#hope in 2022 i can bring you more 'original' content

[babyjakes]

more than a score.

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event | whumptember 2022

prompt | bad grades

pairing | daddy!frank adler x little!student!reader

warnings | frank is sfw daddy only per usual, college student!reader, reader does poorly on an exam and gets upset, negative self-talk, frank is so soft we all deserve a frank <3, all those sweet little names he calls her like "honeybee" :'-), my personal math trauma insertion, the title rhyming makes me feel so silly goofy it's embarrassing lol

word count | 1,285

an | okay so originally this was gonna be steve but thennnnn i kind of just spiralled after seeing a gifset of frank being soft with mary so ;'-) it is what it is lol, i hope you guys like this one!!! this one's for the girlies who are getting their asses kicked by school rn!! i love you and so does frank!!!

Kicking off his shoes and dropping his bag by the door, Frank raised a brow in question as he looked out through the doorway to the kitchen and the rest of the house. From what he could see, most of the lights were off, a strange sight he couldn't remember the last time he had come home to. "Honey?" he called out, his worry only growing as he received no response.

Making his way through the house, he scanned each room for you. Through the kitchen, then the living room, and then down the hallway. When he could finally see the faint glow of light coming out from underneath your shared bedroom door, he sighed a bit in relief.

Pausing to knock, he called out again for you, "Sweetheart? You in there?"

Curled up on the maroon loveseat over in the reading corner, you raised your head weakly off your pillow for only a moment. When you couldn't manage a response, the door opened slowly, revealing a slightly panicked-looking Frank. At the sight of you wrapped up under a blanket in the fetal position, your eyes still puffy from apparent tears, the man instantly rushed over to you, crouching down to sit on the floor beside the couch to bring you face to face.

"Honey, honey, hey-" he fussed over you gently, reaching out a hand to brush back your hair, "what's going on, y/n? You look like you've been crying."

Nodding, you scooted forward a bit to lean your head on your daddy's shoulder, tucking your face into the side of his neck as he hummed, "Hey honeybee, c'mere." Slowly wrapping his arms around you, he carefully collected you off the couch, standing up to take your previous place with you now in his lap as he cradled you. "Shhh, it's okay," he murmured, "I've got you, sweetheart. Can you tell me what's goin' on, pumpkin? Hmm? Did something happen?"

Not able to face him to give him an answer, you once again tucked your head away into his shirt to hide your face, reaching a hand out to point over in the direction of the end table that sat to the side of the couch. Following your gesture with his gaze, Frank's eyes landed on your laptop that still sat open, the screen having dimmed from sitting untouched for too long. Reaching out a hand, he picked it up, pulling it over to set it on top of your legs as he wiggled the mouse.

As the screen lit up, a knowing look formed on the man's face. Reading over the small table displayed in the opened window, he found the dreaded D score that he could guess brought on your pitiful state. "Oh bubba..." his voice trailed off sympathetically as his free hand came up to rub your back. Looking down at you as you hid away in shame, Frank's face softened. "Sweet girl, can you come out and talk to me?" Feeling a fresh round of tears coming on at the tenderness of your daddy's voice, you swallowed hard, clinging to the safety the darkness of his (now damp) button-down provided. "C'mon, honey. You're okay, just wanna help you feel better, honeybee."

Sniffling, it took everything in you to finally find your voice; it trembled as you spoke. "I-I'm sorry, Daddy."

"What? What are you saying sorry for, sweetheart?" the man soothed as he continued to run his hand up and down your back over your blanket.

"Kn-know it's a bad score, Daddy. Know I did a b-bad job. Didn't mean to, tried really h-hard and... studied a lot but... just... c-can't do math, Daddy. 'm no good at it," you whimpered.

"No baby, hey," Frank shook his head as he pulled back from you slightly, a gentle hand coming up to hold your cheek to prevent you from hiding away again. "Look at me, bubba. C'mon, this is important." Your eyes remained lowered, forcing him to tilt your chin up ever so slightly to finally catch your gaze. "Baby," he breathed, his eyes so full of love and sincerity. "You did not do a bad job. You did your best," he reminded you. "I know you did, honey. I know how hard you studied, how much you did to prepare. You worked so hard. And I'm so proud of you, y/n. Daddy's so proud of you."

"But..." you protested softly, bottom lip starting to wobble again.

Shaking his head, Frank's voice was the gentlest thing you'd ever heard as he started speaking again before you could finish your thought. "No, sweet girl. No 'but's, Daddy is always proud of you when you do your best. And you can do math, baby. You've been doing this math all semester; it was just one hard test. Now it'll be a new unit, with new things to learn. And if you want, Daddy can help you study and get ready for your next test, okay? We'll both do our best, bubba. I'm sure with the two of us putting our brains together, we can get your grade up with the next exam."

Bringing a hand up to rub at your eyes, you nodded, the promise of having your daddy's help on the next unit making you feel slightly more optimistic about continuing through the semester. "Still think I'm smart?" you asked weakly, a tinge of heartbreak appearing on Frank's face as he stroked your cheek softly.

"Of course I do," he whispered, thumbing away at a few stray tears as they dropped down from the corners of your eyes. "Think you're the smartest cookie I know, baby. But you know what else I think? Something way more important than just being smart?"

"Hm?" you hummed curiously, a genuine smile forming on the man's face as he continued.

"I think you're kind. I think you're loving. I think you're so hard-working, so dedicated. I think you're clever, and funny, and a wonderful friend. I think you've got the biggest, bravest heart. Along with your beautiful mind. Of course I think you're smart, y/n; I think you're brilliant in every possible way. But I think you're more than that too, honey. I think you're more than some silly test score; that's no way to measure how smart you are, anyway. Remember what I told you about those damn SAT's?"

That made you giggle a bit as you nodded. Having been a former college professor, Frank surely had firmly established opinions on standardized testing in the country at large, though a lot of times his views on assessment styles could also be shrunk down and applied to things like the math exam just as easily. "They're a scam, Daddy. They don't measure anything important," you recited what you could remember.

"That's right, baby," he affirmed proudly, earning another giggle from you as he nodded with a mock-serious looking face. "A lot of times tests aren't a great way to measure smartness. I know you were understanding the concepts when you were studying, baby. You did such a good job when you showed me all those problems you did."

"The questions were phrased funny," you admitted. "I lost a lot of points because I interpreted them wrong."

"See? You can't beat yourself up for it, baby. I won't let you," he declared.

"Okay Daddy," you hummed, finally feeling a little more at peace with the whole situation as you wrapped your arms around him tightly, giving him a squeeze. "No more beating myself up, I promise."

"Good," Frank smiled gently at you, leaning down to kiss the top of your head. "No one gets to be mean to my honeybee, not on my watch."

#eun's writing #whumptember 2022 #more than a score #frank adler #frank adler fanfiction #frank adler x y/n #daddy!frank adler #frank adler x little!reader #frank adler x reader #frank adler one shot #frank adler imagine #frank adler headcanon #frank adler drabble #frank adler blurb #frank adler fluff #frank adler angst #hurt/comfort #gifted #gifted fanfiction #chris evans #chris evans fanfiction

[rongzhi]

Can you please tell us more about those three friends?

I'm going to assuuuuume the three you're talking about is the three I post most often (酱油白米饭)

You can watch this partially translated livestream to hear it in their own words but the main things are

They're childhood friends who work together at one of those adventure gyms with trampolines and foam pits and whatnot.

Jiang Zhaoxun (Jiang) is the taller one with short hair. In the livestream, he mentions that he's a discharged soldier, so it's likely he was a soldier for a standard 2 or so years. I think he might be the oldest of the three, probably late 20s/early 30s. In the livestream, he says that he does parkour and knows a little bit of mixed martial arts, and also that he taught Xiao Bai parkour.

Bai Tianpeng (Xiao Bai) is the smaller/younger looking one with longer hair. He's the youngest of the three of them—probably mid 20s (visual guess). He said in the livestream that he's a dancer/b-boy and knows a little parkour.

The guy behind the camera is named Fan Luda. In the livestream he says he doesn't show his face because he has low self-esteem. He mentioned he's not trained specifically in anything but he (and all of them) just like sports and athletic activities so they're sort of just self-trained.

My personal observation is that they seem to really like anime and martial arts movies which is where they probably draw a lot of creative inspiration. Plus, it's probably a little hard to tell with the way that I post, but a lot of their videos have content that follow current/weekly douyin trends or include popular memes/sayings from around the time they posted the video.

Since I post out of order, in case you're interested, I have a playlist on youtube where I've put the videos in order with their original captions (unless I was unable to recover/determine that info). The playlist updates as I post translations here.

Public account info as of answering this:

Bio:

•2022我们都要更快乐 🤡

•三个发小儿长大后的搞笑日常生活 🤡

•一起长大一起工作，希望给大家带来快乐 🤡

•感谢官方，感谢关注，感谢快乐的你们… 🤡

translation:

-In 2022 we all need to be happier -The comedic daily lives of three childhood friends after growing up -Grew up together and work together, hoping to bring everyone happiness -Thanks to [douyin] officials, thank you for following, thank you for being happy

They began posting videos in December 2021, although a lot of the early videos (including ones I've translated and have yet to translate) are actually hidden now.

Current follower count: 2,471,000

Total likes received: 25,513,000 (their videos get on average 200k likes)

Total public videos: 80

Total livestreams: 11

#text #酱油白米饭 #answered ask

[love4hobi]

Hi!! I really like your blog and it’s great to find an active Hobi blog. I just got into BTS this past month and was wondering if you had recommendations or favorite Jhope (and overall BTS) content/videos to check out for a complete beginner! Even though I’ve casually listened to BTS since 2015/2016, I didn’t follow them or even know all their names/faces well... until recently I watched a couple of Jhope’s stages and was like damnnn, I need to know him and the whole group more!! Iconic stages, funny videos, interesting interviews, whatever you enjoy :) Thank you!

thank u so much thats very sweet 🥹<33 im very honored that youve chosen to ask me this because this is a biiig question n i shall do my best🫡 ok well firstly, i think it would be insane to not start off with hobipalooza

his lollapalooza set can be watched in full here, which u might have already seen, but for an added bonus u can listen to his albums hope world + jack in the box, THEN watch his lolla set to really get a feel for how he brings his songs to life while performing them. his music is great but for me his true stardom lies in his performance and stage presence and hobipalooza will tell u everything u need to know about jhope as a performer 🥹🤩

just some of his many iconic solo performances:

more + arson at the 2022 mnet asian music awards (+ future)

the only live performance hes done of on the street 🥲

also the dynamite + butter performance from that same day just cus u can see the pure joy in his face and the love he has for performing 🫂 despite them both being songs that he originally had less than like 10 seconds of lines in each

his performance and interview on iu's palette my beloved

all of his just dance performances are amazing and consistent but heres a good fancam

as for bts group performances i think its best to look at their older songs as he has not had many lines in their recent releases :/ some that i really love:

mic drop is kind of known as his song, heres their snl performance, most recent performance of it, and another favorite of mine hehe

outro: tear specifically his verse at the end (around the 4 minute mark)

chicken noodle soup at the 2021 muster, its jhopes song but they performed it all together

boy meets evil + blood sweat & tears at 2016 mama

idk im drawing a blank but honestly any of their old concerts or fanmeets/musters are really great. you can find a lot of them here

some dance focused videos since hes the main dancer 🫶

any of his old hope on the street videos that i miss so dearly. theyre just videos of him freestyling for a while and he does it so effortlessly and its rly satisfying to watch. 2020, 2021, with jimin, with jungkook

the iconic no more dream dance break 🙇

this random dance performance 3j did i use to watch this on a monthly basis

another 3j dance video of the megan thee stallion butter remix

i feel like its kinda obvious but i also want to recommend his music videos since theyre all rly amazing but some of my favs are more, daydream, chicken noodle soup, and on the street

ok im gonna stop cus this is getting long and i dont want to overwhelm u but im also definitely forgetting stuff,, everyone else feel free to add stuff in the replies!! anyway i hope this helps!

#my memory is actually so horrible lately but i really tried lmao 😭 #but congrats on beginning the process of devoting urself to jhopeism <3 #i hope u have fun watching these!! #mail

[echoweaver]

New Year's Resolutions 2024

Thanks to @nocturnalazure for tagging me!

Also, anyone else I might've missed. 😢 I don't know if there's a way to distinguish being tagged on a post vs on a comment in tumblr, but it would be helpful when I know I was tagged a bit ago, but I don't remember by whom.

What's your resolution for your simblr?

OK, I guess I have some categories of goals.

Modding resolution: Release the Warriorcats Mod.

This mod is really close to done, but I'm in animation muck. I both hate seeing animations look bad AND I'm not an animator. For training interactions, I need multi-sim animations where one sim observes while the other acts, and when I tried to do this, I realized that I have a lot to learn before I can make this do what I want. I need one more good run in a geeky minset, and this thing will be read to at least release as beta.

