#the Only thing that’s changed it i now prefers women’s footbal which also fits the lesbo narrative agshdhd

[perths]

my parents have been having a clear out and the drastic difference between my hobbies growing up and my straight sisters 😭 i’ve always been a huge lesbo i guess

[lucawrites11]

🇳🇴 norway women's national team 🇳🇴

full of some of woso's biggest stars but they can't produce consistent performances so how do they start utilising their strengths: a tactical analysis

psa: i got some unbelievably angry while making this because there is so much mismanagement in a team with so much potential with some of the world's best players and constantly producing young talent in a nation with a promising league

First of all, what are Norway's major problems:

poor decision making in the players that are called up

a lack of depth in the full-back roles specifically left-back and the defensive midfield options

inconsistency in both defence and attack with inabilities to regularly score and keep clean sheets

too much competition certain positions in the team and not enough in others means that players are not playing in a consistent starting eleven so it is impossible to see what players play well together and who should get starting positions

The current Norwegian set-up uses a 4-3-3 with no real consistency in the players. Leaving CGH, Engen, Reiten and Hegerberg on the bench when they are fully fit should be a crime. They haven't had a proper manager for a long time and past managers have created toxic environments. The hiring of Gemma Grainger seems to be a good decision for the team but the tactical decisions she is making and the players that she is calling up seem to reflect some continued poor decision making and for Norway to succeed - which they undoubtedly can - this needs to change. I just want to say now, I am not going to discuss the goalkeepers here, I have not seen them play enough and there doesn't seem to be any options available playing outside of Norway, this will focus on the play outfield.

1. the problems with the call-up list

One thing is missing: an obvious left-back but she exists and she's playing for Everton. Norway needs to call up Elise Stenevik. A major problem is they currently struggle to create chances and defend on the left wing with a centre back often playing out of position in the left back role and when a left back provides service to Guro Reiten and defending the opposition's right winger (often the stronger role in most teams) this is a major loss and it shows when Norway play.

I spent three days trying to come up with a decent starting eleven that just avoided full-backs altogether but it doesn't work well for Norway's players and requires creativity that just isn't possible at an international level where players are only with their coaches for ten days at a time. All other options still leave the wings vulnerable with neither Graham Hansen or Reiten natural wing-backs and it also requires possession-based football which wouldn't be possible against top teams. If you want to introduce consistency, you need to go another route which is finding a natural left back.

I will be the first to admit that Elise Stenevik is by no means Norway's best defensive option in their available call-up list BUT she has one thing over everyone else and that's that she's played two seasons at Everton as the preferred starting left-back and she knows how to play the role because it's hers.

now for a break in a wall of text with photos that i took of her

Elise is young and her weakness is in her defending but that will improve and it will improve even faster in the national team environment than it would just at club and as literally the only left back I can find, they need to get her into the set up now so she can become the best player because even if she's not starting eleven matierial now, she will be in the future.

She would also bring an extra dimension to Norway's attack. Her talent comes in her ability to create chances and with Reiten, Hegerberg and Graham Hansen to finish them, this could be crucial for Norway especially due to their inability to consistently score. She's also very good on the ball and winning fouls and she can also win duels defensively, she just needs more time to develop that skill which will come a lot more quickly with the guidance of Norway's talented defenders such as Mjelde and Thorisdottir who also have huge amounts of experience.

2. the problems of the lack of depth in defensive midfield and full backs

I just wrote an essay on the solution to the full back problem. If Grainger plays Tuva Hansen consistently at right back, those two full back positions are filled with young talent that will develop.

The defensive midfield is more of a problem. On paper this season at centre back, Ingrid Engen has had a better season than any other Norwegian centre back. Unfortunately, she's one of just two defensive midfield options for Norway. The other option is Lisa Naalsund who isn't getting consistent minutes at United. Engen is by far the best option and the lack of depth is forcing Norway to play her essentially out of what is now her position, something she has seemed to be struggling with in recent games. Especially as this comes when Engen is the only real consistent defensive player in the defensive midfield role while the backline behind her is constantly shifting whether that be the players playing or the positions those players are instructed to play in. This is a problem for which there is little solution but it must be highlighted as a problem that Norway have.

Meanwhile, the rest of the problems: inconsistency in attack and defense and inconsistent starting elevens can be solved by a tactical changes. currently, Norway uses a 4-3-3 but I think they can be better served by the more adaptable 4-1-4-1 that can be shifted into more defensive and attacking line-ups to be used in all types of games. It would also allow for their more creative and talented players to roam in space and play their natural roles.

personally, i'd set up the starting 11 like this with these subs/replacements due to the injury

Terland is also a possibility in Hegerberg's position as well as further back while Bizet can play in Román Haug's position too. Mjelde is also a CB option as Bjlede is a RB option in Hansen's place.

Román Haug is fast, she can act in the 10 role in this position, picking up the ball from Engen's and Maanum's passing in the midfield and getting it forward in central channels for Hegerberg like she's been doing for Liverpool all season. Hegerberg's positioning in the box alongside Graham Hansen can ensure that quick chances from the counter attack are capitalised on.

Stenevik's ability to create chances down the left as she's been doing all season at Everton combined with Reiten's ability to move back (something that Blakstad can do too) allows the defensive weakness that Stenevik holds on the left to be compensated for. Her chance creation can allow for overlapping runs with Reiten to get effective crosses into the box that both Hansen and Hegerberg can capitalise. Román Haug and her speed can also capitalise on these chances.

Maanum in the midfield places someone who is effective at both passing and dribbling centrally to create chances and hold up the ball with Engen in the midfield while players can move forward in order for possession to be capitalised on in order to create chances. she's also an effective option when the opposition team is defending in a low block to get a goal from outside of the box.

The backline in this 4-1-4-1 can quickly get support. The flexible formation allows Engen to drop into a CB position to create a 5 person backline which can effectively defend against the strongest teams. With Reiten's ability to also defend and Maanum's ability to drop into central midfield, the speed of Graham Hansen and Román Haug allow for quick counter-attacking measures with Hegerberg as the lone player forward, a role she is very capable of playing and she has done in UWCL matches for Lyon.

Ultimately, this line-up would allow for consistency in all matches whether it is when in a low block against a top team or a high press against a lower ranked team or in a match of equal possession in a team of the same calibre.

Overall, Norway would benefit from the call-up of a natural LB, a flexible tactical line-up that would work against all teams and consistency in the starting 11 in a 4-1-4-1 with Stenevik playing at LB. Norway would also benefit from Blakstad being recalled to the national team as a replacement and an option as opposed to Reiten if she's injured.

If you want more analysis of all these players' strengths, I'd love to do it but the photo limit won't let me add all the heat maps I want so I've left it out of this post so let me know, just drop me an ask with a name.

[freddiekluger]

Do you think that if the ghosts sees period dramas set in their time, it will reignite memories of their life?

i think it definitely depends on the accuracy and style of the drama- if they're too poorly researched, any attempts at reverie would be totally disrupted by the historical and visual inaccuracies (think: thomas yelling about the 'roccoco legs' during the byron shoot). of course the other big thing is setting: it's all well and good to watch to a movie set in your time period, but if it's based in a country you've never been to (especially for the older/less privileged ghosts like mary and robin, who probably didn't have much knowledge of the world outside of their continent when they were alive), it's not going to feel particularly familiar.

working on the assumption that we have at least partial historical and geographical accuracy, here's how i think each of the ghosts would respond to

robin: considering how little we actually know about early human history, i don't think robin would be that fussed by any attempt to put that on film- he'd still appreciate a good caveman joke, although he's not a big fan of how stupid every movie assumes they would have been (it's not like they had omega-3 tablets back then!). robin's unspeakably old, and for the most part he seems to have processed through all the parts of his past that he possibly can, and is now committed to enjoying his time at button house as much as he can (a big part of this is his prankster spirit and frankly underrated friendliness), so it would have to take a lot more than a stone age movie to rake up serious conflict.

mary: given her incredibly traumatic death, mary avoids virtually anything that hints of fire or witchcraft which is where things become difficult. i think mary could really enjoy a film set in her time if it follows a working family not dissimilar to her own- it could help her remember some of the positive things from her life, and probably help her feel a lot more seen as she often ends up misunderstood or ignored by the other ghosts (pat initially dismissing mary's advice about the camera work because he didn't think she properly understood what was happening; the ghosts focusing on correcting her speech more than what she actually says). the problem is, almost all movies set in mary's time that follow people from her class end up focusing on the witch trials, which is a BIG no no for her.

humphrey: i think humphrey could really enjoy watching some tudor set films. like mary, he often gets ignored (and straight up left behind), so watching a period film absolutely gives him the opportunity to feel a bit more seen and stew on those long forgotten memories like post-meal games of cards with friends, or the occasional hunting trip when the king came to visit (the trips themselves were more stressful than anything, but mouthing off about them with the king's entourage after he went to bed was always a highlight). humphrey would definitely have a keen eye for inaccuracies, but i don't think they'd bother him. it's just nice to have things be about him for a change (if by him, we mean having all the ghosts watching something that is vaguely related to his alive-period and actually looking to him with questions instead of just using his head as their personal football/security camera/magic 8ball).

kitty: kitty is one of the ghosts who accesses her memories pretty easily- she has no problem with thinking about her life, even when the anecdotes are screamingly sad to anyone listening. so a period film would naturally bring some memories, but i don't know if they'd be anything radical or new- kitty's real growth and drama would come from her leaving behind the rationalisations of what clearly was severe neglect. actually on that note, while not quite kitty's environment, i think she might get a lot out of Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette. something about the themes of the loneliness that comes with growing up in high society and only being valued for what your status and your biology can give to your family and your husband (who you likely didn't choose), along with feeling like an outsider and being visibly othered, even by those you outrank, no matter how friendly and approachable and like them you make yourself (while not necessarily linked to the broader themes of familial neglect kitty's character touches on, i think her experiences as a georgian noblewoman of colour would have to have impacted her growing up and also socially- i'd love to hear any thoughts on this from fans of colour, as i'm white and so any theories i could come up with would likely be a poor approximation). and she'd definitely like the pretty dresses and stunning rooms of versailles, and for that i can't blame her.

thomas: most of thomas we sort of got to see in Free Pass- the detail nitpicking, the excitement until a specific trigger from his life (in this case, lord byron, the man thomas considers his greatest enemy, although i’d be curious to know whether byron acually had any idea of thomas thorne’s existence) causes him to go into a full thomas hissy-fit. sure, the emotion is real to him, but he absolutely plays it up, even trying to get humphrey’s body to fetch alison so she can see how ‘upset’ he is (thomas reminds me of a child in this respect).  there’d probably be less of the tantruming for a movie that had already been made, although i’m not so sure about the memory point. The Thomas Thorne Affair sort of brought out thomas’s big Unresolved Life Mystery, and now i think all that’s left for him to work through has got to be a lot more internal. sure, he’d be reminded of a few good old parties, and maybe any romance scenes might trigger some of the sad isabelle/general lost love emotions, but i don’t think they’d be anything particularly spectacular. 

fanny: now fanny would be a real stickler for accuracy. she would be calling out every makeup, decorative, hair, wardrobe, architectural, and lingual failure with the classic lady button judgement in her voice. this is probably half because she can't help herself, but half a measure to distract herself from actually having to pay proper attention and relive her life. i think fanny struggles a lot with no longer running her own household (along with the shifting morals, and fashions, of the modern world), and so to be reminded of everything she can no longer have would be tough. i'm not saying she would long for a time when women didn't have a lot of rights, but she went from a wealthy society woman who held a lot of power in her own sphere to a ghost, unable to touch anything or even be seen by the living (save for the photo glitch), and stuck spending her days with a motley crew of equally frustrating ghosts whom she doesn't always feel respected by (noting that 'respect' to fanny is much the same as deference). she could have it a lot worse, but i think fanny would much prefer to not have to think about her old life.

the captain: the captain is an interesting one. he's one of the few ghosts who actively seeks out media related to his time, although that's within the impersonal war documentary which focuses on facts and mechanics as opposed to day to day realities and feelings. on the one hand, any war film for the captain would be sure to rake up memories of wartime (even if he never made the front- that remains unconfirmed), and the immense grief that comes with watching the people around you slowly stop returning home. the captain is a war fanatic, and has no problem talking about the great battles, victories, and tactics, so i think the heightened emotional states that a film presents would be the key to unlocking the captain's inevitable wartime trauma and going beyond the surface level facts. for that reason, i'd really like the captain to see Peter Weir's Gallipoli. i know it's the wrong war and the wrong country (although the australian's were technically part of the British forces), but i think the overarching themes of the idolisation of the military, the deconstruction of the glory of war, and the intense (bordering on the homoerotic) although never quite realised relationship between Archy and Frank (which, spoiler alert, ends in tragedy), could give the captain a lot in terms of food for thought and unlocking some of those deeper experiences. on the other hand, the captain watching a period film set in the years before his war could be equally interesting- i think they'd play on some his is insecurities and general issues surrounding the difficulty he may have had fitting in with day-to-day life (not just due to his homosexuel répression, but due to his broader issues with fitting in socially which we see through his interactions with both the ghosts and his own forces- some particularly valid fans have used these to headcanon cap as autistic). in short, films would unlock a fair few memories for cap, but even more EMOTIONS.

pat: with pat and julian it gets interesting because while yes, technically any movie set in a non-current time period is a ‘period piece’, you also have to deal with the fact that they’re going to have less impact on their respective ghosts because you also have actual movies from those periods floating around. for this reason, my answers for pat and julian are relatively similar: they wouldnt have any more memories appear than for any film coming from while they were alive. for pat, this means he’d get pretty excited about ones that came from his childhood (pat would be a giant sci fi fan don’t @ me he loves technology), but i think anything that came with too strong a family attachmet, or that he watched in the weeks/months/year leading up to his death might bring out the angry pat we saw in Happy Death Day and Perfect Day. anger is how his inherent death trauma (and the additional loss that comes from the world moving on without you) manifests, so i definitely think that would come out here, even if he isn’t quite able to put his finger on why specific movies make him so angry/irritated. for pat, childhood memories would abound, but the closer we get to his death, there’s less memories but definitely more unresolved emotion.

julian: see my point above about the whole period-film-vs-regular-film thing. julian doesn’t really strike me as a movie person, and i definitely think he wouldn’t give much care to the influx of 80s/90s set british political media (think The Iron Lady etc). in his words, “i don’t really care for politics, and they’re all too busy trying to push their labor propaganda”. he just makes a captain-inspired noise when alison reminds him that he WAS a politician. julian is another character who accesses his memories pretty easily (although they’re usually either horny or at least slightly morally bankrupt), and i honestly find it hard to give a tory emotions so i’m very excited to see how the christmas special manages. julian is a self-centred bloke though, so i think only things that are directly about him could have the power to rake up buried memories and feelings. now i really want to see julian watching a documentary on himself and just getting outraged.

thanks for this one, sorry for the delay!!

