#if you want to know the flower meanings they're on wikipedia

[lxvenderjewel]

my dear, my perfect darling my love, my one and only my yellow tulip. i have picked up a small case, watson.

what is it?

i’m buying you some diphylleia. something trivial, nothing to interest you. i’ll be going out to look at some flowers.

what for, holmes?

i hold you in my deepest mauve carnations. i believe i will find some clues there.

why haven’t i heard of this case?

it doesn’t exist i am lying i am making you a a mulberry i didn’t think it would interest you, watson.

hmm. well, you must tell me about it later.

i cannot you would hate me i cannot bear that a daffodil. of course.

what particularly about flowers?

shit shit shit shit a purple hyacinth. flower language.

hmm.

he knows he knows he cannot know how would he clovenlip toadflax. mm. i will see you.

don’t be late for dinner.

[withahappyrefrain]

Filet Mignons and Parking Spots

Summary: Against your better judgement, you agree to have dinner with the human equivalent of a Hangnail, aka Jake Seresin. A follow up to Matcha Lattes & Parking Spots!

Warnings: Language, lots of banter, Jake getting turned on by women who are mean to him.

Part 3 is up!

This was ridiculous. Absurdly so. 

He clearly wasn't taking you to dinner because he actually wanted to learn how to park better. He was hoping he could win you over with that small town billboard dentist ad-smile and be allowed into your pants. 

Which wasn't happening. No way in hell was he coming near you.

You refused to give him your address. Like hell he was going to learn where you live. 

You: I've listened to way too many true crime podcasts to give you my address. You've already shown signs of being a psychopath with how you got a Matcha latte with zero sweetener. 

Hangnail: ooo what's your fav podcast? :) :) 

You couldn't tell what was more annoying: his insufferable overall being or the fact he responded to every insult with a question whose goal was to learn more about you. 

Like he actually wanted to get to know you. 

As your grandmother would say, "His cornbread ain't done all the way in the middle."

And yet, here you were, outside the restaurant, waiting to see if this douchebag could show up on time. You didn't have high hopes, considering his parking skills. 

"Hey gorgeous." 

Fuck, right on the dot. 

Your lips couldn't help but part when you turned around and saw the bouquet in his hands. 

He brought flowers. The red roses popped against the anemones and white narcissuses. A yellow satin ribbon wrapped around the stems. 

"Figured the goddess of love deserved some gorgeous flowers," He grinned. 

You wanted to gag. 

"You're supposed to take them." You couldn't decide what was worse: that stupid, nearly blindingly white grin or the Texan accent that laced his words. 

You hesitantly took the flowers. They were pretty. But they were also given to you by a dude who couldn't park. 

And who drank skim milk. 

"They're the flowers associated with Venus, the goddess of love," He said. He looked so proud of himself, you could see him dying to pat himself on the back. 

You rolled your eyes, "Yes, I also had a Percy Jackson phase and went on Wikipedia to look up what was associated with each God. Also, these flowers are associated with Aphrodite, not Venus." 

The living embodiment of a graduated frat bro shrugged, undeterred from your comment, "I mean, they're basically the same." 

You took a step back, "No they are not….Jesus Christ, I have to teach you how to park and the difference between Roman and Greek Mythology?" 

He just continued to smile, "Told ya I need that second date." 

"You need someone to inspect that head of yours," you scoffed, trying to ignore that warm feeling swirling around your stomach as he opened the door to the restaurant for you. 

The human hangover had the audacity to laugh at your comment, "My squad said the same thing today." 

There wasn't going to be enough alcohol to get through this evening. 

—------------------------

You were stunning, absolutely gorgeous. The soft lighting casted a soft glow across your face, highlighting your beautiful features. 

Jake was surprised when you pulled out a marker and a sketchpad. You were keeping your word. You were committed. 

He loved it. 

"So your speed affects the angle you can pull your- are you even listening, Flyboy?" 

"To you? Of course," The lovesick look that had taken over his face remained. It would be cute, if it wasn't so insufferable. 

You scoffed, "Alright, then paraphrase it for me. You do know what that means, right?" 

You looked ethereal as you stared up at him through your lashes. Your brows were raised to indicate your low hopes for him. The way your bottom lip slightly jutted out, forming the most adorable frustrated pout Jake had ever seen. 

"Based on your calculated average of my speed, I need to decrease my that by about forty-five percent, which would put me at going thirty five and a half miles per hour. This would increase my adjustment time by," he moved his head back and forth as he paused, briefly counting, "....twelve seconds, which will allow me greater control of switching from a ninety degree angle to hundredth and twenty." 

"You pulled that out of your ass," you deadpanned. 

"Do the math if you don't believe me." Jake leaned back into his chair, crossing his arms as a smug grin spread across his face. 

He didn't know why Javy was so worried. He was winning her over in no time. 

"Wow," you looked up from your phone after toying with the calculator app on your phone, "You can do more than just count to one hundred and smile?" 

"Darlin," he chuckled, "You don't become the only current generation aviator with two confirmed kills by coasting on good looks alone." 

Boom. Stuck the landing. Jake was internally scoffing at Bradshaw's comments from earlier, about how he'd be lucky if he left this date with no wine thrown at his face. 

Jake knew he'd have you falling for him in no time, especially after you learned exactly who you were with. 

Your face remained the same, apart from a raised eyebrow, "Only two?" 

The corners of your lips turn upward into a smirk as that cocky grin of his faltered. 

"Within the first month at my last place, my cat brought me four mice and two birds. Just saying," you brought your wine glass to your lips, savoring the few moments of silence. 

Jake was thankful he had put the napkin over his lap. It perfectly covered the semi he had been sporting since y'all sat down. 

"Birds and mice are not the same thing as what I've done," he nearly huffed. 

You grinned, shrugging your shoulders, "I think they're pretty comparable." 

Jake huffed, "No they are…." 

Oh. 

You were trying to rattle him. On purpose. And it almost worked. 

He loved it. It was fun, listening to your every word. The fact he actually had to try to see what impressed you. And boy, did he want to impress you. 

"Um…are you two ready to order?" Your waiter asked. It wasn't the first time he had come in at an odd point in the conversation with zero context. 

You were thankful, because it meant that you wouldn't have to deal with the Abercrombie and Fitch wannabe model's stupid stare. The one where his green eyes literally sparkle and a dreamy smile plastered his face. 

"I'll take the hanger steak, medium rare, but with no caramelized onion butter and instead of the garlic mashed potatoes, I'll have the asparagus," you told them. 

"I'll have the filet mignon-" 

"You're at a steakhouse and you're ordering a filet mignon? The most basic steak?" You scoffed at him. 

"Oh, so you're also a meat expert too?" Jake asked, his tone playful. 

"My dad was a butcher. It's just soft, there's no other redeeming qualities about it. Ribeye or Hanger is better," you explained as you rolled your eyes. 

"Alright, then I'll take the ribeye. Medium rare." 

You weren't expecting him to actually listen to you. You were expecting a scoff, an eye roll, a comment about you being too smart, too obnoxious, too annoying. 

As if he could sense your confusion, he elaborated, "You said your dad was a butcher. Makes you more than qualified to speak on which cut of steak is the best." 

It was uncomfortable, how he hung on to your every word. How he remembered little details. When you mentioned earlier that you had walked to the restaurant, he asked what true crime podcast you listened to on your way here. The way he approached all of this like it was normal, like it was the expected thing to do. 

"Also, I have mints, if you want them. No need to avoid great food." 

"What the hell are you talking about, GI Joe wannabe?" That feeling of uneasiness began to morph into agitation. 

"Look, Venus, you don't need to avoid garlic and onions. I got plenty of mints, so whenever you want to kiss me, just say the-" 

A bread roll landing right between Jake's eyes interrupted him. 

"I have IBS and avoid dairy so I don't spend the next two hours on the toilet, it has nothing to do with kissing you, you Chippendale reject!" 

"So you think I'm attractive enough to be a Chippendale?" Was all Jake took from that conversation. 

The second bread roll that landed against his nose made him process what you had actually said. 

"So what do you eat when you're sick?" 

You should have ordered an Old Fashion. Wine wasn't strong enough for this. You pressed the rim of the glass to your temple, hoping the pressure would be enough to wake you up from this nightmare.

"How did you go from me talking about avoiding dairy so I don't shit myself later, to that?" You would have thrown a third bread roll, but the look your waiter gave indicated you might get kicked out of the restaurant for it. 

"It's an important question. Because you can't have Mac and Cheese, or pasta, or broccoli cheddar soup. So what do you eat when you're sick?" Jake repeated, unaffected by your comments. 

He was quite impressed with your aiming skills. He imagined the two of you at the Hard Deck, laughing while you threw darts, a gold wedding band adorning your left hand- 

"I mean, hard cheeses don't really bother me that much, it's pure cream and milk I really avoid," you shrugged, "Usually I order something with noodles and sauce, like Pad See Ew." 

He tapped a finger against his chin, which you were pretty sure could crack a nut with. 

"Good to know." 

"Good to know?" 

"Yeah, it's always good to know what someone likes to eat when they're sick." It was frustrating how you couldn't get a read on him. Was he truly being genuine or was just a dumbass? Or both? 

You scoffed, "I don't know why, considering I don't plan on getting sick anytime soon." 

"I hope not, I want to see you again sooner rather than later," He smiled, those darn dimples showing again, "but it's good to know for the future." 

The future. 

There were so many reasons to throw a bread roll at his stupid face. His heinous parking skills. His stupid callsign. The fact he kept insinuating that he would see you again. 

It would have been easier if he was just a jerk who was looking to get into your pants. That's what you were used to. Folks who saw you as just another notch in their belt, not someone worthwhile enough to date. 

Instead, he had an ego bigger than Texas, couldn't park to save his life and had questionable taste in caffeinated beverages. 

“Y’know, I think I finally figured out who you look like,” you said before taking another sip of your wine. 

Jake smiled before twirling that toothpick, which you really wished he'd stopped doing because it was extremely distracting. 

"Oh really now?" He asked, a devilish smirk on his face. 

"Yeah," a smirk of your own formed, "Pretty sure I saw your face in one of the stock images my college used for their responsible drinking course every freshmen had to take. You were the frat douche in the polo with a red solo cup, right?" 

He laughed. Full on, threw his head back and laughed. 

"You're fuckin' hilarious Venus. I could listen to you for hours," He told you after composing himself. 

Fuck, he meant it. 

You straighten your shoulders as you look across the restaurant, trying to seem as uninterested as possible, "Lucky for you, there's a lot about you I can critique. You just might get your wish, Officer Headache." 

"It's Lieutenant," he corrected, though the smile remained on his face. 

