#this is william arden here

[justusjonas]

reading crime busters is really like Where Am I

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

🌈 Queer Books Coming Out in May 2024 🌈

🌈 Good morning, my bookish bats! Struggling to keep up with all the amazing queer books coming out this month? Here are a FEW of the stunning, diverse queer books you can add to your TBR before the year is over. Remember to #readqueerallyear! Happy reading!

[ Release dates may have changed. ]

❤️ Farzana's Spite - Felix Graves 🧡 Archangels of Funk - Andrea Hairston 💛 How It Works Out - Myriam Lacroix 💚 Queer History A to Z - Robin Stevenson, Vivian Rosas 💙 Queerceañera - Alex Crespo 💜 Second Night Stand - Karelia Stetz-Waters, Fay Stetz-Waters ❤️ You Can Call Me Cooper - Cali Kitsu 🧡 Gooseberry - Robin Gow 💛 Grand Slam Romance - Ollie Hicks, Emma Oosterhous 💙The Witches of Silverlake - Simon Curtis, Stephanie Son 💜 Drawn to the Enemy - Barbara Winkes 🌈 The Truth of Our Past - Heather Leighson

❤️ Infaust - T.D. Cloud, Ambi Sun 🧡 Garner for Gold - Catherine Labadie 💛 The Z Word - Lindsay King-Miller 💚 Snake Charming - Genevieve McCluer 💙 The 7-10 Split - Karmen Lee 💜 Loving Jemima - Sienna Waters ❤️ The Potion Gardener - Arden Powell 🧡 A Swift and Sudden Exit - Nico Vincenty 💛 The Worst Ronin - Maggie Tokuda-Hall, Faith Schaffer 💙 Murray Out of Water -Taylor Tracy 💜 The Guncle Abroad - Steven Rowley 🌈 The Weight of What Was - Pip Landers-Letts

❤️ The Amazing Alpha Tau Pledge Project - Lisa Henry, Sarah Honey 🧡 I Met Death & Sex Through My Friend, Tom Meuley - Thom Vernon 💛 Malicia - Steven dos Santos 💚 The Sins on Their Bones - Laura R. Samotin 💙 SLUTS: Anthology - Michelle Tea 💜 You Should Be So Lucky - Cat Sebastian ❤️ Death's Country - R.M. Romero 🧡 Cinema Love - Jiaming Tang 💛 The Brides of High Hill - Nghi Vo 💙 Emma - Jenna Kent 💜 Wish We Were There - Lionel Hart 🌈 A Troublemaker in Her Eyes - Genta Sebastian

❤️ I Make Envy on Your Disco - Eric Schnall 🧡 Lavash at First Sight - Taleen Voskuni 💛 Queer Power Couples - Hannah Murphy Winter, Billie Winter 💚 In Repair - A.L. Graziadei 💙 A Heart Divided - Angie Williams 💜 Long After We Are Gone - Terah Shelton Harris ❤️ The Queen of Steeplechase Park - David Ciminello 🧡 Lunar Boy - Jes Wibowo, Cin Wibowo 💛 Hot Boy Summer - Joe Jiménez 💙 Sunhead - Alex Assan 💜 The Summer Love Strategy - Ray Stoeve 🌈 Into the Mouth of the Wolf - Erin Gough

❤️ The Girl in Question - Tess Sharpe 🧡 The Lost Erwain - Mariah Stillbrook 💛 Starfire - Naomi Hughes 💚 Adrift - Sam Ledel 💙 Shanghai Murder - Jessie Chandler 💜 April May June July - Alison B. Hart ❤️ A Bone in His Teeth - Kellen Graves 🧡 Cabin Fever - Tagan Shepard 💛 Don't Be a Drag - Skye Quinlan 💙 The Ride of Her Life - Jennifer Dugan 💜 The Redemption of Daya Keane - Gia Gordon 🌈 Nearlywed - Nicolas DiDomizio

❤️ The Sunforge - Sascha Stronach 🧡 The End of Time - Trudie Skies 💛 Silent Ones - Melissa Polk 💚 Prime Time Travelers - Neil Laird 💙 My Darling Dreadful Thing - Johanna van Veen 💜 The Honey Witch - Sydney J. Shields ❤️ Spitting Gold - Carmella Lowkis 🧡 Last Chance - Claire Highton-Stevenson 💛 Road Home - Rex Ogle 💙 Only for Convenience - Shannon O'Connor 💜 Linus and Etta Could Use a Win - Caroline Huntoon 🌈 Finding Molly Parsons - Alyson Root

❤️ Breathe: Journeys to Healthy Binding - Maia Kobabe, Dr. Sarah Peitzmeier 🧡 See You Next Month - Jamey Moody 💛 Until You Say My Name - Tatum Schroeder 💚 Disembark - Jen Currin 💙 True Love and Other Impossible Odds - Christina Li 💜 Flyboy - Kasey LeBlanc ❤️ Thirsty - Jas Hammonds 🧡 Hands Off - N. Slater 💛 Flooded Secrets - Claudie Arseneault 💙 The Deer and the Dragon - Piper C.J. 💜 To Be Loved - Frank G. Anderson 🌈 Snowblooded - Emma Sterner-Radley

❤️ Blood Remains - Cathy Pegau 🧡 Blood on the Tide - Katee Robert 💛 We Were the Universe - Kimberly King Parsons 💚 Loyalty - E.J. Noyes 💙 Spirits and Sirens - Kelly Fireside 💜 Clean Kill - Anne Laughlin ❤️ The Worst Perfect Moment - Shivaun Plozza 🧡 Oye - Melissa Mogollon 💛 Here for the Wrong Reasons - Annabel Paulsen, Lydia Wang 💙 Exhibit - R.O. Kwon 💜 Experienced - Kate Young 🌈 Parenting with Pride - Heather Hester

❤️ Road to Ruin - Hana Lee 🧡 Meet Me in Berlin - Samantha L. Valentine 💛 The Advice Columnist - Cade Haddock Strong 💚 where lost & hopeless things go - Bryony Rosehurst 💙 Pit Stop - Ellis Mae 💜 The Switchboard - Christina K. Glover ❤️ In the Shallows - Tanya Byrne 🧡 Have You Seen This Girl - Nita Tyndall 💛 Another First Chance - Robbie Couch 💙 The Only Light Left Burning - Erik J. Brown 💜 Keepers of the Stones and Stars - Michael Barakiva 🌈 A Little Kissing Between Friends - Chencia C. Higgins

[saintmeghanmarkle]

A Year in Review: All the times Meghan Markle been publicly called out in 2023. Highlights and favorite #MarkleMoment from last year? 📌Part 1 of 2

These are her humiliating moments over past year that she’s been publicly called out for in some way. All with proof, all archived from media reports around the world. Get cozy, save this post, and as always, appreciate the upvotes so it doesn't get targeted for downvotes! Posting it now as many of us will be celebrating Christmas with our loved ones. Although we are a diverse bunch, this unites us all :)

Here’s some from 2022 to inspire you:

Harry and Megan of “overseas”

the Funeral candle

no Jubilee balcony

voetsek Megan

I love the part where…(YouTube comments on their Netflix trailer)

Marriott Meg

12% Rotten Tomatoes rating for Netflix flopumentary, with her cutesy (mocking) curtesy

What was your favourite from 2023?

Air New Zealand’s epic trolling tweet re Sussex Class (a truly underrated gem). Proves Meg never bought Thomas Markle his flights for the wedding, as Harry claimed in Spare. https://archive.ph/wip/chjhf

'Live to Lead' quietly dumped on Netflix New Year’s Day. Jacinda Arden's PMO puts out a statement that when she filmed it years earlier it wasn’t affiliated with Harry and Meghan. https://archive.ph/DiDzT

South Park, Worldwide Privacy Tour episode.https://archive.ph/Sqc99

Frogmore no more. KCIII evicts Harry and Meg from Frogmore. Toad Abode eviction, just leave your spare keys on the bench.https://archive.ph/PeCPQ

9 edits on a Telegraph article about Harry and Meg's 'appalling treatment' from the Royal family. https://archive.ph/wip/suU7g

Chris Rock blasts their victimhood (on Netflix special, extra irony). Points out all families speculate on what the baby will look like. https://archive.ph/3NdgW

The underrated British Vogue moment, where they posted a pic of the best wedding veils of all time of Meghan, intentionally on William and Catherine’s anniversary. The public response was epic. They were not having it. Trolled by posting pics of Catherine in her veil. https://twitter.com/BritishVogue/status/1652309496482394116

Coronation weekend: Montecito Meg will never appear in that historical record. Claims a 4 years olds birthday is more important (hot tip: kids are portable. Just like Lili was for her birthday during the Queens Jubilee). Weak PR attempt about lemon cake with lemons from her tree, and somehow Harry defying the laws of physics and time to make it back in time for Archie’s alleged party. Close second: her urban safari hike PR pap walk the next day. Honourable mention: Anne’s feather. https://archive.ph/m0fcH https://archive.ph/9BsWW https://archive.ph/7UNDp

Queen of Hertz; flees via high speed “near catastrophic car chase” papped taxi “chase” that the taxi driver, Backgrid, and NYPD deny. 4 paps, with 1 on a bike. For 2.5 hours. Yes, a bike. https://archive.ph/EBmZ9

Spotify, bye-bye to “f$&@ing grifters”. https://archive.ph/OWTI2

Publicly manifesting Duchess of Dior? Dior source is “nonplussed as to how the story came about.” Dior firmly stares - No Deal! Update: a few months later, Princess Maria Olympia of Greece has a Dior and Aquazura contract. Repeats the process with Cartier page six article Aug 6th. Nothing. Camilla wears Dior a few days later. https://archive.ph/wip/k0hiA

Netflix manifesting: rom coms, Bad Manners feminist Miss Havisham, Harry saves Africa (sarcasm on it not being a country), Meg to offer advice of safe birthing practices, buying the rights to a Princess who dies in a car crash https://archive.ph/wip/W9xQg https://archive.ph/wip/8COXT https://archive.ph/JDspD

“Turns out Meghan Markle was not a great audio talent, or necessarily any kind of talent” - United Talent Agency CEO Jeremy Zimmer. https://archive.ph/wip/4TnM6