This thing is bottlenecking other smaller mod ideas. I'm proud of it, and I want to finish it. But the turn of the year has been really bad for high-effort hobby energy.

For those who have sent me asks about this mod, I am going to say something that you should absolutely not apply any other modder, including me, for anything else. Bugging me about this (in a nice way!) is probably the best way to get it finished. Hearing from folks who use my pets mods makes my heart sing. Knowing that someone cares is the best source of positive energy I have.

It's a new year, and some very high-stress stuff in my personal life has improved. I know can do this in 2024.

In my points of low mood, I have wondered if there's even any point to finishing something this high-effort for a game this old. But, like Minecraft, TS3 never seems to die. 2022-3 was actually a modding renaissance. I have built some interest in TS4 at the end of this year, but it hasn't made me even a little bit interested in abandoning TS3. So I'm going to do my best to set that demotivating nonsense aside.

Gaming resolution: Finish the Samples.

I can't believe I actually wrote that, but it could happen in 2024. Generation 8 is starting in gameplay, and in a 10-generation legacy, this is the last "complete" generation.

I will never do another 10-generation anything. There are two many different and interesting

Blogging resolution: Catch the Wonderlands up to the present.

I stopped playing halfway through Gen 3. I originally started posting this challenge on tumblr during Gen 2 when I created this simblr some horrifying number of years ago. Gen 1 was all on Wordpress and is new to the simblr. I've been reluctant to play forward on the challenge until I can bring the simblr with it.

2. What do you want from the sims franchise?

Haha. That's a complicated question. I think I may always be a TS3 player at my core. I send retroactive apologies to every TS2 players I looked askance at ten+ years ago. With that in mind, I can't reasonably expect much of anything from EA on my core hobby.

My pie-in-the-sky dream would be a 64-bit update for TS3 on Windows. That's not completely impossible, but it doesn't look likely to happen.

I'm keeping an eye on Project Rene. EA has given a good sense that they learned from the player response to TS3 & 4, and 5 could be a good synthesis. OTOH, the PRIMARY ask I have from them is 100% offline play, and I don't have a lot of hope. Though EA made the commitment to offline play for TS4, they've been clawing it back by inches over the years, and they even quietly made it impossible to install fresly-downloaded TS3 store content on 1.67. I'm fighting hard to keep my TS3 game at 1.67 because I want to be able to play on airplanes and in places I simply cannot log in. I don't give a !@#$ whether EA can validate my license. They're making enough money. They can stuff it in their butts. So, with that said, I am just assuming that TS3 1.67 is going to be the core of my fandom for the forseeable future, but my mind isn't closed. If TS5 is otherwise awesome, I can branch out.

My biggest hope for the franchise is from the fandom -- that the TS3 modding renaissance will continue. We keep renewing this old game, and as it continues to be renewed, there continue to be amazing fun new ways to play it. Thank you folks so much.

3. Any other new year's resolution?

Getting my Hobbit fanedit accepted by the Fanedit Academy at fanedit.org.

Heh. So, I have a very long drama story about my fanediting hobby. I flamed off the fanedit.org community when I attempted to submit my first edit years ago (The Hobbit, which should surprise exactly nobody who has looked at fanedits). I was floored when, in 2023, I was contacted by the head of that site to apologize for that situation and ask me to resubmit. It appears that my treatment by the reviewers prompted him to clean house and build a more welcoming community. Wow.

So, now my very first edit is under review by the "Faneditors Academy," which is the primary way to reach new viewers and gain feedback in this hobby. The site leader is involved in my review, but one of the reviewers is one of guys who treated me badly the first time, and he's complex to work with -- there's an undercurrent of him trying to justify rejecting me without a review the first time. I am determined to see this review through to the end. I am very proud of this edit. Also, the feedback is definitely leading me to take it the next level.

But I'll be honest -- working through the criticism and revisions is one reason I haven't touched the Warriorcats mod in months. I need to clear my mind and my plate to really focus on addressing feedback, and the criticism level makes that draining.

[Sharing from personal life -- another reason my modding dropped off is that this winter my trans wife came out to my socially conservative parents. We are not disowned, but it's been complicated and emotionally draining. Lighthearted play with stream-of-consciousness commentary is about as deep as I've been able to go for months.]

#echoweaver #memes #new year's resolutions #meta-sims

[diorsbrando]

𝗦𝗣𝗘𝗟𝗟𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗗. ishida uryū

duke!ishida uryū x fem!reader

･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽  SUMMARY, you’re nothing but a maid in that house. nothing. you might as well have been a shadow, doomed to lurk behind the ones who were prettier than you, had more privilege, more influence; those who shined the brightest. everyday, you dreaded having to be bound to such people. your lordship, the duke of wadenreich ishida uryū was one of them, and he did not make it any easier on you with his inordinate demands and expectations. but yet, you can’t seem to still your heart or mind whenever he draws near. little did you know, your unremarkable routine of dusting the books and furniture of the library in the far left wing of the mansion would change your life forever.

･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽   INCLUDES, a cinderella-esque trope. slightly mean/ooc uryū for the plot. reader is a servant in the ishida household. reader is also thick + black-coded, but you don’t have to imagine it as such. royal au! bridgerton au! unrequited love. some angst. descriptions of fantasy elements and magical objects. hints of misogyny + sexism. formal/Victorian language used. eventual smut/explicit content. descriptions of violence. all characters aged up where appropriate. minors do not interact.

･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽   NOTES, i just want to take a moment to thank a good friend/mutual of mine @8kh​ for helping me develop my ideas and giving me inspiration to bring this story to life. there isn’t enough bleach works out there, and there’s even less content with uryu, so i’m so excited to present my contribution to you all. this story is also inspired by netflix’s drama bridgerton, more specifically season 1, so i hope you enjoy! more parts will be added.  reblogs are welcomed and heavily appreciated. ( want to join my taglist for this series & my other works? click here! )

so this is love, this is love

my heart has wings, mmm, i can fly

i’ll touch every star in the sky

so this is the miracle

that i have been dreaming of

i look above, and hum once more

so this is love.

PART ONE.

PART TWO.

PART THREE.

PART FOUR.

PART FIVE.

© sailewhoremoon, 2022. the poem is directly derived from the song “so this is love” by ilene woods. all rights for that song only belong to walt disney studios. however the rest of this story is original content and should not be copied, reposted, shared or plagarized in any shape or form without permission.

#sailwhore’s ship recs! #8kh <33 #sosa’s filez 💭 #sailewhoremoon #໒꒱ ˚⁎⁺˳ . spellbound! #bleach x black reader #bleach fics #bleach #i love having a bleach brain rot <3 #bleach x reader #black coded reader #black fem reader #uryū ishida #uryu ishida #pls like this #im on the verge of wiping my entire account #black readers and bleach characters is the best thing ever idkkkkkkk maybe that’s just me

[faerywhimsy]

Vamptember Day 24 -FREE DAY

I am a huge fan of book to TV adaptations, so much so that a portion of my Honours thesis was actually dedicated to that particular portion of media.

The Hunger Games books and movies offer a perfect example of so much of what I love about it; a series of books that are from a limited 1st person perspective, then expanded out into a series of not just three but four movies to make room for perspectives that are hinted at within the books, yet given no explicit voice given the nature of the perspective choice.

But even a faithful adaptations can turn sour is when enough of the central themes of a story get overturned over the course of a longer running series. I’m thinking Game of Thrones here. That first season was almost a play by play of the first novel. Things like the Red- and Purple Weddings later occurred more or less as expected, though timelines of surrounding events were fudged. There were some really cool graphics made on this topic back in the day.

And then... well, we got the last 3 seasons, didn't we? What a disappointment (sorry Jacob, you're an actor capable of doing things that are very subtle, but that show let you down).

Reimaginings can likewise be good or bad, but they have built into them a bit more leeway. Where these usually turn sour is around the time they fully abandon the source material. This is mostly your ‘loosely inspired by’ stuff. It’s putting a name on the door that’s generated to sell tickets. I’m trying to think of a good example of this, but the stuff I haven’t liked doesn’t tend to stick in my head because I’ve usually moved on by then. At their strongest, reimaginings bring well thought out and updated content to a fandom.

BBC's reimagining in Sherlock was innovative when they brought Conan Doyal's characters into the modern day. They succeeded in doing that because what they kept sacred, at least to begin with, was the relationships between the characters and the overarching themes that came from that. By doing only those two things, they were able to reinvent satisfying ways to touch on the main plot points of the original stories.

That team also, sadly, offered a cautionary tale of what happens when such a project deviates too far from its source material.

The reimagining in AMC's Interview with the Vampire is far more ambitious and therefore complex in what it proposes, with an equal half of its story existing in a space that will be close to what was written in the books. I genuinely hope they end up succeeding with their ambition. Part of that is that it's not pretending to be any sort of directly faithful adaptation.

The first hint? The entire premise of S1: It’s 2022 and Louis invites Daniel for a second interview. That just didn't occur in the books.

This one change brings the story straight into the modern day, which is easily arguable as something needed for a series that released its first book in 1976. While I love a nostalgic- or period piece as much as the next person, I’m not disappointed by this.

This is the kind of change that’s a deal breaker. It stands to give new watchers the introduction they need into the world at the same time as giving something entirely unexpected to old fans. In other words, it’s narrative gold to someone like me.

The reasons I love it are completely different to what draws me to a straight like for like with added scenes adaptation as outlined above in Hunger Games. By changing the timeline and beginning straight out of the gate, it means that you can change everything.

And, god, they do.

Okay, obviously not everything. Character names, places, even dates on their own aren’t enough to hold the narrative cohesion of a reimagining if it doesn’t hold tight enough to the central themes of the source material to maintain that the original plot points still make sense to come to pass. WHICH S1 DOES.

I have so much interest in dissecting how they’ve so far kept hold of (most of) the themes and yet, in only 7 episodes, have already told a story with so many different details. And, if I’m gonna be totally honest, TVC is perfectly primed for exactly this kind of adaptation simply because, as a collection, these books have never been consistent (thank you, Anne for this dubious and ongoing gift).

There has been a single possible inconsistency with themes that did give me some cause for concern, but it’s also not the one that most people seem concerned by. So, let’s get into the analysis!

Armand:

I’m beginning with this character, because a supercut on YouTube I finally got around to watching made me realise we got a total of 15 minutes of Assad on screen in the 7 episodes of S1, and less than 5 of those are of him in the named character. So it’s an easy place to start.

Obviously, there is little difference that can be pointed to in those fewer than 5 minutes other than the differences in physical appearance than described (17 y/o, red hair, brown eyes) in the books, and that’s what I’ve seen a lot of discourse on thus far. That, and what on earth this Louis had on him to convince him it was a great play to pretend to be Rashid in front of Daniel. (He is a theatre kid, I guess…)

There is however a short detail in The Vampire Armand after Armand goes into the sun, however, that briefly describes his eyes as being orange (maybe amber?) as he starts to heal, and therefore the choice on making Assad’s eyes this colour in the series becomes an interesting detail to me.

Also, let’s be honest – if you’re gonna make the creative choice to have both Sam and Jacob in these luminescent contacts, but leave Assad’s natural throughout… well, I mean, what is being said on that side of the coin if that’s the choice being made?

On the side of details they kept AND CHANGED at the same time, my favourite for this character continues to be the below image that shows the physical resemblance between one Assad Zaman and, yes, a different Botticelli painting than any referenced in the books, but ultimately a Botticelli painting all the same. We're good to go!

Louis:

I don’t really want to focus too long on the obvious differences between Louis the slave owner (books) and Louis the pimp (series) except to say they are there. As are Louis’ signature green eyes.

However, that is where the resemblance ends. And I’m not just talking about physical.

In Louis’ case, the biggest difference I clocked and remarked in DMs up till now that—as a fanfic writer of both books and series fandom—Louis’ was the voice that consistently gave me most trouble to move between. I literally could not convincingly write him in any series fic at the same time as I was writing my mammoth long fic How They Get to Trinity Gate.

And it was not the fact that Louis was white in the books that tripped me up.

Another big thing is the change to when Louis and Lestat meet. This changes things for Lestat's character a bit as well, but I think it's more clear at this point the ways in which Lestat being set up as that much stronger and older than Louis on first meeting has had an impact on their story. Armand will be that much older than Louis as well, but what's a difference of a handful of decades when Armand already was that much older than Louis canonically?

As a linguist, I remain most fascinated by the dialogue changes that have been given to Louis’ character, particularly in historic New Orleans scenes. When reading Interview With the Vampire, there’s not a great deal of difference to the voice of Louis in the present vs the past that he gives to the boy interviewer. In the series, however? The difference in character from past to present is as unavoidable as it is riveting. To me, that alone offers so many details about who Louis is as a person, the disparity between Louis and a Lestat who obviously still gets to keep his book canon French accent.

In terms of how these changes effected the story as Louis relates it to Daniel, however? I mean, for the most part, the Louis I watched was equally convincing as he hit the main plot points his character needed to hit to stay true to the source material. That makes it a successful update to me!

