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lightningbugqueensfics · 3 years

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A Magical Time of Year

Happy Holidays from we the Supernatural fandom! I present to you a fluffy fic of family, gift exchanges, coming out, and copious amounts of Destiel. Minor angst, because I can't resist, but a happy ending all around.

Destiel, No Archive Warnings Apply, and there are spoilers from the finale.

Thanks so much for the help @themoosegoes-deanicandothis!

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“Dean, we have to go,” Cas called out, “Sam just texted me that Claire got here, and we still need to get presents for Jody and Charlie!”

“Alright, let’s just do one last check that we got everything,” Dean said back loudly over the din of the mall. It was December 24, 2020, Christmas Eve, and the pair were finishing up their present shopping.

“Dean Winchester, I have gone over that list five times, we have everything!”

“Humor me?”

“Fine,” Cas grumbled, faking annoyance at his boyfriends antics. Dean really did love Christmas, and was actually enjoying himself in this enormous place. Everything was magical during the Christmas season. There were lights everywhere, everyone seemed happier, and snow made everything unreal. Especially this year, when nothing even resembling an apocalypse was occurring, December was Dean’s favorite month. Even the shopping required by it.

“New hat for Bobby, the blanket with the green creature on it for Charlie,”

“Baby Yoda, Cas!” Dean interrupted, “I showed you the first episode, you know who it is!” Cas smiled to himself. Dean was sure he did that just for his boyfriend’s reaction.

“A silver knife set for Jody,” he continued, “And nunchucks for Claire,” Dean grinned at the last one. It had been his idea, and after extensive convincing, Cas had finally given in and let him buy them. The pros of finally dating.

“We already have the hair products and gun cleaning set at home for Sam, along with Eileen’s new gun, books for Kaia, a new bear for Jack, a pasta maker and hair pins for Donna,” Dean had been particularly proud of Donna’s present. The hair pins could be removed and turned into silver daggers, perfect for hunting, “and that book on mythology and medicine for Alex. And for you a-”

“No, remember Cas, not supposed to tell me,”

“Right. Yours is a secret, but just from you. Are we missing anything, Dean?” he finished sarcastically.

“Nope, we got it all.”

“Good, then let’s get out of here,” Cas grabbed Dean’s elbow as forcefully as an angel could without hurting him, and steered him towards the door.

“Cas, I was thinking maybe we could go grab lunch in the food court before we go?” Dean ventured.

“Dean, I love you very much,” Dean flushed and ducked his head, “but I would rather not spend another second in this godforsaken hellhole.”

Dean conceded, knowing fully well about Castiel’s fear of crowds. It had taken some kissing and pleading to even get him to come today. The hunter nodded his head and threaded his fingers through the angel’s, joining him on their way out.

They left without another word. Dean stayed silent until they got in the car, and let go of Castiel’s hand. He wasn’t quite pouting, per se, but he was very hungry! Halfway home, Cas turned to him.

“We can go get burgers if you’d like…?” A smile broke out on the hunter's face as he jerked the car around. Burgers at the local diner had become the pair’s staple date, so much so that the owner knew then by name.

As they sped off to get their grub, the smile widened on Dean’s face. He reached out and grabbed Castiel’s hand in his own, happy to be exactly where he was.

The enormous metal door clanged open, prompting excited outbursts from Charlie and Donna. The two had taken a surprising liking to each other in the week they had spent together in the bunker, and at this point it was strange to see one without the other.

“Boys!” Donna called out, “Get down here, and tell Jody that the Southern Ocean is totally a thing!”

“The what?” Dean asked jovially. Everything was brighter in the bunker with their family around, the air felt like it was doused in joy.

“The southern ocean,” Jody said, “Donna claims that there’s an ocean around Antarctica called the Southern Ocean, but I know for certain that it didn’t exist when I was in school,” Jody, Donna, Charlie, and Bobby were seated around the war room table. Despite their supposed argument, Donna’s feet were settled comfortably in Jody’s lap, and they were smiling at each other lovingly. Dean would never admit it, but they were a really cute couple.

“I’ve never heard of it,” he supplied as he walked down the stairs, Cas close behind. It earned a “Ha!” from Jody, who pointed at Donna victoriously.

“Jodyo, that doesn’t mean anything! Deano here barely got an education--no offense, sunshine--we should ask a more reliable source!”

“Hey!” Dean called out. He may not have gone to college, but he still went to school. He went unanswered.

“I’ve never heard of it either, and I’ve been around longer than anyone here,” Bobby put in.

“And yet you thought Australia was part of Oceania yesterday,” Charlie said with a cheeky grin. Dean had no clue where all these geography based arguments had come from, but he would be the first to admit they were hilarious.

“Listen here, ya idjit, this ‘Oceania’ didn’t even exist when I was young. Don’t be ageist,”

Charlie scoffed and tried to snark back, but Jody interrupted her.

“Alright, fine,” the sheriff said, “Cas, you’re an angel. Is the Southern Ocean a thing?”

“Yes,”

“See!” Donna exclaimed.

“But,” he continued, “It was only established in the year 2000. So I think you’re both right. Jody didn’t learn about it in school, but it is real,” The women stared at each other, not quite knowing how to react.

“Huh,” Jody said eventually, “Cool, I guess,”

Charlie rose and sidled up beside Cas.

“I tried to tell them that,” she whispered, “Even looked it up on my tablet. But nooooo, they only trust the angel,” she said it all with a smile on her lips, despite the tone of her voice.

After Jack restored everyone and released all his power back into the world, the boys found out he had done them one last favor. Not only had he brought back the Charlie from apocalypse world, he also revived their Charlie, the one killed by Styne. It was awkward at first, but the two actually made fast friends. Apocalypse Charlie had decided to spend this Christmas alone with Stevie, like Patience had with her dad, so it was just the original Charlie hanging with them this year.

“Alright,” Dean said, “As weird and nerdy as this conversation has been, Cas and I have some presents to wrap,” he held up the bags in his hands to prove his point.

“Have fun, boys,” Donna waved them away, and the two headed towards their room.

They stopped in the kitchen along the way, greeting Sam and Eileen who were working on the stuffing, which Dean had assigned to them. He had taken charge of all the cooking this year, working all of their guests to get ready for the feast he had planned. Dean snagged a beer for himself and Cas from the fridge and signed a quick Have fun, Moose Sam’s way before heading out. With Eileen back, the residents of the bunker had all gotten much better at sign language, and Dean was very proud of how far he’d come.

They passed Claire and Kaia watching Home Alone in the Fortress of Deanitude. They stopped by to give them a quick greeting and hugs, but left them to their movie. Claire had said she wanted to educate her girlfriend on the culture she’d missed, but Dean was sure it was just an excuse to cuddle with her. Lord knows he’d done the exact same with Cas.

Jack was wrapping presents in his room, and Dean had to remind him again to keep the door closed while he did.

“But why, Dean?”

“I told you, they’re supposed to be a surprise. That’s why we wrap them, so it kinda defeats the purpose if someone sees what it is before it’s wrapped.”

“Why is it a surprise?”

“Because that’s part of the Christmas spirit. Random things that someone might not even want wrapped in colorful paper stuffed under a dying tree.”

“Okay!” he said with a smile.

Finally, Cas and Dean made it to their room. They had decided on Cas moving into Dean’s room when they got together, considering Castiel spent barely any time in his and Dean’s mattress was better.

They wrapped in silence for a while, before Dean spoke hesitantly.

“I think I’m going to tell them, tomorrow,”

“Tell who what?” Cas turned to him and put down the blanket for Charlie. Dean’s tone was worrying.

“Tell everyone here about us, that we’re dating.”

“Do you want to?”

“Yes.”

“Then why haven’t you told them yet?”

“I’m scared,” Dean and Cas had made a rule the day after they got together. They would be completely honest with each other. Not more lies, tricks, or deception. They were so bad at communication that they pined after each other for twelve years before getting together, and Dean was determined to never let anything like that happen again. Hence the honesty.

“Why?” Cas moved forward, pulling Dean’s hand into his own, “You don’t think they think two men being together is wrong, do you?”

“Nah, of course not. There are more gay couples in our family than straight ones. I’m scared that they won’t want me to be with you because you’re an angel. We’re hunters, babe! Hell, I tried to kill you when I first met you. I know they love you, but what if they don’t think you should be with a human like me?”

“Dean, tell me. What was Sam’s reaction when we told him?” When Dean finally told Sam, a week after Jack brought Cas back and Dean kissed him for the first time, the man’s reaction had essentially been, “finally, you idiots!” It was so much better than Dean’s insecurity had told him that he nearly started crying. Nearly.

“He said we were idiots and was proud of us for finally getting together,” he grumbled.

“And Eileen?”

“She hugged us and gave me a link to something called ‘Archive of Our Own’ that had creepy stuff about us written on it.”

“Jack?”

“He asked if that meant we were really both his dads now,” Dean had actually started crying that time.

“So do you really think the rest of them won’t approve?”

“I know, I know. It’s stupid, but there’s this voice in the back of my head just telling me that they’ll leave me, eventually.”

“It’s not stupid, love, it makes sense. Dean, know that I will never leave you again. And nobody out there will. We love you, we’re your family. Dean Winchester, I promise you that not a single person in this bunker will ever leave you out of choice,”

“Thank you,” the hunter whispered, then leaned forward to kiss his angel softly. Minutes later, after they finally broke apart, Dean made a decision.

“I’m going to tell them. Tomorrow, when we open presents. I love you Cas, and I need people to know that.”

“I’m proud of you, my love,” Cas smiled kindly, cupping Dean’s chin, “Now, let’s finish wrapping these presents, then maybe we can join the girls and watch that movie. I find Marv very funny,” Dean pulled him in for another kiss, then went back to Claire’s nunchucks. He wrapped them in copious amounts of tissue paper, shaping it like a wrapped shirt. Pranks on Claire were his favorites, and tricking her into thinking a weapon was some kind of disappointing Christmas sweater was going to be fun .

The next morning, Jack bounded into their room at six o’ clock sharp. Dean had made the mistake of telling the kid that he couldn’t wake them before six, assuming he would sleep in like every other morning and get them at nine, maybe. Apparently not.

Jack flopped on the bed on Cas’s side that was regularly empty. Not like Dean would ever admit it, but the both of them loved cuddling. It was a rare occasion that Dean woke up without Castiel’s back pressed comfortably to his chest.

Gone were the days when Dean snatched a gun from beneath his pillow if he was startled from sleep. Cas could do that to a man. Today he just grunted tiredly.

“Dean! Cas!” Jack whispered excitedly, “It’s Christmas! Like, actual Christmas, not the one we had with Ms. Butters!”

“Yeah, kid,” Dean grumbled, lifting his head to look over Castiel’s shoulder, “It is. But the sun also hasn’t risen yet, so could you give half an hour?”

“Okay!” Jack said, not fazed, “I’ll go get Jody and Donna!” Dean nodded, brain still addled from sleep. A thought occurred to him.

“Wait, Jack,” he called out, “Be quiet, and only wake up Donna!” Dean had seen Jody in the morning, it wasn’t a good idea to wake her against her will.

Jack nodded, still excited, and rushed out of the room. Dean shoved his face back into Castiel’s neck, breathing in the comforting scent of honey and ozone. He actually wasn’t sure how their guests hadn’t noticed them sleeping together, but they hadn’t mentioned it, so he guessed they just never felt the need to venture to this part of the bunker so late at night.

Exactly thirty minutes later, after Castiel had woken and the two had made no effort to leave their cozy bed, Jack reappeared in their doorway.

“Ready?” he asked, smiling as bright as ever.

“Sure, Jack,” Cas said, very excited for his first Christmas as well, “why don’t you get everyone together in the war room and we’ll meet you out there.”

“Okay!” he said before rushing off again. Dean didn’t know how he had so much energy so early in the morning.

“You ready for this?” Cas asked, giving his boyfriend a peck on the cheek and standing up.

“Yeah,” Dean said, “I actually think I am.”

“Then let’s go,” Cas said determinedly before grabbing Dean’s hand and pulling him up beside him. They headed out the door side by side, clad in scooby doo and bumble bee pajama pants with old band t-shirts on top.

The war room held what Dean thought his heaven must really look like. Sam and Eileen were curled up in one of their brand new armchairs Dean had chosen to sit by the tree, signing at each other with lightning speed. Jody was on the ground with her legs stretched out, Donna’s head in her lap and a cup of coffee in her hands. Claire, Kaia, Alex, and Jack all sat as close to the presents as possible, and Dean didn’t miss Jack trying to peek into a bag with his name on it that Dean had put there last night. It seemed like the girls were trying to explain some of their favorite Christmas traditions to him, but the nephilim just looked lost.

