#then Louis should get an Oscar or something

[bonnysis]

.

[k--o--m--o--r--e--b--i]

lestat, lestat, lestat, lestat, lestat, lestat, lestat, lestat, lestat, lestat, lestat, lestat, lestat, lestat, lestat

[auras-moonstone]

girl, i’m in dire need of some jack angst!! (i know, i’m crazy for wanting my heart to be ripped out by your beautiful writing in the saddest way possible😂)

maybe he and the reader have been dating for a few months and have their first big fight, maybe he’s been a little too close to a girl the reader has been having weird gut feelings about. they break up after some harsh words were said, and a few weeks later the reader sees that he’s dating the girl he told her not to worry about 👀

a few months pass, and jack and the girl break up bc he can’t get over the reader, and he tries to win her back, but soon realises he lost her for good when he sees her ar an event or something with someone else, and it’s clear that they’re more than friends.

(i kinda envision this as actress!reader x jack. and the event could be the oscars + the reader’s new bf could also be an A list celeb)

lyrics that could inspire you:

“'Cause there we are again when I loved you so, Back before you lost the one real thing you've ever known” - All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)

“I'm sitting eyes wide open and I got one thing stuck in my mind, Wondering if I dodged a bullet or just lost the love of my life” - I Don’t Wanna Live Forever

thank you so much and i’m sorry if this req is all over the place 😂😂❣️

hii! this might be one of the saddest things i’ve written yet. hope you like it<3

break me like a promise — jack champion

word count: 2,949

pairing: jack champion x actress!fem!reader, louis partridge x fem!reader (brief).

summary: jack breaks y/n’s heart, and after ten months he is determined to win her back, he sees her being happy with someone else.

author’s note: when i read “readers new bf could be a celeb” i knew i had to include the other love of my life aka louis partridge aka london boy.

Y/N AND JACK HAD MET THROUGH JENNA ORTEGA. The latter and Y/N both worked for Netflix, so they bumped into each other in lots of events and eventually became super close. And, knowing how big of a Scream fan Y/N was, Jenna invited her over to set and that’s where she met Jack.

No one could deny that sparks flew instantly between them, not even the two people involved. And that scared Y/N a bit, because her last relationship had left her with insecurities and trust issues, and she wasn’t sure if she was ready to dive into another relationship.

Jack had been very understanding about it, and told her that they should start as friends. He assured her that he would wait as long as she needed to, that she was worth it. And after months and months of therapy, Y/N finally felt ready to try things with Jack.

They were in a lavender haze for months. Her relationship with Jack was unlike anything Y/N had experienced before. The love she felt for him was so strong that there was no way to put it into words. Jack was her best friend—he had held her hand as she healed, and drew stars around the scars that the previous relationship had left on her. And she never would have thought he was going to be the one who made the wounds bleed again.

Jealousy is often seen as a toxic feeling, and after talking with her shrink about it, Y/N came to a conclusion—the toxicity depends on the way you handle that feeling. So Y/N decided to put her fears on the table, instead of jumping into conclusions. That’s what she thought would be the most healthy thing to do. Jack would be honest with her, and the thoughts that had been eating her alive would disappear.

But as soon as she said the words and saw Jack’s expression of irritation, Y/N knew she should’ve kept her mouth shut.

“Seriously? I can’t have female friend now” Jack spat furiously.

“What?! Of course you can. That’s not what I’m saying” Y/N said calmly. “I just… she clearly has feelings for you. And I’m not saying you should stop hanging out with her, I just need to know if she’s just a friend to you… or if there is room for more.”

“I can’t fucking believe you’re telling me this.” he shook his head in disbelief.

“Jack, I’m not accusing you of cheating or anything, really. You’ve been spending so much time with her…” more than with me, she wanted to add. But that would make things worse. “and I just have this weird feeling. I need to know how you really feel, that’s it. If you tell me you don’t like her, I’ll believe you. But please be honest with me.”

“What I really feel is that you’re suffocating me with your shitty problems.” his demeanour was so calm, but his words were sharp as knives, and they cut right through her heart. She had trouble believing the words had actually left his mouth. “I’ve waited for you for months, I helped you through all of it. And now you’re making this shit up? Grow up.”

Y/N felt like throwing up. She felt like she was about to spit her heart. “You don’t mean that.” her voice broke. “In all of these months, when have I ever brought up one of your female friends? Not once. Because I know they are only friends. But with her, Jack, I just feel like there is something more. And yes, maybe I’m overthinking, but that’s why I’m asking. That’s it. I’m just asking, Jack.”

“Stop being so fucking paranoid. I get that your ex cheated on you, but stop seeing ghosts everywhere.”

“Why are you being so mean? Why are you avoiding the question? It’s simple, Jack. Do you have feelings for her?” Y/N asked, the knot in her throat grew in size when she noticed he couldn’t look her in the eyes. “Jack?”

“We’re just friends, jesus!” he said annoyed. Y/N wanted so bad to play dumb, to pretend she couldn’t see he was lying.

“You know I can read you like a book, right?” she asked softly, sad. “When you lie, you can’t look me in the eyes, you play with your hands and bite the inside of your cheeks.”

“Y/N… fucking drop it. I’m tired of this”

“We are over, Jack” she tried to walk towards the door, but he grabbed her and pulled her against his chest, trapping her in his arms.

He saw the tears steaming down her face and cursed himself. “Shit. No, please. Let’s talk. I’m sorry” he sound like he was about to cry, and Y/N knew she needed to leave. Because even though he had hurt her, the soft spot in her heart was still reserved for him.

“No, let’s just leave it like this because if you keep talking, I’m afraid I might end up resenting you, and I don’t want that.”

“I love you, Y/N” Jack hugged her tightly. “Please let’s fix this. I promise you nothing happened with her, and nothing will.”

“I love you too, but I don’t believe you. I’m sorry, but I can’t do this anymore” and so she stepped away for the arms she loved the most in the world and left without glancing back. If she did, she knew she wouldn’t be able to leave.

EVER SINCE SHE WALKED OUT OF JACK’S HOUSE TWO WEEKS AGO, Y/N HAD BEEN OVERWORKING HERSELF TO AVOID HER THOUGHTS OF JACK CREEPING INTO HER MIND. She had stayed out of social media, and had deleted Jack’s number from her phone to avoid temptations. Her friends kept their eyes on her all the time, worried about the inevitable breakdown. You can only hold back for so long before it becomes too much.

Louis, her co-star, had been by her side as much as he could. And, like every morning, he was waiting for her on her trailer with a caramel macchiato and a shiny grin on his handsome face.

“And a chocolate chip muffin?” Y/N asked, seeing the mouth-watering treat next to her Starbucks drink. “What’s the special occasion?”

Louis stared at her, frowning. Not any indications of having had a break down, not even puffy eyes, which meant one thing—she hadn’t seen the pictures yet. “Nothing” he blurted, showing his charming smile. “Just saw it and had to buy it.”

“You really need to stop buying me these breakfasts, Lou. I’m going to get cavities” Y/N said taking a sip of her overly sweet drink.

“But look at how happy it makes you. Cavities will be worth it, don’t you think?”

“You may have a point. Scoot over” she told him, nudging his leg with her foot. Louis moved his body so that she could sit next to him on the small couch. It was not made for two people, so they were basically pressed against the other, yet they found it comfortable. Especially Louis, whose insides melted because of the closeness between them—his not so tiny crush on her was painfully obvious.

“What are you doing?” Louis asked, trying to keep his voice calm as she unlocked her phone.

“I forgot to check which surprise songs Taylor sang last night” she answered as she opened twitter. “Oh god”

“What?!” Louis squealed.

“She sang Cornelia Street and You’re on your own kid! And I wasn’t there, Lou!” she dramatically dropped her head on his chest. He couldn’t help but sigh in relief. “What is going on with you?” she laughed.

“Nothing. Why?” he laughed awkwardly.

“I don’t know, you’re extra jumpy and panicky today.”

“I’m always jumpy and panicky around you.” he said, trying to brush it off.

“No, you’re not” Y/N furrowed her eyes, locking her phone. Louis eyed the action and his chest relaxed. The girl noticed that, so she unlocked it again and started scrolling through Twitter. On her periphery, she saw the boy’s body tensing again. So it had to do with social media, she guessed. “Louis, I’m not dumb. Tell me what is going on.”

“Nothing” he repeated. “Let’s rehearse our lines.”

“Lou, I love you but you’re getting on my nerves right now. I hate being lied to, you know that.”

Y/N’s vulnerable eyes were his weakness, so he sighed and took her hand in his. “This weekend, some fans caught Jack walking around the city with a girl… and they… um, saw them kissing and holding hands.”

Y/N felt her heart drop, and her eyes started to sting. No. She wasn’t going to cry. She hadn’t let herself cry for two weeks and she was not going to start now. “Oh.”

“Give me your phone” Louis said softly. She was too lost in her own mind to question it, so she just obeyed. “I deleted Tik Tok and Instagram. And silenced any Jack related stuff on Twitter. You don’t need to see those pictures.”

“Louis… the girl… is it her?” Y/N asked, trying to keep her voice in control.

“Stop” his voice was firm.

“I want to move on, Lou. And for that, I need to know I was right first.” she pleaded. “Is it her?” her friend nodded slowly as he brought her to his chest. Y/N did a little nod too, and tried to stand up. “Let’s rehearse our lines.”

“Y/N…” he grabbed her elbow to push her back.

“Lou, please. I don’t want to cry, I don’t want to think about it.” he noticed she was two seconds away to burst into tears. And as much as he knew he would hate the sight of her weeping, it was necessary.

“I know you don’t, Y/N/N, but you have to if you want to move on. You’re never getting over this if you keep ignoring your need to cry.”

“I’m just afraid that if I do, I won’t be able to stop.” she confessed, tears starting to blur her vision.

“It feels like that now, but I promise you it’ll be good for you. You have been holding it back for weeks, and once you let it all out, you’ll start to heal” he said as he played with her hair.

“Two weeks… it took him two weeks to go off and date her. And it’s not only some girl… it’s her. He told me I was paranoid, and now he proved me right.”

Jack had promised nothing would happen between him and that girl, and now he broke his promise just like he had broken her heart two weeks ago.

After the realisation, it was like something snapped inside of Y/N, and one sob turned into desperate crying. Her fragile body shook under Louis’ arms, and he wished he could stop her pain. But he couldn’t, so he just stayed there with her holding her as she let it all out.

AS MUCH AS SHE HOPED THE CRYING WOULD EASE THE PAIN, IT DIDN’T. It had been months of being in a rollercoaster of feelings, sometimes she was okay, sometimes she was great and sometimes she was so low not even Louis’ hugs could lift her up.

The days where she didn’t have to shoot were the worst, because she spent hours in bed and her brain betrayed her by bringing the memories of Jack back. She missed him so much, it was completely agonizing. Why?, she asked herself when the room was dark and she couldn’t sleep. Why did he get to move on while she had to spend her days like that? She has been trying to pick up her heart while Jack was all lovey-dovey with the girl he swore was just his friend.

Jack continued her life without her, while Y/N woke up everyday with his memory over her. She longed for the picture of Jack’s dazzling smile to be gone from her mind. She prayed to forget the sound of his voice as he whispered the sweetest of things on her ear. She wished she could stop hearing his angelic laugh everywhere. She wanted to stop feeling the ghost of his touch against her skin. To forget that his lips were soft and that every time they were pressed against hers she could feel goosebumps all over her body. Y/N just wanted to stop being haunted by the memories of Jack.

Louis had slowly helped her through the process of moving on. He was there to offer his warmth when the wrenching thoughts triggered the waves of tears, and he was also there to make her break a smile once the sobbing stopped.

After eight months, the flood of her tears successfully carried away the thoughts of Jack, and Y/N knew she was finally clean. Not that she didn’t miss him, because Jack was her first love after all, and a small part of her would always love him.

It took her a few more months to be sure if she was ready to risk it again, but Louis’ sweet disposition, how he saw the best in her even in her worst times, showed her that he was worth it. And so she she watched it began again with him.

JACK AND THE GIRL LASTED FOR TWO MONTHS. He never intended to have something with her, but she was interested and he was lonely and sad, so he said yes. But reality crept in soon—he loved Y/N with all his heart and no matter who he was with, his thoughts would always go back to her.

He had been texting her for months, but she had blocked his number. He knew he could easily drive to her house, but he didn’t want to add salt to the multiple wounds he had inflicted on her, it would be selfish. So when Jack saw that Avatar 4 and Y/N’s drama film were both nominated for the Oscars, he knew it was his chance to make things right. To bring back the only real thing he had ever known.

But he didn’t plan on seeing her with someone else. And he knew they weren’t there together just as co-stars, they were each other’s date. The spark in Y/N’s eyes when she looked at Louis was familiar to Jack—it was the way they used to shine just for him. Jack had been the one to extinguish the spark on her eyes, and Louis had managed to light them up again.

And he wasn’t even mad or jealous. He actually felt happy and sad. Jack didn’t understand how it was possible for two opposite feelings to co-exist in his body at the same time. He realized it was a lost battle, yet he needed to do talk to her. For the sake of their once marvellous relationship.

Y/N got out of the bathroom and into the crowded room, but the thousands of people in it became blurry once she recognized the silhouette of a handsome tall boy leaning against the entrance. “Jack?” his name left her lips in a mix of anguish and surprise.

