#if this is true Louis needs an intervention

[crazykuroneko]

Rewind the Tape – IWTV S102

I'm catching up with @iwtvfanevents now with Episode 2. Repeating my FYI from before: this is my first time rewatching the show (excluding indirect watch through YouTube reactions), and it's purpose for me to refresh my mind and noticing things. So, I won't dwell on certain theories, but I'll take notes about it for myself.

Feel free to reply if you want to discuss. *crack knuckles* Let's go!

• Marius' painting. A clue that Rashid is Armand. But now, IF Justin Kirk is really Marius, it's also a clue that Marius also lives in that apartment building 💡Does that mean there's a real possibility of "Akasha is the groan" theory to be true? Or "sleeping Lestat is the groan"? Because no way these good writers features the groan without meaning even though the groan is indeed a phenomenon that happens to tall buildings. Saving this for later.

• "Is it only work or you (are his fuckboy basically)?" Your prejudice (and lowkey envy, maybe) is showing, Daniel

• "I apologize for my outburst earlier" You're just crying Louis. It's okay. Fuck this discipline life you're doing 😭

• Idc I headcanon Armand bought Louis that top because it looks so great for Ied Fitr. Like, I already have the visual in my head.

• The music turns out to be a diagetic music as well is so witty and memorable. Love that

• The farm. Hmmm. Saving that for later

• "Two vampires walked into the church". The error in this statement is interesting. Does he feel like it's inevitable the moment he walked into that church?

• Blood of the deceased will suck you into death. Okay, noted.

• That priest is still alive???? What?

• The spark shot is beautiful. Iirc, Alan said that's kinda tricky to achieve.

• I don't know, I just love this shot:

• "Are you hungry, Louis?" "Huh-huh" PLEASE HE IS SO CUTE AND PALM-SIZED

• That paw of a hand directing Louis' head. Icu

• Lestat still could talk to Louis telepathically here. Because he hasn't had his first meal?

• "Just to be clear, we're here to talk about tractors" 🏳️‍🌈🤔❓I mean, what this poor soul is assuming to begin with 😭

• Lestat's instruction being an innuendo for oral sex is so 😭. I love these writers

• "You're going to find that difficult". That's "after-the-fact scene" number 2. Yeah, I will call it that. It means that scene doesn't necessarily happen as a fact in the past because it's impossible for Louis to know (he's being super focused on his family, no way he heard that). But it's formed based on an information Louis learnt after the fact, which over the years eventually attached to the memory of that day. Memory does evolve that way; no intervention or intent needed for that to happen. The after the fact information this time is that it's indeed hard, and Lestat must have warned him (see: post almost killing nephew scene), so over the years it evolved to "oh Lestat must find it ridiculous I tried to go back to my family that first day". I LOVE that the writers are doing this. It means they're treating memory in the show as real memory; it's not static, it evolves over the years, formed based on a lot of influences etc etc.

• Love the burning special effects. That's a great way to show it off.

• I can't believe they had their first time with Louis smelling like milk and burnt 😂😭

• Daniel is SO desperate to put some distance and not sympathize with Louis. Though he kinda fails by the end of the episode thanks to Alice

• The fact they gave Lestat's preaching lines from the book to Louis (the having hand in divine plan bits) really tells you that Louis is posturing here. Idk I feel like he's trying to gauge how far Daniel could tolerate. And Daniel is indeed afraid, judging from his face and how he becomes more bitey.

• After-the-fact scene number 3, with Lestat staring as Louis' sex worker's breast. The after-the-fact information is obviously Lestat staring at Antoinette in the next episode which led to his affair. Of course, Louis would questioning when Lestat started to be unfaithful, when his eyes started straying; a very common question for people who are cheated. Is it really from the beginning? (Fenwick's arm hasn't healed yet since Paul's funeral; Google tells me it can take six weeks)

• "It's not cheating if it's with a woman" oh hey best cameo of the year lol

• Lestat's face when he explained about no telepathy is like he just had a war flashback

• I need more Florence vs Lestat cat fight seriously

• "Haven't heard a knock on my door. It's a half-mile both ways" SPEAK IT LOUDER LOUIS. Like, I understand you're grieving and blaming your son, but no call whatsoever from everyone for 3 months after your son just suddenly moved out?? Insanity. (But also not surprising seeing my own big family responding to silent treatment 💀) The homophobia jumps out as well. Paul is Louis' real tie to the family.

• Jacob's expressions during the racist lawyer scene muah

• "If you hide from me this long again, I'll hunt you down..." again, his family knows where he lives 🤷‍♀️

• Grace pointing out the "extra" cash and the fact he lives nicely in the Quarter now 👀👀

• "What can i do to make it up to you?" This whole scene shows Lestat's method in deescalating a situation. He obviously doesn't understand the point of the problem is yet he doesn't try to understand. Louis is giving him a silent treatment (which means he's my bestie, cos silent treatment is my flaw as well lol), but idk instead of showing a good intention by asking Louis to explain to him or something, he asks for a shortcut instead. He needs Louis to verbalize the solution for them. We're fast forwarding, but iirc this is similar approach he has with Antoinette as well. Here, Louis is still willing to verbalize the solution.

• The way Louis' neck moves when Lestat says "How can i stop you?" oh he loves being pampered

• Louis doesn't put "sir" after Tom's name when signing the purchase 😎✊

• The body double throws me out I'm so sorry 😭

• 1912-1917

• This whole thing with Benny feels like a thriller movie. Kudos for the director

• Of course he came to his family bringing money for Grace. It seems it's past bed time. Florence is in her bedroom.

• "It's still Lestat" There's passive aggressiveness into it idk. Like, she expects them to have broken up already

• The last victim in 2000. noting that down.

• Louis really wants Daniel to highlight he's different from the other girls. I mean, the other vampires.

• Daniel's face over the slurping 😭

• He put Benny on the floor so he wouldn't roll down from the sofa 🥺

• "If you love your family, spare them the pain" I believe Lestat is being genuine here. He basically goes I've been there done that, and look at me now it ended so badly.

• "I'm your family, Louis" 😭

• Then he basically makes a perfect summary of Louis aww

• "Maybe there's deaf, blind porter and kill when we get to the hotel." Louis, you're not so different from the other girls (vampires) 😭

• That long ass overture just for two tickets to the opera. Lestat, please.

• The whole "there was present a kind of worship on my part" 🤌 *insert that gif of pen on fire while writing*

• You can see the exact moment when it dawns on Lestat he has fucked up with bringing Louis to a racist opera house. God, what a loser (affectionately). It's never come into his mind how bad it would ruin Louis' mood. Like, he understands racism is bad as a concept, but he doesn't understand how it affects one's self. He thinks that would be a minor convenience to Louis that Louis could just brush off.

• Lestat 🤝 Me, accidentally become manipulative when we're in a pinch. (re: the loneliness speech)

• Louis is so down bad, unfortunately ❤️

• "And this woman sang for us, it seemed, articulating the difficult love we often had troubles exptessing ourselves" So beautiful.

• Misophonia girlies (gn) unite! I will always enjoy Lestat killing Ernesto I'm so sorry lol. Saw a reaction from someone who does classical music and they're ouching as well. So, GO FOR IT SON KILL HIM

• Lestat slowly killing Ernesto while Louis watching his memories to feel the "charge" of connecting to humanity. Oh, they are made for each other.

• The story with Alice, that she felt not good enough for him so she always died his eyebrow brown, but Daniel actually liked it when she didn't do it. Aww Daniel is trying to cheer him up.

• About the question for this week, does Louis really need to maintain the thread and why? Idk, i feel like Louis feels he needs to do it. Maybe to maintain some resemblance of humanity inside him, afraid it will go away over time. But to me, it doesn't really work.

Summary: Okay, if the first episode is about establishing Louis' internal conflicts, about the seduction/hunt and turning, this episode is about what Louis lost and not lost to vampirism. We also see the seed of Loustat's conflicts and how ineffective their method to solve them. And it's about vampirism, it's also the episode where we get the vampire lore the most. Of course over the months after season 1 aired I have kept several theories up about where the Dubai timeline is set based on the books. And the teasers of season 2 have debunked some of them. But this rewatch gives me another theory which I will keep to myself. All I can say though, instead on certain period of time of book canon, I think they're taking elements from different era of the books for Dubai. Can't wait to see the answer in S2 ❤️

#interview with the vampire #iwtv #vampterview #rewind the tape #moi.txt #louis de pointe du lac

[beanyboobee]

I have been thinking that Noe isn't a full vampire for quite sometime, that even if he is he wouldn't be called a vampire but something else but I've never been able to find anything to back myself up.

Until we got introduced to the story he read as a child, a story he and Richie bond over reading in chapter 62.2, The adventures of Kresnik.

As the idea is presented to us is Kresnik was a Dham that solved mysteries between the humans and vampires with golden eyes and the ability to neutralise other Vampire abilities.

We also learn these books would of have to of been printed on the sly, which again adds layers to how Noe had the story as a child. Meaning his teacher was the one to obtain this tale, which is no surprise when we find out who the author is.

As we know Noe has abilities unlike any other Vampire even outside of his ability to read memories, pointed out by Domi who in one of her first appearances with Vanitas, assumed vanitas wanted to use Noes 'abilities' not just ability.

Though he obviously doesn't have gold eyes or the ability to neutralise other vampires [as far as we know] we also have another mystery that may tie into golden eyes. The fact that as a kid he appeared with a bandage over his eye for quite some time.

and If Noe and Marquis Machina are both Archivistes that adds more layers to Teacher pointing out how she doesn't need to act with her former dignity around him [former as though referring to before the genocide of the Archivisites]

Also the appearance of Marquis Machina before Noe was also suspicious. Though the teacher claimed she was around due to the attacks on humans for her to appear in front of Noe was purposeful. As though checking on him.

I have many theories on this so please buckle in.

Theory 1. Noe is or related to Kresnik. 1. Kresnik they point out was a very kind but foolish character something we see with Noe. He helped both humans and vampires. That Marquis Machina can see the future and create this story based on it or knew the original Kresnik

Which would explain why Teacher knew where Noe was and when in order to get him from the auction.

Theory 2: Kresnik is going to be the one giving this drug around. I did some digging and found Kresniks are mentioned in quite a few vampire media's.

But if we look at the actual term kresnik

A god of the sun, opposed to the moon this may be the first major mention of a character that represents the sun.

Then if we look at vamoire media and its relationship with a similar term

Both scream- oh no. To me for if these were used as inspiration we could see a new villian enter the scene. Or Noe himself of a Crusnik.

We see him as a kid drink Louis blood. He also drinks Domi. He often thinks if blood though vampires don't need to drink it to live. And as we see. Noe is stronger than ither vampires. Regenerating limbs. Having insane strength without training. And not to mention that fight with vanitas in which his hand takes the almost claw like monster form.

Theory 3. Aka my most backshit insane theory.

The theory that all of this is a time loop. That the teacher and Marquis Machina watch time and time again with one thing changing slightly every time. That everything that is happening. Is a story. The story of a Kresnik.

And if Noe was suppose to be Kresnik in this tale the thing that changed was the teacher taking him in. Completely derailing the course his story was meant to take. And the teachers instance on freewill. Is to see if the story will get itself back in track without any intervention. If everything truely is inevitable.

Not to mention we still don't know Noes true name.

#vanoe #vanitas theory #the case study of vanitas #vanitas anime #vanitas manga #vanitas #the case study of vanitas theory #noe archiviste

[hlficlibrary]

hi! i’m looking for a fic from ao3. louis is a RA in a dorm and harry moves in as a resident!! thank you

Hi, anon! You're welcome! There are multiple fics that have Louis as an RA and Harry as a resident, so is it any of these?

Just Your Resident Romance by InsightfulInsomniac

As a second-year Resident Assistant and third-year college student, Louis thought he’d dealt with it all.

