#have you met any latin americans? any italians?

[f1ghtsoftly]

my boss and I were both raised catholic/went to catholic schools and her in laws have a tradcath son and I really appreciate that we bully him at every opportunity, what a freak.

[t4tmagicians]

I'm very happy that there's any romani representation in DC, but I wish there was specification on vistas.

THEREFORE, WELCOME TO MY UNNECESSARILY CONSPIRACY THEORY ON FIGURING OUT THE SPECIFIC VISTAS OF NIGHTWING AND ZATANNA

(NOTE: Romani does not mean Romanian. I'll be making some generalizations and I am not an expert on either of these characters nor on Romani diaspora! I'm just a roma comic fan)

Let's start with Zatanna. We know her father, Giovanni Zatara is Italian and Roma, as is his father, so first we need to look at Romani diaspora in Italy and surrounding areas.

The vistas that are found most commonly in Italy are the Sinti, the Ursari, the Kalderash, and the Xoraxane, so we've narrowed our options.

I'm eliminating Sinti as an option first of all, as the Sinti vista is typically from more German speaking areas, and for the sake of keeping to the more Latinized countries, we'll count that out. We'll also do the same for the Ursari, as they're typically settled in Romania.

Kalderash and Xoraxane are both seemingly the most likely, and this is where Zatanna's mother - Sindella Zatara - comes in. Whilst it is never stated if Sindella is Roma or Gorja, she lives in and around Turkey, where the Xoraxane vista is mostly spread. For this nod to her mother, I'll consider Zatanna a Xoraxane roma.

Now, time for Dick Grayson! My main source is the DC Fandom Wiki, which I know has its flaws, but it's what's most accessible to me. There's no explicit reference to John Grayson being Roma, but there is to Mary Grayson being Roma.

Mary had also met Raptor as a child in Paris, and they became friends - this implies she either knew French well enough to speak it, or he spoke English, but for the sake of headcanon, we'll say she spoke French.

And there is a French diaspora of Romani people! And of course, her making a friend in Paris isn't super viable as a basis for her vista, as Haly's Circus is a travelling one. But there is potential for her to be Manush Roma, but the options are very varied and wide. Unfortunately, like most American Roma, Dick's exact vista is pretty much untraceable.

These are all just headcanons, but I thought it'd be fun to do some research into this! Let me know if you have any information I don't!

[woahzpeltwrong]

WHAT I THINK OF YOU BASED ON YOUR DUOLINGO LANGUAGE OF CHOICE AS A PERSON WITH AN ALMOST 800 DAY LONG STREAK EXCEPT IT KIND OF DEVOLVES AND I MOSTLY COMPLAIN ABOUT DUOLINGO:

(I hope i did this cut right if not this is gonna be LLLOOONG)

Spanish: The classic. It's classic because it's the language that Duolingo is best at. It's actually half decent. You actually have a chance at learning Spanish! Besides that, you probably enjoy the memes about Duolingo, and I imagine your streak is decently long.

French: Everything I know about french Duolingo is bad. It's the only language that's picky about punctuation, it's often wrong for no reason, you probably are struggling. Also, can you conjugate a verb? Duolingo is generally bad with that. Besides that, everyone I know who does French duolingo is slightly pretentious and I don't think I trust you as a person.

German: Ohhhh boy. If you're attempting to learn German with Duolingo alone you might as well just buy the textbook already. While Duolingo is already not great, grammar is so rough for German on Duolingo. Please don't try to learn German grammar with Duolingo. Anyway I think if you're learning German in general you're pretty cool and that's no different for Duolingo learners. Best of luck to yall

Italian: I don't actually know much about Italian Duolingo. I do know that the two people I know that the two people that I know who do Italian Duolingo are gay though so Im assuming you're either Italian-American or gay.

Japanese: This used to be so, so much worse. They improved it, though. It's actually not horrible! Please do supplement your learning with something besides Duolingo, though. You will learn practically nothing otherwise. Anyway 99% chance you like anime because you're learning Japanese on Duolingo

Chinese: it could definitely be worse! It's definitely HORRIBLE, but it is usually actually right and its grammar isn't absolute trash like some of the other ones. It is definitely on the worse side for grammar, but it's not Latin. Aside from all of that, I do think there's at least a 25% chance you're doing this because you ARE Chinese, and a 75% chance you're doing this because you heard Mandarin was hard and wanted to see how true that was without putting money into it.

Russian: ME TOO!!!! This is my primary language on Duolingo currently and all I have to say is why? It's really not worth using Duolingo for, since I started in October 2022 and all I can say is that my potato is cold. It's primarily focused on vocabulary, but it's very random vocabulary, and you learn exactly none of the grammar at any point. I think you're cool :)

Korean: immediately stop. Please learn Korean somewhere else. It's not worth it. One of the worse ones, but at least it's not Latin Duolingo. If you actually actively do this you TERRIFY me and i am begging you to stop

Portuguese: uhhhh.... sure, i guess. It's not great, but it's... fine, I think. It's decent for vocabulary, if nothing. I have literally never met a Portuguese Duolingo learner though

Arabic: ALPHABET? YES. EVERYTHING ELSE? PLEASE NO. My opinion of you is the exact same as for Chinese, 75% chance you heard it was hard and didn't want to commit yet

Dutch: I genuinely did not know this was on Duolingo until I started doing this. Since it's not super popular I am also going to assume Duolingo does not care about it and it is probably only good for vocab. I do not think you are out there, I do not think people learn Dutch on Duolingo.

Swedish: as always please learn on something else its only good for vocabulary anyway you probably live in sweden, i think? Isnt it popular there or something??

Norwegian: general rule of thumb: vocabulary is the only thing duolingo is good at. Anyway, what? Learn somewhere else, anything below chinese on the list has been left to rot and they do not care about it

Turkish: wwwwow. You are really something! Learn Turkish somewhere else. At least it's not Latin

.....

At this point i became tired of saying "it's only good for vocabulary, learn grammar somewhere else." This can be assumed for literally everything.

.....

Polish: YOU SCARE ME POLISH DUOLINGO IS HARD

Irish: you are above the age of 45 and american

Greek: you are a mythology buff

Hebrew: you were probably curious. Everyone else learned somewhere else

Danish: im sorry that you're learning Danish. You are a sad person.

Hindi: The only person I know who is doing Hindi Duolingo is Indian herself, so I guess you're probably Indian idk

Czech: ...???????? Stop

Esperanto: generally i just hate Esperanto with such a burning passion that i don't think anyone should learn it

Ukranian: you're trying! I imagine you will give up in a week though, sorry!

Welsh: I'm all for protecting endangered languages but this isnt how to do it

Vietnamese: a language with six tones and they teach you how to pronounce 0 of them. You're probably cool but stop with duolingo

Hungarian: I did not know this was on duolingo! Very brave of you to try learning a Uralic language on Duolingo, is it going horribly?

Swahili: learn somewhere else. You are probably so cool but duolingo and SWAHILI??????????

Romanian: The only person ive ever met who did this gave up in 3 days because duolingo sucks. I am assuming your streak is no longer than a week

Indonesian: ..... okay. Sure. At least its not Latin.... I think you started learning this completely for fun though

Hawaiian: I HATE DUOLINGO FOR THIS!!!! IT IS A CRITICALLY ENDANGERED LANGUAGE IT DESERVES SO MUCH BETTER!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU FOR LEARNING IT BUTHFJCNEIFBDJFJDSJD!!!!!!!!!!! I HATE YOU DUOLINGO

Navajo: see above. Love you. Hate duolingo.

Klingon and High Valyrian: i hate you

Latin: HERE IT IS. MY WORST ENEMY. GOD I HATE LATIN DUOLINGO. THE AUDIO QUALITY WAS CLEARLY RECORDED IN A CAR. ITS NOT EVEN GOOD FOR VOCABULARY BECAUSE IT IS LITERALLY WRONG VERY VERY OFTEN. ITS SUPER PICKY ON WORD ORDER AND FOR WHAT? ITS LATIN!!! ITS NOT PICKY!!!! IVE BEEN LEARNING LATIN IN A FORMAL SETTING FOR 3 YEARS NOW AND I HATE LATIN DUOLINGO MORE THAN ANYTHING. IF YOU WANT TO LEARN LATIN BUY A LATIN ENGLISH DICTIONARY. IF YOU WANT GRAMMAR GO ONTO MAGISTRULA. ITS A GREAT WEBSITE FOR LATIN GRAMMAR. OH, BUT WHAT ISNT GREAT? DUOLINGO. IN LATIN, TO ANNOY IS TRANSLATED AS "vexare". THIS IS. ACCORDING TO DUOLINGO, "to come from". WHAT? WHAT? WHAT? WHAT??? I HATE DUOLINGO. I HATE THIS. ITS ALWAYS WRONG. THE AUDIO QUALITY IS ACTUALLY GARBAGE. I HATE DUOLINGO I HATE DUOLINGO I HATE DUOLINGO. DO NOT LEARN LATIN ON DUOLINGO!!!!!!!!!!! I HATE DUOLINGO SO MUCH I HATE IT I HATE IT I HATE IT I HATE IT DONT USE LATIN DUOLINGO YOU ARE BEING LIED TO

Scottish Gaelic: you are again over 45 and American

Finnish: ohhhh god. I am so sorry. Ur cool ig but im sorry

Yiddish: i am, again, so sorry. Its duolingo. You can't write IN YIDDISH in duolingo because of course you cant

Haitian Creole and Zulu: I don't believe you these are the bottom two languages

[direwombat]

Paola + 🔮

tbh paola's whole timeline is all over the place because i worked out her story backwards. but the past is important to understanding the present (and future), so here's her first meeting with rafe :)

It’s rare that Professor Paola Orsini finds herself in the company of someone whose Latin is better than their Italian. He’s not…bad. By most standards he’s proficient. Just not fluent. He speaks with the clumsy cadence of someone who learned it years ago from a textbook and audio cassettes. His Latin, however, is bizarrely fluid for a language that’s allegedly dead. Even her own grasp of her mother tongue’s predecessor feels tenuously unwieldy. It’s as if he’s spent the past several years learning and immersing himself in it. A strange pursuit, but then again millionaires are strange. And if there’s one thing she’s learned in her time in academia, the only thing millionaires love more than money is appearing educated. This, she understands.

What she doesn’t understand is why her?

Why is she wearing a fancy dress that was sent to her alongside an invitation to one of the fanciest restaurants in Rome? Why is she sitting across the table from American business mogul, Rafael Adler, drinking from a bottle of wine that costs more than she makes in a year?

She narrows her eyes over the rim of her wine glass as she slowly takes a sip. He watches her with a careful calculation that makes the back of her neck prickle. She feels like she’s being judged on her performance in high-society. She supposes she should feel elegant, draped in what feels like silk and all dolled up like an actress. Only, instead she feels like one of the zanni from the Commedia dell’arte. Cartoonish and clown-like. 

“Why me?” she asks, rather bluntly, apropos of nothing. It’s the first thing she’s actually said to him after she’d sat down. 

