#gen one: vienna

[faesimz]

rainy days <3

#sims #sims 4 #ts4 #the sims 4 #sims 4 simblr #sims 4 cc #sims 4 legacy #the sims screenshots #ts4 legacy #gen one #gen one: vienna #nsb gen 1 #nsb #nsb mint #nsb challenge #nsb legacy #ts4 screenies #sims screenies #ts4 screenshots #sims 4 screenshots #ts4 story #ts4 simblr #ts4 gameplay #ts4cc #ts4 maxis match #sims 4 story #the sims story

[pumpkinspice-prouvaire]

pumpkinspice-prouvaire's required les mis fic reading list

enough of u supported me in my half asleep post asking about fic recs the other day so I am providing. If you want a deep look into my inner psyche this is also the list for that hehe. I tried to be strict about only including my absolute MUST READ fics that I adore and have read and reread and reread again multiple times. Also these will be mostly ExR, to no one's surprise. But there might be a few other ships and gen fics in there too. It's under the read more because this bitch is gonna get long

Auto-read authors:

I didn't wanna rec the same authors too many times in my list proper so these are the authors whose works I have read all (or nearly all) of multiple times. The authors whose tax returns I would read if they posted them on ao3. I will be featuring my favourite fics by them in the list

Fiver

dannyPURO

TheLibrarina

quillsand

Petr1chor

defractum

ShameDumpster

vamillepudding

revolutionbarbie

loverism (all of their fics are currently in a privated bookmark but I have faith that they will someday return. loverism if u see this I miss u)

Need_To_Comment_Rising

Multi-Chapter fics/Series/WIPs:

Under My Wings You Will Find Refuge- Fiver: (WIP) This is the most required reading of my required reading list. I can quote passages of this fic by heart. It's my roman empire. PLEASE check this one out if you haven't it is the best ExR fic in existence, it will change ur life I promise

Beneath a Dragon Moon- The Librarina: GOT AU, no GOT knowledge required. Lots of dramatic moments interspaced with some lovely tender ExR

Guided by a Beating Heart -torakowalski: my absolute FAVOURITE Enjolras centric angst fic. Lots of emotion, lots of friendship, will make you ugly sob

you and i walk a fragile line (is this the time it finally breaks)?- UnforgettableJoMarch: (WIP) I am so enjoying following along with this one. Heartbreaking plot with sublime execution and some brilliant lines, so looking forward to seeing this one develop

The Future's Owned By You and Me- quillsand: ENJOLRAS/FEUILLY ENJOLRAS/FEUILLY ENJOLRAS/FEUILLY WHAT MORE CAN I SAY. Absolutely fantastic rarer pair fic with as much (and maybe more) importance devoted to the activism as to the ship

Getting Fucked in Lingerie- downtheroadandupthehill: PWP. ahem. anyways.

(With a Jubilant Shout) They Will Come One and All- zade: PWP. AHEM. ANYWAYS.

True Blood AU-kjack89: Exactly what it sounds like. Vampire Grantaire and Human Enjolras shenanigans

words can be unwritten- defractum: my favourite soulmate au which makes me melt every time <3

Armillaria- RevocablePeril: THE MOST COURFIUS FIC OF ALL TIME. Lots of excellent Les Amis content in general. SUCH a good, massively underrated fic. 121 kudos??????????? You're all insane.

In An Age Without Heroes- ShitpostingfromtheBarricade: Gloryhole soulmates, the prison industrial complex, Oprah.

walls come tumbling down-reptilianraven: They're cute your honor. One of the only high school AUs I will abide by tbqh hehe

Oneshots:

What's a Bed Between Friends?- dannyPURO: if there's one thing you should know about me it's that I ADORE the there was only one bed trope

epiphany- Abidatchery: screaming crying throwing up that this isn't the fandom's most kudos'ed fic. Every word is expertly crafted and absolutely stunning

Vienna Roast- revolutionbarbie: cosy coffee shop au with a version of Enjolras we don't get to see but that I really enjoy

Out of Touch- ShameDumpster: LET ENJOLRAS GET LOVED YOU COWARDS

A Little More Lois Lane- stellatundra: Just a really funny and silly AU in which Grantaire is Superman

Love in a Coffee Shop-tellthemstories: an absolute fandom classic and rightly so. I've read this one so many times and every time there'll still be something that makes me laugh out loud

My anaconda don't want none (at all)-vamillepudding: v funny and sweet ace enj fic with hilarious triumvirate and exr dynamics

The Waiting is the Hardest Part-samyazaz: In this house, we absolutely love a sexy bet

Between Meetings and Midnight- PieceofCait: Enjolras cries after sex send tweet

A Bad Penny- PBJellie: Gay cowboys and sickfics are the ultimate combo for SURE

Leaves in the Void- myrmidryad: lots of emotion lots of friendship this one is so heavy but SO good you guys. It's also a Space AU I know we all love that <3

my heart's been borrowed (yours has been blue)-Petr1chor: P-tri is so good at writing fics where Enjolras is a complete dumbass and he wrote this one especially for me <3 <3 <3

fire in my hands- geode: This is my go to fic if I want a laugh. "Do you like parsnips?" "Yes they're my second favourite vegetable" iconic exchange god bless

I Would Do Anything For Love- Need_to_Comment_Rising: one of my fave ace Enjolras fics with lovely tender ExR. No I'm not biased because I worked on this series, don't be silly

Like Comfort, Like Solace, Like Relief- areyoumiserableyet: The sensation of coming home to the people you love after a long day <3

Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood- sonhoedesrazao: There should be more fics with oblivious to his own emotions Grantaire that's all I'm saying

Trying to Leave the Ground-barricadeur: rly comfy cosy smut fic

YAY ENJOY I'm gonna go lie down now god I hope I haven't forgotten anything lmfao

#fic recs #les mis #les mis fanfic #exr #enjolras #grantaire #and also other characters #god bless everyone who wrote these fics btw #also if you read these fics come scream to me about them

[steffigraf]

any fic honestly, I read a bunch and I don't really know how to find more without ending up with the ones I already read

okay so here are some assorted tennis fic recs then, hopefully you’ll find something nice to read!

“A Five-Letter Word” by Yuzu - stefaniil, long story short stef burns everyone he touches except for daniil, long and suuuuuper emotional like wow

“tossing yourself into my downpour” by rafaelnadal - stefaniil, social media fic following a fictional year on tour, idk how to describe it but it’s just so sooooo good

“Until Midnight” by VallasRevas - ruru, casper and holger get locked together on new year’s eve and it’s all very fluff and romcom

“— a separate sky” by fisherkings - gen, andrey-centric, au where andrey ends up representing great britain, incredibly painful (in a good way) for me to read personally cause it deals with feelings of nationality and home in a very poignant way

“lights go out and I can’t be saved” by quickbe - sincaraz, au where they’re all spies/hitmen, the worldbuilding is sooo good i just really love this one a lot it’s one of my recent big faves

“Meet the In-Laws” by fortylove - sincaraz, carlos and jannik’s coaches accidentally think they’re together lmao, this is one of my all time top sincaraz faves it’s just cute and fun and i love it sooo much

“the belmont stakes” by japrufrocks - sincaraz, set in the uso 2023, it’s very thought-centric and i just really love the writing of this one okay

“see them bloom” by baselinerallies - sincaraz, relationship development spanning from umag 2022 to vienna 2023, okay is it narcissistic for me to put my own fic here haha sorry i had to! listen i recommend anything by baselinerallies bc self promo lmaoo i have more sincaraz fics under my author page but this one was my baby my beloved my everything so yeahhhh

#pls let me know once you’ve seen this bc idk whether ur still online or not skdhdjdjdk #i hope i gave you a new rec somewhere in there that you haven’t seen before skdhdjdj #and yeah sorry i had to put baselinerallies in there LMAOOO in my defense i reread my own fics enough to say im a fan #asks #anon #*

[fritzes]

my tennis edits

Jannik Sinner + Talk 🥕

Jannik Sinner (Australian Open Run) + Written in the Scars 🏆

Ons Jabeur + Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) 🥲

Taylor Fritz + California Dreamin’ ☀️

Maria Sakkari + Just Like Fire 🔥

Daniil Medvedev + Hold On 🐙

Novandy + Old Man Song 🤝

The New Gen + Vienna ⭐️

Sincaraz + Maybe It’s a Good Thing 🤩

De Sinnaur + Demons 😈

Carlos Alcaraz + Go The Distance 🐝

Indian Wells + Paradise 🌴

Taylor Fritz + In This Body 😓

Ben Shelton + I Want It All 📞

Andy Roddick + The Music or The Misery 🎙️

The “Mini Three” + Castle 🏰

Dominic Thiem + Good Life ❤️‍🩹

Karolina Muchova + I'm Still Standing 👍

Jannik Sinner (Post-Puke) + Another One Bites the Dust 🥇

Carlos Alcaraz + Miniature Disasters 💪

RuRu + Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner 🩳

Sincaraz + Northern Attitude 🏔️

#decided I want this as my pinned #and the emojis were just a fun idea lol #video edit

[icyfox17]

Gosh reading through your Lovejoy ranking was SO MUCH fun heck yes :D

AND NOW

I AM CURIOUS ONCE MORE

*holds mic up to you* PLEASE RANK WILBUR SOOT’S MUSIC!!!

