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butterflydm · 1 month

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The Queen of Attolia (plus some WoT comparisons)

Haha, it's been a few months but I got my chance to read the next book in the Queen's Thief series and it was so good! I am going to have two sections in this review -- my overall thoughts and then some specific thoughts that are mostly for @markantonys due to the series being her recommendation and I have a lot of thoughts about the comparisons between the Queen of Attolia x Eugenides and Mat Cauthon x Fortuona, because you can really do a point by point comparison, though I don't think it was intentional -- I think that Megan Whalen Turner and Robert Jordan were both going for the same idea but Turner was, imo, wildly more successful than Jordan at it.

But first, thoughts that don't particularly relate to The Wheel of Time:

We open with a tense cat and mouse chase between The Thief and the Queen's guardmen and that is really the heart of this book when it comes down to it -- a cat and mouse game between two extremely complicated people, and how they have to navigate in the world that they share.

Turner is really good at writing these fun action scenes where you're very much in the PoV of the character.

The (apparent) foundation that is laid here (that later gets overturned because Gen got to me again and he was once again acting on personal information that he kept from me for the majority of the book, lol, love him for it) - is very much beginning as enemies who have respect for each other's skills. At this point in the book, I knew that they would end up married due to spoilers and I know that it's considered a good romance, so I was really looking forward to seeing the journey, especially since I did get spoiled about the huge upcoming traumatic event.

But we start from this strong narrative place where they are aware of each other and have respect for each other but they belong to two separate counties that have some political tensions and they are both important parts of those countries and can't set that aside.

Because of how bold Gen is, Attolia has been backed into a corner by his actions and we actually see this affirmed by Gen's cousin (the Queen of Eddis) and her thoughts on the matter -- she is aware that Gen going into Attolia's country to spy on her is a dangerous thing for him to do.

And then the cutting off of his hand. This is brutal, and it feels brutal, and then we also get these hints of Attolia's reaction afterwards (that we get into more later) but especially her reaction when he begs her not to hurt him anymore and you can really see her feel the impact of what she did. She doesn't allow herself to show her remorse but even this early on, we're getting hints of it as readers.

Then when Gen goes home, we actually see that the Queen of Eddis also maintains a mask in public, just like Attolia does, so we see another hint here that Gen understands that kind of masking. Eddis looks just as cold and impenetrable to Attolia's guards who return Gen to her, as Attolia looks to everyone else.

I really appreciated how long the recovery time was after the loss of Gen's hand and how much time we spent with him to feel him get used to the changes (and how economically Turner is able to pass that time). We get these tiny looks at Attolia as well, and her difficultly sleeping at night, which we expand on later.

Then we get the return of the Magus from Sounis! It was really nice to see him again, dropping in to visit Gen, but he's also here to give us that continuation of the division between personal and political -- as a person who genuinely likes Gen, the Magus was upset about what Attolia did to him, but as the advisor to the king of Sounis, he knew that they would be able to use Eddis's reaction to Attolia's act on the political stage.

But what a way to learn that the two countries are at war!

It takes some time for Gen to really believe that Eddis went to war over him, and we see him processing that over the course of the book as well, and they talk about it more. I do think that Gen does not always realize how deeply other people care about him.

Turner really is so good at giving us these pieces of information that reframe the earlier story -- now we know that during all those snippets of Attolia that we had earlier, she was also dealing with realizing that her actions with Gen led to the war that she's currently embroiled in.

The progression of the war was really well done (again, Turner is very economical with her narrative here), with what details she chooses to focus in on, and we see that Gen, even though he has gained more of an ability to have that cold and impassive mask like Attolia has, still does things like make sure that no one is on the ships that he's destroying, because he doesn't like getting people killed.

Turner also does a really good job showing how destabilizing the war is to all three countries involved, and how the war is hurting everything.

We take a little mythology story break here in the narrative, which was a fun story about love and choice, both of which are very relevant. This story definitely does end up applying pretty heavily to Gen and Attolia in the themes, and I like the style that Turner tells these stories.

I love how perceptive Gen is once he's been apprised of the situation and we get to see the thought process that leads to him blaming the emperor's ambassador more for the loss of his hand than he does Attolia herself, because he sees that ambassador understood that seeing Gen maimed and returned to Eddis would be more like to spark a war than just killing him would, and a war is exactly what he needs in order to try to justify getting his troops onto Attolia's land. All the politics here are pretty complex but I feel like the book does a good job explaining the reasoning.

And this is also the point where it's really confirmed that Attolia knows that the ambassador is underestimating her, and that she also understands a lot of the things that he thinks that he's pulling over on her. But because of the fragile position that she's in, she needs to entertain the ambassador's advice and his attempts to sidle in on her country.

Quote about Gen: "It was like him that if he had to have a thing, to have the fanciest thing of its kind."

I really like all this about the cost of war; the price of war; and why this outside party has been trying to urge war on the three countries.

We also get Eddis admitting to Gen that she thinks that she could have possibly controlled herself and not started a war if he had only been killed, rather than treated in a way that she finds so insulting, and that it made her so angry that she made a choice that had now brought a lot of damage to their own country that she wishes could be avoided. And Gen can see, basically, that the ambassador of Medes is the one who put both Eddis and Attolia in this trap, and he was used as the tool to start this war.

We really move into Attolia's PoV and we get the story of the broken amphora (she thought about it when she saw Gen after she'd had his hand cut off) -- it was, essentially, the moment that marked when her life changed and she couldn't be a young girl anymore.

This really is a heartbreaking story -- how after her brothers died and she was the heir, her father essentially sold her off to be married, and her fiance was actively plotting against her father and how to suck her country dry for his own benefit after they were married. And how she kept herself quiet and small and just listened, but then poisoned him at their wedding feast, also having her captain of the guard kill the next man who tried to force her to marry him. We also see here that she only trusts loyalty that she can buy in gold (because every other kind of loyalty failed her).

Then we finally get the big reunion! This scene is so tense, with both Attolia and Gen wearing these cold masks (we later realize that Gen has pretty much directly modeled his mask on Attolia's) and we get this private negotiation that is only for the two of them. And this moment when it is literally just them, together on a boat, with no one else to interrupt them... just exquisitely done.

It's been implied before, but this is where we get our confirmation that Attolia has been just as haunted by Gen this entire book as he's been haunted by her. They've been separated for most of the book but constantly haunted by each other. I gotta share the quote:

"He was too young to have bones that ached. No matter what he thought of himself, he was hardly more than a boy. A boy without one hand. She reached up to push the wet hair out of her face, wondering when she had sunk so low that she had begun torturing boys. It was a question she had asked herself night after night, lying awake in her bed or sitting in a chair by the window watching the stars slowly move across the sky."

We've been seeing her do those things the entire book, but this is the first moment when we're told what she was thinking about in those moments.

We also get our Big Revelation here that Gen has had feelings for Attolia since before the events of The Thief! How does he hide these things from us so well! Gen! We learn here (and we get even more detail later) that he's been feeling drawn to her for literal years. That part of the reason that he made those trips that she thought were mockery was because he wanted to be close to her and get a look at her and see if she really was the monster that their spies reported that she was, or if she was just a woman who was being forced to make difficult, maybe impossible choices.

And then we get our story reversal where Attolia gets 'rescued' by the ambassador and his people, and we get to see how she behaves in these circumstances where she doesn't believe that she can trust Gen (sure, he said he loves her, but she cut his hand off! And he's a known liar! how can she trust him?) vs this dude that she knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that she absolutely cannot trust.

The moment when she tells her handmaidens not to put on her golden bee earrings, I knew exactly what she'd done, especially when we got Gen's reaction. The writing doesn't have to tell us in the moment what's occurring (that she put on the earrings that he left for her one time and that she said she would only wear if she'd decided to marry him) for us to know, and I love that. This coded sign that only he will understand.

It's the most unique and fascinating marriage proposal I've ever read. Well done. Haha, and I did guess that the gray-haired man that he fought so well with was his father. <3

Love the moment when we see him process that marrying the Queen of Attolia is going to mean... that he'll be the King of Attolia. He just wanted to marry her because he liked her! <3 <3

And everything after that was just so delightful. Working together for the double-cross and then the process of Eddis and Attolia working out the treaty and Eddis trying to convince Gen that they can have the treaty without the marriage, and his rejection of that, and then essentially testing Attolia with that offer as well.

I also really like one of the moments when Attolia realizes that she can trust Gen, which is when Eddis tells her that of course Gen also lies to her. Constantly. And I feel like that reframed a lot of her interactions with Gen for Attolia. Realizing that Gen wasn't being maliciously deceitful towards her; he's just Like That With Everyone. Plus, I can't forget the moment when, after the battle is won, Attolia and Eddis return to where Gen is being held and Attolia believes for a moment that he's been poisoned as a parting shot by the Medes ambassador and we can literally watch as her heart completely shatters and she is completely undone and devastated in her head and even shaken where people can see her. It's beautifully written.

And we get the moment with the gods (who are very real in this series but very carefully choose how they interfere) and it's just as well done as it was in the first book. The windows in the palace shattering as the goddess responds to Gen's sacrifice! And basically laying out to him that his suffering was required to reach this ending and would he trade it back if he could -- if it meant that Attolia would have been forced to make that deal with the Medes ambassador. And Gen would rather have Attolia in his life and wanting to marry him than have his hand back.

Just that whole final section that leads up to the ending of the book, with Attolia really being able to believe Gen when he says that he loves her... it's so good. How the narrative (and Eddis and Gen) are able to tease out Attolia's feelings for Gen, and how we end on that final quiet moment between the two of them. Really powerful ending.

It's a really good book and it's a really good romance. Gen and Attolia are both fantastic characters and even with all the twists and turns and revelations, their relationship felt incredibly captivating and believable. I really believe that Gen wants to break through Attolia's walls and, just as important, I feel like there's a person on the other side of those walls who is worth being loyal to and loving. You understand why Gen wants to be Attolia's husband, even after she ordered his hand cut off, which is very impressive storytelling.

Hopefully I'll get the chance to read the The King of Attolia soonish, and not in, like, four months.

And now onto the Wheel of Time/Mat & Tuon comparison section of the review for @markantonys 💖

It really does feel like a point-by-point improvement on Mat & Tuon, though I suspected unintentionally (it looks like this book came out 3 years before CoT).

Starting with the characters: wow, Attolia really is so much the person that I would have wanted Tuon to be. And she feels like the person that Jordan wanted readers to believe that Tuon was. Every place where I was going through my WoT reread and going "footage not found!" about something the narrative tried to claim about Tuon is something where the footage is very much found for Attolia. While Tuon's potentially heartbreaking backstory really is just backstory and ends up have zero impact on her active storyline, Attolia's tragic backstory is the entire spine of what her character is going through and what Gen can help her with.

We get to see and really experience Attolia's context, which is not something that we got with Tuon. Jordan makes an attempt, I guess, with Karade's sob story about Tuon and the doll, but he made the bizarre choice to frame this story in Karade's PoV (Tuon's slave), not from Tuon's PoV. For whatever reason, Jordan always insisted on making Tuon the most insufferably smug person in the world in her own PoVs.

With Attolia, we get those breaks in her mask that I kept desperately wanting us to get with Tuon but we never did. Again, this is mostly only for the reader, not even for Gen -- the reader gets to see behind Attolia's mask. And so Attolia is captivating and fascinating and I understand why she felt like she had to do these horrible things.

With Attolia, we actually get her being removed from her power base and feeling helpless, which Jordan never had the guts to do with Tuon (when Mat kidnaps Tuon, he lets her take her slave along with her, and then some of his allies decide to support Tuon over him despite having zero narrative or character-based reason to do so), which means that when Attolia regains her power, it has a much bigger impact on the narrative, while it felt like Tuon never really lost hers. Attolia and Gen both manage to be scrappy underdogs, in their own way, and that's something that Tuon never was.

Both Attolia and Tuon commit horrific acts, but while we see Attolia's remorse and how it torments her, Tuon always seems to shrug off the horrible shit that she does. It doesn't ever affect her emotionally and she never seems to think past it after it's done. She is a character without remorse or reflection (I think she vaguely thinks that it's a shame one time when she's pondering how she will break Mat's spirit but that's about it). And Attolia has those two qualities in spades. Attolia feels like a real woman to me in a way that Tuon never did. We see the brave face that she puts on, we see her regret and remorse, we see her loneliness, we see her jealousy over the Queen of Eddis, who is able to trust the members of her court in a way that Attolia has never felt she could trust her own. Tuon just feels really shallow in comparison to Attolia.

