the conversation was about with @capn-twitchery but the ship came up as a joke, and they keep encouraging me. Blame them, is what I'm saying. It's Freddie's fault.

📝- How do they communicate when apart?

Letters! Darcy loves writing letters in general (don't let the form letters he sends fool you, he hand writes most of them and when he doesn't it's because he had *too much* fun writing something to someone and Doe was worried he'd piss off someone he liked.

There's no need for him to do that for jc and they 100% have letter based flirting arguments. Think something like this:

Plus catching each other up on news and events going on. Just girly things really.

👍- An argument for them staying/getting together.

Listen,,,, look. They'd both have so much fun. Yes Darcy could and probably will ruin everything terribly at any moment but consider....They both get to have fun a while. Please. Hey. Hey wait come back. Come back, maybe jc can convince Darcy to be less shitty? Sit down. Please. Look. Darcy isn't *all* awful. Just mostly.

[anghraine]

I don't remember which recent Darcy post of yours made me want to send this, but I just wanted to babble about how I find it so interesting that Darcy tries to persuade Lydia to leave Wickham and go back to her family. It's such an interesting sign of him being a good person in a way that's pretty counter to Upper Crust Mores of the time. Darcy thinks life with Wickham is way worse than life post Wickham scandal! [1/?]

And when Lydia refuses, only then does he arrange the marriage, which goes at least some way to helping protect her from what could easily await her if he didn't. Anyway. This ramble partly sparked by seeing someone write about how "all the adults agreed Lydia's marriage to Wickham would be best in the circumstances given the social structure of the times." because it wasn't true. Darcy clearly didn't! Anyway! I enjoy your meta in multiple fandoms. Thanks for reading my ramble!

Hey, thank you—I'm glad you enjoy the meta, and I'm always pleased to encounter someone who gives weight to Darcy's attempt to extricate Lydia. Austen is careful not to over-emphasize that he's the only person who even considers trying to get Lydia out of the situation unmarried, probably because she's very careful in how she threads the Discourse Needle of her time(s). It's important to have someone say "hey, maybe a sixteen-year-old marrying a slimy predator is not the most desirable outcome here," while having the someone be Darcy alone and mentioned in passing by a third party in a letter keeps it "safe."

The choice to have it be Darcy might be pragmatic (he's powerful enough to consider solutions that aren't really practicable for others, his own virtue and reputation aren't at stake) or because it fits his character so well (for one, he adores his sixteen-year-old sister who he managed to extract from a similar though not identical situation with the same slimy predator). Or some combination of both, or part of the general coding of his social perspective.

But I do think it's significant that, as you say, he doesn't see the Lydia/Wickham marriage as the best solution and at least tries to help her and not only his own sister. It's not just "well, back then, everyone thought like that."

[missyourflight]

hello coming directly from your ao3 comments to your inbox to continue being unhinged your world building in space persuasion was sooo good, and i would love love to hear about the space media that inspired you! i also thought you translated SPACE so so well to F1, and i would love to hear just in general about how you went about making it feel so complete and real! and do you have favourite little details that didn't get a lot of airtime in the fic that you want to shine a light on to make me feel even more insane?

thank you kay!! 💖✨

i love love stories set in space - probably my favourite space film is sunshine (2007) but that is not really the vibe of space persuasion lol. i did make a lil visual inspo pinterest board which features the space casino from the last jedi, the hostesses from the fifth element, the casino de monte carlo and the blue lagoon in iceland (i saw a youtube video while i was warming up to write this fic and i was like, this needs more lake, and also someone take me to the spa pls). daniel's skiff is basically a lift from disney's treasure planet (i looked up some windsurfing terminology and i have Not retained it) and i watched the wachowski sisters' speed racer for some wacky races inspiration. the fleet is somewhere between battlestar galactica and star trek (don't worry about it). unfortunately the whole massive ramp/platform in the middle of the lake setup is heavily influenced by the triwizard tournament, because as loathsome as jkr is sometimes images from childhood stay with us! sticking the rest of this under a cut whoops

secret little details... the whole offscreen galex plot of them trying to pick up max's investigative slack in the background lol (and also they're in love). the annoying AI in daniel's room is my version of michael (sorry not sorry) and max's AI that kind of has his accent is supposed to be like a reminder of his mum (he also keeps the scrap of fabric from his mum's dress and his sister's bracelet with daniel's dogtags). i tried to somewhat mirror the structure of persuasion where there's the big incident at the centre of louisa's fall (daniel's crash in the fic) and then the back half of the story is about them coming back together.

when i write AUs i like to try and use related imagery so in the story there's like the three main strands of space stuff, casino/gambling stuff, and austen/period drama stuff, and all of it made me like unreasonably happy. my favourite space imagery is probably the stuff about comets - daniel remembering them watching comets together on the outpost and then thinking about getting to touch max every few years like a comet returning. favourite gambling image is probably daniel calling himself a bad bet, and also when he describes zak as a busted flush. so many self-indulgent austen references and half-references but a few i like are daniel telling alex he barely recognised max - shoutout wentworth describing anne as so altered he should not have known her again. any time daniel flexes his hand that's 2005 darcy. daniel lying down on the floor is johnny flynn knightley. daniel giving max the dogtags when the only thing he had to offer was himself/wentworth having nothing but himself to recommend him. and so on! daniel half-hoping when he touches max's hand at the gala a ref to the wentworth letter, half agony half hope etc, and then max's version of the letter as well obvs

also it's not austen without dancing imo so rule of three: when daniel bumps into max outside the spa they do an awkward shuffle-dance to get past each other; the actual gala where daniel asks max to dance but max thinks it's a joke; when they fuck and daniel thinks of it as a dance they've always known the steps to.

also i could have probably built up to a bit better but i like the lil bait and switch in the race where he thinks fernando's going to get him but actually it's jenson! and after he called him sweetheart and everything

lol thank you lovely kay for affording me the opportunity to go off about it!! 🪩

[swisheywishyoverlord]

Perhaps I am a romantic fool, but I did enjoy Pride and Prejudice more than the other Austen novels we read this semester, probably because of the stronger romantic plot lines. While everyone does end up married in the end in Austen’s work, I feel that the pairings in this book make a lot of sense for all the characters involved. 

Starting with the most obvious, Elizabeth and Darcy are both characters that are extremely prideful and prejudiced, yet they level each other out. At the beginning of their relationship Darcy’s flippant, prideful commentary creates a bias for Lizzy disposing her away from him (Austen, 9). When Wickham enters her life, she quickly allows his manipulation to reinforce her negative opinion, boiling over when she rejects Darcy’s marriage proposal (Austen, 134). Darcy’s pride is usually very blatant. He has a cold exterior at almost all times and he does things like write letters to get the final word in so that Lizzy cannot wound him again (Austen, 141). However, these elements of his nature melt away when he is able to truly converse with Lizzy. During their walk in the garden, her expression of affection caused a visceral reaction in him: “heart-felt delight, diffused over his face, became him” (Austen, 250). This shift away from his usual prideful demeanor toward a contented, at ease persona shows the balancing act for both of them. Darcy in turn checks Lizzy’s prejudices and pride. It was after reading the letter that she exclaims, “‘I have courted prepossession and ignorance’” (Austen, 144). Their relationship is mutually beneficial because it helps them be more aware of themselves. It is exactly as Mr. Bennet expressed when he said Lizzy would not survive in an “unequal marriage,” she needs a relationship of equals which she gets in Darcy, flaws and all (Austen, 258). Their relationship is brilliant.

