#for andrej to not be alone. again.

[mandrake-arya]

I think we're not talking enough about one of the most significative objects of the movie: the De Ville, Goncharov's car.

This car is Goncharov's heart, soul and pride. It was on screen in almost every outside scene of the movie and I found it really important.

It survived almost every fighting scene, avoiding bullets and always shielding Goncharov, granting him to escape, it was his certainity, his most prized possession and his truest ally. Only at the end it exploded, in the iconic scene that leads to the Bridge Scene and then to the ending, predating Goncharov's own death, and the movie makes it very clear that, with the loss of his beloved car, Goncharov officially loses all of his certainities and his anchors, his past and his identity and is now completely alone, heading through his own demise.

The De Ville is Goncharov's pride. It was the first thing he managed to buy in Italy, while the infamous clock was the last he managed to bring from Russia, thanks to the mafia. I think we all remember the iconic flashback of the car's purchase, and Andrej's look in the distance, his hidden smile for having been able to help Goncharov deal with the seller. Also, the car is the symbol of Goncharov's status in the mafia and what makes him immediately recognizable.

His pride was in that car, which he never parted from, and which he never allowed anyone else to drive: that's why it's so relevant the scene of Katya secretly taking the car trying to run away, betraying Goncharov for the first time, and of course, that's why it's so symbolic The Blood SceneTM, when Goncharov finds a bloody Andrej on the street and takes him in the car, saving his life when Andrej was already surrending to death, and staining of blood the white seats. And don't get me started on the Fight scene, when Goncharov and Andrej argue on the street, and Goncharov looks at Andrej for a bit too long, tries to say something but then violently shuts himself and gets in the car, slams the door and drives away, leaving Andrej, and all the feelings and the possibilities left unsaid, along with their last possibility at understanding each other, behind.

And once again, the car gets destroyed only before the Bridge Scene, leaving Goncharov right before Katya's and then Andrej's betrayals: it's Goncharov's rock falling away, leaving him completely alone, without his pride and his status, that leaded him until there, like he was before arriving in Italy. And then, when he's at his lowest, left without anything, lead there by his choices and his moves and his status in the mafia and by his pride and ambition, in that exact moment, the two people that he loved and that loved him - Bc I think Katja and Goncharov loved each other, only not in a romantic way - betray him.

I don't know, maybe it's me, but I find the De Ville being really important in the movie. I think we really should aknowledge it more.

[danjaley]

8 favourite characters

thanks for the tag @nocturnalazure​ !

Share ten different favorite characters from ten different pieces of media, in no particular order, then tag/send to ten people (anon or not).

Feel free to join in, I have cold, tagging people is stressing me out more than usual.

Filifjonka (Moomin series, Tove Jansson). While there are a lot of characters in this series I share attitudes with, I especially identify with this one. The Filifjonka is tidy, cares about family while not being very gregarious by nature, is frequently nervous to the point of totally panicked, but always manages to regain her ground. Then again she’s unexpectedly brave and rebellious or freaks everyone out by saying overly dramatic things (”When will our execution take place?”) In the end she learns to play the mouth-organ, to become a little more like Mumrik, whom I also admire.

Thursday Next (The Eyre Affair (and sequels) Jasper Fforde): Okay, maybe it’s not the character alone, but this is the most brilliant work of (meta) fiction I ever read. I appreciate that Thursday, as the protagonist of a fantasy novel, is over thirty, and I like her matter-of-fact way to deal with the most surreal of situations. As the first person narrator she doesn’t get kitschy or sentimental about her own feelings, and never loses her sense of humour. The whole book manages to be the most hilarious of Jabberwocky and deeply touching at the same time.

Andrej Bolkonsky (War and Peace, Leo Tolstoi): Even at dying he was better than other people! I also relate to the feeling when you’d love to speak to someone on eye-level, but everyone around you is more interested in meaningless small-talk. He did an interesting thing in my head. At the beginning of the novel I imagined him a light blonde, but the more he realized there was no place for him in this world, the darker-haired he grew. Also: That feeling when you’re heartbroken about a book, but nobody understands how you could read War and Peace in the first place. In 2018 I felt that as an expert on the Napoleonic times I ought to tackle it. My mother had bought our copy in order to disapprove of it. I read past her bookmark from 1982. Actually I was surprised how many characters’ storylines, outside the Rostov-Bolkonsky connection, just ran into nowhere. This wouldn’t have happened with Victor Hugo!

Gösta Berling (Gösta Berling, Selma Lagerlöff): Most things he does end in disaster, but in such an incredibly aesthetic way, it’s a delight to read. Also no amount of tragedy stops him from being the coolest historical guy in Sweden.

Desirée Clary / Bernadotte (Desirée, Annemarie Selinko): Again, this is generally one of my favourite books. It follows the (somewhat fictionalized) biography of the first Bernadotte Queen of Sweden and her entanglements with Napoleon Bonaparte. In the course of the novel she goes from a silly teenager to a world-wise adult to a slightly patronizing middle-aged lady, while always staying true to herself. The transition is almost imperceptible. She also speaks the author’s charming Austrian German :)

Leslie May (Rivers of London series, Ben Aaronovitch): My role-model on how to maintain dignity and self-respect in the event of ones face falling off. (This mainly refers to volume 1-3. In volume 4 she changes sides and rarely appears any more. I quit reading it when I realized the series wasn’t working towards a conclusion.)

Walter Blythe (Anne of Green Gables series, Lucy Maud Montgomery): I am rather a fan of the later volumes of Anne actually. Not to say anything about his story being truly heartbreaking, he’s a great example of how to build up a tragic hero while still letting him be a kid. In general I’m deeply fascinated with how the World Wars impacted serial literature for young girls. If I had stayed with history of literature, I would have done research about this.

Alm-Öhi (Heidi, Johann Spiry): Admittedly, as a child I identified more with Heidi herself, but I was always in awe of her grandfather. He reminded me a little bit of my own grandfather. He’s self-reliant and can do anything that needs to be done in their little world. He cares about his family while not being a gregarious person at all. When I was five years old myself, I thought he had lost his son a lifetime ago - but in fact it was less than five years. When I grew older and became a historian I also started noticing his occasional references to his past as a soldier.

[candydripping]

SHANE HINDS.

Where: Shane’s apartment When: Sunday evening Who: @philcscphies​ 

It should have been good seeing Shane again but it just WASN’T. Shane was just another of many ghosts from his past and at this rate, there were too many ghosts for him to keep count but Shane was one that had stuck by. Back then, most things had been a blur and most things Andrej hadn’t give a shit about but he fucking cared about Shane and he knew he’d mostly ruined everything. And now once again, he was ruining everything just by being an asshole. It was a stupid defence mechanism and he hated himself for being this way and he hated himself for getting stupidly drunk at a party and he hated himself for even being at that party because if he wasn’t then he wouldn’t have gone up to Shane and they never would have said the things they said to each other. 

The worst part was how Shane was right. He was a shitty boyfriend and made everything around him turn sour and now his boyfriend was gone and Andrej was alone again and he just wasn’t sure what to do with himself anymore. He was nearly thirty now, he couldn’t keep living like this. So he decided for once in his life he was going to grow the fuck up, buy some flowers and cake and actually apologise. And here he was, outside of Shane’s door, semi-regretting coming over completely sober with how nervous he was but also knowing he needed to prove that he HAD changed and was recovering. The door opened and Andrej begun his spiel before Shane could even get a word in. “Okay, so, I can’t remember what your favourite flowers are because I’m an asshole who didn’t remember that sort of shit back then but I have these for you and some cake I stole from Delia’s -- which may or may not be leftovers but the thought is still there -- and I’m just here because I’m a dick and I’ve been a dick to you and I deserved everything you said to me and I just want you to know that I’m sorry and I know I don’t deserve your forgiveness. But I am, I’m sorry for just ... being me.” He finally paused for a breath, not quite looking at Shane. “And I’m completely sober. Which feels really fucking shit right now, actually.” 

[mariacallous]

Croatian President’s latest political bombshell has shown that late UK PM Harold Wilson’s observation – that ‘a week is a long time in politics’ – is an understatement.

Working as a political risk analyst, I often used to refer to Croatia as “the boring country”, when clients would ask me about its politics and political debates. The last four days have turned that on its head, chiefly thanks to Croatia’s own Trumpian, President Zoran Milanovic

Particularly when compared to the rest of the region, Croatian politics has long been just a little too dull and predictable. The Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, has ruled the country for 26 of the last 33 years since the fall of Communism. If a Croatian citizen woke up in the middle of the night over those years, unsure of who was in power, a guess that it was the HDZ had an 80-per-cent chance of being correct.

Throughout, the HDZ has oscillated and reinvented itself on the political spectrum from modern European centre-right to hard-line populist and revisionist nationalist. Back and forth the pendulum of the party’s internal politics has swung. The HDZ never quite lost its edge to the point of becoming dull, but never quite allowed itself to go overboard to the right.

Meanwhile, the Social Democratic Party, SDP, has had plenty of time to specialise itself as the party of opposition. Ever since the fall of Communism, the HDZ has successfully imposed an inferiority complex on the SDP as the successor to the former Communist party, taunting it for allegedly being “Yugo-Serbo-Communists”. It was the ultimate insult in a country whose politics, as in much of the Balkan Yugosphere, tilt towards the right. Of which, of course, Croatia is officially not part. Under the HDZ’s President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, even referring to Croatia as being part of “THE region” was considered offensive, let alone the “B-word”.

The short-lived SDP-led government of Ivica Racan from 2000 to 2003 had an air of being under siege from the right. It took the international attention-grabbing scandals of the Ivo Sanader years (2003-2009) for the SDP to get another shot at wrestling power from the HDZ, in 2011.

Rise of a ‘Croatian Trump’

It was at this time that Zoran Milanovic – currently engaged in Making Croatian Politics Interesting Again – emerged to the fore. He was perhaps the first post-Communist Prime Minister and leader of the SDP to shake the inferiority complex imposed on the left by the HDZ and rest of the political right. Towards the end of his tenure in power, in 2016, he began to flirt with populism and the right of the political spectrum; a clear sign of what was to come.

After the uncertainty and upheaval of 2016, which saw the emergence of MOST, a political one-hit wonder which briefly threatened to overturn the Croatian two-party political cart, dullness was restored to Croatian politics by Andrej Plenkovic.

A decent, Eurocratic safe pair of hands with little flair, Plenkovic steered the HDZ away from the somewhat barmy conservative nationalism of its previous leader, Tomislav Karamarko, and Croatian politics back to mind-numbing boredom. Minus the odd corruption scandal, from which Plenkovic always somehow managed to remain aloof.