Even in the first cat and mouse scene with Attolia and Gen in this book, you can see the push and pull and the narrative equality of the characters. Gen has been in and out of four different strongholds of hers, and she feels that he's pretty much taunting her with his abilities. There's a mutual respect for the other person which was one of the big things that was missing for me with Mat and Tuon. In her final PoV in KoD, we learn that she has not had an ounce of respect for him during this entire journey -- it's not until she sees how the Band respects him that she considers whether or not there may be more to him than just being a pretty and dumb sextoy. And the big problem with that is that was the period when the 'romance' was being developed. During the time when she didn't have any respect for him as a person. And that makes it very difficult to find their relationship compelling, even apart from the fact that I found Mat himself profoundly unlikable in CoT & KoD.

Now, Mat being a terrible person (in CoT & KoD) and Tuon being a terrible person (always and forever) are not things that would stop me from shipping them in general. I am capable of finding Awful4Awful pairings compelling (like Louis and Lestat from Interview with the Vampire). They don't have to be good people, but there has to be something in the relationship that grabs onto me at any level, and that's where Mat and Tuon failed.

We can see in Attolia's thoughts that she envies the relationship that Gen has with the Queen of Eddis -- she envies that loyalty and wishes she could have something like that of her own. That sort of envy was also missing from CoT & KoD (I am going to mention, briefly, that some of these elements were present in the Mat & Tuon relationship in AMoL but at that point, it was just too late for me to give a shit about their relationship, because CoT & KoD thoroughly killed any interest that I had in them). Whether because of his own personal kinks or because of the plans that Jordan had for the Outriggers, Jordan made Tuon too much of an island; too much of an wall. The way he wrote her made me feel like nothing Mat could do would ever really matter to her in any way; that she was content to use him up and then throw him out and that's just not my thing. It may have been Jordan's kink but it is not mine.

So I definitely understand @markantonys's point about this feeling like a well-written version of Mat and Tuon! It really does feel like this is the sort of relationship that Jordan wanted to write with Mat and Tuon but didn't have the skill at romance writing to pull off. Something like Mat and Tuon is Hard Mode Romance and Jordan wasn't even always good at Easy Mode Romance.

Two of the key elements that really makes Attolia and Gen work for me is just getting to sit and exist in Attolia's emotional reactions to the wrong that she has done to Gen; and Gen acknowledging and processing the harm that she'd done. And both of those things were desperately needed with Mat and Tuon, both as characters and as a romance.

A major major part of why Mat and Tuon failed for me is because I didn't feel like Mat was actually reacting to her realistically for the vast majority of their page time together; she threatens to invade a city and he laughs it off, she assaults his companions that he freed from slavery and he thinks it's hot?!?, she talks about how she likes to torture women and he ignores it.

If Tuon had cut off Mat's hand, the way that Attolia cut off Gen's, it feels like Jordan would have just had Mat shrug it off and then buy her a puppy as a reward or something as his response. Here, we get Gen begging Attolia "please don't hurt me again" after she cuts off his hand and then we have months of separation and recovery and processing before the narrative takes him anywhere near her again. And Attolia is forced to reckon with what she did, first by being haunted by the memories of him crying from the pain and loss, and then she has to face it directly by seeing his stump, seeing the pain that he's still in (because of her). She has to admit (not just to herself but to him) the damage that she did before they can move forward together. This is something that Tuon never shows herself capable of on any level. Tuon is never allowed to grow as a person the way that Attolia is, or to be vulnerable with the audience or with Mat.

I definitely still really felt the Mat-Gen comparison in this book too. Lots of places, but there's a great moment in the meadow with him, Eddis, and the Magus, where Eddis explains that Gen has deliberately made people believe that he can't fight but he also still gets miffed sometimes if people fall for his carefully constructed facade.

And the moment when Gen tells Eddis that he plans to steal the Queen of Attolia. It really feels, again, like this is the sort of vibe that Jordan wanted us to believe existed between Mat and Tuon: "She may be a fiend from hell to make me feel this way but even if I've got to hate myself for the rest of my life, this is what I want. I dream about her at night." This intense draw and this pull that he feels towards her. Jordan appears to want us to believe that Mat feels this kind of draw towards Tuon at the end of KoD but has not created any kind of foundation in Mat's characterization as to why.

We also got the long separation between Attolia and Gen where they are haunting each other with their absence. Attolia and Gen just get the time that is needed to develop this relationship in a way that's believable. Time in the story, not page time. This book is shorter than CoT & KoD, and probably shorter than if you made a "Mat and Tuon" novella out of their scenes in those books. It's the actual 'in world' time that matters, that gives Attolia and Gen time to think about each other and miss each other in a genuine way.

For another comparison -- Gen 'steals' Attolia to marry her like Mat kidnaps Tuon, but the context is so incredibly different on every level. Mat gets, essentially, tricked into kidnapping Tuon by the 'finn (it never would have happened if he hadn't heard that prophecy) while Gen acts with intention the whole way through. Technically, in both cases, Gen and Mat are 'saving' Attolia and Tuon by kidnapping them, but we feel the weight of it with Gen and Attolia in a way that we don't with Mat and Tuon. And a lot of that is because the bulk of Gen and Attolia's build-up happens before the kidnapping, during the times when they're separated and haunted by each other. So once the kidnapping happens, it's quick-paced and moves the plot forward rather than, you know, just fucking around with a circus for a month.

We also know that Attolia has complicated feelings about Gen already. I talked about this with @markantonys but that really is something that needed to happen with Tuon so much sooner than it does in the books (there are two big Mat & Tuon scenes in AMoL that desperately needed to happen back in CoT, imo -- Tuon trusting that Mat isn't trying to kill her; and Tuon going wild trying to protect Mat in the command tent).

Attolia and Gen also genuinely have things that they can each offer the other person, while with Mat and Tuon, none of the things that Tuon offers are things that Mat actually wants (slaves bowing to him; being dressed up like one of the Blood; being formal at all times - these are things that some of Mat's fans want for him, but not things he wants for himself) and she just feels like this ravenous black hole that constantly takes and takes and takes and gives back nothing of value. When Gen is startled at the realization that marrying the Queen of Attolia makes him the King and he'll have to actually be a king, it's this incredibly sweet moment, because it illustrates so clearly that he wants Attolia for herself and not her country. When Mat reacts against the idea that marrying Tuon makes him royalty, it just kinda makes him look dumb, because we've been given nothing of value in Tuon herself as a person, and no reason for Mat to care about her.

With Tuon, Mat talks about how she's better than other nobles, but nothing she actually does on the page is better than any other Seanchan noble. It's all 'footage not found'. By contrast, every single positive thing that Gen says about Attolia is backed up by the text and we even get shown additional positive qualities that no one needs to talk about because it's right there in the text.

With Tuon, it feels like Mat is attempting to gaslight me (and himself?) into believing that an interesting character exists there despite all the evidence against it, while Attolia simply is a compelling character based on what happens on the page.

That fact that there are so many raw similarities between the two pairings, but my reaction to them are so different really does illustrate the importance of execution, imo. Attolia and Gen's romance manages to travel so much further than Mat and Tuon's, while also being considerably more economical with how many pages it took to get us there.

The point-by-point comparison (aka WoT's failure of execution):

Tuon's interior life is poorly illustrated in comparison to Attolia's; because she starts off as an even worse person than Attolia but so much less character work is done on her than on Attolia, who is haunted this entire book by how she has "sunk so low as to torture boys" (on that note, Turner's choice to make Gen the younger and more openly vulnerable one really works here).

Seeing that Attolia's handmaidens are genuinely affectionate and protective of her at the end of this book is so incredibly touching, because she had no expectation of their loyalty (she believes in the loyalty of gold, and gold alone, for the most part). Tuon, otoh, has slaves that she expects to be subservient and loyal unto death, so her slaves' affection for her (that was trained into them) is something that completely fails to move me. This difference in the expectations of the character also makes a huge difference in how their PoVs come off -- Attolia's walls are due to her internal vulnerability and we get to see that vulnerability in her PoVs; while Tuon comes across as full of herself and incredibly arrogant, taking everyone around her for granted.

We're told that Tuon is smart and perceptive but rarely get any evidence; while Turner shows us Attolia's intelligence and how she sees a lot more than people like the Medes ambassador believe that she does. We get to see Attolia's intelligence in how she tricks the Medes ambassador into believing that she's so much less perceptive and intelligent than she truly is. This is another place where Jordan's unwillingness to ever place Tuon into a genuinely vulnerable position really hurt the character. Turner wasn't afraid to make Attolia the underdog and knew that it wouldn't undermine her as a character, it would strengthen her, because we would get to see who she was in adversity. The set-up of Crossroads of Twilight should have led to us seeing Tuon in adversity but Jordan was allergic to allowing her to be truly vulnerable, and gave her people to hide behind (Selucia & Setalle Anan) the entire time.

Mat as an agent of chaos is wildly downplayed in comparison to Gen as an agent of chaos. The Seanchan end up getting spared the chaos that the end of the Age brought to pretty much every other society, even though Mat seems clearly positioned to bring their society crashing down even as late as Winter's Heart. Gen's actions, otoh, are constantly throwing other people's plans off.

Mat does not behave realistically to the horrible things that Tuon says and does -- with Gen, even though we find out towards the last third of the book that he was already in love with Attolia before the book begins, we still get his raw reactions to her doing things that hurt him. He has nightmares after she orders his hand cut off, his pained begging of her not to hurt him again, and how he develops his own mask of impassiveness that is modeled on her own. Gen also never throws away his moral code in order to try to force himself to be at peace with the relationship -- he grows and changes as a character as a result of his trauma, but he stays himself at the core.

Something else that Jordan could have used more in the books that would have helped develop an understanding of why Mat believes that something exists beyond Tuon's 'cold Empress mask' would have been to make the comparison between Rand's mask and Tuon's mask more clear in the narrative. Because there's too much separation in time between Rand and Mat's interactions with Mat and Tuon's interactions. In this book, seeing that Eddis also needs to put up a queenly mask of not caring about Gen at first (in front of the Attolian guards when they return him to her after his hand has been cut off) helps illustrate why Attolia needs the mask that she uses -- Eddis doesn't trust the Attolians, but Attolia feels like she can trust absolutely no one, and so she always needs the mask and feels like she can never take it off. That's compelling! It could have been compelling in Tuon too, if it had been written better.

On that note: Turner personalizes the damage that Attolia's cold mask and her ruthless defense of herself/her country is doing by having her hurt Gen directly, and that being something that she struggles with over the course of the book. With WoT, Jordan basically did everything he could to hide away the damage that Tuon/the Seanchan were doing from Mat in order to try to justify why he could ~fall in love~ with her (was it intentional? to set their relationship up for a fall later in the Outriggers? we'll never know) without ever actually changing Tuon/the Seanchan for the better, which also meant giving Tuon no reason to have any internal struggles over the choices that she's made.

Gen and Attolia get another thing that Mat and Tuon desperately needed but that Jordan refused to give them: privacy. They negotiate getting married (after Gen has kidnapped Attolia in a much more narratively satisfying kidnapping than Mat and Tuon's!) in privacy, just between the two of them; when we get the conversation about their feelings at the end, again it happens in private. That makes a huge difference. Jordan being unwilling to ever actually yank Tuon away from her full power base and her slaves was a huge hindrance to ever allowing her to be vulnerable. And I do chalk this up to unwillingness and not failures due to plot set-up because there is no good reason to have Selucia tag along on the kidnapping and then it's even more bizarre in CoT & KoD, when the character of Setalle Anan goes from being fond of Mat to all of a sudden acting like he's the worst person in the world and she must protect poor helpless baby girl Tuon from him.