Bobby was seated in the other armchair, and Charlie leaned against its leg. Their family was all here, and it was a beautiful sight.

When Donna caught sight of the pair, a big smile split her face.

“Deano, Angel Boy!” she called out, “Don’t be shy! Come on over here, there’s plenty of room. Maybe Jody’ll even let you put your head in her lap too!” From the look on Jody’s face, Dean didn’t think that was going to happen.

Cas headed in in front of him, and settled himself down right beside Donna. Dean joined Charlie leaning against Bobby’s chair.

“Dean,” Jody grumbled, “that boy of yours woke me up at the asscrack of dawn saying that you told him it was okay.”

“I told him to wake Donna up,” Dean gave a meaningful look at Jack, “because I know she’s an early riser. I specifically told him not to wake you, so I’m wondering why exactly he did?” Dean, Cas, and Jody turned to Jack while he heard something that sounded suspiciously like “Oooooh, someone’s in trouble,” from Claire. Dean shot a glare her way before turning back to Jack.

“I’m sorry, Dean,” he explained, “I was super excited and I really only meant to wake up Donna but I think we talked too loud and woke up Jody too. I’m sorry,” and there were the puppy eyes. Damn kid had learned them from Sam, and who was Dean to resist.

“Alright, Jack, I’m not mad at you,” he gave in, “Just remember to never wake Jody up again. Capeesh?”

“Yes, I capeesh,” Jack nodded, repeating a phrase Cas had obviously taught him. Jody smiled at him kindly, letting him know that she wasn’t still angry at him. No matter how grumpy Jody could be in the morning, she was one of the kindest people Dean knew.

“Not that this hasn’t all been just touching,” Eileen said and signed, “But could we open presents now? I got up this early for a reason, you know.”

“Yeah, yeah, alright,” Dean said, “Go ahead and start handing them out, kid.”

Jack scrambled to grab the first present he could get his hands on, and thus the present exchanging began. Some families did it one at a time, taking a moment for each present. Not the Winchesters and company. They ripped into their gifts at lightning speed, only taking the time to fawn over the present and thank the gifter profusely before moving on.

Kaia loved the books from the brothers and Cas, and squealed when she saw the warding necklace Claire made her, kissing her girlfriend cheerfully. At the same time Donna was thanking Alex for her “#1 Sheriff” mug while Jody protested that she, in fact, was the best sheriff. Their exchange was interrupted by a shriek of “ Nunchucks!!! ” from Claire, which caused Jody to glare at Dean for ten minutes straight. Charlie leapt up and hugged Dean and Bobby when she found a Baby Yoda blanket and working futuristic gun side by side. Bobby loved his new hat as much as Sam loved the beanie Jack got him, and Jody gave Donna a big kiss for her new gun. Alex loved her mythology and medicine book, and Eileen actually got two guns due to miscommunication. She couldn’t have been happier. Cas gave Kaia and Claire an enormous hug to thank them for a new tie, this one stitched with wings and halos. Towards the end, Dean gave Cas a bumblebee beanie and Cas gave Dean socks with pie on them. Dean had to hold himself back from kissing the man on the spot.

Finally, once the present exchange had died down, and everyone was left admiring their new possession, Dean had no more reason to put it off. He had shifted over to sit beside Cas while they all opened their gifts, so he turned to Cas, whispered in his ear what he was going to do, then took a deep breath.

He started to stand up, felt awkward, then sat back down. He cleared his throat, scratched the back of his neck, and couldn’t for the life of him start talking.

“Spit it out, Dean,” Bobby grumbled.

“Heh?” he asked.

“You’ve been shifting around for five minutes like you’ve either gotta pee or you need to say something. I’m betting on the latter, so don’t keep me waiting.”

“Oh, um,” Dean started, his stomach in knots, “Well I do actually have something I need to tell you. All of you. Except for Sam, Eileen, and Jack. They already know, see… And now I need to tell the rest of you because it’s very important but know that I think about it I’d rather not--”

“Dean,” Jody said gently, “You can tell us anything. I promise.”

“Ok, well, um… ok. So, you remember the whole Chuck infinity snap everyone dies thing?”

“Vividly,” Donna said.

“Well we lost Cas right then too. Not for the same reason, that’s a story for another day. Anyway, we lost him, It was…” he started to get choked up. Head in the game, Winchester , he thought, “It was horrible but Jack brought him back and after that the two of us kinda started… dating? Like, we’re together now,” he finished with a grimace, disappointed with his… well, talking skills. Cas grabbed his hand comfortingly, and smiled at him with eyes that said I’m proud of you .

“Uh, Dean,” Claire said, breaking the silence, “We know.”

“Huh?”

“Honey,” Donna cut in, “You two aren’t exactly subtle. To be honest, I thought you two lovebirds were together from the moment I saw you together, and Jody had to convince me you weren’t. Recently though, it’s kinda obvious, sweetheart. You’re both so much happier. You still do the staring thing, but it’s less intense. Castiel’s ASL name for you is literally ‘freckles.’ And you really think we didn’t notice you sleeping in the same room? We thought you knew that we knew.”

“You… knew?” Dean asked, shocked. Donna nodded, “And you’re like, okay with it and stuff?”

“Dean, why wouldn’t we be. I’m dating Jody, Claire’s dating Kaia, why the hell do you think we wouldn’t approve?”

“No, no, not that. It’s just, Cas is an angel. Literally and figuratively. I thought you might not like that we’re not the same… species?” By now Cas’ arm was wrapped around Dean, and he had slouched into his side.

“Well, you were obviously wrong, weren't cha? None of us could ever think Cas is a monster, and you two obviously belong together,” Donna said kindly.

“I'm proud of you, boy,” Bobby added, making Dean duck his head and grin.

“Thanks Donna, Bobby,” he said, “I’m sorry I doubted you. And were we really that obvious?”

“Yes, Dean,” Cas said in his gravelly voice, “I’m fairly certain we were. I thought they knew already at first, but as you are more well versed in human interaction, I trusted your judgement over my own,” at this, Claire cracked up, quickly joined by Alex and Sam.

“Not that this hasn’t been the most awkward conversation ever--except a certain dinner--” Dean and Sam shuddered at the memory, “but I would really appreciate some breakfast. And I was promised pie?” Claire said with a smile, cutting the tension in the room with ease.

Hours later, after breakfast and pie had been eaten, and Jody had already taken away Claire’s nunchucks until further notice, Dean and Cas were left alone in the war room.

“That went a very different route than I expected,” he said quietly, wrapping his arms around the angel’s waist and leading him towards their room.

“That seems to happen often in our lives, Dean,” Cas replied.

“Is it a good thing?”

“Right now, I think it is.”

Dean stopped Castiel in the doorway of the hall, and looked up at the plant hanging above their heads.

“Mistletoe,” he said, then drew his angel in for a kiss.

Christmas truly was a magical time of year.

#Destiel #Supernatural #Dean Winchester #Castiel #fic #fanfic #writing #Ao3 #Christmas #family #fluff

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britishchick09 · 3 years

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the best and worst books i read in school!

ever since 5th grade, i’ve been reading novels in school. with the end of high school looming (and today being the last day of classes), i’ve decided to list the ultimate show stoppers and the bird droppers. let’s begin! :D

the best of 5th grade- maniac magee! i don’t remember much about it besides the twinkie things (which actually exist at walmart!) and shipping maniac and the girl character. my 5th grade teacher reading it made it so much better :D we also read ‘chains’, which is about a slave girl names isabel going to freedom. it’s a very powerful book and the sequel, ‘forge’, which is about a freed soldier boy named curzon, is just as amazing! ‘esperanza rising’, the story of a girl named esperanza who moves from mexico to california during the great depression, is pretty great too from what i remember!

the worst of 5th grade- idk what else we read in 5th grade besides those three (technically four) books. it could’ve been an iconic book year! (it was already an iconic school year)

the best of 6th grade- drums, girls and dangerous pies! it’s an interesting story of a high schooler named steve dealing with a crush and his little brother’s cancer, yet there’s actually a happy ending! the end is really iconic since steve says ‘i-’ to his brother jeff and it’s clearly ‘i love you’ but it cuts off! bonus points to ‘the cay’, a story of a boy named phillip who ends up on a raft with a man named timothy and a cat named stew cat. it’s a neat adventure and timothy saying ‘malar!’ is an earworm of a phrase

the worst of 6th grade- HOLY FRICK ‘THE HATCHET’ IS THE MOST BORING BOOK EVER WRITTEN!!! it’s about this kid who gets stranded in the forest and there’s this skunk pal, so you’d think it would be like ‘the cay’ BUT IT’S NOT IT’S SO FREAKING DULL OMG!!!! bonus points to ‘the gadget’ which starts out cool BUT THEN THE MAIN CHARACTER(also called steve!)’S FRIEND ALEXI TURNS OUT TO BE A SPY AND TRIES STABBING HIM LIKE WOAH THESE KIDS ARE ELEVEN YEARS OLD STOP DOING THAT WTF!!!! if you thought the double digit chapter was bad... oh boy! also ‘boy in the striped pajamas’ was good but very depressing! :(

the best of 7th grade- tom sawyer! this is about a boy and his southern adventures. it was a great story, but the movie is one of my fave live action movies ever!! they say the book is better than the movie but the movie is miles better and it’s so cute!!! bonus points to ‘the giver’, which is about a boy named jonas who meets an old man who shows him life in a better world (and there’s a baby). jonas and the giver were very sweet together and i love how jonas and the baby escape their dystopian society at the end!

the worst of 7th grade- call of the wild! it’s about a sled dog named buck who goes on a wild adventure in the arctic. it’s not a bad book, but the movie was so cheesy and it focused on the humans WHY THO???

the best of 8th grade- the outsiders! it’s about a greaser named ponyboy who runs away with his friend johnny after johnnycake kills a soc named bob. pb and the other greasers were such great characters and the story was so interesting! i also liked how the story is set in tulsa, where my grandpa lived. the outsiders fandom is a lot of fun and i’m so glad the story became one of my faves! :D bonus points go to ‘the diary of anne frank’, which we only read the play, so i sought out the whole book and wow anne’s story is so tragic and inspiring! more bonus points to ‘the good earth’, which is about a man in china and has an awesome movie to it (despite having white actors) and ‘twelfth night’, which is a funny shakespeare play about a girl named viola who disguses herself as a man named cesario. it’s full of romance, laughter and a hot feste singing voice (in the 1987 audiobook at least). and olivia is definitely bi ;)

the worst of 8th grade- animal farm! it’s about an orwell dystopian society (hmm...) but in a barn with animals. it’s not bad, but many of the animals were jerks except old major and the 1999 movie we watched was so cringy! (and the beasts of england song was changed which wasn’t cool)

the best of 9th grade- the odyssey! it’s the ancient greek story of odysseus, a soldier who goes on an epic adventure to get home. the book was alright, but the movie was awesome and the movie ‘o brother where art thou’ (which is based on the story) is really great too! harrison burgeron, a dystopian society with a bad boi, was awesome too because i remember seeing the short film of it in 7th grade. ‘to kill a mockingbird’, which is about a girl named scout living in the segregated south, is really great as well! i loved how it was set in the 30s and scout was so much fun! (i’m a bit bummed at how we didn’t get to see the movie tho). ‘romeo and juliet’ is shakespeare’s most iconic work, being a tale of two star crossed lovers in fair verona. i really enjoyed the story(not the d jokes tho) and it inspired me to write a story set in 1596 (when the play was made)! i take back what i said about 5th grade being iconic 9TH GRADE WAS SO ICONIC YAS!!!!!

the worst of 9th grade- the scarlet ibis! it’s about a boy who takes care of his sick brother named doobie and tries to make him ‘normal’. it’s sweet how the iris symbolizes the brother, but how they die at the end is so sad! ‘the sniper’ wasn’t that good but the plot twist of the sniper guy shooting his brother was neat (also the ‘romeo + juliet’ movie wasn’t that good besides mercutio)

the best of 10th grade- a thousand splendid suns! the most recent book i’ve read, it’s about two women named mariam and laila who live in the afghanistan as the taliban take over. their story is so inspiring and i love how laila was able to be happy after all the horrifying things she went through with rasheed. mariam sacrificing herself for laila by killing rasheed was very powerful and i wish the stage version had her in it. bonus points go to ‘lord of the flies’! a group of boys are stranded on an island and there’s much boy chaos involved. it’s a great story and the fandom was too!

the worst of 10th grade- where are you going where have you been! this is about a girl named colleen who meets a guy named arnold friend. he’s very creepy and it’s an uncomfortable story to read (even more than rasheed!). equal bonus points to ‘the red bow’, a confusing story of a dead girl, a dog and red bows that i still don’t understand!