That Croatian politics would not be allowed to die a completely dull death was signalled by Milanovic once again, in late-2019, when he decided to run for President as the SDP-backed candidate against Grabar-Kitarovic, the HDZ-backed candidate. Milanovic defeated her in the second round of the election in 2020 and jumped into the President’s seat.

What many thought was a passing populist phase of Milanovic’s political career during that 2019/2020 campaign proved anything but. Rather than settle into being a largely powerless and ceremonial president, Milanovic behaved like a maverick cowboy who had stormed into the political saloon of Croatian politics, determined to shoot from the hip. His politics was to be a high rollercoaster ride, with the spotlight on him.

Of course, the spotlight was not to be kept on Milanovic using clever, nuanced political ideas of the new (or old) left, but through maverick, populist attention grabbing statements. Nationalism and muscle-flexing were in. COVID masks and lockdowns were rubbish. Milanovic was to build himself as the Croatian Trump.

In the meantime, the SDP – from which he had distanced himself – was struggling from many of the same problems as much of the European left. It had definitely lost any left-wing edge, if it ever had anything of the sort, was afflicted with pale, lacklustre and uncharismatic leaders and was failing to appeal to anyone beyond its core, urban upper and middle-class, educated base. Even worse, many of them were drifting to more authentically left-wing options.

Milanovic Steals the Show

Fast forward to March 2024. Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic decides to dissolve parliament slightly earlier than scheduled and force a slightly earlier election than planned. He’s playing it safe, banking on wrong-footing the opposition. The HDZ may not be doing as well as it was in the polls four years ago, but the SDP and other opposition parties are an even more uninspiring, disorganised, lacklustre and motley crew than ever.

With a hope and a prayer, the HDZ machine might just get enough of its core vote out for the party to cling to power. Hopefully, the combined force of Plenkovic and the SDP could be relied on to bore many of those disillusioned with the HDZ – and who had not yet emigrated further to the west of the EU – into sitting out the election come polling day.

Alas, into this well laid plan rode Milanovic on his presidential horse. True to attention-grabbing form, on March 15 he nailed the election date to the nearest possible date, April 17. A Wednesday! This in and of itself caused shock in a country used to voting on a Sunday. Milanovic will be attention-grabbing Milanovic, thought many, believing that was the end of it.

But the Croatian Trump had plenty more in store. Just hours after setting the election date, Milanovic dropped the political bomb that he would be running for Prime Minister and MP on the SDP list of candidates. And no, he was not planning to resign as President in order to do so.

Serbia’s President, Aleksandar Vucic, must have been rubbing his eyes in disbelief. For a decade, the Serbian opposition has been accusing him of violating the constitution by placing his name on the Serbian Progressive Party’s election list name during parliamentary elections, even though he was not on the list of candidates himself. Who was the nasty, authoritarian dictator now?

Croatian political analysts and voters have been watching in suspended disbelief ever since. On March 18, the Constitutional Court took a very clear stance that, while President, Milanovic could not be a candidate for MP in the parliamentary elections, could not be referred to as the SDP’s candidate for Prime Minister and could not take part in the election campaign. If these points were violated, the court threatened to annul all or part of the election process.

‘Rivers of Justice Will Flow’

Predictably, Milanovic seemed unphased. He referred to the Constitutional Court judges as “illiterate gangsters” and their ruling as a constitutional putsch. Moreover, he advised the SDP leadership to be “cunning” – to formally respect the Constitutional Court’s ruling because the Court could hurt them (presumably, by annulling their election list), but let him do his thing because the Court could not harm him.

In the alternative Trumpian reality rapidly being erected by Milanovic and the SDP, the perfectly sane ruling handed down by the Constitutional Court was the product of HDZ stooges and gangsters sitting on the court. Their goal was to either muzzle the brave and fearless Milanovic, or to force him to resign – and in doing do, clear the way for the HDZ’s Speaker of Parliament to become caretaker president.

No political sucker, Milanovic was not about to allow this to happen. “Rivers of justice will flow,” cried Milanovic, claiming that the corrupt and clientelistic HDZ was about to be swept from power. In the process, he also referenced the name of a song – Rivers of Justice – of legendary Croatian Yugo-rock singer Jura Stublic.

Big gamble for the opposition

The stage is now set for a short, sharp Blitzkrieg electoral campaign, which will be shorter on political substance than ever, but high on fireworks, hyperbole and grandstanding.

Plenkovic and the HDZ will stand for sane, safe, reliable and responsible politics juxtaposed against what the ruling party is referring to as Milanovic’s “mini coup d’etat”.

Meanwhile, Milanovic and the SDP will play the political insurgents – to hell with politeness, let’s get rid of the political pox that is the HDZ.

Paradoxically, it is traditionally the core voters of the HDZ who have been spiritually much closer to loud, insurgent politics than the polite, quiet, respectable SDP voting base. The question is whether voters on the left will actually follow Milanovic and the SDP on the new – and dangerous – path down which they are heading. Some small parties are already abandoning the SDP.

Milanovic is certainly gambling that they will have little option but to stay aboard for the rollercoaster ride, even if it creates serious stomach upheaval for many left-leaning voters. Moreover, in the process, Milanovic hopes to win over uncommitted voters fed up with the political status quo and looking for change. Whatever kind of change.

Further down the road, Milanovic’s strategy seems clear. He has called on voters to vote for the SDP, far-left, or far-right, but to get rid of the HDZ. A grand coalition of the SDP, left and far-right, incredible as it might sound, is what he seems to be angling for.

This would certainly be a revolution in Croatian politics, were it to materialise. If anyone embodies the left and far-right in Croatian politics, it is probably Zoran Milanovic.

It is a big gamble all around. The SDP could, possibly, find itself back in power. If it fails, the party could well disappear completely from the political scene. Milanovic is less likely to go away.

Whatever the outcome, Milanovic has succeeded in at least one thing – Making Croatian Politics Interesting Again.

The question is, will Milanovic provide only a months’ worth of intense political “entertainment” to Croatia and the rest of the region?

Or will this political action spoof potentially turn into a real four-year political nightmare for Croatia, the region and the European Union as a whole, if Croatia’s own version of Donald Trump takes the political reins? Stay tuned. And get your popcorn ready.

[starryshaze]

ALEXANDER FAWCETT.

Even now, Andrej had absolutely no fucking clue how Oliver had managed to persuade Andrej to come back to England. The place was no longer his home anymore so he was never going to permanently move back. In fact, he didn’t want to permanently be ANYWHERE and he’d made that perfectly clear to Oliver. Permanence was boring and apparently the only thing in his life that would be a constant was Oliver considering he couldn’t fucking get rid of him. It had been obvious that he’d eventually persuade Andrej to take a trip back to England, especially considering he hadn’t seen or even contacted his brother or Alexander since he’d run away. It wasn’t as though he could pretend that he didn’t want to see them but he was nervous considering how long it had been and how he’d left them. It was stupid but he was proud of himself for not actually taking anything or having a drink before arriving at Lukas and Alex’s home considering that was what calmed his nerves the best. But he just knew that he couldn’t sit there and tell them he was doing better if he turned up drunk on on something, so he forced himself to focus on Oliver instead to soothe his nerves. Even though Andrej put on his bold and and confident persona when he arrived, he could still feel his hands shaking and feel his stomach doing flips just from being there again. Especially when it was difficult to gauge how Lukas and Alexander really felt when they were all trying to be nice to each other. He could tell Lukas was mad at him, especially considering he’d barely said a word to him since he arrived but he wasn’t sure about Alexander until he finally dragged him off so they could talk alone. 

He liked his and Lukas’ house, it was just perfectly THEM and exactly how he’d imagined it. Covered in books and weird and wacky plants that Lukas had apparently saved and he’d spotted cat toys around the place which meant they must have a cat. It was all so sickenly domestic but Andrej couldn’t ignore the stab of jealousy he felt at the normality. They were both happy and in love with their perfect little jobs and Andrej was just Andrej. Maybe he was happier than he used to be but he wasn’t settled and probably never would be. As he stood there with Alexander, he poked at one of the leaves on a plant and then dropped his gaze. “I didn’t say back there but you look... good. You just have this happy glow about you.” And he could just sense that his magic was much stronger, he wasn’t sure how he could sense that but he just could. “Honestly, it’s slightly sickening.” A small grin appeared on his face then as he finally looked up at Alexander. “Did you drag me here to beat the shit out of me?” 

[sideblogformindtrash]

Ohhhhhh, 🐣 for Haru please!

cw: minor whump; starvation/poverty; parentification; self hatred;

Andrej’s cheeks burned in shame, as he shoved the leftovers of the bread inside his mouth. But he was just so hungry, and once he put his little hands on the food, he didn’t even wait long enough to even feel guilt, let alone process the pain of being hit.

But now he did. Something was sitting on his stomach, and he felt full, but his family hadn’t eaten, too. He didn’t think he could get away with taking another one, when he had already gotten his hands smashed by stealing this one, and the baker would be on edge if he approached again.

So, he sat up in the corner, shoving the snow aside, and hugging his own legs, feeling the guilt eat away at him with as much ferocious as he had eaten the bread.

“Andrej” A little cracked voice called, and he turned around, quickly drying his tears. His brother smiled softly, his eyes sunken in, white hair framing his shoulders. He tried to pretend nothing was wrong, but when his brother opened his arms, Andrej ran up and melted on his arms “Shh, shh. It’s okay. Why are you crying? Were the other kids being mean to you again?”

“No” he sobbed, his little chest moving with hiccups as he curled on brother’s arms “...I… I got a piece of bread and I… I didn’t… I just ate it”

His brother smiles gently, swiping away tears from his eyes.

“That’s great”

“But… But you and- and father and mother-...”

“They should take care of you. Not you take care of them” His brother promised, aching because his little brother was just a child, he should not carry such guilt “Besides, winter is almost over. We’ll all be fine. We’ll make it through”

His brother didn’t stop sobbing, little hands clinging to him because Andrej felt so, so guilty… for having fed himself. He held his hand.

“Why don’t we go for a walk together? Maybe we can find something else?” He offered, the kid nodding sadly and taking his hand, both boys with hair as white as the snow that surrounded them.

