#so Alice got to put in her two cents

[pleader600]

Quiz time/Trying to figure out a nickname for Ralph

[lolitawestcoast]

I rarely write or post things on social media because I am more of an “observer”, but after finishing season 2 of HOTD, I realised that I, too, want to share my “unpopular opinions” (as some may say they are) with the world. I guess I got inspired by all of you whom I follow and whose posts I consistently read that are truly in sync with what I think about the show overall, especially the greens and other characters I like.

So you are welcome to read this rant/ mini essay and give your two cents about the topic. I will be discussing a few characters who I have firm opinions about and what I think we should actually focus or take away from the series.

I will start with my personal favourite, Alicent Hightower. I swear I am in minority when I say this, because all the people that I know (including close people and friends) dislike/hate her and that’s totally fine, nobody should force others to like a character but the way they talk about her (all completely stupid arguments that miss the mark) as if she’s this insufferable, evil, bad mother. She is so layered, so tragic, ugh, it makes me sick to my stomach thinking about what Viserys himself has put her through, not ONLY Otto. I say this because a lot of the conversations I’ve had with others NEVER acknowledge his part in her trauma and when I mention it I am immediately shut down, it’s kind of sad and disturbing.

In their opinion, Alicent is a BIG part of what happened leading to the war. Excuse me? Have you seen season 1? Have you followed the plot at all? That woman is a victim. I’ve been reblogging and reading a lot of people’s posts here that were completely spot on about how many sacrifices she has made as she puts it herself (“What have I done, but what was EXPECTED of me? Forever upholding the kingdom, the family, the law.”) While Rhaneyra gets to do all she wants (“While you flout all to do as you please”) with no consequences because the king favours her and turns a blind eye to her actions, forever defending her even if he CLEARLY knows (and sees) what’s in front of him.

For example, that whole Alicent-Rhaneyra confrontation in season 1 was such a divisive discussion in my family, ugh, I felt like Alicent herself against everybody saying that she wasn’t in the right but you know what? She totally was. I would have had the same reaction (“Where is duty? Where is sacrifice? It’s TRAMPLED under your pretty foot again!”) Her life as a queen was forced on her by the MEN around her. What do you expect? How is she supposed to just take what’s happening to her and not stand up for herself and her child whose eye was fucking SLASHED. Aemond lost an eye. I just know, as a mother, I would have gone FERAL. No doubt. How can she not ask for justice, an eye for an eye (“And now you take my son’s eye and to even that you feel entitled.”) Couldn’t have said it better myself. Later on, when Aemond kills Lucerys, Rhaneyra herself wants “a son for a son”. Isn’t that the same philosophy? Why is Alicent unreasonable when she is asking for Lucerys’ eye in that moment? I don’t see much of a difference. This is one of the examples where I can’t look away and just hate someone like others do, because she has a point.

Another example is when Rhaneyra tells her that she doesn’t want to be “trapped in a castle” and “made to squeeze out heirs”. I swear, when they showed Alicent’s face after that line, I had tears in my eyes, I felt like I wanted to hold her because she DID NOT need to hear that, it was cruel. She broke my heart so many times, I almost want to say I rarely feel this way about a character in a show: “Sadness is a condition of motherhood”. My dearest Alicent, THEY WILL NEVER MAKE ME HATE YOU.

Is she a bad mother as they say? Not at all. Would a bad mother literally SHIELD Aegon with her body when threatened with a DRAGON? Would a bad mother (again) use her body to protect her daughter Helaena from the smallfolk during the riots? Would she stand up for Aemond and DEMAND justice, putting herself in danger as well as in a unfavourable position with the king as a bad mother? HOW DOES SHE NOT LOVE HER CHILDREN? I mean, I have a mother who would do the EXACT same thing for me, literally take a bullet for her child. And like Alicent, my mother has her flaws, she’s been through things in life beyond my understanding (having an abusive husband), so she isn’t perfect, but she loves me with all her heart nonetheless. She has projected some things onto me and has hurt me many times with her words, like Alicent sometimes does with Aegon, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t love him. Even after the incident with Aemond happens, she regrets her actions, mainly slashing Rhaneyra’s hand: “It was an ugly thing, I regret it”. Otto is then the one who praises her for what she has done: “And yet, I’ve never seen that side of you, my daughter…We play an ugly game.” Once again, he is the mastermind, using Alicent as a pawn in his search for power. She is not power hungry herself.

I think it’s hard for her sometimes to look at her children, especially Aegon I think, her firstborn, whom may I remind you she had VERY YOUNG, a child herself and not see her whole grief, trauma and abuse through him. The way Emily has portrayed young Alicent, specifically in that scene where she holds her baby and she just looks defeated, sad, depressed, EXHAUSTED. While Rhaneyra gets to have children with whom she pleases (Harwin Strong is someone who she loves and cares about, judging by the loving and tender looks they give each other in some scenes) because she has an open marriage and she was lucky enough to get that. Nothing was forced on her. She had the freedom to look for her own suitors, a thing that Alicent calls “romantic” because in her mind, she would have absolutely dreamed to do the same.

Moreover, how can you say that Rhaneyra and Alicent don’t have love for each other? They make that CLEAR in the show so many times with small, beautiful details (the page, their 2 conversations from season 2, beautifully acted by Olivia and Emma). Didn’t Alicent vehemently defend Rhaneyra against the “claims” made by Otto that her and Daemon got into some inappropriate actions together? Even though his informer was right. She believed her and vouched for her to the king. She has never been jealous of her in that sense. She was envious perhaps of her freedom, yes, for sure, but who wouldn’t be, given her situation. She still loved and cared for her deeply.

When Otto is dismissed as hand and they have that conversation in the rain where he enforces on her that she has to prepare Aegon to be king because Rhaneyra will put her children to the sword otherwise, because she will be challenged by Aegon; the manipulation from Otto she has received time and time again runs deep into her adulthood. After he leaves she is alone at court, nobody in her corner. She doesn’t realise she is being used as a pawn in a man’s power games, but she becomes paranoid and determined to defend her own family. Cut to the wedding scene: after she finds out about Rhaneyra’s indiscretion with Cole, she fully embraces the colour green, representative of the Hightower house, subtly declaring war by showing up in that beautiful gown in the middle of the king’s speech (an iconic, awesome scene if you ask me). At that point, she was disappointed, angry and possibly fed up with her having to honour her duty as a queen, while her dearest friend lies and gets away with things. As much as you love and care for someone like that, you cannot overlook their wrongdoings.

I’ve also seen that she was called a “bitch” for wanting to see Rhaneyra’s child immediately after giving birth. However, she didn’t want HER to come to Alicent physically and show the baby, it was after all, Rhaneyra’s decision to go. Being her third child and Alicent probably seeing the other 2, of course she wanted to see for herself if he’ll look the same. She is the only one pointing out that they are bastards and everybody KNOWS IT. Her husband, Cole, all the people at court, hell even Harwin’s father. It is so blatantly obvious; it’s actually hilarious how Viserys dismissed Alicent and everybody who brought it up, which is fair enough from their perspective, even for Vaemond when they are discussing the succession of Driftmark. How can one NOT be frustrated? How can she not be furious? Later on, when the king states “Anyone who dares question the legitimacy of my grandsons, should have it (their tongue) removed” as Rhaneyra looks at Alicent with some sort of entitlement and power: “Thank you, father”. The rage I felt for her in that moment was so intense, because it is so unfair.

Here is another hard pill to swallow for some: Viserys has divided his family by always favouring his first daughter (he even refers to her as his “only daughter/child). He wants peace in his family but all he does is create “war”, hate, resentment, bitterness etc. Maybe he wasn’t Viserys “the peaceful” after all, at least not when it came to his own family. Never acknowledged or cared for his other 4 children he has with Alicent which in turn made them (particularly Aegon and Aemond) the way they are. Aegon even mentions how his father “didn’t like him”. Can you blame him? He yells in his face when Aemond’s eye incident happens, doesn’t give A DAMN about the fact that his son , “HIS BLOOD” , had lost an eye because he cares more that his precious daughter’s sons were insulted: “MY SON HAS LOST AN EYE FOR AN INSULT?” Yes Alicent, I was in fact, also enraged when that happened. How does nobody look at that man and see what he has done to his own family? Maybe HE has more of a role in the dance later on, together with Otto and other MEN who plotted the usurping. Maybe things would have been different had he been a better father/husband. But they sure like to blame the woman, the “scorned bitch” who’s jealous of Rhaneyra.

Even so, despite all this, make no mistake, the love and affection between the two women never fades away. That scene from season 1 episode 8, where she softly squeezes her hand (ironically the same one that has the scar she inflicted on her) and lovingly tells her not to leave after their children have an argument. You can feel their chemistry: it’s like they found each other again, after such a long, tumultuous time, at last, Rhaneyra and Alicent together like old times. That whole dinner scene was so peaceful, literally the calm before the storm. The poison runs deep in the family, it can’t be erased just like that, in one night. You can see that whatever foundation Viserys thought he had built within his family and the realm, it all crumbled down in the end.

Alicent needed someone to support her and remind her that it is NOT her fault: what happened to her, that she was used, abused and her innocence stolen from her. She was so desperate for this.

I won’t even have enough time to write everything here about Alicent’s life, at least nothing that hasn’t already been said (beautifully put by others that I read so far, you are all making me feel seen by the way!❤️)

Maybe I am too emotionally attached to her, but I can’t understand the constant hate she gets from CERTAIN people. It is so frustrating to try and explain everytime all the details in the scenes with her to others, I guess it doesn’t matter in the end. “It’s just a fictional character” they say; yes, indeed. I get very passionate sometimes because I was a film student and movies/tv shows are and will forever be my life and I am always analyzing all the details (force of habit, because I had to do this a lot for my assignments).

I don’t even have a side (team green, team black) fuck that nonsense. Personally, that strategy marketing which HBO constantly tried to shove down our throats is just bullshit; in the end, NOBODY (except Helaena) is truly a role model or a “hero”. The whole idea of this entire show and its events is about the smallfolk and the dragons who are nothing but collateral damage in this foolish civil war. While the privileged fight for a throne, the others suffer, the real innocents.

When I watch the show, I don’t even care about childish things like taking sides, like this is just a basic argument between two people, I just have a couple of characters that I root for or feel close to because they speak to me in a very specific manner. Also, the actors are tremendously talented so they literally make the characters compelling, maybe beyond what they get on the page of that script (which sometimes it’s not much or enough, if you ask me).

Hopefully I am not alone and I’ve seen here that I am not (I almost feel like part of a community at this point🥹), but in general I prefer the team green characters (which DOES NOT mean that I dislike or hate anyone in team black), I just think they are more complex, fucked up, relatable, and acted so damn well (although EVERYBODY in that cast is exceptional). I think I like the whole “dysfunctional” family vibe the greens have.

That being said, I like Rhaneyra as a character, for sure, I don’t dislike her at all, but I don’t know if I like what they are doing to her, script wise. Emma is exceptional in their portrayal of the character with what they are given anyway, but the writers are certainly making her more seem like the “hero” of the story, although I can see she has a lot of flaws. She is FAR from perfect. What I gathered from her as a character is that she is quite hypocritical in many aspects, especially when it comes to Alicent. In certain scenes in season 2 for instance, she points fingers at her for the things Rhaneyra herself has done. Blames her for starting this war when in fact, it wasn’t Alicent.

Unfortunately some fans are way too biased and are so blinded by what the show is feeding them to see and acknowledge her wrongdoings and see beyond this “rightful heir” tag she has. I am starting to see more interesting and complex things from Rhaneyra, mainly from season 2 and I am hopeful to see what’s in store for her in season 3. Although, I’ve always seen her as someone more nuanced, thanks to Milly and Emma’s stellar performances. She isn’t very likeable to me, because I see through her, for what she is. But I like when she gets more like her book counterpart (if you know what I’m saying). I like to see that: more complexity.

Furthermore, I was absolutely gutted when Rhaenys died (she really should have been queen🫡), what a great character. I love that Jacaerys got some more personality in the last few episodes of season 2, because I wasn’t convinced before of him as a solid character. This also leads me to the idea that Rhaneyra is definitely a bit selfish in pursuing her claim to the throne and totally overlooking his (valid) feelings towards the other bastard Targaryens claiming the dragons. I loved his speech and how he stood up for himself in a way.

You have to objectively look at these characters most of the time while watching the show and it is truly unfortunate that many people in the fandom are so blindly biased and defensive of some of their favourites, especially Rhaneyra because I see that happening mostly with her. You can’t judge them, but god forbid you tell them you like the greens, especially Alicent, Aemond (even Ageon) or Cole (speaking from my own experience) then you are definitely going to be judged because they are somehow seen as the antagonists of the show.

In my humble opinion, the show DOES NOT have protagonists or antagonists because like I’ve mentioned before, that’s not the point at all. Each one of us has their own “favourite war criminal” and that’s that. Let us, the audience just enjoy supporting the characters we like and stop judging each other. This is not real life, it’s not that deep. I like when I talk to someone and they express their love and passion for a character, even though I don’t feel the same, it’s quite nice to do that without criticising and getting into an argument with that person. We respect each other’s opinions and move on.

Anyways, went on a bit of a tangent there but moving on, Baela is also a character I like a lot, because I need somebody that supporting and wise in life by my side, for real. She is a gem. When she says something, I listen.

I know this might sound odd but I don’t actually HATE anybody in this show. I can say I dislike Daemon for pretty well known reasons at this point, no need to list them here, although I don’t feel hate for him necessarily. I am raising my eyebrow a bit at how Aemond turned out so far, although I still think that Ewan made him one of the coolest, most compelling characters in the show, especially in season 2. He is a delight to watch because his presence on screen is just THAT fucking gripping. I still see him as an underdog, especially looking back at his childhood and what happened to his eye and all that. I still feel for that child, for how he was bullied and undermined. I can’t completely overlook the things that happened to him which lead to the events of season 2. Although, as a book reader, I am a bit disappointed in some of the writing regarding his character (a discussion for another day).

