#i never took the french or spanish options we had but i can assume based on what i remember friends saying it was france french | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

twothumbsandnostakeincanon · 6 years

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my tags on this post wouldn’t leave me the fuck alone and I’m a disaster with no self control.

“I don’t know how many legs it has,” Peter answered in Ukranian, flipping through his notes as he held the phone between his ear and his shoulder. “Let me-”

“It had eight legs,” Stiles called from across the room, nose buried in his own notes as he scribbled something down.

“It had eight legs,” Peter automatically forwarded in Ukrainian before pausing and looking up at Stiles. Peter watched as he stuck the pencil between his teeth and typed on his keyboard, mind apparently intent on his current task.

“Okay,” Peter’s contact answered on the phone. “I think I have something for you.”

Peter turned all of his attention back to the conversation, tucking the revelation away for another time.

__________

“Eight legs, yellow scales, and secretes a gel-like hallucinogen?” Chris clarified with a frown. “I don’t recognize it… I have a few books you could look at, I guess. Only one of ‘em is English though. Another is in French, if anyone took enough in high school to read it,” he suggested skeptically.

“What language is the last one?”

Chris raised an eyebrow at Lydia.

“Russian. So unless-”

“Great, Stiles can take that one, I’ll get the French, and Peter can have the English. Let’s go.” Lydia was already moving toward the safe where he knew Argent kept his supernatural books, Stiles close on her heels.

Peter grinned lazily at Chris, following the other two and enjoying the dumbfounded look on the hunter’s face.

__________

“Dad, just- I know you want to go look at the scene for yourself but please, please don’t go,” Stiles begged.

Peter looked away, trying to give the father and son the illusion of privacy. He couldn’t leave- not when whatever beast they were tracking seemed to have latched on to Stiles specifically.

Not that they were telling the sheriff that.

“Isaac almost got his leg cut off by this thing, Dad-”

“Another pair of eyes can’t do anything but help,” Sheriff Stilinski insisted stubbornly. “I have to help, son.”

“Dad, please,” Stiles said quietly in Polish. Peter startled at the sudden change, turning around to see Stiles squeezing his eyes shut before opening them to look at his father, slightly glassy with tears. “For once think of yourself and me first. Please just keep yourself safe,” he continued in Polish.

The sheriff looked devastated. He was silent for a long moment.

“Alright,” he eventually responded, emotion making his responding Polish sound rough. “I’ll stay away. Until morning.”

The relief on Stiles’ face would have made a better man feel guilty for intruding on the moment, but Peter was too busy wondering just why Stiles knew so many languages.

__________

Peter and Stiles, it always came down to Peter and Stiles, didn’t it? No matter what dumbass plan the group agreed upon, it was always Peter and Stiles left alone.

Peter growled and slashed his claws at the beast again, playing the most high stakes game of goalkeeper in his life.

Stiles frantically clicked through link after link on the laptop behind him, digging for the one spell that would turn the beast back into it’s original form, whatever that was. Well, assuming they were right about it being a transfiguration spell gone wrong in the first place.

“DORISE EMPEROCT COMMONIO” came the sudden yell from behind him, and Peter felt a wave of energy rush past him and into the beast.

The snarling, slavering monster shuddered, scuttling back before beginning to shrink- and shrink, and shrink some more. Two beats later, a hermit crab in a yellow shell sat on the floor in front of them.

Stiles slowly approached from behind.

“… Do you think we can touch it?” he asked.

Peter stared at it with an open mouth for another moment before rounding on Stiles.

“Latin isn’t even Slavic!” he shouted indignantly.

Stiles blinked at him for a moment.

“… I’m gonna touch it.”

“Don’t fucking do that, it might pinch you,” Peter sniped, batting Stiles’ hands away and going to pick up the hermit crab himself. “Your pronunciation is perfect, why in God’s name are you fluent in five languages?” he demanded as he dropped the crab into a mason jar that was sitting out, puncturing the lid with his claws before screwing it on.

“Seven, actually,” Stiles said absently, tapping on the glass of the jar and startling the crab into it’s shell. “I learned French back when I still wanted to date Lydia. I had big ideas about the private tutoring sessions with the language of love.” He stood up straight. “Learning Spanish after that was only practical.”

“Seven,” Peter echoed. That outdid him by three. “Why?” he repeated, so curious he could hardly stand it. “And why didn’t I know about it?”

Stiles tensed his jaw for a moment before forcing himself to relax.