He quirks a brow, and swirls his own glass of wine leisurely in his hand. Part of her wishes that it would splash all over that hideous white jacket of his. Something to mar his neatly tailored and manicured facade. “Why you, what, Miss Orsini?”

“Doctor,” she corrects. They’ve only just met. They’re not on good enough terms for him to call her Miss. “And why choose me? You could have gone to anyone at any university. You could have gone to an expert in Avery, or 17th-Century pirates in general. You are” -- she hesitates, resisting the urge to say not stupid -- “a shrewd man. Surely you know that a historian or archaeologist would be better suited for the tasks you have just described to me. I am neither.”

While not necessarily forced, the smile he gives her is inauthentic. It’s tight, and it doesn’t quite reach those flat, dead looking eyes -- Shark-like, she thinks -- but there’s a glimmer to them that can’t be attributed to the diffused yellow glow of the string lights illuminating their table. He sets his glass down with a sniff and carefully leans forward, resting his elbows on the table. His fingertips press together, tenting neatly. “Doctor Orsini,” he says smoothly, “If I wanted a historian or archaeologist, I would have approached one.”

She rolls her eyes and scoffs. “And let me guess: what Mister Adler wants, Mister Adler gets?” She probably shouldn’t be mocking him like this. He’s offering her so much money for her to spend her sabbatical year in his employ. But she can’t help it. Prickly is the nicest thing anyone has ever said about her personality.

His chin tilts up and there’s a faint twitch at the corners of his eyes. His smile only gets tighter, and the breath he lets out is caught somewhere between a sigh and a growl. “Most of the cathedral has already been excavated, and given the current state of most of the artifacts and manuscripts we’ve uncovered, a historian wouldn’t be able to do much with them. What I need is a conservator.” 

“This still does not answer my question,” Paola says. “There are many others you could have gone to. I am not well known in my field.” That second bit comes out maybe a tad more bitter than she intends. 

“But you want to be,” Mr. Adler says, and his lips curl back to expose his too-white teeth. “I’ve read your work. Impressive, I’ll admit, but still piggybacking off the ideas of others. You feel trapped by the confines of academia, limited to whatever funding you’re able to scrape together from grants and whatever your administration is able to give you.” 

He leans in even further, beginning to crowd her side of the small table. Her heart hammers in her chest, and her breathing stutters as he reaches to place a hand over one of her own. “You have a hunger, Doctor Orsini. For recognition. To work, unbound by institutional bureaucracy. I can give that to you. I need people with that kind of ambition.” 

Her face flushes and she prays that it’s dark enough that he can’t see it. But her body must betray her in some way, because what could ostensibly be called a smile widens and the gaze he levels her with is nothing short of predatory.

He knows he has her. And then he’s pulling away, taking his hand and its warmth with him. 

She shifts in her seat and yanks her hands from the table and folds them in her lap. Clearing her throat, she says, “Manuscripts can be delicate. I would need a lab. And storage space. Someplace where I could control the temperature and relative humidity.” 

“Done,” he says with a nod. 

“I will need to do an assessment on what you’ve collected so far before I can tell you what else I will need, but if what you have is in as poor condition as you say, then I will need materials to perform restoration work.” 

He nods again. “I’ll arrange for a flight to Scotland at your soonest convenience.” 

Her eyes narrow again, searching him for any signs of deception or dishonesty. This is far too good to be true, and there’s something about him that just feels…weasel-y. But he regards her with a casual and open posture. 

She chews on the inside of her cheek and sighs. “Fine,” she says. “I accept your offer, Mr. Adler.”

He smiles. Not to her, but to himself, something self-satisfied and victorious. “I’m glad to hear that, Doctor Orsini.” He reaches for his wine glass and holds it in front of him. “May this be the start of a mutually fruitful partnership.”

Already her stomach knots with regret, but she lifts her glass as well, clinking against his. The musical chime that rings out is the first of many death knells for the sad cautionary tale of the end of her career.

[peligrosapop]

For those who don’t know, besides a Hardcore Barça fan, a big City fan, I also like Juventus. Here’s a photo from 2018 in a random photo booth in California with a Juve jersey (Dybala)

Para lxs que no sepa, también me gusta Juventus. Acá una foto del 2018 con una jersey de Juve de Dybala.

Other sport fandom facts about me: I casually watch game from Real Betis, Atletico Madrid, Liverpool, Spurs, Tottenham, sometimes Villarreal and random Italians games with Napoli or other teams but only when I have time. I already suffer to make time for my main teams. I like football. Also, big Puerto Rican basketball fan, Vaqueros are my team bc they are from my hometown. In the NBA I like Bulls and Golden State Warriors. US Baseball Mets and Dodgers. International baseball: Puerto Rico. And Caribbean teams in general I sometimes watch. International football: Argentina, Brasil and Spain. Casually like to watch Netherlands, Nigeria, Morocco, and Latin American teams. So if you see any content from that, that’s why.

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

Además de inglés y portugués hay alguna mención de que idiomas Edward sabe hablar? Que hay de los demás Cullens? Al menos Carlisle me imagino que sabe un montón, pero a Esme y Emmet, por ejemplo, no me los imagino interesados en aprender otros idiomas 🤔

In addition to English and Portuguese there is any mention of which languages Edward can speak? What about the other Cullens? At least Carlisle I imagine knows a lot, but Esme and Emmet, for example, I can't imagine themselves interested in learning other languages.

Google Translate

We don't know the whole list, to my remembrance, it's never discussed in full. We do know that presumably all the Cullens speak Spanish.

Jasper, obviously, spent a good while in Latin American and Texas but we also have Edward and Emmett acing Spanish and noting that the entire family aces Spanish when they take it. Are they fluent? Who knows, but they're certainly good enough to breeze through high school.

Jasper probably speaks Creole, maybe French, depends how far and exactly where Maria was picking up her recruits. Whether he can read and write in these languages is a different story. Likely Spanish he does fairly well in, given taking it in high schools since taking up the Cullen cherade.

Otherwise, I imagine Edward learns French in order to be sophisticated. "French is a much chiquer language, parlez vous francais," - A Little Night Music, Stephen Sondheim. He would consider reading romantic French poetry in the original language an absolute must. He must be very good at Portuguese as well, as he speaks to a woman in a very rural area in great distress and understands her. Now part of this may be her thoughts but given he’s able to easily ask questions, I’m leaning towards he knows it fairly well and can certainly converse intelegibly. Given this, Edward is probably fairly decent at a number of languages and I can see him learning several to pass the time. Though which languages he’s proficient in and how many he keeps up to date with are unknown.

Carlisle, per his original occupation as a priest, would know Latin and given the time period/his education status would know French. In Volterra, I imagine at the time they were speaking French (the then language of diplomacy) as well as Latin (the language of the sciences). Carlisle likely picked up Italian per spending 20 years in Italy and I can't imagine him not learning Greek if he didn't know it already. He likely knows many more languages, given he was in Italy to study and was in Volterra so long, however that gets into headcanon territory of guessing which of these would be most likely so I’m not going to rattle them off.

Worth noting that of the many people he met on his own before the Cullens, he didn’t seem to have issue conversing with them, even when they were unlikely to know English.

Esme probably hasn’t had too much practice since she was human, but I can imagine she studied some French in her schooling days. Rosalie, too, might have been educated somewhat in a foreign language in finishing school or however she was educated to prepare to enter society. They both have had runs through education afterwards (Esme doing university supposedly) so I imagine some language happened there. Though, again, how good they are at it is anyone’s guess.

As you note, though, I can’t imagine Emmett knowing that many languages or Esme for that matter.

[msfbgraves]

One of the weird things about this website is that people assume that you must have ties to, say, Judaism to understand a few Yiddish phrases common in American English. The fact that you could simply speak modern German, a language that, through a shared ancestor, is related to Yiddish (even though they are very much seperate languages, not mutually intelligible without great effort and Yiddish has very close ties to Russian and Hebrew as well) is never even assumed.

What could mensch possibly mean? Might it be related to the German Mensch? Sure, a Yiddish mensch is a good person, rather than a German human, but, ya know. It aint far off. Schvartz? Black, like the German Schwarz? Shlep - like schleppen, to drag? Sheen? Berlinerisch uses the exact same word for beautiful, and it isn't much of a stretch to the standard schön. Waib for Weib, woman or wife? Who'd have guessed it? Gelt for Geld, money? Shiksa for Schickse? (Even if the German means nasty girl rather than goy girl?) Gut for, eh, gut, good? Zeyn for sein, to be? Meschuggene for meschugge, crazy? (Even though that may very well be a Yiddish loan word?) Ghesunt for Gesund, healthy?

It's so strange to me that Tumblr seems to assume that a: everybody that is not a recent immigrant is monolingual, that this only language is English, and any knowledge of a foreign language must be very strongly related to ethnicity or a certain social circle. It's so limited? I'm from a long line of goyim, but if I ever get stuck in rural 19th century Russia or Poland, finding the next shtetl really may be my best bet. I understand some Spanish for having met people from Spain (yes, and Mexico and the ensuing arguments are hilarious, "stop lisping, you Castillian indiot!"), I also have a rudimentary understanding of Latin; this has again nothing to do with my ethnicity. It simply that monolingualism isn't, in fact, the natural state of humanity; and it's also not inevitable. My sister knows some Arabic for having lived in the Emirates and some Swahili from travelling to Africa. I studied the basics of six languages in school (though no Arabic) and am using the overlap to cobble together some very broken Italian. That's far from impossible. Languages are interconnected and not always a mark of enthnicity or identity, but apparently, in America, they very much are? Do only the fewest study languages for the heck of it?

[otrtbs]

hello, hope you're doing well! not quite to do with your fics, moreso art history itself. uh, i know you're studying art history (as you've mentioned) and i (a curious student who must make decisions and who was rereading ahb! and decided that they miss the subject) wanted to ask what were the things you cover in your art history courses? like, what all is it that you study and do, i suppose. i did art before for my finals before dropping it when choosing my IB HLs (like a levels, i suppose) but i'm not sure how much of that is the same i guess. ANYWAY, i did some research but i thought i could ask someone who's as passionate in the subject as you are.

sorry if this is an inconvenience or anything else, lmao

not an inconvenience at all!! i’m so happy to answer/talk about this!!

so the way my university course was structured for undergrad, we had three lower division art history classes. (Core Art Studio 1, Prehistoric-Renaissance Art Survey, Renaissance-Contemporary Art Survey) where the survey classes were lecture style seminars where we went over major art movements, artists, and pieces of each time period. Like a giant crash course in art history over the course of human existence essentially.

Then we had to take three mandatory upper division classes. (Art History Politics of Display, (why/how we display art in museums and the implications of that) Art History Methodologies, (how to analyze art and the frameworks we use. like feminist, queer, postmodern lenses etc) And Art Historical Research (basically independent class to write a paper on an art history subject of your choosing. Like a mini dissertation or thesis normally the paper you’d submit for graduate programs when you apply)

And then the rest of our art history classes had to satisfy different regions and time periods. So you needed one European Art History class, One African or Middle Eastern Art History Class, One Latin American Art History Class, and then One Oceanic Art History Class or Arts and the Diaspora class

and then time periods you needed one prehistoric art history class, one classical civilization class, one renaissance time period, one 1800s, one modern.

