#parental relationship she doesn’t remember but has all the proof that this is the lady who raised her. and like in the show seo-ha could be

[gaylorlyrics]

Cowboy Like Me

Howdy partner! this song is clearly a reference to Taylors roots in country music - but it goes deeper than that. It’s about Karlie, and how both girls have built their careers off of selling the idea of love, karlie through modeling and Taylor through songwriting. Both are super ambitious and focused, playing the game and driving their careers forward, but have rags (ok - not rags, but upper middle class normalcy) to riches stories, which makes them feel like the don’t quite belong in the celeb world.

And the tennis court was covered up

Several people have noticed that this could be a reference to Tennis Court by Lorde. The last time Kaylor was seen together was the below pic at Lorde’s bday. Reading the lyrics to Tennis Court, it almost seems like the same setting as CBM. Lorde’s song explores the dark side of fame, talking about not fitting in and being surrounded by superficial fame. She says “let’s go down to the tennis courts to talk it out” and then we have CBLM that starts in the middle of a sentence with “and”, and takes place at the tennis court, where the cowboys are trying to impress the rich folks, almost as if the songs are sequential.

With some tent-like thing

Here we’re already getting the theme of not belonging somewhere. Taylor doesn’t say canopy - which is what she is referring to and actually would fit both in terms of syllables and rhyme scheme - she says “tent-like thing” which is both dismissive of her surroundings and tells us that maybe she doesn’t quite know the right word for them.

And you asked me to dance

Let’s just take a moment to remember that 1) Karlie is a dancer and 2) kaylor started at vsfs2013 where they danced on stage together like this:

dancer karlie!

But I said, "Dancing is a dangerous game"

This references DWOHT -  which is the ultimate Kaylor song and is all about dancing even though its dangerous, like in the lyrics “can we dance through an avalanche?”, “Swaying as the room burned down”, etc. 

Oh, I thought This is gonna be one of those things

There’s a song called Just One Of Those Things by Nat Porter that you can listen to here, and it seems like Tay is referencing it here. The song lists great loves (ex. Romeo & Juliet) being cast aside and belittled as “one of those things”. This reminds me of people saying that being gay is a “phase” in order to devalue it. Specifically one line in Just One Of Those Things really makes me think about Kaylor - “If we'd thought a bit, of the end of it When we started painting the town We'd have been aware that our love affair Was too hot, not to cool down”. It expresses how they were so loud while glass closeting and had so much chemistry that they couldn't just tone it down they had to go completely dark in order to keep closeting.

Now I know I'm never gonna love again

In many ways this references the theme of “right where you left me”, Taylor can’t move on because she fell too hard for Karlie and no love will ever compare.

I've got some tricks up my sleeve Takes one to know one You're a cowboy like me

Taylor sees a lot of herself in Karlie. They know how to play the same games in terms of their careers and bearding, but because of this they understand each others vulnerabilities, etc.

Never wanted love Just a fancy car

They weren’t looking for love when they met, they were both just in the place they were because they were trying to advance their careers. However, as Tay has talked about before, the lure or riches and fancy cars isn’t enough to satisfy her. It also references this line in King Of My Heart, where Tay literally says that all the boys aren’t as good as her lover (Karlie) is.

Now I'm waiting by the phone Like I'm sitting in an airport bar You had some tricks up your sleeve Takes one to know one

You're a cowboy like me

also:

Perched in the dark Telling all the rich folks anything they wanna hear Like it could be love I could be the way forward Only if they pay for it

Both Karlie and Taylor have built their careers off of selling the idea of love - Taylor through her music and Karlie through her modeling, especially with Victoria’s Secret. Both of them are capitalizing and cashing in on romance. They play the game of love to be valuable to the record labels, fashion brands, and industry overall, getting the “rich people” in the industry to invest in them and their careers. However, both are caught off guard when they encounter the real thing and actually fall in love.

You're a bandit like me Eyes full of stars

Taylor talks about eyes a lot, but I think this has two meanings. 1 - both of their eyes are full of stars because they are surrounded by other celebs and so they are literally seeing stars all the time. 2 - the more conventional meaning would be that their eyes are bright and beautiful.

It also references two songs that are very much about Karlie: “Starry eyes sparkin’ up my darkest night” in Call It What You Want, and “The stars in your eyes shined brighter in Tupelo” in Dorothea.

Hustling for the good life

Again, Taylor brings attention to the fact that they are both really career focused and trying really hard to be as successful as possible. They don’t have the same type of fallbacks that celebs with famous parents and old money have.

Never thought I'd meet you here It could be love We could be the way forward And I know I'll pay for it

Here Taylor knows that she’ll pay for her relationship with karlie in two ways, 1- she’s paying for it in that by falling in love and pursuing a relationship she’s on the “treacherous” road making her life much more complicated given that she’s choosing not to come out, 2- she is literally paying for beards so she can have a public muse for her relationship songs.

[Chorus]

And the skeletons in both our closets

Plotted hard to fuck this up

Here Tay is talking about closets again. This actually makes me think of two meanings. 

1- it makes me think of the “skin and bones” line in treacherous (maybe because I was just talking about that song) and how tay has used that type of language to talk about her and her lover in the past. The skeletons in the closet could be a reference to the past karlie and Taylor being in the closet, when they were both really thin and Taylor was battling her eating disorder. In the past they were plotting so hard to cover their tracks and stay in the closet, which eventually messed everything up for them. 

2 - The more obvious interpretation is that the skeletons in the closet are the people who were controlling their careers, who they have now moved away from, like SB2. These people messed things up by keeping them in the closet.

And the old men that I've swindled

Both karlie and tay have had careers that were mostly controlled by men who are older than them - VS CMO Ed razek, SB2, etc. These men thought that they were controlling kaylors careers, but kaylor is individually profiting as well.

Really did believe I was the one

This references The One, the first track on folklore.

And the ladies lunching have their stories about When you passed through town

Karlie has quite the rep for making people fall in love with her quite easily (see the klossanova video that @theprologues​ made here). 

But that was all before I locked it down

Love locked down! for more details check out this post and this one, but basically Karlie posted and image with the caption “love locked down” on March 6, 2016, on the same day Taylor posted “one year down” with the picture of a locket. This was one year after their Vogue cover came out in March 2015. Because of this, it seems like they were celebrating their anniversary some sort. Hence the line “I locked it down”. 

Now you hang from my lips Like the Gardens of Babylon

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon is one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world, known as very beautiful and an incredible feat in engineering (beauty + engineering are both things that describe karlie!). However, archeologists are unable to find proof of their location - therefore it’s unclear if the gardens “were an actual construction or a poetic creation”. 

With your boots beneath my bed

This is a metaphor for sleeping together and is also referencing cowboy boots.

Forever is the sweetest con

It’s impossible to be with each other forever - when we say forever we know that we will actually be separated by mortality and factors we can’t control. However, Taylor is okay being “conned” with ideas of forever, because it’s understood that they will be with each other as long as possible.

And yet, this also references Hoax - it’s a different way of saying “your faithless love’s the only hoax I believe in”. Leaving us wondering if the love was real or a con.

[Chorus]

#cowboy like me #taylor swift #Karlie Kloss #kaylor #evermore

[gemmaswriting]

Anidala Fanfiction Recommendations!!

I’ve been asked for a long time for my fanfiction recommendations, so I’ve finally taken the time to compile them. If there are any you love that I missed out (this includes Vaderdala!) leave them as a reply so we can all have a good time reading together. 

Writer: Shelivesfree (fanfiction profile) This wonderful girl has some of the most amazing Anidala stories I have ever had the pleasure of reading. Unfortunately, a lot of them have been hiatus for a while but her Boy Next Door trilogy has two amazing parts completed. 

The stories I recommend: 

“The Boy Next Door”: “When Padme Naberrie returns to her home after 10 years, the last thing she expects to find is her childhood friend, Anakin Skywalker; the boy next door. But 10 years is a long time, and he has changed more than she is prepared for. How will she react when little Ani is now a grown man, impulsive, handsome and completely infatuated with her? Modern AU.”

“The Girl from Harvard”: “Sequel to ‘The Boy Next Door’ Absence makes the heart grow fonder. It also makes it grow more paranoid. Padme is in her last year of Harvard. Anakin has just started at the University of Chicago. Though they won't admit it, their long-distance relationship is taking it's heavy toll. Will their love prevail or will the distance prove too much for both of them? Sequel to The Boy Next Door. Modern AU.”

“look into my eyes, that's where my demons hide”:  ”Each time he comes back to her, a little piece of him is missing... left out there, in the field, with his brothers. She can see it in the way he smiles and it doesn't reach his eyes. In the way he cries to himself when he thinks she's not awake. And all she can do is hold him. Modern AU.”

“I Know Your Type”  “Am I dead?" It slips out, accidentally. She turns her head towards me, a confused look on her face and tips her head. "Excuse me?" Flashing her an impish grin, I lean casually against the wall. "I must have died and gone to heaven, because you look like an angel." The look she gives me is far from impressed. "Do you use that with all the girls, or am I just lucky?"

“we both know what we want, so why don't we fall in love?” “Rhythmic Gymnast Padme Naberrie has dreamed of being an Olympian since she was five years old. Now, after years and years of training and preparations, she's finally made it to Rio, and nothing is going to stand in the way between her and a gold medal. Except a certain Canadian beach volleyball player, perhaps.”

“Infinite” “ My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep; the more I give to thee, the more I have, for both are infinite.”

“for a moment” “And, just for a moment, all the worries and concerns that troubled the young couple cease to exist. Fade away to just this. Husband and wife. Asleep. Dreaming of the sweet little life they will soon bring into the world and into their hearts. Set somewhere in ROTS.”

“Procrastination” “Padmé is busy with a new bill she must bring before the next Senate meeting. Her husband has other ideas, it would seem.”

“There’s a million reasons I should give you up”  “Padmé struggles to deal with Anakin's frequent departures for weeks, even months, at a time during the Clone Wars. It's in these moments she contemplates the practicality of their marriage. Grief-stricken with loneliness, she stumbles across something she wrote a long time ago... a list of sorts. The find brings about a whole host of emotions she'd rather not deal with.”

“all I need is you” “It was her fault. His pain, his jealousy, his insecurity. It was all her fault. Padme looked up at the beautiful man in front of her, her husband, her Ani, and decided she needed to make him remember. Remind him of how much she loved him. Because no one, no man in the entire galaxy, could take the place of Anakin Skywalker.” 

“Her” “A glimpse into the Cosmic Force after Darth Vader's redemption and return to the Light Side. Anakin Skywalker is consumed by guilt and Obi-wan and Yoda are there to appease him. But it's been twenty-four years and all he wants is to see her.” 

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  Writer: SphinxScribe (Fanfiction profile/ Tumblr account @sphinxscribe ) This fantastic writer has many, many alternate takes on the plot of Revenge of the Sith - often allowing our favourite couple to have a happy ending. Their writing captures the world of Star Wars perfectly. 

The stories I recommend: 

“Where Catalysts Stand Down” “Palpatine issues Order 66, and Anakin and Padmé flee Coruscant. ROTS AU. Anakin/Padmé, Anidala.”

“Viability’s Edge” “Anakin tells Obi-Wan the truth. ROTS AU. Anakin/Padmé, Anidala.”

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Writer: Disco Shop Girl (Fanfiction profile) This writer’s take on Anidala is so well written within every story of theirs I have read. They truly capture their dynamic and relationship perfectly. 

The stories I recommend:

“Your helmet cracked” “He'd been restrained, forced to watch while her helmet cracked and the Mon Calamari sea water threatened to drown her before his eyes. Now they're free. And alone. Set at the end of the Clone Wars season 4 Water War arc.” 

“Order 66-S” “The order was to exterminate all Jedi: Past, Present and Future. Captain Rex has a different plan. Order 66-S: to save General Skywalker.”

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Writer: Rogue Darth Skywalker (Fanfiction profile/ Tumblr - @roguedarthskywalker) This wonderful person has been one of the biggest supporters of my own writing for a long time and I value them immensely! They have many delicious Anidala/Vaderdala stories for you to obsess over for hours and hours. I highly recommend following both profiles linked above.

The stories I recommend:

“Pin up Problems” “He hated the nose art. He hated seeing others degrade her other exceptional qualities by depicting her as some pin up girl. He hated thinking about how many other beings across the stars fantasized about her in such a way. At the same time, he can't deny that the art makes her look… hot. He can't deny that the sight turns him on.”

“Letting Go” “It was their custom. Every year on that fateful day, Anakin would make his way to the cemetery with his children and seek out the mausoleum where she rested."

“Far from Perfect” “Darth Vader is dead. Anakin is redeemed and lives on Naboo with Padme and their children. But not all happy endings are perfect.”

“Far from Easy” “Sequel to Far From Perfect. Redeemed Anakin Skywalker tries to make things right with his wife and kids.

“Perfect” “Happy Family style AU post ROTS. Padme wakes up in the middle of the night and ponders the most recent events in her life.”

“A Dangerous Fantasy” “Pure Smut. Padme helps Anakin fulfil a fantasy he has had since they were married- one that involves the Jedi Council Chambers.”

“Untitled” “Anakin and Padme deal with having to tell their young twins they are having another baby.”

“Strictly Professional” “There are times she hates that she has to resort to this- that rather than being in a long term relationship with someone, she chose to instead pay someone for sex. Modern AU.”  

“Out of his Depth” “I fought in a war. I commanded legions of soldiers against battle droids. I think I can handle my own four-year-old twins."

“Love and Jealousy” “Anakin gave the binders an experimental tug, testing his chances of escaping. There was none. A light chuckle left his lips after a few moments, letting his head fall back to rest on the chair. What a compromising position for a Jedi Knight to be in. Handcuffed in a respected senator's bedchambers practically naked… oh, how the holonews would rave should the story get out!” 

“Against all Odds” “He shouldn't be here. The election was only a few weeks away and the final debate was due in the next few days. There were so many other things he should be doing. He shouldn't be here, in enemy territory wrapped in the arms of the woman his boss despised. Modern AU. Smut.” 

“What we Hope is Never Found” “The impending existence of a recording of them together held dangers that went a little deeper than if they were found naked and tangled together in her office or on his cruiser. The physical proof of their relationship would cause an uproar if it were discovered. But she trusted Anakin. Smut.”

“It was Found” “Sequel to What We Hope is Never Found.”

“Things that go bump in the night” “Luke and Leia think there is a ghost in their home. Their parents know better.”

“Preparations” “She couldn't wait to meet their little ones. It hadn't been too long since they learned she was having twins, and as stressful as that idea was at first, she was quickly growing accustomed to the idea of having two perfect little babies. Her husband, however, seemed to be taking it a little worse than her.” 

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Writer: Skywalkersamidala (Archive of our Own profile/ Tumblr @markantonys) I absolutely adore the Anidala stories created by this author whether they’re aus or canon! They nail the couple’s dynamic throughout their many wonderful stories. 

The stories I recommend:

“Snow Place like Home” “For genre-typical convoluted reasons involving ill-timed blizzards, Padmé is forced to spend the holidays at Anakin's house. Anakin isn't as upset about his boss staying with him for Christmas as he probably should be.“

“Soulmates R Us” “Anakin works at a toy store, and single-mother-of-twins Padmé is becoming one of the store's best customers.”

“Heirs of Light and Darkness” “After escaping the Jedi purge two years ago made him the most wanted fugitive in the galaxy, Anakin Skywalker has at last been captured by the Empire. He expects to be killed, but Lady Padmé Amidala, the imperial heir, has other ideas.”

“Friendly Competition” “Playing Quidditch is awfully difficult when you’re in love with the rival Seeker. Snapshots of Anakin and Padmé’s 7 years at Hogwarts.“

“Perfect” “The war is over, Luke and Leia are five years old, and Anakin and Padmé finally have the peaceful life and big family they've always dreamed of. But their life is about to get a little less peaceful and their family a little bigger.“

“Nos Cedamus Amori“ “Anakin is a gladiator and a slave. Padmé is the wife of the Roman emperor's heir. Circumstances should never even allow them to meet, let alone fall in love.“

“I Do Take Two” “Thirty years after their clandestine wedding on Naboo, Anakin and Padmé decide to finally do the proper wedding ceremony they never got to have, with all their friends and family present.“

“Flat Tire” “Who knew something as simple as getting a flat tire could change the entire course of your life?“

“Strays” “Anakin had always had a penchant for taking in strays.”

“Five weddings and a funeral” “Padmé's feeling gloomy about her perpetual singleness, but everything changes when she meets an attractive stranger at her sister's wedding.“

“Pipe Dream” “Padmé's new plumber is the most attractive human being she's ever laid eyes on, so naturally, she keeps faking plumbing emergencies so she can keep seeing him.“

“Birthdays and Birth days” “Anakin gets a birthday surprise — two of them, in fact.“

“Spouses with Benefits” “Anakin and Padmé wake up after a wild night in Vegas and discover they accidentally got married—and that Ahsoka posted about it all over social media, so now every single person they know is texting and calling them to offer congratulations. They decide to save face by pretending the marriage was totally 100% intentional and not a drunk mistake at all, keeping up the charade for six months, and then quietly getting divorced. But a lot can change in six months…“

“Two Halves Make a Whole” “Anakin is the single dad of Luke. Padme is the single mom of Leia. Luke and Leia meet in kindergarten and become best friends. The rest is history.“

“Home” “In which "Darth Vader" is no more than Anakin's playtime alter ego (happy Skywalker family AU)“

“Someday” “At age fourteen, Padme receives a marriage proposal from the nine-year-old boy next door and tells him to ask her again when she's thirty. Surely he'll have forgotten all about it by then.“

“Across the Centuries” “They meet each other in every century, but something always goes wrong before they can make it to happily-ever-after.”

“Madam President” “Between late nights and headaches and mountains of paperwork and fierce opposition from her political opponents, President Padmé Amidala already had enough on her plate. And then she just had to go and fall for one of her bodyguards, a relationship which would ruin her reputation and his career if anyone were to find out about it. Also, someone's trying to kill her.“

“Scars” “How do Anakin and Padmé go from "I love you" to "I do"? Missing scene from Attack of the Clones.”

“The Bet” “Anakin's had a crush on Padmé since fourth grade, and after putting up with his pining for seven years, Obi-Wan and Ahsoka are finally stepping in and making a bet that he can't ask her to junior prom in the spring. Meanwhile, Padmé is realizing that Anakin isn't as annoying as she'd always thought. In fact, her feelings towards him are starting to go in quite the opposite direction...”

“Three” “His and Padmé’s first wedding anniversary isn’t going nearly as well as Anakin had hoped it would. Until, suddenly, it’s so much better than he could have ever imagined.“

“The Anakin Disaster” “Padmé is mortified upon waking up beside her strictly platonic childhood best friend Anakin Skywalker the morning after a drunken one-night stand. A couple weeks later, she discovers that's the least of their problems.“

“Will You Fake Marry Me?” “Anakin's boss may or may not have accidentally given her family the impression that she's engaged to him. Anakin may or may not be pleased about the situation”

“Aggressive Negotiations” “Empress Amidala invites Lord Vader to her private rooms to persuade him to form an alliance with the Empire. Her methods are very effective.”

“Troubling Implications” “Perhaps he hated himself for it—Padmé thought he probably did—but he came that night (several times, in fact). And the night after that, and the next one, and the next, until it became a habit that neither of them seemed especially inclined to break. (Sequel to "Aggressive Negotiations")

“Imperial Obligations” “Padmé's advisors suggest that she get rid of Vader and make a politically advantageous marriage. The Empress is less than pleased. (Sequel to "Aggressive Negotiations" and "Troubling Implications")”

“Welcome Home” “Anakin Skywalker closes his eyes on the face of his son. When he opens them again, he is in Naboo, and someone is waiting for him.“

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Writer: Shawn30 (Fanfiction profile) The one, the only, the deservedly famous! I think every Anidala fan is aware of this f a n t a s t i c writer’s work. Deliciously smutty. Unbelievably well written. Unfortunately, many of their works have been left uncompleted for years but the stories are still worth reading!

 “Whisper” “Absence makes the heart grow fonder, but can also whither your soul and breed doubt in your heart. AP angsty erotica.”

“The Ties that Bind” “Given a brief period of time off during the Clone Wars, Padmé and Anakin visit her family at the Lake Country estate on Naboo. A family that still doesn't know they are married, although they are about to find out. Complete.” 