Both Attolia and Tuon get tricked by their respective love interests about who they are as a person because of the facade that they put up, but Attolia still has respect for Gen and his skills, even as she doubts his character, and it is Gen's own actions that show her who he really is and make her believe in him; while with Tuon and Mat, she spends over a month with him and still refuses to look past his surface until she literally has her face rubbed into it by seeing the Band's reactions to him. This difference is a key one in making Attolia's failure to see Gen as a failure due to the protective walls that she has up; while Tuon's failure comes across as her just not being very perceptive or intelligent. And the fact that we don't get the moment when Tuon begins to have even the faintest shred of respect for Mat until the end of Knife of Dreams just meant that I felt even more like all the pages time that Jordan spent on the two of them in CoT & KoD was a complete waste of my time.

We got to have genuine reactions from all of Gen's loved ones about the relationship! This is a huge place where, I guess, Sanderson is the one who failed for a change instead of Jordan because wtf was Perrin's "lol you married now bro? haha" reaction to Mat being married to a slaver? Though Jordan also does this to a certain extent with Thom, who we are supposed to believe is in love with Moiraine, and yet who never calls Mat out on courting a woman who would enslave and torture Moiraine if she had the chance. By contrast, Eddis is genuinely hesitant and worried because of everything they've heard about how cold Attolia is, and because she's the reason that Gen's hand was cut off.

We get to see Attolia and Gen develop a shared language and see behind each other's walls. The moment when she wears the earrings that he left for her, and he knows that it means she's chosen to marry him of her own free will is such a huge and impactful moment, and the only people who are aware of what it means are Attolia and Gen! This is really a failure that happens based on earlier failures of execution: because Mat and Tuon are never allowed to be alone together, it's impossible for them to develop this kind of shared coding and shared language.

12. We also have the 'footage not found' issue, where one of the characters (mostly Mat) tries to tell me something about Tuon but the narrative completely fails to back it up: this is the case with Tuon being intelligent and perceptive (in the narrative shown to us, she never picks up on anything until her nose is forcibly rubbed in it); and this is case with Mat thinking near the end of Knife of Dreams that Tuon belongs in the same 'better than other nobles' bucket as Talmanes when she has never shown herself to be willing to make better choices than other Seanchan nobles: he is still, at this point, worrying that she might enslave him and turn him into her cupbearer; she has not only threatened but actually assaulted his companions; whenever she's placed in a position of power over other people, she takes advantage of it and them. We're told that she's not a child but she also throws a tantrum (and pottery) at Mat at the start of Crossroads of Twilight. This could have worked if Jordan had leaned into the fact that Mat is deliberately lying to himself in order to make his marriage bearable, but that's where things like randomly having Setalle Anan go over to Tuon's side messes with that narrative.

13. When Jordan has Mat think about how Tuon dying would be a deep loss to him, it's just baffling because she has not done a single thing the entire 'courtship' that has shown why in the world Mat would feel that way. All of the attempts at reaching out during the courtship are Mat's, while Tuon just smugly accepts it as her due. Because Attolia doesn't just accept Gen's love as her due, because she actually doesn't believe him and challenges him on it, we get to hear his justification of it and why he feels that way, and then we also get to see her reciprocation. The relationship is a two-way street in The Queen of Attolia.

14. Which ties into the fact that Jordan chose to make Tuon not just a slaver but an enthusiastic slaver who enjoys the slave-breaking process and that is an incredibly dark place to start a character but it could have worked if it had been the beginning of Tuon's character arc and we'd actually watched her change and grow from that position. And she had the narrative set up for it! In her very first chapter, the reader learns that Tuon has the ability to learn to channel! She was created with the narrative juice to have a compelling arc about accepting the truth about herself and her people. And then Jordan gave that arc to Bethamin instead, lol.

15. In both of these stories 'fate' does kinda serve up Gen/Mat to Attolia/Tuon on a silver platter, but the execution of the storylines makes the reveal that fate was acting to push the two of them together so much more effective in The Queen of Attolia. Choice is a much larger consideration in Attolia and Gen's relationship than it is in Mat and Tuon's. There are elements of the higher powers of the world at work in both relationships, but Attolia and Gen have to put in the work themselves and have to face hard emotional truths in order to get us to the satisfying ending. I get the impression that Tuon wouldn't know an emotional truth if it spit in her eye. We actively see both Gen and Attolia consider and reject the idea of solving their main problem (about the war) without needing to get married; we see them choose their marriage and each other.

With Mat and Tuon, this is a lot more muddled. Fate/the Pattern/the 'finn want them to marry each other but we never get any kind of payoff as to why, and this is primarily because of Jordan's other storylines imo. He should not have had Rand already willing to make peace with the Seanchan in his separate storyline. Convincing Rand to be willing should have been Mat's job (because that also would mean that Mat would need to make the arguments to convince the readers). Jordan showing at the end of KoD that Rand is willing to make a deal with the Seanchan, even at the cost of giving in on the matter of slavery, basically completely voided any narrative reason for Mat and Tuon to get married, but without the satisfaction of seeing the two of them grow to a place where they would actively make that choice rather than being motivated by what they believe is necessary (due to prophecy).

There really were the bones of a potentially compelling story with Mat and Tuon, and I really do hope that the show (when we get there) is able to take those bones and turn it into a genuinely compelling story.

#the queen's thief #butterfly reads tqt #butterfly book club #wot book spoilers #a memory of light #wot #wheel of time #seanchan cw #wot meta #my wot meta #irene of attolia #eugenides #mat cauthon

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animehideout · 4 months

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Quick question, may I request? If not, just ignore this<3

💙Random recommended song💙

I already mentioned this in my latest post but anyway, I did an optional homework and got the best grade and in the beginning I felt lowly about my work but after getting the grade I felt so much better about it and myself too.

The problem is that lately I started to get into writing again but can't find the time suddenly. Aaaaand I wanted to kind of celebrate this (I mean that the teacher seemed to like my poem) even tho it isn't a big deal but feels like it and oh God I feel like a lil child :')

Sooo may I request a Magumi x reader fluff, where the reader and Megumi are just chilling together when the reader get a notification saying she got a good grade and they get so emotional that they try to hold back tears, but Megumi senses the sudden change and ask if they are alright? The reader trying the brush it off that "Oh it's nothing special or worth mentioning, just got the best grade on the optional homework we got. Can't believe the teacher liked my poem..." 'Poem-?' Megumi thinks as he heard the last words. He maybe didn't even have a clue that the reader was into poetry and/or that they wrote any, so by hearing this he wanted to read it, but overthinking a bit, he decided on not asking them, even though maybe he should have. But it's late, he waited till they fell asleep and then quietly got up from bed to go and look for their exercise book and read it. After he read it, he puts the book on the reader's desk or somewhere else, not minding to put it back to it's actual place because he plans on telling them his opinion, how much they likes it as well and je would be interested in seeing more of their work. Maybeeee the reader confesses that they've been into poetry for a time now and shows Megumi all of the poems they've written while telling Meg' why they like some of their poems and why they have a few problems with some, then there's Megumi reading them with intrest. Maybe Megumi having a soft spot for poetry IDK BUT NOW I JUST REALIZED THAT BY WRITING THIS REQUEST I COULD HAVE EASILY JUST WRITE THE FANFIC ALREADY TT My bad :')

Anyway, catching up with your lates Gojo posts soon!

-Megan🩵

Huggie :3🎀

Megumi Fushiguro X Poet /Artistic Reader

Synopsis: Megumi discovers his partner's talent in writing poems.

a/n: Thank you @megan016 for this request, also CONGRATS for getting the best grade, you did great sweetheart and I'm proud of you 💗. Also I can't wait to read more of your poems and the translated ver. Keep it up. I hope you like this little oneshot tho♡.

Check @megan016 poem here ( I liked it and I had to share it, you are so talented 💌 )

As the soft glow of the TV illuminated the room, you sat in your boyfriend's arms, Megumi. Engrossed in the movie that was displayed in front of you. The atmosphere was light, filled with soft hums as Megumi played with your hair. The rainy weather outside, added to the coziness.

Suddenly, you phone chimed with a notification. Curious, you picked it up, unlocking it to reveal a message from your school,

{ Dear Y/N, Congratulations, your poem received the best grade. We appreciate your hard work. }.

Your eyes scanned the words, a wave of joy and surprise washed over you even though it was an optional homework the fact that your poem that came from your creativity, that each line you wrote carried within it a deeper feeling and meaning got a proper appreciation from your teacher was able to bring you to happy tears.

Your heart swelled with happiness while clutching your phone tightly, Megumi sensed how your body tensed between his arms.

"Love, is everything okay?" he asked.

Realizing that you haven't told him yet about your passion for poetry, you tried to hide your excitement and brush it off,

"Oh, y-yes I'm fine! it's nothing, just my poem got the best grade in class! Can't believe my teacher actually liked it hehe.." you chuckled awkwardly, trying to act normal as if you weren't holding back your tears from how delighted and proud you were.

"Poem?!" Thought Megumi to himself "I didn't know she's into poetry"

"But yeah– it's nothing special, not a big deal tho, it was just an optional homework" you added bringing him back to reality

"Oh.. I see you did great love congrats" said Megumi kissing the top of your head.

He senses how you were avoiding talking about your poem, so he respected it and just congratulated you he was completely oblivious to the whirlwind of emotions you were suppressing he thought you really wasn't that excited. Deep down, Megumi couldn't brush away the curiosity that grew inside of him, he was interested in reading books, poems and articles so having a partner that happened to write poems excited him to the core.

As the night proceeded, you dozed off beside him. Closing your eyelids, swimming in Dreamland. Sleeping nice and sound, feeling protected with the warm presence of Megumi. He watched you as you slept next to him, smiling to himself as your whole hand cutely held his index finger. Your hand size difference has always brought a smile on his face.

Suddenly, his eyes widened when he remembered about the poem, his eyes scanned the room and finally fell on your exercise book that was innocently put on your desk. Too intrigued by the unexpected revelation of your poetic talent, he couldn't resist the urge to delve into your world of words.

Trying to not disturb your beauty slumber he tiptoed to your desk, gently opening the book , carefully flipping the pages until he found your poem of 14 stanzas.

He was too excited to read it, to read between the lines and analyze the deeper meaning it held. Line after line, he found himself utterly captivated by the beauty of your expressions, the smart choice of words, adjectives and the Poetic elegance that adorned your stanzas. It left him completely speechless, realizing that the love of his life is indeed talented and creative.

"And she said it's not a big deal??" he muttered to himself as his eyes shifted back on your sleeping figure.

He wanted to flip the pages to read more of your writings, to check your other copy books but he resisted that urge, respecting your privacy and deciding to wait till morning to ask you properly about your passion for poetry.

He laid down next to you, eager for tomorrow to discuss with you what now happened to be a mutual passion; while you were interested in writing poems, Megumi was interested in reading, them showing that both of you complete each other.

His arms pulled you closer to his body holding you,

"I'm proud of you my love" he said before dozing off.

As the morning light filtered through the curtains, your eyelids fluttered into consciousness. Megumi was already awake, laying on his back, one arm behind his head as his eyes were fixated on the ceiling. As he felt you shifting beside him his gaze turned to you, greeting you with a warm smile.

"Hey sleepyhead, want to tell me about those poems of yours? I had no idea you're poetic genius!!" he exclaimed softly,

You were still half awake, taken by surprise you quickly got into a sitting position,

"You read them??" you asked.

"Not all of them!! only that one in your exercise book! Now I know why it got the best grade" he said enthusiastically.

It was rare for you to see Megumi full of energy early in the morning, so you couldn't help but smile from how much he was interested in your poems. Encouraged by his genuine reaction you started to open up, confessing that you've been into poetry for a while now.

"So? want to show me the rest?" he asked.

Without saying anything, you jumped out of bed. The cold floor touching your bare feet sent shivers down your spine. You quickly grabbed your notebooks and ran back to bed, getting under the warm blanket next to Megumi again, you got closer to him.

"Here they are" you said with a smile.

Anticipating his reactions every time he read one of your poems, the way he read the lines you wrote with passion and care warmed your heart, as if what you write was meant for him to read. The curious expressions drawn on his face whenever he tried to guess the real meaning of your words made you giggle.

After reading most of your poems he engulfed you into a big hug,

"Those poems are amazing Y/n!! I can't wait for more from you. So tell me what inspires you the most? what is your motivation?" he asked too immersed to know more.

A blush painted your cheeks and with a shy smile you answered "Y-you! You do inspire some verses"

"Guess I'm a muse now" he teased playfully trying to hide the fact that he got shy as well.

"Exactly" you giggled.

"What are the difficulties you face while writing though?"

