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#not only a banging photographer but also a genuinely good person
everythingroyalty · 2 months
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misan harriman continuing to show the ways in which he's a much better person than me
i mean the eloquence with which that man took down such rancid people yet again attempting to divert all the bad attention to the sussexes 🤌🤌🤌
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radmule · 1 year
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Okay, finally managed to finish first Chapter of Sim Settlements 2! (Atleast... I think? As Concord suddenly became a living and thriving settlement out of nowhere and *for some reason* The Stranger Jake looks... different to me. I cannot pinpoint what exactly it is, if his model got changed for the second chapter [assuming for a compatibility reasons] or whenever I am simply hallucinating, but it really made me pause the game for a second and check him closely in Photo Editor)
-right! One more thing, I also managed to make REshade running together with Photo Mod, so that made me a slightly happier person aswell :) Really love using this tool when playing other Fallouts or TheHunter to tinker around with screenshots. I put my good old friend Filmic Workshop Reshade on top and bang, got myself a huge collection of photos in matter of minutes. (Not as good as most of the game photographers here on Tumblr, but trust me when I say it’s fun!)
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Back to the SS2 though - the first chapter was a bit shorter than what I expected, but nonetheless it was quite entertaining experience and I really digged going through it. It’s quest system was very well structured and I apprecieted that the “Find Jake here” quests were done with mind on the player’s level, starting out close to Sanctuary and progressively pushing you to go farther and farther in a very friendly way.
As mentioned in my first post about this mod, the writing and voice acting was absolutely superb - seriously, hats down for the team. When I went to Vault 81 for the first time and the blonde-haired guy started talking to me, I chuckled to myself thinking “Damn, Bethesda really decided to make a clearly Vault Boy inspired NPC, huh.” and after a second of thinking that I do not recall him from the vanilla game, I realized that it’s one of the characters from the mod! Like, seriously- that caught me offguard. The writing really matches the... specific, lighthearted writing of Beth, but in a good way, making it feel like the mod’s story indeed connects with the original game and that the characters ain’t out of touch, as what usually happens with most of the FO4 mods.
In terms of the technical side, a.k.a the building mechanics of the mod, I am still... struggling with it, atleast with some parts. Still trying to figure out the leveling system and the icons next to the residental plots, but outside of that, the mod offers a very good explanation of its mechanics, either through the Holotape or the Jake “Tutorial Guy” Evans himself. Though, the Place Everywhere Mod was a genuine lifesaver and cannot imagine working without it, as there were moments where it pushed me to build plots in incredibly high places.  It was nice thing that the plot types were introduced to you bit by bit, not only it was not as overwhelming figuring all the stuff in one time, but it also gave you a sense of accomplishment/progress and personally made me joyous when I realized that I can make Brahmin Caravan spots - heck yeah!
The characters... damn, hard to say who I liked the most. Jake is a genuine sweetheart and made me almost tear up few times, wouldn’t believe I would get so emotional over a NPC :’) From the settlers, Old Paul is of course the most fleshed out of the characters and him and little Cola are always lovely duo to come across in Sanctuary, but I... also really liked Lily? She is quite a nosy character and always seems to comment on things around the settlement, but it was so cool to hear her having an unique dialogue when I switched her job from Farmer to Doctor. She sounded... so much happier, and made me feel like it really matters you give your settlers a job they are gonna like. Ron was the first character during whose dialogue I found out there are a Perk specific dialogue options, as I could bribe him to give me piece of information for free thanks to equipped Black Widow - not only it was a very pleasant surprise that your perks actually matter for once, but it was a really fun dialogue exchange. In hindsight though, it makes me feel bit bad for him that he did not get any caps for it :’) Ah right, Aiden! Really did not expect him to meet him during that specific quest, and when I saw him I was like “Yoooo, that’s the guy I saw fanarts of!”
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Really thought he made his first appearance in Chapter 2, so that was another thing that caught me by surprise :’) not much sure what to say about him though, sadly, as there was not alot of his screentime in this part.
So to conclude the whole thing, I really enjoyed the mod and am looking foward playing the continuation! Might take me even longer time thanks to Uni responsibilities and the fact that I feel like Ch2 expects you to progress more in the main story/the game than what I currently did, so a next progress report might be in much wider gap then this time-
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casefagan58 · 2 years
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thunderheadfred · 3 years
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💥Bakugou HC's💥
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Aged-up pro hero Katsuki for all of these. Some NSFW beneath the cut. Minors do not interact.
- - - - -
General
He’s scary good at everything he tries. Every. Single. Fucking. Thing. It’s infuriating. Has zero patience when other people can’t immediately master a skill. Never let him teach you anything. Not that he’d offer, nerd.
He WILL offer, though. A lot. He can’t believe you still can’t Do That Thing. Tsh. Like THIS. You're gonna hurt yourself, Dummy.
But hold on. Of course you have unique skills of your own. You work hard to improve yourself. Trust me, he's the first person to notice. He doesn't praise anyone lightly, so when he raises his eyebrows and whispers he's impressed, your heart will go thermonuclear.
Perfect spelling and fully punctuated texts. Never uses abbreviations. Employs a grand total of four emojis, all of them angry faces. Constantly leaves you on read. He's busy, dammit.
Doesn’t smile or laugh in public (except sarcastically). His real smile is a crooked, fragile thing. Never make him feel self-conscious about it, or you might not see it again for weeks.
He does not talk about his private life to the press. Ever. Will K.O. rookie reporters who can't keep their big mouths shut.
HOweVER: he's intensely kind to his fans. There is a whole photographic sub-genre of little girls in cosplay hugging Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight like he's a Disney Princess.
Too smart for his own good. Emotionally hyper-vigilant. Overthinks every interaction to hell and back. Will act like he's not listening but actually hears every single word in a ten-block radius.
INSECURE AF. 110% convinced he will never be good enough. Terrified of his loved ones leaving him behind. Does he do anything to assuage his fears? Like... talk to anyone about it? Hell no. That would require admitting he has fears to begin with.
Seeing people upset makes him upset, especially if he doesn't know how to fix it.
The epitome of being mean because he cares. He genuinely does not seem to comprehend that monosyllabic grunts and lopsided shrugs are not actually that comforting.
Because he was such a brat growing up, he wants to make up for it now. Sort of. In his own way. Look, he's trying, okay?
He smells - so - good. Obscenely good. He doesn't wear cologne; are you joking? There's the burnt-sugar caramel candy smell of his quirk, for starters. And since he sweats deadly ammunition, he showers and wipes himself down almost constantly. He always smells clean. Like a fucking meadow.
Never got that growth spurt he was hoping for. He’s a short man - not even THAT short - but he has a Napoleon complex anyway. If you’re taller than him, the collars of your shirts will all be stretched out. He’s constantly dragging you down to his level. He will assert himself all the fucking time; the pissing contest is never-ending. Don’t wear tall shoes unless you want him to drag you around on a leash. If you’re shorter than him, that’s good. That’s very good. He likes that.
He’s an incredible cook, but everything he makes is a nuclear fire challenge. Adapt or starve.
- - - - -
Dating
Makes artisanal, nutritionally flawless bento lunches for both of you. When people assume his S.O. makes them, he gets fucking pissed. Damn right your co-workers are jealous of my cooking.
Your pet name is Dummy. Don’t like it? Fine. You can be dumbass.
There will be zero PDA in this relationship. His hands are shoved so deep in his pockets you can’t even try.
Intensely private with the press. But with his friends, he will brag about you nonstop. Bakugou Katsuki has the most talented and attractive and intelligent S.O., and anyone who doesn't recognize that is blind. Were you assholes even listening?
A mutual buddy definitely recorded one of these drunken brag-rants and sent it to you for safekeeping. Do not let Katsuki find out about it, unless you enjoy having an ash pile for a phone.
Gets jealous about everything, at least at the start. He calms down eventually. Kinda. He stops saying shit to you about it, anyway, because he learns to trust you. But anyone who so much as looks at you in a too-friendly manner will get the death stare of a lifetime.
He’ll throw all kinds of temper tantrums and the two of you will argue about every tiny fucking thing. He’ll scream out car windows, he’ll ball up his shirt and gnash on it. But he will never raise his voice at you. He’d rather die than make you feel unsafe.
Honestly, the constant bickering is really just... uhh... passionate communication. Eventually you both hash out the important things. You'll learn how to step around his landmines and actually make your points, and he'll learn to open up. A little.
Once you meet his mom, Katsuki starts to make a lot more sense. His family just... emotes like that. Eventually, you and his dad form a spousal support group consisting of exactly two lifetime members. He teaches you the Bakugou family semaphore you need to survive a long-term relationship.
Katsuki can dish it out but absolutely cannot take it. The only person who can level with him about serious issues without explosive fallout is his dad. Or, on a lucky day, Kirishima.
If you give him a legitimate criticism (even gently!) he will take it about as gracefully as a knife to the gut, because it confirms everything he hates about himself.
To your never-ending shock, you’ve made him cry. Yes, CRY! You monster! More than once! His lip gets all *trembly* and his eyes get all *watery* and all you want to do is hug him, but. No. He’ll storm out and wander around for a few hours before coming back with the problem perfectly solved.
He always takes your advice to heart. No, he will NOT talk about it, stop asking.
Gets mad if you don’t snuggle him on the regular. Will drag you into his lap with a pissy little grunt. There might be two seats on this couch but you will not be needing both of them.
Takes pictures of you while you sleep.
Takes even more pictures of you when you're awake but think he's out of the room.
He looks at all these pictures when he's away on high-stakes jobs. He gets all bleary eyed and sleeps in a salty puddle without you. NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW.
You don’t have to meet him at the door or anything, but when he says “I’m home,” you’d better answer fast. If he doesn’t know your precise location in 0.05 seconds, he will assume you’ve been kidnapped. He never checks the fridge for notes. Never assumes you've gone down to the konbini for a snack. No, it’s kidnapping every time.
A terrrrrrible bed partner. He goes to bed at senior citizen hours and will never fuck you after sundown. He snores SO loud. Runs hot and sweats through the sheets. Slaps and elbows you in his sleep and aggressively spoons you with his loud, sweaty body. You WILL want to suffocate him. Separate bedrooms aren’t such a horrible idea......
BUT HANG ON, because in the morning he transforms into an honest-to-god angel. He's half awake, his guard is non-existent. Morning Katsuki is a doting kissy-faced marshmallow man.
If you can wake up before the ass-crack of dawn, he will pamper the fuck out of you. You are royalty for one (1) hour only, and he is your bleary-eyed slave. You want a cuddlefuck? You got it. Hugs? Kisses? Take as many as you need. You want a perfect, fluffy, NON-SPICY omelette with a heart drawn in ketchup? Here it is, gorgeous.
Then he gets in the shower and the spell is broken.
- - - - -
💥bang BANG💥
Let’s get the obvious out of the way: this here is an ASS. MAN. He'll spank you with his quirk; doesn’t matter if you’ve been good or bad. Wants to see you wince when you sit down later.
Likes pounding you face down with a vice grip on your waist.
Unfortunately, even with all that said... he doesn't exactly have the feral beast sex drive you were expecting. He’s married to his work and has the fuddy-duddy habits of a once and future valedictorian. Only fucks you when he has the time and energy to fully dedicate himself to it.
But ohhhh. Shit. When it's time? It's TIME. The man will rush for nothing. Stamina for days. Making you cum as many times as possible is a point of pride. Yeah, you passed out once.
You’re gonna need those days off when he’s done with you.
That dick THICC.
Sends unsolicited dick pics. Only after you’ve been dating a good long while - he doesn't show that shit to just anyone. But yeah, don’t check your phone at work. He won't cum without you; those pictures and videos are time bombs. You better get home. Now.
Physically dominant as FUCK, but won’t verbally degrade you unless you ask. Well, let’s be honest. Unless you beg.
Praise him and reap the rewards. A long hard ego stroking will get him off more than touching his cock ever will.
Will grab your hair and fuck your throat. Will also stop immediately if you need him to.
The two of you have safe words and gestures. Even for vanilla stuff. He’s paranoid about scaring or hurting you. He insisted you both sign a color-coded ‘love contract’ that he meticulously formatted in a word processor. When you gave him guff about it, his blush was the darkest crimson you’d ever seen.
Coin-flip: he will sometimes be unbelievably gentle in bed. Doting and affectionate, taking perfect care of you. Like, it’s baffling. There’s no warning, the switch just flips. When you want him to be extra-rough and mean, he’ll sweetly worship you instead. For hours.
Bonus: he likes being penetrated. But of course he’s got a complex about that too. Super intense power bottom. You will never fuck him hard enough. He’d like to see you try. Hit his prostate just right and he might literally explode.
You'll live happily ever after but he will say he loves you out loud exactly once. Maybe. If you're lucky. And you're both about to die.
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a-froger-epic · 3 years
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Interview with a Queen “groupie”
Cross-posted to AO3. I encourage you to leave any comments you have there.
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I compiled this interview following a long email exchange with J, a very sweet lady who went to Ealing Art School between 1972 and 1974. She knew all four members of Queen personally and was part of their larger circle of friends.
First off, you may find this hard to believe. I don’t blame you. But I assure you I’m not pulling your leg. As well as the pictures I share in this post, I have seen current pictures of J (which I will not share to protect her privacy). There is no indication as far as I am aware that she isn’t who she says she is.
Nastally, hold up. How exactly did you find this lady?
She found me. It turns out that she has been following my story Dawn of Aquarius for quite some time. The story is set in 1969. A lot of research about the era went into it, because I wanted to portray that time period - and Freddie’s and Roger’s surroundings - as accurately and realistically as I possibly could. That was what drew J in. She tells me it brought back a lot of memories for her. One of the reasons I love DoA so much is the nostalgia, she says, which genuinely means the world to me. Eventually, she talked to me in the comment section. Of course, I freaked out!
And then, I asked her for an interview, to which she replied: I will give it a go, but you must remember that I am 65 and there were great drugs in the 70s, and at 16, away from home, I had a lot!
And so...
Here’s what is IMPORTANT TO KEEP IN MIND when you read this interview.
These are one woman’s 50-year-old memories and subjective impressions. J has been incredibly kind to let me pick her brain, trying to recall everything as best as she can. In her own words:
Just remember that when I answer the questions, it is from a 16-year-old who is 9 years younger than Freddie and a little girl with no family and friends in a strange country trying to fit in. The only reason I was there, was because some hippie thought I had a unique art style.
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J as a teenager.
[I have edited the interview together from our long, and somewhat messy at times, email exchange. Typos have been fixed and some punctuation added for clarity, but I have not changed anything J has written to me. Again, bear in mind these are personal opinions and impressions.]
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So, J, how did you end up at Ealing Art School in 1972 and what was it like?
This was the painting done for the Australian school-leaving certificate.
It placed first and gave me a scholarship. I could pick France, the USA or England. As a dual citizen of the UK, the choice was easy. The scholarship paid for board and fees, so had to be and sell whatever for spending money.
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This picture is from the dorm. We all had a 10pm curfew and a very thick rule book that, I am proud to say, I broke every one of them, one by one. The rooms were on the 1st and 2nd floor. We were on the first floor, rooms one side and admin staff the other end. We had two bathrooms for 18 girls. One of them had two baths. The walls were your standard half wall, so it was a given that if you had a bath you run the risk of having a bucket of cold water dropped on you. Downstairs was the kitchen and lounge room.
I want to ask you a few things about life in London in the early 70s, to get a picture of what it was really like. For example, was there alcohol at the music gigs you went to?
If it was a school, church or community hall, no. If it was a pub, yes.
Did you and your friends drink as much then as young people tend to drink now when you all went out?
No, we didn't. I think it had a lot to do with money. We didn't have the disposable income, and it was unheard of to still be living at home with the parents after the age of 20.
Was weed and LSD as big and easily accessible as depictions of the 60s and 70s would have us believe?
The drugs! Got to have drugs. Pot (weed) was easy to grow, very cheap. Used to smoke it in bongs rather than joints, more bang for your buck. Trips [LSD] were cheap, I think. About 2 pounds and you were on the high for over 24 hours with no sleep. My drug of choice was hash. Either the oil or the block. It was a nice high, but you could not function well. But if you listen to the music of the time it really does reflect what it was like, to have a group of friends over for a session. Having said all that the most outlandish and shocking drug I ever saw anyone use was the birth control pill. Didn't you have to hide that stuff away?!
Can you tell us some 70s slang that isn’t really in use anymore? What in the world does “ultra-blagging” mean? (As written in a letter penned by Freddie to his friend Celine in 1969.)
Abso-bloody-lootely!
Man, I thought I was the bees knees to be on a scholarship in London. But that didn't stop me from jigging or having a skive day. They were the days that I blagged my way into a pub, had too many lagers and ended up chundering in the gutter. That was how you knew your night was ace. I would get a right bollocking if anyone found out. It would be a bugger when all that you could find at a car boot sale was chavtastic, but sometimes you could be Jammy Dodger and tickety-boo you find something brilliant. Bob's your uncle. Anyways, I need to see a man about a dog.
[It seems to me that J uses a bit of Australian slang here, like chundering, which makes sense because she is, after all, Australian. She also provided the translation:]
Cheers
J
It would be my honour.
I felt very privileged to be given a scholarship that let me study in England. But being so young and having no family to guide me, it was often tempting to not turn up or give a false excuse for being sick. (I had a lot of food poisoning). These would often happen if the night before I had been drinking beer and ended up vomiting outside the pub. But in my young mind that was a good night. If any of the teachers found me drinking I would be in a lot of trouble. Often I would have to say I was holding it for someone else. Not having much clothes with me, I would buy them second hand from church jumble sales or other students and, yes, Kensington market (the market). Some of the stuff would not be very tasteful or in good condition. But sometimes you would find something that was cheap and in good condition. I will stop this text now as I must go to the toilet.
PS: Ultrablagging sounds very Freddie. Blagging was used, but not ultra, meaning to persuade someone to do something or act better than you are. They were always rock stars.
Sincerely
J
[It was at this point that I realised I was talking to an absolute legend. She also told me then that the majority of her old photographs had sadly been lost when her house was flooded in 1988, including most of the photographs from her stay in London. Noooo! :(]
When you went out to dance, did you have only live music? Were there DJs yet?
You know, that is hard. We did not have a DJ. Sometimes there would be a band. Often we looked for places with a band or the jukebox. I think pubs closed at 10pm and some stayed open to 12 or 1, but public transport stopped at 9. So if you had not arranged a lift then you had to make the last bus. Most of the time we would be heading back to someone's place to get stoned and then crash there. In the morning you would have to work out where you were. When I got back to Australia, the discos were all the rage. They could have been in London too but it was not cool to like disco.
How many people would show up to Queen’s gigs when they played in pubs or at, for example, the Imperial College?
Depending on the location and the night: 10 to 1000!
So how did you first meet the Queen boys?
I was at the pub talking about a band we saw last week when Brian stuck his head into our booth telling us he knew a better one. Thinking about seeing them at the stall... Roger not often, Freddie quite a lot. Often on different stalls, I think that is why I can't remember the name. [The name of the stall. Other sources confirm that Freddie also worked at Alan Muir’s stall, for example, selling shoes.]
How well did you know them?
Just looking at your tumblr account. [she has had a look at my blog, where somebody asked if ‘groupie’ meant she had slept with the band] No, I never slept with the boys. I would not say I was a close friend, but I started at Ealing Art College in ‘72 and moved in the same circles. I loved the music and could be called one of the first groupies. I had to sneak into the pubs because I was 16. Roger always teased me for being so young. They all did seem to be one very large family, not just the band. It was a group of about twenty regulars, both male and female. Everyone knew that Fred was too gay to function. We were all at the gay rights march in London in 1972, had to run after the march. Lots of sharpies [Australian slang: youth gang, thugs] wanting to bash us. Back then I was in every protest that was going, student union rights, even the secretary protest. Just part of the times, stick it to Man or Woman. I left London in ‘74 for Australia, been here ever since and lost track of the boys but have never stopped being a fan.
What do you remember about them? How would you describe their personalities?
Don’t let the trolls hate me, but I did not like Brian. I found him to be rather full of himself. Space was a subject you never brought up around Brian or you would die of old age before he stopped talking. He was always the first to speak and start a conversation and then quickly passed you off to John, who was always tired and shy. Roger was also quite shy at times. He was very self-conscious of his looks, as he felt being pretty, nobody would take him seriously. Fred, well, he was not yet the big star, so I think he was working on his stage persona. When talking to groups at parties, he had the best stories of things that had happened to him or close friends. They were very funny and very descriptive. He was the life of the party. When he had a few to drink or was the centre of attention, he would take a cigarette out of the closest person’s hand and start smoking. Now remember this is the point of view of a 16-year-old girl that was a fish out of water, trying to fit in and not having much worldly experience.
It is said that Freddie and Roger were very stylish. How did they dress in everyday life?
Fred would do his hair and makeup to check the mail. Yes, he was always turned out, but so were a lot of people. Freddie did go over the top with hats, scarfs and jewellery. With Roger, it is a surprise he was able to have kids his jeans were that tight. And his shirts were always open unless he was in a jumper. I think it could have been so that you knew he was male, as it was the start of the unisex clothing. When I travelled out of London I realised it was a London thing. When I got back to Australia everyone thought I was a show-off.
There are some disagreements about how tall especially Freddie was. I know this is a difficult thing to try and remember accurately. But do you remember?
Freddie was taller than me but everyone was. Roger was shorter than Fred, but I never saw Roger in platform shoes. I did meet up with the band by chance at Sydney airport in 1984, said ‘hello’ but they did not remember me, or if they did then they did not say anything and I did not want to be a dork. At that time Fred was the same height as me (5ft 8in/1.72m), Roger was taller than me. It made me think at the time that he had a growth spurt! John was shorter than me and Brian has always been tall. [I have a feeling the platform shoes - or lack thereof - played a vital role here! Although 172cm for Freddie seems likely.]
You said everyone knew Freddie was “too gay to function”. Attitudes towards homosexuality have changed so much that it can be hard for us, now, to fathom what exactly people must have thought of him. Was it more of a joke that he was so camp? Was it something he would have been teased for? Also, he had a girlfriend. Did you ever meet Mary or the other girlfriends?
In 1972 a whole group of us - and I am pretty sure that Fred, Roger, Brian and Tim were there - were in a gay pride march. [Since then, J has found and showed me a picture of a boy she thought was Tim Staffel, and it wasn't, so Tim was most definitely not there. Whether Freddie, Roger and Brian really were there or if J is misremembering, who knows?] Us youth believed you could not choose who you fell in love with and if it was same sex, so what? However, if it was two girls then it was every guy’s duty to change her!