This is a big one, but I also didn’t get why SO MANY people HATE Criston Cole, like he’s actually universally the most hated character in the show so far (based on how Fabien Frankel himself was harassed on his instagram which breaks my heart). It is such a sad, but funny thing to see at the same time.

This guy is certainly NOT the worst character in the GOT universe; if you rewatch GOT (which I’m currently doing) he really is no match for some people you see there. He was clearly wrong in many aspects in this show, especially with the event of Blood and Cheese and what followed. I would say that I disliked his behaviour and I certainly did not align with many of his actions and opinions at certain points in the show, although I do feel that he is remorseful and has had quite the journey in season 2. By the end of this season he went through quite a horrific experience (the battle at Rook’s Rest) which I think changed him mentally and you can see that, courtesy of Fabien’s great performance (when he has that conversation with Gwayne in season 2 finale, which I loved).

I’ve seen the memes with him and the constant topic being brought up of him being “bitter” and hung up on Rhaneyra because she turned him down when he suggested that they should run away together, but I don’t even think it goes on for too long, at least in his mind. Yes, he calls her names and talks shit about her at times (indirectly) but I think later on he’s moved on from that, at least since he started to be more intimate with Alicent (who he says is the “beacon” he follows) because rightfully so, she saved his life in many ways, I guess literally and metaphorically. He doesn’t have time to think about his bitterness towards Rhaneyra anymore, with all that has taken place since they had that encounter, at least I don’t think so.

He has had quite the journey and at this point I just think the hate and the jokes are getting old and more like, there is no other character we can hate so we are all pointing fingers at “Crispin” as I’ve seen and heard people call him. I just can’t even bring myself to hate him, I respect how smart he is and how skilled in battle he proved himself to be. Surely he is not as one dimensional as people are making him out to be. Yes, the memes are funny and all that, but some people are too mean spirited, it makes me think they are projecting a little bit too much. Even Fabien himself is moved when somebody praises his character or says something nice about him (I saw that in an interview some time ago, he was genuinely happy someone complimented him because he has seen the hate and I just wanted to go through the screen and hug him, he is so kind, bless him). Give him a break guys, please.

Again, this might be quite an unpopular opinion, but isn’t Cole justified in a way to be upset and resentful over what happened between him and Rhaneyra? Wasn’t he used that night to satisfy her needs and quite frankly her frustration because she didn’t get what she wanted from Daemon? She could care leas about him as a person, about his honour, his duty. Most of the time she was too carefree and ignorant of these concepts. Wasn’t there a power imbalance between them? He tried to resist, he didn’t pursue her. What was he to do? I wondered often what would have happened if he denied her that night.

After their affair, he asks her to run away with him (which I admit it was a bit funny the way he put it, to leave behind her privileged life to go somewhere and sell oranges or whatever) but in that moment, the way she looks at him and answers, I’m sure broke his heart, because he thought she might have feelings for him. I didn’t even see them as simply having “sex” but more like “making love”, it was quite tender and beautiful. I don’t think he was wrong in assuming that, after all, they were each others’ firsts. He feels hurt, cheated and used: “So you want me to be your whore?”. I can’t lie, I felt for him in that moment. Everything he had to his name, as he says, was taken from him. Can we not feel some sympathy for this man? Is he not justified in thinking that Rhaneyra is “a cunning spider”? As far as he is concerned, she has fooled him and stolen his honour, left him with nothing to his name. He was already by the standards of those times, a nobody.

Can we just be reasonable as an audience and just stop following others like sheep on this “chain” of hate?

Don’t even get me started on Aegon. I won’t even expand here why I also never hated him (although I want to make it CLEAR that I DO NOT condone what he did in the show, under NO circumstances) even though again, I am disappointed on how his character was changed from the books (if you know, you know). I feel he has been treated unfairly just like his mother and there are a lot of reasons he is the way he is. Like I said, too much to get into. But once again I praise the actors for giving such nuanced performances, THEY are making the characters come to life.

I feel I already said too much and I don’t want to get into the book and the parallels with GOT because I would have to write a thesis then and this has already become an essay.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you, I appreciate you reading this; it is my first time posting something like this. I don’t really post my opinions online because the internet is mean and toxic but I really wanted to get this off my chest. Maybe in hopes that someone else shares the same views (which I think we’ve established there are quite a few people here on tumblr who do). I am so excited to read more posts/opinions and hopefully be part of healthy discussions about this show and its characters. Please be respectful.

[magpod-confessions]

I have significant grievances with the way The Magnus Protocol has been going. Before I get into that, I want to say that I love the new setting, recording medium with the computers, and the lore that’s been built up thus far. Now I am frankly disappointed by the quality of the dialogue outside of the statements, as it feels very unnatural (even for a fiction podcast) and poorly structured. Additionally the statements feel too short and often lack the compelling detail that TMA statements provided. Brevity, in this case, is not the soul of wit. My issues with the main characters themselves are written below.

Sam: too contradictory between naively curious and just plain scatterbrained. Also I see the intention of trying to make him kind/generous to a fault but it just comes across as sort of limited personality-wise. Making him boring might be the intention, though, who knows. (Dishonourable mention to Sam’s moment of vicious and inconsiderate mockery towards Gwen in ep 18).

Celia: also comes across as rather empty-headed. It’s obvious that she’s meant to be characterized as this resolute single mom who’s doing so well surviving the horrors. However 9 times out of 10, she appears profoundly useless and passive. Once again I cannot tell if this is intentional.

Alice: it is, in this case, very clear that Alice uses aggravating and antagonizing humour to prevent her insecurities from being known. This is interesting! However, Alice only embodies that point in the shallowest sense, with everything else about her being incensing, glib, and occasionally outright and intentionally cruel.

Lena: I don’t have many issues with lena. She appears to be a simple character on the surface level but the times we see her tease at something deeper. She ends up being genuinely compelling, rather than feeling like her characterization is trying to be interesting.

Gwen: as is with Lena, I don’t have many character issues with Gwen. We’ve been hinted at her backstory not only through her last name, but through many instances in the podcast. (Yes I know we’ve had ample hints towards other characters backstories as well). She’s got a vague and interesting motive for doing what she does, despite her lack of agency in a situation that she exercised her agency to put herself in.

That’s my two cents for now.

.

[presidenthades]

⚠️HOtD season 2 ep. 4 spoilers⚠️

Your thoughts on this ep🎤?!

Adding my two cents: SUNFYRE AND AEGON WERE SO CUTE, but wtf was that fight🧍🤨 Aemond bbg wtf?? Anyhow, cuties:

TLDR: I’m not even mad anymore, I’m just disappointed (by the writing, per usual; the rest of the show is fine). I’m mostly still on the S2 boat because of the little moments like Sunny and Egg. It makes for great fanfic fuel!

Honestly, this was Criston’s best episode of the entire season so far. Getting him away from Alicent and putting him on the battlefield showcases his better qualities. Also, I love his interactions with Gwayne, it gives me life. Would totally watch a spinoff series where the two of them go on side quests.

I feel like the Harrenhal scenes aren’t super important narratively and the screentime could’ve been devoted to other characters. HOWEVER. The Harrenhal bits are just so fun to watch that I can’t really complain. TBH, it feels like Daemon is getting the best writing (in terms of character arc and narrative coherence) of all the main cast. But uh…one does wonder why he drinks a random-ass potion from a witch lady who just told him he’s gonna die at Harrenhal. (Speaking of whom, I am greatly enjoying Alys Rivers. I’m glad they haven’t made her a femme fatale. She’s just weird. Joff would love her.)

Opinion: they got rid of Kermit Tully and made Oscar the heir because the show wants to minimize Muppet memes. Very sad. 😔

If you’re following my blog, then you know I’m an Aegon fan, so I acknowledge I’m probably biased. But all of the Greens are just shitting on Aegon this episode, holy cow. I totally understand Aemond being snotty and excluding Aegon from schemes; even in the most generous interpretation of their brotherly relationship, they’re often at odds and Aemond looks down on Aegon. But Cole is the Hand of the King, not the Hand of Aemond. Even if Cole is on the front lines, he should be including Aegon.

Alicent has just completely lost the sympathetic traits she possessed in S1. I’ve never thought of her as an especially good mother, but she did love her children—definitely Aemond and Helaena, and there were the “do you love me” and standing between Aegon and the dragon scenes. She also seems to have forgotten that she was one of the people yelling at Aegon to step up and take the crown, and now she wants to hit the reverse button. 🙄 S2 Alicent is not the same character as S1 Alicent, and even S1 Alicent varied from episode to episode. For fic purposes, I’m just completely ignoring what the show writers are doing with her because it makes no sense.

I think TGC would’ve killed a scene where he gets to speak more fluent High Valyrian, but it makes sense that Aegon isn’t good at speaking it. Aegon has never been the scholarly sort, and High Valyrian (if you’ve been trying it on duolingo like me) is not an intuitive language for English-only speakers. I do think Aegon should’ve learned more dragon commands at least, but apparently Sunfyre decided to be the world’s first bilingual dragon and learn common tongue for Aegon’s sake. :3 At this point I’m convinced that Sunfyre is the only living creature who actually unconditionally loves Aegon. No wonder Aegon is messed up.

Back in Driftmark: we finally get confirmation of who the Hull boys are! Not explicitly, but it’s hard to deny that they’re Corlys’s kids like in the book. I kinda wish we got more scenes with Rhaenys talking about/interacting with them though. She seems to have had complicated feelings about the boys.

Visually, the battle was amazing to watch. Some of the best shots I’ve seen during the entire show. But, as I often complain about, the characters’ actions don’t make sense. If you’ve been on social media, then you’re probably aware that Aemond attacking Aegon has been very controversial, and for good reason. I cannot comprehend the Aemond stans (I’m an Aemond fan, but I’m very aware that he’s a flawed character who can act stupidly sometimes) who refuse to acknowledge that this was NOT a good move. Vhagar is a formidable dragon but she can’t win a 1 v 4 against Caraxes, Syrax, Vermax, and Moondancer (and those aren’t even all the dragons the Blacks will eventually have). Vhagar could take out some of the other dragons, but she’s definitely dying in a battle like that. So no, this was not a smart or strategic action on Aemond’s part, at all.

It could be explained as an action taken in the heat of the moment, with Aemond overcome by adrenaline and his anger toward Aegon. But we just saw Aemond two episodes ago being sad about killing Luke, against whom he held a grudge for years because of his eye. Aegon is his brother, and their interactions in S1E8 indicated that even if they’re not besties, they do operate on the same wavelength. Aegon was an idiot for making fun of Aemond in S2E3, but that should not have pushed Aemond over the edge to attempted fratricide/regicide.

At least Cole and Sunfyre care about Aegon, since clearly nobody else does. 🥲 *author shoves a Jacaera toward Aegon*

[rynnthefangirl]

So, wanted to give my two cents on the writing of Rhaenyra's character in episode 3.

First off, completely agree with all of the criticisms. The Sept scene was goofy, it's ridiculous that Rhaenyra does not realize yet that the war is inevitable, ridiculous for her to think that Alicent has any power to change things, and ridiculous for her to risk her life sneaking into King's Landing to speak to Alicent.

I do however, think that if you perceive Rhaenyra's actions as stemming from her fear for her children, then it does make quite a bit more sense. One of the main things that holds Rhaenyra back in the book is her unwillingness to put her remaining children in danger after Luke dies. And in the show, we are starting to see that manifest-- she immediately shuts down Jace's offer to go on a reconnaissance mission, and she sends her three youngest sons away for safety.

I think it also explains why her stance has changed from what we saw at the end of S1E10-S2E1. The key event that has occurred since then is the murder of Jaehaerys, as well as the nearly successful assassination attempt by Ser Arryk. These events would make it very clear to Rhaenyra that her children's ages and innocence will not protect them from the war that has started. Aegon and Viserys are about the same age as Jaehaerys, and may very well be targeted as revenge. Rhaenyra's troubled state when playing with Aegon and Viserys could very well be due to her realizing this. And the infiltration by Ser Arryk proves that they are not invulnerable to such an attack-- had Ser Arryk been sent to kill Rhaenyra's sons instead of her, he may very well have succeeded.

So Luke's death filled her with rage and desire for revenge, but Jaehaerys's death opened up her eyes to what this war could truly mean for her and her family. When it's framed that way, I can sort of understand why Rhaenyra would have this excessively naive hope for peace, and make irrational decisions in pursuit of that. She is desperate for peace, because it has begun to dawn on her that war could very well kill the children she still has remaining to her.

Now, none of this is to defend the shows writing. If this was their intention, it was not conveyed clearly. Instead, it just comes off as the weird dichotomy of "all men are war mongers and all women strive for peace", particularly with the change they made to Rhaenys' character (that one is a tragedy I won't defend, although that is another post entirely). I definitely wouldn't call the sept scene S8 GOT level bad (ppl REALLY do not appreciate just how bad that writing was), but it was S6-7 GOT level, which doesn't bode well. I really enjoyed episode 1-2 and parts of episode 3, so I'm hoping this was just a one off.

Anyways, I think that this is a way to interpret Rhaenryra's actions that feels a lot more logical and in character. Rhaenrya's paranoid fear for her children is such a driving factor in the books and one of my favorite things about her, so I hope they do continue to explore that aspect of her character. (But also let her be vindictive and aggressive as well, I want her to make the Greens suffer and more importantly I want HER to want that!!!).