the best of 11th grade- the crucible! it’s about a girl named abigail who gets swept up in the salam witch trials. it’s a fascinating story with real life elements (rip giles) and the movie was pretty good. ‘the great gatsby’ was also a great story about how the roaring 20s wasn’t as fun as it seemed through the story of gatsby, all told through the eyes of nick

the worst of 11th grade- into the wild! this is a study sync thing, but we did a lot of those compared to novels. it’s about chris mccandles, a guy who tried surviving in a van in alaska and died, making a terribly tragic tale. ‘an incident at owl creek’ was ok but the best part was the plot twist of the guy running to his wife and being hung right before he can touch her (we saw the twilight zone ep instead of reading it and the twist was *chef’s kiss*)

the best of 12th grade- 1984!!! it’s the story of a dreamer named winston, who lives in the dystopian world of oceania. he meets a girl named julia and the two have a secret love affair, but they soon find out that no one is safe under the eye of bb. it’s terrifying tale that’s a bit depressing, but there are so many little moments that make me smile and the movie is even better. winston is relatable in some ways, julia is awesome and julston is a pretty great ship! it’s a big improvement over animal farm and it’s definitely my favorite adult story. bonus points go to ‘rime of the ancient mariner’, which is about an old sailor recounting his unfortunate journey at sea. the mariner telling his story to a random wedding guest was funny and it was an adventure like the odyssey! another round of bonus points to ‘beowulf’, an ancient norse tale of a warrior who fights a monster named grendel. the parts of the 2007 movie we saw sucked, but the story was really cool! wiglaf gets a shout out because he’s the best warrior :) another half bonus point to ‘hunger games’, which we saw the movie of. it’s about a girl named katniss who competes in a competition called the hunger games, which makes for a thrilling adventure!

the worst of 12th grade- hamlet! all of what we read this year was really good, but someone had to be last. this shakespearean tale is of hamlet, a prince who seeks revenge >:) it’s an ok story and i like the ghost dad!

now for my all time favorites! (and least faves)

the worst of the worst- the hatchet, the red bow, where are you going where have you been and the gadget

the best of the best!- 1984, the outsiders, a thousand splendid suns, the diary of anne frank, the odyssey, romeo and juliet, to kill a mockingbird, twelfth night, harrison burgeron, rime of the ancient mariner and the good earth (along with the tom sawyer/1984 movies and hunger games)

good or bad, the books i read throughout school were amazing and i can’t wait to see what college brings! :D

#what a trip down memory lane this was!#so many great stories! :D

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belleofthebookblog · 4 years

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Restore Me by Tahereh Mafi Review

3.5/5 stars

WAS THAT NECESSARY??? i mean... c'mon. That ending-just-ughhhhhhh. Why do you do this to me??? I was a little late to the party when it came to reading this book, considering I read the first three as they came out wayyy back in 2011-2014, but now I'm glad I waited because it means I can run to he bookstore and buy the next one

Back when I finished Ignite Me for the first time (as a wee teenager), I was fairly content with leaving the series as it was. Sure, there was a lot left that could have been written and there were a lot of questions left unanswered. What happened to the reestablishment? How did Juliette and Warner manage with taking over an entire continent? How did the other continents react? Well... I guess that's where Restore Me came into play. It seems pretty common for the end of dystopian series to leave the "restoration of the world" part up in the air, just letting you assume that yeah... everything turned out fine after all the war and fighting and hardship. You know, the interesting stuff that we love and hate but ultimately end up coming back for time and time again. I had high hopes for this book. But right after rereading the series when i picked this book up I felt kind of... ehh

SPOILERS

I love the whole "17-year-old girl being the only one who can change the face of the world" but when it happened and Juliette took over as supreme commander and the rest of the world just kind of... let it happen. And all of the soldiers just... let it happen. And everyone in the sectors just... let it happen. You're telling me that NO ONE was loyal to Anderson? Yeah, the guy was a douche. Grade A, top tier level douche canoe. But there's always a group of loyalists, ya know? And we just didn't see any of it. However, we did find out why the other continents just... let it happen -- why they let the 17-year-old girl from an asylum and crazy indestructible powers take over the continent. And the whole thing where they sent their children to scope out the situation because they didn't feel it was necessary to come out and do it themselves? *chef's kiss* Loved it. Wayyyy better answer to my question than I was hoping for. Warner. Ahh! Warner. My favourite (besides Kenji obvs.) character from the last books.

WHERE. DID. HE. GO. That boy has got some serious communication issues. "Ohhh but she didn't aaaaaask" asdfha;sdhfasdhd. UGH. This frustrated me so much. Your girlfriend is taking over an entire continent and has ZERO idea of how to run it. Hmmm, wouldn't it be convenient if she had a boyfriend who was raised for this. exact. job. Yeahhhh that'd be real helpful. Yes. I understand that he was upset about his dad, even though he was (as previously mentioned) a grade A, top tier douche canoe. But it was still his dad, and his girlfriend was still the one to kill him so I understand why he was upset. But Juliette asked if he wanted to talk about it and he would never open up. Juliette was just as bad. She had no clue how to do this job but she never really actively sought out the people who were there to help her with it. AKA the boyfriend who was raised for the very job she took over. Or even Castle, who had decades of experience running and underground organization. But nope. Anytime either of them had to discuss anything, they somehow ended up ripping each other's clothes off like a couple of animals. Don't get my wrong. i love me some Warner sexy times. But this was about the only time either of them seemed to not be just a bundle of "wahhh emotions". I couldn't even fall back on my favourite comic-relief character. Kenji in this book seemed really... watered down. This whole book, which I loved despite it seeming like I'm just tearing it apart, lacked structure. Everyone was moving around in circles without a whole lot feeling like it was accomplished. It felt little like the author forgot who the characters were. But I'm have high hopes for the next one, because I've loved this series for so long. Yes I had some issues with this book but i still really enjoyed it. It answered the questions I had after finished Ignite Me and I'm really hoping Defy Me cleanses away the issues I had with this one.

Not only that, but also answers what in the holy heck is going on with Juliette having a sister (which I did not expect) and that her REAL parents are not only alive, but are the supreme commanders of Oceania (which I did expect).

There’s a looooot more that I could say about this book, like how it touches on soooo many mental health issues, transphobia, and honestly a lot of things that are probably more important to talk about than me whining about the characters. But I already feel that this review is pretty redundant, considering I’m about 2 years too late.

Hopefully I’ll be on the ball for the final installment.

#tahereh mafi #restore me #books #bookblogger #book review #juliette ferrars #aaron warner #kenji kishimoto #belleofthebookblog

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loghorizonfunfacts · 6 years

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LHFF reads Volume 9, Chapter 1 (live-read)

So KR’s nickname for his Garnet Dragon was translated as “Gar-gar” (Ga-tan in JP), as I would assume “Ga-ga” would be too much like baby talk... or the singer. Unfortunately, I’m only ever going to read Gar-gar as Gar-Gar Binks and that’s just about the worst parallel to draw, so I’m gonna keep using Ga-tan here.

That said, I think Engel localized Ga-tan’s antiquated speech well. I will admit that Log Horizon has introduced me to new terms and words, which is honestly quite enjoyable. In this case, I learned the word “whinge.”

Jered was also translated as Jared. I might be keeping that one, once I get a bot up and running so I can change everything on the Wiki accordingly.

“The protection of dragons, the blood of the fairies, the principle of transmigration, the skills of the great ones.” I remember “great ones” was fan translated/interpreted as “giants.” We have yet to see if “great ones” refers to literal giants or just “people who do awesome stuff.” As for transmigration, I believe that’s a new term from this volume. I’ll have to read more to see if that is brought up again.

One thing that also bugs me: The Chinese server never got a name of its own. Like Japan is the Yamato server and their region is called Yamato. Eurasia is called Eureddo (I think that’s the Yen On term, can’t remember at the moment), but China doesn’t have its own name.

I’m not a game developer, but the idea that making a nigh-faithful representation of Earth at half scale, using satellite photos and drones, would reduce development personnel expenses doesn’t sound quite right. Maybe I’m wrong on that front, though. Again, not a person who does that stuff.

Reading Mamare talk about Shake Shack through Leonardo makes it feel somewhat heretical that I, having lived in NYC for two years now, have never had Shake Shack. Though to be fair, I’m also rarely in Manhattan. (That said, I’m going to look up Tasuda and Ushiwaka to see if they’re real sushi places.)

Amazing. Leonardo makes these comments about Kanami’s looks, and then immediately feels self-conscious once he gets up because she’s taller than him.

I noticed that Leonardo calls Kanami “Miz Kanami” shortly afterwards. I’d have to check the JP version, but since it talks about the translation machine, does it add Japanese honorifics to what’s spoken by other people? Like maybe Leonardo would know about honorifics, but what about people who don’t?

I also don’t envy Engel’s job. Language jokes are really, really hard to translate when you have to translate like your audience has no understanding of the original language at all. (And again I will state: Yen On would do well to have footnotes or a glossary, or something to explain them more... cleanly.)

For some context, Kanami says this: “It’s less a frog than a fuhrahhg, huh!!” I reckon that the first “frog” was written with kanji, and then “fuhrahhg” was written in katakana--and thus, she’s saying it in English. But you can’t really go from English, to English again, so Engel spelled the second phonetically. It’s something that would be best accompanied by an explanation, but the translator has no space to provide one.

Leonardo mentions a place called the Sedona Ruins in the North American server... will have to look up what that’s a reference to.

“[Elias] had chestnut hair and eyes.” Uhhhh yeah sure let’s go with that. The anime straying away from Mamare’s descriptions can frankly be a tad infuriating sometimes, since Hara will go with the anime’s colors while Mamare keeps referring to what the novels say. (Re: William and his totally-not silver hair.)

Engel translated Ling Xiangfeng’s name as Ling Tiangfeng, and I’m... frankly not quite sure why. I’m pretty sure there was furigana for her name that read it as “Rin Shangfeng,” and “Xiang” sounds like “Siang.” That’s a pretty far cry from a T, and neither Mandarin nor Cantonese would read 香 as “tiang.”

In a case of realism, attention is indeed drawn to the slight gap between a person speaks and when the translated version comes out. I knew that it existed from previous spoilers about the side-story, but it’s nice to read it again.

The Keronardo joke is translated as “Croakanardo,” which while it’s proper (as kero is onomatopoeia, the equivalent to croak in English), it... lacks charm. Perhaps I’m too used to “Froggynardo” or just plain “Keronardo.” It’s again, not a bad translation, it’s just very... stiff-sounding in English. Keronardo works both as a joke on his frog costume, and has the benefit of sounding pretty similar to Leonardo. Froggynardo has Kanami’s childishness even if it’s detached from “Leo.” Croakanardo doesn’t sound kiddish and doesn’t have any similarities to “Leo.”

Kanami rationalizing swimming from China to Taiwan, to Japan, with Coppelia shaking her head in the background is the greatest. Did they keep Coppelia’s head shake in the anime? I don’t remember much of it.

“Even in crowds like these, true New Yorkers didn’t lose their cool. They had their own destinations firmly in mind, so they were able to keep walking at maximum efficiency, without paying attention to anybody else.” This is true. Though some people, even though they’re probably locals, walk infuriatingly slowly anyways.

The explanation for how Big Apple turned out the way it did post-Catastrophe makes a lot more sense than what the fandom years back made it out to be, where the 6.01 food riots just turned the city into pieces almost instantaneously. From the description here, it was basically the same as what happened to Akiba, but instead of having someone like Shiroe and Maryelle to get things together, there were several key incidents that boiled over and made things turn out badly.

I still think that Japan getting the reset (and thus, the expansion pack update) before Oceania is BS, especially with the backstory that the game is American-based, but whatever.

“How’s life in England treating you? Is eel pie lethally nasty?”

“Boy, is it ever. Seriously, England’s brutal about stuff like that. Whoever said the only delicious thing in England is breakfast hit the nail right on the head.”

As someone who got the “distinct pleasure” of trying marmite (mostly popular in Britain), and has heard many things about British food, the above jab seems pretty damn accurate.

I’m not even 50 pages in (on page 47, to be exact) and I’ve already laughed several times. The group’s dynamic is already great. Props to Mamare and Engel for their hard work.

“I didn’t think we’d be this useless without the Web.” Way to foreshadow DDD’s fate, Mamare... Reading the novels with context of future events sure is a trip. That said, Log Horizon really is an adventure in “life without modern conveniences,” even if a number of modern conveniences (like flushing toilets) have been recreated by taking advantage of magic. I honestly wouldn’t mind a slice-of-life story about living day-to-day life in a world that had magic, but no modern appliances. Things like cooking alone become harder when you’re forced to revert back to cooking over an open fire instead of an electric stove, and you have no experience with open-fire cooking.