"Most of the time me trying to channel my feelings into words, sometimes certain feelings that I want to write about can't be described by simple words so that's quite a challenge and it takes a lot of effort or sometimes I struggle with motivation even though I do have a lot of accumulated ideas that are waiting to be written" you explained.

You spent the morning cuddled up in your soft bed, sharing ideas and soft random kisses every now and then, exchanging soft touches. Sitting between Megumi's legs as he held your notebooks and continued to loudly read the rest of your poems.

"I love this one Y/n !! Wait is it about us??"

Megumi was too happy to be in that specific moment with you; the moment that definitely inspired you to write another poem that will carry those feelings between both of you forever.

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ziggyplayedguitar96 · 10 months

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Unanswered Questions I Have From Cruel Summer Season 2:

What was Debbie’s illness? They never told us what it was. Megan mentioned remission so it could be some form of cancer but idk.

What was the point of Lily? She was there for like 3 episodes and then she fucked off and disappeared to who knows where. In the first episode during summer 2000 it seemed like she hated Megan. She called her bitch and a freak. Where did the animosity come from? Nothing in the season would change if she didn’t exist.

What did Megan do with tape of Isabella killing Luke? Did she turn it in? Did she just sit with it and let Brent take the fall for killing Luke?

Did Ned never see the tape from the camera pointing to the dock? The whole season could’ve been wrapped up really quickly if Ned turned in the tape. He has those camera on 24/7. He’s probably watched them so he should’ve seen it.

What happened with Megan’s pregnancy? They never told us how it ended. Did she get an abortion? Have a miscarriage? The baby should’ve been born by the summer 2000 timeline but there’s no mention of it besides the police interrogation. Did she even have it?

What happened with Megan’s dad? He showed up for one episode and then left, never to be seen again. It was never explained why he came to Chatham. We know he payed for Megan’s lawyer at least.

Why did the writers have Debbie date Steve even though Luke and Megan were dating? That’s just really fucking weird. If Debbie and Steve got married then Megan and Luke would be step siblings.

How did Megan explain the bloody sheets to Debbie? Those were the sheets with Luke’s blood so what did she tell her?

Why didn’t the police check the cabin the moment Luke became a missing person? Why wait until his body was found? The first step should’ve been checking places he frequently goes.

Why did Megan only clean the cabin once Luke’s body was found? Did she and Isabella really just leave everything as it was from that night? They left the blood, pills, sheets, etc. when they should’ve cleaned a while ago.

Did Isabella really kill Lisa? Why was that left unanswered? Are just supposed to assume and come to our own conclusions?

Will Isabella ever be arrested? Megan now has actual proofs that Isabella is the killer and if she turns it in the police will have to track her down. The reason the plot twist in season 1 worked was because Jeanette is the only one who knows the truth and taking that secret to the grave. That can’t work here.

Why did Megan and Isabella storm into Steve’s office saying they saw his car? The should’ve just gone to the police first instead of making him aware that there was evidence against him.

What caused Megan to drastically change her appearance? With Jeanette the showed her cutting her hair but with Megan we’re just left to guess.

Why is Isabella the way she is? She’s really controlling and likes to play God with others. Why? What’s the reason?

Did Isabella give the police the tape from the cabin? She said she’s destroy it but she always could’ve lied idk.

Where the hell was Debbie during the last episode. Seriously where did she go?

Why the hell was Isabella even at the dock? As far as she knew Luke was still tied up in that cabin. Also why did she arrive all dressed up like that?

How many times has Isabella done this “ride or die” best friends bullshit? She talked about all the other places she’s lived so did she also do it there?

Does anyone remember Megan asking that one guy in summer 2000 who he had been talking to because the sheriff was asking questions? She gave him a floppy disk and said she upping the price. What was that? Who was that?

These are all the questions I could think of off the top of my head but this entire season has so many plot holes and unanswered questions that I might have more. I feel like the episodes should’ve been longer so they could really fit everything in or season 2 should’ve just gotten an extra episode.

#cruel summer #cruel summer season 2 #megan landry #isabella larue #debbie landry #lily landry #steve chambers #brent chambers #luke chambers #ned cruel summer #lisa cole #trevor cole #this season was kind of all over the place at times #I’m so confused by some of the details

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nancydrewwouldnever · 2 years

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I am the anon who mentioned this isn't PR, wouldn't be good PR , Backgrid, how the fandom wondered why Chris doesn't have the same career as his peers, and wasted potential. I'm going to get into observations I've made since coming to the fandom in 2020 after watching Snowpiercer.

I feel further validated by the latest events.

What we're seeing is the Chris before Marvel PR cleaned him up. He was always a fuckboi pre Marvel. He hasn't changed or evolved. He surrounds himself with yes people who never challenge him or encourage him to level up because they know if he did they would get left behind and lose the freebies he gives them. The saying "You're the average of the 5 people you surround yourself with" applies here. His friend group appears to be immature, thirsty, and too overly involved in his life. Just because they knew him before fame doesn't mean anything. I think there have been quality women he dated who were turned off by his clique of friends always in their business and face. Not to mention the same vacations, the same restaurants, the same everything. Groundhog Day. Who wants to date someone like that?

I didn't realize Jim Toth use to be his agent. Look at what he did for his wife Reese Witherspoon. Reese gave an interview explaining that she had aged out and was unhappy with her career. She said Jim pushed her to create her production company which she did. She also used Jim's connections to launch Draper James, her book club, podcast, and other ventures. Jim also helped rebrand Matthew McConaughey. He had the Golden Year for Dallas Buyer's Club and True Detective. He turned down the Wolf of Wall Street that got Jonah Hill an Academy Award nomination because of money. I'm sure Jim tried to get him to the next level.

Chris directed one movie. It didn't get the response he wanted yet he didn't seek directing gigs on television to hone his skills. Denzel Washington directed episodes of Grey's Anatomy. Other actors and actresses have done the same. Defending Jacob didn't get awards recognition so he returns to comfort zone of romantic comedies and action films instead of trying again with the drama genre. Look at his ex Jessica. She created her production company when she didn't get the roles she wanted. The Sinner and Candy changed her career for the better. Chris is capable of so much more with his career. He gives up after one try.

The latest mess is just his immaturity and wanting to be a rebel. He'll retreat when he becomes a punchline while being compared to Dane Cook and John Mayer. That's where this train is headed if this goes public. He has coasted off his reputation for being kind to fans, crew members, and staff. That gets celebrities a lot of leeway with fans when we have other celebrities who make staff and fans miserable.

His messiness is more on display due to social media and not having Marvel backing him. Studios heavily invested in certain actors and actresses always keep their PR image intact.

He will either become a cliched joke or find his own version of Amal Clooney.

Yes, yes, a thousand times yes, Anon. (BTW, would you like to pick an emoji for future use as an ask tag?)

I do think people don't understand how much benefit he got from having two PR teams, Disney and Megan, cleaning up behind him from 2011-2019. We've already seen the "oopsies" that have started happening once Disney/Marvel dipped out. And now that he's full-blown in the messiness of a mid-life crisis, who knows what else we'll see.

But, I'm not seeing anything over the last couple of days that changed my mind from "situationship" that has PR angles unfortunately attached. I don't think it makes it somehow more special that he coasted up in NYC for some Broadway shows when he's got some filming downtime. If nothing else, to me it just makes it look even more like an arranged meet-up.

#ask #Albagate #🌟💫 Anon

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floof-writes · 1 year

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i love when tragedies are like “the love was there. it didnt change anything. it didnt save anyone. there were just too many forces against it. but it still matters that the love was there”

-Starpeace, tumblr

This isn't my normal type of post, but I just closed my high school's production of 'Puffs, Or: Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic', and I can't stop thinking about it. This show broke me and put me back together and I don't know what to fucking do about it.

I played the role of Megan Jones, and she taught me how to be a person again. Skip straight to the next heading if you just want to know what the hell I'm talking about, otherwise, here's my Love Letter to Puffs: you deserve the world and the world doesn't deserve you, but every person reading this deserves to see this show at least once in their life.

First of all, this show is hilarious. Like, 'laugh until your stomach hurts and you can't breath and you start coughing up your sanity' hilarious. Your abs will hurt after seeing this show and your tear ducts will struggle to keep up with demand. But, despite that, or maybe because of that, it is also heartbreaking. Maybe the best kind, I think. The kind that rips your heart into pieces but then sews it back together, tells you that you have to carry on, but somehow that's worse, because hope hurts more than anything else.

And to see Puffs is one thing, but to be in it?

I don't know what to do or how to feel. For the rest of my life I will have carry this grief nestled next to my soul. The characters have the faces of people I know, and goddamn that makes it so hard to think about but just as hard not to.

I am changed, for this show. I am a different person at the other end of this nine week love-stained, obsessive hell. It found me when I was in a very vulnerable place, only halfway to healing, and picked me up and straight up told me to my Megan's face that I "shouldn't have to be alone"! Told me safety is love and loneliness is a lie we tell ourselves when we hate ourselves too much to see reason. That justice is the only pursuit that brings both self-love and heartache.

Live theatre is a powerful, powerful thing and yes, a professional recording of Puffs is available on Amazon Video and some pretty good bootlegs are up on YouTube, but if this show is open anywhere near you at a local high school, college, or community theatre, then I'm begging you to go see it in person. High school-age actors are uniquely suited to this show so don't let that make you wary!

If anyone, ever, wants to talk about Puffs, I'm more than available. PM me, ask me, tag me in your post. I don't care if you're seeing this post 2 months or 2 years or 10 years from now, if I am still on this hellsite, I will respond.

Go see Puffs. If everyone on this planet did, I think the world would be just a slightly better place.

Okay, hold on, what's Puffs?

Puffs tells us the story of a certain badger-aligned house during the seven years a certain orphan boy wizard attends a certain school of magic, plus ✨it was the 90's✨. If you can't tell, Puffs is technically a Harry Potter parody, and it very intentionally gives JKR no money and is not licensed with Warner Bros. Maybe that's a small part of why it spoke to me so much, because in the simplest terms: Puffs won custody of me in the great JKR/Fandom divorce. I really felt betrayed by JKR's transphobia and treatment of representation issues and this show was a bandaid and a kiss better for my aching, eleven year-old heart.

The story follows the Puff Wayne Hopkins, a young British orphan who was raised by his uncle in New Mexico. Wayne is the nerdiest, 90's-est kid you've ever met and well, as a fan of Star Wars and Dungeons & Dragons and Lord of the Rings, when he gets his school letter he gets this idea in his head that his life is about to become as awesome as that of the average fantasy protagonist. That he's gonna be a hero! Of course, he isn't. That's Harry. It's Harry at every single turn and Wayne and his friends are constantly being screwed over as unmentioned side characters in Harry's world-shattering and school-wrecking life, not to mention that the Puffs are the laughingstock of the school anyway, constantly failing classes and being bullied by the Snakes.

The Puffs work hard to become better but it rarely turns out. I mean, just look at Cedric, who plays a huge role in mentoring Wayne and his classmates the first act. Yikes. As the Puffs grow into their teen-hood it even gets a little spicy (in the hilariously awkward, teenage way), and eventually, they each come to understand that Puffs matter, Puffs are the best, in fact, Puffs are the "Mighty Ducks of wizards. No. The Mighty Ducks 2 of Wizards!"

