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#meanwhile louies are saying all the time
thezatannaprint · 1 year
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jack talking about actress!reader being his celebrity crush and then reader like finding out and they start texting and you can do whatever after that , hope that makes sense ?? 😭
thank u for requesting hehe i loved this request, hope you liked how this imagine turned out😛
I GOT THE FEELS FOR YOU
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jack champion x actress! reader
“who’s your celebrity crush?” the interviewer asked smiling as she examined his face, looking for his reaction. she was asking him questions about scream and other horror movies so he didn’t expect this type of question but he thought this would be perfect time to shoot his shot, or maybe you wouldn’t even find out. “y/n l/n.” he tried to hide his smile but the interviewer kept pushing for details.
“why? do you think she’s pretty?” the interviewer giggled. jack looked taken aback by the question, of course you were pretty no you were more than that you were fucking breathtaking, was she blind?. “you don’t? she’s gorgeous and such a talented actress.” he retorted. the interviewer looked a little surprised by his reaction. “yes she is! do you wanna say anything to her?.” she laughed. “y/n if you’re watching shoot me a dm.” he clicked his tongue and did finger guns to the camera. “well if you’re single that is….” his confidence gone within a second.
after the interview jack went home replaying that moment in his head a million times. “that was so fucking stupid.” jack cursed under his breath. the video would be uploaded tomorrow, he hoped you wouldn’t feel too weirded out by him name dropping you. he spent his whole night researching if you had a boyfriend or not and he only found articles full of rumors, one said you were dating british actor louis partridge he hoped it wasn’t true because oh damn was he handsome. how could he compete? the nerves were eating at him so he tried to fall asleep.
[next morning]
your phone was blowing up with texts from your friend telling you to check twitter, you sighed and opened the app. you were trending, odd because you were flying under the radar this month (well you were trying to). “actor jack champion spills on his crush on y/n l/n.” you read out loud, this had to be some bullshit clickbait or something out of context.
you got up and locked your door you didn’t need your dad busting in and interrogating you once he checked twitter or the stupid news app. you grabbed your phone and clicked on the video after watching him answer horror movie trivia you got to the part where he name dropped you. “she’s gorgeous and such a talented actress.” you blushed. “y/n if your watching shoot me a dm.” you admired his boldness and well his handsome face, he was great in scream vi and in avatar: the way of water. “fuck it.”
you searched his name on instagram and he was already following you, you followed him back and liked his recent post. “it couldn’t hurt to lurk.” you whispered to yourself. his gym pictures caught your eyes. his goofy smile and athletic build was enough to make any girl swoon but there had to be more to him you wanted to know more. “well he’s the one that told me to message him so.” you slide in his dm.
y/n_l/n: 🔫! this is me shooting you a dm (with rizz)
“that was lame.” you cringed at yourself trying to flirt. you were going to shut off your phone so you didn’t embarrass yourself further but he replied.
jackchampion: does this means you don’t have a bf?
y/n_l/n: yes, im single ;)
meanwhile over at jacks he was practically jumping up and down and giggling like a schoolgirl who’s crush rated her a 8/10 on snapchat. “YES! she’s single.” he gave himself a high five. so not only did you say you were single you sent a winky face.
jackchampion: so it’s ok to make a move? 😗
y/n_l/n: please do.. also unrealistic how you didn’t have the ladies all over you in scream vi.
jackchampion: i could say the same why is a girl like you single? i should thank my lucky stars
y/n_l/n: most men aren’t as forward as you or as cute.
jackchampion: you got me kicking my feet
y/n_l/n: i would hope so because you have me twirling my hair
jackchampion: i think i manifested this 🧐 you were on my xmas list last year so maybe this is a late present
y/n_l/n: maybe 😳
jackchampion: please reject me so I can move on or I will plan out our future and pick our children’s names🧎🏻
y/n_l/n: kids huh?? as long as we can call one champ so they can be champ champion 😭 i’ve always wanted a winter wedding. 🤷🏻‍♀️
jackchampion: winter wedding and a kid named champ 📝 would you keep your last name or would u take mine
y/n_l/n: y/n champion sounds way coolerrr than y/n l/n
jackchampion: agreed. well then mrs. champion do you want to grab dinner with me sometime?
y/n_l/n: i would like that how abt tomorrow night?? im not rlly an instagram typa girl here’s my cell number xxx-xxx-xxx 💋
jackchampion: tomorrow sounds good 😌
y/n_l/n: i gotta get off this app before i comment “that’s hot” under all your posts but text my cell
jackchampion: ok i’ll just write poetry abt you
( ❤️ by y/n_l/n)
“I have to tell f/n and my parents.” you giggled throwing your phone on your bed. pacing around your room, you practice what you’ll say tomorrow night when you meet jack. “Y/N DID YOU SEE THE BOY FROM AVATAR LIKES YOU.” you hear your father yell and your mom laughing. you opened your door and yelled back. “YES! AND I SCORED A HOT DATE” before you could hear their reactions you shut your door and went to look for an outfit in your closet. your phone dinged and you rushed to it.
it was jack he texted you a picture of him getting ready to hit the gym, you clutch the phone close to your chest and you screech. “oh two can play that game.” you took a cute selfie (you took a lot but hated all but one because you kept over thinking) and sent it to him.
when he opened your picture he nearly choked you looked so good, he couldn’t believe that you were texting him. “i have a date with y/n l/n.” the realization hit him like a dump truck. “I have a date with Y/N L/N AND SHE FLIRTED WITH ME.” this was definitely a story he’d tell your kids
I JUST GAVE MYSELF THE FEELS 4 JACK 😭 - zatannaprint
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Wildflower
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What should Ghost give during Valentine's Day to Jade when she's an actual florist who sees flowers literally every day?
Pairing : Simon “Ghost” Riley x Charlotte “Jade” Le Jardin (OC) Word Count : ~ 6.4k words Warning : Full on fluff-fest, a slight angst, and the good o'l cursings.
Title and story inspired by the song 'Wildflower' by Clay Finnesand and 'La Vie en Rose' by Louis Armstrong.
February 14th. 
Fucking Valentine’s day - a day full of love, they said. 
He never really celebrated or cared about any of those kinds of days where people commemorate shit like love. For him, it's just like any other day. He woke up today and did his workout before he went on jogging.
However, that day is different as he saw countless red and pink decorations in every store in his apartment neighbourhood, offering Valentine's day discount for couples. He swore he saw more couples walking down the street than usual, that he even saw a man propose to his girlfriend when he was jogging. 
Looking at them, Ghost remembered,
He already confessed to Jade during the New Years. 
Yep. He did.
Across the London Eye, when the fireworks painted the infinite black, the chimes of Big Ben rang throughout the Thames River, he said it to her, 
‘I think I’m falling in love with you.’
Only to disappoint her again by saying, ‘But I don’t think I’m ready yet.’
Had he been a coward for not being ready to commit yet? Jade was a shining light in his life. She knew of his struggles, and she treated him with kindness and fondness no woman ever did to him. All his life he never thought to fall in love with someone, yet here he was. 
He wanted to be in a relationship with her. Fuck, he wanted to. But she deserved the world. She deserved certainty and stability while his job was nothing but that. He could get deployed out of the blue anytime – die anytime. He had a lot of things to sort out first.
He saw tears in her green eyes despite the smile. She only hugged him in response, saying, 
‘I love you, so I’ll stay right here.’ Jade muttered shakily while pressing her body to his in a tight hug, her fingers grasping the back of Ghost’s jacket. 
‘When you’re ready, I’ll be here.’
‘Let’s be friends, yeah?’ She had added, to which he answered with a smile. “Yeah. We'll always be friends.”
That was New Years. 
It'd been two months since then. Ghost and Jade had been texting each other regularly all the while continuing their lives. They met occasionally for a food tour as Ghost was a food enthusiast. Their chat was full of ‘Let’s try the new Korean BBQ around the street’, ‘You ever tried a fried ice cream?’, ‘There’s a new movie about a lady becoming a superhero across multiple universes’, and more casual stuff like those. Meanwhile Jade would take him to physical activities such as take him to a zoo, hiking, and even go to arcades. 
Johnny had been such a tease on it. He’d been bothering Ghost the whole time in the base as the Lieutenant looked at his phone and typing away on it more frequently than ever. ‘Yer’ lookin’ very happy these days, Sir.’ , ‘How’s Jade doin’?’, ‘Another ‘meet-up’ with Jade?’, 
‘Yer’ so full of rubbish. That’s called a date.’ Soap had said. 
'Shut your gob. We’re just friends, Johnny.’
‘Friends who go on dates together.’
Soap ran away before Ghost could smack the shit out of him. 
But was it really? Ghost and Jade frequently walk together, as friends, Eating at places together, as friends. Watch movies together, as friends. 
But seeing that one guy propose to his girlfriend lit up a spark in him.
That's when Ghost texted her for a meet-up somewhere, Jade replied back with,
‘I would LOVE to if it's not the busiest time of the year T_T and every Valentines we'd open from early morning to midnight, so I'm really sorry. We have all our employees working, but it doesn't seem to make any difference.’
He forgot that Valentine’s day is literally the most important day for a florist. Fucking idiot.
Ghost sighed as he looked up from his phone, right in front of the Le Jardin floristry. He wore a black hoodie and a face mask, the black face paint absent from around his eyes as he was on leave, a rare occurrence from his line of work. Inside the garden was an organised chaos, to say the least. Ghost saw at least 6 customers inside the garden, around 4 employees going around the shop to accompany them. Even as one person went out after buying a flower, two people would enter the shop to replace them. The place was positively crowded.
He looked far and wide for Jade inside among the sea of people, until a woman with ginger hair came out of a room with a big rose bouquet, giving it to a man in an expensive suit that was tailored to perfection for his figure. The man paid for the humongous flowers and left the shop with a nervous face, meanwhile Jade instantly attended to another customer. He could tell that she's a leader based on how she commanded her employees with such confidence and authority, yet still had that kindness and gentleness in her way of talking. Her legs brought her around the shop with utmost speed and precision, not a single step was wasted on her feet.
He could only smile proudly beneath the mask. 
For about 15 minutes he observed the shop, until a truck pulled up in front of an alleyway right beside the floristry. Didn't have to wait long to understand that the vehicle was meant to pick up flower decorations for a wedding as an old man came out from the alleyway (presumably connected to the backdoor of the shop) brought out a very big, white bouquet in his arms, which size was so big it concealed his head - surely he couldn't see where he was stepping. Ghost noticed that he was struggling to lift the giant decoration onto the truck, his knees looked like it was about to tumble, until his prediction turned into reality.
The old man's knees failed him, and the big white flower decoration would turn into a mess on the ground, if not for Ghost, who quickly leaped in and held the flowers from falling. Ghost huffed in relief that he jumped just in time. 
The man leaned to the side of the decoration to see who had just saved him, and saw a big, tall man dressed in a black hoodie and jeans, whose face was concealed by another black face mask.
Regardless, the elder smiled wide, "Oh good heavens! Thank you so much for the assist! My knees aren't as strong as they used to." The old man said as they both put the white decorations into the truck box. "Ah~ being young is so much easier innit?"
Ghost only nodded, avoiding eye contact to hide his identity. Why'd he help him? probably just from reflex, but then again, how could he just leave an old man stumbling to his fall?
"I'm really sorry for the trouble. I wish I could repay you." The old man's expression was so kind it's almost blinding. He wasn't that short or frail for a man with entirely white hair, probably a 5'9". Judging by his quite muscular arms from his rolled sleeves, he could tell that he's not weak, his knees just betrayed him at a bad time. 
Ghost didn't say anything to the man as he was about to walk away to avoid more interaction, before a familiar feminine voice called.
"Papa! Are you okay!? I saw you trip!"
Both men turned their attention to the shop, where a woman with braided red hair and dark blue apron was talking from the main doorway. 
"Don't worry, Lottie Dear. I got it, but only thanks to this young lad right here." He gestured to Ghost, where he stood right on the elder's left. "If not for him, we'd have to replace all the flowers." 
Fuck.
The old man is her father. 
It's Mister Le Jardin. 
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Her green eyes caught the sight of a man whose built and sense of fashion she would recognize from a mile away. "Wait... Ghost??" Jade exclaimed, her face filled with surprise, "What are you doin' here??" 
The SAS lieutenant looked up to her with a tinge of panic on his concealed face, while Mr. Le Jardin observed him up and down. "Oh? You know him?" 
Jade nodded slowly, still shocked, "Yes... he's uh… he's a friend from work." 
He never intended to be noticed by Jade, afraid of disturbing her work, let alone meet her father out of all people. 
The father noticed that word. 'From work'. 
"Really now? What's your name, young man?" Mr. Le Jardin asked, his voice went higher in delight. 
He lowered his head to bow a little, before answering, "Simon... Sir."