“Most people don’t know, you’re not special. Lydia knows because she dated Jackson, and Jackson knew because of his dad, and Jackson’s dad knew because he’s an asshole who takes the ‘power in information’ concept to the dirtiest lows.”

Stiles squatted back down, looking at the crab hiding in it’s shell.

“I’m adopted. It’s not that big of a deal. I always thought Jackson overreacted… but then again I remember being adopted.” The crab poked the tiniest bit of itself out, testing the environment. “My parents found me in a Ukrainian orphanage. I was four.”

“Before I left, the older children told me that they were kidnapping me to harvest my organs. Which sounds kind of hilarious in retrospect, but I stole a knife as soon as we got to Beacon Hills and kept it under my mattress.” He softly stroked the glass of the jar. “Still have it, actually. I don’t have a whole lot of clear memories of the orphanage, but I do remember that the idea of being killed for my organs wasn’t implausible based on what life was like there.”

The crab came out a little further, getting two legs all the way out.

“Anyway,” Stiles sighed. “Obviously they didn’t harvest my organs. After about six months I felt like they’d taken away something just as important, though. I started forgetting how to speak Ukrainian.” He tensed his shoulders at the memory of what it had felt like, how scared he’d been.

“I was forgetting Ukrainian, but also didn’t know enough English to fully express myself either. I felt like I was losing all my ability to communicate; I felt like I was going crazy. I threw huge tantrums, kicking and screaming and hurting myself. It wasn’t until Dad’s parents came for a visit that I could calm down.”

“Polish is a lot like Ukrainian, you know? They were first generation immigrants, so while they knew perfect English, they still mostly spoke Polish to each other, and my Dad sometimes. After a week with them, most of my Ukrainian came back, and I started picking up Polish too. When Mom saw how much calmer I was, she made the connection. She told Dad to speak to me in Polish.”

The little crab finally came all the way out, timidly skittering around the bottom of the mason jar.

“Mom had already picked up some of the language, just living with Dad, but after that she dove into it. She loved it. The whole process of learning grammar and context and cultural phrases- she just really fucking loved it. After she mastered Polish, she started teaching herself Russian, and asked if I wanted to do it with her.”

Stiles finally stood again, raising his gaze to Peter.

“It was the first thing she forgot when the dementia kicked in.”

Peter stood stunned, unable to think of a single thing to say.

“So anyway,” Stiles said as he started tapping the counter next to the hermit crab, causing it to dart back inside it’s shell. “That’s why most people don’t know. Don’t be ass about it now that you do. What are we gonna do about this guy?” He jerked his thumb at the jar. “Or whoever was responsible for trying to transfigure him?” He glanced around Peter’s apartment. “Also, you need a new couch. Pretty sure that one is done for.”

Slowly, and in Ukrainian, Peter said “I don’t think we can give him to a pet store. Someone’s going to have to keep him.”

Stiles looked at Peter sharply, trying to parse his intention from his expression.

“Yes,” Stiles agreed eventually, responding in like. “Your counter looks like it has enough room for a terrarium.”

“I already have to get a new couch, and now you want me to sacrifice counter space for it too?” Peter demanded, more at ease now that Stiles hadn’t snapped at him. “I don’t think so.”

“Who else is going to take him?” Stiles said, throwing his hands into the air, the edge of a smile tickling his mouth. “I can’t! My dad would actually murder me, and then Scott would have to avenge my death and we both know he’d never win that fight. You’re the only option here.” Stiles picked up the jar and held it next to his face with big, beseeching eyes. “You’re his only hope.”

“Don’t you quote Star Wars at me, not when you’re trying to make me father. You know exactly what happens to fathers in Star Wars,” Peter said despite taking the jar from Stiles and peering in at the hermit crab.

Stiles was openly smiling now, relaxed in a way Peter didn’t often see.

“I’ll take him on one condition,” Peter said, continuing in Ukrainian. “You have to be the one who cleans out his tank.”

“Half,” Stiles haggled. “I’ll do it once a week, you do the other.”

“Deal.”

__________

If Peter’s apartment walls could talk, they’d speak Ukrainian, because that’s nearly all they heard.

They’d also have a few secrets to tell about kisses and boys with pale skin.

#about 1.5k under the cut #I'm already doing steter week so what the fuck is this nonsense #also that latin spell was pulled out of my ass so if it's shit THAT'S WHY #steter #steter fic #this blog needs a tag for my bullshit #tumblr fic and kinda fic

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thehandmaidstalehulu · 7 years

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Margaret Atwood’s rule for herself when writing “The Handmaid’s Tale” was that everything had to be based on some real-world antecedent. And she was able to combine disparate historical events in plausible — and horrific — ways.

