#here's so much going on - this is (I feel) what DLS means when she says she couldn't simply marry them off

[harrietvane]

So, in Busman’s Homeymoon, Lord Peter buys Harriet Vane a mink cloak worth 950 pounds (according to the Dowager Duchess’ journal entry), but he buys Tallboys for “only” 650 pounds.

Even bearing in mind that real estate really did used to be cheaper, do you understand how that is possible? Or how to find out more about relative purchasing power? I used an online calculator website which gave me some figures, but it still seems insane that one could buy an entire Elizabethan farmhouse for 2/3 the price of a garment! Very curious to learn from others who understand this better than I do.

Ah, I see my esteemed colleague @oldshrewsburyian has also had some interesting thoughts on this, so I'll link that here as well before I begin.

So, it's a legitmate question, and there's no catch-all simple answer (in the gotcha sense of 'why didn't i know that bit of cultural Truth'), but there are mitigating factors that take it from a ridiculous price comparison, to merely outlandish. Even taking into account that the coat is quoted in guineas, not pounds, and that PW says the bank valued Talboys at £800 via a mortgage (the paid price was a discount, for paying in cash quickly, which is Plot Relevant), it gets us to roughly the same place, value-wise. Or shall we say PRICE-wise, rather than value, as I'll get into below. There's several factors at play here - they mainly relate to class, and spending power:

-The house is Not That Great, in terms of the kind of property that PW would usually be buying. I mean it is still a large-ish house, big enough to have 2 adults and small children in, but it's not what would be on his radar normally. The only reason they know about it, it that it's near a place where HARRIET grew up as a child. It's not getting any high marks in particular Beauty, Convenience, or Quality - the main reason HV's drawn to it is sentiment, rather than anything else. They both know that they will have to significantly add to it, and alter it, in order for it to be a comfortable home. That would usually be out-of-budget for someone in Harriet's position, who would expect to buy something that meets her needs 'as-is'. Most people looking at buying that house would be Harriets not Peters, so it might be a tough sell.

-The house has no power, and limited plumbing: There's dark references to DRAINS by the dowager duchess, it's entirely possible that this house has no modern plumbing at all - they make the comparison that the huge palace the Wimseys grew up in wasn't plumbed until recently, but then again they do have about 800 servants, whereas Talboys is just a regular house: they will have Bunter alone (at first), with an assist from Mrs Ruddle. There's mention of "a cistern" with some basic valves, but the scullery is mentioned as having a copper, from which hot water is "scooped into a large bath-can" - a copper being, simply, a large metal basin over a fire, in effect. No running hot water, maybe no flushable loos - it's a factor. They also talk specifially about having to electrify Talboys themselves - it's candles and lamps until then. It's fancy camping. By the mid-1930s, a lot of middle-class buyers would expect a little more convenience in both water and wiring, unless they had significant support staff, which Talboys would not be expected to house.

-There's probably no farm! It's a farm house - not a wider land purchase. People like PW's brother the Duke are wealthy primarily because they own land, not because of the big palace they have (which eats money, rather than generates it). The land is what gives them spending power, because other people are paying them rent to live on it, farm on it, or both. PW's own personal 'younger sibling' wealth is also mentioned somewhere to be primarily in real estate (assumed to be in London) - sad to say: he's a landlord, and that's why he's rich. Talboys, on the other hand, as a purchase, would not, in almost any way, be expected to generate revenue through either farming, agriculture, or charging rent. Until they invent house flipping in 80 years, or until the motorway goes through in 40 years, there's not much expectation that Talboys would increase all that much in value.

-Lastly, there's a massive disparity in what The Market Will Bear when we compare a basic residence vs a luxury item (like a mink coat) in the mid-1930s. This is not particular to that time, though. Like any first-year economics student will tell you, the price of something is not it's intrinsic value, it's what someone is WILLING to pay for it. If someone is willing to pay such a price, that's the price it will be. So, we're not comapring Objects, we're comparing Buyers: the the main purchasers of a slightly run-down farmhouse located nowhere special are Harriets, and main purchasers of mink coats are Peters. Talboys is priced for Harriets. The mink coat is priced for Peters.

Compare for example, a contemporary parallel: the Hermes Birkin bag. It's a leather handbag with a starting retail price of about USD 11,400. Just for the bag. Then, you have fancier versions of the fancy bag, eg wikipedia tells me one version sold at auction for USD 380,000 in Hong Kong in 2017. Now, the Harriets of today are not buying a Hermes Birkin handbag, but they are probably trying to buy slightly run-down houses outside urban centers for (one hopes) slightly less than 380k. The Wimseys of the worlds are clearly buying Birkin bags. In that way, it's actually pretty easy to get to a place where Person A might buy a single luxury item for X pounds, and Person B might buy a whole residence for X pounds, and neither feel like they'd done something insane. The key here is in a Wimsey/Vane marriage, they run up against this concept immediately, and repeatedly.

There's a good reason the first epistolary section of the novel is almost entirely taken up with money chat - the ring, the purchase of shirts from Burlington Arcade, the marriage settlement, the gift from the bride to the groom, the mink coat, the bitchy exchange between Helen and Harriet about HV being allowed "six free copies of her book" to distribute. These people come from 2 fundamentally different experiences of the world. They might have gotten engaged using the word 'Magistra', specifically to emphasise their fundamental equality (in the context of learning and the mind, to begin with), but it can't be denied: there's gaps that need to be bridged. They both know parts of their married life will be spent in attempting to do that, hopefully to their mutual satisfaction. Mention of a mink coat for 950 guineas is a nice, neat shorthand for illustrating what's still at play between them here.

[leclercdream]

tell me who i am pt.3

pairing: daniel ricciardo x reader

when in austin everything comes crashing down on reader because people on the internet are mean af

author's note: not much going on in this chapter bc of picture limit haha, will probably upload part 4 after the gp so i have more social media content!

tw: slut shaming

part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4

yourusername

liked by danielricciardo, lilymhe, charles_leclerc and 182,325 others

yourusername: im damned if i do give a damn what people say

tagged: danielricciardo, alexandrasaintmleux, landonorris, friend1, friend2, friend3

view all 55 comments

danielricciardo: there’s just no reason for you to be this fine

danielricciardo: wow

danielricciardo: marry me

↳ yourusername: brb crying

landonorris: ew

↳ yourusername: shut up this is your fault

lilymhe: you are glowing!!

↳ alexandrasaintmleux: oh trust me, she is being well taken care of, thats why

↳ friend1: yeah we can all hear it

↳ yourusername: jealous bitches

comments in this post have been limited

danielricciardo

liked by landonorris, alexandrasaintmleux, kellypiquet and 439,234 others

danielricciardo: As many of you know, this is my girlfriend y/n. We have been dating for 3 years now and she is not only my girlfriend but also my best friend, biggest supporter and the love of my life. For some unknown reason many of you have taken upon yourselves to leave hateful comments on her social media, even taken it as far as saying stuff to her face at the GPs she attended. Do not slut shame women for being proud of their bodies and feel comfortable with it. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to look. yourusername happens to be one of the people I know, that being one of the main reasons I fell in love with her. She is passionate, selfless, funny, caring, beautiful. So please, if you consider yourself a fan of mine and have ever treated her like less than any of that, you are not welcome here.

Any hate comments, threats or anything slightly disrepectful will be deleted and blocked. If you treat the people I love like that, you are not my fan.

Thank you for the tattoo baby!

tagged: yourusername

view all 24 comments

landonorris: imagine having a girlfriend that gets a tattoo because of you

↳ yourusername: you will never know ha

↳ landonorris: haha so funny!!

landonorris: jokes aside, hate comments are NOT welcome on my profile either. y/n is my best friend and i love her (dont let this get to your head PLEASE) so i wont tolerate any hate towards her.

liked by danielricciardo and yourusername

maxverstappen1: 🧡

alexandrasaintmleux: love you guys!

charles_leclerc: You guys are amazing, see you in a few days!

yourusername: i love you sososo much 🍯🦡 you are the love of my life!!!

yourusername: how did i get SO lucky

yourusername: thank you so much for this

comments in this post have been limited

landonorris

liked by danielricciardo, yourusername, maxverstappen1 and 637,231 others

landonorris: Nothing better than a few days with friends.

tagged: danielricciardo, alexandrasaintmleux, yourusername, maxfewtrell, friend1, friend2, friend3

view all 1,425 comments

yourusername: low quality lando.jpg

↳ landonorris: its because i have a low quality model

↳ yourusername: yourself?

↳ landonorris: shut up

maxfewtrell: bob stop drinking you have media day tomorrow

↳ danielricciardo: time for a break i guess

user1: kinda love this friend group

user2: 8 pretty best friends

user3: the switch all of you had after daniels post lol

↳ user4: i mean it was about time they left the poor girl alone

taglist: @urmotheris @minkyungseokie @dhhdhsiavdhaj @dl-yum @1655clean @skepvids @forevercaffeinated-lee @laneyspaulding19 @dark-night-sky-99 @bibissparkless @crlsummer

[catboybiologist]

March 2024 documentation and transition journal

Just got my levels results back, meaning that the doc is fully updated for March:

This is possibly one of the most exciting and interesting months of HRT since starting, because I've experimented around a lot with injection doses, so let's talk about that! I'm also slapping a couple of old pics in here for reference, so I'll slap some selfie tags on this.

So, lots of interesting HRT stuff. At my last levels check, I was on 4mg injectable EV a week. And… my E actually went down, even though that’s an effectively higher dose than my previous regimen (6mg sublingual/day). Because of this, I talked with my provider, and essentially she told me to fuck around. I probably was way looser with it than she wanted me to be, but she told me to go to 8mg/week maximum, and try and settle on 6mg/week minimum. So….. here’s what I did.

1 week of 8mg.

2 weeks at 7mg.

2 weeks 6mg, during which my levels were checked at mid.