"Ah. Nice to meet you, Simon! I'm Eli, owner of Le Jardin along with my wife Gracie – she's inside dealing with the clients." He introduced himself with a handshake, which Ghost reluctantly accepted. 
"Sir! Where're the rest of the flowers?!" The truck driver shouted as he got off his vehicle, prompting Eli to walk to the back door through the alleyway, leaving Ghost and Jade at the front of the shop, her face still painted with shock. A lady walked in front of Jade to enter the shop, so she made some way for her and approached Ghost. 
"Hey Ghost." The red-head started, happiness filling her voice. 
"Hey." 
"So… What brings you here?" She surely knew that he wasn't there just because he 'happened to be in the area', so he deleted that reply in his mind. 
"I wanted to see you."
Jade's eyes widened, surprised at his straight-forward answer. "Oh." 
"Your old man lost his balance loading this decoration into the truck, so I helped him." 
"Oh." Still with the same answer, Jade couldn't tell him how fast her heartbeat was, as her father just came in contact with Ghost, the man she utterly liked.
He looked inside the shop, observing the clients and employees walking around. "Busy day innit?"
"Yeah, it is. To be honest we've been busy since the last 3 days. Had to pick up tons of fresh flowers from our fields back in Norfolk, then arrange them for this day. Today's the busiest day, so it's an all-hands-on-deck situation. Also a big wedding is coming up tonight, and we have to transport these humongous flowers to a hotel ballroom for decorations. Biiig money. This is the third truck." Jade explained as her father and the truck driver walked out with two exact copies of the same white flower decor, lifting them up into the truck before immediately running back in. Third truck? The client must've had too much money on their wallets.
Seeing the scene that's happening in front of him, Ghost took a deep breath and blew it out. 
"Seems like your Da can use an extra pair of arms and younger knees." His deep voice suggested, making Jade's eyebrow rise. 
"Oh? Are you willing to help us out?" 
A nod was all she needed as a confirmation. "Got nothin' else to do or to be."
A wide grin fell on her lips as she grabbed Ghost's right hand and pulled him into the alleyway and to the back door of the shop, where a vast storage room was packed full of flower decorations similar to the ones that were being lifted to the truck. There were only flowers where the eye could see, save for the door that led to the front shop. There were huge boxes and boxes of flowers that had big 'Ian & Gia 14/02's written on them.
Ghost turned to the woman beside her. "Big money, eh?"
"Suuuuper big. Businessman and a big shot pianist. Wanted all the jasmines of blue white and red, and we gotta lift them all to the truck." She explained smiling to him, "Think you're up for this?"
"Won't even break a sweat." Ghost began stepping into the storage room, lifting three big boxes at once in his arms. Jade was left impressed by his show of strength as he ran to the truck at an impressive speed, before coming back and picking up more boxes like a machine, his hoodie still up and his mask still on. 
Jade scoffed at his feat, as her father came to pat her shoulder from behind, "A soldier huh?"
"...Yeah."
"It's basically written on his whole figure and posture. Is he any special in his regiment?"
The daughter could only let out a light laugh, "Very, very much so."
"Get out of here." His father looked at her in disbelief, "SAS?" 
"Yep. One of the strongest, and I'm not even exaggerating." 
His loud laugh filled the alleyway as Ghost ran back and forth lifting the flower boxes without a second wasted and tiredness showing. Jade smiled before heading into the shop to aid her mother and her co-workers with the regular customers. 
------
“Chacha, the pink wrapping paper and white 2.5 is out! We need more from the storage, please!” shouted Fiona, her co-worker and best friend of southeast asian descent, who mainly works in the front counter, preparing the flowers right in front of the visitors (which worked as an added value to attract more people). Her wrapping skills were second to none in the shop, even to Gracie, Jade’s mother, who sat right beside her counting the incoming revenues and accepting orders by call. 
“One minute!” Jade shouted back from the studio room, which was right behind the wall of the main display room while her hands also swiftly moved to arrange roses inside a heart-shaped box. The order had come in pretty fast; she had to make three of them at a time, and now she had to go up to the second floor to get the items Fiona requested. 
“Let me get it.” A deep voice came from behind her, making Jade flinch and look back to the source of the voice, where Ghost stood. 
“A-Are you done with the loading?” Jade asked him with a start, as it was not even 20 minutes since he started to help her father lift all the flowers inside the truck. 
“Just finished. Truck left just now with your dad to arrange the decorations in the ballroom.” 
“Oh.” Jade leaned back to take a glimpse of the back storage room, and true to his words, it was empty. “Wow.”
“Where are these… pink wrappings and the ‘white 2.5’s’?” Asked Ghost with a tone of confusion in his words. Jade could only giggle as she never thought she’d hear the word ‘pink’ out of his mouth. 
“Okay, so go to the second floor. On your 3, duck down and the pink wrapping is on the 3rd shelf from the bottom - take 4 rolls of ‘em. ‘White 2.5’s’ means the white-coloured satin ribbon with a 2.5 centimetres width. Don’t mistake them for the rest as there are the .5, 1.2, 4, and 5 centimetres as well. From the shelf go to your left and there should be a high rack and you can find the thingy there. Take two rolls. Don’t forget to close the door before you go down.” 
Ghost stood in silence as he processed the information.
Before Jade could ask him if he remembered all that, he answered: “Affirmative.” 
The man walked to the side stairs and stepped over 2 stairs, disappearing from her sight to the upper floor. Jade scoffed at the sight before going back to her handiwork. When else can you command an SAS officer like this?
----------
“Chachaaa~ Where're the pink wrappings and white 2.5s?! I need ‘em no–” Fiona noticed the new pink wrappings and white ribbons on the table as she worked. That was fast. 
She then looked up, expecting to find her red-headed best friend who was shorter than her, only to find a big, tall man dressed in a black hoodie and a face mask instead, who exudes danger in the way he stands. Fiona, Gracie, and the clients looked him up and down with mouths agape, as they never saw this giant man around, ever. The scene looked too damn comical for his liking.
“...Is this correct?” Ghost started with a voice lower than the depths of hell, which surprised the whole room. Fuck. Being looked at by people was the one thing he wanted to avoid, but here he was.
“Lottie dear, Who’s this?” the old lady beside Fiona asked Jade with a quite high volume, who was still inside the studio arranging the heart-shaped roses.
Judging by the nickname and those braids in her gray hair similar to Jade's, this lady could only be Gracie, her mother. 
Mrs. Le Jardin. 
“H-He’s a friend from work! I called him up here to lend a hand!” Jade shouted back from the studio. Even with the answer, all the people were still staring at him, especially Jade’s mum, and it felt like having ten laser sights aiming at him.
He swore he saw a smirk from Gracie.
So before he attracted more attention, Ghost repeated, “Is this correct?” 
“Y—yeah.” Fiona answered nervously, meanwhile her mother was still eyeballing him like she found a leprechaun. Upon hearing that confirmation, Ghost left the items in the counters and fast-walked back to the studio where Jade was, disappearing from sight. 
-----------
“Chacha, are you serious? ‘A friend from work’?” Fiona asked her best friend as she threw a piece of french fries into her mouth. The Le Jardin floristry was currently having a lunch break, and most of the employees went out to get their own meals, while the two stayed inside to talk about the man who was currently sweeping the floor of the studio alone, silently.
Fiona stared at his back from where they were eating at a counter, chewing at her fries. “Are you saying that you have a friend built like that with a voice like that working as a volunteer in the orphanage dealing with kids???”
“Nooo no no, that’s not it–!” That was where Jade messed up. She forgot that neither her best friend, nor any one of their employees know that the Le Jardins used to be MI6 black agents, except the fact that Jade was adopted. They both started to become friends when Fiona applied for the job 3 years ago, right when Jade just retired from MI6. All that she knew was the fact that Jade only had two jobs: Floristry on weekdays and in the orphanage for weekends. She never mentioned the other work that she did for the last two decades of her life. “I didn’t mean from work, I mean I met him when I was at work.” 
“Oh really?”
“Yeah.” 
“When and how did you meet him? Heck what is his name?” Shit. She needed to make up stories about him at this point. But what?! Jade hated lying. Sure it’s super easy to manipulate people by changing reality, but she didn’t want to lie to her best friend! Fiona’s the one who’s been helping her adjust to the life of being a florist and a normal life for the last three years (after saying that she’d been living abroad). 
However, how can Jade just say, ‘oh so actually I was an MI6 agent. Both of your bosses were too, actually. Not only agents – we were black agents who were trained since we were not old enough to make our own decisions to do the illegal stuff! I retired three years ago and that's when I met you, but they called me back again, and that’s when I met that guy who happened to be an officer of one the most elite task forces in the world!' 
That’s just absurd!
How did she meet him? How did she meet him?! 
"Ja– I mean Midg– I mean Lottie, where do I put these–"
The two women turned their heads to Ghost, who came out of the studio with the broom and dustpan in his hands. Looking at the two women's expression, he knew he fucked up. He didn't know what to call her outside of work. Her call sign 'Jade' was directly tied to her work as an MI6 and he couldn't know for sure if Fiona knew about that name. 'Midget' was the name he called her regularly, but he thought it was too harsh in front of her best friend, while 'Lottie' was…
"Why did you call her that?" Fiona asked him while chewing her fries, suspicion painting het face, while Jade sucked her lips and widened her eyes in shock.
Fuck. He thought right. It's a pet name used exclusively by her parents. 
"Wait. No way." She turned to Jade and Ghost back and forth before standing up abruptly, startling Jade, meanwhile Ghost stood calmly, still holding the cleaning tools in his hands.
"Chacha… is he your secret boyfriend?!?" 
That sentence shocked both of them as Jade quickly denied in panic, "No! No, he's not!! Just– sit down will you?" 
"That name is exclusively used by the bosses, ya know." She started walking towards Ghost slowly. 
Jade followed her from behind, trying to hold her friend back. "Fiona, he isn't! I swear!"
"No, seriously. How did you meet her? When?" She started closing in on Ghost excitedly, looking up at him. "What’s your name, by the way?"
“Simon.” Ghost answered deadpanly, as the last question was literally the only question he can answer casually. As long as he didn’t give out his last name, it’d be fine. “Name’s Simon.” 
"Ooooooh so he's the reason why you've been going out a lot after closin' up! You've been on dates!!" 
"NO!! We haven't–" 
"Yes."
Ghost's deep voice interrupted the two girls' argument, making them look at the man. 
"We've been on dates." 
Jade's face turned as red as her hair, and her heart beat so fast and so hard she swore Fiona and Ghost could hear it. Why was he suddenly doing this??? All the while, Fiona's jaw dropped to the floor, eyes glaring at her best friend in shock. 
Jade glanced at Ghost, but that damned hoodie and face mask did not help her at all. "I KNEW IT!!! I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU'VE BEEN DATING BEHIND MY BACK??? I mean– I am happy for you, Chacha, but WHY ARE YOU HIDING IT FROM ME???" Fiona excitingly chimed to her best friend, grabbing Jade's shoulders before shaking them like she's a ragdoll. 
"Wait– Fiona I can explain–"
"Okay! Explain then! Tell me everything! And don't you dare try to hide anything from me." That's right. She deserved to know. Fiona had been with her for the past three years. She's her first best friend ever. Jade knew she could trust her.
Jade relented with a big sigh and glanced at Ghost with a questioning look. He caught her cue before he himself took a deep breath. "As long as she can keep her mouth shut."
Fiona turned to Ghost, "Wh-what? What is this about?"
"Fiona. My dear best friend. My very beautiful friend that I trust. I love you, so, so much, so I will tell you the truth." Jade started before Ghost cut her again. 
"Jade where do I put the broom and the dustpan."
"Owh just put it on the side there yeah. Thanks."
"Who's Jade?"
—------------
"Okay. So let me get this straight." Fiona clapped her hands together in front of Ghost and Jade, who were sitting on the chairs behind the counter together while Fiona was standing up. Jade sat like she was being interrogated, while Ghost folded his arms in front of his chest.
"You, Chacha, had been working as an MI6 black agent for the last twenty years, since you were a wee kid, and then retired three years ago." Jade nodded.
"But two years ago, they called you back to this city called… Verdansk, and that's where you meet… Simon." She gestured to Ghost, who nodded.
"You only met briefly, until last October, you got called back from retirement again, and that's when you met him for the second time. But this one was special, as you guys started to develop feelings for each other, am I right?" Both of them nodded. 
"GOD this sounds like a Wattpad type of shite!!" Fiona grasped her hair from frustration, "And you're an MI6 BLACK AGENT??? REALLY???"
"Was. Papa and Mama were, too, actually." 
"Oh my Dear Lord in Heavens. THE BOSSES WERE BLACK AGENTS TOO?????" Jade nodded again. Clearly she didn't have any single clue of the burden that came with the words 'MI6', 'agent', especially with the added word 'black' in front of it.
