#because the Nile Freeman tag :) is for posts :) about Nile Freeman :) :) :)

[astrabear]

I posted 810 times in 2022

That's 489 more posts than 2021!

363 posts created (45%)

447 posts reblogged (55%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@fruityculture

@raedear

@astrabear

@beepbeepsan

@ongreenergrasses

I tagged 684 of my posts in 2022

Only 16% of my posts had no tags

#ask game - 102 posts

#my fic - 100 posts

#the old guard - 96 posts

#the old guard fanfiction - 35 posts

#life of a writer - 31 posts

#nicolo di genova - 22 posts

#andromache the scythian - 19 posts

#yusuf al kaysani - 18 posts

#nile freeman - 18 posts

#quynh - 16 posts

Longest Tag: 135 characters

#obligatory clarification that i don't think there's anything inherently bad about putting on different accessories and making them kiss

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

I really enjoyed Our Flag Means Death and I'm glad a second season has been confirmed, but as an Old Guard fan it has been hilarious to see the OFMD crowd acting like waiting an entire ten weeks for news of a sequel was torture. You are a child, an infant. Your impatience is thus infantile. Our fandom has forgotten more ways to yearn for updates than entire stan armies will ever learn.

218 notes - Posted June 2, 2022

#4

Thinking about “We all remember what it was like.” They all remember, even Nicky and Joe who came into immortality together. After almost a thousand years, Nicky still remembers the confusion and fear and alienation, enough that it makes finding this new immortal their most urgent task.

My favorite fic treatments of their first deaths really lean into this. Not just surprise or awe, but horror. Going a little bit out of their minds, begging to die and stay dead, because that’s what humans do, that’s how the world is supposed to work. I feel it viscerally, imagining the terror of finding yourself so profoundly apart from everything you’ve ever known to be true.

And the only other person who’s in it with you is the enemy you were trying to kill. This is the real impediment to replicating their dynamic in an AU. Anyone can run the enemies-to-lovers course. But enemies to “I still hate you and I don’t understand you but you are the only solid ground in this terrifying new reality and I think if we don’t hold onto each other we’ll lose everything” to lovers is pretty hard to capture in any other setting. 

282 notes - Posted April 4, 2022

#3

unofficial poll time

You are reading fanfic. The source property is set in the present day. The fic, maybe because it’s an AU or the canon just works that way, is set in a noticeably different historical period. Which of these answers most accurately reflects your feelings? (choose all that apply)

A. I like it when the writing style (both dialogue and narration) is period-appropriate, or at least a general approximation thereof.

B. I like the dialogue to be period-appropriate, but it’s fine (or even preferred) for the narration to feel more modern.

C. I don’t care either way, as long as there aren’t glaring anachronisms.

D. I prefer that both the dialogue and narration are similar to what I’m used to reading and seeing. So not modern slang or anything like that, but I don’t want it to be jarringly different.

E. I like it when the characters speak the way I’m used to them speaking, even if it’s not period-appropriate.

F. I simply don’t read fics set in past eras.

G. The only thing that matters is that it’s well written.

H. English is not my first language, so old-fashioned phrasing and vocabulary is more difficult for me to read.

I. I actively dislike attempts at period language unless the writer has done enough research to do it correctly.

J. I honestly couldn’t tell you in advance what kinds of things are likely to throw me out of the story, I just know that there’s a potential for it to happen.

K. I read fic because I like the characters and tropes. I don’t pay attention to writing style.

L. Other (in tags)

Please share and answer in the tags. This is very relevant to something I’m working on and I’d like to get some outside perspective.

315 notes - Posted June 13, 2022

#2

The violence at the end of the episode was upsetting, but I tell you, what has stuck with me in the days since I watched it was "Which one of you gonna fuck me?!" It haunts me. Deeply shocking, viscerally repulsive, absolutely heartbreaking... and just the tiniest bit funny. It's like a gut punch every time I think about it.

I think a very young Claudia is much better suited to a written format. A five or six year old actor can't give the kind of performance that's required... and some things just wouldn't be right to do with a child actor of any age. But a 19-year-old playing a character who's physically 14 opens up so many tragic, horrifying possibilities.

And Bailey Bass is so good. I can't get her face out of my head. "And after forty years... still little boys?" God, there's just so much going on. And you feel all of it.

388 notes - Posted October 26, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

The tough thing about boundaries is that it’s not enough to state them, you have to enforce them.

I think some folks see “setting boundaries” as a kind of magic talisman to influence other people’s behavior. “I’ll tell you what I need or can’t accept, and you will act accordingly.” And sometimes that’s what happens, and that’s great! But if the other person disregards your stated boundaries, it doesn’t mean setting boundaries didn’t work.

Because boundaries aren’t about others’ behavior, they’re about your own. If the other person’s behavior doesn’t change, then yours has to. “Please don’t discuss [x topic] with me” is a request. “If you continue to talk about [x topic] then I will end this conversation/hang up/leave” is a boundary, which you must then enact. The point is less about stopping the other person (although that’s ideal) and more about protecting yourself. And you have to be committed to protecting yourself, because no one else will be.

You have to be so committed that you’re willing to tolerate other people being hurt or angry or uncomfortable. You have to accept that some relationships might change. You have to hold onto the idea that it’s all right for them to change, because the way they were before was hurting you, and you deserve to not be hurt. You gave them a choice: maintain a relationship or keep doing the thing that hurts you, and they chose to keep hurting you, so if the situation is now awkward or unpleasant that was because of their choice. Enforcing boundaries means deciding that if someone is going to feel bad here, it need not be always and only you.

There is no magic formula that will make other people treat you kindly and respectfully. But you can learn to treat yourself with kindness and respect. That’s what enforcing a boundary is.

9,690 notes - Posted July 17, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

[kpg-1126]

A little while ago @thatonesquintern13 posted about comfort characters, and tagged me. I was thinking about it at the time, and I don't really have *individual* comfort characters, but I'm very comforted by certain pairings I've been obsessed with, and if I need to randomly calm myself, will definitely revisit any of these (TV edition).

I've left Pattison off this because I kinda post about them all the time (understatement), but they are now up there with these folks, which is top-tier status. But these five pairings definitely contributed to the kcfh fanfic, sometimes in really overt ways. 🤡

Mulder & Scully 5x05 The X-Files

The only one of these pairings where I've dressed up as one of the characters for Halloween (but honestly every time I wear a suit I'm pretending I'm Scully--it's the only benefit).

Lois & Clark - 9x02 - Smallville

My advice - don't watch the whole show, just watch the episodes with Lois. (Kidding a little, because there's soooo much bizarre context, but still...) Bonus points that a lot of these eps (season 8+) also have Cassidy Freeman being ambiguously villainous.

My OG Lois & Clark - 1x01 - Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman

These two are probably my original couple crush. It's a bisexual's dream ...😏😍 (so are Mulder & Scully and Elizabeth & Darcy (1995), to me, anyway.)

Daphne & Niles - 4x06 - Frasier

Probably my original long-running will they / won't they obsession. David Hyde Pierce is so good at pining (see above). Jane Leeves is adorably oblivious (while also hot) (see above).

Elizabeth Bennet & Fitzwilliam Darcy - Ep. 2/6 - Pride & Prejudice (1995)

This will always be my Elizabeth and Darcy - I saw them first right after I read the book. But keep making adaptations, please, I will watch them all.

#comfort characters? #previous obsessions? #same thing

[nicojoe]

I posted 1,322 times in 2022

72 posts created (5%)

1,250 posts reblogged (95%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@hachinana87

@polarcell

@nicojoe

@hoax1918

@regina-del-cielo

I tagged 1,320 of my posts in 2022

#the old guard - 897 posts

#yusuf al kaysani - 601 posts

#fan art - 551 posts

#nicolo di genova - 500 posts

#kaysanova - 357 posts

#andromache the scythian - 125 posts

#the old guard 2 - 120 posts

#nile freeman - 101 posts

#luca marinelli - 99 posts

#marwan kenzari - 96 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#now i've got this mental image of yusuf pitching his voice lower for the first few months he and nicolo travelled together because he wanted

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

FIRST SET PICS FROM TOG2

SPOILER (kinda) behind the cut:

(x)

454 notes - Posted June 17, 2022

#4

I’m just gonna imagine they have a cast group chat 🥺

(x)

477 notes - Posted May 26, 2022

#3

Luca Marinelli and Marwan Kenzari film a scene on July 4th at the Molo Audace in Trieste, Italy (x)

625 notes - Posted August 10, 2022

#2

Nicolò and Yusuf, “First Smile”

🌚🌝

749 notes - Posted June 14, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

i saw someone say that OFMD’s queer rep is unprecedented in mainstream entertainment and started to feel myself get a little exasperated when i realized that Netflix is entirely at fault for not properly promoting The Old Guard for what it is.

the general public (if they were even aware of it) assumed it was just another dumb, straight-to-streaming action flick when instead it’s essentially a found family story about a diverse group of queer immortals who’ve used their indestructible bodies to fight against oppression for centuries. 