Hulu’s TV adaptation of her novel does the same; even when the show expands the world established in the novel and adds scenes that weren’t in the original material, they “could have been, because they have precedents,” Atwood said in a phone interview. Ahead of the Season 1 finale on Wednesday, Atwood explained the historical basis of the book and the show’s most disconcerting elements.

Episode 1: Color-Coordinated Clothing

The women of Gilead all wear clothing and colors prescribed by their status in this society: red for handmaids, blue for wives, green for Marthas, brown for aunts. “Organizing people according to what they’re wearing — who should wear what and when, who has to cover up what — is a very, very, very, very old human vocation,” Atwood said. It dates back to the first known legal code, the Code of Hammurabi, one part of which stated that “only aristocratic ladies were allowed to wear veils,” she added.

“If you were caught wearing a veil, and if you were in fact a slave, the penalty was execution,” Atwood continued. “It meant that you were pretending to be someone that you were not.”

The handmaid’s garb comes from a variety of sources (mid-Victorian bonnets and veils, nun wimples). Atwood’s trip to Afghanistan in 1978 — where she wore a chador — was also an influence. “They weren’t imposing it on everybody, at that point,” she said. “They did later.” All of these codes of attire — including the Third Reich’s yellow stars for Jews and pink triangles for gays — were ways of “identifying people, controlling people,” she said. “It’s easy to see at once who this person is.” The handmaid’s assigned color, red, was used by Canada for its prisoners of war, Atwood added, “who had the privilege to wear because it shows up so very well in the snow.”

The red is also borrowed from Christian iconography of the late-medieval, early Renaissance period, she said, in which “the Virgin Mary would inevitably wear blue or blue-green, and Mary Magdalene would inevitably wear red.”

Episode 1: Mob Justice

Gilead likes its ceremonies, and it has one to punish political enemies or disruptive elements that also acts as a release for the otherwise tightly controlled handmaids. The women stand in a circle and collectively participate in an execution, in some cases by tearing the accused apart with their bare hands. In the novel, it is called a “particicution,” a portmanteau of the words participation and execution. “When the mob takes over, no one person is responsible,” Atwood said. And this kind of frenzied murder party has a very old precedent, she added, citing “the Dionysian revels of ancient Greece,” in which Maenads tore apart sacrificial victims for the god Dionysus.

The mob will sometimes demand justice. “During the French Revolution, Princesse de Lamballe was torn apart and had her head put on a pike, which was paraded under the window of Marie Antoinette,” Atwood said. “And in Émile Zola’s novel ‘Germinal,’ which is based on real-life 19th century coal-mining enterprises, the guy who runs the company store is exacting sex from the wives and daughters of the coal miners in order to sell them goods because they didn’t have any money. So when the women get the chance, they tear him apart, and put not his head but his genitalia on a pike, and parade it around.”

Episode 2: Forced Childbearing

We get an early peek at how ends justify means in Gilead when Janine gives birth and can’t accept the reality that she will not get to keep the child. “There are a lot of utopias and dystopias based on economics, but this is one that goes to the absolute root, which is how many people are you going to have?” Atwood said. “And how are you going to get them? In some cultures, you don’t have to make special laws about it. But in other cultures, you have to bring in oppression to get the results that you want.”

Tyrants and dictators like Adolf Hitler and Nicolae Ceausescu have often dictated the terms of fertility and criminalized those who did not comply. “It’s no accident that Napoleon banned abortion,” Atwood said. “He said exactly why he wanted offspring — for cannon fodder. Lovely!”

An added wrinkle, of course, is that the handmaids aren’t just being forced to give birth, they’re being forced to be surrogates, and the children they bear are then forcibly taken from them and placed with high-ranking officials. After a military junta took power in Argentina in 1976, as many as 500 young children and newborns were “disappeared,” only to be adopted by military and police couples. Hundreds of thousands of children of indigenous populations in Canada and Australia were separated from their families. “It must have been public in that it wasn’t a secret, but it also wasn’t known at the time,” Atwood said. “Nobody registered that this was happening. And it was probably presented like, ‘Oh, we’re giving these children a wonderful opportunity. We’re sending them to school.’ You see how that could sound?”

Episode 4: Declaring Women Barren

It’s not initially questioned in the show why women would be used to solve the fertility woes of the period — until Offred visits a doctor who offers to help her out. Turns out, the Republic of Gilead has never considered the other half of the equation: men.

