Chapters: 11/12
Fandom: Gossip Girl (TV 2007)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Dan Humphrey/Blair Waldorf, minor Nate Archibald/Blair Waldorf - Relationship, very minor Carter Baizen/Blair Waldorf
Characters: Blair Waldorf, Dan Humphrey, Serena van der Woodsen, Tripp van der Bilt, Aaron Rose, Nelly Yuki, Dorota Kishlovsky, Nate Archibald, Harold Waldorf, Eleanor Waldorf, Diana Payne, Carter Baizen, Georgina Sparks, Rufus Humphrey, Chuck Bass, Milo Humphrey, Vanessa Abrams
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - 1960s, Alternate Universe - 1970s, Alternate Universe - Journalism, loosely based on Good Girls Revolt, Period-Typical Sexism, Period Typical Bigotry, Period Typical Anti Semitism, jewish!Dan Humphrey, References to eating disorders, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction, Attempted Sexual Assault
Summary:
Blair beams up at him. “I am so proud of you.”
“I’m proud of us,” Dan corrects. “As far as I can tell, you and I are kicking everybody else’s ass.”
Or, the one where Dan's a star reporter and Blair's his researcher. For now.
Coco ilu PLEASE drop the queer reading of Bunnicula essay 😭 hope ur having a good day, i am dying at the thought of (chester??) the cat looking at that tiny bunny sucking the red off an apple like 'i know what u are..'
!!!! I love you too, anon, omg, thank you so much for sending me such a delightful question! Had a surprisingly decent day as well, so I hope you had a great one too!
Thanks so much for asking me about Bunnicula - I read it in about second grade, after my 'introduction' to Dracula beyond pop culture was Dead and Loving It the year prior (and seeing Bela Lugosi clips on the old movies channels here and there), and this was a much more digestible, less terrifying experience of vampires for baby Coco.
First off, the "I know what you are" memes are funny, but genuinely, I think Chester the cat and Harold the dog were such an old married couple. They're not quite as acrid as Statler and Waldorf or as affectionate as Timon and Pumbaa, but the way they snark at each other, affectionately disparage one another's literary tastes, and tease about various neuroses, as well as playing Holmes and Watson for the mystery of the story speaks for itself! That Chester is the one who needs to overcome his prejudice of outsiders is an interesting wrinkle to this, but he's working on it through therapy and, literally, as the text says, "finding himself". I mean, if this isn't a gay cat unpacking his internalized issues and respectability politics with the help of the zanier Bunnicula and the more self-assured Harold, I don't know what is.
Next, there's Bunnicula himself; an homage to tropes of both classic vampire films and the trashy television fare of the mid-20th century, which is already historically very popular with queer people for many reasons - camp factor, the affinity many of the LGBTQ+ community towards horror, and especially how easily identifiable the vampire in particular is as a queer figure. The core message of the story is that of accepting and celebrating the differences of others; Bunnicula is indeed a vampire, but, being a vampire rabbit, only sucks the life out of vegetables and is therefore harmless - it's Chester's judgment of him making him an outsider that's the issue. (Sidenote that the concept is cute + funny + kid-friendly enough that it sidesteps the usual lame cop-out that is the vegetarian vampire.) The vampire as an outsider - and hence queer - is an age-old reading. Further, while there's definitely space for queer narratives of feeling like a monster and/or imperfect/toxic stories aimed at teenagers and adults, the vampire as specifically oppressed and in a work aimed at kids works uniquely well in this context since Bunnicula's harmlessness allows him to sidestep the usual conundrums of monster-posing-genuine-threat-as-stand-in-for-oppressed group (looking at you, Zootopia.). (Added addendum that while I mentioned narratives for kids having to exist in a simpler moral universe here, this 1:1 is an issue I have with many 'vampire as a stand-in for queer people' narratives -- True Blood/Southern Vampire Mysteries ran into it frequently, although otoh I found the latest Interview With The Vampire TV show to handle it with better nuance. It's tricky territory, to say the least)
The meta-narrative to this can't be ignored. The author, James Howe, came out as gay decades after writing this with his late first wife, Debbie, and has expressed many times that though he was closeted/uncertain at the time of writing the original novel, he on reflection must have subconsciously imbued it with themes of being a horror-loving, artistic, bullied outsider that reflected his own childhood experiences. Likewise, he's noted that Debbie, who was Jewish and had similar tastes and experiences, was probably doing the same. Since coming out, James Howe has engaged in extensive anti-bullying and equality-focused advocacy work, and has since made his priority incorporating themes of compassion towards the outsider in all his writings for kids - his later works have even featured canon gay characters. From what I've read, these themes have persisted through the rest of the Bunnicula series (though I think I only ever read the first book).
All this to say: Chester and Harold are married, Bunnicula is their flamboyant housemate.
Which Actors Passed Away on the Titanic? Check Here!
