#the poll reflects my exact thoughts and feelings
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in my head (series)
Chapter Ten: Happy Together?
Larissa Weems x f!reader
previous chapter | next chapter | series page
words: ~2.6k, ao3 link
chapter-specific warnings/content: none really, mentions of alcohol, mentions of wenclair
chapter summary: A surprise visit from Enid leads to a heartfelt conversation. Reader would love nothing more than to ask Larissa on a proper date.
A/N: After some planning and some plotting, it seems there will be two more chapters after this one - we're nearing the end and I've updated the total number of chapters in the series page on tumblr and on ao3 to reflect that (although I do reserve the right to change my mind if my writing takes me in another direction). There are a few minor things I want to wrap up, and I can't resist just giving these two a little fluff as they feel out the change in relationship.
Anyway, let's get into it, I hope you enjoy!
The rest of your Sunday was spent in Larissa’s quarters. The relationship you’d shared before had given you immense joy - now, this newfound realization of Larissa’s feelings towards you was nothing short of catharsis.
You spent the morning holding the blonde close, basking in the warmth and safety that her touch provided you. Eventually, when your stomach had growled for the third time and Larissa’s teasing had become relentless, the two of you set about scrounging Larissa’s kitchen for some scraps to eat - though you eventually settled on ordering take-out, which you ate sitting knee to knee on the floor of Larissa’s living room.
You hadn’t broached the subject of feelings or the future of… whatever this was again, wanting to keep the day light after an emotional start. But the knowledge that your feelings were returned, that Larissa could want something more from your relationship, filled you with a warmth that you carried with you back to your own quarters that night, and that gently lulled you to sleep, your thoughts full of Larissa Weems.
~~~
“You and Principal Weems are such a cute couple!”
You heard the bubbly girl’s excited squeal before you saw her - then there was a flurry of blonde hair bounding towards you, stopping just shy of your desk.
Enid beamed at you, looking almost like an exact personification of the heart-eyes emoji in her excitement. “How long have you guys been together?”
“Woah, woah, slow down, Enid,” you laughed, closing your laptop and turning your attention fully towards your student. “Principal Weems and I aren’t together.”
Enid raised an eyebrow at you and you continued hastily. “Not really anyway, we’re still figuring things out.”
“Oh come on, you guys are totes in love. I ran a poll on my blog about the cutest couple at the Rave’N and you guys won. Unanimously!”
“Miss Sinclair!” You felt yourself turn scarlet, which only made Enid grin wider. “Must I remind you that I am still your teacher?”
“Sorry, Ms. Y/L/N!” She raised her hands in mock-surrender. “We just don’t have many other open sapphic couples at Nevermore right now. You and Weems? You guys would be, like, the school’s power couple.”
You couldn’t help the smile that crept up on your face at the young werewolf’s enthusiasm. At least you hoped that you and Larissa could one day be Nevermore’s ‘power couple’ - you kind of liked the idea.
“Is there a particular reason you came to see me during my office hours, Enid, or did you just want to pester me about my personal life?” you asked, still smiling.
Enid began to roll back and forth on the balls of her feet, her gaze flitting briefly about the room before landing back on your own. “I think I messed up with Wednesday,” she admitted, her voice barely above a whisper.
“Oh, Enid. Come, sit.” You stood and pulled a chair up to your desk, allowing the girl to join you. “What makes you think you messed up?”
“I don’t know, she won’t talk to me! I thought everything was fine at the Rave’N but then I tried to kiss her and now she’s avoiding me. She won’t even look at me!” Enid worked herself up further and further the more she spoke, her lower lip beginning to wobble.
“Have you tried talking to her about it?”
Enid huffed. “I tried but she keeps avoiding me. Can’t you just read her mind and tell me what she’s thinking? Please?”
“I don’t think anyone wants to read Wednesday Addams’ mind,” you chuckled, but your gaze softened at the earnest distress written across the werewolf’s face. “Enid, you know I can’t do that.”
She nodded, sighing sadly. “I know… But how am I supposed to talk to her if I’ve barely seen her since the Rave’N?”
“You’re roommates, she can’t avoid you forever. At some point you’ll have to see her again, and then you can talk to her. Maybe you can catch her after class - I know you two have botany together.”
“How did you and Principal Weems handle it?”
“Principal Weems and I aren’t…” You let out a heavy sigh. “You might not want to use me and Principal Weems as an example.”
“Why not? You guys look so happy together… I want that.” Enid’s pout reminded you a bit of Larissa - it tugged at your heart.
“I’ll let you in on a little secret.” You smiled conspiratorially and leaned towards her. “Principal Weems and I started off as friends too, just like you and Wednesday. But things got kind of complicated for a bit, and it hurt both of us. A lot.”
Enid’s brows knit together in confusion and she cocked her head to the side, waiting for you to continue.
“You know why? Because we didn’t talk to each other. I really liked her, but I was too scared to tell her. And she was too scared to tell me that she liked me, too. So I know it’s really scary to tell Wednesday how you feel about her and have the potential of her rejecting you - but it’s going to hurt so much worse if you don’t tell her. And sometimes, it might be better to have a talk before you try to kiss her.” The irony of your advice wasn’t lost on you - hell, it might’ve been a lot easier for you if you hadn’t slept with Larissa before admitting to your feelings. But perhaps you could save Enid the trouble of making the same mistakes.
“But are you and Principal Weems okay now?”
You smiled. “I think so. And you and Wednesday will be okay, too. The girl’s one complicated piece of work but I can tell she cares about you - I don’t think she would’ve gone to the Rave’N with anyone else.”
Enid nodded hesitantly, cheeks flushing.
“Thanks, Ms. Y/L/N.” Then she rose from her chair and opened her arms - you mirrored her movements and hugged her tightly, matching the ferocity at which she squeezed you and only pulling back when she loosened her grip.
“Anytime, Enid. Thank you for coming to me with this.” You hoped Enid would have the courage to talk to Wednesday about her feelings - you hoped even more that you were right and Wednesday cared enough not to shut her out entirely.
Enid’s smile was back in place as she turned to leave your classroom.
“Keep me updated!” you hollered after her, falling back into your chair.
~~~
“Keep you updated on what?” Marilyn asked, entering your classroom as Enid disappeared from sight.
“Just a personal situation,” you replied. “What’s up?”
“What’s up? I should be asking you that. How’d it go?” Marilyn was grinning from ear to ear as she stepped up to your desk, placing both hands on the surface and leaning in eagerly.
“What are you referring to?” you asked cooly, playing idly with a pen that lay around on your desk, though the blush that warmed your cheeks gave you away in an instant.
The redhead rolled her eyes. “You know exactly what I’m referring to, Y/N. How are things with Larissa?”
“Good, I think.” You shrugged, lips curling up into a smile as you dropped your gaze absentmindedly to your desk.
“Just good? That’s all you’re going to give me?”
“We’re still figuring things out, okay? But that really was a lovely song you had the DJ play when we were cleaning up - thanks for that.”
“Someone had to do it. When are you seeing her again?”
“Oh.” You paused, stilling in your fidgeting with the pen. When were you going to see her again? You hadn’t addressed that, you just assumed… “I don’t know, actually. I thought I’d probably see her around school anyway.”
Marilyn looked at you incredulously and you felt a twinge of guilt swirl around in your stomach. “What?”
“The two of you are hopeless.”
“What do you mean?”
“Ask her out! If you don’t do it, I’ll do it for you.” Marilyn reached over the desk to grab your phone. You tried to stop her, but you weren’t fast enough - she held your phone just out of your reach, a devilish grin on her face.
“Don’t you dare,” you whispered.
She took a step back, unlocking your phone - you cursed yourself internally for having given her your passcode once while you were driving her into Jericho - and scrolling through your contacts.
“Marilyn,” you warned.
She began to type, sounding out the words as she went. “My dearest Larissa-”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” you grumbled, standing and moving around the desk, reaching desperately for your phone.
“It would be be my utmost honor if you were to-”
“If I tell you I’ll go to her office right now and ask her, will you stop?”
Marilyn raised an eyebrow. “Right now?”
“Yes,” you huffed.
“Here.” She passed you your phone back and you glanced at the screen, rolling your eyes as you realized she’d only been typing in your Notes app. Well played, Marilyn, well played.
~~~
After wrapping things up in your classroom, you parted ways with the redhead, who reminded you of your promise with a cheeky smile. You headed towards Larissa’s office, a nervous excitement bubbling up within you. Knocking on the door, you poked your head in.
Larissa sat behind her desk, engrossed in her work - she was reading something on her laptop, chewing away at her bottom lip as she scrolled. Her head shot up when she heard the door open, and a beaming smile spread across her face when she locked eyes with you.
“Hey, you got a minute?”
“Of course, darling, come in.” Larissa’s voice was warm, bordering on sultry, and you slipped inside the office, closing the door behind you. “I was just finishing up here - would you mind waiting by the fireplace for me?”
“Sure.” You took a detour by Larissa’s desk to press a soft kiss to her lips - the little squeak of surprise that the blonde let out before reciprocating the kiss made you feel you could melt straight into the floorboards with adoration.
Crossing to the little sofa by the fireplace and plopping down, you kicked your shoes off and tucked your feet underneath yourself. You listened as Larissa began typing rhythmically away at her keyboard, allowing your eyes to fall shut.
After a few minutes, the typing ceased and there was a soft click as her laptop was closed. Heels clicked on the hardwood floors, stopping just behind you, then gentle hands came to rest on your shoulders and began carefully kneading the muscles at the base of your neck.
You groaned softly, tilting your head forward to give Larissa further access to your neck and back. Her thumbs worked at the tense muscles, the intimacy of her touch melting away all of the day’s pent up stress.
Her fingers stilled in their ministrations and you whined softly, but then pillowy lips attached to the side of your neck, placing open mouthed kisses to the sensitive flesh. Warm breath caressed your skin, leaving a trail of goosebumps and causing a shiver to run down your spine, all the way to your toes.
You turned your head to the side, desperate to feel those soft lips upon your own. Larissa could sense what you were searching for and pressed her lips to yours. The kiss was languid, sensuous, affectionate - you reveled in the safety that it wrapped you in.
“Could I entice you into sharing a bottle of wine with me?” Larissa murmured against your lips as she pulled back ever so slightly.
“I could be convinced,” you mumbled, chasing her lips with your own.
Larissa chuckled and pulled away, crossing her office to fetch a bottle and two glasses. She filled the glasses generously and handed you one, settling next to you on the sofa.
“What brings you by today?” Larissa’s eyebrow was raised, her voice light and filled with humor.
“Do I need a reason to stop by?” You grinned at her, taking a sip of your wine.
“Not at all.” Larissa’s eyes glittered as she regarded you fondly over the rim of her glass. The way she looked at you through mascara-coated lashes - cheeks rosy, painted lips pulled into an affectionate smile - was different from how she used to look at you. Unbridled. Unguarded. There was no hiding the emotions that she displayed freely on her face - it was a new level of openness that you swore to never take for granted.
Larissa’s lips moved and you were so mesmerized by them that you missed the words that came out.
“Darling?” Larissa’s shoulders began to shake with mirth. “Are you with me?”
You suddenly felt warm all over as a blush spread across your cheeks.
“Larissa?” You weren’t sure why you were feeling nervous all of a sudden - it was clear Larissa harbored at least some sort of romantic feelings for you, so you didn’t think she’d say no, but you found your stomach fluttering anyway.
“Hmm?” Larissa’s smirk never left her face as she watched you struggle for words.
“Do you think maybe… I thought it would be nice if…” Way to be eloquent, you thought to yourself, cringing internally. Your mouth suddenly felt so dry. “Would you like to go on a date with me? An actual date?”
Larissa’s smirk turned into a bashful smile - her reply came out breathy and soft. “Yes. I would like that very much.”
“Cool… cool.” You let out a breath you didn’t realize you were holding. Larissa seemed to notice this, her confidence growing.
“You seem nervous,” she teased, placing a hand on your knee and scooting closer to you.
“A little,” you breathed.
“Do I make you nervous?” Her voice was sultry, her eyes half-lidded, and you weren’t sure if it was the wine or her hand at the hem of your skirt but you felt dizzy.
“A little,” you mumbled, your eyes falling to her lips - plump, soft, warm, inviting lips, that curled up at the outer corners and parted slightly to reveal brilliant white teeth. You felt her hand inch up your skirt, caressing your inner thigh, and desire began to thrum within you.
Your phone began to buzz in your pocket - you tried to ignore it but it wouldn’t stop, and you let out a frustrated huff and pulled it out just enough to glance at it.
Marilyn: Well?!
Marilyn: How’d it go?
Marilyn: Did you ask her?
You smiled in spite of yourself and looked up to see Larissa’s questioning gaze upon you. You tilted the phone to show her the messages, your heart doing a somersault when she let out a tinkling laugh.
Larissa smirked. “So how did it go?”
“I’d say well,” you whispered breathlessly.
Larissa laughed, cupping your cheek and pressing a kiss to your lips. “So when do I get the honor of accompanying you on this date?”
“How’s Saturday?”
“Saturday is perfect.” The smile that you received was blinding - you still couldn’t believe you were lucky enough to be the recipient of such a beautiful, heartfelt smile. “Will it be a surprise again?”
You felt your cheeks heat at the memory of your definitely not a date, date. “If you want it to be.”
“You know I didn’t think I enjoyed being surprised all that much but when it’s by you, I find I quite adore the mystery.” Her hand was still on your cheek, her thumb brushing against your lip, and you realized just then how thoroughly screwed you were. This woman had you wrapped around her little finger - you would do anything for her, you realized.
“Then a surprise it shall stay.”
x
#larissa weems x reader#larissa x reader#larissa weems#principal weems x reader#principal weems#in my head#in my head series
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Mickey and Friends Age Poll Results
So I sent out about 6 polls asking you all what ages you generally saw the different Mickey Mouse and Friends characters in either the comics, shorts, etc.
I was interested because none of the mediums really clarify ages (Unless they are specifically kids) and keep it vague so I wanted to see what vibes each character (or set of characters) gave. For research reasons.
So here are the results of the Poll and my own thoughts:
Mickey Mouse (120 votes)
Most People see him as... Mid 20's - Early 30's
Seems like just barely over half see Mickey as in his Mid 20's to Early 30's with a quarter seeing Mickey in his Early Adult - Mid 20's. As you can see, I completely agree with the majority. As others have said on the original poll, this Mid 20's to Early 30's is sort of that perfect sweet spot where you are clearly an adult and have and have had responsibilities for quite a while, but you aren't really an expert in anything yet and still trying to find your place in the world.
Mickey tends to reflect this mentality well as he clearly has his own house, can work, and must being paying bills. But he is also usually in a subordinate or student role. Usually the mentee instead of the mentor.
Minnie Mouse (30 votes)
Most People see her as... Mid 20's - Early 30's
This and the following polls got way less votes than the Mickey one (this one got only 1/4 of the same voting size), but I still think the results are interesting to talk about. I considered combining Mickey and Minnie since I feel like most people assume they are the same age or at least very close, but I changed my mind as I really wanted to see if that was the case and based on the poll... That does seem to be the case. Most people agreed that Minnie was in her Mid 20's - Early 30's, even more than Mickey at over 60%.
I know people tend to see or make female counterparts younger than males, so I am glad to see that people see Minnie at about the same age (Then again there is quite a bit of range). I also think it is interesting that the amounts for the other options were generally about the same as the Mickey poll (With even 30's - 40's being at the same exact %)
I, of course, agree with the majority as Minnie seems to be in the same age range as Mickey in terms of clearly having settled a bit as an adult, but still growing and trying to find her place in the world.
Donald and Daisy Duck (51 votes)
Most people see them as... Mid 20's - Early 30's
So the reason I combined Donald and Daisy is for the same reason I was about to combine Mickey and Minnie. I feel like most people see them as generally the same age and if they would have gotten drastically different results, it would have shown up on the Minnie and Mickey poll (I also just didn't want to make way too many polls). But as we saw with that one, there weren't really any changes with gender, so I assume it would have been the same here.
Seems like most people also see Daisy and Donald in their Mid 20's to Early 30's just like Mickey and Minnie. Over 60% of people agreed. I also agree, as I really see them as not really being that much older or younger than Mickey and Minnie, so feel like they should be in the same age range.
What I really think is interesting though is that when it comes to the other options, more people tend to lean more to 30's - 40's at over 25% instead of Early Adult - Mid 20's. Which wasn't the case for Mickey and Minnie. I think part of the reason is that Donald specifically tends to be put in more parental roles than the others. While they all have nieces and nephews, Donald has had quite a bit of media where he is the one who clearly has custody over Huey, Dewey, and Louie and takes care of them. I think that tends to push people to view him as more mature. Someone even mentioned that Ducktales '17 Donald is apparently canonically in his mid-30's, which probably influenced some of the vote.
And honestly, I can see that. I feel like when Donald is on his own or if his relationship with the boys is limited as just uncle and nephews who visit sometimes, I can see him being a bit younger. But if he is actually the one raising them, I can see him as a bit older.
Goofy (26 votes)
Most people see him as... 30's - 40's
So I am actually a bit surprised by this one. Because I actually didn't expect so many people to agree with me on the 30's - 40's. And over 65% did. It seems like over 80% see him as at least over 30 (First of his friends to have people vote 40's - 50's). With less than 20% seeing him in the same age range as the others. It appears that most people in general see Goofy as older.
I always saw Goofy as maybe about 5 - 10 years older than the others. I think part of it is his personality. While he is... Well, Goofy. He is also pretty wise and seems to have a bit more understanding or experience than the others. I don't know how to explain it, but he feels a bit more mature than Donald and Mickey at times.
It also helps that he is the one who is usually seen with the oldest child. Usually, Donald's Nephews are about 8 - 12, with a few rare exceptions of teens. Goofy, on the other hand, has been seeing Max as 11, 14, 16, and as a college student a couple of times each.
Pete (24 Votes)
Most people see him as... 40's - 50's
So this one was pretty close as it seems like mostly everyone agrees that he is between 30's - 50's. But it was kind of close on which set of decades he is in. Though more people, almost 55%, believed that he is in the 40's - 50's range, and I agree.
Pete definitely comes across as a character who has a lot of history. Whether it is his more weathered gruffer looks or that he usually tends to be in authority senior roles (landlords, bosses, etc.) and similar to Goofy he also had a teenage/college-age son. I guess the big difference is whether people believe he is in the same range as Goofy or older. I actually don't think he is too much older than Goofy (Between 5 - 10), but he definitely tends to give off almost middle-aged, starting to have a mid-life crisis energy to me. And it seems like more people lean that way too. But I also could see him closer to Goofy's age.
The Phantom Blot (38 Votes)
Most people see him as... 30's - 40's
This was one I was really interested in seeing how people felt, since I feel like Blot doesn't have as clear age markers as the others and his age might depend on a variety of factors. This is the only time where I apparently went against the grain as I saw him as in the 40's - 50's where over 65% saw him in his 30's - 40's. Seems like almost 95% see him as definitely over 30% with about 2 votes seeing him as possibly in his mid 20's - 30's (I talked with someone who had this view and it is really interesting)
So from my perspective, I guess I saw the Phantom Blot as older because he sometimes gives me almost mid-life crisis vibes. I think this does depend on the comics you watched, but sometimes he feels like he is trying to remain relevant and do something meaningful before your life ends, which I feel tends to happen as you get closer to 50. He also in general just seems very knowledgeable and skilled which you get from experience.
But then again, I can also completely see where everyone else is coming from. Blot also in many appearances seems to be at his prime where he is old enough to be skilled and have experience, but still young enough to have a sharp mind and be in good physical shape. It would make sense for him to be in his prime and thus his most dangerous. Honestly I guess it depends on how you see the Blot and both can work.
~
And that is all of the characters and their ages. Seems like I generally agreed with the majority except for the Phantom Blot. Which is better than I expected. I kind of wonder if I should have added more tags as some of the voting pools were much smaller than the others. Also in retrospect, I wonder if I separated Daisy and Donald if Daisy would have polled younger since similar to Mickey and Minnie she doesn't really raise her nieces like Donald does.
I would love to hear your thoughts.
But for fun, if you were to put them in order from Oldest to Youngest (And going off the Percentage Trends)
Pete (Funny since he is actually the oldest character in real life)
The Phantom Blot
Goofy
Donald and Daisy Duck
Mickey Mouse
Minnie Mouse
#disney#mickey and friends#mickey mouse and friends#disney polls#mickey mouse#minnie mouse#donald duck#daisy duck#goofy#peg leg pete#phantom blot
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Thoughts on JJK chapter 218 (spoiler)
The little flashback we got from Yorozu tells me that we'll see bigger flashbacks and maybe even an entire arc about the Heian sorcerers
I was a little taken aback by Sukuna having tamed Megumi's shikigami offscreen, but it helps to keep the fast pace and high energy of the manga going
I was not surprised by the deer shikigami having healing powers. I theorized about that exact shikigami with that power before but in my head Megumi's looks like this
It's a good thing that the problem that Mai had with her CT (high CE consumption) was a problem for Yorozu too
Yorozu's fight with Sukuna is basically over because she seems to have reached her zenith this chapter regardless of her last love attack
The high emphasis that is put on love in this mini arc will probably reflect in the love that Tsumiki and Megumi have for each other. I'm still of the opinion that Tsumiki will regain control of her body
The King of Curses, everyone
Let's be real, the only love Sukuna knows is the one he feels when he looks at his own face (and Megumi's)
I have a theory that Megumi might turn into a curse like Sukuna and Naoya, together with a poll for everyone who's interested
Why does Sukuna feel the need to reverse his hand signs? Is it because he has another dominant hand or because he's a bitch
I wonder what Mahoraga's wheel will actually do for him, he hasn't used it (as far as we know) this chapter. And remember, the strongest 10 Shadows user who fought against the six-eyes to a draw hadn't tamed Mahoraga. So Sukuna is and has always been on another level compared to every other character in the series
On that note, Sukuna knows that the gang has the backend of the prism realm in their possession but it doesn't look like he told Kenjaku about it. I'm sure that Sukuna is the number 1 fan of getting Gojo out of the prism realm so he can fight against him. Something that Kenjaku desperately tried to avoid.