“The Light and the Dark” “Chapter 1 in the Hearts and Souls series. An unexpected Separatist attack 'accidentally' reunites two star-crossed lovers, giving them a brief moment of peace at a time of war. Complete.”

“Shadows of Winter” “Chapter 2 in the Hearts and Souls series. With six days to spend together celebrating their two year anniversary, Anakin and Padme travel separately to a remote planet in the Hoth system. Romance, passion, and danger await them. Complete.” 

 “Beloved” “Chapter 3 in the "Hearts and Souls" series. When faced with the most horrific news imaginable, Padme's utter desperation forces her to turn to Obi-Wan and even Chancellor Palpatine for help. Her greatest personal challenge awaits... Complete” 

 “Paradise” “The sequel to "Beloved." Following Padme's daring rescue of her husband, the Skywalker's return to Naboo for eight days to heal, unwind, spend time with family, and deal with their connection to the Dark Side of the Force.” 

 “Salvation” “After facing his moment of truth, Anakin and Padmé must finally deal with the consequences. Obi-Wan reveals a startling discovery. Complete” 

“Scandalous” “The sequel to Salvation. On the eve of Padmé Skywalker's official ascension to the role of Vice Chair of the Republic, Anakin steals her away for a wild vacation to Cloud City. Complete.”

“Sacred” “Chapter 2. Ahsoka and Jo'Seth grow closer. Padme's trip to the Jedi Temple on Republic business turns a bit more adventurous. Anakin and Obi-Wan have a heart to heart talk about moving forward.”

“Belonging” “A private afternoon lunch to catch up with an old friend during the Clone Wars reveals a great deal to ObiWan Kenobi. AP”

“Before the Seasons Change” “With the Darth Sidious finally defeated and the Clone Wars ended, Anakin and Padme consider what comes next in their lives. Anakin/Padme”

“Amor Vincit Omnia” “AU. After a three and a half year separation Vice Chair Amidala and Jedi Master Skywalker have some unfinished business as the Clone Wars have finally ended and Palpatine is dead.”

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If there’s any stories I missed, let me know!

#Anidala #anidala fanfiction #Vaderdala #vaderdala fanfiction #Anidala fic rec

[i-mybrunettelady]

Nomen est omen

--- 1314 AE

“Which god do you think has blessed you most?” her mother asks one morning. She knows why; she’s almost eight, in a few days to be precise, so that means official vow to one of the Six.

“Lyssa,” she says quickly.

“But you’re no mesmer. We don’t know if you have magic at all,” her father adds sadly. He speaks Ascalonian so nobody understands them.

“I do!” she says vehemently. “Nobody I know has magic yet!”

“Maybe it’s one of Lyssa’s blessings,” her mother muses. “It’ll show itself when the time’s right.” She squeezes her daughter’s shoulder. “Little acolyte of Lyssa. I know I gave you the right name.”

--- 1316 AE

Her name is Alysannyra, but they don’t seem to remember that. She doesn’t blame them; it’s a long name, heavy on the tongue and it’s not even her own. She is the first of her name in the family, yes, but there was an Alysannyra Gwent back in Ebonhawke and she doesn’t exactly remember the relation but only one of them is alive.

Eldon is easier to remember. Eldon is tall, brave, stalwart, with a haughty smile upon his lips and a limping leg. Eldon has gray hair and a big beard and laughs really loudly, as if he’s trying to hide the fact his leg is hurting. Alysannyra feels small, too small in her big dress, to be known as anything other than Eldon’s granddaughter.

There’s a brief introduction, but it’s hardly worthy. Nobody knows her name anyway. She’s just Lady Ainsaph, just as Deborah is Lady Ainsaph, one of many. Alysannyra wants to shout out her name, with that Ascalonian tilt, but knows better than to do so.

She’s just Eldon’s granddaughter.

Deborah doesn’t understand the pang in her chest every time she notices people forget her name. She doesn’t understand how she wants to shout it out, in Ascalonian, no Krytan tweaks to the pronunciation, rough and long and a mouthful.

But the dress is too big, too Krytan, and Alysannyra is too small and her name doesn’t sit right on a Krytan tongue.

---- 1324 AE

This time, she’s a little bigger and so is her dress. There’s her name, twisted and weird on a Krytan herald’s lips, but there’s no Deborah. It sounds so wrong, too long, too formal, and she remembers how she wanted people to know it.

Nyra would give her name for Deborah to be here. Deborah always called her Nyra. It was simple, small, close, less imposing than Alysannyra but infinitely more precious.

“As I was saying, Lady Alysannyra,” the date, a Rurikton native she played with as a child, links their hands together. She’s a good girl, one of those uptight Queensdale Academy students Nyra imagines must know a lot more than they let on.

“Nyra,” she corrects, a touch too seriously. “Just Nyra.” Then, her date’s face drops, pretty lips drooping. “No, I just meant that we aren’t on a formal ball!” She brings her hand upwards and kisses it the way a gentleman would. “Why bother with such long names only Ascalonians can say properly?”

“But you’re Ascalonian,” the girl says.

Nyra laughs a little, leaning down to place a kiss on her cheek. “I am, but that needn’t concern you. You’re perfectly fine just calling me Nyra. And if you need any more proof, you can place a kiss squarely between the syllables of it. Would you like me to demonstrate?”

---- 1325 AE

“Lyss, a question, if I may.”

“You may. I permit a single question and no more.” She shakes her head playfully, settling against his side. He laughs, running a hand over her bare back. It’s surprisingly smooth, considering he is bark.

She’ll never not be fascinated by sylvari physiology.

“Is your name deliberate? Is it a purposeful invocation of the goddess or a happy accident?”

“Choose a question to answer, I said only one!”

“No,” Trahearne rearranges himself on the bed so he’s laying on his side, facing her. Nyra can’t keep a happy little grin off her face. “One is an additional explanation to the other. See, same question, asked twice.”

“Alas, I am beaten,” Nyra bemoans dramatically, earning a hearty laughter from him. She loves nights like these, the intimacy of them, where neither of them want to sleep but when the lust’s been satisfied so all they have is talk. It’s new, but obviously not to him.

Few things are ever new to him. She still sometimes wonders how has she gotten herself such a learned, wonderful man.

“For my prize, I demand answer to my single question!”

“And not the lady? I’m offended. You’re such a scholar!” She bops his nose. “But no, it’s not deliberate. I was named after my mother’s cousin, who died in childbirth a year or so before I was born. But maybe her parents named her after the goddess?”

“Is it sacrilegious? To bear the gods’ names?”

“It’s not a usual practice, admittedly. And to tell you honestly, I wouldn’t say it is. But the strangeness of it just somehow feels like premonition to some people. Like I’m destined to do things they won’t like.”

“One Kormir is enough,” he says seriously, kissing her. “You’re not a goddess. You’re my Lyss, no matter how godly your name is.”

--- 1334 AE

Elandrin refuses to call her by anything other than Alysannyra. It’s strange, putting a distance between them but not as impersonal as Lady Ainsaph. But he says it with such roughness that she feels it matches the Ascalonian sound even with his soft sylvari accent.

And there he is, standing in the line after she comes back to Eye of the North, glowing and in bright red, but she recognises him by the way he calls out to her amidst everyone gathered.

“I told Trahearne you’d be back,” he says. “Repeatedly.”

In a convoluted, Elandrin way, he’s paid her a compliment. It feels as much of a victory as saving the world, even if she doesn’t need Elandrin’s praise but she does need the world to be safe.

“Thank you, Elandrin,” she says cautiously. He looks up at her, studying her face, and she straightens her back, giving her that much extra height.

“I was just stating the obvious. No need to puff your chest like that, not to me. I know someone who’d be over the moon if you did it, though.”

“It’s between me and him,” Nyra says lowly. “Don’t. I don’t want you commenting on mine and Trahearne’s relationship.”

“Stop me if you can,” he says, and it’s almost a challenge. He tweaks his voice just to sound Ascalonian. “Alysannyra.”

“I may just take you up on that,” she says, tweaking her own voice to sound a little more sylvari. “Elandrin.”

She doesn’t catch a small smile when he turns to walk away and when more people swarm to greet the hero of the hour and they all shout Alysannyra.

#gw2 #inspo birb has come to town #alysannyra #this popped in my mind last night #finished it just now #i don't think i've written much on nyra's childhood #here's a peek #i'll have to do something with her and eldon tho #it's a very interesting relationship #negative one but still interesting #and uh... if she and el could talk without being mean to each other #they'd find they have something in common #but yeah #the name is by accident #but i saw how it could narratively wotk #*work #also this is a very weird el interaction i had to write #it feels like him #but also doesn't #vague elandrin aien

[twokinkybeans]

The Arachnoids: ROCK BAND AU [STARKER] - Chapter 17: HAMMERED HEARTS

READ “CHAPTER 17: HAMMERED HEARTS” HERE ON AO3

Find the masterpost with all the chapters linked here!

Taglist: @crystallinecrimsonmoth​​ & @staticwhispersinthedark​​ (Let me know if you want to be added!)

Notes:  Y'all have no idea how anxious I was to write this chapter a a a aa a? I must admit, I had no CLUE what would happen so it was a lil hard to get into. BUT IT WORKED OUT. Wrote this on a little weekend trip (in our own country and definitely covid proof), and now that I'm back home; enjoy!!! -Kim

ps. I'm way too pleased with the small pun in this chap's name alsdjfalsdjf

-

Chapter 17: Hammered Hearts

Tony feels like he’s about to pass out. 

“Maybe I shouldn’t do this,” he says hesitantly and stares at Bucky’s front door intently. Pepper is there. Pepper. He can’t believe that Bucky’s been able to persuade her into this conversation. Peter, who’s standing next to him, sends him a comforting smile.  “Just remember why you’re doing this. Everything else will follow. I gotcha, remember?” “Right,” Tony mumbles. Why. Why-why-why. 

The image of Morgan’s sweet little laugh appears in his mind’s eye, and an instant smile plays on his lips. His daughter. He owes it to her and himself to do this, and hopefully, that means they’ll be reunited.

Tony bridges the small gap between him and the front door and presses the small black button of the doorbell. In the distance, he can hear the ringing sound echoing through the hallway- and then there’s footsteps headed towards them. Tony doesn’t dare to look at Peter. One more of those gentle smiles and he’ll fall apart crying.  When Bucky opens the door, everything seems to suddenly set into motion by itself. Bucky greets them and steps aside to let them in. Tony does so, knowing that Peter follows along. “We’re in the living room, this way,” Bucky says. It’s clear he wants to get started on this sooner rather than later, the tension probably uncomfortable for him too.

And as easily as it seemed to step inside... When Tony enters the living room, time seems to freeze. 

“Daddy!”

Tony is nearly knocked down by the force of Morgan running straight into his legs and wraps her little arms around them. His eyes sting, and he stares down in disbelief. Morgan has buried her face against his jeans and tightens her grip. “Hey little monkey,” Tony whispers and gently takes her arms to unfold them so that he can crouch down. Morgan’s eyes sparkle with pure joy when their gazes meet.  “I missed you. I’m so happy you’re home!” Morgan says and giggles, rushing forward again to hug his neck this time. Tony laughs and lifts her, her legs clamping around his waist where he holds her. “I missed you too.” Tony doesn’t know what Pepper told her, and he would never want to set her up against Pepper or make her feel like she can’t trust her parents. He’ll play along with this game if that’s what it takes to restore this mess. “You’ve grown into such a big lady already!”

“She definitely has your appetite,” Pepper chimes in. Tony’s gaze warily finds her seated on the couch, and his smile falters a little. He tries to contain himself, though and focuses his attention on Morgan again. “Mmmh, that’s my girl.” Tony pokes her belly. “I bet there are lots of little pop tarts in there!” Morgan laughs and squirms where he tickles her, and when he stops, she pokes his face in return. “Daddy, who’s that?” She looks at Peter behind him and Tony blushes. Peter and he have never quite established what they are. When exactly they became friends, he still doesn’t know. When they became somewhat more? Still immensely confusing.  “That’s Peter. He’s a rockstar too!” “Oooh!!!! Just like you?” “Just like me.” At that answer, Morgan squirms out of his grip. When Tony puts her on the floor, she runs over to Peter - staring up at him defiantly. “One day,” she says proudly, “-I’ll be the biiiiiggest rockstar in the whole world!”

“Oh my,” Peter says with a grin. “I’m sure you’ll be a legend.” “See, Mommy?” Morgan sprints around and runs towards her mother. She climbs onto the couch next to Pepper and slumps down against one of the fluffy throw pillows that Bucky has on there.

“You guys want something to drink?”

-

Tony doesn’t know where to start. Pepper and he are seated outside on the small porch of Bucky’s house. Bucky and Peter are playing with Morgan in the garden. Her shrill giggles are music to his ears, and every time she turns around to wave at him, his heart clenches. He’s missed her so goddamn much, and even now that she’s actually here, he can still feel that sense of not having had her in his arms for so long.

“Why?” He asks eventually. Pepper sighs and clasps her hands tightly around the cup of tea she’s holding.  “It was… A lot of things,” she whispers. “Tony, I never meant for this to get so out of hand. I don’t…” A sob rises from her chest, and Tony looks up, surprised. Instantly his worries take over, and he scoots a little closer. All this time, he thought she’d simply wanted him out of their lives. But could it be that he was wrong all these months?

“Pep…” He whispers and frowns at himself for already resorting back to her nickname. “What happened?” “You know Justin, right?” “Your boyfriend?” “Eh, ex-boyfriend now… But yes.” Pepper sniffs and sits up straight, using her sleeve to wipe away her tears. “I never told him that you were Morgan’s father,” she continues. “But he got jealous either way. He said he’d kick us out if I let Morgan see her father again. I didn’t have anywhere else to go- I-” “Pep, you could’ve… Oh, God. Why didn’t you ask me for help?” “You had your medication problems already. I thought if I told you… Well- I didn’t want to send you off into an even worse place.”

Tony can feel a slight hint of anger wash over him. All this time, she made him think it was his fault. This problem could’ve been so easily fixed. He swallows and tries to suck it up. If he gets angry now, who knows what’ll happen. Pepper is finally opening up, and while Tony may be angry… He knows how difficult it can be to leave an abusive household- his own parents are the very proof of it. As much as he doesn’t know whether he wants to, he should try to support her here. “So… What happened to Justin?”

Pepper snorts angrily. “That asshole left for some young chick he met at a bar. Said he hated me, hated Morgan, and he kicked me out after all. I’ve been… Staying here, actually. Bucky was so kind to take me in. He didn’t know the full story, obviously. I swear, I never told anyone about your relationship to Morgan.” “Good riddance.” “I… I guess.” Pepper takes a deep breath. “Tony, I didn’t realize how bad this whole thing had spiralled and when Bucky talked to me… I… God, I’m so sorry.”

“I,” Tony hesitates. “I won’t say ‘it’s alright’ cause it isn’t… But, well, I understand why you did it…” “Tony-” “No, I really do.” After that, it’s silent for a moment. Tony glances at Morgan again, who is currently getting a piggyback ride from Bucky. He smiles faintly.  “What’d you tell her?” “That you were touring.” “Didn’t she ever tell Justin about it?” “No, I made it very clear to her it was a secret. She may be playful and mischievous, but she’s smart. She always felt the gravity of the situation even when she didn’t understand why.”

Tony chews on his bottom lip.  “I wonder how long we can keep this up- keeping her away from the spotlight.” “I don’t know Tones, but we’ll keep on trying.” “We will.”

After another short silence and Pepper finishing her tea, she smiles slightly.  “Thank you.” “What for?” “For… Being so mature about this. I won’t lie, this whole talk gave me some sleepless nights.” “Mmmh, I definitely don’t recognize that.”

Pepper chuckles, and Tony can’t help but chuckle along with her. It’s obvious that there are many things left to discuss. Pepper’s housing situation, where to go from here… But for now, Tony feels a strange hint of calmness washing over him. 

“So, who’s Peter?” “He’s in our opening band. The Arachnoids; cool, eclectic rock sound. Sorta 80s vibe and definitely a hint of Gen Z stuff that I can’t quite put my finger on. And-” “Tony, you know that’s not what I meant. Clearly, you don’t just bring a random dude from your opening band to a talk like this.” She eyes him with a curious glimmer in her eyes, and Tony groans, playfully exasperated. “I don’t know who Peter is, then,” he answers with a shrug. “I think I like him. And he likes me too? But we haven’t… Y’know, nothing’s happened yet.”

Pepper smiles, and Tony can tell she’s starting to relax as well. For a moment, it almost seems like this shitty mess had never happened at all. As if they’re just two friends again who simply happen to have a daughter together. 

“This is nice,” he whispers. “Yeah,” she mumbles back, casting her eyes down. “I’m… Really glad Bucky talked me into this. He, eh, told me some stuff about your meds too. It still isn’t sorted, right?” “Nope. Doctors don’t think it ever will. We’re finishing our second leg of the tour in three months from now, and I think I’ll take some time off after that to do some form of extensive therapy.” “Oh, Tony, that’s- That’s good.” She takes a deep breath and takes his hand. “I’m proud of you.”

The praise fills his chest with warmth, and he smiles at her fondly. He may have slept with her once, even though he’s definitely not into women, but he can still see her charm. He never realized that besides missing Morgan, he missed his effortless friendship with Pepper as well.

He hopes they can build on it again.

#starker #the arachnoids #rock band au #fan fiction #fanfiction #fandom #fanfic #fan fic #marvel fanfiction #AO3 fanfic #starker fanfiction #tony stark #tony stark x peter parker #tony stark/peter parker #peter parker #Iron Man #ironman #spiderman #spider man #ironspider #kimwrites #marvel cinematic universe #marvel #mcu #ao3

[delusionland]

STEPHCASS FOR THE MEME <3

PRE-RELATIONSHIP

How did they first meet?

here is my personal hc. tim told cass about a girl. he didn’t tell her anything about the girl, just that she was woefully unprepared to be a crimefighter... but also she was kinda cute, in a totally naive way (90s tim was kind of an asshole, never forget). cass couldn’t quite understand what he was saying while he showed her the batfile on her---the picture of the spoiler, etc. but she got his general tone and body language. cass then sought steph out. for nights. nights looking for the spoiler. when she found her---she tackled her, immediately engaged her in a fight. she went so, so easy on her. she just wanted to see what a cute girl was. and steph... was definitely a cute girl. at the time, cass couldn’t talk, couldn’t communicate with her. but she left her a gift. a nice knife that she had throw at her head---deliberately missing it, that was... especially ornate, and seemed shiny and valuable, and most of all purple to match her costume. pretty purple girls like pretty purple things, right?

What was their first impression of each other?

steph probably did not think well of cass, at first. after that first outing---the batfamily got involved. cass was to help steph with her fighting. steph was to help cass with her speech. without the mask on---steph could see how much cass enjoyed her company. it was hard not to realize she had a sense of humor about everything. the laughter she had exhibited on a still-baby-at-the-time spoiler screaming her head off about what she thought was some kind of demon-ninja batgirl was... genuine, and not malicious in the slightest. she seemed to want to be friends, and every time steph frowned at her, or was a sore loser, cass simply smiled and laughed harder, finding everything steph did perfectly amusing. as they got to know each other---cass got better at talking, and steph got better at fighting, and they kind of, met somewhere on the outer edges of the middle for a while. there was always something standing between them--though. a resentment, not between them, but a misunderstanding. that cass belonged to bruce and the bat. and steph belonged to tim.

Did any of their friends or family want them to get together?

i feel like conner kent at the very least shipped it. alfred really thought there was a spark between them, and during their brief frenemy stage---alfred made sure steph knew cass genuinely cared for her. bruce did NOT want them to get together at all, though. neither did tim, for obvious reasons.

Who felt romantic feelings first?

cass. it was love the first time steph managed to punch herin the face. did she win? no. but she GOT her. and through that tenacity, cass realized that her friend was so much more than a silly, pretty girl. she was a fighter. she was a champion. and more than anything, she was brave, and determined, and they had practiced a thousand times for just this moment. and afterwards, steph was just so proud of her overall failure instead of being herr typical loser.... cass couldnt help but know steph was always going to be the love of her life.

Did either of them try to resist their feelings?

they both did! didn’t want to ruin the friendship!

If you had told one of them that the other would be their soulmate, what would they think?

cass would get a curious look, steph wouldn’t believe you!