1,082 notes - Posted April 17, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #i quite literally cannot stop laughing that my third most reblogged person was myself #WOW i'm an ass #hahahaha #(also... yusuf being far and away my most-tagged immortal is the opposite of a shocking revelation lmao)

[hauntedfalcon]

particularly stunning Nile Freeman moments, part 2 of ∞

#The Old Guard for ts #Nile Freeman #Nile Freeman Fridays #because the Nile Freeman tag :) is for posts :) about Nile Freeman :) :) :)

[moonlightperseus]

Nile wakes up to the smell she can only describe as ‘breakfast’. Stretching her arms and legs out, she notes that she is decidedly not in the bed she had claimed in the safe house. It takes her a second to realize she is on the couch, and another to remember watching movies with Nicky late into the night. She smiles, realizing they must’ve fallen asleep sometime during their watch of Emperor’s New Groove- which Nile had been appalled to learn Nicky had never seen. (“It is a child’s movie?” “No! Well, technically, yes, but it’s a masterpiece. We have to watch it next.”) Stretching out again, she forces her eyes to open and finds that her head is pillowed on the dark fabric of one of Nicky’s hoodies. She smiles again as she pictures Nicky carefully folding the hoodie to tuck beneath her head. This trip has ended up showing Nile a whole other side to the nine hundred year old Italian man, she had seen glimpses of it before- his ‘kindness beyond reason’ as Joe called it- usually when he was with Joe, sometimes with Andy, but this trip has been the first time she had it directed at her in full. 

(This trip where they were only have supposed to have been gone two full days max- one day to scope the target out and the next to ‘quietly eliminate him,’ as Copley had said- they passed that two day deadline three days ago. The hit itself was easy, it was the unforeseen massive snowstorm that suddenly hit the exact area in Russia that they happened to be in that has led them to being on day five of their supposed ‘two day max’ trip.)

With another deep inhale of the enticing smell of whatever fancy breakfast Nicky was undoubtedly cooking, Nile pushes the blanket that had been carefully laid on top of her- another one of Nicky’s kindnesses- off of her, and forces herself to get up. 

Of course as soon as she stands she is met with the chill of the air- while this safe house thankfully has heating, the structure is old with cracks and gaps that lets the cold seep in- the chill sends a shiver down her spine. Nile glances back at Nicky’s hoodie, debates it for a split second and then grabs it up and slips it over her head. She’s pleasantly surprised to find it still warm- Nicky must’ve only pulled it off himself recently- and she snuggles into it slightly. The hoodie is large on her, the sleeves hanging past her hands, and Nile is met with a fond memory of being a child, wearing her mother’s jacket when she had forgotten to bring her own and she had complained to her mother of being cold. The memory is bittersweet, as memories of her old life always are, she wraps her arms around herself and lets the moment come and pass, breathing through the feelings. 

The memory passes, and her stomach grumbles and she is once again reminded of the delicious smell wafting from the kitchen. She lets the smell guide her.

Nicky is standing at the stove, his back is turned to Nile but she can faintly hear him humming softly under his breath as he uses a spatula to flip whatever it is he’s cooking. He looks… relaxed, she can’t see his face, but his posture is the most relaxed she’s seen since they had left on this mission, he doesn’t like being apart from Joe- and Nile suspects, now that Andy is mortal, being apart from her is harder too- and he had been… less than pleased when the snowstorm hit, keeping them apart for even longer. 

“Did you sleep well?” 

Nicky’s back is still turned to Nile, attention fixed on the pan in front of him. Nile blinks, there’s no one else in the room- or in the safe house at all for that matter- for him to be speaking to, but Nile still hesitates for a moment, caught off guard. 

“As well as one can on a couch, I suppose.” Nile says finally. 

She goes to roll her shoulders in an attempt to alleviate the ache one comes to expect after falling asleep on a couch, she pauses mid-movement- there’s no ache in her shoulders, neck, back, anywhere. 

“Oh,” She says softly, finding herself amazed by yet another perk of her immortality, “actually, better than one normally does on a couch.”

Nicky spares a glance over his shoulder at her, he has one eyebrow raised slightly, but Nile can see the small smile tugging at his lips.

“How about you-” Nile pauses, trying to search her memory to see if she had any recollection of Nicky moving off the couch in the night, she doesn’t- “did you sleep well?”

“You don’t snore, if that’s what you’re asking.” 

Nile nods, though it’s more to herself, as Nicky’s attention is back on the food he is cooking. “...does Joe snore?”

Nicky turns and points at her with a spatula, “Not that we speak of.”

His tone is stern, but the smile is still tugging at his lips, betraying any real menace in his words. 

Nile grins, filing this information in the back of her mind- along with all the other silly mundane things she’s got on the other immortals, for “blackmail” purposes. (She grew up doing the same thing for her younger brother and some habits you don’t break.)

“What are you making?” Nile asks, finally moving from her spot in the door way to grab a cup of coffee.

“Just a frittata, though we did not have some of the ingredients I would prefer to have used, but it will do.”

Nile smiles again, “Knowing your cooking, ‘it will do’ is an understatement.”

#the old guard #nile freeman #nicolo di genova #the old guard fic #brotp: nile & nicky #tog fic #abby writes #mine #my fic #fanfic #tuserkayla #tusermj #usercacau #me: *shyly tagging people* #anyways i felt very strongly about the first half... and the middle half a bit too and then i reached the last half and was like #'what the fuck do i do now' #so pls ignore the simple ending #i wanted to just... post this instead of get too carried away with this concept. because i was on the verge of getting too carried away #disclaimer: this is /strictly platonic/ if i see ANY one shipping nicky & nile on this post i will punt you into outer space #but yeah. i think we deserve nicky and nile bonding trip. as a treat

[nevermindirah]

Do you have any thoughts on the use of AAVE for Nile (or lack thereof) in TOG fanfiction? I've been reading some Book of Nile fic and some writers seem to write her as a Millennial™ (using words like "fave" and "woke") but never acknowledge her Blackness in her patterns of speech. I know we don't see her use as much AAVE in the films, but I would argue she's in situations where code-switching would be valued (first in a "professional" environment in the army, then around a group of non-Black strangers).

Hi anon! I have many thoughts on this and I'm honored you asked me! But I should start by saying I'm white and any thoughts Black fans and especially Black American fans have on this that they want to share would be beyond lovely. (I'm not gonna tag anybody bc that feels rude but please add onto this post if any of y'all see this and want to!)

The main reason I personally avoid AAVE for Nile in my own fics is because I'm not Black. But Nile-centric fics by Black writers tend to avoid using much of it too, at least from what I've noticed/understood, and my guess is it's largely for the reason you mention, that she's in situations that encourage code-switching.

In movie canon Nile is highly competent at tailoring her language to each situation she finds herself in. This fantastic linguistics analysis meta shows how skillfully Nile chooses her vocabulary and grammar to meet her goals with different conversation partners in different contexts. In comics canon Nile had a bunch of different civilian jobs before joining the Marines, so she would've had experience code-switching in the ways that made sense for all those different contexts as well as the Marines and her family and high school and wherever else she spent her time before we met her. And now she's spending her time with a handful of immortals none of whom are native English speakers and a fellow Black American but one with a Queen's English UK accent whose professional experience is in the CIA where high-status code-switching is often an absolute must for success or even survival.

Fics featuring Nile are charged with extrapolating from that to how it might show up in her use of language that she's coping with a traumatic separation from her family and her career and pretty much everything she's ever known and now she needs to be able to make herself understood to people who seem to care about her and each other but are super duper in crisis, three (soon to be four) of whom predate Modern English entirely and the only one who's anywhere near her contemporary she's not supposed to talk to for a century. All of these people are telling her that pretty much any contact with any mortals poses an existential threat to her and the rest of the group. How the FUCK is she supposed to cope with that, like, generally? And would it be a more effective way for her to cope if she talked to Andy Joe and Nicky using the speech patterns that she used to use with her mom and brother, to at least retain that part of her identity even if it means having to do a lot of explaining, or would it meet her needs better to prioritize Andy Joe and Nicky understanding what she means with her words over using the particular words and grammar forms she used with her family?

I've seen several fics, both Nile-centric / BoN and otherwise, explore this a little bit in how/whether Nile uses Millennial™ speak. It's often a theme in Nile texting Booker despite the exile because of the popular headcanon that he as The Tech Guy is the only other immortal who understands memes. But Nile's much-younger-than-Booker mom probably uses Boomer and/or Gen X memes and Andy has been adapting to new communication styles for forever as evidenced by her canon high level of fluency with standard-American-accented English.

Which brings us back to people avoiding AAVE because they're not Black and they don't want to make mistakes (or they're not Black and they don't want to get yelled at for making mistakes, though I think many people overestimate how much they'll get yelled at while underestimating how much these mistakes can hurt). I can imagine some Black fans hold back from using much AAVE in fic because they don't want to share in-group stuff with white people who are likely to then adopt and ruin it, as white people so often do with Black cultural stuff. Some links about this including a great Khadija Mbowe video. I'm saying this gently, anon, because you might not know: woke, an example you cited as Millennial™ speak, is AAVE, and that's gotten erased by so many white people appropriating it and using it incorrectly online.

And also there's the part where fandom is a hobby and you never know when you're reading a fic that's the very first thing someone's ever written outside of a school assignment. This cultural considerations of language shit takes a level of effort and skill that not everybody puts into every fic, or even could if they wanted to because they haven't had time to build their skills yet. It's definitely easier for non-Black fans to project our millennial feels onto Nile than to do the layers of research and self-reflection it requires to depict what Blackness might mean to Nile, and it's not surprising that often people sharing their hobby creations on the internet have gone the easier route. There's not even necessarily shame in doing what's easier. It's just frustrating and often hurtful when structural white supremacy means that 3-dimensional Black characters are rare in media and thoughtful explorations of them in fandom are seen by the majority of fans as not-easy to make and therefore Nile Freeman, the main character in The Old Guard (2020) dir. Gina Prince-Bythewood, has the least fic and meta and art made about her of our 5 main immortals.

