Anyway If This Post Reaches 30000 Notes I'll Sit Down And Professionally Film A Goncharov Movie Scene

Can't think about Romeo and Juliet without going insane (affectionate) about how genuinely good of a play it is and without going insane (derogatory) about how often it's been misinterpreted that a lot of conversations about it completely disregard the context of the story to make Romeo and Juliet's love seem superficial and "just being overdramatic dumb teenagers" instead of them both being born into a war they didn't ask to fight in, both having recently been put in awful situations regarding their other romantic relationships (Romeo having gone through what was more or less a bad breakup and Juliet being forced to marry an adult she doesn't know or love- of course they'd fall for someone who understands how they're feeling when nobody else will listen to them), and both of them having friends and family die over this feud that neither want to participate in. Why the fuck wouldn't they want to try to make things better??? Why wouldn't they plead and fight and kill and, eventually, die themselves to try to prove this battle pointless after every other attempt at both peace and escape has failed them??????? Gods I know I'm definitely overreacting but I get so frustrated when people water it down to "see this proves that love at first sight is a stupid trope" when that's literally the opposite of the play's themes. ALSO the story- while it's very common knowledge these days that it's a tragedy- WASN'T PORTRAYED LIKE THAT!!! Like yes, the prologue tells you that the main characters are going to end up dead at the end- but it's impactful because you're supposed to almost forget about that line, and wonder "how could things possibly go THAT badly?"!!! The entire first half of the play is framed as a comedy!!! You've got overdramatic monologues, a silly sidekick, old men swordfighting in their pajamas, a nurse that is well-meaning but ultimately incompetent! And then the silly sidekick dies. And very, very suddenly, it's no longer a comedy. Now it's a tragedy. And when this silly sidekick curses both the Montagues and the Capulets? Now you know. They're doomed. No matter what they try, something will go wrong, because the blood this feud has shed has cursed them all. And while they may try, and oh Lord, these characters try, they can't escape their fate.

The usual “he’s kinda stupid but he’s my stupid so I’m stuck with him”

Someone, probably Alexander: do you like James or Meredith?

Oliver:yes

in canon kevin calls neil a child like, very casually and kind of condescendingly but let’s revamp it. it’s just his nickname for neil now.

and bc the foxes are who they are neil becomes Kevin’s Day’s child.

neil: [scores twice in 10 mins]

nicky, hollering at the top of his lungs: there goes kevin’s pride and joy!

when neil starts shit w/ the press he’s the problem child. kevin checks in literally every day when he graduates and neil’s like “??? you’re not my actual dad????? you do know that right? it’s important to me that you know that”

their relationship is more exasperated big brother vs little brother with zero self preservation but Neil is absolutely “kid” “kiddo” “child” to kevin and that’s just facts.

he has the looks of a depressed english professor and the soul of a whore.

Narumitsu Week 2021 - Day 5: Appearances

marina tsvetaeva trans by ilya kaminsky

Dorian Havilliard had the hots for Fenrys.

1. “But the dark-eyed, bronze-skinned male-so handsome that Dorian blinked-smirked at the dagger shivering beside his head.” Chapter 22, pg. 187.

2. “At the mention of lover, Rowan gave Fenrys a lethal stare. The beautiful male-really, there was no way to describe him other than that-just shrugged.” Chapter 22, pg. 191.

A scorpion, not knowing how to swim, asked a frog to carry it across the river. “Do I look like a fool?” said the frog. “You’d sting me if I let you on my back!”

“Be logical,” said the scorpion. “If I stung you I’d certainly drown myself.”

“That’s true,” the frog acknowledged. “Climb aboard, then!” But no sooner than they were halfway across the river, the scorpion stung the frog, and they both began to thrash and drown. “Why on earth did you do that?” the frog said morosely. “Now we’re both going to die.” 

“I can’t help it,” said the scorpion. “It’s my nature.”

___

…But no sooner than they were halfway across the river, the frog felt a subtle motion on its back, and in a panic dived deep beneath the rushing waters, leaving the scorpion to drown.

“It was going to sting me anyway,” muttered the frog, emerging on the other side of the river. “It was inevitable. You all knew it. Everyone knows what those scorpions are like. It was self-defense.”

___

…But no sooner had they cast off from the bank, the frog felt the tip of a stinger pressed lightly against the back of its neck. “What do you think you’re doing?” said the frog.

