Have this cute little idea I had for the spouses friend group
Phillip knows how to make perfume and does so using the plants he grew. He makes them when he (almost always) accidentally grows too many of his plants and sells them in his nursery as a side gig along with cologne, and pet friendly perfumes.
It started out as a bet between Michael and Phillip back when they were rooming together in university. Penelope had just become their roommate and Phillip as a welcoming gift grew her some of the roses that share her name. As always, Phillip accidentally grew too many.
"They smell really good," Penelope said as she picked up one of the roses. "Imagine it as a perfume!"
"Would they make a good perfume though?" Michael asked.
Phillip snapped his head towards Michael. "Watch yourself Stirling, those are fighting words talking about my babies!"
Penelope was taken aback; she had never seen Phillip that fired up. Michael grinned; he loved getting his friend this riled up.
"Oh, wanna bet?" Michael asked. "If you can make a perfume, a good one, out of your left-over plants than I will behave for a month."
Phillip raised an eyebrow. "A whole month? Even when you get bored?"
Michael nodded. Penelope's jaw dropped. One thing she quickly learned with living with these two is that getting Michael to behave when he's bored often required the wrath of his mother, and even then his head of the family cousin would often just give Michael a slap on the wrist, or Michael will sweet talk his way out of it. Now don't get her wrong Michael doesn't blow off responsibility when he needs to do it but there has been more than one rule made because of him.
It was a deal too sweet for Phillip not to take and the pride of his plants were on the line.
Phillip shook Michael's hand. "Deal."
After doing the research the boys agreed to giving Phillip six months to extract the oils from the plants, mix them together, and let the perfume age in an airtight bottle before trying it. Based on their living space and what materials he could get Phillip decided to use the enfleurage methods to extract the oils. On a sheet of glass he laid down a thin heated layer of coconut oil with a small amount of beeswax. Letting it cool Phillip proceeded to place the petals of the roses in it before setting it between a wood frame. He would then change out the petals once or twice a day until he got the desired fragrance.
Determined to win this bet Phillip even paid one of the art students to design a decorative bottle for him to put the perfume in. The glass was the same shade of creamy pink as the flower with small wires and jewels wrapped around it to form a butterfly.
"Done," Phillip said as set down the bottle in front of his friends.
Penelope picked up the bottle and sprayed a little on her wrist. "Oh, this smells delicious!'
Michael takes Penelope's wrist and sniffs. "Damn, now I have to behave for a month!"
I just saw this tiktok video of what I believe is an Indian drama. I'm not 100% sure if it was a show or movie. I couldn't find the name on it. But in the video, it was described that a village made its money by selling off daughters to wealthy men for marriage. The female lead was the "ugly" girl (she was not ugly) who managed a side business off this main business by having the potential grooms see her first as their bride and then showing the real girl. Basically, helping with negotiations saying, "Hey, you could've gotten me, but instead, we have this gem here. Don't you think she's worth more?" After getting the higher bride price she takes her cut.
After watching, I said I could see Kate and Penelope making a small business doing this around the ton. Not to say they aren't beautiful, they are, and the girl in the original video was beautiful too. They just don't fit society beauty standards. Actually, side note now that I think about it canonically the only one of the wives who did was Sophie. Sophie was described to fit the ton's beauty standards to a t and would probably have been the incomparable/diamond of her debute season if she was born legitimate.
Anyway, Kate probably started it. For one reason or another, they couldn't wait for Edwina to debute, and Kate wasn't having a successful season, so she thought of a way to earn some money to help her family. It started as an accident, Kate was visiting a friend the same time negotiations were happening for her friend's engagement. Her friend has never met the lord, and two just so happened to walk by the room the negotiations were happening in. The lord saw Kate before her friend and assumed she was to be his bride. He was about to be outraged until her friend turned the corner. Things went much better for the bride to be in the negotiations after that.
Kate's friend apologized for the situation, but the wheels in Kate's head were turning. She didn't care all that much about being compared to her friend. Strangers loved to unpromptly compare her to Edwina when they were together and Kate couldn't really bring herself to care she has other things to worry about. But this new development, might work in her favor.
