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#I love both websites tbh
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I'm just curious, is there an American you'd ever want to try? I've heard so many good things about German chocolate, I hope to have some one of these days
now, personally, I like to think that Americans would taste just the same as the people I eat around here :)
#(gjhgfj I just wasn't sure whether you meant American -food- in general or sweets/chocolate specifically-)#if food in general then I'd really like to try an authentic southern chili or a real bbq bc what we get here is An Attempt at best#also at the risk of committing more pizza-related anti-Italian hate-crimes on this website this week:#but I'd really like to try a typical New York and a typical Chicago pizza. Just to get an opinion in on that one.#also the chicago pizza looks actually interesting#also I know it's Mexican food but I always really really wanted to try Taco-Bell. :(#but I heard there are some restaurants in other Euro countries now so I imagine it's only a matter of time until we get them.#but generally I think you get a lot more spicy food over there and since I love spicy stuff that would be something I'd definitely enjoy#if you meant sweets specifically I'm not sure I can think of any specifically bc we actually get more and more American candy#plus we have some small English/American shops nearby and they sell American candy so I've tried quite a lot of it.#Oh our local supermarket now has Hershey bars which I really liked so that's one point for American chocolate!#a friend of mine brought me a box rainbow nerds back from his Florida vacation and it was much too sweet for both of us#so I'm gonna give anything in that direction a no#we even now get all kinds of cookie-dough stuff which was something I missed for a long time#hmm...as far as chocolate goes I'd recommend Toblerone. It's Swiss not German but tbh I prefer the Swiss chocolate.#and they're available worldwide AND cheap AND I assume they take their recipe quite seriously. So it should be authentic.#(I just checked and apparently you can get it at Walmart)#if you specifically want to try a German one - I just googled it and apparently Walmart has Ritter Sport.#They have a lot more variety than Toblerone though so that would be trial and error)#so yeah I think it mostly would be ... general cuisines and kinds of dishes I'd like to try than specific food items#nonfandom#personal#Oh Belgian chocolate is also pretty good! I was going to recommend Belgian Fruits de mer (chocolates that look like mussles)#so I just googled it to see if you can easily get them over there#but the wikipedia article specifically mentions that they're very local and quote-unquote:#Copycat products are sold at German discount stores#so I guess that means I've never actually had authentic fruits de mer. BUT! the knock-offs are great.
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stargazingfangirl18 · 4 months
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Distraction
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Pairing: Steve Rogers x Fem!Reader Word Count: 521 Summary: You are trying to work. Warnings: Explicit language. Explicit sexual content. Soft mobster!Steve. Two sweet beans who are smitten. Implied size difference/kink. Edging tbh.
A/N: Just a little something something as I try to work on the last few NA custom drabbles. In the meantime, have some Gentle Soul!Steve and his horny reader. 
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Steve corners you as you’re working. 
You’ve gone on a few dates by now, and he’s been courting you, and you’re so forever flustered by how big and broad he is compared to you.
You’re also all narrowed eyed and faux disapproving pouting as you huff, “What do you think you’re doing?”
Steve gives you a cheeky smile. “I know what I’m imagining doing. To you.”
You try to scoff a little, despite the way that your panties are well on their way to ruined with the way he’s looking at you.
Straight up eye fucking you, really. 
“I am trying to work.”
“Take a break,” Steve cajoles, slowly backing you into the nearest wall.
“I'm not sure my boss would like that,” you murmur, looking up at him from beneath your lashes.
“I have it on good authority that he would be ecstatic about it.”
And cue the giggling, from both of you.
Steve’s still grinning as he leans in and kisses you, niiice and slow. It’s like he’s making love to your mouth with his, the way his lips are pressing and grinding against yours, his tongue diving past your lips soon after. 
Moaning, you hesitantly touch Steve’s shoulders, getting distracted by how broad he is as your hands greedily map every single inch of his breadth that they can. 
When your touching turns more to groping, and you make a sweet little noise of appreciation for him, Steve effortlessly hefts you up and pins you to the wall, his big body sinking against the cradle of your thighs.
His fingers trace along your thigh and up, up, up the dark sheer material of your stocking, until he discovers the lacy top of your thigh high and goes instantly still. 
Steves pulls away so he can look at you, then to where your thigh high ends and your bare skin begins. 
His nostrils flare as he groans, “Christ, you’re trouble.”
“I have it on good authority that is in fact true,” you tease. 
Your tummy somersaults as Steve huffs a laugh, his eyes crinkling and so warm as he leans in for another slow, sultry kiss.
As both your hands begin to wander the other’s body, your hips rocking against Steve and pulling another groan from between his pillowy, pink lips, he pulls away, dropping his forehead to yours. 
“Not sure how much longer I can hold out,” he husks, his dark gaze meeting yours. “Wanna be inside you so bad.”
“God,” you whine, swallowing against the dryness in your throat as you cup the nape of his neck. “I feel like this edging isn’t good for either of us.”
Steve cracks a grin, knocking your nose with his as he murmurs, “Promise I’ll make it worth it.”
“When?”
He watches you for a moment, his eyes searching yours, trying to discern even a hint of doubt, but he only finds desire.
And shameless, desperate need. 
“This weekend?” he proposes. 
“Deal,” you accept so quickly, he laughs. “No changies.”
And then you yank him close for more kisses, happily getting lost in him for a little while longer. 
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NEXT PART
I no longer do tag lists, but if you'd like to be notified when I post new writing, follow my side blog @‌sirisshamelesshoelibrary​ and turn on notifications to get pinged when I drop some new hoe fuel 😘
Please note that I do not give permission for my work to be translated, reposted, or published anywhere other than my Tumblr or my personal author website. Reblogs are most welcome and encouraged though! ❤️
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redvelvettecakes1 · 17 days
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LATE WELCOME HOME UPDATE RANT POST !
(⚠️ spoilers for the newest welcome home update that came out march 9th ⚠️)
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OKAY SO I ACTUALLY HAVE SO MANY THINGS TO SAY ABOUT THIS UPDATE, IT WAS BY FAR MY FAVOURITE UPDATE SO FAR THAT WE HAVE GOTTEN. before I start however if you guys don’t know how to Access the secret website here is the link if you need it!
FIRST OFF, THESE IMAGESSSSS, THEY’RE ACTUALLY SO CUTE I LOVE JULIE’S CHRISTMAS TREE HAIR SO MUCH 😭 AND THE THIRD PHOTO IS SO CUTE?? LOOK AT THEM ALL TOGETHER, THEY’RE ALL LIKE A LITTLE FAMILY IT’S ADORABLE ☹️
AND THE ARTSTYLE IS SO PRETTY, LITERALLY I LOVE CLOWNS STYLE SO MUCH.
I CAN ONLY SHARE ONE CLIP BC TUMBLR WONT LET ME ADD MORE 😢 BUT OUT OF ALL THE CLIPS WE GOT THIS WAS BY FAR MY FAVOURITE, I WAS HONESTLY SO SHOCKED TO SEE THAT WE GOT FULLY ANIMATED SCENES OF THE CHARACTERS, AND THIS ONE WAS MY FAVOURITE OUT OF ALL OF THEM.
BARNABY AND HOWDY BOTH LOOK SO CUTE IN THS STYLE AND I LOVED BARNABYS EXPRESSIONS, I LITERALLY LOVED BARNABY IN THIS ENTIRE UPDATE TBH, HE LITERALLY CARRIED THE WHOLE UPDATE ONCE AGAIN, HE WAS GREAT AND I LOVE HIS VOICE SO MUCH.
I’M GENUINELY SO HAPPY THAT WE GOT TO SEE MORE OF HIM THIS UPDATE.
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AND THIS ANIMATION, THIS ONE WAS ONE OF MY FAVOURITES TOO, THE SCENERY WAS SO PRETTY AND IT REALLY MATCHED THE ADVERT AS IT HAD A VERY COSY FEEL TO IT, I LOVED IT SO MUCH.
WALLY LOOKS SO CUTE IN THIS STYLE, I LOVED THE WAY HE SMILED IN THIS ANIMATION TOO, HE LOOKED SO SILLY, I DIDNT ACTUALLY LIKE WALLY BEFORE BUT NOW HE IS STARTING TO GROW ON ME A LITTLE AFTER THIS, I DIDNT TRUST HIM IN THE FIRST FEW UPDATES AS I THOUGHT IT WAS IMPLIED THAT HE WAS GONNA BE THE BAD CHARACTER BUT AS OF NOW HE SEEMS PRETTY SILLY TOO 😭
but anyways, literally loved this animation too, it was so smooth and pretty, whoever animated these scenes did an amazing job because I loved each one so much
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OKAY, I HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY ABOUT THIS PART TOO.
MY JAW LITERALLY DROPPED WHEN I SAW MS. BEAGLE TOO, I REALLY WAS NOT EXPECTING TO SEE HER ANYTIME SOON SO I WAS VERY SURPRISED WHEN I SAW HER APPEAR, I WAS LITERALLY SAYING A BIT BEFORE THIS UPDATE THAT I WOULD LOVE TO SEE BARNABY AND MS. BEAGLE TOGETHER, AND IN THIS UPDATE I WAS SURPRISED TO SEE I ACTUALLY GOT WHAT I WANTED.
they’re my favourite mother and son guys. ☹️
THEY WERE LITERALLY SO CUTE, WHEN MS. BEAGLE GAVE BARNABY A PECK ON THE CHEEK AND YOU CAN ALSO TELL HOW MUCH BARNABY CARES FOR HER, IT’S SO SWEET AND I LOVE THEM SO MUCH 😭 I also really loved the fact we got to see more artwork of ms. beagle, she is literally so pretty and her voice is so pretty too, I LOVE HERRR
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AND 11 NEW CHARACTERS?? I WAS COMPLETELY SHOCKED BY THIS TOO, I DIDNT EXPECT TO SEE SO MANY NEW FACES IN THIS UPDATE ALSO.
it was really nice to hear more about howdy’s family, AND THERE IS SO MANY OF THEM, HIS FAMILY IS ACTUALLY MASSIVE, I loved all their voices and character designs so much, they were all great, I WAS SURPRISED WE GOT TO HEAR ALL THEIR VOICES TOO, I was completely blown away from this update
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THE LORE WE GOT ON EDDIE TOO WAS ACTUALLY CRAZY.
I felt so bad for the guy he was so stressed and exhausted from everything, it was also really sad to see how he was getting frustrated / upset when nobody was coming to visit him 😕 FRANK KEEP YOUR BOYFRIEND COMPANY PLEASE…
It was also really nice to see how worried Frank was for Eddie when Eddie was zoning out, THEY WERE SO WORRIED FOR HIM, I ACTUALLY STARTED CRYING NEAR THE END OF THE 22 MINUTE VIDEO, THE ANGST FOR EDDIE WAS SO SAD, ESPECIALLY THE PART WHERE FRANK STARTED TO WORRY.
anyways, that’s all I have to say for this update, I literally loved it so much and this is definitely my favourite update so far, the voice actors, animators and clown did such a good job with this update and it was definitely worth the extra wait 🩷
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taruusmoon · 5 months
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THE BEST LA, LA, LA IN KPOP.
Pairing: idoltatterxidolfemreader | idollusherxidolfemreader | idolbadaxidolfemreader | idolminahxidolfemreader
Genre: idk tbh AU?
Warning: use of the song better than gold from NCT | tension | idolAU! | lead singer tatter | main dancer bada | main rapper lusher | secret relationship | visual minah | golden visual 8th member
Inspired by this video
Kim Taeyoung “Tatter”
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Being part of the most popular girl group in the third generation was something difficult, and it was worse when you were in a secret relationship with the lead vocalist of the band. Bebe debuted in 2015 right after the debut of Seventeen, and became one of the most popular groups under SM Entertainment.
You were one of the most popular among boys and idols, but everyone suspected that boys weren’t something you’re interested in. Rumors about you were everywhere: inside the company, in magazines, and on all social media. And it was needless to say that the rumors were true. Two years after the Bebe debut, you and Tatter started dating. Everything started as a friendship inside the practice room before your debut and years later became something more when both of you confessed after an emotional concert in Europe.
It was difficult to keep it a secret, and only all the team members knew about the relationship. They supported it even if there were the slightest probability of everything going to hell when people found out. But there was something that kept the two of you going, and it was the support of the fans. There were a lot of people who shipped you, and both of you knew it. At first, the skin ship between the lead singer and you was null, but when Tatter came to your room, she was very excited because she found a hashtag with your names and a lot of theories. You became more touchy with her.
People love the interaction; they have favorite moments, and one of them was the duo part you both have together on the cover of Better Than Gold from NCT Dream.
“It’s better, better, better, better than,” the group sang all together in the scenario with a thousand fans all around the stadium.
    “Ooh, na-na” Tatter sang, walking with a smile on her face while boys and girls screamed her name loudly. You walked behind her, getting closer with each step. “You oneul harureul” she stopped walking and moved her shoulders with the rhythm of the song, turning her head back to put it in your shoulder while you put your arm around her waist, making everyone scream louder.
     “Lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-love” you sang, and then walked away, winking at Tatter, knowing that tomorrow the internet would be full of videos of you two.
 
 
Lee Seoyoung “Lusher”
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It was the 10th anniversary of Bebe, and the company decided to hold a commemoration concert in the Olympic Stadium in Seoul. The place was completely full, and all the tickets were sold out in two hours. A blue lightstick illuminated the whole arena, making all the members emotional and excited for the anniversary.
     “I just want to say to all of the fans that are here today and all of the ones that are behind those screens that I love you” With a soft voice, you said, and all the people who attended the concert screamed loudly. “I really appreciate the love you have given to us since the day you met us.”
“Yah, y/n stop being so cute” Lusher put her arm around your shoulders, hugging you hard, and the simple gesture made everyone scream even louder than before. Every fan shipped you and Lusher, there were a lot of theories around the internet, and they enjoyed even the smallest touch you gave each other.
But no one except for the members and the staff knew the truth about you two, and it was better that way. Even though a lot of articles from official websites surrounded the internet, neither you nor Seoyoung said a word about the relationship between you two. You two were just fifteen years old when Bebe debuted, and Lusher had a crush on you since then, but she never said a word, and in fact, if it weren’t for Bada you'd never know about it because Seoyoung thought that you loved her just like a best friend. 
It wasn’t until 2 years after the debut that Bada found out you liked Lusher too, and she freaked out instantly, telling you that Seoyoung had the same feelings. But you didn’t believe her at the beginning, and it was thanks to Kyma that you believed her word. After that, you confessed to Lusher.
“¡Better than gold! ¡Better than gold!” The public started to scream, asking for the famous cover, making the whole team laugh, but who were they to say no to their fans? Even if the song wasn’t originally from Bebe, everyone loved the cover. 
“Baby, you know, yeah, you know, yeah, you know. Yeah, you know gidaryeo watjanni” You started to sing with a flirty smile, pointing at the fans who got excited.
All the girls walked around the scenario while singing the popular cover, and all the fans sang along with you and your group members. Lusher stood at the center of the scenario, dancing to the rhythm of the song. You walked in her direction, looking her straight in the eyes, both knowing what was coming next. 
    “Ooh, na-na” you sang, putting your arms over Lushers shoulders while she put one of her hands on your waist. “you oneul harureul Lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-love” Seoyoung gave you a flirty smile while dancing.
     “tto la-la-la-la-la-la” both of you sang together, hearing the screaming of the fans who were 100% sure that you two were dating.
Lee Bada
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The Christmas concert was the biggest event SM held every year. All the singers and groups attend the biggest celebration at the Olympic Stadium in Seoul. That night, Bebe and NCT Dream were together on the scenario after a long talk about how they should sing together Better than Gold.
After the mashup Bebe did of all the groups from the company on the SM anniversary, everyone went crazy with them singing Better than Gold, and a year later they released an official cover that went viral around the internet for months. Since then, the song has become part of their concerts, and for the Christmas presentation, the fans begged for the collaboration between Bebe and their hoobae.
You smile at Renjun who was singing next to you, excited to be in the same scenario as his sunbae. The whole stadium was illuminated with blue and green lights, and all the fans were screaming and singing with the two groups. And when Bada appeared next to you grabbing your hand and guiding you to walk through the big scenario with Jaemin and Renjun by your side, everyone went crazy.
The relationship you two had was known to everyone, even if any of you haven’t said a word of affirmation. The simple photos on your social media and the few words Bada has said in some interviews affirm the relationship. But it was a secret that everyone knew even before the debut, when Bebe used to have a pre-debut YouTube channel where you two always stuck to each other.
Both of you were considered the parents of the group; Bada was the strict mom, and you were the loving mother who always hugged them and kissed them the whole time. It was a funny combination because you two were always bickering; Bada was like oil and you were like water, but no matter how different you were, the love was big and beautiful.