I've been active in different fandoms off and on for twenty years and I barely managed to write 5,000 words about Sam Wilson across multiple different fics in the 7 years since I fell in love with him. There's an alchemy to which characters we connect with, and on top of that which characters we connect with in a way that causes us to create stuff about them. Something about Nile Freeman finally tipped me over the edge from a voracious reader to a voracious writer. It's not for me to judge which characters speak to other individuals to the level of creating content about them, but I do think it's important for us to notice, and then work to fight, the pattern where across this fandom as a whole Nile gets way less content, and way less depth in so much of the content that's in theory about her, than any of these other characters.

Anyway, back to language. My two long fics feature Nile with several Black friends — Copley and OCs and cameos from other media — but all of those characters except Alec Hardison from Leverage aren't American. It's very possible I'm guilty of stereotyping Black British speech patterns in I See Your Eyes Seek a Distant Shore. I watched hours and hours of Black haircare YouTube videos in the research for that fic and I modeled my OCs' speech patterns on what I heard from some of those YouTubers as well as what I've heard people like John Boyega and Idris Elba saying in interviews, but the thing about doing your best is you still might fuck up.

I'm slowly making progress on my WIP where Nile and Sam Wilson are cousins, and what ways of talking with a family member might be authentic for Nile is a major question I need to figure out. For that, I'm largely modeling my writing choices on how I hear my Black friends and colleagues talking to each other. I haven't overheard colleagues talking in an office in a long-ass time, but back when that was a thing, I remember seeing a ton of nuance in the different ways many of my Black colleagues would talk to each other. Different people have different personalities! And backgrounds! And priorities! A few jobs ago my department was about 1/3 Black and we worked closely with Obama administration staff many of whom were Black and there was SO MUCH VARIETY in how Black people talked to each other, about work and workplace-appropriate personal stuff, where I and other white coworkers could hear. There are a few work friends in particular who I have in my head when I'm trying to imagine how Sam and Nile might talk to each other. From the outside looking in, God DAMN is shit complicated, intellectually and interpersonally and spiritually, for Black people who are devoting their professional lives to public service in the United States.

One more aspect of this that I have big thoughts on but I need to take extra care in talking about is the idea of acknowledging Nile's Blackness in her patterns of speech. There's no one right way to be Black, and Nile's a fictional character created by a white dude but there are plenty of real-life Black Americans who don't use much or even any AAVE, for reasons that are complicated because of white supremacy. (Highly highly recommend this video by Shanspeare on the harms of the Oreo stereotype.)

Something that's not the same but has enough similarity that I think it's worth talking about is my personal experience with authenticity and American Jewish speech patterns. My Jewish family members don't talk like they're in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and I've known lots of people who do talk that way (or the millennial version of it), some of whom have questioned my Jewishness because I don't talk that way. That hurts me. Sometimes when another Jew tells me some shit like "I've never heard a Jew say y'all'd've," I can respond with "well now you have asshole, bless your Yankee-ass heart," because the myth of Dixie is a racist lie but I will totally call white Northerners Yankees when they're being shitty to me for being Southern, and this particular Jew fucking revels in using "bless your heart" with maximum polite aggression, especially with said Yankees. But sometimes I don't have it in me to say anything and it just quietly hurts having an important part of me disbelieved by someone who shares that important part of me. The sting isn't quite the same when non-Jews disbelieve or discount my Jewishness, but that hurts too.

Who counts as authentically Jewish is a messy in-group conversation and it doesn't really make sense to explain it all here. Who counts as authentically Jewish is a matter of legal status for immigration, citizenship, and civil rights in Israel, and it's my number 2 reason after horrific treatment of Palestinians that I'm antizionist. But outside that extremely high-stakes legal situation, it can just feel really shitty to not be recognized as One Of Us, especially by your own people.

It can also feel really shitty to be The Only One of Your Kind in a group, even if that group is an immortal chosen family who all loves each other dearly. Sometimes especially in a situation like that where you know those people love you but there are certain things they don't get about you and will never quite be able to. I'm definitely projecting at least a little bit of my "lonely Jew who will be alone again for yet another Jewish holiday" stuff onto Nile when at the end of I See Your Eyes Seek a Distant Shore she's thinking about being the only Black immortal and moving away from the community she'd built with a mostly-Black group of mortals in that fic. Maybe that tracks, or maybe that's fucked up of me.

Basically, this got very long but it's complicated, writing about experiences that aren't your own takes skill which in turn takes time and practice to build, writing about experiences not your own that our society maligns can cause a lot of harm if done badly, it can also cause a lot of harm when a large enough portion of a fandom just decides to nope out of something that's difficult and risky because then there's just not much content about a character who deserves just a shit ton of loving and nuanced content, people are individuals and two people who come from the exact same cultural context might show that influence in all kinds of different ways, identity is complicated, language is complicated, writing is hard, and empathy and humility and doing our best aren't a guarantee of avoiding harm but they do go a long way in helping people create thoughtful content about a character as awesome and powerful and kind and messy and scared and curious and WORTHY as Nile Freeman.

#nile freeman #linguistics #TOG POC Love Fest #nileweek2021 #tog meta #tog #long post #mine #antiblackness #jewish things #hi i'm an antizionist jew no i don't really want to talk about it

[chinchillinator]

Rating: General Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply

Category: Gen

Fandom: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)

Relationship: Andy | Andromache of Scythia & Nile Freeman & Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani & Nicky | Nicolò di Genova

Characters: Nile Freeman, Andy | Andromache of Scythia, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani, Nicky | Nicolò di Genova

Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Fluff and Humor, Team Bonding, Heist, POV Nile Freeman, very important paragraphs devoted to what everyone is wearing, no seriously that's about half the reason i wrote this fic

Language: English

Summary:

“If you’re about to finders-keepers me, James,” she said. Copley looked like he was seriously considering handing them over to a whole new big pharma company.

“I understand this is important to you,” he said diplomatically, “but I can’t just get back everything you’ve all lost, even if we do know exactly where it is.”

“I’m not asking for everything,” Andy said. “I’m asking for this thing.” She smiled like it was some sort of compromise and Nile looked directly at her shoes to hide her amusement.

---

Or, what is museum if not a setting for a new, fun episode of How to Annoy James Copley?

I wrote this for the amazing, incredible, lovely @gallifreyburning! Love to know you love it, friend!!💖💖💖

Silly heist fic full of fun and fluff and humor and banter and, of course, my patented Feelings because I can never resist. But they’re tender feelings, I promise. It’s a good time.

#the old guard #tog #nile freeman #sometimes i write stuff #sometimes its for my friends! #battle buddies

[isabellehemlock]

First Lines

Tagged by the endearing @mekana47 thank you for your patience love as I catch up on tags!

Rules: List the first lines of the last ten (10) stories you published. Look to see any patterns you notice yourself, and see if anyone else notices any. Then tag some friends.

Ten fics in descending posting order with the first couple of paragraphs, and patterns I noticed, under the cut

Their souls were knit together (and he loved him as himself) - a Joe x Nicky precanon fic

Yusuf was an hour away from dying.

He hadn’t known it at the time but that night, with the air still dry and hot even long after the sun had settled, he rested his hand over the saif at his side, and tilted his head back to look up at the stars above him. A thin sheen of sweat coated the back of his neck, and he gripped the handle harder to help ground himself. Normally the sight of the constellations above him felt comforting, something bigger than himself that stretched farther than the horizon, all the way back to Mahdia where he could imagine his younger sister, Mariam, staring up at them at the same time.

Do you feel held? - a Joe x Nicky post canon fic

It had been weeks.

And though Joe and Nicky knew better than most that time helped ease pain, they also knew you couldn’t rush it. Couldn’t put it off, and pretend that it didn’t affect you, let it get buried deep in your gut, only to churn and churn and churn - until it revolted, and rushed up into your throat, burning it’s way through the tissue until the only way to release yourself from the pain was to gasp out how much it hurt.

That Time in Malta - a Joe x Nicky quackverse fic (lol do I even own this? 🙈)

Yusuf and Nicolò had arrived at the island of Malta, weary from yet another round of men of either of their hybrid species fighting over land again, but resolved to make the most of their vacation anyways.

If there was one thing they had learned in the previous five centuries of their immortality, it was that people were people. Good, bad, and everything in between, all rolled into one ego driven person who needed self awareness in order to be truly compassionate.

They still had hope. They always would. Because they had killed each other in the past, and changed for the better since, bearing each other as both testament and witness - they clung to that belief, no matter how much the world kept sending out reminders that they were the exceptions, and not the rule.

The Returning - a slight canon divergence for Nile Freeman

Nile coughed as she came back to life, taking in big gulps of stale air as her body rolled onto its side before her mind caught up to what had happened.

The woman had shot her in the desert, but she had woken up in a dark room, the floor beneath her caked in a thick layer of dust. Her fingers left behind streaks on the linoleum as she pushed herself up to a seated position - and tried to get her bearings.

This had been the second time she had woken up in the room.

all we have is now - a modern au with a fairytale twist for Joe x Nicky

Joe had given his security detail the slip an hour earlier, quite the statement to their lack of preparation if anyone really thought about it too long, but having managed not to attract any attention past the staff pausing to give him polite bows, he weaved his way through the ornately decorated halls and down the winding staircases of the old castle.