"And you, Simon. So you're a soldier. Which one are you from? Navy? Is it the Royal Artillery? Or is it Life Guards like James Blunt?" Fiona asked with her very limited military knowledge. 
"You promised to keep your mouth shut so keep your promise." That voice came out harsher than he intended it to be, prompting Fiona to be taken aback.
"SAS."
The black-haired woman gasped so hard, covering her mouth in shock. "...like Bear Grylls?"
Jade couldn't help the giggle, as Ghost was utterly flabbergasted at her reaction as that was the first thing that came to her mind from the revelation. "...Yeah. Like Bear Grylls. And no I don't know him."
"Wow. Okay. So why the face mask? Does this have anything to do with secrecy and stuff?" Fiona asked him again as Ghost still had the hoodie up and face mask. She hadn't seen his face at all. "Am I not allowed to see his face? Wait Chacha you have seen his face right?"
"Of course I have! What do you mean by that!?" Jade countered, clearly overwhelmed by the barrage of questions. "Ghost. it's up to you."
Ghost huffed, lifting up one hand to the upper hem of his face mask. Fiona observed as Ghost pulled down the mask for a good 3 seconds, catching a glimpse of his strong jaw, his light brown stubble, the faint scars on his face, before putting the face mask back into place again. "Happy now?"
"Oh. Wow. Okay. I am happy." Fiona confirmed with start, turning to look at Jade again, "Chacha you hit a jackpot on this one – so you guys are a couple, right?"
The man and woman looked at each other for a long time, Jade bit her lower lip as her expression fell. Ghost could only close his eyes in regret. 
"Wait, no way you guys aren't a thing already. Whaaaatttt?" Fiona expressed her confusion because, for the last two months, Jade had started to buy more makeup and clothes, and the sudden interest in her looks had made Fiona suspicious. She really thought her best friend was dating a man secretly, but now that he's right here, both of them could not say that they're in a relationship?
"Look, Fiona… it's complicated, okay? We're just taking things slow right now. Our… jobs have their own risks, and we're just trying to enjoy things as they are now." Jade tried to explain with a bit of a sad tone to her voice. 
"So… you guys are friends, who happen to go on dates occasionally?" Fuckin' hell. Ghost thought. How could she say the exact same thing as Soap? Was it really weird? For two friends to just go together doing whatever they liked? 
After both of them nodded for the hundredth time that day, Fiona sighed in acceptance. "Chacha, Luv, I might not understand what you guys are going through right now, but Simon," she turned to Ghost, who lifted his head to see her clearly. "You better not make her cry." 
The man glanced to his side, where Jade silently sat on the chair. He knew she'd already hurt her feelings by saying he wasn't ready for a relationship yet, but if he wanted to be honest with himself, was ‘scared’ and ‘afraid’ the right word for it? As Soap and Fiona said, they’re literally doing what couples do. 
He’s just afraid to put a name on it. 
“I’ll try.” 
—------------
Jade had texted him earlier that during Valentine’s, Le Jardin’s floristry would open until midnight. Ghost wondered why as it had been a while since the employees had gone home, including Fiona (who told her that they were going to have a long chat on the phone) who had to go home and have dinner with her family. The sun had long drowned, replaced by the moon that accompanied the cold winter of London. Warm lights from the shops and a few street lights were the only thing lighting up the streets - one of them coming from the floristry. 
The sales peaked around 6 PM to 9 PM when people finished their work to be with their loved ones. Ghost had absolutely no skills in flower arranging or wrapping, so he did all he could to help the other employees to pick tools or items from high shelves, and even change the lightbulb when one of them died. Ghost didn’t mind it one bit as he found simple domestic things like this relaxing compared to what he did in the military - full of pressure, stress, and blood. 
Meanwhile, the utmost form of stress in Le Jardin’s (at least what he saw today), was a customer who kept changing the flowers that he wanted, and then lashing out at Fiona when his bouquet wasn’t tied the way he wanted to. Ghost almost wanted to step in, drag him out of the store, and throw him out to the streets, but Jade stepped in and calmly asked the customer for references, dealing with the situation one at a time, and finally, the man stomped out. Ghost knew that there were more variety of problems in retail, but at least he got to experience one today. To be honest that was probably the least angry person in London. 
That was 3 hours ago. Now, there’s only the Le Jardins and Ghost; the father had come home at around 4 PM after finishing the decorations. He took a photo of the ballroom and showed it to his family and Ghost, who was quite amazed at the old man’s sense of composition and aesthetic. 
The four of them were all in the front room, Gracie counting the revenues, Jade tidying up the display flowers, Eli wiping the windows, and Ghost sweeping the floors (again). The clock showed 00.23, the shop was empty, and even the cafe opposite them was already closed. As Ghost finished his chore, he put the cleaning tools to the side before approaching Jade.
“Are you not closin’? It’s past midnight.” He muttered to her, who was tidying up the edelweiss display. 
Jade smiled, “We usually extend about an hour.” 
“Why?” 
“You’ll see.”
Just as he was about to question it, the phone rang besides Gracie, who picked up the call immediately,
“Le Jardin Floristry. Yes, we are still open. You might be our last client, Sir. We do have tulips available. What colour? Red and pink, got it. The bouquet will be here when you arrive. Yes. We’ll be here, Sir, don’t worry. Thank you!” After confirming the order, Gracie smiled towards Ghost as she put the phone back. “That’s why, Simon Dear.”
About twenty minutes later, a man entered the shop in a hurry, dressed in a dirty fire brigade jacket. He clearly just finished his work and then drove to the floristry immediately after he extinguished whatever fire broke out somewhere. The moustached man approached the counter, where Jade had his order ready. “I’m here for my tulips?” He muttered, clearly tired from the way he panted. 
“Here it is, Sir. That’ll be 18 pounds.” 
“Thank you so much. You guys were the only shop open at this time. I’m forever grateful. I already told my wife and children that I’ll be late, but I truly felt bad.” He pulled out his wallet before putting a 20-pound note on the counter. 
“A pleasure for us, Sir. Have a good night!” Gracie chimed as he took the tulips in his hands, exited the shop and finally drove off. With that, Eli flipped the ‘Open’ tag to the ‘Closed’ tag.
“Delightful! Now.” Mr. Le Jardin put his hands on his hips, “Let’s have dinner.” Once Ghost heard that, he immediately planned his escape from the floristry like he needed to escape an enemy’s vicinity. 
“Simon Dear, you’re joining us, aren’t you?” But after hearing the gentle yet commanding tone coming out of Gracie, he decided against it, as what he heard in his ear was, ‘We’re going to have a conversation about you and my daughter’. 
—-------
“So, Simon Dear.” Gracie's voice startled Ghost as he was cutting the carrots for the chicken soup they're making, all the while Gracie was stirring the ladle on the pot. It was only the two of them in the kitchen on the third floor as Eli and his daughter were still tidying up the first floor. “Are you Lottie’s boyfriend?” 
Fuck. There’s the question. “No, Ma’am." He replied slowly, "Not yet."
Ghost expected a questioning look followed by a 'why', but instead she gave him a light nod. “She’s very fond of you, I think you should know."  That one caught Ghost's attention, briefly slowing down his slices. Did Jade talk to her mother about him?
"The way she talks about you, I know how deeply she really cared for you. She saw her future with no man, at all, until she met you. Had to do with 'understanding one another' she said." Gracie put in more black pepper into the pot.
“May I know, what stopped you from committing to her?”
More questions to answer, but this one, he didn't know how to answer. 
“...I don’t know, Ma'am."
Not long, Gracie muttered with a tone he almost forgot. Motherly. “...Are you afraid?”
And that's when he found himself so vulnerable, so open. And the weird thing was, he only felt like this when he's with Jade. He thought Gracie's her adoptive mother, but this magical familial trait where people could instantly open up to them was almost scary. 
"...Yes, Ma'am."
He expected judgement, but what came was a light smile. “You remind me of Eli and me, back when we were still with MI6."
"He said the same things. He was afraid of the life we’ll lead. Constantly running, followed by death everywhere we go. Stability and domesticity was a dream impossible to achieve.” As Ghost listened, he lifted the cutting board and poured the cube-cut carrot into the pot. 
“However, I can tell him anything, he can tell me anything.” Gracie continued, looking up at him. Her gaze was as soft as Jade's, grey eyes softly gazing into his soul. “Eli had his own problems, I had my own, but what mattered was the fact that we both tried to be better, for my own sake, and for his sake.”
“He was my best friend, and I was his. It was a leap of faith to be together.” She said as her palm tapped his shoulder firmly.
“I’m saying this as her mother. If you love her, then go all in. She deserves all of you.”
-------
Dinner was eventful, to say the least. The Le Jardins, plus Ghost, ate their dinner together in their house on the third floor. Chicken and vegetable soup accompanied by warm cups of tea was enough to fill their stomachs. Ghost, of course, had to take his hood down and open his face mask to eat with the three of them.
It felt weird. 
When was the last time he had a family dinner like this? Eating a delicious meal without having to find a place where there's no other people? A place where he could freely show his face to others, the warmth of a family? 
It didn't take long for Eli to finish his meal, as he stood up and put on 'La Vie en Rose' by Louis Armstrong on the classic gramophone. Gracie scoffed loudly, stood up, and took Eli's hand in hers. 
"Heeeere we go." Jade rolled her eyes, seeming like she had to watch this for the thousandth time.
As Louis Armstrong started to sing, the two old couple put out an amazing slow dancing show in front of Ghost and Jade. Seeing them so unashamedly happy, and the fact that both of their eyes only stared at each other with so much love, Ghost unconsciously smiled.
And when he turned to look at Jade, there was she, two hands holding her phone horizontally, taking a video of her parents, grinning ear to ear while her eyes gleamed with joy.
It's such a warm scene to witness. 
He only hoped it was him and her in place of Eli and Gracie.
—------------
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The time showed 02.13. Ghost and Jade were standing in front of the shop, a long scarf wrapped around Ghost's neck as the cold was harsh that time of the day. Jade insisted that he wore them, or he'd catch a cold. 
"Thank you, Ghost. For today. My dad had been having regular trouble with his knee, so thank you so so much." Jade started, cheeks blushing that was certainly not because of the February winter. 
"Well, I doubt that, considering how well he danced with your mum." Ghost replied, making Jade laugh. Her smile was a sight he'd never get tired of seeing. “Are you going anywhere tomorrow?” 
That question quite surprised her. “Well… Tomorrow my shift starts at 3 PM. So I'm free in the morning. Why?"
“I want to make do for today. We haven’t had a proper… date. Yet. I honestly had wanted to bring you flowers, but I remembered you're a florist. So I felt like a prat.”
Her face turned as red as tulips at that. “Honestly, you helping out in the shop was more romantic than anything you could ever give."
"Oh yeah?" 
"Yeah! So… what are you thinkin’ for tomorrow? What do you wanna do, Ghost?”
“What do you wanna do?” He asked back.
“Oh? W-well… Hmmm." Jade contemplated, pouting her lips, glancing at the moon high in the sky. "Ice skating. And then Korean barbecue after.”
“I-Ice skating?” Ghost stuttered, not expecting that answer. 
“Yeah. What, you afraid you’re gonna fall?”
“I have no clue what you’re talkin’ about.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll hold you if you do.” 
He wanted to say something along the lines of 'fuck-off' or 'sod you'. But he deleted that reply before it came out of his mouth, instead saying, "Please do."
Jade grinned ear-to-ear at that response. She was anticipating a clap back from him, but it was such an unusually warm reply that she couldn't help the blush in her cheeks.
No matter how much she wanted him to stay close to her, he had to go, and Jade said her goodbye. "Thank you for today. See you tomorrow, Simon."
Still standing still, Ghost muttered, "It was fun."
She thought he was going to start walking away towards his apartment, but instead, a glimmer of light reflected on his brown irises, still gazing at hers with such hopeful and wistful eyes.
And before she knew it, Ghost leaned in closer to her face, and placed a soft peck on her cheek.
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As he stood back, Jade saw that his face burnt red, seeming like what he just did took great courage and resolution. His face still so close to hers, Ghost left her speechless.
And before she could say anything, he said his last words to her that night,
"See you tomorrow, Lottie."
----------------------
Hope you like it! (❁´◡`❁)
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fitz-higgins · 6 months
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LGBT literature of the 1860s–1910s. Part 5
After a long pause, the list is back! Here we have a couple of plays, accounts by two trans women, lesbian poetry, and more.