     “Ooh, na-na” Renjun and you sang at the same time. Bada raised her hand up to your chin, making you flush and smile shyly with her touch. “You oneul harureul Lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-love”
     “tto la-la-la-la-la-la” with a smirk, Bada left with Jaemin to the other side of the scenario, leaving you a little bit nervous.
Lee Minah
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Minah and you were the visuals of Bebe, Mina has the Korean beauty, while you have the foreign beauty. Everyone loved the two of you together; in photoshoots, songs, or videos, no matter what, both of you were always together. And it was something that fans asked for, but it was something that you two never wanted at first.
     That’s why when the cover of Better Than gold was filmed, the duo of Jaemin and Renjun was assigned to you two. And when the videos were released, people loved you and Minah together even more. The whole Bebe team and staff always make fun of it because, at first, in real life, you and Minah couldn’t stand each other; to you, the young girl was too stubborn and egocentric, and for Minah, you were too innocent and a saint, even if you were older than her. Your relationship with her was like a cat and dog, always running against each other.
     But things changed one day, when, in the middle of an interview, Minah said that she was always flustered and nervous around you whenever you had a photoshoot together. You thought she was joking and trying to get into your skin to make you mad, but when you tried to complain about the matter, she suddenly kissed you. And at that moment, the relationship began.
     “Hey Minah come here right now,” you said through the microphone, looking at the girl trying to sneak to the second floor of the scenario to get closer to the fans while the other girls continued singing Better Than Gold. "Everyone, look at Minah being so stubborn as usual."
     “Coming y/n Unnie” she said, rolling her eyes, knowing very well that you hate being called unnie.
      “Stop fighting and just kiss” Cheche joked, running behind Bada at the right moment, Minah ran in her direction. The girls were going to start chasing each other, but when Minah passed right next to you, you grabbed her by her arm.
     “Ooh, na-na” you grab her cheeks and sing, looking her right in the eyes, causing her to smile, amused. The whole stadium was covered by screams, and the other Bebe girls laughed, “you oneul harureul Lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-love”
       “tto la-la-la-la-la-la” Minah sang, then put her hand on your face and pushed you to run with you behind her.
˗ ˏ ˋ ♡ ˎˊ ˗
First time adding Minah and I don’t regret it🥱🫡
Hope you like it, and sorry if some grammar it’s not okay. Eng it’s not my first lenguaje
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just found the most crazy bonkers post on this website. it's an EXTREMELY graphic post about the crucifixion of jesus. like it's 1500+ words long, all describing the intricacies of what jesus's body went through during his slow death in the most graphic, gory detail possible.
op is a catholicblogger so obviously the post ends with a "and that's why you should love jesus" or whatever but the entire thing is just EXCRUCIATING (a word which this post informed me comes from crucifixion) in its detail. it was actually super interesting tbh just from a medical perspective, and as someone who writes gore in my own horror work.
the tumblr op did not write this 1500-word description, and sources it to a guy called dr. c. truman davis, who is both a medical doctor and a pastor, which i guess explains.... that.
but then we get to the comments. the notes on this post are INSANE. it's mostly christians talking about how cool jesus is, but there's also people in here using the post as their personal confessional booth, etc. there are Things in there. someone just replied "torture porn".
and the craziest part? the post has 50,000 notes.
anyway here is the post if you wanna see it but don't say i didn't warn you. cw for graphic descriptions of torture in the post itself, and for discussion of suicide in the notes (and probably more shit in the notes i didn't read all of em)
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maleyhae · 6 months
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YOUR IN HER DMS I'M IN HER BED WE ARE NOT THE SAME b.k x fem!reader
2023! Bill x reader
summary- some desprate dude is in your dms and bill is make fun of it i guess irdk
warnings- jealousy! bill maybe cussing a weirdo that keeps trying with you, grammar issues, rushed like always, not proofread
yesterdays post
i don't consent to my work being copied, translated, or posted on any other website thank you <3
a/n- wasn't gonna make then i saw a moots (@toikohotelslut post about how she needed more 2023 bill fics :3
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3RD POV:
___ phone keep going off as they were trying to watch a movie Bill was getting annoyed because his girlfriend's phone was blowing up. He knew since April of this year they gain some more fame from Tik Tok but holy hell. Both his band and the band she was in. Some people found her hot since she was gothic guitarist and he understood but holy hell. "My love can you check my phone I don't want to and because I don't won't you thinking I'm doing something wrong." she said. "What was the password again honey..?" "(the day y'all got together)" ___ said.
100 fucking Instagram messages, 200 mentions of this fucker calling her his girlfriend. Bill checked the messages.
"___ I'm a huge fan please respond.!!"
"I'd be a better boyfriend than him." how dare he bill though.
*image sent* just a edit and say how horny he got because of her.
"*dick pics*" God this man did not stop.
"Whatever you're not all that anymore god what I'd do to get in you back from the 2000s." perverted and a asshole.
BILLS POV:
"Hey dove want a take a picture together?" "Yeah babe I'd love to!" she said bubbly a whole different person she was form when she was only 15 in the same year that disgusting perverted pig wanted to fuck her in. Me and her style has changed from emo/ gothic to whatever people called our style now. We got done take a picture I sent it with a caption of "you're in her dms and I'm in her bed so clearly I'm better than you=)" petty? yes worth it? oh hell yes.
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A/N: Hi again sorry this is short i didn't really have i deas for it this tbh but life update because why not! im reading agggtm talking to a new dude and if you have ideas please let me know you can dm me here or on discord my @ is @v4mpgirly !! i hope you enoyed
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thesupreme316 · 3 months
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aew wrestlers x female readers and their favorite positions in bed?
darius martin, dante martin, daniel garcia, hook, action andretti, ricky starks, eddie kingston, and i know they're not in aew, but could you add drilla moloney & charlie dempsey 🙏
AEW STARS AND: Their Favorite Sex Positions (18+)
Pairings: Darius Martin X Female Reader, Dante Martin X Female Reader, Hook X Female Reader, Ricky Starks X Female Reader, Daniel Garcia X Female Reader, Action Andretti X Female Reader, Eddie Kingston X Female Reader, Swerve Strickland X Female Reader,
Word Count: 1.3K
Supreme Speaks: heyyyy (sorry for being late per usual). thanks to my tumblr bae @hooks-martin for the request (for the last two, I didn't know anything about them but I traded them for swerve). i think this is the most explicit imagine of mine so plz take it easy on me. anyways, please remember that you are loved and appreciated. ALSO HAPPY HOLIDAYS
Warnings: Mature content (if you are a minor, please do not read), explicit content and images, explicit language and indications
Taglist: @hooks-martin @hookerforhook @batzy-watzy @wwenhlimagines @triscillal @cassie0sstuff @sheinthatfandom @eddie-kingstons-wifey
**All the positions and their names be referenced from this website**
Hook: Cowgirl
I can just see it
Him on his back looking up at you and admiring the view; with a smirk
BUT DON’T GET IT TWISTED
He is very much in charge
Will command how fast or slow you go; he doesn’t care about the speed….but will change it if he’s punishing you
“You can ride me a lot faster can’t you baby girl?”
If he sees you getting tired (or he is punishing you), he will just drill up into you with no mercy (you’re riding a jackhammer now)
Frequently brings you down to kiss you (Watering Can position)
Loves it when you scratch his torso; it’s like you're leaving your mark/brand
I CAN SEE HIM REACHING UP AND CHOKING YO-
Just to see you squirm a bit more, he’ll talk in Italian
Tw: google translate
“Prendilo per me tesoro, so che puoi.” (Take it for me baby, I know you can.)
Action Andretti: Bizet
Again like I have said in the past
Man’s a sweetheart but also very shy
This is the perfect position since he probably might clam up if he looks into your eyes
Not in a bad way ofc
From this position, you can’t see him blush
So he wants to be as close to you as possible
And he also wants to be able to slip in at any given chance
I think he prefers slow thrusts so you both can feel everything and take in the moment
Loves to whisper in your ear
“It’s almost like your body was built for mine”
I see him as a tits person, so he squeezes them from behind
After careful consideration, yeah my answer is still the same he is a tit person
OVERALL HE IS A SWEETHEART
Dante Martin: Reverse Cowgirl
MMMMM THIS IS MY DREAM SO EXCUSE ME FOR THE PRIVAT-
MANS IS A ASS PERSON
Smacks/gropes your ass whenever
And is a switch too idc what you say; So I think this position gives you both control in a way
If he’s the sub, you’re controlling the pace and more so focused on your pleasure by rubbing yourself
If you’re the sub, MORE ASS SMACKIN not hard or anything (he’s a soft Dom if anything)
I also believe he will pull your hair back to the point your back is on his chest (just walk with me) and he pistons into you
Is a dirty talker too
“Fuck you feel incredible. Come for me”
But tbh I see him more as a sub in bed so…he slightly whimpers and whines in my mind
Will ask you to turn around so he can see your face
Like I said prior, he’s soft so I cannot see him being harsh or rough in bed
Darius Martin: Forbidden Fruit
Teehee
Man is a giver; A GIVER I TELL YOU
Giving you pleasure to the point where all you’re doing is screaming and losing your breath?
Teehee he lives for that
“You taste amazing love”
Loves it when you are on top
Eventually, the position turns into tiramisu or you riding his face
I don’t think he’s a sub all the way but more so a switch who really wants to please you
Tell Darius what to do an he will do it with no hesitation
For an “actual” position, I think he would love the scissor position
It’s very intimate for him and it gives him access to his favorite parts of you
I also think it would be the best position as he can see your facial expressions and give you extra stimulation
Again Darius would be all for your calls and satisfaction
Ricky Starks: Oasis
LITERALLY IT’S UP HIS ALLEY
He can see everything
Tits, Ass, Face, Neck, etc.
He likes to be up close and personal with you so he can kiss you at any point
Also, it’s easy likes to motorboat you
Side note; we all know he likes to be called daddy
So yes he will be referring to himself as Daddy
“Look at you being daddy’s good girl”
Sex-wise, Ricky is a full Dom you cannot make that man into a sub
if you do, he is the brattiest sub ever
Mostly a soft Dom but will turn up the (h)eat when necessary
He just loves being in control (speed, position, etc.)
SUCH A FUCKING TEASE; will intentionally slow down just to see you whine and beg for more
I think he will also convert Oasis into the cowgirl position
Overall, don’t give Ricky too much power
Eddie Kingston: Temptation
Okay let's have a real moment (pulls up chair) This man is so selfless that it’s crazy
For the most part, I can see him as a missionary man, because of the fact that he doesn’t want you to put in work
With temptation, he can see your face and know if he’s truly giving you pleasure
It’s also the perfect position to touch all the parts of you that can give more stimulation
AND YALL CAN DO IT EVERYWHERE
Eddie is a Dom; both a hard and soft Dom
He doesn’t want to go too harsh on you (unless you want it)
Control doesn’t matter to him tbh
Will actually do anything you ask him to because he’s so hung up on pleasing you
LOVES IT WHEN YOU TOUCH HIM OR SCRATCH HIS BACK
“Touch me like that again”
Will ensure that you have more orgasms than him
Eddie is a selfless man and puts your needs over his
Daniel Garcia: Chibi
We all know that DG is a switch (man is a bratty sub let's be honest)
But more important he is an ass man
Chibi stands out the most for me to him
With the position, he can go the pace either you or he wants to go
He can also grab or smack that booty whenever
GOES CRAZY WHEN YOU MAKE EYE CONTACT WITH HIM
I can also see him in the Nirvana position
With Nirvana, he can kiss your legs
I wouldn’t say he has a foot fetish but at the same time yeah he does
WHICH IS THE SEXIEST PART OF YOU IN HIS EYES (besides the ass)
Take the time to appreciate other parts of you
I wouldn’t say he’s a dirty talker but he’s definitely a moaner
….
Even my ass can see that and I need glasses
Swerve Strickland: Doggy Style/Downward Dog
Okay….let me dream real quick
THIS MAN? IS A HARD DOM ALL THE WAY WE ALL KNEW FROM THAT DAMN DEATHMATCH
This man is my baby daddy/sugar daddy and he wishes to be called as such
You? You’re either a slut or a princess in his eyes (I’m bot-)
Loves Doggy Style cause it gives him so much control
Will pull your hair and lean down to whisper in your ear
“You like that, don't you? Lucky for you, I could do this forever.”
Will also pull you up until your back reaches his chest
OR OR
He will put your face down further into the mattress and make you arch your back for him (Downward Dog)
Loves to smack your ass and hear your muffled screams
Will overstimulate you until you tell him to stop
AND HE WILL LOOK OVER AT YOUR PANTING AND SWEATY BODY WITH A SMILE
otay…I’m done
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goyayato · 1 month
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a list of cool website i found and use
radiooooo.com- pretty much you can listen to any music any place in the world and also... you can choose any TIME. Sometimes a person just likes to listen to russian music during the 1970s yk? (i recommend btw)
onelook.com (thesaurus)- can't seem to find the word you're thinking of? What the hell is that blanket that you only use for the couch/living area??? Oh wait- a throw. Go check out onelook, it has definitely saved me time for my writing.
datayze.com- CALLING ALL WRITERS, or i mean if youre gonna have a baby too ig this would work. datayze literally will help you find a name for your oc! And if you already have a name it gives you alot of good info you may want to know about your oc'c name. Or you could always make a name by mixing two together, like you can... on datatyze.
bandcamp.com- I cannot for the life me explain this website but TRY IT OUT, YALL. You can find alot of underground artists or new songs :D
mix.com- kind of like tumblr? but kind of like reddit? but also kind of like twitter? what im trying to say is that it's called mix for a reason. It takes cool things from multiple different websites and compiles it into one website, really cool when you're into a really specific fandom sometimes.
lab.nationalmedals.org- tbh idk, it's pretty and cool. it's pretty cool. i used to play this a lot.
worldchatclock.com- i use this for some of my friends that i volunteered with online to find a perfect time for us to meet. It finds a time where which you and up to a few people in different time zones can find a perfect meeting time.
earth.nullschool.net- so ive been getting back into flying my kite and this has been a life saver for my time.
radiogarden.com- i made a whole post about this website, uhh just look it up or try and find the post- im sorry im getting tired pLease
(I have like 2 other websites but i am not going to log into my old school email to try and find the bookmarked websites)
HONORABLE MENTION (actually i did this on purpose. best for last yk?)
azejournal.com- HELLO AROS AND ACES OR BOTH!! THIS IS THE WEBSITE FOR YOU. This is full of cool poems, stories, personal experiences, etc, about being aro or ace or both. I am literally in LOVE (no romo) with this website, it makes me feel more understood sometimes. Also I just love seeing us as a minority having a safe space to make and post creatively.
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lizzybeth1986 · 2 months
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Drake and Kiara: When You're Fucking Racist
Series - TRR's Alternative LIs - The "Romances" that Didn't Happen
Previous - Hana and Madeleine: When You Reward Your Favourite Bully with One of Her Victims
A/N: Again, apologies for the length. There was a LOT to unpack in this one!! I'm really, really not going to be nice to Drake here. It was harrowing to go through a lot of these scenes again and I honestly don't have the patience or inclination to sugarcoat any of it.
CW: Mentions of gun violence and minimization of trauma. Mentions of racist fan vitriol towards a black character. Examination of the Jezebel stereotype.
Whenever I think about how unhinged the hatred towards Kiara (and especially towards Kiara's attraction to Drake) was, a specific edit comes to mind.
On the surface, it looks quite simple. Kiara in a white wedding dress, Drake right next to her in his blue formal suit. Both of them are smiling at the viewer. The background is a beautiful forest, and the entire picture is bathed in a lovely, muted sepia tone. A sweet, simple wedding scene.
The caption underneath this edit?
Classify under things no one asked for.
Kiara's dream come true!
The tags read "#i barf a little looking at this" and "#i must post to share the suffering". You find out in the comments that the OP created this edit inspired by one of the many fics where Kiara was Drake's stalker, and intended to make her creepy and deranged (but ultimately failed).
The comments are...tbh, things that this fandom has long since normalized and shrugged at when it comes to Drake stans. Multiple puke-face emojis. Multiple gifs signaling disgust. One stan even equates the ship name (Driara) to the word diarrhoea.
"She looks very stalkeresque and white "I drugged Drake so he's marrying me" wedding ready!"
"Well it's close to Halloween so we should expect scary shit"
"THAT is why I made that bitch my Maid of Honor...so she got the message LOUD AND CLEAR...it ain't NEVER gonna happen honey" (right below a barfing gif)
I wish I could say this example of Kiara hatred was the worst of the lot, or even the only one. It wasn't. I'm not sure even an entire essay would be adequate space to explore the sheer levels of vitriol, hatred and double standards dumped on this one character.