What would their lives be like if they had never met?

they would be a lot worse, a lot lonelier. steph never would’ve become batgirl, that’s for sure, and cass would’ve learned to speak---but in a way entirely removed from her own personality and love of herself & life.

GENERAL

Who initiated the relationship, and how did it go?

it was a mutual thing in ocean city, maryland. they were in a photo booth, sitting in eachother’s laps, leg over leg, they did a silly face, and then another silly face, and then their faces were so close---and then SMOOCH CITY, and they WOULD NOT LEAVE THE BOOTH lol.

Did they have an official first date? If so, what was it like?

they considered ocean city their first date. but they’re not really the ‘dating’ types. they both LOVE to fight. they both LOVE to crime fight. they both LOVE spending time together doing NOTHING. if anything, the first time cass had to go to a gala with her was the first time they realized---ugh, do we REALLY have to be WAYNES? do we really have to have REAL LIVES? why can’t we stay in our cuddle - asskicking bubble forever?

What was their first kiss like?

it was the most natural possible thing, and it was something they had both almost had so many times before that it was like drowning in sensation after you had subsisted off of gerbil-cage drips of water for years. they couldn’t stop! they were consumed with want, and they only stopped when they started to get a little TOO frisky and somebody moved the curtain of the booth because they wanted to get their own picture taken and they were like ‘fuck! okay lets get french fries!’ lol

Were they each other’s first anything (kiss, relationship, etc.)?

steph is cass’s first gf, and vice versa.

What’s their height difference? Age difference?

cass is 5′7″ JUST tall enough to be taller than her gf >: )

What’s their relationship with each other’s families?

cass will kill the puzzler or whatever the fuck his name is. he sucks. steph’s mom loves her tho :’ ) and well. the less said about bruce and steph the better, but like. your whole blog is proof of how much the rest of the batfam loves steph!

Who takes the lead in social situations?

they both are the ‘HAHA! THE ECONOMY!’ gif tbh.

Who gets jealous easier?

cass. steph is special cargo, the first girl / person she ever loved romantically, the first friend she ever had. however, cass has made it very publically known she wants threesomes with other hotties of multiple genders.

Who whispers inappropriate things in the other’s ear?

CASS CASS CASS.

LOVE

Who said “I love you” first?

steph, and she agonized over it, only for cass to say it so easily in a way cass didn’t think it would ever be easy for her to say. like steph is some magical fairy tale princess that lifts the curse on cass to never be able to express love the way love is supposed to be expressed. steph just makes things easy. she makes everything easy.

What are their primary love languages?

TOUCH. GAMES. QUALITY TIME. GIFTS.

Who uses cheesy pick-up lines?

they both do they’re TERRIBLE.

How often do they cuddle/engage in PDA?

batgirl and the black bat are forced on seperate patrols bc they do this so much and they HATE it and SNEAK OUT and kiss ANYWAY!

Who initiates kisses?

cass!

Who’s the big and little spoon?

cass is big spoon!

What are their favorite things to do together?

they really like watching wrestling and kung fu movies together i think. steph also likes girly movies, but cass gets bored after a while and just starts wrestling with her over the popcorn and then wrestling leads to hankypanky. most of all they love fighting and dancing AND PLAYING PRANKS on the bat boys.

Who’s better at comforting the other?

cass is.

Who’s more protective?

CASS IS.

Do they prefer verbal or physical affection?

physical affection.

What are some songs that apply to their relationship, in-universe or otherwise?

jenny - studio killers

What kind of nicknames do they call each other?

they both call each other batgirl affectionately, cass also learns new words to say girlfriend and sweetie all the time and uses those.

Who remembers the little things?

STEPH.

DOMESTIC LIFE

If they get married, who proposes?

they COMPETE to see who will do it first. they use the batcave to make sure the other isnt going to look for rings. and when they find the other one shopping for rings. its fucking GO-TIME BITCH. you’re not going to propose to me, i’m going to propose to you! when they pop out the boxes at the exact same time, cass steals the ring from steph’s hands and holds it up over her head and throws hers at steph’s head like ‘YOU HAVE TO MARRY ME FIRST. NO TAKEBACKSIES.’

What’s the wedding like? Who attends?

it’s a big wedding. cass loves, loves people. it’s a whos-who, especially since cass is gonna be batman and she has all the justice league contacts now. cass turns a bit into a bridezila, but like, as a joke, mostly, and she calms down when steph is like ‘i thought we could be more intimate...’ lol

How many kids do they have, if any? What are they like?

they adopt some bratty street kids that are tangentially related to joker / black mask / puzzler / lady shiva as a fuck you. they love their kids so much.

Do they have any pets?

so many cats. a million cats.

Who’s the stricter parent?

cass.

Who worries the most?

steph.

Who kills the bugs in the house?

cass.

How do they celebrate holidays?

they go to concerts!!!! big loud concerts where they can mosh!!!

Who’s more likely to convince the other to come back to sleep in the morning?

cass! no school! just cuddles!

Who’s the better cook?

steph. cass doesn’t know how to, and also refuses to, fry an egg.

Who likes to dance?

cass most of all!

#ooc: hc #ooc: replies #chaoticblondes

[musicfeedsmysoul12]

A Fox and a Guardian-Part 1

Originally this was one huge post but given I got caught up in work and didn’t finish, I decided to do this in smaller posts- this is my JayTim MariBat au!!! Hope you guys like!!! 

When Marinette steps into her new home she nearly breaks down crying. She doesn’t. But just barely.

 “Here are the keys Miss Fu.” The realtor smiles and hands her the set of keys to the house. She smiles and takes them.

 “Thank you,” she tells the woman who leaves with a wave. Marinette already knows the story. Store on the bottom, three-bedroom apartment up top. Movers had already gone ahead and put her furniture in the house, along with her luggage except for the two bags she carried. She doesn’t need to know more.

 It’s only when the woman is gone Marinette collapses. 

 She chokes out big heavy sobs, shoulders shaking as Tikki, Plagg and the others fly out to comfort her.

 She’s finally safe. She’s safe. Oh god, she’s safe.

-0-

 It all went to hell when they confronted Hawkmoth. He managed to get their Miraculous and use it for his wish.

 He wanted his wife back.

 Gabriel wanted his wife back. 

 He got his wish.

 But he lost his son.

 One second Chat was next to her- no not Chat, Adrien- alive and terrified, trying to get back the Miraculous from his own father. He knew as well as she did that they were dangerous in anyone’s hands. 

 One second he was alive, next to her. The next he was dead.

 A life for a life. 

 While Emilie and Gabriel were screaming, yelling at one another, Marinette had snatched the Miraculous. All of them. And then she’d run.

 Emilie never made an appearance. Gabriel claimed Marinette had murdered Adrien after he rejected her. 

 Paris believed it. And Marinette had no proof otherwise.

 Her parents helped her run. Her parents knew everything and helped her flee. Jagged helped as well as she ran away from Paris, promises coming from her lips.

 She kept running until she reached Tibet. Where only three Masters remained. The new time period wasn’t healthy for them. They had been old, diseases had mutated.

 Only three. And they were dying.

 She learned what she could, gained the vast fortune they had left to Fu now left to her. And then she’s made a new name for herself, a new identity. 

 She buried the last Masters and headed to America. Gotham to be exact. No one would expect her there in the criminal capital of America. 

 She had bought a building. A place to call her own, a place to work and be herself.

 She had bought herself a sanctuary:

-0-

 The new shop near the Bowery is a bit of a strange mix between an occult store and a bookstore. The owner is this Asian girl with a bright smile who wears flowered shirts- often Hawaiian tourist shirts- and soothing colours. She talks about crystals and chakras and karma with everyone who comes in. Her books are a strange collection but she knows a lot and is always willing to chat. 

 People who go in, feel calmer and happier, people who try to shake the place down find themselves with cards about job training or new thoughts- or they’re just beaten up. Women who struggle in relationships either find ways to fix things or find the courage to end it after talking to the owner who calls herself Mari.

 The shop, The Black Bug, is an adorable place in Gotham. 

-0-

 Mari steps out on the balcony in her apartment, transformed using the Black Cat. She needs to run, needs to feel the magic of the Kwami in her as she runs across Gotham. Smiling, she takes off. 

 She runs across Gotham, feeling the air, feeling the rush of the world passing her by. She smiles as she lands on a rooftop, tears trickling in her eyes. 

 “I wish you were here Kitty,” she says to the ghosts of the past. She stands on the rooftop, staring at the smog-filled sky. 

 Noises make her turn her head to an alley, the former hero slinking over to study what was going on below her.

 Batman and Robin are fighting some thugs it seemed. Marinette sighs, smiling. She remembers fighting street crime with Adrien. It was magical, the two working together.

 She watches for a short time, sighing. About to leave, she stops when something in the back of her mind tugs her attention. 

 A little boy on the rooftop across from her, carrying a camera. 

Look, whispers the voice in her head. A strong candidate for a Holder, a strong future Guardian.

 Oh… oh… oh dear.

-0-

 Tim Drake loves Batman and Robin. He has since he was a little boy and saw Dick Grayson fly. He loves Batman with a fever that few could match. 

 That being said, Tim isn’t unaware of other heroes around the world. 

 So when Lady Noire- as in Ladybug from Paris- drops down to sit next to him, he has a little, tiny… sorta huge freakout.

 “Oh god…” he breathes and the woman grins.

 “Well, looks like I have a fan.” she smiles at him, and honestly Tim has never felt so happy.

-0-

 His name is Tim Drake and he’s just a little boy with neglectful parents who prefer their money and work to their son.

 She sees a blonde with green eyes when she hears that.

She takes him on trips around the rooftops, trips always ending in food he loves and laughs about.

He talks about his cameras, shows her his pictures, admits his love of detectives and babbles all about heroes. Marinette sees herself when he speaks of that.

 She makes sure to meet him daily, giving him advice on stalking Robin and Batman. Mostly Batman now, the two heroes arguing and fighting more. Tim is sad about it, so Marinette begins telling him stories about past Holders, sharing stories about Chat even that makes him laugh.

 “You miss him, don’t you?” he asks her, one night while they’re drinking milkshakes and sitting on a rooftop.

 “He was my partner-  we were yin and yang. I never thought I’d lose him.” she tells him. He reaches out to hold her hand and she smiles at him, this little boy who reminds her of Adrien and herself. 

 One day, while he whines he couldn’t get good enough pictures of his heroes, she grins and holds out a box.

 “Want to try something else out?”

-0-

 A fox joins Lady Noire as the two run around Gotham, laughing and playing. 

 The Black Bug gains a cute little shop assistant who helps out the owner and has his own array of knowledge. 

 Jack and Janet Drake lose their son in a quiet custody battle that is very one-sided with the proof of their neglect. They let go when it’s pointed out how bad it could be to the company if it got out how they treated their son.

 Marianne Fu and her son Tim Fu are very happy in a little shop in Gotham.

#maribat #ml au #part 1 #miraculous ladybug

[danurso]

Peculiar love

*During a family dinner at the Arc household*

Irina: thank you for showing up mr.Xiao Long, we were really excited to meet the father of our son's girlfriend.

Taiyang: please, just call me Tai, i don't like being so formal. Also, i should be the one thanking you for having me here today.

Alexander: Nonsense, it's a pleasure to have you here, we were both very curious to meet the man who raised such an amazing young lady like Yang.

Taiyang: you better not boost her ego though, she might get way too full of herself if she hears too much compliments.

Irina: though, i don't think she's paying much attention to what we are saying. *nods to Jaune and Yang*

Jaune/Yang: *next to each other, talking, whispering and chuckling between them.*

Irina: young love is such a beautiful thing, don't you think?

Taiyang: *with an eyebrow twitch* y-yeah, i think so.

Alexander: *patting his shoulder* relax my friend, i know how you're feeling.

Taiyang: you do?

Alexander: believe me, i have seven daughters, i can understand how you're feeling better than anyone else.

Taiyang: . . .i really don't know how i would survive in your place.

Alexander: well, it's really hard of course, but one of the benefits is that you get to understand more and more how these things work, and that helps me to be a better parent, which is why i ask you to give Jaune a chance, he's not perfect but me and Irina teached him how to be a respectable young man ever since he was a kid.

Taiyang: *a bit more relaxed* well. . .i guess i can't judge the kid without knowing him better, right?

Alexander: right. But i'm sure you will like Jaune, we always taught him to respect woman and search for their inner value instead of her exterior one, which is probably how he got to your daughter.

Taiyang: makes sense, Yang has a strong personality. Still, it will take some time to get used to the idea of Yang having a boyfriend.

Alexander: don't worry, i assure you our son will treat her with nothing but respect, and if you want a proof of it, i can give you one. Jaune?

Jaune: what?

Alexander: you love Yang, don't you?

Jaune: *smiling* of course, i think it's kinda obvious.

Alexander: but tell me, what do you love the most about her?

Jaune: hmm. . .well. . .

Irina: get ready, alexander junior is about to boast the cheesiest speech in the world for approximately thirty minutes.

Alexander: come on, you always loved my cheesy speeches, and i bet Yang loves them as we-

Jaune: she has the hottest body i've ever seen in my entire life.

Alexander: *chokes*

Irina: *double chokes*

Taiyang: *triple chokes*

Alexander: w-what!? Wait, what did you just say!?

Jaune: i said she has the hottest body in the world, its kinda hard to miss it.

Yang: he's got a point.

Alexander: i honestly can't believe it, that is not how i raised you!

Jaune: what? You always told me to be honest about my feelings, and if i have to be honest about my favorite thing about Yang then it's her body, actually, her having a body like that is the main reason we started to date.

Irina: well. . .that is quite a shock.

Taiyang: a shock!? I though you said your son better than that!

Alexander: well. . .

Taiyang: well what!? I wasn't sure about this before but i am now! I'm not letting my daughter date a boy full of hormones who looks at her like walking pair of tits!

Jaune: hold up, i don't look at yang like that.

Taiyang: you just said your favorite thing about her is her body! And that you just started to date her because of her body!

Jaune: well, that last part is true, we started to date because i loved her body, but to be completely honest, her breasts are the least interesting things she has going on.

Taiyang: wait, what!?

Jaune: its true, i mean, she has nice breasts but why would i be much interested on them *hugs her legs* IF SHE HAS SUCH STRONG THICC LEGS SHOWING OFF!!

Taiyang/Alexander/Irina: . . . . .

Jaune: i mean, just look at them! She could crush a skull with these legs! *hugs her arm* and these arms! So strong and defined, with just the right ammount of muscle! And the best of all! *hugs her stomach, drooling* these abs! Oh my god these abs! I could wash clothes on these babies! They have the perfect shape and tension, i never met a girl with abs so perfect as hers! Yang's body is perfect because i never saw a female body with such a balanced level of strong muscles like these before!

Taiyang: *speechless*

Irina: *facepalms* and of course he had to inherit your muscle fetish.

Alexander: i-i don't have a-

Irina: *pulls her shirt and shows him her abs*

Alexander: *red* . . . . . . .fuck.

Taiyang: i honestly have no words to respond to that, i'm just too shocked to do it honestly. But still, that doesn't change the fact that i'm not letting my daughter date you.

Jaune: *still hugging her abs* i'm not giving up on her though.

Taiyang: you're not- Yang! Are you really thinking about date this guy after hearing all of this!?

Yang: well. . .its not like he was lying or anything, i do have the best body around. Plus, Jaune has something no one else has that i love more than anything in the world.

Taiyang: oh please Yang, i don't want to hear about how you love how nice, kind or sweet he is okay? Many other guys will end up-

Yang: pff, what? I'm not talking about that.

Taiyang: then what are you talking about?

Yang: isn't it obvious?

Taiyang: . . . .wait, don't tell me you-

Yang: *hugging jaune's head* what other guy in the world has a hair like Jaune's!?

Alexander/Irina: *confused*

Taiyang: *facepalms*

Yang: Jaune's hair has the perfect blonde tone and has the delicate smell of a flower, not to mention how soft and silky it is! *digging her fingers on his hair, drooling a bit* ahh. . .the feeling i get from playing with his hair is almost orgasmic, i can't live without it anymore!

Taiyang: i really don't know why i'm surprised, you inherited Raven's love for hair, so of course hair would be priority when choosing a boyfriend.

Alexander: are you two really dating just because of that?

Jaune: it's not just because of that, but it plays a big part on our relationship. *chuckles* i remember telling Yang that i was thinking about getting a haircut and she started to cry asking me why i wanted to break up with her.

Yang: the same thing happened with Jaune when i decided to skip my exercises to get ice cream with my team *chuckles* he was so dramatic, it was like he caught me cheating on him.

Alexander: so you two are running a relationship based on your fetishes?

Jaune/Yang: Basically.

Taiyang: are you two for real!?

Jaune/Yang: Yup.

Irina:  are you two going to give me lots of strong blonde grandbabies at least?

Jaune/Yang: absolutelly.

Irina: *smiling* then ignore your dads, i allow it!

Taiyang/Alexander: HEY!!!

#rwby #jaune x yang #jaune arc #yang xiao long #yang x jaune #rwby dragonslayer #dragonslayer #taiyang xiao long

[deans-baby-momma]

Wounded Hearts 18

Spring 2004  Dean’s POV

After meeting up with Dad, who was still with the Sheriff, we head toward the car as I tell him about the suggestion Melonie gave me. 

“I could use one of those,” Dad says with a smile as we head in the direction of the drive-in. Pulling in I can’t help but smile as I see the very girl who recommended this place, her blue and white uniform crisp and clean in the sunlight. 

Melonie walks up to the driver’s side window as Dad rolls it down and begins her spiel. “Welcome to the Pinnacle- oh hey. I see you found it.” she says as she notices me in the passenger seat.

“Yea. We are interested in those melt-in-your-mouth burgers.”

“Okay sure,” she says as she takes her pad out and jots it down. “Want something to drink also? We got any type of soda you can think of or tea or water.”

“Give us two Cokes darlin’,” Dad tells her. Melonie nods as she writes down the order and then walks away.

“So, that’s who told you about this place?” Dad asks, a big grin on his face as he looks at me. “I think maybe it’s not only the food you’re interested in here.”

I roll my eyes as he wiggles his eyebrows and chuckles. “Listen, I am pretty sure I know what is going on here. I can take care of it if you want to….ya know, sample to local cuisine.”

“It is so weird hearing you talk like that,” I say with my own chuckle. “But no, She just got to work so it’ll be hours before she’d have any free time. And besides, who says she is even interested?”

Melonie delivers our food and we thank her. I watch as she turns and walks to the next car to take their orders. She gives off the impression of someone happy and well put together and, well…..those are not the kind of girls that usually go for guys like me. She also seems like the kind of person I could find myself falling for and that’s just not possible. 

We’d be gone in a few days and anyways, my heart is unavailable. 

I take a bite of the burger and moan around the mouthful of food. The flavors all sync so smoothly that it just melts in your mouth. Melonie didn’t lie about that. I chuckle when Dad has the same reaction after his first bite. 

Melonie comes back to the Impala a few times to check if we need anything and when Dad asks for the check I can see the disappointment on her face but she quickly masks it with her usually jovial self. 

“Okay," Dad says after paying for the meal. “It’s almost 3 now. If we get back to the motel and go over the information from Sheriff Aliff, we should be able to take these bastards out and you can get back here before her shift’s over. You said she apparently walked to work? So, offer to walk her home?”

When she returns with our change and receipt, Dad questions her about what time her shift ends and does the ‘dirty work’ for me.

“My partner here will be back at 9 to make sure you get home safe and sound.”

Melonie smiles at me and nods then turns to get back to work as Dad pulls the Impala back out onto the road. Dad tells me he's pretty much got the case figured out. He explains the monster is a bakakku. They are cave-dwellers who feed off the brains of other beings. Dad is fairly certain that there is only one bakakku holed up in a closed down mine near Pineville.

"But if there are multiple bakakku, you don't need to be going in alone," I counter. "Do you even know how to kill it?"

"No. So until your lady friend's shift is over, you and I are going to research and try to find more information," he tells me. "Then while you are making sure she gets home safely, I'll take care of the bakakku and be back at the motel when you return. Be it late tonight, in the morning, mid-day, whenever."

Dad chuckles at his own quip while I roll my eyes.

To hear my dad talk and encourage me to hook up with some rando girl in some rando town for the night is just weird.

