#watford vs

[permertesacker]

[ionlydrinkhotwater]

Fire Vs Flower a snowbaz comic is finally completed

Sorry for the super stylized fighting, I'm kind of bad at them

[leennaan]

Lia Wälti everyone

[killa-trav]

see thing is yeh it's been a shit season u can't gamble european football on winning fa cup n he's had all the signs for sacking all season especially when u look at the injuries n the amount that's come from him n his style of play/training sessions

BUT it being announced the day before fa cup final? yeh we are losing n losing bad tomo

[daydreaminroro]

RUBES 🫶🏻

[england-nt]

CONOR TOWNSEND NEVER LETS US DOWN

[canirove]

Chelsea Vs. Watford | post-match interview | 22.05.2022

[sailorblossoms-snowbaz]

Said this before but there's something about Baz not really feeling close to anyone, feeling completely disconnected from his surroundings ("because he's dead and he can't connect with the living, they all have something he doesn't have" he says, talking about vampirism, but it's also how good ol' depression can be like) while Simon is obsessed with being close to him, specifically. All that following him around everywhere, keeping tabs on him, growing restless if Baz isn't around or if he doesn't know what Baz is doing – already telling us he's concerned about Baz's safety and wellbeing – wanting to be on Baz's mind as much as Baz is in his own, wanting to be part of Baz's hobbies. Wanting to be the person who knows him best, and fighting for that whenever he feels he has competition for Baz's heart.

I'm equally thrilled and haunted by “as soon as Baz is unhappy, I can’t think of anything else,” which Simon shares in awtwb alongside something like "I want to make it better. The mere idea is very thrilling to me." I don't doubt Simon would've been obsessed with Baz regardless because it’s Baz, but this stands out in hindsight, because Baz was in a constant state of sadness... And Simon thought about him all the time. Again, he was obsessed either way... but Baz’s sadness must have driven him crazy (it’s another thing where they match, as Simon carries profound sadness too) (Watford and being a hero brings happiness for Simon, but he’s desperately holding on to roles and expectations that do make him miserable. Heteronormativity fucks him up.)

Can't help but wonder about Simon's "Baz has only 3 expressions and they're all variations of disgust towards me" ... because we know he's bullshitting. At this point, he has been "observing Baz's soul" (which he uses as an argument as Baz "being alive" later in CO) meaning that he knows very well Baz has much more depth. That he feels much more deeply. He has seen it in the catacombs. He has heard it in his music, he has seen it in the ways he plays, in the passion with which he studies, etc etc. It must’ve been one of his greatest desires, inaccessible and impossible to decode to the Simon he was back then, for the alluring, competent little jerk he was rooming with to look at him with anything other than a practiced mask of "disdain." For him to let Simon in (Simon not listening to Baz basically confessing he's a vampire because Baz is pushing him away vs being all ears when he's letting him in) instead of having Simon follow him everywhere (when Simon thinks he's enchanted by him and would follow him anywhere in WS, it hits, because he has been that all along, hasn't he.) For him to not be so pained all the time (Simon notes, when Baz plays his violin after they have sex, that he didn't even know it could make happy sounds, that it always sounded sad in Watford).

Where Baz feels cold and disconnected, Simon yearns to connect with him (to keep him warm. It's a whole thing, Simon noticing his literal coldness and using his own body to warm him up, with hands, with lips) Awtwb brings up lots of desires, including those that have been buried for a long time. And one of those is the following: Simon wants Baz to be happy. And he wants to be the one making him happy.

[double-fake-royalty]

1.14.24 Arsenal vs Watford - Alessia Russo after her opening goal

[moefling]

Thoughts after reading Carry On. I will be rereading Wayward Son next (and AWTWB after). I'm making this list after finishing the book so some of these thoughts were in my head the entire reread and some are from annotations on my Kindle was I went. (Also this is my second read the first time I read it on audiobook)

I forgot that Simon was defiantly a troublemaker and pretty ruff and tumble even before he found out about The World of Mages

F*CK THE MAGE, but also he does have a good point about allowing other creatures and low power mages into Watford

Miss Possibelf is "not exactly human" (page 95)