Taylor Swift turned down Archetypes Spotify appearance. https://archive.ph/VjC07

No Emmy nomination for Harry and Meghan, "devastated". Scoreboard: Meg = 0 nominations. Thomas Markle = 2 Emmy wins. https://archive.ph/wip/m3PQS

UnSussexful trends on Twitter after Harry and Meg blame their lack of success on "bad luck."https://archive.ph/CauG3

Report surfaces that Sussexes tried to bum a ride on Air Force One following QEII’s funeral. Access denied. Also tried to tie Jill Biden’s lemon dress the day after the Oprah interview to Meg as a sign of support. Meg sends Jill a basket of lemons. https://archive.ph/ZofTQ

Celeb “friends” bail. Public reports the Beckhams aren’t friends after no invite to Brooklyn’s wedding, no celeb studded InterMiami game. Serena holds a baby shower, no Meg to be found.https://archive.ph/k02N8 https://archive.ph/6rfSO

No birthday wishes from the Royals. Confirms no Balmoral for the one year anniversary of the Queen’s death, despite the Sussexes confirming they will be in Germany the day after for Invictus.https://archive.ph/0IAaO

Sussexes claim to be friends with John Travolta! And he noped that one in record time.https://archive.ph/dPjLW

Meg attempt to convince everyone she was at the Taylor Swift concert in LA while Harry is in Japan/Singapore but no pics exist. Despite many actual celebs having pics there. Not a single one. Outside of the one helpfully provided to Page Six that’s a cropped version of her pink linen suit from the Laker’s game, Harry cropped out. Later, the pic is updated with Harry back in it after it's pointed out on this sub. https://archive.ph/DhvlY

Meg dresses in beige coat, scarf, in August. In California. Attempts to merch them, including the Nucalm (aka sticker) on her wrist, with only that cuff of the coat helpfully rolled up to show it off better. Note she has not managed to elude the pap on her “casual walk”, yet there is nary a pic from the Swift concert. Skills. Despite posting it on their own Insta with a promo code, one day later NuCalm denies that they are affiliated with Meg. Ouch. https://archive.ph/MVGfP

A) Meg and Harry attend Beyoncé to deflect for on the Heart of Invictus flop and rumours their marriage is in trouble. Harry manages to make Beyoncé with Meg look like he's a sulking toddler. B) Meg attempts to change the SEO results and attends Beyoncé a second night in a row, takes pics with Kerri Washington and Kelly Rowland. Kerri Washington crops Meg OUT of the pic on her Instagram.https://archive.ph/As4RZ https://archive.ph/wip/NOL8m

Meg’s Backgrid planned pap, inside the restaurant, at In N Out. Allegedly buying milkshakes for a 2 yr old and 4 yr old an hour away. Which is why she's 'late' to Invictus. (Still think this was likely her assistant who hopped out of the car, went inside to take the pic, and then met her after the drive through, and they sold the pic via Backgrid.) https://archive.ph/wip/bvgjX

post link: A Year in Review: All the times Meghan Markle been publicly called out in 2023. Highlights and favorite #MarkleMoment from last year? : SaintMeghanMarkle (reddit.com)

author: somespeculation

submitted: December 17, 2023 at 02:25PM via SaintMeghanMarkle on Reddit

[ohmerricat]

‘maebh arden’ name meaning — she who rules the forest…

why i ever let people tell me this was a bad episode? sure it’s not outstanding, and people dislike it in comparison because it’s surrounded by whoppers, but the premise itself is pretty cool! and i don’t mind children appearing as supporting characters, they’re not even that annoying. plus, there are some fantastic lines of dialogue here!

• “trees don’t communicate” “you don’t need cellphones to communicate — i haven’t texted my mum but i know she’s worried about me!”

• “a tree is a time machine. you plant an acorn in 1796, and in 2014 you’ve got a great big oak tree with a tiny little bit of 1796 tucked away inside” what a brilliant fucking idea and also 100% true

• “you find yourself in the woods with a rather compelling masculine figure” “any minute now we’ll come across a gingerbread house with a cannibal witch inside it” (note how twelve says masculine figure, not ‘man’. that’s because he’s a butch lesbian. slash aitch jay.) (interesting continuation of eleven’s fairytale theme! darker fairytales this time: hansel and gretel face a more serious threat than peter pan and wendy)

• “she’s lost someone — people who’ve lost someone, they’re always looking, always listening, always hoping, so they notice more, they hear more” explains why he’s like that then

• “stars implode, planets go cold. catastrophe is the metabolism of the universe” and “that’s how this planet grows. a series of catastrophes” everything eats and is eaten time is fed, etc. twelve would love adrianne lenker

• “i can save you” “i don’t want you to.” “what, you don’t want to live?” “of course i want to live, i—” “you what?” “don’t make me say it. doctor, i don’t want to be the last of my kind.” “then why did you bring us all here?” “because it’s the only way to get you back to the TARDIS. make you believe you’re saving someone. this time the human race is saving you. make it worthwhile.” “this is my world too. i walk your earth, i breathe your air.” “and on behalf of this world you’re very welcome. now go, save the next one.” SCREAMING CRYING THROWING UP????

• “the trees are not your enemy, they’re your shield. they’ve been saving you since forever, protecting you from everything that space can throw at you.” aaaand we have this episode’s doctor foil. it’s the fucking forest itself

• “i am doctor idiot.”

• “you’ll all forget it ever happened” “we are not gonna forget an overnight forest!” “you forgot the last time. you’ll remember the fear, and you’ll put it into fairy stories. the human superpower: forgetting. if you remembered how things felt, you’d have stopped having wars and stopped having babies.”

sure, the sister bit didn’t make any sense. to be honest nothing to do with maebh’s psychic powers made any sense at all. but none of that matters because look at everything else!! also, they put that fucking tiger there just for the william blake reference. commitment to the bit

[medea10]

My Review of Black Butler: Public School Arc

I’ve made no secret about my love for Black Butler. It has everything I could ask for. Sexy butler, cheeky brat, flaming gay reaper, stoic sexy reaper, J. Michael Tatum’s sexy voice for the sexy butler, Junichi Suwabe’s sexy voice for a sexy undertaker…Ahem, so yeah. It checks off a lot of boxes. And looking at my calendar, it has only been a mere 10 years since the last Black Butler season.

I thought I was needlessly cruel to Blue Exorcist for being away for only 7 years. To be fair, Black Butler did have a few things after the Book of Circus arc in 2014. Book of Murder came out in 2015 and Book of the Atlantic came out in 2017. Still, a long time without this story. Thankfully, at the Aniplex special in 2023, they gave us the return of several shows produced by Aniplex including Madoka Magica, Blue Exorcist, and of course, Black Butler. And the next story in this tale would be the Public-School arc where Ciel goes undercover once more for the queen to uncover a massive spoiler alert.

Now, let me try and remember things correctly as it has definitely been a minute since I read this in the manga. If I remember correctly, no we do not see Grell and William in this arc. If we do, it’s probably a flashback of some sort. I also don’t think we’ll see Sebastian’s love of felines this season. And if I also remember correctly, there’s a term used. A certain three-lettered “F” word that was used. And I’m wondering if Crunchyroll would be fool enough to use that word.

AND WE DODGED A BULLET!

Also, Black Butler will now be animated by Cloverworks.

Shit! Look, I know nearly every anime I’m watching now is going through the change. Konosuba, Blue Exorcist, Spice and Wolf, all of those changed studio hands. But I still have a severe distrust of Cloverworks. I know they’ve done some really good gems like My Dress-up Darling and Bocchi the Rock. But then you remember what they did not too long ago with some other animes. Wonder Egg Priority and the second season to The Promised Neverland comes to mind. I really don’t want any more fuck-ups here. Black Butler already suffered enough with creative differences when we got season two.

HISTORY: After a family tragedy that claimed the lives of his parents, Ciel Phantomhive was in a terrible situation that seemed to get worse and worse. At his lowest low, he makes a contract with a demon named Sebastian. Ciel sells his soul to the demon in favor of revenge on those who have wronged him. After fulfilling most of that, Ciel and Sebastian live in Ciel’s family home where Sebastian is now his butler.

Despite his young age, Ciel has not only the family business to attend to, but duty to the queen of England. His title is known as the “Queen’s Guard Dog”. Sebastian aids young Ciel in many situations for his job. From solving a Jack the Ripper case to infiltrating a circus, to solving a case involving zombies on a luxury liner.

PUBLIC SCHOOL: Once again, Queen Victoria has asked for Ciel’s help. This time it’s to get some insight on a member of the royal family (Derrick Arden) who appears to have gone missing from a prestigious school he was attending. Much like with Book of Circus, Ciel is in unknown territory and must put on an act to survive his new settings. This time, Ciel must become a student at the illustrious Weston College. Unfortunately, Ciel must start at the bottom and do as he is told by his senpais, headmasters, and the schools P4.

The Prefect Four (P4) are these four special lads that are head of certain households. Edgar Redmond, Herman Greenhill, Lawrence Bluewer, and Gregory Violet are the four that head up each special house. Each student is assigned a house and currently, it looks as though Ciel is in the Sapphire Owl dorm headed up by Bluewer due to Ciel’s earldom and family status. To add to Ciel’s plate, getting into any other dorm is troublesome as there’s bad blood between the four houses. Not to mention, snot-nosed little shits deceiving Ciel for petty reasons. And of course, going to school with his betrothed’s brother as well as a certain loud-mouth friend.

LICENSING: Black Butler has had an interesting time in the licensing arena. A couple of years after debuting in Japan, FUNimation licensed, dubbed, and released it. Hell, they were nice enough to license Book of Circus, Book of Murder, ye who shall not be named, and even have the movie Book of the Atlantic released on the big screen. During this time, FUNimation did drop Black Butler from its category. To be fair, they did the same thing to Full Metal Alchemist. A big fuck-up if I’ve ever seen one. But it gained it back. And now, Crunchyroll has it. With the death of the FUNimation website, Crunchyroll has every piece of Black Butler (anime) media.

Mm-hmm, y’all better have Brina Palencia and J. Michael Tatum coming back.

