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#constance wilde
thebeautifulbook · 11 months
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THERE WAS ONCE, GRANDMA’S STORIES by Constance Wilde. (New York/London: Nister/Dutton, 1888) Illustrated by John Lawson.
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rupertograves · 6 months
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Constance Lloyd Wilde's (Jennifer Ehle) costume design by Nic Ede in Wilde (1997) / dir. Brian Gilbert
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From the Archives: CONSTANCE WILDE, IN SEARCH OF MYSTERY & MEANING
From the Archives is a selection of content cross-posted from my blog. These have been requested in previous iterations of this blog because many of my lectures were presented at an absinthe and burlesque cabaret and some followers preferred to have access to the content of the lectures without having to filter through booze and boobs.
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I spoke in my previous lecture [Absinthe and Oscar] about Oscar Wilde’s obsession with ritual, which would have drawn him to absinthe, then known to be the drink of choice for the transgressive and served with almost reverent preparations. But I am not talking about Oscar Wilde tonight. This is a story about the mysterious occult pursuits of and spiritual quest of Constance Wilde.
My primary source for this talk is “Constance: The Tragic and Scandalous Life of Mrs. Oscar Wilde”. Everything I have ever written about Constance owes a massive debt to Franny Moyle’s research. I have used some other sources throughout, and a full list of sources will be included in an expanded text version of this talk, which will be posted to my blog.
The late 19th century was a landscape rife with the occult and various mystical pursuits. Constance herself already had an interest in the esoteric long before she met a family of Irish eccentrics, before she married a Freemason, to a man given to a syncretic philosophy that lay half with the pagans and half with the Pope. Even at the age of twenty her letters express an interest in mesmerism, which was then a fad both in entertainment and alternative medicine. She experimented with “Quiteism”, which on the face of it is not dissimilar to a regimen of meditation and mindfulness people use to turn inward today. Both she and Oscar consulted palm readers on many occasions, though Wilde himself seems to have had very few truly “occult” interests beyond his on-again, off-again relationship with Freemasonry. In Constance, these interests seem to have only become more acute as she began to move in her own social and artistic circles. There was a natural crossover in the spheres of artistic and intellectual expression, transgressive philosophy, progressive politics, and scholars of the occult. It really isn’t all that far-fetched to imagine Constance among those searching less well-trod paths to spiritual satisfaction.
While Constance had met prominent members of these communities it is possible Constance’s formal introduction the Theosophical circles came from her mother in law, Lady Wilde, and Lady Wilde’s friendship with a Theosophist named Anna Kingsford. Anna is fascinating on her own and I recommend looking up more about her. Through the Theosophical Society Constance began to move in occult circles and secret societies in an ever-evolving path. She was present for the schism of the Theosophical Society and in 1884 followed Anna Kingsford to the short-lived Hermetic Society. From there, Constance followed another split in the circles of Hermetic magic: In November 1888 Constance Wilde became an initiate in the famous Order of the Golden Dawn. This would make her one of the 32 inaugural members, and one of 9 women who joined the order in its first year.
I am not going to get too terribly into the entire sordid tale of The Order of the Golden Dawn or any of these particular hermetic orders because I only have so many minutes and it will be far more fun if you go down those Wikipedia wormholes on your own time. So I will try to distill it down the best I can for our purposes here. Omnivorously appropriative in its search for meaning, The Order of the Golden Dawn drew on its founders’ ritual backgrounds in Freemasonry and Rosicrucianism. One of the founders had also been a member of the Theosophical Society, and it was this person—William Westcott—Constance and her fellow initiates had followed from Anna Kingston’s order. Other influences included Christian mysticism, Kaballah, Hermeticism, Egyptology, Alchemy, Enochian magic and much, much more. Again, I only have so much time. It is worth noting that the original Order of the Golden Dawn did not truly teach magical practices in the same sense that its spiritual descendants would. It was founded purely as a new space in which to explore philosophy and metaphysics. (Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, 2020) It was into this syncretic philosophy that Constance eagerly placed herself, ready to devote herself entirely.
