#I always get some details worked out exactly while other stuff is vague

[theshadowrealmitself]

Y’all ever try to think of a romantic pairing idea and it’s just like “oh. oh no. one is going to kill the other”, for me rn it’s:

Human worker who has been running a small department solo because everyone else quit awhile ago due to the very picky Vulcan inspector who keeps sending projects back with very specific specifications, and has been doing it happily because they like working alone, suddenly has to deal with the Vulcan inspector who is now communicating with them in person instead of email

And very picky Vulcan inspector who is surprised (*cough* happy *cough*) to have someone who consistently reaches their high standards, feels comfortable barging in to their workplace at all hours to talk shop

[valeriianz]

For the fic writer asks:

4. Obviously you did research for BitB. I'd love you to ramble about it if you like I'm sure you've got STORIES

5. Did you outline it?

7. How'd you decide it would be Hob's pov?

25-27 I'd love to know a/some favorite lines, details, and any lore you might want to share

omg TJ what wonderful questions! thank you!! this is going to get LONG!

4: Rambling about research!

do you wanna see a screen shot of my bookmarks under my "band au" folder?

man, and that's only what could fit on the screen.

there is... SO MUCH i chose to ignore for this fic. ideas that i had to drop, lines or extra details about the other band members equipment. more logistics, what Lucienne actually does, what Mervyn has to put up with as the new touring stage manager... i realized very early on that i couldn't possibly cram all this (super cool and eye opening) information into the fic and still keep reader's interest and, most importantly, to not stray away from the fact that this is a dreamling fic. whenever i felt myself getting carried away with a side character or job or even social media numbers, gossip, outside POVs, i had to reign myself in and get back on track. there will be time for exploring everything i missed in side stories after BitB is finished. i just hope i still have the energy to write it all.

once, i was so deep into research that after publishing chapter 2, i went into work and when my chef asked what "GA" meant on my prep list, i answered with full confidence, "general admission."

(it means "get ahead.")

the worst part of this entire writing process is im still learning new shit. i havent rewatched or read a lot of what i've saved because, to be very honest, i was feeling a little burnt out. it's why we're kinda full steam dreamling now. it's why ive been glossing over a lot of technical stuff and being vague about conversations amongst the crew/not including it at all. i don't prefer ignoring my research, but at the end of the day i want to still enjoy writing this fic and finish it. even if i can't be as descriptive and detailed and nuanced as i used to be.

5: Did you outline the fic?

(also asked by @hardly-an-escape!)

i wouldn't call what i have a proper "outline," it's more like a 20k word document filled to the brim with notes that i skim at least a dozen times while i'm writing a new chapter (being in my brain is literally hell). i live multichapter life very dangerously. i copy and paste lines or sections (always scattered, never together! augh!) that are meant to go together and plop them in a new document titled "band au ch.#" and then i structure the chapter around what i want to happen.

but to answer this question in the plainest of terms: yeah. i know exactly what's going to happen up until the very end. even if its all in my head and the only concrete shit that's written down are beats/plot points. i'll figure out the rest later!

7: How'd you decide it would be Hob's POV?

i actually never even considered writing it from Dream's POV. this was my first fic in the fandom (which is so nuts to think about lol) and writing in Dream's POV sounded so scary lol. i also just thought Hob's would be easier because i have worked a few backstage shows, back in my college years. i figured eh, i can make this work. and i loved exploring how weird and mysterious musicians can be, from a normie's POV. making Hob a fan first and having him worry about developing a parasocial relationship... it was fun to explore.

25: Share your favorite line

oh god, i have so many haha.

“What are you thinking about?” starting in ch.2 and onward lmao

“It’s–” Dream laughs quietly, bitterly. “I don’t like change.” He says each word with emphasis, eyes trailing down to fixate somewhere past Hob. “And I still hold onto the things I can control, like my instruments–” his eyes swing up to regard Hob apologetically. “Or my clothes or my–” he brings a hand up and wiggles his fingers around his head. “My hair.” ch.4

"His majesty is pleased." ch.5

“You are obsessive,” he states, slow and cool and with a quiet smile cracking through his composure. “Just like me.” ch.7

“You look good.” Hob has to lean in to say so, unwilling to raise his voice amongst the roar of the fans. ch.11

“Del looks like porcelain, but she’s actually made of steel.” Desire swirls the contents of their glass before pushing their shoulders back with a deep breath. “She's tougher than all of us.” ch.11

“Everything. I want…” his fingers tighten in Hob’s hair, pulling him closer, speaking against his lips. “…Everything.” ch.14

26: Share your favorite detail

how intentionally coy Dream behaves. i love keeping him a mystery and deciding when and how much to allow his intentions to peek through has been so fun lol.

Despair is in fact covered in tattoos and piercings! i say this because i feel like sometimes i forget lmao. (but also her and Hob don't interact much so. my bad haha).

Delirium's constant explosion of color in the way she dresses <3

Hob's dedication to his job, Dream, and the people he cares about the most. i don't care if people think i'm making him too soft and good, im gonna project on that man and make him a sweet, sweet simp lmao

and ah, this doesn't matter anymore, and i kinda regret doing it but. i originally had Dream's favorite bass all black but the pickguard was white. so it actually looked like Jessamy. not gonna lie when @designtheendless drew it all black i decided i liked it better that way. and truly i do. that's when i went back to ch.1 and changed it haha. to actually see the guitar with Dream, all done up sparkling black and purple flecks... gosh it's just so him. but then i got up to the reveal that the guitar's name was Jessamy and i was like, "oh, right." lmao. no one seems to care so i'll leave it be.

27: Share a piece of lore you made up for the story

i have a lot lmao. and this post is already so long... im hoping i can get to some if not all of it in side fics in the future. but for now, here's some that's more like headcanons but:

Dream hates flying. he can full on go into panic attacks on the plane if he allows himself to get into his own head.

this was mentioned briefly in ch.4, while Dream was discussing the formation of the band, but Despair was in another band before joining Endless. she is the only character in the fic who gets to keep her English roots (lol sorry) and is the oldest in the band (30).

all of the band members ages: Dream, Desire, and Death are all 28 and Delirium is 22.

Dream can experience subdrop after going too hard during a performance.

Dream paints his own nails, it's very therapeutic.

as an exercise, i explored my own headcanons for Dream in this verse in a word doc, and one thing i will share from it that you might find interesting: If I were to ever give Dream a theological values, I would describe him as a satanist. He is a physical and pragmatic person, nonconforming, and although he is introverted, he enjoys being a part of a community (he loves his band).

also found this in my notes: How Desire and Dream got along was Death making them fight it out. Hob raises an eyebrow “like in a brawl?” He couldn't imagine Desire throwing hands. “No, in a pillow fight that escalated in hair pulling and verbal taunts.”

fic writer asks

[fandoomrants]

FINAL THOUGHTS ON TUA S4/TUA IN GENERAL

First of all, I can't believe I make this account because of this show and waited excitedly for 2 years only to feel so numb right now...

Unlike some people I didn't hate season 3. Season 2 is still my favourite but 3 wasn't that bad, just a bit odd. And there were many directions where things could have went.

Mostly spoiler-free, for season 4 I can say:

-It did answer some long awaited answers but I feel like it didn't answer everything, some things were just vague mentions, and it also created more questions.

-I feel like either some actors were busy, or didn't want to return, because there were characters I expected to see but they were either not mentioned, or vaguely addressed, which was disappointing.

-The ending somewhat wasn't terrible, I have always assumed something like that might have to happen, yet I hated how by the time it did, all the characters were so ruined that I couldn't feel even a bit bad for most.

Now, I'll get into some more details about the things I liked, and the ones I didn't.

Spoilers ahead:

Things I DIDN'T LIKE:

-I already ranted a lot about this in my comments while watching but - Five and Lila! I like(d?) both characters and I thought the journey they had from constantly fighting enemies to reluctant allies to friends who relied on each other, was great. Loved their scenes in the beginning of episode 5.... And then wanted to jump out of somewhere. The thing is, I don't exactly hate the way it happened. I hate the fact that it 1) happened when Lila was already with Diego, and had THREE kids with him, that was basically cheating, and 2) the fact that in the end, it didn't bring anything to the plot. Diego and Five fought almost until the end, and it was uncalled for. It didn't bring the characters' development anything. It turned Lila into a cheater and Five.... Well, I've said before that I didn't see him as aro/ace like some other people, but I didn't see anything that this brought for him. I just think they worked better platonically altogether, because they went a long way and nothing suggested anything between them.

And this also leads to...

-Diego and Lila. For me, they were sorta relationship goals. They were constantly bickering and fighting but it was their thing. They were on the border of toxic sometimes but somehow managed to stick together. So how did this happen?! It could have went a whole another way. Diego realised he really loved her and wanted to be with her. I think that I would have accepted it if she and Five had kissed or something, and she had realised she loves Diego too, and returned to him, but no. In the end, it's unclear what she even feels for him.

-Lack of interactions between Klaus and Ben. Okay, I know this isn't the OG Ben Klaus spent years with, but in s3, Klaus was the one who constantly tried to reach out to him and convince the others to give him a chance. Now, nothing. Luther was the one who interacted with him and looked after him, and then later Viktor. I get it that Klaus had other stuff on his head but it was a weird development, and it felt even a bit OOC.

-The lack of closure to some characters relationships altogether. Ben... Just turned into a monster with Jennifer, didn't get the chance to interact with the rest again. Ray was mentioned to have "walked away", Allison never mentioned him. She spent the whole season 3 ranting like mad, now only Klaus said a word. We didn't even get to learn what happened exactly. And in this universe, was Claire his daughter or no?! Also. Luther literally mentioned Sloane once. Never heard about her again. Like, maybe he had searched for her but it wasn't mentioned at all. Dave also wasn't mentioned even once. Sissy wasn't mentioned. Now, I know all if these characters were from other timelines but they were loved by the Umbrellas, and in previous seasons, they mentioned them, and wanted to find them. Now, not one mention... Even the Sparrows were barely mentioned. Nobody mentioned Pogo. Or OG Grace (well, the robot one they called "mum". Not the real one from the 60ies). I just feel like these were left as some plot holes. I get that the last two weren't exactly needed here, but there could have been at least a mention. They were from the original timeline, the siblings had spend their whole lives with them.

