#also i like that cindy was able to patch things up with her mother and her daughter.. i know she did taystee wrong but | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

curls-cat · 3 years

Text

Who we Grew to Be

HAPPY HOLIDAYS @vertdegrece!!!! You asked for grown up Daphne/Pinocchio, so you got a lot of vaguely purple prose leading up to adult Daphnocchio! I haven’t written for this ship in a while, I forgot that I like it!

also posted on AO3

Daphne and Pinocchio do not grow up together. That would be too easy. Daphne stalls out for a little bit at eleven, when she gets her first zit, but besides that, she grows like any human child: straight through.

Pinocchio, on the other hand, grows in fits and starts. He’s been cursed that way, because the Blue Fairy, his absent mother, takes as much as she gives. All her blessings have a little bit of the monkey’s paw about them, so he only grows as old as he acts, forever cursed to act his own age.

The upshot of this is that they don’t spend much time together in childhood. Daphne is much closer to Red, who grows at the same pace she does. Pinocchio, too, is closer to Red. They live in the same house, after all. And Red may be aging at the same pace as her best friend, but she’s got a sort of ageless quality about her that makes it easy for Pinocchio to spend time with her no matter how different their ages are, physically.

Oh, they see each other nearly all of every summer, when Henry and Veronica pack up their rarely-used car to make the drive up from NYC to Ferryport Landing, towing their children with them. Summers are nice. Daphne likes summer, when she has her whole family together in Granny’s newly-renovated ramble of a house for two entire months. Even Puck and Uncle Jake are nearly always there.

But they don’t hang out. Daphne out-ages Pinocchio for the first two years, the growing difference between seven and nine not nearly as much of an impediment as Pinocchio’s snobby brattishness. Then he makes a leap forward, catching up and almost outstripping her to ten. They leapfrog their way through childhood, only matching up briefly every few years. Then he makes a final jump from sixteen and moody to somewhere much closer to twenty, and he’s off to university while Daphne is still sixteen herself, and he throws himself into the kind of universities that he now looks old enough to be a student at.

Sixteen is a weird time. They’re the same age, for once, and they’re together in Granny’s house, for the last time, it’ll later turn out. Pinocchio spends a lot more time with her than usual, but he’s grumpier than he’s been since he was ten, demanding her attention one minute and then scoffing at her the next. Sabrina rolls her eyes and tells him to get his act together, but she’s mostly too busy hate-flirting with Puck to explain what she means, even though she gives Daphne knowing looks whenever pressed.

Then Granny dies, and Daphne’s family shatters.

Puck and Uncle Jake disappear to opposite corners of the globe. Sabrina and Pinocchio go back to school and if Daphne didn’t drag her sister home over the weekends, she’d never see her. Her parents start fighting, both of them either at work or at home but not present. Mr. Canis is so heartbroken that Red is spending all her time, nearly, with him, trying to make him eat or sleep or smile. Basil is furious and heartbroken by turns, begging Daphne for hugs one moment and screaming at her the next. Daphne feels like she’s alone, pulling at a dozen different strings that are all tied to people running as hard as they can in opposite directions. Like she’s being drawn and quartered by her own grief, by her own desire to keep her family together.

It doesn’t come to a head at any one point. It’s several smaller heads, a million little breaks, separate scenes where Daphne begs each of her family members to come back to her one by one. Most of them do. Puck and Pinocchio don’t.

And she gets it. She knows, from the way Mr. Canis and her dad look at her sometimes, that she’s the most like Granny out of all of them. She’s got her grandmother’s righteous indignation and need to help everyone, her rigid moral compass that even she knows is a little shy of true north, her big, enormous heart. Of course it’ll hurt to come back to her. Of course it’ll be like looking at the little imperfect shadow of the woman they’ve lost, the woman who loved them when nobody else would.

It doesn’t make her any less furious at them. And, for a year or two, she’s almost glad they’ve stayed away, her hurt turning into anger.

Fast forward again, to Sabrina’s wedding. By this point, Pinocchio has sort of been back in her life, by virtue of being back in Red’s life. He’s halfway through a doctorate in history, and Daphne’s learned through Red that he wants to get more, in anthropology and archaeology, among other things. He wants to get all the doctorates, from the sound of it.

Sabrina’s wedding goes strangely. Daphne may have meddled a little bit. Just a tiny, tiny bit. But it’s not her fault Sabrina kept moping about Puck. It was super obvious. And Bradley’s a nice guy and all, and Daphne knows Sabrina loves him, but it’s not gonna be a happy marriage if they don’t at least get all the Puck baggage out in the open. So she meddles. Finds Puck, pulls him out of his five-year mope, and throws him at the wedding.