1. Despised and Rejected, by A.T. Fitzroy (Rose Allatini; 1918). A pacifist novel published during World War One? With gay and lesbian characters? Yes, that was sure to get people in trouble. Its publisher was fined and the judge called it “morally unhealthy and most pernicious”. So, Dennis is a young composer who hates violence and therefore refuses to go to war. He also suffers because he is a “musical man”, that is, gay, and loves Alan, art-loving son of a wealthy businessman. His friend Antoinette, meanwhile, is “strangely attracted” to a woman. Nevertheless, the two attempt to love each other. When the war begins, Alan appears in Dennis’ life again, and they try to avoid being sent to the front together. Alan also persuades Dennis to accept who he is. Edward Carpenter himself defended the novel, saying that “the book is also a plea for toleration of a very much misunderstood section of humanity”. Read online
2. Autobiography of an Androgyne, by Ralph Werther (1918). Ralph Werther, also known as Jennie June, wrote this autobiography for doctors, and it is very revealing. Being a New York fairy (male prostitute) and possibly a trans woman, they tell frankly about the city’s gay underworld of the early 20th century and their personal experience, which is sometimes too frank and dark perhaps, but all the more interesting. Read online 
3. Poems by Mikhail Kuzmin. Kuzmin was not just the author of Russia’s first gay novel, but also a poet. Many of his works were dedicated to or mentioned his lovers. I’d recommend Where Will I Find Words (in English and Russian), Night Was Done (both in English and Russian), from the 1906-1907 collection Love of This Summer (available fully in Russian), mostly based on his love affair with Pavel Maslov in 1906. And also If They Say (in English and Russian), which is a great statement.
4. The Loom of Youth, by Alec Waugh (1917). A semi-biographical novel based on Evelyn Waugh’s older brother’s experience at Sherborne School in Dorset. It is a story of Gordon Caruthers’ school years, from the age of 13 to 19, and it is full of different stories typical for public schools, be it pranks and cheating exams or dorm life and sports. Although the homosexual subject was quite understated, the author implied that it was a tradition and open secret in public schools. The book became popular and soon caused a great scandal. Worth noting that before that Alec was expelled for flirting with a boy.  Read online 
5. Two Speak Together, by Amy Lowell (1919). Lowell was a famous American poet and lesbian. Many of her poems were dedicated to her lover, actress Ada Dwyer Russell, specifically the section Two Speak Together from Pictures of the Floating World. These poems are infused with flower imagery, which wasn’t uncommon for lesbian poetry of the time. Read online
6. De berg van licht/The Mountain of Light, by Louis Couperus (1905-1906). Couperus is called the Dutch Oscar Wilde for a reason: this is one of the first decadent novels in Dutch literature. It is also a historical one, telling about a young androgynous Syrian priest Heliogabalus who then becomes a Roman Emperor. Homoerotism, hedonism, aestheticism: Couperus creates a very vivid world of Ancient Rome. He also covered the topic of androgyny in his novel Noodlot, which was mentioned in Part 3 of this list. Read online in Dutch 
7. Frühlings Erwachen/Spring Awakening/The Awakening of Spring, by Frank Wedekind (1891, first performed in 1906). This play criticized the sexually oppressive culture prevalent in Europe at the time through a collection of monologues and short scenes about several troubled teens. Each one of them struggles with their puberty, which often leads to a tragic end. Like in The Loom of Youth, homosexuality is not the central focus of the play, but one character, Hänschen, is homosexual and explores his sexuality through Shakespear and paintings. The play was later turned into a famous musical. Read online in German or in English
8. Twixt Earth and Stars, by Radclyffe Hall (1906). Though it wasn’t known to many at the time, these poems were dedicated to women, some to Hall’s actual lovers. Read online
9. The Secret Confessions of a Parisian: The Countess, 1850-1871, by Arthur Berloget (published in 1895). This account is similar to the Autobiography of an Androgyne, albeit shorter. The author nowadays is thought to be a trans woman. They describe their love for women’s dresses, the euphoria from wearing dresses, makeup and wigs, the life as a “female impersonator” in Parisian cafe-concerts, and their love affair with a fellow prisoner. The autobiography is not available online, but you can read it in Queer Lives: Men’s Autobiographies from Nineteenth-Century France by William Peniston and Nancy Erber.
10. At Saint Judas’s, by Henry Blake Fuller (1896). This is possibly the first American play about homosexuality. It is very short. An excited groom is waiting for his wedding ceremony in the company of his gloomy best man. They are former lovers, and this short scene is not going to end well… Read online
Previous part is here
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virginiaisforvampires · 5 months
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Do you ever see something so grand & you’re trying to find an adjective to accurately describe it, but it’s just so….grand that mere words are too weak & don’t even begin to cover it? Like, it needs a word that hasn’t even been invented yet, because it’s just so….grand. It’s them. Words fail to express what they are & what they mean.
Jacob is always so kind & so thoughtful & saying tender things like how much he loves Louis & how important Louis is to him & how therapeutic it is portraying Louis to the point he doesn’t need the outlet of making music right now. Meanwhile Sam is always geeking out & *this close* 🤏🏽 to busting a gut to talk about how much he loves Lestat & the vampirism aspects, because he’s living out his childhood dream of being a vampire & he doesn’t need his little press-on fangs he wore as a kid, because he’s now got an entire special effects team to make him custom fangs so he can portray the vampire of all time, Lestat de Lioncourt.
I just—
😩🥺😭🔥💜✨
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tomboy014 · 1 year
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The Prince's
So, I hadn’t originally planned on doing anything for Dani, but this post from @aziraphale-is-a-cats-a-cat got me thinking about things, and I ended up writing this.
So, while the men of the Justice League are trying to figure out who Dani is a clone of, Wonder Woman takes one look at the black haired, blue eyed, mischievous girl and can’t help but see herself in her and claim, “Mine.”
The rest of the League try, but there’s no arguing with Diana now that she’s set her mind on something, but Bruce and Clark have kids and know it’s not as easy as it looks to take care of them.  She’s only ever been the “fun aunt;” she’s never had to get into the dirty, exhausting parts of parenthood before.  It escalates to a full-blown argument, but if Dani has any say in it, she’d rather chill at Wonder Woman’s place for a while.  It sounds better than staying in some gross cave or ice castle, and space isn’t her thing (the same way it’s Danny’s), so she’d rather not stay in the Watchtower.
Arguments about clones and custody continue over the next few weeks, not helped by the fact that Dani is still pretty unconcerned about the whole situation.  Or, she was unconcerned until Vlad showed up.  He’d decided enough was enough and it was long past time he collect his property.
It only takes a single scream.
Diana bursts into the room, fist connecting with Vlad’s jaw, and he’s knocked across the room.
“Don’t.  Touch.  My child.”
She proceeds to hand his ass to him on a bronze platter before he flees into the night, bruised and bloody.
Now it’s Dani’s turn to latch onto Diana’s leg, shouting “Mine!”  This is her new, kick-ass mommy and no one else can have her.  Dibs!  No take backs!  Well, it’s settled, now.  Diana is officially Dani’s mom, and no member of the JLA can stop it.  She scoops Dani up in her arms, and before she’s even out the door, she’s already telling the other Amazon’s the good news and making plans to take Dani to Themyscira to meet her γιαγιά Hippolyta. 
The two work on figuring out family life, and all’s good for a while.  Dani’s got a (relatively) stable home life and is quickly adapting to life as “Danielle Prince.”  She likes that the name sounds similar to Diana’s, like it was on purposeful choice rather than a cheap knockoff of her original’s name, and she’s getting a lot more comfortable with it.  Bruce, thoroughly defeated and resigned to put away the adoption papers, helps her enroll is a good school and finds tutors to catch her up on the years of schooling she didn’t live through.  (This includes Jason Todd, who has volunteered himself as an excuse to hang out with Wonder Woman more.)  Louis helps her get legal paperwork and documents for Dani (something she helped do for Kon).  She makes friends with Damian and Jon.  And she’s just as skilled as Danny with language, so she’s picking up Greek rapidly.
Since Diana’s adopted her and she’s gained an army of superpowered babysitters, Dani is finally starting to feel comfortable enough to share some information with the League.  It’s not much, but she lets them know Plasmius is the one who cloned her, and her last name used to be Fenton.
Oh, no.  Between those colors and facial features, Clark has a pretty good guess at which Fenton family she came from.  Still, the family is enormous, so he doesn’t know which Fenton exactly was cloned, but the family reunion is this year, and wouldn’t hurt to give Dani a bigger support system.  Would she and Diana like to come?
Vlad, meanwhile, has recovered and is pissed.  After shadowing Wonder Woman from a healthy distance, he finds out she’s supermodel Diana Prince.  Plasmius may not have been a match for Wonder Woman, but billionaire Vlad Masters is more than capable of taking some supermodel down a peg or two.
So, he approaches Diana at work, telling her he knows who she is and that he wants his “daughter” back.  His “minion” might not have been a match for her, but if she refuses to comply, he’ll ruin her career.
And she laughs.  Laughs right in his face.  Loudly.  Because she knows he’s bluffing.  A billionaire and supermodel isn’t anything new as far as the media is concerned; it’s a cliché.  But a deadbeat billionaire dad threatening to steal back an illegitimate child from an abandoned single mother?  After years of not paying any child support?  The media would eat something like that right up.  Something that could drop stock prices and ruin political careers.  That’s something anyone would be desperate to keep hushed up and out of the media spotlight, and she’ll drag him kicking and screaming into said spotlight if he comes anywhere near her daughter.  Or maybe the media would prefer to know the real story about his illegal cloning?  After all, that went over so well for Lex Luthor. 
Vlad leaves, and Diana makes a few calls.  First, she makes sure Clark heard everything in that conversation and sets him on the warpath against DalvCo if need be.  She gets Bruce up to speed, and if there’s one thing he’s in the best position to do, it’s to hit Vlad where it really hurts: his wallet.  Vlad was already a pretty scummy businessman.  Wayne Enterprises didn’t need much of an excuse to cancel or back out of business deals with him.
But Diana is still shaken up by the event, even if she’s not going to let it show.  Right now, she wants to send Dani away to Themyscira behind a wall of Amazons where she knows no one will be able to touch her, but Bruce and Louis talk her down.  Dani’s finally settling into a normal-ish life, and uprooting her now will not help her, and if push comes to shove, trying to whisk her away will not look good to the courts.  Louis knows a great lawyer, and Bruce is willing to foot the bill.
For Vlad, that did not go as expected at all.  He hadn’t expected her to know Danielle was a clone, and he doesn’t want Danielle to be public knowledge.  However, he has no intention of getting lawyers involved; she’d be expecting that.  No, he has something far more insidious planned.  It’s been decades since he’s attended one, but the Fenton Family Reunion should be coming up soon, and as far at that family is concerned, once a Fenton, always a Fenton.  She’s prepared to fight lawyers?  Well, Let’s see how she fares against an army of angry grandparents and disapproving aunts demanding that his poor child be returned to him once he sets the family on the warpath.
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exactlycleverpirate · 2 months
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Trying to Make Sense of Rafayel's Timeline
This has been updated here.
Spoilers for basically everything below, except for the endings of he Myths, as I do not have those yet.
First, so notes:
See outline for three possible options for the timing of the pinky promise/rescue. 
As children, she rescued him when he was stranded on the beach and then Rafayel made a pinky promise with MC that “It's settled then. If you don't return I'll…I'll chase you to the ends of the Earth.” (Nightly Stroll and Main Story chapter 7)
Also 3 options for the slaughter of the Lemurians after Rafayel is deceived as a child.
As a boy, Rafayel sings the “Siren's Ballad” as an elegy for the slaughtered Lemurians as he sits on a coral reef alone surrounded by waves dyed red with their blood, watching ships sail away, carrying those who deceived him and slaughtered his people (Anecdote 3). (Could be that Rafayel trusted the wrong humans and revealed either the location of the Lemurians or that they were all vulnerable on Ebb Day) (Perhaps MC had an unwitting hand in this).
These two events may be back to back or occur at separate points in the timeline. Inclined to think the promise came first, then the deception, but could be that he was stranded because of the deception/slaughter, or these events occur separately.
Timeline:
On Earth, past life/lives:
First possible option for the pinky promise/rescue: Their first lives ever meeting each other, starting it all off. 
First possible option for the deception/slaughter: Immediately after their first encounter with each other.
Rafayel and MC are lovers.
MC cursed to be a Sea Witch in the Abyssal Rift and has forgotten Rafayel and being human. He gives up a scale, some of his blood, and his song in a shell to set her free. The potion she makes with these is a bitter scent reminiscent of fermented aquatic plants. She turns human and remembers him. He gets her to shore and then he turns into foam. (When she regains her memories, the voices that play are of current day Rafayel, from his date Your Fragrance. Possibly just because she is remembering this in a dream, rather than those being the actual memories she recovered at the time.) (Fragrant Dream)
Second option for pinky promise/rescue and/or deception/slaughter: Reunited in some reincarnation between the initial life and the current one.
