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matan4il · 3 months

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Update post:

The fighting along Israel's northern border continues. Today, a Hezbollah attack drone was intercepted over Ein Ha'Mifratz, not too far from the famously mixed city of Akko, in northern Israel. The IDF has been targeting terrorist squads and infrastructure in southern Lebanon in response to the on going Hezbollah attacks on civilians communities here. Meanwhile, a Hezbollah senior has threatened today that Israel is "not ready" for what they have prepared for it.

An Iranian delegation is visiting Egypt, and just like everything else that legitimizes the Islamist regime in Iran, and allows it to get a step closer to its vision of being a world power, this should concern us. The Iranian-funded Houthis have been attacking ships traveling through the Red Sea, which affects global shipping, but the impact to Egyptian economy is even greater, as all of these ships are not passing through the Suez Canal, meaning they're not paying Egypt for this passage either.

A big thank you to @curieklei for sharing this NYT link with me: France is another country clearly denouncing South Africa's false lawsuit against Israel. That's on top of the US, the UK, Canada, and Germany, with the latter even saying it would join the lawsuit on Israel's side.

Yesterday, Jan 18, was the one year birthday of Kfir Bibas, the youngest Israel hostage, who was kidnapped to Gaza when he was just 9 months old. He has spent a quarter of his life in captivity, and counting. In Tel Aviv, his uncle gave a speech, in which he brought up reading what developmental stepping stones Kfir should be going through right now, based on his age. He should be seeing many colors, but he's only experiencing darkness. He should be crawling on safe, warm ground, instead he's kept underground. In Jerusalem, a mural has been dedicated to Kfir and the rest of the Bibas family, including 4 years old Ariel, all still held hostage in Gaza. Since 'kfir' in Hebrew means lion cub, and 'ariel' means God's lion, the whole family is depicated as lions:

These are Shachar and Tamar. During the war, Shahar was seriously injured, and had to have his leg amputated. He's going through rehabilitation, and before even finishing it, he and his girlfriend Tamar got engaged:

The medical first aid that the army is giving the soldiers has dramatically increased their odds of surviving even some critical injuries. During the Second Lebanon War in 2006, the percentage of soldiers wounded, who died from their injuries, was 15%. During the Protective Edge operation in 2014, the percentage dropped to 9.2%. According to IDF statistics, so far in this war, the percentage is even lower, at 6.7%, less than half of what it used to be during the Lebanon war. These advancements in emergency medicine have also helped civilians injured seriously by Hamas terrorist on Oct 7 to survive. Much like in the past, it's sure to be used around the world, and help save the lives of many, without Israel ever getting credit for its global humanitarian aid.

This is 19 years old Adir Tahar.

On Oct 7, he was stationed at the Erez checkpoint, on the border between Gaza and Israel. Just a reminder: there were no Israelis going into Gaza since Israel withdrew in 2005. There were Gazans coming into Israel daily, to work here, to get medical treatment, etc. Without soldiers at the checkpoint, it would have been closed. By serving there, Adir wasn't just protecting Israelis, he was also serving the Palestinian population in Gaza.

On the day of the massacre, Adir fought back against the Hamas terrorist and saved many others, before he was killed in battle, when they shot an RPG at him. But then, they abused the body of this kid. They cut off parts of it, including beheading it. David Tahar, Adir's father, recently recounted how he watched a Hamas vid showing his son's headless body. What was left, was so mutilated, they had to identify it based on his dog tags, personal items he carried and DNA. During an interrorgation of two terrorists who were involved in this, it turned out that one of them tried to auction Adir's head for 10,000 $. The family originally had to bury the body, knowing its main parts were missing. The interrogation produced enough intel, for the IDF to be able to retrieve the head from where it was kept in an ice cream shop's freezer, with signs of further abuse on it. The family opened the grave and re-buried their kid.

They are now trying to raise enough money, to open a center for endangered youth, dedicated to Adir's memory, in the city where he lived, Jerusalem. The last time I saw an update, they were looking to raise 500,000 shekels, and got donations of 27,000 shekels. I really hope they succeed. Either way, may Adir's memory be a blessing.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

#israel #antisemitism #israeli #israel news #israel under attack #israel under fire #israelunderattack #terrorism #anti terrorism #hamas #antisemitic #antisemites #jews #jew #judaism #jumblr #frumblr #jewish #resources

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im-totally-not-an-alien-2 · 2 years

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Danny moves to Gotham to get away from his parents, who are still banned from entering Gotham City Limits after an incident at a Convention, and to attend Gotham City University. His problem is that the spirit and personification of Gotham City latches on to him like a killer moth to firefly, she adires having someone who can finally see and interact with her.