It was also a time that the gayer the guy was, the more the girls were interested. Also, if a guy was gay then you did not have to worry about him and he was a good person to take with you if you were going out drinking. However, the police, parents, teachers and anyone of authority were horrified and treated them badly. I did meet Mary a couple of times at pubs and once after a gig. This is just my opinion, but I found her a bitch. It could be that I was so young. It could be that I was very Australian. It could be that she felt threatened as my accent was a magnet to people around. And the boys (Queen) were no exception. Brian had a cousin in OZ and was always asking questions. I remember that my close group of friends thought that Mary made the perfect girlfriend for Fred as they were as fake as each other. Having said that about them, I often wonder if I would think the same now and if my perceptions were just because she would not give me the time of Day. Chrissy and Jo were a lot of fun.
This was before your time, but I read that Freddie's nickname at Ealing Art School was ‘Freddie Baby’. Any ideas how this came about? His showmanship or maybe personality traits?
I don't think so. There were an older crowd that would talk like that. I think the slang ‘baby’ was a 60’s thing, like groovy baby.
How long, roughly, did Roger and Freddie have their stall? I can't find anywhere when it closed down. What did it actually look like? Was it a sort of wooden stall type of thing? Or an actual room? What were some of the other things people sold at Kensington Market? Mostly clothes or all sorts?
The markets were little divided shops. The back was brick and the walls wood. I have been trying all day to remember the name. [Of the stall.] I think it was something hard to say. More often than not it would be Freddie's dad in the store. It was still open when I left. Roger and Freddie were both in the store on Saturdays and some Sundays. There was a girl, I think Jill, who was in the store more. And during the week it could be anyone. You name it and you could get it at the markets. Second hand or designer clothes, shoes, jewellery, pot and assortments. Hair cuts, food, bric-a-brac.
Wait, wait. What? Freddie’s dad? Really now?
Yeah, it was an older Indian man. so we just assumed it was his father. It was my understanding that he started the stall then the boys would work it as the whole markets were set up for younger people, but if needed he would work there. I don't think the boys would be able to pay the rent on their own. [I have since found out that the stall closed in late 1971, and Freddie continued to work at the Market until '74, for Alan Mair and possibly others. So the stall J witnessed wasn't their original stall - explaining all the different people she saw there - but she had no way of knowing that it wasn't.] They always had incense burning that was very big in the 70s. I still occasionally bring out the sticks, but it does not last like the candles and diffusers of today. If you could get in touch with Robert Daniels, he ran ChaChaDumDum it was the stall across from Freddie. He would know the dates.
[J says it’s this look, in a picture she happened across while looking at my tumblr] Yep, that is the one. It usually means that he does not believe or agree with something that was said and is working out how to respond, or he has lost the plot.
You mentioned Roger seemed shy to you at times. Was he also quite charming? We read a lot about what a chick magnet he was. Was this the impression you had?
My favorite subject! I had a thing for Roger. Everyone has a type and mine is the blue-eyed blond. Now, before you ask, was he brunet? No, he was a mouse/dirty blond. If it was summer he would have blond streaks mostly at the ends. He knew he was pretty and was always dressed in the latest fashion and had the current hairstyle. So, being my type I was constantly watching him. Everyone slept around during that time. I did not notice Roger doing it more or less. 80% of the time he was with Jo. Yes, he was a chick magnet, but he did not do the chasing. He was always very polite to everyone. If it ever looked like there would be any conflict he would be the first to leave it. It was not that he was a coward, just not into conflict. If he saw anyone that needed help he was right there, and often had to have Freddie's back. I never saw him in a fight. He could always talk his way out of things. He was also very patient and would listen for hours to other people talk. However, he would get this vacant look in his eyes at times.
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And Freddie would either click his fingers, change the subject or just give up. I don’t think that Brian noticed, and it would be fair game for John, he would see how far he could push it. Roger liked to drink a fair bit and when drunk he would be hanging all over Jo. If she was not there then he missed Jo. If, however, he thought that he or his friends were not being respected, then look out! It was a verbal volcano heading your way. That is what happened to me one time. I was trying to talk with my friends close to where a drunken Roger was and I yelled at him to shut the hell up, you wannabe blond. We/I coped a mouthful back, all in the same sentence, that finished with: Sorry, I didn't realise you were on your rags (period)! I have to have the last word, so I told him the truth: I don’t get them yet! (I was a late starter.) He went so red in the face and called me JB [jail bait] from then.
You also mentioned Roger’s cat Ziggy having kittens. I read about this but never when exactly it was. Do you remember?
I think it was winter ‘73. I remember being cold when he was asking around the pub. [To find homes for the kittens, I gather.]
Is it quite strange reading fictional interpretations of real people you knew? When did you first find out there was Queen fanfic?
No, we used to make up stories about people all the time, a verbal fanfic. Was looking up Adam Lambert and came across the fanfics. Some had me in stitches! Others, like DoA, had me hooked.
Please, allow me to be a little self-indulgent at the end. What's one thing I got totally RIGHT in DoA?
All the Ibex stuff.
What's one thing I got totally WRONG in DoA?
Roger did not have a temper, and I don’t know what the go with his father was, but he would talk about him quite a bit and was always visiting his mum. [Absolutely fair, not only did I change the timeline of Roger’s parents divorce in DoA - for lack of information at the time - but also created a completely fictional narrative around it for the sake of storytelling.]
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J, thank you so much for all this, sincerely. Can you tell me a little more about yourself? Are you still an artist?
I don't paint or draw any more. At the age of a 50 the doctors operated on an aneurysm or three, and now my eyesight is very bad, I have no fine motor skills and a tremor. I was married in January 1984 and have just celebrated our 37 year anniversary. I have one daughter who is 30 and two great, although tiring grandkids. A girl, 11, and one boy, 5. I have lived my life as the average middle class Australian with great memories. Talking with you has helped me a lot to remember a time when the world was mine for the taking. When I returned to OZ I started nursing, met my best friend, and we planned that once we graduated we would go back to London to study midwifery. But I fell in love instead.
J's wedding in 1984. As you can see, she found her own blue-eyed blond.
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Upon request, J has shared some of her past and present artwork with me.
These are from her time at Ealing Art School:
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These were done later, back in Australia:
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J: Did this just before Christmas as you had inspired me. It did not require fine motor skills!
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So there you have it! I hope you found this little glimpse through a 16-year-old girl’s eyes as much of a fascinating read as I did. I urge everybody one more time to remember that J did not have to share any of this, and I think we all owe her a big thank you for delving into her memories. She is likely to see the responses on AO3, so I have comment moderation enabled there as I will not let anybody harass this lovely lady. The tumblr she created is @since72, but she isn’t really an active user and also very new to it all. Again, I can only urge everybody to be respectful.
If you have other burning question for J, feel free to leave them in the comments on AO3. I will either pass them on, or she may want to reply to them herself directly.
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reversecreek · 3 years
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lily for magda (thinking about figs feeling evil), tulip for cricket, marigold for ziggy, chrysanthemum for bradley, belladonna for nyla
lily :   how does your muse view their mother ?  
magda doesn’t know a lot abt her mum. she knows vague snippets n details bt they’re all very elusive. it’s kind of a tricky subject where her mum’s concerned bc when she was younger she’d come up w all these assumptions abt how her mum was n who she’d be if she were with her but the rational part of magda was like..... u don’t know any of this. ur literally making things up. it’s kind of hard for a kid to have that vital person missing from their life n to resist the urge to fill in the blanks with their own projections so the space feels less empty. it’s like having a tooth missing n ur tongue always going back to poke at the spot in ur gum. there’s a constant reminder of loss in that. magda knows her mum liked to sing bc her dad said once she’d always sing to her belly when she was pregnant. this is a lot of the reason why magda has always cared so much abt music bc she took this fact in her fist n grasped it tight n never let go n in a way grew parts of herself around it. it’s like............. i feel like her mum dying in childbirth gave her lots of issues when it comes to her identity n like. who she is n who she wants to be.......... bc of magda’s issues w her dad i feel like she got into this habit growing up of rly putting who her mum could have been on a pedestal n basing everything around that.... she’d be like I’m More Like Her (a belief which was only accelerated bc her dad would drunkenly say she looked so much like her) n cling onto that so she liked herself more bc the other option was her dad who she loves but he’s also an incredibly flawed person n they hv a complicated relationship...... i think as she’s gotten older she’s realised her mum cld very well have been that way too n putting people on pedestals isn’t the way to go about things but. idk. as a kid she was kind of obsessed w this idea of her n this idea that her mum being gone was the beginning n end of everything wrong in her life. for the most part now magda accepts she never knew her n sometimes even feels stupid for grieving her at all bc she never knew her to grieve in the first place but. there’s a tiny part of magda tht still hangs on to the comfort of what she could have had n it’s obvious by the fact she still keeps a photograph of her folded up in her pillow. she loves the mum she made up in her head n she wishes she got to meet her. there’s this sense tht maybe then she wouldn’t feel like this culmination of missing parts more than a person if she’d had that in her life. sighs n lks away holding my dyed black emo bang.....
tulip :   how does your muse view people in general ?  
cricket is like. the strangest little anomaly of a person FGHKSFGHSFKGH bc like. u would rly think that after everything he’s been thru he would just have this absolutely jaded view of people and life in general and i wouldn’t even......... blame him for it if he did like. i’d understand completely bc he’s experienced A Lot of bad stuff. n yet somehow he just.... idk. i think i wrote in a reply once this comparison of cricket n a cockroach in the sense that they have this incredibly reinforced exoskeleton n even if they’re stomped flat they can keep living n bounce back from it n that’s very him but it’s more specifically the hope inside him. he has this little candle lit that good things can still happen midst all of the terrible things n i genuinely can’t see it snuffing out at any point even tho sometimes he might want it to. sometimes i think he even gets into these frames of mind where it jst infuriates the fk out of him bc in his head he’s like why do u even think good shit can happen when u have sm overwhelming evidence to the contrary but then he’s also like. look u can dwell on the bad or u can notice the way the light falls thru the leaves in the trees and u can think to urself inside ur head as u listen to someone u love talking abt something that makes them happy ‘hey this feeling is nice n there’s a dozen others like it’. idk. against all odds he’s an optimist. he has tinnitus in his left ear n sometimes he pretends the ringing is angels trying to talk to him. he likes to search for the silver linings in things to make them bearable n that’s how he gets by. obviously he knows there’s evil in the world n that a lot of people can be shit bc he has firsthand experience w that but he also believes there are people to serve as the antithesis to that n he wants to focus on them bc like. why give bad stuff the time of day. not necessarily always a positive coping mechanism (if u bottle up bad feelings n thoughts they leak thru one way or another aka his overwhelming anxiety) but like.... i think there’s a lot of bravery in that n i respect him for it i won’t lie. he cld have become very bitter bt instead he’s like that quote that’s like 'the gentleness that comes, not from the absence of violence, but despite the abundance of it'. suddenly slaps his little anxious rump (supportive) (affectionate)
marigold :   is your muse prone to jealousy ?  how might they handle envious feelings ?  
it’s hard to say w ziggy............... i feel like he doesn’t want to think he’s prone to jealousy bc he’s like i’m literally a god wdym i simply wld never give a fk bc i know i’m above all else................. but like. do u actually believe that ziggy. do u. FKGJHKSJGHFGSHFGKSHGKFHG. he’s good at convincing himself at least........... has me fooled too most of the time. bt. thinks abt this.............. i feel like he doesn’t tend to get jealous over ppl he hooks up w a lot of the time bt there’s definitely a few select ppl he might.......... n then he doesn’t rly know what that feeling is bc he’s so unused to feeling it so he’s like wtf why am i so fking pissed off over the thought of this person fking that person? like literally doesn’t even. connect the dots n make the logical conclusion bc it jst seems so bizarre n nonsensical to him. rly is awful at working out his own feelings like. he cld just suddenly explode one day n have to smash a bunch of shit in a junkyard n after his chest is heaving n he has all this broken stuff around him n he’s just like yo wtf was that man forreal lmfaoooooooooo..... like he just doesn’t even get how his own emotions work it’s tragic n it’s men for u. w anxious feelings he represses them a lot he doesn’t rly understand what they r or know how to recognise them........... i honestly feel like he has a lot of anxiety surrounding his mum esp w her dating n like some of the guys they’ve both had to deal w that she’s dated in the past.......... i doubt he processes that healthily or expresses it healthily either..... probably contributes to the tensions between him n his mum they hv a lot of underlying issues that come out in the form of bickering n petty disagreements...... probably a huge contributor to him acting out so terribly in high skl was just all this pent up worried energy with no means of making sense of itself or like. place to go. like shaking a coke bottle over n over n finally having to crack the lid n let it fizz on something. i also think he probably swallowed a lot of jealousy growing up whenever other kids had gd relationships w their fathers or parents in general probably ws kind of like lmfaooooo yo why don’t mine love me like that. in his head...... so ya. i think he copes w anxious feelings by acting out n also fucking if we’re being honest......... it helps him let off steam <3 king of clapping cheeks ig....
chrysanthemum :   how does your muse express romantic love ?  how do they feel about love as a concept ?  
bradley is kind of hard to read romantically like from an outside perspective but slides on my thin rimmed spectacles n picks up my scalpel to delve right in to the nitty gritty of her brain... omg... that sounded... kind of scary actually but. it’s ok. basically settles in. bradley struggles to verbalise her feelings in this regard but also in a general sense honestly.... like she’s spent a lifetime having any vulnerable or negative feeling shut down....... her dad’s the type of personality where it’s like... u can’t win. even tho he’s narcissistic n thinks he’s a god if u compliment him or express affection he’ll act pleased but there’ll also be this register in his eyes where he thinks less of u for it. so this rly had a domino effect in bradley’s emotional expression in all grounds of life...... romance is probably the most frivolous concept to tony so bradley definitely internalised some of these views n wld feel stupid for ever taking anything seriously in that regard or rly investing herself..... she also just. idk. love has only ever left bite marks in bradley’s world so she’d kind of like ‘why wld i ever expose my tender spots n open myself up to someone just so they can sink their teeth in’. i will say tho that like. despite that she can in rare instances develop those feelings n it’s always like..... quite a struggle for her when she does. she doesn’t rly understand it or how to deal w it. she finds talking about it hard n she feels childish or weak in the eyes of whoever knows how she’s feeling. it takes a long time n a lot of work to earn it bt bradley in love is like. ur the only person on the planet who knows how gentle she can b. she’d literally like. touch the face of this one guy i wrote her being in love w when he was sad so gently it was shocking it ws like a love tht deep unlocked a whole other part of her she didn’t know existed. sex is a big part of her love expression jst like. a lot of it. so much. JHGSFKHGSFGKHFKGSHG let’s get it.......... she’s a ride or die n doesn’t do anything in halves. she has a nasty habit of pushing good things away n also wld probably do this to protect the other person bc her world is a never ending shit show with her father’s presence in every room even when he isn’t physically there. she wldn’t wna subject someone she loved to the danger of that bc she hates it enough herself so. idk. smiles w hand on hip. love isn’t something bradley thinks is on the menu fr her bc she’s only ever known it to be hard or mean n why bother trying when that’s the case. it feels like there’s always small print attached tht will hurt her in the end n nothing is free or genuine. very doomed outlook on love in general tbh.
belladonna :   how does your muse respond to silence ?   do they take comfort in soundlessness ,   or seek to fill the void with noise ?  
nyla honestly doesn’t mind silence at all........ they always wake up rly early in the morning no matter what time they went to bed. it’s like someone programmed an oven timer into their brain n often when they wake up at 6am or something they’ll go on walks around irving tottering in their own little world which is quite a quiet experience in itself when the rest of the world’s asleep........... always off on impromptu adventures they came up w on the spot.......... sometimes they get lost in their own train of thought too so they just randomly fall silent bc they’re having a whole conversation w themselves inside their head or like. writing a whole children’s story abt an iguana in a trench coat floating in a hot air balloon smoking a little vintage pipe all the way to peru. honestly for every 1 thing nyla says there’s about 4987295749572592745 things they don’t say tht are x100 times stranger n more nonsensical they sort of let it all drift thru their head like an open sieve for the most part. having said tht i think in order to sleep at night they probably need some sort of white noise or smthn................. it’s handy living in a beach house bc they just leave the window open to let the ocean gush bt sometimes if they’ve snuck into like. mido’s bed fr the night or someone’s bed idk the sound of them breathing works too................. they used to always sleep w bob ross playing on loop n that was rly comforting to them esp bc he reminds them a lot of their dad w his calming voice n energy.............. sometimes they’d have taken smthn n they’d literally hallucinate it as their dad instead of bob ross n this happened so many times in a row fr a period of time tht when they finally watched it sober they were like wtf since when did they recast my dad in this show...... KJHFGSHFGKSHFKGH but also. frowns... bit sad considering. 
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searchingforbucky · 4 years
Text
FIC RECS (Part 16) :)
Hey guys, so here it finally is. The CEO!Bucky Rec List. Sorry its taken so long for me to get this out, I really have just been feeling not so hot. So it took me a while to get it done. BUT its longer than usual to make up for they delay. Reading these made me feel a lot better, so I hope you guys like it! :)
(smuts are denoted with a ***, theres a lot of them haha)
Siren song by @jaamesbbarnes
OKAY LETS START THIS OFF WITH A BANG! This is the first Bucky CEO story I’ve ever read, and it was like an amazing Segway into this AU. So reader has a crush on her boss, he supposedly doesn’t like her back, so she joins a dating website where she meets this mysterious guy and falls in love. Crazy right? Even more so that it’s actually her boss?? This was a fantastic story filled with mutual pining, fluff, some perfectly timed angst, but most of all, some of the softest Bucky towards the end that I have ever been blessed to read. I want him to talk to me like that :( really loved this one!
All My Stars by @moonstruckbucky
Let’s go right into another amazing story. So this one is about Bucky boring FCC a new assistant, one who he basically falls in love with, and oh holy hell shes engaged. Let’s see how this turns out. So I will say it’s not finished yet, but I think what’s there is amazing enough to warrant a place on this list! Meg is a genius in how she writes the dynamic between characters. You feel for all of them no matter what, Bucky is detached and the reader is oblivious and you just want to shove them together like dolls and make them fall in love! It’s definitely a rollercoaster ride, and I’m excited to possibly see where it ends up :) 
Chocolate Truffles by @soldatjbb
OH THIS ONE IS SO SWEET! Okay so this one is about the reader wanting to give her boss Bucky Barnes chocolate on Valentine’s Day, when she sees she got some flowers. So when I say sweet I mean tooth rotting fluff holy hell I loved it. They’re both the biggest shy dorks who obviously have feeling for them and it really made my heart swell to ungodly proportions it was not okay. Bucky is the sweetest most nervous boy, and the reader isn’t much better. In a matter of like 1k words I was already immersed and invested in this possible relationship it was crazy! Amazing 
Pleasure and Business by @notimetoblog
OK wow, this one is just fantastic. So James and the reader are set to make a deal. So there’s something about this one that’s just really mysterious, like throughout the whole story you kind a know what’s going on but also you don’t, it’s a really good story and really unique when it comes to CEOs stories because the reader seems to hold the place of power as well, I also really really love the dynamic between the two characters because it’s really playful and loving and lighthearted even in this business setting, and I never really completely got what The business deal they were making was, but honestly it doesn’t even matter because the story was so good.
A very important phone call by @suz-123 ***
LOL, OK so this one. All I’ll say, is that the reader is Buckys good luck charm, and he needed it for a specific business call. This one was a trip. it was filthy, but written so well. And just the general storyline, while he’s on the phone made it exciting like not just because it was sexy but because it was just really like oh my God what’s going to happen is he going to get caught?! And man Bucky has a mouth on him, but I’m not gonna spoil it but let me just tell you, Suz has a way with endings. I genuinely didn’t expect it and That made it that much more awesome
The Man by @interestedbystanderwrites ***
Oof! This one! Now this one was amazing. So this one was about the raider going to her exes wedding, when she meets Bucky Barnes, who just so happens to own the hotel the wedding is held that. there are night leads to some down and dirty times, which is how all times like these should. This one was just really fun to read, because not only was it smut but it was also interwoven into a storyline, and at the end you’re really left wanting more. There’s a little hint of sugar daddy in there at the end, which makes it like even more interesting. Super good.
Late nights at the office by @after-avenging-hours ***
Oh I love this one! And I think I love it because it’s a really amazing mix of the storyline, and really well written smut. So this one is about Bucky being the readers boss, and there’s a deal coming up so he sends her a request to get something done by a day that causes miscommunication between them. So I really like this one because Bucky isn’t portrayed as like a jerk boss as he is and some other stories which is really refreshing, like he was genuinely sad that there was that miscommunication and she stayed after, and I think that made it all the more rewarding when they didn’t have sexy times because you actually really liked both characters. And it was well written, and you were left wanting to know what goes on with them in the future. Lovely.
Surprise visit by @imaginingbucky
okay so I really love this one. It’s super sweet, Bucky is a very busy CEO, and the reader is an extremely patient and understanding girlfriend. It was really cute, especially the end. I love stories like this where Bucky is genuinely a good guy who loves his girlfriend and understands that he’s not being the most available to her. I love seeing the moment he realized he needed to do something, and honestly just seeing healthy relationships in fics is so refreshing, and it was really well written.
Not interested by @promarvelfangirl
Ohhhhh this one is like an OG favorite of mine. So this one is about suave cocky Bucky Barnes getting everything he wants in life, until you. The reader comes in and shakes his whole world and it’s the cutest. Seeing the tension they have throughout the story is exciting, but my absolute favorite part was the fact that throughout the story you can see his love her her change from lust to love, or at least that’s how I saw it. And like you also got to know him and understand him over time. It was a great read, unique story line, loved it!
Sweet Life by @jalepenobarnes
Okay! So now we have a man awesome POC!reader story!! I love this one, I don’t know if I would qualify it as a series of oneshots but maybe that’s what it is, either way it’s great. So it’s a series of moments that showcase certain parts of the readers life and her relationship with Bucky. This is just a really sweet story, it really showcases the life of a POC In the discriminating world, especially when it comes to business, and it really opened my eyes to how I read these stories. Bucky is also super sweet, When he loves, he loves hard and with his whole self and you can really see it in this story. It’s beautiful. 