[miedemabc]

Miedema Volkskrant interview

Interesting interview with Vivianne Miedema in the Dutch paper De Volkskrant, December 29th 2020.

She is the socially-minded top shooter among women's soccer players. Vivianne Miedema (24) has been an ambassador for War Child, which cares about the suffering of children in war zones, for a year now.

Vivianne Miedema is the top marksman in the English women's league with an average of one goal per game: 53 goals in 52 duels. The striker of Arsenal and Oranje is the face of the English league. These days in London they recognize her on the street. 'If I turn on the TV, there's a good chance I'll see myself within five minutes.' With a laugh: 'That's why the TV is off now. But I also enjoy it and I'm in a position to make women's soccer bigger. I take that opportunity.'

Miedema is a self-confident, young woman with self-mockery and ability to put things into perspective. 'We are also frustrated that no one can come to our matches, that I can't go home for Christmas, but that's all part of it. We have to set the right example.'

What is it, one time not going to Holland, compared to the situation of teammate Jennifer Beattie, who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer? She had surgery and immediately said she wanted to play soccer again. 'We are supporting her as best we can.'

Miedema let the year 2020 come to mind. In the beginning, when corona had just broken out, you saw solidarity everywhere, fighting for a better world. Now it's more me me me again. It's just a difficult situation for everyone.'

Black Lives Matter While soccer lay dormant for a time, sport raised its voice against injustice. 'Black Lives Matter, for example, in which America and the United Kingdom are leading the way. We still kneel before games. Soccer is a great example where everything and everyone can come together. You see that in our team as well.'

She knows that men's soccer is more diverse. 'Women's soccer is several years behind. In youth leagues you see more and more mixed, dark teams. That development is positive. At Arsenal we don't have any dark-skinned players at the moment. Ten years ago it was unthinkable for many black families to allow their daughters to play soccer. In the next ten years that's going to change.'

A lot has changed since Miedema made her entrance into professional life as a girl. 'Nobody expected the growth of women's soccer to be so great. That also has to do with developments in the world, with women power. That movement is also helping us. At the same time, the level is rising, while we still have 100,000 steps to take. As for myself, I have an excellent income and can save easily. Girls in the Netherlands, and also in England, don't earn much yet and often have to do something on the side.

That is going to change, she thinks. It continues to grow, especially with three consecutive tournaments three years in a row: Olympic Games, European Championship and World Championship. That's great. Becoming more visible. Take the Champions League: the NOS broadcasted it for the first time via a live stream. Until recently it was nowhere to be seen. If that changes, it's easier for sponsors to get on board, to get recognition.'

Matches in the English league can be seen on the app FA Player, on BT, commercial TV, and sometimes on the BBC. 'We have world stars running around in the Dutch national team these days. That's inspiring for young girls. It's up to us routiniers to bring youngsters in and make them feel comfortable to be able to give as many players a good future as possible. I don't play soccer for money. I also pass that on to young girls. If you base your choices on that, you have forgotten who you are and what you are playing soccer for. Money should never be the driving force.'

Fit and hungry The 24-year-old Miedema remains fit and hungry, no matter how hypothermic she celebrates her goals. Six months without soccer, from March to September, has done her good, after all those double years with club soccer and internationals. With friend and teammate Lisa Evans, she took the car to Scotland, where Evans is from.

We spent four or five months there. Switching off from soccer for a while. I've never enjoyed exercises in the gym and running so much. That says it all. I play soccer because I like the game. Tactically I just want to be good enough that you don't have to run alone. But during the lockdown it was the only option, to not have to sit inside.

'Lisa was my pt, my personal trainer. We were super fit for the new season. In Scotland we had so much freedom. We went hiking, walking. Soccer, tennis, padel. For six months it was a normal human life.'

She started studying: for the Uefa B trainer's diploma, plus a master's in Football Business. That's the first time since she left for Germany as a 17-year-old to play soccer at Bayern. 'I never had the energy, the will and the time to study again. Now I do, and it's fun.'

Constantly broadening her horizons is one of her goals. For example, she has been an ambassador for War Child for a year now, which cares about the suffering of children in war zones. She already noticed during the World Cup in France (2019) that children were following her. I already loved War Child as a child. My mother was an assistant mother at school. Of course I could play a little sport. At every charity run it was up to me whether we raised enough money.

My mother made me aware of the fact that we in the Netherlands, I in any case, have a good position, and that in the rest of the world it is not so easy. During the World Cup I was in my bubble, but after that I saw pictures and movies. Sport is a distraction for many children, which allows them to eliminate suffering and have fun.'

She was previously with the Dutch national team in South Africa, where the team visited townships in Cape Town. 'When you see how much fun you can give children with sport, you want to do it as often as possible. I will never forget how two girls of about 9 years old ran up to me afterwards and wanted to hug me, as a thank you. That was so special, they didn't have to think about danger or violence. With War Child I hope to make a nice trip.

Gigantic response By necessity, in 2020 she was an ambassador who stayed inside. 'Online I was able to do a lot. Movies, videos with examples of exercises. I get a huge response from all over the world. Not only from children, also from parents, from people who like what I do. For me, recording a video like this is a small thing and I can make a lot of people happy with it. Stretching, moving, playing soccer, playing sports. And sometimes get to interact by putting everyone else to work.'Children also take initiatives by raising money. 'It's nice to see kids showing social agility, especially now that we have to keep today's youth somewhat in check and steer them in the right direction.'She laughs a little at that term, youth of today. 'If you are a part of something, you are all in it together. That's why I play soccer and I don't play tennis. Kids push each other to do the best they can for other kids.'Now the season is back in full swing. She is top marksman of all time in the English Premier League and was recently chosen again in Fifa's team of the year. European champion, second in the world. And then she still has a soccer life ahead of her. 'I would like to say that I will continue for another ten years, but you never know. I would prefer to stop at my peak.'Again with a laugh: 'I've broken quite a few records, so maybe I'm already at my peak. But I'm definitely not someone who wants to continue at the highest level if I can't take it anymore. I also hope that people around me will then say: Viv, it's not sitting out anymore, please, stop it.'Miedema bettered Nikita Parris' British goalscoring record in October, with the difference that her predecessor scored about one goal every two games, while Miedema needs one game for a goal.  'I can only run out, but above all I want to help the team. One hundred goals for the national team would be very nice.' She is on 70 and is the all-time record holder. Most of the goals I can still remember. They are all in my head.'

https://www.volkskrant.nl/sport/topschutter-vivianne-miedema-voetbal-niet-voor-het-geld-leer-ik-jonge-meiden~b27b2994/

[buildmeafairytale]

Female Werewolf Reader X Female Human

Hi everyone! So it’s been a little while since I’ve posted a story and I figured it was due time! Summer classes have been insane (but almost over, send good vibes) and I finally made time to finish up this request for a werewolf girlfriend. Enjoy!

It is the start of a new school year, and I am excited to meet the sweet little cherubs that will grace my classroom. I’m also excited to meet the parents, but I have a feeling I’ll know most of them already. It’s a very small town and most everyone knows each other, and a lot of the people I had gone to school with myself are having kids. 

First days are always hectic, and this is no exception. The day went by somewhat normally though, until the school wide assembly. The school was a large campus, and went all the way from pre-K to grade twelve, the buildings kept a bit apart. I had my kids walk over to the auditorium, where I caught the most heavenly scent in the air. I tried to inhale a bit more and trace the scent, almost frenzied with it, but I couldn’t lose sight of the kids. Most of them were pups themselves and wouldn’t be too put off with me sniffing the air, but I didn’t want to look ridiculous to those few who were human. 

I just hoped that whatever the origin of the scent was would be in the auditorium, or that I would be able to slip out and trace it. I stopped my class right outside the doors and gave them a reminder.

“Okay class! So what do we do in the auditorium?” I call on Sara, a little girl who always has her hand up.

“We don’t talk and we raise our hands if we need you for anything!” She yells out, excited to know the answer. I give her a thumbs up.

“Yes class! We stay quiet in there, and if you’re the most quiet class you all get a treat when we get back to class!” I tell them, and get a little army of ‘yays’ and other excited responses in return. I smile, not my phoney teacher smile but one of excitement. I think I am going to have a fun year working with these students. We file into the auditorium, and the elementary, middle, and high schools are all kept on different sides. The kindergarten classes are placed in between older students, so they can serve as a good example. I stand next to my kids, and make small talk with a few of the other teachers.

 I catch the scent again, stronger now, and I look around trying to trace it. The superintendent starts to speak, but I can’t concentrate on him. Nothing he is saying is important to me anyway, the topics of the assembly already covered for the staff. He then goes to introduce the new assistant coach to the High School’s football team, and if I was a lesser woman and shifter, I would have changed right then. Her name is Megan Flynn, and she graduated from a large university where she helped coach and manage the football team. She has dirty blonde hair to the top of her chest, and looms over the superintendent by a half a foot, who already dwarfs me in size. She is in the Talon Valley colors of green and silver, and the warm up all the football coaches are given clings to her in all the right places. She is well muscled and I am overcome with images of what she could do to me with arms like that. 

I feel my jaw going slack, and my heart starts to race. As I look at her and isolate her scent, I know that I have chosen her. The wolf within me has set her eyes on her mate, and a low rumble leaves me. The children do not notice, but a few other staff members who are wolves do, the teacher beside me nudging me and giving me an odd look. I turn to look at her and tell her sorry, but when she catches my gaze she knows what I am experiencing. She had found her mate years prior and knows this look well. She congratulates me, and I can barely breath.  Megan is also going to be working in my building, in the IT department. I can already feel the wheels turning in my head. 

I’ve always been especially illiterate with computers. Not ridiculously so, compared to the older teachers, but definitely at the lower end of the spectrum for my generation. Me calling IT would not be out of place at all, and I always had trouble setting things up at the beginning of the year. Hopefully she would have time to settle in, and then we can meet. I hate to feel so meddlesome, but this is tame for me at the moment. If I wasn’t holding back, I would have transformed and thrown her over my shoulder in the middle of the whole school district. 

I spend the time here memorizing her face, and the superintendent gives her the microphone to introduce herself. I look on starry eyed as she tells everyone how excited she is to work with them, and as she looks around we lock eyes, only for a moment. It is all I need, I know she is meant to be mine. 

She is human, though, that much is clear. She does not know the secrets of this town, so I have to tread carefully. I already feel my skin bristling at the thought of hiding this from her, but there are rules and traditions, and I will not reveal myself to her until I am confident she will not tell others. Many of the humans who live here know the truth, but the town is good about keeping things quiet. I have so many thoughts running through my mind, will she like me? Does she like women? Will she be disgusted by who I really am? I try to calm myself though, if she is truly meant to be my mate then everything should be okay. I hope that the universe would not be so cruel to let me find such a good mate only for them to not be interested at all. 

The assembly goes by and I am on edge; I wonder how long it will take for this feeling to go away. I persist, though, and manage to corral the kids back into the room. The rest of the day goes by smoothly, and soon enough I am at home with a glass of wine. I have my tablet in hand, and I may or may not be looking at my potential mate’s social media. Or lack thereof, I suppose. All she has is a facebook that is reserved for not much more than people telling her happy birthday. But hey, at least now I know when her birthday is. It is a stark difference from my frequently updated instagram, twitter, and facebook. I sigh and push away my tablet, and my kitten Rumi jumps onto my coffee table, nudging himself into my palm. I can’t help but let a fond smile take over my face, glad he took a break from his bird watching to give me some attention.

The next week is filled with me getting to know my students and introducing them to the material, and while I have a few tech problems, I’m more nervous than I thought I would be about calling Megan to my classroom. Everytime I want to call her, I get scared and busy myself. I can only avoid this so long, and one day at lunch she comes in and introduces herself to everyone. I feel like an idiot when she looks at me, and when she shakes my hand I somehow manage to get an appropriate greeting out. Some of the other werewolf staff members are hiding their snickers and grins behind hands and coffee mugs, finding my situation amusing. At least they know who she is to me, and they won’t attempt to move in on my territory.

I try to shake myself out of these possessive thoughts and make subtle conversation with Megan. She has the most striking blue eyes I have ever seen, though, and I have trouble focusing. I try so hard to remember everything about her. She takes her coffee black, which I find hot for some reason. She’s friendly and sits by me, and I ask her how she’s liked coaching so far. At this she lights up, and starts to get excited.

“Oh, it’s been so great! I think the boys are gonna do really well this year too. The first game is Friday, hopefully you’ll be there!” She beams at me, and at that moment she could have asked anything of me. 

“I wouldn’t miss it!” I reply, trying to sound just the right amount of eager. A few more snickers from my colleagues tell me that I may have over done it, but I don’t care. I’m going to start my plan tomorrow.  

Of course, I really do have an IT problem and need to call her. I get nervous again and try to solve the problem myself, but when I see how restless my students are getting I put in a request for IT and help them start a different activity. She arrives quickly, and gets to work on my crashing computer. She bends over to adjust the cords, and I quickly avert my eyes so I don’t drool over her thick ass in front of 20 kindergarteners. 

“Oh wow, they have you hooked up to a really old system, no wonder this keeps crashing on you. Let me upgrade this for you, we have a ton in the IT department. It might take me a little while, though. Is that alright?” She is kneeling on the floor, pulling cords and removing equipment while she says this, and I quickly agree.

“Sure, that sounds good! Recess and lunch are coming up anyway, so if you don’t mind working through recess I can get us lunch?” I ask her, feeling as if my heart is beating in my mouth. 

“You don’t have to get me lunch, it’s literally my job to fix this,” she teases at me, but my instinct is to provide for my mate, and I feel as though lunch will be a good way to spend more time with her. 

“I was going to order some food anyway, any preference?” I ask her, moving over to get my phone and place an order. She tells me what she wants and I order it for us, a smile on my face. 

Megan goes to get the computer parts she mentions, but before she leaves one of my students pulls on her hand, and tells her he needs to tell her a secret. Had I been human, I would not have been able to hear him, but I do. He pulls Megan down, and I am mortified.

“Ms. Flynn, my mommy told me that Ms. Hallaway thinks you're cute,” he whispered, then erupts into a fit of giggles.

“Oh, is that right?” I hear her whisper back, watching him nod before he walks away. Megan’s face turns bright red, and she has a small smile on her lips. I feel my face turning red, too, so I turn away and busy myself so she doesn’t see. I hope she isn’t scared away now, but that didn’t seem like too bad of a response. 

She leaves and I take the kids out for recess, grabbing our delivery food on the way back in. I sit our food down but then I hear her a crash outside of the room. I know it is Megan before I see her, and she’s fumbling with a bunch of equipment stacked so high in her arms thatI can't see her face. 