#I attempted the ADHD easy reading formatting btw #that's why the colors and italics are so overboard #puffs or: seven increasingly eventful years at a certain school of magic and magic #live theatre #theatre #acting #high school theatre #character work #puffs the play #puffs #megan jones #wayne hopkins #cedric diggory #harry potter

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basslinegrave · 7 months

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fnaf movie expectations

ngl i dont think the fnaf movie is going to be like amazing or anything, im just gonna be happy if its fun and watchable, i can even enjoy "bad" movies and like i never thought blumhouse would make it a 10/10, 8/10 at most but if its like a 6 its still fine by me. like when i heard its by bh i had my doubts it will be any good, then they made megan which kinda raised my expectations but its still bh... aaaand i feel like keeping it PG was a good idea because i feel like adults will generally dislike it, teens will be too snarky and hate it because its cool to hate, but kids will love it and bring in the money and open the door to more possibilities

i would also watch a random flick of springtrap just mauling people or the fazgang being cute so this movie having at least a bit of coherent lore is just a plus. yeah it would be better if it was more scary but to me for that you need long quiet passages, and with a movie like this where you need to tell a story i dont think its that possible... and relying on jumpscares again without the entire og fnaf game vibe is hard, they just wont be scary, which is fine by me

as for blood, yeah id love it to be bloody, i currently have no idea what the movie is gonna be like because i heard they toned it down and hid a lot but also that they showed a lot, the rating i saw said bloody violence or something like that so i honestly have no idea, but i expect that one bloody handprint at most

now i do appreciate artsy gore or the way the games handle it so i dont mind at all, BUT if we ever see actual springtrap in the future, i want him to be super gory otherwise it wont do (if he looks like burntrap im in) but im worried if thats a route theyre gonna take, i cant really imagine matthew crawling around in a rotting springtrap suit... i will see if that changes after seeing him as spring bonnie but idk how fast he will be in that thing because springtrap is extremely fast. watching the movie for him

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divorcingjimmatthews · 1 year

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okay so my mari/kristi/kenny thoughts !! s2e7 spoilers

god i never wanted to give a fictional character a hug and a break as much as i do kenny. rewatching s1 reminded me that this is the guy that was already on the edge BEFORE he actually lost his dad. the night before finding his dad ripped apart by the night creatures he actually said "i can't find any more dead bodies", talking about lauren and megan. and the day AFTER finding his dad ripped apart by those creatures he has to babysit a guy he hates so he won't get himself killed because he thinks it's all a fucking escape room. this is how things START OUT for kenny and they just get worse from there. in s1 at least he had kristi. they were so cute guys. the way they hug and were there for each other... damn. that's a precious pair if i've ever seen one. and he had boyd. he had his trust in boyd. we know how that went.

now he's just like. how much more can one poor sweet bean lose? i was happy to see him and kristi finally talk but it hurt how that went. kristi was disappointed that mari being back changed things between her and kenny, and i get it, but how could it not? marielle got all her attention from the moment she arrived, and that's completely normal, but kenny has obviously been missing the comfort of their relationship (be it romantically or platonically—they've barely interacted since marielle got there).

the way he's desperately trying to keep kristi from putting herself in danger after all the deaths he's already seen... imo he's being completely reasonable. what she and boyd were doing was so dangerous, i think i would have acted like kenny even when i think that kristi was right to want to do the autopsy. the fact that he showed up to help in the end... my heart is so full. heart full of kenny. that's me rn. but i feel really bad for him because i feel like his network of support is definitely shrinking. most of the characters have made new connections since the start of s1 while kenny is more like desperately trying not to lose all of what he originally had and failing.

hell, even the most antisocial characters are making new meaningful connections. kenny is just losing everything. he needs people to lean on because right now i feel like he's just giving a lot more than he's receiving. he's holding on to kristi and boyd when they're not making him a priority and it hurts me. at least he has his mom but :'( it all just hurts. the way everyone stared at him when he broke sara's snowglobe too like he was a bad guy... protect my boy. protect him. he needs all the love help and hugs okay? okay???? good.

now as for mari—i really do like mari. i think she's in a really bad place rn and i'm glad that they addressed that kristi didn't realise that she was going through withdrawal which is a very serious medical situation. it was really sweet to see kristi comforting her but i feel like the relationship is kind of uneven. mari seems to feel bad that kristi needs to take care of her and i get her. kenny and kristi felt more like mutual support but then again, we are seeing mari at her lowest point. she's helping out a lot actually even in her state and that's pretty badass. i think she also can probably benefit from connecting with other people, though she's just got here so it makes sense that she's always with kristi. maybe she and jade can be buddies later on. i know what you're thinking—you can't just throw jade at people thinking that'll fix them. well i can and i will, dear reader. i can and i will.

#epix from #kenny liu (from)#kenny (from)#from (epix)

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knovesstorytelling · 1 year

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Nature of Knoves - March 2023

Hello and welcome to the March Knoves update! How is everyone doing now that winter is slowly losing its grip on us and spring is on its way? The fields near my home are full of dandelions and it's just so wonderful to see colour again.

Before I update you on show specific changes I thought I would let you all know about some company changes being made. We are currently going through some rebranding and resifting of company structure, because of this we will not be taking any money on for a couple months due to a few legal changes that are being made. This means we will be freezing the Patreon and Redbubble for some time.

This does not stop us from releasing content. We appreciate your patience with us whilst we sort this out.

So let's go through the updates of our shows one by one.

Morland PI

Morland PI Season One has been released in full, and not only that, we hit 1000 listeners today! That's amazing, imagine that, 1000 separate listens of this Podcast! Our next goal for this show is to reach 2000 listens and have season two recorded by the end of June. I think we can do it, especially with our cracking show runner May Toudic - seriously she is a beast.

SQUISHH

Squishh took a slightly unplanned hiatus. With Christmas, jobs, new projects, and just the general need for self care we had to take a little unplanned break to recuperate our energies. We are working on bringing Squishh back soon, with new episodes about Queerness and Disability hosted guesting the amazing Maddie Cooper, along with an episode on asexuality in the Stormlight Archive.

Rihamtheria - DND

We have been slowly recording episodes for this fun new DnD podcast - however due to the nature of DnD being longer format, each episode is a beast to edit. We are plugging through to get this ready for a big fun release.

Murray Mysteries

Murray Mysteries has hit 69k listens (noice). We are also going to be talking about Murray Mysteries at the Aberdeen WarWORD festival in a special panel about adaptation - From page to wave: making audio drama adaptations.

It has been scheduled for Saturday 30th September, 3-4pm at Aberdeen Central Library. You can find a link to the website here. The panel will have show runner May Toudic, voice of Lucy Westenra - Megan John, and voice of Mina Murray - Drew Frankie Victorie.

That's all from us for now! Please don’t hesitate to reach out, we love hearing from you! You can find us on Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram.

Stay safe,

— Knoves HQ

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gogandmagog · 1 year

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thus further confirming my opinion of you as the person with the Most Correct TM Montgomery opinions, I saw your ff.net bio that the superior AoGG tv show is the PBS one and that you have everlasting beef with Kevin Sullivan---SAME. When he nails it, he really nails it (I think all of his stories have more charm than any of the new shows) but also some of the choices he made...sir....I simultaneously want to shake that man's hand and also make him answer for his crimes. On that note, if you could have a faithful adaptation of any of other Anne books like the PBS show, which would you choose? (we don't talk about the continuing story in this household)

Are you me????

KEVIN SULLIVAN is basically a full-on level-nine cuss word in this household. And I’m pretty sure it’s a cuss in Megan Follows’ household too. If Kevin Sullivan has a million haters, I’m one of them. If he has 1,000 haters, I’m still one of them. If he has 1 hater, it’s me. If he has 0 haters, it’s because I’m dead. ‘An iron has entered my heart.’ You surely never asked, but you have to let me tell you... when I say it’s on sight with this man!

Certainly, the first mini-series he did was a film masterpiece! Casting was on point (I used to google ‘Jonathan Crombie wife’ when I was eight, and get this rush of relief when it said he was unmarried and just be all like YES HE’S STILL SINGLE, and be all YEAH BUDDY I know why too, it’s so obviously because he hasn’t met me yet! Haaaa, fast forward to growing up, and catching on to all the musical theatre and then being like oooooh), the scenery was so lush and gorgeous, and there was hardly a single line that strayed from the books. 10/10, chef’s kiss, all the heart eye emojis imaginable.

The Sequel? Like... okay, we’re sliding downward, because we’re missing out on some wonderful, imaginative, sometimes hilarious Montgomery characters. Ginger the Parrot, Mr. Harrison overall, the AVIS, Paul Irving and Miss Lavendar. Charlotta the Fourth. We miss out on Phil Gordon, and Stella, and Pris! And maybe worse, now Gilbert is given actual Theodore Laurence lines. Literally word for word from the original Little Women film (Sullivan didn’t even try to change it), same proposal, and I could almost stomach it if I hadn’t been a book reader, knowing that the real, shining, sweet Gilbert only met with rejection with grace and kindness, instead of a cold “I hope he breaks your heart.” Those suit Laurie just fine, because Little Women readers know that Laurie is a spoilt trust-fund baby with some super not-cute anger issues (issues totally downplayed in every production, to make him more likeable). And the cherry on TOP, man, was this absent-father (tbh, it’s giving weird 19th century sugar daddy), one old enough to be Anne’s own father, being cast as a Roy Gardner replacement. But in the end, we get some beauty, too. I loved seeing John Blythe and Marilla’s interactions, I loved how Rollings Reliable was done, and even the matter of Dolly the jersey-cow, even I loved that Anne went to Gilbert in the height of his illness. So I could forgive much, on account of that! 8 out of 10.

UNTIL two things happened

First, of course, is the Continuing Story. I have never been so affronted by a movie in my liiiiife, lol. Total L. It quite sincerely achieved something that I did not think was possible in that it made me not like Anne. Utter character assassination. (I realize that by this point, LMM’s family was disinterested in working with Sullivan after the mess he made of the Sequel. Which was fair, for them. I get that, and support that for them.) Jack was a goofy, philandering dudebro, and his whole ‘international spy’ arch was so contrived and cheesy. It fell so flat. And the sheer notion that Sullivan sat there and thought, “Yeah, Anne could fall for this guy” is laughable, betraying instantly that he doesn’t understand her as a character. BUT OH WAIT, we can’t forget that Anne, whose kind doctor husband is out there risking his life while saving the lives of others in the middle of a world war... ACTUALLY engages in an emotional affair with this man. She slapped him when he published their book without her name. But what does Jack get, when he says, “Your husband is probably, most likely dead... but on the flip side, now WE can be together”? NOTHING. Anne hugs him. Pfft. PFFFFT. BE SO FASTIDIOUSLY FOR REAL. I get so mad when I think about it, lol. The whole movie just screams “male gaze” to me, because Kevin Sullivan is so incapable of seeing and realizing or transmuting the Montgomery magic. Best part of the whole thing was when Jack was shot. I felt nothing. I give this whole production .5 stars, because we did get a couple cute deleted scenes, lol.

The second thing that happened that took back all my Sullivan forgiveness was watching lengthy and/or recent (within the last five years) Megan Follows interviews. I learned so much! She doesn’t speak to Sullivan anymore, but she mentions the Continuing Story often enough, and that she had to fight Sullivan, because he wanted Anne to kiss Jack. THANK GOD she was successful. Megan’s also noted for saying that the reason the first series was such a success was because Sullivan had ‘help’ and basically nothing to do with the script. (Bonus reason to despise this man, in case we needed more: Megan mentioned that they filmed three separate endings to the first series, because Sullivan wanted Anne to hit Gilbert for giving up the Avonlea school for her. I… I can’t.) When Sullivan was approached about making a sequel, he said he read all the remaining books and thought, keep in mind this is REAL quote, “Gee, no thanks!” He goes further and says that the thought basically they were dull, and that he wanted to do his own version. Could you be more short sighted??? Again, to me, this just proves that this man places no value on quiet, lovely, non-noisy (if that makes sense) stories that are centered in the home, and around women. I think it’s that same interview where we learn also that Kevin based Morgan Harris on his own father, who was something like apparently 25 to 30 years senior to Sullivan’s mother. And that? Was the sound of my last Sullivan-tolerant--nerve breaking into a million pieces, lol. HOW DARE YOUUUU, Sir.

I AM SO SORRY THIS IS LONG. 😭

All this to say, lol, that Kevin Sullivan does not deserve your hand shake! You are too wonderful, and thoughtful, and so insightful, and that man doesn’t get up to your ankle! He deserves no less than a life sentence in literary jail.

BUT BUT BUT, to answer the question… I struggle. I would be happy with any, to be fully honest. But if I got to pick, and they said “you can only have one” I’d be flipping a three-sided coin between Anne of the Island, House of Dreams, and Rilla. 🥺 We could skip Windy Poplars easily (sorry Rebecca Dew, and Katherine-with-a-K), even though if I won the lottery, I’d personally pay for start-to-finish-by-the-book production. HOW ABOUT YOU?