Daniel:

Daniel is a laugh, both in the books and in the series. But, though the series has held on to the aspect of his sense of humour from the books, that humour is depicted in a completely different way.

Self deprecating, for the most part, or actually laugh out loud funny is what we see of Daniel in the books. Occasionally his anger gets the better of him, but for the most part he’s more docile—or possibly just as drunk—as many of us would be in similar circumstances. Apart from, say, when he’s calling Armand an immortal idiot.

The humour we get from Daniel in the series, though? That’s cutting. Yes, aimed to slice others up, especially when he’s deflecting from himself, but also the stuff that's made to cut through bullshit.

He’s had another 50 years to hone it, and none of them were lost to madness or absence from himself. No, this Daniel has been present every year of the 69 that have been given to him, and it shows. His wit has grown up with him, because he has grown up in a way he never got to in the books.

Something else to consider, however, is the fact that this Daniel is half David.

Actually, it's more than half. We got less of Daniel in S1 than we got of Armand. When I say this, I mean the only parts from the book canon we've got were in a couple of flashback scenes and the recording Eric listens to, then plays in Dubai in Episode 1. Only Luke Brandon Field has so far shown me anything close to a faithful version of Daniel, and I've no doubt this actor is destined to continue to follow that trajectory throughout future seasons.

That leaves me with wondering who we've got in the present from Eric? And that's David Talbot who, it turns out, is another canonical interviewer within The Vampire Chronicles. You may remember him as the guy who interviewed Armand, a version of which we're also set to see in S2.

David, when we first see him in Queen of the Damned, is someone interested in vampires not as puff portraiture but as a reality. He’s an older man coming to acceptance he’s near the end of his life and career. And he does not want to be made into a vampire.

Louis: A still hand, time to watch your daughters marry. Daniel: And divorce. And die.

Sound familiar?

Let me explain something of what I suspect went into this decision behind the scenes: The character of Daniel is underdeveloped in the books to say the least, something I’ve written about already during Vamptember. There was never going to be enough of the book character of Daniel in AMC's version to satisfy every book reader. Anne simply didn't give us enough of him, and fandom remains wildly divided in how to interpret him.

By contrast, David was a character readers got far too much of because of Anne's attempt to shoe horn us into a different romantic interest for Lestat. He's just not as popular. Imagine for a second the reception if the early promotional material had named Eric as playing 'David' instead of 'Daniel'? It's a marketing mislead, and one that's paid off.

When setting up the core "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf"-esque central cast, the creative team over at AMC did something very clever, I think. They pulled over characteristics of another underdeveloped character from the same canon in order to flesh their version of Daniel out. We'll almost certainly see a body swap, and that's where the David, and Eric's, part of the story will end.

In conclusion, I will absolutely eat my hat if we see someone called David Talbot walking around in this series ever ever. And, when it comes to the eventual plot line of making Daniel a vampire, they've set up three good options in front of them (and another example where we old fans have no way to expect WHICH WAY IT WILL GO):

He'll be coerced into it (David, canonically by Lestat, but in this universe almost certainly Armand)

He'll change his mind and demand it again (Daniel in true Devil's Minion style)

He'll almost die and someone will have to turn him (Daniel, yes, but also Jesse)

Two of these methods of becoming a vampire from the early books canonically turn a Talamasca character, and I definitely have some on-a-tangent theories there, given the presence of Talamasca characters already in Mayfair Witches.

The only thing they’ll need to change from the books here is Armand being Daniel/David’s foil, instead of Lestat. And, look, they’ve already positioned Louis right there as the love of his life in the face of the love triangle that’s sure to follow in the series, as in the books.

Fareed (bonus):

This is further to my passing body swap comment in the last section, but I really wanted to add:

Why include this minor character front and centre as early as S1? Why then have him explicitly say he is not there not once but three separate times as part of his only dialogue?

Fareed: That is not my voice. And I'm not here. [...] I am not here. [...] I'm not here. [...] Pleasure never meeting you, Mr. Molloy.

Is this not explicitly designed to have the same effect as telling a person not to imagine a pink elephant? Not to mention, it's as meta as fuck. That's Schrödinger's Vampire right here.

So why do these things if not to bring to the front of people's minds not only that the entire of Anne Rice's canon is free game in this reimagining? But that Fareed in particular is a character who's the first of his kind in the Chronicles; a scientist who can and does invent a clone?

A clone that might just end up looking very much like Luke Brandon Field?

Why, also, spend so much time and promotional material on another actor we see for about the same short space of time within S1? Minute for minute, I reckon we get about the same amount of screen time here with Gopal Divan as we do with Luke.

That, and they both happen to appear for the first time in Episode 6. Just saying.

In terms of canon deviation, if there was a physical description of Fareed in the books, I honestly don't remember it. He was just one of Anne's many, many characters that were a) created to function as a plot point, and b) forgotten beyond the original purpose he was created for.

As long as they manage to keep Fareed interested in the vampiric sciences, I honestly don't see there being any problems.

Lestat:

Saving the best till last, am I right?

Lestat is Lestat is Lestat, isn’t he? The blond hair. The blue eyes. The arrogant swagger. Both the father’s anger matched with the uncontrollable laughter raging within him at all times. Completely out of control. Hedonistic, definitely to a fault. A Byronic hero in the package of an immoral vampire.

I hated Lestat and, when I read the books as a teenager, it was despite him.

I was ready to go into the series doing the same. The stories, the themes, the history, the characters (minus Lestat). There is so much richness to love in the world of the books, despite so much of it being told by Lestat. And there was no doubt we were gonna get less of The Lestat Show in a show that’s not told from his PoV and has three other main characters vying equally for that attention.

I will amend this statement now to acknowledge he does get less obnoxious by the time we hit the final trilogy, which were obviously not out when I’d made the judgement call of despising him. (Hell, Tales of the Body Thief wasn’t yet out…)

In Lestat's case, the changes that have been made aren't so much of appearance or characterisation, so much as moments. And I understand why. Lestat is iconic and, in many ways, impossible to change in any meaningful way because of it. So the choice of changing moments here and there becomes the perfect way to cast a new spin on Lestat's character.

ESPECIALLY when you have Armand right there behind Louis the whole time, almost certainly controlling the narrative.

Obviously, there was That Scene in Episode 5. That particular scene is one that never happened in any of the books. But Lestat’s aggressions, micro and otherwise, are a well known particularly in early canon, and Louis is certainly not exempt from them.

Nor is Claudia. And who among us haven’t put up with less when it’s aimed towards a person we love than what we’ll put up with aimed to ourselves?

Despite it not following an actual canon event, it held intact location, characters and central themes all together – the summation of most important aspects when we have an adaptation and hope it will continue to hit the major canon plot points in its reimagining.

We saw Lestat, Louis and Claudia all moving towards an event we all knew was coming, and what ended up being the climax of S1.

What I don't see being talked about anywhere near so much is the beginning of Episode 3, as Louis begins to commit himself to becoming a nuisance to the feline life of New Orleans.

Lestat: Say we come upon a murderer planting a flowerbed, thinking only of flowers. How long do we wait before his bloody deeds reveal themselves? Louis: As long as it takes. Lestat: You haven’t thought this through, Louis.

The charitable view, of course, is that Lestat is just not wanting, in this moment, to encourage anything Louis wants to say. If so, it would hardly be the only time Lestat shuts Louis down. Louis says he doesn’t want to feed on humans anymore so Lestat’s immediate response is to push as hard in the opposite direction. I would be satisfied with that.

Equally, I would be satisfied if, come S3, Lestat is revealed to remember this conversation completely differently. It would make sense. Of COURSE Lestat wants to feed on the evil doer and only the evil doer. What else are monsters like them supposed do? This would speak perfectly to their being many things in The Vampire Lestat that are different once Lestat takes the reigns of the books and supposed pen name.

The more I think about it, the more I won't be terribly surprised if they decide on one of these—or even a secret third option (Armand, I'm looking at you)—being the way this moment washes out later. The repercussions of deviating from Lestat only feeding from the evil doer are far too detrimental to the canon they seem intent to create.

Basically, their Lestat holding fast to this opinion for any longer than this scene would leave them struggling to hit more than one major plot point in future seasons.

Anyone who's read the books knows Lestat has already come across Marius before he meets Louis. He's heard Marius’ treatise on only eating the evil doer, and understands why his mentor holds to that tenant. Likewise, Lestat has prior to that come across Armand—something that has all but been confirmed for the series, again in the S2 trailer—and, after meeting both fledgling and maker, Lestat is able to pull together for himself an ethical stance he will take into the rest of his immortal life.

Lestat doesn't have to figure out what his code is gonna be, or whether he's gonna have one, like he way that's depicted for Louis in Episodes 2-3. This ethical stance informs him and carries through from there to the time in the future where Lestat’s made Prince of all vampires.

We'd have a very different looking future seasons ahead of us if Lestat were to abandon that code. It would make Episode 5 look tame.

But Sam knows those books. Rolin knows those books.

I love these monsters. As unreliable as Anne was with her famous lack of editing, this was something even she never flipped back and forth on. And a bunch of monsters with a code is still what we are seeing in S1 just from the fact that Daniel has survived this far into the interview in 2022.

They were and continue to be monsters, her characters, but they aren't that monstrous. There's a line for these serial murders. Honour among the thieves of mortal life.

That’s what makes them so enduringly interesting in all the variations we see for them.

@vamptember

#vc shitpost #should i have split this up into multiple posts? #my metas are starting to get a little out of hand #armand #daniel molloy #lestat de lioncourt #louis de pointe du lac #david talbot #fareed bhansali #anne rice #interview with the vampire #the vampire lestat #queen of the damned #tales of the body thief #prince lestat #mayfair witches #who's afraid of virginia woolf? #bbc sherlock #the hunger games #game of thrones #rolin jones #vamptember #vamptember 2023 #vc meta #gopal divan #assad zaman #jacob anderson #sam reid #luke brandon field #amc iwtv

[detroit-grand-prix]

Wildest Dreams Chapter 27 - Wildest Dreams (Phoebe's Version)

Chapter summary: Everything has been leading up to this. It's not the last race of the season, but for Phoebe Stallard, it feels like the last, and best chance to make her goal. After all, what could be sweeter than taking her first podium at home? But in racing, just like in life, it's never quite that straightforward.

Content warning: N/A

Chapter word count: 7,100

Author's Notes: This is the end of the main story. When I finished this, though, this story couldn't let me go, and still really hasn't. I've been working on a bunch of side stories that I will get around to posting, and I'm planning on writing an epilogue that has snatches of the 2022-2024 seasons.

I'm really proud of this story, and I'm glad it's gotten a few dedicated fans along the way. I know OC-centered stories aren't popular in RPF fandoms, and that's fine, but I never feel like I am able to do the actual athletes justice, but the psyche of someone who competes in F1my original plan! Thonestly didn't even get through everything I'd wanted to. It was a challenge, too - writing race play-by-plays is really difficult, honestly! But, as far as the stuff I didn't want to get to, we'll see what I can come up with. Plejuest sprang to mind for me but allowed me to take the story in directions that I hadn't expected. Anyway, thank you again for sticking around until this point. I know this chapter was an absolute monster is still fascinating to explore. And I've really enjoyed being able to examine what it would mean to be the first woman in so long to make it that far. I hope someday that it's not just a work of fanfiction, and that it can be reality. The narrative took me by surprise, too. It's really amazing when the story couldn't let me go, and still really hasn't. I've been working on a bunch of side stories that I will get around to posting, and I'm planning on writing an epilogue that has snatches of the 2022-2024 seasons.

*also, I know the spelling is technically "kerbs" but I just cannot bring myself to spell that word that way. SORRY.

Circuit of the Americas, Austin, Travis County, Texas, United States of America

October 24th, 2021

Bee woke up well before her alarm on race day. Her entire body was thrumming with nervous energy, but at least for the time being, it wasn’t a bad kind of nervousness, at least not yet.

She took her time getting ready before she had to meet Emilia and her parents for breakfast, but time had a way of speeding up for her before something she was dreading. She did manage to eat a good breakfast, though, and Toto and Susie ended up meeting them all there - they were just in one of the hotel’s restaurants, but It was the first time she’d seen Toto since qualifying.

“You had an amazing qualifying yesterday, bienchen. I was very impressed. Your performance has definitely improved this year, and I think as long as you just go out there and have fun, you’ll be satisfied with your performance, no matter what.”

It was different advice than everyone else had given her, but it probably did the most to help relieve the pressure.

Eventually, it was time to head to the track for the pre-race festivities, and festivities they were. There was a drivers’ parade first - Bee and all of her gridmades were herded onto the back of a flatbed truck and were driven slowly around the track, while being interviewed for F1TV. She was amused by the sight of a lot of the other drivers wearing cowboy hats - it just didn’t suit most of them, being rich boys from Europe.