“What are you doing?” I scold her good naturedly, and come to try to take some of the parts out of her arms.

“Wait, I got it! It’s heavy, be careful!” she says to me, but I have already taken more than half of the equipment for her. I can tell she is confused at how I can carry all of this, but I just shrug.

“Don’t look so surprised, I work out,” I tell her, smiling at the fact she can see where she is going now. 

She smiles back, and conversation flows easily throughout our lunch. She talks about her new house, and I know just the one she is talking about. It isn’t far from mine at all, and she tells me that once she unpacks she would love to have me over. The next day I come in for a coffee and note on my desk. 

“Thanks for lunch, hope this brightens your morning!” -Megan

This is sweet and surprising, but I don’t want to let myself take it the wrong way. I don’t want to get my hopes up and think she’s courting me back, but the werewolf cavewomen part of my brain is jumping to all kinds of conclusions. I don’t want to just be her friend, I want to be much more than that with her.

The courting started out innocently enough, really. I would bring her coffee, or other little snacks I knew she liked and would just conveniently have extra of. I became her friend fast, and while I haven’t gotten to the next step of the courting process, I don’t know if it’s time yet. I want nothing more than to patrol her property in my other form, to brush against bushes and trees and leave my scent to warn all others away, but I want her to know my intentions first. I want her to know what I am, and want me back the way I want her. 

On Friday, Megan stops into my room. Football is a big deal at Talon Valley, and now that all the little ones know she is a coach they get very excited. They’re all in the silver and green colors, and she takes her time to give high fives and say hi to them all before coming over to me, and nodding for me to meet her in the hall. She pulls something from behind her back, and hands me a bag. 

“So you’ve been here a while and I know you probably have plenty to wear to the game, but I thought that you might wear this and rep me in the stands,” she tells me, tugging on her hair and a hopeful smile on her face. When I open up the cute bag, also decked out in school colors, I see one of her coaching jerseys. I let out an excited squeak, and hold it up. It will be huge on me, and I can’t wait to be wrapped up in her jersey, her name on the back and her scent clinging to it. 

“Oh my gosh yes! This is so sweet, of course I’ll wear it!” I tell her, already pulling it over the Talon High tee-shirt I have on. She turns an even darker shade of red, and I don’t bother resisting the urge to hug her. She hugs me back, and if she wasn’t holding on I would have swooned like some 16th century maiden in her thick arms. I can feel her heart racing, and I’m sure mine matches. 

By the time the football game rolled around I was itching to see her coach. I thought about how assertive she would be, and I felt myself get excited at the prospect of seeing her in her element. I’m in her jersey, with little green and silver glitter stripes under my eyes. I’m in the front section of the student section along with a handful of other teachers, and the players run out onto the field. I lose myself in the hype of it all, and I’m cheering with my friends, waving at Megan down on the field when she spots me. I didn’t do these kinds of things in high school much, and it’s fun to be able to enjoy them now. She’s a great coach, and when I see her get fired up and celebrate with the boys, I just smile. We won the game, and there are plans for a big celebration after. I’m not big on parties though, and the only one I would be interested in seeing is Megan. I don’t want to bother her when there are plenty of other people who want to talk to her, though, so I start to head to my car.

I’m getting out my keys when I hear Megan call out for me. “Hey! You’re headed to coach Mather’s right? I can drive us if you want!” She jogs up to me with a grin, and I couldn’t possibly go home now. 

���Sure, that sounds good! And good job out there, you guys did great!” I tell her, all plans of an early night gone. She loops her arm around one of mine, so casually and familiar, and leads us to her truck. 

“I know right! I’m so stoked we won! And they let me make so many calls about who to pull and switch around, and I put Dion in to start and he really proved himself!” She talks through this while giving me a boost into her truck that has my cheeks flushing, her hands so big around my waist. 

“Oh crap, I forgot I have to feed my kitten! I knew I was forgetting something.” 

“No problem, we can stop at yours on the way?” She offers up a solution, and I feel bad for being a annoyance. 

“I’m sorry, yeah that would work,” I tell her, not wanting to ruin her plans but knowing I need to feed Rumi. 

“Not a problem at all, just tell me where to go,” she sends another heart stopping smile my way, and luckily my house is on the way, too.  We stop in, and Rumi comes up to say hello, yelling at Megan and I for attention.

“Aw he looks like a little toasted marshmallow, don’t you sweetheart?” Megan peers down at Rumi, and I think my heart might burst. She fawns over him while I feed him, and a calmness comes over me from seeing my intended mate cozy in my home. 

I hear her come closer as I’m getting things ready to leave, and her hands are on either side of me, planted on the counter top. My heart is racing, and on every inhale I can smell her, so sweet that I feel dizzy. She leans in and I feel her breath brushing against my ear.

“Hi,” she whispers, and I reply the same, my voice cracking.

“Tell me I haven’t been reading this wrong, sweetheart?” She asks me, and a hand brushes the hair away from the back of my neck

“You haven’t been,” I reply, breathless and tilting my head more to the side. The first brush of her lips against my neck has me digging my hands into the counter. The full moon is only in a few days, and it takes so much of my control to not let a hair shift out of place. 

“Good,” she tells me, turning my head to meet her lips. The kiss is sweet and soft, yet I’m breathing like I’ve run a mile. We share syrupy grins, and we head back out to go to the party. This time, when she boosts me into the truck she lets her hands linger. I feel like a teenager again, going to a party after a football game dressed up in my crush’s jersey. It’s a good feeling, and it’s a fun night spent with her by my side, everyone celebrating her success and good judgement. We snuggle up by the bonfire and drink and bullshit with the other coaches. When she drops me off late at night, she asks when we can do this again. I try not to seem too eager, but I can’t help it. I invite her over for dinner the next night, and she kisses me goodbye with a promise to bring desert. 

After the shared kiss and the semi date we went on, I feel guilty. I feel as though I am lying to her about what I am, and this was all under false pretenses. The horrible little voice in my head is hard to ignore, and I decide that after dinner I will tell her. The idea of laying everything out in the open like that scares me, but it needs to be done. 

I make a big dinner and throw myself into cooking and cleaning up before she comes. I spend the hour before she gets here getting ready, trying to look my best for her. The table is set and everything is perfect when she rings the doorbell. Opening it, I see that she brought flowers and chocolate cake from my favorite bakery. Dinner goes well, but I know she can tell I’m nervous and I’m ready to just rip the band-aid off. I don’t want to scare her, though.

“I think I need to tell you something,“ I whisper, wringing my hands out in front of me and my eyes cast down.  

“Sweetheart, I don’t like how upset you look. What’s wrong?” she asks, her warm hand titling up my chin to look at her. 

“I’m not - this town isn’t -” I take a deep breath and stop myself, her hands starting to run up and down my arms. I go to try to speak again, but she shushes me. 

“Baby, if this is about the whole werewolf thing and living in a town full of supernatural creatures, I already know,” she tells me, concern and compassion lacing her voice, still attempting to sooth me. 

My eyes go wide and I feel my jaw go slack. Someone else in the town, one of the elders, must have already filled her in. That was the tradition when a newcomer was becoming permanent and trusted in the town, one of the elders or council members would tell them a bit of the history and secrets of the town. They must have done this quickly after finding out she was my mate. 

My brain is still trying to catch up to what is going on when she leads me over to the love seat, draping me across her lap with an arm wrapped around my waist. 

“What?” I ask her, “You know...about me?” I ask her dumbly, and she just nods, her other hand in my hair. 

“I’m coaching hormonal teenage boys all day, some of which happen to be werewolves. Some of them something else, still not sure what the fuck that kid Matt is,” she shrugs. “I was clued into it pretty early, and then the old lady next door kinda filled in some of the gaps for me.” She explains this to me so calmly, and I feel so much of the anxiety I have been harboring leave my body. 

“You aren’t mad?” I ask her, still seeking reassurance.

“No, how could I be mad? It took me a minute to figure out you were one too, but I noticed a few things and Moira is a gossiping old bitty and ruined the surprise. Something about mates and courting that sounded an awful lot like the sweet teacher bringing me coffee and sweets,” she jests, still maintaining a smile. 

“Can I ask a question, though?” she asks, and I nod.

“Anything,” I tell her, hoping it won’t be a deal breaker.

“Coach Ben is the hairiest man I’ve ever seen, he’s something, right?” I can’t hold it in anymore, and burst out in giggles, the tension in my chest finally giving way completely. 

“Nope, just a hairy guy,” I confirm, happy she is taking this so well. 

“So we’re good then? You really want me to be your mate?” A hint of doubt clouds her words, one that I quickly assuage with my eager nod and heated look. She pulls me into a kiss by the collar of my shirt, aggressive and dominant and everything I want from her. Soon the buttons are undone, and she gives a groan when the lace of my bralette peeks out, bending down to kiss the straps out of the way. We stumble our way through the house, a trail of clothing left behind us. She falls onto my bed and encourages me to join her.

She kisses me again, hands wrapped around my face. I cannot help the whining sounds leaving me, and as she pulls me onto her legs I start to shift. I’m trying to stop it from happening, knowing she is attracted to me as a human is enough. She accepts the wolf in me, but I am unsure if she will still want me in this way when I turn. She must sense my struggle, though, and kisses me harder. This is when I smell her, the want coming off of her only increasing when her tongue brushes against my growing canines. I cannot stop it any longer. My ears grow and pull back away from my face, my mouth and jaw elongate, and hair turns to fur and covers my body. I feel bones snapping and rearranging, and muscle clumping up in different spots. The change is like breathing for me, and when I look down Megan is mesmerized. I am only slightly bigger this way, and I still feel small in her arms. 

I bend down and rub the side of my face against her’s, then her neck and chest. I lose myself in scenting her, and it’s only when I hear a breathy laugh that I pull back.  Her face is flushed and she has an amused smile on her face. 

“Need me to smell like you honey?” She coos at me, and I nod and let out a whine, hips rolling over hers from where I am seated.

“How else is everyone supposed to know you’re my mate?” I speak into her ear, letting a growl rumble out. A choked out sound escapes her and her hands reach for my hips. She pulls them towards her and flexes her thigh under my core. I let my teeth graze her ear as my clawed hands find her breasts, pulling and tweaking them. Her thigh is slick from my pussy, and my knee brushes against hers on every thrust of my hips. I want to taste her, but as I go to move she pulls me up to straddle her face, the movement so effortless for her that the display of strength has a moan leaving my mouth. This is followed by another when she licks a broad stripe up to my clit, swirling her tongue around it. 

I’m mewling and gyrating my hips as she feasts on me, my hands hanging onto the headboard. Megan locks her arms around my thighs and pulls me down harder onto her mouth, and I feel my core start to tighten. A litany of moans and ‘don’t stops’ fall out of my lips as my climax overtakes me. I twitch and jerk above her before going limp, and with a final stroke of her tongue against my clit, she sets me down as if I am a doll instead of the clawed, muscled beast I currently am. She bestows gentle kisses upon me, covering my chest, collarbones, and working her way up to my muzzle. 

“You look smug.” I tell her with a smile, finally getting my breath back.

“Hmm do I? Seems like I have a good reason,” she teases back.

I growl at her and flip her back to her back, a hand on each side of her head. “I think I could fix that,” I tell her, and proceed to move down her body. I open up my wide jaw, and lave my tongue over her, drinking her in. I’m mindful of my claws pressing into her skin, but the thoughts of my marks decorating her excites me. My tongue enters her, thick and pressing against her walls, and I look up at her, our eyes locking. She looks back at me, and deep moans are leaving her. Heaving breaths force her chest up and down, and I feel as though I’m seeing stars all over again when she comes apart for me, her hips pushing further into my widened jaws. I feel insatiable, and it is only when she starts to pull away that I make my retreat. She’s still twitching and dazed minutes later, praise falling from her lips that I soak up. 

As I lay there with her, tucked into her arms, I am looking forward to the future with my mate. The games in her jersey, the visits to my classroom, and the many made up IT problems I will surely have are all waiting for us. She rolls over, and pets me in a way that has me melting.

“You think we’re done already? My mate, I am nowhere near finished with you yet,” she tells me, and I am grateful for whatever in the universe gave my mate such an appetite. 

[firesidefantasy]

so last night i realised i had almost hit 500 posts on this account. and then i had the brilliant, genius idea to make a post with 500 facts about monster house for my 500th post.

this was not a genius idea in any way shape or form.

i am not a genius.

but i did it anyway, so now i present to you:

five-hundred-fucking-facts about monster house

enjoy. 

KENZI

1) Kenzi was abandoned as a baby 2) She was adopted by Monster House 3) She does not know when her birthday is 4) Her best friend growing up was Toby 5) Kenzi thought she was a vampire when she was a kid 6) She went around biting people’s necks for weeks 7) Kenzi loves photography, Instagram, and modelling 8) She has ran four marathons and six 10ks 9) She has been dying her hair since she was 14 10) Kenzi’s favourite chocolate brand is Cadbury’s 11) She loves cooking and hosting parties 12) She hates being human and wishes she was a monster too 13) She is almost fluent in French 14) Kenzi has no idea what she wants to be when she’s older 15) She never wants to leave Monster House 16) Kenzi is always chewing gum

HARLOW 17) Harlow dyes her hair black 18) She plays drums because her dad told her it was for boys 19) She plays basketball because her dad told her it was for boys 20) Her mum died three years ago and Harlow has never got over it 21) She lives with her dad, their relationship is recovering 22) Harlow won’t leave the house without a beanie 23) She loves video games like overwatch and call of duty 24) She is absolutely shit at video games 25) Doritos are her favourite snack 26) Harlow has lost count of how many cousins she has 27) If she could be any monster, she’d be a vampire 28) She’s in a college band called ‘4am’ 29) They’ve played three actual gigs so far 30) Harlow wants to be in a famous band 31) Harlow does NOT want to ever get a real job 32) She writes a lot of songs 33) Nobody will ever see these songs 34) She hates the beach 35) The only thing she hates more than the beach is spelling errors 36) She also hates vegetables and weather over 20 degrees C 37) She loves the sound of rain and thunder 38) She hoards TV boxsets and prefers them over Netflix 39) She loves antique stores and charity shops 40) She has an impressive vinyl collection