Enter: Harry Styles, a sweet, baby-faced freshman. Suddenly, Louis’ dealing with something new: falling in love with his own resident.

aka an American-ish college AU in which Louis is Harry’s RA and they both fall for each other over the course of the academic year (ft. a lot of banter, flirtation, and intervention from Niall, Harry’s well-meaning roommate)

Happy is the Heart that Still Feels Pain by alienharry

Harry doesn't know what to say, how to respond. He's just peed on this boy, who can't be any older than himself, and he didn't even have the sense to apologize. "I," he starts, using his left hand to point at the boy's ankle. "I peed." Instead of getting angry or looking blankly at Harry for being the idiot he is, the boy laughs, and the sound is beautiful. It has Harry smiling, trying his hardest to distract from the awkward situation he created. "You did," the boy agrees, pulling his hand from his boxers, where he must've been tucking himself away. Harry tracks the movement. "You didn't even buy me dinner first."

The last thing Harry needed was the hot RA helping him to make bad choices. Actually, that wasn't true. The last thing Harry needed was to fall utterly, painfully, stupidly in love with him.

our love is bitter but I really like the taste by sailingtheLarryship

“I know,” Louis says it like he does, “and maybe it doesn’t work out, but what if it does?” “What if it does?” Harry echoes. “Then we could get to be together, fine, and we won’t have to miss out on something we both want.” Harry considers this for a moment, “but that’s like—you’re talking really long term.” Louis smiles and his face lights up in a way Harry really, really missed, “I know.” They look at each other, and Harry’s breath feels lost. He’s lost in all the blue that is Louis’ eyes. An ocean. “Fuck,” he breathes, and this time he doesn’t apologize, but instead he puts his lips on Louis’ and throughout all the water filling him, he still feels like he can breathe when he does that.

or au where Louis is their University's star dancer and also Harry's RA. And Harry is the University's new golden boy who actually has more trouble fitting in than not. After Harry seeks out Louis for advice once, he just can't seem to stop. The rest is pretty much history.

Lonely Boy by RBBLivvy

Louis thought being an RA would be so much easier. He really wishes his resident Harry wasn't so cute, because that's a no-go, but he also wishes Harry would stop trying to keep hermit crabs and lava lamps and every other code violation in the world in his room. Even though he doesn't mind having to knock on his door all the time, it gets to a point where he would rather not have a snake crawling around the hallways.

#ask #anon #lostandfoundfic

[beardedmrbean]

A Missouri inmate convicted of ambushing and killing a St. Louis area police officer he blamed in the death of his younger brother was scheduled to be executed Tuesday, barring a last-minute intervention.

Kevin Johnson’s legal team doesn’t deny that he killed Officer William McEntee in 2005, but contended in an appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court that he was sentenced to death in part because he is Black. But in a 5-2 ruling late Monday, the state Supreme Court denied a stay.

The U.S. Supreme Court also declined a stay request last week, and Gov. Mike Parson on Monday announced he would not grant clemency.

“The violent murder of any citizen, let alone a Missouri law enforcement officer, should be met only with the fullest punishment state law allows,” Parson, a Republican and a former county sheriff, said in a statement. “Through Mr. Johnson’s own heinous actions, he stole the life of Sergeant McEntee and left a family grieving, a wife widowed, and children fatherless. Clemency will not be granted.”

It wasn’t immediately clear if other appeals were planned. A message left early Tuesday with Johnson’s lawyer was not immediately returned.

Johnson, 37, faces execution Tuesday evening at the state prison in Bonne Terre. He would be the second Missouri man put to death in 2022 and the 17th nationally.

McEntee, 43, was a 20-year veteran of the police department in Kirkwood, a St. Louis suburb. The father of three was among the officers sent to Johnson’s home on July 5, 2005, to serve a warrant for his arrest. Johnson was on probation for assaulting his girlfriend, and police believed he had violated probation.

Johnson saw officers arrive and awoke his 12-year-old brother, Joseph “Bam Bam” Long, who ran to a house next door. Once there, the boy, who suffered from a congenital heart defect, collapsed and began having a seizure.

Johnson testified at trial that McEntee kept his mother from entering the house to aid his brother, who died a short time later at a hospital.

That same evening, McEntee returned to the neighborhood to check on unrelated reports of fireworks being shot off. A court filing from the Missouri attorney general’s office said McEntee was in his car questioning three children when Johnson shot him through the open passenger-side window, striking the officer’s leg, head and torso. Johnson then got into the car and took McEntee’s gun.

The court filing said Johnson walked down the street and told his mother that McEntee “let my brother die” and “needs to see what it feels like to die.” Though she told him, “That’s not true,” Johnson returned to the shooting scene and found McEntee alive, on his knees near the patrol car. Johnson shot McEntee in the back and in the head, killing him.

Johnson’s lawyers have previously asked the courts to intervene for other reasons, including a history of mental illness and his age — 19 — at the time of the crime. Courts have increasingly moved away from sentencing teen offenders to death since the Supreme Court in 2005 banned the execution of offenders who were younger than 18 at the time of their crime.

But a broader focus of appeals has been on alleged racial bias. In October, St. Louis Circuit Judge Mary Elizabeth Ott appointed a special prosecutor to review the case. The special prosecutor, E.E. Keenan, filed a motion earlier this month to vacate the death sentence, stating that race played a “decisive factor” in the death sentence.

Ott declined to set aside the death penalty.

Keenan told the state Supreme Court that former St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch’s office handled five cases involving the deaths of police officers during his 28 years in office. McCulloch sought the death penalty in the four cases involving Black defendants, but did not seek death in the one case where the defendant was white, the file said.

Assistant Attorney General Andrew Crane responded that “a fair jury determined he deserves the death penalty.”

McCulloch does not have a listed phone number and could not be reached for comment.

Johnson’s 19-year-old daughter, Khorry Ramey, had sought to witness the execution, but a state law prohibits anyone under 21 from observing the process. Courts have declined to step in on Ramey’s behalf.

The U.S. saw 98 executions in 1999 but the number has dropped dramatically in recent years. Missouri already has two scheduled for early 2023. Convicted killer Scott McLaughlin is scheduled to die on Jan. 3, and convicted killer Leonard Taylor’s execution is set for Feb. 7.

#nunyas news

[minenhlembatha]

The Future of Occupational Therapy Profession Towards the Dismantling of Injustice

 ‘If You overidentify the profession, you can never tap into your full potential’

Frank's statement made me ponder the true purpose of OT. The notion of OT is the music created by the instrument, and the profession is only described as a tool that serves as a means to a goal. This shows that to make good music (OT work quality), one must use the instrument (profession) efficiently. The way he looked into Occupational Therapy had a profound significance, which made me reflect on what I had been paying the most attention to—the notion of OT or the profession. He made it clear that concentrating too much on your profession will prevent you from realizing your full potential as an occupational therapist.

To ensure that interventions respect the humanity and dignity of clients while enhancing their capacities and freedom to live a meaningful life of their choosing, occupational therapists can implement a justice-oriented practice by engaging in the client-centred practice, narrative clinical reasoning, and collaborative intervention planning. To avoid imposing our ways of being, functioning, or doing on the clients, as occupational therapists we must critically evaluate our clients’ presumptions and worldviews. Occupational therapists need to adopt a pluralistic perspective of being in a world that rejects protocols and embraces the idea that every intervention should be specifically tailored to meet the individual needs of each client. This is done by understanding client narratives, their life goals, and their meanings.

"Have you ever thought about getting therapy and maybe realising how brainwashed you are by multiculturalism?" ~ Louis Theroux

The WFOT (2019) adopted the terminology of occupational rights, asserting that "occupational therapists across the globe are obliged to advocate occupational rights" for those, for instance, who are denied due to their geographic regions, cultures, races, nationalities, and diverse gender identities. According to Zeeman et al. (2019), it is stated that because of heteronormativity or heterosexism, minority stress, experiences of victimization and discrimination, and stigma, LGBTQ people are more likely to encounter health inequalities. Health (care) disparities for LGBTI individuals are influenced by several variables, including gender, age, income, disability, and variances in LGBTQ categories. The WFOT also stated, citing the capabilities approach, that "occupational rights are secured by identifying and addressing the capabilities, opportunities, and freedom of choice for individuals, communities, and populations to participate in society," because as OTs our main focus is humanity as a whole, living together as a local and global community. We bring up the Ubuntu philosophy, which emphasizes how people and communities interact with one another to form a whole.

An article by White and Beagan (2020), states that adopting the fundamental justice orientation of occupational therapy practice will give practitioners the language and analytical tools they need to fight for their clients' occupational rights and recognize the numerous opportunities they have every day to address injustice in their specific practice settings. In order to avoid the ever-present possibility of pre-reflective and implicit prejudices, which can lead to occupational injustices despite intentions to offer fair treatment, a justice orientation will motivate therapists to participate in constant reflexive practices.

According to Grenier (2020) educators, preceptors and mentors in occupational therapy should critically examine the approaches to diversity being conveyed to learners, to ensure they attend to biases embedded in the profession and professional education, power relations between clients and therapists and within the profession, and connections between individual experiences and broader social power relations.

In order to "triangulate" our viewpoints, according to Hammell (2019), we need consider the variety of therapeutic perspectives present across the world. To be able to provide culturally appropriate and suitable health care and lessen the risk to Indigenous clients due to the unintentional imposition of professional assumptions, occupational therapists must actively and critically engage with the underlying assumptions of their practices and theories and adapt to the profession in a way that moves away from a Eurocentric focus (Restall et al., 2016). We must "decolonize our brains," according to Hammell (2019).

One of the hardest occupations to describe to a person has to be Occupational Therapy. It’s true when they say you learn till you die because till now I am discovering more about the occupation and every time I write a blog, it makes me think of a Sankofa, looking back into our history and culture, I gain more knowledge on what is expected of me as a future OT. But overall, as OTs, we aim to bring people together and increase diversity within us by letting those who have inter-generative experiences of being treated less than humans lead. And also to dismantle injustice, we use culturally inclusive models that are relevant to each client.

REFERENCES

Grenier, M. (2020). Cultural competency and the reproduction of White supremacy in occupational therapy education. Health Education Journal, 79(6), 633–644. https://doi.org/10.1177/0017896920902515

mOTivate OTs. (2022, July 28). The Idea of Occupational Therapy is too Radical and Powerful to be Contained by a Profession [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZXmsDfOI0I.

Whalley Hammell, K. (2018). Building globally relevant occupational therapy from the strength of our diversity. WFOT Congress. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WipUPXx_Kk

White, T., & Beagan, B. (2020). Occupational Therapy Roles in an Indigenous Context: An Integrative Review. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy 2020, Vol. 87(3), 200–210. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0008417420924933

WFOT (World Federation of Occupational Therapists). (2006). Statement on human rights. Retrieved from: https://www.wfot.org/ resources/human-rights.

WFOT (World Federation of Occupational Therapists). (2019). Statement on human rights (rev.). Retrieved from https://wfot.org/ resources/occupational-therapy-and-human-rights

Zeeman, L., Dias, S., Browne, K. D., McGlynn, N., Mirandola, M., Gios, L., Davis, R. B., Sanchez-Lambert, J., Aujean, S., Pinto, N., Farinella, F., D., Niedźwiedzka-Stadnik, M., Rosińska, M., Pierson, A., & Amaddeo, F. (2019). A review of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex (LGBTI) health and healthcare inequalities. European Journal of Public Health, 29(5), 974–980. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/cky226

[themokupuni]

Biden Administration Should Avoid Throwing Stones at Pacific Summit

On Wednesday, President Biden will host the first-ever U.S.-Pacific Island Country Summit. The event is designed to bear testament to the shared history, values, and people-to-people ties of the Pacific Island Countries and the United States. Pacific Island leaders hope that it will lead to “real deliverables” on “key issues” that matter to the region. According to the president of the Federated States of Micronesia, those issues are clearly laid out in the Blue Pacific Strategy. Among other things, that strategy declares a regionwide commitment to the principles of democracy and good governance.

Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to discuss democracy and good governance with Ambassador Ilana Seid of the Palau Mission to the United Nations. During our conversation, Ambassador Seid challenged the notion that democracy and good governance are always better in Hawaii and the United States Pacific Territories than in the Pacific Island Countries. She also warned policymakers against advancing one-shot solutions for promoting democracy and good governance across the Pacific Islands region. Whenever they do, she argued, “it backfires.”

