#val is in a very similar boat
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The Fallen Star ✨Wish Reimagined
Chapter 1 - Welcome to Rosas
We open to a picture book with the title The Fallen Star on the cover, and it flips open to the end as a voice similar to that of the Golden Age princesses starts narrating.
Once upon a time, in a land… actually not that far away, there was a kingdom off the coast of the Iberian Peninsula.
Rosas.
The picture book opens to a jungle, zooming across a beach and a sea all the way up to Rosas.
Rosas was a beautiful kingdom, with beautiful people, a beautiful king and queen, and their beautiful daughter.
The picture book goes to look at the crowd, then to the other page to Magnus and Amaya waving to the crowd, then down to Asha waving to the crowd
Princess Asha. This is her story.
As well as his story.
The page flips and zooms down to Gabo.
And hers.
And their story.
Hal and Bazeema, then Dahlia, Safi, and Dario
And his story.
Simon O'Donahue
And my story.
Don’t worry.
You’ll meet me in a bit.
But for now, let’s start at the beginning.
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
The picture book flips backwards to the beginning of the book, landing on a page with Steamboat Willie, which fades into real life and flips for motion
The flipbook stops at the last frame where a pencil erases and redraws an ear.
“Baaaaa!” A goat, dressed in indigo pajamas, jumps up on the stool next to the artist.
“Hey, Val,” Asha smiles. She turns back to her paper. “I’m not sure about this character. I mean, he looks like he’d be popular, but… he’s giving homophobic vibes. What do you think?”
“Baaaaaa!”
“You’re right. I’m going to burn it,” Asha decides. She pets Valentino’s fluffy head. “Thank you for your input, good sir,” she coos.
Suddenly, the bell tolls outside.
“Oh, goodness. It’s time! Come, baby!” Asha grins, closing her sketchbook and slipping it in her dress pockets.
Asha walks out the door and through the halls, so we get a good look at the beautiful architecture of Rosas.
We pass by the docks, where a ship pulls in by the harbor.
Just like in the movie, a boat docks on the harbors of Rosas. The boat is decorated with flags and plants and nets and fabric, and a group of lively tourists exit the ship.
“Hello!”
We see a smiling young woman waving to the tourists. “My name is Dahlia Tsurugi! I’m so glad you came to our city. I’ll be your tour guide, along with my friend, Bazeema Sriprasanna!”
Her friend jostles at her name, eyes darting to the crowd and waving shyly.
“Care for a cookie?” Dahlia asks as Bazeema pulls out a tray. “Courtesy of my parents, the royal bakers!”
The crowd looks excited, taking a few cookies. “Sugar cookies, just like how Their Majesties like them,” Dahlia explains. She gives Bazeema a thin smile, but before they can move forward, there’s the sound of trumpets.
Dahlia and Bazeema startle and turn towards the noise.
“Helloooo there!”
Now we’re getting to Asha! Our girl is smiling at the tourists, a golden tiara on her head and a group of servants rolling out a red carpet for her to walk on.
“My name is Princess Asha Arman of Rosas! I’ll be your tour guide today!” Asha smiles. “I’m glad you came to our wonderful and fantastic kingdom! Trust me, you’ll love it here.”
“Oh, Princess,” Dahlia says, grin faltering a bit. “You’re a bit early.”
“Don’t worry your pretty head over it, Doc,” Asha says sweetly. “What kind of main character would I be if I ran in here, needing to catch my breath? Couldn’t be me.”
Dahlia blinks. “I see.”
She recovers quickly, turning back to the tour group. “Well, you’re in luck. Today you get to meet our very own, Princess Asha!”
Asha waves and smiles. There’s a bleat, and Asha lights up. “Oh! And this is my goat, Valentino. Say hi, baby!”
Valentino jumps up and bleats, nuzzling against Asha’s dress. Asha coos and pets his fluffy head.
Bazeema whispers something to Dahlia, who smiles sympathetically. Asha turns back to the crowd. “Well! Shall we start, then?”
🎵 Welcome to Rosas 🌹
Asha
Dahlia
Bazeema
All three together
Welcome to Rosas, come on, come this way
Asha bounces in front of the tourists
We hope that you’ll like it and choose to stay
Arms out
There's no other place just as full of surprise
Where your dreams and your reality can collide
Hands mashed together
The happiest place on earth
Hands clasped, singing
A land of laughter, joy, and mirth
Want to ride a carpet or rub a lamp’s base
Hand outstretched to carpet hanging (Aladdin’s carpet) lowers hand to Aladdin’s lamp underneath)
Well, hey, you've come to the, right, place
Gently leans down to the child of the group
'Cause here in the kingdom of Rosas
Asha cuts in front of Bazeema, the other girl girls join in
You can turn all your wanting to wishing, no what ifs and no wonders
Oh, here in the kingdom of Rosas
It's unlikely that you'll be unhappy with so much to discover
A home for me, for you, and all of us
The kingdom of Rosas
So our great King Magnus, many years ago
Dahlia fixes her glasses
Stars destroyed his homeland, fire, rain, sleet, and snow
Uses free hand to mime out
He battled the Stars and chased off their glow
Hand towards the sky, fist closed at “chased”
He makes sure they can’t hurt us again, oh no
He founded Rosas
With his wife and their young lass
Though to be honest—
Unsure Bazeema
Hey. Our princess grows on you, I promise
Dahlia gently interrupts, then turns to the tourists
Hey, did I mention, when you turn eighteen
Asha pops up behind them, taking their attention
You may have your wish granted by the king and queen
‘Till then, they keep them safe, protects them at all costs
So to the Stars again no one ever is lost
You give your wish to them and live a life of bliss
Yes, you do forget what it is, but now Stars won’t be able to take it from you
Boops nose of youngest
Besides, if you keep it you endanger everyone you love, so forget with no regret and live life safely
Arms like “why”, “gotcha” movement, running backwards
Here in the kingdom of Rosas
Flamenco staircase dance
You can turn all your wanting to wishing, no what ifs and no wonders
Oh, here in the kingdom of Rosas
It's unlikely that you'll be unhappy with so much to discover
A home for me, for you, and all of us
The kingdom of Rosas 🎵
The tourists are all excited, Dahlia happily explaining more about their kingdom.
“You actually came just in time!” Dahlia exclaims. “Tomorrow is the anniversary of Rosas’ founding, so you have a chance to check out the Wishing Festival! You should stick around, the kids get to plan it to ensure true imagination leads each celebration!”
She’s interrupted by an excited noise from Bazeema. Dahlia looks to see what her friend has gotten excited about, then lights up once she sees two young men in the distance.
“Simon! Safi! What are you doing here?”
We see a big, tall boy being dragged along by a much smaller one.
“Oh, hey, Dahls. Bazeema,” the bigger one greets them, yawning. “We just came to… wish you luck on your tour before… heading off to Hal’s Saba’s meeting.”
“We tried to make it in time, but— ACHOO!” Safi sneezes before he can finish his sentence.
“It was my fault,” Simon says apologetically. “I overslept.”
“And I told you, it’s fine, big guy,” Safi says, patting Simon’s arm. “Your dad worked you hard last night. Dahlia can handle it. And Bazeema— ACHOO!” Safi’s eyes widen. “Is there an animal nearby?”
“Oh, sorry,” Dahlia rushes. “Guys, we have a visitor on the tour with us. Be careful—“
“Ahem.”
The four teens straighten their posture. Princess Asha stands before them, holding Valentino in her arms. “What are you doing here?”
“We came to support our friend Hal, Your Highness,” Safi pipes up.
“Aaaaand why are you interrupting our tour?”
“Well, we—“
“Ugh. This is boring me. You’re boring, you know that?” Asha asks. She hums. “Hal. She’s the granddaughter of the Rosas beekeeper, right? Parents were the royal jesters? She’s funny. Be like her.”
A bell tolls, and Asha lights up. “Time to head to the meeting, Val.”
Her goat bleats and jumps down from her arms. Safi sneezes again, and Asha pulls back her skirt with a snarl. “Watch it, Sneezy! Don’t get your germs on me.”
“S-sorry, Your Highness,” Safi sniffles. “It’s just that animals make me— AH—“
Dahlia and Simon put their fingers under Safi’s nose to stop him from sneezing.
“Here, let me help you with that—“ Bazeema starts, but Asha backs up. “No touchy! Nooooo touchy, got that?”
“Sorry, Your Highness,” Bazeema murmurs.
Asha huffs and glances at Safi. “Stay away from Valentino,” she says curtly, before pushing open the castle doors. “Doc, Bashful, with me! Let’s finish this tour so I can get back to my regular duties.” She smiles at the confused crowd. “Come on!”
Bazeema smiles at Simon and Safi. “We’ll meet you inside, okay?” she asks quietly, then nods to Dahlia to come along.
Asha leaves the crowd with Dahlia and Bazeema to prepare for the meeting. Every month the citizens of Rosa’s could come to her parents about their concerns. It usually wasn’t hosted often, but somehow someone found something wrong.
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
“Asha, darling!”
Asha puts on a smile she sees two people standing inside her room. They’re regal, dressed in whites, blues, and golds, and smiling. King Magnus and Queen Amaya, or, as Asha knew them…
“Magnus, Ams,” Asha smiles.
“Well, how did the tour go?” Magnus asks with a warm grin.
“It went pretty well. You know me,” Asha smirks. “There was a snag, but I dealt with it.”
“Did you get to know your people?” Amaya asks, brushing Asha’s hair behind her ear.
Asha steps back. “Amaya.”
“Now, Asha, what do we always say?”
“‘To be a good ruler, you have to understand your roses so they can come to full bloom,’” Asha recites, rolling her eyes. She smiles. “Ams, I get it. And I love Rosas. But they don’t love me.”
“Were you kind?” Amaya asks.
“Yes!” Asha exclaims. “I complimented their friend and gave them a job to do on the tour! They got to be in the presence of me! The ward of the Wishgranter and his wife! The princess of the kingdom that literally grants wishes!”
“We keep wishes safe,” Magnus corrects. “And we were once like them. And you’re our daughter, Asha. You’re family.”
“Yeah. I know.”
Magnus smiles. “I love you, Asha.”
Asha puts on a smile again. “Love you too, Magnus.”
Magnus grins and turns to his wife. “And I love you, mi vida.”
Amaya laughs as Magnus attacks her face in kisses. Asha groans and hides her smile.
“Okay, we should head out for the meeting,” Magnus mumbles against Amaya’s neck.
“Yes, mi rey.” Amaya smooths down her dress. “Asha, are you joining us, dear?”
“It’s my duty as a princess,” Asha says, standing up straight.
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
“Hello, Sabino!” Magnus greets as the doors open to a man and a young woman. “Ah, Hal! Hello, my dear. How’s the juggling going?”
“It’s going well, Your Majesty,” Hal says brightly. “Practicing my best. My Saba helps me a lot.”
“That’s lovely. Now, tell us. Why did you grace us with your lovely presence this morning?” Amaya asks.
Hal steps back to give her Saba the spotlight. The doors close, Hal’s friends wave at her from the side rows.
(Sabino looks like this concept of his movie counterpart ⬇️)
“Well, Your Majesties,” Sabino says, bowing his head. “As you know, I am turning 100 today.”
“That is quite an accomplishment!” Magnus exclaims.
Sabino smiles. “Yes, it is quite an accomplishment. Although… it may be my last.”
“What do you mean?” Amaya asks.
Sabino goes on to explain how he was sick and old, and the sickness would soon claim his life… or something along those lines. It was hard to listen to every detail and draw.
Asha liked to call herself akin to the royal scribe. Except, through art.
As Asha flips through her book we can see some concept art from previous Disney movies.
She was currently working her way through a flipbook of Sneezy sneezing, jolting Sleepy awake. The boy kept dozing off, though he looked as if he was trying his hardest to stay awake and support Happy.
Hmm. Asha wondered if she should get Sleepy something to keep him awake. Maybe a prick would keep him awake.
That’s it! She would get him a magic spindle! It would gently prick Sleepy whenever he started drifting off! She was such a good princess.
There, Amaya. She understood the roses now.
“A-and, I know it was something to do with my health and life.”
Right. Sabino was still talking. Asha made another note in the corner of her sketchbook.
“So, I was wondering, if your Majesty would be so kind…” Sabino’s voice trailed off.
“Sabino. My good man.” Magnus’ voice was gentle. “I can tell you that you are right. Your wish has to do with your lifespan. But the Wishgranter has reasons for keeping wishes.”
“Yes, but—“
“Your Majesty,” Hal interrupted. “It’s my Saba’s 100th birthday. He’s waited this long to get his wish granted, no?”
“Hal, I understand your Saba’s patience,” Magnus says. “But there are some wishes that can’t be granted.”
“Your Majesty—“
“I’m sorry, Hal. For the safety of Rosas, Sabino’s wish must stay with me. I will keep it safe, however. The Stars will never harm his—“ Suddenly, Magnus doubles over, clutching his head. His eyes flash gold for a second, then they’re back to normal.
“Magnus!”
“Mi rey!”
Asha and Amaya scramble up to Magnus. Magnifico shoos them away. “I’m fine, my dears. Just another headache.”
“Did you do your monthly check on the Stars?” Amaya asks.
Magnus runs a hand through his hair, then sighs. “No. That’s what it is. Tonight I shall perform the check to ensure that Rosas remains safe. Thank you for reminding me.”
The king composes himself and turns back to his audience. “My deepest apologies, Sabino. I can have the royal Healers come over to your home to see if there’s anything else we can do.”
Sabino falters, then nods. “Thank you for your time, Your Majesty.”
Chapter 2
Author’s notes
Okay! I think I like this format. I’m really happy with the dividers.
This is just setting things up. It’s a lot quicker than comic form, and this will work until I find enough time to sit down and draw. Perhaps this summer.
What I wanted to accomplish during this chapter was to set up the storybook intro and distinguish that from “Welcome to Rosas” (bc in the movie, the song is completely useless? Just add one more page in the book?) but this time, the storybook sets it up with a mystery narrator, and “Welcome to Rosas” introduces Mag and Amaya.
I will be referring to him as “Magnus” while he’s himself.
Intro is done! We know about Asha, what Bazeema and Dahlia are like (which the movie didn’t really touch on), and the backstory of Rosas
Now we can get to the actual call to action! I’ve already written most of Chapter 2 (it’s just formatting stuff) so I’ll see you then!
Thanks for reading! <3
#wish 2023#star x asha#asha#asha x star#starsha#human star#princess asha#disney wish#the fallen star au#the fallen star fic#Spotify
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Orlais: Val Royeaux
Main Quest: The Threat Remains
Val Royeaux is not only the secular capital of Orlais, but also the capital of the Chantry, the seat of the Divine is located at the Grand Cathedral of Val Royeaux. It lies on the northern coast of the far inland tip of the Waking Sea. It is one of the largest cities in Thedas.
This post has compiled the most relevant information during the main quest for completion’s sake. Most of the time these quests have little “archaeological” value, but since I’m visually covering most of the game, I can’t put them aside since some of them are key in the lore and in terms of objects, statues and ruins, such as the Temple of Mythal.
[This is part of the series “Playing DA like an archaeologist”]
The Inquisitor heads to Val Royeaux to look for help to the Templars who put in doubt the “divine” nature of the Herald. With the exception of one of them, Templars dismiss the inquisition. I’m not going to explain in details the main quest, just highlight the important lore-wise bits and explore the objects, statues and architecture worth checking in them.
In this case, the extremely intricate design of Val Royeaux makes impossible for me to cover every detail, but in general we can say that in the entrance, we have a series of Andrastian statues that we can consider orlesian sculptures. They are the same ones that we found in the rebuilt Imperial Highway of Emprise du Lion: Pools of the Sun. We find all the characters of Andraste’s tale: Havard carrying the ashes, Andraste, and maferath.
The merchants inside their stores have a lot of orlesians assets and strange objects such as Tevinter golems, or grey warden banners. Probably mere reuse of these elements to increase this Orlesian sense of excess in everything.
Some objects are a bit weird to be in stores, such as elven artefacts to strengthen the Veil. But it makes sense, it’s mere reuse of objects.
The central plaza has typical orlesian elements that nobody question and have little mystery: golden lions which represent the Valmont family.
An interesting thing for me to highlight is the architecture of Orlais: although it’s excessive and flamboyant, it always has a bit of elven inspiration. Their door frames are very similar in design to the ones we find in elven ruins, decorated even with patterns around it [not the same ones]. Of course, the excess of Orlais proper can be seen in those golden arabesques that protrude from the sides. It’s interesting to see how Orlesian art is inspired on Elvhen art, but it makes sense, before the Exalted March, humans and elves living in Orlais had a deeper relationship to the point that many codices imply that there were many elf-blooded humans around [offspring between humans and elves].
If something characterises Orlesian art is their constant repetition of Andraste or Andraste’s face in a more elaborated fashion than the Fereldan depiction of her.
Another iconic object in the Orlesian Culture are the fountains. In here, we find a simple one with a lion head spilling water.
In the corridor that goes to the docks, we find a section where a lot of papers and signs are placed. We have seen these in many other places as regular assets, such as Crestwood.
In the dock, we see small boats with orlesian designs: always depicting the Orlesian version of Andraste [after all Orlais is the capital of the Chantry, where it concentrates its power and The Divine]. The objects are all accompanied with arabesques and intricate design.
From the distance, we can see the figures of Andraste welcoming the boats.
The capital is filled with banners and signs. We find the De Montfort Symbol banner and some fereldan banners as well beside the Orlesian one.
By the end, Fiona invites us to go to Redcliffe and Leliana informs us in Skyhold that the Grey Warden have gone silent.
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Week 12: A trip to Eeyou Istchee
July 24 - 28
What a week!
We started our work week on Sunday, with our planned drive to Eeyou Istchee. Chris's daughter was having a terrible day, so we left almost three hours later than planned. Along the way, the only road up north, route 117, was shut down because of a deadly three-way collision. It caused us to take a detour, which then rerouted us on an additional 5-6 hour drive. Altogether, we left around 2:30pm and didn't stop driving until 2am.
Jay and I were quite tired in the evening, so Chris drove most of the way while we slept. But we didn't stop to try and refuel until 11pm, at which point most of the gas stations between Val D'Or and Waswanipi were closed. We visited at least 10 different gas stations to no avail.
We finally had to sleep at Lebel-sur-Quevillon in the car because we didn't have enough gas to make it to the hotel in Chapais.
With only 5 hours of sleep, we left directly from Quevillon to Waswanipi, and arrived at around 7am. The original plans to meet Allan and his grandson for a tour of Chiiwetau island was also derailed. Allan's daughter, Annette's house caught on fire at 3am the night before, and they hadn't slept all night. Allan and Lola had to stay behind and help their daughter in the aftermath. It was a terrible event, but thankfully all of Annette's children made it out safe and nobody was hurt.
