#and for normal people i think its a bit too much? a bit too french for ppl that dont like the whole chanson schtick

[hedgehog-moss]

Update on the French protests: we've had a well-known expert in contemporary political history call the situation we're in "the worst democracy crisis France has known since [the end of the 4th Republic]" and meanwhile the government is trying its hardest to maintain a façade of normal functioning by a) hiding from protesters, b) hiding protesters from view, and c) banning saucepans and other means of drawing attention to the protests that are being swept under the rug.

I mean casserolades are an old tradition in this country but they wouldn't have been needed if Macron &co hadn't started almost systematically banning protests in entire districts of the towns they visit and setting up police roadblocks to prevent peaceful protesters from going anywhere near them. (Too bad because these are the kinds of images the media get (these 2 are from Le Monde) when protesters get to talk to Macron <3) :

Protesters corralled away where they can be easily ignored started banging pots and pans so the protest could at least be heard in the background of TV footage, and then pans started being confiscated.

French courts have repeatedly struck down the bans as illegal but police prefects keep churning new bans out every time Macron goes somewhere anyway, trying to publish them at the last minute so there's no time for a judicial review. (I saw a sign at a protest last week that went "Stop with all the bans we no longer have time to disobey all of them")

After boldly banning saucepans by calling them "portable sonorous devices" last week, today a police prefecture banned "festive gatherings of a musical nature" in a town Macron will be visiting tomorrow. They're (ab)using counter-terrorist legislation for all this, so these days we get to read unheard-of court rulings that go like "We are suspending this prefectural decree as we do not consider festive gatherings of a musical nature to pose a significant terrorist threat to the President."

If Macron had people showing up in support I don't think we would see so many pissy protest bans because then the media could show backers vs. opponents and things would look normal (and not like 70% of the country is very pissed off with Macron). But there's not much for them to show if they don't show the angry people banging pans and it clearly rankles Macron—we learnt yesterday that he sent a letter to 200,000 political supporters of his essentially ordering them to start making appearances all over the country, to show they are "proud of what you are and of what our country has become [since I got elected]." That seems a bit desperate.

For months Macron &co have been predicting that people would get tired of taking to the streets in large numbers, and now that people are going like—right, let's try a new strategy, small local protests greeting gov members everywhere they go!—we're hearing a clear "no not like that, that's not what we meant :l " reaction from the government.

They've also been trying the strategy of announcing stuff at the last minute, like on Monday the Minister of Education announced at noon that he would visit a higher learning institution in Lyon 2 hours later, and a hundred of protesters still showed up and tried to force their way into the building. They were held off by cops using tear gas and trying to block entrances (there's a pic that made me smile, showing cops trying to barricade university gates with garbage bins—how the tables have turned...!) and the Minister ended up not showing up and moving on to the next step of his schedule (protesters tried to follow him there but police vans were blocking the street.)

The first half of the video is at the uni in Lyon; the second half is in Paris later that day. When he returned to Paris the Minister was greeted by protesters with saucepans at the train station, it's like a national relay race of protesting at times. He had to go back through the train to leave via the other end of the platform under police escort so as not to meet any protesters (god forbid).

Macron commented that this was "uncivic" behaviour and I agree, civic behaviour on the part of gov members would be to at least face the people they choose to fuck over, instead of hiding behind cops and fleeing. Obviously Macron was condemning the 'uncivic' protesters though, and the Minister said he felt "physically threatened" by the "violence of [the protesters'] speech" which is a shit thing to say considering on the same day that he was mildly inconvenienced by having to take a different exit and felt physically endangered by words, yet another protester was mutilated after being shot at by police with a rubber bullet. Not a peep about this incident (or previous ones) from the government. The Minister of Education never even condemned that time high schoolers trying to protest got tear gassed and threatened with riot guns by cops in front of their school earlier this month.

But while people continue protesting despite the actual violence from cops, our ministers are looking pretty scared of citizens banging pots and pans. Here's a list of official visits that got cancelled "for safety reasons" (saucepan terrorism) in the past week:

1. Minister P. NDiaye cancelled a visit in Lyon 2. Minister F. Braun cancelled a visit to Evrard Hospital 3. Minister Delegate O. Klein cancelled a visit in Bobigny 4. Minister Delegate O. Grégoire cancelled a visit in La Baule 5. Minister S. Guerini cancelled a visit in Castelnau 6. Secretary of State B. Couillard cancelled a visit in Rochefort 7. Minister S. Retailleau cancelled a visit to the Paris Saclay University (electricity trade unionists cut the power in the building she was supposed to inaugurate, so) 8. Minister C. Grandjean cancelled a visit in Toulouse (this article says it was probably because the visit was quite near a big highway protest where protesters among other things were building a concrete wall on a national road)

In the same bullshitting vein as "portable sonorous devices", gov spokespeople have been insisting that visits aren't being cancelled, ministers are just "adjusting the course of their trips" which is funny to me. I guess we never beheaded any royalty we just adjusted the course of their necks. I also read a newspaper article that made me laugh, that went like "Minister cancels visit; trade unions disappointed" and I thought it was because the cancelled visit was a meeting with the unions which they wouldn't get to have, but the article said it was actually because they had a good protest planned and wouldn't get to hold it...

Watching protesters mess with the government in small ways on a daily basis has been good for morale—on Twitter the hashtags #IntervillesMacron and #IntervillesduZbeul popped up (zbeul = chaos, mess, and Intervilles was a TV game show that aired for over 50 years, where French cities competed against one another in goofy challenges). I only mentioned cancellations above, but fun things also happen on non-cancelled government visits, like a Minister having to leave a building via the emergency exit because of protesters blocking the building entrance (which some people argued is worth more points than a cancellation as it's more entertaining):

Various websites were created to keep track of all these smaller protests and to officialise the point system that ranks cities on their efforts to fuck with the government:

(the first symbol means a protest, the second means a casserolade, the last one means protesters managed to get inside a building where a visit was taking place)

(Translation: Ruckus (saucepans, heckling...) 1pt Protest: 1pt Creative action (chasing minister in the woods, etc): 2pts Measures of energy conservation (= power cuts by unions) 3pts Action that leads to a political figure fleeing: 4pts Cancellation of a visit: 5pts — then there's a weighting system where the score is multiplied by 3 if it's a Minister, by 5 if it's the Prime Minister, by 6 if it's Macron.) (I also saw an interesting debate on Twitter this week—since our leaders often embarrass themselves, how should the government's own goals fit into the point system?)

Right now the Hérault department is winning because on top of protests, power cuts and casserolades, protesters greeted Macron with a giant "MACRON FUCK OFF" sign hung from a cliff (!) and took over a highway display so it'd say "Welcome to [region] Butthole Ist"

These past few days I've been discovering unknown French cities (and Ministers) thanks to them showing up in the hashtag after a good protest. I discovered a mediaeval castle I'd never heard of when unions hung banners featuring our most famous revolutionary dates from the castle's battlements. (Two days later, another protest with eloquent banners in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris:)

People are very creative—last week we heard that protesters got prosecuted for giving Macron the finger and insulting him during one of his official visits (< we are a healthy democracy), so protesters in another region tried a more sarcastic approach, and greeted a deputy from Macron's party at a strawberry fair this week with clapping and confetti and "Thank you for making us work 2 more years, thank you for police repression, thank you!" The deputy beat a hasty retreat. Then said he would file a complaint against the harassment and intimidation he had been subjected to. (The tear gas and riot guns and arrests and protest bans are not intimidation of protesters on the other hand. Or the fact that another deputy from his party recently said on TV that they were "ready for war"... They're ready to wage war, but run and hide when people clang saucepans and throw confetti.)

Anyway. I'm enjoying the fact that they can't even attend a small strawberry fair without getting heckled right now. In one of my first posts about the political crisis in March I wrote something like "How will Macron and his gov have any legitimacy to speak about any issues after this?" and it cheers me up to see a lot of people across the country agree that they have no legitimacy to talk about anything, not even the strawberry harvest.

The next nationwide protest is of course for May 1st, but in the meantime it's been really fun following the smaller protest actions all over the place. Members of government & Macron's party keep making whiny statements along the lines of this is terrorist behaviour, we can't go anywhere, why are people not getting tired of fucking with us and the answer is, because it's really entertaining!

This was the last sentence of a recent Le Monde article about Macron's situation and it has such a sinister, end-of-reign tone:

"I'm moving forward," Macron concluded, on April 20th in the Herault department, while behind his back echoed the sound of saucepans.

#frpol #well this is another very long post and it features maybe 40% of all the shit from the past week #like there was another popular hashtag last week that went ''no retraction [of the reform] no olympic games'' #and the police prefect of Paris said ''the closer we get to the Olympics the more we will saturate public space with police'' #okay! good atmosphere so far

[flashbangstars]

How People Found out you two were dating

NCT Dream Edition

pink ~ y/n

Blue ~ dream

Green ~ secondary character/another dreamie

Mark

"so um Jeno found out about us dating"

"oh, I thought we were waiting until game night to tell them"

"well yeah uh funny story, I tried to put my sweatshirt on at Jeno's house and your hot pink thong fell out of the sleeve onto his carpet."

"I WAS WONDERING WHERE THAT WENT"

"Yeah I know me too, besides that. Jeno got mad and lectured me on not leading you on if I had other girls I was doing stuff with, so I uh.."

"you told Jeno the hot pink thong was mine"

"yeah basically"

"and I have to face him on friday knowing he's seen my panties"

"to be fair he did say they were cute"

"you know that actually didn't help at all"

Renjun

"hey babe can you help me really quickly, I need help moving my monitor, the cord is stuck somewhere behind my desk"

"Y/n can it wait like 10 minutes"

"No it literally can't I have a assignment due in thirty minutes and I will literally jump off a fucking cliff if I don't get full credit for this"

"Nice Hello Kitty Underwear"

"Renjun you're the one who bought me these, you've seen them and taken them off me numerous times"

"oh he has!! has he!"

"go put some pants on please sweetheart"

"I'm so fucking terrified why were their two different voices just now"

"Hi y/n"

"I'm gonna start crying please tell me Jaemin didn't just see me in fucking hello kitty underwear"

"Y/n please go put some pants on"

"yeah....yeah I'll go do that...... Uh just so you know....im not letting him hit for free.....he did ask me out"

"congrats to the happy couple"

"fuck you"

Jeno

"so how did you all manage to fail the same test?"

"I cheated off of Haechan, and Haechan Cheated off of Jaemin, so its basically Jaemin's fault"

"hey I thought Jaemin knew what he was doing"

"Haechan, Jaemin never knows what he is doing"

"fair"

"oh fuck, I have to go babe I'm gonna miss the bus if I dont run, I will see you soon" *phatass smooch before leaving* *leaves*

5 minutes later....

"alright I'm back I missed the bus"

"DID YALL JUST FUCKING KISS?"