It’s a mess, obviously. There’s a huge scene at the wedding, it sort of falls apart, a lot of forgetful dust has to be spread around. At the end of it, Daphne’s left standing, exhausted, with an empty bag of forgetful dust, watching the last of the guests leave. Or, at least, she thought it was all the guests.

“Are you cleaning up as penance?” someone says behind her, in an absolutely gorgeous voice.

“Come again?” She turns, and there’s Pinocchio, in all his dark academia glory. He’s grown into his nose, though it’s still a striking centerpiece to his face.

“For turning your sister’s wedding into a fiasco,” he clarifies. “I assume that was you.”

“Maybe,” she says, trying for teasing. It comes out a little more flirtatious than she meant it. What? He’s cute, okay?

“How—how have you been?” Pinocchio asks.

He could’ve asked her that any time in the past five years. Any time. She’s honestly kind of surprised he came to the wedding. She will not give him the cold shoulder, though. She won’t. She’s better than that now.

“I’m all right,” she says. “In college. You?”

“Also in college,” Pinocchio says. He gives her a small smile.

She smiles back. It’s all very awkward. She starts gathering up wedding decorations.

“I, uh,” Pinocchio says after a minute. “I think I owe you an apology.”

Damn right he does. She doesn’t say that, though. She does look at him expectantly.

He rubs the back of his neck awkwardly, not making eye contact. “After—Well. You know. I shouldn’t have run away like that. I was hurting, and spending time around anyone who knew your grandma just made me think about how much I hurt. So I ran away. And that wasn’t fair. Because you were all hurting, too, and I know you, especially, wanted everyone to stay close.”

“Very nicely said,” Daphne approves. “Did Red coach you on it?”

“Only a little,” Pinocchio admits. “But I mean it. All of it.”

“All right,” Daphne says. And she takes a deep breath, the way she’s been practicing with Cindy, and she lets the anger go. “I forgive you. But only if you’re done hiding.”

“I am,” he says, and he smiles at her.

They keep in contact after the wedding. Pinocchio still has a tendency to bury himself in books and forget about other humans, but if she texts him, he’ll text back the same day. Usually. She tells him about the weird things going on between Puck, Sabrina, and Bradley. Occasionally he’ll send her an unprompted message ranting about something she has only the vaguest understanding of. She’ll patch it together across the pages her phone’s divided it into and have wikipedia open for reference as she reads. They go out for coffee at least once a month, sometimes with Red, sometimes without her.

Daphne refuses to ask him for help with her homework. Getting a degree in social work requires a lot more of the hard sciences than she’d anticipated. It’s frustrating, but it’s worth it. She’s gonna be able to help people, when she’s done with this. Everafters and humans alike. Oh, Sabrina’s got her child advocacy law thing going on, and that’s great, but Daphne’s determined to help people before they get to the point where the courts have to get involved. And she’s not going to do it by depending on Pinocchio for help. She can do this on her own.

But as she moves from her bachelor’s to the postgrad degree it’s apparent she’s going to need if she wants to actually get a, y’know, job in her field, she does start complaining to Pinocchio more. They’re at the same university, Pinocchio now well into an anthropology degree, so they hang out at the library pretty often, their noses buried in separate books or laptops.

Pinocchio’s funny. She’d forgotten about that, or never really learned it. He’s got a dry sense of humor, and he’s sarcastic like you wouldn’t believe. He’s fun to be around.

“I had a crush on you, you know,” he tells her one day, apropos of nothing, as he stretches in his chair, taking a break from whatever he’s working on right now.

“What?” Daphne pauses, not sure she’s heard him right. She’s been pretty intent on putting together a case study review.

“When we were, oh, sixteen or so,” Pinocchio says. It’s too casual to be anything but feigned. He knows exactly how old they were. “G-d, you were so—friendly. Overwhelmingly so.”

“Am I not friendly anymore?” Daphne asks, but she’s teasing. Friendly. What a reason to get a crush on someone!

“Nope,” Pinocchio teases right back. “Downright unpersonable. I must be rubbing off on you.”

“If Sabrina couldn’t turn me into a grouch, you’re definitely not gonna manage it,” Daphne says with an easy grin. “This new ‘unpersonable’ thing is all me, baby.”

“The world has worn on you,” Pinocchio says with a melodramatic sigh. “You’ve finally lost your childlike joy.”

“Only took twenty-three years,” Daphne says with a grin. The conversation dies for a minute, then Daphne brings it back. “Why bring it up now?”