Okay so for his acoustic music (aka ycgma & miwb)!

OHMYGOS DHFKFO I WAS LITWRALLY ABOUT TO PUT ON MIWB TO REFRESH MY MEMORY AND THEN IT CAME ON MY PLAYLISR AUTOMATICALLY DAMNN, I'm pretty sure Spotify can read my mind bc this has happened so many times

1. Since I Saw Vienna (my fav song in the world, it has been my top song on Spotify 3-4 years in a row and is probably gonna be my top this year too HELPP, I have made this song my personality I just. I love it so much.)

2. Saline Solution (the trumpets really make this song OGIHIGOGIFHDHDJF I LOVE IT SM AND THE STRUMMING PATTERNNNN BAKRBAJDBSJ I LOVE THE RHYTHM SO MUCH AND THE HARMONIES!!! THE HARMONIES!!! THIS SONG IS PERFECT)

3. Iafiap (tho the 1yr anniversary ycgma live stream version beats saline solution, I fucking love that version SO MUCH it's one of my fav things in the world)

4. For Memories

5. La Jolla

6. Losing Face

7. Maybe I Was Boring

8. White Wine in Wetherspoon

9. Your Sister Was Right

10. I'm Sorry Boris

11. Jubilee Line

Bonus Egirl trilogy ranking :D

1. Internet Ruined Me (another one of my all time favs I gen love this song sosoososofjfjfjfj much)

2. I'm In Love with an Egirl & Your New Boyfriend (I couldn't decide which one I liked more...)

3. Soft Boy (I STILL REALLY ADOREEEE SOFT BOY I JUST SLIGHTLY PREFER THE REST... SLIGHTLY tho the version by Lovejoy that we heard 2 seconds of in Tommy's vlog is my fav version ever and it's either tied with internet ruined me or just below)

And if I were to mix them with acoustic gang, IRM is under Iafiap, Egirl and ynb are below la Jolla (or tied), and then soft Boy under them

Thanks for asking :DD this was fun!! And less stressful than Lovejoy!! LMAOOOO

#foxieasks #grace tag #IM GLAD U ENJOYED MY LOVEJOY RANKING EUEUEUEUDJFJF

[catelyngrant]

My Year in Fic: 2023

I had a fun and kind of wild year in fic-writing this year, diving back into four (!) fandoms I haven't written for in over a decade but that all consumed me for years on end once upon a time. There was also a great deal of Succession, shocking no one. I was going to reblog this as a "send numbers" post, but I actually wanted to revisit this year in fic so I answered them all anyway below the cut.

what have i become, my sweetest friend? 24, Jack Bauer & Nina Myers (~2k, T)

let your faith die, bring your wonder: Battlestar Galactica, Laura Roslin-centric (~5k, T)

what falls away is always: Doctor Who, Sarah Jane Smith & The Fourteenth Doctor (~2700, G)

not a single word was said: Star Trek: Picard, Beverly Crusher/Jean-Luc Picard (~1700, G)

the blood sacrifice: Succession, Ensemble (~1k, T, Crack)

if there’s a rocket tie me to it: Succession, Gerri Kellman/Roman Roy (~2700, T)

the name we’ve long held back: Succession, Gerri Kellman/Roman Roy (~4400, T)

not broken, just bent: Succession, Gerri Kellman/Roman Roy (~4k, M)

something is always between us: Succession, Gerri Kellman/Roman Roy (~2k, T)

we even flew a little: Succession, Gerri Kellman/Roman Roy (~4000, T)

years from now, i’ll cry to remember: Succession, Shiv Roy & Gerri Kellman (~1400, T)

Thoughts below!

How many words have you written this year? 30,695, which is quite a lot for me! How many works did you publish this year? Eleven (plus a playlist).

What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)? There are a few! Digging into BSG and Laura Roslin after so much time was really intimidating and overwhelming, but it was so interesting to explore sides of her that land so differently all these years later, and I was really proud of how let your faith die, bring your wonder turned out given how much I angsted over it. Beyond that, I wrote a lot of Succession fic this year, which was intimidating in different ways. I had a really clear vision for the name we’ve long held back and I was really gratified that it felt like I brought that into focus and that it was received well. I also really liked digging just a little into Gerri and Shiv in years from now, i’ll cry to remember, just because I find their relationship fascinating and underexplored.

What work of yours has the most hits? the name we’ve long held back

What work of yours got more feedback than you expected? not a single word was said had a really satisfying response for a fic in a fandom I’ve written very little in and that ended up being jossed very shortly after it was written. I really liked this one, though, and felt really good about the emotional beats, so it was great to see that received well. I also was surprised that years from now, i’ll cry to remember got the love that it did—gen fics rarely perform as well as shippy ones, but this held its own.

Favorite title you used: It’s got to be not broken, just bent (aka the one where Roman breaks his penis).

If you use song lyrics, which artist’s songs did you pull from the most? Vienna Teng, as always! (let your faith die, bring your wonder; years from now, i’ll cry to remember; the name we’ve long held back)

Pairing you wrote the most for this year? Roman/Gerri

Favorite pairing you wrote for this year? Roman/Gerri definitely took up most of my year, but Picard/Crusher also consumed me a great deal even if that wasn’t reflected in what I ended up writing.

What work was the quickest to write? the blood sacrifice. The inherent absurdity of crack fics tend to allow me to give fewer fucks, which is fun.

What work took you the longest to write? I started both what have i become, my sweetest friend and we even flew a little well before the start of 2023 and then let them sit for many months before returning to finish them. what have i become, my sweetest friend takes the cake, though—I think I started that 2+ years before posting.

How many WIP’s do you have in your docs for next year? Dozens, but only 3-4 that I’m optimistic about finishing.

What’s your longest work of the year? let your faith die, bring your wonder

What’s your shortest work of the year? the blood sacrifice

What WIP are you taking into next year with you? Nothing currently live, but my two remaining Supergirl WIPs will be finished eventually, and then I have a couple of DW threads dangling.

What’s your most common “Additional Tags” tag? AU - Canon Divergence (that tracks!). if there’s a rocket, tie me to it was one that didn’t get a lot of love comparatively but that I really enjoyed writing; it explored the various ripple effects of how the series may have played out if the rocket launch had gone off without a hitch in 1x10. I love identifying small moments like that that, had they played out differently, can create an entire AU. 

Your favorite character to write this year? Gerri, probably. She’s complicated and scary and in some ways a blank slate and in other ways tremendously specific, and I feel like I dug into a lot of different sides of her. She’s also the character that I wrote the most this year, which makes sense. 

The character that gave you the most trouble writing this year? Picard/Crusher. As much as I adored ST:P, it fucked with my characterization and I started many, many more fics featuring them (separately or together) than I completed.

What’s one pairing you want to explore next year? I feel like I’ll be living in Doctor Who-land for a little while longer, so maybe I’ll finally get to exploring my extensive headcanons around Sarah Jane and Twelve! 

Which work of yours have you reread the most? the name we’ve long held back, probably, just because I posted it early in the year.

How many kudos in total did you get this year? 1,199

Which work has the most comments? the blood sacrifice and not a single word was said. I'm inconsistent in replying to comments, though, so I think my responses on those skew them.

Did you do any collaborative works this year? With the BSG Minibang, yes! There’s a podfic of let your faith die, bring your wonder.

Did you write any gifts this year? not broken, just bent and the name we’ve long held back, both for Jerk Matron January.

Did you receive any gifts this year? Yes! Vast_difference wrote when I'm broken down and I can't stand (would you be man enough to be my man) for Jerk Matron January—highly recommend!

What’s your most common category? F/M

What do you listen to while writing? I don’t listen to anything, usually. I prefer silence.