"....no"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN NO I FUCKING WATCHED IT HAPPEN"

"oh thats so crazy I think I just heard the bus, I have to go omg byeeeeee"

"so you're leaving me to deal with this"

"yes, bye pookie, smooches I'll see you later tonight, bye Haechan!"

Haechan

"are we gonna talk about it... or should I just ignore it"

"ignore what"

"im not following"

"are you two being serious"

"dude what the fuck are you talking about??"

"Haechan."

"what"

"you've been sitting in y/n's lap the entire time we've been here"

"and...?"

"we are literally just close friends"

"dog you are literally hand feeding haechan french fries"

"im literally baby"

"even that was a lot for me"

"im sorry pookie"

"allllriight get off, I wont be this couple"

"pookie did you just make it official!"

"can you please be normal"

Jaemin

"Hypothetically what do you guys consider too much for a gift for your significant other"

"well how long would you two have been dating"

"like 6 months...?"

"umm anything ring related, thats kinda scary, too reminiscent of marriage"

"well fuck"

"what do you mean oh fuck? what the fuck did you buy"

"a ring"

"what"

"what...."

"for who??"

"y/n"

"WHAT"

"Y/N?"

"WHY?"

"YOU'VE BEEN DATING FOR 6 MONTHS?"

"STOP YELLING AT ME"

Chenle

"the guys know you and me are dating"

"what? how"

"I got in trouble"

"what did you do..."

"they all got kinda mad at me and said I was kinda mean to you and asked what my issue with you was"

"and what did you say"

"please don't be mad"

"chenle"

"I told them not to worry because you think it's hot when I'm kinda mean"

"chenle"

they didn't believe me at first... and I was feeling pressured!...they literally cornered me!"

"chenle"

"so I showed them a little bit of our texts when you said...itwassexy whenIwasmeantoyou"

"run"

"I WILL TELL THEM ABOUT THE MOMMY KINK IF IT MAKES YOU FEEL BETTER?"

"run. now"

"ok!"

Jisung

"hey guys, just wanted to let you know me and jisung are dating now officially"

*shriek* "WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT!"

"Jisung what..."

"I DONT EVEN KNOW WHO YOU ARE"

"jisung park"

"please ma'am stop spreading that!"

"ANDY"

"I'm so sorry guys I dont know whats gotten into her!"

"jisung...She's literally your lockscreen"

"I literally have no idea what you are talking about"

"jisung I WILL do a coochie ban"

"this is actually bae 4 lyfe, she my day one and I worship the ground she walk on fr"

"thats what I thought"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Hi! here is a little something from the drafts that is basically finished, I hope you like it! I am fr just getting back into writing so excuse any errors. But i hope yall have a good night/day!

#nct #nct dream #nct u #mark #renjun #jeno #haechan #jaemin #chenle #jisung #nct dream imagines #nct dream fic #nct dream scenarios #nct dream fluff #nct dream suggestive #mark lee #huang renjun #lee jeno #lee donghyuck #lee haechan #na jaemin #zhong chenle #park jisung #jisung imagines #renjun imagines #jaemin imagines #jeno imagines #chenle imagines #haechan imagines #mark imagines

[itsgodepi]

If I lose my mind | Ch. 7

Series summary: When life has given you more than enough lemons and you cannot figure out how to make a lemonade, the only way to make it work is to get rid of the whole basket. But was it neccesary to send you to a whole different dimension for that? A juicer would have done the job, really. Or, one day you go to sleep as a normal person and the next you wake up as a Formula One driver. You've never been a fan but isn't it like, one of the most exclusive sports? Pairing: CL16, LH44, CS55, DR3 x fem!reader Chapter: Previous | Next Word Count: 2.8k Also on AO3

You do win a few positions in the French Grand Prix, after hours of driving in circles under the scorching sun. Two to be exact, from a P15 to a P13. It is true that being thirtieth does not grant you any points and of course not a trophy, you will have to wait a bit more to acquire those milestones in your career, but it is not like anybody cares much about that either. The most important thing, as you have come to understand after talking to the team, is that you have yet again managed to beat your teammate. That detail is sometimes even more valuable for your career than a couple points —although the team would really appreciate a couple of them.  

It was an easy feat for that week’s race anyway. Mick ran straight into the gravel on lap 23, his car ramming with such force into the barriers that it no longer looks like a Formula One car when it is towed back to the garage. He was pushing the limit, that is for sure, trying his best to surpass another driver named Ocon while also controlling his pace for the long race still ahead... until he wasn’t.  

It is scary to witness, the way his car reaches its limits and goes crazy, the steering wheel spinning out of control while Mick can do nothing but pray that the crash won’t be fatal, that he won’t get hurt. It is even scarier to think that you are putting yourself in that position for the third week in a row now,  clueless about what is happening or if this is even the real world, but still allowing a group of unknown people to play dress up with you and strap you down into that car again and again. 

“Hey, where are you going? To the briefing?” Carlos flags you down in your walk through the main street of the paddock, his voice loud in the almost empty space. It is still too early for the photographers and guests to be roaming around, gift shops and restaurants completely deserted save for the workers preparing for the worst day of the weekend. It is nice to see, honestly. 

The scenery has undergone a big change, the huge terraces and open-air spaces of the French paddock long forgotten and replaced with cosier restaurants in preparation for the harsh weather forecast for Hungary’s Grand Prix. Your subconscious is clearly working overtime to fool you into believing this is reality. 

Carlos, Charles and another man are seated in one of the few tables set outside the Ferrari motorhome, relaxing with some coffee and snacks. “Yeah? Are you not?” you respond with furrowed eyebrows, your speed faltering since you see them making no effort to rush their meal and get to a driver’s meeting that started ten minutes ago. 

Instead, Carlos beckons you with a gesture of his hand, a cheeky grin pulling at his lips when he simply tells you to “Come over for a second”.  

A request that you confusedly fulfill with a last look at your watch.  

The driver stretches a hand out to you when you near the group, leaning back into his chair as he looks up at your approaching figure. By sheer instinct, you hold your arm towards the driver as well, placing your hand in his open one when you are close enough to do so. Carlos’ smile grows the littlest bit at that, his fingers closing around yours to get you to walk that much closer to his seat. 

An interaction that does not pass unnoticed by the rest of the table. 

“You don’t have this meeting or...?” you repeat your question, gaze flying to where the building you were running to hides, and then back to the crinkling eyes of the Ferrari driver. 

The pair lets the unknown man at the table fill you in “It’s delayed until nine, they sent an email a while ago”, his Spanish accent shining through his words. He must be Carlos’ guest, the absence of any Ferrari merch making him stand out in the middle of the red decoration and the two team drivers. No pass is hanging from his neck though, he might indeed be part of the team. “Didn’t Nick tell you?” 

Oh, and he knows Nick too? 

“Seriously? No, he didn’t...” you murmur, taking your phone out from your pocket with your free hand and looking through your unread messages, can’t believe you have literally run across the paddock for a meeting that won’t start for another half an hour at least “I was meeting him there.” 

Before you can start sulking, Carlos steals your attention with a squeeze of your hand “Well, then you have nothing to do, right?”, standing up from his chair to lend it to you before you can get an answer out. The Spanish driver uses his hold on your hand to direct you down onto the seat —much like he had done just a week ago, you are glad to at least know his name this time—, looking down at you with an accomplished expression when he succeeds “I’m going to go get you something. You didn’t have breakfast, did you?” 

Carlos only lets go of your hand and disappears inside the motorhome when you confirm his suspicions, you have not eaten anything yet, and honestly were not planning to. The nerves won’t let you keep anything down in days like these, your diet consisting of some water and what little fruit you can munch on to not faint in the middle of the road, but you don’t have the heart to tell him that.  

The situation is another déjà vu from some time ago, when a certain Ferrari driver approached you in your first ever visit to the Paddock with a delicious surprise and a similar question. This time though, he can do nothing but sit back and watch while his teammate fills the small table with treats for you. The other man at the table shaking his head at the Spanish’s antics, a smile hidden under his hand, you would not even be able to eat all of this if you had spent days in a hunger strike. 

Carlos pulls up an extra chair from a nearby table and encourages you to dive in, taking his probably cold coffee from in front of you to finish what was left in it.  

You put your phone down then, finally concluding with a sigh “I’ve got nothing from Nick... and now he isn’t answering”, and picking up one of the most manageable foods of your improvised breakfast in the meantime: a tiny bowl of fruit salad. 

Charles lets out a chuckle at that, swirling the contents of his paper cup “Like you would have seen it anyway, I’m still waiting for an answer about the plane tickets, just saying...” 

“Mate, I sent her a good luck text back in France, and did you get a response to it?” Carlos joins in on his friend's complaints, making a dramatic pause and answering his own question on the same beat “Yeah, me neither” 

Maybe you would have felt called out or exposed that these two were discussing your private conversations —or lack of thereof— out here in the open and in front of a stranger, but that’d be if you had any idea of what the hell they were talking about. What messages? Did you give them your number at some point and don’t remember it? Well, Nick and the media coordinator have been the only ones blowing up your phone since you received the device anyway. 

“I don’ know what you’re talking about” you mumble, shrugging your shoulders as they continue airing instances where you have ignored their texts and you follow on with your task, the fruit tastes really good actually.  

After a while, Carlos tap his foot on your crossed legs to gain back your attention, when he finally notices you have grown quiet during their tirade, and offers you a smile  

“C’mon don’t get mad, we’re just joking” Charles consoles you as well —unnecessarily so, since the only emotion you are experiencing is confusion— “It’s because we’re flying private a bit later, and I don’t want you getting home before I do”   

Home? What is he talking about? And why does he have to arrive first? Seriously, you are missing too much information 

“You should fly with us, I’m sure the rest won’t mind” Carlos chimes in, stealing a piece of the chocolate crêpe in your plate. A plate that you push to his side of the table right after, cutting him a couple more pieces so he can help you finish it up. 

Through a mouthful of the sweet dessert, you question the obvious “The rest?”. Completely disregarding all the other important questions crowding your mind, a skill you have developed after weeks of not understanding anything the people around you talk about. 

As your answer, you have the three men on the table spewing names on the go, confirming the presence of at least six other people on the plane. The unknown Spanish man seems to also be included in the passengers’ list.  

You don’t mind flying with them, honestly. You have somehow grown accustomed to taking a plane every other week, which means this won’t be much of a change. This way you’ll have at least someone to talk to on the journey to whichever country is next on the schedule, Nick always falls asleep a second after taking off.  

The “private” part is the most confusing one, you and Nick have been taking normal flights to every Grand Prix. Guess your subconscious has decided to step up its game. You’ll follow the script anyway; at the end of the day, you are just trying to find the end of this abnormally long dream. 

You agree to their proposal with a shrug of your shoulders, stuffing your face with the last bit of a second crêpe that you cannot believe you’ve finished. It feels nice to tone down that sinking feeling you have in your stomach on Sundays. 