Well, shut my mouth! Okay, I’m fine by this. I love how they sound exactly the same as they did all these years ago.

Actually, they managed to get everybody to their original roles. Todd Haberkorn, Jerry Jewell, Cherami Leigh, Ian Sinclair, Monica Rial, John Swasey, Justin Briner, and many others came back to voice their respected characters. Not so sure about Patrick Seitz voicing Agni just yet. And as for Prince Soma…Um, next category please!

SADLY, THIS CHANGE: A couple of years ago, voice actor Christopher Ayres went through hell with lung cancer, COPD, and massive surgery. However, his long fight came to an end in October 2021 as he passed away. I haven’t gotten a chance to talk about Chris Ayres as I seem to have stopped writing DBZ reviews, but since he plays a key character on Black Butler, might as well do it here. There are several characters he still played up until his sickness and death, so it’s sad to see their character when they come on screen. I am definitely going to miss him as Frieza as he is best villain of that show. But, I did like his Prince Soma. Thanks for the memories!

With. That. Said…

*Soma is now played by Abi Kumar

NEW CHARACTERS: Being in a prestigious all-boys school, there’s bound to be a lot of interesting new characters. Oh-ho-ho, you have no idea. There’s the fake femme boy with the worst name possible. Lizzie’s older brother is there and is a drudge to a prefect. And then there’s the boy who shit his britches. It was more tragic than…whatever that scene in Prison School was. For this category, I’ll focus on the Prefect 4. These four play a bigger role as the arc delves further in plot wise.

First, there’s Edgar Redmond (the one in red), the head of the Scarlet Fox dorm. He has this charm that can woo the panties off ladies. It gets worse I’m afraid. Because it has been several years since reading this arc that I have forgotten completely that Viscount Idiot Druitt is his uncle. Forgotten the relationship, never forget what he did to Ciel.

Lawrence Bluewer (the one in blue) is head of the Sapphire Owl dorm (the dorm Ciel is in). He, along with everybody else in the dorm is more on the strategian spectrum than anything else. While good for grades, it’s not really good for competitions like you’ll see halfway into this arc.

Herman Greenhill (the one in green) is the head of the Green Lions and I’m pretty sure Erwin Smith’s doppelganger. Their dorm, pure strength. Just don’t get caught on the wrong side of this guy’s cricket bat. Hahaha, foreshadowing!

And finally, Gregory Violet (the one in purple) head of the Violet Wolf dorm. His dorm is full of those artistically inclined. This guy is crazy talented with his art. But, he does come into some suspicion as the missing person Queen Victoria asked Ciel to look into was actually in the Violet Wolf dorm.

JAPANESE CAST: *Redmond is played by Toshiki Watanabe

*Bluewer is played by Junya Enoki (known for Yuuji on Jujutsu Kaisen, Nasa on Tonikawa, Inui on Tokyo Revengers, Red Blood Cell on Cells at Work: Code Black, Naoya on Girlfriend Girlfriend, and Jack on Beastars)

*Greenhill is played by Shunsuke Takeuchi (known for Takeda on My Senpai is Annoying, Varis on YGO Vrains, and Askin on Bleach: Thousand Year Blood)

*Violet is played by Tatsumaru Tachibana

ENGLISH CAST: *Redmond is played by Reagan Murdock (known for Hayakawa on Chainsaw Man and Itsuomi on A Sign of Affection)

*Bluewer is played by Brandon McInnis (known for Sir Nighteye on My Hero Academia, Hitogami on Mushoku Tensei, Finral on Black Clover, Gyuutarou on Demon Slayer, and Mafuyu on Given)

*Greenhill is played by Jonah Scott (known for Legoshi on Beastars, Tatsu on Way of the House-husband, Raiden on 86, and Akihiko on Given)

*Violet is played by Kieran Flitton

ENDING: Ciel is making his long journey into finding Derrick Arden and the other missing boys for Queen Victoria. It’s just long and tedious. Ciel already made waves with the P4 by becoming a drudge’s drudge. But then, he managed to calculate a win in an annual cricket tournament. Something that Ciel’s dorm has been unable to do since his father Vincent Phantomhive attended the school. All of this is to meet with the school’s headmaster. This guy is elusive and is rarely seen, and yet his rule is absolute and must not go against his word. How elusive is elusive? A demon like Sebastian couldn’t even get his hands on him. That should tell you something.

Ciel will actually meet this mystery man as Ciel was invited to have midnight tea with the headmaster, the prefects, and their drudges. There, Ciel decided to get right to the point and start asking some questions, mostly about the disappearance of Derrick. Ciel is then one-upped as the missing person the queen asked to look into is staring at him right in the face. Why all the secrecy? Derrick is really dead. Not just that, but now part of the undead. Not just that, he was murdered and used as a zombie puppet by the headmaster.

Hmm…why does this have a whiff of the movie Book of the Atlantic? Because the headmaster is none other than Undertaker himself. Mmm and Junichi Suwabe is still voicing Undertaker in Japanese. Ugh, John Swasey is still voicing Undertaker in English. Continuing.

It was then that we got a couple of flashback scenes that explain to people who have forgotten Undertaker’s role as it’s been so long since Black Butler has been on. Now, do keep in mind that Clover Works is in charge for this one season. And we get a retelling with the new animation. And we see one second of Grell! I am fine with this. Undertaker’s appearance was because Redmond’s disgusting uncle had him come to take care of a problem. And that problem?

The prefects killed Derrick. Yeah, he wound up on the wrong side of Greenhill’s cricket bat. I told you not to get on this man’s wrong side. Things between Derrick and the prefects were fine at first. Derrick was Redmond’s drudge and I gotta say, Redmond has the worst judgement of character as we see several of his own drudges doing shady things behind his back. In Derrick’s case, it was hazing. Not just that! He beat the shit out of the students with the most talent and potential, to take it as his own to impress the prefects. But wait, there’s more. He’s got not only certain students, but one of the higher-up faculty members wrapped around his finger. Weston is corrupt and the prefects are quite disgusted by this turn of events. The only way to fix the problem is to murder them all. Murder Derrick, his cohorts, and even the teacher. While Derrick and his friends were kinda failed zombies, the teacher seemed to pass off as normal.

…I mean close to normal as zombiely possible.

Now that everything is out in the open, it’s time for a fight against the supernatural. Eh, not really. Yeah, Sebastian played it out in his head how his fight with Undertaker would go down. It would have ended with Ciel being kidnapped by the laughing reaper. Undertaker escapes, he lives to laugh another day. Sebastian and Ciel are left with taking care of the zombie boys and then having to report back to the queen about this wild predicament.

In the aftermath, Ciel reported everything he learned back to Queen Victoria. Her fascination with the undead raises eyebrows from the audience, but Ciel will find out when he finds out. In the meantime, the public will be given a false story about Derrick and the other missing boys deaths. Clumsy zombie professor as well! Redmond, Greenhill, Bluewer, and Violet are all expelled from Weston. Their drudges have been promoted to prefect. But no one is happy by this. Those drudges were there that night and learned everything. Like a British P.I.F. or Princess Margaret’s love life, there is no happy ending here.

Okay, one episode left. Now what? It’s like a normal episode of Black Butler. Normal in the sense that the episode revolves around Ciel, Sebastian, the crew that runs the household, a few particular run-ins, business talk, and loud hijinks. But during the episode, Sebastian and Ciel come across a little something. As Sebastian got a hold of a certain trinket of Undertaker’s, he was able to do some research and learn that there’s some special people’s names on it. One name in particular caught Ciel’s eye as it’s his late grandmother. So, Undertaker has been doing stuff with and to the Phantomhive family longer than anyone could think.

We end this season with…oh, let’s just say the beginning to the next arc. Get ready for some wolves…whenever this season comes to existence. In the meantime, just watch Spice and Wolf. It’s not Black Butler, but it has J. Michael Tatum and Brina Palencia as the main cast. Let’s just hope that we don’t have to wait another Goddamn 7 years to see Sullivan and Wolfram. Actually, we’re getting the next arc in 2025. Well, that’s lucky!

Okay Cloverworks, I’ve pre-judged you too hastily. You did a great job with Bocchi the Rock and My Dress-up Darling. And you exceeded my expectations here with the Public School arc of Black Butler. Good job!

Now that you’ve reached this portion of my review, you’re probably wondering if you should hop onto Crunchyroll and watch this season despite several other seasons existing and you never seeing. Hold up, Buttercup! Do not do that! I highly recommend at least watching the first half of season one and the movie Book of the Atlantic. Those two things should keep you not so confused. Book of Circus and Book of Murder arcs are semi-recommendations for this case. Mostly due to the fact that there are a couple of characters shown this season that you might be lost if you suddenly see these people.

But if you’re like me and you love to watch things in chronological order, it should go as this…

*Black Butler (season 1) *Black Butler OVA’s (season 1 OVA, season 2 OVA eps: 1, 2, 4, 6) *Black Butler: Book of Circus *Black Butler: Book of Murder *Black Butler: Book of the Atlantic *Black Butler: Public School Arc *Black Butler II NEVER WATCH THIS!

Okay, enough time has passed and I’m sure everyone has eventually made peace with what Black Butler tried to do with season two. You’ll either meet people who thinks we made a mistake in judging it so hastily and those who will never speak of it again. I am in the category of people who never want to see this again. But will happily watch the OVA’s that came from that season. I’m a Grell fangirl and will happily watch anything with him in it. Even if that thing features Alois or Claude.

Back to the matter at hand. I liked how they handled this season for the anime. Never mind the fact that I love Black Butler to the point where I would even gather up the courage and enter a contest to win more Black Butler stuff. I never do that and yet when FUNimation put this out years ago, I gathered up my courage and did so. Got me some nice swag including a notebook. I still have to this day and have Yuya Matsushita (live-action musical Sebastian) and Patrick Seitz’s (eng dub for Agni) autograph. I’m digressing again.

Cloverworks kept things legit. One thing I will always applaud Cloverworks for is their animation. It’s great! I mean, compared to some of the other animes that changed studios, this is one of the better outcomes. One thing that also seems on-brand for Cloverworks is recaps. Thankfully, they kept it to a minimum at the first part of the episodes. But then, we get a bigger (but slightly necessary one) when Undertaker is revealed at the climax. The reason I say that is because A LOT OF TIME HAS PASSED for people watching this. And yes, we’ve got a new studio at the helm. Plus, I get to see Grell for one second.