On one hand it can be a bit annoying but on the other hand she knows where all the best food is in Gotham, plus she let's him know when trouble is brewing within her city limits.

Lol, she also knows where the bats are at any given time and helps him avoid them. I love the image of Gotham acting like a needy child while Danny breaks out the "Tired Dad" energy

#the alien answers

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gooeyringtown · 6 months

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drummer au headcanons

barbie as a drummer in a grunge/garage rock band has been IN my mind so hard lately & well i had to do something…….

credits to @hellsfireclub & @el-fandom-phantom for some of these too btw <33 feeding my delusions 😋

it starts when barbie is like in 8th or 9th grade, she and her friends (probably ken & basketball ken [kingsley ben-adir’s ken, to clarify]) find some instruments at a garage sale or thrift store

they’re not in the greatest shape, but they get the job done and they sound decent. the three of them spend their afternoons after school playing random beats and just messing around, simply having fun while trying to get a hang of the instruments

barbie tries her luck with the guitar but she doesn’t quite like it. she can play it just fine, but she doesn’t feel it flow out of her the way it seems to for ken

(basketball ken plays the bass)

barbie has a little bit of a crisis…. her friends are really great at guitar & bass, and what about her!! what is she good at?? does she have any musical ability??

she doesn’t realize that whenever she listens to music, she is always tapping her foot/bouncing her leg, or drumming her fingers, or tapping out somehow, the rhythm of the song. always following the beat, without even thinking

basketball ken’s dad has an old drum set in the garage that barbie sees one day when they decide to practice at his house one afternoon

and as soon as barbie sees it…. it finally clicks

she is an absolute natural with the drums. the beat simply flows through her and it’s like she doesn’t even have to try

(obviously she does, though. she is only around 14/15, and far from the greatest in the world.)

she feels damn proud of herself though, for finally finding her calling. and she has so much fun playing. it’s addicting, and they’ll all spend hours, until barbie has nailed a new routine or solo and feels extremely satisfied

it continues like this through high school. as they get older, they get a little more ‘serious.’ aka they branch out and try new styles. ken takes up vocals alongside guitar, and basketball ken + barbie do back-up.

by senior year, they’ve amassed a pretty impressive base of people who know them. they mostly stick to covers, though they do dabble in attempting original music from time to time

(it’s also worth noting that all 3 of them can play the instruments interchangeably, but they strongly prefer to stick to their one, mainly)

they play local gigs at taverns & such in their town, and they’re always a blast

barbie finds herself loving & craving more of that. she’s obsessed with the feeling of the spotlight sort of on her, the adrenaline from when she’s cranking out this music, feeling the beat in her and causing people such a fun time. it’s the idea of creating that fills her with this joy

barbie saves up and for her graduation gift, her parents help her pay half and half for a new drum set. and this is quite possibly the happiest day of barbie’s life

the 3 of them take a gap year: basketball ken undertakes an internship at a law firm his mom is a partner at, ken is a leader at an equestrian camp, and barbie does some volunteer work at an animal shelter

in between their work, they still meet up and practice. the summer after their gap year is the greatest; they play with a renewed freedom, and let months of repressed musical talent finally bleed again.

they book gig after gig, at some local places for the summer but also branching out to new and nearby towns, just to get a taste

(barbie only seems to get prettier and prettier, and she most definitely has people lining up trying to get her attention. she is so oblivious though, and frankly, just not interested. no one has caught her eye. music is her priority and she’s busy with figuring school out and reworking her job schedule, so she doesn’t have time.)

that is, until, one night at a gig, barbie spots literally the most beautiful girl she has ever seen in the crowd, just before their set

she has these gorgeous big brown eyes that look at her for a second, and it’s enough to have barbie’s heart running wild. she finds herself playing with extra vigor that night, trying extra hard to be at her very best and shine just a little brighter

the kens definitely notice and are hyping her up like crazy after the show

“barbie, holy shit, you KILLED IT!” “where did THAT come from!!!”

turns out the girl is there with allan, ken’s friend. and she’s invited backstage with them

barbie turns to look at her, and the kens immediately know why barbie was so extra sublime that night

her name is gloria, and barbie is like marry me

the kens most definitely tease her immensely following that night. whenever they have an upcoming gig, barbie tries to very subtly and sneakily ask if any of ken’s friends will be there. (if allan will be there again.)