Charles could not be happier with your decision, something he lets you know as soon as you get on the way to the drivers briefing. Carlos and the other man have taken the lead, walking in front of the two of you and chatting about an interview they will be recording later in the day. And they do it in Spanish, which feels so refreshing to hear after weeks of being surrounded by people talking every other language.  

While you are trying to discretely listen in on their conversation, Charles lightly nudges you with his shoulder in an attempt to get you out of your thoughts. He easily succeeds, has you looking up at him over the lid of your cup of hot chocolate —yes, you are still trying to finish Carlos’ impromptu breakfast— in the next beat. 

“I’m really looking forward for the break” his voice is low, the corners of his lips tilted up into a beautiful smile that he can’t seem to be able to get rid of. His green eyes are shinning with pure joy, focused only on you and the way you slowly match his grin. 

“Are you?” you do not know exactly what he means or why is he looking at you like that but feel compelled go along with it. 

The Ferrari driver peels his eyes from you to look at the path in front of him, his cheeks still full with that big smile as he crosses his arms over his chest and gives you another playful push “It’s going to be great, I promise” 

The briefing is exhausting, as always. The drivers have had a lot of issues during the Free Practices and Qualifying, which means it takes you half an hour more to break free from the meeting. The Ferrari teammates remain quiet by your side, they managed to lock themselves into the second and third place of the starting grid, so its preferable to keep a low profile and listen. Lewis is one of the most vocal ones, in his seventh place right behind Alonso, and this other Sebastian Vettel guy too —another surname that rings so many alarms in your head—, but his criticism of the traffic during his fast lap is much more justified. He got knocked down to P18. 

You are happy with your P13, the same position you ended up in on the French GP and two positions in front of Mick, so you have simply been trying not to fall asleep in the middle of it all. 

All the drivers are walking out of the room, chatting about their schedules and the final result of their complaints, when a certain McLaren driver comes up to awaken you from your slumber. Daniel suddenly drops his arm over your shoulders while you are sleepily trailing behind Nick, bringing you close to his body while he balances the two of you from one side to the other, a chuckle slipping past his lips at your startled expression. 

“Gonna let me invite you out for lunch?” Daniel offers, making you match his pace as Nick leads you both down the corridor.  

“Huh? Why?” comes as your instant response, understandably so when you have not exchanged more than a couple of words after he had that fight with Nick on the Austrian Grand Prix. His words about having to talk to you later are still bouncing off your ears.  

Daniel has not approached you for that important conversation ever since, has not mentioned that horrible day when you woke up in the garage with him not once, and now he wants to go have lunch with you? It doesn’t seem right. 

“What do you mean why?” the man frowns, having not expected any kind of push back from your part. Daniel decides to come to a stop before exiting the building, letting go of you so you can better talk face to face “Just because? I mean, it’s been so long since we last went out... Do you not want to? That’s okay too” 

Daniel’s voice makes something shift inside of you, a strange weight setting over your chest at hearing his dejected tone. It is a wave of unfamiliar thoughts and feelings that swarm your mind, inexplicable ones, that are quickly growing into a awful headache. 

It is not something you expected either, the way someone that seems so happy and over the top on his interviews, would deflate just because you are cautious about spending time with him. But you didn't imagine feeling sick to your stomach from watching him like that.

“No, I-” you start speaking, more out of sheer need to wipe that sad frown from his face than anything else, still not sure of what is making you feel so distressed “Yeah, of course I want to, it’s just that I literally ate half the Ferrari buffet, and I really can’t have anything before the race because I get sick and... you know?” you explain, almost stumbling over your words and probably speaking in the thickest accent he has ever heard with how fast you try to go over your excuses 

Daniel expression faintly lifts at your nervous reaction and he shakes his head “Don’t worry about it, we can go any other time! I was-… it’s just that things have been a bit strange since Austria, so I wanted to make sure everything’s alright. You can talk to me whenever you need, you know that, right?” 

And although you nod almost immediately in confirmation, trying to look confident and willing to do so, this is another conversation that will make the rounds on your mind for nights on end. For now, it is the first thing on your head from the second you step inside the car, to the moment you leave the paddock that same afternoon.

Although there are even more waiting to happen.

Nick has decided it is finally time to inform you about the start of the holidays —most probably that break Charles had mentioned—, no race no nothing for a month. No seeing Daniel for that meal you promised him either, or even a bye-bye to him or any of the drivers. And Nick not only has the audacity to dump all that new information on you after accompanying you to your hotel room, but he also leaves you completely alone after reminding you of your next schedule in England, which is actually 15 days away. Fifteen days where he won't be with you.

What does he mean goodbye? What are you supposed to do now? 

Next chapter

___

Author's note: Hi! It's been way too long since I last posted, hasn't it? Seriously, uni is killing me. Hope you all liked the chapter!! I've been rereading all your comments a million times to get some motivation, so thanks for the help hahahha. I'm already missing F1.

Thank you so much for reading!!

Taglist: @purplephantomwolf @raye2000 @yuiiimd @drezzerk33 @leclercdream @homie0sapien @minkyungseokie @carlossainzwho @rewmuslupin @kyuupidwrites @raevyng @lazybot @gills-lounge @hiraethrhapsody @jjkclub @darleneslane @therealcap

#f1 x reader #f1 fic #carlos sainz x reader #charles leclerc x reader #daniel ricciardo x reader #lewis hamilton x reader #formula one x reader #formula one x you #f1 x you #f1 imagine

[daftpatience]

overcomplicated analysis of kim kitsuragi’s notebook because im autistic!

i was reading thru the footnotes of his wiki page because i am a completely normal human being and i had some thoughts that led me to buying some stationery and drawing some headcanons today so i wanna INFODUMP!

the name mnemotechnique caught my attention immediately. one of my favourite brands of notebook has a similar name - maruman mnemosyne - i can only assume that this is a reference to the brand name. (coincidentally this supports my fountain pen headcanon as these books are some of my favourite paper to use fountain pens on!!) btw! mnemosyne is the goddess of memory, and mnemotechnique is the french word for mnemonics; the practice of making things easier to remember via patterns!

this reference is supported by the ring binding on the item icon in game, and the fact that it’s one of the more affordable ~nice~ notebook brands out there.

it looks like a bit more is going on in the game artwork though. it’s somewhat bigger than A6 compared to that pen, even in the overworld model. (lets just blame the fact that its *slightly* bigger on that no one actually need bother with that level of detail. a book much bigger than a6 in a breast pocket is just too heavy. it’d pull on his jacket too much), and there’s that weird metal thing on the top. i’m imagining the art people were trying to get it to match harry’s ledger. we could assume kim’s notebook has a binder clip accessory?

the inside of the cover is yellow, which is very similar to mnemosyne’s traditionally yellow endpapers, which further cements the mnemosyne reference:

the official merchandise is a book that is similar to a moleskine or a leuchtturm journal, the blue cover matches the overworld model. im inclined to think this is simply because of ease of manufacturing these styles of book, it’s even a more default A5 size instead of the smaller A6 it should be.

my little tiny thesis to gather all of these facts in a satisfying manner to me is as such: he has a ring bound notebook, real world equivalent being the mnemosyne, but with a jacket similar to a hobonichi:

this covers the extra details like the two pen clips and the possibility of tucking away some accessories like the binder clip. on top of that it makes a lot of sense, considering a notebook cover is strong, protects a notebook that can easily be filled up and swapped out, and also has little pockets inside which of course are very handy. he’d like that.

sorry for the long post i just am having an autismbrained day and i love stationery so much. my blorbo has my favourite notebook and im making you all know it

#i think knowing all these things is just fun and cool #if u want a kim book u can mix and match whatever details are most important to you hehe #disco elysium #i got a different insert just in case the wires dont fit but i do have a mnemosyne because i already loved them #LISTEN it just makes me giddy to have ANYTHING in common with my blorbo #including notebook preference #kim pen headcanon

[rogerswifesblog]

Got an ask with Its all about the

How dose sam and buck react if they met rich reader while her and steve are out casual like they were getting some snacks or casual walk low key

Awww I love this ask, thank you! So here’s a little Drabble to that^^

Series Masterlist

My Masterlist

Summary: Your little coffee dates gets interrupted.

Warnings: none?

Pairing: Steve Rogers x Sugar!Mommy!Reader

A few weeks into your agreement and Steve felt quite happy. New clothes, a new phone and many nights he spend at your place enjoying some greasy food and your company. At first he had imagined only spending time with you when necessary, when he needed it, but now? He actually enjoyed being with you. Hence the little coffee date before his classes would start and you’d have to go to work.

You took a sip of your coffee, looking through the breakfast menu. It was Steve’s idea to come here, apparently he liked coming here quite often with his friends, especially because the prices were affordable and it was close to his campus.

Just then two men entered the café, but you didn’t give them much more attention. Having Steve in front of you was already enough for you. You may have fallen for the boy more than you should’ve, but it already happened so the least you could do now was to enjoy it.

But you did feel the eyes on you once again, making you look up. Both men looked at you and then back at Steve. It happened often. People judged you and Steve’s relationships-which wasn’t surprising. Steve was a collage student and looked like that, too. Especially when he wore the hoodie with his university logo, just like today. Sometimes you asked yourself if he did it on purpose to torture you, showing you the reminder of how much older you were, but that was of course not the idea behind it. He told you he liked the softness of it.

Besides, Steve had asked you a few times to dress a bit down when you two were out, putting away the fur coat or replacing the louboutin heels with normal heels so people wouldn’t immediately assume he’s a gold digger-but instead dressing down you bought him his own louboutin shoes and a couple dress pants. In the end you both agreed on not changing anything about the way you dressed, even when it meant people would stare. A few weeks later and you both got pretty used to it. Sometimes Steve even noticed the attention, especially when someone seemed jealous when you hold onto his arm, your red lipstick always staining his collars, neck and cheeks, the soft smiles just for him, the teasing touches so nobody notices, oh but they do…everyone can see how much you enjoy having Steve around. Even strangers see your eyes sparkling at him.

“I’m thinking about the French toast and eggs-“ “They made amazing eggs with spinach, try those”, interrupted another voice you haven’t heard before, but Steve apparently did since his cheeks turned a dark shade of red.

Smiling, you look up at the dark haired man with a man bun, right next to him a dark skinned man with a bright smile and a gap between his teeth, making him look even more sympathetic than he already seemed to be. “And you two are?”

Both men looked at Steve for a second, then back to you. “We’re Steve’s roommates-and best friends” “-probably only friends” The blue eyed interrupted his friends again, making you chuckle quietly, while you slowly slid to the side, making room for one of them next to you. Bucky immediately took the place, Sam doing the same next to Steve when he scooched over,

“Sam and Bucky, Steve told me about you two. Yet he didn’t mention your habit of interrupting other people, Bucky”, you smirked slightly, noticing rosy patches appearing on his cheeks, while both Steve and Sam grinned at that, Steve still looking a bit shy.