[gldnlitskies]

to: shane ( @philcscphies​ ) location: delia’s cafe

GRAYSON

it was one of those rare shifts in which grayson ended up covering for someone who called off and closing up the shop by himself. normally he was closing with someone, most of the time it was andrej, but every so often he got these moments alone at delia’s cafe. for the most part he really didn’t mind the shifts alone as it provided him with a peace he didn’t know he could achieve on his own, but there were times in which that peace was disrupted by his thoughts. it was a rare time in which he could get lost in thought about anything and everything. most of the time his mind raced to andrej, wondering what he could be up to, missing him, but there were times in which it would wander to an old flame. 

for a while that’s what stuck with him. he didn’t care who’s heart he broke because his was nonexistent. in fact, grayson would highly encourage anyone who asked for advice to not get involved romantically with anyone. pretty soon his sarcastic jokes were just a defense mechanism to cover up the hurt he still felt on the inside. until andrej came around and changed everything yet again for grayson. the only problem? he wasn’t the kindhearted guy he used to be in relationships. he self destructs almost constantly with either his temper or just impulsive actions, yet andrej always seems to stick around in the end. they may have been on and off but it felt like it was mainly because of him and his lack of wanting to commit entirely to the other. how could he? there was still so much of him left in the past, despite him trying to deny that. 

to this day, it pained him to think of shane. it took him a very, very long time to recover from that breakup because for grayson it was the first real love he’s ever felt. he wanted a future of everything with shane, the good, the bad, just as long as the two would build it together. dating him was one of the luckiest days of grayson’s life, you probably wouldn’t recognized the grayson he was back then to the one he is today. he was kinder with shane, more vulnerable, and unafraid to give it his all. and then all of that came crashing down one morning, with a ‘goobye’ sticky note, and grayson turned into the bitter asshole he is today. he never once blamed shane for leaving, despite how upset he was with the other, he just blamed himself for it ending. he  hated that he never got closure or even a chance to fight for them but he eventually accepted ‘that was life’.

*RING*

the little bell above the entrance of delia’s cafe rang, which signaled someone had entered the shop, causing grayson to step to the front of the cafe. “oh, sorry, we’re actually....”his voice trails off the moment his eyes land on the new comer, his heart instantly sinking, “...shane?”  for a brief second everything paused for him, the world slowed down, and it felt like he suddenly was heavy weight just ready to fall over at any given second. it was funny the way small towns worked. shane could’ve been living here for a while and unless he frequented where grayson normally hung out chances were he would never see the guy, but there was also a high chance that fate would one day bring them together eventually. then just as quickly as the  heavyweight feeling had come, grayson bounced back. “well, whatever, the cafe is closed. you can go visit the other cafe.” he steps into the backroom again before rolling his eyes at himself, sighing, and stepping back out, “or...i can just get you whatever it is you came here for. can you be quick about it? i’m not really in the mood to be here much longer. it’s been a long day and....i would rather it not drag.”

[shredmytapestry]

AKSEL VARVIK ( HE/HIM ) is a CIS MALE, TWENTY-NINE year old NEUROSURGERY RESIDENT who has been living in Moorbrooke for THREE YEARS. They were born on DECEMBER 10TH and right now, they are currently residing in OAKLEY COURT. It has been said that they look suspiciously like FREDDY CARTER and if they had to choose a song to describe themselves, they would choose CRUEL SUMMER by TAYLOR SWIFT.

tw: child abuse, drug addiction (only mentions)

STATS.

FULL  NAME:  aksel varvik  NICKNAMES: axe AGE: twenty-nine FACECLAIM: freddy carter BIRTHDAY: december 10th ZODIAC: sagittarius GENDER: cis male PRONOUNS: he/him SEXUAL  ORIENTATION:  homosexual BIRTHPLACE:  brumunddal, norway OCCUPATION:  third year neurosurgery resident PETS: a betta fish named fish LOCATION: oakley court, moorbrooke FAMILY: twin brother to andrej varvik 

BIOGRAPHY.

( tw child abuse ) aksel varvik came into a hateful world where he never belonged, but he had his twin with him so things weren’t so bad. their parents were cruel and hateful and the brothers were all alone in their torment. aksel being the elder twin by mere minutes felt it was his job to protect his brother and because of how their parents were, he always failed. their parents had a strong focus on educating the boys to be little geniuses, and that mentality stayed with aksel for the rest of his life. does he enjoy education? no. but will he ever not be a student? highly unlikely. while aksel had toughened up and began to anticipate the path of least resistance, andrej did not. their father picked up andrej more and while he still did not praise aksel, there was more warmth there. after all, they were never meant to be twins, it was only ever meant to be aksel. 

at 13, the varvik’s moved to america and aksel got to attend school with other children for the first time in his life. he had been so excited but quickly began to regret that decision when he saw andrej pulling away from him. andrej had found different friends and he was far more social than aksel was. aksel got left behind and his brother did not make an effort to include him. even though they were only 13 and neither knew any better, aksel’s disdain for his twin started then. there was no one else in the world who would understand what they went through, so why was andrej so keen to leave him? ( tw child abuse end )

as aksel grew up he began to bury his emotions and he was damn good at it. by 16 he had suppressed all of his trauma and continued to focus on school. if he did well in school and never slipped up, then his parents wouldn’t hit him. andrej was on a different path and aksel didn’t understand until his brother was too far gone. he’d let him down again. he could not protect his brother, he never could. the second he comprehended how bad andrej’s drug addiction was getting he began to cover his tracks. he couldn’t save his brother from much but if he could lessen the pain and hide the truth from his parents, he would. this only made their relationship worse because now andrej saw aksel as another person to exploit. then they turned 18, graduated high school and andrej left without a word and without extending the invite to aksel. 

aksel followed his parents’ wishes and began his biology degree. he left the state for university and excelled all throughout. it was now that he began to fall in love with the human brain and how it works. neurosurgery was ever changing and he loved every bit of it. it was such a heavy course load that aksel never had a moment alone to think about his life. his parents paid for his undergrad and then also paid for his medical school. once he landed his residency and he no longer needed his horrific parents’ money, he cut them off. at this time andrej also reached out and told him about moorbrooke. aksel waited to be certain but he made sure to apply to moorbrooke for his residency. his excuse was the stellar neurosurgery wing, but in reality he’s mostly here to have his brother back in his life. 

PERSONALITY.

aksel used to be a very shy and quiet kid. he was heavily dependent on his brother and found it to be very lonely without him. as he grew up ( and got ditched ), he learned to socialise more but always found one or two key people to depend on. this is something that hasn’t changed over the years. he struggles to be by himself, and always needs very close connections. he is loyal and fond of those who understand how he shows love, and especially those who don’t try to change him. 

more to come as i play him!

CONNECTIONS.

on and off boyfriend -- they met when aksel was 22 and starting medical school. either they were both in med school, or not. the details of this connection can be plotted later, the main idea is just that they’ve been on and off for the last 7 years. aksel is very toxic and never talks about his feelings.. he’s probably cheated. just a very angsty relationship

hookups -- could be anyone, he’s never really been picky 

best friends -- people he would 100% die for! one person would definitely be the on/off boyfriend connection, but there could be more. 

[starredscars]

LUKAS VARGA.

When Alexander heard what Lukas had done to Andrej his whole face drained of colour. Finally he had gotten with Lukas and he thought that it could fix everything. With time, he believed Lukas and Andrej would heal their connection. That maybe even James would come back to their group. They could all be happy together and be a strange but content family in a way. Alexander knew Lukas had a lot of anger inside of him. Sometimes it would come bubbling out in the worst ways, but he knew that the anger could be dissolved if Lukas had the proper tools for success. All of his hopes came crashing down the instant that Lukas thought it was a good idea to curse Andrej. Alexander could maybe have understood if it had been for a good reason, but the reason was that Andrej was dating Oliver. For Alexander, this was good news. He had been so worried about Andrej now that James had abandoned them all and Lukas was getting most of Alexander’s time. Who did he have outside of them? Going to see Andrej was difficult for Alexander because he knew Lukas would be pissed at him for going. He delivered some sweets while Andrej was unconscious. He apologised profusely to Oliver who was very much awake for what Lukas had done. Not that apologising to Oliver would fix anything. By the time he was with Lukas again, he had decided they needed to talk. It has hard to do any talking whenever Lukas needed to be held and loved, he needed healing too and it wasn’t like Alexander could hurt him further right now. He didn’t want to destroy their bond by bringing things up. He promised him he still wanted him and that he wasn’t going to leave him.

For the first time, though, Alexander had a darkness in him that kept nagging at him every day. He wasn’t sure how to get rid of it. By the time Andrej was out of the hospital wing he still hadn’t confronted Lukas for what he had done, putting it off another day, another hour. There was something that finally snapped in him while he was with Lukas. The other boy had made an offhanded comment about Andrej and how he was ‘using’ Oliver. Obviously, Alexander had taken plenty of these comments over the last few days, but he just couldn’t take it anymore. They were in his private room, and he knew this was the only place he could get away with losing his temper. “Stop doing that,” Alexander finally snapped, turning to face Lukas. “Stop pretending like what you did was okay. That it even has any reason to have happened. Oliver of all people is someone who I very much doubt could be used, especially by someone like Andrej. Not everything he does is a fucking plan of attack against you and I am tired of you acting like it is whenever you know that he is one of my best friends. You saying this things is already out of line, let alone what you did to him. You should never, EVER, use that spell on someone. And you used it on your own twin who, despite everything, just wants to be loved by you for once.”