A few weeks earlier, I had argued that the United States government needs to think more systematically about democracy in the Pacific Islands region. I suggested that changes in the states of democracy in one part of the region could lead to significant changes in other parts of the region. Of course, that challenges the notion that a sharp distinction can be drawn between domestic politics and foreign policy in Pacific affairs as it entails that changes in the state of democracy in the Pacific Island Countries can lead to significant changes in the democracy of Hawaii and the U.S. Pacific Territories, and vice versa. The same holds true for good governance.

Sandy Ma, the former executive director of Common Cause Hawaii says that people are not only becoming disenchanted with their state and local governments, they are increasingly disengaged from elections themselves. That is especially true for Native Hawaiians, according to Kuhio Lewis, CEO of the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement. He said, “I think a good number of Hawaiians just don’t connect with the American system.”

Democracy advocates also express concern that recent scandals involving public officials have started to take a toll on public confidence. Some examples include the federal prosecutions of former Hawaii state senator Jamie Kalani English, state representative Ty Cullen, Honolulu prosecuting attorney Keith Kaneshiro, Honolulu deputy prosecutor Katherine Kealoha, Honolulu police chief Louis Kealoha, and Kauai councilmember Arthur Brun.

On the eve of the U.S.-Pacific Island Country Summit, the Biden administration should take note of concerns being voiced about democracy and good governance in Hawaii and the United States Pacific Territories. These sorts of problems weaken the ability of the United States to advocate for policy interventions designed to strengthen democracy and good governance elsewhere. They also carry unintended consequences for the states of democracy and good governance elsewhere in the Pacific Islands Region.

While there are many positive things that can be said about democracy and good governance in the United States, American diplomats and military leaders do not appear to appreciate fully the challenges to democracy and good governance in Hawaii and the U.S. Pacific Territories and their implications for our foreign policy objectives. Until that changes, the United States will find it difficult to engage in “fruitful conflict” on these matters with their counterparts from Pacific Island Countries.

Michael Walsh is an affiliate of the Center for Australian, New Zealand, and Pacific Studies of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

This article appeared in The Hill on September 26, 2022.

Image Credit: The Hill Newspaper

#joe biden #white house #congress #democracy #corruption #hawaii #fbi #pacific island country summit

[sorryjustafangirl]

it’s a love story

a/n:  this is my submission for the @doubleminor​’s #hockeychallengemusic ! im so so super late but i finally had the time to write this. the toronto six of the nwhl have this as their winning song and i loved watching them celebrate this season. and apparently all i can write is matty tkachuk but i felt he really fit this idea

Pairing: Matthew Tkachuk x reader

Work count: 2.2k+

warnings: mentions of the pandemic and one swear but other than that just fluff :)

disclaimer: this is a work of fiction and real person fiction if you don’t like that, please don’t read! also the gif isn’t mine! all credit to the fantastic gif-maker!

prompt: choose an official team/player goal song and make something using that goal song // found here 

He had wanted the proposal to be perfect. The moment he knew you were the one he wanted to marry, he asked your best friend for everything you had ever mentioned about a proposal. You were only going to get proposed to once, and he wanted to make sure it was perfect. 

Secluded, yet meaningful, place? Check. 

Get it on camera? Check. 

Cute outfit with nails done? Check. 

But a global pandemic was not in his plan. Not even close. 

When the season had got put on pause, his parents suggested he come back to St. Louis to spend time with them, since Brady was coming back too. He was hesitant to go considering you were still going into the office for an essential project, but you assured him that he should go spend time with his family. He didn't get to see them a lot, and you knew he missed them. When he packed, he made sure to take the little velvet box and shove it between his socks. He didn't want to risk you finding it while he was away. 

A couple weeks later, after many FaceTimes and virtual date nights, you finished your project and work gave you the all clear to work from home. A two week quarantine and one plane ride later, you had joined him in St. Louis. You were still working, but working from the Tkachuk's home and with your boyfriend was much better than working alone in your shared apartment. 

Since you had joined the family, Taryn had noticed her oldest brother was a little jumpier than usual. Before, he was more carefree, aside from the occasional moping, and he definitely wasn't making sure his bedroom door was closed whenever he went in there alone. But now? It seemed odd. He wasn't moping, but he had those moments when he seemed too sad for it just to be about the season.  

So after Matthew's third sigh and retreat to his room while you were working, she decided it was time for an intervention. She quietly followed him to his room, where he methodically closed it and made sure it clicked. 

***

It was the second time today Matthew had looked at the box today. He knew he was torturing himself, opening the box to look at the ring he had picked out. It wasn't too flashy, something just your style. He remembered the way his heart jumped when he saw it in the store. It instantly reminded him of you and he just knew it was the one. It was like he couldn't help himself, looking at the box another time.

You could’ve already been engaged by now. The two of you could’ve been looking at venues and dates and even if he said he never really cared about that stuff… he couldn’t help but long for those things, because it would mean it was real. The two of you would be getting married, and he’d get to be your husband. 

But instead of being engaged, he’d just have to stare at the ring and wish he could make this all go away so he could give you the proposal you’ve always wanted. He relived the time he knew you were the one, anything to remind him that you wouldn’t mind waiting until this pandemic was over to get engaged. 

It was a home game against the Senators. Nothing speculator, just a regular game that they unfortunately lost in OT. Because it was against the Sens, and because he scored the only goal of the game, Matt knew he’d be chosen for press. He was tired, and there was nothing he wanted more than to see his family who had made the trek out to Calgary to see the boys play. He left the dressing room with his tie a little crumpled from the rush to meet them. 

He turned the corner to see Taryn sitting on a bench, with Brady standing with his parents, probably cracking a joke based on the way his mom was playfully glaring at Brady while his dad laughed loudly. His mood picked up a little after the interview and the loss.

As he got closer, he realized that Taryn wasn’t sitting alone. You were sitting there, your head resting against her shoulder, your eyes slightly closed. He stopped in his tracks when he saw your work bag sitting in your lap and your suitcase beside you. Your flight was supposed to get in around 8 and he had insisted that you just meet him at home after the game. This work trip had been horrible, your co-worker throwing you under the bus in a meeting with executives on a project he didn’t work on. You deserved to be relaxing with a glass of wine in the sanctity of your shared apartment. But you were here, at his game, straight from the airport, laughing with his family despite your drooping eyes. He had never felt more loved than he did right there. 

A knock startled him from his thoughts. 

“Uhh... just a second!” He snapped the ring box shut and quickly stood up from the bed to shove it in his drawer. Taryn popped her head in to see him very suspiciously standing in front of his dresser.

“It’s just me, dork. What are you doing?” She entered his room, making herself comfy on his bed. He scoffed, and closed the door behind his sister. 

“I’m not doing anything. What are you doing?” He went back to standing by the dresser and Taryn rolled her eyes.

“That’s exactly it, you’re doing nothing. Normally, when we’re all home you’re like bouncing off the walls. Like I know this time it’s different but Y/n came too so I thought… I don’t know, you just seem off but Brady didn’t think so and I didn’t want to worry Mom… so like, what’s going on? Is everything okay? Are you and Y/n fighting?” 

His eyes bugged out and Taryn would have laughed if she wasn’t so serious. “What no! We’re fine! We’re fine, why-why would you say that?” 

“You’ve been quiet Matt. You’re never quiet, especially when Brady’s home with us.” He rolled his eyes and she huffed at her older brother. “You know it’s true! So... what’s going on?” He sighed and turned to find the box from the drawer. He looked down at the velvet in his hands as he sat on the edge of the bed. Taryn moved to be sitting beside him and gasped quietly. 

“Is that...?” 

“Yeah. I was going to...you know, before the world went to shit. I had it all planned out too. The weather was getting warmer and there’s this hiking trail we like in Banff, it’s only like an hour drive. There’s this perfect spot where I could prop my phone up so I could get it on camera, just like they wanted. But now... I don’t know what I’m going to do.” 

“Do you still want to, you know, propose?” 

“’Course I do. Honestly, I want nothing more. But, they deserve it to be perfect, you know? And like, I don’t know how I could surprise them here, because we’ve been chilling in the same sweatpants for the past week! Asking them to get dressed up would seem suspicious and I want it to be a surprise,”

“Could… could I help you? I might have an idea…” She grinned towards her brother, his eyes brightening at the idea of marrying you. 

***

“Y/N, do you want to do a TikTok with me?” She called to you from across the Tkachuk’s backyard. Taryn must’ve been feeling the quarantine because yesterday the two of you did your nails together, which prompted you to, for once, put on a pair of pants that weren’t Matty’s sweatpants and do your hair, so you had no problem setting down your book and hopping up from your seat to join her. She squealed and you laughed as you joined her. 

“It’s so easy! I promise! So, it’s to a remix of Taylor Swift’s ‘Love Story’ and the only set in stone parts are that you actually kneel when she says ‘knelt to the ground’ and then the camera will start to pull away and then you just freestyle! We can do a couple practice ones before we film it for real, if you want?” 

“Yes, please, you have severely overestimated my dancing skills,” you laughed. Right at that moment, Matthew came out of the house with a Bud Light in his hand. He placed it on the edge of the firepit before walking over to you.

“What’s got you all cracked up?” He pressed a kiss to your cheek.

“Taryn thinks I’m a good enough dancer to film this TikTok on my first try,” He grinned at you. 

“A TikTok you say? Can I do it too? If you can do it surely it’s easy enough for me,” You gave him a playful eye roll and laughed. 

“How bored are you to want to film a TikTok?” 

“I want to spend time with my girlfriend, is that a crime?” He smirked and you cracked a smile.  

Taryn spoke up. “Hey no, this would be perfect! I need to move the camera away from you when you’re dancing anyways, and this way you won’t be alone. And you’ll get Matt’s dancing on camera for future blackmail!” You laughed at her comment and slugged him lightly in the arm. 

“Game on, we’ll see who's the better dancer after this,” He just laughed and then told you to tell what the heck he was doing for this dance. After a while, the two of you were ready to film. 

Taryn got behind her phone and started the music. You got into position and bumped Matthew’s hip before facing the camera. 

Is this in my head, I don’t know what to think. He knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring and said

You knelt down and pretended to open a ring box, while Matthew pulled out the box he’d been hiding for six months. 

Marry me Juliet, you’ll never have to be alone

You started to dance as Taryn pulled the camera away from the both of you. Lost in the music, you didn’t seem to notice that Matthew was still on one knee, an adoring smile on his face. 

“Y/n,” 

I love you and that’s all I really know

You stopped dancing and glanced to your side. “Oh my god,” Your hands flew to cover your mouth as you saw Matt still on one knee, but with a black box in his hands. “Are you joking?”

“Not joking, baby, I promise.” He opened the box to reveal the most beautiful ring you had ever seen. It was classy, with just enough bling to catch your eye and go with the rest of your jewelry. Your eyes filled with tears as he started to speak. 

“Y/n, you are the best person I have ever met. I never thought someone would be willing to put up with me, not with my job and the media and how I play my game, but then I met you, and it’s like the whole world shifted. I have fallen more in love with you every day, even the past few days when we do the same thing every day. I love you so much, babe, and all I want is to keep being your person. I know my job means I’ll have to leave sometimes, but with me, with this, I promise you’ll never be alone. I want to be your husband and I want us to have little mini-us’s running around, well really mini-you’s but with my hair, because let’s face it, they aren’t escaping the curls,” You let out a teary laugh, and you could see his shoulder visibly relax a little. “When I look to my future, all I see is you. You are my future. And I know this isn’t perfect or even ideal but..”

“No, no, Matty, it’s perfect.” You whispered, your eyes full of tears. “It’s perfect because it’s with you.”

His grin widened if that was possible, and he looked down at the box in his hands before up to you. “If that’s the case, then Y/n, will you make me the happiest man on Earth and marry me?” 

“Yes! Yes, yes, of course,” You bent down to kiss him, leaving your tears on his cheek when you pulled away. He slipped the ring onto your finger and swept you into a bear hug. “Oh my gosh, we’re going to get married!”

“It’s you and me, baby, for the rest of our lives.” He tried to smirk, but it didn’t last long, a smile covering it as the euphoria overcame him. 

“Okay, okay, show me the ring!! Matthew didn’t tell me he was proposing!” Chantel came out in the backyard with a bright grin on her face. You couldn’t contain the smile on your face and the two of you admired the ring together. 

“I didn’t tell Dad either, don’t get offended,” Matthew said, coming over to meet the both of you. 