Current life, on Earth:
2024 Rafayel born March 6th (or so he claims).
2026 MC born.
Rafayel was given a Whale Call by Lemurian adults when he was a child. He never had a chance to use it and buried it in a Lemurian city under the sea. (Was this in this life or a previous one?)
Third option for pinky promise/rescue and/or deception/slaughter: This timeline when they are children, likely before the Deepspace Tunnel and Chronorift Catastrophe in 2034
Rafayel's only living family on Earth is his Aunt Talia, also Lemurian. There are some other surviving Lemurians as well who are being hunted, tortured,  and harvested for their scales and blood. (Anecdote 3)
2034 Ruins of Lemuria were revealed near Linkon the same year that the Deepspace Tunnel appeared and the Chronorift Catastrophe occurred. MC (age 8) now has protocore shards in her heart, is adopted by Granny, and has little memory before this event (perhaps this is when she forgets Rafayel).
Rafayel is an Opera Singer in Verona going by the moniker “Mo”, hunting down and killing people, possibly as revenge for the destruction of Lemuria and slaughter of his people. He is in touch with Talia. He also recently attended a Seamoon Ceremony for another Lemurian, K, who dies and is returned to the sea (after having his scales and blood taken). It is suggested that Rafayel is trying to accomplish something to save the Lemurians, saying, “Not every Lemurian survivor can wait.” It appears the longer he takes to accomplish his goal, the more of the Lemurians die in the meanwhile. (Anecdote 3)
He is not painting. 
He is being investigated by a private detective named Louis.
Rafayel remembers the dying cries of his people.
Rafayel leaves Verona and moves to Linkon city. He has a picture of MC in his pocket. (Anecdote 3)
Rafayel uses a private investigator to find out MC is attending Linkon University. He takes a position as a special lecturer there. He sees MC again, talking to some of her classmates. He is confused that she doesn’t seem to know anything about Lemuria. (Anecdote 2)
Rafayel begins painting again.
Rafayel does not tolerate the PI getting too close to MC or taking pictures of her.
Describes his feelings for MC as akin to a spice, painful and addictive.
Indicates he is prepared to be with her for the rest of his life, but also wants to “settle the score��.
Rafayel believes she is being surrounded by dangerous entities, some of whom may possibly be trying to use her to trap him. This is part of why he doesn’t approach her at this time. He decides he can afford to take his time and make his moves carefully. 
Rafayel hires Thomas to be his agent. (Anecdote 1)
2048 MC (age 22) begins work as a Deepspace Hunter. MC and Rafayel are reunited, though MC does not remember Rafayel. Rafayel’s home is called Mo Art Studio.
Rafayel acquires a red Flamula from Lemuria the first time he reintroduces himself to MC. She gives it to him to take home.
When Rafayel attempts to abandon MC to drowning, there is a tail mark that appears above his heart, and he turns around and goes back to her. (Possibly an indication of the bond they forged when he saved her with his scale or made a vow with her).
Lemuria is described as being gone for thousands of years, yet Lemurians are still alive now. (Possibly they had gone into hiding and were revealed when Rafayel was deceived.) (Rafayel described himself as “a lost pearl that washed up on the beach” in Ebb and Flow.)
In “Nightly Stroll” date, Rafayel makes MC vow never to make him wait again, a vow that is blessed by a little blue fish, an Emissary of the Ocean.
In “Your Fragrance” date, Rafayel asks MC who gave her the catnip-like perfume (he says it smells familiar), suggesting she is working with someone, using underhanded methods to trap him. 
(This smell has a similar description to the perfume he gives her later that gives her the dream, as well as the smell of the potion that turns her human. “Bitter like fermented plants”.) 
“Are you trying to run away again? I'm not going anywhere. You're going to lock me up again. You're with them, I just know it. Don't think I'm unaware of what you're about to do. I won't fall for it again. Not this time.” 
(Order of events: Your Fragrance > Dangerously Close > Fragrant Dream)
In “Ebb and Flow” date, he reveals himself as a Lemurian to MC on Ebb Day. She promises to never hurt him.
This vulnerability suggests he has a remarkable amount of trust in MC, despite his bitterness at her forgetting him. 
Rafayel asks MC what she would do if this was all a trap he set up to kill her. This is what is happening in Rafayel’s myth story. Does Rafayel in this time period somehow know about that or is this just foreshadowing? 
In “Whalefall Lament” date, Rafayel takes MC to underwater ruins of Lemuria to dig up the Whale Call he buried there as a child. He describes his childhood as boring and closely guarded. He made many escape attempts when he was young, and was given the Whale Call as a means of protection, but he never had the opportunity to use it, as his escape attempts did not succeed again after this.
Philos (estimated 30,000 years after Earth’s destruction):
Myth takes place on Philos, likely sometime between Xavier and MC meeting for the first time (Xavier’s Anecdote 3) and Xavier's myth story. The oceans have been missing for 30,000 years (possibly because Earth was destroyed and Philos was made with a fake core holding separate tectonic plates together). 
Rafayel was bound to MC when the oceans still existed by giving her one of his scales (see Fragrant Dream for when this may have occurred). 
MC's heart keeps the people of Philos immortal (See Xavier’s Myth for the connection between MC’s heart, the people’s immortality, and Philos’ core) and she was “born from the depths of the earth”. MC remembers living on the Island of Songs in a hut by herself, surrounded by the ocean. (Was this in her first life or some subsequent life on Earth?)
Could Hat Island and the Island of Songs be the same place?
MC is gifted Rafayel when they are young and sets him free. Rafayel later implies he was only caught because he wanted to be.
Rafayel and MC are reunited as adults when she is attempting to escape the palace. They meet several times and grow close, though Rafayel is plotting with Amund.
Rafayel is mentioned as the second most important person to princess MC. The first visits her often. Who is this? Xavier? The King?
There are other Lemurians on Philos with Rafayel,  including Amund. They are killing human nobles, with the belief that by doing so, it will help restore The oceans and Lemurian.
Rafayel is referred to as the God of the Sea in the myth and it is implied that his heart has been stolen by MC. Possibly not literal.
Rafayel believes revenge is meaningless. Only wants to restore the oceans and Lemuria.
MC can use a Lemurian Beacon to summon Rafayel.
Rafayel and Amund take MC to the Island of Songs (now no longer an island), and she recognizes it. Rafayel has to decide whether to believe the legends and cut out MC’s heart in an effort to restore the oceans and Lemuria. Rafayel had previously indicated that the heart must be given willingly. (Don’t have the final 2 chapters of the Myth yet to know how this plays out).
On another note, I am now just sitting here thinking about how both Xavier and Rafayel have loved her for over 30,000 years. And Xavier has been alive through that whole time, possibly watching her die over and over again. *sobs*
Please let me know your thoughts, questions, corrections, insights, what have you. I'm sure i missed stuff or made mistakes. This will likely be updated when I can finish the myths.
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acesofspadess · 3 months
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Let The Games Begin
Worth The Risk Masterlist
narry x oc
.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜
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You know the saying, easier said than done, well you never meant to take that so literal. Over the course of the next couple weeks, shit had hit the fan. You were good, that was never the question, but being so young and inexperienced compared to the rest of girls set you behind from the beginning.
“The final contestant who’s made it through… is…”
It wasn’t your name. And while 99% of you knew it wouldn’t be, the 1% in you was more hopeful than ever. You didn’t let the tears fall until you were backstage by yourself. You went to text the siblings before someone sat next to you. “I'm sorry you didn’t make it. You were really good.” The accent wasn’t like your own. “Did you not make it either?” you saw the redness in his eyes, and when he shook his head to confirm your guess you rested your head on his shoulder. “Autumn.” you recited, “Niall.” he gave back.
“Nice to meet you Niall, even under the unfortunate circumstances.” you both laughed softly at the attempted joke before silence fell over you both. The silence was comfortable, it was peaceful, home like almost.
“Can I have all the girls over here please?” one of the workers called in your area and you and Niall looked at each other, confusion over your faces. “Maybe they’re collecting the boys too? Go and check.” you urged as he helped you up. “I’ll see you later Autumn.” he waved goodbye as you went in the opposite direction.
Meanwhile….
Nicole, Louis, and Simon, were looking at the photo cards of the boys. “I like these 5 together.” Nicole happily cheered but Simon seemed off-put. “It's missing something.” he pointed out, and while Louis and Nicole thought to adjust the boys Simon went over to the girls group. He looked for a specific photo and once he found it he put the card in line with the boys.
“No Simon, you can’t do that.” The first disagreement was made by Nicole. “But her voice would go perfectly with the rest of the boys.” he stood his ground and looked to Louis who was studying the faces intensely. “I have to agree with Simon, Nicole. They look good together, I'm sure they would sound even better. I don’t know why you have something against her.” He defended and stood with Simon. 
“I don’t have anything against her,” she quickly told off. “I just don’t think that she belongs in a boy band.” Louis looked at the photos one last time. “Then let her choose.” he offered, looking down at Simon who spoke, “Have her come in with the girls, then we’ll decide from there. But I think even she would prefer the boys.”
Present…
As you walked on stage with a group of girls from the left wing, a group of boys, some of which you recognised, Harry, Zayn, and now Niall. You couldn't stop looking over at them, wishing you were with familiar people, some who actually cared to learn your name. 
“Hello.” Nicole spoke softly into the mic making you snap your head away from the boys as everyone repeated the greeting. “Thank you so much for coming back. I know judging from some of your faces that this is really hard. We’ve thought long and hard about you individually, and you are all too talented to let go of. So we’ve put together two separate groups.” Nicole handed the mic to Simon who was looking right at you. “Autumn, do you mind joining the boys?”  The faintest smile made its way to your face as you walked across the stage standing in between Harry and Niall as they had created a space for you. 
“See she looks happier there.” Simon whispered to Nicole as you walked across the stage. She nodded in understanding, having to admit that you did indeed belong with them. “We’ve decided to put you both through to the judges rounds.” Time seemed to freeze as you repeated what he said over through your head till you were being wrapped in a massive hug. You immediately wrapped your arms around the figure you now knew was Niall before you both separated and shook Harry who was crouched into himself. He popped up wrapping you and Niall into a hug full of laughs and cries. 
As you walked off the stage together you all huddled up again. “I know this might be weird with me, but I have an older brother-.” 
“You're one of us now, it doesn't matter.” One the boys who you hadn’t met yet cut you off and you smiled. “Louis.” he held his hand out. “Autumn.” the tallest boy came over to you too. “Liam.” you knew he had heard you so you didn’t repeat it again. When you all walked outside you saw Bentley, Nan and Pap, and Anne chatting together. You assume it was over what just happened. When they saw you, you and Harry ran towards them. You hugged Bentley who held you tightly. “Where’s Bev?” he pointed towards the car to see Beverly asleep. “She has the ability to fall asleep anywhere.” you both laughed before you dragged him over to meet the rest of the boys. “Bentley, Niall, Louis, and Liam. You’ve already met Harry, and Zayn.” he greeted them as Anne pulled you into a hug. “I’m glad you're with them. They need some girl power in their lives.” you laughed with her as it came naturally. 
Anne decided she needed a picture of all you, and as you sat on the stairs next to Harry in front of Liam you were truly in for a ride.
———————-
Worth The Risk Masterlist
tags:
@youcan-nolonger-run @ravenclawdirectioner
@luxiorchive @maeflowers653  @purple9950 @forkmeniall @nathalielovesonedirection @hopsydaisy @shortie-niya
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lunarheslwt · 2 months
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28th appreciation fic recs: January edition
Hi! Welcome to the first fic rec list of 2024! I wanted to put together all the fics I've read and loved over January for this month's 28th appreciation, so here they are! Click on the links for full tags and summaries. If you read any of these make sure to show the authors some love by leaving kudos and comments, and sharing any fic posts!
🌸 Morning comes by @nooradeservedbetter
(5k / E / Sub Top L, Dom bottom H)
The stranger gestures at what they’re wearing, and oh, it’s not a shirt, it’s a white crop top, black lettering star against it. It says I ♡ SUBMISSIVE MEN in bold, capital letters.
Thoughts: we simply need more pwps that explore dynamics like this, this was delicious, and I looove how natural the chemistry between them felt. So good.
🌸 Dreaming of a green Christmas by @hellolovers13
(4k / E / Size queen L, xmas smut)
Harry opens the wrong package by mistake and finds the sex toy Louis ordered for himself. That's not an opportunity Harry can pass up on.
Thoughts: its never too late to indulge in some christmas smut, its got size queen L ffs what are you waiting for!! Its hot, its a snack to be devoured, it's a little gift, in short.
🌸 Sweet baby by @jishlerfics
(5k / E / kink discovery)
“Haz,” he said, “do you like being held down?” Taking a shaky breath, Harry finally looked Louis in the eyes. “I think so.”