You put your hand over your heart, feigning guilt, "Forgive me, Lieutenant Headache." 

Jake couldn't be mad. You were clever, seeing that he had picked his rank being more important than getting his call sign right. 

He loved it, how clever you were, how witty you were. Talking to you was exhilarating, similar to how he felt when he was flying. 

"So why did you join the Navy? Did being an Abercrombie model not work out?" You asked, taking a bite of your bread roll. 

Jake chuckled as he shook his head, "Actually, I worked for Hollister." 

"Wow, thanks for telling me you peaked in 2009." 

"Oh, like you didn't have a less than desirable job in college?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. 

He was trying to egg you on, but you didn't mind. It was nice to see that he could do more than just give you heart eyes. 

"I was a barista all through college because I had some dignity." 

"So you are a coffee expert!" His sea green eyes lit up when he spoke. That, combined with how he pointed a finger at you, it was…cute. 

Wait, what? No. He wasn't cute. He was annoying and cocky and insufferable and agitating. 

He was so close. Jake almost got a smile out of you. You were warming up, he just had to be patient. 

He most likely wouldn't get a kiss tonight. But that was fine, he could wait. He had a whole lifetime ahead of him. 

"Guess so. Which, to me, means that I can continue to shit on your beverage choices," you shrugged. 

"You say it like listening to you talk is a bad thing."  

Usually it was for other folks. Why he was an exception was mind boggling. 

"But long story short, when you join the Airforce, you get shipped out to the middle of nowhere. I already grew up with that, and wanted a change. The ocean was a getaway." 

"Huh, I'm surprised. You can say something that's not completely insufferable." 

He loved pleasing you. Jake made a mental note to text his mom later that she would soon get her desired daughter-in-law. 

"I'm more than happy to keep surprising you Venus." You gagged. 

Thankfully your food arrived before he could say any more. You made a mental note to give your waiter a generous tip. 

The roasted asparagus looked amazing and you couldn't wait to take a bite out of-

"Wait! Don't eat that." You looked up at him, your fork inches away from your mouth. 

"It has butter on it," Jake explained, causing your eyes to roll. 

"I go here multiple times, it does not-" 

"Excuse me! What is this roasted in?" Jake asked a nearby waiter, picking up your plate.

"Uh, ghee I believe?" Well, that explains why you always felt bloated after eating here. 

Jake shook his head, pointing to you, "She's got a dairy allergy." 

The waiter apologized, taking your plate away and assuring you that they'll bring something out quickly. 

"Here, have some of mine while you wait." He moved his plate over to you. 

"I'm not going to sleep with you," you blurted out. After all, that had to be why he wanted to play the hero, right? Lieutenant Headache could get fucked if he thought that was enough to allow him into your pants. 

"I'm aware." He didn't sound broken up about it. Perhaps he already had a list of other girls he could call after your date ended. 

"And that doesn't bother you?" You leaned back into your seat, crossing your arms over your chest. Your mind kept trying to think of his offensive driving skills and not the fact that no one had ever paid that close attention to your dietary restrictions before. 

"I didn't do that in hopes it would let me into your pants. You said it made you uncomfortable. So….I don't want you to be uncomfortable," he smirked, "Besides, I can wait, Venus. Got a whole lifetime." 

You scoffed, as this Great Value brand Captain America was unbelievable, "Is that your way to tell me that you plan to kidnap me or something?" 

Jake grinned, "Nah. Just plannin' on marryin' ya." 

"I think you need to get your head checked." He couldn't be serious. There was no fucking way. 

Why would he? You were mouthy and sharp and loud and….he's had heart eyes ever since you first yelled at him in that fucking parking lot. 

Oh God, maybe he was serious. 

"Maybe you should learn how to park properly first before you think of marriage." You begrudgingly took a bite out of his steak, ignoring the soft smile that plastered his stupidly handsome face.

"More than happy to show what I've learned from you." You looked up. He was serious. 

Which was how you found yourself sitting on the grass, watching the human Hangover show his newly learned parking skills. 

"How was that?" He yelled, sticking his head out of his offensive Jeep. 

You waltzed over, taking your time as you circled the perimeter of his car. 

"You're awfully close to the line on the right," you observed. 

Jake scoffed, "But I'm within the line."

"You ever tried to park when some asshat in a big car is nearly over the line? Oh wait," you paused, "you've been that asshat. Anyways, it's next to impossible. So you're still a dick when it comes to parking." 

"So what you're saying….is I need more lessons?" Jake asked, leaning out the window of the driver seat. 

He didn't want lessons. He just wanted another date with you. It was so obvious and- 

"Definitely." 

Regret hit you as soon as you saw how his eyes lit up and a wide smile spread across his face. 

"So we're going on a second date?" 

"It's not a date. You need lessons, that's all." 

"Lessons….over dinner?" Jake was hopeful. You were reserved and he didn't blame you. But he could see cracks, a wall that was slowly but surely chipping away. 

"I'm picking the restaurant as you've shown with your steak choices that you still can't be trusted. And no, you're not picking me up. The verdict is still out on whether you're a serial killer or not." 

"Whatever you say, Venus." Jake made a mental note to tell Bradshaw and Phoenix to suck it tomorrow morning because he has gotten a second date with no wine thrown at him, just three bread rolls. 

It was then he realized you had leaned forward and it was the closest he had ever been to you. He could see every mark on your skin, all the different shades of color in your eyes. 

Man, he hoped y'all's kids would get your eyes. 

You were mentally kicking yourself for allowing him to get so close. The smell of cedar wood was overwhelming, you wanted to gag. His face looked ridiculously smooth, aside from the light stubble that graced the lower half of his face. 

And now you could see how his tongue and lips moved that damn toothpick, flipping it around effortlessly- 

Nope, you had to get the fuck out of here. You were not about to get caught staring- 

"See something ya like, Venus?" He asked, his voice low. Damn it, had he leaned in even more? 

You took a deep breath before pursing your lips into a sickeningly sweet smile, looking up at him through your eyelashes. 

"Yeah, I do…" you voice was breathy as you titled your head up, getting closer to his face. You smelled like cocoa butter and your chest was pushed up against the car door and crap, could see the bulge he was sporting in his lap? 

Fuck you were inches away from his lips. Jake mentally scoffed at his squad, what the fuck were they worried about? 

"A second free dinner. Please thank Uncle Sam for me next time you see him!" With that you walked away, leaving him hanging. 

After taking a few steps, you looked back and couldn't help but giggle. He was in the same position, his eyes widening as he processed what you had done. 

You were going to be the death of Jake Seresin. 

He couldn't fucking wait.

And thanks to that fakeout, he could see your hands up close, confirming that a pear-shaped gemstone would look best on your left hand.

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

@abibliophobiaa @wildbornsiren @maxmayfield @hangmanapologist @sebsxphia @mothdruid @stranger-nightmare @xbamboowishesx @theharddeck @princessphilly @rae-gar-targaryen @shrimping-for-all @mygyn @another-tblr-fangirl @alana4610 @cherrycola27 @annie-franny @whatislovevavy @sugarcoated-lame @ouralcohol @topaz125 @hoe-on-the-range @gigisimsonmars @verdandis-blog@mxgyver @princessofglitterland

[strqyr]

I don't know much about flower symbolism, would you be willing to explain a bit more about the choices for Team RWBY? Or alternatively, suggest some good sources I can learn more from?

i'm by no means an expert in flower symbolism, i just think it's neat, so i usually just google the flower name + symbolism or check the wikipedia page which usually covers cultural significance and symbolism in much greater detail.

rwby also used hanakotoba a lot during V4 for the town names, so i recommend checking that out as well.

personally, as much as i love flower symbolism, i think it varies a lot how much it actually applies to the characters. out of team rwby for example, i'd say yang's is probably the most thought-out: the name chrysanthemum is derived from ancient greek chrysos (gold) and anthemon (flower). in general chrysanthemums can symbolize happiness and friendship in some places, and grief or honesty in others; yellow ones also symbolize slighted love, and with how they're nicknamed mums (and are apparently also often given as presents for mother's day in australia) you start to see the connection.

if you want to go look for more info, here are the official flowers for team rwby and jnr:

[kimium]

For the pretty word ask: dainty, lavish, whimsical, and tapestry💜💜

(From this ask HERE)

Thank you so much for the ask, friend! Always excited to answer your questions!

Dainty: Are flowers a nice gift to give someone?

Overall, I think flowers are a nice gift! With so many varieties, colours, shapes, and combinations, they can add a fun pop of colour in a room. Even if they only last around two to three weeks, I think their fleeting beauty is nice to appreciate when they're around.

Lavish: What would you do with a million dollars?

First, I'd pay off big personal bills and expenses. I'd then buy something nice for my sister and people close to me. I'd also give back to my parents and buy them something super wonderful. Some money would also be set aside in savings. Finally, I'd donate money to various charities. I've always wanted to be a person who drops a huge sum of money for charities, especially on a charity live stream. I think that would be fun.

Whimsical: Favourite fairytale?

Okay. My original answer was "I don't know" because in general I like elements/aesthetics in the fairy tales. Not always the stories themselves. However, I did a quick search and according to the Wikipedia article "List of fairy tales" Alice in Wonderland counts. So, Alice in Wonderland is my favourite fairy tale.

I suppose if we want a more "traditional" fairy tale as the answer, I enjoy "Cinderella".

Tapestry: Do you like to decorate?

If we read this as "do you enjoy the action of decorating?" the answer is, yes. I have fond memories of decorating the Christmas tree with my parents when I was a child.

If we mean a general "do you like decorating?" the answer is I wish I liked it better. I don't find interior decorating easy. Putting things on bookshelves/dressers is fine, but ask me to hang a photo or painting and suddenly my brain blanks. If anything is on a wall in my place, consider it a miracle.

Thanks again for the questions, friend!! Hope you like my answers.

[caramelmochacrow]

@karamell-sweetz has enabled me to do this so I'll explain why the Rondo concept CD is called Murasaki.

(I'm using Wikipedia for everything because I'm just some guy that's crazy about this DJ unit, I'm not smart, also this post is super long so I'm not explaining why the songs chosen are those songs even though I want to.)

The kanji used for Murasaki in the song is '茈'. Which can mean Water Chestnut in Chinese and Gromwell in Japanese. I'll be focusing on Gromwells since Water Chestnuts doesn't have very big connections to anything Rondo. Other than the fact that it grows in the water like Crinoids, which are marine creatures (but in muddy water and marshes not the ocean), and that they remain crisp even after being cooked or canned like lotuses.

Now, onto Gromwells! It can refer to two plants that have closely related genera, Lithodora and Lithospermum.