He had reached the underground tunnels on the lowest level of the stone building, a maze of passageways that were overgrown with weeds and smelled damp enough to make his nose crinkle. He only hoped the scent wouldn’t linger on his clothes, especially the red hoodie he had borrowed - since he quite enjoyed the way it smelled like the forest several miles to the north.

Miracoli - a Daan x Paolo Crossover AU

Paolo kneeled down in front of the stroller to help make sure Italia’s lower half was covered by the thin blanket. The night air was colder in the Netherlands than in Italy, but the humidity of the summer temperatures made it comfortable for an evening stroll. Both of them needed some time away from the cramped attic apartment they had moved into two days earlier, and Paolo gently tucked the fabric along Italia’s sides.

She was sleepy, her eyes half closed already, but when she felt her father’s warm hands brush over her arms, her lips curved into a smile that made him pause. It wasn’t her mother’s smile, but Nunzia’s, and Paolo watched as it faded away with Italia’s fatigue.

Endlessly - the final part of the Endless Ocean series, a Joe x Nicky Modern AU

Nicky felt the sunlight filtering in through the curtains he could have sworn he had shut last night. But it didn’t matter, the alarm would be going off in another twenty minutes anyway, and seeing as their door was still closed he began to turn as best as he could in Joe’s arms.

His handsome husband was still asleep, limbs entangled with his just as he liked it, unable for Nicky to slip away from him as if I would want to. His senses were as sharp as ever though, groggily opening his eyes to gaze down at him with a soft grin, “Happy anniversary.”

Endless Love - the second part of the Endless Ocean series - feat. two OCs, Lucio x Derek

Splash.

Lucio looked up from the papers on his desk at the familiar sound outside, one that he hadn’t heard since Nicolò had left a year and a half ago. He had missed him of course, but he couldn’t allow himself the feeling of happiness at seeing his son return to such uncertainty.

Called You By Name - a pre canon Nicky fic

About a half day’s walk west from the port of Genova, was the small village that Nicolò was born in.

He hadn’t seen it for almost two hundred years, but now as he scanned the mountainous area from a nearby hill, his eyes narrowed at the cluster of homes flowing with the paths of curved roads. His family’s home was situated on an elevated plane, purposely arranged to impose a watchful eye over the small number of residents that lived there year round.

He knew not long after leaving for Genova that his family’s insistence on propriety and social standing was more reliant on what others thought of them, versus any sort of ancestral claim. But growing up in the biggest home in the area, and seeing how many people answered to his father when it came to business within the village, it was understandable that he would believe the expectations of his family.

Nicolò’s eyes grew heavy as he stared ahead, still questioning why he had even bothered to return.

Catch Me If I Fall - Part II - a Joe x Nicky omegaverse fic

Nicky stared at the boxed gift sitting on the chair in the large walk in closet.

This was their last day at the honeymoon suite, and though Joe had done so much and more for him already, he had surprised him by pulling out two boxes from an extra suitcase he had been keeping under the bed. He placed one box near the pillow, and the other in the closet, suggesting Nicky open it before he picked out his outfit.

More than curious, he reached for the container, tugging at the red silk ribbon till he was able to lift the lid off.

Nicky's bright eyes widened at the sight, before his vision blurred at Joe's kindness. With everything that had been happening this past week, including so many wonderful new experiences, Nicky hadn't really thought anything could top the last seven days.

Patterns: so hmmm, the patterns I noticed from things I've posted since August is . . . I definitly enjoy trying to capture the vibes in the first couple of sentences, but what author doesn't lol. Something reflective for the persona of the character but also some hints for what's around the corner theme wise 😏 I definitly go with a smidge of insight to help give off some foreshadowing vibes though I doubt that would be clear to anyone but me, or whoever reads the things from the beginning to end. So, I seem to enjoy going full circle?

Basically I'm Kronk when I write out the beginning after finishing my outline:

Thank you again Mekana for this fun tag!

Let's see, maybe a few of you lovelies would like to try this one?

@werebearbearbar @bewires @nade2308 @nicelytousled @pierremichelofavignon @pinkninjapj @tobebbanburg

#tag game #first lines tag

[andrea-lyn]

The Recs (Less Travelled)

I’m excited to bring you the first installment of my ‘roads less travelled’ recs! I will be doing another round of this, probably once the Ted Lasso fic tag hits about 25 pages, and then I’ll also grab a couple more fandoms to collect in there! 

The Rules:

Each fandom/pairing was sorted on Archive of Our Own by completed works. Anything recced here was not in the first ten pages when sorted by kudos at the time of reccing. There may be some more well-known authors on this list, but the specific fics I’ve picked are ones that didn’t crack that top ten or just didn’t get much traction and I think deserve it, so hopefully I have also balanced it out with other under the radar (and still great!) works. As ever, I have a pinned post of my other recs (none have been duplicated from there), so you can also check those out! Under the cut you’ll find 10 recs in each fandom for:

Raven Cycle

Roswell New Mexico

The Old Guard

Inception

Star Trek (mainly Kirk/McCoy)

The Raven Cycle

savor all the little pieces by littlelionvanz

“Since when do you garden?”

Ronan snorted, “Since I grew up on a fucking farm, genius. Jesus who gave you permission to pursue higher education.”

the old grip of the familiar by littleseal

"There is a single black feather and a printed out picture of Gansey, Blue and Cheng standing in front of some fucking monument Ronan didn’t care enough to remember the name of. Gansey sent it to Ronan’s phone some time ago, but it sat in his messages until Adam picked it up and grinned at it so hard that, one afternoon later, Ronan cursed and kicked and glared his old printer back to life in order to print it out.

Fuck, he thinks, I’m in love with a hoarder."

Adam collects things. Ronan is in love with him.

No Sweeter Innocence Than Our Gentle Sin by gansey_is_our_king

Ronan Lynch has wanted to kiss Adam Parrish for a long time.

(alternately titled: four times that Ronan could have kissed Adam)

Cheers to Another Seven Years! by skyermirth

Adam left Henrietta for Harvard and never returned. Now, seven years has passed, and an unexpected work assignment has brought him back to a place and people he hardly recognizes.

Row, row, row your boat by emmerrr

“What. Why are you smiling at me,” he says suspiciously.

Adam shrugs. “You’re cute.”

“I’m not cute, I’m terrifying.”

“Terrifyingly cute,” Adam says.

and now the world is ours to take / and every single move is ours to make by thatlittleblackcat

"Adam was the scientist, Ronan was the data, and Orphan Girl was the key that explained the strange outliers that Ronan presented, his previously unexplainable actions."

//

Adam sorts out his feelings, Ronan helps him, Gansey is the number one dad friend, Blue is the number one mom friend and Henry tries to make Ronan smile. Otherwise known as the story of how Orphan Girl became Opal.

All These Things You Make Me Feel by SilverOpals394

It was late. Adam could feel the long day catching up to him as he left Boyd’s, all his energy exhausted. When he started his car, the tape deck whirred to life once more. He sighed and raised his hand to turn it off, but before he did a soft melody began to play.

AU in which the mixtape Ronan made for Adam only plays the murder squash song until Adam realizes he's in love with Ronan, too.

Ways to Communicate by Jalules

Blue Sargent reflects on an early memory (and gets busy with her boyfriends.)

(The two things are related, trust me.)

Hold Me Closer, I'm Safe in Your Arms by actuallyronanlynch

“You wanna tell me why I had to hear from Henry Cheng that my boyfriend was at the hospital?” Adam hissed, though his voice wasn’t as acidic as it could’ve been. Ronan took small victories where he could.

“You don’t have a cellphone,” Ronan pointed out flatly. “It’s not like I could’ve gotten a hold of you.”

arts and crafts and the inevitability of death by sunshineinthestorm

Adam comes to the public library in search of a study spot, not a boyfriend. 

But it must be his lucky day—because he ends up with a bit of both.

 Roswell New Mexico

a conversation between insignificant others by Bellakitse

“Hey…have you noticed that our boyfriends are madly in love with each other?"

“You noticed that too, huh,” she answers dryly, letting out a huff of reluctant amusement.

***

Forrest and Maria share a drink and a conversation and start a friendship.

Own Personal Hell by BeStillMySlashyHeart

Now that Isobel's getting the hang of her telekinesis, Michael decides to test out his telepathic abilities. It backfires. Badly. Now Michael's trapped inside his own mind and only one person can break him out.

Drop the Hammer by brightloveee

Max makes a new friend at the shooting range, who turns out to be even more bad-ass than he expected.

(Takes place mid-S1)

Boys Like You by forgadgetsandgizmos

Curly, dirty blond hair (the mere description ‘curly’ felt like an injustice) twisted in every direction off his head, a sharp contrast with the scruff darkening his strong jawline and scowl-ridden face.

Alex made a mental note to compliment Maria on her excellent taste in men.

—

Or, Alex has coffee with Maria's one-night stand, a man who he definitely does not have a crush on.

let's exchange the experience by lostin_space

Michael decides they need to quarantine.

OR

Michael floods Alex with love and care over and over and over.

This Is Hardcore by Anonymous

Michael makes a proposal. Alex accepts. Michael wonders what the hell he’s gotten himself into.

i don't know what to think (but i think of supernovas) by Milzilla

michael discovers that the console can talk. then, he discovers it can do far more than that.

iridescence on skin by Lire_Casander

In a world where (almost) everyone has a tattoo on their right wrist with one set of coordinates that point to the place where their soulmate is born, Alex thought he wouldn't be any different. He couldn't be more mistaken.