To advance in the order, Constance would have had to teach herself at least passable knowledge of Hebrew, alchemic and Kabbalistic symbols, astrology, divination, how to read Tarot, hermetic philosophy as well as memorizing histories, rituals and organizational hierarchies. This would begin with the process of her initiation.
The initiation into Golden Dawn remind one of the order’s origins in Freemasonry: Initiates wore ceremonial clothing, were blindfolded and led through rooms decorated for the occasion to transform mundane rooms into temples (this is also done in Freemasonry by use of ritual floor coverings). They would kneel before a senior officer called the Hierophant and recite an oath of loyalty in which they swore absolute secrecy on pain of spiritual retaliation; a traitorous member of the order would be “void of all moral worth, and unfit for the society of upright and true persons” and that they could expect “a deadly and hostile current of will set in motion by the chiefs of the order, by which I should fall slain or paralyzed without visible weapon, as if blasted by the Lightning Flash!” Constance was much affected by the ceremony and her co-initiate said that her hands were “like blocks of ice and her beautiful eyes were full of tears” (Moyle, 2011)
Initiates chose a Latin motto, which would be come their ritualistic name used in all Golden Dawn matters. It is with nearly-painful hindsight that we learned that Constance’s motto was, translated: “Who Endures, Wins” or sometimes “Who suffers, conquers”. With what we now know of Constance beyond her troubled marriage and subsequent exile, this motto makes a great deal of sense: by the time she was an initiate, Constance Wilde had already endured so much in her life’s path that it had become part of her spiritual armor, and her hope for the future.
Constance was very committed to her advancement within the order and this shows in the speed with which she advanced; a process which required passing a number of exams which encompassed language, ritual and symbology as well as the Hermetic philosophies on which the order was founded. It took her just a year to move up all five degrees of the First Order. However, whatever Constance was looking for, she must have decided the Golden Dawn could not provide. In 1889 she made her departure. Some biographers contend that this has something to do with Wilde’s having published The Picture of Dorian Gray, with its resulting scandal (Belford, 2000), but it seems more likely (to me anyway) that Constance was just ready to try a new way of thinking.
After her adventure with the Golden Dawn, Constance re-committed herself to Christian theology. This was greatly aided by the friendship of Lady Georgina Mount-Temple, whom Constance—who had grown up facing violent abuse from her mother—adopted as her favorite maternal figure and by the rapidly changing times. Constance’s engagement with Christian doctrine appears to have become the most fanatical on the point of Christian socialism. Wilde was also a subscriber to this philosopher, or at least was artistically enamored of it. Constance, however, was not content with contemplation and theorizing. It seems that while her foray into hermetic magic was an opportunity for Constance to look inward and shape herself, the progressive Christian socialist movement with which she next aligned herself was an opportunity to grow outward and to change the world rather than herself. She was involved heavily in reform movements and progressive press. This new comfort came at an optimal time—headed into the mind 1890’s, when everything would come crashing down.
After this, A new spiritual solace which Constance found in her friend Lady Mount-Temple’s Christian socialist teachings did not necessarily soothe away her lingering curiosity in what might be considered occult matters. Like a number of Victorians, Constance could easily reconcile her newfound joy in Christianity with the aspects of Spiritualism. While visiting Lady Mount-Temple at her home at Babbacombe Cliff, she met Fredric Myers, who was one of the founders of the Society for Psychical Research.
Coming from the same wellspring as modern parapsychology, the mission of the S.P.R. at the outset was: “to approach these varied problems without prejudice or prepossession of any kind, and in the same spirit of exact and unimpassioned enquiry which has enabled science to solve so many problems, once not less obscure nor less hotly debated.” (Society for Psychical Research, 2020) After becoming friends, Myers invited Constance to become an associate member in the S.P.R in 1892. By 1894 she was a full-time member and spoke very highly of it to her friends. Around this time, she was also an avid subscriber to Borderland, a Spiritualist magazine. (Moyle, 2011) Alas, I do not have any records of any of those infamous late 19th century seances happening at the Tite Street house, but I would be lying to say I haven’t thought about the fictional possibilities.