Thoughts: this is part one of a series that I'm excited to read. This is perfect and sweet and hot in every way possible, i loved it so much.
🌸 Revelatory experience by @justanothershadeofblue
(3k / E / religion kink)
Harry's not sure if it's the sound of Louis' voice, the thrill of the forbidden, or just that he's really fucking horny, but he's about to find out how well the velvet cushion in this dark little wooden booth hides a stain.
Thoughts: this was so fucking hot. Like, they're in a confession booth. That should be enough of an appetizer for y'all to go read this!
🌸 Jaerie's Kinktober: Sounding by @jaerie
(3k / E / sounding)
Louis has been casually dating Harry for a while, but tonight he plans to stay in for a much needed stress relief night of self love. He unexpectedly shares that particular love with Harry. When they discover this, they go all in.
Thoughts: so hot. We need more sounding fics. Meanwhile, do yourself a favor and indulge in this. Also love the lil bit of imperfect sex at the end.
🌸 With a sea view by @greeneyesfriedrice
(5k / E / boat smut)
Stepping onto the main deck, Harry grabs a maroon towel, squeezing all the water he can out of his hair, though it’s similar to how a dog dries off after a bath. He doesn’t bother drying the rest of his body, that’s what suntanning is for. He places the towel into a small bin and looks around. Time to find Louis.
Thoughts: so goddamn hot. But also very sweet and they're so in love which is a god tier combination. Laur never has a miss.
🌸 Heaven in these sheets by @thepolourryexpress
(3k / E / bunny! hybrid Louis)
“Bunny wants attention, hm?” Harry murmurs, turning his head and brushing his cheek against Louis’. Louis lets out a pleased noise at the feeling, ear flopping over Harry’s head as the man moves. “Please,” Louis pouts lightly, scraping his nails gently over Harry’s chest. “C’mon.” Or, Bunny Hybrid Louis has it out for his boyfriend’s phone.
Thoughts: bunny Louis is so sweet and precious, harry is the ever doting bf, and it just makes for delicious smut that also just made me feel!!!!
🌸 Mr Tomlinson by @canonlarry
(4k / E / CEO omega L)
Louis is a billionaire CEO who makes grown men cry and rival companies crumble. He's also an omega. Harry is the quiet cupcake of a man he calls his alpha and the only one who gets to see Louis as anything less than fearsome
Thoughts: powerful ceo to all, gets taken care of by partner behind doors is such a fav trope of mine and this one is SO good. I loved this one so so much.
🌸 it's always me that ends up getting wet by @loveislarryislove
(2k / E / role play, dubcon fantasy)
As Louis takes a step towards the stairs to look for his husband, his eye lands on the small round table at the foot of the staircase. It's thin and spindly, so they don't usually use it for much besides decoration. But today, there are three objects sitting on top of it. A blue policeman's hat. A small, silver key, that Louis recognizes as belonging to a pair of handcuffs. And a note, written in Harry's distinctive handwriting: I'm waiting for you downstairs ;)
Thoughts: this was so insanely good, I love a good roleplay fic and I ate this up. Every single word in this was addictive.
This is a short list, bc I've been really busy and tired. But I hope I get to read more next month. Anyways If you check these out, give these works some love. Fic writers I love youuuu X
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diasdelfuego · 1 year
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i love writers and journalists as story-driving characters, so i was bound to find daniel molloy interesting, but right now i specifically want to think more about how his narrative and claudia's serve each other.
i am obsessed with the fact that daniel's not on speaking terms with either of his daughters —or, i assume, that they are not on speaking terms with him. i am fascinated by how daniel is the one person in this story with no personal connection with claudia, and yet his function appears to be to insist on the value of claudia's whole, unedited story. i am curious about the arguments he uses, about the question of his real motivations.
— you had a daughter. — i had a daughter. — i've got two. the love is kind of... — and if you were to come across their diaries and learn, in detail, how and when you failed them, would you share those failures with a brash young reporter you met at polynesian mary's?
what we know about his personal life isn't much, because the story isn't about him. he sums it up succinctly: "drugs, humiliation, self-pity kind of thing". two marriages, i don't remember if he says he's twice divorced but it does seem apparent that he's alone now. two daughters (same marriage? half sisters?) and the two of them not talking to him. both apparently unmarried, and young enough that daniel still mentions the possibility that they will have children in the future. meanwhile, he is dying of a degenerative illness.
what we know of his career is also little, but its intention, to me, is clearly to present him as credible —a skilled, righteous, but troubled journalist: two-time pulitzer winner with three published books besides working for renowned newspapers, concerned with controversial and groundbreaking issues, his two books seem very thematically relevant: about the aids epidemic, and capitalism-fueled environmental collapse. we know his life was tumultuous and addiction played into it, we know he's still well-respected but not actively reporting, he himself says his career as a journalist is dead. he doesn't address louis' question as to why he decided to come. he disregards louis' offer for immortality. so what is he after?
— and you? why again? what's changed? — the world, circumstances. me, i've changed. and i, too, find the tapes lacking. — so… a do-over. — truth and reconciliation.
— career's been over for years. legacy? that's for board members and assholes in loafers. my daughters aren't even speaking to me anymore, so at least i can leave them some cash. but an honest reckoning? no.
again, we don't actually know his reasons, but i have my interpretation as to why he accepts louis' invitation. i am convinced that that first interview is something that has haunted him for most of his life —as to how, exactly, i have many theories, which are not relevant here. i really liked what bogosian said here about daniel's motivations, that he's a guy who has been driven by ambition all of his life and he doesn't know what to do without a clear purpose. this is a man who has been chasing the truth his whole life, and this is one truth he could never get at, and he can't pass up this chance. there's also a strong fuck it, i'm already dying energy around the way the whole character is written and played.
so, his insistence on getting to claudia's complete, unedited story is first and foremost consistent with his role in the narrative: louis wanted him because he's a no-bullshit reporter who covers stories of deep ethical and ideological implications, and louis —if we believe that "that's the purpose. our book must be a warning as much as anything."— is trying to make a statement about the ethics of vampirism. this all makes sense to me when i think about the original interview: in the book, louis overtly argues the subject of catholic morality and the nature of evil, while the story is also a vehicle to explore his (and rice's) grief about the loss of a daughter.
truth, and reconciliation. daniel, as of the pilot, doesn't seem to care much for reconciliation, but he is hounding after the truth from the get-go. he is sharp, he is aggressive, and he never minces words. and what i like most about his character in this show: if he is fascinated or attracted by vampirism (as he was in the 70s, as he is in the books), he absolutely refuses to show it.
he is the human in the story, and his purpose is to remind us that the charismatic romantic leads are actually killing machines.
and yet, from the moment he reads claudia's words, his constant disgust with vampirism seems to give way to something else. if anything, he is charmed.
for a killing machine, i kinda like her.
now, i mentioned several times that i found some of daniel's dialogue in the first three episodes to be a friction point, but at the same time, i think the aspect that grinds my gears is purposeful and well executed: when interrogating louis' narrative, daniel often speaks in soundbites, in headlines, in twitter hot-takes. he's intentionally offensive, always trying to trip louis up by facing him with the most bad-faith possible reading of his narrative. i wasn't sure about what to make of these sometimes cringe-worthy interventions until we got to episode five:
— poor dear. she wasn't held enough in between ritualistic murders. — she spent every night for half a decade with no friends, locked in the emotional storm of puberty. — look, charlie manson wrote a couple of beautiful songs. still, he was charlie manson. — is that all you think of her? — mostly. i also think she makes you and frenchy look like a couple of whiny, existential queens. probably why she's a fuckin' gold mine. the girl who moves a million books. — i won't have her exploited. — won't matter what your intentions are. it's the world out there now. she's the… the… single-shooter, xbox, mouth-breather shit they crave. — you can put the diaries in a proper context. — context? sure. warn the world about a forthcoming apocalypse. or maybe inspire a line of sexy claudia halloween costumes. or a cool dismemberment trend amongst the suburban sylvia plath set. once you put it out there, they decide what it is. it can get away from you.
this exchange sets the tone of exactly how i think every one of daniel's interventions should be read: a fairly hostile interrogation of a fairly hostile subject. whether one agrees with his approach or not, whether one likes its role in the narrative, or enjoys daniel's character at all, that's another deal. i have seen people express distaste and/or discomfort at his flippant and even cruel way to address the black characters' trauma, which is of course perfectly justified, and i wonder if the show plans to address these dynamics in the modern day narrative in the way that they have been addressing them in the past story.
but let me go back to the subject of daniel's narrative function as human audience stand-in who prompts us to question louis' version of the story. his function, as a piece in the chessboard of the narrative, is to call louis a hypocrite. if louis wanted his version of events to go unchallenged, he could have dictated it to a transcriber. daniel is here to question his motivations, and to remind the audience that we should question both louis' and daniel's reasons. that we should never take anything they say at face value.
this same episode reminds us of the human aspect of this role, when louis exerts his vampire powers over daniel. this is a situation in which there is a stark power difference, and in which daniel insists on pushing boundaries in the pursuit of truth despite the very real risk he's putting himself in. the way he puts it, this is as dangerous to him as a journalist as meeting up with a dictator. we have seen him flinch when louis rushed at him in the pilot, when he set the tapes on fire. now he pushes and gets another show of power in return:
— there are four pages torn out. — i'll repeat myself. i will not exploit her. — did she tear them out? doesn't seem like something she would do. — it's clear what happened. — and she wrote about it, and i'd like to read it. — no. — when you do that, louis, when you editorialize, however noble the reasoning, it calls into question the other shit you're shoveling my way. or… or… or maybe you can recite it from memory, as you've demonstrated before. uh, let's see. "bruce walked back from the fire and leaned down over me and…" torn out pages…
"doesn't seem like something she would do." claudia, another character who doesn't mince words, who is always speaking her mind. louis says he won't exploit her, but we don't know if she would have ever agreed to her diaries being shared, and we definitely have no reason to believe she would have wanted her writing censored. now that the season is over and the show has established a clear thread of louis being not just a bystander while lestat abused her, but complicit and often participant in her suffering, i have no doubt in my mind that we are meant to understand these ripped pages as another extension of louis disrespecting claudia's autonomy and agency, twisting her version of events for his own benefit. i'm not saying that the narrative is setting up daniel as some white knight, just that his function is to make us notice that louis is exploiting claudia's story just as much as he is accusing daniel of wanting to exploit it.
— don't ask again. — mr. du lac occasionally finds it difficult to talk about claudia. — got that.
i find it an incredible character moment for all of them that daniel has the courage to slap a literal vampire, and that louis and armand allow it. so many questions from that scene! but i digress. daniel and us, we are reminded that louis is an incredibly powerful immortal being and daniel is a dying old guy. and yet daniel, as aware as he must be of this, doesn't let himself be cowered:
— well… isn't that neat and tidy? — there was a ship. we did get on it. — yeah, i read that, the first 50 pages. not exactly the, uh, adventure-of-our-lives feeling i'm feeling. — it was a traumatic escape. — yeah, but she didn't say that explicitly. i mean, maybe in some of the pages that got torn out. well, not torn out, exactly. more like with a ruler. but, um… there's a feeling that she hated your guts there for a while. why is that? — i was haunted by my brother's death, by the abandonment of my sister, by the murder of lestat, i… — murder? what murder?
— i couldn't burn him. — but claudia could. — no, she couldn't. — she stuck a pen in his neck. she recorded his last words in his own blood. the girl did not have a fuckin' problem tossing him on the grill, okay?
i like that he speaks as if he knows her, because i think he truly feels like he does. to me, it sounds like against his better judgement, and despite every cynical thing he said about her killer nature, he feels a personal closeness with claudia, and this fuels his drive to get her story as much as his hunger for truth does. and i think the reason he feels this way about claudia is that he has failed both his daughters. i think for all that he insists he is not part of this story, from the moment that claudia was introduced, he started getting sucked into the narrative.
notice how in s01e06, we learn that daniel asked to be turned when he learned of claudia leaving for europe to seek vampires on her own: as if that 20-years-old daniel had seen himself in the story of an ambitious, driven young vampire hunting after adventure and knowledge, and wanted to follow her steps.
and also look at how daniel is almost never at a loss for words —only other time i can think of is when he's distracted by suspicion in the finale— and yet when he tries to talk about his daughters, words seem to fail him:
i've got two [daughters]. the love is kind of...
and this one is a very personal interpretation and probably a reach, but consider this bit, just before he tells louis that both his daughters aren't speaking to him:
you cursed her into the darkness. you chose lestat over her, time and time again.
did daniel curse his daughters? did he choose his addiction over his family over and over and over again? was his career the source of the strife? does he also seek reconciliation?
i think that, just from what we actually have on the screen so far, the show has been genius for making daniel a father. the way both him and louis being fathers who failed their children weighs their conversation in s01e04 is incredible. it sets up a heartbreaking contrast:
a father who can never repair his relationship with the daughter he failed, but has eternity to mourn her; a dying man who is running out of time to fix things with his daughters.
the idea that daniel could in turn, unknowingly and unwillingly, be working through his own grief and his own failures, trying to undo the wrong that has been done to claudia because he wronged his own daughters in similar, or in starkly different ways… god, it breaks my heart. i don't know for sure that it's what the text is going for, but i think it would be a potentially very smart and surely devastating thread to follow.
i would love to see louis —or armand, for that matter— turn the argument on him, that daniel is exploiting claudia for his own personal benefit as much as louis is, both trying to use her story to expiate their own sins, one by bringing her story to light and the other by shrouding it in protective darkness.
