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markantonys · 2 months

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fuck it, proposing an s3 episode-by-episode structure even though we barely have any info to go off of, because i'm bored and yearning for s3 news. can't wait to see how wrong this ends up being! i can't emphasize enough how much this is just me completely inventing structure ideas because, for real, we barely know ANYTHING yet, so do not latch onto anything i say here.

we know 4 episode titles so far, so i've included those.

3x01: to race the shadow

A-plot: the gang in falme

lots of relationship-building between various dynamics, especially rand & elayne (just friendship with Crush Hints for now) and nynaeve & lan (ring scene maybe)

rand and egwene's final breakup

mat's luck established during a gambling scene

mat goes through the doorway in turak's room of curiosities, is told to go to tanchico, gets his marriage prophecy & medallion & ashandarei, and gets cpr from rand

elayne and nynaeve learn something about liandrin that points them towards tanchico

rand decides to go to the waste and egwene does too after speaking with amys in her dreams, and perrin goes with them because he has no other plans as of yet

B-plot: aes sedai politics, catch up with siuan, catch up with liandrin

3x02: a question of crimson

i'd always hoped this would be a caemlyn episode, and the title points to that imo!! perfect title for elaida's intro episode, and red is andor's color as well.

so, A-plot: rand, egwene, perrin, et al pass through caemlyn on their way to the waste

egwene has been tasked by elayne with delivering a letter to her family; rand insists on coming with her; they trespass in the caemlyn palace and meet gawyn, galad, morgase, and elaida

i don't expect a forsaken here just yet, i think it's important to see Normal Morgase and Normal Caemlyn first so that we have a contrast later once they ARE under forsaken control.

perrin hears rumors of trouble in the two rivers and decides to split off from the group to investigate, with loial, bain, and chiad accompanying him

the rest of the group reaches the waste at the end of the episode

B-plot: nynaeve, elayne, and mat arrive in tanchico (they split off from the others in falme and go straight there, no caemlyn trip for them)

C-plot: more white tower stuff

3x03

A-plot: rand in rhuidean + general intro to the waste (rand's focal episode)

B-plot: perrin arrives in the two rivers and gets situated

C-plot: continued tanchico shenanigans, maybe they run into thom and/or min and/or tuon (who is undercover for reasons) if they didn't already in 3x02. my guess is min has been kidnapped out of cairhien by liandrin, who knows min figured out she's black ajah and doesn't want her to snitch, so maybe at some point in the early episodes there's a plotline of mat, elayne, and nynaeve rescuing min from the black ajah, and after that point min joins their scooby gang (because she's got a personal vendetta against liandrin now and also she wants to re-earn mat's trust and prove herself).

an alleged leak puts mat, thom, and min all in tanchico, so that's why i have them in this plotline. it's also why i have tuon in this plotline, as i can't think of a strong reason to move mat from the waste to tanchico if not to incorporate elements of the ebou dar trip and have him meet tuon who is filling an egeanin-type role.

3x04

A-plot: nynaeve encounters moghedien in TAR and almost dies but is saved by birgitte, whom elayne saves by bonding her as a warder (this whole sequence is the midseason climax at the end of the episode)

mat gets into some kind of shenanigan with tuon and they grow closer, but neither knows the other's true identity

B-plot: elaida, gawyn, and galad reach the white tower and start investigating elayne's disappearance and clashing with siuan

C-plots: the waste gang doing their thing, learning about aiel ways, developing avirand, etc; perrin doing his thing in the two rivers, meeting faile if he hasn't already

i could also easily switch 3x03 and 3x04 so that 3x04 is the rhuidean episode. just depends if they throw rand right into it like TSR does or if we get a General Waste Intro episode before sending him off to rhuidean. but based on a combination of leaks, we do just about know that the glass columns visions are during block 2 (eps3/4).

3x05

A-plot: perrin in the two rivers, maybe digging more into the whitecloaks, padan fain, laila trauma, luc/slayer, wolves & TAR, relationship with faile, etc. (potentially his focal episode)

B-plot: cold rocks hold stuff for the waste gang

C-plot: continued tanchico shenanigans; continued white tower politics

3x06

A-plot: alcair dal, asmodean identity reveal & capture

B-plot: some kind of tanchico conclusion. maybe this is when tuon finds out some of her new buddies can channel (and possibly even that sul'dam, and she herself, can channel) and heads back to the seanchan with Much To Think About. maybe the black ajah make their exit from the season to shift full focus onto Final Boss Moggy.

C-plots: perrin prepping for battle; continued white tower politics

3x07: goldeneyes

A-plot: perrin defending the two rivers (perrin's focal episode, unless it's instead an earlier one that's less about a major battle and more about his internal life as a character)

B-plot: tower coup? i'm very unsure where in the season to place this, i could see it at any point in episodes 6, 7, or 8. kinda doubt it would happen earlier than ep6 because i'm not sure if that would allow us enough time to build up to it, especially since major coup players like elaida and gawyn are being introduced for the very first time this season so we need decent time with them before shit goes down (plus, it just naturally feels like a Late Season Climactic Event). the head writer of 1x06 & 2x07 (aes-sedai-heavy episodes) being the head writer of 3x08 could potentially indicate that the coup happens in 3x08, but she is also an executive producer so it's not like aes sedai politics is The Only Thing she knows about.