[starry-blue-echoes]

Ho boy, this is a big one

I really wanted to tell you about this AU but It's kinda incomplete and I was scared that you might not like it and then I lost my chance when you closed the ask box. During that time I came with the courage to share this and with your ask box open again I finally can (and I've written so much that I almost tried rewriting but I will keep this version because I can't take it doing all from the start)

So prepare yourself, this is going to be long

But first, you might be asking yourself "Alice, what is this AU about anyway?" and I'm glad you asked! Basically the whole AU rotates around some of the Jojo moms I like the most or that I just wanted to see more about and my objective is that I pick them up and make them more relevant for the plot in some way by putting more of motherly love in there

Listen, I'm just a sucker for mothers in media and how much they can go for their children or family in general. It makes me happy and emotional

Ah! There's the name for the AU too! I'm still indecisive about that but I have two names that can work. "Mother Knows Best" or "What Would A Mother Not Do", but you still can give your two cents for a name, I don't mind!

Now let's start by going through parts

For Mary and Ida I had a bunch of different ideas, most of centered in them being ghosts and becoming friends and trying their hardest to make the plot not happen, but that could change a lot in the main story and I prefer to go mostly the same until the big changes can come. If you still like the ideia we can try and make a separate AU for this

Now Erina is we're things start getting interesting. She is not just a mother but a grandmother too and she lost both her husband and son, she will not lose her grandson too. And so, with the little that she learned from Jonathan and with a helping hand from Speedwagon, she teaches Josehp. She teaches him in basics of Hamon, she teaches him other ways to protect himself, she teaches tricks and ways to get the upper hand, she teaches how to defend himself, when to get in the middle of the fire and when he needs to call for help. And in a way she teaches herself too. Because even when she gets older she stills want to protect Joseph, she stills wants to be strong, for him and for herself

And maybe, just maybe, when Joseph has to go to Air Supplena she thinks if this is the moment that she let's him go or if she should... but she's old now, right? Not the same woman she was years ago. But she stills knows the same tricks and ways, she's still smart, if not more now. And she loves her grandson so much and fears what will happen to him now that he will be so far from home, going against who knows what

And after a lot of thinking she decides. No matter what happens she wants to be by his side. Even if she can't do much, even if she dies, she will be there. For Joseph

(This is literally the first mom and it's already so long omg)

And there's Lisa Lisa too in here, but she was always more difficult for me because of her history and personality. But, not gonna lie, I always loved the idea that she really wanted, if not yearned, to get closer to her son but after she distanced herself and got colder with time she thought it wouldn't work out. Maybe she wrote letters though, letters that told that she was very busy and wasn't able to visit, that told small memories of when Joseph was just a baby, that told memories about his father, that told how much she loved him even then. And a letter that never got sent, about her insecurities and lack of courage to go after him and look him in the eye

And maybe when Joseph and Erina comes she gets that fear again. Because he's here and he's grown and she lost so much. But Erina is there, understands her fear and her hesitancy, and gives her a advice. It's better to tell now than never, make up for the years that you lost and help him, stay on his side. Now that's you chance for that. And so, with a heavy heart but a clean mind, she pulls Joseph for a lone talk. Maybe it turns alright or maybe not, but she knows now, that the least she can do is help him thrive and be on his side

After all is said and done Lisa Lisa still maintains her Hamon training, for herself and Joseph, just incase. And maybe she helps Erina a little, enough for her to live a little longer to see Joseph's marriage and meet little Holy. And even after she passes Lisa Lisa continues. She stills cold and stern, even as grandmother, but she teaches Holy anyway

Suzie teaches Holy about kindness and compassion, but to know her limits and when enough is enough, while Lisa Lisa teaches her about power and protection, but to know that to much strictness (or distance) can do more bad than good

And because of that Holy grows with a sharp mind and a heart of gold. Kind and gentle, but protective and fierce for her family

And so, when years later stands are introduced and Dio reappears again she puts all her knowledge through the years into play

This time she is less affected by her stand (courtesie of Lisa Lisa) and sure, sometimes she gets dizzy here and there and maybe a little feverish, but do you think this is going to stop her? No, far from it. She wants to help end this family curse and she wants to protect her family, so why not go? Her father can resist how much she wants, she will go. Sadly, she cannot stop Jotaro from coming, he is just as persistent as her and he wants to protect his mom just as much

And so they go. She may not be the strongest in the group but she's just as useful, with a stand and Hamon and her family on her side she feels invincible. And who knows? She might get some allies along the way (no this is not a excuse to have Hol and N'Doul on the group what are you talking about)

By the end of the part Dio dies and there's relief on her body, mind and soul. Her stand doesn't make her dizzy after hours of using anymore and maybe there's some scars here and there, but they're safe, they're fine and she's happy. So happy

But it doesn't end here! Tomoko may not be as connected at the family (on the start), but she's still a mother. A single mother trying her best to take care of her son and balance her life at the same time. A mother who knows how difficult it can be raising a little boy like Josuke and knows how difficult it's to him and her when everyone looks and whispers about them like they're not even there. Things get better with time but it still doesn't make her less protective of her son

Now here's the thing. Tomoko always knew that Josuke was special. Even before having a stand, when she saw the star birthmark on his tiny shoulder she had the felling that a lot would happen in Josuke's life. It took some time for something to happen, but she's was right

So when strange things started to happen after Josuke's illness, talking to himself, broken things getting fixed out of nowhere, weird questions about some imaginary friend (?), she just knows that he is hiding something and she's not just going to sit and watch. During a rainy weekend is when she decides to question him about it and really, she could wait for him to come talk to her about it but knowing her son he could never do that

And after a long talk (and a broken plate being fixed right before her eyes) she tells him "I believe you". Because really, how could she not? She had the truth right there and she was always going to believe her son. But Tomoko makes it clear that if he needs help or just want to talk about his new companion she is always going to be there for him

With time things became normal again, but sometimes it almost feels like she has two kids instead of one

Years after, when the plot of part 4 actually starts, you seriously think Tomoko will just stay on the sidelines and watch her son pass through all of this by himself? Of course not! She may not have a stand but she still can help in her own way

And maybe, just maybe, at some point in the plot, she could get hit by a stray arrow too. I'm not sure what kind of stand she could have, but thinking about the fact that she can be more helpful in the story and finally see and touch her not-so-second-son gives me immense joy

I did thought if Shinobu could be here too but I don't really have a solid idea for her. If you have something to give though I'm all ears

And I'm 100% sure that you're not going to expect this next one! But I don't judge you for that because the fandom don't exactly do much involving her when she was already dead before the plot, BUT I still think we could have a lot of potential with her

And so we have Donatella in part 5 and let me tell you, Esbee! This is the part I've been the most excited about!

So, for this to work Donatella has to survive her illness in some way, we don't need to specify how, just listen to me

For all we know, Donatella and Trish seemed to be very close. Close enough for Trish to be very similar to her in personality and tastes and she seemed to love her very much, even after her death. And the same can go for Donatella, when she discovered her illness the first thing she did was look for her old lover so Trish could at least have her father and not be alone in the world while still being young. So I can only imagine how much would change if she was still there

Maybe in here Donatella still got ill and looked for her old lover with not succes whatsoever. But she was able to get better this time and stopped looking for Solido Naso. She didn't get any type of progress anyway and it's better to continue her life with her daughter then continue looking for someone that might not even be in the country. She couldn't really know, it had been years since the last time she saw or talked to her lover

And everything was fine for a while, until two months later. The whole "you past lover is actually the leader of the biggest Italian mafia" caught her completely of guard. And this can mean many things

Knowing that she finally found her lover after so long makes her really happy but this felling is mostly crushed by all the other overwhelming feelings about the next revelations. There's shock, there's nervousness, there's fear. But above all there's that protectives that she always had since Trish was born and she knows that this is the most important feeling for her to focus. If the boss wants to see her and her daughter then she'll go but they'll be always together and if they even try in separating both of them, well, she learned some things while living by herself for so long

My favorite part in here is how the dynamics between Bucciarati's team and Trish change just because Donatella is present in the whole situation. Trish stays by her side because she trusts her mother and knows that if she has a plan for this then she'll follow

And I can only imagine how Donatella goes about the whole team, because really, most of them are still young. Like, there's literally a newbie that has the same age as her daughter! And really, she tries her best in not getting to attached to that little quirky group but there's always some slips here and there (and no, this not a excuse for her to interact with Giorno, not at all)

I didn't thought much about the rest of the part so let's go for the next one!

Now, I really don't have any ideas for Marina because I don't know how I could make her more prominent in the plot. The only thing that comes to mind is that she starts working with the Speedwagon Foundation from the outside? Because there's no way she can do something on the prison itself

I know that the relationship in the Kujo family might change because of Holy's (and Lisa Lisa if she still lives) influence on Jotaro and this can affect the way Marina can be used on the plot. Like, other than working with the Speedwagon Foundation she could contact the rest of the Joestar family for help

But really, this is basically what I have for her for now

And now we can finally get to the last three parts!

Now, I'm not going to lie, but I really didn't think much when making part 7 because most of the changes aren't going to affect the main plot that much. It's basically a part 1 situation again (ironic, isn't it?)

To be honest the only idea that comes to my mind is one that involves both Jhonny's and Diego's moms meeting eachoter but I don't know how

And there's the whole thing of Anne not standing up against George, as far as I know, and Diana (yes, I gave her the name Diana, I just think it's cool) dying long before both Diego and Jhonny meeting

That doesn't mean I don't like the idea of both of them meeting and Anne being able to help Diana, making both her and her son to live in better conditions, Jhonny and Diego becoming childhood friends and, if possible, prevent Nicholas death

But that's why AUs are thing, right?

Now, we enter Jojolion and I have to say. There's not much that I can do in this part

Like, all the three characters I was planning something for (Mitsuba, Kaato and Holy) already have good roles in a way or I don't really know what to do about their fates in the story

There's nothing that comes to mind for Mitsuba, I think her story and role is good enough. I do have something for Kaato but I don't know how to put in the plot, you know, make it work in the plot. I just really wanted her to live in the end and if possibly, bond with Josuke. He might not be from that family from the start but the idea that they could interact with eachoter more in a positive way fills me with joy. And lastly there's Holy, another one who I don't know what to do about. It's true that me, you, the entire fandom, wanted her to live in the end and that her and Gappy could had more time together and yes, it would be awesome. I just don't know to make her live

In resume, there's not really nothing that I can add in here. If you have better ideas I'm all ears

And for last we have part 9 and God, how much I wanted to do something for Barbara. But because Jojolands is still in the early stages and Barbara hadn't had much screen time yet, there's nothing that I can do except wait until we have more of her

And that's basically it! The whole AU! I'm sorry if became confusing at some point, I didn't got back to proofread all of this and just, writed most of this in one go. But my objective was to show my thoughts bare and I think I reached that pretty well (and sorry, for the size of it too)

I hope you like it and that you can add your own ideas and that this ask doesn't get eaten by Tumblr! :D

WOW THIS WAS A LONG BOI BUT I AM EATING ALL OF IT UP

I'm also a sucker for Good Moms Getting Spotlight And Being Able To Kick Ass, though you've covered so much that I honestly don't know what else to add

except for Jotaro: that does give me thoughts of him being EXTREMELY protective and he will throw down at any oppurtunity if given the chance, and it gives the Crusaders so much whiplash see how he treats his enemies vs how he treats Holly

[resin-popia]

I'm assuming there's a variety of shapes and sizes bjd are made in, what made you go with the doll you used for copia?

One day around this time of year (like almost a year to the day) I got the itch to go dolly shop browsing and I saw Dream Valley Cayes at Alice's Collection website:

And I thought two things:

1. Oh wow, an MSD male with actual distinct features!! Usually MSD size (Mini Super Dollfie, 40-52cm) have more bishounen/feminine/childish features for some reason. And the male dolls have these boring, thoughtless "grillmarks" sort of abs. Dream Valley company has a gorgeously sculpted male body that poses well.

2. That's Cardi's nose! Aggh! And I fell in love with his stage costumes, so let's make him!

So I went for the sculpt instead of the size. Some people collect only one size, I collect whatever I am interested in.

Here's my biggest doll I own next to my smallest, next to Cardi (52cm, on the tall end of MSD) who is still tapping his foot and waiting for his robe to be done. (At least his feet are not cold)

Biggest doll is an SD17 (Super Dollfie 17) around 75 cm, a Meeksdoll Labella. Meeksdoll is a small creator and I love her very masculine aesthetic. Her dolls have very strong features and solid bodies. He is a WIP, as you can see by his baldness (can you tell I really dislike making wigs....)

Smallest I have is this 11-ish cm ABS plastic bunny from Hujoo (no longer around!) He was $25. And sorry he's in his skivvies I was repairing his wappenrock (15th Cent German Landsknecht male kirtle) like three years ago and I never put it back on again. I promise my dolls have clothes.

Thanks for your ask!

[dulcewrites]

Oh thank you for your comment!

Oh Viserra and Alysanne being a sort of Aegon and Alicent? I like that!

Still hoping for Viserra to be Alayne's mother so Viserra can laugh at Jaehaerys and Alysanne's face.

I'm excited about Alayne and Vaemond's romance more than the main one🤣😅—the beauty of side couples.

Fun fact: Book! Aegon and book! Helaena were extremely close and he listened to her and Alicent's advice during the war.

What if the same can be applied to Aegon and Maeve, he may have his mistresses but Maeve it's her wife, he loves her in his own way, she's the mother of his children; he's fond of her, Maeve is his, and he is hers.

As they say: purple and gold are the royal colours🥰

You’re welcome! Thank you for sending asks. Yours, and everyone’s, is greatly appreciated.

Yeah I think Alicent/Aegon and Alysanne/viserra would be an interesting parallel. By the time Alysanne has viserra, I’m imagining she doesn’t want to have kids anymore. Gaemon, who came after V, was a difficult birth and he did not live. Same with Valerion. Gael goes onto live but commits suicide (a thing that many say broke Alysanne). I have my problems with alysanne, but it can be safe to say her story unfortunately mirrors a lot of women of this time. She was probably forced to keep having kids despite her age and declining health because of Jaehaerys. Kids he went on to abuse and or ignore… ring a bell.

