#and YES it's almost entirely period accurate

[jonathanbyersphd]

You might be normal about him but I have a 17 hrs & 3-minute playlist for him on my Spotify

[bearieio]

we've got a date!

date night + morning with ellie! (+ a couple headcanons)

warnings: fluff! fem!reader (reader wears a dress & heels), modern au???? kinda, not really, but STILL! IDK!!! ALSO, mentions of pot/weed/reefer/mary jane/ganja... u know ;)

a/n: this has been sitting in my drafts for WEEKS! like seriously.. i forgot about it… also ty for 100+ followers?? i’ve only had this acc for a few weeks? sooooo ty!!! (´ヮ`)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ

getting ready for date night with ellie takes longer than the date itself! 

she always wants you to do her hair (she picks the same style almost every time) and her makeup (usually a little bit of concealer, dark eyeshadow, some mascara, and more often than not, a dark-reddish lip tint/lipstick)

but of course, it’s all an act to get you to be close to her and so she can get a good look at you :)

by the time you’re finished getting the both of yourselves ready, it’ll be too late to go to the fancy restaurant that you‘d had a reservation for. 

“it���s fine, babe. we’ll stay in.” she says, her head tilting as she studies the way your dress hugs your waist and your hips, a grin forming on her face. “yea… we’ll definitely stay in.”

the one time you guys end up being ready on time, she wears a loose-fitting suit (becuz she’s classy like that), she prefers the darker shades to match with the makeup you did for her. 

her accessories include TONS of rings, including the matching promise ring that she’d gotten for the two of you. i feel like she has 2 silver necklaces, one being a sorta chunky silver chain and a heart locket with a picture of you in it :(

and guys…. wouldn’t it be so fun and so silly and goofy if ellie wore matching underwear set with the reader? like….. HELLO?

during dinner (whether it’s at home or at the actual restaurant), she’s always staring at you, into your eyes, at your hair, at your body. 'god, she’s gorgeous.' she thinks to herself, watching as you eat your food. 'fuck.. i'm so lucky to have her.'

omg ellie has PAGES and PAGES dedicated to you in her notebook. if she could fill up her entire notebook with drawings, poems, and little details about you, she would. but obviously she can’t because she needs it for her missions, and it’s best to travel lightly on them.

periodically, you’ll look up to see her sketching in her notebook. but when you try to take a peak, she covers up her pages with her hands. “babe!!” you whine, “let me see!!!” she groans and places her notebook in your hands.

as soon as your eyes hit the pages, you see detailed and pretty accurate drawings.. of you. “are these all me, ellie?” you gasp, and look up at her. she’s already looking away, a flustered and palming the back of her neck. 

she mumbles something under her breath, but you can’t quite make out what. “what? i can’t hear you..” you reply to her mumbling. “i said… yes.” she responds, turning to face you, her freckled cheeks still flushed.

as soon as the two of you leave and get home, you shower her with kisses, placing your lips all over her face, neck, and face (basically wherever you can!)

i feel like ellie would be the type of person to order chicken tenders/a burger at whatever restaurant she’s at.  she doesn’t like changing up her orders too often, but she’ll definitely end up eating half of your meal as well :’)

it’s usually super late when the two of you get home. as you set down your stuff, you can feel ellie’s guitar-calloused fingers feel up and down your arms, her lips peppering soft and light kisses against the back of your neck and your shoulders. 

“let’s go to bed, angel..” you hear her grumble behind you. she guides you upstairs, her hands placed on your hips, lightly pushing you up the stairs. 

ellie LOVES to take care of you. taking your heels off, helping you out of your dress, taking your hair down/putting it up. the whole SHEBANG!!  but she’s also a big softie and loves when you return the favor :(  she absolutely loves your touch and feeling your soft hands and your delicate fingers gliding up and down her skin. 

cuddling with ellie is usually short, but sweet. she likes to be little spoon most of the time, but since she falls asleep so quickly, she almost always ends up wiggling her way out of your grasp. 

on the contrary, when you’re little spoon, her grip on you is so tight that you guys wake up the next morning in the same position. and thats how you know the sleep was good. 

“so… how would you rate our date?” she asks, her eyes closed, already drifting off to sleep.

+++

you find yourself waking up the next morning to ellie’s side of the bed empty. “..ellie?” you call out. no response. as soon as you get up and walk halfway down the stairs, your nostrils are hit with a mixing aroma of both pot and…. bacon?

when you spot ellie, she has a spatula in one hand and the other is gripping the handle of the pan. 6 thick slices of bacon dance on the face of the pan as ellie exhales smoke through her nose.

when she finally realizes you were standing at the edge of the counter, she makes her way over to you, slightly blowing smoke into your mouth as she leans in to kiss you “good morning!" she says, taking the joint out of her mouth, and placing a deep kiss on your lips. "mmm my sweet girl.” she hums.

"hey, help me set the table!"

constructive criticism is appreciated !!!

[skitskatdacat63]

Happy One Year Anniversary to Boy King AU!!!! 🎉

Okay wait before I start talking, look at these close ups and the process!! Aren't they so beautiful aaaahhhh

Wow, can you believe it’s really been a whole entire year since my very first post about this AU? Well technically I first started talking about the statuette a day earlier, but the very first sketch was exactly a year ago!! Let us not forget the incredibly prophetic tag on that post: “also in the sense of this au i think the only ship that would work(historically accurate wise) is Vettonso.” Who knew that after that my entire life would devolve into vettonso, this specific period of history, and the lovely combo which is Boy King AU. Also wow this means it’s taken me almost a whole entire year to actually draw a joint portrait of them hahaha. I drew this sketch around the beginning of the AU, but never finished it. It’s fine though because this one is a lot better, and I’m in love with it. Took me a year to draw a couple portrait, and took me almost a whole entire month to finish said piece. 

Okay let me explain this piece, which I am very obsessed with!!! I dragged the process out more than I usually would, but I’m glad, because it was so enjoyable. But also look at that fucking crown, no wonder this took almost a month. Usually I’d write like 50 paragraphs detailing the characterization. HOWEVER! I’ve spent over a month writing little bits of characterization, mostly for fun, but also in preparation for this very post. A lot of the earlier ones, I had this drawing in mind, thinking on how I could expand on the ideas I was drawing. Though there’s definitely some things I could still write about. I’ll probably continue to write more Lore a Days, but yeah, they basically amounted to this drawing where you can actually see the characterization I was talking about displayed. Anyways, here are the explanations of bits in the drawing:

First of all, this is some part of the long process of their wedding. Look at the married couple!! Look at their rings!!!

Okay, but why are there two, almost identical looking pieces?? Because look at their hands!! I talked a lot about how Fernando is the one to give out affection more easily, especially in public, where he knows he can easily fluster Seb. He’s acting all grumpy and out of it, I mean to be fair, it’s probably been such a long ceremony across weeks. But he notices Seb is out of it too, just better at keeping his smile (let’s be honest, even if he’s distracted, he’s super smug.) So Fernando catches him off guard by squeezing his hand. Before that, as you can see, Fernando is just resting his hand on Seb’s outstretched palm, like that one scene from Succession. Very: yes I’m getting married, but I’m not happy about it. The combination of Fernando refusing to even touch him more than lightly beforehand but now going full force, them being in public, and Seb already being distracted catches Seb so off guard he has to try to cover his blush with his fan. He thought Fernando was being super impolite, but now he’s the impolite one!! Getting all blushy and giggly over a simple display of affection, perhaps even ha-

So. Their crowns. Seb’s wearing the crown of Austria, because he is in fact only a king still! Also, because I really wanted to try drawing it after I wimped out of it before in this drawing. Fernando’s a king as well by the point, but the fact he’s wearing only a tiara-like hairpiece is to represent how much of an outsider he still is. At this moment, he’s just Seb’s wi- ,I mean husband, to all these guests. Of course this bitch wears a black veil instead of a white one, to signal that he’s mourning the loss of his autonomy and personhood. Don’t worry too much about his mental state though, considering he’s not depressed enough to be able to resist teasing Seb. 

The fan, oh my god. Back in this era, people would gift/make fans for basically any occasion. To symbolize an event, to celebrate something, to show a story, etc etc. I wish I could have drawn something more narrative, but I think the bull vs. horse is good enough. Also you can see those same symbols on the pendants they’re wearing!! I’m so happy when I can fit irl, modern stuff like that into these drawings, it feels so clever!!

It’s so funny, I wrote a lore a day from a prompt about what they’d be like when doing a joint portrait, while I was already almost through painting a dual portrait of my own! So I got to explain some stuff like their clothing colors and poses before I even posted this. I feel very coy about that still honestly. 

Hmmm what else? It feels so weird to not expand on the characterization, considering I already did it for myself weeks in advance. I can’t imagine what it’s like opening this read more, and seeing more than 10 in-text citations. Happy reading!!!

 Happy anniversary to  this wonderful, crazy AU that makes me download 500pg German papers about 18th century etiquette. I drew a couple pieces of fanart before this AU, but I definitely think it jumpstarted my insanity about drawing/making AUs, and literally is what made me insane about Vettonso in the first place. Remember, if I hadn’t learned about Joseph I/Charles VI, most of my blog probably wouldn’t exist in it's current form. Thank you if you’ve stuck around since the beginning, or if you’re even just learning about it now!! It’s so incredibly niche but I’ve had so much fun researching and building this world and these characterizations, and I hope you’ve enjoyed what I’ve made in the process. I hope I can draw/write many more things in the future. I think next, I’m gonna maybe open up requests. I’d like to try to either write ficlets or draw chibi comics about specific Lore a Day posts on request. I think that’d be a lot of fun, but also will probably kill me. We’ll see!! Anyways. PPlease enjoy this absolute labor of love, which is a result of a year’s worth of work.

[alliluyevas]

Do you think they should make a Mormon pioneer American Girl?

Would I personally get a kick out of this? Yes. Do I actually think they should? Probably not.

First of all, pretty much all AG historical dolls have to navigate complex and difficult historical topics at least to some extent. Some have done it more successfully than others. For instance, Felicity was my favorite historical character as a child and I still like her as a character and enjoy her books, but they don't handle slavery well at all. I think creating a book series and a collection that talks about Mormon history in a way that is a) historically accurate and sensitive b) appeals to LDS families, who would likely be the primary audience and overwhelming majority of doll purchasers for this hypothetical character c) maybe even appeals to a broader market would be a really tall order.

Also, assuming that by "Mormon pioneer doll" you mean a character who comes to Utah in one of the first waves of migration in the mid-to-late 1840s or early 1850s, that is very close in era to Kirsten, whose stories begin in 1854, and who is also a frontier settler. There would likely be a lot of overlap between Kirsten's collection and this hypothetical doll's, as well as in the period details in the books. So this begs the question of how much this doll's inclusion would add to the overall AG historical characters canon. Of course, a major focus in Kirsten's books is her immigration story and her Swedish heritage (though, actually, you could write Utah Pioneer Doll as Scandinavian too given how much LDS conversion there was in that region during this period. That would create even more overlap with Kirsten's story, though.) By contrast, a major focus in Hypothetical Utah Pioneer Doll's story would likely be her religion, and this would be something that would be unique to her.

I wouldn't say that AG has shied away entirely from addressing religious faith and practice with their historical dolls. After all, for most of the classic six-book historical character series, the third book is centered around Christmas celebrations (for Rebecca, the focus is on Hanukkah instead and for Kaya her book series is structured differently than those of the other girls and I am not sure there's a holiday book at all.) In terms of the girls whose books I've reread most recently, Addy's church attendance is mentioned frequently in almost all her books and it's probably more thematically central than for most of the other Christian historical characters. Addy's denomination is also explicitly mentioned in the text (her family attends an African Methodist Episcopal church), while for many other characters it is more implicit. (For instance, Felicity is likely Anglican and Kirsten is almost certainly Lutheran, but neither is directly said in text to my knowledge.) It's been more than 15 years since I read Josefina's books, but I remember church attendance being mentioned more prominently in them as well. (Josefina is Catholic, though again I don't remember if this is explicitly stated the text of the stories.) If AG was to create a Mormon historical doll, her religion would have to be explicit and centralized in the text in a way that is very unusual for them.

But not completely unheard of, which brings me to another doll/storyline that is very relevant in this discussion: Rebecca. Rebecca was the first and, for a very long time, the only Jewish doll. The recently added 1990s twins are also Jewish, though it sounds like religion is comparatively deemphasized in their books, and they're much more secular. (This is a pattern with the more recent historical dolls, by which I mean both the ones created more recently and the ones whose stories are set in the more recent historical past.) I think Rebecca is the character for whom religion is the most prominent in her story (though, of course, because Judaism is an ethno-religion her stories address both her ethnic heritage and religious traditions in tandem, which makes it feel even more central.) She was also (again, until the twins were created) the only historical character who is a member of a religious minority in both a modern and historical sense. That is, in Rebecca's era Jewish Americans were a religious minority and they still are today. I think you could argue that as a Native American Kaya is sort of also a religious minority but I don't think that makes sense in the context of her time. For Catholic historical characters (Josefina, Cecile, and Marie-Grace), I think Catholics were a religious minority in the 19th century but given that it's currently the largest Christian denomination in the country that is no longer applicable. (Also, all three of those characters live in regions and eras where Catholics are the majority. I suppose if we count Best Friend dolls, the presumably-Catholic Irish Nellie is the only doll who would have lived in a context where Catholics were in fact a religious minority.)