#curious about your ‘Anne with an E’ thoughts #I suspect they might be similar to mine #SORRY that was so much to read #Kevin Sullivan non-fan club #roy gardner > morgan harris #when did gardner become gardiner anyway #I’ve seen it canonly both ways #probably going to dream about walter tonight #that cherub #fave Blythe baby tbh #RANK THE BLYTHE KIDS #lol

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nhlovesadri3 · 9 months

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Adriana Lima Feels 'Celebrated' by Victoria's Secret After Having a Baby at 41: 'It's Uplifting' (Exclusive)

Lima, who was the longest running Victoria's Secret Angel from 2000 to 2018, tells PEOPLE that fashion right now feels hopeful for the "new models coming up"

Victoria’s Secret has entered a new era and Adriana Lima is thrilled to be along for the ride.

The iconic model, who has worked with the brand for years as one of their most famous "Angels," tells PEOPLE that she’s “celebrating” this new time for the brand not just because it’s exciting for the retailer to move into an inclusive space but also because it’s an exciting time for fashion.

“I feel that as a woman, and still being in fashion — I’m 42 years old and a mom with five kids, so I feel that I’m still being celebrated in this stage of my life,” she tells PEOPLE at an event in honor of Victoria’s Secret’s upcoming The Tour event. “It’s great to see that no matter what stage you are [in life], for my kids and the new models coming up, it’s uplifting.”

This new direction for Victoria’s Secret kicked off in 2019 when the famous Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show was canceled following complaints of a lack of body diversity on the runway.

In 2021, the retailer launched the VS Collective, aimed to drive the brand more toward what women want. At launch time, the lingerie retailer's VS Collective featured Priyanka Chopra, Megan Rapinoe and many other "accomplished women who share a common passion to drive positive change," Victoria's Secret announced in a press release.

Shortly after the VS Collective announcement, the brand further pushed for change by removing Angel displays from stores and moving away from the iconography.

Starting in summer 2021, stores moved to displays of mannequins of all shapes and sizes and brighter lighting and pale pink walls that would feel "more inviting for women to enter," Victoria's Secret's EVP and head creative director, Raul Martinez, told Page Six at the time.

Since then, Victoria’s Secret has continued to move toward a more inclusive model, showing more body diversity in campaigns and working with plus-size models and consultants, including Remi Bader. The TikTok influencer partnered with VS Pink last year to help keep the brand accountable and true to size and continues to be a voice for inclusivity.

With Victoria’s Secret The Tour, which will stream on Prime Video on Sept. 26, the fashion show will make a return, but in a new format and in a new way. Many of the models who stomped the runway in years past will return, though it won’t be a live, traditional runway as we once knew it. Instead, the feature film was shot in various cities around the world and truly celebrates fashion and art.

The film will focus on 20 innovative global creatives who curated fashion collections from Bogota, Lagos, London and Tokyo.

The group, which consists of all types of creators including filmmakers, artists, fashion designers, choreographers and body artists, will "conceptualize, produce, and stage a collection that is all their own" alongside custom Victoria's Secret designs, the brand shared in a press release.

The artists will create alongside each other in different "houses" based on location and the film will follow their journeys and showcase the final results.

Lima, who is no stranger to a Victoria’s Secret runway, tells PEOPLE that this experience doesn’t even compare to her past shows — it was a whole other world.

“The whole experience is different for everybody,” she says before a preview clip of the show was shown to the room — introduced by Naomi Campbell and Gigi Hadid. “The fashion show itself is going to be totally different form — not the usual runway as you think. There will be a runway, there will be a walk, but there will be parts where fashion designers, poets and musicians will be celebrated, and they will have a freedom of expression for whatever talents they have. So I'm excited to see that.”

#Adriana Lima #llink #interview #vsfs 2023 #vs #tour #goddess #angel #gorgeous #2023

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moontheoretist · 2 years

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Third look at She-Hulk:

- Again, the episode is shorter than other Marvel shows so far.

- I like the whole "she was hated online by men" angle, because this is literally what is happening now, so it is kinda funny that the show is representing what is happening in real life as we speak, and that scene sparked even more hostile dudebro comments like this. And the true kicker of that scene is that those comments ARE REAL. Those are things that real, living, breathing men in real life wrote online about female superheroes. There are a few projects led by women, that in comparison to how many movies there were with male leads before, and men throw a fit and act as if universe was erasing them when 20% of the shows is with female leads, while 80% is still with white male leads. Like seriously, it's like someone having 99% of the cake, while you are having that 1% and them complaining you got anything at all, or that you are "stealing the cake" if someone tries to give you a slice bigger than 1%.

- "I don't have problem with female heroes, just make your own". Same argument was said about queer heroes and POC heroes or any character in any universe tbh, and our response is always the same "We make our heroes, but you ignore their existence and make them all flop and then weaponize that flop to say that "this is a proof why we should not get any". The legacy of a hero being given to a character that is not a white man is not changing the character, it is a continuation of the big legacy trusted upon the new generation, nobody would have a problem with it if all new generation was full of whitey boys. Changing Iceman's sexuality is not taking away, either, because men like him EXIST in real life. Men who thought they were straight all their lives only to discover they were the fuck not and were just so deep in the closed that they didn't realize it, but still acted out to affirm their straightness out of subconsciously perceived difference they knew existed in them all along. We have Black Panther, Storm, and a few other minority heroes that are original, and they don't get as much love as they should, because of fucking racism or queerphobia or any other bigoted bullshit originating from the concept of otherness. I literally saw comments when Black Panther movie came out in my own fucking country that "they are now making movies about monkeys"... we cannot make our own things, because you take it away from us, you review bomb it, you do not pay attention to it, you don't love it, and you make it all get erased, forgotten, cancelled and NOT because it was worse made than yours. The reason is that you just treat those stories as lesser because of WHO they are about. So shut up y’all.

- Ugh, Dennis is a fucking exoticism fetishist. He hated on Jen, because they worked together, but the moment he sees a hot BLACK woman he goes fully "what a nice lady that is" as if it didn't have all the wrong connotations. She is beautiful, doesn't mean you have a chance, Dennis. Hell, I would flip the table and dance on the windowsill if Mallory dated Jen instead. That would be neat.

- Shape-shifter Light Elf from New Asgard? Where is this lady? Can I meet her? Who is Megan Thee Stallion? *googles* Oh, OH! What a wonderful celebrity lady. Also black. WTF Dennis, we see your type you piece of shit. Also, the audacity to think that a woman like this would ever look at him in any other way than neutrality or disgust is astounding. MEN LOL. And Jen laughing at him is relatable. I wanted to laugh in his face too, like seriously. This is hilarious.

- Wong became irresponsible. Maybe it is not that Stephen was like this? Maybe it is just the thing that comes with the job of being the Sorcerer Supreme? It certainly starts to look like it. Throwing Blonsky into Mirror or Shadow Dimensions... really, Wong? xD

- That elven lady? Priceless. The scene in which it is shown that Pug would never harass women in the workplace, because only impostor would say he did like it, not cool. Anybody can be the harasser and a weak ass excuse like "you know me" doesn't cover it, but the image of an elven old granny really solidifies the idea that "oh, no nice man could do it". They can. They would. You cannot really judge basing on looks or personality at all. Even ill-mannered people like Bruce Banner could turn to be harassers in real life, because it is not based on someone's goodness, image or any trait of them as people. It is based on how they view the world, and how they view themselves in that world (above), and where they view women in it (below).

- Lol, she was not rejected by the Avengers. Who makes up those rumors? Some absolute asshole, that’s for sure.

- Oh, yeah. I assumed soulmates was a genderless term, but in MCU it means "he has seven women waiting for him and billing his vacation after the jailtime". Why, I am not surprised that Emil Blonsky would somehow manage to seduce / lead astray 7 fine ladies?

- I seriously laughed so hard when the judge told Runa - the elven lady that "Thor's motivational speeches are not admissible in court" xD Even music cut abruptly, as if loosing all wind in the sails xD She has very chaotic Loki energy and holly shit I needed this in my life!

- Real life She-Hulk scene in a nutshell: Judge: You know Mr. Wong that you have committed a crime? Wong: I must go. Bye.

- Anonymous lawyer? Really Jen? I bet it would not end like this even without you being a Hulk. There are too many cases to just not land any superhero case in a normal office.

- Oh no. No "taking away powers" idea. JEN, YOU WERE BETTER IN THE CARTOON! EMBRACE YOUR HULKNESS! DON’T DO THIS!

- OMG, because she is a woman, Newscaster is only interested in her name and her diet. I thought they will be asking about the case she was leading? But, well, what did I expect from men? This is a great scene. Shows how women are treated in media even when invited.

- "Did you guys rob Asgardian construction worker?" PRICELESS. COMPLETELY DESTROYED THE WRECKING CREW, OMG XDDDDD Also, they wanted her blood? Who is the boss? Cliffhanger!

- That postcredit scene... I dunno what to think about twerking She-Hulk. I am too stunned to think anything. She is the fun lawyer, but also why twerking? They could be rapping instead!

#she-hulk #she-hulk episode 3 #she-hulk episode 3 spoilers #jennifer walters

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jaassmmmiinne0420 · 1 month

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Here’s my story from wattpad hope you enjoy it 🩷

I've been reading a lot of Dolan twin stories and, since i'm a fan of the Vampire Diaries, you'll notice references to the show; that's why they may seem familiar

Hi my name is Emily Ruiz I live in New Jersey, I'm 18 years old and a senior in high school. As an only child, I often am home alone because my mom, a travel nurse, and my dad, a pilot, are frequently away for work.

A little about myself: I'm 5'4 with brown eyes, glasses, and brown, mid-to-long hair, plus a sprinkle of faint freckles on my face. My body is fair; I'm not too skinny but do have a little belly. I have fair skin and enjoy parties now and then, but i'm mostly a homebody and a total movie fanatic. I love all kinds of music— a good song is a good song to me. I sometimes wish i had a sibling but my best friends Rosa and Megan are like family. We've been inseparable since the 3rd grade.

They Meet

I can't believe it's finally my senior year! It's such a bittersweet feeling -- I'm totally ready to be done with school, but it also feels like just yesterday I was heading off to my first day of first grade. But anyway, I've been debating whether to dress cute or comfortable since, unfortunately, I still have to go to school. I've decided on a plain black semi-cropped shirt with some olive green cargo pants and my trusty black high-top converse. For makeup, I'm keeping it light, totally clean girl aesthetic of me, and I slicked my hair back into a bun. After texting Megan, one of my best friends, to let her know I'm ready, I head downstairs to the kitchen to grab a granola bar and one of those breakfast to go drinks. I hear a honk outside my house it must be Rosa and Megan, my two besties.

*skip car ride*

It's like scene from a movie we all stand together in front of the school. Rosa says, "Well, here we are again," and Megan adds, "Yeah, but this time we're seniors." I chime in, "And we're going to rule the school!" with a laugh. It's so cool that the three of us have four classes together. " Ms. Morgan must have learned from the past three years not to put us in all the same classes" I joke "Yeah given all the times we had to be separated but still kept talking to each other" Megan adds with a laugh. After we say our goodbyes, I head to my first class of the day. While studying my schedule, I accidentally bump into someone. " Oh I'm sor-" i cut off " No trust me it's my fault" he says with a gentle smile "Yeah I had some fault not looking up and all" I playfully say. The bell rings signaling it's time to get to class, " Well I better get going" the stranger says I nod and give him a little smile before I leave as I'm walking away I turn back around to see him still looking at me I face forward I begin to think, who was that?

I get to my first class, trying not to think about the guy I bumped into. I couldn't help but wonder why I've never seen him before. So, I decided to text the girls about it.

Me - Hey guys, you'd never believe what just happened

R🌹- What !?

M🩷- What!?

Me- I just ran into this really cute guy 🤭

M🩷- How cute😗?

Me- Okay, first dibs, and based on looks i'd give him a ... 8.5

R🌹- Em I know it's not any of my business but what about dean?

Dean. My ex boyfriend of two and a half years. We had a challenging relationship, and even though we broke up, we would still talk about getting back together. But this past summer, something changed, and i couldn't stay in that forever

Me- I don't know, I gave up on that. I still love him but i just can't do it anymore.

