The press wanting to talk to Jean after he changes teams and he having a flashback and his blood sugar lowers, he starts to sweat, eyes wide, smile too tense and too white for his own good. Only the raquet to connect him with reality.

And then Jeremy steps up and does something to distract the reporters from the other side of the court so Jean could breath again.

Jean calling him his air in french when they are together 🥰

(The Sunshine Court, ch.17)

Jeremy, probably:

Jean when Riko died:

Neil when Riko died:

realized something earlier today. you know that trope where bilingual characters in fiction will sprinkle their native language into english sentences? and how i personally, while i can't speak for every bilingual person on the planet, don't really see that happening in reality pretty much ever, at least not with people who are passingly fluent in english? anyway i realized i DO mix languages, just the other way. i will happily throw english words and phrases into my daily speech when chatting with my peers in norwegian or czech like it's no biggie. because we all know english here, so it makes sense to swap in words if i'm falling short! but why would i say words other people don't understand in conversation...!

@vulpixisananimal sifstem art jumpscare!! more specifically i got bored and decided to mess around with sif and mal's outfits.

IN THE FRENCH STYLE (1963)

When you need to grasp the ideological background of the French Revolution but also need to travel light - Rousseau for dummies!

screaming

assuming you've read tsc, what are ur thoughts?

mixed feelings, anon!

on the one hand, tsc is just another confirmation that nora is a talented writer - i think the dialogue especially is where she really excels. the reading experience was overall very fun, i did enjoy seeing my faves again. neil is an icon, obviously. the culture clash between jean and the trojans was Comedy Gold. and it was interesting to see an exploration of a different trauma response than we've seen in aftg in jean.

on the other hand, i feel like jean's story in tsc mirrors neil's story in aftg - a troubled youth joins an exy team where he will make new friends and get better mentally - but is like. a simplified and less compelling version of that. it's good that jean is his own character, i don't need him to be a copy of neil, but i gotta say - neil's cameo appearances totally stole the show and made me wonder why i wasn't reading a book about him instead. however, it's all the other characters who were the real problem - it felt like i'm reading a version of aftg where a less fun iteration of neil joins an exy team consisting just of the upperclassmen and nicky hemmick which uhhh,, if you've read some of my old posts you know how i feel about him so there was no chance in hell i'd like cat alvarez and her whole shtick. the foxes felt good for the soul bc there was a balance between the upperclassmen's and the monsters' type of care for neil - and crucially neil chose the latter group to be his close circle, among other things, bc he felt they could understand him better. by constrast, jean is alone with the trojans who don't give any credibility to his claims that they just can't understand what he went through, don't respect his right to keep his trauma private and just keep trying to force his "recovery". aftg felt like a bunch of freaks with various but equally fascinating issues put in close quarters and you watch them sometimes butt heads, sometimes uplift each other in the most unexpected ways. tsc however felt like a bunch of normies bullying a traumatized kid - so basically one of those obnoxious fics where the upperclassmen are all in neil and andrew's business.

jean's bisexuality was a double-edged sword too: on the one hand, i felt very smug reading about how his attraction works bc 1) it's so obviously different from neil and 2) wow turns out years of psychological, physical and sexual abuse do not in fact take away your sexuality! le gasp! surprised fucking pikachu!! crazy how through all of this jean is still bi. the human spirit is unbreakable. (unless your mom hits you for kissing a girl, then it's breakable). so i did feel vindicated but at the same time this was not relatable to the point that i can't see myself getting invested in jean and jeremy's developing relationship. nothing is more of a turn off for me in fictional romances than when both of them are immediately attracted to each other and let the reader know in no uncertain terms. where are the mind games? where are the intricate rituals? it feels like a lazy shortcut. but good for them, i guess?

sooo idk. i didn't hate tsc by any means but i'm sad i didn't enjoy it as much as my mutuals😭

@gcat01 suggested that I record the "thank you for fucking me megamix" in French but they couldn't translate it literally and they didn't even keep a swear word for it (booo), so I recorded this bit instead (the only one with the swear).

Headcanon that Jean decides to seduce Jeremy out of pure spite against Kevin cause he’s petty and Kevin made like one comment that sent him off the edge (and like Jeremy’s pretty but like whatever he’s cool he barely even notices really not even when - nope, he’s so cool, he’s French ) but he’s still shocked when it works??? Because??? What??? Jeremy Knox??? But also Jeremy Knox

Allô, y a t'il des lecteurs de Fred Vargas dans le coin ?