Obviously, Mormons are Christians--or not so obviously, I suppose, given that a lot of other Christian denominations do not think they are. But they believe they are a Christian denomination, and I think that matters. Whereas obviously Jewish people are a religious minority in the sense that they are very much not Christians. But I do think Mormons were in the past and continue to be a religious minority (and the fact that they have historically troubled the boundaries of Christianity and been excluded from that by a lot of more mainstream Christians definitely contributes to that.) In the modern day, the statistics in terms of percentage of the American population are similar to Judaism, actually. There are slightly fewer Mormon Americans, about 1.5-2 percent of the population, whereas Jewish Americans are about 2-2.5 percent (though this includes people who identify as Jewish but not religiously observant.)

I feel like I'm rambling here, sorry. The point I was trying to make is that with Rebecca we do have an example of a historical doll who is a member of a (both historical and contemporary) religious minority and that minority is of relatively comparable size to Mormonism. Though I think in some ways a Jewish historical doll might be a more likely purchase for non-Jewish families than a Mormon historical doll would be for non-Mormons? I don't know if I can necessarily articulate why, though. Just a feeling. In terms of other differences I can't necessarily articulate--when Rebecca was released, having a historical character who was an Eastern European Jewish immigrant to New York City in the early 1900s felt like almost an obvious choice, as well as a necessary one. And if Rebecca hadn't been introduced, not having a Jewish historical doll would feel like a major oversight. On the contrary, if AG announced a Mormon historical doll I would be genuinely shocked. Like, knock me over with a feather shocked. I also don't feel like the lack of inclusion is a huge oversight in the way that not having a Jewish doll would be. (And, frankly, in the way the fact that they still don't have an Asian American historical doll is).

That being said, I definitely don't want to portray Mormonism as entirely inconsequential or peripheral to American history, as I don't believe it is. Mormonism is by far the largest religious tradition that originated in America and I think it overlays in really interesting ways with broader American historical issues like Westward expansion as well as issues around race, gender, religious freedom, and the boundaries of citizenship. I do think that a Mormon AG doll could potentially be very interesting. I also think it would be controversial and difficult to do well (by whatever standard "doing well" would be.)

[stephpotterart]

I had a thought about Nandor and the perceived himbo dumbass nature of him, and now I'm thinking and I have to write it out.. It's kind of stream-of-consciousness, so please bear with me 😅

Yes, I love the occasional dumb-as-a-post nature of him, it makes him a big, less than scary (you know, to a point) teddy bat of a Vampire. But... it's also not accurate for his history?

Like, absolutely you can be highly educated and still dumb-as-a-post, but I don't think that's what's going on with Nandor.

Let's just... look at his overall behaviour for a moment. Nandor gets into periodic, strong, obsessions that come on like a wildfire, then burn out. We can see the evidence of this with his sudden desire to join Jan's cult with extremely little evidence and knowledge of what he's getting himself into. Yes, the brainwashing came once he was there, but it was mild, fairly transparent, manipulation that got him thinking about it. He latched onto it and pinned his entire persona and future upon the cult at the drop of a pin. There's also the same behaviours circling with his relationship with Gail. When he is with Gail, she is everything, and nothing else matters much - not how his friends feel, not how much Gail has continually hurt him in the past, his focus is purely on her and almost worshipping her.

There's nothing necessarily wrong with this behaviour, other than the fact that it has continually caused Nandor to break his own heart.

I'd argue that these examples, and other behaviours shown by him throughout the current five seasons, point to a prevalence for hyperfixations, and undiagnosed neurodivergence of some form. Which form that neurodivergence takes, well that's up to interpretation. Which, means that once a hyperfixation ends or is ended for him, that interest just dies off. It can come back, but it's not the all-consuming interest that it had been.

So with this in mind, lets look at his human history, with the neurodivergence in mind, for context about his intelligence and his education.

Nandor was born in the 13th century, in an Islamic nation, and likely to a family of renown or nobility. If he was not, then he himself earned that ranking, renown, and nobility for his family. But, lets just say that he was already born into a family of some privilege.

Whether it's through his family's ranking, or his show of military prowess, Nandor ends up ruling his country... at the age of seventeen. This is not placement for a man of little-to-no education. Whether it was from a very young age, or not, Nandor would have been surrounded by tutors from the reaches of both his Kingdom and the rest of the world, in order to best prepare him for what his life would be. Whether it was from a tender age, or once he was already designated as future Supreme Viceroy, Nandor would have been in classes whenever he was not training on the field of battle.

Nandor would have been educated in multiple languages, beyond his own native Farsi. He would have been taught Latin, and Greek for certain. He would have been educated and well read in the Classics, in order to learn statecraft and political strategizing. He would have been incredibly well-read (I would argue that much of the library in the Vampire Residence, other than the outright pornography which is likely thanks to Laszlo, is Nandor's centuries long collection), and able to analyze those works in order to show comprehension of what does and does not work as a ruler. And he must have been successful, as he clearly ruled from the age of 17 until at least his turning at the age of 41. Even without years as a Vampiric Viceroy (debatable if he was ruling as a Vampire, or if he joined the Ottoman forces once he was Vampire and had been exiled from his homeland), that's 24 successful years on his throne.

Back to the languages for a moment; even though the show canonically ignores that Nandor was born during the Mongol rule of Persia, he would have likely been taught Mongolian as well. Along with the exposure to Mongol culture, and the opening of Mongolian empire, comes tutors from further lands. Nandor would have likely been taught Medieval French, Italian, and it's not out of the question to suppose that he was also taught Middle English. It is the knowledge of Middle English which may explain his troubles with modern English. Not because much of Middle English was retained by Modern English, but... imagine you already learned a language, and now you're expected to learn it again just because the people decided in the late 1400s that they were changing the way they speak in that place. That would personally make me give up on learning it perfectly, which I rather suspect Nandor, who would be highly capable of multiple languages at that point, did as well. He can speak just fine, he just didn't care to put the level of effort into the acquisition of those skills the same way as he had previously. If he drops words here and there, it doesn't matter - you can still understand him just fine, and well, that's how it works in all these other languages!

Nandor would have been educated in more than just languages and the Classics. He would have been taught world history (as it was known at that point), he would have been taught arithmetic, astronomy, and other 'sciences' as they existed at that time.

There is no reason that Nandor's education would have slipped through the cracks. it simply would not have been allowed, especially not for the Supreme Viceroy.

So, Nandor is a highly educated man, who happens to be neurodivergent as all get out. He must have had his interests. His hyperfixations. Hell, it's right in his epithet: The Relentless.

Let's pause for a moment and look to Laszlo Cravensworth as our main point of comparison with knowledge of 'the sciences'.

Laszlo is from the 17th century at earliest, and 18th century most likely. He was a noble of some standing, hence why it was unthinkable that he marry a "common, peasant, girl with no family name". He, too, would have been highly educated to the standards of his time. All of that said, it's rather clear that Laszlo's general knowledge of the sciences does not exceed passed the mid-19th century (arguments can be made that it peters out around the 1930s if we factor in psychology and include the advancement of cinema from the 1890s on).

This means that Laszlo didn't keep up with the advancements in the sciences after a certain point, right around the time it was advancing faster and faster, and the ability to keep up became more and more difficult, given the inability to attend classes during daylight hours, etc. Let's also not forget that Laszlo dabbles in the sciences, viewing his knowledge as more of a novelty than anything necessary. He absolutely knows how to use his knowledge, but it's all good fun!

Nandor wouldn't have had the luxury to view his education as a novelty or as fun. It was essential to his title, his rank, and his continued rule.

Leap of faith here, but I'm going to assume that for a good deal of time, Nandor continued to view his education in this way. Especially with an eternity in front of him, he'd have to keep up with the times and keep learning, as best to blend in, and as best to rule should he ever rise up and crush the world under his boot once more.

I suspect that he only started to loose interest in keeping up sometime around the mid-18th century. Perhaps even as Laszlo was coming onto the scene. Not because of Laszlo, but because he was already settled more into his existence. He didn't really expect to rule again, even if he still boasts and brags, it doesn't appear to be in Nandor's nature now to even want that level of responsibility, not really, if he ever did. He likely had it thrust upon him and was just expected to continue.

If he simply burned out, it would be completely understandable that he'd no longer keep up-to-date with how knowledge changes and things advance. But, maybe something happened that made him want to abandon all that work and effort to keep his education as finely tuned as it had been?

It was mentioned that a joke was cut from Season 1 that Nandor had been in a threesome/throuple with both George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. We're not positive of the years, but we can assume it was at least during the Revolution, and a bit after (he does canonically mention Washington as America's First Gay President).

But, lets go out on a limb and assume he was with them, or at least Benjamin Franklin, earlier than that. Maybe he was around during Franklin's experiments with electricity.

Maybe Nandor was present for Benjamin's kite experiment in 1752.

Nandor, at this point, would have had at least 470 years of knowledge regarding the natural world, history, languages, sciences, and religion. Introduce the power of electricity and the behaviour of lightning, and now he has dots connecting in his mind, he has context for some of the things he did not understand when he was learning originally. His interest is piqued, his mind engaged, and now he's finding another hyperfixation.

And he has questions.

Perhaps Nandor starts asking multitudes of questions, excited by eletricity, electrical fire, and all the historical and religious (as much as he can voice without saying certain words that make his tongue burn just as painfully as 'sky fire') implications of this discovery.

He askes so many questions, and no one can answer them because the research doesn't exist yet. His excitement and curiosity, without the ability to learn why annoys him and makes his obsession a flaw to those around him. They think him obtuse - he can't think of anything else, and when he's frustrated he breaks things. He doesn't mean to, but between his Vampiric strength, large hands, and a temper... sometimes small instruments break. Eventually this becomes detrimental, and not as sweet or naive as his interests were once viewed. Benjamin starts to see Nandor as the volatile Warlord from history, and not as the innocent and curious man he had met originally. He starts to see his curiosities as burdensome and annoying.

Without meaning to, Nandor's curiosity and hyperfixation has caused everyone around him to withdraw, as they look at him with derision.

Annoyed, the people around him start to tell him to find something new to pass his time with. Viewing him now as more volatile and violent than they had, they start making comments about him being better at fighting and warfare than with books. He's obviously the Brawn and not the Brain.

It hurts Nandor. His interests are disregarded, his questions met with disdain. He's treated as a hapless child and not the well educated and knowledgeable man that he is.

He's seen as only the beast with too many questions for his own good, for his mind to contend with.

He's seen as uneducated, without ever thinking of his human history and how that is simply not possible. He's seen as better for the battlefield than for the classroom, no matter that he is now more at home in a library than he is with a sword in his hand.

He's accused of simply having "random, fleeting, interests", that won't last long enough for him to actually learn anything that he'll retain. It's easier to insult him than admit his questions were worth asking, but that they have no answers for him. It's easier to turn him away than admit to him that they too don't know. Easier to blame him for a crime he hasn't even committed, than ask if he'd like to help or lend a thought given his years of experience.

So, relegated to the only the soldier and not the diplomat, or the scholar, Nandor stops asking questions. He stops allowing himself his interests and his hyperfixations, at least when it comes to furthering his education, so that does not upset those around him.

He stops furthering his education, beyond what he manages to glean and absorb from his daily life as an immortal being. He makes himself smaller because he's been told he's not smart enough to be asking those sort of questions. He's been told he's too much, even in that aspect of his life, as he's been told time and time again by the people around him that don't view him as anything other than a luxury to be used and abused, and ultimately abandoned when he no longer serves their purposes.

Even if Nandor abandoned all further learning, beyond what he acquires organically and accidentally, in approximately 1760, that's still a scholarly history of nearly 500 years.

Nandor is not stupid. He's not dumb. His reference materially is simply out of date, or in out of date languages. He hasn't been given a reason to want to continue his education after 500 years of learning.

I bet if you asked him any medieval knowledge question about, say, botany… he'd have an answer that is accurate. It might take him a few minutes because 762 years of knowledge and memories in that neurodivergent filing cabinet of a mind (that's how i refer to my own brain), but he has the answer.

Nandor is not stupid, or uneducated. He's not simply the Brawn without the Brain. He's just out-of-date, and neurodivergent. He might be dumb-as-a-post when it comes to social cues and modern slang, but it has nothing to do with his intelligence or his extensive education. He just needs someone to listen and care enough to nurture his curiosities, rather than dismiss them.

He just needs the right questions to be asked, he has the answers.

Just... don't give him very valuable and breakable instruments if you're not able or willing to replace them when he accidentally damages them.

Sorry for that wholeass essay, I just... I have feels for Nandor's depiction.

[colleybri]

It’s not what it looks like!

Well, ok - it kind of is but it also kind of isn’t.