I think Viserra, since she apparently had this ambition to be queen, probably got it from seeing her mother. She revered her. But Viserra was also a reminder of Alysanne’s duty and failures as a mother. The only solutions she can think of are ones that happened to her. Continuing the cycle. Anyway that’s just my two cents.

But yes, Maeve def becomes a player in Aegon’s council. She refuses to not be, and Alicent wouldnt let that happen either. And I didn’t even put together the purple and gold lol

[daisiesonafield-blog]

Your trusty Venice anon here! Just walked out of the first screening so there will be some spoilers ahead. Let me start by saying that applause was very tepid, and what I found odd is that it started several seconds after the title card, like someone remembered that we were supposed to applaud. Not a great sign.

Outside, what I mostly heard was confusion. People asking each other what the ending was and just going over some plot points that were confusing. I saw one girl vehemently go after Olivia and calling her a fake feminist, and one guy commented “the normies are going to love it” which I found very funny. Also lots of people commenting on Harry’s accent and him being British in the film, and mocking how that is explained in the story.

Now, my two cents on the film. It LOOKS great, starts out sleek and compelling, but then it folds onto itself and the last act is just very weak in my opinion. Lots of plot holes and things that aren’t really explained properly. Also Alice’s descent into madness is kind of repetitive and the pacing is off in the middle half. Poor Florence carries the whole damn thing and it pains me to say that one of the weakest things about the film is Harry. He is not bad per say but just somehow blank? I don’t know how to explain it but it’s like his alien charm doesn’t translate well? It’s like he’s out of focus (not literally of course) and his character is just sort of blank when it really should be the center of it all. Also, his look for the “real life” scenes is really something, the internet is going to go nuts. In general, i feel like his star power is much less than what anyone anticipated, and is completely wiped out by Florence’s. Just one last thing even though I might think of more stuff later on, those notorious sex scenes are among the least sexy I’ve seen. Not sure if it’s because that is clearly the first time that man has had his head or his hands between a woman’s legs or because their chemistry is a bit off, but they feel rushed and performative, like they were put there just to be able to say they are. Come to think of it, the whole film kind of feels like that.

Dear lovely Venice anon!

Thank you for coming back! Apologies for taking so long to post these, timezones and all.

Honestly, what Olivia has been trying to portray this movie as, and what this movie is actually like are entirely different things. I think she is so full of herself, and so obsessed with sex, making everything "sexy", and pushing that dated "edgy" 2000s over sexualization of women, that she is unable to actually go beyond it to explain her own movie. Her narrative for promotion is entirely disconnected from what she is actually promoting.

About the alleged sex scene she was denied to include in the trailer: I think she was lying. Again, to continue her disconnected sex campaign. Everyone who saw the test screenings of the movie said that the only 2 sex scenes are the ones that *are* in the trailer. There is no additional sex scene that didn't get to be in the trailer. She lied in order to push her sex campaign and be edgy. That was her whole point in that interview. Saying that society are puritans and don't want to see female pleasure or women enjoying sex. And she proved her point by bringing up this non-existent sex scene that's not even in the final cut of the movie. All of this, again, has nothing to do with the movie. It's just the only thing her brain thinks of at all times.

I'm sad that Harry may be getting the worst of it in reviews. I hope critics and the public can see the poor direction he got from Olivia, and how that translated into this "blank" performance next to Florence's.

Also, Olivia was there? I thought she would only be at the later screening? Who called her a fake feminist? A fan, a journalist or rando person?

Thank you so much for coming back and telling us your experience! If you have more details, please do let us know!

[wulfhalls]

I honestly don’t even care what the showrunners be saying 😌 I expected them to say some bullshit cause general public puritanism they had to scramble and think of something! They mention exploring if it is or isn’t abuse and after you see the scenes to me it’s clear is not. He could have killed her when Viserys wasn’t even remarried yet and he didn’t. He clearly would not hurt her. But I love that it’s all open to interpretation! They played with and incorporated the duplicity aspect that was in the original book in this episode. Alicent knows one truth that Rhaenyra tells her, Nyra doesn’t know Daemon’s full truth, Viserys has the doubt of what happened or didn’t, Otto doesn’t know things for sure, nobody does. It was a nice touch. The showrunners could have taken the route of making all their scenes creepy and abusive (we’ve seen dynamics like that in GoT before) and they didn’t, they made them something else, and it’s worthy to note that I’ve seen a big chunk of general public kinda ship it too which is !!!. If it was just creepy the reaction would be different in my opinion. And either way we are winning because from the trailers the show is very focused on Daemon and Rhaenyra’s love story. They are going to lengths to create these layered characters with interesting nuanced dynamics (look what they are doing with Alicent), so I kind of expected their position to be this. But when the show (or even just the first season) is done it’s gonna become clearer that Daemon isn’t just ambition for the throne. I don’t know these are just my two cents, sorry for the big text! I’m so happy with this episode we truly got so much more than I even allowed myself to dream about 😊 yay!

I cant believe u put that many coherent thoughts together ive been just continously screaming at the top of my lungs in my head since the episode like I haven't said a single sentence a normal person would understand for over a day

[riverdale-retread]

Riverdale S6B Ep #111 (“Blue Collar”)

Workers and the Exploiters are all there are, according to either Riverdale or Jughead Jones.   Where does Jughead Jones place himself in this reductive schema, I wonder?  And for that matter, where does Tabitha fit?

To the surprise of no one but the extremely silly Fangs Fogarty, Percival Pickens is not a man of his word, and also they didn’t SIGN ANYTHING, apparently, before they began working on this giant enterprise. The Riverdale people are much more naive than the residents of Rivervale who at least SIGNED their contracts with the devil.  The ghost train construction is underway.  Also you know who also built railroads?  Chinese men they called Coolies.  This show has had maybe three women of East Asian descent - the evil sex-demon Jess, the almost-victim Minerva, the definitely dead Midge.  Just saying.

Moose and Kevin are also part of this crew. 

Cheryl is practically tits out in the relocated diner to explain about the ghost train to Archie.  I applaud Tabitha and Archie for being able to keep their eyes at um, eye level.   Is Cheryl dressed like this because she’s still ‘hot’?   

Union, values, agitating, strike - and I am as bored as Cheryl.  Tabitha looks very pretty as she suggests that they give out free cups of coffee because the skinflint Percival won’t give people free coffee.  This is a HUGE mistake that I’m shocked Percival made!  No free coffee?

Veronica according to Agent Drake is a giant biodialysis machine.  Also Drake was a person who busted up illegal absinthe rings.  There was a weird white boy who tried to make absinthe, the real kind, in his dorm bathtub (Yeah our dorms had bathtubs. Did anyone take A BATH in one? Of course not.)  It smelled like satan and not even his dumbass friends dared drink it.  Agent Drake also used to be on the Hiram Lodge case!

Charles has been placed in Betty’s room by Alice. He’s dying of something.  

Tabitha announces a super discount on the burgers of Pop’s (25 cents??) while she hands out free coffee on the site of the Ghost Train.  Uncle Fucking Frank objects and I don’t care.   She calls people FELLAS.  Only three people call others FELLAS in Riverdale - SWEET PEA (not sorry. I will never stop), Jughead, and now Tabitha.

Moose asks Kevin how he can afford to live in purple splendor. Kevin still has shame enough to fudge and stammer and lie: “Uh, Percival’s helping me out. A bit.”  Yup.  Moose doesn’t seem to  approve of Kevin seeking full custody of Anthony.

Alice’s guilt about putting Charles up for adoption after desperately not wanting to carry him to term means she can never refuse him anything. So she tells Betty to suck it up, that she’s going to be forced into shouldering the difficult work of caring for a terminally ill person.

Percival is in Reggie’s mind.  Jughead did a rough job of editing Reggie’s memories, so Percival reassesses the risk that Jughead poses to him.  Reggie is still demanding to be taught magic by Percival, who he still thinks is a wizard, so Percival says he’s going to teach Reggie ventriloquism, which is both magic and also can be taught?  Or maybe just one of the two, it’s not clear. Percival is going to sabotage Jughead’s act, and the way he says the name Jughead is absolutely acid.

Fangs and Carlos (new dude) come to the diner  Archie ambushes them with his pro union agitating as promised. 

Veronica, whenever anyone ever says anything to her, tries to make a business out of it. (Is Veronica an Exploiter? Because she’s not a Worker, right?).  Drake mentioned absinthe, so now Veronica wants to go into the absinthe business.  I wish I had her mind.   She and Drake smile at each other, both being the female mirror image of the young Jughead Jones without quite knowing it.  Drake gives Veronica what she wants, which is acknowledgment of her business prowess. 

Betty sneers at the half brother she shares with Jughead about whether he ever got married to Chic while he’s on his deathbed, as far as she knows.  She also asks him directly if he’s afraid of dying, and Charles, maybe sensing danger, says what he thinks she wants to hear - that he deserves it, he’s very sorry, he’s made peace with it.

Heather is with Cheryl at the Blossom mansion so she can discuss the Pickens’ ownership of the Maleficarum.  She’s going to teach Cheryl how to make herself invisible without a Harry Potter cloak.  Right then, Veronica, who really just is always working, drops by to ask for wormwood, which Cheryl of course has.  Cheryl plays hot and cold with Veronica a lot, depending on whether she has an actual out gay girl to play with or not.  Veronica, please get it together.   

Percival too is someone who is super diligent.  He went to the Diner to woo Archie by giving him an offer of a job with all the ‘values related’ bells and whistles.  He actually sounds exactly like a Silicon Valley dudebro during the SJW phases of  big corporations, doesn’t he?  Archie says that he cannot be bought, which I am going to insist is a call back to Valerie teaching him this concept when the Blossoms literally bought Archie for a bit by buying him expensive instruments and dangling music school like bait.  

Foni (I refuse to call them Tangs - Tangy is one of my favorite flavor descriptors, so NO) have hired an attorney who makes no attempt to hide how shitty she thinks their cases is or how contemptible she finds the two of them.  I mean, hard agree, but at the same time, why is this woman’s sense of client service so terrible?  Is she very cheap?  But she’s willing to travel all the way to Whyte Wyrm from wherever it is, which I’ve also rarely heard of - so why come all the way just to be nasty and discouraging to her clients? Is she trying to get fired? Oh maybe.  Anyway the course of their entire lives (as Serpents) and their presently charted futures (as Serpents) is going to fuck up Foni’s custody battle with Kevin. 

Fangs has doubts about marrying Toni. Toni is not good at lying to him because she lays it out straight (ahem) - they need to be married to keep Baby Anthony (whom I have to point out yet again, has never been seen being cared for or even TOUCHED by Fangs) from Kevin.  

At the Forsythe the Fantastic show, Jughead is doing great (and has what could potentially be groupies get super excited when he guesses the answers right).  Reggie has learned to ‘throw his voice’ really well (when your teacher is a wizard everything is possible I guess?) which distracts Jughead enough for Percival to try to invade his mind.   The Jughead mind has a big door that says Private! Keep Out! No admittance! and as the cutest little bit of hostility, This Means You Percival!   Photos of his family and friends - Jellybean, Betty, Tabitha, Archie, FP (But not Gladys! Not Pops!) that matter most to Jughead are decorated on the outside.  This seems like a strange self reveal, potentially a data self-breach, but maybe this is an inadvertent leak (he can’t help but show that he cares about these people). 

When Percival discusses this problem with Reggie, good ole Reginald shows how talented he is as a henchman.  He understands immediately the concept of a talisman, knows exactly what Jughead’s talisman would be, AND where to find it.  Did Veronica tell him the time capsule location or did Archie?  Or was he just watching them from somewhere like a creeper back in the day? 

Archie is doing really awesome as a union agitator.  Honest day’s work, children’s children, treated like human beings…  This is supposed to be PRO union, right? This episode?  So why are the good guys mouthing the most cliched pablums in a show capable of delivering the most excitingly unhinged lines?

Betty is still torturing Charles about his past so she can understand herself better.   According to Charles, the first kill of an innocent little furry mammal as a kid is what sets off the gene / path to serial killerdom, and context does not matter.  

Fangs and Kevin have a work-place scuffle about Baby Anthony’s paternity.  Cheryl’s perfect at making herself invisible to Percival on the first try with Heather acting as her decoy.   What she’s not perfect at is being a catburglar (she never was good at this even as a kid) so she makes noise, leading Percival to investigate. He keeps smirking at empty space though, so does he really not see her?  Cheryl has the book they were talking about. 

Veronica, in her home office, is studying up on absinthe and wormwood.  She also leaps to an amazing conclusion that if she squashes something in her tiny hand really hard, she can ‘leach’ the toxins out of it (but it keeps all its flavor??).  

Meanwhile Betty is talking about herself and her problems to Archie. Drake apparently told her about a theory that that moral corruption leads to bodily corruption, and I think the medical name for this condition is called Victimblameitis, you know, and seeing it in action tends to inflame into a towering rage anyone who has ever lost someone they loved to cancer and kidney disease.  Just.  I understand that Betty is a very limited girl who is grasping at straws while struggling with problems far beyond her stunted emotional resources, but why do they have to make her say things like this?  That Charles being a murderer is what gave him his illness (when illness is just illness) and then, instead of questioning the very bizarre premise that illness is somehow ‘manifesting’ something, jumps to worrying directly and only about herself.   Just as she’s saying, poison is rotting him from the inside and I want to tear my eyelashes out one by one, Betty looks out of Archie’s window into her childhood bedroom to observe Alice doing a slow murder walk with a pillow towards Charles.  She walks in on Alice trying to suffocate Charles to death, stops the murder, and gently walks Alice out.

