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alwaysahiccupandastrid · 2 years

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Titanic (1997) - Some Things From My Rewatch Today

Not only is it now less than 24 hours before I go to the Titanic Exhibition in London, but today - April 15th 2022 - marks the 110th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. I’ve seen James Cameron’s film multiple times, starting when I was about 8 or 9 years old and my parents let me and my sister watch it (my sister was only about 5 or 6), too many times to count in fact, and I actually rewatched it at the beginning of last month too (after having not seen it for years). It’s an incredible film, obviously, although as a child I always thought the love story was “eww” (because I was a child, and when you’re a child love is indeed “ewww”) and thought the sinking scenes were interesting in a morbid way, although now that I’m older I also love the romance side of it.

Since last month, I’ve been fascinated by the Titanic and have been researching the disaster; just two weeks ago, I read the entirety of a book called “Titanic: Minute by Minute” by Jonathan Mayo, which I highly recommend as it’s a detailed account of the last day of the Titanic and the sinking, plus the aftermath and fates of the survivors. Because of this, when rewatching the film today I noticed more and more how much effort James Cameron put into the film, and while it’s very much a dramatisation, there’s still so many accurate things that I was impressed. So I decided to make some notes, and I’ve done some fact checking as I’ve copied the notes into this post too just to be sure I’ve gotten things correct. Not all of my notes are about any accuracies or inaccuracies of the film, I’ve also taken some notes about the character journeys (especially Rose), and I wanted to share my thoughts just in case anyone might be interested. This is an extremely long post, given that the film is over three hours long, which is why it’s under a read more, but I’ve tried not to ramble too much.

Also, in this post I use the original script of the movie and reference some deleted scenes, so heads up!

So… let’s talk about Titanic (1997).

I used to think that the opening footage of the Titanic and people waving were real but it’s not, James Cameron recreated that moment and filmed it. I think that’s a testament to how well done the footage is that it looks real

Apparently the footage of the Titanic wreck that we see Brock Lovett looking at/filming is in fact footage of when James Cameron went down to the real Titanic wreck, and he found it very poignant

I love that the little camera thing that they send into the wreck is called “Snoop Dog”

Old Rose is seen doing pottery when she hears the report of the safe being found, and I like to think that this in part implies that since meeting Jack, she was inspired to take up artistic hobbies. She already had an interest in art before meeting Jack because she brought paintings by Monet and Picasso onto the ship, but I like to think that since Jack was an artist, it inspired her to do something artistic herself

Also, I read somewhere that Rose’s little dog is actually a reference to the dogs on the Titanic, and how 3 (very small) dogs were on the lifeboats and survived

Rose worked as an actress in the 20s - under the name “Rose Dawson”. Obviously at the end of the film she gives her name as “Rose Dawson” when arriving in America, but at the start of the film we don’t actually know the full story, so when we know that Jack’s last name is Dawson… you know. The fact that Bodine then goes onto say that she got married and changed her name to “Calvert” means that we as an audience already know from the start that she and Jack weren’t married - and also hints already that Jack didn’t survive because otherwise she wouldn’t have gotten married to someone else etc. don’t know if I’m making sense here but it’s almost like a spoiler from the start that Jack is going to die.

Also, small thing that can be gleaned about Rose’s life post-Titanic, her granddaughter is named Lizzie Calvert - which means she’s probably the daughter of Rose’s son since she has the same surname as the man Rose married (or if it’s Rose’s daughter, it could mean that Lizzie’s parents aren’t together/married). I know, it’s a small useless thing and doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, just something I noticed. Bodine also says Rose “punched out a couple of kids” which means she also had more than once child.

Following on from what I said above about Rose and Art, in a deleted scene before the first class dinner, when Jack and Rose are spending the day together, Rose actually discusses her dreams: “There's something in me, Jack. I feel it. I don't know what it is, whether I should be an artist, or, I don't know... a dancer. Like Isadora Duncan.... a wild pagan spirit... (seeing another passenger who has a big wooden movie camera) or a moving picture actress!” And in the script she then proceeds to pose in front of the passenger, with Jack, the passenger and the passenger’s wife joining in her fun

“Like that Russian girl, anaesthesia” - LMFAO. This is obviously a reference to “Anastasia Romanov”, and several women claiming falsely to have been her

“Wasn’t I a dish?” Never fails to make me smile to myself

When Lovett says that the Heart of the Ocean “must have gone down with the ship”, Rose looks to the left which is a sign of lying, which is a fun thing to notice in hindsight given that she knows the necklace isn’t on the shipwreck because she herself has it still but has been hiding it for 84 years

It’s the way she’s just sitting there like 😳😐🫤😑 as Bodine is narrating the reconstruction of the ship sinking (“she’s got her whole ass sticking up in the air!”)

I do love that older Rose has the same spitfire in her as younger her does; “Thank you for that fine forensic analysis, Mr. Bodine. Of course the experience of it was somewhat different”. “do you want to hear it or not, Mr Lovett?”

Obviously Titanic has its “main” characters, but the background characters are recurring and have their own mini-storylines that go on in the literal background and are actual characters too (eg. Cora sees Rose arrive, can be seen dancing with Jack, can be seen in bed waking up when the ship hits the iceberg, and in a deleted scene she and her family’s deaths are seen) (eg. The mother with the two Irish children)

Kate Winslet is so beautiful, oh my god. The shot of her exiting the cab and looking up from under her hat is so iconic and beautiful

“God himself could not sink this ship!” - AND I OOP-

Factually Inccorrect/Impossible: Cal, Rose, and Ruth are stated to be staying in the parlor suite B-52, 54, 56, as that is where Lovejoy says to bring their luggage. In real life, this was occupied by J. Bruce Ismay.

Factually Correct: third class having to have lice inspections (among others) before boarding whilst first class don’t. Third class passengers were obviously the poorer ones, and most of them were apparently immigrants going to America hoping to start a new life

BIG Factual Incorrectness That Wouldn’t Allow The Plot To Happen: Due to concerns about lice and such, Third-Class passengers were also not allowed in the First-Class section and vice-versa, so Jack dining in First Class and Rose partying in Third Class would both have been impossible. This is also one of the actual reasons for the infamous "locked gates" that prevented Third Class passengers from accessing the boats: the strict separation of classes meant that only Third Class had to go through the health inspection in New York. Third Class had their own deck space fore and aft, including both well decks.

Also, James Cameron can be seen in a cameo appearance here as a man having his beard checked by the way

"On the outside, I was everything a well-brought-up girl should be. On the inside, I was screaming." The scene then immediately cuts to a horn blaring loudly which is kind of funny, kind of just really fitting

Jack was so excited, “I’m going home!” 😭

I couldn’t help but laugh at him referring to himself as Fabrizio as “a couple of regular swells” (swells is a slang term for rich upper class men I think)

Factually Incorrect (but I’ll allow it): Tickets for the Titanic were not transferable. The prop tickets used for filming were faithful reproductions, and you can see it says they’re not transferable so really Jack and Fabrizio shouldn't have been able to board with Sven and Olaf's tickets. But then when James Moody allows them to board, he does only glance at the tickets anyway.

It’s so depressing watching this film, seeing 2200+ people all waving goodbye to their loved ones, everyone waving them off, and just knowing what’s about to happen

Factually Inccorrct: When Jack and Fabrizio are looking for their cabin, the Irish mother and Helga's family can be seen in the hallway. The third class cabins in the bow were for single men, while accommodations for single women and women with children were located in the stern. Families that included men were located amidships, separating the two groups. This arrangement dates back to the earliest days of ocean liners, with the theory being that the men travelling with their families would provide some buffer of protection to unaccompanied women.

Factually Correct: First class passengers did indeed have private promenade decks in their accommodations

I have no idea if the Monet and Picasso paintings Rose brought with her are real or if they’re prints, but for her sake I hope they’re just expensive prints because otherwise that means there’s a bunch of Monet and Picasso paintings on the bottom of the Atlantic

There’s a deleted scene with Cal, Rose and Trudy the maid here that on the one hand might have been nice as it shows that Rose is close to Trudy, but on the other Cal is a creep and it’s made obvious a bit too early just how much Rose despises him, to the point where you’d wonder how he didn’t notice it

Factually Correct: The Unsinkable Molly Brown (played in this film by Kathy Bates) was in fact an absolute legend and incredible woman who helped the ship’s evacuation, she (unsuccessfully) encouraged the crew in Lifeboat No. 6 to return to the debris field to look for survivors, and she then proceeded to organize a survivors' committee with other first-class survivors once on the RMS Carpathia which worked to secure basic necessities for the second- and third-class survivors, and even provided informal counseling. So yes, this woman was a real life boss ass lady and I love her, Kathy Bates was the perfect person to play her in this film.

It’s fun watching this film as a LOTR fan because I can’t stop thinking about how Captain Edward Smith is also King Theoden of Rohan (Bernard Hill is the actor of course)

Factually Correct: In the film, the front three funnels can be seen giving off smoke - the back fourth one does not. The back funnel was there for aesthetic purposes.

I’m just going to say it now and get it out of the way, Leonardo DiCaprio is hot in this film. Like he is so attractive it hurts.

The Titanic’s journey started in Southampton, went to Cherbourg in France, then went to Queenstown (which has since been renamed Cobh and is in County Cork) in Ireland, and was finally supposed to go to New York in the USA. Obviously it didn’t make it to New York but that’s where it was supposed to go.

Factually Correct: Bruce Ismay, who was the White Star Line managing Director, and Thomas Andrews, who in the film they say built the Titanic, can be seen dining with the first class passengers, which is true. Captain Edwards is also seen dining with them, which again is true.

Factually Incorrect: Thomas Andrews is described as the designer of the ship, and depicted as blaming himself for its faults. In reality, Andrews was the shipwright - the actual designer was a man named Alexander Carlisle.

When Rose lights a cigarette and her mother says “you know I don’t like that, Rose”, Rose just blows smoke at her mother. Cal then takes the cigarette from her and stubs it out, saying “she knows” - first of all, Rose is definitely a spitfire. Secondly, the fact she can’t even have a smoke without being told off by her mother and fiancé is just one of many things that shows how trapped she is.

Following on from my above point, Cal then orders for her: “We'll both have the lamb. Rare, with a little mint sauce”, then once the waiter has moved away: “You like lamb, don’t you, sweet pea?” And she pulls a face at him. Woman can’t even order her own damn food for goodness sake! Molly even comments “you going to cut her meat for her too, Cal?” (I love Molly, she’s always in Rose and Jack’s corner and I love that)

After Bruce Ismay explains why the ship is called “Titanic” (“I wanted to convey sheer size. And size means stability, luxury... and safety”), Rose says “Do you know of Dr. Freud? His ideas about the male preoccupation with size might be of particular interest to you, Mr. Ismay.” And Molly is just grinning and nodding her head. I think you can also see Thomas Andrews trying not to laugh.

Also, Bruce Ismay has not in fact of heard of Freud it seems, as evidenced by him asking if that’s a passenger on the ship, which makes it even funnier

Molly asking “she’s a pistol, Cal, you sure you can handle her?” Is met by Cal responding “Well, I may have to start minding what she reads from now on”, looking rather tense even as he feigns unconcern, which is just… Urgh.

Factually Correct: There were indeed dogs and kennels on the ship, mostly owned by first class passengers. A crew member can be seen walking a group of dogs on the third class deck, which prompts Tommy (the Irish guy) to comment, “That's typical. First class dogs come down here to take a shite” and Jack jokes “That's so we know where we rank in the scheme of things”

Every time a character says the ship is unsinkable, “solid as a rock”, strong etc, I have to try not to go “oh noooo” because it’s very much feeling like they’re jinxing it 😭 betting Tommy Ryan wasn’t so keen to claim the ship was Irish when it was sinking-

The moment where Jack sees Rose for the first time is very sweet and beautiful, but I also just love the line, “forget it boyo, You'd as like have angels fly out o' yer arse as get next to the likes o' her” (because Irish, that’s why) and Fabrizio waving his hand in front of Jack’s face without getting any response

During this moment, Cal comes outside, and he and Rose have this interaction; you can’t hear what he’s saying but he’s talking to her and grabs her by the arm, and she pulls a face before walking away from him and he’s just looking around like “… 😶” I love that you can see the fire/defiance Rose has before meeting Jack that shows that they haven’t broken her yet

There’s a deleted scene that occurs between Rose being seen having dinner in her red dress (hair is up, perfectly composed, make up, staring straight ahead) and then the scene of her running towards the back of the ship with her hair down, make up ruined, her in tears; that deleted scene shows Rose going back to her room, taking her hair out, ripping her necklace off and being physically unable to get out of her dress, her calling for Trudy (her maid) to help her, and her realizing that she (a young woman) can’t even do something as simple as undress herself without any help, which leads to her being distraught. I know Fox made Cameron cut some scenes out because it’s a long film as it is, but that scene should have stayed in I think because it shows how she got herself into such a distraught state, and the anger/furiousness/self hatred she feels leading up to the moment where she’s ready to just throw herself into the ocean

Factually Correct: To my knowledge, the costumes are period accurate but I’m really just especially impressed by how accurate the White Star Line uniforms worn by the crew supposedly are, plus the props such as the silverware/plates are also the same as it would have been on the Titanic. I don’t know if that’s true or not but I’ve heard people say that, and I’ve also seen people saying that all of the rooms - the accommodations, dining rooms etc - are perfectly matched to the rooms of the Titanic.

I can’t get over Jack just throwing his cigarette in the ocean 😂

“I know what ice fishing is!” “Sorry. You just seen like, you know, kind of an indoor girl” - LMFAO

There’s some clever foreshadowing/exposition in this scene where Jack is telling Rose about how cold the water is, which is obviously important later when the ship is sinking and people are in the water: “freezing, maybe a couple of degrees over” “a thousand knives all over your body” “you can’t breathe, you can’t think… least not about anything but the pain”. While obviously some people did drown when the ship sank, a lot of them froze to death in the water because it was so cold - this moment very early on drives home for the audience just how dangerously cold it is

As a child, I thought Rose genuinely didn’t know what the propellers were/the name for them, but now I’m starting to think she in fact DOES know, she’s just playing the part of the “silly simple woman” - which makes sense because she obviously didn’t want Cal or the other men to know that she was going to jump off of the ship, as evidenced by her pleading look to Jack to not tell them the truth. Rose is also very smart, so I doubt she doesn’t know what propellers are/that that’s what they’re called, and it would fit perfectly into her having to play the part of a dutiful daughter/wife in the class that she’s in.

“A twenty should do it” - BITCH?!? I love that he’s not only putting a going rate on saving his fiancée, but it’s only a twenty??? Man is loaded and he offering only a twenty??? He’s not even trying to pretend she means more to him than just an arranged marriage

Just before Cal gives her the necklace, he says “I know you've been melancholy, and I don't pretent to know why” - to be fair, at least he’s honest. It’s clear he doesn’t actually know her that well though, nor does he care to. She’s basically a possession to him.

He claims the necklace is a “reminder of my feelings for you”, but that’s not true at all. He makes no attempt to hide how expensive it is, that it comes from royalty, and we know from older!Rose speaking earlier that it was “a dreadfully heavy thing” - that, plus the way it sits made me think of a collar than anything else. There’s a deleted scene that happens right after this (it fades from this scene to older!Rose talking) where old!Rose even says, “Of course his gift was only to reflect light back onto himself, to illuminate the greatness that was Caledon Hockley. It was a cold stone... a heart of ice. After all these years, feel it closing around my throat like a dog collar. I can still feel its weight. If you could have felt it, not just seen it...”

A nice indication of the difference in wealth and class between Rose and Jack is that Rose has a lot of different outfits whilst Jack has very few: he’s seen wearing the same shirt as the night before when he and Rose are talking/him showing her his sketches, he then borrows a fancy suit from Molly for dinner in first class, and I’m pretty sure he’s still wearing the same shirt (the one from the suit) the next day/through the sinking of the ship. Everything he owns was on him the day he won the tickets for the Titanic, he’s a drifter and pretty much penniless. I don’t know, I just thought it was a nice indicative thing

It’s also interesting that Rose’s engagement ring is implied to be heavy, just like the Heart of the Ocean necklace: “god, look at that thing! You’d have gone straight to the bottom!”. Her wearing that heavy ring is another reminder of how constricting/uncomfortable she is in this engagement/her upcoming marriage.

Jack and Rose’s banter is really cute and I love it. I love that their relationship is shown developing even over such a short time and that they’re able to have fun with each other and banter

I do love that when Rose snatches his sketchbook away, Jack is so not bothered by it. He just lets her. He’s not once afraid that she’ll not return it, he’s not afraid she’ll ruin his work, he’s more than happy to let her look but he’s also not cocky or bragging about how good he is as an artist

Also I laughed at her closing the front cover of the sketchbook over when a man walked past so that he wouldn’t see the drawings of naked women 😂

Jack mentions a one-legged prostitute and there actually is a drawing of a one legged prostitute in his sketchbook, if you pause the film at the exact right frame before he turns the page over

There’s a drawing of a woman at a bar that Jack tells Rose about, a lady called “Madame Bijoux”, and this is actually based on a famous photograph from 1933 called “Bijou” which was taken by Brassaï.

Factually Incorrect: Bruce Ismay is portrayed as encouraging Captain Smith to push the ship to full speed so that they get to New York a day early. In reality, Ismay and the rest of the White Star executives knew they could never compete with Cunard's faster ships, and they wanted to focus on luxury and comfort. He also asks him why the last “four” boilers aren’t lit, however, at the British inquiry, Leading Fireman Frederick Barrett testified that the day before the disaster, eight of the boilers were unlit.

Factually… Not Sure: It’s mentioned that this is Captain Smith’s last voyage before retiring, and this is supposedly true, this was supposed to be his last voyage before retirement (although other sources have suggested he was going to continue being captain on Titanic until White Star Line Company “completed a larger and finer steamer”)

I love how Rose sees Jack spitting, goes “that’s disgusting”, and then proceeds to do it herself 😂

Molly gesturing to Jack to quickly wipe the spit of his chin is a nice touch, she’s shown to help him out quite a bit like giving him a suit etc

Factually Correct: They did indeed announce mealtimes with a bugle playing “The Roast Beef of Old England”, the bugler was actually called Percy Fletcher and he died during the sinking; if his body was recovered, it was never identified

So fun fact: the staircase of the real Titanic is, obviously, at the bottom of the Atlantic, but there are two other staircases that are similar - one is in the Vatican, and the other is actually in Loftus Hall in Ireland, and I’ve seen it firsthand because I went on a tour there as a teenager during one of my visits to Ireland (I have Irish grandparents too). According to one of the tour guides there (and this could be false), James Cameron asked the lady who owns Loftus Hall if he could buy the staircase to use in this film, offering her a lot of money, but she said no. Loftus Hall is also incredibly haunted so I recommend checking it out if you’re ever in that part of Ireland!

I like the small detail of Jack watching the first class passengers while he’s waiting for Rose and then imitating them to practice before dinner

Interesting to note that Cal and Ruth go to the dinner together, talking, leaving Rose to follow; this definitely adds into the idea of the engagement between Cal and Rose being more like a business transaction between two parties, with Rose having zero choice in the matter

By the way, there are a LOT of historical figures/real life people in the first class dinner scene: John Jacob Astor and his pregnant wife (the wife survived, he did not, and their son was named after him), Colonel Gracie, the Duff-Gordons (including Lady Duff-Gordon, the lingerie/fashion designer, Benjamin Guggenheim and his mistress (his wife and children are at home) etc.

Molly was 100% giving Ruth a Death Stare in the dinner scene when Ruth was trying to embarrass Jack/put him down in front of the others and I’m living for it

Jack just throwing a lighter at Cal when he sees Cal pulling out a cigarette is kind of funny, won’t lie

Factually Correct: During this scene, Molly Brown tells a story about her husband accidentally burning $300,000 that she had hidden in the stove. Apparently this was a real incident that happened?!?

Something I didn’t notice before is that as the men are leaving for cigars and brandy, Jack can be seen handing a pencil back to Molly, who discreetly puts it in her bag - that’s how Jack wrote the note he gives to Rose telling her to meet him by the clock, because Molly gave him the pencil. This woman is 100% rallying behind the two of them and I love it

Factually Correct: The third class party scene (the real party) has Irish music, a lot of Irish people, what looks like Guiness and is just in general very Irish. This is accurate because yes, there were a lot of Irish people making up the third class passengers, and as someone with Irish roots, let me tell you right now that you know it’s a real party when the Irish get involved - lots of drinking, dancing, etc. It’s also accurate that third class had their own dining areas and areas to spend time doing things like dancing and playing cards

Okay but Jack dancing with Cora and “you’re still my best girl, Cora” is still adorable to this day

The smash cut contrast as it cuts from the roaring Irish party to the stiff first class in their smoking room is beautiful. The contrast is so striking because it goes from dancing/laughing/cheering/music to near silence.