I… can’t really advocate for this. Basically, my logic was that I wanted to see what it felt like to max things out, but have my actual levels check reflect what I’m like at 6mg to know if increasing or maximizing the dose beyond that is necessary at all. Ultimately, I’ve concluded that 8mg feels too high- I start getting a bit of headache and nausea at peak. 7mg feels very comfortable. 6mg, I felt fucking miserable at trough. When I was on 4mg/week, I used a couple of sublingual pills to try and get through that, but I tried to see if I could stop doing that. It went okay for the higher doses, but on 6mg… ugh. Felt like complete shit. I’ll def be using a couple this week to get through that, probably just 4-6mg sublingual on wed/thurs to make sure I’m feeling okay.

Oh. Also. I ditched Spironolactone, against the advice of my provider. 

I was getting really, REALLY irritated by the diuretic effects, so I quit it when I tried to 8mg dose just to see what would happen. I figured that 8mg would be more than enough to suppress T on its own (likely true), and so I thought it would be the best time to try that. And… when I stopped spiro, a depressive haze that had been in my head lifted very quickly. I thought it was just depression based on a rough past couple of months, and that’s probably true, but it also felt physical. The diuretic effects have also stopped, and I genuinely can’t imagine going back on spiro.

I’ve heard a lot of theoretical stuff about spiro potentially being able to inhibit growth and development. It's possibly a growth hormone inhibitor, but should be a more potent antiandrogen than anyone else. It’s…. Really hard to say whether spiro actually inhibits growth. As with a lot of transfemme physical developments, there’s never been a comprehensive, conclusive study on it, which is why its relegated to miscellaneous anecdotes that everyone will swear one way or the other on. I’ll have some opinions on this later.

So what improvement to my levels did I get out of all of this?

Well…. Good, but nothing radical. My midcycle estrogen is 159 pg/mL, which is about my target for trough. It’s a good step up from the 4mg dose, but I’m probably going to increase to 7mg/week- that felt fine to me, and I’m pretty confident that that’ll be the dose that nails it. I’m pretty deadset on going forward with that, I would just need a levels check to verify we’re all good there. (Side note, I’m a bit frustrated that my body literally seems allergic to just… stuff. Idk if I have an overactive liver or what, but my T crashed super easily, adderall consistently lasts shorter than it should, and my E is really struggling to go up.)

And did this result in any physical improvement? 

I actually think that this last month has been the single fastest month of physical development I’ve ever had. Here’s some things I’ve noticed:

My breasts have become much larger and more developed in relation to my chest, with a much better shape. Comparison pictures to even just the end of January show a wild difference (sorry, not posting that publicly). To be fair, though, I’m still pretty clearly in tanner 2, and I maybe want to wait for just a bit more development before I start progesterone. 

Waist measurement is still going down, and hip measurement is still holding steady. This means that, in effect, my hips are getting wider.

And this is one of the most exciting ones- my upper body seems like its getting smaller. I’m floored by this. My underbust is less, my chest looks noticeably less barrel-y, and my ribcage kind of “flows” into my waist better. I wrote a bit about this on reddit just now, but I think I know what’s happening here. Not only is fat burning from the sides of my chest as it builds on the front of my chest, I actually think my costal cartilage might be getting “tighter”, effectively pulling my ribs a bit closer in to my sternum

I have…. No way to confirm the hunches of that last one, other than the images I can show. So for educational purposes (and y’know. Making the funny women in my phone type funny syllables) Here’s a quick timeline where I think you can see the “barrellness” of my chest decreasing:

From left to right, we have September (0-1mo), December (3-4mo), March (6-7mo)

Don't worry, my shoulders are just as wide and athletic dyke-y.

Am I delusional? Is this anything? Maybe. Pictures are hard to make consistent with changes this small. But I do feel like its noticeable, and it seems like women’s cut shirts and tanks have fit me in a way that’s a lot more consistent with a cis woman’s body. Again, there’s also nsfw images, and I think they show a lot of progress, and I think I can pretty definitively say that this has been the single month with the most physical changes since, well, my first month back in September. 

Why did this happen? Well, I’m working with a sample size of one here, and multiple variables have changed at the same time. There’s really three things that could be happening: increased injection dosage, ditching spiro, or the general come and go of physical changes. It’s impossible to completely know what’s going on because of this, unfortunately- I’d need way more data. That said…. This is the first new “wave” of development I’ve had since I started, and my actual blood levels didn’t increase that much. I really, really don’t want to conclude anything, but I’m kinda thinking that spiro had something to do with it. It has broad effects on physiology which aren’t entirely characterized, that could easily theoretically be inhibiting generic growth and development. That said, I think starting with a strong antiandrogen is basically necessary for HRT. It’s extremely difficult to get E levels up without robustly inhibiting T first. Obviously don’t take this as medical advice, or even a scientific opinion. This is nothing more than a hunch.

Idk. I’m happy. I feel like I finally am starting to break through the progress stall I’ve been growing increasingly frustrated with. And I think getting the proper injection dose actually worked to break through it. I’m feeling a lot better with my transition in general too. I won’t elaborate much here, but I’ve been coming out to a lot more people, and its been tentatively going about as well as I could ask. We’ll see what the future holds, but I’m excited about it.

[callmeklair]

I wonder what are your favourite pairings in DL? Can you give us a rank of DL ships 👀

//contains route spoilers and sorry if it gets a little long 😭

there are so many cute and adorable ships, in their own way, that it took me years to select my fav ships, and here they are with rankings:

1. shinyui: aside from shin being embodiment of anger and impatience, i seriously have lost the count of how many times i have re-read his DF route, like the character development and their bonding is so wholesome. the way yui is ready to give up everything even if it means she will have to keep running away from people for the rest of her life with shin, she was ready to throw it all just so she can be with shin and shin trying to push her away so that she can be happy in a comfortable place instead of being stuck with him in his mess and get targeted. even in LE he pushed her away scared that she might get endzeit and suffer from its symptoms and he didn't want her to wither in pain and would rather let himself go through it alone than see her harmed.

2. carlayui: his character development was so smooth and amazing to watch, seeing him and yui bond over books was also adorable to watch especially it was the first time his soft side came out, i think it was also due to Yui that he gave up on taking revenge on karlheinz and instead BOWED to him just to bring yui back to life.

3. shuyui: shu giving yui queen treatment by still being his lazy self>>>>>>>> the difference in shu's behaviour can certainly be seen from the first game and the latest game despite keeping the same lazy attitude. the development is so good, if i keep talking this post will become endless.

4. reiyui: Reiji slowly opening up and protecting yui in his own rational way by planning instead of going all fighting so that she won't be hurt or get involved in this dangerous battle is the best character development. yes he was like that from the start about planning and all that, but he who was prideful and always boosted of being a vampire started to question where vampires come from and if they were originally human in DF route. and he even said that he will choose yui over being a vampire. and in his more blood vampire ending, when little Reiji said how servants are afraid of him and his inventions because his mother and brother are distant from him. Young Reiji also mentioned how he always carries his self made ointment around because his brothers are clumsy but nobody wants to use it. proof he was the best boi from the start in his own way.

5. subayui: SubaruYui was my first ship that i would do anything for. I mean my tsundere gentle boy deserves the whole world. I haven't read HDB routes much because too much violence isn't my cup of tea ik ironic but i did read manga and also his MB route, there was a lot of development I can say. and let me not get started on his DF route, not only in his route but it can be seen that subaru had soft spot/feelings for yui in others' routes too, even in kou's LE route, he didn't give up on Yui. He is very protective of her in anime too, probably why they were my first ship.

6. rukiyui: his DF route and anime is what attracted to me this ship because of all the angst. His MB route and CL route definitely didn't disappoint me. In DF he pushes away Yui to not betray karlheinz but later confronts karl as yui is the most important person and the best thing happened to him in his life aside from his brothers. In the MB he was even ready to become a snake and actually became a snake to take yui away. His CL route felt like I was reading a married couple's life and it was refreshing to read compared to all his other routes which involved angst and drama

7. kouyui: The ups and downs in his MB route for his character development was understandable especially after knowing the kind of environment he was in. there were times when I just wanted to smack kou so badly on his head for his treatment towards yui. Then i read his DF route and it was literally all angst and i think when yui said "what do you mean useless!?!???" when kou said he cannot become Adam while crying, thinking it's useless for Karl's plan but still wants to love her after almost ahem himself from the terrace and Yuma & Azusa saved him from his own pool of blood.

8. azusayui: i just recently started reading his DF route and oh my god he is literally the best boi, I'm still reading his route but he is already getting into my heart because he is such a cinnamon boy 😭.

one of my fav ships is ayayui too but the way all the above ships have raised my standards... i still love them and enjoy their content.

[doctorsiren]

Okay chat we gotta split this up (this is why I said preferably one image per ask, but since these are a set, I’ll allow it)

First of all though

I HAD NO IDEA THOSE FIRST TWO EXISTED I HAD ONLY SEEN THE SECOND TWO the last one is literally my lockscreen on my iPad and has been since I discovered it this summer,,,,

IMAGE 1: AA3

Characters: Maya Fey (channeling Mia Fey), Godot, Iris Fey, Sister Bikini, Ron and Desirée DeLite, Dick Gumshoe, Maggey Byrd, Phoenix Wright, Pearl Fey, Miles Edgeworth

Rating: 11/10

These ones are hard because there’s SO MUCH to unpack here, but that’s what makes it fun.

Starting off I AM A SUCKER FOR MIA AND GODOT/DIEGO INTERACTIONS GAHHHHH Like c’mon!! nothing more to say on those two, they’re perfect

IRIS IRIS IRIS IRIS IRIS MYBELOVED WAHH!! She’s so,,, AND SISTER BIKINI gosh I love that she’s confused about the Wii of course she would it only makes sense..but I think Iris being the one to look like she’s explaining it to her makes it even more silly bc girlie you lived in a mountain temple for most of your life how do you know what this is?