Meanwhile Toni is yelling at Fangs about being a silly man. I actually wonder if this is a manhating moment on this show.  Fangs, a bisexual man, and Kevin, a gay man, are fighting over whose sperm made a baby neither of them actually love or want to parent or be a father to.  Fangs has still never been seen holding Baby  Anthony since this whole custody fiasco began, by the way.  Kevin is not in any way set up to take care of a baby by himself nor wealthy enough to hire competent help. But they both want the signifier - I have sperm that can impregnate a woman - and that’s all they’re really after.  Absolutely hateful.  

Alice is yelling at Betty for interrupting the murder.  She’s so mad that someone, yet again, has stopped her from ending Charles’ intrusion into her life. This is the most roundabout pro-choice statement I’ve ever seen on any media my whole life. 

Heather calls Cheryl a ‘witch’ in the honorific, congratulatory sense as they exult over the theft they perpetrated on Percival.  Strangely, Cheryl really doesn’t seem to like it.  Heather notices, and is a little abashed.  Cheryl realizes Heather has noticed. 

Percival and Reggie are acting like Jughead fandom. They’ve collected (via theft) the things that make Jughead special and uniquely himself. A photo of Jughead with JB taken at Pop’s during the brief time when the Jones’ were all living as one family in the Cooper’s house that Gladys bought them.   A copy of Jughead’s book The Outcasts, hardcover no less.   His Southside Serpents jacket.  And the beanie dug out of the time capsule.

Now we cut to Moose and Kevin, and they talk about sperm and I hate my life so much right now.  So I guess the Fangs-Kevin-Toni throuple (or whatever they were) used artificial insemination.  And their clinic was willing to do what they used to in days of yore for infertile men who had to get a sperm donor - mix semen together so that you could say TECHNICALLY you didn’t know who the father was, it might be you, even though you have zero sperm motility. Moose is, as they say, the only one with rights because he says quite perceptively:  ‘you’re afraid you’re not his real father’ to Kevin.  And the thing is, no matter whose goddamned final contender sperm it was, Baby Anthony has no father in the way that all four people (Fangs, Toni, Kevin and now Moose) are using the term ‘father.’ He has a sperm donor, for sure, but he has NO FATHER. Can Moose be the father, actually?   He’s the only  one with a working braincell. This used to be Toni.  I mourn, I grieve, etc.

Percival calls Archie to drop indirect threats in dulcet tones in his ear.  Workers (with a capital W) are going to suffer on-the-job accidental amputations if Archie won’t let up.    He even smiles a little to himself before he hangs up.   

Betty and Alice are terrifying. They’ve set up a really nice, very proper dinner for two with all the cutlery and plates and very correct glasses of white wine immediately after Betty hauled Alice off of a terminally sick man that Alice was trying to suffocate.  Betty says she thinks she maybe has a way to help Charles. (She really means someone she knows can be roped in to be of specific use to Betty Cooper but yeah, girl protagonist rights are everlasting).

Cheryl keeps on calling Heather “MY FRIEND” in this extremely heavy handed hint-dropping way, but none of these assholes (Ahem ARCHIE) think to ask her WHO IS YOUR FRIEND.  Like, Cheryl stayed cooped up in the Blossom mansion for seven years nonstop with just her grandma, and now she’s going around mentioning MY FRIEND nonstop and nobody asks a single question.  Riverdale has a heart, sure, but it’s cold as a witch’s teat.   Anyway, she hands Archie a sheaf of documents relating to the fact that Percival’s family (extremely long distance and in a different country?) was always anti union. 

Percival, dressed in Jughead cosplay, invades Jughead’s mind from a few floors above him as he’s doing his Forsythe the Fantastic act.  I am a little heartbroken over the fact that Jughead’s own sense of himself is so fragile - he thinks he’s this hat and these clothes?  Percival slams open the door  of Jughead’s mind and jabs a rolled up newspaper into the door jamb, which leaves him wide open to every single person’s thoughts ever.  What he describes when Veronica finds him after the freak out describes an introvert meltdown to a T.  Other people are far too much with him! He’s gotta go somewhere quiet to be alone!  OMG Jughead, me too, like all the time!  Veronica is so kind and worried.

Back at the Foni Apartment of Failure, Britta (in very adorable double buns) gives a glowing babysitter’s review for Anthony to Toni, who hears that Kevin appeared the same time as a pacifier disappeared, and is very annoyed.  Jughead, very freaked out, goes straight to Tabitha at the new Pop’s location. He can still hear everything.  He run away.

Veronica is being useful to Betty, and now with Drake in tow.  Veronica is going to be ‘hooked up with’ Charles to ‘filter out’ the toxins in Charles’ blood.  Charles accepts the Hail Mary move.   Betty asks in the sweetest way possible if Charles wouldn’t rather just die. Charles answers that he wants to keep living. 

In my absolutely least part of anything I’ve seen Toni do so far, she kicks in Kevin’s door.  He and Moose are seated at a little table with a candle lit, bowls of ice cream in front of them, very cozy.  Toni, wearing brass knuckles, punches Kevin in the head, twice, breaking skin.  On television, torture always works, completely, and the torture victim always coughs up the truth. I hate when they do this.   Kevin, with the appalled Moose silently staring at this entire situation, tells Toni where the pacifier is. She was right, apparently.  He took it to do a DNA test to prove that he’s the sperm donor.  Toni takes it back, and leaves after threatening him with murder. 

Jughead is still freaking out because he can’t shut out the world.  Why do the worst possible things always happen to this poor little blorbo? 

Tabitha and Archie are riling up The Workers at The Diner.  The way they do this is by reading anti union words written by someone that Percival is at best some sort of distant relative. I mean.   My great grandfather was older brother to a bishop and uncle to a priest and um, I am pretty sure he was against absolutely everything I am doing with my life, like, yanno, be a woman who votes and earned a college degree and stuff?  What?  In any case, this seems to work on The (not bright) Workers.

Cheryl confesses to Heather that she came up with the library scheme so she could keep talking to and doing things with her.  But - character growth?!? - now that things are getting both weird and dangerous, Cheryl wants to throw Heather out of harm’s way.   Heather says she wants to spend lots of time with Cheryl too.  They seem so happy.

Intentional cut to Toni icing her knuckles with the Serpent Jacket hanging off her chair. She has in front of her brass knuckles and a pacifier and I feel like I myself have been punched in the head with the Fist of Ham.  Fangs has a tendency to appear at Toni’s lowest points (the earlier was when she was stripping at her own bar).  Toni says that she is going to be ‘strong’ by being a violent Serpent. 

We learn bits of more Serpent lore which kind of come up like magical objects in the Harry Potter universe.  Heretofore completely unheard of things are mentioned and accepted without explanation between the characters to fit whatever the narrative needs it to be. So. Serpents function like the Catholics - you can be inducted into the Serpents.  But I thought some of them were BORN Serpents.  So anyway there’s a Serpent Baptism where in the father bequeaths a Serpent Name (™) upon the infant so baptized.  Fangs is a Serpent Name (™). Is Toni such a name?  Sweet Pea I guess was.  Is Jughead?   But why did Jughead get a Serpent Baptism and then have to ‘join’ the Serpents as a teen? Is that the same as Confirmation? Is Fangs gonna be the Serpent Godfather to his own son?   AUGH.  Or do only BOY babies get this?

Fangs says he’s going to marry Toni and I want to throw someone off the roof too.  

Back at wherever they are- the casino champagne suite, I guess - Kevin tells Percival he’s sorry the plan didn’t work.  Moose is in the room.   Why is Moose in the room?   Please don’t tell me Percival gets his grubby long limp hands on Moose. PROTECT MOOSE.  Anyway, Percival tells Kevin and Moose that Fangs is the sperm donor.   Why am I forced to have the same perspective as Percival?  Percival says who the biological father is. Percival makes that distinction that I make and…. I used to be Bret. Am I now Percival?  (Oh dash it all.)

Percival says that Baby Antony represents “Riverdale’s greatest hope, its spirit.”  Percival and the baby are both potential futures and there can be only one.  Is this why neither Fangs nor Kevin really touch the baby?  Because they are both shit and the universe will not allow it?

Meanwhile Charles is no longer hooked up to machines.  He says he feels better, to Betty.  He thanks her and Veronica. I’ve been so annoyed by Fangs and everything that I realize belatedly we didn’t get to see HOW Veronica acts like a dialysis machine.  Like does she suck it out of people??? Squeeze them???  Anyway, Betty, as brutal as ever, tells Charles that she knew from the start Veronica might be a solution but she held off on purpose.  She says she’s not ready to give up on herself.

uh.

When has Betty Cooper ever given up on herself?  Not once, not ever.  It’s her primary trait- absolute will to survive, total focus on herself.  Betty says she intends to “focus on what I’m doing, in the present, and in my future.”  All well and good, sure, but when do you ever focus on anything that isn’t that, Betty?  Not once, not ever, do you ever, in fact, stray from this focus.  What are you on about?

Betty still wants to catch TBK.  Because she always needs to punish, to the end, anyone who bests her in anything. Charles offers to help. 

Archie confronts Percival, Frank, Kevin and Moose (BAD MOOSE! MOOSE! WHY!) at the former Sketch Alley. The Workers are striking. Percival threatens him with ‘real fighting’ before sauntering off.  And Veronica’s very poisonous looking absinthe is ready!  Betty and she discuss the procedure - the blood circulated through Veronica before being put back into Charles and I am so sorry I asked.   Veronica asks how Betty is, and Betty says that stopping Alice from murdering Charles makes her feel optimistic about the future.  That Alice constantly wants to murder, put away, erase, and abandon all of her biological children in turn is left unaddressed. 

Betty asks to host a Serial Killer Fandom comic-con.

Jughead has left a note, and run away from home (meaning, Tabitha).   He tells her  “I’ve lost control” so he needs to go somewhere quiet, and so on.  And during this heartbreaking recitation I was chanting:

NOT THE BUNKER

NOT THE BUNKER

NOT THE FUCKING DILTON DOILEY BUNKER

And of course JUGHEAD IS IN THE FUCKING BUNKER.

  Jughead isolating himself when he suffers a problem, compared to Betty dragging in literally everyone she knows at a moment’s notice to do her part?  DO THE BETTY WAY EVERYONE. Hers is so much better. 

In the bunker, Jughead starts to hear Rivervale voices come through from somewhere.

[headinthestaticsky]

The Phenomenon of the Immortal Sun: Jasper Hale x Fleur Swan, Chapter 6

None of the characters in Twilight belong to me, all rights go to Stephenie Meyer!

Authors note: I have no idea if I used these song lyrics in a previous chapter in Eclipse... I have a garbage memory.

"Stars did fall. Thunder rolled. Bugs crawled back, In their holes. The couple screamed, but it was far too late. Her jealous heart did retaliate."

Ten Cent Pistol by, The Black Keys.

Jasper, Emmett, and Rosalie looked like they wanted to kill someone. Alice, Dean, Esme, and Bree all looked confused and hurt.

Rosalie inhaled deeply.

"We need to do something about those two..." Rosalie said.

"They're way out of line... Edward especially... human or not I would kill anyone who comes near Fleur." Jasper added, fury was still in his voice.

"What can you guys do he's your brother. Besides after Bella turns they were going to go live in that cabin you guys renovated for them."

"We'll need to do something, you don't need any of this right now... I'm disappointed in him." Esme said sadly.

Before I could say anything else I could hear Bella scream.

"She must've just gotten bitten." I murmured.

"Hey you're probably thirsty, your eyes are starting to turn black, let me get you something," Esme suggested.

"That'd be great thanks... Jazz, could you hand me my phone?"

"Sure, what for darlin?" Jasper said sitting next to me.

"I need to call Sam and Leah... they need to know about this too. If we keep it from them, they could consider it a threat."

Carlisle's office door swung open, Edward ran toward the front door and slammed it. Carlisle came out with an annoyed look on his face.

"He's going to be the second death of me I swear he is."

"Well Seth already knows, maybe he told Leah." Bree suggested.

"Maybe he did but it won't hurt to check." I replied. I dialed Leah's number first thinking she might be a little more understanding.

"Fleur?" I heard her ask on the other line.

"Hey, Leah... has Seth told you anything lately?" My voice trembled slightly. I heard Leah sigh before letting out a laugh.

"Yeah, Seth told me you were pregnant calm down." I heard her reply.

"Oh, so Sam knows too?"

"Yeah but he's a bit skeptical... you know how he is." Leah mumbled.

"Yeah... but what about Bella... he does know that today is her changing day, the transformation is already happening."

"The last thing he told Seth about her is that she's not our concern anymore... it's her choice to change, we can't stop it." Leah explained.

"Listen I gotta go, I'll see you soon."

"See you later." She hung up a few seconds later. I rested my head on Jasper's should and sighed in relief.

"Here Fleur, maybe this we'll make you feel a bit better," Esme said, handing me a glass.

I grasped the cup and chugged it, it was gone a few seconds later. I didn't feel much better.

"Your eyes are still black...each bag should have the exact amount of blood you need for the next few days... How about you have some more?

I gulped down another bag, it still wasn't enough.

"This isn't good." Carlisle explained, he looked puzzled.

"Ehh...why isn't that good?" I inquired

"Well, if you can never be satisfied with the amount of blood your drinking you will eventually begin to starve. You will lose your strength, and could possibly have moments of insanity." Carlisle explained.

"I can handle this... it'll be worth it for him. Besides like you said before it most likely won't be a full 9 months."

"We'll all be by your side darlin." Jasper reassured, kissing my cheek.

"I'll monitor you whenever I can, it seems they're already growing quickly." Carlisle said, gesturing down to my bump.