[furiousfinnstan]

its just!ive been lonely since forever but ive never been alone like THIS,not to go back to early days of covid again but oh my god the fear the terror of my parents just not giving a shit,my f*ther still going outside whenever he fucking wanted,of my ex friends still socializing like its “no big deal andrej u are freaking out for no reason”,ive always been lonely or alone but ive had some sorta hope for people now idk idk it trully is day by day type of thing and im trying to keep these last few irl friendships and this girl i used to hang out asked to text me and i just-

[eva-sumah]

Taika Waititi

Dobva sm challenge, da pišem o Taiku Waititi, v 3000 znakih. So let the challenge begin. Where do I initially know him from? Thor Ragnarok. One of my favourite comfort movies. God I can't imagine it brez Taike, probably bi biu spet nek gray poster pa Lokijev potencial bi biu na tridesetih procentih ne pa na osemdesetih tko je v Ragnaroku, yes i still think, da še niti enkrat v mcu niso pokazali Lokijevih true powers...mogoč v 4 epizodi serije pa še tam so ludje tk »DiD hE hAvE a PoWEr StoNe oN HiM?« like bitch no hes just powerful. Pač Taika je res Lokija tk še bol funnier naredo k je ž itak v Thor: The Dark World amazing, sam this movie je tk just amazing. Da ne govorim o Korgu, man that character, a feel like je biu a lil drunk ko ga je napiso but we all love his drunk ideas haha. Ok mogoč ne tsta ideja iz Jojo Rabbit, da se otrok zabije v noge od obešene osebe pa pogleda kdo je pa je njegova mama, Taika I still hate u for that it traumatized me in I will forever unrecommend that movie to anyone who asks, yes zarad tstega enga scena..drgač je kr good film pa good humor and vse but that scene still haunts me par let poznej:)

Če bi me vprašu if I think a je Taika Waititi hot ti actually ne bi znava odgovorit, pač obstajajo slike kjer je insanelly hot pač his curly hair, pretty eyes, pretty face, attractive beard,..in pol so tam tut slike kjer zgleda...um kinda not that hot je vse kar bom rekva haha

I cannot comprehand kk fakin talented je tt moški pač tk howww I just wanna meet him, pa be his friend pa myb lover, če bi za mne pustu Rito Oro, pač wtf od kda sta ona dva sploh skop to daje ful vibe »when two worlds collide«. Par dni nazaj sm delava tiktok »slovenci s katerimi bi se počutla safe alone in a room«, ko bom naredva to za global ppl bo on one of them for sure kr daje tak cudlly loving uplifting vibe in tk mislim, da sploh ne bi mogva bt sad v njegovi bližini. Tk pa če bi slučajno bva sad bi me with his sense of humor make me smile v roku 5 sekund v roku naslednjih 5 sekund bi se pa že jokava od smeha zelo možno.

I googled him a little zdaj in im in shock. Kot prvo on ma tri otroke? I'm sorry WHAT? But like the names of them so pa še trikrat bol shocking. Našva sm dva od treh in let me name them: Matewa Kiritapu in Te Hinekāhu, um yeah sure zdaj se vsaj ne počutim več tk bad ko je mojmu bratu ime Andrej haha.

Googling him some more sm našva, da ma Oskarja (za not my fav movie of his) in I'm truly not suprised pač ne morem zadojst poudarit kk talented je in sm res happy, da I live in same lifetime as he. Talking o nagradah...človek ma Grammya? Thats so unexpected haha, pač pr Oskarju res nism bva suprised tu sem pa a lttle.

Js bom šva zdaj ko končam gledam Free Guy kr sm od dveh različnih oseb v roku več kot enga leta slišava, da je film zelo dober in zdaj če že pišem o Taiku (god js še zdaj ne vem kk naj sklanjam njegovo ime pa sm meva ž par pogovorov o tem, med njimi tudi z profesorco slovenščine but I'm still kinda lost haha). Mnda Taika igra annoying character in it sam pač he's in it thats gonna be enough.

Another google found that shocked me: človek je biu pr dveh projektih v katerih je sodelovav uncredited in to sta Doctor Strange in Moana. Pr Moani je napisu friking initial screenplay, ampak they still decided not to credit him... thats fucking rude. Pr Doctor Stangu je pa napisu pa directu mid – credists scene, pač ok sj je mid – credits scene, ampak je še zmern deu filma in I personally think, da bi si to zaslužvo bt credited for but like anyWAYS

Fun fact about him ko je mn fun je, da je directu 42 commercials...that's a lot. Med nagradam prej sm tut pozabva omenit neki kr precej kul, človek je biu nominated for 27 različnih awards pač thats again tk a lot.

To end this spis yes vlk sm razlagava o tmu k intelligent je tt človek, ampak on me ni očaru with his brain. Očaru me je z njegovim smislom za humor, z njegovimi zelo nalezljivimi good vibes, ki jih oddaja in pač his face je also zelo hot na trenutke:)

[rallamajoop]

The Witcher: The Games vs the Books part 2 – Characters and Accents

So, I've already talked at length about the relationship between the Witcher books and games, but how well they captured individual characters is its whole own subject – and you’d better believe I have enough thoughts on it for a whole extra post.

Andrej Sapkowski's skill for creating vivid and engaging characters really is so much of what brings the books to life, and no matter how much work an adaptation might put into worldbuilding and plot, it's the characters you've really got to nail to get the long-time fans on board. Especially when you’ve done what the games have, framing themselves as a direct continuation of Sapkowski's story. Nothing invites comparison to your source material like basically forcing fans to read the original novels to understand even half the backstory alluded to in-game. 

So how did they do? I can only offer my opinion – characterisation is necessarily going to be a lot more subjective than just telling you what plot points the games contradicted outright – but like any fan, I have opinions in plenty.

Of the main cast, I feel Yennefer is the character they've captured the best. They've done just as well with some supporting players – I have no real complaints about Dijkstra or Phillipa, for example, who are favourites of mine in both games and books. For the main players though, Geralt and Regis seem to be the ones who's differences I'm most inclined to forgive, whereas I don't feel like they've done Ciri justice at all. Book!Geralt is much less of a smartarse, for one thing, whereas Book!Ciri is much more of one. But if we're talking about the differences, I’m afraid we really need to start with Dandelion.

Dandelion

For all the genuinely good work the games do with characters, old and new, I don't think I can overstate what a disservice the they've done Dandelion, who I could not stand in TW3, but is now one of my favourite book!verse characters. Alas, Dandelion is a prime example of something the Witcher games really don't do well: camp. Being the archtypical bard, Dandelion is about as flamboyant as any enthusiastically-heterosexual man can be: you should be able to spot this guy by body language alone, he should be flouncing around and he should talk like a spoiled noble auditioning for Shakespeare. Book!Dandelion is over-the-top and ridiculous and just so much fun, and I loved him well before I'd even really gotten into the rest of the books around him.

Here's just a bit of dialogue from one of his first appearances, to give you a sense of how he and Geralt play off each other.

The  bard  seized  the  fingerboard  of  his  lute  and  plucked  the strings vigorously. ‘How would you prefer it, in verse or in normal speech?’ ‘Normal speech.’ ‘As you please,’ Dandelion said, not putting his lute down. ‘Listen then, noble  gentlemen,  to  what occurred  a  week  ago  near  the  free  town  of Barefield. ‘Twas thus, that at the crack of dawn, when the rising sun had barely tinged pink the shrouds of mist hanging pendent above the meadows—’ ‘It was supposed to be normal speech,’ Geralt reminded him. ‘Isn’t it? Very well, very well. I understand. Concise, without metaphors. A dragon alighted on the pastures outside Barefield.’

Though TW3's Dandelion certainly looks the part, you have to go hunting through art from the Gwent cards to find much that comes close to really capturing his personality (see left pic below – though even there, a Dandelion who'd voluntarily break his treasured lute is a very hard sell). Though a lot of fanart does better (right-below – credit goes to Tatiana Ortaliz).

But as poorly as the games capture his flamboyance, they're not that much better when it comes to taking him seriously. TW3 left me thinking he was all talk and no substance; the books make abundantly clear that he really is renowned enough to be welcome in courts across the continent. Though he often overestimates what he can talk himself out of, he isn’t stupid either: he's lectured at Oxenfurt, spied for Dijkstra, and then there are the moments where the frivolous playboy mask slips and you realise he's sometimes much better at understanding people and relationships than Geralt will ever be (which is honestly kind of funny considering how many of Dandelion’s relationships end with plates being thrown at him from an upper story). He's not at all above mocking Geralt when he deserves it either (and especially his personal and relationship issues) – Geralt will happily mock him right back.

We never do learn how they became friends (I'm pretty sure the incident listed in the wiki is just the date of their first expedition together, not their first meeting), but Geralt just doesn't form lasting friendships or romances with anyone he can't have an intelligent conversation with. And Dandelion is a damn good friend to Geralt – one who, despite being a helpless, squishy little bard, will keep Geralt's secrets under torture, or will follow him into Nilfgaard in the middle of a war simply because you don't let a friend make a trip like that alone. (Seriously, I don’t ship it nearly as much as some, but hot damn there is some material in here if you do.) In short, it's basically inconceivable that he'd leave an amnesic Geralt wandering around Vizima alone, as he does in the first Witcher game – which is the kind of thing I can mostly forgive as a gameplay conceit, only it doesn’t really get better from there.

He’s also supposed to be blond, something I don’t think is technically specified until fairly late in the novels, but 100% what I’d been picturing since his first description as a man in a colourful bonnet with cornflower-blue eyes (let’s face it: Dandelion’s hair isn’t the only thing about him that screams ‘blond’). It’s a shame no-one from the games to the show to the novels’ cover artists seem to have noticed – but at least there are some fanartists out there who were paying attention (credit for these goes to Asphaloth, Ghostcupdraws, Hvit-ravn (tumblr deleted), 94355 and itsmespicaa).

As for the games? Well, I cannot speak to how Dandelion came across in the original Polish, but I think it speaks worlds about the priorities of the English version that they didn’t even bother to cast someone with a halfway-decent singing voice as their master bard. There are isolated moments of dialogue that come close to sounding like book!Dandelion– mostly in Witcher 2, which comes closer to capturing the spirit of the books than either 1 or 3, or his attempts to convince his captor he's a disguised noble when you rescue him TW3 – but his voice actor is just painfully ill-suited to the role.

Geralt

Geralt fares much better than Dandelion, though he’s still a little hard to square with the Geralt of the books. Book!Geralt spends a lot more time sulking, just to begin with: he sulks because his job is complicated and gets him no respect, and because the world is unjust and unfair – and, most of all, he sulks because Yennefer has dumped him again. He also gets mocked for sulking, and usually deserves it. Book!Geralt is generally a lot more taciturn and a less prone to making smart comments just to have something to say – arguably because in book!Geralt's world, making smart comments often ends at the gallows, or at least with some corrupt official making your life much harder. Book!Geralt's world kind of sucks, and he's just got to put up with it.

As much as he often plays into the expectations of being an uneducated monster hunter, he's also got a more of an intellectual streak than you’d guess. He may prefer to stay out of politics (because damnit, his job is to save people from monsters, not people who are monsters), but he attended school at Nenneke's temple and has even taken classes at Oxenfurt academy, and there's a lot of thoughtful nuance to his opinions – his speech to Ciri about why he can't in good conscience take a stronger stance against the Scoiata'el contains a wealth of historical perspective, just for one example. Even his smart comments tend to be, well, somewhat smarter in the books.