“Hey” he said softly. You look beautiful, he wanted to add, but restrained himself. “I wanted to talk to you.” Jack saw her grimace and continued before she could stop him. “I know. I know it’s the last thing you want, I just need to get this off my chest. You’re not paranoid or insecure. You never overwhelmed me with your problems. You were right, and I was a shitty boyfriend, friend and person, and you have been so amazing and patient… and I’m so sorry, Y/N. I never deserved your love.”

“You did… up until that night.” she said in all honesty. “I loved you so much, and then you said all of those things. I can’t forget about it, because I never expected those words to come out of your mouth.”

“I know, and I really don’t expect you to forgive me. It’s okay and understandable if you don’t, but I needed you to know that those things I said weren’t true at all.” Jack said, pressing his lips in a thin line. “To be honest, I came here with the mind set of trying to win you back” he confessed, and let out a little laugh, as if the idea was now ridiculous. “But I saw you with him and I know that I’ve lost you for good. Are you happy with him?”

Y/N saw his deep brown eyes starting to get glossy and her insides melted. She didn’t see him with romantic eyes anymore, but it didn’t mean the love was gone. She still cared for him with every bone in her body. “I am. He’s amazing.”

Jack smiled. Genuinely smiled, so widely that it made a few tears drop, and before she knew it, Y/N’s cheeks were wet too. “That’s great, Y/N/N. Really great. I’m happy for you.”

And that was the moment Y/N knew Jack honestly regretted the words he had said before their breakup. “I forgive you.”

The tall boy’s eyes widened “What?”

“I forgive you.” she repeated. “And you deserve to be happy too, okay?”

“Thank you” Jack said breathlessly, wiping away the tears.

“I need to go. But it was nice to see you, thank you for coming to talk to me. For real. I really needed that, I think we both needed that.”

And so they both smiled to each other one last time before parting ways. There was nothing left to say, staying friends had never been an option with them. They loved each other too much for that. When it came to Y/N and Jack, it was everything or nothing at all.

[allwaswell16]

A fic rec of One Direction exes to lovers fics that are in Harry's point of view as requested in this ask. If you enjoy the fics, please leave the writers kudos and comments! You can find my other fic recs here. Happy reading!

—Harry/Louis—

🥀 The Lonely Planet Guide to Second Chances by @1diamondinthesun

(NR, 102k, vacation) the breakup travel fic featuring romantic sunsets, awkward bed sharing, and second chances against a backdrop of some of Europe's most iconic cities.

🥀 a thousand miles away (from the day that we started) by @perfectdagger

(M, 88k, time capsule) Five years after his break up with Louis and ten since they've left school, Harry finds himself hosting a reunion at his family bungalow, having to face his ex again and the feelings he had left behind.

🥀 Perfect Storm by @cherrystreet

(E, 80k, fake relationship) What do you do when your best friend asks you and your (now) ex to be the best men at his destination wedding?

🥀 Feels Like Coming Home by @phdmama

(E, 60k, recovery) The last thing Harry Styles expects when he's hanging out at the Someday Cafe in Somerville one rainy October day is for his ex, Louis Tomlinson to walk through the door, but that's exactly what happens.

🥀 Far Away. by dimpled_halo / @comebackassholes

(M, 57k, musician Harry) Harry returns to London after five years. Stuck in the past with "what ifs" and "what might have beens", he sees that his friends and ex (and possible love of his life) Louis have all moved on with their lives while he finds himself questioning his own life choices, past and present.

🥀 The End Should Be A Good One by bananasandboots / @anylessreal

(M, 43k, art teacher Harry) the one where Harry loses the love of his life on New Years Eve and finds him again, six months later, ready to open some poorly-stitched wounds.

🥀 I Do by @brightgolden

(E, 43k, famous/famous) After moving to Los Angeles when he was just eighteen years old with the hope to be a household name in Hollywood, Harry Styles finally earns himself an Oscar several years down the road. But his new found fame is rattled when he bumps into a certain Louis Tomlinson backstage after four long years. 

🥀 Our Sweetest Memorial by @softfonds

(E, 35k, Persuasion au) Ever since Harry was forced to break off an engagement five years ago, he resolved to never marry for the remainder of his life. Now his family must move out of his beloved Kellynch Hall to recover some of their debts that their father had accumulated.

🥀 like a timebomb ticking by @infinitelymint

(M, 31k, canon) Louis loses everything. Harry's still there.

🥀 Bitter Ends Turn Sweet by @allwaswell16

(E, 30k, kid fic) It had been four years since Harry first heard the song his ex wrote about him and far longer since they broke up.

🥀 Cowboy Like Me by Rearviewdreamer / @all-these-larrythings

(M, 29k, thieves) Going legit and starting over in a small town was supposed to solve all of Harry’s problems. That was until a string of robberies in wealthy towns brings him face-to-face with his rouge ex-partner and their dicey, unresolved past.

🥀 Sakura Sunset by MsHydeStylinson / @mizzhydes

(E, 16k, Kew Gardens) Only after Louis has left does Harry realise he made the biggest mistake of his life breaking up with Louis, and he has to live with the consequences of his actions.

🥀 give me things to stay awake by embodied

(E, 10k, alcohol) On Saturday nights Harry goes out and gets so pissed he can’t stand, and when the bartender cuts him off he rings Louis and is in his car within an hour. It’s not a cycle he’s proud of, but it’s also something he can’t resist, and he keeps doing it as long as Louis keeps showing up.

🥀 don't you call him baby by @femstyles

(T, 8k, jealousy) the one where Harry is absolutely doing fine and is definitely not still hung up on Louis. Except he is.

🥀 Truth or Drink by @kingsofeverything

(M, 6k, youtube) Harry and Louis broke up years ago, and they're seeing each other again for the first time to play Truth or Drink. On camera.

🥀 So Paris When We Kiss by cherrylarry / @beelou

(G, 4k, soulmate au) There’s a travel website open that he certainly did not open himself. Niall has been trying to get him to Paris ever since he got his mark. 

🥀 last christmas (i gave you my heart) by localopa / @waterloux

(G, 4k, chef Harry) louis and harry are broken up. cue scheming friends to make one christmas wish come true

🥀 Heart that I Let Down by YesIsAWorld / @louandhazaf

(G, 4k, famous/not famous) Where do broken hearts go? Louis took Harry’s with him when he went to LA, now Harry’s on a mission to find him.

🥀 Not yet a breach, but an expansion by theweightofmywords / @lil0

(NR, 2k, soulmates) “I don’t understand why we keep running into each other,” he says as his hands grip his hair in frustration.

🥀 'Tis the Damn Season by zanni_scaramouche / @zanniscaramouche

(M, 2k, fwb) He won’t think about the cabin in the woods again until next December.

—Rare Pairs—

🥀 holiday by narryblossom

(M, 2k, Niall/Harry) Harry almost felt bad letting his mum think he had gotten sick while in the sea, but he knew he would have felt worse if he had gone out and accidentally ran into his ex and all of his friends.

[georgiapeach30513]

Soba 1000% is not making the cut when compared her age bracket.

All of the 20s actresses you’ve mentioned are talented. Varying levels of talent but all of them have done something memorable and worthwhile that brings their name to the conversation.

Soba only has her husband for clout.

When you compare her to all of the other actresses worth mentioning in her bracket, I dare say she is the only one who when you have to explain how do people know her? It’s not because of a role she played but because of who she married.

Remember, WN launched back in 2020. There was a whole season where it was on Netflix (internationally) and yet the only time CE fans even noticed her is because he followed her on SM and people had to google who she was and what she did. Sure WN had its own smaller fanbase but she was the star and still forgettable.

He inadvertently put her on the map (whether or not intentionally is still TBD) because his fanbase was the one who started to do the legwork and get her name mentioned in things like DM and other gossip fodder due to their incessant crazy stalking.

If anything, these latest pics at the restaurant are giving serious Ben and Ana vibes from 2020. Most of CE fans knew Ana because of knives out and there were some GP who knew her from blade runner 2049 and knock knock, but her dating Ben really put her on the GP map and during peak Covid. People were wondering who she was and while she was out being embarrassing with Ben on the daily, she paid her dues, walked away, and came back 200 fold stronger. Now look at her. Oscar nominated (though I have issues with that role and how it happened) and now a household name in her own right. She played the game right and with her own hard work - she earned that shit.

People may disagree with me but I personally see a lot of similarities between these two but the main difference is how these women will leverage their added publicity and fame.

Ana wanted to make a name for herself.

To me, soba is not currently showing much of that. She’s showing “wants to be a sugar baby” but pretends she’s feminist and wants a career. I could be wrong but from her own actions and especially how she’s quick to gallivant around the world on vacation and attending fashion shows, but extremely reluctant to come out and actually promote her own work and show up for work obligations, I’m not seeing someone who really wants to work hard. She wants fame and that’s it. She also wants the luxury that comes with fame and fortune but not the pay your dues part.

Just my take though.

🙌🏻 you get it. There is a lot of similarities between Ana and soba. Ana isn’t the most talented actress, but there is this beauty and poise to her. She is likable with a great personality. But what really sets her apart is her work ethic. That woman PROMOTES HER STUFF!! She knew Ghosted was a flop, and she promoted it daily. She repped herself so hard that she is a Louis Vuitton girl.

Hollywood is a tough world. It’s not easy to make it to it. Just because you get cast, and you act, your job isn’t done. Promoting and press is part of the job. It is tedious and boring and should be done. Ana got an Oscar nod very quickly in her career. Why? Because she wanted it.

Ana has my respect because she earned it. Acting is more work than people realize. Being an influencer is more work than people realize. For someone who has been given a platform, she knows fuck all to do with it. Again, she needs to be humbled.

[flimflamfandom]

Flimflamuniverse Character Breakdown!

Have you ever been reading one of my fics and asked something like-

"Whaddya MEAN Freckle has an accent?"

"Why do they end up in Hollywood?"

"Who's Rocky dating, anyway!?"

Well WONDER NO MORE! This post is the comprehensive list for all yer Flimflamfandom character quirk questions!

Essentially all of the changes are character based, but we will be talking about slight setting differences as well.

Let's dive in!

THE SETTING:

Most of the setting is exactly the same - late 20s St. Louis!

HOWEVER -

During later period stuff (anything from 1929 onward) several of the characters have taken up roots and gone to Hollywood! This has to do with various career moves that take place over the duration of the AU

Significant parts of Calvin's story now take place in Cork, Ireland - this will be explained more in depth later.

IT SHOULD BE NOTED that by the time my AU takes place, the Daisy has picked up significantly in business.

THE CHARACTERS:

It's important to note that NONE OF THE CHARACTERS' CRIMINAL ATTRIBUTES WERE REVEALED UNTIL AROUND THE MID 70S, and by then, the shock and horror of this sort of thing were replaced with fascination.

CALVIN MCMURRAY:

1909-1939

Calvin's childhood is the same, up until the nebulous "incident" that gets Rocky kicked out of home. Because of this, Nina gets a bit spooked, and sends Calvin to finish his basic schooling in County Cork, Ireland. He completes his schooling, and comes back home just in time for the "event" at the police academy.

During his time at the Daisy, Calvin becomes very interested in writing, and begins writing for the Times Dispatch about baseball games. He eventually begins writing screenplays when he moves with Ivy to California. He writes 3 novels, 2 short story collections, and 3 books of poems, on top of 4 screenplays. He's a busy guy!

Unfortunately, sometime around 1936, he develops a form of tail cancer. He dies in 1939, just 10 days shy of his 30th birthday.

QUIRKS: -Calvin has an accent! He's a cork boy. He sounds like a Cork boy. -By the time of his death, Calvin has a son, named Finn.

IVY PEPPER:

1909-1999

Ivy's childhood and such don't change much at all. 'Cept a secret that has to do with Mitzi, but shh! It's a secret!

Ivy is majoring in mathematics at college, and she's MAJORING majoring in it. her specialty seems to be advanced algebra - ring theory, nonlinear algebra, stuff like that. She slowly starts to see herself doing less and less in the field, but she always keeps an interest in it, attends conferences, etc.

The thing that REALLY interests Ivy, though, is her theater course. She takes one as an arts credit and LOVES it! She turns out to be kind of a prodigy on stage! She does some more acting here and there, and happens to meet a producer of films in 1929, after she's changed names to Ivy McMurray. She drags Calvin out to Hollywood with her, and stars in at least a dozen films, winning awards for quite a few of them!

By her retirement from acting in the 1960s, (her last picture netted her an award, by the way) she began to help get all of her old things from the Daisy together, and turn them into a museum, called the Daisy Club Museum. She helped run and fund the museum until her death in 1999, just 2 weeks into the age of 90.

QUIRKS: -Won 5 Oscars - 3 best supporting, 2 best actress. -Contributed her skills and research to at least 3 Algebra textbooks, -Never remarried after Calvin - she was quoted as saying "He'll love me when I get where he is, too."

ROCKY RICKABY:

1904-1989

Rocky's time at the Daisy is marred by his failed romances. He swears he must be the most unlovable person on earth! In the AU, I used to have an OC set aside for him, but nowadays I keep it vague and just say he has a wife and kids. ANYHOW, after the Daisy, Rocky manages to recover a tad from his head wound, and, get this - became a comedian. He even had a circuit of all the speakeasies.

Rocky did need a job after all of that though, and ended up, eventually, in broadcasting, which turned into being a comedian, which turned into his own radio show, which turned into a television show in the early days of TV. Rocky moved out to Hollywood and accidentally bought the house right next to Ivy and Calvin's.

A man with a good reputation, even AFTER it came out that he was a serious gangster, Rickaby died peacefully in 1989, at the age of 85.