Gloria Stuart led a long, exciting life similar to that of her "Titanic" heroine. The actor, who was 100 years old when she passed away in 2010, had been in more than 80 films and television shows dating back to Hollywood's Golden Age. See the full story below.
The “unsinkable” liner undoubtedly sailed with insufficient lifeboats, but it was infamously the lower Third Class passengers who suffered the heaviest losses—roughly two-thirds of them perished.
Although sea travel is much safer now, it is still risky, as the recent tragedy on the Costa Concordia in Italy demonstrated. Nevertheless, the sinking still captures the public’s attention, and back then, like now, the crowd was curious about the famous names of the deceased.
1. John Jacob Astor Iv
John Jacob Astor IV, a German-American businessman who had acquired his fortune in real estate and was the great-grandson of John Jacob Astor, the creator of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York, was likely the most well-known and wealthy of the victims of the actual sinking.
Astor IV’s wife made it to a lifeboat by following the rule that women and children should be rescued first, but Astor did not and perished at the age of 47.
2. Benjamin Guggenheim
The heir to the family’s mining company, Benjamin Guggenheim, was another well-known and wealthy passenger who passed away.
He believed the catastrophe was small at first, but the tale goes that when he understood the Titanic was sinking and that a rescue attempt was doubtful, he changed into his formal evening attire to prepare for death.
Ironically, he had planned to travel on the Lusitania, but when that ship needed repairs, he opted to travel on the newest, most luxurious ocean liner instead.
3. Isidor Straus
The German-born co-owner of the Macy’s department store in New York, Isidor Straus, passed away at the same time as his wife, Ida.
In the 1997 film Titanic, they are shown laying together on a bed as water pours into the room. They were last seen seated in deck chairs on the deck after refusing to be separated in the lifeboats.
The only solace for the heartbroken family was the knowledge that their infant grandson Stuart was scheduled to travel as well, but had instead remained in England due to his illness.
4. Jack Phillips
Even though nearly none of the crew members were well-known before the voyage, some of them were afterward made famous all over the world. The crew’s mortality rate was as high as two-thirds.
The senior radio operator on board was Jack Phillips, and he was the one who transmitted the distress and rescue signals using the code CQD (although the new SOS was replacing it).
He was ultimately held responsible for not relaying communications from the steamships Mesaba and the SS Californian, both of which had indicated icebergs and ice in the Titanic’s course ahead because he was under pressure to deliver passenger messages as well.
After working until the power went out, Phillips and Harold Bride fled for safety. Bride survived, but Phillips perished in the water while riding on his capsized lifeboat.
5. Thomas Andrews
Thomas Andrews, a Ulsterman who oversaw the building of the Titanic, was unquestionably one of the more well-known individuals after the catastrophe.
Andrews was confident in “his” Titanic and thought it was as well-built as possible. Designers and engineers typically go on the first voyage to evaluate the design and record issues.
But he realized that the iceberg’s gash was too much for the individual hulls to bear and that the ship was doomed. He remained on board until the very end, offering assistance to other passengers and seizing each moment he could before his goal was lost forever.
Let’s discuss the Titanic actors who died.
6. Gloria Stuart (1910 – 2010)
Gloria Stuart led a long, exciting life similar to that of her “Titanic” heroine. The actor, who was 100 years old when she passed away in 2010; had been in more than 80 films and television shows dating back to Hollywood’s Golden Age.
Additionally, she cross-examined luminaries like Humphrey Bogart, Charlie Chaplin, Dorothy Parker, and Groucho Marx.
She has worked on several timeless films from that period, including The Three Musketeers (1939), The Invisible Man (1933), The Old Dark House (1932), and Poor Little Rich Girl (1936).
The last time Stuart had acted in a high-profile production—or even a film at all, for that matter—was in 1997’s “Titanic,” which she played.
In reality, Stuart had practically given up acting by the time she was cast and, according to reports, even didn’t have an agent.
However, the seasoned actor did not let fans down upon her triumphant return to Hollywood, turning in a performance as the elderly Rose that more or less eclipsed the efforts of the entire cast.
Stuart was appropriately honored for her work with her first and only Academy Award nomination, even though she didn’t win the award on Oscar night.
7. Bernard Fox (1927 – 2016)
While a large portion of the “Titanic” central ensemble was charged with playing fictional characters whose names didn’t exist on the ship’s official manifest, many others had the considerably more challenging duty of portraying actual passengers who suffered real-life tragedies as the ship sank.
The latter group included Welsh-born actor and celebrated star of numerous movies and television shows Bernard Fox, who played the late, great Colonel Archibald Gracie IV in the movie “Titanic” with a low-key, aristocratic air befitting the man’s legacy.
Gracie was a writer and amateur historian whose great-great-grandfather constructed New York’s Gracie Mansion, which today serves as the Mayor’s official house. If you’re not familiar with that history, it was erected in the early 1800s.