C-plots: the waste gang travels back to the wetlands, rand learns from asmodean; tanchico crew takes a sea folk ship to the eastern part of the continent (same city where waste gang is headed)

3x08: he who comes with the dawn

A-plot: the climax of the waste crew's plotline, potentially a battle in cairhien or tear, but that may cause Battle Fatigue if 3x07 has just had a big battle. maybe this could point towards their destination being tear and them taking the stone in somewhat more of an infiltration operation like in TDR, as opposed to the more traditional battle for cairhien in TFOH? just to mix things up a bit with perrin's traditional battle in the prior episode.

okay yeah i'm leaning towards tear, plus there was the leaked alleged sammael audition script (i trust no audition scripts after the phony gawyn one from s2 lmao) where the person he's talking to is demanding to know where "it" is. so my vision is that sammael's sitting comfy in tear, rand & co launch an infiltration operation to take the stone, rand finds sammael and demands to know callandor's whereabouts, and sammael ultimately flees to continue causing trouble in a new location in s4.

A-plot part 2: the tanchico crew gets involved with the infiltration operation, and nynaeve battles & defeats moghedien AND breaks her block (if she hasn't already, that could be a good Early Win to include around ep5-6 ish)

after all this stuff is done, there is a Final Final confrontation with moiraine and lanfear getting yeeted through the doorway; nynaeve bonds lan straightaway rather than his bond going on a noncon detour to alanna

post-battle checkin with perrin, but not a ton of time with him in this episode

final stinger: our buddy tuon from tanchico is shown dressed to the seanchan nines and being addressed as the daughter of the nine moons. gasp, mat's fated wife is our buddy tuon from tanchico, who is in fact a high-ranking seanchan noble! dun dun dun!!!!!

elephant in the room: "emily, why are you having rand in the wetlands for 3x08 when an episode called 'he who comes with the dawn' would obviously be about alcair dal?" listen, i know, but i typed up this whole post before i found out about that episode title and was too attached to it to change it lmao plus, i genuinely can't think of enough for rand & co to do in the waste for 6 entire episodes. i could see an argument that they chose this episode title as a general "yeah that's a baller title for a season finale about rand coming into his own in a big moment" rather than as a specific "this episode focuses on rand coming into his own in a strictly-aiel-related way" (see: 2x07 just being about general political shenanigans rather than literal daes dae'mar). rand pulling callandor from the stone while surrounded by his aiel followers could still be a "he who comes with the dawn" moment, okay!

so i will leave this post as is, but if indeed 3x08 only takes us up to alcair dal (and the moiraine & lanfear yeeting which i think will be this episode no matter what), that actually doesn't change my structure too much. basically it'd just be slowing down both the waste & tanchico crew's plotlines and having their climaxes be still in the waste & tanchico respectively, and then we can do a travel timeskip between seasons and have s4 open with the waste crew taking tear or cairhien and the tanchico crew meeting up with them there. i do strongly believe that mat, elayne, and nynaeve will join up with rand & co for s4 and skip their whole salidar/ebou dar detours, because that positions mat to form the band and have his Dragon's General storyline in s4, positions elayne to spend time with rand and aviendha and potentially join rand in retaking caemlyn and then just stay there to start her succession, and positions nynaeve to spend time with lan in the immediate aftermath of moiraine's "death" and then join up with elayne's or rand's future storyline. for these 3, salidar & ebou dar are filler sidequests rather than Main Story storylines imo and it could be quite efficient to cut those out and just distribute the handful of Main Story elements from them into other Main Story storylines.

#wot #wot book spoilers #wot show spoilers #half the fun of speculation is being able to see how completely wrong i was once the season actually comes out jkfgh

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yes-divine-ruler · 1 year

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𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐀𝐋𝐒

Part 4

pairing: kai anderson x fem!reader

Taglist/ @v-love @evanpetersfav @demxnicprxncess @kitwalkersgfff @quicksilversg1rl @iruzias @alexxavicry @soaringcloud @laynna-mcknight @humdrumexistence @simp4petermaximoff f @sultrysullen @evan4ever @paujmr @jangsuzchap

cw: dub-con, knife play, home invasion, vaginal sex, bondage

wc: 2.734k

all parts

Kai was cleaning his mask when Ivy walked in. She eyed him, seeing the combat boots on his feet, the black trench coat over his back, his hair long and draped around his face. She knew that that meant business, and that business was going to be carried out tonight.

"What's on tonight Kai?" Ivy asked quietly, scared to catch Kai at a bad time.