Thankfully, we met Clarence, another person from Wemindji who knows Allan, who took us to Chiiwetau later that day at around 2pm. Before that, in the morning, we interviewed Allan and some others at the culture camp, along with Paul Dixon and other last minute meetings.
Around lunchtime, Chris and I sorted out our stories, and he decided he'd write one on industry and its impacts on the Cree way of life.
Our visit to Chiiwetau was absolutely stunning. Chiiwetau is Cree for "Let's go home," which is a tribute to the residential school survivors and other Crees who left home and would return. It is a ceremonial camp that takes place every July, where Crees of all ages would spend time on the island. The island is the original old Waswanipi village post, where the Hudson's Bay office and store once was, and where Cree hunters and trappers would return to trade fur and other goods.
The highlight of the trip was hiking Cherry Hill, which is the peak of a small hill on Chiiwetau island. The waters and Waswanipi river is stunning, and it's so quaint in the nature. I feel so honoured to have been invited.
On our last day in Waswanipi, we met and interviewed Chief Neeposh at the band office. She told us that the New York Times is working on a similar story on Cree territory, which made me really pleased that I'd been following the same story for the last month.
After lunch, Donovan and his mom, Bridget took Chris, Jay and I on a drive into the forest where his late father's camp burned down in the wildfires. It was a three hour drive through the forest, and there was supposed to be an additional 10 minute boat ride to the camp. When we arrived to the shore where the boat had been docked, the boat was nowhere to be found. It was unfortunate, but because there was no boat, we weren't able to visit Donovan's father's camp that burned down.
At the end of our visit to the shore, Donovan and Bridget took out the meal they had prepped to have lunch at the camp. It included roasted goose meat, macaroni and potato salad, and cheesecake. They had prepared an offering plate to commemorate Donovan's father's birthday, which happened to be the same day. In Cree culture, the offering plate is usually put into the fire as an offering to the deceased, but since we couldn't go to the camp, Donovan sent it along into the water. It was a beautiful day and I feel so humbled to have witnessed it.
Overall, the trip was very successful. We were able to meet so many people, and everyone in the community embraced us and fed us every step of the way. I'm excited to start writing, and in the meantime, I'm waiting on some more interviews.
Can't wait to publish next week!
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Why Husker will be the driving force to save Angel Dust; Instagram deep-dive story! Angelhusk explained.
Okay full disclosure Hazbin Hotel is an adult cartoon has dark touchy subject matter so please tread carefully. This goes into shipper territory and I don’t want to get attack in my inbox about this or attacking each other too much shipping wars plus I’m a multi-shipper... But for the sake of this post it’s going to be all fuel Angelhusk (or Huskerdust), yes okay great thank you. This is a continuation of my previous post which was just a prequel to this one. I ended the post saying Husker will be the one to reach out to Angel and helping him.
First I’ll be breaking down Husker’s first appearance and how his character is. When Alastor first summons him, he’s very pissed off when he’s pulled from the poker game. And he’s very quick show his anger, without fear despite Alastor being “one of the most powerful demons in Hell”, and does not care. Though this is a very short interaction we know that Husker does not put up with BS, he’s a drinker, and a poker player. How is this important to Angel Dust? Well Angel Dust, often hypes himself up but also tears himself down in the process, emphasizing that during the limo ride after being scolded by Vaggie that “his body is flawless, everybody wants a piece”... and thinks that’s all anybody wants from him. This is Angel’s way of protecting himself; he flirts with them first before they can hurt him, it’s just hidden with his confidence.
In reality he thinks everyone looks down on him, which is why he doesn’t accept help or confine in Charlie (like when he flipped her off )he isn’t taking a pity party. Angel hides his pain with vibrato and at the same time is too prideful to ask for help... he won’t admit when he’s in trouble. I explained this a little more in detail in my previous post why he thinks Charlie and Vaggie look down on him. But with Husker he in the same boat; using his addictions (gambling & drinking) to cope with his problems. Angel will be more incline to gravitate towards Husker and telling him his problems. I say this because it’s the same reason why Angel confines in Cherri, and is close with her. And unlike Charlie who can be naive at time ( don’t get me wrong I still love her), Husker will know when he’s over stepping his boundaries, and when to helping him since he’s going through something similar.
(Charlie wanting to help Angel but doesn’t know how...)
So all of you maybe wondering, how is Husker gonna help Angel dust then if he hides his problems like that. Vivziepop made Husker a poker-player for a reason, he knows how to tell if someone’s bluffing. And it’s already been established that Angel has a terrible poker face... so Angel can’t lie to Husker. This is why he was angry at Angel’s flirting when they first meet because he already sees through his facade, (plus he’s shy about it). He knows that he doesn’t really meant and he’s hiding something. His sense and observation skills are very necessary cause he can spot when Angel’s actually in trouble.
links to official instagrams below to follow the narrative:
Angel’s instagram/Husker’s instagram/Nifty’s instagram/Sir Pentious’ instagram
This post starts the saga where Angel is waiting to be picked up at the studio. Saying “Waiting at the studio to...Be picked up for some fucking...Food.”, Val is quick comment on this saying “Forgot to pick you,lol.” and takes the chance to make him like an after thought and after Angel asks to be picked up again Val answer back “yeah but we are filming, I already ate.” just to rub it in. But that’s where Huskers intervenes and get Angel something to eat , and there’s a key detail here that it’s only Husker that comes to his aid. Now most of the main cast has an Instagram so you’d think they’d help him but they don’t... They all probably think he’s just being cute and sassy totally unaware of the Angel’s situation with Valentino, but we the audience know... (I’ll bring this point back later)
This one post is enough for Husker to be able see that Angel was really in trouble, which is why he goes out of his way to get him something to eat. And I would also like to point out after this post Husker starts following Angel’s instagram liking all his instagram posts. There’s more to this... keep in mind he starts following Angel after his posts about being tired and hungry. He’s not following him just because he has a “little crush” on Angel... he’s doing this because he wants to make sure Angel’s doing okay. He cares about Angel Dust well being and follows him to make sure doesn’t go hungry again. But during this time Angel isn’t aware of this... that Husker doing this out of worrying for Angel. I say this because right after Angel gets Husker tickets to his strip show, as “thank you” for the food. Showing that he trusts Husker but not entirely...
At this point Angel I don’t believe that he sees Husker’s actions as a gustier of genuine kindness towards him. No, he sees Husker as someone who just wants his body and this is just his way of getting towards that goal. Offering his services (or being flirty) is Angel way of not getting attach to someone (like I’ve said before): think of it as “ripping the band-aid quick off before it hurts more...” it’s so he doesn’t get hurt again like with Valentino. I believe Val also managed manipulated Angel by doing nice things for him at first, like saying nice words or buying him nice gifts as means to just use him for his body (this is a real thing pimps do). And Angel thinks Husk is no different from the other guys who used him, that what everybody wants from him... he might as well give him what he wants.
Night of the show rolls around and Husker misses it, kitty got too drunk... which we know takes place during the music video of Addict. In which we get another post about backs my statement the cast doesn’t know about Angel’s abuse. Nifty’s posts a pic, of Angel Dust looking sad after his show... saying “Saw Angel earlier, i hope he doesn’t leave the butts there 😅” Nifty wouldn’t have posted this if she knew what was going on. But Husker knows, that Angel’s depressed and feels bad about missing the show commenting “Oh fuck is that what I missed. Aw shit.” Feeling very guilty about missing Angels, usually Husk tends to hide his feelings but in this moment is very honest. Meaning he really did want to go to the show, not only that but realizes that Angel is actually upset. And he didn’t have to post this comment on Angel’s instagram but he had to he wanted to show that he was remorseful for not coming showing he is attracted to Angel Dust.
This picks up to with a post with Husker saying “Ugh... Since I missed the show, @angie_fluffy_bootz is sayin I owe him one and is making me watch his fuckin pig... I ain’t a fuckin babysitter!” in which babysits Fat Nuggets, which means he went out of his way to say “ what can I do to make it up to you”, and the conversation after it is a major turning point in the relationship for them. In the comment section Husker complains that Fat Nuggets ate all the food at the bar and says he wants to be payed back. Angel’s offer to pay him pay with a “private show”, in the only way thing he thinks Husker wants (I mean that all anybody ever wants from him). He does this with his usually flirty response, but it’s very different (this is a cut version of the convo.):
Angel: “tell ya what I’ll pay ya back with another private show”
Husker: “...I’m not doing that.
Angel: that or nothing babe. I think it’s a good deal.
Husker:“Jesus fucking Christ...”
Angel: Ugh. Fine I’ll quit it. Only if you join me for shakes.
Husker: Yeah okay I think I can do that.
This is major turning point in their relationship; this conversation is very important. Like I said before this is just his way of ripping the band-aid but there’s a reason why he’s really pushing it this time. It’s because Angel knows that he’s starting to catching feelings for Husker. And he’s not sure if Husker wants his body or if really means it. And the matter of the situation is Husker’s feeling the same way. When Husker says “Jesus fucking Christ...” it’s his way of saying “For the last time I don’t want your body, I’m not playing this game”... Here’s the thing Husker believes he’s proven enough that he doesn’t see Angel as a sex object, he’s more tried of the facade than he is annoyed. He doesn’t want Angel Dust to be a “fuck buddy” to him...
And this is a major turning point in their relationship, Angel finally understands that Husker just wants to be there for him. This is why he offers to go out with shakes with him, and of course Husker denies it and says “it’s not a date...”, but we know Husker is happy, because he’s willing accept this as being payed back for the food fat nuggets are, to him this was enough. Needless to say to say it was very cute and I loved it. Not only that but Husker becomes more active on Instagram and low-key tries to flirt back to Angel in his own grumpy cat way.
Try and tell me they aren’t flirting with each other!
A week after their date Angel Dust does a instagram post showing off his new outfit he got and Husker is quick to ask “why so many zippers”, he’s still too nervous to flirt directly Angel Dust responses with “More to pull down, respond...” Huskers clueless and responses with a “eh” still likes it anyway (the feelings are mutual now). And within the same week Husker posts his own selfie“ Wanted to wear a tie for once. 🥃”, posting one because of Angel. And this isn’t for nothing the pics clearly mirror each other (no pun intended). Just-wanted-to-wear-a-tie-for-once-my-foot ..he clearly did this to impress Angel with him asking “If he needs help with that tie...”, with Husker still being oblivious with the sexual reference but kitty’s still trying.
This to me highlights why Angel is good for Husker (and vice-versa)... During his first appearance he comments “I lost the ability to love years ago...” and drinks down his booze. Which alludes to why he drinks because he feels lonely. Angel makes him active thus eliminating his reason to drink, as we can see through Husk trying things he hasn’t done before like wearing nice clothes. Now he didn’t have to but Husker pushed himself to be better. As for Angel it gives him a genuine romantic relationship that is centered by an emotional connection and not physically. Husker prioritizes Angels feelings and well-being first.
And for those of you that are confused with Huskers grumpy tendencies. In an interview Viviziepop has said about him is that he is a tsundere. Now a tsundere, it is a character the initially appearing as cold and hostile only to hide their true feelings. This is a troupe used many times in animes (but if you are not familiar with the term or need an example of one Helga from Hey Arnold is a prime example of one). His actions disregard his attitude towards Angel... Most of his grumpy responses to Angel are to hide his feelings for him and never used to cut down or degrade Angel Dust (like Val does). I will even argue that Husker is the total opposite of Valentino; Val uses flashiness and with sweet words to hide his heinous and vile intentions. While Husker seems hotheaded and temperamental initially his actions show he’s actually a very kind and caring individual and Angel defiantly sees that...
HUSKER MADE THE WALL!
Angel is special to Husker and he feels the same way... Now and is upper there with Fat Nuggets and Cherri Bomb. And of course Husker is embarrassed, realizing his pics there too saying “what the fuck!” but we know he’s happy. At this post we can assume that Husker is just as important to him as Cherri & Fat Nuggets is to him... and vice-versa. Which is why I believe that Husker will be the one Angel reaches out to first for help within the Hazbin Hotel. And I know some of you may not be convinced, that it’s just platonic or think that Husker just sees him as a friend, but as we know Husker is not a man of words... but a man of action!
There is a key detail in this story that I’ve been keeping under-warps up until now, (and the reason why it took me so long to because once I found it piece of info; I had to change my original plans for this post).
Remember how I said that the rest of the cast doesn’t know what’s going on with Val... and that Husker’s observation skills were going to be integral in helping save Angel. Well around the same time as the PJ pic... on Sir Pentious’ instagram he posts a pic of himself trying to make his minions look like Valentino and Vox: I wasn’t even trying to find this but low and behold guess who pops up in the comment section...
Now what does this post say to you. (Husker also liked the post too)
Now repeat after me...“You don’t hear shit about people unless you go looking for it.” ... HUSKER KNOWS! My theory is that he’s been suspecting that there was something up with Val, ever since the pick-up post, so he’s been keep tabs on instagram Angel to make sure he was safe. And as time went on Angel became more precious to him and became more worried about him. And Husker not wanting to overstep his bounds by asking Angel directly, (because it’s none of his business but still super worried) so he goes around digging info on Valentino. SO then he probably knows that he abuses his workers.
(Or Angel told him whats happening... I’m leaning towards that Husker did his own digging because narratively it would be too soon and we wouldn’t have a story to tell and would have told Charlie and the rest of the crew too already... Either way..)
Val sent him this, scumbag! And it only takes Husker seconds to defend him and makes sure Angel knows he’s not fat. (most recent post)
Husker has knows, he’s actively been looking into Valentino and the shit he’s done, because he wants to protect Angel Dust! And it’s evident now, he has been defending him on Instagram as well, now being in the know, Husker defending his boy! He is not afraid of Valentino and is not putting up with his BS for putting down Angel anymore... our boy Husker is watching you rat-man.
He maybe the only one who knows that Valentino is abusing Angel (or catching on to it). Which will lead Angel coming clean about how Valentino raped him... And at this point Angel trusts Husker so much that he maybe willing to listen to him when he says “Hey you need to tell someone” or “you need help” and Husker already knows Angel well enough to know how to help him without having Angel push him away.
AND THAT is why I believe he will be the major driving force in saving Angel from the RAT-MAN (Val)... And we know Husker isn’t afraid of overlords; he’s gonna protect his boy. He is proven time and time again that he loves and cares for Angel Dust so much... and oh I’m gushing now.
AND LOOK HOW CUTE THEY ARE! I just want them to be happy, I want the best for our bois!
Thank you and I hope you all enjoyed the post (and please no shipping war in the comment section I don’t condone it whether you support it or not! Not fighting in the fandom)
#angelhusk#hazbin hotel#hazbin angel dust#angel dust#hazbin hotel husker#husker hazbin hotel#hazbin instagram#hazbin hotel instagram#huskerdust#valentino#Cherri Bomb#fat nuggets#hazbin hotel addict#vivziepop#alastor#addicted hazbin hotel
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Bit late and random but it's the anon you leave food out for here to give away I am also bi and I think exactly the same as you about bi val pretty much, every time Derek offers me representation my reaction is to slowly, hesitantly take it and say "thaaaaaaaaanks..." while rolling my eyes, in much the same way one accepts their least favourite flavour of sweet from an annoyingly enthusiastic uncle-type-individual. Ironically I feel I had more in common with her before the bi shit started up.
What I find really amusing is that Landy actually did reasonably well at representation when (and only when) he wasn’t trying.
Oh god, this got long, anon, my ass rambled.
tldr; I'm glad actual bi people dislike bi val (or how Laundry handled bi val) as much as me, this will probably offend at least one person but i don't really care, Dirty Laundry wrote better rep when he didn't mean to write rep at all, and if he ever starts trying to "represent" groups I'm part of I'll take him out back like a dying horse and shoot him.
Like, yes. He had stupid and potentially offensive shit - I say potentially because what offends one member of a group won’t necessarily offend all of them. His attitude to mentally ill people is, frankly, disgusting. We’ve had “Skulduggery can’t be abused, he doesn’t have feelings”. We’ve had “eVeRyOnE iS bI eVeNtUaLlY”. We had Ping, who seemed to be pretty much universally offensive. And that's what's always going to happen when a straight, cis, white, wealthy, male author tries to write marginalised groups he doesn't know shit about, because inevitably he's going to fall back on stereotypes.
But we also had:
SEXUALITY REP: Phase One's nonstraight characters were treated like the straight ones, and like, isn't that the whole point? There was no need for a massive Coming Out Story TM to grab for those sweet sweet Woke Points, because sexuality isn't supposed to be important to mages. I never understood why Val needed that whole Coming Out Panic storyline. Like...Des and Melissa are ridiculously supportive, encouraging, loving parents. They accepted you dating a ~19 year old when you were ~16. They accepted you revealing you could do fucking magic and that you'd been lying to them for like seven years. They took your undead buddy in stride and the most pressing question your dad had was whether magic toilets exist. There is zero reason to think that "I'm bisexual" is gonna be the thing that makes them flip and throw you into the streets in disgrace, Valkyrie. Come on.
Tanith had girlfriends and it was just mentioned casually, because it's normal.
China had massive UST with Eliza. That was an opportunity right there to not only include a f/f relationship, but also to bring back one of the few precious surviving characters from Phase One, using characters and a relationship that already had several books' worth of setup and tension and interest from fans.
The Monster Hunters have a casual conversation about which one of the Dead Men they'd date.
Ghastly has a conversation with Fletcher about the pain he's been through being in love. He never uses any pronouns.
It was confirmed at one point re: the Dead Men that at this point, after 300-odd years, everyone's been with everyone else at some point.
Thrasher is gay, and while Scapegrace's...everything...is treated as a joke/comedic relief, Thrasher's love for him isn't. He's completely devoted to Scapegrace, and that in itself is not played for laughs, even though the rest of the scene usually is. Thrasher's description of their first meeting is essentially a love-at-first-sight situation for him.
"ABNORMAL" RELATIONSHIP REP: Age gap relationships are normal for mages. Off the top of my head, using only canon, canon-implied or almost-canon ships:
Ghastly/Tanith (~350 year age difference)
Tanith/Sanguine (~250+ year age difference)
Tanith/Saracen (~350 year age difference)
Caisson/Solace (~250 year age difference)
China/Gordon (~400 year age difference)
Kierre/Temper (~500+ year age difference)
If you include fan ships, there's also things like Mevolent/Serpine or my Mevolent/Vile, which are both ~600 year minimum age gaps based on the timeline, or Valdug (and its variations) which is ~400 years.
Now, whether you consider this kind of rep positive or negative is up to you, but it’s there.