The exception, however, was Daniel Ricciardo - not only was he wearing a cowboy hat and cowboy boots, but he had shaved his beard into a handlebar mustache and mutton chops, and was wearing a University of Texas basketball jersey. He joked that he was an honorary American, and he certainly wasn’t wrong.

“You look more American than I have ever felt,” Bee told him as they climbed onto the trailer. “They should probably just give you a US passport right now.” He laughed at her. “I would love that, honestly.”

Bee was dreading the interviewer, Rosanna, coming around to her, but it seemed that she was first. At least she’d get it over with. The interviews were also projected over the loudspeakers in the grandstands.

“We’ll start with you, Phoebe. It’s your first race in the United States, you’re the first American on the grid in many years, there’s a lot of people in Williams blue with American flags - how are you feeling ahead of the race today?”

“I, uh… well, maybe a bit nervous, but it’s so nice to see so much home support -” Bee had to stop talking because of the cheer that rose up from the grandstand they were passing. “And I’m really hoping that I can run a good race today for everyone. I’m sure it will be fine once the helmet is on, though. This is an amazing track and I had a really great qualifying yesterday, and there’s so many people here today, it’s really incredible to see. When I started, all of the races were under lockdown and there was no audience, and it definitely makes a big difference.”

She spent the rest of the parade waving to the crowd and talking to George for a bit. The truck they were on was going slow enough that she could finally get a good look at a lot of the crowd - not only were there a ton of American flags, but it looked like someone had produced a “Super Bee” banner that had been widely adopted - she saw tons of them dotting the grandstands.

It was the first time she’d seen it, and it gave her a warm, fuzzy feeling. She’d spent so much of her racing career being somewhat of an outcast, an outsider, an oddity. She remembered showing up to testing for GP3 and getting stared at the entire time, like nobody there had ever seen a girl in their lives. They probably hadn’t ever seen one in a racing suit. She didn’t ever think motorsport fans would embrace her like this, especially when she’d reached Formula 1, the pinnacle of motorsport.

But then, she thought about Adelle and Olivia, and how Olivia had said that there wasn’t anyone she wanted to root for before she signed with Williams. Maybe she wasn’t the only one. Maybe it wasn’t the racing fandom embracing her, but her presence changing who the motorsport fandom was. No doubt that Netflix had helped with this, bringing Formula 1 to a broader audience, but how had she changed who racing appealed to by just being a woman on the grid? It was everything she’d been working for, it was everything Susie had been working for, before her.

All the more reason to try her best today, and hopefully climb the podium at last.

Once she was freed from the drivers’ parade, she headed to the Williams hospitality tent to get changed and get warmed up. Emilia was already waiting for her in her drivers’ room. She left briefly so Bee could slip out of the jeans and team shirt she was wearing and into her Nomex baselayers and racing suit.They did their warm up sequence as usual, and Bee hopped up on the massage table, ready for the rest of it. She froze for a moment, wondering if she should take her shirt off for the massage, remembering how warm, soft, and soothing Emilia’s hands were on her back yesterday.

Emilia didn’t even have to ask before Bee made her decision, tossing the undershirt onto the small futon in the room.

“Oh, okay! I wasn’t sure if you wanted to do that again. Did it feel better yesterday with -”

“Yes. It did. Thank you.” Bee said, quickly laying face-down on the table so Emilia wouldn’t notice the blush spreading down Bee’s face. Bee could feel the heat spreading down from her cheeks to her chest, and knew it didn’t have anything to do with the Texas sunshine.

“We’ll just do it this way from now on.” Emilia said quietly. “If you want.” Bee heard the click of the cap for the lotion bottle and felt her heart start to beat a little faster.

“...Yes. I… I’d like that.” It really was much more effective. Bee was almost so relaxed by the time she sat up for her breathing exercises that she felt like she could have fallen asleep. Emilia grasped her hands again and led her through a deep breathing progression, because Bee had told her that it helped ground her yesterday.

“Okay. Are you ready?” Emilia said, handing Bee her shirt and her drink bottle after they had finished. “Drink some more. It’s hot out there and I know you’ll need it.”

Before long, it was time to head out to the car to take her place on the grid. Before Bee went to head over to the garage, Emilia stopped her. She bent down to Bee’s height, wrapped her arms around her, and said, “Good luck today. Just go out and have fun. Don’t get your head so wrapped up in the result that you stand in your own way. I know this is an important race for you, but it’s not the last one this season. I’ll be here for you no matter what happens.”

Bee returned her embrace, closing her eyes, breathing in Emilia’s presence around her. “I know. But it feels like it’s a big one. And… Thank you. For everything you do. I don’t know where I’d be without you.” She meant it, too. She never dreamed she’d develop such a close relationship with her performance coach, but she was glad she had.

They walked over to the garage together.

Bee said hello to her parents. Josephine, once again, insisted on taking pictures. One of Emilia and Bee together, one of Susie with Bee, one with Bee and her dad, and one with Bee and Claire. She asked Susie to get a picture of the two of them together, after which Bee said “Mom, I have to go! I have to get on the grid!”. She sounded perhaps a little more whiny than was necessary.

“I know, honeybee, but how many times do you get to watch your daughter race in Formula 1 for the first time in your home country? I don’t think it’s a usual occurrence! I think I’m actually the first!”

Bee laughed. She wasn’t the first, technically, but she was the first in the US.

She hugged both of her parents, Susie, and Claire, and they all wished her luck.

She walked over to her car in its place on the grid, holding her helmet and gloves. Emilia had an umbrella to protect them from the hot, direct sunshine, but she was so much taller than Bee it almost wasn’t working. “Drink some more.” Emilia said. “I know you don’t like to use the drink system in your car, so you need to make sure to finish whatever’s in that bottle before we start.”

Bee rolled her eyes a little and took more sips on the long straw, but secretly, she was touched by Emilia’s concern. She was right, though - it was going to get incredibly hot in the cockpit, and she would be more dehydrated today than usual by the end of the race.

She clambered into the cockpit while the engineers and mechanics made their final adjustments. Emilia had set her umbrella down over her so Bee wouldn’t start baking while she was sitting there. Once all of the final checks were complete, Bee had to climb back out for the opening ceremonies.

The opening presentation was very American in every way - there was a marching band (the University of Texas marching band), a flyover by military helicopters, a giant American flag on the track held by various American military personnel, a giant flag carried across the sky by people with parachutes, the cheerleaders for the Dallas Cowboys NFL team, and a country singer Bee hadn’t ever heard of singing the national anthem.

Normally, she wasn’t particularly moved by “The Star Spangled Banner”. It was okay, but she’d heard so many national anthems by now that she’d grown to have opinions on them. She liked Germany’s “Deutschlandlied”, of course, and she had liked Austria’s “Land der Berge, Land am Strome” before she’d heard it so much this season because of Max’s victories. She disliked the Dutch anthem, but liked the bouncy, cheerful “Il Canto degli Italiani” because of her love for Monza. The UK’s anthem, “God Save the Queen”, always threw her off, because she’d learned the melody as a child as “My Country ‘Tis Of Thee”, an American patriotic tune.

But as the singer on the track hit the last note, a chill shot down Bee’s spine. It was moving this time, and she didn’t know why.

Finally, it was time to start. She was glad Emilia had left the umbrella over the opening of the cockpit, otherwise, her HANS device may have been too hot to pick up with her bare hands from sitting on her seat.

She climbed into her car, put on her radio headset, balaclava, helmet, and her gloves, and her focus narrowed to her steering wheel and the view out of her cockpit. She took a minute to focus on her breath, and focus on the racing line, as she always did. She snapped her visor closed, the mechanics all backed away from the cars for the start, and she was ready for the formation lap. She took off with the pack, weaving the car to get temperature into the tires and warm up the brakes, not that it would be difficult today.

“Radio check.” She heard Gaetan say.

“Loud and clear.”

“Okay, Phoebe. Let’s have a good race today. Keep an eye on your tires, the track is hot. Let me know right away if anything seems off. Remember it’s not very long into the first turn and it’s an uphill climb, so don’t be a hero. Good luck.”

“Copy. Thank you.”

It was strange to see the cars she was behind and next to at the start - she certainly wasn’t used to seeing a Mercedes in front of her or a Ferrari next to her, but she relished it. It felt like a challenge.

Her eyes locked on the starting lights, and she held her breath as all five disappeared.

Right away, she got an amazing start - she saw a gap between Leclerc and Bottas, and swept straight through it, immediately going up into 5th place. Miraculously, there wasn’t any silliness heading into turn 1, a climb steeper than Raidillon at Spa. She pressed in her throttle, and was right on Bottas’ back as they straddled the entry curb on the right.

The nice thing about the hill was that you could brake later and harder than normal without issue, but the apex was hard to spot over the blind crest. You also had to avoid the temptation to turn into the first apex early - the wider line was superior for the best exit.

She slammed into first gear to rotate the car quickly before a quick shift into second gear, making sure to avoid the sausage curb that would wreck her exit.

Turn 2 was flat, and really just a means of getting to turn 3 as soon as possible - that was where the real fun started. A mistake here could affect your drive all the way through turn 6, even as far as turn 11, so keeping a good rhythm and flow here was of the utmost importance. It was the same as Maggots and Becketts at Silverstone.

It didn’t take long to settle into her rhythm, thankfully - by the time they were on lap 4, she was still right on Bottas’s back end as they went into turns 9 and 10. She managed to tell herself to take 9 flat, but it looked like Valtteri had lifted a bit, and she was able to gain on him. If she could stay on him until turn 11, she’d be able to use her car’s Drag Reduction System on him. Formula 1 cars had a rear wing that had a panel that opened to reduce drag - it was like getting another 20 horsepower on your engine, but it could only be used in certain sections of the track, and only while you were a second or less behind the car in front of you.

“You have DRS on Bottas.” Gaetan confirmed as they flew around the hairpin.

“Copy, I’m after him.”

She pressed the DRS button on her steering wheel, and her rear wing snapped open, granting her an additional burst of speed. She slid out of his slipstream and flew around him. She thought he’d be putting up more of a fight, but it was a long race.

She also wondered what Toto was thinking, as he watched from his spot in the Mercedes garage. Would he have been proud of her for battling with, and overtaking, one of his works team drivers, or would he be disappointed that Valtteri didn’t fight more for his place? She hoped it would be the former more than the latter.

“Good job, Phoebe. Perez is next, but he’s about six seconds ahead, and he’s gaining on Hamilton. Just hang out here for now and watch your tires.”

“Copy, thank you.”

Her and Valtteri played leapfrog for a while, trading positions, almost like it was some sort of game. This went on for about ten laps, until she was on the long back straight again, with Valtteri in her crosshairs ahead of her.

She heard Gaetan say, “Box, box, Phoebe.”

“What?! Why? It’s so early!”

“Slow puncture, losing pressure on your front left.” She hadn’t even noticed yet, but the car had so much sensitive instrumentation that the pressures likely hadn’t gotten low enough to affect her driving. She must have developed it from the curbs she ran over while chasing Valtteri.

Images of Sakhir last year flashed through her mind, when George led most of the race while he was driving for Mercedes temporarily, until a tire mixup made him have to pit twice. He fought his way back through the pack, but a slow puncture made it so that he went from almost winning the race to almost not even finishing in the points. She remembered seeing the graphic of his nameplate sinking from the top of the rankings to almost the bottom, and was now envisioning it happening now, live, on television, with her blue “STA” nameplate instead.

She wanted to throw up - who knows how many positions she’d lose pitting this early? But, she had no choice. At least she’d have a tire advantage, but she’d have to pit again later on, surely.

As a mercy, she hadn’t gone all the way past the pitlane yet, so she didn’t have to do a full lap on a tire that was losing air. Since it was a slow puncture, she could still manage around the 12-19 complex if she was careful to avoid the curbs. Those would cause a blowout that would probably force a retirement. She made it - she pulled into the pitlane and felt the anxiety rising. The pit crew changed her tires, but just as she was pulling away -

“Stop! Stop! Stop! Stay here! Red flag!” Gaetan practically shouted through her headset. His voice was abrupt, urgent.

“What?! What happened?”

“Red flag! Latifi spun into the wall at turn 11 and took Alonso and Gasly with him. There’s debris to clear and they’ll need to repair a barrier.”

“Oh, shit! Is everyone alright?” She was trying not to sound too excited, just in case anyone was hurt.

“Yes, they’re all fine, they’re out, but the track is a mess. Red flag procedure, Phoebe.”

Her relief was almost palpable. It must have happened just before she pulled into the pitlane, and she was on the opposite end of the track from the Turn 11 hairpin, which explains why she had no idea.

“Okay, how many places did we lose? What’s our position?”

“Checking.” It was hard to say, as she was the only one pulling into the pit. Unfortunately, it meant that everyone would get a free tire change, and she wouldn’t have the advantage when she exited, but now everyone else would have to either use a harder tire or stop later on.

A moment later, he said, “We are P6, you will line up behind Leclerc.”