Favorite work you wrote this year? This is hard, honestly, because I wrote more than usual and also wrote in a lot of different fandoms, including several that I wrote a lot for and/or was heavily involved in many, many years ago. The nostalgia factor was very real this year! Beyond the works that I’m proudest of listed in #3, I’m most recently enamored by what falls away is always—for all of my love of the Doctor and Sarah Jane, this is really the first time I’ve written just the two of them together, and I didn’t think that there would be new material to explore between them at this stage! It was really fun. I also have a soft spot for we even flew a little, which I started in early 2022 and found myself too intimidated to continue but managed to complete before season four started and rendered it obsolete. Finally, I didn't include this originally but in looking at favorite lines/passages from this year, I originally had four from not a single word was said, so maybe that should get a little more love!

Favorite line/passage you wrote this year? This is always very hard. I generally have been happy with a lot of the dialogue I've written this year, which is notable because there's such a range of distinctive voices. Roman's voice in particular was a beast, but coming up with things like this (from the blood sacrifice)—

“It’s about fucking time,” Roman grumps, the irritation in his words belied by the way his face collapses into relief. He straightens up, resting his elbows on his knees. “Shit-fucking-Jesus, after Gerri comfort-fucks me into oblivion and I sober up—” Gerri elbows him, hard, but seems distracted by the shape in the distance even as he rattles on— “I’m going to destroy every last one of these blubbery blimps. I’m gonna buy a beach house and wallpaper it with their skin, I’m gonna, fucking, start a whale-burger chain and bankrupt the animal-fucker groups and—”

—well, it's just fun.

In terms of opening lines, I quite liked this from let your faith die, bring your wonder:

There was a time when stars were a wonder and rain had just been rain.

And for closing lines...

There’s not much space between them, a couple dozen feet, but somehow Gerri seems glazed, blurred around the edges. Shiv can’t read her expression before she’s turned back to the railing and lifted the cigarette back to her lips, her gaze once again fixed firmly in the other direction as she says, softly, “I’ll see you, Shiv.” Shiv doubts it. Her father’s dead, and her stomach is swelling; no one will be looking at her again.

Character-wise, I liked this bit in Gerri's POV from we even flew a little:

If. It’s as close as she’s come to admitting to either of them that it wasn’t just her career on the line—that his messy, reckless heart isn’t the only one aching, here at the end of this. Because he’d done more than want her, had seen more in her than her competence (and wasn’t that a giddy thing, in and of itself, to be seen). He’d found, somehow, the little seed of insanity that’s kept her at Waystar all these years—the masochistic desire to control the uncontrollable, to beat the unbeatable, to smooth thin veneers over rotten ground and get away with it because she alone knows where it’s safe to step. He dug it up and brought it to bloom and it felt good, to pour her poison into him. 

And in terms of pain levels, I really loved this Picard/Crusher moment from not a single word was said. The show itself took a different take on what tore them apart, but I felt like this perspective could have made a lot of sense as well:

He’s given her everything he’s ever had to offer, given her patience and space and the sort of trust that feels foreign to him now. He gave her comfort when she needed it and silence when he wanted to speak; he bottled up his own useless love into something so small and stunted that it hurt just to offer, and he offered it nonetheless. It was always hers for the taking. She even reached for it, once.

Biggest surprise while writing this year? Oh god, honestly, I’ve just felt like a teenager again. Writing and posting fic for 24, BSG, Star Trek: TNG, and Doctor Who? It’s been wild.

#my fic

[arverst-aegnar]

atla, 9-11 :)

<3

9. what is your favorite fanfic for the fandom?

The idea of a fandom for which i have only one single favorite fanfic is a very, very sad idea. So yeah, this is nothing like an exhaustive list, just a few choice selections from a much, much longer list.

Gen:

Mountains and Badgermolehills

Another Day

Katara/Zuko:

they call you refugee

Zuko's Tiny Dilemma

mirror me

10. what song do you associate with a ship?

For not being a "playlist" person, i do associate many songs with characters and ships.

Katara/Zuko: Their ship tag on this blog is Eight by Sleeping at Last. A couple other associations are Parachute by Ingrid Michaelson, Flaws by Bastille, and Eric's Song by Vienna Teng.

Sokka/Suki: I haven't really thought about it before, so i'm going off of "vibes" here more than anything, but Did I Say That Out Loud? by Barenaked Ladies, Gone Gone Gone by Philip Phillips, and All I Need by Mat Kearney (for a sadder take).

Aang/Katara: I could be mean, but to be honest, Happier by Bastille has come to mind a couple times.

11. what song do you associate with a character (or 2)?

Two characters, or two songs? Well, we're going with all of the Gaang, and two songs for Zuko and Katara because they're my favorites (and also because it was hard enough hunting down one song i can associate with each of the others, yike.)

Zuko:

And I finally see myself Unabridged and overwhelmed A mess of a story I'm ashamed to tell But I'm slowly learning how to break this spell

Three by Sleeping at Last

Blackbird singin' in the dead of night Take these broken wings and learn to fly All your life You were only waiting for this moment to arise

Blackbird by the Beatles

Katara:

It's okay if you can't catch your breath You can take the oxygen straight out of my own chest I know exactly how the rule goes Put my mask on first No, I don't want to talk about myself Tell me where it hurts I just wanna build you up, build you up Till you're good as new And maybe one day I'll get around To fixing myself too

Two by Sleeping at Last

This is my fight song Take back my life song Prove I'm all right song My power's turned on Starting right now I'll be strong I'll play my fight song And I don't really care if nobody else believes 'Cause I've still got a lot of fight left in me

Fight Song by Rachel Platten

Sokka:

I was broken from a young age Taking my sulkin' to the masses Writing my poems for the few That look at me, took to me, shook at me, feelin' me Singing from heartache from the pain Taking my message from the veins Speaking my lesson from the brain Seeing the beauty through the pain

Believer by Imagine Dragons

Suki:

You've got opinions, man, we're all entitled to 'em But I never asked So, let me thank you for your time And try to not waste any more of mine Get outta here fast I hate to break it to you, babe But I'm not drowning There's no one here to save

King of Anything by Sara Bareilles

Toph:

Here we go, here we go It's my turn to make history Here we go, here we go When I'm gone they'll remember me

Legend by The Score

Aang:

Let me tell you another secret of the trade It feels like sinking when I'm standing in one place So I look to the future and I book another flight When everything feels heavy, I've learned to travel light

Seven by Sleeping at Last

Thanks for asking!

#tumblr quiz show #a rare original post #a:tla #zuko #katara #sokka #suki #toph #aang #zutara #s: eight #very slightly anti kataang

[idanit]

Yuletide 2022 recs

Here are my picks from what I happened to read in this year’s collection. As always, they're very loosely grouped by theme. The shortest one is a drabble; the longest one is 16K. This seemed to me to be a year of casefics and romance, but there are other delicious things in here as well.

Check out my previous Yuletide rec posts here.

Casefics

Cop Out Lock In | E (F/F) It starts out as a murder investigation in a sci-fi setting and grows into a story about disability, with some great twists.

Truth Will Out Disco Elysium | T (M/M) I haven’t read much fic for the fandom, so the Disco Elysium narrative format felt extremely fun to me; it’s both a casefic and a romance, and both sides of the story are very queer and satisfying.

Absent Men Foyle’s War | G A good detective story set in wartime Britain; I liked the little misdirections within the plot and the attention to period-accurate detail.

Scholarship, contested

Tlön, Mlejnas, Mundus Mutabilis Tlön Uqbar Orbis Tertius | G A logical extension of the implications of the original story paired with some truly intriguing, linguistically experimental poems (my interpretation of at least one of them turned out to be wrong, but what fun!).

Advanced Mathematics Tlön Uqbar Orbis Tertius | G A hilarious exploration of what could be found on reddit if we lived in a world where children learn topology before calculus.

The Lost Works of the Dry-Cræfticen of Wherwell: a New Approach Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell | G A feminist take on the magic that came before the Raven King, written in the style of an academic paper, complete with a very believable skipping rhyme.

Ghosts, witches, vampires

Creatures Sleep No More | M (F/F) I loved the excellent rhythm of the prose and the vivid imagery in this story about witchcraft, attraction, violence, and two girls who grow up.

Küsse, Bisse Carmilla | M (F/F) A nicely-written and researched take on Laura as a vampire and her reunion with Carmilla in Vienna.

welcome to the menagerie Polar Explorer RPF | G A funny and mysterious little story about animal ghosts and a human ghost who might have some news for the man he encounters.

Whimsy!

Over The Moon For a Change | G A charming piece of interactive fiction which uses odd, poetic language divorced from the reality we’re used to, and comes with its own soundtrack.