Molly really wasn’t kidding when she said Rose was a pistol, she straight up glugged a pint of beer before taking the cigarette straight out of someone’s mouth and smoking it

As a child, I used to be so perplexed by everyone being like “WOAH JESUS CHRIST” when Rose went en pointe because at the time I thought she was just on her tiptoes and I was like “pfft I can do that”. Now, however, as an adult who has done ballet and loves watching ballet, seeing her go en pointe while NOT wearing pointe shoes makes me equally very uncomfortable and also impressed. The Irish woman in the back going “Jesus, Mary and Joseph” when Rose did that is a MOOD

So there’s that deleted scene i mentioned that takes place after the Irish party but before the next scene where they’re looking at the stars, singing the “Come Josephine” song and as they’re looking at the stars, they see a shooting star and he tells her, “My father used to say that whenever you saw one, it was a soul going to heaven”… which, you know… bear that in mind for later on…

“I had hoped you’d come to me last night” “my wife in practice if not yet by law” - EXCUSE ME WHAT (will refer back to this later)

Cal really flew off the handle just because Rose said “I'm not some foreman in your mills than you can command! I am your fiancee--“ 😬

Originally it was supposed to be Rose helping her mother put the corset on but it was switched around to Ruth tightening Rose’s corset, which honestly fits so much better. This scene is symbolic of how Rose is trapped in this life in first class, trapped in the engagement with Cal, of how uptight and suffocating it all is - despite being rich and having everything someone might ask for, she’s far from happy. This, coupled with her earlier desire to kill herself to escape, just goes to show how it’ll end up killing her one day because eventually it is going to get to the point where she’ll end her life just to escape. The fact that it’s her mother tightening the corset is especially important because it’s her mother who’s forcing her into a marriage she doesn’t want, her mother who is restraining her

Gotta love the irony of Ruth calling Rose selfish just because she doesn’t want to be forced into a loveless and probably abusive marriage when in fact it’s arguably Ruth being selfish because she’d rather marry her only child off to someone they don’t love than be poor or, as she puts it, work as a seamstress 🤦 I understand it’s a hopeless situation but still, it’s super shitty

“Of course it’s unfair, we’re women. Our choices are never easy” - Ruth is right here though. It’s 1912 and women were definitely not viewed the same as men

Factually Sort-Of Correct: the Sunday church/hymn service did in fact happen on Sunday 14th April 1912, and one of the songs they sang was in fact “Eternal Father” — a hymn about sailors suffering while at sea. The line the audience hears as the scene cuts is “Oh hear us when we cry to Thee, for those in peril on the sea”, which is a nice bit of foreshadowing in the film but also horrible irony in real life. However, the version being sung in the film wasn’t around until the 40s and also they’ve moved the verses around out of order, presumably so they could have that “those in peril on the sea” line there. Also, “Eternal Father, Strong to Save" was not used in the Sunday service for first class, but in a second class prayer service later in the day.

I do love how when Jack greets Thomas Andrews on the staircase, Andrews greets him back in a friendly way

Factually Correct: Captain Smith did in fact get multiple telegrams from other nearby ships warning the Titanic of icebergs, but these warnings were ignored. The people in the telegram room also only gave the captain messages that were seen as urgent, so the captain didn’t receive all of them. The people in the telegram room were also under a lot of duress trying to send out messages from passengers to their loved ones, so they got more and more annoyed by the warnings from other ships warning them of ice - they thought the messages were a nuisance and even at one point sent a message back to one ship to “shut up”.

Factually Correct: Despite the warnings, Captain Smith did in fact order the last boilers to be lit and for the ship to progress at 22 knots (full speed).

More foreshadowing/exposition, although this is a bit more obvious, in the scene where Andrews is talking about the lifeboats; he says that there’s not enough lifeboats on the ship, not even by half. Cal remarks that the lifeboats are a waste of space as it is because it’s “an unsinkable ship” Obviously this foreshadows how there wasn’t enough lifeboats for all the passengers, which led to the later panic less than 24 hours later when the ship was going down

Factually Correct: Andrews says that he requested to add more lifeboats but was overruled because it would make the deck look “too cluttered”. Obviously it’s true the ship didn’t have enough lifeboats, and the WSL company only put just enough lifeboats according to the regulations. Also, in the “unlikely” event of the ship sinking, it was thought that the lifeboats would be sent out, take the passengers to a nearby ship, then they’d return to get more passengers. Of course, the Titanic sank in under three hours and the nearest ship didn’t arrive for four hours.

Factually Correct: In the script, after the Smith ice warning moment, Officers Lightoller and Murdoch have a conversation about binoculars being missing - this is true. The lookouts were missing a pair of binoculars, which contributed to them not seeing the iceberg until it was too late

Jack and Rose’s conversation happens in an on deck gym and, yes, this was thing on the actual ship

I love that he calls her a brat before launching into telling her how much he likes her

One of my favourite moments is Rose saying “it’s not up to you to save me, Jack” and Jack saying “You’re right. Only you can do that”. Because it’s true; even though Rose says that Jack saved her in every way a person can be saved, she’s the one who made the decisions in the end - she was just inspired by him

In the background of the next scene in the dining area, you can hear Ruth discussing the wedding plans, and says that Rose chose “lavender” - I can’t remember where I heard this but apparently lavender is a colour of mourning, which is indicative of how Rose views her upcoming marriage to Cal as being akin to death almost, maybe even worse than death. Lavender is also, interestingly, similar to the colour of Rose’s dress from after the drawing scene, through the entire sinking, and up until the very end (I think it’s more lilac than lavender but whatever)

The important moment in this scene is of course Rose seeing the mother and daughter on the next table; the mother making the daughter sit up straight, making the little girl fold the napkin perfectly into her lap… it’s indicative of a never ending cycle of little girls being born, forced and trapped into this life where they have to be prim and proper, no control over their own lives, only to be married off and have their own daughters who will be forced into exactly the same thing. It’s absolutely heartbreaking, and this is what makes Rose change her mind ultimately; maybe I’m just overthinking but I do wonder if she’s thinking to herself that she doesn’t want any daughter of hers to be forced into that life like she was.

Jack sings the “Come Josephine” song to Rose during the flying scene, which is actually a callback to a deleted scene that would have occurred earlier in the film and shown the two of them singing it. In that scene, he also tells her a story about how shooting stars are people going to heaven, which is interesting later on… The song is also heard later on when Rose is on the makeshift raft and she’s singing it to herself

As Jack and Rose kiss, there’s a fade from the past to the present - the ship fades into the ghostly wreck at the bottom of the ocean, and there’s a moment where it looks like they’re kissing on a ghost ship, this ghostly couple caught in time

Jack in suspenders though 😭 I love men in suspenders

It’s around this point that Rose stops wearing the engagement ring which is a nice detail

The drawing is actually really important because it’s Rose taking charge and commissioning Jack to draw the portrait, her deciding how she’s going to appear (“I want you to draw me like one of your French girls, wearing this… wearing only this” “I don’t want another portrait of me looking like a porcelain doll”). It’s her taking charge of her own body and her sexuality, and that’s beautiful to me. And it’s also very important that Jack is a professional and a gentleman because he gets on with the drawing despite clearly being a little flustered by the sight of this woman he’s in love with naked, and he doesn’t take advantage of her while she’s in that vulnerable state of being fully nude. The fact that she’s comfortable enough and trusting him like this, and the way he doesn’t take advantage, is so beautifully done.

Also, I’m sure we all know this by now but the drawing of Rose was actually done by James Cameron

I also just love that this was one of the first scenes they shot and that Kate Winslet flashed Leonardo DiCaprio before filming in order to (sorry to use this phrase given the circumstances) break the ice so they’d be more comfortable with each other

Also, she was wearing the robe when she came out and he was clearly getting ready to draw while she was preparing herself, but I do wonder if he helped her loosen her corset because this is happening on the same day as the scene where her mother is shown tightening her corset, and we know from an earlier scene she couldn’t get out of it by herself

“Over on the bed- the couch!” - the funniest part about this line is that it wasn’t scripted, Leo genuinely flubbed that line 😭😂

Factually Correct: The captain and one of the officers (I think) have a conversation where it’s mentioned, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a flat sea” and “makes it harder to see the bergs” - this is one of the reasons the Titanic lookouts didn’t see the boat until it was too late. If there had been waves, the waves would have lapped up against the side of the iceberg - but there weren’t any. The water was remarkably flat and calm.

Before this, in a lot of scenes Rose’s hair is up or half up; from this point onwards, her hair is seen to be down, which could be symbolising how she’s more free and more herself with Jack

Rose flipping the bird at Lovejoy will ALWAYS remain iconic to me 😂

The dress that Rose wears now - her “sinking dress” - is a lot looser and lighter than her previous outfits, and I’m presuming she’s not wearing the corset anymore, which again is indicative of how free she is now that she’s chosen Jack

The two lookouts, Fleet and Lee, have a conversation where Fleet claims he can “smell ice when it’s near”, which is tragically ironic for obvious reasons 😂 I’m not sure if this was a real conversation that was had but…

Rose leaving the drawing in the safe and writing “now you can keep us both locked in your safe” is so savage, oh my lord

Not Lovejoy perving on the drawing when Cal wasn’t looking 😭

I still find it so funny that of all the goddamn cabins and rooms on the ship, Rose and Jack decided to consummate their relationship in a car

Okay so speaking of the love scene, it’s a sweet little scene and it’s not distasteful. However…

I’ve seen some interesting debate over, strange as it sounds, the previous sexual experiences of Jack and Rose. I’ll talk about Rose in a second, but for Jack you’d think he’d have a lot of experience in that area because he’s well-travelled, seems more knowledgeable about that kind of topic, has drawings of naked women drawn from life, and he’s from a class that’s typically not as uptight about sex or relationships. Having said that, he makes it very clear here that - with at least the one legged prostitute - his love affair was just with her hands. Other than that, there’s no indication that he’s actually done anything with these women beyond using them as models for his sketches.

Moving onto Rose, the expectation would be of course that’s she’s totally inexperienced, expected to wait until marriage etc. but some people have pointed out that Cal makes a couple of remarks that could be indicating that he’s had his way with her (because to me it’s quite clear that Rose isn’t into him at all). For example, saying he was hoping she’d come to him the night before and the whole “wife in practice thing” - it wouldn’t be completely uncommon for couples who are engaged to have sex, especially if the engagement is a contracted agreement. There’s also a deleted scene where he makes a remark about how he’ll “still be the first between the sheets” that makes Rose and Trudy very uncomfortable. However, like I said, the fact that she’s not into him at all in addition to what I’ve mentioned above could instead mean that he’s trying to get her to sleep with him but she’s holding off.

^ Following on from the two above points (and this is my final point on it, I promise), it’s interesting that the expectation for these kinds of scenes is for the woman to be a shaking panting mess, but in the scene post-climax of their love making in the car, Jack is the one trembling and Rose is the one kissing his forehead/holding him. Now maybe it’s just “it was really good” or whatever (you know, the whole “it’s better with feelings/love” thing) but… yeah. It’s interesting that it kind of subverts the usual way it goes here. Again, it’s unimportant in the grand scheme of things, I just think it’s interesting that there’s discussions about this.

Lots of eye witnesses said it was absolutely freezing on deck the night the Titanic sank, so it’s so funny to me that Rose is out on deck just before the collision in a short sleeved dress without a coat or anything

I am so sorry, but Fleet yelling “BUGGER ME” and “PICK UP YOU BASTARDS” ALWAYS sets me off

The scene with the crew trying to get the boat to turn around is so well done - you can really feel the desperation and also the sheer panic as they try to slow Titanic down and avoid a collision, which is accurate to what they must have been feeling at the time

No matter how many times I watch this movie, and also knowing the history, I still end up saying to myself “oh no please don’t hit, don’t hit, turn, turn, oh no it’s gonna hit, it’s going to hit!”, which is a testament to how well done it is I suppose

The noise that the ship makes as it scrapes along the bottom of the iceberg haunts my nightmares. Just the sound of the scraping metal sets me on edge to think about

Apparently, had the ship not attempted to turn and had in fact just hit the ice berg straight on, there’s a good chance it wouldn’t have sank; however, because Titanic scraped the side of the iceberg, it flooded more compartments than simply hitting head on would have done (approximately a 250ft section of the hull was damaged)

Factually Incorrect: About two minutes pass in the film between Frederick Fleet sighting the iceberg and the collision. In reality, the elapsed time was roughly forty seconds. In addition, Titanic scraped the iceberg for only seven seconds, whereas the collision lasts about a minute. Similarly Thomas Andrews is shown feeling the vibration of the iceberg collision while in his cabin and realizing that something is wrong. Reportedly, he didn't notice anything was wrong until Captain Smith sent for him. Andrews's cabin was on A Deck, where the impact was barely felt.

Factually Correct: On the bridge, they could hear the iceberg grinding along the side of the ship; in boiler room 6, fireman Frederick Barrett saw seawater explode through a split that opened up two feet above the floor. There was indeed a shudder as the ship hit the iceberg; many passengers and crew throughout the ship either felt or heard the impact. It’s also true that they hurriedly shut the firefight doors to the boiler rooms in an effort to contain any flooding, and anyone who didn’t manage to escape the rooms would have probably drowned while trapped inside there. There was also ice that fell onto the deck. It’s also accurate that some of the third class woke up to water in their rooms

Factually Incorrect: After the collision, Captain Smith orders full stop. In reality, he ordered half ahead while the damage inspection was carried out, then ordered full stop.

Factually Correct: At this point, the staff and crew were telling passengers “it’s under control”, “no emergency” and to go back to bed.

I do have to laugh at the master at arms looking at Jack’s drawings and going “I think they’re quite good, sir” and Cal snatching them off of him 😂

Leo DiCaprio’s “THIS IS HORSE SHIT” has lived in my mind rent-free for 16 years now and it’s staying in mind for life I’m sure

The ship is literally sinking and they’re like “now is the perfect time to arrest someone!” 🤡

Factually Incorrect: Andrews says that five of her compartments have been breached but it was, according to Mayo’s book, six. However, in fairness, the damage in Boiler Room 5 was quickly contained, and it was the damage to Boiler Room 6 that doomed the ship. But otherwise, yes, it’s correct that the Titanic was designed so that she’d stay afloat with four compartments flooded - too many compartments were flooded by the ship scraping the side.

“She can’t sink-” “She’s made of iron, sir, I assure you she can!” should not be as funny as it is to me. It’s just the way he’s like “she’s made of iron dude??? Wtf you think is gonna happen???” (And yep, iron does indeed sink - I know this because, if nothing else, when you donate blood in the UK, they do a test where they prick your finger and put a drop of your blood into a solution, and if it sinks then it’s good because it means the iron in your blood is at an acceptable level - if the blood floats, you’re in trouble because that means you don’t have enough iron)

Cal really smacked the shit out of Rose, and I would not be surprised if that wasn’t even the first time he’d hit her. He gives off that vibe of being an absolute scumbag (kudos to Billy Zane though, he played the character well since I fucking hated him)

Factually Correct: Once they knew the ship was sinking, the crew told passengers to dress warmly because it was cold outside, even just standing on the deck

The difference between them waking up/talking to the first class passengers and the third class passengers is so messed up: for first class they’re knocking on doors, “please put your life jacket on”, “dress warm”… and then for third class they’re just barging in and shouting “GET UP! LIFE JACKETS ON!”

Factually Correct: The Titanic sending out “CQD” messages via telegram. CQD is a distress call mean “COME QUICK DANGER”

Factually Correct: The noises from the funnel were extremely loud - much louder in real life than in the film, but obviously the film needs you to be able to hear dialogue so… yeah. Still very loud.

Another Factually Correct thing (sorry, we’re getting more of these now): In the film, Andrews comes out on deck and sees that it’s basically empty, so he asks “where are all the passengers?”, and a crew member replies that they’re all inside because it’s “too cold”. This is true, the passengers didn’t think it was serious and some were even saying things along the lines of “why would we leave this majestic ship to sit on a small little lifeboat in the cold for no reason”. A lot of them stayed indoors because they didn’t think it was serious. This is also shown again with Ruth telling one of the staff to turn the heater on in their rooms and “I’d like a cup of tea when I return” - because the ship was supposedly unsinkable, they didn’t take it seriously until later

Let me say it again: the ship is literally sinking and they’re like “hey, I know a good idea! Let me handcuff this man to a pipe!” 🤡

As I mentioned earlier, the nearest responding ship was the RMS Carpathia, a cargo ship, and they were four hours away - from the time it hit the iceberg to the time it disappeared, Titanic sank in two hours and forty minutes.

Factually Correct: Captain Smith tells the officers to load the lifeboats “women and children first” - this was taken in two different ways by the officers. Officer Lightoller interpreted this order as “women and children only” and so was loading lifeboats half full and denying any men around the chance to get on. Meanwhile, Officer Murdoch was loading the women and children nearby first, and then if there were no more nearby, he was loading men.

Factually Correct: Yes, the band were on deck playing music to try and keep the passengers calm. And it’s also true that the ship was starting to tilt as the front sank

Factually Incorrect: Third-Class passengers were not deliberately locked below decks by the crew during the sinking. Some stewards did make it difficult for passengers to leave steerage, since they didn't understand their orders, but at no point in the voyage were the doors locked. Stewards did block a number of stairways and doors, but this was intended to allow them to shepherd the Third Class passengers to the boat deck without them getting lost. This is apparently referenced in the scene where Jack and the others break down the locked gate, as the steward tells them to head for the main stairwell and they'll be able to find their way up from there. Overall, there was a serious lack of communications among the stewards overseeing Third Class that prevented many passengers from getting to the lifeboats.

Big Fact/Explanation here!: Let’s be honest here. One of the reasons so many people died comes down to the fact that the majority of the crew were NOT trained on how to evacuate passengers in an event like this, and this includes on how to load the lifeboats. That’s why lifeboats were lowered whilst barely full, and lowered at a terribly disorganised and inconsistent rate

Between Ruth asking “are the lifeboats seated according to class?” and Cal remarking it’s “not the better half” that will die, I would have cheered for both of them drowning

It’s only recently I’ve understood what exactly Cal meant when he said “I wish I’d kept that drawing, it’ll be worth more by morning” (artists’ work is worth much more when they’re dead), and I just want to say he is a DICK. An absolute fucking DICK.

“Where are you going? To him? Is that it? To be a whore to that gutter rat?” “I’d rather be his whore than your wife” - SHOTS FIRED BY ROSE DEWITT BUKATER/DAWSON

Also the fact that she makes him let go of her by doing a gloriously beautiful spit into his face is a nice callback to the fact Jack was teaching her how to properly spit

Thomas Andrews was being a real cool dude by telling Rose where to find Jack

Jack and Rose reuniting is sweet but also I was just sitting there like “the ship is literally sinking, can we do this romantic shit in a minute AFTER you’re not in a rapidly flooding room?!?”

Jack, literally chained to a pipe, watching Rose leave as the room rapidly floods: “… I’ll just wait here!” 😭😂

The fact that Jack was trusting Rose to use an axe to cut his handcuffs off… the fact he’s an artist and if she missed, he’d lose his hands - his literal livelihood could have been gone just like that 😭 thankfully she didn’t miss but still, he’s got more faith in her than I would

Apparently Kate actually did hit Leo with the fake axe though 😭

Jack going “oh SHIT, this is cold, OH SHIT” was literally just Leonardo DiCaprio reacting to the water I’m sure 😭😭😭

Factually Correct: The crew really did have to push and threaten the passengers back because they were swarming the lifeboats and literally trying to jump into them. During the actual sinking, there’s an account of one man landing on a woman as he jumped into the boat and nearly crushing her. The crew were also basically throwing women and children onto the boats to forcefully separate them from their husbands/fathers. It’s also real that the crew were setting off the distress rockets in the hope of signalling for help.

Factually Correct but also maybe a Little Incorrect(?): It’s true that Bruce Ismay got onto a lifeboat and survived, and afterwards he was publicly blasted and shamed for saving his own skin. However, he testified that he was encouraged by the officer loading the boats to get on, which isn’t shown here.

Even though this is a dramatisation, it’s so sad to know that families really were separated, boys as young as 12 weren’t allowed on because of the “women and children” rule (because teenage boys were being classed as “men” during the sinking), and a lot of the men saying goodbye to their wives and kids were never seen again

Factually Correct: Just a quick note to say that Guggenheim is shown dressed in his best and saying he’s going to go down with the ship as a gentleman. This did in fact happen.

It’s the way that Jack was thinking about how he was going to die with the other men on the ship, he knew Cal wasn’t going to offer him help getting a place on a lifeboat, but he was just glad that Rose was safe 😭

That moment where Rose is looking up at Jack from the lifeboat and the rocket goes off behind him is literally CINEMATIC CINEMA 👌🏻 it’s an incredibly beautiful shot, Jack with the rocket light behind him, I cannot get over how beautiful it looks, and the fact it was an accidental shot??? 😭👌🏻

Okay but the scene where Rose jumps out of the lifeboat back onto the ship, and then her and Jack run to meet each other by the staircase is one of my favourite scenes 😭❤️ literally crying every time I see it

Jack doesn’t often show fear or terror in the film, even when it’s obvious he’s scared, and that’s because he’s most likely attempting to hold it together for Rose - but when she jumps off the lifeboat and he’s running looking for her, it’s one of those moments where you can see the terror and worry on his face

It’s so sweet how he’s going “you’re so stupid, Rose!” in a hoarse voice whilst also kissing her and holding her, like it’s obvious he’s shocked and doesn’t actually think she’s stupid, not in the way Cal does, but more like “why would you do that??? I love you but why????”