-Gene and Jean. I get it. Every season has some "villain" character(s), but I just really disliked these two for some reason. Won't even elaborate.

-Not even one dance, except for Gene and Jean. All seasons had at least one iconic dance.

-The music, now, I won't complain too much about it, but all seasons had some great songs. Here we had them too, but we mostly listened to Baby Shark, which was hilarious but also a bit weird.

-No epic battle scenes. Well, Luther and Diego had something of the sort, but the end battle was pretty lame, imo.

-They got back their powers, and some of them had new powers too, but it was all unexplained. What happened with Lila, what were these laser eyes?! Also, Allison got new powers, never used the old ones again (I kinda get it, tho). Klaus.... Presumably got the floating? Which was supposed to be a thing in general? But in any case, none of this was explained! I thought at first that they got the powers some of the other children like them had but we didn't learn that. Also, Diego, Luther, Viktor, Five, Ben didn't get any new powers. Diego did something weird at one point but his whole thing was controlling flying objects and I don't count it. And Five's arriving at the station isn't exactly a new power. Ben's was a result of touching Jennifer. Nothing new for them, otherwise.

-Speaking of getting back their powers, no epic battle and all, here's another thing. In s2, in the beginning, and then the end, it was epic! They were all fighting with all they had, unlocking new ways to fight and all. I believe they were at their peak. Five also managed to get a few seconds back in time, Klaus was able to control armies of ghosts. Here, none of that. They were pretty weak. And maybe it was a side effect of just getting their powers back, but it was disappointing. Klaus didn't go back to alcohol and drugs, yet he only saw one ghost of a random guy, then a dog. They could have made the ending at least a bit more epic.

-In the end, the Umbrellas ceased to exist but.... What about the rest of the special children?! This Ben wasn't even from the Umbrella Academy. And ok, in the end, only these got their powers back in this timeline but surely, the thing with the branching timelines must apply to all 40-something. So how only 7 gave up their powers in one universe, and things got back to normal?

-All in all, the weird pacing and vibe. It wasn't as serious as season one, or chaotic as season 2 and 3. There were barely moments that made me truly laugh, and some characters were OOC. And some didn't really get to achieve anything. Viktor, with his whole plan on helping Ben, achieved nothing. Five kinda ruined his brother's family. Klaus... He also didn't achieve anything, in the end Allison saved him yet again. And while it was cute, it also was, I feel, a step back from his characterisation because he was shown as quite adaptive and able to get away from a bad situation. Allison pretty much only saved Klaus. Diego had a family drama, but nothing much. Luther.... He was just there. Ben's arc was ok but I hated how little time he had with the rest, in the end, he never got to feel as part of the team, and Lila just... Ruined her family for someone who is both around 20 years older and 20 years younger than her at the same time.

-This one is pretty much for humour purposes but - Luther without pants way too much!

-I feel like I must be forgetting something but I'll just move on to...

Things I LIKED:

-Claire having much more screen time and actually being a developed character, rather than just someone staying there for the sake of Allison!

-Claire and Allison, and especially Claire and Klaus's relationship! I feel like Klaus would be good with kids, and even change his ways because of them. (He sorta did, despite walking away at one point. I like to think that spending time with Allison and Claire helped him get clean.)

-Allison and Klaus! I mentioned in another post that I've noticed that they were closer even in season 1, where they interact much less hostile and with more fondness that with the rest of their family, in flashbacks he comforts her when they get their tattoos, etc. And then, of course, their reunion in s2. In s3, we didn't get much of them but I loved them in s4.

-Allison and Viktor taking care of each other! These two had some really rocky relationship throughout all of the seasons but they still cared for each other in a way that was different than the rest. They had the true sibling bond but I think by the end, they also learned to be friends.

-Viktor in general. The only character that didn't once irritate me with a decision he made. I feel sorta sorry for him because he seemed to care for everyone. Allison, after all she did, Ben, although this isn't the one he knew. He got to clear things with this version of Reginald, too. Generally loved him here.

-Now I'm a bit bitter-sweet about that, seeing how things developed but, Lila and Diego's daughter named Grace!

-Even more bitter-sweet, and tiny bit hippocratic but Lila and Five, before that one development in ep 5. They could have truly had a good and normal PLATONIC bond.

-Allison, somewhat. She's one of my least favourite characters, especially after season 3, tho she wasn't my fave before that either but here I liked her.

-Luther somehow didn't irritate me either, although I didn't like him much too, before.

-Klaus has always been my favourite and even though I didn't quite like all that happened, I liked his development, his desire to be sober, and his unwillingness to get his powers back. I think he had lots of potential, and obviously most of his problems came from his powers.

-Despite everything, the last scene, with all the characters we've seen before, being happy and all that. Agnes and Hazel! For some reason, loved that even in this timeline, without all else, they found each other! And the fact that the kids of the Umbrellas were still there. This is a tiny bit of a plot hole on it's own but it was a nice scene.

-And finally, somewhat learning how Five founded the Comission, and finally learning what the "Jennifer Incident" was!

[funnyifwebothgotitwrong]

Oh oh oh oh oh oh something just hit me like a ton of bricks so that I just sat straight up in bed. (I'm not usually up at the time I started writing this.) Bear with me please:

Ed's & Stede's relationship in episodes 2x06 and 2x07 is now at THE SAME kind of crossroads that Ed's & Izzy's relationship was in 1x03 and 1x04.

Let me explain.

Last year I read a wonderful tumblr post that detailed how Ed & Izzy's relationship in the first two episodes we see them in is like that of an old married couple. In the sense that they suffer a break down in communication, that is apparently typical for people who have known each other very well for a very long time. The gist of it was that they basically think they know what the other person is going on about, don't really listen, and thus always talk at cross-purposes.

Now let's have a look at where they were in episodes 1x02 and 1x03: we know that they have pirated together for more than 20 years. We don't know how much of that time was as Captain and First Mate, but even before that they must have lived on the same small ship and worked together. They really do know each other well, and most likely intimately (again, sailing ships are not that big, chances are that Izzy had a front row seat to Ed's "sexual dalliances" with Calico Jack or any other, and vice versa, not to mention any other stuff that might have been going on in their lives.) But some time ago, we don't know how long - could be a couple of months, could be a few years - Ed started to get bored and frustrated, while Izzy stayed content. And here is where the communication started to deteriorate. Because Izzy doesn't get Ed anymore, for him it looks as if he has become erratic and unpredictable, which in turn frustrates him. And while Ed tries to convey to Izzy what he feels, we know from 1x03 that he does not do that in the clearest of terms. Probably because he had to figure it out for himself first, it's not that easy identifying vague feelings of discontent in yourself and locating their source, especially 150 years before psychology was even invented.

Now the two most important conversations between Ed and Izzy, that basically spell out for us, the audience, what is going on between them, are the one about the clouds (to which we only get the cypher key toward the end of the episode) and the one where Ed finds Stede's model ship of the Revenge.

Izzy: "Now we really should discuss a plan of action--" (to avoid being captured by the Spanish.)

Ed: "Izzy Izzy Izzy come look. Those clouds. Do they look like Frankfurters to you?" (I don't think you have to worry, a fog seems to be coming on.)

Izzy: "They look like clouds, boss. Can we just focus on--" (What the fuck are you on about? I'm trying to talk to you about the impeding doom of the ship! This is important and you are going on about one of your weird fancies!)

Ed: "Yes, they look like clouds, because they are indeed clouds. But if you just put some fucking imagination into it, man!" (For fucks sake Izzy, I'm trying to get you to think! The solution for our problem is right there!)

Izzy: "I suppose they look like sausages." (Fine, I'll play along. Maybe then we can finally talk about the important stuff?)

Ed: "Frankfurters. Yes, exactly. It's like pulling teeth with you sometimes, man." (ARE YOU GETTING IT NOW, MAN?!? I am already working on the solution to your problem, and if you just fucking listen to me and think about what I am telling you, you would see it, too! Why do you always have to make it so difficult?)

This is not a conversation about their own relationship and general situation in life, but it demonstrates clearly what goes wrong in their communication. Izzy thinks Ed is just being weird again and doesn't care about what Izzy thinks is a big problem for all of them. Ed is perfectly aware of the problem, but tries to get Izzy to see the solution he is working on for himself, rather than telling him outright, and is frustrated when Izzy makes no effort to do so. And it is implied that for a while now, all of their conversations are going down that way. They don't understand each other (anymore).

The next one really goes down to the bones of the problem, though.

Ed is excited by the display cabinet he finds and tries to show Izzy. Izzy is still frustrated because Ed doesn't seem to care that they've got a problem. So Izzy keeps talking at him about a plan while Ed already has one in the works and would rather focus on this fascinating new kind of pirate they have discovered; finally, something that isn't boring! And then Ed actually becomes pretty clear for once: "We always need a fucking plan, alright! And then what, then we fucking execute the plan, and then we get another plan, then what do we do? We execute that, and so on, and so on, and so on, and again, and again, and again, IT'S ALL SO FUCKING BORING! I'm bored out of my skull man, is this all there is? I shouldn't be bored, I'm fucking Blackbeard!" Now Ed could hardly have been more honest about his feelings, but Izzy is still stuck in their rut, Ed is being weird again, so yeah, great, he's bored, but why does that mean all the work has come down to him? He only thinks about their current situation, he believes Ed's feelings are temporary, he doesn't realise Ed is talking about their whole lives. That he has been feeling this way for a long time, that that is what makes him "weird" or "erratic". Because Izzy doesn't feel that way. Izzy is fine with their way of life. And he can't imagine why Ed would feel any different. But they still have this problem that Ed is refusing to discuss with him. And then Ed starts talking about dying to end the boredom, and that is when Izzy gets completely lost. ("Yeah, cause that makes sense"). Again, he is frustrated, because he doesn't understand what is going on with Ed. He didn't used to be like that™.