And you could double dip so if I took class in exploring sexuality through Italian statutes in the 1500s class or smth it would count as a European art class and a renaissance class. (So you can check off an area and time period)

If you have any hour requirements that need to be met after you meet the above requirements you are free to take any other art history courses you want (this is how you can have an area of focus or concentration as an undergrad) so if I took a lot of modern art classes then I could say I had a bachelors degree in Art History with an emphasis on Modern Art

You span all time periods and regions of Art with an art history degree!! You tend to specialize in an area in graduate school or in your PhD program :)

I hope this makes sense!!! And wasn’t too confusing/too much!! <33

[inkandpen22]

Time is Irrelevant (3/?): The Beauty of a Perfect Rose

Pairing: Eleventh Doctor x Female!Reader 

Warnings: so much fluff

Word Count: 3k 

Part Summary: Y/N finds herself alone amongst the French Court and she’s panicking. Then, she meets a charming young gentleman who becomes quite fond by her. 

Masterlist

The Doctor ran off who-knows-where, so I decided to go on my own little adventure outside for some air. In truth, it’s hotter than the Sahara inside and I was feeling claustrophobic. A major flaw of mine, it doesn’t take much to get me to feel claustrophobic. Large crowds, small cars, closets, elevators, I can’t stand to be in any of them.

I take a breather on the grand terrace that overlooks the massive estate. Everything is so immaculate here. I’m amazed when I stare up at the night sky, in the future stars are too faint to see with all the lights. In 1778, the sky is lit up like a Christmas tree. Hundreds of bright tiny lights scatter the sky and they’re indescribably beautiful. The people who live in this time must take them for granted, unaware of their ancestors won’t have the pleasure of seeing them each night.

“It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves… ”

Out of the corner of my eye, I see a man appear beside me. He admires the starry night.

“You know Shakespeare, impressive," I compliment without thinking.

I swallow hard, I don't know French, at least not well. If we're counting a high school education, I'm an amateur. Wait, how could I understand him? How can he understand me? I spoke in English.

The man chuckles lightly, “what is more impressive is you could identify the words as Shakespeare, shows you know him well.”

I sway my head from side to side. “I suppose you could say I know a lot about English literature.”

“Do you visit England often?”

Aware of the everlasting feud amongst the nations, I deny the chance. Better safe than sorry, right? Especially since there's the American Revolution happening this moment and I’m meant to be a French lady of a higher social status. I must be loyal to France whole-heartedly.

“Not as much as I used to when I was a child. I simply enjoy the art and literature the English produce among other foreign creators," I answer rather diplomatically.

The gentleman snickers lightly, seemingly impressed by my reply. “I take it you travel often? You appear well-aware and educated on world matters.”

I suppress my laughter, the irony doesn't go over my head. I've traveled further in the last twenty-four hours than I have my whole life.

“Yes, traveling is one of my many passions!" I enthuse. "Experiencing other cultures of the world is fascinating to me and I almost need traveling to survive I feel.”

The stranger nods in agreement, “France is home but when there’s an entire world to be discovered, I never feel content settling here when I could be out there. Especially now with the new world across the sea. One day I wish to see them for myself.”

I turn to the gentleman and without a second thought, I encourage him to do so. I may be giving him the chance to survive the French Revolution.

“I’ve heard they’re incredible! Of course, I suggest you plan a visit for the colonies after the war.”

He meets my eyes with a smile. He's young, just a few years older than me maybe. “Definitely, speaking of, what is your opinion on the war between the so-called “patriots” and England?”

In my mind, I’m thinking the revolution was the best thing to happen to the world. America exists because of the revolution and my era wouldn’t be the same without it. However, this is 1778 and I’m supposed to be a French aristocratic woman, so my answer can’t be so blunt.

“My belief is our alliance with the colonists was a wise political move. Economically, the alliance with benefit us greatly, and by being allies we’re hitting England directly where they’ll feel the effects. In addition, the war is not on our land, so the people of France ultimately go untouched. It’s the perfect situation.”

The man smiles brightly, "You know Madame are-"

"You're Majesty," a man interrupts us. He bows to the stranger and I see the smile falter from the young man's face. "You're needed, Sire."

My eyes nearly pop out of my head once I comprehend what's happening. I stare at the gentleman wide-eyed. I've been speaking with King Louis XVI this entire time!

I quickly snap out of my state of shock to curtsy properly. "Your Majesty."

King Louis scoops up my hand as I rise from my curtsy. He kisses the back of it softly.

“Excuse me, Madame,” he requests calmly. “I promise to find you again tonight to further our conversation. It has truly been a pleasure.”

Swiftly, King Louis follows the man back into the palace without another word. He doesn't acknowledge that he never announced that he was the king. This entire time I’ve been speaking with King Louis and had no idea! I thought he was just another noble or something.

“Holy-” I gasp, into the air, covering my mouth in shock. King Louis XVI just kissed my hand, this is unreal! _________________________

I’ve found that if I act as though I know what I’m doing, I blend in and they assume I’m one of them. I've also learned that they think I'm speaking French. I open my mouth and I hear English, but for some reason, they hear my words in French. I'm going to have to ask the Doctor about this whenever he decides to come back.

Look at me go, The Doctor was so worried I would stand out amongst the French court for nothing. Well, pish-posh to that! For a young woman of the 21st century, I'm killing it! I made friends with some of the women attending the party, especially Thérèse-Lucy de Dillon. Everyone here is mainly interested in palace gossip. Having grown up in a somewhat small town where everyone knows everyone else's business, I know how to gossip and make it interesting.

Thérèse is one of Marie Antoinette's closest friends and one of her ladies-in-waiting. The most interesting part, she married her second cousin.

“Yes, quite lovely indeed.” I agree with Lady Thérèse about summers in Paris. I've never been to Paris, but I've watched enough TV and movies to fake it.

Thérèse fans herself, I must agree the room is undoubtedly hot. The idea of air conditioning hasn’t even been considered yet and it’s August according to the women. I hope The Doctor finds whatever he’s looking for so we can leave sooner rather than later. Acting this posh is draining!

A man clears his throat behind me, interrupting the circle from our conversation. I turn around and am met with a familiar face. I find myself frozen for a moment until out of the corner of my eye I see Thérèse curtsying and I do the same.

“Your Majesty,” we greet in unison

“Madames,” he smiles kindly to each of us. “Pleasure to see you again Madame de Dillon," he addresses Thérèse.

"Pleasure is all mine, Sir," she smirks.

King Louis then directs his attention to me with a grin. He scoops up my hand as he did before and plants a kiss there. “I don’t believe we have met Lady…”

I play along. “Benoit,” I reply with the first name I could conjure up.

“Madame de Dillon, would you mind if I stole Madame Benoit for a moment?” He asks.

“Not at all,” she complies, sending me a mischievous look. “If you would excuse us,” she curtsies to the King.

He grants his permission with a slight nod of his head. Once they're gone, King Louis gestures toward the doors leading out to the hall. I stroll with him into the hallway, leaving behind the lively atmosphere and the security of others' presence. Now, it’s just him and I, excluding two of his guards following us.

I admire the art hanging on the walls as we pass stroll. The time it must’ve taken to paint such detail is beyond me. I also think of how priceless these pieces will be in the future.

“Would you like to see the gardens?” He offers.

I jump at the opportunity eagerly, "oh could we?!"

The King chuckles lightly at my enthusiasm. I’m sure he isn’t used to receiving such a genuine reaction from someone. Everyone has to be so uptight around him.

"I'm sorry I-"

"No, no, don't apologize," he waves his hands to ease my nerves. "I'm glad to see your interest." He places a hand on my upper back gently. "They're right this way."

King Lous guides me through two glasses doors leading outside to the gardens. The area outside is lit with tall torches lining the paths throughout the entire estate. If I let myself overthink the fact that I’m strolling in a garden with King Louis XVI then I’ll geek out and ruin the chance of speaking with him truthfully. Thus, I must remain calm and try to not think about the circumstances. After all, I spent almost five minutes with him before without any slip-ups. Then again, I didn’t know I was speaking with the King of France.

“Madame Benoit, tell me,” he implores. “How is it we have yet to meet before tonight? Unless we have, but I believe I would have remembered the pleasure and your beauty would be quite memorable.”

My cheeks become warm, though I think the excessive amount of white powder Joséphine plastered on my face may mask my blushing.

“I’ve been away in Italy.” I make up a story as I go. “My father sent me away from my education. He wanted it to be only myself and my tutor constantly.”

King Louis seems impressed, even fascinated by my tale. The secret to a good cover-up is to lie as little as possible, to basically sugarcoat the truth. That way it’s easy to remember but also simple to discuss.

He glances up from the pebble-covered path to me. He raises his brow slightly. “What are you favorite subjects?”

I notice his body language, his interlocked behind his back. It’s very informal. He must be becoming comfortable around me. I first noticed the shift in his demeanor when we left the crowded party. He almost instantly relaxed once when we were out of everyone’s view.

“I enjoy literature and history above all. Yet, I also find learning to speak other languages such as English, Latin, and Italian all very fascinating.”

I make it a point to name the languages I’m positive His Majesty is fluent in. If this works to gain his approval, perhaps I could use my knowledge on him to gain earn his good graces.

He halts and I immediately dread that I may have said something wrong. Reluctantly, I meet his eye.

“You are quite the fascinating lady, Madam,” he states as if it’s fact.

He’s dropping compliments like candy from a Piñata. Granted, he’s French, they’re known for their romance. Plus, I’m sure Louis is used to charming women in his court. He is a politician after all.

“Thank you, Your Majesty,” I manage to say though I feel very exposed under his gaze. I mean, he is iconic after all, for good and bad reasons.

The two of us continue through the paths, exchanging facts about one another. I find similarities between us, genuine ones too! Everything I say about my interests and background is practically true, just altered a little, so there’s an honesty in our conversation.

“What are some of your favorite pieces of literature?” King Louis asks as we stop in front of the Fountain of Apollo.

I hum, pretending to be thinking over my favorite when in reality I’m rushing to remember work from before the Colonial Era. I can’t exactly say A Farewell to Arms, it doesn't exist yet.

“I don’t have a favorite piece per se because I prefer to read all sorts of work. Authors, philosophers, playwrights, I will read them all. Including the essays written by Rousseau or Voltaire in particular. Though they challenge the essence of our beloved country's system, I believe it is important to be well-read and educated on all points-of-view to form a legitimate opinion.”

In reality, Rousseau and Voltaire were geniuses with the An Essay on Tolerance and The Social Contract. Yet, I’m a women currently in a male dominated world. I shouldn’t be speaking of philosophers or politics.