Jane and Bingley are the gold standard. They are both doofuses in love. The only reason they were not together sooner is because of the interference from other characters like Mr. Darcy and Ms. Bingley. Other than their rather pure relationship, Jane and Bingley share other similarities. Jane is the eldest daughter and responsibility falls to her to secure a good marriage that is advantageous enough to aid in marrying off her sisters. A similar sense of responsibility weighs on Bingley as one of the young men of large fortune who has to attain a good wife and have an heir. They are a sweet couple and I like their simplicity in contrast to the darker love between Lizzy and Darcy.

This meme was created by me and I am very happy with it. Of course, as I explained above, I love the two obvious romantic pairs in this novel, but I am especially appreciative of Mary remaining alone. Yes, it is tragic for her, but her character could not have been in a happy romantic relationship from my perspective. It is not because of her lack of beauty compared to her sisters or anything. She is too selfish. At one of the first balls we see Mary “eagerly succeeded” her sister and she was described as someone who “worked hard for knowledge and accomplishments,... impatient for display” (Austen, 18). As the only plain one of her sisters Mary was definitely dealt a harder hand, but she goes through the world demanding attention and for skills she does not have to compensate, hurting everyone else in the process. Her lackluster playing was an embarrassment to her entire family and yet she persisted. I think she needs to take a good long look at herself and spend some time alone. Her apparent plainness is not a complete detriment. Plain women get married all the time. However, she holds herself back. That is why Gru is just as eager with Mary’s lack of marriage as he is for the previous two. Mary being alone is the right thing for her right now.

I’m going to keep Lydia and Wickham short. They are both manipulative and immature in their own ways which leads to their forced marriage. Yes, it ended up being more than Wickham should have hoped for with Darcy’s interference, but they are clearly still poor as Lydia asks Lizzy for aid at the end of the novel (Austen, 264). Gru looks so down in the meme because their pairing is a result of their negative traits condemning each other to their fates. It is sad. Lydia is impulsive and immature and Wickham is impulsive and greedy. They are well matched like the other couples, but their bad traits build up together instead of evening out like Darcy and Lizzy.

Sorry this is long winded, but as the Gru meme suggests I can talk about this for a while. I am Gru and this is a short synopsis of what he ranting about in his presentation. Thank you :)

[morfinwen]

For the Christmas ship meme, Tear in My Heart, Like Real People Do, If My Heart was a House, and Leah and Nate, if you like? Merry Christmas!

So this was originally asked .... hahaha, never mind. I finished answering these earlier, but i wanted to queue it to show up at a more "thematically appropriate" time.

Already answered Chuck/Sarah here.

Elizabeth/Darcy -- Modern!AU? Modern!AU

who starts putting up decorations in october: Elizabeth is in charge of decorating, and October is too early. Have all the leaves fallen off the trees? Is there snow on the ground? Are there skeletons and ghosts and monsters in people’s yards (if they’re in America -- don’t think Halloween’s a thing in England)? Then it’s not time for decorating for Christmas yet. Everything in its place. Darcy wasn’t really a “decorate in October” guy, but he does like Christmas, so once Elizabeth starts teaching him the art of “harmless mischief”, she starts finding her fall-scented candles getting replaced with ones that smell of gingerbread or pine, wintry scenes replacing other photographs or prints, and ornaments or other small decorations hanging in out-of-the-way areas. It becomes a game if she can find them all before the “actual” Christmas decorating season begins.

who buys the advent calendars: Elizabeth. Though that’s more a thing once they have children.

who places mistletoes all around the house: Darcy more than Elizabeth, but while she lives with them, Georgiana hangs up the most.

who wraps the presents for other people: The Darcys have mastered the art of wrapping. Elizabeth is in awe, and though she is never able to match their perfection, she does improve. Somewhat.

who puts the final star/angel on the top of the christmas tree: Before they have children, Darcy gives Elizabeth a boost to reach the top. She is definitely not tall enough to reach it on her own.

who’s the one that hates eggnog: Elizabeth might not hate it, but i don’t think she’s ever developed a taste for it.

who’s the one that bakes christmas cookies for guests: Group project. They have very … disparate experiences with both types of cookies baked, and how to bake them: Darcy grew up baking a few specific “posh” cookies (probably more like cookie bars and sweetbreads) in a very tidy kitchen with his mum and Georgiana, following the recipe to the letter and instrumental Christmas carols on CD. Elizabeth, the kitchen eventually became a free-for-all where multiple recipes could be going on at once, with younger sisters trying to sneak “test cookies” or ingredients like chocolate chips from other bakers, and the radio blaring Christmas pop at top volume. 

who sends out the christmas cards: Joint effort. Darcy has the neater handwriting and more experience writing nice-sounding generic Christmas greetings, but Elizabeth is better at adding the personal touch.

who knows all the words to twelve days of christmas: Elizabeth. That song was not often part of the Darcy Christmas playlist.

who’s the better snowman builder: Elizabeth. Darcy had never made a snowman before meeting her.

who starts snowball fights: Elizabeth does it more frequently, though after a few years Darcy will occasionally sneak snow down her coat or even toss a (very small) snowball at her.

who’s the one that wakes the other on christmas morning by playing christmas songs really loudly: Elizabeth wakes up their children that way, but not her husband. He’s usually awake before her, anyway.

Blue/Gansey

who starts putting up decorations in october: Blue, though the ones she puts up are usually … a mix of like Halloween and Christmas, like a skeleton with a Santa hat. Her decorations in general aren’t very traditional. When their place is decorated for pretty much any holiday, it looks like a particularly weird thrift store display got dropped into a high end department store's model room.

who buys the advent calendars: Gansey.

who places mistletoes all around the house: … Y'know, i'm ignoring canon on the subject of whether or not Blue can kiss Gangsey without him, well, dying, but … i don't think it's a tradition they take to for a few years. Henry definitely sneaks some up when he visits, though. 

who wraps the presents for other people: They wrap their own. Blue can’t stand Gansey’s magazine photoshoot-perfect corners and inoffensively bland wrapping paper choices, while her uneven wrapping style and eclectic wrapping paper put his teeth on edge; to say nothing of how it would be received at his family Christmas.

who puts the final star/angel on the top of the christmas tree: Gansey. 

who’s the one that hates eggnog: Gansey politely tolerates it.

who’s the one that bakes christmas cookies for guests: Blue. Cookie-baking was not a part of Gansey’s upbringing, and though he tries to learn, he’s just too … put-together and proper to fit into the mess Blue makes. She usually pushes him out of the kitchen to do the Christmas cards when she's baking.

who sends out the christmas cards: Gansey. Blue adds her own messages to the ones sent to the other members of the Gangsey and takes initiative on any sent to her family, but if she even sees any of the other cards he's sending, that's the full extent of her participation.

who knows all the words to twelve days of christmas: Gansey.

who’s the better snowman builder: Has Gansey ever built a snowman in his life? Even basic snowman designs are outside his capacity. Blue’s aren’t much better -- lopsided, awkwardly-sized things that fall or melt in ways that make them look even more bizarre -- but part of that is because she’s always trying to make more unique things than the classic “head, body, carrot nose” archetype.

who starts snowball fights: Blue.

who’s the one that wakes the other on christmas morning by playing christmas songs really loudly: Gansey does it once. Once.