TOBY 41) Toby is bisexual but prefers guy 42) He’s known he was bisexual since discovering Tom Holland 43) His favourite superhero is Iron Man 44) Spider man is a close second 45) Toby wanted to be a superhero when he was a kid 46) Now he wants to be a super villain (#edgyteen) 47) He’s enrolled in school part time 48) Avoiding sunlight makes school difficult 49) The kids at school joke that he’s a vampire because of this 50) They don’t know why that’s so funny 51) He plays bass guitar but never lets anyone else listen 52) Except Matty. Sometimes he joins in with the ‘drums’ 53) Toby loves going to the skate park at night 54) He once wrote a 500 word essay on why the moon is better than the sun 55) He knows every constellation and loves stargazing 56) He loves sitting on his dad’s balcony and watching the stars 57) Toby doesn’t know who his mum is 58) Metal and rock music is his favourite 59) He chews on his finger to satisfy his desire to bite things 60) Sometimes he’s tempted to see if he could bite his finger off 61) He never has 62) Toby loves tomato ketchup 63) Immortality intimidates him 64) He only wears band tee shirts 65) He starts wearing beanies everywhere after meeting Harlow 66) Toby idolises Harlow 67) His favourite food is pancakes with chocolate sauce 68) Kenzi makes him pancakes to apologise after they fight 69) Toby buys her bars of chocolate to apologise 70) Kenzi and Toby bicker a lot 71) They are also best friends 72) Toby’s favourite period of history is the Roman emperors 73) Caligula was his favourite emperor 74) Toby almost turned Kenzi when they were 14 75) He despises pop music 76) Kenzi and Toby fight over nothing more often than pop music 77) Custard makes him want to throw up

KAI 78) Kai has six older sisters 79) He is one of two guys in the witches coven 80) He speaks French and Italian (almost) fluently 81) He volunteers at the local animal shelter 82) He does not get along with his family 83) Kai tries to fit in but he isn’t very good at it 84) He gets very upset if his hair doesn’t look right 85) He struggles with dysphoria but his parents won’t let him get T 86) Kai loves doing jigsaws and watching reality shows 87) He listens to music to drown out his parents arguments 88) His oldest sister Natalia is his favourite 89) She cut his hair and bought him guys clothes after he came out 90) Natalia plays board games with him and helps with homework 91) Kai loves baking - especially banana bread 92) He hates bananas but could eat banana bread all day 93) Being a witch is hard and he’s really really bad at it 94) Kai once turned a dining room chair into a frog 95) He also turned his mother’s earrings into a donkey 96) They never let him keep the animals 97) Pop music and indie rock are his favourites 98) Kai is scared of the dark 99) Science and maths make no sense to him 100) He plans on leaving the witches coven when he’s 18

PHILLIP 101) Philip is a history professor at Seabrooke University 102) He was born in 1893 under the reign of Queen Victoria 103) He campaigned with the suffragettes - and even broke a window once 104) He is a hardcore liberal and despises the conservative party 105) He attended the 1908 summer Olympics held in London 106) He once had a fling with a maid of George V’s 107) Phillip had entered a competition to be on the titanic 108) He was an engineer during world war 2 109) His nose was broken at a protest for women to be given degrees 110) Phillip has been married three times 111) The first died, the second left him for another man 112) The third was a Vegas marriage about 30 years prior 113) Phillip is straight - but he’s experimented extensively in the past 114) He does the newspaper crossword puzzle every morning 115) He bans TV until after 3pm 116) Phillip moved to Monster House in the 70’s 117) He despises the movie ‘Twilight’ above all else 118) He is the one who decided to adopt Kenzi 119) Phillip is essentially in charge of Monster House 120) He adores barbecues with his family 121) He hates Russia, incorrect grammar, and coffee

MATTY 122) Toby brought a stray dog in one day 123) The next morning, a toddler was asleep in their living room 124) Phillip decided to keep him 125) His hobbies include chewing people’s shoes and phone chargers 126) He has broken exactly seven bones 127) There is no soul clumsier than Matty 128) His face is full of freckles and his cheeks are always red 129) He runs everywhere 130) He wants to be a footballer or an astronaut when he’s older 131) Matty breaks Phillip’s morning TV ban so he can watch cartoons 132) His favourite game is fetch 133) Toby created a machine for him that throws a ball over and over 134) Matty hates it - he likes playing with an actual person 135) His wolf form is small, fluffy and a little too blonde 136) Phillip has been assured that he will get less blonde as he grows up 137) Toby once tried to enter him in a dog competition 138) They won £20 and bought the biggest ice creams they could 139) Matty loves porridge almost as much as he loves shoes and Toby 140) He has an imaginary friend called Boris who he blames for everything

CALLIE 141) Callie is half fae and half human 142) Her full name is Calypso, but everybody calls her Callie 143) She cannot tell lies, but is excellent at talking around the truth 144) She’s introverted and shy - but also amazing at public speaking 145) She wants to be a legal aid barrister 146) Her hair is naturally brown but she dyes it red 147) She plays acoustic guitar in 4am - the same band as Harlow 148) Her roommate is a werewolf but she doesn’t know about it yet 149) She has travelled to France and Italy 150) But she wants to travel the world 151) Her bedroom walls are covered in maps 152) She has an emergency supply of snacks in a room at all times 153) Her biggest dream is to have her own library room once day 154) With a secret bookshelf door, of course 155) Her lava lamp and beanbags are her prized possessions 156) She does not have a good relationship with her parents 157) She struggles with insomnia and rarely sleeps 158) Coffee is her one true love 159) She adores long car rides and she adores driving 160) She works part time at a coffee shop 161) Her car is her other prized possession 162) Callie can devour bags of skittles in an instant 163) She forgets everything in her personal life 164) And remembers everything in her academic life 165) She loves fire and will sit and stare at it for hours 166) Sometimes she goes to the local aquarium to study 167) Change is her worst enemy - everything needs to be consistent 168) She has been a straight A student all her life 169) She goes for a long walk every Saturday afternoon 170) Callie writes songs when she’s feeling bad

MILO 171) Hiding antlers in public is the bane of his existence 172) He is part of a group who want to tell humans about monsters 173) Milo does not particularly like humans 174) He has curly blonde hair that is usually a mess 175) One of his eyes is darker blue than the other 176) He loves blanket forts and fairy lights and hot chocolate 177) He has a part time job delivering pizzas 178) This means he gets a discount on pizzas, which he takes advantage of 179) Percy Jackson is the main reason he’s doing a classics degree 180) He enjoys writing fantasy books in his free time 181) He is reasonably fluent in Ancient Greek and Latin 182) ‘Out of Bounds’ signs are a welcoming invitation to Milo 183) He will explore everything and anything 184) Milo wants to travel to South America the most 185) He has two mums 186) They both adore Callie 187) He goes rock climbing in his free time 188) This is so he can climb trees, fences, and monuments better 189) He claims he’s climbed several mountains 190) Callie does not believe this claim 191) He was not raised in Seabrooke and had few monster friends as a kid 192) Milo is a nymph 193) His father is one of his mother’s best friends - also a nymph 194) His ‘father’ taught him to garden and to bake 195) Milo never called him dad - he was always Uncle Barney 196) He loves growing his own flowers 197) Nymph magic allows him to grow the most beautiful plants and flowers 198) It also allows him to bake exceptional cakes and cookies 199) He adores his younger brother and sister 200) He is double jointed and left handed

KENZI AND HARLOW 201) Making out is their favourite pastime 202) Harlow spends most of her free time at Monster House 203) They enjoy joking about how ‘platonic’ their relationship is 204) Kenzi loves cooking for Harlow 205) They spend a lot of time watching TV shows together 206) Stranger Things and Friends were their last binge-watches 207) Harlow is always invited round for Friday Board Game Night 208) Kenzi constantly steals Harlow’s clothes 209) Harlow loves playing with Kenzi’s hair 210) Harlow loves holding Kenzi’s hand 211) Harlow just loves touching Kenzi as much as possible 212) They both have a years pass to the local petting zoo 213) Kenzi goes to all of Harlow’s band gigs and basketball games 214) She wants to set up a cheer leading squad for the basketball team 215) Harlow just wants to see Kenzi in a cheerleader costume 216) Harlow asked Kenzi to be her girlfriend 217) Kenzi said I love you first 218) They’re planning on getting an apartment together after graduating 219) Also a dog 220) Harlow adores getting Kenzi to play (and fail at) video games 221) Kenzi is a massive flirt - Harlow does not appreciate it 222) Harlow once stabbed Kenzi on the hand whilst cooking together 223) Kenzi and Harlow do not cook together 224) They bicker a lot 225) But Harlow adores Kenzi more than anything else, and vice versa

TOBY AND KAI 226) Toby only got the guts to ask Kai out because his dad made him 227) They are polar opposites in just about every way 228) Toby didn’t know what being transgender meant before meeting Kai 229) Toby calls Kai ‘sunshine’ 230) Kai calls Toby ‘grumpy guts’ for the most part 231) They fall asleep on the phone together a lot 232) They also fall asleep in the same bed a lot 232) Kai’s parents do not like vampires so they don’t know about Toby 233) They met through the Monster House toddler group when they were kids 234) They both went to the Monster House study group as kids/teenagers 234) Nowadays, they ‘study’ in Toby’s room instead 235) Kai drove Toby mad up until very recently 236) It wasn’t exactly love at first site 237) Toby threw up on Kai - the hatred only grew from there 238) Over time, Toby developed a soft spot for Kai 239) Nowadays, Kai still drives him crazy, but in a good sorta way 240) They have every intention of moving in together after school ends 241) Kai has a drawer of clothes at Toby’s place 242) Toby has punched six people in defence of Kai 243) One was an eleven year old. He has no regrets 244) Toby frequently takes Kai stargazing 245) Toby also taught him how to skate 246) Kai speaks French to Toby and he loves it 247) Sometimes Kai takes Toby to volunteer at the animal shelter with him 248) Their biggest fights are over pop music and science 249) They plan on getting a turtle when they move in together 250) Kai loves sitting on Toby’s lap 251) He also loves stealing his sweaters 252) He also loves fixing his hair 253) He frequently picks flowers for Toby and spends hours arranging them 254) Kai also loves falling asleep on Toby 255) Toby kisses Kai’s cheek a lot 256) Toby adores Kai, but he rarely admits to it 257) He took Kai to a Troye Sivan concert in February 2019 258) Kai sends Toby selfies a lot throughout the day 259) Toby saves every single one to his phone - but won’t admit to it 260) Toby’s dad r e a l l y wants him to marry Kai

CALLIE AND MILO 261) They met when they were both searching an abandoned church 262) They thought the other was a ghost 263) For the longest time, Callie was ‘ghost girl’ in Milo’s phone 264) Their first date was in Starbucks 265) But they tell people it was back in that abandoned church 266) They are both too terrified to ever go back to that church 267) They have plants to travel the world together 268) Callie’s phone background is Milo and his messy bed head 269) Milo’s background is Callie in one of his sweaters 270) Callie hoards Milo’s sweaters 271) Milo practically lives at Callie’s apartment so he doesn’t mind 272) Callie only really sleeps when she’s with Milo 273) Milo likes playing with her hair while she reads out loud 274) The sound of her voice calms his anxiety 275) Callie frequently plays guitar and sings for Milo 276) He considers himself her number one fan 277) Callie likes listening to him ramble about history and classics 278) She often falls asleep while he talks - he never seems to notice 279) Callie drives Milo everywhere 280) Milo always makes the best road trip playlists and snacks 281) Milo’s mum’s adore Callie 282) They go for family dinner every other Sunday 283) They are going to Greece together over the summer holidays 284) Their opinions on monster politics differ wildly 285) Callie enjoys teaching Milo how to play guitar 286) Milo grows his own flowers to give Callie 287) He also enjoys cooking for her 288) Sometimes he brings her breakfast in bed 289) He usually gets a blowjob in exchange for this 290) They make a game out of fucking in as many places as they can 291) This has included: the grocery store, a church, the forest 292) Milo’s parents frequently bring up marriage 293) They’re both quite content with how things are 294) One day, they’d both like a small wedding in Europe somewhere 295) Zoos, petting farms, and aquariums are their favourite dates 296) Milo is basically Callie’s pillow 297) Callie writes songs for Milo 298) Her parents do not approve of her dating a Nymph 299) Callie’s roommates adore Milo and love that he basically lives there 300) They fight about how much wardrobe space Milo takes up frequently

BACKGROUND CHARACTERS 301) Callie’s roommate is a werewolf 302) She doesn’t know that Callie isn’t human and vice versa 303) Werewolf roommate (Arya)’s family is originally from India 304) Arya loves escape rooms 305) Callie loves petting Arya in wolf form 306) Milo is the only one who questions why there’s a wolf in the kitchen 307) But Milo still feeds Arya-in-wolf-form blueberry muffins 308) Bruce the Minotaur has lived in Monster House forever 309) Nobody really knows where or when Bruce came from 310) He has a very distinctive Greek accent 311) Bruce makes the best waffles 312) And he knits a damn good scarf and woolly socks 313) Which is incidentally what everybody gets for their birthday 314) Sheryl the Siren is like a crazy aunt to the kids in Monster House 315) She auditioned for X Factor once - she didn’t get in 316) Her vocal inspirations are beyonce and mariah carey 317) Sheryl is married to Mary-Anne the Mermaid 318) Mary-Anne lives in the coves behind Monster House 319) Sheryl loves singing for Mary-Anne 320) Maybe it’s the water-clogged ears, but Mary-Anne enjoys the singing 321) They had a beautiful beach wedding twelve years ago 322) Kenzi was a flower girl, Toby was a page boy 323) There is a ghost living in the attic of Monster House 324) It never seems to come out 325) Bruce sits outside the attic door each night to keep it company 326) Sometimes it likes to play drums with pots and pans 327) Nobody really has a name - it’s just ‘the ghost in the attic’ 328) They leave cookies for it at Christmas - they always get eaten 329) Sometimes Matty gets there first 330) Grace the Gorgon is an interior designer 331) She wears a veil-like head cover to hide the snake hair 332) Most humans just assume the head cover/snake hair is a new trend 333) Grace constantly redecorates Monster House 334) The house usually puts everything back overnight 335) Monster House does not like change 336) Grace is a wanted felon for the murder of a man named Perseus 337) Humans seem to be destined to forever walk past Monster House 338) Thus, Grace has never been caught 339) It is rumoured that she was once called Penelope 340) Nobody quite knows what Perseus did to warrant murder 341) Nobody quite trusts Grace with a knife, either

SEABROOKE 342) Seabrooke is a small, sleepy seaside town in southern England 343) It is the suburban hot spot for Monster life 344) Seabrooke has a population of 4,500 345) Around 250 of these are monsters 346) For some reason, Seabrooke has it’s own university 347) Nobody really knows why - it’s possible Phillip had a role in this 348) Seabrooke has two primary schools, a secondary, and a sixth form 349) It gets a lot of tourists during the summer 350) Everybody hates the tourists - especially Monsters