MENTAL ILLNESS REP: more like "Which characters in this series don't have a mental illness or a personality disorder?" I have some of these issues, but not all of them, so this is just how I read it, but:
ADHD: Skulduggery
Dissociative Identity Disorder: Skulduggery & Vile
Dissociation: Skulduggery again, most notably in DD and DB
Schizophrenia (or similar): Valkyrie & Darquesse, Valkyrie "seeing" Darquesse's ghost thing in Phase Two
Impostor Syndrome: Reflectionie
Autism: Clarabelle
Trauma/PTSD/CPTSD: Skulduggery, Valkyrie, China, Ghastly, Erskine...pretty much everyone has a believable, understandable, morally grey trauma response in this series. People struggling with trauma are spoilt for choice of characters to see themselves in.
TRAUMA REP: This series is a trauma conga line, but everyone has a believable, understandable, morally grey trauma response in this series. I see little bits of myself in more than one Phase One character.
Childhood Abuse (of varying degrees & types): Skulduggery, Carol & Crystal, Omen, Fletcher, Ghastly, China, Bliss, Sanguine...
Estranged Family: Skulduggery abandoning his crest, Fergus & Gordon, China & Bliss
Bad Romantic Relationship: Skulduggery is also very clearly an abuse victim. He’s got a solid history of romantic attachments to women who manipulate, use and gaslight him for their own agendas. There's a whole paragraph in SPX about how Abyssinia broke him down, isolated him from his friends and preyed on his desperate need to be loved, all classic abuse tactics.
And I’m personally a huge fan of this backstory for two reasons:
1) Society likes a plucky victim in media. The "My suffering made me stronger" type of victim. And it's not always like that in real life. Not all survivors come out of their abuse stronger or kinder or more understanding. Some of us come out cold and fucked up. Some of us end up as emotionally stunted, bloodied-nails-and-bared-teeth survivors, broken in ways that can't be fixed and sustained by enough rage to power a small sun. But society doesn't like to tell the story of that kind of survivor, because we're not usually a likeable protagonist. When we're shown in media, we're usually the sympathetic villain, or maybe the antihero. But Skug is someone who's done awful things and lost pretty much all his faith in humanity and been burned more times than he can count, and he still makes the conscious choice to try and be the good guy when he could so easily go Evil Supervillain on the world, and I don't know about any of y'all, but I've modelled myself on him in that. I've made the choice to do something good when all I really want to do is just become a horrible, shrivelled ball of nastiness and revenge. And that's because I saw him do it and realised that I could do that too.
Skug is an incredibly capable, strong, masculine Man's Man. He gets in fights all the time, and he usually wins. He's military, an industry that's Really Bad for stigmatizing weakness and mental illness, and he's right up at the top of the hierarchy. Almost everyone is afraid of him. He's a straight up cold-blooded killer. Skulduggery Pleasant is precisely the type of person who's not normally portrayed as a victim of anything. Nothing about him screams "victim" at all. But his abuse history is insidious. He's so conditioned to respond in a certain way to abuse from the women in his life, probably from a very young age, that despite all that strength and capability and stubbornness and ego, he just goes along with it. And it's an established pattern going back hundreds of years. He keeps going back to China, even though he knows she's bad for him and his friends keep telling him to stay away from her. Abyssinia latched onto him when he was traumatized and vulnerable and weaponized it against him to make him easier to control - and when she reappears, hundreds of years later, she jumps straight back into using, tmanipulating and gaslighting him and not only does he let her, he doesn't even seem to realise that behaviour is abusive. He thinks it's normal! That's how he's always been treated by his long-term girlfriends, with the notable exception of Wifey. Even when Val is being fucking nasty to him in the first couple books of Phase Two, sniping and lying and blaming him for everything under the sun, he just takes it. There's no attempt to tell her she's being unreasonable, no telling her to fuck right off and give her head a wobble, no defending himself even when she's bitching over something that isn't even his doing. And this is a man who has an absolutely gleaming steel spine the rest of the time; Skug has no problem saying no to anybody else, but he can't get past the way he's been taught to treat the important ladies in his life. Skug is a walking reminder that anyone can be a victim of abuse, even the ones who seem least likely to be susceptible.
GENDER REP: This one is the most iffy out of the bunch and definitely was not done very well in the eyes of the people who matter most, but I'll include it anyway because it mattered to some.
So there's Nye, who's...agender? Genderless? And uses "it" pronouns? Nye was generally considered horrible rep because it's also a war criminal and experiments on people and I've seen people say "Well I don't want to be seen like that" but? It's still possible to be a war criminal and also genderless. I never saw the two things as being related or relevant to each other.
There's also Mantis, who's in exactly the same gender/pronouns boat as Nye and always seems to be forgotten about, which sucks because Mantis is a war hero. It fought for the Sanctuary during the War and they never lost a battle when it was in command. It's called out of retirement to fight for the Supreme Council in LSODM, ends up fighting alongside Skulduggery during the Battle of Roarhaven, and ultimately dies attempting a very brave, very risky strategy. Mantis is, unreservedly, one of the good guys. It was also my introduction to sentient beings using "it" pronouns, and did it in a way that felt natural, so when I met my first person online who used "it" pronouns and hated to be referred to as he/she, it was...weird, but not as weird as it would otherwise have been, because I was like, "Oh yeah, like the Crenga. Okay."
And then there's the Scapegrace sex change plotline, which...I might have an unpopular opinion on this one. From what I’ve seen, trans people don’t seem to think was handled well or with any sensitivity at all. I’m not trans, so if the trans community says he was being offensive to them, I’m not going to claim otherwise. But...I first read the Scapegrace plotline as a young teenager in a tiny rural school with zero diversity, going through a period of being deeply confused about my own gender identity. He was more or less my first introduction to the idea that genitals =/= gender. I was relieved, at that point in my life, to read someone having a lot of the same thoughts I was having about being in the wrong body. So while it may have been badly done and yeah, the series would probably have been better without it, it did make at least one kid suspecting she might not be cis go “Huh! So there are other people who feel like this.”
Thrasher is also implied to be legitimately trans/gender-questioning, and that's not played for laughs either.
So? Phase One, while it absolutely had faults and issues and things that were just "Oh god why", was actually full of rep, at least compared to the other series that I read as a child/teen. But? As soon as Dirty Laundry started trying to be woke? He fucking sucks ass at it. Aside from confirming Phase One's hints that Skug has a background of abusive relationships, every single attempt at shoehorning rep into Phase Two is Bad.
The painfully OOC, forced, badly-written awkwardness of Val suddenly being rabidly horny for women out of fucking nowhere. The stilted, forced cringiness between her and any of the women she's flirted with - contrast that with Sorrowscorn's interactions, full of natural chemistry that had us all like 👀 I mean, I never shipped Val/Melancholia, but I could always see why people did - they had miles more chemistry than Val/anyone in Phase Two.
The fucking mess that is v*litsa, because if someone says "I'm really not interested in friendships/relationships right now", clearly the route to true love is to bulldoze their boundaries and forcibly insert yourself into their life and proceed to treat them like a delicate soft uwu flower, completely ignoring the horrible things they've done, while gleefully damning their best friend as an irredeemable monster for the exact same things, which is. You know. Gonna affect your so-called love's self-confidence and self-esteem because she knows she's no different to him. Y'all know I love an angsty ship, an unhealthy ship, a ship with fucked power dynamics, but I literally cannot roll my eyes any further back in my head at this shit. I never read Demon Road, but from what I've heard from friends who did, it does seem like every time Laundry tries to write an f/f ship, he comes up with a cringey abusive/manipulative caricature and tries to call it rep, and he needs to Stop.
Val's Mental IllnessTM arc. It's funny how he wrote Skulduggery as a wonderfully complex character with deep-rooted psychological damage and long-lasting trauma, but believes he wrote a character with "no feelings" - but when he tries to delve into the damage the world of magic has done to Val, he turned her into a weak, whiny drug addict who treats everyone around her like garbage and is so selfish and dislikeable that I? Honestly can't even reconcile Phase Two val with Phase One val. They're two completely different people. He's shown on Twitter that he doesn't have any respect for mentally ill people, and it shows. Other mentally ill people might see it differently, but the whole thing just makes me go "yikes".
Never, who has no personality outside of being genderfluid, and whose pronouns make no sense. I'm sorry, I have never met an nb person who insists that you change from male to female pronouns multiple times in a sentence, every time you refer to them. It's confusing as fuck. Now I have been told that Never has apparently received some character development in the last couple books, and if so, fair play, but I quit reading after Midnight, and Never and the rest of the personality-less new characters introduced in Phase Two who just seemed to be 2D Stereotypes to snag Woke Points were a big part of why, so. Development too late, I'm afraid.
(Now, if anyone is looking for a well-written genderfluid character, I recommend the Tawny Man trilogy by Robin Hobb. I have a lot of issues with her as a writer, and unfortunately I hate her POV character which puts me off the series as a whole, but she wrote the Fool/Amber/Lord Golden and their gender identity/approach to sexuality with so much more respect and realism. That is the kind of rep nb people should be getting: 3D, complex, realistic characters whose gender is only a tiny fragment of their personality, not the be-all-and-end-all of their existence. You know. Like cis people get. Nobody wants to be represented by a 2D cardboard cutout stereotype.)
Anyway idk how much sense this makes it just really amuses me that Laundry would include all this rep completely unintentionally and then go on Twitter and remind us all that actually he's a massive asshole via insensitive/offensive tweets about the groups he'd actually done a fair job of including (i.e. Skulduggery has no feelings, mentally ill people should find another series to read, the bullshit about Val being "heteromantic bisexual" on Twitter and then spouting all the "the woman she loved uwu" shit in the books (proving he has no idea what he's talking about), eVeRyOnE iS bI eVeNtUaLlY. He can only write half-decent rep when he's not trying and he inevitably outs himself as having a really shitty attitude towards those people anyway, proving that ultimately it's all either unintentional rep or performative wokeness.
#skulduggery pleasant#sp meta#derek landy hate blog#Anon#fire message#anti valitsa#anti val#anti phase two tbh#phase two fans will not enjoy this post
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Overview of Etymology in Boral
(arranged in alphabetical order for my own convenience)
Arabic
From Arabic come of course words relating to Islam: masquet "mosque", imam "imam", but the majority of Arabic loanwords in Boral come via Andalus and/or Lustain [Portugal]. We have scientific and technological words like alchemy "chemistry", azauc "mercury", cadarar "to distil" and zefr "zero", along with trade goods like bojay "candle" and zucar "sugar".
[Basque] Vask
Words from Vask are usually naval, coming into Boral at the various ports of the Rustigh. We have sar "net, mesh" and bakilau "cod" along with the pair hagr "mast" and hagraç "boatswain". Scert "left" was originally limited to the boating sense (as in port and starboard) but had displaced native senestr by the Middle Boral period. Most notably, though, the continent of Mendeva [North America] comes via Latin mendevālis from Vask mendeval "west" (though this is thought to be from an Aquitain phrase like vent de val "valley wind").
Cumbric [Welsh]
Borrowings from Welsh are either: very old and filtered through the Old English, like jonnovar "butterfly" from name Guinωmhar (whence Guinevere and Jennifer), or: modern borrowings due to the increased cultural prestige of Britain, British Mendeva and Chrysia [Australia]. For example, we have davarn "grand hotel, resort" from the 19th-century Davarn Heul "Sun Hotel" in Hasiny and quanga "secretary".
Danish
Far fewer words come from Danish than its ancestor Old Norse, but we do have certain words for particular inventions: trevold "novel" and seur "carbonated drink".
Greek, Ancient
When words are borrowed directly from Ancient Greek they usually refer to decently-modern technologies. We have everything from arithmat "computation" through kenonaut "spaceship" to xanthal "neon" via stauron "intra-uterine device".
Hindi
The only two words in Boral which I know to come originally from Hindi are jast "zinc" and nargel "coconut", both words coming to Europe via Middle Eastern trade routes and into the Mediterranean.
Italian
Words from Italian fall into two broad categories: those from Greek and those from Latin. Examples of the first type include hormesc "anchor" and pilot "pilot", while those of the second include machiar "to blemish" and samfoin "bagpipes".
Kernish (Breton)
As far as I know, we only have quignou "pastry".
Latin
Very, very many words in Boral are borrowed directly from Latin into the modern language. Some of my favourites are idone "fit, proper, apt, convenient", langour "of disease, pathological" and scitation "examination, test" (which are native to Latin). Others are delt "tablet", gyr "orbit" and zoia "microbe" (which come through Latin from Greek).
Middle Boral
Words in this category tend to fall into two subsets. The first is derivations of words with older histories; for example, accapellar "to put on a hat" comes from capel "hat" which is from Latin. Other examples include cogmaðer "holidaymaker", courstray "love affair" and pisment "clockwork". The other set is Latin borrowings into Middle Boral, which includes everything from adolant "sycophant, flatterer" to volum "episode, incident".
Middle Dutch
A few words cross the Rustigh in this period, including masctig "authorisation" and rouvaç "robbery".
Middle French
Words from Middle French skew to the legal and administrative, from cortisar "to court, woo" and colleg "colleague" to stiket "label, tag". But we also have one-offs like cahot "jerk, tug" and tuyaut "cigar".
Nawat [Nahuatl]
These words almost universally reach Boral via Morrack traders, and include words like scadom "tomato" and scoclat "chocolate".
Old Boral
These are words that have survived (mostly) unscathed on the long journey from Latin to Modern Boral, or else were derived from such words at the time. So of course we have a menagerie of senses: everything from acconnosc "introduction" and auðou "scarf, bandage" to volubr "sexy" and yonoscon "wherever" being examples of innovations in this period, and issugt "dried", favet "whip, whisk" and jammel "twin" being examples of words in for the long haul.
Old Dutch
Only a few borrowing from here survive into the modern language. Like Vask we have the sea words ferscip "ferry" and havan "harbour", but also everyday words like rig "row, line, queue" and the calque surcair "to end up, to turn out".
Old English
After Latin, probably the most fecund source of vocabulary in Boral. It is hard to encompass these borrowings into specific domains; we have everything from crullar "to knock, ring, clap" and benoçar "to use, make use of" to vuscar "to hope, wish" and varous "shop, store".
Old French
Many of these words have a similar vibe: there are arbalest "crossbow", enterpris "undertaking, business" and donjon "keep, tower". But along with those we have jonglar "to juggle" and forsc "furnace".
Old Norse
Words from Old Norse somehow continue to have a medieval vibe, even 1200 years after the beginning of the Dane occupation. From acr "acre" to veð "ram" via bers "target, objective" and dalr "valley", these words skew distinctly agricultural.
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𝙲𝚘𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚒𝚘𝚗 / 𝙲𝚑 18
Chapter 18: Love Vlad and Val
Description: John B’s Sister comes home from staying with their mom, only to find out that her brother is missing and her dad was murdered. JJ may have just lost his best friend. Her and JJ have to figure out what to do and how to pick up the pieces.
A/N: I KNOW this took so long! But I had to figure out where I was going next without it getting to cheezy or moving too fast. This a lot of pogue and reader bonding :) It’s a pretty light chapter, but still, let me know what you think! Feedback is always appreciated!
Need to Catch Up? Collision MasterList
It had been about a week since we had found out that John B and Sarah were alive and had made it to the Bahamas on a cargo ship. It had been a week since JJ and I had made our ‘thing’ official. Things had been going overall exceptionally well for all of us. We didn’t know if we could trust Topper, but I wanted to keep him close to us. He lost Sarah too, but he was best friends with Rafe and Kelce, which makes him a liability. I just talked to him in passing along any information that he got, asking if he heard anything.
Kie was getting more and more keen on the relationship between JJ and I, always giving me a sly smile when he would visit us at work, or when we walked back to the Chateau together. It wasn’t that we were actively trying to keep our relationship a secret, I just didn’t know the right time to bring it up. I knew Kie would be supportive, but I was scared of their reactions.
Today had been a particularly rough day, Kie and I walking with Pope to Heywards. JJ was off working. My car had once again refused to start this morning. At the time I had not minded because it meant that I got a ride on the back of JJ’s bike, but now in the heat of midday on the Island the walk back seemed to last hours. We all felt miserable as we walked.
The conversation had been light and playful, typical pogue banter, until Kie started asking questions about JJ and I.
“So?” She asked, her voice raising an octave higher, while bumping her shoulder into mine. “Spill girl, You and JJ are flirting all the time at Work, and I’m not gonna let you forget how you said “Y’alls bed” the other day!” She said excitedly. Pope, falling into step with us, a confused look on his face. “Has anything happened yet?”
I wasn’t one to lie to my friends, so I felt obligated to tell her. “Maybe…” I teased, a smile making its way across my face as I drew out the word. She gasped, but stayed silent, begging me to continue. “He took me to the cliffs when we all left the Wreck the other day,” I said smiling, thinking back to the memory of that night. We both were able to talk openly about the way that John B leaving us had affected us in its own ways. My mind wandered to the way that he kissed me and how it felt to be held by JJ, making my cheek turn a bright shade of red, even in the sweltering heat.
This didn’t go unnoticed by Kie, as she raised her eyebrows urging me to continue. “We ended up staying late in the night, and it was just really nice. We talked about a lot of stuff that we needed to, personal stuff.” I said making sure to cut that summary short. These two did not need to know the personal struggles that JJ was going through if he didn’t tell them. “And then we may have ya know?” I said getting awkward again. Kie was bouncing as she walked with excitement.
“No? I do not know?” Pope said, very confused from the other side of Kie.
Kie turned to Pope with a blank expression. “Her and JJ have been macking Keep up!” She joked, rolling her eyes.
Pope’s expression changed to one of pure shock. His eyes went wide and he stuttered over his steps a few times before catching back up. “You and JJ?” He said looking at me to confirm. I just nodded my head laughing. “Well then.” He laughed
“Well we’re macking with commitment now,” I said, turning my head to look at the two, who stopped walking. Kie’s mouth was open slightly, while Pope just had a stupid smile on his face.
“You mean like…” She paused to walk again. “Like y'all are official?”
“He asked me that night on the cliffs,” I said, my mind once again taking me back to the moment. The happiness that I found in those little moments with JJ was unmatched.
“Who knew that JJ was romantic?” Pope joked causing Kie to push him slightly. He feigned being hurt as we finally made our way into the entrance of Heywards. “Where is he anyway, he normally walks with us?” Pope asked, looking around and seeing the absence of his bike.
“He’s been working for some new fishing boat?” I said shrugging. “It’s gotta be a big one, because they call at all hours of the day and JJ goes and is gone for a few hours at a time. They seem to make good money because JJ said he’s gonna be able to pay off restitution.”