(her sneakiness is to no avail, though, because the kens know she’s asking if gloria will be there again, and they make so much fun of her.)

all barbie can do is blush and hide her face.

(though she does grumble that at least she has girls who have been interested, unlike the two of them.)

yep. that does the job. the kens are pouty messes for the rest of the day.

the next time barbie sees gloria at a show, gloria is wearing this pink flowery band-aid on her finger, from a little cut she received

barbie traces the pad of her finger along the band-aid, while the two of them sit on a couch backstage and talk

(it’s so subtle, her touch, but gloria’s heart is hammering in her chest.)

summer ends, and barbie goes off to school. it’s not too far away, but not close either. and gloria goes to school elsewhere. they definitely keep in touch though, and actually talk and text constantly

they meet up halfway during every possible chance they have. 3 day weekends, spring or winter breaks. you name it.

actually, for spring break, they have a gig. barbie has just turned 21, and they’re going to some bar in the dusty middle of nowhere

it’s an amazing show. gloria is there, so of course it is, for barbie

they buy her a round of shots afterwards, and they stay to dance and play pool

barbie sobers up and is quite hungry, so she and gloria sneak off to get some burgers and a milkshake

it’s nearly 2 in the morning by the time they leave, and the kens are probably wasted, so they decide to buy some cheap clothes to sleep in and find a motel to spend the night in

while gloria gets settled into their room, barbie goes out to get them some waters from the vending machine

when she comes back, she sits on the bed while gloria changes into the pajama shirt

but there’s a mirror … and gloria’s back is right there, with no bra, and barbie can see—

gloria looks up, and the two lock eyes through the mirror, and she knows barbie is looking

barbie flushes a fierce red, looking away quickly and feeling horribly invasive and gross. she gets up briskly and walks over to the bathroom, muttering a ‘sorry’ the whole way there

she shuts herself in, but the door is just barely closed when gloria knocks on it

barbie is shaking, but she opens it. she hasnt even turned the light on, and she is a tall shadow in the doorway

she and gloria stare at each other, for a few moments, the tension palpable

and then gloria pulls barbie down and kisses her

and fucking finally

(is what the kens say. and allan. everyone who knows them, pretty much.)

they start dating and are long distance while they go to school

barbie does this thing where she wears the pink flowery bandaids on her finger, the kind that gloria had on the night they first met

it kinda helps her feel like she is showing off her loyalty. it’s like her version of a promise ring, essentially

she also takes exceptional care of her hands, after gloria tells her how soft they are despite the expected callouses from years of drumming

granted, her right (and dominant) hand is a little more roughened up than her left, but they’re still very soft

(plus that little callousness, that touch of roughness, is delicious on gloria’s belly, trembling and pulled taut, as the softness of barbie’s other hand travels up the inside of gloria’s thigh and in between her legs)

(i mean come on. just because barbie isn’t a guitarist doesn’t mean her fingers aren’t deft and very skilled.)

gloria is a rockstar gf

no seriously like she’s at every one of barbie’s gigs, front row, and barbie dedicates every show to her.

(she kisses the bandaids on her fingers to give herself luck as well.)

barbie turns 22, and ken helps her paint her drum set pink. she also gets pink drumsticks

as a birthday gift, gloria gets barbie this heart shaped locket where she can put any picture in it

(barbie, of course, puts a picture of them kissing in it)

(gloria melts)

as a surprise, for their anniversary, barbie secretly writes a song for gloria. and at their gig, she performs it at the end of their set

gloria starts crying as she watches barbie sing and listens to her beautiful voice, knowing the song is just for her and how hard barbie must have worked on it

barbie pulls her onstage at the end of the song

and her hair is all messy and tousled, face glistening with light sweat, body warm and wired with energy, hands on gloria’s waist, blue eyes twinkling and smile so pretty and brilliant and in love

and so is gloria, so she throws herself around barbie and kisses her passionately, right under the pink concert lights in front of everyone

because her gf is a rockstar!!!!!

SORRY THIS IS MESSY but i needed to get it out <33 THEY ARE SO CUTE! my bbys

#barbie 2023 #barbie #glorbie #gloria x barbie #barbie x gloria #barbie headcanons #barbiegloria #glorbie headcanons #drummer au #margot robbie #america ferrera

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blue-cheeseinmyoffwhites · 9 months

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So I just came back from Barbenheimer (Barbie & Oppenheimer for those who’ve been living under a rock) and both movies were amazing.