First is Lithodora because I thought this one wouldn't take long. Lithodora is a genus of flowering plants in the family Boraginaceae, native to southwestern Europe, southern Greece, Turkey and Algeria. They are low-growing, evergreen shrubs and subshrubs.

So, another flower I need to bring up are Camellias, the flower that Tsubaki is named after. Camellias are also evergreen shrubs and for some species are low-growing like Lithodora. That's the only connection it has but they also grow nicely under the shade and I'll stop that part before I ramble about a whole other thing. Just know that in Celsius they bring up that the world is dark and cold, but the monster and the person with them -- the singer -- are trapped in that world but still thriving and living, similar to how Camellias can grow even under the shade.

Now, to return to the original point, Lithodora has a species called Lithodora Fruticosa (This is because they're fru--). Which is usually called a shrubby gromwell. It can grow on dry ground and stony hillsides usually on limestones.

Limestones are formed when minerals precipitate out of water containing dissolved calcium. It can take place through both biological and non-biological means, with the biological process being an accumulations of corals and shells in the sea. I bring this up because Crinoids were much more abundant and diverse in the past and apparently some thick limestone beds down underwater during the Paleozoic to Jurassic era are almost entirely made up of disarticulated Crinoid fragments. This is the only connection I found that doesn't sound like I'm grasping straws.

Now, onto the other plant, Lithospermum. I'll talk about two things, so I'll start with Lithospermum purpurocaeruleum, or the purple gromwell. I will be calling this the purple gromwell to avoid confusion between the two.

The purpurocaeruleum part of the name means 'purple and blue', referring to how the buds of purple gromwells look purple-reddish hue and when it fully blooms it becomes a dark blue. The flowering period of these gromwells are April to June, which is spring. Rondo has two songs connecting to spring, which is ARCANA and Celsius, making it connect back to Celsius yet again and making it have another connection to ARCANA. The first connection being the fact that one of the lyrics is 'murasaki no hana', which translates to purple flower.

Now, that's it for the purple one, onto Lithospermum Erythrorhzion or what I'll be calling it in this post, the red gromwell.

It can also be called a purple gromwell (duh), red stoneroot, red-root gromwell and redroot lithospermum.

Red gromwells in China (they're called zǐcǎo if you were curious) are used for herbal medicine with various antiviral and biological activities. In Japan they've been used ever since the Nara period for its herbal medicine and dye properties thank to its root. Like every other way of making purple dye, it's super long and complex which caused them to make a sumptuary law in the Heian period that only people of high-ranking or the Empress and her ladies in waiting can wear clothing with the dye.

The reason why I'm bringing up every time they say red is because the Hiiro part of Hiiro's name literally means 'red color', also because Rondo in their second anniversary outfits are based on high-ranking or important chess pieces.

Aoi and Tsubaki have a clear connection since they're the king and queen pieces respectively, Hiiro is the bishop which makes her important since bishops act as the right-hand man to the king and queen, and Nagisa is the knight, the chess piece might not seem important, but the knight is the only chess piece that can go over other pieces, making it important or 'high-ranking' in the game.

That's the only connections I knew and found so far connecting murasaki to some stuff important to Rondo, if I found any more connections after it drops (looks at prayer remix) then I might make a post about the songs in the album and why they were chosen.

[sugaglos]

hi

Sorry I know we don't know eachother- but how do you know scarletarosa and melias-cimitere saying the truth? They seem to be a cult, and aside from that I catched scarletarosa lying a bunch of times, she even called herself lilith in the past and a succubi under lucifer and lilith, plus melias was reported preying on underage people, I could add more but I can't remember at the moment, sorry.

Besides it sketchy how they tyring to isolate you from your friends/family etc. so you will rely on them and their belief alone..

Idk if anything I'm gonna say will be taken out of context or not since that's what the hate mob likes to do.

"They seem to be a cult"

"Seem" is not a valid enough proof to say sth like that about someone else. Never have I been asked for money (like cults do), never have I been told to preach and then go 100% silent as if I'd be wipped off the face of the earth, they have not pampered me and then threatened me with any kind of violence, never have they sent evil spirits my way and so on. Whoever says they're a cult don't know how real cults work. They have helped people get away from real cults and have a normal life.

"I catched scarletarosa lying a bunch of times, she even called herself lilith in the past and a succubi under lucifer and lilith"

Sincerely, never have I seen sth like this so no comment.

"Plus melias was reported preying on underage people"

Again, in my most sincere experience, never have I encountered anything of the sort. I have minors in my family and nothing has ever been asked about them or said, and no attempts have ever been made.

"Besides it sketchy how they tyring to isolate you from your friends/family etc. so you will rely on them and their belief alone.."

Idk anything about this and am not speaking on their behalf, but, say, if you'd be living in an extremely toxic enviornment/family, wouldn't an advice to move out be a good thing? It might be hard, but it would be worth it. Everyone doesn't deserve forgiveness too, even if they are family members. If you have "friends" who lead you down a the path of drugs and overall self destruction then cutting ties with such people will only benifit you, no? I live on my own and have toxic family members that should be avoided(and Melias knows this) and he hasn't told me to cut ties completely bc it's my choice to do so or not, and I have to think with my own head what to do with my life. I've been told many times to not rely on them, but to find out truths/stuff myself bc they don't want to be "right all the time", MEANING you have to find out things, see things for yourself, talk to the deities yourself(and not search shit up on wikipedia and take it as the ultimate truth), to make an opinion of your own on how the physical and astral world works. They can show you the door to better yourself, know things, but that's all, what you do is up to you and they fully support this. If someone is a fucking snowflake when someone is a bit stern towards them sometimes(bc people tend to do stupid shit and sometime a stern voice is necessary to knock some common snese in the head, not lovey-dovey flower-suggarcoating things) then maybe the lhp aint for them, js. The lhp is not a "uwu" path ffs.

I'm in no way deffending anyone, I'm just using my fucking brain. Every response, every comment I've seen basically states either "someone said" or "my friend said that someone else-" which are invalid statements. Also, have you seen any real evidence like exchanged text messages(screenshots) and such for these accusations to be verified as true? I haven't and the hate mob who have made disgusting posts hasn't provided any real evidence and neither have these "I heard someone say-" people. If you accuse someone of sth so serious this type of evidence is extremely necessary, especially in interrigations. A dumbass mobster( not gonna call out people just yet) once said they believe the anon messages just bc "assault" is mentioned completely ignoring the absence of evidence. Make it make sense.

So my point is, basically, if there's no evidence then all this is nothing more than a rumor which too many people who cannot think for themselves fall for and spread misinformation and serious false accusations which is an extremly disgusting behaviour. It's been more than a half a year(?) and nothing has been provided.

I have never gone through anything like this and Melias knows me more than anyone and has never used anything against me. And I do not believe I'm more special or less special to be used or preyed upon or whatever the fuck. Both have helped me in the past with things so I can live normally now.

Edit: Let me just add that the people you're being fed this hate from are extreme racists and people who practice/worship wgat they don't really believe actually exists irl. Let that sink in a bit.

[vinceaddams]

Hi. I enjoyed your posts about the costuming in Our Flag Means Death so far so I've come to ask you another one. I like the embroidered detaily bits on Stede's banyan. Are these accurate? Is there a name for them? None of this is particularly important, I just find them pretty and I'm curious.

Thank you! I will definitely post more about the costumes, they're weird and (mostly) inaccurate but some are pretty interesting. Early 18th century menswear is so cool and underrepresented and I don't know why they made like 95% of the suits look so darn mid 18th century :(

Nope, never seen soutache on any early 18th century menswear. In fact, I don't know of any examples at all of wrappers with embroidery. (As far as I know the looser styles like this are called wrappers and the more fitted ones from later are banyans. Here's my pinterest board for them.) There are lots of examples made of really heavy rich brocades though, and some are fur lined.

Unknown man. No date, but I'd guess 1720's-early 30's.

The embroidery on coats and waistcoats of the time featured a lot of metal embroidery, sometimes with silk mixed in, and some embroidered with just silk, and a fair amount of crewel, which is done on linen with wool threads. Early 18th century embroidery motifs tend to be quite big. I don't think they were quite at their peak yet in the 10's (though the brocade patterns then were certainly HUGE), but the second quarter of the 18th century has some gloriously big chunky colourful flowers.

But yes, this stuff has a name, it's soutache embroidery!

(image source)

It's this little cord with a groove down the middle, and you sew it down through the groove, which can be done by hand or machine.

Hmmm. Wikipedia says a little tiny bit of sketchy sounding stuff about the history and the only source they cite is a modern jewelry making book sooooo I'll take that with a boulder of salt. This other page here says it became popular in Western fashion in the 19th century, which sounds right. I've definitely seen it on a lot of 19th century clothing, but have never noticed any in my 10+ years of obsession with 18th century fashion.

If you want to try it, it's still pretty common today, simple to do, and the cord is easy to find!

[audreydoeskaren]

Hello Audrey, your costume reviews are really interesting and fun! I enjoy reading them a lot, and now I can watch movies with a more informed eye.

If you want to, you could review Wong Kar Wai's The Grandmaster? I plan to watch it sometime this week, it seems interesting! Only if you have time! I imagine watching and rewiewing these shows must take a lot of time, and movies should be enjoyed 😊

Thank you! 😘

Hi, I’m glad you liked my reviews! Yes I would absolutely love to review The Grandmaster. Sorry for posting this so late, I happened to be away last week. I actually watched this movie when I was a wee child so I more or less know what it's about, now as an adult with a costuming obsession I can see it with new eyes.

The Grandmaster (2013) 一代宗师

The Grandmaster is a 2013 Hong Kong-Chinese martial arts drama film based on the life story of the Wing Chun grandmaster Ip Man. The film was directed and written by Wong Kar-wai and stars Tony Leung as Ip Man. (copy and pasted from Wikipedia) The Wong Kar-wai + Zhang Shuping duo strikes again. The plot spans many decades and it's not really specified in what year some scenes take place, but it could generally be understood that the chunk of it where Ip Man is a middle aged man takes place in 1937 and the other chunk where he's older in 1950. If I had a euro every time I reviewed a drama set in 1937 I would have three euros which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that there’s three already. If you read my posts, you can pretty much pick out the questionable things by yourself. But I also like to be mean toward badly made costumes so here I am.

Source here

I'm watching it on Youtube on rent and apparently I can't screenshot anything. So seven minutes into the movie and there is a scene where women who look like this appear (this is not the same scene) and I've already stopped thinking. I'm starting to doubt if the shops selling fingerwave extensions are holding Chinese costume designers at gun point to include them in movies they're designing for. It really looks like 铜钱头 used in Chinese opera hairstyling, is that why costume designers are so attached to it? They actually waved the actress’ hair in this one but still somehow chose to use extensions. A real fingerwave wouldn’t have such exaggerated circular shapes, and the circular part would only be on one side of the part. The circular shape is also just the low part of the “wave” structure, not a deliberately created shape.