I’m sorry, I laughed out loud at Cal slipping on the debris from where one of his bullets hit the pillar at the bottom of the stairs

This film really shows how fast the water was rising up. I don’t even have anything else to say about that, it’s very fast

“I put the diamond in the coat… I PUT THE COAT ON HER!” - the way I laugh thinking about this line is literally unholy, oh my god 😂 it’s just the way he starts off with a pleasant and calm voice, only to start yelling on the verge of a breakdown

Fun fact, there was a deleted scene here where Cal sent Lovejoy after them, and he and Jack had a fight in one of the dining rooms, and it shows how Lovejoy ended up so bloodied and beaten up before we see him later just as the ship splits in half. That scene also showed how quickly the water was rising because at the start there’s not that much, but by the end it’s around their knees I think

Factually… Controversial?: Ah yes. The Murdoch controversy. For those unaware, James Cameron caused a bit of a controversy by showing First Officer Murdoch shooting and killing passengers trying to get on the lifeboats before shooting himself in the head out of guilt; Murdoch’s nephew was furious and accused Cameron/20th Century Fox of tarnishing his uncle’s legacy. According to Mayo’s book, there are witness accounts claiming an officer (who is not named) accidentally shot and killed people trying to swarm the lifeboats, and they then turned the gun on himself. James Cameron has since said in the film commentary and also interviews that it wasn’t his intention at all, saying his depiction of Murdoch is that of an "honorable man," not of a man "gone bad" or of a "cowardly murderer." He added, "I'm not sure you'd find that same sense of responsibility and total devotion to duty today. This guy had half of his lifeboats launched before his counterpart on the port side had even launched one. That says something about character and heroism." He has also said that he probably shouldn’t have shown this as a specific officer as there’s no confirmation as to which officer did this. Fox vice-president Scott Neeson also went to Dalbeattie, Scotland, where Murdoch lived, to deliver a personal apology, and also presented a £5000 donation to Dalbeattie High School to boost the school's William Murdoch Memorial Prize.

Coming off my last point, I used to think Murdoch was bad as a child but now while watching the film all I felt was pity because it’s obvious that the officers were all under a lot of pressure - the ship was literally going down fast, and the passengers were pushing and trampling each other in order to survive. In the film, it’s shown to be an accident too, that he didn’t actually want to shoot. I understand why his family would have been furious about it, but I don’t think the intention was to portray him as a bad man.

The scene with the band playing “Nearer My God To Thee” is so heartbreaking - beautiful but heartbreaking - from the beginning of the song to when Wallace Hartley (the violinist leading the band) says “Gentlemen, it’s been a privilege playing with you tonight”. There’s the elderly couple in bed (which I talk about more down below because they’re in fact a real couple who were on the Titanic), the mother putting her children to sleep knowing that all three of them are going to die, the people screaming and scrambling to survive…

Factually Correct: The band did in fact play music on deck, and survivors reported hearing them play “Nearer My God To Thee”.

Factually Correct: During this scene, an elderly couple is shown spooning in bed as water rushes in around them, and it’s clear they die together. This couple is actually Isidor and Ida Straus; Isidor was the former owner of R.H. Macy and Company, and Ida was his wife. In a deleted scene from the film, Ida is offered a place in a lifeboat, but refuses, saying that she will honor her wedding pledge by staying with Isidor. This in fact happened in real life: when offered a place on the lifeboat, she refused to get on without her husband. Although the officer in charge of the lifeboat was willing to allow Isidor to board with his wife and their maid, he refused to go while there were women and children still remaining on the ship. He again urged his wife to board, but she refused, saying, "We have lived together for many years. Where you go, I go." Her words were witnessed by those already in Lifeboat No. 8 as well as many others who were on the boat deck at the time. However, the last time they were seen, they were actually in deck chairs

Factually Ambiguous: In the film, just after the scene “Nearer My God To Thee” moment, Captain Smith is seen retreating into the wheelhouse on the bridge as the ship sinks, dying when the windows implode from the water whilst he clings to the ship's wheel. However, there are conflicting accounts as to whether he died in this manner or if he in fact later froze to death in the water near the capsized collapsible lifeboat "B". The captain going down the ship is also a maritime tradition I believe, so it works better cinematically and shows him as a better person, I suppose, than him freezing to death whilst swimming for help.

In the background of some shots, you can see the crew and passengers throwing things like chairs overboard - this really happened, and it was so that those in the water had things to grab onto

The moment where the glass dome of the Grand Staircase implodes is not only so gut-wrenchingly upsetting to watch, it’s actually brilliantly and cinematically well-done/shown in the film. There’s something about the way it shatters and water pours in, people swept away by it, that’s so chilling.

Factually Correct: John Jacob Astor IV is last seen as the Grand Staircase glass dome implodes and water surges in. He did in fact die and his body was recovered; his body was identified by the initials sewn on the label of his jacket. It’s thought, however, that he was killed by the first funnel collapsing and not on the staircase

It’s so depressing watching people jumping off the boat and into the water because the fact is that between the water being freezing and some of the heights of the jumps, most of them probably died instantly. There’s no telling if people knew that then, but if they did then it’s sad that for them they viewed it as a preferable death to the horror of being on the sinking ship as it groaned and buckled like it did

The sinking in general is well done in the film, it’s genuinely terrifying and horrific: people jumping off the boat, people trampling each other, desperation to survive, people drowning and freezing to death, the actual noises coming from the ship as it implodes/breaks/floods…

To lighten the mood, I nearly died laughing at the random dude slowly walking as he says, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death...” and Jack behind him just going, “You wanna walk a little faster through that valley there?!?”

Factually Correct: Okay, we NEED to talk about the chef who is seen to be one of the last people off the ship, sipping from a flask up until the very end, and in a deleted scene getting absolutely pissed as a skunk, because this man is an actual LEGEND. His name was Chief Baker Charles Joughin, and he did in fact survive the Titanic sinking; he testified that he rode the ship down LIKE AN ELEVATOR and then stepped into the water without even getting his hair wet before paddling and treading water for about two hours until his upper half was pulled up onto collapsible lifeboat B, his legs and feet still in the water, and he stayed there until being rescued by the RMS Carpathia. He also admitted to hardly feeling the cold, and this is most likely thanks to alcohol - he was so full of alcohol that they think it stopped him from feeling the cold when in the water. Literally the only ill effect he suffered was swollen feet. I cannot get over this man, he’s an absolute legend.

Factually Correct: A priest is seen giving a sermon just before the ship splits. This is Father Byles, a second class passenger, who was a Catholic priest from England, and he really did pray and console the passengers in those final moments

The mother telling her child that it’ll “all be over soon” is genuinely one of the most upsetting things I’ve ever seen or heard. Like it’s so upsetting and makes me cry 😭

“Jack, this is where we first me” - I’m so sorry but my sister was in the room during this line and I just said to her “yep, and this is where we’re gonna fucking die, Rose!” 😭

Also Jack’s expression is also sort of “WTF Rose”, which makes sense because Kate Winslet ad-libbed that line apparently and Leo was like “da fuck???”

But being serious, when Rose said that, Jack kissed the top of her head and rested his chin on her head, and you can see the fear on his face 😭 he lets his fear show when she’s not looking, and his fear is mostly for her and what might happen to her

It’s also cinematically symbolic and interesting that the stern - the final part to go down - is not only where Jack and Rose first met, it’s also where Rose was about to end her life before meeting Jack, and now it’s where the two of them are there trying to stay alive. Just… very interesting I think.

The people falling off of the stern while it was vertical would have DEFINITELY been killed the second they hit the water, let’s be honest. There was also a guy who hit the propellers when he fell down, and there’s literally zero chance he survived.

Factually Correct: A moment of respect for the engineers in the engine rooms who stayed there and worked their asses off until the very last second to keep the engines running so that the ship could have lights on and the distress calls could be sent out. They would have been killed when the ship split in two.

Factual Nit Pick Here: When the lights on the Titanic went out, it was quite literally pitch black. The people on the ship didn’t know what was happening anymore, they couldn’t even see the water rushing towards them, and those in the lifeboats couldn’t see anything at all. In the film, it’s not exactly pitch black. Obviously, because this is a movie, we the audience need to be able to see what’s happening, but I want to be clear that in real life it was so dark that once the lights on the ship went out, no one could see a single thing. Also, later on, Fifth Officer Lowe and Lifeboat 14 are shown with flashlights - they did not have flashlights. Apparently, Cameron knew this, but kept it in order to provide lighting.

^ Because of this above point, this is where witness/survivor accounts start to differ a little because no one could actually really see anything

The ship splitting down the middle is another thing that haunted me as a kid and still haunts me even now. The sound it makes as it splits is literally awful, and for a ship of that size and strength to split like that, it would have taken a LOT of pressure/water. Anyone near the middle of the ship would have most likely died immediately.

Factual… IDK???: There’s differing accounts of how exactly the ship split and sank, and there’s different theories. Because of how dark it was, and also because it’s thought that some more of the ship broke hitting the bottom of the Atlantic, it’s basically impossible to say exactly how the split and final plunge happened. Maybe I’m just not doing enough research but I do know there’s various theories about it, and it’s hard to pin the exact right one because of how dark it was

The people who were in the water towards the back of the ship would have absolutely been killed when the ship split in two and the stern crashed back down, let that sink in for a second… that’s a horrible way to go

Just hearing the people screaming and crying as they go down is so terrifying???

See, I can’t even bring myself to be mad about the man who nearly drowned Rose by trying to use her to stay afloat because these people would have been desperate, and desperate/scared people do things they wouldn’t usually.

I’m Not Even Going To Bother Fact Checking This One, Just Let Me Rant: I have NO idea what the official scientist conclusion on the infamous “Could Rose and Jack have both fit on the door?” debate is, but could they not have at least taken turns??? 😭🤦 I’m sorry, I know that these two characters weren’t real but for goodness sake?!?

^ Look, I know that Jack is absolutely the type who’d have said no to taking turns because his goal wasn’t saving himself, it was making sure Rose survived, but I’m just MAD about it

Factually Correct: Molly Brown, as mentioned above, did in fact try to convince Officer Hitchens in Lifeboat 6 to go back for survivors but was overruled and told to shut up. Only two of the twenty lifeboats went searching for survivors, and they waited too long before doing it

One thing I only noticed today was Ruth covering her ears to stop herself from hearing the screams… Jesus Christ.

Here’s the thing I want to make clear here: most of the people in the water were wearing life belts. They were not drowning. The reason these people died is just because of the cold - it is so cold that they died in minutes. One survivor said that the worst thing wasn’t even hearing people screaming - it was when people stopped screaming and it turned quiet. Another survivor lived close to a baseball arena and said that it was difficult for them because the screams of fans reminded them of the screams of the dying people in the water after the sinking.

“I don't know about you, but I intend to write a strongly worded letter to the White Star Line about all this” - even when he’s literally dying, Jack is still managing to make jokes 😭

Jack really foreshadows the ending by telling Rose, “You're going to get out of this... you're going to go on and you're going to make babies and watch them grow and you're going to die an old lady, warm in your bed. Not here. Not this night. Do you understand me?”

“Winning that ticket was the best thing that ever happened to me. It brought me to you. And I'm thankful, Rose. I'm thankful.” - If you hear me sobbing, no you don’t 😭

Shoutout to Fifth Officer Lowe for being the only officer on a lifeboat (Lifeboat 14) to go back for survivors, he’s the real MVP here even if he did wait too long

There’s a shot of a woman and baby dead in the ocean and I feel sick every time I see that shot or think about it. Don’t get me wrong, seeing the entire literal SEA of dead bodies in the ocean is really upsetting but the baby especially just hits really hard

While Rose is lying on her back, singing the Josephine song, she’s looking at the stars and there’s a shot of a shooting star; I already mentioned the deleted scene previously where Jack tells her that shooting stars are people going to heaven, and I wonder if this is the moment Jack died

When I was younger, I was always baffled that Rose loved Jack as much as she did only to let go of him and not die with him (because younger me was like “love is dying together” because I’m dumb), but now that I’m older I see this as Rose living for Jack; she promised him she would do all of these things, he made her promise that she’d die as an old lady, and that’s why she keeps going - because she’s doing it for him.

I still cringe at the sound of her forcing Jack’s hands off her own - obviously his hands are frozen as well as the fact dead bodies do get stiff anyway, but it’s so grim to think about

Let’s talk numbers here, using older!Rose’s narration/dialogue: “Fifteen hundred (1500) people went into the sea when Titanic sank from under us. There were twenty boats floating nearby and only one came back. One. Six were saved from the water, myself included. Six out of fifteen hundred.” If you want to do the maths, that’s 0.4% of people who went into the water who survived. That’s absolutely disturbing to think about.

Factually Incorrect: While what Rose says is heartbreaking, it’s false. She says only one lifeboat came back, whereas in reality, two lifeboats returned. The first was lifeboat 4, who rescued 8 crew members from the water, 2 of them died inside the lifeboat. Much later, lifeboat 14 returned, having wasted a lot of time transferring passengers into other lifeboats in order to make room. They rescued 3 or 4 passengers, one of whom died in the lifeboat. She also said that there were only six people out of fifteen hundred left on board who were rescued from the water when it was actually about forty. This can be justified by her only knowing of six.

Factual Check: There were 2222 people on Titanic, including the crew; it’s estimated that 1517 of those people died, leaving about 705 people alive. 68% of people on the ship died, leaving 32% who survived; most of the deaths were third-class passengers, especially third class men. It’s thought that at least 53.4% of the people on the ship could have survived, had the lifeboats been loaded properly (these numbers are approximate, I apologise for any incorrect information)

In the scene showing the various lifeboats waiting to be rescued as morning dawns, you can see someone passing Cal a flask that he drinks out. Just a neat detail, I think.

Seeing the survivors trying to track down their loved ones, hoping that they made it off the boat, is… very saddening and depressing. Not knowing whether your loved ones are alive or dead in a situation like this must be one of the worst feelings, I imagine.

Here’s the thing: it’s not like Ruth or Cal didn’t know that Jack’s surname was Dawson, which is obviously the surname Rose gave when arriving in America. This means Ruth and Cal never actually bothered to look under the surname “Dawson” to see if Jack himself was still alive, because otherwise they’d have see Rose’s name under “Dawson” and probably put two and two together - which seems strange to me because you’d think they’d know “hey, maybe she’s with him” or something. If nothing else, it shows how little they thought of Jack that they didn’t even bother to see if he’d survived

I’m sorry, you just gotta love how old!Rose threw a necklace worth billions of dollars into the middle of the fucking sea 😂 and the noise she makes throwing it in, like a small little “uhh!” It makes sense though - it’s like it belongs at the bottom of the ocean with the ship, and her throwing it - this “heavy thing” - into the ocean is also symbolic of how it must feel to finally talk about what happened, to talk about Jack, after keeping it to herself for 84 years.

Originally the scene was different because Brock Lovett, Lizzy, Bodine etc. were all there (it’s a deleted scene, easily found on YouTube like the rest of them), where they try to stop her, Lovett gets to hold the diamond, and Rose tells him, “You look for treasures in the wrong place, Mr. Lovett. Only life is priceless, and making each day count” before she throws it in, Brock goes through about ten different emotions before smiling and accepting it… but I like the actual scene better. It just feels more right for the film and less cheesey I think.

Everyone and their mother knows this, but I love seeing Rose’s pictures showing her doing everything she and Jack said they were going to do 😭❤️

There’s some debate about whether or not Rose is merely sleeping and dreaming, or if she’s in fact dead - even the script is ambiguous about it: “We PAN OFF the last picture to Rose herself, warm in her bunk. A profile shot. She is very still. She could be sleeping, or maybe something else.” It’s open to personal interpretation, but I personally do think that Rose died just because of the whole “you’re going to die an old, old lady, warm in her bed”, which is literally what the script says is happening here, and it makes it all the more poignant that she’s finally told the story of what happened on Titanic, she’s finally spoken about it and about Jack after 84 years, and now it’s her time to move on.

I love the way it shifts from the ship remains to how it used to look in 1912, to how big and beautiful and wondrous it was.

Literally all of the people who died are there as she goes up the stairs: Cora and her family, Fabrizio and the girl he was dancing with, Tommy Ryan, the crew/staff, Thomas Andrews… again, I think it’s another sign she died in her sleep and this is her joining all of them.

The clock on the stairs is at 2:20 - the time the Titanic took her final plunge and sank.

I only recently became aware of this, but as Jack and Rose kiss and the camera pans up, you can see Captain Smith in the background and he’s the very last person to start clapping, which I suppose goes back to the whole tradition of the captain being the last one to leave the ship or whatever? Idk, I just thought it was interesting!

And yep, that’s me crying over the end scene yet again!

And… here we are. I don’t have a lot else to add other than I do love this movie, and even if it’s not 100% accurate to the Titanic ship or the sinking, it’s still a brilliant film!

#titanic #rose dewitt bukater #jack dawson #rms titanic #history #thomas andrews #movies #megan watches movies #leonardo dicaprio #kate winslet #jack x rose #rose x jack

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willowhaired · 2 years

Text

Black and white

Elrond × Reader

Summary: You are a warrior of Eregion that has to see her home destroyed. The Lindon army comes to your rescue, and you find your new home by the side of Gil-Galad’s herald. Yet it might be that your plans for the future would not survive the war.

Word count: 4,185

Warnings: violence, blood, war, character death, no happy ending :(

A/N: I was inspired by this post, so thank you @anotherbleedinghart! Also a big disclaimer, it might be triggering for some of you (or all), touching on subjects that are pretty recent and ongoing. It takes place in the Second Age, during the War of the Last Alliance. I tried my best to research the era, but please excuse me if not all are correct. It is a long one and a slow burn with no happy ending. It is not my favourite, but I enjoyed the setting. For an alternate „ending” you can check out my other Elrond imagine, Morning dream. That’s just sweet as honey. Hope you’ll enjoy.

You were a Colonel of Eregion. The North entrance of Ost-in-Edhil was under your protection, and you had a perfect view of the road to Moria. Countless dwarves and elves used that ornate path and your eyes were used to the coming and passing of goods.

You were dressed in silver armour, not unlike any other soldier of Eregion; however, it was decorated with a different device, and under it, you were dressed in white. You almost blended into the white towers, especially on days like this, when the breeze caught into your white cape.

Your service as a warrior began under Galadriel when the Lady of Light and Lord Celeborn were still ruling the capital. Upon their journey to the other side of the Misty Mountains, you stayed with some of your men – at that time a mere Captain. It wasn’t only your wish to stay, but a direct order from Celeborn himself: an order Galadriel tried to annul. She wanted you to travel with them, but her husband insisted that someone had to stay behind to guard the city, and it had to be someone they trusted. With a heavy heart, the fair Lady accepted the arrangement. If you looked to the Mountains from your post, you could still see their figures linger since the day you saw them off, as if they never truly left.

You loved Eregion, so you never had any wish to leave it. You resided there for most of your life. The domed, delicate buildings became home to you.

Now it was all ash.

When Celebrimbor arrived, you offered your men and services to him without any bitterness. It was not your role to rule and you never wished to. You wanted your city, and above all, your kind, safe.

There was barely a third of your unit who survived, with a handful of others and it was only thanks to a cowardly move you made. It wasn’t after seeing your leader stretched as a banner of orcs, no. At that time it was still the fiery rage guiding you and all those in command. Eregion was not theirs to take.

No, it was when the fire in the city was highest that the tears smothered the passion. It was when the fishermen from the bay had fallen. It was when the maids in escape were beheaded. It was when children were slain. There was no one left to protect. Nothing to remain.

’Flee!’ you called for the soldiers around you. Soon, your command became an echo amongst the ones fighting and you led them towards the road to Khazad-Dum. That soon proved to be perilous, as the servants of the Enemy were on the watch. You’d lost more of your men before seeking refuge around Caradhas: not even the most hell-bent orcs would have ventured there, not without command.

You waited for the assault to calm down, until the skies over Ost-in-Edhil cleared. Guilt pulled you back to the ruins of your city. You had to see what had been done to it, and more importantly: if there was anyone left. Then, your plan was to make for Lothlórien.

Only you were lured into a trap.

The fire had died down, but the smoke still stung your eyes. Eregion stood in ruins, its white walls tainted with ash and dark blood. It was a mere ghost of its glory from days ago. The soldiers scattered to look for survivors, some of them breaking down in tears as they found their loved ones had perished. There were no birds or songs and a foul smell scorched your lungs. The skies turned dark as clouds blocked the sun. Suddenly you regretted your decision to return.

A dissonant sound filled the air. You gripped your sword anxiously as you licked your lips but your mouth was paper dry.

It was an orc horn.

You knew that an attack on your few, drained numbers would be fatal for all of you. There was no diversion for any to escape unnoticed. Even the most skillful was disheartened after a glance upon the land they once called home. You stood no chance.

’May Eru protect us,’ you uttered to yourself and drew your sword. ’Draw your swords!’

You saw your soldiers arm themselves despite fear and grief contorting their faces. There was no glory in heading towards certain death without anyone to save. Still, if nothing else, bitterness boiled your blood and you held your blade higher.

To your surprise, another horn answered your call.

You turned towards the small mound to your right: a line of soldiers, dressed in golden armour stood tall upon it. It was the host of Lindon, coming to your aid. You heard their commander urging them into battle, though you saw no sign of him.

The first orc assault was hurrying towards all of you like a tall wave of blackness.

’Death to the orcs!’ you cried out in a deep voice and charged ahead. Precisely aimed arrows flew by your sides as you stroke down the first orc.

Throughout the fight you were searching for the Lindons’ commander – there was no point in shedding any more elven blood. You cut an orc’s arm, forcing him to drop his weapon while sticking your sword into the abdomen of another one with the next move. Despite trying your best, you lost much of your coordination and strength the past days. You received many wounds, and once were even pushed to the ground by a heavy stroke to the middle of your back. It knocked out the air of your lungs for minutes and you forced yourself to your feet while still choking with air all around you. Your vision was dizzy, but you could still see a troll raising his spiked club to smite the elf ahead of him.

You pushed ahead, jumping up to stab your sword into the back of the beast. The troll fell ahead, with you on his back, now face to face with the ellon you saved. It was the Lieutenant of Gil-galad.