Leah/Nate

who starts putting up decorations in october: Leah didn’t decorate that early, but she did start considering where to put the tree, how to arrange the lights, what “regular” decor would be taken down to make room, etc.

who buys the advent calendars: Nate.

who places mistletoes all around the house: Nate.

who wraps the presents for other people: Leah.

who puts the final star/angel on the top of the christmas tree: Nate.

who’s the one that hates eggnog: Neither of them cared for it.

who’s the one that bakes christmas cookies for guests: Leah, and not just because of the aggressively-50s culture of her time period -- Nate would sneak cookies or add unauthorized ingredients, so after the Hot Sauce Fudge incident, he was banned from participating, by his parents, Leah, and himself.

who sends out the christmas cards: Leah.

who knows all the words to twelve days of christmas: Between the two of them, they could usually figure them all out.

who’s the better snowman builder: Nate. 

who starts snowball fights: Nate used to, before the war. He couldn’t find the same enthusiasm for it after the war.

who’s the one that wakes the other on christmas morning by playing christmas songs really loudly: Nate, unintentionally. Loud Christmas music is part of the Christmas morning celebration, and he would just forget about his poor wife trying to catch up on sleep after spending the last few nights buying, wrapping, and sending last-minute gifts and cards.

Thanks for asking!

[middleearthpixie]

Seven Days ~ Chapter Four

Seven Days -  Modern Tolkien AU

Firefighter Frerin Durin died in a fire set deliberately. But after he helps his brother, Thorin find happiness, Frerin is offered a second chance. He has to prove himself worthy by righting the one major wrong in his life. Otherwise, history will repeat and he will die for good this time. The catch? He has seven days in which to do this and isn’t even certain what his major wrong is.

At least, he doesn’t know for long. 

Syd Prescott has known Frerin since high school. She spent one night with him and then he vanished from her life. Now, he claims he wants to make it up to her, to right was he realizes was his major wrong. But can she trust him? And can he prove to her that she can before it’s too late? 

A/N - This story is the sequel to Miss Fortune, but is a stand alone story. 

Summary: Syd’s decided to give Frerin another chance, and one thing leads to another…

Pairing: Modern!Frerin x OFC Syd Prescott

Characters: Syd Prescott, Gram Prescott, Frerin, Tori, Teddy, Charlie  

Warnings: None

Rating: T

Word Count: 4,255

Tag List: @tschrist1 @i-did-not-mean-to @lathalea @linasofia @fizzyxcustard @legolasbadass @kibleedibleedoo @xxbyimm @arrthurpendragon @exhausted-humxn-being @rachel1959 @laurfilijames @sketch-and-write-lover @sherala007 @enchantzz @knittastically @notlostgnome @myselfandfantasy @medusas-hairband @guardianofrivendell @jotink78 @frosticenow @quiall321 @dianakc

If you’d like to be added (or removed) to the tag list, please just let me know!

Previous chapters can be found here.

Darcy’s was over on Chestnut Street, a cozy little roadhouse type bar where bikers liked to hang out and shoot pool while everyone else came for the amazing food. Syd looked over at Frerin as he angled the Jeep into a parking space. “I haven’t been here in ages.”

“Yeah? I’m here a few times a week, especially if it’s been a rough shift.” He leaned back in his seat, the engine still running, the interior cozy and warm. “We come here when we need to decompress.”

She smiled. “I can’t even imagine. Most people run away from fires. You run into them. Voluntarily.”

“Well, they pay me to do it.”

“Probably not nearly what you’re worth.”

That brought a smile to his lips. “You got that right. You know how heavy turnout is?”

“Can’t say I do. I’ve never worn it.”

He twisted around and reached into the backseat, coming up with slightly battered black  helmet. “Here. Try it on.”

“You keep your turnout in here?”

“Nah, this is just my just in case gear. Everything else is at the station. Go on,” he pressed it toward her, “try it on.”

She took the helmet, which was every bit as heavy as it looked. Soot smudged the ridges and she pressed her lips together as she slowly turned it in her hands. The shield on the front bore a large reflective two on it, with the letters CFFD beneath it and the word Firefighter above it. She stared at it for a long moment, her fingers moving over the ridges along the top. It was heavy and cold, and she really couldn’t imagine how much courage it took for him to do what he did.

From the corner of her eye, she peered at him. In school, Frerin had been a wiseass—a good looking boy who knew how to make everyone around him laugh, even the teachers, and could always seem to worm his way out of any serious trouble. Like his brother before him, he was Joe Cool and knew it. 

But she didn't sense that about him any longer. He’d matured from that good looking boy into a handsome, serious man. One who ran into burning buildings without regard to his own personal safety. 

“How do you do it?” She looked up at him, the helmet still resting in her lap. “I’d be scared to death.”

“I was at first.” He took the helmet from her, tracing over the letters with one hand. “But, you can’t think about it. You can’t think about what all can go wrong. You freeze and you put people in danger if you do.” 

“Yeah, but it’s fire. No one in their right mind runs to it.”

“It does help to be a little nuts,” he smiled, then reached over to set the helmet atop her head. It was too big and every bit as heavy as it had felt in her hands, and slipped low enough that she had to peer out from the brim. “I don’t think about it, Syd. A call comes in, I get ready and I go. We get to the structure and we go in if there’s people or animals inside and hope to hell we come back out. But you can’t think about it. You just get tunnel vision, you know. You have an objective and you see it through. And if everything goes right, you go back home.”

She eased the helmet off to pass back to him. “How many people have you saved?”

“We don’t keep track of it, Syd. But, if I had to guess, a couple hundred over almost nine years, maybe.”

As he twisted to set the helmet back on the seat, she said, “Are there any that stand out to you?”

“A couple, yeah.” He turned to her once more. “Mostly kids. You get a kid out and you see the relief on their parents’ faces. And there the ones you literally have to throw over your shoulder to forcibly carry them out.”

“Does that happen often?”

“No, thank God. The last one I had to toss over my shoulder was Mrs. Urlino and she was not happy about it.”

Syd couldn’t help but laugh. “Oh my God, that woman is a nightmare. She comes into the shop at least once a week for a seance. She wants to talk to her husband.”

“But, he’s not dead.”

“I know! We all know! But she insists otherwise and so one of us has to stop whatever we’re doing to hold this fake-ass seance.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, I’ve dealt with her a few times. She set her kitchen on fire about a year ago and wouldn’t leave. I finally grabbed her and went to throw her over my shoulder and she fucking kicked me in the shin as hard as she could and told me I’d burn in… in hell…”

His smile faded as he said it and a darkness slipped behind his eyes. For a moment, he looked like a man who’d seen his own grave. Without thinking, she reached out to cover his hand with hers. “Frerin? Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” His smile returned, the darkness faded, but his cheer seemed a bit more forced now. “Why don’t we go in before it gets too crowded?”

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah. I’m sure. She’s just a spooky old lady.” He killed the engine and tugged his keys from the switch. 

Somehow, she had the feeling it was more than just Mrs. Urlino being spooky, but she let it lay as she climbed down from the Jeep and shivered as the wind snapped across Darcy’s parking lot. As he came around the front of the Jeep, she said, “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine. Why?”

“I don’t know. You just seemed… I don’t know, like you’ve got something on your mind.”

He smiled then as he moved to stand before her. “No, nothing earth shattering.”

“If you’re sure.”

“I’m sure.” He reached for her hand and as he laced his fingers with hers, a gentle shiver rippled up along her arm. She wondered if he felt it, for his fingers briefly tightened about hers. 

Darcy’s was crowded, but that was to be expected on a Saturday night. Even so, the hostess smiled as they approached her station. “Hey, Frerin, how are you?”

“I’m good, Kelly. You?”

“Not too bad.” Kelly looked from him to her. “Just the two of you tonight?”

He nodded. “Just the two of us.”

“Okay.” She grabbed two menus bound in red leather from the slot by her podium. “Follow me.”