Gracie initially appears in “Titanic” as Rose is being talked back from committing suicide by Jack, praising the young man for saving her.
Gracie, a real-life Titanic survivor, published “The Truth On the Titanic” in 1913 as a book about calamity.
That book is today recognized as one of the most important accounts of the ship’s sinking (it is currently available under the title “Titanic: A Survivor’s Story”).
Sadly, Gracie didn’t live to see it printed; he died just a few months after his Titanic experience. Regarding Fox, the adored actor, the movie served as one of his final on-screen appearances, and he lived for a full ten years after his “Titanic” performance.
would you still love blaine if his name had ended up being blair/j
this is a very funny question Would I Still Love Him. i think i wouldn’t be able to get away with just saying blaine and have everyone instantly know who i’m talking about since there is another iconic tv character blair (waldorf from gossip girl) but still yes… i think i would love him even if his name was harold the third junior…
Every doctor, nurse, and staff person in this ER is dodging Blair’s eye. Typical. It’s not her fault they’re all grossly incompetent.
It’s just as well, if the previous ten briefings she’s had to shake down these people for are any indication, they won’t have anything useful to tell her anyway.
She makes herself pace the length of the waiting area again, if only to calm herself down a little before heading back into the room.
“Blair-bear!”
Her head jerks up at the nickname, and she immediately spots her father and his husband, the latter holding a drink carrier laden with to-go cups.
“We brought hot chocolate!” Roman says, and Blair swears it’s only twenty percent forcibly cheerful. He’s a talent, Roman is.
“How’s the patient?” Harold asks, coming in to kiss Blair on the cheek as Roman hands her one of their cups.
“Fine, I guess,” she sighs down at the plastic coffee lid. “Apparently their radiology department is so very backed up, and because he ‘isn’t critical,’ he’s at the end of the waiting list. So far, all they’ve done is stick him in a room and dose him with painkillers, which any one who reads the New Yorker will tell you is precisely what’s wrong with our medical system.”
Her father blinks at her, taken aback, and so she forces herself to take a breath, and then a sip of the hot chocolate. Oh, Maison, her steadfast friend. Her father hasn’t seen much of her prickly, ranting, bitchy side—by design—but her patience is looking pretty threadbare at the moment. Roman for his part simply looks bemused.
“We just feel awful,” Roman offers, voice dripping with sympathy—Blair knows him well enough now to know its genuine—probably why he did so well as a model in his day. Genuity is difficult to fake, and for a Frenchman, impossible. “Wollman Rink does seem cursed for us, no?”
Blair grimaces around the lid of her cup, but when she looks Roman’s eyes are only sparkling with amusement. He’s too good for her. The same could be said about Dan too. At least this fall wasn’t her fault. It was entirely due to that group of twelve-year-olds trying to do their own Moulin Rouge routine, and poor Dan was too inexperienced a skater to get out of their way in time.
“Some twisted rite of passage,” Blair agrees grimly, making Roman laugh, and Harold smile indulgently, patting her on the shoulder.
She takes another sip of the cocoa, its warmth and richness oddly fortifying. “Thank you,” she says sincerely, gesturing with the cup in her hand. “But you don’t have to stay.”
“Are you sure?” her father checks, concerned.
“It’s fine,” she reassures him. “You’re only in the city for a few more days, you shouldn’t waste one hanging out in the emergency room.”
“We’ve been here plenty of times before, you know.”
Blair smiles, rolling her eyes. “I know. But we’ll be fine, really.” Plus, chances are she’ll have to dress down another George Clooney ER wannabe in the next hour, and she doesn’t really want her dads to see it. It would hardly be in the spirit of the season.
“Okay,” Harold says reluctantly, leaning in to kiss her on the cheek again. “Give Daniel our best, okay?”
“Yes,” Roman adds, throwing an arm around her shoulders with a side-hug as he hands over the drink tray. “Tell Handsome Dan get well soon from us.”
Blair shakes her head, smiling. “I’ll do that.”
She watches her dads round the corner, then takes another deep breath, forcing her shoulder down. Then, she takes one more fortifying sip of cocoa before putting her drink back in the carrier, and walking down the hall, slipping into the room where they’d been holding Dan since their second hour here.
Dan’s face lights up the second he sees her. “Waldorf!”
She makes straight for him, dropping a kiss on top of his head, trying not to focus too much on the temporary splint they have his leg in. “How are you feeling?”
“Oh me?” he slurs, “I’m great.” He blinks blearily up at her, his eyes, normally so sharp, are distant, unfocused, like there’s a light film over them. “You’re pretty.”
“Oh, thank you, Humphrey.” She spares a glance at the tray in her hand, and decides hot liquids are probably counterproductive to this situation, so she turns to set them on the counter far out of Dan’s reach. He watches her the whole time, a dazed smile on his face, so far gone.