He picks up my hand and holds it in both of his gently. My heart starts beating rapidly as my breathing catches in my throat. I’ve spoken out of turn for sure. I suppose my modern views can’t be so easily suppressed despite my efforts. I prepare for any insults he could say.

“You, Lady Benoit, are by far the most alluring woman I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.”

Taken aback, I was expecting the polar opposite reaction. I bow my head in gratitude. “Thank you, Your Majesty.”

He grins charmingly, “please, call me Louis.”

His request flatters me more than his compliments. It means far more to me that we share a bond rather than his appreciation of my appearance or words. Now, I know he respects which this time is rare to earn from a man.

This entire experience is so unreal and I feel as though I’m on cloud nine. In history books, these figures seems so far away, almost like fictional character. Yet, here I am, speaking to King Louis XVI and he just asked me to call him Louis.

“In that case Louis, please call me Y/N," I request in return.

In exchange for his respect, though I already did, I give him my real name. He is trusting in me by opening up, so the least I can do is give him my real name.

“Y/N,” he repeats to himself.

Boy, it sounds so beautiful with his perfect French accent. I could listen to him speak all day.

“So unique! Exquisite, the same could be said for the woman who possesses it," he smirks.

My gaze falls to the pebbles beneath us as we start to move again. I can feel Louis’s eye on me, but I can’t form the courage to meet his focus. In history, it’s said he is very shy and kept to himself. He certainly isn’t shy at the moment.

Unexpectedly, Louis jogs ahead a few feet and leans over the short perimeter of a small edge. I watch as he picks a flawless red rose from the massive bush.

He hurries back to me, gleaming. “For the girl who's beauty is unparalleled, even by that of the most perfect rose.”

Wow, he’s good, and he just came up with that? Smooth.

I accept the flower with a soft smile. “You’re too sweet.”

The back of his hand rises to my cheek and gently brushes against my skin.

“I see the world in your eyes,” he mutters under his breath, mere inches from my face.

My heart is pounding in my chest from both excitement and mere shock that this moment is occurring. King Louis is totally hitting on me right now. What am I supposed to do? This isn’t just some creep in a bar I can dismiss!

“You’re not what I expected… ” I blurt out in a whisper

It could never be more true. The history books don’t do him justice. Considering many of them were written off the accounts of people who were not close to him the lack of fact makes sense.

He laughs breathlessly, unfazed by my words. “‘expectation is the root of all heartache,’ as Shakespeare once said. What were you expecting?”

I shake my head, unsure in all honesty. Deciding to put a stop to his advances while things aren’t too complicated, I create some distance between us.

“I guess I was prepared to meet the person subject to the rumors and gossip. I was told to expect one person and was met with someone completely different,” I answer honestly.

“If it means anything, you’re unlike anyone I’ve ever met. You don’t treat me like the King, you treat me as you do anyone else and for that, I’m eternally grateful to you. It was that very fact that drew me to you! When we met you didn’t know who I was and I took advantage of that. Yet, hereafter you continue to treat me like the average man.”

“At the end of the day, we’re all human," I reason with a shrug. "Each of us play a role in life and yours happens to be King. You were born into your position, you didn’t choose it. The least I can do is treat you normally for all you do. When I look at you, I don’t see the King, I see Louis. The man who enjoys intellectual conversations, loves to travel, who one day will see the colonies for himself.”

I know the last part not to be true, but I can at least hope that he may listen to my advice and go.

Louis smiles softly, leaning in closer to me. I prepare to turn my cheek and dodge his lips when suddenly the rapid clicking of heels on the pebbles cause both of us to whip our heads toward the castle.

The same man before jogs up to us. He halts and bows to Louis, struggling to catch his breath.

“Your Majesty, you're requested by Her Majesty the Queen to give a toast and begin a dance."

Louis signs deeply, clearly not wanting to return to his duties. “Yes, very well, let us get it over with.” He starts to the palace in a brisk march.

I debate whether to follow Louis as I watch the man frantically tries to keep up with him. Suddenly stops in his tracks and the man nearly runs into him but skids to a halt. Louis turns on his heels and walks back to me, shaking his head.

“My apologizes, Y/N.” He offers me his hand, “accompany me please?”

If I do choose to return to the party hand-in-hand with him then it will be evident that we were alone together. People would have a field day for gossip. That wouldn't exactly count as 'laying-low.' Against my better judgement, I slip my hand into his. Louis kisses the back of it, then interlocks our arms. I place my free hand over his arm as well. Finally, he escorts me inside at a much slower pace than before, evidently not caring if he’s late. 

“Tell me about your family,” he requests, glancing at me with a joyful grin. 

_____________________

Masterlist

[marcussour]

As someone who was raised catholic (but today is really far from that reality and beliefs), it still, don’t want to say “baffles” me, but I do say kinda surprises me the popular (i.e. “US media”) depiction of average catholics as these guilt ridden beings that live their entire life frightful of god’s anger or dissapointment.

And look, I’m not saying that there are no catholics that are like that, but I can only assume that such a view must’ve come from the irish and italian catholics in the US (but mostly the irish, because italians in South America aren’t like that, or maybe it depends of where in Italy they came from, because northern and southern Italy are worlds apart); because at least in South America (you know, the continent with the larger number of catholics in the world), that’s not the most common view. Like, even if I live in a country where most of catholics live their religion in what’s been described as “chilean way catholicism” (which is, really lax if we’re being honest, like, not going to mass every sunday, or doing the communion, or following every sacrament), I still think that most people in South America are, either really relaxed about it (and certainly aren’t guilt ridden beings) or are really festive in the way they live their religion (South American carnivals, especially brazilian ones, are so fetishised by white americans and europeans that I think most of them forget that they started and are essentialy religious festivities), and there are other that are really hypocritical (your typical catholic millionaires or economic/political south american “elites” that do go to mess every sunday, but are usually followers of some really conservative catholic wing, like the opus dei, and do everything that goes against their supposed beliefs, and support child predator’s priests, dictators, human rights violations and the like).

But like, if you compare that to your average US media depiction (say, Daredevil for example, where that catholic guilt ™ is such an integral part of it’s character), that depiction of characters that are super guilt ridden and are constantly in penance or fearful of god’s wrath and what not, that’s something that I’ve barely seen in my whole life, except for one or two persons I’ve ever met.

What is weirder though is that, when it comes to latinx characters, their religion usually is front and center, but there’s not much of an evaluation or a proper depiction of their religious views, unless said media was created, developed or influenced by latinxs (The Book of Life is a really good example in the way it depicts mexican traditions that are a synthesis of native religion mixed with catholic influence, which ends up creating it’s own cultural identity, which is something that happens all across Latin America in it’s own ways -the spanish priests during colonial times had a knack for syncretism, incorporating native and indigenous beliefs into the catholic canon, creating a new tradition altogether, something that continues to this day, to the point where in most latin american countries we have “popular saints”, which are religious figures that are not recognized by the catholic church, or any other religion as such, but that had entire devotees and celebrations and cult followings-). 

So at the end, we end up with latinx characters that many times express their religious identity, but in a lazy way, where the writers have them making some kind of religious reference, that’s like, vaguely catholic and mostly amounts to a prayer that could be googled. I often come back to the example of Green Lantern Kyle Rayner in Omega Men, when he takes a crucifix and starts praying in spanish, which has always left me torn: On one hand, it’s like, the one instance that I can remember where I saw things in Kyle that left me thinking “this character is latinx” (instead of being just, something that I knew about him beforehand); on the other hand, it’s the only time where I’ve seen this character refers to something religious that could informe his worldview or personality, and considering he’s half irish and half mexican, it’s more than likely that he has a catholic upbringing, but that’s something that’s never been explored to my knowledge, and him suddenly praying in spanish while caught in an alien world, felt kinda out of nowhere (and still think it basically came down to “let’s do something symbolic that also reminds us that this character is latinx”).

[ofaylin]

⌠ BAHAR SAHIN, 19 CISFEMALE, SHE/HER ⌡ welcome back to gallagher academy, AYLIN KALELI! according to their records, they’re a THIRD year, specializing in LINGUISTICS, CULTURE, & ASSIMILATION AND RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT; and they DID go to a spy prep high school. when i see them walking around in the halls, i usually see a flash of (hair pulled back with a chanel ribbon, lycra boots with razor blades in the heel, champagne and french macarons in a bubble bath, wiping your tears with a $100 bill). when it’s the (leo)’s birthday on 8/3/00 they always request their FRENCH FRIES from the school’s chefs. looks like they’re well on their way to graduation.

STATS / PINTEREST / CONNECTIONS / CLASSES

INSPIRATION.

bex baxter – gallagher girls

carmen cortez – spy kids

blair waldorf – gossip girl

cher horowitz – clueless

torrance shipman – bring it on

jackie burkhart – that 70s show

cordelia chase – buffy the vampire slayer

tahani al-jamil – the good place

BACKGROUND + CLICK FOR BIO.

both of her parents work for the national intelligence organization of turkey, they’re big shots and they make a lot of money! she has two older sisters and she’s born into a world of wealth and expectations. 

it won’t take her long to learn more languages than years she has lived, and waking up early to run drills and do obstacle courses with her sisters is routine.

picture perfect on the outside, the household within goes through turmoil. her mother is promoted to the director of the NIO and it puts a strain on her parent’s relationship. 

her father starts taking more business trips, and aylin and her sisters spend nights sitting on the top of the stairs, listening in on phone conversations. aylin’s the youngest, so she doesn’t really understand what’s going on and needs to have it broken down.

aylin had always LOVED her parent’s love story – they met on a mission and they were partners for years, it’s all very romantic. so the divorce leaves her confused. how could you stop loving someone? how could you just give up?

both of her parents are an active part of her life, the divorce is…fairly amicable and they share custody. the only thing aylin doesn’t like is her father’s new girlfriend, young and totally uninvolved in the world of espionage. the girl could be her sister. 

aylin spends her time split between two houses, half-belonging to each, but her parents feel GUILTY so aylin quickly learns how to use that guilt to get what she wants, whether it’s freedom or material goods.

she’s a little spoiled, but it doesn’t satisfy her. nothing really does, it just makes her feel sort of empty, so she works harder, filling time with books and training with her older sisters who tell her cool stories from their spy prep schools and teach aylin things they’ve learned when they come home for breaks. 

aylin long for the day when she’s not splitting your time between other people’s homes and she’s in a place that she can really call her own.

she goes to the same spy prep school that her older sisters did in london. she’s competitive from the get-go because she’s a kaleli and people already expect things from her to begin with. she smiles when people call her by her sister’s name or mention her mother, but inside she’s seething, eager to prove that she’s good because she works hard, not because she’s someone’s sister or daughter.

it’d be a lie to say that aylin didn’t step on a few toes, and the way she skyrocket to valedictorian is a little less than savory.

she has her pick of spy prep colleges across the nation, but her mom really encourages her to choose gallagher. why? that’s weird, her mom never went there and neither does the rest of her family! but aylin really likes the idea of a place that’s all hers and she’s always wanted to see america, so she chooses it. 

she’s a bit smug about being ahead of others because she’s been reading books on espionage since age 4, and if you don’t know sixteen languages, stay out of her way.