’Lieutenant,’ you bowed briefly, before blocking an attack. He greeted you the same before getting to the bottom of things.

’What do you say are our chances?’ he asked, slaying a Warg rider.

’None,’ you replied without sugarcoating. Your sword sank into orc flesh. ’They are great in number and the city has fallen two days before.’

’Retreat it is, then,’ he nodded. ’Which way should we take? Any roads blocked?’

’We should make Northward, following the Bruinen,’ you suggested. You knew that if the orcs would have ventured so far north, your group would’ve already been slaughtered the second you emerged from the Red Horn pass. ’The path to Moria is guarded.’

You both gathered your soldiers and made way on the bank of Bruinen. For many miles, you fought off the orc hoard that was pursuing you frantically. By early afternoon, the sun broke through the thick storm clouds and its warm rays slowed their advances. The light was still above the Mountains when they withdrew completely.

Alertness did not die down amongst the army, but the pace grew less hurried. There were still young cadets keeping watch, observing the far-off woods and the nearby lands for any threat, but there was none - until a Lindon soldier caught glimpse of something in the nearby forest. A small group fell behind to investigate with the lieutenant and you.

It was about a dozen Eregion elves, who had flown early as the siege began, but found their fate in the woods awaiting them. Grief twisted your heart again as you saw their lifeless bodies lying in the grass. It took you a moment before you realised that you and your party was not alone.

Somebody shifted in the branches above you.

’Prepare the bows!’ the Lindon commander instructed swiftly. All was armed in a blink of an eye, watching the leaves rattle intently. Your palms were sweaty, so you adjusted the grip on your sword.

It was a young boy, shivering on a higher branch, mostly unharmed. The soldiers let out a loud sigh as the lieutenant signaled for them to lower their weapons. He pushed his own sword back into its sheath and stepped closer to the tree, right under the boy.

’It’s okay. Jump down, I’ll catch you,’ he called for the child gently, opening his arms. The boy took a good deal of pleading, and he crawled almost to the trunk of the tree before he was convinced and hopped into the arms of the commander. Even then, the boy made a run for it, and if it wasn’t for the last bit of your reflexes, he would have thrown himself into the depths of the forest, never to be seen again. You caught him, hugging him close to your chest. You rocked his shaking body maybe a little more forcefully than normal; your tired limbs were no longer able to make any fine-tuned movements. Even the child you had to clasp strongly, not only because you did not realise in your fatigue, but because his shock made him erratic and scared.

’It is alright. You are safe,’ you whispered soothingly to him. He was finally starting to calm down when a soldier pressed your shoulder.

’We should go. We can’t linger till nightfall,’ he reminded you and you nodded. Come darkness and the enemy would catch up with you. Gil-Galad’s commander looked at one of the cadets:

’Dernor, carry the boy along,’ he instructed and the ellon nodded. He reached out towards you to take the young elf into his own arms, but the boy hang onto you like unripe fruit to the tree. Even your fingers were cramped around his small body.

’It is going to be fine,’ you said reassuringly, maybe even to convince your own hands to let go. ’You are safe and I will be close.’

The child’s clasps softened around your armour and with the same dexterity he climbed the branches he slid into the arms of Dernor. You locked eyes with the lieutenant: it was the first time you noticed their light, clear shade. It was a reminder that the night was drawing near.

You journeyed on for many more miles, even well into the night. The stars were watching over you and no assaults were made on you under the darkness of the night. You must have gained on the orc hoards. The army behind you was, however, tired and worn; especially the soldiers of Eregion who endured many days of suffering at that point. Many were wounded and in bad shape. Some were doubtful to see the sun rise.

You saw the burden weighing heavily on each of their shoulders as you scanned the soldiers from a boulder. The Lindon commander placed his hand on your upper arm:

’They’ve found a protected part in the valley. We should take refuge there to regain strength.’

This is how you all arrived to the valley that later became Imladris.

***

Herbs and healing were never your strong suit. Although your Noldorin blood carried some craftmanship in your veins, you had always been raised and trained as a warrior. The lieutenant was, however, different: his hands were remarkable at healing and he cared for the injured with an unwavering devotion that was unlike a high-ranking commander. Your heart was grateful to him since the battle, but you only realised it grew fonder and fonder as you saw more of his actions. His demeanour demanded respect, yet he was the first to humble himself to help others. You allowed this amazement to wash over you as you watched him tend to the wounded before you span around to explore the area.

It was a land of such beauty that even your battle-worn soul was lifted at the sight. Many waterfalls cascaded down the rocks and they sang the ancient song louder than any other waters of Middle Earth. Everything was so well-placed in the ravine, the trees, the stones, each cascade; it was as if the wilderness tamed itself. Somehow it reminded you of the Lindon commander. You climbed and walked among the rocky paths, checking on some of the guards. Everything was silent and as your palm brushed across the mountain wall you knew no harm would come to you in the valley. Not this night, at the least.

You climbed back to camp and came across the child you rescued from the forest. He was among the first to be cared for, though he only had bruises from the prickly tree branches. He was fast asleep, curled up into a small ball on the cold stone. His rounded features were disturbed with a painful expression from time to time.

You covered the boy with your cape. His innocent, sleeping face and weak body framed with the blood-soaked fabric were a true reminder of the horrors of the past few days. The contrast was so sickening, that your stomach made a turn and you reached for the pendant on your necklace. You rubbed your fingers over its intricate design to soothe yourself while you hummed an old lullaby. You stroke through the child’s locks as if to untangle his worrisome dreams. You could not imagine his nightmares being any worse than those he saw with his woken eyes. A voice dragged you back to reality.

'Colonel Y/N,' the lieutenant called out to you gently. You turned from the child to stand up and face him, but your fingers lingered on your necklace for a couple more seconds.

'Lieutenant,' you bowed gratefully. 'I don't remember we were formally introduced to each other, although I would very much like to learn your name since you know mine.'

He smiled and his steel eyes were softer than the pale blue sky of summer.

'I am Elrond Peredhel, herald of Gil-Galad,' he introduced himself, pressing a hand over his heart and bowing to you as a greeting. 'I'm sorry for our late arrival.'

'You saved our lives,' you replied plainly. 'There is no need for apology.'

'Yet should have we arrived sooner, Eregion may still be standing tall.’

'I do not believe that's possible,' you opposed. Your city's fate was written many moons ago, unbeknownst to you or Celebrimbor.

'Still,' Elrond lowered his head as he followed. 'I'm sorry for your loss. You fought and led your unit excellently.'

You scoffed. 'Excellently? I ordered them to run for their lives like cowards.'

'And that saved their lives and many more of Lindon elves,' he pointed out. 'Knowing when to retreat is no less noble than enduring till death.'

His words comforted you, lifting a heaviness that you carried with you from Ost-in-Edhil. The air was lighter and sweeter here.

***

Rivendell soon became a fortress, erected by the talented elves that escaped Eregion's fall with you. You assisted best as you could, never shying away from hard labour, though this time you allowed the men, who were originally under your command, to guide your unskilled hands. Even in its crudeness, the buildings of Imladris were evidence of the mastery of the Noldorin. It underwent many sieges, but held up strong under the command of Elrond. He praised you for your help many times, but he was no less deserving of it. Fighting by each other’s side inspired and reassured the both of you: you were sure to endure any hardship, for you could count on the other.

You grew to be close friends over the many years, but what you did not realise is that it wasn't only friendship that blossomed between the two of you. Your heart was too burdened by sorrow to take note of his subtle advances: how he insisted to be seated next to you each dinner, how his hand lingered on your shoulder, or how he pulled you closer each time you wandered around the building fortress. He stood by you through your dark years, helping you carry your grief so you never felt alone. You could feel how his presence made breathing easier and vaporize the guilt for surviving - instead, you felt grateful for living. You had your jokes between the two of you, and even Elrond found it hard to keep a stern look when you mentioned them in meetings. His voice never made you jump, even when it came from behind you, for it felt natural, as if he himself, though being a separate person from you, was still somehow woven into your being.

Your own feelings for him dawned on you when the two of you were sitting on a bench after a long walk. Though there were many waterfalls rumbling around, none was in sight. It was a secluded part of Rivendell only the two of you knew about. You could recall the time you moved the bench here with Elrond: all the while playfully quarreling as both of you stumbled on the uneven grounds.

’Why are you holding that end so high?’

’I’m not!’

’It sure as day looks like it from here.’

’And from here it seems that you’re pushing it up.’

’I wouldn’t be pushing it up if you weren’t holding it up high.’

’Turn! Oh, this cursed rock.’

By now you knew all the steps so intimately, it would not have been a challenge even in blind darkness.

Elrond sat close to you, your sides brushing against each other. It was such a soft connection that you could feel him breathing as his arms followed the rise and fall of his chest. Suddenly you were made very aware of how much you'd miss this slight touch and how warm your limbs became.

He searched for your hand: his fingers crawled unsurely under yours. His fingertips brushed against your palm and it sent shivers down your spine. You stroke across the side of his hand with your thumb and he finally interlaced his fingers with yours. He must have taken it as a sign because he shortly followed:

'I know these are dark years and there's no telling how long they would last, but I would very much like you to be my wife when it is all over.'

You blushed to the tip of your ears to the suggestion - that an elf lord of such a noble line would even consider you as their partner. When no answer came from you, he grew nervous: his palm became sweaty even though it would have been hard for you to tell since your own was no different. His fingers fidgeted around yours, trying to find their place again. Once he almost slipped his hand from under yours before firmly holding it again.

’I hope I didn’t overstep a line,’ he said apologetically. ’Please, forgive me if my advances are unwelcome.’

You gathered yourself despite your drumming heartbeat and cupped his cheek with your free hand.

’They are not unwelcome,’ you reassured him and brought his face down so your foreheads could rest against each other. You were wrapped in a blanket of calmness. The sorrows and darkness of the world were far from you, even unimaginable. You felt safe and held. You felt like you were home.

***

The war was closing to an end, you could feel it in your bones and in the air around you. The camp laid on the plains of Dagorlad and the siege of Barad-dûr was in its seventh year. The sun hardly ever shone upon the dark lands and this day was no different; yet somehow, it was. You were not sure, how, but there was a change of the winds and the earth beneath you.

You walked up and down in the tent. You should have been resting yet the very idea was unthinkable for you. You played with your pendant: it was the same you wore during the battle of Eregion, and throughout the years you never once parted from it. It was a talisman, one that was bestowed upon you by an old but talented artisan of Celebrimbor. You never understood, why, because rarely you saw him before his departure to the Grey Heavens, but on that very day, he walked up to you, enclosing the pendant into your hand. You wondered if he would explain why when you were to meet again in the Undying Lands.

By now, its shapes and dents burned into your mind. It served to soothe you in trying times, yet now it failed to work its magic. Your mind was filled with worry, that is, until Elrond stepped into the tent, arriving back from his meeting with Gil-Galad.

He was covered with the dirt of these evil lands, and he did not even have the time to clean his face of the dust.

’Y/N,’ he caressed down your shoulders. ’I thought you were resting.’

’I can find no rest here.’

’Yes, this place is foul,’ Elrond nodded. ’But you have led countless attacks the past few days. You will need your strength for the offense tomorrow.’

’I will surely have it with you by my side,’ you smiled, then unclasped your necklace to bring it around and secure it on his neck. You studied how it hang around his neck, and the sight loosened your anxiety. You were finally able to breathe easily. ’I would like you to have this with you. It kept me safe for many years, but now my heart is calmer to see it on you.’

Elrond caught your hand that was brushing across his golden breastplate. He pulled you close to him by the nape of your neck and kissed you deeply. It was weird at the very least to court during such times, but it made you all the more impatient for the peaceful years to come. By his side.

It never occurred to you that any of you would fall in battle.

***

All the beings of Arda joined under Gil-Galad’s sapphire flag: elves, men, dwarves, even the birds aided in the last assault on the Black Gate. The army gained ahead much in territory, however, it proved to be costly when it came to lives. Despite the advance made, Mount Doom was looming over the battle as a dark omen. As a shadow that could not be dispersed.

Elrond led and regularly instructed the soldiers, but it did not stop him to keep you in his sight. It never ceased to amaze him how gifted you were at directing the attacks. The men you flew with from Eregion were still loyal to you, following you even here, to these vicious slopes. You guided them tirelessly, often searching for him as well. When your eyes locked on his, you both smiled. The end was near.

It was the last time you would stare into each other’s eyes.

The battle was at its grimmest and the hour the darkest. Somber clouds suffocated the sun rays, but they could not stifle the hope that was in the heart of each. The orcs tried to make a last, desperate assault, and amongst the depth of it, Elrond glanced over to you again. The black soldiers were gaining your unit. Despite fighting off the attacks you were growing tired, what’s more, you winded up in the middle of the most aggressive counter-attack from the orcs.

Elrond sent some of his men to the aid of yours while he, himself was trying to make way to you. You never looked in his direction: you never had a spare moment to do so. He halted when a shadow flew over him. The elf turned his gaze towards the bleak skies above; it was a fellbeast carrying a Nazgul rider and they circled towards you. Elrond was distracted by an incoming attack and then another. He only lost sight of you for mere minutes, but when he found you again, his heart stopped.

The black-winged creature was aiming toward you. Elrond knew he could not run to your rescue: there was too much of a distance and a band of orcs between the two of you. The realisation hit him like a blast of ice.

'Y/N!' he cried out your name, to no avail. You could not turn to him, only to face your destiny.

He could not save you. Not this time.

***

As he lead Isildur to the heights of Mount Doom, Elrond looked down the battlefield. Even from so far, despite the dirt and blood that stained it, your white cape shone brightly. He could still feel the slight warmth of your soft cheek as it pressed against his when he squeezed you close before Glorfindel urged him away. He wished and hoped against all he saw and knew that you’d breathe again in his arms, but your chest never rose or fell. He clung to the necklace as tears filled his eyes.

He had to carry on, though his strength had left him. No matter, how far now he would walk – he would never see you again.

#elrond #elrond x reader #lord of the rings #lotr #lotr imagine #elrond imagine #elrond x you #second age #black and white

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lokiondisneyplus · 3 years

Video

'Loki' takes over: Tom Hiddleston on his new TV series and a decade in the MCU

Ten years after Hiddleston first chose chaos in Thor, Marvel’s fan favorite God of Mischief is going even bigger with his time-bending Disney+ show.

Tom Hiddleston is Loki, and he is burdened with glorious purpose: After playing Thor's puckish brother for over a decade in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, no one understands the mercurial Asgardian God of Mischief as well as the actor. He can teach an entire seminar on Loki if given the opportunity — which he actually did during pre-production on his forthcoming Disney+ show. In conversation, Hiddleston quotes lines from his MCU debut, 2011's Thor, almost verbatim, and will playfully correct you if you mistakenly refer to Asgard's Rainbow Bridge as the Bifrost, which is the portal that connects Loki and Thor's homeworld to the Nine Realms, including Midgard, a.k.a. Earth. "Well, the Bifrost technically is the energy that runs through the bridge," he says with a smile. "But nine points to Gryffindor!" And when he shows up to the photo shoot for this very digital cover, he hops on a call with our photo editor to pitch ways the concept could be even more Loki, like incorporating the flourish the trickster does whenever magically conjuring something. The lasting impression is that playing Loki isn't just a paycheck.

"Rather than ownership, it's a sense of responsibility I feel to give my best every time and do the best I can because I feel so grateful to be a part of what Marvel Studios has created," the 40-year-old Brit tells EW over Zoom a few days after the shoot and a week out from Thor's 10th anniversary. "I just want to make sure I've honored that responsibility with the best that I can give and the most care and thought and energy."

After appearing in three Thor movies and three Avengers, Hiddleston is bringing that passion to his first solo Marvel project, Loki, the House of Ideas' third Disney+ series following the sitcom pastiche WandaVision and the topical The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Led by head writer Michael Waldron (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Heels), the six-episode drama sees Hiddleston's shapeshifting agent of chaos step out from behind his brother's shadow and into the spotlight for a timey-wimey, sci-fi adventure that aims to get to the bottom of who Loki really is. "I wanted to explore slightly more complex character questions," says Waldron. "It's not just good versus bad. Is anybody all good? Is anybody all bad? What makes a hero, a hero? A villain, a villain?"

Even though Loki — who loves sowing mayhem with his illusion magic and shapeshifting, all with a major chip on his shoulder — has never been one for introspection, the idea of building an entire show around him was a no-brainer for Marvel. When asked why Loki was one of the studio's first Disney+ shows, Marvel president Kevin Feige replies matter-of-factly, "More Hiddleston, more Loki." First introduced as Thor's (Chris Hemsworth) envious brother in Kenneth Branagh's Thor, Loki went full Big Bad in 2012's The Avengers. That film cemented the impish rogue as one of the shared universe's fan favorites, thanks to Hiddleston's ability to make him deliciously villainous yet charismatic and, most importantly, empathetic. The character's popularity is one of the reasons he's managed to avoid death many times.

"He's been around for thousands of years. He had all sorts of adventures," says Feige. "Wanting to fill in the blanks and see much more of Loki's story [was] the initial desire [for the series]."

The Loki we meet on the show is not the one who fought the Avengers in 2012 and evolved into an antihero in Thor: The Dark World and Thor: Ragnarok before meeting his demise at the hands of the mad titan Thanos (Josh Brolin) in 2018's Avengers: Infinity War. Instead, we'll be following a Loki from a branched timeline (a variant, if you will) after he stole the Tesseract following his thwarted New York invasion and escaped S.H.I.E.L.D. custody during the time heist featured in Avengers: Endgame. In other words, this Loki hasn't gone through any sort of redemption arc. He's still the charming yet petulant god who firmly believes he's destined to rule and has never gotten his due.

Premiering June 9, Loki begins with the Time Variance Authority — a bureaucratic organization tasked with safeguarding the proper flow of time — arresting the Loki Variant seen in Endgame because they want his help fixing all of the timeline problems he caused while on the run with the Tesseract. So there will be time travel, and a lot more of it than in Endgame. As Loki makes his way through his own procedural, he'll match wits with new characters including Owen Wilson's Agent Mobius, a brilliant TVA analyst, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw's Judge Renslayer. The question in early episodes is whether Loki will help them or take over.

"One of the things Kevin Feige led on was, 'I think we should find a way of exploring the parts of Loki that are independent of his relationship with Thor,' or see him in a duality or in relationship with others, which I thought was very exciting," says Hiddleston, who also serves as an executive producer on the show. "So the Odinson saga, that trilogy of films, still has its integrity, and we don't have to reopen it and retell it."

Yet, in order to understand where Loki is going, it's important to see where he came from.

Hiddleston can't believe how long he and Loki have been connected. "I've been playing this character for 11 years," he says. "Which is the first time I have said that sentence, I realize, and it [blows] my mind. I don't know what percentage that is exactly of my 40 years of being alive, but it's substantial."

His time as Loki actually goes a bit further back, to 2009 — a year after Robert Downey Jr. big banged the MCU into existence with Iron Man — when he auditioned for Thor. It's no secret that Hiddleston initially went in for the role of the titular God of Thunder, but Feige and director Kenneth Branagh thought his natural charm and flexibility as an actor made him better suited for the movie's damaged antagonist. "Tom gave you an impression that he could be ready for anything, performance-wise," says Branagh, who had previously worked with him on a West End revival of Checkov's Ivanov and the BBC series Wallander. "Tom has a wild imagination, so does Loki. He's got a mischievous sense of humor and he was ready to play. It felt like he had a star personality, but he was a team player."

Hiddleston fully immersed himself in the character. Outside of studying Loki's history in the Marvel Comics, he also researched how Loki and the Trickster God archetype appeared across mythology and different cultures. "He understood that he was already in something special [and] it was a special character in a special part of that early moment in the life of the Marvel universe where [he] also needed to step up in other ways," says Branagh, who was impressed by the emotional depth Hiddleston brought to the part, especially when it came to how isolated Loki felt in the Asgardian royal family.

There was a lot riding on that first Thor feature. For one, no one knew if audiences would immediately latch onto a Shakespearean superhero movie partially set on an alien planet populated by the Norse Gods of legend. Second, it was integral to Feige's plans for the shared universe. Loki was supposed to be the main villain in The Avengers, which would not only mirror how Earth's mightiest heroes joined forces in 1963's Avengers #1 but also give Thor a believable reason for teaming up with Iron Man, Captain America (Chris Evans), and the rest of the capes. Feige first clued Hiddleston into those larger plans when the actor was in L.A. before Thor started shooting.

"I was like, 'Excuse me?' Because he was already three, four steps ahead," says Hiddleston. "That took me a few minutes to process, because I didn't quite realize how it just suddenly had a scope. And being cast as Loki, I realized, was a very significant moment for me in my life, and was going to remain. The creative journey was going to be so exciting."

Hiddleston relished the opportunity to go full villain in Avengers, like in the scene where Loki ordered a crowd to kneel before him outside a German opera house: "It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation," says the Machiavellian god. "The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel."

"I just knew that in the structure of that film, I had to lean into his role as a pure antagonist," Hiddleston recalls. "What I always found curious and complex about the way Loki is written in Avengers, is that his status as an antagonist comes from the same well of not belonging and being marginalized and isolated in the first Thor film. Loki now knows he has no place in Asgard."