Now it is unclear if Ed at this point has just started formulating the next plan in his head, the one where he fakes his death to escape the boring life of invincible Blackbeard, or if his affinity for suicidal ideation that we see in season 2 is already at play here, too. Maybe a mix of both. But either way, Izzy doesn't get it (yet), and he doesn't understand why Ed doesn't seem to get him, as well. Izzy wasn't the one who changed!

We, the audience, later receive a lot more information by way of Ed's first conversation with Stede, where Ed expresses himself clearer and freer than he ever could with Izzy. He's bored, because nothing is a challenge anymore; he's frustrated, because he's stuck in this line of work that bores him; and on top of that he finds the whole cult around the persona of Blackbeard rather ridiculous. ("Nine guns???")

In a later episode, when Izzy is so frustrated with Ed's "erratic" behavior that he wants to leave, we experience a moment of how clear communication could look between them. Ed finally tells Izzy about his plan to fake his death, kill Stede and take his identity. But he only does that because he wants to appease Izzy and stop him from leaving, and the fact that he already has genuine feelings of affection for Stede is not mentioned. (Maybe because Ed himself isn't even sure about it yet?) And Izzy is too blinded by the opportunity of becoming Captain himself to think more deeply about Ed's wish to retire. He most likely thinks Ed does this because he was presented with the unlikely opportunity to bow out of the job on a high without having to die or being hunted for the rest of his life, so why wouldn't he take it? He doesn't connect it with Ed's boredom, still doesn't realise that Ed's decision also comes from a longing that he has already harbored for a long time.

Which is why, when Ed realises his feelings for Stede and starts looking for other ways to change his life, Izzy is again at a loss and just defaults to the easiest explanation: he blames Stede. Stede must have changed Ed, Stede must be responsible that Ed suddenly doesn't want to continue their old, familiar life as The Dread Pyrate Blackbeard and his first mate, or at least change it to the retired pirate Blackbeard and his successor, Captain Hands. And then he makes his first really big mistake: he forces Ed to choose, thinking their shared history together makes him safe.

This is how their story escalates, and we all know where they ended up. Betrayals, threats, mutilation, shooting at each other. The fact they are able to stay on the same ship together is a minor miracle. They have history, they have love, but they are done with each other.*

Now, Ed & Stede.

When Stede and Ed meet, Stede dreams of being a successful and famous pirate, but isn't really good at becoming one, to put it mildly. Ed, at the same time, is a very successful and famous pirate, but doesn't want to do that anymore. That's them at the very beginning of their relationship, so anyone who didn't see the current blow-up between them coming, hadn't been paying attention.

Now at first that doesn't really matter. Ed teaches Stede about pirating, Stede teaches Ed about life as an aristocrat, where he can have beautiful things and enjoy life without having to rob and kill. Their differences at that stage actually give the other the very thing they so desperately need. And they start to change, but at first that change just moves them even closer together - Stede becomes a better pirate without having to give up his fancies and the luxuries on his ship, and Ed gets to enjoy said luxuries and the rather peaceful and comfortable life Stede and his crew live on the revenge, while still being basically the great pirate Blackbeard.

But the first time this causes friction in their relationship is also in season 1. After Izzy's betrayal and the Act of Grace, we see Ed contentedly giving in to their new situation, shaving off the beard that was quite literally his trademark, folding stuff; and, after Stede reciprocated his love, looking forward to run away with him to lead a peaceful, private life in China. But Stede is disturbed by all these changes, because Ed is giving up what he himself so desperately wants. Just like Izzy, Stede doesn't really understand it. Why would Ed do that? Just for him? He might have understood that Blackbeard was bored and frustrated before, with the monotony his life had become, but they'd changed that, right? They were pirates together, that's not boring or frustrating, right?

Which is why it is so easy for Chauncey - about who, we have to assume, Stede still hasn't told Ed - to use it to feed Stede's own insecurities - Stede will never be a great pirate, and now he has even ruined someone who was a great pirate.

Again, we all know where that ended - Stede going back to his family out of a feeling of guilt, and Ed going back to pirating - how could he run off to China without Stede now - because that is the only option he has. And boy, does he turn it up to 11. Talk about putting your feelings into your work.

But then they reunite, they talk, they come back together and even finally spend what I think we all imagine as a very emotional, romantic night together, albeit with some other messy stuff in the mix.

Only the elephant in the room is still there.

And in 2x06 it starts to get interesting, because Ed tries to tell Stede.

Telling the kids that they are not pirates but own an inn together, that is Ed trying to let Stede know that that is what he wants. I want to own an inn with you, lead a peaceful life, not being pirates anymore. But Stede doesn't pick up on that. He just assumes Ed came up with that on the spot to be a better example for the kids, no more, and he "plays along".

Then Ed tries again at the beginning of 2x07.

Ed: "How about we just avoid all near death situations?" ("I don't want us to be pirates who are in danger all the time!")

Stede: "Nice idea. Not bloody likely in our line of work." ("Aw, it would be a great world if you could be a pirate and not be in danger all the time. But we both know that's not the case, we both know we are pirates, and pirates are in danger. So alas, we are going to be in danger all the time.")

Stede is happy. He is finally where he wanted to be. He's become a great pirate (or is at least well on his way), and he is with his love. And in his bliss he doesn't really listen to Ed when he tries to let him know that he wants something different. Why would anyone want to change something that is so perfect?

Just like Izzy, back then.

So, as I said, the blow-up had been coming a long time; and it actually went tamer than I feared. Ed not feeling understood (because he isn't) and running off to become a fisherman, Stede probably feeling like he had a bucket of ice water dumped over his head, unable to assemble the puzzle pieces of what he had missed due to pure shock, and both being upset and angry with each other. Ed's "why don't we stop now, before we say anything we can't take back" is surprisingly healthy, while Stede having to shout "you're a coward" after him anyway makes me want to shake him like a rattle. But we know where Ed is, he hasn't dropped off the face of the earth, they can come back together and continue their conversation after some thought and introspection, having realised that there was something they should have talked about a lot sooner and maybe trying to see where the other man is coming from.

I think part of the solution will arise from what happens in the last minutes of 2x07, when Stede's pirate fantasy starts crashing down around him - similar to how Ed's fantasy of aristocratic society in 1x05 first gave him a high and then crashed as well. Stede needs to get it out of his system, but ultimately, being a pirate is not who he is. He was able to grow and change, to become a better pirate, a better Captain, but he has to realise that he doesn't have to become more manly, less sensitive, or give up the beautiful things he loves, and that Ed loves him exactly as he is. That piracy is a fantasy, one that Ed lived and knows the worst parts of its reality, that he doesn't want anymore and that Stede wouldn't want either, once he fully experienced it. And he needs to understand what Olu told him in 1x01 - that piracy is something different when you never had another choice. Because Ed never had another choice. But Stede could give him one. After all, they have always been happiest together when they met in the middle, and they can have that - away from Stede's aristocratic life, away from Ed's piracy.

At least, that's what I am hoping for them (and, well, I trust David Jenkins, so yeah**).

So Ed's & Izzy's long term relationship broke apart because Ed wanted to retire and Izzy, who couldn't imagine being anything other than a pirate, didn't understand or support him.

And Ed's & Stede's new love is in danger because Ed still wants to retire, and Stede, who loves being a pirate and can't imagine why anyone wouldn't, didn't understand him... But maybe he will?

"He is a complicated man."

Yes. And hopefully one of you succeeds in figuring him out and give him what he needs, where the other one failed.

*= oddly enough, the violent destruction of Izzy's mental image of "Blackbeard", that we witnessed partly during the first 3 episodes of season 2, could be the very thing he needed to finally see the person "his" Blackbeard turned into while he wasn't looking. He might finally come to be able to understand Ed.

**= honestly? I think that is what Izzy's journey about learning to care for the crew and being accepted by them is all about. And he is not only training Stede to be a Captain, he is also learning from him. How to be more sensitive, more supportive, Stede's "people-positive management style". Because once Ed & Stede fake their deaths and retire to the countryside to open an inn, Izzy will have another go at being a Captain - this time one that his crew will not be trying to throw overboard after what accumulated to basically 5 minutes of his reign.

[imminentinertia]

How to get me to nope the fuck out of a fic part 172: Doing Profanity Wrong

Please don't. I'm begging here. I'll do it Ray style if it helps.

First, let's talk a bit about types of profanity. Just so you know, there will be a bit of vulgar language here (in case that first "fuck" in the title of the post didn't turn you off already).

I'm not going into the functions of profanity, the why we use it and how we use it to achieve our goals for using it, Steven Pinker's The Stuff of Thought is a good starting point for functions if you're interested. What I'm most interested in right now is the what.

The what is often a taboo of some sort, like mocking something sacred, referring to body parts that are considered filthy, fears of invoking dangerous situations like illness or natural disasters. The words used can be grouped into these categories*:

Sex

Religion

Bodily functions

Disease

(Derogatory terms may be considered a function, the why is to cause harm, but it tends to contain terms that don't always belong in the four other categories, and those four tend to bleed into this. I consider it a fifth category of types of words)

Languages and cultures don't use these categories in the same ways. For instance, there's very little left of disease swearing in English ("a pox on you" sounds just a tiny bit outdated, wouldn't you say) but it's alive and kicking in Danish (all word constructions with the word "kraft" refers to cancer, and there are a lot of those constructions). The British Isles and Denmark are pretty close geographically and not enormously different culturally, but the swearing takes different routes.