"Listen son," he begins as he senses my awkwardness. "Ain't nothing wrong with getting your jollies where you can. Believe me, I know. You may not want to hear this but this job….it's lonely and bleak. Yea we save people but hardly ever get a thank you. So you get your reward other ways. 

"I have been known to seek out those 'rewards' and you know, it's nice. You don't have to worry about anyone catching feelings because if they do-" he shrugs as he continues. "-you're already gone."

"You've…..you have slept with other women?" I am astonished at what my father just admitted. "You cheated on Mom?"

"No Dean!" he demands. "I loved your mom with everything in me but she is gone son. I hate to say it as much as you hate to hear it but I am a man and sometimes I just need to get my dick wet, okay? It's not cheating. My wife is dead."

By the time it's close to the end of Melonie's shift, we have concluded how to take out the bakakku and readied the weapon needed. Dad drops me off at the drive-in and proceeds to the mines. 

Leaning against the building, I watch as Melonie finishes up with the last two customers before she walks over.

"I just have to close out my till and make the drop in the safe then I'll be ready."

"Take your time," I tell her with a smile. She returns it and then tiptoes to kiss me. 

When her lips touch mine, all reserves are gone. Tonight, I will do as Dad suggested and enjoy the rewarding benefits of the job of hunting things and saving people.  And watching Melonie walk away, I absolutely cannot wait!

Rebecca’s POV  Winter 2003

“He was the epitome of bad boys,” I chuckle as I settle down on the sofa later that night with Sam. He had asked me to tell him more about Whitney’s dad and we waited until the little girl was in bed for the night before getting into it. “Cocky, confident and egotistical. He was handsome as the devil and he knew it. He sauntered around the school like he owned it. He-” I pause to take a drink of my soda. “-actually announced to the school that he was a hero; whatever the hell that meant.”

“A hero? What had he done to think that?” Sam asks, with a chuckle.

“You got me. But, this was also right after he got caught in the janitor’s closet with Krissy Stephens…...by Amanda Heckerling, who just happened to be his girlfriend at the time,” I tell Sam.

“Whoa. He was a playa, huh? How the hell did you get tangled up with him? I mean, you seem so practical and sophisticated.”

I can’t help but laugh. “I so wasn’t back then. No, I was the nerd; the girl who kept her nose in her books and didn’t socialize with anyone. I was shy and bashful. All I wanted was to get through those four years of hell and go off to college. Well we see how that worked out, eh?”

“You wanted to go to college? For what?” Sam inquired, seemingly interested. 

“Psychology. I wanted to be a psychologist. But things changed. Dean happened.”

“So what, did he break up with Amanda and chase after you?”

“Um, no. After catching him in that closet with Krissy, Amanda dumped him in front of everyone; the whole school. Then a couple days later, he literally runs into me,” I stop as I remember the day vividly. “Practically bowled me over. He apologized and then invited me to have pizza with him, even going so far as making sure his little brother was there. They were staying at the Pines Motel and we sat and ate pizza and watched All Saints Day.”

“So wait,” Sam interrupts. “These two boys-kids- were staying in a motel. Where were their parents?”

“I don’t know,” I shrug as I answer. “I never asked. At least I don’t remember if I did. Either way, it was just Dean and Sam in the motel room. After the movie was over, Sam was begging to go to the arcade and I gave him money for some games. I didn’t realize until after he left that Dean and I were alone. And well you know what happened. She-” I point toward Whitney’s room. “-is proof of that.”

“So what happened next?”

“The next day, I saw him in 1st period but after that he vanished. I never saw him again. I found out from the motel manager that they had packed up and taken off in a black muscle car.”  

“Oh wow!” Sam says, stunned. “So he just humped and dumped you? I’m sorry that was inconsiderate.”

“No, you’re right. That’s exactly what happened,” I say with a chuckle. “I hated him too. After I found out I was pregnant, I wished death upon him. But then she was born and she looks so much like him, that it softened my hatred and I realized that I still have feelings for him.”

“Wow, Becky. Just…...wow!”

“I know. So here I am 8 years later, still kind of hung up on the boy that ran away.”

“I’m sorry Becky,” Sam says, dolefully. “If it makes you feel any better, Dean is a giant douche and doesn’t know what he’s missing. He has a beautiful daughter and her Mom isn’t that bad either.” Sam smiles at me.

“Isn’t that bad? Are you saying I’m not drop dead gorgeous Sam? My heart is broken,” I jest, chuckling.

“God no. Becky, I think you are beautiful, gorgeous, hot! But I didn’t want to seem like I was trying to come on to you. Like after spending the day with you I suddenly wanted to have a relationship,” he begins justifying until he realizes I’m joking. “Shut up!” he says with a laugh as he reaches out and pushes my shoulder.

@tftumblin @spnbaby-67 @markofdean79 @lostinaseaoffictionalbliss @travelingriversideblues-x @akshi8278 @keymology @hoboal87 @squirrelnotsam @natura1phenomenon @drakelover78 @larajadeschmidt13 @blacktithe7 @atc74 @sea040561 @delightfullykrispypeach @vicariouslythruspn @sandlee44 @mogaruke @deanwanddamons @supraveng @deandreamernp @lyarr24​

#dean winchester #john winchester #sam winchester #rebecca quentin #wounded hearts #past haunts sequel #smut #angst #fluff #whitney quentin winchester #supernatural #spn fanfic #supernatural fanfiction

[filmmakerdreamst]

‘Boy Meets World’ Re-watch (as an Adult)

‘Girl Meets World’ doesn’t count as a sequel. Not because of the writing/tonal choices but because in the original show - despite continuity issues - the characters felt like real people e.g. the way they spoke/acted/dressed was the way people behaved in the 90s where as in the spin off, they were Disney characters e.g. hyper versions of themselves especially Cory and Eric. And the transition between both shows didn’t come naturally. It’s not an objectivity badly written show but it was pretty much a re-do of the old show with the same storylines/tropes without continuing the story. (I say the same thing about ‘The Incredibles’. vs ‘Incredibles 2’.) Also there were too many cooks in the kitchen pushing one way or another. You could see Micheal Jacobs style, all the aspects were there, but he was also creating a ‘DISNEY’ show at the same time. I don’t know about you but the one message I took from the original show was ‘finding out that life cannot be packenged into a lovely little present ’ which kind of contradicts everything that the new show is. If anything GMW is an AU universe (and it really felt like that, rewatching it right after BMW e.g. it felt flipped) almost like Disney’s version of ‘what happened next?’ The primal difference between both shows is BMW is portraying what is real and GMW is based on what is real.

Going off my point, I will however be always thankful that it exists because I probably wouldn’t of found out about ‘Boy Meets World’ otherwise. Although saying that, I never thought that the original show needed a continuation of any kind (a lot of things make sense about the spin off if you acknowledge that Disney requested it - I think it would of been much better off on its original platform) ‘Boy Meets World’ was very much a product of its time i.e. when tv shows were still relevetivley new and had no rules - like there is stuff in there that not even adult shows today have. Plus there was something about it that felt very personal (such as the characters and setting) as if the creator based it on his own childhood growing up and I think that was part of its charm and why it had such a big effect on pop culture - I’m not so sure you can repeat that.

BMW is big on meta I’ll tell you that. I love how it’s so aware of itself. The amount of depth that it has never ceases to amaze me. It’s whole universe is so dense and huge. Every quote/storyline is so unique it sticks in your brain forever. (I swear the humour got more and more deranged every season). The show was also incredibly queer and progressive.  It didn’t give a crap about sexuality. Much more than I remember. Proof to never use ‘but it was made in the 90s’ excuse.        

I loved how the show kept reinventing itself every season as Cory grew up so you really felt you were growing up with him and all the characters. The Character Development on this show was so natural/authentic. Every single character got a chance to shine. No one changed their look in one episode and no one had an intervention every time someone had an identity crisis (GMW) My favourite development was Shawn Hunter. He went from a cool kid to a ladies man to a poetic soul. It was so satisfying to watch.

I realised that Cory Matthews is actually my favourite character (before it was Eric or Shawn) I already have a special soft spot for ‘annoying’ characters because they tend to be the most memorable/real. For example, Karma Ashcroft from ‘Faking it’ was my babe while everyone was hating on her. I really related to his anxiety/self hatred about being average and I loved that he constantly made mistakes. It was very refreshing. He’s also incredibly queer-coded. I found that alot of his mannerisms make sense if you see him with extreme compulsory heterosexuality (because identity’s such as bisexual or gay couldn’t exist normally in the 90s) There are moments in the show where he literally mimics his best friend’s behaviour around girls e.g. when the class pretty much gets brainwashed by the sex ed video in ‘Boy Meets Girl’ Shawn gets asked out by a girl, making Cory jealous - which pushes him to ask out Topanga.

It’s funny how a few years of life experience can change perspectives completely because when I was sixteen (aka the same age as Cory and Topanga) watching BMW for the first time, I was mad at Amy for ‘not understanding that they were in love’ (in ‘A Walk to Pittsburg’) but now that I’m older I’m actually agreeing with her. Yeah, what do they know about love? Because all season long they were acting quite superficially.

Cory and Topanga became somewhat of a toxic couple in seasons 5 -7. Reminded me of my parents relationship because my mum gave up her chosen university to be closer to my dad and they aren’t together any more. Topanga’s love for Cory was very conditional and Cory cheated on her multiple times/openly begged for sex  (Again like my parents) And you should never be in a relationship with someone who makes you say “You make me think not so very much of myself” There are arguably much more signs of emotional abuse than love in their relationship especially from Topanga’s side. Plus their story was altered so many times to give it more basis (they retconned Shawn and Cory’s friendship to do this) I could write an essay on how Kevin and Winnie’s love story on ‘The Wonder Years’ is much more believable because it actually addresses how toxic it was and they grow apart in the end. If GMW was a realistic continuation, they would be divorced with a little girl - leave them in the 90s where they belong.

Alan and Amy were couple goals! Cory and Topanga wish that they could have what they have. Literally the definition of ‘a healthy relationship on tv that keeps thriving and over coming obstacles without big drama’. Best TV parents ever.

I loved the Matthews family; how they all had individual arcs and developments of their own. One of my favourite arcs was in season 5, when Eric and Cory were both jealous of what they ‘didn’t have’ with their dad, so Alan made an effort to give them both that they needed. Honestly, I had never seen so much healthy communication on TV before. Alan is the best father around. His whole personal arc of giving up managing a supermarket because he wasn’t passsionate about it anymore and buying a mountain store was so inspired. I found it funny that the family had more of a relationship with Shawn than Topanga.

Shawn Hunter never caught a break. It got a bit tiring. He was never allowed to be happy for five minutes. Every time he laughed or smiled, 5 years were added onto my lifespan. Why didn’t Johnathan Turner adopt him? I loved their dynamic. Why did he let him go back to his abusive father who just dumped him anyway?

Jack and Shawn’s complicated dynamic was possibly the most unique/interesting arc of the entire show and no one talks about it. I don’t care what y’all say - despite them being very different, Jack was the only one who fully took care of Shawn without second thoughts (Turner and the Matthews family had doubts)

I liked Shawn and Angela. I thought they were much better suited than Cory and Topanga. I honestly wouldn’t of minded if they ended up together even though I always had a feeling they wouldn’t. (Like I’m glad she went with her dad in the end) And considering how important they were as a interracial couple in the 90s, GMW handled that very poorly.

Shawn and Cory should of ended up together. And before you come at me with ‘it’s important to have m/m friendships without toxic masculinity’ (which is an important arguement to have) - yeah no shit there’s an entire Industry based around that/pitting women against each other. While it is important to have those friendships between men that are close and even intimate (take Chandler and Joey, Schmidt and Nick, Isak and Jonas and Jake and Charles for example) there was also another layer to their relationship which the narrative played off sometimes as them “going out” or “in love”.  I actually recently found out that a writer - who came into the show in season 3 - confirmed that she wrote gay undertones into their relationship on purpose ‘In my opinion as a writer, they thought they were “straight”, they both didn’t realise or understand their feelings for eachother’ but couldn’t deliever because the producers wanted to keep the show “kid friendly”. Kind of like Xena and Gabby. I know people prefer Jack & Eric (I love them as well) but everything got ruined for me as soon as they introduced the ‘love triangle’ and I always tend to prefer emotional tension over sexual. They were just so unconditional with each other/ their friendship was so good and healthy and now I’m so bitter that it never happened.

I never understood why Shawn and Cory had to stop being best friends after he got married. He’s not Topanga’s property. I always hated how Topanga tried to interrupt/interfere with their dynamic — although now I realise it was because the two of them purposely left her out. Looking back at it, If it really was just a intimate friendship then why would she get so easily jealous if she didn’t sense there was something else deeper going on? You should never marry someone who puts you second.

I didn’t like Topanga when she was with Cory (or vice versa) Especially after they got married. She was a great character on her own. Feminist before her time. Hermione Granger before her time. I always felt she deserved a lot better than him in a way e.g. if someone I considered a friend speard a rumour around high school that we slept together - I would never speak to that person again. SHE SHOULD OF GONE TO YALE GOD DAMN IT. And as someone pointed out the other day, if the roles were reversed some of the stuff she does or says to Cory would be considered domestic violence. ‘She’s always blaming Cory on shit that isn't even his fault or makes him feel bad or shuts down his emotions and turns it around so he's comforting her instead.’ There was even a moment in GMW (not that I consider that show a continuation) where she locks him out the house for a few days after he insulted her chicken, and his son Auggie had to bring him spaghetti. If Cory was a woman, that would not be played off as a joke - that would be considered abuse. They were however a better couple in GMW ironically.

Angela Moore is now one of my favourite characters on BMW. She was beautiful. Her friendship with Rachel (and Topanga) was the best. And I frickin’ loved her and Cory’s friendship development - when they could of easily not played into that. I hate that she got villiaized in GMW.

My favourite seasons are 4, 5 & 1. My least favourites are 3 & 2 & 7. And even then the show was still pretty darn good.

The back and fourth clash between Turner and Mr Feeny in season 2 was very entertaining.

Mr Feeny and Eric are my favourite relationship on ‘Boy Meets World’. I love how Eric was the only person that Feeny directly told that he loved him. Also, why didn’t Eric become the new Mr Feeny? He showed more traits of becoming a teacher in the show than Cory did.

Eric and Tommy was probably the most heartbreaking plot line in season 6. (That season was an emotional train wreck) I cried for a fourth time. The world doesn’t deserve him.

I loved the development of Shawn and Topanga’s friendship. Even though there was a silent competition over Cory, they eventually became good friends. I found out that the song ‘She will be loved’ was inspired by them which is awesome but it’s also proof that people ship for less if it’s an m/f dynamic - just sayin’. I however see a more convincing potiental romance with the two of them than Cory and Topanga sometimes.

On Cory and Topanga again - they weren’t a bad couple overall. I liked them in s1 - 3. They had some great moments. But upon my rewatch (getting out of that 90s idealised headspace) I found them to be too similar at times - chafing as another person put it - to the point where they cancel each other out. A lot of people pointed out that Riley and Maya paralleled them and I was thinking “That’s not nesserily a good thing.”

‘Dream. Try. Do good.’ is on my mantelpiece.

#each to its own at the end of the day #boy meets world #rewatch #review #cory matthews #shawn hunter #topanga lawrence #angela moore #jack hunter #eric matthews #mr feeny #alan matthews #amy matthews #morgan matthews #girl meets world #cory x topanga #cory x shawn #shory #shawn x cory #shawn x topanga #bmw #tv show #shawn x angela #chet hunter #micheal jacobs #queer subtext #disney + #topanga matthews #corpanga #jack x eric

[a-secret-bolton-vampire]

Young Griff, Part 1: The Pisswater Prince

So, I know I haven't done a super deep dive in a while. I kinda got stuck, then binged Sense8, The OA, The Americans, and Dark. It just got hard to write, and I feel into a bit of depression. But I finally managed to complete this, something I've wanted to write about for a very long time. This is part of the Daenerys essays, but the main focus is not on her, but rather the enigmatic Young Griff who appears in ADWD. As he was never seen on the TV show, we have little to no idea of what his future holds. Personally, of all the characters cut from the show, I most wish they kept Young Griff, because his presence is quite interesting. The fandom (and the in-world characters) are highly skeptical of his identity, and think he is destined for major things in the future of the story.

There is no doubt his existence is tied heavily to Daenerys's storyline, although perhaps not the way that is often recognized. This was originally going to just be one long essay, but I uncovered more and more that I found compelling enough to write, and so it became split into two parts. The first part will be about Aegon's role in the story; his identity, what he represents, why he is here. The second part will be about Aegon's future; his next moves in the Stormlands, possible allies, and how he might meet his end.

The Dubious Prince

What's curious is that apparently, Aegon's return has been considered by GRRM for quite a while. A mere 2 days before the publishing of ASOS, in 2000, GRRM was asked a question by a fan:

Fan: I was wondering if you could answer (or take the "fifth") one teeny little question I've been dying to ask for the past year: Are Aegon and Rhaenys, Elia's children, well and truly dead? GRRM: All I have to say is that there is absolutely no doubt that little Princess Rhaenys was dragged from beneath her father's bed and slain.

And then when ADWD is published in 2011, it is revealed that in fact, Aegon isn't dead, but secretly alive. This is something that was actually rumoured in Westeros, according to this entry of Aegon VI in A World of Ice and Fire app:

Rumors persist, however, that it was not truly Aegon who was killed, but some other infant, and that Aegon has been taken away to safety.

Aegon literally tells Tyrion the story of how he was whisked away to safety:

"That was not me. I told you. That was some tanner's son from Pisswater Bend whose mother died birthing him. His father sold him to Lord Varys for a jug of Arbor gold. He had other sons but had never tasted Arbor gold. Varys gave the Pisswater boy to my lady mother and carried me away."

It's certainly a great story, that Aegon return from the dead, living in Essos waiting for the chance to take back his birthright. The fact Aegon is still alive is truly a miracle... but is he? Is this young boy who purports to be Aegon really Prince Aegon, son of Prince Rhaegar and Princess Elia? One of the most pervasive fan theories is that Aegon isn't a Targaryen at all, but secretly a Blackfyre, descended from the Targaryen bastard Daemon Blackfyre who rebelled and tried to become king (the Blackfyres are still Targaryens but don't tell them that).

It's such a popular theory that it is considered all but canon, as much as R+L=J is. Now, time for me to commit heresy: I do not buy this theory at all.

For those not in the know, some have pointed out potential circumstantial evidence of Aegon being a Blackfyre; he's supported by the Golden Company, a sellsword company that was made for the Blackfyres and ruled by them until Maelys died on the Stepstones. Dany sees a vision of a cloth dragon swaying on a pole in the House of the Undying, as the Undying call her the "slayer of lies". There is mention of Maelys being the end of male line of House Blackfyre, but no mention of what happened to the female line. There is a story about an inn that had a black dragon made of iron symbolizing the Blackfyres, and after Lord Darry (a Targaryen supporter in the Blackfyre rebellions) took it off, cut it apart, and threw it into the river, one piece showed up years later on the Quiet Isle, having reddened with rust (potentially symbolizing a Blackfyre returning disguised as a Targaryen). Illyrio is oddly emotional when talking about Aegon. Plus the entirety of the Pisswater Prince story sounds really out there and unlikely.

At first glance, I found this theory really compelling. There is all this subtext and reading behind the lines that you didn't see before, and on some level it makes some sense. Why introduce another secret Targaryen in book 5 out of 7 (8)? It also fits neatly with another theory I will talk about more in depth later. However, while it isn't a theory I think is necessarily 100% inaccurate and completely out there, I think it doesn't account for alternatives, and ultimately is an unnecessary plot twist.

The support of the Golden Company isn't all that suspect when you consider just what's been happening since Maelys died. The male line of House Blackfyre is over (who knows what happened to the female line), the Blackfyres no longer rule the Golden Company, they are gone. The Golden Company was also founded by Westerosi exiles who fled Westeros and supported the Blackfyres. The fact the Golden Company broke its contract with Myr and that "some contracts are writ in blood" more has to do with the fact that these people are mostly descendants of Westerosi exiles and want to return home. The idea of the Golden Company wasn't really to be a permanent thing, it was meant to be a means through which the Blackfyres had support when they invaded again, and when the Blackfyres were installed, those exiled lords would get their lost lands back.