Syd waited for Frerin to pull his hand free, but he didn’t. Instead, he loosened his grip so just their fingers remained linked, and they followed Kelly as she led them to a small table tucked into the back corner, near the alcove where the pool tables were. Three tables were tucked into the alcove and all three were in use and as they sat down, Frerin said, “Hopefully one’ll open up soon.”

“You really want to teach me how to play, don’t you?”

“Yeah. I think it’ll be fun.” 

A willowy brunette came over and to them, smiling as she said, “Hey, Frerin, how are you?”

Syd looked from her to him as he said, “I’m good, Dee. You?”

“Same. Nothing ever changes. What can I get you folks to start?”

“A bourbon Manhattan. With Angel’s Envy, if you have it.”

“You know we do, Frer.” Dee wrote it down, then smiled at her. “And what can I get you, hon?”

Syd scanned the drinks menu, but nothing really appealed to her. She wasn’t much of a drinker and really didn't care for the taste of most liquors. Still… Dee and Frerin were waiting. “Uh… I guess I’ll have… a mojito, please.”

“Sure thing. Are you ready to order?”

“I think we need a couple minutes.” 

“Okay. I’ll be back in a minute.”

One of the tables opened up and Frerin grinned across the table at her as he shrugged out of his leather jacket. “Want to shoot a quick game before we eat?”

“Sure.” She stood, hung her jacket on the back of her chair and motioned for him to follow her. Truth be told, she was too nervous to eat, which was stupid. Why was she so nervous? She knew Frerin. Christ, she’d already slept with him before! What was there to be nervous about?

But, she couldn't deny it. She was definitely nervous. She remembered all too well what sex with him had been like, and honestly? Just being close to him rattled her nerves with unyielding force. And as he brushed by her to take down a couple of cues and she caught a hint of his cologne, her nipples tightened. He wore Bulgari Aqua and smelled absolutely wonderful. The urge to lean into him and just breathe deeply was almost impossible to ignore.

Never mind that he was just… well… Frerin. And Frerin was gorgeous. Especially in faded jeans. Even more so in a dark henley with the sleeves pushed up almost to his elbows. He turned toward her and the gold chain about his neck glinted from the overhead lights while the open throat of his henley offered up a nice little vee of his chest, and an enticing peek at the dark hair she knew stretched up to his collarbones, thinned down along his stomach, and disappeared into the waist of his jeans. 

Did it just get warmer in here?

“You okay?” Frerin broke through her reverie as he held out a cue. “Syd?”

“I’m fine. It’s—it’s been a long day, is all.”

“I know that feeling. You want to break?”

“You can.”

He racked the billiard balls and when Kelly came back with their drinks, said, “You want to order dinner?”

“Confession, I’m not really hungry.”

“Why not?”

“I just… I had a late lunch.”

She wanted to kick herself when his left eyebrow crept up ever so slightly to suggest he didn't believe her. Well, she wouldn’t have believed her, either, and she waited for him to call her out, to tease her about how he knew she wanted him all along or whatever.

But all he said was, “You want to just graze on appetizers, then?”

“Sure.”

“Nachos?”

“That would be good.”

He grinned and asked Kelly to bring out an order of nachos, then to Syd, he said, “Ready?”

She took a sip of her mojito and nodded and a minute later, he broke the balls and the game was on. Or, more succinctly, it was sort of on. Syd watched as he lined up his cue and knocked a striped ball into the corner pocket, then another, and when it was her turn, she tried to mimic what she’d seen him do. She stretched out over the table, set the cue in the cradle of her thumb and forefinger, drew back the stick and shot.

Thwack!

The solid ball rolled maybe an inch. 

She winced and looked up to find Frerin grinning. “Want me to teach you how to hit it?” 

“No, I’ll figure it out.”

“Okay.” He shrugged, moving around to her side of the table. “Number ten in the middle pocket.”

She bit back a sigh as he bent over the table and his Levi’s offered up the most enticing view of what was probably the most perfect male ass in existence. Syd’s cheeks grew hot just from staring and that was nothing compared to when he took the shot. 

The ball hit. The bumper and rolled away from the pocket he’d been aiming for and for a moment, she wondered if he’d missed on purpose. He straightened up and moved to pick up his rocks glass for a swallow of his Manhattan. “You’re up, Syd.”

She frowned at the three ball, which was the one she’d tried to get into the pocket on her last turn. It was a little closer so why not?

She stretched. Set the cue in the cradle. Aimed.

And totally missed the ball. 

“Damn it. You make this look so easy,” she grumbled as she straightened up.

“You’re trying to force it. Don’t. You don’t need brute force, all you need is physics.”

“I was not good at physics. Too much math and I had to be tutored,” she told him, moving to pick up her drink. It was warm in the alcove and the mojito hit the spot.

“Want me to show you?”

“Oh, god, yes. This is humiliating.”

“I’ve seen worse.” He held out an arm. “Come here and I’ll teach you to use science and not brute force to play this, okay?”

“You do and the next round is on me.”

He grinned. “I like the sound of this. Okay, take the cue like this,” he reached for her cue and handed it to her, then positioned it in her hand. Then, he stretched alongside her, just brushing her as he reached over her to cover her shooting hand with his. “Draw the cue back and line it up with where you want to hit it against the ball. You want it to go more to the right, aim to the left and vice versa. Then, draw it back, and just—”

He moved her arm and she hit the ball to send it careering into the very pocket she’d aimed for the first time. Turning her head, she peered up at him. “Let me try.”

Maybe it was just her imagination, but his eyes looked bluer in the low light. Soft. Blue. And they held hers for a long moment. Then, he nodded. “Give it a shot. You want another drink?”

“I’m good. One of us should stay sober.”

“Are you trying to get me drunk, Miss Prescott?”

She looked over at him again and smiled. “I’ll never tell.”

“I mean, I’m okay with it if you are, but you’ll have to drive my ass home then.”

“I think I could manage if I had to.”

“Oh, and I should probably warn you, I’m easy when I’m drunk.”

Without thinking, she nudged him with her shoulder. “Tell me something I don’t know.”

He draped an arm about her shoulders, leaned closer, and, his lips brushing her ear, whispered, “I’ve had a crush on you since I was fourteen, honey.”

“You have not.”

“Yeah,” he drew back, but didn't remove his arm, “I absolutely have.”

“Frerin.”

“What? You were hot when I was fourteen. You were hot when I was eighteen. And you were hot last August and I’m an absolute fucking idiot for doing what I did, because I can’t remember a time when you weren’t hot and I wasn’t hot for you.”

As he spoke, he tightened that arm about her, pulled her toward him. She saw his kiss coming and leaned in to meet it, one hand resting on his hip, the other on the pool table.

His lips were soft and teasing, his beard prickly against her skin, but she didn't care. Those soft, teasing lips parted, and an equally soft, teasing tongue swept along hers. He kissed her slowly. Deeply. His free hand curved against her cheek, his thumb brushing lightly along it. 

Heat swept through her, heady and delicious, and she didn't realize she gripped his henley with clenched fingers until he broke the kiss to whisper, “You should come home with me tonight, Syd. I have a lot of making up to you to do.”

Her head spun from the rush of his kiss, his words not sinking in at first. She drew back to gaze up at him. “Are you just playing around with me, Frerin? Because if you are—” 

“I’m not,” he whispered, shaking his head, his eyes even softer now. “I swear to Christ, I’m not.”

His thumb brushed along her cheek and an almost shy smile curved his lips. “You won’t regret it. I promise you, you won’t.” He bent to brush her lips with another teasing kiss, then straightened up. “You sure you don’t want another drink?”

“I’m positive.”

“I’ll be right back. Re-rack the balls, okay?” 