QUIRKS: -Rocky was a staunch civil rights, woman's rights, and gay rights activist up until the very end. This would often get him in trouble with networks and producers. -Really liked the Beatles when they crossed over to the US -There is a very persistent rumor that he was in the OSS during World War 2 - in fact, he was not, but he did do work for the Signal Corps making mildly funny training films.

MITZI MAY:

?-1980

Little is known of her childhood, or her adolescence before the Daisy.

Plenty is known AFTER it though!

Mitzi, unlike the others, was not headed for entertainment afterwards. She, instead, lived with Sedgewick Sable, and indeed remarried, but never took his last name. As the pressure from the depression started to ease, she managed to turn all that Daisy property (and all of the hidden away stash money) into a hotel! Mitzi became an incredibly successful hotelier, owning and helping to operate no less than 5 luxury hotels by 1956.

By 1970, she had gotten in touch with Ivy Pepper again, and asked about the Daisy Club Museum - she was instrumental in getting it started, as she still sorta owned the caves down there. She had the diea of making it a living history museum, and she also had the idea of making it like a sort of themed resort.

She died in her sleep in 1980. No one was precisely sure of her age.

QUIRKS: -No one really knows her age -She has a secret about Ivy that she's never told a soul, and it went with her to her grave -Mitzi had one known child by Sedgewick Sable - Minerva, born in 1934. Minerva became a costumer.

SEDGEWICK SABLE:

1895-1985

After the depression hit, Sable was distraught and destitu-JUST KIDDING, that paranoid buffoon hid cash in the walls. The WALLS, I tell you! It wasn't a ton, though, and they coasted by until the New Deal came around.

Work projects need work materials, and Wick was able to help provide them. With a new purpose, new drive, and tons of resources, Wick managed to get the company going again, renaming it to Sable Construction Materials, later just SCM. He even had to buy 3 Lake Freighters - the company still operates lake freighters today!

At the age of 90, Wick passed away in his sleep.

QUIRKS: -While Wick and Calvin were never close, both were HUGE baseball fans - Wick was obsessed with the Red Sox. -Wick was a surprisingly involved boss - most employees knew him personally.

MORDECAI HELLER:

1899-1983

At some point, Mordecai returned to the Daisy, to work with Calvin McMurray as a 'fix it' man. Mordecai admired the work, and stayed put until the place stopped being illegal.

After bouncing from job to job, thinking he would end up back in organized crime, Mordecai settled down in New York after finding out the man who wanted him dead had been killed in a car accident. Mordecai became an accountant and theater manager on Broadway - not a STAGE manager, mind you, just the guy who runs the theater. He really quite liked the work!

Mordecai Heller died in 1983 at the age of 84, of lung cancer.

QUIRKS: -Mordecai was a homosexual, and was well known as such. -Mordecai, a seemingly ice hearted man, actually kinda liked musicals...well. Good ones, anyway. -His least favorite show up there was Seesaw. His favorite was Pacific Overtures

VIKTOR VASKO:

1886-1978

After the Daisy became a legal operation, Viktor just...kept working there. You still need someone to lift boxes and tend a bar when it's legal, too! Viktor was actually a loyal employee of Mitzi until 1943, when he left to run a construction firm in St. Louis. He did that, and had a fairly uneventful life, dying in 1978 at the age of 92.

QUIRKS: -Viktor never remarried - but he did reconnect with his wife and daughter sometime in 1935. -Viktor's daughter went on to become a famous operatic soprano, and even served at the Met for a time. -Viktor never outed any of his former associates, even when talks of the Daisy Museum were beginning. He refused, worrying that he'd sully people's reputations.

DORIAN ZIBOWSKI:

?-1954

After the depression, it became harder for clubs to keep full time musicians. Zib was still at the Daisy until about 1932. Fortunately for him, in 1933, his old...work acquaintance? Rocky was running a radio show out of Los Angeles and was asked to help find a band leader.

After a brief stint on this show, Zib began to lead bands at the cutting edge of Jazz music - he considered becomeing an academic, but he never found the time to think too hard about the option.

A lifetime of smoking and drinking caught up to him fiercely, and he died of Lung Cancer in 1954.

QUIRKS: -He's still made outta triangles! -Zib learned to play every saxophone, and every reed instrument he could get his hands on. -Zib's final record was a live recording at the Pershing Lounge in Chicago, Illinois, 4 years before Ahmad Jamal made it famous.

THE SAVOYS:

Nico: 1900-1978 Serafine: 1902-1983

Little is known of the Savoys after their return to Louisiana in 1931. Some say Nico got back into boxing, or that Serafine was responsible for a rash of killings.

The two died peacefully in their homes, and lived to perfectly normal old ages...and yet, it seemed so suspicious when Nico died. He was just...on his back porch. With a note that was written in code...

QUIRKS: -Nico did, in fact, go back into boxing, but left for professional wrestling - the fictional kind. Serafine was, for a time, a voodoo practitioner for hire, who was well regarded in her community -Neither married, but both had several relationships

THE ARBOGASTS:

Abelard: 1886-1987 Bobby: 1898-1975 Elsa: 1900-1975

The Arbogasts lead a quiet, mostly obscure life, save for Abelard, who becomes quite the lit up theologian. He starts a cult in the woods of Missouri, and is found dead after his 101st birthday. The cult, as many do after a leader dies, fell into disarray and eventually splintered.

Bobby and Elsa dropped the funeral routine and moved closer to the city - Bobby became a school teacher and Elsa became a nurse. The two died months apart in 1975.

QUIRKS: -Elsa and Bobby were just about as in love with each other as Calvin and Ivy. -Bobby had severe PTSD from the war, and would often have episodes. Elsa hated seeing him that way, but helped him. -Abelard's Cult, "the new Thinkers", was bizarrely peaceful as cults are concerned. They never ate Fish, though...

LACY HARDT:

1904-1994

Lacy was a loyal employee of Sedgewick Sable for the first year after the depression. Eventually, though, she married Arthur Keane (an OC you can read about here), a guitarist, and moved with him to his hometown of Virginia Beach. There, she lived with him as an assistant to many prominent locals.

Eventually, the two moved again, back to Peoria, to take care of Lacy's ailing mother. This was around 1934. After Lacy's mother passed in 35, she was distraught. So, she decided to find a new hobby - writing and illustrating children's books. She got onto the idea after a phone call with Ivy, who handed over Calvin's agent's information.

When she retired, Lacy moved back to Virginia Beach with Arthur, who died a year before she did. QUIRKS -Lacy won a Caldecott Medal, and displayed it in her home office until her death -Until after her death, it was kept a secret by the McMurray family that Lacy, who was close with them, had been writing Finn (Calvin's son) notes as Mrs. Claus, as well as little stories, which eventually became her 'Rudy Sees the World' books.

THAT'S ALL I'M WRITING FOR NOW!

Again, pretty much all the changes are to the characters - the setting is, for the most part, untouched! I will be writing more about the AU when I get the chance, though!

[rogueddie]

Stranger Things: The First Shadow

This is going to be a full review; starting with production, some characterization issues and some of the plot holes.

But, before I get into the spoilers, I would just like to clarify my biggest issue; these characters are not the same characters that we see in the show. Every play demands suspension of disbelief, but it was completely impossible with this play.

I knew the play would be bad when I got my tickets. I didn't think I would have a bad time watching it.

warning; I am about to level a truly gruesome amount of critisism at the stage show. if you liked it, I'm glad you did; this is just my opinion and experience xoxo

My Review:

The production was, physically, beautiful. The designs and use of space was extremely well done. Some of the ways they used the screens and projections was stunning. It had the potential to add a lot to the story.

The sets are easily the strongest part of the production. The use of screens, levels and painted background- especially in the introduction- were stunning. It doesn't feel overwhelming and it makes it almost easy to remain engaged in both scenes playing out at once.

The design for the lab, too, is extremely well made. Having a box that can be rolled onto the stage is the perfect idea for the scene- it appears even smaller thanks to the contrast with the larger stage and the bright lights in white walls, the set feels ominous.

Unfortunately, the production ended up sabotaging itself. They default to special effects, screens and pyrotechnics to create the experience instead of trusting their designs or actors. It makes it seem like they are trying to hide their designs instead of enhancing them.

The introduction scene is the perfect example. The smoke machine initially added to the scene, it added an element of reality that could have drawn the audience in.

But, with how the smoke machine was overused, it ended up hiding the second set used in the "boat scene". In the stalls, I could barely see anything and was drawn out of the show completely and immediately- instead of watching a play, suddenly I'm worrying about whether I need to get my inhaler or not.

They overused everything. The screens were used so often that I have to wonder why they didn't just make a short movie instead of a play.

Similarly, the pyrotechnics were immediately overused- the first scene should not be making me wonder if you are using all of the visually compelling tricks in the first five minutes. But to keep using them at the same frequency? It makes it seem like you are more interested in making something look cool and care very little for the story you are supposed to be telling.

The lighting and music was simply poor. Half the time I couldn't hear what the actors were saying due to the music blasting at a painfully loud volume and, in scenes where the actors are clearly giving a brilliant performance, they are so poorly lit that they might as well not bother.

The poor lighting was very similar the show though. Props to them for managing that horrendous feat.

The directing definitely didn't help. The actors use of space is so poor and unnatural that, at least, I hope it was the director.

The lab set, for example; the actors both left the box set made. Henry's character roams the entire length of the stage, which makes the small lab set feel entirely pointless. His character never feels trapped or in any way boxed in by the box set. Instead of adding to the scene, it takes away- it's a giant set design that is ignored or takes up space in a way that is obtrusive.

On a positive note, I would like to point out that most of the actors did a phenomenol job. But I would especially like to emphasize how well Anika Boyle, Christopher Buckley, Oscar Lloyd, Louis McCartney and Isabella Pappas did. I can't wait to see what they do next.

Unfortunately, they're brilliant performances could do nothing to save a script that had already doomed them and their characters.

Doctor Brenner is easily the biggest problem when it comes to the characters. I'm not sure if it was the actor, the director or simply the writing, but he is the worst part of the entire play. He has no discernible motivation, none of his actions make sense with his character- if he can even be called a character. The show twists him so much that he becomes a caricature that bares no resemblence to the Doctor Brenner we see in the show.

Throughout the show, he's constantly encouraging Henry to kill. Literally, he verbally tells Henry to kill people. It's completely different to the sly and manipulative Brenner we see in the show- and not in a way that would make sense for him to have evolved from the stage Brenner to the show Brenner.

"Kill her," Doctor Brenner, The First Shadow, 2k23. Why does he say this? Uh... he wants the big scary interdimensional monster. Why does he want that? Uh... HEY, LOOK OVER THERE, PYROTECHNICS!

Henry Creels issues mostly stem from plot holes and retconning well established canon. In the show, he is not a victim and that fact is made abundantly clear. It's not that he's tricked into thinking he's in control, he simply is. The stage show tries to completely turn that on it's head and make him the poor little victim to something that, in canon, he made.

If he was a different character, or if we are to take the stage show as an au of sorts, I think he's pretty well written. His motivations and powers are well established. We, as the audience, understand his thought process. He is a believable character... even if the 'siezures' do often come across as nonsensical, borderline silly.

Hopper, Joyce and Bob were almost perfect too. It's something that has been slowly irritating me more and more- they could have easily been the protagonists, taking attention away from plot holes and poor characterization. They were strong enough as a trio and well written enough to be- almost- convincing.

I'm not sure how to explain my issues with Hoppers character in the show without it boiling down to 'dissappointing'. Nothing about the arc he goes through makes sense to me and it feels like the show forced him into the ending he had simply to remind the audience of the show, despite it making no sense with the story or arc that his character went through during the show.

My issues with Joyce are both- it breaks canon for her to know so much, so intimately, and her ending is also incredibly forced. The budding enemies-to-lovers that she had with Hopper also led to the ending feeling unsatisfying. It feels like the growth is for nothing.

The characters in the background too, somehow, are full of just as many flaws.

Claudia is the perfect example. When her cat is killed by Henry, she is immediately ready to start a literal witch hunt. She's insistant and frequant about it. There's even a small scene where she is seen to be irritating with how much she brings up her witch theory.

Yet, she stops talking about that very suddenly. She doesn't express as much as distaste for the play- about witches and killing. She's actually excited.

Her pets death and her character are important, but only until the plot demands she be quiet so they can move on, hoping that the audience will somehow forget this somewhat major B plot.

I could go on forever about the characters. A lot of the plot holes stem from how poorly they're handled and how much they immediately change to fit the narrative around Henry. None of them act like people and the play does not treat any of them like they, as characters, matter at all. They are just people to fill the space whilst Henry and Patty have a love story.

But, even then, the characters the play seems to care about are completely mishandled as well.

Joyce, in her introduction, spends most of in trousers and a bra. She's supposed to be a student in high school. It feels weird to ask your audience to watch someone standing on a stage in their underwear whilst also asking them to believe she is underage. It is so incredibly uncomfortable to think about. She didn't need to be topless for as long as she was.

Pattys ending made no sense. She died, but also she went to see her mother. So... she's alive? But also she's dead. But she's there, physically, so she must be alive... but also it's made clear that she died.

Eleven being 10(ish?) in the end made no sense with the timeline. They reduce characters to badly told jokes; Ted the idiot and Karen the blonde "slut".

I don't have the energy to go over the plot. There are so many holes and problems that it would take forever to deal with act one alone.

But, to summerize; this play had a lot of potential. There are parts that were almost brilliant and there are a lot of incredibly talented people working on it behind the scenes. The way all of that talent and potential is wasted for something as simple as lack of effort in the writing and directing? Dissappointing is not a harsh enough word.