#log horizon #spoilers #light novel #lhff rants

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thebookiemonster14 · 7 years

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DYSTOPIAS: Reading Them, Writing Them, Living Them.

or: IT’S REV WRITES A BIG FANCY ARTICLE TIME!!

I finished 1984 last week, which I’m frankly ashamed to confess. It’s ridiculous that I haven’t read such an intriguing take on fascism before now, partly due to the fact that fascism is the exact topic my college Politics lessons are going now, and partly because the way the world’s swinging, we might end up having a Ministry of Truth without us even noticing it.

The rise of fake news (which refers to both real lies spoken boldly on TV and any opinion that makes Donald Trump throw his toys out of his pram,) has in the past been a worrying precursor to many a dictatorship. Everyone remembers the lies Adolf Hitler spread about the Jewish population, everyone knows that North Korea tell their citizens that the country has won the world cup year on year in a feeble attempt to enshrine the nation’s glory for just a little longer. Yet we ignore the widespread use of food banks, the crumbling of the NHS despite the best efforts of junior doctors’ strikes to change something, goddammit. We ignore the spike in hate crime, whether it’s against Muslims, black people, or the LGBT+ community. In history lessons we condemn the world of 1930s Europe as if it’s only a fairytale, but why aren’t we more worried when at every opportunity, the signs show us we’re now leading ourselves directly into a dystopia?

Dystopians aren’t an uncommon genre nowadays, what with the rise of The Hunger Games and every subsequent rehashing of the narrative. A girl, normal in every way but *one*, gets dragged headfirst into a fight she didn’t asked to be involved in, then saves the world single-handedly, picking up a few boyfriends along the way. Or at least that’s what the media would have us think of the genre, but after copious years of reading many truly terrible YA books, and twelve months of living in a gradually-worsening apocalyptic excuse of a world, I’ve come to realise why so many people like the dystopian genre, and the revelation has come with both discovering dystopians outside of the YA genre, and trying my hand at writing my own. Young adult novels give us hope.

On the 9th October, I went to an event for the Manchester Literary Festival to celebrate two debut authors’ dystopian novels: Megan Hunter’s ‘The End We Start From,’ a sparse yet painfully candid tale about a new mother navigating a flooded London, and Omar al Akkad’s ‘American War,’ where in a not-too-unrealistic US, a girl tries to survive in in Louisiana while a brutal civil war marches on through the country. The former create a lonely poignancy through almost lyrical language in the face of trauma, such as “I make tea like I’m supposed to,” and the latter makes use of cynical wit, the author’s own experiences of conflict reporting, and interestingly, written documents relating to the world the story is set in, which created a world similar to the totalitarian Oceania of 1984. What all three books have in common, though, is their grounding in their respective worlds. There are no revolutions, (or at least, any successful ones,) but only characters surviving through or succumbing to the horrors of the day-to-day lives. This narrative both intrigues and horrifies me, as it implies a tyrannical dystopia is something the human race can simply ‘get used to.’

I don’t know about you, but I don’t ever want to get used to Donald Trump. I don’t ever want to wake up in the morning and shrug my shoulders when I see what executive order he’s passed overnight that blocks the rights of yet another group of people. I don’t ever want to think that a terrorist attack in one of our cities was inevitable, because if we get into that mindset, we’ve already lost. We’ve resigned ourselves to the fact that this is how it’s always going to be, and it isn’t. We just need to keep faith.

This is why, a little over three months ago, I decided to create my own narrative in a dystopia, one which combined the haunting intimacy of the adult dystopias with the hope of the young adult ones that have nowadays become so popular, and out came The Snake Charmer. The dystopia in question that I’ve written is an alternate-universe UK where everybody has their death date on their arm, and when it reaches the day in question, a state-employed assassin murders them. The main character, Ezra, is one of the people who collects these dates, and the first half of the book follows him in his journey to gain the courage he needs to overcome the fears he’s built up about the system as he falls in love with a boy he’s been assigned to find the date of. (Admittedly, after this point the story does take a Hunger Games-esque narrative, with Ezra becoming the face of the rebellion and even some fire involved, but that’s just me being a walking piracy advert.)

The reason I wanted to write a story like Ezra’s is because I think dystopias are a fine line between showing the horror of the day-to-day system and the fear it instills in people, and letting the characters overcome that fear to achieve greatness. Not that I’m not very impressed by the two debut books, far from it: the bleakness fits with the humanity of the world, of someone just trying to get by without an earth-shattering revolution, and it makes the books haunting and poignant. But while literary critics may say the almost-effortless victory in some dystopian YA books is unfeasible, they seem to forget that while grittiness is the big trend nowadays, fiction is just that – fiction. More to the point, people are scared of the world right now, young people especially, and if we can’t find escapism for that in fiction, what hope do we have? Society is what we make of it, and if we let ourselves believe that we lowly humans can turn bad things around, then maybe – just maybe – something might change. And if people are writing stories where that happens, surely that has to be a good thing.

Besides, life doesn’t follow its own rules sometimes. If World War Two never happened, how many self-important literary critics would call a battle like the Normandy landings unrealistic?

#dystopia #writing #the hunger games #thg #ya #ya community #donald trump #fascism #1984 #politics #essays #manchester #divergent

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lucadansembourg · 4 years

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HSHQTASK039: PSYCHE.

𝐈. 𝐃𝐎𝐃𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐄𝐘𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐀𝐂𝐓 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐀𝐍𝐘𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐖𝐇𝐎 𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐊𝐒 𝐌𝐘 𝐖𝐀𝐘.

his heart has always been just a little bit too soft. and that is okay for a child, but once the excuse of being small is stolen away by age, it’s no longer a good trait for a future king. when he was little, he was a dreamer, constantly reading novels about adventurers and how they can save the world with the magical power of friendship and hope and love. but, in what feels like the blink of an eye, luca grows up. they tell him that, no, those kinds of things don’t exist, and he becomes a melancholy teenager, cut off from anyone but the overbearing staff and his own parents. perhaps, his mother will eventually theorize, growing up entirely on the grounds of the grand palace trained luca out of being a child just a bit too early. no matter how gangly and awkward he would become, he’d never fully regain that childlike wonder he’d once had. he spent hours reading instead of running outside, hidden away in libraries instead of meeting his peers.

that loneliness he felt as a child never went away, not truly. sure, with the addition of a younger sister he no longer felt completely alone in the tall ceilings of the grand palace. it was actually very nice to share all the best secret passageways and the best hiding spots with her as she grew up. but just as soon as he got comfortable being a big brother, his mother decided it was time to send him away. and attending the same boarding school she once attended seemed like an awful big adventure for a young boy who’d never left the grand palace of luxembourg. halfway around the world and just a little bit too disconnected from his family, luca is plunged into the icy depths of his own inability to connect with others his age, and his loneliness only grows with each passing day spent in australia.

𝐈𝐈. 𝐈 𝐍𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐇𝐀𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐀𝐆𝐄 𝐈𝐍 𝐌𝐘 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐕𝐈𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒.

he realizes very quickly that he is... different, compared to the others around him. he’s not interested in chasing after the girls and playing sports. his classes hold his attention to a point, but luca often finds his head in the clouds. its another side effect of his lonely upbringing, he constantly overthinks things, especially when it comes to social situations. this something that will prevail into adulthood for him, luca often finding himself in bad situations due to his inability to speak or him accidentally oversharing. and that’s why it takes him three weeks to actually hold a conversation with nathalie alexandre. she’s sat directly next to him for weeks of their classic literature course, and he’s not sure what she’s playing at.

she’s a princess, the one that the public of oceania is absolutely obsessed with. what the hell is she doing hanging around him? instead of opening up their conversation like a normal person, luca passes her a note, his own semi-messy handwriting asking a question he’s been sitting on since the first class she’d chose to sit next to him in, “why do you sit with me every class?” from that moment on, it’s like nathalie has adopted him as her best friend. and yeah, he can accept that nathalie likes him. but the truth is: he’s never really understood why anyone does. there’s just... to him, there’s really nothing there, nothing too interesting to draw someone in. even if his small group of friends at the armidale school always liked him, he always simply assumed they were nathalie’s friends, and not his own. it’s taken him almost three decades to decide that maybe some people just have bad taste in friends, and that he’s constantly the wrong choice that they’re making. or worse: that they pity him.

𝐈𝐈𝐈. 𝐈 𝐍𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐎𝐎𝐊 𝐌𝐘 𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐄 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓, 𝐈 𝐍𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐖𝐑𝐎𝐓𝐄 𝐈𝐓 𝐃𝐎𝐖𝐍.

it’s easy to define luca d’ansembourg by the things he’s lost. it begins in his final year of secondary school, when his grandmother dies suddenly in the grand palace, and luca is the only outsider in the family: the only one who wasn’t there. and it’s terrible, because he never got the chance to say goodbye. but he bottles it up and keeps moving, finishes school and heads off to oxford with nathalie and pretends everything is alright, because that’s easier than facing that anything has ever been wrong. and maybe it works, for a while. he attends school and he falls even more in love with nathalie and things lighten and suddenly luca isn’t ignoring anything, it’s just dissipated. unfortunately, the habit is learned: it’s now easier to pretend things are alright than to confront them head-on.

but then he’s just graduated and he’s smiling and laughing with the love of his life, and she’s pregnant. and they’re going to be a family, truly. the wedding is rushed because that’s how it has to be, but luca couldn’t have been happier with the way things turned out. and then they’re on a honeymoon in stockholm and that picture of happiness and hope that they’d just created shatters in what will end up the worst night of his life. they lose the baby, and luca has no one to tell, no one to lean on. and he chooses, yet again, to ignore his own pain in favor of holding nathalie’s hand and seeming strong. but that pain never truly dissipates, not like the last. it gets easier to live with, but it never goes away. and he buries it deep enough

𝐈𝐕. 𝐈'𝐕𝐄 𝐁𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐀 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐃 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐀𝐃𝐉𝐔𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆.

nathalie was built for this: for politics, being a figurehead who people looked up to. she was a princess of her people, and then of his people, and luca was just her awkward husband who never managed to say the right thing. and he was alright with that, really. he preferred to fade into the background, to hide away while nathalie smiled at all the right people and shook all the right hands. he just... did as she said and stood by her side when she needed him to. the ease with which they fell into that routine was great, because luca didn’t expect to have to actually be the king of luxembourg for... years. they had time. and then they didn’t have any more time.

luca, once again, isn’t there when his father dies. he’s across the palace, in the library, and in the short time from when his father collapses in his study to when luca manages to run across the palace: his father is already gone. yet again, the fact of the matter is this: luca never got the chance to say goodbye. within a week they place the heaviest crown upon his head and tell him he’s got to lead and he simply shuts down. he spends two days hidden away in the library, unable to force himself to stand from the couch. they write it off as growing pains, but luca never truly settles into his role as king. it boils down to the same thing he thinks over and over again: i wish we had more time. the true depressive episodes begin here, and it takes something monumental to snap luca out of it. and five months of biting his nails and doting over his wife later, nathalie gives him two daughters and he’s able to breathe. the twins are happy and healthy and luca can feel joy bubble up in his chest for the first time since his father breathed his last.

𝐕. 𝐒𝐎𝐌𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 𝐍𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄, 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘 𝐍𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐀𝐃𝐄, 𝐈𝐓'𝐒 𝐍𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑.

when luca’s finally able to pick himself up, he becomes the very definition of an overprotective older brother. he never quite leaves that role behind. sure, he’s not the type to threaten wendy’s dates but he is the type to text just a few too many times, worried about when she’ll be home. it all stems from his father’s death, from the feelings of helplessness that come along with him just being a few seconds too late. and so, luca has to hear from his loved ones regularly or he’ll spiral into a panic. sometime between oxford and his father’s death, his brain had become his own worst enemy. this explodes when nathalie is officially diagnosed with cancer, and luca pretty much spends the next four years half out of his mind worried about her.

when nathalie dies, luca crumbles. there’s really no other way to put it, he stands at a podium and delivers a eulogy that he can’t remember a word of and he retreats to his rooms and hides away. he gives himself to the end of the weekend and then he picks himself up and decides to run his country, to do what she wanted him to do. and he does the same thing he always does: he buries it, and in short bursts he’ll end up exploding again, but the farther away from it that luca gets the less often they occur. the melancholy that nathalie always seemed to be able to chase away has set in, now, and luca doesn’t know if he would have made it without twin girls who now relied on him for everything. he knows that the best description for what he’s feeling is something akin to depression, but it’s not real if he puts on a smile and never says it out loud. he had made avoidance into an olympic sport - in which he held ever medal.