R🌹- You know i'm just looking out for you i just want you to be happy Em so tell us all about this 8.5 .. based off looks

Me- There's not much to tell. We bumped into each other in the hallway, said sorry and went out separate ways

M🩷 - Well if you see again and we're with you point him out

R🌹- yeah and if we're not try to sneak a picture 🤭

Lunch finally arrived, the girls texted me saying they're in the cafeteria. I texted back saying okay, but I had to use the bathroom. As I walked out of the bathroom, I hear a thud.. please don't tell me I accidentally hit someone with the door, I ran outside to see my victim. He groans while holding his head "Careful with that!" he says " I'm sorry, but what do you have against the door?" I ask as I try to hold in my laughter " Apparently my face" he laughs as I help him off the floor and then I realized it was the guy from earlier this morning "We have to stop meeting like this" I joked, he just looks at me weird " Damn how hard did I hit you?" I asked while touching his head "We met?" he asked confusingly " Yeah we bumped into each other earlier this morning" I say trying to jog his memory. " Hey are you sure you're okay?" I concernedly asked " Yeah I'm just gonna head to the nurse thanks tho" he says as he walks off rubbing his head. I see Rosa and Megan coming my way " Hey Em! Who was that?" Megan asked, I explained what happened and they just start laughing, " But I must've hit him pretty hard because he didn't remember us bumping into each other" I added " I'm not surprised you probably gave that poor guy a concussion" Rosa teased. I roll my eyes as we walk to the cafeteria as we're sitting at our table I can't seem to get this guy out of my mind, I felt bad I kept thinking how he must not like me because of how many times I already hit him and it's barely the first day. School finally ends and I still haven't seen him I genuinely wanted to apologize, the girls and I make our way back to my house we hang our for awhile until they both get called home. We say our goodbyes they leave and I close and lock the door, I head upstairs to my room take a quick shower put on a big t-shirt and shorts and put on a movie and caught myself falling asleep.

Authors Note : Did anyone catch the grease reference 😂 anyways this is kind of my first story hope you guys liked it lmk if y'all want more xoxo J🩷

#fanfic #writing #dolan twins #magcon #vampire diaries #grease

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there-are-always-flowers · 2 months

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Keeping it light...

As shortest month, I didn't read or see too much. Do Revenge was an awesome movie that I feel flew under the radar. I love the pastel color pop throughout the film. It was perhaps too geared toward Gen Z, with it's woke notion of feminism. But it also kind of weaponized that wokeness in a way I really liked. I absolutely LOVED Camila Mendes in this. I feel there was a moment in film where any movie containing a gay character had the sole plot line of being gay or coming out. In Do Revenge there was a fair amount of gay or assumed gay characters and them being gay was just not an issue which was sooooo refreshing.

Speaking of keeping things light... The Fallout has been on my to-watch list since it came out. I watched Megan Park back when she was on Secret Life of the American Teenager. When I learned she was now writing and directing, I was curious. This film deserved all the acclaim it received. Another film that's very much geared toward Gen Z but in a very different way. I loved getting to know Jenna Ortega and Maddie Ziegler as more mature actresses. I thought they did a phenomenal job. Do Revenge and The Fallout remind me why I love young adult stories. The weight of youth can seem be insurmountable, for The Fallout it can even be deadly. And looking back from the perspective of adulthood, I'm able to send love to my younger self. It catches me in all the feels.

Chainsaw Man. I know, I know. This one doesn't seem to go with the others. I've dabbled in amine because my boyfriend enjoys it. We watch Avatar: The Last Airbender, Avatar: Legends of Korra, Attach on Titan, and Chainsaw Man is the latest in my foray. Only a few episodes long, I really liked the storytelling in the show. I struggle with anime because I can't always interpret facial expression, so watching it dubbed really helps. The main character is... funny if not incredibly "down bad." From what I can tell this show does not pass the Bechdel test. Not that it necessarily needs to, but I wonder how many anime-fans are in on how cringy some of the main characters thirst is.

all about love by bell hooks is on so many must-read list. I've heard of bell hooks as such a thought leader on modern day feminism. We read the book for book club and in all honesty. It's didn't hit. hooks says it herself: our society, and especially younger generations can't really see love as the path forward through all the bullshit our world has. It's seems like an over simplification, and I don't think this book convinced me otherwise. I feel love and empathy can go a long way, but the people who most need to feel that love and empathy are the least likely to realize they need to. I suppose change starts at home. But globally speaking, I think things will get worse still before they get better.

Finally, this month I finished 90 Day Fiancé: Season 4. This is the Anfisa season, and Nicole/Azan's first season. I really like watching this show with my boyfriend a) because it's funny, b) because you can really discuss issues that arise on the show and ask how you would navigate that. It can really be healthy in getting to know your own partner. Some general takeaways: if a couple has an arrangement of sugar baby:sugar daddy/mommy, we really have no place to judge that as long a the arrangement is clear. If someone lies about their end of that arrangement THEN we can judge them. Anfisa seemed incredibly clear about what she wanted and needed. Jorge on the other hand was the one lying about his financial capabilities. We have since started two other seasons (Before the 90 Days: Season 4; 90 Day Fiancé: Season 5)

See you next month!

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3rdbogwitch2theleft · 1 year

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Watching The Rings of Power So You Don’t Have To - Episode 5

Welcome back to another episode of “Watching The Rings of Power So You Don’t Have To” where I sit through 8 hours of television to answer the question nobody asked “Is this show fun if you know who Sauron is the whole time?”

This has been sitting in my drafts folder for weeks and tbh I was just going to stop posting these. BUT THEN one of my beloved friends found the Episode 4 post funny so guess who is back babyyy!

Changing up the format a bit. Here’s the 5 powers at play in episode 5

1. The power of a stellar performance.

Megan Richards is absolutely holding it down as Poppy Proudfellow in the Amnesia Gandalf & The Hobbits storyline. She anchors the storyline and she’s just an absolute joy to watch.

2. The power of character development

It sure is hard to care about the Southlanders when the show didn’t establish that any of them except Bronwyn are cool people. It seems like the narrative hates them? I want to like them I want to care that they’re going to get murdered by orcs but the show is either totally ambivalent to them or actively makes the argument that they suck. The only characters we know are

a) Bronwyn (who I genuinely like)

b) her troubled teen Theo (who I also like)

c) Theo’s horrible fellow delinquent friend

and d) Waldreg, an old man who answers the question “What is the Middle Earth equivalent of a senior citizen who loves Fox News?”

Who are the rest of these people??

I desperately want to care and you won’t let me!

There’s also a “we’re doomed by the actions of our ancestors” trope happening here that smacks a little too strongly of Original Sin for my taste. I know I know I know our boy JRR was devout Catholic so I can’t be surprised when I run head first into some dogma. I know but still

3. The power of language

The thing about using flowery poetic language instead of direct and immediate language for high stakes interaction is that the poetry has to be good. If the language is beautiful (and so much the better if there is emotion and urgency in the performance) we’ll listen to entire sonnets when a sentence or two would suffice. How the fuck else do you explain the lasting success of Hamlet? I love the prince of Denmark, but that bitch is loquacious.

However, if your language is mediocre you are sucking all of the life out of your scenes. ELVES I’m talking about the FUCKING ELVES.

4. The power of unresolved sexual tension

This is the engine that powers the whole show. 🚂 Choo Choo! 🚂

I really like the forge confrontation scene they have in this episode. I think it’s genuinely interesting from a character perspective. It’s certainly one of the places the show feels the most thematically consistent, the “sometimes you have to touch the darkness to know which lights to follow” of it all.

There is a lot I like about it so I’ll just share one thing to keep it brief.

Galadriel gets to be a little unhinged which I’m all about. Halbrand/Sauron pushes her to admit why she can’t stop “fighting” aka hunting him (very fun)

Galadriel *thousands of years of bloodlust in her eyes*:

Because I cannot stop!

Halbrand/Sauron:

This scene sets them up as really kindred spirits in a lot of ways and makes the little knife twist of the tragedy that much sweeter. Sauron knows she’s going to reject him when she finds out. He says as much. But they just cannot stay away from each other. Even though one of them knows how it’s going to end and one of them refuses to see those red flags as anything but pretty crimson curtains.

5. The power of good combat

Galadriel has a scene where she’s dual wielding and training the Numenorian new recruits. It’s delightful.

Every time I’m like “you know I think I’m done” they throw in some totally sick choreography and I’m back in at least for the moment.

I wish there was more.

So. Is this show fun if you know who Sauron is the whole time?

My brother in Eru, I could not have gotten through this show any other way.

#bogwitch watches

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reimagine7 · 3 years

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Hot Lifeguard (Emily Sonnett x reader)

My first story. Sorry for any mistakes, english is not my first language. Opened for suggestions.

It was just another day at work. Days like this were one of my favorites. Just a few people at the beach and less people in the water, that is almost the perfect scenario for a lifeguard. Because normally that means no incidents. My shift was almost over, just one more hour and I could go home to prepare for dinner tonight with my girlfriend.

Right now I am sitting at the cabbing along with Josh, my partner for the day.

“No fucking way” I heard Josh yell while loking at something through the glass.

“What? What did you see?” I asked “You’re not going to believe who just arrived at the beach” “Well, if you give me the binoculars I could see by myself.” “There is no need to. Look at the group over there.” He said pointing to a place in the sand “Okay, I’m looking but I’m not getting it.”

Just as I said that I saw a blond girl running a few meters at the sand and trying to do a cartwheel on the sand and failing miserably, ending with her butt at the sand. Yep, now I know of who Josh is talking about.

“Girl, that is the US women’s soccer team, seems like the whole team is in here.” He was really excited “Josh, clean it right here…” (I rubbed my hand on my chin and he copied me) “Why?” He asked, after seeing nothing on her hand “You’re drooling.” “Oh, fuck up.” She pushes me and keeps looking at the team, it wasn’t the whole team but is probably half of the girls.

“Okay, I’m gonna say hi. Do you wanna come?” Josh asked me “You can go, someone has to stay here and actually do the work.” Josh rolled his eyes but got the walktalk. “Fine, I would tell them you say hi, I’m bringing the walktalk” “Go there looser.”

I was just watching a few surfers at the beach, when I looked to my left and saw Josh coming back with the group of girls following him. He gave me a sign for me to come down.

“So Y/n these are the players from USWNT and girls this is Y/n.” “Hi girls, I actually know you all, I’m a big fan, you’re all badasses.” “Thank you. We heard that so was you.” Ashlyn said and Alex followed. “Josh here went to say hi and told us that his coworker was a woman and a badass so we needed to come check out.” “Well, it’s my pleasure to meet you.”

“For how long have you been working here?” Ali asked. “In this part of the beach not much, but as a lifeguard, 10 years.” The girls were shocked “Oh, 10 years? Sorry to ask but how old are you?” “25” “You can be a lifeguard while you’re 15?” “Yes. I was a good swimmer and at a young age I started to learn surfing, I always loved the water. So one day I got the opportunity to be a lifeguard at a waterpark near home, since then I never stopped. And soon as I had enough experience to be a lifeguard at the beach I moved and here I am.” Tobin spoke this time. “So do you also surf?” Before I could answer, Josh interrupted us “Oh yeah, this is almost like an unofficial rule to be a lifeguard, and Y/n is like the best here. Sorry girls, but I’ll go upstairs and check the beach” “Bye Josh, it was a pleasure to meet you.” The girls said and then looked back at me.

“I’m probably not that good, but yes I can surf.” “We would love to see that, it’s a shame you’re at work.” Tobin answered. “Isn’t your shift ending?” Emily spoke this time, I looked at her and the sun was hitting her face, making her blue eyes shine, she is so beautiful. “Yeah, actually. I have probably just one more hour left.”

“So what about you meeting us after it and we can see how good you actually are?” Ashlyn asked me with a smirk. “That is a challenge Ashlyn?” “You can bet on it.” Ali smacks Ashlyn in the back of her head. “Ashlyn, you can’t go out challenging people.” “Just a moment girls.”

I interrupted whoever was saying, as soon as I spotted something on the ocean. I climbed the ladder from the cabin and called for Josh. “Josh!” “Yeah boss!” “Look at the water, 10 o’clock. What do you see?” “There is noth… shit looks like two people. Maybe kids. Go!” I jump in the sand and get the surfboard. “Sorry girls, and it’s a bet Ash.” I ran as fast as I could toward the people, wishing this day could end as good as it started.

As I was getting closer to them I noticed that one of them was a little girl, around 5 years old and the other was a boy around 12 years old. I was going as fast as I could but it looked like it wasn't enough. As I was about to get to them, the boy pushed the girl up, and sank. Fuck!