Ron, being silly as usual ALSO WHO’S FOOT IS THAT NEXT TO HIM ?? I’ve been trying to figure it out and I THINK it’s Desirée’s but the angle of the leg doesn’t feel right and I just don’t know. Whoever’s foot it is, they need to wear socks (i CANNOT not wear socks, especially wearing shoes without socks?? So when I see characters doing that I’m like 😨 what)

Ron is obviously spooked by Gumshoe and Maggey, and so Dezi (was that a nickname for her? Or did I make that up) obviously is trying to help him but WHY IS THERE SMOKE?? OR DUST OR STEAM OR WHATEVER THAT IS?? HUH

GUMSHOE AND MAGGEY they’re working together it’s so cute IT LOOKS LIKE THEY’RE RUNNING TOWARDS GODOT AND CONSIDERING THAT IRIS AND SISTER BIKINI ARE HERE, THAT MEANS THIS WOULD HAVE TO BE POST-AA3

Which mean Iris should be in jail (i mean actually no she shouldn’t, women can do what they want and she did nothing wrong smh) and that Godot would definitely be in jail

So it looks like Gumshoe and Maggey are running in to arrest Godot (also I love the Blue Badger on her hoodie <3 )

Okay actually BACK IT UP if this is technically post-AA3…Mia is so calm in speaking to Godot yes I know she loves Diego, but he JUST killed her mom…but whatever I crave their interactions

PHOENIX bro is probably exhausted from everything that happened in AA3…BUT ALSO IS THAT A PLAYING CARD IN HIS POCKET WHAT IS THAT ?? I go insane when playing cards are associated with pre-disbarment Phoenix bc ough…almost like foreshadowing…

Also that CANNOT be comfortable…his poor neck

And also the silly thing he does of tucking his tie in his pocket so goofy so silly

The man he loves and the women he loves are both RIGHT THERE and what does he do?? SLEEP

PEARL SLEEPING ON HIS LEG?? THAT’S SO CUTE this is him preparing to adopt a child in the next 3 months

MILES SMILING I love him look at his goofy big hand, loom how he sits, look at how he looks both relaxed and on edge at the same time, like he could be leaning a bit more back and not be so stiff with how he holds his arm across himself, but he isn’t

He probably loves the Wii. He never got to play video games growing up after DL-6 I bet

UPON FUTHER INSPECTION I am led to believe that the leg belongs to none other than LARRY and that he FELL and that’s why there’s that dust cloud

Those shoes are his and, if we look behind Godot’s legs, there’s a little bit of orange in the same colour as Larry’s jacket

thats literally all I have to support that, but I think I’m right

Also upon further inspection, the spider-web that I mention later in another image is still there and it looks bigger this time and I find that funny

IMAGE 2: AA1

Characters: Miles Edgeworth, Dick Gumshoe, Cody Hackins, Lotta Hart, Larry Butz, Penny Nichols, Maya Fey, Phoenix Wright

Rating: 11/10

OKAAAAY CHAT

LOVE HOW THEY’RE ALL CONFUSED

Miles…miles…miles…sweetie why are you looking out the window honey what’s wrong are you being followed?? OKAY NO WAIT IT JUST CLICKED THAT THIS IS FOR AA 1 AND THAT MEANS DL-6 AND,,,ough

Baby boy needs a distraction, and even when he should have it here with the Wii, he is still worried :(

His hand is in his pocket, but he’s still looking over his shoulder (ough…metaphorical….) he looks like he’s about to cry ?? Poor guy someone give him a hug :(

Gumshoe being perfect as always

I love that they invited this CHILD to come to the law offices to watch the lawyer who questioned him try to play video games. But also I don’t reasonably think he would be confused, so…

Lotta. She would definitely not understand. Also I love lotta, glad they brought her

Larry being Larry once again, and I bet Penny’s just happy to have someone new who’ll listen to her about Steel Samurai cards and such (please watch out girlie, bro is about to make a fool of himself) also isn’t that the statue from the studio on his shirt??

The storytelling here is crazy WHY IS THERE A KNOCKED OVER CUP?? Maya probably knocked it over but the fact that this was something included in the drawing is silly to me and I absolutely love it

Also I don’t think I really realized that Maya’s sleeves don’t span the whole length of her arm and only go down to barely past her elbow?? How am I NOW just registering this?

And she would definitely be the one to show everyone the Wii (how did they buy it? Phoenix barely gets paid as is)

PHOENIX I love him I love his face look at his befuddled expression…the way he sits…how his legs are bent…his suit jacket is unbuttoned, he’s more relaxed, which is the opposite of how Miles is at the moment (sorry I’m a little bit goofy hehe) HE JUST LOOKS SO SMOOCHABLE HERE

Also dude you gotta hold the wiimote more forwards or else the sensor isn’t gonna pick it up. That’s probably why y’all are confused. Maya’s trying to tell him that he’s doing it wrong

IMAGE 3: AA3

Characters: Max Galactica, Maya and Pearl Fey, Larry Butz, Regina Berry, Miles Edgeworth, Will Powers, Phoenix Wright, Dick Gumshoe, Franziska von Karma, Maggey Byrd

Rating: 11/10

Max I love you but only the version that isn’t weird so like uhh girls step away

THE ACE CARDS IN MAYA AND PEARLS HAIR,,,OUGH,,,,Maya having the Ace of Hearts…Pearl having the Ace of Diamond (Trucy’s shape,,,they will become like sisters, they just haven’t met yet)

LARRY GET AWAY FROM REGINA SHE’S 16

Regina you’re perfect, don’t change a thing

ALSO I JUST NOTICED THE WEB IN THE CORNER ABOVE REGINA WITH A SPIDER IN IT…Phoenix I thought you spent all that free time cleaning…or was it just the toilets you cleaned a lot…

MILES MILES MILES LOOK AT HIS PRECIOUS LITTLE SMILE LOOK AT HIM HE IS HAPPY!! HE’S GETTING THE AUTOGRAPH OF THE ACTOR OF HIS FAVOURITE CHARACTER FROM HIS HYPERFIXATION I LOVE HIM he deserves all nice things

And Will…I don’t understand the canon narrative of people hating him without the Steel Samurai mask on because he genuinely looks so sweet and kind like CMONNNN

Phoenix…with his shirt unbuttoned a little…his sleeves rolled up…his arms…his tie doing the silly pocket thing and also he’s drinking out of that cup that was spilled in the previous image

Phoenix pog he is so goofy and for what

IS FRANZISKA LEFT HANDED or is she also just ambidextrous/showing off. Her calm expression, the way she sits…

Gumshoe will never understand I think and he’s perfect for it. He stands like a dad, but I’m not sure if I’d trust him to be someone’s father. He’s an uncle, because it means he doesn’t have to be responsible for a kid because bro can barely afford food on his own 😭

MAGGEY I love her look at how she is just leaning over the couch she is me fr

IMAGE 4:

Characters: Miles Edgeworth, Godot, Franziska von Karma, Phoenix Wright

Rating 11/10

Biased on this one, it’s my lock screen and this will never not be funny to me

They’re probably the only people in the world who would ever have a legitimate reason to wear the wiimote straps because have you seen how forcefully they point?

Miles…that’s all I can say…Ough I love him

The way Godot’s neck is bent kinda bothers me and it makes him feel like an action figure but you know what that’s okay

FRANZISKA ONCE AGAIN USING HER LEFT HAND I THINK SHE’S LEFT HANDED??? I love that for her look how confident she is

Phoenix has a big mouth and that’s funny to me. His hand just in his pocket so casually hehe

Why is Miles the only one not pointing

Final notes about the first 3 images all together

The time of day changes. The AA3 one is set at night, the AA1 one is later in the day, probably early evening, and the AA2 one is like midday

The office is the same in each image, including those books in the shelves which never change places because no one ever reads them. AND OH MY GOSH I JUST REALIZED THAT THE THING NEXT TO MILES IN THE AA3 IMAGE IS THE AUTOGRAPH HE GOT FROM WILL THAT MEANS IT IS REASONABLE TO ASSUME THAT THESE ALL TAKE PLACE IN THE SAME DAY?? Weirdly, it would have to go AA2, AA1, AA3 unless the AA1 image is actually in the morning and not early evening…you could assume that the AA2 image comes first as the light from the window is bright and Phoenix is holding that cup which is then knocked over in the AA1 image (unless they cleaned up the spill from AA1 and now Phoenix is drinking from that cup.) Also AA1 has him in his full suit, so I guess it would make more sense if that one came first and then AA2 because he isn’t wearing his suit jacket in that one and his sleeves are rolled up

AA3 is definitely last though because I JUST REALIZED THE CARD IN HIS POCKET IS PROBABLY FROM MAX and also he rolled his sleeves back down

Okay wait hold on now I need to think about these as 3 scenes from one day

Maybe Miles is looking out the window because he was told Will Powers would be showing up, and so he’s just excited for that and so he’s just watching for when he does

And then Will shows up and now Miles is smiling and he is getting the autograph

And then in the third one, Miles is happily playing the Wii, with his autograph next to him…

The only thing that would lead me to believe that these cannot take place in the same day is how much that spider web changes. It isn’t there in AA1, it’s there in AA2, and then it’s bigger in AA3

Regardless of all of that, these images are truly among my favourites and I’ve spent like 45 minutes at LEAST typing all of this so yeah and there might have been things I missed but I’ve already typed a lot

[jazzystudios82]

A Diabolik Lovers x Brooklyn 99 Crossover P1. 2 🥀

I thought about doing a DL x B99 crossover kind of thing, which is why I made the first post not too long ago. Hope you enjoy.

WARNING: This contains some spoilers for the DL manga "Young Blood".

*Ayato talking to Yui about him bonding with his father Karlheinz*

Ayato: "We had an epic night of bonding that I will never forget."

*Cue flashback to last night*

Ayato, drunk as hell with an apple on his head: "Do it. I believe in you."

*Karlheinz throws a dart that goes into Ayato's chest*

Ayato, not feeling any pain at all: "Throw it! I believe in you!"

------------------------------------------------------------

*Kid! Ayato and his brothers Kid! Shu and Kid! Subaru as hostages by the Ghouls during the "Young Blood" manga*

Kid! Ayato: "We came here to win and they're not even giving us a chance. I think it's fair to say that no one in the history of demon kind has been discriminated against more."

Kid! Subaru who knows the history of the Ghouls: "Buddy."

Kid! Ayato: "Yeah, that's my 'b', it's the adrenaline talking."