"We spoke about this a few hours ago, where were you by the way? It was an important meeting," Kai couldn't let the tardiness of one of his cult members distract him from his upcoming mission, he kept his eyes on his mask as he wiped it clean.

"I'm sorry Kai, I had to pick up Ozzy from school, I told Winter, I dont know if she told you," truth was, Ivy was at the Butchery on Main, catching you up on the plan for tonight.

"Don't do it again," Kai grumbled, finally settling his mask down on the table and getting up from his seat on the sofa. His boots thumped against the floor as he approached Ivy, looming over her like a dark, menacing shadow.

"You know what happens when someone snitches, don't you Ivy? When someone betrays me?"

Kai's tone suddenly switched, and his eyes shone darker.

Ivy swallowed thickly, not breaking eye contact in case it made her look as guilty as she felt. She nodded curtly, "yes, Divine Ruler," her voice was no louder than a whisper.

"Good," Kai's face lights up into a smile, and he places a warm hand on Ivy's cheek, "get ready, we're leaving in 20."

Ivy let out the breath she didn't realise she was holding in as her leader ascended the basement stairs behind her, knowing that to his knowledge, she was still a devoted follower and not someone who was trying to sabotage him.

You thought that if your heart beat any faster, you might fall into cardiac arrest. You had a glock-19 shoved into the waistband of your pants, and a knife strapped to your thigh. You weren't taking any chances tonight knowing what was about to come. You knew that Kai had taken this upon himself to do, and that it would be you versus him when he barged in through your front door at 1 am on the dot.

The clock ticked agonisingly slow, showing that the time was only 45 minutes past midnight. No amount of preparation would ever have you prepared for your alleged murder, nor more time. Your knee shook in a frenzied fashion and your hands that were clasped together in your lap began to drip with sweat. You'd practiced this, Kai's break in, Kai confronting you, Kai pulling the knife from behind his back. This particular scenario played over and over in your head like a broken record.

You were shaken from your thoughts when the phone rang. You watched it from the corner of your eye as it rung - 1,2,3 - times, just like you'd discussed with Ivy. He was downstairs.

Sucking in a deep breath and reaching for your adderall, you popped more than your recommended dose and swallowed it with a glass of water. You wiped your mouth with the back of your hand, and stood from your seat. The heavy thud of boots reverberated off the walls in the hallway leading up to your apartment, and soon, there was a slow knock on your front door. Your hand shook as your fingers hooked around the trigger and grip of the glock rested against your hip. There was no turning and running now.

You stayed put, trying to even your breathing as another loud trio of knocks rung through your apartment.

"I know you're in there, I just wanna talk," the sound of Kai's voice sent a shiver down your spine. Who was he kidding, talk? You still questioned where he got your address to begin with knowing fair well it wasn't public information. The questions you were asking yourself would have to wait; there was a much bigger matter at hand.

"Come on baby, don't be like this. I'm sorry for leaking our sex tape," Kai continued to taunt you through the wooden panes of your front door, every minute you weren't face to face with him sparing you yours or his life.

“If it’s any consolation, you were the best sex I’ve ever had, and I’ve had a lot of sex,” Kai spoke, followed by a tapping on the door with what seemed to be not his hand anymore, but something metal. It made your blood run cold.

When was he going to knock down the door so you could just end him? The sweat that beaded against your forehead began to drip onto your eyelashes, and your hands only shook more vigorously. Your eyes were glazing over in fear and soon you were worried a tear would fall.

“Let me in pretty, come on, it’s just me,” Kai didn’t let off, and it provoked words to spill from your throat.

“Fuck off Kai!” You covered your mouth with your shaking hand.

It goes silent, the only noise your heart feverishly beating in your ears. You wondered for a moment if he was still standing at your front door. Holding your breath, you tip-toe to the eye hole, and peek through it. No one. Your eye stays trained on the tiny glass pane for a few more minutes, before you finally let out your breath. Your body relaxes, and your fingers unwind from its tight grasp on your glock.

You wonder what made him change his mind while also wondering if he’s just playing games with you. What if he was just ducking out of sight? What if he was coming through your balcony? Your mind whirled with thoughts, so much so, you decided you’d just open the door and check for yourself.

You didn’t have time to scream, because a big hand wrapped itself around your mouth and pulled you back in through the ajar door into your apartment. Your eyes squeezed shut in fright; hot breath fanning your ear from behind you.

“You’re such a dumb bitch, did you really think I wouldn’t know? Didn’t think I’d see all the undercover cops waiting outside?” Kai’s angry tone coursed through your body and settles in the pit of your stomach.

You try and struggle out of his grip, your hands coming up to pry at his around your mouth. He fights back, pulling you down onto the floor and straddling your hips so that you can’t get away. The moment is tense, and soon you feel the cool metal that was knocking at your door against your throat.

“Make a fucking sound and I’ll slit your throat,” your eyes open to peer into the dark orbs belonging to Kai, his jaw locked and his lips in a tight straight line. Your eyes remain wide in shock, as he removes his hand for only a moment, bringing it back just as fast with a piece of duct tape.

