What are some things that have surprised you the most about Paris?
The thing I still haven’t adjusted to is just how damn beautiful everything is. Like, there’s not a boring inch of the entire city. Everywhere you go you turn a corner and run into a famous monument or a beautiful piece of architecture. It’s a little overwhelming, tbh
I have to say the whole coffee culture has been quite the adjustment for me. At home, I’m a venti coffee every morning, but none past noon kind of gal. But that’s not how coffee here works. Instead coffee comes in tiny little shooter cups of strong espresso. It’s super good, but a whole different thing. Also, there aren’t really coffee shops (aside from Starbucks, which I have not gone to), and no one takes coffee to go. You have to actually go to a cafe. So now I generally get a shot or two in the morning and then another either after lunch, or in the afternoon if we’re out walking around.
And finally, this shouldn’t have been a surprise, but there are SO. Many. Stairs. Like, a frankly stupid amount of stairs. I haven’t been this fit in years, lol
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“You’re rushing me,” Pippa grumbles, as Hecate magics the sheets covering her into the ether. “Would it really be the end of the world if I came down to breakfast?”
“In the. Great. Hall?” More strangled than usual, Hecate is dashing and severe in a high-necked black lace dress. The highest she owns, unless Pippa is much mistaken. All the better to cover the evidence with. “During term? Really, Pippa.”
“No, no,” Pippa pulls herself the rest of the way out of bed, smoothing out the pale pink camisole that passes for nightwear. (Hecate pleads, Hecate cajoles please just wear something, you never know when someone might come knocking on my door). “I know what this is.”
“Propriety,” Hecate says, as though it closes the matter. Big talk coming from the woman who, since discovering the joys of a more Sapphic relationship with her oldest friend, has unearthed a vocabulary so filthy that even Pippa blushes sometimes. “Simple propriety.”
“No, it’s another factor altogether.” Pippa summons a standing shower that doesn’t splash, lathering quickly while feeling Hecate’s nervous attention on her the whole time. “It’s the fact that I’m not good enough for you. Isn’t it, Hiccup?”
“Wh-what?” Those overpronounced Hs, how Pippa loves them. How she loves everything about this woman who shares her bed and her chessboard, but so rarely her true feelings.
“You’re ashamed of me. You’d hardly be the first witch at Cackle’s to bring a lover to breakfast on a Saturday, hellfire, two of the faculty are essentially living together.”
“But they... that is to say, when the relationship is conventional...”
“Oh do shut up,” Pippa snaps, vanishing the shower, the water and drying herself in three sharp clicks. Fresh clothes appear in her overnight bag, and she takes her time over dressing, one final torture. “I’m not asking you to break any laws. But you fear being associated with someone so frivolous, so modern, will undermine your fierce reputation.”
“Pipsqueak-”
“And that means more to you than my feelings. You’d rather Mildred Hubble think you a terrifying spinster than admit that we make each other happy.”
“What Mildred has to do with this is beyond me but Pippa...” Hecate looks pained, as she so often does around raw emotion. “I would be very proud to have you on my arm. At a restaurant, at a party, at a concert perhaps. While things may be very different at Pentangle’s, there are traditions here. Conventions, if you will.”
“How will they know, Hiccup? Do you really wish another generation of girls left confused and wanting as we were? Not knowing there’s an option? That if they feel more than friendship for a girl, there’s a reason for that?”
Hecate is quiet, worrying at her bottom lip beneath its red lipstick. Finally, she steps closer to Pippa, laying a hand on her bare forearm, just where the pink cape skims it.
“You mean to say, we should lead by example?”
“Yes, Hecate,” Pippa sighs the words in relief. “That’s all I meant. Hiding me in your turret makes me feel unworthy, a dirty little secret that would shock the girls and Ada.”
“Ada has given her blessing-”
“Well then. Breakfast?” Pippa can only press this one last time, knowing anything more will cause Hecate to dig her heels in for good.
“I do believe there’s bacon this morning,” is Hecate’s response, hand sliding down Pippa’s arm until their fingers are entwined. “Shall we?”
Pippa kisses her, quick and darting, delighting in the smile that transforms Hecate’s face as they part.
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“He’s somehow got it in that infantile brain of his that you’re not real. The latest gossip, according to the porters, is that I made you up in order to make Edward jealous.” Silence dragged, the flicker of static the only indication that the line was still active. “Bernie?”
A laugh blasted through the phone; that great honking goose laugh that never failed to make Serena smile. “That’s the best he’s got? ‘My drop dead gorgeous wife left my useless arse, so clearly she’s concocted a new relationship in order to somehow win me back’?” Another wheezing laugh punctuated her words. “Who even believes this horseshit?”
“Everyone, apparently,” Serena grumbled. “They make me out to be some sort of sad old spinster who’s desperate for a shag.”
“As if there’s a world where you wouldn’t have offers lined up around the block.”
“I’m glad you still think so. Although they’re not wrong about the ‘desperate for a shag’ bit,” Serena teased.
[Give me a number between 1-11, I’ll post a snippet from a 2017 WIP]
whendoiturnbackintoapumpkin replied to your post “Also, when on earth did Alex goes to Bernie’s house? And in what...”
I have been thinking about this SO MUCH
RIGHT?? It bugs me every time!
ariverandasong replied to your post “Also, when on earth did Alex goes to Bernie’s house? And in what...”
I also worked on the assumption that it was pre affair but that Bernie was attracted to Alex already
nervouspearl replied to your post “Also, when on earth did Alex goes to Bernie’s house? And in what...”
I always thought that when she brought Alex home it was before they'd ever had an affair and were just Friends™. They'd probably have been pretty much in the same place that Bernie and Serena were at the time of Indefensible, or a little before, when Bernie probably had some feelings she hadn't yet acknowledged or wanted to admit to herself, but which would have been obvious in hindsight.
ddagent replied to your post “Also, when on earth did Alex goes to Bernie’s house? And in what...”
I don't see Bernie bringing home her mistress. I wonder whether Alex crashed on their sofa for a two week leave period and Cameron noticed the way his mother looked at her but just chalked it up to them being friends. Also, for ages I thought that meant she came to their house after the affair came out.
I agree that this is likely what the writers were going for with that conversation. For some reason it still sits weirdly with me? I mean, Cameron must be the most observant, open-minded kid ever to make that kind of deduction about his mother from so little information. Like, if it was that obvious, even in hindsight, how the hell did Marcus not notice?? (Although, given how he didn’t notice Bernie and Serena flirting right in front of him, I guess it is possible.)
And @ddagent I interpreted it the same way (as happening post affair) the first several times I watched it. Might have to just chalk this one up to sloppy writing.