0.5 / 10

[empiredesimparte]

Charlotte: Are you going to do something? Napoléon V: I think so. Perhaps my advisors and ministers have already worked on these questions of independence with my father Charlotte: The Mayor seemed to say that your father had opened a file on the subject

Napoléon V: Knowing him, he must have worked to keep the islands in our territories, for military reasons Charlotte: Are you really considering this referendum?

Napoléon V: Why not? It's better now than when I'm unpopular Charlotte: It has nothing to do with you, and... You won't be unpopular Louis, ever. The French have seen you born and bred, you're a member of their family. You dedicate your life to them

Napoléon V: I know, but it's important for me to be accountable to the French, to all the French Charlotte: Independentists aren't the majority, they're just noisy and preoccupied with political infighting

Charlotte: By working with Monsieur le Maire, Polynesia can regain its calm, without making waves Napoléon V: How could this individual think that his Emperor is corrupt? Charlotte: I'm sure it's a misunderstanding Louis, he didn't mean to imply…

Napoléon V: What else then? Offering "a gift of 5 billion euros" to his superior, for the negotiation of a delicate political dossier, in order to prepare its conclusions without open debate… Sounds like a substantial and immoral bribe Charlotte: You're mixing things up, darling. It's simply a thank-you, and what he's proposing is common sense. We all want the same thing Napoléon V: I refuse in spite of everything, I'll act as I decide, free to make my own choices

Charlotte: Louis, this is stupid! You're creating problems where there aren't any! The mayor is a representative of the people too, you can't ignore that! Napoléon V: Would you have accepted the atoll? Charlotte: Of course! We might as well work together, rather than against each

Napoléon V: If you want an atoll rather than a house on the island, we can get it on our own, by saving money, without the influence of the Mayor Charlotte: Louis, do you hear yourself? We could save billions of euros and everyone would win, otherwise I wouldn't support it either

Charlotte: At least take the time to think about it. The mayor is an old man, it's not as if he's going to blackmail you for the rest of your reign, and he won't anyway, if we make sure he stays on as head of the Polynesian assembly…

Napoléon V: And if this gets out, how will we look? Charlotte: We've got the best agents in the country. You'll see, I'm sure the Prime Minister would be on my side too

Napoléon V: I'm above this little world of selfish scheming! I embody the Constitution! Charlotte: Louis… Napoléon V: Don't pout like that!

Napoléon V: I'll consult the files and my advisors, and I'll decide without the mayor, it's non-negotiable

Charlotte (chagrined): I never said you should accept right away. I simply think that the Mayor's offer is more honest than you'd like to see, and I hope you'll understand that when you think about it

Napoléon V: Don't cry, darling, I'm sorry I got carried away. It's nothing against you Charlotte: I'm not crying. I've just been emotional lately Napoléon V: I promise I'll think about it calmly

Charlotte: That's fine with me. Let's not fight over "so little"

Charlotte: I was so quick to think that we could have a dream place to come back to Napoléon V: I understand, love, such an offer is exhilarating. I don't blame you

Napoléon V: Whatever happens, we'll have this atoll, okay? I'll tell the mayor to register us as interested buyers Charlotte: Thank you Louis

⚜ Le Cabinet Noir | Bora-Bora, 14 Messidor An 230

Beginning ▬ Previous ▬ Next

The imperial couple met the mayor and deputy of Bora-Bora, Gaston Temasong. Temasong offered to guarantee the Emperor his place as head of French Polynesia, in exchange for a private atoll not far from Bora-Bora. Napoléon V was offended by this attempt at bribery, but worried about this independence movement, led by a certain Oscar Sang.

(An atoll is a coral island with a large lagoon at its center. These islands are part of archipelagos and are highly prized by certain billionaires)

⚜ Traduction française

Charlotte: Vas-tu faire quelque chose? Napoléon V: Je pense, je dois y réfléchir. Peut-être mes conseillers et ministres ont ils déjà travaillé sur ces questions d'indépendance avec mon père Charlotte: Monsieur le Maire avait l'air de dire que ton père a ouvert un dossier sur le sujet oui

Napoléon V: Le connaissant, il devait travailler à garder les îles dans nos territoires, pour des raisons militaires Charlotte: Envisages-tu réellement ce référendum ?

Napoléon V: Pourquoi pas ? Il vaut mieux maintenant qu'une fois que je serai impopulaire Charlotte: Tu ne seras pas impopulaire Louis, jamais. Les Français t'ont vu naître et grandir, tu es quelqu'un de leur famille. Tu dédies ta vie pour eux. C'est cela la monarchie

Napoléon V: Je sais, mais c'est important pour moi de rendre compte aux Français, tous les Français Charlotte: Les indépendantistes ne sont pas la majorité, ils sont simplement bruyants et ne se préoccupent que de luttes politiques intestines

Charlotte : En travaillant avec Monsieur le Maire, la Polynésie pourra retrouver son calme, sans faire de vagues Napoléon V : Comment cet individu a-t-il pu penser de son Empereur qu'il est corrompu ? Charlotte : Je suis persuadée qu'il s'est mal fait comprendre Louis, il ne voulait pas insinuer...

Napoléon V : Quoi d'autre alors ? Offrir un cadeau de 5 milliards d'euros à son supérieur, pour la négociation d'un dossier politique délicat, afin d'en préparer les conclusions sans débats ouverts... Cela ressemble à un pot-de-vin conséquent et immoral Charlotte : Tu mélanges tout, chéri. Il s'agit simplement d'un remerciement, ce qu'il propose est de bon sens. Nous voulons tous la même chose Napoléon V : Je refuse malgré tout, j'agirai comme j'en déciderai, libre de mes choix

Charlotte : Louis c'est idiot ! Tu crées des problèmes où il n'y en a pas ! Monsieur le Maire est un représentant du peuple lui aussi, tu ne peux pas l'ignorer Napoléon V : Tu aurais accepté l'atoll toi ? Charlotte : Bien sûr ! Nous aurions de belles vacances ici. Dans tous les cas, la Polynésie reste en Francesim et le Maire aussi. Autant travailler ensemble, que l'un contre l'autre. Cela écarterait la question et nous éviterait des dépenses

Napoléon V : Si tu veux un atoll plutôt qu'une maison sur l'île, nous pourrons l'obtenir par nos moyens, en économisant, sans l'influence du Maire Charlotte : Louis, tu t'entends ? On pourrait justement économiser plusieurs milliards d'euros, tout le monde en sortirait gagnant, sinon je ne l'appuierais pas non plus

Charlotte : Prends au moins le temps d'y réfléchir. Le maire est une personne âgée, ce n'est pas comme s'il allait te faire chanter pendant tout ton règne, et il ne le fera pas de toute façon, si nous nous assurons qu'il reste à la tête de l'assemblée polynésienne

Napoléon V : Et si cela s'ébruite, de quoi aurons-nous l'air ? Charlotte : Il n'y a pas de raisons, nous avons les meilleurs agents du pays. Tu verras, je suis persuadée que le Premier Ministre serait lui aussi de mon côté

Napoléon V : Je suis au-dessus de ce petit monde de manigances égoïstes ! J'incarne la Constitution ! Charlotte : Louis... Napoléon V : Ne fais pas cette moue

Napoléon V : Je consulterai les dossiers et mes conseillers, et j'aviserai, c'est non-négociable

Charlotte (chagrinée) : Je n'ai jamais dit que tu devrais accepter tout de suite. Je trouve simplement que l'offre du Maire est plus honnête que tu ne veux le voir, j'espère que tu le comprendras en réfléchissant au dossier

Napoléon V : Ne pleure pas chérie, pardon, je me suis emporté. Ce n'est pas contre toi Charlotte : Je ne pleure pas. Je suis émotive ces derniers temps Napoléon V : Je te promets de réfléchir à tout cela calmement

Charlotte : Ca me va. Ne nous disputons pas "pour si peu"

Charlotte : Je me suis si vite figurée que nous pourrions avoir un endroit de rêve pour revenir ici Napoléon V : Je comprends mon amour, une telle offre est grisante. Je ne t'en veux pas

Napoléon V : Quoiqu'il arrive, nous aurons cet atoll, d'accord ? Je dirai au Maire de nous inscrire comme acheteurs intéressés Charlotte : Merci Louis, tu es le meilleur

[wizardfrog69]

Hello there! Thank you for doing my request (the Albert x male! reader one) Could I request Moriarthree + Moran adopting a kid(s) with their male s/o?

Thank you

That's a cute idea! You're welcome for the request and thank you for requesting!

'•.¸♡ fathers ♡¸.•'

Mtp x male!reader (specifically male cuz like gay was illegal and stuff)

Fluff

Enjoy!

Feat. William, Louis, Albert, Sebastian

William James Moriarty:

Y'all are taking the kid of the streets probably and giving it the home it deserves.

The both of you decided on adopting a child a couple of years into the relationship but there were some difficulties with adopting especially for a homosexual couple.

You had to trust the person you were adopting with your life, so the best thing was to adopt a young child (2-5) or a baby.

The two of you would take care of it equally both of you being in the child's life as much as possible.

If the child was to be legally adopted from somewhere than on paper William was the legal parent/guardian.

But if the child was 'illegally' adopted you just pretend the child was from a past relationship and William was helping with raising the child.

If you get to name the child it would probably be something like Oscar or Mary, idk many baby names so deal with it.

William won't share his past even with his child, not that he doesn't trust it, he won't only to not traumatize the child and they don't really need to know.

If the child starts asking why William and Louis look so alike if Louis was adopted and William was born into the family then he will tell the child the truth but only then.

Over all he loves the child a lot and seeing his family always brings a smile to his face.

Louis James Moriarty:

He was more sceptical about having children, not he didn't want to raise a child with you, he just didn't know how to and didn't know how much can the child if they should even know anything also what should they say when asked about a random child running about the manner.

But if you do adopt a child it would probably be a child who needs help/support and who's from the lower class.

Regarding age, Louis will want to adopt a baby, they can be trusted more (idk how you're supposed to know if they child needs support when they're a baby but oh well), and also the two of can pick a name.

Regarding names it would be something special with meaning to the both of you he'll probably try to convince you to name it william/will/liam

On paper you're probably the guardian and if asked you will also take responsibility of having a child from who knows where.

He will tell the about William and him when the child is old enough or when he knows the child won't scream out these secrets to everyone around them.

Also the child will be taught to cook and make amazing tea, there's no getting around that.

Albert James Moriarty:

He was definitely the most exited to adopt a child but it would be harder for him to do so, he is the Head of the Moriarty family.

He has to go to all these social gatherings and everything, he'll probably use the child as an excuse whenever he can.

On paper and off paper Albert is the guardian.

The child was adopted from a not very well off orphanage or something, he probably wanted to adopt all of the children but you didn't let him, you probably settled on adopting 2.

He just loves seeing you all do just like regular stuff but together as a family. Seeing his children run up to him after he comes home from work brings joy to his heart.

Age wise he wouldn't really care, like they could be 17 but as long as he gets to be a father he wouldn't care.

He also tries drinking less around his children, he doesn't want his children to get a drinking habit but if his child asks to try some of his wine - depending on their age - he would let them try it, but only a sip and only that one time.

Sebastian Moran:

He would be more reckless in regards on social images and stuff, he isn't open about being in a relationship with a man cuz yk like jail and stuff, but in regards of taking care of a child together he just says you are good friends and y'all are taking care of the child since taking care of a child ain't easy.

Legal adoption? Probably not.

He just says the kid is his and the mother is either dead or she's off somewhere in the world.

In terms of age he won't adopt a baby, at the youngest the child would be like 4 probably.

Idk what else to write:( sorry

༺♡༻ 𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊 𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧 ⋆ 𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧 𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊 ༺♡༻

I'm like cleaning out my drafts but I don't wanna write so I'll write as much as I can and then not yk, it's kinda annoying but oh well :(

Have a wonderful day/night!

-Az

[becomeawendybird]

Can you tell me a about 15YL?

Yes! This will be my big bang this round and it's the "don't call it Bennifer" fic, because I don't particularly care about them but the story is cute.

Basically, in the early 2000s actor Louis and musician Harry have never met before but get set up in a PR relationship. Fortunately/Unfortunately they're them, so they decide to do a sort of friends with benefits situation where the relationship is still "fake" but they're attracted to each other and young so they might as well have some fun because the sex is insanely good.

Eventually they part ways when the contract ends and it's been quite successful in elevating them both. Fifteen years pass of them sort of unintentionally avoiding each other? Not really maliciously at all they just... don't really run into each other.

Until, they're backstage at the Oscars and they're both in the sort of green room-cue up room and somehow they wind up there alone and they reconnect.

Here's a snip:

An hour later, Harry was already buzzing as his first two rounds of tequila shots sang in his veins. He was feeling warm and happy and loved as he looked around and saw all his close friends surrounding him. There were times that LA felt very isolating, especially in the music business, where a lot of the process of songwriting involved deep introspection. But then, there were times like this, where Harry could see evidence of all his time in the city paying off with the seamless way his different groups of friends were blending before his very eyes.

It wasn’t ten minutes later that Louis Tomlinson walked into the crowd. There were camera flashes at his back, and he looked every bit the movie star he was. Niall Horan was behind him, but Harry barely noticed. There was something about the light scruff on his jaw and the piercing blue of his stare that made Louis stand out and command the attention of the room. 

He took Harry’s breath away. Their “dates” that they had been going on had quickly become the highlight of Harry’s week whenever they happened. Objectively, he had always known how attractive Louis was, but he hadn’t been prepared for the reality of spending time with him one on one. He had experienced chemistry with friends, and past boyfriends to an extent, but this was something sharper. Something more desperate, almost. Like he needed to spend time with Louis. He was being compelled by some outside force. 