It is very interesting to see Constance’s interest in Spiritualism manifest as an interest in the S.P.R. This effectively makes Constance what I would call—borrowing a term from the UFOlogy community—a “nuts and bolts” Spiritualist. While there is still a spiritual element to this, Spiritualists drawn to the S.P.R. were citizen-scientists. These weren’t folks who were going to table-tapping parties on a lark and in fact the S.P.R. would alienate itself from the rest of the Spiritualist community because they had set too high a bar for burden of proof (Society for Psychical Research, 2020). Whether one believes in the stated goals of the S.P.R or belief in Spiritualism as a whole, one cannot deny that they took it very seriously. Looking back on what we’ve seen so far, I don’t think it’s especially off base to assume that Constance Wilde was equally serious.
Together with Lady Mount-Temple, Constance and Myers devised what was then a fairly common Spiritualist experiment. Lady Mount-Temple was most likely of the three of them to die– because of her age– she would give a list of several key words to Myers so that if a medium purported to be contacting her from beyond the veil, the veracity of the communication could be established.
Lady Mount-Temple—so certain that she would die at any moment, that she would be the one to bring proof of the afterlife back to the woman who looked to her for so many of life’s answers– would outlive Constance Wilde. Constance died from surgical complications in Switzerland on April 7th 1898, where she lived in a kind of exile following the disgrace of her husband.
During my research I came across a remark from a different biographer who made a very unflattering portrait of Constance by describing her as if she was a woman adrift and lurching from “cult” to cult with either a shallow, faddish curiosity or because she simply was too weak willed to make up her mind. It is not the first time I’ve heard Constance’s long and variable journey in search of mystery and wonder and answers to the most pressing questions of all referred to dismissively. Even some of Constance’s contemporaries claimed they thought she was only in the Golden Dawn at Oscar’s behest, on some deceptive errand of research. I found both these things to be—at best– unkind but what I really think is that they are objectively false. The world sat at a bridging point in the late 19th century and it was a world at war with itself on all fronts while at the same time that battlefield bloomed with endless new ideas and energies. Oscar Wilde said he had “wanted to eat of the fruit of all the trees in the garden of the world” and I have in the course of my own work likened him repeatedly to that bird which sets out into the world and collects only the bits and bobs which appeals to its own grand artistic design. Constance was an artist too, well-educated and clever and forward thinking, doing her very best to balance her creative pursuits with championing her political causes, raising her family, supporting Oscar in his career and she still wanted something more beyond the realm of the progressive Victorian housewife. Her level of investment in the occult circles and societies in which she moved demonstrates to me that she was perfectly serious. That she was looking for something.
 I do not know if she ever found it, but do any of us find our quests for unknowable answers have a fixed end point? Having consulted a student of hermetic magic on the matter (by following him around the house in the small hours asking silly questions), I have come to understand that the process, the journey is the point. That Constance’s tasting of all the fruits— studying with anyone or anything which may have provided her with comfort or insight or internal structure or meaning, however fleeting—is looked down upon as indicative of a flighty or fanciful and easily-led nature is unfair (and possibly obliquely misogynistic) and I love it as an expression of  her curious and forward-driven (in her own particular way) nature. Constance wanted more than what the material world could offer and lived at a particularly unique time in which to explore the larger picture, at once a product and pioneer (or at least an inveterate explorer) of her own time.
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Works Cited
Belford, B. (2000). Oscar Wilde: A Certain Genius. London: Bloomsbury Publishing .
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. (2020, April 1). Retrieved from New World Encyclopedia: https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Hermetic_Order_of_the_Golden_Dawn
Metzger, R. (Ed.). (2003). Book of Lies: The Disinformation Guide to Magick and the Occlt. New York: Disinformation Company Ltd.
