#to be fair she was seven years old so it might've just been seven year old things | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sea-owl · 1 year

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Have some in-laws, Colin and Felicity. Set in the arranged marriage au which is also the same universe as this post.

Felicity knew it was fair to say she grew up without a positive male influence. Her father, Lord Featherington, had been a drunk and a gambler and then had the nerve to pass away when she was seven. She had no biological brothers, just three older sisters. They don't say it, but Felicity knew she was actually a last-ditch attempt for a male heir. It's pretty obvious when the sister closest in age to you is seven years older.

Then, when Cousin Jack came to try and place a bid as the new Lord Featherington, the ladies of the house were quick to figure out he was another liar and scammer. Mama was not one to take that lying down so she made quick work of him, quietly getting papers that said the first daughter to have a son will inherit the estate.

So yeah, the male influences in her family kinda sucked. But Felicity also thought that to say she didn't have any positive male influences was kind of a false statement.

Though she will never admit it to his face, ever, Felicity had Colin Bridgerton.

Colin has been engaged to Felicity's favorite sister, Penelope, since before Felicity was even born. The way the story goes that once Mama and Penelope no longer had to be isolated from everyone else and could receive visitors the Bridgertons came over to congratulate Mama on the new baby. With them was their five year old son Colin Bridgerton. While the other children played and their parents talked Colin apparently made himself comfortable next to whoever was holding Penelope. If she was passed to another set of hands Colin would follow and replant himself next to the new person.

The adults finally took notice of the little boy's fascination with the baby when Lady Bridgerton asked Colin if he wanted a biscut.

Colin, who at the point was sitting next to the crib they had put Penelope in, said, "No. I want to stay with my Pen."

Felicity thought they were lying the first time she heard this story, but then others including Colin himself confirmed it.

It didn't take long after that for their parents to officially arranged an engagement and ever since then Felicity has been stuck with Colin. At least it wasn't Lord Fife. She might've actually shot Fife if he was around as much as Colin is.

So Colin was there throughout the years. Felicity wasn't sure what happened during the early years, he was getting ready to go to Eton when she was born, but she does remember him coming over whenever he was on break.

"You're here again," Felicity gasped when she saw Colin in their family drawing room. "Didn't you just leave?"

Felicity was nine years old, and Colin was back on break, getting ready to go on his Grand Tour to finish out his university years.

Colin smiled his charmer smile. "Good to see you too Felicity."

Felicity ignored him and crawled up onto the sofa next to Penelope. She half laid on her older sister, hugging her around the middle and resting her head on her shoulder, shooting a victorious smile at Colin. Because despite the fact that he and Pen are engaged, he can't be openly affection with Penelope like this.

Colin's eye twitched.

Felicity giggled, Hyacinth was right. It's fun to rile up older brothers.

A year later, when Felicity was ten, her mother Portia had debuted Penelope at seventeen. Too early in most of the Ton's opinion.

Penelope looked miserable every time she went to a ball dressed in one of their mama's citrus colored dresses.

Felicity was worried. Her mama, Prudence, and Philippa all liked going out to balls. They enjoyed it. What was it her mama called it again? Husband hunting? Penelope already had a future husband, though. Was she upset that he wasn't there?

Felicity asked Penelope.

Penelope looked down at her younger sister, though Felicity was quickly catching up in height, and smiled. "I am alright, Litty. There are just a lot of people there who are very insistent they talk to me because of my engagement to Colin."

Felicity's eyebrows shot up. So this was Colin's fault? These people make her sister miserable that she does not get to enjoy the balls like her mama and other sisters do because she is engaged to him. Yet he is not here to take responsibility for that!

No, this will not do. Felicity's favorite sister deserved to have fun too! If Felicity has to drag Colin back by his ear she will!

Felicity began to pen a letter in her neatest handwriting.

Colin Bridgerton,

You must come home! Mama has debuted Penelope, and all these strangers harass her! Because of you! I can not think of any other way to say it. She looks so sad when she goes to balls, and when she comes home, she looks sad and tired.

You must take responsibility Mr. Bridgerton! Come home and make my sister happy once more, or I shall drag you back myself!

Felicity

Mixing it with Penelope's letter Felicity knew it would get to Colin soon.

Two weeks later, Penelope came home from Lady Danbury's ball and she was smiling!

Something good must've happened then. Felicity so wished to ask her sister. Oh if only she wasn't meant to be sleeping.

The next day, Felicity walked into their family's drawing room to see Colin Bridgerton sitting next to Penelope. Penelope was tracing the spine of a book Felicity hadn't seen before. Meanwhile, Colin was tracing Penelope's hand. They were both smiling.