Until now, we've seen examples of alternative LIs that were treated with respect. With adulation. Often with kid gloves in case we hurt their poor lill fee-fees. Up until now, no matter what an alternative LI may have done, the LI matched with them wasn't allowed to treat them badly, nor was the MC able to get away with hurting them without punishment.
But in this series, Kiara was, is, and will always be an anomaly.
The Jezebel Stereotype
In most media, black women in particular tend to be subjected to a variety of stereotypes that often have serious, real-world implications. The Mammy, the Sapphire (that over time evolved to what we now know as the "Angry Black Woman" stereotype) and the Jezebel, being the most prominent ones among them. In this essay, I will be focusing specifically on the last.
An article in the Black Then website explains the definition and history of the trope this: "The portrayal of black women as lascivious by nature is an enduring stereotype. The descriptive words associated with this stereotype are singular in their focus: seductive, alluring, worldly, beguiling, tempting, and lewd. Historically, white women, as a category, were portrayed as models of self-respect, self-control, and modesty – even sexual purity, but black women were often portrayed as innately promiscuous, even predatory. This depiction of black women is signified by the name Jezebel."
So it isn't altogether uncommon to see stories where black women are juxtaposed against "pure", "innocent" white/white-passing women, and viewed as lesser. PB hasn't exactly escaped these stereotypes in their stories either - though there are a variety of characters and character types, we can't deny that there was a time when a black woman was made the antagonist, often in ways that were meant to measure her up to the MC/another white woman to her detriment.
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(VoS screenshots from the HIMEME YouTube channel, ACOR screenshots from Vika Avey's YouTube channel)
Two very prominent examples of PB using this trope are Scarlett from VoS, and Xanthe from ACOR. There are other black women who serve as antagonists but in a more professional space, but these two particularly are measured on their attractiveness, sex appeal and "purity" in the narrative in comparison to either the MC, or someone close to them.
In VoS, Scarlett Emerson and Kate O'Malley are the sisters of the two male LIs (Grant and Flynn), but their treatment couldn't be any more different. Scarlett's role in the book is pretty short-lived. She's very prominent in the first half of the book as Kate's potential MOH who secretly hates her, before it's revealed in Ch 5 that Tanner was cheating on Kate with her (and that she'd loved him since she was a child). Notably, in that very scene, the MC places most of the blame on Scarlett (rather than on Tanner for choosing to betray his fiancée) by labelling the act as her seduction of him.
Thereafter she is either only mentioned, or has blink-and-you-miss-it appearances in one or two chapters. We see her in the "memory" portion of the bonus scene, but we are never shown what her future is like (even as minor characters like Miss Harleney get one!). Her bonus scene shows us how her bracelet ended up on Tanner's boat, and it is an uncomfortable scene to get through. Tanner berates Scarlett for having sex with him a week before his wedding, but it is she who points out that he asked her to come there! Yet the MC and others view her as the temptress who "seduced" Tanner, as if the man had no mind of his own.
The narrative often juxtaposes her with Kate, the pure, innocent, sweet fiancée (and she actually is! No pretence there) and the fandom lapped it up. There were many demands for Kate to be upgraded to LI status, which eventually resulted in PB allowing us to marry her if we chose. As I mentioned earlier, both Scarlett and Kate are sisters to two of our LIs - but one is made an LI, while no one bothers to even imagine what the other's future entails.
An even worse fate greets that of Xanthe, the sole female antagonist in ACOR. The slut-shaming and disgust over her overt sexuality is far more blatant here. And it is extremely ironic for Xanthe to be viewed in this way, because the MC herself is a courtesan and uses wiles to get men to do her bidding. While Xanthe herself is not perfect by any means - she is depicted as xenophobic and callous, going as far as to mock Syphax when he is sent away to a possible death as a gladiator - the MC's targeting of her goes beyond just her "righteous indignation" and develops into a form of hypocrisy. She has no qualms mocking Xanthe for her direct approach or her skimpy red dress (even though the MC herself wears a skimpy red dress and can seduce a man in a temple not too long after).
The end Xanthe meets is horrific in its implications - the black matron of her scholae (who began by promising the MC herself that "you need do nothing against your will") sends her away to sexual slavery in Sicily, while the black man who was one of the few bastions of morality in the book, escorts her, smiling, to the ship that will take her there. As far as the narrative is concerned, the end was well-deserved...even though PB has had no issues allowing white women to do far worse without any punishment.
We cannot view what ACOR did with Xanthe in isolation. They had built up to it early on - from the MC's reactions towards her, her patrons' dismissiveness of her, the MC's LIs' viewing her with derision and zero respect. The MC - despite her own unscrupulousness - is viewed as the "noble whore" to Xanthe, yet it is clear on even a surface read that there is not much difference between the two women.
The Jezebel stereotype, ultimately, is about dehumanizing the black woman it focuses on, so that her actions and choices are viewed as deviant from what is "normal" - feeding into either responses of disgust and derision, or a desire to objectify her. To some readers, it makes whatever awful or comparatively unfair end they meet, more palatable. Scarlett and Xanthe are not viewed as people by the narrative - especially not the way the MC of their books or even white female antagonists are. No one cares for their backstories, coos over their losses, wonders if they are okay. When they meet their inevitable end, the characters and so many in the fandom alike just shrug and move along.
How does a character like Kiara fit into this? Her smarts and linguistic talents are her most prominent traits, and while she does have feelings for Drake, she never really acts out-of-pocket towards him (more on this later). So at least from what we see in canon, there's very little about her that seems to apply to the Jezebel stereotype. Yet, the fandom is not only inclined, but eager, to view her as one. Kiara's feelings have been viewed in a far more predatory light, perhaps more often than any other female character in the series. Why is this so?
A response I have often seen - on reddit, on Kiara's wiki page, at times on Tumblr too - is how there is a "certain something" about Kiara that people "just don't like". Many players who prefer Penelope to her are often very aware of what she has done, but still insist they like her far more than they do Kiara. On a reddit thread about questioning the logic of having Kiara and Penelope as options for the MC's MOH in TRR3, certain players commented thus:
"I don't know why, I just dislike her a lot. Penelope is fine to me, but Kiara irritates me." (said commenter is an Aerin stan)
"I liked Penelope, I thought she was nice. But Kiara got on my nerves."
In her book, The Sisters Are Alright, Tamara Winfrey Harris makes an eye-opening (to me at least!) observation about how misogynoir works:
"Misogynoir, abetted by dehumanizing caricature, is like water. It fills its vessel, taking many forms, and then overflows, creeping unnoticed into the cracks of things, rotting the foundation. It spreads a belief in Black women’s inherent wrongness." (Italics mine).
Now of course, if I were to ask the current fandom, they would come up with a range of reasons. Some that emerged from fandom myths and became more popular than the truth in time, some from PB's excessive pandering to players that hated her. But the root of it all is in a certain "je ne sais quoi" that makes her automatically unappealing, resulting in those readers leaning towards misreading or misremembering her scenes, misrepresenting her motives, or watering down the impact of worse actions from whiter women. It results in a group of writers (who have thus far gone to the extent of retconning the worst of a white woman's actions just to make her look good) leaning into such readings, even when they're not true.
TRR1 Kiara: Pragmatic Courtier or Backstabbing Snake?
"Kiara is fake", "Kiara is a snob", "Kiara is self-serving", "Kiara promised to be friends with us but dropped us like a hot potato the moment we became unpopular". These are some of the most enduring takes about Kiara in the past few years, and readers who say this usually bring up a vague recollection of TRR1 and 2 as proof. Mostly that "Kiara was our friend" in the first book, and left us hanging at the beginning of TRR2.
Is that reading based in fact, though? Let's take a look at TRR1!Kiara and find out.
We are introduced to Kiara (along with Penelope, and standing next to Hana) in TRR3 when we meet Liam's other suitors. Olivia introduces each woman differently, and the descriptor she uses for Kiara is that she is the "daughter of a diplomat and fluent in ten languages" (note: Kiara never boasts of her linguistic skill, Olivia does. Nor are there any scenes of her looking down on anyone who doesn't speak her mother tongue French, unless of course you accidentally ask her to sleep with you).
Both she and Penelope note immediately that the MC doesn't quite fit in - if the MC questions the women about being allies with Olivia, a woman who calls them "harpies", they view that as an overreaction. When the MC tells the ladies at the Derby about getting lost, Kiara finds her tardiness and inability to fit in, a sign that she cannot keep up with the competition. Until the chapters in Lythikos, Kiara's and Penelope's characterizations are almost interchangeable, personality-wise. It is likely the team envisioned them more as European nobility rather than specifically Cordonian (based on Olivia's introductions), and they are both depicted as poised, refined and aware of their place in court.
It's in Lythikos that Kiara, at least, begins to show a more distinct personality (for Penelope it's after the Regatta). Unlike the rest of the court, who watches Olivia's unwanted kiss on Liam with either mild shock or disinterest, Kiara is angered by what she sees as a very obvious power-play - which gives the MC the opening she needs to gain an alliance.
Now this "alliance" scene of Kiara's is interesting, for two reasons. One is that fandom often uses this scene to establish her "double standards" in TRR2, claiming that Kiara opted to be friends with the MC. Yet nowhere in the scene does the MC or Kiara ever suggest a friendship with each other - they both agree to an alliance. Furthermore, this is an arrangement that benefits the MC more - there isn't exactly anything she contributes (or is expected to contribute) to Kiara from her end. Kiara's promise is that she will put in a good word in the MC's favour, and she upholds that promise throughout the social season.
Another is that among the courtiers, Kiara herself is the first person to identify and respond to the MC's potential if she shows it at the Derby and the tea party (though Hana is also a courtier, I view her strictly as an LI in this context - since her support is by default and is founded on a more emotional basis). Not many nay notice this, but there is a distinction between how Kiara responds to an MC in a successful play vs a failplay...in a way that none of the other suitors do. Take note of the screenshots below:
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The top two pictures in this collage are dialogues that feature by default. The bottom two, however, are dependent on branch-coding. They only appear IF the MC has managed to win the approval of the King, the Queen and the press. If you don't succeed in the same, she will not mention your performance in the social season at all, nor will she say anything about the value of your alliance.
That is a far bigger deal than most players of this series realize. It means that Kiara has been watching us closely, and has understood our potential over the course of just three court events. Only two other characters are shown tracking our progress this way: Bertrand (who is our sponsor, so he has to keep track) and Queen Regina (who can guess already her stepson's feelings for the MC, which automatically makes her a person of interest). For Kiara to understand the MC's capabilities, and to openly admit she has potential this early in the competition - it takes a high level of rationality, honesty and pragmatism to come to such a conclusion. Unlike Olivia (who lashes out in jealousy at the MC), Penelope (who has to be told why exactly it's good to have allies), and Madeleine (who dismisses us as competition until it's too late), Kiara actually views the MC with a discerning, impartial eye and an objective approach.
So on the surface, it appears as if Kiara is written by a team that likes her! You could almost be convinced that they thought she was cool but were forced to pander to "crazy Drake stans" in their writing later (which is an argument I have heard often). After all, she's established as beautiful, skilled, smart and observant. You wouldn't do that for a character you don't like, right?
But even as early as TRR1, a disdain for Kiara creeps in from the writing that you rarely see for any of the others.
This is especially apparent when you look at how Kiara's proficiency with language is spoken about. It is supposed to be her most visible skill - Olivia identifies her by it, we see her peppering her English sentences with French words (of course, many may argue that she doesn't exactly sound like an actual French person...but let's remember that her writers aren't exactly very used to the language themselves or interested in doing extra research for authenticity!). As we approach the end of the first book, there are at least two dialogue options that result in people doubting her abilities or mocking her for speaking only English and French most of the time.
In TRR1 Ch 16, Madeleine optionally speaks to the MC over phone (believing her to be a reporter taking her interview) about her thoughts on Kiara. Kiara's tendency to speak mostly in French and English is supposed to be a sign that she "exaggerates her accomplishments". Mind you, this is from the same woman who claims to be the best choice for Cordonia despite her poor strategies and her antagonizing potential allies during the engagement tour (TRR2); who complains if the MC doesn't compliment her for mediocre work as a press sec (TRR3). The MC can also choose to diss Kiara in a similar way, treating Kiara like she is a circus performer and her skills as if they are meant for the MC's entertainment. The only solace I could derive from this dumpster fire of a dialogue option, was that Kiara managed to shut the MC up with her multilingual response.
No other time are we allowed to call a courtier's abilities and skills into question. The MC accepts on faith that Olivia is a badass with great fighting skills. Same with Penelope's ability as a seamstress. The MC is never even allowed to have legitimate complaints about Madeleine's work as press sec, besides maybe that she could "be a little nicer". So the fact that the writers not only have other characters doubt Kiara's talent, but also allow people to mock her about it in all three books...is really something.
Another possible indicator of this disdain is the fact that Kiara is the only suitor who never gets a chance to actually interact with Liam on-screen. Even Penelope, a fellow minor character, can approach and talk to him twice...and her gift to him is shown in Ch 18 whereas Kiara's and Hana's aren't. Despite the fact that Kiara is a potential suitor, the story never allows her to interact with Liam. She doesn't exactly have any interactions with Drake in this book either, but honestly nor does any other couple have much time together besides Liam and Olivia.
Drake and Kiara hardly seemed to be a possibility back in TRR1. Drake himself didn't seem to associate with anyone besides the MC and the group in the first book (and even with the group his interactions were infrequent). Kiara herself doesn't have many scenes that aren't related to the court or to the competition, even once she is no longer participating. The closest she comes to any sort of association besides Penelope, is a friendship with Hana that begins sometime before the Fox Hunt. Drake and Kiara never actually have any scenes together, or interactions, or references. It is likely that the idea to pair them up was entirely a Book 2 thing.
On a fandom level, neither Kiara or Penelope garnered much attention or fan reactions. They weren't noticed much, nor did you see their scenes too often. Probably that is why it was so damn easy to remember Kiara's entire equation with the MC wrong. Why certain stans of the book were able to get away with misrepresenting the relationship between her and the MC in TRR1, to hate on her in TRR2. I will not deny, though, that certain dialogue choices from PB (like "I thought we were friends!" in the Fydelia scene) may have had a hand in those beliefs becoming the "truth".
TRR2 Kiara - Pragmatic Courtier or Backstabbing Snake (Part 2)
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I plan to get into the way the Drake and Kiara angle is framed in canon, but before that it's important to tackle that one elephant in the room - Kiara telling the MC the alliance is over. Because very often, people used this scene (coupled with their misinterpretations of Book 1) as their "justification" to hate her. Often, people would choose the ruder options (such as the Christmas card dialogue) and assume that Kiara was rude by default, rather than as a consequence of the MC's behaviour towards her.
Kiara and Penelope are the first to express surprise at the MC's return (and their reactions are shown as representative of the rest of the court). Kiara in fact is shocked that the MC dared to return (which is kinda warranted! Several people in these early chapters view that as a risky move, a gamble that could backfire on her. That's why Bertrand gets her a press secretary). Their scene with the MC immediately follows the MC's conversation with Liam and Madeleine (and mind you, in the option where the MC can tell her she was set up, Madeleine herself voices disbelief of the same. Conveniently, this is never used as a reason to hate her). Both women let the MC know of their change in status, and therefore the change in their relationship with her.
What gets missed overall, is that Kiara is a lady-in-waiting (which is an actual role with specific duties) to Madeleine, which means her loyalty now has to lie with this woman whether she likes it or not. For her to even agree to approach the MC and explain the situation, is a risk. In at least two dialogue options in this scene, she tells the MC straight-up that they will be in trouble if they're even seen talking to her (this becomes a moot point by Ch4, mostly because Madeleine herself is shown talking to the MC and allowing her into conversations in public, once Hana arrives).
Penelope is often viewed in a better light in this scene because of her obvious friendliness and her sadness at no longer being the MC's friend, but once you have the reveal of her being a traitor, her behaviour in this scene seems wildly disingenuous, and I'm surprised more people didn't call her a fake when the reveal came out. She had to know the allegations against the MC were fake when she rushed to hug her, having been an integral part of that fabrication. It makes her lament when she's caught, in the failplay, ("I can't do anything right. You were never supposed to find out!") that much more chilling. She is eager to have the benefit of the MC's friendship and emotional support, without ever being honest about her role in smearing her reputation.
The other was that - no matter what you may choose to think of this scene - Kiara was placing herself at risk to let the MC know it was over. Approaching the MC was the right thing to do, but what is never spoken about is the fact that it was also a brave thing to do. Rather than ghost the pariah of the court and never give an explanation, she tells her honestly what the situation is, and strives to protect her impulsive friend (who could get both of them in trouble) at the same time.
When you view Kiara's actions from that lens - when you look at the facts - suddenly the claims that Kiara was "fake", "a flip-flopper", "a backstabber", "unscrupulous and self-serving", sound pretty hollow.