Did I mention that I like Grell? Because I do like him! But just like some of the Black Butler sequels from the past, I found myself enjoying every moment of it.

If you would like to watch Black Butler in (almost) it’s entirety, Crunchyroll has quite the line-up. Unfortunately, the hour-long Book of Murder is for some reason not on their site. Black Butler’s first and second season are also available on Hulu.

FINAL NOTE(S): A few quickies!

It still makes me hot whenever Sebastian says “Yes, my Lord” in any language. Violet is best boy in the P4 category. The OP theme is a banger despite my prejudice against any Black Butler opening theme not sung by SID.

[dwsavideos]

what are your tony predictions??

Love this question! I’m not gonna give ALL my predictions just because there are so many categories, but here are some of my 2023 Tony Awards predictions/who I personally want to win:

Best Musical:

Who I want: Kimberly Akimbo

My prediction: Kimberly Akimbo

It’s amazing and tbh I feel like just about everyone who’s seen it absolutely loves it. Talented cast, funny and touching story, catchy songs. That show has it all.

Best Play:

Who I want: Leopoldstadt

My prediction: Ain’t No Mo’

Both plays are super important and super dark. But Ain’t No Mo’ also has the comedic element that’s more pleasing to audiences at the end of the day.

Best Musical Revival:

Who I want: Parade

My prediction: Into The Woods

I love both of these musicals so much. I’m a huge Sondheim fan too. As fantastic as Parade is, I just can’t see Into The Woods losing after all the hype.

Leading Actress in a Musical:

Who I want: Victoria Clark (Kimberly Akimbo) or Lorna Courtney (&Juliet)

My prediction: Victoria Clark (Kimberly Akimbo) or Micaela Diamond (Parade)

This category is stacked. I honestly don’t care who wins. They all deserve it.

Leading Actor in a Musical:

Who I want: Colton Ryan (New York, New York)

My prediction: Ben Platt (Parade)

Ben Platt will definitely win. I’m 98% sure.

Featured Actor in a Musical:

Who I want: Justin Cooley (Kimberly Akimbo)

My prediction: Kevin Cahoon (Shucked)

Justin is only like 19 or 20 years old so I think him winning a Tony would be awesome.

Featured Actress in a Musical:

Who I want: Bonnie Milligan (Kimberly Akimbo) or NaTasha Yvette Williams (Some Like It Hot)

My prediction: Julia Lester (Into The Woods)

I love Bonnie, and NaTasha is a legend. I just feel like Julia’s gonna get it.

Here are my other predictions without my opinion:

Best Revival of a Play: A Doll’s House Best Direction (Play): Jaime Lloyd (A Doll’s House) Best Direction (Musical): Michael Arden (Parade) Best Choreography: Susan Stroman (New York, New York) Best Book: Kimberly Akimbo Best Score: Kimberly Akimbo or Shucked

Honorable mentions: I will forever be rooting for Michael Arden to win Best Direction. He was robbed in 2016. I hope Natasha Katz (Some Like It Hot, Sweeney Todd) wins best Lighting Design because she did the Lighting Design for Sing Street and it was outstanding!!

Overall I don’t really think Kimberly Akimbo will sweep (as much as I love that musical lol) I don’t think any show will sweep this year. I have a feeling it’s gonna be evenly dispersed. Thanks for the ask!

[mask131]

Fantasy read-list: B-1.5

Next in our series of articles detailing fantasy works, is one from André-François Ruaud, covering Shakespeare, his work, and his work’s great influence over the fantasy genre. Given I already talked about Shakespeare’s work proper in my main post, here I will detail the list of work influenced by or shaped thanks to Shakespeare in the fantasy world.

# We will begin with one of the most straightforward and oldest Shakespeare retellings there are: Tales from Shakespeare, by the Lamb couple (Charles and Mary). This book was actually a retelling of Shakespeare’s plays, aimed at young children (for example it removed all sexual references, omitted many subplots, removed some plays deemed too historical for kids to understand), and a massive success, still in print today. Even though today’s kids find this book a bit hard to read… Because it was written in the beginning of the 19th century, and does an effort to keep as much of Shakespeare’s quite outdated language, in an effort of faithfulness.

# Rudyard Kipling’s Puck of Pook’s Hill. In this collection of short stories, Puck (from A Midsummer Night’s Dream) summons different characters from various parts of English history so they can tell their fantastical tales to two children…

# Caliban’s Hour, by Tad Williams. 20 years after the events of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”, Miranda is imprisoned by a vengeful Caliban who wishes to kill her… but not before she hears the story of his life, the reason of his wrath, the truth behind his curse, and his true relationships to the sorcerers Prospero and Sycorax, putting the events of “The Tempest” under a new light.

# Not a book, but a movie this time: Prospero’s Book by Peter Greenaway. An avant-garde and very stylistic retelling of Shakespeare’s The Tempest as a complex story where Prospero preparing his revenge and Shakespeare preparing his play become one and the same…

# Elizabeth Willey’s A Sorcerer and a Gentleman, a fantasy novel about various fictional countries being threatened by a possible open-war, resulting of the centuries-old conflict between Avril, “usurper emperor”, and his sorcerous brother, Prospero.

# Roger Zelazny’s major fantasy series, The Chronicles of Amber, heavily reference the plays of Shakespeare, borrowing names, places and sentences from the playwright’s work (Oberon, “To sleep, perchance to dream…”, the forest of Arden, “Ill-met by moonlight”, Osric, “Good night, sweet Prince”…). Ruaud also mentions in his article Zelzany’s work “A Night in the Lonesome October”, even though to my knowledge there is no actual overtly Shakespearian theme in it? (I guess it might be a mistake due to the French title having been translated as “A Mid-october night’s dream”.

# Ruaud doesn’t talk about Macbeth’s influence over Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings (despite it being very famous – the defeat of the Witch-King and the march of the Ents both being influenced by Shakespeare’s tragedy), but he mentions how Gollum can remind one of Caliban, while Prospero was a model for the “archetypal wizard” of which Gandalf and Saruman are two prominent examples. [Personal note: From what I gathered, despite Tolkien referencing Shakespeare, he did not like his works at all, in fact most of the time Tolkien referenced Shakespeare not out of an “homage” but to “correct” what he felt was poorly used - as with how the march of the Ents is meant for Tolkien to get over his disappointment at Macbeth’s not having actual trees walking).

# Ruaud also mentions among the example of “archetypal wizards” inherited from Prospero, Belgarath, the main sorcerer of The Belgariad by the Eddings couple. From the Belgariad universe, Ruaud points out that the character of Silk is actually part of a tradition in fantasy of the “clownish member of the hero’s party”, that can date back to Touchstone from As you like it. 

# Ruaud suggests that the character of Ariel from The Tempest was an inspiration for Neil Gaiman’s Islington in Neverwhere (I cannot check this, because I know barely anything about Neverwhere, though I do plan on reading it one day).

# Ruaud, of course, also mentions Terry Pratchett’s Wyrd Sisters, a fantastical and hilarious parody of Shakespeare’s Macbeth (and additional plays) inside the humoristic fantasy universe of the Discworld series. I will personally add another book, which is actually the second sequel to Wyrd Sisters (between it and this one, there is Witches Abroad, which is a fairytale parody) – Lords and Ladies, a darkly funny deconstruction of both Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Tolkien’s elves, inspired by traditional British fairy folklore (and which went on to influence the view of what people call “the true fae”).

# S.P. Somtow’s Riverrun Trilogy. I have to admit I forgot why Ruaud mentioned it among the Shakespearian influenced work – I didn’t take my notes when reading the article. But it is in the list, so…

# Ruaud claims that the archetype of the “fantasy inn”, actually comes from Shakespeare. The Prancing Pony from The Lord of the Rings, The Silver Eel from Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, Pratchett’s The Broken (then Mended) Drum from Discworld, the inn from Beagle’s The Innkeeper’s Song… According to Ruaud all those fantasy inns are inheriting from the inn in which most of Shakespeare’s Henry V takes place. Ruaud also mentions two authors that both deconstruct the “fantasy inn” archetype: Neil Gaiman, with the Sandman’s arc Worlds’s End (see below), and before him Poul Anderson with his Shakespeare-rewriting novel A Midsummer Tempest.

# While appearing on the list of the works deconstructing the “fantasy inn” archetype, Anderson’s A Midsummer Tempest deserves its own place in the list, being a fantasy novel where all of the events of Shakespeare’s play happened simultaneously, during the era of Cromwell and Charles I – A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest unfolding simultaneously between the English Civil War and the Industrial Revolution.

# Sarah A. Hoyt’s Ill-Met by Moonlight. A fantasy story retelling William Shakespeare’s life under the influence of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Young William Shakespeare discovers his wife and daughter were taken away by elves in their fairyland, and to get them back he will have to deal himself with the descendants of the legendary fairy rulers Oberon and Titania.

# Not a book, but a literary and highly praised comic that can be read as a book – the famous Sandman series by fantasy author Neil Gaiman. The comic was heavily influenced by Shakespeare’s plays, and actively references them several times. The issue “Men of Good Fortune” has the main character, the titular Sandman, lord of dreams, sleep and nightmares, meet a young William Shakespeare and make a deal with him to provide the playwright inspiration… This sets up the next Shakespearian issue, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, an homage, deconstruction, meta-retelling of Shakespeare’s play. And to conclude it all – “The Tempest”, the very last issue of the series, which invites the reader to take a second look at the final arcs of the story under the light of Shakespeare’s play.