*Context: while as kids, Ayato and his brothers were put through some kind of test by their father to see who'd become "Adam" for his plan in the future when "Eve" (Yui) would be around. In the process, the brothers would be chased around and captured by Ghouls, low ranking demons in the DL universe that consume flesh. So in this context, I guess I would say that the Ghouls have been discriminated against more than the Vampires.*

------------------------------------------------------------

*Ayato, Reiji, and Subaru during summer break*

Ayato: "Another cold brew? Don't mind if I "cold do". Nailed it, anyway, I am loving this machine that Laito brought in."

Reiji: "It is nice. The trick is to let the coffee warm up to room temperature. I'm already on my second cup."

Subaru: "This is my third."

*Laito comes running in with an extremely concerned look on his face*

Laito in a slowed down speech: "STOP! You're drinking too much!"

Ayato: "Woah, what's going on? Laito, why are you talking so slow?"

Laito: "I'm not! I'm normal. We're all normal!"

*Ayato, Reiji, and Subaru look around the Sakamaki mansion to see the others are super slow speed*

Ayato talking really fast: "Oh-my-god. If-you're-not-going-slow-then-that-means-we're-going-fast. Are-we-going-fast? I-don't-feel-like-we're-going-fast."

Subaru: "I-don't-think-we're-going-fast-at-all-whatsoever. I-feel-like-we're-going-slow. Reiji, how-do-you-feel?"

Reiji: "Incredible. I-feel-amazing. I-feel-better-than-I've-ever-felt-in-any-moment-in-my-entire-life."

Ayato: "So-we're-fine?"

Subaru: "Yep."

Reiji: "Yep."

*Cue all three of them saying "yep" repeatedly in a fast manner*

------------------------------------------------------------

*Karlheinz in his "Tougo Sakamaki" persona mingling with human politicians and their partners*

Random Politician #1 after "Tougo" told him a joke: "Hahaha! Oh Tougo, you are such a crack up!"

Random Politician's wife: "Forget Anne, who should we fix him up with?"

Karlheinz/Tougo: "Oh Sal, you know I'm still getting over the tragic loss of my wife. She was such a strong, female woman, with nice heavy breasts."

------------------------------------------------------------

*Ayato and Reiji when they arrive at school late for "reasons"*

Reiji: "Ayato, are you eating an Italian sub for breakfast?"

Ayato: "I am. But Pancake (Yui) said that I should eat more veggies, so I added extra pepperoncini. Smort."

------------------------------------------------------------

*Ayato with the others in the living room*

Ayato: "Gentlemen, and lady (Yui), we are gathered here to answer an age old question."

Kino: "Right. What's Yui's deal? She single?"

Yui: *looks at Kino with slight disgust*

Ayato: "What? No, we're dating. C'mon. The question is: who here does the best impression of the tableware loving Otaku, Reiji Sakamaki. You'll be judged on voice, body language, and overall lack of flair. Everyone will perform the same scenario: Reiji eating a marshmallow for the very first time. Let the 'Reiji-Off' begin!"

*The others doing their best*

Shuu: "What is this glutenous monstrosity before me?"

Subaru: "The sugar in this is quite sweet."

Laito: *Does a whimsical laugh*

Ayato: "That's your Reiji impression?"

Laito: "I can hear him doing that."

Kanato: "Looks like a sticky pillow."

Ayato: "I don't care of for it. Classical music."

*Everyone laughs until Reiji enters*

Reiji who is genuinely curious: "What's going on here? What're you all doing?"

Ayato: "Reiji, nothing just. . . .eating some marshmallows, care for one?"

Reiji: "Marsh mallow?"

*proceeds to eat it*

Reiji: *does the same whimsical laugh Laito did earlier*

Laito: "I KNEW IT!"

------------------------------------------------------------

*Subaru walks into the Sakamaki house wearing a pink shirt (note: this takes place after Kino is introduced)*

*Everyone is speechless*

Yui as soon as Subaru is out of earshot: "Oh. . . .my. . . .god."

Ayato: "Subaru's wearing pink! Subaru's wearing pink!!"

Yui: "Are we not sure that's not a white shirt that's been bloodied in a motorcycle crash?"

Yuma who's here to hang out with Shuu after they became friends again: "Or maybe that wasn't him." *Looks at Subaru's older brothers* "Does he have an identical twin brother?"

Kanato: "If Subaru had a twin, he would have eaten him in the womb."

Kino: "Wait, hold it. Why did none of you tease him about it?"

Ayato: "It's Subaru. He's scary."

Kino: "You guys are unbelievable. I once wore a tie with a splash of purple, and y'all (minus Yui) called me 'Mr. Grapes' for two years!"

*Everyone (again, minus Yui) laughs*

Kanato: "OH! 'Mr. Grapes', I forgot about him!"

Kino: "If I had worn a pink shirt, you guys would have torn me to shreds!"

Ayato: "Yeah, but you would have looked like a My Little Pony with fangs."

Yuma: "Let me guess, your theater is putting on a production of Grease, and you're playing a pink lady."

*Nearly everyone laughs when Subaru walks in*

Subaru: "What are you guys laughing at?"

Ayato: "If Kino was wearing a pink shirt."

Subaru with a smirk: "I get it. It's hilarious."

Kino: "WHAT IS HAPPENING?! Subaru is the one wearing pink!"

Subaru with a murderous glint in his eyes: ". . . .and?"

A very scared Kino: ". . . .it's gorgeous. I wish I can pull it off."

Subaru: "Dream on, Strawberry Shortcake."

Ayato: "Yeah, nice try 'Mr. Grapes'!"

*AN: Please don't bully a guy for wearing a pink shirt.

-------------------------------------------------------

*Laito when school ends*

Laito: "Sexy train is leaving the station, check out this caboose! Later sluts!"

------------------------------------------------------------

That's all for now folks.

[moocha-muses]

Big news, gentlesims! The lovely Lorelei Lee is looking to fall in love! Could your sim be The One?

I: So, Lilo, give us the scoop. What made you send in an audition tape?

L: This is going to sound so lame, but, I’ve never been in love before! And I know what you’re thinking. Lorelei, you’re twenty-three. Get over yourself. But everyone else has been dropping the “l-word” since high school. I’ve been confessed to, but I’ve never been the one doing the confessing. I’m here to meet someone that'll make my heart pound.

Full interview (and the submission rules) beneath the cut!

I: That’s why you’re here . . . why should the contestants bother showing up?

LL: Ouch! Haha, I mean, I don’t know? I’ve got a killer smile, great legs, I’m not a bad cook . . . I’m sure they’ll have their reasons.

I: Tell us a little more about yourself.

LL: Sure. Let’s see. I’m pretty competitive. I don’t think I’m an asshole about it, but if I was one of the suitors on this show, I’d probably end up as the villain. I swear I'm nice to the sims I date.

I: Ha!

LL: I love cats, I have mild insomnia and I drink way too much coffee. I'm great with people, I love making new friends, but I tend to hold onto a grudge. Sometimes I really get into moods where I just feel all my feelings.

I can play pretty much any instrument by ear, and I absolutely slay at karaoke night. I think a lot of my college professors expected me to drop my major at any minute, like it was a giant prank, and go into the family business - should I talk about my mom? No? Well, I am going into the family business. People forget my dad’s a social worker. He’s my hero.

I: You sound great.

LL: Are you sure? I don’t know if I’d date me.

I: She’s funny, too! This sim's a catch. Speaking of . . . Lilo, what kind of sim are you looking for?

LL: Someone passionate. I don't mean that in a sexy way (though clearly that's a plus) but the sims I've been attracted to have always committed to the bit, you know? I'm into people who don't back down, or try to make themselves palatable. I love listening to sims talk about the things they're completely weird on.

And blondes! Love me a blond.

______________________________________________________________

Now for the entry rules!

To submit an entrant, just make a post with cute pics and a bio (see below) and tag me! The finalists can be sent as in a private DL once they've been chosen.

Contests get an all-expenses paid trip to a tropical vacation for a shoot that will happen right after the end of this round. All entries should include a personal bio with an aspiration, a personality/sign (Lilo's a Popularity Taurus), a list of traits and a set of TOs (at least one of which should be for black hair, fitness, or creativity). Feel free to include a career and job level too. And a LTW! Why not?

Winning entrants will be expected to provide their own wardrobe (Everyday, Formal, Swim, and Undies) suitable for a tropical environment.

All genders welcome, but only the following supernaturals: witches, werewolves, and aliens. Go ahead and include any accessories/jewelry and tattoo boxes you'd like. I'll recolor hairs and adjust skins/eyes as necessary to match my defaults. Go ahead and include an CC you like! The more the better.

(No real entrant deadline because scheduling this within the next two/three months is probably optimistic. Let's say September 1st-ish, until the producers say otherwise. Otherwise, I'll cap it when we hit too many sims for me to choose between!)

Good luck, and don't forget your hearts! Or your swimsuits.