Loki did find a place within the audience's hearts, though. Feige was "all in" on Hiddleston as his Loki from the beginning, but even he couldn't predict how much fans would love him. Feige recalls the reaction at the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con: "Did we know that after he was the villain in two movies, he would be bringing thousands of people to their feet in Hall H, in costume, chanting his name? No, that was above and beyond the plan that we were hoping for and dreaming of." It was a dream Feige first got an inkling of a year earlier during the Avengers press tour when a Russian fan slipped past security, snuck into Mark Ruffalo's car, and asked the Hulk actor to give Hiddleston a piece of fan art she created. "That was one of the early signs there was much more happening with this quote-unquote villain."

Despite that popularity, the plan was to kill Loki off in 2013's Thor: The Dark World, but the studio reversed course after test audiences refused to believe he actually died fighting the Dark Elves. Alas, he couldn't out-illusion death forever. After returning in Taika Waititi's colorful and idiosyncratic Thor: Ragnarok, Hiddleston's character perished for real in the opening moments of Infinity War. In typical Loki fashion, before Thanos crushed his windpipe, he delivered a defiant speech that indicated he'd finally made peace with the anger he felt toward his family.

"It felt very, very final, and I thought, 'Okay, that's it. This is Loki's final bow and a conclusive end to the Odinson saga,'" says Hiddleston, who shot that well-earned death scene in 2017.

But, though he didn't know it yet, the actor's MCU story was far from over.

Credit: Charlie Gray for EW

When Hiddleston returned to film two scenes in Avengers: Endgame in 2017, he had no idea where Loki portaled off to after snatching the Tesseract. "Where'd he go? When does he go? How does he get there? These are all questions I remember asking on the day, and then not being given any answers," Hiddleston recalls. To be fair, it's likely the Powers That Be didn't necessarily have answers then. While Feige can't exactly recall when the writers' room for Endgame first devised Loki's escape sequence, he does know that setting up a future show wasn't the primary goal — because a Loki series wasn't on the horizon just yet.

"[That scene] was really more of a wrinkle so that one of the missions that the Avengers went on in Endgame could get screwed up and not go well, which is what required Cap and Tony to go further back in time to the '70s," says Feige. Soon after that, though, former Disney CEO Bob Iger approached Feige about producing content for the studio's forthcoming streaming service. "I think the notion that we had left this hanging loose end with Loki gave us the in for what a Loki series could be. So by the time [Endgame] came out, we did know where it was going."

As for Hiddleston, he didn't find out about the plans for a Loki show until spring 2018, a few weeks before Infinity War hit theaters. "I probably should not have been surprised, but I was," says the actor. "But only because Infinity War had felt so final."

Nevertheless, Hiddleston was excited about returning for his show. He was eager to explore Loki's powers, especially the shapeshifting, and what it meant that this disruptive figure still managed to find a seat beside the gods in mythology. "I love this idea [of] Loki's chaotic energy somehow being something we need. Even though, for all sorts of reasons, you don't know whether you can trust him. You don't know whether he's going to betray you. You don't why he's doing what he's doing," says Hiddleston. "If he's shapeshifting so often, does he even know who he is? And is he even interested in understanding who he is? Underneath all those masks, underneath the charm and the wit, which is kind of a defense anyway, does Loki have an authentic self? Is he introspective enough or brave enough to find out? I think all of those ideas are all in the series — ideas about identity, ideas about self-knowledge, self-acceptance, and the difficulty of it."

“The series will explore Loki's powers in a way they have not yet been explored, which is very, very exciting.”

The thing that truly sold Hiddleston on the show was Marvel's decision to include the Time Variance Authority, a move he describes as "the best idea that anybody had pertaining to the series." Feige and Loki executive producer Stephen Broussard had hoped to find a place for the TVA — an organization that debuted in 1986's Thor #372 and has appeared in She-Hulk and Fantastic Four stories — in the MCU for years, but the right opportunity never presented itself until Loki came along. "Putting Loki into his own procedural series became the eureka moment for the show," says Feige.

The TVA's perspective on time and reality also tied into the themes that Waldron, Loki's head writer, was hoping to explore. "Loki is a character that's always reckoning with his own identity, and the TVA, by virtue of what they do, is uniquely suited to hold up a mirror to Loki and make him really confront who he is and who he was supposed to be," says Waldron. Hiddleston adds: "[That] was very exciting because in the other films, there was always something about Loki that was very controlled. He seemed to know exactly what the cards in his hand were and how he was going to play them…. And Loki versus the TVA is Loki out of control immediately, and in an environment in which he's completely behind the pace, out of his comfort zone, destabilized, and acting out."

To truly dig into who Loki is, the creative team had to learn from the man who knows him best: Hiddleston. "I got him to do a thing called Loki School when we first started," says director Kate Herron. "I asked him to basically talk through his 10 years of the MCU — from costumes to stunts, to emotionally how he felt in each movie. It was fantastic."

Hiddleston got something out of the Loki school, too. Owen Wilson both attended the class and interviewed Hiddleston afterward so that he could better understand Loki, as his character Mobius is supposed to be an expert on him. During their conversation, Wilson pointedly asked Hiddleston what he loved about playing the character.

"And I said, 'I think it's because he has so much range,'" says Hiddleston. "I remember saying this to him: 'On the 88 keys on the piano, he can play the twinkly light keys at the top. He can keep it witty and light, and he's the God of Mischief, but he can also go down to the other side and play the heavy keys. And he can play some really profound chords down there, which are about grief and betrayal and loss and heartbreak and jealousy and pride.'" Hiddleston recalls Wilson being moved by the description: "He said, 'I think I might say that in the show.' And it was such a brilliant insight for me into how open Owen is as an artist and a performer.'"

Owen Wilson as Mobius and Tom Hiddleston as Loki in 'Loki.'| Credit: Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel Studios

Everyone involved is particularly excited for audiences to see Hiddleston and Wilson's on-screen chemistry. "Mobius is not unlike Owen Wilson in that he's sort of nonplussed by the MCU," says Feige. "[Loki] is used to getting a reaction out of people, whether it's his brother or his father, or the other Avengers. He likes to be very flamboyant and theatrical. Mobius doesn't give him the reaction he's looking for. That leads to a very unique relationship that Loki's not used to."

As for the rest of the series, we know that Loki will be jumping around time and reality, but the creative team isn't keen on revealing when and where. "Every episode, we tried to take inspiration from different things," says Waldron, citing Blade Runner's noir aesthetic as one example.

"Part of the fun of the multiverse and playing with time is seeing other versions of characters, and other versions of the titular character in particular," says Feige, who also declined to confirm if Loki ties into Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and/or other upcoming projects.

Making Loki was especially meaningful to Hiddleston because they shot most of it during the pandemic, in late 2020. "It will remain one of the absolute most intense, most rewarding experiences of my life," he says. "It's a series about time, and the value of time, and what time is worth, and I suppose what the experience of being alive is worth. And I don't quite know yet, and maybe I don't have perspective on it, if all the thinking and the reflecting that we did during the lockdown ended up in the series. But in some way, it must have because everything we make is a snapshot of where we were in our lives at that time."

While it remains to be seen what the future holds for Loki beyond this initial season, Hiddleston isn't preparing to put the character to bed yet. "I'm open to everything," he says. "I have said goodbye to the character. I've said hello to the character. I said goodbye to the character [again]. I've learned not to make assumptions, I suppose. I'm just grateful that I'm still here, and there are still new roads to explore."

#Tom Hiddleston #Loki #Disney+#interview

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cacoetheswriting · 3 years

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library hours

Pairing: Spencer Reid x gn!Reader Warnings: maybe a swear word or two, really just FLUFF ft. baby spence Word Count: 1.3k Summary: A late night at a university library leads to reader meeting a tall brunette genius. [fyi i wrote a reimagined version with professor reid x reader. you can read it here]

A/N: dedicated to the amazing @ellesgreenaway for inspiring this little fic & giving it a title!! ❣️❣️❣️❣️❣️

There was something you always enjoyed about the going to the library.

Perhaps it was the way every single person that walked through the threshold had a purpose. A mission to complete. Perhaps it was the quiet. The solace you felt sitting alone in a corner researching various topics, for class and for recreational purposes.

The university library had quickly become your second home. A location you frequented more than your own dorm room. It wasn’t always to study, no. You people watched. Doodled. Even napped there from time to time. The place brought you peace, and by the time you senior year rolled around, you saw the librarians more than your college friends.

The university library was also the place where you first met a certain young brunette genius - which in time became the main reason why you liked it so much.

Lights were slowly being turned off section by section. A vacuum came to life in one of the aisles. People started to scramble from their seats - shoving their things into their backpacks, throwing out empty coffee cups into the overflowing bins, checking out books they might still use that evening.

All signs indicating it was time to go.

Dolly, one of the librarians, ushered towards you. Her jacket draped over her shoulders, her bag in hand. She gave you the usual spiel of how you can stay until the janitor is finished cleaning, to which you politely nodded along. She wished you a pleasant night, and with a “see you tomorrow” she hurried out the door.

Once she was out of sight, you groaned under your breath and ran your fingers through your hair. You had an assignment due tomorrow, one you started hours ago and only managed to formulate three total sentences. Your gut was telling you there was no way you were going to finish now, especially since you had about thirty minutes until you would have to leave.

Leaning back in your chair, you fluttered your eyes closed in an attempt to collect your thoughts. The tranquil feeling didn't last long as you were abruptly brought back to reality by a loud bang. You quickly sat back up and scanned the space for the source of the noise.

A tall brunette man, not much older than you, stood a few tables away, a heavy looking book at his feet and a shameful look spread across his features.

“The library is closed for the night.” You stated. The brunette scrunched his nose briefly. “B-but you’re here.” He remarked before leaning down to pick up the book he dropped.

“I have permission to be here.”

“What if I do too?” He challenged, taking a step towards you although still keeping a safe distance.

You folded your arms across your chest and arched a brow. “Well, do you?”

The brunette didn't respond. Instead, you noticed how his cheeks flushed a shade of red, how he clutched the book to his chest, and how his fingers tightened around the strap of his bag.

You couldn't help but smirk as you let your arms fall back down to your side.

“I’m just kidding. Come on, join me.” You said, pointing to to the chair across the table from you. “We have about twenty-five minutes before we get kicked out, might as well make the most of it.”

He hesitated for a split second, hovering in his spot. It wasn't until you turned your attention completely away from him, and back to the book in front of you, that he made his move.

“You’re not some sort of killer, are you? You’re not here to murder me?” You asked, looking up as he sat down. His eyes widened and he quickly shook his head in response. “Ehm... N-no.”

“That wasn't a very reassuring no, but I guess I’ll take it.” You nudged in response, and proceeded to work away on your assignment. As you worked, you could feel his eyes burning into you.

In any other situation, with any other stranger, the feeling would have made you uncomfortable. But there was something about the timid stranger that was quite welcoming.

“I-I actually, uhm, I profile serial killers. I help catch them.” He said after a moment of silence. Once again, you glanced up from your notes to look at him. Intrigue greeting your facial features. “I just started with the FBI.” He stated.

It wasn't a brag. No. It was a statement to make you feel more safe, and you couldn't help but smile at him. “So, mister FBI, what are you doing in a university library on a Thursday night?”

“Doctor.” He corrected.

“What?”

“Doctor FBI.” He said, corners of his lips twitching upwards. “I have PhDs in Mathematics, Chemistry, and Engineering.” Now, that was a brag.

You chuckled softly. “You don't happen to have a PhD in History under your belt, do you? Because that would be very helpful right about now.”

“No, but I do have an eidetic memory and can read twenty-thousand words per minute.” He declared. You stared at him in disbelief, your mouth parting ever so slightly in shock.

“Did they make you in a lab or something?” You teased, although you could tell he didn't find it amusing. He furrowed his brows, lips pursed into thin line. You chewed down on your bottom lip, feeling slightly ashamed for poking fun at the guy who was nothing but be nice to you. “I’m sorry.” You mumbled faintly. “That was rude.”

“It’s okay.” He quickly reassured, and shot you a timid smile. The two of you stared silently at one another. There was something amicable about the seconds that passed as you looked into his hazel eyes. Something harmonious. Friendly. Strong.

You cleared your throat. “There uhm, there’s this dinner not far from here. It’s twenty-four hours so they won't kick us out. Would you like to come with me? We can share a pie. I mean, if you’re into that. Or, or we can just have coffee-”

“Y-yes, I would love to.” The young doctor answered all too quickly causing you to grin at him.

Soon enough you were both packed up and up on your feet, heading towards the library exit.

There wasn’t a cloud in the sky making the million stars shine all that brighter. They looked like perfect sugar granules spilled on a dark surface, accompanied by the glowing moonlight. Breathtaking.

Street lamps glittered ahead, illuminating the streets. The two of you walked side by side, almost in sync.

“Does that big brain of yours possess information on Roman gods?” You asked while nonchalantly hopping up on the curb. You spread out your arms like a tightrope walker, and with one foot carefully placed in front of the other you continued your journey.

The wind blew lightly through your hair, your brunette companion observing quietly. A smile creeping up on his lips. “Because if you do, I might ask for your help with an assignment.” You glanced at him briefly.

“I-I do actually, ehm. The... The Ancient Romans were extremely religious, and believed their success was due to their strong beliefs. They believed that if you maintained a good relationship with the gods, they would be kind to you.” He briskly cleared his throat. “There were twelve Olympian Gods in total. Jupiter, Juno, Mars, Mercury, Neptune, Venus, Apollo, Diana, Minerva, Ceres, Vulcan, and Vesta...”

You let out a soft kindhearted laugh. “Okay doctor FBI, slow down. Wait until we get to the diner so I can really appreciate your genius.”

He blushed, feeling thankful that the darkness around prevented you from seeing. “It’s Spencer. My name, uhm, my name is Spencer.”

You stopped in your tracks and elegantly hopped off the curb. Spencer turned in his spot so that he was now facing you completely, only an arms reach away.

“Spencer...” You tested the name on your tongue, a smile embellishing your features. “It suits you.” You retorted before proceeding to introduce yourself, “I’m Y/N. It’s nice to meet you, Spencer.”

masterlist

spencer reid taglist: @no-honey-no, @calm-and-doctor, @idroppedmygourd, @averyhotchner, @wowitsel, @elldell1204, @hey-there-angels, @reidabookforonce, @ellesgreenaway

#spencer reid #spencer reid fanfic #spencer reid fanfiction #spencer reid fic #spencer reid fluff #spencer reid imagine #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid x you #spencer reid x y/n #criminal minds fanfic #criminal minds fic #criminal minds fanfiction #criminal minds fluff #fluff

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carnegiemuseumnaturalhistory · 3 years

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What Do Botanists Do On Saturday?

by Sarah C. Williams

Here in the section of Botany we’ve adapted in some strange ways, just like plants do, to the changes of the past year and a half. Let’s learn about the off days of some of our Super Scientists in the Section of Botany!

Mason Heberling, Assistant Curator of Botany

Collecting specimens has become a focus as more time was able to be spent in the field when we weren’t allowed to be at the museum. As our new Botany Hall entrance video shows, Assistant Curator of Botany, Mason Heberling and Collections Manager Bonnie Isaac collect plant specimens on a pretty regular basis. They also snag iNaturalist observations for these plants, taking photos that show what the plant and habitat looked before being picked and pressed.

Mason studies forest understory plants, in particular, introduced species and wildflowers in our changing environment. Mason has a bunch of fun projects going on this summer, ranging from coordinating seed collections of an uncommon native grass to send to Germany for a large greenhouse study to working with a team of students to study the effects of climate change and introduced shrubs on our forest wildflowers.

In addition to work in the field, the herbarium has been a busy place this summer too! Mason has been working with Alyssa McCormick, an undergraduate research intern from Chatham University, to examine stomata (the pores on leaves for air exchange for plants to “breathe”) and leaf nutrients in everyone’s favorite plant – poison ivy! Poison ivy has been previously shown to grow bigger and cause nastier skin rashes with increasing carbon dioxide in our air due to fossil fuel emissions. Alyssa is using specimens collected as long ago as the 1800s to examine long term changes in poison ivy.

Mason, where can we find you on a Saturday?

“This summer has been a lot of going to various places around western PA like Presque Isle or Idlewild to get out and enjoy the fresh air with my family. I can also be found most Saturdays around the house doing chores!”

Bonnie Isaac, Collection Manager

Bonnie, one of CMNH’s TikTok celebrities, and All-Star in the Mid-Atlantic plant world, has spent a lot of the past year doing fieldwork. Her PA Wild Resource Grant involved looking at most of the populations for 10 Pennsylvania rare species. She and husband Joe Isaac spent many days on the road and a few in the bog! You can see some of her videos about these unique Pennsylvania finds on Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s Tiktok account: @carnegiemnh.

She diligently keeps track of various data points from latitude and longitude and elevation, to flower color, size, and associated species within a habitat. In addition to trying to make sure the plant names in our database are correct, she has also been busy georeferencing some of our specimens so that we can see on a map where each one was collected.

Bonnie, where can we find you on a Saturday?

“On most Saturdays I am either home taking care of my many chickens or getting some exercise in one of my kayaks with my spousal unit, Joe. I sometime even take a fishing pole for a ride or see how many different kinds of plants I can find on a hike. As long as I can get outside with Joe, I’m happy.”

Cynthia Pagesh, Herbarium Assistant

Specimens make their way home to the museum, where we assure they’re bone dry, flat as a pancake, and have been frozen twice to get rid of any pests. They then find their way into the nimble hands of Cynthia Pagesh, our resident plant mounter. Cynthia has luckily been able to do some mounting both onsite and at home over this past year, really honing her craft. She uses Elmer’s glue, dental and sculpture tools, linen tape, and a paintbrush akin to a magic wand: transforming roots, stems, flowers, and fruits into scientific and artistic renderings on an 11.5x16.5” archival herbarium sheet.

Mounting can be very detailed and challenging: wrangling a dry and brittle rare plant you want to salvage every detail from, or an oversized leaf ‘how-will-this-all-fit?’ ordeal, or finessing a delicate petal that glue is especially heavy on. Bulky bits, crumbly bits, spiky no nos: Cyn handles them all. Her work is just as much an art as it is a science. When she’s not making masterpieces, she’s probably doing something with plants.

Cyn, where can we find you on a Saturday?

“You can find me on Saturdays helping prune young trees in my community, collecting wildflower seeds or in my kitchen making preserves or homemade pasta noodles. I volunteer in vegetable, herb and flower gardens. I have a pollinator garden at home and raise Monarch caterpillars. I tag and release them to migrate south.

There are lots of Community Science projects for people of all ages: ask someone to help you find one related to a subject you have an interest in. I have an interest in pollinators including bees. I participate in a Community Science Project every Summer that counts types of bees on certain plants when they bloom.”

Iliana DiNicola

After another stint in the freezer for bugs-be-gone, it’s everyone’s favorite day: Picture Day! Each plant: sturdy and mounted, all data logged and super official, makes their way to the imaging station to spend some time under the bright lights. Since 2018, students, interns, and volunteers have lovingly held these plants’ hands as they get their close ups. We take high definition photos using a specially made lightbox and special software.

While this is part of a limited project, called the Mid-Atlantic Megalopolis, we are still hard at work going into our last year of the time we were given. This past schoolyear and summer, former Pitt student, Iliana DiNicola was taking pictures for us on the regular while also interning with the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy. She just graduated and I’m excited to hear what she does on her Saturdays in the future.

Iliana, where can we find you on a Saturday?

“I just graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a degree in Environmental Studies, and I am now on the lookout for any jobs related to the environment back in my hometown of Phoenix, Arizona. I am interested in working with anything from sustainability, to policy or political work, or maybe even something more related to ecology and outdoor work.

On a Saturday, I am definitely helping clean my house since I am a semi-clean freak, I love to go hiking if the weather isn't too hot, enjoy drawing and working on any art projects, or work on my future hydroponics garden.

As somebody who interned for Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, I highly recommend participating in any camps or activities the conservancy has to offer. It was super fun learning more about Pittsburgh's history and ecology and getting to teach kids about these topics, alongside participating in fun outdoor activities.”

Sarah Williams, Curatorial Assistant

Next up, Sarah Williams, the Curatorial Assistant in the Section of Botany, is overseeing the digitization project, morphing the photos from raw camera files into smaller files for sharing and detailed files for archival storing using Adobe Lightroom. She takes the images from the newly photographed specimens and makes sure they get uploaded onto the Mid-Atlantic Herbaria Consortium’s website to be shared far and wide across the world.

There is also a lot she does in sorting, filing, and taking care of the specimens as well. She does a bunch of scheduling, hiring, and training of work study students, interns, and volunteers. We consider her a jack of all trades.

Sarah, where can we find you on a Saturday?

“Most weekends I work with a local catering company called Black Radish Kitchen. I usually end up serving delicious vegetable and farm focused meals at least one day a week, commonly Saturdays because they’re prime for celebrations. The re-start up since the pandemic has been cautious, and I’m excited to be amongst people and help them to make mouthwatering memories again. I’ve worked in the restaurant industry for over a decade and the skills I’ve learned doing it as well as the friends I’ve made are matchless. It has a big piece of my heart.

I also moved into a new house this year about five minutes from my mom, so if I’m not running to say hi to her and ‘borrow’ some groceries, I’m doing laundry, dusting and yardwork… but only after I sleep in, eat some delicious breakfast with my partner, and hang out with our two cats, Santi and Gil.”

We hope you enjoyed getting to know us here in the Section of Botany, look forward to updates and more introductions in the future as we continue to host volunteers, federal work-study students, and interns on their journeys to learn even more about the plant kingdom.

Sarah Williams is Curatorial Assistant in the Section of Botany at Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Museum employees are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.