“There’s some confusion about this, because here you have Aunt Lydia saying it’s the wives who are barren,” Atwood said. “And for centuries and centuries, that’s what people thought. They thought it was the woman’s fault.” King Henry VIII kept changing wives (and the state religion), Atwood noted, adding: “That’s why Anne Boleyn knew she was doomed when she had that miscarriage. The idea was that the child was fully formed inside the seed of the man, and his seed was simply planted in the woman, the way you’d plant a seed in a field.”

A book titled “Eve’s Seed: Biology, the Sexes, and the Course of History” by Robert S. McElvaine is illuminating on this front, she said. “You said a piece of land was barren, you said a woman was barren. You said a piece of land was fertile, you said a woman was fertile.”

In the show, the doctor knows otherwise. As does Serena Joy when she decides that Offred should use Nick. “That’s one of the things Anne Boleyn was accused of — having sex with her brother in order to produce a child,” Atwood said.

Episode 5: Why Ofglen Does What She Does

Ofglen has very few options once the resistance can no longer make use of her, and she opts for a last, desperate act of resistance, taking out a few guards with a stolen vehicle. It’s a departure from the book, but Atwood said she approved. “Do you remember the Buddhist monk who set himself on fire?” she asked. “José Martí, during the war with the Spanish, went into battle knowing he wouldn’t come out,” she continued, referring to the Cuban revolutionary who died in the Cuban War of Independence. “I think people do these things because otherwise they’ve been totally defeated. They know it’s not going to work in the present moment, but down the line, they are an example to others.”

Episode 6: The Mexican Ambassador

“The Hulu team made their Offred more active than my Offred,” Atwood said. “Partly because it’s a television series, and partly because it’s an American television series.” Offred would never have been able to stand up for herself or ask for help from a foreign emissary in the novel. The Mexican trade delegation visit doesn’t happen in the book. There is a scene in the novel in which Offred encounters some Japanese tourists, who she assumes are trade delegates, but she can’t honestly answer their pointed question, “Are you happy?” In the show, however, Offred speaks up to Ambassador Castillo when she has the opportunity — and she finds a way to get a note out to the outside world.

Atwood said ambassadors of neutral countries have often acted as conduits. In World War II, an Italian journalist named Curzio Malaparte reported from the Eastern Front, and he found a way to get out the news of what the Germans were really up to. “He was keeping these papers sewn into his coat and in the soles of his shoes and he smuggled them out through the diplomats of neutral countries,” Atwood said. “You have to trust people a lot to do that!”

Episode 8: The Black Market Club

Offred reunites with Moira at Jezebel’s, a brothel where powerful men go to conduct business and indulge in illicit sex and other escapades. It’s also a thriving black market for commoners and, more to the point, the Mayday resistance. Atwood said she was rereading a book by Norman Lewis, “Naples ’44,” which describes the black market that was tolerated by the Allies in Naples, Italy, during World War II “because they were helping to run it!”

“All of this stuff is so old,” she continued, “black markets, special clubs with items you can’t get elsewhere, information exchanged through subterranean conduits.”

In the Audible special edition of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” listeners learn that there is actually a chain of Jezebel brothels, some with golf courses. “Because of course women could no longer play golf,” Atwood said. “This has actually been a complaint of female politicians, that all these special deals and secret conversations and understandings are reached at golf clubs, and if you don’t play golf, you’re just out of it.”

Episode 9: The Mayday Resistance

Atwood did a huge amount of research on the resistance movements in various countries during World War II. One of her old friends, now deceased, was a member of the French Resistance, and he parachuted behind enemy lines to help funnel downed British airmen out of France. “His job was to interview them, to make sure they were really British, not Germans pretending to be British in order to reveal the underground lines of communication,” she said. “So they would ask about where they came from, football scores and such, and if you figured out that they were really German, they were shot. Just like that.”

She also met members of the Polish and Dutch resistance movements. “The people I met, of course, were the people who made it through,” she said. “Many others did not.” As evidence, she cited the members of the White Rose, who were caught distributing anti-Nazi papers and executed, and the female British spies who sometimes doubled as assassins. Using female agents, Atwood said, has been a tactic employed by resistance movements and Islamic extremists, and the handmaids’ outfits make them especially well suited for keeping secrets. “Just look at all the places where you could hide things!” she said, laughing. “Big sleeves! Tuck it in your stocking. Nobody’s going to look.”