Pinocchio shrugs. “I was just thinking about it. Thinking about back then. It was nice. I miss it.”

“You barely talked to me!” Daphne says with a laugh.

Someone two tables over glares at her, and she gives them an apologetic wave and a smile.

“I was shy!” Pinocchio protests. “I didn’t know how to talk to someone I liked! Let alone someone who was in my house the whole summer!”

“Fair enough,” Daphne agrees. “I hope you know this is teasing fodder for forever, though.”

“Oh no,” Pinocchio says, deadpan again. “What will I ever do. You’ve never teased me before in my life. I don’t think I can handle it.” He pauses, then says, “You don’t seem surprised. That I liked you.”

“What can I say?” Daphne winks at him. “Nobody can resist my charms.”

“Fair enough,” Pinocchio says, giving her a shrug. Then he goes back to studying.

Time passes. Daphne graduates, can’t get a job through normal channels, but gets herself employed working for Faerie. Pinocchio teases her about nepotism, but listen. If there were anyone else qualified, she wouldn’t need to do this job. She and Pinocchio don’t spend all their time together in the library anymore, but they do meet up for lunch, and dinner, and sometimes breakfast. Someone has to make sure he remembers to eat, after all.

Several months into seeing each other nearly every day, by choice rather than by ease, something occurs to Daphne.

“Are we dating?” she asks.

Pinocchio chokes a little. “What?”

“Are we dating?” she repeats, emphasizing each word a little more clearly.

“How would we be dating?”

“We see each other almost every day,” Daphne starts, ticking her points off on her fingers as she goes. “We go out to dinner together, just the two of us. We watch movies together. We hang out in each other’s apartments. I text you almost as much as I text my brother and sister, and more than I text Red. When I have news, you’re the first person I want to tell. You leave your little nerd fort to hang out with me.”

“I mean—” Pinocchio splutters. “You’re— Dating usually involves a certain amount of intent, doesn’t it?”

Well, yeah, okay, there’s that. But Daphne’s stumbled into relationships before, only realized what they were partway through. Love is messy like that. But, well. Pinocchio likes things to be clearly labeled. People don’t come naturally to him the way they do to her.

“Would you like this to be dating?” she asks.

“Would you?” he counters, still spluttering and blushing.

Would she?

She thinks about all the things she listed, about how she wants to spend time with him, about the way he’s comfortable. About his dry sense of humor, about his stupid handsome face, about the way, every time she sees him she’s struck, a little, by the sight. About how it makes her heart beat faster. She’d put it down to his being one of the hottest men she’s ever seen, but that should probably have worn off sometime in the past few years, right?

“Yes,” she decides. She would like to date him.

“Oh,” Pinocchio says. His blush deepens.

He says nothing else for a long minute, and Daphne starts blushing too. “If you don’t—I mean, I—listen. It doesn’t. I’ve gotten crushes on friends before. If you don’t want to date me, that’s fine. It doesn’t have to change anything. We can forget this whole conversation!” Because she’d rather keep his friendship than anything else.

“No!” Pinocchio rushes in. “No, that’s not—I just—I mean—” he’s stumbling over her words, now, the two of them talking over each other to explain themselves, when he says, “I like you too!”

“Oh,” Daphne says, stopping abruptly. “You do?” She smiles at him.

“Yeah,” Pinocchio says. “I think I never really stopped.”

“That,” Daphne says, reaching a hand forward to grab at Pinocchio’s, “was downright romantic, you handsome sweetie.”

Pinocchio gives her a dopey, lovestruck smile. Then, after a long moment, he says, “So are we dating then?”

Daphne laughs, twines their fingers together. “Yes,” she says. “Yes, we are.”

#sisters grimm #the sisters grimm #daphne grimm #sisters grimm holiday exchange #sisters grimm secret santa

26 notes · View notes

hollyoaksloversx · 5 years

Text

Blackmail, Lies and Dressing up...

Rounding up a week in Hollyoaks (25th February - 1st March 2019)

It was all happening for Breda this week, who not only found herself being blackmailed about Louis’ murder, but had to deal with Sylver asking difficult questions about his biological Mother. At the start of the week, Breda was spooked by messages from an unknown individual who claimed to know that she was a murderer. In order to keep her secret safe, Breda was asked to steal something expensive from Price Slice, but she was caught by Walter whilst doing so and found herself arrested. Luckily for Breda, the police weren’t all that bothered and she was let off with a caution. However, once back at The Dog, she received a phone call from her blackmailer, asking to meet up at the pig farm. A cautious Breda went along and was shocked to come face to face with Mac, who demanded that she kill James for him...