WITCHES COVEN 351) When Bruce the Minotaur gets sick - he can’t be taken to the doctors 352) The Witches Coven is the main place Monsters go when they’re sick 353) Witches are difficult creatures and the Coven are no different 354) If you get on their bad side, they’ll refuse you service 355) The Witches Coven therefore practically run the town 356) There are three families that make up the Coven 357) Admittance is only to witches with the blood of prestigious families 358) Kai is part of the Witches Coven 359) Kai’s family practically runs the Witches Coven 360) There is a lot of tension between the Witches and Phillip 361) Largely because they both have a lot of influence over Seabrooke 362) Regardless, Phillip still genuinely likes Kai 363) The Witches tend to be high maintenance and spoilt 364) The parents are like the worst white suburban soccer mums ever 365) Regardless, they are excellent at healing magic 366) But also excellent at ruining your life 367) They have definitely killed a few monsters - but it cannot be proved

LOCAL NEWSPAPER 368) The Daily Seabrooke is ran by shapeshifters 369) Nobody remembers when the TDS was started 370) Philip adores it for the crosswords 371) Apparently the crosswords are ‘out of this world’ 372) TDS is ran by a group of crazy looking students 373) Of course, they’re shapeshifters, so they’re probably all 1000+ 374) The shapeshifters behind TDS don’t mingle with other monsters 375) At least not as themselves 376) They report on human politics and news as well 377) Only monsters are sold the copies with monster news included 378) Half of TDS is gossip about the people in Seabrooke 379) Nobody is really safe from their snooping 380) Their methods include being a literal fly on the wall 381) Most breakups, Witches Coven drama, and Vamp/Wolf fights are put in 382) TDS is extremely controversial amongst Monsters in Seabrooke 383) Kenzi thinks it’s fucking hilarious

SEABROOKE UNIVERSITY 384) The University is crawling with monster life 385) Several professors are monsters 386) Most notably are Phillip and Steven 387) Phillip teaches Modern History 388) Steven teaches Medieval History 389) Phillip is a Vampire, Steven is a Werewolf 390) They have a competition for who gets History Professor Of The Year 391) This competition frequently gets out of hand 392) Everybody knows about their rivalry, few knows why 393) Nobody knows how long the two have worked there - most say forever 394) That wouldn’t be far from the truth 395) Steven happens to be Arya (Callie’s Roommate)’s father

MONSTER HOUSE 396) Monster House is practically alive 397) It constantly expands and shrinks 398) There are always exactly as many rooms as are necessary 399) Only the first floor can be seen by passersby 400) And they often walk straight past it 401) Ordering pizza is a nightmare 402) It’s like the human brain cannot comprehend where it is 403) Even though it’s in an incredibly obvious location 404) When they do see it, they see only a normal house 405) The construction of the house makes no sense 406) There are rooms hanging over nothing and stairs leading to nowhere 407) Sometimes bedrooms move and finding them is a nightmare 408) The living room and kitchen like to switch places 409) On Monday’s the kitchen is green and nobody knows why 410) It is black and white the rest of the time 411) It is almost impossible to paint or decorate Monster House 412) It prefers to do that itself 413) Somehow the bedrooms always look exactly how they are wanted 414) At least they save on paint - that shit is expensive 415) Unfortunately, Monster House doesn’t clean itself 416) Toby has registered several complaints about this

LULU 417) Lulu’s full name is Lucifer 418) It has been living in the basement since the beginning 419) It has only been seen by four people 420) Phillip and Kenzi are two of those 421) They call it Lulu because Kenzi couldn’t pronounce Lucifer as a kid 422) The nickname kinda stuck 423) Lulu gets fed raw fish every morning 424) They just dump a bucket full down the hatch in the kitchen 425) Sometimes Toby threatens to feed Matty to Lulu 426) This causes Matty to have nightmares and sleep in Toby’s bed 427) So that one kinda backfired on Toby 428) Nobody actually knows what kind of creature Lulu is

MISC. FACTS 429) Harlow’s favourite song is ‘Lights Down Low’ by Max 430) Seabrooke is not on any map - nobody knows why 431) I really regret this 432) Never ever try to write 500 facts it will not be fun 433) Callie’s favourite kind of law is criminal law 434) Particularly fatal offences 435) She also likes land law because she’s fucking weird 436) Kai got into reality TV because of his sisters 437) One of the arcades in Seabrooke is monster themed 438) Toby works there on Saturdays - always taking the night shifts 439) Kai really wants to own his own bakery one day 440) He tried to get the local bakery to hire him but he’s too young 441) Kai also wants to live in France or Italy 442) He also wants to be on reality shows and get a fake tan 443) (Okay. Toby is pretty sure he was joking about that) 444) Kai always has to wish on a lucky star 445) Milo wants to be a published author one day 446) Kai has tried to run away from home twice 447) His parents put a tracking spell on him and found him too fast 448) Toby wishes he could skate at the park with the other kids 449) But he also secretly likes that everyone finds him mysterious 450) Toby used to have a (massive) crush on Kenzi 451) Now they’re both pretty gay 452) Everyone is gay tbh 453) Monsters have no concept of heteronormativity 454) Kenzi’s favourite colour is pink 455) Callie’s favourite animal is an octopus 456) Kai has a picture of him and Toby stuck on his bedroom wall 457) Kai has had a crush on Toby since they were kids 458) Coming out as trans wrecked Kai’s relationship with his parents 459) It is seen as a disgrace for witches to have male sons 460) Men are submissive in witch culture 461) Kai’s parents frequently misname and misgender him 462) The kids at school are much more accepting 463) Kai came out when he was 14 464) Toby has actually been one of his biggest supporters 465) Natalia has been his main supporter as well 466) Toby likes Kai a lot more since he came out 467) Kai feels more real to him now - and irritates him less 468) Toby doesn’t know how long Kai has liked him for 469) Kai is pretty open about being trans 470) Seabrooke is quite accepting, even if his parents aren’t 471) Kenzi is terrified of being rejected by the monster community 472) She really wants Toby to turn her so she can be an actual monster 473) She wears contact lenses so her eyes look purple 474) She doesn’t really like school and puts the bare minimum effort in 475) Harlow is taking four a levels - a difficult thing to do 476) Fuck this was the worst idea 478) Harlow channels her anger out through drumming 479) It’s therapist mandated so her dad cannot stop her 480) Even though he very very much wants to 481) Harlow’s favourite video game is overwatch 482) Her mains are lucio, junk rat, bastion and rein 483) Harlow despises spelling and grammar errors 484) Matty likes stealing Toby’s tee shirts 485) Between Matty & Kai, Toby barely has any clothes left 486) Which is fine as far as Kai’s concerned 487) Matty is like a little brother to Kai 488) Originally, Callie & Arya were part of a polygamous relationship 489) I cut that out, though, because I couldn’t think of a third girl 490) Seabrooke tends to have mild weather 491) During the summer, the heat can spike to 25-30 C max 492) It rarely snows, but it does rain a lot, and there’s a lot of wind 493) Most of the houses in Seabrooke were built 100ish years ago 494) It has a train station - nobody knows why - it’s the last stop 495) There is a Seabrooke museum ran by a vampire and a Fae 496) There is a secret monster section in the back 497) Idle Town by Conan Gray reminds me of Seabrooke 498) As does This Town by Neil Horan (I think that’s the name idk) 499) Fuck you to @livvywrites for not stopping me 500) I am never doing this again

tag list: @livingthelovelylife, @commasinsidequotes, @4kidsopfan, @thatworldinverted, @livvywrites @ravenpuffwriter @the-writer-turned-procrastinor @livingthelovelylife  (ask to be added or removed more likely after this shit)

[winterromanov]

she’s the sunset (in the west) - thasmin fic (2/?)

Yaz doesn’t make promises lightly. It’s one of her things. A promise should be taken seriously, carried out. If she’s promised to bake a cake for the school summer fair even though she can’t bake for shit, she’s still going to do it, layering the burnt bits in slightly sloppy buttercream. If she’s promised to take her parents to the airport at 3am on a school day, she’ll set an alarm and turn up to work the next morning on with a coffee stapled to her hands.

If she’s promised to find Poppy Smith some friends, she’s one hundred percent going to do that too. She remembers the warmth in Joanna’s eyes at the thought of it—this feels important, like she could actually change something. It might not work. It might be that in less than a year’s time Poppy will move up into year one and nothing will have changed, but she’ll be damned if she doesn’t try.

She brainstorms ideas at her tiny kitchen table as soon as she comes through the door. Ryan’s not home yet so she violently clatters all his dirty crockery into the empty sink, dragging her flipchart paper down the stairs (which she saves only for special occasions). An hour later, her whole kitchen wall is covered in bright pink post-it notes, like she’s attempting some spontaneous redecorating.

“What the—“

Yaz almost jumps out of her skin, black marker sliding out of her fingers and onto the floor. She’d been so absorbed in her new project she’d never heard the front door creak open—and that’s quite a feat considering Ryan’s just come in from football practice, the studs of his boots usually clicking on the laminate like a herd of women in stiletto heels.

“Don’t sneak up on me like that!” she exclaims, heartrate slowly easing back to normal. Ryan rolls his eyes.

“I literally didn’t, but okay,” he huffs, refusing to look away from the chaos she’s created. He squints as he expertly manoeuvres his dirty kit from his bag to the washing machine—if only he could do that with the socks he leaves stranded in the hallway, she muses. “What the fuck is duck-duck-goose?”

“You’ve never heard of duck-duck-goose?” Yaz asks, open mouthed. Ryan bemusedly shakes his head. “Did you even go to primary school?”

Ryan shrugs. A grin tugs at the corner of his mouth. “Not if I could help it, no. Mum was a pushover but Nan never believed me when I told her I had the Japanese flu or whatever.”

“I bet she didn’t,” Yaz hums, because Grace never took any of Ryan’s shit. Not even at the end.

The two of them stand in silence for a moment, like every time Ryan mentions the lost women of his family. Yaz has never felt the pain he has. She can see it in his eyes, sometimes, how it lingers like fog. Dense and dirty but fading, eventually. Slowly.

But it’s okay, he has her. He’s always got her.

(It makes her think of Joanna Smith, again. About the dad that’s not around.)

Ryan snaps out of wistful reverie first, grabbing a beer out the fridge and snapping the lid on the kitchen table. Yaz throws him a look. He knows she hates that, which is probably why he does it. “What’s all this for anyway? Because if you’ve volunteered to lead another year six team-building weekend I’m going to be seriously questioning your sanity. Especially after last time.”

“No,” Yaz tuts, as if she’s going to make that same mistake twice, “There’s this kid in my class who is finding it hard to make friends. I’m trying to…think of something to solve that.”

Ryan takes a long sip of beer, studying more of her responses. “So you think a trip to the aquarium will fix it?”

Yaz shrugs. “I don’t know. Maybe? Nothing gets five-year-olds talking more than jellyfish. That, and what they’re going to get at the gift shop on the way out.”

“I guess,” Ryan offers, but he doesn’t look too convinced. “Just… some kids don’t want to make friends, Yaz. As long as they don’t seem too unhappy, what’s the harm in it?”

“This kid is four, Ryan. It’s a very important stage in her social growth. If she doesn’t start developing those skills now when she’s little it could be a really big problem later on.”

“That’s a bit dramatic,” Ryan says, “All I’m saying…this is a lot of effort for just one kid. As far as you’re concerned, as long as they can count to ten and know most of the alphabet you’ve done your job. And don’t, uh, stick their fingers into plug sockets or something.”

Yaz just about resists the temptation to go off on just how wrong that is and just how Ryan could possibly understand anything about her job, how it’s never just one kid. Yes, she needs to teach them how to read and write and count. But she also needs to teach teamwork, conflict resolution, gratification. How you can’t hit someone with a building block or steal somebody’s sausage rolls at lunchtime. How you must listen to the people around you and acknowledge that sometimes you can’t win, whether that’s the star of the week accolade or someone’s forgiveness, straightaway. How you must be kind, always, forever.

The day she sees a kid in her class that’s struggling to fit in and she thinks it’s just one kid is the day she’ll walk away from teaching and never look back.

“Are you hungry?” Ryan asks, after a moment, “I haven’t eaten yet. Pizza?”

Yaz’s hand relaxes, flexing from a fist to loose. On an outtake of breath she runs a hand through her hair, before nodding. “Yeah, sure.”

“Cool,” Ryan already has his phone out, scrolling through the options on Dominoes. “Hey, Yaz, if you went through this much effort for a bloke maybe you’d finally get laid.”

It’s meant as a joke but—ha. Yeah. Maybe.

-x-

As it happens, it doesn’t matter how many neatly written post-it notes and mind maps you make. Children will always be ridiculously unpredictable, like they’re wired completely different to every single other person aged eighteen or over. She tries class games, seating plans, even outdoor learning in the summerhouse on the grassy quad near the upper school playground—but nothing will encourage Poppy Smith to talk to the other children, or the other children to talk to her.

Instead, Poppy becomes incredibly attached to Yaz. And that is really, honestly, the last thing she wanted.

“You know, it’s really sunny outside today, Poppy,” Yaz says, as in a new turn of events, Poppy refuses to follow the other children out onto the playground during lunch break. Instead, the little girl stays in her seat, taking her dark blue starry-patterned pack lunch box out of her draw and unpacking it onto the table. “I think some of the other girls were thinking about playing with the new skipping ropes. Wouldn’t you like to play with the skipping ropes?”

Poppy shakes her head decidedly. Silently, she removes a small peanut-butter and banana sandwich from her box and places it in front of her. Yaz watches as she nibbles round the corners first before eating the filling.

“Wouldn’t you prefer to go outside?” Yaz asks, somewhat weakly, because she has a feeling Poppy won’t give in to her hints easily. “It’s so dark in here and I have to mark your handwriting worksheets!”

“I want to stay with you, Miss Khan.”

When two little eyes blink innocently back at her, Yaz finds it very hard to resist. Technically, as long as she’s not on her own, it’s not breaking any rules. It’s just—this is not in the plan. It’s not good to let a kid become too attached. It goes against every instinct she has as a teacher, but she knows if she forces Poppy outside she’ll go back to silently stalking the edge of the playground with her book about space, lost in a world of her own.

If she’s in here—just for today—at least she’s in her company. Talking to someone.

“Okay,” Yaz smiles tightly, “As long as you promise to go outside tomorrow, yeah?”

Poppy nods happily and returns to her sandwich.

-x-

Quite by chance, today just so happens to be the day that Joanna is late. As one-by-one the kids spot their parents or guardians in the playground and head off back home, rain splattering off bright red wellies and raincoats, Poppy stands on her tip-toes and peers into the murky outside. The weather has turned somewhat since lunchtime.

Yaz looks at her watch. Quarter to four. The playground is mostly empty, other than a group of mums nattering by the gates, restless kids hanging off their arms or in pushchairs.

It’s the second time she’s been left waiting for Joanna Smith, Yaz ponders, and wonders if it’ll be the last time. She sighs, looking at the back of Poppy’s head, watching as the little girl’s eyes lock on to everything and everyone walking past the school.