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louisupdates · 5 months
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The Habit He Can’t Break, 2/4
IQ 123 | Gordon Masson | 9.11.2023
“In Santiago, for instance, we’d sold out two full arenas of 13,000 cap, but then the government declared that for mass gatherings the number needed to be limited to 10,000 people.”
Rather than let fans down, Move added a third day, which again ended up selling out. “I remember being on a night plane from Miami, while Matt Vines was flying in from Dallas, and we were both using the aircraft wi-fi to negotiate via text for that third show. It was an interesting way to confirm putting the third date on sale, just three days before the actual show!”
He adds, “We’re taking a big bet on this tour when it comes to the number of cities and the capacities of the venues, but we’re hoping for the best, and we’ve gone out strong. We feel that the artist is in a good moment and that the latest album has just created more interest, so we’re looking forward to when he arrives in May.”
Further north, Ocesa will promote three dates in Mexico, including a stadium show at the F1 circuit, Autódromo Hermanos, Rodríguez, deepening Tomlinson’s footprint in that crucial North American market.
Meanwhile, in Tomlinson’s homeland, Jack Dowling at SJM is promoting seven UK dates in November at arenas in Sheffield, Manchester, Glasgow, Brighton, Cardiff, London, and Birmingham, which will round out the European leg of the tour.
“SJM has done every show Louis has been involved with, including all the One Direction arena and stadium shows” notes Dowling, adding that on the first tour, the London show was originally penciled in as a Roundhouse, then two Roundhouse shows, before finally being upgraded to Wembley Arena. 
“This time, The O2 arena show in London will be sold out, while all the others have passed the expectations of where we wanted to be on this tour. In fact, when the UK dates were announced, it ranked as the fourth most engaged tour on social media in SJM’s history – his fans are just nuts.”
But Dowling also reports that the fanbase for Tomlinson is expanding. “The demographics are pulling not just from pop, but also from indie rock now.”
Dowling adds, “Louis really looks after his fans. On the last tour, they did a deal with Greggs to give free food to the people waiting in line, as some of them camped out for days in advance.”
Out of My System
Ensuring his fans are looked after properly is the number one priority in Tomlinson’s live career.
Noting that Tomlinson’s audience comprises mainly young women and girls, Rowland reveals that, at the artist’s insistence, a safety team has been added to the tour to ensure everyone that attends his shows is looked after. “They manage all the safety within the shows for the fans,” she explains. “They came in for the Wembley show last year and have been with us ever since - they’ve been beneficial to the running of the tour. 
“When he played in South America, some of his fans were camping outside for a month. So we have a responsibility to look after them. Coming to a show should be a safe place, it’s where they find joy, and we have a responsibility to protect that.”
Manager Vines comments, “One issue that we came up against almost all last year was crushing and fans passing out. We adopted a system where we could communicate with fans, who could hold up a mobile phone with a flashing red-and-white sign if they were in trouble but then we’d see them all popping up.
“I don’t know whether some of that was a hangover of the pandemic where fans just weren’t used to being in venues. But we experienced a number of situations where hydration and temperatures in venues became an issue. I know Billie Eilish went through similar issues.”
With Tomlinson determined to meet a duty of care toward his fans, Vines says that the team now sends a “considerable advance package” to promoters ahead of their tour dates. “Our safety team goes into venues in the morning, and basically ensures that a number of different things are in place – making sure that water is given to the fans, where the water comes from, and at what points in the show it happens.”
And on the crushing phenomena, he reports, “We’ve worked out how many fans it’s safe to have without a secondary barrier. So we instruct promoters to have certain barriers in place to relieve the pressure and avoid crushing.”
He adds, “I get detailed incident reports after each show, which lets myself and my management team know exactly what happened, and so far on this tour, we haven’t had any issues with crushing or hydration, which is fantastic.”
Production manager Craig Sherwood is impressed by the way the tour has pivoted to protect the ‘Louies.’ “The welfare officers are vital for the young girls were aged from, I guess, 14 upwards. They can get dehydrated and malnourished pretty quickly if they are camping out for days, so it’s important that we look out for their well-being,” says Sherwood. 
Citing the extremes that the Louies will put themselves through in an effort to secure themselves prime positions at the front of the stage, Sherwood recalls, “The first show on our US tour was in February, and it was freezing, but we found out that girls had been camping out on the pavement for five days. It’s crazy, as we know these young girls are coming from all over the world to see Louis.”
However, Tomlinson’s connection with those fans is evident in the level of merchandise sales at each show. “It’s a huge part of our business, says Vines. “In America, we averaged about $36 a head, and it’s not much shy of that in Europe – we set a few national records in terms of spend per head. But we spend a lot of time on merch plans, and we do venue-specific drops and give it a lot of care and attention, as it’s a really important element of Louis’ business.”
1/4, 3/4, 4/4
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hlficlibrary · 6 months
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✤ Crime Fics ✤
A series of posts with the top five fics of each category by kudos plus five more hidden gems from that category! Remember to leave kudos and a comment on the fics you enjoyed to show your appreciation! You can find our other recs here.
- Top 5 H/L Fics -
1️⃣ my heart, in deadly rhythm by orphan_account (M, 42k)
There exists somewhere a very, very small list containing the names of people who don’t want Louis Tomlinson dead. Harry Styles may or may not be one of those people.
(or a Spies!AU in which Liam is the Wade to Louis' Kim Possible, Zayn seduces people for intel, Niall is an expert at blowing things up, and Harry is more than a bit famous in his particular field... or infamous, actually. And Louis? Well, Louis just wishes people would quit trying so bloody hard to kill him all the time.)
2️⃣ A Rose, By Any Other Name by iwillpaintasongforlou / @canonlarry (E, 10k)
“I don’t understand, Mr. Tomlinson,” Harry says quietly.
“You don’t have to understand, sweetheart.” Louis reaches over and runs his thumb across Harry’s cheekbone, watching the boy’s breathing pause as he dares not move beneath the touch of this strange, imposing man. “All you need to know is that you work for me now, and that I’m going to keep you safe from all the bad people in this city, you hear?”
Louis Tomlinson is the head of New York City's mafia, and Harry is the beautiful boy from Texas who falls in with the wrong crowd (which turns out to be the right crowd).
3️⃣ Little Cub by aace1234 (NR, 68k)
Harry is head of the underground, he's ruthless, possessive, feared and powerful.
Louis is a student, his dad works for Harry but Louis has no idea about the underground world.
What happens when Louis Dad causes trouble and Harry kidnaps Louis for revenge.
4️⃣ we've got the world in our hands by sarcasticfluentry (E, 54k)
A mutants/superpowers AU. Louis and his friends attend the Cowell Institute for General Education and Mutant Training in London; when Louis meets Harry, the newest student at the Cowell Institute, he immediately recruits Harry to help play matchmaker for his friend Zayn. Harry and Louis are so caught up in meddling in Zayn's love life, though, that they don't notice that their own friendship is progressing into something more. Meanwhile, an ominous threat up north grows slowly until suddenly, no mutant - or human - is safe.
5️⃣ Watch Him As He Goes by LoadedGunn (M, 14k)
It's why Harry loves assignments with Louis; they're thrilling in a way. It's like he never rests. He's this animated, gorgeous guy who's all over the place and Harry actually has to work hard just to catch up to him.
It kind of reminds him of trying to stalk a predator stalking its prey, with his old 70-300 mm lens. Only the predator is a cheeky arsehole. "Come along Harold, I know you usually wait for your zebras to pose for you but here you've got to think on your feet," Louis yelled one time, before disappearing to interview Detective Payne. Never mind the fact Harry was slow in the first place because of Louis' tight jeans.
Or, the AU where Louis' the best police reporter in the country, Harry's the new photographer who is more used to penguins than human subjects, and also there are superheroes.
HIDDEN GEMS:
💎 this charade (was never going to last) by @scrunchyharry (E, 68k)
On the surface, CitizenX, an international caritative nonprofit, looked like any other nonprofit, funding humanitarian missions worldwide and striving to make the world a better place, one donation at a time.
At least, that was what Harry thought, until he was hired as a computer specialist for a spinoff agency called carish, whose true purpose was to reveal CitizenX’s tangled web of lies.
As if the whole ‘industrial spy’ business was not stressful enough, Harry found himself in a hatred-at-first-sight relationship with one of his new coworkers, Louis, a man intent on detesting Harry.
When the worst happened and Harry and Louis found themselves thrown together in hiding, with only each other to rely on, Harry never could have predicted the turn their relationship would take.
Nor could he anticipate that it would all be taken away from him and he would have to decide how far he was willing to go to get Louis back.
💎 All My Roads Lead to You by @dandelionfairies (M, 41k)
Harry’s stuck in a life he didn’t choose after leaving home at eighteen. Bartending and running drugs were never on his list. Louis is an undercover cop sent in to figure out exactly what’s going on inside of the bar. Neither could have known they’d be drawn to each other.
It’s obvious to Louis that Harry isn’t aware of everything that happens in the backroom. It’s obvious that Nick [Grimshaw] has used Harry’s vulnerability, insecurities, and naivety to keep the man exactly where he wants him.
Harry has never admitted to anyone who he is. They wouldn’t accept him. In fact, he has no doubt that if anyone found out he’s gay, he’d be dead. He doesn’t want to let that wall down for Louis. Because no one can know. But that’s easier said than done. Louis is everything Harry could have ever pictured.
💎 Cowboy Like Me by Rearviewdreamer / @all-these-larrythings (M, 29k)
Going legit and starting over in a small town was supposed to solve all of Harry’s problems. That was until a string of robberies in wealthy towns brings him face-to-face with his rouge ex-partner and their dicey, unresolved past.
💎 Tonight's the Night by @jaerie (E, 24k)
Tonight’s the night. The night Harry has been waiting for. Everything has been carefully planned, nothing left to chance, the scene set and waiting for their arrival. It’s time.
Harry lives a double life. During the day he's Harry- trusty blood spatter analyst, at night his darkness comes out to play. So far he's been able to act his way through a normal life without drawing attention. What happens when that is no longer the case?
Or a Dexter AU where Harry is Dexter, Liam is Doakes, Niall is Masuka and Gemma is Deb.
💎 Harry, That Kills People by LadyLondonderry / @londonfoginacup (T, 2k)
If there’s one thing that Harry hates, it’s getting his clothes dirty.
If there’s one other thing that Harry hates, it’s murder.
Unfortunately, right here and right now, Harry’s clothes are dirty, and he’s murdered someone. So. It’s not a great day.
“Ugh,” says Harry. “Yeargh. Bleh.”
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anaid-queen · 11 days
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"I'm the quiet you'll be longing for..."
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honestly the funniest explanation for this bit would be Armand being super angry from Daniel's behavior towards Louis, but still saving him because... well he doesn't really know why himself [definitely not because he finds him attractive or anything], but when Daniel isn't grateful / isn't grateful "enough" for his standards, he flips and says "WELL IF YOU WANNA DIE SO BADLY" and starts the whole monologue to initiate The Chase (TM)
and meanwhile Daniel is just trying not to keel over because he's exhausted exsanguinated AND STILL FUCKEN HIGH, and barely comprehends a word he hears
maybe what they just narrowly cut from the trailer is Daniel doing the *FLOP* just a second after Armand finishes and Armand's brain shortening out for the longest time trying to figure out how he feels about all of this
(/ trying to figure out why he isn't FURIOUSLY ANGRY and just snaps the mortal's neck where he lies (not even worth draining!)... why he finds it.... almost.... what's the word? 'cute'? nonono surely not......)
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theficpusher · 8 months
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Tommo the Tease by YesIsAWorld | E | 1775 Seeing Tommo relaxed and shirtless in person was a whole lot different than seeing him gleaming and shirtless on a camboy video.