“I have money for him for that, don’t let me forget it,” Pope said, motioning to his backpack.
“He’s not gonna take it Pope,” I said, the three of us pushing our way into the shop, ready to help deliver orders.
“I see y’all finally decided to show up huh?” Heyward said, hanging us bags to load onto the boat.
“Sorry Pops, we had to walk from the Wreck,” Pope said, getting defensive really quick. None of us mentioned it, but things between the Pogues and Mr.Heyward had been tense ever since John B and Sarah. None of us said anything about Pope and his scholarship, all I knew was that Heyward was upset.
“It’s true Mr. Heyward. My car won’t start, hopefully JJ will be able to fix it for me tonight.”
I said, giving him a tight-lipped smile as he handed me a good amount of grocery bags. My arms dropped from the weight as I drug myself out the large open garage door toward the dock.
“And your missing one! Where is he?” Heyward asked me and Pope as we made our way out. Pope was about to turn around and answer when the front door burst open.
“I’m right here, sorry Mr. H!” JJ came running through the door, and grabbing the remaining groceries from Heyward’s hands.
“Always a saving grace, aren’t you JJ?” Heyward spoke, rolling his eyes. I was handing the groceries to Kie on the boat as we laughed at the two. Heyward may not have approved of JJ’s lifestyle, but he was always there to support him when he needed it, to which we were all thankful for.
JJ lugged the handfuls of groceries to the boat, and Pope and I met him halfway to help. JJ was the first to climb in the boat, holding his hand out to me. I took my hand in his, feeling the rough surface of his around mine. He gripped my hand tightly as he helped me up and over the side of Heyward’s tug boat.
I put my arms around JJ’s neck, pulling him into me in an awkward sweaty hug. He giggled before burying his head in the crook of my neck, causing me to laugh. “I miss you,” he whispered, just loud enough that I could hear. I pulled away so that I could look at his, still intertwined, with my arms resting on his shoulders, one of my hands playing with his hair, and his hands resting comfortably on my hips.
“I miss you too. There was no one to annoy me and Kie this morning at the Wreck.” I giggled, catching Kie’s attention.
“Yea it was boring.” She said, winking as she looked at JJ and I. Pope started the boat, the engine revving to life, causing the whole boat to vibrate.
I noticed the bruise peeking out of JJ’s shirt, letting my eyes wander down to his hands. I saw the angry red marks that were left there. I knew that I had to be careful about how I went about this. I slid my hand into his, pulling it up to kiss it. JJ looked at me smiling, until he noticed what I was looking at.
He quickly pulled his hand away from him, his jaw clenching tight. “JJ what happened to your hand?” I said trying to reach for it. I kept my voice down trying not to draw the attention of the other two. “Did you get in a fight?” I asked, more animosity behind my voice than I meant.
“Yes Y/N. I got in a fight.” JJ huffed, rolling his eyes as if I was bothering him.
“You gotta talk to me dude” I reprimanded. “If this is gonna work,” I motioned pointing between the two of us, “we have to communicate.”
“Okay.” JJ sighed, taking a defeated form.
“Okay.” I agreed, taking a deep breath. “Who’d you get in a fight with?” My voice cracked, but I didn’t give him a chance to answer. “JJ please tell me you didn’t go home. I told you you could stay at the Chateau for as long as you need it. I don't want you going back there JJ.”
“It wasn’t my dad Y/N!” He said, placing his hand back on my shoulder to try and calm me. “It was Barry,” He said so softly I barely heard it.
“Barry?” I looked at him, keeping my voice low trying not to draw the attention of the others. “Where did you see Barry?” I asked, anger in my voice.
“He got me on my way back from work.” He said, shaking his head. “But I am fine. I dealt with it.” He said before turning to join the others.
“Hey! Wait up kids!”Heyward’s voice broke the tension, causing me to turn seeing him walking towards us with something in his hand. He held up an envelope between two fingers, his eyebrows raised looking at our group. I looked between the other three on the boat, all of which had migrated to the cabin. All of use shared a similar expression of confusion, as we looked between the three of us. Heyward reached the side of the boat, “Addressed to the Pogues?” He stated before extending his arm and handing me the letter. “I’d assume that’s you kids.” I took the letter hurting to the cabin where the others were watching with eager eyes. “Now, get going, y’all can look at whatever it is on the way.” Heyward said, waving us off with his hands.
Pope took it as his cue to start the boat, the wind picked up, and we could all feel the start of the boat. As we waited for Pope to rejoin us, I took my time to inspect the envelope looking for any telltale signs of what it was. There was no return address on it, just a stamp, “The Pogues,” and Heyward’s address written in large, loopy handwriting.
“Alright, open the damn envelope,” Pope said, turning to face the group. We all chuckled at the bluntness of his statement. I dug my finger into the corner and pulled it across the top. I slowly slid out the stiff cardboard. The image on the front became clear. All of us looked at the colorful image on the front. The photo was of the crystal clear, blue-tinted water meeting the white sandy beaches, framed with lush green palm trees. Across the top fancy, bold scripted letters read “Love from the Bahamas”
“No fucking way” Kie said breathless, as I held the postcard in my hand. My eyes went wide with shock as I read the words on the front. I let out a surprised laugh before flipping it over in my hand.
We all looked over the scratchy writing that was scribbled on the back of the postcard in thick black ink. “Can’t wait to see you in Mexico!! Can we make it a month? Save the date: Aug 3rd! Love, Vlad and Val” With a small heart following. I scrunched my eyebrows as I looked at the others confused.
“Who the hell are Vlad and Val?” Pope asked. Looking between the three of us.
JJ took the postcard from my hand looking over it again before looking up at the group, “It’s John B and Sarah.” He said with a large grin on his face.
Masterlist
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My First Impressions DA4 Dev Diary
Ok so firstly, I think there is going to be a ton of concept art that we will never see make it to the game, a lot will be for the benefit of crafting the story without actually being in the world itself, so I am taking everything as a concept and not really a peek at the game.
These are all based on something that sparked upon first watch of the video. I have included some screen caps with time stamps for people who might want to look at them on their own. Based on both concept art from DAI to end results AND if they did their jobs of getting the feeling/mood/ideas across I am just stating what I personally read out of those ideas and images or interviews. Nothing is solid, these are just where I was sparked to go. Buckle up, it’s a long hot mess:
The locations look amazing and I think it's possible to see a lot of the places we have never been before but I also got something reminiscent of Val Royeaux with a few of them. Especially the lake and boats.
We are going to see more about the titans, and the deep roads, my guess is lore in the decent will be coming back in a bigger way there. There are a lot of shots of both rock formations, lyrium glowing and dwarven places that don't look underground OR ruins. These are well preserved looking at the interior shots and it another sweeping shot it looks like sunlight from the ceiling so these are not exactly “ruins” as we have seen them before.
SWIMMING!?!
Also Dorian looking facial hair (but maybe not?) That does look like Dorian's facial hair but also at the end of Trespasser they changed up his look slightly so I will question everything. I’m guessing if he is there it will more likely be as an advisor/contact he might be more like a temp companion in the way that Cullen joins you on the mission to the Temple in DAI, but I don't think he will be like Varric was in DAI from DA2 because his story seems more tied to fighting things from within and in his own ways of changing the world of Tevinter with his new found position.
This image below doesn't look like the other companions(?) character designs we have seen that repeat or at least the character designs we are guessing are companions as much to me so this might be a story telling concept more than a playable portion? Also getting some return to Awakening lore vibes in a lot of these shots of what I assume are Tevinter.
I feel pretty confident we are going to Weisshaupt
New combat styles look exciting, like more magic options and maybe even magical weapons? I also think we are going to see a return of ancient elves or at least something similar to what we saw at the temple of mythal. Like these folks here:
The floating stuff looks like something hidden away, like when we were at the floating library. It wasn't a result of the rift like the temple of scared ashes, it was just like that and those look like halla and sort of Aravels in design so I think this is either Agents of F.H. or maybe even the dalish? I mean they look like they are preparing to travel? Maybe I’m talking out of my ass but maybe it’s just a flashback to lore and how the dalish came to be after the veil creation.
There is a Crow in this art with the lady in the salon chair and what looks like the Qunari companion(?), so that might point to Antiva? I think the grand necropolis is the one with all the waterfalls, but I can't remember how all these places were described.
This looks like a giant Qunari. Like the super charged Serabas from Trespasser
The way they talk about "not having power" I feel like that's back to Origins in a way. Like trying to bring light to something and not having an organization like in DAI. I think it's also going to be more "in the shadows" like no one knows who you are kind of? Similar and more intimate like in the comics series with Varric and Alistair searching for his father. I think it’s going to be more grassroots in a way. I think this will be more varied than Inquisition in that recruiting will likely be about gathering people from other places and bringing them together as those who can see the big threat and have been doing it on their own before joining our gang. It’s hard to put in to words what I mean but I like the idea of seeking out people to bring in based on a rumour of a person who is doing what you are doing but in their country.
I haven’t looked too much at the possible companion(?) art aside to say I think it would be dope if the tall central figure was Maevaris, and it looks like glowly head skeletor is the result of Necromancy of Cassandra’s homeland based on how the lore has described those beings. Also would be interesting if they were something similar to the way Justice was.
It would be also fun to imagine that these are not companions at all but actually playable protagonsists that you can choose from for backstories like we had in origins and that’s another reason they are not always a clear figure but a general representation? It’s fun to imagine we could have Origins return in that way.
I thought the lore was that Crows are always boys, kind of like the unsullied from ASOIAF. They are bought and trained young. But also my memory is crap so maybe I've been corrupted by tropes and know nothing. I am very curious who she is, she's like a catwoman-esque character in that maybe she is a criminal? Maybe a foe? Maybe a friend? Either way I’m here for it.
Solas looks smokin, both literally and figuratively.
The dread wolf line makes me think it's going to be the first confrontation with him as the new protag cause he would have contempt for having to feel like he needs to explain himself to someone he doesn't know. Like when we see Corypheus at Haven.
Lots of creature and beast designs I think will come from the "old things" like an awakening from what Solas has done in trying to bring things back. Also maybe something more like the Guardians we had for the titans will turn out to be obstacles to get more lore and deeper into the blight and the formation of thedas with the worlds colliding from the pre-veil times to present. There is also an Anthem-looking giant with an axe of fire so that will be interesting.
This gives me the Mother and Broodmother vibes but also it looks like a heart in the centre, which is extra creep. Also Mr spideyhands.
Confirmation of at least 1 voiced Warden character?? I think it’s close enough to call.
The big rock boi is 100% neverending story feels and might be a titan manifesting itself in a way we can actually communicate with it as opposed to what happened in decent. Please yes.
More Grand Necropolis I think and evidence of the glowy head skeletor concept
Look at all these warden flags and colours... that 's the stronghold, bruh
Everyone wants the one companion(?) to be carrying a gun and I can't tell you how much I would dislike that, but to each their own. I suspect it's more Bianca-like in nature of mechanical but what do i know?
Final thoughts: I would love a return to the lore of the darkspawn creation, the nature of the blight, (there is some hints in the concept art as to these elements in design with a corypheus type figure)
I know Solas knows about all of that so give it to us please. I think the new protag will be brand new, but also with the inquisition as an option to disband or continue it's likely we will get a lot of cameos from games past.
Either Inky will be sought out like Hawke was? or with the advisors or former companions will be still working to do things without the official organization (should they have chosen to dissolve the organization) because they show the Inky and some of the inner circle post trespasser looking at the map and making moves even if there is no "forces" or troops or anything backed by the Inquisition itself.
Because the “bad guy” this time is someone we have had some sort of relationship with, either friend or lover, or simply a companion I think you have to have closure on that story with the Inky and I will be super bummed if that is never addressed. I doubt we will see the HOF,(I thought I read it confirmed they would never be back?) and if we do it will be letters only or codex at the stronghold or someone talking about them. I think we will learn something about The Warden/Hawke's fate (if left in the fade) as the veil would in theory come down at some point or at least things will be effected by that and that means they maybe aren't trapped there. Maybe a jumanji type situation? I would enjoy that personally, even if just for the memes.
Feel free to add, counteract, contradict, or whatnot, but let’s all be respectful and excited together!
#da 4#da 4 speculation#da 4 theories#dragon age theory#dragon age thoughts#dragon age 4#dragon age speculation#long post
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SO. everything with 4 in it.
HAHAHA payback no no i get it its fine this is fine :)))) enjoy a ton of answers under the cut. Sorry it took me AGES to answer this but you know how it goes
(if anyone wants to still send me questions, here’s the list!! X )
4. Do you have a favourite racing film? - Ford V. Ferrari for sure!!! i love that movie so so much and the score absolutely helps me love it more.
14. Which was your first race you watched? - so, the first race that i remember was Canada 2019 so HAHAHA yes. i watched seb switch the boards and thats what I distinctly remember. HOWEVER, the first race that I got into was Austria GP 2020 cause this was the first season that I cared about F1.
24. Is there a driver that you think gets an underserved amount of hate? - Lance Stroll no further questions.
34. Is there championship battle that you least enjoyed? - UHHHHH I mean I could not tell you cause again I have not paid attention that much. Like the first championship battles I’ve seen is this year so like....not much of a competition. Once I watch more, I will let you know!!
40. Which podium made you happy the most? - TURKEY GP 2020 THIS YEAR ITS SO GOOD. It made me so so happy to see Lewis, Checo and Seb up there. They all drove so so well and seeing Seb up there to help celebrate Lewis’ title too is just...great.
41. Which podium was your least favourite? - huh. I think the Russian GP 2020 because like...okay we’d gotten used to lewis and val and max being up there in some sort of way for a while. Then we got Monza! And even Muggello! But then all of a sudden we go crashing back to earth with our regular 3. So... idk its not a bad podium by any means! But for this season it was just like “oh yeah...right. This is how its supposed to be.” Not that we can’t have different podiums! But it was just cool to see new stuff but then like “oh yeah i remember these. guys”
42. What was one of your personal highlights of F1? - well so i started the sport a while ago cause my dad has always watched it. But then, I watched. DTS and the rest is history. Like I actually paid attention then instead of just saying “oh cool Lewis won.” Anyway, my dad has always been a seb fan and so I’ve always had a big spot in my heart for him. Whenever this year started and the Ferrari was just...not great, I was kind of upset cause I was thinking “oh man. i won’t get to see the great Sebastian Vettel race like the pro he is this year.” I mean, they’re all pros but you get what I mean. So I think the best moment was again, Turkey just because I finally got to say thats it. That’s the Seb I know my dad has been raving about for the past ever. It was just really cool.
43. What was your highlight (or highlights of the season)? - Uh, well I thought this was similar to the last question but I guess not? We’ll go more driver highlights tho instead of my. highlight. Biggest highlights had to be Pierre’s win at Monza. I cried a lot that day. There’s just something about his story that makes him winning that much sweeter. I think also Daniel and Checo getting two podiums (and Checo winning) is VERY impressive and a highlight. Also!!!! Esteban got his first podium and thats huge!!! Lots more but those are the first ones I’ve got coming to me.
44. Where would you want to have a race? - Well, somewhere in the States cause I just wanna be able to get there!!! But, no, I’ve not really put a lot of thought into this. I guess I’d like to have one in the midwest just cause thats where I am but Colorado with the mountains in the background (so like around Denver) or actually in the mountains would be so so cool.
45. Where would you want to visit a race? - From next years calendar, Australia sounds cool but to be fair, I’ve always wanted to go there. As cliché as it is, I think Monaco would be cool but i’d be very over it very quickly ya know? Just cause i’d be like “oh cool boats and fanfare!” And then like okay....what else is up. But I really do like street circuits so as long as its one of those, I feel like I’d enjoy!
46. Where wouldn’t you like to race anymore? - Barcelona. Please get it off the calendar. That or Sochi. Like... I’m so over those and I’ve only been in the sport for a shortened season.
47. Which of the circuits would you like to replace? - hmmm confused... thought i just answered this but uhhhh i guess replace will be Sochi. Replace it with uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh idk one of the new ones we had this year. Turkey was obviously good so go with that one.
48. What would your dream podium be? - ooh....dream podium. Seb, Daniel and Pierre. Don’t ask why. It’s just a thing that I feel in my gut.
49. What would be your ideal F1 team? Who would drive for it, who would be the team principle and so on? - I’ve already answered this one and it took a bunch of space so for the sake of keeping this somewhat short here’s the link to that one!
54. Which was your favourite bromance line up? - Bromance line up or in general??? Bromance lineup though I’ll stick to George and Nicky. Nicky holding up the sign to stop taking shirtless pics just got me. (I know its this year and i could probably go another era but oh well)
64. Is there a ship that seems so weird but somehow just works for you? - hmmmm....I mean there are a bunch of weird ships but I don’t follow them!
74. Are there any F1 that you change your perspective on somethings? - looking at the questions around this, i think this means F1 blogs that change my perspective on things. All right this is a loaded question. Usually, no. There aren’t. Mainly because I follow the blogs that I have the same perspective as or our perspectives line up. So, no from that side of things. Now, thats for most of the “big issues” that you see everyone arguing in the tags over. Things like ships and other things... sure. @dansteban and @estebanoconz got me into liking Dansteban so my perspective changed on that just cause I’d never considered it. But otherwise, big topic issues I got nothing.
THANKS FOR ALL THE QUESTIONS IT WAS ACTUALLY FUN ONCE I REMEMBERED TO DO THEM
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Ask re: Thor in Endgame
This post contains spoilers for Avengers: Endgame.
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KitCat Italica said:
What did you think of how they handled Thor in Endgame? I saw the film this afternoon and I have mixed feelings about it 😞 (This is KitCat Italica btw, I have no Tumblr but I've been following yours because I like having good things in my life ^.^)
Ah, thank you, Kit! Hopefully there will be more of those “good things” on my blog once I stop angsting about what I saw in Endgame and start working on all these non-canon-compliant AUs.
I too have mixed feelings about Thor’s part in Endgame. I felt really disappointed that some characters (Cap, Clint, Scott) were able to get their happy ending while others (Tony, Nat, Thor) did not. Was it unrealistic of me to expect a happy ending for all? Even bittersweet ones? Maybe. But I think of all the Avengers, Thor deserved a better ending than what he got (based on how much he had lost beforehand--which was everything, even his pride, honor, and self-worth).
I just don’t see him running away from his duties to his people, pawning those responsibilities off onto Valkyrie so he can hop on a spaceship, ditch the home he’s spent five years rebuilding, and cruise around the universe with a guy who can barely tolerate him and a crew he only vaguely knows. It just seems very... un-Thor to me. (Perhaps my mind will change in time, but this is my first reaction.)