PERSONALITY:

PROUD. aylin is a very proud person, she grew up in an affluent household with important parents. when faced with a challenge, it’s her pride that tends to motivate her to be the best because she feels like she has something to prove, and she’ll turn her nose up at you until she gets it. this also makes her stubborn.

INTELLIGENT. aylin was raised in an environment where she was being trained since her childhood, knowing about espionage since she could speak, but she also has an iq of 122, so not quite genius level but she’s getting there. she’s the head cheerleader type that you’d be surprised is actually really good at math.

HARD-WORKING. queen of taking on too many extracurriculars at all times! honestly she tends to overexert herself until she burns out, but she wants it all – the exciting social life, the straight As, the meaningful connections, the parties, when does she sleep? maybe never.

SNOBBISH. honestly, she doesn’t mean to come off as a snob but she definitely does because she hasn’t really known anything other than crystal dishware and fancy clothes. she doesn’t even comprehend that other people don’t come from the same place of privilege that she has.

FUN-LOVING. the girl you want to party with! just because she’s a good student, she wouldn’t want you to think that she doesn’t know how to have a good time. aylin operates in extremes, so she parties just as hard as she studies and has a tendency to get carried away, but let it be known that she’s doing this for herself and not for anyone else’s attention.

MANIPULATIVE. aylin will step on toes to get what she wants, and she’s not scared to fight dirty. she tends to stay in the lines of what’s legal of course, but if she sees a window into getting what she wants, she’ll say what she needs to in order to get it. honestly, she can be a bit callous with the way she uses people and doesn’t always understand the effects of her actions. she would tell you that the ends justify the means. yikes.

INDEPENDENT. doesn’t need you or anyone else and wants you to know it. her confidence is genuine and real, and she doesn’t attribute any of her accomplishments to her family name – she’s not insecure about it, she knows that she’s good at what she does.  

HEADCANONS.

started school early, so she’s a bit young for her grade by a year. she sees this as a positive thing and will brag to you about how she’s younger AND smarter. annoying.

acts like she really likes healthy food and eats a salad in public ( will tell you that’s her favorite food ) but she’s weak for things that are greasy and fried and will be pigging out in secret. her favorite food is french fries but you probably wouldn’t guess that about her !

LANGUAGES SHE KNOWS: english, french, turkish, arabic, german, kurmanji, italian, dutch, spanish, mandarin, japanese, latin, hindustani, malay, russian, bengali. some are better than others and some she reads more than she can really speak.

taught herself to skateboard since coming to america since it seemed like the thing to do based on watching american films. she will ride her little penny board in high heels around campus and loves it ! and you thought i couldn’t make her more annoying !

tons of expensive lingerie but u can look but don’t touch.

has a little stuffed rabbit in a tutu that she got as a baby named  dans tavşanı, and she always sleeps with it lol. however, it was recently stolen in her luggage when she was traveling home after the semester and she misses it a lot.

started drinking bc she wanted to be like her sisters and fit in and she’s fun to party with, but has never seen or touched a single drug in her life, not even weed. with parents that work for the government, she’s concerned about it. 

super into classic romances, her favorite book is pride and prejudice and jane austen is her favorite author! loves classic romance movies too, or anything by norah ephron. she’s lowkey a romantic and needs to be romanced and feel special before she’d ever consider dating someone or even crushing on them, really. scary movies freak her out though, she will lose her shit at a jump scare. 

her parents are not super strict about their religion, but she doesn’t eat pork and her dad doesn’t keep any alcohol in the house. she definitely keeps a lot of secrets from her parents, and they don’t know that she’s ever had a boyfriend. 

lowkey a HUGE nerd !!!!!!! 

leo with a virgo rising and cancer moon. i am so SORRY !

[queerchoicesblog]

Dear Italian Writer, Yes, I’m a Brazilian nonny! But, for the sake of your Tumblr tags, let’s stick with the “Latin American” nickname. Haha! You have a friend from São Paulo!!! That’s nice!!! I hope she/he is fine. We, Brazilians, are everywhere, but I’m curious. How did you two meet? If I’m not noisy, of course (:D :D). I’m going to be very honest. I hope my honesty doesn’t scare you. Things are pretty bad over here. /1

Sweetheart! 😊

Okay, I'll stick to Latin American Nonny for the sake of the tags xD where are you from in Brazil? If you don't mind me asking: ignore this if it makes you uncomfortable!

Yes, I do have a Brazilian friend and last time I I checked she was fine and so were her dear ones. I wrote her after you guys hit the news again as you mentioned (I'll go back to it later), I'm waiting for her answer.

How did we meet? It's a fun story actually! We met in Ireland on a day tour to Belfast: I mean, what were the chances? And I remember almost being late for it because I got lost and found a taxi last minute...when you say it was fate. Anyway, we were the only ones travelling solo, and the only two lesbians travelling solo but we discovered it later so no "oh they were travelmates" 😅 We sticked together for the day, back in Dublin she showed me around a little (she has spent a whole week there), grabbed a bite and a pint at Temple Bar and we ended up in a gay bar for the night. Sadly, she had a flight the day after and I had to go back to the town I was based in but we have been in touch ever since. I would love to visit her and he girlfriend one day.

Now, grim news time...sadly, I have heard the news of Manaus and I got chills. Truly. Like, no I don't want this to happen, this can't be happening. I am concerned and it's heartbreaking when someone can't see a future for them in your own country. I get it, to some extent but I don't mean to compare our situations now. Dear nonny, I don't know if this makes sense but is there anything we can do to help?

Also, if I am not nosy, where would you like to go?

In Italy we...well, we're going through nonsense. A self-absorbed moron in our parliament is causing a government crisis. In the middle of a fucking pandemic we are struggling enough with only to prove he's better than our current prime minister. And God knows how it's gonna end. And the vaccination campaign is going slower than expected; to add insult to injury, the other day we lost almost a thousand doses of vaccine due to a refrigerator malfunction. But I don't wanna complain about that especially when I am aware we are in a privileged condition.

I DO LOVE INDOCHINE! And you, my friend, are the first person I speak to who seems to know what I am talking about! We must definitely add going to an Indochine concert together to the travelling list. Of course, I am not forgettingabout the Shibden Hall tour. We all need something nice to look forward to these days, right?

Oh they definitely do weird stuff in their videos! It's part of their aesthetic and philosophy, I think. And of course I know that song! It's absolutely gorgeous and you put it down into words way better than I could possibly do. I find that it is just the perfect anthem for these trying times - together with No Time For Love (Like Now), have you heard it? To me it's POETRY! Here is the link, if any of you reading this is interested.

"Et nous serions invincibles, réussir au moins ça"

[typinggently]

A cat’s honour

-

Napollya Mob AU

-

While things might not be very civil between the Russians, the Germans and the Locals, over the years some agreements have been made to make coexisting a little easier. The Russians do the weapons, the Germans do the smuggling, the Americans do the drugs.

However, little by little, a new family establishes a certain amount of power in the area, threatening not one, but all three of the competing families - The Italians. Very inconvenient, considering the fragile power balance the other three families try to uphold. Sensing that this new influence has the potential to start a terribly bloody mess, an agreement is made in secret: the Italians have to GO and for that to happen, the other three families will work TOGETHER.

-

All of this, of course, is only the background noise for what happens next. Fake relationship enemies to lovers found family m e s s.

-

Gaby, Illya and Napoleon have NEVER met before when they are all called in to go “undercover” and pretend to be harmless citizens renting out a villa in suspicious proximity to the new threat. It’s a very, very bad plan, considering that

a) a family where two members have suspicious accents moving into the area shortly after the Italians establish their interest in poking the various wasp nests they find is just not very subtle.

and of course

b) neither of them is in ANY way trained to go undercover, not to mention act. At all.

-

However, no one asked them. So here they are, terrible cover stories more or less memorised, off to be the heroes their families need them to be (and hopefully make it out alive):

Napoleon Solo, known thief and nuisance to everyone, his family included - which is why he was chosen to do this: he wouldn’t exactly be missed. Naturally he has some skills, breaking and entering, pretending he has a LICK of class, spiking drinks. May come in handy, who knows? Slick hair and slick personality, sharp smiles and glinting canines, claws and knives wrapped in silk.

Gaby Teller, terribly competent mechanic and probably the best actress of the bunch, considering people who don’t know her actually but the whole “straight” act. Her family decided that someone in the team should probably get the job done and it obviously wasn’t going to be the men. A mouth smeared with lipstick and blood, rough hands and perfumed wrists, a sharp voice and warm words.

Illya Kuryakin was chosen because he gets the job done. He’s tall, he’s strong, he has fits of uncontrollable rage. If someone is capable of taking down a whole house full of armed men by himself (because who’s going to help? Those two clowns? Please.), it’s him. If anyone were to question this, they’d only have to take a look at his skin, for in this family, traditions are honoured and ink and needles tell a life’s story drenched in violence. Shaking hands and fluttering lashes, bloody knuckles and white lines, faded ink and undying loyalty.

-

(So the excuse for this is that I got really into vintage Russian prison tattoos one night. And I went “let’s put THESE on my BABE”. So I did this. I wanted him as covered as possible, so I had to change a few things since the tattoos in some ways didn’t fit a modern aesthetic - while religious imagery would be anarchist in a religion-free state, nowadays it would simply look, well, religious. So the fool had to get creative. Also naturally Napoleon takes one look at the supposed “interior designer” and goes “please pray the fuck tell how we explain that the bitch has neck and knuckle tattoos“. So Illya has to wear turtlenecks and cover his hand tattoos with a watch and a cast. He’s super furious about it, of course.

Also I had a LOT of fun just making all three of them utter bastards. They are all terrible people, it’s glorious. And I wanted an opportunity to make Illya a little more promiscuous and this was the perfect excuse. One of his tattoos is a very crude line of Latin poetry, which Napoleon is dirty enough to know. (Yes, it’s Catullus’ “I will sodomise and face-fuck you”, thx). They also flirt-bully each other a lot. I.e.: In a nod to Movie-canon, Illya calls Napoleon Pussy, since Cat is a Russian term for thief - hence the title of this wip.

Do they fuck? Yes, of course.)

-

Anyhow this is a mere idea. Kick me if interested

[mid0nz-archive]

The Cannibal & the Consulting Criminal: How Silence and Sherlock Taught Me to Read

(I’m writing a series of autobiographical essays. This meta is a messy. messy warm up…)  

PART I:  TSotL The Odd Flash of Contextual Intelligence

Know your intertexts (and the limits of their influence)

I’ve spent a LOT of time writing about the influence of Harris on Mark Gatiss in particular. We have Harris to thank for Sherlock’s mind palace for starters. Moriarty and Dr. Lecter share many traits. Then again so do the psychiatrist and Sherlock. I’ll come back to these obvious connections between Sherlock and TSotL in a later part of this meta. (The connections are actually quite superficial.) For now I want to return to my first obsession: the genius cannibal who taught me how to read and the fandom that saved me from him.