He grinned and winked, then turned to go to the bar. Kelly came back with their nachos, smiling as she said, “Where’d Frerin go?”

“Getting another drink.”

“Did you need a refill?”

“I’m good, thanks.”

Kelly darted off and Syd frowned at the pool table. The striped ball closest to a pocket was the number thirteen and it was sandwiched between the four and six balls. She scowled, then bent to take the shot. 

She squinted to line up where she wanted to hit the ball, drew back her arm, shot.

And knocked both solids into opposite corner pockets. 

“Damn it.” How could she possible concentrate on anything after that amazing kiss and Frerin’s unexpected confession? She didn’t believe it for a second, at least not the part about his having a crush on her or thinking she was hot or that he was, in fact, hot for her, of all people. 

But for some reason, she did believe the rest of it. She didn't know why, maybe it was because his aura suggested something unsettled him, maybe it was because it was because she didn't sense any trouble in the colors she saw within that aura. Whatever he wrestled with, she didn't think it had anything to do with her, or women in general. 

“We can fish them out if you want,” he told her, setting his drink on the hightop in the corner right behind him. “I won’t count ’em if you don’t want me to.”

She looked over at him. “I really suck at this.”

“Yeah, but you’ll get better.”

She leaned back against the table and just stared up at him. “I’m not so sure of that.”

“I am. I taught Thorin, I can teach you. No way you’re worse than that gorilla is.”

She smiled. “I’m not so sure about that, either.”

“I am.” He moved to stand before her. “My parents have a pool table, so you’d think he’d be good at it. He’s not. Last time we played, he tore the felt. Put the cue right through it. You’re already a better player.”

“I’m prey sure you’re just saying that to be nice.”

“Maybe. Let’s see if you tear the felt.” He reached down and caught her by the hand. “Come on and eat something. Then we can play another round if you want.”

She eyed the nachos, then her mojito, then the nachos again. 

“Maybe I will have another drink.”

Frerin grinned. “I’ll be right back.”

This time, before he left for the bar, he dipped to brush her lips with his, then winked again and turned to head back to the bar.

Three games and two mojitos later, Syd shook her head. “Forget it. It’s never going to happen. I’ve done everything but tear the felt. I really do suck at this.”

“Nah, you don’t suck at it. You’re getting better. But you keep trying to force it.” Frerin took the cue from her, shaking his head as he moved to hang it up. “You can’t force it, Syd. You just gotta let it happen.”

“And it is not happening for me.”

He came back over, lifting her jacket from the back of her chair and held it for her. “So, we find something else to do. I’d suggest darts, but I don’t want to lose an eye. I need both of them.”

“I can’t even be offended by that or argue with it.” She shrugged into her jacket and sighed. “I’m hopeless.”

“Nah,” he tugged on his leather jacket and dug his keys from the pocket, “there’s got to be something you’re good at.”

He reached for her hand, lacing his fingers with hers. “Or we keep at the pool until you get it or die trying.”

“Easy for you to say.” She smiled up at him as he led her through the throng of people gathered at the bar. The placed was packed now, the music was far louder than it had been, and when they stepped outside, Syd winced at how her ears seemed to ring. So many people, so may auras, in one room, and it was like leaving a concert for her. 

“You okay?”

“Yeah… crowds can be a bit overwhelming for me.”

“Really?”

She nodded. “I can’t shut everything off. I wish I could, but I haven’t figured out how to yet.”

He aimed the fob at his Jeep and deactivated the alarm. “What’s that like for you? Knowing all that stuff about people before they do?”

She shrugged. No one had ever asked her that before. Most times, her dates thought it was funny to look at her and demand, Tell me what I’m thinking right now. 

With a low sigh, she leaned up against the passenger door of his Jeep. “Honestly? It’s exhausting sometimes. And irritating. You should only know how many people ask me to pick their lottery numbers for them. I’m not psychic. I don’t know what they’re thinking or anything like that. I’m just sensitive to what goes on on the inside.”

“You’re not psychic? So, you can’t pick lottery numbers for me, either, huh?”

She rolled her eyes even as she smiled. “Very funny. And no. I can’t.”

“Yeah, but you can do other things and that’s pretty cool.” He stepped up to her, slipping his arms about her waist. “What color am I now?”

“What color are you?”

“Yeah. My aura.” His eyes glittered in the soft glow cast by the streetlight in the corner to the right of his Jeep. “What color is it?”

She gazed up at him and tried to will her mind to clear. As it did, the colors about him grew brighter, easier for her to see. “There’s still blue, but I see a bit more yellow, and hints of green now.” She smiled up at him. “And those are good. There’s still something big in your future, but you aren’t as apprehensive about it now. Yellow indicates cheer and green…”

“Green what?” He tugged her closer, until they almost touched. “Is green bad?”

“Green is indicative of love.”

“Why do I think you’re dicking with me?”

She shook her head. “I wouldn’t. Not with this. Gram made sure to drill into us that our gifts aren’t games. They aren’t for playing with people and she would skin me alive if she thought for a moment I was making up something.”

“Gram is wise.”

“She would tell you the same thing.”

He bent to her then and caught her lips in a kiss that wasn't quite as soft as his previous one. And that was just fine with her. She slid her arms about his waist, beneath his heavy leather jacket, and pulled him firm against her. It had been ages since she’d last been kissed with this much passion. It might have been the last time he’d kissed her, back in August. And just like back then, his kiss had such a powerful effect on her. It warmed her blood, sent wicked heat streaking through her to the point where she no longer felt the cold, and all she wanted was for him to kiss her forever. Little by little, that heat melted her resolve, melted her hesitation, melted everything but the desire to feel his skin bare against hers, to feel his hands, his lips, his tongue, on her body. Frerin was magic and he knew it. He was the best kind of magic.

His tongue swept slowly along hers, coaxed hers into a sensual dance that had her curling her fingers into his henley once more, almost tugging it from the waist of his Levi’s. Her back bowed, her breasts firmly pressing against his solid chest. Her heart sped up, hammering against her ribs to leave her lightheaded and breathless as he slowly eased his tongue back from her mouth and broke the kiss to whisper, “Come home with me, Syd…”

“I don’t have any clothes to wear tomorrow.”

“I’ll loan you something of mine.” He smiled down at her. “I’ll even give you a tee shirt to sleep in if you want.”

“Oh, how can I turn down an offer like that?”

He smiled. “Right?”

“Frerin, if you’re playing—”

“I’m not.” He shook his head. “Swear to Christ, I’m not. Like I said, I fucked up in August. Let me right it.”

She should probably tell him no. Should probably remember that leopards don’t change their spots and guys like Frerin had so many women throwing themselves at him that they didn't think much of promises.

But then again, as he bent to brush a kiss along the side of her neck and the tingles swept through her to make her head spin and her eyelids so heavy, she couldn't deny he knew exactly how to make a girl feel wanted. And as long as she knew it was probably only for the one night, what was the harm? She wasn't setting herself up for anything and she’d get one hell of a night out of it in return. 

“Syd?”

She smiled up at him. “I will put a hex on you if you’re screwing with me, Frerin. Just so you know.”

He smiled back, lifting her easily to meet his eyes. “I’ll take my chances with you, Syd.”

[firstdegreefangirl]

June 2023 Reading Wrap-Up!

Halfway through the year, and I'm excited to report that I'm either on track or ahead of all my reading goals for 2023! I've just got to focus more on reading books I already have, instead of buying new ones. Should be easy enough, right? ;-)

As always, stats up here, mini reviews under the cut. Click through to see what had me swearing at my empty living room at 1:30 a.m.