I didn’t watch Andor when it came out but apparently this scene (link at the end) caused a bit of a stir at the time as the ‘first sex scene in Star Wars’. Hmm. Well, you don’t actually see the sex bit so it’s more accurate to say that it’s a scene where sex is ‘very heavily implied to be about to happen’ as someone put it, a little demurely, on X.

So yes, in that sense - it’s exactly what it looks like. But there’s so much more to it than that, because this scene is absolutely packed with story-telling richness in a way that just can’t be appreciated from seeing it out of context. Which is why I am kind of promising myself that I’m no longer going to try and predict anything about Season 2 based on trailers etc.

The storytelling richness turns a ‘sex scene’ into something so much more, and this explains why it’s here at all - Tony Gilroy seems to be the last person to indulge in ‘fan-service’ of this kind. It’s all about what it’s telling us about these characters and this situation. Two things feed into that - the background information that we’ve gathered so far and what’s actually unfolding in the narrative.

Background: Timm and Bix are co-workers, but she’s his boss. They’ve been dating for an unspecified period of time, but it’s implied to be pretty recent: they have apparently agreed to do something together ‘one night a week’ and Timm earlier suggested ‘starting the week tonight’ with dinner in a way that almost implies that they haven’t gone further than that. More speculatively, this very cautious approach seems to come entirely from Bix and suggests a cautiousness about committing too hard, too soon. Meanwhile, Bix has a secretive working arrangement with Cassian, a man who is one of her oldest friends, a kind of sibling figure and also - crucially - something of a serial ex. Gilroy tells us that she’s ‘done with him’ by this time because he’s ‘burned every last bridge’ even though they’re ‘meant to be together’. Cassian turns up to conduct some kind of business with Bix (and we know it’s about providing stolen parts for her to sell on to contacts such as Luthen) from which Timm is deliberately and pointedly excluded. We don’t know if Timm and Bix have even discussed it, but what we do is that Timm is both jealous and suspicious, noticing that Bix “seems upset…” and that this “always seems to happen whenever you come around”. Add to all that, Cassian seems to have a low opinion of Timm anyway, as revealed by their brief confrontation in Ep1 (‘you need to find yourself a less complicated woman… good luck with that!’ - all adding to the shady-ex vibe). Cassian also has a reputation as a womaniser, with a particular predilection for those already in a relationship (Bix’s quip about his ‘fall’ being on a ‘jealous husband’).

Timm thinks his suspicion is justified as soon as he sees what Bix had been reading

Then there’s the actual plot as it stands at this stage. Cassian, desperate to get enough credits to flee from Ferrix, meets up with Bix in a bar. She’s done him yet another huge favour, and has called Luthen ahead of her usual schedule. By this time, the Pre-Mor bulletin asking for information on a ‘Kenari Human Male’ has been issued and Bix knows Cassian is yet again a wanted man. She doesn’t know when or if she will ever see him again, even if he manages to get safely away. In gratitude, he puts his hand on hers. Timm, drinking hard and spying on them, sees this and jumps to a final conclusion. We will find out in the next episode that Bix had told him Cassian was born on Kenari.

Just after Timm leaves, Bix pushes Cassian’s hand from her own. Perfect ironic timing.

If only he’d stayed in the bar another ten seconds… bad timing, Timm With Two Ms :(

Timm betrays Cassian - and by extension Bix - by calling PreMor. He then goes home, sits in moody silence and broods. Bix apparently continues drinking for a while offscreen and then comes to Timm’s door.

So to the sex scene. The obvious immediate point is that as soon as he sees her Timm must on some level realise his mistake. In his typical love of irony, Gilroy even has Bix say “Is it too late?”… oh boy, yes it certainly is for Timm. And he obviously knows it. He knows the relationship is doomed. The end result of that is that he looks so unenthusiastic at the sight of her that Bix picks up on it immediately and looks hurt and depressed at a perceived rejection. ‘No it’s just … I’m surprised!’ Timm tries to cover. Which is also true, but not in the way he wants her to take it.

The obvious irony is that he’s probably been dreaming about this moment for weeks, maybe months, but it’s all just so … disappointing, because of what he’s just done to betray her trust. As for Bix, she doesn’t want sex for the ‘usual’ reasons. And she’s not particularly enthusiastic about Timm or making any real effort here to make him feel genuinely like he’s the man for her. Her whole attitude smacks of ‘having to make do with the consolation prize’ in combination with ‘looking for comfort’. In other words, Bix seems to be using Timm to ease her depressed mood in a way that’s genuinely unusual in these gender roles.

Yikes. Really not what you want to see when you wake up… your lover fully dressed and staring at you.

So it’s a sex scene that is not particularly sexy, beyond the obvious visual image of Adria Arjona starting to undress. OK, yeah, that’s kind of attractive by default I suppose if she floats your boat, but if you’ve seen her in ‘Hit Man’ you’ll know what she’s capable of when her characters choose to really crank up the sensuality dial. Honestly, there’s absolutely no chemistry between Bix and Timm at all in this scene. Her two conversations thus far with Cassian were about a stolen piece of equipment but there was so much sexual tension and angsty subtext between them I vaguely remember indulging my occasional childish habit of yelling ‘Get a room!’ at the screen the first time I watched them.

In summary, it’s a very unsexy sex scene, where ‘going through the motions’ barely begins to cover it. But the broader point is - there’s absolutely nothing on the screen in this series that is not there for a meaningful story-telling purpose. And I will try and keep that promise not to attempt to glean anything from Season 2 trailers. Yeah, I know - ‘good luck with that’.

[aelfgyvaa]

Period Drama Costuming - a (ranty) review

I love period dramas. I watch them like my life depends on it, and as a result, I have Thoughts. Period dramas are arguably where costuming becomes most important - here, costume isn't solely a storytelling device, it's a reflection of the specific place and time in which the narrative is taking place. Sometimes it's done well. Sometimes it really - really - isn't.

It's reductive to try and make any sweeping, general rules about how costumes in period dramas should be done. Every show has its own tone and style, and this is important to consider. However, some productions can take this in... interesting directions. We can really only judge each attempt at historical costuming on an individual basis, which - spoiler alert - is exactly what I'm about to do. Below the cut, I've had a look at some bad costumes, some good costumes, and some that don't really seem to fit in either category.

DISCLAIMER!! - This is simply an opportunity for me to rant about something I have a lot of (subjective) Feelings™ about, and is in no way supposed to comment on the overall quality of any of the pieces discussed. I'm also NOT claiming to be an expert on this topic. There are lots of people on here who undoubtedly know more about this than me, and if you're one of them, I'd really love to hear your thoughts!!

The Bad

Reign (The CW, 2013-17)

I've just gotta get this one out of the way. I made it through an almost-entire season of Reign before the atrocity that is its costuming got the better of me. If you'd shown me photos from this show without telling me it's about Mary Queen of Scots, I couldn't have guessed what period this might be set in. Reign's costume designer has stated "I wanted gowns that kept some kind of Elizabethan element, whether it was a nipped waist and extreme silhouette, or if it had a bit of a medieval feel" and uh. Yeah. By and large, that didn't happen. From what I can tell, a somewhat historical silhouette does begin to appear in the show's final season, but at what cost?

Perhaps Reign wouldn't have been as bad if the dresses were at least nice to look at. Instead, they're generally reminiscent of prom dresses - the fabric looks cheap, and the details look so tacky that I can't even endorse the costuming for this show from an aesthetic standpoint. Sorry to any Reign fans out there, but this is almost certainly going to be my most scathing review of the lot.

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The Musketeers (BBC, 2014-16)

I love The Musketeers. I really do. But what the costume department was thinking - especially when it came to the women's costumes - I really have no idea. I mean, a Peter Pan collar?? On the Queen of France??? IN THE 1620S???? Truly something. Constance always looks like she only half-finished getting dressed that morning (why is her hair down. she's married.), and Anne sports some of the most outlandishly ridiculous collars I've ever seen. I don't even want to get into what Marie de' Medici is wearing. It's belts - as a necklace apparently! She also appears to be hiding some kind of gourd under her hair, but alas.

Yes, the men wear pleather. Yes, it does upset me.

The Musketeers' costumes perhaps wouldn't sting so badly if they didn't dress numerous background extras in significantly more accurate clothing. I've spent too much time watching this show and sighing in despair because Noblewoman Number 3 has a more accurate 1620s dress than the literal Queen.

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The Spanish Princess (Starz, 2019-20)

I haven't properly sat down to watch The Spanish Princess through to its conclusion yet, but I do intend to - when she's not fawning over Richard III, Philippa Gregory adaptations can still be good fun, despite having about as much historical authenticity as the Fiji mermaid.

Nevertheless, no one in this show seems aware of what time period they're in, with dress styles spanning from early 14th-century surcoats to some fairly Elizabethan-looking silhouettes. The fabric choices are all over the place, and similarly - although not quite as egregiously - to Reign, often don't even manage to look good. Even from a modern standpoint, this show is colour- and pattern-clash galore. There is also practically no layering whatsoever, with the dresses going on as single pieces without a panel in sight. Admittedly probably easier from a production standpoint, but still.

Don't even get me started on the headdresses. Weird, pudding-cap-esque padded crowns and tiny scraps of fabric like the ones seen on Mary Tudor (an attempt at a French hood? I shudder) are fairly constant, although I have spotted a few passable attempts at a Gable hood.

They do get points for giving Arthur Tudor a fuck ass bob. Thanks.

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The Buccaneers (Apple TV+, 2023-)

When I first started The Buccaneers and saw what its costuming had to offer, I audibly sighed. If you're a fan of visible back-lacing, cheap quality fabrics, and poorly fitting bodices, this is the show for you. The 1870s look is not a difficult one to emulate, and yet The Buccaneers fails rather miserably with its main characters, half of whom appear to be walking around in their underwear, with untied hair and single-layer dresses. Poor Nan only seems to own about two outfits that aren't visibly too big for her.

But by far the greatest crime committed by The Buccaneers' costume department comes in the decision to have multiple instances in which characters appear to be wearing corsets as tops. Yeah. I had a rough time with that one too. Mabel seems a particular victim of this - in both of the images above she looks as if she's been rushed out of the house before she got the chance to even button up her dress. A State of Affairs indeed.

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The Good

Becoming Elizabeth (Starz, 2022)

Although I was slightly underwhelmed with the execution of Becoming Elizabeth's story, this was absolutely overshadowed by its costuming, which is probably one of the most historically accurate depictions of Tudor clothing I've ever seen. With the same costume designer as Shardlake (which is also very well done - a big day for fans of Anthony Boyle's codpiece), it's remarkably clear how much research went into the pieces worn on this show, with some directly recreated from portraits, and others visibly inspired by surviving clothing from the period.

I won't pretend that Becoming Elizabeth's costuming is without flaws - I'm not a fan of Elizabeth's hunting/riding clothes, and she wears her hair down far too often (Catherine Parr appeared at times to have access to a Dyson Airwrap). However, the positives definitely outweigh any gripes I have. We have dressing scenes in which we see the separate layers and panels that comprised Tudor dresses, and the French hoods actually have hoods, as opposed to simply being the semi-circular headbands we see far too often. The royal women wear ermine fur on their sleeves, and I was also a fan of the jewellery.

The care that went into the costumes for Becoming Elizabeth is so clear - I truly wish I'd enjoyed the plot more, if just so that I could spend more time staring at those dresses.

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Emma. (Autumn de Wilde, 2020)

I adore Emma, and its costuming is honestly perhaps the biggest part of that love. The waistlines! The hairstyles! The bonnets! Emma's costumes are proof that you don't have to sacrifice historical accuracy for the sake of stylization - it's by far the most zany and colourful of any direct Austen adaptation, and yet its visuals remain strikingly faithful to the Regency period.

Like Becoming Elizabeth, many of the pieces worn in Emma bear a striking resemblance to surviving pieces and fashion plates from the era. The only problem I've noticed in this was the alarmingly strange detachable ruff-thing Emma is shown wearing in one scene, but frankly, it still manages to fit the tone of the piece.

I'm usually not a huge fan of the Regency fashion depicted on television - I find it rather dull - but the costumes in this movie are gorgeously distracting in every scene. Turns out historical accuracy actually can make things better - who knew!

Is this enough to make me forgive Alexandra Byrne for the costumes in Mary Queen of Scots (2018)?

No.

(I do not forgive ANYONE who worked on Mary Queen of Scots for making Mary Queen of Scots.)

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Firebrand (Karim Aïnouz, 2023)

Firebrand hasn't even been released outside of Cannes yet, and already I am so, so down with everything it's giving. This movie could end up being the dullest two hours of my life, but I'll still sing its praises for one very simple reason - CHIN. STRAPS.

THAT'S RIGHT FOLKS!! The French hoods FINALLY have chin straps!!!! It's only been in virtually every well-known painting of them ever, no big deal.

Although we only have one trailer and a few promo photos to go off of, the costumes in Firebrand look fantastic, with enough layers, fur, embroidery, and hoop skirts to keep me happy for perhaps the rest of my life. We'll see how the movie itself turns out, but it already has a lot going for it in my eyes.

Also shoutout to Henry VIII's absolutely manky leg ulcers in the trailer. That's what I like to see.