#jjk#jujutsu kaisen#jujutsu kaisen spoilers#sukuna#ryoumen sukuna#fushiguro megumi#satoru gojo#itadori yuji#kenjaku#yorozu#fushiguro tsumiki
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Im not that same anon, but i will say the way you jokingly talk like a taekooker can sometimes be triggering and hurtful to people like me who really love jimin and thought they curated their spaces to jimin focused accounts. Ive even seen taekookers use your blog posts in their arguments bullying jimin.
I’ve followed you long enough to know you’re being sarcastic but i do get sometimes triggered by how you try to prove Taekook in the exact way Taekookers do, a joke or not. but that’s our problem and you’re allowed to say whatever you want, and we can obviously unfollow you. Just adding my perspective.
- Allow me to give a honest opinion. I won't say you're a tkkr or anything because i know you're a ex jkkr and you don't ship jm with anyone. But from the way you write it definitely seems like you have alot of pent up anger towards jk and tae individually as well as together and that definitely reflects more into your writing when it involves those two. I think it's because you're an ex jkkr so it might be because feels betrayed by both of them on jm's behalf, like their behaviour towards him etc. Yes i myself recent the two guys the most and don't think they're worthy of jm's friendship too. Idk how long you have been on this blog but since the time i have followed you if i didn't know better i would think you're a jkkrs' hater more than of Tkkrs. It's one thing to to recent shippers it's another thing to turn it more towards just one group of shippers that is jkkrs. I remember you saying something like you felt betrayed or something about ITS tk talk cause even tho they said they're awkward it didn't show in their actions or something along that so i think you hate them both alot.
personally idc who you're calling husband or what cause all pjms call them husbands but they also think both of them are straight, would have unfollowed you long ago. I only replied cause i saw anons calling you tkkr. Anyways tk husbands married in Vegas currently with 3 kids and 3rd or 5th anniversary according to tkkrs. If you don't know they also has a shared apartment in japan jk brought for taehyung and he was staying there while jm was in hotel. Such a bad friend jk didn't even invite jm to come to their tk house 😔
---
Well, that I understand because taekook as a ship used to bother me just as much. It was annoying and sometimes it still is, tho it's become more of a dislike towards them as people rather than the ship itself.
In late 2019, there was some random poll in some irrelevant online magazine (like soompi and stuff) about "which member is the closest to Jungkook?". Jin won. Army voted for Jin and not Jimin, who was without a doubt the closest to Jungkook that year. At that time, things like that also bothered me and made me sad. Now, I guess it's been so long since I got over it and it's a joke. Besides, I understood that most of the information army picked up on was coming from the members themselves, and I couldn't spend a lifetime getting angry about things Taehyung, Jungkook and even Jimin himself weren't going to change.
That vminkook live in November 2021? Watching some parts of it felt terrible. I got over it quick, but at the time I didn't like it. A lot of taekook stuff bothered me, but what is anyone going to do about it lol. And I learned that, and I accepted it. Jimin literally posted taekook with their faces smashed together on his Instagram some weeks ago and pjms were laughing and rejoicing about him giving something to taekookers.
"Ive even seen taekookers use your blog posts in their arguments bullying jimin." Sorry but I don't believe you, like you just made that up.
Yeah but the thing is, I'm not trying to prove taekook lmao. I'm just making fun of the way shippers in general talk. Like, it would've meant the world to jikookers if it was Jimin with bam, right? They actually spent a lot of time trying to prove that Jimin is with bam often, but because it's Taehyung that has actual proof of spending time with Bam at Jungkook's house, they get annoyed at it and talk about conspiracy theories. Or ignore it. Now, Bam it's irrelevant. But if it had been Jimin, they would've also said the same thing I said about Taehyung spending time at Jungkook's.
And that's the whole point... call it satire if you will.
Before this discussion started, I was going through my blog, right. I reblogged some old posts. Remember when Jimin went to NYC and he wore shorts and jikookers were making viral sex jokes about how he'd shaved for Jungkook (Jimin is clean shaven in every BTS content btw, and so are the other members). Well, while going through my posts I saw this one where I said Jimin shaved and moistuzed his legs for Eunwoo like...
That stuff sounds out of pocket to me, and I will make fun of it. if people are missing the joke it's really not me. Or maybe they haven't been in shipper spaces as much as I have been. I'm sorry if I come across as too convincing??
Mind you, there were people who got angry because I talked about minimoni, or even about Saeon and Eunwoo. Someone literally came up once and told me that liking minimoni was weird because Namjoon talked about Jimin in a creepy and predatory way. Some people are just deranged, and I know that.
I honestly have no respect left for jikookers after face, or rather after this year, the way I have no respect for taekookers. They've become an easy punching bag with how delusional they were since 2021, and most of my jokes are me just saying the same things they say about jikook, but using it for different ships because it's all so ridiculous. And the most delusional ones are always Jungkook biased jikookers who thought Jimin was undeserving of support and talk about the two of them like Jimin is the lesser one in talents, ambition, or achievements.
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Thought I’d post the conclusion of your “end of IWTV”/Moss house poll results as I doubt there will be more votes now.
- 69.3% of people think Louis did meet with Lestat, even if not fully as he describes.
- 30.7% think the meeting never happened.
- 0 people say they have no idea.
As I see it, it doesn’t matter in the overall story of Lestat & Louis whether it happened or not, BUT it does make things more poignant & heartbreaking (I personally perceive!) if it happened AND perhaps most interestingly of all - the fact that it is ambiguous & book readers absolutely do not all agree (& we won’t agree as the text simply is NOT definite about it, so it is open to our personal interpretation!) means we don’t know what Rolin thinks about what really happened, so it’ll be a true surprise to discover what the show portrays! And it being the literal end of IWTV, we will see a version! Or perhaps multiple versions!!?! It could also be presented ambiguously on TV… though it will definitely be more powerful if it isn’t ambiguous there in my opinion. Kind of exciting, no?!
I would like to talk about TRUTH here though! In discussing this moment, I have heard a lot of people talk along the lines of “Louis is canon an unreliable narrator & Lestat in canon speaks truth” on the one hand & on the other hand people saying “Why is Louis’ IWTV novel truth any less true than Lestat’s? Everyone is just speaking their own truth!”
I feel it needs clearing up: whatever the truth of the moment I speak of here, I am NOT calling anyone a liar! Let’s look at Louis! Interview with the Vampire is not an accurate portrayal of Lestat (Sorry! It’s just very obviously NOT!), BUT - LOUIS DOES NOT INTENTIONALLY LIE!
The majority (I think: all!?!) of Louis’ mistruths stem from:
- Louis’ shame & that he hasn’t accepted his feelings towards Lestat yet
- Louis often tends towards assuming people’s motivations & emotions & presenting them as facts when in fact he doesn’t know what’s in other people’s minds & hearts. Louis is a beautifully sensitive creature, but he doesn’t instinctively understand what other beings are feeling or experiencing easily (likely as he’s so deeply in his own experience!)
- Lestat had to withold a lot of information from young-Louis as Marius threatened Lestat & any fledglings that he’d destroy them otherwise, so of course Louis felt Lestat was either withholding or knew less than he actually did so there’s a lot about Lestat that Louis literally could never understand until he reads TVL
- Louis was surviving off the blood of animals in the first amount of IWTV that he recounts & as such was in an extra-depressive place that colours his perception & interpretation of Lestat
- It must be remembered that even during this interview in the 1970’s, Louis is only just able to begin to hint at the true depth of his feelings towards Lestat. We can presume that in the last 50 years, since the last thing Louis describes in his story, as he alludes to, Louis has been through his own new levels of loneliness & despair that are only-just now beginning to lead Louis to deeper understandings
- Louis does not invent events that didn’t happen. He doesn’t *choose* to lie! There are emotional & practical reasons behind the inaccuracies in what he tells us in IWTV
On the exact same note!
If Louis *did* meet Lestat & Lestat hates that Louis wrote about it & wants to deny it happening (I mean, he denies it during arguments let’s remember! NOT with any conviction in his own book about the same events!!) that also doesn’t make Lestat a liar!
- Lestat doesn’t deny the meeting in TVL. He doesn’t mention ever seeing Louis, but does say Armand has told him Louis saw him, through a window (which wouldn’t alter things hugely if that was the extent of the “meeting” only it would mean Lestat didn’t beg Louis.)
- Lestat’s recollection of these events is muddled & reflective of the awful mind-place he was genuinely in at this time. Lestat himself makes reference to being unsure how much is real or imagined & how memory plays tricks. Armand appearing to him is always dreamlike & confused.
- If Lestat wishes to years later deny the meeting happened when it actually did happen, it reflects only Lestat’s pain & shame & hurt. It doesn’t make Lestat a liar.
So, let’s look at it!
If the meeting didn't happen, it expresses something about Louis. But there's a lot less emotion in it in my opinion if it didn't happen. I think Louis must have at least seen Lestat to be able to describe Lestat how he does, before Lestat ever spoke of it. No? Also, it makes Louis unimaginably cruel & seems impossibly odd if Louis spends a good amount of time in New Orleans & doesn’t even try to glimpse Lestat! AND Armand suggests Louis should go there, so there’s no logical reason Armand would now try to keep Louis away from Lestat, after suggesting going to New Orleans! And there are a lot of odd implications too. If the meeting never happened, the whole emotional resolution & purpose of Louis’ story is removed. It had big implications of Louis’ experience of the next 50 years if that was just invented!! To me, it just makes no sense. Why would Louis make it up!?! How would he make it up, while giving an accurate description of Lestat’s state of mind & body at the time.
So, if the meeting didn't happen, then Louis still saw Lestat through a window, but never spoke to him. In that case, it would still be accurate as to what Louis presumably would have wanted to say/how he'd have wanted to act and how he did act as he still left Lestat alone there. Louis still would have got an accurate feeling about Lestat’s state of mind. The only difference would be no begging Lestat. The only negative could be if Louis intentionally mentions where Lestat lies in order to send people there. That could have negative connotations (sending people to kill Lestat), or positive (sending people to awaken Lestat.) But I don’t see Louis as that manipulative myself…? OR, that Louis unwittingly sends people to Lestat’s lair without even thinking about it could be Lestat’s true issue with it all!
It adds a heartbreaking moment in time if the meeting did happen. And it says something poignant about Lestat's pain around the moment. Louis saw & spoke to Lestat when Lestat was in his deepest despair, Lestat begged Louis to stay & Lestat can’t deal that in this moment, Louis instead abandoned him & left, thinking Lestat was indeed close to death, dying a slow, mortal-esque death & Louis says he thinks Lestat may never go outside again.
Maybe that's partially why I believe it happened. I'll always seek the answer of greatest emotional poignancy if I can, teehee!!! And that is the most emotionally poignant & heartbreaking scenario, no doubt! Give me all of the melodrama please, thank you! And some more melodrama on top of that! Drown me in heartbreak!
But yeah, it doesn't alter anything in the greater scheme of things.
To add: I think there is some logic in Louis abandoning Lestat. Of course Armand also asks Louis if he wanted revenge, for Claudia. And Louis is not yet fully in a place of loving Lestat. He is only just starting to begin to articulate a tiny amount of his feelings towards Lestat to Daniel around 50 years after this! Even now, he implies the depth of his feelings often rather than directly verbalising them. And this is half a century on! And we know Lestat wasn't coherent enough to explain himself to Louis in any way that he had earlier wanted to (as Louis tells it, but he's definitely not coherent enough as he describes himself with Armand in this era either.) so Louis has no way to understand Lestat (though Armand is worried he might… or maybe Armand realises he & Louis are soon to part ways & actually, kindly hoped to bring Louis & Lestat together now - a sort of gift. It just failed in that moment….?)
Also, given Louis' depressive worldview, I genuinely think he might have seen it as a kindness to leave Lestat. Louis talks about how Lestat is like an elderly mortal, close to death. Louis definitely perceives that Lestat will die soon and I think Louis could think he ought to let him have the death he is yearning for. Louis says several times that Lestat is dying. His story ends in despair and the despair is Lestat's despair... mirroring what will become his own despair. It's sort of only when Louis presumably goes through his own despair in these next 50 years that he can now begin to fully acknowledge what his feelings for Lestat are, as I see it.
I think it makes sense Louis doesn't tell Armand he saw Lestat for a month too. After all, Armand had let Louis believe Lestat was dead for literal years. And Louis knows too (if the meeting happened) that Lestat had thought he was dead, so he could easily presume (as is true) Armand told Lestat that. And it's already clear that Armand and Louis are soon to part ways. And Louis doesn't want Armand to know how he feels towards Lestat. There are many layers of complicated feelings.
It’ll remain up for debate as it is ambiguous. But I believe Louis' account (not 100%, but certainly the general gist of the feeling Louis had, what Louis did & Lestat’s despair) here. I just don't think this is the way in which Louis lies in the books. He paints a different picture of Lestat than we grow to know Lestat is. But the only TRUE lies Louis tells all stem from hiding his own feelings or from how he has misunderstood something, or where he had a lack of knowledge so filled in with what he presumed. And he sometimes might misinterpret things. But he doesn't tend to invent events that didn't happen. That's not Louis' style. He isn't directly, obtusely telling lies. He imagines what people's motivations and feelings are and can fully believe a wrong thing he says in that way. But he doesn't just make up events that didn't happen.
And then - Louis's account matches what Lestat says about himself at the time too closely and Louis couldn't know that unless he was there. And I just don't believe that Louis would be in New Orleans and either not see Lestat at all or only look at him through a window.
I'm very interested how they'll interpret it on the TV show though as obviously I understand not everyone thinks it happened at all. They'll probably play with Armand's mind powers here in some way... I mean, in the books, Armand does use such powers, putting visions in Lestat's head. They could have Armand use some kind of mind control to keep Louis away from Lestat I suppose. Although it doesn't make any sense to me as it's really Armand who suggests Louis should return to New Orleans...!?!?
I obviously personally think it did happen similarly to how Louis describes, so I think that we will see it that way and that will be truth. But who knows!
I hope I’m not annoying anyone who believes the opposite to me in discussing this! I find it so fascinating that we can have read the same books & believe opposite things! And I think there’s something very human in *needing* to know what you personally believe… hence why not a single person responded that they had no idea what the truth was! All of us instead decide on one side or the other what we feel was truth!
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eehee here it is the long awaited results of my chaotic ass survey about our hornies it’s so long holy heck, but I have seperated it into a couple sections to make sense of it all (omg if you read all of it lemme give you a kith teehee) ahhhh lol its SO nerdy haha but i hope that ya enjoy nonetheless! ✨
In this essay, I will....(hahah jk jk this is just all for fun)
1. Demographics Analysis
2. Polls on Fic Content
3. Member Specific Analysis
4. Deep Dive into the Juicy Questions (Confessions)
5. General Thoughts and Conclusion
6. Cute shit that ya’ll said that made me giggle
*Unpopular opinions will be made into their own post to give them ample space and analysis!
Other Notes:
Out of 100 individuals surveyed, 44 were readers, 2 were only writers, and 54 were both readers and writers.
Statistical significance can be effected by sampling, selection, and response bias (yeah i took a stats class teehee) and personal biases
All the the opinions and other analysis presented by me (Ro/binniesthighs) are purely my own oponion and are not factual. you are entitled to interpret all of this information however you like! Anything that i analyze is not definitive!
while this survey is mostly about stay smutblr, i hope that it can also maybe serve as a template for other fandoms as well with the more general questions! this is a survey for everyone!
i’d love to hear about what you think about anything presented in this analysis! feel free to send me an ask or comment! reposting is permitted within tumblr or on other platforms if proper credit is given! ❤️ (uwu hehe if you could please help me spread this i would appreciate it so much! i worked really hard on her 🥺)
1. Demographics Analysis:
Gender Identities of those Surveyed
~My thoughts: this really came as no surprise to me considering how the majority of kpop fans (especially boy group fans) identify as female! Seeing as I am a Stray Kids/Seventeen blog (both of them boy groups) it makes sense to me that my readers would mostly identify as female!
Another important thing to note (from a writer standpoint at least) is the wide array of identities that we still have present within the general audience of stay smut blur (SSB)! I’ll get into this later when i discuss favorite pairings to read, however i think that this gives us one more reason to write for a diverse audience of readers who can identify with different types of self-insert fics!
Top Five:
Female (81%)
Non-binary/gender non-conforming (13%)
Changes by the day (6%)
Male (4%)
Demiboy/Demigirl (3%)
Sexual Orientation of those Surveyed
Other identities mentioned:
????, unlabeled, aromatic bisexual, bicurious, demisexual, “just liking who i like”, experimenting, heteroflexible, sapiosexual, depends day by day, “i just like anyone”
~My thoughts: okkkkk i see us gays of SSB 😏 these demographics were really exciting for me to see! i think that it’s super cool that we have such representation across the board when it comes to sexual orientations present in our community! As someone who personally identifies as pan, this was super comforting to see that there are so many others like me in this little space of the internet! I think it’s safe to say at least from my lil survey that all the bi cuties out here own SSB 💗💜💙
From a literal standpoint, it also makes sense to me that heterosexuality is strongly present as well considering that often the pairs that we read are male idol x female reader so this is the perfect niche!
Top Five:
Bisexual (40.8%)
Heterosexual (26.5)
Pansexual (17.3%)
Queer (7.1%)
Asexual (4.1%)
Stay Creators!!
~My thoughts: this one i was THRILLED at seeing oml hahaha and i was so interested to see that this was nearly an even split!
I think that there’s something to be said about how sometimes we can take our hobbies: (movies, videogames, books, kpop, anime etc)--all things which we really like in totally normal and healthy ways but also kinda like....get hornies about them too? if that makes sense? for example, i have a friend who really likes certain video games/characters from these games as a fan and he’s shared with me that he also doesn’t mind watching porn containing those same characters! (ahahah ya all know what i mean don’t even lie haha)
what this question proved to me as that there are stays out there who practice “being a stay/being a stay creator” who also are interested in the more...horny side of this hobby/interest 😂
what is even more interesting to me is who i wonder if i’ve have consumed any of ya’ll’s content while you have consumed mine??? this i am DYING to know aha but it think its best for all of us to stay anonymous teehee ;)
either way, good on ya for doing what ya do!! you are so so treasured in this community too!! <3
2. Polls on Fic Content (a long section lol)
Favorite Pairing to Read
*other options selected were rankings of favorite pairings so i just added each of them as an entry to the respective category mentioned.
Top Five:
Idol x female reader (69%)
Idol x gender neutral reader (19%)
Idol x reader x Idol (poly r/ship) (14%)
Idol x reader, Idol x reader (threesome, not much interaction between the two idols) (8%)
~My thoughts: once again, this category was pretty self explanatory to me considering that the majority of readers are female identifying, so it would make sense that they would prefer to read smut that aligns with their identity! This is also super present anyway of SSB as i do feel like the majority of writing pieces that I do come along are idol x female reader, and most authors too often disclaim that they are the most comfortable writing this type of pairing as well.
What’s signficant as well is the interest in reading fics with gender neutral reader self inserts as well! this is my personal philosophy when it comes to writing (specifically with requests) but i think that writing gn!reader is always the safest bet to go as to not make assumptions about readers! for writers i think that seeing this 19% is something important to take into consideration!
An outlier to me with this demographic was the “poly r-ship” poll garnering a notable 14% in comparison to the idol x idol option which got 10 less votes (4%). what is a little confusing to me about this is how poly r/ships often (but not always) contain idol x idol content, however there is discrepancy with the amount of readers outright saying that they enjoy reading it alone. I’ll get into poly fics later with the unpopular opinions section--however i wanted to plant the seed here hehe. One other caveat to this is the fact that on SSB i feel like idol x idol content is really in the minority and is much more present on a platform like AO3 so this could be another explaination!
What is kinda cute to me is the fact that readers do really like poly r-ship dynamics more than a threesome (as i defined it, “with less interaction”) so this makes me feel like we are all saps for the fluff that comes with poly r-ship fics ;)
Favorite Kind of Smut to Read
male idol smut (67%)
i read both! (female and male idol smut) (25%)
depends on my mood (7%)
female idol smut (1%)
~My thoughts: Again, this is super expected to me as well considering the above statistics. Since i am a skz blog (a boy group) --as are my moots-- it really makes sense that those who filled out this survey would be into male idol smut!
what was cool for me to see as well was the number of readers who also read female idol smut as well as male idol smut! personally, i more predominately a fan of boy groups compared to the amount of girl group content that I consume (note: i do also consume gg content). because of this, i think that its really up to personal preferences and the content that you consume that can be reflective of the smut content that you consume as well and ya know, whoever gets your hornies going ;)
Favorite Genres...Ranked!
*so this was my fault lol i totally formatted this question poorly in google forms so i’ll try to summarize the most popular rankings with my words haha
*bc of the way that i miffed it (lol) i wasn’t able to get exact measurements, but rough ones!