Do your research.

Thomas Harris, author of The Silence of the Lambs, choses every word with great care. How many people, for example, do you know called Hannibal? Clarice is more common I suppose, but it’s certainly not a run-of-the-mill monicker. While starlings are the most common of birds have you ever met someone with that surname? Have you ever met a Lecter?  What if I told you there is an extremely obscure historical figure called Hannibal the Starling? (You’ll find the reference in Smith’s Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology if you seek.) Would you think that Harris must have heard of that man? Possibly. Possibly. If I told you that Harris makes most of his characters’ names up– that they sound plausible enough, but unless you’re an everyman like a Jack Crawford or a Will Graham you’re a Francis Dolarhyde or an Ardelia Mapp.

Ardelia Mapp? In the novel Ardelia is Clarice Starling’s roommate at the FBI academy. When exams roll around and Clarice has been too busy hunting Buffalo Bill to read her textbooks, it’s Ardelia who makes sure that Clarice knows all about search and seizures. Adelia Mapp. Ardeila Mapp. What kind of name is that? It helps if we cram along with Clarice:

Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643 (1961), was a landmark case in criminal procedure, in which the United States Supreme Court decided that evidence obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment, which protects against “unreasonable searches and seizures”, may not be used in criminal prosecutions in state [or] federal courts. (x)

Hey Thomas Harris!

Recognize when there’s a joke and you’re not getting it.

Thomas Harris amuses himself with language. Clarice comes from the Latin root clar and the words related to pertain to brilliance and light and the illustrative. And Lecter? So many people have tried to trace its origins but all becomes clear when you think about its etymology. In Latin lector means reader.

Clarice’s boss, Jack Crawford, likes to quote impressive sounding things out of context. Dr. Lecter mocks him for picking and choosing passages of the Meditations of the Roman Emperor, Stoic philosopher, and persecutor of Christians, Marcus Aurelius.

“I’ve read the cases, Clarice, have you? Everything you need to know to find him is right there [in the case files], if you’re paying attention. Even Inspector Emeritus, Crawford should have figured it out. Incidentally, did you read Crawford’s stupefying speech last year to the National Police academy? Spouting Marcus Aurelius on duty and honor and fortitude— we’ll see what kind of a Stoic Crawford is when Bella [his wife] bites the big one. He copies his philosophy out of Bartlett’s Familiar, I think. If he understood Marcus Aurelius, he might solve this case.”   “Tell me how.”   “When you show the odd flash of contextual intelligence, I forget your generation can’t read, Clarice. The Emperor councils simplicity. First principles. Of each particular thing, ask: What is it in itself, in its own constitution? What is its causal nature?”   “That doesn’t mean anything to me.”   “What does he do, the man you want?”

I could go on and on about how Harris allows Dr. Lecter to reference Stoicism and all kinds of other ideas for his own amusement. I say amusement because the reader need not understand Dr. Lecter’s jokes to enjoy Harris’ books. Clarice doesn’t and she doesn’t pretend to. Oh how Dr. Lecter fancies his student! I could go on and on because the entire fucking book is a compendium of in-jokes. That in itself is Stoic food for thought. Diogenes Laertius recounts a Stoic idea that Harris likes to chew on.

“Some appearances are expert (technikai), others are inexpert; at any rate a picture is observed differently by an expert and the inexpert person.”

Julia Annas explains:

A non-expert will just see figures; the expert will see figures that represent gods.  The expert is right— there really is that significance- and the non-expert is missing something. What is more surprising to us is the claim that the appearance is itself “expert.” The expert is not seeing anything that is not there for the ignoramus to see.  It is the fault of the ignoramus that he fails to see what is to be seen, because he fails to understand the content of what is presents to him. (82) - Hellenistic Philosophy of Mind by Julia Annas

Lecter, the consummate reader, is the expert. Clarice, who’s not more than one generation from the mines, is the ignoramus.  Yet she shows the odd flash of contextual intelligence.

Discern clues from NOISE.

Though their relationship was weird, close, and lasting Clarice would never realize that Dr. Lecter gave her everything she needed to know to catch Buffalo Bill the first time they met!

On that fateful day, with instructions from Jack Crawford to note anything and everything she sees, Clarice shows enough intelligence to asks Dr. Lecter about the drawings in his cell. Dr. Lecter replies:

It’s Florence. That’s the Palazzo Vecchio and the Duomo, seen from the Belvedere. Do you know Florence?“

If Clarice were prepared "to read” Dr. Lecter’s work, she might have understood the significance of the image. She’s the very model of the Stoic ignoramus.

Clarice finds Buffalo Bill/Jame Gumb by recognizing his personal acquaintance with the first victim he skinned, Fredrica Bimmel. They both lived in Belvedere, Ohio where Clarice finds Gumb while Crawford’s teams go all SWAT on John Grant’s last known address. We find out later in the novel that Dr. Lecter knew Gumb lived in Belvedere, Ohio.  Perhaps he was musing on the facts of the case while composing his sketches.

Jack Crawford, of all people, should have noticed the name “Belvedere” and made the connection.  His dying wife’s name is Phyllis but he’s called her Bella for most of their entire relationship. Phyllis and Jack were both stationed in Italy and during one of their outings, a man called Phyllis “Bella,” or beauty.  Bella is the feminine form; “bel” is the masculine form, as in bel vedere, or beautiful view.  We learn later that Clarice has to work hard to trick herself into seeing any beauty in Belvedere, Ohio.  

Now you’ve got the facts. Theorize with them.

There is another explanation as to why Crawford might have missed the clue in Dr. Lecter’s drawing from Clarice’s notes.  Clarice does not know Italian. How would she have written the sketch’s title in her report? Dr. Lecter does not say, when she asks about the sketch, that is is the Old Plaza and the Dome seen from the Belvedere (pronounced in English, be-vuh-deer as in Belvedere, Ohio). Dr. Lecter says all the proper names in Italian except “Florence.” Florence is the English name for the city Italians call Firenze.  Clarice’s ear would catch “Florence” and it may be that her report stated that the sketch was of Florence, but no further details.  She doesn’t, after all, ask Dr. Lecter how to spell the names of the places with which she is unfamiliar.  Crawford, reading a reasonably detailed report from Clarice, might have only noted that Dr. Lecter was sketching Florence– enough detail for a report if you don’t know what you’re looking at.  Clarice, while an ignoramus in the Stoic sense, shows potential.  Dr. Lecter is polite when he surmises that she is “innocent of the Gospel of St. John.” He calls her innocent, not ignorant.  She’s simply not an expert in iconography. She sees all she can see in the image.  Crawford, however, is experienced enough with Dr. Lecter to know how important images are to him.  Will Graham captured Dr. Lecter in Red Dragon by recognizing that one of his victims was posed in a tableau of a Wound Man in one of Dr. Lecter’s books.  Graham was an expert. We can’t be sure from simply reading the text that Dr. Lecter isn’t making the epiphany of “Belvedere” especially difficult to decode even if Clarice were to have written a verbatim transcript of their discussion. In speech Dr. Lecter may be pronouncing the proper names as an American would, or, alternately, with an Italian accent.  He could be pronouncing the incidental proper names (Palazzo Vecchio and the Duomo) in an Italian accent and “Belvedere” in an American accent to dare Clarice and Jack to take notice. Or, he could be pronouncing all the names in an Italian accent, a fact could be lost in translation between Clarice, innocent of Italian, and Crawford, who knows just enough to have had an epiphany. Each scenario is possible and each reveals a slightly different interpretation of Dr. Lecter’s motives. If we take Thomas Harris himself as the final authority, in the audiobook Harris reads Dr. Lecter’s part. Harris says all proper nouns including “Belvedere” with an Italian accent (albeit with a Mississippi drawl.)

Yeah ok SO WHAT?! And what about Sherlock?!

In Part II I’ll talk about TSotL as an intertext to Sherlock and the limits of this influence. I’ll compare Dr. Lecter’s method of reading to James Moriarty’s. I’ll talk about why & how I crawled out of the cannibal’s skull and into the consulting criminal’s and where I am going next… Or I just might try to revamp this to make more sense. I dunno…

[handsred]

italian beauty ? ages like fine wine !

( marisa tomei, 53, cis female, she/her, cousin ) Did anyone else just see FRANCESCA ‘FRANCES’ LEWIS NEE FAUST ? I hear for the FAUST family they can be a bit FINICKY & OBJECTIVE. But I also heard they can be WISE & MOTHERLY. If you dare, I hear they frequent ATLANTIS - IN in their spare time when they aren’t being a MEDIC / OWNER OF HONEY’S BAKERY. Tread carefully or else you might be next on their list !

biography ( tw: weapons, illness / death ):

francesca lucia filomena faust is a girl crafted after tuscany summers and renaissance paintings. a woman beloved by her family and by the ones lucky enough to 'bask in her afterglow.’ 

first cousin of matthew faust, former leader of the mafia, francesca grows up the ‘golden girl’ of the faust family. she’s too sweet, too warm. they keep her sheltered for a good part of her childhood before enough’s enough. time to teach their darling girl the ropes, if only to protect her from the horrors of their business.

she doesn’t take to the business - not as well as her cousin does. that’s not to say she wasn’t gifted in certain parts of the trade. in fact, she’s very gifted with guns. recognizing she’s not much of a close range fighter, they teach her how to be a sniper and she soars. but any firearm will do. 

yet she prefers to heal than harm, and they allow her to ever so slowly break away from their dirty missions to discover medicine. they do this with pressed smiles. they want her as a gunner, but she’ll become a medic. if she has to be anything at all. 

francesca goes to medical school. she’s exceptionally brilliant and charming, and it serves her well. after all, she did graduate high school early. doctor faust is a title on the tip of tongues at every sunday dinner. 

love changes her future drastically, in the form of a man named abraham lewis. it’s just after she’s graduated med school that he waltzes into her life, uproots it, and teaches her warmth again. she realizes she’s lost it over the years.

honey’s bakery is abe’s family’s business. passed down generations like the mafia has for the fausts. francesca and abraham marry a year later and she decides to throw away her titles in favor of a renewed hope. her family keep her as a ‘part-time medic’ and she obliges. she loves them, after all. 

a few years ago, francesca suffers a loss so great it leaves her breathless. abe experiences a heart attack and dies on the way to the hospital. it’s sudden and surprising and she doesn’t know what to do. in his will, he leaves the bakery to her. it’s their child, they’d joke. they never had the time ( or the luck ) to have kids. 

in his memory, she runs neutral ground. honey’s bakery is known for every walk of life coming through its doors to get a taste of warmth in a city of cold intentions. and she’s hellbent on keeping it that way. her family do not push her for the territory, but she is supplied security to keep things running smoothly for customers. and for her well-being. 

frances lewis is an alias she’s adopted since her marriage. because of her name and her business, not many turn their heads for revenge or cruel fun. she doesn’t go around announcing she’s a faust, either. 