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The Outliers

Right. Here is where the hypocrite accusations are about to come flying. But frankly, I said it myself at the start that every period piece deserves to be judged on an individual basis, and the tone and intention of each piece is important in how its costumes are perceived.

That being said, if you think any of the 'bad' costumes deserve to be in this section - maybe they should've tried not being ugly, idk.

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Bridgerton (Netflix, 2020-)

Bridgerton's excuse for its inaccuracy comes not from its lack of effort, but rather from its deliberate rejection of the historical narrative in any form whatsoever. We have two Real People™ in Queen Charlotte and King George III, but even their spin-off opens with a disclaimer that their story will be utterly fictional. Bridgerton does not present an issue like some of the other pieces on this list because it is actively opposed to being historically accurate to a degree that few other period pieces have arguably ever achieved.

Literally nothing about Bridgerton is consistent with history, so it does not disappoint when its costumes aren't either. The clothing does take visible inspiration from the Regency silhouette, but even then it is not consistent, with Queen Charlotte's costumes still firmly Georgian-esque (and honestly, marvellous wigs aside, they're not... bad?). Bridgerton is a historical fantasy before it's a historical drama, and as such it's easy to just sit back and enjoy the costumes for what they are - even when what they are is garish.

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The Great (Hulu, 2020-23)

The Great is first and foremost a dark comedy, not a historical piece. Yes, Catherine the Great and Peter III were real people, and yes, much like in the show, Catherine did overthrow her husband in real life, too. But the similarities end here, as none of the characters in The Great have any intention of resembling their real-life counterparts.

Set roughly in the 1740s, the costumes in The Great are clearly far from reality, but they still resemble the silhouettes we know and recognise as 18th Century. The show is a satirical means of poking fun at the opulent aristocracy, and as such every costume conveys a distinct appearance of luxury. Every single item of clothing worn by the nobility looks absurdly expensive, and the exaggerated ridiculousness of many of the looks we see onscreen are an intentional way of conveying how utterly disconnected the people at court are from reality. From Peter's leopard skin jacket to ladies wearing powdered wigs as hats, The Great's costuming is purposefully elevated from its historical source material, and that is precisely what makes it so good.

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The Favourite (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2018)

Sandy Powell's work on The Favourite is perhaps one of my all-time favourite pieces of costuming. Similarly to The Great, The Favourite utilises clearly recognisable aspects of 18th-century fashion - with ermine fur trim, half-length sleeves, and periwigs - but stylised so that everything conforms to a solidly black and white colour palate.

The Favourite's costumes are gorgeous and evocative of their time period - with well-portrayed mantuas, riding habits, fontanges etc. - all while conforming to Lanthimos' characteristically off-beat style. The shared colour palate really puts the three leads on equal footing in a visual sense, which is key in exploring the relationships that Abigail and Sarah are able to manipulate Queen Anne into developing. Had the colours and fabrics been historically accurate, I believe the movie would have risked making Anne too visibly above the rest of her court, but the striking congruence among the cast successfully solidifies their ability to exploit one another, regardless of status.

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I don't know if there are any conclusions to be drawn from this, I just love talking. If you've made it this far - thank you for reading! I hope you found at least some of this interesting.

I'm always open and eager to discuss this topic, so please do let me know your thoughts - What are your favourite period drama costumes? What piece of costuming made you go OH JESUS WHAT IS THAT???

Anyway, thank you for going down this little rabbit hole with me - my asks are always open! <3

[solemn-marauders]

“I suggest this become a conversation between you and Mister Sallow.”

Sebastian x MC (Thea)

Their sixth year Defense Against the Dark Art class gets a front row seat to the juiciest gossip of the year.

My previous piece, x

Disclaimer: More of my Hogwarts Legacy drabble that I’m posting. These are written quickly while the ideas are fresh. They are short and most likely sprinkled with errors. I’m posting these for me, but if other people enjoy them, then all the better. I will be using my MC’s name, Thea, since this is her story. I also keep the time period in mind. I do my best to keep it as period accurate as possible.

Trigger Warning: None

Additional Information: This takes place early in their 6th year. The longest one I’ve written yet, I believe.

“Today’s lesson is one that I hope you will never have to use, but should you find yourselves in unfortunate circumstances, it could save your life.” Professor Hecat always had a way of keeping her students on the edge of their seats. “I will be teaching you the Patronus Charm today.” 

A nervous murmur rippled through the classroom. Thea and Poppy exchanged hesitant glances. Amit’s hand shot into the air.

“Yes, Mr. Thakkar?”

“Forgive me, professor, but the Patronus Charm is incredibly advanced. Most witches and wizards go their whole lives without ever having been able to cast it.”

“What is your point, Mr. Thakkar?” Her words were not unkind, just blunt, as she always was.

“What I’m asking is, do you really think we would have any success?” He looked down at his desk. Ever the academic, and in true Ravenclaw fashion, Amit hated failure.

Professor Hecat gave him a small smile before drawing closer to her seated students. “I believe it’s safe to assume that by now most of you know the lore of Illyius and Raczidian?” Every head in the classroom nodded. Thea thanked the founders for Professor Weasley and the guide she had gifted her last year. Without it, Thea would have no idea about any wizarding lore, other than Merlin of course. All of this due to her muggle upbringing in the orphanage. “Illyius,” their professor continued, “was said to be only ten and seven years of age when he was able to cast a fully corporeal patronus.” 

“Right, but that’s legend! There’s no way to know if that really happened!” It was Duncan who interjected his opinions. Thea glanced over to where Ominis sat, sharing a desk with Sebastian. His hands balled into tight fists at the sound of Hobhouse’s voice. Thea stifled a snort of amusement.

“Oh hush it, Hobhouse! We all know it’s possible. Almost our entire class saw Sebastian’s corporeal patronus back in fourth year. Ow!” Ominis could never quite bite his tongue when it came to Duncan. Judging by the intense look on Sebastian’s face towards his friend, it was safe to assume that he was the cause of Ominis’s exclamation of pain.

Thea’s head whipped around to her deskmate. “Poppy, is that true?” She whispered.

The Hufflepuff nodded. “He spent most of fourth year teaching himself the charm and practising. The minute he was successful, he showed off to everyone. Even casted it in front of Hecat.”

“That sounds about right.” Thea grumbled under her breath.

“I don’t think you fully understand, Thea. The Patronus Charm is an ancient and mysterious spell. No one knows its origin. Not only that, but Amit is right, it’s incredibly hard to cast even an incorporeal patronus, a full-fledged one is near impossible. Sebastian won Slytherin 75 points that day after showing Hecat. Most in his house credit him with Slytherin winning the House Cup that year.”

“I must say that I am disappointed in my class’s lack of self-confidence!” Hecat boomed, gathering all their attention again. “This is not for any marks. I am teaching you this to arm you for the future. Everyone, on your feet!” The class barely had time to stand before the desks and benches vanished with a flick of her wand. “Evenly space yourselves around the room.” 

Thea stood near the back, next to the wall. Poppy had placed herself a distance ahead of her. She immediately caught a whiff of a very familiar scent. The frustratingly intoxicating smell of smoky earl grey surrounded her. She glanced to her left and sure enough, the source had planted himself, not evenly spaced she might add, next to her.

“Wands out!” All wands were raised as she began to demonstrate the motion for the spell. “Counter clockwise circles. Everyone try it with me. Very good, keep the momentum up. Now, the incantation is ‘expecto patronum’. The most important part of this spell is to channel the entirety of your focus into the happiest of memories. Replay that memory in your head over and over and as you rotate your wand, when the image of the memory is clear in your head then try the incantation. Expecto patronum!” A flash of silver erupted from the tip of her wand. There was a collective gasp as the students took in the translucent leopard that paced in front of their professor. It’s spots swirls of blue and white as its shoulders rolled with every step. This seemed to be motivation enough. The room fell silent as everyone worked hard to produce a patronus of their own.

Thea’s eyes swept across her classmates, most had their brows furrowed and even a few had the tips of their tongues protruding past their lips in a look of fierce concentration. She would have laughed, if it were not for the fact that she herself was finding it difficult to conjure a cheerful enough memory. She closed her eyes and continued moving her wand. She thought of her dear animals in their vivariums. The nifflers scaling her body in an attempt to snatch her pearl earrings. The puffskeins bouncing around. The hippogriffs attacking the dark wizard dummy. These thoughts had her giggling. She opened her eyes, “expecto patronum”. The tip of her wand glowed a faint blue, but nothing more. She let out a huff and glanced around to see if anyone had witnessed her failed attempt. Her gaze landed on the brunette far too close to her, and he was staring right back with what looked like great interest. Thea immediately went on the defence. 

“What?” Her tone was entirely hostile. “At least I’m trying. I don’t see you participating.” It was true, Sebastian had stood with his arms crossed while his classmates attempted the complex spell.

His smile was slow, the effortless kind that always made Thea’s breath hitch. Her traitorous body still reacted in the same way and it made her livid. He was only an arms length away. This was the closest contact they’ve had since last year. Being this close, she could fully see how much taller he had grown. Thea by no means was short, on average, she stood at least a few inches taller than her fellow female classmates. Last year, the top of her head came up to his eyeline. Now, it would barely graze his chin. Usually a growth-spurt like that would leave a person gangly, all limbs, but of course, not Sebastian. No, she assumed all the work he did on the cottage and in the garden over the summer made it easy for his muscles to retain a perfect ratio to his newfound height. If anything, he had filled out a little too well. He wore no robe and had his sleeves rolled up to the elbows, his toned forearms on full display. She had found that to be her weakness when it came to the opposite sex. Why forearms exactly, she hadn’t the faintest idea.

He was still smiling when he spoke. “Ominis so graciously pointed out that I’ve already mastered the Patronus Charm. I’m just enjoying the show.”

Not only was this the closest proximity they had been within each other since summer, this was also the most words they had exchanged and he was already grating on her nerves.

“Go on then.” She challenged. “Let’s see.”

He let out a deep chuckle, a maddening tingle ran up her spine. “There’s no fun in that. Besides,” he stepped closer, “you didn’t say ‘please’”. Had his voice deepened over the summer?

With a most undignified huff she turned her attention forward, hoping he hadn’t seen the warmth spread across her face at his poor attempt at flirting. She refused to look at him as she spoke, “If you are resolute to remain insufferably presumptuous, then I must ask you to provide me with the adequate space that Professor Hecat originally demanded.” She continued her wand motions.

Sebastian did not move one inch, if anything he leaned in closer. His deepened voice barely above a whisper, “And what if I behave? Would you allow me to linger?” 

Her eyes widened at his boldness. She had made it abundantly clear that she wanted less than nothing to do with him, and yet he was conversing with her as if the last few months had never happened. She decided that a reply would only be rewarding him, so she remained silent, hoping it would agitate him instead.

Thea turned her thoughts back to finding a pleasant memory. Even turned away from him with her eyes closed, his presence still assaulted her senses. His scent, the feel of him being within reach had him leaching into every memory she tried to summon. She was using all of her focus and energy just to bat those thoughts away.

“Oh my, something is happening and you haven’t even said the incantation.”

Thea’s eyes flew open at his words, she looked at the end of her wand and saw the last of the blue lights disappear. “Oh!”

“Try again, you’re on the right path.” His tone was encouraging and excited. She had to fight the innate desire for his approval.

“Hush! You’ll ruin it.” She closed her eyes again and admitted defeat. This time she allowed thoughts of Sebastian to play across her mind. Their first meeting in this very classroom. Him smiling up at her as he laid on his back after losing their duel. Him sneaking her into the Restricted Section, taking the fall for her when caught. All of the little moments of closeness. “My new charge.” “I’m glad to have met you.” “A kindred spirit.” Every finger brush, cheek graze, longing stare, it filled her with a warmth she hadn’t allowed herself to feel for so long. She opened her eyes, “Expecto Patronum.”

The light that shot out from within her wand was blinding. The shape that stood before her was much larger than the one Professor Hecat produced. As her eyes began to focus, she couldn’t help but smile once she recognized the familiar shape.

“Merlin’s beard, is that a thestral?” Her classmates were beginning to murmur.

“I’ve only ever seen illustrations of them. So we can see them if it’s as a patronus?”

“What does that mean? They’re dark omens, you know.”

She ignored their comments as her spirit guardian flapped its wings and cantered around her. A laugh of pure joy fell from her lips. Upon closer inspection she could tell that hers was a female. 

“How intriguing.” Thea hadn’t even noticed that Hecat now stood in front of her and her spectral protector. “A thestral, the second most rare of patronuses.”

“What’s the first?” Hobhouse yelled out.

“A phoenix, you ninny!” Ominis shouted in reply from somewhere in the room. 

Thea turned her attention to her professor. “Ever since joining the wizarding world, I’ve always held an affinity for them.”

“An understanding of one’s deeper traits is a powerful thing.” Professor Hecat cast a surveying look at Thea. “Well done, Miss. Gravethorne. Once again, you have mastered extraordinary magic in record time. A most interesting outcome indeed.”

Feeling humbled under the professor’s scrutinous gaze, Thea kept her eyes on her feet. “Thank you, Professor.”

“That will be all for today! I commend you all for trying today’s most challenging lesson.” 