Right person wrong number by @propertyofpoeandbucky
Okay! So this one I loved. It’s about the reader moving to New York to start a new life after a breakup. She wants to be a photographer, and in that time, she received a text from a wrong number. Let the whirlwind romance begin! It’s cute, it’s funny, it’s SOFT BUCKY! It’s really just a whole package haha. Also check out her other fics: White Lace, Let the Games Begin, My Best Friends Dad, and Ringing
Tongue Tied by @soldatbarnes ***
Oh this one was spicy. So it’s about Bucky being really stressed and busy at work, and his wife coming up with a plan to help him relax. That plan is very sexual, and provides a wonderful story to read lol. But I also like the tender aspect of their relationship that you see in little snippets, you can tell they really care about each other over everything else. And I think that’s really important to see in these CEO stories because usually he’s a jerk.
Let Me Help by @asirenscalling **
So this is a story about Bucky being stressed at work, and you deciding to help him relax. Obviously that answer is sexual lol, the best way don’t we all know. This was very smutty, not much to it other than smut, but it was really well written and very entertaining haha. Also, loved the little snarky back and forth at the end, it was cute!
An Unfortunate Convenience by @bucky-smiles
Ohhhhhhh buddy, now this is a killer one. So this one is about the reader goes out to celebrate a promotion, had a wonderful one night stand, and surprise? That guy was her boss. What could go wrong? This one was so awesome. Daisy is such a great writer, and this is a prime example. There were so many twists and turns and it was actually realistic you know? Like there wasn’t a perfect story, they messed up, he messed up, and it wasn’t all sunshine’s and rainbows. The reader stood up for herself and I really admire that! 
I’m so in love with you by @supersoldierslover
The description is right! This is so damn fluffy I cant handle it! So it’s about the reader and Bucky spending quality time together after he’s been super busy at work. It’s so freaking cute, all of the flashbacks, the way you can see that they truly genuinely care about eachother. Like, it’s one of my favorite things to see a relationship consisting of two people who love eachother. Nothin Better than reading about love. And Bucky, god Bucky is the sweetest in this! And let me say, I will also love Bucky Barnes forever. 
***Added later to the rec list
Home for the Holidays by @buckybarnesbeans
Stereotypical by @avasparks
Dangerous Dalliance by @justreadingfics
Business and pleasure by @snowyseba
City love by @chrevastan
A meeting in buckys office by @tetralea
Jr Executive by @buckybarnesappreciationsociety
Let Me Love You by @thewritersoldier
The arrangement by @buckbarnesjames
Executive Floor by @ackeviddlestan
Weekend at Buckys @marvel-media
Okay! Thank you guys soooo much for reading this. i’m sorry its late, but I had fun doing it :) I hope you guys like it! I have a couple more to read so check back for those being added 💖
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luluwquidprocrow · 3 years
Text
love was made for me and you (and you)
originally posted: february 15th, 2019
word count: 22,821 words
rated: teen
beatrice baudelaire/bertrand baudelaire/lemony snicket, beatrice baudelaire/lemony snicket, beatrice baudelaire/bertrand baudelaire
violet baudelaire, klaus baudelaire, beatrice baudelaire, lemony snicket, bertrand baudelaire, kit snicket, the duchess of winnipeg, dewey denouement, olivia caliban, beatrice snicket
alternate universe – modern setting, alternate universe – everybody lives/nobody dies, alternate universe – parent trap fusion, family, romantic comedy, humor, with occasional required sad undertones, screenplay/script format, less of a fic and more of an outline but one hell of an outline, with enthusiastic swearing by yours truly, referenced but very background kit/dewey and duchess/olivia
Summary:
[so beatrice is nicholas, lemony is elizabeth, violet is annie, klaus is hallie, bertrand is the absolute worst at being meredith because he is a Genuinely Nice Person so honestly he’s really not meredith at all, and those parallels are all a little loose anyway because i moved places and conversations and character roles and basically everything around, everyone is just a mess. where is vfd????? i sure don't know.]
Notes:
back in march 2018, the good the iconic the legendary the CLASSIC ace attorney parent trap au came back on my dash and I decided to rewatch the parent trap a few days later, and as I was watching it, I thought, ‘i wonder how that would work with asoue, and lemony and beatrice, and of course with them getting together with bertrand,’ because I will of course ship the three of them together in any fic I can, but I told myself ‘girl, you cannot write this fic. you have too many other fics to write, you canNOT write this fic.’
I then told myself, ‘well, yeah, okay, but that doesn’t mean I can’t outline it.’
and then the outline spun wildly out of control, to the point where i was never going to write it as a full actual fic because it wasn't going to work like that anymore, but also to the point where it had a life of its own and was in my opinion somehow still worth reading like an actual fic. this is over 20k of a lemonberry ice parent trap au half-fic/half-outline/half-weird-script/wonderful mess of conversations and headcanons, and I genuinely hope my weirdly detailed ramblings (and unapologetic swearing) bring people as much unbridled joy as they bring me. I wrote this with the intention to have fun, and I hope!! you have fun too!!!
I think you can get through this with a working knowledge of the parent trap movie (1998 version) but a thorough knowledge is also very good
title obviously corrupted from love by nat king cole
.
lemony and beatrice, young and definitely foolish and definitely in love but totally not thinking this through, marry (fairly soon after college) and beatrice has twins, violet and klaus (violet is two minutes older, their birthday in this splits the difference between (what I personally image to be) their canon birthdays, so that’s, what, january 8th or something???? first I had it as the 3rd but nick and liz marry in the movie on january 8th and I was like ‘well that’s not too big a change to make in the name of a good reference’).
not long after, their marriage dissolves (for, well, pretty much canon reasons???? I mean like with less accusations of arson and criminal activity. lemony has Radical Commitment Issues and beatrice is Impulsive and Angry and Not Taking Anyone’s Shit and honestly how they made it through marriage and having kids with all those problems completely in tact and never doing anything about them is anyone’s guess, love is Occasionally Not Cool), they divorce, and lemony takes violet and beatrice takes klaus.
they both leave The City which I have always imagined as new york even though i’ve never spent a second there in my life, but anyway, beatrice does go to california (she likes the weather, but she does not end up in sanfran (danhan’s hometown) – the part of me simultaneously obsessed with a different fandom is screaming santa barbara!!!! but no i’m going to stick with the movie and say although she’s not in a vineyard she is in napa), the idea of lemony just being in england as like, a concept, and especially with a broken heart, is hilarious to me
kit: do I have to confiscate your copy of keats?
kit: do I?
kit: do I, lemony??????
beatrice raises klaus with the help of the duchess of winnipeg (and ramona’s delightfully sentimental and frankly adorable wife, olivia caliban, I will sail this ship single-handedly I guess) (what is ramona doing in california????? OH MAN DO I FINALLY GET TO BUST OUT THIS LINE I TOOK OUT OF THE BAYBEA FIC
ramona: have you seen winnipeg lately???
ramona: there’s not much for me to duchess over.
actually it’s probably that ramona’s mother is still alive in this (otherwise what would be the POINT of everybody lives/nobody dies modern au???? fucking fight me) and she takes care of winnipeg and ramona was like ‘…...canada’s not doing it for me’ and her mother was like ‘canada doesn’t do it much for anyone, dear.’ and ramona skedaddled to california with olivia, which worked out because they have banging careers as artists out in california.) (ramona paints (she likes watercolors and pastels), olivia actually writes historical fiction lesbian romance novels (where everyone also lives!!! she writes an on point jazz age novel only everyone lives and it’s great) (why historical fiction??? olivia is a sucker for romance and loves big sweeping romance epics….and ramona) (are her books just. period piece self-inserts with her and ramona??? well why the FUCK not), they are both………..really too good for this world.) (anyway bea has zero (0) family with which to raise klaus so ramona and olivia offer to help her out. out of the goodness of their hearts and long-standing friendship, not because they have any experience raising a child. they do not. have any experience.)
and lemony raises violet with the help of his sister. kit and dewey get together earlier, and have their daughter earlier (violet’s….five or six when she’s born?), and name her (obvs not beatrice) bernadette (I have Specific Reasons for naming her bernadette, however that is in my giant list of bernadette headcanons, which is a whole other Thing). beatrice is an actress (klaus can’t act for shit, sorry), lemony is a writer (violet doesn’t have a poetic bone in her body, sorry). (but violet can act and klaus is pretty good at putting words together.)
ELEVEN YEARS AGO BY, or, well, eleven and a half, I guess, eleven and a half delightful years filled with the following –
-lemony and beatrice fervently denying they ever married each other and trying to forget the other even exists, what do you mean you have photographic evidence, we were definitely not married
-ramona’s mother briefly going to california to tell three grown women how to change a diaper
-klaus, age one and a half, crawling up the staircase in their house all by himself to get to the library, beatrice promptly dies out of sheer terror
(true event. I did that.)
-violet getting ahold of a wrench at the same age and fixing one of the loose bars in her crib
(not a true event. I did not do that.)
-dewey and jacques, trying to fix the curtains in violet’s room, immediately and silently agreeing to never tell lemony they were The Worst Uncles In Existence for five seconds for accidentally dropping the wrench in violet’s crib
-beatrice training herself not to do a double-take every time she sees klaus with a book because he looks fleetingly like lemony, just for that second
-lemony lulling violet to sleep with a variety of accordion songs, violet’s favorite is his rendition of what he says is ‘a song about spending a day on the beach’ but is actually why I cry by the magnetic fields (particularly danhan’s rendition of it with ben gibbard.)
-hey I never said they were successful at forgetting each other, especially when the kids were kids
-a truly harrowing number of children’s birthday parties
-kit snicket, who firmly kept her maiden name, going through what she called ‘The Chillest Pregnancy In Existence, Look At Me, I’m Completely Fucking Calm’ in the middle of labor
-klaus going through a period where he only read poetry, which caused bea and ramona and olivia to speak in rhyme for a week
-violet insisting she could fix the toaster and promptly not fixing the toaster because nothing was wrong with the toaster (it just wasn’t plugged in.)
-beatrice appearing in a number of plays, klaus being enchanted when she’s in les mis and reading the book but, in fact, only finding the outrageously long sewer chapter interesting
-violet trying to write a poem for lemony for father’s day and rhyming ‘orange’ with ‘mortgage’
that summer, they both wind up sending violet and klaus to the same summer camp excursion, because what sort of comedy would this be without the wildest coincidence ever, honestly
kit drops violet off at the camp a la martin – will lemony get on a plane?? that is a resounding No (also he would have just cried the whole time. the whole time. the. whole. time.)
however lemony is the one who does the ‘fruits, vegetables’ thing, only before violet leaves, and he gives her a million hugs and honestly doesn’t want her to go to camp oh my god, it’s only because violet tells him he’s sort of squishing her that he stops hugging her, lemony is???? like the most concerned parent of all time
kit, meanwhile….
kit: I was going to give you a new dart set but I was informed that they would not let you through customs.
violet: uncle dewey told you, didn’t he.
kit: I married a real killjoy, violet.
I honestly cannot think of a scene for klaus to parallel hallie meeting glasses and tie dye girl while getting her duffel bag. I thought of putting the quagmires in this but I think that’s…...pushing the identical envelope a little here (would’ve been worth it though for the brief note I used to have here that was just isadora shouting ‘HOW DID THEY TAKE SO LONG TO REALIZE THEY WERE RELATED THEY LOOK EXACTLY ALIKE’)
i’m sure they hang out with like-minded people before running into each other, it’s a good camp and they literally never talk to those other characters again anyway, which is, a real shame
we can all at least rest assured that klaus gets to camp in once piece regardless and doesn’t have a conversation about darts and airport customs, anyway beatrice, ramona, and olivia each smuggle a deck of cards into his suitcase as a surprise and he has three card decks and impresses all the other kids in his cabin with a giant architecturally sound house of cards made to resemble thoreau’s cabin at walden pond
hey annie and hallie are both allergic to strawberries and KLAUS AND VIOLET ARE ALLERGIC TO PEPPERMINTS
before they meet there’s probably a moment like with marva sr and the strawberries (I just had a horrifying thought that JEROME is the camp counselor (esme is nowhere in this. olaf is nowhere in this.) and that’s…………..awful, but, as I was writing the following scene, you know who I wrote him more like?????? arthur fucking poe, what did I just fucking do, honestly poe is a WORSE choice but…...well
mr. poe: we have peppermint brownies today!
[I just saw someone on the food network make peppermint cheesecake brownies and I want them so bad]
klaus: oh, i’m allergic
mr. poe: oh, well, please live
mr. poe: I cannot perform cpr
klaus: …………………………………………………………….shouldn’t you maybe –
mr. poe: for your own personal safety and especially my own i’m going to have to ask you to step away from the brownies
[violet shows up on mr poe’s other side]
violet: oh! peppermint, i’m allergic
mr. poe: another – didn’t I just see you? how did your hair get longer that fast? that’s not an allergic reaction, is it?
violet: ……………………………………………………………...i don’t think that’s –
mr. poe: i’m going to eat this entire brownie pan to save lives, but also because I want these brownies
he came out more like show!poe instead of book!poe but, I do not care, no one cares about mr. poe.
SO, violet and klaus eventually do meet and have practically zero immediate animosity, also through fencing!!! lemony and bea are both canonically badass fencers but I stand by what I said in fight me, that lemony is the better fencer, and violet wins. klaus concedes his loss to a talented fencer. they take off their masks and are like WHOA WE LOOK REASONABLY SIMILAR
violet: I don’t know, I think your eyes might be little farther apart than mine.
klaus: oh, don’t worry, i’ll probably grow into them. it can take some time before people really grow into their faces.
however this does get them talking and they find out they have so much in common! they’re like, ‘you like books and only have one super weird parent??? what a coincidence!’
then they find out they both play cards. (this stays, cause poker games are gold and I am reasonably sure watching the parent trap so much as a kid was what instilled this love of ‘hilarious poker games’ in me because I used to jam them into my fanfics all the time.) (also explains why I only know two poker hands….)
they hold an (amicable!) poker game that night with all the campers, and they do like a round robin tournament sort of thing and swap tips all night until it’s just the two of them facing each other, and klaus wins. (lemony is Pretty Good at cards and definitely taught violet BUT you’re damn right bea taught her kid how to count cards. not that klaus wins through cheating, he also has a natural talent and bea’s impeccable poker face. klaus also hangs out with ramona, who has repeatedly kicked lemony’s ass at cards as well.)
since they still have to wind up in the isolation cabin (because how else are they going to secretly plan swapping identities with NO GODDAMN COUNSELOR noticing???), CARMELITA is at camp and busts them for the poker game. she got eliminated pretty early in the game and camped out outside the cabin the rest of the kids were in waiting until someone won and then got mr. poe.
mr poe: gambling is not for children! unless of course you have a verified accountant or, perhaps, an established banker who wanted to embark on a personal journey and decided to run a camp for small children but has always wanted to go back and manage money again because, you know, even after the two scandals, I was good at – but we don’t have time for this, violet, klaus, it’s very irresponsible to try and get adults going on a tangent to avoid your responsibilities.
violet and klaus: but we didn’t –
mr poe: i’m afraid that I have no other choice but to send you to the isolation cabin.
carmelita: cakesniffers in the isolation cabin!!! CAKESNIFFERS IN THE ISOLATION CABIN!!!!
oh……..that was painful.
AT LEAST THE CABIN IS LIKE A NICE GOOD CABIN AND NOT the orphan shack, also like how far into the woods is the isolation cabin???? do the marvas really just leave kids out there?????? come on, marvas…..
and so our heroes get stuck in a windy lil cabin out in the woods.
what do they do when they hang out there, since they have Zero Animosity???? talk about books. read books. klaus does sketches of various local leaves. violet rewires the lamps so they don’t flicker and rigs up the windows so they don’t bang open in the middle of the night. the only thing they argue about is how to make toast, which isn’t even IN the cabin (unless violet makes something into a toaster), whatever
does klaus have a stuffed animal like cuppy???? damn straight he does. because why the hell not. (some boys play with dolls? SOME BOYS HAVE STUFFED ANIMALS)
i’m being really basic here but it’s a teddy bear BUT bea made lil wire glasses for it because klaus got glasses when he was real little so she thought he’d feel better if his favorite stuffed animal also had glasses (bea wears glasses but she HATES wearing them although I think after klaus gets glasses she tries to wear them more because bea is supportive as hell) (she needs new glasses though like they’re still these big thick black frames from her goth phase and she hates them but she hates the idea of an eye doctor appointment more) (bold of me to assume bea has ever honestly stopped having a goth phase, though…)
oh gosh what is the bear’s name
what’s something like super nerdy but cute for a small book-loving child to have named a bear
oh no, he names it kenneth. bea reads baby klaus the wind in the willows and he names his bear kenneth and this is so cute. I can’t fucking handle this, oh my god
honestly I am one of those people who thinks oreos w/ peanut butter would be pretty disgusting. (I mean, without the cream in the middle, sure, that probably tastes good, but like, with the cream and the peanut butter???? no) their snack of choice is………….hey isn’t there a snack in penultimate peril at the picnic it’s mentioned they like
or is just because I have that particular book within three feet of me, i’m gonna check
okay, it does mention that klaus likes custard eclairs, violet makes a smoked fish sandwich and wants to try the chocolate spread. maybe they just like oreos, sans peanut butter. I like oreos. (also, you can’t stash eclairs in a suitcase.
olivia, staring at a series of freshly-baked custard eclairs and a collection of tupperware containers: ….do you think I made too much??
ramona: olivia, he’s – he’s just going to summer camp.)
ANYWAY, how do they realize they’re siblings???? like???? how do
do they have half pictures in this??????? I think that’s honestly going to be the easiest way
like, of course lemony and beatrice would have a wedding picture, and they are both absolutely extra and dramatic enough to have each other’s half
it probably is still a ‘sitting at a table, staring lovingly at each other’ sort of thing, lemony in a white suit and beatrice in a suitably extravagant but actually still somehow very low-key for her wedding dress (there’s a lot of tulle though, like………..layers of tulle………………………..), their color scheme flower-wise was red and white roses because like, what fucking else would they pick at that time (they are only JUST convinced by like, jacques, probably, to do red/white instead of red/black, beatrice personally wanted purple/black)
kit gave violet the picture of beatrice, because while she hasn’t spoken to beatrice since her brother’s divorce, she does think lemony and bea could stand to talk to each other
(although I headcanon kit as the kind of person to firmly forget about past romances and put them behind her THROUGH ANY MEANS NECESSARY this is not strict asoue canon, and she always liked beatrice, anyway. lemony and bea breaking up isn’t like kit and olaf breaking up, which, i’m not even gonna try and touch in this)
klaus found the picture of lemony when he was reading through anna karenina (beatrice forgot she put it in there when she let klaus read it) and figured immediately that it had to be his father, and he kept it (maybe he showed it to ramona, who was like, ‘yep, that was your father. goodness, I forgot how awful his hair looked back then.’)
they’re probably reading some book about geography (klaus is into geography at the time)
klaus: my mother says that for my birthday next year, she’ll take me on a trip to see the famous hinterlands sunset.
violet: my father’s shown me pictures, but he agrees that it’s a lot prettier in person, but he’s also not one for planes.
klaus: well, I don’t believe hinterlands are technically confined to one geographical area, i’m sure there’s more than just in california – here, i’m sure there must be more information in the index.
violet: when’s your birthday, klaus?
klaus: january 8th.
violet: !!!! that’s my birthday!
klaus: !!! that is an extraordinary coincidence.
I never said these kids were smart.
klaus: violet, what’s your father like?
violet: he’s kind of quiet, but he’s very kind. oh, I have a picture of him – well, sort of –
she pulls out from one of her own books a picture of lemony, from behind, sitting at his desk at his typewriter, absolutely no recognizable features present whatsoever
violet: he didn’t know aunt kit was taking the picture, otherwise he would’ve turned around.
violet: actually, even then he probably wouldn’t have? he insists he’s not very photogenic.
violet: what about your father?
klaus: i’ve never met him. he’s – my mother doesn’t talk about him much, but I got the impression that they divorced shortly after I was born.
violet: oh, gosh. i’m sorry, klaus.
violet: ….sometimes I think I get that impression too, about my parents.
klaus: i’m sorry too, violet.
and if this were a snicket novel, insert soft, gentle explanation about divorce and commiseration and finding kindred spirits in your friends and how sometimes love does not work out and the affects we don’t realize it has on the children who watch it happen or see the aftermath and are left with the gnawing wonder of what went wrong and how violet and klaus each wonder, a little, what the cause was, and it can be very lonely, at the end of the day, to know that even if you have one parent who loves you very much, there is someone out there who may not love you at all, and never got the chance to know you to love you, and an even deeper part of you that wonders – no matter how young you were – were you the cause of it?
violet: oh, but I – I have a picture of my mother, my aunt kit gave it to me – I have it in my suitcase
violet: /gets up to get the picture
klaus: I, I have a picture of my father, too, in fact I think it’s stuck in this book somewhere in the back, I didn’t want to forget it
and
as violet goes to sit back down with the picture of her mother, the half-picture of beatrice from her wedding day, klaus pulls out from the index the half-picture of lemony from his wedding day
and they are
STUNNED
to realize
this is, of course, the exact same picture.
there’s a lot of hugging and crying.
so they realize they’re siblings!!! and then decide try to figure out what the hell even happened with their parents, because now that they know they’re fucking related and still somehow wound up meeting each other they realize that there has to be some incredibly detailed story behind the reasoning for their parents splitting up and now they have not just proof but an actual opportunity to find out and maybe, just maybe, get their parents back together in the process!!! it worked once!!! it could work again, why not!!!!!
AND SO THEY DECIDE TO SWAP PLACES. (contrary to hallie having the idea, it occurs to them at the same time.)
meanwhile
for the past, say, YEAR, or so, bea has been seeing bertrand, a friend from her childhood (just narrowly managing to keep it from klaus BECAUSE it will involve A Conversation About Lemony and Commitment and Marriage and Things Not Working Out and Falling In Love With Someone Else and look bea is good at a lot of things but it’s a really heavy subject for her that even after eleven years she hasn’t quite figured out how to parse, so she’s really been putting off trying to explain all of that to klaus, in a case of her vastly underestimating her son [bea you see all the books he reads…….talk to your son]), and things are going well between them and they love each other a lot and!!! they decide to get married.
how do they meet up again??? bertrand winds up going to one of her plays completely on accident. he’s been on the other side of the country for years and years and he happens to go to napa and hears about this play happening and he’s like ‘well that sounds really neat!’ because bertrand had a short-lived theater career in high school and doesn’t act all that much anymore but appreciates a good play! who doesn’t appreciate a good play??