Apart from that, the cheongsam in 1937 should have a lower collar with one or two buttons. I’m not a fan of the huge bling trims used here, they existed but weren’t common at all. Even for evening occasions 30s cheongsam were a lot more toned down in the decoration. I would like to give a special shoutout to the plucked eyebrows though. I will give the costuming one free point because of that alone. I also like that they showed both Chinese and Western shoes in that scene. However, the lip shape could be more heart shaped.

Source here

Early 30s fingerwave.

There are a couple women in this scene wearing sectioned bangs and giant flowers on their shoulders, the former is a 1920s thing and the latter a late 20s/early 30s thing, so neither of them should appear in a scene set in 1937.

Source here

They are wearing something like this, which is decidedly late 20s.

Source here

I like the representation of sheer cheongsam here, but the sleeves could be shorter. I think this shot summarizes the staples of Zhang’s 1930s costuming... He’s been doing the same thing for decades and there is zero character development. The female characters here look almost exactly identical to some from The Flowers of War. The fingerwave extensions, the unnecessarily long sleeves, gaudy fabrics and trims etc.. My biggest problem with his way of styling 1930s characters is that although the individual elements used aren’t technically wrong per se, but the frequency in which they appear and the overall atmosphere they create do not match that of the 1930s at all. For example, he’s super fond of using these “luxurious” fabrics with darker colors, loud floral patterns and long sleeves for younger women, which were at the time more associated with older women. Simpler, brighter, abstract patterns were a lot more mainstream. He also loves elaborate trims, which did exist in the 30s but were not common at all; the much more popular plain binding in multiple rows is never attempted. He and most other costume designers for republican era dramas almost never dabble in Modernist, Expressionist or Art Deco aesthetics, although they dominated upper class circles in fashionable cities in the 30s like Shanghai and Hong Kong. The costumes he creates are always dark, moody and stiff yet trying to be seductive, revoking semi Orientalist impressions of a rotten, decadent “old China”, even though historically the republican era saw a lot of innovation in fashion and avant garde experimentations. The magic of the 30s is never successfully captured in his creations, in my humble opinion. I personally would like to relegate this to the limitations of the straight male imagination but feel free to interpret this in your own way.

Source here

The cheerful 1930s aesthetic we never got.

Source here

Sheer cheongsam with slip, though this look is more of a mid 30s thing (this poster is from 1934). Also see how voluminous and not flat her hair is.

In the fight between Ip Man and the other masters, the character of Sister San has a pretty interesting outfit. I love that they showed her in bound feet, which some older women still had after 1912 because they felt it was more comfortable than letting out their feet. Seeing a woman with bound feet do a fierce martial arts sequence is also weirdly the empowerment I didn’t know I needed. The socks and slippers combo would be unthinkable before the 1900s when women would commonly wear heeled lotus shoes and leggings, but in the republican era footbinding wasn’t so prestigious anymore and many women chose more relaxed footwear.

Her hair is once again blasphemous, but the plucked eyebrows are so good I’m willing to let it slip. She wears a black aoku outfit with lace trim which could be a thing in the 30s.

It reads very early 1910s with the sleeve length but I guess you could do it in the 1930s if you want? I actually have no clue what a 1930s aoku outfit looks like.

Source here

1900s photograph of a woman in aoku.

Source here

Gertrude Olmstead in a similar aoku costume, 1927.

Actually I just figured there aren’t many costumes to talk about in this movie... The male characters mostly wear 长衫 changshan, which is a very simple garment that you couldn’t possibly get wrong. Menswear also doesn’t change much over the decades so you could get away with whatever.

Source here

Men’s changshan.

I tried really hard to find photos or shots of costumes in subsequent scenes but I’m sorry the movie is just so dark and there are no full body shots showing a character’s costumes from head to toe... There is this iconic look where the female lead wears a fur trim coat and a cheongsam but it’s a fight scene and everything moves really fast and I can’t really see any details. 

At this point I feel like y’all can recognize Zhang Shuping’s costuming style and the common mistakes he makes so there really isn’t any point in picking out everything from this move in particular. Overall a 5/10, just because it’s usual Zhang Shuping does 1937, but one extra point for the plucked eyebrows like I promised. The movie itself is really good though, just the fight scenes alone make it worth a watch.

[amozon28]

um... since when is shigure a pedophile? I take issue with him being put in the same category as kureno and katsuya. is this because of his high school girl remarks? he never actually tries anything like the former two since he's in love with akito it should be obvious they're just jokes, albeit in poor taste but that's on the author's head. he is only in love with a woman around 3-5 years younger than him and even sleeps with her 20 years older mother partly cause she looks like her, not a pedo

since i have already responded to a similar ask last year ill put my response here as well. last time i didnt bother to bring up sources because i was lazy but this time around i will, ok lets begin. and im just going to ignore you bringing up him sleeping with Ren because one, pedophiles arent cancelled out if they sleep with adult women, and two he specifically did it to punish akito for sleeping with kureno (ch101 if you want to see for yourself). because hes a jackass ontop of being a pedo.

Shigure is an minimum 6 years older than Akita, and is most likely closer to 8-9 years older than her.

ok first the ages that we do know. Shigure, Hatori and Ayame are all 27 at the start of he series, a year later we are introduced to kureno for the first time at 26 (making the trio 1.5-2 years older than him), and while ritsus age is never told to us he did complete university and was present with the others when Rin discovered she was pregnant with akito so he cant be older than 23

what does any of this have to do with shigure being 6-8 years older than akito youre wondering? im getting there

in the flash back where we see the 5 boys have “the dream” and discover Ren is pregnant. we are told that Ritsu was too young to remember. which tells us that this dream isnt magically remembered and that the person must be at a cognitive age to retain the memory. this developmental stage doesnt happen until the age of 3-3.5. which means ritsu has to be younger than that, but hes old enough to be walking on his own. so hes around 2-2.5 years old here

ok so if Ritsu is 2-2.5 here and kureno is at the mimumum age to remember this hes a least 3.5, making the trio 5-6 years old. add 9 months of pregnancy and  that makes our present day ages. 

Akito 20, Ritsu is 23,  kureno 25/26 Shigure and co. are 27

and before you say “but that one scene with shigures parents mentions that akito is in her 20′s”. yes and i will say that that scene takes place 3 years after the start of the series. 

ok now youre thinking “ok so hes 6 years older, whats the big deal?” and sure if they had met at those ages i wouldnt give a shit. my own parents are 11 years apart. the difference is my parents met when my mom was already an adult at 24. shigure on the other hand has know akito since she was an infant. that changes things. how? this is how

shigure 6-7 (child),  akito 0 (baby)

shigure 12-13 (preteen), akito 6 (child)

shigure 14-15 (teen), akito 8 (child)

Shigure 16-17 (teen), Akito 10 (child)

(i meantion these 2 ages above because specifically because this is around the  age when shigure gives her a flower in a romantic gesture which gross)

shigure 18-24 (adult), akito 12-18 (preteen, teen, adult) 

and before you say “shigure isnt an adult here so he cant be a pedophile” to which i reply “[Pedophilia is when] an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children . . .  A person must be at least 16 years old, and at least five years older than the prepubescent child, for the attraction to be diagnosed as pedophilia” (this is taken from Wikipedia on pedophilia i cant link it or else this post wont show up)

this all to say even with the minimum age difference between the 2 its still pedophilia. however i said i believe the age gap to actually be bigger. and ill go more into that under the cut because this ask is already getting to long

ok so ritsu has to be 2-2.5 years old during that flash back, and kureno must be a minimum of 3-3.5 but he can be older than that which i believe he is, (and the trio by extension) and heres my reasoning

First:  in the dream flashback the trio are almost the same height as Hiro (who is 11) next to Ren

and Ren is canonly a fairly tall woman being taller than adult akito and just a few inches shorter than hatori

for comparison, here is yuki and akito (around the ages 5-7) the first time they meet next to yukis mother, who is a short woman

and before you come after me about basing ages off of heights from 2 manga caps. Takaya is freakishly consistent with all her heights of all the characters throughout the manga. especially in how she draws the characters through different ages. so yes this is accurate

so either hatori, Ayame and shigure are all freakishly tall 6 yearolds or they are infact closer to 8 years old (if they are of comparitive height to Hiro next to Ren)

Second: lets say you reject the height based ages and are more in favor of the 6 year difference. theres the often forgotten fact that yuki is 15 yearsold at the start of the series. as was akitos playmate as children. 

so if shigure is 27, and akito is 20, that makes akito 5 years older than yuki????

kureno and shigure are only 1.5-2 years apart and as children they have the same height difference that yuki and akito have. so that means that either yuki is very short for his age (which i doubt as hes the same height as kid tohru, kyo, and haru). or akito is VERY short for her age, which i again doubt as shes seems to take after her mother in terms of height, being taller than both yuki and tohru at the beginning of the series. 

so based on allllll of this akito is only 2-lets say 4 MAX years older than yuki, making the age difference

making shigure 8 years older than akito, and at minimum 6 years older than akito

yuki 15

akito 19

ritsu 21-22

Kureno 25-26

shigure and co 27

this is an extremely long way of me saying that yes, shigure is a pedophile. and he groomed akito from a young age towards him. if you look at the chapters 100 and 101 with shirgure giving akito the flower, kissing her and pomising to love her forever.

sources are chapter 84, 98, and 101

Edit: i forgot about kagura in my equations, shes canonly 2 years older than yuki and she is younger than akito. so akito is actually a minimum of 3 years older (not 2) and a max of 4 years older than yuki,

[emmerrr]

heyyyy if you wanna write a pynch vday fic, how about one where they're like... both trying to be sneaky about planning sth for valentines day and so both think the other has forgotten about it and they're both like ://// but it all uhh works out in the end?? x

what a top notch suggestion, absoLUTELY i can write that 💕💕 (uhh heads up this got kinda long, i’ll put it on ao3 too and reblog with a link later)

-

Adam sat alone in a corner booth of Nino’s, History notes open on the table before him. He’d written VALENTINE’S DAY?? in the margin, underlined three times. He frowned at the words, wondering why he was fixating on them, and turned his head to stare listlessly out of the window instead.

Blue was there working, but she’d been too busy to come and say hello so far, simply offering him a harried wave when she spotted him walk in, pointing him towards the table he was now seated at. The other staff at Nino’s never bothered them anymore, knowing Blue would cover their table. Adam had heard them being referred to as “Blue’s Boys” on more than one occasion.