Oppenheimer is about historical scientific breakthroughs & the drama that goes along with it. If you’re not into history then you won’t get this movie. It’s long I will say but it tells a really strong story about the man who started it all. A lot of faces I didn’t expect to see like Robert Downey Jr, Rami Malek, & even Josh Peck. Great movie all in all.

Barbie Barbie Barbie. This movie was made for what it looks like, fun. Lots of bright energy and funny moments with performances from a stellar cast. Margot Robbie played a great Barbie with a quite interesting story arc. Himbo king Ryan Gosling and his gay squire Kingsley Ben-Adir was everything to me. There are some powerful messages tied into the movie about self identity not just for girls, but for everyone. Bonus points for the bop at the end of the movie. Today was a great day to be a movie geek.

Also go watch They Cloned Tyrone on Netflix it’s awesome

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jewishpopculture · 9 months

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“Barbie” has finally been released to theaters.

Multiple Jewish actors appear in the film, including Kingsley Ben-Adir, Hari Nef, Ana Cruz Kayne, Ariana Greenblatt, Marisa Abela, and Rhea Perlman.

The inventor of the Barbie doll, Ruth Handler, was also Jewish.

Noah Baumbach, who co-wrote the script with the film’s director Greta Gerwig, is Jewish as well.

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catsharkie · 4 months

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the toruns:]

the toruns are a family in charge of a centuries-old passed-down library living at the edge of cardassian space. while the parents have been to cardassia prime their the kids still havent

neska balances helping her parents take care of her siblings (they need an extra pair of hands especially after their uncle moved to cardassia prime with his wife’s family) and preserving books+other writings through writing them down on paper (she believes the preservation of history+knowledge is important) after several corrupted files lost forever. shes in a long distance relationship with her betazoid gf (she visits her every once and a while. its really the only time she goes off planet) and hopes to one day take over the library

itral of course cares about her family, but doesn’t feel the same need to take over the library that neska does. she hopes to become a writer instead, and often dreams of going off to “the big city” (cardassia prime) with her friends. she also of course gets neska to sneak in her books into the library’s system without her mom knowing, despite them not being official and published and whatnot. she doesn’t need to know most of the folks there are agents looking for information and not people looking for a novel on the power of friendship

nayad loves cooking for her family (she thinks she’s the best cook in the world—they don’t have the heart to tell her when she messes up) and any other method of experimentation. neither of her parents have any experience in chemistry, but her grandma used to work in the obsidian order (no one else knows this) and has been teaching her the basics (and maybe some slightly deadly mixtures. just for the fun of it)

little adir and adori (twins) are the newest addition to the family, while unknown to everyone else adir will grow up to be a starfleet cadet and (hopefully) become a captain, and adori will grow up to absolutely love animals, with that eventually becoming an interest in xenobiology

#ds9 #deep space nine #star trek #oc #sharkie art :3 #itrals wearing the cardassian equivalent of camo

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commanderfloppy · 10 months

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Sometimes you just gotta find a nice bff in the desert, who knows your deepest darkest secret, and who you also make out with sometimes (platonically, totally)

Featuring @little-leaf-man 's Dutch

Original Meme below the cut:

#gw2 #my art #Adir #Dutch #if you can't tell these two have overtaken my mind a little #they are very funny also #love making out with my 'new friend'#love a guy who doesn't understand how friendship works/what being gay is #and another guy who is from 500 years ago and is unsure of the friendship standards of the modern day

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moonshine-nightlight · 2 years

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Nothing's Wrong with Dale: Part Sixteen

It’s been a week, but you’re fairly certain your fiancé accidentally got himself replaced by an eldritch being from the Depths. Deciding that he’s certainly not worse than your original fiancé, you endeavor to keep the engagement and his new non-human state to yourself.

However, this might prove harder than you originally thought.

Fantasy, arranged marriage, malemonsterxfemalereader, M/F

AO3: Nothing's Wrong with Dale - Chapter 16 - MoonshineNightlight - Original Work [Archive of Our Own]

[Part One] [Part Two] [Part Three] [Part Four] [Part Five] [Part Six] [Part Seven] [Part Seven.5] [Part Eight] [Part Nine] [Part Ten] [Part Eleven] [Part Twelve] [Part Thirteen] [Part Fourteen] [Part Fifteen] Part Sixteen [Part Seventeen] [Part Eighteen] [Part Nineteen] [Part Twenty] [Part Twenty-One] [Part Twenty-Two] [Part Twenty-Three] [Part Twenty-Four] [Part Twenty-Five] [Part Twenty-Six] [Part Twenty-Seven] [Part Twenty-Eight] [Part Twenty-Nine] [Part Thirty] [Part Thirty-One] [Part Thirty-Two] [Part Thirty-Two] [Part Thirty-Three] [Part Thirty-Four]

You excuse your maid, Miss Adir, once she’s finished helping you get ready for tonight. This is the first official wedding party.