(bertrand played lieutenant frank cioffi in his senior year production of curtains to rave local newspaper reviews. bea, meanwhile, gave a stunning performance as carmen bernstein [esme wanted to be carmen so fucking bad and she’s never forgotten that bea got the role instead, and that would not even factor into this au even if esme WAS in this au] [esme was, instead, jessica cranshaw (if it was a small school she maybe doubled as bambi), ramona was niki harris, olivia played johnny harmon, olaf was…...daryl grady……..which pains me to write cause the guy I had a crush on in high school played daryl, josephine and ike played georgia hendricks and aaron fox, jacquelyn and gustav were head of stage crew, lemony supported them all from the audience – unless lemony was sasha????!!!!!!!! okay lemony was totally sasha.]) (wow I got unnecessarily invested in their high school drama club.) (IS THEODORA THE DRAMA ADVISOR?????? oh my god. oh my god she’d be so bad at it but so good. i’m dying.
theodora: snicket you need to FLOURISH your baton with MUCH MORE GUSTO
lemony: I am going to flourish this baton right up your –
bertrand: HE’S DECIDED AGAINST IT THANK YOU MISS MARKSON)
(hey you ever write a parallel that’s so good you hate it????? olivia is johnny. olaf is daryl.)
(I usually headcanon bertrand as two years older than bea and lemony but for the purposes of this au they’re all the same age – however bertrand joined drama club first, and I picture lemony as more of a band kid than a drama kid, they probably just pull him in for curtains.
was lemony drum major???? I want to say ‘hell no’ but I also want to say ‘most cryptic drum major ever, lead the most bizarre championship performance in the school’s history, somehow still won’) (I wonder what song it was to???? that right there is where my secondhand band knowledge conks out.) (but if I HAD to supply ‘bizarre, cryptic song for championships’ I would probably pick like, david lynch’s dark night of the soul or something, idk.) (but like, listen to it and just imagine it with marching band instruments……….i kind of like it. i’m kind of digging it.)
ANYWAY BERTRAND LOVES SEEING PLAYS and he goes to see it and he has NO IDEA bea is even in it and he’s like SUPER THROWN to see her but also???? really excited! it’s been eleven years!!! he can talk to her!!!! he finds her after the play and bea immediately drops whatever she was holding and is just like???? absolutely breathless to see him again (it’s been ELEVEN YEARS, cats. oh god no it’s been more like FIFTEEN YEARS since bertrand has seen bea cause they haven’t spoken since high school oh no that hurts even MORE). a giantass hug is involved. bea spins bertrand around. they make plans to see each other later. then they start hanging out, and they like, reconcile from their weird high school fallout and have a really neat relationship)
(so
the high school fallout
lemony and bea and bertrand were all delightful friends since they were kids (well, lemony and bea were, bertrand moved to town and joined their class when they were freshman in high school). they all had stupid crushes on each other, uggg. there was. an incident. at the end of their school escapades that resulted in a falling out with bertrand (maybe they had an idea of how they all felt and just couldn’t or weren’t ready to figure it out and it sort of. drove a wedge between them. not on purpose, it was just the way it happened to work out, with teenage emotions and refusing to talk about things and uncertainty. lemony+bea and bertrand went their separate ways after graduation, lemony and bea married right out of college, bertrand does his own thing, life goes on.) (maybe there was like some prom drama about who was gonna take who and who asked who first or something (at my junior prom, I was ready to kill the guy I asked who turned me down for that very reason). I mean that’s legit???? prom drama is incredibly legit. why is there so much drama at prom??????)
(honestly after going back and writing the production of curtains and remembering the (specifically romance-related) drama I witnessed happening among the drama club at my high school (I wasn’t in drama but I had a startling number of friends who were) i’m surprised they had the drama at prom and not in the middle of drama club, but i’m still going to stand by ‘prom drama.’)
(and I feel like it was prom drama of the type that’s like, low-key there and A Thing people think about but no one talks about or addresses so the whole night is real awkward and you worry something is gonna break out at any second but nothing does but you’re still obsessively on your toes about it. like, that simultaneously high-strung just-there high school romance drama angst that’s just this ever-present layer coloring everything that people say and do, hyped up specifically because it’s PROM. they probably all danced with each other and the dances were all cut short because of Feelings and Awkwardness and no one knew what to do, the whole damn night.)
and like, bertrand, going off to college and a little heartbroken but unwilling to try and do anything about it, is upset, but bertrand is also bertrand ‘sweetest man alive’ baudelaire, and honestly he wants them to be happy (bertrand is……..very non-confrontational……….and it is honestly his downfall, he likes to have fun and be nice and kind, and to acknowledge scary things is to actually deal with them and that scares bertrand so much, he buries a lot of things – so do bea and lemony, and in fact all of vfd, but in very different ways. bertrand has achieved a sort of Chill™ that bea and lemony just do not have) so he just goes on with his life, he does date other people but nothing ends in marriage, he becomes a librarian in maine and is actually only in california originally for a few months to help manage some of the collections at local libraries. then he runs into bea and he doesn’t like INTEND for a romance to happen (and neither does bea, which I also firmly stand behind for their canon romance too), he still planned to leave at the end of the few months, but it happens and bertrand feels a lot more secure in himself and his feelings about people than he did in high school and they really do love each other, a lot
oh he went to college for library science!!!! obviously lemony majored in lit and bea majored in theater and music)
(OH NO WAS BERTRAND AT THE WEDDING?????? oh no bertrand was not at the wedding. I mean he’s certainly invited but bertrand ‘sweetest man alive’ baudelaire is also bertrand ‘vaguely heartbroken, does not want to interfere, can actually honestly only take so much’ baudelaire and he says that he’ll be unable to make it. sigh. I want to say he sends a sweet wedding gift or even just flowers but man that makes me so sad to think about lemony and bea getting that on/around their wedding day and THEM being sad and i’m too sad now, bertrand does not send a gift. (he’s torn up about not sending a gift for some time. years later, walking through an antique shop, he is struck with the ‘Years Later But Still Feels Like It Just Happened And Oh Shit Why Did I Do That’ brand of Lingering Awful Anxiety™ about all that.)
HE DOES NOT KNOW ABOUT THE DIVORCE until he meets up with bea and she tells him.
bertrand: so how’s lemony????
beatrice: ahahhahahhahahhahhahahhahhahhahhahhahahaaaa!!!!!!
beatrice: ahahaha
beatrice: ahaha.
beatrice: …….oh you genuinely do not know oh shit i’m sorry
(I wanted so badly to put in my ‘bertrand and olivia were good cute friends and actually are penpals and like lemony and ramona’s ongoing card game they have an ongoing checkers game’ headcanon but it just. won’t. fit. in. here. cause why wouldn’t olivia have told him about the divorce???? I mean it’s bea’s thing to tell, NOT olivia’s, but to occasionally write to bertrand for YEARS and never mention she and ramona live with bea?????? I think that’s a little much.)
(does bertrand ever try and convince bea to reconcile with lemony???? I feel like at this point in his life he WOULD but bea would have very early on and very firmly vetoed that. and bertrand wouldn’t necessarily be happy about it but respects her wishes. not because he wants bea all to himself. but because bertrand is also quite frankly still. a little nervous re: navigating relationships. like he’s for sure A LOT BETTER at it now but like!!!! especially with lemony like bertrand is TERRIFIED of seeing lemony again. he really is. I think he thinks lemony blames him for stuff even though lemony does not. and I don’t want it to seem like bertrand’s……….just sort of swooping in and taking bea and not letting her talk to lemony????? cause it’s not that, it’s not that at all
they do really love each other
and just because bertrand’s grown as a person doesn’t mean he’s PERFECT
and bea certainly Does Not want to talk to lemony
it’s just, nick never mentions to meredith that hallie’s a twin and meredith HATES hallie and annie anyway, but bertrand does not hate kids and I just wonder, has bea told him about violet???????? like why wouldn’t she????????
so I mean yeah they probably have talked about it, and probably still came to the same conclusion, bea Does Not want to talk to lemony either, just, not right now, and yeah bertrand isn’t delighted about it but he’s like ‘alright, okay.’ because he still understands her reasoning and for all his talk he really doesn’t want to talk to lemony either
but it’s, I think it’s a thing, in the back of their minds, a worry that hits them sometimes, have they done something wrong, trying to forget)
(and this is why planning takes so much time because I always have so many stupid questions about characters)
(when bea and lemony were young and in college and extraordinarily drunk they would come up with new titles for bertrand, because they forgot they were trying not to talk about him
beatrice: bertrand ‘best hair this side of the mississippi’ baudelaire
lemony: bertrand ‘smooth hands’ baudelaire
beatrice: bertrand –
beatrice: wait do you mean like, his legit hands or like what he DOES with his hands
lemony, trying very hard not to think about Doing Things with Hands: ……..both
lemony: I definitely mean both
beatrice: good, I agree
beatrice: bertrand ‘i WILL dance the charleston and no one will stop me and I do not care’ baudelaire
lemony: bertrand ‘softest reading voice’ baudelaire
lemony: no no, wait, bertrand ‘BEST reading voice’ baudelaire, remember when he read ee cummings
beatrice: bertrand ‘i read lord of the flies and cried at the end’ baudelaire
lemony: oh bea are you complimenting him or being mean
beatrice: lemony I read lord of the flies and threw it out the fucking window when that kid killed piggy
beatrice: that was a compliment)
(ee cummings is because I have a scene in another fic where bertrand reads ‘maggie and milly and molly and may’ to beatrice and lemony and gosh…..i hope I get to use it at some point, it was a beautiful scene)
(they probably stop talking about bertrand like, sophomore year of college, idk, it just gets too hard and they become really miserable drunk nineteen-year-olds about it, and that’s not cool) (AT LEAST THEY HAVE THE WHEREWITHAL TO DO THAT)
ANYWAY, back to violet and klaus, who are still at camp and have decided to switch places!
ultimately, violet (like hallie) is supposed to find out how bea and lemony got together, and klaus (like annie) is supposed to find out why they broke up
violet cuts her hair (she’s a little bummed because she likes her hair but at least it won’t get in her way when inventing) and pierces klaus’s ears (klaus is so UP FOR THIS he’s very excited, also he keeps himself calm during it by telling violet the history of ear piercing) (these kids are either canonically very good at rationalizing or it’s just me radically projecting again…..or both), klaus practices wandering around without glasses (he bumps into EVERYTHING), violet practices how to fucking wear glasses and not die (she falls over EVERYTHING), of course violet already has an appreciation for books but she has to get the definition thing down (and growing up with lemony ‘a phrase which here means’ snicket left her with a pretty unorthodox idea of word meanings sometimes
klaus: so an optimist is someone who sees a positive side in any situation, like –
violet: say, if their arm was bit off by an alligator, a pessimist would say, “ahh! my arm!” and an optimist would say, “well, this isn’t too bad, no one will wonder if i’m right or left handed now.”
klaus: ……….what sort of person is our father
violet: he’s very specific about words.)
klaus has to figure out?????? how to invent on the fly????? (he’s seen beatrice macgyver a million things together but he’s still not sure how she does it) and the two of them teach each other about their lives, beatrice and lemony, ramona and olivia and kit and dewey and bernadette
violet: bernadette is really delightful, but you need to watch out for her
klaus: well, she is six years old –
violet: no, I mean, she can appear at a moment’s notice, and I don’t know who taught her how to pick locks, because I certainly didn’t and father can’t pick locks, but she can do it in under seven seconds.
(jacques taught her how to pick locks (he also taught violet). I don’t know where vfd fits into all this or if it even does in this fanfic but like, just try and tell me these guys don’t still act like absurd spies in any universe anyway.) (also I think lockpicking is, in general, a handy life skill, even if you aren’t living the absurd spy life.)
klaus: mother is, um
klaus: a little embarrassing
violet: how so?
klaus: she once scaled a ten foot wall because I forgot my lunch.
(ramona: hey so why did becoming a parent rob you of your top-notch secrecy skills?
[not necessarily, though, I mean, she does a great job scaling the ten-foot wall in complete secrecy. bea just, has a lot of love for her son, and is VERY OBVIOUS ABOUT IT, is the thing]
beatrice: ramona have you SEEN my son
beatrice: I will take a BULLET for him
beatrice: preferably in a non-critical area so we can hang out afterwards.
beatrice: but if I have to embarrass the shit out of him to make sure he eats, I WILL)
violet: father is the same way, a little. he keeps crying on the first day of school and I don’t have the heart to break it to him that I might be too old for that.
klaus: mother calls encouraging phrases from the car, which I think she does to prevent me from walking into school too fast.
violet: you know, they really sound like they were made for each other.
(lemony and bea, like, separately, are such legit disaster parents and I love them, they love their kids so damn much.)
the last day of camp comes, and it is time for them to officially swap places – violet goes to beatrice, klaus goes to lemony!
klaus recites book themes to himself the whole plane ride to england to keep himself calm because he’s trying not to think about how worried and excited he is!!! he’s going to meet his father for the first time!! truth be told, he knows pretty much nothing about lemony, even after talking to violet!!! IT’S A LOT FOR ANY KID TO TAKE IN, to suddenly think ‘yeah this was a good plan – oh fuck’
anyway, he meets kit at the airport, because kit is there to pick up violet. (kit and violet do not have a secret handshake. they have, of course, dart-throwing contests. of course that doesn’t make sense in an airport, but whatever. that’s their thing.)
why does kit pick klaus up at the airport instead of lemony??? I mean kit is in martin’s role but she’s NOT martin, you know, she’s lemony’s sister and definitely does not wait on him, but she does drop violet off at camp anyway, although in the movie that’s to prevent elizabeth (and nick) from showing up until the kids switch for Maximum Emotional Impact, but like lemony is obviously not THAT fucking busy he can’t pick up his own daughter
I had the thought that like kit is maybe his manager (on the side, otherwise she has….god some other job)??? does that work for a writer???? i’m a writer and I don’t even know. whatever. and kit maybe scheduled a reading that day by accident months in advance and couldn’t change it, or it runs long, so she has to get violet (klaus) from the airport
(moxie is still his editor, only she lives way out of town and they send angry emails to each other all the time about his work)
also ties in with hallie’s scene where she looks at elizabeth’s vanity and says she’s super cool about the wedding dresses cause I love that scene a LOT and I want klaus to think his stupid dad’s cool!!!
kit: violet, I am all for the beginning of your teenage rebellion with this new hairstyle but I should inform you that your father may just die.
klaus: you think he won’t like it??
[read: YOU THINK HE WON’T LIKE ME]
kit: he’ll probably come around to it. he’s still at his reading, do you want to surprise him?
klaus: !!!!!!
klaus: yes!
the reading is huge. I have no damn idea what lemony writes in this au, definitely not danhan’s stuff cause it’s not his vibe, but he still writes the picture books (although there are YEARS between them irl he wrote the composer is dead and the dark for bernadette before she became, in her words, Too Old For That Sort of Thing although she still secretly really likes them and reads the dark every night before she goes to bed. bernadette, in contrast to babybea, is fucking terrified of the dark but tries to like rationalize it out by thinking through the science of light or something, and then by just rereading the dark), oh he probably like, okay so he can’t just write asoue but he probably writes some other great children’s book series with the same sort of writing style and moral discussion, and the picture books
and violet told klaus he wrote stuff and bea like…..knows he does and refuses to talk about it but reads ramona’s copies in the middle of the night (and then has to stop doing that cause it bums her out too much), but klaus has no idea about it or how good it is and he’s so impressed, sitting at the back of this giant giant theater, and klaus loves books, he loves them with all his heart, and to sit there and see his father, for the first time in his whole life, doing something that klaus thinks is so incredibly cool
klaus: wow.
okay, so, the damn relief and happiness on lemony’s face when he sees kit and klaus
has he been imagining terrible airplane accidents for the past week? weeks? MONTHS??? yes he has.
he sees them once he gets offstage and immediately runs at this child (or, at least, definitely fastwalks.) and sweeps klaus up into this giant giant hug
klaus is!!! overwhelmed by the amount of sheer unadulterated love in this hug oh no i’m crying
putting aside that he’s pretending to be violet, this is the first time he gets a hug from his father and even if lemony thinks he’s violet klaus is still the one getting the hug and it’s just, a lot, man, it’s a lot, that scene in the movie where elizabeth hugs hallie is exactly the vibe right here god it’s so fucking sweet
lemony: oh, goodness – what happened to your hair?
klaus: I – I cut it. do you –
lemony is in the process of remembering that scissors and haircuts exist, he’s a little blindsided here
lemony: no, no – haircuts are things that happen, at one time or another, to all of us.
lemony: i’m just so happy that you’re back.
he just. hugs klaus again. god I can’t handle how much lemony loves his kids. klaus is really emotional and I’M really emotional I have to move on
on the ride home (kit is still driving)
lemony: so how was it at camp?
klaus: /frantically thinking of how he’s going to pull off something violet would say now that he’s HERE and has to act like her and decides to just be honest and hope it comes out okay
klaus: I had a lot of fun; the outdoors are incredibly pulchritudinous.
lemony: /thoroughly convinced that the outdoors has finally instilled violet with a greater poetic sense
I NEVER SAID THEIR PARENTS WERE SMART EITHER
do you know how wild the plot of this movie really is, when you get down to it, parents not recognizing their kids wtf have I done
violet can act pretty passably as klaus, but klaus, even employing beatrice’s acting techniques, just can’t act. but the one who finds him out is bernadette, like half an hour after he gets home.
[you can tell what scenes originally started this outline because they’re actually written like scenes, this was one of them]
[bernadette stares at klaus with wide, curious eyes over the top of her book. “you’re not violet,” she says.
the bottom of klaus’s stomach drops clear out. “what?”
“violet doesn’t squint when she’s confused,” bernadette says. “she frowns and puts her hair up. and it’s something she’s used to doing, so even if her hair was cut, she’d still reach for a ribbon, out of habit. you’re klaus. shouldn’t you have glasses? mother says aunt beatrice wore glasses.”
“how – how did you know about me?”
bernadette rolls her eyes. “i know everything,” she says loftily, for a six year old. “i can read, after all.”]
bernadette is the best kid. so I love babybea so much but babybea in canon is like…..still very on point but very quiet about it, because she’s grown up with really so little interaction with people????? she’s like a really subdued kid because she’s had to be so independent and do so many things herself. and she’s got her firm, almost unshakable optimism. so bernadette is still very quick and clever but a LOT more precocious about it and pretty boisterous for six years old and just. even more like kit than babybea is. her optimism is a little more…..sharp in this. I don’t think she understands embarrassment, as a thing that people experience, because she sure doesn’t. she’s just like, ‘well why don’t you just try again??????’ and it’s so great to see that inherent commitment to existence in a six year old
(an important sidenote from my bernadette headcanon list, though, is that she really does just read everything. she reads cereal boxes and magazines and reports and all the papers on lemony’s desk and really just absolutely anything she can get her hands on, and she’s easily bored so she goes looking for stuff sometimes and she’s good at putting things together, so that’s how she knows about klaus.)
[“i’m not gonna tell anybody,” she says. “i wanna see what happens. uncle lemony’s kind of lonely, you know? and aunt beatrice – when they talk about her – always sounded really nice.”]
bernadette makes it her MISSION to help klaus act more like violet and cover for him as much as she can
bernadette: you need to walk different
bernadette: and hold yourself a little taller
bernadette: here, keep this wrench in your pocket, violet likes wrenches
bernadette: and this ribbon!!! she didn’t give you any????
bernadette: oh, make sure you stare off into the distance while eating and think about machines or something
klaus: how do you notice all these things???
bernadette: ?????? doesn’t everybody?????? she’s your sister, you two didn’t follow each other around to try and pin down how you act????
klaus: …..do you do that, bernadette
bernadette: regularly. I can impersonate anyone’s footsteps. except my mother’s, because I think she keeps wearing different shoes on purpose. i’ll show you sometime.
so, armed with This Random Wrench and a lot of acting details that he can’t process very well, klaus HANGS OUT WITH LEMONY
so klaus spends a lot of time in the library in lemony’s house (which also doubles as lemony’s office, it’s big enough that he and violet can take separate corners and know each other’s there but not run into each other if they don’t want to (especially good for klaus pretending to be violet because no one has to see him TOTALLY FAIL AT INVENTING)), and it has so many books and klaus is so thrilled
klaus has to try and bring up bea and find out how they met, only, DISCREETLY
[gosh this one is a lot harder without “so doesn’t designing all those wedding dresses make you think about getting married again?”, especially because the truly spectacular “f word” line doesn’t make sense with lemony but what can you do]
he probably goes up to lemony while lemony’s at his desk because klaus figures, the easiest way could be to relate to something on the desk
AS purposeful narrative coincidence LUCK WOULD HAVE IT lemony is looking for something in his desk and you know lemony keeps the most inconsequential things and has accidentally dug out his plaque for ‘one semester of cheerleader participation’
klaus, immediately thrown by this news: you were a cheerleader?
lemony: mm? oh, my, I forgot about that.
he smiles at the plaque and dusts it off and my heart is m e l t i n g
lemony: yes, in high school. I wasn’t the only boy on the team, as a matter of fact. a – a friend of mine did it with me.
klaus: why were you on the cheerleading squad?
lemony, trapped in this conversation now: well – your mother was on the soccer team. I was not what you would call athletically inclined at the time, so I joined to support her.
klaus: !!!!!!!
klaus: my – my mother?
this was a fact he did not know about beatrice, as a matter of fact
lemony, realizing that children are going to be curious about their parents and, well, okay, it’s been eleven years, I probably won’t see beatrice again (ahahahahaha.), and my child deserves to know: yes. she was very good at soccer, among other talents, although she didn’t last very long in her soccer career.
klaus: why not?
[if this man was PAYING ATTENTION he would have noticed for sure that klaus is much more straightforward than violet.]
lemony, remembering that time beatrice launched herself across the soccer field and accidentally tackled the assistant coach and dragged him through the mud: she and the coach disagreed on some of the physical aspects of the game.
klaus, dying to hear what lemony’s going to say: what was she like?
lemony, immediately remembering the details of their divorce but also a series of Shenanigans from their school days that he should never repeat to anyone, then resolving to be kind about it: very charming and resourceful.
lemony: she had a great deal of verve.
lemony: I see a lot of it in you.
klaus is touched, I’M touched, god fucking dammit
klaus resolves to leave it there and decides to dig around lemony’s desk later for other things about bea and lemony when lemony isn’t looking
which he promptly does, that night.
klaus sees his typewriter and pictures of kit and jacques and there’s probably one of ramona (in a drawer) (sorry, ramona.) and in a secret compartment in the desk is a pic of bea (maybe one of bertrand too?) (definitely one of bertrand too) and some letters from bea (klaus recognizes her handwriting)
(watch it be something like, some stupid candygram she sent him for valentine’s day that says dear lemony, [the content of this candygram has been censored by the school administration] love bea!!!!!) (bea gets detention for a week for the content of the candygram.) (the second candygram gets through but it’s only because bea writes it so thoroughly in code that the school administration, at a passing glance, cannot see how raunchy it is. but also very heartfelt. it is genuinely heartfelt.) (so of course he has some from bertrand too. because bertrand sent everyone a candygram. they’re all so friendly but so sweet and so cute and bertrand’s just breaking my heart in this whole fic I love him so much) (they’re stuff like, i’m so happy we’re friends! happy valentine’s day! i made sure this candygram doesn’t have anything that will conflict with your peanut allergy! like some fucking NERD and i’m SOBBING) (because you know bertrand was on student council and helped with the candygrams, bea and lemony were definitely not on student council)
(bea: what gets me is that they still sent it!! they censored my loving sonnet about your ass but they still sent it!!!!!!
bertrand: I guess nothing stops true love?
lemony: or, nothing stops beatrice mariner. [you’d have to kill me before I conceded to ‘beatrice kornbluth.’ anyway one of kornbluth’s pen names was mariner so that’s my compromise.])
klaus thinks the candygrams are so fucking embarrassing and also had no idea his mother was capable of such language but then again, no, she is, but he also thinks they’re charming and evidence that lemony still has feelings for beatrice, if he kept them!!
he’s, intrigued, a little concerned, but not very worried about this mysterious picture of a strange man and his own candygrams, although klaus concedes they too are very sweet.