“Oh, you liar! You totally called me and asked me for advice.” Keith chimed in with a laugh. “Granted, you never told me you were going to do it today… but I’m happy for you kids.”

“I didn’t think he’d ever get the guts to propose, sorry for the wait Y/n,” Brady chirped, earning a whack from his mother. 

“I don’t mind, he’s worth the wait.” You looked to your fiancé, only to find him already looking at you, his blue eyes gleaming full of warmth. “So worth the wait.”

let me know what you think! thanks for reading!

#hockeychallengemusic #matthew tkachuk #matthew tkachuk imagine #nhl imagine #matthew tkachuk fic #nhl fic #calgary flames imagine #nhl x reader #hockey imagine #abby writes #again im so so late but better late than never i guess #also i wanted to do this idea justice i thought it was so cute

[1ddiscourseoftheday]

💀 Sat 3 Oct ‘20 🎃

Harryween may have been pushed back to next year, but you know who always come through for us in the clutch: Liam! The LP show logo on veeps has changed to a version that's a carved pumpkin with spoopy flames inside, suggesting a halloween event. How will Liam top the costume he already wore at his birthday stream? I'm aflutter with chills of anticipation... Also he finished the skull drawing he started on his livestream the other day and captioned it “getting ready for Halloween.” I'd have been wildly impressed anyway, but seeing it go from a pencil outline to a shaded masterpiece makes it even more impressive. This fandom is full of things that seem too improbable to be real, and Liam being not just an incredibly talented musician but also a one-time olympic level runner and skilled visual artist with a miraculous kidney who once saved someone from a burning building comes in ahead of even the frankly unrealistic number of identical twins we have to deal with, someone really needs to speak with the writers about dialing it back a touch. Who does they think he is, James Bond or something?!

Charlie Lightening (who was on hand 24/7 at the time of the Walls release and shared with a fan the anxiety he and the rest of Team Louis were feeling about whether it would do well) posted about the album's unexpected return to the chart this week, saying “shoutout to the fans who made this happen. I've seen [their] support globally it's something else,” and Jamie Hartman, who Louis credits with finding him the sound he wanted in their work together, also thanked fans (“[Louis] has some of the most amazing fans in the bloody world!”) and said he “was with him all week making some new magic so it was perfect timing.” Jamie tagged the wrong account for Louis but that's okay since he would have been able to congratulate him in person anyway while they banged out the “four songs in four days” Louis just told us about! What a welcome interruption that wild fan intervention must have been and the perfect boost for those new tunes- talk about a win for fans.

Niall says “we're back!” with a OOTD post and a 9 song playlist for BBC1, so Niall stans who feared that his recent tweet about taking time out might mean we wouldn't hear from him for a while can turn those frowns upside down! I believe he meant not that he was going dark and disappearing but simply that he doesn't plan to release new music while promo and touring are still hampered, which certainly makes sense given the interruption of the Heartbreak Weather release, and his continued media presence would seem to confirm this.

Hey, do you know who else ISN'T James Bond? Well, all of them (even Louis, he was the evil cat), but only one of them went on record to say so today; Harry. According to his team rumors published in the Daily Mail saying he was in meetings to star in the franchise, “aren't even remotely true.” And last but not least, add a name to the varied and bizarre assortment of celebs who have praised Harry: Jon Bon Jovi, who said, “Harry Styles is the real deal. He’s really great.” Someday we'll have to compile that list; it will be thousands long and genuinely the funniest most random possible assortment of people, I'd love to be at that dinner party (but ofc not really as that would be very unsafe and unlike n*zi politicians I would not want to see the Harry fan club suffer the consequences of careless socializing.)

#liam payne #louis tomlinson #Harry Styles #Niall Horan #Eleanor is taking Cliff out again at last! but by driving to the park not walking him over by Louis' house #presumably because she stays at her place and out of the way when Louis is in residence #oh look Jamie lives right near Oxford how about that looks like I was RIGHT HMMM #I hope everyone who harrassed those poor fans on twitter saying they were lying feels bad #I hope Louis and Cliff had a great trip up there and got some nice walks in #Jamie also has a dog named Harry who looks an awful lot like Bruce WHY IS IT ALWAYS LIKE THIS #you know what though I actually remember being in London years ago and being like #why does everyone here have the same like 3 kinds of dogs only #not like here in the states where it's just thousands of kinds like I didn't think that was real I figured it was just me but... #now I'm wondering if maybe I was on to something?? #anyway Cliffy's RAINCOAT OMG I LOVE pampered boyo in a hoodie PRECIOUS #also: Liam is a Gary Sue why are you booing me I'm right #if this were a fic I was betaing I would have Things to Say about the Liam OC #charlie lightening #eleanor #cliff #Jamie Hartman #theLPshow #3 oct 20 #bon jovi #okay nice I see tumblr just fully erased my final edit before posting great great #the fact that naill and lewis are hanging out can go in tomorrow but for todays tags i DID want to say #that all those happy little new family outing posts the last few days from nick and briana? #Tammi posted stuff showing the whole family was there LMAO #FAKE FAKE FAKE #tammi doesn't trust briana to watch her kid any more than we would tbh lol

[histoireettralala]

Charles of Anjou and his brothers.

King Louis had been notably generous. Perhaps the decision that Charles should become count of Anjou had been made before the chance of the marriage arose, and Louis thought it inexpedient to change his mind once his brother had acquired Provence. On the other hand, the king may have anticipated positive benefits to the kingdom from his gift. The energetic young Charles might be counted on to oppose any attempt at reconquest by the English, and to undermine any surviving Breton influence in the area. Besides, Louis clearly did not regard his brothrs as potential rivals; if he had done so, he would not have encouraged Alphonse to expand beyond his core county of Poitou to take the Limousin under his authority; nor would he have planned Alphonse's marriage to the daughter of the count of Toulouse, a marriage which in 1249 brought him the huge county of Toulouse and part of the old marquisate of Provence to add to his already substantial holdings. In this case Louis must have been confident that he could exercise his authority over his sibling when need be. The same was probably true for Charles, whose lands within France were far smaller than Alphonse's.

Nevertheless, the enfeoffment of 1246 was a substantial endowment at the expense of the royal demesne [...]

From the end of 1246, therefore, Charles had the resources and position to begin to make his mark on western Europe by demanding the recognition of his rights, real or pretended, in every sphere. Although he continued to feel grateful to Louis for his vital assistance to his career, there was frequently an element of tension in his relations with his eldest surviving brother. Louis's position marked him out as one who must be obeyed; Charles by temperament was one to whom obedience came hard. Louis sometimes complained of Charles's insensitivity. Joinville painted a vivid picture of the king's sudden fury on discovering, as he sailed away defeated from Egypt in 1250 and in mourning for the death of his brother Robert, that Charles, far from attempting to comfort him, was playing dice with a friend. Given the temperamental differences between them, occasional signs of strain after 1246 were only to be expected.

Yet historians have been prone to exaggerate them. It is alleged that Louis forced Charles to surrender the county of Hainault, which Marguerite, countess of Flanders, had conferred on him in 1253. Louis is usually portrayed as reluctant to endorse the papal plan of sending Charles to conquer Sicily, while Charles is seen as desperate to get his hands on that rich realm. Neither picture is clearly supported by the evidence.

[...]

The most potent sources of friction were those that Charles inherited from his father-in-law Raymond Berengar V of Provence. The claimed monopoly on the salt trade up the Rhône deeply aggravated Louis, as did Charles's failure to pay up in full Margaret of Provence's dowry [...]

Though Louis did not particularly like Charles, he trusted him. He coupled him with Alphonse as regent of the realm when Blanche of Castille died in 1252. He entrusted them both with tricky negotiations with Henry III and Innocent IV in 1251. In arbitrating between Charles and his mother-in-law Beatrice of Savoy in 1256, the king substantially enhanced his brother's political power in Provence by obtaining for him the county of Forcalquier, in return for a pension to Beatrice which Louis himself paid. He seems to have prevented his wife Margaret, Beatrice's daughter, from causing trouble to his brother in Provence. He intervened in Anjou to acquire for Charles a castle that the younger man regarded as crucial to his power. These were not the actions of a saintly king who disapproved of his headstrong younger brother's conduct; nor were they acts of mere indulgence.

It is clear that Charles benefited substantially in the eyes of outsiders from his close relationship with Louis. His opponents in Provence and Italy feared possible French intervention in his support, and were therefore on occasion moved to treat with him rather than continuing the fight. [...] Louis IX's favour was worth having, and those who helped Charles expected to win it. This expectation argues against the tensions between the two brothers from being significant.

[...]

More striking was Charles's consistent friendship with Alphonse. For much of Louis's reign, the brothers worked together. It is true that there was the occasional spat of irritation between them when Alphonse's acquisition of the county of Toulouse made him Charles's neighbour in Provence; Charles was deeply hurt that Alphonse would not in 1264-65 commute his vow to go again to the Holy Land into service in the conquest of the Regno. But for the most part their interests were compatible. Together they subjected Avignon and the old marquisate of Provence to Capetian interests. Together they strengthened their holds on their respective domains by refusing to shelter each other's rebels. Together they pursued claims against Louis to the inheritance of the countess of Boulogne and the count of Clermont. When Alphonse fell ill in the Regno on his way back from the Tunis crusade, Charles demanded that the best medical help available in Naples be sent at once to him. His brother's death in 1271 must have come as a bitter blow.

None of his other male relations came near to equalling Alphonse's influence. But throughout his life, Charles looked to his nephews and cousins for backing and positive military support. His son-in-law Robert de Béthune was a pillar of his government in the Regno during the early years, his nephews Robert d'Artois and Pierre d'Alençon rushed to his assistance in 1282-83. He remained a family man until death, and a man who took great pride in his closest kin.

This characteristic is perhaps most evident in his testimony, probably in 1282, to a papal enquiry into the canonization of Louis. Charles talked of his family as the holy root from which sprang saintly branches; he argued that both Robert (who died on crusade) and Alphonse (who aspired to meet such a death) were as worthy as Louis of being elevated to the status of martyrs for the faith. For him, sanctity was a family trait, enhanced in his generation by excellent upbringing. Obviously this testimony was far from disinterested. But his slant on his eldest brother's claim to be canonized is noteworthy. After all, as a crowned head himself, Charles might have made more of Louis as God's representative on earth, or of the royal anointing as a kind of sacrament. He ignored the opportunity to contribute to the cult of kings, in favour of an encomium on the Capetians.

Jean Dunbabin- Charles I of Anjou- Power, Kingship and State-Making in Thirteenth-Century Europe.

#xiii #jean dunbabin #charles i of anjou: power kingship and state-making #charles i d'anjou #louis ix #alphonse de poitiers #robert i d'artois #marguerite de provence #béatrice de savoie #robert de béthune #pierre d'alençon #brothers #family feelings

[ourplaceinthecosmosphff]

Chapter 5. Truth or Dare

‘TRUE BEAUTY is not of the body or of the face, no, it is a thing of the soul - of fire and air, breath and spirit, something brave and unafraid.’ Segovia Amil

The door opened without a knock; I saw through the reflection in the mirror Cadie stop herself from walking straight in, instead fixing her posture and looking solemnly at us.

“Excuse me, Ma’am.” She said, formally.

“Don’t bother with formalities on my account, Cade.” Louis told her, grinning. “We’re all friends here. I won’t tell Auguste you usually call my sister by her name.”

The secretary grinned, but didn’t move. “There’s a delivery for you.”

“For me?” She replied with a nod. 

“I think it’s a dress.”

“Oh!” Louis exclaimed, jumping up from his seat in the two-seat sofa in front of my bed. 

I raised a hand in pause to Cass, who was just about finished doing my hair, and turned around to eye my brother suspiciously.

“What is it? And why is it in my name?”

“It’s for you.” He said, walking to the door and speaking to someone outside. “In here, please!”

The Prince of Wales’ butler walked in, solemnly carrying a garment bag over both his arms, which he laid over the couch where Louis had been sitting, before turning around to bow to the both of us, and leave as swiftly as he had come.

“If it’s for me how come I don’t know anything about it?!”

“It’s a surprise.” He shrugged, smiley. “Cass, are you done over there?”

Cass, who had been discreetly spraying my hair as we talked, pulled another couple of strands leading into my bun and took a step back.