[ravenbloodshot]

Not Gong yoo and LDW casually being each others ideal types lmao! 🤣 I peep 👀 I always see LDW being so endearing to him though, like man/bro-crush vibes? I am not saying he's on the DL, I'm not the delusional type. But he looks like the type that's super intelligent and because of that finds it hard to look up to people or even see them as someone he can see as an equal or respect. I know he's the oldest, so he has eldest sibling vibes but I think he grew up quicker than he should've lol, it looks like gong yoo soothes him or is that big bro he's always wanted. I always see he turns small next to him and tries to impress him, kind of like he needs to be subdued or stroked on the head. I know it's an unpopular option because he looks scary but he's so sweet lol, I literally see it pouring out of him and he always feels responsible for his surroundings, so I think no one sees him. Which is why in your break up reading Suzy was out off by him seemingly being more heart-centred than he looked and you said it changed the way he approaches relationships etc, I wouldn't be surprised he was attracted to her and opened up and she was put off? She's probably the type that likes getting taken care of and not the other way around, so she was like you're doing too "much". His change because "oh I'm too much, for future reference I will not get too deep or show a woman my heart". I wouldn't be surprised if he's the type that struggles a lot but his "manliness" makes him look disgusting if he expresses it. Idk he looks like he needs people who see him clearly? I also don't think he's an overly sexual guy, like gong yoo. I usually see him with his red band, you know the Buddhist one? Where the wear it for abistinece of certain things? I'm not saying he's celibate lol but I know he doesn't live beyond his "means", he's a very conscious person, I don't think he ever just rolls out of bed and "does what he wants". Idk I always see these grown ass people need love lol, especially since embarking on my spiritual journey. We really all just are kids needing to be "seen"? For some reason LDW always gave me anxious attachment style whereas gong yoo is dismissive and I know those styles fit each other like a glove. It's always the scary looking ones being marshmallows though. I am also surprised gong yoo even let him get close LMFAO 🤣 I know LDW "chased" him a lot because they talk about it! He's always out here, even toxically seeing the good in people, he also gets along with everyone and stranger love him. People always invite him on shows etc? Idk he's so cute LOL 😂 (I know I'm weird) I wouldn't be surprised if they both would've loved to package each other into the perfect type for them but really they are complimentary. What one is on the outside, the other is on the inside. Also LDW always likes them cold, dismissive types lol. I see that his demeanour changes around his female co-stars when they're the cool types. He also gives to an extreme, he's always having peoples back, which gong yoo typically looks like a happy go lucky people's person but the man really is out for himself and is super hedonistic 😂. Not saying he's bad but I don't think he cares enough and wouldn't think twice about icing people out. It's giving "cut-off game STRONG". All in all, I can tell LDW feels so happy "earning" his spot in his life, I'm sure he's even surprised that he was able to pull it off. Kind of like a drag off a cigarette? Idk his energy always gives me "I'm still here", I think people think he's got his shit together lol. I wouldn't be surprised if he looks up to him and gong yoo is also intrigued by him etc. They're good friends. I want complimentary friends but my ass busy being like Gong yoo. Blissfully unaware of the reason why people like me, body looking like "better not get close, I bite not bark". LMFAO and also couldn't care about the whole kissing ass, I'm so sorry that's what it feels like to me LOL 😂. Please if you ever can, will you do a friendship reading, I would love to see this? Thanks!

Hope you don't mind, it's been a while, I come here sometimes, you're literally the only person who reads... "correctly", or satisfyingly enough? I don't know, also I saw you apologise to an anon talking about "they're either dating or they're not" and you were talking about how you come across some way, you said "whoever said he's either dating or not, isn't saying anything at all because the entire population is either dating or not" etc, idk word for word verbatim but ima have to say you don't owe anyone an apology! That anon said "I have to monitor what I say etc and took it out on you, when they were projecting their lack of understanding and then blamed you and made you monitor what you said and apologise for your own words? Also, why are people bringing up other "readers" if they can't take criticism, they better had learned how to read cards themselves, the audacity!? It's not your business to correct or respond, you are already doing way more than the average reader and excellently engaging with people and nobody is paying you for it. This is incredible and unbelievable, to have this calibre of content for free and actually be a lit ass person, I will literally attack any disrespect shown towards you! Sometimes people think we're doing exactly what they're doing. It pains me to see you had to "correct" yourself when they were literally fighting their own projection and lack of understanding of others. Go back and read it from an objective perspective, you'll see! I want you to take back that apology, even energetically if you can! Something else I want you to know Raven, we LOVE you and we think you communicate CLEARLY, whoever wants to understand it WILL! If anything, you're the only tarot page that reads on people and actually SAYS something that I frequent and enjoy, you actually talk to people properly and read and entertain us. You're the last person who should get attacked. We love you, don't change and don't apologise! Take care you lil sexy bird 🐦‍⬛❤️

— Lip Service Girl 💄💋

Spot on as always 👏👏

A friendship reading between these two does sound interesting, I'll make it happen. Tbh, I never saw a scorpio/cancer dynamic where the Scorpio was the sweetheart (the chaser), and the cancer was more standoffish (or should I say the runner). I found their personality differences/similarities very intriguing.

Also, thanks for understanding and supporting me. Me giving that apology wasn't really bc I thought what I said was wrong in any way, but bc i knew I hurt that anon. They sent separate asks and it just seemed like they wanted to feel like they didn't have sensor their thoughts or have their opinions shut down. And ik exactly how that feels. I didn't like that I made them feel that way even if I didn't mean to.

[doberbutts]

I think it's also wild the way people assume the stealth experience is roses and butterflies. I went stealth+DL about being gay for about 2 years at work in order to be able to work in a trade where people generally skew extremely homophobic/transphobic/misogynistic. I had been on T long enough to pass reliably so I thought, ok, cool, this is where my life as a Normal Guy kicks in, this is where I get to flex the old Male Privilege and work in an industry culture that is toxic to everyone but cishet men.

and I mean yeah, materially? I did okay in my profession, I was good at what I did. People were pretty chill to me because my only major flaw to them was being the New Kid, a problem that eased with time. I did have a female coworker who I learned dealt with some hazing that I didn't. I will say, in that particular situation, I had some privilege over her since my sexist coworkers never said anything to me the way they said shit to her.

but here's the thing - I still heard all of it. The gross misogynistic things they were saying were not meant to be about me, but they sure as hell were anyway.

but oh, boo hoo, I had to hear remarks, but you know, I didn't face any actual barriers or opposition right? yeah, okay, I guess not, and I'm not saying it would have been better to be out in this scenario, or to be a woman, but there's a reason I ended up leaving that field. walking into work and feeling like - no, knowing - you have to lie to all your coworkers and your boss every single day or else they'll hate you and treat you like shit is not a great feeling. you never have a truly good day when that is always at the back of your mind no matter what. you never develop genuine friendships or connections at work if they're all built on lies.

I ended up getting so burned out. it was a good job, a union job, and I was making a good income. I had a path upwards to make *great* income if I had stuck with it long-term. but I ended up leaving it for a non-union job at a younger company, with a more "hip" HR culture that seemed like maybe I would be in a better place emotionally. I took a pay cut to do that too. but a lot of my new coworkers had the same attitudes as my old ones - the first week I was there, one of the other employees went around the shop asking each person, "if Kylie Jenner was trans, as in, used to be a man, would you still fuck her?" and most people, including the fucking foreman, said "fuck no." I ended up saying something like "it makes no difference to me, sure, fine, she's not my type anyway" (having to not reveal I was trans and also not reveal that I prefer men), and right in that moment I realized this wouldn't be a place I could be open either, and it would feel the same as the old place.

so the burnout for that job came much quicker. I quit after only a couple of months. I did actually end up telling the HR manager why, given that this company actually had one, but she was the only person at the job who ever knew I was trans (since she saw it on my background check anyway).

so yeah like, being stealth at work? it's not a privilege. it's a defense mechanism, and it feels like shit. you feel every transphobic and misogynistic barb even if it's not meant for you. one could argue that I would have never even been able to get those jobs if I were out, and yeah, maybe, that's possible, but I had female coworkers at both places. And yeah, one could also argue that, in terms of pay, I was likely doing better than my female coworkers. And you might be right about that if I hadn't gotten burnt out and quit before having a chance to build up any kind of seniority. But instead I took pay cut after pay cut until I finally decided to put my life in full reverse and go back to college - where I had struggled severely due to mental illness, and still do - since trades were clearly not the place for me.

I'm just really sick of people who have never actually lived what it's like to have that "male privilege" of being a stealth trans man deciding it's just the great, most ideal way you can exist as a trans person. I'm sure there are some stealth trans men who were able to adapt to that environment that I wasn't. but at what fucking cost?

I have a friend who worked a military job training the bomb dogs. He is 100% stealth to the point where even people who know, who have seen him naked and even had sex with him, often forget that he's transgender and why he has that barrier of access to some things if he wants to remain stealth.

The type of shit that people would just. Say to him. And he was always having to balance saying something or keeping quiet so as not to draw too much attention to his status as transgender. He was provided room and board by his job and thus lived with 5-6 similarly aged cis men in the same house and the amount of dodging them and biting his tongue he had to do to just to survive... And the job wouldn't be chill if they found out, the talk he'd heard made it very clear that he was at all times operating with a noose around his neck ready to tighten at the very first infraction.

Anyway that's what passing privilege is. Is your life somewhat better because you pass well enough that no one questions you? I mean I guess technically. But what happens in the mean time to your mental health? Having to hide large aspects of yourself and constantly worrying and looking over your shoulder to make sure no one is looking too hard at your hips or your hands or your chest. My friend is post-op. He's "done", so to speak, outside of taking testosterone. And yet this was still something he had to keep in mind.

He ended up leaving that job due to some Stupid Workplace Bullshit unrelated to his gender status but he told me that honestly it was also a huge sigh of relief. The money he got was great but it was corroding his soul to stay. He ended up taking a pay cut and working elsewhere that he is still stealth but no longer feels like he's got an axe to his neck in every interaction.

[mukamibabe]

What do u think karlheinz 3 wives or just cordelia would react to karl falling inlove with a guy?