Top Five:
Smut, fluff, angst
smut n’ fluff (with specific emphasis angst is not desired)
smut, angst, fluff,
fluff, smut, angst,
angst, fluff, smut
~My thoughts: by far, the most popular ranking that i saw was as follows: smut, fluff, angst. i saw this sososos many times haha also...ya’ll got really creative with your rankings and it made me giggle hehe. So! seeing as this is stay smutblr haha makes total sense that the three most popular rankings that we have were lead by smut! since we’re here for the hornies, i totally get this.
as for the “smut n’ fluff” or “fluffy smut” category, there was a decent amount of readers that expressed that this mixture is their fave! i’m kinda looping this with the “mixture” option that i also provided for this question since this was the most popular mixture that i was able to observe along with angst + smut. interestingly, i saw a couple mentions of “hurt/comfort” fics with this question too so this went well with this preference. as for number three on this list, we dip into that smut + angst category that I just mentioned as well. there were several individuals who said that they really really enjoy reading smut with angst!
lastly we get to the four and five on the list: four being fluff, smut and angst. i think this category can also properly represent the folx who tend to like more fluffy fics over the smutty ones, but that can also have suggestive themes too! in five, we have angst, fluff and smut which also is representative of another theme that i saw: as far as plot goes, several people mentioned that they liked fics that start with angst, get fluffier, and then end up in smut, so i think that this could be easily compared!
*there were also several readers who simply said “all of them” or opted not to rank, (lol me) so this really shows the variability in results!
Cute stuff ya’ll said (kind of out of context too LOL)
“... hehE I HOPE THIS MAKES SENSE.”
“...I KNOW IT [my ranking] LOOKS TERRIBLY SPECIFIC AND IM SO SORRY and I guess the better way to describe that was one that has all 3 with a happy ending lol my b my b.”
“ ...it just depends on the mood my dude.”
“... (the smut doesn’t have to be soft i just want the relationship to be soft and i want aftercare and general affection).”
“(but almost no angst oops)”
“angst honestly makes me so sad.”
“... but long fics with angst and slow burn smut/fluff is just WOW.”
“ my favourite thing is when it's fluffy smut tbh with a little bit of angsty backstory. that is *chefs kiss*”
“(I'm a sucker for good angsty fics but I cant seem to find them???)”
“Smut, Fluff, Angst (I tend to be a bit of a purist so no mixture here).”
“(i can't read pure angst lol) “
“(I love how much plot there is in angsty fics but I personally can't read anything without a happy ending, i just can't take it)”
“ i literally couldn't rank them bc my mood is always changing lmaooo.”
“ smut, fluff, angst. i know what i’m about.”
Favorite Length of Fics
Top Five:
5k-8k words (27%)
2k-4k words (25%)
1k-2k words (20%)
10k-20k words (15%)
20k words (12%)
~My thoughts: this one was super helpful for me to see!! and writers i hope that this is helpful for you too! as someone who tends to rambles (lol) it was very comforting for me to see that long-ish fics are actually preferred! what is really cool about this data too is that it is all super well balanced for the most part and nearly edqual in some parts! how i see this, i think that when it comes to preferences of length, its really reader specific so anyone could like anything! this goes into a little bit the slow burn question that i asked as well too, but it’s really cool to see that when readers do read, they kinda like something to sink their teeth into!
i wanted to look into how long it takes you to read these words, and it appears that on average, a 5-8k fic can take someone 30 mins to read whereas a 2-4k fic takes about 15mins! idk if this says something about attention spans, but as a writer it warms my heart to know that you’re willing to spend 30 minutes of your time reading something that i wrote! 🥺
another thing i wanted to bring up is the “hard and fast” smut readers--those who like to get straight to the point, get right to business and to the juice! they are also a decently large group too! as for readers who like a nice long fic or a chaptered fic, they are super close in numbers! from this, it’s safe for me to assume that maybe those who like reading longer fics are more inclined to strap in for the long haul with chaptered fics too!
Favorite AUs to Read
*the top category that got cut off (thank you google forms lol) is friends to lovers! the one that says “...love” at 48% is enemies to lovers, and the one that has a blanked out title at 35% is strangers to lovers!
Top Five:
friends to lovers (65%)
enemies to lovers (48%)
high school/college au (40%)
roommates/neighbors to lovers (38%)
strangers to lovers (35%)
Other AUs mentioned by you!
office au, royal au, vampire au, fake date, idol au, slice of life, boarding school au, childhood friends, soulmate au
~My thoughts: ok ok so this was RAD to see! i often wonder myself the kinds of aus that my readers would like to see so this was really helpful! circling back on how readers tend to favor fluff n’ smut (friends to lovers) and angst n’ smut (enemies to lovers) i think that we’re seeing some more themes here teehee.
i like to think that since most of us are of the college age, the college au is super relatable therefore we really like to read it! not to mention that college and high school au’s are super duper cute as well! this is also relatable to the roommates/neighbors to lovers category which is also relatable to us who may or may not have experienced having a roommate or crush on the cutie next door ;) as a couple readers mentioned, they liked more “slice of life” au’s--which both of these categories fall into! i think we as readers like scenarios that feel the most real to us, bc they are the easiest to insert ourselves into :)
fantasy and thriller, action, more “fiction” tropes are in the minority, however i think that this can be for the exact same reason as i mentioned above where readers like more relatable scenarios.
Opinions on Slow Burn Fics
~My thoughts: during polling of this category, this pie cart stayed basically the same the whole time!! that was pretty cute to see! the important take aways from this survey for me is the fact that slow burn fics are generally really loved! again, lol as someone who writes big ol’ long slow burn fics this made me feel a lot better hahaha basically, the general consensus is that slow burn fics are welcome most of the time, however some readers might need to invest a little more time into them! this is also very easily comparable to the above statistics on the length of fics preferred (longer ones being the ones more popular) so here’s a lil more supporting evidence!
3. Member Specific Analysis
Bias Survey
Top Five:
Chan (19%)
Changbin (18%)
Hyunjin (16%)
Jisung (15%)
Minho (14%)
~My thoughts: ok ok ok so this is where it starts getting JUICY hehe (also i apologize once more for making you pick LOL)
the reason why i asked this question was because i wanted to see if there was a correlation with biases and if there was a probability that members who had more people biasing them (or popularity I guess) were more likely to be read more in smut fics! AND I WAS RIGHT haha isn’t this so fkn cool??? (see more in the next section!)
for comparison, i went to kprofiles to see their little survey on bias popularity and their top five.
Kprofiles Top Five:
Hyunjin (15%)
Felix (14%)
Chan (12%)
Minho (11%)
Jisung (11%)
SO oh my god my nerd brain is loosing it over this REE so, what i should note that is those who took this survey on my blog are likely generally different based off of the fact that they are here to read smut specifically, rather than the general holistic popularity survey. It is for this reason that we see Felix much higher on this list and Changbin much lower too (as we know Felix is really well known generally and globally and there are *generally* fewer Bin biased fans). What was really interesting to see what that with Hyunjin, Chan, Jisung and Minho, they still all stayed within the top five! Soooo what i’m saying is.... all of you Hyunjin, Chan, Jisung and Minho fans really must like your smut 😏 and I think that it’s safe to assume that the majority of hard stans come from these four members too ooP (and of course our Binnie too! ;) i see all of ya’ll 👀)
Members That Get Our Hornies Going
~My thoughts: AHH DOESN’T THIS LOOK SO SATISFYING? I’M SO PROUD OF HER!!!
First off, i would like to acknowledge the all mighty power of Bang Christopher Chan for pooling this most hornies god DAMN while i kind of expected this, it is also evidenced in the fics that i write! recently i’ve been tracking the number of notes that my Chan hard thoughts get in comparison to other members and the differences are usually ASTRONOMICAL. He is most def the most popular member for smut for several different reasons, lowkey bc i think that it’s kind of part of his brand?? hahaha if ya know what i mean?
As for preference from Minho on, we can see a super obvious trend that as age order decreases, we get less and less interest for reading for the member. I’m fairly inclined to believe that this has to do with the fact that most often fans (especially fans older than skz) have a harder time seeing the younger members in a sexual way, so the lack of interest totally makes sense here! As referenced above too, we found that the oldest five members (Chan --> Jisung) are the favorites for smut reading which we can see here as well when the numbers really drop after Felix (Felix coming in at 6th place on my “popularity” survey).
Bc of these statistics, i do really feel like as a reader, i tend to see much, much more fics involving our top five! As for Seungmin and Jeongin, I’ve also seen people state that they do not read or write content for these two members bc they do not feel as comfortable, so this can also explain the lack of content. Also as we have heard many times, Jeongin is a bit of a hot topic lol within the SSB community, so this makes sense that his readership would be low as well.
4. Deep Dive into the Juicy Questions (aka confessions)
Is the fact that you read smut a seggsy secret?
~My thoughts: JUICE TIME JUICE TIME
Before I say anything, i wanted to tell you all how all of the juicy questions were totally optional, but i got 100% participation for every single one of them which if find HILARIOUS i guess you all are just as curious as i am?? ;)
So! for this question, we have an overwhelming amount of readers who said that only their closest friends know which is so cute to me! i love how we can trust our friends with this hehe. i also fall into this category bc like, it’s lowkey kinda fun to talk about? maybe also the fact that i run a smut acct makes me care a little less about it all hahah
secondly, we have the rather large group of people who said that they wouldn’t dare to tell anyone which is also sooo cute haha idk how to explain it but this was the category that i started out in too until i found the right people! But i totally get ya, reading smut--especially-- kpop smut-- can be embarrassing or cringey to share (not to mention that it is somewhat morally grey LOL) so this is really understandable!
also my fkn hats off to all of you who said that you didn’t care about who knows that you read smut. here, you dropped this: 👑 you’re much braver than i could ever be.
When you read smut, do you really feel the hornies?
~My thoughts: ok, so this one to me was also very interesting for me to see as well! (also if you get uncomfy reading about personal masturbation habits you can skip this one lol)
the reason why i asked this question was because i wanted to see if people “get off” by reading smut (whether reading it turns you on, or if you choose to use it for “material” to get off on however this might look, might be more of a mental simulation without any real like, physical getting off) candidly, I use smut to get myself off every once and a while, so i wanted to see who else might be in the same group! since becoming a writer however, i read much less and reading it doesn’t hit the same when i was just a reader bc i have a different perspective of being the one writing the smut so i look at it more analytically--i digress.
it was exciting (teehee get the pun?) for me to see that others also “get off” on smut too--and that they are the majority! teehee it is an honor for me to provide you with the hornies LOL. at the same time, we still have a large group in the “don’t take to seriously” category which was interesting to me too! i can’t speak for these readers, but i interpreted these kind of readers to be the kind who read smut to imagine the scenes and are like “hm, that’s hot, i like thinking about this.” but it doesn’t extend much outside of these thoughts.
What is the most popular position pairing we like to read?
*smaller slices of the pie represent multiple favorites which i also seperated back into the categories corresponding to get the best count into what was the most preferred.
Actual Breakdown:
dom!idol // sub!reader (51 votes)
switch!idol // switch!reader (32 votes)
subidol! // dom!reader (11 votes)
all of the above (5 votes)
depends on my mood (2 votes)
~My thoughts: i feel as if there is a bit of a conflict between which position really is “the best” and while we really can’t know the answer to this question since everyone has different preferences, we can at least find out which one is the most popular to be consumed!
again, going off of the content that I also see as a reader, i see TONS of dom!idol fics, like, left and right. also, if i may come for all of our necks, 👀 but...there’s really something to be said about the fact that the majority of readers are female and historically and socially, women are typically socialized to be submissive, so i can see why this would be why we would favor this among fics--this is even further evidenced by the fact that male idol smut is also preferred, thus further perpetuating the fact that women have been socialized to be submissive to men specifically. i’m not saying that this is the end all be all reason that this trend is present, but i merely offer it as a possible explaination. this is a much larger sociological conversation, but i think that this trend also showed itself in the types of smut that readers seek out as well--according to demographics.
sub!idol fics are few and far in-between, and i think that this can also be for the exact same reason as i talked about above!
When you read smut, do you pick faves to read for?
~My thoughts: what’s cool about this question is the fact that the “half and half” nature of it also resembles what we saw in the section for favorite members to read! As we see in that chart, 41 out of 100 people said that they read everyone, similar to this question where 48 out of 100 people said that they read for everyone. What this proves to me once more is that when it comes for reading fics, there's a 50/50 chance that the reader will look at, and read it based off of who it is about alone. This is a really powerful statistic, meaning that the members who that a writer might write for really dictates their readership! At the same time, it’s super comforting to know that regardless of what you as a writer might write, there’s always someone out there who is willing to read it! (as evidenced by the 52% of people who read for anyone! this is still a large number)
Readers: Do you only use Tumblr for smut?
~My thoughts: when i first started out reading smut, i was in the “i just look up skz smut” group LOL so i wanted to see again if there was anyone like me--which there is! This was more of my interest in seeing if some people view tumblr as “their smut dealer” AHA so that my initial motivation. I was surprised to see that this is not the case! out of 100 readers, 39 of them have their own non-smut blogs and the second largest group of 26 people use tumblr for smut exclusively.
idk why, but when thinking of this question, it really got me thinking back to the question where i asked if reading smut is a seggsy secret, and there was the group of people who said that it is for them--i’m assuming that these people might be part of the group have non-smut blogs and read on the side teehee.
at the same time, there is a combined 40 people who said that they use tumblr for smut purposes only which makes sense to me, as those who filled out my survey are readers of my smut blog if you catch my drift haha
Writers: Do you read smut, or just write it?
*56 responses correlate with those polled who identified as writers/both as mentioned above
~My thoughts: this survey is really really cute for me to see bc it means that there is a whole support network or writers out there reading, supporting and here to hype other writers work!! if anything, as a writer because it takes so much time to write, it can become hard to find time to read, hence the “when i have time option lollll (*cough cough* me LOL) thank you all for your honesty with this question!
5. General Thoughts and Conclusion
Survey on Exposure
~My thoughts: i kinda wanna close off this survey by getting on my soapbox for a sec lol. At least for me, the most common ways that readers found my blog were: looking up a tag, and from a repost. i think that this really goes to show the power of exposure and certain tactics that you can use to increate readership of your account! new readers, if you’re reading this and you’re just starting out, tagging your stuff is so so important!
also, as i have said and so so, many other content creators have said countless times before, reposting is so crucial and it takes little to no effort to repost a creators work so that it might reach others! as a writers, we spend hours, and i mean hours creating content, editing, drafting, creating headers all out own time to publish something that we are proud of and for you to enjoy! it means the world to authors when you reblog their work and even more when you give feedback too because this is our passion! we write for free in the middle of our busy lives so the validation makes it all worth it!!
Conclusion
~phew! so that’s it! once again, i wanted to thank you all from the bottom of my heart from participating in this lil study! i really hope that it is helpful to writers and readers alike! i wanna give ya all the biiiiiigest Ro huggies!! 💕💕
as i mentioned above, the answers for the unpopular opinions will be made into their own post bc there is a ton of them and i didn’t want to clutter up this doc lol
don’t ya ever forget that you are important, loved, and special! happy hornies my cuties ;)
~R 🌹
6. Cute shit that ya’ll said that made me giggle (and hopefully makes you giggle too)
~you all are the light of my life!! each of these comments brought me so much happiness and i love you all so fkn much for that!! also, to those of you who said, “Ro date me” PLZ haha i will date you too!!! too all of the super sweet comments about my writing, thank you so so very much and thank you for reading! it means so much to me!! to all of the i love yous, ahhhh i love you toooooo 💕
“I DUNNO IM BAD AT FUNNY STUFF BUT KNOCK KNOCK I GUESS? -whos there
RO
-ro who
Me, in chan voice: RObber ducky you're the one
yeah...
yeah
bYE”
“ I didn’t know changbin’s thighs were of such importance until I saw your username but now?? 👀 I am looking respectfully.”
“ every time chan doesn’t reply to my bubble message i hold my breath and try to die💆♀️”
“ here are my favorite emoji combos: 😐☝️ 😫🖐️ 😂🤏 (i use that one when i get a dick pick and it's rlly small but the person thinks its big-) “
“ you are EVIL for making me choose just ONE bias OT8 EXISTS OK!?”
“ I hope this survey provides you with a lot of useful feedback! -sincerely a big tiddie committee member (you know the one)” [hehe yes i do hai M ;)]
“ chan’s tiddies... that’s it.”
“jeogiyo noona hokshi namjachingu isseoyo?“
“ Jeongin is appropriately baby bread because his face is puffy in the morning so it's kinda like yeast rising 👉👉 “
“ someone needs to tell hyunjin to put some vaseline or something on his cuticles like I love him a lot but his recent live made me scream sir your cuticles are hanging on for dear life please I'm literally begging you “
“ I squeal whenever I get a notification from you and my family think I’m secretly dating someone. It’s nice knowing that they think I can get someone during a pandemic 😁 “ [this one had me SENT]
“i hope ur dreams are blessed with skz thighs.”
“ HS Bin supremacy!!”
“Sta”
“Ro(ses) are red, violets are blue - DaVinci painted Mona, cause he couldn't find you :') “
“✨ dInG dOnG ✨ “
“You're doing God's work as a changbin stan xD “ [thank you so much aHA]
“damn gorl, are you a wifi signal? cause i’m tryna connect 🤔🥴✌🏾 “
“Good luck with your survey! I hope you get a big response! You know what else is big..?
Chan's feet. (I'm sorry, that was my attempt to make you giggle but I'm clearly not a comedian)”
“What's the internal temperature of a taun taun? Luke warm! (Haha sorry star wars joke) “
“egg“
“just because you’re garbage, doesn’t mean you can’t do great things. It’s called garbage can, not garbage cannot <3 “
“Soft-Dom Minho Agenda is the best agenda. I have spoken. Sincerely yours, Javi (@itsapapisongo) “ [this is the way javi]
“Bang chan daddy supremacy”
“ro, ro, ro your boat gently down skz’ dick hell yea.” [this also had me SENT]
“stay smut writers should take “maknae on top” literally“
“idk man i’m just vibing. hope ur day is going well. (changbin voice) da DA da”
Fin.
~🌹~
Bunch of (Ro)ses!
@minaamhh @dazzlehoseok @synnocence @jjewibeans @hyunsluvv @unexceptional-h @bobawithchaitea @lechanters @sailorhyunjinz @silencefavarchive @lunarskzzz @yourdaddychan @bubblelixie @spnobsessedmemes @chaangbin @lmhmins @eunaeiekim
#PHEW#haha this was so fun!!#binniesthighs helpdesk#skz smut#stray kids smut#kpop smut#bang chan smut#lee minho smut#changbin smut#hyunjin smut#han jisung smut#felix smut#seungmin smut#jeongin smut
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Eret Dream SMP
10 APR 21 Delayed Liveblogging Part 1/1
Alright I’m 2 hours late because I missed the notification
But it looks like we’re building an ice highway and talking anime so all’s good.
I love all the people shouting Yuri on Ice. Just everyone shouting for him to watch the gay show.
Their not up for “sexy lamp” females in shows. Understandable.
Cool being with her flower crown.
Yuck. Why is a 14 year old writing a love letter to a 24 year old? IM SORRY THEY FELL IN LOVE WHEN SHE WAS 10?!?
A lot of people shouting about assassination classroom as well. It was actually a pretty good show.
I won’t ask what banana fish is..
Eret’s moving out of the tower?
Not into his castle no no.
Nah into the neato fortress.
Poor being just wants to be near the others.
Time to watch the ye of the poll go ZOOOOM
Given? Haven’t heard of that one.
Yeah I was really late.
Ad and void time let’s go! We love the void.
Multiplayer ad! Let’s get the Eret some extra ad money!
The void art is so cute. I wonder who did it? I’ll have to search and find out.
Let’s vote Bois!
I’m saving up my bits for a water and I’m at 10.8k and I’m always so tempted to use them to unlock emotes but I know I need to wait to get to my goal.
I’m almost better at saving bits than money
Firefighters? Well duh there was a fire.
This poor king. So many concerning things.
Now everyone wants a sad-ist react.
I agree to wait for an animatic stream. It’s always awesome when Eret reacts to all those little animatics that didn’t have a lot of views.
Already back to talking about sexism in anime
Fortress expansion! Woo!
Pretty being deserves to be complicated with the work they put in their appearance.
Ah a sus on the horizon.
Ah. The sonic man is committing arson. That is acceptable to the leader of the lgbt twitch kids.
A combination pop and bonk sound when the bottle opens.
Oh wait my comment got read I forget that happens here. That’s happens to me multiple times at this point. Am I just lucky or do others have that happen?
Oh he said below the age of 13. I thought I said under the age of 30 for a second and I was so confused.
Chat kids. Hons. Dont say your exact age on the internet anywhere for any reason. The only options are adult. Older minor. Younger minor. Maybe only adult and minor in most scenarios.
Ah is sniff here? Sniff’s cool.
Stupidly long songs are almost always awesome songs.
About to switch from watching on my iPad and typing on my phone to doing both on my phone.
Hank Green follows Eret on TikTok?
Alright I’ve swapped to my phone to watch and type
Ah we beat the sub goal.
Defenestration such as “be quiet or I will defenestrate you”
I hear this being quoting a tiktok. I know because I also watched that tiktok.
Overmorrow is one of my favorite words. Everyone forgets it but it’s great.
No headaches. Those aren’t allowed.
Twitter. Be nice to the king.
If any CC should come to tumblr Eret should. He would fit in well.
“Twitter needs to cancel itself” I wholly agree. Twitter is only good for fanart. It’s no fun any other way.