# To conclude this long list, let’s have one French name around here. Fabrice Colin’s work, “Or not to be”. A Shakespeare-obsessed amnesiac young man is released from a mental institution after his mother forced him there due to a suicide attempt. Attempting to rediscover and puzzle back his past, he goes on a visit of England, tracking down William Shakespeare’s own life path, through a narration oscillating between pure imagination and schizophrenic madness… Until he stumbles upon a mysterious village he saw many times in his dreams and that does not appear on any map: Fayrwood, whose surroundings seem haunted by Pan himself…  

[rndyounghowze]

PHL-17 Once On This Island

Book and Lyrics by LYNN AHRENS

Music by STEPHEN FLAHERTY

Based Upon The Novel "My Love, My Love" by Rosa Guy

Directed by AMINA ROBINSON

Presented By: Arden Theatre

Colorism isn’t something that we talk about in white spaces very much. Yet Once On This Island, based on a book by Rosa Guy plops it right onstage. Two sides of an island in the French Antilles hate each other. Their politics, class, and religion are split on color lines. One is Black and the other is “mulatto” (blech! That word leaves a horrible taste in our mouth). When Te Moun leaves her home to follow her love with a boy from the other side we think we’re getting a typical love story. Yet this Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty show helmed by Amina Robinson isn’t your typical tragedy of star-crossed lovers. It’s about a community seeking healing.

Love Is A Seed

Rosa Guy’s books were considered radical back in the day for portraying poverty and race in clear-cut terms. When looking at a story like this it’s normal to get confused. This isn’t your traditional love story. Though an adaptation of the Hans Christian Anderson story this show is the reverse of The Little Mermaid you might remember. A teen girl makes a deal with the gods to get a boy to fall in love with her. Yet unlike the sappy Disney story, this Te Moun dies when her love isn’t returned. She doesn’t turn into sea foam but a tree. Yet this also isn’t a typical Romeo and Juliet-style tragedy either. The story is cut and dried with very few character moments...or so we think. It’s important to remember that the peasant villagers tell this story. The villagers play each of these characters and provide the set pieces and costumes from the stuff lying around the plaza. How they reveal this story gives us a hint about why they tell this story. Guy tells us that change does come, love does bloom, and communities can heal. She doesn’t give us the illusion that things change immediately and magically when we choose love. Love is a seed. It has to be nurtured if it’s meant to grow.

A Team That Brings The Story To Life

When we see Robinson’s name attached to a project we think “This is going to be good.” Robinson is a director with an almost invisible touch. Nothing screams “This is obviously a choice Amina would make” or “Amina really added to the story here.” The minute the lights come up you forget about her. You don’t see her invisible hands guiding the performers’ movements. This means Robinson creates a community of creatives who bring their craft to the story. Robinson brings a team together that brings the story to life onstage.That’s a strength and talent we’ve seen Robinson use time and again. She’s always made a lasting impression on us.

Amazing People Part 1 & 2

if you want to see performers who can dance beautifully and break your heart in song look no further. You will leave the theater feeling SHOOK! Each one of these performers was a star in their own right. They had to change hats and characters on a whim. It’s very telling of their talent. All of them could own the stage. They end up owning your heart by the end of the show.

Conversations, Flirtations, and Languages

Sinclair’s choreo was a perfect mixture of island vernacular dance and contemporary. Most importantly Sinclair created movement vignettes as if he was a fellow storyteller. The dancing wasn’t just a part of the spectacle it signified culture. The peasants on one side lived in the movements of their hips and torsos. The uppercrust stood straight and did a lot of gestures with their hands. Sinclair created conversations, flirtations, and languages in movement.

Amazing People Part 3

I know they’re a demon but this is our god now. They are the Afro Goth Icon of our dreams. Shout out to costume designer Levonne Lindsay for the epic outfit. Also, shout out to Jessica Johnson for bringing such an iconic character to life. Yes, we know Faison and Williams could sing but did they have to peel the paint off the walls?!? They could SAAANG! Also, shout out to Gina Giachero the music director!

How Theatre Can Help

If we seem at a loss for words this is one of the most moving and impactful musicals we have seen in a long time. Luckily for all of you, it is extended until June 23rd! More importantly, they are sharing charities you can support to aid Haiti during this time of unrest.

ardentheatre.org/HaitiSupport

[waywardangel-wilds]

Tag Game Tagged by @thesweetnessofspring

Thank you for the tag!

Favourite painter: I actually do have a few there's, of course, Van Gogh -- mostly because I watched many documentaries on his life, and he is depicted as someone truly kind. There's also John William Waterhouse for Circe, as well as all his maiden and knight paintings. Davinci for being unhinged. And, I am ashamed to add, Jean-leon Gerome because his paintings promoted orientalism, which is bad, of course, but I also very much love the colors and the way he painted veils and skin.

Favorite writer: oh, this is impossible because it changes constantly. Right now, I would say Katherine Arden, Suzanne Collins (obviously), Tyson Yunkaporta, and S.A. Chakraborty. Each one of these authors has written one or more books that I've truly loved.

Favourite band: Hm. I actually don't know. I used to listen to specific bands more often, but now I listen to music song-by-song. I think the artist that I listen to the most is Natalia Lafourcade and Los Macorinos. They're not technically a band, Natalia does a lot of solo work, but I love them together.

Favourite meal and drink: OHOHO, okay, this one is easy. I could crush my spicy chicken with potatoes and rice any day. I make it with those canned chipotle peppers and lots of sour cream its soooo good. My favorite drink would probably be either earl grey, matcha, or just mango-guava juice. Let's go for mango-guava 😋

oh! and if you wanna eat something else that's amazing try steak in jalapeño cream. OMG it's the best but it's only good if you go to Latin America and eat it there haha. I have my hands to cook it tho😆

Favourite outfit aesthetic: This one is an extremely specific answer. It's probably best described as seductive vampire meets office-inspired-but-not-appropriate meets early 2000's cooky love interest. Do you know what I mean?

Favourite singer: I can't say Natalia sooo other singers that I love are Mon Laferte and Shakira.

Favourite item I own: I really like my bike rn. It came in from the Netherlands even tho I bought it at a local shop that told me they just had to 'ship in' the one in the color I wanted from a nearby location. Turns out the nearby location was fucking Europe.

Favourite perfume: I have 2 perfumes that I actually wear but my fave is by Bvlgari and its au the blanc a.k.a. white tea.

Favourite possession: does this mean like valuable item? Hm... idk. I don't really own valuables. Oh! I have this miniature replica of a Bernini sculpture, the Rape of Prosepina. I got it off amazon if you can believe it! Someday I want to see it in person. Here's a picture:

tagging:@mollywog @triassictriserratops @tetheredfeathers @everdares @loungemermaid @endlessnightlock @thesmileykate @wistfulweaverwoman and everyone else who would like to join!!

[feathersontheclyde]

#FEATHERONTHECLYDE - A mutuals-only multi-muse nurtured by sunshine.

About me:

Sunshine, 30, she/her ( trans fem ), Taurus. I'm an absolute dingus who lives cringe and will die cringe. I love my muses and animation and stories so much.

Rules:

This blog is not a safe space for bigots so take it somewhere else.

Don't be a dick. Be patient. Any vague posts will be met with a block. I come here to write what I want when I want to.

No forced shipping.

Please tag any bodily harm graphics. I also have Trypophobia so anything with a bunch of holes makes me nauseous.

NSFW and triggering themes will be present and tagged. 21+ to follow because of that.

Lastly, keep me out of your drama and be kind to one another. This is a hobby, remember that.

Mains & Affiliates:

@soughtbirthright

@entangledmuses

@lcstinfantasy

@descendantes, @r4chelamber

@ner0tic

@dcmur3

Quick Links:

Credits

Rules

Locations: Click for more !!

Kildare Island

Muses:

ORIGINAL CHARACTERS

Celeste Winters - Witch, 22 FC: Kaylee Bryant

Sylvie Nightbloom - Seer, 15+ FC Maisie Williams 

Aspen Lightfoot - Elven princess, 21+ FC: Ruby Cruz

Elizabeth Murphy - Teacher, 20+ FC: Dakota Johnson

Alicia Piao - Psychology Student, 20+ FC: Natasha Liu Bordizzo

Tiabeanie Florence - Princess,15 FC: Georgie Henley

Allison Roe-Scott - Fashion designer, 18+ FC: Leighton Meester

Grace Scott - Student, 18 FC: Sara Waisglass 

Alwyn Oakdweller - Half-elf, 25+ FC: Henry Cavill

Dante Moore - Vampire, Forever 18 FC: Quincy Fouse

Astrid Green - Bar / Lounge Owner, 20+ FC: Zoey Deutch

Jacklyn “ Jack ” Esparza - Student, Soccer player, 18 FC: Ruby Cruz

Umi Okoye - Student, animator, 18 FC: Ayo Edebiri 

Sergio Garza - Cps worker, 30+ FC: Oscar Isaac 

Leslie Bishop - bodyguard, driver, 30+ FC: Jesse Williams

Aubree Fraser - Nurse Practitioner, 20+ FC: Jessica Henwick

Peyton Wong - Photographer, 19+ FC: Chase Sui Wonders

Greta Cohen - Event Planner, 18+ FC: Emilija Baranac 

Ryker Cameron - Kook, 20+ FC: Ryan Gosling

Jaden Reeves - Werewolf, 20+ FC: Josh Hutcherson

CALL OF DUTY

Kyle " Gaz " Garrick (25+) - FC: Elliot Knight

Simon " Ghost " Riley (25+) - FC: ???