Okay, it wasn’t as bad as she thought, she’d only lost three places. That might not be so hard to make up. The other cars came into the pit lane, and she was able to stop the car and get out. There would be another standing start, and they had an hour.

She stripped off her headwear and walked back into the garage. Emilia was standing at the entrance again, as she had been at the Bahrain red flag. But this time, instead of immediately sweeping her back into the privacy of her drivers’ room, she said, “Are you okay? Do you need to take a minute to yourself? I know that was probably pretty stressful.”

Bee shook her head. “I’m fine. Thank you, though.”

She found it oddly touching that Emilia was just always right there, waiting for her in case she needed her. Sure, as her performance coach, she was more or less Bee’s assistant, but they’d never discussed things like that - their relationship, their routine just naturally developed that way.

Different drivers had different ways of staying alert and “in the zone” during red flag periods. She knew Daniel Ricciardo would put on his headphones and listen to music. Some just sat in their garages, or stood in the pitlane and watched. This past year, during the rain-induced red flag in Spa, she remembered actually deciding to take a quick nap, and she hadn’t been the only one to do so. She remembered watching Kimi Raikkonen on TV infamously eating ice cream during a race in Malaysia in 2009.

This time, though, she and Emilia sat in the garage, though still sitting apart from everyone, Emilia talking to Bee about everything and nothing, as a way of trying to keep her from overthinking and getting anxious again. They would go back to do warmups again before the restart, but for now, they just chatted in German together - at least it gave them some privacy. At first, Emilia strayed away from talking about anything to do with the race, but Bee eventually started talking about the race again.

“I felt like I was going to throw up when Gaetan told me I had a puncture. I didn’t even feel it yet.” Bee said. “All I could think about was George in Sakhir last year, but the red flag came in just in time.”

“You were doing so well, though. I think you’ll have no problem making up those places again. There’s still a lot of race left. And no offense, but I’d never thought I’d see you battling for position with Valtteri. At least you did it without crashing.”

Bee laughed. “Could you imagine? I’d probably just flee the country before I had to talk with Toto about it.”

Eventually, it was time to get warmed back up, but Emilia could tell Bee was starting to get nervous again. While Bee didn’t normally get very emotionally demonstrative around other people, Emilia had noticed that Bee’s body language would change considerably depending on how she felt. When she got nervous, her movements would get stiffer, she’d start to fidget and pace, and she’d start biting her lip, or her balaclava if she was wearing it.

“Well, let’s… go finish this, I guess.”

As Bee turned around to leave her drivers’ room, Emilia seized her by the shoulders, and pulled her in close, bending down until their foreheads were almost touching, looking right into her eyes.

“Phoebe, listen. Earlier was just a warm-up. You showed them what you can do. I know it feels like today is your last chance, but it’s not. We still have so many races together. And regardless of how today ends, regardless of your place, you’re going to be successful. You’ve put in the time, you’ve put in the effort, you’ve worked so hard - it’s all paying off. Those other guys might be in faster cars, but they haven’t had to climb half of the obstacles you’ve had to to get here, and you were fighting right up there at the front with them. You can do it again. I’ll be out there on the pit wall watching when you come across the line and cheering you on, no matter what.”

Emilia pulled her into a hug. Bee was a little surprised at first, but eventually, she returned Emilia’s embrace. She had to bury her face in Emilia’s shirt though, to hide the tears that had started to come into her eyes. Even in German, she felt what Emilia had said right down to her very core.

“Okay. I’m ready. Let’s do it.”

She put her balaclava and helmet back on before she left the room, wanting to stay focused and engaged, but she made sure to wave across the garage to where her parents and Susie were sitting. She saw They all called out to wish her luck as she went back out to her car and climbed back in. She and Georged walked out of the garage together, and he wished her luck as well. At least, that’s what she thought - he already had his helmet on as well, but he gave his head a clear nod and grasped Bee’s shoulder. They gave each other a quick hug.

Once again, the mechanics made their final adjustments, and Bee’s focus once again started to narrow. Gaetan did their regular radio check, and Bee’s car was moved back out onto the grid for the restart.

Once again, her focus narrowed into the view out of her cockpit, the sounds of her own breath, the racing line, and the five red lights in front of her.

As the lights went out, she got another decent getaway. Her eyes were wide open and focused, looking for gaps. She didn’t see any, but she was breathing down Charles’ neck from the start, at least. There were 42 laps left, so, as Crofty, the F1 commentator for Sky Sports in the UK, would always say, there was “all to play for”.

She stayed calm, and patient, and eventually, Charles faltered when she was able to use DRS on him, and was back up into 5th. A few laps later, she was hunting down Daniel. He locked up on turn 14 - it was crucial to be gentle on the pedal there, but he may have gotten unnerved by Bee’s presence in his mirrors. It opened the door for her to get around him, and she did.

“Good job, Phoebe. Perez is ahead by three seconds, but we have to start thinking about tires.” she heard.

“Copy. Just let me know. Going to try to build a gap with Daniel.”

As it turns out, she didn’t have to worry about tires - Ocon had a retirement that caused a safety car, which means that everyone got a free tire change. Sure, she was once again robbed of a tire advantage, but so was everyone else.

Verstappen was in first, so he controlled the pace of the pack behind him once the Safety Car period ended. Bee hated these rolling starts, because of how much control the pacesetter had - you had to have constant awareness of when the front of the pack would start to break away once overtakes were allowed again, lest you be overtaken from behind.

If you went too early, it would mean a penalty. Sometimes, the cars in the back could be caught out. In Mugello in 2020, there was an accident at the rear of the pack when they didn’t realize the cars ahead were not at full speed.

Verstapped broke away, and Bee managed to be quick enough on the throttle to end up wheel-to-wheel with Perez for a moment. She had to back off going into a corner to leave enough space, otherwise she would have ended up getting punted into the gravel trap.

She stayed on Perez for the next few laps, but she was focusing so hard she was losing the lap count.

Luckily, Gaetan was nothing if not reliable.

“Five laps, Phoebe. Push, push. Checo is 2.5 ahead, and has been talking about tire wear. Keep the pressure up and you’ll be in DRS range soon.”

It was getting down to the wire. Phoebe pushed through all of the turns, making sure to stay right on Perez’s shoulder, just to be able to take any opportunity he might have presented. She was so close.

“Three laps left, you’re 1.2 away. Almost in DRS.”

Her pace must have been mind-blowingly quick if she’d cut that much off of their gap in two laps. Maybe he was slowing down. Either way, she couldn’t let up now. One lap later, she heard Toto’s voice in her mind as they rounded the turn 9 chicane together.

“You have to squeeze your arse cheeks and commit.”

They were almost wheel-to-wheel again, and Bee wasn’t going to back off this time.

She was through.

But then… Perez had DRS on her. Bee cursed - she should have waited to overtake him until after the DRS zone. It was a stupid mistake, but she remembered what Natalie told her when she was so angry about her late pit exit during her last outing at Monza.

“Some drivers have even made mistakes that have destroyed their entire car. A few seconds on a pit exit seems like nothing in comparison, right?”

Right. It was a small error on an otherwise stellar performance so far. Nothing to lose her head over. She did her best to keep Perez in the dirty air of her car, to defend. The DRS zone would end soon anyway. She wasn’t going to let him take his position back that easily.

“Last lap, Phoebe. Good job keeping Perez behind you.”

It was now or never. She had to be absolutely dead-on for this last lap, Perez was still on her, and the endless defense she had to put up was starting to get exhausting. She could feel herself start to falter going into Turn 12, and she and Perez were wheel-to-wheel again in the 90-degree corner, but she didn’t let up. She couldn’t. Not now.

In her mind’s eye, she saw the faces of everyone who had supported her over the years - her parents, the Wolffs, Claire, Natalie, Emilia, George, Adelle and her daughter, the dozens of fans that she’d met just this weekend. She didn’t want this podium for herself, but she wanted it for them - a tangible marker to show how far she’d come because of them, a means of thanking them, and showing her how strong she’d become with their support. It urged her forward.

And then - she saw a flash of Helmut Marko’s face. She could see him so clearly - the round, balding head, the thin gray hair, and his small, beady blue eyes. His left eye was a prosthetic and his gaze was always a bit off-center. She saw the disdainful, sour look that he had whenever he talked to her towards the end of her time at Red Bull. She thought about how he’d look from his spot in Red Bull’s garage if she snatched this podium away from his own driver. She wanted, more than anything, to deny him a double podium today.

She also imagined the inevitably pissed-off look on Christian Horner’s pointy, freckled, ferret-like face - she didn’t know Christian that well, she’d avoided ever talking to him. But, it would be a bonus.

She kept her foot down through the turn 16/17/18 series, making sure to cling to the curbs to maintain the most speed. She could practically feel Perez right on her, but she stayed firm, steadfast - it was literally the meaning of her surname, after all.

Perez was practically next to her going through the home straight, but she held her breath and stomped the throttle coming out of turn 20.

Time froze, and then dilated as she crossed the line. It was a split-second that felt entirely too long. She felt like she could feel her pulse between the thin margins of seconds it had doubtlessly been.

She saw a spray of fireworks that shot off as soon as the race leader - Max, probably, crossed the line, and she followed a few seconds later. Did she make it? She couldn’t tell. She’d seen Perez inching up to her on her right side at the last minute, but she didn’t think he’d made it through.

“PHOEBE STALLARD! P3!” Gaetan shouted through the radio. She could hear the cheering from the Williams garage in the background. “THAT’S A PODIUM!”

A scream came from somewhere deep inside of her. She didn’t even feel it coming. She’d just run the race of her life. Even through her helmet and headphones, she could hear the roar of the crowd - it sounded like a prolonged, rolling thunderclap. She practically felt it in her chest, even over the hum of the engine behind her.

She looked up and ahead of her, onto the pit wall, and saw something incredible. The crew of practically every team was clinging to the pit wall fence over the home straight, cheering for her. So it seemed, at least. She saw the British racing green of Aston Martin, Ferrari red, Mercedes white and teal (she spotted Toto easily, as tall as he was), McLaren papaya, Alpine and Williams blues - at the last second, she caught a glimpse of a tall woman, in a blue shirt, with blonde hair, grasping the upper corners of an enormous American flag - Emilia.

She was on her cooldown lap, and was speechless. Normally, a driver would thank the team, depending on their mood, but Bee had felt herself start crying. She was grasping onto the bottom of her visor, trying to wipe her eyes through the gap.

She heard Claire through her radio.

“Phoebe, that was an absolutely incredible race. I’m so proud of you, and I’m so proud of how far you’ve come with this team. I know Dad is at home watching now, and I know he’s so excited and happy right now. It’s been a pleasure to be your team principal, and I’m going to miss you so much next year.”

Bee took a breath, and swallowed around the lump in her throat.

“Thank you, Claire, for believing in me. It’s been awesome working with you, and it’s not going to be the same without you. I wanted to get a podium before the end of this season to send you out on a high note and to thank you for bringing me onto this fantastic team - you’ve all been the best part of racing in Formula 1. The spirit and heart of everyone here and in Grove keeps me motivated, and this podium is for all of you - I couldn’t have done it without you.”

It sounded corny, but she’d meant every word of it. Williams had come so far in the last two years, even with the sale and the transition of leadership, but she loved it. She was proud to have been part of the small resurgence they were experiencing.

She waved out to the grandstands as she passed by them on the cooldown lap, and it was clear that people were absolutely losing it. She could have never imagined this. She almost didn’t want to pull into parc ferme - she was enjoying this particular moment - just her, her car, and the distant shouts of her fans - too much.

But, even so, she arrived and pulled up to the 3rd place bollard (another thing she’d never imagined doing) and saw that her team had gathered around the fence to wait for her.

She was 5’2”, not even 160cm, but she felt twice that height when she climbed out of the FW43B and stood on its nose. She tossed her head back and let out the same scream she’d felt tear itself from her chest earlier - of triumph. All of the tension and pressure of the weekend was gone. She jumped down and sprinted over to the crowd of Williams team members at the gate. She wasn’t quite tall enough to jump up and on top of the barriers like some drivers did, but they did their best to reach her, and she was caught in a hailstorm of hugs, cheering, and hearty slaps on her back and helmet.

It was so loud in that crowd of people. The atmosphere was electric.

Someone - probably Emilia - placed the corner of the American flag in her hands, and she gripped it fiercely.

She turned around to see Lewis waiting for her. He grabbed her into a tight hug that lifted her off her feet, which was not difficult. He set her down, and she stripped off her helmet and balaclava. He did the same, and took a moment to re-tie his braided hair back into a ponytail

“I can’t believe it, Phoebe - you’re the first woman ever on a Formula 1 podium!” Lewis shouted over the commotion around them.

Oh. She’d forgotten about that part. It wasn’t what she’d set out to do, necessarily.

He hugged her again, patting her back. “You must have run an incredible race. I can’t wait to watch it later. Congratulations.”

“Thank you, Lewis, for everything. You’ve always been so kind to me, and it means a lot.”

