#marriage bets

[bropunzeling]

Hey, I just reread “only fools rush in”, and I was wondering how in your mind Leon showing up at Matthew’s place after the ASG went. Was his family still there or did they leave before his arrival? Anyway, love it, it’s a comfort read, if I could I would have given it a dozen kudos.

"So," Mom says. Technically, she's supposed to be sweeping the guest room for anything she or Dad have forgotten to pack, doing one last check for medications and phone chargers and lone socks. Technically, Matthew is supposed to be helping her.

In actuality, she's dragged Matthew down the hall, leaving Leon and Dad alone in the living room, which is exactly the fate Matthew wanted to avoid.

He should've known Leon would be too punctual.

"I didn't know you and Leon Draisaitl were friends," Mom continues, her tone of voice implying that she didn't miss the way Leon had touched him in the foyer, the hand that had lingered on the back of Matthew’s neck before he blurted out his parents hadn't left yet.

"Um," Matthew says. He can feel his ears and throat turning red. Can hear noise from the living room too -- Dad's booming laugh; the quieter, unintelligible sound of Leon speaking. His knee is jiggling from adrenaline. "We're -- uh." He swallows. Shouldn't the Uber to the airport be here by now? When he pictured this conversation happening, it was in a month or two, after he laid some groundwork, and with his -- boyfriend -- husband -- Leon not being stuck with his dad unsupervised.

Mom watches him, searching his face for something. Matthew doesn’t know what. Then her expression softens. "Is it something you want to tell me about?"

Matthew swallows again, running his fingers through the hair behind his ears. "Not -- not yet," he says, keeping his voice low. Now feels way too immediate, much too risky. If he makes one wrong move, he can’t trust that everything he and Leon agreed to two nights ago won't shatter. "But -- soon, maybe?"

Mom nods. "Okay," she says. "I can take soon." Then, quieter, she adds, "Can I -- are you happy?"

Matthew nods back. His throat is very tight. Happy seems like such a small word for how he felt sprawled out in Leon’s hotel bed, Leon's fingers laced through his own, but he can’t think of better.

"Oh," Mom says, and then she's pulling him into a hug, kissing him on the cheek and holding him tightly. "Good," she whispers. "That's all I need to know."

Matthew nods, pressing his nose into his Mom’s hair.

They stand like that for a few seconds before Mom pulls back, eyes suspiciously shiny. "Alright," she says. "You can go stage a rescue now."

"Thanks," Matthew replies, glad his voice isn't horribly wobbly. "Don’t let Dad forget his airpods."

Mom snorts and swats him on the shoulder. Matthew dodges and heads back down the hall, listening to Dad's voice booming as he tells some story he's told twenty times ans Leon's soft, almost stifled laughter. Not something he expected from this weekend, but. He isn't complaining.

[thebelladonnamoon]

Mark my words, Elucien is gonna be the bloody hottest thigh riding, regencycore, forced proximity, ‘i burn for you’, jealous!mate, slow burn and you guys are absolutely sleeping on it.

[stromblessed]

Mizu's spectacles, and the levels of her disguise

In drafting some more Blue Eye Samurai meta posts, I find myself writing out the comparisons between what Mizu can and cannot hide about herself, and how that affects how she moves through the world.

Like, I get the jokes about Mizu's glasses, if only color contacts had existed back then, etc. etc., and I think (hope) that most viewers don't take the glasses jokes seriously, as in "I don't care about the suspension of disbelief because BES is a cartoon." But I wanted to write these thoughts out anyway without burying them in a text post about something else.

I think the points I'm going to lay out here are viewed very differently by different people, so please feel free to add to this post, reply, or put your thoughts in the tags!

Not only do Mizu's glasses not actually help her that much, there's surely more to Mizu's mixed race appearance than just the color of her eyes.

In my view, this was pointed out in episode 1:

I'm willing to bet most of us were expecting young Taigen to say "blue eyes," not "ROUND eyes."

Obviously this is still about Mizu's eyes, but not even spectacles can hide their shape.

I don't think the show is obligated to point out everything about Mizu's face that isn't quite as Japanese as the people around her expect. Though the creators have said that they specifically designed Mizu - and her clothes - to read both as "white" and as "Japanese," as well as both male and female. I think there's more about Mizu's features that read as "white" than just her eyes.