Now, Thor did a similar thing at the end of The Dark World, but he at least had a purpose and a mission then. In Endgame, he’s just relegating himself to the position of space garbage. He’s no better off than he was at the beginning of the film, especially for all of his development (which mostly hinged on him realizing that he is “still worthy”). You would think he’d be filled with drive and purpose now. But he’s not. He’s just... going off into space. Farewell, Val. Have fun running Asgard.
I was really disappointed.
My partner asked me, “How would you have written Thor’s arc?”
I had to think for a minute.
“He would have been the same in the beginning,” I said. Depressed, grief-stricken. Drinking too much. Unshaven, unkempt. He is not a king, there is no New Asgard. Simply a village where his people have found new lives for themselves. Hard lives of toil and sadness, but at least they’re living. Which is better than most of his people’s fate. (One half killed in Ragnarok, half of that number killed by Thanos’s attack on the Statesman, and half of that number decimated by the Snap.) He thinks himself a failure, unworthy. Perhaps he’s working on a fishing boat, throwing himself mindlessly into manual labor to keep his thoughts away from the past and all that he’s lost. Losing himself in the sea instead.
Then he’s approached by the Avengers, told there is a chance to go back in time and fix things. He declines. They persist. (Like the black ops coming to the bitter old retired soldier with one last mission because he’s the best they’ve got and they can’t do it without him.) Thor loses patience. The sky darkens, thunder growls. His eyes glow. People run for cover. But the Avengers appeal to the one shred of hope that still lingers in his heart, and at last they succeed in convincing him.
After all...
So Thor, still consumed with rage and grief and battling his alcohol addiction, finds himself among his old friends again and is slowly infected by the same desperate hope that they all share. They are brought closer together because of it, united in these harrowing times, made stronger by their determination. They become better comrades now than they ever were before as the Avengers because they share the same sorrow and loss, all of them, and burn with the desire to make things right. Now they are something new, an entity fueled by love and madness and hope. Their reassurances help to ease the burden of his heavy heart. He has a mission again. A purpose. Perhaps he will not fail. Perhaps this time he will do one last worthy thing, and then himself be worthy again.
He teams up with Rocket and journeys into the quantum realm with his mission, and suffers continuous panic attacks the whole time. But finally he is met by his mother, who sees her beloved son for who he is: a broken shadow from the future, consumed with anger and grief and self-hatred. She strokes his scarred cheek and stares into his mismatched eyes and speaks the words to him that he needs to hear. You are worthy. You still have purpose. I love you, my son. You are enough.
These words (among others) are a turning point. Thor calls Mjolnir to him and is further reinforced that he is worthy, and he goes forward with hammer and axe to help his friends defeat Thanos.
Afterward, he returns to New Asgard with a set of goals. Small plans to move forward. He’s going to start over. Do things right this time. Try to better himself. Stop the drinking, stop isolating himself. Face the reality he’s been hiding from for the last five years. He still has his people. (They smile as they see him return, and Thor finds himself smiling back.) He and Valkyrie work together to rebuild their lives, and the tales of their journey are woven into the tapestries of time.
There is a place where the gods still live. Where the survivors of Ragnarok dwell alongside mortal men, and protect the realm that is now their home. And if the God of Thunder is ever called upon by the people of Midgard, he is always ready to answer.
#THAT is how i would have written thor's arc#ask bender#avengers endgame#thor odinson#spoilers#endgame spoilers#ficlet#au#hjbwrites#thor's character#depression#alcoholism#addiction#hjbendergifs#infinity war#iwedit#survivor's guilt#anxiety#ptsd#panic attacks
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hi chris!!! im so very sorry that i havent responded,, i’ve been very sleepy and busy lately and i was gonna go respond but i cant find your most recent post? if it’s still around, link it for me? - 🖤✨💕
Don’t be sorry! Because I am in a similar boat! I have been busy and dealing with a plethora of different physical/mental things. No force to respond, given the nature of our role play! I hope that you have been well. Happy Holidays! <3 :]
https://billybadbilly.tumblr.com/post/189419482907/for-a-moment-val-is-lost-in-the-feeling-of-his
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another commission for the wonderful @varricttethras of his oc kadan and varric tethras being angsty post-temple of sacred ashes <3 i’m sorry it’s taken me so long to finish but i hope the wait was well worth it!
“Varric?”
He wakes with a start. It takes a few seconds for his vision to clear and his eyes to adjust, and he realizes then that he has no idea what’s happening. He does realize, however, that there’s a dull pain in his head and a sharp pain in his side and, as he moves a hand to each, he nearly topples off whatever surface he’s lying on. Luckily, he catches himself at the last second, helped with one hand by the person standing next to him.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you!” she exclaims. It’s a young girl – she can’t be any older than eighteen, he thinks – and she looks more horrified of him now that he’s awake rather than when he was asleep. “Sorry, I’m sorry!”
Varric manages a good-natured chuckle. “Don’t be sorry, kid,” he says, the smile in his voice dropping as he sits up the rest of the way and cups the back of his neck to find it warm and wet. The last thing he remembers is... well, he doesn’t remember anything, really. He just remembers walking up the path to the Temple of Sacred Ashes with Kadan and Cassandra in tow and then... nothing. “If you don’t mind me asking –“
“Oh, no, not at all!” she interrupts before he has a chance to finish. “That’s why the Seeker sent me to take care of you. There was an accident at the Temple of Sacred Ashes, I think. Maybe. I mean – it’s just that’s all anyone has told me.”
“Hold on.” Varric clenches his fists into balls and rubs his eyes. “An accident? What kind of accident?”
The girl is silent for a moment – it takes a coaxing look from Varric for her to sigh and shake her head. “An explosion, I heard,” she answers quietly. “A… bad one.”
“How bad?” he asks.
“I don’t know!” she exclaims, then promptly looks horrified, slapping her hands over her mouth. “I’m sorry,” she says from behind her fingers, “I just –“
“Where’s Cassandra?” he demands, sliding from where he had been stretched out on – a bench, he realizes, as he hits the ground earlier than he expected – and reaching for where his jacket had been folded up on a table beside it, topped with his crossbow.
“Outside organizing soldiers, but –“
“Kid?” He smiles at her, a vain attempt to calm her down. “Thanks for your help. Take care of yourself.”
She’s struggling to form a reply as he breezes past her and pushes through the front door of the cabin.
An unfamiliar image greets his eyes as it swings shut behind him. The snow, which had been crisp and crystalline the last time he was in the village, is splattered with blood and littered with broken weapons. Rocks have come loose from the gravel pathways, skittering underneath scared soldiers’ feet, and barrels have been upturned and emptied of their contents. He frowns, shouldering his crossbow, jumping over a round, red puddle in front of the cabin and taking off towards the Chantry.
It’s there he finds Cassandra, standing in front of a crooked table and directing a group of men and women wearing mismatched armor. “Do not go to the Temple without proper reinforcements,” she instructs, staring at them and gesturing with one hand as she flips through papers with the other. “Instead, take care of the demons in the valley. Under no circumstance should you –“
She stops as Varric approaches.
“Is someone going to tell me what in Andraste’s name is going on here?” he asks with a bitter laugh before she can continue giving out orders. “Honestly, Seeker? You leave me in some dimly light cabin with some kid watching over me?”
“She’s a healer, Varric,” Cassandra responds, sounding annoyed and distracted at the same time as she waves the soldiers away. “And you were recovering from your injuries after I carried you back to Haven myself.”
“My injuries, whatever the fuck they are, are nothing compared to this!” He gestures to a pool of blood at the foot of a bench beneath a pair of unlaced boots. “What happened?”
“There was an explosion at the Temple,” she answers.
“How bad?”
She gulps, moving her attention elsewhere. “I have things to do, dwarf, if you don’t mind –“
“How. Bad?”
Her whole body shudders as she shakes her head over and over again, squeezing her eyes shut. “Very,” she manages to get out eventually. “There is… no trace of any survivors.”
It’s the first thing that anyone has said since he’s woken up that winds him. He takes a step away from her, absentmindedly reaching up towards his crossbow, looking up at the sky as if it’ll give him an answer. And it does. There are green streaks stretched across the sky above him and, when he turns around to find a source, that’s when he notices the gaping hole hanging above the mountains.
“Shit.”
He looks at Cassandra again. “So where’s Kadan? She’ll want to help.”
She hadn’t been with him when he woke up, so he’s assuming she’s somewhere else being taken care of. He must’ve been knocked out after the explosion – he doesn’t remember any of it, after all, and she’s probably in the same boat, considering they were together. She must be so scared.
This is what she gets for coming with him, he thinks bitterly.
He tried to convince her that he’d be fine on his own. “I’ll only be gone a month or two,” he said nonchalantly as if it was any consolation, stuffing the last of his belongings from his room in the Hanged Man into a pack. “And, once I’m back, the Chantry won’t be hounding my ass anymore.”
She was sitting at the end of his bed, playing with one of her earrings. “But you’ll be so far away,” she said pitifully. He laughed, which he knew was to her annoyance, and stepped away from his table to pad over to her.
“I’ll be back soon,” he told her, holding his hand out. She stared at it for a second before taking it, swinging her arm back and forth until she forced Varric to do it, too.
“What if I come with you?” she suggested.
He laughed again, a low, throaty chuckle just meant to humour her. Not only did he not particularly want her to come – it wouldn’t be a very fun ordeal, anyway – but he didn’t know if she really knew what that meant. “Really?” he said skeptically.
“Really!” Kadan was grinning, dark lips stretching out from one horn to the other. “It’ll be an adventure.”
“You say that like it’s going to be fun,” Varric grumbled. “It’ll just be me, these… Seekers of Truth –“ He said the name with a sneer – “and whoever else in Thedas right now hates me and the mess I helped make.”
“Well…” Kadan swung their arms back and forth with even more fervor. “If I come along, there will be at least one person who doesn’t hate you…”
“Great, thanks.”
“I mean it!” She hopped up from the bed, smiling down at him, planting her hands on his shoulders. “Let me come, Varric.”
He was a weak man – three seconds of staring into her dark, shadowy eyes and he would’ve burned down the Grand Cathedral in Val Royeaux for her. Fuck. The woman was two times his height and had enough scars to scare a bear away – shit, probably a dragon - and all he felt was so much softness for her. “Fine,” he answered in mock indignance. “You can come… but on one condition.”
She had already squealed and wrapped him up in a lung-bursting hug – at that, she promptly dropped him. “What is it?” she asked with genuine curiosity.
“Don’t get yourself killed. Don’t die, okay? I couldn’t handle that.”
And now, like his worst fears come to life, she might be dead.
“Is she…” Varric comes back to Haven with a shake of his head. “You left her out there?”
“We were separated in the chaos!” Cassandra protests.
“Bullshit!” he spits. “Where did you last see her?”
“Somewhere in the valley,” she answers. “The mountainside –“
“That’s where I’m going, then,” he announces.
Cassandra balks at him. “You’re wounded, Varric,” she says, “just go –“
He doesn’t listen. She may care about him or she may not. She may be worried for his safety or maybe she still just wants to keep him around to testify. He doesn’t care. The woman he loves is out in the wild, maybe alone, maybe gone, and either way he needs to find her.
Their final moments together can’t be something he might never remember.
Cassandra keeps talking and, then, keeps yelling, but Varric is already stalking away, thumping down a slippery set of stone stairs and then along the pathway stretching out in front of him. Soldiers are running by as he goes, but he can barely even consider stopping to converse with them. That thing in the sky, whatever the fuck it is, is churning out boulders and rocks and Maker-knows-what at a rapid rate and if Kadan is still alive now, it might not be long until she isn’t.
There’s a lump in his throat that keeps growing and growing. When he finally realizes the templar trailing behind him is trying to ask him something, he’s not sure he’ll be able to get a word out in reply.
“Sorry, what?”
The man looks winded. He must’ve been following Varric for a long time. They’ve made it through the gates of Haven, and a make-shift medical camp is being overrun with bloody bodies being carried back in weary soldier’s arms. It’s not a very nice place to chat with someone, so Varric hopes the reason this man stopped him is a good one.
“I’ll come with you,” the man says. He has a heavy accent Varric can’t quite put a finger on. “My friends… Other templars are out there. We can’t just leave them. We need them more than ever.”
“Templars aren’t my top priority –“
“What was your woman’s name?” The man takes a step forward. “Kadan, you said? Maybe the templars are keeping Kadan safe.”
Varric doubts it – most templars likely wouldn’t be very inclined to try and keep a qunari safe, let alone one without any obvious connections - but maybe the man has a point. And it’d be nice to have help, especially considering, if Kadan is wounded, there’s no chance Varric will be able to carry her back to Haven by himself. So he nods. “Fine,” he agrees. “What’s your name?”
“Morris,” the man replies.
“Alright, Morris,” Varric says, and it sounds like the beginning of the end, “let’s go.”
The lake is frozen over. Rocks pierce the icy surface, cracking it open and revealing dark blue water underneath. It makes Varric feel uneasy – the river that runs through the valley must be in a similar or worse condition, and it doesn’t bode well for what they’re going to face on the path ahead of them.
But Varric doesn’t care.
He wishes Kadan hadn’t come. He wishes he hadn’t been in a position for her to do so. If she dies, it’ll be his fault. Another thing to add to the list.
And then, like a bolt of lightning, a memory comes back to him.
They’d been sitting in an inn somewhere near Highever. Varric had almost managed to finally drift off to sleep after a few hours of wriggling around beneath the scratchy cotton blanket when he heard the door creek open and gentle footsteps – Kadan’s – creep closer and closer to him from across the room.
“Hey,” he greeted as he flopped over onto his back to see her, his voice rough and croaky from sleep.
He cleared his throat.
“I have something to tell you,” she said.
His eyebrows drew together in confusion as he pushed himself up from the bed and stared at her. “What is it?” he asked. Rarely she spoke – to him, anyway - without that usual lilt she reserved just for him and it made Varric feel almost sick.
The flame on the candle flickered as she hurried to remove her cloak and drop it on the floor next to him, perching on the edge of his bed. “There’s another reason why I wanted to come with you,” she said uneasily.
He didn’t answer – he raised his eyebrows at her in question instead.
“My siblings are with the Valo-Kas mercenary group,” she confessed, her voice shaky. “They’re in charge of security at the Temple during the peace talks between the mages and templars to make sure things don’t get out of hand. I wanted to… see them and make sure they’re okay, but I haven’t seen them since… since everything happened back in Kirkwall and I’m so scared they’re going to turn me away and –“
“Hey,” Varric said gently. A man as observant as he was could tell within seconds that it was making her upset. He knew why, of course. He also knew that, the more she talked about it, the more upset she’d become, and he was too exhausted – they were both too exhausted – to go through that so late at night. “If you wanna see ‘em then we’ll see ‘em, okay?” Varric assured her. “And we won’t leave until we do.”
“Really?”
“Of course,” he replied, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder and giving it a gentle shake. “I’m not planning on dragging you around the Temple of Sacred Ashes for however long this conclave is going to take without giving you something in return.”
She placed her hand over top of his. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner,” she told him, turning her head to meet his eyes.
“Don’t be.” Varric shot a smile at her, accompanied by a friendly chuckle. “You should know by now I’d do anything for you, Kadan.”
And he will. He’ll walk through a demon-infested valley with no armor and a heavy head. He’ll shoot enemy after enemy until he runs out of bolts and has to fight them hand-to-hand. He’ll risk his own damn neck for her. And her siblings, too, he supposes – if there’s anything she’ll be doing in this mess, it’ll be looking for them and making sure they’re safe, and she’ll need someone to do the same for her, too.
He forces himself not to think about how far the Temple is from the outskirts of Haven and how tired he is and instead turns to Morris, holding a hand up. “There was this mercenary crew,” he begins. “The Valo-Kas. They were in charge of security at the Temple, and a bunch of qunari are employed under them. That’s who we need to find.”
“I thought we were finding your woman.”
“My woman…” Varric clears his throat and shakes his head at the thought of her. “If she’s anywhere, she’ll be with them.”
“Let’s hope they made it out of the Temple before the explosion,” Morris comments to Varric’s dismay.
“Yeah,” Varric mutters, “let’s.”
Because if they didn’t, then Kadan will be at the Temple looking for them, and Varric doesn’t want her anywhere near that thing in the sky. Whatever it is, there’s no way the Maker or Andraste or anyone else will be able to save them from it, and he’s aiming to get as far away from it as possible before it’ll probably inevitably explode once more.
Of course, he has to get close to it, first.
His mind wanders as he walks. It must, because every time he sees a pair of qunari horns sticking up from underneath the snow his heart stops and his throat closes and he’ll go crazy if he doesn’t try to distract himself as he turns the corpses over to get a good look at each face. Instead of thinking about Haven and the Temple and the conclave and the mages, he thinks about the Hawkes. He thinks about Fenris and Anders and Merrill and Isabela and Aveline and Casandra – no, he doesn’t think about Cassandra. In fact, he adamantly refuses to do so.
In her place, he thinks about Kadan, instead. He thinks about how little time they had together before they left for the Temple. Not that they knew what was going to happen – if they did, they wouldn’t have come in the first – but, looking back…
He isn’t a religious man, but if that night wasn’t a gift straight from the Maker, he doesn’t know what else it could have been.
Haven had been the last stop before the Temple of Sacred Ashes. Cassandra begrudgingly set Varric and Kadan up in one of the cabins that had been emptied after its occupants had gone to the conclave, and though it was nice, it was cold. And lonely.
The second that they dropped their packs and weapons off and settled in for the night, Kadan disappeared. She’d been quiet and almost twitchy all day, and though Varric was waiting for them to get a moment alone together for him to ask her about it, he couldn’t. In fact, he didn’t even see her until that night when she returned.
There was a fresh layer of snow coating her shoulders and frost glistening on her horns. She was sniffling as she pushed through the door, marching straight towards the foot of the bed where Varric was sitting and taking off his boots.
“Hi there,” he greeted her, trying to keep his tone light as best as he could manage for both of their sakes. “Where’d you run off to?”
“We need to –“
She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. Varric raised an eyebrow – hopefully some templar hadn’t riled her up accidentally. Cassandra told all of them that Kadan was with Varric under the Divine’s protection, but… well, they were templars.
“Can we –“
“Can you sit down?” Varric laughed, grabbing her by the forearms and trying to direct her to the bed next to him. “You’re making me anxious.”
She sat down next to him, close enough that their legs were touching, and took a deep breath in.
“I just… I keep wanting to…”
Her dark eyes fluttered shut. Varric took the moment to admire her face, shining from the snow and dark against glow of the candle on the wall behind her.
Andraste’s ass. He loved her.