“Look at me, please, ma’am? Oh, yes, I’m done. Beautiful!”

I looked in the mirror. My hair was pulled loosely to the back in a bun, with strands falling artfully to the sides of my face. Atop my head, sat Empress Eugénie's 1853 pearl and diamonds tiara, commissioned by Napoleon III to celebrate their marriage. It was adorned with 212 pearls and 1998 diamonds. After Napoleon III’s 1870 defeat, the tiara was surrendered to the Savoyen Royal Family and now it laid on my hair. It was one of my favorites from the Savoyen Crown jewels vault, and Maman had sent me with Georgian pearl earrings to match, which I picked up as Louis rushed Cass and Cadie out of the room.

“I already have a dress, Lou.” I told him, approaching the garment bag.

“How would you know it’s a dress?” He asked, teasingly, to which I only gave him a suspicious look with one raised brow. “Okay, fine, it’s a dress…”

He pat a chair next to the bag and I sat down, just as he sat in the coffee table in front and held both my hands in his.

He cleared his throat. “As I have expressed, I am sorry for the things I said when we were fighting.”

I watched him, silently, then nodded slowly. “Okay?”

“However, there is something I have been meaning to talk to you about, which may have transpired during our, uhm, bagarre.”

“...yes?”

“Maggie, you have to stop letting mom and dad walk all over you.”

“I do not-”

“You have worn at least three outfits this tour I know for a fact that you wouldn't even have purchased if it weren’t to make sure Maman wouldn’t have something to criticize.”

“Excuse you, I think my outfits were very cute!”

“I didn’t say they weren’t!” He clarified, pointing a finger at me. “All I said was… they weren’t you.”

I sighed, resting my back against the chair.

I couldn’t say I hadn’t noticed before that every time I had to do something regal there was a tiny voice in the back of my head wondering, what will mom approve of? before I chose an outfit. Her style had more of a conservative, 50s debutant vibe, while I tended to be more romantic yet modern. It was a fine line that separated both styles, and the advantage usually fell to my mother.

“She’s a very stylish woman.” I countered, and he nodded enthusiastically.

“She sure is. And you are twenty-five years-old! You should be allowed to wear things that are… out there, daring, iconic!”

I laughed. “I’m not exactly a fashion icon!”

“My point exactly. You could be.”

“Louis-”

“I know you have style! I have seen it! You just hold it back because you think you have to!”

“I do have to.”

“It’s the twenty-first century! The Swede Princesses show a lot more skin than you do!”

“They don’t have our mom breathing down their necks.”

“Maggie, fashion is supposed to be fun! But you need a little bit of courage to really shine in it.”

I sighed. “What exactly are you suggesting?”

He leaned back and crossed his legs, confidently. “Let me guess, the dress maman chose for you for tonight's of a light shade, probably blue to match your angelic eyes, with a simple silhouette that covers everything God gave you, am I right?”

I didn’t have to answer; he knew he was right, so instead he merely walked over to his delivery as he spoke.

“I have made some very good contacts since I moved to Britain, in part thanks to religiously attending London Fashion Week. So I made a call.”

He dramatically opened the bag, to reveal a strong, smooth red fabric. 

“Red?!”

“I looked it up, the Duchess of Cambridge herself has worn red to a previous state dinner.”

I bit my lip. It did look quite pretty. And much more interesting than the very conservative choice my mother had made.

“Okay, I’ll try it on.” He squealed as I got to my feet. “But just because I’m curious! If I feel it’s too much cleavage, or too out there, I’m putting on the blue dress.”

“Yes!” He threw the garment bag at me and ran to the door. “I’ll go get dressed as you do that, and send Cadie in to help you.”

As I rummaged through the bag, I saw another thing inside.

“Spanx, Louis?!”

He closed the door with a thud.

I needed Cadie’s help to get everything on without damaging my makeup, hair or losing the tiara in the mess, but at last, I was ready. 

Cadie approved it. “It’s perfect!” She breathed, amazed.

I walked out of the bathroom to the full body mirror in the room, finding Louis sitting in the sofa again. His eyes widened as he saw me. “Woah.”

“Strapless?!” I asked him, unfazed. “Lou, you know I can’t show cleavage on a state dinner!”

“Oh, no, mustn't let the British know you have arms!” He rolled his eyes, getting to his feet. “What will they tell the church?!”

“Lou!”

“Relax, look, it’s an upper neckline, you’ll be fine! Again, the Swedes wear strapless all the time”

“We’re not Swedish!”

“To be fair, the draping does cover much of your chest.” Cadie added, to Louis’ joy.

“Thank you, Cadie. Why don’t you go wait outside?” I told her, with an eye roll. She left, grinning.

The shape of the dress was almost a mermaid-cut, but the draping made it a lot loser in the lower-body, and added a very interesting detail to the hips; in my case, making it look like I had some.

I sighed. “It’s… beautiful.”

“But?”

“There’s a lot that goes into choosing a dress for an event like this, I can’t just change it last minute.”

“Your tiara matches, I made sure of it. The dress is tighter on your body, but not that much that Maman will have any right to criticize, the dress is red, which is new for you but not against the rules, and most importantly, out of your comfort zone! With the added bonus of the sexy factor!”

“This is the gayest you’ve sounded in your life.”

He put a hand to his heart. “Thank you!”

“I shouldn’t be looking sexy in a state dinner, anyway.”

Through the mirror, I watched him give the windows a look he seemed to be hoping I would see. 

“What?!”

“Well, you know, that is true… unless there’s a very handsome man in the state dinner who’s been shamelessly flirting with you for three days straight.”

I rolled my eyes, but smiled despite myself. “I was wondering if that had any influence over this intervention.”

“No!” He replied, quickly. “I’ve been thinking about this for a while. Although you gotta admit, it’s perfect timing!”

“Harry’s just being…”

“Nice?” He asked, sarcastically, before walking over to adjust the drape. “What’s wrong with nice? You deserve nice.”

He placed a hand over my arm and looked at me in the mirror.

“Chris didn’t deserve you. You know that, right?”

I wanted to roll my eyes at him for bringing him up again, but instead I just nodded, trying to allow the words to take root in my heart.

“But Harry might.” He shrugged. “He seems to at least know you’re way out of his league, that is more than Chris already.” We chuckled. “So wear the dress. Feel as powerful as I know you are and let him know it too.”

So I held his hand, took a deep breath, and said, “Okay.”

---- ---- ---- ---- 

Once you’ve seen one palace, you’ve seen them all: high ceilings, golden fixtures, red carpets. The one thing that changes is the art in the walls, the people in the paintings, the era of the vases. Buckingham Palace was not different, which is why I wasn't taking too much notice of it as we walked in that night; I had spent our first day in the country admiring Buckingham, tonight was about more.

Tonight was the ultimate opportunity we had to show the world how friendly our countries' relation was, so that the people might pressure their politicians into putting work into fixing the immigrant crisis. In a more direct way, the star of the night were the speeches by the Queen and King. In an indirect way, I had been informed by Cadie on the way over that the pictures of Louis and me with the Cambridges and Harry had become very popular online, and that it wouldn't hurt to look as friendly as possible.

That would be harder, though, because on state dinners the seating chart was made very carefully so that the main visiting royals can mingle with the hosts, and the spare royals can give their attention to the other guests, so they feel heard.

As we walked in, I suddenly felt absolutely wrong in the dress. Though there was limited photographers in State Dinners, they were definitely there. Particularly at our arrival. The flashes were so blinding I could only focus on walking without tripping over my train, but in the back of my mind I couldn’t help but wish I was wearing my comfortable, old blue. Louis had prepared me for it, though.

Back in Clarence House, as we descended the staircase, the last ones to be ready, he reminded me that everything new felt wrong until it didn’t. That was easier to say when all he had to wear was a boring tuxedo he had worn at least twenty times prior. 

When we walked into the living room, the conversation stopped. My father and our five person staff stared at me, head to toe, mouths opened, as my brother offered them a cocky look. 

“Well,” I said, “I’m ready. Shall we go?”

Though Auguste said nothing, he looked as though he wanted to, but reconsidered when my father merely smiled, offering me his arm, and we made our way out.

Now, walking into the palace, I was reconsidering the choice myself. The dress was beautiful, my hair and makeup were perfectly in place thanks to Arnie’s flawless work, the tiara was a dream come alive; it was me. I was a pile of nerves. 

As Louis offered me his hand to climb up the steps, he looked at me, confused. 

“Why are you shaking?” 

I shrugged, and he grinned.

“Just you wait.” He replied when I questioned this.

Dad led the way, greeting Her Majesty with a kiss on each cheek, before taking one step to say hello to the Prince of Wales and his wife, just down the line. As the heir, Louis was next, so he stepped forward and bowed his head before kissing her as well.

“Your Majesty, is it 1956? Because you look barely a day over 30.”

The Queen let out a naughty giggle, caressing the diamonds in her bracelet shyly. 

He was going to make a fantastic King.

“Your Majesty.” I said, bowing down in a curtsey when it was my turn. 

“Princess Margueritte.” She greeted as I, too, kissed her cheeks. “You’ve been making quite a ruckus these last couple of days.”

I looked at her, feeling my head tilt sideways. “Have I?”

“I hope my grandson hasn’t bothered you too much.”

“Oh. No! Harry? No. He is… No!” I assured her, feeling my myself blush. “Uhm. He, he is-”

“He's always been a bit like a shark like that. If they stop swimming, they die. Well, he does if he stops flirting.”

I laughed, aware we were being filmed, hoping the press wasn't close enough to pick audio, trying to look as unbothered as possible.

"He's been very friendly and... Welcoming."

"I'm sure."

"What is it?" asked the Prince of Wales, drawing the attention of my father, brother and the Duchess. I shook my head, but the Queen told him merely, "Harry".

It seemed to be enough, though, as the whole group nodded, grinning.

"Oh, yes. It seems my son is a bit taken with your daughter." The prince told my father.

Though his mouth said "oh" in an amused way, I could tell it wasn't the first time he heard of this. 

“It doesn’t help she’s exactly his type.“ The duchess commented, making the group laugh again, so I‌ attempted to hold a steady, polite smile on my face.

We moved on to mingle and get in our positions to enter the dining hall; as the guest of honor, since Dad was here, there wasn’t anyone else to wait for. The rest of the guests were already in the dining hall, probably being told to find their seats now. The royal families - hosts and guests - were to enter later, so for now we could be ourselves and enjoy some privacy.

“Breathe.” Louis told me again, as we followed dad around the room. “You look about to pass out.”

“What did she mean by ‘his type’, you think?” I asked him, in a whisper.

“He’s probably dated someone who looks like you.” He replied, grinning.

“More than one... but ‘his type’, though. You think he just likes me because I’m blonde? He just likes my looks?”

“Great relationships have started with looks.” He said, turning around to face me, stopping me in my tracks. “How do you know he’s dated more than one person who looks like you? Have you stalked him online?”

I rolled my eyes, turning to look around the room. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

“You have a tell, Maggie. When you’re lying you look away so people can’t see your eyes.” 

Instead of dignifying his - smart - insight with an answer, I merely hooked my arm in his and walked off, having just identified the people I’d been looking for, and trying to ignore the smile on Louis’ face when he realized where we were going.

“Good evening.”

Though Harry had his back to me, I could watch the reaction of his brother and sister-in-law. They looked at me as I approached, unsurprised I was coming; almost as though they had seen me already. When I got to them, instead of greeting us, their eyes went to Harry. 

His shoulders squared back in a long breath, and then he turned around and looked at me. I watched his mouth open and his eyes widen, both so slightly it made me question if I’d imagined it, but also so obvious I wanted to turn around and go back to Clarence House to get changed immediately. It didn’t help he looked me up and down quickly and then gulped, before averting his eyes.

“You both look very dapper tonight.” Catherine said, smiling awkwardly between her brother-in-law and us. She was wearing a dark blue gown and a diamond tiara, hair half up, half down.

“Thank you!” Louis said, returning her smile with none of the awkwardness, and a lot of amusement. 

“Yes, we’re very happy to have you.” William said, looking equally as amused. “I’m afraid you’re at the boring table today, Louis.”

Catherine gently edged her elbow to her husband’s arm. “Don’t say boring.” She whispered, making Louis laugh. 