English uses a hell of a lot of religious profanity. East and South East Asian languages, not so much. There are examples, like mara (まら), a quite rude Japanese word for dick that has its root in the demon Mara (I don't know the precise etymology, but it's possible it has to do with temptation), but it's not anywhere near as prevalent as in Christianity-heavy cultures.

Which means that "for Buddha's sake" does not, I repeat NOT, work as local colour swearing. At. All.

It really is not a problem if you write an English profanity in an English sentence, in your English fic set in a culture that isn't in the Anglosphere. Don't worry about it - the point is that the story needs to flow well, and trying to fit in unfamiliar swearing is likely to end up stiff and awkward.

What you might want to think about is the categories. It's not that E/SE Asians never say "oh my God" or "fuck" in English, we who have other mother tongues often like a bit of English profanity mixed in with our native language, but the patterns for when to swear in English may be different.

So if you pay a bit of attention to how the shows are translated and what swearing choices are made (disregard the bowdlerised translations on fudging IQIYI entirely) and what category the characters seem to use the most, it becomes easier to make the story flow well without anglofying it too much (brimming with "oh my God") or stumbling in asiafying your own language ("oh my Buddha").

Sex and bodily functions tend to be safe bets because there are a number of taboos regarding both in so many cultures they're probably near-universal and only differs in exactly how they're used, but trying to make that super authentic for the source language and culture doesn't necessarily fit well into the language you're writing.

In other words, "shit" and "fuck" and such are likely to work fine for anything.

Also, there are a number of ways to be rude as fuck without uttering a single vulgar word. You can be rude while speaking and acting very politely, even. That's not something that's easy to show in a fic, it's easier to tell it ("he's speaking very politely yet it's the rudest thing she's ever heard"). Not to mention that it's easy to get it wrong when it's a culture you don't know extremely well, so a little vague telling is likely to make your story smoother than a detailed description of a rudeness situation.

The point is that one of the characters is rude to another, and that can be communicated well to the readers in several ways.

*Sources what sources. Actually there are lots of sources, but they tend to leave out disease. This is how I categorise and I'm sure there are researchers who agree with me, somewhere.

[bonesandthebees]

ooooh i love the idea of king elaric and the seer like having each other in a world of politics and being able to find a friend in someone and trust them and make the most of a childhood that is stripped from you by a title hanging over your head (sorry i get carried away with my own analysis of things) and i think that will definitely be a cool thing to see especially as it falls apart once the weight of elaric’s title falls on him!!! i also love the mental image of him looking like snow!

on the note of mental images do you have any other descriptions of the characters and how you want them to look and like their vibes like those littles details that make them unique like scares and clothing styles and things of the sort yk all the silly stuff :D

- 🪿

god yeah the two of them manage to find something resembling a friendship with each other but it's always overshadowed by their respective titles and roles. the closest they can get to childhood but never quite what it actually should be

oh yeah I definitely have images for most of them in my head. some of them I got from references either from actors or just random models I saw on pinterest, most though just kind of exist in my head

Ana, whose full name is Anara, kind of looks like the actress who plays Edwina in s2 of Bridgerton (Charithra Chandran) though not exactly. I think her skin tone is a bit darker, and obviously the actress is 27 and Ana is like 19-20 in my head so she's a bit younger looking too. but she's a good reference! I'm still deciding on if I want to keep the whole tattoo bit of death worship so I don't know if she has tattoos yet or not. Style wise when she's not dressing in more practical all black clothing for missions, she wears kind of athleisure type outfits. oversized sweatshirts and bike shorts, crop tops and leggings, etc. though if she's actually going out like to a bar or something she dresses in what's trendy, which is usually colorful techwear kind of clothes

when I was trying to figure out what the Seer looked like I just went on pinterest and scrolled through model pics until I found a girl who felt fairly close. again, not exact, but I picture the Seer as a redhead with lots of freckles and more angular, sharp features. her hair is also very long and is done up in very intricate braids with her Seer gowns and veils and all that. however, this isn't really her choice. the Seer hates her hair being long and doesn't really know how to braid it herself, so she usually either leaves it loose or pulls it back into a half-assed ponytail once she's with the Ghosts. she also hates all the gowns and everything, so when she has control of her wardrobe she adopts a more loose-fitting, androgynous sort of style with big sweaters/sweatshirts/hoodies and wide-legged cargo pants/jeans or just straight up sweatpants

the only other one I have kind of a reference for is Kestrel. But for some reason my brain is stuck on picturing Kestrel as kind of like the real life version of Lee from The Walking Dead video game. though unlike Lee who has short hair, I think he'd have dreads he probably pulls back into low ponytails a lot of the time. that's really not a great reference point and my mental image of him is still shifting a bit but like, it kind of vaguely works

while I know what the other Ghosts all look like, I don't really have references for any of them and this post is already long enough so that's what I'll say for now lol

[cathalbravecog]

long ramble, haven't had one of these in a while! if you read this, have fun. it's headcanons/thoughts on some stuff. i don't talk about my thoughts on story stuff publicly much anymore especially because 1) i'm shy 2) trust issues 3) bad rsd 4) i forgot the last point

i was writing for oNCE yesterday (some headcanon stuff, for myself, won't be posting that unless i change the wording of some of it to make more sense because i ramble a lot and it's a mess. like i am doing right now. also that turned into being mostly about hr in the end because i am ill. now hopefully this motivation will get me to write my mary and archie stuff.)

and when i went to bed i was thinking about some stuff in toontown, mostly the cogs - and how things work. these are things i ponder on very often and have talked about with my friends many time, throwing ideas back and forth and my headcanons for how things work.

though, there's one thing i really wonder about, and that's where cogs come from in ttcc exactly. in 'that' way though of course to keep things on the same rating as the game is i won't discuss anything explicit so don't worry. (besides they're robots and also are sexless to me, anything related to gender is purely cosmetic to them. you are usually assigned a certain expression when built though, but can change that later on. that's how i explain trans cogs.)

i think about how there are canonical families and children, and that they have "built" dates and places where they've been built. it's obvious as they're robots, they're not born they're built and made.

it's a bit difficult to explore with the limited info we have, which is kind of both an hassle to work with, but also beautiful because you can let your creativity go and make up your own headcanons, without things being set in too much canon. it's also difficult due to how different the suit culture is to us humans and also what we see from the toons which is by nature more familiar to us.

we also do not know much about suitopia, or other possible places where cogs live.

(i, personally, imagine suitopia as essentially a big country where most if not all cogs live. it has it's own regions, cities... all that. where as c.o.g.s. inc has built itself to be essentially it's own small country/community, if that makes sense. though cogs don't always only mention suitopia, at least once 'the whole world' is used. this is irrelevant tho so i won't discuss that but it's still a 'core' headcanon i have - as other things i may hc rely on this personal interpretation / headcanon.

but be aware i do not know everything is canon and can discuss things outside my realm of HCs and interpretations, but if i go deeper into like, let's say, analyzing a cog and imagining their backstory, instantly assume i'm using all these things. sorry for the side ramble, i want to make things clear for possible future reference.)

i wish it will be expanded upon slightly in the future, even a slightest crumb of what it's like out there and i can have a field day with it. i do enjoy the vagueness tho, again, as i've said we do not need to have all the information out there and it's not necessary to the main stories that are being told but MAN my brain itches for MORE. i demand EXPLANATIONS. and so i make up my own lol and i love that i can do that /gen (there's some stuff i do have an issue with that it was not explained better, but again, fixed that with hcs. talking abt atticus but im not getting into that rn)

there also may be things i am missing - i have known of ttcc's existence since it's early days, but i wasn't there for it and missed being there in person for any lore until i started playing for real in early 2023 and became a part of the community. like, there ARE things i have missed AND small details i am missing. that's one criticism i have about some info being more difficult to access now, but the main stuff is on the wiki an all luckily.

anyways that ramble out of the way... how the heck are cogs made? there's a few ways, that seem contradictory in some ways at first but i just see it as different methods.

we know cogs can change their appearances (their shell) and be "upgraded". we know cogs can even choose to be just their skelecogs (Atticus) and i suppose every other skelecog we see.) we know cogs have families and have their own kids. (cathal and bobby jr come to mind, and also belle's own kids and grandkids. not to mention, we have siblings too - thomas and robert. and their whole family drama DOES involve their unseen parents.) we know many cogs, mostly the managers, come into the company as their are - but also new parts are built, at least for the employee cogs in sellbot hq. (recently re-read the dialogue which confirmed this - literally as you're building your sellbot suit.)

we know cogs are more than just some working machines and do have deeper lives and desires and even relationships, though all instances of a parent/child relationship in ttcc have only one parent. makes sense after all they don't reproduce sexually to put it that way, again they're built and they're robots.)

it's easy to conclude, that, cogs are just built. which is true. but it just makes me wonder. we know they age. we have at least 1 cog who is a literal child, and bobby, in human years at least, looks no older than like, 8 years old. (we also don't know how cogs age. we also know cog's don't die like that, due to the whole deal with atticus. i will talk about this one day i have so many thoughts on it)

we know they grow up and even have schools - they're not programmed with everything. they earn experience as they live life and even have?? education systems? like they're more like people than we thought. (ttcc does make cogs more easily sympathized with and gives us INDIVIDUAL cogs and not just... 'The Cogs'. cogs are the focus of ttcc so of course they're developed more and are more 'human' despite being machines.)

so clearly, there's cogs like bobby. who are built young and eventually grow up. we have not seen a cog growing up yet, at least i don't think. but i wonder how that works. through cartoon logic, do they just grow up? their skelecog and perhaps their shell, too? or do they periodically get upgraded to be larger - wouldn't it make sense to built a cog as, well, an adult already? to program all these things? there may be more limits to this than we think, but also just... cultural things possibly.