Felicity grinned. Her letter worked!

"You're back!" Felicity cheered.

Colin smiled at Felicity, one of his genuine ones she's seen him throw at Hyacinth a few times. "Good to see you to Felicity."

When Penelope left the room momentarily, Felicity tapped Colin.

"When I am supposed to debut in society can I live with you?"

Colin made a weird face. "What? Felicity that wouldn't be appropriate."

Felicity frowned. "Why not? You'll be married to Penelope then," Felicity paused. "Won't you? And Ms. Evans lives with her sister, Lady Hunt, and her husband, while husband hunting. Why can I not do the same?"

"Oh," Colin said like he just connected two dots. "Felicity is there a reason you would want to live with me and Pen?"

Felicity fidgeted in her seat. "Penelope was miserable at the balls. She didn't want to go, but Mama made her anyway. What if I'm the same way? What if being out in society makes me sad, but Mama forces me to go to balls? I don't have a Colin to make balls better."

Colin nodded, now seeing the full picture. "Felicity, like you wrote in your letter, Penelope hating balls was my fault. There are people in the ton who want to weasel their way into the Bridgerton family, and they think going through our fiances is the way to do it. I wasn't here to protect Penelope from that. If I knew she was going to be debuted this year, I would have been here from the start. Now if I wasn't engaged to Penelope her dance card would have been full of suitors just like your's will be when you debut.:

Felicity giggled. "Your name would've been on her dance card the most."

Colin chuckled. "Yes, it would have." Colin reached over for a box. "And it's not like you won't have a Colin to protect you. You'll still have the original Colin! Only my protection for you will be a little different."

Felicity gasped. The pistols in the box were the most beautiful she's ever seen. They were small, around six inches and could be easily hidden in a pocket. Ivory handel with butterflies carved in.

"Now," Colin said. "I know you've been learning how to shoot a shotgun bit you need something smaller to be able to hide on you so I'm going to teach you how to shoot these. These will keep you safe, and keep those unruly suitors at bay."

Felicity giggled.

At twenty-one years old, Felicity was cleaning her pistols when her suitor, Geffory Albandsdale, dropped the most curious piece of news to her.

Felicity furrowed her eyebrows. "Geffory, why are you making plans to travel to York when my closest male relative lives in Bloomsbury?"

It was Geffory's turn to be confused. "Felicity I thought your sister was the one who lived in Bloomsbury with her husband?"

Felicity nodded. "She is, as does my brother."

Geffory jumped. "I am so sorry. I was not aware there was a Lord Featherington to ask."

"No there is not one yet," Felicity said. "I do think Penelope will have the first boy though, and that means the estate will pass to her, lord knows I don't want it."

Geffory just stared at the woman he loves. "Felicity, darling, I do not understand. You say your brother lives Bloomsbury but then you also say there is no Lord Featherington?"

Felicity crossed her arms. "Mr. Albansdale, I am talking about my brother in-law, Colin Bridgerton."

An understanding flashed across Geffory's eyes. "Your sister's husband."

Felicity nodded. "Colin has been the longest male influence in my life. We've been stuck with him since his engagement to Penelope when he was five years old. He has been there since I was born, when my father died, when Cousin Jack was found to be a charlatan, and we are still stuck with him to this day." Felicity playfully turned away. "I will not marry until you attain his blessing as my closest male relative."

Geffory smiled in understanding. He bowed to Felicity. "Very well darling, I shall make the trip to Bloomsbury soon."

A few days later Dunwoody opened the door to find Mr. Geffory Albandsdale looking to call on Mr. Bridgerton.

"I would like to ask your blessing to marry Felicity."

#i figured it was time to give felicity and colin their own fic #and i thought the arranged marriage au would be the perfect fit since colin would be attached to the family since before felicity was born #I do think colin and felicity have the potential for this type of relationship #especially had polin happened sooner and Julia let us see the bridgertons bonding with their in-laws #bridgerton #slight polin #colin bridgerton #felicity featherington #arranged marriage au

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mister-e-filman · 1 year

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DC Earth-32505

#1 Remembrance

She never asked to be an actress, all she really wanted was to follow in her father's footsteps... whatever they might've been. Her father... a great parent, no doubt, she remembered, right? The day her dad died? There had been so much bloodshed on that day in 2003, so much... death. It had now been eight years since that day and three years since surviving the fire, all thanks to her dog.

