therealslimshakespeare

[therealslimshakespeare]

[therealslimshakespeare]

Today’s aesthetic: really enthusiastic historians talking about people who’ve been dead for centuries with disconcerting familiarity, like they personally knew the historical figure in question and possibly still owe them money.

[therealslimshakespeare]

“Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world. All things break. And all things can be mended. Not with time, as they say, but with intention. So go. Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally. The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you.”

— L.R. Knost (via artemisdreaming)

[therealslimshakespeare]

Butches wear this challenge

[therealslimshakespeare]

Hi,

I mostly read Those Who Can on AO3 and was just wondering if it’s going to be updated or if I should look for all future segments here (I’ve caught up on all) 😊

Also, can I ask what you’re currently working on for the series? I’m excited to read more!

Hi there! I fully intend to update AO3 and as life has gotten only crazier, I may focus on that more than tumblr going forward. But thank you for the reminder because I’ve been terribly tardy.

Don’t come for me but I’ve not written a word on anything in a month. Life and the muses have not been kind to me. However, I’ve got a lot of WIPs as the oldies will know, I’ve got the Trinity Argument, a bit of Lu’s college time (untitled so far) and some bonkers Bucky and Brady shit that happens to be my favorite and I don’t even know if I’ll ever share it but it is my guilty pleasure 🥰

[therealslimshakespeare]

"you are so brave and quiet i forgot you are suffering" and "am i supposed to be grateful to have survived this?" DESTROYED ME. left me in shambles. i know her deposition and her own reflections on her assaults are going to kill me 💔 thank you so much for sharing this with us marina!

Ugh I really liked both of those myself..,obviously I guess, ha. Thank you for your kind words 🥰

[therealslimshakespeare]

Blowing bubbles out the window, circa 1940s.

[therealslimshakespeare]

TYSM FOR THE PINTEREST BOARD IT KILLED ME IN THE BEST POSSIBLE WAY 🙇🏻‍♀️

Aaaaaaaaaahhhh thank you!! 🙏 🥰

[therealslimshakespeare]

that pinterest board gave me life. colors are brighter, the air is fresher, the grass outside is greener.

Bestie you’ve spoiled me with love today! Thank you! I certainly labored over it a damn long time, I’m glad yall have enjoyed it. I’m probably still going to mess with it because I’m a perfectionist, but I’m glad it’s out and being enjoyed 🥰

[therealslimshakespeare]

ok this is my scream review i have no doubt i’ll be stalking it for days and be back with more thoughts but for now 😍 

the first thing that i saw when i clicked it was the “a lovely lady and a grumpy man live here” and i screamed lmao i love that so much. thank you for making me obsessed with that grumpy italian man through your writings. 

but then i scrolled down to the bottom because i wanted to see the whole thing in order! and first of all i loved all the pins giving the air force vibes, because this fic is stalag centric i love any glimpse we get of lu before their plane was downed. also the pin of the woman holding the girls face made me think of ida and lu and i’m dying to know if that was intentional. 

the pin that says “you are so brave and quiet i forget you are suffering”!! um that’s exactly what i was trying to say in my love note on college? about how her vibe is so different in the stalag fics and then we got to see her head and it was so dark? i just love that. 

love the pins about her kindness and seeing the best in people 🥹 and any pin of ida or the buckies made me so happy. 

the stalag part is SO ANGSTY how dare you, the bruises and the “am i supposed to be grateful to have survived this”… so heartbreaking.

the college part is like… something i’m obsessed with but also really scared of. i do love all the math and physics pins, i love how smart she is. and i love the pin of all the girls together, she deserves to make some good friends her own age!! but then the spencer part…? the pin of the hand so tight around the wrist made my heart drop. same with the ones with the guys hand on the girls face and around her neck. i am so scared for her. but also excited to read.

and then my favorite part because of benny 😍 the pin of him braiding her hair was so cute and i especially love the one of them on the beach. also love the engineering vibes so much. and then the babies?! the babies!? omg i loved the pin where the girl is holding the little girl and going outside. it melted my heart.

also. lu is so pretty. that’s all i have to say!! 