With the Blackfyre cause gone, the only thing left for the Golden Company is home. And that's exactly what Aegon is giving them, regardless of him being Targaryen. The slayer of lies visions are implying Daenerys is going to be confronting people who are in some way not true. Stannis (who is the first vision) is not Azor Ahai. This probably means that the cloth dragon represents a fake Targaryen, and in comes Aegon, out of nowhere! The first issue I have is that the vision has to be literal. Prophecies are very tricky, and the House of the Undying prophecies are extremely finicky. What does slayer of lies mean? Does it mean she literally kills the lies? Is it more metaphorical that she exposes people to the truth? And if Aegon really is a true Targaryen, then why is he the mummer's dragon and considered a lie to slay?

Disregarding the fact Varys was a mummer and he is working for Aegon, even if Aegon is a Targaryen, it's very obvious that they need to do a lot to convince people he is one. He has to play the part of Rhaegar's son, because everyone thinks he is dead. Meanwhile, Daenerys has to do literally nothing of the sort, because she has dragons. She embodies what it means to be a Targaryen, she is about to embrace her house words. As Illyrio tells Tyrion, Daenerys is a true Targaryen. But Aegon doesn't have dragons, so he needs to play up his Targness in some other way. Rhaegar was called the Last Dragon. Viserys called himself a Dragon. Aegon is about to try to take Rhaegar's place. But neither Rhaegar, Viserys, or Aegon are the Last Dragon; Daenerys is, and the lie is that he is the last dragon, and that Dany's existence itself is the way she slays the lie. As Dany thinks to herself after Viserys dies, "fire cannot kill a dragon".

Look at Aegon being someone piggybacking off words and looks for his claims. Meanwhile, Daenerys has all the proof one needs. I think the vision is much more esoteric than literal. While Varys's story is suspect and even Tyrion finds it unbelievable, it's not entirely impossible. Hell, Mance Rayder climbed the Wall and went to Winterfell in disguise as a bard twice. It makes sense for Varys to take away Aegon and replace him with another child during Robert's rebellion, when things were going badly for the Targaryens and plans had to be made in case the worst came to worst.

Another popular interpretation is that Illyrio and his wife Serra are Aegon's real son, but I find this to be incredibly flawed. Not only does Serra not really look much like a Targaryen (blue eyes instead of purple), but Illyrio's somewhat emotional confession that he can't see Aegon before he drops Tyrion off doesn't mean he is the boys father. The idea that you need to be someones parent in order to have a strong connection completely holds disregard for other kinds of relationships. Aegon is implied to have been raised for at least a bit in Pentos. Illyrio probably felt some affection for him and genuinely enjoyed his company.

To me, however, it's not really the alternative explanations for the evidence of a Blackfyre conspiracy that convince me Aegon is in fact Rhaegar's son. It's rather simple; what's the point of yet another secret identity plot twist? Consider how we meet Aegon. We meet him through Tyrion's POV in his third chapter, under the guise of the son of a sellsword named Griff, called Young Griff, his hair dyed blue in honour of his dead Tyroshi mother. Tyrion is immediately suspicious, but he's not entirely sure what's going on. We then get two more chapters of him aboard the Shy Maid, and during that time we are meant to be a little confused and unsure what is going on. It's a mystery of why Tyrion is on this boat and who these people are.

By the third chapter of Tyrion on the Shy Maid, the mystery is finally lifted, and all is revealed; Griff isn't Griff, he's Jon Connington, an exiled lord thought to have drunken himself to death. And Young Griff isn't his son; he's Prince Rhaegar's son Aegon, who was thought to have been killed by the Mountain in Robert's Rebellion. I think it's important to remember that it isn't just Aegon who is thought to be dead. JonCon is considered dead too! Two dead people aboard a boat plotting to retake Westeros. We already had a mystery handed to us, and the plot twist was already revealed. Another thing to consider is how thematically and symbolically important the journey down the Rhoyne is for Aegon. To me I think it makes a lot of sense for Rhaegar and Elia's son to be on the Rhoyne, especially since there is a lot of evidence that he and Dorne will eventually ally.

It's also important to remember that apart from a very few sly people, Aegon being secretly alive wasn't even a possibility on most peoples radar. It truly was something that came out of nowhere. While that can be used as a marker against him being Rhaegar's son, with the complaints of such a large character being revealed so late with seemingly no forewarning, I think that's honestly sort of the point.

Aegon's existence is already so large of a twist that it feels awkward to then put in another plot twist that he's actually a Blackfyre, something that really only has significance to the people who have read the Dunk & Egg novellas and know the history of Westeros very well. Although not entirely the same, it reminds me of "the Others are actually morally grey/the good guys" theories, which are in a similar vein of "George is always subversive and this is classic George". However, while the text does sort of lend credence to this theory being at the very most plausible, I feel it's ultimately an unnecessary plot twist built upon another seemingly unnecessary plot twist to try to justify his late entry and/or his significance (as can be noted, I detest calling him fAegon). The plot for Aegon isn't to be uncovered as this secret conspiracy of another ultra-double secret identity, it's about what his existence does to change the story.

Young Griff, Daenerys Stormborn, and Jon Snow

A large part of why the Blackfyre conspiracy theory is so popular is that it actually does have a compelling narrative link to the series. It's a simple progression; there are hints at a second Dance of the Dragons, vision of a mummer's dragon, a fake Targaryen, boom, Dany and Aegon fight. Dany thinks her claim is the best, but then someone appears who has an even better claim, and she fights thinking there's no possible way he could be real. It's an easy to follow trajectory. As always, people are welcome to disagree with my interpretation, but I think there is a far better reason for Aegon's role in the story; he's more foreshadowing for R+L=J.

For certain, there's more to him than just that, but I think this is something that simply cannot be ignored. He's another Targaryen. Yeah, it's kind of a meme to say X is a secret Targaryen, but I actually see the logic in why GRRM did this. Jon Snow is the son of Rhaegar and Lyanna, and most likely is a trueborn prince. He is the one destined to have an extremely significant relationship with Daenerys. I plan to eventually write an essay on how R+L=J effects the characters and story by itself, but for preface; I don't buy that R+L=J is there just to make Jon have an identity crisis. Something as significant as that is going to have a lot of consequences and reasons to be around, some more than others. I do think there will be people who will learn the truth and at the very least, some people will believe it.

This is where Aegon's appearance becomes more significant. Here is a Targaryen people had no idea even existed, let alone was still alive. It kinda opens the floodgates for the world to question what is known about Robert's Rebellion. It also serves as precedent for the reveal that Jon Snow reveal. One Targaryen we didn't know existed is suddenly here. Is there another nearby? You can't simplify such a complex plot quite that easily of course, but I think it's significant to think about how the Young Griff twist applies to the story as a whole, and specifically RLJ. George maybe thought of this as the initial purpose for Young Griff, but as per usual, he definitely has other reasons to exist.

In fact, Aegon is a perfect foil for Jon Snow. Both are the son of Rhaegar, both are disguised as someone else, both are thrusted into a leadership position at a young age. However, Jon is unaware of his true parentage, while Aegon is. Jon is reluctant to embrace his identity in general (especially as lord commander) while Aegon is embracing his identity to his fullest extent. In a way, Aegon represents what Jon's life could have become in a parallel world. Instead of being taken as Ned's bastard to Winterfell, he is educated and taught his role and origin in Essos as plotting begins for retaking Westeros. Aegon is literally parallel universe Jon Snow.

Aegon is also a foil for Daenerys (who in turn is a parallel to Jon Snow). Daenerys grew up poor, constantly visiting nobles in the Free Cities but never getting anything in return. She was sold as a marital slave to Drogo. Her brother resented and abused her, and anything she learned she learned from Viserys, who was very unreliable. Yet she climbs up and becomes an incredibly powerful figure, and is now one of the most powerful people in the world. In contrast, Aegon was always protected, given safety, care, education, train at arms. In fact, it might be accurate to say that Aegon is actually spoiled. His interaction with Tyrion while playing cyvasse is a good indication of this. After Tyrion defeats Aegon when he follows the bad advice he gave him (making a point to not always trust people), this happens;

Young Griff jerked to his feet and kicked over the board. Cyvasse pieces flew in all directions, bouncing and rolling across the deck of the Shy Maid. "Pick those up," the boy commanded.

This is quite an extreme reaction. It even reminds Tyrion of Joffrey, and I have to agree this is a very petulant, Joffrey-like outburst. I don't believe Aegon is really anything like Joffrey, but both kids were pretty spoiled and given so much safety and care that when things don't go their way they get upset. Aegon is used to having everything given to him, and Tyrion is the first to show that he won't always win. In contrast, Daenerys has suffered some pretty severe losses; Rhaego, Drogo's khalasar, Drogo, Jorah's betrayal, etc. I have a hard time seeing Daenerys react so badly to this the way Aegon did. It also casts doubt on the speech Varys gave to Kevan as he dies that Aegon was molded to be this perfect king. He may have been raised to be that way, but the opposite might be true instead.

In fact, this might really be the true crux and core of Aegon's storyline. He's touted as the rightful king, this perfect prince who has been taught everything he needs, ready to be this hero who returns to Westeros to reclaim the throne. But Aegon is a deconstruction of that trope. He seems to have everything going for him, and is touted as this great king, but the truth is he remains relatively untested. All the privilege he has been given has only made him spoiled. The game of cyvasse he and Tyrion play is a lot more significant than I think it is given credit for, but that will be saved for part two when I go in depth about his future.

Of course, there has been a lot of pushback against the idea that Aegon is spoiled and that he's no different from Jon and Dany and that it should be expected he react like that to losing cyvasse at his age. While the cyvasse outburst doesn't mean he is going to be evil or anything, I think the context about this is important, and there is a lot more stuff I think hints that Aegon is not really the prince Varys believes him to be. Again, this will be saved for part two.

The Dragons Will Dance Again

In 2003, a fan asked George:

Hi, short question. Will we find out more about the Dance of the Dragons in future books? GRRM: The first dance or the second? The second will be the subject of a book. The first will be mentioned from time to time, I'm sure.

This is further supported by a quote by Teora Toland in the first Arianne sample chapter for TWOW:

"It is dragons." "Dragons?" said her mother. "Teora, don't be mad." "I'm not. They're coming." "How could you possibly know that?" her sister asked, with a note of scorn in her voice. "One of your little dreams?" Teora gave a tiny nod, chin trembling. "They were dancing. In my dream. And everywhere the dragons danced the people died."

The use of the language of dragons dancing is very noteworthy, and when connected with the SSM show in-text hints that a second Dance is indeed going to happen. Various theories include that this refers to Jon vs. Dany, Dany vs. Euron, Dany vs. Aegon, or Jon vs. Aegon. The most common theory in the fandom is Dany vs. Aegon, with Dany believing Aegon to be a fake Targaryen and refusing to acknowledge his claim to the throne. Instead of facing Cersei as in the show, Daenerys will face Aegon.

The extension of this theory is that Dorne will ally with Aegon, with an ambitious Arianne marrying Aegon, and a burnt toast Quentyn showing Daenerys's rejection, turning Dorne against Daenerys. When Daenerys invades Westeros, Aegon is to be the perfect prince while Dany plays the role of the evil Mad King's daughter. In retaliation of Dorne siding with a false Targaryen instead of a true Targaryen, Dany will burn the Water Gardens. On a narrative level it kinda does make a lot of sense. In the first Areo chapter, Doran mentions that the blood oranges are well past ripe. He has waited for his vengeance for 17 years, because he's so careful about the cost, but in the end all that waiting will do him in and the second Daenerys will burn the Water Gardens that were built for the first Daenerys.

There is just a slight problem... someone talked about the theory that Daenerys will burn the Water Gardens in the comment section of a NotABlog post, and GRRM very quickly shut it down by saying "the Water Gardens bit... uh no". Not that we needed GRRM to debunk this tired theory, it didn't make much sense in the first place since the Water Gardens hold no strategic value and burning it would mean Daenerys has to do it for no reason other than needless cruelty.

The bigger issue I have is that of Dany and Aegon even fighting in the first place. Despite everything, what a "second Dance of the Dragons" even means is incredibly vague. A Targaryen succession crisis? A Targ succession crisis leading to war? A Targaryen man fighting a Targaryen woman? Does it need to be on the same scale as the original Dance? We have no context other than this and it could mean literally anything. What's more, there is a very often overlooked SSM that kinda puts the dampers on this theory a bit;

The second Dance of Dragons does not have to mean Dany's invasion. Geroge stopped himself short and said he shouldn't say anymore. The response came because of my question of whether the dance would take place in ADWD because AFFC and ADWD parallel.

We will definitely see more of Aegon in TWOW, and we'll probably get to know him better. I'm not going to argue that Aegon appearing in book 5 of 7 is bad writing, because I don't think it necessarily is. Perhaps he won't be as major a character as the fandom believes him to be. However, if Daenerys and Aegon are going to clash, there needs to be time for the characters to interact and establish any sort of relationship. I think the idea that Dany hears of Aegon's existence and immediately thinks he is a fake and goes to war with him completely disregards both Dany's character and how you establish a tragic event like this.

The first Dance of the Dragons was not something that happened on a whim. It was the result of decades of hatred built towards two factions. They weren't always antagonistic to each other, but as the years passed, the blacks and the greens grew to hate each other more and more and more until it took the death of the king that kept them at bay to start a devastating war. Dany declaring Aegon a fake without ever having met him and going to war with him is incredibly simplistic. Also, think about it from Dany's perspective.

Viserys was an abusive asshole to her, yet she still thinks about him and even feels lonely. It's natural to want to have a family and someone to feel close with. Dany is warned about the mummer's dragon, yes, but she is also lonely and thinks all her family is dead, that she is alone in the world. So what would really happen if she learned Aegon existed? For sure there would be intense skepticism, but I think there is a part of her that will at the very least want to believe it to be true. Daenerys is very ambitious yes, but I don't think she would simply refuse to believe someone is her nephew because that means he has a better claim to the throne.

Besides, kinslaying is a huge taboo, and killing someone who claims to be her nephew without being sure is definitely going to not be the best option in her mind. And also, Aegon hasn't done anything yet to earn Dany's resentment, unlike Viserys. There might be some anger at Illyrio, some serious shock, denial even, but at the end of the day, this is one more family member she didn't know she even had. The show portrayed Jon's parentage as being a bad thing for her since he would have a better claim, but I doubt that will be the first thing on Dany's mind. In fact, she thinks to herself what would happen if Aegon was alive:

Five Aegons had ruled the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. There would have been a sixth, but the Usurper's dogs had murdered her brother's son when he was still a babe at the breast. If he had lived, I might have married him.

There is a good chance that the emotions she feels when learning about Aegon will be a precursor to the R+L=J reveal with Jon Snow. Just more reason Aegon is a big step towards R+L=J being confirmed.

Although Daenerys is quite ready to leave Slaver's Bay for Westeros at the end of ADWD, Aegon's existence might motivate her to leave even more quickly and solidify her goal to get the Iron Throne. However, I don't think that Aegon is going to become a new main character. His appearance and his actions I feel are more important than his actual character. And hey, maybe the second Dance will involved Daenerys and Aegon, but I think there is enough reason to doubt it.

Next up; the Golden Company landing, Dorne, and Aegon's game of cyvasse, detailed.

#asoiaf meta #young griff #daenerys targaryen #second dance of the dragons #house targaryen #r+l=j #aegon vi targaryen #house blackfyre #golden company #jon snow #asoiaf parallels

[artificialqueens]

The Parent Trap, Chapter 8 (Biadore) - Henny

WELL WELL WELL I hope you bitches are ready!

Hello, my loves!

Did you miss me? That was a loOOooooOoNg hiatus, almost *holds up three fingers* this many,I think. I have no excuses, I really just lacked the passion to continue this one. But, I’ve been lurking on Tumblr too long and I’m just so ready to get back into this. I have most of it plotted out already. I won’t promise a regular update, but I’m sure I’d get to finish this one way or another.

ALSO, I don’t want to get clocked or whatever, but I know when it comes to IVF and basic biology (I guess) The twins aren’t going to be identical since they’re from two separate sperm cells?? BUT, LIKE ALSO, I DON’T CARE?? It’s fanfiction, not fact. SO LET’S JUST SAY THESE GIRLS ARE IDENTICAL, BUT ONE OF EM IS DANNY’S AND ONE OF EM ROY’S (BUT YOU WON’T REALLY FIND OUT). Just please don’t make me think about science-y stuff. Sorry, STEM Majors!

Another thing, assume AS2 didn’t happen, okey?

All the love, Hennies!

xx Henny

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“Well… well… well… I hope you bitches are ready… “ Nerissa smiles, excited to meet Portia’s favorite. And when the screen shows her a face that is all too familiar and a voice that hits a little too close to home,

“I’m Bianca Del Rio, I’m thirty-seven years old…”

She pales.

Portia notices the quick change of mood. She reaches out to press the spacebar to pause the video, a little upset with the fact that they won’t get to finish the episode. The other girl is silent as she moves from Portia’s bed to her own, and something within Portia knew that Nerissa was in her head, deeply in her head. Not wanting to force the girl into anything she wasn’t comfortable with, Portia fiddles with the edge of her laptop with her head down.

Nerissa can feel the blood draining from her face. Some things were clicking into place. Her dad was a drag queen. Was Riz surprised? Not really. She has seen her dad put makeup on some models, not full-drag, but glam nonetheless. The dresses? Obviously. But, why didn’t HE tell HER? Anger rises in her system, she wanted to scream but something was holding her back. Her and her dad were always so close, and she’d like to believe that he didn’t have any secrets from her. Except that one room in their home. HMMM.  

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A memory unlocks in her head. Age 7, finally mustering up the courage to rebel against her dad’s instructions,specifically about the one room in their apartment her dad said to never go in. It was always kept locked, except Uncle Shane accidentally left it unlocked that fruitful day. Nerissa remembers sneaking in, both adults thinking she was taking a nap. When she turned the lights on, her eyes were met with different colors. Sparkly, colorful, sequined dresses; Tall boots and heels; wigs of blacks, browns, and reds neatly perched on mannequin heads. It was beautiful and excitement bubbled up in her tummy. She walked over to a wall that was filled with picture frames; some people in them she knew, the others she didn’t.

One thing that struck her the most was a portrait that was nearly as big as her then-7-year-old body in the middle of the wall, the chandelier breaking the light in a myriad of colors on the photograph. The picture was of two beautiful queens, a little heavy handed on the makeup, now that she thinks about it. The two ladies wore beautiful black gowns, she would even assume that it was cut from the same fabric. The one with black hair wore a giant crown on her head, smiling a dimpled smile with her face to the spotlight. The other had fire red hair; she looked like she was screaming with joy as she lifted a sparkly scepter up in the air. They had one arm around the other’s waist and they looked very happy. She didn’t think much about it then, but…

“That was Bianca… and oh my god– that was Adore.” Nerissa says out of the blue, catching Portia’s attention from the other side of the room.

“I’m sorry what?” Portia asks, leaning closer to indicate that she was listening carefully now and that Riz had her full attention.

“Back in New York, my dad… he always kept this room locked. I only went there once, but he got really mad when he caught me.”

Portia moves to sit on Nerissa’s bed. “Yeah, okay… but you said something about my dad. What about Adore?”

“In that room,” Nerissa licks her lips, speaking slowly to help her rationalize her story in her head better. “… and I’m not sure if it’s still there. There was a picture of my dad as Bianca, and I think Adore. My dad wore a crown and Adore was holding the scepter.” She says thoughtfully. “Wow, spoiler alert. Ha!” She tries to joke, but now Portia looks at her with a shocked face.

“Wait, YOUR DAD IS BIANCA DEL RIO?! LIKE YOU’RE NERISSA HAYLOCK?? HAYLOCK?!?! AS IN ROY HAYLOCK?”

Nerissa blinks. “I thought you knew – how many Haylocks do you know?”

Portia blanches. “I DIDN’T WANT TO ASSUME! Roy Haylock has always been very hush-hush about you. You don’t even appear on social media, so you can’t really blame me. And my hatred for you, then, really blinded me. Sorry again, by the way. WAIT, LET ME JUST FANGIRL FOR A MINUTE.” Portia grabs a pillow and lets out a giddy scream.  

Nerissa lets out a soft laugh before rolling her eyes playfully. “ANYWAY! FOCUS!! So, as I was saying, my dad has a picture of Bianca and Adore during, what I assume was, the coronation in his super secret closet.”