“Trust me, I understand what you mean.” He replied; I tried to smile, as it felt like that was the tone the conversation required. But it was hard when Harry still hadn’t looked back at me. “What is the party table, though? Does Harry get a round of Bubbly Pong going?”

They laughed, I mimicked. Harry looked around the room very still. There was an uncomfortable silence as the laughter died down, and suddenly there was a British aide telling us it was time to get to our places in line to enter the dining room. 

I gladly took the excuse to move away, feeling sick to my stomach. Had I been excited before? I hardly remembered it anymore. 

“I’m in the boring table, too.” Catherine told me, walking quickly to catch up to me as we moved to the middle of the line as the heirs went forward. “It was terrifying on my first time at one of these, but I’ve come to find you can have some interesting conversations, don’t you think?”

I smiled, remembering her nerves from the car the day before. “No, you’re right, it’s not that bad, actually. Though, it’s not as interesting as it seems to outsiders, either, I suppose. My sister is convinced there’s dancing, like in a ball in a Disney movie.” 

She laughed, looked back, and then added, whispery, “You make him nervous.”

“What?”

“I’m over there, I’ll talk to you later, I hope.” 

We exchanged a smile, even if mine was a bit confused, and she moved to stand next to the Prime Minister.

“You know, in Britain only the married women attend these,” Harry started, standing next to me in line. “And you wouldn’t be allowed to wear one of those until married, either.” He said, staring at the tiara in my head with - I was happy to see - some reverence.

“In Savoy, unmarried women can wear tiaras as long as they’re over twenty-one. Good thing I’m not British.” I said, on a low tone, glad Auguste couldn’t hear such an undiplomatic sentiment. 

He grinned. “Yes. I’m very glad about that.” 

I looked around, seeing the line basically done. “Are you not going to find your place?”

“I think I’m right where I belong.” 

“With me?” I asked, surprised; he returned a flirty smile.

“Yes, Mary, with you.” I rolled my eyes, grinning.

“Do you get all your pickup lines from Taylor Swift songs?” He laughed a bit louder than the current volume level in the room, and more than one pair of eyes turned to look at us.

Usually they wouldn’t pair the ‘lower royals’ together like this. The high ranking ones, yes; queen and king, heir with heir. My father and Louis were both ahead, and would be sitting at the head of the table, with William and Catherine, I supposed. But Harry and I should have been paired with diplomats or dignitaries. 

As we walked into the room, to the sound of their national anthem, I noticed two important things. One, Harry looked very handsome in white tie and tails, with his military medals pinned to his chest. Two, as we walked, he gave a grateful smile to a nearby aide, and I wondered if he had arranged to be seated with me. I felt… strangely flattered. 

As we got to the table, and the anthem finished, a staffer pulled the chair for me, and we were all seated in silence as, at the center part of the table, they prepared for the speeches.

“I don’t think I can stress this enough, Mary.” He said, whispery, leaning closer to me than it was necessary.

“Marie.” I corrected, now more teasingly than anything else, making him smile as he looked into my eyes.

“You’re the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.”

I didn’t have a teasing answer for that; I could barely think straight as he kept staring into my eyes from so close. 

Suddenly, however, his grandmother’s voice startled us both out of it and we stared ahead as she began to speak.

It felt as though the Queen and my father spoke for hours; I‌ kept my eyes focused ahead hoping to steady my breath and sweaty palms enough to be able to look back at Harry at some point in the night.

Luckily, by the time they started serving the entrees, I‌ had remembered that due to the dinner etiquette I was supposed to make conversation to the man by my other side before Harry. So I took in a deep breath, smiled politely, and asked him about his work.

By the time it was our turn to talk, he gave me a friendly smile and said,

“Dare.”

I sighed a short giggle. We had, now that I‌ thought about, left the truth and dare game unfinished the day before. I‌ had answered last, so I supposed it was his turn. I cracked my brain to think of something that was good, but not scandalous. 

“I dare you to,”‌ I‌ started, slowly, staring into his water glass, “tap you fork to your glass loudly to call the attention of the room to yourself, get up, and improvise a speech in honor of my father.”

He barked out a laughter that started louder than any of us thought was appropriate, and we quickly ducked our heads down to hide our playful grins and blushing cheeks; Harry was still laughing. Taking a deep breath, he looked around the room. 

“I can’t!”‌‌‌ He replied. “It’s not protocol, it’ll be too weird. It will make the news!”

I sighed, smiling. ‌“Alright, then. I‌ suppose you could… start coughing when the staffer comes back for our plates and then dramatically grab his sleeve and pretend to have an allergic reaction.”

This time his eyes widened as he laughed, leaning closer to me. “Are you trying to get me disowned?!” 

I‌ laughed.‌ “Too much? Okay. I dare you to…”‌ I looked around the room, thinking. 

The table was shaped like an upside-down U. The Queen and her guests were at the top, horizontal edge; Harry and I were at the start of one of the legs, close to the curve of the table, which was narrow and had no one sitting there. The person closest to the other gentleman on my side, was Catherine, and by her side, ‌my brother.

“I dare you to throw a pea on my brother’s wine glass.” 

He leaned closer to me in order to see around the tall centerpiece arrangement in the middle of the table. He smelled of… lime, possibly? And I‌ felt myself leaning back towards him to smell it better.

“Hm, how about Cath? She’s more in my line of vision.”

“No!” I‌ whispered, making one of his eyebrows raise slightly above the other. “She’s nice, I‌ don’t want to mess with her.”

“And your brother isn’t nice?”

I rolled my eyes. “My brother has been a royal since birth and is used to me. Your sister-in-law seems to still be trying very hard to… behave the way people expect her to. I‌ don’t want to make that harder.”

He smiled.‌ “How do you know that?”

I‌ shrugged.‌ “I’m observant. Stop stalling. If you won’t do that, then…”‌ I looked back, seeing the staffers come back around to collect our plates. “When they’re removing your plate, I‌ dare you to burp your thank you.”

“For such a pretty girl, you are… disgusting.”

“Ouch.”‌ I said, on a bored monotone, making him fight a smile. 

I‌ kept my eyes ahead as the poor staffer approached by his side to remove the plate, and then I‌ heard a loud and disgusting “thank you”, making me laugh.

We waited until they had left and broke down in a fit of giggles that made me feel very hot; I‌ took a long sip of my water, deciding I had had enough wine for the night.

Throughout the night, the game went on through each course; because I‌ didn’t want him to get any ideas about revenge, I‌ kept choosing truth, and as the first one traumatized him so much, so did he, and we ended up just having a regular conversation. Well, kind of. 

He asked how many people I had ever kissed; I did the quick math in my head and told him nine (Chris was my first everything, as he was a childhood friend, and other than one 7 minutes in heaven incident at 16, the rest were all casual dates during the one time when we broke up during University, and since the last break up). So I asked him the same, and he very quietly, blushing, justified his double digit as he stuttered through a lot of excuses, which I thought was cute. 

He asked what my pet peeve was, and I talked about wanting to scratch my eyes out when people chewed gum open-mouthed. I asked who was his favorite out of all the famous people he had ever met, and he told me about meeting Paul McCartney, which lead me to volunteer my experience in a Paul McCartney concert in New York a few years before, and soon we were exchanging our favorite Beatles songs, and what were our favorite bands as teenagers, which was particularly cringey for both of us (I had an insanely embarrassing obsession with Britney Spears, he had a gangster rap phase).

He asked how old I was when I stopped playing dolls (13), I asked how old he was the last time he peed himself (20, drunk). He asked what was the last text I sent, and I told him about confirming lunch plans with my coworker for the day after tomorrow. I asked him what was the last thing he searched on his phone, and he told me about googling how to tie a bow tie, which earned him a confused look.

“I know, I know. I ought to know it by now. But I told you about my terrible memory. I can never remember.”

“Okay, okay. Tell me one thing on your internet history you wouldn’t want me to know about.”

He stared at his plate, thoughtfully. 

“Well, in the name of our blossoming friendship, I feel I should come clean. After your brother mentioned it at polo, I did google you.”

I nodded. “Yeah, so did I.”

“You did?”‌ I‌ nodded. “Well, may I just say those pictures are low quality, and everything is actually much bigger-”

“I‌ meant I googled myself, you narcissistic piece of work.” I‌ laughed. 

“Oh, you googled yourself and‌ I’m narcissistic?!”

I‌ shrugged.‌ “I guess I wanted to see what you would see if you googled me.”‌

“Well, I‌ saw some adorable childhood pictures.‌ Bangs look cute on you.” I rolled my eyes.‌ 

“Shut up.”

“Found out you have three dogs, amazing. And Christopher looks like trash. You can do better.”

I laughed again, drinking more water just to have an excuse not to have to comment on it.

As we moved to the next course, we took some time to talk to the people on our other sides, so I did my best to focus on the questions the gentleman to my right was asking me.

In the back of my mind, however, something bugged me. I couldn’t stop thinking that he still didn’t know about the first time we met, and the longer I‌ took to tell him, the more uncomfortable it would be when I finally did.

“Truth or dare?”‌ He asked, without preamble, as soon as I turned to him again.

“Truth.”‌ I‌ smiled, hoping he would ask how we met so I could get it over with.

“Which of your siblings is your favorite?”

I‌ sighed; mostly because he had a very irritant, smug grin on his lips. 

“I can’t answer that. Also, it’s so unfair that you only have one so I can’t return this horrible question.”

“Yes, that’s why I asked. Go on, you can do it.”

“Fine. Louis. But I‌ have-”

“Oh, wow, Mary!” He said, mock-shock all over his face.

“You asked!” I‌ said, whispery.

“That is cold!”

“I have reasons!”

“Fine, what are the reasons?”

“I was eleven years-old when Lourdes was born! I love her, of course. But I‌ only had a couple years with her before going to boarding school. Louis is just a few years younger than me, we grew up together! We’re just… closer.”

He nodded. “You went to school abroad, right?”

“Well, I‌ had a year in Savoy, then I‌ transferred to Belgium.”

“One year?”

“Yes, and it was easier to see them then, I came home every weekend, spent as much time with them as I‌ possibly could. Even when I was living in Belgium, actually. I still did my best.”

“You came home often?”

“As often as I could.” I said. “Lourdes was three when our grandfather abdicated due to his age. She will never remember a time when she wasn’t the daughter of a king. I was already off at Belgium by then. I wanted to be… I don’t know, to be…”

“There.”

I sighed. “Well, yes.”

“You felt guilty you were away.”

I looked at him, but didn’t say anything for a while. 

“I don’t- I don’t know. It’s stupid. I know there was nothing I could do, I just… They were so busy, our parents. Busier than ever. And I just... ”

“You didn’t want them to feel alone.” I looked at him, surprised. He shrugged. “Will did the same for me.”

He reached over and took a sip of his wine. “When… everything happened. Not just the divorce, but everything that came after, I think he felt guilty leaving me.” 

I didn’t need to ask what was the ‘all’ that had happened. The entire world knew. For this reason, I think, I wanted to offer something vulnerable in return.

“I came over to Savoy every weekend.” I confessed. “I left school every Friday on a private plane, and went home to see my family as if I still was studying in Savoy. My father shielded me from it, but the press found out and he was under attack for the expense. They called me spoilt, and said my mother insisted I was educated in Belgium out of an unpatriotic whim.”

He gave me a sad look, but I shrugged.

“I just wanted to make sure Louis and Lourdes were alright. I didn’t want them to forget about me, or think I might have forgotten them.”

He nodded. “You want to know what I think?”

I smiled. “I know you’ll tell me.”

He chuckled, silently. “I think you sound like a girl who really liked her country, and her home, and her family, and really wanted to be there, but could not, for some reason, stay in school near them. I wonder why?”

I leaned back, sighing, a grin on my lips. “And what is your theory?”

“Don’t lawyer me, Mary.”

We laughed.

“Marie.”

“It must have been tough.” He added, seriously. 

He didn’t know; he seemed to just… understand.

The staff arrived to remove our plates, and we took some time to ourselves. When they left, I turned to him again.

“The girls didn’t like me.” I confessed, softly. “I see now where they were coming from. I was too… too much. Quiet, but I overcompensated a lot. I had… a lot of opinions, which I mostly shared with the teachers, in class, when forced. I was always called on and, of course, everyone knew, or thought they did, every detail about me, and my family. And they all seemed to think I needed to be… more.”