TRR2: The Drake x Kiara "Romance" Begins...and So Does the Vitriol
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So...an interesting thing about the general reaction to Kiara in the early chapters of TRR2. I was new to the fandom when this book was released. There was an annoyance at Kiara when the first chapter came out, but to my surprise it didn't exactly become full-blown hatred until she started showing an interest in Drake in Ch 3.
This book is often used as a reference by Drake stans when they speak of Kiara as an obsessed, stalker-type, sex-hungry woman - often in contrast to their "pure", "innocent" MCs. Basically...the Jezebel. But the five scenes we see of this ship in the book itself tell a completely different story:
1. Drake Helps Kiara Lift A Heavy Beam (TRR2 Ch 3)
Chapter 3 is perhaps the first time we see an indication of Kiara's attraction to Drake on a physical level. The scene takes place at the barn raising, but only if we choose to stay with Drake over Hana for the barn raising activities. Kiara shows up in a rather pitiable state - her friend Penelope abandoned her for thirty whole minutes, leaving her to lift incredibly heavy beams alone. Drake helps Kiara and mildly chides her for not asking for his help, and Kiara stares at his bare chest, mesmerized.
She isn't exactly alone in this - the MC herself ogles at his bare chest at one point (if we go by the lines in the narrative that read "his muscles glisten in the sunlight" which is def from the MC's PoV). This scene was meant as fanservice for stans who wanted to drool over Drake's physique for a bit, and belatedly build up an alternative (at least for all three male LIs, they were trying to do this in TRR2).
The MC can either point out Kiara's obvious attraction towards Drake, or suspect her of being part of the plot. This will not be the last time the MC or the group will view her with suspicion, with little to no basis in fact. In the option that calls attention to Kiara's attraction to Drake, she is shown covertly sneaking a second look at him. Drake is shown with a visible discomfort at even the idea that Kiara could like him, one that only the MC notices considering she is working in proximity with him.
The reaction to this was instantaneous from several Drake x MC shippers. One or two glances at Drake's chest was enough for Drake stans to begin typing posts in capslock, screaming "BACK OFF KIARA HE'S MINE". The excuses given at the time were that the MC didn't get much opportunity to romance him (Drake was trying to refrain from kissing her in Ch 2 because he felt guilty), and largely-inaccurate judgements of Kiara's character. Jealousy of this kind is sometimes seen as the norm when you have a popular ship and a third angle is created, but this was about to take form in some...very disturbing ways in later chapters.
2. Kiara was Once Savannah's Friend/Kiara's long-standing crush on Drake (Ch 4)
A misconception I often see in the fandom (particularly in relation to how Kiara's feelings for Drake aren't given the same level of consideration that Olivia's for Liam is) is that Olivia's are "more genuine", and Kiara's are "mere lust" or "only physical" and this is probably why she's not given as much respect as Olivia was. Even though, tbh, Kiara was far, far more respectful of Drake and his personal space, than Olivia was of Liam in TRR1.
Leaving aside the obvious problems with that train of thought (viewing sexual feelings as "lesser" just because they're not rooted in some intense emotion), this is not even true, and the first part of the Driara garden party scene is proof enough. Kiara says, straight up, that Drake had been "such a good friend to [Liam]. It's part of why I always liked you." (Bold mine). If the MC voices doubts about this (likely incorporated for readers who would question it as a retcon...and it was a retcon since they didn't interact in TRR1), Kiara tells her that she doesn't wear her heart on her sleeve, which actually matches her practical approach to most things. In fact just a few scenes earlier, when the MC questioned her about wanting a husband (when she'd mentioned earlier about wanting to join the ministry), Kiara informs her that it would never hurt to have both. So it makes sense for her character if she's someone who kept her feelings for Drake a secret, especially while in a competition for winning the Crown Prince's hand. But we cannot, in any honest capacity, claim that Kiara's feelings for Drake weren't deep enough, or lasting enough, or genuine enough. At least based on the evidence we have.
Another point this scene brings up is Kiara's friendship towards Savannah. Up until this point, the only people who did reference her were Olivia, Drake and Maxwell - and Olivia's mockery of especially seemed to imply that the ladies of the court weren't very nice to her. Kiara's account is very different from this, and actually quite affectionate ("she was one of us", "she was coming along so well in learning French"). It's not the closest friendship, but Kiara did care enough to tutor her in the language and clearly missed her. It is possible that this scene was positioned to both build up to the alternative romance and foreshadow Savannah's presence in Paris. There is a lot more that could have been done with this angle, but perhaps that is a discussion for another section.
3. Never-Have-I-Ever (Ch 9)
This is a small option in a drinking game - the MC can get to say "never have I ever had a crush on Kiara", and loses, because Drake says she isn't his type (ironically he claims he isn't her type in the next chapter). It's interesting that he does consider her as not as bad as some of the others in that group.
3. Flirting with Drake in Paris (Ch 10)
For five chapters, we don't see any more hints of this romance. We see Drake in plenty, and we see quite a bit of Kiara. But none of it shows them together.
Kiara's scene with Drake at the tea party, is in some ways a continuation of his diamond scene with Savannah. He knows now where his sister is and what her big secret was, but this scene is where he realises how little he actually knew about her, if even her "noblewoman friend" knew she had intentions to go to Paris and he, her brother, didn't. This scene also takes place at what I call a "rest period" in the story - the group has just come out of a high-intensity altercation with Bastien, and it is one chapter before the major reveal about Constantine. So the MC can relax a little, some of the loose ends of previous stories can be tied up, and we get a vibe check on at least two alternative ships.
Drake is rather civil to Kiara in this conversation, mostly because he's trying to get information about his sister out of her. There isn't much he contributes besides this - it doesn't seem to matter much to him that Kiara was a rare friend among the court to Savannah (tho TRR3 would later retcon this), and when she talks about herself he doesn't pay much attention. Kiara does make an attempt at a light flirtation which goes largely unnoticed.
The MC's response when she first sees them goes three ways - a neutral comment about the petit-fours, a "matchmake-y" comment that points to them that they "look cozy", and a "jealous" comment about interrupting them. The third one especially results in Drake inadvertently confirming he doesn't think of Kiara in a romantic light, and Kiara appearing disappointed. Remember, at this point she doesn't see much evidence that Drake and the MC romancing him are an item.
The follow-up conversation with Drake, too, follows along similar lines. The neutral comment just asks him about the information he gathered from Kiara, the "matchmake-y" one points out she has feelings for Drake and the "jealous" one is... something.
The third response is very obviously crafted for the more possessive Drake stans to get satisfaction from dissing Kiara, perhaps in a more aggressive way than the Maxwell stans could. While the Maxwell MC can pass an insult or two to discourage Penelope, the Drake MC will go as far as to tell him he belongs only to her, and can threaten to "push her into the petit-fours".
Ironically, this scene follows a scene with Olivia about her lingering feelings for Liam - and Olivia's grief, the MC's clear sympathy and Liam's concern for Olivia are all by default. There is a certain level of sensitivity the Liam MC is required to have for Olivia that is never once expected of the Drake MC, and that plays out in very dangerous ways in the next book.
This scene, again, brought forth rather violent reactions, and in fact the language of the MC's responses itself seemed to encourage that kind of response. A poster later compiled an entire set of these responses ranging from mocking, to "back off, Kiara!" to straight up demands for murder (I couldn't link to this post because the names of the people involved were included in it, but I do have quite a few of those screenshots for reference).
After this point, you don't see any more scenes where Kiara actively flirts. In fact for most of the second half you see her and Penelope very rarely. So it does feel really wild in retrospect that "obsessed Kiara" became such a popular interpretation, after one checking-out scene, one flirtation and one rather sweet and genuine compliment of him as a person.
4. Pranking Kiara (Ch 17)
A pattern you would have noticed by now is that there is a bit of a mean streak in Drake for Kiara that is either very dominant or latent, based on whether the MC tries to encourage him, or shows jealousy towards her.
And this isn't necessarily an indicator that he can never be interested in Kiara. A distrust for nobility is almost a norm for him at this point, and let's not forget that Drake's first few interactions with the MC too didn't exactly leave her with the best impression of him either. Kiara initially being on Madeleine's side at the beginning of the story could be a factor in some level of disdain too. Such complications could - in a good story - add layers to a potential romance in the future if that was the direction the writing was going for.
Around the MC who doesn't mind them as a pair, he shows a small sliver of an inclination towards Kiara herself. His response if the MC points out that Kiara was flirting with him (Ch 10) is that he doesn't believe he is Kiara's type, not the other way around. In this scene, a drunk Drake who is encouraged to write a "nice note" to her as a prank, can write "your hair is pretty and your French is totally not stupid". Both of these lines present a sign of a possibility that a romance could happen. His behaviour when an MC casually hints at this possibility, is of someone who may like this woman deep down, but show it in very strange ways (akin to the age-old metaphor of the "boy who pulls the pigtails of the girl he has a crush on"). They wouldn't have even needed to show his responses in this way if they weren't trying to hint at a possibility.
His response to a "jealous" MC is to delightedly bask in her possessiveness of him, and to go hand-in-glove with her as she insults or suggests violence on Kiara in any way. Now one could perhaps headcanon this as a behaviour that comes from being unused to female attention focused on him, coupled with his affection for the MC - but when you take into account his behaviour towards Kiara herself in TRR3 as well, there seems to be a blatant lack of consideration or compassion towards her as a human being. Compare this, again, to the way Liam's behaviour towards Olivia is written in canon, and interpreted by the fandom. Liam is expected to be kind to her, even if he's clueless about her feelings or if she is harming him (eg. Even when she kisses him, he cares enough to opt for a reaction that will not publicly humiliate Olivia).
Not so for Drake. He is very happy to follow in the MC's lead, even in hurting Kiara. And in this scene, he pretty much kickstarts it with the suggestion of a prank.
Drake knows where Kiara's room is (thanks to a nameplate on the door, and the familiarity of the hallway, which he likes for the view outside) and wants to prank her. The MC can either accept or refuse. If she accepts, there is one nice option, and two distinctly mean-spirited ones. The first proposes to mess up her book organizational system, and the narrative describes the attempt as "ruining any semblance of order to Kiara's bookshelves". These are materials she likely requires for her career as an aspiring diplomat, or even books she uses to update herself on the world. But to this MC and Drake, her work and interests are little more than a joke.
The second one is not only aggressively mean - it also is an attempt to ruin her personal space with her personal items. Going by the array of haircare the narrative mentions, maintaining her hair is very important to Kiara (I am not equipped enough to speak about black women and their relationship with their hair, but this option did make me very uncomfortable, because of the little I've seen on how essential regular haircare and good products can be for many black women). Not only does the MC suggest using all that product to render Kiara's bed practically unusable, she also insists Drake waste the full bottle of said product. Because, yknow. "It's a prank. Go big or go home". Drake has one moment where he tries to be less mean in this option (when he attempts to use less of her hairspray), but the moment the MC encourages him towards a crueller direction he does not hesitate. In fact, when the MC first suggests this option, he regards her with something approaching awe, and praises her as "an evil genius".
There's a mean streak in Drake here no matter which option you choose. If you do go for the nicer one, he complains at first that it's not exactly a prank and in fact does claim that they "could still put glitter in her cupboard" as an alternative prank. But the other two options encourage the player to give full vent to whatever underlying frustration/enmity/hatred one could possibly have against Kiara, goading a drunk Drake to be merciless towards the things in her room, in her absence.
Maybe, perhaps, one could just view this as a "fun vent" for the "possessive stans". It allowed the Drake MC and her LI the chance to gang up on her, mock her and cause her discomfort through things that were clearly important to her, treat her like the butt of their joke, and get away with it. When you encourage that kind of hatred with your writing, it can go into some very dark, disturbing places. And it did, especially in TRR3.
The overall response to this scene didn't show much, since it was just one small sequence in a larger scene - and most of the focus was on the heartfelt bonding between Drake and the MC when he takes her to his "special hideout" and his reveal about his motives behind calling the MC by her surname.
Many Drake stans, however, took note of this specific section, and took their interpretations in a completely different direction. Questions were asked about why Drake knew about Kiara's room - completely ignoring that he frequented the hallway regardless for its view and her nameplate is literally placed outside her door - and several fans suspected the two to be involved in an affair just on the basis of him knowing where her room was. These suspicions, again, would crop up from the fandom in a more dramatic way in TRR3.
5. Drinks at Homecoming Ball (Ch 19)
This scene takes place in the finale, just before Kiara and Penelope apologize jointly to the MC for their comments in the beer garden.
Drake is, quite predictably, at the bar in this scene. In some ways one could draw a parallel between this one and the "bar" scene between him and the MC in TRR1 - the only differences being that the two were alone in the first, and that he and the MC are free to romance each other now. However this time, the two ladies of the court could also communicate with him about drinks, and he could use his knowledge of alcohol to guess their preferences.
The scene with Kiara is, again, written to be both a possible sign of familiarity and a diss (mostly the second, I think). With Penelope he just vaguely mentions cocktails and focuses on the decoration for the drink - with Kiara he is able to name the specific wine even though in TRR3 he has no idea what tannins are. There are ways one could envision that as a sign that he notices more about Kiara than he lets on.
The diss, of course, comes with his claim that no matter how top-shelf the wine is, it will still always be "old grape juice" (which is a very strange thing to say because most alcohols are fermented from basic ingredients be it fruit or grains - where did he think his high-quality whiskey that he regularly carries around in his personal flask came from??).
Kiara's attempt to impress him is pretty obvious, but the diss isn't something that weighs too much on her mind. There are less indicators here of a dejection if he brushes her aside, unlike the scene in Ch 10 - she just looks a bit surprised he could guess the exact drink she wanted. Kiara in this scene is more likely to shift gears to something more important. In this case, that is apologizing to the MC for what she views as poor behaviour that sprung up under the influence of alcohol, and offering her an olive branch (the specific apology is for her asking the MC if she came to gloat, not for telling her the alliance was over at the beginning of the tour. In that scene specifically she feels she has nothing to apologise for, and I'm inclined to agree for the reasons I stated in that section).
The overall pattern for this ship seems to indicate that it's...kinda there in case the MC doesn't want to pick Drake, but I always feel like they focused a lot more on the jealousy options and didn't spend enough time to see what a possible relationship could look like. They do claim later that Kiara's affections were supposed to be one-sided, but the buildup at least seemed to indicate some small baseline of interest from Drake's end, even if shown in some rather bizarre ways. However, because there seems to be very little respect for this character already, having the MC threaten violence and having her and Drake overreact over what were essentially harmless interactions from Kiara's end really does indicate that the writers didn't mind taking potshots at her whenever they felt like it. Like I've said before, the trashfire that was Kiara's treatment in TRR3 didn't develop overnight.
Smart, Skilled...Disliked?: Kiara and the Writing Team in TRR3
On 25th Sept 2023, PB released a two-chapter series on Storyloom called "Choices Secrets", which involved at least three writers (Andrew, Kara and Chelsa) talking about ideas and plots and backstories that didn't make it to the released book. In one section, Kara Loo speaks specifically about the ending of TRR2:
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According to this account, the original idea was to kill off Olivia and possibly use that as a segue into the Nevrakis plot of the book, since her aunt and Justin were the real villains at the end of the series. When they decided to keep her alive in the series, Kara mentions finding "more members of your group get injured, like Drake".
Interestingly, Kara referred to "members" in the plural, and Drake is the only person from the core group to get shot. So it's just as possible that the choice to have Bastien, Justin/Anton and Kiara sustain injuries, was made once they decided to do away with the storyline about Olivia's death.
Olivia got spared because her writers cared for her. Kiara was likely one of the people injured in her stead, and probably the only one out of them (except for the one who was the main villain) who wasn't getting a prominent scene that focused on her being a survivor of the attack until some readers protested (the entire intro of TRR3 was dedicated to Drake recieving tender care from the MC, Bastien gets showered with concern and care from Constantine, Liam and optionally the MC. The MC comes to the estate, makes a perfunctory mention of the injury once and proceeds to emotionally blackmail Kiara into joining the tour. Let's not even talk about Lythikos. That shit warranted its own essay). No matter how much you downplay the situation, the truth is that Kiara got grievously hurt in a terrorist attack and her writers didn't think it was important enough to address.
I often wondered in the beginning, why Kiara was chosen for this. A close friend at the time theorized that perhaps it was done to ensure Madeleine would become our press secretary, because there was no way the MC would be considering her for this position if someone less hostile (like Kiara) was around. Another wondered if we might get opportunities to address palace security through the experiences of the survivors. Being a Drake x Kiara supporter at least by the end of TRR2, I wondered whether it was a coincidence that they both were injured at the same ball, and the possibility of the two bonding over such a painful experience.
Well. Boy was I about to be disappointed.
Because why did Kiara have to be so badly injured, if it was going to amount to nothing? If they weren't even going to address it in her own home? If - after even players who didn't care much for her, noticed the silence around that attack - the best you could offer was a scene that followed the MC and her friends suspecting the victim of this attack??