Moyle, F. (2011). Constance: The Tragic and Scandalous Life of Mrs. Oscar Wilde. New York: Pegasus Books.
O’Sullivan, E. (2016). The Fall of the House of Wilde. London: Bloomsbury Press.
Society for Psychical Research. (2020, April 1). Retrieved from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_for_Psychical_Research
West, D. (2020, April 1). Society for Psychical Research. Retrieved from Psi Encyclopedia: https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/society-psychical-research
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filmgifs · 1 year
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VELVET GOLDMINE (1998) dir. Todd Haynes
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pinkrose05 · 2 months
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THE GANG!
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Warning: Mild spoilers for the new Myriad Celestia trailer.
These guys are such a pleasant surprise, oh my god. They're basically a demon lord and his 4 generals, and every one of them has a very neat, very unique design!
(Dubra is my personal favorite, because her description as a scribe and someone who mastered the blade seems at odds with her demure appearance. That, and the ghostly figure looming over her, really makes one think.)
It's also interesting to note that the four Paths Ifrit mentions for each of his children correspond to specific factions involved in Penacony. The Harmony to the Family (Sunday, Robin and co.), the Elation to the Masked Fools (Hanabi), the Preservation to the IPC (Aventurine), and the Remembrance to the Garden of Recollection (Black Swan).
I can't wait to see what they're up to next. Here's to some of them being playable, at least- I'd love to get more info on the Annihilation Gang.
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callileonn · 6 months
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for the palette meme, I’d like to request fe3h Yuri in world vision please! thanks for considering 💜
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doing each other’s makeup & Pure Vibes :-)
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favroitecrime · 5 months
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The letter is basically as pro-israel as you can get without actually outright saying you support genocide & the incessant bombing of Gaza/Palestine. Nearly 380 people. Only 107 requested a ceasefire in another letter. Obviously celebrities are airheads and don’t matter, but with millions in followings as well as millions in money & no demand for a ceasefire? This is… not good.
It solely discusses (israeli & apparently every other nationality in the world that’s not an Arab nation??) hostages whilst peddling lies that have already been debunked. It makes no mention of a ceasefire, no mention of the bombs israel has dropped (which is now estimated to be equal to that of Hiroshima & has killed nearly 6,000 people), & absolutely does not condemn israel at all.
Most of these names do not come as a shock, but very few are disappointing. Full list of names will be under the cut for those curious. Sorry it’s not properly alphabetized. Will say though, it’s a shame there’s no alternative ways to watch the medias these people are involved in without giving them attention. Such a shame.
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teardroprosa · 8 months
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I request a constance von nuvelle if you’re feelin it!! 💖
I hope you like her hehehe 💕
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PS I’m still open for a few more requests! Read this before sending your ask, thank you~
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autism-swagger · 8 months
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I love Final Destination 3
Closeups under cut
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harbingersglory · 2 months
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also im (probably) caving and adding hsr characters to my writable character list so feel free to add pretty much any of them to requests until I update the list later
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stairnaheireann · 4 months
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#OTD in 1900 – Death of playwright, novelist, and poet, Oscar Wilde, in Paris.
Oscar Wilde was an Irish author, playwright and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. He is remembered for his epigrams, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, his plays, as well as the circumstances of his imprisonment and early death. Married to Constance Lloyd and father of two children Cyril (1885-1915)…
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nowonderi-nc · 1 year
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What's the difference between Night and Day?
My 3 free hours are up before this is finished but I just have to say how completely normal and sane I am about Hapi and Constance becoming friends in Abyss. I am totally fine about how Hapi, who has just escaped being experimented on and has nothing to her name, meets Constance in the shade with all her old finery from being raised noble. Extremely chill that Hapi has to learn magic and riding to make herself needed and secure her stay in Abyss, while Constance has graduated magic school and chosen to come here. Casual as I ponder that Hapi has nowhere to go but here, and this is Constance' stepping stone to her glorious life. So relaxed I am bored about how Constance in the shade seems so untouched by the bad things she could feel, feelings Hapi has to choose and try to ignore so she isn't a danger to everyone.