Lucy was defiantly in an abusive relationship and she was still defending Davy after death. i also don't really think Davy loved her :/ at least not like she wanted

i don't think that Simon every really thought he had a future. like he kinda figured between the Humdrum and the old families we wouldn't live to have a future and before the World of Mages he was a kid in care who was always getting into trouble

its pretty sad that the Kids where very aware they were gonna have to fight to the death and they really didn't want it and none of the Adults were willing to comment on it (i think Matali makes a quick comment later in ATWB)

Simons wand didn't not work because it wasn't blood related to him

Fiona had a normal job lined up before Natasha died (pg 173)

i have a half baked idea that the reason Simon can share his magic with Baz is because he is a Vampire, like the Humdrum can "give" magic to creatures so Simon can too

i was figuring out the age gap between the two adult groups (Lucy vs Ebb) and had it narrowed down to basically the same age when Martin straight up said he was a few years older than them...

Lucy was in the cottage with Davy for around 2 years ish before she got pregnant

"It was just flirting, it's not like I tried to feed her to a chimera." (page 277)

Baz sucks his fangs when he's thinking (page 330)

"I can't believe you're asking me this, Snow. You, who can't walk away from half a sandwich." (page 429)

"I can't believe there's a part of your body that grows when you need it." (page 391) i'm pretty sure this was supposed to sound spicy but i laughed either way

when Baz tells Simon to run after the Humdrum comes to the Pitch estate i think i cried, reading it the second time i know Baz isn't really blaming Simon but i remember the first time i read it i though Baz really though Simon did it

"Maybe it's not a spell, Maybe he transformed" (pg 426) i think that this is saying more than we give it credit for - another half baked idea that Simon is like half imp/ demon/ elemental (i think we all like the dragon idea but i'm realizing CO really wonders about the tail and how it isn't a dragon tail)

when Simon kills the mage previously i though it was because the mage couldn't stop physically hurting Simon but i think it probably had more to do with the emotional damage (i'm sure some of it was physical but...)

when reading fanfic i also realized that CO doesn't actually say Lucy's brothers name (Jamie) or most of Baz's siblings names

[valeffelees]

i didn't think i was going to make a post today, i've been under the weather for a while now 🌧️ and haven't really been making any substantial progress on anything as a result. i've been drawing, mostly. and no shit, i don't think i've spent this much time on my tablet since i was... fuck, sixteen? wild times.

but i dunno, i guess i just missed hanging out and wanted to share a bit of a WIP i talked about very briefly once before in a SSS (🐍) post, an alterous Dev/Niall (and pre-slash Simon/Baz) fanfic with the working title Niall vs the Amatonormative Agenda. i really like this fanfic. it started out as a runaway document where i could shove words when they didn't have anywhere else to go, and slowly turned into a canon compliant coming of age character study that follows Niall's POV exclusively from the Crucible ceremony to the Leavers ball. it's focused entirely on his life, his complicated relationship with Dev, and his friendship with Baz. i dunno if i'll ever post it in its entirety, but it is very near and dear to my heart these days.