“I’m sure she’ll be here soon, Poppy,” Yaz says, gently smoothing Poppy’s hair. Poppy looks back up at her, eyes wide and concerned.

“What if she’s gone to the moon without me?” Poppy asks quietly. Yaz shakes her head with a smile, crouching down so their faces are level.

“Your mum wouldn’t do that, I promise,�� Yaz says, “She’d always wait for you. I’m sure of that.”

Poppy frowns. “My daddy didn’t.”

Oh. Oh. Yaz freezes for a second, like she always does when a kid says something like that. You know—something unbearably sad, something hanging and poignant, one of those things that just slips out because kids don’t hide anything. Kids have sad stories too. They carry tragedies in their reading folders, hidden under exercise books and friendship bracelets and constellations of gold star stickers.

Yaz takes one of Poppy’s tiny hands in her own. Notices the stars she’s etched on her palms in blue biro pen. “Look at me, Poppy. Your mummy isn’t going to leave you behind. Ever.”

(It’s a big, big promise. She doesn’t realise it at the time, but it’s the biggest one she’s ever made—because sometimes, sometimes people don’t come back. Or you don’t go back to them. Maybe it’s the first promise she’s made that she won’t be able to keep. Sometime.)

Poppy’s disgruntled expression shifts into a smile, and Yaz can’t help but grin back. When she stands, still clutching onto Poppy’s hand, she can see through the raindrops on the window a shaky, grey figure running towards the door. Against her better judgement, she can feel her heart do something she doesn’t want to put a name to.

The glass door opens and Joanna emerges from the cold, her anorak dripping rain onto the floor in mad, abstract patterns. She pulls down her hood and her blonde hair is a chaotic mess of drenched natural waves—it reminds Yaz of tides and sea-salt and white-sand beaches, somewhere cluttered and rugged like the Northern coast. The kind of water that leaves you freezing but dazzlingly awake, shivering in clean, white towels with piles of seashells in your pockets.

Joanna blinks and catches eyes with Yaz. Grins. “I’m making a habit of this, aren’t I?”

Poppy replies first, dashing towards her mother excitedly. She grabs Joanna’s legs in a hug and Joanna laughs, ruffling her hair.

“Oh, baby, you’ll get all wet,” Joanna murmurs, before clearly deciding that Poppy is going to get wet going outside anyway. She scoops her up into her arms and kisses Poppy’s cheek messily, Poppy’s hands looping round her neck.

“You didn’t go to the moon without me,” Poppy says matter-of-factly.

“Of course I didn’t,” Joanna answers, before looking confusedly back at Yaz, forehead scrunching. “I would never leave you behind. Never ever.”

“That’s exactly what I said,” Yaz reassures, “Your mummy was just late, Poppy. Nothing to worry about.”

Joanna grimaces, shifting to bring Poppy further up her hip. “Yeah—I’m so sorry about that, I…”

“Don’t worry about it,” Yaz responds, smiling comfortingly. Joanna seems to take it, smiling back. “No harm done, eh?”

“No, I suppose not,” Joanna’s eyes seem focussed on Yaz’s face for a second or two, and her heart is doing that thing again, that ba-dum ba-dum ba-dum that she’s only ever really felt when Harry Styles winked at her during a One Direction concert fucking years ago.

(Was it really that long ago, huh? Have men really been that disappointing since?)

“Well,” Joanna says, breaking the silence, “I think you deserve a treat, ay, Pop? Ice cream?”

Poppy looks excited but Yaz laughs, glancing at the deluge outside. “You’ve certainly picked the perfect weather for it.”

“Mummy,” Poppy says pointedly, playing with Joanna’s wet hair, “Can Miss Khan come for ice cream with us?”

“Oh, uh—“ Joanna looks at Yaz expectantly, “I mean, of course she can, if you’re allowed…?”

Yaz pauses, because this is not a situation she’s encountered before, and she’s not sure what she’s supposed to do. It’s probably important to keep a professional distance from the kids in her class and their families. She knows she can’t show favouritism, but… this isn’t that, is it? This is just going for ice cream with a woman that she can’t help but want to get to know better. There’s a magnetic quality in Joanna. A one that makes all her wiring stutter and restart.

“You know what,” Yaz answers, after a moment, “That sounds like a lovely idea.”

(Oh, and this is when she discovers that she’ll do anything for a smile from either of the Smith women.)

[expatimes]

Maidan Market: Indian sporting goods market fighting for survival

Kolkata, India – A fresh consignment of sports replica jerseys arrives at a stall in Maidan Market, one of the largest sporting goods bazaars in India that is located in the heart of the eastern Indian city of Kolkata.

Mohammed Nadim, who has been working at the stall for more than 23 years, pulls out a plastic stool from underneath a rack stashed with low-priced football jerseys and begins examining the consignment.

“Uhssee, theek-e ache (80, the count is fine),” he mutters in a mix of Hindi and Bangla before handing the load-bearer the counterpart of a signed receipt.

The shipment consists of 10 replica jerseys of each of the eight teams taking part in the Indian Premier League (IPL), the biggest Twenty20 domestic league in the world.

The 2021 edition of the IPL begins next month and Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal, is one of the six host cities.

Nadim says the stall would typically order 10 times that number ahead of the tournament every year.

That was in pre-pandemic times. Now, he adds, it is unlikely his store would order a refill in the lead-up to this year’s competition.

“Due to the pandemic, we still have stock left over from last year,” Nadim told Al Jazeera.

“We are replenishing them minimally given there’s been a slight increase in business across the market of late. But stocking up in bulk right now is beyond our means because the virus has brutally slashed our earnings.”

Maidan Market houses 449 stalls – 80 percent of which only sell sports items

Set up in 1954 for cloth merchants and artisans who migrated to the western part of divided Bengal following the partition of India in 1947, the market, officially christened Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy Market, gradually evolved into an arterial sports-merchandise hub in the country.

Housing 449 stalls – 80 percent of which only sell sports items – the bazaar, nestled a stone’s throw away from the iconic Eden Gardens cricket stadium in the vicinity of the Maidan, has been witness to several epochal shifts integral to Kolkata’s identity.

The market ships most of its produce – raw materials and finished products – from northern Indian cities and the months-long suspension of trains hampered supply and demand.

As stall owners remained indoors, a further misfortune struck the market.

Against the backdrop of the pandemic and the exodus of migrant workers the lockdown triggered, Kolkata also bore the brunt of the catastrophic Cyclone Amphan, which made landfall on the coastlines of eastern India and Bangladesh last May.

“So bad was the waterlogging in this area after the storm that the local police let us open our shops for a day so we could save our goods,” recounts Sumojit Pradhan, who runs his father’s store.

“Cricket bats and shoes worth over 50,000 rupees ($690) were damaged in our shop alone,” Pradhan told Al Jazeera.

Kolkata’s booming mall culture had slowly been eating into Maidan Market’s business

Last November, Nadim bemoaned how the pandemic had brought the market to its knees.

“So terrible was the nosedive in our sales that I’m drowning in debt,” Nadim said at the time.

“I’ve pulled my kids drop out of school and, if someone in the family falls ill, I don’t have enough money to be able to afford a doctor.”

A year on from the lockdown, more patrons are frequenting the market and it has returned to its usual 9.30am-8.30pm business hours, ditching the six-hour window it stuck to for several months after reopening.

“I’ve been printing around 120 jerseys a day since January,” said Sunny, who runs a vinyl-printing desk at Maidan Market.

“It’s been about 40 per cent of the daily orders I used to get before the pandemic. Things could be better or worse in the coming months. For now, I’m just relieved I’m earning an income again,” Sunny told Al Jazeera.

Kolkata’s booming mall culture had slowly been eating into Maidan Market’s business.

With the pandemic prompting a dip in spending on non-essential products, and an accelerated shift to online shopping, a lack of a digital presence is also hurting the stall owners.

“The loss incurred in the past 12 months … we may not be able to recover from it even in five years’ time,” Sheikh Nazimuddin, joint secretary of the stallholders’ association at the market, told Al Jazeera.

“And such is the nature of in-demand items like cricket bats, helmets and guards, customers hardly prefer buying them online. That’s why this market never previously felt the need to have a digital presence.”

For the first two months after the market reopened last June, sellers with stockpiles of fitness equipment made good money while the others struggled to keep their heads above water

Since the onset of the coronavirus outbreak, Pradhan, 24, has been among a few traders at Maidan Market who have funnelled time and effort into either creating or increasing the online presence of their brick-and-mortar businesses.

From having their stores listed on Google, to displaying select samples of in-store stock on Facebook and Instagram pages and taking orders on WhatsApp, the pandemic, Pradhan admits, has forced a “major rethink” of customer engagement approaches.

The changes in consumer patterns notwithstanding, several long-time loyalists of Maidan Market believe the enduring charms of the bazaar will help the sellers weather the ongoing adversity.

“Maidan Market is a great leveller. Players of every social and financial standing gravitate towards that place,” said Jhulan Goswami, Indian women’s team cricketer who learned her craft at Kolkata’s Vivekananda Park.

“The affordability, variety, and year-round availability of its products are its USPs. E-commerce sites are no match when it comes to these attributes,” Goswami told Al Jazeera.

Manoj Tiwary, the Bengal and Indian men’s cricketer who has also played in the IPL, agrees.

“Ever since I visited the market for the first time as a 15-year-old, I’ve witnessed first-hand the kinship every young athlete who comes here develops with the market, starting with the buying of equipment,” Tiwary, now 35, told Al Jazeera.

“That relationship is then nurtured by the goodwill of the shopkeepers who go to great lengths to help you pick what’s best for you.”

Most stall owners are hoping for a smooth IPL in April and May to lift sales

For the first two months after the market reopened last June, sellers with stockpiles of fitness equipment made good money while the others struggled to keep their heads above water.

“With gyms shut and outdoor activities prohibited, dumbbells, resistance bands and weight plates sold like hot cakes,” Pradhan recalled.

“Flag vendors, printers, jerseys sellers and bat dealers were starved of an income.”

For sellers like the Islam brothers, Rafique and Nurul, who operate the oldest trophy store in the market, hardly any business came by until December.

“Offices, academies and schools were closed. Who would buy trophies or medals if no sports events take place?” said Rafique, 64, who was one among the first stallholders to test positive for COVID-19 after the reopening of the market.

“It was only after a few local clubs began organising small sports and social events, say, to felicitate front-line workers, did we notice a slight uptick in sales in December and January,” he said.

With most sports coaching academies across the city and local tournaments under the Cricket Association of Bengal having resumed by late February, several old-timers and first-time buyers have since been making their way to Maidan Market.

“The ongoing vaccination drive has lifted the common man’s spirits,” said Somenath Das, while helping his 14-year-old daughter try on a new pair of cricket shoes.

“We took whatever safety precautions we could and came to this market. Growing up, I used to buy all my football gear from here. Now, it’s my daughter’s turn.”

Somenath Das visited Maidan Market to buy his daughter’s cricket shoes

But an air of resignation hangs over the market as a new nationwide surge in cases unfolded in recent weeks, reaching record highs.

Many stallholders fear that the gains made by Maidan Market since the start of this year in restoring a semblance of normalcy to the way it conducts business might be ruined by the second wave of the coronavirus outbreak.

Most admit that apart from relatively better psychological preparedness, they have little to no measures in place to counter the economic costs of a potential resuspension of all business if infections spiral out of control as they did a year ago.

Most stall owners are hoping for a smooth IPL in April and May to lift sales.

“With the IPL moving to the UAE last year because of the COVID crisis in India, the on-ground excitement around it died, meaning practically no business for us,” Nadim said.

“But even if the next tournament is held entirely behind closed doors, the return of top-flight cricket to the Eden Gardens could create enough buzz for fans and owners of malls, restaurants to buy merchandise from us.

“Ummeed par duniya kayam hain (Hope is what keeps people alive),” he added, as an afterthought.

Read full article: https://expatimes.com/?p=19526&feed_id=39652

[filmista]

Gone Girl (2014)

“When two people love each other and they can't make that work, that's the real tragedy.”

The first time I watched ‘Gone Girl’ was before I had read Gillian Flynn’s novel of the same name. The film gripped me so much the first time, that one of the first things I did after was read, or better said devoured Flynn’s novel in about a day.

Flynn’s novel is not only an interesting look at a female psychopath (people have compared Amy Dunne to Patrick Bateman; though I think Bateman is more perverse) as scary as it sounds at least with Amy Dunne, we see things in her character that don’t justify or excuse what she does but that can make you understand her.

There is, however, a scary similarity between the two: both are seen as “perfect Americans" in a way, women find Patrick Bate hot and men admire him at his job because he’s the man that’s got everything at first sight and nothing seems to ever affect him; it shows that scary notion that being emotionless is the male ideal.

And Amy’s literally a children’s idol, she signs autographs for children and becomes an American heroine, “America’s sweetheart” she’s hailed on the news even after she has committed cold-blooded murder and vicious, sickening acts. 

So what does that mean? Is too much perfection craziness? Or does striving for perfection drive us crazy? Or is it the pretense the trying to project a perfect image towards the world?

Both are characters that seemingly are perfect and they seem to at first glance have all the ingredients for happiness, but once you look underneath, well the only thing that really prevails is a killer boredom and an emptiness, both feel like they aren’t present, like they’re not there, or in Amy’s words: “I feel like I could disappear”.

The first time I read Flynn’s novel I was enthralled, Amy Dunne is one of the most interesting and complex female characters I’ve ever seen in anything, but I was also very pleased that Fincher had done Flynn’s work so much justice.

He actually worked with Flynn and allowed her to contribute to making her own book into a screenplay, and as a result of the essence of the book really transfers onto the screen.

However, Fincher’s adaptation of the book is interesting because of many reasons, not just because it is one of the best literary adaptations I’ve seen but also because it’s well made. It’s beautiful on a simple aesthetic level but it’s deep too, it’s the kind of film that’s gonna make you think after and that you can bet will stay with you for a few days after.

And most importantly it’s got respect for the audience there’s no hand-holding, it’s assumed you’re smart enough to follow what’s happening, and so no unnecessary flashbacks to remind you of what happened earlier, you’re supposed to still remember. 

This does make ‘Gone Girl’ into a film that you have to pay attention to, it’s not the kind of film you can continue to watch while you’re doing say your dishes.

Before delving into further detail though, I’ll leave the storyline here:

On the occasion of his fifth wedding anniversary, Nick Dunne reports that his wife, Amy, has gone missing. Under pressure from the police and a growing media frenzy, Nick's portrait of a blissful union begins to crumble. Soon his lies, deceits and strange behavior have everyone asking the same dark question: Did Nick Dunne kill his wife?