He was currently the only one there, having beaten Henry and Gansey out of the school gates. He assumed they’d got held up by a traffic light or two, and Ronan had further to drive than the rest of them so would likely arrive last anyway.

Thinking of Ronan immediately returned Adam’s thoughts to the words written in his notes and he scowled at the parking lot. On the surface, Valentine’s Day didn’t seem like it would be Ronan’s thing. Adam wasn’t even particularly sure it was his thing. But the fact remained that Valentine’s Day was a week away, and Adam didn’t know what, if anything, he was expected to do for it.

He tried to think back to previous years and remembered receiving an anonymous card from someone back in the seventh grade; a generic heart-shaped thing that simply said ‘Will you be my Valentine? x’ inside. He was fairly certain the sender was a girl in his English class who had never said a word to him but blushed every time she caught his eye. Adam didn’t see how he was supposed to answer whether or not he’d be her Valentine if she never told him she had sent it. And of course, she never owned up, and he didn’t want to suggest it was her in case he was wrong, and he didn’t actually want to be her Valentine anyway. So it was never mentioned again.

The difference here was that Ronan was his actual boyfriend. Didn’t that mean that they were each other’s Valentines by default, then?

Adam didn’t know. He’d never navigated Valentine’s Day before. Not like this.

He was so lost in his own thoughts that he didn’t hear Henry and Gansey approach until they were right there.

“Oh, History notes,” Henry exclaimed. “Can I borrow them?”

Adam turned his head to see Henry already sliding the notebook towards him. “Your notes are always make more sense than mi—” Henry cut himself off, eyes widening at something on the page. Too late Adam remembered the VALENTINE’S DAY?? in the margin and slapped his hand over it, snatching back his notebook.

Henry was grinning at him. “Big plans?”

“No,” Adam muttered. “No plans at all.” He stuffed the notebook into his messenger bag.

Gansey had slid into the booth opposite Adam and watched the exchange with raised eyebrows. “What have I missed?”

“Nothing, apparently,” Henry said easily. Adam was grateful that Henry clearly wasn’t going to push it (at least not with an audience), but reasoned he could perhaps use some advice.

“So,” he started. “Valentine’s Day. Thoughts?”

“I’m glad you asked, Parrish,” Gansey said. “It was originally a Western Christian feast day honouring a couple of early saints called Valentinius—”

“Yes, thank you, Captain Wikipedia,” Henry cut in. “I’m not entirely sure that’s what he meant.”

A jug of Iced Tea was plonked onto the table without ceremony and they all looked up to Blue Sargent as she handed out glasses.

“It’s a dumb holiday invented by Hallmark to sell more cards,” she said, obviously having heard the tail-end of the conversation.

“Well, obviously there’s that too,” Gansey said, beaming at her. 

Adam sighed. They were all monumentally unhelpful. 

“Why the interest, Adam?” Blue asked, a knowing glint in her eye.

“I don’t know,” he said with a shrug. “I’m just…okay, with Ronan, do I just treat it like any other day? Do I get him a card? Will he think it’s stupid? Do I think it’s stupid?”

There was a short silence as the three of them blinked back at him, and then Blue carefully said, “Do you think it’s stupid?” 

Adam wasn’t sure how to answer that. The truth was that he sort of did think it was stupid, but he also thought he wanted to acknowledge it anyway. He thought doing nothing at all kind of made him look like an asshole.

In the end, it all circled back to Ronan, and whether he would care. Did he have anything planned? Was he having an internal crisis over it as well?

In lieu of an answer, Adam shrugged again.

“Speak of the devil,” Henry said, and nodded towards the entrance.

Ronan, dressed all in black (of course), had just stepped inside. He scanned the restaurant without turning his head but when he spotted Adam, his shoulders relaxed, and he smiled just a little.

Adam didn’t think he’d ever get tired of seeing that.

“Oh god, you two are the worst,” Blue scoffed as Ronan started to make his way over.

“What?” Adam said without looking at her.

“You know exactly what, Adam Parrish. You and Ronan with the googly eyes. Jesus Christ, you’re in public. Tone it down.”

“You tone it down,” Ronan said jovially, hip-checking Blue as he drew level. “What are we talking about?”

“The origins of Valentine’s Day,” Gansey said delicately.

Ronan snorted derisively. “Valentine’s Day,” he said with as much scorn as he could muster, “is capitalistic bullshit invented to sell cards and flowers and chocolate.”

“Hey man, that’s exactly what I said,” Blue said, sounding pleased, and she and Ronan fist-bumped. Adam rolled his eyes. They really were two sides of the same coin.

“You’re in my seat, Cheng,” Ronan said.

“Sit by Gansey, I was here first.”

Ronan shrugged. “Fair’s fair.” He stepped up onto the seat and over Henry and squeezed into the spot between him and Adam.

“Ronan Lynch,” Gansey hissed. “You’ll get us kicked out!”

“Calm down, Dick, no one noticed,” Ronan said. He had both arms stretched out across the back of the booth, and Adam and Henry were both leaning into him a little thanks to the lack of space.

“This is cozy,” Henry said cheerfully.

It was Blue’s turn to roll her eyes and she pulled her little notepad out of her apron pocket. “Alright, I have to actually do my job now, what do you want? Gansey, I’m assuming you want your usual half-avocado monstrosity?”

“You’re a millennial, Blue, you’re supposed to like avocados.”

Her disgusted expression was answer enough. The rest of them rattled off their food order and then Blue went off to put it through.

“Doesn’t anyone want to come and sit by me?” Gansey asked. “It’s lonely over here.”

“Oh, don’t pull that face, Gansey, you’re making me sad,” Henry said, swapping sides. He scooched right the way over to Gansey and draped an arm around his shoulder before sighing loftily. “It’s hard being this popular.”

“But someone has to do it,” Adam said drily, earning him a quicksilver smile.

“And I do it so well.”

Ronan was stopping at Adam’s for the night, but they had each come to Nino’s in their own cars so separated in the parking lot to drive over to St Agnes in a convoy.

Ronan was already peeling out of the lot by the time Adam reached his shitbox, and he was held up further by Henry calling his name. He turned and Henry jogged over, Gansey nowhere to be seen and most likely still inside saying goodbye to Blue.

“Oh, sorry,” Adam said. “You wanted my History notes, right?”

“No, that’s not — well, yeah, actually, thank you,” he said, taking them when Adam handed them over. “I actually came over here to give you some unsolicited advice.”

“About the Valentine’s Day thing?”

“That’s the one.”

Adam shrugged. “It’s not entirely unsolicited. But anyway, it doesn’t matter anymore. You heard him.”

“Yeah, I heard him. Sounds like posturing to me.”

Adam tilted his head to the side. “You think?” Ronan certainly was prone to posturing.

“Sure. I mean, I have no doubt that he really does think Valentine’s Day is what he said in there, but I wouldn’t let that put you off doing something, if you wanted to.” Henry waited for a response, and when Adam didn’t offer one, he prompted, “You do want to, don’t you?”

Adam smiled wryly. “Is it that obvious?”

“Only if you know what to look for,” Henry said, but before Adam could think on that too much, he continued. “Look, I don’t know Ronan as well as you do, but even from the outside, it’s clear how he feels about you.”

Feeling himself blush, Adam immediately looked down at the ground. He did know how Ronan felt about him. It was often whispered to him in the middle of the night when it felt like they were the only two people in the world. It just took him off guard to hear it so plainly from someone else.

“Think about it, Adam. Regardless of how Ronan personally feels about what Valentine’s Day stands for, do you really think he’s going to let a day when he’s practically green-lit to be as obnoxious as possible about you just pass him by?” Henry shook his head. “Not the Ronan Lynch I know.”

Well, when it was put that way. “Did he say something to you? Do you know something?”

“Not a thing,” Henry said, and Adam believed him. “It’s just an observation and an educated guess.”

“Huh,” Adam said thoughtfully. He pulled his car keys out of his pocket and tossed them in the air, catching them again, ideas already forming in his head. If Ronan was going to be obnoxious, Adam could be obnoxious too. “Thanks, Henry. I’ll see you tomorrow. Don’t lose my notes.”

“I will try my level best.”

Adam gave himself three rules for Ronan’s Valentine’s gift:

1) It had to be heartfelt.

2) It also had to be in good humour and not take itself too seriously.

3) It had to be cheap.

He was too sensible to spend money he didn’t have on some arbitrary gift Ronan wouldn’t appreciate. Not to mention that Ronan was impossible enough to buy for as it was; firstly he was rich enough to buy himself pretty much anything he might want, and secondly he could literally manifest his dreams. It was going to make future birthdays and Christmas’s an absolute nightmare.

(But what a wonderful problem to have.)

What it all basically meant was that Adam had to go homemade, and given that he had school and work (and Ronan) to work around, he didn’t have a whole lot of time to do it.

He borrowed Gansey’s laptop during lunch-break on Monday at Aglionby and made Ronan a mix-CD of the cheesiest love songs he could think of. It featured such classics as You Make My Dreams by Hall & Oates, Heaven by Bryan Adams, True by Spandau Ballet, and many, many more. It wasn’t even remotely Ronan’s kind of music which made it funny, but as embarrassing as some of the songs might have been, they did actually somewhat echo Adam’s own feelings. He got to be a sap in the guise of it being a joke, and Ronan would get a kick out of it.

Obviously, he also added the Murder Squash Song for good measure.

Next up was a card. He could have bought one — his budget would have allowed it — but all the store ones were godawful and Adam couldn’t even imagine giving one of them to Ronan ironically.

Luckily he had an ace up his sleeve.

The first time that Ronan had stayed over at Adam’s after they were together in the very early days of their relationship, Adam had woken up to a frozen Ronan with a handful of strangely lovely flowers, the exact shade of blue as Adam’s eyes.

Adam had kept them in a cheap vase on the windowsill until they died, but unbeknownst to Ronan, he’d also taken one and pressed it to make a little print; his own private memento.

He was obviously keeping the original for himself, but he took it into the school library a couple of days before Valentine’s Day and scanned it, printing it out on some high quality photo card he’d ‘acquired’ from one of the Art rooms.

Once the ink was dry, he folded it down the middle as carefully as possible and put it inside his heaviest textbook to keep it folded and flat until he got it home.

He spent longer than probably necessary trying to decide what to write, but in the end, he went with:

Ronan,

I think maybe it was always you. I think it always will be. Happy Valentine’s Day (gross).

Love, Adam x

He didn’t have a nice envelope to put it in, so it had to go in a bigger manila one that Adam still had lying around. He slipped both the card and the CD inside, and wrote Ronan’s name in capitals on the outside.