Twitter is the on fire garbage can that tumblr was. Now tumblr is just a chill campfire.
People don’t accept that people learn. People like to pull out old things that don’t reflect their now views.
Eret’s chat is so chill. Even when unhappy about Twitter.
Switching from talking negative things. Nice.
Awww. Everyone chanting about tumblr. We are superior.
Does yahoo own tumblr? I wouldn’t know. Poor tumblr seems like its run by a whole 4 people.
Eret’s chat is also super nice to one another. Like they try to answer each other’s questions about what’s going on and the like.
I love how the chat goes nuts with the appropriate hearts when people come out.
Dress the way ya want. Life’s better that way.
Ooo. I’m going to add a sponge to the kit I keep in case a kid I work with or a friend starts having a panic attack.
Building content is always thrilling. I can’t do that stuff so it’s fun watching building.
The poor rock just saw the verified mark and didn’t stop to think.
And it was his own brand as well. And he didn’t even delete it and try to recover.
Chat just singing along to the song. I love this chat so much. They are so sweet.
I wonder what Eret’s chat “personifies” as in the smp if we do?
This man isn’t encouraging that tattoo but if it happens he demands to see it.
Chat just yelling Bye.
I probably won’t make a post for whoever we raid.
I just don’t think I feel wordy enough for that.
Off we go to the other lgbt mine being!
That last second hype train. LOL
Also poor Eret scared the audience won’t come back. She doesn’t realize that her audience is like a lot of puppies.
She could tell us to wait for next stream and we would wait there for however long it takes for her to get back. Be it a day or several months. We would wait and then be really hyper and happy when she returns.
Anyway. Farewell you all!
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Fragments from “The Pursuit of Art” by Martin Gayford
Chance and Necessity 17: Gerhard Richter: Chance does it better than I can
‘Art should be serious, not a joke. I don’t like to laugh about art.’ But, Richter added happily, ‘I am ridiculously old fashioned.’ And there I suspected he was joking, just a little; after all, he was one of the most radical painters alive, a superstar of contemporary art, at that time regularly heading polls of the most admired artist alive.
This in a way was the story of his life and career: continuing to work in a medium - paint - that was widely believed to have died long ago.
‘I believe in eating too. What can we do? We have to eat; we have to paint; we have to live. Of course not everybody paints, there are different ways to survive. But it’s my best option. I didn’t have much choice when I was young.’
Marianne was later murdered in a Nazi programme to exterminate the mentally ill.
‘I work on, say, six works at the same time. They learn from each other. One is better here, worse there, so I change it. Finishing is the most difficult thing.’
‘Several hours of painting in the studio in the morning and two more in the afternoon. Every day is not possible; you don’t have the right mood every day. But that’s the ideal.’
He named after John Cage, the avant-garde American composer who had once announced, in his ‘Lecture on Nothing’, ‘I have nothing to say and I’m saying it.’ Perhaps that was true of Richter too.
‘Chance does it better that I can,’‘but I have to prepare the conditions to allow randomness to do its work.’
‘Randomness is an important theme to me because it’s the same in life,’ ‘Chance determines out lives in very important ways. If he hadn’t met her, what would have happened to them both?’
‘Of course, the more energetic people are the ones who leave - that’s the simple explanation, but it’s not that simple. We saw modern art in magazines, but we were hungry to see it. When you have everything, naturally you are not so hungry.’
His painting of his aunt Marianne contained terrible memories, whereas Ema (Nude on a Staircase) (1996), a picture in the Ludwig Museum here in Cologne of Richter’s first wife, nude, walking downstairs, was full of love and sensuality. If Vermeer had ever painted a naked portrait of his wife, it really might have looked a bit like this.
Only many years later did he discover that Ema’s father had been the commandant of the camp where Marianne died.
For this medieval monument the religious faith, Richter had devised a window of 11,500 hand-blown glass panels in seventy-two shades compatible with the existing stained glass. There were made and put together in accordance with a randomizing computer programme.
Cardinal Joachim Meisner, observed that when culture is cut off from God it becomes ‘degenerate’. That really stirred things up because degenerate - in German, ‘entartete’ -was the word used by the Nazis to describe modern art. The Cardinal was angry, Richter told me, because his window is not a Catholic window. Then he wryly repeated Einstein’s remark, ‘God does not play dice.’
Richter’s strained glass looked fabulous: flickering with light, absolutely contemporary, suggestive of some infinitely complex system. You could see why the Cardinal thought it was scandalously irreligious.
as if you were looking at electrons, molecules and photons in action.
Niels Bohr, another great physicist, responded: ‘Don’t tell God what to do!’
Chance and Necessity 18: Robert Rauschenberg: A Turtle in the Elevator
Rauschenberg, it soon emerged, loved cooking, and gave a characteristically oblique account of why he like it: ‘It’s a very special way just to turn your back and still be there.’
‘I left the church’, he explained, ‘because I did not believe that life was to be spent thinking that everything in the world was evil. But the church showed me what I was: that I wasn’t interested in value judgement and condemnation as a life style. I did not believe in goodness coming from fear.’
It is true that early on Rauschenberg produced some paintings even more austere than his teacher’s, canvases painted entirely in white, for example. These he explained as the result of a militant desire to be fair to paints. He hated the way painters picked on ‘innocent colours’ and had forced them to express their emotions. He didn’t think artists should make pigments, or anything else, express their feelings.
Hughes, with typical verbal gusto, and doubtless conscious of Rauschenberg’s sexual orientation, described Monogram as ‘one of the few great icons of male homosexual love in modern culture: the Satyr in the Sphincter’.
The artist vehemently rejected this account: ‘Most art critics, if you tell them they can’t use any sexual interpretations, they go mute. They don’t know what they are looking at. It’s like candy is sweet; nobody buys bitter candy. It’s a cheap trick. I don’t know how you would get anywhere - if everything had to read through sexuality’. Here was another lesson: how artists see their work may be diametrically different from how it is understood by critics and historians.
He acted on just that principle in 1964 when he won the Grand Prize for Painting a the Venice Biennale. This was a historic victory, which sent shock waves through the European art world, and has often been viewed as marking the moment at which New York definitely took over from Paris as the world capital of culture.
Rauschenberg’s reaction to this triumph was to instruct his studio assistant in New York to destroy 150 of the silk-screens that had been used to make these pictures, so he would not repeat himself.
Those silk-screen pictures that won the prize at the Venice Biennale had for some reason I can’t quite fathom called to me when I was a teenager, so much so that at the age of 18 I had made some collages of my own in homage. They are still there, in a cardboard box in the attic: a possible path in the end I did not follow. Now I regret I didn’t tell Rauschenberg that. On the other hand, I know how he would have reacted: he would have said he didn’t want people to make art like his, but to do something completely different.
Chance and Necessity 19: Desperately Seeking Lorenzo Lotto
he described himself as ‘old, alone, without any stable domestic arrangements and very anxious of mind’.
There is an odd but revealing phrase - ‘in the flesh’ - for seeing art in reality, not reproduction. With Lotto and other Venetian painters it’s almost exact: to appreciate them properly you have to stand in front of them. Only then can you sense the carnal reality of the people they depict, the glistening of their skin, gleam in their eyes, the weight of their bodies, the texture of their clothes. These are physical experiences, because paint is a physical substance: a layer of organic and inorganic chemicals that reflects the light, and consequently changes every time the light alters. There is no substitute for being there.
I hate being lost, so much so that quite often I dream of not being able to find my way. Along with two other nightmares, missing trains and planes, it happens in reality quite frequently: cruelly often when I am searching for church or museum containing a rare work of art.
A contemporary painter, Luc Tuymans, once said to the that it was a sign of a good painting that it could not be memorized. That’s true and explains why it always looks different when you see it again. So, on another day, and mood, they would all seem changed.
The pursuit of art is a journey that never stops; the more you see, the more you want to see.
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reaction post typed while watching SPN 14x05 “Nightmare Logic”
oh, what a perfectly soft and emotional Destiel-parallelly piece of Meredith Glynn artwork. so precious, so loved~
03:47pm
things i know about this: meredith glynn wrote it
LET’S WATCH
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03:50
noooo maggie don’t do things like this alooooone
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i like the music as she enters... kinda weird and sparkly and awkward
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03:53
sammy...... you know what you need
someone to do the night shift
if only...... you had.............. someone else........................
*looks pointedly at dean*
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03:55
where does sam get the financial resources for shit like body cams
we never see them running credit card scams any more so........ ???????
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03:57
i love these cable things by the roads
so aesthetic
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03:58
even more spooky pretty music as dean and sam enter the tomb
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03:59
dean and sam lie so effortlessly and so in sync
i always enjoy seeing them do this, ever since dean told a firefighter he needed to go back into his apartment because he has a yorkie who pees when he’s nervous
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04:01
aw man i thought the “colleagues” would be cas and jack
bobby and mary’s cool too
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04:02
bobby’s wearing a cap like michael’s
and mary’s wearing a coat like cas’
..does this mean this story’s gonna be about dean’s war between those two things, like the two worlds he knows
bobby’s parenting vs. mary’s parenting
michael’s need for him as a vessel vs. cas’ love for him as a bestest buddy bro friend
not sure how bobby = micheal / mary = cas but i’m sure there’ll be some kind of explanation later
OR maybe they’re just costumes and they mean nothing
but......is that ever true? trenchcoats are automatically a cas thing now. and that cap is so iconic as michael now???
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04:09
i relate to this lady in the suit who has had Too Much Of Everything
i enjoy seeing people know their limits and expressing them to others rather than continuing past breaking point
sam’s doing great but also....... no
take a page from this lady’s book, sammy
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04:11
mary’s walking with sam
and i just wanna take a minute to appreciate how EASY meredith glynn’s episodes are to watch
her scripts flow so gently and everything makes logical sense
and her characters are coherent
there’s just this nice touch of emotional human realism cloaking all the supernatural weirdness and i so, so appreciate that
like.. for me personally, there’s not a single writer on the current team whose writing comes close to glynn’s
i want her to write more episodes with cas though, i know she’d write him just right
i honestly feel like i’m being hugged by someone as i watch this
so soft around my heart
is good
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04:16
sam: “you [and bobby have] gotten pretty close lately”
mary: “i thought so too”
OH WAIT I GET IT
I GET THE COAT AND THE HAT NOW
IT’S A DESTIEL THING
OH MY FUCKING GOD HOW DID I MISS THAT
IT’S SO BLINDINGLY OBVIOUS HOLY FUCKING FUCKDISAFKDSHGF
even the casual viewers will probably have noticed this one. i know it took me a second but as soon as this discussion happened it clicked
this is probably the most obvious parallel they’ve ever done i think
i didn’t see it before because i didn’t EXPECT it, you know?? ugh this is so validating
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04:22
now every word mary says, i’m just envisioning how it applies to cas’ perspective too
“he’s been hunting all the time, he won’t take a break even for a second. there’s something on his mind”
yeah, that mICHEAL HAT, quite literally sitting over his head like a dark halo
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04:26
the music in this episode is just so pleasing to my ears
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04:31
things i appreciate:
normal people being all “wtf you hunt monsters” and just being present while dean and sam talk about their shit
sam’s reference to “hunteri heroici” (my all-time fave episode besides “scoobynatural” jdgd that was five years ago what the hell)
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04:35
me: takes screenshot of this very pretty, very anxious lady because i want my hair to do what her hair does
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04:36
oop we just found the dean mirror and now we get to hear someone talk about the things he feels and offer advice that ultimately helps himself
god i love this
AND THE FACT I CAN UNDERSTAND THIS PARALLEL AND WHY IT’S HAPPENING
AGAIN SOLIDIFIES THE DEAN/CAS THING WITH BOBBY/MARY
because what mary said about bobby = what cas thinks about dean = what’s true about dean = this lady being overworked = dean not taking time off from hunting
(although it does seem to specifically apply to sam as well ?)
and sam mentioned earlier about how the dad he knew and the dad mary knew were different people, plus the earlier mentions this season about john’s problematic parenting (i forget when)
yeah that really makes a point of saying john abused his kids, for sure
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lady: “he was gone all the time, working for us, he said”
yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep
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lady: “i worshipped him when i was a kid. didn’t know any better”
oh deanie
please take notes
please know it’s okay to be angry at john and not continue to love him in a way that excuses his behaviours, even 14 years after he died
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wait wait wait
dean tells her to let it go, it’s the past, there’s nothing you can do about it now so it’s just baggage
WAIT
THAT MEANS
THAT MEANS HE LET THAT SHIT GO ALREADY???????
WHOA
OKAY COOL. COOL COOL COOL I’M PROUD OF YOU
now go be gay with cas
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“i try. every single day.”
hell yeah dean winchester giving good mental health advice to people and also millions of depressed people with various traumas watching this
ngl this legit just helped me a tiny bit with my issues with my own dad
urhgutguugb meredith glynn you are the good we need in this world
..............suddenly getting real emotional because goddamn i wanna meet her someday ;~; i wanna meet 1. misha and 2. meredith glynn, maaaaybe 3. jensen idk
mEREDITH GLYNN IS MY KINDRED SPIRIT
and DEAN WINCHESTER HELPS ME BE A MORE SELF-ACCEPTING PERSON
yay
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04:49
no but like.......... everyone seemed to enjoy last week’s episode, i only saw people posting good reviews. and i felt bad not not enjoying it, even though all the things people pointed out should’ve been right up my alley, something about the overall thing just fell flat for me
but this one
this one speaks to my heart
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04:53
maggie: “i didn’t mean to get caught--”
sam: “no no no, stop that. you did nothing wrong. okay?”
sam being a better dad to maggie than john ever was to anyone
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04:57
OH NO BOBBY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OH NO!!!!!!!!!!!
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05:01
dean: “you’re giving him transfusions?”
nurse: “keeps up his iron”
suddenly i don’t trust the nurse
trying to take over the property maybe? a la scooby-doo, it’s always about real estate
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05:02
dean: “sasha, could you go....... make me a ....sandwich ?”
DEAN NO
(i type, in pain, as i laugh)
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/rewatches that interaction because it was actually really sweet the way dean mouthed “go” to sasha and she understood
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05:05
i’ve wanted a djinn story for SO LONG
(even wrote one myself - Prince of the Ether Realms)
trust glynn to be the one to re-weave the exact threads of this 14-year saga that also interest me specifically
also kudos for the fact she’s so obviously knowledgeable about the ENTIRE HISTORY of the show, as opposed to certain other writers who seem to contradict previous facts and re-reference things that were used differently before to make an important point, thereby nullifying the first point when used a second time
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05:11
hunter with the shaved head 10/10 style
headcanoning them as non-binary and into girls because of reasons
also there was a slight continuity error, this hunter hugs maggie twice in the two consecutive shots
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05:15
bobby: “it ends the same” [with bobby dead, i guess?]
mary: “no. you are not allowed to give up on me”
seeing this as dean and cas again
yeah i saw someone mention how at the end of last episode, dean suggesting they drive off a cliff and sam being like NOPE kind of reflected the wrongness of the they-all-die-at-the-end for the finale of SPN
and i think this brings it back to that again
i agree that the best ending is the one where they live to fight another day, not go out guns a-blazing
and this is cas telling dean he’s not allowed to give up and die because he wants to live side-by-side for as long as they can
i just really really want cas to say that to dean in a soft emotional scene like this. we don’t really get those unless they’re parallels??? and i wANT MORE DEAN AND CAS TALKING ABOUT THEIR FEELINGS DAMMIT
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05:20
DEAN AND CAS PARALLELS um i mean BOBBY AND MARY GOING OFF TO HANG OUT ALONE IN A CABIN OF LOVE AND HEALING
GDI LET DEAN AND CAS DO THAT TOO
but also awwww i actually kinda like the mary/bobby thing? because at the core, they ARE dean and sam’s parents, really
family don’t end with blood etc
bobby was the dad john never was
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05:23
sam: USE THE BUDDY SYSTEM
this is so satisfying
next up: hula hoops of salt and iron knuckle-dusters
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05:25
i love love love that dean can have a healthy mental approach to this shit, finally
i’m so fucking proud of him you don’t even know
i just......... i really wanna see him not only return to baseline mental goodness, but then overcome that and become greater at his zen thing, and then AT LAST be ready to accept cas’ love for what it is: romantic and everlasting and epic, and not have to interpret it into something else or ignore it to protect himself
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05:28
that light over dean’s shoulder is the angel on his shoulder
but is it michael or cas?
i’m going with cas, given that michael is a dark-hat-halo
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05:30pm
it’s over
that was amaziiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing ;u;
bless meredith glynn for existing and bringing us such beautiful stories
BUT WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE GARDENER
WHY WAS HE THERE besides to ~add some colour~??? and i guess a red herring for viewers, so we have someone to suspect?
(idk. i never suspected him, because he was black and meredith glynn is better than that - unless she was trying to trick racist viewers?? (i know there's a lot of them, i saw the super-toxic comment section on instagram when jared, jensen and misha posted a “vote beto” thing the other day. and there was a poll mentioned at comic con once, half the american spn fanbase are republicans??? guess they really love guns and fascism))
i don’t really have anything to add here, i said it all as i went along
that dean/cas parallel....... oh boy
just please please please pleASE can we have Actual Destiel and not just parallels and hints. like. they barely talk???????? HOW IS THIS A SHOW WHERE TWO OF THE MAIN LEADS ARE CONSTANTLY FRAMED TO BE IN LOVE, WE’RE TOLD THEY’RE BEST FRIENDS, BUT WE ALMOST NEVER EVEN SEE THEM TOGETHER ANY MORE
HOW IS THIS HAPPENING
anyway the costuming was just so very UNSUBTLE and obvious and i think a lot of people would’ve caught that parallel even if they weren’t looking for it
music was good, directing was good, sasha’s hair was good, nobody we know actually died, that was good too
10/10
ten thumbs up
yeee
#WHOOOO WHAT A GOOD ONE#Meredith Glynn#14x05#nightmare logic#spn spoilers#season 14#Elmie watches things#post of postiness
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Previous Top Ten By Year lists:
1935, 1983, 1965, 1943, 1992, 1978, 1925, 1969
1930
Previous Top Ten By Year: 1949 Posts:
Top Ten By Year: 1949 – Poll Results
100 Images from the Films of 1949
What I’ll Remember About the Films of 1949: A Love Letter
#10. The Queen of Spades (UK/Dickinson)
#9. Rendezvous in July (Becker)/Au royaume des cieux (Duvivier) (France)
#8. Too Late for Tears (US / Haskin)
#7. The Heiress (US / Wyler)
#6. The Set-Up (US / Wise)
#5. Caught (US / Ophüls)
For those unaware of my Top Ten By Year project:
The majority of my viewing habits have been dictated by this project since September of 2013. Jumping to a different decade each time, I choose comparatively weaker years for me re: quantity of films seen/quantity of films loved. I use list-making as a way to see more films and revisit others in a structured and project-drive way. I was sick of spending too much time trying to decide what to watch, or watching films just to cross them off another dumb canon list. I wanted to engage. I wanted films to be enhanced by others, by looking at a specific moment in time. I wanted something that led me to seeing or revisiting things I might not have gotten to otherwise. Lastly, my lists are based on personal favorites, not any weird notion of an objective best.
This is the first year I’ll be doing separate posts for each film. #9 will go up Monday. After that, one will go up each day until the end. Then I’ll post them all together so they are gathered in one place. There are a lot of films I loved that did not make the cut. In particular, Flamingo Road, Such a Pretty Little Beach, On the Town, Inspirace, The Reckless Moment, Reign of Terror, The Rocking Horse Winner, and Samson and Delilah are all films I thought at one point would be on here. Of all of these, Flamingo Road was a sure thing until it wasn’t at the very last minute. Please go watch it.
#4. The Passionate Friends (UK / Lean) (first-time viewing)
Playing image association with David Lean’s The Passionate Friends conjures up an a jellyfish and its streamer arms, weightless in the ocean. Maybe it’s because I cast the image of Mary (Ann Todd) out on the balcony, billowing curtain in the foreground as she says goodbye to a different life once and for all, over the whole film. But there’s more to it than that. That wind and those floating curtains are just part of the visual language Lean uses to represent the life Mary doesn’t choose. There is the gentle ripple of the water, the outstretched tree branches that create particles of shadow, and the impossible majesty of the Swiss Alps. They are all part of the sensuality and openness of nature, the choice not made. The jellyfish is a clumsy descriptor, but maybe it’s fitting that I struggle to describe a film that seems to exist in the ethereal.
The Passionate Friends shows the ways time and memory play off each other in the psyche. Just as the properties of nature have the power to signal shifts in thought, atmosphere and objects can become tickets to elsewhere. The Set-Up uses time in the most confining of ways; the emotional lives of its characters are tethered to what is happening within those fateful seventy-three minutes. The Passionate Friends uses time as a structural and thematic bedrock; the subjectivity of its characters become inextricable from the past and the never-was.
The film confused some viewers when it was released (even for the flashback frenzy of the 40s, this was a lot to take in). We begin in Switzerland and travel back nine years, and then (for a brief time) another nine years. We then follow the same route back; nine years forward, and another nine to Switzerland for the final act. The structure recalls John Stahl’s The Locket, another 1940s film that uses to-and-fro flashbacks. The Locket gets more complicated by shifting perspectives as well as time. But The Passionate Friends not only forgoes most standard flashback cues, it even intercuts moments of imagined conversations and actions as characters traverse through humiliation and regret in the exact moments they are felt.