Lapful Of Lou by hazzahtomlinson | M | 2055 Harry sighed, snuggling into his pillow. “You’re the best boyfriend.” He said, and then his eyes shot open. “I mean— you would be the best boyfriend.” His eyes flickered to Louis’ face, who was standing beside the bed, with a smirk on his face. “Not— not like my boyfriend. I mean— like. I wouldn’t mind if you were my— no.” He pressed his lips together to stop anymore words from barreling out. His face was flaming. And Louis was standing there, arms crossed over his chest, like he was waiting for Harry to finish. “You done?” He asked with a little bubble of laughter. Harry grimaced, “Just leave me here to die.” Or they are both idiots and it takes a drunk Harry (with no brain to mouth filter) to get things going.
If It All Goes Wrong by sunsetmog | M | 3341 Nick smiles. "Best people," he says. "Best mates." Harry moves so that his elbow's touching Nick's. "Best mates," he echoes. "Best wedding." Or: it's Pixie and George's wedding in Mallorca, and the night's coming to an end.
Baby, I'm Right Here by FallingLikeThis | E | 8186 Seven years. They’ve been best friends for seven years now and Harry’s only recently realized that his feelings for Louis have never actually been all that platonic. He’s never going to say anything because he’s pretty sure that if they ever had a chance for something more, that ship has probably sailed. And it probably doesn’t help that they live an ocean apart either. That ship is long gone, far over the horizon. or Harry and Louis are best friends who live on different continents and may or may not be in love with each other.
Truth be told, I'm lying by mediaville | E | 10363 They used to have a Thing, now they don't, but they both still kind of want to, and then they do. Inspired by the night in London on the TMH tour when Louis and Harry didn't look at each other once. This fic could be subtitled: Louis Tomlinson's Failed Attempts at Indifference.
if it's me you're looking for by eleadore | M | 14797 Louis has a bad habit of getting drunk before he confesses--or maybe it's the other way around. AU.
'cause I want you (for the worse and for the better) by nonsensedarling | nr | 26375 When Louis gets invited along to Anne's wedding, Harry is prepared to let people think whatever they want about their relationship. That's what Louis said -- let people think whatever they want. That changes when Louis sees his ex, who turns out to be Anne's future husband's son. Now, Louis wants to prove that he's an omega that an alpha could want, and Harry wants to get through this weekend without letting his best friend figure out he's in love with him.
How Fast You Fall by kingsofeverything | E | 49580 Casual hookups are all Louis has time for, and Harry has a plan to stay single and celibate until he graduates. After going from strangers to roommates to friends, they both start to want more. It just takes them a little while to figure it out.
Among Lavender Fields by homosociallyyours | E | 70354 At twenty-one, Louis Tomlinson is more than ready to shed the girl next door image that's been with her since her entry into film in her childhood, but with a mother and father steeped in Hollywood tradition it's felt impossible. Meanwhile, Harry Styles is a young, struggling musician new to London, friendless yet eager for the next phase of her life to begin. When French director Marie Coutard casts the two of them in her film, it's a chance for both to break away from the people they've been. Together, they struggle through an acting process that's new and unfamiliar for both of them, learning more than they could've imagined about themselves along the way. As they spend long days picking lavender and long nights sharing the things they've never been able to tell anyone else, their love blooms. Will the flower fade, or will the love they make among lavender fields be one they carry with them to the end?
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secretmellowblog · 1 year
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The wild thing about the Fantine/Tholomyes chapters is that —they’re sort of an allegory for the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy?
Fantine is the child of the French Revolution, born during the reign of the Directory. She doesn’t even have a legal name— she’s an “anonymous” Jane Doe stand-in for all the common people who were born during the Revolution and relying on it to improve their future.
Though she had emerged from the most unfathomable depths of social shadow, she bore on her brow the sign of the anonymous and the unknown. She was born at M. sur M. Of what parents? Who can say? She had never known father or mother. She was called Fantine. Why Fantine? She had never borne any other name. At the epoch of her birth the Directory still existed. She had no family name; she had no family; no baptismal name; the Church no longer existed.
Tholomyes, meanwhile, is compared to the restored monarchy. He’s described as the group’s leader,
one felt the force of government in him; there was dictation in his joviality; his principal ornament was a pair of trousers of elephant-leg pattern of nankeen, with straps of braided copper wire; he carried a stout rattan worth two hundred francs in his hand, and, as he treated himself to everything
and is once described as speaking with
with the accent of a man who had recovered his empire….
I feel like Tholomyès’s descriptions might also echo contemporary parodies of Louis XVIII? He looks old/ugly but is dressed in clothes so lavish they make him appear ridiculous. In his incoherent speeches to the group, he encourages “moderation.” Being too moderate/not extreme enough was a common criticism of King Louis XVIII, who was too conservative to be supported by liberals/republicans but also wasn’t conservative enough to appease ultra-royalists.
Tholomyès is also a law student, and will later become a court Justice known for being “rigid”/severe— making him an active enforcer of the King’s laws.
Throughout the chapters the effects of the Bourbon restoration are even talked about explicitly in ways that parallel the description of the couples.
We get all these rosy descriptions of how the couples are In Love and everything is Wonderful and Nothing is Wrong and everyone is Happy and Everything is Fine… but there’s something wrong about it. Something feels off. The “love” feels hollow and fake, like a shallow facade. It feels like something bad is about to happen. Things are clearly not fine. And that feeling of wrongness only builds and becomes more obvious as the story continues.
Then, juxtaposed with the descriptions of the lovers, the story is interrupted by similarly rosy descriptions of the Restoration. The opening chapter (“the Year 1817”) lists all the things happening during the Restoration in the way Hugo later lists all the amusements the lovers entertain themselves with. Then we get a chapter interrupting the flow of the story to address the monarchy specifically. The chapter begins by saying Everything is fine. Everyone is happy. Everyone loves the monarchy. Nothing is wrong. Everything is perfect under the Bourbons. Parisians don’t want to rebel anymore, they just want to laze around amusing themselves like bored cats.
Everything was radiant. It was a time of undisputed peace and profound royalist security; it was the epoch when a special and private report of Chief of Police Anglès to the King, on the subject of the suburbs of Paris, terminated with these lines:—
“Taking all things into consideration, Sire, there is nothing to be feared from these people. They are as heedless and as indolent as cats. The populace is restless in the provinces; it is not in Paris. These are very pretty men, Sire. It would take all of two of them to make one of your grenadiers. There is nothing to be feared on the part of the populace of Paris the capital. It is remarkable that the stature of this population should have diminished in the last fifty years; and the populace of the suburbs is still more puny than at the time of the Revolution. It is not dangerous. In short, it is an amiable rabble.”
But Hugo can’t keep that pretense up for long and it becomes a tirade about how Things Are Not Fine, lots of people hate the Bourbons, and people will be rioting in the streets soon.
Prefects of the police do not deem it possible that a cat can transform itself into a lion; that does happen, however, and in that lies the miracle wrought by the populace of Paris. Moreover, the cat so despised by Count Anglès possessed the esteem of the republics of old. In their eyes it was liberty incarnate; and as though to serve as pendant to the Minerva Aptera of the Piræus, there stood on the public square in Corinth the colossal bronze figure of a cat. The ingenuous police of the Restoration beheld the populace of Paris in too “rose-colored” a light; it is not so much of “an amiable rabble” as it is thought. The Parisian is to the Frenchman what the Athenian was to the Greek: no one sleeps more soundly than he, no one is more frankly frivolous and lazy than he, no one can better assume the air of forgetfulness; let him not be trusted nevertheless; he is ready for any sort of cool deed; but when there is glory at the end of it, he is worthy of admiration in every sort of fury. Give him a pike, he will produce the 10th of August; give him a gun, you will have Austerlitz. He is Napoleon’s stay and Danton’s resource. Is it a question of country, he enlists; is it a question of liberty, he tears up the pavements. Beware! his hair filled with wrath, is epic; his blouse drapes itself like the folds of a chlamys. Take care! he will make of the first Rue Grenétat which comes to hand Caudine Forks. When the hour strikes, this man of the faubourgs will grow in stature; this little man will arise, and his gaze will be terrible, and his breath will become a tempest, and there will issue forth from that slender chest enough wind to disarrange the folds of the Alps. It is, thanks to the suburban man of Paris, that the Revolution, mixed with arms, conquers Europe. He sings; it is his delight. Proportion his song to his nature, and you will see! As long as he has for refrain nothing but la Carmagnole, he only overthrows Louis XVI.; make him sing the Marseillaise, and he will free the world.
It’s clear from the beginning that Tholomyes will betray and abandon Fantine, in the same way the return of the monarchy betrayed and abandoned the poor and vulnerable people who were born into the world of the Revolution.
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elmeiko88 · 2 months
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Oh. My. God.
Okay, this is it.
I must say, I've been looking forward to this publication!
Being able to share this fic with you is just huge. Because I love it so much. I've had so much fun writing it, even in the moments when I doubted it too much. I hope that everyone who takes the time to read it will have as much fun.
It's a bit of a piece of work that I didn't expect at the outset and which made its own way into me without really asking my permission.
And it's so close to my heart...
Firstly, because it's the first that I've partially illustrated, notably with pieces of art that @28goldens and @enchantedlandcoffee gave me. That means e world to me, guys! I can't thank you enough. All images that are not theirs belong to their creator!
Secondly, because it's part of the @1dsoulmatefest , which is run by some awesome people! By the way, it's a present for my lovely @hellolovers13 . Myri, well, you're allowed to read the whole thingl ❤️💞!
I can't not mention @babyhoneyheslt and @cc-horan28 who have been my fantastic supporters and betas! I love you guys so much!
Talking about the fic itself, our Louis has been wandering the world a bit, not at the best of times, as Niall discovers that he absolutely must introduce him to his colleague, Harry...
Meanwhile, Zayn and Liam kiss and the goldfish needs help...
It's 50,000 words of pure fluff, in which I've tried a bit of humour and a little smut too...
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sleepdeprivedsimp234 · 5 months
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So I’m in a silly goofy wholesome mood, so take some hc’s of the states essentially being adult children :]
*gives you a cookie and some hot cocoa*
-a while ago, the regions all had a treehouse making contest (since they have the woods as a backyard) and it’s safe to say that they all won :3
-during the fall, some of the states will rake up the leaves into piles to jump in them cuz it’s fun and silly
-^*cue Alaska picking up Texas and throwing him into a pile of leaves, and Florida doing the same to Louisiana. Meanwhile Washington’s dying in the background cuz allergies are a b!tch :( *
-they will all have full on games of tag, like one state will tag another and say “Tag! You’re it!” and then literally everyone present will drop whatever they’re doing and run like their lives depended on it.
-^this usually ends with a bunch of tired out states, and that means…. MOVIE NIIIIIGHT!!
-Movie Nights are a thing and they 100% happen a couple times a week.
-every single state has a stuffed animal that is one of their favorite things ever (Even Gov. His is an eagle 🥹)
-Nerf battles. There are nerf guns LITERALLY everywhere. The statehouse has turned into a round of Call of Duty multiple times and it will happen several times more. (Poor Gov has gotten himself caught in so many nerf battles 😭 Mans just wanted his damn coffee 😭)
-Half of the fighting that happens amongst the states is actually play fighting.
-Household Hide’n’Seek is a thing and NY, RI, LA, and TX (he’s a bendy straw and has no joints okay-) are the champions.
-PILLOW FORTS AND PILLOW FIGHTS PILLOW FORTS AND PILLOW FIGHTS PIL-
-full on snowball battles whenever it snows a lot, and those usually end in movie nights and hot cocoa :)
Now individual (sorta) hc’s:
-Alaska and Texas play fight/wrestle on the daily, and they can be rougher with each other since they are bigger states. Though they know to stop if one actually hurts the other (Alaska is extra careful sometimes though cuz Texas bruises really easily and he’d rather not be murdered by the south in various gruesome ways-)
-New York LOVES play fighting. He will legit just come up behind someone and playfully punch, shove, or headbutt them and those that are close to him know that he wants to play 🥺 Tho sometimes it’s taken the wrong way and someone actually gets hurt- surprisingly it’s usually NY that gets hurt cuz he wasn’t expecting his opponent to ACTUALLY try to genuinely fight him 😭 And then he’s just left there to be like-"What’d I do 🥲”
-sometimes Texas will jokingly use Louisiana as an armrest when talking to somebody, which sometimes makes Loui bite him, but Loui sometimes also just deals with it or just clings to or cuddles Texas’s arm.
-Texas 100% squeals like a little girl whenever he sees a cute animal, and I DEFY you to tell me otherwise. Like- I can see him walking into the statehouse and someone will say hello and he’ll just say "Hi". Y’know, like a fvcking robot. But the moment an animal walks into the room, he’ll be like-"*le gasp* Awwwww!! Hi Mar!!! Who’s a good boy?? You are!!~” (Mar is one of NJ’s dogs btw).
-CT, MA, and NJ will all gang-cuddle their little brother, and will 100% laugh as NY tires to squirm his scrawny ass outta there
PLEASE FEEL FREE TO GIVE ME YOUR THOUGHTS ON THESE <3333
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