“Just a precaution,” said the scorpion. “I cannot sting you without drowning. And now, you cannot drown me without being stung. Fair’s fair, isn’t it?”

They swam in silence to the other end of the river, where the scorpion climbed off, leaving the frog fuming.

“After the kindness I showed you!” said the frog. “And you threatened to kill me in return?”

“Kindness?” said the scorpion. “To only invite me on your back after you knew I was defenseless, unable to use my tail without killing myself? My dear frog, I only treated you as I was treated. Your kindness was as poisoned as a scorpion’s sting.”

___

…“Just a precaution,” said the scorpion. “I cannot sting you without drowning. And now, you cannot drown me without being stung. Fair’s fair, isn’t it?”

“You have a point,” the frog acknowledged. “But once we get to dry land, couldn’t you sting me then without repercussion?”

“All I want is to cross the river safely,” said the scorpion. “Once I’m on the other side I would gladly let you be.”

“But I would have to trust you on that,” said the frog. “While you’re pressing a stinger to my neck. By ferrying you to land I’d be be giving up the one deterrent I hold over you.”

“But by the same logic, I can’t possibly withdraw my stinger while we’re still over water,” the scorpion protested.

The frog paused in the middle of the river, treading water. “So, I suppose we’re at an impasse.”

The river rushed around them. The scorpion’s stinger twitched against the frog’s unbroken skin. “I suppose so,” the scorpion said.

___

A scorpion, not knowing how to swim, asked a frog to carry it across the river. “Absolutely not!” said the frog, and dived beneath the waters, and so none of them learned anything.

___

A scorpion, being unable to swim, asked a turtle (as in the original Persian version of the fable) to carry it across the river. The turtle readily agreed, and allowed the scorpion aboard its shell. Halfway across, the scorpion gave in to its nature and stung, but failed to penetrate the turtle’s thick shell. The turtle, swimming placidly, failed to notice.

They reached the other side of the river, and parted ways as friends.

___

…Halfway across, the scorpion gave in to its nature and stung, but failed to penetrate the turtle’s thick shell.

The turtle, hearing the tap of the scorpion’s sting, was offended at the scorpion’s ungratefulness. Thankfully, having been granted the powers to both defend itself and to punish evil, the turtle sank beneath the waters and drowned the scorpion out of principle.

___

A scorpion, not knowing how to swim, asked a frog to carry it across the river. “Do I look like a fool?” sneered the frog. “You’d sting me if I let you on my back.”

The scorpion pleaded earnestly. “Do you think so little of me? Please, I must cross the river. What would I gain from stinging you? I would only end up drowning myself!”

“That’s true,” the frog acknowledged. “Even a scorpion knows to look out for its own skin. Climb aboard, then!”

But as they forged through the rushing waters, the scorpion grew worried. This frog thinks me a ruthless killer, it thought. Would it not be justified in throwing me off now and ridding the world of me? Why else would it agree to this? Every jostle made the scorpion more and more anxious, until the frog surged forward with a particularly large splash, and in panic the scorpion lashed out with its stinger.

“I knew it,” snarled the frog, as they both thrashed and drowned. “A scorpion cannot change its nature.”

___

A scorpion, not knowing how to swim, asked a frog to carry it across the river. The frog agreed, but no sooner than they were halfway across the scorpion stung the frog, and they both began to thrash and drown.

“I’ve only myself to blame,” sighed the frog, as they both sank beneath the waters. “You, you’re a scorpion, I couldn’t have expected anything better. But I knew better, and yet I went against my judgement! And now I’ve doomed us both!”

“You couldn’t help it,” said the scorpion mildly. “It’s your nature.” 

___

…“Why on earth did you do that?” the frog said morosely. “Now we’re both going to die.”

“Alas, I was of two natures,” said the scorpion. “One said to gratefully ride your back across the river, and the other said to sting you where you stood. And so both fought, and neither won.” It smiled wistfully. “Ah, it would be nice to be just one thing, wouldn’t it? Unadulterated in nature. Without the capacity for conflict or regret.”

___

“By the way,” said the frog, as they swam, “I’ve been meaning to ask: What’s on the other side of the river?”

“It’s the journey,” said the scorpion. “Not the destination.”

___

…“What’s on the other side of anything?” said the scorpion. “A new beginning.”