It wasn’t unknown to him. He’d known ever since all of that shit with Bartrand went down and she spent hours trying to put him back together, the same way he’d done before for her after everything that happened with her siblings. From then on out, it had been the two of them against the world. Just the two of them.
He slid his hand from his knee to hers. “It’s alright,” he said, eyebrows knitting together in confusion and concern and about three other emotions. “Take your time.”
“You’re… very special to me,” she began, “and I just wanted to…”
She stopped herself and opened her eyes again, revealing orbs like two miniature suns against a pitch black sky.
“I want to…”
Her head had tilted closer and closer, and Varric had leaned forward to make sure he caught whatever she was mumbling, and all of a sudden he realized –
I could kiss her.
And, after a few moments of careful consideration, he did.
He kept kissing her until he had to come up for air. He was expecting to be greeted with a smarmy smile or a shove off the bed or even a mix of the two, but instead she just kissed him again, tucking her hands under his ass – alright, he thought, that’s how this is gonna go – and pulling him into her lap. He barely had long enough to get settled before she flipped him onto his back and pinned his wrists above his head.
Maker.
“So,” he chuckled.
“So,” she agreed.
“Sex?”
“Yeah.”
That was the first time Varric ever kissed her. It might be the last.
Not only have they been walking for an hour and haven’t stumbled upon anything but a kingdom’s worth of corpses, but he might’ve just led them both into a trap.
Demons are descending upon him and Morris before he even has time to make a plan. The templar has already unsheathed his sword and is fending the creature off, but Varric’s crossbow gets stuck to his jacket, and he lets out an annoyed grunt and backs away from a demon creeping towards him.
“Back off, buddy,” he murmurs. “Give me one second.”
The demon slashes at him and Varric jumps out of the way.
“Hey! I said give me a second!” he exclaims in annoyance as he finally pulls his weapon free and plugs three bolts into the demon’s chest.
That’s not the last of them, but it’s a good thing Varric has a friend with him – and it’s a better thing that he has a wrath to match any archdemon’s.
Unfortunately, his wounds disagree – he knows he’s bleeding again because there’s this odd warm feeling spreading to his hips and beneath the waistband of his breeches and he’s beginning to feel very dizzy. He doesn’t let it stop him, though. They’ve almost reached the Temple, and nothing but death is going to keep him from Kadan.
He must be cursed to lose so many people. It’s the only explanation. He doesn’t know if it’s worse that he might lose himself, first, instead before he even has a chance to find her.
But he’s more than thankful when a group of qunari soldiers accompanied by a few mages and templars burst out from between a cluster of fallen trees and throw themselves into the battle without so much as a second thought. He’s fallen to his knees by the time they let out their loud battle cries and attempt to overpower the creatures; he’s leaned back against a rock and closed his eyes by the time they let out a whooping cheer and he realizes that they’ve won.
He’s nearly fallen asleep when he feels a familiar pair of soft hands cup his cheeks and shake him back to attention.
“Varric?”
He opens his eyes to find an equally familiar face staring at him.
“I…. K-Kadan?” he asks. “You’re alive?”
“No thanks to you,” she teases, her voice cracking as tears begin to drip down her face. She looks like shit, Varric thinks – a cut above her eyebrow, a sliced lip, a black eye – but she’s still beautiful somehow, too. “After the explosion, I – I thought I lost you.”
“I thought I lost you, too,” he replies, reaching up to hold her face the same way she’s holding his. “What happened?”
“There was a rockslide after the Temple blew.” She swallows hard. “I spent hours trying to dig through it to find you. I thought you – I thought you were pinned beneath it.”
“I wasn’t,” Varric tells her. “The Seeker brought me back to Haven. When I woke up and you weren’t there… I got that templar over there to help me find you.” He looks over her shoulder to where Morris stands at attention with a few other templars – they must’ve been with Kadan and her friends after all. “I’ve never felt so scared in my life, you know that?”
“I do now.” She brushes her forehead against his, running her flattened hands down the front of his chest, and though he’s only experienced it once before, it feels so perfect – it’s exactly where he wants to be. “I was scared, too. And so sad. I dug and dug until I passed out and I woke up in a camp surrounded by my siblings.”
“They’re here?”
“Indeed they are,” she says with a smile. “They want to meet you, too.”
There was still the matter of the Temple to deal with, and he knew he’d have to face Cassandra once they went back to the Haven, but for now, he didn’t even care. “So everything’s -”
“Everything’s good,” she answered. “Especially now that I’ve found you again. We were walking back to the landslide when we heard yelling. I think it was your friend over there.”
She looks at Morris too, this time, drawing his attention away from the other templars, and Varric gives the man a small wave that he returns.
“You’re in bad shape,” she says when she turns her face to him again.
“Hey!” Varric frowns. “That’s the first thing you say to me after finding me half-dead in the wilderness?”
“Fine.” She stares deep into his eyes. “I love you, you burly little dwarven man.”
It hurts more than he thought it would, to see her face to close and so whole after thinking he had lost her. “I love you, too.” He barely manages to choke it out before his vision begins to spot. “Now, can you take me back to Haven? I think I’m gonna pass out.”
“What?”
“Yeah, I…”
He feels himself nodding off. Kadan kisses him once hastily on the lips, and it’s enough to bring him back for a few more seconds. “There’s a camp up ahead,” she says. “There’s a healer there – an elf. He took care of me and my siblings after we found him. He can take care of you.”
“Why can’t you take care of me?” Varric questions with a shit-eating grin.
She returns the gesture. “We’ll wait until you’re better for that,” she insists. “Now, come on, then… Let’s get you out of here.”
Finally. Those words have been a long time coming. But as Varric stands, he wraps an arm around her waist and pulls her to him. “Let’s not get separated like that ever again, okay?”
“We won’t,” she replies. “I promise.”
#my writing#my commissions#i hope you enjoy this! thank you for being so patient with me#god i clenches fist love them.....................#kadan is my queen!#also peep my use of orbs#no regrets! it sounds good okay!#okay my rambling is over time to go play awakening bye!
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Last Jonerys Chapter Transition in ADWD
The 8th and the last chapter transition for Jonerys ( 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) is the most crucial for both of their stories and has a very parallel storytelling structure. Jon allows Tormund’s host of Wildlings through the Wall and breaks the news to the Watch. Dany goes to the opening of the fighting pits where Drogon crashes the party.
Their chapters begin with, Dany with her handmaidens, deciding to leave for the fighting pits despite her feeling for the blood sport and Jon trying to come up with a compromise.
She would rather have drifted in the fragrant pool all day, eating iced fruit off silver trays and dreaming of a house with a red door, but a queen belongs to her people, not to herself.
Tormund : “Whatever happened to that sweet lad I knew?”
They made him lord commander.
Dany takes a long ride with Hizdahr to the fighting pits.
“Have you ever seen such an auspicious day, my love?” Hizdahr zo Loraq commented when she rejoined him. He helped Dany up onto the palanquin, where two tall thrones stood side by side.
“Auspicious for you, perhaps. Less so for those who must die before the sun goes down.”
“All men must die,” said Hizdahr
Jon meets Val outside Tormund’s tent. Context : She’s Mance’s sister in law, Stannis’s prisoner after the Wildling battle and the one Stannis offered Jon as a wife to seal the alliance with Wildlings when Jon was offered legitimacy & Winterfell, which he rejects. Similar to Dany’s situation, just as Hizdahr helps her bargain for peace with Harpy sons & Yunkai, Jon allowed Val to go beyond the Wall after Stannis leaves so that she can convince Tormund to bring his host and make peace with Jon. Jon & Val ride back to Castle Black and yet again,Jon makes observations which strongly resonate with Dany.
Then Ghost emerged from between two trees, with Val beside him.
They look as though they belong together. Val was clad all in white; white woolen breeches tucked into high boots of bleached white leather, white bearskin cloak pinned at the shoulder with a carved weirwood face, white tunic with bone fastenings. Her breath was white as well … but her eyes were blue, her long braid the color of dark honey, her cheeks flushed red from the cold. It had been a long while since Jon Snow had seen a sight so lovely.
“Have you been trying to steal my wolf?” he asked her.
They are all convinced she is a princess. Val looked the part and rode as if she had been born on horseback. A warrior princess, he decided, not some willowy creature who sits up in a tower, brushing her hair and waiting for some knight to rescue her.
In the pits, the citizens cheer for Dany when she reaches and she is still struggling with making peace with slavers.
They stamped their feet and slapped their bellies and shouted, “Mhysa, Mhysa, Mhysa,” until the whole pit seemed to tremble. Dany let the sound wash over her. I am not your mother, she might have shouted, back, I am the mother of your slaves, of every boy who ever died upon these sands whilst you gorged on honeyed locusts.
Jon is kind of in the same boat when he introduces Val to Stannis’s wife to break the news of his deal with Tormund to her and when he later breaks it to his peers at the Watch.
Val: “I will be a proper wildling princess for your queen.”
She is not my queen, he might have said.
“The lord commander must pardon my bluntness, but I have no softer way to say this. What you propose is nothing less than treason. For eight thousand years the men of the Night’s Watch have stood upon the Wall and fought these wildlings. Now you mean to let them pass, to shelter them in our castles, to feed them and clothe them and teach them how to fight. Lord Snow, must I remind you? You swore an oath.”
“I know what I swore.” Jon said the words. “I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men. Were those the same words you said when you took your vows?”
“They were. As the lord commander knows.”
“Are you certain that I have not forgotten some? The ones about the king and his laws, and how we must defend every foot of his land and cling to each ruined castle? How does that part go?” Jon waited for an answer. None came. “I am the shield that guards the realms of men. Those are the words. So tell me, my lord—what are these wildlings, if not men?”
At the fighting pits, Dany saves Tyrion and another dwarf from being eaten by lions by stopping that show mid way, though she doesn’t know it’s Tyrion at that point. But after a certain fight, she kept keep up with the charade so quite symbolically, she takes off the two most Meereenese things in her outfit and soon, Drogon shows up & starts eating the body of a dead gladiator. Which causes a panic, Hizdahr ends up making a bad decision & Dany does something really badass to save Drogon.
I cannot breathe. She lifted her veil and let it flutter away. She took her tokar off as well.
“Take me from this abbatoir, husband.” [...] A shadow rippled across his face.
The tumult and the shouting died. Ten thousand voices stilled. Every eye turned skyward. A warm wind brushed Dany’s cheeks, and above the beating of her heart she heard the sound of wings.
One man took it on himself to be a hero.[...] Perhaps he was drunk, or mad. [...] Perhaps he was just some common man who wanted bards to sing of him. He darted forward, his boar spear in his hands. Red sand kicked up beneath his heels, and shouts rang out from the seats. Drogon raised his head, blood dripping from his teeth. The hero leapt onto his back and drove the iron spearpoint down at the base of the dragon’s long scaled neck.
Dany and Drogon screamed as one.
It doesn’t end well for that guy though and then the crowd begins to panic.
“Kill it,” Hizdahr zo Loraq shouted to the other spearmen. “Kill the beast!” Ser Barristan held her tightly. “Look away, Your Grace.”
“Let me go!” Dany twisted from his grasp. The world seemed to slow as she cleared the parapet. When she landed in the pit she lost a sandal. Running, she could feel the sand between her toes, hot and rough. Ser Barristan was calling after her.
Jon has a similarly (Dany/Hizdahr )disappointing experience with Val, whom he doesn’t really know beyond him appreciating her aesthetically or a few formal interactions. Context : Fearing Melisandre (King’s blood sacrifice), Jon forces Gilly to leave with Sam & Mance Rayder’s baby and leave her baby behind, Val nicknamed him monster. Val and Jon walk out of a meeting with Stannis’s wife Selyse & daughter Shireen.
And the daughter … her face …”
“Greyscale.”
“The grey death is what we call it.”
“It is not always mortal in children.”
“North of the Wall it is. Hemlock is a sure cure, but a pillow or a blade will work as well. If I had given birth to that poor child, I would have given her the gift of mercy long ago.”
This was a Val that Jon had never seen before. “Princess Shireen is the queen’s only child.”
“I pity both of them. The child is not clean.”
“If Stannis wins his war, Shireen will stand as heir to the Iron Throne.”
“Then I pity your Seven Kingdoms.”
“The maesters say greyscale is not—”
“The maesters may believe what they wish. Ask a woods witch if you would know the truth. The grey death sleeps, only to wake again. The child is not clean!”
“She seems a sweet girl. You cannot know—”
“I can. You know nothing, Jon Snow.” Val seized his arm. “I want the monster out of there. Him and his wet nurses. You cannot leave them in that same tower as the dead girl.”
Jon shook her hand away. “She is not dead.”
“She is. Her mother cannot see it. Nor you, it seems. Yet death is there.” She walked away from him, stopped, turned back. “I brought you Tormund Giantsbane. Bring me my monster.”
“If I can, I will.”
“Do. You owe me a debt, Jon Snow.”
Jon watched her stride away. She is wrong. She must be wrong. Greyscale is not so deadly as she claims, not in children.
Protecting lovable kids with scales, am I right? Then Dany something incredibly badass and I honestly wish it went that way on the show but in the end, she flies away.
“Drogon,” she screamed. “Drogon.”
His head turned. Smoke rose between his teeth. His blood was smoking too, where it dripped upon the ground. He beat his wings again, sending up a choking storm of scarlet sand. Dany stumbled into the hot red cloud, coughing. He snapped.
“No” was all that she had time to say. No, not me, don’t you know me? The black teeth closed inches from her face. He meant to tear my head off. The sand was in her eyes. She stumbled over the pitmaster’s corpse and fell on her backside.
Drogon roared. The sound filled the pit. A furnace wind engulfed her. The dragon’s long scaled neck stretched toward her. When his mouth opened, she could see bits of broken bone and charred flesh between his black teeth. His eyes were molten. I am looking into hell, but I dare not look away. She had never been so certain of anything. If I run from him, he will burn me and devour me. In Westeros the septons spoke of seven hells and seven heavens, but the Seven Kingdoms and their gods were far away. If she died here, Dany wondered, would the horse god of the Dothraki part the grass and claim her for his starry khalasar, so she might ride the nightlands beside her sun-and-stars? Or would the angry gods of Ghis send their harpies to seize her soul and drag her down to torment? Drogon roared full in her face, his breath hot enough to blister skin. Off to her right Dany heard Barristan Selmy shouting, “Me! Try me. Over here. Me!”
In the smoldering red pits of Drogon’s eyes, Dany saw her own reflection. How small she looked, how weak and frail and scared. I cannot let him see my fear. She scrabbled in the sand, pushing against the pitmaster’s corpse, and her fingers brushed against the handle of his whip. Touching it made her feel braver. The leather was warm, alive. Drogon roared again, the sound so loud that she almost dropped the whip. His teeth snapped at her.
Dany hit him. “No,” she screamed, swinging the lash with all the strength that she had in her. The dragon jerked his head back. “No,” she screamed again. “NO!” The barbs raked along his snout. Drogon rose, his wings covering her in shadow. Dany swung the lash at his scaled belly, back and forth until her arm began to ache. His long serpentine neck bent like an archer’s bow. With a hisssssss, he spat black fire down at her. Dany darted underneath the flames, swinging the whip and shouting, “No, no, no. Get DOWN!” His answering roar was full of fear and fury, full of pain. His wings beat once, twice …
… and folded. The dragon gave one last hiss and stretched out flat upon his belly. Black blood was flowing from the wound where the spear had pierced him, smoking where it dripped onto the scorched sands. He is fire made flesh, she thought, and so am I.
Daenerys Targaryen vaulted onto the dragon’s back, seized the spear, and ripped it out. The point was half-melted, the iron red-hot, glowing. She flung it aside. Drogon twisted under her, his muscles rippling as he gathered his strength. The air was thick with sand. Dany could not see, she could not breathe, she could not think. The black wings cracked like thunder, and suddenly the scarlet sands were falling away beneath her.
Dizzy, Dany closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she glimpsed the Meereenese beneath her through a haze of tears and dust, pouring up the steps and out into the streets.
The lash was still in her hand. She flicked it against Drogon’s neck and cried, “Higher!” Her other hand clutched at his scales, her fingers scrabbling for purchase. Drogon’s wide black wings beat the air. Dany could feel the heat of him between her thighs. Her heart felt as if it were about to burst. Yes, she thought, yes, now, now, do it, do it, take me, take me, FLY!
I’ve been waiting for Jon to get a grip over the narrative instead of letting the lack of communication grow and have a talk with his peers at the Watch for a while now and it felt like a nice payoff and a good leadership moment when Jon finally got around to it, though I think it’s too late now. But when they ask him how he can trust Tormund’s Wildlings wouldn't attack them after passing through the Wall, there’s a parallel with what Dany did in Meereen with Harpies/Meereenese nobles earlier in the book. They both demanded hostages, like how Theon was Ned’s hostage to endure Greyjoy loyalty.
“So I insisted upon hostages.” I am not the trusting fool you take me for … nor am I half wildling, no matter what you believe. “One hundred boys between the ages of eight and sixteen. A son from each of their chiefs and captains, the rest chosen by lot. The boys will serve as pages and squires, freeing our own men for other duties. Some may choose to take the black one day. Queerer things have happened. The rest will stand hostage for the loyalty of their sires.”
The northmen glanced at one another. “Hostages,” mused The Norrey. “Tormund has agreed to this?”
It was that, or watch his people die. “My blood price, he called it,” said Jon Snow, “but he will pay.”
“Aye, and why not?” Old Flint stomped his cane against the ice. “Wards, we always called them, when Winterfell demanded boys of us, but they were hostages, and none the worse for it.”
“None but them whose sires displeased the Kings o’ Winter,” said The Norrey. “Those came home shorter by a head. So you tell me, boy … if these wildling friends o’ yours prove false, do you have the belly to do what needs be done?”
Ask Janos Slynt. “Tormund Giantsbane knows better than to try me. I may seem a green boy in your eyes, Lord Norrey, but I am still a son of Eddard Stark.”
Yet even that did not appease his Lord Steward. “You say these boys will serve as squires. Surely the lord commander does not mean they will be trained at arms?”
Jon’s anger flared. “No, my lord, I mean to set them to sewing lacy smallclothes. Of course they shall be trained at arms.
Though Dany isn’t able kill any of her hostage kids when the Harpy killings continue, even when her version of Littlefinger urges her to but in a way, that’s what made Harpies/nobels feel like they can make peace with her and their rumoured leader recommends Dany marry Hizdahr, which later led to peace.
“I will have two children from each of them. From the other pyramids as well. A boy and a girl.”
“Hostages,” said Skahaz, happily.
“Pages and cupbearers. If the Great Masters make objection, explain to them that in Westeros it is a great honor for a child to be chosen to serve at court.”