He works at your wrists next, pulling rope from a backpack and bounding your wrists together. You don’t fight against him, knowing that you had now, definitely lost. What in your mind convinced you you could beat the master in mind games and trickery?

“Now,” he moves down your legs, bounding together your ankles. Nothing had ever made you feel more suffocated, “you’re going to call the cops and say it’s a false alarm, and I’m going to watch you with this knife against your throat.”

If your lips could move you’d be sobbing, the tears in your eyes blurring your vision as Kai gets off you to search for your mobile. He finds it almost instantly, and settles back down on top of you, the knife once again strategically placed at your jugular.

“The tape is coming off now,” Kai warns you, before ripping the tape from your lips. You gasp in pain and wonder if your skin had been taken with the tape.

Kai holds your phone up to your face, and unlocks it in an instant. He scrolls through what you suppose is your text messages, until his face lights up with content. He calls the number, and puts your phone on speaker. So badly did you want to scream for help, but ultimately you knew it would be the cause of your demise with the sharp blade already slightly piercing your skin.

“Everything okay?” Detective Wilson asks.

“Ye-yes, um-” Kai advises you to stop stuttering with the reminder that there is a knife to your neck, “I think it’s a false alarm detective, I’m so sorry to bother you, you can all go home.”

The detective pauses for a moment, as if he wasn’t convinced, until Kai urges you to speak again.

“Really, I’ll let you know if anything changes.”

“Alright miss, please, keep us in the loop.”

The line goes dead, and Kai immediately tosses your phone across the room. It hits the wall and falls to the floor with a loud crack.

“Now, tell me who my mole is.”

You suspected that Kai may already know who his mole was, if he was intelligent enough to work out you knew his plan. You restrained from saying anything, scared that it would cost another’s life. Right now, if he was to only take yours, at least everyone would know who did it.

“Just kill me instead, I know that’s what you really want,” you couldn’t believe those words were coming out of your mouth.

Kai’s facial expression remains unwavering, his eyebrows deeply furrowed, and his lips slightly parted with the exhale of small breaths.

Kai knew he didn’t want this. There was always something about you that attracted him to you, regardless of how different you were in every way. You weren’t scared of him, and were willing to kill another person to protect yourself. He admired your planning, your use of a mole from his cult, how you’d defended yourself after the sex tape was leaked. You were strong, and nobody could try and convince him otherwise.

He drops the knife and you let out the breath you didn’t know you were holding in. Then he kisses you.

You’re still tied by the wrists and the ankles, but even if you weren’t, you wouldn’t try and move away. He had just tried to kill you, but you were still like putty in his hands. He was mean, condescending, downright evil, but the way his lips moved against yours sent butterflies free to fly around your stomach.

Maybe something inside you knew he wouldn’t go through with it, hence why you were so compliant. His lips felt like velvet against yours, his tongue soon to delve its way into your open and begging mouth. His big, warm hands cupped your cheeks, and when he finally pulled away, you didn’t want him to stop.

“What was that for?” Suddenly the adrenaline had worn off, and you were left wondering what all of this meant. His hands didn’t leave your face as he peered down into your soul.

“You need to admit to me who the mole is,” he spoke softly, and you noticed something glisten in his usually stone-cold eyes.

“Why would I tell you?” You fought back, but your voice was only just louder than a whisper.

“Do you want to stay tied up while I fuck you?”

The question startled you, but you didn’t have time to respond before Kai’s mouth was back on yours. He tilted his head to get better access to you, his dick twitching in his pants when he hears the moans vibrate from the back of your throat.

Every time you slept with Kai it felt like the circumstances couldn’t get any worse, but this definitely took the cake. His mouth felt warm and tasted like the smallest but perfect hint of mint toothpaste. His tongue slid over yours, massaging it softly, and when it was all becoming too much for him, he stopped. He needed to feel you again.

“Keep me tied up,” your mind was just as clouded by lust as his was, almost as if this totally fucked up situation never happened. Almost as if you were two people who weren’t at war with each other.

Kai chuckled, before reaching for the glock at your hip. He’d felt it pressed against his inner thigh this whole time but chose to ignore it; it wasn’t like you could do anything with it anyway. He tossed it to the side before checking if the safety was on, and then tore your pants down your legs.

When the cold air hit your skin, it pricked in small goosebumps. Kai ran his fingers down the length of your thighs, immersed in the way they looked and felt, like they were the most perfect things to exist. He left the knife strapped to your thigh when he rolled you over onto your stomach, and sucked in a breath when he saw the perfection of your ass.

You wiggled, and the tip of the knife pricked your thigh. It wasn’t painful, it actually felt good knowing now what was about to happen. Kai used his own knife to slice your panties down the middle and tear them off.

“How bad do you want it?” Kai was back to taunting you, your cheek pressed against the carpet of your living room floor as you heard his zipper unfasten.

“Please,” you pleaded, wanting to forget about everything else and feel him inside you.