EUPHORIA 

Fezco (19+) - FC: Rish Shah 

Jules Vaughn (18+) - FC: Hunter Schafer

Cassie Howard (18+) - FC: Sydney Sweeney 

Nate Jacobs (18+) - FC: Jacob Elordi

THE WALKING DEAD

Rick Grimes (30+) - FC: Andrew Lincoln

Carl Grimes (18+) - FC: Tanner Buchannon

Glenn Rhee (20+) - FC: Steven Yeun

Andrea Grimes (20+) - FC: Candice King

Rosita Espanoza (20+) - FC: Christian Serratos

THE WITCHER

Geralt of Rivia (30+) - FC: Henry Cavill

Jaskier (30+) - FC: Joey Batey

Tissaia (35+) - FC: MyAnna Buring

Cirilla of Cintra (14+) - FC: Freya Allen

THE SOCIETY

Becca Gelb (18+) - FC: Gideon Adion

Harry Bingham (18+) - FC: Alex Fitzalan

Cassandra Pressman (18+) - FC: Rachel Keller

Kelly Aldrich (18+) - FC: Krstene Froseth

Gareth Visser (18+) - FC: Jack Mulhern

Gordie Moreno (18+) - FC: Jose Julian

Clark Beecher (18+) - FC: Spencer House

GIRL MEETS WORLD

Lucas Friar (14+) - FC: Peyton Meyer 

Maya Hart (14+) - FC: Sabrina Carpenter

Topanga Mattews (30+) - FC: Rachel McAdams

Augie Matthews (14+) - FC: August Maturo

Isadora Smackle (14+) - FC: Cici Balagot

Farkle Minkus (14+) - FC: Corey Fogelmanis

STRANGER THINGS

Eddie Munson (18+) - FC: Joseph Quinn

Jane Hopper (14+) - FC: Millie Bobby Brown

Jim Hopper (18+) - FC: David Harbour 

Nancy Wheeler (18+) - FC: Natalia Dyer 

Max Mayfield (14+) - FC: Sadie Sink

Robin Buckley (18+) - FC: Maya Hawke

Carol Perkins (18+) - FC: Chelsea Talmadge

Will Byers (14+) - FC: Jack Dylan Grazer

Tommy Hagen (18) - FC: Chester Rushing

Steve Harrington (18) - FC: Joe Keery

TEEN WOLF

Derek Hale (30+) - FC: Tyler Hoechln

Stiles Stilinski (30+) - FC: Dylan O’brien

Liam Dunbar (30+) - FC: Dylan Sprayberry

Kira Yukimara  (30+) - FC: Arden Cho

Jackson Whittemore (30+) - FC: Colton Haynes

Mason Hewitt  (30+) - FC: Khylin Rhambo

ONE TREE HILL

Nathan Scott (18+) - FC: James Lafferty

Karen Roe (30+) - FC: Moira Kelly

Kieth Scott (30+) - FC: Craig Sheffer

Peyton Sawyer (18+) - FC: Hilarie Burton

HARRY POTTER

Luna Lovegood (18+) - FC: Evanna Lynch

Neville Longbottom (18+) - FC: Matthew Lewis

OUTER BANKS

Rafe Cameron (19+) - FC: Drew Starkey

Kiara Carrera (18+) - FC: Madison Bailey

JJ Maybank (18+) - FC: Rudy Pankow

John B Rutledge (18+) - FC: Chase Stokes

Ward Cameron (30+) - FC: Charles Esten

Wheezie Cameron (15) - FC: Julia Antonelli 

Topper Thornton (19+) - FC: Austin North

ANIMATED TV & MOVIES

Catra (18+) - FC: Lulu Antariksa

Ballister Boldheart (30+) - FC: Riz Ahmed

Vi (20+) - FC: Brianna Hildebrand

HEARTSTOPPER

Nick Nelson (18+) - FC: Kit Conner

Darcey Olson (18+) - FC: Kizzy Edgell

DISNEY MOVIES & TV

Evie Grimhilde (18+) - FC: Sofia Carson

Ben Florian (18+) - FC: Mitchell Hope

Queen Elsa (18+) - FC: Anya Taylor Joy

Honeymaren (18+) - FC: Devery Jacobs

Kristoff Bjorgman (18+) - FC: Lucas Till

Olaf (10) - FC: Asa Butterfield

Fawn (18+) - FC: Maia Mitchell

Flynn Rider (19+) - FC: Ben Barnes

Amity Blight (15+) - FC: Kiernan Shipka

Jack Frost (19+) - FC: Thomas Brodie-Sangster

Astrid Hofferson (19+) - FC: Britt Robertson

Miguel Rivera (10+) - FC: As Himself 

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES

Damon Salvatore (18+) - FC: Ian Somerhalder 

Klaus Mikaelson  (25+) - FC: Joseph Morgan

Bonnie Bennett  (18+) - FC: Kat Graham 

Vincent Griffith (30+) - FC: Yusuf Gatewood

Freya Mikaelson (25+) - FC: Riley Voelkel

LIFE IS STRANGE

Dana Ward  (18+) - FC: Lily Collins

Alex Chen  (18+) - FC: Brianne Tju

Chloe Price  (18+) - FC: Emma Mackey

Warren Graham (18+) - FC: Austin Abrams

Stella Hill (18+) - FC: Maitreya Ramakrishnan

Luke Parker (18+) - FC: Ross Butler

Kate Marsh (18+) - FC: Grace Van Dien

SCREAM MOVIES & TV 

Billy Loomis (18+) - FC: Skeet Ulrich

Mindy Meeks-Martin (18+) - FC: Jasmin Savoy Brown

Chad Meeks-Martin (18+) - FC: Mason Gooding

Noah Foster (18+) - FC: John Karna

Dewy Riley (23+) - FC: Dave Arquette

Tatum Riley (18+) - FC: Rose Mcgowan / Christina Hendricks

Wes Hicks (18+) - FC: Dylan Minnette 

THE LAST OF US

Joel Miller (30+) - FC: Pedro Pascal

Ellie Williams (18+) - FC: Bella Ramsey

Dina (18+) - FC: Cascina Caradonna

Tess Servopoulos (30+) - FC: Anna Torv

MARIO UNIVERSE 

Bowser (??) - FC: As himself 

Princess Peach (18+) - FC: Sydney Sweeney

Toad (??) - FC: Jack Dylan Glazer

RED DEAD REDEMPTION

Arthur Morgan (30+) - FC: Tom Hardy

Abigail Marston  (25+) - FC: Rebecca Hall 

TWILIGHT

Edward Cullen (18+) - FC: Robert Pattinson 

Charlie Swan (40+) - FC: Billy Burke

Jasper Hale  (100+) - FC: Jackson Rathbone 

MISCELLANEOUS ANIME

Saitama (18+) - FC: Adachi Yūto

Sakura Haruno (18+) - FC: Robert Pattinson

Naruto Uzumaki (18+) - FC: Suda Masaki

Houtarou Oreki (18+) - FC: Kubota Masataka

Haruhi Fujioka (18+) - FC: Watanabe Mayu

Tamaki Suoh (18+) - FC: Sato Ryuji 

Arisa Uotani (18+) - FC: Hirose Alice

Nana Osaki (18+) - FC: Rila Fukushima

Taiga Aisaka (18+) - FC: Natsuki Margaret Gibb

Yui Harasawa (18+) - FC: Ririka

FNAF

Vanessa Afton (18+) - FC: Elizabeth Lail 

Suzie / Chica  (9) - FC: Dakota Fanning

SUPERNATURAL 

Dean Winchester (30+) - FC: Jensen Ackles

Bobby Singer (50+) - FC: Jim Beaver

Meg Masters (1000+) - FC: Rachel Miner

MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE 

Frank Castle (30+) - FC: Jon Bernthal

Peter Parker (19+) - FC: Tom Holland

Tony Stark (30+) - FC: Robert Downey Jr

Vision (??) - FC: Paul Bettany

Bruce Banner (30+) - FC: Mark Ruffalo

Jessica Jones (30+) - FC: Krysten Ritter

DC CINEMATIC UNIVERSE

Bruce Wayne (30+) - FC: Robert Pattinson

Selina Kyle (30+) - FC: Cameron Bicondova & Monica Baccarin

Harley Quinn (30+) - FC: Samara Weaving

Arthur Fleck (30+) - FC: Barry Keoghan

Barbara Gordon (20+) - FC: Kat Mcnamara 

Dick Grayson (20+) - FC: Brenton Thwaites 

DUMPLIN’

Ellen “ El “ Dryver (18+) - FC: Odeya Rush

Bo Larson (19+) - FC: Luke Benward

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

🌈 Queer Books Coming Out in February 2024

🌈 Good afternoon, my bookish bats! Struggling to keep up with all the amazing queer books coming out this month? Here are a FEW of the stunning, diverse queer books you can add to your TBR before the year is over. Remember to #readqueerallyear! Happy reading!

❤️ We Ate the Dark by Mallory Pearson 🧡 The Paper Boys by D.P. Clarence 💛 Skater Boy by Anthony Nerada 💚 Your Shadow Half Remains by Sunny Moraine 💙 A Vicious Game by Melissa Blair 💜 Clarion Call by Cayla Fay ❤️ Relit: 16 Latinx Remixes of Classic Stories edited by Sandra Proudman 🧡 The Absinthe Underground by Jamie Pacton 💛 Truthfully, Yours by Caden Armstrong 💙 Outsider by Jade du Preez 💜 Cross My Candy Heart by A.C. Thomas 🌈 The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett

❤️ An Education in Malice by S. T. Gibson 🧡 The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles by Malka Ann Older 💛 Never a Bridesmaid by Spencer Greene 💚 The Rewind by Nicole Stiling 💙 Good Christian Girls by Elizabeth Bradshaw 💜 The Fox Maidens by Robin Ha ❤️ The Terrible by Tessa Crowley 🧡 Blood Rage by Ileandra Young 💛 Call of the Sea by Emily B. Rose 💙 Sign Me Up by C.H. Williams 💜 Ways and Means by Daniel Lefferts 🌈 Peaceful in the Dark by A.A. Fairview

❤️ We Are Only Ghosts by Jeffrey L. Richards 🧡 Dead Ringer by Robyn Nyx 💛 Somacultural Liberation by Dr. Roger Kuhn 💚 Stormbringer by Erinn Harper 💙 A Saga of Shields & Shadows by A.J. Shirley 💜 Ghost Town by R.E. Ward ❤️ I Heard Her Call My Name by Lucy Sante 🧡 The Night Alphabet by Joelle Taylor 💛 Remedial Magic by Melissa Marr 💙 Bloom by N.R. Walker 💜 Entwined by Alex Alberto 🌈 Queer Newark edited by Whitney Strub

❤️ Tristan by Jesse Roman 🧡 How to Live Free in a Dangerous World by Shayla Lawson 💛 Daniel, Deconstructed by James Ramos 💚 Of Socialites & Prizefights by Arden Powell 💙 Lost Harbor by Kimberly Cooper Griffin 💜 Hannah Tate, Beyond Repair by Laura Piper Lee ❤️ Bunt! Striking Out on Financial Aid by Ngozi Ukazu & Mad Rupert 🧡 How You Get the Girl by Anita Kelly 💛 Blackmailer’s Delight by David Lawrence 💙 Tile M for Murder by Felicia Carparelli 💜 Impulse Buy by Jae 🌈 Live for You, Die With You by Kalob Dàniel