Penny (since neither of her parents could decide between Penelope or Peninah, they just decided to go with the nickname as her legal first name) Janice Winnie Forrester lay in her bed, a slender, soon-to-be 16-year-old teenage girl with fair skin, short auburn hair, and brown eyes. Her eyes darted over to her wardrobe, which contained not only all of her stage clothing but also her everyday clothing; a red T-shirt over a brown long-sleeved shirt, denim grey shorts, grey and white striped tights, alongside brown socks with a red line and brown boots, which she mostly wore when she was acting in the Bolt TV show. Her casual outfits were as such as a dark blue long-sleeved T-shirt, brown pants, and black shoes. After quitting the TV show and moving on to a new life with her pets, she wore a light green T-shirt, denim blue shorts, and gray shoes. Penny could see her childhood clothing peeking out from beneath the wardrobe, a yellow T-shirt with pink lining and purple flowers, blue shorts, and pink shoes, one of Penny's outfits was a spy outfit which Consisted of a black helmet with night vision goggles, a black T-shirt with red lining over a black long-sleeved shirt, black pants, a holster, and gray shoes, she also had a long-sleeved version of her iconic getup with a gray scarf over her red long-sleeved-shirt and white pants for cold weather, and green shoes, as well as a red tank top. She had refused to let her mom get rid of them as they had been the last thing she had worn when her dad had last seen her on that day. There was also a stain on the shirt that had never been removed, since the stain was of her dad's blood when she stayed with him after he had died.

She then remembered that day as all of the painful memories of the past came flooding back to her until it felt like it was only yesterday;

She was only seven about to turn eight in July of 2003, she was in the Holiday Inn located in Metropolis Illinois just minding her own business when suddenly there was what sounded like a sonic boom from outside shook the hotel room. She rushed outside just in time to witness Krypto the Superdog getting pummeled to the ground right in front of her by Steppenwolf. "Ugh, I'm getting too old for this!" Krypto grunted.

Then Red X/Brick Pettirosso came up from behind him and knocked him down as Steppenwolf shouted, " Traitor!" to which Red X simply said, "I'm as much a traitor as you are, Steppenwolf!"

Red X was then joined by his division of the Titans and their pet counterparts (Kid Flash/Wallace Rudolph "Wally" West with Lightning Rodney the roadrunner, Aqualad/Garth with Tusky the walrus, Wonder Girl/Donna Hinckley Stacy Troy with Leepa the kanga-mouse, and finally Speedy/Roy William Harper Jr. with Quill the porcupine.

to make sure that he stayed down but were unsuccessful as he easily got back up, his armor glistening in the sunlight.

Penny felt smaller than usual when Steppenwolf fully stood up, he stood at a massive 10 feet, while carrying his electro-axe.

Then Nightwing/Richard John "Dick" Grayson

arrived with his division of the Titans (Starfire/Kory Anders a.k.a. Princess Koriand'r, Beast Boy/Garfield Mark "Gar" Logan, Raven/Rachel Roth, and finally Terra/Princess Tara Markov of Markovia) to destroy the Axe in which they succeeded (with some help from Krypto the Superdog who used his ice breath on it) with the Axe shattering into thousands of pieces.

"Omegan, deal with these pathetic creatures!" Steppenwolf commanded Darkseid's loyal lead parademon. "Very well," Omegan told him while chewing on some seared steak.

But before they could do anything, they were pummeled by Doomsday/Davis Bloome and Armagedon/Melanie Whitney.

Dr. William Forrester came out of a small but effective hiding spot thanks to Bolt I/Larry Bolatinsky and walked calmly up to the Apokaliptians and prepared a bfg to use on them. Just then Steppenwolf's eyes glowed an angry shade of blue as he roared before charging at Penny's dad, knocking a very large car out of his way which landed right in front of Penny, obscuring her vision of what was going on as well as trapping her. After she finally was able to escape from where the battered car was, Penny looked around the destroyed part of the Metropolis neighborhood. She saw Cyborg/Victor "Vic" Stone hopping away back to the Titans and Justice League, due to missing his right leg that Steppenwolf had ripped off.

Batman/Bruce Thomas Wayne helped him over to where he could get fixed. His girlfriend Steel/Natasha Jasmine Irons approached him and kissed him. "It's so great to see you alive and in one piece, my Starlight," he told her.

Penny looked over at a café where she saw Larry leaving it, looking super guilty. So she made her way over to it and then she saw him, her father who was on a table, blood staining his clothes, face and hands. Tears started to fill her eyes as she made her way over to him. She saw a shadow of something or someONE leaving the place but she thought nothing of it. She shook her father to see if he was still alive, however when he didn't move, she cried harder as it confirmed that he was truly dead.