These forays into the internal both jolt and wash over the characters (and us), as inner lives and the autonomy of human emotion are wont to do. Lean always makes sure that the exterior communicates the interior. In an early scene, Mary sits in the carriage next to her husband, doused in darkness and boxed in by both the frame and the shroud of her veil. Barely visible, she is lost in reflections that hurt. Then we’re in the past, and we can feel the sensuality of nature everywhere. It is so bright; Mary and Steven are young and in love. Sunlight covers them, and branches shade them. Together they create a shimmering screen (seen above) that recalls the curtain of the first still (an image that comes much later in the film), and the veil that envelopes Mary in the carriage. In The Passionate Friends, images call back and signal to each other constantly. The veil is the curtain is the sun and shade. It is all of a piece.
All of a sudden there is a whistling screech as the carriage stops short. We are yanked back to the present the exact moment Mary is. There is no pomp and circumstance, no smooth transition. It is cruel, and we feel the loneliness of that carriage so much more. Compare this to how A Letter to Three Wives initiates flashbacks (also from 1949 with an advanced flashback structure); the autotune distortion of a repeated phrase hypnotizes us into and out of the past. There is the slow blur of the frame, a go-to sign that a flashback is coming our way. Lean doesn’t hand-hold. He wants to put you in the viscous of the emotional. The drift-in and shock-out of memory is faithful to Mary’s state of mind. We are with her — truly with her. The Passionate Friends is full of filmmaking that administers a psychic and emotional immediacy, a surprising early onset example of the discontinuous editing that would be en vogue in decades to come.
The Passionate Friends is a human drama rich enough for me to have seen drastically different takeaways on both its characters and its depiction of love and romance. The Passionate Friends is in that Daisy Kenyon class of “it’s complicated”, a sensual film about unsensual people. A film about repeating choices. There are no easy answers, just a lot of messy and contradictory feelings and desires. It’s not about the kinds of love we like to dream about, though it initially fools you into thinking it is. There is a different kind of love happening here, a sturdier love that sneaks up on both sides of the screen, borne out of epiphanies that have their own kind of beauty.
Mary knowingly gives up love for autonomy, money, and comfort with Howard Justin (Claude Rains). Their marriage is amicable, providing her with the kind of emotional freedom she needs and the finer things she wants. When we first meet her she’s on a plane to Switzerland. She sits in luxury, spoiled by “White bread. Butter. Cream!”. A big bowl of fruit even sneaks into the frame. She is, literally, in the clouds. One could argue this is the most openly passionate she appears in the entire film. This is the life she chose and the life she ultimately wants. There are no external forces preventing Steven and Mary from being together. Howard is not a tyrant. Freedom is always hers, including the choice to leave. She never does.
But every nine years she is destined to almost choose Steven (Trevor Howard), the pleasant professor of humble means. Mary’s trouble is the curse of knowing who you are, and knowing that the love you want isn’t the love for you (“I’ve always been a little hard”). Or thinking that you know that about yourself. Sometimes she seems to hold herself back, as if knowing this about herself has simply closed her off to what is possible. Mary and Steven can only exist in the “what if?”, but her self-assessment seems so absolute as to forbid any warmth in her life. For her, passion means first and foremost a loss of control and selfhood. She needs to belong to herself, an objective for a woman rarely understood today let alone then, and one that positions Mary as an outsider in the world.
How much is there really between Steven and Mary? As with so many romances, their feelings remain strong because they are left unprocessed. What could have been likely remains so much stronger than what would have been. Lean connects them metaphysically; dissolves erase the space between them as they think of each other in their respective solitude. Any time she is in the open air, the memory of Steven surrounds her (even if she doesn’t know it). Despite Lean’s lean (I’ll see myself out) into these romanticisms, The Passionate Friends is not a film about lost love. It’s more about mourning the type of person you long to be but aren’t (and can’t we all relate to that?!). Not being with Steven isn’t necessarily about not being with Steven; it’s about feeling passion and desire but not being able to live by that.
The juxtaposition between the life she chose and the life she didn’t can be seen at the New Year’s Eve ball (the scene always referenced in relation to Phantom Thread). On the ground floor she is seen catching up with her one-time soulmate. It is anarchy; they have to yell their pleasantries at each other, and there are Josef Von Sternberg amounts of balloons and streamers everywhere. In keeping with the spontaneous spirit of the event, they soon get split up. Soon after, we see her up in a box with Howard (Claude Rains is introduced looking like an old-school Count, beginning the film’s sly misdirect of his character). The prince and princess looking down on their subjects have such a different energy from the one below. Not cold, but congenial and removed. She looks down longingly, wanting to be part of the ruckus but knowing she wouldn’t know how. She defines herself as belonging to the lofty box that is lacking. It is not a longing that says “why didn’t I choose that?”. It is a longing that says “why can’t I be like them?”.
Steven may love Mary, but he doesn’t really know her. At one point Mary says to him “you don’t really know me at all”. At another point Howard says to him “you don’t know her”. Mary expresses this again later on, stating “we’re practically strangers to each other”. When he receives a letter from Mary in which she breaks off the relationship, he goes to Howard and accuses him of having made her write the letter. I mean, that’s how it always is in these love stories, isn’t it? The tyrant husband holds his wife prisoner or blackmails her into staying? Hell, that’s what Robert Ryan does to Barbara Bel Geddes in Caught! But there are no conventions of the Gothic or the Doomed Romance here. Just a woman making a choice — the same choice. It doesn’t mean she won’t think and dream of Steven on lonely nights. And it doesn’t mean she’ll never stop wondering about what could have been, and there will always be a sense of something lost.
But Howard does know her, and there are untapped waters between them. Claude Rains starts out as the cuckolded husband (we are teased with riffs on his Notorious character). Then, gradually, he emerges as the film’s true soul (Steven is never afforded much perspective while Howard increasingly is). Lean and Rains fully embody Howard’s intense humiliation and betrayal as he starts to reinterpret his own feelings towards Mary. As his pain turns to rage, hers turns to disorientation. He is driven to deliver two shocking speeches in opposition to each other. She is driven to the brink by no longer belonging. It all crescendos in a spectacular whirlwind of emotional agony where absolute vulnerability and fate intervened reveal the power to reset. Steven is gone. This isn’t what we expected with who we expected. But like I said, The Passionate Friends belongs in that Daisy Kenyon category of “it’s complicated”.
Top Ten By Year: 1949 #4 – The Passionate Friends (UK / Lean) Previous Top Ten By Year lists: 1935, 1983, 1965, 1943, 1992, …
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Why Do Republicans Hate Ted Cruz
New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/why-do-republicans-hate-ted-cruz/
Why Do Republicans Hate Ted Cruz
But Cruz And His Conservative Stances Stirred Up Debate Upon His Arrival In Washington Several Months After His Appointment He Was Famously Called Wacko Bird By The Late Sen John Mccain
In March 2013, McCain called Cruz and other Republicans “wacko birds” whose beliefs are not “reflective of the views of the majority of Republicans,” according to The Huffington Post
Cruz embraced the name and even keeps a black baseball cap with a picture of Daffy Duck next to the words “WACKO BIRD” in his Senate office, according to GQ Magazine.
When He Was In His Early Teens Cruz’s Parents Enrolled Him In An After
“So we’d meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays, for a couple of hours each night, and study the Constitution, read the Federalist Papers, read the Anti-Federalist Papers, read the debates on ratification, and so on,” Cruz told the New Yorker of the time. “And we memorized a shortened mnemonic version of the Constitution.”
Texas Is Freezing But The Roast Of Ted Cruz Is On
Nobody likes Ted Cruz. This is conventional wisdom in Washington. While not technically true his family members like him, presumably, and his approval rating among Texas Republicans last month was 76 percent it feels essentially true. Maybe its the exhausting smarm, the squirrelly ambition, the hollow theatrics. Maybe its how he tried to block relief aid after Hurricane Sandy, or how he helped to shut down the government in 2013. The Victorian facial hair hasnt helped; it lends an incongruous quality of statesmanship to a man viewed by his colleagues as a pest.
Lucifer in the flesh, Republican John A. Boehner, the former speaker of the House, called him in 2016.
If you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, nobody would convict you, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham said in 2016.
Said Democrat Al Franken in 2017, when he was still in the Senate: I probably like Ted Cruz more than most of my colleagues like Ted Cruz, and I hate Ted Cruz.
Nobody likes Ted Cruz. This was the place that Ted Cruz was starting from earlier this week. Then he went to Cancun. He went to Cancun, where it is mostly sunny and in the low 80s, while many of his ice-blasted constituents were without heating and plumbing, watching their ceilings collapse, huddling in warming centers, defecating in buckets, and generally not packing for a few days on the Yucatán Peninsula.
Not good, Cruz tweeted early Tuesday evening about the shutdown of his state. Stay safe!
Latest From Politics & Policy
Part of the reason for this is the Bush campaign early on decided they would have to defeat Richards with a series of issues. If they engaged in a personality contest, Richards would win.
Cruz and his campaign have allowed his challenge from Democrat Beto ORourke to turn into a personality contest. ORourke often is compared to a member of the Kennedy family of Massachusetts, and substantial portions of his campaign financing have come from out of state, about $2.5 million from California and New York combined. On the other hand, Cruz gets compared to Grandpa from the old TV show The Munsters. Cruz is pedantic and presents himself with a hard-core, knee-jerk conservatism that has a certitude that is irritating to those who do not agree with him completely.
ORourke appears on the talk shows of Ellen DeGeneres and is scheduled to appear with Stephen Colbert. Cruz is on Fox News. One of those is like a fun confectionary. The other is boiled spinach.
At a rally Saturday in Katy, Cruz fired up his crowd by telling them Democrats are angry and ready to show up at the polls.
Ted Cruz Tried To Slam The Mlb Over Cleveland Mascot Change
Meaghan Ellis
Sen. Ted Cruz was one of many Republican lawmakers who expressed faux outrage over the Major League Baseball announcement of Cleveland’s new mascot. On Friday, July 23, Cruz took to Twitter with a quick post sharing his reaction to the Cleveland Indians being renamed the Cleveland Guardians.
The Texas lawmaker tweeted, “Why does MLB hate Indians?”
Why does MLB hate Indians? https://t.co/0kQDMbDBsW Ted Cruz
It certainly did not take long for Twitter users to step up to the plate. With their responses, they hit a home run with relentless insults leveled toward the Republican lawmaker. One Twitter user wrote, “Wait, I thought businesses were free to make their own decisions free of government meddling.”
Another Twitter user challenged Cruz with a question about the blatant disregard for indigenous people. That person wrote, “Really Ted? Is disliking native Americans what this name change is about? You’re incredibly disingenuous.”
Opinion:just How Unpopular Is Ted Cruz
White House press secretary Jen Psaki had this exchange at her Thursday briefing:
Q: Just wondering if the president has any reaction to these reports that say Senator Ted Cruz flew to Cancun amid this giant winter storm in his home state of Texas?MS. PSAKI: Well, I dont have any updates on the exact location of Senator Ted Cruz, nor does anyone at the White House. But our focus is on working directly with leadership in Texas and the surrounding states on addressing the winter storm and the crisis at hand the many people across the state who are without power, without the resources they need. And we expect that would be the focus of anyone in the state or surrounding states who was elected to represent them. But I dont have any update on his whereabouts.
Due to the winter weather in D.C., the briefing was by phone, so we could not see if Psaki allowed herself a grin after twisting the knife. Cruz had abandoned his state, hurriedly booked a return flight from Mexico and blamed his kids for the trip the sort of political ineptitude one would expect of a small-town mayor, not one of the most nakedly ambitious Republicans in the Senate .
Read more:
Ted Cruz Is So Easy To Hate That Loathing Him Has Become A Form Of Political Poetry
Indeed indeed, I cannot tell, / Though I ponder on it well, / Which were easier to state, / All my love or all my hate. Henry David Thoreau
Thoreau, it seems, never met Ted Cruz, a man so blissfully easy to hate that loathing for him has become a form of political poetry: wacko-bird, abrasive, arrogant, and creepy are some of the kindest adjectives that have been thrown his way. Cruz has alienated about everyone hes ever encountered in life: high school and college classmates, bosses, law professors, Supreme Court clerks, and especially his Republican colleagues in the Senate. Some detest Cruz the politician because of his grandstanding, but most dislike Cruz the person. In that respect, hes really not your average politicianafter all, most people hate politicians. But everyone hates Ted Cruz.
Ted’s style was sneering, smirking, condescending, jabbing his finger in your facea naked desire to humiliate an opponent. No kindness, no empathy, no attempt to reach common ground.Ted Cruz is a disaster on illegal immigration.I dont think he could get elected. And, even if he was able to govern without blowing up the world, could we look at a guy who resembles a cable game show host for four years? He has that awful plastered-down hair and everything.An incredibly bright guy who’s an arrogant jerk who basically everybody ends up hating.Listen, you can pick a lot of names out. I’ll let you choose them.
Cruz’s Father Rafael Was Born And Raised In Cuba As A Teenager He Was Part Of The Anti
He gained political asylum four years after his arrival and became a citizen in 2005.
Rafael’s childhood story often provided inspirational fire to Cruz’s speeches, interviews, and debate performances later in life.
But while witnesses have confirmed that Rafael was beaten by Batista special agents, former comrades and friends disputed some other descriptions of his role in the Cuban resistance.
In a 2015 New York Times article, Leonor Arestuche, a student leader in the 1950s, said that Rafel was a “ojalateros,” or wishful thinker.
She said the term was used for “people wishing and praying that Batista would fall but not doing much to act on it,” according to the Times.
Rafael eventually went on to become a minister and called himself Pastor Cruz. While he’s not affiliated with any church, he became a sought-out speaker and Tea Party celebrity.
Cruz’s Account Of The Debt Limit Battle Is Really One
Several objections can be raised to Cruz’s account here. For instance, a debt ceiling hike doesn’t lead to “trillions of dollars” in new spending, as he implies it merely allows debt to be issued to cover spending that has already been approved by Congress in other legislation.
But most incredibly of all, Cruz manages to narrate this entire story without even once mentioning an absolutely crucial piece of context about why his Senate colleagues might have been so reluctant to follow his lead. Namely, that this dramatic confrontation occurred just four months after the federal government shutdown of fall 2013 a political disaster for the Republican Party that Cruz and the hard-line negotiating tactics he demanded had directly caused.
During that fight, of course, Cruz and his hard-line allies in the House refused to agree to any government funding bill that also funded Obamacare. This led to a 16-day shutdown of the federal government for which Republicans were widely blamed. Their poll numbers plummeted, and they soon wisely caved to avoid damaging their electoral prospects further.
In this context, Senate Republicans’ reluctance to follow Cruz’s advice makes a whole lot more sense. The very tactics he was arguing for had just been discredited in the most high-profile way possible. GOP leaders thought stoking another similar fight and, this time, risking a default on the nation’s debt would fail disastrously and cause great damage to their party.
Ted Cruz Shunned In The Senate Plays Unpopularity To His Advantage
Dec. 17, 2015
WASHINGTON It is the hate that dare not speak its name.
Since his arrival in 2013, Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, has managed to alienate, exasperate and generally agitate the plurality of his 99 colleagues in the Senate. In a highly partisan, hypercompetitive legislative body where solipsism is nearly a creed, Mr. Cruz stands out for his widely held reputation for putting Ted first.
I dont think hes been effective, said Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and the partys nominee for president in 2008. I think thats pretty obvious. Shutting down the government? How did that work out?
Mr. Cruz is so unpopular that at one point not a single Republican senator would support his demand for a roll-call vote, known as a sufficient second, leaving Mr. Cruz standing on the Senate floor like a man with bird flu, everyone scattering to avoid him.
In his presidential campaign, Mr. Cruz uses his role as an outsider as a source of strength. It shouldnt surprise anyone that the Washington establishment is against the candidacy of Ted Cruz, said Rick Tyler, a spokesman for Mr. Cruzs presidential campaign. We are not looking for the approval of the Washington cartel.
Yet many Republicans are loath to criticize him on the record, largely for two reasons: They do not want to help him, and do not want him to hurt them.
Everyone Else At Princeton
Fighting words: Per the Daily Beast, Several fellow classmates who asked that their names not be used described the young Cruz with words like abrasive,intense,strident,crank, and arrogant. Four independently offered the word creepy.’
People might think Craig is exaggerating. Hes not. I met Ted freshman week and loathed him within the hour.
Geoff January 20, 2016
The beef: Its tough to pinpoint any one cause, but Cruz made female students uncomfortable by frequently walking to their end of the floor in his freshman dorm, wearing only a paisley bathrobe. When he announced his bid for president of the schools debate society, the other members had a secret meeting to pick an anyone-but-Cruz candidate. The eventual winner later that my one qualification for the office was that I was not Ted Cruz.
Texas Senator Has Changed Course So Many Times It Is Hard To Keep Track Writes Andrew Buncombe
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There was a time, not so very long ago, when Ted Cruz pitched himself as the model of integrity, the very antithesis of the likes of Donald Trump.
Campaigning for the Republican Partys nomination in 2015 and 2016, he was an early favourite of many conservatives and pro-constitution Republicans.
He had enough support among evangelicals to bag Iowa, the very first state in the primary process, and to earn a brief word of congratulations from Trump, before Trump resorted to form and accused the Texas senator of stealing the race.
Later, as the race thinned and Cruz found himself fighting against Trump for his political life, he famously accused him of being a pathological liar, as the Republican frontrunner insulted the senators wife, and claimed his father was somehow involved in the assassination of John K Kennedy.
He is proud of being a serial philanderer, hissed Cruz. He describes his own battles with venereal diseases as his own personal Vietnam.
Trump then went on to win the Indiana primary, and Cruz dropped out of the race. Such was the bad blood, that Lyin Ted did not endorse Trump at that summers Republican convention, waiting until September before finally offering his support.
Since then, like a mountain stream in flood, Ted Cruz, 50, has changed course several times.
The purpose of the objection was to protect the integrity of our election, he told KTRK-TV
Mccain Isn’t The Only One Who Had Scathing Words For The Senator Former Speaker Of The House John Boehner Once Described Cruz As Lucifer In The Flesh And Sen Lindsey Graham Once Said: If You Killed Ted Cruz On The Floor Of The Senate And The Trial Was In The Senate Nobody Would Convict You
Jason Johnson September 25, 2013
In the best-known part of the speech, he read Dr. Seuss’s “Green Eggs and Ham” as a bedtime story to his two young daughters watching in Houston. Heidi suggested he read the book.
In his speech, he repeated an analogy between the “oppression” of Obamacare and the oppression that his father, Rafael, faced as a young man in Cuba.
Cruz’s infamous speech was one of the longest Senate performances ever, stopping after 21 hours 19 minutes.
Donald Trump Or Ted Cruz Republicans Argue Over Who Is Greater Threat
Jan. 21, 2016
WASHINGTON With Donald J. Trump and Senator Ted Cruz battling for the Republican nomination, two powerful factions of their party are now clashing over the question: Which man is more dangerous?
Conservative intellectuals have become convinced that Mr. Trump, with his message of nationalist-infused populism, poses a dire threat to conservatism, and released a manifesto online Thursday night to try to stop him.
However, the cadre of Republican lobbyists, operatives and elected officials based in Washington is much more unnerved by Mr. Cruz, a go-it-alone, hard-right crusader who campaigns against the political establishment and could curtail their influence and access, building his own Republican machine to essentially replace them.
The division illuminates much about modern Republicanism and the surprising bedfellows brought about when an emerging political force begins to imperil entrenched power.
The Republicans who dominate the right-leaning magazines, journals and political groups can live with Mr. Cruz, believing that his nomination would leave the party divided, but manageably so, extending a longstanding intramural debate over pragmatism versus purity that has been waged since the days of Barry Goldwater and Nelson Rockefeller. They say Mr. Trump, on the other hand, poses the most serious peril to the conservative movement since the 1950s-era far-right John Birch Society.
Ted Cruz Threatens To Burn John Boehners Book Over Criticisms
Former Republican House speaker called the Texas senator Lucifer in the flesh
Review: John Boehners lament for pre-Trump Republicans
Republican senator Ted Cruz has responded to fiery criticism from John Boehner with a tactic beloved of authoritarian regimes: threatening to burn his book.
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Boehner, a Republican congressman from Ohio for 24 years and House speaker from 2011 to 2015, published his book On the House this week. It contains strong criticism of political figures from Donald Trump to Barack Obama but hits Cruz especially hard.
The senator who drove a government shutdown in 2013 is Lucifer in the flesh, Boehner has said.
On the page, he writes: There is nothing more dangerous than a reckless asshole who thinks he is smarter than everyone else.
The book also contains a memorable sign-off: PS, Ted Cruz: Go fuck yourself.
But Cruz, who ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 and may well do so again in 2024, is nothing if not a bomb-thrower himself, as well as a nimble opportunist.
But I didnt finish it off just yet, it added. Instead, the Texas senator announced a 72-hour drive to raise $250,000, in which donors would get to VOTE on whether we machine gun the book, take a chainsaw to it or burn the book to light cigars!
But it could also be pointed out that Cruzs attempt to stoke outrage and dollars might only succeed in bringing Boehners book to wider attention.
Texass Junior Senator Has Never Much Cared For Being Liked Which Has Left Him Vulnerable In The Face Of Public Outrage
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Having jetted off to Cancun as his state faced its worst winter disaster in decades, Senator Ted Cruz returned with his tail between his legs and was met with fury from all sides. The famously divisive and aggressive senator may not be up for re-election until 2024, but there are signs that he may finally have gone too far.