MEANWHILE, back in california
bea is so so so so so excited to pick up klaus (not knowing it’s violet) from the airport, like she manages to sit still for most of the wait but in the last half hour she just sort of bounces around the airport and buys a series of irritating, tasteless teas (“fuck this tea is so bland yes i’m ordering another one, ramona, don’t judge me”) and reads the same newspaper over and over again and when the flight comes in she’s ECSTATIC, MY GIRL IS BOUNCING ALL OVER THE PLACE
she’s the kind of like……...vaguely silly but a little (a lot) overprotective (?) parent
like beatrice is the one SHOUTING AT THE TOP OF HER LUNGS WHEN SHE SEES HER KID CAUSE SHE’S SO THRILLED, she’s just very vocal about how much she loves….
[I actually rewrote some of bea in this (or, changed the amount of capitals I had her using) because, like, bea is delightful and charming and very smooth but she’s also got such passion for life, she loves to be delighted and she loves to laugh, and she’s so smooth and sarcastic but like!!!! I love beatrice when she’s having a good time, but I got worried that she was leaning too silly in this which. irritated me.
like, in canon I feel like she is incredibly mischievous but once she gets married and has kids, she’s still very on point and loves her kids very openly but she becomes a lot more straight-laced because she’s so intent to protect them, so much so that I think she loses a little of that mischievousness. but considering the fluctuating capacity of vfd vibes in this au, I think she is a little more…….loose in this. the other thing about bea is that her veneer of perfection is her best acting job of all time, and divorcing lemony and being a single mother and raising klaus puts a big dent in that and makes her even more determined to try and wring as much joy out of life as she can without letting people know how much she has to deal with]
violet, upon getting off the plane and seeing beatrice: oh.
beatrice: look at youuuuuuuuuu LOOK AT YOU!!! you’ve got everything??? all your limbs???? nothing broken????
she says all this while like running straight at violet and patting her down and then giving her the biggest hug of all time. violet is engulfed in this hug and!!! she thought her father gave tight hugs but this is something else
I think lemony puts a lot of warmth in his hugs but beatrice puts this endless amount of joy, along with love, into her hugs, and violet’s life up until this point has been very low-key and surrounded by adults who excel at deadpanning their dialogue so this is!!! very strange but very exciting!!! because violet herself also has this very bright enthusiasm that other people in her family don’t have the same way she does so as much as it’s so different to meet beatrice it’s really cool!!!!!
[for the record, bertrand’s hugs exude safety]
re: pierced ears
beatrice: oh, ramona and olivia are gonna be real upset.
beatrice: they definitely wanted to be involved in your first rebellious teenager act.
beatrice: then again, so did I??
violet: doesn’t that defeat the purpose of a rebellious act?
beatrice, going in for a side-hug: …...i missed that snark so much
does beatrice have a dog???? she’s really not a dog person. neither are ramona and olivia (dogs scare olivia. in fact, most things scare olivia. the toaster scares olivia. she’s so nervous and I love her.) (it’s less of a josephine fear and more of a ‘please leave me alone!!!’ sort of startled fear, is how I see it)
if there is a pet, ramona and olivia have a cat that olivia named annabelle, and she’s a sweet, all-white cat who loves cuddles. she does not even care that violet isn’t klaus. she’s just like, ‘this person has arms!! this person can cuddle.’ annabelle is the best, most chill cat. (although I headcanon that bea is allergic to cats – but that was just cause I was allergic to cats, and now that i’m not allergic to cats????? GUESS IT’S FREE REIN NOW) (anyway the cat is still ramona and olivia’s.)
so bea has to introduce klaus (violet!) to bertrand, and, oh, bea
she really has been putting this conversation off for quite some time, and she decides to just, go for it, as she’s driving violet home
beatrice: klaus, there’s, there’s someone i’d like you to meet
violet: who?
beatrice: an old friend of mine. we’ve been talking recently, and he means a great deal to me, and if you don’t like him, then that’ll be it, but – I really want him to be a part of our lives, klaus. I know it’s a big change, but I’d like you to give him a chance.
violet is REALLY, REALLY THROWN HERE because she and klaus are supposed to get their parents back together!!! this isn’t supposed to happen!!! this is supposed to be a happy ending without this NEW CHALLENGER (UNACCEPTED!!!!), how is she supposed to ask about lemony now???????
violet: oh, um
violet: well, I would like to meet him
she resolves to be HARD AND UNCOMPROMISING when she meets bertrand, but, well, then she meets bertrand fucking baudelaire. bertrand ‘sweetest man alive’ baudelaire. bertrand ‘just desperately wants to make a good impression on his fiance’s son’ baudelaire. god I love him. what a guy.
especially because bertrand really does just want to make a good impression, and he knows klaus is into geography right now so he brings this absolutely impressive atlas as a gift
not as an attempt to bribe klaus into liking him, but to show that he’s supportive of his interests!!!!
bertrand, sweetest man alive, shaking violet’s hand: i’m so excited to finally meet you!!
violet, blindsided by the sweetest man alive: oh, thank – thank you. it’s very nice to meet you too.
bertrand: I heard you were into geography, so I brought this atlas for you! I hope it’s alright.
violet, holding the biggest, heaviest atlas she’s ever seen in her life: oh. that’s very kind of you.
they spend some time looking through it because it has so many cool details
he stays for a while and then bows out gracefully because he cares so much, hello i’m dying, and then beatrice asks violet what she thought
violet: I –
violet: I liked him a lot.
beatrice: are you sure? because I swear, it’s fine, klaus, if you’re uncomfortable, it’s absolutely okay, it’s –
violet: no no! it’s fine!
[read: IT’S NOT FINE]
violet: I have this….atlas, now.
beatrice: you could kill a man with that.
violet: probably! I probably could.
beatrice: ….so it’s okay?
violet: ….it’s okay, mother.
[read: IT’S NOT OKAY BUT WHAT ELSE CAN SHE SAY HERE] [hey you know when you take out how much of an awful person meredith is you are left with a lot less humor in this situation.]
beatrice: I don’t know what I did to deserve a child like you, klaus.
cue good, squishy hug.
[personally I cannot fathom marrying someone else and having twins and raising one of them and not trying to have a relationship with your other child because you didn’t want to work things out with first spouse, but I never said I myself was smart either, in what I chose to write (I NEVER SAID I TOOK THE EASY WAY OUT)
anyway, I do think when bea says that, she thinks about it for a second
that (as far as she knows) this is klaus, she’s known him his whole life, and she had so little time with violet and maybe she would be sweet and clever too and she doesn’t know
she doesn’t know!!!!!!!
and it tears her apart for a split second that she doesn’t have everything and before she can let it eat her alive she shoves it down and forgets about it like she does with everything else and just, moves on] [time is a scary thing – if this much time has passed, what can you do? do they care? is it easier to do nothing or does that hurt more? does it even matter when both parents know their kids don’t know about their sibling or their other parent (or as far as they know at this moment)??? does that possibly make it even a little easier????] [anyway.]
because of bertrand – or, not necessarily bertrand, but more, ‘wedding shenanigans,’ but also, yeah, bertrand – violet also spends comparatively little time with beatrice
she wants to dislike him on principle, but can’t because he’s just???? so nice!!!! he talks seriously to her about her parents and about her (well, klaus) and really wants to get to know her (well, klaus) violet is begrudgingly impressed. violet thinks klaus would be really impressed too. but she’s real worried about what means for lemony and beatrice
especially since they did this not only to get their parents back together but to spend time with the opposite parent, like!!! violet has spent practically zero (0) time with bea to get to know her!!!!
so she holds off for a little bit and just genuinely hopes bertrand will somehow be less nice
this is hard, when bertrand helps bea make dinner ever night (klaus was VERY EXPLICIT that beatrice allows NO ONE in the kitchen when she’s cooking so there’s that) and he talks so damn OPENLY to violet about being a presence in her life
bertrand: klaus, I hope you don’t think i’m intruding in your life.
violet: I understand where you’re coming from when you say that but remarriage is in fact a part of life that occurs with some frequency.
[not only death and taxes, but haircuts and remarriage….]
violet: mother said you were an old friend, though?
bertrand: yes, we went to school together.
violet: if you don’t think it’s too rude of a question
violet: you strike me as the type of person who would have had a high school sweetheart and I am perhaps a little concerned that you didn’t marry my mother earlier.
inside, violet is cringing but it’s a very klaus line.
bertrand: !
bertrand: oh, well, we didn’t date each other in high school.
violet: ! you didn’t?
bertrand: no, there was –
bertrand has been. avoiding these feelings for some time. but he’s so struck by them that he has NO poker face in this situation
bertrand: – it just didn’t work out at the time, that’s all.
but fuck violet is absolutely stunned by that look on his face
she’s never seen someone look so heartbroken before and she is, concerned, but that’s mostly ignored in favor of the sheer stress of the situation
and violet does actually get kind of angry!! about bertrand being such a good person!! she starts to get really frustrated!!! like I picture this happening over, maybe a week
she hates that she can’t tie her hair back and her thoughts are all jumbled and that she has to wear glasses and she misses her dad and she loves beatrice a lot but NOTHING IS WORKING OUT LIKE SHE WANTED IT TO
and she has to wear klaus’s glasses and keeps taking them off when she’s sure no one’s looking to rub her eyes man I want to give this kid a hug
but she also wants to make her mom happy!!! fuck this is a mess
violet: he’s been – a lot kinder than I thought he would be.
beatrice: yeah, he has that effect on people.
beatrice: when we were in high school, we called him “bertrand ‘sweetest man alive’ baudelaire.”
beatrice is viscerally reminded of Being Drunk In College and tries to shrug it off
however, violet, growing up with two detail-oriented snickets, does not miss a single thing
violet: we?
beatrice: oh, you know – nicknames, nicknames stick, klaus, everybody calls everybody things!!
violet: it just sounded as if you were….
violet: /casts around for the correct grammatical term, she’s committed, but comes up with nothing because hell even I don’t know, apologies to my grammar professor from college
violet: ….using ‘we’ to mean just you and someone else and not necessarily lots of people.
beatrice is actually vaguely suspicious to hear Less Technical Grammar but chalks it up to the situation
beatrice: well, I mean, we had friends, of course – ramona and olivia!! that’s!! that’s who i’m talking about!! that’s all!!
violet remembers that ramona gave klaus his half of the wedding picture, and klaus told her what ramona said, that ramona didn’t like lemony’s hair at the time, and violet’s done the math, she knows how old lemony and bea are and that she and klaus were born not long after they left college, and with this sudden but persistent reluctance to talk about An Additional Person from high school from both bea and bertrand, violet is terribly suspicious that there could, in fact, be much more to this than she initially thought
beatrice: don’t forget, we start looking at hotels for wedding reception venues this week, okay?
violet: okay.
so, that night, violet, now alerted to the possibility that there could be a connection between bertrand and her father, and also DESPERATELY HOPING THERE IS ANYWAY BECAUSE THAT WOULD CAUSE HER SO MUCH LESS STRESS, goes digging
she grew up with bernadette for the past six years (and has also seen lemony create giant information webs to map out books), VIOLET KNOWS HOW TO GET INFORMATION AND PUT IT TOGETHER
she starts looking for yearbooks – they all went to the same school, for years, they have to be somewhere, but violet can’t find anything in the library, or ramona’s studio, or olivia’s office, or beatrice’s hiding place (the kitchen), and then looks through their desks for papers or plaques or photographs or anything that could give her a hint (nope)
if there is one thing she’s learned from bernadette, but also her father, it’s that the best place to hide something is usually in plain sight, which leads violet back to the library, pulling out boring-looking books to see if anything is stored behind them or in them (still nope)
this leads to violet CLIMBING THE BOOKCASES to reach the top shelf because adults are taller than her and put things on high shelves
and lo and behold, there it is, the senior year yearbook.
violet has a HEART-STOPPING MOMENT in the downward climb (which she’s doing one-handed anyway) where she almost steps on annabelle who she hadn’t realized was sleeping on a shelf and violet is TERRIFIED but annabelle, chillest cat in the world™, just yawns at her and picks a different shelf
annabelle is no sammy.
so, curled up in a library chair, violet finds not only pictures of beatrice and bertrand and lemony in the yearbook, but also a giant section of papers that fold out from the back cover where apparently lemony had more than the average length of a yearbook comment to say to her
violet, vaguely skimming this hardcore romantic comment, incredibly used to her father’s verbosity: yes that sounds about right.
and she finds a (significantly smaller but still lengthy and painfully heartfelt) signature from bertrand nearby, that definitely reads as a guy in love
but she’s still not sure how they feel about each other now, like a few yearbook signatures are no indication of how a person feels over eleven years later, so she’s still nervous about this and decides to sleep on it
this takes the whole night, violet is exhausted in the morning
now re: chessy unpacking hallie’s (annie’s) suitcase in the movie, it’s not that ramona did the same, but when doing the laundry earlier she did notice this weird amount of ribbons stuck in the lint filter/in pockets/pant legs/sleeves
and she barely even thinks anything of it at first and asks olivia and olivia has no clue and she’s not asking beatrice because beatrice has so much on her mind and ramona’s like ‘….hmmm,’ and goes to talk to klaus (violet)
ramona: hey klaus, I keep finding ribbons everywhere and I just wondered –
violet, in the process of running her hand through her hair cause she’s tired and processing a lot and misses being able to tie it: /JUMPS
violet: oh
violet: bookmarks, i’ve been using them as bookmarks
[actually violet has a million ribbons because lemony never wanted her to be without one, and it was so natural for violet to bring them with her she just legit forgot she wasn’t supposed to have them, like hallie with cuppy]
ramona, vaguely concerned: ….yeah, your mother used to do that
ramona: anything wrong with your hair?
violet: oh, no, not at all!
ramona: everything….going okay?
violet: yes, absolutely!
[the thing about violet acting as klaus though is that she can get like his speech patterns down but her own natural cheeriness still shows through in the places where klaus is in general quieter]
this is gonna get discussed right after this but ramona knows violet ties her hair up to focus because lemony told her in a letter, years ago
so ramona frowns and walks over to her and ties her bangs back with one of the ribbons, and violet just so visibly relaxes
ramona, incredibly emotional: oh
ramona: violet?
violet: ….yes.
ramona: so I can’t necessarily abide by breaking up a marriage but HECK YEAH i’m down for helping you reunite them. beatrice got me in the divorce and it’s very irritating just writing to lemony, which he actually hasn’t done for a while, now that I think about it.
violet: why don’t you just visit him? i’m sure he’d love to see you.
ramona: he makes me send the letters to a post office box. I do not know that man’s address.
violet: ……...that sounds about right.
(bea still does not find out until the hotel shenanigans, though.)
(I love ‘beatrice got me in the divorce’ like that’s fucking hilarious, cause I picture ramona as lemony and bea’s best friend so when they aren’t together it’s like…...well, what happens to ramona???? WHO DOES RAMONA HANG OUT WITH?? WHO GETS CUSTODY OF RAMONA)
(but also like, wtf lemony and ramona write to each other and bea never finds out???? I mean ramona was their best friend so like yes I think they do keep in contact but then does ramona never tell lemony about klaus????? and for them to write to each other and ramona to get these letters and BEA IS IN THE SAME HOUSE??????? I can’t tell if this is just angsty or poor thinking through on my part
but like ramona has to know for the reveal scene here to work out right, otherwise she’d never guess specifically violet
unless I rewrite the scene, but? nope. i’m committed to this ribbon reveal. I like it a lot. fuck it.
THIS WAS WHY I TOOK OUT BERTRAND AND OLIVIA AS CUTE PEN PALS auuuuuggggggg
I don’t know I mean. it is weird and stretching this (already shenanigans-filled) fic a little but. I don’t think it’s the WORST illogical thing I can stick in here. and they are friends, they can write to each other, just, yeah, probably not a lot and they actually probably don’t talk about the kids a lot, cause then lemony would know about both kids and since r wouldn’t tell bea she was writing to lemony bea wouldn’t know anything at all about violet and THAT’S what’s not good (although r telling lemony about klaus is cute i’m gonna have to nix it here. no can do.), so yeah r probs never brings up klaus and lemony rarely brings up violet, he probably only mentions the ribbon thing back when she was really really young because of how much it reminded him of bea and lemony was One Sad Man in his twenties trying to cope with the emotional reality of raising a child that reminded him of his wife and needed to tell someone
that is a lot of weight on ramona though and she doesn’t say anything but lemony apologizes for bringing it up in the next letter anyway and actually after that they probably talk a lot less cause it’s hard on both of them)
(writing is hard! writing is hard.)
ramona: so what’s your plan now?
violet: first, I have to make a phone call.
VIOLET CALLS KLAUS, keeping in mind the concept of time zones a little bit better than hallie and annie
violet: so, it turns out that mother is engaged????
klaus: engaged????? to who?????
violet: this man named bertrand, and, honestly, klaus, he’s such a nice person, he brought me, well he brought you, an atlas –
klaus: oh. that is very nice.
violet: it’s the sort of atlas you could probably use to incapacitate a reasonably-sized adult.
klaus: wow.
violet: and mother said that apparently she knew him when she was younger, and they get along so well, but –
klaus, remembering the picture he found with the extra candygrams: wait
klaus: is he sort of tall, and thin, and blonde
klaus: and sort of, idly optimistic
violet: yes! although I would say more….calmly steadfast
klaus: hmmm
klaus, trying to describe bertrand’s facial expression in this picture: disarmingly kind?
violet: humorously honest?
klaus: I think father has a picture of him in his desk!
violet: !!!!
[myth: confirmed!]
klaus: and some notes from high school from mother and him!
violet: !!! klaus, based on some other things i’ve found, I think all of them might have had feelings for each other.
klaus: !! that makes a considerable amount of sense here. if they all still do, that could make this much easier.
violet: but we won’t know for sure unless –
bernadette: who are you two talking about???
klaus: BERNADETTE
violet: bernadette, are you on the extension again
bernadette: well why wouldn’t I be?
bernadette: it sounds like you guys are talking about bertrand.
violet: how do you know who bertrand is?
bernadette: dad talks about him all the time???
bernadette: well, not when uncle lemony’s around
bernadette: he sent dad that book of poetry that mom immediately burned
bernadette: the elephant guy?
violet: …….oh, now that you mention it! that’s right!
klaus: wait why did your mother burn the book
violet: aunt kit has very little patience for certain poetry.
klaus: she doesn’t like john godfrey saxe??
violet: it’s a big deal, it’s best not to get into it.
violet: look, I think what we need to do is get everyone together and sort this all out.
violet: we’re scouting hotels this week for the reception, you can come here and meet up with us at one of them!
MEANWHILE, kit finds bernadette on the extension, for an honestly longer than usual length of time (bernadette does eavesdrop regularly), and also klaus on the phone in general (and violet rarely uses the phone, like, as a phone. usually she’s taking the phone apart), and really, nothing gets past kit fucking snicket. (you know kit denouement does have a great fucking ring to it, but as I said before, just try and tell me she didn’t insist on keeping her maiden name when she got married.)
so she goes and finds klaus and hears the end of the above conversation and is like ‘oh shit, they totally switched on lemony and bea, what badass kids’
[what if she tries to corner bernadette first
kit: bernadette, I didn’t know you knew anyone to call on the phone.
bernadette, without missing a fucking beat: I called the international operator to ask about time zones, but she caught me up in a conversation about soap operas and whether or not their use of sudden death is considered theatrically cathartic or not.
bernadette: I told her it happens way too often for it to be cathartic.
kit is too impressed to counter her. kit loves her daughter so fucking much.]
so then she sort of shows up in klaus’s doorway when he goes to leave the room after the phone call, arms crossed over her chest
kit: is there something you’d like to talk about?
kit can be outrageously intimidating but kit is also, actually, a pretty good parent
kit, significantly more gently: just between you and me, klaus.
klaus: …..maybe.
kit: come on, let’s go for a walk. you can tell me all about it.
klaus: it’s a long story.
kit: well, good, I like long stories.
klaus: are you going to tell father?
kit: don’t you think you should tell him?
klaus: do you think he’ll be upset?
kit: oh, not at all. more with himself than you, anyway. once, violet was responsible for wiping out the electricity of the whole city, and he gave her two slices of cake for dessert and said he should’ve bought more books on electrical wiring.
lemony is appropriately concerned and horrified and thrilled to see his son, like, oh my god, but the moment is taken over by the urgency of the situation because klaus says he has something to tell all of them that cannot wait
[forgive me for not writing that one out.]
klaus: so it seems like mother is getting married
lemony: oh
lemony: well
lemony: like haircuts, marriage – marriage comes to all of us, at some point –
klaus: to bertrand?
kit, lemony, and dewey: /STUNNED, DEAD SILENCE
kit: oh my.
dewey: what are the odds?
lemony: I think I can die now. I believe i’m ready.
bernadette: why don’t you just go see them and work this all out???
lemony: bernadette, I don’t know if life works like that.
bernadette: uncle lemony, you’re going to ruin all my bright-eyed optimism.
dewey: sometimes I think I didn’t have anything to do with you at all, bernadette. I think you just sprang, fully-formed, from your mother’s head.
kit: don’t be vulgar, dewey. ….thank you, though.
kit: but really I don’t see any other way to sort this out than by going to see beatrice and bertrand.
[this was one of the very first conversations I wrote for this and I am still very attached to it, even though I find dewey so hard to write, I haven’t yet figured out how I think he functions with these guys, especially kit, which I should maybe have done sooner but, what can you do.]