So Kate started offering her services to get brides to be better deals on marriage negotiations. First looks from arranged marriages she'll be in front and then show the real bride. Sometimes, be part of the negotiations by giving little reminders that hey, she is still in need of a husband, and if they want to pay less, then they can negotiate with her family. Sometimes, she didn't have to do anything besides sit next to the bride to be and just talk with her as a silent reminder. Kate also offered services such as attending balls with her clients and spreading word about bride's accomplishments. Kate would get her cut, which helped her family's financial situation longer, just long enough to get Edwina married.
A few years pass, and Kate is booked, possibly overly so. She has more and more parents there who wish for her to be part of the negotiations. There are so many that there is no possible way she can do them all by herself. Unless she gets a partner.
In 1813, Kate saw a miserable wallflower standing at the edge of one of the balls. That yellow dress did not do the poor girl any favors with her complexion, nor did the shape help with her curvy figure. Her poor red hair reminded Kate of an overdone poodle. She looked to be Edwina's age, and that made Kate's big sister instincts go off.
Introductions were made, and Kate learned the girl's name was Penelope Featherington. Kate learned the girl was rather smart and witty when she relaxed around you. She, like Kate, had a good head on her shoulders and it's a shame others don't see that.
Oh well, their loss is Kate's gain.
"Penelope, how would you feel about helping me with some business?" Kate asked one night at a ball. She had a negotiation to go to tomorrow and it would be an ideal time to take her new friend to get her feet wet.
Penelope looked up at Kate. "What kind of business?"
Kate took Penelope with her to the negotiations, and the deals doubled in favor of the bride.
Kate grinned the first time her friend participated in negotiations, raising deals much more favorably for the bride. By mid-season, Penelope will be ready to go on her own. Which will be good because next season, Edwina debutes. Kate will have to focus on her while Penelope takes on the majority of the negotiation calls. When Edwina is settled then Kate can fully jump back in. Which hopefully shouldn't be too hard, Kate knows Edwina will be popular, so it's just a matter of sorting the good men from the rakes. After that Kate can fully focus on her business.
It will all go according to plan.
A small sketch of ashen teenagers. I don't think there are only three children of the age of Ttrong, Oare and Txon in the clan. And here's a squad of Pandora's tightly beaten teenagers!
[Avatar AU] Jayce struggles with his Avatar form
Yep EXACTLY!! someone give me regency era Schroeder yearning for Lucy.
Like maybe they were engaged to marry when they were kids ny their parents. Lucy was happy about it obviously but Schroeder wasn't.
So it's the same dynamic between the two as we are used to. Then one day, either Lucy's parents changed their mind and cancel to engagement to marry her with someone more powerful. Or another gentleman start courting her and Schroeder get jealous. And Lucy is hesitant at first but them when she get to know her new suitor she realised she liked the attention and she's so sure Schroeder isn t interested that she just start moving on.
Oooh the angst when Schroeder realises it.
Y’all don’t understand how much I need YEARNING SCHROEDER
I need a regency au of grown up Schroeder/Lucy where he is DESPERATE FOR THIS WOMAN. I need a scene of them dancing together. I need a scene of him playing a composition that’s secretly a love song to her at all ball or party while everyone dances.
I need this man posted up at his piano or in his bed like THIS:
YEARNING FOR HER
Tags: yandere x yandere, toxic, unrequited love
Amelia and Adhor are two yanderes
They live together in a small town far from any other big cities
Their relation is complicated
They hate eachother but they need eachother to get to the one they love
They met in theur senior year of high school
Adhor had just tranfered from another school and he was new to town.
Amelia on the other hand was born and grew up in this town.
They didn’t really got along. They were both loners and had trouble socialising with their peers for different reason.
Adhor just had trouble in social setings and Amelia...
Well... Amelia had a bad reputation that kept others away...
Adhor’s love interest is Maria and Amelia’s love interest is Diego
They’re respectivel, the pompom girl’s leader and the captain of the football’s team
And the two of them are obviously dating... sort of... you see they have been flirting with eachother for as long as they knew each other but nothing serious
When Adhor met Maria it was like a shockwave went through him. He had spend the majority of his life feeling lonely, seeing the world in shades of black and grey and here come the pompom girl’s leader. An explosing of colors, in her appearance and her personnality. She helped him pick up a book than had sliped from his hand. They looked into eachother’s eyes and Adhor had never seen someone as beautifull as her. She said sorry and her voice sounded like birds singing, she told him her name and it was wonderfull how well it suited her. She was the sun, he was the moon. They were meant to be together.