[...] with thick, black hair combed around a sharp widow’s peak and droopy, down-turned eyes like a coonhound. He’s panting hard, his whole body heaving as he slumps down into the grass and tries to catch his breath, pressing his shoulders back against one of the beams supporting the underside of the stands. An ivory wand with a leather handle still too-big for his growing hands is clutched in his left fist. “Um,” Niall says. “Shut up!” The boy bares his teeth at him, scowling viciously. “Shut up or I’ll make you shut up, I’ll spell your tongue off!” “Baz!” Niall twists around and peeks through the gaps beneath the benches. Simon Snow is storming across the football pitch, flushed crimson and ripping at the fluffy inch of hair that peeks out below the brim of his boater, sparking along his forearms like a loose wire and steaming with so much magic that Niall starts all but going cross-eyed from it, he can feel it in his throat, acrid and sticky. He cups his palm over his mouth. “Baz!” Simon Snow shouts again, whipping around, his eyes cutting across the Wavering Wood’s gloomy treeline. Ceridwen, he looks like he’s gone mental. (And kind of like he’s about to cry.) “Give it back!” He spins, searching. He doesn’t find them. A noise like the growl of a small, rabid animal pinches from his narrow chest, and then he’s off. Sprinting in the direction of the drawbridge. Niall turns back around. “Baz Pitch?” “Grimm-Pitch,” Baz replies tersely. “You’re Dev’s cousin.” He blinks. “That’s correct.” “I’m their roommate.” Baz looks barely old enough to be at Watford, honestly. He still has one of those squished up little kid faces. His cheeks are puffy and round, his brow is shallow, his chin is short and flat. But he has a tall, straight nose like an adult, so he’s probably going to have a growth spurt sooner rather than later. Drop a layer of baby fat, shoot an inch and a half taller overnight. That’s how it went for Niall, at least. But then again, he’s older than he should be for a first year, he’ll turn thirteen in January before the end of Christmas break. “What have you done to the Chosen One now?” Niall asks, shifting to uncross his legs and stretch them out, moving his Magic Words textbook to lay open on his thighs. Baz settles down next to him, drawing his skinny knees up right to his shoulders with his arms tucked into the space between, flipping his wand back and forth from one hand to the other. His expression is blank—the kind of calculated, intentional blank that children shouldn’t know how to do—but his gaze is keen, almost feral. “Nothing he doesn’t deserve.” “You’re creepy.” “Are you going to tattle on me?” “No,” he says, after what is probably too short a moment of consideration, “I don’t really care. I just want to finish my homework.” “Well, good.” Baz purses his lips, looking Niall up and down with a single quick, deliberate flick of his eyes. (Grey, like a clean riverbank.) “Otherwise I would’ve had to spell you Six ways to Sunday.” “You couldn’t.” “Could too.” “Could not.” “I’m a Pitch.” “You’re eleven.”

thank you very kindly for tagging me today @larkral, @blackberrysummerblog, and @rimeswithpurple, and thank you to everyone who has continued to tag me these last few Sundays and Wednesdays, too. i really do love seeing what y'all are working on. 🙂💕

i hope everyone has a good rest of their week.

remember to drink water, take your vitamins, and rest when you need to. ☀️

Tag, you're it! 🪄 @raenestee @hushed-chorus @thewholelemon @artsyunderstudy @captain-aralias @you-remind-me-of-the-babe @imagineacoolusername @ivelovedhimthroughworse @facewithoutheart @cutestkilla

[aristocratic-otter]

Top 10 vs. Personal Top 10

Thank you for the tags, @you-remind-me-of-the-babe and @facewithoutheart. This is bound to be fun and difficult. How do you choose between your children? Well, I'm going to try.

AO3's Top Ten

Oh, Have You Seen The Fairies Dance

Back To Start

Playing With Fire, Treading Thin Ice

A Fucked-Up Cinderella Story

A Real Doll

A Tale of Two Tails

Careful What You Wish For

The Watford Games

Gates of Ivory and Horn

More Than This

Some of these are high scored because they're older, and some because they were just popular in comparison. There's a lot of overlap between this list and my favorites, but there are some differences.

One thing I notice is that the fics that were 'gift fics' where they were written to a specific prompt, or Carry on Reverse Bang fics, written to art that was made before the fic, didn't make my top ten, probably because it feels like the creativity that built them wasn't wholly mine. I still love those fics, but just not quite as much.

Also, other than Raising Dragons, I didn't include WIPs, though they may become favorites when they are done. I'm especially fond of Saving Simon Snow, my forced marriage fic, which I think is getting close to finished. I'll probably start posting that one by April!

And the experience of writing was a huge factor in my choices below. Getting to collaborate with lovely people, or finding myself as a writer features in all or most of my favorites.

Here is my list of faves:

A Fucked-Up Cinderella Story. Ok, the butt plug joke is my favorite joke of anything I've written, Ok? Not to mention, this is the Erotic Gropefest collaboration where I first met and worked with my dear friend Fristi and learned what a joy it is to collaborate with a brilliant artist.

Back To Start: I've called this fic my baby, and it is. It's the first fic I wrote where I really felt like a competent writer, and you don't forget that feeling. I used a whole lot of my life experience in writing Baz as a baby and child too, so it's especially dear to me.