You smiled at Steve, raising your eyebrows lightly wanting for him to finally find his voice back, maybe even introducing you properly. He finally got the hint when you kicked his shin. “Sam, Bucky meet Y/N, my…girlfriend”, he cleared his throat, the blush that was slowly fading was now back. Up until now he had never introduced you to anyone, especially not as his girlfriend, but it felt nice. And true. He saw you as his girlfriend.

The smile on your lips widened while you looked down at the menu again. “I’ll have the eggs with spinach, then. And what would you like to have, boys?” You smiled, all men looking shocked at you-well, Sam and Bucky, Steve wasn’t fazed. He was used to you paying, that was the agreement. He wasn’t even surprised you wanted to pay for his friends either. Since the agreement had started you’ve always paid for Steve and for his groceries, which often was more than enough for all three men.

“We don’t-we just wanted to say hi-“ Sam started, but you shook your head. “I know, but you’re already here, so you can at least eat something, both of you”, with that you gave Bucky the menu, which he slowly took from your hand.

He looked at Steve for approval, which made the blond man chuckle. “She means it, really. Don’t look at me like that”, he laughed head shaking, while he leaned back.

A few minutes later a waitress took your orders, while you all made some small talk, Bucky and Sam always eying you up and down.

Of course Steve had mentioned you were ridiculously rich and a bit older, but they assumed only a few years, four or five (which probably was very stupid of them, they just never really knew how you got your money. Bucky imagined you had a rich father, the same thought occurred to Sam when he first heard about you, but now? ) They definitely saw a few gray hairs on your head, a few little wrinkles around your eyes.

But the more minutes went by, the more they realized Steve wasn’t only in for the money. They saw his eyes sparkle at you, especially when you laughed at his incredibly awful jokes or when you teased him about something. Your hand stroked over the back of his hand when he put down his hand on the table, making him smile to himself.

Bucky and Sam looked at each other for a second, before back to the lovebirds sitting next to them.

Yep, they’d definitely tease Steve about it. Totally.

Because Stevie finally found love, even when he wasn’t supposed to. But…they actually were pretty happy for him. He deserved something good after all that had happened in the last few years.

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it!

Let me know! Support your writers by reblogging and leaving feedback!

Questions? HC ideas? Drabble ideas? Thoots? (For this au or in general) -> flood my inbox!😋❤️

Series taglist: @slutforchrisjamalevans @joannaromanoff @marvel-wifey-86 @buckysteveloki-me @patzammit @barnesboo1967 @sebsgirl71479 wanna be tagged? Be active (FEEDBACK AND REBLOGGING) and let me know!

❤️

#steve rogers #steve rogers x reader #steve rogers fanfiction #flood my inbox #steve rogers fluff #steve rogers x y/n #steve rogers x female reader #it’s all about the… #sugar mommy reader

[btwn2lungs]

re episode 10: so it is very apparent to the viewer that kazuki and rei have changed since the first day they got miri. however with hindsight it is even more clear, painfully so just how much they have changed. as in episode 09 where kazuki subtly shows his support and awareness for rei as an individual, in episode 10 we see just how observant and aware rei is of kazuki and his distress! for example:

rei acknowledges and understands kazuki's anger towards misaki and he lets kazuki air out his frustrations for a little bit. until he realises people are watching (knowing how much kazuki cares about their image as a family to others) and that miri is coming (knowing that kazuki would never want miri to see him like that)

rei acknowledges the pain on kazukis face when miri runs straight past him and into misaki´s arms

kazuki says something to rei along the lines of: "you don't know how awful it is to have someone else (misaki) in your kitchen!" but certainly rei has become aware of how sacred that space is to kazuki, surely remembering the french toast experiment and whatever else rei had tried and surely failed to cook before [I think this comment was more of kazuki deflecting on the actual seriousness of the situation and how upset he is but rei acknowledges this too].

there is a moment during the discussion between the three adults where kazuki stands up and kind of walks away from the conversation (clearly overwhelmed, quite possibly thinking about his past and feeling guilty - again) but rei doesn't hesitate to step in to ask misaki the hard questions that kazuki cannot in that moment

in the food court rei can see how devastated kazuki is - this is after kazuki looks around and sees all these kids with their mothers and thinks that thats what normal is supposed to look like (UGH) - and rei encourages kazuki to stay present and focus on the plan; to focus on miri

at the top of the ferris wheel, kazuki brings up the cat rei brought home, using it as an allegory for their current situation with miri and he kinda just straight up admits defeat.

rei is shocked by this and seriously looks like he's about to cry and thats where the words get stuck in his throat and he doesn't know what to say and the episode ends with them agreeing that they couldn't change but god I bring that up because in episode 11 its rei who finds the words and convinces kazuki to not give up but that drive and ambition came way before the events of episode 11!

in episode 10 (and before) rei had already decided what he wanted but he just didn't have the words to say it in the end but he sure as hell was making it clear in all these tiny gestures which for him, as we first knew him, are not actually that tiny at all but rather HUGE developments for his character!

#god why did I cry like a baby watching episode 10 just now....this is why it took me so long to watch it again #I knew this would happen #I could make like 10 more posts about this episode and you know what maybe I will! #I love kazuki so much he is so important to me GOD #keeping the buddy daddies friday alive by rewatching but this time im taking notes #the things you only catch on the rewatch… #buddy daddies #kazurei #riz rambles:bd

[freed-justine-my-wife]

Thunder legion hcs but some of them get weirdly specific bc i think abt them too much

(Part 1??)

- Originally Bickslow and Freed lived together as roommates, Evergreen lived in fairy hills and Laxus had his own penthouse. When Fairy Tail disbanded they began living together while they were in Blue Pegasus as it was just easier, and they never stopped (im running off the hc that theyre all living together for most of these)

- Freed is the cook of the raijin tribe, they used to have a cooking rotor but it slowly became just Freed cooking every night

- Evergreen CAN cook basic meals but hates doing it so just, wont. Back when there was a schedule she asked Freed to do it instead and he usually agreed because he enjoys cooking

- Bickslow also can cook, but likes to experiment quite heavily and will not be convinced to make a normal meal. Got banned from cooking after he served shrimp pasta with ice cream

- Laxus can cook you a damn good grilled cheese, but thats it. Only cooks when people are feeling like grilled cheese

- Bickslow is a painter, not-quite Reedus level but still good, they like to paint from the imagination more than from reference which ends in very interesting (and only mildly disturbing) pieces

- Evergreen likes to garden, its something she started when she was young because her mother told her fairies like to care for nature. Their apartment is filled with various plants that she keeps and cares for, and while she could use magic to help them grow she prefers doing it by hand

- Freed enjoys playing a lot of musical instruments, hes best at violin and has been playing since quite young along with piano, but can also play gutair and bass as of more recently. Also has a collection of books in the apartment, originally all stored in his room before he ran out of space

- They have a schedule of getting up at about 7am at the latest most days, its not heavily enforced day to day but they stick to it on missions, if not getting up even earlier depending on the job

- Off-mission though? Nobody is actually getting up at 7am. Bickslow doesnt have a set time to wake but tends to actually be an early riser, he enjoys the mornings so he usually gets up a bit before 7, occasionally to do some painting or stretch ect

- Freed wakes up at 6am sharp and gets straight out of bed, no yawning or stretching or anything just stands up and walks away

- he is also the one attempting to enforce the 7am rule (sorry king) but bickslow usually joins in if only to annoy people

- Evergreen prefers to sleep in a bit more where possible, usually till half 8 or 9 if she can get away with it, then spends way to long in the bathroom doing her hair, makeup, and picking an outfit

- Laxus normally gets up at 10 and is impossible to wake before that, youd have to kick him awake and hes still grumpy afterwards

- Freed is French (I WILL DIE ON THIS HILL) and comes from a military background, specifically a noble house that specialised in military trading and training in France (i have an entire backstory mapped out for this freak if anyones interested drop me an ask)

- Bickslow grew up in the circus, hes always been naturally flexible but its where he honed that ability as well as learning some acrobatics, however it burned down when he was a teenager and the puppets (“babies”) he keeps around are the result of friends who died in that fire

- Evergreen is Scottish and grew up mostly raised by a single mother, her father was around for a few years but was generally a horrible man, a drinker and abuser who eventually left her mother alone. She also has a brother a few years younger than her who she helped to raise and is still close to

- Freed is the tactician of the thunder legion, comes along with being a leader but hes usually the one coming up with the plans

- Speaking of, hes someone who prefers to have a plan before a fight where possible, particularly as his magic is one where its difficult to construct quickly, especially if he wants a high powered jutsu shiki. So while he can think quickly on his feet hed rather have a plan mapped out

- Evergreen is the one who’s best at thinking quickly, if they end up in a situation where a snap decision needs to be made shes confident enough to make it and order her teammates around without second guessing herself

- They also all understand the importance of teamwork and its the main reason they’re so effective (as seen in the battle of fairy tail) their close bond allows them to work extremely well together, even if they tend to argue sometimes

- When Bickslow dislikes someone they have a habit of showing it on his face, usually by pulling a disgusted expression

- Ever does this too in a more subtle way, usually exchanging a glance with one of the thunder legion if shes not liking what somebodies saying. She WILL be gossiping about it later

- If Freeds not interested in a conversation he just silently walks away when youre not looking, people have gone 10 minutes before noticing hes left before

- Laxus just leaves mid-sentence though, doesn’t even think about it just walks away

- None of them can drive anywhere for various reasons, Laxus obviously gets extremely motion sick so is out for the count right off the bat

- Bickslow was banned due to being deemed “a danger to himself and others” after he got too many speeding tickets and crashed the car into a postbox

- Evergreen literally applies makeup while driving, shes blasting the radio while doing lipstick without looking at the road and its terrifying

- Freed is who people THINK would be the most responsible driver, and while he’ll get you to your destination safely, he also has a bad habit of ignoring the speed limit and accidentally running red lights. Unlike Bickslow however hes somehow managed to avoid getting any tickets

#fairy tail #fairy tail headcanons #fairy tail freed #freed justine #fairy tail evergreen #evergreen #fairy tail bickslow #bickslow #fairy tail laxus #laxus dreyar #thunder legion #raijinshuu #raijin tribe #thunder legion hcs #long post #why was this so long hello? #thats what she said #i literally have so many more of these boo i feel so cringe #did i proof-read this? no. its 5am and i havent slept just pretend this ones a banger guys

[kafkaoftherubble]

pitching akudama drive to you, without relying on cutthroat's cuntiness to get me through it

SO the basic premise is that it's a cyberpunk retro future world of Japan, years after a devastating war between cities. criminals in this world are dubbed the Akudama and ranked according to the severity of their crimes, most of our main cast are the highly sought after S-rank. there's also a task force of executioners, who are like... the American police 😍 they can kill criminals

this here is miss 一般人 (yes everyone's got a code name and they are all very on the nose, say hello to Ordinary Person. she is very ordinary)

after a small misunderstanding, she's arrested and accused being a swindler. and without explaining too much of the plot, she essentially gets forced into pretending that she too, is an akudama, as an entire group of them is forced to work together to complete a job. eventually her false persona of being Swindler becomes who she truly is and I could not convey just how satisfying that character turn around is

the strong theme here though, seen especially near the end, is how criminals are human. how they all have different reasons and motivations for committing their crimes, and how they're people beyond just that, yet they're being hunted down and executed for it.

it's about how the government can be corrupt, and if they have the power to kill criminals... well then, it's just a matter of deciding who the criminals ARE and killing them (that foot in the door to be allowed to kill anyone you dislike because Oh Well they're a Criminal)

it's about carving your own path in life with tooth and nail, to not let yourself be held down and killed or have your life stripped away from you. fighting for a better future.

anyways it's only 12 beautifully animated episodes long, every character is a delight and it's just got a fun story in general

also cutthroat will be sad if you don't watch it

Okay, the sci-fi setting is a big plus point because I like sci-fi in general! Also, the part about the American Police deadass made me laugh!