“Please what?”

“Please fuck me, Kai.”

You gasped at the feeling of Kai’s spit, as it landed directly on your cunt and dripped down onto your clit. He worked fast, reaching for your sensitive bud and toying with it between his fingers. You couldn’t hold back the pathetic whimpers as they forced their way out your lips.

The engorged tip of his cock was next, and all you could imagine was the veiny length and the way it pulsed in need. You were beginning to clench around nothing, until he finally sunk into you after spreading your pussy from behind.

He didn’t go easy, bottoming out inside you and groaning at how good it felt. His moans were like music to your ears now that the loud thumping of your heart had gone away. Your clit brushed against the carpet with every ravaging thrust, Kai’s skin hitting yours and making a blissful beat.

“Fuck,” Kai muttered, totally consumed by you and your sounds, loving the way you were tied up and at his disposal. You let out small whimpers, feeling the head of his cock almost brush your cervix with every piston of his hips.

“Oh my god that feels so good,” you almost cried, the way he was fucking you reaching every point you needed it to. No one had ever fucked you like this, or maybe it was all the danger mixed with the undeniable sexual tension.

“Your pussy feels amazing,” you’d never heard a nice thing come out of Kai’s mouth, but tonight he was full of compliments, “you get me so riled up, I can’t contain it.”

He was close, but he just wanted to fuck you forever. You were sure to be bleeding from your thigh now, but the thought didn’t stop the twist of an orgasm in your groin.

“Please Kai, I’m gonna cum,” you almost cried, tilting your hips upwards to feel the hit of his cock against your sweet spot. It unravelled you, releasing around his cock and clenching so tightly it made Kai lose control and come undone.

He pulled out, and spilled his cum across the perfect planes of your ass. You both panted in an attempt to get your breath back, and when his were finally even, he turned you back onto your back.

You looked up at him and he almost came again. You watched his cock as it leaked the remanence of his last load, swollen and pink in the best way possible.

“I’m going to fuck you, again and again, until you give in and tell me who the mole is,” Kai’s face showed he was serious, but his eyes glinted with a playfulness you could definitely get used to. Sensitive and fucked out, all you could do was nod.

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justinspoliticalcorner · 1 month

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Erin Reed at Erin In The Morning:

On Wednesday evening, the Utah Public Auditor released a form to report transgender individuals encountered in changing rooms and restrooms to state authorities. The form, titled "Alleged Government Violations of Utah Code 63G Chapter 31: Distinctions Based on Sex," is in response to a law enacted earlier this year. This law bans transgender people from using restrooms that match their gender identity in schools, as well as locker rooms and similar facilities in public buildings across the state. Utah is the latest in a series of states that have attempted to launch "snitch lines" targeting transgender people. Previous attempts have failed after being flooded with memes from activists opposing the use of community reporting to target transgender individuals.

Earlier this year, House Bill 257, which bans transgender individuals from using restrooms and changing rooms in a variety of locations, sparked intense debate due to its broad scope and strange enforcement mechanisms. The bill applies to any public building, including the Salt Lake City airport, and says that transgender people could be held liable if they cause “affront or alarm.” It also explicitly prohibits transgender individuals from using restrooms that match their gender identity in schools and also bans them from public changing rooms unless they have amended their birth certificates and undergone gender reassignment surgery. Importantly, many states do not permit changes to birth certificates, creating significant confusion about which transgender individuals can use certain bathrooms and where.

One major question during debate of the bill was over how the bill would be enforced. In many states, for example, cisgender people have been reported to authorities for using the bathroom simply because they defied gender stereotypes. Numerous citizens testified to this concern in Utah. Within months of the bill passing, Utah public officials proved this point correct when some accused a cisgender basketball player of being transgender. Now, it appears that those charged with enforcing the policy have decided on a mechanism to do so: a publicly available snitch form to target transgender people. The snitch form requests details on encounters with transgender individuals in “privacy spaces.” It asks citizens to report the government entity responsible for the "failure" to prevent the encounter or to report the encounter to law enforcement. Those “failures” can cost any government entity $10,000 dollars per day, including schools and colleges. The form enables people to upload pictures and provide evidence of "incidents." It requires a name and email address, but a phone number and home address is not necessary.

Sounds like the “snitch line” for reporting trans bathroom use has backfired for Utah.

See Also:

LGBTQ Nation: Utah now has a “snitch form” for reporting trans people using the bathroom

#Utah #Transgender #LGBTQ+#Anti Trans Extremism #Utah HB257 #Bathroom Bills

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jeork · 17 days

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TC Tag Game

As always I’m excessively late to the party, but thanks @renaultphile for the tag!

1. "He would not fucking say that" only they did and it's canon. When/who?

I don’t have a copy of the book at hand right now, but while Laurie is visiting home for the wedding he goes on a walk and recites this weird incest-y song to himself, then contemplates how it always felt relatable to him. I’m not saying he would not fucking say that, because obviously he does and I hear him quite clearly. But I am saying maybe he should not have fucking said that.