Yes, some people have arrived for the wedding festivities. Yes, the tournament and the hunt were for the wedding. But they are not formal social events, not in the way tonight will be. Tonight is the first night you’ll be publicly announced, publicly introduced, along with Dale, as a betrothed couple—one who will be wed in less than a month’s time. There will be dancing, and feasting, and socializing, as there will continue to be for the next few weeks.

You’re grateful this first event is likely the smallest and that it's here, on this Northridge estate you are starting to think of home, as at least familiar, but your nerves are still holding you tight in their grip. And this is only the beginning as tomorrow you leave for the city for the next series of balls and galas until it’s time to come back here for the wedding itself. The weight and anticipation is making the air feel thick, prickling along your skin.

You don’t even know why it's making you such a wreck.

You’ve known practically your whole life you were going to get married—you wanted it back when it seemed like perhaps you’d not make it, when you were too sick to leave your bed for days. Even once you got better, once you started going to a real school—the idea was an exciting one. Then, when it had been harder for your parents to find you a match than expected, you grew worried once more that you would not get to have your own family. You were relieved and filled with trepidation when the match with Northridge was settled. Meeting Dale had only increased your conflicting feelings, but it had also solidified everything in your mind. He had been easy enough to read, to prepare for, to see the rest of your life with. You had felt strangely settled with that final piece in place, for good and for bad.

Then Dale changed and so did everything else. You found yourself back on that ship in a storm, ups and downs. Trying to weather waves you couldn’t predict.

Or maybe it's simply that you had focused only on being married—not getting married, with all the socializing and spotlight you’re not used to and don’t like.

Nothing to do about that now. Northridge is too steeped in tradition to have a simple marital feast on its own, Grandmother and Grandfather too invested in seeing their heir, their grandson—the only son of the son taken from them so violently—to have this affair be anything less than everything. Northridge has kept to itself these last few years in aprticular, their children scattered and so all too happy for an excuse to gather everyone together and celebrate.

You stand up from the chair before your dressing table where Miss Adir had pinned the last of your braids, unrolled the last of your curls, fixed the decorative comb in your hair just right. You run your hands over your skirts once standing, making sure nothing’s been crushed, no layers caught on each other. Your busk is pressing a bit against your sternum so you reach into your pockets and tug on your chemise to better adjust the padding in that area.

The white of your dress makes you a bit nervous for stains, but the patterns of dark blue and black that are part of the design help to mitigate that worry. Wearing such an obvious display of Northridge colors—only Northridge colors—is odd. They will be your colors soon, the light blue-gray and green of your family colors no longer the colors others will associate with you, with Portsmith. Only the white is the same between your new family and your old.

You remember seeing your oldest sister come home for summer solstice, a year after her marriage, in bright red and orange. It had felt wrong, it had made her feel like a stranger already—more of a stranger than she already was. Since her husband was from Khanit, she spent half the meal speaking in his language—speaking so fast you could barely catch a word or two despite your lessons.

That feeling had lessened over the time spent with her again, as she once more became familiar. Callalily had remembered to bring you books from her travels, had introduced you to new foods in the city, had helped convince Mother to let you try riding despite your still weak muscles. And yet…

You grasp the doorknob and walk through the doorway, trying to push such thoughts aside. You would not become someone new just because you are being married. Callalily likely didn’t either, you were just too young to understand the difference a year could make even without visible growth, even to an adult–missed all the other factors that had led to the change.

Of course, she didn’t marry a demon.

Maybe that’s where your renewed bout of anxiety was truly coming from.You hope that with the tournament out of the way, the opportunity for him to display certain inhuman strength or other characteristics is low—especially since he seems better contained at diner these days. Now the challenge will come from all the socializing that is to come. Will his memory of Dale’s ability to comport himself in social situations hold true? Will he remember everyone he should?

With so many people to talk with and interact with, the chances of him to say the wrong thing, for people to notice something as wrong with him, for someone to notice anything is incorrect, increases dramatically. What if someone far more versed in demons and the Depths and possession is able to simply look at Dale and know?

And you’re not particularly skilled at conversation–too much time alone when you were young. You’d been counting on the original Dale to dominate these conversations so you wouldn’t have to participate overmuch. Now, you need to navigate them with the demon possessing him.