At the other end of the parc ferme area, there were small stands for them to place their equipment, and a scale to be weighed right near the pit lane. There used to be cool-down rooms where they did this, but they got rid of them during the abridged COVID season to maintain team bubbles. She stepped on the scale after Lewis. Claire was in the garage outside of parc ferme, standing with Emilia. She went over to them, and they both pulled her into large hugs, telling her how proud they were of her, again.

She wasn’t sure where to go next, though. The podium was on the balcony above the FIA garage area they were in, which was where the medical car was parked. Emilia shoved Bee’s drink bottle into her hands while Bee was looking around, trying to take everything in.

“Here. Drink. It wouldn’t be a good look to pass out on the podium in front of your entire country, would it?” Bee shook her head, and drank greedily. She was only just now aware of how thirsty she was. The race she ran was intensely physical, and the fatigue was only now starting to set in.

She wasn’t sure what she should be doing next, though. She wasn’t sure where Lewis had disappeared to, but she heard some cheers outside that indicated he must have been outside.

She peeked around the door of the garage to see that he was doing an interview with Jenson Button, and just as she did, the F1 employee next to her said, “You’re next, Phoebe.”

She typically didn’t hang around after races to watch the podium ceremony these days, so she was happy for the direction - this was all new to her.

She walked over to take her place in front of the microphone, and Jenson asked her a few questions. The cheer she got when she stepped out of the garage was deafening, and a flurry of American flags unfurled in the crowd. She barely paid attention to whatever Jenson was asking her, but she got through it.

She walked back into the garage area, and stood next to Lewis for a few minutes, chatting companionably with him.

“Uh…” she said. “Where do we go now? Upstairs, or -”

Lewis laughed, and grabbed her by the elbow. “I forgot, this is new for you - come on, this way.”

He led her upstairs into a small waiting area that had an FIA official. It was the “backstage” behind the outdoor podium platform, which was set up on the balcony of one of the permanent buildings at the track. She was still gripping onto the flag she’d been handed. She draped it over her shoulders.

They were also joined by someone from Red Bull to accept the constructor’s trophy for the team. She was just glad it wasn’t Christian or Helmut, but that was apparently rare. The trophy presentation party came in - they were all various local officials that she didn’t know, and…

Shaquielle O’Neal? Bee never watched basketball, but knew the enormous man when she saw him.

“We’re just about ready to start, gentleme - I mean… sorry, ladies and gentlemen.” The FIA official said, looking directly at Bee. Bee waved it off. “It’s fine. I know, this is new for all of us.”

The presentation party all filed out. Bee laughed because Shaq had to duck out underneath the door frame. Certainly not a problem she’d ever have.

“Hey, good job.” Max Verstappen told her. “I heard you gave Checo a bit of a headache. That’s not easy to do.”

It was the first thing Max had ever said to her, that she could remember.

“Ah… thank you. I tried. Congratulations to you, as well.”

He nodded a quick nod at her. “Thank you.”

“And in third place…” she heard from around the temporary wall. “The first woman to ever stand on a Formula 1 podium as a driver… Phoebe Stallard, of the United States of America!”

She walked out from behind the barrier. If she thought the cheers were deafeningearlier, this was nothing. It was incredible. She could barely hear anything else, and it was coming from everywhere - from the audience below, from the people crowded onto the paddock club balconies on the left side of the stage area. She glanced at the LED screen behind her, which was playing a pre-filmed video loop of herself making various celebratory poses - she remembered when they filmed it during pre-season testing, and it felt silly then, because she didn’t think it would even be necessary. Well, she was wrong.

They introduced Lewis and Max next, and the Dutch and Austrian national anthems played. Shaquille O’Neal handed Max the first place trophy. She congratulated the Red Bull employee standing next to her on the constructor’s trophy. Lewis received his trophy, and finally, a man came over with the small statuette for her.

She raised it aloft, and it felt like she was lifting the weight of this season, the weight of her entire career - it was everything it represented. Her own expectations of herself, her desire to perform, her desire to show the people that supported her how much she appreciated it. It was all there now, in the form of a solid metallic statuette.

“And now… the champagne!”

She barely had time to react and put the trophy down and pick her victory bottle up. It didn’t matter anyway, Lewis and Max had done this dozens of times before and were far too quick on the draw. They had both set out to drench her, too. She thought she felt Lewis actually pouring the bottle down the back of her race suit. It was sticky and smelly, but it felt kind of good in the heat.

She did her best to return the spray, but it was too late. She showered the crowd below instead. From this vantage point, she could see the faces of everyone that was there for her. She could see her parents, she could see Emilia, she could see the Wolffs, she could see Claire. She smiled and waved to all of them as they smiled back up at her.

It was just like what she’d envisioned the night before, but it was even better, because it was real. It was her goal for the season, the line she’d been striving for, and she’d made it through it all - all of the terror, all of the beauty, both in equal measure.

Schönheit und Schrecken.

It was true that Rilke had said that no feeling was final, and this feeling wouldn’t be, either. She had a few races left for this season, and had already signed for another season. There would be terror. There would be triumph, so she hoped. There would be defeat. There would be anxiety and sadness.

But none of that was here, right now. All that was here, now, was a memory that she wanted to hold onto forever.

#series: wildest dreams #f1 fanfic #f1 oc fanfic #formula 1 fanfic #original character #female oc #female f1 driver #toto wolff #george russell #my fanfic #susie wolff

[the-jam-to-the-unicorn]

Adding to what I wrote under that anon ...

And some honest talk.

I was gone for a long time which lots of things happening or not happening (writing).

My original plan was to write all the missing chapters and give them to you but we talk about a double digit number of chapters (Showman + advent calendar) + the NYE fic. I also want to edit all the already existing fics because to either erase mistakes or to make the Showman story better. I started to write it in March 2022. Not only has a lot of things happened but we also now know much more than we did back than. And edit is necessary.

And as much as I want to do all that at the same time, that's not achievable.

I still want to run this blog, do other things besides writing and have a life outside of the internet. Plus, I don't want to risk a writing burnout and having to go on a break again. Furthermore, I realized I put so much pressure on myself that I blocked myself. Several times I sat crying at home because everything was a bit too much and I didn't know how to fit everything into 24 hours of the day.

This weekend was the first time where I blocked the whole weekend for writing. I ended with not writing the whole time and also doing other stuff - watching the PC, starting to upload all the missing posts, ... . Ironically so, when I wrote, I was able to write. Because I took the pressure out. I wrote almost 4 chapter drafts this weekend after barely writing two in the last few weeks (and I hate these two).

Realizing I will not achieve my goal hurt a lot but it's to no one's use if I hold on to it and block myself even more.

So I decided to find my way back to relaxed writing. I'll write what I can do but I will take breaks. Writing should be fun. Writing should be exciting. Writing should bring me joy. Because if I enjoy writing and love what I write, this will influence the quality of my writing for the better.

Which brings me back to this blog: There are still a ton of posts missing, I have A TON of messages still sitting in my message box, I have chats and people I haven't written to in ages which I am very sorry about. There are also the Shuster reviews.

But I am also going to take the pressure out. I can't do everything at once. So I will do all these things. But with time and no pressure.

I can understand that some people may be angry or frustrated about this post. I can understand people wanting all the missing chapters and an answer to their messages and content and ... . And these feelings are valid. I want to make everyone happy but I can't make everyone happy. That's simply not possible. And I am sorry about that and I can understand if this makes people leave or be disappointed and no longer following. That's fine. I don't take it personal.

But life happened. And if I had a say in it, my family member would still be alive, my health would be better and my back would not be awful since months. But it is what it is and now I have to adapt to it. I can only hope for understanding and ask for patience and to stay with me.

In the end, I wanted to make what's going on right now transparent, because I was always honest with you, everyone, and that's something I don't want to stop with.

[moviehealthcommunity]

2024 for Movie Health Community

The last few years, I've been posting new endeavors I've been wanting to undertake for the coming year around the time of New Years. Last year, I announced my first original short film, Leech, which premiered on our YouTube channel in May. I also announced that I'd be going through my Vudu/Fandango account and catching up on evaluations from my library of movies there. While I never finished this completely due to my move to Florida and my reduction in free time, I'm still planning on finishing this task.

When it comes to the Flashing Lights Warning Tracks, which I conceived as an idea at the beginning of 2022, I set out to make as many as I could. In 2022, when I lost my voice to mono for two months, it caused a massive delay in what ended up being our most popular FLWT, which was for Everything Everywhere All at Once. When we crossed $50/month in pledges, I attempted to make a new FLWT each month, but this quickly became too much to do. Since my move to Florida, even one every two months has become too much to do. So for 2024, I'll be reducing this to one every 3 months, and I'll have the Oppenheimer FLWT ready by the end of January. The demand for Flashing Lights Warning Tracks has not been as high as I anticipated, so I hope that everyone on Patreon can forgive me for taking a small step back on this effort.

This brings me to my newest endeavor: the Movie Health Community YouTube page, where I've been talking in video form not only about the health hazards at the movies, but also about whether or not I enjoyed them. By joining the chorus of YouTube movie critics, I've been able to expand our reach and attention, and at the same time, do something I love, which is to produce video content.

For 2024, I will be making the YouTube channel a high priority, and it will be taking precedence over the Flashing Lights Warning Tracks. As soon as I am finally settled into a more scheduled and reliable job than Uber, I am hoping to be able to bring more focus to my efforts here on MHC, and bring you more exclusive and early-access content.

I know it probably sounds rehearsed every time I thank you guys in my YouTube videos, but I do mean it when I say that none of what we do would be possible without you. We are the internet's number one source of health warnings at the movies. When you Google the strobe effects of a specific movie, it's almost guaranteed that our evaluation will be on the first page, if not the first result. That's what we as a community have done, and that's why the C in MHC has been a vital part of our goals from day one.

-Admin Brandon

[primetimes-primetime]

alright. so, i know ive already made a post about this on my main, but im stupid and went to the original tweet and just made myself angry again.

TW// T-CEST UNDER THE CUT

alright, so a couple days ago i rbed a screenshot of a certain story board artist's tweet about being the one to put tcest in the show.

i dont know why or how, but i found my way onto twitter and to the original tweet that this guy made.

for context, sheldon here was a storyboard artist for Rise and the scene they are talking about here is this one from the Lair Games episode-

i partially explain again why this is horrible and disgusting and partially why i dont believe or accept sheldon's... i dont even know what to call it. his response (the top post in the first screenshot)

part one

since i literally just rbed something about this, im just going to copy/paste my rb and add onto it a little.

" no but when i found out that some of the artists who originally worked on Rise were t-cesters and proshippers i was actually so fucking pissed off.

there are part of this community that are actually god damn disgusting, and im not afriad to say that tcest is fucking rancid and if you support it i dont want you near the content that i create.

first of all, it is literally incest. it says so right in the name. which, i really hope i dont have to explain why incest is bas in the ripe year of 2022. I don't care that they arent "blood-related". They were fucking raised as brothers, treated like brothers, and think of each other as brothers. No matter how hard you try to spin it, no matter how hard you argue that they arent technically related, you have to understand that they see and think of each other as brothers, which should be enough to make this incest.

this show was amazing when it came to family dynamics and brotherly love/trust/bonds. i can say with confidence that the brothers in Rise are much more brotherly/closer than any other previous versions. it's obvious to see that they love and care and want to protect one another. to turn platonic and love for one's family into something so gross and vile is taking all of the healthy emotional bonds between these characters and throwing it out the window.

i cant fuckung believe i have to say this every time i come back into the tmnt fandom, but-

THEY ARE MINORS.

sure, with the recent Rise movie we saw an adult leo, but heres the thing- that version of leo is fucking dead. he literally got fucking beamed out of existence.

the fact that every one of these brothers are under the age of 18 and i still see so much nsfw art is absolutely horrid.

finally, it's a kid's show. sure, many of us in the community are teens, later teens, and grown adults, but that does not change that this show was originally created to bring the tmnt franchise into yet another generation of kids. again, i sincerely hope that i dont need to explain why implying incest in kids shows (or really any TVs shows, for that matter) is morally wrong and vile.

literally yesterday me and some of my mutuals had to go through a lot of our content to re-tag a whole bunch of our posts tagged with "tcest dni" because tumblr's tagging system is actual shit. there shouldnt even be a tcest community, outside of it impeding on the rest of us Rise fans.

sorry this is such a long post but im so tired of seeing / hearing about tcest. its gross, disgusting, icky, etc etc. it is 6:30 am and i woke up and saw this and decided to fucking say something, because tcest has actively made my experience coming back into the tmnt community and fandom worse. "

and i still stand by that. seeing so much tcest- and from the artists on the rise crew, no less- is making my journy back into the tmnt fandom so, so much worse. it is actively hurting a lot of people- which brings me to one specific tweet from this thread.

so, to start- i do not, i repeat- DO NOT condone or promote sending death threats to people or telling them to kill themselves.

second- it isnt. harmless. reminder, again, that this is a

CHILDREN'S. SHOW.