He looked at his offering. It somehow didn’t seem enough.

Valentine’s Day was on Thursday, so on Wednesday— after school but before a shift at Boyd’s— Adam found himself in the kitchen of 300 Fox Way. He’d bought everything he needed to make chocolate brownies before he’d realised he didn’t have a tin in which to cook them in. He was also severely lacking in several other kitchen utensils, to be honest. One panicked phone-call to Blue later, and he had everything he needed and a helping hand.

Well, ‘helping’ was a strong word.

“Why brownies?” Blue asked from where she sat perched on the kitchen table.

“Because brownies are the best,” Adam said, frowning at the recipe he had printed out.

“Alright, can’t argue with that,” Blue said reasonably.

Adam was aware of her watching him while he slowly got out everything he needed and started weighing out ingredients. He felt unreasonably nervous about it, even though he knew that provided he followed the recipe, everything would be fine. Baking was a science, after all, and Adam was good at science.

But looking at it all now with Blue scrutinising his every move, he felt flustered and unmoored.

“I thought you were going to help,” he said pointedly.

“I am helping. I’m supervising,” Blue said.

Adam smiled at that. “I see. Are you the kind of supervisor who can grease this tin for me?”

“I suppose so,” Blue said loftily as she launched herself off the table.

Blue started chattering away after that which helped Adam calm down and focus on what he was doing, and it didn’t take long to make the mixture after that. Adam tilted the pan while Blue used a wooden spoon to scrape the mixture out and into the brownie tin.

After that, they just had to put it in the oven and wait.

Blue brewed up some of Maura’s least offensive tea as they sat and waited, and Adam finally asked what he’d been dying to all week.

“Do you know if Ronan has anything planned?”

Blue smiled and shook her head. “Honestly, Adam, I have absolutely no idea. He hasn’t said a word. I’ve barely seen him though, and never really without you there.” She shrugged. “If he’s got a plan he’s keeping it close to his chest.”

Adam nodded; he’d assumed as much. “I just want to know if I’m doing too much, or not doing enough? I dunno, it’s stupid. It’s only Valentine’s Day.”

“Yeah, but it’s your first Valentine’s Day together,” Blue said, not unkindly. “I get it.”

“What are you and Gansey doing?” 

“I made him a card and found him a couple of ‘slovenly’ t-shirts at the thrift store. I’m gonna hazard a guess that he’s getting me flowers, and he told me to keep the evening free so he’s probably taking me somewhere. Wherever it is, it better not be expensive.”

Adam grinned. “Maybe it’s Nino’s.”

“God, don’t even joke, I’d murder him. Again.”

He started to laugh, and after a couple of seconds Blue joined in. When it died down, Blue put her hand on his arm.

“Don’t overthink it, Adam. Ronan will love whatever you give him, because you’re the one it’s coming from. It’s not about the gifts you get or the meal you have or how much money you spend. I think it’s more about the gesture. That’s what’ll mean the most to Ronan.”

Adam managed a small smile. “I hope you’re right.”

“Of course I’m right.” Blue opened a drawer and gasped, then pulled out a heart-shaped cookie cutter. “Oh my God, Adam, you have to.”

She held out the cookie-cutter towards him and he took it, sighing. “Really?”

“Yes! This way, they’ll all be exactly the same size and I get to eat all the cut-offs. Y’know, as my fee for helping.”

And that’s how Adam ended up with nine perfect little heart-shaped brownies.

Adam didn’t see Ronan that night, thanks to finishing late at Boyd’s and then having homework after. 

When he woke up in the morning, he was hit by the realisation that he and Ronan hadn’t even arranged to see each other that day at all.

He half expected Ronan to show up at St Agnes unannounced with a bouquet of dream flowers and some donuts or something. But that didn’t happen, and Adam slowly packed his messenger bag for school, remembering to include the Tupperware of Valentine’s brownies and the envelope with its enclosed card and CD.

He wasn’t sure when he’d be able to give them to Ronan, but it was better to be prepared.

Adam walked down to his car, scanning the parking lot and the street to see if there was any sign of a shark-nosed BMW. But there was nothing, and there was nothing on the way to school, and Adam made it all the way through to lunch without seeing or hearing from Ronan.

Obviously, he had no phone, and Ronan hated his own phone. But Gansey had a phone, and Ronan could have got in touch that way if he had felt so inclined.

Adam didn’t know what he’d been expecting; that Ronan would show up at the Aglionby gates with a boombox over his head blasting out Lionel Richie songs? That he’d get back to his car after school and find out his favourite hooligan had broken in and left him a giant teddy bear and a box of chocolates?

It all seemed stupid now, and Valentine’s Day was stupid, and Adam was irritated that he’d let the pressures of the day get to him. It didn’t matter. It was a meaningless day.

So why did he feel so deflated?

At the end of the day, he caved and asked to borrow Gansey’s phone.

First, he sent a text that said: it’s adam, i’m about to call you so answer the phone

He gave it a minute until he’d seen that Ronan had read the message, and then pressed the call button.

“Parrish,” Ronan said in lieu of a hello.

All at once, like always, Adam was happy to hear Ronan’s voice. And yet he still couldn’t quite shake his irritation, even though the one who’d got his hopes up was himself.

“Hey,” he replied. “Listen, were you planning on coming over tonight?”

“Nope.” It was a little difficult to tell, but Adam thought Ronan’s tone was just a little off. “You come here.”

Adam sighed. “Ronan, I have school tomorrow so I wouldn’t even be able to stay that late. Can’t you just come here?”

There was a long pause. “Opal wants to see you.”

“So bring her with you.”

“Are you kidding, Parrish, she’s filthy. She’ll mess up the interior.”

The BMW wasn’t exactly spotless inside so this seemed a flimsy excuse. Adam started to wonder whether Ronan even wanted to see him at all.

“If you don’t want to see me today that’s fine,” he said, tone clipped.

“I didn’t say that,” Ronan said, tone just as clipped.

It felt like they were heading for a fight. Adam didn’t want to fight. He wanted to give Ronan the stupid sentimental CD he’d made. He wanted Ronan to make fun of him for the brownies. He wanted a hug.

Adam was abruptly exhausted, and it didn’t matter that he’d gone to the effort and Ronan hadn’t. He just wanted to see him.

“Okay,” he said. “I’m gonna go home and shower but then I’ll head over to you.”

“Okay, good. See you in a bit,” Ronan said, and hung up.

The sun was down by the time Adam pulled up at the Barns. The heating in Adam’s car was dodgy enough on a good today, and today wasn’t a good day. It had barely come on, so his hands were like ice as he got out of the car.

He walked straight in when he got there and made his way to the kitchen. He hovered in the doorway; Ronan’s back was to him, a tea towel strewn over one shoulder, straining pasta over the sink.

Adam rapped his knuckles against the door-frame and Ronan turned around.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey,” Adam replied. “You cooked?”

Ronan shrugged. “It’s just spaghetti.” He gestured to Adam’s messenger bag. “You brought homework with you?”

All that was in the bag was the Valentine’s gifts for Ronan, and he shook his head. “Nope.”

“Okay,” Ronan said with another shrug. “Sit. Let’s eat, I’m starving.”

Adam pulled himself a chair out, and it scraped against the floor noisily in the otherwise quiet. He waited for Ronan to finish serving up and then asked, “Where’s Opal?”

“No idea. Haven’t seen her since this afternoon.”

Adam took a bite of his food. It was good. “I thought you said she wanted to see me.”

“She always wants to see you,” Ronan said smoothly. “I’m sure she’ll turn up when she spots your car.”

They finished eating in near silence, Adam waiting for Ronan to say something— anything— to acknowledge the day. But he didn’t, and the longer the silence dragged, the harder it seemed to break it.

Adam started towards the sink to do the washing up afterwards, but Ronan stopped him with a hand on his arm.

“Just leave it, Parrish.”

“But—”

“Leave them. I’ll do them in the morning.” 

Adam sighed, uncomfortable in the tension. He didn’t know what to do now. Did Ronan just want him to leave? And if so, why had he told him to come in the first place?

“Look, do you know what day it is?” Adam asked, unable to take it any longer.

“It’s Thursday,” Ronan said, chin jutted out, arms crossed. Adam glared; Ronan clearly knew exactly what day it was.

“Okay, great,” Adam said tiredly. He opened his bag and pulled out the Tupperware and the envelope. “Happy Valentine’s Day, I guess.”

He put them on the table and stepped away, leaning against the wall and crossing his arms. He watched Ronan’s face, the expression on which had softened immediately. He looked to Adam, stricken.

“Parrish, I—”

“It’s fine, Ronan, just open them.”

Ronan snapped his mouth shut, and pulled the envelope over to him. Adam immediately felt self-conscious about his meagre homemade gifts.

“It’s not much,” he said quickly.

Ronan’s only response to this was a slight furrow in his brow. Then he took the CD out, quirking a smile at Adam’s inscription: LYNCH’S CHEESY LOVE SONG SINGALONG. It was surrounded by lots of hand drawn love-hearts that Adam now thought seemed excessive.

Ronan looked up and raised an eyebrow at Adam, a half-smirk on his face. “No track-list, Parrish?”

“It’s a surprise,” Adam said, smiling weakly, but relieved. “You’ll have to play it to find out.”

“I’ll do that,” he said with a sage nod. He put the CD down and reached for the Tupperware, pulling the lid off and tossing it aside. He looked inside and snorted. “You’ve really stuck with a theme here, huh, Parrish?”

“Hey, Valentine’s Day is all about the hearts, apparently. And to be fair, the heart-shaped brownies are Blue’s fault. She found a cookie-cutter and insisted.”

“She knew about this?” Ronan said.

“Yeah, she helped me make them.”

“That little sneak...” Ronan trailed off and let out a sharp laugh. “I asked her if she knew whether or not you were doing something, and she swore blind she had no idea.”

Adam thought about asking why Ronan had even wanted to know, but instead he pointed at the envelope. “There’s a card in there, as well.”

“In here?” Ronan turned the envelope upside down and the card slipped out into his hand. Adam watched as he took in the flower on the front, smiled a little, then did a double-take, glancing at Adam. “Hold on. Is this what I think it is?”

Adam rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah. I, uh, I pressed one, before they all died. I wanted to keep it, I guess.”

“Yeah,” Ronan said, something akin to awe in his voice. “I dream about them all the time.” He opened the card and read what Adam had written there, then dropped his face into his hands. 

“Parrish...” he mumbled. “I feel like a fucking asshole.”

Adam went over and gently pulled the card out of Ronan’s hand, sitting down on Ronan’s lap. Ronan’s arms circled his waist automatically and he tucked his face into Adam’s neck.