This is where my own headcanons start entering the picture, but it's my impression that people can just tell that Mizu looks different, whether or not they can put a finger on exactly how.

There's the little girl who looks at Mizu and then hides on the way into Kyoto:

When there's more to your face you'd like to cover up than just your eyes, big hats are a big help!

By the way, most of these examples have to come from the first half of the season, since by the second half, either Mizu is too preoccupied with fighting henchmen, or everyone Mizu is facing knows who she is already, and she therefore has no reason to hide her mixed race identity.

It's worth mentioning that the mere fact that Mizu has to hide multiple aspects of her identity - her mixed race and her sex - results in her having to choose clothes that really, really cover her up, which doesn't win her any favors either:

(Zatoichi reference, anyone?)

If it were as easy as, for example, tying her glasses to her head and wa-lah, nobody would ever know she was half-white - then (1) Mizu would've just done that long ago, and (2) Mizu wouldn't be so on guard and on tenterhooks 100% of the time the way she's depicted in the show, even when her glasses are on.

Her spectacles sure don't help her in the brothel, which is full of observant women who are trying to seduce her, meaning they get good long looks at her:

Mizu never takes her glasses off, but they still send a woman to her who has light eyes, thinking that must be what will interest a blue-eyed man:

No wonder Mizu gets mad after this, lol

So Mizu never takes her spectacles off in the brothel, it's dimly lit inside, and the women can still tell that she has blue eyes. I'm getting the sense that Mizu putting on her spectacles isn't a guarantee that people suddenly can't tell that she looks different.

And yet no one spots that she's female.

Mizu can hide her breasts, can wear her hair in the right style, can hide what's between her legs, can walk and talk and behave like a man - and she's been doing it for almost her entire life, to the point that not only is she very good at it, but the threat of being found out as female is deadly, but isn't presented in the show as omnipresent.

Let me explain.

She threatens Ringo for nearly saying the word "girl" out loud, because while she's constantly ostracized for being mixed race, being a woman traveling without a chaperone, carrying a sword, and disguised as a man will get her killed or flogged or arrested or some combination of these things.

But in addition, it's been drilled into her since she was a child that if she is discovered as female, the combination of her being mixed race and female will identify her as someone extremely specific, someone known to some bad people, and she will be killed:

I think of it as Mizu thinking to herself, "Being found out as mixed race means I'm treated badly. Being found out as mixed race and a woman means I'm dead."

Mizu's hair is cut as a child. But she isn't made to wear a big hat, or cover her eyes somehow, or anything like that. Because hiding her sex is a more successful endeavor than hiding her race.

Ringo finds out she's female by accident, but once Mizu accepts the fact that he won't rat her out, she relaxes pretty early on in the season. Because the threat of being found out as female is mitigated pretty much 99.9%, since Mizu has gotten so good at being a man. And also, because most of the time, people see what they want to see. Even if Mizu's face makes her stand out as "not 100% Japanese," no one in the world of BES looks at Mizu's clothes, her bearing, her sword, hears her voice, and will ever in a million years conclude that she is a woman, because expectations around gender roles in the Edo period were so rigid and so widely enforced.

One detail that proved this to me is after the Four Fangs fight:

Ringo takes off Mizu's clothes so he can stitch her up, then leaves her clothes off even after he's done. He doesn't even throw her cloak over her as a blanket or anything. There's a little a straw (pallet?) as a divider there on the left, but anyone could just peek around it and see Mizu and her chest bindings. (I think it's mostly there as a windbreaker.)

And Taigen is right there, but he doesn't give a shit:

Opinions probably vary hugely on this, but my impression is that because the show doesn't make any kind of deal about Taigen being in the room with Mizu here, my guess is that Mizu isn't in any danger of Taigen thinking she's female. Even when I watched the show for the first time, I assumed that Taigen had seen Mizu out of her clothes here, and that he thought nothing of it.

Eat your heart out, Li Shang (Mulan 1998). I actually do think that this scene is a direct and purposeful side-eye to that movie, lol

There's obviously some nuance to how "severe" being mixed race is compared to how "severe" being a woman is for Mizu:

After all, Swordfather can't bear to listen to Mizu confess to being a woman.

So a Japanese man can go wherever he wants, whenever he wants in BES. A Japanese woman has limited options: marriage, religion, or a brothel. A mixed-race man is an eyesore in this story. A mixed-race woman is a death sentence.