Along with the expected protests at the airport and barrage of furious tweets, he faced the ire of his states largest newspaper, the Houston Chronicle, whose editorial board fired off a merciless editorial calling for his resignation. As Texans froze, Ted Cruz got a ticket to paradise, the paper wrote. Paradise can have him.
Whether or not Mr Cruz actually resigns over the ill-advised holiday which he has called a mistake it will stain his reputation forever. But then again, his reputation has been poor for years. In fact, he is famously one of the most disliked people in Congress, and not just by the other party.
First elected to his seat in 2012 as an anti-establishment Tea Party candidate, Mr Cruz entered Congress as a populist right-wing belligerent who commanded a base of angry, hardline voters. He quickly established a reputation in Washington as an opponent of compromise, bipartisanship and pragmatism and unlike some conservative blowhards, he put his money where his mouth was.
Early Life And Family
Rafael Edward Cruz was born on December 22, 1970, at Foothills Medical Centre in , , Canada, to Eleanor Elizabeth Wilson and Rafael Cruz. Eleanor Wilson was born in Wilmington, Delaware. She is of three-quarters and one-quarter descent, and earned an undergraduate degree in mathematics from Rice University in the 1950s.
Cruz’s father was born and raised in Cuba, the son of a Canary Islander who immigrated to as child. As a teenager in the 1950s, he was beaten by agents of Fulgencio Batista for opposing the Batista regime. He left Cuba in 1957 to attend the University of Texas at Austin and obtained political asylum in the United States after his four-year student visa expired. He earned Canadian citizenship in 1973 and became a United States citizen in 2005.
At the time of his birth, Ted Cruz’s parents had lived in Calgary for three years and were working in the oil business as owners of a seismic-data processing firm for oil . Cruz has said that he is the son of “two mathematicians/computer programmers.” In 1974, Cruz’s father left the family and moved to Texas. Later that year, Cruz’s parents reconciled and relocated the family to Houston. They divorced in 1997. Cruz has two older half-sisters, Miriam Ceferina Cruz and Roxana Lourdes Cruz, from his father’s first marriage. Miriam died in 2011.
Cruz began going by Ted at age 13.
Government Shutdown Of 2013
Ted Cruz’s Obamacare filibuster
Cruz had a leading role in the October 2013 government shutdown. Cruz gave a 21-hour Senate speech in an effort to hold up a federal budget bill and thereby defund the Affordable Care Act. Cruz persuaded the House of Representatives and House SpeakerJohn Boehner to include an ACA defunding provision in the bill. In the U.S. Senate, former Majority Leader Harry Reid blocked the attempt because only 18 Republican Senators supported the filibuster. During the filibuster he read Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss. To supporters, the move “signaled the depth of Cruz’s commitment to rein in government”. This move was extremely popular among Cruz supporters, with Rick Manning of Americans for Limited Government naming Cruz “2013 Person of the Year” in an op-ed in The Hill, primarily for his filibuster against the Affordable Care Act. Cruz was also named “2013 Man of the Year” by conservative publications , and The American Spectator, “2013 Conservative of the Year” by , and “2013 Statesman of the Year” by the Republican Party of Sarasota County, Florida. He was a finalist for Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” in 2013. To critics, including some Republican colleagues such as Senator Lindsey Graham, the move was ineffective.
Cruz has consistently denied any involvement in the 2013 government shutdown, even though he cast several votes to prolong it and was blamed by many within his own party for prompting it.
Ted Cruz Leaves Mexico Amid Winter Emergency In Texas
Senator Ted Cruz of Texas flew home from a vacation to Mexico after receiving heavy criticism for leaving the state while millions have struggled with a lack of electricity and water after a brutal winter storm.
Keep working to get the grid reopened, to get power restored, get water back on. A lot of Texans are hurting, and this crisis is frustrating. Its frustrating for millions of Texans, it shouldnt happen.
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On Monday, Senator Ted Cruz urged his constituents to stay home, warning that winter weather beating down on Texas could be deadly. On Tuesday, he offered a shrug emoji and pronounced the situation not good. Then, on Wednesday, he decamped for a Ritz-Carlton resort in sun-drenched Cancún, escaping with his family from their freezing house.
And on Thursday, many Americans who had been battered by a deadly winter storm, on top of a nearly yearlong pandemic, finally found a reason to come together and lift their voices in a united chorus of rage.
FlyinTed, a homage to Donald J. Trumps Lyin Ted nickname, began trending on Twitter. TMZ, the celebrity website, published photographs showing a Patagonia-fleece-clad Mr. Cruz waiting for his flight, hanging out in the United Club lounge and reading his phone from a seat in economy plus. The Texas Monthly, which bills itself as the national magazine of Texas, offered a list of curses to mutter against Mr. Cruz.
For others in his home state, there was little to guess about the incident.
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Why Do Republicans Hate Ted Cruz
But Cruz And His Conservative Stances Stirred Up Debate Upon His Arrival In Washington Several Months After His Appointment He Was Famously Called Wacko Bird By The Late Sen John Mccain
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In March 2013, McCain called Cruz and other Republicans “wacko birds” whose beliefs are not “reflective of the views of the majority of Republicans,” according to The Huffington Post
Cruz embraced the name and even keeps a black baseball cap with a picture of Daffy Duck next to the words “WACKO BIRD” in his Senate office, according to GQ Magazine.
When He Was In His Early Teens Cruz’s Parents Enrolled Him In An After
“So we’d meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays, for a couple of hours each night, and study the Constitution, read the Federalist Papers, read the Anti-Federalist Papers, read the debates on ratification, and so on,” Cruz told the New Yorker of the time. “And we memorized a shortened mnemonic version of the Constitution.”
Texas Is Freezing But The Roast Of Ted Cruz Is On
Nobody likes Ted Cruz. This is conventional wisdom in Washington. While not technically true his family members like him, presumably, and his approval rating among Texas Republicans last month was 76 percent it feels essentially true. Maybe its the exhausting smarm, the squirrelly ambition, the hollow theatrics. Maybe its how he tried to block relief aid after Hurricane Sandy, or how he helped to shut down the government in 2013. The Victorian facial hair hasnt helped; it lends an incongruous quality of statesmanship to a man viewed by his colleagues as a pest.
Lucifer in the flesh, Republican John A. Boehner, the former speaker of the House, called him in 2016.
If you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, nobody would convict you, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham said in 2016.
Said Democrat Al Franken in 2017, when he was still in the Senate: I probably like Ted Cruz more than most of my colleagues like Ted Cruz, and I hate Ted Cruz.
Nobody likes Ted Cruz. This was the place that Ted Cruz was starting from earlier this week. Then he went to Cancun. He went to Cancun, where it is mostly sunny and in the low 80s, while many of his ice-blasted constituents were without heating and plumbing, watching their ceilings collapse, huddling in warming centers, defecating in buckets, and generally not packing for a few days on the Yucatán Peninsula.
Not good, Cruz tweeted early Tuesday evening about the shutdown of his state. Stay safe!
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Part of the reason for this is the Bush campaign early on decided they would have to defeat Richards with a series of issues. If they engaged in a personality contest, Richards would win.
Cruz and his campaign have allowed his challenge from Democrat Beto ORourke to turn into a personality contest. ORourke often is compared to a member of the Kennedy family of Massachusetts, and substantial portions of his campaign financing have come from out of state, about $2.5 million from California and New York combined. On the other hand, Cruz gets compared to Grandpa from the old TV show The Munsters. Cruz is pedantic and presents himself with a hard-core, knee-jerk conservatism that has a certitude that is irritating to those who do not agree with him completely.
ORourke appears on the talk shows of Ellen DeGeneres and is scheduled to appear with Stephen Colbert. Cruz is on Fox News. One of those is like a fun confectionary. The other is boiled spinach.
At a rally Saturday in Katy, Cruz fired up his crowd by telling them Democrats are angry and ready to show up at the polls.
Ted Cruz Tried To Slam The Mlb Over Cleveland Mascot Change
Meaghan Ellis
Sen. Ted Cruz was one of many Republican lawmakers who expressed faux outrage over the Major League Baseball announcement of Cleveland’s new mascot. On Friday, July 23, Cruz took to Twitter with a quick post sharing his reaction to the Cleveland Indians being renamed the Cleveland Guardians.
The Texas lawmaker tweeted, “Why does MLB hate Indians?”
Why does MLB hate Indians? https://t.co/0kQDMbDBsW Ted Cruz
It certainly did not take long for Twitter users to step up to the plate. With their responses, they hit a home run with relentless insults leveled toward the Republican lawmaker. One Twitter user wrote, “Wait, I thought businesses were free to make their own decisions free of government meddling.”
Another Twitter user challenged Cruz with a question about the blatant disregard for indigenous people. That person wrote, “Really Ted? Is disliking native Americans what this name change is about? You’re incredibly disingenuous.”
Opinion:just How Unpopular Is Ted Cruz
White House press secretary Jen Psaki had this exchange at her Thursday briefing:
Q: Just wondering if the president has any reaction to these reports that say Senator Ted Cruz flew to Cancun amid this giant winter storm in his home state of Texas?MS. PSAKI: Well, I dont have any updates on the exact location of Senator Ted Cruz, nor does anyone at the White House. But our focus is on working directly with leadership in Texas and the surrounding states on addressing the winter storm and the crisis at hand the many people across the state who are without power, without the resources they need. And we expect that would be the focus of anyone in the state or surrounding states who was elected to represent them. But I dont have any update on his whereabouts.
Due to the winter weather in D.C., the briefing was by phone, so we could not see if Psaki allowed herself a grin after twisting the knife. Cruz had abandoned his state, hurriedly booked a return flight from Mexico and blamed his kids for the trip the sort of political ineptitude one would expect of a small-town mayor, not one of the most nakedly ambitious Republicans in the Senate .
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Ted Cruz Is So Easy To Hate That Loathing Him Has Become A Form Of Political Poetry
Indeed indeed, I cannot tell, / Though I ponder on it well, / Which were easier to state, / All my love or all my hate. Henry David Thoreau
Thoreau, it seems, never met Ted Cruz, a man so blissfully easy to hate that loathing for him has become a form of political poetry: wacko-bird, abrasive, arrogant, and creepy are some of the kindest adjectives that have been thrown his way. Cruz has alienated about everyone hes ever encountered in life: high school and college classmates, bosses, law professors, Supreme Court clerks, and especially his Republican colleagues in the Senate. Some detest Cruz the politician because of his grandstanding, but most dislike Cruz the person. In that respect, hes really not your average politicianafter all, most people hate politicians. But everyone hates Ted Cruz.
Ted’s style was sneering, smirking, condescending, jabbing his finger in your facea naked desire to humiliate an opponent. No kindness, no empathy, no attempt to reach common ground.Ted Cruz is a disaster on illegal immigration.I dont think he could get elected. And, even if he was able to govern without blowing up the world, could we look at a guy who resembles a cable game show host for four years? He has that awful plastered-down hair and everything.An incredibly bright guy who’s an arrogant jerk who basically everybody ends up hating.Listen, you can pick a lot of names out. I’ll let you choose them.
Cruz’s Father Rafael Was Born And Raised In Cuba As A Teenager He Was Part Of The Anti
He gained political asylum four years after his arrival and became a citizen in 2005.
Rafael’s childhood story often provided inspirational fire to Cruz’s speeches, interviews, and debate performances later in life.
But while witnesses have confirmed that Rafael was beaten by Batista special agents, former comrades and friends disputed some other descriptions of his role in the Cuban resistance.
In a 2015 New York Times article, Leonor Arestuche, a student leader in the 1950s, said that Rafel was a “ojalateros,” or wishful thinker.
She said the term was used for “people wishing and praying that Batista would fall but not doing much to act on it,” according to the Times.
Rafael eventually went on to become a minister and called himself Pastor Cruz. While he’s not affiliated with any church, he became a sought-out speaker and Tea Party celebrity.
Cruz’s Account Of The Debt Limit Battle Is Really One
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Several objections can be raised to Cruz’s account here. For instance, a debt ceiling hike doesn’t lead to “trillions of dollars” in new spending, as he implies it merely allows debt to be issued to cover spending that has already been approved by Congress in other legislation.
But most incredibly of all, Cruz manages to narrate this entire story without even once mentioning an absolutely crucial piece of context about why his Senate colleagues might have been so reluctant to follow his lead. Namely, that this dramatic confrontation occurred just four months after the federal government shutdown of fall 2013 a political disaster for the Republican Party that Cruz and the hard-line negotiating tactics he demanded had directly caused.
During that fight, of course, Cruz and his hard-line allies in the House refused to agree to any government funding bill that also funded Obamacare. This led to a 16-day shutdown of the federal government for which Republicans were widely blamed. Their poll numbers plummeted, and they soon wisely caved to avoid damaging their electoral prospects further.
In this context, Senate Republicans’ reluctance to follow Cruz’s advice makes a whole lot more sense. The very tactics he was arguing for had just been discredited in the most high-profile way possible. GOP leaders thought stoking another similar fight and, this time, risking a default on the nation’s debt would fail disastrously and cause great damage to their party.
Ted Cruz Shunned In The Senate Plays Unpopularity To His Advantage
Dec. 17, 2015
WASHINGTON It is the hate that dare not speak its name.
Since his arrival in 2013, Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, has managed to alienate, exasperate and generally agitate the plurality of his 99 colleagues in the Senate. In a highly partisan, hypercompetitive legislative body where solipsism is nearly a creed, Mr. Cruz stands out for his widely held reputation for putting Ted first.
I dont think hes been effective, said Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and the partys nominee for president in 2008. I think thats pretty obvious. Shutting down the government? How did that work out?
Mr. Cruz is so unpopular that at one point not a single Republican senator would support his demand for a roll-call vote, known as a sufficient second, leaving Mr. Cruz standing on the Senate floor like a man with bird flu, everyone scattering to avoid him.
In his presidential campaign, Mr. Cruz uses his role as an outsider as a source of strength. It shouldnt surprise anyone that the Washington establishment is against the candidacy of Ted Cruz, said Rick Tyler, a spokesman for Mr. Cruzs presidential campaign. We are not looking for the approval of the Washington cartel.
Yet many Republicans are loath to criticize him on the record, largely for two reasons: They do not want to help him, and do not want him to hurt them.
Everyone Else At Princeton
Fighting words: Per the Daily Beast, Several fellow classmates who asked that their names not be used described the young Cruz with words like abrasive,intense,strident,crank, and arrogant. Four independently offered the word creepy.’
People might think Craig is exaggerating. Hes not. I met Ted freshman week and loathed him within the hour.
Geoff January 20, 2016
The beef: Its tough to pinpoint any one cause, but Cruz made female students uncomfortable by frequently walking to their end of the floor in his freshman dorm, wearing only a paisley bathrobe. When he announced his bid for president of the schools debate society, the other members had a secret meeting to pick an anyone-but-Cruz candidate. The eventual winner later that my one qualification for the office was that I was not Ted Cruz.
Texas Senator Has Changed Course So Many Times It Is Hard To Keep Track Writes Andrew Buncombe
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There was a time, not so very long ago, when Ted Cruz pitched himself as the model of integrity, the very antithesis of the likes of Donald Trump.
Campaigning for the Republican Partys nomination in 2015 and 2016, he was an early favourite of many conservatives and pro-constitution Republicans.
He had enough support among evangelicals to bag Iowa, the very first state in the primary process, and to earn a brief word of congratulations from Trump, before Trump resorted to form and accused the Texas senator of stealing the race.
Later, as the race thinned and Cruz found himself fighting against Trump for his political life, he famously accused him of being a pathological liar, as the Republican frontrunner insulted the senators wife, and claimed his father was somehow involved in the assassination of John K Kennedy.
He is proud of being a serial philanderer, hissed Cruz. He describes his own battles with venereal diseases as his own personal Vietnam.
Trump then went on to win the Indiana primary, and Cruz dropped out of the race. Such was the bad blood, that Lyin Ted did not endorse Trump at that summers Republican convention, waiting until September before finally offering his support.
Since then, like a mountain stream in flood, Ted Cruz, 50, has changed course several times.
The purpose of the objection was to protect the integrity of our election, he told KTRK-TV
Mccain Isn’t The Only One Who Had Scathing Words For The Senator Former Speaker Of The House John Boehner Once Described Cruz As Lucifer In The Flesh And Sen Lindsey Graham Once Said: If You Killed Ted Cruz On The Floor Of The Senate And The Trial Was In The Senate Nobody Would Convict You
Jason Johnson September 25, 2013
In the best-known part of the speech, he read Dr. Seuss’s “Green Eggs and Ham” as a bedtime story to his two young daughters watching in Houston. Heidi suggested he read the book.
In his speech, he repeated an analogy between the “oppression” of Obamacare and the oppression that his father, Rafael, faced as a young man in Cuba.
Cruz’s infamous speech was one of the longest Senate performances ever, stopping after 21 hours 19 minutes.
Donald Trump Or Ted Cruz Republicans Argue Over Who Is Greater Threat
Jan. 21, 2016
WASHINGTON With Donald J. Trump and Senator Ted Cruz battling for the Republican nomination, two powerful factions of their party are now clashing over the question: Which man is more dangerous?
Conservative intellectuals have become convinced that Mr. Trump, with his message of nationalist-infused populism, poses a dire threat to conservatism, and released a manifesto online Thursday night to try to stop him.
However, the cadre of Republican lobbyists, operatives and elected officials based in Washington is much more unnerved by Mr. Cruz, a go-it-alone, hard-right crusader who campaigns against the political establishment and could curtail their influence and access, building his own Republican machine to essentially replace them.
The division illuminates much about modern Republicanism and the surprising bedfellows brought about when an emerging political force begins to imperil entrenched power.
The Republicans who dominate the right-leaning magazines, journals and political groups can live with Mr. Cruz, believing that his nomination would leave the party divided, but manageably so, extending a longstanding intramural debate over pragmatism versus purity that has been waged since the days of Barry Goldwater and Nelson Rockefeller. They say Mr. Trump, on the other hand, poses the most serious peril to the conservative movement since the 1950s-era far-right John Birch Society.
Ted Cruz Threatens To Burn John Boehners Book Over Criticisms
Former Republican House speaker called the Texas senator Lucifer in the flesh
Review: John Boehners lament for pre-Trump Republicans
Republican senator Ted Cruz has responded to fiery criticism from John Boehner with a tactic beloved of authoritarian regimes: threatening to burn his book.
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Boehner, a Republican congressman from Ohio for 24 years and House speaker from 2011 to 2015, published his book On the House this week. It contains strong criticism of political figures from Donald Trump to Barack Obama but hits Cruz especially hard.
The senator who drove a government shutdown in 2013 is Lucifer in the flesh, Boehner has said.
On the page, he writes: There is nothing more dangerous than a reckless asshole who thinks he is smarter than everyone else.
The book also contains a memorable sign-off: PS, Ted Cruz: Go fuck yourself.
But Cruz, who ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 and may well do so again in 2024, is nothing if not a bomb-thrower himself, as well as a nimble opportunist.
But I didnt finish it off just yet, it added. Instead, the Texas senator announced a 72-hour drive to raise $250,000, in which donors would get to VOTE on whether we machine gun the book, take a chainsaw to it or burn the book to light cigars!
But it could also be pointed out that Cruzs attempt to stoke outrage and dollars might only succeed in bringing Boehners book to wider attention.
Texass Junior Senator Has Never Much Cared For Being Liked Which Has Left Him Vulnerable In The Face Of Public Outrage
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Having jetted off to Cancun as his state faced its worst winter disaster in decades, Senator Ted Cruz returned with his tail between his legs and was met with fury from all sides. The famously divisive and aggressive senator may not be up for re-election until 2024, but there are signs that he may finally have gone too far.
Along with the expected protests at the airport and barrage of furious tweets, he faced the ire of his states largest newspaper, the Houston Chronicle, whose editorial board fired off a merciless editorial calling for his resignation. As Texans froze, Ted Cruz got a ticket to paradise, the paper wrote. Paradise can have him.
Whether or not Mr Cruz actually resigns over the ill-advised holiday which he has called a mistake it will stain his reputation forever. But then again, his reputation has been poor for years. In fact, he is famously one of the most disliked people in Congress, and not just by the other party.
First elected to his seat in 2012 as an anti-establishment Tea Party candidate, Mr Cruz entered Congress as a populist right-wing belligerent who commanded a base of angry, hardline voters. He quickly established a reputation in Washington as an opponent of compromise, bipartisanship and pragmatism and unlike some conservative blowhards, he put his money where his mouth was.
Early Life And Family
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Rafael Edward Cruz was born on December 22, 1970, at Foothills Medical Centre in , , Canada, to Eleanor Elizabeth Wilson and Rafael Cruz. Eleanor Wilson was born in Wilmington, Delaware. She is of three-quarters and one-quarter descent, and earned an undergraduate degree in mathematics from Rice University in the 1950s.
Cruz’s father was born and raised in Cuba, the son of a Canary Islander who immigrated to as child. As a teenager in the 1950s, he was beaten by agents of Fulgencio Batista for opposing the Batista regime. He left Cuba in 1957 to attend the University of Texas at Austin and obtained political asylum in the United States after his four-year student visa expired. He earned Canadian citizenship in 1973 and became a United States citizen in 2005.
At the time of his birth, Ted Cruz’s parents had lived in Calgary for three years and were working in the oil business as owners of a seismic-data processing firm for oil . Cruz has said that he is the son of “two mathematicians/computer programmers.” In 1974, Cruz’s father left the family and moved to Texas. Later that year, Cruz’s parents reconciled and relocated the family to Houston. They divorced in 1997. Cruz has two older half-sisters, Miriam Ceferina Cruz and Roxana Lourdes Cruz, from his father’s first marriage. Miriam died in 2011.