Breda had no intention of killing James and so the following day, went round to Mac’s and planned to whack him over the head with a vase. Unfortunately, Mac caught her and revealed that he had all sorts of evidence against her ready to go to the police in the event of his death. Later, Breda, complete with a lemon drizzle cake, went round to see James under the guise of looking for legal advice about suing the police over her recent arrest. However, after seeing James with Romeo, and noticing how much he was doing to keep Juliet out of trouble, Breda decided that James didn’t deserve to die and left, taking her cake with her. Needing to give herself more time to think, Breda booked James and Harry on an impromptu holiday.

Meanwhile, with the secret about his adoption out in the open, Sylver decided to track down his real Mum. Sylver’s decision spelled panic for Breda, who desperately tried to keep him away from the family photo albums. Breda’s shifty behaviour didn’t go unnoticed by Goldie and she was left even more suspicious when she saw Breda remove a photo and put it in her pocket. Goldie was able to retrieve the photo and handed it over to Mercedes, who with a little detective work, found an address for Harriet, Sylver’s biological Mum. Sylver and Mercedes excitedly headed off for some answers but unfortunately, their journey ended at a nursing home, and Sylver was devastated to discover that Harriet had dementia and no recollection of ever having had a child. Hot on Mercedes’ and Sylver’s heals was Breda, and once the pair had left, Breda approached Harriet, and it was clear she recognised her. The exchange was witnessed by Mercedes, who confronted Breda over why Harriet had looked so terrified. Needing to save herself, Breda told Sylver that Harriet had murdered his Father...

Elsewhere, Darren and Mandy were back in the village following the surgery in London. The surgery seemed to have gone as well as could be expected so Mandy was keen for the pair to get back to normal, starting with Darren going back to work. Desperate to spend some time with Darren, Juliet offered to help him out in the kitchen and opened up to him about her past. However, when Darren’s phone started ringing whilst he left the kitchen to deal with squabbling Jack and Kyle, Juliet rejected the call and failed to tell Darren. Back at home, Mandy was in a terrible state as she began experiencing contractions. Her cries for help were heard by James, Romeo and Sinead, who rushed her to hospital and Darren later arrived on the scene once he heard what was happening. Darren was devastated to be told that, whilst the contractions had been stopped, Mandy wasn’t out of the woods yet, and Juliet felt terrible about her role in the incident.

Also this week, Diane was furious to discover that Lily was still self harming and so encouraged her to patch things up with Romeo, hoping that he would give her something to focus on. However, Lily was left devastated when she spotted him hugging Cindy. Whilst the situation was perfectly innocent, Lily didn’t wait around to find this out and continued to self harm once back at home. At a loss over how to help their niece, Tony and Diane removed the bathroom door, which only lead to a furious row. Eventually, Diane realised that her attempts to help Lily weren’t working and invited Romeo round so the pair could patch things up. Despite this going well, Lily told Diane that she was struggling to stop self harming.

In other news this week, Juliet began to see Mac’s true colours when she realised he’d lied to her about going on holiday. Furious, Juliet threw a brick through a school window and was suspended. Breda’s arrest for shoplifting sparked a feud between the McQueen’s and the Deveraux’s, calling time on Cleo and Mitchell’s blossoming romance. Maxine and Minnie moved into Prince and Lily old flat, despite misgiving from Damon, who was worrying about Maxine’s recent collapse. Finally, there were larks aplenty as Martine, Lisa and Scott went to an 80s night.

5 Things We Learned This Week:

1. Cindy sure gets about. It’s funny, as when Dirk, Holly and Alfie left, I was really worried about Cindy’s place in the show. But I needn’t have been. She’s been great in her scenes with James and Marnie this week and they also finally remembered her relationship with Mandy!

2. Sometimes opportunities pass you by. There was much excitement in the village this week as the residents got dressed up for 80s night. But surely 90s night would have been more appropriate given that the show has a member of one of the biggest girl groups of that decade in the cast? Personally, I’m bitterly disappointed that we didn’t get to see Martine bopping about to an Eternal hit.

3. Price Slice is a law unto itself. Since Simone’s departure, her remaining family seem to have taken the reigns at the shop. But how can this be? We’ve been lead to believe that Price Slice is a franchise and Simone was simply the manager of this particular branch. She didn’t own the shop so can’t hand it over to someone else. Either her family have all applied for jobs there or it’s something that’s been forgotten. Which leads nicely to my next point.