He has two.

The Real Thing by elliebird

Max checks on Michael the morning after Michael saves Max’s ass from Wyatt Long and his dumbass buddies. He sees more than he’s supposed to.

Written for a Tumblr anon who one of their friends walking in on them or anyone of them finding out about Michael and Alex in an interesting way 

Sundering by romancandles 

“You know it was just an Air Force balloon, right?” says Alex.

Michael smirks. “That’s what they want you to think,” he says, with a wink.

The Old Guard

Peer Reviewed by ishandahalf

[From:] Journal of Medieval Studies ([email protected])

[Subject:] Ad-hoc note from the editor

I have noticed an uncommon level of animosity in your responses to your reviewers (or rather, one reviewer in particular). I am writing to ask if you would please do your best to keep your interactions civil. In fairness, I have also sent a similar request to the reviewer you seem to have this friction with. I trust you will both try and remain more professional in the future.

Again, thank you for submitting your work to this journal.

Sincerely,

James Copley, PhD

Editor-in-Chief

Journal of Medieval Studies

An (accidental) academic epistolary romance as (inadvertently) documented via a (theoretically) rigorously blinded peer review process.[citation needed]

third for a word and the song keeps going Macremae

It was honestly shaping up to be a pretty uneventful year before the Vatican got on Nicky’s bad side.

Or: three times in 2008 that the team genuinely thought about killing Nicky if only to get him to shut up about the changes to the Catholic English Mass and his unrelenting opinions on them, and one time Nile did.

Apex Predators In Island Ecosystems (Freeman et al., in press) by Sixthlight

Palaeobotany PhD student Nile Freeman and her supervisor Joe al-Kaysani are invited to billionaire Stephen Merrick’s new project – a theme park full of cloned dinosaurs. What could possibly go wrong?

This Rough Magic by Marivan

When Joe came to Scotland to study the sea, he did not expect to also encounter a beautiful man claiming that A. he’s a selkie and B. they’re married because Joe picked up his scarf.

It sounds like a fairy tale and that’s a problem. Because Joe’s a scientist. And selkies don’t exist.

Wars for the broken by Yuliares

Five years into his exile, Booker is joined by a companion he never expected to meet. Together, they try to work on healing.

Sometimes they go down to the sewers just so she can scream and scream. “I like to hear it echo,” she explains. “Underwater, you can’t hear anything. Here, at least I can be heard.”

“I don’t feel like a warrior anymore,” she tells him, throwing bread crumbs at pigeons. “I feel broken.”

“You’re still a warrior,” he says roughly. “This is still fighting.”

a good (eighth) impression by deanniker

Over the next few months, Joe runs into Nicky every so often at the farmer’s market. Some weekends Nicky doesn’t make it, because of his work schedule - Joe doesn’t understand it because he doesn’t ask, though he does start to recognize when one of those missing weekends is coming up because Nicky will stock up on things with longer shelf-life. When they do run into each other, they make small talk and move through the stalls together.

Joe doesn’t mention it to Lykon when he stops by, because it is kind of weird, that Lykon’s ex-boyfriend texts Joe things like - If you’re here, the apples look particularly good this week and thank you for that recipe, I did not know what I was going to do with that much couscous

Or,

Joe wouldn't usually consider starting anything with his best friend's ex, but as long as they keep it casual, it shouldn't be weird... right?

get back to where you once belonged by tenderjock

Nile takes a sip of her cappuccino and closes her eyes.

(Booker and Nile get that coffee. Life happens, along the way.)

a house; a home by mehm

“Is this a kidnapping?” Joe asks as Nicky checks both their seat belts. “Like, I don’t mind. It’s just not quite what I expected for my birthday.”

In which Joe gets a birthday surprise, because that’s the stuff you have time for when you and the love of your life become mortal at the same time.

the ties that bind by damaskrose

“There’s a story I heard many times,” Andy begins, “in the Mediterranean. Threads of fate and three sisters. One to spin, one to measure, and one to cut.”

Clutter And Croutons by flawedamythyst

Joe and Nicky have an argument, and then Nicky talks to Nile about what it really means to be in a relationship for 900 years.

Inception

My Big Fat Slightly Annoying Wedding by jibrailis

Arthur and Eames elope for ~tax reasons. Certain people in their lives are not happy at the lack of a wedding.

Remember Sydney by pathera

When Eames shambles into the safe house outside of London, he finds a red light blinking on the phone.

For the inception_kink prompt:

Arthur is on a plane which is about to crash. No way anyone is going to survive. Instead of panicking he calmly calls the team's office and gets the answering machine. He hangs up before the plane crashes.

Give me Arthur's last message to the team.

 (TW: Character Death / Angst)

Of Such Deceitfulness and Suavity by delires

In which emotions manifest themselves in unusual ways.

YO, K2tog (it's like a code) by lazulisong

“Oh my God,” moans Arthur. “I’ve paid less for Somnacin. Good Somnacin.” A horrible thought strikes him. “How much is the yarn --”

“I want you to have an unguarded reaction,” Eames tells him, and pulls him up from the floor.

(They run an extraction on a knitter.)

hit the ground running by orphan_account

"I travelled halfway around the world for you. I dealt with the French for you."

Valley by wldnst

It's an old story: a knight, a prince, a kingdom in peril.

If This Is Rain Let It Fall On Me and Drown Me by Brangwen

We used to be so brave, Eames thought. Of the two of them, Arthur had always been the more fearless.

a gentle familiarity by jollypuppet

Two weeks later, Eames is on his doorstep with bad Italian takeout and a grin, and Arthur tells him he can sleep on the couch.

Your Crisis Cannot Be Completed As Dialed by sevenimpossiblethings

Arthur doesn't do snow, Ariadne is determined to be as Midwestern as possible, and blizzards make cell phone service unreliable.

Let’s Say I Do (I Do) by xsilverdreamsx

There were, perhaps some things worse that this, Arthur thinks, as he glares at the letter in his hand with his name printed clearly in bold ink, indicating his presence in two weeks for his esteemed marriage to one William H. Eames, III, at St. Catherine's Church in London, England.

Star Trek (predominantly Kirk/McCoy)

Show the World That Something Good Can Work by knune

Leonard McCoy is a doctor, not a personal assistant, and maybe that's why he can't stand working for Jim Kirk.

It's in the little things by winterover

Bones is bemused by a persistent secret admirer.

"Wedding" Away with It by pendrogon

One morning, Bones wakes up and he's single. By the same afternoon, he's married to Jim Kirk for Arbitrary Fic Reasons(TM).

How Long Will You Stay (For Your Whole Life) by withthepilot

Jim Kirk, deputy director of the Enterprise parks and recreation department, sees all of his hard work fall to pieces when budget specialist Leonard McCoy arrives from the state capital to cut Jim's budget and threaten the livelihoods of his colleagues. But thanks to a major parks project, Leonard finds a place in the department, as well as in Jim's life—and when all is said and done, Jim doesn't want him to leave.

All-Time Favorite by mardia

What to do when your best friend suddenly starts making new friends. 

Joy Ride by Cards_Slash

While running for their lives from an alien species Kirk had accidentally enraged, they come across a car. And well, if you were to come across a car while being chased by aliens that wanted you dead, and you possessed some lingering knowledge of how to drive a car similar to said car, you would have decided to drive it toward the nearest cliff too.

Also a gunfight.

Syncytia by epistolic

He’d signed up for Starfleet on an impulse, but Starfleet meant James Tiberius Kirk: the first – and second, and third, and fourth – big mistake of Leonard McCoy’s life.

Renovation by canistakahari

Jim has a whammy put on him by an alien death ray and he suddenly craves domesticity. He's crazy with longing to shop at space!Ikea and get potted bamboo and he starts looking into adopting AND HE HATES HIMSELF AND CANNOT CONTROL THE SHIT. Luckily, McCoy is drunk all the time and plays house.

17:08 by butterflycell

She'd watched the news holos with a sick feeling, searching for information that was completely obvious in its absence. Amidst the reports of the the Enterprise's miraculous recovery and the damages sustained, there had been next to nothing about the crew or her captain. Jim had been mentioned only in passing, his name shied away from as his first officer limited interaction to the bare essentials.

The Honey of Hybla by shrift

"Bones, prepare to be my date."

#recs #fic recs #recs project #star trek recs #inception recs #the raven cycle recs #the old guard recs #roswell new mexico recs

[lilolilyr]

Just realised I never did post my tumblr year in review! I didn't want to post the official thingy anyway with how long and bulky it is literally copying all the old posts lmao, but here some screenshots I took:

That I reblogged 99% is not a surprise xD that's how tumblr works!

Love that Andromaquynh is my # n°1 tho! Might also be due to my AQ art collection

Also LOL just there Tumblr still pointed out that mine was n°2 - I guess on iOS that's an empty link now? XD or does it work when it's a direct link on my blog? Idk, frankly idc about the details, boycott apple and its censorship machine

My top 5 are... very unsurprising tbh xD both because of Eurovision and uh. Because I already know which posts were in the top 3 thingies at the top of my blog?? Tumblr, this is not new information.

