What Keeps Us Standing

what keeps us standing

Basically, all I want is a fic in which Anthony notices how Colin and Marina’s engagement is tearing Penelope apart and he sympathizes with her. Their situations are mirrors to each other - the ones that feel responsible for their families, the ones that try to keep everything together.

Everything proceeds mostly as in canon up until the s1 finale. But- Anthony and Pen have started developing a friendship because Penelope recognizes a fellow heartbroken soul and she can be the support system his family can’t be.

Eloise at first is jealous, but she comes around to the friendship once she realizes it could mean that Penelope would marry into the family.

In the meantime, Anthony and Penelope aren’t even thinking about marriage, because they both still need some time to get over Sienna and Colin respectively.

And then we come into s2 territory, and the Sharmas remain in India (sorry Kate, Edwina, Newton and Mary, no way you wouldn’t have derailed the hell out of this, we’ll miss you) and Colin is still not back from his travels.

And this is where things start changing - Anthony is not in search of a viscountess (or so he thinks lol). Eloise makes her debut in society, which means that she and Pen can spend much more time together at social events.

Which means that Anthony and Penelope start spending much more time together in front of the ton. Their interactions are always super proper and respectable on the surface, but they can read each other pretty well by that point, because they’ve written to each other for the whole off-season (PORTIA FEATHERINGTON AGGRESSIVELY DOES NOT CARE ABOUT THE CORRESPONDENCE IF IT MEANS A MARRIAGE TO A VISCOUNT), which means that they don’t need words to communicate.

(Cressida Cowper is dying of jealousy, because what the fuck did Penelope Featherington do to make Anthony Bridgerton pay attention to her?)

The ton at large mostly assumes that Anthony dances with Penelope because of either 1) Eloise or 2) Violet but nope. He just wants to dance with her because she told him she loves to, and it’s not like it’s an imposition to dance with her.

Violet has decided to keep her mouth shut, because she fears Anthony will shut everything down if he gets even a hint of the fact that he’s basically low-key courting Penelope, and she’d like her as a daugher in law, thank you very much.

Anyways. Weeks go by, Penelope’s dance card is steadily full (she’s dancing with a viscount, it makes eligible bachelors notice her), she is invited promenading with Eloise (even if she spends an awful lot of that time talking with Anthony) and really, this is just so much better than last year.

And then she makes a mistake - she writes one of the comments she made about someone into a Lady Whistledown column. Anthony isn’t dumb and he connects the dots: Penelope is Lady Whistledown.

Which means… which means that she almost ruined her own family for Colin. Colin, his idiot brother who had never noticed the yearning glances Penelope sent his way, who needed to grow up a lot more before he could be worthy of someone as amazing as Penelope.

That evening he gets drunk, seriously drunk, for the first time since after Sienna refused his marriage proposal.

He has no idea what to do- someone else will connect the clues, sooner or later, and Pen will be exposed to the ridicule of the whole ton. She’s more clever and witty than most people he knows, but she’s a woman, and one that does not fit the standards of beauty at that. They will tear her apart and enjoy the process.

And it’s three sheets to the wind that Anthony gets the best idea ever. If she marries into the Bridgertons she’d be protected from a lot of the backlash. The idea of marrying Penelope is almost… nice.

The next day he’s hungover and irritable. It’s not even anyone’s fault - he just took a look at his and Penelope’s friendship and realized he’d already been low-key courting her.

Meanwhile Penelope’s getting over Colin because well. she’s falling for his older brother and damn if he isn’t even more unobtainable than Colin. He’s a viscount, he’s charming, he’s beautiful and there is no way he’d ever look in her direction when he’ll decide to settle down.

Sure, they’re friends (or as much friends as they can be when they’re both unmarried and there is no understandings between their families) but she’s well. She’s the third daughter of a baron, she does not fit into the ton’s beauty standards and she’s keeping a big secret from everyone.

No way she’ll end up married to any Bridgerton, let alone Anthony Bridgerton.

[insert weeks of Anthony trying to make clear to Penelope he wants to court her and her being super oblivious, until she finally gets it]

And basically. Penelope and Anthony get married, Colin gets a weird pang in his chest for the first six months he’s around them bc well. sure. Penelope is an amazing sister in law, but he thought their friendship would never change.

Eloise is ecstatic bc now she and Pen are really sisters! Violet had wanted to adopt her basically five minutes after meeting her and now she’s her daughter-in-law!

Lady Whistledown stops publishing a season after Pen and Anthony marry (she reveals her secret after they return from the honeymoon and he goes ‘Oh, I already know’ and she is gobsmacked bc she expected a big argument) and they live happily ever after.

Six Feet Under 2x07

Broke: vampires are vulnerable to the trappings of Christianity only, particularly Catholicism, no matter how dubiously applied. (See: Van Helsing’s Communion wafer grouting).

Woke: vampires are vulnerable to sincere faith of all kinds, and atheist vampire-hunters need to believe very strongly in the Power of Friendship or their love of Star Trek to get by.

Bespoke: vampires are vulnerable to the faith that they followed when they were alive, and hunters tracking down an ancient vampire are obliged to learn about Neo-Babylonian theology or Middle Palaeolithic bear cults.

raina thorpe fashion — gossip girl

Cory Matthews + the art of shipping

Imagine Harry and Ginny a few months into their marriage and they’re so happy and in love and then one day they go shopping for food and household items and Harry just casually grabs certain items before Ginny hisses at him to “Check the prices, Harry, God! That bed set is far too expensive, we’re not going to have anything left to get the food with!” And Harry starts to laugh and say “We don’t have to worry about -” and then he stops and he and Ginny look at each other. And Harry realizes that she’s grown up having to measure out all her money and decide what she can and cannot have for a certain week or month or year. And Ginny realizes that she is actually no longer obligated to worry about money ever again. 

Imagine Harry and Ginny eating dinner together and Ginny’s telling him about certain meals her mum made and teasing him about how he wolfs everything down and “Honestly Harry, you’re worse than Ron!” and Harry retorts laughingly “well old habits die hard, I had to fight Dudley for meals all the time, you at least knew you were going to eat every day!” And Ginny’s grin starts to fade and she asks “You…you didn’t get to eat everyday?” And Harry realizes what he said and he changes the subject quickly and Ginny looks at the plates in front of him and resists the urge to pile on some more potatoes. And the next day Vernon Dursley’s car is egged. 

Imagine Harry and Ginny both suffering from night terrors and PTSD and agreeing that maybe going to that therapist Hermione recommended isn’t such a bad idea, and that’s how Thursday night became Therapy Night when they go out to dinner or to the pub after each session and agree that  they need to talk to some Healers about introducing these sessions since therapy is still widely seen as muggle nonsense in the wizarding world.

And Ginny murmurs over her fire whiskey that sometimes she can still hear Tom Riddle murmuring in her ear, and Harry whispers that he dreams about running after his mother and father and Sirius and Remus as they disappear behind the Veil in the Department of Mysteries and he doesn’t know if he wakes from terror or regret about not making it through. And they go back home and hold each other closer that night and both wake up with raging hangovers.