___

…”Another scorpion to mate with,” said the scorpion. “And more prey to kill, and more living bodies to poison, and a forthcoming lineage of cruelties that you will be culpable in.”

___

…”Nothing we will live to see, I fear,” said the scorpion. “Already the currents are growing stronger, and the river seems like it shall swallow us both. We surge forward, and the shoreline recedes. But does that mean our striving was in vain?”

___

“I love you,” said the scorpion.

The frog glanced upward. “Do you?”

“Absolutely. Can you imagine the fear of drowning? Of course not. You’re a frog. Might as well be scared of breathing air. And yet here I am, clinging to your back, as the waters rage around us. Isn’t that love? Isn’t that trust? Isn’t that necessity? I could not kill you without killing myself. Are we not inseparable in this?”

The frog swam on, the both of them silent.

___

“I’m so tired,” murmured the frog eventually. “How much further to the other side? I don’t know how long we’ve been swimming. I’ve been treading water. And it’s getting so very dark.”

“Shh,” the scorpion said. “Don’t be afraid.”

The frog’s legs kicked out weakly. “How long has it been? We’re lost. We’re lost! We’re doomed to be cast about the waters forever. There is no land. There’s nothing on the other side, don’t you see!”

“Shh, shh,” said the scorpion. “My venom is a hallucinogenic. Beneath its surface, the river is endlessly deep, its currents carrying many things.” 

“You - You’ve killed us both,” said the frog, and began to laugh deliriously. “Is this - is this what it’s like to drown?” 

“We’ve killed each other,” said the scorpion soothingly. “My venom in my glands now pulsing through your veins, the waters of your birthing pool suffusing my lungs. We are engulfing each other now, drowning in each other. I am breathless. Do you feel it? Do you feel my sting pierced through your heart?”

“What a foolish thing to do,” murmured the frog. “No logic. No logic to it at all.”

“We couldn’t help it,” whispered the scorpion. “It’s our natures. Why else does anything in the world happen? Because we were made for this from birth, darling, every moment inexplicable and inevitable. What a crazy thing it is to fall in love, and yet - It’s all our fault! We are both blameless. We’re together now, darling. It couldn’t have happened any other way.”

___

“It’s funny,” said the frog. “I can’t say that I trust you, really. Or that I even think very much of you and that nasty little stinger of yours to begin with. But I’m doing this for you regardless. It’s strange, isn’t it? It’s strange. Why would I do this? I want to help you, want to go out of my way to help you. I let you climb right onto my back! Now, whyever would I go and do a foolish thing like that?”

___

A scorpion, not knowing how to swim, asked a frog to carry it across the river. “Do I look like a fool?” said the frog. “You’d sting me if I let you on my back!”

“Be logical,” said the scorpion. “If I stung you I’d certainly drown myself.”  

“That’s true,” the frog acknowledged. “Come aboard, then!” But no sooner had the scorpion mounted the frog’s back than it began to sting, repeatedly, while still safely on the river’s bank.

The frog groaned, thrashing weakly as the venom coursed through its veins, beginning to liquefy its flesh. “Ah,” it muttered. “For some reason I never considered this possibility.”

“Because you were never scared of me,” the scorpion whispered in its ear. “You were never scared of dying. In a past life you wore a shell and sat in judgement. And then you were reborn: soft-skinned, swift, unburdened, as new and vulnerable as a child, moving anew through a world of children. How could anyone ever be cruel, you thought, seeing the precariousness of it all?” The scorpion bowed its head and drank. “How could anyone kill you without killing themselves?”

Andrew, Anonymous

Hey!  I’ve been getting occasional song recs for characters and ships for months, and I’ve finally amassed enough for one character (Andrew) to set up a playlist. From most recent to least, here are all the songs I’ve received for Andrew* 1.casual sabotage (YUNGBLUD)  2.Addicted To Love (Florence + The Machine)  3.Eight (Sleeping At Last)  4.Medication (YUNGBLUD)  5.Quite Short For A Goalkeeper (Tom Rosenthal)  6.Colourblind (Taylor Janzen)   7.The Drugs (Mother Mother)  8.The Stand (Mother Mother)  9. Everyone But You (The Front Bottoms)

Spotify Link

*I also had someone suggest The Neighborhood, and was halfway through adding The Neighborhood’s entire discography to this playlist before I realized that while I thought taking over a playlist with one artist right smack dab in the middle would be a fun joke, it probably wouldn’t be listener friendly  😅