“Help! Lucas!” I got the girl, put her over the board and tried to find the boy but he didn’t get back up. What should I do? I looked up and saw the girl was using diving glasses. “Can you lend me this? Okay, look, you see these ropes? Hold them as strong as you can and don’t let them go. I’ll get Lucas.”

I know it look like a stupid ideia, let the girl up there by herself, but if I wait for Josh to get here the boy could be dead. So I got in the water and dived trying to find the boy. I surf back up, check with the little girl, get some breath and dive back. I was almost giving up when I felt something on my left leg and when I looked at it was him. So I get his hand and rise back. “Lucas!!” I got back on the board, laid him down and asked for the girl to sit in front of me holding the ropes. He’s unconscious, I need to get to the beach as fast as possible.

I got to the beach and Josh was already there with the equipment and said he had already called an ambulance. I barely got that, the boy was my first priority, I looked up and saw the national team girls were close. “Hey little girl, you see these women over there?” She nodded. “Stay with them, for me to take care of Lucas okay?” She didn’t want to let go of him, must be her brother. Probably noticing my expression, Emily came over and got the girl, she started to scream. But my focus was somewhere else now. The boy wasn’t breathing, so I started the compression. “Come on, come on. Spit the water. Come on Lucas, you can do it.” I must be doing it for like 1 minute, but it felt like an hour, when the boy spit the water. “Good boy. Calm down, you’re safe now.” I put him on oxigen, and the ambulance arrived just in time as he regained consciousness. “Hey boy, what’s your name?” The paramedic asked. “Lucas.” “Hi, Lucas. My name is Daniel and I’m a paramedic and I’m going to help you okay? How old are you?” “12. Where is my sister?” “Hey Lucas, it’s okay, she is over there, stay calm okay.”

I looked back at the girl and went to calm her down. “Hey little girl, how are you?” She came running for my arms. “Lucas?” She asked while crying in my arms. “He is better now, you see? He is talking with the doctors now. Where are your parents sweety?” “Don’t know.” And as it was agreed the mother shows up. “Lucas? Lucy?” “Mom!” The little girl ran to the women's arms. “Where is Lucas?” “Hi Mrs, my name is Y/N. Lucas is over there being taken care of. Do you know what happened?” “No, I told them that I was going to get some water and when I came back they weren’t there so I started to freak out and I saw the comotion here.” They start to take the boy to the ambulance. “Okay, Mrs…” “Grey” “Mrs. Grey, they are taking Lucas to the ambulance right now, they will check on him, he drowned trying to save his sister, I’m going to explain everything to you until we get to the ambulance, can you just pack your stuff? Are you alone here?” “Yes, my husband is at work. And I already packed everything, it is in here.” “Good, come on. And I would like Lucy to have a check up as well, she hasn’t drowned but she could have drunk some water. We don’t want to take risks right?” With that I went up to the ambulance with the mom and then let the paramedics do their job. I hope the kid stays good.

I went back to the post and Josh was there. “What a way to end the shift right?” “Thank god, I found the boy under water. Otherwise it would ruin the day.” “Yeah, and the super boss shows up again to save the day.” “Stop.” “Fine, now get out of here. There are some people waiting for you. Go have some fun.” I had completely forgotten about them, time to go say hi, again.

Emily pov

We were still excited about what just happened at the beach.

“She is totally a badass, she was just talking with us and still caught the kids drowning in the water.” Tobin said. “When she left the girl alone at the board I was like ‘what is she doing?’ and then she just got the boy under water, that was amazing.” Christen said “That’s why she is the boss.” Ali complement.

“Okay, but let’s not forget how hot she is. When she ran toward the water, it was just like we were in Baywatch, and her body. God!” “Kelley!!” “What Linds, is not like you don’t agree with me you were drooling watching her doing her job.” Kelley fought back. “I was not…” Lindsey said pouting, Megan put a hand on her shoulder and said. “Sorry Linds but you totally were. But that’s fine, she is hot as fuck and I think that half of the girls here were drooling, even the “straight” ones”. She intensifies the quotation marks.

Then Christen intervened. “She also looks like a good person, she looks smart, determined and kind. You saw her with the little girl?” “Hey, I don’t have a competition do I?” Tobin protested. “Of course not babe, but she may be good for some other girls here. And watch out cause she is coming here.”

I looked behind me and Y/N was coming over, she had changed off her uniform and was now just in her swimming suit, a backpack and a surfboard. She was more beautiful, if that was even possible and hotter.

“Hey girls, my shift is just over. So I remembered that one of you challenged me on surfing. So I want to know if she is still up to it?” Ash stood up “Oh yeah, game on bitch. Tobs, Kell are you coming?” “Of course, let’s go.” Both of them replied.

Some girls went along with them for the water, others decided to take a walk on the sand and others were just going to lay and get a tan. Before Y/N followed the girls to the water she came near me. “So, beautiful, can I put my stuff here near you?” “I think so.” “Good, you’re not coming?” “Not today.” “Okay, be right back.” She winked at me and left toward the ocean.

I sat back in the sand and just watched her get some waves with the girls, she was stunning. Of course she was winning the challenge, but who cares, everyone was just amazed by her.

I was contemplating her beauty when Moe sat beside me and asked. “So, are you gonna spill the beans?” “There is nothing to spill. Don’t know what you are talking about?” “You sure do. If you do nothing the others will keep flirting with her and who knows what could happen.” I look at her shocked. “It’s in your eyes Sonny.”

An hour later everyone came back from the water and we went to play some footvolley. We paired everyone up and Y/N ended up being my partner. She was amazing at that and we had a lot of fun. She was flirting with me the whole time and I was hoping the girls weren't noticing it.

We stopped playing and were getting ready to leave, when Kelley whispered in my ear. “You better do something girl, she is flirting with you the whole day, everyone noticed. If you don’t do something we will.” “I don’t know what you are talking about.” She just shaked her head and went toward Ash and Tobin, whispered something to them and they went to Y/N.

“So Y/n, we had a lot of fun today and we really wanted to get to know you better. Tell us a little bit more about you.” Tobin asked. “Well, you already know I’m 25 and am a lifeguard. I graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in exercise and sports science. I give surf classes for kids and I’m also a coach for some amatour surfer athletes. And I’m a sports lover.”

“Wait, too much information. You’re a surf coach?” Ashlyn asked incredibly. “Yeah? Sorry but you were the one who made the bet.” “That explains a lot.”

Becky was the one to speak now. “You went to Virginia? That’s awesome me too, so does Moe and Sonnett, but it doesn’t have a beach there.” “Yeah, I know. I took a pause from the beach while I was studying and worked at a waterpark over there.”

“I got a question…” Oh no, Kelley shut up. “Are you single?” With that Y/N wined her eyes and blush a little, she looked at me and then back to Kelley.

“No?” “You don’t seem too sure about that.” Tobin interjected. “I mean, no, I’m not single. But we haven’t told anyone besides family yet, so…” “Wait a second, so you’re not single? Are you sure? I’m way confused right now.” “Yeah, I’m sure. She actually loves soccer, she loves you guys.”

While the rest of the girls started asking other questions for Y/n. Kelley looked at me with a ‘sorry dude’ look. I understand why she was like that, I mean Y/n was indeed flirting with me, everyone was probably confused as to why she was flirting with me if she has a girlfriend. But they were clueless and I was having a lot of fun with it, so I decided to enjoy it a little bit more and so I spoke up.

“Hey Y/N we actually have the whole day off, so we were thinking of hanging out together and going out for dinner. What do you say? Wanna come?” Y/N looked at me with a intrigued look, but agreed either way. “Yeah, I would love to.”

“Your girlfriend would be okay with that?” Ashlyn asked. “Yeah she wouldn’t mind.”

“Maybe you can call her right now and talk to her just to make sure?” I said, Y/n was really confused right now, she was trying to understand what I mean with that. I just nodded and saw a smirk appear on her face. “Yeah, that will be great.” Some girls looked at me, don’t getting what I was doing. Christen added. “And if you want to invite her, you said she was a fan, we can surprise her if you want to” “Of course, it will be fun”.

Y/n got her phone and made the call. “So who is gonna talk?” Y/N look at me and I nod toward Kelley. “O’hara you think you can do it? She would love that?” Y/n asked “Of course. What's her name again?” “Oh, you don’t need that” She looked at her phone and back at me, I gave her a reassuring look as she started to talk.

“Hi babe. So I’m at the beach now, and there are some girls here that want to say hi to you.” She put on speaker for everyone to hear. “Hi. It’s Kelley O’hara here, and you are talking with half of the national team.” Silent went over the line, the girls started looking at each other and Y/n spoke.

“She is probably in shock, can you tell her about the dinner?” “Yeah, so we just asked Y/n if she wants to come to dinner with us and we also would like to invite you, so what do you say?” I waited a moment and answered on my phone. “I would love to, but I thought that as I was the one who made the invitation I was already invited.”

Everyone looked at me and then back to Y/n, they were in shock. Y/n has that stupid smile on her face that I love so much and answered. “That’s good babe, can’t wait.” We just kept looking at each other's eyes. Oh god, I love this girl so much. When Kelley yelled.

“Wait a minute. Why did you call Sonnett?” “Well you asked for me to call my girlfriend. So I did.” Y/n spoke with a smirk on her face “The Emily Sonnett, this girl here is your girlfriend?” “Hey, what do you mean by that? I can’t date a hot girl?”

With that I went to Y/n side, hugged her and she gave me a peck “And you let me, no, you let us, drool over you girlfriend and didn’t say a thing?” I couldn’t get the smile out of my face. “It was funny and I didn’t know yet if she was going to be okay with that.” “That is no excuse, you should have told me, it is not like I was going to tell the world.” Kelley complained and crossed her arms on her chest. “Okay Kelley, less drama. We are happy for you Sonny.” “Thanks Chris, someone here is mature.”

“Wait, does it mean that now we have to give Y/n the shovel talk?” Tobin asked with a serious face. “No!” I protest. “Sorry Sonnett, we have to, it's the team's rules.” Ash responded. “That’s okay babe, I can take it.”

“Fine, but only if Moe gets to be there.” “What? Why? Moe can’t hurt a fly” Becky said. “Because she will make sure you don’t scare Y/n away, she will be on her side.” “Why would she do that?” “Babe you can’t ask Moe that, just because she is my friend.” “Wait, Moe knew?” Kelley said, trying to look hurt. “Way to throw me under the bus Sonny.” Moe complained.

“Of course, she helped me with the plan of asking Y/n out. We studied together, you forgot?” “Of course you were all Cavaliers. That’s it Y/n you are coming with us for dinner, there is no space for debate. We need to see if you are good for Sonnett. Let’s go everyone” With Megan orders everyone start to go back to where the vans were. I got my stuff and I was about to follow the girls, when Y/n pulled my arm.

“Hey hot stuff, I missed you.” She passed her arms over my shoulders and I hugged her waist. “Hi babe, I missed you too. Sorry about doing it without asking you first. But when the girls pulled over and I saw which beach we were at and that you were here, I started thinking about it, and then you were so hot saving the boy, and the girls liked you so much, and they saw you flirting with me, so…” I was interrupted by a kiss. Y/n ’s lips were so soft and rough at the same time. The way she pulls me closer to her and deepens the kiss, I miss her so much.

“That’s okay honey. I loved meeting your teammates.” “What do you say about us skipping dinner? I really missed your lips...” I kissed her lips. “Your neck...” I kissed her neck, and started to touch her body. “I missed all of this, your body is perfect.” She gave a large sigh and pushed me away “Even though I would love to go to our house and make out with you for the rest of the night. I'm sure the girls wouldn’t approve of it. Let’s go, as soon as we get to dinner, sooner you can get this body.” “Nooo, I’m really regretting telling the girls today.” “The good point is that now you don’t have to sneak out anymore, you can always say you are going out with your girlfriend.” “Okay, but one last thing.” I gave her a passionate kiss, until we heard the girls yelling at us from afar. “I love you Y/n.” “I love you too Em. Now let’s go.” We intercalated our hands and walked to where the girls were waiting for us. This night was amazing and now I can say to the world that the Hot Lifeguard is mine.

#uswnt x reader #uswnt imagine #emily sonnett #emily sonnett x reader #woso x reader #woso imagine

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