Aaaaah kicking my feetsies and giggling so bad rn

[therealslimshakespeare]

hi! so happy to see you on my screen again :)

do you by any chance still have any love notes on touch? i sent one (back when anon was still on) and just curious if you received it. i know your inbox is always really full so no worries if you can’t tell!

i cannot wait to look at the pinterest board 🤍💐

Hi! Thank you, glad to hear from you!

I am sure I do have it in there somewhere sweetheart, thank you for sending it. I read pretty much every note even if I don’t have the time or capacity to answer them all at the moment, so do know that. They’re immensely appreciated 🥰

[therealslimshakespeare]

DUA LIPA via instagram (23rd july, 2025)

[therealslimshakespeare]

this is my freak out about everything i’ve caught up on 😍 

i am like… not kidding when i say touch is the hottest thing i’ve ever read… and honestly i might have to wait to see if anon comes back on to freak out about this one because i have so much to say but what i can say right now is benny and lu are literally the sweetest babies and i loved every word of that blurb so much. they are so good for each other. i just love them 😍😍

saw some people talking about this and i agree, there was so much about college that was so emotional but the biggest cause of the heartache (for me anyways) was finally getting to access lu’s headspace and learning how badly she is suffering and how much she is going through it. i think it hits so hard because she is usually 😇☺️🥰 even in very stressful and scary situations (radio) so to see her this way was just so sad. i know i’m repeating what everyone has already said but the way you wrote her thought process was so effective, i love that we see these terrible thoughts leech into her everyday life and the way she needs to talk herself down from letting them consume her. that, in combination with her not wanting to go home, really underscored how poorly she is doing and how everything has effected her. it was just amazing writing from start to finish 🥹💗 i wish i could articulate better just how incredible the whole thing was 

I’ve been loving watching my notifs blow up today from your solo trip through the tag 🥰🙌

Yall have been so nice about Touch, omg. It was fun writing it in real time and posting it without being able to freak out a micro edit it for weeks. I thought it was cute that my brain didn’t let me write it solely from one perspective, over and over I caught myself switching up and eventually decided that was romantic af and meant to be.

You articulated it so well and so generously, thank you.🥹 I am so glad you liked College

[therealslimshakespeare]

Hi, I love Those Who Can and have wonderd if you have an actor or an face claim that looks like Talulah? I don’t know if you already answered this question. And could you if it were possible update the masterlist for Those Who Can for better re reading? Love all your work btw!

Heyyyy babes,

I believe I have updated the Masterlist to the current publications. Let me know if I’ve missed something in particular somehow. I need to get on AO3 and update that as well.

I’ve chosen to not share one specific face claim for Lu for two reasons, one a little deeper than the other. First one is simply a derth of native face claims in period dramas (the fucking shame of that smh) and I’m a stickler for trying to not have ultra modern-appearing girls as my OC’s. Secondly, and a little more importantly to me, she’s very dear to so many of my readers who see themselves -in their varied but sometimes common backgrounds- in her and as such I want her to remain generally imagined by them. However, I have accumulated a few in her Pinterest board that to me sum up a sort of amalgamation of how I imagine her 🥰 see bellow, if ya like ❤️

[therealslimshakespeare]

Tallulah doesn’t want to go home, and not because she is not convinced home is as wonderful as she remembers but rather, because it is wonderful she would pollute it the moment she stepped back over the cattle gate and brought in her darkened memory and her wretched reputation. 

this breaks my heartttt. such an impactful line because i really think it shows the true depth of how the events of the past few years and her reception upon coming home have affected her. i don’t know i just think it genuinely articulated so many things so well such as the shame and internal loathing that can result from what she has been through 

He is still chuckling and he goes back to reading her papers, leaving Lu with a paranoid unease about his tacked on last bit, the experience bit, everything these days feels like a double entendre and she wishes to Jesus she could claw out of this skin that knows too much and sees it everywhere now she does. 