“You are a fucking asshole, Lynch. I love you anyway.”

Ronan grumbled something incoherently against Adam’s skin, and Adam smiled. “What was that?”

Ronan lifted his head so he could be heard. “I said I love you right back.”

“Good,” Adam said.

“I thought you’d forgotten. And I didn’t...I didn’t want a big deal, and this day is a fucking joke or whatever, but you didn’t mention anything. And I even thought you might borrow Gansey’s phone and like, text me or something this morning? But then you didn’t and when you finally called me you sounded annoyed and I didn’t know why, and I didn’t even think you wanted to come over. So then you finally got here and you seemed mad, and so I was mad and...I’m sorry. I was here thinking you didn’t give a shit and you made stuff for me?” He hung his head, penitent. “I love my gifts. These lame brownies smell great. I’m fucking sorry, Parrish.”

“Hey.” Adam cupped Ronan’s head in his hands. “It’s fine that you didn’t get me anything. Honestly I think I just let this whole day get into my head as having to mean something when it doesn’t. I don’t need a special day to let you know how I feel. And I’m sorry if I seemed mad. I just didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t mean to make it weird.”

He leaned in and kissed Ronan briefly. “And Lynch, you cooked for me. You made me a whole meal. I’m pretty sure we’re even.” He kissed him again, until Ronan pulled back and covered Adam’s hands with his own.

“Um...you should come with me,” Ronan said, and he almost sounded sheepish.

They stood up and Ronan swiped the mix CD off the table and shoved it in the pocket of his hoodie, before taking Adam’s hand and leading him out the back door.

Confused but intrigued, Adam followed closely behind, clutching tight to Ronan’s fingers. It was cold outside and neither of them had their coats on, which Adam was about to point out when they walked around the corner of the nearest barn and he was rendered speechless by the sight before him.

In the middle of the grass was a small gazebo tent, the base of which was covered in luxurious looking blankets. There was a laptop in the middle of the floor, hooked up to a projector which was pointing at the outer-wall of the barn. A precarious tower of DVDs was piled up next to the laptop; Adam couldn’t see the titles from here but imagined Ronan had assembled a variety of choices. There was a big thermos, contents unknown (coffee? Hot chocolate?), and various other treats; big bags of marshmallows and Hershey’s Kisses and Reese’s Mini Peanut-Butter Cups.

And everywhere, there was light. Ronan’s twinkling little dream lights, some in jars under the gazebo, others hanging in the air, changing colour, like little fireflies.

“Ronan,” Adam finally managed hoarsely. “What the fuck?”

Ronan smirked. “You thought I hadn’t done anything.”

“Uh, yeah, because you let me think that!” Adam said. He was struggling to process how cosy and romantic it all looked. Let it never be said that Ronan Lynch wasn’t an absolute sap.

“I didn’t let you think anything, you jumped to that conclusion all on your own.”

Adam scowled. “Now I feel like a fucking asshole.”

“Don’t,” Ronan said, pressing a kiss to Adam’s temple. “Anyway, this is nothing.”

“It is so far from nothing,” Adam said. He stepped forward and took a turn around, taking everything in as he walked in a slow circle, stopping when he was facing Ronan again. “I thought Valentine’s Day was capitalistic bullshit?”

“Oh, it is,” Ronan said happily. “But for one, I didn’t spend a penny. And two, a whole day where I can spoil you as much as I want to and you don’t get to complain about it? Sign me the fuck up for that.”

Adam burst out laughing. “You’ve just reminded me of something Henry said.”

“What did he say?”

“I told him that I wasn’t sure whether or not you’d do anything because we hadn’t talked about it, and he said, and I quote: ‘do you really think he’s going to let a day when he’s practically green-lit to be as obnoxious as possible about you just pass him by?’”

Ronan was grinning now. “Cheng’s pretty smart.” 

“Yeah,” Adam said. He caught one of the floating lights in his hand and then let it go again. “Just for the record, I think your dreaming abilities give you an unfair advantage when it comes to stuff like this.”

“Excuse you, Parrish, the only thing I dreamt up was the blankets because they’re heated. Oh, and the projector. And the gazebo. But that’s it.”

“‘That’s it’, he says.” Adam rolled his eyes, then accusingly added, “You dreamt up the lights.”

“Well, yeah, but not for this. I already had those. And the food was stuff I already had in the house, and the DVDs are ones I already own. I didn’t want to go overboard.”

Adam stared. “You are ridiculous,” he said, shaking his head. “Come here.”

Ronan went, without question or hesitation, and Adam wrapped his arms around his neck.

“This is the sweetest thing anybody’s ever done for me,” he said softly. “Thank you.”

“Thank you,” Ronan whispered, kissing a line up Adam’s neck and across his face, the tip of his nose, his forehead, “for the brownies, for what you wrote in the card...Jesus, Adam. It’s the same for me. You know that, right? It’s always you.”  

Adam squeezed tighter, feeling dangerously overcome. He breathed in the familiar, comforting smell of Ronan, and then released his grip. “And for the CD, obviously,” he said.

“Of course,” Ronan said, and smiled sharply. “Speaking of...” He pulled it out of his pocket and walked over to his laptop. “I’ll let you pick a movie in a bit, but first, I wanna listen to my present.”

He popped the CD into the drive and pressed a couple of buttons on the mouse, and a moment later the opening track started to play: I Wanna Dance With Somebody by Whitney Houston.

Ronan laughed, once, soundlessly, then came back over to Adam and held his hand out. 

“Well?” he said when Adam didn’t move. “Are you dancing?”

Adam grinned. “Are you asking?”

“I’m asking.”

“Then I’m dancing.” He took Ronan’s hand and together they swayed, far too slowly for a song this upbeat, but Ronan didn’t seem to mind, and Adam certainly didn’t.

They didn’t speak while they were dancing, both perhaps a little shaken at the near-miss of an argument, both relieved they hadn’t let it get that far. Both content to be in each other’s company, away from prying eyes and expectations.

It was still early days. They were still learning how to do this, navigating firsts and futures and each other, but they were both quick studies, and Adam couldn’t think of anything more worthwhile than building a foundation— and a life— with Ronan.

There were trickier days to come, but for now, they’d survived their first Valentine’s Day as a couple. As they lay curled together in a blanket watching The Princess Bride projected onto the side of a barn, Adam thought he’d have to mark this one down as a win.

“Happy Valentine’s Day, Parrish,” Ronan whispered into Adam’s hair.

“Ugh,” Adam said, and kissed him. “Happy Thursday.”

[the-princess-with-pancakes]

Emma Roberts Movie Week

It’s actually a bit unexpected. I didn’t plan this, I just watched Scream IV and her character made me love her even more, then I did after Chanel. So I thought, why not, no matter that I planned Brendan Fraser Movie Week.

 Day 1: Scream IV (2011)

It’s not the movie I want to talk about (because I plan to make a post about the whole franchise, after watching the TV Series), but about he character. I mean, how awesome is watching Emma Roberts as psycho killer. Especially a very convincing psycho killer, trying to kill Sidney. After watching Scream Queens and knowing how well she plays bitchy characters, so it was very entertaining. The third act of course. Watching her as a side character was just okay. That’s really all I can say. So yeah, there you go folks. Also the villain monologue was fun. Just read for yourself:

Favorite Jill quote:

Jill Roberts: My friends? What world are you living in? I don't need friends. I need fans. Don't you get it? This has never been about killing you? It's about becoming you. I mean, for fuck's sake, my own mother had to die, no great loss there, so I could stay true to the original. That's sick, right? Well, sick is the new sane. You had your 15 minutes, now I want mine! I mean, what am I supposed to do? Go to college? Grad school? Work? Look around. We all live in public now, we're all on the Internet. How do you think people become famous any more? You don't have to achieve anything. You just gotta have fucked up shit happen to you. So you have to die, Sid. Those are the rules. New movie, new franchise. There's only room for one lead, and let's face it, your ingenue days, they're over. A bit long, yeah, but how great. Isn’t that weird, that her monologue is longer then my text about her character?

Day 2: Wild Child (2008)

A very linear teen drama, but in England. Why would I pick that? The real question is: Why not? I mean, yes, it’s stupid, and yes, I’m an adult, but I’m still a kid inside, and I know it’s a bad movie, but it was still entertaining sometimes. Again, watching Emma playing a bitch is fun, for 20 minutes, but it was still fun. If we got through the best part, let’s get to business. Her character growth was okay, her friends were okay, their relation was okay. The school bitch was awfully stereotypical, no matter that her first appearance said otherwise. I hoped at least that from that movie, but it didn’t even give me that, so...

The fun part tho was just turning my brain off for an hour and half, and just watch Emma hanging out with some teenagers with British accent. It’s still one of my favorite female celebrities. Also her name was Poppy! It could belike the flower, but hearing “Poppy” made me think about That Poppy. Which is always a little plus. Wow, that paragraph about the things I liked is too short. Hey, Nick Frost! 

The montage was awful... it broke me from the movie every 30 seconds, which was hard to watch. Also the scene quick before the end was so cringe. At least for me. They were losing, then made a dance, and magically they won! (The dance was cringe, if someone were wondering)

Well that’s all, it was between average and okay.

Favorite quote:

Poppy: I didn't start it, it wasn't my fault, and if this were America, I would sue.

That’s true, OMC. America is beautiful, I love it, I want to visit it someday.

 Day 3: The Art of Getting By (2011) 

There is a thin line between being a good movie, and being pretentious. This movie sadly is on the wrong side of the line. 

Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed watching this movie, it got to me, I love the main character, George, I can see myself in him, somehow. I always wanted to be that weird guy on the side, or I just want it, because these guys (like in this movie) alwayse ended up happy at the end, and I want the same thing for myself. But that’s a theme for different post. I liked seeing the world through his eyes. The scene showing how he wanted to get over Sally was great. Or when she broke him with the weird sex questions, during their “date”. Freddie’s acting was very convincing, and I didn’t saw the actor, I saw a boy with problems. The relations between him and the other characters and the way he reacten to every rational thing, he should do, but just couldn’t. I can also say a good thing about the side characters. I really liked them. The way they were created, even if some of theme didn’t have a lot of screen time, I had still fun spendind time with them. Like when Sallys’s mother told her, that she should be with George or when the painter struggled to be with Sally. I could also say about how I liked the montage and directing, but who cares? Also I liked the “development” of Freddie’s character, like in the first and second part who was becomind worse and worse...