Book!Geralt’s explicitly a lot younger than Yennefer – around 50 is the usual estimate, falling far short of the 100-ish the games suggest (the scandal of having a man fall for – gasp! – an older woman clearly didn’t bother Sapkowski one bit). You don’t see nearly as much "I'm getting too old for this" from book!Geralt, who's really not that old by witcher standards, and is apparently still hunting monsters long into his future. I'm also a little annoyed by the way they play off his hatred of portals like he's a grumpy old man who doesn't like mobile phones, when his distrust originally came from having seen the gruesome deaths that result when portals go wrong. This is not to say Book!Geralt lacks other ordinary human flaws, however – twice in the last two books of the main saga, he gets severely sidetracked after his ego gets the better of him (in the adulation he receives after being knighted, then after arriving in Toussaint), and it's quite some time before he properly gets back on track for that whole rescuing-Ciri thing again. He’s also pretty hopeless when it comes to romance and relationships – breaking things off gracefully is really not in his skillset.

So why does game!Geralt not bother me more? Well, he's the main player character of a game franchise, and one who has to carry the experience largely solo. Some adjustments for genre are pretty much inevitable in that position. He's certainly fared better than Meve, for example, who's been softened far more from her book characterisation for her PC role in Thronebreaker. Then there's the whole amnesia thing – it's easy to believe that sort of experience would change a man – and if he doesn't sulk so much as he used to, maybe he's grown up a bit. Geralt's also in many ways the straight-man of Sapkowski's Witcher universe – there largely as the reliable centre for other, louder personalities to play off. But I expect the real bottom line here is that I do still like game!Geralt enough to forgive him a lot of what he lacks.

The books never do describe Geralt as being very attractive – something book-based fanart often tries to reflect. The point has been made before that the rather-alien-looking Geralt of the first game (left pic above) is probably a lot closer to his book-description. However, the main distinguishing factor you’ll see in book-based fanart is probably the ubiquitous headband, which genuinely is what book!Geralt wears to make his hair behave (the example on the right above comes from Diana Novich).

All that said, if Sapkowski really wants me to believe that nearly so many women are eager to jump into bed with him, I’m going to have to shallowly assume our witnesses are unreliable on this front, and Geralt is at least as attractive as Witcher 3′s take on him. Nothing else makes sense. *g*

Regis

Regis varies mostly in that book!Regis is a lot more smug, sometimes verging on obnoxious – and a lot keener to make fun of Geralt (who generally deserves it). But then, Regis is old and wise and superpowered enough to dance rings around most everyone else – can you blame him? By Blood and Wine, Regis' overconfidence has been recently smacked down hard after his near-death-experience at the hands of Vilgefortz, and that kind of thing could knock some chips off anyone's shoulder. Throw in the fact that with Dettlaff, we have a situation not even Regis could make light of, and the changes to game!Regis make a certain amount of sense.

I do feel it's a bit of a shame that the vocal direction didn't work just a little bit harder to capture some of Regis' smugger side, or emphasise that his long-winded philosophising on human behaviour is supposed to sound a bit pretentious. This is actually something I suspect they were going for a few times in the script, but which didn't come through in the dialogue quite the way it was meant to. Still, again, I'm sure I'm biased by the fact that I like game!Regis far too much to find much fault in what they've done with him. They've done a lovely job capturing his friendship with Geralt too.

Looks-wise, there's a tendency in book-based art to portray Regis with long hair (even some pre-Blood-and-Wine Gwent art did so – see the two pics on the left above, from Gwent and early B&W concepts. The right-most pic is cover art from the books). I couldn't rightly tell you where long-haired-Regis comes from, though – perhaps it's described more explicitly in the original Polish, or perhaps it comes up in passing in some passage I've forgotten, though it may just as well just be a fannish meme.

The books do describe him as looking rather like a tax collector, slim, middle-aged, with an aquiline nose, prone to wearing black, and his hair as 'greying' or 'grey streaked', so presumably somewhat younger-looking than the game would have it. The hammer-horror-esque sideburns are likewise a game-verse addition, though I do like the look they went with – it's distinct from Geralt in a way that making him another long-grey-haired man wouldn't have been, and that's probably the point.

Being the hopeless Regis fan I am, I have quite the folder full of different fanart takes on book!Regis, so have a selection – art here is by gellihana-art, justanor, greysmartwolf, Nastyaskaya, NatalyLanier, beidak, natalliel, ellaine and afternoon63. For what it’s worth, I feel beidak’s (bottom pic, second from the left) comes the closest to what I’d have pictured personally, based on how he’s first described.

Ciri

I find it much harder to rationalise the changes to game!Ciri, who I didn't exactly dislike, but found stuck too close to the role of generic-macguffin-girl-who-just-wants-to-be-normal to be very interesting. Having read the books, not only do I much prefer book!Ciri, I'm not sure I can emphasize enough how much the game did NOT prepare me for utter gauntlet of whump and misery that girl survives in the last four titles. Book!Ciri is a character who works for me mostly because of the same flaws the game mostly strips her free of – TW3 makes some token noise about how you can't tell her what to do, but she’s an utter little royal brat when we first meet book!Ciri, and it’s so much of what brings her to life. She throws herself into her witcher training with the enthusiasm of a kid going completely native, but still revels in getting to be girly for a change when Triss first arrives at Kaer Morhen. She hates Yennefer at first, but soon bonds with her just as strongly as she ever did with Geralt, picking up some of Yennfer’s haughty mannerisms along the way. And then she gets thrown through a portal and lost in the distant wilderness, and the whole world comes down on her head.

The build up to the first time Ciri actually has to kill someone is intense... and things only get worse from there. Steadily. For another couple of novels at a stretch. Seriously, a major caveat that pretty much has to go into any rec for these books (and I will absolutely rec these books) is that Ciri's story gets heavy. So heavy one finds oneself using phrases like, "that time that one guy died of his wounds on top of her while semi-consensually feeling her up was honestly one of the less traumatic incidents in the period."

By the end of the novels, Ciri has nearly died of thirst, been beaten, tied up, dragged around the country as a prisoner, run with bandits and killed innocent people for the fun of it, done fantasy-cocaine and got a tattoo, fought off more than one attempted rape, been drugged, lain for multiple nights next to an impotent elf who completely fails to impregnate her, watched the bodies of her friends and girlfriend being mutilated in front of her, and did I mention where she got that scar? She has survived hell, and it is absolutely a testament to her own strength that she somehow comes through it and puts herself back together at the end. When Geralt finally arrives to rescue her, what matters most isn't that her ordeal is over, but that she finally knows she hasn’t been abandoned by everyone who’d ever loved her after all.

The Ciri of the books is fierce and wild and arrogant, but she's learned her morals from the best, and she holds onto them until she can't, then picks them back up again when she can, and above all she survives. For all that her story turns arguably too much of the last two books into a slog of misery, oh boy does it pay off at the end. And that's probably about as much as I can say about her Big Moment in the last book without spoiling too much, so suffice to say that by the end of the saga, Geralt has pretty much become a supporting character in Ciri's story, not the other way around. (Seriously, you’d be surprised how few chapters of the last two books he’s actually in.)

Finding art which captures the aspects of Ciri’s character and history which are missing from the game has turned out to be pretty hard, though the fanart above from her bandit phase takes a decent crack at it (credit to Loles Romero and NastyaSkaya). I do rather like that one shot of her on horseback beside her girlfriend too, which comes from Denis Gordeev’s illustrations for the novels (below).

How much of this does TW3 get across with her portrayal in the game? Well, she's still pretty headstrong, I guess. And they let you give a 'sorry, I like girls' answer in one bit of dialogue, so they remembered her girlfriend existed. That's nice. But game!Ciri still has a kind of wide-eyed innocence that book!Ciri lost years ago, while book!Ciri is a little force of nature in ways the games hardly even hint at, and that's a really shameful loss.

You'd think, with a character so young, it ought to be easier to imagine she's simply grown up since we saw her last, but so much of what's changed about Ciri feels like a step back rather than forwards. I can shrug off Geralt and Regis' differences and still enjoy their game-verse-selves, but Ciri leaves me genuinely disappointed.

I’d say the official art that comes closest to capturing book!Ciri is that one portrait of her as a very grumpy young child (right above). Some of the early concept art (left above) feels a little more like it has her attitude, though she’s rather too yellow-blonde – not to mention too pretty. I think it also bears pointing out that Ciri isn’t really supposed to be the kind of beauty she is in the game – even before she gets what’s meant to be a seriously ugly and disfiguring scar. (Fanart below by justanor and bobolip)

But of course, the male gamer fanbase can’t be expected to give a fuck about a girl they wouldn’t want to fuck, so game!Ciri must be generically gorgeous. Le sigh.

Triss

I suppose I should at least touch on Triss, too, though she's a very odd case. She's so out of character in the first Witcher game that I am wryly amused that the biggest thing they arguably do get right is that taking advantage of Geralt the moment he showed up with amnesia is... pretty well in-character for her (look, I gotta be honest here, I'm not much of a fan of Triss in any of her incarnations).

The second game does a much better job with her – she actually feels like book!Triss, she has some good dialogue, we're finally dealing with some of her conflicted loyalties to the Lodge and to Geralt – though by the third, her characterisation has been so softened into “the nice one” that none of that potentially meaty conflict is ever resolved, or even really mentioned. Perhaps there's more buried in the Triss-romance path, which I've never bothered with, but the writers seem to have just given up on dealing with anything that might make her look less than wholly sympathetic. Heck, we hardly even get a clear statement about why she and Geralt broke up between Witchers 2 and 3.

Even speaking as such a not-a-fan of Triss, I promise there is more they could've done with the character the books give us. There's her ongoing trauma in from the Battle of Sodden, where she was injured so badly she was memorialised as one the dead: the 14th of the hill. There's her furious impatience with the neutrality of both the witchers and the Lodge: Triss has fought and died for a cause, and is ready to do so again. The second game sort of gets into this, but by and large, the games really aren't up to tackling the moral complexity of having such a theoretically-sympathetic character as Triss, who was still broadly willing to go along with the Lodge's plans to pair Ciri off and get her pregnant as soon as possible – her own wishes be damned. No, instead, Triss has conveniently left the Lodge before the rest of them go spiraling into abject villainy in the second game, clearing all that messy grey stuff out of the conflict.

Of course, the really big unresolved plot point still hanging over book!Triss is how badly she needs to terms with the fact Geralt's just Not That Into Her, and never has been – but since the games want Triss to be a serious romantic option, that's definitely not getting the resolution it could've used.