𝐕𝐈. 𝐅𝐔𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐃 𝐒𝐇𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐒 𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐒𝐓𝐔𝐏𝐈𝐃 𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐒, 𝐅𝐔𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄 𝐌𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐒 𝐌𝐄.

france invades, and luca realizes that he’s failed. no matter how hard he tried, nothing ever worked out like it was meant to, and luca was left with a country about to be ripped out from under him and three siblings who were far more competent than he could ever dream of being. he steps back, makes regaining control of luxembourg a family problem, and allows himself to be maneuvered and manipulated by lara as she comes up with plenty of ideas, even if none of them work how they’re meant to. he realizes one afternoon, suddenly, that he’s a figurehead, a person people look up to. and while on any regular person that would be some sort of ego boost, on luca he stares at his reflection in the mirorr and wishes he were anyone else.

the entire invasion felt like a comedy of errors, like he can measure the time passed in weird twitter trends his brother starts and times he makes himself sick worrying about losing his country. and then - then lara finds the right leverage, and luca looks sideways at mimi de bourbon grimaldi one time, and they’ve got a deal. and he feels like he’s floating above himself as he celebrates his country being free. he doesn’t feel... attached to that joy that his siblings experience. he smiles and he puts his daughter on his shoulders so she can wave at the crowd in front of the palace. and he gets drunk and laughs like a fool in the kitchens at four in the morning, but the smile never reaches his eyes. he’s not yet relieved, and won’t allow himself to be until the last french soldier is out of his country. but he can pretend, he’s gotten pretty good at that.

𝐕𝐈𝐈. 𝐎𝐇 𝐏𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄, 𝐈 𝐁𝐄𝐓 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘𝐁𝐎𝐃𝐘 𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐈𝐒 𝐅𝐀𝐊𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐘 𝐓𝐎𝐎.

there is one thing that is constant about luca: and it’s deep rooted fear of being useless. when he had nathalie in front of him, he always felt like the doting husband, the perfect father. and then when she was gone, he had to carry on as a father and as a king, because his people needed him. and that’s the number one thing he craves: that feeling of being wanted, being needed. it controls him, in many ways, and luca will do almost anything for validation from people close to him, not that any of them are cruel enough to abuse that. his girls need him to be the perfect father, to keep them safe from harm, anna needs him to make sure she’s ready to be queen eventually. his siblings need their older brother to be the head of their country, to keep luxembourg safe so they have a home and to secure their futures. his people need him to represent them, to try his best to not embarrass luxembourg at every royal event (although he often fails).

and this overwhelming desire to be wanted has created an overthinking sap of a man. luca reads into people’s actions just a little bit too much, watches them move just a little bit too closely, waits to see if they really mean the pretty words they say. and if they don’t, the problem is, luca is far too quick to forgive and forget. he might not see it in himself, but he sees the very best in every person he meets, and that leads to him offering forgiveness for things that should never be forgiven. he’s almost naive, in the way he offers up his heart to be broken by anyone and everyone near him. and part of that is still the childlike wonder that existed in him once, that he never quite shook off completely, but another part of it is the way he is a blinding optimist towards everything but himself.

𝐕𝐈𝐈𝐈.𝐈 𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐄𝐌𝐎𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐌𝐎𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐒𝐈𝐂𝐊𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒, 𝐒𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐁𝐎𝐃𝐘 𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐋 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐎𝐖𝐒 𝐃𝐎𝐖𝐍.

all in all, luca needs therapy. desperately. will he get it? probably not.

#someone get this man a therapy gift card he needs some #hshqtask039 #five notes and i'll do a rowen one i think that would b.......funnie #deadass i said: it's an established fact that luca has depression.... why tho?#and then i entered a trance and wrote this

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itsiotrecords-blog · 7 years

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Something about travel—planes, trains, and automobiles—plus ships, leaves us scratching our heads over the 2007 album, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank? Makes us wonder: Was American indie rock band Modest Mouse trying to tell us something about the open water? With the lyrics, “Was it ever worth it? Was there all that much to gain? Well, we knew we missed the boat. And we’d already missed the plane.” Should you buy travel insurance for the cruise…etc? Despite its name, Modest Mouse’s “Missed the Boat,” is a surprisingly optimistic song about life’s little mishaps, and the happy irony to it all, even on vacation. Despite its title, life is an adventure, so here’s to adventure time! Here’s to having the Cojones to venture from home in the first place! And even if your vacation turns into another National Lampoon’s vacation, before you decide whether a cruise might be for you, here is a list of 15 things the cruise lines don’t readily tell us, good or bad, to know if it’s worth it to set sail.

#1 Pirate Attacks Still Exist According to the Reader’s Digest poll on cruise lines, major cruise lines train their employees against pirate attacks. Somali pirate ships, boat people, those exist. In 2008, more than 130 merchant ships were attacked by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden, an increase of more than 200 percent from the previous year, according to the International Maritime Bureau. Makes us wonder, do they train passengers as well on how to prepare for a pirate attack? Sounds like something out of Pirates of the Caribbean. With a full-on cannonball propulsion certificate for the first matey to climb the flagpole? Ok, that might be something to incorporate in a cabaret theme for the entertainers on board if not the ship passengers, themselves. Oceania’s Rubacky says that the opportunity for piracy remains low and that more training is provided for passengers and crew than at airports, to reduce the threat of attack.

#2 Everything Costs Money Desert costs. Liquor costs. Cork unscrewing costs. Debauchery costs and so does insomnia. So which is the worst? Separating from the internet, for the 21st century addicts. Is there a freeing affect for those who spend not only their vacations at sea, but also their vocations? And there may be no need to sport extravagances of internet with so much to see and do. A break from technology. A break from real life, if such a thing can occur. Though most passengers aren’t allowed to bring on their own liquor, and are forced to buy it at extravagant prices, a plus to this is that if a bottle is not finished, cruise waiters mark it with your room number and save it for another night. But who doesn’t finish the bottle? Let’s be honest. For the cruise line, this limits debauchery and the number of messes to clean up by the morning.

#3 Travelers Really Do Feel They Are Voyaging The long wave goodbye at the dock is a bonus for the sentimental sort who feel a sense like an immigrant embarking to a new land, like maybe their ancestors must have felt, and the subtle sweetness in missing home and family intertwined with new adventure. And ships have come a long way from the coming to America days. If anyone has seen Brooklyn, based on the Colm Tóibín novel, the main character, played by Saoirse Ronan, must share a bathroom with a neighboring cabin while they spend all night sick and vomiting from the food, the seasickness or both. Guess the only difference is the epic goodbye at the ports, and this alone maybe something to get a person on board; a new chance, a shattering of a dimension.

#4 Murder on the Sea Expatriate law grows a bit murky. It can go for the criminal, as in the circumstance in which one seeks insolvency from a crime by venturing to a tropical island. In Neil Gaiman’s Anasi Boys, the main character’s boss settles in St. Andrews after swindling his investors’ money into offshore accounts. But don’t worry, he gets his. Real life stories exist, murder mysteries of the high sea, inking it further in the Bermuda Triangle flood of mystery. Natalie Woods, the American actress of West Side Story mysteriously drowned while on a yacht with her husband, actor Robert Wagner in the Pacific Ocean off Catalina Island. Though she was not on a cruise ship, her death still remains a mystery today. What goes to sea, stays at sea.

#5 U.S. Labor Laws Need Not Apply This leads into the insinuation of the wavering labor laws on the open sea. An illegal might work on a cruise ship and be treated poorly or underpaid, many report. According to some, the crew, including those undervalued workers hail from impoverished countries and board cruise lines as cooks, engines cleaner, maids, and the like. Developing nations such as the Philippines, Indonesia and Honduras, are regions that might make up part of the population of cruise ship personnel. According to William Terry, a Clemson University professor who studies the industry, workers can earn as little as $1,000 a month working 10-to-14-hour days, while at sea for stretches of up to a year. Cruise ships may pay more than what some workers might earn at home, but the havoc it wreaks on their bodies and spirits can be somewhat tremendous if true. An offset to these standards, advocates are pushing the Maritime Labor Convention’s new referendum to cruise line ethics, including: a set number of hours a seafarer can work per week not exceeding 91 and a standard to accommodations, which Douglas Stevenson, director of the Center for Seafarers’ Rights is in favor of.

#6 Choosing The Right Cabin Is A Hard Shell To Crack Why? Because there are all kinds of noises, backlash from the waves, fumes, or noise from the entertainment. Choosing the right cabin is important if you want to wake up rested. There are four types of cabins that are separate from cabin locations. Consider both location and type when choosing a cabin. First off, the four different cabin types include: as standard inside, ocean view, balconied, or suite. An inside cabin on a cruise ship does not have a porthole, window, or balcony is called the standard inside and is usually the cheapest option, also known as the inside stateroom. Some say that the veranda cabins are largely overrated, but this is a personal preference. They can range from 25 percent more to double the price of a standard inside cabin.

#7 Cabin Location As for location, lower deck cabins are privy to engine and motion noise as well as the casting of the anchor as few times per day. They are also further from the common areas. Higher deck accommodations offer sun roofs and are closer to the pools but they are pricier and seasickness is more intense at the higher levels. Midship cabins come with the main thoroughfare, close to amenities but there will be lots of passersby in the hallway. That being said, you are close to the entertainment and the food. Then there are aft cabins and bow cabins. Aft, the front, for the sailor at heart, who wants the wind in their hair and the salt in their eyes. The bow, or rear, offers a panoramic, but sometimes the privacy of these are lacking. The upper deck can look down into the cabins.

#8 Pollution Those affiliated with the aft cabins might witness the sludge produced by the ship which it tracks through the water. The wave of pollution a medium-sized ship leaves behind is 210,000 gallons of blackwater — enough fill about 10 backyard swimming pools, according to a recent study sponsored by non-profit advocacy group, Friends of the Earth. Blackwater is the toilet flushing contaminates which includes: ammonia, copper, zinc, which aren’t treated properly—they “don’t measure up,” says author Ross Klein who conducted a study on pollution produced by these vessels. If following requirements, ships are supposed to treat all blackwater and discharge it at least four miles from shore. Yet, this unfortunately isn’t inspected to the degree that restaurant cleanliness might be inspected.

#9 Profit Loss vs Profit Gain Reports indicate that cruise lines don’t report too drastic a number of lost sales after a catastrophe at sea. Are consumers of cruise lines more loyal than other ventures? Major catastrophes that don’t lower the cruise line’s business have some wrinkling their eyebrows…did all those Somali pirates make landlubbers afraid to sail? It seems with the right deals and the right advertising, adventurers dare to venture onto cruise lines; despite past injury. Does this work as a positive for mankind or tell us that we are all just scavengers, looking for a good deal, with no pause for putting ourselves in danger? Seems that for one thing, cruise lines have not shown dramatic losses with economic or security declines…perhaps the same for planes. When it comes to travel, we simply have to take our chances and we are brave for doing it.

#10 Planning Your Own Shored Events Feel like you’re bound in a tight itinerary and want more breathing room from your cruise experience? Some experts suggest instead of booking on-shore event all-inclusively with the liner, which might have you running from place to place, you should plan and pay individually for your own entertainment on-shore. The all-inclusive deals the liners offer usually jack up prices, rather than save you money. But one good thing about the boxed deal is if the events you booked with the liner lasts a bit longer, the ship won’t leave without you. However, if you book them yourself, beware the boat will not wait. Show up with your flip-flops, the wind in your hair, slide in the gate with your sun bonnet behind you, but don’t miss the boat.

#11 Customize Your Cruise Profile, Up Your Potential Have an entertainer or a theme cruise in mind and the myriad of options available to the public is practically limitless. To name a few: there’s the Cougar cruise, Startrekker cruise, Dancing with the Stars: At Sea, including competitive dance-offs, Top Chef on Celebrity Cruises, and Disney Princess Cruises to name a few. The Queen Mary II brings the first planetarium aboard a cruise ship in a ginormous luxury cruise liner. Or for a smaller, more in-tune voyeur, the 700-passenger Azamara, prides itself on defying the beaten path, and finding exotic hideaways, permitting its passengers to stay at destinations of their own choosing with late-night and overnight stays at ports for landlubbers not accustomed to the sea. There is even a Cougar Cruise, making us wonder if it’s a cruise or a dating profile, or both?

#12 Never Are You Alone If you don’t like close talkers, consider your bubble being invaded all the time. Beware of your personal belongings and your body, as well. Sexual assault runs high on cruises, as in the general merriment, people become gaudy. People go ‘overboard’ both literally and figuratively. Or you may just want to push them overboard. Robberies don’t generally happen on the large-scale, yet in 2012, there was 22 incidents of passengers robbed at gunpoint while returning from an excursion in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. So what you want when traveling is to have fun but beware, carry a stick, a paddle or just stick with a buddy if you want to be safe and prevent anything from happening.