plus, there’ll be a number of pissed off customers if someone lays a hand on the brunette. she’s known around chicago as ‘mom’ and ‘aunt’ and ‘godmother’ and ‘friend.’ without her? who’ll bake that perfect fucking maple bacon cupcake, and serve it with a playful joke? no one could live up to the creations she and her former husband have perfected, and no one could do it with a better grin.

details:

frances worked for her family until she was nearing her graduation as a doctor. during her years in the faust family business, she served mainly as a sniper. she’s still great with her marksmanship and guns in general, but she’s horrible at close combat / other weapons / endurance / etc. 

she is technically a doctor, but she’s never enforced the title. in fact, she’s sorta kicked that old dream to the curb because she adores the bakery so much. while she is an amazing cook / baker thanks to her italian upbringing and her husband’s passion, she sees the bakery as a child she and her former husband shared. and that’s why it holds such a dear place in her heart.

frances doesn’t involve herself too heavily with the family business. in fact, the majority of the time, she simply doesn’t want to know what’s going on unless it may concern her or puts her immediate family in harm’s way. as for everything else? the faust kids are all adults now, they can handle it without her getting in the dang way. her words exactly. the only time she works for the mafia is when they need her to perform as a doctor in dire circumstances. she huffs a lot about doing this, but she does it. 

family is everything to frances. and while hers has its fair share of interesting dynamics, she wouldn’t trade them for the world. it’s safe to say she’s the mom of the group, visiting the faust manor for dinners and celebrations and bringing all the sweets with her. she spoils her loved ones, and insists on maintaining that old-fashioned italian family values. 

she carries a lot of the faust cookbooks passed down. she helped teach oliver his love of cooking and probably forced most of her family to learn a thing or two in the kitchen. she is always visiting ollie’s just to be a perfectionist / pest and correcting sauces, dishes, etc. 

she enjoys visiting atlantis-in because #nostalgia. when she was a kid, she definitely went to a lot of drive-in theaters with dates and got up to her own mischief. she loves films and shows and she’s actually up to date on that. want some movie recs? she’s got a thousand lined up. has a soft spot for foreign films / older films. 

frances is bisexual, biromantic. she has dated both men and women, and she hardly cares which. the last few years she has leaned more towards women, though. 

she speaks the following languages: english, italian, basic latin, average spanish, french, american sign language. 

when she’s emotional ( angry, upset, etc ), she rambles in italian. a lot of hand gestures, a lot of hilarious italian cuss words / slang. it’s truly a spectacle. 

has an alley cat she takes care of called ‘little shit.’ that’s literally it. she loves the little shit, feeds the little shit, keeps an eye out for him. but he’s a pain in her ass. 

wanted connections:

all of them

faust family dynamics

best friend around her age 

childhood friend ( chicago native )

penpal/s

family friends

friends

neighbors ( lives in her own house )

ex husband’s friends / family / connections 

employees 

frequenters at the bakery

security for the bakery

someone/s she patched up as a medic / doc student 

college folks 

medical folks she’s met ( doctors, nurses, etc ) somehow

exes from before her marriage ( she’s bisexual )

maybe one ex after her marriage but it was shitty and way too soon to date for her

ex / current flings, one night stands, blind / regular dates 

people she mothers / practically adopted

people she babysits for

( unrequited ) crush on her

( unrequited ) crush she has one someone

enemies / rivals

someone who’s an enemy and maybe knows who she is but they’re like dammit i like your bakery too much and you’re chill so i’ll keep it on the down low

someone/s who saved her throughout her life

someone who calls her when they’re drunk or w/e and need her to come and pick them up / let them sleep shit off on her couch and they’re such a hassle but she does it

drinking buddies 

gym / fitness buddies

i’m braindead by this point

[baromtm-blog]

⋆ ╰  another  year  at  hollingsworth  ,  another  year  of  the  big  six  rivalry  .  i  hear  that  BAROM  BANG  is  ensuring  PHI  GAMMA  IOTA  gets  a  solid  pledge  class  and  stays  at  the  top  of  the  ranks  . oh  ,  you’re  not  familiar  with  HIM  ?  ROMY  is  the  KIM  YUGYEOM  look  alike  from  CHARLESTON  ,  SOUTH  CAROLINA .  apart  of  PC  ‘16  ,  he  is  majoring  in  FINE  /  STUDIO  ARTS  and  has  plans  to  DEBUT  HIS  ARTWORK  AT  A  RENOWNED  MUSEUM  after  undergrad  .  it  makes  sense  they  pledged  their  house  ,  their  SAGACIOUS  &  CHIVALROUS  attributes  make  them  perfect  matches  .  however  ,  their  PUERILE  &  CONCUPISCENT  attributes  keep  their  name  alive  on  greek  rank .  if  you  don’t  catch  them  dancing  to  PLAYING  GAMES  -  SUMMER  WALKER  at  a  fraternity  band  party  this  year  ,  you’ll  be  sure  to  catch  them  nursing  their  morning  hangover  at  THE  LOFT  APARTMENTS  . cheers to  another  wild  semester  !

          hi  babies ,  it’s  ares  again  with  another  muse  !  he  is  a  slight  mash  of  the  chara  i  was  originally  gonna  bring  to  the  group ,  but  decided  that  i  like  this  version  much  better  !  i  won’t  talk  your  ears  off  about  myself  or  anything  since  i  know  this  intro  is  about  to  be  ...  how  do  i  say  ...  lengthy  as  it’s  very  background  /  family  history  heavy .  but  as  always ,  i  can’t  wait  to  write  with  everyone  (  again  !  )  and  i’m  not  ashamed  to  admit  that  j*stin  b*eber’s  ‘ journals  ’  helped  a  lot  with  muse  lmao . i’m  also  a  complete  IDIOT  who  reblogged  the  same  gifset  twice  but  i  refuse  to delete  it  because  yugyeom  is  beautiful ,  don’t  fight  me  on  that .

trigger  warnings :  detailed  talk  of  religion ,  minor  mentions  of  death ,  poor  writing ,  and  sugaring .

korean name  :  bang  ba-rom .

preferred spelling / arrangement  :  barom  bang .

nicknames  :  romy  /  romey  and  romeo  (  by  his  older  sister  only  ) . 

birthday  /  age  :  february  14th ,  1998  /  21 .

zodiac  :  aquarius .

pronouns  :  he  /  him  or  they  /  them .

gender  :  genderfluid .

sexual  orientation  :  bisexual .

romantic  orientation  :  biromantic .

height  :  6′0″  (  six  foot  ,  zero  inches  ) . 

hometown  :  charleston ,  south  carolina .  (  click !  )

current  location  :  savannah ,  georgia .

nationality  :  korean - american .

ethnicity  :  korean .

languages  spoken  :  english ,  korean ,  japanese ,  elementary  latin ,  and  conversational  mandarin .

bang  family  inspo  :  the  greenleafs  (  greenleaf  )  ,  the  gemstones  (  the  righteous  gemstones  )  ,  and  the  osteens .     

          𝖎𝖙  𝖜𝖆𝖘  𝖙𝖍𝖊  𝖘𝖚𝖒𝖒𝖊𝖗  of  1958  when  𝑘𝑖𝑚  𝑗𝑖-𝑚𝑖𝑛  was  born  in  sydney ,  australia  to  dong-wook  and  sook-ja ,  immigrants  from  seoul ,  south  korea .  the  family  was  small ,  but  loving  as  it  was  fueled  with  love ,  patience ,  and  the  parents’  love  for  the  lord .  ji-min  grew  up  in  a  home  that  was  religious ,  but  not  to  the  extreme ,  as  she  was  expected  to  go  to  bible  study  on  wednesdays  and  attend  service  on  sundays .  dong-wook  and  sook-ja  were  pillars  of  their  community  --  they  hosted  potlucks  after  service ,  always  had  small  cookouts  whenever  they  felt  the  need  to ,  and  they’d  give  the  clothes  off  of  their  backs  if  someone  needed  clothes .  overall ,  the  kims  were  the  neighbors  that  everyone  wanted ,  so  everyone  around  them  was  crushed  when  the  kims  decided  to  leave  behind  australia  for  the  states  --  specifically ,  south  carolina .

          𝖙𝖍𝖊  𝖋𝖆𝖒𝖎𝖑𝖞  𝖔𝖋  𝖙𝖍𝖗𝖊𝖊  settled  in  the  city  of  charleston ,  south  carolina  and  during  this  time ,  dong-wook  and  sook-ja  came  up  with  the  idea  to  open  their  own  church .  so ,  in  the  late  1960s ,  songbird  church  was  born .  of  course ,  the  congregation  was  small  (  as  was  the  church  building  itself  )  and  the  kims  paid  their  way  through  divinity  school  in  order  to  become  pastor  and  first  lady  respectively .  through  the  years ,  the  congregation  at  songbird  began  to  grow  to  the  point  where  they  were  able  to  purchase  a  bigger  building ,  and  the  kims  were  once  again  pillars  of  their  community .  during  this  time ,  ji-min  met  a  member  of  the  congregation  named  𝑏𝑎𝑛𝑔  𝑗𝑜𝑛𝑔-𝘩𝑦𝑢𝑛  who  was  only  a  year  older  than  the  then  fourteen  year  old .  the  couple  dated  for  four  years  before  getting  married  in  1982 ,  about  four  months  after  ji-min  turned  eighteen .

          𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍  𝖙𝖍𝖊  𝖉𝖊𝖛𝖊𝖑𝖔𝖕𝖒𝖊𝖓𝖙  𝖔𝖋  technology ,  it  was  the  start  of  1986  when  songbird  was  first  televised  and  thus  changed  from  songbird  church  to  songbird  ministries .  dong-wook  and  sook-ja  drew  in  a  large  amount  of  viewers  through  their  channel ,  and  it  was  soon  that  they  were  moving  their  church  once  again  to  a  bigger  building .  ji-min  and  jong-hyun  decided  to  head  off  to  harvard’s  divinity  school  to  help  run  the  church  as  co-pastors .  soon,   the  televised  services  were  being  given  in  english ,  spanish ,  and  korean ,  one  of  the  first  churches  to  do  so .  three  years  later ,  ji-min  and  jong-hyun  welcomed  their  first  child ,  𝒏𝒂-𝒚𝒆𝒐𝒏 ,  in  the  winter  of  1989 .  after  the  birth  of  na-yeon ,  the  bangs  were  soon  having  the  second  child ,  a  son  named  𝒋𝒊-𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒐𝒍 ,  in  1993 . 