Book!Triss also pointedly avoids any outfit with a plunging neckline because her chest is covered with the ugly scars she received in the Battle of Sodden, something the games did not have the guts to reproduce. In a more confusing note, the books do consistently describe her hair as 'chestnut', which we'd usually think of as meaning 'brown' – though it turns out the games actually may not have been wrong to make her a redhead, since in Poland 'chestnut hair' apparently mean dark red hair (google some pictures of actual chestnuts, and you'll see why). Still, the firy-red-haired Triss of TW3 who wears nothing but plunging necklines remains a bit of a stretch, however you slice it. Once again, TW2 gets her best (and I must say, gave her the nicest outfit) – though even here she's conspicuously unscarred in all her sex scenes.

(Leftmost pic above is official Witcher 2 art, whereas Triss-with-scars fanart comes to us – once again – from nastyaskaya)

Shani

Shani sort of falls into a similar category as Triss as someone who isn't terribly well-served by any of her appearances, given that both exist in the first game largely to compete for Geralt's attentions. But I can't honestly say I find Shani’s portrayal in the Hearts of Stone expansion to be much better – the degree to which either version exists solely to fall all over Geralt is a bit painful, especially given that their relationship in the books is limited to a single, undramatic hook-up. Book!Shani really only appears in a couple of chapters: we meet her as a medical student friend of Dandelion's, who's been surreptitiously selling pilfered university supplies to fund her degree, then later see her again in the final book, where she proves herself as a battlefield medic during the climactic Battle of Brenna. She's pragmatic to a fault, and I really can't see her as the type who needs Geralt to point out to her that her patient is dead, for example, or who'd subject a guy with Geralt's problems to such an extended feelings-dump as you'll get out of her during the wedding.

Shani is a reasonably logical book-character to bring back, if only because she’s one of those who explicitly survives the ending, but for my money, "serious contender for Geralt's affections" is just not a role she works in.

Anna Henrietta

The duchess of Toussaint, Anna Henrietta, is another case who differs more from her book counterpart than you might think. In the books, the duchess is by far the least competent of the (pleasantly many and) various female leaders and rulers we meet – she comes across as rather young and naive, and every bit as absurd as everyone else in the ridiculous fairy-tale duchy she rules. She is, for example, most displeased to learn that Nilfgaard's war against the north is ongoing (something her courtiers have carefully avoided mentioning in her presence), because she'd long since sent the Emperor a stern note demanding he brought it to an end. She promptly has one of her ministers sent to the tower for misinforming her, and demands the others prepare an even sterner note for the emperor, which will surely do the job.

After Dandelion (inevitably) cheats on her, she has him repeatedly sent to the gallows, only to change her mind and send him a reprieve at the very last minute each time. Picture yourself a much younger and prettier version of the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, and you've about got her general vibe.

Blood and Wine sort of waves at this part of her character when she first speaks about Dandelion, and again in suggesting there's a widespread feeling she lacks compassion, and once more as she proves utterly immovable on the subject of her sister. But the generally sensible and insightful woman you deal with for most of the main story is a far cry from her book-verse characterisation. That’s a bit of a shame, because I feel like there's a lot more they could have done to blend the two versions of her. Still, it’s hard to argue the duchess we get suits the story being told around her.

Other characters

Much as I love Yennefer, Dijkstra and Phillipa, I don't really have much more to say about them because I feel the games have done such a good job. The Yennefer of the books gets to show a lot more depth and complexity simply because she has more scenes and more space in which to do so, but when ‘there isn’t more of her’ is your biggest complaint, the game is officially doing pretty well. I could certainly gripe her about how “dresses in black and white” seems to have been taken as “dresses in black with maybe a trace of white trim”, or how Yennefer and Triss seem to be the only sorceresses in the world capable of wearing pants, when Phillipa (just for one) is in sensible men’s clothing the very first time we meet her, but that’s getting into serious nitpicking territory.

(Not that Yen can’t look amazing in outfits with more white – art by Emily Caroll, theclashofqueens, BarbaraRosiak, and cosplay by greatqueenlina)

Vesimir, Lambert and Eskel, Geralt's fellow witchers from the School of the Wolf, fall into a similar category for me – though we spend far less time with them in the books, everything we see of them in the games feels like a fairly logical extension of their book-roles. Vesimir is somewhat over-played as the old fogey, and his death is painfully cliched, but the impact on the characters and Kaer Morhen still hits home – and the games do some especially great work expanding Lambert into a much more complex character. To my mind, the only shame is that more of the book-original characters didn't get the same treatment.

Who have I missed? There's Avallac'h, of course, but I think I've got him pretty well covered by that last post. Zoltan, perhaps inevitably, has had his personality largely flattened into 'generic dwarf', with nothing better to do than hang around Geralt and Dandelion. You wouldn't know Book!Zoltan was apparently incapable of turning away women and children in need, for example – even human women and children with the chronic inability to say thankyou for his help. Or that he eventually admits to Geralt that the luggage he and his friends are carrying comes from a decidedly unsavoury source for such a supposedly charitable, upstanding guy. Yes, even Zoltan gets to be a morally complicated character in the books – who knew?

Speaking of dwarves, pleased as I am that Yarpen Zigren gets remembered in TW2, he's an odd one to talk about, since even in the books, he appears to have had a substantial personality transplant between his two main appearances. Yarpen’s a largely comedic figure in The Bounds of Reason short story, where he cheerfully admits to having considered letting his men knock down a particularly pompous aristocrat and piss all over him to teach him a lesson, but he’s evolved into a studious voice of reason against the scoiata'el by Blood of Elves. TW2 doesn't do a particularly good job of capturing either version, which I suspect probably bothered me more than most people – I liked the later book-incarnation of Yarpen immensely (and not even just because he's one of few ever to really call Triss out on just how much she needs to stop misreading Geralt's friendship as anything more than it is). His chapter in Blood of Elves packs a hell of a punch.

On the subject of accents

I do have to wonder if I'd have warmed up to characters like Triss, Shani and Dandelion (or even Letho) more if they'd only had halfway decent voice actors. It's not just that none are exactly leading the talent at the acting part of the job, it's that their American accents stick out in TW3 like a sore thumb.

Geralt mostly gets away his own US accent by dint of being the very first character we meet, so we've gotten used to the way he talks long before we notice how he stands out – hell, maybe that's just how they talk down in Rivia (hilariously, book!Geralt eventually reveals he's not even from Rivia, but simply picked the place and taught himself the accent so he could feel a bit less like the abandoned foundling he is, which only gives us yet more excuse for why his accent might sound a bit weird). More importantly, Geralt is meant to stand out, to be the outsider wherever he goes, so having him sound like no-one else fits the character.

But neither Triss or Dandelion are "of Rivia", and by the time they show up we've had dozens of hours in a game where literally everyone else sounds British, or Scottish, or Irish, or vaguely-eastern-European in the case of the Nilfgaardians. So why do these weirdos sound like no-one else on the continent?

The short answer seems to be that every character with an American accent in TW3 is someone who had an American accent in at least one of the previous games, which were way looser with their casting and had enough incidental American accents around that they didn't stand out. Clearly, by TW3, consistency with prior games has been prioritised over consistency with literally anything else we’re hearing.

Gaetan is an exception to the rule as the only new character (at least that I caught) with an American accent – presumably because between Geralt, Eskel, Lambert, Berengar, and Letho (and cohorts), some sort of 'witchers have American accents' rule has been pretty well established (another random American-accented witcher shows up in Thronebreaker, just to underline the point). We're going to mostly ignore Jad Karadin here, since his British accent is presumably a recent affectation to go with his new identity, and so makes sense.

This still doesn't really work though, since Letho’s school is all the way down in Nilfgaard (land of the Eastern European accents), while the oldest witcher from Kaer Morhen (Vesimir) is the one guy with a British accent. He sounds nothing like any of his students, despite the fact he's logically the guy they ought to have learned their accents from. So the logic falls in a heap however you slice it, and I'm thrown right out of the game.

With TW3 as your intro to the series, it feels almost as if characters like Triss and Dandelion have been assigned American accents because they're just too important to be saddled with the same pedestrian British accents as everyone else, which did nothing to endear them to me. The only one I eventually warmed up to was Lambert, and then only because he's just such a bitter asshole that he eventually goes full circle and comes out the other side (somewhere around when you've heard his miserable backstory, then gotten drunk together and told him how much you love him, man). Gaetan similarly snuck in under the same clause – American accents clearly work better for me in this series when attached to characters you're supposed to find pretty insufferable on first impressions.

Some final notes

To conclude, it seems only fair to throw in a quick nod to some of the more memorable book-characters who don't appear in the games. Neither Mother Nenneke (Geralt's sort-of-surrogate mother) or Vissena (Geralt's biological mother) ever appear either, alas – Vissena doesn't even merit so much as a Gwent card, which seems quite the wasted opportunity.

Milva, Cahir and Angouleme – the three remaining companions of Geralt’s who died alongside Regis but who were not so easily resurrected – naturally don’t appear. But nor are even really mentioned in all the games, which seems rather less than they deserve after giving their lives to Geralt's cause.

Cahir and Angouleme do at least have pretty badass Gwent cards to their names, though I am properly offended that Milva (who has the dubious honour of being my very favourite book character who doesn't ever appear in the games) is stuck with a card of her freaking death scene – which not only gets the scene wrong (believe me, there was no grimacing and gripping the arrow buried shallowly in her chest for poor Milva), but doesn't even bother to get her hair the right colour, for fuck’s sake. Basically, Milva was a stone cold badass and absolutely deserves better. #justice4milva

One can only guess how I'd have felt about some of these characters had I read the books before playing the games – I am obviously biased towards forgiving changes to characters whom I liked in their game incarnations, regardless of how they compare. Still, I think it does speak wonders that there still all these characters who suddenly made sense only after I'd met them in the books.

Even if only for Dandelion and Ciri, I can only dream of seeing a bit more of the book-original characterisations make it into the collective fannish consciousness. There's nothing wrong with getting into the canon purely based on the show or the games, but having read Sapkowski's novels, it's no longer any mystery how they spawned this massive franchise. That the saga wasn’t even fully available in English until well after Witcher 3 was released – a solid couple of decades late, and long after it had already been translated into Russian, French, German, Spanish and more – is a real shame. For once, it’s us in the anglophone world who’ve been missing out: these books deserve so much more than to be thought of as a footnote to the games or the show.

[geekywritings]

Rise of a Queen - Nikolai Lantsov x OC PART 8

When Taya opened her eyes the next morning, she wasn't sure if she was actually awake or had just started another dream. There were flowers right in front of her and as she turned, there were even more roses. Slowly she sat up, looking around in both shock and awe. The entire room was covered in flowers. Roses in all colors, lilies, sunflowers, and even her favorites, orchids. Nikolai, and she had no doubt it was his doing, had apparently raided the royal gardens or all florists of Os Alta for this. But there was no sign of him in the room. Instead, Taya spotted a letter in the bouquet closest to her, unfolding it eagerly.