“This we have heard. And yet Your Radiance has found the courage to answer butchery with mercy. You have not harmed any of the noble children you hold as hostage.”
“Not as yet, no.” Dany had grown fond of her young charges. Some were shy and some were bold, some sweet and some sullen, but all were innocent. “If I kill my cupbearers, who will pour my wine and serve my supper?” she said, trying to make light of it.
The priestess did not smile. “The Shavepate would feed them to your dragons, it is said. A life for a life. For every Brazen Beast cut down, he would have a child die.”
Dany pushed her food about her plate. She dare not glance over to where Grazhar and Qezza stood, for fear that she might cry. The Shavepate has a harder heart than mine. They had fought about the hostages half a dozen times. “The Sons of the Harpy are laughing in their pyramids,” Skahaz said, just this morning. “What good are hostages if you will not take their heads?” In his eyes, she was only a weak woman. Hazzea (The kid Drogon killed) was enough. What good is peace if it must be purchased with the blood of little children? “These murders are not their doing,” Dany told the Green Grace, feebly. “I am no butcher queen.”
Getting back to Jon... just as Dany’s story ends with her flying away on Drogon’s back, Jon’s chapter ends with him reminding his peers that “Winter is coming” and reminding himself of the vision Melisandre had of Jon’s death
“Winter is coming,” Jon said at last, breaking the awkward silence, “and with it the white walkers. The Wall is where we stop them. The Wall was made to stop them … but the Wall must be manned. This discussion is at an end. We have much to do before the gate is opened.”
Jon thought, “Ice,” she said, “and daggers in the dark. Blood frozen red and hard, and naked steel.”
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The Super-Switch
(part 4)
Monday was coming too quickly and Danny was starting to panic.
The heroes that were sent to search for Desiree were coming up empty, the Flash having made a wish that ended with him buried under a mountain of pizza. Whether that was an accident or not remained to be seen. It was starting to look like the chosen heroes were spending more time trying to fix the chaos Desiree was making than defeating Desiree herself. It was frustrating because Danny knew he and his friends would have handled this within the day of her escape.
He had already contacted his friends and let them know what was happening. Neither could get away from Amity to help hunt the ghost but they were going to offer there services as soon as they could.
Superman and Danny's house arrest was also starting to get noticed. Well, Superman’s disappearance more than Danny's. Danny was sure his parents were jumping to the conclusion that he was planning something nefarious and big, and Val was probably missing her punching bag but at least the ghosts were being handled back home. Dani was always willing to lend a hand when he got tied up with league business and he’ll love her forever for that.
For the most part, the training with each others powers was going well. Danny was surprised at how nice it felt to fly while alive and warm and also tall. If he was being completely honest, Superman was pretty much the best person you could magically get turned into. He was handsome and strong, he was indestructible and everyone liked him. More people have said hi to him since he’s become Superman than the sum of Danny's entire high school experience. It was nice. Plus EXTRA BONUS: he could still fly! He’d really miss that power if he lost it.
Superman was having a harder time, but in Danny's opinion not nearly as hard as of time as Danny had when he first got turned into a ghost. Maybe having a teacher really did help. If Vlad weren’t so much of a fruit loop it might have been nice to have a mentor.
But despite his insistence that Sups was doing well, Superman has been a lot more frustrated with his progress. He hasn’t lost his optimism and his determination to improve was admirable. Danny wondered if his face would hurt from all the smiling Superman was doing with it. But Superman it turns out was actually incredibly hard on himself. The fact that they were both presently bared from helping people was also clearly bothering him.
Danny felt a similar need, though the fact that it wasn’t colored by the normal cold desperation of his core was strange. Maybe that was why Superman was struggling so much! Maybe he just wasn’t used to the feeling of obsession. He needed to tell him as soon as possible but that would have to come with the rest of his speech...
See, Danny needed to go home and be Fenton tomorrow. Lancer had made it very clear that he couldn’t get away with an absence or a tardy. If he didn’t make up this test tomorrow, he would be suspended form school and his parents would be called and he’d even have to attend a hearing about it. He had to be at school tomorrow. Lancer wasn’t going to give him anymore chances.
But as it stood, he couldn’t attend as superman and the team of ghost hunting heroes weren’t any closer to changing them back. So Superman would have to attend school for him as Fenton.
Which meant Danny would have to tell Superman about Fenton.
Monday was coming too quickly.
Superman watched as Phantom rambled, impressed at how much the boy could say without saying anything. It would be a good talent to have with the press. As a reporter he had a vested interest in the truth but as a hero he could see the good in being able to keep one’s secrets.
“Danny, could you please get to the point,” he asked patiently. It’d been a trying week and while he’s been rather irritable lately, that was hardly Phantom’s fault. He was in the same boat after all and he wasn’t the one who made the wish. Phantom had also been trying his best to help him master his new powers, so Superman wasn’t in the position to hold a grudge against him.
He was presently more disappointed in himself. While he stood by his argument that Phantom could stand to be more responsible, he was the one who stated the fight and he was the one who messed up. Because of his mistake people were now in danger and he couldn’t do anything to help them. He couldn’t stop thinking about it. He needed to be out there saving people, but until he could control Phantom’s powers he wouldn’t be able to save anyone. It was a frustrating contradiction and it was eating away at him
“Right.” Phantom was saying. “OK. OK, we just gotta rip the band-aid off. Just get it over with and then explain. Right. I can do this. OK. Superman I want you to reach inside your chest and find the warm spot.”
Superman blinked at the hero. The warm spot?
Ever since he’d become Phantom he’d been practically numb with cold. As far as he could tell ghosts weren’t supposed to be warm. Did this have to do with the core Danny kept talking about?
Superman closed his eyes and sure enough, Danny wasn’t wrong. There was a feeling a warmth near his heart, almost hot compared to the rest of his body. Superman mentally held onto the warmth and suddenly...
There was a flash of white light and two glowing rings passed around him. His black super suit was replaced with a white and red t-shirt and jeans. His feet landed heavily on the floor and he could feel again, feel the way a living person was meant to. He was also hit with the heavy weight of exhaustion. it was a level of weariness that he had never felt before, not even returning from the dead carried quite this level of tiredness. Superman didn’t like the feeling.
“Right,” Danny said anxiously. “So, this is my human form. I’m what’s known as a halfa. I’m half ghost, half human and there only three of my kind in existence right now.”
Superman stood up strait. “you’re alive?”
Danny was rubbing the back of his neck and refusing to meet his eyes. “Yeah, I mean technically. I’m sorta like Schrodinger's cat, I’m both alive and dead at the same time. We don’t really get the science behind it, but I mean magic and aliens are real and we know of several after lives so it’s whatever, I guess.”
Superman simply stared at his look-a-like. He could feel his heartbeat in his chest now. He could gravity bearing down on him and a desperate kinda hunger that hadn’t been satisfied by the portions he’d eaten as a ghost.
Superman stared at his hand. It was young but it was calloused and scared. Minute burns shined on fingers and his nails were dirty and bitten away. It was a human hand. In his chest he could feel the remains of the icy numbness but right now he was human.
Phantom was human.
“How old are you?” he asked quietly. A vague feeling of horror was coming up over him like a wave.
Danny laughed nervously. “Um, I’m sixteen, now? I've done a little time travel so my exact age is a little less precise. But I've been dead for about two years.”
He said it so matter-of-factly. He was a child, an actual child.
And somehow he had died and taken on the responsibility of being a hero.
“How?” is what he asked.
Phantom bit his lip and looked very uncomfortable. “It’s not really something I talk about. I mean you’re actually the first person I've properly told my secret to. everyone else usually figures it out on their own or they catch me when I have no choice but to change. The actual story is kind of embarrassing.”
Curiosity burned within him but Clark nodded. “Take your time, son.”
“It’s so weird seeing me act like you,” Danny commented distractedly. ”Like you make it looked like I actually know what I’m doing. You need to stop that. You can’t do that at school or people will notice.”
“School?” Superman gasped. The child was attending school on top of hero work!? Clark hadn’t started proper heroics until after he graduated. What was this boy thinking. He could get... he could get killed.
“Yeah, that’s one of the reasons I’m telling you. I’m sorry to ask this but I can’t afford anymore absences, so I kinda need you to go to school for me tomorrow. I would obviously do it myself but-” Phantom gestured to his body. “I promise I’ll make it worth your while and I know we don’t have a lot of time for a crash course in Danny, but don’t worry, you won’t be alone. My friends and my sisters will help cover for you.”
“What about your parents?” Superman couldn’t help but wonder.
Phantom winced. “Um... they don’t know about this. They can’t know. They’re ghost hunters and for all their best intentions they tend make situations more dangerous rather than safer. And I also sorta have someone blackmailing me to keep it a secret from them but that’s a whole different level of complicated and it’s not something you’ll have to worry about.”
Superman could only gape at the child. “What happened to you?” the sense of horror had solidly taken its grip of him. Blackmail? Ghost hunting parents? Who was protecting him?
Phantom laughed nervously. “I just stepped into a portal to another dimension and activated it while inside, nothing too strange.” He said it like it was a joke, but it was obviously not a joke. The look of panic in Danny's eyes and his desire to flee was obvious.
Superman took a long breath and tried to regain his footing. “Phantom,” he said as gently and as kindly as possible. He though of his father and his endless patience when it came to Clark and his power issues. He could offer that to Danny. He had to. “Son, I really need you to tell me everything. If I’m going to help you properly, I need the truth. I won’t judge you. I won’t hold anything you tell me against you. I just need to know the truth.”
Phantom relaxed minutely. “You sound like my sister.”
“I’m sure she’s a lovely young woman.”
“Right. Yeah. Okay.” Phantom said. “Okay, I’ll tell you.”
And he did.
Later that night, Clark Kent's head was still ringing with the young boys tale. He’d always respected Phantom. They shared similar philosophies and ethics. Phantom was a hero through and through. But to find out the man behind the strength and determination was a child in over his head, was disturbing.
He knew Phantom was more than capable of taking care of himself and looking after the people in his protection. But to hear the story, to know that it wasn’t a thirty year ghost fulfilling an obsession but a sixteen year old child actively choosing to put himself in danger, to know that at any moment Phantom could die completely, it shed the hero in a new light.
It also filled him with an irrational sense of guilt. He knew there was nothing he could have done to change phantoms situation. He had no way of knowing or stopping Danny's accident. But still his stomach twisted because he was helpless with this. He couldn’t very well demand Phantom stop his hero work, he did too much good and he didn’t seem nearly as disturbed by his circumstance as Superman felt.
Perhaps, he was reading too much into things. Phantom has always been a good kid after all and good things come to good people. That’s just karma.
Clark set his jaw in determination. He’ll be one of those good things, he decided. He’ll make things easier for Danny. Just you wait!
(part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (here) (part 5)
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Madrid, Spain
01/28-02/01
My stay in Madrid flew by to say the least, and it’s crazy to fathom how quickly I fell in love with the city especially in such short duration. The first night Katie, Val and I arrived several hours earlier than the rest of our group, so we checked into our Airbnb and found a nice, authentic restaurant to eat at. My rice dish tasted so good, I will definitely be missing rice throughout my stay as I don’t have a cooker here in Vienna and Asian white rice can rarely if even be found. At dinner, the employees sang feliz cumpleaños to one of their coworkers, and their loving, family-like interactions made my heart happy. Finished dinner off with complimentary palate-cleansing warm green juice shots that were so yummy!
The next day was jam packed as our entire group woke up early to make the most of our precious time there. Breakfast at Pum Pum Cafe was so nice- would highly recommend the coffee, avocado toast, benedict, and desserts there! We trekked over 25,000 steps this day just walking through the entire city. A few destinations we stopped by were Plaza Mayor, the Royal Palace, Jardines de Sabatini, Mercado de San Miguel, and the Temple of Debod to watch the beautiful sunset. It was incredible to see these sights before my own eyes as I had only seen them through photos and snapchat videos before. Everything seemed to come to life and I fell silent during some parts of the day just in awe of my surroundings. At nighttime, while the rest of my group went to El Tigre, I decided to meet up with one of my friends from home. It was so nice being able to talk openly with Christine and not feel like I had to invent forced conversation every time I opened my mouth. It’s comforting to acknowledge that we’re in similar situations, social-wise, and I’m gradually accepting the fact that it’s alright if I don’t make lifelong friends while I’m here, granted I’ve only met half of our Vienna program thus far. What’s most important is that I make the most of my experience and accomplish all of the things that I want to do while abroad. I’m going to grow very comfortable spending time by myself this semester, and that is perfect okay. Anyways, together we walked around Centro and indulged in delicious gelato from Mistura and churros from Chocolatería San Gines. Will definitely revisit those places later on.
Our second full day in Madrid was also an adventure as we checked off Puerta Del Sol and row-boating through Buen Retiro Park. Having the liberty to go wherever whenever with no rigid agenda has been refreshing and I’m happy to have shared these moments with my new semi-friends. We’re getting there. One of my favorite activities while visiting a new location is just sight-seeting and walking into random stores and sparking conversations with strangers. There doesn’t have to be an exact activity involved, the exploration is enough. For breakfast we ate at La Libre and for lunch, TAKOS, both of which were well worth the wait! In the evening was our much awaited Tapas Crawl!!! Our tour guide, Raúl, was a blast and we were joined by another couple on their honeymoon. I learned that there are more than 2,000 beer taps just within Madrid, and I also learned how to properly test for good red wine. I looked at our second glass of red wine in front of a white napkin, and smelled the aroma of berries, chocolate, leather, nuts, and “bullshit” according to Val hahaha. After 3.5 hours and 5 stops of engorging in authentic tapas and wine, I felt utterly stuffed. My favorite dish would probably have to be the pork belly from our second stop. Ended the crawl with a nice buzz and full stomach. Following this, I wish we would have gone home to settle down and get ready, but we immediately went straight out to Dubliners, where I met up with Cho and Murph (brothers abroad!!!), and then to StarCoyote. I have to admit I was feeling a bit awkward because I didn’t know as many people as the others did I wasn’t dressed for the occasion. The fact that my roommate was much more drunk than I was and trampling all over me was also highkey annoying. The night ended with me and Madeleine sitting on the sidewalk partially sober waiting for our uber home while the others very drunkenly clambered into the first car. It was a memorable night without a doubt and I did meet a few new friends along the way, but I’m starting to recognize who I want to grow closer with and who I am ambivalent about.
The next morning was sloooow as my Airbnb mates woke up in random intervals, many of whom were hungover messes. But I spent the morning in getting ready and getting my things together as a few others went out to breakfast. I needed the extra hour to spend organizing myself. Half the group left to fly to Seville and the rest of us grabbed lunch and checked into our hostel for the night. I learned that Menu Del Día is not a restaurant, but actually is a deal that various restaurants offer for 11 euro hahaha the more you know! But regardless, the cheese and paella that we shared for lunch that day was so tasty. I took my first siesta later that day after checking into our hostel. While Katie and Val went out to hang out around Centro, I happily hung out with Christine again!! Grabbed Walk to Wok because we were craving Asian food, tracked down the oldest restaurant in the world founded in 1725, Sobrino de Botín, and went shopping along Gran Vía. It felt so comfortable being around genuine company and I litttterally cannot wait until we travel together in the near future.
Note to self: Go to airports early even though in Europe, the check-in and security process isn’t as long as they are in the US. The morning was semi-stressful because we totally disregarded traffic and thought we were going to miss our flight back home to Vienna. But luckily we made it just in time woohoo. Another observation, 3 of the 4 ubers that we took during our stay were Teslas like what the heck bougie!! Apparently the cars aren’t the owners, but are provided by the company.
There’s so much about Spain that intrigues me. The lifestyle there seems slower paced and the lifestyle surprisingly reminds me of that in Taipei where the convenience of walking everywhere and accessing little stores is evident. At the same time, there is so much preserved culture to be reminisced and explored. I’m unsure if I’m so excited because this was my first abroad trip to a different country, but I definitely plan on revisiting Madrid to tour its other features, from renowned museums to rooftop bars to other areas of the city. Maybe I should have chosen Madrid as my first rather than second choice of host country. But who knows, SEE YOU AGAIN ESPAÑA.
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T A K E C A R E - Chapter 3 - Hampstead
She closed the door behind her and noticed her heart was beating loudly, adrenaline pumping through her body as she realised she didn't know what the hell she was doing. Of course, she had some experience babysitting and taking care of her older cousins' children, but the last few days had already let her know that her past experience was nothing compared to what was needed for this.
Story page (Catch up!) | Author | Talk to me | Read on Tumblr only.
It was almost ten am when Emilie locked the back door of her room and made her way through the garden to the main house. Walking across the backyard lawn and entering the Ainsley household via the glass sliding back door felt a bit strange. Emilie felt the urge to knock, letting the family know she was about to enter their house as if she would be an intruder if she didn't, even though David and Catherine assured her she could always use the back door, at any time of the day, simply because it was easier than having to go around the house and ring the front door bell.
"Good morning," Emilie announced her presence, entering the kitchen.
"Morning," Catherine's high pitched voice sounded from the lounge, "How are you? How did you sleep?"
Emilie assured her she slept wonderfully and everything was fine. She also let her know that the shower was working properly, after it was admitted last night that it hadn't been used in a long while.
Lying in bed the night before had been a bit weird but Emilie hadn't felt uncomfortable. From the get go, she'd felt at ease in her room and she'd loved the fact that her attached apartment had felt as private as David and Catherine had made it sound like on Skype. She did wake up a few times during the night, but that was probably normal, considering the circumstances.
Last night, after a quick tour of the house, including the first floor, Denise excitedly showing off her bedroom, they had dinner. After that, it was time for Denise to get in bed and Emilie spent another few hours talking with David and Catherine over some wine. Around ten o'clock in the evening, Emilie excused herself and retreated to her room. Luckily, David and Catherine understood that she was tired and also assured her that she could stay in bed as long as she would like on Sunday morning, even though they'd agreed on spending some time together on Emilie's first day in Hampstead.
Eventually, Emilie had fallen asleep around midnight and the nine o'clock alarm she set woke her up.
Now, closing the backdoor to the kitchen behind her, she was immediately faced with an excited four-year-old.
"Hi, Denise, good morning!"
"Morning!"
"Charlie?" Catherine then called, "Look who's here! It's Emilie!"
A little toddler came running around the corner, reacting to her Mum's voice. When she first gazed upon the unfamiliar person standing next to her, however, her facial features changed, suddenly expressing her confusion.
It made Emilie laugh. Charlotte looked adorable. Her hair was significantly lighter than her big sister's, very blonde, almost light blonde, similar to Emilie's natural hair colour. Charlotte's eyes, however, were possibly even darker than Denise's. She was tiny and chubby and incredibly cute, wearing a white graphic tee, little light washed jeans and pink and white Adidas sneakers.