The art style looks like something I've seen but I don't remember what it is. It's like... the style used in Persona! The video game, I mean.

Hmm... "Becoming the mask" as a trope is a bit of a neutral thing for me, to be honest. I think the Past Me had a fill of this with Durarara!! back then, haha. Being a swindler is a bit of a plus point, though, because I love stories about noble-hearted confidence people. Does this Normal Person Girl actually pull off really wild, big-brained insane cons like the French show Lupin or the anime Great Pretender? If she did, it would be a very big plus point! I dig that stuff so much because I love trying to figure tricks out!

As for the part about humanizing criminals—it's a wee bit reminiscent of Psycho-Pass, which I really enjoyed. I'm also currently reading Ajin, which has shades of this in its themes. Since I'm currently being fed, I'm quite neutral about this specific theme for now.

Overall, it is quite an interesting premise! I will hold onto it and wait for its Interest Meter to be filled even more.

Weird that I have never heard of this anime before! I mean, sure, I don't consume fiction a gargantuan lot compared to most people on Tumblr, but I still fancy myself a wee bit more learned than actual casuals! So how is it that I have never heard of this? Is your fandom big?

Also, Cutthroat can cry but I find it a bit suspect if he can cry. I mean, this guy's name is screaming "funky happy serial killer" so much!

#Ricecooker Ginger Agendaist Isopod Activist Rae #I usually have a weak spot for white haired characters though #I don't know if this one will be the norm... or the exception AHAHAHHA

[historia-vitae-magistras]

I know Matthew plays hockey, but does he ever want to just give up whatever his government job is and take playing hockey to the olympics or at least pro level? I mean it's got to be more fun than whatever secretarial, front man type corporate job he normally has to deal with when working with the gov right? Or maybe getting into farming or something. I dont know, he just seems like someone who'd eventually just lose his shit if he had to be stuck in an office for too long.

I honestly think most of his time in any government post is like the twice-a-decade he gives enough fucks to be involved. Like, what is he going to do in an office? Stamp government documents? Approve things? He's fucken useless in that environment. I think a couple of times he's said fuck it, started over and played pro hockey or Olympic hokey. He's not the only one and probably smashed some faces in. Alfred or Arthur had to help wipe and reset his identity because inventing a whole new set of documents is much more complicated nowadays than 100 years ago, but he's played and then faded into the background. He probably gets away with that more than a lot of nations can. Nice combo privilege of big bro's military-industrial complex and his own insignificance.

I've had him in the parks service as a bootlegger, a sailor, a ships carpenter, a diplomat, a firefighter, a medic, a search and rescue medic, especially a hockey coach, and a hockey player. I'm not about to write shit about people working in an office if I'm candid. I also think he drew a veterans pension for 110 years before the government. "hey wait, the last Canadian World War One vet died 10 years ago."

And as far as money goes. I think he and Alfred got their savings wiped in the 1930s, and Matt kept himself afloat via good ol' imperial nepotism via the old fart while Alfred was on his own since WW2; Matt's financial well-being has been so tied into Alfred's. I had an economics manager who joked that when the US economy stumbles, Canada breaks its neck so there's some fuckery there, but let's be honest; Matt just occasionally gives Alfred the 'you have hurt my feelings' eyes and gets what he wants and like 500 apologies.

When I look at Alfred, I see someone who likes to work when it's something he's interested in. But Matt... always struck me as a bit French. Not that we don't work hard, but Matt hit the "they pretend to pay me, so I pretend to work' attitude sometime in the '70s. And he's half insane? Like man's wandering around the woods half feral for months on end in at least one of my timelines. He comes back needing anti-parasite meds, three kinds of antibiotics and Alfred going over his checkbook like 'what the fuck did you do with your dividend this time?" Like Afred's his own kind of batshit, but he's got a good head for numbers on his shoulders.

But yeah, the best way to keep him human is to let him do shit that actually appeals and keeps the depresso level below catastrophic so hockey, forestry, etc. Working in an office in Ottawa happens but it's rare, and when it goes on too long in tandem with being as lonely as he can be with only one major border, he ends up missing half his humanity and eating raw raccoon liver in the woods. Letting him slapshot Ivan in the face at the Olympics every now and again is good for the budget lmao.

#the ask box || probis pateo #alfred and matt || lonely boys with the longest borders

[stressedbisexualtm]

WAIT HOLD ON I HAD A BIG BRAIN MOMENT

For anyone that didn't catch Wilbur's stream today: when he checked the mailbox in front of tallulah towers looking for clues on where Llulah is, he noticed he had a letter from the federation. It basically said that Lovejoy is funding the federation, and they're proud of Wilbur. It also had a picture attached of a painted drawing of the Brazilian cargo ship on fire, in the same style Lovejoy's album covers have all been lately. I noticed this during the stream, but didn't have much time to think about it. However, a user on twitter pointed out that there's gotta be some deeper meaning there, which lead me to look back on Lovejoy's recent releases.

First up: Call Me What You Like - A single released by Lovejoy very early in the year (february or march I think, but idk for sure) whose album cover depicts a plane crashing toward the ground, on fire. I, like any good sleuth, immediately connected it to the French plane. The French crashed into the island via plane, and I do belive it was on fire before they hit the ground. The thing that made me jump the most was that this was, as far as I remember, released before the qsmp had even STARTED, much less when the French joined the server. Another small detail I noticed that might not be important is that Quackity appears in the music video as well as cc's not affiliated with the qsmp and people I could not identify any of the times I watched it (probably just background actors, but my brain's working overtime anyway).

Next up: Wake Up & It's Over - Lovejoy's latest EP, which includes the single Call Me What You Like. It's album cover depicts a train on fire, heading sideways off of its tracks. This reminded me of the first trains on the island - the ones that brought the initial English and Spanish speakers to the island. There was never a problem with them crashing or being set on fire as far as I remember, but it could be poetic. Another thought I had was about the create mod. For the past month or so, about since the eggs left I think, people have been experimenting with the create mod more - mostly using trains, actually. This could be a future event occurring with all the trains people have been building, something going wrong or some crazy angsty lore, idk. Again, it could be more of a symbol or an omen, but with cmwyl and the picture the federation gave q!bur I don't think it is. Another very obvious possibility is that it represents new members joining, like the other two do.

Third, and final: Normal People Things - Lovejoy's latest single, released just a week or two ago. The cover image for this song depicts a car crashing into the side of a house, the car very clearly on fire. I don't know if it's worth mentioning, but the other three covers all seem to take place during the day, but Normal People Things looks like it's happening during a sunrise/sunset (likely the latter). This cover is one I'm not really sure what to do with. It obviously follows the pattern of the others, so it's gotta fit in somewhere, I just don't know where. Nothing like that has ever happened to the players so we can be sure it's a future event. I'm not sure if it represents new players joining or just something the residents will have to deal with. (This last bit that I'm about to talk about is a huge stretch, but I've seen crazier connections.) As I was looking at all of the album covers, I thought a little bit more about the lyrics in npt. It reminds me of the happy pills arc, where Forever was taking pills and going a little insane. Here are a few of the lyrics:

Panic attack,/Backing track

Background hum/Of the cerebellum

What a blessing/To meet someone like you

With eyes as dead as mine, it's fine/It's normal people things to lie here in silence

(skip)

Spending days in/Self-medicating

Lost too much weight/Unpleasant aftertaste

We look the same/Play different games

This is probably the biggest leap I have ever made when theorizing, and it's most likely wrong, so don't judge me too harshly for it lol. I've probably got something with the covers, though, so I'm gonna be keeping my eyes out for that, and JESUS this is so COOL

#qsmp #qsmp federation #qsmp wilbur #qsmp lovejoy #(that's a tag now) #generic talking tag #wilbur soot #q!wilbur

[caterkinnie]

hello! may I request 3, 8, 20 with Floyd and Rook? thank you if you took up my request! have a lovely day or whatever time you have rn ❤️❤️❤️ congrats on 200 followers 🎉🎉

3, 8 and 20 Floyd Leech and Rook Hunt!

❥warnings: very messy. some parts are longer than others.

congrats, lucky anon! i got extremely inspired writing this, so have some incredibly messy headcanons. theyre all over the place and at some point its just me info-dumping about said characters, my dearest apologies.

also trying to be more aEstHetIc for my own viewing pleasure and i think it looks good?

3. How does he behave around his crush?

Floyd is quick to fixate on something that catches his attention, and you aren't the exception.

At first you might believe he just loves messing with you, and he thinks the same actually! He's not aware of his crush on you for quite a long time actually.

Whenever he's bored he might just go to look for you to tease you and see what kind of funny reactions you'll give him! — And at the slightest hint of you hating him his mood will drop for reasons he doesn't understand.

There are some things that give him away.

He might be in the worst mood ever, but just seeing you around makes him feel instantly better. Jade and Azul constantly ask for your help to 'fix him' when he's feeling down — They're the first ones to notice his obvious crush for this same reason.

Even if he IS in a bad mood — he always finds the energy and motivation to help you if you need him.

The way he's overly protective of you. Nobody is allowed to mess with you except him!

And sometimes your real name will slip out of his mouth. No he doesn't find it weird to call you by your name. Why are you so surprised?

He's also like a puppy following you around sometimes, it starts as just wanting to tease you a bit — but then as the weeks go on you start to see him more and more often, to the point where the majority of time you aren't in class Floyd is probably either with you or looking for you.

He slowly becomes such an important part of your life that it becomes weird when he's not with you for a few hours.

And yeah… Still, he accepts his feelings as just something normal and doesn't think much of it — he doesn't question his relationship with you at all.

At this point, there are two things that might happen to make him confess. Jade and Azul have to make an intervention (Azul takes it completely seriously while Jade just wants to see how things will go) because Floyd keeps sneaking out from work to see you. The point is to convince him to confess in hopes of fixing the problem.