Back in the present of 2011, Penny was still thinking about that day when her phone rang. She reached over her dad's final birthday gift (Bolt, a White Swiss Shepherd dog) to grab her cell and see who was calling her so early in the morning. It was Bailey Whitney, her boyfriend! The ringing stopped before she could answer, so she received a text instead, in which it read; on my way from the war looking forward to seeing you again love you should be there by nightfall. Penny smiled, Bailey had always been the only one who didn't try to console her over the loss of her dad at every point in her life. She did eventually develop a crush on him which evolved into a severe romance over the years. She shut her eyes, her heart fluttering and excited for him to be with her boyfriend on her birthday. Before she knew it, she was asleep.

#disney #dc #krypto the superdog #teen titans #justice league #steppenwolf #batman #not miraculous #disney's bolt

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oldfritz · 3 years

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I'm genuinely curious and don't want to start something! Just wanted to ask what you make of the 'Old Fritz might've been asexual' take, I don't know much about him and I feel you're one of the best people to ask esp since you lean towards 'he was probably queer in some way' too

Hey there! So, first off, don’t ever worry about me interpreting you asking me a question as starting something. As much as I love making dumb jokes about the guy, I love nothing more than doing this kind of stuff and defending or explaining my points. There’s two degrees I want to get over the next decade: first my JD and then my MA in Prussian history. I live for this stuff! Always have! Second off, I’m very sorry for not getting to this sooner. Things have been incredibly stressful for me for a variety of different reasons which have made answering your question, until now, rather difficult. Putting this under a cut because, holy shit, it got long!

My personal reasoning for why I think he’s bi (which, correct me if I’m wrong, I’m assuming is what you meant instead of ace and could be a different post entirely since some historians have tried to argue that) stems more to do with some of my lingering questions about the nature of his relationships with certain woman, rather than that of his relationships with men. To me and my modern, queer eye, Fritz’s relationships with men like Hans Hermann von Katte, Francisco Algarotti, Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf, and (much to my personal vexation) one Monsieur Voltaire are either outright homosexual/homoerotic in nature or very, very easily lend themselves to that interpretation rather than strictly romantic friendships (which Wikipedia does a fairly good overview of and, if you’re coming to me from AmRev perspective, uses Hamilton and Laurens’ relationship as a familiar example). While I’m avoiding those relationships in this ask, I’d be more than happy to elaborate upon one/all of them in a different one.

Before I go into the big pauses that Fritz’s relationships with Madame von Wreech and Countess Orzelska give me, I want to deny the use of Fritz’s wife as an example of Fritz’s attraction to woman. While this, admittedly, may sound odd, we have ample evidence of how turned off and repulsed Fritz found Elisabeth Christine. Before he had even met her, Fritz was complaining about how she was ‘not very pretty, speaks but little, and acts like a blockhead’ (Asprey, 87) and, later, admitted to Grumbkow his plan to ‘keep my word,...get married, but afterwards it will be a case of that is that, and goodbye, Madame, and fare thee well’ (Jones, 52). For Christ’s sake, the man pitied her knowing how his treatment would leave her as ‘one more unhappy princess in the world’! Which is little consolation when you remember he also referred to her with such romantic terms as ‘this unpleasant creature,’ ‘the abominable object of my desires,’ ‘the person,’ and claimed to have preferred to marry ‘the biggest whore in Berlin’ (Asprey, 87). And while we (fortunately? unfortunately?) know quite a bit about their sex life, Fritz largely regarded it as just another duty - to quote him, ‘I will only have the duty to fuck’ (Ibid, 87). And while Seckendorf heard - first, presumably from Count von der Schulenburg and, later on, Count Friedrich von Wartensleben, a close and intimate friend of the then-crown prince - that Fritz would ‘fuck and refuck’ Elisabeth Christine and that said act occurred in the afternoon, it still was out of a sense of obligation (Bely, 481-2). When reminded that if he wanted more money for frivolities, he’d need to produce an heir, Fritz bemoaned that he ‘cannot sleep with my wife out of desire, and when I do sleep with her, I do it out of duty rather than inclination’ (Clark, 50). All this in accumulation, as well as the myriad of other quotes and incidents I’ve left out, makes one wonder why his relationship with Elisabeth Christine is sometimes used by historians to prove any sort of heterosexual impulse in the man when she’s the woman with the weakest supports for that argument.