Had I looked at Kiara's narrative treatment (from TRR1 onwards) closer back then, perhaps I wouldn't have expected so much. It would have occurred to me that maybe they hurt Kiara the most, because they cared for her the least. Kiara is viewed as smart, poised, talented. Madeleine even calls her "one of the more competant courtiers" at some point. But that doesn't always mean that the team that writes her deems her worthy of respect.
For one, the writers tend to lean more into fandom perceptions of her in this book, rather than looking at their own canon. Kiara being a snob is not canon - that is ridiculous considering that she was such good friends with Savannah, and her support of the MC when she fits in well. Kiara acting like her linguistic skill makes her better than anyone else isn't canon either - nor is she obliged to speak in all ten languages on a loop just for the MC's or Maxwell Beaumont's entertainment. Kiara being perpetually mean to her best friend is inaccurate at best - she is often frustrated by Penelope, sure, but she spends far time and energy helping her than anyone else in that court.
Yet the narrative gives both these statements as dialogue options for the MC, where she can bitch about Kiara...but somehow only ever allows the same MC to be nice and caring and loving to Penelope - never once reminding her of the hell she'd put the MC through in the past. And because the fandom expected the Kiara-Penelope friendship to focus only on Penelope, PB got away with having Kiara's "best friend" stay conveniently silent as the MC berated her in her own home. The narrative even threw Kiara under the bus in TRR3 Ch 16, in order to make Madeleine look better in Hana's memories of the TRR2 bachelorette, claiming falsely that Kiara shouted at Penelope so much while drunk, that the latter was brought to tears. There is way more energy spent in painting an inaccurate and negative portrait of Kiara, than there is in showing the truth.
For another, the way the courtiers' and their parents' agreement to join the tour is coded...is extremely suspicious. When you compare both a successful and a failplay, you will find that all the parents have the chance to reject the MC's proposal to join the tour...except for one. Kiara's father, Hakim. In a failplay where you purposely do all the wrong things...out of the entire group of people who are still doubtful about supporting you, only Kiara and Hakim join your tour by default, without any expectation of a reward (Madeleine demands her own department after the wedding). They will be a part of it no matter what you do, no matter your failures, no matter how badly you treat them.
Hakim may have joined mainly to confront his old friend the King, but he still stays on even after Constantine dies. The writers made sure to branch-code things in a way that Kiara and Hakim could never drop out even if the MC was awful to Kiara, and never once acknowledged what it must take for them to do that. After Kiara herself had been fucking stabbed!!!!
Joelle, Kiara's mother, and Ezekiel, Kiara's brother, can reject the offer if they aren't impressed with the MC, but out of these two characters only one is viewed with respect - the one they were going to pair up with Penelope.
The narrative doesn't mind letting the MC mock Joelle for her passionate support of the arts if she doesn't win her approval, and her insistence that it is the sign of a thriving kingdom...and they make her sound petulant and churlish in response to that mockery. This despite the fact that in a successful route, she says one of the most profound political statements in the books:
"Hakim and I don't just want Cordonia to remain stable and peaceful. Those are blessings, naturallement, but our kingdom can do so much more than just survive."
In contrast, when you look at the same failplay, Emmeline and Landon are treated with far more respect from the narrative, even though Hakim and Joelle's plans for the country would benefit Cordonia as a whole. Drake looks up to Penelope's parents as an inspiration, especially if he's going to become a duke. Meanwhile Hakim actually acknowledges Drake and his bravery in a way that none of the other dukes and duchesses did, and Drake never gives a shit.
Emmeline can accuse the MC of not taking their situation seriously, if she does a bad job at the polo match, and the MC only has the grace to look contrite rather than lash out at her. Landon himself is never judged for coddling his daughter the way he does. Their focus on Portavira rather than the country is respected, and the MC not meeting their demands is viewed as her weakness, not an overreaction from their end. They never get the snarky responses Joelle gets, where the MC can outright call her "a handful" in front of her own husband.
And then there is the matter of how PB deals with the problems of all the court ladies.
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(Screenshots from the Skylia YouTube Channel)
The period of the Unity Tour isn't exactly an easy time for anyone. The LIs each deal with their own shit, and the ladies of the court themselves have their own reasons for being reluctant to return. The entire point of this tour is to address their specific concerns as well as that of their families', because without the courtiers themselves we wouldn't have as strong a court.
In Madeleine's case, we have to talk to her through a diamond scene and then educate her mother on her ways of mourning lost opportunities, among other things. In Penelope's case we are required to give her complete protection and emotional security, for her to even bother joining the tour (there is branch coding where she can refuse to be a part of the tour at all). Even for Olivia - who is already an ally - the diamond scene encourages us to stand up to her aunt, by letting Olivia know that it is valid for her to lean on others for support without being considered weak.
But for Kiara? The best we can come up with, while in her duchy, is some version of - "You're smart. You'd know that if you left now, people will say bad things about Cordonia and then it would be your fault". You either manipulate her, or insult her as being a useless excuse of a diplomat. As I mentioned in another essay, Kiara's comfort is a non-factor. The gap between the care we were expected to give to Madeleine and Penelope, and what we deign to give Kiara in Castelserraillan (which is...well...nothing), is massive. And this gap would only increase - not reduce - in the books to come.
It might seem a bit irrelevant to talk about this, especially when this essay is about Drake and Kiara. But it's important to take note of this inherent disdain the writers had towards this one character - and people close to her. Because it is only too easy to pretend that the writers "got scared of the crazy stans".
Of course the stans had a huge, huge role in this. Of course their vitriol and racism succeeded in bringing about (what I consider) one of the most disgusting dialogue options in this series...or perhaps in any series. But I doubt those "crazy stans" would have gotten this far, without a team that didn't mind being cruel to Kiara.
When the Fandom and Canon are both Heartless: Drake and Kiara in TRR3
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As I've mentioned in previous essays in this series, playthrough divergences truly begin in TRR3 (eg. While the playthroughs acknowledge who you chose as endgame by end-TRR2, you can still access diamond scenes through a small tweak that allows you to romance other LIs). And whichever LI didn't get engaged with the MC had indications of a new romantic possibility coming up. These were scenes you wouldn't find in your own playthrough with that LI as your fiancé/e.
Kiara doesn't appear in TRR3 until Ch 7, when the entourage comes to her estate Castelserraillan. There aren't a lot of Drake and Kiara scenes themselves, and I will get into why, section by section.
1. Kiara Greets the Group at Castelserraillan (TRR3 Ch 7)
Many Drake stans - once they found their MCs engaged to Drake in TRR2 - seemed to be practically giddy at the prospect of showing off their newly-engaged status to Kiara, and hurting her through the news. They were perhaps more excited about this than their upcoming wedding.
Well, they got that chance in Ch 7. In every other playthrough, she still holds the same feelings for Drake, and compliments his suit as Drake awkwardly fails to meet her eye. In his specific playthrough, Drake defiantly shows off his relationship with the MC, and Kiara shows a slight wistfulness before she forces herself to be normal then wishes the happy couple well. You'd think that would be enough to satisfy the stans who had been baying for her blood all of the previous book.
A throwaway line about Drake knowing where Kiara's room was, had already raised the heckles of a whole bunch of his stans. Kiara's "wistful look" in her first TRR3 scene somehow added fuel to that fire. Suddenly, you got to see a raging torrent of posts demanding to know if Drake had had an affair with Kiara. Fanfic had already been written about Drake cheating on the MC with Kiara by this point - and some of those headcanons and fanfic hinged on making Drake the innocent/vulnerable one, taken advantage of by this sexy, obsessed woman who would be either a danger to him or would be juxtaposed with the "pure", "virginal", "perfect" MC. Drake would never be the problem here, and none of the stans screaming over the possibility of Drake sleeping with Kiara would dream of blaming him for it. No, Kiara was predatory, Kiara was obsessed, if anything happened between them it would be likely Kiara's fault.
This is where it's important to note, again, that none of the more obvious signs of the "Jezebel" stereotype seem to be used in canon for Kiara. While cruel in her own way, the TRR MC doesn't exactly slut shame her or believe Drake will be unfaithful to her, Kiara isn't accused of seducing (or even trying to seduce) anyone, and she actually places respectful personal boundaries for herself in her attraction to Drake, that she never crosses. She may indulge in a light flirtation with him, try to impress him or simply talk to him - but you will never catch her forcing her sexual attention on him like Olivia did with Liam. Yet in popular fanlore, even Olivia's feelings were often cast in a far more noble light in contrast to Kiara's.
In her essay, The "Offending" Breast of Janet Jackson: Public Discourse Surrounding the Jackson/Timberlake Performance at Super Bowl XXXVIII, Dr Shannon. L Holland explores the historical and contemporary uses of the Jezebel stereotype in depictions of Black women in popular culture and discourse, especially in contrast to white masculinity (which in these contexts, is often viewed as innocent and blameless - and much of the blame lies with the Jezebel figure). The "Jezebel" stereotype "has come to symbolize both a malign, cunning sexual object and an autonomous, liberated sexual agent" - she is at once an independent sexual being making her own choices, and someone who is "incapable" of reining in her sexual appetite...and is therefore often depicted as not only a threat to the "purer" (and often "whiter" or "lighter skinned") woman, but also dangerous for whoever she is "obsessed" with. And we see this time and again in the discourse around Kiara - the fanfic that depicts her in a range of scenarios (stalker, obsessed lover, abusive girlfriend who will break a bottle over Drake's head, at times even descending into murderer to get the man she wants). Which is how we wound up in a position where Kiara even breathing the same air as Drake was viewed as a threat.
It didn't matter that he was flaunting his love for the Drake MC in that playthrough to send a message to Kiara, or that he stayed silent with the others as his wife badgered her into joining the tour. It didn't even matter that Kiara never got a diamond scene the way the two other women did, despite being the most harmed among the ladies. What mattered was that Kiara existed. Her damn existence was the threat.
2. Cheering for Drake's Victory (Ch 10)
Ch 9 of TRR3 was released to players on April 27th, 2018. Immediately after, a mid-book hiatus was announced, mostly to work on some new art (very possibly the red pandas), work on the wedding, and make changes (such as shifting diamond scenes from character-centric ones to LI specific - they'd already started making changes to LI diamond scenes). The book would return 2 months later, in June.
In a livestream before the hiatus ended, the writers had made it very painfully clear that Kiara's feelings for Drake was one-sided. And by that I mean they really emphasized on the one-sidedness of her affection, almost as if to reassure the panicking stans. This would manifest in any future interactions between the two - both in Drake's single and engaged playthroughs - and any hope that such a pairing would even be hinted at was over. But there was one variation that the team had perhaps neglected to edit out.
A small one-word depiction of Kiara cheering Drake when he wins his duel against Neville, joining his friends to praise him. It really isn't much - just Kiara saying "bravo!" before Savannah rushes up to hug him, which is replaced by a scene of Drake himself going up to the MC and passionately kissing her in his own playthrough. What is definitely striking about this depiction is that Kiara was clubbed with his close friends and his sister, rather than the second group of people that largely represented the larger court (Rashad and Queen Regina) who offer their congratulations.
Given the way the writers wrote any remaining interactions between Drake and Kiara, and the fact that this small appearance doesn't really amount to anything, it is possible that this variation was part of an earlier draft that involved other hints, that the writers failed to notice when they put up Ch 10. If they had, I'm pretty certain it wouldn't have stayed in the book.
3. Leaving Court + Wedding Conversations
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Remember how I kept stating in this essay that the narrative was going to take their enthusiastic pandering of the "possessive stans" end of the fandom, to some dark, disturbing places? Well, here we are.
Tbh, the writers could have just stopped showing any interactions between the two, or given Kiara another boyfriend if their aim was simply to show that Drake and Kiara would never be endgame. They had done that with Maxwell and Penelope already...oh. I forgot. They actually wanted us to care for Penelope.
Up until this point, Drake's mean streak re: Kiara was present, but not really as obvious as it gets here. PB takes that cruelty several steps further in these two chapters, starting with Ch 11. Ch 11 was fanservice to the people who shouted abuses and "joked" about killing Kiara in every chance they could get. Ch 12 showed this sentiment at its worst, covered it up with enough fluff so it would be harder for people who liked Kiara to notice...and let those players get away with it.
In Ch 11, Kiara approaches the MC and her group to inform them that she is withdrawing from the tour. Drake is the first to respond to this, remaking at the suddenness of the departure. The MC can speculate on a couple of things, ranging from sympathy (that she might be afraid), selfishness (that she is "bailing out" on the MC) and suspicion (that she is hiding something).
In all three options, a pensive Hana expresses sympathy and encourages the group to "reach out". In all three options, Drake will only view Kiara as a suspect.
Mind you - according to Ch 12, Drake is saying this knowing Kiara was injured at Homecoming Ball...and knowing exactly which weapon she was injured with. Aware that she has gone through an event as traumatic as that (if we go by his "just one step at a time" monologue to Kiara), better aware than most how it would feel...he still opts to act like her motives should be suspicious.
This is further emphasized in the Drake playthrough, through the armory scene that the MC takes with Maxwell.
As I've mentioned in the post on this scene, it is divided into three halves. The first half deals with whoever the MC rejected (either Liam, or Drake in Liam's playthrough). The third is buildup to Lucretia's plans to usurp the throne. The second is supposed to be about the excitement among the members of the court for the wedding, and of course as the only people who come for the tour by default (and Madeleine is already taken for the first scene), Kiara and Hakim are used for this scene!
I will only focus on the Drake version of this scene today. There are a few things you notice straight off the bat:
1. Since this is Drake's playthrough, the narrative seems to do away completely with any lingering feelings Kiara may have had are done away with. In this scene she is quite happy about Drake's wedding - in fact, practically chipper. Literally nothing about her behaviour here serves as a reminder that she once had feelings for him.
2. Drake's response to Kiara attending his wedding ties in pretty well with his earlier default suspicion of her. Unlike Hana who is surprised but also happy that Kiara is attending, he seems to voice it as a doubt or a question. While that makes sense and there is continuity, it's pretty awful that he is allowed to suspect her like this and feel no remorse when the truth about her is revealed.
3. Now as I said in the post, this scene is meant to be a buildup to Drake's ice-palace scene. He speaks about wanting a private, country-style wedding in a natural place there, and Kiara's gentle teasing in this scene is supposed to be an indicator of how much he dislikes the usual fanfare. Okay. Fair enough. You're uncomfortable with the fancy decorations and the insane planning, fine.
4. But it's Drake's attitude towards Kiara in this scene that leaves a bad taste in the mouth (unless you were one of those Drake stans that liked to threaten murder on this character ig). The narrative really went out of their way to make him sound uncommonly angry with her, just for asking about his wedding. He angrily hisses at her to keep her voice down the moment she asks about the wedding, and then lashes out the moment she teases him about his love for the MC and his reluctance to be very public about it in that context. Of course, people who either liked Drake or hated Kiara would downplay this scene - either blaming Kiara for not magically knowing his likes or dislikes, or acting like Drake's behaviour in this scene is no big deal.
And his explanation in the ice palace scene really doesn't cut it as a reason for why he should be this pissed off at Kiara's excitement. There is no real bitterness or resentment tied in with the fancy trappings that are mentioned in that specific scene - it's just that he likes simplicity better. If Kiara doesn't know him well enough to understand that - it's because he has never properly talked to her. She made attempts to converse whenever she could. You can claim he never owed her a conversation - but in that case she doesn't owe him a complete understanding of his wants either. He could have just politely answered the question and changed the subject, or quickly took his leave.
He is well-versed enough in court etiquette by this point that he could have managed to sound civil enough. That he could have made a quick, polite exit. But no, he gave her the kind of anger that one reserves for someone who is kicking a puppy or stealing candy from a child, instead. And it was Kiara's grace that allowed her to view that awful behaviour in a more positive light.
It's pretty clear this scene - and to some extent the framing of the next - was made specifically for those Drake stans who were screaming and throwing tantrums about a possible affair. It was to highlight that there was no way Drake could ever return Kiara's feelings - and the only way they could do that was by making sure he treated her as rudely and inhumanely as possible.
I didn't think it could get any worse than this, when I saw this version of the scene...but then I saw Ch 12.
The Talk
If you were to speak just about fandom reactions to this scene...the responses to Kiara chronicling her trauma after Homecoming Ball, were pretty positive. Plenty chose the middle option "You're suffering from the trauma of the event. You need help", and cooed over Drake's touching little monologue about "taking it one day at a time".
I admit at the time I was fooled too. But one thing did niggle at me as I played both this option, and the "understandably cautious" one (I would later understand that the latter was not very good either - it has a thin veneer of "validating" Kiara's feelings, but it still has the MC and Drake expecting her to put their needs before her own safety and sanity).