the only cog CHILD (not just the child of someone - cathal's an adult. also, redd mention, but redd's adopted so he doesn't count) we ever see is bobby and, he is the child of robert, who is known to be very short. we don't know if bobby's going to grow up, or if this height is what he's just going to be like. we have one image where he's way smaller than robert, and other, more recent ones, where they're a similar heights. is that just art inconsistency due to the nature of all the (amazing) artwork being, well, volounteer work and that not everything is (or has to be) perfect? or did bobby really grow up. i'm talking about the wallet picture and the comics featuring bobby, by the way.

though, as things are, i'm sort of assuming that bobby's going to grow up or be upgraded in some way to "grow up"? i don't think we need an clear explanation for that, and in a universe like this 'cartoon logic' would be enough, but it's still something to think about.

like...how do cogs go about having kids, anyways? all instances we see are visually similar as well. cathal has the same gear for his neck as allan's body does, and they have the same head lightbulbs and wires. bobby jr and robert are both furniture.

i've always assumed that it's like in robots (the movie, that i havent watched in years which would be helpful for all this, probably.) if you decide to have a child just for the experience of raising a child, to have a legacy, or due to a bond with a partner - you literally just build one. perhaps not in the same way as in the movie - in here it definitely requires more paperwork and blueprints. but again, it's interesting to think about! hey company i want a CHILD. i look like this build them like me thanks here's some blueprints. (this also explains the amount of single parents. though belle has to have been married/is married as her honorific is listed as mrs. hey fun fact, non native english speaker here. i didnt know 'mrs' means a lady is married until like this year. i've been on this earth for 19 years.)

like the concept of family is possibly just more social there than anything. duh... can't exactly have the same oil and wires inside of you as Robots .

anyways, so that explains kids... but what about the others? some cogs don't have any families mentioned but it's not hard to assume they come from families with parents and siblings as well. what about the employee cogs? who are quite literally very disposable in a way?

we do have to take into account that after all, employee cogs we see just on and about on the streets are mostly a game mechanic, and there are some individual cogs who ARE cogs who would typically be employees cogs. (jennifer comes to mind first, she's a micromanager but also a secretary and counts as a manager. same goes for judy and so forth.)

and y'know, the game won't have a personality and backstory for each random flunky on the streets you fight. but with often they get destroyed and repaired and that there's just... so many of them! of the same model and appearance... makes you think. is that why they were made? are they truly more robotic than the others, more devoid of 'humanity'? or were they different cogs, perhaps more lower class, who's appearances were changed entirely to fit into more easily fixable and replaceable shell forms? something that's less expensive for the company and for them? i swear i am missing some details on this, but that's for me to re read the wiki and cogs ink for on my own later. (i need to have full info n everything and if i dont bring up that i know one small detail i will explode bc someone will bring it up and make me feel dumb and that's the rsd part and it's often physically painful!)

very hard to tell, i'm sort of content with my thoughts on how cogs have kids, but i hope we ever get a bit more clarity on employee cogs - though it is a bit problematic as these are the guys you beat up on the daily who don't have individual personalities.

like i'm just rambling as i go here man, it was gonna be cohesive but i'm just spitting thoughts here now. like, we have 3 seperate skelecog types - all cogs come with a skelecog like we have a skeleton so that also comes into play. it can be adjusted in ways, most notably the head and also in size. though we do have a 4 arm cog. jason please i love you /p we need more jason content. it's wacky, it's tacky - it's toontown!

fun stuff to think about but i just deep fried my brain. tdlr i guess.

how cogs made. how cogs have kids. how cogs work in general. very swag very cool. guzma cathal spades spamtongender goes on 1568854 different tangents while saying they wont aka your swagesty your adhd symptoms are showing

that's it fellas enjoy 2k words of incomprehensible rambles that i am happy to finally get out! you see the way i explain things is precisely why i almost never do it publicly and i need practice shortening things.

[pikkish]

For the artist ask game I’d like to ask questions

11. Do you listen to anything while working? If so what.

And 29. A piece of media you enjoy but aren’t inspired by.

11. Do you listen to anything while drawing? If so, what?

It varies! Sometimes I'll put on a stream in the background, but most of the time I'll just put my entire library on shuffle, and that's an assortment of tracks from a wide variety videogames with a handful of metal and alt rock songs thrown in here and there. Occasionally, there will be something specific I want to listen to, and I'll end up finding a 10 hour loop of it on youtube or something, almost always video game music again. If I'm really trying to buckle down and get something done, writing especially, I'll put on the Subnautica soundtrack, either the complete thing, or a loop of one of the panic songs. Not entirely sure what it is about Subnautica specifically that gets me to work, but hey, if it works, no need to change it!

29. Media you love, but doesn't inspire you artistically

Thats a really difficult question because how exactly are we defining what it means to be artistically inspired? Do we mean I read/watch/play the thing and immediately go "oh I need to make art for this?" Because if that's the case, there are a LOT of things that I absolutely love that I have never been artistically inspired. On the other hand, if by artistically inspired, that means just gives you some vague idea of something you could potentially make, then almost everything I enjoy has inspired me in some way or another, either just in "oh I could make fanart for this," or in "that's a very cool idea that I'd love to explore in more detail," or even just in somehow spawning only tangentially related ideas that could potentially be worked into their own things with enough time. I'm always looking for new ideas ideas in the stuff I enjoy, because I know I enjoy it for a reason, and I'd like to figure out what it is so that I can make more stuff that I enjoy, if that makes sense.

[yanderefairyangel]

I am also reuploading this post, to make sure people see it.

*sight*

Alright, please I have a small request

Can you please stop making "jokes" about how Rafal Nel and Alear aren't blood-related under my meta post about them pleaaaaaaase ?

You know that while their S support isn't canon in any way, the fact that Nel, Rafal and Alear aren't siblings is canon right ? No matter whom you marry. Even if you choose Alfred, they aren't siblings. Even if you choose Yunaka, they arent's siblings. This isn't some knowledge or special magical thing only tied to their S support, it's something that is canonically established independly of your decision. So really. When I am talking about lore stuff about them that have nothing to do with the S support because it exist independly of it, it's getting annoying to have somone ALWAYS pointing out to how they are optional romance.

Whether I am talking about it or not, it's annoying and not mentioning that there are people who get triggered by the sole mention of the I word, so when you do stuff like that, I can't even warn them with a TW and I don't even know what TW I am supposed to put exactly ? Like people joking about two individual descending from different version of a same person being unrelated to each other ???

When you are doing that you are giving the impression that Nel and Rafal only exist for Alear to have a dragon waifu/husbando with some lore to make it vaguely wincest-ual instead of them existing independly of the S support and the S support existing only cause IS didn't intended to go the sibling path with them.... like they did for all the previous entries. And it's annoying cause the dragon lore is interesting and I always find need detail to compare as to how different Nel and Rafal are from Veyle and Alear when it comes to Fell dragons and I don't wanna fear to have discourse about how they should pass a DNA test each time I am talking about Nel or Rafal.... really, that's tiresome.

I have the impression I can't talk about my favorite character without having someone trying to start something to ignite discourse because they dislike their S support existing. The Fell twins are already underrated as ever.

Please, don't do it under any of my post. Go bother IS instead. If you see one of my post, please resist the urge. Don't comment. Heck, even block me or mute it. If you can't handle it, don't play the DLC, or Engage, or Fire Emblem period. Cause really, I don't know what to think when someone will comment that they aren't blood related or jokes about "Kaga's intent" under my post. I can't tell if you are uncomfortable, or if you actually don't care, all I can tell is that it is annoying me that the first thing you think of when I talk about the lore surrounding Nel Rafal and Alear is the fact you can date them. When I can assure you that this is probably the one thing IS think the less about. I don't think they made alll the differencies between the two pair of Fell siblings exist just to make it ok to waifu Nel and Rafal, but rather that they wrote their stories first and then put the S rank because they saw no problem with that as it wasn't in their plan to make it seems like they are family. Call me naive, but at this point it's my conclusion from all the reading I made. And I think we can discuss it, without brining up something that is ENTIRELY optional when I am discussing something that is ENTIRELY CANON.

That's honestly kind of disrepectful towards me or other if I am being honest. It's the equivalent of telling someone under a post that is made to say they like a story that this story is bad, or that their favorite character is bad, or that their ship is bad or problematic. Sole difference is that you are dragging me to a discourse I try my best to avoid, so much that I keep all my shipping work in separate plateform as to not bother anyone, but this time with analysis that I enjoy doing. I don't wanna sound like I am being sensitive, but I allowed it for way too long and my patience as its limit too. I really don't wanna see my post that are meta based on the canon text being dragged into a stupid ship war to know on whether or not it's ok to ship those two fictional characters when it had nothing to do with the OG post.

So please, please, do not do that again. I already used to turn off my notification or mute my post but that didn't work and normally I shouldn't even have to do it in the first place, so I am asking you. Make an effort.

[tactful-kind-daedra]

~~Modern Verse Headcanons~~

[[So a lot of stuff is pretty standard for most Fates Modern Verses: Nohr siblings working under a huge family corporation. Hoshido is a rival one etc. So going off that- Part 1: The Standard]] -----------------------------------------------------------------------

-Garon is still the head of the company, and it’s probably one that deals in stocks. Lots of buying and money involved in all sorts of things. He may not be possessed by a dragon god, but Garon is just as likely to be charismatic for a deal as he is cut-throat and shady. 