4. People remember the strangest things. As Maxine and Minnie moved into their new, and unfurnished, flat, Damon went around the village collecting bits and bobs to make the place more homely. One of the items collected was a jaguar sculpture, donated by the Lomax’s. I love that this show can forget major plot details (like how old Romeo was supposed to be), but someone remembered that Tegan won a jaguar in a competition a couple of years back.

5. Marnie doesn’t fart. Ever.

Characters Featured:

Breda, Cindy, Cleo, Damon, Darren, Diane, Donna-Marie, DS Yates, Goldie, Hannah, Harry, Jack, James, Juliet, Kyle, Lily, Lisa, Mac, Marnie, Mandy, Martine, Maxine, Mercedes, Minnie, Mitchell, Myra, Nana McQueen, Oliver, Romeo, Sally, Scott, Sienna, Sinead, Sylver, Tony and Walter.

Past Characters Mentioned:

Neeta Kaur, Louis Loveday, Simone Loveday.

#Hollyoaks #Highlight #Breda McQueen #Mac Nightingale #James Nightingale #Romeo Quinn #Juliet Quinn #Sylver McQueen #Mercedes McQueen #Lily Drinkwell #Diane O'Connor #Mandy Richardson #Darren Osborne #Scott Drinkwell

6 notes · View notes

hellothisareemily · 7 years

Text

2016

Looking back into 2016 since it’s now February in 2017, I think I had an amazing year but it’s all a blur.

January 2016. I was on winter break for the longest time but in this month, I was able to take Denise to disneyland as her christmas gift. Although I went to Disneyland a few months prior in 2015, I think it was a really good day since I’ve never been with her. We also celebrated Celine’s birthday in this month. I remember coming to her house with a bunch of balloons which completely threw her off then we went bowling.

February 2016. This month was Denise’s birthday month. I don't know how i did it, but I got her a gift that she has been wanting for the longest time which took the biggest tow on my wallet. I got her a Kate Spade bag, one that I, myself, have been wanting for the longest time but that’s ok.

March 2016. I do not remember anything that I did in march. LOL. but this was the month of spring break and way too many beach trips.

April 2016. My birthday month. I remember clubbing for the first time, being roasted more than ever, spending my birthday with jessie eating and just going on a lot more adventures.

May 2016. This year I was able to get my mom something that actually was practical for mother’s day. I got her new dishes for the house so we can all use them. I also went to my first LED event this year. It was amazing and all a blur haha.

June 2016. Graduation season!! I remember going to Six Flags for free with Denise. My cousin’s high school graduation where I got her some pretty nice HK roses. Jessie’s birthday beach celebration then clubbing later on that night with too much alcohol in my system. A LOT of beach trips. Adventures everywhere. Pokemon go hunting when it was still a thing.

July 2016. Going to see 3lau with the ten ren fan. Protecting Randall so he doesn't get hit on hahaha. Looking for jessie, cindy, & emily at the event. then telling jessie to come to the taco truck so we can take pictures but she responds with “but i’m not hungry” HAHA. museum adventures. random drinking nights. spending a lot of time with family. Drinking some more for Cindy’s birthday.

August 2016. I finally went paddle boarding this year. I fell in the water and it was the funniest but scariest thing in the world.

September 2016. I finally got braces this year. It was painful but made me proud that I was able to support myself with something like that. I grew up with people telling me to get braces and I finally got them at the age of 19 hahaha. This year I also decided to pledge again. I met amazing girls that I didn't even know & i got a big sis that I loved.

October 2016. A lot of hardships this month but also a lot of fun. Late night adventures and a lot of laughter creating endless memories. I also went to my first pumpkin patch!!

November 2016. More memories being made, a lot of tears, a lot of laughs. I took my big sis to disneyland for her birthday. I spent most of sophomore year makeup free. I went to a club filled with mexicans and it was very interesting. had a whole lot of sleepovers. went delusional way too many times. went on a lot of adventures. spent a lot of time with family. had sleepless nights.

December 2016. Took a lot of christmas pictures. went up to see snow with my family. Gave gifts that made me so happy, received gifts that made me so happy. Finally went to countdown with the best group. and counted down the new year with cindy.

Overall, 2016 was amazing. I had so much fun. I drank way too much compared to 2015. I laughed a lot more, I looked forward to a lot. Went on way too many bad dates. Kissed way too many random people. KISSED A GIRL FOR THE FIRST TIME LOL. Made new friends and kept old ones as well. Got rid of the toxic people in my life. Spent a lot more time with family. Worked more than usual, bought so many random things. Finally got braces. I just had a good year and I’m happy. It’s the 2nd month into 2017 right now & I’ve had a lot more opportunities being thrown my way which I couldnt be more grateful of.

0 notes