“Wait! I want to see Sallow’s patronus!” It was Duncan again. “Gaunt talked a big game about his friend’s abilities. I want to see it.”

Over the mumble of agreement from most of the class, Thea could make out a faint scuffle ahead of her. Garreth was latched on to Ominis who seemed to be fighting his grip in an effort to storm Hobhouse. She then turned her attention to Sebastian. He wasn’t standing so close anymore and even looked a bit sheepish. The shameless charm from earlier, entirely gone. “I’d rather not. Wouldn’t want to overshadow the Girl Wonder.”

Revenge was about to taste oh so sweet. It seemed to Thea that his hesitancy was most likely due to his inability to cast the complex charm any longer. Oh how she would love to see him knocked down a peg or two. She put on her most endearing of smiles. “I don’t mind one bit. I, for one, would love to see your patronus.” Her words dripped with a challenge, not noticing that her own patronus had vanished just moments ago.

His eyes met hers, they silently pleaded with her. Good, make him squirm. She arched an eyebrow at him. She could see his jaw twitch with the clench of his teeth. He attempted a steadying breath and closed his eyes. He raised his wand and made the proper motion. One could hear a pin drop in the classroom. Thea heard a slight shuffle next to her and turned to see Ominis standing by her side, a look of absolute concern etched on his face. What’s got him so worried?

Soon enough, Sebastian said the incantation and his wand flared to life. A large skeletal creature sprang forth, an almost exact mirror to her own. No one spoke, it felt like everyone held on to their breaths. Everyone, except,

“I thought you said thestral patronuses were rare?” Duncan’s voice cut through the stunned silence.

“They are.” It wasn’t like Hecat to be quiet, but Thea barely heard her reply. Their professor looked upon the spectre with an almost sympathetic look. 

Thea looked back at Sebastian, his face the picture of stunned terror. She turned to Ominis and saw that crease of worry between his brow had grown even deeper. What was she missing? Maybe Sebastian really meant it when he said he didn’t want to overshadow her. She was just told that her patronus was extremely rare only for him to have the same one. But why did the entirety of the class seem to be shocked? Ominis himself had said that Sebastian had shown everyone his patronus back in their fourth year. She knew that most, ignorant, people thought the equine to be dark omens, but even Poppy, who loved all animals dearly, looked as shocked as everyone else. His thestral looked perfectly normal. The only difference between his and her own was the gender. Thea had spent enough time caring for them in her vivarium that she could easily spot the subtle differences. Suddenly, the apparition vanished. The caster had snapped back to his senses. He seemed to be avoiding Thea’s gaze entirely. Without a moment of hesitation, he bolted out the door. Thea felt movement beside her as Ominis rushed after him.

Hecat broke the prolonged silence. “Class dismissed!” Soon the room was filled with the sounds of students gathering their things and muffled chatter. Thea made her way to her things and made sure to grab Poppy’s hand in the process.

“Poppy, what am I missing?” She felt like she was going to explode, it seemed that everyone knew something she didn’t. “I understand that casting a corporeal patronus is rare and that a thestral one is rarer still, but you all saw Sebastian’s patronus ages ago. Why was the floor littered with everyone’s jaws as if you all were surprised?”

Her Hufflepuff friend seemed to be avoiding her gaze as well, but she finally turned and looked her friend in the eye. “I’m not sure you want to know.” 

“Of course I do! You know how much I loathe being the last to know anything.”

Poppy nervously glanced from side to side before meeting her eyes again. “We were surprised because when Sebastian showed us his patronus back in year four, it was a Red Fox, not a thestral.”

Thea was taken aback by the simple answer. “Oh, alright. So patronuses can change, why is that such a massive deal?”

“Because it’s not normal for them to change.” And with that, her friend was off, leaving Thea more bewildered than ever.

She was far from done with this topic. She approached Hecat’s desk, her shoes slapping across the wooden floor in determination. “Professor!” She looked up from her writing and heaved a heavy sigh.

“Yes?”

“What makes a patronus change form?”

She looked upon her student with the same sympathetic gaze she gave Sebastian. “It takes an extremely strong shift of inner-self and emotion.”

Thea thought back to his actions in the catacombs. Surely that wasn’t the reason why. Thestrals were not dark creatures, one wouldn’t become your patronus if you had killed someone. Right?

“Can you offer me an example?”

Her professor sighed again, it made Thea want to scream. Would everyone stop dancing around it?

“A monumental life event or an emotion so strong that it overpowers everything within you.” She pinched the bridge of her nose before continuing. “I will be blunt with you, Miss Gravethorne.”

“Please!”

“One’s patronus can change and mirror another’s, if there is an immense amount of love present.”

Thea staggered back clutching her stomach. “You’re saying that Sebastian’s thestral isn’t just a coincidence?” 

“It’s the second most rare patronus, my dear.” She took in her student’s pale face and glassy eyes. “I suggest this become a conversation between you and Mister Sallow.”

[yet-another-deanw-girl]

Chapter 6: A Girl Stuck in a Bunker

||The Prophecy Series||

She knew for 15 years that this day would come. She knew her destiny had already been written. That her death had been foretold.

She knew she would have to stop him. She knew she would have to kill him. And she thought she was prepared for all of it. But the day she met him she realized how wrong she was…

Set in Season 10

Pairing: MoC!Dean x Female!OC

Warnings: the usual SPN, language, miner injury

Episode mapping: This chapter takes place during several episodes - episode 5 of season 10 "Fan Fiction", episode 6 of season 10 "Ask Jeeves", episode 7 of season 10 "Girls, Girls, Girls", episode 8 of season 10 "Hibbing 911"

Note: The events of this story are following season 10 of Supernatural and are taking place between October 2014 and July 2015. I tried to make sure that all the references to weapons, tech, etc. are accurate with the time period.

AN: This is my first time writing a fanfic but the story has been in my head for too long and it just needed to get out. I hope you like it.

AN: English is not my first language, I apologize for any mistakes.

After a half an hour argument between Dean and Sam, a couple days after we first met, I was allowed to have my phone and my laptop back. 

Another five days after that, I was granted permission to take some adapters, cables and tools from my car but Sam was with me the entire time. 

After two weeks living together in the bunker, Sam accepted the fact that he cannot follow me everywhere and watch my every move.

He is still barely talking to me and throws me measuring looks every time we pass each other in the hallway.

Created with Microsoft Designer

The boys are on a hunt, some drama teacher went missing after rehearsal, and I'm buried in cables, gears and tools. I had connected to the bunker's mainframe and am trying to figure out what is wrong with it. The poor thing has not been upgraded since the 1940s. So… I took the drastic decision to make some improvements while I'm searching for the main problem. This is exactly how I ended up tangled in an inferno of wires. And this is how the boys find me when they come back from the case. "Wow… Is that what you did when we were gone? Are you sure you know what you are doing?" "Yes, I'm sure…" I pick my head from under the counter. "Oh my God! And those glasses! You are trying to check all the nerdy boxes or something?" "Glasses or no glasses, I can still…" I start with a cold tone but when I look at Dean, I see the sneer on his face "Oh! You think you're funny?" "I know for a fact that I am!" "You are not." I say but the smile on my face contradicts my words. "How was the case?" "It was… strange… even for us."

I'm laughing uncontrollably after Dean finished telling me about the case. Yes… I'm laughing with the man I'm going to kill… My attempts to keep him away are not going as well as expected. "There are books about you! And they did their own interpretation of your lives!? In a musical!? I… I can't… That's the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. I'll have to check those books…" "Don't you even dare!" I return my focus to my work but I keep randomly bursting into laughter in the next few hours.  This is hilarious!  Books and musicals!  I'll definitely have to find those books.  That's an interesting concept, a prophet turned author.  Did some person like this Chuck, have also written my prophecy? And if so, did they know more about how I am supposed to stop the unstoppable Knight of Hell? But even if they did… this was at least 15 years ago… and since there can be only one prophet at a time… and the boys know at least two… Another dead end…

"What the hell?" I hear Dean yelling from the kitchen. I rush through the maze of hallways and almost bump into Sam on the kitchen's doorway. "Dean? What's going on?" Sam asks. "What's going on?! What the hell is this!" He points to the countertop.

Image from Pinterest

"An espresso machine, obviously." I answer and roll my eyes with annoyance.  He scared the shit out of me!  And for what!?  He is such a drama queen.  "I can no longer drink this vomit you Americans call coffee." "But…" "I'm not forcing you to use it! Yours is still there. You can keep using it. But I can't." I turn around and head to the door.  I see Sam trying to contain his smile. He is really enjoying this situation but will never show it in front of me. "How did this appear here?" He asks instead. "Online shopping, Sam… Don't worry. I ordered just a coffee machine… No weapons… I promise…" "You ordered it here!?" "I picked it up from the delivery center in town… I'm not stupid! I know how to keep a bunker a secret, remember?"

My schedule is an infinite loop of little to no sleep, coffee in large doses, coding, debugging and searching through every corner of the bunker's system I can think about, more coffee and pizza.  And then again.  And again.  The boys had been on a couple of hunts, but the way they are searching for cases is inefficient. They go through the internet and local news sites for unusual occurrences. I thought all the bunkers have a notification system… But maybe this one is too old for that… Maybe I should write them an algorithm for this.

I notice Sam is carefully watching Dean. Again. He started to do that after their last case.  Something had happened that made Sam worried.  But he will never tell me.  All I know is that it was a case involving a shifter.  It sounded like an Agatha Christie novel. The maid turns out to be the daughter of the late rich lady and a shifter. And was planning to kill all her greedy family members. She had tricked the boys by giving them fake silverware and they were not able to identify her as the shifter until much later.  "That's why I'm always wearing my rings." I told Dean while sitting on the couch. "This one is silver, the other one - iron, and this one - steel." But something else had happened on that case that makes Sam worry about Dean. "There is still time. At least 5 months. Maybe more." I say to Sam when we happened to be in the kitchen at the same time. "I'm not going to let you kill him. I'll find another way." Is the only thing he says to me and walks out of the room. "Do you honestly believe that I want to do it?" I mutter to myself.

"Em, we are going." Dean shouts.  The boys were digging through the Men of Letters archive for the past 4 days.  When they are in the bunker, I spend a lot of time with Dean. Sometimes just sitting in the library, other times he stays with me for hours in the mainframe room, exchanging stories and talking about old cases.  And here they are going again on a hunt.  I have left the bunker a couple of times to go to town for supplies or for the next package of equipment or gear for the bunker's upgrade but for the most time I was stuck in here.

"Ok, sit here. Easy, be careful."  The boys are back. I walk in the library and see Sam sitting on the edge of the table, an arrow sticking from his right shoulder. "What happened?" "It was an accident. We were at this sheriff's retreat and there was a weapons exhibit. One of the deputies didn't know how to handle a crossbow." Dean answers me. Sam is ignoring me, like usual. "Need help with it?" "I don't need and I don't want your help." Sam declares. I'm going to leave the room and leave them to handle it themselves when I see Dean preparing to try and break the arrow. "Stop!" I yell before he can cause irreversible damage to his brother's shoulder. "It looks like you don't have an idea how to handle an arrow too..." I try to wipe my hands clean of all the grime while I walk to them. My efforts are in vain so I grab some medical gloves from the first aid kit. "I said, I do not want your help." Sam tries to protest. "Oh my god! I don't care! Now shut up!" I cut him off, frustrated. He is so unbelievably stubborn! "It's an arrow made of carbon. Unless you have a flex or a wire cutter, you are not going to break it!" I explain, seeing their confusion. "Dean, move aside! And give me your belt." "If you want me naked, you just have to say so." Dean retorts playfully. "Really?" I look at him and roll my eyes. Those boys are dancing on my nerves today. "Now! The belt!" While Dean is unbuckling his belt I start to unroll the tail of the carbon arrow. When Dean gives me his belt I make Sam bite on it.  "I'm not..." He tries to protest again but I just tilt my head to the side and look at him with a 'oh, you are' look. I had enough with his attitude for today. He seems to understand because he just does as I had told him. The younger Winchester is too tall and I can not pull out the arrow from this angle so I climb on the table. "Are you ready, big guy?" I ask Sam. He stiffens but I don't wait for his answer before swiftly pulling the arrow out. He grunts and clenches his teeth. "Затова беше коланът." I whisper. *That's what the belt was for.* I climb down from the table and see that Dean is staring at me with wide eyes. I take Sam's left hand and make him put pressure on the wound. "Now, you can treat it like a bullet wound. You know what to do with this, right?" Dean just nods, still staring at me.  I ignore him, remove the gloves and go to the kitchen to make myself a coffee. "And make sure he puts it in a sling!" I yell.