Catherine picked Charlie up and walked up to Emilie with her.
"Are you gonna say hello? Who's here? It's Emilie," she cooed.
"Hi Charlotte," Emilie smiled, reaching out to touch Charlotte's little hand lingering on her mother's shoulder, but Charlotte turned away almost immediately.
Unlike Denise, Charlotte appeared to be very shy around Emilie. Of course the little one had no idea what was going on, suddenly having this random girl in the house. After Catherine put her back down, she therefore immediately ran off to the telly at the other side of the room displaying an episode of Paw Patrol.
Emilie couldn't blame her and focused on what she was going to make to eat. She was pleasantly surprised to find that the family had croissants for breakfast and saved two for her to have.
"Guess what? We're going to the park today!" Denise soon happily announced, joining Emilie at the dining table even though it had been awhile since her own breakfast.
"Are we?" Emilie asked in reply. "Do you go there often?"
Catherine went on to explain that the girls loved the park and that there was a great playground situated at the end of it. It was quite a walk all the way from the house, but the girls didn't mind. The walk along the Heath was apparently very lovely, the park offering many nice views, always something to gaze upon or people to observe.
After Emilie had her breakfast and David appeared from upstairs, all five of them left the house. The family would give Emilie a quick tour of Hampstead Village before they'd walk to the park where they would have a late lunch, as well.
Hampstead appeared to be lovely on a Sunday morning. There were other families walking around town, enjoying the comfortable late Summer temperature. David and Catherine showed Emilie a few local shops that she would probably visit, before the family made their way outside of the centre of the Village to move up to the Heath.
The walk was indeed quite long. Charlotte didn't mind to be in the buggy. Denise was energetic and used her pink scooter to move along the road. Arriving at the park, the walk was definitely worth it. The views were amazing and the park was very well looked after, you could tell.
As they continued walking, Catherine suddenly remembered something.
"A colleague of mine lives up in Golders Green," she said out of nowhere, "It's the next stop on our tube line. They have a new au pair who's been with them since about a month, I believe. She's from Sweden, actually."
Emilie raised her eyebrows, her interest immediately caught. It would be great to meet someone who was in the same boat. The girl being from Sweden could be great, as well, as they would share some of the same culture.
"I will text my colleague, maybe we can set something up so the two of you can meet!"
~~
Catherine had taken Monday and Tuesday off work to stay at home and basically show Emilie the ropes and get her accustomed to the working hours and the actual work. It was something that was already mentioned beforehand on Skype and now that the time was finally there, Emilie couldn't be happier to have a couple of relatively easy days before everything would really kick off.
Emilie was surprised, however, when she found that Catherine often had to peek from the little note the old nanny Val, a woman in her thirties who got a better job offer and therefore had to quit the Ainsley family, had left. Because in all fairness, she didn't seem to be familiar with what was described on it.
The morning routine was a bit chaotic but went accordingly, since Catherine often walked at least part of the route to school with Val before she would hop on the tube to go to work. But since this time she wasn't going to work, she was soon visibly struggling. Catherine didn't seem to be aware of the basics when it came down to the schedule of taking care of her daughters, which kind of startled Emilie. She could just sense that Catherine wasn't used to spending more than a weekend's time with her children.
She'd already told Emilie that the family didn't really have a schedule during the weekends. They were out quite a bit, which meant that little Charlotte would sometimes take a nap, and sometimes not. That resulted into varying bed times at night, as well. To make a long story short, the girls weren't used to having any structure or timetable during the weekends. Emilie didn't know much about the pros and cons of a similar style of upbringing, but she reckoned that some order and structure could be beneficial for the kids. To see that the family also didn't really have a schedule for week days, she became quite certain of it.
"How often did Val always wash your hair, Denny?" Catherine asked while bathing the girls in the evening, after the girls' dinner. Emilie was in the bathroom as well, watching and learning what the girls were used to. "Every other day?"
Denise shrugged and didn't really know what to answer. She tried to convince her Mum that sometimes, Val didn't wash her hair at all, if Denise would tell her she didn't want her to. It was a classic little white lie like the ones Emilie had already heard Denise use before. "Val lets me watch television", "Val used to give me a candy before dinner." Evidently, Denise was quite smart. Luckily, Catherine also realised her daughter was trying to fool her, and she told her off.
Still, the reality of the situation and Catherine's obvious unfamiliarity with her own daughters' upbringing during the week was quite shocking. Emilie quickly realised that her role as au pair in the girls' lives would be massive. Not only because she was the only one that would be around during the day, that she knew, but also because it didn't seem like Catherine (or David for that matter) had any input in or knowledge of what was happening in their daughters' lives. For instance, they only bathed their children in the weekends and in the past apparently hadn't really paid any attention to the girls' hair and if it was washed every day or only a couple of times a week.
"Usually I get Denny out and then focus on Charlotte," Catherine explained as she helped Denise out of the tub and wrapped her in a towel. Denise quickly got rid of it and was now running around the upstairs floor naked. "Do you want to try?"
Catherine handed Emilie a towel and got out of the way to give Emilie space to bend down and grab Charlotte, who was standing in the bath tub, ready to get out, as well.
But much to Emilie's frustration, Charlotte acted like she didn't want anything to do with her and objected when Emilie tried to pick her up. It was only natural. They hadn't spent any time together yet with just the two of them. Of course the little girl didn't want to be picked up by a stranger when her Mum was right there.
Still, Emilie felt bad for not being able to take care of Charlotte, especially for Catherine to see. Luckily, she seemed to understand.
"Don't worry, she'll warm up to you. It was like this when Val first came here, I remember," she assured her and Emilie hoped she was right.
Emilie's first day, although only being shown everything and having Catherine around, was quite hectic. By the end of the day she felt a headache coming up and wondered how on Earth she was going to be able to pull everything off on her own. Suddenly, she started feeling quite insecure and overwhelmed. Why did she want to do this again? What was she even doing here? And more importantly, how in the world was she going to be able to do all of this, five times a week, for the next three months?
The fact that after a lousy Summer in London, the last week of September turned to be one the best ones yet weather-wise, temperatures suddenly rising to a whopping twenty-three degrees Celsius and the skies for once not showing big grey clouds was quite the reminder, as well. The lovely weather only made the end of December seem even further away than it was in reality. The late Summer sun was still burning and Emilie wasn't going home until the day before Christmas. It seemed like an eternity away.
Especially since it felt like she had already been weeks away from home. On day two with Catherine, day four in London, it already felt like things were becoming familiar. New places and people and experiences felt like déjà vu's. It was psychologically very interesting and Emilie was aware of it. She was experiencing so many new things that her brain was probably working hard to get used to everything to a greater degree than it normally would. The headache that was still lingering on Tuesday night was probably another sign of her brain's activity.
~~
On Wednesday morning, Catherine was notably happy to get back to work. It was another reminder to Emilie that she wasn't made to stay at home all day, taking care of her children. She was a career woman, putting her job first, and her family, sadly, second. Coming to think of it, it was obvious that her career always had always been her prime concern. Catherine was in her late thirties, David in his early forties. They'd started a family at a relatively older age. Not that there was anything wrong with that, it just supported the notion that the focus of the Ainsley's lives was on their profession.
At a quarter to eight in the morning, the time that Emilie from now on would start her job, David was already out to work. Emilie hadn't seen him on Tuesday night either, since he wasn't back at the house before she left and went to her room. Apparently, it wasn't unusual for him to go the day without seeing the girls. They were already asleep when David came back at night and weren't up yet when he left in the morning.
It was nothing Emilie could relate to. When she was little, both her parents were always around in the morning and in the evening. Emilie's Mum was a stay at home Mum, only starting work again when Jonas was old enough to get to school by himself. To be able to have a look behind the closed door of a family and see the London way of family life was quite strange.
Though Catherine was keen on getting back to work, she decided to walk all the way to school with Emilie and the girls before she would get on the tube. After that, it was finally just Emilie and Charlotte.
To get Charlotte used to the new situation, Emilie figured it would probably best to stay at home in the morning. Charlotte was still quite shy and acted a bit unusual. Emilie could tell that she was looking around the house for someone other than herself. But from now on, it was just going to be the two of them during the day. She nearly felt sorry for the little toddler being put up with this. She couldn't blame her for not being on her best behaviour. Of course it was going to be weird to suddenly have this new person taking care of you the entire day.
Things were going well, though. They had fun playing with the Frozen dolls Charlotte loved and they had been listening to the music coming from the kitchen radio all morning.
Everything had been going alright. Until lunch time.
After Charlotte's lunch, a runny egg on toast, Emilie mentally cursed when she didn't remember what bottles Catherine had used for Charlotte's milk before bed. There were quite a few taking up the kitchen cupboard and they were all different, as if they were meant to be used for different kinds of liquids. She didn't make anything of the little bits and pieces that would have to be put together in order to properly use the bottle that looked most like a milk bottle. She therefore grabbed another one that seemed usable and made a mental note to ask Catherine again in the evening.
"Are you ready for bed, Charlie?" Emilie asked, her voice higher pitched than usual, "You gonna have a nice nap?"
Immediately, she knew Charlotte wasn't interested in any of that.
The toddler frowned her eyebrows and walked out of the kitchen towards the front playing room. Not wanting to cause a scene right away, pick her up and carry her upstairs, Emilie gave Charlotte a few minutes and tried to get her aware of the fact she was going to go to bed soon.
Getting Charlotte upstairs after a few minutes was fine. But after Emilie changed her nappy, she understood she was soon going to be left alone in her crib and she didn't want anything to do with that plan.
She started sobbing and crying, and screamed unlike Emilie had heard her scream before. Big tears were rolling down her little chubby cheeks in panic.
Emilie carried her and had a little walk around the room, before putting Charlotte in her crib. Within seconds, she stood up in bed, holding onto the banisters for dear life, still crying.
Emilie put her down to rest her head on the pillow again and walked towards the bedroom door, despite the screaming that continued, figuring it would be best to just leave her.
She stood there in the hallway for a minute, just listening to Charlotte's screams, hoping they would soon come to an end.
A second later, Charlotte's crying suddenly stopped. Instead, Emilie heard a loud thud on the hard wooden bedroom floor.
For a brief moment the thought crossed Emilie's mind that Charlotte could've climbed and fallen out of her crib, but she knew that this was near impossible. Opening the door and entering Charlotte's bedroom, she immediately saw what had caused the loud noise. Charlotte was still standing in her crib, her bottle of milk lying a few yards in front of her on the hard wood floor, a few drips of white liquid splashed next to it.
Emilie didn't pay much attention to Charlotte, who started crying again, grabbed the bottle from the floor and put it next to her in her crib. She calmly told Charlotte to go to sleep again, disregarded her tantrum and determinedly left the room again, just like she had seen on programmes like Nanny Jo Frost's.
She closed the door behind her and noticed her heart was beating loudly, adrenaline pumping through her body as she realised she didn't know what the hell she was doing. Of course, she had some experience babysitting and taking care of her older cousins' children, but the last few days had already let her know that her past experience was nothing compared to what was needed for this.
She must've somehow given David and Catherine the impression that she was better educated or experienced regarding child care during the Skype calls they had. Maybe something on her au pair profile had led them to believe she knew what she was doing. But she didn't. Emilie actually didn't understand why the Ainsley's had gone with her of all people on the website, and why they trusted her to take care of their daughters.
Standing in the upstairs hallway in front of Charlotte's bedroom door, Emilie started tearing up. It was the first time she started crying since arriving in London, which said a lot about the circumstances. She had been acting tough for the past four days, taking everything in and hoping for the best. This was one of the first times she was alone and finally accepted the fact she felt overwhelmed by everything, insecure about her abilities, and uncertain about what was to come. It was the first time she started crying because it was actually the first occasion she had the opportunity to properly cry. She simply hadn't had the space or time before; feeling too tired to even think about it all when she was alone in her room at night.
She could blink away the tears before they escaped her eyes, though. She decided to just go downstairs and let Charlotte weep for a little while, just like Catherine did the other day when Charlotte wasn't feeling like taking a nap, either. After a few minutes of listening to her screaming, she'd stopped and fell asleep and Emilie hoped and prayed that things were going to be the same today.
With a sigh, Emilie arrived downstairs, leaving the door to the hallway open. She sat down at the dining table and luckily, after a minute or five, Charlotte was quiet, hopefully fallen asleep. It was the biggest relief, and to have an hour and a half of peace and quiet was like heaven after an already busy morning. Time went by quickly during her break, though. Emilie was glad that Charlotte didn't wake up early.
Getting Charlotte out of bed went alright. Emilie gave her enough time to fully wake up before it was time to go out to pick Denise up from school. For the first time, Emilie walked to school without Catherine. It was only her and Charlotte in the buggy. Again, it was weird how little things like the way to school and the different streets she was meant to cross were already so familiar to her. As if she hadn't walked the route for the first time only two days ago.
~~
On Thursday, Emilie ran into one of Denise's classmate's nanny's, a middle-aged woman she met before when Catherine had been there. The woman took care of a girl in Denise's class, as well as her little brother who was only a little older than Charlotte, and told Emilie she would be attending a playgroup down in the Village in a few hours. Emilie happily accepted the offer of walking together and joining her.
The playgroup was quite the experience. Over twenty toddlers running around and playing together in one room was nothing Emilie had experienced before. Charlotte loved it though, plus an hour spent at the playgroup meant that the morning went by pretty quickly.
Everything was going alright and the girls were behaving quite nicely. Emilie didn't hear anything from Catherine or David, so she'd nearly forgotten she was asked to babysit that evening. It only occurred to her when thinking about what to prepare the girls for dinner and deciding when she would have her own.
Putting Charlotte to bed at around seven was not a problem at all. It was just like putting her in bed for her midday nap and since Charlotte was quite tired, she wasn't objecting. Getting Denise to go to sleep about an hour later was an entire different story. Once Emilie read her a story, she wanted a new one and when Emilie was getting up to leave, Denise had another excuse to make her stay. Eventually, it took nearly half an hour for Emilie to be able to go downstairs and another twenty minutes of hearing Denise play with her toys in her bed until she was quiet and finally fell asleep.
Emilie didn't have a clue when either Catherine or David would return but was assured beforehand that it was okay to leave the house and go to her room if she wanted by the end of the evening, considering the girls would practically never wake up once they were asleep.
Still, leaving the house felt a bit weird to Emilie. Sure, the girls were asleep and when Catherine or David would be downstairs, watching television, they probably wouldn't immediately hear them when they needed help, either. And of course, entire nights were spent during which the entire family would be fast asleep, which prompted the same 'problem'.
But could Emilie really leave and go to her own room? Admittedly, both Denise's and Charlotte's rooms were situated above or nearly above Emilie's apartment and she'd already heard Charlie's crying in the morning a few times, so she knew she'd hear them if anything was wrong.
When by a quarter past ten, still no one had returned home, Emilie decided to grab her bag and coat and move to the other part of the house where she'd be in the comfort and privacy of her own space, despite the unsure feeling in the pit of her stomach.
~~
By Friday evening, Emilie couldn't believe only a week had passed. The days were long and tiring but so much happened that it seemed like she had been at work for way longer than just five days, of which two were accompanied by Catherine.
In the morning, both Catherine and David were there but much to Emilie's surprise, they barely asked about the night before and how her first night of babysitting had gone.
It almost made Emilie feel a bit insecure. Was she supposed to fully fill them in and give them all the details of the girls' days? In a way, she did. She'd mentioned the play group and told Catherine what they were planning on doing on Wednesday morning, keeping the family somewhat informed.
Emilie found it a bit weird to get no feedback whatsoever, especially since she was the one taking full care of the children. She'd expected the Ainsley's to be more involved and to give her some more guidance. Emilie couldn't imagine having small kids of her own one day and not knowing what they were up to.
After Catherine brought Denise to bed at around seven-thirty that evening, Emilie was glad to be able to talk to her one-on-one, since David hadn't come home yet. Especially since Catherine was finally opening up a bit.
"We're so glad to see that things are going great," she commented while the two of them were cleaning up the kitchen after having dinner, "It's also so nice to have you here. Especially on nights like these, when David's not home."
"That's good to hear," Emilie truthfully responded. Catherine saying this probably meant that she didn't hate her or thought she was doing a poor job. She would consider this as some sort of feedback, then.
They talked some more about everything and how everything was going over some tea, which made Emilie feel a bit better, as well.
"Do you have any plans for tomorrow?" Catherine then suddenly asked.
Of course Emilie had plans. She had been in London for nearly a week already and except for seeing the red double-decker busses drive around the village, she hadn't really felt like it. She was more occupied with doing her job and trying to do it well than realising she was currently living in one of the biggest cities of the world. More importantly, her favourite foreign city in the world, even though she'd only visited once back in high school. Hampstead Village didn't really give off the London vibe as it did a small village. Emilie was therefore planning on going on a proper sightsee trip this weekend, visiting the landmarks and acting like a tourist. That would be the first step towards getting to know the actual city better.
"I'm meeting up with my colleague tomorrow morning to have some coffee, after I drop Denise off at her gymnastics class," Catherine then casually mentioned. It was the first time Emilie had heard about Denise's gymnastics class she apparently attended on Saturdays. "It's quite early, it starts at ten, but I asked her if perhaps she could bring Tilda, her Swedish au pair. It would be lovely if you could meet her."
Emilie knew it meant getting out of bed before nine am and wasn't looking forward to that after an extremely busy week. She knew it was important to her to meet people, as well, though. Especially since it had become clear during the week that there weren't necessarily as much foreign au pairs around Hampstead as Emilie had hoped. All the kids seemed to be taken care of by professional London-native nannies.
"That would be fun," she therefore answered, "It would be great to meet someone like me."
"Yeah, absolutely. From what I hear about Tilda, you two could really hit it off. It's nice to make new friends."
Though Catherine's company wasn't bad, Emilie longed for her room and to lie down in bed after an exhausting week. She knew she was free to go whenever she'd like after either David or Catherine returned home, but things like that were still kind of awkward and strange. That's why, finishing her cup of tea, Emilie still felt like she was awaiting the right moment to leave the house to go to her own room, to finally have a quiet night to herself.
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| Story page | Author | Talk to me |
#harry styles#harry styles fan fic#harry styles fic#1dff#harry fic#harry fic rec#fan fiction#harry styles fan fiction#harry fiction#fic rec#take care 3#this chapter is supposed to give you a headache sorry bout that!!#let me know if you read this though :) i'm curious to see what you think#would you be able to take emilie's job?#how would you deal?#the first chapters of take care really give you an idea of what emilie is going through#things will soon start to become even more interesting ;)
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