“Wait… but– No… no… that can’t be.” Portia says once she gets to calm her erratic heartbeat. “Bianca won season 6, I don’t think a photo like that photo exists– unless–” She stops talking abruptly and runs to her laptop. Nerissa watches her type furiously, obviously looking for something. When Portia finds it, she makes her way back to her position earlier.

“Look, see” Portia redirects Nerissa’s attention to the laptop’s screen. It was under a folder called “conspiracy theories” and from Riz’s point-of-view it was nothing but screenshots from Tumblr or twitter. “Back then, during their time, it was rumored that Bianca and Adore had filmed an ending where they both won–like they shared it. “

“Did you really search this about your dad?”

“YES! Now, pay attention” Portia huffs, brushing her hair back. “I don’t have more proof though because apparently the receipts back then were trashed when people started losing interest in Season 6 because we’re like in its, I don’t know like, 1000th season now. Then suddenly, when Bianca said she was quitting drag for good, more people deleted stuff about Bianca to respect her wishes then full-blast supported Roy in his fashion career.”

“Wait– wait, Bianca quit drag? Why?”

“Well, people started speculating that it was probably for his daugh–” Portia stops mid sentence, looking at Nerissa’s sudden sad face sheepishly. “Hey, don’t feel bad!”

“He was so happy, Porsche! I may not remember the picture’s every detail, but he was so happy being Bianca. Did you see the way she smiled the minute she walked in the werkroom? You mean to tell me I did that??”

“No, that’s just one of the speculations, really.”

“What were the others?”

“Retirement, boredom… to name a few. One thing I found interesting, but I highly doubt is that people said it was because of Adore.” Portia snorts as she mindlessly scrolls to her photos on her laptop. Nerissa observes her for a bit, before asking;

“How come?”

“If you’re talking about why people thought Adore was involved; that’s because before Bianca quit drag, her and Adore were really close. As in, super close, they were always seen or spotted together. When Bianca did quit, there was complete radio silence from Adore. They cut all communications on social media. Then people saw that they unfollowed each other and whatnot, PLUS they also found it odd that Roy was still talking to Courtney and would go to support local drag scenes, but would completely cop out if Adore was in any shape/form involved.” Portia explains, and Nerissa notes the hints of sadness in her voice.

“Makes sense to me, so then why do you doubt it?” Nerissa’s head tilts slightly as she watches Portia put her laptop on the bed. Her eyes then drift to the mirror that’s adjacent to the side of her bed and stares intently at their reflection.

“Well, for starters, if it ever happened, my dad would tell me. He knows that I absolutely adore Bianca, so I think if they ever had a relationship; he would let me know. It is weird though how he doesn’t really like talking about her. He’d just smile and shrug, so maybe there was a falling out or a fight.” Portia narrates, her sadness becoming a little more apparent.

Nerissa hums, in deep thought. A pregnant pause lingers in the air. With her curiosity getting the best of her, Nerissa asks out of the blue;

“Hey, Portia?”

“Yeah?"

"Did your dad adopt you?"

Portia looks at Nerissa as if she’s grown another head, which coming from her is ironic in itself.

"Well, no, but it’s kind of complicated. My dad was actually married in the past. He would tell me that they tried both fertilized eggs and hoped for the best. Nine months later, I was born and up until today, he doesn’t know if I was his or his ex’s biological baby, but he loves me nonetheless.”

“But won’t you look predominantly like one though?”

“Yeah, I look like my egg donor who looks eerily like my dad.” Portia pauses, head tilted.

“Aren’t you a little curious which one’s your biological dad?” Nerissa continues to probe. If things lined up correctly, Nerissa knew the both of them were going to be thrown into a loop. Portia thinks for a while, considering the idea, before her face contorts with distaste.

“Nah, he never really cared for me in the beginning, so why should I bother now? Even if I was his biologically, he didn’t raise me. He’s just a sperm donor to me, if ever. Why’d you ask anyway?“

"Because I refuse to play stupid when it’s so obvious that we’re twins.” Nerissa exclaims with such vigor, Portia nearly fell over the bed in surprise. ”Can’t you see how identical we look?"

"But…”

“No, no! Don’t try to deny it. I know there’s this whole theory about at least 5 people in the world looking like you–but not like this! Especially not when we basically have the same story growing up!” Nerissa is shaking as she stands to retrieve a picture in her bag; the very same frame she showed her friends her first day in the camp. She traced the edges of the frame before following the lines of her sleeping dad’s face. ‘Why didn’t you tell me?'  She thinks inwardly, willing the man in the photo for an answer.

“Riz, I think this is too much of a stretch. Our dads would’ve told us if it was something this serious. And our childhood couldn’t be that similar! And, even if–IF we were siblings; I wasn’t born a twin.”

“Oh yeah? When’s your birthday?”

“January 12.”

“Same here. I’m turning 11, you’re turning 11, too, right?. I’m telling you…  It makes sense! My dad ALSO said he had a partner a long time ago and like you; I don’t know who my biological father is because I could be my dad’s or his ex! And, to be honest, I really don’t care to know at this point, but it all lines up!” Riz gets flustered now, there’s a funny feeling in her tummy as Portia still looks at her with an unreadable expression on her face.

“And my dad said I looked mostly egg donor too, but he always says that he can see the things that remind him that I’m his or his partner’s– ex partner .” Nerissa finishes, plopping down to sit beside Portia who was still silent. “Well… what do you think? Say something!” She urges, almost pleadingly.

“So… you mean to tell me…”

“Yeah?” Nerissa prompts, watching the girl add things up in her head and the growing realization dawn on her face.

“BIADORE WAS REAL?!?!” Portia screeches with excitement before Nerissa hits her with a pillow.

“UGhhhhhhH!” Nerissa groans, “Can you stop thinking about drag race? This is bigger than us now. BUT, IN HINDSIGHT, YES! I genuinely believe that my dad and your dad used to be together, and they were probably the “ex” in our birth stories.”

“How are we twins with different dads though?” Portia asks once she calms down again.

“It’s possible. I read about it once, it’s like what happened with Neil Patrick Harris and his partner. They had a surrogate accept both eggs, so they had twins. Theirs was fraternal though, and seeing how identical we are– I’m guessing we’re a pretty special case of science and sheer luck.” Nerissa sighs, then sadly adds “It’s kinda annoying how they didn’t tell us. It’s one thing to divorce each other, but to raise kids and hiding a part of their truth? I think it’s cruel.”

“No… It kinda makes sense to me.” Portia says after a few minutes of silence and letting the question linger in the air. “My dad didn’t tell me about you… about how I was a twin because he knew…” she continues to say,  breath slow and soft, almost wavering. Tears slowly fill her eyes as she looks at her twin in front of her, “He knew if he told me about you, I would go looking for you. I- I would’ve done everything to meet my sister because I’ve always wanted a sister.” She sniffles, her hand reaching out to grasp the other girl’s hand. “And now I have one” Portia pulls Nerissa in for a hug.

They let the tears flow; tears of confusion, anger, frustration, joy, and love. They murmured their “sorry”; “it’s okay”; “I’ll still fight you when it comes to boys though”; and “Nah, don’t worry, I don’t even like boys…”

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When sobs turned to sniffles and feelings were pacified by food and other words of affirmation, they found themselves nestled on the ground between their bed frames with their mattress and heaps of pillows and blankets surrounding them.

“We still have a few weeks in here, what do you want to do till then?” Portia asks as she stuffs another cookie down her throat. Nerissa lifts a leg up nonchalantly in the air before dramatically dropping it to Portia’s side of the bed.

“Well, I still have more episodes of season 6 to go, right?” She proposes, making Portia smile with excitement. Portia, then, scrambles to get her laptop and plop back down to their little nest.

“Ready to see my dad kick your dad’s ass?” Portia taunts as she hovers to play Episode 2 from where the left off.

“Yeah, as if…”

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Los Angeles, California.  9PM.

Adore sat in front of the mirror, already cinched and dressed, 30 minutes before she was supposed to go on. She had arrived at least an hour before call time, something she had picked up when her and Bianca used to go to gigs together. She rolls her eyes at the memory, mostly due to her annoyance with herself. She knew deep down that she should’ve moved on; it’s been years. But, can you really blame her? You never forget your greatest love and your most painful heartbreak; it was rare for both storylines to be the same person. Because, who in their right mind let’s their greatest love go? Adore did; Danny did. She lets out a few lip thrills to recompose herself and blinks away at the tears threatening to ruin her makeup.

Her phone rings; without looking at the contact, she answers it with a few sniffles.

“Hello?” Adore drawls while grabbing a tissue across the table and dab it slowly under her eyes and her nose.

“Adore, darling!” Ru’s voice rings loudly across the speakers. Adore can hear him talk to someone in the background, but their conversation couldn’t be heard from her end.

“Hi, Ru…” She tries to mask the surprise in her voice. She knew the RuPaul didn’t make social calls UNLESS it was a big social event. If there’s one reason, one reason at all, Ru could be calling it’s…

“Hey, baby, I just wanted to call you myself since this might be a big favor to ask you…”

–that.

“Of course, Mama, what is it?” Adore was barely listening at this point, trying to come up with excuses already.

“Well, would you be interested in joining the first all-stars: battle of the winners in place of Bianca?”

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PREVIOUS CHAPTERS:

Prologue | Chapter One | Chapter Two | Chapter Three | Chapter Four | Chapter Five | Chapter Six | Chapter Seven |

TAGS Biadore, Bianca Del Rio, Adore Delano, Courtney Act, Parent Trap AU, Henny, Family, Slowburn

WELL WELL WELL I hope you bitches are ready!

Hello, my loves!

Did you miss me? That was a loOOooooOoNg hiatus, almost *holds up three fingers* this many,I think. I have no excuses, I really just lacked the passion to continue this one. But, I’ve been lurking on Tumblr too long and I’m just so ready to get back into this. I have most of it plotted out already. I won’t promise a regular update, but I’m sure I’d get to finish this one way or another.

ALSO, I don’t want to get clocked or whatever, but I know when it comes to IVF and basic biology (Iguess) The twins aren’t going to be identical since they’re from two separate sperm cells?? BUT, LIKE ALSO, I DON’T CARE?? It’s fanfiction, not fact. SO LET’S JUST SAY THESE GIRLS ARE IDENTICAL, BUT ONE OF EM IS DANNY’S AND ONE OF EM ROY’S (BUT YOU WON’T REALLY FIND OUT). Just please don’t make me think about science-y stuff. Sorry, STEM Majors!

Another thing, assume AS2 didn’t happen, okey?

All the love, Hennies!

Xxx Henny

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“Well… well… well… I hope you bitches are ready… “ Nerissa smiles, excited to meet Portia’s favorite. And when the screen shows her a face that is all too familiar and a voice that hits a little too close to home,

“I’m Bianca Del Rio, I’m thirty-seven years old…”

She pales.

Portia notices the quick change of mood. She reaches out to press the spacebar to pause the video, a little upset with the fact that they won’t get to finish the episode. The other girl is silent as she moves from Portia’s bed to her own, and something within Portia knew that Nerissa was in her head, deeply in her head. Not wanting to force the girl into anything she wasn’t comfortable with, Portia fiddles with the edge of her laptop with her head down.

Nerissa can feel the blood draining from her face. Some things were clicking into place. Her dad was a drag queen. Was Riz surprised? Not really. She has seen her dad put makeup on some models, not full-drag, but glam nonetheless. The dresses? Obviously. But, why didn’t HE tell HER?  Anger rises in her system, she wanted to scream but something was holding her back. Her and her dad were always so close, and she’d like to believe that he didn’t have any secrets from her. Except that one room in their home. HMMM.  

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A memory unlocks in her head. Age 7, finally mustering up the courage to rebel against her dad’s instructions,specifically about the one room in their apartment her dad said to never go in. It was always kept locked, except Uncle Shane accidentally left it unlocked that fruitful day. Nerissa remembers sneaking in, both adults thinking she was taking a nap. When she turned the lights on, her eyes were met with different colors. Sparkly, colorful, sequined dresses; Tall boots and heels; wigs of blacks, browns, and reds neatly perched on mannequin heads. It was beautiful and excitement bubbled up in her tummy. She walked over to a wall that was filled with picture frames; some people in them she knew, the others she didn’t.

One thing that struck her the most was a portrait that was nearly as big as her then-7-year-old body in the middle of the wall, the chandelier breaking the light in a myriad of colors on the photograph. The picture was of two beautiful queens, a little heavy handed on the makeup, now that she thinks about it. The two ladies wore beautiful black gowns, she would even assume that it was cut from the same fabric. The one with black hair wore a giant crown on her head, smiling a dimpled smile with her face to the spotlight. The other had fire red hair; she looked like she was screaming with joy as she lifted a sparkly scepter up in the air. They had one arm around the other’s waist and they looked very happy. She didn’t think much about it then, but…

“That was Bianca… and oh my god– that was Adore.” Nerissa says out of the blue, catching Portia’s attention from the other side of the room.

“I’m sorry what?” Portia asks, leaning closer to indicate that she was listening carefully now and that Riz had her full attention.

“Back in New York, my dad… he always kept this room locked. I only went there once, but he got really mad when he caught me.”

Portia moves to sit on Nerissa’s bed. “Yeah, okay… but you said something about my dad. What about Adore?”

“In that room,” Nerissa licks her lips, speaking slowly to help her rationalize her story in her head better. “… and I’m not sure if it’s still there. There was a picture of my dad as Bianca, and I think Adore. My dad wore a crown and Adore was holding the scepter.” She says thoughtfully. “Wow, spoiler alert. Ha!” She tries to joke, but now Portia looks at her with a shocked face.

“Wait, YOUR DAD IS BIANCA DEL RIO?! LIKE YOU’RE NERISSA HAYLOCK?? HAYLOCK?!?! AS IN ROY HAYLOCK?”

Nerissa blinks. “I thought you knew – how many Haylocks do you know?”

Portia blanches. “I DIDN’T WANT TO ASSUME! Roy Haylock has always been very hush-hush about you. You don’t even appear on social media, so you can’t really blame me. And my hatred for you, then, really blinded me. Sorry again, by the way. WAIT, LET ME JUST FANGIRL FOR A MINUTE.” Portia grabs a pillow and lets out a giddy scream.  

Nerissa lets out a soft laugh before rolling her eyes playfully. “ANYWAY! FOCUS!! So, as I was saying, my dad has a picture of Bianca and Adore during, what I assume was, the coronation in his super secret closet.”

“Wait… but– No… no… that can’t be.” Portia says once she gets to calm her erratic heartbeat. “Bianca won season 6, I don’t think a photo like that photo exists– unless–” She stops talking abruptly and runs to her laptop. Nerissa watches her type furiously, obviously looking for something. When Portia finds it, she makes her way back to her position earlier.

“Look, see” Portia redirects Nerissa’s attention to the laptop’s screen. It was under a folder called “conspiracy theories” and from Riz’s point-of-view it was nothing but screenshots from Tumblr or twitter. “Back then, during their time, it was rumored that Bianca and Adore had filmed an ending where they both won–like they shared it. “

“Did you really search this about your dad?”

“YES! Now, pay attention” Portia huffs, brushing her hair back. “I don’t have more proof though because apparently the receipts back then were trashed when people started losing interest in Season 6 because we’re like in its, I don’t know like, 1000th season now. Then suddenly, when Bianca said she was quitting drag for good, more people deleted stuff about Bianca to respect her wishes then full-blast supported Roy in his fashion career.”

“Wait– wait, Bianca quit drag? Why?”

“Well, people started speculating that it was probably for his daugh–” Portia stops mid sentence, looking at Nerissa’s sudden sad face sheepishly. “Hey, don’t feel bad!”

“He was so happy, Porsche! I may not remember the picture’s every detail, but he was so happy being Bianca. Did you see the way she smiled the minute she walked in the werkroom? You mean to tell me I did that??”

“No, that’s just one of the speculations, really.”

“What were the others?”

“Retirement, boredom… to name a few. One thing I found interesting, but I highly doubt is that people said it was because of Adore.” Portia snorts as she mindlessly scrolls to her photos on her laptop. Nerissa observes her for a bit, before asking;

“How come?”

“If you’re talking about why people thought Adore was involved; that’s because before Bianca quit drag, her and Adore were really close. As in, super close, they were always seen or spotted together. When Bianca did quit, there was complete radio silence from Adore. They cut all communications on social media. Then people saw that they unfollowed each other and whatnot, PLUS they also found it odd that Roy was still talking to Courtney and would go to support local drag scenes, but would completely cop out if Adore was in any shape/form involved.” Portia explains, and Nerissa notes the hints of sadness in her voice.

“Makes sense to me, so then why do you doubt it?” Nerissa’s head tilts slightly as she watches Portia put her laptop on the bed. Her eyes then drift to the mirror that’s adjacent to the side of her bed and stares intently at their reflection.

“Well, for starters, if it ever happened, my dad would tell me. He knows that I absolutely adore Bianca, so I think if they ever had a relationship; he would let me know. It is weird though how he doesn’t really like talking about her. He’d just smile and shrug, so maybe there was a falling out or a fight.” Portia narrates, her sadness becoming a little more apparent.

Nerissa hums, in deep thought. A pregnant pause lingers in the air. With her curiosity getting the best of her, Nerissa asks out of the blue;

"Hey, Portia?”

“Yeah?"

"Did your dad adopt you?"

Portia looks at Nerissa as if she’s grown another head, which coming from her is ironic in itself.

"Well, no, but it’s kind of complicated. My dad was actually married in the past. He would tell me that they tried both fertilized eggs and hoped for the best. Nine months later, I was born and up until today he doesn’t know if I was his or his ex’s biological baby, but he loves me nonetheless.”

“But won’t you look predominantly like one though?”

“Yeah, I look like my egg donor who looks eerily like my dad.” Portia pauses, head tilted.

“Aren’t you a little curious which one’s your biological dad?” Nerissa continues to probe. If things lined up correctly, Nerissa knew the both of them were going to be thrown into a loop. Portia thinks for a while, considering the idea, before her face contorts with distaste.

“Nah, he never really cared for me in the beginning, so why should I bother now? Even if I was his, biologically, he didn’t raise me. He’s just a sperm donor to me, if ever. Why’d you ask anyway?“

"Because I refuse to play stupid when it’s so obvious that we’re twins.” Nerissa exclaims with such vigor, Portia nearly fell over the bed in surprise. ”Can’t you see how identical we look?"

"But…”

“No, no! Don’t try to deny it. I know there’s this whole theory about at least 5 people in the world looking like you–but not like this! Especially not when we basically have the same story growing up!” Nerissa is shaking as she stands to retrieve a picture in her bag;the very same frame she showed her friends her first day in the camp. She traced the edges of the frame before following the lines of her sleeping dad’s face. 'Why didn’t you tell me?'  She thinks inwardly, willing the man in the photo for an answer.

“Riz, I think this is too much of a stretch. Our dads would’ve told us if it was something this serious. And our childhood couldn’t be that similar! And, even if–IF we were siblings; I wasn’t born a twin.”

“Oh yeah? When’s your birthday?”

“January 12.”

“Same here. I’m turning 11, you’re turning 11. I’m telling you…  It makes sense! My dad ALSO said he had a partner a long time ago and like you; I don’t know who my biological father is because I could be my dad’s or his ex! And, to be honest, I really don’t care to know at this point, but it all lines up!” Riz gets flustered now, there’s a funny feeling in her tummy as Portia still looks at her with an unreadable expression on her face.

“And my dad said I looked mostly egg donor too, but he always says that he can see the things that remind him that I’m his or his partner’s– ex partner .” Nerissa finishes, plopping down to sit beside Portia who was still silent. “Well… what do you think? Say something!” She urges, almost pleadingly.

“So… you mean to tell me…”

“Yeah?” Nerissa prompts, watching the girl add things up in her head and the growing realization dawn on her face.

“BIADORE WAS REAL?!?!” Portia screeches with excitement before Nerissa hits her with a pillow.

“UGhhhhhhH!” Nerissa groans, “Can you stop thinking about drag race? This is bigger than us now. BUT, IN HINDSIGHT, YES! I genuinely believe that my dad and your dad used to be together, and they were probably the “ex” in our birth stories.”

“How are we twins with different dads though?” Portia asks once she calms down again.