Hello, anybody reading Fred Vargas?

Non parce que je viens de finir d'une traite le tout nouveau Adamsberg, Sur La Dalle, et j'ai vraiment envie de parler de notre commissaire, de Louis, Violette, toute la bande, de cette nouvelle enquête tarabiscotée et brillante...

No, cuz, I just finished binge-reading the whole new Adamsberg, and I really want to talk about our police chief, Louis, Violette, and the whole Brigade, and this new convoluted and brilliant investigation...

Et aussi demander à la populace pourquoi il n'y a pas plus de fic Adamsberg/Veyrenc. Je suis sérieuse, 2 fics seulement sur AO3, j'ai recherché sur le web et rien d'autre, alors que le potentiel de ce ship, s'il-vous-plaît !

And also wanna ask the crowd why there's not more Adamsberg/Veyrenc works! Seriously, only 2 fics on AO3, and I went searching on the web, nothing more, even though this ship has so much potential!

Et d'ailleurs pour ceux qui ont lu Sur la dalle [I don't think it has been translated in English yet, so I'm not translating this part, but if you're interested in my thoughts on Adamsberg/Veyrenc, send me an ask] , on en parle, de l'immense naturel de Jean-Baptiste pour admirer paisiblement ses collègues hommes ? Comme dans chaque bouquin depuis son arrivée, pas mal de passages sur la beauté de Veyrenc (Jean-Bapt ton crush is showing), et là, le nombre de réflexions qu'il se fait sur le commissaire Matthieu... De l'autre côté, le Matthieu en question est en pâmoison devant Adamsberg aussi, faut le dire. C'était fascinant.

Et dans ce dernier volume, pas de spoilers, mais le seul perso qui soit systématiquement sur la même longueur d'ondes que Adamsberg est Veyrenc. Il n'y a pas un seul moment où il est dubitatif, ou critique, non, au contraire. Ils n'ont définitivement pas assez de "scènes" rien qu'eux deux, mais chacune de leurs conversations en solo ou de leurs interactions devant le reste des personnages les présentent comme étant totalement synchronisés et évoquent leur très longue histoire commune. J'aurais tellement aimé que Vargas nous donne plus d'interactions entre eux deux. Il y a deux passages en particulier qui m'ont rendu folle, le passage du taureau et le passage du "film d'Adamsberg", ceux qui ont lu le livre sauront de quoi je parle.

Bref. Six ans d'attente avant le prochain tome de nouveau ? Je sens que je vais craquer et finir par écrire mes propres "chapitres manquants"... Alleeeez les gars, qu'on remplisse ce tag un peu, à vos stylos et vos claviers ! Je suis sûre que beaucoup d'entre vous peuvent être inspirés.

Anyway. Six more years before the next book again? I feel like I'm going to snap and end up writing my own missing scenes... C'mon guys, let's fill up that tag! I'm sure so many of you could be super inspired.

sorry I'm having Post-Seine feelings about these lyrics and idk if anyone else is deranged enough to care but i'm gonna translate for you just in case:

Despite the old bitterness And loves that pass Friends we lose in the fog And ideals that are broken Life clings on and is reborn Like each spring returns In a breath of fresh air That soothes hearts in pain So if it happens that tonight you'd like to stay With me, the night is soft, we can walk And even if we know that everything only lasts a little while I'd like you to be, for a moment, My falling star

notes:

'amertumes' is actually plural, so, 'bitternesses', but that's not a word in English, so....

'la nuit est douce' means 'the night is mild', but the word 'douce' literally means 'soft', and I love that

'mon étoile filante' means 'shooting star' or 'falling star'; I guess 'shooting star' is more common, but 'be my shooting star' in English sounds a bit ridiculous. 'Étoile filante' is so good, shame it doesn't translate the best.

Problematic author: Jean-Paul Marat

Notable works: L'Ami du Peuple

Reason: Was upset when Charlotte Corday killed him. God forbid women do anything 🙄

read the sunshine court and have never been more impatient in needing a second book my god

got some lame ass frenchie surname

My last name be like ☝️