#this fic WOULD be annie x jt as well

[pynkhues]

Oo for the meme! Brio in a regency setting!! For the prompt like imagine them at a ball!! The outfits the pining 🥺

Ohhh my gosh, anon, you've caught me in such a mood for this, hahaha. Okay okay okay, imagine Beth and Annie have both debuted, and Beth was quickly chosen by Lord Dean and they've gotten betrothed and everything's going pretty well, only then Beth discovers that Annie's pregnant to Lord Greg, who's betrothed to Miss Nancy. This is a SCANDAL, and Beth can't have anyone find out her sister is with child and without husband, so puts her engagement plans on the backburner to try and get Annie married ASAP.

They end up going to every ball in town while Beth tries to get her sister lined up with a real prospect, which is how they end up at the the Dowager Duchess Rosa Martinez' ball and Rosa figures it out quickly but agrees to help them because she likes them and doesn't want to see the two Marks sisters in scandal. She herself though has two eligible sons, the Duke, Nick, and the Marquess, Rio, and it's not long before they get, ahem, involved~

An excerpt beneath the cut!

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Noah bows forwards, a hand at his slender stomach, as Annie casts Beth an amused look over her shoulder. It belies the light flush on her sister’s cheeks though, and Beth can’t help the lurch of hope in her chest – the image that forms too quickly of a future in days, weeks, years. Noah’s of a good family, and is set to inherit well – an estate and a modest title as a Baron – and if Annie were to find a match in him, if he were to make an offer in the next few weeks…

No.

She mustn’t get ahead of herself.

Beth nods, and watches as Annie offers her gloved hand to Noah and allows herself to be swept up across the ballroom floor as the music changes to the Miss Bass Waltz.

From her vantage point by the stairs, she can see most of the Dowager Duchess’ ballroom – the arched windows overlooking moonlit gardens casting a hazy, dusky glow across the room. Annie’s gown isn’t as refined as Miss Nancy’s or as modern as Miss Diane’s, but the beadwork Ruby had helped Beth lay at the bust and the sleeves (a distraction from the starting outline of Annie’s growing belly) catch the candlelight, and her laugh is bright and melodic and seems to catch the ear of some of the other men on the floor. Beth makes notes in her head – Lord Cohen, Lord Bristow, even perhaps the Marquess’ friend, the Baron Mick – they all seem to take note. If she can get them on her sister’s dance card, if she can fill the thing, surely one will be a real prospect.

She’s so intent on her scheming, she doesn’t realise anyone’s beside her until she feels a tug at her wrist.

Beth blinks, swivels her gaze to the side and feels her breath catch.

It’s not that she didn’t expect to see the Marquess Rio here (it’s his grandmother’s ball after all), but still, she rarely feels prepared to see him. The elegant lines of him, the darkness of his eyes, the fullness of his lips – she wets hers as he lifts her wrist by the dance card neatly fastened there.

The rustle of the paper is loud in her ears as his long fingers fan the thick pages, and she watches his gaze dart over the blank lines of it, her own gloved hand hanging limply between them. After a moment, Rio just hums, arching an eyebrow up at her in a wordless criticism of her empty card, and Beth flushes, tugging her wrist away.

“In case you are forgetting, I am already betrothed,” she tells him, turning her attention back to where Annie glides across the dance floor, feeling rather short of breath when Rio doesn’t move on, but instead turns to stand properly beside her.

The smell of sandalwood and gunpowder fills her nose – a sure sign he has been hunting earlier in the day – and Beth blinks rapidly, remembering the week earlier, when he’d shot the clay pigeon Dean couldn’t, and - - the way he’d looked at her. Beth swallows, and as if he’d read her mind, Rio says:

“Yeah? And where is Lord Boland tonight?”

 “He is…” she trails off, uncertain. Her gaze flicks across the floor again, but she still can’t see his broad shoulders, or his slightly lumbering gait.

“Not on your dance card,” Rio says smoothly, and Beth turns around again, blinks up at him, speechless, when suddenly, he grins, mischievous, and offers her a hand. “So if he ain’t here, and your sister’s on the floor already, seems the next waltz is probably ours, darlin’.”

And she should decline, she should say no, should remind him that it’s improper, but he has not dropped his hand and she looks at his face and swears she sees something almost earnest beneath the edge, beneath the charm and mischief, and before she knows it, she’s reaching up to place her hand on top of his and oh, there’s something to it.

The way he closes his fingers around hers, his grip the perfect sort of warmth, even through the fabric of her silk glove, and vaguely, she wonders what his skin might feel like against hers.