"My beloved Taya,

I did not forget about the flowers.

When you wake up, I will most likely be on my way again. I want to check on our parents and try to persuade some of the Grisha to come back. We could use some good Materialki specialists here and I hope to bring back a Healer to look at your wounds.

Somewhere underneath those flowers, I also bought a few books for you to read while you wait. Please take your medicine and rest. And do think of me.

Your Nikolai."

Your Nikolai. It sounded too good to be true, but it was true after last night. They hadn't said a word about love, but the kiss had spoken more than 1000 words. She could still feel her body shiver pleasantly at the mere memory of it.

Suddenly the door opened, revealing one of the maids, who had been bringing her food during the last few days. She was having trouble navigating through all the flowers with her tray of food and medicine, grumbling about having told His Highness not to spread them on the ground.

"Good morning, My Lady. How are you feeling today?" It was the same greeting every day, which Taya returned with a smile.

"Much better Mrs. Podlak, thank you.", she said, allowing the elder woman to set the tray down before her on the bed. There was tea, the dreaded medicine, and her beloved Syrinki.

"Let me open the window for you. The smell of these flowers is overpowering.", she continued, now fighting her way to the tall window. "I told him a bouquet or two would be enough...", she muttered to herself and Taya had to stifle a chuckle. It was so like Nikolai to exaggerate. But she also had to admit that she was quite surprised. The sleeping potion she still took in the evenings really knocked her out for she had neither noticed Nikolai getting up nor the big surprise being set up all around her.

"I do actually love the scent.", she called to Mrs. Podlak, but the maid had already decided that fresh air was in order. And it did indeed feel good, as a warm breeze came through the open window. "Has Nikolai been gone for long?"

"His Highness set out just before sunrise with the two Squallers. He did not say where he went and when he would be back."

Taya nodded to the answer and began her breakfast. She knew where he was and if things went smoothly, he could be back within a day. Until then, she would actually try to follow his request and rest up. At least she had some reading material now.

_____________

In the end, Nikolai returned the following day, his first destination being his chamber, where Taya was still confined to his bed. But he did not arrive alone, being followed the young man in the damaged red kefta, whom Taya recognized from the Little Palace. He had been the only Healer among the group they had found and he was probably among very few Corporalki still present. Most others had either deserted or followed the Darkling.

The prince walked up to his beloved, placing a soft kiss on the top of her head. "I see you enjoyed my surprise.", he began with a grin, before nodding to his companion, who obviously looked rather taken aback by the sea of flowers in the room. "Taya, this is Andrej Borisov. I'm going to leave you in his capable hands, while I quickly speak with the generals."

It was just a quick greeting, but Taya didn't mind. She knew Nikolai to be more than busy right now, being the one in command in his parents' absence. And there was plenty to do with city fortifications, repairs and the search for Alina. Taya was just sad that she couldn't be of more use. Though perhaps with Andrej's skills, she could be up and about much faster.

________

"Why did you stay behind?", she asked, after Andrej had started his work on her shoulder. She wasn't sure how he did it, but he placed his hands over her wound and she could feel her body pull and burn slightly, but not enough to cause extreme pain.

"Sonya, Gregori and Alexander are my friends. I could never leave them behind.", was all Andrej said. Taya didn't know who these people were exactly, though she vaguely remembered an Inferni in the group being called Sonya, but she did admire him for his loyalty.

"I hope the three of them are alright."

Andrej nodded. "They are. Sonya stayed behind at the Spinning Wheel. She found a way to be useful there with her skills. And the Twins are constantly flying back and forth or accompanying His Highness." Ah, so those were the names of the Twins, Taya thought to herself.

"And what do you want to do?", she asked Andrej, who stopped his work for a moment to check on the progress. A moment later his hand was back above her shoulder and she could feel the strange sensation in her flesh again.

"I want to help.", Andrej said simply. "I did what I could at the Spinning Wheel, but when his Highness told me I was needed here, I agreed to come. Besides, I wanted to see what it would feel like."

"And how does it feel?", Taya was genuinely curious.

"Strange... I grew up in the Little Palace. I thought it was the safest place for people like me. Turns out, it wasn't... But it is still my home and I think that I would like to return there."

Taya reached out, placing a hand on Andrej's arm. "We will make it a home again. For all Grisha. And while I can't promise that it will be the safest place in Ravka, we will take precautions this time."

For the first time since he came in, the ghost of a smile passed over Andrej's face. "We will see."

He went back to his work and a good half an hour later, he stood up again, allowing Taya to dress. "Your wounds are healing well. I could not mend them completely in one go, but give it another day and you will be able to walk around normally again."

She was immensely grateful for his help and even more grateful for the knowledge that she would only be confined to the bed for a short while longer.

______

A week later, Taya was already running around normally. She had put all her dedication into rebuilding and fortifying the Little Palace, even going as far as using all funds she had at her disposal. Compared to the fortune her family possessed as a whole, it wasn't much, but it was still more than enough to procure materials and pay people to help. A few of the Materialki returned from the Spinning Wheel to aid in the rebuilding of their former home, but they still relied on outside workers for some construction work.

During that time, Taya became closer to Andrej, Sonya, and especially the twins. While the Healer and his Inferni friend were constantly traveling back and forth between the Spinning Wheel and the capital, Alexander and Gregori spent more and more time in the Little Palace, only ever leaving to accompany Nikolai on some trip or another. At one point Taya revealed her own abilities to the twins and the two, after their initial surprise, agreed to train her.

Quickly, a routine had formed. Nikolai and Taya would wake up early together and share a quick breakfast, before going separate ways. She would work at the Little Palace and he would try to run the kingdom. In the afternoon the two would gather in the war room, where Nikolai devised strategies with his generals to prepare for another attack by the Darkling, while at the same time evaluating the messages he received from the search parties he had sent out in the quest for Alina and the others. Afterward, they would eat together again and then fall into bed, utterly exhausted just to wake up at sunrise again to begin the routine anew.

It meant that they didn't have much of a honeymoon phase, where they could explore and enjoy their newly discovered feelings for each other, but the brief moments they had were enough for now. They knew when other matters took priority and Nikolai was immensely grateful for Taya's understanding. Many women would feel abandoned or not graced with enough attention, but his love found ways to occupy herself and do her fair share of work. And it didn't go unnoticed either. The rumors about her being his mistress soon made way for gossip regarding the possibility of Taya becoming his wife and future Queen. Although he tried to pay the whispers no heed, it did make him proud to hear servants and nobles alike acknowledging her skills and potential.

What bothered Nikolai however was the lack of progress they were making. While the damages in Os Alta were quickly being taken care of, the building of more aircrafts and the search for Alina were at a standstill. They lacked materials to continue production and the sun summoner and her following were still swallowed up by the earth itself. It was frustrating, to say the least.

__________

One afternoon, Nikolai was leaning over a collection of sketches he had made for some new aircrafts, all light and fortified with the newest guns, trying to find ways to reduce their production cost, while also still sulking about the rather ineffective meeting with his generals just an hour ago. Taya had not been present, because she had been busy at the Little Palace. More Grisha had returned and she was making sure they were all settled in. It was a relief to hear that life was returning to normal at least a little bit and Nikolai knew that they needed the Grisha to keep the capital safe. They were mostly left with Etheralki and Materialki at this point, but a handful of healers had also rejoined their former little family along with two Heartrenders.

Suddenly the door of the library opened and his eyes went wide, as he saw Taya walk in, wearing a royal blue kefta, embroidered in the telling silver of the Squallers. She was smiling brightly, even doing a small twirl before him to show off her newest garment. "I got it as a gift today.", she announced. "The twins said I earned it." So it was official now. No hiding her true powers anymore.

Nikolai had tried to imagine what she would look like in the kefta once, but the reality was so much better. She looked regal in it, powerful and confident and absolutely perfect. He got up to examine her in detail, appreciating her from all angles, his mood instantly lifting. "You look beautiful.", he assured her.

He received a kiss as a thank you, before she joined him at the table to get a quick summary of what she had missed during the meeting. It really wasn't much.

"We need more funds.", she summarized all their growing problems into one simple sentence. They had to expand their search, buy more materials and strengthen their borders and production sites. Taya had used up almost all of her private fortune, and Nikolai was weary about taking too much from the treasury without his father's approval. He had his own fortune as well, but that was currently being invested into a secret project to assure a strong Ravka in the future. For a second both stared at the table, before speaking at the same time.

"I could do some business as Sturmhond."

"We need to hold a ball."

Silence again, as both blinked, before a chuckle escaped them. "I assume yours will take less time, but what do you plan to accomplish with a ball?", he asked curiously.

"The financial support of the noble families of Ravka. Gather them here, show them that the capital is safe again and that they can only keep their lifestyles if we manage to defeat the Darkling, find Alina and show military strength at the border."

"It was only a few weeks ago when you told me that I don't need the support of the nobles just yet.... How quickly times change.", he mused. "I will have to convince my parents to return as well."

"No, don't.", Taya said firmly, taking him by surprise. "The nobles need to follow and respect you. Their money will flow into your projects and you are the new hope for Ravka."

Nikolai felt a weight settle on his shoulders, that he had not known before. The weight of a crown he wasn't even wearing yet. His wish to save the country, however, was stronger than any fear of responsibility.

"What would I do without you?", he asked, reaching across the table to take her hand into his.

"Spent a few months at sea most likely, robbing Kerch traders in the name of the crown.", she replied with a smile. Nikolai felt his own lips draw into a smile at that.

"Probably.", he admitted. "It did work great before to amass a fortune." Turning more serious again he asked: "Do you think the nobles will return to the ballroom after what had happened there?"

"Eventually. But now might be a bit early. So we will hold the ball outside between the Grand and the Little Palace. Invite Grisha, spread some of your ships out. It will provide a sense of safety and a quick possible escape. At the same time, they can see where their money will go."

He was positively surprised by her wit and planning. Suddenly the thought of her as his Queen hit him. He had heard the possibility being thrown around for a while now, but hearing her plan to assure the future of Rvaka made it feel right. She was perfect for the role, no doubt. Her family name and fortune made her an adequate match and her intelligence and compassion would serve her well on the throne. The fact that he also loved her was just the icing on the cake.

But he would not offer now. Not until he was certain that there still was a country to rule side by side. And for that, he would have to face another dreaded ball.