May as well eliminate the female aspect, and do what you can about the mixed-race aspect. Because that's just realistic.

Meaning Mizu can avoid the strictures Edo society places on women. But she can't avoid the repercussions that come with being mixed race. And I truly don't think that it's just because "there's no brown contacts yet."

[spooky-pop]

When my spouse walks into the room and catches me drawing Broppy art for the 45th time this week

Listen-

[wheredidhiseyebrowsgo]

hey love your blog so much keep up the amazing work ❤️

i was trying to find this one fic when derek lives alone and scott and issac did like a mail order bride thing without telling dereks and it’s stiles but he doesn’t speak much english and he is sending money back to his dad.

been trying to find it for ages many thanks 🥰🥰

Anon says it's this one.

Ukochany by VincentMeoblinn

(15/15 I 34,121 I Explicit I Sterek)

Derek comes home to find a mail order husband and two amused betas waiting for him. When he realizes their prank was far from harmless he ends up saddled with a husband who barely speaks English but insists Derek is the love of his life. He’s also determined to win him over

[caorl]

at least in this lifetime we're sticking together

[sammygrimoire]

Everyone felt confused as the glow of the summoning circle finally died down, the League had managed to subdue the cultists too late and now...

Wait, who and what were the cultists trying to summon?

Constantine stared at the ghost? bride?? That appeared over the summoning circle, looking confused and tired. The lead cultist had clearly screamed about summoning the Ghost king... wait, this dumbasses didn't accidentally managed to summon its bride did they???

Oh no, oh nononononono--

Danny just want a nap after a whole week of doing paperwork.

[army-in-the-stars]

Bae In-Hyuk & Lee Se-Young x ELLE Korea

[nyxi-pixie]

'skk dont like each other they literally always say they wanna kill each other'

as if they dont mean it in the most weirdass possessive 'no one else gets to kill you' way. as if dazai no.1 romanticiser of death osamu isnt being completely insane about it (bc what do you MEAN you've thought about killing him EVERY DAY for SEVEN YEARS)

(theyre also Lying bc theyd never actually kill each other otherwise theyd have done it already. its just a fun little exchange they have to be like 'wow ur so awful and detestable i wanna give u a lil kiss on the forehead (with a bullet<3)')

[likeastars]

How fucked up it would have been if when Madoka starts to remember that she's supposed to be a god in the movie Homura just. Kissed her.

[bropunzeling]

thinking of how leon and matthew rushing to each other during injury is SUCH a jess bropunzelling move that i need marriage bets scene ehere none of the tkachuks believe that leon has spousal privieege

[(a) i feel aggressively called out 😂 (b) hmm maybe it would go a little like:]

"I thought," Leon says, sticking to Matthew like a burr, "you were trying not to get hurt this year. We talked about it."

Matthew laughs, and then winces because laughing hurts. Fuck, his mouth. "Contact sport, baby."

"It's the All-Star Game," Leon retorts, aggrieved.

Matthew shrugs. Can't account for freak accidents. He's not even sure how it happened---he was stuck skating backwards, he was bad at skating backwards, he fell over just in time to get a stick to the mouth, and when he sat up and spat on the ice it was red. Bedard looked a little shell-shocked as everybody came over to gawk, but Matthew was laughing too hard and then wincing too much to give the kid a hard time.

The one nice thing about it was that as soon as he got to the tunnel, Leon was there, newly changed into his street clothes and unwilling to listen to Matthew protesting that it wasn't even that bad, really, instead attaching himself to Matthew's side and refusing to leave. Sure, Leon may be hovering like he can fix Matthew's mouth through sheer proximity, but Matthew’s resigned to the fact that he likes that.

"Okay," says whichever of the Leafs trainers got stuck with the short straw this weekend, "Draisaitl, I'm going to have to ask you---"

"I can be here," Leon says, right as Matthew slurs, "He can be here." They look at each other, then Leon adds, "It's on the form."

The trainer checks something on a tablet. His eyes widen. There might be a snort. Then, he shrugs. "Alright, then."

Leon does nearly get kicked out ten minutes later for distracting Matthew while someone sticks their fingers in his mouth. It takes Leon nodding earnestly and swearing he'll stop for them to keep him in here, which also sucks because then no one is distracting Matthew from---

"Broken tooth," the doctor says. "You'll need a cap."