Her heart seems to stutter at the thought.  

No excuses writing meme

#this fic WOULD be annie x jt as well #because i love them okay #in my head he's like #a friend of hers #and he already knows #but doesn't realise he's in love with her until she almost marries one of her canon terrible boyfriends #beth x rio #no excuses writing meme #nbc good girls #gg fic #welcome to my ama #regency au

[pynkhues]

Seriously, thoughts?

Mixed thoughts on that ep, anon! There were certain things that I absolutely loved, and certain things I really, really didn’t, and I thought that the second half of the episode was a lot stronger than the first half. I feel like I probably need to watch it again before I answer too many asks, haha, but I can talk about my initial thoughts, so let’s do that: 

The Good

- I loved Stan’s arc this episode, both with Krystal and with Ruby. Reno and Noureen have such a great energy together, and everything from them playing Mahjong with the other strippers, to Krystal’s fury at her position in life helping Stan to realise why Ruby did what she did? Just - - *chef kissyhands*. The fact that Ruby getting shot too was what helped propel him straight into crime - just like Ruby’s desire to protect her family is what propelled her was perfect for me, particularly after their friction over the last few episodes. Ruby’s “I’m that bitch” speech was playing in my head when Stan told Krystal he was in. Just - - wonderful!

- Annie saving Ruby’s leg (Ruby’s oh no made me howl with laughter, haha) and in the process of that learning she wants to be an EMT? SO good! 

- JT is always welcome on my screen too, and I loved his whole interaction with Annie at the end (him calling Ruby ‘bunny’ and being genuinely concerned for her too gave me a lot of feelings). I said it during the episode too, but errrr, I’d read that fic, haha, and be on board if the show ever got them together. 

- The scene with Beth teaching Max to shoot was pretty fun (although I do think it could’ve been utilised better in a narrative sense) and I actually loved the scene with Beth telling Max that he’d have felt nothing if he shot Rio, in no small part, because I think it shows us exactly how much Beth hasn’t processed 2.13. We know she felt guilt, because this season has shown us that, and the thought that she’s compartmentalised it away to nothingness fits so well with her character, and with how she slumps into depressive episodes where she’s borderline catatonic. I think it works - I just wish we’d gotten a bit more of it. 

- The robbery! I was into it, haha, just like I was into Rio knowing Beth was lying and stealing from him, but never quite sure enough to act? His willingness to test her lies has always been a dynamic I’ve really loved, and I loved that he let her drive it for a while before taking over.

The Not-So-Good

- The Dean x Gayle + Four Star Pools and Spas storyline isn’t working for me at all, unfortunately. Dean hasn’t had anything approaching a redemptive arc, so he’s impossible to root for. It’s strange to have this sort of powerplay with Gayle too given the show has underlined this season exactly how much Dean hasn’t changed, and how little he’s learnt. His single act of growth has been not jumping into bed with Gayle, but in terms of his marriage, his parenting, his flailing abandon, he hasn’t changed at all. It’s....confused storytelling, to say the least.

- Other confused storytelling is Beth seducing Dean at the start of the episode. I actually think this could’ve worked if what they were telling us was that Beth successfully robbing Rio and starting to feel in control again got her hot and bothered, because it’s already established that it does, but if that was the message they wanted us to take from that (which I mostly think they did?) we needed more of a direct link between those two factors.

- The ease with which Beth hired a hitman for Rio. Again, I’m actually not adverse to her having done it? I think it does slot into her furious powerlessness as well as her lack of forethought and her desire to tackle only the problem in front of her - in this case, Max, just like I actually do think it’s in-character for Beth to have told Max everything. Beth’s always been trusting to a fault, and I can see her thinking that telling Max that would’ve made him back off? I just also think we needed a moment before the end where Beth felt the weight of the choice.

I actually think this could’ve been fixed really easily? I think they could’ve intercut Beth teaching Max to shoot with a flashback to Rio teaching Beth - a scene we never got - and giving Beth a single moment of wavering in the midst of that. That would only further the weight given to her scene later with Max in the minivan, and the robbery. But alas, haha. 

What did you guys think?

#gg 3.07 #gg spoilers #beth boland #ruby hill #stan hill #annie marks #rio #dean boland #ruby x stan #krystal + stan #jt #beth x dean #dean x gayle #max #welcome to my ama #Anonymous

[pynkhues]

Would literally pay cold hard cash for the Annie/JT/Nancy fic you outlined in your tags. What a fabulous dynamic yes please.