Srry fot another request, im just rlly down bad for him

uhhh . ok. am i officially back? not uhh,, not really but all i know is: i can answer this one. whether i answer more, i have no idea- my amount of free time has run thin but i do know that i could do this pretty quickly. therefore! here you go!

no warnings other than.. the diamoms are.. the diamoms. they're not angels,, and uh cordelia is especially awful. that being said, tread carefully? i still never know how to warn about any works regarding this series bc.. it’s dark?? lol dl is it’s own warning.

cordelia is in complete denial. i mean, she can hardly believe karl loves anyone but her, and i highly doubt she took the news lightly. i also imagine her having a slight suspicion, because lets just say karl isn't exactly shy when it comes to spending time with his newfound love. sure, it might not be like.. extreme pda, but .. cordelia knows. she claims she does, at least. she thinks she knows this man to his very core, as he knows her. also, there's just.. something about the look in karl's eyes that makes her feel a sort of betrayal.

she keeps this info to herself for a while, but if anyone were to look closely, it won't be hard to realize that cordelia's being especially clingy as of late. it already hurts her pride enough, knowing that karlheinz has two other wives. but, for her beloved karl to be interested in a guy?? it's not something she could have even imagined, and it irks her more than anything. especially if karl's interested in a very .. 'plain' looking person. which is kind of hard anyways because cordelia has ridiculously high standards. will that stop her from trying to seduce them, though? definitely not.

cordelia will .. 99% at least attempt to sway the heart of both karlheinz (as per usual) and karl's love interest. and, if the seduction thing doesn't work on him? she'll make sure everyone in this messy situation is miserable. if she can't be happy with karl, no one else can be.

beatrix is shocked, but you will hear and see none of it. stone faced as always, no matter how she finds out of the news, she won't respond in anyways. deep down, i genuinely think she would be unbothered. in fact, she almost admires both karlheinz and his lover- it's a bold move. especially when there's so much... baggage involved. and by that, i mean : cordelia, christa + karl's millions of kids.

she's not supportive, nor is she against it. beatrix has always been one to stick to herself, and i highly doubt her and karl's new love interest will interact often, or at all, period, but truthfully, she wishes his new lover luck. she won't get in their way, but she knows there are others who will.

also i still.. i still feel that energy from her. who's to say she doesn't have a secret lady lover??? hm??

christa's heartbroken, but she would be no matter who karlheinz got with. she's .. going through a lot. like, a ton. it was hard for her to accept the fact that he had previous wives, but, with karl’s reassurance that she’s his true love, everything is okay. christa trusts karlheinz, at least, on some days, so .. there’s no way he could love anyone but her. i imagine christa being the last to find out, for some reason. i mean, i guess it makes sense because she’s kind of isolated and like.. locked away most of the time but.. idk. there’s also a part of her that literally will not process it. ..it makes her mental state in an entirely worse state than it was already, for multiple reasons. first, karl lied to her. did he? she is the one he loves the most, so why..?? ?why is she hearing all this stuff about him having a new lover?? with a guy, at that, too.. she’s in denial for the longest time but it’s also because she genuinely doesn’t believe it. hell, she doesn’t even know if she’s just hearing lies or not- even if she saw physical proof, i feel like she’d think she was hallucinating or something. 

once she’s past all of that, she shuts herself off. she’s completely heartbroken. empty. there was a part of her deep down that felt like karl never truly loved her, but at least she knew she was the favorite wife - again, as per karl’s reassurance.

honestly, if she were in a better mental state, i can see her genuinely worried for this guy. she loves karl, or at least harbors some sort of true feeling towards him, and her pity for his new lover isn’t out of hatred, it’s an actual concern. as much as she loves her husband, christa is very well aware that he’s never up to any good, and there is a part of her, deep down, that would feel bad for his new partner.

[yuriko-mukami]

His Possession Ecstasy: Epilogue

Beta reader: @ruki-mukami-dl

Everything around me was crumbling down. I didn’t know what to think. What to feel. Ruki was losing his battle, and so was I. I had meant to save my brother but now it seemed I only managed to put everyone in danger. I had failed completely.

“No! Ruki!” Yuriko cried and meandered. “Yuuto, let me go back!”

“I fuckin’ can’t,” Yuuto grunted. He hauled Yuriko on his shoulder and continued his way to the village. “Listen closely… I just realized somethin’. And stop fuckin’ squirmin’. I’m not gonna hurt you unless I’m told so and if you keep fightin’ someone might make me do it. So, keep still and lemme talk.”

The genuine worry in Yuuto’s voice made Yuriko stop. She panted as tears almost blinded her, but she took hold of the back of her brother’s shirt and tried to keep still. “Okay…”

“Here’s the deal. I just saw somethin’. You noticed that bright thingy in our grandpa’s hand, right?”

“Yes.”

“Good. It’s the star pearl. My star pearl to be exact.” Yuuto shifted, moving Yuriko into a better position. She frowned, having no idea what the star pearl even was. “Long story short since Mother seemingly didn’t bother to tell you anythin’. It has part of Kitsune’s soul in it. I thought I couldn’t extract mine but now I see it was extracted for me. When? Dunno… but our grandpa seems to have it.”

“So… what does that mean?”

“That I need to do his biddin’ until we get it back. Now, you’re gonna need to play a good little vixen for him and then steal the pearl and bring it to me. Then we’re off here.” Yuuto sighed. “I’m sorry. But dontcha worry. I’m gonna fix this. I won’t let ‘em keep you here.”

The forest started to get sparse, and tiny wooden houses appeared between the trees. The streets between them were more like meandering paths and while the ground looked hard, it wasn’t covered with tiles or asphalt. Grass peeked here and there, and many of the houses seemed to have their own gardens.

Yuuto stopped in front of a low building with wooden walls and a tile roof. Terrace and sliding doors made Yuriko think about the traditional houses she had seen back in her old hometown and pictures in the history books, but these settlements were in use, not part of the history but present. The homes of the Yako Kitsune.

While Yuuto stood still, holding Yuriko, the older man roamed closer. Finally, he stepped next to the siblings, looking way too happy and smug to Yuriko’s liking as he gazed at Yuuto.

“Good boy, now carry her in before someone notices…”

Growling, Yuuto did as he was told to. Yuriko hung onto him, swallowing her tears. Was Ruki still alive? Would she ever see him again? She needed to fight her way through all this. She would play time for herself and somehow… somehow, she would get that pearl for Yuuto.

Yuuto tucked Yuriko’s shoes off at the entrance before he scooted her into the living room, putting her down. She still held him by his arm because her legs were trembling, and she was breathing heavily. Their grandfather lurked closer, smiling with the shiny pearl in his hand.

Yuriko swallowed. She couldn’t see the resemblance between this man and Yuuto. While Yuuto had the same hair as Yuriko and a tall, muscular form, this man looked older and weaker. His amber eyes gleamed under the long bangs of dusty yellow; his ponytail seemed to tickle his waist. He had the aura of a man who had seen too much in his life yet refused to give up. Still, his scent didn’t radiate safety but pretty much the opposite, making Yuriko quiver a little.

“Pretty face and nice body. You will do very well.” The man measured Yuriko with his eyes. “Say, you have not shared yourself with a man, have you?”

Yuriko gasped, her face instantly flaring. “That’s… none of your business!”

“As your family’s head, it indeed is…” The man leaned closer, sniffing her. Suddenly, he was grimacing. “You reek. It will take ages for you to purify…”

Saying nothing, Yuriko leaned against Yuuto. Neither her virginity – or the lack of it – nor her bathing habits had anything to do with this man. If she reeked, it was because of the fight and nothing else. Yet she didn’t feel like pointing that out.

Yuriko couldn’t believe that her father had wanted to give her here. How much did Keisuke hate her? This was terrible, and Yuriko would find her way out of this place together with Yuuto… and their mother.

Where was Mother anyway? She hadn’t been near the gate even though Yuuto had clearly waited for Yuriko’s arrival as he had promised. Had he been unable to free their mother?

As if reading Yuriko’s thoughts, their grandfather leaned in and stared at her. “You have similar traits to Hisoka.” He chuckled. “I’m sure we can find you a good husband as soon as this little problem with your scent is solved.” 

Yuuto pulled Yuriko further from the man, hiding her behind his large back. “Haven’t you done enough shit already? You don’t need a girl who has been bitten by a bloodsucker.”

“Hmph, even the bitten ones are more valuable than you, brat. Nothing good ever comes out of you!”

Yuuto growled and their grandfather answered in a similar manner, squeezing the pearl in his hand. “You are to obey me. If I say the girl marries, then she will.”

“FUCK!”

“Shut up and give her to me!” 

Before Yuriko could react, Yuuto had already pushed her toward the man. It was almost scary how he couldn’t resist direct orders.

I need to focus. I need to get the pearl first. Then we can save Mom…

“Umh… are you… my grandfather?” Yuriko tried to play nice at least. She couldn’t stop her heart from jumping. Ruki was in danger; so was Mother. Everything was up to her now. 

“That’s right. Nakamura Ichiro.” The man snorted. “So, what is your name, girl?”

“Tsukino Yuriko.”

Ichiro nodded. “From now on it will be Nakamura Yuriko… until we will find you a husband, that is. You are a long-lost granddaughter of mine who was saved from the cruelty of the Human World. You are grateful and love it here. You can’t imagine anything better than living with your kind. And if you aren’t accepting these terms, I’ll make sure that you will obey, just like your brother.” 

Yuriko didn’t answer. She couldn’t anger this man now but, in her mind, she kept telling him that there would be only one man she was willing to marry and one other last name she would take. No one could change that for she had decided this. And she would never love being here and living with these terrible people who had clearly treated Yuuto badly year after year.

But instead of saying any of that, Yuriko lowered her head and bowed. “It’s an honor to meet you, Ichiro-ojiisan. Mom never talked about you, so I had no idea.”

“Hmph, I can believe that. She was as much a brat as your useless brother…”

Squeezing her hands into fists, Yuriko inhaled deeply. She should keep her mouth shut but it pained her heart to hear this man talking about Yuuto in a very similar manner as Keisuke had always talked about her.

“Where is she now?” Yuriko asked, forcing a smile on her face as she straightened her body.

“Yuuto didn’t have time to tell you? And I thought you two had keeping contact for a longer while since you found your way here…” A twisted smirk rose on Ichiro’s lips. “Hisoka paid for her crimes years ago. With her life.”

Everything stopped.

Yuriko wasn’t sure if she was breathing anymore. Her legs gave up and the room around her disappeared. She was gasping… probably. It was difficult to tell since everything started to go black. Her throat grew so tight that no voice came out.

Mother wasn’t there anymore. She hasn’t been for years.

Mother… had died. I couldn’t believe it.  The news struck me directly in the heart. Suddenly the world was black and lacking meaning. I always thought… …that I could have gotten her back.  Was anything worth believing in?

[hatchetation]

Hello I would very much like to see you expand more on the different ways Kate and Lucy give off being queer 👀

Okayyy I'm so glad you asked!! So here were the tags:

#but i do know that lucy tara comes across as suuuuuper gay to me in the way she interacts with the world#even outside of being with kate she reads as queer to me#and i will say i also think tori is a great actress and i also get a super queer vibe from kate outside of lucy#and just as a further caveat#i know that not all queer people carry themselves in the same way. in fact lucy and kate read as queer to me but in v different ways

I may have gone overboard in this response so TL;DR: It's all about the vibes and their vibes are GAY!