And I for one am totally uninterested in the fact that they got to know each other despite their differences, and I do not care that they love one another so much despite the awful situations they met and know each other in.
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Golden Age Gals: The Little Sisters
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feah-leah · 1 year
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You made the mistake of giving me attention so now you're getting more Mischa movie buff headcanons. This is going to be long, so buckle the fuck up.
He really likes watching movies —he likes broadcast media in general: films, television, music, radio— and enjoys watching most genres. Except westerns —he hates westerns: cowboys were around for 20 years and they were not as cool as Clint Eastwood makes them seem, and he's also way too tall! Anyway, he has an array of favourite films and he finds a lot of comfort in watching characters on a screen. Mischa uses movies as an escape. He can lock himself away in his basement bedroom and forget about the world. He can just exist for a little bit without disappointing anyone.
He has a movie night every week; it's a ritual at this point, every Friday evening he can just relax and not have to worry about being the Ukrainian bad boy that he pretends to be. His marathons used to be just for him, but then he watched a movie he thought Noel would like (Les Diaboliques) and suddenly Noel was his film club partner. Over time, the other members of the choir started attending too —some more than others. It never becomes a consistent group "thing" but Ricky tends to be there just as regularly as Noel is. Penny usually joins too, but not always. It's usually touch and go with Constance and Ocean: Ocean is always busy, and Constance hates anything scary. She hasn't realised they watch other things too, and it's kind of funny to see how many different excuses she can come up with so they haven't told her yet. (She'll find out eventually.)
He does like other genres, but horror movies are his favourite. They're a glimpse into a chaotic, scary world that Mischa has full control over —unlike his own life. If he does get scared, if it does get too much, if he doesn't like it, he can just turn it off. He likes that control. It's why he talks during the movie: he's sharing what he would do in that situation with the people he cares about so that they know what to do or so they can suggest something better. Instead of planning for an apocalypse, he's planning for horror movie scenarios. Though, he does like making fun of them just as much. Make stupid choices, win stupid prizes. Mischa's the guy who'll shake his head at the screen and ask why the final girl is running up the stairs instead of out the door. "You deserve to die! What are you doing? Just leave the house!"
Noel thinks it's hilarious. He is terrified of horror movies; hates them, refuses to watch them. He makes an exception for Mischa, because it's Mischa and he will always make an exception for Mischa, and hesitantly agrees to watch an old French horror movie with him. Noel actually really enjoyed it, and thus began their weekly hangouts.
They started with more well-known horror movies (since Mischa didn't know Noel was scared): 80's slashers, found footage, and popular films —see Saw and the James Wan universe. Scary movies that aren't too scary. Except they are because Noel is a coward. You can imagine his surprise when he actually enjoyed them. Mischa talked through the entire thing, and now Noel does too. He makes snide comments and criticises stupid decisions; he shouts at the screen when they do something stupid. It doesn't mean he's not scared, he is, he's just more vocal about telling a ghost to fuck off. (Is a hand slowly slipping through the gap of an open door? "Nah, fuck that! Absolutely fuck that! No! I would actually rather die!" cue Mischa laughing his arse off and falling off the sofa.) He honestly gets more annoyed than anything because, "girl, what are you doing!? Just leave!"
Noel loves their movie nights: it's an insight into who Mischa really is under his cool exterior. And Noel is actually interested in Mischa's commentary —and not just because it distracts from the horror. He finds that Mischa is honestly incredibly smart: he'll start reviewing the movie during the movie. He'll talk about metaphors, and symbolism and ideologies; he'll break down tropes and point out how the film adheres to, or subverts (and deconstructs) them. He predicts the clichés; he explains the cinematography; he shares titbit pieces of trivia. He has so much knowledge about horror media, and he's never been able to share it before and now he can, and Noel is actually engaging with what he's saying and it's so fulfilling. It's fulfilling because nobody ever actually listened before.