Amelia grew up in this small town. She knew all of those people. All their hopes, dreams and secrets... she learn how to be discret because everytime someone would attract attention something horrible would happen to them. One time her father won the lotterie and the next day he was gone. Her mom started drinking and in an impulsive decision she took Amelia in the car and tried to drive toward the next big city while drunk. Well Amelia lost her mother and she had to stay under intense medical care for a few weeks. During those days the only one who came to visit was Diego.
Diego~
He brought her flowers... no one ever brought her flowers. He was so nice to her, he never looked down on her because of her looks. He was handsome and cute and athletic and... perfect. If only his cute attentions stayed the same after she was healed. If onky his eyes and smile didn’t always drift to Maria...
Two ideas:
-modern hero AU
-regency era hero AU
The first one is simple, the classic modern heroes with the crown ruling over the heroes. Like you have to be recognised by the queen to be considered a real hero and that way have the advantages that being a hero bring. Being a hero is like being a noble. But it's mainly for people with super powers. It's so elite to be a hero that heroes coming from working class are rare. You have the first have powers, then go to the royal hero academy to study among comfirmed heroes and be recognised as a real hero. It's about chance, money and connections.
The second one is when the first super himans appear. In this AU it's more of a shamefull thing to be a hero. It's brand new and most super heroes are working class or low ranking nobles. Since this is all new the Queen insist in having all the super humans close by to be studied by the royal scientist. This fear of super humans is also because when the first super human appear he caused a lot of damages to the palace. In this AU when a child show signs of having super human abilities their families pushed them to hide it. Except for the Bridgerton, When Edmund Bridgerton was alive he was the only super human that the yound queen liked so his family had always been favored and their children were allowed to show their powers.
And it's all I have for now
so i was rewatching "the boys are back in town", and i realized that its never explained how butch got this giant slug monster. at first i thought that maybe he just found it crawling around somewhere, since townsville is known for their monster attacks.
my second thought was that he kept it in his pocket with him and it grew in size with butch. this is actually very possible when you remember that brick uses a massive oven mitt in the same episode.
but those are both pretty lame in my opinion. so i thought, if butch's main ingredient is SNAILS, what if he just... produced it? what if that was one of his unique powers, to make slug creatures out of his sweat or oils or something and then do whatever he wants with them. maybe he throws them at people like snowballs, or sneaks them into boomer's someone's food as a prank. i just think itd be cool and would make him stand out a bit more against his brothers :3
“Can you imagine how romantic it would be to move into a new house as newlyweds during the Christmas season? Not only would my future husband carry me over the threshold, he’d kiss me under the mistletoe while he did it.”
“Is that so?”
“Well, I should hope so.” She bumped his shoulder with hers and snickered. “For your future partner’s sake, I hope you’re not quite as thick-headed with them.”
3.1k words. Look everyone! I finally wrote something new and it’s Peanuts
I know Neytiri and Spider's relationship has been talked about to death already, but there's one important aspect of it everyone seems to overlook that I want to write down all my thoughts about: Kiri's role.
(Just FYI The High Ground comics are explicitly confirmed to be canon by Avatar's creative team, so please don't try to tell me something's not true because it happened in the comics)
With everything Neytiri has been through, it's understandable that she'd feel uncomfortable with Quaritch's son spending so much time around her children to the point where he starts calling them his "siblings." Contrary to what I've heard others say, Neytiri does not have a "blind hatred" towards Spider. She doesn't want him to be hurt or killed, she just wants him to stay away from her family and mind his own business. From her perspective, an "invader" is acting like he's entitled to being around her family and claiming them as his own, the same family that has been hurt so badly by other "invaders." This perceived entitlement coupled with the fact that he's the son of the guy who thought he was entitled to destroy her homeland is what gives her such strong feelings about Spider compared to the other Na'vi-allied humans.