you are talking about MINORS IN INCESTUAL RELATIONSHIPS. "harmless fiction" my ass.

part two

ok. so as you can see in the original screenshot, you can see that sheldon is passing this off as a joke. but i honestly cannot believe him when he says this.

why, i hear you asking. well,

look at the time stamp. 2020, nearly three years ago now, when the Lair Games episode had just come out.

why didn't he say it was a joke three years ago, when he first posted the storyboard clip? because he isnt fucking joking. either that or he is just really so fucking dense that he doesn't realize that what he's doing is not funny in any way, shape or form.

which brings me to my next point.

even if it is all just a joke,

why the fuck are you joking about minors participating in fucking incest?

its fucking nasty even if it is a joke. i genuinely shouldnt need to say anymore on why this is fucking horrid.

well. ive taken up enough of your time- i appreciate you reading to the end and i apologize for making this so long. a quick, final word in case you got this far and are a tcester or support tcest-

kindly fuck off, do not interact with me, unfollow me, and block me :] i dont want your nasty ass incest anywhere fucking near me or this blog.

thanks ! :D

#ooc post #primetimes-primetime

[putschki1969]

2022/07/20 Blog post by Wakana  夏の思い出♪〜皆さんありがとうございました！〜

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Summer Memories♪〜Thank You Everyone！〜

The day before yesterday, I held my 『Wakana Botanical Land “Summer Party ～TALK&MINI LIVE～”』(((o (* ﾟ ▽ ﾟ *) o))) It's been a long time since I’ve performed in front of an audience and the event was also live streamed so overall, it was really exciting! Until the day of the event I kept thinking about what it would be like to see everyone’s faces again but the moment I got on the stage, my mind went blank and I was somewhat overwhelmed by seeing everyone in front of me, I may have panicked a little🤣 I'm sorry for my day performance in particular 😭 I wish I had talked a little more but my mind was all over the place 😇 It's been a while since my last broadcast event in February so I wanted to have a really good time with my FC members again😊 

Initially, I wasn’t planning to sing much during the event, it was supposed to be 90%talking. I wanted to hold an event where everyone could play games, ask questions and interact with each other. However, turns out I just really felt the need to sing...🥺 Everyone around me agreed that more singing would be great so all my previous plans were thrown overboard and we changed the schedule completely! I just felt like singing live would better bring out all the good (and bad *laughs*) parts of myself. I once again realised that it is the best thing ever to convey my thoughts to you via music and singing. I hope my thoughts reached you well? 

Until the very last minute I thought about what songs to sing, of course I wanted to sing my original song but since it was a FC event, I also wanted to do some cover songs. I was thinking about a lot of different songs to cover. By the time we had to decided on a setlist, I had about 7 candidates which I had rehearsed and recorded. My karaoke repertoire has increased a lot🤣 However, I was wondering what songs the audience would like to listen to so I decided to read through the questionnaires again where fans made all sorts cover suggestions. Then I got very determined to create a space where I could sing the songs everyone wanted to hear 😊I wanted you to feel like, “oh yes, that’s the song I requested!”

The last song of the setlist, "Happy Hello Day", wasn't actually part of the plan but I really wanted to sing it and added it to the setlist at the very last minute! I'm really grateful to Yurie-chan for putting up with my spontaneous ideas😭✨

For a while I was thinking of singing all songs with a backing track but when it comes to live performances I just really want them to feel like an actual live so I invited great master Yurie-chan to accompany me on piano! After all, live music conveys so much stronger feelings, and above all, I can enjoy music with everyone more \ (^-^) / 

Also, my new song "Flag" was performed for the first time! From the moment when I recorded it, I was wondering when the day would come when I would finally be able to have it unveiled live. You probably didn't expect me to sing it right at the start?😂 I wasn't expecting it either! *laughs* During the evening performance, I sang it again as a surprise at the end. I also had a special video playing in the background on the screen with Ayaka Suwa's voice-over. The game MementoMori is set to be released soon. I'm looking forward to it 😍

Now let’s post some pictures from the day🤗 Here’s a shot of me together with Yurie-chan who kindly accepted my invitation and accompanied me on piano! The dress I wore for the day performance looked like this. My evening outfit looked like this! I don't have a proper full-body shot of the second dress so I just used some pictures of me talking! 😂 I'm so sorry 😂 And here is a picture from the very last song of my evening performance, it seems like everyone was listening to me with fascination ...(о´∀`о) 

This time, I did the hair and makeup myself! I also chose the dresses and accessories myself ♪ I wanted to change the atmosphere between day and night, so I decided on an outfit change😊I really love both dresses❤️

Thank you again to everyone who came to see us and everyone who watched the stream! Also, I wanna think about another fun project and get together again soon!! Streaming tickets for the archived event will be on sale until tomorrow! The archived video itself can be viewed until Monday, July 25 \\\\ ٩ ('ω') و ////

See you soon~ ☆ (*'▽' *) /

 *** Wakana ***

#kalafina #wakana #wakana blog #botanical land #fan club exclusive content #just look at Wakana in that white dress with the floral pattern #honestly one of my all time favourite looks #absolutely stunning #the dress is sold out but hopefully I can thrift it somewhere in the future #sorry this post is a little late

[the-healing-mindset]

Update for 2023

The end of 2022 saw this blog cross over the two-year mark of being in existence. When I created this blog at the end of 2020, I never would have imagined the reach I would achieve. As we move into 2023, the blog will undergo a partial shift in content. I started the blog with the original intent of focusing heavily on spirituality-related content, something that I was very interested in back during that time. That never really culminated in the way that I had envisioned.

Though my interest in spirituality is still present, I did not have the same level of resonance with much of the material in 2022 as I had in times past. In 2023, the content of this blog will shift to more general self-help content as a part of a larger peer-support network that generally exists in this sphere of social media. The content that I share from the SourceMessages Facebook page has been a part of the blog from the start and it will continue to be posted, however, the frequency will be decreased due to a lack of resonance on some posts, and due to my having deactivated my Facebook account. That page is linked above and the content that they share can be viewed daily without having to log in. Simply clicking the link should bring up the most recent message for the day meaning that it can be bookmarked or saved to a desktop for easy access.

As I continue my own healing journey, the blog will evolve to improve, just as I am striving to do continuously. I will share personal stories from time to time as I continue to come to terms with my past and with the things that have occurred in my life. Moving away from home and beginning two new jobs should really provide me with new perspectives about the world that will help me improve the content of the blog, as I have been admittedly sharing content from a very limited point of view.

As always, my messages and asks are open. These will not close, though I may be late replying at times as I will be doing the work to improve my financial situation, further my career, and heal all at the same time. Once I get back used to this level of intensity in my life, then things will improve, which I am hoping will allow me to better produce content for all of you.

Thank you all so much for your support throughout the years.

Happy New Year

#blog update

[megaboy335]

Mega’s Top 2022 Anime (and Manga)

Another year comes and goes, and with it another year of anime comes to a close. The number of shows I watched continues to decline. While at the same time I’m spending more time reading manga. There was a strong mix of anime originals and creative adaptations this year. Without further ado, here’s my annual top 5 anime of the year (and manga) list:

1) Mob Psycho 100 Season 3 Mob Psycho 100 has joined the short list of manga that got completely adapted into anime. While I wasn’t as into the season due to the passage of time, it ended on a very high note for me. The remaining plotlines landed in a good place, character arcs reached their resolution, and its message remained on point to the very end. I don’t have much more to add compared to what I wrote in 2016 and 2019. I hope it will be remembered as a classic from this time period. 2) Bocchi the Rock This was the most creative anime visually for me this year. Every single interaction is a struggle for Bocchi, and that is conveyed through each incident being depicted differently. It brings a lot of life to Bocchi’s personality as no two situations are quite the same for her. It’s also an uplifting show as she grows closer to her new found band friends. Bocchi the Rock was definitely the surprise hit of the year.

3) Spy x Family

As someone who has been reading the manga since it began, I had a feeling it would become a hit someday. The dynamic between Twilight (the spy with a thousand faces), Yor (assassin by night, office worker by day), and Anya (the all knowing psychic) makes for comedic and wholesome situations as they live together under the same roof. Next season will have the much anticipated Yor boat arc. There’s also a movie to look forward to. 4) Made in Abyss Season 2 If you thought season 1 and the movie was the most emotional it could be, well, the series still had more tricks up its sleeve. This season took us down another layer into the legendary Golden City. The story began with a previously unseen group of explorers who descended down to this level. I can’t even begin to describe the horrors they experienced. It was some of the cruelest material yet in the series and a stark reminder how the abyss is a place that rejects outsiders. Unfortunately it might be a long time before another season or movie gets made.  5) Chainsaw Man

This was one of the most anticipated anime of the year for a good reason. Tatsuki Fujimoto draws manga like nobody else in the shonen genre. I was worried how his cinematic yet deliberate panel work would translate to screen, and I can say Mappa did a respectable job. The content from here is where the series had me on the edge of my seat every week. I can’t wait to see Reze, the Gun Devil, and basically the entire second half animated. 

Other series worth mentioning: Call of the Night, Dress Up Darling, Lycoris Recoil, Kaguya-Sama: Love is War Season 3 and Bleach The Thousand Year Blood War Part 1

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Biggest Disappointments of the Year: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 6 - Turns out when you just adapt the manga panels to tv, it loses a lot of visual personality. Thankfully the story alone was enough to make it watchable. My greatest fear going into 2023 is a poor adaptation of Steel Ball Run on Netflix

Devil is a Part Timer season 2 - This was a long overdue sequel. In the time between seasons, I was able to read the entire light novel series. The books are a nice read. The anime however, looked terrible. Perhaps it was best to not adapt it again if that’s the best they could do. Save yourself and read the novels instead. It’s highly unlikely the anime will be able to adapt all 21 volumes anyways. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Best Openings/Ending of 2022: 1) Urusei Yatsura (2022) Opening - Fun opening and catchy song makes for a perfect match to a reboot of the classic manga 2) Spy x Family Ending 2 - It perfectly captures the peaceful life they enjoy during the day vs. their personal struggles in the shadows.  3) Call of the Night Opening - A simple yet stylized opening to convey how meeting the Vampire Nazuna is changing his life. 4) One Piece Opening 24 - Upbeat song and visuals to showcase the battles against the Tobi Roppo in this section of the story. I hope for a gear 5 animation update when the anime gets there. 5) Chainsaw Man Ending 4 - Among all of Chainsaw Man’s endings, #4 was my personal favorite. Who knew it was possible to show the chaotic yet fun energy of Power in 90 seconds. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Next up, I’m adding a manga section for the first time. I read a lot of current titles and sometimes I try to check out older series that I missed. The number of legal manga services have started to take off in recent years.  Weekly Shonen Jump and Jump+ have a ton of anime on the schedule for 2023. Undead Unluck is one to watch for big hit potential (don’t let the early crudeness deter you, it matures very quickly), and maybe Mashle if the fights are well animated. Among new serializations, Akane Banashi is without a doubt the best new title of 2022. Its a Rakugo-battle manga that addresses both long standing sexism and the modernization vs. traditional debate within the art form. Takamasa Moue draws well detailed spreads to immerse readers in the world of the stories being told. This will be a big hit when it is eventually animated. Also a big shoutout to Ruri Dragon. I look forward to the day it comes back from hiatus. Speaking of hiatuses, Hunter x Hunter came back for another 10 chapter run this year. This time it devoted nearly every page to the Spiders and mafia plot on the lower levels of the ship. But overall, not a lot actually happened. The Phantom Troupe backstory was a nice treat for long time fans at least. I still don’t expect to ever see the end of this arc. Outside of Jump, Tying the Knot with an Amagami Sister is a harem rom-com that I find very enjoyable with a good mix of supernatural antics and fun moments you’d expect in the genre. Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is probably going to be one of the biggest anime in 2023. The manga tells the story of Ef who outlived her party. She now seeks to make new memories while learning the meaning of the little things in her previous journey. Its a story that puts everyday life moments into perspective.

Lastly for a few older titles I read this year:

Negima and UQ Holder - This is the kind of series that I would have been immensely into if I read it during its run. The rom-com elements are nice and all, but what truly sold me on the series is the fantasy adventure they have during the entire second half. Negima is one of the best at blending harem and battle troupes together. Unfortunately the sequel UQ Holder isn’t nearly as good. Poor pacing and incoherent plot held it down. At least it provided the final arc that Negima skipped at the end. I think it’s a series that has aged surprisingly well in this modern isekai era. Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer - I heard this was a fantastic title and... I thought it was boring. It’s not drawn particularly well, the story is a bit formulaic, and everything falls flat for me. It simply didn’t feel ambitious enough for the story it wanted to tell (and let us not go into the bland anime adaptation it received). I’ll get around to Satoshi Mizukami’s other titles eventually. Sun Ken Rock - Since Dr. Stone finished this year, I went back to read another Boichi work. I was really impressed by the Yazuka drama mixed with a non-Japan setting. I quickly learned Boichi sure tamed himself before coming to Jump while still always striving to improve his art. His already impressive spreads during Sun Ken Rock only become more detailed over time and throughout Dr. Stone. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I look forward to the anime adaptations for several of my favorite manga in 2023 and can’t wait to discover new manga series. The year seems like it will be off to a promising start with JoJo Part 9 coming in February. A few big hitters from Weekly Shonen Jump are also likely to end. There are plenty of things to look forward to in the coming year.