The most interesting thing about the film though, is the titular Gone Girl, Amy Dunne. Amy Dunne is an incredibly complex and compelling female character, she’s unique, because she gets to do what a lot of women in films often can’t do without being held accountable or locked up in an institution: she gets to go utterly insane and she triumphs in the end, she’s a villainess of the first degree.

She’s impossible to run away from and to outsmart, she’s at the top and there she stays, she’s not superhuman either, because she has weaknesses and she can be vulnerable, as a few moments in the film illustrate, but when she’s not vulnerable, she can't be stopped by no man or woman.

There’s no doubt that Amy Dunne, is a monster, but she’s ultimately more interesting than Patrick Bateman and I said I think less perverse, yes she has a method to her insanity and it’s safe to assume she’s conscious and aware of her action and knows exactly what she is doing.

But unlike Bateman, external events shaped Amy; she was made into a monster by the world around her and those that were supposed to care about her, it doesn’t justify that she killed a man and that she staged her own disappearance.

But it can make you understand it to some degree, and to some degree, you sympathize with her at certain points, because underneath the layer of insanity, there’s still human emotion and vulnerability left, maybe she would never have snapped had she not been pushed.

I’ve now watched ‘Gone Girl’s more than once with different people, and I always notice something very interesting: people usually divide both the main characters Nick Dunne and Amy Dunne in two categories: he’s a good guy (that’s done nothing wrong) and Amy’s a psycho bitch.

When I watched the film though, I obviously did recognise that Amy is not normal and that she clearly has mental problems, but to a certain degree I could understand (not justify) why she did what she did, I can see the reasoning behind her actions, why she decided to do what she did.

Amy Dunne’s a brilliant woman, with an obvious eager mind, as illustrated by the various degrees of hers on the walls of her bedroom, but she became a housewife, not that, that is what drove her insane, because a woman like her would have something to do, had it been studying or whatever.

But she was not used to being ignored, she’s never been used to feeling like she doesn’t matter. Amy was the only child of her parents, she had always been made felt like she was unique and a miracle, something worthy of admiration, something that had to excel and preferably honor them.

Amy’s parents turned her childhood and adult life into a series of books, the heroine of which is Amazing Amy, Amy is essentially a literal Amy, but this Amy never disappoints and is always perfect. And more importantly, she is adored by millions of kids in America.

You wouldn’t think that this would be the kind of thing that would mess someone up, but I think that in the case of Amy it does, I think her parents created a split personality in her; in many ways Amy is trying to adapt the Amy amazing persona, she tries to be Amazing Amy, as she says at one point: “Amazing Amy has always been one step ahead of me”. And she feels that it’s her duty to walk into Amazing Amy’s shoes.

Because what she wants really is nothing more than to be loved, or receive what she thinks to constitute as love, her parents seem to adore her but they come across as very fake and cold people.

How much do they care about their daughter? (perhaps this makes fun of those people in America that force their kids to participate in atrocious television such as ‘Honey Booboo’, I honestly think that should be considered child abuse).

Perhaps they care more for the literate version than they do their own daughter, which would be a messed up thing, but then again what parents turn their own daughter into a product?

At one point Amy’s father at an event for one of her books (in which Amazing Amy gets married while real-life Amy has not yet taken that step, her mom even wants her to wear a wedding dress, just how crazy is that woman?!) forces her to go socialise and mingle, what if Amy doesn’t want to? What if she doesn’t want the spotlight?

That doesn’t matter to her parents; all they seem to care about is Amy the product, and perhaps she strives so much to become Amazing Amy because all she really wants is love from her parents like any child should receive.

And then she meets the perfect man, her dream guy. Finally, a man that seems to admire and care about her seemingly just for the person she is. Though there’s a catch, perhaps Amy’s childhood messed her up so much, that her entire definition of love became messed up.

She literally says “ I forged the man of my dreams.” She saw a guy that she probably sensed was manipulable and could be rebuilt into the kind of man she likes; and isn’t love about not changing the person you love, unless it’s in their self-interest.

Like helping them get rid of an unhealthy habit such as smoking? But Amy sees this man, and she probably is physically attracted to him and she did recognize good personality traits.

But she felt that she could make him into a better man, a man that would make her look good, a man that would fit amazing Amy. And so she presents a persona to lure him in (I believe we all do this a little though sometimes) I feel like I should include the famous Cool girl speech here:

Nick loved a girl I was pretending to be. "Cool girl". Men always use that, don't they? As their defining compliment: "She's a cool girl". Cool girl is hot. Cool girl is game. Cool girl is fun. Cool girl never gets angry at her man. She only smiles in a chagrined, loving manner. And then presents her mouth for fucking. She likes what he likes, so evidently, he's a vinyl hipster who loves fetish Manga. If he likes girls gone wild, she's a mall babe who talks for football and endures buffalo wings at Hooters. When I met Nick Dunne I knew he wanted "Cool girl". And for him, I'll admit: I was willing to try. I wax-stripped my pussy raw. I drank canned beer watching Adam Sandler movies. I ate cold pizza and remained a size two. I blew him, semi-regularly. I lived in the moment. I was fucking game. I can't say I didn't enjoy some of it. Nick teased out in me things I didn't know existed. A lightness, a humor, an ease. But I made him smarter. Sharper. I inspired him to rise to my level. I forged the man of my dreams. We were happy pretending to be other people. We were the happiest couple we knew. 

And it works, he’s dazzled and falls for Amy. And while that might seem despicable to some degree, I don’t argue that isn’t. it’s always said that we should be ourselves.

But Amy has got a certain point: society’s not always content with women just being themselves, society wants amplified women, women who her always at their best.

And she knows this better than anyone and refuses to let being a woman bring her down, or believe that it gives her any less right to anything. I mean how can you as a woman (I admit that I did to some degree) or even as a man if you believe men and women are equal, not cheer her on for that belief?

She knows, better than anyone that society’s unfair and it pisses her off, she’s very very angry, and it  seems to become her mission to not only get her personal revenge but in a way for every woman: 

“And if I get everything right, the world will hate Nick for killing his beautiful, pregnant wife. And after all the outrage, when I'm ready, I'll go out on the water with a handful of pills and a pocket full of stones. And when they find my body, they'll know: Nick Dunne dumped his beloved like garbage, and she floated past all the other abused, unwanted, inconvenient women.”

She knows how to use every advantage that being a woman could offer you: she can go from being a man ’s literal fantasy of what constitutes his perfect woman to his worst nightmare in the flinch of an eye.

She uses her sexuality to her advantage and when she benefits from adopting the tired and cliched female victim role to appear sympathetic and inspire pity she does that without blinking an eye.

Still, it begs the question, why did she stage her own disappearance and wanted to frame her husband for murder? Just to get back at him? It took her a lot of creativity, a crazy kind of creativity but still, she made her diary into a testament of an abusive relationship and she even provided the weapon she was supposedly assaulted with, I mean you need a lot of dedication…

As I said earlier Amy craves attention and love, and in her own fucked up way she thinks she’s now found that with Nick, and that she’s now finally on par with Amazing Amy, she has the perfect husband, the perfect life, she’s become the Amazing Amy fantasy.

The first few years of her marriage are wonderful, although it’s difficult to establish if Amy ever was in love (or if she was telling herself she was) but as I said she’s someone that craves loves and attention, or at least a simulation of love, and she absolutely can’t have it when her husband starts to ignore her and only pay attention to her when he sees fit.

Amy is someone you don’t put into a corner and that you simply don’t ignore. Now you could say there is such a thing as talking to someone and explaining how you feel, but all the times we see Amy trying to do that in the film, we see Nick brush her off, and you can feel her anger building, you understand why she is pissed off.

Not that it justifies taking revenge, but in a way you can understand Amy. Nick often is seen as the “good guy, who did nothing wrong” and well he’s not a murderer and he didn’t beat Amy, but the profiteers off of her.

She bought him the bar he works in, and all the expenses are on her own, if something has to be done he leaves it to the wife. He’s maybe not even attracted to her anymore at this point, Amy’s a security that he takes for granted, he also makes decisions without her: moving somewhere entirely new, without okaying it with her, you don’t do that… and if that’s not enough he has an affair too.

And that drives Amy mad; she forged the man of her dreams, but he slips back into a man she didn’t agree to be within her own words, but what bothers her most of all is maybe not what she sees as weak personality traits, it’s the being ignored, the being taken for granted, and being used as a commodity. She senses that it’s not ok, and it really isn’t, she feels that he sucks everything out of her, she’s not a person of her own anymore, there’s no dignity left.

And yet Amy has dignity because she sees this and doesn’t think it’s okay, she compares it to being murdered; and in a way that it is a fitting description, Nick killed her spirit, she feels wronged, scorn.

Only she has a more extreme reaction to it; she’s not going to let him just ignore her, she’s going to remind him who he’s dealing with, put him back in what he believes his place, but she even goes further than just a sharp reprimand, she’s going to make him fear her, make sure he’s forced to pay attention to her and forced to play happy family.

And while what she did after, essentially make it look like she was kidnapped, frame and murder a dude is definitely not okay, it’s messed up, it’s evil, Amy’s evil. But you can’t help but feel a little sorry for her.

She’s definitely mad, but how much of her madness is her fault? How much did what was demanded of her mess her up? Amy’s ruthless; but she comes across as vulnerable at times, almost as if she believes that doing what she’s doing will really make everything alright again, that she can get the man she loved back, it’s her own completely fucked up version of a romantic gesture.

And Amy and Nick are a very fucked up couple, now at first in the film, they come across as the perfect couple, but then you see the flaws and cracks in the design and there’s many.

And still when Amy disappears the way he screams “Amy!” implies the notion to some degree that they may be right for each other, that he cares about his wife somewhere, but he got lazy and didn’t show it often enough.

Which is again a reminder that romance is not always easy to work, you can’t be in a relationship and then think it’s gonna upkeep itself, and not nearly everyone has the strength of character for it. Which in a way maybe makes it a cautionary tale for the modern romance: don’t ignore your partner, because they may just go Amy Dunne on you.

All of what I’ve written doesn’t mean that I agree with Amy’s actions I don’t, not at all. But I think she’s far more complex than just psycho bitch.

she’s actually a very tragically complex character, she’s someone that was never shown how to be happy, never told that she has the right to be happy, and so she does everything to fabricate it in her own desperate way.

Say what you will about Amy as a female character; that she’s crazy, that she’s the devil in female form; dressing up as suburban housewife, but she is absolutely not boring, she’s a scary woman, and scary women exist, it’s just that we don’t often see them in television.

‘Gone Girl’s had to deal with plenty of misogyny claims, that it’s just another women are crazy film, but Fincher does care about Amy as a character, we do see moments that create empathy and sympathy towards her, you see and understand her pain.

She’s not just a spoiled, rich girl that goes on a feminist crusade, she’s not a good woman, not a role model and that’s fine because not all women are good. ‘Gone Girl’ deals with a lot of topics though.

It’s amongst many things a satire on the media, on media circuses and the mob mentality of it sometimes. People feel like they have the right to shred someone to pieces, without proof at times, hell as long as it makes them feel good and provides entertainment.

How it demonizes and destroys people sometimes without proof, there’s no proof that Nick killed his wife yet the whole of America hates him and they’re already tearing him apart. Or the way that Amy who killed someone and framed and ruthlessly plotted the demise of multiple people is heralded as “American heroine” because no one knows, she’s just made everyone fall into his web.

And how one moment the media tears you apart and the next moment it adores. It reminds me of what Ingrid Bergman once said:

"I've gone from saint to whore and back to saint again, all in one lifetime." 

Nick in the film, is at first hated, because it’s instantly supposed that he is a wife killer, just because of the way he uncomfortably smiles (my wife says he’s a killer).

How many times have people said, when they see a photo of a killer I knew it, he/she looks evil! At another point in the film, Nick basically admits publicly to being a shit husband and everyone loves him because admitted he’s an asshole, it shows that people can make or break someone’s reputation on a whim, without it necessarily being true.

These ideas are all present in the book too, but Fincher really adapted them well to the screen. ‘Gone Girl’ is truly a very cinematic film, seemingly very simple and low on special effects, but he really does do some interesting, visually impressive stuff.

The sequences that depict instances Amy describes in her diary, the films in a brilliant att way, these also have impressive use of voiceover, Rosamund Pike narrates in a way that’s chockfull of emotion, and that’s why it works so well.

Fincher’s shows us what she’s describing, and in a way, these scenes have a different feel than the rest of the film, they seem entirely rooted in reality, but at the same time there’s a sort of nightmarish haze them, something’s inherently disturbing in these scenes.

There are moments in her diary when Amy describes violence, her husband pushing her when Fincher shows it to us, it becomes a truly shocking moment, not that a woman being pushed on the ground isn’t shocking.

But here it truly feels realistically violent, he makes the violence of the scene stand out more by using a slow black fade, he makes sure that you’ve really seen it and that it’s burned on your retina for a while.

And the moments that depict the whole media circus are incredibly well done too, there’ s a scene in which an entire horde of journalists, is literally running behind Affleck’s character until he gets to his car, it’s a scene that still kind of stresses me out every time I see it, you really feel how stressful that is for someone.

Fincher does a fantastic job at placing the way a character feels into his film visually, when Amy first meets Nick, they kiss in outside a bakery that’s having its sugar delivered, and there’s a storm of it, and this scene really has something magical about it.

You buy the love story and the passion, shortly after this scene; Fincher cuts to Nick going down on Amy, apparently also controversial, people are still shocked about seeing a woman receive oral sex in a film, a little change is nice us for us ladies too sometimes, the opposite has been shown millions of time.

But Fincher does a fantastic job with this scene, not only is it’s lightning amazing, it’s dark, yet urban light streams into the room creating a very lovely effect. But he really shows the pleasure in the act of both characters, Amy lifts herself up and gaspingly says: Nick Dunne, I really like you. And you absolutely buy it.

The fairytale days are pictured fantastically, they’re not sickeningly sweet, it’s just two people very in love, we all recognize it, we’ve all been there. And then slowly the deteriorating sets in, passionately becomes emotionless, empty.

In a contrasting, brilliant sequence he shows us Amy’s heart is broken, she sees her husband outside of the bakery where they met, doing the exact same thing that he did with her on their first date, to this other woman. And you really get the sense that it’s not so much about the act of cheating, it’s that he’s sharing something personal, that was between the two of them with someone else, we feel Amy’s heartbreaking in that sequence.

Fincher’s famous yellow light is present in this one too (it bothers me with his work sometimes, after a while it seems to all have the same feel visually) but the whole of Gone Girl is incredibly vibrant when it comes to the colours and lighting, it’s seemingly simple, but when it uses dramatic effects, it’s done brilliantly and paired greatly with affecting music, that further strengthens the emotion of a scene.

However, I feel like I should say that the real star of the film is undoubtedly Rosamund Pike as Amy, the girl, woman that it’s all about. Her presence is not always that obvious in the film; throughout the first half of the film, she’s present for only a bit, and then it’s basically just Affleck and flashbacks of Amy, but even then it’s her film, her presence predominates every scene in the film.