That being said, now we get to the women with a more muddled places in his romantic escapades, if you will. What exactly happened between Orzelska and Fritz during his trip with his father to Dresden in 1728? The main source for everything that occurred during this trip is Wilhelmina, who didn’t attend and without anything about this specific incident coming from Fritz or Friedrich Wilhelm I, make it rather hard to use as concrete, irrefutable proof. Now, if her recollections were contemporaneous - like coming from a diary or journal she kept at the time - that would be one thing. But it comes from her memoirs which, while a delightful read 10/10 recommend, are written decades after this trip took place and, memory being a finicky thing, can’t be taken to the bank. All those disclaimers, here’s the story as told by her:

‘One evening...,the King of Poland [note: Augustus II] insensibly led the King of Prussia to a very richly decorated room...The King of Prussia, delighted with what he saw, stopped to contemplate all its beauties, when [all of] a sudden a tapestry was rolled up, which procured him a very novel sight. It was a lovely female in a state of nudity [note: Countess Orzelska, the Polish king’s daughter], carelessly reclined on a couch. Her beauty excelled that of the finest pictures of Venus and the Graces; her body seemed of ivory, whiter than snow, and better shaped than that of the Venus de Medicis at Florence.

...Scarcely had the King cast his eyes on the fair one, than he turned about with indignation; and seeing my brother behind him, he rudely pushed him out of the room, and left it immediately after in a violent irritation against the trickery they had attempted to practice on him. ...In spite of the King’s vigilance, [Frederick] had had time to contemplate the Venus of the closet, who did not cause him so much horror as she had done to his father. (Wilhelmina’s Memoirs, vol. 1, 107-6)

Wilhelmina then goes on to claim Fritz had fallen ‘passionately in love’ with Orzelska and that the illness Fritz experienced upon returning home was simply being lovesick. Pinning the accuracy of this story is incredibly difficult because, again, we have only one source relayed decades after the fact and from two volumes of memoirs known to have inaccuracies. While I, personally, would love if he had had a tryst with Orzelska (who is such a badass in her own right and deserves more recognition than as a footnote in this guy’s story), there’s no one way to say with more than 30% confidence. I am inclined to believe something along these lines happened because if someone told me a story like this, lord knows I wouldn’t forget it for the rest of my life. And, with Wilhelmina being so close with her brother, it lends a bit more credence but as to the actual emotional or physical response Fritz had to it, well, without my time machine, I can’t and don’t want to say.

With Madame Eleonore-Louise von Wreech, things are a little more concrete. For starters, Fritz actually talked about her! In written correspondence that survived! We even have seven letters between the two of them that survived, which is a bigger win! As Blanning says, they’re ‘ardent but light in tone, ironic, almost flippant, and highly stylized’ (Blanning, 58). Their relationship was known to those close with Fritz at the time that Schulenberg felt compelled to visit and warn the crown prince against devoting himself to women because ‘the slight pleasures gained cause a million displeasures.’ Fritz’s response? To tell the poor guy that he may have ‘the gift of continence, but I assure you that I do not’ (Asprey, 83-4). Firtz even went so far as to send a letter to her mother, waxing poetic about Louise’s ‘beauty, her majestic air, her bearing, and her entire department.’ It’s worth noting that Louise eventually broke off the affair due to being bored by how he ‘loved [her] too much and often annoyed [her] with his clumsy love’ (Ibid, 84). Contemporaries, including Friedrich Wilhelm, believed Fritz had impregnated her with a daughter who her ‘cuckolded husband would refuse to recognize’ (Blanning, 58). Blanning is the only source I’ve seen dispute this due to this news coming from Seckendorf, who didn’t reveal how he came about this information; that Fritz and Madame von Wreech’s correspondence doesn’t indicate a physical relationship; and on the fact that she was not pregnant. I haven’t been able to find the birth dates or any sort of records for Louise’s two daughters to figure out where their conception could’ve been in the timeline and if it matches with the likely dates for the affair, but I also don’t have the resources Cambridge would afford Blanning. Either way, while the physical nature of the affair is in dispute, the emotional aspect certainly was there. Especially when taking into consideration the fact that she’s the woman Fritz was likely referring to in the 16 August 1737 letter to Voltaire where he claimed she had taught him how to love (and also inspired him to write poetry, which we shouldn’t be thankful for). Specifically, all these years later, he stated how ‘this little miracle of nature possessed every possible charm, together with good taste and delicacy. She sought to transfer these qualities to me. I succeeded well in love but poorly in poetry. Since that time I have very often been in love and have always been a poet’ (Fritz’s Oeuvres, vol. 21, 96).

All this to say, there’s a bit too much evidence of some degree of opposite-gender attraction in Fritz to completely write off the possibility that he could’ve been bisexual. While it’s undeniable he held a preference for men and that’s whose company he typically enjoyed, I still do find it interesting the two exceptions (one potential and the other with a fair degree of certainty) to this. And, while I would never want his attraction to men be minimized in favor of that to women, it still remains important to note to get the most comprehensive picture of the man.

#frederick the great #elisabeth christine #countess orzelska #madame von wreech #asks #anonymous

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