[also I feel like it just makes more sense in this for them to KNOW bea is engaged]
[I’m putting this in here because honestly……….in the movie once elizabeth realizes the switch she does not spend nearly enough time hugging hallie constantly or getting to know her, I get that seeing your ex-husband for the first time in eleven years is A Lot but YOUR DAUGHTER WHO YOU HAVEN’T SEEN IN ELEVEN YEARS AS WELL IS RIGHT FUCKING THERE] [also makes up for not writing klaus revealing himself as klaus, i’m so sorry.]
lemony: klaus?
klaus: ?
lemony: I – please don’t think that I didn’t love you. because I do, and I have thought about you every second of every day, I promise you. and there are many things that I should have done as your father, and many things that I cannot make up to you, but I want you to know that whatever happens with this, I have always loved you. and I am sorry.
so i’ve always pictured that klaus (besides looking reasonably like bea anyway, in any universe) gets angry like she does, and bea gets that sort of like, quiet cool hatred that turns into full-blown shouting really quickly and she will pull no punches and just fucking give it to you!!!!! and klaus has some sort of version of that and like look I put a lot of thought into ‘adult problems fucking over small children as those adults fervently avoid those problems’ when I wrote babybea so like
man, of course klaus can be angry at his parents for like???? never trying to work things out???? this is the first time in almost ten years he’s seen his father and his sister and he has an aunt and an uncle (and another uncle he hasn’t even seen!) and a cousin he never knew about because of lemony and bea being stubborn and stupid and recklessly young!!!!! I think violet is honestly less mad about it (well, she gets a little mad about it later on, but like, being raised by lemony, she has this weird way of trying to rationalize things while feeling really guilty about it, but that’s scenes away from right here – or she just? maybe internalizes it more.) but klaus is like, he’s not totally angry but like, as himself, face to face with lemony, lemony talking to him like a parent and about klaus and not about bea or violet or shenanigans or anything, like, yeah, he’s a little angry that it’s just….taken this long and that lemony and bea are so stupid
klaus is an angry crier. and an angry hugger. so that’s what he does.
like it’s hard to suddenly have a relationship with a family member whose never….been that to you before or made themselves available like that or just generally been there at all, and as much as I want them all having a good time, bea and lemony have some shit to work out with their kids
THEY HAVE A GOOD HUG, IS THE POINT
and I want to say that like they spend some time together after this and…….yeah they probs do it’s just gonna be weird re: the previous paragraph so…….maybe they just sit around and read and occasionally point things out to each other, that sounds chill and legit, doesn’t ask a lot of either of them
SO, that brings us to, later that night, when lemony can Officially Panic
kit: so
kit: you seem a little tense, brother mine.
lemony: I am NOT going to break up a marriage between two loving people who care about each other and happen to have incredibly pleasant facial features and are two people I myself still care about a great deal despite not having seen either of them for a lengthy amount of time
lemony: we’re only going to switch the children back, and I will talk to beatrice, about something, and I don’t have to say anything at all to bertrand, and that’s going to be it. that’s all. nothing beyond that.
kit: that would be a more powerful statement if you weren’t packing every single fancy tie you own.
lemony: really.
lemony: we’re not going to think any more into this.
lemony: that’s all we’re going to do.
lemony: which tie should I wear?
kit: well, definitely don’t pick one of the ones you’re strangling in a death grip.
(hey, where is jacques in this??????????? wish I knew)
(he’s probably regularly out of town, maybe he happens to call home and bernadette is the one to pick up the phone and she’s like “we’re going to see aunt beatrice, I think we’ll be back in a week or something?” and then immediately hangs up because dewey calls her for something, and jacques is left, miles and miles away, standing in a phone booth and wondering if, perhaps, he should maybe visit his siblings more often so they don’t go tearing off to california
jacques: kit what the hell is going on
kit: what, didn’t bernadette tell you?
lemony: ask him what tie I should wear
kit: we’re embarking on the adventure of a lifetime, jacques, it’s your own fault that you decided to go out of town this weekend, I really don’t know what to tell you
lemony: ask him what tie I should wear
kit: /sighs
kit: what tie should your brother wear
jacques: the one with the single blue stripe, it brings out his eyes, what are you two doing
kit: really, jacques, you need to pay more attention
kit: lemony, he says the one with the blue stripe
lemony: oh, good. tell him he’s a lifesaver.
kit: lemony says you’re a lifesaver, although I have yet to see real proof of this, however I will consider changing my mind if you happen to bring me a souvenir. please remember that I could use a new set of nice, engraved fountain pens. also our plane is leaving soon and we need to pack, so bye, loser
jacques: ………………….
jacques: what did I do to deserve this)
(jacques, in any universe, is eternally pained by his siblings)
this being a rehearsal dinner brings it very close to, you know, an actual wedding date, and the thing is, I have planned a completely different wedding-related fic, weddings are EXPENSIVE AND, YOU KNOW, TIME-CONSUMING, PLANNED IN ADVANCE, ALL THAT SHIT
but the whole reason there’s a wedding in the parent trap in general is because, if meredith and nick are just dating, there’s no commitment, marriage means COMMITMENT and A TIME CONSTRAINT and meredith wants his fucking money
so yeah bea and bertrand ARE engaged and planning to get married and plans have happened but the idea of this being so close to the rehearsal dinner makes me sad about all those ‘yeah i’m gonna have to cancel’ phone calls someone is gonna have to make, which is, well, pretty silly, but still, I Hate feeling uncomfortable esp when reading things like that (or even just, thinking of them in advance)
and that is why they are scouting hotels for the reception. (don’t ask me where the denouement is. I do not know.)
so bea + co get to the hotel first, and the only people who know lemony + co will be there are violet and ramona
ramona, hanging back to talk to violet while bea and bertrand and olivia (she has a good eye for decorating.) go ahead: do you know what you’re going to do?
violet: well, I thought maybe we would just
violet: all bump into each other?
violet: and go from there??
ramona thinks that’s an exceptionally courageous take on this and that, yep that girl sure is bea’s daughter
[yeah bea still has NO IDEA ANY OF THIS IS HAPPENING ramona is A+ at keeping secrets
meanwhile, sometime later-
olivia: you didn’t tell me?????
ramona: olivia, I love you dearly but you can’t keep a secret to save your life
[oh, yikes, re: legit asoue canon]
olivia: ……..okay, you have a point.]
it is at this moment that lemony + co arrive, and bertrand, who had backtracked for a moment because he realized he dropped a pen, immediately runs into dewey, who had stopped near the door to examine the hotel brochures and ambiance in more detail (you can take the boy out of the hotel but you can’t take the hotel out of the boy)
[based on penultimate peril, I always thought bertrand and dewey were very good friends and had bonded over absurd poetry, and, of course, based on kit burning the poetry book, are still in contact – there’s much less of a sense of forced distance between bertrand and dewey, because dewey’s just lemony’s brother-in-law and bertrand was friends with dewey first so they’re still good friends but like most adults they have a hard time committing to keeping in contact regularly especially with the distance and haven’t physically seen each other for some time]
so they bump into each other –
bertrand: dewey!!
bertrand: it’s been ages, what are you doing here, how are you!!!
[dewey denouement, much in the way that olivia caliban can’t keep a fucking secret, cannot fucking lie.]
dewey: oh, um
dewey: you know
dewey: hotel conference!!
dewey: kit wanted to travel!!!!
dewey: we’re traveling FOR a hotel conference!!!
dewey: WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THESE CURTAINS, BERTRAND
bertrand: ……..dewey, you’ve never been very good at lying.
dewey: no, no I really haven’t.
dewey: forgive me for everything, bertrand.
bertrand: you might have to be a little more specific.
beatrice: bertrand, have you – dewey??
dewey: oh no
beatrice, remembering dewey and kit are married, suddenly battling sheer terror the likes of which she has never experienced: how….how are you
dewey: I could be better. I could definitely be better.
beatrice: is kit here?
bertrand: I believe they’re here to look at the curtains.
dewey: we’re definitely here to look at curtains.
beatrice: ….they don’t have curtains in england
dewey, grasping at straws: not….like these….?
MEANWHILE back at the ranch, lemony backtracks outside because he dropped a pen, narrowly missing three adults awkwardly talking about curtains
olivia: beatrice, we’ll be late for the wine tasting if we don’t go soon.
beatrice: oh – well, dewey, it was….nice to see you
dewey: please, go enjoy your wine.
bertrand: /waves good-bye!!!!
klaus and bernadette, hiding behind a nearby ficus, because bernadette thinks fast and has her own specific idea about how this should go and it doesn’t involve her relatives meeting again because of her father talking about curtains: wow.
violet: /narrowly avoids getting swept up into the wine tasting, darts for the elevator to try and locate klaus + co
MEANWHILE back at the ranch, upstairs, in their hotel room
lemony: why did I think I could do this
lemony: how do I approach a couple here to scout locations for a wedding reception?
kit: ….you approach them
dewey: don’t talk about curtains, maybe.
lemony: i’m not – dewey, what do curtains have to do with this?
dewey: trust me, just don’t talk about them.
there is a knock at the door. lemony has seen death. this is it, for him.
anyway, it’s violet.
klaus: violet!
violet: klaus!
awkward sibling hug sincere sibling hug!!
violet: klaus, please take your glasses back.
klaus: oh, thank you. my spare pair just doesn’t feel the same as these.
lemony: violet!
now, seeing the two of them together, he can absolutely tell the difference between them. ain’t that just the way.
lemony hugs his daughter like she’s going to disappear right out of his arms and then hugs klaus for good measure and he has to try and ignore the true roller coaster of emotions that puts him through and then tries to look very stern.
lemony: i’m not disappointed in the two of you but I cannot believe you switched on your mother and me. that was very….
lemony is not good at being angry at his children, he has no real concept of it.
lemony: ….clever. it was very clever.
violet and klaus are very proud but find it in themselves to try and look a little chagrined. they don’t do it very well.
violet: father, you really need to talk to mother.
klaus: and bertrand.
lemony: both of you know about bertrand??
klaus: you and mother are very transparent about him.
MEANWHILE back at the ranch, at the wine tasting
ramona: what do you think?
beatrice and bertrand, equally lost in thought about the presence of dewey, the implied presence of kit, and the possibility of the presence of lemony: hm??
bertrand: oh, yes
beatrice: wine
beatrice: /downs entire glass
beatrice: /sets down glass
beatrice: not that one.
bertrand, who has been holding the same glass for the past twenty minutes and has no idea which wine that even was: definitely not.
MEANWHILE back. at. the. ranch.
lemony’s children have such boundless courage (I have hurt myself so many times while writing this fanfic with the occasional too-on-point line and this in particular wounds me these kids are so strong and so important and won’t take no for an answer compared to their parents and get the chance to get their parents to FIX THINGS and oh no i’m gonna cry) and have dragged him downstairs to the lobby, with the INTENTION of having him run into bea and bertrand
lemony: this is not going to work out –
violet: nonsense!
klaus: it’s going to work perfectly.
meanwhile, bea and bertrand leave the wine tasting
bertrand: ….did we come to a conclusion, about the wine?
beatrice: no, I don’t think so.
bertrand stops by the bathroom to wash his hands for something to do as he’s consumed with thoughts (not about wine), beatrice is in a daze as she goes through the lobby, violet notices her but sees she’s not with bertrand and decides she has to stall
violet, rushing over, purposely trying to block beatrice’s view with varying success: mother, how was the wine tasting?
beatrice: oh, it was –
did you remember violet gave klaus his glasses back?
beatrice: klaus, what happened to your –
and, well.
beatrice looks at her so hard and processes kit and dewey being here and then it fucking hits her like (forgive me. forgive me so hard.) a harpoon to the chest
beatrice: ….violet?
violet: yes.
beatrice: but – how –
klaus, appearing next to her: it’s a truly fascinating chain of events we’d like to tell you, but –
hey! beatrice is stunned and horrified! and grabs her daughter into a hug, knowing now that it’s her daughter and has been this whole time and!!!! she feels so awful with herself for not noticing but is also trying to not make a big deal out of it and startle violet by sobbing uncontrollably on her shoulder but beatrice is simultaneously devastated and filled with so much love and she’s for sure going to break apart now
beatrice: and klaus –
she’s hugging them both now, it’s very good.
beatrice, in tears: you two are lucky you’re so cute
violet: mother, there’s someone we’d very much like you to talk to.
beatrice knows somewhere in the back of her mind that it’s lemony but is also not even thinking of lemony because, her children
klaus: /tries to wave lemony over
lemony: /trying and failing to hide behind a ficus, have you seen a ficus, have you seen lemony
violet: /ALSO WAVING
beatrice can’t miss that for the world.
beatrice, while turning around: what are you two –
imagine, if you will, lemony snicket trying to hide behind a potted ficus that hits about mid-chest.
also imagine, if you will, two people who divorced over eleven years ago, still have too many feelings about each other, split up their children for their stupidity, have been trying to avoid the knowledge that both of them are there for the past hour, and are now confronted with the reality of their lives right in front of them
…….besides the ficus.
lemony, stepping out from behind the ficus: hello, bea.
this is a headcanon i’ve long held, since I first started writing asoue fanfic, but, bertrand and lemony say ‘bea’ differently, especially in canon, like particularly in canon, so it’s like less so here but lemony still says her name with so much love, and bertrand says it with love too but lemony has known beatrice for so so long and here they are after years apart and here he is saying her name again, and he never ever ever expected to say it like that again, he never even DREAMED of saying it to her again, but it’s real
beatrice: lemony snicket.
violet: as nice as this is for us –
klaus: – we’re going to allow you three the time you need to discuss assorted events.
at this moment (of course), bertrand reemerges.
bertrand: bea, I –
he sees violet and klaus rushing off, looking delighted, and bea and lemony standing there still trying to process words, and then there’s bertrand, frantically thinking ‘abort mission, ABORT MISSION’
because. the way they turn and look at him, in tandem, like they did all the time in high school, immediately makes bertrand feel like they’re there, back in high school, back at prom, here’s the two absolute loves of his life standing in front of him and bertrand is filled with delight but also fear because, here it is, they all have to deal with it now
(all of them are thinking that, the three of them, standing there, there is not a single trace of jealously but instead there is so much love and regret and it’s, heart-wrenching)
and here is where he loses all his Chill™.
bertrand: you know what, i’m gonna – go –
bertrand: /trips over a chair
lemony: oh –
beatrice: bertrand!
bertrand: totally fine, still alive, i’m – they have such a nice gift shop, you know, i’m – i’ll be there
bertrand: /high-tails it practically out of existence
beatrice and lemony: ….
lemony: he – he still has a very nice running form.
beatrice: yeah, I think so.
lemony: well, bea
lemony: or does everyone call you beatrice now?
beatrice: no, no, bea – bea is fine. bertrand still calls me bea.
[beatrice starts to laugh. “it’s – man, it’s funny, isn’t it?”
lemony smiles at her. “what is?”
“i’m going to marry your high school crush,” beatrice giggles, “who’s still – still in love with you.” she stops. “you know, that’s actually really not as funny as it sounded in my head,” she says, frowning.]
they have dinner!!! and talk. about. stuff. do violet and klaus recreate the night lemony and bea met or the wedding or something????? idk honestly. like at least they didn’t get married UPON MEETING I MEAN LIKE COME ON (although somehow that is very them, but, come on, this backstory is good and solid and I love characters that grow)
maybe they just pool their allowances and give their parents a banging night out (which is pretty much just. dinner.)
beatrice: I see that cut on your forehead healed up nice
lemony: yes, anna karenina left very little lasting damage –
both: – except to anna karenina.
they pause, and then just, fucking burst out laughing, this is a horrible old joke for them that they made up when they were in school because anna karenina was the biggest book either of them owned (neither of them were particularly interested in war and peace) but was somehow sort of light and if you dropped it it really didn’t do much damage, which they thought was funny re: the size of the book and the subject matter
beatrice throws it at lemony during the fight that ends with their divorce and it’s the first time it actually hurts something
lemony: so, how is bertrand
lemony: I don’t think i’ve seen him since – well, since before the twins were born.
beatrice: oh, he’s – he’s doing really, really well. he’s a librarian, and – we keep joking about how many more books klaus and I will be able to read. lemony, he’s got the magazine editions of hammett –
lemony: w h a t
lemony: does he even have the –
beatrice: yep. he has the unfinished story. i’ve seen it.
lemony: I knew I liked that man for a reason
THERE IS SUCH A WEIGHTY PAUSE.
lemony: that is, hammett, obviously. I mean, the continental op is one of the quintessential fictional detectives, and hammett’s novels –
beatrice: you did like him, didn’t you
beatrice: when we were in school, you looked at him the same way you looked at me.
lemony: oh, no
lemony: I looked at you with a rapt adoration and I looked at bertrand like he was a puzzle I couldn’t solve. I have that on good authority from my sister.
beatrice: oh, right, right.
lemony: ….but I did, didn’t I. I did like him very much.
lemony: I don’t think anyone disliked him.
beatrice: that wasn’t quite what I asked, lemony.
lemony: ….what do you want me to say, bea? that I saw him there, with you, and couldn’t even find it in me to be jealous because the sight of you two together made me so unbelievably happy that I forgot how to breathe? that I – that I wondered, for a moment, if, twelve years later, we could – if I –
lemony: ….i don’t believe this conversation is supposed to be about bertrand.
beatrice: …….no, I – I suppose not.
lemony: that day, when you asked me to leave –
beatrice: you mean when I shouted at you to leave.
lemony: I was trying to be kind.
beatrice: lemony, I for sure shouted at you.
lemony: no, bea, I – I thought things would be better if I left. if you didn’t have to put up with me, because you clearly didn’t want to. and I didn’t make it easy for you, back then. there were many things I overlooked about both of us, things I hid from both of us, things I should have talked about with you. and I didn’t.
beatrice: ….oh.
lemony: I thought that loving the person that I wanted you to be was enough for the person that I wanted to be. obviously, it wasn’t, because you asked me to leave and I left. I never even looked back.
beatrice: ….lemony, I don’t think anything would’ve been enough for either of us. I asked a lot of you, too. I didn’t want you to see anything bad about me, and you didn’t, but the longer we were like that, the more I just – the more I really hated you for it. you just saw what you wanted to. and, well, what I wanted you to. I think I kind of hated me, too.
beatrice: sometimes, I think, what would’ve happened if we’d stayed together and I don’t know if I like that either. not that it was – okay, what we did. because it wasn’t. and we might’ve changed or we might’ve fucked up even worse, I don’t know, and i’ll never know.
beatrice: but lemony, seeing her now, I regret every single second I haven’t spent with her because of it.
lemony: I know.
beatrice, who’s a little angry cause she hates when lemony says that to her and her temper gets away from her: do you?
lemony, who’s just regretting all his life choices and knows he fully deserves beatrice’s ire: ….i’ve missed so much of his life.
beatrice, voice breaking: ….yeah.
man, these are some really miserable parents.
beatrice: we should – I don’t know, you know, what we’re gonna do, with – us – but we should – they, they should see each other. we can’t do that to them again.
lemony: I agree.
beatrice: you know, we have some pretty clever kids. I would never – okay, maybe, but I don’t know – have had the balls to switch places with someone on the other side of the world.
lemony: we do, don’t we?
lemony: I know we didn’t do a great deal right, but, maybe we did, with them.
beatrice: ….yeah, maybe we did.
beatrice: not every day two people have kids like ours.
lemony: …….can I be honest with you, bea?
beatrice: …okay.
lemony: i’m glad they switched places. i’m – i’m glad I got to see you. and bertrand. and you.
beatrice: i’m glad you came, lemony.
[all these conversations starring two people steadfastly trying to avoid that they are still in love with each other but also trying to really acknowledging they have Real Problems, brought to you by one (1) woman struggling to get two characters to talk about their problems but also the idea of introducing a third person into their already rocky relationship, don’t mind me just casually dying over here, this was harder than I thought]
beatrice, feeling the weight of this conversation and knowing they done fucked up in the past but also desperately wishing she and lemony could go back to where they were before only better and just trying to figure out where they’re gonna go from here, girl’s doing her best here, and you know what, so am i: so, um
beatrice: fuck, marry, kill
beatrice: continental op, nick charles, sam spade.
lemony, going through incredibly similar emotions: ….
lemony: do you want me to give my virtue to one man and then marry another
beatrice: why do you always take this game so literally
beatrie: I am banging nick charles, but I am marrying the continental op for job stability, and I am killing sam spade where he stands
lemony: bea, no, you can’t just kill sam spade like that
lemony: how about, I take the continental op to dinner, I have a pleasant night with nick charles –
beatrice: I like that we’d both fuck william powell.
lemony: we’ve both seen william powell. no one wouldn’t.
lemony: but sam spade, though, I don’t think it’s so clear cut as all that –
they’ve really!! grown a lot!! they’re really trying to talk this out!!! a little, at least!!! be adults!!!! talk like they didn’t eleven years ago!!!!!! they’re so stupid and they’re trying so hard!!!! my kids………….
this is definitely not the only conversation they’re gonna have about this, like it’s Good that they’ve said this but there’s. a lot more they need to talk about and will probably talk about, just not right now
anyway, LATER –
the continuing saga of two people Not Talking and then Talking About Certain Things and then Inadvertently Talking About The Things They Didn’t Want To And Not Quite Realizing It
lemony: at the hotel
lemony: you, ah, said something about bertrand
beatrice: !!!!
beatrice: ooo, we are talking about him, hmm?
lemony: bea.
beatrice: fine, fine. yes, that he’s still in love with you.
lemony: is he really?
beatrice: I think he is.
beatrice: you still didn’t really answer me before, when I asked if you still felt the same about him.
lemony: ….does it matter, if you’re going to marry him?
beatrice: of course it matters! i’m not – i’m not marrying bertrand to, prove a point or anything, or – say I like him better than you, I – i’m marrying him because I, I love him, but I don’t – that’s not all there is to this.
beatrice: I mean, we didn’t get divorced because of bertrand, that was all on us, but – seeing both of you, sometimes I feel like – maybe – we – maybe we could’ve made it work. not if we had bertrand, but with him. now.
beatrice: and, and that’s a lot, to ask you – I know – it’s a lot to ask both of us, especially after everything, but – do you?
lemony: ….bea.
beatrice: lemony.
lemony: ….i feel that, in the interest of the past eleven years, we should perhaps talk to him before I make a concrete decision about that personal feeling.
beatrice: well, that’s – that’s a wise choice.
they are, quiet, for a while
it’s a lot to think about, you know?? there’s a lot to this
lemony: …….but I think I do.
beatrice: you think you do?
lemony: I think I do.
beatrice: I think I do, too.
there is a little more silence because they’re like ‘!!!!! well that’s SOMETHING REALLY BIG TO THINK ABOUT’ especially because they haven’t like totally committed back to a relationship with each other and there is!! still!!! so!! much!!!! but, they’re thinking about it now, and they’re, sort of floaty-happy because it’s like, wow, wow, this is a possibility, they can
maybe
push it, a little, and see what happens, maybe maybe
lemony: well, you should, you are marrying him.
beatrice: shhh, you are ruining the rhythm.
lemony: I think –
beatrice: you think?
lemony: it’s been known to happen.
beatrice: mmm, I don’t think so
[it’s hard to tell because there’s generally very little concept of outside action/feelings when getting down scenes this way but these few lines are supposed to be v cute and soft and just the tiniest bit flirty]
lemony: trust me, I have had many a thought.
beatrice: well, I think –
lemony: you think, now, do you
beatrice: I do indeed, lemony snicket.