Over the next few weeks, my baby grew more and more, but I was beginning to get weaker. No matter how much blood I drank, nothing seemed to sedate me. The rest of the Cullens were on edge with Edward and Bella, and since Bella was finally a vampire, they couldn't trust them at all. They weren't around much but when they were Rosalie and Jasper seemingly stood guard for me. I was zoned out, laying in an armchair since I was beginning to get sick of sitting on the same couch when Esme interrupted my concentration.

"Fleur, Leah and Seth are here." She called out.

I sat up and smiled, gesturing for her to bring them in. Leah and Seth walked in carrying some wrapped boxes with them.

Esme walked in with them before giving a quick goodbye as she wanted to help Carlisle and Rosalie with collecting food for me.

"You two did not have to get me anything." I said.

"Look aunt Leah has to get my nephew something." She said a smile was on her face.

I opened the box, a stuffed wolf plushie was inside, a dreamcatcher was underneath the plushie.

"These gifts are great thank you!"

"No problem, I thought they would be nice."

"You are the only one who thinks it's a boy, everyone else thinks it's a girl."

"I trust your instincts." Leah shrugged before pulling up a chair and sitting next to me.

"So how are you Fleur?" Seth asked, he shuffled around in his place, his eyes were scanning for someone else.

"It's getting rougher now since he's growing so big but, I know it'll all be worth it in the end."

"Your eyes look really dark, aren't they suppose to be red?" Leah inquired.

"We're beginning to think he's half-vampire half-human, he has a heartbeat it's just slightly faster than usual humans. He's definitely drinking the blood I get."

"I heard what happens to vampires when they don't feed...it gets rough." Leah said rubbing my back comfortingly.

"I have my moments but, they haven't been too bad."

"Where's the rest of the Cullens?" Seth inquired.

"Hunting, Edward, and Bella don't show up much... they don't want me to have my baby. But the rest of the Cullen's are really supportive and Jasper is ecstatic about it." I rubbed my bump unconsciously.

"But how do you eat?" Leah asked, her eyebrows were furrowed.

"Carlisle and Rose get these bags of animal blood for me." I saw Leah sigh and Lean back against her seat.

"These vampires aren't so bad after all...I'm glad Seth found Bree... she seems nice." Leah smiled.

"Oh she really is, she didn't know what she was doing when she was turned... I'm glad we're able to help her."

"So... when do you think you'll give birth?"

"Carlisle said I could give birth in a week or two... It's nerve-wracking, it's so unpredictable."

"Hey, you'll be fine... I'll stay here for a bit if you need." Leah offered.

"That would be nice but, I don't want to put you through any trouble."

"It wouldn't be any trouble besides If Edward or Bella tries something... they're going to have to deal with me too."

I laughed but before I could say anything I could sense Edward and Bella coming in, but the others were still farther away.

"Great... now we got werewolves constantly coming in." Bella complained.

Seth and Leah looked up shocked.

"Bella... did you forget you were in a toxic, manipulative love triangle for a solid year with a werewolf... for a solid fucking year." I snapped back.

"Jacob doesn't talk to me anymore!" Bella roared.

"Good for him, he needs to move on." I said, Leah nodded in agreement.

"You always have to stick your opinion in don't you?" Bella said.

"Uhh... you walked in for 5 seconds are were already trying to start shit with me." I snapped, the rage in my body burned.

"Hey, don't you snap at my wife." Edward snarled, he started walking up to me slowly.

"Back off Edward." Leah warned, she seemed to feel how pissed off I was.

"Can it mutt."

"Edward... I've been starving for almost a month... don't try me."

"What can you do? You're frail, weak, impaired." Edward pushed, walking up in front of me.

"What in the fuck are you two still doing here? I mean... honestly, you both got what you wanted, Edward you got a mate, and Bella, you became immortal. If you can't stand the decisions we're all making then why don't you just leave?"

"Because we're protected, we're the feared Olympic coven... Who wouldn't want to stay here." Edward explained, he rolled his eyes as if it were obvious.

"Oh I see... you're using them, you're too unskilled to protect yourselves so why wouldn't you want to let everyone else do the work?" I said in fake shock, Leah and Seth began to chuckle.

"I'm not unskilled enough to protect myself from you." Bella smirked, joining Edward in front of me.

"...You two fucking try something I dare you because the way I've been feeling all month I fucking dare someone to mess with me. I growled standing up on my own, it was strange... it was like a new strength filled my body.

Leah came up in front of me and put an arm between us three.

"Just drop it you three... this isn't going to end well." Leah warned.

Edward smirked and then grabbed me, I quickly flipped him around and as I warned before kicked him through the glass wall.

I heard shuffling and turned around to see Leah holding Bella down with Seth helping her out. I turned back around to the window, I saw Edward lying on the ground with Dean, Alice, Esme, and Emmett looking up at me in shock. I saw Carlisle approach Edward, a deadly look was on his face.

"Damn short stack!" I heard three sets of feet running inside Jasper, Rosalie, and Bree came into the lounge room. Bree went to go help Seth and Leah with Bella.

"Darlin are you okay?" Jasper called toward me worryingly. I couldn't say anything however as that newfound strength had dissipated, and I clutched my head. Rosalie and Jasper rushed to me.

"That's it I can't stand those two anymore they have to get out of here!" Rosalie exclaimed, Jasper just nodded in agreement.

When I was sat back down in the armchair I decided to explain what happened. The rest of the Cullens came back in, Edward couldn't look me in the eyes now.

"So sweety, what happened?" Esme inquired.

"I was just sitting with Leah and Seth when Bella started complaining that Leah and Seth were here."

Bella tried to say something but Rosalie gave her a glare.

"I snapped at her I'll admit but... then Edward started coming up to me threateningly... but he then he said that he was just living with you guys because he was being protected... and long story short Edward grabbed me and I kicked him through the glass wall." I finished. I had never seen Carlisle or Esme so mad before.

"Is that true?" Carlisle inquired.

"But..."

"HE SAID IS IT TRUE!" Esme interrupted.

Edward bit down a growl before answering.

"Yes."

"You two can't come around here anymore...nor do you two belong to this coven." Carlisle demanded.

Bella gasped.

"What a second we can work something out..." She started.

"Look I'm not going to spend decades of you three fighting all the time... and personally, I'm personal want to keep the one I like." Rosalie sniped.

"Leave at once," Carlisle said.

Edward and Bella stormed out of the house and ran off. A thick silence overtook the air.

"Uh...sorry about the wall." Jasper shushed me before pulling me in for a kiss.

"You two okay?" He asked, rubbing my stomach.

"Oh yeah he's having a blast...you should've felt him, he was kicking up a storm. He's a fighter I can tell." I said smiling. Jasper curled up to me and rested his head on mine. I saw the Cullens as well as Leah and Seth glance at each other, leaving the room.

"You know, I can feel what emotions they feel," Jasper stated.

"Really? How is he feeling now?"

"They loves the sound of your voice, I can tell. They get so happy when they hear it."

I smiled fondly on my bump before rubbing it softly.

"I'm glad you love it, we both love you that's for sure..."

[mrssimply]

I would give you my kidney if you wrote panam x male v with the smut pt1 "we should leave before we start a scandal" I love panam and v so muchhh 😭 that would mean the world

Anon, please you don't need to give me your kidney! Just happy to fill this prompt!! A few things before you read it though : I very rarely write het sex (to my own surprise!), so I hope it's still good. Because I went full on ^^' we are in the NSFW territory here, although I think it's quite sweet! Just two people who love each other having consesual sex under the stars... I think they deserve it ;)

I really hope it's what you hoped for! I must confess to being a bit nervous... A also checked the fics count for Panam/V on AO3 and boy, only 107 works! So few!!! So i'm happy to add my two cents!

And finally, well, my own goal to limit myself at 2000 words for each prompt got shot to hell with this one, but not that much so, I'm still happy with it.

Have a good reading session!

Le Chant du Désert

The Desert's Song

It was hard to make Panam relax and take a step back. She took being leader of the clan at heart, and in the first few weeks, she had regularly been woken-up by V, drooling over papers on her table.

But tonight, he seemed adamant that she would unwind, so he had taken matters into his hands. Two days ago, he had been on a scavenger hunt with Alice, one of the younger members and they had come home proud and victorious with… A complete sound system, and two huge speakers.

It was completely impractical to transport, was the first thing she had said, but V’s smile had turned mischievous.

“Then we better make the best of it while we’re here.”

He had then started working on it, for it needed heavy reparations. But with Mitch and Alice, he got it running and screaming in two days. And the rest of the family had gotten excited over it too, to Panam��s dismay, because they were suddenly planning a party. Today had been a flurry of preparations, hijacking power from a nearby turbine generator, then preparing food, buying drinks at the nearest town, and setting up the dance floor (which meant moving a few rocks, really.)

And every time Panam had tried to butt in, either V, Mitch, Cassidy or Carol had sent her back to rest. After the third time, and felling a bit put upon she had indeed gone to lie down under the shade of her tent and before she knew it, was out cold.

V woke her up with kisses trailing up her neck, ticking her sensitive skin. He had been growing a beard lately, giving him a roguish look that she liked. Outside, she could tell in was sunset. She was pretty sure he had come to fetch her, but now seemed to have another idea, for his hands trailed up her thighs and along her bodice to her breasts that he squeezed gently, playing with her nipples through the clothes. She groaned, opening her eyes to look at him.

“Hey, beautiful,” V rasped, and fuck he was cheesy, but his tone still raised goosebumps on her skin. In a smooth movement, he came over her on the cot kissed her slowly. V’s hand slid under her waist and behind her neck, embracing her as he nipped her lips, softly asking for entrance. Panam let him in with a sigh, thinking it was nice. She felt rested and relaxed, a perfect combination that had her opening her legs and tilting her pelvis to him. But then…

“Panam? Panam come on! It’s time!” It was Carole, shouting for her from nearby.

“V went to fetch her, Carole, give her five minutes!” Cassidy replied back, his voice further away.

But it was too late, the moment was broken and she sighed. V chuckled, kissed her once more before getting up and offering her a hand that she took. V pulled her to him with force, so that she fell into his arms and he laughed at her outraged face, mouth finding her’s again. He was in a very good mood, and Panam felt herself respond in kind.

Hours later, the atmosphere, the music and the drinks accomplished what V and the Aldecaldos’ leaders had been trying to do: she was, at last, lose and relaxed, feeling floaty and happy. At the moment, she was dancing surrounded by her family, half-laughing at her own moves. Panam closed her eyes and hummed, drawing her head back to watch the star-lite sky the next moment. Then, she felt a presence behind her: V, pressing to her, his mouth over her long neck, just a hint of teeth when he kissed her skin.

“Having fun?” he whispered, right in her ear as he drew her closer, his hands covering her stomach and drifting lower, thumb catching on her front pockets.

“Hum, yeah,” she replied, turning her head to him until their mouths brushed. His eyes, when they drifted up to hers, were heated, alight with a low simmering lust. He pulled her back against him so that her ass was snugly fit against his pelvis, and she could feel the beginning of his hard-on. Panam shivered, and widened her stance before pushing back slightly and starting to gyrate her hips. He let her set the pace, trying his best to follow her with a trembling sigh. V was always so open with his desires, straight-forward where she still struggled to express them sometimes. He was simple, in the way everything was clear with him, no hesitations, no regrets, no detours. Straight to the point.

They stayed like this until the song changed to a heavier beat, even more sensual than the last and it felt like an electric current inside her veins, one that transferred to him too. Their tempo changed to adapt to the music, but their moves became more erotic, losing the innocent exploratory touches to become devouring. His hands traveled to her center, two fingers just brushing the inside of her thighs before going up. She arched back, barring her neck to his mouth and he didn’t lose anytime sucking softly at her skin, lips trailing up behind her ear and tonguing the sensitive spot behind. She purred, and he sighed in response, arms tightening around her and hips stuttering forward, like he couldn’t control himself. Panam put her hands over his as they drifted up, touching just below her breasts, and then back down again. She took control here, holding his hand over the zipper of her jeans and pushing into his long fingers that just reached her clit through the material. V hissed and buckled into her. His teeth pinched her skin and it send a delicious shiver down her spine as she, slowly, forced his hands up again but this time she didn’t stop him until V’s large palms covered her boobs. Index, middle and ring finger rolled over her nipple and she gasped.

“Woah, keep it PG, boss!” Someone shouted in jest and the leader of the Aldecaldo opened her eyes – when had she closed them? – before trying to detach herself from her output. But he held her fast, chuckling against her skin.

“We should probably leave, before we start a scandal.” He murmured cheekily and she snorted.

Making a scandal at a nomad clan was pretty arduous: intimacy was more a concept than a reality. Love-making was always a fast affair, with only just the breathiest moans and grunts. You learned very early to move in a way that didn’t make the cot rattle. But, Panam was discovering, being chief also meant people didn’t see her as a woman anymore, but as something of a motherly figure, and no one wanted to see their mom get it on heavy with her boyfriend.

V’s hand took her and he pulled out of the dance area, and to where her Thorton was parked. He was walking fast, like a man on a mission.

“V?” she asked, suddenly feeling something was happening.

He smiled at her over his shoulder, full of mischief and joy. Full of love, but didn’t say anything. He let her get into the vehicle before jumping on the passenger seat and putting coordinates in the GPS.

“Drive us here.” He ordered. She had half a mind to refuse until he spilled the deal, but she also sensed he had put work into this. She suddenly realized the whole day had been his idea: he had offered her a day off, and she hadn’t even recognized it! Gazing down, unwilling to show how touched she was by the attention, she started driving.

It wasn’t far, just five minutes, but it was still far enough from camp that they were alone. He got off the car and reached back for a portable lamp, one of the cute one that glowed softly. She followed him a pace behind as they walked maybe a hundred meters. There was a tent waiting for them, and softs blankets spread out in front of it so that they could stargaze.