Louis finally spotted him and turned around to grab Niall by the arm and drag him into the depths of the party towards Harry.

Harry pushed himself up and was there to greet Louis when he made his way over to him. Louis immediately wrapped him up in a hug and Harry took a steadying breath. He knew what came next, they had talked about it while preparing for the party. 

Louis leaned his torso back, but stayed in Harry’s space. He raised his eyebrows to check and make sure Harry was still okay with what he was about to do. Breathlessly, Harry nodded. Louis dug his right hand into Harry’s hair at the nape of his neck and guided their lips together.

They had talked about kissing, but they probably should have practiced a little, as cliche as that was.

Ask me about my wips

[statementlou]

I am not sure I understand your tags about Louis galking about F specifically in that latest int.what makes sense to you?that he mentions F?why would that male sense to you even if that is his kid,like donyou know any musician who talks about their kid as much asL does?

I don't follow any other musicians' promos, and I very much doubt any of the other people who are always repeating to each other this as some kind of evidence of something do either, but even if you do and Louis’ is wildly different, so what? What does that have to do with anything? Are you trying to use that to convince me Freddie isn't Louis' kid or something? I feel like this is the equivalent of people telling me that I should believe Louis is gay because he once wore something that had some numbers on it that added up to an anagram that corresponded to the page Oscar Wilde was on in some obscure children’s book, like... why. That stuff is utterly beside the point, is not remotely necessary, and just makes us all sound ridiculous.

And even aside from that, sometimes I think this fandom’s obsession with trying to convince other people of things is its worst quality. Do you actually think it helps Louis to have more people trying to talk everyone on earth into believing he’s gay and is lying, essentially trying to out him every day on the internet to anyone who will listen? Who really cares what I think about Freddie’s parentage, that you have come here to try to show me the error of my ways? Maybe once upon a time, when Louis was locked in a struggle with modest, fans convincing other people of some things was useful to him, but 1) those days are long behind us and he is making his own moves now and I think if we want to support him, we follow his lead: show our support to HIM but SHUT THE FUCK UP to everyone else and let him build the image he wants to, and 2) that NEVER helped in the case of the Freddie mess and is probably the reason things are where they are today, that Louis has clearly made the call that it isn’t possible to end it and he will just be in this kid’s life. It might have been possible to end it at like four different times in the past six years but then it wasn’t, very possibly because people could not just SHUT THE FUCK UP and instead were all up in the media and trying to convince people loudly on twitter that the situation was faked and making it totally impossible! So I won’t be trying to convince anyone why they should believe this that or the other, and this isn’t a discussion that I am interested in continuing- welcome to tumblr, twitter refugees, but consider this your one freebie explainer of why a lot of people won’t talk about this before I go back to doing just that. Meanwhile I will continue to take Louis’ lead and do the things he has responded positively to (rather than those he is actively out there trying to discourage), I will show him my rainbow and smile back at him when he points and beams and I will tell him why he means a lot to me as a queer person if I have the opportunity, but I will also listen when he says, this is what we are doing now. And I will SHUT THE FUCK UP IN PUBLIC about his fucking closet (just like everyone should have done for Kit Conner, if you want an example of why coming after people to do what you want or think is best for them is not cool.)

ANYWAY if you didn’t understand what I was saying, maybe try reading it again without being all activated and defensive like omg does this person think he’s a FATHER I have to CHANGE THEIR MIND, and maybe it won’t be confusing. If you let go of the idea that he is being held captive and forced to mention Freddie, and just watch Louis occasionally mentioning Freddie as a pretty chill way to maintain his closet without having to actually say he’s straight, the way he does it in that interview does make sense to me, yes. He hits a spot where he doesn’t have a good public consumption answer, and then realizes he can get a two-fer out of it by making the answer Freddie! He is saved having to come up with a person out of his actual private personal life- and note that it isn’t just Harry that is erased from his public narrative, it’s EVERYONE except Official Public Friend Oli (and Freddie). Like, we know he texts the twins like practically daily for example, and that he shares music with them early, but he never never mentions them in press. He never mentions ANYONE who isn’t part of the Louis Tomlinson(tm) story and even some of the people who are! So he needed an answer besides Oli and was cornered by not being able to use that one. Then he’s like oh right! I can say Freddie and not only does that solve that problem, it takes care of establishing that I’m straight for another couple weeks, look at me I’m a multitasking king! It’s not that fucking deep, and it’s not that fucking DIRE, it’s just business babes, and more importantly, it’s HIS business to decide how to handle, not mine.

[mariacallous]

After Elon Musk rolled out a confusing and ever-evolving new verification system on Twitter this week, parody accounts posing as large corporations spread confusion on the site. The most prominent was a fake account for the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, which announced that insulin would now be free to customers. Soon the official Lilly account stepped in to refute the news, issuing a statement that apologized for the misunderstanding but avoided, of course, apologizing for how expensive insulin is in the first place. Lilly’s hasty apology is the latest in what Jill Lepore identifies in this week’s issue as a required—and often deeply unsatisfying—ritual of corporate communications in the social-media age. Everyone knows that companies sometimes have to say sorry, but do they ever mean it? And does it really make a difference if they do? “The practice of establishing and enforcing strict requirements for public apology is not a human universal,” Lepore writes. “It happens only here and there, and now and again. You see it in fiercely sectarian times and places—like twenty-first-century social media, or seventeenth-century New England.” You think it’s bad now? Just imagine the Puritans on Twitter.

Whose P.R.-purposed apology was worse? Al Franken’s or Louis C.K.’s? The Equifax C.E.O.’s (for a cybersecurity breach) or Papa John’s (for a racial slur)? Awkwafina’s (for cultural appropriation) or Lena Dunham’s (for Lord knows what)? At SorryWatch.com and @SorryWatch, Susan McCarthy and Marjorie Ingall have been judging the adequacy of apologies and welcoming “suggestions for shaming” since 2012. “There are a lot of awful apologies out there,” the SorryWatchers write. “Apologies that make things worse, not better. Apologies that miss the point. Apologies that are really self-defense dressed up as an apology. Apologies that add insult to injury. Apologies that are worse than the original offense. Apologies so bad people should apologize for them.” McCarthy and Ingall are releasing a new book next year, “Sorry, Sorry, Sorry: The Case for Good Apologies.” Meanwhile, on their Web site they’ve got rules—“Six steps to a good apology”—and categories for classifying defective ones: “Be VEEERY CAAAREFUL if you want to provide explanation; don’t let it shade into excuse.” Heaven forfend.

“Least said, soonest mended” is advice from another century, candle and quill, ox and cart. This past March, the day after Will Smith smacked Chris Rock at the Oscars and failed to apologize to him during his acceptance speech, he apologized on his Instagram account: “I was out of line and I was wrong.” Twitter blew its top! “This is bullshit,” one guy tweeted. “Any normal person is in jail.” Plainly, the Instapology was insufficient. In July, Smith apologized again, in a nearly six-minute video in which he looked as harried and trapped as Steve Carell in “The Patient,” a prisoner in a basement rec room. “Disappointing people is my central trauma,” Smith said into the camera or, actually, multiple cameras. “I am trying to be remorseful without being ashamed of myself, right?” Twitter blew its top! It was either not enough or, oh, my God, please stop. One online viewer sympathized: “Literally me when my mom forces me to apologize to my siblings.” As for Chris Rock, he reportedly said, onstage, “Fuck your hostage video.” By then, Twitter was blowing its top about something else.

It’s easy to blow your top, God knows. If you’re being treated like crap, and nothing you’ve tried has put a stop to it, or if the former President of the United States keeps on saying horrible, wretched things, and you notice that some rich nitwit is getting slammed on Twitter for doing the same thing that’s been done to you, or for saying what the ex-President just said, it can feel good to watch that nitwit burn. But that feeling won’t last. And when that nitwit apologizes it won’t be enough. And the world will have become just a little bit rottener.

Rating apologies and listing their shortcomings started out as a BuzzFeed kind of thing, and then it pretty quickly became a corporate kind of thing: human resources, leadership institutes, political consulting. In 2013, the Harvard Business Review published an essay on the Power Apology. Knowing how to apologize on Twitter became crucial to brand management. “It’s easy to say sorry, but knowing how to say it effectively on Twitter is an essential skill that both brands and celebrities should learn,” a communications manager advised not long afterward, offering nine lessons “on the art of the Twitter apology.” You could do it well, or you could do it badly. Likely, this could be quantified: you’d see it in the price of your stock, the number of your Twitter followers, or the percentage change in your Netflix viewership. As of 2022, even Forbes rates apologies. It seldom helps your vote count, though: politicians who apologize tend to suffer the consequences, which is why they generally brazen these things out.

It’s a good idea to say you’re sorry when you screw up, and to say it well, and to mean it, and to try to make amends. But are people getting worse at that? Or are celebrity publicists, political advisers, corporate lawyers, higher-ed administrators, and media-relations departments just avoiding lawsuits, clearing profits, heading off student protests, and directing news stories by advising people to (a) demand apologies and (b) make them? “Examples of failed apologies are everywhere,” the psychiatrist Aaron Lazare wrote in “On Apology,” a book published not last week but nearly two decades ago. Distressed at a seeming explosion of cheap, showy, and insincere apologies, Lazare got curious about where they’d all come from, like the day you find ants swarming your kitchen counter and yank open all the cupboards, exasperated. He dated what he called the “apology phenomenon” to the nineteen-nineties, but he struggled to understand what had driven this change. He suspected that it may have been due, in part, to “the increasing power and influence of women in society,” because women apologize a lot, he explained, and like to be apologized to. As far as I know, no one asked him to apologize for that comment. But if he’d made it today he’d be in the soup.

Rituals of atonement and forgiveness lie at the heart of most religions, a testament to the human capacity for grace. On Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, Jews fast and pray and repent. Jesus brought this spirit to Christianity and taught his followers to pray to God to “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” The early Christian church developed what became the Sacrament of Reconciliation: confession, and penance. There are many steps to atonement in Islam, from admitting a wrong to making restitution and asking for God’s forgiveness. Jews, Christians, and Muslims make themselves right with God. Buddhists, who worship no god, make themselves right with other people. Hindus practice Prayaschitta, rituals of absolution. Mainly, it’s the forgiveness and the atonement that matter.

Apology, though, has a different history. You can confess without apologizing and you can apologize without confessing, and this might be because, historically, an apology is a justification—a defense, not a confession. As the philosopher Nick Smith pointed out in “I Was Wrong” (2008), the word “apology,” in English, didn’t suggest a statement of regret until around the sixteenth century, when, in Shakespeare’s “Richard III,” Buckingham begs Richard’s pardon, for interrupting his prayers, and Richard says, “There needs no such apology.” Medieval Christians practiced what the historian Thomas N. Tentler called “a theology of consolation,” consisting of four elements—sorrow, confession, penitence, and absolution—whose purpose was reconciliation with God and with the body of the faithful. In “Forgiveness: An Alternative Account,” Matthew Ichihashi Potts, a professor of Christian morals at Harvard Divinity School, offers what he calls “a modest theological defense of forgiveness.” His argument follows that of the philosopher Martha Nussbaum, who, in “Anger and Forgiveness” (2016), argued that forgiveness isn’t salutary for either party if, in order to give it, you insist on an apology. Potts calls this “the economy of apology.” It’s not better than vengeance, since to demand an apology and to delight in the offender’s grovelling is vengeance by another name. His evidence doesn’t come from Twitter; it comes mainly from novels, including Marilynne Robinson’s “Gilead” and Toni Morrison’s “Beloved.” Forgiveness, for Potts, is not an exchange—forgiveness granted in return for the opportunity to witness a spectacle of abasement and self-loathing—but a promise not to retaliate. Demanding an apology in exchange for forgiveness can never constitute healing, or deliver justice; it is, instead, a pleasure taken by people who delight in witnessing the suffering of those in their power (if only briefly). There is no such thing as a failed apology, then, only an abuse of power, because all forgiveness, Potts writes, “begins and ends in failure”: it does not, and cannot, redeem or undo pain and loss; it can only demand the necessary attention to pain and loss, as a reckoning, as an act of grief. Forgiveness is, therefore, a species of mourning, a form of sorrow.

Within the early Christian West, acts of public supplication—begging pardon—required confession and might require restitution, but not the scripted public apology in the sense the SorryWatchers want. The same distinction can be made within the history of Judaism. In the twelfth century, the Spanish-born Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, known as Maimonides, wrote a commentary on the Torah and the Talmud that included a section on teshuvah, or “repentance,” an extended reflection on the commandment that “the sinner should repent of his sin before God and confess.” But, as the Jewish historian Henry Abramson remarked in a recent study, “The Ways of Repentance,” Maimonides warned against public confession that “can also be an expression of personal arrogance: ‘Look how good I am at doing teshuvah! ’ ” Watch my apology video on YouTube!

In “On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World,” the rabbi Danya Ruttenberg translates Maimonides into a step-by-step guide for our world, for which she provides modern-day examples. The first step is “naming and owning harm” (one of her examples: “I finally understand how my decision to hold a writer’s retreat at a plantation sanitizes the horrors of slavery”); the second is “starting to change.” Step three: restitution. Step four: apology. Step five: making different choices. These are kindhearted ideas, and Ruttenberg’s book is full of hope and counsel about repair through restitution. But her prescriptions also come close to insisting on the suppression of dissent. She says that “starting to change,” for Maimonides, might have involved “tearful supplication,” but that “these days this process of change might also involve therapy, or rehab, or educating oneself rigorously on an issue about which one had been ignorant or held toxic opinions.”