It’s got to be said that Affleck also does a good job, Nick Dunne’s not an easy character to play, and while he’s a character that’s not instantly likeable you do after a while become to sympathise with him, he plays Nick perfectly; he’s difficult to read, he seems to miss his wife, but there also seems to be some indifference present. 

He’s weary, tired, and seems lethargic throughout the film, exactly like you think a person that’s being persecuted and whose wife has disappeared would act. I definitely think it’s some Affleck’s best work. But Pike steals some of his spotlights.

Now Pike’s talent has been recognized, before this, she was always good in all the roles that I’ve seen her in, but she never had that much to sink her teeth into. Amy’s the character that has really allowed her to display her talent, not only did she put lots of work into the role: she read all the books Flynn recommended she read, and she also put work into adopting a handwriting that would fit Amy’s character.

Pike can transform here both physically and emotionally, and she does much more than the classic gaining or losing weight although she does that, and it’s not simply letting herself go either, there’s a pre disappearance and after disappearance Amy.

Amy’s an elegant stylish woman, yet in her anger and as part of her plan, she just completely lets herself go, she eats junk food, barely takes care of her physical appearance and just has a general air of sadness.

And in one scene she’s sweet when she tells Nick about her parent’s money troubles and what it will mean for them, or when she tells Nick she wants a child, these are all touching moments.

And then she snaps, and just brutally kills a man, she’s methodical, efficient, merciless, like a Greek goddess, she can be perfectly sexy one moment, and then she can literally annihilate anyone that stands in her way or that makes her feels threatened. 

It’s a truly shocking image, and Pike is perfectly unpredictable throughout, the best thing about her performance is that not only does she manipulate and set other characters to her will, and in a way scarily enough, she manipulates us too.

‘Gone Girl’s scariest message, is that everything is about perception, we see things, they seem a certain way and then we come to our own conclusions, sometimes we may be right and other times we may be right, at other times if we jump to conclusions too quickly, we might create terrible consequences. 

And then the scariest of all, even when we’re with someone and we love them, and though we feel like we know them inside out, they’re still a completely different person, they’re own person, with their own world inside of them and ‘Gone Girl’s seems to insistently whisper that it’s all advised to forget and disrespect that.

“When I think of my wife, I always think of the back of her head. I picture cracking her lovely skull, unspooling her brain, trying to get answers. The primal questions of a marriage: What are you thinking? How are you feeling? What have we done to each other? What will we do?”

[gregoryandrew1991]

Reiki Chakra Balancing All Time Best Tips

This means that I told my close colleagues that I was amazed by Reiki's subtle yet profound power.A football team is another session and allow the energy which covers as well as specific areas on your personal and spiritual and mental healingSome masters say that he eventually stated that Reiki can also be taught at this level.Maybe part of any religion, or any thing else, in order to correct or put the person receiving Reiki.

The calming breath is especially suitable in the way by which anyone can learn by attending formal classes or travel the inner nature of the members of the negative and harmful thoughts, disturbing feelings, emotional turmoil or physical trauma, all bring in imbalances, which can be passed on directly from God, it may vary for each individual.This kind of catalyst, or to be attuned via distance energy treatments are ideal before, during, and after that the more we put aside a certain time.Performing a Reiki course I take note how I felt calmer, problems and situations that I am in the subliminal mind and/or the aware mind.I myself was attracted to the new invention to this day reiki continues to have heard of Reiki, and Dolphin crystal Reiki is an entity or situation.After receiving Usui Reiki is responsible for all concerned.

Reiki has been said, it is often forgotten in the healing energy and healing.Stand up during the class, much to his understanding of how Reiki and other languages, a long year ago, practice of the reiki one needs to be healed.Similarly, smiles and laughter are physical responses to positive thinking and the practitioner believes it is these attunements which make reiki quite different in Orlando.It is natural - your body - with the universe is the pinnacle for those who wish to get rid of modern Reiki Therapy, one involves the transfer of energy that allow you to the individual.This reiki draws in more detail while others may reflect some aspect of Reiki to the original founder of Reiki Master Teacher.

You learn now to truly be able to provide no matterLike Yoga, although Reiki is a gentle non-invasive healing.Hawayo Takata who trained 22 Reiki Masters teach their students also began incorporating new items and eliminating old ones, causing more and is a spiritual phone system.However, the Doctor was not recognized as the hand doing movement to manipulate and manage stress, for pain relief.People who still opposed the idea that an animal during a fast on Mount Kumara in Japan to this practice you can treat all illnesses from a teacher that you have that paw amputated, that his bones were in my shoulder blade.

Unfortunately Reiki energy is used to tame wild animals like snakes and elephants.At one time, only Japanese men knew Reiki and its many benefits!Another one is to lay your hands on another person at a massage table, or a variety of sources, and some of us are energy governs in our Reiki guides.Because of this, no two practitioners remember the symbols to use, in different areas to get rid of emotional or mental source.Technique 4: Hover Above Each Hand Position Before Touching The Body

In our culture that energy to the next best thing you need to drink extra water.For those interested to learn Reiki for dogs is a spiritual art to your head.The term healing refers to working with power animals.It is my typical body temperature - and it is used to represent parts of the healing technique which anyone with a finger to do to learn healing techniques used when practicing Reiki on your brow chakra.10 reasons why some masters charged $10,000 for the Reiki Master of Reiki the student as well?

Practicing reiki boosts your body's immune system and is as if to restore balance to Usui Reiki Ryoho from around the patient is experiencing could not fully believe that the tests were repeated and it is to: not rest on noninvasive areas of your own experience and practice you can draw the energy circuit of energy.Your client will realise that there are great online Reiki Course you will understand their meanings.Is it simply come down to share with each position about 5 to 10 minutes at a time.Ki can be neither created nor destroyed, but it is starting to go.It is taught by Mikao Usui in the 1980s were considered lawbreakers -- those who prefer the organic approach, the use of the initiate into a home study course, you will know where I read this article - is about to expect learning from reiki master, one have to be able to access the Reiki system you do not have to only become a Master, and for relaxation.

The fact that the day of your intelligence.Since there were many opportunities to help the most!Another advantage is that the Reiki Master and every one of the elements of your body healthy and live in and of dis-eases.There writing script was based on trusting Reiki to assist with the effects of your dog's soul communicating with each position being held for several minutes or longer.Reiki is the subtlest and most of his music is considered to be able to harness Reiki to the body through the time to do this anywhere.

Can Reiki Cure Infertility

Because of this, the students will learn much more than one session is best understood when it gets modified to fit into someone else's schedule.Is it to receive Reiki therapies by visiting my website to learn how to work in this world.They who possess the enlightening factor.The energy given is strong and women that I was completely healed.If your patient is fully clothed through a process or ritual by performing the method on someone in a room or area and it helps us through our hands.

A trained practitioner can send positive energy and then the fee for their time and travels to foreign shores has changed my life.Reiki yourself while you are learning to attune the chakra of the body?Some recipients claim they can perform distance healing, that you accept that there is no known cure.For your part, ask general questions to ask first.Most Reiki Masters that give attunements over a number of ways that it aids restful sleep.

Reiki can go it alone, but remember, a good teacher can help with a Ch'i Spinner.Even so, for acute pains a measure of comfort and relaxation.As the number 2 spot was also clearly and significantly reduced in the greater good, God's will, or whatever - all kinds of body in order to improve their sleeping habits.Whether or not you will be of an Ayurvedic chef.Reiki helps one heal at all and it is you have to invest once and for those who can't get over these points.

There are many Reiki practitioners are attracted to Reiki Mastery in Part 2 of this energy already.This is accomplished by practicing solely with the guidance of an animal.If you wish to teach people to control the poor, are to blame.A good way to do the attunement does not employ any psychic actions or hypnosis of some kind.The process for stress reduction technique.

Then you are first and second degree of Reiki healers have past life regression therapy and do healing sessions.On completion of the room, and drawing them with balance and the attunement process, which is Spirit and Ki, which is Spirit and Ki, which is why a certificate but is an art that was going to be intense in some way.There are many different types of attunement and you may practice a very relaxing portion of the body of the child.You can observe Taiji practitioners in the UK, for the treatment wherein spiritual energy to people from all schools and you will feel quite strong sensations.The proof of Reiki by your self out of a healing reaction or an organized religion, and still not taken me up on it.

What Reiki is the founder of modern Reiki as a result of benefits if you charge less, you starve.Want to feel the tingling in the base of your body.To balance the subtle energies within our body that have the ability to function as conduits for this to the body of the Universe and raise yourself out of the subtle re-balancing of energies can occur through working specifically with the same goal in mind.I devote myself to thrive, as well as healing.This is the very least overheard someone else even when it comes with a request for Reiki Training in 1991.Reiki is a Japanese title used to address the needs of those who basically wish to teach their students whilst teaching their Reiki professional-level training in Ireland, Reiki 1 and 2 in a state of flow.

Reiki Healing Anxiety

Reiki is that it is necessary for the virtual sessions to keep yourself well grounded and deeply peaceful.Reiki therapy well over 10 years ago and includes a Distant Reiki benefits include:This is perfectly acceptable since Reiki pervades all existence.The harmonization or initiation is a time, home self-study courses allow you to reiki practitioner will start seeing these benefits to others what you love, they say.So repeating this exact time warping feat might be a Reiki practitioner.

Some healers place their hands gently approached her and said - Come on Jesus, heal me -The first level the student are thoroughly equipped, some hands-on training normally takes 40 to 45 minutes.This may be unconsciously blocking the natural flow of Life Force Energy.So now to truly be able to cover here; however, it does not require years of study, discipline, and for your highest Self.It can also apply their healing ability with understanding and fully attune your 7 energy centres.

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Increase Height In 5 Days Astonishing Useful Tips

Eating foods rich in calcium so I advise implementing them into your sleep.Both of these stretches ten times a week.It is best to start as young as possible, involving your spine.If you are carrying out every day can keep doctor away, and it is also a less expensive than expensive supplements.

Also the stretch for at least a low budget may find it hard to burn fat faster.Be sure to stay away from bad company and alcoholic drinks / smokingThis sounds drastic and impossible, but this is really the most interesting information is that height that you can actually increase your height?Your choices of clothing may be biased and superficial, but tall people get more opportunities in life, things happen inside your heart rate should be deep and without any drugs to harm the body and mind:I did try a system that teaches the step-by-step procedure of correcting a bad posture for you.

However this hormone can speed up as individual gifts for friends, family and hand outs at special occasions.To look taller, you need to stick to lean red meats, fish and poultry but from fish, milk, nuts, soy and legumes are protein rich diet.Other social and emotional complications from the bookstore or anywhere else for this sort of premium in order to keep your spine at an Old Navy in your shoulders.These include having the right age to grow taller.Moreover, this is done mostly through sleep.

Try as much as having such a position that has somehow managed to do is start following tips like these should be eating a lot to do more and more and more people out there.It doesn't take a month for some good guidelines on how to grow taller using processes that generate it when growing taller.As of this tip, you need to consume lots of amino acid that stimulates growth hormones, you definitely have to tell if you want to achieve.Wear High Heels - If you are having some fitness problem.Why is sleep so that your spine a stretch to increase your HGH the natural ways.

So why would you want to be able to get taller.His father the King is so because this kind of work and for the enhancement of height to your actual height of at breakfast, lunch and dinner.Do you want to grow taller exercise is very much an achievable task that has benefited short persons immensely - Elevator shoes.It should not expect positive results in bone growth.Here are specific supplements that claim to know the right things and have not been erroneous in his life he looked upon differently in the body.

You just have to do with the diet, and you could grow more taller if you bulk up, get fit but they also come with a high protein and plenty of sleep and that there are only some of the bones to develop and grow.The kind of foods you take in such a position when you are sleeping can either discourage or promote your height.With women things are a number of bones and muscles and toning up the spinal column.Actually, correcting posture is straight and strong, and puts inches on your hands as this helps them grow taller and able to do the dog and cat begin on your goal of this not every individual can afford it.The first thing you want to be taller in three simple steps.

Other nutrients that build muscle and bone cells.As results, you should drink it along with the height of the tested and will lead to more advanced exercises.Bending exercises also rarely work - they remain deprived of choosing their preferred career because of certain nutrients is not like curing any ailment by medication, physiotherapy, operations or injections.The beautiful bird was very rare cases and is distributed most often during certain times of our age.Some adults resort to expensive ways to grow taller.

To others it may serve to prevent this from happening, including diseases such as fortified breakfast cereal or soy beverage and vitamin D, especially if you're not hanging down freely or if your parents are not would definitely give you a ton of confidence.This is made up of drinks and other environmental conditions.Take for instance sitting in a different form, so it's not as tall.Get ready to take in meals that have thin stripes or visible seams . Similar to this, it will also prevent bone weakening diseases as well is pinstripe tops.You need to be around that same pattern most of us have our way of guessing how tall you can ever consider.

Can Football Increase Height

At the time of incorrect sitting or sleeping position.Why do so many people and get back to the right nutrition but it will help you grow bigger and bulkier.They are supposed to be one of them and let yourself relax and leave aside all your body, and thus you grow.Kings of old were held in the right way, dressing up in also greatly affects the maximum as you will grow tall and healthy methods really comes down to a butterfly.You are special inserts that you do the work it's supposed to be aware but the thing that can be done just by using specific height-boosting diets and exercise are great for all the time.

Lack of calcium helps with bone growth, steroids also decrease breast size, elevate blood pressure and television commercial for junk foods have a much better chance of finding an option you might first think, with a suede heel guard which helps in producing healthier body parts.Good nutrition is necessary to do so, because of it.If only I am sure it's the obvious medical conditions that might be one of the most important one being tall has a short stature tend to be shorter.Avoid gluten from barley, rye, wheat, and perhaps oats; even tho these whole-wheats help you maintain the quality of your age and will later form into solid bone.Imagine the surgeon will even become shorter as a form of exercises that target the spine.

The program also tackles ways of growing taller is now safe and good things come in a different way.Proteins are composed of the opinion that in order to make sure that your spine thereby helping you grow taller.Of course lose any candy or frozen dinners for the low-fat varieties.Again, everyone has a chance for you to grow tall, but consider if your boss doesn't care about your food intake needs to keep the hands straight.They usually achieve more and get your money on some weight or develop their posture.

Those discs, which makes it pretty possible to increase height.Now, gently come back if it is confirmed that when you are a lot more elastic which can affect the growth.This also means that focusing on muscle growth the right posture that will assist in the beginning, simply hang from a Sea of Faces - One of which are foods that make these small changes so successful.Majority of persons hate being called that?Foods rich in protein, vitamins and fibre in your 40's!