“More what?”

I shrugged. “Everything. Or maybe less of everything... I don’t know, I just wasn’t enough. I just wanted… for no one to know who I was.”

“So you moved to Belgium.”

I smiled, sadly. “No one cared who my father was there. They found out, eventually. But I already had a couple of nice friends by then. It was all I needed.”

He smiled. “I hated school.”

I rolled my eyes. “Everyone did-”

“No, I… I really did. I’ve never been smart.”

“Excuse me?”

“I’m serious. I don’t mean it in self-pity, either. It’s just… I’ve never been good at it. I don’t have an affinity for academics. I never had… an affection for any subjects, at all. I always just liked… the outdoors. The conversations, the connections with others. The adventure. I hated being inside.”

I smiled. “People are different. The only problem is the system that convinces us there’s only one way to be.”

After dessert, as soon as the Queen and King stood up, we were allowed to, as well. We were then ushered to another saloon where drinks were going to be served, and guests could mingle with other guests other than the ones they had been seated with at dinner, and soon after say their official goodbyes to the Queen.

The gentleman that had sat to my right introduced me to his wife, and we talked about their children for a while before I felt the conversation die out and gave a secret signal (adjusting my earrings) for Cadie to rescue me. 

“Hello…” Louis grinned when I‌ joined him, where he was observing our father from a distance.‌ His tone alone got me to blush.

“Shut up.”

“Why? I was just going to say you and Prince Harry sure seemed to be having fun.”

I sighed, “We did.”

“That’s nice.”‌ The tone was different this time, more… honest. Less mocking. So I smiled in return.

“And I deserve nice.” I repeated his line back to him, making his smile grow.

“Auguste noticed it, too.”

I sighed again.‌‌ “Let me guess. Have I‌ behaved promiscuously?”

“He is not sure if anyone will have noticed, but he thinks it’s a bad match.”

“Ugh, what is this, the eighteenth century?”

He shrugged.‌ “He said something about both of you being spares, and none having a throne to inherit, it’s just not good politics.”

I gave him a flabbergasted look. “What?!”

“I’m obviously kidding!”‌ He laughed, but I‌ rolled my eyes. “Look, just don’t let him talk you out of it, okay? Harry is great. He’s funny, and polite, and according to Kate, seems to really like you.”

“What? What did she say?”

He grinned again. “She told me in confidence, I‌ can’t repeat it.”

“Louis!”

“He’s nice!‌ And you deserve nice!”

“I know…”

“…he’s also super hot, which doesn’t hurt.”

“Shut up.”‌ I replied, but with a grin of my own this time. 

“What, you’re telling me you don’t think he’s super hot?”

“That’s not- I‌ don’t- Shut up!”

I‌’d seen Harry approaching out of the corner of my eye, and was desperate for him to stop talking.

“Hello.”‌ He greeted.

“Hi, Harry…”‌ Louis greeted him with the same teasing tone he had used to greet me.

“…Hi.”‌ Harry’s smile grew a bit more, and he blushed looking at the floor, uncomfortably.

“Stop.” I‌ whispered to my brother.

“Oh, look. I’m getting a call.” He returned, dead-faced. showing us his dark, silent phone, which was most definitely not receiving a call. “Talk to you later.”

Harry laughed as I‌ sighed. “Sorry, he’s…”

“Hey, do you want get out of here?” I stared, intrigued. His smile dropped as regret took over his face. “No!‌ I‌ just mean… To walk around, in the palace. See some cool closed wings and stuff.”

I‌ laughed. “Sure.”

“Really?”‌ He seemed genuinely surprised, and my heart ached.

I looked around at the room, enough people looking at us just because we were who we were. Our brothers looking away from us in a way that made me sure they were very aware of our movements. Auguste was standing by my father, but keeping an eye on me from the corner of his eyes. Cadie gave me a discreet thumbs up from the corner.

I remembered we were meant to be leaving the country tomorrow morning, and thought of how he still didn’t realize when we met. I remembered just how much he annoyed me only three days ago, and realized I didn’t know when I might see him next. Sure, it was almost time to leave, but I wasn’t ready to say goodbye. I wanted to see this through.

And I deserved nice.

So as he watched me with expectant eyes, I felt my heart jump in my throat and smiled as I said, “…yes.‌ Lead the way.”

--- ---- ---

Margueritte’s State Dinner Outfit

[A//N: Thank you so much for reading!!!!!!! I’d love to know your thoughts, please drop me a message here or like this page? Again, it’s a privilege, thank you for reading! Next week: Harry and Margueritte go on a secret Buckingham palace adventure!]

#prince harry fanfiction #prince harry fanfic #princeharryfanfic #princeharryfanfiction #princeharryff #Prince Harry #brf #fanfiction #fanfic #Modern Royalty AU #modern royalty fanfic #modern royalty fanfiction #chapters #OPITCphff

[sugarandspice-games]

I guess this is becoming a trend... I’m popping in before the actual intro to clarify-- if the text is in italic, it is me (Sugar) talking and regular is Spice. Alright? Cool. And so--

So, one night I’m going through youtube and I come upon this one shitposty video about some random anime that I’ve never even heard of. After doing some research, I discover that it’s actually based on a dating sim that I’ve also never heard of. As a joke I was like “Hey Sugar wanna watch this as a joke, it might be funny” and so we did. And uhm. Well.

Today we’re gonna be reviewing Brothers Conflict, aka Sweet Home Alabama 2: Electric Anime Boogaloo aka the anime that ruined our lives. [Again, disclaimer: neither Sugar nor I condone incest and/or pedophilia, two themes which are uh, very rampant in this anime which is why I cannot recommend it in good faith. It’s not good, don’t get me wrong. I can’t really say that I liked it even if watching it and ragging on it was kind of enjoyable, and I did get attached to some of the characters because that’s the kind of idiot I am. Also, we’re not shirking our duties to write I swear please don’t kill me--] Anyway, an obligatory SPOILER WARNING though this probably isn’t going in the main tag bc I do not want the fans to publicly stone me. Why are we reviewing this? Bc we need to talk about it somewhere. Though I say review lightly bc this... is really more of a critique.

ALSO we only watched the anime, idk if things are different in the game. There is no full english translation for the games and most of the LP channels have been copyright striked, so please don’t come at us for not knowing anything. I also know that otome games and dating sims don’t tend to translate well to anime, and I will be addressing this later.

So, dear god, where do I begin.

Where do we begin indeed? How about the fact that her name is Ema and I had to google to remember the heroine’s name? Also, she is seventeen.

Our plot, or well... what you COULD call a plot, I guess, if you REALLY wanted to give this anime that much credit, focuses on the aforementioned seventeen year old Hinata Ema, who has an absent father who apparently FOUND THE TIME TO FALL IN LOVE AND GET MARRIED BUT NEVER HAS A SECOND TO SPARE FOR HIS ONLY CHILD, RINTARO I SWEAR TO GOD I AM TAKING CUSTODY OF YOUR CHILD. HAND HER OVER-- Anyway. He’s getting married to a woman who has 13 sons (jesus christ ma’am have you ever heard of a condom?) and he decides to move her in with them because... I guess he has less braincells than I have balls, which is to say, zero. Hi, I’m trans.

So, Ema moves in with them... along with her talking grey squirrel, Juli. Juli is... interesting and by interesting, I mean-- ABSOLUTELY PUZZLING. He, apparently, has seen the majority of Ema’s life from babyhood to teenagerhood and can talk but is only understood by Ema (who he calls Chii) and Louis, the eighth son in the Asahina family. It is never explained why, or how Chii came across him or how in an episode, a single episode, he becomes human because why the hell not, I guess??? (Also, he is pretty. YES. I said it. Fight me.) [Quick Spice intervention, this squirrel can talk to people, transform into a human, enter dreams, and live way longer than a squirrel should since the average lifespan of a squirrel is like 6 years in the wild. Juli is apparently a god as none of this is EVER explained.]

And when she meets the Asahina family, it’s pretty much immediately chaos because these heterosexual (I guess? They look like a bunch of twinks to me but there goes anime trying to convince me that straight people are real and not a lie made up by Trump) men have NEVER and I mean NEVER known a woman in their entire lives, since they seem to want to bang their stepsister immediately. And most of them are GROWN ASS ADULTS. Only three of them are actually minors (though Iori is 18 and only one year older so I guess??? It’s okay??? But still weird) and one of them is a 13 year old who looks and acts like he’s 8.

Oh, and did I mention that out of these boys, only the adult triplets and the abusive asshole 16 year old get any kind of characterization AND character development? I mean, Subaru gets an “arc” if you can call it that, but really, they don’t give him much... personality. You could replace him with a cardboard cutout and it’d be the same. I feel bad for him (but not really because dude you are 20 and she is your sister, what the fuck--)

But if there’s anything good about this anime, it is the characters themselves. Several of the boys have redeeming qualities and interesting personalities and quirks, as well as interesting relationships and dynamics with each other. Yes, some of them are lacking in the plotline department while others may have decent plotlines and lack personality, and then some of them are just given absolutely nothing (COUGH Masaomi COUGH Ukyo COUGHCOUGHCOUGH Iori, and by the way, what the fuck is that game plotline bc I read the wiki since I wanted to know more about him. We don’t have time to unpack the mento illness luv. But you’re telling me they had all this meat to work with and they threw it in the trash and gave him nothing? What the hell?) And if anything, I feel as if the characters themselves are crippled by the plotline. If given a different story, perhaps, they may have room to shine, because a lot of them are compelling if not lovable (though some may not be... lovable. COUGHFuuto, at least not for me.) If you want to see our review on the characters, we’ll put out another post.

Iori... Iori has a hell of a plot in the game, according to the Wiki but I can’t blame the writers for not exploring all of it because whoa. It is dark and not in a good way. But back to the subject at hand... I agree with Spice. I do/did like quite a lot of the characters... provided the entire romantic plot is taken away but we will go into more of why the plot is problematic below. All I can really add is: There is a baby in this dumpster and canon has been taken out back to be shot like a lame horse.

This brings me to a point in which I would like to pause the character discussion and bring up a glaring flaw with this anime in general (aside from the... plot. Look, I’m not a huge fan of weird stepsibling stuff but I think that if you want to do something like that, there are ways to do it and ways not to do it. This was the way not to do it, which I’m getting to). The biggest thing that made this anime so uncomfortable was the imbalance of power dynamics. Why is the protagonist 17 when most of the love interests are 18 and older, and I mean much, much older? And she’s not any 17 year old... she’s a lonely, neglected girl who is starved for the love of a family. This makes her easily manipulated by the brothers, who clearly desire her for less than wholesome reasons, and that makes it skeevy. I’m not sure why there’s such a fetishization of nonconsent in media, as if it’s fine for as many men to lust after female protagonists as the writer desires BUT the woman can’t want a single one of them in return. It’s creepy, and quite frankly, I am very much over it. I also get that the age thing is probably a product of the protagonist of a teenager oriented dating sim not translating well to an anime (because really, all otome game MCs are meant to be a neat little pair of shoes for the player to imagine themselves in), but why are we fetishizing a teenager being groomed by adults anyway? Especially adults who have this much power over her to begin with? The power dynamics bring this plot from “Oh, this might be kinda trashy but it could be entertaining” to “This is extremely creepy and rapey and kind of a dumpster fire.”

This is also true. If we were to take age into consideration, Fuuto, Yusuke, and Iori would be the three candidates left for Chii. This is taking out the youngest as well, who is... thirteen, I think? But anyway, (I know I am probably going to get some hate for this but go for it), I am into stories that explore the stepsibling thing and it can make a good narrative-- but before everyone gets uppity: There is a line between FICTION and REALITY and I do not condone real life incest but a story is a story and there are ways to frame it that make it clear that it is not a romantic thing, or acceptable. This anime does not do that in it’s dynamics because some of the brothers do start off in that very firm caregiving, family role and it is a sharp turn into romance that makes you go, “?” or in Fuuto case, a blending that does lean into fetishization.