“This book started on Twitter,” Ruttenberg writes, which is something of a tip-off. “Twitter gamifies communication,” the philosopher C. Thi Nguyen has argued; it’s custom-built to do things like score apologies, to drag users into a rating system that has nothing to do with morality. An unforgiving god rules Twitter, where the modern economy of apology runs something like this: If you express what I believe to be a toxic or ignorant opinion, you must apologize according to my rules for apology. If you do, I may forgive you. If you don’t, I will punish you, and damn you unto eternity.

The practice of establishing and enforcing strict requirements for public apology is not a human universal. It happens only here and there, and now and again. You see it in fiercely sectarian times and places—like twenty-first-century social media, or seventeenth-century New England.

Consider a case from October, 1665, when the Massachusetts legislature assembled in Boston to attend to a docket of ordinary affairs, a day in the life of a puritanical theocracy. It set the price of grain: wheat, five shillings a bushel; barley, four shillings sixpence; corn, three shillings. It addressed a petition filed by three Native men, including the Pennacook sachem Wanalancet, regarding an Englishman’s claim to an island on the Merrimack River. It warned one unhappy, estranged couple, Mr. and Mrs. William Tilley, that he must “provide for hir as his wife, & that shee submit hirselfe to him as she ought,” or else he would be fined and she would be imprisoned. In honor of God’s having graced the colony with abundant rain during the summer and mercifully diverted a fleet of Dutch ships from an invasion, the legislature appointed November 8th “to be kept in solemn thanksgiving,” but, because a plague was still raging in London, a sign of God’s wrath, it declared November 22nd “a solem day of humilliation.” And it condemned five men who had dared to practice a heretical religion, Baptism, at which announcement one colonist, Zeckaryah Roads, blurted out “that the Court had not to doe wth matters of religion.” He was detained as a result.

For the things they said—words whispered, grumbles muttered, prayers offered, curses shouted—dissenters, blasphemers, and nonconformists in seventeenth-century New England faced censure, arrest, flogging, the pillory, disenfranchisement, exile, and even execution. Quakers might have their ears cut off. For holding toxic opinions, one blasphemer was sentenced to have the letter B “cutt out of ridd cloth & sowed to her vper garment on her right arme.” Those who wished to avoid or mitigate these consequences might apologize in public. Mostly, apologies followed a script. The Six Steps to a Good Apology! Disappointing People Is My Central Trauma: How to Avoid the Eight Worst Apologies of 1665! Earlier that year, just months before Zeckaryah Roads dared to voice dissent, Major William Hathorne, of Salem—an ancestor of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s—issued a public apology for his own (now lost to history) error: “I freely confesse, that I spake many words rashly, foolishly, & unadvisedly, of wch I am ashamed, & repent me of them, & desire all that tooke offence to forgive me.” That did the trick. You went off script at your peril, as the historian Jane Kamensky demonstrated in her masterly book “Governing the Tongue” (1997). In the sixteen-forties, observers deemed Ann Hibbins’s apology—essentially, for being abrasive, and a woman—“very Leane, & thin, & poore, & sparinge.” It saved her neck, but not for long: in 1656, Hibbins was hanged to death as a witch. Still, there was one other option: after John Farnham refused to apologize for countenancing heresy, and was therefore banished, he said the day he was kicked out of the church “was the best day that ever dawned upon him.” I mean, fuck it, there was always Rhode Island.

Lately, online, you can find modern apologies ranked by the same standards once so punctiliously applied by Puritan divines. “I doe now in the presence of god & this reverand assemblage freely acknowledg my evell,” Henry Sewall confessed in a church near Ipswich in 1651, although, as he pointed out, he’d been forced to make that apology “as part of ye sentence” he’d been given by the Ipswich court. He squeaked by with that one, but just barely. Modern SorryWatchers might rate it Garrison Keillorian.

In 1665, for intimating that the government ought not to banish people for being Baptists, or kill them for being Quakers, Zeckaryah Roads did what he had to do, as chronicled in the meeting records, “acknowledging his fault, & declaring he was sorry he had given them any offence, &c.” Easy to say from here, of course, but I wish to hell he hadn’t.

The twenty-first-century culture of public apology has its origins in the best of intentions and the noblest of actions: people seeking collective justice without violence for terrible, unimaginable acts of brutality, monstrous wickedness, crimes against humanity itself. In the aftermath of the Second World War, churches and nation-states began issuing apologies for wartime atrocities and historical injustices. Some of the abiding principles that lie behind this postwar wave of collective apologies also found expression in “restorative justice”—individuals making amends to their victims, sometimes as an alternative to incarceration or other kinds of force and violence. The idea gained influence in the nineteen-seventies, when it intersected with the victims-rights movement, and its particular demands for apology as remedy. And you can easily see why. Prosecutors—for years, decades, centuries—had failed to act on allegations of sexual misconduct, had ignored or suppressed evidence of police brutality and predatory policing; in a thousand ways, the criminal-justice system had failed women and children, had failed the poor and people of color. For some, “restorative justice” held out the prospect of a better path. By the nineteen-nineties, schools and juvenile-justice systems had begun using restorative-justice methods, often requiring, of public-school students, public apologies. Meanwhile, in the United States, church membership was falling from around seventy-five per cent in 1945 to less than fifty per cent by 2020. In many quarters, public acts began taking the place of religious ritual, political ideologies replacing religious faith. The national public apology took on the gravity and solemnity of a secular sacrament: Ronald Reagan apologizing, in 1988, for the imprisonment of more than a hundred thousand Japanese Americans during the Second World War (and providing limited reparations); David Cameron apologizing, in 2010, for Bloody Sunday; or the Prime Ministers of Canada apologizing, in 2008 and 2017, for the practice of taking Indigenous children from their homes and confining them to schools where, maltreated, neglected, and abused, they suffered and died.

Apology came to play a role, too, in therapy, including family therapy, in twelve-step recovery programs, and in H.R. dispute-resolution procedures. Conventions that were established for heads of states and churches making public apologies to entire peoples against whom they had committed atrocities came to be applied to apologies from one individual to another, for everything from violent crime to petty insult. The person became the collective. Eve Ensler’s 2019 book, “The Apology,” in which she imagines the apology her father never offered for sexually abusing her, is dedicated to “every woman still waiting for an apology.” The particular injury became the universal harm. “We all cause harm,” Danya Ruttenberg writes in her book on repentance. “We have all been harmed.”

But the origins of the Twitter apology orgy lie elsewhere, too, and especially in the idea that many kinds of speech can be harm, a conviction central to the brand of feminism founded in the nineteen-nineties by the legal theorist Catharine MacKinnon. (Her book “Only Words” was published in 1993.) In 2004, in “On Apology,” Aaron Lazare tried to figure out when the number of public apologies began to explode. He counted and identified a rise in the number of newspaper articles about apologizing, beginning his analysis in the early nineteen-nineties and identifying a peak in 1997-98. He found this puzzling. But, historically, it makes sense: his chronology nicely lines up with Anita Hill’s testimony at the Clarence Thomas hearings, in 1991, and with the breaking of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, in 1998. Thomas maintained his innocence, and although Clinton went on television later that year and admitted to the relationship, many viewers found his apology inadequate. And neither man seemed sorry, either, except insofar as they both quite plainly felt very, very sorry for themselves.

The refusal of Thomas and Clinton to apologize for the ways in which they had harmed women took place on television. And the whole spectacle, with its scripted expectation of apology and contrition, drew its sensibility from television. In the nineteen-eighties and nineties, the stock soap-opera plotline—betrayal, hurt feelings, and misunderstanding followed by tearful apology, reconciliation, and reunion—became a hallmark of the daytime talk-show circuit. Oprah and Phil Donahue staged churchy apologies in front of studio audiences, choreographed for maximum emotional intensity, and advancing the idea that every possible political, economic, or social injustice, from child abuse to police brutality and employment discrimination, could be addressed by a two-shot, a few closeups, and Kleenex. Donahue mounted an especially perverse sorrywatching spectacle in 1993. The year before, after a jury acquitted four Los Angeles policemen who beat Rodney King and riots broke out in angry, anguished protest, a group of Black men pulled Reginald O. Denny, a white man, out of his truck and beat him nearly to death. Henry Keith Watson, charged with attempted murder, was found not guilty, and was convicted only of misdemeanor assault. After Watson got out of jail, Donahue brought Denny and Watson together in front of an almost entirely white audience for a two-part apology special. “Are you sorry?” Donahue asked Watson, again and again, as the audience grew tense and even tenser. “I apologize for my participation in the injuries you suffered,” Watson said to Denny. Then Watson eyed the audience: “Is everybody happy now?” Everybody was not.

Demanding public apologies on daytime television and deeming those apologies insufficient was an occasional thumb-wrestling match between two seven-year-olds sitting on a green vinyl school-bus seat on the ride to second grade compared with the daily, Roman Colosseum-style slaughtering that takes place online. It’s not that people don’t do and say terrible things for which they ought to atone. They do. Some of those things are crimes. Many are slights. Very many are utterly trivial. A few are almost unspeakably evil. But, on Twitter at its worst, all harm is equal, all apologies are spectacles, and hardly anyone is ever forgiven.

In 2017, at the height of the #MeToo movement, Matt Damon tried to rate harm. “You know, there’s a difference between, you know, patting someone on the butt and rape or child molestation, right?” he said in an interview on ABC News. “They shouldn’t be conflated, right?” At that, Minnie Driver tweeted her ire, and later told the Guardian, “How about: it’s all fucking wrong and it’s all bad, and until you start seeing it under one umbrella it’s not your job to compartmentalise or judge what is worse and what is not.” Damon apologized, and said that he’d learned to “close my mouth.”

In 1993, Phil Donahue seemed to think that, by asking Henry Keith Watson to apologize to Reginald Denny in that studio, he was bravely addressing the problem of racism in America. Twenty years from now, what’s been happening on Twitter will likely look exactly as grotesque and cruel and ineffective as that two-part, syndicated apology special. Will Donald Trump or anyone in his inner circle ever apologize for anything—for tearing toddlers from their parents’ arms, for inciting neo-Nazis, for grift, fraud, sedition? Never. Will responding to the gaffe of the day by demanding a six-step apology usher in an age of justice for all, or an end to iniquity? No. There’s a reason Puritanism did not prevail in America; it tends to backfire. In 2018, during an exchange on Twitter, the television writer Dan Harmon apologized for sexually harassing the writer Megan Ganz, and then made a heartfelt video, elaborating. “We’re living in a good time right now, because we’re not going to get away with it anymore,” he said, referring to sexual misconduct. And I hope that’s true. But very little evidence suggests that calling people out on Twitter, self-righteous indignation followed by cynical apology, is making the world a better place, and much suggests that the opposite is true, that Twitter’s pious mercilessness is generating nothing so much as a new and bitter remorselessness.

“I don’t give a fuck, ’cause Twitter’s not a real place,” Dave Chappelle said last fall, in his Netflix special “The Closer.” In June, on the Amazon Prime series “The Boys,” a made-for-television Captain America-style superhero named Homelander, who is secretly a villain, recited a rehearsed apology on television, only to unsay it later, in an unscripted outburst. “I’m not some weak-kneed fucking crybaby that goes around fucking apologizing all the time,” he said, seething. “I’m done. I am done apologizing.” Around the time the episode appeared, the actor who plays Homelander, Antony Starr, who was found guilty of assault and released on probation, told the Times, unabjectly, “You mess up. You own it. You learn from it.” No “I am listening,” no “I am going to rehab.” None of it. It was as if he got away with going off-script because his character already had. And Homelander won’t be the last to make that “I’m done” speech. “I’m done saying I’m sorry,” Alex Jones yelled in a courtroom in September during a trial to assess the money he’ll be required to pay the parents of very young children who were killed in a mass shooting, a shooting that Jones has for years insisted never happened, because those children, he told his audience, never existed. Jones has been found liable for defamation. Even the hundreds of millions of dollars in damages he was ordered to pay to the families whose despair he worsened, and on whose affliction he feasted, goes nowhere near far enough. And neither does any apology.

Twitter is blowing its top, some very angry people very loudly demanding apologies while other very angry people demand the denunciation of the people who are demanding apologies. Dangerously, but predictably, the split seems to have become partisan, as if to apologize were progressive, to forget conservative. The fracture widens and hardens—fanatic, schismatic, idiotic. But another way of thinking about what a culture of forced, performed remorse has wrought is not, or not only, that it has elevated wrath and loathing but that it has demeaned sorrow, grief, and consolation. No apology can cover that crime, nor mend that loss. ♦

[weclassybouquetfun]

The End is the Beginning is the End. We put the Golden Globes back in the doghouse and look forward to the last batch of awards shows to close out the film awards season. The SAG awards nominations were announced today, the BAFTAs will be announced on Jan. 19th and the Oscars on Jan. 24th so there will be more fashion to look forward to. I hope those red carpet looks will be more impressive than the Golden Globes.

Donald Glover in Saint Laurent *Best dressed man of the night. No competition. Suave, sexy, love the moustache. The entire look is gold.

Diego Calva in Gucci *Second favourite male look of the night. I adore it! It has a retro vibe which is fitting as he's the star of BABYLON. Love the cut and colour. He looks amazing.

Laverne Cox in John Galliano *I was saying during last year's award season how former awards staples Marchesa (Georgina Chapman, former wife of Harvey Weinstein) and John Galliano will never seemingly be embraced again, and while it is not a new design as Galliano is still in Designer Jail, Cox reached back in the vault for this vintage Galliano gown and it's the best she's ever looked. She looks sensational.