Created with Microsoft Designer

I make Sam sit on the edge of the table. We had been injured too many times but an arrow, that is something new. "What happened?" Em enters the library. "It was an accident. We were at this sheriff's retreat and there was a weapons exhibit. One of the deputies didn't know how to handle a crossbow." I explain. "Need help with it?" "I don't need and I don't want your help." Sam's distrust and animosity towards her hadn't changed with the past few weeks. It was not like him at all. I'm preparing to break the tail of the arrow like I have seen in the movies but I freeze when I hear a sharp "Stop!" Emilia is strolling through the room towards us. "It looks like you don't have an idea how to handle an arrow too..." She fails to wipe her hands in her jeans so she grabs some gloves from the first aid kit.  She is covered in grime and dust, her hair in the usual braid, her glasses perched on her nose. The bunker's mainframe must have not been cleaned like… ever. I realize she has been stuck in that small room for more than a month now. "I said, I do not want your help." Sam repeats again. "Oh my god! I don't care! Now shut up!"  This woman definitely has some sass in her, when she is not trying to hold back and act like a soldier. This is the first time I have seen her snap like that.  "It's an arrow made of carbon. Unless you have a flex or a wire cutter, you are not going to break it!" I never in a million years imagined that someone talking about power tools would turn me on so badly! "Dean, move aside! And give me your belt." "If you want me naked, you just have to say so." I retort but I'm surprised by her taking charge of the situation like that. "Really?" She glares at me through her glasses. "Now! The belt!" I just shrug and give her the belt. She unscrews the tail of the arrow. Hm, so that's how it's done? Then she makes Sam bite the belt. "I'm not.." Sam starts to protest but obviously the look on Emilia's face makes him shut up. The look on his face is one of fury.  The next second she climbs on the table which makes my jaw drop. Her left knee is on Sam's right side, her right knee… between my brother's legs. She is practically straddling his leg. Sam visibly stiffens and stares at me over her shoulder in shock. The look on my face mirrors his. "Are you ready, big guy?" Em acks and I arch my brow. Before Sam can even react, she jerks the arrow from his shoulder. Sam grunts and Em mutters something before hopping down from the table. She grabs Sam's other hand and makes him put pressure on his shoulder then she turns to me. The shock and disbelief on my face must be obvious but she completely ignores it. "Now, you can treat it like a bullet wound. You know what to do with this, right?" I nod and she turns around and leaves the room tossing the medical gloves in the bin next to the door. "And make sure he puts it in a sling!" She yells from the hallway. "Did she… Did she just climbed on you, straddled you and called you a 'big guy'?"  Sam chokes.  "Well…" I look at the doorway where she had disappeared. "She is hot when she is bossy."

Chapter 7: The Fates >>

||The Prophecy Series||

[wazzappp]

Resident Evil 7 Mold discussion / Theory

Ok so this is going to be split into a few pieces:

What IS the mold

Infection process details as well as details about why Ethan didn't fall under her control

Hivemind hiarchy and enemy management on Eveline's side of things.

What IS The Mold:

Ok so first things first the Mold isn't actually a mold. We know from part one of the R and D report page 3, the mold is actually a fungus that a shadowy organization called The Connections had been manipulating for their own bioweapon purposes. This fungus is called the Mutamycite and is derived from the Megamycite (which we learn about from resident evil 8). They just DECIDED to call it mold because IDK WHY FUCK YOU YOU FUCKERS MOLD AND FUNGI ARENT THE SAME YOURE SUPPOSED TO BE SCIENTISTS YOURE SUPPOSED TO BE ACCURATE AUGHHHHHHHH anyway for the sake of general understanding I'm mostly just gonna keep calling it 'the mold'

The Connections created Eveline through trial and error of exposing an embryo to this fungus. The various body parts we collect throughout the game for both the cure and the E-Necrotoxin are actually from her failed 'siblings'.

Infection Process:

We know from part 2 of the R and D report found in the labs/mines that Eveline's 'Molded' creatures can be created through her mycelium which she secretes through her tissue which is AWESOME FUCK YEA FUCK YES MY FRIEND MY BEST FRIEND MYCELIUM LETS GOOOOO.

Wer'e coming back to details about the mycelium in a minute because WHOOP WHOOP HIVEMIND MOMENT but the actual infection process needs more examination. The way it's described in part 2 R and D report, it sounds like Eveline can either spawn these molded or turn them from people (coming back to the spawning in a sec don't forget about it)

We know they can be turned because of both the note at the beginning of the game keeping track of those turned and dead, the deputy's half turned severed head in the fridge, and the pre release 'Opening Hour' teaser where we SEE someones body be taken over in real time.

The details of the infection process are in Infection Report 1. So here is what the actual report says and then what my reasoning of it is.

"Initial Infection The mold ingests nutrients from the subject's body to propagate itself, and slowly takes over cells within the body.

As a side effect of this, the infected subject gains remarkable regenerative abilities.

During experiments, we removed arms and legs from test subjects and found that they were able to coapt the amputated limbs in a matter of minutes."

Its my theory that the reason the Mold is able to both sidestep the immune system and to cause this regenerative effect is because the mold itself is mimicking the biological structures it runs into. As it works its way through the body, it's replacing everything that exists, so naturally if any damage occurs it can just regrow since replacing that tissue is what it was doing any way.

This gets interesting when you start including more than one species during this initial infection process. Like the Dimitrescu daughters. After death and insertion of the cadou parasite they were swarmed with flies until they covered their entire bodies. The mold was able to assimilate their DNA as well as the human DNA of the daughters themselves, allowing them to transition between the two.

It is ALSO very important to note that Ethan is under this level of infection for the majority of the game. He has an amazing degree of regeneration without the side effect of Eveline's control because he hasn't reached the mid stage infection, which is described next. Its pretty interesting how the time periods of how long it takes for Evelines control to take hold changes from person to person. 3 years after infection and Mia is still resisting, but the Bakers fell under her influence almost IMMEDIATLY based off of the 'Daughters' DLC. It looks like things kind of went?? back to normal?? for a second there but its pretty ambigous. This could rely on a variaty of factors ranging from Eveline's strength (she seems kind of tired at the end of the game. maybe less powerful than when she wasn't over extending herself) and the state of the tissue she's infecting.

I think it would make sense that the mold can infect Dead tissue faster than Living tissue because theres no immune response whatsoever. Maybe thats why Ethan was experiencing stage 2 symptoms after only 12 hours even with Eveline's weakened state taken into consideration.

"Mid-stage Infection Once the mold reaches the brain, the subject's thoughts become "in tune" with those of the E-Series asset.

If this state continues, the host will lose all sense of ego."

It is VERY interesting that apparently we can see this fungal structure in x rays, which we know because of Margurite Bakers doctors note. This is really awesome because that means the mycelium structures are spreading into the brain and maybe starting to integrate the host into the hive-mind even BEFORE complete integration/assimilation. I wonder what would happen if you killed someone mid integration? Would only the memories/functions of the part of the brain thats been integrated be shared or would it just not go through at all? Also this hive-mind component is going to come back later so don't forget this either.

"Complete Infection After every cell in the body has been taken over by the mold, the subject begins to lose their human form. Physical mutations differ from case to case, but all result in him or her acquiring incredible physical strength.

Containing a subject at this stage would be extremely difficult."

PHYSICAL MUTATIONS BABY LETS FUCKING GO. Ok so if the mold is just replicating itself in a way where its trying to mimic the structure of the original host, why do mutations happen? Because with increased replication there also comes an increased chance of mutation. Jack Baker gets more and more fucked up as the bossfights go on, finally appearing as a barely human monster for the final boathouse fight. THAT IS DIRECTLY RELATED TO HIS BEING CUT IN HALF. The mold has a LOT to fix after that much damage has been done and with it comes an increased chance for mutation, plus when you take into account he's been 'killed' throughout the night, the mold making up his body has been put through a TREMENDOUS amount of strain.

We can also see after his death, while Ethan is chillin in a mold pillar, that his real consciousness is kept in the hive-mind Eveline has constructed for the area, which leads me to the next point.

Hive-mind hierarchy and enemy management on Eveline's side of things:

Ok remember the mycelium from earlier? I told you to remember them because it's coming back now. If you hadn't heard of this amazing part of fungi you're leaving fully educated now.

Mycelium are essentially the nervous system of a fungal colony. Just one spore can result in a network like this. Mushrooms are actually the fruiting part of a mycelium network, this is what goes on underneath the surface. You may have heard that clusters of mushrooms communicate with each other through their networks and this is true! In fact theres a colony of Armillara that spreads for over 2,000 acres (or 10 square kilometers) in Oregon. The uh. way they phrased it in the article was pretty disturbing tbh; "This was kind of a side project," Smith recalls. "We were looking at the boundaries of [fungal] individuals using genetic tests and the first year we didn't find the edge."

Mycelium communicate with their colony by exchanging information, sharing resources, and even hijacking other plants in the area as an early warning system for danger.

This is AWESOME because it means that Eveline's infection has indeed spread across the entirety of the Baker estate. Its assimilated all of the local plant life, all of the local wildlife (punching molded alligators into submission is badass) and appears to be able to spread through water as well (dead fish when re entering the boathouse after the ship section). Eveline has turned the entire area into her own fungal colony thats directly under her control.

So now we get to the nitty gritty about how this relates to the hive-mind hierarchy in the game. There appears to be not one but TWO hive-mind functions operating in this hellhole. Obviously we have the main hive-mind that Ethan Winters sees when he's stuck in that mold column. Because we see Eveline has been stored in the megamycite in the 'Shadows of Rose' DLC. it appears that this is like. a smaller hive-mind thats attached to the main one. If the megamycite's hive-mind was a house, this would be the shed; Separate but still connected. but I also propose that Marguerite has her own smaller, less complicated hive-mind for controlling her bug enemies.

During Marguerite's "Bug-pit" boss-fight, we can see that the bug enemies aren't just attacking at random, she's conducting them. This is just another one of Eveline's 'gifts'. I think she prioritizes mothers above most other family members. I think it would make sense because she was LITERALLY CREATED AS A VESSEL FOR MOTHER MIRANDA TO RESURRECT HER DEAD KID and theres further evidence in that she directly gifted Marguerite her dead siblings arm that can be used to make a cure that stops her from influencing someones mind (at least for a little while) for safekeeping (run on sentences my beloved).

Ok so back to the 'shed' analogy that I mentioned before. Theres a problem I noticed with the amount of people that go missing vs the amount of enemies Ethan fights throughout the game. We can see newspaper articles in the kitchen saying things like 'Over 20 missing in two years'. ETHAN FIGHTS. WAY MORE THAN 20 MOLDED. Even being generous that the news was wrong Ethans gotta be fighting what at least 90 Molded over the course of the game?? (im. so tempted to rewatch the whole thing and keep track of how many spawn. so tempted). Theres a simple answer to this problem. We know from the 'Shadows of Rose' DLC that grunt minds are stored in the hive as well as the more developed boss minds. I propose that these aren't new molded consciousnesses that Ethans fighting, its the same ones over and over again. Getting killed and sent back and respawned and killed and sent back and respawned over and over stuck in a rotating door of present in the real world and stuck in the 'shed'. The shed is the molded's own personal HELL they're just not mentally present enough to recognize it.

[myechoecho]

My Dearest, ep 6

This show keeps on going at full steam.

It's interesting, because Jang Hyun saying he hates Joseon is not entirely a lie. I think he has a general disdain for how the society functions and he certainly has no love for the king.

The show really doesn't shy away the the brutality of this invasion. Jang Hyun and the singer are in a dangerous situation with the General testing them in various ways.

It also drives home how women are treated in war and the fear they all have

It's somewhat difficult to watch the court scenes with the king or even the fights because this is a war that ends in utter defeat, from the little knowledge I have of this time period. They are unprepared, out gunned (literally as they are fighting with swords and arrows vs guns and cannons), under manned and the king has been surrounded and cut off from provisions

The Khan also has a similar disdain for the king that Jang Hyun has. He notes how illogical it is for the king's court to be so blindly loyal when he's not fighting the war. Yes, he is ill and weak but he's also not doing anything.

A smallpox outbreak?!? What next?

The Crown Prince may be obnoxious about he people he deems unworthy (ie: the monks) but he is right in what he is telling his father. He knows that this will end badly if the king does not leave the fortress. They really have little options if they want to survive. The Khan is there. They might actually invade Ganghwa island. But the king would rather die (and all his people die) than be "humiliated".

It's not an easy situation but if this is historically accurate, the refusal further doomed them and the country.

Now they are invading Ganghwa island, where Gil Chae was supposed to be safe. Gil Chae springs into action and warns everyone that the invaders are coming. She tells the one man who doesn't believe her that he can just die instead of listening to this girl

The choice for the women: get captured and raped, never to be accepted by your family/society again, be killed or

The invasion is brutal all around.

Gil Che is smart enough to know who they are chasing and how she can use that to get on the boat. She's brave enough to get him and run like crazy. And she knew exactly how to bargain to get on the boat.

How BRUTAL the scene was where Gil Chae stops the mother from grabbing to Jong Jong. The mother who only asked that her child be saved. Then they watched from the safety of the boat while those left behind were slaughtered.

In a short time, Gil Chae has gone though so many trumas and while I don't think she knows it yet, she's and extraordinarily strong person

Jang Hyun after finding out they invaded Ganghwa Island, the place he told Gil Chae to go for safety, and then almost right after seeing the knife that he gave her on that solider is just pure anger, guilt, angst and grief.

Gil Chae knows that the soldier is sending them to their death. He's sending them alone, with a vague idea of where to go. Hope the little prince doesn't starve to death.