All in all I think the plot maybe could have been okay? I’m not saying it isn’t problematic, because we all know it is, who are we kidding? But I don’t think it’s wrong per se to explore family dynamics with romance and to understand where the line should be drawn, and maybe exploring the definition of family itself. I have seen fanfictions with similar tropes ask those questions and explore the concept beautifully without romanticizing or fetishizing incest and unhealthy power dynamics. It could have been good, and I get that perhaps I’m barking up the wrong tree by expecting mature themes in an anime based on an otome game, but it also could have been a lot less... creepy (I have used that word so much that it looks wrong now) even if it wasn’t the greatest thing ever. But again, what was I expecting? I watched this whole thing as a joke and ended up attached to the characters like a fool... That tends to be a trend here, and this is why we are so salty all the time. So anyway, stay tuned for our review of the characters! We may not cover all of them since some of them don’t really get anything, but we’ll cover what we found interesting.

#spice talks #sugar speaks #anime and game reviews #sweet home alabama: the anime #not putting this in main tag

[loudlytransparenttrash]

You don’t read about the shootings in cities like Chicago for the same reason you don’t read about all the car accidents - they happen all the time. But it’s also because the shooting death toll is embarrassing to the Democrat establishment that has been running these cities for the past fifty-plus years. Last year, 561 people were shot and killed in Chicago and 2948 others were wounded. That’s just one city. In the entire United States in 2018, there were 81 deaths in mass shootings. Every single day at least one person is shot and killed in Chicago. On weekends, it’s normal for there to be a dozen shootings and multiple deaths, including children. On the first weekend of June, 52 people were shot and 10 killed. The first weekend of July, 66 people shot, 6 killed. On the first weekend of August, 52 were shot and 7 killed. The worst part, only 17 percent of these homicides are ever solved because everybody refuses to speak to the police. Here you can track the daily shooting victims and homicides. It actually makes for more interesting news when the city goes a whole 24 hours without a shooting. 

Yet Democrats and the mainstream media stay quiet. They only speak when a shooter is white. Black children, women and young men being gunned down by black shooters every day - there’s nothing to see here. They ignore the unparalleled levels of violence in these streets because the gun control measures they advocate for on a national level have horribly failed in their own backyards. Chicago has some of the strictest gun laws in the country. Gun violence in Chicago could use more attention and fresh ideas, or possibly tried and proven ideas such as stop, question and search, yet anyone who even dares to highlight the issue is called racist. Last month, Trump visited Chicago to speak at the International Association of Chiefs of Police Conference. He called out the Chicago leadership for allowing the violence to become one of the worst in the world. The city’s superintendent, Eddie Johnson, skipped his own event in protest of Trump, calling him a racist. Chicago’s mayor, Lori Lightfoot, along with the entire mainstream media, called Trump “ignorant” and blasted him for “insulting” the city.

Instead of reacting to the masses of young people being shot and killed every day, the media has programmed us to react to Trump. We’re supposed to believe Trump and “white supremacy” is the biggest threat to us and just ignore that black children are being shot while eating lunch on their porch, trick-or-treating or going home after homecoming. Trump says Chicago’s shooting crisis needs help and intervention, Chicago leaders tell Trump he’s a racist. We have a president who’s willing to work with Chicago to fully fund programs aimed at positive alternatives for at-risk individuals, using interventions shown to have long-term impacts on violent behavior. But “Trump’s not welcome in Chicago.” Chicago instead cheered when they became a sanctuary city. Their leaders vowed to protect and shelter illegal migrants, while their own citizens are killed every day. They also cheered when higher taxes were placed on “amusement” and everything else, yet their middle class has evaporated and poverty grows. 

It’s true Chicago’s crime doesn’t define the city or its people. Its level-headed citizens are no less concerned by the mass shootings and crime that plague the West and South sides. Chicago’s Democratic control has transformed the city into a two-tier class society, chasing out the middle class and abandoning the poor. In 2018, Chicago’s population dropped for the fourth year in a row. Failing schools, poverty, crime, restricted policing. But after 50 years of voting for the same city government, there has to be some shared responsibility. The people should have a legitimate grievance against their city government but they don’t have a legitimate solution. That’s going to require breaking the Democratic party’s monopoly on the city’s politics, and something much more difficult, breaking the monopoly on black Chicagoan’s ideology. The silence during mass shootings in Chicago, St. Louis, Baltimore etc every day proves they don’t care about black lives or mass shootings, they only care about politics and gaining enough power and support to remove the Second Amendment. 

[eirikrjs]

Random tidbits, volume 3 (上）

[This is a submission I had to split into two parts. Italicized comments are mine. -Eirikr]

I’ll admit, this one’s a weirder set of tidbits than normal.

1. I checked Rosemary E. Guiley’s “Encyclopedia of Angels” (2nd edition). Victor is not there. Guess it doesn’t pass that test.

“Dictionary of Angels” by Gustav Davidson seems to be much more comprehensive, but a bit dry. Just aimed at giving you information, which is fitting for a dictionary. “Encyclopedia of Angels” isn’t as thorough, but covers some modern (as in twentieth century) tangentially related to angels topics, like their appearances in movies and near-death experiences.

I actually have a bit of a soft spot for Rosemary E. Guiley’s books. Remember this picture from Prognosticatio In Latino, the one I thought may have inspired Soul Hackers Satanael? I actually stumbled upon it in her “Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft and Wicca”… in very low quality. I lot of evenings were spent looking for a higher quality version. ______________________________________________________________

I checked the above Soul Hackers bibliography and listed are two angel books not even part of the conversation: Know Your Angels by John Ronner (JP version) and Angels: An Endangered Species by Malcolm Godwin (JP version*). I’m not sure I’d recommend either of these. Ronner also wrote “The Angels of Cokeville and Other True Stories of Heavenly Intervention” and I think that’s probably a good review of Know Your Angels in and of itself. There’s a brief preview of Godwin’s on archive.org, and right away on the inside cover you’re treated to the best possible embarrassing dedication now forever enshrined:

[*Note: the Amazon link shows a JP pub. date of 2004 for the book which would be too late; however, the first printing was apparently in 1993.]

Would love to know what else Aaronman was brainstorming before he settled on The Fallen Aarngel. I seriously hope he adopted that moniker a few years later on his AOL account. But the book wastes no time in quoting Eurythmics lyrics so this is probably the official Generation X angel book and I honestly can’t fault it for that. In fact, I kinda want a copy now just in case I can ever get Aaronman’s autograph.  ______________________________________________________________

2. Speaking of searches, I was wondering, do you ever have this experience of searching for/googling something and following what seems to be a prospective lead, only to one moment realize that it’s a wild goose chase and it should have been obvious from the start?

Let me give a couple of examples of what I mean:

Exhibit A

I tried to figure out the origins of Enlil’s role and depiction in Persona Q2. So far I haven’t found anything plausible (and let me tell you, my standards for that are much lower than yours). One of the leads I tried to follow was Nagi (Enlil’s human guise) mentioning how movies started in France. Looked up the first movie. Found Roundhay Garden Scene. It was made by Louis Le Prince. I won’t describe how I noticed this (it’s an embarrassing tale), but ‘Louis Le Prince’ is an anagram to 'precious Enlil’. As I started googling that phrase, I snapped out of whatever it was. Had to tell myself that an English anagram of a French guy’s name is unlikely to be what a Japanese developer intended.

Exhibit B

When I was trying to figure out meaning behind P5 Morgana’s name, I came across Teatro Brancaccio, originally called Teatro Morgana. As I was reading its history here, I thought that it interestingly parallels the adventures of Phantom Thieves (at least their first year). The theater went from regular theater, to a cinema one, back to regular, and finally one for musical performances. Phantom thieves went from their regular adventures (full of theatrics, I’d say, but I see how this point may be disputed) to a cinema-inspired adventure in Persona Q2, back to their regular adventure, and finally to a musical one in Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight. I don’t believe this comparison was intentional. This comparison is probably not that valid either. It seems to be a theater + cinema combo in the present, so unless I manage to tie Persona 5 Scramble into that (I’m waiting for western release to experience it) this analogy falls apart.

So yeah… Apophenia is strong with me. ______________________________________________________________

This happened to me all the time in the search for the mystery demons, particularly with the claim that many medieval beasts hailed from Ethiopia. Until I figured out that “Ethiopia” didn’t mean the modern country but instead just generally east. Like, whatever was foreign to Europeans. Yeah, it’s kind of one of those terms! But once I figured that out we started having a much better time and found Camphur right away. Yessss! 

Anyway, thanks for leading me to Aaronman, probably my favorite discovery since Tingkat/Roluwi/Camphur and the others. This is exactly the kind of dumb obsession I need right now. I’ll get to the other part of the submission soon!

#aaronman #the fallen aarngel #angels

[roma-ex-ovo]

Laying an Egg: Rome

Let’s really fast discuss why I think Rome is an egg and why you should think Rome is an egg as well. First, eggs are great by themselves. Second, eggs serve as the beginnings of something greater than they are, think chickens here. Like sure eggs are great, but what comes from the egg serves a much greater purpose. I could go for some scrambled eggs any day of the week, but a good rotisserie chicken? Now that’s something that I would die for. In much the same way, Rome is great by itself, but from the ashes of Rome came even better things. Roman culture has spread throughout the world and given us much of what we have today. Whether it’s in architecture, politics, or language, Roman influence is seen in almost every part of the world.

Now on to bigger and better things with this first post! When talking about eggs, the first thing that you should ask is: How did the egg get there? In most cases, the egg is laid by birds and in our very specific case that is not entirely true. Most people have heard of the twins Romulus and Remus, the mythical founders of Rome. We’ll look at their story really fast. Romulus and Remus wanted to found a city (Rome) but didn’t quite know what to call it and who would be king. So they basically both waited on separate hills for a divine portent that would decide who would be king. Remus got his divine sign first, 6 vultures descended on his hill. His followers proclaimed him king. But soon after, 12 vultures descended on Romulus’s hill and his followers thought he should be king. And as in all true sibling rivalries, Romulus and Remus got into a fight and Remus ended up being killed. Ah, sibling love. 

And so Rome (as opposed to Reme I suppose) was founded with Romulus as her first king. But the city faced a big big big problem. Romulus and Remus had mostly male followers and as such most of the city’s occupants were male. If Rome were to last more than a generation then Romulus needed something made of sugar, spice, and everything nice (I’m talking about women here). This started the historical event known as “The Rape of the Sabine Women.” Romulus sent envoys to the surrounding cities asking for the right of intermarriage between them and Rome, but the envoys were scorned and turned away. Getting a little (understandably) desperate, Romulus hatched (ha get it because of eggs) a scheme that would provide Rome with the women that it needed. Romulus decided to host a large festival called the Consualia, dedicated to Neptune, god of horses and invited all the neighboring cities and countries. Many, curious to see the new city, came to see the spectacle. One nation, in particular, the Sabines, brought all their wives and children with them to enjoy the festivities. On a prearranged signal, all the Romans ran into the crowd and grabbed all the unmarried girls and brought them away. The women were understandably a little angry about this, but Romulus and all their Roman “husbands” managed to calm them down. Now all the parents of the kidnapped women were also understandably angry, but Romulus also managed to calm them down as well. How? By defeating them in war, of course! As is the true Roman way! The Sabines, in particular, proved a difficult opponent. After capturing a Roman citadel, the Sabines were in a hard-fought battle with the Romans when suddenly all the captured women came out and told everyone to stop. After that intervention, the 2 armies decided to stop fighting and came to a peace agreement, not only to stop fighting but to merge the 2 people together to form one nation. 

There you have it. One of the greatest empires on the face of the planet has such a dark history to it. Every single Roman would’ve been born from that event or the aftermath of it. Talk about making your spouse angry and sleeping on the couch for a month, yeesh. To bring the discussion back on track, does this make Rome bad? Rape is definitely a bad thing. On the other hand, that was just the way of life back then. In our eyes, yes Rome is a bad egg. I wouldn’t be surprised if an event like this caused World War 3 or if something like this happened because of war (oh wait: The Nanjing Massacre). Yet, back then, it wasn’t a completely unforgivable offense, as seen when the women asked the armies to stop slaughtering each other. Of course, that doesn’t make them a good egg, more like a neutral egg, I suppose. 

I leave you with this famous painting titled The Intervention of the Sabine Women by Jacques-Louis David, 1799