“It’s possible. I read about it once, it’s like what happened with Neil Patrick Harris and his partner. They had a surrogate accept both eggs, so they had twins. Theirs was fraternal though, and seeing how identical we are– I’m guessing we’re a pretty special case of science and sheer luck.” Nerissa sighs, “It’s kinda annoying how they didn’t tell us though. It’s one thing to divorce each other, but to raise kids and hiding a part of their truth? I think it’s cruel.”

“No… It kinda makes sense to me.” Portia says after a few minutes of silence and letting the question linger in the air. “My dad didn’t tell me about you… about how I was a twin because he knew…” she continues to say,  breath slow and soft, almost wavering. Tears slowly fill her eyes as she looks at her twin in front of her, “He knew if he told me about you, I would go looking for you. I- I would’ve done everything to meet my sister because I’ve always wanted a sister.” She sniffles, her hand reaching out to grasp the other girl’s hand. “And now I have one” Portia pulls Nerissa in for a hug.

They let the tears flow; tears of confusion, anger, frustration, joy, and love. They murmured their “sorry”; “it’s okay”; “I’ll still fight you when it comes to boys though”; and “Nah, don’t worry, I don’t even like boys…”

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When sobs turned to sniffles and feelings were pacified by food and other words of affirmation, they found themselves nestled on the ground between their bed frames with their mattress and heaps of pillows and blankets surrounding them.

“We still have a few weeks in here, what do you want to do till then?” Portia asks as she stuffs another cookie down her throat. Nerissa lifts a leg up nonchalantly in the air before dramatically dropping it to Portia’s side of the bed.

“Well, I still have more episodes of season 6 to go, right?” She proposes, making Portia smile with excitement. Portia, then, scrambles to get her laptop and plop back down to their little nest.

“Ready to see my dad kick your dad’s ass?” Portia taunts as she hovers to play Episode 2 from where the left off.

“Yeah, as if…”

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Los Angeles, California.  9PM.

Adore sat in front of the mirror, already cinched and dressed, 30 minutes before she was supposed to go on. She had arrived at least an hour before call time, something she had picked up when her and Bianca used to go to gigs together. She rolls her eyes at the memory, mostly due to her annoyance with herself. She knew deep down that she should’ve moved on; it’s been years. But, can you really blame her? You never forget your greatest love and your most painful heartbreak; it was rare for both storylines to be the same person. Because, who in their right mind let’s their greatest love go? Adore did; Danny did. She lets out a few lip thrills to recompose herself and blinks away at the tears threatening to ruin her makeup.

Her phone rings; without looking at the contact, she answers it with a few sniffles.

“Hello?” Adore drawls while grabbing a tissue across the table and dab it slowly under her eyes and her nose.

“Adore, darling!” Ru’s voice rings loudly across the speakers. Adore can hear him talk to someone in the background, but their conversation couldn’t be heard from her end.

“Hi, Ru…” She tries to mask the surprise in her voice. She knew the RuPaul didn’t make social calls UNLESS it was a big social event. If there’s one reason, one reason at all, Ru could be calling it’s…

“Hey, baby, I just wanted to call you myself since this might be a big favor to ask you…”

–that.

“Of course, Mama, what is it?” Adore was barely listening at this point, trying to come up with excuses already.

“Well, would you be interested in joining the first all-stars: battle of the winners in place of Bianca?”

#rpdr fanfiction #biadore #bianca del rio #adore delano #original child characters #canon compliant #parenting au #parent trap au #the parent trap #henny

[youngbugandtonystank]

I was wondering if I'm the only one who gets irritated when certain articles or movie reviewers on YT refer to Tony and Peter's relationship as one of "mentor and mentee"? While this is true, I feel like addressing them as mentor & mentee makes their relationship solely professional. Like, all Tony cares about is Spiderman and training him to be a better superhero. I get really angry when people interpret things like that and eliminate the personal connection between them. (1)

(2) Some also interpret Happy's words in FFH "Tony wouldn't have done what he did if he didn't know that you're going to be here after he was gone" as if Tony wanted to make sure that Spiderman was alive, so there will be someone to keep the world safe and continue his legacy as a superhero. Again, there is truth in this but I doubt Tony cared about Spiderman when he invented time travel. To me, he wanted to bring back Peter and for no other reason but because he loved him as a son.

(3) Could you please elaborate on this and point out why Tony and Peter shared more of a father/son relationship rather than purely teacher/student one. I love that in a recent post you talked about how Peter's goodbye to Tony was not the typical mentee goodbye. I'd love to hear more of your thoughts on this because to me, Peter was clearly saying goodbye to a father figure. He was almost begging him to hold on, to not leave them, etc. Thank you in advance!

Hi!

I know what you mean, I hate it when they do that too. 

Before this, we need to see the difference between the three concepts Peter means to Tony:

1. Mentee: is a person who is being mentored. 

(’What we discussed. Keep your distance. Web 'em up.’)

(’Stay close to the ground. Build up your game helping little people, like that lady that bought you the churro.’)

(’Don’t do anything I would do, and definitely don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. There’s a... There’s a little grey area in there, and that’s where you operate.’)

Haha, even at this stage Tony congratulated Peter like three times the same day lmao

Peter Parker: Hey, everyone.Tony Stark: . . . Good job.

Tony Stark: Nice job, kid.Peter Parker: Thanks.

Peter Parker: What?Tony Stark: You did a good job. Stay down.

Tony Stark: I wanted to tell you what an incredible job your nephew did this weekend at the Stark internship retreat. Everyone was impressed.

The pattern of telling Peter that he did a great job constantly is something Tony wanted from his father and from there, you can tell he’s already entering the parental territory even if he was just the mentor at that time.

Protegé: is a person guided and protected by a more prominent person, their relationship is mutual. 

(’I did listen, kid. Who do you think called the FBI, huh? Do you know that I was the only one who believed in you?���)

(’it’s never too early to start thinking about college. I got some pull at MIT.’)

(’You know what? He actually made a really mature choice. It just surprised the heck out of us.’)

Son-figure/Pseudo-son: one who can identify on a deeply psychological level and who generates emotions generally felt towards one's father. A person who looks up to someone older and treats them like a father. 

(’What if somebody had died tonight? Different story, right? ‘Cause that’s on you. And if you died, I feel like that’s on me.’)

(’I wanted you to be better.’ ‘Pete, you gotta let go. I'm gonna catch you.’)

(’My dad never really gave me a lot of support... And I’m just trying to break the cycle of shame.’)

(’But it was such a long way down and I just thought about you on the way...’)

Peter Parker: Hey, man. What's up, Mr. Stark?Tony Stark: Kid, where'd you come from?Peter Parker: Field trip to MoMA.

Peter is all of the above. He went through those with Tony and their relationship developed into father-son territory.  

For me, it’s easy to tell that they have a father-son relationship by just looking at the same scene you mentioned; Tony’s death.

Think about it, Pepper has been in Tony’s life for around 10 years and Rhodey has been in his life since he was 15 and the fact that Peter is within the circle of people to say goodbye to him personally means a lot. The directors picked Peter, Pepper, and Rhodey to create an emotional goodbye to Tony, with the people who are closest to him. Peter is one of them, I don’t think a simple mentee would get that privilege. If Peter was just the mentee in Tony’s life he would’ve gotten this type of goodbye:

Far away and keeping distance. But Peter got the close contact, Rhodey even gave Peter time with Tony and Pepper even helped Peter up. That looks like a family dynamic. 

I don’t if you read my comparison between Harley and Peter but if Peter was playing only the mentee part he would’ve been in Harley’s position. Tony and Harley probably kept contact through text messages and emails. He was invited to the funeral and stood very far away from Tony’s inner circle. Harley could’ve easily gotten an internship just like Peter since the kid is also smart and Tony could’ve said something about him in the movies but not once was this kid mentioned. This is because Harley is more like a ‘part-of-the-legacy’ kid of the generation that Tony appreciates than a pseudo-son. 

A simple mentee wouldn’t get the treatment Peter got:

I think some people really think EDITH is just a normal A.I. or some pair of technological glasses lol no. EDITH can and is: 

Tony’s security and defense system.

Tony’s most powerful artificial tactical intelligence.

Gives access to Stark Industries' global satellite network. The entire Stark global security network.

Stark Industries’ arsenal of missiles and drones.

Back door to all major telecommunication networks.

Capable of hacking into nearly any computerized device. 

Is programmed to have Peter Parker as the only authorized user.

Stark Industries' weaponry. 

Is the user interface to the entire Stark Industries network.

Tony basically gave him his legacy and his company there. A mentee wouldn’t get that responsibility. Why not give the glasses to Rhodey; an officer with the United States Air Force and liaison between the military in the Department of Acquisitions and Stark Industries; an actual aerospace engineer and Tony’s best friend? Why not leave that to Pepper; the CEO of his company and wife? Or Happy, his head of security and one of his best friends? In terms of the company, Peter now has almost the same power as Pepper. Almost. 

He gave that to Peter because he trusted him and loved him as a son, someone worthy of carrying his legacy.

Many wanted Tony to leave Peter money or something fancy, but the truth is, what’s really more important and personal than a man’s entire legacy and trust? Nothing. Not even money. Also, who’s to say he didn’t leave money too? We’ll find out in the next movie, who knows, maybe he left something else too. 

Let’s also remember EDITH wasn’t just a pair of glasses before, she was just like JARVIS or FRIDAY but Tony decided to upload her system in the glasses.

More proof of this is Peter being able to call Happy and ask him to go to an entirely different continent to pick him up in a private jet where Happy not only helps Peter with his injuries and lets Peter use Tony’s technology like nobody’s business but also assures him that Tony did everything he did in Endgame for him. This is not the treatment a mentee gets. 

Even in Ant-Man, Hank Pym gave his protegé Darren great power in their relationship because and I quote: ‘I thought I saw something in him, a son I never had perhaps.’

Even if their stories are different, Pym mentions he saw a lot of himself 

Darren Cross:All those years ago, you picked me. What did you see in me?

Hank Pym:I saw myself.

Darren Cross:Then why did you push me away?

Hank Pym:Because I saw too much of myself.

Some mentees and protegés are meant to evolve into something more and this is what happened with Tony and Peter. I don’t think they thought their relationship would get to the point it got but it did.

Directors, producers, actors, and actresses have said it before and the only ones who can’t accept the fact are either tony antis, comic book super fans or fans of the first spiderman movies. Other people can clearly see their relationship for what it is. 

There’s one thing I really hated before FFH came out, actually even before Endgame came out; many were already replacing Tony as Peter’s father figure and were guessing who was going to be the next one in line. They were nominating Doctor Strange, Happy or Fury as if being a father figure is something superficial and exchangeable. And you want to know why they were already replacing him? Nope, it’s not because Tony was going to die, at that time nobody knew that, it’s because it was stated before that RDJ was not going to participate in FFH. That’s the only reason. I get it, Peter had two father figures and he lost his biological dad but that doesn’t mean Peter sees every single male out there as a father figure, sure he can get attached because he’s a kid but he doesn’t love them the way he loved/loves Ben and Tony.

Thnx!♥ 

I also know I have other asks in my inbox and I promise I’ll get to them as soon as possible. 

#tony stark #peter parker #irondad #spiderson #endgame #far from home #tom holland #robert downey jr #marvel #mcu

[echo-bleu]

how fragile we are

Being raised by humans doesn't make Isobel, Max and Michael human. Or maybe it does. Maybe it makes them too human.

[implied canon sexual assault, ptsd, trauma, dissociation]

1.

Michael doesn't start speaking for nearly two years after they come out of the pods. Maybe it's because he doesn't have anyone to talk to.

Isobel and Max used to communicate with him telepathically, but once they're gone he doesn't have anyone else. They have each other, and parents who try to encourage them to come out of their shell, so they both say their first words just weeks after they find a home.

Michael doesn't have a home. He doesn't need to speak, since no one would listen to him anyway.

At the group home, he's labeled a problem child nearly from the first day, and it's the kind of label that sticks to you like a used band-aid, gluing itself to whatever finger you try to use to get rid of it.

So instead of talking, he draws. He draws on any surface adults let him have access to. He draws the shiny lights that are his only memory of wherever he was before, over and over. Circle, line, line, circle. Back to the middle. Line, circle.

One day, one of the ladies, the one who likes him a little and even talks to him sometimes, takes his hand and shows him how to draw something else.

Michael learns to write before he learns to talk, but it's a long time before he has anything to write about.

Iz is so jealous of Max sometimes. On days like today, looking in the mirror, she hates herself. She hates the way her body is changing, the budding breasts she doesn't want, the dresses her mother still makes her wear. Max doesn't have all that. Max even has a good name, a name that doesn't say girl or boy to anyone who hears it. Iz hates her name, she never wants to hear it again. She told Max and he calls her Iz, now, and she likes that a little more. But their parents never do.

Cutting her hair short didn't help, and now everyone looks at her weird. Maybe because she did it in the bathroom mirror, with the kitchen scissors, and why did no one tell her why the hairdresser wets it first? It hurt. Her hair looked all wonky afterwards, and Mom dragged her to the salon to make it better. Iz screamed for two hours straight.

She steals one of Max's baseball caps and puts it on her head. He has at least three of them anyway, and he doesn't mind her stealing his clothes. It's always Mom and Dad who mind it.

The hat makes it a little better. She can look in the mirror without wanting to slash at her body with a knife.

She doesn't remove it for three years.

Max sits on a low wall at the edge of the playground, watching the other boys kick a ball around. It's never been his thing. He likes to read, and write, but none of the other kids enjoy that. So he just sits alone, most of the time.

He can feel Iz watching him. Sometimes he even gets a flash of himself through her eyes. The teachers keep saying that they're too fusional, that they'll never make friends if they stay together, so they switched Iz to another class and now they're not even allowed to sit together.

Max isn't good at making friends. It's like the other kids know he's different. Iz and him tried to figure it out so many times, where they come from, why they don't feel like they're from the same planet, but they don't understand.

Maybe it's because they aren't.

They're eleven and five months when they're reunited. Iz is the one who sees him first, the boy whose name they don't even remember now, the boy with curly hair and a special place inside their minds. He's beautiful, so beautiful, because he's here. They've missed him so much.

Michael hugs them tight like he never wants to let them go, and he refuses to say where he's been. He has scars on his arms and he never wears shorts. He's sad, sadder even than Max, sadder than Iz feels inside.

But together, they can be happy. They can be strong.

They're just one day short of twelve−their birthday has been set at the day they were found in the desert−when they find the pods again. When they find proof that they're not from around here.

It's almost a relief. It explains a lot. And yet nothing. They're a mystery.

They're aliens.

They don't know what it means. Can they live a normal life? Are they all alone? Will someone come for them, someday?

2.

Michael wonders often, if someone will come for him.

He's fourteen, and he's just escaped, barely, from another exorcism, when he figures out that no other aliens will come to bring him home. When someone comes for him, it will be a human, and it will be to torture him, kill him, dissect him. From there on, he lives with that thought at the back of his mind. It will happen, someday. It only takes a single misstep. They almost made one, that night.

Maybe when the humans catch him, he'll find out that he deserved it all along. That his race is really one of monsters. Except by now he's fairly sure there can be no worse monsters than humans.

But at least he's found Max and Isobel again, and they're okay. They're better than okay, they're thriving. At least from Michael's point of view, at least until recently−that night changed things.

He buries the jealousy deep inside him, until it's almost gone. When he can get away with it, he hitches a ride to the desert, out to the turquoise mines, and he lies there. He no longer waits for someone to come get him. He wishes for the world to disappear, until he's the only one left.

He wishes that he could disappear from the world.

Iz hurts, inside. Physically, at first, but that doesn't last anywhere near long enough. It's just bruises, right? The man didn't have time to do anything worse.

She should be fine. She is fine. She has to be.

She carries on like nothing happened, at first. As far as anyone else is concerned, that's the truth. She's worried about Max for a while, but his powers seems to settle again after a few days, and he's sad, but he doesn't feel guilty. So she smiles at her parents and sleeps in Max's bed a little more often, where it feels safe. She refuses to go camping with her family, but that's normal, right? Camping sucks, anyway. All of her friends say so.

She doesn't do sleepovers with her friends, either. She just doesn't feel like it. She's pulling away, she knows she is, but it feels like her friends' discussions and worries are so lame, so removed from her reality. She wants to cut her hair short again, but she doesn't want to attract attention. Her parents can't be worried about that, because then they'll be worried about other things, too. Like how much time she spends in her room. Like the nightmares she wakes up from, and how she holds on tight to her dad's hand the one time they get back from dinner at the restaurant and it's already night outside.

The first time it happens is just after school starts again. One of the boys in her class approaches Iz from behind, and she freezes. She can't move, and for a moment, she can't even feel her body. He looks at her weird and walks away.

The next time, the PE teacher touches her without warning and she flinches back so far that she falls on her ass. She freezes for longer this time, and when she comes back to herself, she's crying. The teacher tries to ask her what happens, but she does her best to deflect it. He can't know.

The third time, she loses time. She's sitting at her desk at the beginning of a lesson, and suddenly the other students are standing up and leaving. She doesn't know where she went.

There's something wrong with her.

She's scared.

People are exhausting, Max decides sometime through high school. He's just tired, all the time. After the strange elation that followed that night, his energy levels took a nose dive. These days he has trouble staying awake through a whole day of school.

His parents haven't noticed. Isobel knows, but she has her own stuff to deal with. She didn't come back the same from the camping trip. Max worries about her, but he doesn't know how to help.

He lies on his bed, at night, after dinner, and often she joins him. They just lie there, not moving, not talking. That's what most of their relationship boils down to, now.

Michael is angry, pulling away from them, and that just makes Max more tired. He doesn't have the energy to take in more anger, more rage. He has the weight that has settled inside him, the shape of a man standing over Isobel, pinning her down. He has the feeling that never leaves, of a life going out under his hand.

How can he concentrate on homework after that?

That year is when he starts writing for real. He writes and writes, blackens pages and notebooks until his hand hurts, and that's good, because that's the hand that killed a man. Maybe it should hurt.

He burns every notebook the moment he's put down the last word.

#roswell new mexico #michael guerin #isobel evans #max evans #pod squad #roswell nm #echo's fanfiction #mine

[sun-stone-r-ain]

Fanfic rec

Sacred Childhood relationships

Title: Eye of your storm

Author: Only_1_truth

Fandom: James Bond (Craig Movies)

Pairing: Q/Bond

Summery: “Some people want to be the apple of your eye, the song in your heart, the spring in your step… but I just want to be the eye of your storm.”          - James Bond, to Q

When an amnesiac kid is brought to St. Joseph's Home for orphans, James Bond doesn't bat an eye. Orphans come and go, and he's been around long enough to know that he needs to look out for himself until he's old enough to leave. But this new orphan is small, and naive, and his guilelessness attracts trouble. But when this kid latches onto Bond with a loyalty that James has never had before, well... staying aloof might not be as easy as James had thought.

link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20284153/chapters/48084229

............................................................****....................................................

Title: Living Proof

Author: Deastar

Fandom: White Collar

Pairing: Peter/Neal then Peter/Elizabeth then Peter/Neal/Elizabeth, but the focus is really Peter/Neal

Summery:  The thing about Neal is that he is always in Peter’s personal space. “Hello, Officer,” he says, batting his eyelashes in a way that probably even a sixteen-year-old knows isn’t actually seductive. Teenage hooker AU.

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/252351/chapters/391469

...................................***********...................................................................

I don’t remember the title of this last fic, but it was the best

Fandom: Sherlock

Pairing: Johnlock

Summery:  So Sherlock is the young son of...an earl?  He comes from money.  John is hired as the new stableboy, or some such.  The important thing is that John thinks Sherlock is an angel.  When Sherlock goes out to...catch frogs?  Compare mud from different places?...John defends Sherlock from some mean boys.  John also teaches Sherlock how to swim.  Sherlock teaches John how to read and write.  John was frustrated at the silent ‘h’ in his own name.  Sherlock also tried to teach John German, starting with “ein liche John”, which sounds an awful lot like “I lick John”, which lead to giggling and the boys trying to lick eachother.  John sleeps in the attic of the barn.  Sherlock joins him.  Because Sherlock is younger and smaller, he gets to be the little spoon.

Then Sherlock is sent away to boarding school.  John writes him letters that are never replied to.  A maid at the house takes an interest in John, and they have sex.  It’s nice and all, but John doesn’t see what all the fuss is about.  Not worth losing his job over, so he doesn’t reckon he’ll got for it again.