          (  death  tw  )  𝖘𝖔𝖓𝖌𝖇𝖎𝖗𝖉  𝖒𝖎𝖓𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖗𝖎𝖊𝖘  𝖍𝖆𝖉  𝖎𝖙𝖘  first  tragedy  when  dong-wook  passed  unexpectedly  from  a  heart  attack  in  1995 .  considering  that  dong-wook  and  sook-ja  never  had  any  other  children ,  the  position  of  lead  pastor  was  given  to  ji-min  and  jong-hyun  was  considered  to  be  the  ‘  first  husband  ’  of  the  church .  sook-ja  took  on  the  role  of  co-pastor  as  she  was  getting  older ,  and  would  often  lead  women’s  retreats  and  things  of  the  sort .  three  years  after  dong-wook’s  unexpected  death ,  jong-hyun  and  ji-min  welcomed  their  third  baby ,  another  son  named  𝒃𝒂-𝒓𝒐𝒎 .  it  was  a  year  later  when  sook-ja  decided  to  formally  retire  from  songbird ,  leaving  the  church  in  the  hands  of  jong-hyun  and  sook-ja .  the  two  of  them  brought  new  ideas  to  the  table  and  soon ,  the  church  grew  even  more  than  it  had  in  its  near  30  years  that  it  had  been  open .

          𝖎𝖓  𝖙𝖍𝖊  𝖘𝖕𝖗𝖎𝖓𝖌  𝖔𝖋  2000 ,  the  final  bang  baby  was  born ,  a  healthy  baby  girl  named  yuna .  the  family  continued  to  hold  high  positions  within  their  community ,  and  everyone  knew  their  names  wherever  they  went ,  and  in  the  fall  of  2008  the  family  opened  the  doors  of  the  songbird  ministries  campus ,  where  they  were  able  to  seat  16.9k  congregates .  by  this  time ,  na-yeon  was  attending  duke’s  divinity  school  with  aspirations  of  becoming  a  co-pastor  at  songbird  while  ji-cheol  was  a  youth  pastor .  so ,  where  did  that  leave  little  ba-rom  ?

          𝖋𝖗𝖔𝖒  𝖆  𝖞𝖔𝖚𝖓𝖌  𝖆𝖌𝖊 ,  barom  knew  that  he  didn’t  want  to  be  a  part  of  songbird .  while  he  did  love  the  church  and  everything ,  he  knew  that  being  a  pastor  wasn’t  in  the  cards  for  him .  much  like  many  middle  children ,  barom  felt  like  he  was  often  overlooked  or  ignored ,  so  his  parents  didn’t  really  pay  much  attention  as  he  did  what  he  wanted  to .  it  didn’t  help  that  na-yeon  would  often  cover  for  him .  barom  was  the  child  who  only  embraced  his  church  boy  image  when  it  was  necessary  for  him ,  and  when  he  reached  high  school  and  would  often  find  himself  sitting  across  from  the  principal ,  his  favorite  phrase  was  ‘  don’t  you  know  who  my  parents  are  ?  ’   barom ,  even  though  he  was  often  overlooked ,  was  ridiculously  spoiled  by  his  parents .  during  his  summers  away  from  charleston ,  he  was  often  spending  time  at  the  family’s  summer  house  in  the  hamptons  or  when  winter  break  rolled  around  he  was  jetting  off  to  the  aspen  mountains  for  some  snowboarding .

          𝖉𝖚𝖗𝖎𝖓𝖌  𝖍𝖎𝖘  𝖞𝖔𝖚𝖙𝖍 ,  𝖇𝖆𝖗𝖔𝖒  had  an  affinity  for  the  arts ,  particularly  fine  arts .  he  liked  going  to  museums ,  he  enjoyed  getting  new  art  supplies  for  christmas  or  his  birthday ,  and  he  often  took  home  first  place  whenever  he  entered  into  his  school’s  art  competitions .  this  explains  why  after  he  graduated  from  high  school ,  he  began  to  look  into  art  programs  at  various  schools .  the  summer  before  attending  college  (  ultimately  at  hollingsworth  u.  )  barom  goes  off  to  italy  to  take  a  summer  long  art  course .  he  was  staying  in  venice  and  spent  most  of  his  days  sketching ,  painting ,  and  making  memories  until  he  encountered  a  man  a  few  years  older  than  him .  at  only  twenty  six ,  the  man  was  wealthy  and  liked  to  flaunt  it ,  especially  with  a  wide - eyed  barom .  they  spent  time  on  the  man’s  yacht ,  partying  with  other  wealthy  italian  locals .  funnily  enough ,  at  that  time ,  barom  only  wanted  one  thing  from  the  man  --  his  money .

          𝖔𝖋  𝖈𝖔𝖚𝖗𝖘𝖊 ,  𝖇𝖆𝖗𝖔𝖒  𝖈𝖔𝖚𝖑𝖉  pay  his  own  way  and  do  whatever  he  wanted ,  but  there  was  something  about  being  able  to  bat  his  eyelashes  and  make  someone  weak  in  the  knees  that  made  him  feel  powerful .  in  essence ,  barom  had  become  a  sugar  baby ,  and  he  was  perfectly  content  with  that .  no  one  could  tell  him  no ,  and  boy  was   he bratty  if  they  even  attempted  to .  the  summer  comes  to  a  close  and  he’s  back  stateside  to  attend  his  first  year  of  college ,  and  all  goes  well .  during  this  time ,  barom  decides  to  pledge  phi  gamma  iota ,  the  epitome  of  nice  boy  frats ,  but  barom  was  nothing  close  to  a  nice  boy .  during  his  second  semester ,  barom  became  involved  with  his  second  sugar  daddy ,  a  rolling  in  dough  man  in  his  forties  who  was  bound  to  take  over  his  father’s  oil  company  in  texas .  the  man  was  on  vacation  in  savannah ,  ga  (  with  his  wife ,  no  less  )  when  he  encountered  barom  at  a  lively  nightclub  in  town .  he  may  have  only  been  eighteen ,  but  barom  soon  had  the  man  tipsy  and  wrapped  around  his  finger ,  whispering  sweet  nothings  into  his  ear  while  getting  what  he  wanted . 

          𝖙𝖍𝖊  𝖗𝖊𝖑𝖆𝖙𝖔𝖓𝖘𝖍𝖎𝖕  𝖈𝖔𝖓𝖙𝖎𝖓𝖚𝖊𝖉  𝖊𝖛𝖊𝖓  after  the  man  returned  to  texas ,  but  that  didn’t  stop  barom  from  going  to  live  his  best  life  in  new  york  over  the  summer .  once  again  he  spent  time  focusing  on  his  art  in  a  new  city ,  but  he  also  found  himself  playing  the  same  tricks  on  a  man  in  his  thirties ,  who  became  trapped  under  barom’s  thumb  with  only  a  few  kisses  on  his  neck  and  his  skilled  usage  of  his  ‘  fuck  me  ’  eyes .  out  of  the  sugar  daddies  that  he’s  had ,  the  one  from  new  york  was  the  only  one  that  he  had  ever  been  intimate  with .  to  barom ,  this  one  was  a  bit  different  for  whatever  reason  and  the  two  decided  one  night  to  go  out  to  an  upscale  club  in  manhattan .  the  two  sipped  alcohol  until  the  early  morning  hours ,  soon  leaving  the  venue  so  wrapped  up  in  one  another  that  they  missed  the  paparazzi  lingering  outside  (  did  i  forget  to  mention  that  his  man  was  ahem  ...  ~famous  ?  ) .  so  anyways ,  some  risque  photos  of  the  couple  get  taken  due  in  part  of  these  fools  not  letting  up  the  window  to  their  car  (  nothing  bad ,  but  let’s  just  say  that  barom  looked  as  though  he  was  thoroughly  enjoying  himself  ) .

          𝖙𝖍𝖊  𝖌𝖚𝖞  𝖊𝖓𝖉𝖘  𝖚𝖕  ending  their  relationship  when  he  gets  blackmailed  for  them ,  and  maneater  barom  had  his  heart  broken  for  the  very  first  time .  thus ,  when  he  returns  to  #hworth  for  his  junior  year  ,  barom  avoided  getting  another  sugar  daddy  for  an  entire  year .  he  focuses  on  his  fraternity ,  schoolwork ,  and  really  buckles  down  on  his  art .  his  junior  year  goes  well ,  but  an  old  dog  won’t  learn  new  tricks ,  so  the  summer  before  his  senior  year ,  barom  picks  up  his  fourth  (  and  most  current  )  sugar  daddy ,  a  guy  who  lives  in  buckhead ,  atlanta  and  honestly  don’t  ask  me  why ,  but  i  picture  him  as  a  young  matthew  mcconaughey .  again ,  DON’T  ask  me  why .

          𝖆𝖘  𝖋𝖔𝖗  𝖍𝖎𝖘  𝖕𝖊𝖗𝖘𝖔𝖓𝖆𝖑𝖎𝖙𝖞 ,  barom  is  quite  wise  for  his  age ,  and  he  partly  blames  that  on  the  fact  that  he  grew  up  in  the  church .  if  you’re  in  need  of  some  sound  advice ,  he’s  your  man ,  but  he’s  gonna  beg  you  not  to  ask  as  well .  despite  his  sugaring  ways ,  he  is  also  very  independent  and  likes  to  do  things  on  his  own .  his  family  may  have  provided  him  with  the  best  of  things  ranging  from  maids ,  butlers ,  and  a  slew  of  foreign  cars ,  but  he  liked  to  do  things  on  his  own .  he  found  doing  his  laundry  or  washing  his  dishes  after  dinner  as  quite  therapeutic ,  and  he’s  still  the  same  way  to  this  day .  negatively  speaking ,  barom  can  be  very  childish ,  but  i  would  say  leaning  more  on  the  bratty  side .  as  a  man  who’s  used  to  getting  his  way ,  being  told  no  will  turn  him  into  a  pouty  baby  in  no  time  and  he’s  the  worst  because  i  swear  he’ll  sit  in  the  middle  of  the  floor  and  pout  until  someone  says  yes .  he  can  also  be  lewd  in  his  speech  and  it  mostly  stems  from  the  fact  that  he  is  extremely  confident  with  his  sexuality .  it’s  even  worse  when  he’s  had  alcohol  --  this  is  when  he  gets  more  relaxed  and  he’s  more  likely  to  start  turning  those  sweet  nothings  to  tender  touches  and  soft  kisses .  also ,  you  should  know  that  he’s  the  biggest  blackpink  stan  so  if  you  hear  him  blasting  their  music ,  chances  are ,  he’s  wearing  a  face  mask  with  his  hair  pulled  back  by  a  pikachu  hair  band  and  living  his  best  life .

as  for  most  wanted  connections  :

i  would  really  love  the  drama  of  someone  figuring  out  that  he’s  a  sugar  baby  and  holds  it  over  his  head  all  the  time  ?  and  barom  always  is  whisper  yelling  at  them  to  not  tell  anyone  or  his  life  would  literally  be  ruined .

hmm ,  i  think  it  would  be  interesting  for  him  to  have  a  crush  because  he  wouldn’t  know  what  to  do  with  himself .  he’d  be  a  little  awkward  baby  around  them  with  blushed  cheeks  and  probably  stuttering  all  the  time  ....  i  need  it  !

i’m  literally  so  desperate  for  an  angsty  friends  with  benefits  or  ex  friends  with  benefits  because  i’m  such  trash  for  plots  like  these  it’s  not  even  funny .

um ,  i’m  also  down  to  brainstorm  or  work  based  on  chemistry  but  i’m  really  excited  to  plot  and  interact  with  everyone  again  !