You curl your fingers into your hand so your nails can dig in because you’ve just remembered your walking to the grand hall and you don’t know what expression is on your face, but you’re pretty sure, given the concern that passed over Miss Adir when she glanced at you, that it must not be a good one.

Breathing in deep, you try to calm down. You need to focus on right now, on what comes next—not all the wedding galas. Only this one. You can handle one ball, here in Northridge, can’t you? You can walk down the stairs even with all those eyes on you, you can dance with Dale and eat dinner and make polite conversation for one night. In just a few hours, you’ll be back in your quiet, dark, bed for the night—and you don’t even have to stay up tonight reading because you finished reading that book from Dale’s private study that the Steward had snuck you.

It had been surprisingly informative regarding herbal and plant remedies, beyond the demonic, and had a clear theme: very few things that could hurt a demon would not also poison a human. In fact, often stronger doses of poison for humans was what the book claimed to actually be effective against the demonic—both in their form or those possessed or those imbuing themselves with demonic energies and influences. Demonic influence often gave one strong abilities to resist such tactics—which is why they were sought out in the first place. And even substances which could hurt demons and not humans usually either had to be in very high concentrations, mixed in exacting quantities, or be given to one under the influence over a long period of time—none of which is Grandfather able to do at this time.

You can only hope he doesn’t stumble upon something genuine and that perhaps if you and Dale continue to be well despite whatever he does use, he might give up on this idea. Of course, the best way for him to lose faith in this theory would be for Dale to act as close to his original self as possible whenever Grandfather is around and that is out of your hands.

You’re jolted from your thoughts as a footman ushers you into a waiting room near the top of the grand staircase where other Northridge family members wait along with a few people you don’t recognize.

One of Dale’s cousins beckons you over and you wait for your own turn to be announced with them. However, as one of the main guests of honor, your turn is last so alone or in pairs, they leave—not having pressed you too hard for conversation which you’re grateful for.

There are few enough people still waiting, that you decide to stand up and linger closer to the door, ensuring that once again your skirts are sitting well.

“My lady?”

You straighten with a stifled noise of surprise to see Dale in the doorway of the waiting room. “Lord Dale,” you reply, hoping your voice only seems breathy to your own ears.

He takes his cane and slides it into a holder on his belt before offering you his arm. “It’s nearly our turn, if you are ready?”

“Yes,” you reply. Then you take stock of his outfit. He’s in matching Northridge colors, his pants and shirt are white to match your own, with a deep blue waistcoat and black overcoat, a matching black design on his waistcoat. It’s clear that they are making their statement tonight as the future Lord and Lady of Northridge as well as Northridge’s victory in the tournament.

“I’m pleased that we were able to coordinate well,” Dale says with a grin. “Grandmother hadn’t been sure we would, but I knew this dress of yours would go wonderfully with my suit.”

You had received a message regarding how to dress tonight, but you thought it had come from Grandmother, not Dale. “You remembered this dress?”

“Of course,” Dale replies as you walk over to the doorway, just out of sight, to wait for your cue. “You wore this lovely dress on the day we were introduced.”

“Oh, yes. I’d nearly forgotten,” you say, because you had. Dale had come in off a ship, a plain but well made travel suit in black is what he had been wearing. He had seemed to study you then, at that first meeting, you in his family colors. He had looked… satisfied enough by the end of his appraisal.

This Dale looked upon you with far more warmth in his eyes.

“You look splendid as well,” you blurt out, just now realizing that he’d complimented your dress, remembered it even, and yet you’d not done the same for him.

He preens at your words, smile growing as he pulls on his labels with his free hand. “Thank you, my Lady.” When his eyes meet yours once more, they are crinkled at the edges.

“…heir apparent, Lord Dale Tiberius of Northridge,” came a booming voice, interrupting your thoughts and letting you pull your eyes away from Dale’s. How long had you been caught this time? “And his betrothed, Lady…” You and Dale begin to walk as the herald says your name and your focus is drawn to making sure you don’t trip down this grand staircase—it’s never happened before, not outside of the school, but it’s something you only need to witness once before the fear is engraved upon your memory. Poor Melissa had broken her nose.

Dale keeps one hand on the railing and the other entwined with your own as he steadily guides the two of you down the stairs. You keep your skirts up enough to be confident in your footing, grateful that Dale is steering the pace—you always have to spend more than half your attention on not going too quickly and then overcompensating and going too slowly.