#Carnegie Museum of Natural History #Botany #Scientists #Botanists #Herbarium #Natural History Museum #Museum Work

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megakimathi · 3 years

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Headcanon fanfiction merformer cryptid Rung/reader

@auntabysmal

1 PART (I divided fic into parts)

- The reader is a fem human

- I leave the city names blank so you can imagine the meeting places for yourself.

----

Their first meeting and acquaintance took place on the shore (Name of the resort town).

The LL pod stopped in this city, and so far they had been here for three days. There is always room at the Aquatic Research and Rescue Center for the mers, and most of them sailed there to rest, only sending their holoforms there to scout out a human settlement. The rest settled on the beach area reserved for them, immediately finding various caves and flat low rocks and settling there.

Rung, who was in the rest of the group, crawled almost halfway out of the water onto dry land, with a caught fish in his teeth. He was going to have a good rest and lunch. The sun was warming his long orange and white body, and his tail was still in the water, just in case the wind was too dry - he could easily splash water into himself with his tail.

- FISH!

The merformer had finished his meal before he heard someone else's scream. Licking the remains off myself of his lunch, Rung looked around, thinking someone was asking for his prey, and saw nearby a human, looking right at him.

As he approached, it turned out to be a land puppy. The human puppy waved cheerfully at him with his little hand and was already walking toward him. Rung himself was in no hurry to leave the warm place, watching the child, only waving his palm back excitedly and uncertainly. In a way, his invisibility could ironically be called avoidance of the land people, while the rest of his congeners leave their places so that no one will bother them.

Of all possible human beings, he can be seen by children. He still couldn't get used to it.

- Hello big mermaid, what are you doing here?

The child stood beside me, looking at Rung with a smile. Like all human children, his gaze did not linger long on someone else's physical form, immediately looking around, sitting down next to the unknown creature. The toddler held a bucket in his hands, immediately taking to building sand castles. He was in his home clothes and had not yet changed into his little bathing suit. He had a panama hat on his head.

- What's a human puppy doing in "mermaid territory"? You're not allowed in here, are you? I don't know if your parents will scold you. Maybe they're already looking for you

Rung did not correct the child, playing along with him on the first word. The cryptid merformer lay his chest on the sand, so as not to tower over the little man too much, and show his peacefulness. Why are children always drawn to him?

The child squeaked resentfully, grabbed his panama and patted Rung's arm with it. Would have hit the creature with the bucket, but didn't want to ruin the sand mound, the merformer himself, chuckling quietly, found the fluffy hair braided into cute pigtails.

- I am not a puppy!!! I am a human being!!! My name is Y/N. My mom knows where I went...I guess.

The little girl showed him her tongue, aghast as the wind snatched the panama out of her fingers. Rung managed to grab the flying little hat in time to return it to the child. Y/N was visibly embarrassed and hid her face in it.

Rung smiles at the child's emotions and introduces himself in return. He hadn't planned on meeting people in any way, of course, but even this interaction was pleasant. He asks permission to touch her hair, and after her affirmative answer, he lowers his head further and pokes his nose lightly into her small shoulder while his large hand, compared to hers, touches the fluffy plaits. Human hair really is unusual to the touch.

After a moment, he feels a reciprocal touch, against his face. He looks at the girl - her eyes wide open, she doesn't look away from him, her hands touching his glasses, going down to his cheeks stroking them. Rung lets out a rumbling sound under the human happy smile, and swishes his tail to splash some water on his body. A couple of drops hit the Y/N, but she doesn't resent it

****

When two voices call out Y/N's name, a little girl sits on the sand and builds sandcastles under Rung supervision. They both turn at the sound, and the little girl gets up from the sand with a sigh, appraising her creation. She waves to the two human behind the merformer territory line, and they spot her, look around, and walk toward her across the strange stretch of beach.

- Will we meet again, Mr. Rung?

The Merformer meets a naïve look, to which he only smiles, shrugging uncertainly. He doesn't know the answer himself; he won't tell her it's all down to her memory. But the little man seemed pleased with that answer anyway.

He watches as the family gathers, the adults looking through him as usual as the child tells them about the "new friend of Rung" and points in his direction. Parents only sigh, gently scolding the child for entering someone else's territory, where people should not be.

When they leave, Rung returns in the water to hunt again.

The second time they crossed paths (Name of Town).

Several people gathered on the high pier because they saw dolphins swimming by. But they especially made delighted noises when they spotted the merformers.

The humans were smart enough not to jump in the water to the sea creatures, who decided to look at them themselves. But the sea creatures were close enough, and it was as if they were flaunting themselves in front of the crowd on purpose. Merformers usually avoid humans, but that's until the creatures decide to communicate themselves.

Rung looked out of the water to see the whole circus. Rodimus, as always, attracted attention by the way he splashed in the water. The rest of the merformers swam quietly at a good distance from the humans, and from him, So they don't get hit by his tail.

- The merformers are so cool! Y/N, come here and look at them!

Ears fins Rung twitched as he heard the rather familiar name. Adjusting his glasses, the cryptid-merformer carefully looks at the pier and sees two young men, one of whom called out to a rather familiar girl. He swam closer, looked closer, and saw a pendant hanging around the human neck. He recognized it immediately. Y/N hasn't gotten rid of it after all these years.

He looked at her more closely and realized that she had grown up and was not at all like the child who had kept him company for so many days, a few years ago. Except now she couldn't see him anymore.

Her wandering, curious gaze fell on him, and Rung had a blind hope that she would be able to see him. No, her eyes and brain can't recognize and distinguish Rung's figure, so she was immediately distracted by something else.

The girl herself was twirling the pendant in her fingers, looking curiously at the Merformers. Her eyes kept falling on the object in her hands, Y/N frowned as if trying to remember something. Something seemed vaguely familiar to her.

Her thoughts are interrupted when Rodimus finishes his games and calls his crew to continue their journey. The people look at the merformers for a little while longer, and leave the dock to go about their business.

Rung watches as Y/N hides in the crowd with his friend, and then catches up with his pod himself.

Their second meeting is over before it begins.

#transformers #transformers headcanon #merformers #merformers au #rung x reader

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my-complicated-pairs · 3 years

Text

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in live action series

While the title of this list is “List of canon villain/heroine ships with happy endings”, it doesn’t contain only ships with male villains and female heroes:

-some of these ships consist of female villains and male heroes;

-there are some lgbt+ ships here as well;

-in some of these ships both characters are villainous (or antiheroic);

-some of these characters may be seen not as villains, but as antivillains, antiheroes, antagonists or “just” criminals - in the end these definitions are fluid and some characters may be really difficult to categorise, especially if they go through a major character development or if they appear in the slice of life media;

-I included ships involving ex-villains;

-some of these ships are the examples of the enemies to lovers trope, but they don’t involve any characters, who can be categorised as villains or antiheroes.

Other notes:

-in few examples the couple has a bittersweet ending, but I include it due to the fact that both characters are not dead and their relationship itself is happy;

-I included some pre-existing couples;

-this list was created mostly for statistical purposes (it may be used for recommendations as well, but not always) - due to it, this list includes ships that are humorous, don’t play significant role in the canon material, come from the media that are often considered to be bad or come from really obscure media;

-some ships on this list - especially if they come from media created long time ago - may be considered to be controversial due to various reasons, so if you don’t want to watch anything potentially disturbing, don’t forget about doing research first;

-I included some ships from non closed canons that have a chance to have a happy ending (they’re described as ‘hopefully’) - if they won’t get a romantic happy ending, I’ll remove them.

I’ll be updating this list from time to time, so feel free to suggest other examples :) - and correct me if I got something wrong (f.e. if the specific ship doesn’t have a happy ending, some characters are not villains and/or antiheroes etc.)

If the types of characters are not specified, the ship consists of a male villain/antihero and a heroine.

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in live action movies

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in anime and manga

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in animation and comics (excluding anime and manga)

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in book series

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in standalone pieces of literature

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in visual novels and video games

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in music

[note: the links lead to the respective IMDB pages]

Live-action series - fantasy, sci-fi & horror

Wolf x Virginia (male antagonist x female hero) - The 10th Kingdom (a 2000 American fantasy series; suggested by @nerfherderbinniegirl and @monsters-and-villains) - the werewolf is sent by the evil queen from the fairytale land to modern New York City in order to kidnap the runaway prince turned into a dog; he quickly fails in his mission after falling in love with the daughter of a man who finds the said prince

(my opinion: it’s a very enjoyable series and while I have issues with the rushed ending, I highly recommend it; Wolf stops being antagonist pretty quickly, but he doesn’t stop acting over the top and ofcourse he doesn’t stop being a werewolf ;P; Virginia is a very well written heroine and watching her journey is really satysfying)

[note: in the last scene Virginia says from the off that later it turned out that they didn’t get a happy ending at that moment - that monologue was a preview to the sequel series, which never came to fruition]

Tate x Violet - American Horror Story (an ongoing American horror series; suggested by monsters-and-villains) [note: an erased timeline]

Shahryar x Scheherazade - Arabian Nights, a 2000 American-British fantasy series

the Phantom x Christine - Phantom of Hillhurst, the 35th episode of Big Bad Beetleborgs, a 1996-1998 American action/adventure comedy horror series (you may watch it here) - the protagonists’ ghost friend, Flabber, is visited by the Phantom, who still isn’t over losing contect with his childhood friend/love Christine; after seeing Jo, he thinks she’s Christine, decides to become her music master and separate her from her friends and family, until Flabber finds the real Christine and reunites her with the Phantom

(my opinion: from one point of view, it’s good to know that poor Erik - although he’s never referred by that name in the show - has a happy ending with Christine at least in an episode of one of the 90s Saban tokusatsu rip offs, and it’s really cute to see them as childhood friends... but from another point of view, Phantom’s “crush” on Jo is too creepy for me - unlike Christine in the original and the other Saban tokusatsu rip off heroines, Jo is 10-11 years old instead of being a teenager, which together with the fact that the creators have intentionally shown Jo’s possession as a creepy/scary thing is a bit too much for me; luckily they haven’t shown the Phantom making any explicitly romantic/sexual advances towards Jo and he immediately forgets about her existence after seeing real Christine)

Spike x Buffy - Buffy the Vampire Slayer (a 1997-2003 American horror series... if we count the canon 2007-2018 post-series comics in) [suggested by @fluffycakesistainted] [warning: the TV series ends with Spike’s death]

Carmilla x Laura (female villain x female hero) - Carmilla web series (a 2014-2016 Canadian comedy-drama/horror series)

possibly Eunice x Charles (the pre-existing couple; female villain x male hero) - No Brain, No Pain, the 15th episode of Eerie, Indiana, a 1991-1992 American horror sci-fi series (you may watch it here)

Walker x Olivia (the pre-existing couple) - The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, a 2021 American superhero series (suggested by @neoma2)

Tarabas x Angelica - Fantaghirò, a 1991-1996 Italian fantasy series (suggested by monsters-and-villains)

Richard x Roberta - Galavant (a 2015-2016 American musical fantasy comedy series; suggested by @a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Madalena x Gareth (female antagonist x male hero) - Galavant (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Adalind x Nick (female villain x male hero) - Grimm (a 2011-2017 American fantasy crime drama; suggested by @iheartdramas) (my opinion: I haven’t seen it yet)

possibly Tomas x Karina (the pre-existing couple) - Hawkeye (a 2021 American superhero series) (my opinion: I haven’t seen it yet)

Grifforzer x Lamie (the pre-existing couple; male villain x female villain) - Kyôryû Sentai Zyuranger (a 1992 Japanese tokusatsu series) aka the series adapted into the first season of Power Rangers (my opinion: I haven’t seen it yet)

Lucifer x Chloe - Lucifer (a 2016-2021 American fantasy series; suggested by monsters-and-villains) (my opinion: I haven’t seen it yet)

Cheoljong x So-yong - Mr. Queen (kor. Cheorinwanghu), a 2020 South Korean historical/fantasy/romantic series (suggested by @ainomica) (my opinion: I haven’t seen it yet)

Rumplestiltskin x Belle - Once Upon a Time (a 2011-2018 American fantasy series; suggested by @vilheroinefairytale) (my opinion: I haven’t seen it yet)

Killian x Emma - Once Upon a Time

Katherine x Tommy (female villain x male ex-villain) - the Power Rangers franchise (an ongoing American action/adventure franchise)

Rita x Zedd (female villain x male villain) - the Power Rangers franchise

Nadira x Lucas (female villain x male hero) - Power Rangers Time Force (a 2001 American action/adventure series)

Jindrax x Toxica (male villain x female villain) - Power Rangers Wild Force (a 2002 American action/adventure series)

Blake x Tori (male antivillain x female hero) - Power Rangers Ninja Storm (a 2003 American action/adventure series; suggested by an anon)

Trent x Kira - Power Rangers DinoThunder (a 2004 American action/adventure series; suggested by an anon)

Jarrod x Camille (male villain x female villain) - Power Rangers Jungle Fury (a 2008 American action/adventure series)

Angelica x Bulbo (female villain x male hero) - The Rose and the Ring, a 1986-1988 Polish musical fantasy TV series based on the 1854 British satirical fantasy novel (suggested by neoma2) (my opinion: I haven’t seen it yet)

the Mirror Universe!Hoshi Sato x the Mirror Universe!Travis Mayweather (female villain x male villain) - In a Mirror, Darkly parts I and II, episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise, a 2001-2005 American sci-fi series

Damon x Elena - The Vampire Diaries (a 2009-2017 American supernatural teen drama) (my opinion: I haven’t seen it yet)

Live-action series - crime & thriller

Michael x Nikita (male antihero x female antihero) - Nikita (a 2010-2013 American thriller drama series) (my opinion: I haven’t seen it yet)

A ship that used to be featured here as ‘hopefully getting a HEA’:

- Villanelle x Eve (female villain x female hero) - Killing Eve, a 2018-2022 American-British-Italian thriller series, based on the 2018- 2020 British book series: Villanelle and Eve confess their romantic feelings towards each other, they share a kiss and a short time of happiness, but Villanelle is violently killed after that; they have a happy ending in the book series

Live-action series - historical

Leon x Bella - Beauty and the Beast, a 2014 Italian-Spanish romance series (suggested by neoma2) (my opinion: I haven’t seen it yet)

Sue x Maud (female antivillain x female hero) - Fingersmith, a 2005 British adaptation of the 2002 British historical crime novel (my opinion: I haven’t seen it yet)

Chu Beijie x Bai Pingting - General and I (a 2017 Chinese historical romance; suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world) (my opinion: I haven’t seen it yet)

Marcus Vinitius x Ligia - the 1985 Italian and the 2002 Polish adaptations of Quo vadis, a 1895-1896 Polish historical novel (suggested by neoma2)

Live-action series - slice of life and drama

Leon x Sol (the pre-existing couple; male villain x female antihero) - Amantes de Luna Llena, a 2000–2002 Venezuelan telenovela (suggested by neoma2) (my opinion: I haven’t seen it yet)

Omar x Caro - La fea más bella, a 2006-2007 Mexican telenovela, an adaptation of the Colombian telenovela Yo soy Betty, la fea (Ugly Betty); suggested by neoma2 (my opinion: I haven’t seen it yet)

Alicia x Tomás (female villain x male hero) - La fea más bella (suggested by neoma2) (my opinion: I haven’t seen it yet)

Sebastian x Viola (male villain x female villain) - BrzydUla, a 2008-2009 Polish adaptation of Yo soy Betty, la fea (Ugly Betty); suggested by neoma2 [warning: at the beginning of the ongoing sequel series Viola is married to someone else, but supposedly she still has feelings for Sebastian, so hopefully they’ll get a happy ending in the new series as well] (my opinion: I haven’t seen it yet)

Carolina x Mimi (female villain x female hero) - Cazando a un millonario, a 2001 Peruvian telenovela (suggested by neoma2) (my opinion: I haven’t seen it yet)

Aneta x Józef (the pre-existing couple; female villain x male hero) - a 1978 adaptation of Children of the Soil (pl. Rodzina Połanieckich), a 1894 Polish slice of life novel (suggested by neoma2) (my opinion: I haven’t seen it yet)

Bárbara x Luis (female villain x male hero) - Como en el cine, a 2001 Mexican telenovela (suggested by neoma2) (my opinion: I haven’t seen it yet)

Juan x Monica - any adaption of Corazón Salvaje, a 1957 Mexican novel series, f.e. the 1993 series (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world) (my opinion: I haven’t seen it yet)

Rafael x Clemecia (the pre-existing couple) - El derecho de nacer, a 1981 Mexican telenovela (suggested by neoma2) (my opinion: I haven’t seen it yet)

Katy x Miguel Angel (female villain x male hero) - Estrellita mía, a 1987 Argentine telenovela (suggested by neoma2) (my opinion: I haven’t seen it yet)

Katy x José Julián (female villain x male hero) - Luz María, a 1998-1999 Peruvian version of Estrellita mía (suggested by neoma2)

Jonas x Sashenka (male villain x female antihero) - Gitanas, a 2004-2005 Mexican telenovela (suggested by neoma2) (my opinion: I haven’t seen it yet)

Chuck x Blair - Gossip Girl (a 2007-2012 American teen drama; suggested by @catalina-infanta) (my opinion: I haven’t seen it yet)

Rochester x Jane - various adaptations of Jane Eyre, a 1847 British novel, f.e. the 1983 British one and the 2006 British-French one (suggested by vilheroinefairytale) (my opinion: I haven’t seen any of them yet)

Cruz de Jesús x Mireya - Ka Ina (a 1995 Venezuelan telenovela; suggested by neoma2) (my opinion: I haven’t seen it yet)

hopefully Piotr x Beata - Klan, an ongoing Polish soap opera (suggested by neoma2)

Jesús x Heucaris - Llovizna (a 1997-1998 Venezuelan telenovela; suggested by neoma2) (my opinion: I haven’t seen it yet)

Orestes x Nubis - Más que amor, frenesí (a 2001 Venezuelan telenovela; suggested by neoma2) (my opinion: I haven’t seen it yet)

Rogelio x Ana Paula - The One Who Couldn't Love (es. La que no podía amar), a 2011-2012 Mexican telenovela (suggested by neoma2) (my opinion: I haven’t seen it yet)

Osa x Joanna - Plebania (en. The Vicarage; a 2000-2012 Polish soap opera)

Fermina x her unnamed fiancee (female villain x male hero) - Preciosa (a 1998 Mexican telenovela)

Barbara x Marek (the pre-existing couple; female villain x male hero) - Radio Romans (en. Radio Romance), a 1994-1995 Polish soap opera (suggested by neoma2) (my opinion: I haven’t seen it yet)

Annie x Jude (female villain x male hero) - Sunset Beach, a 1997-1999 American soap opera (suggested by neoma2) (my opinion: I haven’t seen it yet)

Teresa x Arturo (female villain x male hero) - the 2010-2011 Teresa remake, a Mexican telenovela (suggested by neoma2) (my opinion: I haven’t seen it yet)

probably Félix x Ángelito (male villain x male hero) - Trail of Lies (es. Amor à Vida), a 2013–2014 Brazilian telenovela (my opinion: I haven’t seen it yet)

Lucrecia x Alejandro (the pre-existing couple; female villain x male hero) - Travesuras del corazón, a 1998 Peruvian family telenovela (suggested by neoma2) (my opinion: I haven’t seen it yet)

Becky x Jos (female villain x male hero) - the 1998 American-British adaptation of Vanity Fair (suggested by neoma2) [warning: Becky doesn’t get a happy ending in the book and in the vast majority of its adaptations] (my opinion: I haven’t seen it yet)

Damián x Rosi (male villain x female villain) - Wild Angel (es. Muñeca brava; a 1998-1999 Argentine telenovela)

Martha x Bernardo (female villain x male hero) - Wild Angel

Luisa x Federico (the pre-existing couple; female villain/antihero x male villain/antihero) - Wild Angel

Live-action series - comedies

Salceson x Ewa (the pre-existing couple; male villain x female villain) - the 11th and 12th episode of 13 Posterunek II (a 2000 Polish sitcom)

Brady x Marisa - K.C. Undercover (a 2015-2018 American teen spy comedy series) (my opinion: I haven’t seen it yet)

C.C. x Niles (female villain x male hero) - The Nanny (a 1993-1999 American sitcom; suggested by neoma2) (my opinion: I haven’t seen it yet)

Karolina x Konrad (female villain x male hero) - Niania (a 2005-2009 Polish adaptation of The Nanny; suggested by neoma2) (my opinion: I haven’t seen it yet)

possibly Tutencham x Rozalia - Klątwa Tutenchama (en. The Curse of Tutencham), the 26th episode of Świat według Kiepskich (en. The World According to the Kiepskis), a 1999-2021 Polish sitcom [note: this subplot is not continued in the later episodes and should be trated as a standalone]

#Villain x Heroine #villain x hero #villainess x hero #villaines x heroine #reylo #reylo vibes #list of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings

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teacupfulofstarshine · 4 years

Text

LOVELY, DARK, AND DEEP: CHAPTER 9

cw: anxiety, swearing, panic attack, injuries/scars

chapter 1 // chapter 2 // chapter 3 // chapter 4 // chapter 5 // chapter 6 // chapter 7 // chapter 8 // read it on ao3!

wordcount: 8909

Thomas does not get paid enough to deal with this.

Realistically speaking, he’s the one in control of his own salary. He makes the budgets for the house, he decides what Virgil’s rate of pay is (at least for the work he does in the lab; his art commissions are something else), he decides how the grant money they receive is dispersed. He’s the only one he has to answer to in terms of payment.

Statement revised: Thomas does not pay himself enough to deal with this.