Todays and Tomorrows What Is It? | G Two child-like beings on their daily adventure; bittersweet and largely plotless, but with an intriguing take on identity, interesting bits of worldbuilding, and evocative descriptions.

Characters coping with trauma

The Dust They Leave Behind Under the Banner of Heaven | E (M/M) A story about a man who leaves behind his religion and community, the man who is there for him as he pushes himself towards trying new things with beautiful determination, and what they might build together — very moving, both heartbreaking and hopeful, with the kind of resigned prose that fits the POV character, and well-written sex scenes.

The Lethean Halls Piranesi | T (F/F) I really liked the idea of the House as an intimate place where desires are fulfilled, but which nonetheless fosters the main character’s descent into oblivion and madness.

Pretending Cabaret | G An excellent drabble about the Emcee, full of characterisation and a sort of tragic, dry wit.

Relocation Costs Homecoming is Just Another Word for the Sublimation of the Self | G An interesting exploration of how fuzzy the concept of boundaries can be; I liked the focus on a child’s perspective and the little pieces of worldbuilding weaved into the story of moving to a new house.

a light exists in spring Murder Rooms: The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes | T An emotionally true story about the acute phase of grief and comforting someone who’s going through it, written in a clear, steady, and occasionally poetic style.

Favour in Their Eyes Tanakh | G (gen, multi) A brother and a sister suffering in the absence of the man they love, for both personal and political reasons; well-written, more bitter than sweet, with enough historical detail for the space and the characters to feel real.

if every house is haunted Beyond Evil | G (M/M) A story of two people getting a better view of the shape of each other’s grief as they get closer and sort through their memories and belongings; both funny and poignant.

(Other) romantic shenanigans

A Gentleman’s Gentleman Jeeves | G (M/M) Lively, funny writing with a delightful Bertie voice.

Jeeves and the Gentleman Detective Jeeves | T (M/M) A lovely pastiche which weaves the subtle thread of attraction budding between Jeeves and Bertie into the story of a certain New Year’s Eve.

To Meet Again As Equals Jill | T (F/F) A charming tale about a gentlewoman turned servant turned gentlewoman and how she and her former employer became lovers, styled as an addendum to the book.

go as a dream Polar Explorer RPF | G A brief, but surprisingly in-depth sketch of a relationship between two polar explorers; I liked the attention paid to the physicality of doing menial work and wrestling in the snow, and I thought the writing style had a good rhythm to it and flowed very well.

Divertimento Amadeus | M (M/M) Lovely, tense, focused writing; Salieri is so wonderfully complicated here — full of disdain and admiration, drawn in and repulsed, and Mozart just cuts through the knots he ties himself into, at least for a brief moment.

#idanit reads #yuletide #yuletide 2022 #yuletide fic rec #fic rec

[joulsseur]

have you seen EMMANUELLE GENEVIEVE MARIE DE ROHAN DE NOAILLES?.  we’ve heard through the grapevine that they’re DYNAMIC but also NONCOMFORMIST. i heard that HER main objective this season is GET TO KNOW ENGLAND AND LIVE THE ENGLISH SEASON TO ITS FULLEST.

STATISTICS

full name  : emmanuelle généviève marie de rohan. meaning  :   emmanuelle means god is with us, généviève means white wave and marie means sea of bitterness. nicknames  :  jeanie, gen, viv, madame deuil. occupation  :  noblewoman, aristocrat, salonniere. noble titles : duchess dowager of noailles, mademoiselle de rohan. title of reference : her grace. gender  +  pronouns  : ciswoman, she / her. orientation  :  bisexual biromantic. age  :  thirty.

BACKGROUND

date of birth  :  tba, 1781. place of birth  : paris, france. rank  :  high nobility. father  :  charles gabriel de rohan, duke of montbazon and prince of guemene, controller - general of finances of france. mother :  victoire emmanuelle de rohan, former lady in waiting to the queen of france. siblings  :  two brothers and one sister, all older. spouse : henri philippe de noailles, duke of noailles. offspring : henri victor de noailles, duke of noailles ( 9 years old ); anaïs victoire de noailles, lady of noailles ( 5 years old ). other : charles edoard de rohan, cardinal de rohan and french ambassador to vienna; paternal uncle. relationship status :  widowed. languages : french, german, italian, english.

APPEARANCE

faceclaim : greta onieogou height : 173cm / 5'8'' hair: tba eye: big brown eyes.

HISTORY

trigger warning for parental death, arranged marriage, chronical illness (haemophilia), spousal death.

the house of rohan has dominated the french court for at least two centuries, with positions being passed down from father to son, mother to daughter; those spanned from the positions in church, to the court, to politics. it was no different to edoard, cardinal de rohan and one of the most important ambassadors of the kingdom, nor gabriel, who grew to hold the position of minister of finances for at least twenty years now.

emmanuelle genevieve is born akin to an accident, barely a year after the brother she’s closest in age to; a manner she would follow for the rest of her life. the succession of births demean the constitution of lady rohan, victoire, and it would not be two years, with the youngest still toddling, that her mother would come to pass.

genevieve, as preferred, is then raised with all of the coddling expected for the youngest child. she’s spoiled rotten, quite literally, without a soul able to tell her no — she thrives on the few forbidden, forward things, riding horses until she’s sore and muddy, staying up late playing cards, drinking and talking about everything and anything, spending more than she should and dabbling in conversations she should not. she takes part in all that the court has to offer, and a few things more — the dancing, the arts, the fashion, the phylosophy and all of that.

she goes to vienna with her uncle, once. she had pleaded, for as long as she could remember, to accompany the man on a trip, and he finally yields, finding that this may broaden her experiences and her marriage possibilities. instead, genevieve returns home with a small bump hidden beneath her corset, and a big trouble; refusing to announce the father of the babe she carried — for truth to the matter, she did not know — her family despaired, behind closed doors, on what to do so she may not fall into disgrace. 

they come into accord, more or less willing, to have her marry someone else: the count of novailles had a sprouting career as a diplomat, and was the second child of an important house, and had always had obvious affection towards genevieve; she thought him a dreadful bore, but without much choice, she wedded him, and named her son after him. if henri has ever doubted her, he has kept his assumptions to himself.

it is not entirely pleasant. though — rather, odd. despite apparent affection, henri refuses to partake in his husband duties, and what genevieve once appreciated, finding that she’s not one for the birthing bed and childrearing, soon becomes puzzling. her freedoms are not diminished, however, so she bites her tongue, until the truth is revealed when her brother - in - law goes on a campaign, and bleeds himself to death in an alarming fashion. her husband becomes duke, and she duchess, but henri has to reveal his family has a sickness that plagues its men, leaving them wary of every injury; he’s on a sort of concoction, but it drives him away from the marriage bed.

the confession ushers them closer, and genevieve sees that he dismisses his medicine so they may become one, at last. for several months, it seems they are closer than ever, and become quite a scene at court. before she can announce herself with child, the king orders a hunt, and, as ever, wishing to please her, henri goes along. a mere fall would not have killed a healthy man, who would have shrugged it off and laughed before mounting again, but henri was not a healthy man, and they remain a scene to the end, with genevieve jumping from her horse to cradle her husband’s dying body until she is dragged away.

she gives birth some months later, after being stuck on bed rest since her husband’s death. love she had not known had sprung, and died with him, and for the respectable amount of time, she remains at her husband’s — now her son’s — states, away from court. still, she begins welcoming artists, writers, actors, people of the arts to amuse her, and her inner circle, that grows, bit by bit. the salon of madame de noailles would become one of the few that one must attend while in paris, and genevieve slowly returns to her bon vivant self, a staple within the high society.

while genevieve is skeptical that the english can hold a candle to the magnificence of the french scene, she has always been curious about the season. and so, she has come along with the royal family, hoping to enjoy all that is available.

PERSONALITY

tba

WANTED CONNECTIONS

the typical sort: friends, lovers, enemies, acquaintances, etc, but also people she’s sponsored, people who consider her a bad influence, more to add once my brain works!