After the first step, you keep your head level as you look out over the packed grand hall. You hope your expression is appropriately schooled and doesn’t show any of your dismay at the large crowd. At least it is evening enough that the candle light flickers, aiding you in blurring the others present so that you might pretend there are fewer present. As you reach the floor, you walk over to greet Grandmother and Grandfather by the dais for supper.

However, they are not yet upon it as there is only one way to properly begin a betrothal ball: with a dance. Grandmother, with her voice skilled at projection, speaks of the match made between the pair of you and you are grateful that while speaking, you can simply look at her and not everyone else here.

“Our esteemed guests,” Grandmother winds down her speech and you can hear the musicians up in the higher ring of balcony which encircles this room begin to play softly, “please join me in inviting our lovely couple to start tonight’s festivities as those we are here to celebrate.”

Polite applause fills the room as Dale turns to you to murmur, “Shall we?” Of course you will, but something about the look in his eye is comforting, as if he would listen if you said no for some odd reason. It makes it that much easier to nod though and he leads you out to the dancefloor.

It’s a familiar song and a waltz you know, but everything about the situation feels new. Dale’s arm slides around your waist while his hand grasps yours. You always expect his arm to be warm against your back, but it isn’t. While not cold either, you mostly notice how solid and confident his hold is as he leads you through the first steps of the dance to the right. Fleeting concerns regarding his balance and his inability to use his cane while dancing flit through your mind, even as you keep each other steady.

Instead, your concerns turn in a new direction when his blue eyes with their deep pupils lock with your own. You’ve forgotten how much a formal dance of this kind requires eye contact with your partner. Dale’s eyes in particular hold such danger to you, so easy are they to fall into, that you’d not thought of how that might impact dancing with him.

As he turns you, you feel a momentary panic rise in you, the crowd around you a blur, before his gaze draws you back in like metal to a lodestone. His hand returns to your back as yours does to his own, your hands above your heads as you spin, eyes still training on each others’.

As you separate and come back together, you can’t help but think about what makes this dance different from the only other formal waltz you had with Dale. It's the way this Dale leads, you think, that is the most different. Dale had been an accomplished dancer, had prided himself on his ability and the dance had been fine, but as with most other things with him, it had come with expectation. As he danced with you, his gaze had been assessing, waiting, and evaluating you. He was a skilled dancer and he expected his future wife to be as well. Once he seemed satisfied with your skill, the focus had been on showing, impressing the others with his ability.

This Dale too is a proficient dancer but he seems to have more enjoyment in dancing itself, rather merely in the spectacle. He moves more naturally, there is less rigidity in his lead, less performance to it. Even something as simple as managing your height difference better makes every step and movement flow that much smoother. And without the added pressure of his expectation for you, it is easier for you to get swept up in the movement. You’ve always danced better when you’re able to stop thinking so hard.

The music picks up speed and so do you two. Lost in the moment it takes another separation for you to realize other couples, including Grandmother and Grandfather, have joined you on the dancefloor. You feel an additional bit of tension release in your shoulders now that you two are no longer the center of attention, now that others are here as well. You know you’ll still finish the dance by yourselves, but your self-consciousness eases for the moment.

The next spin pulls the pair of you even closer than before, the solid line of Dale’s body against yours in a way that sends a jolt of anticipation up your spine. While his hands weren’t warm before, they are now and every place the two of you touch seems to only grow more obvious, press on your senses, on your awareness more. As the dance slows in the middle, you can’t help but appreciate the subtle scent of wood and something spicy—perhaps cinnamon—that envelops Dale. The absurd urge to rest your head against him, to press even closer, enters your mind and refuses to leave.

You’re grateful when the dance picks up again, the air against your face as you spin helping you clear the haze your closeness had inspired even as his eyes call you to drown in them once more. Even that seems safer than your other thoughts and so you let him keep you captive with his gaze while you perform the last moves of the dance.

When you finally come to a stop, another polite round of applause fills the room before Grandmother starts to speak again. “While typically, I would have to ask my gracious grandson to relinquish his betrothed so that she might share a dance with the worthy knight who won the tournament, Lord Dale has decided to be selfish this evening.” Chuckles sound throughout the room, including from Dale himself while heat fills your cheeks. “In an effort to keep his fiance in his arms, he has valiantly won the tournament. And so, I invite you to once more lead us in a dance.”

“My thanks, Lady Deidre,” Dale replies, projecting his voice throughout the room as his Grandmother did. To the room at large, he says, “I do hope you’ll forgive my impudence and join us as you see fit.”