Drake was reassuring to an extent in both options, sure. But why were his responses so different? Why was his answer to Kiara so closely tied to whatever point the MC was making, rather than independent of it? After all, he was the one who should be able to better relate to Kiara - wouldn't he have thoughts of his own here? If the MC chose that horrible final option, Drake would correct her and comfort Kiara instead, wouldn't he? Wouldn't he???
It was only when I (reluctantly) pressed that third option ("not as driven as I thought you were") that I understood what Drake's role in this scene was.
He wasn't going to be there for Kiara. He wasn't even sympathetic to her! It wasn't even going to be about two traumatized people connecting over their trauma. Drake was a puppet. He was there to parrot whatever garbage came out of the MC's mouth.
Because in the third - and most horrific - option, the MC is allowed to minimize Kiara's trauma, and mock her ambitions in the face of what she has just gone through. Drake is allowed to agree with her ("sometimes ambassadors have to work in dangerous areas"). Kiara is forced by the same narrative to find value in these words.
And all of this, stems from a scenario where Drake and the MC go in suspecting this woman from the jump. Where Maxwell is happy to make jokes about her being a suspect. Where the only two decent people in this group - Liam and Hana - are conveniently written out of the scene, ensuring that these ghouls can act the way they want around Kiara, and get away with it.
Not once is Kiara herself ever allowed to know that the group suspected her by default, nor is she allowed to go through with her intention to leave court. The very roots of this scene are rotten.
Very often, when this scene in particular is addressed, not many people actually address Drake's behaviour here - or in the previous chapter. Stans will vaguely, and conveniently, blame the group as a whole rather than their favourites. Such a tactic allows them to never name the specific people or specific actions, and therefore the main people involved in speaking to Kiara the way they did never have to be held accountable. This is particularly relevant in the case of Drake.
It was Drake's idea to interrogate her. He was the one constantly harping about her "suspicious behaviour". He was the one aware of what happened to her yet chose to think of her as shady. He was the one who should have known better, yet was absolutely game to minimize her trauma or engage in emotional blackmail. And neither he nor the MC came out of this conversation feeling anything resembling remorse. Because, apparently, they never did anything wrong.
They got what they wanted. At best, Drake and the MC manipulated this woman (again) into returning to their court. At worst, they badgered and bullied her into that decision. Either way, she was going to return, and the narrative was going to pretend that the MC and Drake were great people for making it happen.
I have heard some justifications over the years for Drake's behaviour here. One is that he "tends to act like an asshole to everyone". Another is that Kiara is a noble so he was never going to see her in a positive light. Which is hilarious to me, honestly, because in the same book you have Drake reassure Penelope - the woman who had made the MC the target of a reputation-ending scandal - and comfort her when she sees Madeleine. If this was really about the chip on the shoulder he had for nobility, why was he so kind to Penelope? And if Penelope's mental health warranted a change in mindset and behaviour from Drake's end, why was Kiara not worthy of that as well?
The truth is this. Drake was allowed to express his mean streak to a black woman, bully a black woman (the pranks), lash out at a black woman (the conversation at the Lythikos Ball), suspect a black woman, and finally minimize her trauma if the Duchess he had a crush on wanted to. While being overly protective and chivalrous to the white woman who actually did harm her. No matter what way you spin it, that is what Drake's behaviour - especially in TRR3 - is.
The way the team trampled over this "pairing" post that miniscule hint in TRR3 Ch 7, would make a rampaging elephant look like a ballerina in comparison. They wanted to make it clear after the hiatus that Drake x Kiara would never happen, in any eventuality, in any future, in any universe. And no matter how much we pin this on "crazy stans" (who do hold some responsibility for sure, for their own veiled racism), it's a fact that the writing team was comfortable doing this. They had already found other ways to pile disrespect on their sole recurring black female character - what was a little more?
TRH and Beyond: Taking Away What Was Left of Kiara's Remaining Fanbase
Given all the narrative back-and-forth and shadiness, I'd have to say the end Kiara got in TRR3 was comparatively...decent. Not great...not exactly satisfying...decent.
Her fighting off the assassins at the boutique ("not again...not again!!") was the highlight of that scene. In Hana's playthrough, Kiara was her MOH by default, and the lines the MC could give if you chose her in other playthroughs was pretty sweet. At the end of the book, her father would make Kiara his heir, after her older brother Ezekiel abdicated. There were still things I was always going to hate (such as the fact that we could lie about "having Kiara's back" - we absolutely did not) about the aftermath, but all in all as a fan...I could maybe envision a fairly happy ending for her with what we got.
The next series, The Royal Heir, would debut on June 2019, almost a year after TRR3's own debut. This would be the first series that would go completely LI-divergent, spanning four books. It started out as an attempt to envision the future (and pasts) of the main characters, as well as tie loose ends...but descended into an incoherent, retconning mess with each book.
Kiara doesn't feature much in Book 1, but is pretty prominent in certain chapters like Ch 7 (Savannah's bachelorette), Savannah's wedding, and the Apple Ball in the finale. You'll often find a marked difference between the way she is looked at for most of the book, and how the MC speaks to her in TRH1's finale.
Savannah's bachelorette, for instance, features all the ladies of the court in Texas, with new "country" looks and engaging with Texan culture. Here, too, you see a sign of PB leaning into popular perceptions of Kiara rather than remembering their own writing, when we see how Savannah praises the MC by default but has very little to say about her former friend Kiara. Since Savannah's return to court in TRR3, the team seemed to have forgotten that other ladies of the court weren't very nice to her, and Kiara was the only one concerned for her. They have Olivia act sweet and caring towards Savannah in both TRR3 Ch 17 and TRH1 Ch 7, conveniently forgetting the insults she piled upon Drake's sister in the first book. Savannah never has to talk about Kiara's friendship at all, other than a teasing comment hinting at her French lessons. Savannah was never expected to have any gratitude or affection towards Kiara even though she was the only woman who cared about her in court before she left.
An interesting thing to note in the diamond scene of the bachelorette is the way the courtly ladies' previous/current "romances" are framed. Kiara's, in particular, warrants a lot of discussion. Unlike Olivia (who can address her feelings for Liam regardless of playthrough, if asked, and can actually show some level of resentment towards him for not picking her), Kiara's feelings are addressed only if the MC isn't married to Drake. If she is, Kiara mentions a fondness for "rugged, down-to-earth men" (which the MC and Penelope perceive to mean hunky and muscular), and avoids mentioning his name at all.
There are two very interesting things to note about this sequence. One is the pattern of how, and how far, are Olivia and Kiara are allowed to address their feelings for these men. Not only is Olivia allowed to be open about her feelings and her bitterness (despite Liam actually romancing her in TRR3!), the narrative demands our respect for her position and plight. The Liam MC lauds her honesty and her decision to move ahead, unfazed even by her anger for something Liam didn't even owe her. In contrast, in the Drake playthrough, the writing makes sure Kiara never mentions him by name. And not only that, when the MC and Penelope tease her about her romantic preference, she is shown to stammer and seems downright afraid of the MC.
The fact that there is such a gap in how Olivia and Kiara are allowed to act about the men they love, and the fact that this gap was normalized so much in fandom discourse that it didn't even warrant a discussion, tells us plenty about the fandom too. The fandom position has almost always been that Liam owes Olivia love, appreciation, kindness. And that Drake owes Kiara nothing, not even common human decency. Which is why the fandom wants Liam punished for the high crime of not loving Olivia back. Which is why Drake is allowed to treat Kiara like an irritating pest at his best, and like utter garbage at his worst...and almost no one so much as bats an eyelid.
Since most of the story of TRH1 seemed to revolve around the ranch, the ladies of the court made minimal appearances and most of those were in keeping with patterns established in TRR3 (except for maybe Olivia's spy scenes). Some of their parents - too - feature in Royal Council scenes: Godfrey and Landon are part of this council and are seen during the MC's announcement - no one from Kiara's family, besides her brother Ezekiel who is dating Penelope, make any appearances in this book. Towards the end of the book, however, you suddenly find a scene or two where the narrative is suddenly, and inexplicably, syrupy sweet to Kiara:
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(Screenshots from the Skylia YouTube Channel. 1-5 are from Ch 18, during the council meeting. 7-10 are also from Ch 18, at the start of the ball. The last two are from the finale as buildup for the pregnancy photoshoot)
There are indications of Kiara's diplomacy and good advice in other parts of the book too (such as her suggestions for dealing with the foreign royals at the baby shower) but never were the praise and compliments as obvious as they were in the last two chapters of TRH1. Kiara was given a quippy dialogue to spout at Godfrey, who would later be revealed as the murderer of Queen Eleanor. All three of the MC's dialogue options in response would praise Kiara by default (a rarity). King Bradshaw would shower her with compliments too about her talent and expertise. And when Kiara approached us with an offer for a pregnancy photoshoot, the MC could cheerfully say "for you, Kiara? Of course!" as if they'd been bffs from the beginning.
There isn't any obvious reason why we saw this sudden change, but I can make an educated guess or two. A pattern that commonly emerges with attempts to address something that would benefit Kiara, is that the writers often only do it when enough people complain; that was how we got the horrible Lythikos sequence. Midway through TRH1, I managed to put up an essay exploring Kiara's treatment (centered around the Lythikos sequence in TRR3 Ch 12) in comparison to Penelope's and Madeleine's. It did not receive an immediate fandom wide response, but several readers did come away from that essay feeling like Kiara really got the short end of the stick, compared to all the other court ladies. I'm not sure whether that essay had a direct impact, but those three scenes PB added to the finale chapters do make me wonder. Was the team trying to prove to the fandom that they did like Kiara and wouldn't personally sabotage her, either for their own enjoyment or to pander to a section of the fandom?
If they did, then that plan didn't last beyond these two chapters.
Another possibility of course was to give Kiara something slightly positive before they did her dirty - again - in TRH2 and 3. Because in those two books, they managed to first make her - along with the rest of the council - party to a vote (that everyone was involved in, including the LIs!) that would later prove detrimental for the country. They would then have her be the only heir involved in the notorious Coventus Nobilis, which ensured that anyone who wanted to hate Kiara could tie her to her vote in favour of Bartie Sr, without ever asking any further questions. This was a far more successful attempt, because most of the fandom already believed the misconceptions of Kiara's characterization to be truth, and these storylines simply added fuel to the fire.
Kiara's biggest supporters tended to be a section of the Liam fandom, as well as wlw stans who tended to like most of the courtly women. Having her vote for Bartie at the end of TRH2, and her explanations in TRH3 about the "MC's ruling style" (which was really canon's way of making sure she did more a silent diss on Liam) was written specifically to place a serious dent among her fans who liked Liam. And sadly, it worked in part. Because even if one considered Kiara's thoughts on "reactive ruling" accurate, it was a fact that the nobility (she included) would have to be blaming Liam for something that the entire Council voted for, and that Liam and his friends fixed on their own.
Making Kiara the lone person to voice this argument, made her a target in this fandom. I mean, people were ready to praise Madeleine and speak of her as loyal (eagerly ignoring that she was actively involved in the child's kidnapping if you didn't coddle her enough), and badmouth Kiara in the same breath, claiming that Kiara wasn't worth forgiving and people should just get over Madeleine's deeds in the past.
This resurgence of hate didn't just erupt out of nowhere. Once they finished spending two chapters on two-second compliments to Kiara, PB reverted in the next two books to some of their usual patterns with her. For instance, remember how I mentioned that PB had an obsession with never letting Kiara and Liam interact? In TRH, they repeated this pattern, but with the Heir. The only scene Kiara has where she can so much as touch the heir is in the last part of TRH3, if you choose for Kiara to read to her. Penelope is regularly allowed to hold her even though she has often placed this child in dangerous situations (on one occasion, Kiara herself had to stop her) - even Madeleine is given an entire babysitting scene to win her favour. But Kiara is the only lady of the court who is made to stay away or care for the child from a distance.
Kiara's family (besides Zeke, and just because he is Penelope's fiance/husband) is subject to disrespect in this book too. Hakim and Joelle were both conspicuously absent from the pregnancy announcement presscon in TRH1 (where Landon, Godfrey and Bartie Sr somehow featured!!), and future books would either retcon the family or force them to do things the other families didn't have to do. In TRH2, the MC takes a tour of the Great Houses with her newborn daughter, and each house is expected to pledge loyalty to her and the crown in different ways. Hakim is written as "bending to his knees" for the child. This is something only Adeleide and Madeleine - whose house, might I remind you, are considered the house of traitors at this point - have to do. Landon and Emmeline are never expected to express their loyalty to this extent.
In TRH3, the narrative callously pushes the Therons under the bus to make the Ebrim family's reluctance to help the MC make sense - the Therons are now "traditionalists" who frown upon scandals and may not allow Zeke to marry Penelope on the account of her past annulled marriage (this makes no sense when you take a closer look at the Therons themselves in TRR3 - they're a far more balanced, far more progressive family than any of the other Great Houses. They even took Zeke's abdication well!). Furthermore, you'll notice that the framing of Penelope's past with Guy is worlds apart from the disdain the narrative shows for the Therons during the flower festival. It is notable that in the latter, the black women are depicted very negatively - Kiara is shown unable to manage her own competition, Joelle is depicted as pompous and incapable of losing gracefully, Drake gets to take sarcastic potshots at Lerato for trying to charm the MC into voting for her and Drake into convincing her to vote. Meanwhile white people like Landon and Marguerite are presented in a just as humourous but less mocking light (eg. Landon moving his table courteously before flipping it in the flashback).
Even into TRF (Ch12), the narrative gives us choices where we can stand up to people criticizing Landon and Emmeline's parenting ("Duke Landon and his wife raised a kind, generous daughter..."). We are allowed to be far less critical of the Ebrims overall, we are allowed to be more charitable even in the dialogue options for suspecting Landon than we are of Kiara (think of how Maxwell can suspect that Kiara was planning to betray us all along). At the end of the Flower Festival, Kiara is made to appear contrite as the MC can choose to either demand she make this right before the latter can forgive her, or indicate that she never will. Ironically, a Penelope who can choose her fancy wedding over the safety of the MC's child never has to face words that harsh.
You will also notice if you look more closely, that the narrative continues to frame events surrounding Penelope and Kiara in opposing ways. Penelope is perpetually viewed as a victim, and Kiara constantly as a suspect.
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We are expected to support Penelope, and to mistrust Kiara. And even though Kiara's feelings had long since become a thing of the past, Drake still maintains his animosity towards her and her family. And like everything else, it is so normalized at this point that you barely even notice it anymore.
In TRH2, Drake is allowed to tar all nobles with the same brush because of Godfrey's actions. Though his statement about the nobility ("We can't trust any of them to have Liam's back...not unless it's in their own selfish interests") is about the entire nobility, it is striking that he says this just before they go to Castelserraillan. The Therons are also the only noble family that Drake makes sarcastic comments about (in reference to Liam informing us that their province is a trade hub, Drake quips that "they are going to want to trade babies with us"). These snide comments he rarely makes about other noble families, and serves as a sharp contrast to how he treats the Ebrims (during Penelope's wedding festivities, he is unnaturally invested in Penelope getting a happy ending with Ezekiel). We can't even claim that his behaviour towards Kiara is in line with his disdain for nobles, because Penelope is proof that he is perfectly capable of showing compassion to most of them!
TRH3 ends with Kiara doing an apology tour of sorts - diplomatic missions aimed at improving Cordonia's international relations. TRF finds almost all the ladies of the court - even Olivia - in very minimal roles, as the focus shifts to the Via Imperii. Still, the narrative makes more references to Penelope than to Kiara, to the extent that the epilogue ends on both the MC and Penelope celebrating their pregnancies (Penelope's first and the MC's second) together.
Overall, you will find that the narrative repeated certain patterns with Kiara - the tendency to find her suspicious, purposely limiting scenes with important characters like Liam (TRR) and the heir (TRH) while the white courtiers get almost unlimited access, the discrepancies in expectations for her vs other ladies (eg. Madeleine is hailed for being "good" even though that is solely dependent on how you treat her. Kiara is largely ignored whenever she does help, and attacked when she is written to support the enemy). Drake - even as a former alternative to her, who should have gotten over whatever nonsense beef he'd had with her earlier - is allowed to make snide remarks about her home and family.
It's pretty clear they could do this because they could get away with it... because most of the fandom made it so easy for them to get away with it.
Fandom
When I look back at how the perception of Kiara in the fandom progressed over the years, I find it half-amusing, half-sad how much of it is rooted more in fanlore, and how little in actual fact. And this is something you couldn't just pin on "crazy Drake stans" - they were the biggest promoters of these lies and misconceptions, sure, but normally analytical, commonsense readers often believed that Kiara was fake and a snob and awful to Penelope too.