#mayfair.intro

[koishua]

vienna as one of the older kids on sfw enhablr (not saying ur old !! 😭😭 it’s just that there’s a lot of minors on here) how do you feel abt the current content for the maknae line? like ik it’s not always super sexualized or anything but sometimes i see stuff that’s just the way it’s worded really rubs me the wrong way ☹️ esp bc some of the kids on here are so young it makes me feel like if they see stuff like that , they might start think it’s okay for others to treat them the same or vice verse … whenever i see edits of niki on tiktok , i have to avoid the comments bc there’s almost always like a “daddy” , “how is he 16” or “you don’t know what you do to me” like wtf he’s a literal child ?? it makes me so mad and honestly so uncomfortable :( and i saw an article on kboo today too that said niki apparently has around 200 explicit or mature fics written abt him on ao3 … sometimes even the fboi trope (usually when it’s written abt minors) bothers me bc i see minors writing abt it (like 13-15 y/o) and i don’t understand why they don’t just use the term player or smtg … bc they’ll go out of their way to mention how the character has sex a lot an whatnot , even that feels way too suggestive for me personally for a minor too write let aline abt a minor too , sorry for the rant,, i was just wondering how you felt … omg also though tbh i noticed that some of the minors on here / blogs in gen seem way too comfy on here like they’ll be sharing where they live , their actual names and sometimes like giving a lot of personal info … like did they not learn abt internet safety or do they just no care? as one of the older kids , i kind of worry abt them :( i really hope everybody stays safe on here <3 & some reminders: never be afraid to block anyone ! bc i’ve seen a lot of minors on here get sent stuff from the p*rn bots or just weird dms :( & u don’t need to force yourself to interact with someone , make sure ur comfy with them first !

yup yup it feels like im definitely one of the few older engenes i know of and im not even in my twenties haha i am glad you brought this up, because it's a topic that's bothered me and quite a few others as well for such a long time :/ you are so true with how younger people might start to think that it's okay to be treated (and also to treat others) the way some of these content creators treat clearly underage idols. i too see suggestive edits of riki or jungwon and yes, the people creating them are incredibly talented at editing and whatnot, but the choice of songs and the atmosphere they choose to create and then going ahead and writing a small "don't sexualize so and so! this is only for blah blah blah" somewhere in the comments really, really irks me.

i dont think i have come across written content like those, but the amount of visual content (especially tiktoks?? my god people be wildin with what they post there) where they disrespect obvious boundaries? those i have seen a lot of and frankly? jail. those who comment ridiculous things about them when they are/were literal children? jail 😐 and oml 200 M rated fics for a literal 15/16/17 year old?? i did not know that. i don't really care if minors think of those sorts of things bc it's only natural tbh as long as they keep them to themselves but projecting them on riki or jungwon and other younger idols is so morally wrong. also yes?? the amount of fboi fanatics is a whole nother can of worms i don't have the energy to be opening rn good god

i can't chastise anyone for joining tumblr too early, because i was here at 16 too (which was mayhaps a grave mistake bc my grades suffered bc of my attachment to this site during the pandemic oof don't put the internet above your education, kids 🥴🥴) but last time i saw a literal 12 year old?? my concern is the same as yours bc yes although there might be some pretty cool and nice people around, you literally can NEVER know if someone is telling the truth or not unless you personally know them and my god there have been more times than i can count where my own mutuals have turned out for the worst and i wouldn't wish anything bad to happen to unsuspecting children here. grooming, doxxing, bots and so much more dangerous stuff can happen and i wish some of them would take their cyber security seriously.

you are so right with the blocking thing too!! the number of blogs i have on my blocked list is huge and y'all should never hesitate on blocking anyone you find uncomfortable interacting with! none of these people know you in real life, no one is gonna curse you out because of it and if they do, they're simply immature. you should configure your online space to fit your needs, comfort and safety! there are a variety of options tumblr serves you to optimize your experience like blocking tags, content, blogs and all that jazz, so make sure to use those functions any time you need!

sorry for taking a bit to answer your ask, nonnie, but im happy to have someone discussing these issues with me and giving their opinion! have a good day and stay safe <3

#ii. ( pt ) —! anon asks.

[faesimz]

well, they expected it.

#sims #sims 4 #ts4 #the sims 4 #sims 4 simblr #sims 4 cc #sims 4 legacy #the sims screenshots #ts4 legacy #gen one #nsb mint #nsb gen 1 #nsb challenge #nsb legacy #ts4 screenies #sims screenies #sims 4 screenshots #ts4 screenshots #ts4 story #ts4 simblr #ts4 gameplay #ts4cc #gen one: vienna

[naerwenia]

Astrid Thomas, High Regent of Vienna, or how I learned to play a powerful character

Have you ever been in a situation where you knew you were the most powerful person in a room? I have now and it was addictive.

I haven’t played a vampire before, but I’ve been to two vampire larps (Vampire the Masquerade one and Vampire Knight one) and played human in both. It made me disregard the games, even if I still sometimes looked at them. Now I jumped to one (mostly because it was close to another larp I was already going to in the same general area), hoping to maybe play a nice, sweet vampire lady with high humanity, an original character the game masters would write for me.

I was cast as Astrid Thomas, the High Regent of Vienna, a diplomat, an occultist, the voice of clan and house Tremere, someone who commands and knows her worth and power. A canon character in the World of Darkness and Vampire the Masquerade. I was not ready for this even though I marked her as someone I could play as from the character list. 

I was not ready for this much power and this important character, and I was not sure I could command a room in any way. Even though I knew I might be able to play her as a much sweeter person than I imagined her, I was scared to take the role. I don’t have good experiences on playing authoritative or powerful characters, I’m much more interested in playing characters who derive their power from kindness and are the supporting cast in others’ game. Here I would not be the main character, but someone who stood above everyone else because of her talent and skills. First of all, I was generation 5, meaning 5 steps from the original vampire, and thus only able to be Dominated by someone of lower generation, which was not going to happen in this game, because even gen 5 is rare. Then I had a lot of skills and talents at the highest level, meaning I had many ways to get my will through in negotiations or if I wanted to put someone in their place or do a ritual of great importance. I had so many things to lean on to to make my character stand on her own, even of no one acknowledged my status. That was my mistake, thinking others wouldn’t play me up, because that’s what they did. Everyone knew I was someone not to mess with, someone who was important, accomplished, and there to make sure everything went as planned, and I had a “sidekick” Nathan Mendelssohn, my support character, who also knew the lore much more deeply than I did and always played me up, lifted me above everyone just by playing his character. Thanks to him, I felt comfortable taking the role before the game, and in-game he always let me make decisions and introduced others to me, making me the centre of many things.

Thanks to the other players I had the most supportive larp experience, even when I had a panic attack before the game. It was two nights long game, and the second day before the game was so much easier and more lighthearted banter with other players. I had so much fun, more fun than I have had in a while. While I was somewhat kinder version of Astrid than what she has been in the canon, I still got the feeling of being the baddest bitch in the room, and my sweetness made me even more someone to not mess with, according to my co-players. I have only played diplomats in one tabletop rpg, my lovely Eshka Kith’lya from our Star Wars campaign, so I knew I could do it, but a lot of that is rolling dice and taking my time to say what I want to get across, which is fine in a tabletop session, but larps move much quicker and I was afraid I would not get my thoughts out as quickly as necessary, but everyone was so supportive <3

In the end, I was the baddest bitch in the whole game and got to show my best sides, but most of all, people are more supportive than you think, and everyone deserves the chance to be the centre of the room.

#LARP #nordic larp #larp character #larp stuff #vampire the masquerade #world of darkness #vampire larp #the baddest bitch #expirience

[rrxnjun]

oh my god thanku really love the date cuz its a national holiday here so every year i'm getting fireworks🤭🩷💗also can i ask when is ur birthday or is that top secret information?👀

oo i'm really glad u were able to keep the idea🥳🥳(but really cuz other wise i might have not found ur page and that is just heartbreaking when i think about it💔)

tbh i'm down if u end up coming just tell me cuz i'm 80% sure i will go🫡 i don't understand why they are not going to vienna like i remember it being so popular for concerts cuz i was so salty about the fact that it's just the neighboring country and they couldn't have come a little bit closer🤣 AHH MAN NOOO THATS SO SAD☹️☹️☹️I HOPE U WILL BE ABLE TO SEE THEM ONE DAY!!!!☹️

U ARE JUST AMAZING FOR THAT!! best tendencies 🤣 yeah i was very shocked as well but i didn't get edits about it luckily cuz i think that would have made me so much more sad🫡 I UNDERSTAND THAT SO MUCH I WAS THE SAME FOR AGOOD WHILE MANS WAS ON MY MIND 24/7 (and still he is very much there although not as much as he used to:/)🤭 IDK I DONT UNDERSTAND WHY THERE ARE BASICALLY NO TREASURE WRITERS HERE??? but i really think u would be an exceptional writer for them👀sooo i'm waiting for a treasure fic if u don't fall out of them ofc (although that is kinda hard to imo) ooo u know i think just a drabble couldn't hurt anyoneeee🤗 THEN IM WAITING FOR UR FIC EVEN MORE🥳