I'm gonna start with Lucy. Lucy Tara is too gay to function. I'm kind of joking but also to me Lucy is the sort of queer person who cannot help but be herself. I think that she's always kind of liked girls and whenever she fully had her sexual awakening, there was no hiding it from herself or anyone else. I'm not saying that she didn't /try/ to hide it or that she hasn't gone through some shit related to being queer--it honestly wouldn't surprise me if we learn that her family took time to come around to her being gay. But I think it was hard for her to be anyone but herself. Relatedly, there's the way that Lucy refused to be Kate's dirty little secret back in season 1. Hidden away, wrapped up in shame in the shadows is just not who Lucy is. It very much felt like she was going against her nature for the few eps where she agreed for them to keep their relationship on the DL.

Imo, Lucy is also the type of friend who could listen to all of your problems and you could feel so close to her but then later you'd realize that she hadn't said anything about herself. Maybe that seems contradictory but to me it all kind of hangs together for her as a queer character: she's open about who she is but perhaps a bit wary about who she really trusts and brings into her inner circle (on the show we really only see her interact with characters she trusts so...could be cool to see her with someone she doesn't trust!).

Last thing about Lucy--it's literally just the way she walks and talks and dresses like she does not give a shit what any man thinks about her. What I mean by this is less about binary gender and more about how the life she's trying to live is outside the patriarchy…It's the way she punched Jesse on the arm back in season 1 and the way she also punched ASAC Curtis on the arm a couple eps ago. Her queerness is all up in her confident stride and her competitive nature. And look, I know very well that there are straight women who probably carry themselves like that and that nothing I'm saying is, on its own, specific to a sexual orientation. But all together, and in the context of NCIS: Hawai'i, it reads as queer.

Now for Whistler! I have to call her Whistler when I'm discussing how gay she is all on her own lmaoooo. She's gay in suchhhh a different way from Lucy. Her walls are allll the way up. I honestly identify with Whistler the most because the key to Whistler's queerness is that she's amazing at compartmentalizing. I, too, am amazing at compartmentalizing and let me tell you when you're young and closeted that coping skill is life-saving...until about ten years later when you have to go to therapy to unpack how traumatizing it was lol. But basically, I think Whistler's whole HBIC, stiff, loner tendencies show up outside of her relationship with Lucy and are coping mechanisms that identify her as queer. I know some of that stuff is related to her brother's death, but it really reads to me as queer.

Whistler presents herself as put together, not a hair out of place, focused to a fault, etc. In season 2 we're seeing her open up, but she still identifies with being a loner and I think she still knows exactly what a gut punch it is to feel existentially lonely. Like, that loneliness that happens when you're gay and you feel like you'll never be brave enough to be your authentic self. That loneliness that you think you'll never escape because YOU put the walls up and how are you supposed to take them down now?? The way her character reads to me is someone who is just beginning to live the kind of life that she probably dreamed of as a kid. Again, that vibe feels incredibly queer to me.

And of course, on a more superficial note, Whistler also reads as someone who does not give a FUCK what a man thinks. She has a more feminine style at work than Lucy. I think that's the style that makes her most comfortable, and I also think it's her armor, a way for her to assert that yes she's a woman and also yes she will kick your ass. Again, I'm sure that there are many women in male-dominated work spaces who operate similarly and not all of them are gay. But within the context of the show...it reads as gay!

[hauntedhikingsociety]

okay wait I do want to know about your no dl-6 au

vibrates. this might get long.

the idea for this came from "what if miles edgeworth was the defence attorney in 3-1" which sent me into a spiral of thoughts about the rest of the cast and where they would be at that point in time without DL-6. there are 2 main story threads running through it.

no.1 is obviously, Miles Edgeworth as the rookie defence attorney who obliterates the corrupt prosecutors in his path (along with his investigative partner/weirdgirl Phoenix who somehow manages to become involved every time) and the help of his father.

I'm still working out the plot but a lot of OT characters and villains show up, just a little differently. It's fun to think about what they would be up to in a world that still has Gregory Edgeworth in it. also I love writing Gregory. please take this snippet which I am busy building the plot of multiple cases around:

“That’s an odd place for a legal meeting,” murmurs Miles to himself, putting a hand to his chin in thought while his father squirms.

“Well, it wasn’t really a legal meeting,” he begins. “We’re acquaintances now, we talk about things other than the law.”

Miles doesn’t realize it straight away. He turns this information over in his head, then he looks at Phoenix’s borderline scandalized face, staring at his father who’s starting to turn red, and the pieces start to fall into place. “Father… were you… on a date with Phoenix’s drama teacher?”

The silence rings out like the judge’s gavel on a guilty verdict. Too stunned to say anything, Miles just stands there wondering if this will be the thing that makes his legs give out. Gregory coughs, and pulls his glasses down his nose so they can’t make eye contact with him. “Well… I am entitled to a private life.”

“I—I suppose…” Miles wrings his hands. “I assumed you would tell me… I always tell you when I’m going on a date…”

“Well, yes, but when you go on a date it’s something of an event, Miles, it’s not…” He pauses, cleaning his glasses on his shirt, and Miles narrows his eyes, leaning towards the glass again like a bloodhound that’s caught a scent.

“What does that mean? How often do you go on dates?”

Gregory coughs again. “Should we talk about the case?”

no.2 is spirit medium Mia. in mainline canon she becomes a lawyer to find the truth behind the DL-6 incident, but in this au Misty never left Kurain, is still the head of the family and Mia is her successor, mostly occupying the role of trying to explain to her mother why she should care about the homicidal urges of the Fey women around her.

in most no DL-6 aus I've seen Mia is still a lawyer, and I don't dislike those because she's a queen in every setting, but longtime friends who've had to listen to me rant know that I don't love how aa fans treat Kurain generally. I think it has fascinating cultural implications and Mia would be an absolute queen at navigating the politics of being part of Kurain's line of succession.

also. I love miego. and I love the idea of miego meeting as professionals in their respective industries and growing to respect each other's goals and drive. here is a snippet of diego getting absolutely obliterated

“Since you’re such a beautiful woman, I’ll let it slide,” he says with another self-satisfied grin, taking a seat on the floor. In this moment, while Mia still stands over him, she feels rage flare in her like a shooting star.

“Mr Armando,” she begins, her voice taut as wire, “This meeting continues on the condition of my goodwill. Irritate me too much, and we are done here.” She sits down, and makes deliberate, direct eye contact before asking politely, “Would you like tea?”

He smiles, but not the arrogant grin of before. This is a grim, rugged smile of satisfaction. “No thanks,” he replies with equal politeness. “I prefer coffee.”

“Very well.” Mia places her hands on the table. “What would you like to discuss?”

anyway. I am very hopeful that this will get written up in full at some point and actually become a fic because I am obsessed with it and spirit medium mia is too good an idea to sit in the drafts forever.

[fragileizywriting]

"he's just... lame but in a virgin kind of way?" (dl) marinette explains, grasping at straws.

"no. honestly, you've lost me," (dl) adrien deadpans, snapping his book closed and settling back into his chair. "what does that mean?"

"luka is just... lame."

"i think he's good looking."

"oh, he is. but in a virgin way."

her favorite past time with adrien is window shop with him, both of them chattering over tea or wine or extremely expensive caviar that she doesn't bother looking at the price for. being bisexual is so heavenly, especially when adrien is just as eager to browse with her with the same amount of enthusiasm. when they're at their favorite breakfast place, a pret-a-manger that skews slightly sappy with the heart motifs and turquoise stamping on the walls, conversation sings between them both. adrien isn't a morning person like she is, but he makes the effort to join her, just so they can have their date.

she loves dating two people at once.

usually, luka's the one who joins her in rundown hole-in-the-walls, gazing at her with a sappy smile and an equally sappy expression lingering in his eyes as she eats a very non chocolate savoury crepe.

on the off days where she has a date with adrien in the mornings, she gets him out the door before he's able to nose into his sunglasses and hide.

and of course, when the two of them have their date, it's always a tossup for what they end up doing. luka never has a preference. adrien is always too worried he's overimposing on the angel to actually pick.

"so," adrien murmurs, soft and sweet and sinful, "what exactly are you talking about?"

"(sas) luka is just... a virgin."

adrien laughs. "work with me, here. there's already a marinette that talks in circles, i can't do it with two."

"don't be mean!" she scolds, laughing along with him. "awh, i thought you liked her."

"oh, i do." he steals a bite of her gorgeous tart with far too much passion fruit coating. he's smart enough to hide the way his teeth sing from the taste with a pink tongue against his fangs. "i think she's so interesting."

"just 'interesting'?" she teases, hiding a smile into her juice.

"what do you mean?"

"she's tiny."

his eyes narrow. "i wouldn't."

"you can."

"it's an ethical issue. she's not technically my girlfriend."

"i'd fuck myself whole-heartedly," she argues plainly, giving a shrug. the waiter across from them in the small cafe, busy putting silverware down, pretends he's not paying attention. "there are no complaints from me. i think the only ethical issue i would have personally is that if i'm not quick enough, i might treat her like my daughter instead of... me. and then that's where it would get into the danger, do-not-pass-go zone. and you, my loving little baby boy, do not shut up when you think of something you like."

adrien pinks. "she's... cute," he tacks on, no doubt getting a feedback loop as she herself thinks about all the scenes he'd unknowingly fed her throughout the few hours they've been in contact with the new crew. "i like the way she scrunches her nose the same way you do when she doesn't like something. and she does the same thing you do; pretending to be absolutely stupid even though she's probably the smartest, just to disarm people."

"if you'd like to find out just how cute she can be, i won't be stopping you."

"but what exactly about the new luka makes you think he's lame?"

"i don't know. he's lame in the same way you're just a baby boy to me."

"so it's personality?"

"for lack of a better word, i'd say 'vibes'?" it's a quizzical conundrum for sure. "you don't have the personality of an actual baby, but i see you and i think about how much i want to—" the words have you suck on my tits hangs in the air like a veil, and though she doesn't have to say it, adrien's pupils dilate in the silence. "anyway, i feel like luka just has a backbone of a wet napkin."

"maybe adrien has him wrapped around his finger," her adrien laughs.

wow, yeah. adrien has a point. "you know? that's kind of hot."