“Sorry you’re stuck here,” she sighs, carding a hand through his hair. He bumps his head eagerly into her touch, like a cat, or either of her father’s pets when they’re drunk on attention. “I tried seeing if we could get you an x-ray or even just a consult, but apparently the holidays are rife with way more severe casualties.”
Dan gazes up at her, giving no cue if anything she just said registered. “Marry me,” he says.
She freezes, gaping at him in confusion. “What?”
“Marry me,” he repeats, dopey grin on his face, yet completely sincere.
Blair swallows, pressing her lips tightly together. She should not laugh at him, not in this state. “We’re already married, kitten. For over a year now.”
Dan’s eyes flash with recognition, or happiness, or opiates, but she’s again not sure if he actually heard her.
“You’re pretty,” he repeats. So…maybe?
“Oh, thank you,” Blair twists one of his curls around her finger. “So are you.”
He has the audacity to blush, teeth digging into his lower lip as he grins. Then, after a beat, his expression turns so very earnest again, rife with cloudy-eyed sincerity. “Marry me.”
“Sorry,” Blair teases, holding up her left hand to show her ring, unable to help herself. “I’m taken.”
Dan’s face falls, eyes widening and lips pouting, the textbook definition of pitiful.
Chapters: 7/12
Fandom: Gossip Girl (TV 2007)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Dan Humphrey/Blair Waldorf, minor Nate Archibald/Blair Waldorf - Relationship, very minor Carter Baizen/Blair Waldorf
Characters: Blair Waldorf, Dan Humphrey, Serena van der Woodsen, Tripp van der Bilt, Aaron Rose, Nelly Yuki, Dorota Kishlovsky, Nate Archibald, Harold Waldorf, Eleanor Waldorf, Diana Payne, Carter Baizen, Georgina Sparks, Rufus Humphrey
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - 1960s, Alternate Universe - 1970s, Alternate Universe - Journalism, loosely based on Good Girls Revolt, Period-Typical Sexism, Period Typical Bigotry, Period Typical Anti Semitism, jewish!Dan Humphrey, References to eating disorders
Summary:
Blair beams up at him. “I am so proud of you.”
“I’m proud of us,” Dan corrects. “As far as I can tell, you and I are kicking everybody else’s ass.”
Or, the one where Dan's a star reporter and Blair's his researcher. For now.
What are your favorite Christmas chair headcanons?
ooh fun ty!! ok I'm gonna do this in bullet points bc it's easier so
while they still live in ny blair definitely does the whole ice skating, candy canes thing with her family, and henry once he's old enough, and chuck just let's her bc he knows how important it is to her
they always decorate the tree together instead of hiring someone to do it as chuck hasn't had a traditional childhood so blair wants him to be involved in their Christmases. this is even better when they have henry as he loves it and he makes little decorations in school which they proudly hang on the tree
although chuck doesn't like celebrating his birthday he does like getting Christmas presents so blair always gets him something ridiculously expensive and also more 'normal' gifts bc they're just like that
in paris they go to big Christmas markets with henry and still ice skate together with harold when he and roman visit (apart from chuck he watches with roman from the sidelines) and they make hot chocolate together
although blair mostly bakes pie she does learn to bake Christmas cookies. the first year she does it she almost burns the waldorf kitchen down but she gets pretty good at it. and yes, cookie innuendo does become the festive equivalent of blair's pie at thanksgiving
blair and henry tag-team chuck to get up at like 6am and although chuck plays grumpy he loves getting to give henry the Christmas that he never got as a child and he actually does a lot of the present organisation while henry sleeps so it's all perfect
"I am not a stop along the way, I am the destination!"
x Daughter of Harold and Eleanor Waldorf
x Heiress and Queen of Upper East Side
x Hopeless Romantic
x Audrey Hepburn Lover
x Fan of Christian Louboutin
x Endorser of Retail Therapy
This portrayal is Canon to the Book and Show, and Triggering content (Drugs, Alcohol, and the like) may be brought up. Her character will not be softened or held back for comfort reasons, she is unapologetically herself. Minors do not interact. Follow and interact at your own discretion.
Blair is the daughter of Harold and Eleanor Waldorf, respectively a successful lawyer and fashion designer. Her parents divorced, and her stepfathers include Roman Garrel and Cyrus Rose. After failing to build a future with Nate Archibald, Blair begins a relationship with Chuck Bass but later embarks in a failed marriage to Prince Louis Grimaldi throughout the duration of the series.
Is ambitious and has a clear determination to succeed. She loves a challenge and values her freedom, shying away from situations where she feels tied down. Angelina lives in the moment and is highly observant of her surroundings.
She was very different from the other girls, but became friends with them because she was so much fun to be around. She was cheerful and optimistic, and she never let anything stand in the way of her happiness.