[god. lemony wants to kiss her so fucking bad. beatrice wants to keep teasing him until he does kiss her. they’re very close. he just. smooths her hair behind her ear and takes a step back.]
lemony: I think we should talk to bertrand.
beatrice: yeah. we should. we should probably do that.
MEANWHILE.
I want bertrand to bond with these kids with all my heart so that’s what fucking happens while bea and lemony are dealing with their problems
they play a rousing game of scrabble. it’s usually a game I give the snicket siblings because of their vicious playing styles (which is just based on me and my brother playing scrabble) BUT I love scrabble a lot and I think it’s super cute if bertrand hangs out with violet and klaus and they play board games, it’s distressingly endearing to me, violet trying to sneak in names of inventors on the board and klaus being insistent on following the rules of the game and bertrand trying to come up with a sufficient compromise
bertrand: okay, so, last names are allowed, but only if you can also include the first initial, initialisms by themselves are not allowed, and foreign words and phrases are on a case-by-case basis, providing I can translate it and you’re not trying to put down something inappropriate.
klaus: what about scientific names?? can I put down binomial nomenclature
violet: hey how do you spell binomial
klaus: b-i-n-o-m-i-a-l
violet: oh, how neat.
violet: /puts it down on the scrabble board
klaus: ….
violet: :)
bertrand: it looks like you can put down binomial nomenclature.
bertrand: but yes, I will allow actual nomenclature, klaus.
klaus is deathly quiet for the next few turns until he manages to put down nomenclature. (which I think is achievable, with enough luck.)
klaus: actual. nomenclature.
violet: so that’s how it’s gonna be, huh
bertrand: okay, references to previous conversations are no longer allowed, let’s try this again
eventually they stop playing the damn game and come up with their own wildly specific set of rules for playing scrabble, and bea and lemony come back to a lot of paper and a lot of scrabble tiles and violet and klaus sitting on either side of bertrand on the couch, helping him write this rule list
and bea and lemony want to comment about how they’re not even playing scrabble, but watching bertrand interact with their kids and be so soft and patient with them is the most distressingly heartwarming thing they’ve seen in a long time
they both have the immediate thought of ‘holy fuck I wanna kiss that man,’ which is followed by ‘holy f u c k maybe a relationship between all of us could work’
lemony: bertrand.
bertrand: ?
lemony: could we talk?
there is no camping trip! instead we got NEARBY HOTEL SHENANIGANS and THREE PEOPLE ON A DATE AT A LOCAL FAIR, TRYING TO FEEL THINGS OUT
imagine your average carnival-fair sort of thing with Rides and Games and Absurd Amounts of Cotton Candy and That Super Salty But Still Real Good Popcorn
bertrand and lemony arrive first and bea specifically gets there late so bertrand and lemony can actually talk, because honestly this is the only time I can see in all this that these two would be able to talk to each other uninterrupted
and they all know they’re there for the weirdest date ever but bertrand still feels the need to clear the air
bertrand: lemony, I don’t want you to think that I was waiting your marriage out or anything, I didn’t even know you two weren’t together until last year, and I didn’t even intend to see bea, it just happened on accident –
lemony: bertrand, it’s fine.
lemony: beatrice and I aren’t married anymore, you don’t have to explain anything.
bertrand: ….sometimes I feel like i’ve wanted to explain everything to you, for the past fifteen years.
[bertrand ‘breaking my fucking heart again’ baudelaire…….]
bertrand: that’s – silly, isn’t it.
lemony: no. I don’t think so.
bertrand: I never got the chance to say it. well, actually I don’t think I ever let myself say it, because I had plenty of chances! especially at prom, I could’ve changed everything! but you and bea were so – I wanted you two more than anything else in the whole entire world, but I didn’t want to hurt you two or what we had. I think I did, though.
bertrand: and, and I really shouldn’t blame myself or anyone for these stupid mistakes that happened when we were just kids, because we were just kids!
bertrand: I mean, we’re right here, right now, and i’m – i’m really looking forward to this, lemony.
[lemony, much like me, is momentarily dazzled by how fucking genuine bertrand is]
lemony: so am I.
lemony: ….i kept those candygrams you sent me when we were all in high school because they were remarkably sweet and I treasure them dearly
bertrand: !!
lemony is so nervous and I love him and you know when you get nervous and you just sort of spill weird secrets to people, especially when it’s the person you like???? that’s that
they look at each other for a moment and then start laughing and it’s the kind that starts kind of soft and then they’re just rampantly giggling and being dorks and I love them both so damn much okay
and because they haven’t regularly seen each other in you know fifteen years they spend some time. talking about their lives. there’s a lot of things they don’t know about each other!
lemony and bertrand like make a vague show of trying to win bea some prize and they suck and they stand to the side and talk while bea wins herself a prize and she runs back over to them and just looks so proud of herself, winning this…….thing (it’s very much “i don’t know if it’s a duck or a panda, but I want one.”)
lemony: is it a…….hmmm
bertrand: ….those are cat ears, right
beatrice: what, no, they’re wolf ears
lemony: it has webbed feet, though
bertrand: it’s a platypus! oh, no, not with all those feathers.
lemony: it could easily be a duck, I suppose
beatrice: BUT THE EARS
bertrand: a penguin!
lemony: a grackle
bertrand: a goose!
beatrice: THE E A R S
lemony and bertrand share an obnoxious amount of cotton candy, and honestly it’s the date they all should’ve had in high school, a date that would’ve changed everything, and man, they’re having so much fun and maybe they could do this, lemony has never been so happy and bertrand is just this ball of delight and, it’s really beautiful, and beatrice is for sure thinking that and she’s having such a good time and she’s so happy
but then
she thinks, what if it DIDN’T change everything, what if they all got together in high school and tried to make it work and really fucked each other over, would they have been able to do it?? what really would’ve happened??? and they’re adults now, they’re better people but they have so much more to think about, there is so much more at stake now and beatrice is fucking terrified about what could happen, all of a sudden
and she’s been terrified for years about all the terrible things that could happen to klaus or her or ramona and olivia and even their stupid cat and she’s still trying to hide it so well and she does, she’s happy and creates such a good life for her son but she is so scared and she can’t keep running from it anymore by being impulsive or silly or shouting all the time, she has to face the reality of the situation that she really has to think this one through, what all three of them are going to do about this
she and lemony still have so many problems, and they both know that, they all know that!!! they aren’t going to solve them right away!!! and with bertrand there, maybe it’ll be harder!! maybe it won’t be easier!!! not that bertrand immediately makes things easier, in any universe!!! but especially here!!! you know!!! what if they don’t talk about anything because he’s there??? what if they avoid talking about everything so much in trying to be happy that they irreparably fuck them all over??? it’s been so long since all three of them were together, what if they can’t do this!! what if their kids don’t like them together, what if none of them can get along??? suddenly there are a lot more variables to this, and seeing it happen, bea is struck by everything they’re going to have to fix and all the ways it could go wrong and it’s not good
beatrice: …..what are we doing?
beatrice: and – and what if it doesn’t work out, this time?? what if we all try this and we can’t do it??
bertrand: do you think that little of yourself?
beatrice: no.
beatrice: i’m thinking about, what if I break my kid’s hearts, even worse than I already have? I can’t do that, not to them.
and, they get it. they love each other so much but this story isn’t about just the three of them anymore.
bertrand and bea decide not to get married. and even though they all know they still love each other, lemony and bea have violet and klaus to think of, so they all decide it would be for the best to go their separate ways.
violet and klaus are not happy, by any means. they are not happy to pack up all their stuff and know that nothing is going to work out, and it hurts, a lot, man
klaus, picking up his books: I really respect our parents and their chosen additional life partner but don’t you think they can be a little…..
violet, jamming her toolkit into a suitcase: stupid?
klaus: I was going to say stubborn
klaus: but stupid works too.
so they all say good-bye :( lemony, violet, kit and dewey and bernadette go home. (bernadette’s real upset no one got back together. she hides it well but she just sort of crams herself into her seat on the plane on the trip home and is just super bummed. I love this lil kid.) (I fondly remember when this outline was nowhere near over 20k and was just a short little thing and bernadette’s scenes just monopolized it….)
the thing I love about bea raising klaus is that, and I also feel this for canon too, klaus gets so so much of bea’s anger and short temper
like violet is a lot more calmer in the take no shit category but klaus will, like his mother, flip a table
klaus: mother, that was the most foolish thing you’ve ever done and you know it
beatrice: !
beatrice: don’t you – don’t you use that tone with me, klaus
beatrice: I am your mother
klaus: and you’re just going to let my father and my sister walk away from us???
beatrice: I – it’s more complicated than that!
klaus: how??
beatrice: klaus, would you want me to risk this, everything we have, on the off chance that your father and I could maybe sort out our differences?
klaus: you didn’t seem to have that many differences!
beatrice: there’s a lot of things you don’t know, klaus!
klaus: then tell me! you’re the one who’s always telling me I can do anything, and I just think it seems pretty rich of you to decide that that doesn’t apply to you, or that I don’t get to know everything about the people who are supposed to be my family!
klaus has a point, here, and beatrice realizes that, so she decides IN THAT INSTANT that, okay. fine. it’s time to do something about this and she can do something about this.
SO SHE GOES TO BERTRAND
bertrand: bea, what –
beatrice: I can’t – look, I can’t do this to my kids either, okay, I can’t keep them apart anymore, what – why did I think that was such a good idea in the first place??? so I wouldn’t see lemony?? so I wouldn’t work things out between us, because we were fucking kids when we were together and, and I sacrificed my relationship with my daughter because I was so petty and selfish, and i’m doing it again, bertrand!! i’m letting myself do it again after everything we all talked about because i’m so fucking scared but I – I can’t do this to myself, you know? I want – I want things to work out this time. with all of us. I want to make it work and i’m going to make it work and i’m going to go get my daughter and lemony, and I want you to come with us, if you want to come with us.
klaus, leaning out of the car window and shouting at beatrice and bertrand, who are standing on the steps of bertrand’s place: if I may interject, the plane we intend to catch does leave in half an hour, so you two should maybe hurry up a little
klaus: not to ruin your moment or anything!
bertrand, desperately: I want things to work out, bea, I do. but what if you were right and we can’t –
beatrice: i’m right about a lot of things, bertrand baudelaire, and i’m right about this.
bertrand, nodding and trying not to smile too much: ….okay. okay.
MEANWHILE
violet: ….are you mad at me?
lemony: what – violet, I could never be mad at you.
violet: but I – I went behind your back, and I tricked both of you, and I wasn’t even thinking about what you wanted, it – it was just what I wanted, and that wasn’t okay, I shouldn’t have interfered with you and mother at all, I feel so awful –
lemony: none of what happened was your fault, violet. not at all. it was mine. i’m sorry that I kept so much from you. it was incredibly unfair to you, and to klaus. I should have told you a long time ago.
violet: I never got to ask before, but why did you and mother get divorced?
lemony: ….we were very young, and very impulsive. and, also, incredibly scared. that’s not a good combination when you’re trying to make a life with someone.
violet: you two seemed to get along a little better, now.
lemony: well, eleven years is a lot of time. you get older, and you realize the mistakes you made in your youth could’ve been dealt with a lot more easily than you previously thought. you realize you were….
violet: stubborn?
lemony: stupid.
violet: what made it not work out, this time?
lemony: you also realize there are more important things to think about than yourself and what you want.
violet: !
violet: father, I didn’t want you to –
lemony: it wasn’t your call to make, violet.
violet: but it was yours about whether or not I get to see my brother? you were only thinking about what you wanted, too!
lemony: ….
violet: ….that was rude of me, i’m sorry.
lemony: no – don’t apologize, violet. please.
violet, still very angry but also just sad and concerned about how lemony has, in the intervening time between these two conversations, said very little: I thought bertrand was nice.
lemony: bertrand – bertrand is very nice.
so they get back home.
lemony: what would you like for dinner?
violet: I don’t think i’m all that hungry, father.
lemony: no, neither am I.
and lemony just sort of, wanders into the library with his hands in his pockets, because he’s somehow more miserable than he’s been in quite some time, and he’s expecting to just sit around and stare at his typewriter and not get anything done for the rest of the night or really for the foreseeable future, and the library is filled with so many books and so much stuff but it feels so empty to him now, and lemony himself feels empty and horrible about everything and he just stares at the floor without really seeing anything at all
AND THEN
klaus, sitting in one of the library chairs: father, did you know that the concorde gets you here in half the time?
[I just kept the line. I thought long and hard and could not for the life of me think of any other jazzy lil line.] [although yes sadly the concorde no longer exists]
[hey, if lemony and violet are here, and kit and dewey and bernadette were with them on the plane, who’s driving the bus who let bea and bertrand in the house???? cause in the movie it’s gotta be the grandfather
jacques, who had stopped at lemony’s house hoping that he could catch them before the flight but obviously not catching them, who stayed to water the plants: /exiting the house
beatrice, careening out of a taxi: JACQUES HOLD THE DOOR
jacques: !!!! beatrice?? what are you –
bertrand: we’ll have to tell you later, there’s no time!
jacques: bertrand????
klaus really only has time to wave.
all three of them: /BOLT PAST JACQUES INTO THE HOUSE AND SLAM THE DOOR SHUT, leaving jacques out there in the street
jacques: ……….]
anyway
lemony, STUNNED: klaus?
violet, dashing into the room because she heard her brother: klaus!
klaus: ideally we would’ve figured this out before you left, but when you did, we were not completely happy about it.
lemony, still trying to collect himself: you –
and there’s bea and bertrand, standing there, real as anything! really there!! in his library!!
and lemony walks towards them, because this isn’t a matter of, chasing anyone, it’s all of them coming together like this
beatrice: this is gonna work. the three of us, this is gonna work.
beatrice: what do you think?
and the thing. about lemony. is that what he wants more than anything else in this whole fucking world. is a family. particularly in canon, being separated from (reasonably dead) parents and growing apart from his siblings and losing those connections to people, he so desperately wants something that’s his and his own and that he can keep stable by himself
and I think he still feels that way even in whatever fucking world of an au this is, and of course he wants to be with bea and bertrand and to have klaus and violet because he loves them but he is also massively craving that stability of having his own family and like really having it this time, not fucking it up because he’s young and stupid and just as impulsive as bea
THE POINT IS THIS IS A LOT FOR HIM, OKAY, THIS MEANS SO MUCH, to get this!! second chance at all the things he totally fucked up before, PLUS the loves of his life!!!!
and like!!! there’s bertrand. there’s bertrand!!! standing there and reaching out to take lemony’s hand and lemony takes bea’s and bea takes bertrand’s other one and. the road they had to take to get here wasn’t. the best. all the time. they all made mistakes. some. worse than others. and this isn’t the end, right here, there’s still gonna be things they have to work out. and it’s gonna be okay because there’s beatrice and bertrand and lemony. they’re in the same room and no one’s scared.
lemony: yes.
beatrice: yes???
bertrand: yes?
lemony: yes.
there’s a lot of good hugging, people are kissed, comments are made about chapstick flavors, lots of laughter, violet and klaus are tearing up and thrilled beyond belief, everything is beautiful!!!!!
klaus: I can’t believe –
violet: – we actually did it!
and, of course, beatrice was right. about everything.
the following amount of time is filled with –
-lots of arguments.
-mostly between bea and lemony.
-although bertrand has his fair share of arguments with both of them.
-violet and klaus don’t speak to each other for two weeks under the pretense of disagreeing about a book’s theme but really because they’re not sure how to act around each other now that they’re both there, they’ve lived their whole lives as only children and this is what they wanted but it’s also something they didn’t think about having to adjust to
-there’s also this immediate reluctance to listen to anything bea and lemony tell them because they have to get used to parents now, too
-parents who aren’t currently super functioning as parents
-there’s a lot of second-guessing people’s intentions
-why did you say that?? the hell does that eyebrow mean???? you picked that song for a REASON and fuck you for that!!!! you don’t trust me to drive, do you???? I KNOW HOW TO MAKE A SANDWICH FOR MY CHILD THANK YOU VERY MUCH
-that sort of thing.
-in varying shades of seriousness.
-i know it sounds mostly like just bea screaming there but trust me the sentiment is shared by all of them in various ways and actions
-they don’t do it in front of violet and klaus though
-NO ONE KNOWS WHERE THEY’RE SUPPOSED TO LIVE NOW, do they stay in england or all go to california??? do they go somewhere else???????? what even (I don’t even know)
-(they probably do stay in england though. that’s what I was picturing while writing this.)
-violet and klaus do adjust to no longer being only children and realizing they have someone their age to rely on now who understands them
-they make blanket forts where violet designs these stands that will hold books up and periodically turn the page so they can lay on their backs and read and not worry about moving
-klaus reads up on inventors so he and violet can talk about them
-they argue with bea and lemony a little about weird things because violet and klaus are trying to figure out where they are with their parents now and how they’re supposed to act and bea and lemony are trying to figure out how to coordinate parenting while wanting to kill each other
-they institute family game night and try to best each other in cards or scrabble because they can handle that
-bertrand, of course, is in a very awkward position at this time
-like he’s around but he can’t take sides because that’s Weird and he’s not that kind of person anyway, and he wants to be there but he doesn’t quite know as what
-like, he was gonna marry bea!! and now he’s not. and he loves lemony!!! but he can’t do anything about it because bea and lemony have problems to work out!!! and bertrand loves both of them!! and they love him!!! they know they do!! he knows they do!!!!! but everything is very uncomfortable!!!
-like, bertrand needs to be on equal footing in this relationship too!
-he hangs out with dewey a lot and they become Poetry Buds again
-he participates in family game night
-bea and lemony are worried that bertrand is only going to see himself as like a peacemaker between them when he isn’t because he never has been and realizing that bertrand is a huge official permanent part of their lives now is a big thing for them
-hi, my name’s lulu and writing the navigation of relationships is hard!!!! it’s so fucking hard
-the three of them watch movies wednesday nights – bertrand picks the movies and he picks these really sweet romantic ones (cause that’s just the kind of movies he likes!!!) and it’s unbearably great
-they mean to watch the thin man movies (the ones with nick charles aka william powell aka the guy lemony and bea would both fuck if they had had the opportunity) over a series of weeks but wind up marathoning all six of them one night (and it takes all night)
-none of them can function the next day
-bertrand: I get it. i’d do it with nick charles, too.
-beatrice sings herself hoarse during a play rehearsal and can’t talk for a week
-she can’t sleep one night and lemony finds her in the kitchen and makes them both tea and they salute each other with the mugs
-bertrand takes up writing limericks and leaves them around the house and lemony finds one in the shower and slips from laughing so hard
-bertrand, in the hospital: I could’ve killed you with poetry
lemony: I mean, all things considered, it’s not the worst way to go. it’s better than next to a pile of books I was meaning to read, which I always thought to be much more likely. slipping in the shower because of a charming limerick about shoes? it’s not all that bad.
bertrand: I don’t know whether to take the compliment or be worried about how you’ve considered how you’re likely to die. please don’t die.
-beatrice shows up at the hospital and throws the stuffed animal from carnival night at lemony
lemony: oh, you didn’t have to give me your….ah….
bertrand: ….moose? have we guessed moose?
beatrice: the ears……….
-things get, better
-they take turns picking up the kids from school
-some kid: gee violet how come your mom lets you have two dads
violet: just lucky, I guess
-lemony helps beatrice rehearse her lines and they straight-up make out for an hour instead
-lemony and bertrand make dessert once a week and routinely end up covered in flour
-there is a household debate on ‘what species is the stuffed animal’ and ‘what are we going to name it,’ moderated by kit
-violet puts on a one-woman play that she and klaus wrote about hedy lamarr for her school’s talent show and receives a standing ovation
-lemony and bea and bertrand are in the front row and beatrice is full-on sobbing during the standing ovation
-they get bertrand a new record player for his birthday and all three of them dance to his records the whole night
-yes they ARE all falling in love with each other all over again it is very important to me that they’re all on the same page when they do that
-violet and klaus make bertrand a ‘best additional parent’ mug because they don’t quite know what to call him (they haven’t figured it out yet), like violet makes him a fucking mug in her glassblowing class (you ever seen someone glassblow a mug??? it’s great.) and klaus does this beautiful calligraphy label for it
-bertrand cries immediately, for the next hour of his life, and just carries it around because he doesn’t know where to put it
-beatrice: aww, that was so sweet of you two, to make – does that say ‘additional parent’
lemony: I believe it says ‘additional parent.’
violet: we did also consider ‘greatest poet’ but that had less of the feeling we wanted.
klaus: we do realize that ‘best’ is truly an unquantifiable concept, because there’s no one out there ranking parents, but we thought it was the most fitting.
it’s after that that they all decide to get married.
later on, sunny is born!! and she’s very upset she missed out on all these shenanigans.
[jacques comes back to find so many people in his brother’s house.
kit: well jacques, you really should be home more
lemony: yes, find a nice person
lemony: …...or two
kit: settle down, stop looking so surprised.
lemony: kit your daughter just leapt off the bookshelf and tackled my husband
kit: and am I surprised? no.]
[also jacques does not buy his sister a nice new set of engraved fountain pens.
kit: so did you get me a souvenir or not, jacques
jacques: souvenir? I thought you said
kit: JACQUES WE ARE ADULTS DON’T YOU DARE BEETHOVEN ME
jacques: edward lear
jacques: here’s this book of delightful nonsense poetry.
kit: how could you]
[while bea is pregnant with sunny –
bertrand: what about sunny?
lemony: bertrand baudelaire.
lemony: you come into my house.
lemony: you marry my wife.
beatrice, across the room: I married both of you???
lemony: and you have the audacity.
lemony: to suggest we name our daughter after our high school drama teacher.
bertrand: okay but your reaction isn’t necessarily a no]
16 notes · View notes
ryoyiel · 4 years
Text
Hogwarts AU - Chapter 1/?