❤️ Fairest of All by A.D. Ellis 🧡 Goddess of the Sea by Britney Jackson 💛 A Taste of Earth by Nico Silver 💚 The Moorings of Mackerel Sky by M.Z. Emily Zack 💙 How the Boogeyman Became a Poet by Tony Keith 💜 V is for Valentine by Thomas Grant Bruso ❤️ Crushed Ice by Ashlyn Kane & Morgan James 🧡 When Tomorrow Comes by D. Jackson Leigh 💛 Bugsy & Other Stories by Rafael Frumkin 💙 The White and Blue Between Us by Kiyuhiko 💜 Guide Us Home by CF Frizzell & Jesse J. Thoma 🌈 The Friendship Study by Ruby Barrett

❤️ Infinity Alchemist by Kacen Callender 🧡 Heart2Heart edited by Annabeth Albert 💛 No Time Like Now by Naz Kutub 💚 Bless the Blood by Walela Nehanda 💙 Vengeance Planning for Amateurs by Lee Winter 💜 Who We Are in Real Life by Victoria Koops ❤️ Prove It by Stephanie Hoyt 🧡 Mewing by Chloe Spencer 💛 Awakenings by Claudie Arseneault 💙 Born of Scourge by S. Jean 💜 Disciples of Chaos by M.K. Lobb 🌈 To Cage a God by Elizabeth May

❤️ Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K Reilly 🧡 What Feasts At Night by T. Kingfisher 💛 You Had Me at Merlot by Melissa Brayden 💚 Turning Point by Cathy Dunnell 💙 For the Stolen Fates by Gwendolyn Clare 💜 Season of Eclipse by Terry Wolverton ❤️ These Haunted Hills by Jana Denardo 🧡 Samson & Domingo by Gume Laurel III 💛 Lies that Bind by Rae Knowles & April Yates 💙 We Got the Beat by Jenna Miller 💜 The Diablo's Curse by Gabe Cole Novoa 🌈 Blessings by Chukwuebuka Ibeh

❤️ Out There by Iris Eliot 🧡 At Her Service by Amy Spalding 💛 Green Dot by Madeleine Gray

[uwmspeccoll]

Shakespeare Weekend

This week we continue our way through the thirty-seven volumes of The Comedies Histories & Tragedies of William Shakespeare, published by the Limited Editions Club (LEC) from 1939-1940. Volume 3, As You Like It, is one of Shakespeare’s comedies, probably produced around 1599, but not printed until the first folio of Shakespeare’s work in 1623. The illustrations for the LEC edition were made by the French artist and illustrator Sylvain Sauvage, who had received an award in an illustration competition put on by the club. His watercolors were said to be “pretty to look upon, they were full of a literary understanding of the text, and they were shot through with a satiric wit.” 

Sauvage felt a particular connection to As You Like It, because he was quite familiar with the real-world setting of the play, the Forest of Ardennes in France (called “Arden” by Shakespeare, that evokes the forest in Warwickshire). Of illustrating Shakespeare he says:

“I have endeavored to render the elegant and simple grace of these personages placed in the setting of a golden age vague and marvelous in a dream, and in which the folly of the wise is interwoven with the wisdom of the fool, and faithful couples meet and separate and meet again like dragon-flies dancing on a Summer evening.”

Though he is an expert engraver and lithographer, Sauvage was best known in America for his watercolors which have been reproduced here with some layers of lithography and many layers of stencil hand-coloring, known as pochoir, by atelier of Mourlot Fréres in Paris. 

The volume was printed in an edition of 1950 copies at the Press of A. Colish. Each of the LEC volumes of Shakespeare’s works are illustrated by a different artist, but the unifying factor is that all volumes were designed by famed book and type designer Bruce Rogers and edited by the British theatre professional and Shakespeare specialist Herbert Farjeon. Our copy is number 1113, the number for long-standing LEC member Austin Fredric Lutter of Waukesha, Wisconsin.

View more Limited Edition Club posts.

View more Shakespeare Weekend posts.

-Teddy, Special Collections Graduate Intern

[starlightcleric]

Tagged by @arendaes. Thank you!

Last Song: "Walkin’ Back to Georgia” – Jim Croce

Currently Watching: Nothing! I don’t watch tv. Or youtube. Or listen to podcasts.

Three Ships: From video games I have played this year:

* Deadfire: Calendula/Xoti

* Kingmaker: Adia/Tristian

* Baldur’s Gate 3: Brynhild/Shadowheart

Favorite Colour: purple and lime green

Currently Reading:

Currently in Progress:

* The Journey to the West, Volume 1 translated Anthony C. Yu

* The Stone of Farewell, Tad Williams

* The Infinite and the Divine, Robert Rath

Library books sitting here about to be started:

* The Poppy War, RF Kuang

* The Olympian Affair, Jim Butcher

* The Winter of the Witch, Katherine Arden

Currently Consuming: Nothing, but I had poke and bubble tea for lunch a few hours ago.

First Ship: I don’t know how to classify this, but the first ship I ever went looking for content for the ship specifically rather than just the general fandom was Beast Boy/Raven from Teen Titans.

Place of Birth: I believe in Internet privacy :)

Current Location: The couch.

Relationship Status: Married.

Last Movie: I think it was Across the Spider-Verse back in November.

Currently Working On: A drawing of my Starfinder ysoki, that I am procrastinating on finishing the hands on.

I'm rather delayed in getting to this, so open tagging for whoever feels like giving an update!

[blackbutlercharacterpoll2023]

Here are today's character polls! Characters are listed in order of perceived importance and alphabetically.

Lau

Ran-Mao

William T. Spears

Clayton

Polaris

Irene Diaz

Oliver

Patrick Phelps

Cedric K. Ros

Shiori Genpou

beggar boy that Soma gives a necklace to, mother, and baby brother

Japanese woman with a lunchbox

kenpo master

Red House dorm master

These character polls are ending tomorrow! Go and get your last votes in before they close!

Ronald Knox

Snake

Soma Asman Kadar

Edgar Redmond

Derrick Arden

Wilde

Akashi

Bloodbath Johnny

Chef Rickman

Margaret Turner

Susannah Connor

Aurora Society member

Claude's birds

Sebastian's silverware

[slightlystupidhun]

Dahlia Dynamite’s

Summary: a Baseball AU brought about by @belsw06 !! The renown baseball team, Dahlia Dynamites, find themselves in one of the toughest seasons of their lives. The team is almost all completely new and fresh. Can they pull of the World Series title?

CW:Suggestive, Cursing

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

It was the bottom of the ninth, Dahlia Dynamites we’re up by one point, however, the SunnyVale Vamps had two people on base and their Star batter, Quinn, up to bat. They had two outs and Quinn had accumulated one strike already.

The air that night was cool, chilly, but the energy radiating from the crowd was enough to keep any human warm for a lifetime. The stadium lights were blinding and the announcers speakers were blaring. David Shaw, Dahlias pitcher, walked up to the batters mound. He rotated his shoulders and stretched out his neck. He placed himself firmly into the dirt and prepared to pitch.

Milo Greer, the catcher, prepared himself to receive any pitch David could throw to him. Asher, on first base, looked over to Cristian the short stop, both of them ready to receive. Arden prepared herself on third, and looked over to Miguel and Tank in the outfield.

Tank did quick small jumps from side to side, ready to run in any direction the ball may go. They crouched down as they watched David wind up for the pitch. He threw a fast ball, one that would be difficult for any batter to hit. The audience watched with bated breath as a loud hit could be heard. Quinn’s bat connected with the ball and it went soaring. Tank had a perfect view. This was it. The entire season, their entire career, lead up to this moment. They ran after the ball, their eyes tracking it. They might not make it. They saw the wall at the end of the field rapidly approaching, but they had to catch it. They reached their gloved hand into the air and jumped up. Lights shining into their eyes. This was it.

—————

*8 months earlier*

All of the players made their way out to the field. The team had been hand selected by a world renown coach William Solaire. He wanted to reinstate Dahlias team and take home a World Series championship. The team was close to perfect. They were hungry and young and fresh. He had some of the top players fresh from college all across California. The team had been practicing together for about two months now, but there was someone missing. Someone that their team manager, nicknamed Stealth, was about to bring in.

“Everyone gather around.” William clapped as he blew his whistle. The team all fell in, giving him their undivided attention. Just then Stealth walked over with the new player. “You all know that since Miguel got hurt, we’ve been missing a strong secure outfielder. This is why I’ve decided to bring in an exemplary player. Team, please Welcome Tanker.”

“Woah!!” A man spoke up from the crowd. He had a thick accent, and a cocky attitude. It was The shortstop, Cristian. “Aren’t they the one that was recruited to the SunnyVale Vamps? What are they doing here?”

“They, Cristian, are your new outfielder. They’re a hell of a player, and are going to be a great asset to the team.” William spoke up, fixing the hat on his head.

“Did they get kicked off their other team already?” Cristian spoke up. “I heard they had an affair with the star batter Quinn. What did they break up?”

“Cristian go run laps. Now.” William spoke up.

“No. We didn’t break up.” The new player spoke up for the first time. “I kicked his ass and he’s a sore loser. Now if you don’t mind, I’d like it if you’d mind your own business.”

The new outfielder shared a look with the pitcher, David Shaw. The pair had known each other from school, and they had been extremely close as kids, that was until one day Tank up and left with no word. “Alright let’s get back to practice.” Coach William sounded, breaking the tension between Tank and David.

Everyone headed off, getting in their positions for a scrimmage. The first batter up was Vincent. He was a stellar player and Williams first pick for his team, not to mention the new ones of William himself. David wound up preparing himself to launch a curveball at the batter. The ball sped up and dipped but Vincent was able to hit it just passed second base. Cristian picked up the ball and threw it over to Arden on first, Vincent arriving just before the ball.