ugh. again you just so incredibly articulate what a persons headspace can look like in the aftermath of the trauma she has been through, like i genuinely can’t imagine going through all that at such a young age and this made it so clear that she has been so deeply affected and changed by all of it. the sexualizing of her relationship with the buckies as well as what she suffered at the hands of the ss is all so brutal and i feel like her mental space makes so much sense in the aftermath of all that but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t break my heart. you wrote the whole thing incredibly 

Electrical engineering. Experience. She used the word first when this meeting began, he’s just agreeing. He finds her funny, he’s not mocking, he finds her funny and brash, that’s a good thing, he admires her experience, in engineering— Lu forcibly talks herself down from bolting from the room. 

i really love this part because we see how not only does she have these sorts of intrusive thoughts all the time but we also get to see the way she needs to work it out in her head and almost reassure herself that she’s seeing and hearing things that aren’t really there. and she needs to do that to fit into life and be able to do normal things. it made me so sad 

Lu thinks of Ida, of leaving Cleven’s wedding without saying goodbye to her and the sharp slice of hate at herself for that cowardice cuts through the fog and gives her an answer for him

ida and lu are my babiessss to go from nuremberg where it is mentioned ida rarely hears from her to this, i mean god their thoughts regarding the other are just so sad right now 😭

Lu remembers thinking about slicing herself on the wings when she jumped, in God’s mercy she didn’t.

i loved the whole section where she recounts them getting down, i think it’s super cool to see glimpses of her when she was flying because she is our badass cool engineer but also because i feel like that event WOULD stick with you. it’s what started the sequence of the worst things she’s been through so reading it felt so important 

Beaten, raped, fed to dogs, kept naked in the cold, denied their status. The question wasn’t ever if she was a prisoner, it was if she was one of those sorts of prisoners, one with a story more salacious than barbed wire and rotten spuds. Each time she was asked this it felt like the same question, no matter how kindly or earnestly put: exactly how ruined are you, Miss Smith? 

this part and the way that she finished his question with this horrifying and graphic thought i think really hammered home that her mental space is full of these thoughts and she can’t escape them. but it also makes sense because when people have this morbid curiosity, i think that’s what builds up then having those thoughts all the time even when doing normal things and there isn’t necessarily that curiosity present anymore, just your own thoughts 

“How else am I gonna drive around? You gonna chauffeur me to school every day? Will Bucky?”

Lu wouldn’t be able to bear such nearness, such hovering. Her groan must’ve spoke volumes. 

Bucky and Lu are suchhhh a fav duo of mine and these parts along with the reference to him saving her life and her not daring to buy a car without him destroyed me. they deserve all the good things in the world. my fav father daughter duo 🥹🥹🥹

She had no reason to be ashamed of knowing or serving with Cleven and Egan. Didn’t make it easier when it felt like everyone was passing judgement anyway. 

this just makes me sick honestly this is one of the hardest things i think for me to read about in this story because it’s so brutal to read segments and anecdotes about the true nature of their relationship and then read references to what people made of it. it’s so terrible 

her neck the way it was, drag it home with her, curse even that sunny place with its shadow, know for certain there wasn’t a place on earth free of it. This way, in her mind's eye, she could still go away to big skies and the beating metal wings of the old windmill, and endless straw grass and scrub brush, and the only version of her out there was the one she hadn’t been for some time now.

ahh i don’t even have words for this one. again there’s just so much here (and i know you’ve heard all this so i’m sorry) like the loathing and trauma and paranoia all reveals itself so clearly and it was genuinely haunting to read the line about the old version of herself. i wish she still knew how deserving of love she is 🥹 but it honestly breaks my heart that she doesn’t want to go home although i think it was an incredible way to really underscore how much she is suffering mentally 

i think i’ve rambled a lottt but this whole fic was just amazing. genuinely one of the best things i’ve ever read on this app, we are so blessed to have you 🥲🫶🏻

Literally getting so damn spoiled by TWO long ass and extensive and delicious and gorgeous line-by-line love notes, how the fuck am I to go on? Ugh.

My love language. For real. I am so fed.

