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.

Cory Matthews + the art of shipping

Going to drag you into rarepair hell with me and ask: blair/raina! 💜💜💜💜💜

ooh. this is hard because my entire blair/raina conceptualisation comes solely from YOUR fics? anyway, here goes!

who wakes up first in the morning: blair, unless raina has a meeting of some sort. though not by much - raina's usually up by 8:30 latest, it's blair who gets up earlier.

who’s the first to fall asleep at night: blair, definitely. i think raina's more of a night owl, and often sits up in bed on her laptop or reading something quietly while blair is already asleep next to her.

what they playfully tease each other over: i feel like whenever blair says something slightly ridiculous raina will just... repeat it back at her and raise her eyebrows disbelievingly fdklhgfkl. and i feel like at random and inexplicable times blair will just be like "is this from the raina thorpe handbook of success?" and raina will roll her eyes at her.

what they do when the other’s having a bad day: they talk about it! i think raina is BIG on "denial just makes things worse, say whatever's on your mind, however bad, just be honest." this doesn't come naturally to blair, but she knows raina isn't judging her and genuinely wants what's best for blair, so it's a bit easier. plus, once they've had a difficult conversation, blair always automatically feels better. post difficult conversation there would be a lot of taking care of each other - comfort food, comfort movie, cuddles on the couch, gentle sex, etc.

how they say ‘i’m sorry’ after arguments: post-chuck, blair is naturally distrustful of gifts or grand gestures, and raina doesn't operate that way, so that's not a thing. i think raina would insist that they talk it out (see above) and i think blair and raina would always have a conversation about it. much like my response to db, i think for blair especially, there'd be this feeling of 'this person is my best friend, i cannot leave things like this, i HAVE to resolve this' - raina definitely feels that too, but i think that's raina's outlook on everything in life tbh (we have to find a solution and fix things!) as compared to blair's default (deny, deny, deny!)

which one’s more ticklish: in general, blair, but i think raina has a few specific places where she's extremely ticklish.

their favourite rainy day activities: more cuddling on the couch, and probably just talking? i think they'd just really like to talk to each other, tbh.

how they surprise each other: blair loves planning events, as previously mentioned, so i think she'd do that, but i also... am thinking now of nate's date w/ raina in 'while you weren't sleeping' and thinking of BLAIR doing those things with raina. which i'm guessing you're going to write eventually. and when you do you KNOW i'm going to read it. as for raina... i don't think she'd surprise blair tbh? i think for her a big part of making plans for blair would involve taking blair's input every step of the way. and like. that's important in its own way! it makes a difference.

their most sickening shows of public affection: i don't think they'd really do PDA, save for a little kissing? but they would always sit very close together, put their head on the other's shoulder, arms around each other's waists, holding hands, etc. they're very openly physically affectionate, but they'd rather their sex lives be private & out of the public eye entirely.

Ok I want to say something controversial

But you are responsible for your own safe spaces. You can block tags, block words, block people.

“But i thought fandom was supposed to be a safe space” —yeah you have to curate it.

Unfortunately one persons’s safe space may be another persons’ trigger. That’s ok. Simply block them, block the tag, block the word etc. They can do the same for you.

Maybe I’m just out of touch, but I’ve been around since the days of “don’t like, don’t read” and that’s a good philosophy. If it squicks you, scroll past. If it causes you anxiety or upset, block! Plenty of people are responsive if you ask them to tag an upsetting trigger. And if they’re dicks about it, block em.

My Friends: have you seen this TV show?

Me: no, but thanks to tumblr,

Six Feet Under 2x07