HOOE UR DOING WELL AS WELL!!! and i'm not too sweet u are too sweet!!!!!🩷💘💘 (and sorry again for the very late reply school sucks☹️)

(and i also wanted to ask that should i send u asks on ur other acc if i see something that i would bring up here just so i don't pollute this page anymore than i already did🤣like i just keep bringing up random topics here so sorry)

(liebestraum anon🌷💕💞)

omg thats so cool???? fireworks on your bday every year must be so amazing woah,,,, my bday is not a top secret dw 😌😌 its quite literally in 2 days (apr 16) lmao i feel very old and i also forgot its my bday this sunday so when my mum mentioned it i was like what already???

hhhh i am too!! i am currently actively writing it just so you know<33 if school doesnt kick my ass as hard (which it might bc i have my first final in 10 days LMAO) i think it should be done before summer AHAHA

have fun if you end up going!!! i had a talk w everyrone and came to the conclusion that i just cant go this year so thats :// maybe next year.... manifesting vienna fr that way i could be home the same day if i tried hard enough. VIENNA USED TO BE SO POPULAR W CONCERTS i swear every pop punk band and their mothers back in the day had a concert there. what happened im gen so confused i keep searching for it on every tour but nowadays no one goes there

you know the song TV by billie eilish??? thOSE edits make me so heartbroken. like 'dont know where you are right now, did you see me on TV?' bitch stop puting mashidam onto those lyrics i will have a full on meltdown. but anyways my man jihoon is still on my mind 24/7 and its gotten even worse man i need serious help i think. somebody call an exorcist. and stop supporting that drabble i will nOT write it (i am trying really hard to contain myself rn)

school sucks and it should be cancelled. >:(( i hope youre doing well i enjoyed hearing from you,, hope life treats you good in the next couple of days!!! mwah

also you can send asks whenever you want!! honestly this is my space and i dont mind clogging the dash djfkdlj if anyone minds these they can just block the tag, they curate their own tumblr experience :p but if you ever wanna send anything to mosviqu or my other blogs i honestly welcome you everywhere!!!

#replying to this on my laptop so excuse the lack of emojis #hope i dont sound dry LMAO #💌ask #liebestraum anon

[ao3feed-crimeboys]

Beautiful boy

by Random_Stranger_84

Tommy can't sleep. It's hard too when you're a foster kid, especially when you've just been moved to a new house. This one doesn't seem to be as bad as the ones before but can he really trust them to help?

or Tommy slowly learns how to trust, and accept help

or three times Tommy doesn't accept help, and the one time he does

Words: 2466, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Series: Part 7 of SBI fics to keep me sane

Fandoms: Video Blogging RPF

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: Gen

Characters: TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Phil Watson | Philza, Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Wilbur Soot

Relationships: TommyInnit & Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF), Technoblade & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit

Additional Tags: TommyInnit-centric (Video Blogging RPF), Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Alternate Universe - Foster Family, Foster Child TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Good Older Sibling Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Good Older Sibling Wilbur Soot, Nightmares, Late Night Conversations, Song: Since I Saw Vienna (Wilbur Soot), Trust Issues, Sleep Deprivation, Trouble Sleeping, Past Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Past Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, TommyInnit Has Bad Parents (Video Blogging RPF), or used too, 3+1 Things, Sort Of

#ao3feed #wilbur soot #tommyinnit #crimeboys #crime boys #crimebois #crime bois #mcyt #This is an automated process #If you see any fic that breaks boundaries #or the fic is yours and you don't want it shared send an ask #it will be looked at and removed if need be

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 10.30

637 – Arab–Byzantine wars: Antioch surrenders to the Rashidun Caliphate after the Battle of the Iron Bridge. 758 – Guangzhou is sacked by Arab and Persian pirates. 1137 – Ranulf of Apulia defeats Roger II of Sicily at the Battle of Rignano, securing his position as duke until his death two years later. 1270 – The Eighth Crusade ends by an agreement between Charles I of Anjou (replacing his deceased brother King Louis IX of France) and the Hafsid dynasty of Tunis, Tunisia. 1340 – Reconquista: Portuguese and Castilian forces halt a Muslim invasion at the Battle of Río Salado. 1657 – Anglo-Spanish War: Spanish forces fail to retake Jamaica at the Battle of Ocho Rios. 1806 – War of the Fourth Coalition: Convinced that he is facing a much larger force, Prussian General von Romberg, commanding 5,300 men, surrenders the city of Stettin to 800 French soldiers. 1817 – Simón Bolívar becomes President of the Third Republic of Venezuela. 1831 – Nat Turner is arrested for leading the bloodiest slave rebellion in United States history. 1863 – Danish Prince Vilhelm arrives in Athens to assume his throne as George I, King of the Hellenes. 1864 – The Treaty of Vienna is signed, by which Denmark relinquishes one province each to Prussia and Austria. 1888 – The Rudd Concession is granted by Matabeleland to agents of Cecil Rhodes. 1905 – Czar Nicholas II issues the October Manifesto, granting the Russian peoples basic civil liberties and the right to form a duma. (October 17 in the Julian calendar) 1918 – World War I: The Ottoman Empire signs the Armistice of Mudros with the Allies. 1918 – World War I: Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen, a state union of Kingdom of Hungary and Triune Kingdom of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia is abolished with decisions of Croatian and Hungarian parliaments 1920 – The Communist Party of Australia is founded in Sydney. 1938 – Orson Welles broadcasts a radio adaptation of H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds, causing a massive panic in some of the audience in the United States. 1941 – President Roosevelt approves $1 billion in Lend-Lease aid to the Allied nations. 1941 – Holocaust: Fifteen hundred Jews from Pidhaytsi are sent by Nazis to Bełżec extermination camp. 1942 – World War II: Lt. Tony Fasson and Able Seaman Colin Grazier drown while taking code books from the sinking German submarine U-559. 1944 – Holocaust: Anne and Margot Frank are deported from Auschwitz to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they die from disease the following year, shortly before the end of WWII. 1945 – Jackie Robinson of the Kansas City Monarchs signs a contract for the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking the baseball color line. 1947 – The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the foundation of the World Trade Organization (WTO), is founded. 1948 – A luzzu fishing boat overloaded with passengers capsizes and sinks in the Gozo Channel off Qala, Gozo, Malta, killing 23 of the 27 people on board. 1953 – President Eisenhower approves the top-secret document NSC 162/2 concerning the maintenance of a strong nuclear deterrent force against the Soviet Union. 1956 – Hungarian Revolution: The government recognizes the new workers' councils. Army officer Béla Király leads an attack on the Communist Party headquarters. 1959 – Piedmont Airlines Flight 349 crashes on approach to Charlottesville–Albemarle Airport in Albemarle County, Virginia, killing 26 of the 27 on board. 1961 – The Soviet Union detonates the Tsar Bomba, the most powerful explosive device ever detonated. 1961 – Due to "violations of Vladimir Lenin's precepts", it is decreed that Joseph Stalin's body be removed from its place of honour inside Lenin's tomb and buried near the Kremlin Wall with a plain granite marker. 1973 – The Bosphorus Bridge in Turkey is completed, connecting the continents of Europe and Asia over the Bosphorus for the second time. 1975 – Prince Juan Carlos I of Spain becomes acting head of state, taking over for the country's ailing dictator, Gen. Francisco Franco. 1975 – Forty-five people are killed when Inex-Adria Aviopromet Flight 450 crashes into Suchdol, Prague, while on approach to Prague Ruzyně Airport (now Václav Havel Airport Prague) in Czechoslovakia (present-day Czech Republic). 1980 – El Salvador and Honduras agree to put the border dispute fought over in 1969's Football War before the International Court of Justice. 1983 – The first democratic elections in Argentina, after seven years of military rule, are held. 1985 – Space Shuttle Challenger lifts off for mission STS-61-A, its final successful mission. 1991 – The Israeli-Palestinian conflict: The Madrid Conference commences in an effort to revive peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine. 1995 – Quebec citizens narrowly vote (50.58% to 49.42%) in favour of remaining a province of Canada in their second referendum on national sovereignty. 2005 – The rebuilt Dresden Frauenkirche (destroyed in the firebombing of Dresden during World War II) is reconsecrated after a thirteen-year rebuilding project. 2014 – Sweden is the first European Union member state to officially recognize the State of Palestine. 2014 – Four people are killed when a Beechcraft Super King Air crashes at Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport in Wichita, Kansas. 2015 – Sixty-four people are killed and more than 147 injuries after a fire in a nightclub in the Romanian capital Bucharest. 2020 – A magnitude 7.0 earthquake strikes the Aegean Sea between Greece and Turkey, triggering a tsunami. At least 119 people die mainly due to collapsed buildings.