Roman stares expectantly at him, gesturing at the mound of smoking, sparking, stuttering metal Patton has just dropped at Thomas’s feet. Thomas nudges it hesitantly with his foot, and it throws up a shower of sparks that has him and Roman leaning back quickly.

“What is it?” Roman asks.

“It looks like a piece of trash.”

“It’s not a piece of trash!” Roman snaps indignantly. “Well - I mean, it’s trash now , but it‘s not actually trash! It’s some weird metal fish that was stalking us, so we killed it! So tell us what it is!”

“How the hell should I know?”

“It’s human technology! You’re a human!” “Not all humans can identify every single piece of technology on sight, Roman! Especially when it’s just been destroyed by a merman with a vengeance!” Roman frowns at him in apparent disappointment, but Thomas just rolls his eyes. “It’s essentially a piece of garbage right now.”

“It’s important garbage, though!” Roman’s tail spines poke out a little indignantly. “It almost attacked me and Dad!”

Patton’s voice echoes from the ocean and a curve of iridescent blue arches up alongside the boat. “Okay, okay, it didn’t outright attack us. But it was clearly planning to! Look at it!”

“It just looks like a mangled pile of scrap.”

“But it’s important!” Roman stresses again. Thomas resists the urge to facepalm and roll his eyes. Roman does have a point; finding something like this roaming around the open ocean is abnormal. It doesn’t look like any aquatic research drone Thomas has ever seen, but there’s nothing else it could be.

Is there?

“We have to go home now,” Thomas says. “We have to get this fish back to Logan so he can eat, and we have to analyze this whatever-it-is and figure out what it wanted from you. Are you riding home or swimming?”

“Swimming,” Roman says. He looks offended that Thomas would even consider him riding on the boat. Like an eel, he slithers over the railing and disappears into the ocean. Thomas sighs, kicking at the hunk of smoking metal on his deck, and then disappears into the cab. He pulls the radio off the wall and clicks it.

“Doctor Sanders paging Virgil. Come in, Virgil.”

The radio crackles, squeals out a harsh blip of static, and then Virgil’s voice comes in, worried. “Doc? What’s wrong, are you okay? Is everything okay with Roman and Patton?” Thomas can hear Logan making an assortment of strange noises in the background that he assumes is some sort of concern for his family.

“Roman and Patton are fine, don’t worry. We found something disturbing while they were hunting, so we’re on our way home. We have plenty of fish, it’s gonna be okay, but . . . but there’s going to be a lot of work to do when we come home.”

Virgil exhales heavily. Thomas can picture the way his hand is shaking, the way he’s gripping the hem of his shirt and twisting it around to try and calm his nerves. “I . . . okay, okay, Doc. I’ll get Logan situated and prep the tanks to move Roman and Patton into the lab.”

“Prep a large sample bag, too.”

“How large?”

Thomas squints at the smoking pile of wreckage on his deck. “I’d say . . . leatherback sea turtle or bigger.”

“What the fuck did you all find out there?!”

“Nothing good. We’re on our way back - meet me on the docks.”

Virgil disconnects from the radio, presumably to go and have a panic attack while ranting anxiously to Logan and pushing large carts around the lab, and Thomas makes his way over to the controls. A long, iridescent blue half-moon of tail curves up out of the water, followed by a few more as Patton circles around the boat before settling on the left side. Thomas revs the boat engine and makes his way home.

He stares out over the open water, watching as the fuzzy stretch of mainland on the horizon begins to gain clarity, letting his mind wander. If Roman and Patton hadn’t found that robot and destroyed it, would it have followed them home? Did it come from the same source as the net that trapped Logan on their beach? Would it have found its way into the lab and attacked Logan? Attacked Virgil?

Thomas’s fists clench tightly on the wheel of the boat. He takes a deep breath in, lets the stinging salty air filter in and out and take all the negativity roiling in his brain with it. There’s no point in speculating on what-ifs, as he’s so quick to remind Virgil. Roman and Patton did sense the danger of the robot, and they did dismantle it before it could attack. They’re safe, for now, and Thomas will do his damnedest to make sure they stay that way.

He still remembers what Virgil was like when he first came, all sharp edges and spite wrapped like a spiky cocoon around a curious, intelligent, artistic mind to protect it. Thomas had taken one look at him, hanging back after the rest of his class to ask questions and correct an error that no one else had spotted, and known that he would do anything to protect him. Seeing the way he’s grown now, matured into an intelligent scientist in his own right, Thomas couldn’t be prouder than if Virgil was his biological son.

He won’t let anything happen to Virgil, or to any of the mer. He refuses.

The rest of the journey passes in a blur of seawater and suspicion, until Thomas is pulling the boat up just shy of the rocks that guard the entrance of the grotto. Roman pulls up alongside the boat, poking his head out. “Dad wants to know what the plan is.”

“Head into the grotto with your dad. I’ll dock the boat and come down with Virgil to bring the two of you into the lab with Logan, okay?” Roman squints suspiciously at him but nods, disappearing back into the water. Thomas waits for the squiggles of Roman and Patton beneath the water to disappear into the distance before pulling towards the dock. A purple splotch waits on the docks, pacing anxiously back and forth along the edge. Thomas glides easily into port, killing the engine and throwing the mooring lines towards the dock.

Virgil ties the boat off anxiously, darting aboard before Thomas has even lowered the gangway properly. “What happened?” he demands. Before Thomas can answer, his gaze lands on the pile of metal wreckage Thomas had hoped to hide between the piles of fish. “What the fuck?!”

“It was following Roman and Patton around when they were hunting. Roman got suspicious and stabbed it, and then it started smoking. They asked me what it was, but I don’t know, not without further testing.”

“I don’t like this,” Virgil mutters, rocking back and forth on the heels of his feet. “I don’t like this at all. I don’t like this, Doc, this whole thing just reeks of someone looking for something they lost - I bet they’re looking for the net, since we deactivated the GPS, which means that they’re looking for Logan, too -”

Thomas reaches out and grasps Virgil’s shoulder. “Breathe,” he says. “Roman took the robot out quickly, so even if it was transmitting somewhere, they got very little evidence. The GPS was disabled when Roman took it out. The closest they got is a general location somewhere close to where the net they lost was originally deployed.”

“That’s still close to us, though,” Virgil says. “It’s close to our stretch of beach - they know we’re around these waters frequently, they have to, and this is just another nail in our coffin -”

“Virgil!” Thomas grabs both shoulders and wrenches him around to look at him. “You’re catastrophizing. You have to take a deep breath and count for me, okay? Come on. It’s okay. It’s okay, I’m right here. Nothing is going to happen as long as I’m around to prevent it, so take a deep breath. Come on, here we go . . .”

It takes longer than normal to get Virgil’s breathing back under control, but Thomas waits patiently until he’s breathing regularly. “There we go.”

“Sorry,” Virgil croaks.

“No need to apologize, or I’ll have to shove you into the sea. Come on, we gotta get this fish back to Logan so we can get Roman and Patton out of the grotto.”

They decide eventually that Virgil will go and fetch Roman and Patton while Thomas brings the fish and the robot remnants back into the lab. Virgil disappears down the docks, and Thomas begins loading as much fish as he can reasonably manage into a cart. The robot parts he loads into a separate bag, slinging it over his shoulder before leaning against the cart and grunting until it starts to move.

When it finally grinds to a halt inside the lab, Logan jerks his head up from where he’s apparently been falling asleep on the table. “Virgil?” he calls, squinting in confusion.

“Not quite,” Thomas laughs. “He’s gone to get your pod from the grotto. I did bring you food, though! I’ll be over there in just - nngh! - a sec -”

Thomas likes to think that he has a decent about of muscle on his frame. He’s not built, by any means, but he’s decently strong from hauling lab equipment around and working the boat machinery. He’s beginning to question his own strength as he struggles with the fish cart.

He drops the bag of machine parts on a nearby table as Logan sniffs at the air, leaning forward and snatching a fish off the cart. Thomas watches the flash of bone-white teeth as Logan leans forward and sinks his teeth into the fish’s flesh. He looks ravenous, tearing through one, two, three fish rapidly before finally slowing down around his fourth. Thomas opens the bag and starts laying out shards of metal and circuitry, inspecting them critically.

“What’s that?” Logan asks. “More fish?”

“No,” Thomas says, too distracted to pay much attention to Logan.

“Something’s wrong,” Logan says, setting down his half-eaten fish. “What is it?”

“Your pod,” Thomas says, turning away from the scraps. “While they were hunting -”

“What happened? Dad, Roman, are they okay? Where are they?” Logan bristles, and little lines of blue electricity begin to crackle along his arms.

“They’re fine,” Thomas says, raising his arms to calm Logan. “Virgil is bringing them in from the grotto right now. While they were out hunting, there was a fish that aroused Roman’s suspicions. He stabbed it with his spines, and it turned out to be a robot. Virgil and I have to analyze it more, but it’s suspicious, certainly. Especially given where and how we found you.”

Logan frowns. “But they’re alright?”

“Yes, Logan. Everyone is fine.”

“Logan!” Roman calls. Virgil staggers into the lab, Roman draped around him like the world’s heaviest, bitchiest scarf, and Logan relaxes instantly when he hears his brother’s voice. Virgil unceremoniously dumps Roman into the tank set up near Roman’s lab table and turns around to go and retrieve Patton. Roman reaches up and takes Logan’s hand, pressing his wet head against Logan’s upper arm.

“Thomas says that you encountered a strange and unusual creature in the water?”

“I killed it before it could hurt me or Dad, don’t worry.”

“You can’t kill something that isn’t alive,” Thomas says.

“What do you mean, isn’t alive?”

“I mean, this is a robot. It’s not a living thing. A human made it, using metal and computer circuits. They programmed it to do what they wanted. It’s not a real fish, it’s not really alive. I am glad you destroyed it when you did, though. From what I can tell, it has a transmitter on it, for audio and video feed.”

“None of those words mean anything to me,” Roman says, reaching for a fish of his own.

“It means,” Thomas says, “that there’s someone out there who could see what this thing saw and hear what this thing heard. And since it saw and heard you -”

“The other person did as well.” Horror dawns on Logan’s face.

“Don’t worry, Logan. Roman destroyed it well before anything significant or identifying could be transmitted. They got a glimpse of Roman, if anything, before he destroyed it.”

Logan and Roman don’t look particularly convinced, but luckily Virgil chooses that moment to begin complaining loudly about how he’s not strong enough for this as he wheels Patton’s cart into the lab. Thomas abandons the robot to help lift Patton up into the tank with Roman. The very tip of his long, light blue tail arcs up out of the water to gently stroke Logan’s back. Logan smiles weakly and leans into it.

While the pod eats their fill, Thomas and Virgil pull on gloves and goggles and set about examining the remains of the robot. Thomas is no expert in robotics or computers, but he knows enough to keep up with the advances being made in the fields of prosthetics and other such machinery useful for marine biology. He’s been doing more research, since Logan washed up on their beach, and what he finds makes his blood run cold.

“Luckily,” Thomas says quietly, “it seems that Roman managed to short out the GPS and transmissions systems when he took out the robot, which is good.” Virgil nods, frowning at something before sliding it under a microscope. “What is it?”

“There’s something engraved on this piece, but I can’t see what it is . . . I can feel it under my fingers . . .”

Virgil frowns into the microscope, and then he stands up abruptly, darting off to another corner of the lab. “What is it?” Thomas asks. The fact that Virgil is so flagrantly disregarding lab safety is ample cause for Thomas’s concern.

Virgil doesn’t answer him, scrambling frantically through a pile of something on one of the other tables before hurrying back to slide something else under the microscope. “I hate being right,” he mutters. “Fuck! Shit fuck god fucking damn it fuck -”

“What? What is it?”

“There’s an insignia engraved on this piece of shit machinery, and I thought it looked familiar. I was right. The same thing was engraved on one of the little barbs of the net that captured Logan. Which means -”

“They were made by the same person.” Thomas looks over at the small pod of mer assembled on his lab tables, sharing a meal, and feels ice cold fear strike through him like a knife in his heart.

He also hates being right - they are in danger, all of them.

*~*~*~*~*

“Is everything quite alright?”

Virgil isn’t looking at him. To be more precise, he isn’t looking at Logan’s face. His gaze flits from Logan’s knee to his shoulder to his chest to his neck to his hair, but never his eyes.

“Virgil,” Logan says. He reaches out to where Virgil is drumming his fingers nervously along the lab table, a rapid staccato taptaptaptap of anxiety, and takes his hand. “Are you alright?” Virgil’s hand shakes in his grasp, and Logan shifts to push his fingers between Virgil’s to help calm him. “You are shaking.”

Virgil doesn’t respond to him, but his entire face lights up pink. Logan squints at him, leaning in to try and gain more clarity regarding Virgil’s facial expressions, but it only increases the pinkness. “Roman and Dad found something, didn’t they? What was it? Did something happen?”

Virgil exhales shakily. His hand tightens around Logan’s, and Logan squeezes back to try and communicate that he cares about how Virgil is doing. “I . . . Roman found a robot in the water. It has a mark on it that’s the same as the mark we found on the net. We’re worried that it’s from the same person who tried to trap you, which means -”

“They are attempting to track me down,” Logan says.

“Yeah. Obviously, we’re not gonna let that happen, but it does mean that they know Roman’s here, at the very least, because they saw him on the video feed before he destroyed it. They won’t have gotten more than a glimpse of him, though.”

“Why are you distressed?” Logan asks. “Are you worried that they will attack you or Thomas to get to myself and my pod?”

“No! Well, yeah, kind of, but - I’m worried because I don’t want anything to happen to you. I l - I care about you, a lot, and I don’t want anything bad happening to you. Or to your pod, for that matter, but I - I just mean -”

The pinkness grows brighter and brighter still, and Logan squeezes his hand again. “Thank you,” he says softly. “I know it is an . . . imposition, caring for me and my pod the way that you do, but -”

“You’re not imposing,” Virgil says. “Taking care of wounded sea creatures is our job, and - and even if it wasn’t, I would be happy to do it for you. I would be happy to do just about anything for you.” Virgil slaps his free hand over his mouth, like he hadn’t meant for the last bit to come out, but Logan just smiles and squeezes his hand even tighter.

“Thank you, Virgil. I appreciate you, and everything that you have done for me and my pod.”

Virgil reaches up and gently tucks Logan’s hair behind his ear, sweeping his bangs away from his eyes. “Logan?” Logan feels his heart stutter and skip a beat, and he leans his head up, looking at Virgil’s face. Virgil is finally looking at him properly, and Logan can’t look away from his eyes. They’re like nothing he’s ever seen before, truly. How beautiful, Logan thinks, before nearly throwing himself backwards off the table because what in the seven seas is he thinking what is Virgil thinking -

“Yes?” Logan whispers. He can’t bring himself to speak any louder, worrying that whatever is happening between himself and Virgil right now will shatter like a fragile piece of sea glass if he speaks too loudly. He’s aware of Roman and Patton still eating next to him, aware of Thomas muttering to himself and making noises doing whatever he’s doing across the lab, but the only thing he can hold his focus on is Virgil.

“I - um - it’s time to change your bandages,” Virgil says, reaching out and tenderly touching one of the white patches on Logan’s neck. “Are you done eating yet?”

“Wh - I - yes,” Logan stammers. Virgil smiles at him, and Logan swears that the entire room spins and lightens.

“I’ll go get the bandages, okay? You good to wait here?”

“It is not as though there are many other places that I am capable of getting right now.” Logan means for it to be a serious remark, but Virgil snorts and smiles and laughs, eyes crinkling up and hair flopping into his face and Logan can barely stop himself from reaching for Virgil and demanding some form of affection.

He does, though, and Virgil heads off across the lab. Logan wonders what the primary expressions of human affection are, compared to his customs. He wonders how Virgil would respond if, when he gets his tail back, he curls it around Virgil’s legs and winds it in and around, different than the way he curls with his pod. He wonders how Virgil would respond if Logan spent hours, days even, combing the sea floor for a single perfect gift - an unmarred shell, a weathered stone, a piece of glass smoothed by the sea into an absolutely beautiful texture - and presented it to him as a token of affection, of his intentions. He wonders how Thomas would react if Logan brought him a heap of fish, proving his worth as a hunter and a mate, and asked for permission to - to -

To what? Is there any way, realistically, for Virgil and Logan to court? Logan may have legs now, but they are a temporary feature, and Virgil doesn’t have a tail at all. Even if Virgil is interested (which is still a pretty big if, in Logan’s opinion), is there any possibility of a serious courtship between them?

Logan decides that he isn’t going to worry about this right now and turns his attention back to Virgil, who’s returning with another roll of the white patches he uses to help bind Logan’s injury, as well as a few other things. “This is probably going to hurt,” Virgil says apologetically.

“You’re not doing anything that might hurt him!” Roman says. Logan wishes he still had his tail so that he could slap Roman across the face with it.

“It’s not a serious hurt,” Virgil says, rolling his eyes. Logan had been ashamed to hear that Roman threatened Virgil and Thomas, after all they’ve done for him, but Virgil seems to have taken Roman’s personality in stride recently, which Logan is eternally grateful for. “I have to pull off the old bandages, and since they’re sticky against the skin it can sting a little. Then I have to disinfect the wounds, and that stings a little too, and then I apply new bandages. It hurts a hell of a lot less than what caused these injuries in the first place, I can tell you that for certain.”

“It is not the first time I have had these changed,” Logan says softly. “I am used to the sting, Roman. It will not hurt me badly.” Roman snarls suspiciously, but he sinks back into the tank and lets Virgil get to work pulling off Logan’s shirt and rolling up the sleeves of his pants to reveal the injured areas.

Virgil’s fingers are long, although not as long as Logan’s, and his claws are blunted and short. He doesn’t seem to mind, though, carefully brushing the tips of his fingers over Logan’s skin as he peels off the old bandages. Logan winces and lets out a short, sharp puff of air, but does his best not to react too badly. Virgil won’t startle, but if Roman thinks Virgil was lying about the pain of the process he’ll lose his mind.

“What’s this from?” Virgil asks, drawing Logan’s attention from his wandering thoughts. Logan’s focus returns in time to notice Virgil’s fingers gently stroking over a silvery patch of skin on his arm. “It’s a scar, right? An old one, given by how well it’s healed.”

Logan takes a moment to find his voice. “I - yes,” he finally stammers out. “It’s - um - hunting incident. Back when I first joined the pod, while we were getting used to each other, Roman was practicing with his spines and he stabbed me.”

Virgil whirls around to glare sharply at Roman. “Some brother you are!”

“It was an accident!”

“It healed well, all things considered.”

Virgil’s fingers trace up Logan’s arm, lingering on another set of scars that swirl around his arms. “And these?”

“I fought off a squid.” Virgil’s eyes widen, and Logan senses an opportunity. “It was quite an adventure - I was separated from Roman and Dad, and before I knew what was happening, the squid was upon me. It wrapped itself around me, and -”

Generally speaking, Roman is the fanciful one, the one telling stories of grandeur and regaling others with his hunting exploits. Logan calls on every memory he has of Roman showing off as he speaks. Virgil sits on the lab table next to him, eyes wide and shiny, fingers always touching some part of Logan. They skate from injury to injury, peeling off the bandages and disinfecting the fresh wounds while tracing questions along the healed silvery scars. Logan tells story after story, and Virgil appears completely enraptured.

“Trying to impress the pretty human, are you, Sharkbait?” Roman snarks. Dad’s laughter echoes musically from the tank as well.

“Shut up, Roman!”

“Brotherly disputes?” Virgil teases, gently dabbing a damp cotton ball at Logan’s wounds. Logan hisses a little at the sting, but he keeps his body still to allow VIrgil to work. The rest of the wounds are treated and re-bandaged relatively quickly. “It’s interesting, you know.”

“What is?”

“Hearing your hunting stories. They’re really interesting. I love hearing about your way of life and how it differs from ours up on land. Any customs that you have, feel free to share them with me.” Virgil smiles broadly, and Logan smiles back. If he still had his tail, he would make a very rude gesture at Roman for snickering in the background.

“Are you finished, Virgil?”

“Yeah. Do you wanna practice walking for a little bit before I turn in for the night?”

“Turn into what?” Virgil laughs softly; Logan’s entire being melts, just a little.

“It’s a human expression, Lo. It means before I fall asleep.”

“Yes, I would like to practice walking, then.”

Logan is unashamed to admit that he has a very strong tail. He’s much faster than Roman is, and although Patton can travel more distance in a shorter amount of time due to his size, Logan is still faster relatively. He’d assumed that the strength of his tail would translate to his new legs.

That does not appear to be the case.

“You’ve got a whole new set of muscles in there,” Virgil tells him, wrapping his hands around Logan’s - what had he called them? Ankles , that was it - and sliding them off the table to the floor. “Swimming and walking are two completely different sets of motions, even for someone like me who uses their legs for both activities. You’ve got to strengthen yourself. It might take some time.”

“I’m sorry,” Logan says. “I should not need you to hold my hands like this.” I want you to hold my hands, he thinks. I want you to hold my hands and my arms and my all of me. I want you to hold me close and press your face into my hair and let me bring you courtship gifts.

“It’s okay, Lo. It’s no skin off my back. I like doing this, I like helping you.” Virgil carefully wraps one of Logan’s arms around his shoulders and takes Logan’s other hand, taking a few steps backwards and pulling Logan with him. Logan wobbles shakily as Virgil helps him onto his new feet, and Virgil smiles, and the entire world is okay again. There’s no mysterious force out there, trying to net him or his pod, there’s no fresh scars forming under the bandages all over his body. There is just Virgil, smiling at him like he arranged the Upper Oceans, and nothing else matters.