I get some of it, given the timing of Kiara and Penelope's scene at the beginning of TRR2. It takes place at a low point in the MC's story, a time when she isn't even sure the LIs want to support her. Coupled with that is the lasting image of Penelope hugging you and complaining about Madeleine, making you feel like she's more willing to give you a sliver of solidarity. Coupled with that, is Olivia's newfound popularity in the fandom - once she emerges in Ch 5 of that book, fans believed they found their wildcard who would stand by them in complete solidarity among the ladies of the court (did they ignore Hana's already massive contributions to the investigation? Yes they did. Yes they did). Madeleine herself is shown giving quotable quotes about female solidarity and Tariq's guilt in TRR2 Ch 7, which - coupled with Justin's high praise of her - made people want to find things to like about her too. Penelope's own betrayal was overshadowed by an expectation to support a person with serious mental health struggles.
Kiara's the only one who doesn't get such backstories or explanations. So at least in the heat of the moment, in reading those chapters between weekly gaps, it makes sense that a false impression of her got somewhat solidified.
But when you build your interpretations out of lies and misinterpretations, how does it become so valid that even the writers bend to it and prefer to show that?
Every fandom has its "crazy stans". And this instance wouldn't be the first or last time they are pandered to. But when the same stans get backed up by the "saner", more commonsense members of fandom; when even neutral readers promote versions of a story without actually looking at the scenes in question - that's when a fandom is in danger of turning a "headcanon" into canon.
Kiara being a horrible friend to Penelope wasn't canon. Kiara being a snob was not canon. Kiara being creepy towards Drake wasn't canon either. Especially when you take the fandom response to Olivia's forced kiss on Liam into account.
And that brings me to another point. I had been asked once why I felt the need to compare Kiara to the other ladies in my defenses of her. It's important, when we speak of the kind of hate Kiara received, to understand how a lot of flaws that the entire court has (eg classism) is often pinned onto a lone person, and how several white female characters could get away with worse behaviour while Kiara alone was slammed for harmless interactions.
This is most apparent when you look at how Olivia's violation of Liam's consent is perceived, vs Kiara's harmless flirtation with Drake in TRR2. Which woman had fans foaming at the mouth and wanting to kill her? Which woman was given dozens and dozens of fanfic and content that depicted her as creepy, desperate, downright obsessed with their man? Which woman got the "oh well, he doesn't owe her anything 🤷🏽‍♀️" vs a "he doesn't love her back?? WHAT AN INSENSITIVE ASSHOLE!!1111"?
Perhaps this Olivia/Kiara comparison is where the fandom's tendency to cast Kiara into the Jezebel stereotype is the most visible. Kiara's very act of talking to Drake sometimes is registered as a threat to those stans, and it reflects in the way they speak of her, the way they speak of their MC's own relationship with Drake in association with her (eg. the number of posts rejoicing at the thought of showing off their "engaged to Drake" status at Kiara's estate), the way they're allowed to dehumanize her and villify her (eg. The edit I mentioned at the beginning). This is often encouraged by their friends who are fans of other characters, and you can see that in sharp contrast, Olivia - despite her actions in Book 1 and her resentment of Liam for not loving her back in other books - is still often viewed with sympathy and respect. Her feelings - still viewed as genuine, even pure. To the point where PB eventually allows Olivia to constantly address her feelings about the MC's and Liam's relationship, while forcing Kiara to not even utter Drake's name in his playthrough.
But you see this with other characters, and in other contexts too. Particularly how Madeleine can be duplicitous, hypocritical, and power-hungry, and it's Kiara who is called these things despite her actual honesty in canon. Madeleine can get away with actually helping Bartie Sr kidnap the MC's daughter in TRH3 without a murmur, in the same fandom where people can curse Kiara for voting for Bartie Sr "to take the child away" (despite her telling the MC and spouse that she was promised they would have custody of the child, therefore the claim that she "voted to take the child away from their parent" is inaccurate).
You saw some of these discrepancies in how Penelope and Kiara were spoken about too - Penelope's crime in TRR2 was considered easily forgiveable, while Kiara's innocence is constantly called into question. Kiara was often viewed negatively for what the fandom perceived as "meanness" to Penelope (when it was in fact Kiara worrying about how Penelope would fare when she wasn't around) while Penelope herself was never expected to be a good friend to Kiara. An interesting thing to note about the fandom response to Penelope and Kiara showed that often when posters wanted to hate on Penelope, she and Kiara would be clubbed together, almost as a unit. This was especially prevalent in TRH3. It was easy to express hatred for Kiara independently, but most posts that showed a dislike for Penelope (besides from specific Kiara stans) would often tie her with Kiara, as if there wasn't much to hate about her otherwise.
It is important to line up whatever hate Kiara gets with the responses to the other women - especially in the face of what the latter are allowed to get away with. In doing so, you get a better sense of what is allowed for a certain subset of women, and what isn't allowed or permitted for black women specifically.
Often, the fans who would not hesitate to call her alone fake, opportunistic and creepy were WOC, and there have been cases where some would use their identity as WOC to shield themselves from the criticism concerning their vitriol. It would often descend into "I don't hate her because she is black, I hate her because {insert inaccurate/false/convoluted justification here}". It didn't matter that much of this information wasn't based in fact, or had a heavy bias that they never applied to anyone else. It only mattered that because they were WOC, somehow that meant that they couldn't possibly be racist. That their unfounded hatred for Kiara had to be legitimate. As if there was no chance that someone who was WOC couldn't be antiblack too. I mean, the ultimate proof of this could be found in TRR itself - the two head writers of the TRR/H/F series' are Asian women - who have a pattern of liking mean (white) women, and who didn't mind throwing the black woman and her black family in their story repeatedly under the bus, who didn't mind minimizing and retconning the abuse and childhood trauma that the darker-skinned Asian woman in their story went through.
Overall, it is possible that the fandom did take some of their cues (for their impression of Kiara) from the inherent disdain found in canon itself. But many of them also misinterpreted several things about Kiara, then didn't bother to revisit those biases with a critical eye, or even try to see if they were wrong. And that baseless hatred fed the already-existing disdain that Kiara's own writers had towards her. Resulting in the kind of horrific, racist garbage that we got to see in TRR3, and the constant attempts in canon to pull her down in TRH.
Did Drake and Kiara Ever Have A Chance?
There have been various opinions - from both Kiara fans and haters - for why a Driara ship would never work. He hates nobles, she won't like his disdain for art and culture, he likes the simpler life, she's a snob...so on and so forth. Many people will agree it's not a great ship, but of course with differing opinions on why.
I, however, often wondered at possible scenarios where such a pairing could work. The magic of shipping is often that you can play around with personalities and pair almost anyone, and find enough reasons to explain why they would tick. And in Drake and Kiara's case, personally, I do feel like it's a complicated question to answer - primarily because I feel like the authorial intent at the beginning may have been very, very different to what finally happened in Drake's story.
A lot of Drake's early writing focused on the reasons behind his mistrust of the court and his tendency to view the people he loves who are part of it (eg. Liam and later the group) as anomalies. There are two ways you could take such a story in TRR2 - you could either get him to admit to the flaws in his own thinking (thereby providing a more nuanced insight) and allow him to grow from there, or you could just have him double down on his biases and never change beyond the superficial. The team of TRR - esp the head writers, Kara and Jen who were both v fond of him - definitely seemed to go in the latter direction.
Drake's prediction in Coney Island does indicate that he should let go of the past, and I honestly feel like the sequences where he learned about Maxwell straining House Beaumont's finances to help her, and Kiara and Savannah's friendship, could have been turning points for him if the writers weren't so obsessed with proving him right all the time - even when he was supposed to be wrong. Maxwell and Kiara, in their own ways, were proof that not every noble was the same, nor would every noble treat the commoners around them all the same way. However, the narrative trampled all over this possibility in TRR2 Ch 9, where Drake could optionally claim that the Beaumont brothers (among others) were "just looking out for themselves, no matter the consequences", or later when the narrative had Savannah be grateful to him for breaking her confidence to Bertrand, and have Maxwell try to earn his forgiveness in Ch 12 rather than the other way around. It allowed Drake to be selective about the nobles he admired or defended, while still free to treat certain others like garbage.
I could easily envision a Driara pairing for most of TRR2. I could even see it as potentially salvageable in certain parts of TRR3. But the moment they had Drake readily suspect her, the moment the team thought it would be okay for Drake to even suggest minimizing her trauma...that option was no longer worth seeing. Not for Drake, but for Kiara. Drake would have to be the worst possible guy I could find for her, in such a scenario.
But I could see potential in a storyline that had Drake understand that some of these people weren't the monsters he so desperately wanted them to be. In one where he could hear about Kiara's friendship with his sister, and learn about a whole new side of her. One where he maybe felt insecure ("I'm not her type") and could be reassured by a woman who had likely held a torch for him since they were teens/young adults. One where they could reach out to each other in their pain and trauma, and find solace. One where Drake knew that the family he may be marrying into would respect him, and his father too. There were possibilities there.
It would still take more work - his mean streak for one would need to be reduced by more than a half. A lot of it, of course, was kept for the Drake stans, but it really doesn't add much to Drake's character besides making him a mean-spirited, hypocritical bitch who only targets the lone black woman this way (and Olivia occasionally, if she goads him). If the narrative did want to keep a characterization where Drake acts weird around the girl he likes, they could - but that story would need a lot more work to be palatable.
All of this is to say that regardless of personal bias, there were possibilities there. There was a sliver of potential. And if they wanted to let go of that potential midway, they didn't have to go about that the way they finally did. They could have just worked on creating another love interest for her. They managed to create a brother for her overnight just so Penelope could have a boyfriend; they could have easily done the same for Kiara.
Multiple factors went down that explain why the Driara ship didn't take off. But many of them boil down to one specific root cause - the white women (whether they caused actual harm or not) needed to be protected, needed to be cherished. The black woman who dared to ask for the same things from their pet LI, would be viewed as a threat, a villain, a creep...just for breathing in his direction.
And her writers cared so little, that they took the fanon perception for her and stamped it onto their canon, like it was the truth.
They didn't do any of this for the woman who forced a kiss on a prominent LI. They didn't do this on the woman who betrayed the MC and set her up for assault. They didn't do this to the woman who bullied the lone female LI, and swore to continue doing so till she broke.
They did this for the one woman who was fairly innocent of most of these crimes, actually respected the LI and treated him well.
They did this because they could get away with it. Because they were confident that the fandom they wrote the story for, would let them get away with it. And tragically...they were right.
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Resources I used to learn about the Jezebel stereotype:
The "Offending" Breast of Janet Jackson: Public Discourse Surrounding the Jackson/Timberlake Performance at Super Bowl XXXVIII by Dr Shannon Holland
Janet Jackson, Justin Timberlake, the Jezebel and white masculinity by Khadija Mbowe (I actually got the recommendation for the first paper from this video essay).
From Mammy to Jezebel: The Portrayal of Black Women in American Cinema from the BlackThen website
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shumidehiro · 2 years
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🖤 Pairing: Yandere! Il Capitano x Female! Reader
💛 Word Count: 1k+
❤ Warnings: Nudity
[Edited]
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So I procrastinated on a competition that I ended up giving up halfway bc I’m just suck at writing stories in my native language… which isn’t even a waste of time tbh bc otherwise I would’ve burn myself out by constantly writing fanfic. Idk it’s a really big temptation to me k?
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You were jealous.
There were many things you were jealous of in this world, even if you tried not to let the green blind your eyes. But, most of all, you were jealous of couples. Whether they were sincere or not with their affection didn’t really matter to you, because at the very least, the men made an effort to show that they cared. That they loved. That they were open with their partners.
And Capitano was, unfortunately, none of those things. He was busy, aloof, and secretive. You didn’t know if it was because of his status as a military leader, a Harbinger, or both.
But one thing for sure, it was both a blessing and a curse.
A blessing because he was strong and rich, and a curse because he was everything you wouldn’t want from a husband.
And as you conversed with the couple in front of you, you realized that it was more of a curse than anything else.
“This is actually the first party I’ve attended in months. Ever since he found out about my pregnancy, Viktor has become even more doting to me. He tells me to rest more often and forbids me from leaving the house. Truly, as much as I appreciate his concern, it can be slightly stifling at times!” Valentina bemoaned.
Viktor chuckled. “You can’t blame me for fearing the worse, honey. This is our first child, and I wouldn’t want anything to happen to them.”
“Well, I’m not a porcelain you can put away in a display forever, my dear. I need to move around, too.”
You smiled wistfully and stared at her round stomach that was barely concealed in a red dress. People never knew how lucky they were until they were thrust into a predicament, and you were certain Valentina would be more miserable had she been with Capitano. How a single complaint could land you on the guillotine of his anger. Or, worse, his power. And had you were in her position, you were certain you’d appreciate Viktor’s stifling affection than Capitano’s distant attention too.
But, alas, in people’s eyes, you were the luckier – if not the luckiest – one. After all, with how focused he was on his duty, who would’ve thought he’d be interested in anyone at all?
“[Name].”
Perhaps your thoughts were too loud, louder than the orchestra playing in the background, because they soon summoned Capitano to your side. The couple stiffened and bowed, while you merely closed your eyes and sighed.
“Let us be retired for tonight.”
“Alright.”
Without sparing any glance at the pair, Capitano led you to the carriage that would carry you back to your glorified prison. The whole journey was quiet, as it always was whenever you spent time with him. You didn’t know much about him to strike any real conversation, and even if you did, it’d be rather pointless considering he often replied with a short sentence or a syllable. And if you weren’t so lucky, a mere hum.
It wasn’t as though the mansion was any better, really. The servants were too scared of him to utter anything other than compliance, and for some of them, the fear bled to you as well. No matter how many times you reassured them that you were as harmless as a fly, they still perceived you as the miniature version of the monster Capitano was. And, sometimes, you couldn’t help but silently curse him for tarnishing your image even further. It was enough that you became his trophy wife, now you became a monster too?!
“No, she shall change by herself.”
You turned to the maid in the doorway and exchanged confused glances. It was Nina’s duty to assist you with dressing every time you went or returned from anywhere, so why the sudden order?
“Do not make me repeat myself.”
“O-of course…!”
Nina hurriedly bowed and scurried away, not forgetting to close the door to give you the privacy that you didn’t really want. The silence was cold and piercing, exacerbated by his stare at your back.
“Undress.”
You whipped around to face him.
“What?”
“I said undress.”
You gaped at him for a moment before your hands hesitantly patted your back, searching for the zipper. You wished it wasn’t so easy to find, because you hated how quickly you revealed your half-nude body to him. Crossing your arms over your chest, you looked down and prayed he didn’t mean what you feared he was implying.
“Have you had too much drink at the party, [Name]? Because when I told you to undress, you truly undress yourself.”
You froze. Any other day, you would’ve been a bit more prepared. But tonight, you were tired; both from the party and his suffocating presence.
Then again, rejection was a luxury you never had, wasn’t it?
Maybe if you were the wife of another man, you’d be able to convince him to do it some other time. But Capitano was decisive, almost impatient. What he wanted, he’d get. Whether it be by coercion or persuasion. That was what the Fatui was infamous for, too.
Still, you wondered what provoked him in the first place. Was the dress too enticing? It couldn’t be. Snezhnaya wasn’t a place for thin and bold clothes. Or was it your face? The makeup didn’t feel any different, and he didn’t react any differently. Until now, that is.
You might not fully understand men, but you hardly even understood him.
“For the longest time, I’ve thought you’d be the one who approaches me, or at least, breaches the subject first. But it seems you’ve been waiting for me instead.”
You merely frowned.
“I saw the way you looked at that lady earlier, and I’m ashamed to admit that it took me this long to realize it. Forgive me.”
Your eyes began to widen in realization.
“But worry not, I shall rectify my mistake.”
You resisted the urge to withdraw, physically and mentally, when he advanced towards you and stroked your cheek.
“And I vow to you, that our children shall live in a peaceful world very soon.”
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notsoevilmagistrate · 6 months
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We all know Phoenix is down bad when it comes to Miles, if the career thing switch was not enough. One thing I(and all of us tbh) latched onto was also when he said “I tried to get in touch with him I don't know how many times... He never replied” to Maya in Turnabout Goodbyes. That obviously implies a dozen letters or calls, maybe a mix of both(the anime shows it was letters). Yet something I always wondered though is who the hell gave Phoenix that information, like an address or a phone number. I guess ‘tried’ could imply he just tried to find that info, but the “never replied” part implies he already did everything on his end, and that drives me crazy.
Was he internet stalking? Was he just stalking stalking? Who did he have to talk to? Where did he look? So many questions…and I can’t entirely doubt Phoenix stalked knowing his feenie era(and how he is in general), considering how he acts about people he’s crazy about. Does Miles have like a website where all that info is out in the open?