Total books read: 7 

Total pages read: 1,816 

Days read: 23/30 

Average star rating: 4.33/5 

Challenge Prompts Filled: 13 in June; 66 total. Popsugar: 6(23)/40.   Romanceopoly: 3 (18)/36. CRAD: 1(6)/12. BTBL: 3(19)/52 

Happy Singles Day by Ann Marie Walker 

⭐⭐⭐⭐(¼) 

This was cute! I picked it up on a whim, when I found myself with some free time at the big library branch across town, because I liked the idea of a romance novel celebrating singlehood. I liked watching the MC figure out who she is outside of her job, and her love interest was such a compelling dude. Between his daughter and his sister, and his bed and breakfast, he really made the story for me. It wasn’t quite grumpy/sunshine, because Lucas opens up as things progress, but something about his reluctance to even be invovled in the story at all really entertained me. The only thing I’d say really bugged me was the dog. Don’t get me wrong, I love dogs. Like, so much. But the cover has a picture of a little terrier shaped pup, and then the text describes the dog as a “pit bull/boxer mix,” and it drove me nuts every step of the way. A little detail, maybe, but the discrepancy really threw me off. 

Prompts filled: Popsugar – A book about a vacation 

Summer on Blackberry Beach by Belle Calhoune 

⭐⭐⭐(¾) 

What a fun little summer read! I’ll admit, I was expecting there to be some sort of Christmassy detail, given that the town is called Mistletoe, but once I got past that, this was so delightful! I grabbed it from a book thrift store while my friend was in town visiting, after the teacher/Navy SEAL fake dating plot caught both of our attentions. I liked watching the characters learn how to move past their respective losses, and that they communicated really effectively through much of the story. Too many times, the plotline falls apart if the characters would just have like one mature conversation, so I really enjoyed that they did that here and the story held up. It was refreshing to watch these characters grow together and find the futures they didn’t think they deserved. 

Prompts filled: Popsugar – About a holiday that’s not Christmas; Romanceopoly – Soldier Street/One of the MCs are in the military 

Biting Through The Skin: An Indian Kitchen In America’s Heartland by Nina Mukerjee Furstenau 

⭐⭐⭐⭐ 

I’ve had this on my shelf for … probably two years now? At least a year and a half; I’m pretty sure I bought it at the library fall book sale on Fill A Bag day. Food as a vessel for culture has always interested me, and the idea of a memoir pairing Indian food with Midwest culture (where I’ve lived my entire life) was particularly fascinating. Turns out the author spent most of her childhood like three hours from where I grew up/live, in the same small town where one of my friends is from! Every chapter includes stories about the Indian foods that flavor her memories, and the recipes are at the ends of the chapters. I haven’t cooked any of them yet, but maybe someday! The essays were heartfelt and compelling, like I could feel myself in the kitchen right alongside the author and her family, with the warm, hearty spices and sentimental stories.  

Popsugar – favorite prompt from past challenge (2022 – a book with a recipe in it); BTBL – Epistolary/unusual writing style (recipes) 

Darcy by RJ Scott, Meredith Russell 

⭐⭐⭐⭐ 

At some point, I got this for free on my Kindle, and it got the callup this month for being something short enough that I could read it in a couple of days, but compelling enough to hold my attention (also, for having a five-letter title!). I’m admittedly a sucker for fake dating-turned-romance, but usually the “dating” couple is the endgame, so it was interesting to read a story that turned the trope on its head. Darcy and Adrian had such an instant attraction, but more than just sexually. I loved seeing them open up to each other, and how supportive Darcy was through the whole story, of both Adrian and his sister, and especially at the ending. I’m definitely planning to pick up the rest of the series at some point.  

BTBL – less than 170 pages; CRAD – half as many letters as May; Popsugar – Forbidden Romance; Romanceopoly – Passion Place/slow burn or instant heat contemporary romance 

The Water Baby by Roz Denney Fox 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 

Finally, I got back around to reading this for the first time in … 15 years or so? I don’t remember exactly when I read it for the first time, but I do remember picking it up from my mom’s book stack when I was probably too young for Harlequin romance novels. I liked it then, and saved it from a garage sale pile a few years later. It’s well-loved and rough around the edges, but the best books always are. Luckily, it’s just as good now as it was years ago, and absolutely worth the shelf space for all this time. 

Prompts filled: BTBL – released at least 23 years ago; Popsugar – Set in the decade you were born 

Egghead: or, you can’t survive on ideas alone by Bo Burnham 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 

I don’t have much to say about this one that I haven’t said before. I love poetry, I love Bo Burnham, and some of my favorite poems ever are in this book (look at you, The Letter!). This particular reread was just shy of an hour, sitting on the floor of my denbrary, looking for something to spark inspiration for an upcoming writing project I'm trying to plan. I’m not sure yet, but I think I figured it out, at that! 

Prompts filled: None 

The Last Flight by Julie Clark 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 

Fuck this book. Five stars. I’m writing this right about an hour after I finished devouring the book in three days. Mostly two days – the first day I only had time to read like the first chapter. Usually, I’m not one for thrillers, but this caught my eye at the same thrift store as Blackberry Beach up above. Once I realized it’s a signed copy, and was only three dollars, I basically had to give it a try. And holy HELL, am I glad I did! I was sucked in from the first few pages, absolutely enthralled right down to the end. In fact, on page 142, I actively shouted “what the fuuuuuuck?!?” out loud to my empty apartment. It’s that sort of a book. I had a loose suspicion of how it would end, but there were a lot of things I didn’t see coming. I’d KILL to see this one as a movie, and I’m absolutely going to read the author’s other thrillers. Sometimes, there’s a benefit to stepping outside my wheelhouse, because I have a feeling this is going to be a top 10 for 2023.  

Prompts filled: Popsugar – A book about divorce; Romanceopoly – Killer Crescent/a thriller of your choice 

[comicgoblinwrites]

Comic Goblin Writing & Writeblr update!

(Because I've been away and also not writing for a while.)

Well, I've been polishing finished short stories to submit to journals and things, so I guess that's writing. But nothing that I've felt the itch to share. Anyway!

I'm still here.

Primarily I've been getting things prepped for submission. I've got a handful of short stories that I'm polishing to submit to journals/contests, and I'm getting my series (that I have the most progress on) ready to query.

Project updates:

The Ember Arcanum (science-fantasy space opera)

Book 1 (The Fire Between Stars (TFBS)) is semi on hold/not my top priority right now (though I'm probably going to write on it tonight). I'm about 62k in, and noodling on some pacing things, though I know where abouts the story is going.

Marcel and Maeve have just been hanging out while I'm distracted, though they're getting a little impatient.

The Sound of the End (sci-fi post-apocalypse thriller)

Book 1 (needs to be renamed possibly, so y'all might see me asking about that at some point).

Currently Beta reading

Getting a query letter together

Another pass on revisions before I start querying

Book 2 needs it's first pass on revisions, but I'm not worrying too much about it until I'm on a solid track with book 1. Similarly for Book 3, though I'm still transcribing it from longhand. The last book is outlined.

Darcy would probably prefer if I left her alone, but that's too bad. This series is itching to be finished.

--

Anyway, that's what I'm working on right now, and I'll probably start sharing updates again. If you want to be added to tag lists for either TSOTE or TEA, let me know.

[sleepymander]

DARCY TELL US ABOUT AOEDE....

!!! Thank you for asking!!!