Also Ralph calling Bunny “Boo”. I don’t care how drunk he was, you don’t randomly slip out with a word you wouldn’t otherwise use. It’s part of his vocabulary. This one had me in contemplation for months, like, would he ever call Laurie that? Does this count towards the bad habits and lifestyle choices he wants to abandon while being with Laurie? Whole scene’s just embarrassing af

2. Did they kiss in the study? Yes/no + why you are 100% correct about this.

I think they probably did, but that it was very chaste. I’m convinced the kiss between Laurie and Andrew is supposed to mirror it almost exactly. The way I see it, Laurie didn’t fully process it and therefore just stood there. From the flashback he got later on while holding onto Ralph’s sleeve while they’re in Ralph's room I think Laurie might’ve grabbed onto Ralph’s arm a little. But other than that I don’t think he did much, which made Ralph decide he wasn’t ready yet.

3. Mandatory question about Ralph's alleged tattoos.

I wasn’t aware this is something people discuss lmao, I’ve only thought about it once myself. Gonna be a party pooper and say he has none, as it's "improper"

4. 53 vs 59 edition: quote a line or paragraph that is better in the edition you like the least.

I feel like me and @renaultphile are the only ‘59 truthers. I think I once even wrote an entire post just on why I like that Mary cut the knee-touch?

Again, don’t have any book copies at hand right now, but I remember one small detail in the ‘53 I really loved. During Alec’s birthday party while he’s blowing out the candles everyone is looking at him, and for a moment there’s this shared feeling of hopefulness. In the ‘53 Laurie feels someone’s eyes on him, but by the time he turns around Ralph has already stopped looking. Something about Ralph glancing at Laurie in this moment, who’s presence represents so much to Ralph, makes me ache.

5. Which TC character would feel right at home here on tumblr dot com?

I guess the obvious answers would be something like Hazell, Sandy or Bunny, but I feel like Andrew would run the most terrifically angsty aesthetic account. Also young Laurie, he'd probably write bad poetry or something

6. Tag yourself at Alec's birthday party.

The two guys holding hands in dead silence, not because I can relate, but because they really set the scene. Or the petty shit-stirrer who snitches on Ralph having a boyfriend. Or the other petty shit-stirrer who cries "Here comes Bim"

7. Post a TC meme.

I used to run a TC meme account over on Twitter. I’ve planned on reposting all of that stuff on here sometime, in the meantime here’s one:

8. Easy to talk about who deserved better. Who deserved worse?

Dave. The Mature Wholesome Elder act he’s putting on at the end is pissing me off. Self-serving cu-

Also, following the heavy implications that Alec had been snuggling it up with Bunny for quite a while, I think he got off pretty scot free

9. You can break the fourth wall (at any point in the novel) and say a single sentence to our protagonist, Laurie Odell. What do you say?

I really wanted him to stay friends with Reg. I always felt like Madge’s Aunt Vera joke was pretty funny and well intended, albeit improper and terribly timed. It didn’t come off to me as her making fun of him for being gay. More like her trying to awkwardly bond over it, similar to Reg during The Bathroom Talk™. If Laurie hadn’t been so emotionally rattled at that time I feel like he would’ve played it off. It was such bad timing for him. So I wanna scream at him ��Chill out, they’re clearly not out to get you!”

10. What's a question you have about TC? One you haven't found an answer for yet.

I think there still might be a couple minor details, but I can’t remember them right now. The only bigger piece of dialogue that’s still a little intransparent to me is Ralph’s whole speech at the beginning of their post-wedding trip argument. I have my theories about it, but would also enjoy to hear more.

Considering I’m over a month late and have no clue who did this tag already I’ll open it up to whoever might still wanna do it.

#the charioteer #mary renault #tc tag game #tag game

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bluedalahorse · 5 months

Text

So is now the time to post the opening of my unfinished YR abortion road trip fic?

Maybe. Maybe today is the day! This isn’t on AO3 because I haven’t finished it, but @heliza24 really wants me to finish it and would be glad that I posted even this part to fandom.

There’s more written than just this excerpt, so I could always post more if people are curious.

No title yet, because this is untitled.

Summary: Shortly after season 2, Felice wanders off campus to process a high-profile arrest and other recent shakeups at Hillerska. She doesn’t expect to meet Sara Eriksson, who is in the process of running away.

—

Felice’s Phone

Group chat: MANOR HOUSE GIRLZ (Fredrika, Maddie, Stella)

Maddie: yooooo Felice

Maddie: tell us you missed Swedish class for something epic

Stella: we took notes for you

Stella: mine are better than Fredrika’s

Fredrika: LIES mine are better than Stella’s

Maddie: you’re not in your room

Maddie: girl are you even at school?

Fredrika: just tell us where you are and we won’t snitch

Stella: Felice?

Stella: please check in

Stella: and maybe flirt with one of the local boys so he buys you booze

Fredrika: and then share?