-Xander is, of course, set to take it over, but currently he’s really the one keeping it running. He tends to make sure things line up and all that. Usually the face of it more than anyone else, though his siblings come in as needed. Xander actually hates it since he’s very stressed under the pressure but rarely shows it. As expected. Bottle it until you crack~

-Daedra has her usual ‘modern story’ of being an orphan and basically just working her keister off the moment she can start/live on her own (16/18). She eventually gets to enroll in a college in her mid 20s, through full scholarship. Said college and scholarship are ... you guessed it: sponsored in some fashion by Nohr Corp. It’s not so much because Daedra is that smart (she’s intelligent enough but not a genius you know) but more as like a ‘be the best example of a student’ type thing. Basically Daedra’s roped into a crap ton of extra classes and school jobs and is basically living off caffeine, the need to keep straight As, and sparkling starshine. She’s handling it.... well-enough. 

-Daedra actually has no idea who Xander or his siblings actually are. She’s vaguely aware of Nohr Corp and Garon as its head, and mostly for scholarship waffling. Thus, cue her mistakenly trying to get Xander to join after school clubs and activities while he’s there to oversee some things with the schoolboards. He, amusedly, finds it charming and just lets her go on for awhile. She’s very spirited and friendly (and also clearly has no idea he’s ‘famous’ or rich). 

-Xander probably drops in on her for awhile, seeing how far the ‘act’ goes on. Daedra’s always happy to see him as she probably doesn’t have many friends with her busy schedule demands. Boy, can Xander relate with that~ I imagine Leo probably spills the beans - strictly out of annoyance. It doesn’t matter much, to Daedra anyway. She’s understandably very shocked but not upset. At first she’s sad, as she thinks she won’t get to see him anymore, as he’s clearly not going to attend the school. 

-Their time together was basically dates without realizing they were dates. With their schedules, Xander and Daedra min-max by going for food or on shopping errands. This is where Daedra introduces him to the joys of Sonic’s (or the FE modern equivalent of a Sonic’s) because it’s 11pm and where else would you go? Get to have burgers and milkshakes and all fun things from the comfort of a car with your favorite tunes on the radio. ~Romantic Magic~ Xander’s first introduction to ‘peasant food’.

-Xander tries to treat her to very high class things, but it doesn’t go very well. Mostly because Daedra feels so bad about it as she absolutely can’t afford these places. And even though Xander assures her it’s his treat, it’s still a pressure on her. He does convince her to spend a weekend with him in a very exclusive and high end hotel though. Mostly because it’s very late when they’d have to part (it would be easier to just go to the hotel instead of dropping her at campus and him going back- Xander explains to her rational side) and at this point, he’s probably fighting with his Dad a lot. Xander claims it’s for business, but Daedra find out otherwise when they get there. Too late now~

-I haven’t pinpointed on what details I exactly want in this scenario. Other than Xander orders them lobster dinners for the room with the casual aloofness like they were Big Macs from McDonalds. Probably some serious life talking: wants and the future and supposed plans. Overall, he was initially stressed and angry and upset, but now he has a relaxing weekend with someone he genuinely enjoys spending his time with~

-I could probably use more stuff to fill out this area in time. Though, it’s notable that Xander absolutely does NOT ever bring her home. She gets introduced to his siblings early on, but it’s well established by all that Garon will not like her. Daedra is absolutely willing to bite that bullet though, either by going and putting a brave face or just... not ever meeting him for the foreseeable future. Xander makes the call for everyone’s sanity to choose the latter (minus his own, as Garon verbally rips his ass a new one constantly - for one reason or another).

-The major turning point is when Daedra graduates. Despite all this, she does manage to come away with excellent grades and a 4 year degree. It’s probably nothing too outlandish - I’d have to think something equivalent to tacticianing lol. ‘Business Strategist’ or something like that. -wink wonk- But now that she’s off campus life, she’ll have to find somewhere to live... and a job to pay for that ‘living’. 

-Xander, obviously, is willing to just pay for something or get her work in the company, but Garon would be pissed. Xander knows it, Daedra knows it, they all know it’s a terrible idea. (Part of me thought having her apply to Hoshido Inc or whatever but I think that’s too messy) --------------------------------------------------------------------

[[Part 2 coming in another post for length purposes~]]

[iamfruitie]

In Too Deep Chapter 36

Home Visit

“Do you think he’s going to tell?” Phantom asked Mare as the two stood in the kitchen the next morning. 

“He had to have believed us.” Mare sat down on the table. “There’s no reason that he wouldn’t.” 

“I’m shocked you didn’t try to fight him when he hoisted Mad up like that.” Phantom chuckled.

“Literally had to bite my own tongue.” Mare sighed. “That was the best acting performance we have put on in a long time.” 

“And we’ll still have to keep it up when we get back.” Phantom chewed on his lip. “Should probably make sure our stories are exactly the same before we go.” 

“We���re good at bullshitting with each other, but Dark is better at poking through the holes,” Mare said in agreement. 

“He knows our tricks 'cause he taught us most of them.” Phantom clicked his tongue. “We going the ‘one-night stand’ route?” 

“Dark’s not gonna want details on that stuff. We can usually distract him if we get dirty with our language.” Mare couldn’t help from being a little silly and doing a shimmy with that, getting Phantom to laugh. 

“You’d think with Wilford being his friend, he’d be used to that stuff.” Phantom made a face to tell Mare that someone was coming into the room. 

“We’ll work on it on the way there.” Mare kept his wording vague and turned his head, seeing Jackie walk into the kitchen. 

“Normally, I would stay out of other’s business, but I have a feeling what you two are talking about involves me and Mad,” Jackie said, having only caught the very end of the conversation. “It has to do with what happened last night, doesn’t it?” 

“You don’t need to worry about what happened last night,” Phantom said. “We have it covered.” 

“Have what covered? What’s going on? I know you two have the whole vampire thing going on, but does that mean something bad if the other ones figure out you’re with us? Do I need to hide Mad somewhere until it’s safe? He might know some basics of fighting, but he can only do so much, especially if he can’t get to his hammer. He’s fucked without it.” Jackie’s voice was thick with worry. He could take care of himself, he was a big guy that knew how to throw a damn good punch, but Mad was small, a scientist, he wasn’t one for fighting and could easily get hurt. 

“We got this, I promise.” Phantom went over to Jackie, placing his hands on his face to make him look at him. “The man that was over here last night, Wilford, he’s practically harmless. He’s just chaotic in the same way me and Mare are. He’s not going to do anything. Let’s get you home so you can get cleaned up, and then I’ll come over tonight and mess you all up again~”  

“Alright.” Jackie had a bit of a blush on his cheeks. “As long as Mad doesn’t get hurt.” 

“He won’t. Not while Mare likes his ass.” Phantom giggled and gave Jackie a quick kiss.

“Gross.” Mare made a face as he got off the table. “Let’s get going before you make me barf.” 

“Don’t be such a drama king.” 

“I will aim the puke at you.” 

“Rude!” 

x~x~x

From the outside, this home would have looked like an elderly house of sorts. Large, antique, and with a long list of history to it. All of that is correct, but the city that was many miles away didn’t know who lived inside this aged place. What they are and what they do. 

“Honey, I’m home!” Phantom called out with a laugh as he and Mare appeared at the front door.

“Hello!” A voice said inside of their heads, and they both turned to see a fellow vampire named JJ. He was about the same size as Mad, but with a mustache, hair hidden by a round hat, and dressed more formally with a button-up and vest. He also was unable to speak unless it was done through telepathic means. “Dark is in his office and is waiting for you.” 

“Thanks.” Mare flashed a smile at JJ. He’s always been fond of him, one of the kindest of the vampires in the home.  

“Might want to hurry, he’s annoyed~” Wilford came out from one of the nearby halls, singing the last word as he wrapped an arm around JJ’s shoulders, whispering something to him that got the smaller man to blush, giggle, and walk off with him. 

“Great. He’s in a mood.” Phantom clicked his tongue. “How bad do you think it’d be if we just left?” 

“You like living?” Mare asked with a raised brow. 

“Yeah.” Phantom held out the word with a groan, heading for the office with Mare in tow. 

“Come in.” A voice said from behind the door Mare knocked on. “Oh. Look who finally came home.” 

“Hey, Dark.” Mare gave an extra-large smile to Dark, hoping to get on his good side. 

“Where have you been?” The flatness in Dark’s voice told Mare that did not work. 

Dark was a fairly large man like Wilford, be it a few inches shorter and leaner, but still had a bit of size compared to Mare and Phantom. He, like JJ, was more often than not formally dressed in a suit of sorts. His ‘casual’ was slacks and a button-up with no tie. Mare had asked why Dark dressed the way a long time ago before he and Phantom were turned, and Dark had told him 

“I am in charge of everyone. I lead, I control, and I ensure the safety and stability of us all. I must look as together as we are to be”

Mare was a teenager at the time and didn’t understand, he still didn’t understand now, but at this point, it was just what was expected of Dark.   

“We were out having some fun,” Mare answered with a shrug. 

“A lot of fun~” Phantom giggled, seeing the look on Dark’s face from the implication. 

“We can tell you all of the lovely details if you want. Like how-

“No. No, I do not.” Dark cut him off before rising from behind his desk. “What I do want is for the two of you to stay here at the home until told otherwise.” 

“Are you grounding us or something? What the fuck’s going on?” Mare asked. 

“Language, Mare,” Dark said, hands going behind his back as he started to walk. “And you are not grounded; everyone is to stay in place until I sort a dangerous manner out. It won’t be long. It will likely be finished and taken care of by this afternoon.” 

“What ‘dangerous manner’ are you talking about?” Phantom asked. 

“I will explain when it is no longer a threat to us.” 

“But-” Mare didn’t even get his protest out before Dark was gone. “I have a bad feeling. Do you think Anti’s in their bedroom?” 

“Probably, and he has to know what’s going on. Dark tells him everything.” 

“Either him or Wilford. Anti’s more likely to tell us since Wilford’s probably busy with JJ.” 