Careful What You Wish For: This was my second collaboration, and @ivelovedhimthroughworse Apricot is the sweetest, most supportive partner anyone could ask for. And this fic is my favorite type to read: angsty, science-y, plot heavy with loving smut.

The Watford Games: This was the first plot driven fic I ever wrote, and I'm proud of what I accomplished with it. And it's also another type of fic I love to read: AUs that put Simon and Baz in place of well-known characters.

The Blue and The Gray: Written for COTTA, this fic didn't make the AO3 top ten, and I think that's because the American Civil War is probably of lesser interest to non-Americans. But I love it, and I think it was the first fic that made me feel like a writer. You don't forget that.

Raising Dragons: Even though this is unfinished, I've had so much fun writing pregnancy and childhood shenanigans in the SnowBaz universe. Not to mention getting to work with Fristi again!

A Real Doll was from the Monster Under the Bed fest, my first non-COTTA fest. This is the first smut fic I ever wrote solely for the purpose of smut, and I think it turned out pretty decent! (Also was the first fic that got a comment from Aralias, which meant a lot to me).

New Year, New Me: This one again didn't make the AO3 top ten, most likely because of the mpreg tag. But it is the exception to the 'gift fic curse', because again, I got to put so much of myself into it. The song @moodandmist and @cutestkilla wrote for it helps elevate this one for me too!

Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun: I'll be honest here. I'll read PWP for the usual reasons, but it's always been one of my least favorite categories. I like plot in my fics. But this idea of Baz and Simon having a foursome with their own clones came to me and wouldn't let me go. And the fact that I got to work with Ashton, @artsyunderstudy? That is absolutely the reason this makes my top ten.

The White Chapel: This one is very new and will likely score higher as I get some distance from it. But as an adaptation of my all time favorite movie, Xanadu, it was a pleasure to write from start to finish (and it's also an exception from the gift fic curse, I'm now realizing--but it wasn't written to a prompt and I think that makes the difference).

Probably everyone has done this, so I tag all the folks mentioned above, plus a few others, just in case. @carryonsimoncarryonbaz, @annabellelux, @krisrix, @nightimedreamersghost, @otherworldsivelivedin, @prettylightsbigcity, and @whatevertheweather, I'd love to know what your top tens are!

[school-of-all-time]

Round 1, Bracket 1

[leennaan]

Ruuussssoooo

[theuniversitychallengereview]

Ep 5 - Cranfield vs Royal Holloway

Right, gang - I got distracted watching skits about contact tracing on Twitter so I now only have thirteen minutes to write this intro rather than the thirty I had initially planned for (its remarkably easy to fall down a ‘skits about contact tracing’ rabbit hole, and it's a surprisingly deep rabbit hole), but we’re going to give this a go anyway...

Something football fans will idly do if there aren’t any matches on, or if the only match thats on is something like Burnley vs Watford (mid-October, not mid-March in the depths of a relegation battle), is idly speculate about what the ideal lineup of Premier League teams would be. Unlike American sports in which there is no promotion and relegation, the football pyramid is a constantly shifting chimaera, meaning that you can never have all of the most “noble and historic” teams in the top division at the same time.

Indeed, they did try and engineer a version of this for teams across the European continent in the form of the European Super League, but this was shouted down for being one of the most soulless and corporate ideas ever to come out of soulless and corporate modern sport. But it's something fun to think about, anyway.

I actually have a list of 22 teams for my dream Premier League on my phone, dated 5th January 2019 (just so you know I’m walking the walk as well as talking the talk here). I’d share, but the controversy would likely be too much for me (and you) to handle. The thought processes behind this decision making are very abstract and unknowable, but essentially, in most people’s cases, it probably boils down to two things: one - who used to be really good, ages ago?; and two - who was sort of okay when you were between the ages of five and thirteen. This is why my particular list contains Nottingham Forest and Portsmouth, despite neither of them having been in the top division (until Forest’s ascent this year) for quite a while.

You may also have noticed that my league has 22 participants, while the actual league only has 20. This is because of a third aspect of the decision making process - the idea of the golden age. Despite the fact that I was never alive when the Premier League had 22 teams, it feels to me like football must have been better, and more pure when it did.