Maddie: don’t listen to them

Maddie: only flirt with someone hot

Stella: yeah he’s got to be at least as hot as Fredrika

Stella: lol j/k ahahaha what

Fredrika: heeeyyyyyyy Feliiiiiice where are youuuuu

Fredrika: we’re a little worried, just let us know

Fredrika: tho at least you didn’t get sick and disappear into the bathroom like SOMEONE we could mention

Stella: but we’re not mentioning her

Stella: bc we don’t mention traitors

—

Felice sits at the edge of a convenience store parking lot in Bjärstad, counting all the scars in her nail polish. It’s supposed to be a fresh coat. Stella brushed the ballet slipper pink onto Felice’s nails on Tuesday, and right now it’s only—Thursday afternoon? Felice is drunk on leftover vodka she stashed in her closet behind her Prada handbag, but not so drunk she’s forgotten that it’s Thursday. A Thursday full of literal dark clouds, at that.

Tuesday was sunny, and it was also the day that police arrived at Hillerska and escorted that guy away. That one, the ex. Wednesday, Felice’s ex-best friend, her real ex in any kind of emotional attachment sense, came back to school for half a day, but couldn’t make it past lunch. Now people are spreading rumors about Sara Eriksson puking in the bathroom. So maybe it’s been a weird enough forty-eight hours that Felice hasn’t noticed herself scarring up her nail polish.

And maybe, now that today is Thursday, Felice needed to skip classes and get drunk and go for a walk off campus, and buy a bag of chips from a nothing convenience store in this nowhere town. There are things getting drunk won’t solve. But it’s not like being sober is going to solve things for Felice right now, either.

Felice’s phone vibrates against her thigh. She pulls it out of the pocket of her sweatpants and notes the texts from Fredrika and Stella and Maddie in her (recently purged) group chat. They’re asking her where she is, and is she coming to dinner. Please check in, fuck. How performatively worried. Felice unlocks her phone and almost fumbles her way through a typo-soaked message before deciding she’ll do this psychically. I am walking back to Hillerska now, she thinks in the general direction of school, slow and deliberate. She leaves the rest up to Maddie’s alleged witch powers and pulls herself to her feet.

Felice’s ankles ache the way they do when she’s walked on her Jimmy Choo heels for too long. She’s not wearing heels, though, only slides. Her legs wobble. Her thoughts swirl in slow, doomed circles, like dirty water circling a drain, as thunder rumbles overhead and a cool breeze rustles nearby trees. The rain is imminent, and Felice contemplates how much worse it will be when she shows back up on campus not only drunk, but drunk and completely soaked through, her carefully styled curls a wreck.

(Stella, Fredrika, and Maddie could get away with a stunt like that. A teacher might ignore their obvious alcohol breath and just tell them to put on dry pajamas and go to bed. But for Felice, they notice everything. Because Felice sticks out to begin with.)

Felice is caught in a vision of the headmistress, hissing the word inebriated on a phone call to parents, when a van pulls into the parking lot. She’s not as up on cars as the Forest Ridge boys, but this van definitely belongs to a Bjärstad local. She braces herself for an awful catcall as the window rolls down halfway, certain she’s about to get leered at by some guy in a permanently affixed football beanie.

Instead, it’s a girl. No football beanie, only football confidence. Felice recognizes the girl from Simon’s instagram—she’s come up a few times. Felice hasn’t been counting, but she’s noticed.

“You’re in choir with Simon,” says the girl. “Felice, right? I’m Rosh. Need a ride back to school?”

“I can walk. I think,” Felice says. And then, so she can own her story, she adds, “I might be a little drunk?”

Felice adjusts her posture, straightening her spine and setting her hand on her hip as she makes eye contact with Rosh. Immediately a sense of embarrassment twinges in her chest at her pose. What the—was she modeling? She’s not making a case for relative sobriety, whatever she’s doing.

Rosh turns to consult with someone next to her, then turns back to Felice.

“Come on,” she says. “Get in the car. Back seat.”

“Um. Thanks.”

The back door of the van slides open. Felice doesn’t have time to question who Rosh has next to her in the passenger seat. She receives an answer soon enough anyway. The back of Sara Eriksson’s head is so familiar—defeated brown waves that haven’t seen a wash day in too long. Sara’s shoulders are hunched over; her neck is bent. She does not turn around.

Two weeks ago, if Felice saw Sara looking like that, she would have pulled Sara close and rubbed her back until they talked through what was wrong.

(Part of her still wants to. But she doesn’t like the idea of Sara mentally comparing her hugs to someone else’s, and she’s allowed to be petty about that.)

“You don’t have to talk to me,” Sara says, tapping away on her phone. She sounds exhausted. “I’m busy anyway.”

“If you hydrate, we won’t ask about the drinking,” says Rosh to Felice. “There’s sports drink behind the passenger seat. Take one.”