#13 Sea Sickness Sea sickness occurs when motion detected by the inner ear, which controls balance, is different from the motion you visualize. Pregnant women and children are the most susceptible to sea sickness. Staring at a single point can be an aid to sea sickness, but how does one do this when the ocean is constantly rocking the ship? Rumi said, “You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.” How’s that for sea sickness? Maybe Yoga on a boat is like earning a black belt in karate. And finding your chakra is like, epic. To conquer the sea might be a channel to stream on YouTube, but you can be like Kate and Leonardo on the bow of the ship, that’s impressive.

#14 Traveler’s Insurance When Buying Your Ticket Cruise insurance, which is generally 4 to 10 percent of the trip cost, is valued by some and discarded by others. Insurance plans cover things like baggage protection, cancellation, medical expenses, and emergency evacuation. Besides buying insurance from the cruise line, there are a number of independent companies who offer oftentimes better rates. One thing USA travel says to consider is that any insurance will cover medical insurance in the place of the incident. For example, if you have any predisposed illnesses, and you’re on a South American cruise, you will be taken care of in South America for treatment. Uncanny adventurers might seek “extreme sports coverage” which can be worth the investment for the deep sea fishermen as well as the bungee jumper, or as Haraty, an expert in the field says “That’s especially true for the Great White shark cage diving in South Africa and Australia.”

#15 Just As There Is Hope For The Hopeless, There Is The Cruise For The Non-Cruiser Whether you vie to experience Alaska’s inner-passage, explore the newly opened Cuba, island hop the Greek Isles, contest with the Dancing with the Stars (on Sea) elites, there are low-key and dramatic cruises to fit your personality. Like seeing a bear in Yellowstone Park, winking at a stranger, or finding the golden ticket, if you look for magic you just might find it. Or it may come to you unexpectedly, no matter what your cruise profile says. What does yours say about you? Are you seeking love, adventure, mystique, a well-spring to become immortal? Dream on. And hope on. And never stop living with the turns of the tide; there may be something miraculous, past all the shutter shock that goes with the pros and cons. Feel it out, there is more if you just keep on going…whatever your destination.

Source: TheRichest

#IoTRecords

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britishchick09 · 3 years

Text

1984 livewatch

the time has finally come to watch the full movie! it’ll be sad, it’ll be disturbing, it’ll possibly be cringy, but it’ll be a lot of fun! :D

we start out with the mgm lion! noice ;)

epic quote B)

wait why is opera music playing i thought we’d start at the 2 minutes hate

OMG what if they’re gonna hate on opera

this looks like a drive-in movie tbh

narrator: “this is a land of peace and hope, a land of plenty...” OH SHUT UP YOU

they’re showing wheat like it’s little house on the prairie BOI YOU’RE IN LONDON

this is epic propaganda B)

what if the war footage was taken from ww2 and thus... isn’t real :o

HOLD UP is the eurasian war racist?

THE QUEEN HAS ENTERED THE CHAT

WHAT ARE THEY ALL SHOUTING I CAN’T HEAR WHAT THE FDR GUY IS SAYING SHUT UPPPPP

oh no it be u (his face is like ‘WHAT IS GOING ON’ and it’s very lol)

julia’s so into this! :o

o’brien’s like ‘ohhh!!!’

look who decided to SHOW UP FINALLY

he pauses a bit before reluctantly joining in yas ♥

OMG THIS IS LIKE A SCHOOL ASSEMBLY STOP TALKING GEEZ

good they stopped!

WOWWW DON’T EVEN LIST SUZANNA HAMILTON’S NAME WITH THE OTHERS GIVE HER A ‘WITH’ CREDIT WOWWWWW

this IS a school assembly they’re going back to work!

winston in glasses *chef’s kiss*

ooh a rotary dial! great use of tech from when the book was written :D

winston’s looking over at syme WITH SO MUCH JEALOUSY lol

what if the words they speak are just random stuff with no meaning

OMG confession!!!!!

poor winnie with his cough :(

this confession sounds JUST LIKE WINSTON’S OMG!!!!

winston: “bugger!” he’s a brit lol :D

epic B)

OMG this guy read goldstein’s book SO DID WINSTON!!!!

i love how the diary is in a brick hole that’s so cool :D

the diary scene was filmed on april 4th just like in the movie so that’s way rad man :D

i want you valley!!! :D

ooh they’re put a smol scene of his childhood in there coolio! :D

he s l e e p

this violin squeak tho :o

OMG THIS IS THE STANDING UP SCHOOL SCENE

it’s not but i can easily imagine it lol :D

he’s a stick omg ;o

when the lady talks to him you know it’s not a recording ;)

lady: “anyone under 45 is perfectly capable of touching his toes” BOI

oh no PARSONS

parsons: “choco rations are going up” c h o c o

parsons: “i seem to have run out of razor blades for some reason’ yeah,,, for some reason... ;)

this is so a cafeteria scene at school

THEY SAW EACH OTHER OMG

♫ i suddenly see him standing there, a beautiful stranger tall and fair, i wanna stuff this weird food in my faaaace! ♫ :D

me: “this is so romantic!” winston’s thoughts: “lemme smash HER WITH A ROCK”

wait did the lady say pineapple grenade???

HIS FACE LOOOL

syme rip boi

the 11th edition isn’t thicc :/

aww winston’s smol nod ♥

parsons: “by 2050 we won’t have conversations like this!” yeah because of screens lol

OMG the food looks and taste like meat but isn’t IT’S PLANT BASED MEAT!!!! :o

parsons just pulled a ‘hey need help with that?’ and put winston’s food on his plate EPIC

julia’s lookin’ at u ;)

YAS PROLES HOPE!!! :D

oh no DON’T TALK ABOUT THE 50 YEAR OLD WOMAN SEX WINSTON

OH NOOOOOOO

he liked the ‘bright red lips’ yet...

THIS CHICK’S LIPS AREN’T BRIGHT BOI

poor baby desperate for money :(

let’s GET THIS BEAT

hand on cheek = doublepluscute ^_^

epic foreshadowing B)

OMG CHESTNUT TREE POEM FORESHADOWINNNGGGGGG

OMG a couple is making out in the bar EPIC

winston’s just like ‘nnope’

OMG THE THOUGHT POLICE WERE FOLLOWING????

he’s at an antique store in prescott bless his heart ♥

mr. charrington sounds so kind WHYYYY

THE BIRTH OF A QUEEN ♥

mr. charrington says ‘4 dollars’ but they’re in london??

YAS BELLS OF ST. CLEMENS!!!! :D

winston: “what was that?” mr. charrington: “something old.” no DUH

they see each other againnn!!!!! :D

winston writes that he hates her SAME WITH A LOOK LIKE THAT

OMG SMOL WINNIE BIG O’BRIEN????? :o

his mom is lying dead in the field like the erza kid in ‘kirsten’s promise’ :(

he’s just... staring

OMG SPYING ON THE SPICY STARING ACTION :o

she PLONKED

that ‘ow!’ was so fake jules!

this is like anna and hans but not as bad underneath!

julia: “it’s nothing!” but this is turning out to be something... ;)

we’re half an hour in and wowza it’s gone by so fast! :D

winston: *gets a cute love note from julia* YEET!

THE HELICOPTER IS BACC!!!!! they’re really not making the spying subtle

OMG THIS IS THE THOUGHT CRIMINAL SCENE YAAAAS!!!!! :D

winston is the best plummer confirmed

kid: “you’re a thought criminal!” winston: *gives a slight ‘wha’ face and smiles* ICONIC

the crowd is clapping and cheering over the war yet winston’s not doing anything SAME

jules is just scooching by lol

HAND HOLDING WHILE PASSING A NOTE OMG ♥♥

the sky does exist! :o

the telescreen has some great music :D

winston’s joining the ‘big man’s hiking group’ suure you are... ;)

the train is going to the beat of the kids’ singing coolio! :D

big brother is called ‘bb’ yas bby!

YEEES THE I WANT YOU VALLEY SCEENE!!!!!

the lq audio made the twig crack and the leave brushing really weird lol

winston: “i want you.” I-CON-IC!!!! :D

THAT SMIRK THO

winston: “i want everyone corrupt.” julia: “i’ll suit you, then. i’m corrupt to the core.” *mal screech*

OH NONONONOONO SHE GONNA TAKE HER TOP OFF BI PANIC BI PANICCC!!!!!

she really went commando huh

ALL THE WAY

the sex looks like it hurts NO WAY MAN NOT FOR ME NNNNOPE

i’m glad it was only a part you couldn’t really see and not a full on thing I DON’T NEED THAT

awww she’s so peaceful after big naughty :)

this is vaguely gay...

aww winston’s hair ruffling in the wind ♥

c r o n c h

also did he just cronch into a potato???

OMG THIS IS JUST LIKE SCHOOL

teacher: “when the orgasm is finally eradicated...” totally julia: “NOT ON MY WATCH”

winston is the kid who smokes in glass while julia is the one kid who Just Doesn’t Care lol :D

thoughtcrime THIS IS THOTCRIME

wow syme is still alive?

julia: “you dropped your ink pencil” you mean pen?

winnie’s back in prescott! :D

the room is 4 bucks a night noice B)

BACC TO THE H8 BBY

the modern say 2 minutes hate is probably just a livestream with kids texting ‘h8 xd’ in the chat lol :D

winston’s thoughts: “she who is so careful...” boi she threw a dictionary at the telescreen in the book THAT’S SO NOT CAREFUL

hey girl CUTE LQ SMILE YOU HAVE THERE!!! :D

YAS THE REAL COFFEE SCENE!!!!! :D

she has so many smiles YAS!!!!

she’s so eager with showing him I LOVE YOU SO MUCH JULES ♥♥♥

she says ‘real sugar, real bread’ and... jam

winston: “how did you manage to get all this?” jules has her ways... ;)

winston: “i want you” julia: “i want you too” YAS :D ♥♥

the thiccc singer is here!! :D

she’s so pretty! ♥

aww the stroke ♥

his hands are shaking as he touches her :(

winston: “freedom is the freedom to say two plus two equals four. if that is granted, all else follows” iconic!

YAS THE PAPER!!! :D

it be gin time ;)

he scratches the face off the gin bottle woah :o

I JUST REALIZED THAT THIS IS O’BRIEN :o

winston’s little ‘yes!’ at getting the 10th newspeak dictionary ♥

that’s a look of longing my friends! :o

winston: “the call has come. all my life i’ve been waiting for it...” and now he’ll go into the unknown... ;)

AAND we cut to naked julia eating an apple! slight bi panic

she’s touching the paperweight queen love it ♥

SHE KNOWS THE CLEMENS YAS!!! :D

julia: “i just know it!” BOI YOUR G-PA HELPED OUT

winston: “the only thing to do is to walk out of here before it’s too late” thus my ‘julia lives’ au comes in! :D

winston: “never seen one another again” ...oh he was talking about that NOT IN MY AU SON

julia: “you do, i do.” omg marriage :o

YAAAS JULSTON KISS!!!!!!! :D

fluffy! ♥

julia: “i love you.” awww :)

winston: “julia. do you think the resistance is real?” julia: “none of it’s real.” STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER!

♥

OMFG THERE WAS AN EXPLOSION :o

work is scrambling like eggs!

poor headache bby! :(

epic B)

winston’s dreaming of his bishy selfish chocolate mom adventure!

the rats were there when his mom and sister were vaporized! :o

she’s in the dress! ♥

they’re talking about betrayal and julia’s like ‘they can’t do that!” OH BOI BUT THEY CAN!!!!

julia: “they can’t get to your heart” aww :)

awkward...

winston sees o’brien WITHOUT JULIA THE F????

this feels like the principal’s office lol :D

o’brien’s voice is so deep and british ♥

the way he clutches the newspeak dictionary is so cute! :D

aww he’s stroking the pages as he reads :)

the oceania anthem sounds russian :o

YAAAAAAAASSSS!!!!!!! :D

so soft ♥♥

winston: “julia, my love.” MY LOVE MY LOVE AHHH!!!! :D

YEES THE COFFEE SMILEEE!!!!! :D

she’s hungry... she wants coffee... who’s gonna tell her coffee isn’t food?

omg i saw winston butt :o

winston: “she’s beautiful.” julia: “she’s a meter around the hips easily” winston: “that’s her standard of beauty.” YAAAS!!! :D

winston: “the future is ours.” YAS

OH CRAP THEY SAID ‘WE ARE THE DEAD’ NOOOO

mr. charington is loud compared to how i thought in the book

his ‘you are the dead’ should’ve been quieter like winston and julia’s then he could be loud!