5 - TOG Andy 'why are you following me' meme 256

4 - ESC (France) 255

3 - TOG AQ cursed bloodline meme 295

2 - ESC (San Marino) 482

1 - ESC ballet & bmx 764

As you can see, the numbers look a bit odd in the places 3-5, but I think it might be because it isn't counting my own reblogs etc

Anyhow, at least i have two The Old Guard posts in the top 5 here? On my other main I ended up with 100% esc posts lmaoo

Without the esc posts, here my most popular 3-5 would have been

& a Floreleine Moodboard with 196 notes

The 'Do it for Nile Freeman' meme at 179

My Andromaquynh roadtrip moodboard with 172 notes

And, if we're counting sideblogs (which I wish the year in review thingy would have given us the option to do), there are also

A W13 Bering & Wells moodboard - 148 notes

Gunpowder Milkshake behind the scenes 141

Discovery Femslash Fortnight at 106 notes

Andy regains immortality AQ ficrecs 81 notes

The first GM fandom primer with 79 notes

A Gunpowder Milkshake pun with 56 notes

Honorary mentions:

(Bc yea I had to look at all my somewhat popular posts of 2021 to find the Most popular ones lmaoo, thankfully I tag everything 50+ notes as that bc I'm Tumblr tag obsessive like that)

mermaid quynh moodboard 134

Damiano David moodboard red 124

Andromaquynh art 115

Nile Freeman stargazing moodboard 114

Andronilynh moodboard 114

Heistwives moodboard 111

damiano david moodboard pink 100

Formal Andromaquynh blue moodboard 107

Ngô Thanh Vân and Jun Pham 95

Do It For Celeste 93

Floreleine careful my hear fic link GM 87

mirandy mystery stranger fic link TDWP 81

Andromaquynh photo story 81

Mirror Milippa moodboard 78

because you knew Floreleine fic link GM 75

honestly my least favourite Andromaquynh photostory 72

mirandy wedding manip 69

neon lights andromaquynh moodboard 68

Andromaquynh flower shop fic idea 65

Andronilynh horses moodboard + drabble 65

Milippa prime vacation photo story 64

andromaquynh formal moodboard pink 62

Andy manip 61

Andromaquynh College AU moodboard 61

milippa mirrorverse moodboard 57

TOG discord Elimination Game results 57

(Slightly afraid of hitting post limit soon so I'll post as is xD under the readmore anyway lmao) think I got them all now? XD

andronilynh colourful mb 51

Andromaquynh suits moodboard 51

Andy regains immortality winning hc

#blog #tag later #tumblr year in review #top posts #lilolilyr #dec'21 #jan'22 #new year 2022

[bewires]

Chapters: 8/8 Fandom: The Old Guard (Movie 2020) Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova Characters: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani, Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Nile Freeman, Andy | Andromache of Scythia, Booker | Sebastien le Livre Additional Tags: Mentioned Quynh | Noriko, if you spot Booker kudos to you, Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, instagram au, Joe has a fitness instagram, He wishes people would talk to him about his poetry and art instead of his abs, Nicky is people, But Nicky is also following Joe because he's a thirst trap, Identity Porn, for about 0.2 seconds, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani is an Incurable Romantic, who is not good at talking about that up front, Explicit Sexual Content, Mutual Pining, Mutual Pining While Dating, Racism, Homophobia, racism and homophobia tags are for experiences Joe has due to working online, they don't play a major role in the story, Oral Sex, Hand Jobs, Anal Sex, Shower Sex, Athletic Sex, service top Joe, Bottom Nicky topping from the bottom, mentioned switching, Fluff and Smut Summary:

Finally, nearing the bottom of the notifications, Joe spots a new commenter. He gets a handful of new followers most days, but they usually either lurk or have been commenting for ages already. This guy isn’t a new follower, and Joe hasn’t seen him comment before. A quick glance at his profile shows that he is following Joe, and has been for a while - he likes almost everything Joe posts. He’s never said anything before, though.

This guy, @dj_nova, has commented, Excuse me, is that a quote from Inferno? below Joe’s deadlift video.

“Yes!” Joe cries out, sitting up in bed.

OR: The one where Instagram fitness and lifestyle thirst trap Joe Al-Kaysani has a problem in that he becomes incredibly tongue-tied around a very cute barista at his favorite café even though he really wants to discuss medieval poetry with him.

#joe x nicky #the old guard #fic

[cryhardanddanceharder]

I posted 1184 times in 2021

161 posts created (14%)

1023 posts reblogged (86%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 6.4 posts.

I added 3116 tags in 2021

#the old guard - 925 posts

#andromaquynh - 412 posts

#andy x quynh - 335 posts

#immortal wives - 335 posts

#tog fan art - 302 posts

#andromache the scythian - 220 posts

#nile freeman - 176 posts

#immortal family - 151 posts

#quynh - 141 posts

#yes!! this!! - 119 posts

Longest Tag: 137 characters

#and the way nile learns to trust andy and at the end is all in protective mode for her says a lot about them and about andy as a mentor!!

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

From...

Being kidnapped 

Being shot in the head

See the full post

201 notes • Posted 2021-03-11 19:17:44 GMT

#4

Do you ever wonder how many times did Andy say “everyone still with me?” after a mission going wrong because she is scared to lose another soldier or are you normal?? 

255 notes • Posted 2021-02-12 21:55:01 GMT

#3

Nile headcanon: when she was little she wore her father’s boots around the house, not her mother’s heels.

Thank you Gina for answering me this ♥

295 notes • Posted 2021-01-23 19:23:53 GMT

#2

thank you miss ngô thanh vân for making my shipper heart explode in this rainy cold night ♥

341 notes • Posted 2021-08-09 02:52:05 GMT

#1

I just think the tog fandom should appreciate more how Andy hugs the persons she considers family

I mean, JUST LOOK AT HER!!

She hangs to Nicky with so much softness, she has a little smile lighting her face and then she looks right through his eyes to make sure he is okay after not seing each other for so long.

With Joe she is so free! Andy lets him lift her up from the floor because she trust him and she is so extremely happy to hug him that she laughs out loud.

See the full post

540 notes • Posted 2021-08-08 23:40:41 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

#my 2021 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

[sheafrotherdon]

I posted 419 times in 2021

94 posts created (22%)

325 posts reblogged (78%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 3.5 posts.

I added 866 tags in 2021

#joe x nicky - 194 posts

#the old guard - 146 posts

#yusuf al kaysani - 132 posts

#nicolo di genova - 117 posts

#tog - 110 posts

#andromache the scythian - 44 posts

#nile freeman - 42 posts

#kaysanova - 28 posts

#luca marinelli - 27 posts

#immortal husbands - 26 posts

Longest Tag: 93 characters

#i cannot imagine how cranky i would be to learn i'm immortal and have pms in rapid succession

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

Sometimes I think about the fact that Joe and Nicky have been together for nine hundred years, and yet still reach for each other when they go to sleep.  A person could be forgiven for wanting some space on the bed after nine hundred years, but no, they curl up together, Joe with his arm tucked around Nicky, Nicky snugged with his back against Joe’s chest, and they sleep touching each other because nine hundred years is apparently not enough time to grow tired of being physically close. It’s not just that they love each other deeply, it’s that they still demonstrate it in their most vulnerable moments, trusting each other, wanting the other there, reaching for each other. jqshlfh I cannot.

467 notes • Posted 2021-11-15 16:27:55 GMT

#4

Joe comes back to the safe house with food and wine, and a large bag that he sets down beside Nile before he starts unpacking the groceries.

“What’s this?” Nile asks.

“We’ll be here a while,” Joe offers. “Thought you could use a distraction.”

“Hmm,” Nile offers, because distractions around here tend to come in the form of hand-to-hand combat and some memorable afternoons spent wielding a sword.  She pulls the bag into her lap and pulls out the first thing she can reach—a box of colored pencils, the good kind, in two-dozen different hues.  She fishes in the bag again, finds sketchbooks and watercolor paper, oil paints and pastels and a brand-new pencil sharpener. There are brushes and a palette, a knife and cakes of pigment, and a handful of eight-by-eight canvases.

“There are bigger ones in the car,” Joe says.

Nile doesn’t know what to say. There’s a small fortune in art supplies in front of her, and she’s still a little hazy on where their money comes from in the first place. She skates her fingertips over the watercolors, settles on, “This is all for me?”

Joe smiles. “Yep.”

“But this is . . .”

Joe hitches a shoulder. “No expectation. You don’t have to use any of it. But if want to, well . . . I think you have pretty much everything.”

Nile flattens her hand over a sketchbook and cautiously returns his smile. “Okay,” she says.

“Okay,” Joe says back.

*

Nile starts out small, taking one pencil and a sketchbook out to the terrace and sketching the forms of sculptures she remembers, figures coaxed to life from marble and bronze. When she tires of memory, she doodles caricatures at the edges of the page, and then sketches out the view in front of her, the sweep of the garden and the valley beyond. She experiments with color, with watercolors and then pastels, and she keeps things to herself, at least for a while. Joe has nine hundred years of practice under his belt, and she’s seen his art—she feels like a rank beginner when she compares what they produce.

But the way her paintings turns out keeps bothering her—something’s not quite right, and so she seeks Joe out, asks for his critique, and he sits them both down at the kitchen table with glasses of wine, and gets her talking about her technique.  He suggests a few things, adds a pencil line or two to her landscape and transforms how she sees what’s on the page, and from that moment on she shares everything she does.  Joe works beside her sometimes, and she’s blunt when he gets the shading wrong, and he tells her of the artists he’s met—the famous and the forgotten—and she soaks up every word.