Lily James in Versace *One thing Lily James is going to do besides have an affair with her costar, is look great on the red carpet.

Angela Bassett in Pamella Roland. *Love this quasi nod to Old Hollywood look. Very glam.

Barry Keoghan in Louis Vuitton *I'm torn about the neckerchief/bow tie gone wrong, so it must mean in my heart of hearts that I like it. The look gives me Guy-Running-From-the-Garda-Runs-Into-Costume-Shop-And-Puts-On-Bullfighter-Costume.

Rihanna in Schiaparelli Couture.

*Bad Girl Ri-Ri didn't walk the red carpet and could, seemingly, be seen exiting the event early after congratulating her competition, MM Keeravani whose "Naatu, Naatu" won.

MORE FASHION

Billy Porter in Christian Siriano

Ayo Edebiri in Rosie Assoulin *Now she knows those gloves are a mistake. It's like when Andre Leon Talley (RIP) dressed Jennifer Hudson the year she won her Oscar and gave her a great dress with pockets (yes) but put her in a bolero (no).

Letitia Wright in Prada

Ana de Armas in Louis Vuitton

Newly married Anya Taylor Joy in Dior

Jenna Ortega in Gucci *That's too much dress. In consideration of her height everything should have been shorter - hem, sleeves. It would have been even better to modify it to a sleeveless dress. Her hair colour looks great with the dress, though.

Jeremy Pope

Jessica Chastain in Oscar de la Renta *This dress is like the film THE GOOD NURSE. Good, but basic.

Eddie Redmayne in Valentino *He's looking as if he just caught his reflection and wondered WTF his stylist was on to put that on him. The flower should be burned and it would have been nice if he had on black shoes to not look so monochromatic and the pants are too long. The only brown clothes he needs to be in is Thom Browne.

Niecy Nash in Dolce & Gabbana *People should just embrace capes and go. This puffy floor length wrap nonsense is for the birds. The plum-colour dress is gorgeous and the wrap just distracts.

Margot Robbie in Chanel *Please get this woman a better stylist. Someone adventurous; someone to take her out her comfort zone. Nice dress, but underwhelming.

Sheryl Lee Ralph in Aliette. *My favourite female look of the night. Colourful, hair fits the look.

Britt Lower in Bach Mai

Bailey Bass (AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER and the fantastic INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE (AMC+) in Dior *It's a great dress for sure - though I wish it was either an empire waist or it was a two-piece with the top being a corset, but barring that, I wish she would have gone with how her hair is in IWTV. If she wore her naturally curly hair it would look so great framing her face.

Viola Davis in Jason Wu

Michelle Yeoh in Armani Prive *Exquisite.

Salma Hayek in Gucci *Of all the Gucci designs at her disposal she went with this??? I have seen her in some insanely incredible Gucci designs over the years so the fact that she wore something so relatively matronly offends me.

Michelle Williams in Gucci *Oh jayzus. What a disaster. It's THE SON of dresses.

Pregnant Claire Danes in Giambattista Valli *I'm guessing she left the house forgetting that she was wrapped up in her quilt.

Andrew Garfield in Zegna *Love the colour. I'm disappointed because I mistook the overly long psudeo-tie for a sash and thought there was some creative flair to the look. No such luck.

Tyler James Williams in Amiri *He gets 10 points for not being boring. Do I love that he looks like he just come out of the rain (and considering it's been storming here for two days, maybe he did), but I love the wide legs trousers and jacket.

Emma D'Arcy in Acne Studios

Michaela Jae Rodriguez in Balmain

[nostuntsmag]

Home For You 23 Larry Things in 2023

ARTICLE BY: CHARLYROSE | @HOMEVOI28

1. HSLOT

Harry has the 3 LA shows, Australia and Asia legs, and another Europe leg scheduled for 2023. The LA shows are on January 26, 27. The rest of the legs start on February 20.

2. 3 year Walls anniversary

In just about a month Walls will turn 3 years old (January 31). For Walls’ first anniversary Louis did the infamous Spotify covers of definitely not Harry’s tattoos and while he didn’t do anything last year, he did start tour the next day. Perhaps this year Louis will do something for the 3rd anniversary.

3. Harry bday

As most (if not all of us) know, Harry’s 29th birthday will take place on February 1, 2023, for which fundraisers are already happening.

4. Grammy Awards

Harry has been nominated for 6 Grammys (Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Album of the Year, Best Pop Solo Performance, Best Pop Vocal Album, and Best Music Video). For note so no one gets mad, Faith in the Future was not released on time to qualify for the 2023 Grammys which will be held on February 5.

5. The BRIT Awards

I couldn’t find anything confirmed yet, but Harry is predicted for Best British Album of the Year, and Best British Single. The BRITs will take place on February 11.

6. Pollstar Awards

Harry is nominated for Major Tour of the Year, Best Pop Tour, and Best Brand Partnership/Live Campaign for the Pollstar Awards, which will take place on February 22.

7. Academy Awards

Harry, David Dawson, and Emma Corrin have all been submitted for Supporting Actor in the 2023 Academy Awards. This means Harry might be at the Oscars (and talk to David and Emma, which is always fun), and Harry could end up being an Academy Award winner. The Academy Awards will take place on March 12.

8. 1 year since door / halfway home / Coachella

I’ve listed these as one thing because having each as a separate thing felt cheap, and they’re all linked in my head. The Door™ led to Halfway home being such a large thing (briefly explained here (note the self-promo)), and Harry first sang Boyfriends (which has the halfway home lyric) at Coachella night 1. Boyfriends was obviously among one of the many unhinged things Harry did at Coachella last year. The You Are Home door started on March 18th and ran for two months and then came back very briefly twice for Harry’s singles. YAH tweeted “half way home” on April 13th. Then Harry performed at Coachella on April 15th, singing Boyfriends for the first time, then again on April 22nd.

9. 1 year Harry’s House anniversary

The 1st anniversary of Harry’s House is on May 20th. Which means we can expect something. For Fine Line, it was the special vinyl (and my understanding is that it was the same for HS1).

10. 6 year HS1 anniversary

The 6th anniversary of HS1 is on May 12th. I don’t remember Harry doing anything for the 5th last year, so I doubt he’d do anything this year, but who knows. At the least we get to celebrate.

11. FITFWT

As of right now only the North America and European legs of FITFWT have been announced for 2023, but the LATAM, Asia, and Australian legs should be announced soon (but will likely take place in 2024). FITFWT starts on May 26.

12. Louis performing No Control (?)

At one of his recent signings, Louis told a fan that he might sing No Control “once or twice next year, I would like to yeah!” Regardless of whether he remembers this or will hold to it, one can have hope.

13. Louis possibly writing LT3

In Euphoria Magazine Louis said he hopes to have finished writing (not recording) LT3 before tour starts (on May 26). Which means LT3 is likely in the writing process and in its early stages as we speak.

14. More EURO-2023 chaos

The Euros will be happening from June 21 to July 8, and something Gayos always seems to happen around the Euros. At the very least Louis will probably tweet about the Euros or we’ll get some fan footage of Louis watching the Euros.

15. One Direction’s 13th Anniversary

This year One Direction will be a teenager (yes I’m cheesy) on July 23. Which also means the 13th anniversary of the iconic moment when Louis jumped into Harry’s arms when the band formed. For no reason. Whatsoever. Obviously.

16. September 28th’s 10th Anniversary

The 10th anniversary of September 28, 2013 is this year. Yes I know this has been debunked but it still matters in our hearts, and if anything, it’s the 10th Larry day.

17. FITF’s 1 Year Anniversary

Considering how unhinged Louis has been for the past year, I feel like we can be pretty sure he’ll manage to outdo the Spotify covers for Faith’s 1 year anniversary on November 11.

18. 10th anniversary of 1D Day’s 10th Anniversary

1D Day occurred on November 23, 2013, meaning the 10th anniversary of it (and Midnight Memories) is this year. This means the the infamous performance of Little Things where Harry stared at Louis the entire time (and almost definitely sang “I’m in love with Lou”) will have happened 10 years ago.

19. Fine Line 4th Anniversary

The 3rd anniversary for Fine Line just happened, where Harry did his “pink and blue forever” post, and for the 4th year on December 13th, I’d say it’ll be something similar.

20. Louis’ 32nd bday

Louis just turned 31 on December 24th, and I wrote this over his birthday so it feesl odd to include, but he does turn 32 in 2023.

21. Narry/Nouis interactions

Niall will be a judge on Season 23 of “The Voice” (premieres March 6), has an album coming out in May, and will be playing several festivals this year. All this means we’ll likely have some Narry and/or Nouis interactions.

22. Possible Big Bird MV

I personally have not given up on the hope that the big bird MV is still coming, because knowing Harry it could come out at 1 AM EST on New Years. Or it’s scraped.

23. 🏁

iykyk

Have an amazing 2023 larries!

[beananacake]

hi. ok so i know accidental princess was made like.. months ago im not sure, but im absolutely HEARTBROKEN because i just finished reading it.

you truly, truly put everything into that series and god am i in live with reading it. it took me through so may different emotions that transcended me like.. hello? the period-piece slay that this is? i can not describe how much i enjoyed that shit. the way you were so consistent in all of the chapters, you never wavered from that old-english-period kind of language, both in dialogue, in exposition and literally any writing that you did for this series, and shit i cant tell you how much i admire your dedication. let me tell you there was not one moment where i thought your writing was any less from the gorgeous quality that it is. if you told me you weren't feeling a chapter, my bestie i would not have noticed at all. i was so immersed in reading this. your worldbuilding>> the language, the politics, the kingdom, all established beautifully. god i love those prussian royalties, smth abt them speaking german 🫣.. chile anyway,,

you managed to give each and every character mentioned a life—love, tragedy, realization, like you really made this story alive. i love how you gave spotlights to characters like louis, chelina, thibault, abigail, the grand duke, the king, and the late queen, even. how you managed to make them feel real, like they aren't just side characters used for the gains of the plot—it's incredible, really. there's just so much distinction between them, like i LOVE to see their personalities shine. you even gave the grand duke a backstory? like come on, man! i enjoyed seeing all the characters experiencing growth through different experiences. CHELINA AND LOUSIE LOVE STORY REAL>> oh my god i want a spinoff of his trip to zaragoza, damn. if i could, i would literally quote every line that made me scream and shout and cry, but there's too many to choose from!

you are so, so good with words and especially in making character dynamics and chemistry. reader and kit UGH i would die to have a love like them. every words spoken between them, especially any declaration of defiance and love against the king is gratifying to me. i can feel their passion in my bones.. for real. i LOVE how the theme i got is that you should always fight for love, even if the outcome isn't something you wished for. like that is such a serve. you deserve an oscar, a bafta, a grammy a golden globe and a restraining order, because i can not read this book for one second and not drown in a current of emotions. dont even get me started on the plot and how everything descended so beautifully. to me, it was planned out so well from the beginning and i love how you based the conflict off of the queen's death, like the grand duke?? that is so smart. its so evident that you put a lot of time in writing each detail of the plot and i was so consumed by it, it's true!! i spent 3 hours binge reading this whole thing and let me tell you my life changed. ok literature? work.

THE AMOUNT OF ANGSTT IS SO GOOD i LOVE forbidden romance esp if its in like a royal setting, and MY FAV is when the king finally realizes he can never stop reader and kit from loving each other—i adoooree that trope. almost forgot, but i was cryingg when i noticed the parallels and similarities between the cinderella movies and this story. like obviously this was based off of cinderella, but the things you switched and put in like reader having the principle of being kind and courageous, the lavender-blue lullaby sung from the mountains opposed to movie-cinderella singing it from her locked room, it's all too good. you really customized everything to depict this timeless, strong, selfless and beautiful main character. (the epilogue is amazing, by the way. love the children and love chelouis' children!! amelia is a sweetheart 🥹)

"If you do not think her worthy of me, then I am inclined to think that you are not worthy of her. She is twice more than I will ever be because she is kind and courageous.”

JAIL JAIL!! WHAT IS THIS?!! this is only one of the heart-moving dialogues from this series. this is actually the line that finally induced the waterworks for me. i mean everything made me emotional already, but this broke the dam. cmon now i cant get enough of it!

“I had been given the chance to bask in his love, even just for a while. I suppose these memories will suffice. They should last me a lifetime.”

i will actually start crying again

"You slowly opened your eyes, expecting to see the green color of your mother’s eyes but instead, you saw blue. The bluest of all blues you had ever seen."

fuck do i love the mountain saving scene..

ok anyway that is all. i hope you have a blessed life and thank you so much for writing this series, i love it! 😊

my dearest @mooncleaver, i just want you to know that I received this ask at a very opportune time; I was struggling so much with my mental health and I thought my writing was really bad and that The Accidental Princess wouldn't fly so well (for many reasons) but when I read this ask, all I could do was cry happy tears. This, along with the other asks I got for TAP, made me realize that there's a small percentage of people who read and liked (maybe even loved) my story. Thank you so much for taking the time of your day to read my little work and thank so much more for leaving this ask for me. To be honest, I wouldn't be opposed to you quoting all of the lines that resonated with you; I always love hearing people's thoughts about my stories.

By the way, that part where you said I deserve an Oscar, a BAFTA, a Grammy, a Golden Globe, and a restraining order: I literally laughed out loud and thought i had never received such a compliment from someone, ever. I will definitely remember this for years to come.

As for the Chelina and Louis spin-off, don't worry. It's in the works. I've always planned to write something for them because theirs is a story that is as beautiful as Kit's and Reader's, maybe even more. I'm just not sure how soon I would get to writing it but I would surely do because it's a story worth telling.

