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By nature, Sandokan was not possessive. Protective? Yes. Marianne was his wife, but she was not his property. She was his to protect not to control. He didn’t want to control her now. Had never wanted such and never would in the future.

Marianne was a beautiful woman. Where she went, attention followed. He could not kill every man they came across for simply acknowledging that fact and had no intention to do so. He wouldn’t keep Marianne from the world so that meant he couldn’t keep the world away from Marianne.

But right now, while he could seem to curb it, he couldn’t seem to dismiss the urge to cause some kind of physical harm to this man.

Not with a single lover before had he ever been jealous. With, perhaps, the exception of a childhood crush, every woman he had been with had come to him first; pursued him. If there was an attraction, he’d return the affection in kind.

But he’d never really sought out a long-term romantic relationship. Taking care of his mother, his sisters, his brothers, his ship, he just never had time for such attachments.

Then he had met Marianne. She crashed into his life and he couldn’t seem to get rid of her until he didn’t want to.

Marianne and Sandokan aka Ismail never took their eyes of one another even when James was talking. The gazing these two made to each other was an indicator from the very beginning that the series was setting up the love story between Sandokan and Marianne to be real and it showed through out the rest of the season.

The rest of the waltz was everything it said it was. The choreography. The body language, the dialogue and the music had the aesthetic of a fairy tale with similarities to Bridgerton.

By the end of the dance, I LOVE the way Marianne makes quick contact with her aunt which then allows Marianne who causally takes Sandokan's hand in hers and leads him away. Even when they entered the dining room, she still holds his hand for a glimpse and then lets go.

I don't think it can be understated how these two have a natural gravitation to the other. I mean Marianne spent the whole party either talking, thinking about or dancing with Sandokan. And even Sandokan can't help but steel a longer at look at the photo of Marianne in her father's office. Almost like he was trying to see everything he could of her.

Of course, for Sandokan I think his lure toward Marianne was tainted by why he was there and what he had to do to escape. But it was there, nonetheless.

And then the dance *sighs*.

Look I haven't seen felt this way about a dance since I was a little girl or when I first watched Pride and Prejudice (2005). The bliss of the chemistry is just incomparable. These two, no matter how hard they might fight it, in the end cannot deny it. 😊🥰

And when he lifts her in the air, I swear I levitated.

But when it came to Marianne, Sandokan couldn't fully use his common sense or cynicism. He thought he would never see her again, so he couldn't help, but be near her and ask her to dance. The fact he pissed off Brooke was a bonus.

Please have a moment of silence for the people who were killed instead of freed when news of emancipation finally reached the furthest corners of the american south.

have another moment for the ledgers, catalogs, and records that were burned and the homes that were destroyed to hide the presence of very much alive and still enslaved people on dozens of plantations and homesteads across the south for decades after emancipation.

and have a third moment for those who were hunted and killed while fleeing the south to find safety across the border, overseas, in the north and to the west.

black people. light a candle, write a note to those who have passed telling them what you have achieved in spite of the racist and intolerant conditions of this world, feel the warmth of the flame under your hand, say a prayer of rememberance if you are religious, place the note under the candle, and then blow it out.

if you have children, sit them down and tell them anything you know about the life of oldest black person you've ever met. it doesn't have to be your own family. tell them what you know about what life was like for us in the days, years, decades after emancipation. if you don't know much, look it up and learn about it together.

This is Juneteenth.

Black people fight for everybody. We stand in solidarity with women, lgbt people, poor people all over the world of every skin color and background. Every religion and nationality.

Today, stand with us. Be with us. Tell a black person you love them. Hug a black person (with consent). Ask that hot black girl out today. Make a black person smile. Black lives matter to everybody and you matter to us.

Stand with us on Juneteenth like we stand with you all year round, and I hope a happy Pride month continues for all of us

The monotony was getting to her. She could use a distraction. The crew had weaved a ball out of the rattan they’d been drying and had used it to play a game they called sepak raga in the evening after dinner. 

It was fun to watch but after seeing Zamari flip over backwards, feet over head, to kick the ball back into the circle, she decided it might be a little beyond her abilities at the moment. 

Instead, she went to Yanez. It seemed like a good time to extract another favor from the old fox. So far, she’d used two and was about to use a third. She’d save the fourth for a rainy day. 

“Can you teach me how to shoot?” 

Yanez, who had spent most of the last ten days either 'supervising’ everyone else or avoiding work all together, had been ‘inspecting’ the paneling of one of the walls. He turned to Marianne, his eyebrows so high they vanished under his hat. “You want to shoot a gun?” a few tree trunks cut into logs as substitutes for chairs. Just beyond that a few simple shelters 

The smallest trace of a smirk graced Marianne’s lips. “Well, I wouldn’t mind learning how to use a cannon but perhaps we should start with something smaller.” 

Yanez scratched his neck. “Have you talked to Sandokan about this?” 

Marianne’s nose scrunched up, eyebrows knitted together in confusion, “Do I need to?”