Sherlock runs away from boarding school.  When he gets home, he sneaks out to sleep with John.  Sherlock is taller than John now, but he insists on being the little spoon.  John complies.

Bad guys burn down Sherlock’s house while he and John are out riding.  Sherlock’s parents are dead.  They end up in a london...orphanage?  

At some point John learns the reason Sherlock ran away from boarding school is because the older boys were bullying him, ripping up John’s letters.  Also there was some kind of hazing system where younger boys did stuff for older boys.  James Moriarty wanted to trade his boy for Sherlock, and that’s when Sherlock ran away.  He’d heard disturbing rumors about James.  Also, Sherlock is totally gay and very into John.  John is afraid of sending Sherlock to hell if he gives into his desire.  Then Sherlock almost dies from asthma, and John says he’d rather be with Sherlock in hell than separated from him in Heaven.  

At one point while washing dishes, John grips Sherlock’s wrist very tightly to stop him grabbing a sharp knife or whatever, and Sherlock blushes.  Irene Adler is there too, and at one point she’s dressed as a man and is courting a lady.  We also find out that Sherlock knew John slept with that maid because he heard the rumors.  Also Sherlock knew he was gay ever since he spied on two men doing it from the spy hole to a certain room.  John was all “it’s rude to spy on people!” and Sherlock said “It’s not like I’d be interested in looking unless they were doing anything illegal!” and then they both realize the double entandre because in Victorian England homosexuality IS illegal.

At some point they reunite with Mycroft, Shelock’s older brother.  Mycroft isn’t homophobic, but he warns them to be carful of scandel because Mycroft was once involved in a a scandel with a married woman and that was not pretty.  

At some point Moriarty is an antagonist who is maybe killed but there was no body.

Epilogue: Sherlock is solving cases and John is writing for a clerk and they live together and sleep together, though John still gets up early to mess up his bed so the maids don’t get suspicious.

#ooq #fanfic rec list #johnlock #peter x neal

[streets-in-paradise]

Women of Troy appreciation post

I realized i kinda started a small series of posts about this film because of my excitement about it and the big lack of content there is about it. I’m trying to make my small contributions to fill this gap. Since i already did one fangirling about the men i want to make other a bit more serious to talk about the female characters.

 I have only three ladies to talk about here, the female characters were very few and in their story arcs they condensed the roles other women had in the original story. I understand a bit that, since they already had a three hours long film, they needed to cut some stuff. Even when i understand that, i would had liked to see at least a few more women. To be fair i think the character cut is not gendered, for example, the rest of the very extense list of brothers of Hector and Paris were cutted out in the same way of their sisters. We also don’t see a lot of important greek captains that are not mentioned, in the same way we don’t see other greek queens besides from Helen. I think it was an issue of lack of time for development of more characters. 

For this post i will talk from the movie’s perspective and i will add some of my personal headcanons for this version. Since Troy is pretty much Wolfgang Petersen’s Iliad fanfiction i will ramble from that perspective. In the dvd extras he said he read the iliad in greek , what makes me think he basically created his own fanfict in this movie and,as flawled as it is, i’m here for it. The characters, the costumes, the locations, everything gives you an amazing scense of inmersion. In that spirit, i want to talk a bit about the trojan princesses. 

I don’t own the images i will use. 

Sorry for my terrible english

Helen 

I had to start with her since she is the first woman we are introduced to in the film and she is the most famous female character of this story. I like the approach her story has, she is never blamed for the war.The film picks sides and a moral compass, the narrative is with the trojans and it assumes Priam’s morals. In the context of this adaptation is pretty much impossible to blame Helen. How could somebody blame her for wanting to scape from that husband? Even in the case of her not being sure of her love for Paris she saw a chance to scape and took it. She was a prisoner of a husband who didn’t cared for her, as she clearly states in the talk with Paris “ Before you came to Sparta, I was a ghost”. She was forced to marry a man who didn’t cared for her, she felt invisible and unimportant. Despite being the queen of the damn city, she felt worthless.

Having this in consideration i also believe that, in this approach, the reasons of why Helen could had fallen so fast for Paris are more understandable. He is not only a man that shows interest in her, Paris is such a non threating guy. I can imagine him as this womanizer who is used to win over all the ladies wherever he goes but, when he meet Helen, he fell so hard that he ended up as a dorky mess at least at first. I think he was very different from the sort of guy she used to see in Sparta. Being used to all the rough warriors there Paris is a literal dork in comparison and i think that’s exactly what she liked of him. The tenderness and softness of this non threating reckless dork absolutely head over hills for her. 

Most of her story arc is setted by this romance, i would had liked to see more of her in the city once the war starts. Did the trojans blamed her for the war? Did they support their king’s choice of letting her stay? How was she like as a princess? Did she ever felt like a princess of Troy? She supported the people in any form? How did the rest of the trojan elite recieved her? 

The only hints of interactions we see of her without Paris are with Priam and Hector. The closesness in which they always are makes me think she got close to Andromache as well. I would had loved to see how Briseis reacted to her. Was she upset with Paris for it?  Did they got along? I can imagine her yelling at Paris when she found out, not upset with Helen but with him. 

I love the friendship she has with Hector. We saw only a few interactions of them but i think they developed a frienship and it’s nice how he makes her feel part of the family once the fate of war is decided and there is no chance to avoid it. Priam seems to make efforts as well and i think that she eventually felt part of the family at least with them. 

I would had loved to see at least one scene of actual interaction between Helen and Andromache. I picture them bonding over all the shit arround them and comforting each other but i would had liked to see if they actually got close as i imagine by the hints in the movie, how was their relationship like. 

I would had wanted to see more of Helen’s relationship with the trojans and her story arc expanded besides from her love for Paris and the role it had in the war. Besides from that i love and enjoy her character, i empathize with her and i would protect her against anyone who could dare to blame her for the war. 

Briseis 

Storywise speaking she is a mix of story arcs from different women of the original. She assumes the roles of the original Briseis, Chryseis,Cassandra,Polyena and (at the end) Clytemnestra. Despite this fact I have to say I love this girl. From when I watched the movie for the first time as a child I remember how much I used to love the scene where she is taken to Agamemnon and, while Achilles tries to defend her, she calls everyone out on their bullshit even when her own safety is at risk. Briseis is so unapologetically herself, even in the worst possible context, and I love that. 

We already see something similar in her meeting with Achilles. Let’s think about it for a second, she is there as a captive, her freedom was taken away and all she knows is that she is going to be a slave owned by the most fierce greek warrior in the entire army. Instead of being terrified she confronts him,she raises her voice at him like it’s nothing. Briseis is so used to speak her mind that she does it without hesitation. 

Right after, she stops Achilles from fighting Agamemnon’s men because she doesn’t want to see another bloodbath. To me it’s such a powerful moment because, if we remember that to every man in that room she is nothing but a slave, that action is so fucking brave and awesome. The first time i saw it i was shocked, Briseis calling them out was super badass to me. Also, whatching her killing Agamemnon at the end is so satisfying. 

Since her backstory is not detailed much  i have a few headcanons.i can mention. Her parents are not there, i can imagine her growing up raised by her uncle and being very close with her cousins. I would had liked to see more of her relationship with her family but, since her part of the story gets a startpoint with her capture, we didn’t had much time to see her in Troy. 

Some interaction between her, Helen and Andromache before or after her time as captive would had been great to see, specially because this three women are awesome and it sucks to never have time to see them interacting. I can see Helen and Briseis having at least a small bonding moment after she comes back. I can imagine her being the bridge between Briseis and Andromache after Hector’s death. Briseis must had feel so terrible and guilty. The man she fell in love with killed her cousin.Andromache’s husband. I think she would have a hard time in procesing her own grief but at the same time she would find hard to approach Andromache because of how guilty she feels for what happened. In that context, Helen would help her to get close to her again. At the same time, nothing is mentioned on how people reacted to her return. What if her reputation got questioned? Rumours about her and Achilles affected her life there? I can imagine that, in the case of her getting questioned or judged  by some people, Helen would had encouraged her. 

Other character i would had wished to see her interacting more with is Patroclus. I think the would get along very well considering that both are morally calling out Achilles all the time. He is such a sweet boy, his presence could had been comforting to her. That would make everything more tragic. if she cares for Hector but also for Patroclus then the war upon them would had made her witness how her cousin killed her friend, then the man she loves killed her cousin and got killed by her youngest cousin afterwards. I can see Patroclus and Briseis being friendly to each other and maybe being friends. It hurts like fuck to think about it but it is something that could had been. 

Andromache 

My favourite female character in this film. Andromache is the best, I love her so much. She is such an empowering character despite being the most traditional woman on this list. Actually that is something I love, she is a traditional mother and wife character and a strong female character as well, a proof that one doesn’t exclude the other. Just by seeing how her husband asks for her advice all the time you can think that, if Hector would have been crowned king after Priam, this lady would have been the actual ruler of Troy. She is so clever, an amazing strategist Hector himself is impressed by. When he says to her that she would be a good general you can see it’s totally true. She’s amazing, more clever than lots of trojan noblemen in Priam’s council. 

All the family moments between Hector, Andromache and their son warm my heart. They are such a cute family. Hector and Andromache are perfect for each other. In this version I headcanon them being friends or knowing each other long before marrying, Andromache as the woman Hector always knew he wanted to marry and when he finally does he feels like the happiest man alive. That’s the vibe they give me, a couple that has been in love for a very long time and they know each other better than anyone else. Hector is the best husband ever, so loyal and loving to his wife. They are a lovely couple. 

I had already described a few of the interactions I would have liked to see between her and other characters. As I said, I can see her getting close to Helen, bonding and becoming friends and I would have loved to see that explored. Since Clytemnestra is not in this version we don’t know if Helen had any siblings and I imagine Andromache adopting a sort of older sister role to Helen, even without realizing it directly and more towards acts than words. As we see in hints of the few city scenes they must have spent a lot of time together and, since Andromache has the same caring nature of her husband, I can imagine her ending up caring for her more than what she may had expected at first. Regarding her relationship with Briseis and what i said before i think she didn’t blame her for what happened, Briseis felt guilty about it and may have tried to avoid her because of that guilt for a while until Helen helped them to get close again. 

My biggest complaint to the movie in terms of this character is that I would have appreciated to see more of her interacting with the other women. Also, more of her clever badass self involved in the war like from a tactics perspective or something. Honestly, Andromache should had been in the council of Priam. She and Hector would had been awesome calling out that old priest giving always the wrong advice. Also, i can totally see her leading the group of trojan survivors we see at the end in the director’s cut.

This is all for now, i hope you enjoyed this very long post and my headcanons for this awesome women in the universe of this movie. If you want to add more i’m always open to discussion. 

Thanks for reading this long ramble 

@hrisity12​  I tag you since you already told me you are interested in this post.

#my weird rambles #troy 2004 #women of troy #helen of troy #briseis #andromache #diane kruger #rose byrne #saffron burrows #women of troy appreciation post #female characters appreciation post

[thefiveavengers]

jester and sexuality/romantic inclinations

so, this is my last day of summer break (actually the day before last, but tomorow is monday) and I decided to put into words what my thoughts about this dicey, dicey subject are. First, these are solely my opinons based on 1) watching the second campaign, 2)watching talks machina and the meta knowledge that comes with that and 3) assuming the players are playing in good faith and are open minded to organic changes that might come to their characters along the way.

and second, I do have my biases, and I come from the following inclinations: I ship lavorregard, and I don’t believe Jester is straight.

That said let’s begin. I’ve written a far amount about the lavorregard ship, but mostly focused on Beau’s feelings and her perspective. Right before the ep that Beau reveals the crush to Nott I wrote the following: “ If I were to put a chronology on Beau’s feelings for Jester it would go something like that: 1)“This girl is cute and somehow I like her way more than I usually like, well, anybody” 2) “This girl is cute and we are… friends???” 3) “This girl is cute, we are friends and I love her” 4) “We are friends, I love her AND I think she is hot” 5) “This girl is hot, I love her and maybe I love her as more than friends?”

But last ep I think it shifted to, “I’m definetely into Jester as more than friends and she’s never been hotter AND I think I’m getting to a point where I’m ready to actually process my feelings regarding that and be open about it.”

And lo and behold, the very next ep we saw Beau actually processing her feelings when talking to Nott. But what about Jester?  

         I’ve seen some people express the idea that “wouldn’t it be galaxy brain if all three cr ladies had independently decided when creating their characters that they are lesbians?” and honestly, while a cute thought, I don’t think that’s what’s happening. In my opinion what happened was, Marisha created Beau as a lesbian and she made sure to make that clear as possible from the get go, and one of the reasons I think she did that is because she entered the campaign looking to avoid a pc/pc romance, since the one she was in in cr1 took such a toll on her. She probably figured it would be a safe bet, playing a lesbian she would shield herself from the male characters and most likely the other female characters would not be interested in Beau, right?

      Enter Ashley Johnson. Honestly I don’t think Ashley had such a clear idea that Yasha was (or is) a lesbian. She had a wife, and from what has been said in canon Zualla was her only romantic and sexual relationship. Now, from what we’ve seen Yasha hasn’t expressed any interest in men, but to be fair she hasn’t really expressed interest in much anybody. She called Jester adorable in the very first ep and she seems to be fond of Beau’s flirtations even if not directly responding to them. The conversation where Yasha has said that she has “seen {Beau} a lot” coupled with one of the songs in Yasha’s playlist has me convinced that Yasha has some kind of feelings for Beau, even if is just a small crush. And I say this as someone who doesnt ship Beau/Yasha. I don’t think they would make a good match, but that doesn’t mean I’d deny either of them having interest in the other. But that doesn’t mean Yasha is for sure a lesbian who would never engage with a men ever. She seems pretty adamant on not having any romantic connections, so its hard to gauge really where her interests lie. She is for sure though a wlw. 

      Now, when it comes to Jester and Laura Bailey that’s when things get complicated. I would assume that most of us that have considered the possibility of Jester not being straight have read the excellent essay on comphet by tumblr user fuzzy-face ( https://fuzzy-face.tumblr.com/post/185001577009/you-make-your-own-fairytale-jester-comphet ), so I’m not gonna rehash what she’s said already. While I do agree almost wholeheartedly with this post, I’ll say this, I don’t think Laura Bailey when creating Jester set out to tell a story of a wlw learning how to overcome comphet. But (BUT!,!) I also don’t think her idea was Jester is totally straight and that’s that! I think she created Jester as a sexually and romantically inexperienced young woman that almost immediately got a crush on Fjord because, among other reasons, he reminded her of a hero from her smut books. 

       Recently, with the new upload of talks to the CR youtube channel, I rewatched this talks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZqJzNj_1tI , which is about the ep a Hole in the Plan, deep into the pirate arc, but before the first big Beau/Jester moment, the conversation they had in the boat on ep 46. First I must express my annoyance  at the fact that Laura and Marisha are the guests and yet at least 80% of the questions are about Fjord. I know it was in his arc, but COME ON! Also I was very surprised by how open they are talking about Fjord/Jester as if it were a done deal alaready. When anyone involved in Talks claim that they don’t do shipping questions, you should show them this ep because it is all about shipping questions. Anyways, Laura clearly states that Jester has a crush on Fjord (at the time at least) and she compares it to a super intense high school crush. So to me there is no refuting the fact that at least at some point Jester had a crush on Fjord. 

    What I do find it interesting is when you compare her answers in that talks to what she said in the most recent talks she’s participated  ( https://youtu.be/_NmZ2b_Q3So ) which seem to at least indicate that Jester has, on a level or another, moved on from said crush. It’s also, the now infamous moment where Laura talks about Jester’s crush...es. We’ll get back to that.

     That’s all good and dandy, but this is meta outside the game. Let’s go analyze actual in-game developments. As far as I can remember (and I’m not an expert in Fjord/Jester, so I might be forgetting something) these are the moments Jester spoke directly or inderectly about her crush on Fjord; when Caleb point blank asked her if she was sweet on him (to which she answered “I don’t know” and let’s keep that in mind); when she talked to nott about first kisses and the best thing she can say about it is that it didnt make her feel dead, and to me the most significant moment; when she asks the traveler  how to make a boy like her. Now, I’ve seen some people band about this as irrefutable proof that Jester IS straight, otherwise she wouldnt be asking the traveler advice about boys, but in this case she wasn’t talking about boys in general, she was talking about ONE boy and that was Fjord. 

      And that’s the crux of the matter isn’t it? Jester has demonstrated sexual/romantic interest in one man and one man alone, and that’s fjord. That does not mean she is straight. It doesn’t even mean that she, if a wlw, is bi. Her crush on Fjord has been wrapped around in all these expectations and I think its hard to parse how much was just projecting, among other things, the romance her parents had. Also, let me comment on how all these developments were long ago, during the pirate arc, over one year ago in real time.

     Jester has commented about Fjord’s appearance and Caleb’s and even pointed out to Reani that hot boi Essek was hot, but its all done very matter-of-factly. And if we are going to talk about Jester commenting on people’s apperances we have to acknowledge how Jester cannot SHUT UP about how she finds women beautiful. From Beau to Nott, from Reani to random shop girl in Uthodurn and her obssession with the Bright Queen in particular its all very in your face. Once someone wanted to argue with me that this is just how straight girls air their insecurities, and even if that’s true and not just misogyny, the only time Jester commented on a woman’s apperance with any kind of insecure note was one time when she compared herself to her mother.  

     Look, the thing is, if we take at face value every comment Jester has made about Fjord’s looks and strenght, we also have to take at face value how distraught she looked and sounded facing the idea that Beau’s new vestiments wouldn’t let her abs show. Is it funny? Yes, but it’s funny for the idea that Jester is very appreciative of Beau’s abs, which, I’m still waiting for the straight explanation if anyone if willing to give me. 

     To end, this goddamned book that I’ve started, the thing that gives me the most certainty that Jester is not straight and that a Beau/Jester romance is not only possible but likely is that I do not believe Laura Bailey is cruel. If she had no interest in exploring the possibility of a not-straight Jester and a B/J romance she wouldn’t been doing what she has been doing for awhile now.

     And what do I mean about that? I mean that even before Beau’s confession there’s been a different dynamic to their relationship. I already mentioned the “but can I see her abs????” incident, but also her encouragement about beau’s qualities and abilities (beau, you’re super strong), using the traveler as a proxy to her feelings (the traveler thinks you’ll do great, the traveler thinks you’re awesome, the traveler loves you), waiting to hold beau when she went up a column and showing disapointment when she didnt fell into her arms, listening to Beau regarding her wanting to confront her dad, being super, and I mean SUPER bummed out when Beau and Reani kissed and took a walk. And after the confession things ramped up.

   Like, that was Laura Bailey listening to the conversation between Nott and Beau, not Jester. She could have had continued to play out their friendship as usual, but that’s not what she did. She used this opportunity to play the romantic possibility as never before. Making sure that Jester shielded Beau’s body in combat, being VERY specific that when her double cured her, she leaned over her body and put her hands to her face and even contradicting Matt, pointing out that when she woke up, it wasn’t the laughing hand that she first saw, but Jester’s face. And then there’s ep 89, the juiciest lavorregard ep since ep 46. It’s romantic comedy set up, one character confesses their love to a third one, and the one character who is the target of that love starts a conversation with “Are you avoiding me? Because I think I know why.” That’s a romantic trope ladies and gents, and Laura Bailey the genius she is played it to perfection. Not being sure why she was so upset about not curing Beau (a sentiment that battle mercy Jester has never expressed before). Wanting to punish Beau’s dad for not treating her right, getting to an agreement after arguing about tarot and molly. Afterwards engaging Fjord in an activity that she usually associates with beau, that goes disastrously and thanks to the dice gods, I could see, in real time the comphet melting away.

And concluding with the fact that she bet 20 extra gold on Beau on the down low.

So coming back to the idea of Jester having crush...es, to me is very clear those crushes are, the one she has/had on Fjord and her new emerging one on Beau. do I think Jester herself is aware of these feelings? Not really, but Laura sure is.

     look this is not about being entitled or acusing anyone of queerbaiting if my ship doesnt pan out. its just, you know, laura’s sister is a lesbian, and I do think that gives people some perspective that they might not have, and I genuinely don’t think she would be playing things as she is, if she didn’t have any interest in playing out to the end.

#critical role #jester #jester lavorre #beaujester #lavorregard #this got super long and took me a few hours #but anyways these are most of my feelings regarding queer jester