Virgil slides his hands down to grip Logan’s forearms, careful to avoid any areas with bandages on them. “One step back, one step forward, okay? We can do it. You can do it.” Logan nods. He’s determined not to let Virgil down. He can’t - he won’t.

Virgil pushes himself up onto the front part of his feet - his toes, Logan thinks he called them - and takes a step backward. Logan concentrates and lifts one foot, taking a single clunky step forward. It’s far more graceless than Virgil, who moves elegantly even when he’s in a frazzled rush, but Virgil still grins at him. “Fantastic! One more, okay? One step back, one step forward.” Virgil takes another step back with his other foot, and Logan shifts to follow him. They continue like this for quite a while, across the lab, and when they reach the far wall, Virgil slowly turns them around so they can go back across the lab. His hands slide down to take Logan’s, as opposed to gripping his arms.

“Less support for you, so you have to rely more on your own muscles,” Virgil says. “But I’ll still be here to catch you, no matter what. I believe in you. Two steps at a time now, alright?”

Logan nods, and when Virgil steps backwards, one-two, Logan attempts to step forward, one-two. Unfortunately, Virgil and Logan both overestimate Logan’s strength, and he pitches forward with a startled shriek.

“I gotcha!” Virgil says, surging forward and throwing his arms around Logan as he collapses into Virgil’s chest. Logan grunts as his face collides with Virgil, looking up to see the pinkness returning to his cheeks. It takes Logan a few moments to realize that he never put his shirt back on after Virgil changed his bandages, and now his bare chest is pressed against Virgil. Virgil’s face is open and pink, and Logan can feel his own face growing warm and pink as they stare at each other.

“Oh,” Logan says, softly.

“Oh,” Virgil agrees, equally soft.

“How long are you going to make penguin eyes at him before you give him a courtship gift?” Roman calls.

“I’m going to stab you with your own spines,” Logan snarls, struggling to try and right himself. Virgil’s hands quickly slide from his waist to his elbows, pulling him upright again. Logan slides his hands around to grab Virgil’s arms as well so that he won’t let go again.

“Everything okay with you and your brother?”

Logan sighs. “He is being abnormally stubborn and rude, at the moment.”

“Am not! You’re just useless and pining over the pretty human!”

“Ignore him,” Virgil says. “He’s just jealous because you get to spend time walking around staring at me and he doesn’t.” Judging by Virgil’s tone, he’s being sarcastic, but Logan knows that he’d be jealous if he were in Roman’s position. He’d be jealous of anyone who got to spend an extended amount of their time up close and personal with Virgil.

They walk a little more, and Logan only almost falls three or four more times. It’s not great, but it’s better than the last time he tried. Eventually, he grows tired, and his feet and legs begin to ache. Virgil helps him back to the table he’d been sitting on. “Hang on - I gotcha -”

Virgil bends at the knees and scoops Logan up, draping him across his arms and carefully arranging him on the table. “There you go, L. Sitting comfortably?” Logan is too stunned at his abrupt proximity to answer properly for a moment, but eventually he manages to answer.

“Yes, I - thank you, Virgil.”

Thomas and Virgil sit down to eat in the laboratory, at a cleared-off and cleaned table near Logan and his pod. They normally don’t eat in here, but apparently it doesn’t make sense to keep moving up and down and up and down repeatedly from the house proper to the laboratory. Logan lets his eyes slide closed as the conversation washes over him, soft like the gentle waves on a clear day. He tunes back in sharply when he hears his name.

“What are we going to do about Logan?” Thomas says. Virgil puts down his eat stick and frowns.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, Patton said he won’t get his tail back until tomorrow, right? So there’s no way that he can sleep in the tank with Patton and Roman like he’s been doing. What are we gonna do about that?”

“He could always come and sleep in the house with us,” Virgil offers.

“No way, absolutely the hell not, there is no way I’m letting Logan spend the night alone with you humans -” Roman spits, spines puffing out like a sea urchin.

“It’s not your decision, Ro,” Patton says gently. “Logan, it’s your call. Thomas is right, you can’t sleep in the tank with us without working gills, you’ll drown.”

“What did Patton say?” Virgil asks.

“That Roman is overreacting, as usual -”

“Hey!”

“- and that I cannot sleep with them without my gills, which I will not regain until tomorrow at the earliest.” Logan looks at Virgil and Thomas, watching the way Virgil watches him - cautious, hesitant, but hopeful as well. “What do you suggest, Virgil?”

Virgil exhales shakily. “I have a room in the house, where I sleep. It’s big enough that you could sleep there as well, if you want. We can come back down to the lab first thing in the morning after breakfast, let Patton and Roman see that I haven’t done anything untoward to you in the middle of the night.”

“I would greatly enjoy sleeping with you,” Logan says, just a touch too eagerly. Virgil chokes on his food. Thomas makes a very strange face at him over the table; it reminds Logan of the way Roman and Patton have been teasing him recently. Logan decides to ignore it; he’s got plenty to think about in regards to his own entanglements with Virgil.

Patton and Roman are both teasing him about the anticipation in his voice. Logan decides to ignore them as well.

*~*~*~*~*

Virgil is not particularly looking forward to trying to maneuver Roman back into his tank. Roman is a bit snappish with him at the best of times, and while Virgil understands his disdain for humans after all he’s been through, he likes to think that he’s earned enough goodwill for Roman to drop some of his suspicions.

Still, Thomas has already wound the majority of Patton’s long, flexible tail around himself and braced his arms under his torso, shuffling his way up the stairs around the tank. Patton had reared up out of the tank to press his forehead against Logan’s, letting out a strident chirp of mer before pulling back into the water and forming his customary travel bubble.

“Can you please stop looking at me like that?” Virgil sighs.

“Like what, human?”

“Like you’re contemplating how many spines it would take for you to murder me.”

“Maybe I am contemplating how many spines it would take to murder you.”

“I have a name, Roman. You know my name. You’ve used my name before.”

“That was before I realized you had designs on my brother.”

“Yes, designs to keep him from drowning in the middle of the night since he can’t breathe water right now,” Virgil says dryly. Logan suppresses a soft, wheezing laugh, and Virgil feels his chest grow lighter. “Come on, Pincushion, into the tank with you.”

“Who are you calling a pincushion?” Roman demands. He furrows his brow in confusion. “Also, what is a pincushion?”

“It’s a soft little thing that you stick sharp pins into when you’re not using them so that you don’t stab yourself by accident, and as you’re full of sharp spines, you look and act very much like a pincushion.”

“I think I’m supposed to be offended by that.”

“Well, I’m offended that you keep trying to murder me for being nice to you and your brother and your dad. Life goes on. Put your spines down so I can put you into the god damned tank.” Roman hisses at him, puffing his spines up even more in protest. Virgil hisses right back, startling both Roman and Logan. “What? Did you think you were the only one who could hiss when they’re upset or threatened? Think again, Princey.”

Roman’s spines all flatten at once. It’s probably more out of shock than anything else, but Virgil’s not complaining. Roman reaches out and squeezes Logan’s hand before turning back to Virgil and lifting his arms up dramatically. Virgil rolls his eyes and drapes Roman’s tail around himself before hoisting the merman up into his arms. “If you prick me, I will throw you down all of the stairs in this lab, so help me God.”

“What is a god?” Roman asks crossly. Virgil huffs with the effort of going up the stairs and doesn’t respond. By the time he makes it to the top of the tank, Thomas has just finished lowering Patton down into the water. A curl of blue tail rises from the water and delicately curls around Thomas’s arm like a thank you before sinking back into the tank. Virgil drops Roman into the water with a good deal less delicacy. He gets splashed for his troubles, but he doesn’t care that much what Roman thinks of him.

“I apologize again for Roman’s behavior,” Logan says. He reaches for Virgil’s hand, and Virgil lets him take it. Logan’s hands are surprisingly smooth, as though they, too have been weathered and worn by the ocean; they’re a little cooler than the average human skin, but Virgil runs a little cold himself, so he finds it comforting. “He has always been quite . . . protective of me. I suspect that my being taken has only amplified those feelings.”

“I don’t have an older brother, but I understand where he’s coming from. As long as he doesn’t actually stab me, I’m not that upset about it.” Logan smiles, soft like the breaking dawn, and Virgil feels a tidal wave well up and drown him in overwhelming affection. It takes all his energy not to lean in and kiss Logan right then and there, to press his free palm up against Logan’s cheek and slide his fingers into Logan’s hair.

“I am glad,” Logan says softly, “that my brother’s . . . concerns have not destroyed what we have with each other. We are . . . friends, are we not?”

Virgil’s exuberance dims, just a little, but he nods. “Yeah, Logan. We’re friends.” Logan smiles again, squeezing Virgil’s hand. Virgil squeezes back. “Come on, we’ve gotta get you upstairs. Do you think you can walk over there if I help you?”

“Is walking backwards dangerous?” Logan asks.

“If you do it a lot and you’re not careful, it can be. You can’t see where you’re going when you do it, not unless you twist your head all the way around, and even then you have a limited field of vision.”

“I don’t want you doing that if it’s dangerous for you,” Logan says, brow creasing in stress and worry. “I don’t want you getting hurt because of me.”

“Aw, why not? Do you care about me?” Virgil teases.

“Yes,” Logan says, so earnest and serious that Virgil’s breath catches in his throat a little. “I do care about you, very much. You - you are the first friend that I ever made, outside of my father and my brother. You are . . . important to me, and I do not wish to see you injured.”

“There’s other ways to walk,” Virgil says, once he regains his voice. “We can go side-by-side, if you like.”

“If there’s less chance of you injuring yourself, then that’s the option that I prefer.” Virgil carefully picks up Logan’s shirt and helps him tug it on, to prevent any repeats of the capital-i Incident from earlier. Logan shuffles around until his feet hang over the side of the table, and Virgil bends down to help him up. He carefully wraps an arm around Logan’s waist and Logan drapes his arm around Virgil’s shoulders.

“Will you be okay putting the lab equipment away by yourself, Doc?”

Thomas smirks. “You seem to have your hands full, Virge.”

“We can wait to go upstairs if you need my help here,” Virgil says, pointedly ignoring Thomas’s insinuations. “Logan, you don’t mind waiting a few more minutes, do you?”

“I do not have any opinions of the sort.”

“See? We’ll be fine to wait.”

Thomas rolls his eyes, smiling. “Don’t worry about it, Virgil. I cleaned up the lab by myself for years before I took you on as my live-in doctoral student, I can handle one night.” Virgil resists the urge to flip him off and sticks his tongue out instead.

“What does that mean?” Logan asks as they slowly shuffle towards the door.

“What, doctoral student? It means . . . well, essentially it means that I’m studying with the doc so that I can write a really really long, really really specific paper that’ll get analyzed and hopefully approved by a bunch of people with a fancy title so that I can also have a fancy title.”

“Oh! Is that hard?”

“It’s pretty difficult, yeah. Most people don’t do it. I’m a bit of a rare exception.” Virgil tries not to puff out his chest in pride. He’s pretty sure he fails.

“That isn’t what I meant, though. What does . . . this mean?” Logan pokes his tongue out curiously. Instead of looking like a retort, like Virgil had meant it when he stuck his tongue out earlier, Logan looks adorable and confused. Every single cat video Virgil has ever seen involving a cat sticking its tongue out in a blep runs through his mind at once, and he nearly collapses from the sheer adorableness of the situation.

“It’s . . . just a human thing,” Virgil says quickly. “It’s fine, don’t worry about it. I - oh. This might be an issue.” He hadn’t considered it before, given how often he traverses this path every day without any issue, but he’s never traversed it with an unstable merman with the footing of a newborn deer before.

He has no idea how he’s going to get Logan up the stairs.

Virgil’s initial thought is that he’ll just show Logan how to climb the stairs and help him up, the same way he’s been helping him walk across the floor. This plan is quickly derailed when Logan nearly faceplants across the very first low step. “Will it be alright if i just carry you?” Virgil says. “Like I do when you have a tail, or like I do for your brother.”

“I hope you’re a bit gentler with me than you are with Roman,” Logan says. It takes Virgil a few moments to realize that Logan is actually joking, and then he snorts and laughs.

“Don’t worry, Logan. I like you much better than Roman, I won’t drop you.” Logan laughs.

“If Roman hears you say that, he very well might stab you.”

“I’d like to see him try.”

Logan loops his arms around Virgil’s neck as he’s hoisted up into his arms. Virgil fights very hard not to think about the fact that he has an arm very closely braced underneath Logan’s ass, or the way that Logan leans his face into Virgil’s shoulder with a soft, satisfied sigh, as though he trusts Virgil to protect him from any and all dangers in the world; he fights not to think about the way Logan’s lips look, still slightly wet from when he’d had his tongue poking out mere moments before, or the way his lower lip sticks out slightly, round and kissable; he fights not to think about the way Logan’s hair flops in his face and his eyes, or the way he wants to run his fingers through it and memorize the texture, memorize the way every curl, every lock, every individual strand feels slipping across his fingertips, along his palm, tangled up in his fingers and soft against his bare chest and tickling his nose if they fall asleep snuggled together and -

Virgil hurries up the stairs before he becomes so distracted that he drops Logan.

They get waylaid in the kitchen so Virgil can get a drink before he goes to bed. Logan is fascinated by the house, asking questions about everything he sees. “What’s that?”

“It’s called an oven. You put food in it, and it gets really really hot inside and it makes the food hot, too.”

“What’s that?”

“The stove. You put food on top of it to heat it up, kind of like the oven, but a little quicker.”

“What’s that?”

“The refrigerator; you put food in it to cool it down and keep it cold, to keep it from spoiling.”

“Humans are very obsessed with controlling the temperature of their foods, aren’t they?” Logan muses.

“I guess we are. I never really thought about it before . . .”

Finally, Virgil manages to get them up into his bedroom. It looks the way it normally does, but Virgil finds himself fixating on the mess - a few scattered piles of clothes, textbooks and other books strewn haphazardly around the room, random papers everywhere, pinned on the walls in patterns that wouldn’t make sense to a madman, most of them marked with thick streaks of marker and hastily scrawled three-am revelations.

“Sorry it’s such a disaster, Lo.” Virgil carefully sets him down in the desk chair and throws open the curtains covering the glass door onto the balcony. The sun has set over the ocean, but some of the colors still linger in the sky, vibrant like strokes of paint on an Impressionist canvas.

“I do not see a disaster here, Virgil. I see evidence of life. It is quite . . . fascinating. And I assure you, our regular sleeping grottos are just as messy.” Virgil still hurries to try and tidy up his room, kicking piles of clothes under the bed and throwing them into his often-neglected hamper. He stacks the books as best he can, assembles the papers into one large pile and pins them down with a loose seashell.

“Still, the floor is gonna have to be cleared off if I’m gonna sleep on it.”

“Why would you sleep on the floor?” Logan asks. “Is that not the point of that thing?” He points to Virgil’s bed. “Is that not a place for sleeping?”

“It’s called a bed,” Virgil says, “and you’re going to be sleeping there. I’ll sleep on the floor.”

“Why would you sleep on the floor?”

“Because the bed’s really only big enough for one person, Logan. You can sleep on it, since you’re the guest, and I’ll sleep on the floor. Or I can go downstairs and sleep on the couch, it’ll be alright, but I thought I’d stay on the floor in case you needed something.”

Logan frowns, looking almost heartbroken. “I . . . you will not be sleeping with me? You said you would . . .”

“Well yeah, I meant you were sleeping up here in my room, I didn’t necessarily mean - I didn’t know if you would be comfortable sleeping that close to me. I mean - I -”

“I always sleep with my pod,” Logan says. His voice is small and shaky, heartbroken. “I have not slept by myself - prior to the incident with the net, of course - for so long . . . please, do not make me sleep alone again.”

Logan is going to kill him, Virgil is absolutely sure of it. “I . . . okay, L. I’ll sleep with you. Just let me get changed, okay? Let me get into my pajamas.”

“What are pajamas?”

“Clothes you sleep in.”

“Do I need a pajamas?”

“No, that’ll work just fine. You’re comfortable, right?”

“Yes?”

“Then you’ll be okay. Wait right there, okay? I’m gonna get ready for bed. I’ll be back in a moment.”

Virgil quickly ducks into the adjoining bathroom. He splashes cold water on his face and tries to regain his composure. He never thought that inviting Logan to share his bedroom would entail sharing his bed, but he supposes he should have known better. In for a penny, in for a pound, et cetera, et cetera. Logan won’t read anything into it if he doesn’t act like there’s something to be read into it, so as long as he keeps himself together it’ll be alright.

The rest of his bedtime routine is relatively swift - washing his face properly, brushing his teeth, changing into loose sweatpants and an oversized tank top, dragging a brush through his tangled messy hair, making sure he remembers to take his anti-anxiety medication, using the bathroom. He’s in and out in less than five minutes, plugging his phone in to charge on the desk and making sure that he sets his alarm for the morning.

“It’ll just be a second while I make sure the bed’s ready, if you don’t mind waiting a little.”

Logan yawns, waving a hand at Virgil. “Take your time.”

Virgil piles all the clothes littering his bed into a corner, somewhat ashamed of the fact that he hadn’t been bothered to put them away properly, before digging out his nicest, softest blankets and pillows and piling up the bed to make it nice and comfortable.

As he turns back to Logan, a thought occurs. “Do you brush your hair, underwater? Or your teeth?”

“What is brush?” Logan asks. Virgil fetches his hairbrush from the bathroom and demonstrates how he drags it through his hair to make it smooth and neat.

“There’s a different one of these, as well, smaller, that we use to clean our teeth because otherwise they can get diseases and fall out.”

“We don’t have brush or whatever you call it, but there are small fish that swim around and eat the scraps that get stuck in our teeth. Dad likes to sit there with his mouth open for hours and let them swim in and out of his mouth.”

“You guys use cleaner fish?” Virgil asks.

“Is that what humans call them?”

“Yeah.”

“Then yes, we do. But we have no such thing for our hair.”

“I bet your hair is awfully tangled, after being in the ocean for so long. Do you want me to brush it?”

“Will it hurt?” Logan sounds small and scared, reaching up to hesitantly touch his hair.

“It may pull a little, especially if you have big knots or tangles, but I promise I’ll be as gentle as I possibly can.” Logan nods, hesitantly, and Virgil carefully lifts the brush to his hair. He expects it to be coarse and rough, since seawater dries out human hair, but it’s strangely slick. It sort of reminds Virgil of the way a duck’s feather repel water, but it’s smoother than that. It feels just as nice as he’d imagined beneath his fingers. Logan wince a little when Virgil pulls on a few particularly rough knots, but all in all he sits through it with a brave face.

“All done,” he says ten minutes later. “Does that feel better?”

“I do not know if I would say it feels better, per se, but my hair certainly feels nice and smooth.” Logan runs his fingers through his own hair, smiling. “I have never been able to do that before. It is quite wonderful.”

“I’m glad I could make you happy,” Virgil says. Logan smiles, and Virgil would sacrifice the world, the universe, and everything in it if he could keep making Logan smile like that.

Virgil puts Logan up against the wall so that he doesn’t accidentally fall out of the bed. It’s not really meant for two people, but Virgil thinks that as long as they’re careful he’ll be alright. He draws the curtains again, turns off the lights, and shuts the door. “Would you like a light o - oh.”

When he turns around, Logan is glowing softly - his eyes are bright blue, and every single freckle on his face and arms gleams like a little star. “Apologies,” Logan says, sounding embarrassed. “My scales and eyes glow in dark water - Dad’s and Roman’s are the same way. I didn’t think I would have the same effects while in this human guise, but . . . will this affect your ability to sleep?”

“It - I - um - it shouldn’t, I mean - there’s usually some light or another coming in, it’s never pitch black here.” Virgil shuffles across the room, finding it much easier to navigate now that he’s cleared the piles of clothes and books and other flotsam and jetsam from the floor. He carefully climbs into bed, settling under the covers and arranging them over Logan as well. He settles on his side, facing Logan, who blinks back at him with his eerily bioluminescent eyes. Virgil makes a note to test the bioluminescence of all three mer tomorrow.

Logan lets his eyes slip closed, exhaling a soft puff of air across Virgil’s face. “Good night, Virgil.”

“Night, Logan.”

Logan drifts off fairly quickly, chest rising and falling evenly, and Virgil, for all his gay pining, isn’t far behind. He wakes up sharply in the middle of the night, gasping when he realizes that he’s not alone. Blue light filters into his sleep-fogged vision, and then he realizes exactly what position he’s in.

Logan is slotted up against him, legs all tangled up together with his the way Virgil has seen his tail coiled in with his pod’s. His face is pressed up into Virgil’s chest, pillowed neatly on his shoulder, and his arms are tucked between them, hands curled in a delicate half-open shape. Virgil has one arm curled up around Logan’s head and the other thrown over his waist. He wants to move, to pull away before he wakes Logan up and makes him uncomfortable, but before he can do anything Logan stirs in his sleep. He shuffles, shifts closer to Virgil, and nuzzles into him, letting out a soft sigh and a soft trill of foreign language that sounds much more musical than any mer he’s heard before.

Virgil can’t bring himself to pull away after that. He leans forward, shamelessly nuzzling into Logan’s hair, and Logan presses into the touch with another gentle trill. Virgil has no trouble falling back asleep with Logan securely in his arms.

#starshinewrites #lovely dark and deep #logan sanders #roman sanders #virgil sanders #thomas sanders #patton sanders #analogical

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