Sadly the thing I was most anticipating in this movie was Emma Roberts and... well, Sally totally blows. I disliked her after 5 or so minutes. I’m not really sure if she’s such a bad actress, or it was just like her character was written, but Sally was so wooden. She was pretty, yes, but that’s just one of two things, that I think George could see in her (the second is, that she really cared about him and liked him, for example the scene, when they were sleeping next to each other, or when she called him every 5 minutes, whe he left her). I also really, really disliked her, when she broke my precious George! I mean, who does she think she is? (that’s not a blame on the movie, just another reason to not like her character, which isn’t a bad thing) Sally was the second most important character, but she dind’t develop at all. It was painfull to watch her in some scenes, beacause I knew that she would hurt George, because he wanted to go forwrd in some way, but she was staying the same all the time. Another thing I didn’t like was most of the third act. How George suddenly (I know it was because of his mother, he didn’t to upset her any more) change his attitude to life and so quickly straightened everything. It just wasn’t convincing for me. Also it was very predictable. Him, getting the diploma, her, going back to him, the painting, being Sally. Sad. Sadly. They could work on that a little more.

Favorite qoute:

Sally Howe: What were you like as a child?

George Zinavoy: I was such a better person than I am now.

Sally Howe: Come on.

George Zinavoy: I'm serious. I was happy. I was open. I was curious. But I'll tell you this: I knew when it was ending. I was overwhelmed with sadness when I realized that I was going to change, and that it was all most likely going to get worse, like a nostalgia for the present. I couldn't shake it... 

And it’s sad to say, that I dind’t like her creation. It really is. I hope it’s not her acting and I can see her again in a small movie, but with more. More to play and that she actually does it well. For now I like her justas the bitchy/psycho type.

 Day 4: Nancy Drew (2007)

Hey I’m actually keeping up! Only three das/movies left.

So I just looked up (on Wikipedia, I’m not a detective) that, as I thought, the movie is based on a book series for teenagers, with the same name. 

I start with the things I liked. And don’t let it fool you, there were’nt as many. The start was quite fine and fun to watch. The city and the charachters living in it. Just the world created around Nancy in her home town was adorable, just to be fine for a few minutes. I also liked Nancy at some point. I guess Emma can play charismatic characters, not just bitches. Which is good, but it wasn’t very good acting, since it also wasn’t a role that needed a good actress, just because the writting was so doll. Ahh, I wanted to say, what I liked first. So I also liked the side characters from her home town, like her father and Ned, or some of the LA characters: just Jane and Leshing. And the styling. I think the setting around our main characters was cute. Her dressing style, the style of that “hounted” house or her home town (I didn’t remember it, I’m really not familiar with the book series). Hey, Bruce Willis!

That’s sadly all, not many good things, that I could talk about. The writting tho. Ugh! It was so, so bad. Mished with that acting was just terrible to watch. Just because I liked some charachters, does not mean, I think they well written well, or that they were acted well. They weren’t. None of them. Maybe Nancy and her father a little, but that’s all. The story... Just meh. After half an hour I wasn’t feeling any mistery. And talk about tension, there was none of it. Even the scene when they were just about to kill Nancy, I was felling nothing. Oh wait, I was annoyed. Because the side characters from her new school had appeared on my screen! I hated them. Especially Corcky. uhh... I just felt like a story written by a teenager, and I think not a teenager has written it (no, it were two adult people). I mean, do they know, they can make a movie for children (and this, BTW, felt like a movie for 3-6 years old), that’s also entertaining for adults? Look at Teen Titans GO: To the Movies! (2018). That’s a good example.

Favorite quote:

Carson Drew: Phone call. Long distance from Scotland. Something about the Loch Ness Monster and some missing diamonds. Nancy Drew: Another case!

Well, despite how I disliked ths movie, I would definietly watch a sequel with Nessi. But it didn’t gross much, which I’m not suprised with.

 Day 5:

Got distracted, by discovering “The Pitch” from ScreenRant. Totally got me. Binge watched like 20 episodes.

 Actual Day 5: Paradise Hills (2019)

What a weirdly boring movie. Maybe I didn’t pay to much attention as I should, but it didn’t get me at all.

I wanted to watch something new, to see how her acting “grow” with her, but... Again, she didn’t get much to play. Which is very dissapointing. 

To start with the good things. The movie is extreamly beautiful. It looks so magical. The movie has just a 6 million budget, but it was still enough to hire Emma Roberts, Milla Jovovich, Awkwafina and to build a gorgeous set. The CGI was very visible, but only in two scenes (like the car on the beginning for example). And... That’s all? The acting of most main cast fine, I guess. 

OMC, where to start even? Idea for the story: very, very unoriginal. It’s actually felt much like The Island (2005) and a little like Sucker Punch (2011) (although I don’t remember it very well), maybe a mix of bouth. It’s not bad, it’s just made not so well. The script: dull, slow and predictible. I don’t like saying this, because I mostly shut of my brain, try to have fun and don’t predict anything, but it was hard. The ending tho. Seriously, to predictable. And no, I didn’t predict, that Jovovich is playing a fucking rose witch/vampire. That actually suprised me. The characters: they we’re okay, but mostly still to stereotypical, like for eample Milla’s witch, Emma’s main and the sidecharacter singer. Again just complaining on the same things I complained the last three movies.

Favorite quote:

Duchess: *screams, while changing into a bush*

I still have one critycally acclaimed drama (to see her acting on a good script) and a good movie to end the marathon happy :3

Day 6: Palo Alto (2013)

I can’t say. I liked this movie. Not a lot, but it was still enjoyable for me.

I thought Emma will play the main character, which she has and hasn’t in a way. She was one of the main characters with Teddy i think. Yeah, okay, I’m almost sure. I know I was supposed to watch a critically aclaimed movie, and this isn’t one, but, eh, it has 69% on RottenTomatoes, so not so bad. Also! It’s stars James Franco. I liked the acting. I’m still dissapointed, that Emma stil does not have much to play. I’m not sure if she’s just okay at acting, or she takes parts of empty blonds. I still love her, it’s just... it’s getting harder and harder to watch her as not charismatic characters. Anyway, I liked the acting, even much. I’m not sure if the actor playing Teddy (Val Kilmer’s son! and Val KIlmer played April’s father xD) was playing him self, but I’m happy with what I got. The same goes for Fred, the coach and April’s father. Finally after these few dissapointing movies, I got something, that dind’t speak to me much, but at least I liked the characters and had fun watching them get better, or worse, or not changing, or having a quick cameo. 

The story was... okay. But connected to this characters, I don’t really have much to complain. The tempo was a bit slow with April’s story, and a bit to fast with Teddy’s. Like The Art of Getting By (2011), this movie crossed a bit the thin line, of being too pretencional. But this doesn’t botter me that much.

Favorite quote:

April: I'm not depressed, why do you always think I'm depressed? I'm just tired.

Day 7: It’s kind of a funny story (2010)

I absolutely loved this movie! It took me from teh beginning with that scene on the bridge. Totally my kind of humor. The main character was easy to equate with, at least for me, like, being a bit assholish on the beginnig, and then turning in a fully good and  empathetic person. The perfect character arc for a feel good movie, like this one. It hit me by suprise, how good it was. The movie has average ratings and is rotten on RottenTomatoes. I know why, but the things, that for others were a flaw, for me was a good quality. I dind’t read the reviews, but I saw flaws in the movie, and in the story. I know, I know, it’s a basic story, a bit (maybe a lot) predictable even. But I turned my brain off for one and a half hour and had a lot of fun. The charachters where, no, seamed 3-dimensional. Everyone, at some point even. I totally believed, these are not actors, these are people. Especially the main trio, obviosly. I dind’t know  Zach Galifianakis can play something more then a stupid fat guy, by playing a not so stupid fat guy with problems. And Emma, still not what I’m expecting from her, but a lot better, then the other movies I guess (with exceptions of course). Even Craigs parents felt so real, and his friend and his love interest in the beginning. The main advantage of the movie is, that, as I pointed out earlier, it makes you feel better. It made me thing, that there is something more for me, that I don’t have to be this sad, fat guy, working and sitting by the computer all the time. Also the acting, OMC. It was great. How thought, to bring Viola Davis to this project? Great idea, even for these few minutes. But, yeah, I also pointed that out already. And, I liked, how the movie was directed. The scene, where they sang together, fabulous.

So what’s the flaws? It was predictable, if you just try to think a little. I dind’t realise that, till after the movie. Also, some characters, from being fine written, turned to flat characters, to drive the plot. Yes, I mean Nia, that was so unnecessary. It was just so Noelle would get mad at Craig. And will winning Noelle back be hard? It’s gonna be (quoting the screenwriter from Pitch Meeting) “super easy! Barely an inconvenience.” Which is dissapointing. 

Favorite quote:

Craig: Do you like music?

Noelle: Do you like breathing?

Bonus: A few words about Channel and whole Scream Qeens (2015-2016)

This series also took me by suprise, a bit. I loved Ariana Grande at that time, but since she quitted acting, and got mostly into music, I started to watch this show. And, as dissapointing as it was at that time, Chanel #2 was killed in the first episode. But since this was a slasher, and I do love those, I stayed. Who am I kidding. It dind’t stay because of the killing, but because of the story, characters and humor mostly. Jamie Lee Curtis is a wonderful actress and watching her going “against�� bitchy Emma Roberts, was like watching a unicorn... I don’t a good compare, but you get it. It was extreamly entertaining. The world building, so caricature, it was so fun. Chanel killing a random lady? Yes please. These show was filled with mains driving the series with just themselfs and the sideones adding to it a lot. Even if they get killed eventually. Obviously the first season was way better, then the second. But the second was even more bizzare, which recompensed a bit the flaws of it. Do I like the decisions, who got the be the killers in both seasons? Yes, of course! For example, the chemistry between Dr. Cassidy and Chanel #3 was great in the second half of the second season. Just awesome.

Oh, yeah, a few more about Chanel. Wonderful, stole every scene she was in. Not a character, you could lift a show on, but the definietly good to be one of the mains.

Favorite quote:

Chanel: Good morning, sluts.

Chanel #2, #3 and #5: Good morning, Chanel

Like I could pick any other, than this.

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So what do I think about Emma in the end?

She’s not a great, but a good actress, she could lift the whole movie, if she get’s a good character to play, like in Wild Child (2008), which was not much, but she was still a teenager then, and made it. 

Do I see her in drama roles?

Yes, actually. I love her, when she plays bitchy, charismatic, or even psycho characters, because she’s great at it, but I still want to see her other side. A hard part to play, in which she can shock everyone in how good of an actress she is. She didn’t have the chance yet.

I hope she gets more lucky and popular at some time. She’s still under 30 (28 years old), so she has most of her live before her, and already an impressive filmography. I wish her all the best.