#Events

[oscopelabs]

Isn’t Everything Autobiographical?: Ethan Hawke In Nine Films And A Novel by Marya Gates

When asked during his first ever on-camera interview if he’d like to continue acting, a young Ethan Hawke replied, “I don’t know if it’s going to be there, but I’d like to do it.” He then gives a guileless shrug of relief as the interview ends, wiping imaginary sweat off his brow. The simultaneous fusion of his nervous energy and poised body language will be familiar to those who’ve seen later interviews with the actor. The practicality and wisdom he exudes at such a young age would prove to be a through-line of his nearly 40-year career. In an interview many decades later, he told Ideas Tap that many children get into acting because they’re seeking attention, but those who find their calling in the craft discover that a “desire to communicate and to share and to be a part of something bigger than yourself takes over, a certain craftsmanship—and that will bring you a lot of pleasure.”

Through Hawke’s dedication to his craft, we’ve also seen his maturation as a person unfold on screen. Though none of his roles are traditionally what we think of when we think of autobiography, many of Hawke’s roles, as well as his work as a writer, suggest a sort of fictional autobiographical lineage. While these highlights in his career are not strictly autofiction, one can trace Hawke’s Künstlerromanesque trajectory from his childhood ambitions to his life now as a man dedicated to art, not greatness. 

Hawke’s first two films, Joe Dante’s sci-fi fantasy Explorers with River Phoenix and Peter Weir’s Dead Poets Society with Robin Williams, set the tone for a diverse filmography filled with popcorn fare and indie cinema in equal measure, but they also served as touchstones in his development as person drawn to self-expression through art. In an interview with Rolling Stone’s David Fear, Hawke spoke about the impact of these two films on him as an actor. When River Phoenix, his friend and co-star in Explorers, had his life cut short by a drug overdose, it hit Hawke personally. He saw from the inside what Hollywood was capable of doing to young people with talent. Hawke never attempted to break out, to become a star. He did the work he loved and kept the wild Hollywood lifestyle mostly at arm’s length. 

Like any good film of this genre, Dead Poets Society is not just a film about characters coming of age, but a film that guides the viewer as well, if they are open to its message. Hawke’s performance as repressed schoolboy Todd in the film is mostly internal, all reactions and penetrating glances, rather than grandiose movements or speeches. Through his nervy body language and searching gaze, you can feel both how closed off to the world Todd is, and yet how willing he is to let change in. Hawke has said working on this film taught him that art has a real power, that it can affect people deeply. This ethos permeates many of the characters Hawke has inhabited in his career. 

In Dead Poets Society, Mr. Keating (Robin Williams) tells the boys that we read and write poetry because the human race is full of passion. He insists, “poetry, beauty, romance, love—these are what we stay alive for.” Hawke gave a 2020 TEDTalk entitled Give Yourself Permission To Be Creative, in which he explored what it means to be creative, pushing viewers to ask themselves if they think human creativity matters. In response to his own question, he said “Most people don’t spend a lot of time thinking about poetry, right? They have a life to live and they’re not really that concerned with Allen Ginsberg’s poems, or anybody’s poems, until their father dies, they go to a funeral, you lose a child, somebody breaks your heart, they don’t love you anymore, and all of the sudden you’re desperate for making sense out of this life and ‘has anyone ever felt this bad before? How did they come out of this cloud?’ Or the inverse, something great. You meet somebody and your heart explodes. You love them so much, you can’t even see straight, you know, you’re dizzy. ‘Did anybody feel like this before? What is happening to me?’ And that’s when art is not a luxury. It’s actually sustenance. We need it.” 

Throughout many of his roles post-Dead Poets Society, Hawke explores the nature of creativity through his embodiment of writers and musicians. Often these characters are searching for a greater purpose through art, while ultimately finding that human connection is the key. Without that human connection, their art is nothing.

We see the first germ of this attraction to portray creative people on screen with his performance as Troy Dyer in Reality Bites. As Troy Dyer, a philosophy-spouting college dropout turned grunge-band frontman in Reality Bites, Hawke was posited as a Gen-X hero. His inability to keep a job and his musician lifestyle were held in stark contrast to Ben Stiller’s yuppie TV exec Michael Grates. However in true slacker spirit, he isn’t actually committed to the art of music, often missing rehearsals, as Lelaina points out. Troy even uses his music at one point to humiliate Lelaina, dedicating a rendition of “Add It Up” by Violent Femmes to her. The lyrics add insult to injury as earlier that day he snuck out of her room after the two had sex for the first time. Troy’s lack of commitment to his music matches his inability to commit to those relationships in his life that mean the most to him. 

Reality Bites is also where he first positioned himself as one of the great orators of modern cinema.” Take this early monologue, in which he outlines his beliefs to Winona Ryder’s would-be documentarian Lelaina Pierce: “There’s no point to any of this. It’s all just a random lottery of meaningless tragedy and a series of near escapes. So I take pleasure in the details. You know, a quarter-pounder with cheese, those are good, the sky about ten minutes before it starts to rain, the moment where your laughter become a cackle, and I, I sit back and I smoke my Camel Straights and I ride my own melt.” 

Hawke brings the same intense gaze to this performance as he did to Dead Poets Society, as if his eyes could swallow the world whole. But where Todd’s body language was walled-off, Troy’s is loud and boisterous. He’s quick to see the faults of those around him, but also the good things the world has to offer. It’s a pretty honest depiction of how self-centered your early-20s tend to be, where riding your own melt seems like the best option. As the film progresses, Troy lets others in, saying to Lelaina, “This is all we need. A couple of smokes, a cup of coffee, and a little bit of conversation. You, me and five bucks.”

Like the character, Hawke was in his early twenties and as he would continue to philosophize through other characters, they would age along with him and so would their takes on the world. If you only engage with anyone at one phase in their life, you do a disservice to the arc of human existence. We have the ability to grow and change as we learn who we are and become less self-centered. In Hawke’s career, there’s no better example of this than his multi-film turn as Jesse in the Before Trilogy. While the creation of Jesse and Celine are credited to writer-director Richard Linklater and his writing partner Kim Krizan, much of what made it to the screen even as early as the first film were filtered through the life experiences of Hawke and his co-star Julie Delpy. 

In a Q&A with Jess Walter promoting his most recent novel A Bright Ray of Darkness, Hawke said that Jesse from the Before Trilogy is like an alt-universe version of himself, and through them we can see the self-awareness and curiosity present in the early ET interview grow into the the kind of man Keating from Dead Poets Society urged his students to become. 

In Before Sunrise, Hawke’s Jesse is roughly the same age as Troy in Reality Bites, and as such is still in a narcissistic phase of his life. After spending several romantic hours with Celine in Vienna, the two share their thoughts about relationships. Celine says she wants to be her own person, but that she also desperately wants to love and be loved. Jesse shares this monologue, “Sometimes I dream about being a good father and a good husband. And sometimes it feels really close. But then other times it seems silly, like it would ruin my whole life. And it’s not just a fear of commitment or that I’m incapable of caring or loving because. . . I can. It’s just that, if I’m totally honest with myself, I think I’d rather die knowing that I was really good at something. That I had excelled in some way than that I’d just been in a nice, caring relationship.”

The film ends without the audience knowing if Jesse and Celine ever see each other again. That initial shock is unfortunately now not quite as impactful if you are aware of the sequels. But I think it is an astute look at two people who meet when they are still discovering who they are. Still growing. Jesse, at least, is definitely not ready for any kind of commitment. Then of course, we find out in Before Sunset that he’s fumbled his way into marriage and fatherhood, and while he’s excelling at the latter, he’s failing at the former. 

As in Reality Bites, Hawke explores the dynamics of band life again in Before Sunset, when Jesse recalls to Celine how he was in a band, but they were too obsessed with getting a deal to truly enjoy the process of making music. He says to her, “You know, it's all we talked about, it was all we thought about, getting bigger shows, and everything was just...focused on the future, all the time. And now, the band doesn't even exist anymore, right? And looking back at the... at the shows we did play, even rehearsing... You know, it was just so much fun! Now I'd be able to enjoy every minute of it.”