#the handmaid's tale #handmaid's tale #tht #margaret atwood #article #season one #ny times

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swedishroyallove · 7 years

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Chapter 35:

July 16, 2015: Solliden Palace:

“You ready?” Isak asks Lucy before they walk into the room with the waiting press.

She takes a deep breath, squeezes his arm, and says, “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

Lucy had been stressing over this day for a while. She watched every engagement interview she could find of royals to see how the non-royal reacted. She paid close attention to Sofia, Crown Princess Mary, Princess Marie, and the Duchess of Cambridge. Daniel gave her some encouragement that morning while in the kitchen for breakfast. She was refusing to eat, but Daniel stepped in to calm her.

“Lucy, you are going to be fine. Just be yourself. I’ve been there, and look, I’m still alive,” he said as he nudged her arm.

Madeleine, never a fan of the press, was, for once, of no help, “I say you just elope and get it over with. You’ll both thank me later. I tried to convince Chris but nooo he didn’t want to make Mamma and Pappa mad.”

“Seriously, Leni?” Victoria said.

“What? I’m just being honest. But in all seriousness, Lucy, it will be fine.”

The doors swing open. Isak and Lucy walk into the room with a flurry of flashing lights. They stand there to allow the photographers to get pictures, and Lucy shows off her ring. A few minutes later, they take a seat on the couch to answer press questions.

The first question came from Expressen, “Your Royal Highness and Lucy, first of all congratulations. Secondly, I want to ask when and how did the proposal happen?”

Isak answered first to let Lucy take it all in, “Well, I flew in for her birthday party in Tennessee. Her family was holding the party at Neyland Stadium, which is the American football stadium of the Tennessee Volunteers. It is were Lucy has always dreamed of being proposed to at on the 50 yard line. She didn’t know I was there. So it was a surprise. Then I took her down on the field and proposed with our families standing around.”

The reporter then turned to Lucy, “Obviously, you said yes. Did you think he was going to propose when you saw him?”

“Oh I definitely did not at that moment. We had discussed our future before, but I definitely did not expect it that day. It was a wonderful surprise!”

“And what have you learned about Sweden?”

“Isak and the whole family has told me about this wonderful country. How open, warm and friendly everyone is. It’s a country where people are free to be themselves. When I first got the chance to visit, I was able to see it all firsthand. I fell in love with Sweden when I stepped off the plane.”

“How has the Swedish Royal Family welcomed you?”

“They have been wonderful. I’ve grown close to all of them, and I already feel part of the family. They’ve really helped guide me and learn about the country, language and protocol.”

A reporter from Aftonbladet spoke next, “Your Royal Highness you said that you proposed at her birthday celebrations which are in October, correct? Why wait so long to make the announcement?”

Isak responded, “There were varying reasons to hold off on the announcement. First of all, my brother and Sofia were to be married in just a few months. We did not want to steal any attention away from them or from Madeleine giving birth to her second child.”

Isak knew Madeleine was glaring and rolling her eyes in another room listening to that statement.

“What were the reactions of both your families?”

“Both were thrilled. Her parents and brother were tremendously happy for her and us. I was nervous asking her father’s permission, but he was great about it. My family was equally as happy.”

Lucy interrupted, “Although Estelle may have been the most excited!”

Isak said, “This is true. She’s happy that Lucy is going to be made her official Aunt Lucy!”

“And Lucy, do you know any Swedish? Or speak any other languages besides English?”

“I’m fluent in both English and French. My mother is from Quebec, and I grew up speaking French with her family. I’m intermediate in Spanish from school. However, I have been learning Swedish, but I’m not quite fluent yet.”

A journalist from the Press Association then asked Isak about future titles for Lucy to which Isak responded, “Lucy will take the title of Princess of Sweden along with my duchy.”

Lucy was then asked about her citizenship and religion, “Will you give up your American citizenship and convert to the Church of Sweden?”

“I will not give up my citizenship. I’m a very proud American. It’s the country that raised me. My family will still be there. I will take on dual American and Swedish citizenship. And as for conversion religiously, I’ve not come to a decision on that. I was raised a United Methodist, which is quite close to Lutheranism in the Church of Sweden. So let’s leave that as to be determined.”

Svenskdam then said, “I assume you want a family?”

“Definitely,” Isak blurts out, resulting in laughter from everyone in the room.

The reporter continued, “How many children? Have you decided?”

“At least two but possibly three,” Lucy answered.

The local reporter from Tennessee then spoke, “First of all, on behalf of all Tennesseans, I know I can say how proud we are of you, Lucy. We are so thrilled to have one of our very own become a princess. And Your Royal Highness, we are happy to have you as an honorary Tennessean. My question is for the both of you. Will you spend much time back in Tennessee after marriage?”