Right. Sports drink. Because Rosh does sports, Felice has noticed. It sounds like an order more than an offer. Felice ducks down and liberates one of the bottles from its six-pack. The liquid inside is neon-bright and tastes of soft metal and fake citrus. Rain splatters on the van’s windows—the first sparse and irregular drops, followed by the entire pounding ensemble of water. For the next few minutes, Felice focuses on the horizon, where blurred trees meet the mirror-gray sky, and sips her post-football-run drink. Sara takes care of the directions to her old dorm, uttering an occasional “right” or “left” or “go straight here” to Rosh. Felice can’t tell why she’s doing it. Why she didn’t just insist on leaving Felice behind.

Then, the conversation shifts. Or at least, the conversation that Felice isn’t a part of shifts.

“Rosh?” Sara whispers. “I can’t find anywhere cheap enough for us to stay.”

“Even on the apps?” Rosh replies. “Look, I told you, I have some money—”

“I can’t take your money.”

“It’s money I owe Simon anyway.”

“That’s even worse. He already hates me. You should hate me more.”

Sara breathes in, then out, audibly. She does it a few more times. Felice’s own lungs strain in sympathy.

“We have to find a place for the weekend,” says Sara. “Or we can’t do it.”

“What are you talking about?” Felice finally asks. She presses a hand to her thigh to keep her leg from jiggling. Since she was seven years old and started her first etiquette classes, she’s always been able to sit still. Always.

“We’re going on a weekend trip,” Rosh answers, too brightly. “To Stockholm—”

“—to an island,” Sara says at the same time.

“Stockholm has lots of islands,” Rosh improvises. “Sara just needs to be away for a weekend. That’s all.”

“It doesn’t sound like you’re going on a normal trip,” says Felice, hearing the suspicion in her voice, and how it sounds like her father.

“We told Mamma we were traveling,” says Sara. “My period’s late. I don’t––I don’t think it’s coming. I know it isn’t coming, because—”

“Don’t tell me that.”

“—I did a pregnancy test.”

Felice digs her chipped nails into her knee. She knew how Sara’s sentence was going to end. Not the way she knows people’s names or the answers on a test she studied for, but the way she knows to pull her hand away when she touches a hot stove. Swift and unthinking. She even gasps the same way she does when she’s burned. Not out of surprise but out of pain.

“Fuck, Sara,” says Rosh. “You don’t have to tell her. She could tell the media.”

“Sorry,” says Sara. “It just came out. I’m scared, okay?” At last she turns around and looks toward Felice, her fingers curled around the back of the passenger seat. Her face is red and purple-tinged in all the places that indicate crying and sleepless nights. “Look, you can’t tell anyone. Rosh and I are going to deal with it. We already got the pills. I can’t deal with it at home because of Simon and Mamma. I don’t know what they’d say.”

“We wanted to use my apartment,” Rosh adds. “We thought my mother was going to visit one of my aunties this weekend. But auntie came to visit us instead at the last minute.”

“Please don’t tell anyone at school, Felice.” Sara turns away again. “Or Simon. Don’t tell him either.”

“People are already talking about how you threw up in the bathroom,” says Felice. “And if you’re absent from school again, they’re going to wonder.”

“Please don’t tell,” Sara repeats, voice muffled as she pushes her face into her coat sleeves.

As much as the infusion of electrolytes, courtesy of Rosh, has helped Felice to steady her head, she’s still too drunk for this. Or maybe, again, she isn’t drunk enough. She tries to imagine her math class tomorrow, working trigonometry problems with an empty chair beside her and actually knowing why the chair is empty. She can’t. Felice can’t even imagine faking sick and staying home from class, because then Stella and Fredrika would come visit her with buns and coffee, and then they’d want to gossip.

At first, being able to gossip felt good. But ever since the arrest—since the security from the palace arriving to keep out news cameras—gossip is more like gangrene eating at an already wounded limb. Felice needs amputation, or at least closure. Until then, she’s just going to keep asking herself questions about what part of the catastrophe she made happen. Why didn’t she ask Sara who she had a crush on, like best friends always do? Why hadn’t she been more concerned that Sara was gone all the time and came back late to their room? Why hadn’t she told Sara how bad things got with him last term, to warn her?

Felice doesn’t want to keep asking herself the questions, because this isn’t her fault. Maybe Sara isn’t the only one who needs an emergency abortion. Maybe Felice needs to abort Sara from her life, so she can move on.

But if she’s going to do this, she has to make it her choice.

“My family has a vacation cabin,” Felice says. “We can go there to do what you need to do. But after that, we will never speak to one another ever again. Alright?”

Sara’s shrunk down in her seat so much that Felice can’t see her anymore, but Felice is pretty sure from the rustling of her coat sleeves that she’s nodding.

Five minutes later, Felice is on the phone with her mother, feeding her excuses and exaggerations until she gets the approval to leave school for the weekend. At the same time, Rosh turns the van around and drives away from Hillerska.

#young royals #my fic snippets #sara eriksson #felice ehrencrona #rosh young royals #cw pregnancy #cw abortion

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