In turnabout goodbyes, Miles trying to hide DL-6, and him explaining who Manfred Von Karma was just shows Phoenix doesn’t know shit…but knew back then apparently where Miles lived or his phone number to be able to bombard him with attempts at contact. It’s kinda freaky in the interesting way. Miles moved away when he was like 9, so whatever Phoenix found out about him later was either by chance(the newspaper articles) or stuff he had to purposefully search for.
In summary: I just love my obsessive little freak named Phoenix Wright. But what are his secrets for figuring out where his crush was at? Asking for reasons…
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ch3rrysuck3r · 1 year
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need more eddie roundtree fics on this website i’ll take anything from light smut to tooth-rotting fluff but please
OF COURSE DARLING!! your wishes r my commands. I've got a few requests for him, as soon as I get those out there's Eddie content for u guys!!
FLUFF FLUFF FLUFF cause my man is not happy enough tbh. (Don't worry tho, i have some smut requests i hope I get out this week!!)
ALSO, lets pretend Cami and Eddie never slept together, for the sake of their happiness. Eddie's hate for Billy simply comes from feeling like a second class citizen in a first class resort, like in the book!
Forever here, with you
Y/N Roundtree: Look, I love you. But I hated Billy. I say 'hated' because I haven't seen him in years, but, he was a proper asshole. I hope he's honest about that. You have no idea how many times I've had to keep Eddie from killing him.
Eddie Roundtree: He would be dead, probably, if it wasn't by Y/N. I think she might've been the one think that kept me grounded during the band. That kept it going for me. (Pause) Actually, no, I don't think. I know.
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The band is playing in Las Vegas, for a sold out venue. It's one of their first shows for the tour, but so far, it's been going great.
The River is coming to an end, which means also is the show. As the final note plays, Billy is quick to thank the fans and leave stage, everyone following behind.
I start making my way to the back, where I'll be taken backstage. I finally reach the band once I'm out of the ocean of sweaty bodies and past security. As I make my way towards Eddie, I see Billy saying something to him and storming off. I can see Eddie's face from here, and he doesn't seem to be very happy. He is not angry, either, as he usually is after arguments with Billy.
"Hey!" I greet once I reach him, and his face lights up a little.
"Hey, gorgeous." His arms lift me up and spin me around, hugging me as tight as they can.
"Everything alright, Ed?"
He sighs deeply and rubs my arm. "Let's go back to the hotel, please?"
"Of course."
The hotel isn't that far away and the band was probably going to hang out backstage for a few more hours, so we decided to walk. It is a starry Tuesday night and the streets are not as busy. The shiny signs are enough to light the sidewalks. It's a silent walk. I know he's got things to say but I also know that any problem between him and Billy is too bad to talk about in public.
It doesn't take long to reach the Las Vegas Hilton, the receptionist greets us and I offer him a small smile. Eddie and I go into the elevator, hand in hand, and soon reach the comfort of our room.
I lay in bed and he needily cradles my body and sets himself on top of it, wrapping me in a bear hug. I run my fingers through his sweaty hair, feeling his chest rise and fall steadily.
"He didn't let me change some notes on the bass"
I sadden at the thought, knowing how sad this type of thing actually makes him feel. I try my best to comfort him with my actions as I think about something to say.
"He is an idiot."
He laughs against my neck and I smile a little.
"Okay, but actually; I know he gets to you and you have every reason to be as mad as you are. But you love the band, Eddie. And they need you. I am here for you, whenever and forever, you know that."
"I love you." He rasps onto my ear, lifting his head and pecking my lips. He holds both my arms against the headboard with a hand and keeps filling my face with quick kisses. I laugh andbfeel his lips against my teeth.
He abruptly stops and looks at me, in all seriousness.
"Marry me?"
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Y/N: "What?!" (Laughs) I didn't know if he was being serious or not.
Eddie: Of course I was being serious. I knew I wanted to marry that woman the day I met her. I just had to wait for long enough to not seem a weirdo.
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"Marry me?" He repeats the question with a laugh. My eyes water and I hug him. "Is that a 'yes'?"
"Of course it is a 'yes'."
"Great, let's go."
"Right now?!" He shoots me his million dollar smile.
"Of course right now, I can't wait to marry you."
I blush at the comment and make my way towards my suitcase, busting it open to look for something that may work like wedding attire.
"You do that, I'll go call Warren."
"Can you ring up Karen and Daisy for me, please?"
"Of course darling." He walks behind my body that seats on the floor. His hand grabs my neck, turning upwards my head and leaning down to give my lips a quick peck before leaving the room to look for a telephone booth.
I decide to wear a silver, long-sleeved dress. It's transparent enough you can see the outline of what's underneath, but I doubt it will matter. It reaches mid-thigh and is loose on my shoulders. I keep on the black boots I'm wearing and apply a bit of gloss to my lips. I see Eddie come back into the room in a forest green suit, no shirt underneath.
We both admire each other quietly. He clears his throat, eyes not leaving my body. I don't intend to peel mine off of his either.
"Warren was in his room, he let me borrow this so he's walking with us. Daisy and Karen are on their way to the chapel right now, they are taking Graham with them."
I thank him with a quick smile and kiss.
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Warren Rojas: I don't remember much of that wedding, either. I know it didn't take us long to arrive to the chapel, tho. It was one of those classic ones in Las Vegas.
Karen Sirko: It was a beautiful chapel, very traditionally Vegas.
Graham Dunne: I remember Elvis Presley married them. (Laughs) Not actually him, you know. He'd pass a little less than a year before...great man.
Daisy Jones: I...don't remember much. (Laughs) I spent most of after the shows getting high and drunk. But I do remember that, once they said 'I do', Eddie picked her up in his arms and ran to the hotel, that was a few buildings down the street. We all ran behind them, screaming and popping champagne.
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"Eddie Roundtree, do you take Y/N L/N to be your unlawfully wedded wife? To love, cherish and respect 'till the end?"
He grins at me and I do the same. "I do."
"Y/N L/N, so you take Eddie Roundtree to be your unlawfully wedded husband? To love, cherish and respect 'till the end?"
"I do."
"Then by the power given to me five minutes ago by this cheap chapel, I pronounce you Mr. and Mrs. Roundtree. You may kiss the bride; I've got to attend another one of this."
We laugh and then kiss, cheers erupt from our drunk friends that stand besides us.
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Billy Dunne: No, I was not invited to the wedding. I also couldn't care less, honestly. I always knew Eddie had something against me, I just payed no mind. I never had anything against him, I always tried to make him happy.
Eddie: We did actually get married, by the way. After the band split up an everything.
Y/N: It was the best day of my life. After the day our daughter was born, of course. But that's a story for another time.
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immortalarizona · 3 months
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“They say looks can kill, and I might try.” — Taylor Swift, “Vigilante Shit”
an outfit for my beloved Wanda if she ends up going to the 2024 Hellfire Gala (if there is one at all tbh)!! I wasn't personally a fan of her 2023 look, so I decided to try my hand at designing a look of my own despite knowing jack shit about fashion. design breakdown, inspiration photos, and just general rambling under the cut :)
main inspo:
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top row: left by REEM ACRA, right by unknown
middle row: sketches by Kevin Wada
bottom row: garments by Zita Moldovan (website)
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hehe, this is the part where I ramble about my design process!! I will confess, it took me four full sketches before I finally managed to purge the "high fantasy fairy queen dress" brainrot from my mind and arrive at a concept that actually felt like Wanda. given that as of her 2023 solo run, she's a self-employed business owner, a twist on a suit felt appropriate!! it's elegant, it's dramatic, it's sexy, it's powerful, and it's also a garment that, like, real people could wear?? which, I know this is a comic book and she also has magic, but, like. girl deserves a fit that's also reasonably comfortable. girl deserves pockets (I didn't showcase them, but the pants absolutely have humongous magic pockets.) talking fabric, I will confess that I really don't know much, but I picture the red fabric being pretty thick silk and the black fabric possibly being velvet? the shoes are beaded pretty much all over with the same crystal material as the crown.
as I continued to refine my concept, I looked to Kevin Wada's 2015 redesign for Wanda's last solo run for more inspiration. that's how I arrived at concepts such as the use of beaded accessories, floral embroidery, and especially the plunging neckline. I also knew I wanted to pay homage to Wanda's heritage without being stereotypical, so I decided to look to Zita Moldovan, a Romani designer whose site is linked above, to see how she incorporated her culture into her work. (as an aside, there's this other dress from her Romany Dreams collection that I would LOVE to draw Wanda in at some point, but that was not this project. maybe soon.) the dress I included in my (very, very trimmed down) inspo board was my primary reference as I drew the pattern for the pant part of the pantsuit. (I attempted multiple versions where the pattern was in color, but it wound up looking really muddy, so I opted for the slightly more subtle version you see here.) the pose for the final piece doesn't showcase the epaulette well (or the crown pin, which was another reference to the Kevin Wada design), so here's a bonus sketch that came out of the "design" part of this whole project that shows them both better:
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anyone who has followed my art knows that I generally draw my Wanda with a high ponytail, but I decided to spice things up and draw her with a half-up like she has circa Uncanny Avengers #27 (this is when she and Jericho are being so very sweet together). the golden hoop earrings are another thing I carried over from my general Wanda design, and the makeup is just a quick thing I came up with on the fly. it's not the spiciest, I know, but I decided there was enough going on elsewhere that she didn't need a crazy makeup look as well. the full-finger ring is specifically a reference to her very first appearance in X-Men #4, where she calls upon her power by pointing her right index finger. I thought it would be cool to accentuate that finger as a result!!
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and there you have it--a tribute to Kevin Wada and Zita Moldovan from an artist who knows nothing about fashion but does have severe enough blorbo brainrot to attempt to design an outfit regardless :D
shoutout to @jookpubstock for once again enabling my shenanigans :)
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dnd-smash-pass-vs · 3 months
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As the year wraps up, I gotta get something off my chest, don't worry I'm not making a habit of this. Even though I know that the people who it's pointed at won't read or care, and the people who do see the resemblance to themselves likely won't be the ones I'm talking to. but I just had to delete multiple asks again, and it's stuff I get all the time, so I'm going to indulge in a little angry rant that you're free to ignore. Because seriously, I LOVE getting asks, I'd turn them off if I didn't. but some of ya'll REALLY don't understand there's a person on the other end of this. ...also, this is explicitly not pointed to the happy anon with the super long slaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad post last night, you're cool. I was just a really tired last night and hit delete on accident.
- Every time a post gets reblogged, it finds more monsterfuckers, but also more non-monsterfuckers. A less monstrous person doing well or winning does not mean you're the only monsterfucker here. don't fill my inbox with multi-paragraph "everyone here's supposed to be a monsterfucker" hate essays every time a monstrous option isn't in a massive lead, take it up with your followers if it matters to you that much. -Some of you are fine always voting against bone devil no matter what, but can't comprehend something auto-losing for a different reason. Like "I hate heat." Or strong smells, or frogs. Sometimes people don't like the option they chose, they just hate it less. I see the merit in near any option I post, even if it's not for me...but seeing why you like it doesn't me I do too, stop asking me to take sides. - Or the opposite, one of the most common tags is "I love both, but I have a core memory or fetish with one so that's my default." Choosing one doesn't mean they hate the other option and you specifically. I'd happily fuck them both, but one indulges a fetish more core to me than some of my organs. - Someone who would fuck a werewolf or manticore or such is a monsterfucker, even if they don't go further. You don't get to say they aren't a REAL monsterfucker because you decided their preferred monsters aren't monstrous enough. Do you to see someone thirsting over a butch and say they're not a REAL lesbian because you decided that's not girly enough? There's no need to be elitist or gatekeep. Especially in an ask, but also in general tbh.
- I'm a basic bitch too sometimes! Just because we like the weird stuff doesn't mean we have to start hating the basic stuff and those who indulge in it. kinkshaming goes both ways, neither of which should be sent to me. You are not the standard by which all is judged, you being relatively more kinky does not make them objectively less kinky. - Seriously, if tumblr is anything, it's the "Labels" site. where people come to learn thier labels, give themselves labels, show off thier labels, surround themselves in similar labels until they forget it's not the only label. Often while saying they hate labels. It's not even the monsterfucker website, Tumblr's just more neutral toward it instead of openly hostile. I get the disappointment, but don't direct it to me. TLDR: That shoggoth or whatever isn't going to become real and fuck you because you flooded my inbox with rants on how "anyone who didn't choose X is fake, and all ya'll aren't TRUE BELIEVERS of the ONE TRUE MONSTERFUCKER GOD." Sarenrae on a bike, It's my blog, and I say everyone's welcome as long as they stay civil. so be civil before I take the anon button away. At least some people have the guts to show their face when insulting anyone who likes ___ over ___
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olderthannetfic · 3 months
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People going on about how they're representing this whole Greek thing are missing that that one anon had a pretty good point about how "cultural appropriation" rhetoric gets misused. People do really need to be more specific about what the issue is, or it very easily turns into basically just arguing for cultural segregation. I've seen that happen numerous times on this website over the years. I've seen people argue that it's appropriative to do something like *learn about* another culture or learn its language. I think it's really important for people to keep an eye on what are the actual issues with cultural appropriation (mostly about exploitation and colonialism) and not just the idea that cultural mixing is bad, or that being interested in a culture that isn't your own is bad. Because the truth is, whether you intend this or not, if you're just arguing that everyone should only keep to the culture of their ethnicity or their place of origin or both, then you're basically in agreement with white supremacists. It's not that cultures mixing is bad; most culture is a result of some mixture. It's when it's done in a way that's exploitative and/or disrespectful: like reducing sacred symbols like indigenous war bonnets to a fashion accessory, or incorporating the art of another culture into your own art without giving credit and without paying anyone from that culture who taught you or added to your work.
FTR, I don't think you can "appropriate" ancient mythologies. I think people are getting twisted around though because there is a genuine history of colonial exploitation of Greek artifacts by colonial powers to fill their museums, as with the Elgin marbles. I do think it's still a good idea to be properly informed about them, regardless, at the very least because those make for the more interesting retellings. For all that people (who IME, largely haven't read it, I'd love to hear if people who have read it disagree though) rag on Song of Achilles, I actually thought it was a pretty good example of a retelling because the author, who has an educational background in mythology, takes great pains to try to recreate the society and cultural norms of Greece at that time rather than sugarcoat it. Achilles may be even more of a jerk than he was in the original Iliad, tbh. It's telling to me that the author's other books that are less "shippy" don't have as negative of a reputation on here in that regard as Song of Achilles, despite being fairly similar, and it makes me wonder how much of that is because it's popular among "fujoshi fandom" so people just assume it MUST be shallow and fandomified, and I was super shocked at how much it really wasn't that at all. As well as I saw that a lot of people expecting something more like that were disappointed by all the period-accurate misogyny and so on.
Which brings me to another point: another reason I'm skeptical of a lot of this discourse is that it seems like often it's more of a high-culture, low-culture thing. A thing that is popular with M/M fanfic writers can't POSSIBLY be doing it right. A thing that is a popular video game or Tony-winning Broadway musical that is popular with the fandoms for those things, can't possibly be accurate. And I get that a lot of that is because a lot of populist things that took from Greek mythology have been inaccurate (Disney's Hercules, for instance) but if you're going to criticize the accuracy of something, I think it is worth engaging with the original work and what it actually does rather than just assuming It's Popular It Must Suck. It feels like a lot of this turns into lording that you were into it before X over others. And being aware that Tumblr Recommendations often do a poor job of actually giving you a good idea of what the work is really like.
As well as, of course, asking yourself - as we should with any sort of historical inaccuracy etc. - if the inaccuracy was deliberate or not. Sometimes people are not really telling that story in order to tell the most accurate version of something but to make a different kind of point, and so the changes might be deliberate. I would argue this is true with something like Hadestown.
That doesn't mean you can't still dislike it for that reason, of course. I know a lot of classical musicians who dislike the movie Amadeus for being so inaccurate about Mozart's and Salieri's lives. I like it despite that because I think the point it is trying to make is stronger for not sticking to the historical fact. I just wish more people did know the historical fact, though.
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One would think the "Is it bad if I learn to cook Thai food?" thing was a strawman... but I've seen it in the wild far too many times.
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thealogie · 1 month
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The clip where Georgia and David are kissing on the red carpet is the most beautiful either of them has ever been. The joy on both of their faces. Love is real. I know we're all joking around here on the rpf is fine website but they really are sweet together!!! And maybe have fun with their neighbors and that's none of my business
Right I am pro rpf on the rpf website but if we’re gonna be serious for a minute….the way they’ve been apart for maybe an hour max in that red carpet footage and they embrace each other like they’ve been apart for ages and they make each other laugh like four times in a one minute interaction? never thought I had any feelings about them as a couple tbh because he’s just my blorbo from my shows and she’s a funny social media person but then? But they got me today! (And if they have fun with their neighbors good for them/none of our business)
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