“Let’s go,” Phantom said with a nod, and they both used their powers to appear in front of Dark and Anti’s bedroom door. They shared a glance before they both turned and started banging on the door.

“Mom!” They called out.

“You shits!” The person behind the door shouted and threw open the door. “I told you two to stop calling me that.” 

“But mom~!” Mare and Phantom held out the word in unison, something they’d done plenty of times. 

“What do you two want?” Anti crossed his arms.

He was one of the average-sized vampires in the home, not tiny like JJ but not large like Wilford and Dark. He was maybe an inch or so shorter than Mare and Phantom, with hair a bright green and fangs sticking out much more than the others. Unlike his husband, Anti was very casual in his attire. Ripped jeans and a t-shirt with gauges in his almost pointed ears. There was a faded scar on his neck, a reminder of why he had been turned in the first place. That scar was next to his mate mark and the teeth scars from his turning. 

Dark, Wilford, and JJ all had those last two kinds of marks as well, but Anti’s stood out since he had more markings there than the others. Phantom and Mare only had turn marks. 

“Where’s Dark going?” Mare asked outright, knowing it was a lot easier that way. 

“To take care of something.” Anti’s eyes went to the side, his dead giveaway that he wasn’t saying everything that he knew. 

“He said it was a ‘dangerous manner’, what’s going on?” Phantom asked with a bit of a pout. The twins were more than aware that Anti had a weak spot for Phantom while Dark’s was for Mare, and they took full advantage of it whenever they could. “Are we going to be okay?” 

“Phan.” Anti sighed. The use of the nickname told Mare and Phantom that Anti already cracked. “It’s going to be okay, I promise. There’s just been some human trying to dig into our business, and Dark wants to go take care of it before it could turn into something harmful for us.” 

“Do you know who this human is?” Mare had a really bad feeling. 

“Some rich guy named Madrick.” 

“Madrick Richards?”

“Yeah, how did you-” 

“Fuck!” 

-----------

Tag List: (Feel free to ask to be added!)

@dungeon-dragons-dragons @justyoursicanon @angst-anonn @damnthedead

[misireads]

I am Legend by Richard Matheson

[ physical book, read in finnish ]

one White American Man(TM) is apparently the only remaining human alive after a virus pandemic has turned everyone else into vampires (or just killed them). he has barricaded his house against the undead creatures and come up with all sorts of more or less clever ways to deal with the situation. eventually he starts scientifically researching why exactly the generic garlic, wooden staves etc stuff from fiction seem to actually work against the vampires. he has his ups and downs throughout the story, sometimes coping better, sometimes worse.

➕ it's pretty fun that reading this you think, ah okay, one of the run-of-the-mill post-apocalyptic survival zombie virus stories we all know. but this here is THE original zombie apocalypse novel! fascinating. and the zombies aren't zombies, they're vampires. i actually always thought this was a legit zombie story, all i knew about the book before was an edit of the will smith movie poster saying "i am leg: the last man on earth is not a toe." i haven't seen the movie by the way and don't intend to watch

➕ this is short and concise in a way i like. you get the feeling of time passing and robert's moods coming and going without hundreds and hundreds of pages. this took me like, four days to read. exactly what i like for my horror novels

➕ apart from already being the first ever of a lot of genre things, i thought it pretty innovative for an ordinary guy to try to scientifically prove all the generic vampire banishing stuff.

➕ i liked the ending, nice title drop as the last line there.

➖ this is so hopelessly american, reading as a european you just go, and the rest of the world? what happens in the rest of the world?? is this america only??? since it's never addressed in any way and one american town is consistently called the entire world in this, i assume americans are just out there dying and killing each other while the rest of the world is watching like yeaah… amurricans huh.

➖ the main character is just kind of… well. i felt no connection to him at any point, he's very White American Heterosexual Man coded. and i felt a lot like, for the sake of feeling the feelings that this story is trying to evoke, you are meant to relate to this man. so the story didn't do much for me in that sense. i was the most immersed in the dog part. then when ruth came in, it was very Whatever.

➖ speaking of the dog, why the fuck is he feeding it bowls of milk. who the fuck feeds dogs bowls of cow milk. it gives just about any animal diarrhea. you give animals water. idiot

➖ the details of just about anything are vague at best. i mean i came here from frankenstein that completely skips describing anything about how the monster even happens so i almost let it slide. almost. but it's very true this never goes into the specifics of where exactly robert gets all his supplies. how does he have so much food. so much garlic. how literally all the circumstances just happen to be so perfectly right for him.

➖ the finnish translation is another abomination, and it's not supposed to even be very old… but idk. the punctuation mistakes are out of control here. like, after a point it becomes more of a rule than exception that the punctuation is incorrect. i can not like nor respect a book like that

⭐ score: 3 -- another checkmark for my horror classics bingo card, but other than that… eh, it was nice reading another genre origin novel and i appreciate the "OoOoOoOO MAN IS ACTUALLY THE REAL MONSTER" theme in here (again coming here from frankenstein) but i wasn't hugely into the story. BUT i can't believe i read hell house from matheson before this. that's someone's fault for sure. like some "actually scary horror novels!!!" reddit recommendation thread's (neither is very scary IMO but this by far more than fucking hell house. jesus)

[thatoneguy56fanfic]

13, 17, 19!

13. What is a subject matter that is incredibly difficult for you write about? What is easy?

Honestly, hurting my favorite characters is something I struggle with a lot. It’s always been very difficult for me to purposefully make them suffer. Something that’s always easy for me is fluff, and maybe smut.

17. Talk to me about the minutiae of your current WIP. Tell me about the lore, the history, the detail, the things that won’t make it in the text.

My current WIP is a Wild West AU. I’ve always wanted to try one, so I’m pretty excited to be working on this. In this AU there isn’t an Avatar anymore, so the world had to learn how to keep balance without one. Kuruk was the last Avatar, and he died while in the Avatar State. Thus ending the Avatar cycle. For the most part the world takes care of itself fine, but there are still some places that a little more chaotic. This fic takes place in the Earth Kingdom for the most part. Loyalty plays a pretty big part in the narrative. A character’s loyalty to their chosen faction. Their loyalty to each other, and to their ideals. Freedom is another thing that’s important to the narrative. So is revenge.

The history is based on the US’s “Wild West” age, specifically the late 1800’s/early 1900’s. The technology is pretty similar to that time period too. So there’s things like trains, guns, and a lot of horse riding. Not only are there outlaws who cause trouble for the regular people. But even the law isn’t that trustworthy. Companies like Future Industries are getting away with over working and underpaying their employees, while being protected by the law. Not to mention that noble families like the Beifongs control large swaths of territory and rule however they please. Ba Sing Se doesn’t really care what they do as long as their taxes don’t stop coming in, and no one is in open rebellion against the crown.

I can’t really think of anything that won’t be in the story. Also I’m sorry if this is vague, I don’t want to spoil anything.

19. Tell me a story about your writing journey. When did you start? Why did you start? Were there bumps along the way? Where are you now and where are you going?

I think I was twelve when I started. At least that’s when my memories of writing first started. It’s honestly kinda hard to explain why I started writing. I’m not sure if it’s an autistic thing, or if this is just how my brain works; but I’ve always had stories in my mind, and writing just helps get those stories out. It’s mostly been fun, but there have definitely been some bumps on the way. Writing for fun isn’t exactly a profitable hobby.

So I’ve always had to put my writing on the back burner, so I can still support myself financially. I actually took a very long break from writing because of that. It wasn’t until I started writing fanfiction that I discovered my love for writing again. Right now I’m just sticking to fanfiction stuff. But I’m hoping to get back into my original writing someday. My goal is to eventually publish one of my original stories.

Thanks for the ask!

Weird Questions For Writers

[shadowsong26fic]

Random Crossover Notes

I don't intend to actually write this (even as an AU outline; at least not yet; I'm hoping it will either die and/or interest some of the maybe five people who are invested in both fandoms enough to be worth exploring further, lol).

But it came bursting back into my head tonight and in an effort to get it out, going to ramble a bit!

This is a Wheel of Time/Battlestar Galactica crossover. (Of the...it's not a fusion exactly; and it's not a 'the Fleet stumbles across this world' direct crossover; it's 'characters from BSG exist and have always existed on this planet and fit into the fabric of this world'. That kind of crossover. the second kind could Also be interesting but that is another problem I Do Not Need

This includes decisions about:

Baltar

Caprica

Tory

Roslin

Billy

Starbuck (though not much)

Some speculation/vague thoughts about Lee and Zarek

Also includes an OC of mine.

Part of why I don't intend to actually Write It is I don't...really have all that much yet.

This did originally exist 10-15 years ago; back when I wrote a single one-shot and had plans for a much longer AU in WoT and was active in BSG fandom. Accordingly, it's more aligned with book!verse than show!verse, though I'd probably bring in some show!verse stuff I liked if I were actually writing the thing. How many of the original details I'm actually remembering (beyond the First Concept Idea) and how are new as of the past few hours, IDEK. It does also involve an OC of mine because screw it, this is my self-indulgent BS, I wanna.

((She could probably be cut in this case but. Again. Mine. I wanna. XD))

Anyway.

So, as with a lot of my initial Concepts, this starts with Baltar. Obviously, he's a channeler.

He's also Seanchan.

He's da'covale, but da'covale to a Very high-ranking High Lord, meaning he has higher status than some of the Lower Blood. He has yet to be identified as a channeler.

My OC, as usual, is Atia, his daughter. She's marath'damane and is well aware of what she is. She's...been raised in this culture, and wouldn't resist the searchers/sul'dam when they come for her...except she's aware of what her father is. She doesn't like the idea of him being gentled/killed and while there's only so much she can do to help she feels like she has to do Something.