You are so kind. I’m so glad you liked it and thought I did it justice, I was so nervous to crack open her little mind since she’s so beloved 🥹🥰

[therealslimshakespeare]

hihihi ☺️ anon being off tells me that your inbox might be stuffed so sorry that i’ve been clogging up your notifications all day 😅 if it’s not clear i caught up on twc!!!

i’ll go in order of publications 😆 

ok so nuremberg. i think everyoneeeee on here knows how incredibly you handle difficult and sensitive subjects but nuremberg 🥹. just a whole other level. god that last scene. the way you built up ida’s mental state, the soft intimacy with rosie but also the challenges she is facing all throughout the fic and then that last sceneeee. i was a mess by the time i even got there but everything about it was so tender and soft and vulnerable. i shed numerous tears. it was such a gift. 

COLLEGE. i can’t even comment on this. i don’t even know WHAT to say. i’m one of lu smith’s biggest fan and I LITERALLY almost cried before i even read the fic. just seeing it being posted, seeing the description, seeing that we get to be in that angel’s head. i was like woah what did i even do to deserve this. seriously i don’t think i can get across how much of a treat it was to log back on here after a long break and see that. i was on cloud nine. but onto the actual fic. i think i will probably send you a whole big longggg separate ask on this one (if receiving line by line love is your love language, as you said in an ask, i will make giving line by line love mine) to be honest because it meant so much to me but some thoughts right now. let me try to muster up the brain power to explain how deeply in love i am with that fic. i’m so late so there’s not much i can say that you haven’t already heard but, there is genuinely no way for me to express how incredibly you write lu’s head. i really agree with what someone on here said about how we can see how warped and messed up her thought process is but we DO understand why and she got to this place. the constant and pervasive paranoia she experiences, the way she says she sees these things every where she goes, it was all heartbreaking but so well written. the way she constantly has these terrible and trauma riddled thoughts and generally just seems so down. it is definitely a big blow to my heart to be let into her head and to learn how badly she is going through it. and then the detail about her not wanting to go home because she doesn’t want to ruin that space with how she is now and preserve it, that was genuinely just so heartbreaking. like seriously there are no words for this entire fic. again i need to send you a line by line but for now please take these ramblings and just know that i will be thinking about this fic until i die. 

i was a little nervous about reading not if but who after seeing the warnings but when i read your authors note about what it meant to you i thought i’d dive in. it was definitely a tough read, but as i said in my comment, that’s a measure of how great of a writer you are. the whole storyline with jack and the doctor makes my heart ache really bad but this segment was just heartbreaking. i wanna give benny and jack the world. and bucky. my babies, all of them.

the fucking benny and lu smutty asf stand alone future scene. holyyyy shit marina. i was not prepared for that. at all. benny dermarco is genuinely my dream man after reading that. i said this in my comment but the whole thing was an amazing blend of like sooo much at once. like we have the filthy and incredible smut (munch benny is very important and special to me) and then we have that soft background of how deeply they know each other. and then we have some angst and vulnerability and healing that lu experiences but also i feel like it’s so healing for benny to be trusted in the way that she trusts him in this scene. and the mentions of spencer saw me seeing RED but bennyyy demarco thank god lu has him now. the whole thing was just so fucking amazing i am deceased. also, catching up on asks and reading all this stuff about what lu goes through in college and with spencer, and also getting to know her and her trauma more (the info about her period and the triggers she has post war with ocd and claustrophobia, among others) broke my heart but i cannot wait to follow along and read more about her journey. 

you are genuinely such a gift to this fandom, THANK YOU for all this amazing content 🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻

Darlinggggggg

First off I love watching the notifications go off as someone works their way through the newest material and I cannot thank you and everyone else who leaves comments enough for being so effusive. You’re never late to the party, the party never stops on this blog. It’s a treat to me when people trickle on in after the big rush.

I’m literally out of words to say for this note and the second one you’ve left in my inbox, a simple but very heartfelt OMG THANKS will have to do. I fucking love this bit by bit exposition, I’m in heaven from it. 🥹✨🥰💫🫵

THANK YOUUUUU

[therealslimshakespeare]

Anthony Boyle is in so many works back then that I’m unintentionally learning history. All because he’s hot 😭