One unremarkable Tuesday, a package tied in brown paper, wrapped with string shows up on the kitchen table.  Nile’s name is on it, written in Andy’s hand.  Nile unwraps it while Nicky busies himself with brewing espresso, and finds a thick book on North African art, full of photographs and reproductions with history leaping from every page.

“Oh my god,” Nile says, lifting the book to her fact to smell the new pages.

Nicky sets a cup in front of her, says, “It is not always grief,” and Nile nods with a smile, sits down and begins to read.

509 notes • Posted 2021-06-04 13:10:40 GMT

#3

Nile moves on autopilot through everything circumstance throws at her, right up until the she wakes up in a single bed in a house in Germany where they plan to lie low.  She blinks at the unfamiliar light flooding in through the window.  They arrived after dark; she barely remembers any of it thanks to the disorientation of travel and the exhaustion of being alive. She can’t hear anyone else; she can’t smell coffee; she has no idea what time it is and for a white-hot moment wonders if she’s been left behind.  But reason makes an appeal and she swallows her panic, lifts her chin and pushes back her shoulders before she gets up to find out where she is.

The doors to the other bedrooms are open, and she catches a glimpse of Andy, fully-clothed and face down on a bed, and across the hall a lump she supposes is Nicky and Joe huddled beneath the covers. She keeps going, pads down the stairs and through the hall, ends up in the kitchen.  She stares at the back door before she unlocks it; pulls it open and steps outside. There’s a garden, a rough stone wall, trees and fields and nothing that looks like anything familiar. 

Grief rises up inside her so fast she doubles over, and when the first wave recedes and she can pull in a breath she sits down hard, right in the dirt.

Nile balls up her hands into fists and presses them against her mouth.  Every person she won’t ever see again, every place she can’t return to for a hundred years or more runs through her mind.  She thinks she might scream, or yell, or wail—something inarticulate and pained, rising straight from her heart—and she rocks back and forth as she fights, tooth and nail, to shove it all down. It’s impossible, all of it, that anyone, anything should ask this of her, should turn her from who she was into—what does she even call herself now?

And then Andy sits down beside her, smelling of stale sweat and antiseptic.  She says nothing, but reaches into the pocket of her jacket and pulls out a French chocolate bar, tears it open, and offers Nile half.

Nile isn’t sure that if she takes it she won’t shatter; that she can hold it all together without her hands against her face. But she reaches out anyway, says thank you and is shocked at how hoarse she sounds.

Andy nods and half smiles, and Nile feels her understanding slam into her like some kind of solace, like waking up a second time, like a concussive wave.

542 notes • Posted 2021-06-05 21:07:49 GMT

#2

594 notes • Posted 2021-05-18 01:36:50 GMT

#1

I was studying a map of the Mediterranean yesterday evening when it suddenly struck me so hard that Malta is right between Italy and Tunisia. It represents the meeting point between the two - no wonder the boys think of it fondly.

And then I realized that in the lab, while Nicky is being tortured and Joe is (I think) dead, Nicky’s thinking of home.  He wants to go home.  He wants to take Joe with him.  He wants to escape not just in body but in being - to go somewhere safe that is about the two of them and simply be.

And the idea of Nicky lying there thinking “I want to go home,” is just so deeply human and vulnerable . . . and now I am emotionally compromised for all time.

647 notes • Posted 2021-05-22 10:31:56 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

#my 2021 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

[lesbianlotties]

Andy and Quynh One Shots - #101

Chapters: 101/101 Fandom: The Old Guard (Movie 2020), The Old Guard (Comics) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Andy | Andromache the Scythian/Quynh | Noriko Characters: Andy | Andromache of Scythia, Quynh | Noriko, Nile Freeman, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani, Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Booker | Sebastien le Livre Additional Tags: Immortal Wives Andy | Andromache of Scythia/Quynh | Noriko, Immortality, One Shot Collection, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Domestic Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Romantic Fluff, Fluff without Plot, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Compliant, Post-Canon, Pre-Canon, Tumblr Prompt, Originally Posted on Tumblr, just... A LOT of Andy and Quynh, it's what they deserve, it's what we deserve Words: 63518

"Just you and me." "Until the end."

Three thousand years of love, and more. All the little moments of joy, pain, adoration, and yearning. Andy and Quynh, all through history, all over the world, always in love.

Chapter 101: I'm here, at the beginning of the end, the end of infinity with you (teasing Andy for being old)

At first, Andy didn’t even think twice about it. She could be in the middle of a training session with Quynh and after landing a particularly good punch, Quynh smirked and said, “You’re getting too old, my heart” or “Age has made you slow, Andromache.” It was fine. In fact, it was good, and meant to be affectionate. She had been saying things like that in every language known to man for almost as long as the two of them had known each other. Which, really, was an eternity in itself. It was a little detail that Andy was glad to experience again after such a long separation. Their love was something capable of always growing and never changing at its core. However, little changes were unavoidable. And now that their family was bigger, it was just a matter of time before some harmless, affectionate teasing would get out of hand.

The three of them were sitting on the couch watching a movie and almost as soon as it ended Andy was out of her seat and stretching.

“Where are you going?” Quynh wondered with a slight pout.

Nile added, “We can still watch another!”

Andy scoffed, “I’m exhausted, I’m going to bed.” Without waiting for further approval she started walking toward the room she shared with Quynh.

Quynh, who wasn’t exactly happy to lose the shoulder she was comfortably leaning against during the movies. “I get it, you’re too old for this,” she called after her lover’s retreating figure. Andy shook her head fondly, and smiled because the others couldn’t see her. But there was just something about how loudly Nile laughed at that joke that just sparked a hint of worry in the older woman’s mind. She tried to ignore it, as long as she could.

--

A few days later, after a couple of minutes of lying awake in bed, Andy turned to her side and happily devoted herself to trailing feather-light kisses on Quynh’s bare shoulders to get her to wake up. Her fingertips were starting to dance in secret patterns on the soft skin of the other woman’s back, when Andy’s ministrations were interrupted by Quynh, who quickly moved so she could capture Andy’s lips with her own and give her a real good morning kiss. Though, after pulling back, she went back to lying on her stomach and said, “I know you’re old, my heart, but do you have to wake up this early?”

“Excuse me?” Andy laughed, not at the joke, precisely. But there was just something too sweet about the sight of Quynh, unable to hold back a smile, even if trying to hide her face in the pillow, but stubbornly keeping her eyes closed.

“Let me sleep!” Quynh mumbled against her pillow, and she had to bravely accept a kiss on the cheek, but she was finally granted extra time to sleep.

Still wearing a content smile on her face, Andy walked to the kitchen. She was half-way through her first cup of coffee, which she almost dropped, when Nile walked into the kitchen and without even looking Andy in the eyes said, “My grandma used to wake up before everyone else too.”

--

Soon enough, their teasing became a constant in their lives.

“I don’t get it,” Nile complained, dropping her head in a book written in Russian and groaning loudly. 

“It’s not that difficult!” Andy insisted, in perfect Russian.

Nile, assuming what she’d just said, protested, “You only say that because you’re older than the entire language.”

“That’s complicated,” Andy grumbled, still in Russian.

“No, she’s right, darling, you’re that old,” Quynh blurted out in matching Russian, with a few struggles, from her place reading a different book a few feet away on the couch.

After Nile burst out laughing, Andy looked at her with a frown, “Oh so that you understand?!”

--

Even during moments that could have been emotionally difficult, Andy was caught off guard by the ruthlessness of the women around her.

“We can’t do it, it’s too risky,” Andy insisted, about a new sketchy mission offered to them that the youngest member of the family was determined to take, “Listen, Nile…”

“What? I’ll get it when I’m older… than civilization?” Nile crossed her arms defensively, as if that could hide the hint of a smile showing in her lips.

Quynh absolutely failed to stifle a laugh. And when she received a pointed look from her wife, she returned the expression in kind and said, “Was that not the point of whatever you were about to say?”

“We are not taking this job,” Andy stated through clenched teeth, right before learning a valuable piece of information about the mission that they would, in the end, take and successfully complete.

--

“Nile!” Andy yelled, kicking open the door of their latest safe house and storming into the living room. “Nile!”

“What did she do now, and why didn’t she include me?” Quynh walked out of the kitchen with a proud grin already in place.

“Our fake identities just arrived,” Andy grumbled. “Take a look.”

Quynh hummed as she took in her hands the handful of passports Andy passed her. She glanced at them, but found nothing out of the ordinary. “What's the problem, my love? You look frighteninly pretty, as always.”

Although she was still frowning profusely, during a second, a smile broke out on Andy’s face. But then, “She did it on purpose! Look at my age!”

This time, Quynh bit her lip to hold back her smile. After taking a closer look at the passport, she looked up with a small smirk and a playfully raised eyebrow, “Fifty?”

“Fifty!” Andy exclaimed, outraged. “I’ve never been fifty! Fucking fifty! How does she dare-”

“Andromache!” Quynh was openly laughing then. “You are thousands of years old!” When her lover attempted to turn away from her in a rage, Quynh dropped the passports and quickly wrapped her arms around Andy’s waist and hugged her close. “Come on, it’s not a big deal! You don’t look a day over forty eight.”

“Oh, fuck you,” Andy scoffed, but when she turned around to kiss Quynh, there was a small smile on her face.