Aoede is my Warrior of Light in Final Fantasy 14!! She's on Ultros in Primal. The main classes I play are paladin and machinist, although I'm also leveling up the other tank classes

I'll put info about her below but here's her adventurer plate portrait and a drawing I did of her with her the hairstyle she had in stormblood (I have not yet learned to gpose. but one day I will. then I will take Good Photos)

So! Aoede! To be honest, her name comes from me trying to make my character before my friend logged off for the night and I chose it without looking at the lore for miqo'te, but I've managed to work it into her backstory. I haven't really settled everything in her backstory yet as I'm still working through endwalker, but I'm slowly figuring things out. I've never actually explained one of my character's backstories before, so I apologize if it's a bit awkward;;

Aoede is a 26-year-old (24 at the start of ARR, I figure the story probably takes place over 2 to 3 years) adventurer hailing from Sharlyan; she's an archon with her archon tattoos located between her shoulder blades. She's half-seeker and half-keeper and does have fangs (even though I don't know how to mod and can't add them in the game); her family is originally from Ilsabard and they sent Aoede to Sharlyan so she wouldn't be forced to fight for Garlemald. She writes letters to them regularly, and for most of the story, I figured they were going to be fine because I wasn't really planning for her to have a tragic backstory but. I've gotten to a certain part in endwalker and I really don't think they had a radio. So they might not be okay.

She takes her last name "Labelle" from her guardian in Sharlyan, a middle-aged man named Pascal Labelle, who became a friend of her family when he worked as a gleaner before he became an archon (he's another oc of mine! he's just a nice dude). Pascal basically raised her for a good portion of her life and they have a father-daughter relationship, so she decided to primarily use his family name. Her full last name is Aoede Labelle-Lhellhethi, or Aoede Labelle for short. Her field of study is horticulture, with a specific emphasis on farming in unideal environments, such as places with poor soil or that are constantly snowing.

She took up the sword so she could protect herself while traveling, she never really learned how to use magic so instead focused on swordplay and eventually learning how to use a gun.

Generally speaking, she's a very kind-hearted person who trusts others too easily. She'll go along with almost anything if she thinks the person suggesting it has good intentions, which is sort of how she became a scion. She's naturally a very quiet person with an intense gaze and when she does speak she normally shares her opinion without thinking of the consequences. Aoede also rushes into things head first; she's the kind of person who tries to help others even when it costs her dearly. She becomes much more cautious and to a degree pessimistic after the events of ARR, but her mental health improves slowly throughout the other expansions, even though it does get worse for a while after several events. Out of the scions, she gets along best with Minfilia, G'raha, Krile, Alphinaud, and Alisae. She gets along well with the others, but she doesn't really mesh well with Thancred at times (she just doesn't know how to talk to him and he doesn't really talk to her much, they don't dislike each other).

There's a good bit more but this has already gotten pretty long! I don't think I explained her personality as well as I would have liked, but it's fine. Thank you for asking about her, I love her dearly and one day I hope I can commission some artwork of her.

also I have another ffxiv oc named Deimne Vervloet, his backstory is very very much a work in progress. the only thing I can say for certain is that he's a viera

[scrambledeggsforella]

Exhibit X Darcy Baker Andy Gayle Tyler Moletta c/o R. R. Music Management New York, NY. Ella Carmichael Lucas, KS.

Tuesday August 29th, 2006. Hello Exhibit X,

My name is Ella Carmichael. I am seventeen years old, and a senior at Lincoln High School in Kansas. By the time you receive this letter, you will have probably already received a letter from my baby brother, Elliot Carmichael, and his best friend James "Bruiser" Laframboise. They went to our local library yesterday after school to find your mailing address and type it up and then went directly to the post office, so I'm drafting my own letter under the assumption that theirs has likely already begun its journey to New York City via the U.S. Postal Service and will arrive before mine.

I'm writing to you to provide the context that I know my brother's letter lacks. I want to tell you how much your band's music really means to him, because it means a great deal. I hope I will be able to accurately do justice to his feelings in this brief summary and explanation.

We live in Kansas with our dad, mum, and younger sister who is just a baby. Before she was born, when I was small, we also lived in New York City, in the Bronx specifically. Our mum grew up there. Our dad worked in the rail yards until Elliot became extremely ill as a newborn due to our living conditions, and our parents made the difficult decision to move as far away as possible from everything they'd ever known. My brother survived, though his growth was ultimately stunted by the severity of his illness and other health troubles persisted, including asthma and type 1 diabetes.

Your band's music has filled our house for years. It has been a constant source of happiness and strength for my brother. There were many days when we were young that he was too sick to go to school. On those days, he couldn't do much but lie on the couch in our family's living room with the nebulizer, where we kept the television on for him. I remember him watching your music videos, learning all the parts. While his struggles were influencing my interest in pursuing medical studies, you were inspiring him creatively. Eventually, our parents bought him a drum set and a guitar, both of which he taught himself to play.

If you write back to Elliot, please don't tell him that I sent you this letter. He has too much pride to admit any weakness to his heroes. It is the sort of pride that develops from having been very sick from a very young age for a very long time. He has earned every right to that pride and I would never want anyone to crush it. I just needed you to know what he would never tell you otherwise. He knows every single one of your songs and our entire family has come to enjoy your music because of what it means to Elliot. He is not your biggest fan in stature, but I swear he is your biggest fan by heart.

Thank you in advance for taking the time to read this letter. If your mail is forwarded to you, I hope the international leg of your world tour is going well. If your mail is not forwarded to you, then I hope the international leg of your tour went well. I'm sure my brother told you in his own letter that he would like to see Exhibit X play in Kansas someday. I will close my letter by echoing that sentiment. There are no music venues here in Lucas, but we would drive him anywhere if it meant he would get to hear your music live. Sincerely, Ella Carmichael

[bethanydelleman]

A Full Defense of Lydia Bennet

Lydia Bennet is not a villain, but she gets a lot of hate for carelessly running off with Wickham and possibly ruining her sister’s lives. The narrator and characters, however, do not blame Lydia very much and I don’t think the author meant for us to hate her. She was failed by her parents, who did not teach her how to properly behave and did not ensure she was properly protected.

Obviously, the real villain is Wickham.

The most vicious takedown of Lydia is put in the mouth (letter) of a character we should not respect, Mr. Collins. We already know that his morality is skewed, as he seems to view the collection of tithes and sucking up to Lady Catherine as his primary duties, he writes this of Lydia, “I am inclined to think that her own disposition must be naturally bad, or she could not be guilty of such an enormity, at so early an age.” (Ch 48). However, even he mentions the real cause, “a faulty degree of indulgence”.

Elizabeth feels this cause strongly, and lays out a good argument for her father on why Lydia should not go to Brighton, “She represented to him all the improprieties of Lydia’s general behaviour, the little advantage she could derive from the friendship of such a woman as Mrs. Forster, and the probability of her being yet more imprudent with such a companion at Brighton, where the temptations must be greater than at home.” (Ch 41). Mr. Bennet dismisses all these great arguments because he is too lazy to deal with Lydia’s disappointment. He’s been a lazy parent and continues to be.

Mr. Bennet then takes on the responsibility for what happened, ““Who should suffer but myself? It has been my own doing, and I ought to feel it… No, Lizzy, let me once in my life feel how much I have been to blame.” (Ch 50). Lydia has been allowed to run around flirting with officers for months, without any check on her conduct. She does not act within the rules of society, and while Elizabeth and Jane have tried to correct her, Lydia knew they had no real authority. She needed parents and neither of them did their duty. 

Mr. Bennet also acknowledges that he failed his daughters by not saving money for their future provision, “Had he done his duty in that respect” (Ch 50).