Or… He might kiss you out of impulse too.

He was alone with you, you were probably talking about your day and… his mind was elsewhere — it was clear he wasn't paying attention to what you were saying, he was too distracted with your lips. His brain just told him "I want to kiss shrimpy" and he did not question it.

∘₊· · ────── ·ஓ๑♡๑ஓ· ────── · ·₊∘

Rook is… complicated.

Like Floyd, tends to fixate on whatever catches his eye — but he's more subtle about it.

Rook will notice instantly the way his heart beats a bit faster when hearing your voice, or the way his stomach starts to feel butterflies when you smile at him.

Yes, he does often… obsess over specific people, but this time is different — he doesn't consider you a prey (at least not JUST a prey) and while he does still 'hunt' for you his intentions are different..

Whenever you interact with him, you might think Rook just started to think of you just like he thinks of someone like Leona or Malleus — if you don't know him you won't be able to tell the difference. And that's fine! Only a few can tell.

Rook loves to read you poems in french that convey all his feelings for you, he knows you can't understand him… but that's the point! He loves doing things that border the line of friendship and love, like kissing you in the cheek a bitt close to the lips, or saying some things that sound a bit too cheesy to be just platonic love. And since it's Rook, it's hard to tell!

He's always giving you mixed signals and finds it amusing when you're trying to figure out what he means.

Everyone who knows him closely (Vil) thinks his crush for you is incredibly obvious. Unfortunately for Vil, he can understand french — which means he can understand the poems Rook writes for you. This is bad for him because they always make him cringe due to how cheesy they are and always ALWAYS lets out a sigh afterwards because you are completely clueless and it's so frustrating he just wants you two to get together already.

Rook secretly wishes you try to translate his poems. He wants to see how you'd react to finding out what he meant! it would be funny if you did understand french and just acted like you didn't to see how long he'll keep giving you poems

His confession is probably extremely cheesy, with him gifting you flowers and translating all his poems, asking you out when he's finished.

8. Is he possessive, jealous..?

Floyd here!

∘₊· · ────── ·ஓ๑♡๑ஓ· ────── · ·₊∘

Rook isn't a jealous person, but he can be quite possessive.

I mentioned before that some of the boys were possessive with your attention — Rook is like that as well!

But unless it is too bad and you're almost blatantly ignoring him — he'll just… try to get your attention by either flirting with you or scaring the person you were talking to away. We all know how unsettling Rook can be.

And when he wants your attention he NEEDS IT and is willing to do anything to get it.

He's also very protective.

Whenever you're talking to someone he always ends up putting his hand on your waist or holding your hand. It's an instinct, he won't notice if you don't point it out.

Overall slightly possessive and isn't aware of it.

20. How do you make him fall for you?

Floyd would fall for someone who is both interesting and patient with him.

It always starts as him trying his best to mess with you, and if you give him interesting reactions then he's probably not going to stop!

But in all seriousness, whether you always have a comeback for his words or you basically can't handle his teasing at all for any reason — if you genuinely do get mad at him then it will stay as just that: teasing.

Show him that you care, the first time he might feel butterflies is when you try to uplift his mood — a feeling that at first he might not recognize, but whatever it is, he starts craving it desperately.

It's the fact that you care, the way you treat him and how you take him seriously. The way you don't just say "it's just a mood swing" and leave him alone, it's just… the way you actually have enough patience with him to try to help him.

Floyd has been told so many times that his brother is better than him in some way or another, and even if he does not hold this against Jade — it still hits hard nevertheless. While he might not say it out loud, he loves the feeling of someone liking him more than his brother for once.

Patience again, because he's slowly realizing his feelings — he doesn't know what is the nice feeling in his chest when he makes you smile, but he likes it a lot. Floyd needs time to understand what's going on and yeah, it takes a long time until he actually realizes.

∘₊· · ────── ·ஓ๑♡๑ஓ· ────── · ·₊∘

I actually wrote something similar for Rook before but I love him so…

This is insanely hard actually — he's the hunter of love and all but… it's incredibly weird for him to actually fall for someone.

He doesn't have any specific type, which makes things harder. You just have to stand out… but what's the criteria?

Alright, you might be the most interesting person on earth but still, he might just see you as another prey and nothing more. But there are a few things, and yes, simple as they might sound — they become harder due to the kind of person Rook is.

It always starts with him getting slightly interested in you. As I said, you have to stand out (even if it's just a bit) it's the easiest way! You don't have to do much, the whole 'be yourself' thing is literal.

But he might be even more interested if you don't seem to dislike him in your first encounter. He might want to see how far he can go to see the way you react!

It's a slow process, but as time goes he genuinely starts to appreciate you.

But this is how you can become friends with him! There's some other things you have to do.

As I said, he's very complex, and he prides himself on that fact. But that doesn't mean he's completely unpredictable.

Like I mentioned in my old post, something that gets his heart pumping is whenever you're able to guess something about him. Whether it's something small as just being able to tell whenever he's saying something just to mess with you or telling whenever something makes him upset or mad — he loves it. He tends to hide even the smallest stuff so he loves whenever you're able to see right through him.

Well… if it was someone else, Rook wouldn't be as pleased.

As I said, he prides himself in being someone people struggle to understand — after all, being vulnerable means you could get hunted, but you're already past that stage. He trusts you, so even if it's a weird feeling for him… he starts to enjoy the idea of being known.

The moment he starts to genuinely fall for you is when he feels able to be vulnerable, to let you know tiny bits about him — slowly letting you into his heart.

Reblogs are appreciated!

#twisted wonderland x reader #twst x reader #twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland imagines #twst #disney twst #twst headcanons #❥questions list! #floyd leech #floyd leech x reader #rook hunt #rook hunt x reader

[windypuddle]

enstars headcanons

ok im going in order but i dont have headcanons for a few characters for sure. so. whatever on we go . just saying in advance these are mostly gender and Autism

fine:

eichi tenshouin: look i cant say anythinf about this guy hes already canonically terminally ill and gay. like what do you want me to do

wataru hibiki: genderfluid. whatever gender fits the performance. shes the moment hes the star theyre the epitome of an actor

tori: boy you are so gnc. princess but not a girl you know

yuzuru: has definitely had impulse thoughts about dying his hair and having a scene phase at 3 am

trickstar

hokuto: bigender. sooooo queer . also autistic

mao: um ritsu braided his hair sometimes when they were younger

ryuseitai:

chiaki: trans guy i have many feelings about this but he leans into the hero thing because its gender affirming. also autism

kanata: no gender only blublublub. likes wearing long skirts. filipino. has like 1 million fish earrings. also autism

tetora: TRANSMASC ‼️💥💪

midori: transfem... also autistic.. she is so important

shinobu: Autism Autism Autism. bonus the detachment from gender that sometimes comes with the autism but he hasnt really thought about it. hes just some guy

alkaloid:

hiiro: transmasc autistic i will die on this hill

aira: my lovely mutuals have convinced me with blasian aira its canon to me now. white french? no. cowards happyele are cowards i tell you. theres such a vast portion of the francophone world that is not white . also transmasc

mayoi: scaredgirl weirdboy core. whatever gender is easier at the moment. she likes being pretty

tatsumi: ok yknow what. fuck it. aroace tatsumi

eden:

nagisa: so much autism. nonbinary guy. religious trauma

ibara: lesbian. not going to elaborate bc thats not my problem ibara is just a lesbian

hiyori: hes just gay idk what to tell you. cisboy gay who is so annoying. when people complain about "gay isn't a personality trait" theyre complaining about him. also chubby

jun: also gay but fans love him for being normal about it. one of his main motivations for working out is being able to princess carry hiyori. hes so polite usually its insane but with eden he doesnt care because he loves them so hes a bit of a bitch

valkyrie:

shu: god is a woman and her name is shu itsuki. transfem and autistic i will Also die on this hill.

mika: transmasc and autistic

2wink:

hinata: men liker but dont ask me about her gender idk

yuuta: i see those slipups in twin peaks girl u are transfem nonbinary i think

crazy:b:

rinne: bigender [wild cheering] also demi aka down bad for niki specifically

niki: tboy swag but hes not really bothered too much about medically transitioning. arospec i think

himeru: Sooooo nonbinary. so so so nonbinary. i like to hc afab nonbinary himeru and mainly got top surgery to more easily pass as kaname but like gahdamn of course you have blue hair and pronouns (they/it/no pronouns)

kohaku: tboy swag . the gender in crazy:b is off the charts

Undead:

rei: 1 million genderqueer and SO gay. has all the problems of an older sister but also the hotness that comes with issues u know.

kaoru: ok. bear with me. aussie. also transfem... like what do you mean you hate men and only hang out with girls. definitely arospec

koga: AUTISM!! weirdgirl to autism boy wonder transmasc swag pipeline

adonis: also autism. he can be gnc. as a treat

akatsuki:

keito: come on man we all know youre gay and insufferable about it

kuro: he should get to have piercings i think

souma: autism boy wonder. while you were busy learning social cues he was studying the blade. also applies to gender norms

ra*bits:

nazuna: boy there is something gender going on with you. weirdboy or maybe a gender cis people have never heard of.

tomoya: That Is The Normalest Girl I've Ever Seen

mitsuru: autism

hajime: girl what is your gender. hes like the narrator of the arch nemesis cynthia post. so poor they cant afford a gender

knights:

tsukasa: autistic and please please please let him be chubby. staring at happyele with my biggest saddest eyes Please let tsukasa be chubby. while you're at it can he wear a skirt. please

leo: ok i give a lot of characters autism because i have autism and i get it but i think leo has adhd

izumi: agender. any pronouns. idk what to tell you he said in next door that he doesnt care about gender only beauty

arashi: only normal one in knights. i love aranee she should get 1 million hours to stress bake if she wants to

ritsu: ah i understand why vampires are gay. occasionally a girl if its funny

switch:

natsume: Diversity win!! the angry witch is transmasc!!! neurodivergent but i think its funnier if i dont specify.

tsumugi: new gender unlocked its pathetic wifeguy. hes every spirit in the fields of punishment and he does it willingly for natsume

sora: wahoo autism ^_^ yippee!!

madara: is cowboy a gender?

feel free to reblog and throw in ur own headcanons i love hearing other fans hcs it is so awesome!!