The filming of Before Sunset happened to coincide with the dissolution of Hawke’s first marriage. And while these films are not autobiographical, everyone involved have stated that they’ve added personal elements to their characters. They even poke fun at it in the opening scene when a journalist asks how autobiographical Jesse’s novel is. True to form, he responds with a monologue, “Well, I mean, isn’t everything autobiographical? I mean, we all see the world through our own tiny keyhole, right? I mean, I always think of Thomas Wolfe, you know. Have you ever seen that little one page note to reader in the front of Look Homeward, Angel, right? You know what I'm talking about? Anyway, he says that we are the sum of all the moments of our lives, and that, anybody who sits down to write is gonna use the clay of their own life, that you can’t avoid that.”

While Before Sunset was shot in 2003, released in 2004 and this monologue refers to the fictional book within the trilogy entitled This Time, Hawke would take this same approach more than a decade later with his novel A Bright Ray of Darkness.

In the novel, Hawke crafts a quasi-autobiographical story, using his experience in theater to work through the perspective he now has on his failed marriage to Uma Thurman. Much like Jesse in Before Sunset, Hawke is reluctant to call the book autobiographical, but the parallels to his own divorce are evident. And as Jesse paraphrased Wolfe, isn’t everything we do autobiographical? In the book, movie star William Harding has blown up his seemingly picture-perfect marriage with a pop star by having an affair while filming on location in South Africa. The book, structured in scenes and acts like a play, follows the aftermath as he navigates his impending divorce, his relationship with his small children, and his performance as Hotspur in a production of Henry IV on Broadway. 

Throughout much of the novel, William looks back at the mistakes he made that led to the breakup of his marriage. He’s now in his 30s and has the clarity to see how selfish he was in his 20s. Hawke, however, was in his forties while writing the book. Through the layers of hindsight, you can feel how Hawke has processed not just the painful emotional growth spurt of his 20s, but also the way he can now mine the wisdom that comes from true reflection. Still, as steeped as the novel is in self-reflection, it does not claim to have all the answers. In fact, it offers William, as well as the readers, more questions to contemplate than it does answers.

The wisdom to know that you will never quite understand everything is broached by Hawke early in the third film in the Before Trilogy, 2013’s Before Midnight. At this point in their love story, Jesse’s marriage has ended and he and Celine are parents to twin girls. Jesse has released two more books: That Time, which recounts the events of the previous film, and Temporary Cast Members of a Long-Running But Little Seen Production of a Play Called Fleeting. Before Midnight breaks the bewitching spell of the first two films by adding more cast members and showing the friction that comes with an attempt to grow old with someone. When discussing his three books, a young man says the title of his third is too long, Jesse says it wasn’t as well loved, and an older professor friend says it’s his best book because it’s more ambitious. It seems Linklater and company already knew how the departure of this third film might be regarded by fans. But it is this very departure that shows their commitment to honestly showing the passage of time and our relationship to it. 

About halfway through the film Jesse and Celine depart the Greek villa where they have been spending the summer, and we finally get a one-on-one conversation like we’re used to with these films. In one exchange, I feel they summarize the point of the entire trilogy, and possibly Hawke’s entire ethos: 

Jesse: Every year, I just seem to get a little bit more humbled and more overwhelmed about all the things I’m never going to know or understand. 

Celine: That’s what I keep telling you. You know nothing!

Jesse: I know, I know! I'm coming around! 

[Celine and Jesse laugh.] 

Celine: But not knowing is not so bad. I mean, the point is to be looking, searching. To stay hungry, right?

Throughout the series, Linklater, Delpy, and Hawke explore what they call the “transient nature of everything.” Jesse says his books are less about time and more about perception. It’s the rare person who can assess themselves or the world around them acutely in the present. For most of us, it takes time and self-reflection to come to any sort of understanding about our own nature. Before Midnight asks us to look back at the first two films with honesty, to remove the romantic lens with which they first appeared to us. It asks us to reevaluate what romance even truly is. 

Hawke explores this same concept again in the 2018 romantic comedy Juliet, Naked. In this adaptation of the 2009 Nick Hornby novel, Hawke plays a washed-up singer-songwriter named Tucker Crowe. He had a big hit album, Juliet, in the early ‘90s and then disappeared into obscurity. Rose Bryne plays a woman named Annie whose longtime boyfriend Duncan is obsessed with the singer and the album, stuck on the way the bummer songs about a bad breakup make him feel. As the film begins, Annie reveals that she thinks she’s wasted 15 years of her life with this schmuck. This being a rom-com, we know that Hawke and Byrne’s characters will eventually meet-cute. What’s so revelatory about the film is its raw depiction of how hard it is for many to reassess who they really are later in life. 

Duncan is stuck as the self-obsessed, self-pitying person he likely was when Annie first met him, but she reveals he was so unlike anyone else in her remote town that she looked the other way for far too long. Now it’s almost too late. By chance, she connects with Crowe and finds a different kind of man.

See, when Crowe wrote Juliet, he also was a navel-gazing twentysomething whose emotional development had not yet reached the point of being able to see both sides in a romantic entanglement. He worked through his heartbreak through art, and though it spoke to other people, he didn’t think about the woman or her feelings on the subject. In a way, Crowe’s music sounds a bit like what Reality Bites’s Troy Dyer may have written, if he ever had the drive to actually work at his music. Eventually, it’s revealed that Crowe walked away from it all when Julie, the woman who broke his heart, confronted him with their child—something he was well aware of, but from which he had been running away. Faced with the harsh reality of his actions and the ramifications they had on the world beyond his own feelings, he ran even farther away from responsibility. In telling the story to Annie, he says, “I couldn’t play any of those songs anymore, you know? After that, I just... I couldn’t play these insipid, self-pitying songs about Julie breaking my heart. You know, they were a joke. And before I know it, a couple of decades have gone by and some doctor hands me... hands me Jackson. I hold him, you know, and I look at him. And I know that this boy. . . is my last chance.”

When we first meet Crowe, he’s now dedicated his life to raising his youngest son, having at this point messed up with four previous children. The many facets of parenthood is something that shows up in Hawke’s later body of work many times, in projects as wholly different as Brooklyn’s Finest, Before Midnight, Boyhood, Maggie’s Plan, First Reformed, and even his novel A Bright Ray of Darkness. In each of these projects, decisions made by Hawke’s characters have a big impact on their children’s lives. These films explore the financial pressures of parenthood, the quirks of blended families, the impact of absent fathers, and even the tragedy of a father’s wishes acquiesced without question. Hawke’s take on parenthood is that of flawed men always striving to overcome the worst of themselves for the betterment of the next generation, often with mixed results. 

Where Juliet, Naked showed a potential arc of redemption for a father gone astray, First Reformed paints a bleaker portrait. Hawke plays Pastor Toller, a man of the cloth struggling with his own faith who attempts to counsel an environmental activist whose impending fatherhood has driven him to suicidal despair. Toller himself is struggling under the weight of fatherhood, believing he sent his own son to die a needless death in a morally bankrupt war. Sharing the story, he says “My father taught at VMI. I encouraged my son to enlist. It was the family tradition. Like his father, his grandfather. Patriotic tradition. My wife was very opposed. But he enlisted against her wishes. . . .  Six months later he was killed in Iraq. There was no moral justification for this conflict. My wife could not live with me after that. Who could blame her? I left the military. Reverend Jeffers at Abundant Life Church heard about my situation. They offered me a position at First Reformed. And here I am.” How do we carry the weight of actions that affect lives that are not even our own? 

If Peter Weir set the father figure template in Dead Poets Society, and Paul Schrader explored the consequences of direct parental influence on their children’s lives, director Richard Linklater subverts the idea of a mentor-guide in Boyhood, showing both parents are as lost as the kid himself. When young Mason (Ellar Coltrane) asks his dad (Hawke) what’s the point of everything, his reply is “I sure as shit don’t know. Nobody does. We’re all just winging it.” As the film ends, Mason sits atop a mountain with a new friend he’s made in the dorms discussing time. She says that everyone is always talking about seize the moment—carpe diem!—but she thinks it’s the other way around. That the moments seize us. In Reality Bites, Troy gets annoyed at Lelaina’s constant need to “memorex” everything with her camcorder, yet Boyhood is a film about capturing a life over a 12-year period. The Before Trilogy checks in on Jesse and Celine every nine years. Hawke’s entire career. in fact, has captured his growth from an awkward teen to a prolific artist and devoted father, a master of his craft and philosopher at heart. 

#ethan hawke #boyhood #before trilogy #before midnight #before sunset #before sunrise #reality bites #first reformed #dead poets society #a bright ray of darkness #film writing #film essay #musings #oscilloscope laboratories