--

“Quynh! Please tell this crazy old woman to give me back my phone!” Nile stormed into the safe house.

She was quickly followed by Andy saying “We have rules about social media, Nile! To keep us safe.”

Quynh strolled into the living room with a smile on her face that everyone else might have assumed was patient or gentle, but Andy knew it was the kind of smile that brought trouble for her specifically. “Nile, you have to understand,” Quynh said slowly, “She’s too old for this kind of thing.”

As she finished talking, Quynh reached out to take Nile’s phone, Andy quickly blocked her attempt and laughed, “Are you serious?” It started an impressive duel where they fought for the cellphone, with Quynh coming out as the winner for being just slightly quicker, something she would probably remind Andy of for years.

“It’s just a different generation,” Quynh continued to laugh, tossing the phone over to the younger woman a second before Andy threw her arms around her.

“You’re literally older than everyone else in our family combined!” Andy protested as the two of them playfully wrestled in the middle of the living room.

“And you are twice as old as me!” Quynh replied, followed by a yelp of surprise as the love of her life lifted her up from the floor.

The two of them only stopped fighting when they noticed a flash coming from the camera of Nile’s phone. “Hm, you’re both right,” Nile smirked, quickly sending the hilarious picture to their family’s groupchat, “The two of you are ancient.”

Nile walked away from them, leaving behind two women wearing shocked expressions, though Andy was delighted, and Quynh appeared deeply betrayed. “Hey!” Quynh tried to protest, but she was happily interrupted by a kiss from Andy, who a moment later started tickling her, just to start their loving battle all over again.

#✨THE END✨ #probably not the end but let me pretend lmao #technically officially done with the old guard prompts! a year later! it was way too much fun!! i love the immortal wives so so much!!! #HAPPY TOG ANNIVERSARY!!!!! #i still can't believe you guys requested a hundred of these 🥺❤ i love you all so much #the old guard #andromaquynh #andy x quynh #immortal wives #andromache the scythian #quynh #andy and quynh #my fic #prompts

[hauntedfalcon]

particularly stunning Nile Freeman moments, part 3 of ∞

#The Old Guard for ts #Nile Freeman #because the Nile Freeman tag :) is for posts :) about Nile Freeman :) :) :) #god I love the cave scene so much #Nile by lanternlight and firelight is 🥺🥺🥺 #ESPECIALLY the depth of field and eyelight in the last one like. my *god*

[takiki16]

Book of Nile: Getting Together Post-Canon Thoughts

OKAY so I maxed out my tag space on this post talking about the logistics of #book of nile, and then @themoonwheniamlost​ confirmed this as at least 50% of a good idea, so HERE IT IS, copy-pasted and with all the hashtags cleaned out and EXPANDED UPON because screw tag limits!

The thing about #book of nile is that it is very easy to talk about Booker falling in love with Nile - who wouldn’t?  But I need to block out how Nile falls in love with Booker without (1) centering Booker bc that is the OPPOSITE of why i ship this, and (2) without making this about Nile 'fixing' Booker because fixing Booker is BOOKER'S job. 

MORE UNDER THE CUT ABOUT BOOK OF NILE ORIGIN STORIES

SO. HEADING THE FIRST - SAD FRENCH JUDAS adn the very very easy matter of Booker falling in love with Nile.

I kind of like to think that it wasn't QUITE 'love at first sight' for Booker but it was a darn near thing? Because their connection was so close from that very 1st dream where Booker puts a hand to his throat and says 'i felt her die' to that moment they shared in the cave when they realized they were the only two immortals who had comparatively recent memories of their mortal families.  I mean Booker was sort of preoccupied for the whole movie with being Sad French Rat Judas with Copley, but I FIRMLY HEADCANON that he started doing Soulmate Math very soon after meeting Nile and soaking her presence in that first time.  If Andy had Quynh and Joe has Nicky, maybe...maybe after 200 years...Nile is the one Destined for Me?  And then AFTER canon in the secret Youngest Immortals Chat that Booker and Nile Definitely have there is Definite Pining on Booker’s end - think “I love a Noble Princess but am a sad undeserving man with issues so I’ll just hold this here torch from afar.”  AND THAT TAKES CARE OF BOOKER.

Now. HEADING THE SECOND.  NILE. NILE FREEMAN. AND HOW AND WHY SHE MIGHT CHOOSE TO FALL IN LOVE WITH SAD FRENCH RAT JUDAS OVER HERE

...gawd you guys. this is totally the fault of that Matthias Schoenaerts gifset where he goes under someone's skirt, but i am SO TEMPTED to just go whole hog romcom on this?

It was some kind of Bad Anniversary for Nile at some point during the 100 years  (listen, I’m increasingly fond of the 100-year exile as Free Real Estate to focus exclusively on Book of Nile) and Nile is lonely and sad and feeling like crap and ends up secretly visting Booker and getting sloppy drunk at his place because sometimes misery really does love company.  And Booker is an Absolute Gentleman and Practiced Drunk Shoulder to Cry on, and he takes the chair while she crashes in the bed because that’s what you do for the person you’ve been pining for. 

And then the next morning Nile wakes up feeling numb and empty and embarrassed, and when Booker brings her a cup of coffee she leans over and kisses him because she needs to feel something, some kind of connection to the living world. 

And Booker is just !!!!!! OH!!!!!!  I am a Sad Undeserving Man, but Nile Freeman is kissing me and if this is what she wants from me then I can 100000% do this for her even if it is only this once in our whole entire crappy immortal lives.  And THEN NILE QUITE SIMPLY GETS THE BEST LAY OF HER LIFE, because I cannot stretch my imagination to Booker having anything healthy emotionally to offer so soon after canon, but I CAN and WILL BELIEVE that he knows EXACTLY what to do with his mouth and his tongue and his hands and...you know.  Other titty-ban forbidden things. 

And afterwords, when her legs work again and Nile is getting dressed - Feeling Different - she turns around and looks over her shoulder.  And Booker is lying on the rumpled bed with the afternoon sunlight falling just so all disheveled, and he smiles at her and says mon cher, with a LITTLE BIT of sad pining showing through because despite his best efforts to keep his feelings to himself and Not Drag Nile Down With Him he is having Emotions.

Oh, Nile thinks.  Oh.  Maybe...?

And then she goes back to her place and has a SECOND CRISIS, because WTF???  This is SO MUCH of a Whole Bad Idea, she KNOWS what Booker did and what he is, which is Sad French Rat Judas, but she DID have um. A really. REALLY. good time?  And is there anyone else even available for her to date?  And how much does she reeeeallly want to get into this?  And maybe it was just a trick of the light or something?  How much is she willing to bank on how well she knows Booker?  Who, after all, had a wife and kids that he is VISIBLY not coping well with losing even 200 years later?  But also Nile starts running Soulmate Math and thinking...what if...destiny?

So Nile freaks out and doesn’t text Booker for a whole month, and the next time they meet for coffee she can’t stop blushing because whenever she looks at his face she remembers Exactly where his mouth has been and what it LOOKS like in...citrus situations and she’s more nervous and uncomfortable with him than she’s ever been before.

And BOOKER meanwhile is Working On Himself but also thinking FUQ I ruined everything I Took Advantage in an emotional moment and now she hates me and doesn’t want anything more to do with me and is just waiting for a moment to let me down kindly because Nile is So Good.  And she is absolutely right to do so but darned if I say anything before SHE says anything because at this point I absolutely cannot put this torch I’ve been carrying down before she explicitly extinguishes it.

so it’s GREAT (ㆆ ᴗㆆ) 

AND NOT TO START EVERY SINGLE PARAGRAPH OF THIS THING WITH ‘AND,’ but there is DEFINITELY a breaking point after like...a couple MONTHS of awkward stiff meetups whereas before it felt natural - the two youngest immortals sneaking around together and sharing a coping space.  Nile can’t take it anymore and just says LISTEN do you actually like...LIKE LIKE me or do you NOT like me because that was a STUPENDOUS morning and early afternoon and you gave me this Really Intense Significant Look, but also you’ve literally said nothing about it to me since then and I’m cracking under the strain because I won’t do casual relationships when there’s literally only 5 of us in the pool and you’re the only other single one and i have NO IDEA what i”m doing and also dating you would be a TERRIBLE idea due to so many reasons??????

And Booker is like YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT dating me would be a terrible idea but...of COURSE I like-like you???  I just wasn’t sure if I wanted to dump this whole garbage fire of Sad Drunk Judas on your beautiful new immortal life?  I have no idea what I’m doing either but I’m kind of in love with you and in love with the idea that We Could Be Together and maybe eternity Wouldn’t Suck but I didn’t want to say anything because you could do SO much better and I don’t want to stand in the way of that?

Which is SUCH A BEAUTIFUL image to have, because even though at this point Nile can see a century coming on and Booker is 200+ years old, there is a strong flavor of “We, the two youngest in this classroom, are Figuring Out some things?”

I DON’T KNOW HOW TO RESOLVE THIS, but at some point there is a dramatic pause and a removal to a more romantic setting preferrably by the water, and Booker kisses Nile’s hand. In the silence after words.  Very old fashioned and chaste and good - he bows instead of lifting it to his lips - and you all can take things from there.  

#nile freeman #book of nile #sebastian le livre #the old guard #booker #my posts #AS PER MANIFESTO RULES - I HATE IT HERE AND WAS FORCED TO TYPE THIS BY BRAIN DEMONS