Cruz began going by Ted at age 13.
Government Shutdown Of 2013
Ted Cruz’s Obamacare filibuster
Cruz had a leading role in the October 2013 government shutdown. Cruz gave a 21-hour Senate speech in an effort to hold up a federal budget bill and thereby defund the Affordable Care Act. Cruz persuaded the House of Representatives and House SpeakerJohn Boehner to include an ACA defunding provision in the bill. In the U.S. Senate, former Majority Leader Harry Reid blocked the attempt because only 18 Republican Senators supported the filibuster. During the filibuster he read Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss. To supporters, the move “signaled the depth of Cruz’s commitment to rein in government”. This move was extremely popular among Cruz supporters, with Rick Manning of Americans for Limited Government naming Cruz “2013 Person of the Year” in an op-ed in The Hill, primarily for his filibuster against the Affordable Care Act. Cruz was also named “2013 Man of the Year” by conservative publications , and The American Spectator, “2013 Conservative of the Year” by , and “2013 Statesman of the Year” by the Republican Party of Sarasota County, Florida. He was a finalist for Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” in 2013. To critics, including some Republican colleagues such as Senator Lindsey Graham, the move was ineffective.
Cruz has consistently denied any involvement in the 2013 government shutdown, even though he cast several votes to prolong it and was blamed by many within his own party for prompting it.
Ted Cruz Leaves Mexico Amid Winter Emergency In Texas
Senator Ted Cruz of Texas flew home from a vacation to Mexico after receiving heavy criticism for leaving the state while millions have struggled with a lack of electricity and water after a brutal winter storm.
Keep working to get the grid reopened, to get power restored, get water back on. A lot of Texans are hurting, and this crisis is frustrating. Its frustrating for millions of Texans, it shouldnt happen.
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On Monday, Senator Ted Cruz urged his constituents to stay home, warning that winter weather beating down on Texas could be deadly. On Tuesday, he offered a shrug emoji and pronounced the situation not good. Then, on Wednesday, he decamped for a Ritz-Carlton resort in sun-drenched Cancún, escaping with his family from their freezing house.
And on Thursday, many Americans who had been battered by a deadly winter storm, on top of a nearly yearlong pandemic, finally found a reason to come together and lift their voices in a united chorus of rage.
FlyinTed, a homage to Donald J. Trumps Lyin Ted nickname, began trending on Twitter. TMZ, the celebrity website, published photographs showing a Patagonia-fleece-clad Mr. Cruz waiting for his flight, hanging out in the United Club lounge and reading his phone from a seat in economy plus. The Texas Monthly, which bills itself as the national magazine of Texas, offered a list of curses to mutter against Mr. Cruz.
For others in his home state, there was little to guess about the incident.
source https://www.patriotsnet.com/why-do-republicans-hate-ted-cruz/
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News Rallies against stay-at-home orders grow as Trump sides with protesters - The Washington Post
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“LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” Trump tweeted. “LIBERATE MINNESOTA,” he persisted. “LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and build your extensive 2nd Amendment. It is beneath siege!”
Trump’s tweets reach because the honest-waft media has amplified the protests and conservative groups comprise fashioned plans to collectively press for a reopening of the economy. The groups encompass so a lot of veterans of the tea find together generation, activism that modified into once powered by a network of honest-waft and corporate financiers drawn to reducing taxes and rules on replace.
Protesters railed in opposition to policies that choice for nonessential companies and colleges to be closed, restaurants little to carryout provider and folks to construct largely of their properties apart from for emergencies. They argue that the nation has sacrificed the economy, with unemployment at file levels, and folks comprise upended their lives for something many form no longer interrogate as an existential probability to society.
“I reflect there’s a boiling level that has been reached and exceeded,” talked about Stephen Moore, a conservative economist. Moore is a member of both the White Condo council to reopen the nation and a coalition of conservative leaders and activists in quest of to push govt officers to relax build-at-dwelling orders.
“I name these folks the common-day Rosa Parks — they are protesting in opposition to injustice and an absence of liberties,” Moore talked about of the protesters.
Moore talked about the protests comprise been spontaneous and arranged at the local degree, but he talked about his neighborhood has been offering them advice and apt toughen might well comprise to easy protesters be arrested and prosecuted.
The protests reach as governors in Texas, Minnesota and Vermont on Friday launched dates to ease lunge restrictions.
In Michigan, a total bunch of folks clogged online page traffic in vehicles or marched in the snow to affirm in opposition to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), who glorious week added additional restrictions to the pronounce’s build-at-dwelling record. Protesters waved American flags, Trump flags and an occasional Confederate flag. Many screamed “Lock her up!” and “We isn't any longer going to comply!”
Bellow leaders talked about the demonstrations developed organically real into a collective demand rolling lend a hand emergency measures that they reflect infringe on private freedoms and additional decimate the economy.
“I the truth is feel shocking regarding the lives lost, but at some level we now comprise got to reveal ‘Mission executed’ and reach up with the following allotment of this that doesn’t comprise us continuously locked inner our properties,” talked about Matthew Seely of the Michigan Conservative Coalition, which organized the protests.
Michigan has been one in all the states hit hardest by the virus, with bigger than 30,000 confirmed cases and over 2,200 deaths.
Sigh incorporation records cloak the nonprofit coalition additionally goes by one more name: Michigan Trump Republicans. The neighborhood’s president, Rosanne Ponkowski, identified herself as a homemaker glorious 365 days in federal campaign finance records. But the neighborhood’s varied administrators are longtime GOP insiders, basically based on pronounce records. They encompass Marian Sheridan, the pronounce Republican Event’s vice chair of “grass roots” efforts.
Sheridan has “labored in Michigan grass roots for the glorious 10 years” and started her political profession as a tea find together leader and organizer, basically based on the pronounce GOP’s web feature.
Sheridan, Ponkowski and the Michigan Republican Event did now not acknowledge to messages.
Social media accounts cloak that allotment of the neighborhood’s arrangement modified into once to hurt Whitmer. A day after the affirm, the Michigan Trump Republicans posted a conservative realizing creator’s column on its Facebook online page. The column, which looked in The Washington Put up, asserted that the affirm had all but killed Whitmer’s chances to be vice president.
“Mission executed?” the neighborhood wrote above the hyperlink to the column.
Nicole Hemmer, a student at Columbia University and creator of “Messengers of the Fair,” regarding the honest-waft media, talked about the anti-govt signage and argument that build-at-dwelling orders infringe on private liberty hark lend a hand to a prior conservative circulation.
“In my thoughts it looks so a lot just like the tea find together,” she talked about. “It practically sounds like an excuse for getting out and rallying in opposition to politicians they oppose.”
Some politicians reflect Trump’s egging on of the protesters is terrible.
“The president is fomenting home insurrection and spreading lies even whereas his personal administration says the virus is exact and is lethal and that we now comprise got a long formulation to pass before restrictions will most likely be lifted,” talked about Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D). A affirm in opposition to his build-at-dwelling record, which lifts May perhaps presumably additionally 5, is scheduled in Olympia this weekend.
Tyler Miller, who organized the Washington pronounce affirm, talked about he's urging attendees to construct on private defending instruments, teach physical distancing and no longer help in the occasion that they are in a high-probability class or feeling ill.
Despite the increasing replacement of protests, polling presentations the spacious majority of Individuals toughen build-at-dwelling orders. Eighty-one p.c of respondents in an April 8 Quinnipiac University polltalked about they would toughen a national build-at-dwelling record. Sixty-eight p.c of Republicans queried talked about they would toughen a nationwide record to construct of their properties, alongside with 95 p.c of Democrats and 80 p.c of Independents. In a Pew Research Heart see, 66 p.c of respondents talked about they are more concerned that restrictions would be lifted too rapid, rather than no longer rapid ample. Republicans in the see had been the truth is wreck up on the demand.
Public neatly being experts comprise talked about any untimely easing of build-at-dwelling orders might also lead to a 2nd wave of pandemic, erasing the social distancing growth, returning the inhabitants to quarantine, deepening the industrial turmoil and main to more lives lost.
Some talked about they are protesting totally on yarn of the extreme economic impact attributable to the virus. Bigger than 22 million folks comprise filed for unemployment since Trump declared a national emergency glorious month.
In Ohio, the assign 100 protesters did now not teach social distancing as they pushed up in opposition to the glass doorways of the statehouse this week, Gov. Mike DeWine (R) launched he modified into once assembling plans to safely reopen the economy before the expiration of his build-at-dwelling record May perhaps presumably additionally 1. DeWine and Amy Acton, director of the Ohio Department of Health, comprise talked about reopening will reach in phases.
Sigh Sen. Andrew Brenner (R) talked about DeWine modified into once honest to shut colleges and companies early, choices that Brenner talked about are bringing the pronounce nearer to reopening.
Brenner’s district shut to Columbus is one in all the quickest-increasing areas of the pronounce. He talked about the pandemic has wiped out its economic beneficial properties.
“Of us are calling me crying because they've lost their jobs, and the govtstimulus tests are no longer going to withhold folks going long,” Brenner talked about, adding more folks will need govt help. “The following component that’s going to happen is that earnings wished to withhold very valuable services, equivalent to education and Medicaid, will plummet.”
Enterprise owners in Oklahoma and Ohio comprise filed lawsuits, bemoaning the industrial charges of sheltering in design. In Michigan, Michael Lackomar known as a attorney after a scramble-in with pronounce troopers.
Lackomar talked about he and his companion comprise left their dwelling in the Detroit suburbs for his or her solitary 2nd dwelling on the shores of Lake Huron. But when Lackomar visited this week, two pronounce troopers pounded on the door.
“You know you’re no longer supposed to be here,” Lackomar recalled the trooper announcing as he defined Whitmer’s original record, which bans folks from traveling between a valuable design and a walk dwelling. The troopers instructed the couple to construct build or probability a $1,000 gentle or misdemeanor value.
The interaction led Lackomar to rant on Facebook and then contact a attorney.
“Generally it's doubtless you'll perhaps presumably even be feeling equivalent to you have not got any direct in opposition to the mountainous monolithic govt,” talked about Lackomar, who's one in all so a lot of Michigan residents suing Whitmer. “They are trying to possess the an infection, but there is a line. I’m sorry, my rights as a person don’t the least bit times steal a lend a hand seat to somebody else’s fears.”
Lackomar’s attorney, David Helm, is arguing in federal court docket that the govtowes his purchasers compensation because rules comprise rendered their properties and companies ineffective. The statewide restrictions, he talked about, violate property and due job rights because most of Michigan’s coronavirus cases are little to 2 tough-hit counties in metro Detroit.
“Your total pronounce of Michigan is on house arrest. That’s a deliver,” talked about Helm, who has heard from varied firms taking into consideration class-action suits in Tennessee and Oregon. “We know there is an outbreak and govt action needs to steal design, but it's doubtless you'll perhaps well comprise to tailor those actions to sever lend a hand constitutional infringements. If left unchecked, it might per chance perhaps well comprise to lead to more dramatic rules down the avenue. We don’t desire the governor to come up with the selection to comprise precedent here. We desire the court docket to design precedent.”
Whitmer’s design of enterprise did now not return a requirement for touch upon the lawsuits.
In a news conference this week, Whitmer talked about she understands why folks are upset regarding the build-at-dwelling record.
“It’s OK to be annoyed. It’s OK to be angry,” Whitmer talked about, adding it would be gentle if folks directed their emotions at her. “I’ve got thick skin and I’m the least bit times going to shield your honest to free speech.”
In states including North Carolina, activists are organizing thru closed Facebook groups that comprise grown rapid.
Ashley Smith, the founder of ReOpenNC, believes build-at-dwelling orders are no longer the honest formulation to fight the virus.
“We’ve dropped an atomic bomb on a knife fight,” she talked about. “Yes, there are risks, however the Structure does no longer bid us a probability-free existence.”
Michael Morgan of Westfield, N.C., who has been combating cancer for 3 years, sent the neighborhood a non-public message to are trying and heed its level of gape. He talked about he modified into once blocked and started his personal neighborhood: Dwell House N.C. It now additionally has thousands of participants. He does no longer reflect economic considerations might well comprise to easy dictate when build-at-dwelling orders are lifted.
“This has change into a war between money and existence. And folks the truth is value their money,” Morgan talked about. “I fully heed no longer having the flexibility to pay your bills and the pain of shedding a replace, but wouldn’t you somewhat be alive? Judge me, we are able to work thru this.”
David Weigel and Robert Costa in Washington and Gregory Scruggs in Seattle contributed to this file.
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it shows your heart's desire
Day six, people! It’s almost the end of the week, and I’m really excited about this and tomorrow’s prompts. For today I decided to change a little the prompt, I hope you don’t mind. All my love to Mandy @deliverychicafresa for proofreading this... it has been a total pleassure to read your comments on this. words count: +4.6k
Day 6: We stumble into the mirror of erised together. We look into it. Neither of us know it’s anything special. We just see our reflections
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Luna would probably say with pride that she is one of the few people who know Hogwarts very well, She has been in about every inch of the castle, even if only because she has taken the wrong staircase at the wrong moment all the time. Like this afternoon, for example, as she was walking to her common room after her astronomy class, and now she is in a hallway she has never seen before. Yeah, she is lost. At the beginning she tried walking and walking until finding a way out. Right now she is just opening all the doors she can find, trying to hold back the tears, because she shouldn’t cry because of something like that.
She is almost giving up when she hears something. Were those steps? She looks around trying to find the source of that sound, but she can’t see much, everything is way too dark.
“Hello? Is somebody there?” Maybe saying this isn’t the most intelligent thing she has done, it could be a mean student, or worst, it could be Peeves. The poltergeist has pranked her and her best friend the day before, throwing raw rice at them while they were studying for their O.W.L.s in the library, making them abandon their books to find a safe place to hide until he found another victim for his jokes. But it’s her only option to find her way back to her common room, so it’s that or nothing.
There’s no answer, and she is starting to think it was a product of her imagination, so she decides to keep walking. How was the song Dory used to sing in that Disney movie she used to watch when she was a child? Just keep swimming, just keep swimming. Yeah, that one. She takes a deep breath and starts walking again, repeating those words as a mantra, trying to stay calm.
“Are you lost, little badger?” A sudden male voice coming from right behind her ear makes her scream and jump, throwing her wand to the floor. The light that came from its tip vanishing. “Oh sorry, I didn’t mind to scare you,” he says laughing and she rolled her eyes.
She knows who it is since the first word comes out from his mouth, not only because she can recognize his voice as easily as she can recognize her own, but because in that exact moment the delicious smell of his cologne was invading all her senses, making her shiver from head to toe. It is Matteo, one of the most popular guys at Hogwarts, the best Quidditch player, the most handsome (that’s what the polls say), one of the best students and��� of course, one half of the most iconic couple of the school. She hates that guy, or at least that’s what she says to everyone and herself, because there’s something about him that annoys her, but at the same time attracts her like the most powerful accio spell someone has ever conjured.
She turns around finding his face just centimeters away, so she paralyzes for almost a second, resisting the urge of her own body to come even closer. What is she thinking? He has a girlfriend, and said girl is so flawless Luna has the theory she has to have Veela blood running through her veins, no girl could be that gorgeous. Besides her she was just… just Luna. He would never like her, not that she wants him to do so, of course. She hates the guy, she hates him very much.
“You’re such a liar, I bet that’s exactly what you meant to do, don’t you dare deny it,” she says when she found he voice back. He has the most devilish smile she has ever seen while bending down to pick up her wand, handing it over to her after getting up.
“Well… touché,” he doesn’t deny it, nor does he looks like he feels sorry for it. “You looked so defenseless I couldn’t help myself,” he adds, while lighting up the tip of his own wand. “Now, are you going to explain me how you got lost? Because that must be an interesting story.”
She looks away.
“I wasn’t lost,” Luna doesn’t want to accept that, not in front of him.
“Yes, you were.”
At this point she knows there’s no way she could convince him otherwise, so she just sighs and shrugs. She won’t tell him how she got lost, not in a million years, because telling him she was too sleepy to notice the staircase moved when she was using it wouldn’t make it any better. He already has enough material to mock at her for decades, she won’t give him any more.
“What are you doing here, anyway?” she tries to change the topic, finally putting some distance between them. “Do you spend your free time creeping around the dark hallways of the school, looking for people to scare to death?” She raises her chin and he laughs, pointing at his prefect‘s insignia.
“I’m just doing my round, making sure there are no lost little girls on the hallways,” why does his voice has to be so provocative? Being alone with him in the hallway wasn’t doing any good for her. “And now that I found you, I can finally achieve my ultimate goal in life: saving you…” he adds, and she remembers the big amount of times he has done it.
The first time was when she was on the train on her first trip to Hogwarts, she was trying to reach the trunk of the train compartment to get her belongings and change for her uniform, but ended up with her bag almost hitting her head, if it wouldn't have been for the second year guy with Slytherin robes who stopped the luggage with his hands in the last second. That day she met Matteo Balsano, his perfect smile, and his huge ego. Since then, he had made it just in time to save her several times. Falling into the lake? Check. Books being too heavy for her petite self? Check. His girlfriend being mean to her? Check, as well. He is always there for her, and she still doesn’t know why.
But she is stubborn, and she would never accept how thankful she is of him, because he is a snob, and she can’t be falling for someone like him.
“I don’t need to be saved, much less by you,” she says, and just to make her point clear she crosses her arms and walks in any direction, anything to keep him away. But he follows her, so she starts walking faster, as if it was the most mature thing to do.
“You are going the wrong way, little badger,” he tries to tell her, but she ignores him. “If you let me escort you, you'd be in your common room in less than ten minutes,” she keeps ignoring him, even if a small part of herself is trying to tell her that he might be right. He is a prefect, after all. But no, she won’t let him win, not this time… not ever. So she keeps walking, being aware of him right behind her, hoping she would get to the stairs by herself, to be able to tell him how wrong he was for not believing in her.
But the only thing she finds is a dead end.
“Now, are you going to let me accompany you to your common room?” he asks, with his stupid cocky voice, and she feels madly vexed. Stupid preppy boy, with perfect sense of location, and great ability to make her lose her chill. She decided not to give up, just not yet, so she finds a door on her left and opens it, not sure about what she wanted to find there. “Come on, Luna. Stop being so stubborn,” Matteo follows her inside the room, trying to persuade her, but that doesn’t stop her.
There is nothing in there, except for an ancient, ornate mirror, big enough to reflect their whole bodies even when they got closer to look at it in detail. It has clawed feet and a gold frame inscribed with a phrase in a language he didn’t understand.
“Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi,” Matteo reads, his eyebrows furrowing at every word. “What does it even mean?” he looks confused, and seeing him like that is a first time for Luna.
“I thought you knew everything,” she teases. He rolls his eyes.
“Not everything, but I'm sure that I still know more than you,” she has a wild desire of punching that snob expression of his face. “Or you are going to tell me you know what it means, little badger?” he teases back and she takes out her tongue at him. Yeah, very mature coming from her.
He laughs, walking to take a closer look at the mirror. She does the same, without noticing anything strange in its reflection, there were just her and Matteo next to each other, just as they were in that exact moment. Except…
“Hey, are you insane?!” she moves her hand as she sees his approaching it on the mirror, and moves to put some distance between them. Why would he do something like that? Is he nuts? He has a girlfriend, and she isn’t her. “Don’t dare to do that!” He looks surprised by her reaction, his other hand suddenly moving away from touching his own lips, something she hasn’t notice he was doing while looking at their reflections.
“Do what?” he asks, with bewilderment.
“That thing you were almost doing with your hand!” She shouts, and he still looks clueless.
“I was doing nothing with my hand” He is just trying to annoy her, she believes, so she decides not to follow his stupid game that could end with him laughing at her for thinking he would try to take her hand. She was tired of walking in circles, she just wanted to leave that room and be as far away as possible of Matteo Balsano, so she sighed and decided to accept his help to leave that stupid hallway, but only until the point where their paths had to be separated so that they could go to their respective common rooms.
He was strangely silent all the way.
“Are you sure about that?” Luna asks her best friend, still trying to assimilate the news.
They are having lunch in the gardens of the castle, very near the lake, on a picnic blanket that Nina has conjured for the two of them, as they rarely can eat at the same table at the great hall. The disadvantages of not belonging to the same house. Simon is also invited to their picnic, but her other best friend is late, perhaps because of some training of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, so they started it without him.
“Yes, I’m sure. Gastón told me,” Nina’s boyfriend is Matteo’s best friend, so he is a very reliable source in this particular topic, but she still can’t believe it.
“So… Matteo broke up with Ambar?” she asks, and her friend nods. “When?” She needs to know more about it, even if her inner self is telling her that she shouldn’t care about that, she hates the guy, after all.
“I don’t know, I didn’t ask him that,” Nina shrugged. “I didn’t want to look like I’m into gossip, because I’m not, and Gastón had already done too much telling me about the break-up thing.” Luna bit her lip, and looked away.
You hate him, she reminds herself. You shouldn’t feel sorry for him. But she is, she is feeling terrible, it is a torture to think of him having a hard time for breaking up with her long-time girlfriend, mostly because she couldn’t stop thinking about that night they met on the hallways during the last days, fantasizing that he had reached to take her hand, and with them kissing in front of that old piece of furniture.
Somehow, that makes her feels guilty.
“Planet earth calling Luna,” her friend brought her back to reality, and she blinked.
“Sorry… I was thinking about something else,” she excused herself, and Nina smiled.