But is Spider's behavior towards Neytiri's family really entitlement like Neytiri thinks or is it something else? Let's look at why Spider does the things he does:
Why does Spider spend so much time with the Sully kids? Kiri and Lo'ak invite him. From what we see in the movie and the comics, Kiri and Lo'ak don't seem to have any friends before meeting Tsireya and Rotxo, which means Spider is not just their best friend, but their only friend. There is nothing about Spider, Kiri, and Lo'ak's dynamic that implies Spider is the only one seeking them out. They mutually seek each others' company because they all feel like outcasts among their respective species.
Why does Spider call the Sully kids his siblings? Kiri started calling him her brother first. In vol 1 of THG, Kiri tells Spider he's like another brother to her. Shortly after this is when Spider starts referring to the Sully kids as his family. Since Spider has no biological family and a bad relationship with his foster family, it's understandable he would latch onto the people who actually care for him and explicitly say they feel like he's their family member.
Why does Spider insert himself into the Omaticaya? Kiri insists he joins them. in Vol 1 of THG, Spider is present for a Na'vi celebration and Neytiri asks him to leave because he's not a part of their family. Spider is perfectly okay with this and he starts to excuse himself, but Kiri stops him and insists he stay because he is a part of their family. Later, in Vol 2 of THG, the Sullies and the Omaticaya are evacuating to High Camp while Spider's foster family and most of the other humans choose to surrender to the RDA. Spider is initially upset and begs Jake to come with them, but after Jake scolds him, Spider accepts the adults' choice and willingly stays in Hell's Gate, waiting to surrender to the RDA. Kiri, on the other hand, insists Spider come with them to High Camp and goes back for him. This results in Kiri, Lo'ak, and Tuk getting captured by Spider's foster dad and Spider needing to rescue them. In both of these instances, when Spider is told he's unwelcome somewhere, he is okay with it and backs off, but Kiri is the one who fights for him to stay. The only instance where Spider insists he has a right to stay of his own volition is when Jake asks him to turn himself into the RDA soldiers hunting them after Spider helped the Sully kids escape his foster father. Since the RDA likely would've imprisoned, tortured, or even killed Spider for helping the valuable hostages escape, Spider's insistence he stay with the Sullies is completely understandable.
Why does Spider paint himself blue and emulate the Na'vi lifestyle? Kiri again. The only time we see Spider applying his stripes on screen, Kiri is right there helping him. From this we can assume that Kiri and possibly also Lo'ak regularly help Spider apply his stripes since he wouldn't be able to paint his back without help. And while we don't have exact information on when Spider started wearing a loincloth and behaving like a Na'vi, I think we can safely assume Kiri and her siblings are the ones who encouraged this behavior.
After analyzing the origins of what Neytiri perceives as "entitlement," it becomes clear it's not really entitlement at all. Spider never does something he has not been "invited" to do by Kiri or Lo'ak. Spider is not trying to cross any boundaries and he's not trying to hurt anyone; he's just a lonely orphan who has latched onto the only people who show him real care.
From Spider's perspective, Neytiri hates him for no reason other than his dad. In actuality, Neytiri's strong feelings aren't just about who is dad is, but moreso about the way he behaves on top of who his dad is. Neytiri doesn't have a "blind hatred" for him like Spider believes, but she has a deep trauma-rooted discomfort with his proximity to her family in the context of his heritage, and this discomfort makes her lash out at him. But of course Spider doesn't understand this because he's A. a teenage boy with limited emotional intelligence and B. has no reason to think there's anything wrong with his behavior because Kiri and Lo'ak encourage it so enthusiastically. With Spider's limited understanding, it makes sense that he chalks up Neytiri's behavior as "she hates me!"
So we have these two wildly different perspectives. Neytiri views Spider as an entitled invader and she doesn't understand why he can't just leave her family alone, and Spider views Neytiri as a cruel woman who judges him for his heritage and he can't understand why she can't just let him hang out with his "siblings" in peace. When these two different perspectives clash, it gets ugly, and leads to scenes like the time Neytiri lunged at Spider (to attack him? shake him? it's unclear) and Spider yelling at Neytiri and blaming her for his situation (which is really Quaritch's fault for making his postpartum mother fight).