He beaconed her with a smile and a tug on her hand, still silent. He was nervous, she realized. And indeed, V’s smile turned sheepish when they reached the edge of the blankets. Panam raised an eyebrow at him and let a cheeky smile bloom over her lips.

“So, where were we?”

Eyes going soft for a second, V pulled her to him, flushing their bodies together once more. He kissed her, sweet and gentle. It lasted for maybe a second, until Panam decided soft was good, but hungry was betted and surged up against him, grinding against his thigh. He growled low, hands tightening over her waist and firmly pushed her down on the blankets. He waited no time in undressing her, and she helped him between breathy kisses and appreciative moans every time his fingers brushed a newly exposed patch of skin.

When they were both naked, he stood on all four above her, eyes roaming over her form with admiration. Panam opened her legs more and tilted her pelvis in an invitation, eyebrow raised at him in challenge. V’s eyes clouded and he dropped on his stomach, slithering down until he could take her clit into his mouth. And the leader of the Aldecaldos sighed happily. He was good at this, at everything sexual really, because he was patient and attentive. By now he knew how to take her apart. He didn’t spend long tonguing her, only just enough to make her damp, and then hiked up again, kissing her as he slowly, and by little pushes, penetrated her. Panam loved to feel the stretch of his cock as it entered her, loved the way he couldn’t help but grunt at how tight she was around him. And she loved when he settled deep inside her, not moving but cock pulsing as she adjusted. V was breathing deliberately slow. She chuckled before clenching around him and he cursed, thrusting a bit in retaliation. His teeth found her neck with a low growl. But still he waited until she started moving, following her lead and gyrating his hips, rubbing his pelvis against her clit on each pass.

Panam bit her lips to restrain a moan and he stopped.

“Pan,” he murmured against her mouth, “I took you all the way into the desert, far from camp so that I could hear you, so please let me hear you.”

His words sent shivers along her spine. But years of having to keep quiet couldn’t evaporate like this so she stayed silent. With a huff, he started moving again, thrusts more powerful, bearing down on her most sensitive place with pinpoint accuracy to make her moan, and moan again.

“Fuck,” she let out, the words transforming into a long keen halfway through and V smiled in satisfaction before his gaze turned hungrier. Huffing, he rolled off of her lying on his back so that she could ride him like she wanted. Her cunt was dripping over him as she mounted him and they both groaned in unison when she sat back down.

“Come on,” he urged, hands pinching her nipples, surging up to suck at them as she arched to rub against him while she rode his cock. He stayed unmoving under her, letting her seek pleasure with him, concentrating on stroking her skin and playing with her boobs. And soon, her quiet huffs turned heavier, louder and desperate. Her hips started rocking in a disharmonious way and she felt struck between her need for release and wanting to prolong it, to delay it for maximum bliss. But then, V slightly bit on her nipple and the orgasm zapped through her core. Panam… shouted. She cried out her pleasure in a long, surprised whimper that echoed in the desert night. Panam panted and cursed low as tremors still shook her body.

Under her, V chuckled, hands still roaming over her back and when she looked down at him, he smiled like a cat: satisfied and lascivious.

“Proud of yourself, are you?” she whispered.

“Very.”

And then he turned them again so that he was once more above and slowly made his way downward. Heart still beating fast, she nearly asked him to stop. As his hands trailed the inside of her thighs, and he kissed her stomach and then the apex of her mound, she just let go. The first touch of his tongue on her over-sensitive clit had her buckling and sobbing out loud.

But only the stars, and V, heard her.

Dear readers, you can find the prompt list here if you wanted to request one yourself!

[dailyniallnews]

Niall Horan: Live at The Royal Albert Hall

While some may argue that too few artists have done their bit to raise awareness for the people of the music industry who since March 2020 have been forced to stop practicing their profession, one artist who has stepped up to the plate is singer-songwriter and former One Direction star, Niall Horan. Joining forces with the crew-led organisation, We Need Crew, on 7 November 2020, the singer welcomed fans from around the globe to bear witness to a one-off performance from the eerily empty Royal Albert Hall, with all profits going to his touring family and technical entertainment charity, Backup.

In the lead up to the livestream, Horan could be found on almost every television network, promoting the show and explaining why the performance required the attention of all music lovers. In his own words: “I’m putting on this gig to raise awareness of the immense value they bring to an industry enjoyed by so many and do something to help them and their families. I ask all my fans to support them with me and buy a ticket if you can, and I encourage all artists to do the same.”

With several weeks passing since both artist and crew took over the RAH, TPi caught up with the crew behind the project and to get their thoughts on this very special event.

PRODUCTION ORIGINS…

“I remember it was a Monday morning when I got the call from Karen [Ringland] and Alice [Martin], who explained the concept of We Need Crew,” reminisced Ant Carr, Head of Production for Modest! Management. Both founders of We Need Crew explained to Carr that the goal of We Need Crew is, in association with #WeMakeEvents, to raise money for touring professionals who have fallen on hard times due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“What really appealed about their organisation was that it was created by crew, for crew,” Carr said. “Around the same time, I was having conversations with Niall, who had already seen a few peers doing livestream performances, and we discussed the idea of performing in an iconic venue to raise awareness for the plight of the industry.”

With these two conversions in mind, Carr began to pull the pieces of would become Horan’s streamed performance together, as well as a big launch for the We Need Crew campaign. Carr and the rest of the Modest! team got to work reforming his touring family, whose album cycle had been stopped prematurely in March 2020.

“We were in LA when everything began shutting down,” stated Carr, who explained how he and the rest of the crew were in their last few weeks of promo before heading into rehearsals for Horan’s world tour. “We were finishing up a week on James Corden when the announcement came that the borders were due to be shut, so we all had to head back to the UK pretty quickly.”

After several months with no work, both Carr and the rest of the crew were all enthusiastic about getting back together to put on a very special performance. “In many ways, it was like we had never been away,” explained Production Manager, Andy Colby. “There was a part of me that thought it might have been a bit strange with it being so long since we worked together, but 30 minutes into the first rehearsal at SW19, it was like we had just got off the plane from LA.”

Colby was one of many familiar faces from Horan’s touring family who got the call to help with the livestream, alongside several technical suppliers including Wigwam and midnight:lights. KB Event provided a Megacube Artic for rehearsals in SW19 along with a Tech Kit for the show, oversaw by Lead Driver, Steve Crawley. Pulse Films and promoter, Driift were brought into the fold to make the event a reality.

In total, some 127,000 tickets for the performance were sold to 151 countries. “The response we had from fans was fantastic,” enthused Carr. “The funds raised are going to be able to help a good number of touring crew and their families and we kept this in the forefront of our mind in all aspects of the show.”

Carr was also quick to complement the attitude of the man in front of the camera. “Niall was very involved in every step of the process. He really gained a full grasp of the situation and during the promotion of the show, he really wanted to educate the public, and his fanbase, about what was going on in the sector.”

SETTING THE STAGE…

A few weeks from the broadcast date, a small group visited the Royal Albert Hall to make a start on planning how the show would come together. Lighting and Show Designer, Emma Bull and Director, Paul Dugdale led the creative vision. The livestream began with Horan performing a song on the piano on the venue’s stage, before walking down to the centre of the room to play the rest of the show in 360° in the centre of the hall. A top priority for the visual team was putting both Niall and the venue in the spotlight.

Bull elaborated: “Although several dance shows utilise the centre of the room, Paul’s Dugdale’s suggestion to do this for a music act felt fresh and was a strong starting point for the design,” she noted. “Having Niall and the band in the centre gave us a few options to really show off the building and take advantage of the fact the whole space was empty.”

One of her design ideas to make use of the space was to fill the empty boxes of the hall with lights. “It really ‘shined a light’ on the fact that there was nobody in the space,” she commented.

Aiding her in both the programming and running the show was Richard White of midnight:lights. “In total, we built 114 bespoke plinths for the audience boxes,” he stated. “On these sat a combination of Robe LED Beam 150s and Robe Spiiders.” The arrangement of these fixtures and boxes created a 360° backdrop of the central stage, with fixtures focussed into the room as well as back on themselves to flood the boxes.

The other key lighting elements included three Robe BMFL Robospots for keylight, which were placed in the venue’s gallery level. “We kept most of the control of these at the console with it being a 360° shoot,” stated White. “We were then able to shift the keylight/backlight across the fixtures as the camera tracked.” Around the central stage, the lighting team deployed SGM Q2s to provide some glowing footlights, along with Litepanel Gemini Softlights for Niall’s microphone position. “From the beginning, I knew I didn’t want there to be any rigging or trussing in the shot,” explained Bull. “We didn’t want anything to distract from the key elements of the shot – Niall and venue – to produce a clean look.” This is also why the visual department moved away from the idea of a backdrop and instead showed off the immensity of the famed venue.

Aiding both Bull and White in their endeavours was Lighting Programmer, Dan Young. In the lead up to the show, both Young and White spent several days in the previs suite at midnight:lights using Syncronorm Depence² to plan the show. “I have worked with both Dan and Richard several times and they have a great understanding of my aesthetic,” praised Bull. “I like things to be quite static in terms of colour palette with refined looks.” During the show, White oversaw the key lighting with Young programming all the moves. This gave Bull the freedom to act as a go-between between both the lighting and the stage to ensure the integrity of the design for the broadcast.

“The main challenge for this show was to provide consistent lighting over the different shooting styles,” mused White. “On one hand, we needed to have soft beauty lighting for close-up shots and steadycam work, but we also needed to make sure that the stage was physically as clear as possible for all the wide room shots and overhead wire-cam.” To add a level of accuracy, most of the live show was programmed to timecode because the visual team were situated outside of the room during the shoot.

LIGHTS, CAMERA, LIVESTREAM…

Jim Parsons was brought in by Pulse Films to assume the role of Producer. “By the time I got involved, the concept had already been fairly well developed by Emma Bull and Paul Dugdale,” Parsons began. “From my side, it was a case of getting all the video and visual elements and working out some of logistics of how we’d get the event to the finish line.”

Parsons has collaborated with Horan several times over the years. “The fact he came from the TV world means he has much more of a grasp than many of his peers of what goes into this style of performance and how to connect with fans through a camera,” he enthused.

Speaking a few weeks after the event took place, Parsons reflected on what he and the team achieved with the livestream. “We always knew we had an opportunity to do something different with this show,” he commented. “The end resulted was big and beautiful, but it was still ‘live’.  It had the feel of a real show and didn’t come across prescriptive or dull.”

Parsons went on to describe the collaboration between himself and Driift, having worked together several times during 2020 on shows for Kylie Minogue and Sleaford Mods. “Ric Salmon and the rest of the Driift team are the kind of broadcasters I really like collaborating with in that they just let you get on with your work,” stated Parsons plainly. “They were obviously interested in the initial conversations and in the creative, but once it was all in place, they left us to it.”

Driift CEO, Ric Salmon offered his two cents on the project. “The fact that Niall ended up selling 127,000 tickets for the event is such a huge achievement, made all the better as it was all for such an amazing cause,” he stated. Unsurprisingly, 2020 was a busy year for Driift as the company offered livestreaming solutions for several artists. “There are almost too many benefits with this format of show,” stated Salmons while discussing the progression of livestreaming solutions that have only expanded in the past few years. “As we move forward, I think you’ll find more people opting for this style of event over, say, music videos,”

Parsons described what it was like working in the RAH. “It’s a beautiful venue, but we have all seen it thousands of times and there’s no denying that making it look different is quite a challenge. So, hats have to go off to the visual team for making this livestream look so unique.”

A Luna Remote System Junior 5 Telescopic remote compact dolly on a circular track along with a Dactylcam Pro point-to-point wire camera system captured the magic of the livestream. The spanned the periphery of central stage to present virtual audiences with a 360° view.

Camera Supervisor and joint Owner of Luna Remote Systems, Dean Clish discussed what it meant to be involved in such a prestigious show. “It was an honour to be involved in Niall’s show,” he commented. “It was for such a great cause and it’s always good to be in the Royal Albert Hall – you can’t go wrong with such a beautiful location.”

He continued to discuss why the camera selection was ideal for this type of performance. “The Junior 5 and the Dactylcam Pro are perfect for this kind of shoot because of the need to socially distance and, of course, with this sort of intimate production, they are both really unobtrusive and discreet systems,” he explained. “We’ve rigged the Dactylcam in the Royal Albert Hall before. It’s a brilliant system to use in there as you can really capture the essence of the hall from a height, in flight, in a way that you can’t with static systems.”

SOUNDING OUT…

The production brought back the audio double act of FOH Engineer, Matthew Kettle and Monitor Engineer, Joe Campbell to oversee the mix for the livestream and the band on stage. Having started working with Horan on his first solo album cycle, Kettle gave an overview of his time with the artist. “I didn’t really know what to expect before I’d heard the debut record and, as I was more known for working with rock music, I wasn’t sure I’d be the right fit,” he commented. However, with Horan’s solo music citing influences including Fleetwood Mac and Bruce Springsteen, the Engineer explained how it had been a fruitful partnership over the past three years. “Niall is really quite involved with the audio production and often during rehearsals will listen to the mixes to get a feel of what is being produced.”

Having been put on a hiatus since the tour’s cancellation in March, Kettle described what it was like to pull the pieces back together for the tour. “It’s really quite a different process producing a mix for a livestream compared to a live show,” he mused. “I have always had massive respect for broadcast engineers as it is such a different craft. When you’re mixing live in a venue, if anything goes wrong, you can fix it for the next performance. However, with a broadcast, everything is under much more of a microscope and under a great deal of scrutiny. Not only that, but you only have one shot at a show.”

Kettle explained that once he and the team entered rehearsals, they soon found their rhythm. “The approach to mixing was not too dissimilar to what we had already been working on for the tour. Just like the visual department, we didn’t want the production to be too flashy, aiming to simply reflect the intimacy of the performance without too much embellishment,” he commented.