The atmosphere of the room, despite the wine not flowing for very long, is warm and cheerful as you begin the far faster dance, intended to mirror the athleticism of the tournament. This time, your concentration is primarily on the steps themselves, on keeping pace with Dale, on your breathing, and less on Dale himself—there’s simply not enough of your focus to manage it. Other couples are quicker to join you this time, although on a wide spin you notice Grandfather and Grandmother have elected to sit this particular newer, quick step dance out. Indeed, the others you catch glimpses of are younger in general, although there is one older couple in particular—contemporaries of Dale’s grandparents from the fief next to Northridge—who more than keep up.

By the time this dance finishes, the music continues without interruption and you find yourself breathing heavily. A glance up at Dale and you find yourselves in agreement as he leads you off the floor and towards the dais.

“I am starving,” Dale murmurs in your ear, his other hand covering your own on his arm. “How long until some food is brought out do you think?” While you are able to catch your breath, your heart continues to race nearly as fast as it did while dancing as Dale keeps you so close. You tell yourself it is merely because of the crowd, and the same reason for putting his head so close to your own to speak, but that doesn’t help you calm yourself for whatever reason.

“I believe Grandmother said Chef is going to test some recipes tonight for the wedding feast,” Dale continues as you weave through guests, nodding and smiling to those who catch his eye. As you get closer to the high table, you see that while food is not out yet, drinks certainly are. Nearly everyone you pass has wine. You decline the page offering you a glass, wanting some water after the dancing before you have anything else to drink. “ I hope some of it is venison. I particularly enjoy how Chef prepares it.”

Dale doesn’t have a free hand at the moment, given his free hand is over your own, and makes no move to change that. Unfortunately, that also means he hasn’t remembered to start using his cane again. Just as you’ve nearly reached Grandmother and Grandfather, someone jostles Dale and it's enough to disrupt his balance. His words stop abruptly as he starts to fall. You brace yourself, trying to help steady him as he nearly falls backwards, but end up hitting into the edge of his grandparents’ table all the same.

Grandfather comes over to help but in the confusion manages to lose hold of his completely full wine glass. You don’t know what instinct possesses you—likely it's merely the fact that it’s Grandfather’s—but you manage to tilt Dale in such a way that the spilled liquid ends up splashing over you and missing him entirely. The next minute is filled with more confusion as more people try to help, as a variety of handkerchiefs are handed over to you and you both are ushered into seats.

“At least it was only white wine,” you say with the best smile you can muster, wiping off your neck and collarbone with Dale’s handkerchief.

Grandmother agrees, while Grandfather watches you carefully before turning to order a page to bring a more substantial cloth for you to dry with. Something about that extra attention makes you realize that while the drink might have looked like wine, it didn’t feel like it. In fact, it feels far more like water, but mildly scented in some faint, but familiar way. You can’t quite put your finger on it though and you’ve no idea why Grandfather would lie about what he’d been drinking.

Or, given the glass had been full, not drinking. Had he spilled his drink on you on purpose? Even given his suspicions that doesn’t make any sense.

Between your swirling thoughts, all the additional attention, and Dale’s own sincere apology to you for kicking off this chain of mishaps, it’s not until a small hand towel is pressed into your hand and you return Dale’s damp handkerchief to him that you figure it out.

Since Grandfather is on the other side of the table, caught up in teasing from Grandmother about being clumsy after so little to drink, he’s unable to see what you do as Dale folds his handkerchief absentmindedly before looking down with a frown. He lets the handkerchief fall to the ground when he sees the way his fingertips and palm have reddened as if mildly burned where he had been holding it.

You’ve no idea where Grandfather managed to get blessed water from Mount Tresihorn, but he must have. You’ve heard all altars had a bottle of such water, the most prized for its purity and power, but for Grandfather to have been able to get it worries you—as well as him willingly wasting so much. How much more does he have? Will this convince him that it won’t work on you? What about Dale? Will this convince him his theory is wrong or only drive him to consider new methods?

Dale reaches for the towel you set down and wipes his hands off. You can’t help the relief that fills you when his hands come away with no burns. It must only be direct contact with the water that causes the reaction. As your eyes linger on his hands, you feel like you are being watched so your eyes dart up to where Grandfather is only to find him still turned away from you.

Your eyes swing up to find Dale’s fixed on you, his body as rigid as it had been in the tent. You can’t read them and you’re strung too tight to do anything more than offer him a weak smile before busying yourself with pouring some water. You hope this isn’t a sign of how stressful the next few weeks are going to be. You’re not sure you can handle this much excitement.

[Part Seventeen]

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