Then we have Kiri's perspective. Kiri loves her mother and her best friend, but doesn't seem to understand why her mom doesn't want her best friend around and she also doesn't seem to understand why her best friend thinks her mom hates him. In vol 1 of THG, she even tells Spider that Neytiri loves him. Ironically, even though Kiri clearly wants her mom and her best friend to get along, she is inadvertently the source of most of their issues. In all the instances where Spider's behavior makes Neytiri upset, we can trace the behavior back to Kiri as outlined in the bullet points above. The more Kiri pushes for Spider to stay close, the more it triggers Neytiri trauma, the more Neytiri lashes out Spider, the more Spider thinks she hates him, and the closer Kiri gets to Spider to comfort him and try and prove him wrong. It's a vicious cycle.
And just to be clear, I'm not trying to say Kiri is at fault for Neytiri and Spider's relationship. Kiri and Spider are just kids with little understanding of the trauma Neytiri has been through. They just know they enjoy spending time with each other, and neither of them fully understand why it makes Neytiri so upset. Neytiri, on the other hand, is not a kid... she is not responsible for her trauma and for her negative feelings towards Spider, but she is responsible for her behavior towards him.
The one thing I don't understand is why neither Neytiri nor Jake nipped Kiri's behavior in the bud before it got to the point where it is now. If Kiri keeps calling Spider her brother and insisting he stay for family celebrations, and it's obviously very upsetting to Neytiri, why did neither of her parents sit her down and let her know its inappropriate? Spider was clearly okay with being left out of the events. If they'd talked about it with Kiri, they would've avoided all that strife in the first place. Hell, Spider wouldn't even be around them anymore because he would've surrendered to the RDA and lived in Bridgehead if not for Kiri insisting he come with them!
And actually, why didn't they stop the kids from spending so much time together in the first place? Neytiri was telling Jake she didn't like Spider around her kids since they were very little. Why did they continue to let them play together if it made her so uncomfortable? Was Jake letting it happen behind her back? Were the kids sneaking away to play with Spider? Did Neytiri let it happen because she thought they would grow out of it or something? At that age, parents have a lot of control over their kids lives, and I don't understand why Neytiri didn't just redirect her kids to play with anyone other than Spider if it upset her so much. In THG, Neytiri threatened to ban Spider from seeing Kiri, but she did it way too late. The kids were teenagers at that point and already saw each other as family, so if she tried to separate them they would've just snuck out and seen each other anyway. If Neytiri is okay with putting a "ban" on Spider, why did she wait until they were teens and much more difficult to control to do so?
I know the "real" answer is because James Cameron wants ✨DRAMA✨ but I'm wondering if there's an in-universe explanation cause it just doesn't make sense to me. I guess the most realistic answer is that Jake let it happen knowing full well Neytiri didn't like it, but he let it slide anyway because he didn't want to say no to the kids. Jake had two choices. He could've A. honored Neytiri's wishes and separated the children before they bonded or B. sat down with Neytiri and let her know Spider is here to stay and that she can't lash out at him. Either choice would've resulted in a much better outcome for everyone involved, but then again, it would've had a lot less drama so I understand why the writers didn't have that happen instead. Actually, now that I'm typing it out, it is pretty in character for Jake to ignore a giant problem right in front of him and hope it'll go away on it's own (that's how we lost Hometree, Eytukan, and Neteyam rip). I guess we're going to see this situation blow up in Jake's face in Avatar 3, just like his other ignore-the-problem-and-hope-it-goes-away situations did. I just hope that this situation will have a better outcome for everyone involved.
It just frustrates me because I feel like all this could've been resolved years ago if Jake and Neytiri had sat Kiri and Spider down and had a discussion about boundaries, but there's too much bad blood between Neytiri and Spider for an easy resolution now...
Anyways, if you made it this far, thanks for reading, didn't mean to turn this into a whole essay lol. Please share your thoughts with me if you have any!
Are there Bridgerton Pride & Prejudice & Zombies AU fanfics? If not, I feel like there needs to be.
Can you imagine Kate and Anthony kicking ass at killing zombies with all that sexual tension?