"Jesus Christ," Leon says.

"Hey, I'll be just like you two years ago," Matthew mumbles around the gauze. Fuck, his mouth hurts.

Leon rolls his eyes and grabs Matthew's hand. "If you actually used your mouthguard---" he says, because he's a fucking hypocrite.

Matthew glares, then squeezes his hand as hard as he can when the doctor gives him a numbing shot. As retaliation.

They sit like that during the aftercare instructions---nothing too hot; nothing too cold; nothing too hard; nothing good, basically; try not to make it worse before getting it capped---and then, once they're given the green light and an ice pack to help with the swelling, Leon drags Matthew out and down the hall so Matthew can finally get his pads off.

"Only you would get sticked at the goddamn All-Star Game."

"Pretty sure Bedard didn't mean it," Matthew points out, holding the ice to his lip.

Leon mumbles something under his breath that probably means he's going to be targeting a teenager next time he's on the ice at the United Center. Matthew probably shouldn't find that funny.

"Hey, shit, there you are," someone says. Brady clomps up to them, making to hug Matthew and then clearly deciding better of it. "We lost---"

"Fuck," Matthew says.

"And also they couldn't decide if they needed to put Bedard in the box, they were arguing for five minutes, it was fucking hilarious. Are you good? Is he good?" The second one is to Leon.

"Broken tooth," Leon supplies.

"Ouch," Brady says sincerely. "Well, get changed and cleaned up, I think Mom's about to storm down here if no one talks to her soon."

"It's not that bad," Matthew mumbles in protest as his brother and his boyfriend steer him towards the locker room.

It's only when he’s finally, finally out of his pads and on the way to the showers that he hears Brady say, in what he probably thinks is a whisper, "How the fuck did they allow you back there, anyway?"

Matthew glances back just in time to see Leon's ears go red.

[myrddin-wylt]

lowkey losing my shit at the comedic potential of mid/late 18th century British-Danish relations, particularly this part

During its heyday, the Danish East Indian Company and the Swedish East India Company imported more tea than the British East India Company — and smuggled 90% of it into Britain, where it sold at a huge profit.

first off, that's hilarious. second, the potential of Alfred and Mathias running into each other because they're both smuggling tea to sell in England is fucking incredible. and if it's before 1772, then both Alfred and Mathias are members of Arthur's own fucking household.

[rosetterer]

how could tommy have said no?

free food, free cake AND a cute boy?

like... i wanna go

[egophiliac]

do you think about how the Shroud parents are only ever mentioned either regarding abandoning their eldest to run STYX immediately after capturing his classmates and very briefly regarding making the Lethe being broken being their problem? like they aren't even mentioned once during the flashback to Idia's childhood when you'd think they'd have something to say about one of their kids dying and the other one coping bad? I think about taht alot

I think I've said this before, but I like how Idia's relationship with his parents is, like, purely business. he mostly talks about them like a pair of annoying coworkers who keep fobbing work off on him. they're not even mentioned during the flashback! the first people he showed Ortho to were a couple of random STYX employees! absolutely wild.

some of it might just be the compressed timeline, for all I know episode 7 will open with them being the most loving and supportive parents in the world. but right now I feel like their reaction to Idia and Ortho trying to destroy the world would just be to write Idia up for improper use of company equipment.

[mixelation]

WAIT WAIT WAIT someone is like 'pfft marrying their jinchurriki. obviously its political' and minato is like. you accuse me. of NOT LOVING MY WIFE? RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME? ILL HAVE YOU KNOW-

minato rips off his shirt to reveal a full chest tattoo that says I LOVE KUSHINA 5EVER

[francesderwent]

and at the same time!! I do believe that while this type of man (Run, Down Bad, Smallest Man Who Ever Lived) may have figured out the perfect script to turn us into clay in his hands, each time he tries it there is a part of him that hopes the script is going to work its magic on him this time. if we are foolish enough to believe that we can reform him, it’s a reflection of the hope buried deep in his heart that if he says the words it will make them true and it will make him into the kind of person who means them. but when the scene plays itself out and he’s left holding all the promises he made and the realization of everything he would have to give up to hold himself to them, he gets scared and he gets small, and he disappears.