Gil Chae and Jang Hyun are on the same island but now he has measles smallpox. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

But the look he gives her when he sees her is full of longing and love. He takes a step towards her but knows he can't. He saves her from the leader. Then fights everyone else while coughing up blood from measles smallpox.

Gil Chae realizes that it was him that she saw and runs back

I swear, this show does not know how to let us have a breather.

[lostfracturess]

haha and now as i said, my thoughts during the chapter as messy and chaotic as always (really sorry) 😭

omg, their convo is kinda ridiculous 😭

"He's miserable," you said.

"You always say that about him."

"Because it always fits."

I AM CRYING THAT'S SO ACCURATE 😭😭😭😭 gosh it's just the beginning and i am already close to fainting.

"Perhaps you should focus more on your studies than on discussing your personal life. Maybe then you'd actually pass your exams." WOAH SIR THAT WAS RUDE :(((

"Sukuna"

YOU. BITCH. COME HERE I WILL FUCKING KICK YOUR STUPID UGLY ASS

"Sukuna's smile widened. "In private? With you, always."

listen here bitch STAY AWAY FROM HERE OR I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE 😤😤😤😤

"Sukuna leaned in close, his voice dropping to a whisper, "Oh, I think we both know it's not me who pushes him to the edge."

oh my fucking fod you stupid prick, thanks for another ember in the already bright fire of self deprecation of the s&c reader, as though she's not well aware of it 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

"The words hit you like a punch to the gut, and before you could even think about what you were doing, your hand was moving. The sound of the slap echoed through the empty classroom, and Sukuna's head snapped to the side from the force of the impact" JESUS I LOVE THIS WOMAN I AM ON MY KNEES SJEJJEEJEJEJJEEJ

"Ha," he said, looking at the blood on his fingertips. "Looks like the kitten has claws." He rubbed his thumb and forefinger together, as if savoring the sensation. "You know, it's funny," Sukuna continued, his voice almost conversational. "Satoru always did have a thing for the feisty ones."

i don't know how are you doing that, that's probably a writing talent of yours (one of many things actually) but i want to get through my screen and punch him so bad. just why he even has a nerve to speak about satoru and his preferences? like he really knows him. shut up ugly ass

oh my god, it's not even a third of the chapter, and i am already crying :( my poor poor girl, she doesn't deserve all of this, she's just been so strong this entire time, and that accusations from sukuna are cherry on top. yes, satoru wouldn't overdose, if there wasn't a s&c reader, but... it's just a part of their relationship, brutal, somehow ugly and harsh. if there wasn't a s&c reader, he would never experienced feeling of being truly loved and love. and i am sure that satoru wouldn't trade anything for that feeling, he would go through thousands overdoses just to keep her in her life. that's not healthy, but again, we're all in here. actually, I don't think their relationships can be measured by healthiness and unhealthiness anymore, it's too deep and complicated from both sides. they are so beautiful in destroying of each other, and also beautiful in creating something fragile and tender between them.

well, but comparing her to satoru's parents... that's a low blow for sure. there's a drastic difference between them: s&c reader lover satoru and that's on period.

not panic attack in the front of sukuna, my poor girl 😭😭😭😭 I can't do this anymore (continuing reading)

"Satoru didn't need to see your weakness, not when he was already teetering on the edge. You had to bottle it all up, bury it deep. You took another deep breath, forcing your shaking hands to still" no baby no, don't shut yourself out, he loves all of you 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 nooooo i cantttt, nici, you're a cruel woman.

"This case here," you said, waving the folder. "Failing liver." JESUS NO PUT THAT DOWN NOOOOOOOOOOOOO. we're on the edge of the catastrophe REMEMBER MY WORDSSSSS

"I'm just being honest. I don't see how anyone with that liver damage could survive. But the other vitals are pretty impressive for someone in their 50s. Strange." You paused, your eyes meeting his. "But why are you looking into that?" FIFTIES 😭😭😭😭😭😭 ROASTED.

yeah know she's acknowledging him slowly dying i am so happy 🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲 it's really another level of pain

"No," you said finally. "Based on these stats, there's no way this patient will survive, even with treatment. The liver damage is too extensive, even aggressive treatment would likely only cause unnecessary suffering," your eyes meet his, "It would be cruel to give them false hope." no, forget. THIS is another level of pain. i literally have to pause and put away the phone to process 😃😃😃😃😃😃

"You knew that this medicine was rather new. Expensive, if insurance didn't cover it. A single dose cost more than some people earned in a month"

is that okay if i think this is hot? because i fucking do

"See you next month, then," he said, a playful lilt returning to his voice. "For your next dose of preventative migraine medicine. But don't be late. I hate when patients keep me waiting."

he loves her so much it's insane IT'S UTTERLY INSANE. i am so sure that to loved is to be seen and the way he takes care of her it's just too much for my heart. i love their love

"You should be numb to it by now, but each pill felt like a punch to your gut. He popped them into his mouth and swallowed dry, a practiced motion. Dread tightened in your stomach"

"Turning back to face you, he asked, "You want to grab something in the cafeteria then?"

the way he's doing that so causal and the way that thing became causal between them...scary at least :(

"I don't think I have to answer your question," he said, cold, dismissive." wow. so nice. I would already cry, tbh

wow. i am completely utterly speechless. i have never in my life read something like that. the play, i mean. this is beyond beautiful and tragic. it's just...i don't, i am still speechless. reached the very deep of my heart. i felt this inescapable cage that their love is. thank you for letting us to see that. and the sonnets (if i am right?) so beautiful in their pain.

"Suguru studied you for a long moment. He didn't need to ask. He knew you well enough to know what was going on. Yeah, how ugly it is to be truly seen." just after i said for me to be loved is to be seen...

"You shook your head. "No. I can't. I need work...I need to focus on something, anything, or I think I'll fall apart."

this hurts even more knowing suguru loves her 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 i am killing myself

"He hesitated, his gaze lingering on your face for a moment before he finally nodded and peeled off his gloves. He leaned forward, his hand gently undoing the tight knot of your crossed arms. He took your hand in his, tracing shooting lines across the back of your hand" i realised at that moment and remembered your answer about that suguru would be safer, more healthier to her. and that small gesture reminded me of it. and her words about being near satoru felt like home, and now she's falling apart and needed distance from him...

"You'd already compromised so much, given up so much, to turn yourself into someone he could love without tearing himself to pieces. But how much more could you sacrifice before there was nothing left of you, before you became a stranger, before it became some kind of murder?" can this passage be carved on my gravestone? thanks

JESUS CHRIST I ALMOST PASSED OUT READING THIS I KNEW SHE WOULD BE ALIVE OF COURSE BUT READING THIS OH KNOW I HAVE A FEW GREY HAIR NOW

"You inhaled, the air burning in your lungs. Before you could exhale, a familiar voice roared down the corridor, slicing through the quiet of the hospital. For a brief moment, you wondered if it might have been better to have died in the flames" oh yessss the loving boyfriend ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

"I think we're done here. Thank you," you said cautiously to the doctor beside you, bracing yourself for the inevitable scene Satoru was about to make." i am laughing i think this is something hysterical already

"Satoru's grip on your face tightened ever so slightly. He looked like he wanted to kill you right after he was done with the other two poor souls in the room" no, it's definitely something hysterical 😭���😭😭

"Oh, I—" the doctor stuttered, looking like he wanted nothing more than for the ground to open up and swallow him whole. Poor guy." he's gonna faint, omg

never anger dr. handsome ✍🏻✍🏻✍🏻✍🏻

"I swear to god, I'll buy this goddamn second-rate hospital and have you all fired if you don't leave us alone. Now."

*tapping the mic*

i am so so sorry BUT PLEASE ANYONE TELL ME IF YOU FOUND THIS HOT BECAUSE I DO

*mic drop*

"I have an alert on you. In every hospital in this country," he said without hesitation, his tone matter-of-fact, as if it were the most natural thing in the world" UHM- WHAT????????? I AM SORRY??????????? it would be a real red flag in real life BUT HERE???????? jesus christ

"But how could you be angry when he stood before you, so vulnerable and broken? How could you deny the executioner the willing blood, the scars he carved into his own flesh with the blade that is your love?" whoa. that's is so fucking beautiful. a poetic masterpiece.

"The living room was a wasteland, the couch a blackened, smoking husk, the bookshelves reduced to piles of charred kindling. The kitchen was even worse, the appliances melted and twisted, the cabinets nothing more than gaping, empty holes in the wall" I don't know whether it was intentional from you or i am hyperanalyzing things as usual, but could this description of the burnt flat be somehow a metaphor to her own inner state?

"Somehow all seemed to be stuck until it went up in flames. As if the grand scheme of things had something against you" omg seems like i am right 😭

"Kafka," you said with a smile, and he looked at you like you might have lost your mind" i think they have already lost it too long ago....

"Satoru had fallen back into addiction, and you? Somehow, you felt like you didn't know who you were anymore, your identity bleeding from open wounds onto the already soaked carpet below" my poor poor girl....i wanna hug her and shoosh 😭😭😭😭

that conversation in his apartment... feels like the first their normal conversation in a long time...too normal actually. i smell a rat...🤔🤔🤔🤔 (look at her seeking signs of angst IN A NORMAL CONVERSATION)

"Staggering back, you gripped the doorframe for support, fighting the bile that scorched your throat. The image was seared into your brain, a permanent scar that refused to fade. You closed the door, shutting out the painful memory" jesus in that moment i realized i kinda overlooked her trauma for seeing satoru basically DEAD. it's not like your see the person you love that much overdosed to the point of no return, and while you wanna run away from that, you force yourself to be strong and steady and save him, to take this burden you. this is so unfair and cruel. but again, when our world was fair?... she's been too strong for all this time, and now we see how she's slowly falling apart :(

"You couldn't shake the sickening feeling of helplessness that had engulfed you in that moment, the realization that no matter how desperately you wanted to, you were powerless to save him" i don't know how to put it right, but...i think by saving him, she killed him. pulled him from the agonizing abyss of addiction, so that he can fall in it more harder than he's ever been.

"For years, you had clung to the belief that if only you had been older, if only you had been stronger, you could have saved him" and of course the overlapping with her father's death 👍🏻 nici, you're a cruel woman. genius and cruel.

"Every moment spent with him was a delicate dance on the edge of a knife, never knowing when the blade might slip and cut you both to the bone" your metaphors should be studied at the literature classes. or stylistics.

"The love you had for him, the love he had for you, it was a malignant growth, metastasizing, consuming, destroying everything in its wake. It was a sickness with no cure. No treatment. No hope for remission.

Symptom and cause, all at once"

MIC. FUCKING. DROP.

yeah, their love is like a burning inferno, destroying everything in its wake. even them. everything will be destroyed in its flames..

"But it was too late. He quickly undid the bandages, ignoring your protests. The bandage fell away, revealing the ugly truth beneath" i really feel like it's a metaphor to her inner state and I think it is, applying bandages to her already ruined self, and it doesn't help even in the slightest. and then satoru helping her..i think it's another sign she really shouldn't to carry all the burden together

"He slumped over the counter once more, his head buried in his hands, his fingers tearing at his hair. You were sure he was pulling out strands, his shoulders heaving with each ragged breath" I can't do this anymore, bye everyone THIS IS MY SYMPTOM AND MY CAUSE.

"You knew it wasn't directed at you, but at your stubborn refusal to let him in, to share your pain. You hadn't wanted to trouble him, to add another burden to his already heavy shoulders." GIRL?????? ISN'T IT THE SAME THING THAT INFURIATES YOU ABOUT SATORU????? U GOOD????

"But for now, in this moment, you could pretend. Pretend that love was enough. But was it really? Was love alone enough to keep you both alive?" unfortunately it's not enough. even if people love each other with all their heart, it still may be not enough. the ugly truth.

"Nothing. You're just there." He hesitated, as if the memory itself was too painful to relive. "But I see your hands, covered in blood. It won't wash away. And I can't wake up, can't look away." 😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃 should i ever say something about her imagining blood on her hands or?

"But you did, Satoru. And you'll do it again," you said. "But I'm yours to break. So it's okay." i am not a person anymore. just... goodbye. the way she willingly let herself to be broken by him, because she simply cannot...

"There's just this chaos inside my head, and I don't know how to sort it out." and yet she finds comfort in his chaos 💜

"You moved closer, closing the distance between you. "Then do it scared, Satoru," you said, your voice soft but unwavering. "You don't have to wait until your past is undone, until you feel forgiveness for your parents, or until this mess with Sukuna is over. You are not paralyzed by it. So do it scared." No way... are they.... COMMUNICATING??????? WHAT???????????? AM I NOT TRIPPING????