Caprica is a sul'dam, in service to the same High Lord/Lady as Gaius and Atia. She and Gaius meet and fall in love with each other; at some point she twigs onto either him or Atia, and the three of them run away together. Not sure if they manage to find a place in the Return fleet or if they cross the ocean All By Themselves, but.

And then at Some point they run into some subset of the WoT cast but...yeah, this is pretty much as far as I got XD Gaius would probably eventually end up at the Black Tower. He and Caprica would probably be Very Into the idea of Warder-bonding each other when they get there.

...and yeah, that's about as far as I got, lol. Figuring out where other BSG characters might fit into this world is...complicated, lol. Partly because only half-remembering the tapestry of cultures/alliances/etc.; partly because in a couple of cases there are roles that would fit An aspect of a character but Very Much Not others (e.g., I can honestly see Lee aligning himself with Galad's subset of the Whitecloaks except there is zero chance of Bill as a Whitecloak sooooooooo yeah. Athena would be either another sul'dam or Aiel, I can't decide which works better. ...actually, Aiel; she and Boomer are both Shaido but Athena breaks with her clan when the Aiel fracture? Or something...)

Anyway, if anyone else has any thoughts I'd appreciate them XD

ETA: So I myself had some additional thoughts, lol.

First--Starbuck and Mat. They just. They would either be Instant Bros or Thoroughly Despise One Another there is no in between. They're just. Like. If I was doing a Fusion, Starbuck would 100% fill the Mat role, they are so much alike and I love them both for it. Anyway, I lean towards timelining it so they can be Bros because that's way more interesting/fun for me personally. See above re: self-indulgence, lol. (They have also slept together at least twice.)

Second--Zarek might actually be interesting as a Whitecloak. Not in the sense that he fully believes/buys into their rhetoric, but...I don't know, it could fit his blend of 'I believe some of this, but I'm also using it as an avenue to gain Power.' And again with the Lee vibes, especially if Lee starts Considering joining as part of the storyline, even if he doesn't start there? IDK though, I keep going back and forth on this one.

Next, Roslin. I toyed with a few different options for her. She's definitely not an Aes Sedai; initially I was thinking she might be the head of one of the groups like the Kin (if I'm remembering the name right? The women who were rejected by the Tower and formed their own quiet underground networks) or an Aiel Wise One. But then I realized--you know who absolutely is an Aes Sedai?

Tory (probably Grey ajah, maybe White).

So then it all falls into place. We squeeze a little country/principality somewhere onto the map; normally the ruler there wouldn't merit an Aes Sedai advisor, but after a messy/disputed succession, Siuan did agree to send someone, and that someone was Tory. Billy, of course, is Roslin's son/heir.

Still thinking about where anyone/everyone else might fit, but also this line:

Caprica--In the end, we're not much more than thieves. We stole a damane. We stole an a'dam. ...we stole ourselves.

...so yeah. XD And now opening it up for additional thoughts.

[justanechoflower-ddlc]

(”Ghost in the Light” is an Act 1 poem, and therefore was originally written before Sayori ever had the console. Sayori only gains that ability after the player deletes Monika and Monika brings everyone back.)

Yuri explains in Act 1 that “the poem isn’t about a ghost at all”. But, keeping it vague, perhaps to get the readers to form their own conclusions, she says ”perhaps the subject of the poem is only being symbolically compared to a ghost. Lingering in her last remaining place of comfort, unable to let go of the past. And soon to be left with nothing...”)

(I suppose by “original meaning”, though, you meant the new “original meaning”, not the old one. Or maybe some weird combination of the two?)

(There’s actually a Part 2 Yuri makes later on if the player writes only Yuri poems. With a flickering blue-green light, and ending with “ghosts are blue-green. My heart is amber”. And in the second part, there’s literally “The flickering light is in rhythm with the pounding of my heart. Teasing me for succumbing to this forbidden emotion.”)

(At that point, the comfort probably is MC! (Or “Ivan“, as this player named him. It’s much like how “Chara” is whatever name the player gives them.) Whether the comfort was MC before then, who can say?)

(As for deja-vu of the previous timelines, do we have some evidence for them in the game? Someone other than Monika (or Sayori in Act 4) remembering, of course. If you found some, I’d like to see it, it’d help me pin some things down about Act 2 and Act 4, and work out those mechanics. I always thought the reason why they acted differently was because their character files were different, Monika messing with them even more in Act 2, and Sayori decreasing her own depression stats in Act 4.)

(I can still definitely see Flowey reasonably thinking this, though. It’s not like Monika went through all the details of what happened in the game to him. She mainly just said she messed with the other characters files’, until it was just Monika, mostly because she didn’t seem them as ”real”, got deleted by the player, and was proven wrong when Sayori did the same thing in her place. While Monika did say she got the epiphany the moment the Literature Club was formed, that isn’t enough to say you have to be president for it to get shoved upon you. She also said “With me gone, Sayori has the power”, and went down how if both of them were gone at the same time, it’d go to Yuri, but maybe that isn’t enough either. Also, Monika never specified which timeline she remembers the poems from either. Just “a previous one”. For all Flowey knows this could have been from the fourth “run”, or what us from outside the game would call Act 4.)

(I’ll be working on an actual response soon. I just need to work some of this stuff out. Though maybe I’ll split my planned response into two and just do the author reveal part for now, since that part won’t be affected by what we learn from this. Also, none of them would really say what they meant without even revealing which poem they made! That wouldn’t make much sense! So that means it comes first. It’s just the poem feedback phase and questions about the meanings behind the poems that would be affected by… the meaning behind Ghost Under The Light.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(I haven't played Dok Doki literature club so I can't exactly help with finding Deja Vu moments. I was just stating my theory, but you don't have to adjust the meaning of a poem specifically to align with my thoughts. Just go with whatever canon Yuri, or what your Yuri initially meant by writing her poem.)

[judas-is-so-so-silly]

You asked for Enoch lore, I'm gonna give it to you. Sorry in advance for the length. Vague abuse stuff I don't go into detail.

Enoch was born in 1970 in Italy. His father is a demon, who had met his mother after she went through a rebellious phase in which she summoned a demon (enoch's father) with some of her friends. Her friends ran in fear, but she was intrigued. It's important to note that while Enoch refers to this demon as his father, she uses he/she pronouns. Nine months later, enoch's mother gave birth to Enoch, and found that her baby was not human. Enoch has horns, red goat eyes, fur/excess hair, and a tail! Due to the fact that it was the 70s and that enoch's mother wasn't married, she was sort of forced to go back to her parents, who were devoutly Catholic. She, in turn, adopted their ideals which isn't good for a half demon baby as you can imagine. Very toxic and abusive, though his mother never physically hurt him, aside from trying to get the horns removed. When Enoch is nine, his grandfather kind of loses it and dies in a rather violent incident, and Enoch is blamed for it, causing him to be sent to a boarding school until he is thirteen.

 When he is thirteen, he ends up killing the headmaster, and his father shows up and decides to offer him a deal. For most half demon children, they rarely make it to adulthood. Partially bc their demonic nature gives them super bad luck and also due to their altered appearance. Sometimes even their demon parents will kill them too.  Not enoch's though. Enochs father hasn't actually had a child before, and as far as demons go, is generally not dangerous.

The deal is basically a job offer. If Enoch accepts, he will do the earthly tasks that his father gives him. He won't die or get sick as long as he renews the deal every year via human sacrifice. Enoch accepts, and lives with his father until he is eighteen. When he is fourteen, however, he meets Copia. See, enoch's father thought Enoch was lonely and decided to introduce him to the only other half demon kid that would survive past twenty.

It's Copia. Antichrist Copia in full swing. Bc I love it.

They become friends, and Copia actually gives Enoch his name. Enoch is transgender and didn't have a name bc the only other person he talked to was his father who always referred to him as "child" or "son". Copia and Enoch are very close until Enoch disappears from Copia's life when he's nineteen. Now that he is an adult, he's learned exactly what his father wants from him and travels around the world doing it.

Most jobs are just murder, but sometimes he aids someone who has called upon enoch's father for help. Enoch is a glorified secretary basically

He does a couple of things during this time. He tries to figure himself out, dates a couple of shitty men, checks up on Copia in secret, and travels all around the world. In general, he isn't very happy during this period. He's lonely and can't connect with anyone. He only feels somewhat happy when he does his job.

Before Secondo becomes papa, he meets Enoch in the ministry when Enoch does his bi annual secret check up on Copia. He doesn't actually get his name or talk to him at all, but he sees him, wonders why he looks like he does, and gets no answers from anyone. It isn't until Secondo becomes papa when he meets Enoch again, doing his yearly human sacrifice in his hometown. They hit it off real well, but Enoch can't stay around because he's got work to do and also because he isn't interested in a one night stand with the leader of the satanic church. In general he tries not to hang around satanists because they tend to treat him like he's something to win over/tame/control. So he tells secondo that if he really wants to see him again, he can come back next year and gives him one of his teeth (it broke off in a scuffle with his human sacrifice, but it isn't a big deal bc his teeth grow back). Secondo does come back though.

Their relationship starts off kind of slow. They aren't exclusive and it very much depends on the time Enoch has. Enoch also goes into it ready to treat it like his past relationships, but Secondo shuts that down by treating Enoch like his own person lol. Enoch also reunites with Copia, who had and still has an unrequited crush on Enoch. That started off as a joke, with Copia third wheeling with his best friend and brother, and it took off from there. Enoch also has a rivalry with Terzo for something that happened when he was fifteen. Terzo hates him because fifteen year old Enoch kicked him in the shin. 

Enoch also has some powers. Whenever he does skin on skin contact with anyone he can sort of feel their sins. Also he can just stop having a physical body sometimes. Later he gets wings! 

Anyway that's like Most of his thing. I'm forgetting stuff but I'll remember later.

OK THATS SO COOL DAMN BRO YOUR OC LORE GOES HARD