Next in line to bat was Frederick. He was fresh and excited. He had the whole dewey eyes new guy thing going for him. David threw the ball right into Milo’s glove, Frederick earning one strike. After two more they had their first out. Next up was a batter from out of state that had been nicknamed ‘Lovely’. They stepped up, peering at David through their grey helmet. He threw the ball hard and swift, it dipped down towards the bass but lovely was able to swing just in time to hit it.

It soared and looked like it was heading over to a home run. Tank tracked the ball in the air, picking up speed and slowly putting their glove in the air. They noticed the border coming closer to them and saw the ball finally dipping down. The ball would hit the ground before they could catch it if they stayed at this level. Tank sped up and jumped against the wall and up into the air. The ball fell perfectly into their glove as they fell to the ground. They’d caught it. They jumped back up and threw the ball over to Cristian, giving him a sly grin. David scoffed and rolled his eyes.

————

*1 Month after that*

Tank had just gone through a rough practice. It wasn’t like they had played horribly. They hardly ever did that. It was just the team hadn’t been getting any better. They were still being put through the ringer, getting a shit ton of slack from everyone. It didn’t help that David, the only person they really knew, would hardly talk to them.

Currently, they were on their way to the med bay. They were tossing a ball back and forth with Milo. They were closest with him thus far, when someone threw a ball fast and hard. They reached out catching it with their ungloved hand. It wasn’t broken but it hurt like a bitch.

They pressed on through the tiled hallways finally reaching the room with the big Red Cross on the door. When they entered they came face to face with a rather handsome man. He had dirty blonde hair, glasses, and his face was littered with freckles.

“Hello there, how can I help you?” He spoke, a thick southern drawl to his voice, as he spun around on his chair to fully face them.

“I uh, my, uhm, my hand it, the ball, I caught it. Without a glove so my hand is just kinda sore. It’s not a big deal. William just wants you to clear it so I can…” they trailed off as he came closer and led them to the chair besides his desk.

“Can I touch?” He asked scanning their features.

“Yes.”

“Ok Thank you.” He looked over at them and gently held their wrist. He slowly extended their fingers, removing it from the previous fist position it was in. “I’m sorry I’m trying not to hurt you. I see some slight contusions forming, does it feel especially sore when I move your hand like this?” He spoke.

“Not any more sore than it was before. Am I ready to get out of here?”

“Not so fast I see a bit of swelling.” They rolled their eyes. “Am I on your bad side already?”

“No. I’m fine. Just gotta get back to practice…” they said sighing and leaning back.

“Well before you speed off, I’m gonna need an X-ray just to make sure that nothin is sprained or broken.” He said helping them up and moving them over to the x ray machine. After the scan came out he gave it a second to set.

“You know I’m fine. It’s not that bad.” They said with sarcastic tone.

“How long did ya wait before comin in?” He looked at them with a smirk.

“Ooh getting personal now are we?” They rolled their eyes.

“Just enough to let me know how reckless you are. Now how long did ya wait?” He asked a slight chuckle in his voice.

“…. About half an hour, or whenever William noticed I guess.” They shrugged.

“Well you’re fortunate you didn’t get any breaks then. Next time try not to wait so long before gettin help.” He said walking over and writing something down on a paper.

“Who said there’d be a next time.” They asked raising a brow.

“If you’ll wait this long after getting hurt this time, and your pain tolerance is this high. I’m gonna make an assumption that this ain’t your first time.” He paused. “And I’m gonna venture to say it ain’t gonna be your last.” He reached out handing them the paper. “Hand this to your coach. Im not letting you practice today. Oh and You shouldn’t drive home. Give your hand a rest if you don’t want it gettin worse. I’m gonna give You a brace to wear for about four days. Then come back and check with me. You should be good for the next practice as long as you wear this brace.” He looked up at them handing them the fabric. When they grabbed it he didn’t let go. “And I will be checkin in with your coach to make sure you followed the rules.” He smiled at them. They thought he had a handsome smile.

Tank nodded and began walking out but when they reached the door they stopped and turned to look at him, a defiant look in their eyes. “See ya Later, Cowboy.” They’d said mocking his accent, and they walked away.

David was in the box, practice had just finished and he was grabbing his bag when he got a phone call. He saw the contact name and answered immediately.

“Angel, how are you? How was work?” He asked his tone immediately softer than it had been before.

“I’m good Davey. And work was good. I mean the company has got me all tied up with new victim- I mean clients, but it’s good. And how was practice? Have you talked to Tank yet?” The happier voice rang out across the line.

“Practice was practice,” he sighed, “and no. I haven’t.”

“You should.” They advised and David could hear the frown in their tone.

“I will. I will. I just need the right time. Or the opportunity at all.” David paused as he saw Tank step out onto the field and chat with Coach William. They had caught a pretty hard throw and he would be lying if he said he wasn’t worried.

“Davey?” They said now sounding concern.

“Yeah I’m here. It’s just hard. I mean they used to be what was effectively my only sibling figure. I don’t know how to ‘talk’ about that.” He said obviously growing frustrated at his own cowardice.

“DAVID!” Coach William called out to him, Tank had a look of panic and frustration in their eyes. David sighed.

“Coach is calling me. I’ll talk to you later Angel.”

“Bye Bye Davey, Love you~” They sung out as he hung up. He quickly walked over to the pair.

“David, Tank here can’t drive themself home. They need to rest their hand.” William stated firmly, his gaze shooting over to tank then back to David. “Can you please drive them home?”

Tank shifted their weight awkwardly. They fiddled with the straps of their bag and kept their blazing gaze locked on the floor.

“Yeah. I’ll drive em.” He spoke, their gaze met his, apparently they expected him to say no.

“Thank you.” William spoke walking off the field.

The two walked to David’s vehicle in silence, throwing their stuff in the trunk. David opened the passenger door and shut it when they got in. He jumped in the drivers seat and quickly started the truck. They pulled away and began the drive, Tank put their address in his phone so that they didn’t have to tell him directions. David tapped his steering wheel. 20 minutes until his opportunity was gone and he reached Tanks house. He took a deep breath.

“Tank. I hate small talk. You know that. So I’m just gonna be upfront. What happened?” He glanced at Tank and saw their jaw tighten.

“Nothing.” They spoke plainly.

“Nothing? You just left because of nothing?” He pushed, testing the waters.

“Yes.”

“I’m not stupid.” He glared at them.

“Fine David. You wanna know what happened I’ll tell you. My parents decided to move, I thought I was part of their moving plans. It was sudden, one day they said, ‘we’re leaving.’ I asked if I could say goodbye first and they told me they were leaving now. I didn’t have time to think. I threw a few things in a bag and hopped in the car. When we got to some stupid mall in Washington they’d told me to get out that they needed to do something and they’d come back to pick me up. I went into the mall and they never came back. I waited and waited. And they never came. That’s when Quinn showed up. He helped me out and got me back on my feet. We were both street rats.” They paused to take a long deep breath tears prickling at their eyes. “I had my phone but no where to charge it. So I worked a lot of shitty jobs to get up and out so Quinn and I could go to college. He was about three years older than me, so he needed to go before I did. Then when we’d both made it and got to the college league, we worked out asses off. I! Worked. My. Ass. Off. Quinn and I got picked to the same team back in Sunnyvale, then I found him hooking up with some whore in our shared apartment. Needless to say, I quit the team, and William picked me up. I didn’t text you. Call you. Reach out to you, because I couldn’t.” They were practically yelling at this point, a few stray tears betraying how they truly felt.

“Tank… I… We…. I’m so… so sorry.” David said gritting his teeth. Five minutes before they reached Tanks house. “I should’ve done more. I shouldn’t have just assumed. And you just let me say all those shit things to you… just because I was hurt… I should never have taken that out on you. I’m truly. Truly sorry.”

Tank shrugged, sniffling a little bit. “It’s fine. I was pissed too. I guess I saw you as my sibling or something. I guess I just… I kinda projected on you. I mean, you had a nice family and great friends… I kinda hated you for that… I’m sorry too.”

“It’s not gonna be the same. But I’d like to be there for you. To be… to be friends again.” David looked at them as he pulled into the parking lot.

“I’m down to try.” They nodded and patted his shoulder as they jumped out of the truck and grabbed their bag from the trunk. They walked back over to the door and stuck their head through the open window. “Have fun with your partner. And congrats on the wedding.” They waved him off and smiled. He returned the favor and drove back home.

When David arrived home he felt better than he had in the past two months. He walked through the door, setting his bag down and hanging up his jacket and keys. He was quickly greeted by arms wrapping around his waist.

“Hey Davey.” They looked up at him and smiled.

“Hello Angel.” He grinned at them and kissed the top of their head.

“So you spoke to them?” They we’re always able to read him like a book. They ran their arms up and down his biceps.

“Yes. I did.”

“And?”

“And I think we’re gonna be ok.” He said softly, genuinely.

“I’m glad.” They grabbed his hand leading him to the kitchen. “Wanna eat?”

“You cooked?” He looked at them suspiciously.

“Yup!” They beamed up at him. “I made the pasta you taught me how to make!!”

“Thanks Angel. I appreciate it.” He hugged them.

“Anything for my catch of a Husband. So hot and caring, and strong.” They pulled away from him, allowing him the opportunity to make a plate. “My,” they looked at him with innocent eyes, but he could see the mischievous glint behind them. “What big arms you have.” They recited their own version of little red riding hood.

“All the better….” He stepped forward to them. “To make my plate with.” He smirked as their grin faltered and he made his plate.

[chicinsilk]

US Vogue April 15, 1955

Mrs. Catherine McManus, a young fashion editor of Vogue (wife of Mr. William McManus), wears a travel ensemble: a pleated jacket over a caraco dress, both in fluid beige wool jersey and anti-crease. By Claire McCardell. Organdy scarf by Echo. Note: the lipstick that shines here is the color "Pink Perfection" by Elizabeth Arden.

Mme Catherine McManus une jeune rédactrice mode de Vogue (épouse de Mr William McManus), porte un ensemble de voyage : une veste sur plis sur une robe caraco, à la fois en jersey de laine beige fluide et anti-froissage. Par Claire McCardell. Foulard en organdi par Echo. A noter : le rouge à lèvres qui brille ici est la couleur "Pink Perfection" d'Elizabeth Arden.

Photo Leombruno-Bodi vogue archive