Hey guys! I thought I’d upload my work here on tumblr as well, so here you go! 
The house of the Prevc family was old and dark and mysterious, with many rooms and floors. Everywhere in the house hang portraits and photographs of the family and their ancestors. Countless books in ancient bindings and runes filled their library, dark artefacts could be found all across the mansion. You could feel the magic when you entered the house, breathe it in. They were a proud family. Proud of their descend, proud of their belongings, proud of their magic, which was one of the strongest, but also one of the darkest family magic in all of Europe. But most of all they were proud of their eldest son, Peter. Peter was everything an honourable pureblood family could wish for in an heir. His magic was strong, so strong that even the portraits he passed by could sense it. He knew how to behave, knew the etiquette. His younger brothers were not so much like him. Whereas Cene, their second son, was a son they could very well be proud of too, even though he and Peter differed a lot in character and attitude, Domen certainly was not. Where their ancestors praised Peter for his outstandingly strong and dark magic and aura when he walked past their portraits, they wrinkled their noses when Domen did.
“Disgustingly light the aura of this boy”, Domen’s great grandfather had said once, followed by a very rude sounding word Domen, who was five at that time, could not understand. (He looked it up in a Slovenian dictionary years later and felt very much taken aback to say the least)
Domen was different from the rest of his family, and he knew from an early age on. Not at last because his parents told him every time, they got the opportunity to do so.  Especially when he didn’t start to show any signs of accidental magic until the age of ten when he made Peter’s hair fall out at the Christmas dinner, because his parents had started to praise Peter and made Domen yet again feel horrible for being who he was and how he didn’t have enough magic in him to ever get his Hogwarts letter.
 A few months later he got the letter and tomorrow Domen would finally go to Hogwarts with his brothers. Tomorrow was the day he had been looking forward to all his life, yet Domen couldn’t sleep. Tough he was excited to finally learn more about his magic and how to use it, he was scared to not live up to his parent’s expectations. Scared of bringing even more dishonour to the family. It was his chance to make things right, he knew that because his mother had mentioned it often enough. But he wasn’t sure he could, if he actually wanted to.
“Did you fear not being sorted into Slytherin?”, Domen had asked Cene, who had just shrugged.
“Not really. When I sat up there, the hat on my head, I was so sure I was going to be sorted into Slytherin. The sorting hat told me, that Ravenclaw would seem a better fit to him. But he ended up putting me into Slytherin anyway, because after all it was my wish. He takes them into consideration. You don’t have to worry”
Domen knew that Cene wanted to make him feel better, but he only made things worse. Domen didn’t want to be in Slytherin. He didn’t want to be anywhere near his oldest brother who was so stuck up and perfect. He didn’t want to be anywhere near those people who spread so much hatred and fear. He didn’t want to be one of them. Though he knew not all of them were like that. They couldn’t be! After all, Cene was one of them and he was the most kind and caring person Domen had ever met. However, Domen didn’t want to be there. He couldn’t tell why, not yet. In a few years he’d know. He’d know that his parents were in the wrong and that he had already sensed it back then. He’d know that all of their values were meaningless and against his own believes. But at that very moment Domen was nothing but scared out of his mind about how his parents would react if he wasn’t sorted into the right house.
 Domen had managed to fall asleep eventually. He could remember both Peter and Cene telling him about their dreams they had the night before they went to Hogwarts for the first time. How they dreamt of the sorting ceremony and the feast. Of unfamiliar faces on the train. Domen didn’t have any of that. He didn’t dream at all, at least he couldn’t remember when he woke up. Rather was woken up. Their house elf, Jošt, had been sent into his room by his parents to wake him up and he did so by banging his hands against Domen’s nightstand. Needless to say, Domen didn’t appreciate it.
“Bloody hell Jošt, stop it!”
Jošt was wearing a dirty old bedsheet. Domen could make out a big pinkish flower where the fabric fell on Jošt’s shoulder. He was sure that ever since he was born Jošt had been wearing that very same bedsheet. The elf stared at him, an ever so grumpy look on his face.
“Master Prevc, your mother has sent me to tell you that you have missed breakfast and that you are leaving in half an hour”, just like Domen’s parents, the elf only spoke Slovenian. When his grandparents had moved to England, they had already brought him with them, therefore he was very old already and not at all fund of the thought of having to learn a new language, even though he had lived here for several decades. “She wishes you to get dressed and come downstairs. I will be taking care of your luggage for you, master”
“Hvala” While Jošt, just like the rest of his family, valued tradition and honoured their family’s name, he was a good soul. He cared about the kids a lot, especially about Nika and Ema, Domen sisters who both were a few years younger than him. He was a bit of a replacement for their grandfather, who had died the same year Nika was born. It was also Jošt who had sneaked up to Domen’s room when the young boy had been grounded and not allowed outside of his very own four walls. Who had played chess with him and sometimes brought along sweets from the kitchen.
 They used floo powder to get to London. Domen’s parents were close friends with another Slovenian family, the Zajcs. Their son and Domen were the same age and best friends for as long as he could remember. They were both first years and Domen couldn’t wait to explore the castle with him the same way they had explored the grounds around the Prevc’ home. The moment he arrived in the salon of the Zajc family, he saw Timi’s face beaming at him in excitement.
“We’re going to Hogwarts, can you believe it?” The other boy took both of Domen’s hands in his own and dragged him out of the fire place, jumping a little in excitement. “It’s surreal”
For the first time in days Domen actually felt truly excited. Even if his family was going to disown him if he was sorted into the wrong house, at least he was going to have fun. To have the time of his life. He would make new friends. He squeezed Timi’s hands a little and he felt how Timi’s genuine happiness started to infect every inch of his body. If everything was going wrong, he would still have Timi by his side.
“I can’t wait!” Domen looked into Timi’s face. He had always thought that Timi had very fascinating eyes and right now it looked as if there were actual stars locked in them. Only when his father pulled him away and to his side, he had realised that he had stared.
“My youngest son is going to Hogwarts now, I cannot believe it!” He laughed a deep laugh that was very typical of him. Domen didn’t like it, because he knew it to be fake. His father never laughed at home, he only did when others were around, especially not when it was about Domen. His parents were champions at hiding to other how they really felt about him, how much of a disgrace he was. He knew for a fact that Timi’s father wasn’t any different.
“They’re growing up so fast” Timi’s mother sighed as she cupped Domen’s face with her hands. She was a beautiful young lady who looked way too young next to her husband. Domen liked her a lot, because she always brought him and Timi biscuits when Domen was staying over. She seemed genuinely nice and he knew that she was a Hufflepuff back when she was at Hogwarts. She cared a lot about her son, and she cared a lot about Domen as well. Domen secretly wished that she would be his mother as well.
Mrs. Zajc brushed a strand of hair out of Domen’s forehead before she let go of him again. In the corner of his eye he could see his own mother giving her the same glance she gave him and his siblings when they did something she didn’t approve of.
“We have to get going”, Timi’s father exclaimed, looking slightly uncomfortable. Domen once overheard Cene and Peter talking about how their parents and Timi’s parents only were friends because they both were dark and ancient Slovenian pureblood families with a similar political view – though the Zajc family was less radical – and not because they actually enjoyed each other’s company.
On the way to Kings Cross Domen didn’t talk a lot, unlike Timi who didn’t shut up for a single second about how excited and thrilled he was to finally go to Hogwarts. Halfway to the train station Domen had managed to block out the other boy’s voice and was again thinking about what was to happen if he wasn’t sorted into Slytherin. What was to happen if he didn’t live up to his parents’ expectations and, lord beware, wouldn’t be allowed back home and thrown out by them. Maybe Timi’s parents would give him shelter – though Domen wasn’t sure if Mr. Zajc would approve of him not being in Slytherin either.
Domen got pulled out of his thoughts when he bumped into his younger sister Nika, who had challenged herself by trying not to step onto the gaps between the stones on the ground. Peter managed got a hold of them both so that they wouldn’t fall to the ground.
“Watch your steps”, he snapped at Domen. The younger boy rolled his eyes.
Domen wanted to say something mean, but he didn’t dare. Peter took Nika’s hand in his own and they kept on walking. Domen stared at the back of Peter’s head, hoping it would explode if he just stared long enough.
“Don’t mind him” Timi had put his hand on Domen’s back and gave him an encouraging smile.
“That’s easier said than done”
“I know, I’ve spent enough time with him”
Domen sighed as they entered the station. They went to get carts for their trunks and moved to the platforms 9 and 10. It was the fourth time now for Domen to get onto platform 9¾ but he still couldn’t remember which wall they had to run into. Peter led their group and without any signs of distress he walked into one of the brick walls, head held high.
Cene followed, with a much higher pace. Domen looked at Timi who was slightly nervous. He winked at him before he started to run towards the wall. Though it wasn’t his first time he was scared that the wall suddenly decided to not let him through and he were to crash into it. But instead of crashing, he went through and straight onto platform 9¾.
Domen loved to see the colourful, traditional robes mixed with suits and muggle clothing. He loved the sound of cheerful voices that laid like a blanket over them.
“Mum, I’ll write to you, I promise!” Timi looked rather annoyed by his mother who was trying to fix the collar of her son’s shirt.
“Don’t forget to write me about… You-know-what”, she mumbled. Domen knew they were talking about her because Cene had told him a week ago, that their mother had requested a weekly report about Domen’s behaviour and that his two brothers should take care of him if he didn’t bring honour to their family. Cene had reassured him that he would never in a million years consider actually doing so. He looked accordingly annoyed when their mother brought up the topic again. Peter in the meantime nodded and reassured her that she wouldn’t have to worry and that he’d be taking care of the issue. Domen hated him for calling him that.
After hugging his brother, his mother also pulled Domen into a tight hug. It felt awkward because they never did that.
“I will miss you so much my baby”, she cried out, in English and for everyone to hear, just to make sure they knew how perfect of a family they were, before she whispered “Behave or you will be disowned faster than you can imagine” Then she let go of him. Their father only nodded at them.
The three boys said goodbye to their sisters, before they got onto the train and parted ways.
 On the train Timi and Domen went to look for a compartment. They were some of the last ones to get on the train and therefore they had quite some trouble finding that had space for two more students and where the people sitting in the compartment didn’t scare the two boys too much. The train had long left Kings Cross before the two of them found a place to sit. Towards the other end of the train, three boys sat in a compartment, happily chatting with each other. Timi opened the door and stuck his head in.
“Do you still have room for two?”, he asked and the boys started talking and looked at the both of them.
“Sure, take a seat”, one of the two Asian boys with a wide grin. The boy next to him, who too looked Asian, just nodded. The third guy, who very much didn’t look Asian, removed a small, weird looking, square with some weird wires coming out of it from the seat next to him.
Timi and Domen went to sit next to him.
“I’m Naoki Nakamura”, who has been speaking earlier said as he reached out for their hands.
“Timi Zajc”, said Timi as he shook his hand.
“Domen Prevc”, said Domen. Naoki nodded.
“You are purebloods, right?” While Timi nodded a bit too enthusiastically, Domen felt a bit weird. He didn’t want the first conversation they had be about blood purity.
“And you two are?”, Domen asked the other two boys, not wanting to continue with the topic.
“Vojtěch Štursa”, the boy next to Timi answered. He smiled at them.
“Ryoyu Kobayashi”, the third boy said. He too smiled at them, but it seemed less enthusiastic as the other two’s.
“Are you first years as well?”, Naoki now spoke again. Domen sensed him a very sociable guy already and he kind of liked that.
“Yes” Timi nodded enthusiastically. He was about to continue the conversation when they were interrupted by a knock on the compartment door.
“Anything off the trolly dears?” An old lady stuck her head in through the door, smiling at them with a warm smile. Behind her, Domen could make out a trolly filled with treats. Chocolate frogs, Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans, sugar quills – everything a children’s heart desired.
“Yes please”, he answered, together with Timi, Naoki and Vojtech.
They took something from everything and split it evenly between them. Only Ryoyu had kept quiet and didn’t take anything. He was staring suspiciously at Vojtech who was trying to eat his chocolate frog.
He leaned towards Naoki and asked him something in a forgein language Domen didn’t understand. Naoki answered in the same language. Domen could only guess that he was guiding him through the different sweets in front of him, given that Naoki was using the same names they used in English when referring to the products.
“Do you have different kind of sweets in… Where were you from?”
“Japan”, Naoki again smiled at him. “And yes they are quite different there… More fancy actually, but you have to know that Ryoyu is a muggleborn and not used to his sweets jumping around and making frog noises”
Domen laughed a little. Timi only forced himself to smile. Out of the two of them, Domen had always found it easier to talk about muggles and muggleborn wizard without insulting them at every given opportunity. It had also been Domen who had made friends with several muggle children who lived close to their mansion, and had then been given hell by his parents for it.
“Don’t say anything rude now”, Domen switched to Slovenian so that the other wouldn’t understand what was going on. He had felt Timi stiffen next to him and he definitely didn’t want him to make a scene now.
“Try” He held out the last chocolate frog box for Ryoyu to take it. Ryoyu bowed slightly while carefully taking both of his hands to take the box.
“Thank you” He placed the box on his slap before pulling out a small box himself. He held it out to Domen, again with both of his hands and bowing slightly. Domen hesitated for a moment, before he tried to copy the others movements from before.
“Thank you”
Domen opened the box and spotted three little, white balls. He looked up again, a questioning look on his face.
“Mochi. Is very good. Please try.”
Domen nodded and picked up one of the balls and tried it. For a moment he thought he didn’t like it, but the longer he had it in his mouth, the more he started to actually like what he was eating.
“It is really good. Thank you” He nodded at him.
“Now try the chocolate frog!”
Ryoyu nodded as well before he very carefully opened the box. Faster than the boys could react the frog had jumped onto the window. Vojtech managed to catch him before it actually jumped out of it.
“It can’t jump anymore. You can eat it now”
Ryoyu still didn’t seem to really trust the concept. He brought the frog up to his mouth and closed his eyes before he bit off the head. He chewed on it, his whole face in wrinkles. He started to slowly relax his face and his lips grew into a smile as he opened his eyes again.
“Good” The other boys laughed, even Timi had started to ignore the fact that this boy in front of them was everything they had been brought up to hate.
“What card did you get?” Vojtech asked, visibly thrilled to learn which witch or wizard he had gotten.
Ryoyu fingered the card out of the box and looked at it for a second, before he turned it around for them to see. On the card was a portrait of a young witch with long and curly brown hair.
“Hermione Granger”
  Through the remaining time on the train, the five boys kept chatting about everything an nothing. Vojtech was a halfblood from Czechia and his parents had moved to London because his father had been given a job at the ministry as the Czech ambassador. Both Ryoyu and Naoki’s families came from the same Japanese island, Hokkaido. Ryoyu’s family had only moved to England last winter and it was a bit of a shock for them when the letter had arrived. Though Ryoyu was a fast learner, his English wasn’t yet good enough to keep up with them throughout the whole conversation and Naoki had to play the translator a few times. But overall, the four of them got along quite nicely. Internally, Domen was praying that they could become friends.
21 notes · View notes
whatisahyunjin · 5 years
Text
Perfect; bc
pairing: reader × Bang Chan
genre: fluff
warnings: being acquainted with Ed Sheeran’s song ‘Perfect’ is recommended
a/n: it’s been a while because i have been busy with studies but i hope you enjoy this! request imagines in ask box! (also, thank you for 200 followers i love y'all)
masterlist
-
You and Chan have been dating for four years and you have been asking him to cover Ed Sheeran’s Perfect with his group ever since it came out. You have been pleading him to do it for two years but he would just sing two verses for you and leave it at that.
Not that he hated the song but it just wasn’t his genre. He never considered making a full cover of it because it would be a trouble for the boys and something about “it doesn’t fit their concept”.
But Chan had a good idea about how much you liked it ever since you two first confessed that you loved each other.
It was a typical summer afternoon from two years before and both of you were watching a movie while cuddling on the couch. Remains of popcorn and soda laid on the table in front of you. Once the movie ended with a dramatic scene, you sat up and stretched your arms, trying to get rid of the drowsiness that was building up in you. Chan smiled at your actions and pulled you back down on his chest.
“You wanna go take a nap?” he whispered in your ear. You just shook your head and wrapped your arms around his waist.
“Let’s watch something else then,” he started scrolling through YouTube videos on the television.
After a few seconds, he frantically stopped on a music video and exclaimed,“ hey look it’s our song!” he exclaimed, almost throwing you off the couch in the process.
You chuckled, “Calm down Jesus.”
“You don’t look excited,” he pouted at you.
“I’ve heard it a hundred times I don’t feel anything anymore,” you sat properly on his lap and yawned.
“Fair enough,” he sighed, a genuine, proud smile playing on his lips as he watched his own music video. It was nice seeing him like that, his eyes sparkling at the sight of his beloved group.
The song ended and the first beat of the next auto played song had you off your butt.
‘I found a love…’
Chan looked up at you confused while you just motioned him to get up. He stood up and you put his arms around your waist and yours around his neck. You smiled up at him as he realized what song it was.
“Aish..,” his cheeks turned red as he swayed to the rhythm with you his arms.
“You know that I love this song,” you giggled and pulled him a little closer.
Chan rolled his eyes and kissed you on the nose.
A few giggles and kisses later the song was nearing its end and the both of you were slow dancing with a comfortable silence between you.
“I don’t deserve this, you look perfect, tonight,” he sang the last lyric and at that moment you swear you fell hard and fast. You sure loved him for the two years you had been dating but never once had you felt the way you were feeling right now.
The words escaped your mouth before you could stop them.
“I love you”
Chan looked taken aback for a second because you two had never said that each other before.
But he was quick to respond with an ”I love you too, so damn much”
He kissed all over your face before placing his lips on yours and that moment was euphoric. He tasted like oranges because of the soda he had been drinking and you couldn’t get enough of him. Your hands held his face and his held your waist pulling you closer if that was even possible.
That was until you were suddenly interrupted by Gangnam style playing on the television. Way to go.
Back to the present, Chan had been planning something and you were completely unaware of it. Actually, there had been a little fight between you two the week before because he had taken out his work pressure on you when you had again asked him to cover a few songs including Perfect.
“I already have a lot of stuff on my hands right now so it would be nice if you shut up about your stupid song for a while,” he had said.
Obviously, he didn’t mean it but it hurt you a lot. He tried to apologize as soon as the words left his mouth but you had already run to your bedroom and locked the door.
But you two had made up since then, with you explaining how he barely came home early these days and that you listened to the song because it reminded you of him. It resulted in you being awake until he returned from practice despite being tired from your own work and making him dinner every day even though he told you not to.
So Chan began planning the little idea that was in his mind.
You were in your office, working when you got a call from your boyfriend.
“Hey love, we’re filming something tonight at the riverside, do you wanna maybe come and watch? The boys haven’t seen you in a while” he asked you, his voice clearly suggesting that he was nervous.
“Yeah sure, I’ll be there by 6,” you smiled at the thought of meeting them.
“Okay see ya, I love you”
“I love you too”
The cool evening saw you by the riverside with the boys who looked like they were preparing for a performance video.
“Long time no see!” Minho greeted you first and guided you to one of the chairs behind the camera.
“Noona!” Jeongin, basically your and Chan’s son, grinned and waved at you from where he was sitting as he couldn’t get up because of the big baby Hyunjin in his lap.
You chuckled and waved back and greeted the other members as well. You looked around and saw something weird. The only people present there were the boys.
You felt surprised as to why there were no managers, photographers, makeup artists present there. They were filming a video after all.
“What are you guys filming?” you asked Chan, who was busy finding something in his bag.
He was startled and gave you a nervous laugh,“ you’ll see”
“(name) can you turn on the camera please?” Changbin smiled at you from his seat in between the other eight chairs. So they are just gonna sit and sing a song? What kind of video is this?
In confusion, you turned your attention to the camera and pressed the record button. Looking up again, you saw that Chan was seated in the middle with four boys on either side of him.
The music started and you immediately recognized the song. Tears welled in your eyes for no apparent reason other than the fact that it was your favourite song.
“Baby, I’m dancing in the dark, with you between my arms,
Barefoot on the grass, listening to our favourite song,
When you said you looked a mess, I whispered underneath my breath,
But you heard it, darling, you look perfect tonight”
The boys began singing the verses one by one. Jisung sang the first chorus part while Woojin did the next. What was that sh*t about not fitting the concept? Everyone was singing beautifully here.
All of them gave you a small smile during their parts instead of looking at the camera.
You found yourself grinning from ear to ear while swaying to the beat. Your eyes shone and your heart skipped a beat as their pretty voices filled your ears. You couldn’t believe that after months of whining, your boyfriend had at last accepted your request.
While the others were singing, Chan just sat there with his head down, his forehead wrinkled. You frowned at the sight but continued enjoying the moment.
When song neared its end, all the boys got up and walked away from you except Chan, who finally held his mic near his lips and approached you. His eyes met yours and you held your breath as he came to a stop a meter away from you.
“Now I know I have met an angel in person and she looks perfect, I don’t deserve this, you look perfect tonight,” he sang the last lyrics of the song but the background music continued to play.
Chan got down on one knee with a box in his palm and your hand flew over your mouth as you took a step back.
“(full name) we’ve been together for four years now and I swear I still fall in love with you all over again every time I see you. I met you in college and honestly, if it weren’t for that weird freshman party, all this would never have happened. I loved how you waited after lectures to teach me physics but sorry to say, I didn’t understand anything because I kept staring at your face. In the third year when I felt everything slipping away from my hands, you were always there for me and listened to me rant about how music was what I loved and not all the chemistry stuff they taught us. But the chemistry between us grew over the months and it was the happiest feeling in the world when your lips finally touched mine. This life I have now is all thanks to you. Thank you for tolerating my mood swings and absences, thank you for taking care of me. Thank you for everything you’ve done for me. We’ve been together for four years now and I would like to make it forever. (full name) will you marry me?”
Chan opened the box and gave you a small smile. You just stood there dumbstruck with wide, teary eyes.
“(name)?” his voice brought you back to reality and you threw your arms around his neck, careful not to knock over the ring.
“Yes yes yes yes oh my god Chan I love you so much,” you sobbed into his shirt, lightly gripping his soft hair.
Chan chuckled and sat down on the grass with you straddling his lap, your face still buried in his neck.
“Y'all this is a public place,” Hyunjin’s voice called out but he was smacked on the head by Seungmin as the boys made their way over to you two, clapping their hands and smiling widely.
A smiling Chan made you look at him and put the ring on your finger. He kissed the ring lightly before bringing his lips to yours. Everything was perfect.
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