__________________

The event took place a week later and had been a nightmare to organize. Sending letters to all the right families, getting varieties of his inventions onto the grounds, making sure there was enough food and drink and entertainment offered, as well as having the Palaces look even more splendid than usual was not what he had wanted to do in times like these. It even felt wrong to hold a spectacle like this while his friends were still missing and the Darkling still out there.

"If you pull a face like this all evening, nobody will offer you anything.", Taya said, drawing him out of his thoughts. She had come in without him noticing and got to work buttoning up his uniform. He would have to be the Prince again today. The charmer and the businessman, so he needed to look the part. So he was dressed in the royal red and gold his family loved so much and felt strangely silly in it.

Taya, on the other hand, was a sight to behold. She had opted for blue again, her favorite color, and the dress flowed on her like water, the silver embellishments adding to the magical effect. She had curled her hair again, putting it up in an elegant style and adding a silver tiara and jewels for good measure. They needed to look richer than they really were tonight.

"You look absolutely stunning.", he told her.

"And you look absolutely uncomfortable.", she just replied. "Smile and relax."

"I can do one of the two."

"Then smile." It was easier said than done. "Maybe the news I have will help. Everyone agreed to come tonight. Even Count Fedjor and his family. And I send word to my parents and they send out some invitations as well to their business partners."

Those were good news indeed and they reminded him once again how grateful he was to have her. "Well, then let's go and get our hands on their fortunes, shall we?"

__________

The ball was a great success. The nobility relished in the chance of holding a grand social event again and were easily susceptible to Nikolai's charm. Getting showered with attention and compliments from their future Tsar loosened their pockets and the presence of soldiers and Grisha alike gave them a sense of security. The aircrafts received ample amounts of admiration as well and especially the men were eager to invest in such technological advancements.

While the guests enjoyed themselves, Taya and Nikolai were hard at work. Always going from one person to the next, engaging in just the right small talk, and indiscreetly asking for financial support. He took care of the traditional families, while Taya used her charms on her father's long-standing business partners.

It was the early morning hours when the last guests began to leave, some of them even taking up the offer of being flown home on one of Nikolai's aircrafts. They didn't have enough Squallers to offer everyone the chance, but only a few were curious enough to try in the first place.

"I think that went rather well.", Taya said, sounding rather pleased. They were standing in the middle of prettily lit chaos, but they had accomplished what they had set out to do. "And I think this was the first ball that I didn't have a single dance."

"I distinctively remember you hating dance lessons."

"True, the lessons were a pain, but actual dancing is one of the few joys at every event."

They had shared dances since his return, but none as an actual couple. The idea came suddenly and he acted upon it right away. "Then would you offer me this dance, my lady?"

Taya laughed. "The musicians have already left."

"Show some creativity, my dear.", he bowed down like a true gentleman and offered her his hand. Still amused, she took it and allowed him to draw her into the first steps. To fill the silence, Nikolai hummed a random song they had heard that night and Taya eventually joined. Together they waltzed over the grass, elated by their success that night, getting completely lost in it. They didn't even notice as servants arrived to begin cleaning up, all looking perplexed or smiling at the sight of His Highness with his chosen lady.

Suddenly the first drops started falling from the sky, quickly followed by more. Within seconds, it was a proper rain shower and while the servants rushed for cover, Nikolai and Taya continued their dance. Their humming turned into laughter, as he spun her around before drawing her back close to him. They were absolutely drenched, but Taya had never enjoyed a ball more.

"I love you."

His words were almost drowned by the rain, but she heard them nevertheless. She wasn't sure where it had suddenly come from and it was unlike any declaration of love she had ever read about in books, but it was perfect. Because those words were coming from him.

"I love you too, Nikolai."

He pulled her towards him, his kiss almost desperate. They were pressed against each other, the rain still soaking their hair and skin, but neither cared. Taya's arms were around him, holding onto his jacket at his back. Their kiss got more frantic and they only broke apart when there was no air left in their lungs. Blue eyes stared into hazel and suddenly he pulled her along.

The way back to his room took longer than expected. Every few steps they were locked in a kiss again, with him pressing her against the closest wall or door. At one point they knocked over a vase with flowers but didn't even fully notice.

Taya didn't understand the fire that was suddenly burning within her, but she wasn't about to question or let it go. She wanted Nikolai close, wanted to feel all of him to show him how much she really meant those words she had said. And he seemed to feel exactly the same.

Once in his room, they began to tear at each others' clothes, trying to get them off their wet bodies. He was shirtless and working on her corset when he stopped for a moment as if his thoughts cleared for a second.

"Are you sure?", he asked. Taya's heart swelled with love at his concern for her, but she nodded. "Stop asking questions and kiss me."

He did, hungrily and passionately, his hands finally removing the corset. He slowed down only when she was fully nude before him, taking his time to take her in fully with his eyes. She was slender, but with just the right womanly curves, which he explored with his hands. He wanted to memorize every detail of her and get to know her body's secrets.

Soon they were on the bed and she was shivering against him, as he slowly learned just what she liked. There was a moment when he was about to ask her again if this was what she truly wanted, but before a word could escape him, Taya drew him into a kiss.

"No nonsense.", she said. "Make love to me, Nikolai."

The words alone were ecstasy for him and he wasted no time to fulfill her wish. They made love several times that night. Wild, slow, passionate, and intimate. And by the time the sun rose, both were exhausted. Stil entangled, they closed their eyes and sank into a much-deserved sleep.

_____

@imma-too-many-fandoms​

[candydripping]

KENJI NICOLESCU.

When: Some ungodly time in the morning Where: Kenji’s apartment Who: @kaleidoscopelitskies​ 

Andrej wasn’t twenty years old anymore, that’s what he told himself over and over again. In fact, he was going to turn thirty in a year and that was a fully fledged ADULT in his eyes. So why was it that Andrej was sat here, still feeling as though he was eighteen once again? His life seemed to be in the same state that it was back then -- he was unhappy, alone and all he wanted to do was get inebriated so he didn’t have to feel any of the awful things he was feeling. Which really just had the exact opposite effect because somehow he was feeling things worse than ever now. He was so tired of feeling lonely but he didn’t even know who to go to. Emmett hated him, Grayson definitely hated him, Ravi wouldn’t go near him and Nico probably hated him now too. Who else was even left? His brother was left but he’d made a promise that Kenji would never ever have to deal with his shit ever again but Andrej didn’t know how long he could keep that promise because he just needed somebody.

Which was how he found himself, in the middle of the night, outside of Kenji’s apartment ready to instantly go into a spiel the second the door was opened. “You know, I uh -- I had just been sat there in my apartment, on my own, thinking about the fact that we have a whole decade of shit to catch up on. Which is a really long time, you know. And I haven’t seen you since that other night, which is fucking dumb because we live in the same town now, so what’s out excuse? So I just, I don’t know, I figured I should come here. And say hi.” He paused and then swallowed, his expression going hollow. “Also I’m really fucking sad and lonely and I don’t know where else to go.” 

[aleksa-sims]

Olivia & the Haunted House  👥

Alex:  Something is wrong here! Ella you hate Forgotten Hollow! So why do you suddenly want to go into the forest with Andrej? And why is this rush?

Andrej: Ella doesn't have to go with me, I'm just getting my damn sister back!

Ella: I wanted out, I like the forest! That's all! Why do you always have to question everything, Alex? Enjoy the time while we're away with Olivia and relax! 

Alex: No, you can't fool me Ella! You and forest walks? No way! But I got it. You and Andrej 😏... you probably want to be alone. 

Ella: 😒 You know what Alex? If this idea calms you down, believe in it! 

Ella sees how Olivia is getting weird again. Olivia hardly notices the conversation, she has her own conversation with the demon who tries to intimidate her.

Beginn / Previous / Next

[starryshaze]

OLIVER VOCLAIN.

The events of the party definitely did NOT go to plan. Not that Andrej ever planned anything, especially for parties, but usually they didn’t consist of him making out with his brother’s boyfriend. They usually consisted of him making out with other people’s boyfriends but he didn’t do that anymore, he was good now. He had a boyfriend who he was supposed to be faithful towards and he wasn’t going to do anything that could potentially ruin that. At least that’s what he told himself but it all went wrong when he was with left alone with Alexander. All those years he’d harboured feelings for him and had never ever acted upon them but now when they were both with their boyfriends, he decided it was a good time to act upon those feelings? He was angry at himself for it, angry that he’d done something that could potentially hurt Oliver, Lukas and Alexander. He was worried for whenever Alexander told Lukas because he knew his brother would put all the blame onto him, especially as he’d asked Alexander to blame him. But what he was even more worried for was telling Oliver. What if he broke his heart and he decided to end things? Then what would Andrej do? Go back to his old ways, he supposed, but he’d now realised that he didn’t even LIKE his old ways. In the morning when they woke up, they parted so they could privately nurse their hangovers and Andrej spent a good part of the morning with his head in a toilet. He knew it wasn’t just the hangover doing this to him, it was the drugs -- that constant need he had for them which he tried to ignore but it seemed futile nowadays. What was the point when he felt better with them?

The rest of the day was spent wandering the castle corridors, avoiding everyone he could. He didn’t know how long he’d be able to go without seeing Oliver but he was pretty good at hiding for days on end without anyone finding him. There was a spot up at the very top of the Astronomy Tower that he liked to go sometimes, it was always empty because nobody else was stupid or reckless enough to climb up onto the roof but Andrej was. Especially when he felt like this. He barely even knew what he was doing with himself when his mind fell into that dark, dark pit -- half of the time he would wake up again with days missing and he couldn’t figure out what he’d been doing because nobody else had seen him. It was terrifying but it hadn’t happened since the summer. So without even realising, he found himself up here and standing on the ledge, peering over where he could see all the Castle grounds. He felt numb and disoriented and he knew that he hadn’t felt as bad as this for a long long time but he supposed this was just the consequences of his own actions. The baggie he had yesterday was still pretty full, even after sharing it with Alexander, but after an hour of sitting on the ledge in the snow with his legs dangling in the air, it was all gone and the world and his mind finally seemed blissful. His head was no longer screaming at him and he didn’t even feel the cold. He couldn’t remember if he’d done a heating charm on himself or not but he didn’t really need to because he was fine now. He could survive whatever was coming.

After sitting there for a while with his legs pulled up to his chest, he realised he could hear someone below but he couldn’t tell what they were saying because his ears were ringing too loudly. But he figured he needed to say something, hoping they’d eventually leave him alone. That’s what he wanted right now. “How high d’you think it is up here? Reckon someone would save me from the fall?”