#puddle talks #oh god #tagging time... #enstars #ensemble stars #enstars headcanons #eichi tenshouin #wataru hibiki #tori himemiya #yuzuru fushimi #chiaki morisawa #hokuto hidaka #mao isara #sorry i have no thoughts on th e rest of trickstar. oops. no hcs anyway #kanata shinkai #tetora nagumo #midori takamine #shinobu sengoku #hiiro amagi #aira shiratori #mayoi ayase #tatsumi kazehaya #nagisa ran #ibara saegusa #hiyori tomoe #jun sazanami #hinata aoi #yuuta aoi #shu itsuki #mika kagehira

[rue-bennett]

did u see this whole millie bobby brown disclosure? Her saying that she doesn’t watch movies because she thinks it’s too long and she can’t just sit and watch. and this is sadly typical behavior from nepo babies and those kids that were essentially made to be actors by their parents. they don’t feel real love for the craft but get so many opportunities than other actors that study cinema and are very knowledgeable barely get.

but i think only actors that love cinema are able to transcend and work for a long time. a lot of people were calling Austin Butler pretentious but I find his knowledge of cinema admirable. chalamet also got called pretentious once for referencing a lot of movies but I find that normal because studying cinema as an actor should be your job? it’s part of the preparation? A look at the career both of them have… it’s easy to know when an actors loves the craft by how they speak, Florence’s hot wings interview was very insightful and you can tell she pays attention to every element of filmmaking.

For instance, I remember watching an interview w Tom Holland and I find him a charming guy but I really dislike how he once joked and made fun of a very valid question about studying process for a role - it doesn’t seem that he takes the craft that seriously and I find the instances of where he didn’t know who certain directors were and when he said Scorsese couldn’t direct a Marvel film so crazy considering how he has been the pioneer of so many “blockbuster” in its time, and his lack of cinema knowledge shows in the quality of his choices for roles.

I feel a lot of actors don’t realize that by saying things like they they get a lot of doors slammed in their face.

I'm late replying again sorry but all of this, yes. I tried not thinking about it too much but it definitely irks me. And I think there are a loooot of people of tbh all ages that feel this way. But it does particularly suck for someone making movies to feel this way? (I did see some conversation on twitter between people who actually work on film sets and they said this is common, particularly among like crew members like gaffers, lighting, etc etc.)

YES. This is why when "pretentious" discourse goes around because like Jacob Elordi talks about Marlon Brando (not his method acting, but just his acting) or old movies, people make fun of him and say he's just a try-hard hipster. But maybe... he loves acting and wants to improve his craft? Like, I agree. It's something that should come from a place of love and wanting to get better. We can't all be Hugh Grant and annoyed at the world all the time lmao. And like you said, same with Austin, Timothee, hell, remember the Jeremy Strong "dramaturgical" discourse that people freaked out about for a week because he used... a common theater word? Lmfao.

It's like, when letterboxd does their asking an actor or director their four favorites, there's always people in the comments saying they don't believe that an old French movie or hell even a 70s movie (that isn't The Godfather or Star Wars, bc apparently Jaws is pretentious?? LMAO), could be someone's fav and they're lying to look good. But if someone lists a bunch of animated Disney children's movies, La La Land, and Scott Pilgrim then they must be telling the truth. Maybe they both are? But god it's so frustrating to think that having taste beyond the basics is pretentious. Like, people call CHRISTOPHER NOLAN MOVIES PRETENTIOUS. Just because something is mildly to extremely clever or smart doesn't mean it's pretentious :)

Rant over lmao.

I need to watch Florence on Hot Ones still but I loved seeing bits of her on the press tour for Oppenheimer and I saw a clip of her and Zendaya talking about the craft of cinematography (linked) and how like Flo told her story about the camera breaking on Oppenheimer, and Z talked about like how she loves sitting in the tent w the Dune cinematographer and learning how everything works. Like, they love filmmaking!!! And I love that! This is how actors become better, and can produce, and even direct successfully. (Z I think definitely will. She'd had plans to direct at least one Euphoria ep but of course shitshow that it is, it hasn't happened yet.)

But yeah agreed about Tom Holland it's all soooo. Idk. You can very much tell when someone really loved movies and the process of how they are made, or not. And that's the truth whether someone's favorite movie is Godzilla v. Kong or Breathless. But yes!!! I truly don't understand why they say things like that, like... unless you want a door closed, don't close it for no reason! Lmao. Ayo Edebiri has talked about this recently.

I really don't get that w Scorsese of all people too like... all his movies are fucking popcorn movies. It's all cinema but who the hell is thinking Goodfellas is boring? Or The Aviator? Hell, I just watched Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. It has a batshit opening and is suuuch a fast-paced movie for what it is like, about a woman coming to terms w loss and making it on her own w her annoying kid (affectionate) and domestic violence I just ?? I don't get it myself! And pretending Scorsese actually has a war against Marvel is stupid as fuck. I wish he did! Someone should.

#asks #anonymous #celeb talk #i got way off topic but i agree w all ou said and your examples too are great

[darkx-the-dragon-kn1ght]

Chapter 11- Part 7

Oooh, I get it! We’re making a Swirlix! Again, doesn’t seem too complicated- not like it’s one of those sliding tile puzzles or anything.

See, nothing to it! Already getting the face down! And now we…hm…what’s the deal with the top of its head again…?

Not me desperately trying to remember everything about how Swirlix looks, and I refuse to look up a picture-

Well, on the bright side, you can manipulate the yet-to-be-placed tiles off the side there, so you can like…plan out which tiles connect to which. As you can see, I’ve figured out the formation of Swirlix’s tail, but…not sure where it’s actually supposed to go in the wider puzzle. It needs two, maybe three tiles of height, and we don’t necessarily have that? At least not in a spot that would make sense for Swirlix’s body…

Oh, wait wait, but I think I see the actual next part of Swirlix’s head! I think I see it now, hold up-

Yeah, yeah yeah yeah, I’m seeing it now! It’s all coming together!

Yeeeeeah, there we go, now it’s making sense!

Oh! And now I see what’s going on with the tail- I had the pieces correct, but they were rotated in the wrong direction! The tail’s not supposed to be pointing down like that, it’s pointing to the side!

There we go, how do you like that, candy people!?

And with that, we earn ourselves a Swirlix of our own!

“Sucre”, you know- the French word for “sugar”! I wasn’t expecting this chapter to have so much French in it, but “Azucar” and “Sato” (the Spanish and Japanese words for sugar, respectively) went a bit too hard for this goofy piece of cotton candy, so Sucre seemed like the most normal alternative.

See, I’m not the only one calling it cotton candy!

Anyways, there’s one last event to take care of before we move on to other things, and it’s over here!

That Lillipup from before! All we do know is go up and interact with it, and…

Plot twist, we’re not able to catch it just yet! But we will soon, there’s a reason I saved the Lillipup thing here for last.

Now, you might have noticed- throughout all of this walking, all of these shenanigans…

The Egg…still hasn’t hatched yet. Well, no issue, we’ve still got other stuff to do here before moving on to Onyx Ward, we can make up those Egg cycles quickly enough. 

And the first order of business is to explore the rest of this part of Obsidia Ward, now that the park is open again!

Behold: a brand new path, with brand new NPCs to bother for exposition! Like this girl!

Midterms? Is she, like, from the Onyx Trainers’ School as well? The way to Onyx Ward is in this direction, so…

And so is this street sign! And these big buildings that we’re not gonna go inside of just yet!

Huh- that’s…certainly a choice. Other regions have the Department Store open fully just by default, no membership required, but okay Reborn City, you do you.

Ah, right, I remember that being foreshadowed earlier on in the game. And that’s still something I’m all for, as someone with only a handful of friends, none of whom play this game I think, and thus no one to naturally trade with! 

Now let’s- OH GOSH BATTLE JUMPSCARE.

NOT SO MUCH? ANYMORE??

Okay, well, I guess we’re doing this now, here we go-

Previous

Next

#pokemon reborn #pokemon reborn spoilers #pokemon fan game #pokemon reborn screenshot let's play

[owen-not-carvour]

handwriting headcanons LETS GO!!!

ocean has cheerleader handwriting despite not ever being a cheerleader Somehow. it’s like the popular girl curse ig (and ofc she’s not popular in the traditional sense,, just well known, not really well Liked) but like. there’s something off abt the way she writes.. it’s more like the Uncanny Valley of cheerleader writing. so she has Good handwriting, yes,, but it’s also just. really Weird to look at.

i just KNOW noel has the most extravagant fucking signature you’ve ever seen. dude does big swirly cursive letters and his writing Literally looks like a font. his normal handwriting is like. lowkey borderline calligraphy. when he was younger (and sometimes he’ll still do it when he’s bored) he’d just write his name over and over again in slightly different ways trying to figure out what looked the best. (however when he’s writing fast he gets rlly illegible rlly fast. he can still read it though so.. its fine) ((he also will doodle random french words he thinks sound nice just to look at them in his writing. just a thing he does :) ))

mischa’s writing is first off,, really big. like. all caps. goes Over the line on lined paper sometimes. big. but also!! his writing is rlly interesting bc he writes in a mix of ukrainian and english. so like every other sentence is english but the rest is Ukrainian (sometimes he’ll throw in some russian if he feels like it too) but yeah. biggest thing is his writing is rlly big and kinda messy,, but in a cool sort of way. like his writing is super fuckin cool yknow :)

ricky!!! i think ricky might actually like typing stuff more than physically writing it. but mostly just bc he can just choose some super sick fonts instead of trying to write like that. because of this habit he does Actually have that cool futuristic looking Square Font (you know the one??) bc it’s just his favorite to look at. but he types bc he likes the options. (also bc it’s easier to type for communication than to write bc paper,,, and also if the people he’s around don’t know sign or he Can’t sign for whatever reason) but oftentimes when ricky writes (on docs) it ends up looking like those tumblr posts where they quote something and use like All the fonts to emphasize it. i love those :) dude loves his font choices!!

for jane/penny i’m not really sure.. i don’t have a lot of characterization to really go off of for her,, but i think she’d write similar to noel,, just a lot less Fancy. it’s like noel font but Simplified yknow. she just seems like she’s have very pretty, classic and simple writing. i think some cursive checks off those boxes :) also it’s a little bit basic yknow. no real character put into it… bc she’s Jane Doe and has no idea who she actually is (ofc)

constance has SUPER SMALL WRITING!!! but she also writes so!!! much!!!! for stuff. small writing means more words and she just kinda rambles sometimes yknow :) style wise her writing is r actually pretty similar to mischa’s.. given that it’s kinda messy (just a Lot smaller) but it can still be classified as Good Handwriting.

#inspired by people being Wrong on that tiktok trend lol #i just have Thoughts yknow #ocean oconnell rosenberg #noel gruber #mischa bachinski #ricky potts #jane doe rtc #penny lamb #constance blackwood #ride the cyclone

[joealwyndaily]

With lead roles in the Sally Rooney adaptation Conversations With Friends and Claire Denis’s new film, there may be nothing the notoriously low-key actor (and Grammy-winning songwriter) can do about becoming deeply, irrevocably famous

When Joe Alwyn was starting out as an actor, he went to great lengths to psych himself up for scenes that required deep emotional excavation. 2016’s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk – Alwyn’s plucked-from-drama-school debut, in which he played the titular American soldier with undiagnosed PTSD – featured a scene that required him to conjure a full emotional breakdown, blubbering in the arms of Kristen Stewart, who was playing his sister. In the lead-up to the scene, he plodded around a car park set in Atlanta, Georgia, at 5am, like a stroppy teenager, getting himself in the headspace to force hot, salty tears out of his eye sockets. It wasn’t just him. “Kristen was storming around the car, hitting the car and working herself into whatever place she needed to get to,” Alwyn says. “I remember not wanting to go back and rest [while they were waiting to get started]. Hopefully I’ve chilled out on that a bit now.” At the time, they were two young actors carrying the weight of a £30 million movie on their shoulders, believing that if they didn’t sell this key moment, the whole project could be undermined. In the end, though the scene was well executed, the film didn’t quite wash its face at the box office. There’s only so much you can do.