"yeah, not something you'd expect, for sure. our luka can pretend that he's not more top-leaning than switch-leaning, sure, but this younger one definitely shows off his... helplessness more."

"i don't even know how."

"i think i'd like to see him try to top."

"interesting."

"i think it might make him break out of his shell."

"go on?" she goads, tapping her nails with impatience as adrien sips out of his coffee cup.

"maybe he's a lame virgin cause no one's put out in the way he likes."

"just a reminder that he is a virgin."

oh, there's a fire in his eyes. "really?"

"you thought they were joking last night?"

"i can't exactly know that for sure, unlike you," he teases. "how about this. you and i crack him open."

"you let him top you and i'll top him?" oh, this poor creature. this helpless man will never survive. "is this a good idea? i don't think i should drain him out."

"then don't."

she makes a face. "but that's not fun."

"you're a grown woman," he muses, hiding a smirk in the way he chews his croissant. heated glances to her chest say much, much more than the giant pockets of silence. "you can hold yourself back."

"but he's cute," she pouts, scrunching her nose. "and i really like him."

"if you hold back, i'll let you baby me for a whole week. whole baby like i always say no to."

"oh, deal."

[batsarebetterthanpeople]

Hey do you have any advice for using Grindr/other dating apps as a trans guy? I really wanna get laid but my friends keep telling me that it's a waste of time :(

Ok so if you want to get laid and you fuck men I would go with Grindr if you want dates I would look elsewhere.

Secondly. I may be benefiting from a certain level of pretty privilege when I say this but I've been open with my body count on here. Idk what it is but I stopped counting at 40 and that was over a year ago. If I can do that I'm certain you can bag at least one guy.

So a lot of my advice is gonna be for trans guys who are hot because that is my experience so what works for me might not work for you but honestly I would use trial and error to figure out your method. Also all of this advice is Grindr specific because I like to talk to guys before I decide so the matching apps never really worked for me.

So my methods is I have a face pic and I have a very slutty bio and I just wait for people to message me. Occasionally if I really think a guys hot I tap him and if I really think a guys hot and he has trans friendly in his bio I message him. Grindr doesn't make you swipe through anyone can message anyone. This has benefits and drawbacks. I've gotten a few rather mean transphobic messages and I just block the guy and move on it's not really that big of a deal to me.

Anyway one thing I would recommend is using tags and tribes. I'm not crazy about that terminology of "tribes" but I'll show you what I mean

Tags have a million options, tribes only have a few are your options. People filter for them. I would really recommend clicking the trans one and putting the FTM tag in your tags because it'll make it easier for people looking for trans partners to find you.

Honestly people filter for all the information so I would fill it out. depending on what they're looking for but the trans tribe is the one that is trans specific

Now my next piece of advice: get used to unsolicited dick pics. People open with cock pics all the time that's just how it is on there. If you're not into it it's better just to go to another app.

There's a lot of blank profiles on there. Unlike on here those guys are not spam they're DL. Your milage might vary on them because there's a million reasons a guy might be DL. He could be a cheater but equally he could be a professor at the local college who doesn't want his students to find him. I know a drag queen who has a blank profile because she preforms at one of the biggest clubs in the city and if she has a face pic up people ask her if she's that little Latin boy who does JLO and are weird to about it. So not having a PFP doesn't say much about someone. I demand a face pic but I don't block for being blank

Finally don't take any shit from people. There's always another guy. People on there will do anything to get you to fuck them. They feel very entitled to hole you need to be entitled back. They'll ask you for unreciprocated head, they'll try to get you to host even when you say you can't, theyll text you come over when you are fully 100 miles away. You're gonna have to tell a lot of people no repeatedly.

Oh and one last thing: for some reason putting no cops no military in your profile gets you falsely reported. No Republicans appears not to have the same effect and a lot of guys will use the military tag so if you're not down with them just block they're open about it

[mermaidsirennikita]

ARC Review: The Portrait of a Duchess by Scarlett Peckham

3.75/5. Releases 3/7/2023.

For when you're vibing with: a romance between people late-thirties and older, marriage of convenience to marriage for real, unconventional heroines, true love without monogamy, and a well-done bisexual hero.

Cornelia Ludgate is a famously scandalous painter, having cultivated a reputation as a society siren throughout her life. In order to gain a much-needed inheritance, however, she must be married--and living with her spouse. The issue? Cornelia is decidedly against marriage. Also, she actually is married--and has been for the past twenty years. Rafe Goodwood, the new (unexpected) Duke of Rosemere, is the man who agreed to help her through a marriage of convenience when she was young; and he's here to help her again, despite their lack of communication in the decades since. He's ready to attest to their marriage--and give Cornelia the divorce she wants after she gets her inheritance. If only he didn't have those pesky lingering feelings...

This one is... a lot. I still am not 100% sure about my feelings on it. Scarlett Peckham certainly swung for the fences, and in some ways I think she got it, and in some ways... I'm less certain. This definitely scratches certain itches for me, but I also have questions about why certain choices were made.

Let's get into it.

Quick Takes:

--I really, really love the way Rafe is bi and that is just not a huge fucking deal. Obviously, there's an acknowledgment of homophobia and his need to keep his affairs with men on the DL, but Cornelia could not give less of a fuck. She's totally supportive, and this is not a matter of Rafe saying "I like guys" and that being it. We see his lover on the page, we like him (hey, Rory!) we see them have sex, it is great.

--Speaking of, this book is pretty bold on the monogamy (or lack thereof) front for a traditionally published historical romance, and I like that. Rafe mentions being in love with two people at the same time when he was younger, and their issues with that being why it didn't work out. Cornelia does not have these issues. At the same time, I wouldn't call this book a menage or poly romance at all (unlike, say, Jess Michaels's Their Marchioness) because... Yeah, Rafe and Cornelia have sex with other people, together and apart. Yeah, Rafe and Cornelia have no issue with it. Non-monogamy is a part of their relationship that the story deals with, but it's not necessarily a part of their romance. Their love story, in this book, is about them. But Rory is, again, fun!

--I really did like the emotional intimacy (or rather, Rafe wanting it and Cornelia not knowing how to give it to him) being a huge crux of the story. I am an absolute sucker for that kind of dynamic, and it's very well done here. Ultimately, while there is a plot going on, this is very much a "we are dealing with the damage we have done to each other and confronting whether or not we can be together" romance novel. It's a feel your feelings book. Yes, there are stakes, but the vast majority of them are emotional, and I think that was done well here. Also, the sex was super hot.

--So here's where I run into some issues. I like an age gap romance, I'm not opposed to it, and the age gap here is... on the brink. Cornelia is 38 when the book begins in the "present day", and Rafe is 54. They've been married for 20 years. So, that means Cornelia was 18 and he was 34 when they married. Cornelia being under 21 at the time of their marriage is important for the plot, and you really can't get around that. Additionally, the marriage was indeed a marriage of convenience... But of course, a lot of the conflict also has to surround them being attracted to each other when they married initially. I'm still sorting out how I feel about 34-year-old Rafe being super, super into 18-year-old Cornelia. I can't be a hypocrite here--I love What I Did for A Duke, and the age gap was greater (20 against a 39/40-year-old).

What I guess I run into is that in the present timeline, Rafe is a full 54, and he still feels quite emotionally young. And it's not that people in their 50s can't be messy, I guess I just kept on being like... Wow dude, you are dealing with the same *feelings problems* you dealt with 20 years ago, and you had already been dealing with those exact same issues for about... let's say 15 years before then. So in 35 years of knowing that you have these emotional feelings issues about how you deal with your relationships, you haven't... changed your approach at all? I mean, it's not implausible, it's just hard for me to believe. Him being an emotional wreck of a hero did not take away from his appeal (he's clearly into being a bit of a messy submissive who wants a dominant partner to calm and comfort him on some level, and that's cool and real and I was into it). But I think for me, it's just the lack... stasis? That confused me?

What it felt like to me is that Scarlett Peckham wanted to write about a hero in his 50s (possibly with a heroine of a similar age). However, she could not write Cornelia as a woman in her 50s with this 20-year time jump, because the marriage of convenience hinged on Cornelia being under 21 when the marriage occurred. To me, the logical choice, in order to avoid some issues with the age gap and the stasis of Rafe's inability to function in relationships (as opposed to Cornelia, who simply doesn't *want* relationships) would've been to have Cornelia at 18 and Rafe at... Closer to her age. Old enough to take on her relatives, sure, but close enough in age to make his complete messiness a bit more believable, and to perhaps take away from some of the distraction of the 18/34 age gape. I mean, 18/25, maybe? Would that have affected the plot negatively? Would it have affected the plot positively? I don't know. To me, Rafe just seemed to be really stuck, and I wasn't sure if I completely bought it.

--Because this is a feel your feelings book, the big climax ultimately depends on someone or someones being dumb about their feelings. While I am not at all averse to this (I don't hate miscommunication automatically like some readers do) I do feel like.... The way it came about in this book stretched my belief a bit. I let it go. But I was kind of like "Okay, really, did we not... realize... this was an issue..."

This makes it sound like I have a lot of complaints--and honestly, I really enjoyed a lot of this book. But the questions I had did kind of stick out to me, and I think that it could've used a bit more reworking to attack some of them. If not changing Rafe's age, then perhaps going more in-depth about his background, his relationship problems, and so on. If not completely changing the climax, perhaps again, going a bit further with that emotional conflict internally.

The Sex Stuff:

I mean, it's a Scarlett Peckham book, so there's a kinky edge going on for sure. I hesitate to call Rafe a sub and Cornelia a domme because, based on Peckham's previous work, if she wanted me to take that away from it she'd make it explicit. But Cornelia is definitely the more dominant partner in the bedroom, and Rafe nonetheless keeps the fuck up. I would call the sex in this book hotter than what was in The Rakess, and you get a lot of emotionality infused into them too--a lot of girl in charge, and a lot of openness to additional partners.

Again, this book is going for a lot, and while I'm not sure it hit everything perfectly, I do appreciate Scarlett Peckham going for it. I'm very curious to see how it is received by other reviewers, because it's definitely pretty unique in the traditionally published historical romance space.

Thank you to Avon and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.