Mischa genuinely treasures their time together; once he realises the types of movies Noel gravitates to or enjoys, he goes out of his way to find movies that Noel will like. They watch all of Noel's favourite French films, and Mischa introduces him to even more. He found quite a few that Noel liked —but quickly decided that he didn't need to see Martyrs since that was a little too much even for him. They even watch some silent movies that Mischa used to watch with his mum, and fall into the world of German Expressionism. Noel loved The Man Who Laughs, and Mischa liked The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari —and he will never admit that he thought Conrad Veidt was hot (do not judge me, he was). They find a mix of the two things they both enjoy: gritty, European tragedy and suspenseful horror. It becomes their thing. Any other movie they'll rewatch with their friends, but silent films are for them. It's an unsaid promise, but it means the world to Noel and it's a very telling sign for Mischa.
This was very horror movie (and Noel) based. Sorry. I have more, but this is long. I'll probably do a part two because I have some thoughts about the movies Mischa and Ricky would watch, as well as movies that Talia introduced Mischa to (back when they were dating. I have a whole thought process on them breaking up amicably, okay? I love Talia.)
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wilde-shit-posting · 1 month
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Constance my girl how did you not know Oscar was dicking down the homies?
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onyxedskies · 1 year
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9 for prompt!! (Any pair but I’m voting hapistance)
hi sorry this took so long i got home and took like 5 naps
prompt: when it's hard for them to contain a smile, so they grin so wide it lights up your world >>>
word count: 523
Hapi would be lying if she said she'd known what she was doing when she set out to get Coco a bouquet of flowers, but she'd seen enough people doing it for their girlfriends that she figured she should too.
She'd enlisted Dedue and Freckles' help, asking them for the best flowers to get for Constance. Dedue had supplied her a short list, and Freckles had offered to come with her to the market to help her make sure she got the right ones for a good price.
And so here she was, walking into Abyss with a bouquet of lilacs and red tulips and pink peonies and a whole assortment of other flowers that she'd quickly forgotten the names of, all for a price she had watched Freckles' barter over until she'd gotten over half off the initial price.
She passed Yuri on the way to the dorms, where she figured Constance would be, and responded to his snickering with an eyeroll and a light kick in his general direction. She continued down the hallway, even as she heard him following her.
"Well, what's the occasion?" Yuri asked from behind her, voice light.
"There isn't one," she answered. "Just thought I'd get Coco something she'd enjoy."
"How sweet," Yuri said, and he seemed genuine this time. He was still smiling, but the edges seemed softer now. Hapi felt a heat crawling up her neck and turned away from him.
"Yeah, well, I'm gonna go give this to her now. See you around, Yuribird," she said, walking briskly off. She felt his eyes on her until she turned the corner, and she hoped he wasn't making fun of her.
She pushed the door to the dormitories open, smiling when she saw Constance bent over the desk, mumbling to herself with a quill clutched in her hand. Her usually pristine curls were frizzing together, likely from running her hands through them in frustration, and yet Hapi still thought she was the most beautiful girl she'd ever seen.
She hid the flowers behind her back. "Coco?"
Constance turned around, brightening when she saw Hapi. "Hello, dearest!" She stood, walking over to Hapi and giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. She then noticed that Hapi's hands were behind her back, and her eyebrows furrowed. "What are you hiding?"
"I got these for you," Hapi said in a rush, holding them out to her and looking down. The heat from earlier was back, stronger than before and taking a determined residence in her cheeks.
Constance gasped, taking the bouquet from her hands. Hapi looked up to see her smiling brightly, eyes shining as she held the bouquet in her hands.
"It's beautiful," Constance said, practically vibrating in her excitement as she turned it in her hands, touching the petals reverently. Hapi found herself smiling as well. She leaned forward, wrapping Constance in a hug and kissing her cheek.
"I'm glad you like it," she said.
"I love it," Constance said. "Just as I love you."
Hapi buried her face in the crook of Constance's neck, but murmured a quiet "I love you, too" back anyway.
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