Now, six years into a career that started in a whirlwind, Alwyn is realising that it’s better to just relax and let things happen. “Sometimes the more I sit apart and turn it into this thing – that you have to generate an emotion – the harder it is once you get there,” Alwyn says. He’s sitting in a London hotel’s banal restaurant picking at a French omelette. His hair, no longer carrying the weighty, pandemic locks he’s been sporting for the past two years, looks like it’s been tousled minutes ago. In Conversations With Friends – the new Sally Rooney TV adaptation that threatens to turn Alwyn into an object of great thirst like Normal People’s Paul Mescal before him – filming the emotional crescendo was a comparative breeze. As Nick, a married actor in his 30s who’s been having an affair with 21-year-old wallflower Frances (Alison Oliver), Alwyn wears his sadness in his facial expressions. But in a scene that arrives late in the 12-part series, sitting in a vintage BMW, on the phone to someone he loved and lost, Alwyn tries to prevent his voice from shaking and halt the quiver in his lip, the tears streaking down his face betray him. “I wasn’t being weird that day,” he says. “I think [the waterworks] probably did [come easily].” He chalks it up to the quality of the writing, but accepts that it might have something to do with his own personal growth, too. “There’s something weirdly cathartic about it. Even though it’s not you.”

Alwyn doesn’t remember the last time he cried in real life. But the most pivotal moments in his career to date have revolved around heaving sobs. While he has developed a reputation among the press as one of the most guarded rising stars, predominantly for his unwillingness to spill details on his relationship with Taylor Swift, he is becoming known in the industry for his sensitivity and vulnerability. “He’s an exceptional actor,” Billy Lynn director Ang Lee told me in an email. “He had a talent which is rare in my experience, and I can spot it a mile away.” Alwyn was in his second year of drama school when he was picked for the role, which represented a gamble for Lee and the studios that backed the film. A middle-class, first-time actor from Tufnell Park being flown into Georgia to play a Texan? It was a rogue move – there were any number of fresh-faced young actors with bums-on-seats star power that could have gone in his stead. But Lee wanted to make it work. “Because he was fresh, he had a certain innocence and honesty that I could explore. That was important to the movie, because it was a story about innocence and disillusionment from war.” You can see it in the film, too – a face that could be anywhere between 12 and 21 years old, those big, wet eyes that can express joy, hope and pain from one second to the next.

Conversations With Friends represents Alwyn’s career coming of age. In the time since Lee’s film catapulted him onto the upper echelon of Hollywood’s good-looking, boyish Brits wish list, he’s been hopping between supporting roles in films by auteurs such as Yorgos Lanthimos, Joanna Hogg and Claire Denis, and acting opposite (and learning from) the likes of Olivia Colman, Emma Stone and Saoirse Ronan. At 31, he’s just about aged out of teen roles and into a far more interesting space. In Conversations, his eyes are weighed down by bags that tell us much more about Nick’s backstory of depression and exhaustion than he is initially willing to. Like Lee before him, the show’s director Lenny Abrahamson (who also helped Rooney adapt the wildly successful Normal People) saw what Alwyn can do. “Subtlety, vulnerability, charisma,” Abrahamson says. “Watching Nick, the audience needs to feel how deeply attractive and compelling he is to Frances, while at the same time accepting that, from [Frances’ best friend] Bobbi’s perspective, he might plausibly come across as muted, even flat. Joe managed to find a kind of glow to the character when really closely observed – like a force that only operates over small distances.”

Abrahamson recalls a moment where Alwyn elevated Rooney’s work. “Frances tells Nick she doesn’t want to wreck his marriage and Nick’s line is that his marriage has survived several affairs already... but that he’s never been a party to them. Joe chose to play this with a self-deprecating humour which made what could have been a bitter or diminishing moment into a vulnerable and somehow impressive one.”

If the wider public hasn’t yet fully understood why so many important people want a piece of him, they soon will.

To hear Joe Alwyn tell it, the last six years have been... pretty normal, actually. Sure, he made his big-screen debut as a leading man while most of his drama school peers were fighting over panto gigs, and yeah, he did start dating one of the most famous women on the planet, but other than that, nothing to write home about. “[Newfound fame] was not really something I thought about a huge amount. There was no awareness of some kind of shift, I still felt exactly the same,” he says.

Billy Lynn didn’t totally complete his takeover of the zeitgeist, but he’s been landing supporting roles in high-profile films ever since. Alwyn’s life remains largely the same. He still has the same close-knit group of friends from school, he still lives in North London. When he’s not away working, his day-to-day involves going to the pub or the cinema, reading scripts (he fell in love with a Paul Schrader film he was attached to, but it ultimately fell apart due to the pandemic), playing football – that kind of thing.

Not even the paparazzi or the tabloids, who would dedicate a double-page spread to him if he sneezed and it sounded vaguely like “Taylor”, have been able to dampen his spirits. “I think because the precedent was set – that our choice is to be private and not feed that side of things – the more you do that, hopefully, the more that intrusiveness or intrigue drops off.”

Throughout our conversation, Alwyn directs lots of questions back at me, but he’s not deflecting, he’s genuinely interested. He tells me he still doesn’t get recognised in the street, but that may change once Conversations lands.

Luckily for Alwyn, there was already a Sally Rooney Male Lead Starter Pack waiting for him when he landed the role (short shorts, gold chain, inability to communicate feelings, check, check, check). He had seen and loved Normal People in lockdown and admired how tonally different it felt to everything else on TV at the time. “[Rooney and Abrahamson] are so good at just spending time with people in a room talking or not talking. It’s not hugely narrative-driven. I like the messiness of it, and the complexity of it.” Soon after he was cast, a mutual friend created a WhatsApp group with him and Paul Mescal called The Tortured Man Club, “which is I guess a reflection on [Mescal’s character in Normal People] Connell and Nick.”

They exchanged texts and eventually met in Abrahamson’s house in Dublin while the show was filming. “He’s a lovely, lovely guy,” Alwyn says. He still hasn’t met Rooney, though she was involved in the casting (she stepped back after the early planning stage). He has exchanged a few emails with her, including one discussing a playlist she made for the character of Nick (she does this for all of her characters, Alwyn says), which features songs from The National, Pavement and Kanye West. “I remember Sally saying about The National, Nick has that kind of downbeat, tired, but still vaguely charismatic quality to him as they do in their music.”

Arguably the biggest challenge he faced along the way was nailing down Nick’s very specific south Dublin accent. Abrahamson gave him the option of keeping his own, but they eventually agreed to stick to the original text (Sasha Lane’s Bobbi was already retrofitted as American). “I listened to people like Andrew Scott and Tom Vaughan-Lawlor and that kind of middle-class south Dublin accent. [Nick’s] is quite anglicised, there was the idea that he would have been to drama school in London, and he has a British wife and so maybe some of those sounds have been softened as well.” (Like fellow Brit Daisy Edgar-Jones before him, he ended up more or less spot-on).

He’s not currently worried about how the show, if it’s received even half as voraciously as Normal People, will impact his super-normal life. “I know it sounds slightly lame, but my only thought about it is that I hope people really like it.”

Alwyn's pandemic wasn't quite so normal. Somewhere in the stagnation of lockdown, he wrote a few songs with Swift on a whim, which went on to win some Grammys. Mucking about on the piano and trying his hand at composition for the first time since being in a band at school (they were called Anger Management and performed Marilyn Manson and Korn covers), he wound up creating the melody and first verse of “Exile”, arguably the standout track on Swift’s eighth studio album Folklore.

“It was really the most accidental thing to happen in lockdown. It wasn’t like, ‘It’s three o’clock, it’s time to write a song!’ It was just messing around on a piano and singing badly and being overheard and then thinking, you know, what if we tried to get to the end of it together?” It was surreal when his musings that quickly became sketches and then an actual track would go on to be produced by The National’s Aaron Dessner with vocals by Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon. “Sending it to Justin with the idea of doing a duet and getting voice notes back of him singing over the top and stuff was surreal. It was a perk of lockdown.” On the album’s credits, he goes by the pseudonym William Bowery (a mash-up of his great-grandfather’s first name and an area he likes in New York), but Swift eventually gave the game away. They kept his participation in Folklore and its follow-up Evermore (two co-writing credits on the former, three on the latter) a secret because they knew it was all people would talk about. “The idea was that people would just listen to the music rather than focus on the fact that we wrote it together.” While he has no plans to write more music, he cherished the experience. “It was fun to do it together, and I was proud of it. It was nice getting such a positive reception.” Is there a version of “Exile” out there with him singing on it? “Jesus, there’s probably a voice note somewhere that should be burned.”

After our dimly lit breakfast, we head for a walk by the canal in King’s Cross. It’s a warm, grey day, and there’s a woman running backwards down the path, glancing over her shoulder every other second to avoid clattering into us. “Maybe she’s in Tenet,” Alwyn quips, and then later, when she runs past us again the correct way, “maybe we’re in Tenet”. He’s dragging along a suitcase, as he’s about to head to Paris to put down some additional dialogue for Claire Denis’sThe Stars At Noon, the other massive project he’s got dropping in May (it’s premiering in competition at Cannes). He shot the film straight after Conversations last year, swapping Belfast for Panama. “The premise is two strangers meet in Nicaragua amid climate and political turmoil. They fall for each other and have to escape to the border. It’s a romance/ thriller... Jesus, I don’t know. We’ll see.”

Before he rushes off for his train, I ask a question that’s been looming over our conversation. Given the reputation he has developed among journalists for keeping schtum about his relationship (fair enough), how comfortable does he feel answering questions about his own life? “I honestly don’t mind. I’m probably not very good at talking about myself.” He hesitates. “I’m sure I’ve come across as guarded in the past. And it’s a mix of me being British and having a private life. But I don’t want to be going into these things guarded.”

There’s a difference between being guarded and being quite understandably private, we agree, before parting ways.

The day after our conversation, Alwyn goes viral for the most inconsequential thing – tell- ing an interviewer that he’s got no intention of confirming whether or not he and Swift are engaged. There’s only so much you can do.

PRODUCTION CREDITS: Photographs by Fumi Homma  Styling by Angelo Mitakos Tailoring by Faye Oakenfull Grooming by Jody Taylor Set design by Molly Marot Movement director, Harry Clark

#joe alwyn #interview #gq hype #conversations with friends