For this reason, both Kettle and Campbell virtually replicated their audio setups they had planned to use for the world tour, featuring two DiGiCo SD5 consoles for monitors and FOH, along with Shure Axient Handhelds with Sennheiser 2000 Series IEMs, d&b audiotechnik wedges and a V-Series for side fills.

The console setup was not significantly different from the touring configuration, with multiple inputs from various SD-Racks in different parts of the stage and performance areas going to the broadcast SD5, all connected by an Opticore loop and shared with Campbell’s SD5 in monitor world. “The SD5 is my favourite console in the world,” said Campbell. “I love it and, because DiGiCo products are well proven and rock solid reliable, we rarely have to include them directly in what we do.” Cambpell was initially concerned in the lead up to the show, having not touched a desk since March. “Thankfully, Wigwam had kept the desks in pristine condition – so much so that our show files were even still loaded on the desk from the tour. This saved a great deal of time in rehearsals and certainly made it easier to get back into the saddle.”

Campbell was keen to replicate the same stage setup for Niall and the band. “During the tour, although he uses IEMs, I still have a wedge and side fills just in case he wants to take out his ears to hear the crowd,” he explained. “Even though it was a livestream with no audience, I wanted the show to feel as familiar as possible for him and the band.”

Despite a relatively “meat and potatoes” band setup, Campbell had just under 100 inputs on his desk – the result of several reverb returns and an elaborate talkback system. “Each one of the band members have a talkback mic so throughout the performance they can talk to one another and me,” he noted.

Meanwhile, Kettle’s ‘FOH’ position was slightly further away, setting up in a corridor off from the main hall. “Wigwam prepared an acoustic treatment kit so I sat at the desk with several studio monitors to mix the show and then sent my audio feed to the Pulse team,” stated Kettle. “Before going into the RAH, I was concerned with how the room would react with no audience in there to dampen the sound, but from the first sound check it sounded fantastic.”

Discussing Wigwam’s involvement with the project, Tom Bush commented: “We were all extremely proud to be supplying Niall’s livestream, especially as it was addressing the We Need Crew and #WeMakeEvents funds and highlighting what goes into putting on a production with the unseen and behind-the-scenes rolls.”

Bush went on to explain the approach to this type of performance: “A slightly different thought process can be needed – the standard positions for mixing, for example. The package wasn’t too dissimilar to the one we had ready for the world tour, so we had a good starting point. A few additions and tweaks were needed to adhere to the show setup, but Matt and Joe’s attention to detail made sure the process was smooth. The need for trucks full of PA hasn’t been required yet, but soon hopefully. We currently have a few livestreams pencilled in that we’re all looking forward to.”

#WENEEDCREW…

Looking back at the slew of 2020 livestreamed performances, Niall Horan stands out among the crowd, not only for its aesthetic, but because of everything it represented – not to mention the sizeable pot of funds it raised for the live events industry.

As we enter a new year with the live events sector entrenched in the clutches of the COVID-19 pandemic, the hope is that more musicians will follow in Horan’s footsteps to shine the spotlight on hardworking crew members that are so often out of sight and mind to the average live music lover. In the meantime, more information regarding the We Need Crew initiative can be found on www.weneedcrew.co.uk

[rosemary-writes]

What are you afraid to see?: Part 4

(Dwayne x GN! Reader)

AN: I’m sorry this took so long. College is really rough at the moment

Word count: 1.9k

Warnings: none

“Wait, I almost forgot to tell you my address.” you quickly said before either of you could hang up. Quickly you told him your address and on the other line you heard the sounds of pen on paper.

“Got it.” he replied and quietly said goodbye. You could hear the line click. Gently, you set the phone back on the receiver and turned to your guests.

“So, something tells me that you have a hot date later.” Richard said with a beaming face.

“It’s nothing serious. Most likely, we will simply go to the boardwalk.” you replied, going to the kitchen to grab some cups. You could see Richard nudge Alice.

“If it’s nothing serious, then would you mind if I gave him my number?” Richard asked, walking over to the kitchen counter. You whipped around and gave him a glare, “Don’t.”

“They waited almost a week for him to call.” Alice said, putting some tapes on the table.

“You waited that long?” Ruth asked, looking at you from the fridge. You nodded. “Honestly, if it was me, I would’ve gone and found someone else.” She said, peering around. You rolled your eyes.

“Well, I think he’s very handsome and nice.” you replied, going into the living room. You set the glasses down on the table and went to your tv to mess around with it.

“Just because he’s nice and handsome, doesn’t mean he is a good person.” Chris interjected from the couch. There were hums of agreement though the house.

“Well, I will be able to figure that out, later tonight.” You responded.

“We could shadow your date. Y’know, in case he turns out to be an asshole.” Richard said, sitting next to Chris.

“You could. I won’t interject because I can’t control you.” You replied. A smile reappeared on your face as you finally got the tv on the correct setting.

Chris whispered to Richard and the girls came back to the living room.

“Okay, the tv is ready for vhs and we can eat or drink whatever we want.” you said, standing up,“However, tonight I will not allow drinking.”

The room erupted into groans of disapproval.

“Thankfully, I brought good movies and good snacks.” Richard said. You smiled as you picked up the rented films.

“Yes, Rich, I can tell you brought good movies. I also can tell that you want us to watch Labyrinth for the thousandth time.” you said as you carefully put the vhs down. He quickly began to sputter about how he liked the plot.

“It's okay Richard. You can say you like to watch it because of David Bowie’s tight fitting pants.” Ruth commented. You smiled and continued to look over. After a while you all decided to start with a recent movie.

You set it up and went to turn off the lights. All of you decided to get all bunched up on the couch and there was a mutual agreement to add comments when necessary. Richard eventually squeezed his way next to you.

About half way through, Chris spoke up about the film.

“Y’know, I saw a kid that looked just like Corey Feldman.” he said, grabbing a soda can off of the floor.

“You so did not.” Ruth replied from next to Alice.

“I so did too! He works at that little comic shop.” Chris said looking at Ruth.

“Do you mean the one thats run by those two brothers?” Richard asked, turning his head towards Chris.

“Yes! They hardly ever talk to someone unless they have intense comic book knowledge.” Chris said, turning his body toward Richard.

“Oh my gosh, I know exactly who you're talking about! They once grilled me about a comic I was going to buy for your birthday.” Richard replied.

“Did you tell them that you knew nothing about it and that it was for a friend?” Ruth asked, peering over.

“No, I left because I felt like an idiot.” Richard mumbled.

“Why did you let them embarrass you? They’re like twelve years old, man.” Chris said with a hint of laughter at the end of his sentence. Richard groaned and buried his face into a cushion.

“Oh come on, they can’t be that bad.” You interjected, looking over at Chris.

“They are!” Richard cried, moving his face from the cushion. “I’ve never felt so embarrassed in my life. All because I didn’t know which comic was which.” he said, rolling his eyes.

You kept the random comic book store in mind for another time.

“Okay, can we continue the movie?” You asked and everyone agreed. Then Alice had to put in her two cents about getting tired.

--

After a few movies and many minutes later, you had to get ready to meet Dwayne.

“Are you sure about going out this late with a guy you’ve only met once?” Richard asked, while cleaning up your living room with Chris. You were in the kitchen with Alice, cleaning off some plates.

“Well, you were the one that encouraged me to go on the date with your whimsical motions.” You replied.

“I think what he means is, are you going to be safe? There are a lot of missing people lately and we are in California.” Alice said, drying off a plate.

Oh yeah, there was that. That made you stop and think for a moment.

“Uh, well, I guess I hadn’t thought of that.” You said, setting a plate down in the soapy water.

“No! Don’t say that to them! It’s too late to get cold feet!” Ruth snapped, jolting from the couch. You turned to her and watched her pull something out from her purse.

“I’m going to give you these.” She said, pulling out pepper spray and a long nail file. “When I go on dates with people I've hardly met, I always take these incase the situation goes sour.” She continued, setting them down on the counter.

“I won’t take no for an answer, you are going to keep these on you.” She said seriously. You looked at the items and dried your hands.

“I guess I'll put these in my jacket pocket when he picks me up.” You said, going to inspect the objects. The nail filer was long and sharp. It looked like a miniature knife. Out of the corner of your eye, you saw Richard say something to Chris.

“It’s 10:11, you should go freshen up.” Alice said, coming behind you.

“Yeah, I don’t want him to think I lazed about all day.” you said, going to your bedroom. You changed your clothes and pulled out one of your favorite jackets. The pockets were deep and they had buttons on a little flap so no one could pickpocket you. You grabbed it and then headed over to your bathroom.

You brushed your teeth, washed your face, and made yourself look nice. When you decided you looked nice, you exited the bathroom and went back into the living room.

Your friends were all gathering their things to leave and were quietly talking amongst themselves.

“So what are you guys going to be doing for the rest of the night?” you asked, slipping on your shoes.

“I don’t know, I have to pack up my stuff to go back home for the summer.” Richard said, zipping up his jacket. You hummed at the idea. You were going to miss them when they went home. Alice lived the closest to Santa Carla, but she was still a ways out.

You looked over at the clock again and it read 10:20. Ruth mumbled something about grabbing late night snacks. You went over to the counter top and grabbed the nail file and pepper spray. Carefully, you placed them into the pockets and buttoned them up.

“We’re going to head out. Call us when you get in and I want to know all of the details about your fancy date.” Richard said, grabbing his keys.

“Don’t worry, I’ll tell you everything about it.” You said, as they all stood up to leave. Everyone said their goodbyes and they left in their separate cars. You sighed and went to go sit on your couch. Your mind began to drift back to what Richard said. If he was a bad person then you had a way to defend yourself.

You bit your lip in anticipation. You really hoped he wasn’t horrible. Carefully, you reached to pull out the nail file. You were carefully inspecting it and noticed how it looked more like a small knife. As you were looking over it, you heard the sounds of a motorcycle pull up in your driveway. You put the file back into your pocket, grabbed your house key and wallet, and put them in the pocket as well.

Awkwardly, you stood in your living room. You anticipated going out to meet him but that thought was cut off with a few knocks on the door. You walked over to the door and gently opened it to be met with Dwayne.

“Hey.” You said, as a smile crept onto your face. You noticed how he had a necklace on with seashells.

“Good evening, it’s nice to know that I got the address correct.” He said, looking you up and down. The small action made you a bit self conscious but it went away as he spoke again.

“So, where would you like to go?” He asked, moving to walk to his bike. You closely followed him.

“I was thinking about the boardwalk. If that’s alright with you?” you asked. He turned around to look at you.

“Yeah, the boardwalk is fine. I can show you the good things.” He answered.

“Good, I’ve only been there once or twice.” you replied and Dwayne smiled at you. He sat on his bike and turned to you, “Well, come hop on.”

You walked over to his bike and sat down behind him. As he started it up, you wrapped your arms around him.

“Please be careful.” You said as he began to drive. You could feel him chuckle at that. Before you could blink, he sped out of your neighborhood. Your grip on him tightened as he began to head to the boardwalk.

It was exhilarating if you were being honest with yourself. Dwayne wasn’t going too fast and you were thankful for that. You had never ridden on a motorcycle before so this was new.

As he drove, you noticed how the night felt different. Maybe it was because you were going on a date and you had first date jitters. You couldn’t tell and part of you wanted to keep the mystery to it.

Dwayne stopped at a red light and you leaned forward to talk.

“So, how long have you been driving this bike?” you asked as the wind started to pick up.

“For a while, I guess. I can’t exactly remember when I started driving it.” he replied, as the light turned green. You didn’t continue the conversation since you didn’t want him to get in a wreck.

Dwayne continued to drive carefully and at a decent speed. After a few more minutes, you two arrived at the boardwalk. He parked his bike and gently helped you off. You thought it was sweet that he was being such a gentleman.

“So, what would you like to do first?” He asked, standing next to you.

“I don’t know. You probably know your way around here better than me.” you answered.

He chuckled and held out his arm for you to take. You hesitated for a second before you took his arm.

“Have you ever played one of the games?” He asked as you two began to walk.

“I tried a few but, I never actually won anything.” You replied.

He chuckled, “Well, I can win you something. If you’d like that?” He asked.

You smiled, “Yeah, that would be nice.”

[jayflrt]

about the situation w sunoo & jungwon, i (1) saw the video on tiktok before it got cleared off the internet (2) am black, so i’m just going to give my two cents on it.

from what i remember, jungwon put on the filter & giggled for a couple seconds w it on. he clearly found it funny because he was chuckling for a couple of seconds before he moved onto the next filter. sunoo didn’t laugh like jungwon did but he smiled like he was holding in his laughter & giggled when he managed to change the filter like he’d been holding his laughter in.

as someone w 4c hair who still does not feel comfortable enough w her natural hair to wear it out, the fact that the filter exists alone is insulting & disrespectful. but the way they giggled hurts tbf. i can’t speak for all black people, but people reacting the way they did just feeds into the texturism that makes black ppl (esp those w 4a-4c hair) hate their hair.

to put it simply: it’s anti-black. and while i do realise they laughed out of ignorance, it doesn’t hurt any less. personally, i have a touchy experience w wearing my natural hair, so it hurts especially for me. for other black ppl w 4a-4c hair, they may not care 🤷‍♀️ but for those who are hurt/offended/upset, these reasons could possibly be why.

whew this was a bit long, but i hope i could help alice!

thank you for sharing this yin !! and i’m rlly sorry stuff like this still happens to the whole black community 😭 i didn’t rlly want to speak much on the matter other than acknowledging it happened because i’m not black so thank you for explaining it for me 😵‍💫

the filter is definitely anti-black and i truly hope jungwon and sunoo saw the gravity of the situation somehow and realized why it’s hurtful. i hope this helps anyone else who’s confused by it !!