Nothing can be as good now as it used to be.

This is a truism in more than just football. When we look at the past, we look at it with rose-tinted glasses.

I imagine you’re wondering what the heck this all has to do with University Challenge, and you’d have good reason to. Your wondering will likely not be abated by my explanation either, because the observation it is based on is far from universal.

When choosing my ideal 28 team lineup for University Challenge, I’d have all of the major players - your Yorks, and your Edinburghs, your Durhams and Warwicks and Imperials and St Andrewses. A sprinkling of the most successful Oxford and Cambridge Colleges, Trinity, Magdalene, Corpus Christi… The Open University. I’d also have one of tonight’s teams, despite them only having appeared four times in the Paxman Era.

However, in one of those four appearances, Cranfield made the final, so in the hours I have spent on the University Challenge Wikipedia page over the years, scrolling through the list of past finals, they must have seeped into my head as an absolutely classic UC team. They’ve not been on the show since they were beaten in the Grand Final by Birkbeck in 2003, but I’ve absorbed that name over the course of countless repeat visits to that one webpage, to the extent that I had written all of that stuff about the Premier League without even checking their overall record. Still, they make my roster regardless.

Unfortunately, Royal Holloway, with their pair of second round appearances, do not. But that’s quite enough nostalgia for one intro, lets get on with the show (this has taken me twenty one minutes, so I’m going to be watching on a delay, but that ain’t half bad for seven hundred words I don’t think)

The first starter goes to Brown of Royal Holloway, winning the race to Renee Zellwegger. They pass on a very guessable bonus- as in they should have at least given a guess, not necessarily that they would have got it right - which is not the most promising of signs, but they get the third at least. Brown then takes another starter, and they took two bonuses on the Copley medal.

Suri gets Cranfield off the mark with pop art, and they get two bonuses on the letter X, before Keenan takes the first picture round to bring them within five points. Two bonuses on proposed new states reversed the deficit.

Harvey gets a starter for Holloway, and I was about to chastise them for saying snapping turtle instead of snapper turtle on a bonus, and chastise Paxman for allowing the answer, but a quick Google has revealed that it was I who was in the wrong. How embarrassing. At least I didn’t publish that without checking, though.

Cranfield’s double act of Keenan and Suri take another ten points each to reclaim the lead for the Bedfordshire quartet, but Harvey swiftly pegs them back with a starter of his own, and Holloway are five clear going into the music round.

No one gets the starter, despite some accidental conferring from Holloway after Cranfield skipper Stephenson had buzzed in with a wrong answer. Abramovich hears two-toed on the next starter and buzzes in with sloth, as any good quizzer should. What other animal is defined by its having two toes?

On a bonus about The Haunting of Hill House, Cranfield’s Chivers comes so close to the correct answer that it's such a shame to hear him say End instead of Hill, but them's the breaks. Holloway follow this up by giving sea urchin instead of sea cucumber, but that only has two words in total so it's less sad.

The second picture starter goes to Brown, who recognised a still from the Danish show Borgen. They clean up on the bonuses, and Paxman takes his chance to patronise them for knowing stuff about TV shows. I know it's his last season and all, but it should be pointed out that he himself is literally on a TV show at the exact moment he makes this comment.

On the next starter, which also goes to Brown, you can sense him gearing up to correct her pronunciation of Karamazov before she’s even finished giving her answer. She won’t care though, because Holloway are more than fifty points clear with only a few minutes remaining.

A late rally from Cranfield brings them above one hundred points, but Holloway aren’t threatened, and win by a clear margin at the gong.

Final Score: Cranfield 110 - 155 Royal Holloway

So, Cranfield not doing much justice to my selection of them to the Hall of Fame lineup there, but congratulations to Royal Holloway, who advance to the second round for the third time in three appearances. Here’s hoping they can go one better this time.

See you next time for Glasgow vs Queen’s Belfast, and as always, thanks for reading. Subscribe if you never want to miss a post, it really would mean a lot to me.

[alex-iwobi]

i survived watford vs swansea 20 min of added time i can do this😤