I mean, it’s the ultimate dream, haha. I can’t promise I’ll ever finish this, but have a little snippet of an Annie x JT x Nancy fic:

-

“Okay, no,that’s not what I meant,” Nancy insists, briefly closing her eyes, shaking herhead, so her blonde hair fans all about her face, and JT throws up hishands, or well - - not his hands.

One of hishands.

One of hishands because the other is firmly settled on holding Dakota at his waist, thekid latching onto JT’s chest like some sort of fleshy, toddler-shaped barnacle,and okay. There are three questions here for Annie.

“Uhhhh,yeah,” JT says, eyebrows halfway up his forehead as he hoists Dakota up hiship, flailing an open-palmed hand in Nancy’s general direction. “You’re callingher poor.”

It’s enoughto make Nancy splutter, reel back, affronted, and - - okay.

Question one.

How, of allthe people at Annie’s birthday party, have Nancy and JT ended uptogether in her kitchen.

“What I said,”Nancy insists, her tone borderline shrill. “Is that I haven’t had frozen shrimpegg rolls since I was in college, and maybe I wasn’t expecting it at a partyfor a grown woman.”

Anniesquints, grabbing a few of the empty glasses stacked precariously on herspeakers, because - - y’know what, Nance? Annie is a grown woman.She has glasses instead of plastic cups. Hell, she could be the mostgrown-ass woman in this entire apartment if you count Beth just cashing in on herpostponed highschool rebellion by letting gangfriend straight up suck on herearlobe on the couch right now, and she’s pretty sure Ruby and Stan are gettingtheir freak on in her bedroom and - - okay, she can’t be too mad atthem. They did come around way early to help her set up, and maybe they crackedinto the drinks a little early, but, hear her out, she - -

“And that sh- -“ JT pauses, looks at Nancy, gormless for a moment, and then at Dakota,readjusts his hold on the toddler, who’s drooling all over a teething ring, beforerefocusing on Nancy. Nancy’s gaze darts, right as a flush builds up her neck, and JT purses his lips, before he says: “Stuff is goodparty food. Just because you wear some sorta postcode as a uniform and talkabout canapes and horderves and shit, don’t mean this,” hegestures then, to the plate of only half defrosted egg rolls currently sittingon Annie’s kitchen bench. “Ain’t what people, a few drinks in, want to actuallybe eating at parties.”

And it’s enoughto make Nancy huff, for her to fold her arms over her chest, to look a littleaffronted, a flush still building up her chest, but - - she isn’t trying to takeDakota out of his arms, Annie thinks, and it’s enough to make her blink.

Because thething is, she hadn’t really expected either of them to come in the first place. It was her34th birthday which is about as much of a nothing-birthday as youcan get, and she’d thrown it down as an offer, because - - fuck, y’know, it’dbe nice to not have to celebrate with the usual suspects – Ben and Beth andRuby and Baby Tyler and whatever collection of weirdos she currently works with, a few whoshe’s pretty sure took way too many disco biscuits before they arrived, and y’know,Annie was totally cool with that, only - - only her gaze catches as JT cups Dakota’shead to his chest, toddler slobber – having dripped down from the teething ring– all over his hand, which twists something up inside her, but more importantly brings Annie to question two.

Why is JTholding Dakota?

“I - - ” Nancyflails a little, her eyes wide, and so blue, unblinking, her nose all pointy, glowering upat JT. “I’ll have you know that my spa donates a full treatment every monthto a local charity, so, trust me. I know about - - ” she flails briefly, and JTlooks at her, raised eyebrows and pursed lips, but there’s something in Nancy’s sparkthat seems to fan his, and Annie watches - - feels a familiar heat in her atthe prospect. “Things,” she settles on, and JT laughs, scoffs, scootingDakota up his hip, staring down at her like he can’t quite believe she exists,and that just brings Annie to question three, which - -

“Are they flirting?”Ben asks, somehow newly behind her shoulder. He’s munching on one of the littlesandwiches Beth had brought over, and Annie resists the urge to slap it out ofhis hand. “Aren’t you like, dating both of them?”

She doesslap it then. Ben jerks his head back, stares at her for a moment in shock, all- - tall - - baby - - man thing. Annie glowers.

“I’mnot dating either of them,” she insists, and Ben gestures down to thefloor where his sandwich lies in at least eight parts, and Annie instead spinson the spot just to watch JT hike Dakota up his hip and for the flush to rise further up on Nancy’s neck.

Whatever twisted in her earlier just twists all the more.

#annie x jt x nancy #this is my new ot3 apparently guys #haha #annie marks #jt #nancy #my fic #welcome to my ama #mego42