“Yeah, I realized,” her friend has that smile, the one she uses to tease her about how much she thinks she has a thing for Matteo, but if she wants to do any comment she keeps it for herself, because the next thing she says has nothing to do with the topic. “I was telling you that I have been reading about mirrors, trying to investigate about the one you saw on that room, and I think I found it,” her friend tells her, taking a big book from her belongings.
Luna leans closer to be able to take look, as the Ravenclaw gets to the correct page.
“Here it is!” Nina smiles, and points at the picture in the page. “Is that your mirror?” she asks, and Luna takes a closed view of the picture.
“Yes, that’s the one,” she nods. “What does it do?” she is really curious about it, because that all alone on the room, as if it was a really important object.
“The Mirror of Erised was created before the end of the nineteenth century. It is unknown who the creator was. The mirror is one of those magical artefacts that seems to have been created in a spirit of fun (whether innocent or malevolent is a matter of opinion), because while it is much more revealing than a normal mirror, it is interesting rather than useful.” Nina reads. “It shows the ‘deepest, most desperate desire of our heart.’, and its name comes from the word desire, spelled backwards.” Her friend looks at her, open mouthed. “What did you see in the mirror?” she asks with curiosity, and she just shakes her head.
“I told you, I only saw our reflection,” she shrugs, and her friend is looking really fascinated.
“Oh, well… that’s good, really good indeed!” she was getting really excited. “Here it says that if the happiest person in the world would look in the mirror, he or she would see a reflection of him or herself, exactly as they are. Maybe you are that person!” in that moment Simon arrives to their picnic, excusing his tardiness on Gaston’s extra training sessions for the team, and looks at the overly excited girl with an amused expression.
“Could you tell me what I missed?” He asks, as he sits at the blanket and reaches a piece of bread.
“Luna is the happiest person in the world!” Nina shouts.
“Well, that’s no news,” the Gryffindor smiles at both girls, and taps on his best friend’s head. “She is a sunflower, after all,” he adds, and Luna rolls her eyes.
“No, but I mean... there’s a true proof of that now.” The other girl replies, starts to explain Simón about the mirror of Erised, and how Luna had seen only herself when she saw her reflection on it. But that couldn’t be true, the mirror must be broken, because she doesn’t feel like the happiest person in the world, if it was true she should be as enthusiastic about it as her friend.
“It must be super cool to look at that mirror, what do you think I would see?” Simon asks, and both of her friends start discussing about what they could have seen in the mirror if they had been in her place.
Suddenly, it clicks in Luna’s head. No, she didn’t just see her own reflection, she saw Matteo and her side to side, and in the reflection it looked like he was closer than he really was, Oh Merlin’s beard! She saw him slowly approaching her hand with his. Now everything makes sense, his surprised expression, the fact he didn’t know what she was talking about: He didn’t try to take her hand, it was the mirror showing her the biggest desire of her heart, and somehow that makes her feel worse, because she now knows the truth: she could have hated Matteo Balsano, but now... now she has fallen in love with him.
Studying for her O.W.Ls has been terribly exhausting, more than she thought it would be. Her best friend has been taking it too seriously, making them stay in the library for hours, even on Sundays. Especially on Sundays. She has been reading so many books she doesn’t know if Ignatia Wildsmith invented the flu powders, or if she was part of the International Warlock Convention of 1289. She needs a break, or even better, not see a book for the rest of her life.
Nina opens another book, and she groans.
“Can we finish for today? Pretty please?” she begs, her forehead touching the wood of the library’s table, all her body aching for staying in that chair for almost five hours already. Her friend sighs.
“But the O.W.Ls are in four weeks, and we still haven’t studied the Goblin Rebellions, and Gaston told me they asked about them in his O.W.Ls last year.” The shy girl replies, biting her lips. Luna is seriously considering to throw herself out the window if her friend tries to make her memorize the name of any goblin in that moment.
“You said it yourself, we still have four weeks,” Luna lifts her face, looking at her beg with puppy eyes. They must work. “Come on! we can study that tomorrow, now I don’t think I would be able to memorize anything else.” Her friend doubtfully looks around and then nods.
Oh, sweet victory.
“Yeah, I think you’re right. Maybe I can come up with some schemes tonight, so it gets easier to learn it, the goblin’s revolution is very complicated,” Yeah, it is, Luna says mentally, asking herself how she ended up being as good friend with the Ravenclaw girl. They weren’t much alike.
They are picking up the books from the table to put them back in the bookshelfs when a couple of guys approach them. The one wearing Gryffindor robes goes directly to hug her best friend, giving the girl a sweet peck on her lips, while the one in Slytherin ones walks directly towards her, giving her the brightest smile ever, as if he was happy for seeing her. She feels as if someone had started a party inside her stomach, because now she knows she is in love with him, as much as she is sure he doesn’t feel the same. That’s why she has been avoiding him lately, walking to the opposite side every time he has entered her field of vision, inventing any excuse every time he has tried to talk to her, as she is about to do in that very moment.
“I… will go put these back in their places,” she says to her best friend, but she is too busy looking at her boyfriend with heart eyes to listen, so she just picks a stack of books and starts walking towards the hallways of shelfs, because she couldn’t stand staying close to Matteo for another second.
She is trying to put one of the books in one of the highest shelves, painfully failing on the task, when a male hand takes said book and puts it in its place. She freezes for a couple of seconds, before turning her head to find HIM right behind her, holding another stack of books. How could he always look so handsome? He looks so damn good there, staring at her with an amused smile in his lips, and the tie of his uniform slightly untied.
“What are you doing here?” She asks, her heart beating too fast to be considered healthy.
“Nina and Gastón were so busy over there that I thought you’d like some help with the books,” he replies. “I mean, you really need help with those high shelves, don’t you?” He then teases, making her shake her head.
“If you just want to bother me you can go back to them, Matteo. I’m not in the mood today,” she says, because she feels like she wouldn’t be able to reply to his teasing today, or for the rest of the year, indeed. Knowing how she feels for him is killing her slowly, and that makes her unable to think of good responses for his teasing, to keep things as they used to be.
He looks taken aback.
“Too much studying?” he asked, and she thinks it's a good excuse, so she goes with it.
“Yeah, that.” She starts walking again, going back to put the books on the shelves.
“I can help you if you want, little badger,” he suggests while following her, and only thinking about him helping with her study sessions makes her body shiver.
“I’m ok, I’m studying with Nina,” she dismisses his offer, breaking her own heart a little, because a part of her would’ve wanted to spend some time with him. Luna erases that thought from her head. She must put all those books on their places as soon as possible, so she can go to her common room, where she is sure she won’t see him. “But thanks, anyway,” she adds, trying not to sound rude.
“Anytime, little badger,” Matteo replies. “And the offer remains.” He then adds, with a killer smile, and she has to look away.
They stay silent for a while, and even if she thought that she would prefer it to listening to his voice, she isn’t able to stand it anymore. She wasn’t good at not talking, she needed to do so as much as breathing, so she looked back at him after putting the last book on the shelf.
“Can I ask you something?” she asks, and he looks kind of taken aback, but nods. “Is it true that you and Ambar… well, that you broke up?” she trusts on her best friend’s word, but she didn’t want to look so sure about the topic and put her best friend, or Gastón, in any problem for telling.
He pauses for almost a minute, and then shrugs.
“Yeah, it’s true,” he runs his hand through his hair. “News spread fast here in Hogwarts,” then says shaking his head, with a soft laugh that doesn’t sound very happy, not at all.
“Oh, sorry for mentioning it, I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable,” she looks at him for a while, her own guilt drawn on her face, she shouldn’t have said those words. He notices that, and leaves his last book in the shelf before walking towards her, and awkwardly putting his hand on her shoulder. Since when is Matteo Balsano awkward in any way? She thought she would never call awkward to anything that he did, but still it feels that way. “Forget I asked…” she tries to wipe away the topic, but he smiles and she feels her worries fading away.
“Don’t worry, Luna. It’s ok,” he shrugs, moving even closer. “I broke up with Ambar because I don’t feel the same way about her, I haven’t done it for a while now, but I was so used to our relationship... that it felt safe to stay together, for both of us,” He is looking at her eyes. “She is an amazing girl, but she is not the right girl for me, she is not the one my heart desires,” he concludes, and she swallows. What does he mean? Why is he getting so close? Why is she feeling as if his eyes were looking directly into her soul? She needs some space, a Quidditch field-size space, but she can’t move from her place.
“And who would be that girl?” She whispered, her heart beating faster.
“I will tell you. But first, I need you to answer a couple of question.” She wants to refuse doing so, but he already had answered her first question, so she kind of owes him that. “First,” he says, raising his index finger in front of her face, while still looking directly to her eyes. “Why were you avoiding me these days?”
She shakes her head, “I wasn’t avoiding you,” she says, and his look lets her know he doesn’t believe her. He knows she has been avoiding him, she hasn’t been very subtle, to be honest.
“Don’t you dare deny it,” He quotes her from the time they met on the hallway, and then laughs. “But that question can wait, this one is the most important: what did you see in the mirror?” She feels her heart skipping a beat, and her legs shaking as if they were made of jelly. He had researched, otherwise he wouldn’t have bring back the topic.
“I- I didn’t see anything strange,” she stutters. “Just the two of us standing there.”
“But you told me not to do something I obviously wasn’t doing, what was it?” her cheeks start turning red. “What was I doing with my hand on the reflection?” She doesn’t say a word. “Tell me, Luna.” He whispers, getting closer, and she closes her eyes feeling her heart almost breaking her ribs cage.
“You were going to hold my hand,” she gives up, feeling too embarrassed at her own words to look at him. But then she hears a sigh of relief coming from his mouth, and she has to open her eyes to see what’s happening, just to find his face millimeters away from hers.
“You mean like this?” He asks, taking her hand in his. That simple contact of their palms sends shivers all over her spine, like he was pure electricity. She nods. “Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi. I spent hours that night trying to figure out what those words meant, but they weren’t in any known language. I asked Gaston if he had any idea about it, even if I would have to deal with his stupid puns for the rest of my life, but nothing… I was in a dead end. But then I thought it could be a game of words, I tried to put the letters in different orders, until this idea came to me right before dawn. It’s a mirror, read it backwards, and I got it. You know what it says?” she just shakes her head, she is too hypnotized by his voice to come up with a coherent response. “It says: I show not your face but your heart's desire. But you already know what the mirror does, don’t you?” he asks.
“Nina found it in a book…” she manages to whisper. He smiled.
“Your heart’s desire was this,” he says, squeezing her hand. “Do you want to know mine?” then asks, getting even closer, his breath caressing her face. “There were only you and me in my reflection as well, but I wasn’t holding your hand, I was doing this,” he leans and slightly brushes their lips, breaking apart just a couple of seconds, leaving her breathless, as if he was expecting her to back down.
But she doesn’t, so he merges their lips into a passionate kiss that makes her feel like her legs couldn’t hold her anymore, so she surrounds his neck with her arms, as he surrounds her waist, pulling her closer, kissing her as no one has never done before, making her feel like the luckiest and happiest person in the world.
“Reality surpasses the imagination, by a huge range,” he says breathless, as their lips break apart. She giggled and looked into his eyes, lost in his sight. That moment is the most magical she has ever had. He caress her face, and she closes her eyes, enjoying the sensations that came from his touch. “It’s you Luna,” he says after a while, keeping her close. “You are the girl my heart desires.” She feels those words warming her heart, and steps on her tiptoes to kiss him again.
#lutteoficweek#Soy Luna#Lutteo#Lutteo Fanfic#Soy Luna Fanfic#Luna Valente#Matteo Balsano#Fanfic#SL Fanfic#Written by Me#HogwartsAU
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Back To Birmingham Part Six
Days had passed since the breakfast at Tommy’s. He had elected to let you stay in his home, under extreme supervision. He wouldn’t let you leave the grounds, although you hadn’t been in his presence since the breakfast with the other Shelby’s. Polly had called to check on you, her carpets were ruined and stained with the blood of your punisher. She had them removed and replaced, however the blood stain had soaked through to the wood underneath and left a terrible dark spot.
“I’m sorry Poll.” You said through the reciever.
“Oh, darling it’s not your fault. I blame that nephew of mine. Although he is a bloody good shot.” You could hear what you pressumed were John’s children in the background.
“Hello Love.” You didn’t have to guess by now which Shelby that had been, although not a Shelby really. Michael Gray, Poll’s son spoke through.
“Don’t let Tommy hear you talkin’ to her like that.” You could imagine Poll swatting at him.
“We’ve got business Mum, needed down at Headquarters.” Michael’s voice grew distant.
“Gotta go, (Y/N). He’ll come around, yeah?” Was the last thing she spoke before you hung up.
You heaved a sigh, the pain from breathing had not gotten much easier over the course of a few days. You pulled your blouse up and could feel the heat radiating from the blackish purple spot located on your right side. The doctor had come and prescribed more meds, and told you that the only thing that could heal it would be time.
“You need to sort it out up here, too.” He pointed at your head, and you knew he meant you needed to talk about it. The only person you wanted to talk to had been avoiding you like the plague. His toast at breakfast was directed at you, although, he covered it up by using the deal that he had made with Alfie Solomon.
The races were in two days, and your body still looked like a mangled mess. Tommy had said you could go, depending on how you healed and rested up. The manor was beginning to look very much the same in every room, the walls were bleeding together and it was driving you insane.
“A prisoner once again.” You stated outloud to noone in particular. Thoughts raced back to being your parents home, you left your room only to eat and attend socialite activities. Although you knew that your fathers business was just as dangerous as Tommy’s. He was involved in politics, Tommy was involved in betting and guns.
“So you’re the stowaway that Thomas Shelby has been hiding.” A woman with a cigarette holder pressed to her lips had made her way into the house.
“How....”
“The maid let me in.” She was in a tight fitting dress, a boa wrapped around her shoulders and some ungoldy looking headpiece set on her head with a feather. She looked a few years older than Tommy, but thoughts still crossed your mind. You doubted that he would have let his bed stay cold for this long.
“Tommy isn’t here right now, and I doubt I will be of much help if your here on business.” Your eyes cut into slits.
“I’ll wait.” She made herself comfortable on the sofa in the drawing room. “Your not Tommy’s usual take.” She mouthed and took another drag from the cigarette.
“Excuse me. I’m not a whore, if that’s what your saying.” Suddenly you felt unprotected and vulnerable. You crossed your arms across your chest, the rolled up sleeves of your blouse revealing a small trail of bruises that had yet to heal.
“Quite right my dear, you’re much to frail. However, why else would Thomas Shelby be keeping....”
“That’s enough Adona.” Tommy walked through the doors and was adjusting his tie to loosen around his collar. “You will not speak to my guest in such a manner, I don’t care how much money you’ve come to spend. If you think that it is okay to insult my friend after the ordeal she has just been through, I will kindly show you to the door and tell you to get the hell out.” He took a seat at his desk, and picked up a pen and began writing on a few pieces of paper. “Here, the paperwork is done. You may go about your day and continue insulting everyone you come across with. Do not say another cross word to her, on your way out.” His blue eyes could cut through glass with the glare that he was giving her.
She quietly scoffed and picked up her papers, brushing against your shoulder as she passed and allowing the ashes from the tip of her cigarette to land messily onto your bare feet. Tommy quickly pushed himself away from his desk, and was busily putting a coat over his arms.
“Going out again? Should I expect any more visits from your past lovers?” Your voice had taken an icy tone, and Tommy cut his eyes at you.
“I don’t have time for this right now. I’ve got to go get John and Arthur out of the trouble they’ve created. I will be back late.” He adjusted the news boy cap onto his head and headed out of the door.
You shook your foot, discarding the ashes and began searching for a broom.
“I’ll get that miss.” The maid spoke.
“No, I’ve got it. I need something to do to keep my mind busy.” The maid nodded in agreement.
“Yes miss.” She went on about her other daily duties.
You had spent a majority of your time pacing past the windows, the servents in the house bringing you assortments of food throughtout the day. You didn’t want to sit down and have a proper meal, you wanted to talk to the man who had taken you in. Who had been so furious with you for so many years for leaving, and now had left you alone in his great big house for days. The last conversation shared between the two of you played in your head.
He had told you that he didn’t think you were broken, but the very next morning his eyes said different. It wasn’t just a look of concern or worry, he pitied you and your gut wanted to empty all of its contents onto the floor when he gave you that look. You couldn’t have children, and now you wondered if that is why Tommy had distanced himself so much more. It was a coincidence that he had suddenly become more busy. Perhaps he was always like that, not wanting to be in the house alone like you were now. You were mad at him, and for what reason? There wasn’t one. You were being childish and stupid, and acting just the way you didn’t want to be viewed. Broken.
Huffing, you got up from the bed and wandered back to the outside of the manor.
“I’m just getting some fresh air.” You called across the foyer as you stepped out of the back doors. You could really see the garden in the daylight, the sun shining brightly off of each bush and flower. Water droplets licking the edges of each petal and reflecting an array of rainbows across the yard. In the distance you could see a pond, and a few horses grazing.
You had been so cooped up in the house, you hadn’t taken the time to notice that Tommy had horses. You probably should have put shoes on, but you feared that Tommys loafers would have been a smidge too big for your tiny feet. You padded across the pasture and toward the stables. Neighing and whinnying filled your ears, and a few different smells filled your nose.
It was clear that the stable hands had already left for the evening, and the sun was setting. You noticed a bucket full of treats and you scopped out a handful, hoping to please one of the four legged creatures. A few licked your hand, and gracefully took the treat from your palm, a few foals were nursing from their mothers. You made it to the far end, where one of the larger stables held a beautiful solid black stallion, long mane, and tail to follow. A majority of the horses in the barn you could tell were going to be for racing, and perhaps a few for pleasure riding.
The horses eyes caught your eyes, he approached the door and stuck his head through the hole, sniffing at you. You held out your hand with a treat in it, palm facing upward. The horse shook his head up and down before lowering it into your hand and taking the treat. He allowed you to run your hand along his nose and then over his eyelid without flinching.
“He likes you.” Once again the business man had managed to sneakup on you again.
“You’ve got to stop doing that.” Taking an aggravated tone. The stallion nudged his head against your cheek, sending a slight twitch through your face. It was healing but not quick enough for your liking.
“Stop what?” He questioned and tossed an apple between his hands.
“Sneaking up on me, watching me from a distance, its unnerving. Not to mention picking and choosing when it is approriate for us to talk and when not to. I can’t keep dancing around in circles like this, with you. Not now, if this is what its going to be like, I can’t. I came back for a reason and this isn’t it.” You released the breath you had been holding in.
“First of all, I don’t sneak. Second of all, I like watching you when your in your own little world. Not to be a stalker, I want to make sure that your okay and the only way to do that is to observe you. Yes, I have been dancing around the big picture. Business doesn’t stop just because I have you here, I trust my staff. My house is loaded with hidden weapons, and I trust that you wouldn’t leave the house that I built in your image.” There it was, the admittance again, not the exact words but the notion was there, the notion that Thomas Shelby loved you then and had never stopped.
“Tommy, I am broken. I am damaged goods. I can’t have children, I can’t give you a family, I have nothing to offer. Hell, I don’t even know why I came back here, why I thought this would be a good idea.” His face never fell once through your confession.
“You don’t have to give me a family. I already have one of those, and you’re not broken. You’ve been beaten and damaged but your spirit is still there, you’re still the same hardened woman that I fell....” He paused. “That I waited for, for all of these years. You came back to me, you felt pulled here because you knew I would protect you. I would handle everything for you, I couldn’t do that for you back then. Now, now I have that chance but you have to let me in. Don’t push me away, the past is the past. You left, you’re back. You were married, you’re divorced. Your parents kept us from contuing to be together, they’re dead. What is in the way now? You can’t have children, so what? They’re are thousands living in the streets who need a home. That’s what you are, you’re home. My home, (Y/N).” The stables grew silent, even the horses were making little noise. “Let me be here. That’s why I’ve been pressing to be so busy, I didn’t think you wanted me here. I didn’t think that you still felt the same, anymore.”
Your heart broke again, Tommy Shelby’s confession and here you were speechless. Without words, you didn’t know what to say.
“What do you want from me Thomas Shelby?” You spoke, breaking the agonizing silence.
He threw the apple to the ground, smashing it and creating a loud thunk.
“FUCKIN’ HELL WOMAN!” He gripped the sides of his head and yelled. The horses responding to the loudness. You refused to say it first, he had not said it directly, and that’s what you wanted. You wanted Thomas Shelby to say it first, those three words that you waited so long to hear. You had said it to him before, a long long time ago. The night you left Birmingham, his response was stone cold silence and a tight set jaw. Maybe if he had said it then, you wouldn’t have left.
He bit down on his knuckle before coming at you full speed, taking your face in his hands gently. Looking into your eyes, and searching them, tears filling his own as they spilled over. He was hesitating, shaking in front of you.
“I, Thomas Shelby, love you, (Y/N).” He didn’t give you time to say it back, his mouth came crashing down onto yours.
It was a passionate and deep kiss, his hands snaked through your hair and yours careened up his back pulling him tighter. You couldn’t get him close enough, it was like the two of you were melding together. Wet cheek to wet cheek, his tongue breaking the barrier and guiding its way into your mouth. He had backed you against the barn wall reaching for your wrists, he pushed them up and held them back to the barn wall. He broke free first, catching his breath.
He released your hands, his eyes searching your face, worry settling in his brow. A flash of anger, and then calm, and then finally anticipation.
“I, (Y/N), love you, Thomas Shelby.” You spoke. “Always have, always will.”
Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four | Part Five | Part Six
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