Mrs. Bennet shares this guilt, little as she will accept it: Mrs. Bennet, to whose apartment they all repaired, after a few minutes’ conversation together, received them exactly as might be expected; with tears and lamentations of regret, invectives against the villainous conduct of Wickham, and complaints of her own sufferings and ill-usage; blaming everybody but the person to whose ill-judging indulgence the errors of her daughter must principally be owing. (Ch 47)

Lastly, Lydia was failed by Darcy, who talks about his share of the blame here: “Wickham’s worthlessness had not been so well known as to make it impossible for any young woman of character to love or confide in him. He generously imputed the whole to his mistaken pride, and confessed that he had before thought it beneath him to lay his private actions open to the world.” (Ch 52). We see in Sense & Sensibility Elinor asking everyone who knows him about Willoughby’s character. Character references were important, that is how women knew they were safe in a man’s presence. Darcy knew the truth and he left Meryton and the Bennets in danger.

Lydia did make a choice (and certainly the wrong one), but she does not deserve all the blame for what happened. The narrator makes it clear that no one should be surprised by the outcome. Lydia was not taught was what right, she was not taught to control her impulses, and she was put out in the world too young, as Colonel Brandon said in Sense & Sensibility, “But can we wonder that… without a friend to advise or restrain her… she should fall?”

Related posts: Lydia too young to be out, Should Darcy have warned Meryton?

[matthewbaudelaire]

alt text: @zaina-castillo

Dear Z,

I've never been good at words, you know that, so I don't really know what to say to you other than the obvious but it isn't working. I'm trying to be better and to do better. I'm taking inspiration from your favorite book here and writing you this letter. I'm not the Mr. Darcy to your Elizabeth, he probably would have known what to say. guess all I'm saying is that I still have feelings for you. If I don't go about showing it the right way its because I don't really know how. I took medical leave from work cause my health isn't the greatest right now and its putting some things into perspective for me. I'm human and even if its uncomfortable or if it's painful I want to stay human but I also want you and if that's something you can be okay with then its something we can work on together. I just need to take it slow for a while until I figure my shit out. I hope we can start over, really see how things work without rushing into it like we did last time. I miss you. I miss how close we used to be and I want to work on figuring us out.

Yours, Matthew

[anghraine]

emmeranners replied to this post:

I agree with everything else you have in the tags (especially the smiling thing - Darcy was not that somber and brooding in the book!) but may I ask what you disliked about 1995’s handling of the letter? Nothing ever struck me as terribly egregious on that front (except for the part where Lizzy is riding away and Darcy’s disembodied head pops up…seriously wtf was that?)

The disembodied head is hilarious, ngl, and strong agreement about CF’s Darcy being much more somber and brooding than Austen’s. As for the handling of the letter in that adaptation, it’s a bit unusual because, while I do hate it, I also find it very interesting (where I think a lot of the 1995’s choices are boring appeals to generic stereotypes). I was just talking to a friend about this, so it’s fresh in my mind—

In fairness to Davies et al., Darcy’s letter is probably the single most difficult element of P&P to adapt. It’s too essential to his characterization, to Elizabeth’s arc, and to the overall plot to exclude. It is also long and detailed, and instead of snappy dialogue or scenic visuals, we just have Elizabeth reading and re-reading it and evaluating what he’s saying and ultimately having her grand realization in response. This is the turning point of the story and so it’s really important, but it’s not very cinematic.

So I do get the difficulty. On top of that, I think the seeds of the best approach are actually there in the 1995, in which Elizabeth’s reading of the letter is inter-cut with actually showing us the moments Darcy is talking about.

However.

The production makes some very strange choices of what those moments should consist of. It plays up Wickham’s predation on Georgiana through a little flirtation when he’s at Pemberley and she’s ... eleven, I think?? Weird choice. It has Elizabeth remember her family’s worst behavior when he’s talking about it (smart!) and then has her remember it as worse than it really was in those earlier scenes, which is an interesting choice in terms of memory and her character, but I think obscures the point about the effects of their impropriety and the foreshadowing of where it’s going to lead. It shows us Georgiana and Wickham at Ramsgate, but instead of giving Georgiana the agency that Darcy emphasizes in the book, he discovers them on his own.

That is, I do think representing what he’s talking about visually is the right approach to the letter, but the specific choices they made are kind of odd and annoying.

But these are smaller issues. The big one is that, if I recall correctly, the 1995 rearranges the structure of Darcy’s letter, so while it has some of the original wording of the letter, the pacing of it, the change in Darcy’s feelings as he’s writing it, and the final impression get really messed up. 

The thing is, the bitter and resentful opening of Darcy’s letter—while it does include an acceptance of Elizabeth’s refusal and clarification that he’s not going to keep pursuing her—more or less corresponds to the audience’s likely view of Darcy at the time. His tone is haughty as he goes into the explanation of his actions with regard to Jane and Bingley, in which his motivations turn out to be much more complex than Elizabeth assumed, but which is at least something he actually did. His tone gradually softens as he’s writing and his anger burns out, so by the time he gets to the Wickham situation, where he is completely in the right and he and his sister are the real victims, he’s able to explain the truth gently and to end on a note of forgiveness and love.

So Austen structures things so that the letter concludes on a high note for Darcy that Elizabeth later describes as “charity itself.” From this point on, Darcy is on the way up. Everything we find out about him after this will only make him look better.

It’s been a long time since I watched it (I do own it but my discs are scratched), so I could be wrong, but my memory is that the 1995 P&P inverts this structure. Darcy’s first explanation is of the Wickham situation, where he is the most innocent, and having acquired some sympathy by that point, he then goes into the messier explanation of his interference with Jane and Bingley. So the evolution from bitterness, to complicating his motives, to grace where he has the most right to be indignant, is omitted. The powerful final line of the letter (I will only add, God bless you) is omitted, which I think is an absolutely terrible decision for any adaptation, but a natural byproduct of changing the structure.

So yes, it’s a difficult part to adapt and I get that, but I think they made the wrong choice structurally, the flashbacks and such are a good idea executed in dubious ways, and leaving out the end is just flat-out bad.

[joyfulforjane]

This meme humorously illustrates a misinformed conversation between Mr. Bennet and Elizabeth in Volume III, Chapter XV. As Mr. Bennet shares the contents of a letter from Mr. Collins with his favorite daughter, poking fun at its suggestion of Mr. Darcy's affection and potential proposal to Lizzy, the protagonist attempts to share in her father's amusement at his perceived absurdity of the situation. Mr. Bennet remains completely unaware of the harshness of his words, stating that Darcy "never looks at any woman but to see a blemish, and... probably never looked at you in his life!" (Austen 343). These emphatic assertions are crushing to Lizzy, who loves Darcy but remains uncertain of his intentions at this point in the novel. Additionally, having weathered Lady Catherine De Bourgh's harsh accusations and warnings against entering into an engagement with Darcy just prior, Elizabeth is particularly vulnerable to this brand of humor. Austen writes that while "it was necessary to laugh... she rather would have cried" (343).

To some extent, this situation reminds me of an interaction between Mr. Bennet and Kitty in the end of chapter 48, in which Mr. Bennet jokes about isolating Kitty from officers and balls to avoid her winding up like Lydia. Kitty, not as resilient to Mr. Bennet's quips as Lizzy, bursts into tears in response to this (somewhat) joking declaration. Both of these examples demonstrate Mr. Bennet's challenge to exercise limits with his humor. While he attempts to use his jokes about Darcy to express closeness and likeness of mind with Lizzy, he is unaware of the flagrant nature of his comments, as well as his misperception of his daughters feelings. This moment emphasizes Lizzy's vulnerability as navigates her feelings toward Darcy, while also highlighting her father's consistent role of misunderstanding.