FBI OPEN UP!!!!!

charrington: “here comes a candle to guide you to bed, here comes a chopper to chop off your head!” OHHHH NICE ONE MR C!!!!!! :D

RIP TO A QUEEN :’(

i should be a bit more heartbroken BUT THAT MR C RHYME MAN

OMFG THEY JUST BEAT UP JULES

SHE’S IN SO MUCH PAIN NOOOO :’(

why does he look old

awww :(

delete the drunk old lady BUT GIVE US PARSONS SUUURE

i dread the scene to come...

parsons didn’t say that he said ‘down with big brother’ so that’s a bummer :/

aww poor parsons he’s crying! :(

oh SNAP room 101!!!! :o

poor parsons but at least that scene wasn’t a thing!

OUCH THAT SMACC LOOKED LIKE IT HURT

is this leading into the bloody mouth scene? I STILL NEED TO KNOW WHAT THAT IS

winston doesn’t know where he is IT’S THE I WANT YOU VALLEY!!!

hold up this is just a vision ok BUT WHERE’S THE BLOODY MOUTH SCENE

frankenstein and spirit halloween called!

also o’brien flipped the switch without warning BISH

o’brien: “you suffer from a defective memory” and you suffer from a BISH MEMORY SIR

remember winston it’s all in the mind... ;)

WHY DID O’BRIEN SHOCK WINSTON HE SAID FIVE

'how many fingers’ is a trick question because winston sees four YET WE SEE FIVE OHHH

mother gothel vibes...

awww winston’s little scared squeak :(

winston: “i don’t know... i don’t know!” SAY FIVE WINSTON SAY FIVEEEEE

o’brien’s voice is so calming yet it spouts evil words...

julia immediately betrayed winston BECAUSE SHE HAD A ROSEMARY KENNEDY yet she’s somehow still alive without damage by the end???

ooh a new shot! :D

they just faded to black and showed a new angle which is a bit weird...

o’brien: “you’re thinking that my face is old and tired...” because it belongs to poor richard burton!

o’brien just yoinked winston’s tooth out tho :o

mother gothel strikes again!

winston to o’brien: “i love you.” you don’t say that back to jules YET YOU SAY IT TO O’BRIEN BOIIIII

o’brien: “you’re one of us. one of the chosen.” one of us gooble gobble! also ANAKIN IS THAT YOU????

winston just said ‘i love you’ oMG OMG OM WAIT WWAIIITIT

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

seconds after she says ‘i love you too’ SHE’S FREAKING SHOT DAAANG NO PUNCHES PULLED BACK!!!!!

aww he called her ‘my love’ even in a dream

so that was the infamous bloody mouth scene and it was quicker than i thought it would be? at least i have a bright julia smile! ♥

OMG winston’s calling for her yet it sounds so weird WHYYY

he’s much improved!

they’re skyping lol

after all he’s been through he still hates bb! :o

ROOM 101 :o

room 101 is a personalized experience just for you! :D

also IT’S A DREAM MIRROR

omg the rats are GOING AT EACH OTHER GEEZ

winston’s squeak at the rats no!!! :(

‘do it to julia’ sounds a bit selfish but it’s the betrayal we’ve been waiting for!

...NOT

uh oh here comes the awkward reunion...

they should’ve said “...sup.” to each other

the bartender saying “on the house!’ tiredly each time is great :D

winston: “thank you for coming.” julia in her thoughts: “yeah whateves bro.” :/

at least they can still bond over something :)

jules gin time ;)

they ratted out on each other true love???

julia: “we must meet again.” winston: “yes, we must meet again.” ...they never met again

but if they did it would be a bro time!

winston: “i have seduced party members of both sexes” BI NANI???? :o

since his crimes are like the guy’s from earlier... what if he didn’t do them and was convinced that he did? :o

in the book he says i love you to bb, but here he turns away and says it... what if he still loves julia? :o

and with that question, the movie has come to a close! it’s a fantastic little film that closely follows the book. while i would’ve liked to see julia with winston at o’brien’s and the drunk jail lady, the cutting of the gross parsons scene, the addtion of the bloody mouth scene and the possibly hopeful ending make up for it. overall, this is an amazing adaptation of such a great book! :D

#livewatch #i bet this is just as good as the book! :D

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pyxel-spree · 7 years

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11 | night to remember

"God, I'm so nervous." Seonid murmured, re-smoothing her hair for the third time. "What if I screw this up?"

"Relax. And you won't." Tessa told her, painting Rich Ruby on her lips. Her eyes had been lined until they were twice their normal size. With Tessa, more makeup was always a bad thing. She was even wearing a blazer, instead of that awful army jacket. And nice pants.

No, Tessa was not relaxed, no matter what she told Seonid. "I have no idea what to say, Tessa. I'm screwed."

"You do know what to say. Introduce yourself. Make small talk. Make them like you. You're good at that."

"Small talk isn't going to get us the Rublex back." Seonid examined herself in the mirror. The silver-grey pantsuit was nice enough for day-to-day business, but was it too casual for the fundraiser? The clothes the servants had sent up from Centaurii Center were nice enough, but her whole wardrobe was still in the Rublex, and she had left her favorite lemon yellow gown on the floor of the Grand Old Clam.

"You'd be surprised at what small talk can accomplish." Tessa said, with a funny note in her voice which made Seonid think she wasn't talking about the Rublex. She had been saying strange things lately. But after all they had went through, who could blame her?

The past two days had been a whirlwind for Seonid. Overnight, she had gone from a virtual unknown to a hot-button topic. She had done interview after interview, only to have her words mangled by the tabloids or co-opted in the major papers. Everyone had an opinion, but nobody came right out and supported her. For some, the story was a symbol of the pathetic decline of the Centauriian Empire; for others, a call to arms. Seonid just wished someone would say something constructive, instead of parroting the same statements over and over.

The Centauriians at the embassy were if possible, less supportive. Oh, she got congratulated on her escape, but after she had been given her new apartment, two blocks from Centaurii Center, the promises of aid had slowed to a trickle, and then dried up completely. She had tried using her newfound authority as High Lady to call a committee-the Committee for Rublex Affairs-but no one had come. The High Lord had promised his support, but he and most others had been focussed on the arrival of the new Director of Olympia a day before, and then the arrival of Princess Nuala a day before that. This last had thrown the Center into a tizzy-after all, the princess was virtually a hermit and had made no public appearance since she was born.

"But, Tessa, the crown princess is going to be here, and Princess Nuala too! I've never met princesses before-are they nice, do you think?"

"It's not for me to say," said Tessa primly. "They are my superiors."

"But you have to have some opinion," Seonid pressed. "You worked in Lyria for a while; you have to know at least a little bit about them."

Tessa looked at the ceiling, as if for help. "Princess Karine is a very accomplished young woman. She's applying for university about now, I believe. She is by all accounts well-mannered and well-versed in politics."

"And engaged to the High Lord Cielare."

Tessa's eyes darkened. "And that."

"You don't like her." Seonid observed.

"What? No! I never said that." Tessa retorted. "Everyone says her society is lovely. I've never had the luxury of meeting her, however."

"If you've never met her, why don't you like her?" Seonid pressed.

"I never said I didn't like her. Anyway, if I had an opinion-on either princess-which I don't, mind you, it would not be my place to say so."

Seonid smiled. "And Princess Nuala? What is she like?"

Tessa frowned. "Princess Nuala is...very sweet. She is quite the artist. But she is rather sad. She was crippled from birth, they say, which is why she doesn't like to have public appearances. Of course, I'm not certain. It could be just a rumor."

"Hmm. It probably is." Seonid pinned up a section of her hair, examined it, took the pin out, then pinned it back up again. "Thank you again. For saving me. I don't know how I can repay you." Without her-even with her, I dissolved. I was useless. I can't take care of myself. I'm afraid, for the first time in my life. Not of someone in particular, not Sever or Castella or that horrible man Regen, but of myself. I'm afraid I made the wrong choice when they offered me this job. I have to prove to myself-and them, out there- that Seonid Min isn't just a precious little charity case prodigy they took in for some "diversity points." I have to have a little greatness in me, somewhere. Otherwise, this is all a fraud.

Tessa winced. "You don't need to keep doing that. It's my job."

"Well, job well done, eh?" She proffered her hand, and Tessa took it reluctantly. "Come on, escort me down like a real High Lady. We haven't got all night."

••

"You tell me." Llenwi pressed. "Olives or pep-per-roni?" He sounded out the unfamiliar word.

Vi laughed her contagious easy laugh. He loved that laugh. It made everything seem like an inside joke. "I don't know, pretty boy. You pick."

They had become addicted to an Earthen food, "pizza." They had pizza in the Grand Centaurii City, sure, but only in the Earthen quarter. The island chain was pizza-mad. In Llenwi's neighborhood alone there were twelve or thirteen different pizza places. And they were going to try them all.

It was the sort of idea that Llenwi would have entertained by himself but would have never actually gone through with. Now that he had Vi, things were different. He found himself doing things that were impulsive and crazy and fun-like trying all the different pizzas.

Earth helped with that. The island chain-the most densely populated area on Earth-was a string of artificial islands on the Atlantic Ocean, each with a city on them, connected by bridges. The chain began with the American city of New York, and then five others on the false islands-New Rastabaria, Reach City, Bloodcrest, Ryuna, and Taliesyn-all intergovernmental territory. The community was diverse, and if a bit scary to navigate, was interesting-rather like his relationship with Vi.

Which brought him to the real question-what did she think of him? Were they going out? Their relationship had blossomed so organically that neither of them had actually referred to the other as "my girlfriend" or "my boyfriend." They'd held hands two or three times and kissed maybe twice, but that was it. Llenwi wondered occasionally if she was using his company to fend off unwanted advances from those nebulous "asshole guys" she had told him about on the elevator ride.

"Pep-per-roni." Llenwi decided, tapping the word into the search engine on his phone. "It's a kind of spicy sausage."

"Then what are you waiting for? I want the meat!" Vi declared, tossing back her red curls.

The door to the living room banged open and Oceania stood there, red in the face and glaring. "Hey, lovebirds, play time's over. Isolde says we have to go to this fundraiser tonight, so you should put on some clothes. Maybe that suit that you got the mustard all over that one time." She directed this at Llenwi, smirking. He could feel himself blushing.

Vi stared. "You got mustard all over a suit? How does that even work?"

"It was actually just on the sleeves." he mumbled. "She exaggerated."

"Probably improved the color, am I right?" She laughed.

Despite himself, Llenwi smiled. "It was pinstripe, actually, so...yeah."

"Smart boy." She swung her legs over, pulling herself into his lap, then pressed her crimson lips to his. It was a quick touch, hardly a kiss, but by the time she was done, he was pretty sure his lips were stained with her lipstick. He raised a hand to wipe it off, but before he could say something amazingly witty and clever and thoughtful, Vielene had risen, grabbed her coat, and was calling from halfway out the door. "See you at the party, Llenwi Greanleefe!"

Oceania rolled her eyes.

••

Eliza tsked her tongue irritably. "So the High Lord, in all his infinite wisdom, has set up this fundraiser to impress would-be supporters of his proposal to get the Rublex back. Of course, this cuts into the Director's working plan for us. But, of course, we should just do whatever he wants, because that's how things work around here..." Her voice trailed off dangerously.

Kalyani restrained herself from rolling her eyes. She had never liked Elizabeth Xiao, not even when she and Ramon had that unfortunate liaison. She wanted Ramon to have something stable, sure, but Eliza was little more than a bureaucrat, clever, but particularly over-officious, passive-aggressive...God only knew what he had seen in her.

"The High Lord's invitation claims the party is semi-formal, so I expect you all to dress appropriately." Her eyes swept the room. "Do not let me down. Your careers could depend on this."

Next to her, Ramon gave the ghost of a smile. Our careers don't depend on a damn thing, least of all our clothes. We've secured ourselves for life. But then her eyes flickered to Danica, who was sitting bolt upright, eyes peeled. Although, with this new director, hers very well might.

The more Kalyani heard about the man, the more she disliked him. Authoritarian, a workaholic, a bureaucrat, paranoid...That was odd in itself; Kalyani had always thrived under authority, but time had taken its toll, she supposed. She was getting old-at forty, most combat agents talked about retiring. Tacticians and strategic negotiators like Ramon and Eliza could stay on forever, but combatants had a shelf life. And here she was, one of the most highly decorated combat agents, a little past her prime, certainly, but working for a boy thirty years younger than herself was a bit too much to bear. I have sacrificed too much for this, to be given assignments more suitable for local police and to have to answer to teenagers.

But where would she go? She could move in with her parents, she supposed, but the thinly-veiled hints that she was a disappointment, a failure, would be too much to bear. They'd always had an image of her in the professional sector-they misliked the idea of private security, which was what she'd told them she did-it was strictly forbidden to reveal her real job. Or she could actually get a job in private security...but in her experience it was a shiftless position, filled with people of questionable morality. And Kalyani, for all her faults, wanted to follow the law. No, it was better to stay. There was nowhere else to go.