See you all next time!

#Mega's Words

[no-tresspassing]

On Der Himmel Über Berlin - Wim Wenders 1987

Der Himmel Über Berlin (The Sky Over Berlin), commonly known as Wings Of Desire, was the first film I saw at the BFI. A film classic directed by Wim Wenders that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 17th 1987, the film was restored in 4K and was rereleased at the BFI on June 24th 2022. Usually, when writing a review or analysis, I will add a summary of the content; but I would rather you see this for yourself, should you choose to do so. I will, however, tell you that the film follows two angels (Damiel and Cassiel) through the streets and skies of Berlin as they observe its inhabitants and their thoughts. While it is a romance, I think it focuses more on the ability to love than the actual romance between the characters (Damiel and Marion, the trapeze artist). Whilst Der Himmel Über Berlin isn’t a Lynchian level of absurd, and its camerawork doesn’t have the same close-ups as David Lynch’s work, I found that the detail in the sound of this film was equivalent or at least comparable to Lynch’s visuals. Having the ability to hear a person's thoughts brings an entirely different level of intimacy between character and viewer that I am yet to find elsewhere, to the extent that it felt almost intrusive to be watching and listening in on such private matters.

The forbidden love between Damiel and Marion is greater than that of Shakespeare’s classic Romeo and Juliet, perhaps because Damiel isn’t grooming a 13-year-old girl into marrying him after only knowing her for a few days. Instead, he becomes enamoured with and practically stalks an unknowing grown woman and decides to change the trajectory of his entire existence just for the possibility of her loving him back. I particularly enjoyed the scene in which Damiel lay on top of Marion while she slept and visited her in her dream while dressed in armour. Keep in mind that all of this takes place in a world where invisible angels exist among people, giving hope to those in distress who cannot physically interact with them, can only see in black and white and can only be seen by children. So maybe it is pretty absurd after all.

All jokes aside, I left the BFI after watching Der Himmel Über Berlin with a greater appreciation for the things in life that are so often and easily overlooked. In one particular scene, Peter Falk speaks to Damiel (despite not being able to see him, claiming he can “feel” Damiel there) about the small things he appreciates in life. “To smoke, to have coffee and if you do it together, it's fantastic…to draw…or when your hands are cold, and you rub them together.” While it confuses any bystanders, as Falk seemingly talks to nobody, I can see why Damiel decided to exchange his immortality for the human experience. After all, he as an entity had existed long before humanity, he watched its entire development, yet he had never lived.

While I was expecting the film's poetic and ethereal ambience, I was not expecting it to be funny. Furthermore, I think the use of this humour amid the whispers and pensive scenes was done very tastefully. You don't see a frustrated Peter Falk trying on copious amounts of hats until he finally finds one that he likes straight after you see a man jump off a high rise. You do, however, see Falk repeating the speech that he made Damiel word for word and shaking hands with thin air, thinking he was talking to an angel. Another thing that I was entirely not expecting was the presence of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds in the film. At first, I was excited to see The Boatman's Call vinyl used in a scene and hear The Carny and From Her To Eternity in the film's original soundtrack. Still, the band made a cameo appearance, performing a gig at which Damiel and Marion speak for the first time. I cannot deny that this made my face lit up with joy. In fact, my favourite part of the film was when we hear Nick thinking to himself, "One more song, then it's over, and I'm not gonna tell you about a girl,” just seconds before leaning forward to his microphone and proceeding to say “I’m gonna tell you about a girl.”

Really what I took away from this film was an appreciation for the beauty of life itself and the human experience as a whole and a deeper understanding of how little we know about the happenings of other people’s lives. While I do have more to say about this film, I fear I would either be repeating myself, or this would just become a list of things that I found funny with no real input on my part. Something that you have to have seen the film to understand, so for now, I think this is sufficient.

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

More to come...

- Ida

#film #1980s #romance films #review #media analysis #wim wenders #peter falk #der himmel über berlin #wings of desire #classic film #80s movies #1987

[night-unfurls-its-splendour]

Hello! Hope you're having a good day! = D

Could you answer #1 from the writer's ask game please?

Of course!

1. When did you start writing? How?

Okay so let's rewind to 2010. I was... fourteen? My sister and I were super into Tennis. Yeah the sport. So we spent a lot of time on a little site (now defunct) called Quizilla. It was sort of the precursor to what UQuiz is now, and it hosted not only quizzes but fanfic also. We couldn't find a whole lot of Tennis content on Quizilla--almost all of it was for an anime called The Prince of Tennis, which we promptly got very very into.

The first fanfic I ever wrote was for Prince of Tennis and it was a Seven Minutes in Heaven Quiz hosted on Quizilla. I did two of these: one for the protagonist team and one for their biggest rival team. I co-wrote them with my sister and they didn't, like, explode into popularity, but we did get a lot of comments talking about how well done they were, how each one really felt tailored to the character, rather than flattening them out into the usual dirt bag teenage hot boy antics that you would tend to find in spin the bottle/smih fics/quizzes.

That made me feel really good, that I was coming at a niche with a (very slightly) more mature lens that catered to an underfed more mature audience.

The following attempts at full-on stories were, I'll be frank, not as good. I was definitely exploring what I found attractive about each character, but as story they were definitely very threadbare. I had some good concepts but absolutely no emotional development to make them into what I could call a "story". So I set writing aside for a while, then I did some unpublished OC Bleach fanfic and after that really didn't write much of anything until March of 2021 when my Twilight Renaissance began and I decided to resurrect and overhaul my Twilight OC (you can find out all about her on my side-blog @crookdeclipses ) along with completely overhauling her, her name, and her backstory, I also started a dedicated OC fic called Moonrise. that takes place during the events of New Moon and is about her and how she meets her love interest while abroad during the Cullen exodus. But that's all currently unpublished because while it's set in the Twilight universe and directly connects to the principal cast, almost all of the action deals with completely original characters.

Cut to October. 2022. I watched the Phantom of the Opera (2004) and was high-key not okay afterwards. I discovered right from the beginning that the final lair Brings. Out. The. Worst. In. Me.

So much so that after several weeks of obsessive viewing of the film, I formulated a fix-it scenario which then became When The Longing Returns, which is my first published fic in over ten years, and is also the only thing I've written that I feel justified in calling "a story".

#ask game #writing #fanfic #fanfiction #prince of tennis #the phantom of the opera #poto 2004 #poto fanfiction #poto fic #phantom of the opera fanfiction #when the longing returns #twilight fanfiction #twilight oc fic #twilight renaissance

[lorirwritesfanfic]

Personal Favourite - Part 2: Favourite Part(s)

Author's note: Another gift for @missameliep​ because reasons (I may or may not be planning flood your notes with the OTP meme fics in the next few days. I don’t know for sure... 😅). Happy birthday, dear! This is also a late submission to @choicesjuly2022challenge​ (I hope it’s okay...)[Original characters are creations of this author. The others are owned by Pixelberry Studios]

Book: Desire & Decorum (modern day AU) Characters: MC (Daphne), F!OC (Veronica), Prince Hamid, Annabelle Parsons, Briar Daly, Edmund Marlcaster, Yusuf Konevi, Bartholomew Chambers. Pairings: Prince Hamid x MC (Daphne), Annabelle Parsons x F!OC (Veronica) Rating: T Word count: 980 Reading time: ~3min Summary: A volleyball match will bring so many emotions to the surface. Based on the prompts: Choices July Chellenge 2022 - day ten: beach / OTP ask meme #6: What is their favourite feature of their partner’s?

A salty breeze blew against Daphne's face as she lay on an outdoor chaise, watching her friends play volleyball by the calm waters of the Aegean sea. She was well aware some of them were too competitive to handle having someone not so good at sports on their team, so why bother joining? It was so much more entertaining to watch the game anyway.

Whilst Hamid and Annabelle high-fived after another successful block and point against Briar and Edmund, her childhood friend complained about sand on her eyes.

"Oh, quit whining! You barely moved! Edmund took the dive!" Annabelle shouted.

"But the sand is going straight to my eye!" Briar cried out hoping Bart and Yusuf (a.k.a the match referees) would take pity on her, but both of them simply shook their heads.

“I can see you talking, but all I hear is wah, wah, wah!" Annabelle taunted.

Briar replied sticking her tongue out to Annabelle.

As everyone laughed, Hamid took his place just outside the end of the court and waited for Bart's signal to serve.

Daphne sat up and nibbled her bottom lip expectantly. She couldn't remember the last time she has paid such close attention to any part of a volleyball match. But watching Hamid play was a rare event she just couldn't miss.

Sensing his partner's attentive eyes on him, he smiled at her, winked and prepared himself to serve. His skin glowed under the sunlight, accentuating the taut muscles of his arms as he jumped and hit the ball to the other side of the court. As expected, he scored another point. From time to time, he dumped some of the water in his bottle over his head and, much to her delight, it cascaded over his bare torso, mixing with pearls of sweat running down his body. He moved such grace alongside Annabelle as they attacked and defended their side of the court it looked like they've been playing together for years.

Daphne sighed contently at the scene before her and lay down again, resting her chin on one hand. Staying on the sidelines to watch him play was, so far, the best decision of the day.

"Here you go, sweetie."

Veronica offered Daphne a tall glass of Blue Lagoon and took a seat on the nearby chaise.

"Thank you," she replied and took a long sip of the drink.

"Take this too." Veronica handed Daphne a napkin.

"What for?"

"So you can wipe the drool dripping down your chin as you gawk at Hamid."

Daphne instinctively lifted a hand to her chin and then pursed her lips as Veronica doubled over.

"Ha ha."

"Hey, no judgments here. The entire beach staring at him, Daph. But you are  the only one with access granted to all of that." Veronica pointed to Hamid and moved her finger as though she could touch his frame from afar.

"Aren't you gay?" Daphne narrowed her eyes playfully.

"Very! I'd never trade Ann with all her gorgeous curves for a guy, no matter how hot he is. But I do like to appreciate all kinds of beauty." Veronica smiled slyly. "I mean, look at that back. I can count every single muscle from here."

"Don't I know it..."

"The crazy number of the paintings and sketches you have of him speaks for itself, Daph."

The two friends giggled.

"But you know what's my favourite part of him?"

"No. What is it?"

"His arms."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Obviously they look good because they're big and powerful. But I like his arms because of how he hugs people, you know."

Veronica was so right. But Hamid's hugging skills go beyond welcoming hugs. He has a protective hug, one that he often uses to shield Daphne from the cold and unwanted attention from people neither of them liked. The comforting one, the kind of hug he offers when she's sad, tired, overwhelmed or when she didn't even realise she needed a hug.

He also has a tackle-hug. A more playful kind of hug he saved for whenever they were alone, preferably when they're in the mood for fewer clothes. And there was the "I miss you" hug. Though it has a hint of the comforting and tackle-hug, his arms grew tighter around her and followed by a relieved sigh and a “it’s so good to be home” comment.

"I agree. But his hugs aren't simply made of his arms. It’s so much more," Daphne commented as she gazed back at Hamid as he made the final point to win the match.

"Of course not." Veronica looked in the same direction. "There's also the chest..."

“That wasn’t what I meant, but yeah.”

“There are also the broad shoulders.”

"And the six-pack."

"With that V pointing towards the..."

"Uh-huh..."

They laughed again.

As Hamid left the court and sauntered over to them, Veronica stood up. "That's my cue to step in."

"Okay. Have fun at the game!"

"I have a feeling you’ll have so much more fun than I will, but thanks!"

Veronica briefly hugged Hamid and rushed to the sand to join Annabelle's team.

Once he was close enough, Daphne knelt on the chaise and greeted him with a smile. "Hi there."

"Hi..." He closed the distance between them and captured her lips in a searing kiss.

As her fingers toyed with the waistband of his swim trunks, he whispered. "We're lucky this beach is nearly desert this week. We'd cause quite the scandal with a kiss like that."

“Would we?”

"Mmhmm..."

"That would be so bad..." She purred.

“So, so bad…” He murmured between kisses.

"I think we should go back to our room then."

Hamid pulled away and gazed at her with a curious look. "Now?!"

Daphne nodded with a mischievous grin.

"I have no idea what caused this, but who am I to object?" He replied with a smile nearly as sinful as hers.

Hand in hand, the two of them left the shore and disappeared into the hotel lobby.

#choices fanfic #desire and decorum #prince hamid #hamid x mc #desire and decorum fanfic #desire & decorum modern day au #meant to be au #lorirwritesfanfic #lorircreates