Isak squeezed Lucy’s hand, “Thank you. You are too kind. Tennessee is a wonderful place that will forever hold a special spot in my heart. Of course. We will be in Tennessee a good amount. It is only fair that Lucy gets to spend time with her family, as well as any children getting to bond with their maternal family. We will have a home someone close, of course.”

Megyn Kelly from Fox News was up next, “Lucy, after speaking with family and friends of yours, they have all mentioned your passionate work for those with Alzheimer’s disease. Is that something you will continue further after your wedding?”

“Definitely. It is a disease I am passionate about raising awareness and funding toward. Both of my grandmothers, maternal and paternal, died due to complications from it. So it is dear to my heart. You will see my advocating on the behalf of those suffering from the disease and their caretakers. I’ll do it as a way to honor the memory of my beloved family.”

“Have you selected any other charities to support or is it too early to tell? In the engagement announcement, the ALS Association was mentioned. Is it safe to say that is an option?”

“Yes. It will be another topic I will work toward. It is important to me, as well.”

Megyn Kelly then turned to Isak, “What do you want the American people to know about the prince marrying one of their own?”

“I want them to know that I love her with all of my heart. I love the United States. It will always be home, too. America and Sweden are close allies, and I believe this can make it even stronger. America will have a wonderful representative here in Sweden with Lucy. She will make them proud.”

Good Morning America then asked, “Will the wedding be a lavish ceremony like your siblings and here in Sweden? Or will it be held in Tennessee?”

Isak and Lucy looked to each other. They knew this would be asked and that their answer would irritate someone no matter what they said.

Isak spoke for the both of them, “As a Prince of Sweden, it is important to hold the ceremony here. But, I should mention we have no ruled out a small service after the fact in Tennessee for her family that cannot travel.”

“When will that be, Your Royal Highness?”

“We have not narrowed a date down specifically just yet. It will be announced in due course, but like the announcement said, it will take place in the spring or summer of next year.”

Lucy was then asked about her wedding gown and incorporating American traditions in the ceremony. She told them, “The wedding designer will remain a secret. I can’t tell you that, so you have to wait and see. As for American traditions, I think, for sure, I will have bridesmaids and flower girls who will be in colorful dresses. In our weddings, the bride is the only one who wears white. The attendants are in a different color, which is a tradition I would like to keep.”

“Have you taken inspiration from any royal wedding gowns of the past?”

“Well, Grace Kelly, of course. It was beautiful and iconic. I adored each of the dresses of my future in-laws, too.”

Next a question came from another Swedish reporter, “Isak, how do you respond to criticism that you did not propose to a Swedish girl?”

Isak glared at the reporter, “That’s really not a question worth answering. But, if you must know, I fell in love with an American. She’s a wonderful person, and the Swedish people, I know, who are so understanding, will welcome her and love her like I do.”

The same reporter then said to Lucy, “You are a registered member of the Republican Party. How do you explain that to the Swedish people?”

“Just because I am registered as one party means nothing. I vote for the best candidate no matter their political party. I have voted for both Republicans and Democrats in my life. I vote based on policy, not party. I also believe in a private ballot, so I will not be endorsing or publicly campaigning for any candidate in the future.”

“But will you vote in US elections?”

“Of course. It is my civic duty.”

Isak was irritated with this reporter, and he made the decision that the press conference was coming to an end. “One more question.”

The local Tennessee reporter spoke quickly, “Where will you both reside in the planning of the wedding?”

“Mainly, for me, in Sweden. Lucy will be in the States. However, she will be here quite often for planning and engagements. I want to introduce her to the Swedish people, so she will get to see our country in an official capacity as we lead on up to the wedding next year. Thank you everyone. Tack så mycket.”

Together they walk, hand in hand, back out of the room. When the door closes, Isak is livid.

“WHO THE HELL DOES HE THINK HE IS? WHAT TYPE OF QUESTIONS WERE THOSE? WHAT THE FUCK DOES IT MATTER ABOUT HER POLITICAL PARTY OR HER NATIONALITY?”

Carl Philip tries to calm his brother, “It is none of his business. There’s always one sleezebag. Just breathe. You handled it well. But we will make sure he is not at any other press conferences in the future. That’s for damn sure.”

“Bet you wish you had eloped now like I told you to don’t ya?” Madeleine said.

#swedishroyallove #royal fanfic #royalfanficcollection #royalfanficcentral

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