I used to make fun of those girls who would do anything for a boy, but that was before I became one! This was his dream, never mine. Lane had been the one who'd convinced her to drop out of her prestigious college in favor of taking more advanced tactical training programs, taught her how to shoot an M-16 assault rifle...but he was gone now, and without him, her interest in Olympia had plummeted. Even training Danica, an opportunity she would have enjoyed thoroughly two years ago, didn't seem nearly as exciting.

Ramon turned to her for support. "Can you believe we have to go to this? Brings back memories..." he paused dramatically, eyes sparkling. "of Shanghai."

Despite herself, she laughed. "We don't speak of Shanghai." This had been one of their least favorite assignments, trapped with a trigger-happy commander and backstabbing younger agents eager for promotions. It had been one of those situations so horrifically bad one had to turn to humor to convey it.

"I don't know. Large city, sketchy rich people...almost the same, no?"

"I think they put us up in a nicer place, though." She gestured at the green and brown shag carpeted stairs.

He grinned. "And our hosts were definitely better." Already, the screeches of Isolde and Oceania could be heard from downstairs.

••

The dress code for the High Lord's party is semi-formal, but Isolde apparently thinks that means "break out the super-fancy clothes we have only worn to weddings, the Empress's coronation, and other such momentous occasions. " I couldn't disagree more. It's doubly bad, because I don't actually own any clothes that are fit for public viewing anymore, which would give me some ammunition with which to resist. My wardrobe consists of ugly pajamas, a bathrobe, slippers, and Candie's Je M'appelle Club uniform. Charming, I know. Allegedly, Isolde will take me shopping, but this has yet to be proven. Also, I barely brush my hair anymore and my zits have come back with a vengeance.

Never fear, however, as Isolde has a solution! In a trunk in the attic she has retrieved six or seven of what she calls Greanleefe Family Gowns. The GFGs have been passed down in my family for several generations. By which I mean the last alterations were made in the seventeenth century. I believe I wore one when I was seven to my aunt Srianna's wedding and another when Isolde married my father. They come with these uncomfortable flat shoes that close with buckles and woolen tights without elastic. Joy oh joy. The monstrosity Isolde has selected for me tonight is the most ornate of the bunch, burgundy silk with a gold underskirt, itchy lace on the sleeves and neck, and large false gemstone buttons down the front. The real gemstone buttons fell off, and their replacements are even larger, probably to make up for their overt fake-ness. All this comes with a weird lace cap for my head.

"I'm not wearing this." I tell her. "You're going to have to make me."

"Fine, Oceania, if that's the way you want to play it." she snaps, and with surprising force pulls the gown over my head, forces the buttons into place, then uses the ancient frayed laces to tighten it over my already tightly squeezed chest. By the time she is done, she is red-faced and swearing. I would swear back but I can barely breathe. The gown was clearly made for someone a head shorter than me and two sizes smaller. And I'm skinny enough as it is.

Isolde emerges later, radiant as usual in peach satin, but Llenwi looks ridiculous squeezed into a too-small blue suit. At least he has the sense not to wear the one with the mustard stains. The Olympian agents look basically the same as always. The women are wearing a bit more makeup and the men shirts with collars, but that's it. The tiny woman with the black hair and blue eyes is the only one in a dress, an airy confection of blue lace. She scoffs at her compatriots and then turns distasteful eyes to my brother and me.

"What are you looking at?" I snap. The woman's cheeks color and she turns around sharply, Isolde snaps at me to shut up, and I tell her exactly what I think. It continues in this vein, but at a higher volume, until we reach the Lotus Center.

••

"Um...s-sir?" His secretary's voice was tinged with fear. "Are you sure we can afford this?"

"What?" said the High Lord impatiently. He was drinking wine again, a Penfolds Grand Hermitage 2051, nothing fancy. Earthen wine was richer, a little less pungent. He preferred it.

"The Lotus Center, sir."

"Of course," snapped the High Lord, suddenly irritated. The Lotus Center was a pinnacle of modern architecture, a round, completely glass-paned structure shaped like a lotus. It had been designed by renowned architect Michael Yi, and was, by all accounts, one of the most expensive venues in the world. And the High Lord was the richest man in the world hosting one of the most important events in the world. Nothing else would do.

"The fees alone could be over a trillion universal units."

He scoffed. "What? I make at least thirty octillion a year. We can afford it."

"Sir, we can't afford anything. You'll have to pay for this out of your own pocket." his secretary persisted.

"I know. That's why I did it." The Centauriian royal treasury was not to be expended on such ventures, but his own money was his to spend as he pleased. And potential supporters-well, he was not ignorant of his unpopularity among certain groups. He would have to buy as much support as he could if he was to win back the Rublex. And his fiancee was here on top of it all. And someone else. But he wasn't trying to impress her, not after that little fiasco in his office. No, this was all for Seonid's platform, and no one could tell him any different.

Ignoring the protestations of his secretary, he demanded, "Re-check the catering arrangement, will you?" The man scurried out, leaving him alone. Exultant, he walked across the floor of the Lotus Center, admiring the way the sunlight reflected off the crystal glassware on the tables. Oh, this will be a night to remember.

••

Princess Karine was a pretty girl, tall and lithe, with flowing golden hair and sharp blue eyes. A childhood spent competitively swimming had left her muscular and tanned, and she oozed confidence as she beckoned the Duchess-no, the High Lady Seonid-to Nuala's table, grinning like a cat that had caught a tasty morsel. "Sister. Here she is, the lady of the hour. High Lady Min, this is my sister, Fionnuala."

Nuala favored them both with a warm smile, noting the omission of her title. "Why, thank you, sister. And how are you, High Lady? Is the city to your liking?"

Seonid inclined her head. She was a small girl, but stocky, with an air of innocence in her wide brown eyes. It was hard to believe that this was the girl who had captivated last year's Kornadian Convention and brokered an unprecedented trade deal, but Nuala knew better than anyone never to underestimate someone just because of their appearance. "It's lovely, Princesses. Thank you. Of course-" she grimaced, "it's been rather difficult to get anyone to talk with me about the matter at hand."

"You must mean the situation in the Rublex, I suppose," Karine broke in, "but we know all about that. I am sure my husband is doing all he can to remedy that. We mustn't look for easy solutions."

"Your...husband?" Seonid asked, seemingly confused. "You will forgive my ignorance, Princess, but I did not know you were married."

Karine gave a forced little laugh, one Nuala recognized as the one she gave when she was upset. "Oh, no, my dear High Lady! Engaged to be married to the High Lord Cielare."

"But not for some time, to my understanding." Seonid said. "I haven't heard anything about a wedding-certainly not in the present climate."

"It's not all in what you hear, my dear." Karine said condescendingly. "Speaking of which, what did happen in the Rublex? I understand it was very bloody."

"I-I'm not quite sure what you mean." Seonid said, clearly confused.

"Well, come now. You were the only one who survived. Surely, there must be some story."

"Ah-" Seonid broke off, flustered. Nuala saw her opportunity.

"Sister, I am sure all the details of that little incident are in the report she made to your fiancee." she said pleasantly. "I am sure the good lady wants to speak of something else, having spoken of little else to those awful reporters. Sir!" she called to the waiter. "Get a drink for the High Lady."

"Oh I don't-"

"My pleasure." said Nuala quickly. "I insist."

"Well then," said Seonid, relaxing. "how can I refuse?"

Karine, angered at being upstaged, added. "You must come to visit us, High Lady. It's been dreadfully dull at Centaurii Center."

In between all the parties and shopping and boyfriends, I suppose? Nuala thought sardonically, but she composed herself. "Yes, you must. We would love it."

Seonid's drink arrived, a funny amber concoction with a salted rim. "Looks wonderful. Thank you, Princess."

"Oh, there's my husband." said Karine, bored. "Husband-" and she went off to go babble at him, leaving Seonid alone with Nuala.

"Princess Fionnuala, you are most kind." Seonid was saying, "but I don't understand why you want to talk to me."

"Oh, it's just Nuala to my friends, dear." Nuala told her, excitement rising in her. See? I am not just a silly cripple, sister. "And I think you can help me..."

••

She was standing off in the corner, arms folded, dressed in black. Even among the unsmiling staff, she stood out. "Ms. Blackwood."

"My lord." She gave him that odd little half-smile he found so charming. "Is there anything you need me to do tonight?"

He inhaled, the scent of her, cloves and honey, washing over his person. He felt awake, alive. "No, nothing. Just-" He let the words hang in the air for a moment. "What do you think of the venue?"

"They seem to be having a pleasant time." she said, indicating the guests.

"No. You. What do you think?"

She lowered her eyes. "It hardly matters."

"Really. It does."

"Well, it's an excellent room for security-"

He cut her off. "No. The mood. The ambience. What do you think?"

"I'm hardly an expert. But if you want honesty..." A poison smile danced across her face. "I don't like it. It's too open, the music is terrible, and I don't think the architecture is very interesting."

He sucked in a breath. "Really?"

Ms. Blackwood laughed. "No. It's wonderful. But you shouldn't use me to fish for complements. Ask your guests."

"Ah, but you are vastly preferable to my guests."

"But not to your wife." The mood between them fused, brittle, tense. "Ask her. She's who this is all for, I would assume?"

"Of course," the High Lord lied. "And Seonid, as well."

The smile slipped off her face, turning her into the steel-eyed guard again. "What an excellent idea, sir. So generous." There was no trace of sarcasm, only honesty. "You have others to attend to, tonight. You should go to them."

"It is early now."

"It will soon be late. Good luck, sir."

Having no repartee, the High Lord bowed, and headed toward a clump of ambassadors. But her eyes remained, liquid, luminous, watching.

••

Kalyani stirred her drink solemnly, staring at the bottom as if it would reveal some great secret. She was on her third, never a good sign. Ramon hadn't started. He was working up the courage to, well...

"Do you want to dance?" He didn't want to ask her yet. He hadn't worked up the right way to do it, and she had a funny look on her face and she probably didn't want to anyway. "I mean, it's fine if you don't, and I don't mind anyway, I just thought...for old times' sake?"

You are so articulate, Ramon.

She was staring at him as if she had never quite seen him before, but she surprised him with a strangely generous "Yes."

This was not their first time. It was surprising how many parties drug dealers and human traffickers threw, and Ramon and Kalyani had infiltrated a good portion of them. And though he would never admit it out loud, those had been some of his favorite memories.

They joined the other couples, swaying gently to the eerie tones of the classical Centauriian orchestra. Ramon was uncomfortably aware of the closeness of her, her pine-needle fresh scent, rope of heavy thick hair.

"I forgot how good at this you are." she muttered. "You don't step on my toes."

"That's because I'm short."

"The world needs more short people, then." she told him. "Security's pretty good, but if I was a sniper...well, let's just say it would be like shooting ducks in a barrel."

"Have you actually shot ducks in a barrel?"

"No," she told him flatly, then in a self-important voice he gathered was supposed to be an impression of him, "It's a figure of speech, Ramon."

"That is terrible. I could impersonate myself better than that."

"I thought it was pretty good," she demurred. The jarring vibration of a cellphone startled them both.

"My God, we are surrounded by the elite." Ramon said in a tone of mock-horror. "You can't use your phone-the Greanleefes are watching."

"Oh shut up, you." she told him flatly, leading him deftly to the edge of the floor and whipping out her phone. Her eyes widened as she read the message, and he could see the effort she made to keep her lips from trembling as she returned the device to her pocket.

"What? What is it? What's wrong?"

"Oh, Ramon-" she gripped his arms tightly, as if to steady herself, then met his eyes. "It's Lane. He's broken out of prison."

••

Tessa listened with half an ear as Seonid chattered about the people she'd met. "-and I think I'm forming real connections, can you believe that?"

"That's wonderful." Tessa told her, still reeling from the High Lord's closeness, his eyes on hers. They were outside the Lotus, waiting on their car, and she was still trying to regain her composure.

"Are you even listening? And I met this girl, Candie, who's going to let me join her club-it's an effort to help animals, and-oh, there she is! Candie!" Seonid waved frantically at a chubby, freckled redhead, holding someone's hand. "Come here."

The girl squealed, pulling the someone into the light reflected by the dome, revealing his face. Tessa's heart accelerated, and she put out a hand to steady herself. That blonde hair, that smile...no, it couldn't be. It couldn't be. She barely heard Seonid say, "And this is Candie's boyfriend, Adrian. Adrian, this is my guard, Tessa."

His eyes, ice-blue, met hers, and the temperature dropped. She could feel tears pricking at the corners of her lids, feel her whole body shaking. He's found me...he's found me.

"Well, Tessa, aren't you going to shake his hand?" Seonid said, from a million miles away. His eyes were teasing, full of cruelty, as if to say so you thought you could get away?

Forcing a smile to her lips, Tessa clasped his hand, and shook it.

#ogak #my writing

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