Thank you thank you so much for reading the story! You hold a special place in my mind and heart for leaving such words! <3

[ghostbustersreborn]

the ghostbusters were back and better than ever. adding onto their group was tara. the fifth ghostbuster.

weeks went by going very well into december of various ghost bustings.

tara spent her seventeenth birthday, busting a ghost who haunted a jewelry store. she didn't mind, this was better than the time she was bedridden four years ago.

they even got new flight suits.

a grey one. which tara very much preferred over the khaki one, only because it went with her spiked choker.

and guess what also came along with the ghostbusters being back?

they got a new infomercial.

now, with janine and louis as somewhat paid actors?

"what is it, honey?" louis exclaimed.

"it's that darn ghost again." explained janine. "he just won't leave us alone. i guess we're just going to have to move."

"no, wait!" cried louis. "don't worry we're not moving." he picked up the telephone. "he is."

"who are you going to call?" janine asked.

suddenly, all five of the ghostbusters appeared on screen.

tara really didn't want to do this infomercial. but peter promised her a cupcake, so of course she obliged.

"ghostbusters!"

"yes, that's right." ray said, stepping forward.

tara was off to the side, trying really hard not to crack a smile.

they were really bad actors.

like, really bad.

so bad, that peter thought they all deserved oscars. god, was he wrong..

"yes that's right, ghostbusters we're back with twice the know-how and twice the particle power to deal with all your supernatural elimination needs."

in the background, winston was fighting a fake ghost.

this was chaos.

ray stepped out of the way of the camera as it focused on egon who was telling winston that this was a mean ghost.

tara covered her mouth as a few laughs escaped.

just as winston walked away, the fake ghost hit egon.

"nothing we can't handle egon." winston assured him. "come celebrate our grand reopening with our special half-price service plan."

the camera then moved over to peter, who had his hands on his hips for way too long.

"what?! hold on half-price?!" he exclaimed. "have we all gone mad?!" he chuckled.

"i guess so pete because that's not all, tell them egon." ray turned to egon.

egon stepped forward, pulling something from out of his belt.

"oh you mean the ghostbusters hot beverage mug and free balloons for the kids?" the camera panned in on the mug and the balloon.

tara pushed her way through, having herself now be squished in between ray and peter.

"you bet. so, make your supernatural problem." ray started.

"are supernatural problem." venkman finished.

"call now."

cutting to them outside the firehouse.

"because we're still ready to believe you!" they all exclaimed.

"cut!"

tara dropped the act. well, whatever act she had going on during that commercial.

"why didn't i get any lines?" she pouted.

"because you would put the f word in front of it." winston informed her.

"true. but it's just how i spice things up." she expressed.

she fixed the strap on her proton pack as she asked "can we get a pizza? i'm hungry."

"you're always hungry." peter mocked.

"shut up." she rolled her eyes as they headed back inside.

*

-two days later-

they were all sat around the table. egon and ray were going to show them what they had done so far with the pink slime.

egon took it out of the microwave as ray spoke to them about what they were doing with it;

"we've been experimenting with the plasm we found in the subway tunnel." he started. "careful." he advised egon as he brought it over.

"it looks like the sauce you get at chinese restaurants." tara voiced. (please tell me i'm not the only one who thinks this 😭😭)

winston cringed. "goodbye sweet and sour sauce."

"should i get spoons?" asked venkman.

"don't bother." egon replied as he carefully placed it on the table. "watch this." he then looked up over at ray with a smile and went "go ahead, ray."

"you! you worthless piece of slime!" ray shouted.

tara flinched. totally not expecting him to yell.

the slime gurgled. tara's brows furrowed. she remembered it doing that back at the court hearing, but she didn't think if you insulted it it would react.

guess, it wasn't just humans who reacted to being insulted.

"can-can i have a turn?" she requested.

ray turned to her. "yeah." he allowed her.

he stepped aside, letting her in on the action.

"so, i can just be as mean to it as i want?" she asked.

"yes." egon confirmed.

tara silently cheered before focusing all her attention on the pink slime before her.

she cleared her throat.

"you ignorant piece of shit!" was the first thing she said to the mood slime.

totally unacceptable. yet, not surprised considering this was tara this was coming from.

"you're an ass you know? a big ole ass hole who thinks who thinks the whole world revolves around them but no it doesn't. it doesn't revolve around you and nobody's going to like you once you show your true colors"

"tara." the boys tried getting her to stop.

this was a little TOO much.

"you're just an insecure, shallow piece of shit who reflects all their trauma onto others, well you know what you know wha-" "tara." she fell silent, she looked up at egon. "you can stop now." he advised her.

she looked down, feeling a little embarrassed for her sudden outburst.

"s-sorry." she said while backing away from the group.

the slime bubbled down, once the environment was a little less intense.

god, tara had some pent up anger.

"this is what you do with your spare time." peter ridiculed ray and egon.

"peter, this is an incredible breakthrough." ray explained.

tara bit her nails nervously. she regretted freaking out the way she did. guess, she had to talk about her pent up anger with her therapist now.

egon eyed her. she made eye contact with him. he motioned for her to come over. tara did as she was told.

she laid her head on spengler's arm as she watched the boys converse with one another.

"i mean, what a discovery, a psycho-reactive substance. whatever this stuff is, it responds to human emotional states."

peter looked from the slime then to ray.

"mood slime." he coined it.

egon looked from the boys and off to the side.

peter leaned over the table, getting closer to the mood slime.

"oh, baby." he said, getting a reaction out of it.

"you mean this stuff actually feeds on bad vibes?" winston questioned.

"it did at the court hearing. it spilled all over the floor with the judge's little freak out." tara reminded all of them.

"i wasn't there to see that." winston stated.

"like a cop in a donut factory." stantz joked.

"we've been running tests to see if we can get an equally strong positive reaction." egon announced.

"what kind of test?" asked peter.

egon looked away as if he was too embarrassed to tell.

tara lifted her head up from his arm.

"what ya doin with it spengs?" she teased him.

he coughed. "tara. knock it off." he ordered.

tara fake gasped. "well, that's a first." she said, pretending to sound surprised.

"what have you been doing with it?" peter pressed.

"well, we sing to it, and, uh, we talk to it, and say supportive nurturing things to it." ray briefly explained.

"you're not sleeping with it are you, ray?" he asked the big question.

ray looked over to egon, to which egon looked off to the side.

tara bursted into laughter.

"oh my god!" she cried.

peter shook his head. "oh, you."

"it's always the quiet ones." winston claimed.

"you hound." he called him.

spengler cleared his throat.

"oh my god!" tara howled.

"how about the kinetic test?" egon asked, desperate to change the subject.

tara got up, her laughter dying down.

"what's the kinetic test?" she asked, still giggling a little.

egon brought over a toaster to the table.

tara cocked her head to the side in confusion.

"are we making toast?" she questioned.

"in a way, yes." ray answered.

"ooh, yay!" she cheered.

"but not quite." he added.

"aw, boo." she frowned.

ray was scooping out a small bit of slime to put into the toaster.

"ordinary household toaster." said egon.

"we'll take your word for it." peter commented as ray slipped the mood slime into the two crates of the toaster.

tara watched intently, wondering what was going to happen next.

they then brought it over to the pool table, where there was a nearby outlet.

"it responds to music, so we've been doing some experimentation, playing easy listening, middle-of-the-road type of stuff." ray explained as egon went to go turn on the music. "you know, paul young, dust in the wind. that works okay."

"works for me." peter nodded.

"loves jackie wilson." egon stated as the stereo started to play 'higher and higher'.

he brought the stereo closer to the mood slimed toaster.

ray crossed his arms when peter asked "you guys do this at night when i'm not here?"

egon rested his hands on the pool table, watching the toaster as the music began to play.

"oh, i get it, it sings. it sounds exactly like jackie. that's fantastic." peter sarcastically commented.

"just watch." egon told him.

"does it do emmylou harris?"

the toaster began to bounce along to the music.

tara smiled. she couldn't believe what she was seeing before her.

a toaster bopping along to jackie wilson.

what a surprise!

"oh, it dances too!" peter said in surprise.

it made noise as it bounced along.

egon smiled, nodding along to the song. (🥺🥺)

the boys began bopping along to the music.

tara rolled her eyes.

"come on tara, can't you dance?" venkman asked his kid.

tara shook her head.

"no, i don't-" "well, you're going to dance now." he cut her off, by grabbing her and pulling her into his arms, making her dance.

then, two pieces of toast popped out of the toaster.

egon held his hands out, catching them both just in time.

tara pulled away from her father.

she stuck his tongue out at him.

"your tongue is pierced?" winston pointed out.

"yep!" she said proudly.

"not my decision." peter let him know.

winston chuckled. he didn't even think it was beforehand.

egon switched off the music.

peter quickly grabbed the toaster once it stopped bouncing.

"oh, baby!" he gasped.

he held it in his arms.

"you're my number one christmas boutique gift item." he praised it.

"right, and the first time somebody gets mad, the toaster could eat their hand." winston said.

"no, no, no, no. we put a warning label on it, we don't have any liability..." peter slipped his fingers into the crates, he yelped in pain.

the boys and tara rushed over to him, thinking he was hurt until-

"ow! ow! ow." his 'ow's' turned into laughter when he brought out his fingers which were completely fine and not hurt. "did you ever go for it!" he exclaimed. "the old man eating toaster bit."

"get him." tara ordered.

ray grabbed him from behind, while the others went for him.

*

"i don't want to watch you flirt with dana!" tara whined as peter dragged her up the stairs to the art museum.

"tara, how old are you again? seven or seventeen?" peter asked her.

tara pouted. "i'm whatever age i want to be." she told him.

he rolled his eyes. "come on." he urged her.

she scoffed. she reluctantly followed him inside.

when inside. peter went up to the check in counter.

"hello? i'm looking for dana barrett." he said to the guy behind the counter.

"room 304. restoration." the man told him.

"thank you." peter said back.

the man looked up, he did a double take when seeing her dad.

"hey, uh dr.venkman!" the man exclaimed.

"yes." peter went back over.

"aw, come on!" tara huffed.

"world of the psychic!" he cried.

he sat up, holding out his hand for venkman to shake.

"that's right. how you doin'?" asked venkman.

"hey, i'm a big big fan of yours." claimed the stranger.

"oh, god make it stop." tara pleaded. "this is so going to go to dad's head." she claimed.

"oh, thank you very much. thank you." he said in response.

"that used to be one of my two favorite shows." explained the man.

"you're kidding me." peter said. "oh, great what was the other one?" he asked.

"bass masters."

"bass masters?" tara repeated him.

"it's a fishing show." the man clarified.

peter started to walk away.

tara sighed of relief.

"yeah, i know bass masters. sure." he nodded.

he did not.

when finally finding the room. tara let out a loud sigh of relief.

"tara, cut it with the dramatics." he ordered her.

"i will when you do." she shot back.

"come on." he huffed.

they walked further into the room, looking for dana.

when finding her. peter took off his coat revealing his blue sweater underneath.

dana was wearing some strange headpiece while working on a painting.

he moved the canvas making her look up.

to which tara stifled a laugh when seeing how big her eyes looked on the headpiece.

"you're good, pretty eyes." peter complimented her.

tara rolled her eyes. (count how many times tara has rolled her eyes in this book. i dare you.)

"i didn't paint it. i'm just cleaning it." dana informed him with a smile. "it's a gaugin."

"well, i've heard of him." peter claimed.

"have you, dad?" tara stepped in, making her presence known to barett.

"oh, hi tara." the woman greeted her.

"hi." tara quickly said.

"yes, i do." peter confirmed.

"i don't think you do." she said quietly.

appearing from behind peter was a man with red hair and with an accent.

he looked gay. he looked very gay.

"well..." the man chuckled.

tara furrowed her brows. where did he come from?

peter placed his jacket on the canvas.

"hey, dana. aren't you going to introduce me to your friends?" he asked her.

dana lifted the headpiece up.

"um, sure. peter venkman this is dr.janosz phoa, and dr.janosz phoa this is his daughter tara venkman. he is the head of our department."

peter held his hand out for him to shake which janosz held peter's hand quite weirdly to say the least.

"yes, i of course have seen you on the television." janosz informed venkman.

peter released his hand from janosz's.

"quite, enjoy. you're not here on business, i hope." he then said.

"well, it's top secret." peter stated, as he got all the janosz's germs off him by rubbing it onto his sweater. "say, johnny, you got a gaughin too." he went over to the huge painting in the back of the room.

tara and dana followed.

the second, tara got over to the painting. she felt light headed.

which only happened when a ghost or supernatural entity was around.

it was just a painting. so, what was the deal?

"no, actually i am preparing this portrait for the new romantic exhibition." janosz informed him.

peter stood in front of the painting, imitating it's pose.

if tara wasn't so light headed she would have laughed.

as the conversation went on, her ears started to ring. she was unable to hear what any of them were saying.

as she looked up at the painting, she swore she saw the painting smirk at her.

was she imagining things or did that really happen?

she could never tell..

"tara, tara." she could barely hear her father call her name. "tara!" he snapped in her face.

she was pulled out of whatever trance she was in and looked over at her father.

the ringing in her ears stopped and she no longer felt light headed.

"come on let's go, unless you want to spend the night here." peter said to her.

tara quickly shook her head at that. she followed him.

before leaving, she took one last look at the painting to which she swore she saw it smirking at her again. she shook her head and followed her father.

whatever she was seeing must of just been on her mind playing tricks on her.

right?