The next morning, you were rudely awakened by the obnoxious ringing of the doorbell. Seriously, couldn't you just have a normal wake-up call for once in this chapter? Is that too much to ask, author? I AM FUCKING SOBBING THE FOURTH WALL BREAKING

"The men filed past you, their heavy boots thudding against the floor as they made their way into the apartment. You silently cursed them for not taking off their shoes, knowing you'd have to clean up after them. You closed the door and tried to figure out what to do next. " haha a grumpy old lady

THE DOG 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 THEY HAVE A DOGGG NOWWWWWWW

"You shook your head, leaning forward and lowering your voice even further in the crowded cafeteria. "No, we need to go there because of Dr. Handsome. We have to find a way to cancel that lawsuit against him." i feel like satoru at that point because any idea of hers is another nail in my coffin

omg i'm so sorry it took me 500 business days to reply lol. but again, i appreciate you so so much for taking the time to give me your insights to your thoughts while reading !! and i'm always so amazing how you got all the little details and metaphors right hehe. so glad you saw all that. it's super rewarding when someone notices and connects with them.

another thing that was a metaphor was the kafka book in her burned apartment. since no one commented on it, i'll just throw it in here lol. like she was looking for the book (that he gave her) and then when she found it she was relieved (it was still untouched by the flames) and then she pressed it tightly to her chest bc she was afraid it might still slip away if she didn't (book = satoru; afraid he slips away as well). okay please tell me does anyone get this ?? or am i thinking too complicated ????? anyway.

i love, love, love all your comments and insights, really. they always bring the biggest smile to my face. your support means the absolute world to me. and i'm so grateful for your kind words, encouragement, and enthusiasm for my work. i hope you have a super amazingly lovely day or night and an even better weekend ahead <3

[ariniekat]

More Coven broommates, this time it's the "always late to the cookout" squad. In a more casual setting, i like to think of them as roomies and the Coven leader hosts a cookout or barbeque every week for their meetups. They are never on time. Usually because Necromancer is trying to make jinx take a bath. They all take 5 hours to have a bath. And yes Refrigerators exist in this nondescript vaguely Victorian time period of a little town of magic, first working one was invented in 1834 (but the methods seem to date back even to the 1740s, so yippee for me, home ones were in 1913, but shh, we're not here to be entirely historically accurate.) The only one of these lil guys I'm entirely certain on the name on is Necromancer. Haha. I actually have lore for him, but the other's have fun facts too. ~~~ Neil Morgans - Necromancer

He's an aristocrat, his family had been part of the royal court for a few generations and he even inherited the part of joining the council and served as an advisor to the king, along with being a court physician. He's very knowledgeable in a medical field, though some people find some of his methods go beyond what other's would consider... sane. During the Reign of the Mad king, he was exiled from the council along with two of the other magical advisors, (one of which was executed and the other was left unknown), they moved to the town shortly after as their reputation was surely dampened. Despite the fact Neil rather enjoys the high life of luxury and expenses, avoids talking to people they deem low class outside of work and prefers to have other people do tasks like housekeeping for them, they don't slack when it comes to work and have became respected as a physician in the town. The fun fact is his main ghoul is named frank, there is not reason for this but frank is best ghoul, does the maid and butler work for him, it's far cheaper to employ the dead anyway.

Jinx - Jinx Honestly, I guess Tabby could work? haha but why not, name as her role. This little mischief gets up to all sorts of trouble, she mostly leeches of Neil in his manor and despite a few instances (her waking him up at 3am by biting his ass to get breakfast.) they get along pretty well, they have some common interests in their fascination of the dead and she tends to bring home her kills to show off and Neil undoubtedly does praise her for it. (no one else seems to enjoy having a bleeding bodyguard thrown onto their bed at 1am though.) Kleptomaniac who has a variety of little cat-toys on her belt. The towns iffy on magic, thanks to the mad kings reign, so she often doesn't go to the town square and shops often or at least not while people can see her. She can disguise herself quite well but she prefers not to. She cannot write and can hardly read, despite others (mostly Neil) trying to teach her. Enn - Enchanter

Not sure for her full name, Enn is selective mute, she often communicates through the art of her work, her origami and writing, or in sign, i like to think her clothes are almost paperlike and flowy so she can bend them like origami too for her words, a graceful swan dance if you will. She is talented at calligraphy and can copy the handwriting of anyone to near perfection. Enn owns a lot of scented candles and always lines the bath with them and petals before she draws it. She and Neil often do facials and long skin care routines together. She also sometimes does illustrations for Ritualist. She is typically the one cleaning up after the other two stowaway dead bodies. :P More silly blorbos.

[funbirdnest]

Atlantis - Below the surface chapter 2

Eichi: It's called Project-ATLANTIS.

Also known as PA. It's a colonization project that ES, which now has its sights set on national domination, put into motion after SS.

Tori: Colonization?

Eichi: Yuzuru, Tori... What do you suppose SS is in the first place?

Yuzuru: It is a historic annual idol festival with a long-standing tradition—It is the largest, most important festival in the idol industry.

... Is how I would answer—But I doubt that you'll be satisfied with such a generic textbook response, correct?

Eichi: Yes. I'm not asking for a formal definition of SS, but rather about its impact on the industry.

Yuzuru: Can you give him an answer, Bocchama?

Tori: Eep! D-Don't put me on the spot like that?! Rather, you should be concerned with demonstrating your worth in front of your master!

Hmm. The SS that was held a few days ago was unprecedentedly large-scale, wasn't it?

It spanned the whole country, and we were able to get local and underground idols to actively participate. Thanks to that, the total number of participating idols was higher than ever before.

But, as a result, almost no local idols made it past the qualifying rounds. The final round was completely monopolized by ES, or more accurately, by Yumenosaki.

Yuzuru: Yes. Some local idols made brief appearances in collaboration with Mikejima-sama. But they were the exception.

Eichi: That's right... SS was held with the pretense of an energizing collaboration with local idols all across the country.

In reality, however, it turned out to be more of a farce that only served to flaunt the strength and authority of ES, which in many ways has become the center of the country.

Ultimately, you can say that was ES's intent all along.

The local idols were mere foils—nothing more than casualties positioned to highlight our—the "main idols'"—brilliance.

Naturally, the local idols found this dissatisfying.

The most radical among them have formed what one might call an anti-ES organization, and are now rioting across the country.

Project-ATLANTIS is one measure with which to pacify these hostile anti-ES forces gathered in such places.

Yuzuru: This is quite the belated response.

Eichi: It's certainly better than doing nothing.

When ES was first established, it was falsely advertised as a "utopia for all idols." For that reason, those who did not directly benefit became quite dissatisfied.

ES was supposed to be an ideal world where "all idols" are able to shine. Then, if we really are idols, why can't we shine?

Yuzuru: It's a natural question and a natural complaint.

Eichi: Fufu. In my opinion, people just navely put their faith in ES' exaggerated advertising

Anyway, if this was the Sengoku period, it would be standard practice to suppress such criminal forces with military power.

Tori: I-Isn't it kind of mean to call them criminals...?

Eichi: I consider it an appropiate expression. ES is a nation, and the forces that oppose it are nothing more than bandits and pirates.

However, although ES continues to make strides like Oda Nobunaga, we still haven't conquered the entire country like Tokugawa Ieyasu (*).

Yuzuru: I think that's a good analogy.

Eichi: Thank you. Right now, ES is in the era of Oda Nobunaga. More precisely, around the time that the anti-Nobunaga network (**) was established.

Yuzuru: I see. That makes it easy to understand.

Tori: Er, I'm sorry, but I don't really get it.

Eichi: You studied history in school, right?

Fools learn from experience; wise men learn from history. Be sure to take your studies seriously while you still have the chance, Tori.

Because, once you grow up, you'll have no choice but to learn things on your own.

Tori: Yeah~ I know this is gonna sound like an excuse... but I haven't been able to study much at school lately.

Eichi: Is something happening at Yumenosaki?

I entrusted all matters over there to Mao, my successor. I don't think it's appropriate for graduates to intervene, so I've generally been staying away.

Yuzuru: Fufu. At present, Yumenosaki Academy is holding an election to determine the next student council president.

Bocchama is running for the student council presidency as well, of course.

Combined with idol work, this is too many irons in the fire. As such, this is a very busy point in time.

Eichi: The student council elections? Huh, this is the first time they've been properly carried out.

We—or rather, mainly Keito—created a model for the student council and then passed it down to Mao, who inherited it.

Tori: As the new president, Isara said that we should actually hold an election.

He said, "I could appoint you, but I don't have much authority, so it'd seem really forced."

If I win the election properly, then I'll be able to attain that kind of authority.

Eichi: That sounds really modern. And it feels like a natural progression.

I like Mao's way of thinking. He understands the limitations of his position—I mean that in a good way.

(*) Eichi is referring to the reunification of Japan at the end of the Sengoku Period (1467-1600). Oda Nobunaga was a feudal lord who raised war against different clans during one of the most tumultous eras of conflict in Japan. Oda set the stage for the reunification of Japan, which was achieved later by Hideyoshi and Ieyasu—the latter becoming the ruler during the beginning of a peaceful period in Japan that lasted until the arrival of Perry and the US Navy.

(**) At the end of the Sengoku era, a group of forces led by Shogun Yoshiaki Ashikaga formed an alliance to rebel against Nobunaga and his allies. The conflict ended with the defeat of the anti-Nobunaga alliance and the expulsion of Yoshiaki from Kyoto.

[quadrantbot]

Jake and Dirkjake and other mildly related tangents. (Additional paragraph on alpha kid romance, because I guess that was necessary to me.)

Heads up this post is not positive about Dirkjake like, at all. I'm not saying you can't like it or do anything with it, I am just sharing my own personal opinion and analysis on it. And Jake in general. (I'm not going to tag with Dirkjake because that's a dick move, but I'm not going to intentionally avoid saying it in NON tag text either. Scroll on if you don't like Dirkjake hate. Okay? Cool.) 

Jake is one of those characters that fandom wise, is super mischaracterized. This includes the mischaracterizations in postcanon as well, which also at least to some degree includes Pesterquest. It's confusing to me for several reasons why so many major changes were made to Jake outside of the main comic, but considering how most of the fans do not seem to take him seriously and the writing team for the dubiously canon content seem to lump his existence purely in with Dirk, it's a little understandable.

Jake isn't really too complicated of a character when it comes to likes, dislikes, motivations and issues. Jake likes his movies, the IDEA of adventure, and he loves blue ladies. He doesn't really care for romance at any major point in the story, especially considering his entire friend group had feelings for him, and when it comes down to actual adventures, actual conflict, he's freaked out. Jake has a great deal of care for his friends, even despite the weird romance shit occuring in the group, and his main issue when it comes to that friend group is a lack of communication from everyone involved. Jake "wants" to be important, Jake "wants" to be a hero, Jake "wants" to be a brave adventurer, but these "wants" don't ever appear to reflect in his actions, even so far as contradicting them, leading to conflict between his supposed wants, and what he actually seems to go for. Jake is often seen as a "himbo" by the fandom, but even that is not really all that accurate. Jake isn't stupid. Jake does have some issues when it comes to reading the room, but even when he DOESN'T, it's usually picked up whenever he's in a weird situation that he doesn't want to be in, which can be seen in his conversation with Jane about her romantic feelings for him, or the proposed lack thereof. Should be pages 4587-4593, but I'll screenshot the notable parts I'll be referencing and put them below. 

Jake didn't really seem very convinced when Jane said she DIDN'T have feelings for him, but he just continued along with the conversation, expressing his relief because even if she was lying, he didn't really want to face that sort of thing head on. Jake then goes onto explain the weird shit with Dirk and doesn't exactly seem very interested in him either, but seeing as Jane supposedly has no interest in him, there's a weird sort of obligation going on where he feels he HAS to just let this happen, which doesn't really seem like the common fandom idea that he was like, head over heels for Dirk. There's a vague mention of jokes from "years ago" where they could like each other if Dirk was a girl, but seeing as these are 15 year olds, "years ago" is a pretty vague period of time AND teenagers will say shit like that all of the time! Mostly younger ones, yes, but I think a good portion of teenagers have joked about having feelings for/WOULD have feelings for someone if they were a gal or a guy. Nothing when it came to Jake's behavior was intentionaly shitty or leading Dirk on or anything, because Jake can't always be aware of literally everyone's feelings for him? 

On a vaguely related tangent, I used to be large on the "bi Jake" being canon thing, but just taking the bare minimum look into some of this just makes it seem like he's got no interest in men at all, and his interest in women appears to be from both a jealousy/almost gender envy standpoint (in the way he seems to WANT to be like them,) and a genuine attraction, especially when considering his blue ladies and more specifically, Aranea. (I do not like Aranea/Jake for the record, and if somehow you guys who enjoy that pairing (or any pairing with alpha trolls/anyone who isn't an alphatroll, I'm looking at you Meenkat, Vrismeen and other freaks,) have made it this far, PROSHITS GET OUT!! I am a normal consumer of darkfic not a FREAK!!) I think I can understand those who read Jake as not aromantic, just uninterested in romance with his current issues, but I also thoroughly enjoy reading Jake as arospec as someone who is both arospec AND someone with several arospec friends who like the reading just as much, Jake never seems to take a genuine interest in relationships with anyone, only considering one with Jane or Dirk because they're his friends, and if he's good friends with them, they MUST be good partner options for him. While it's true there can be a good basis on friendship, I don't think the two major Jake ""romance options"" are all that fit even with the basis of friendship, seeing as neither Jane nor Dirk communicate well, and Jake really doesn't either. 

The thing about the base alpha kids (excluding cherubs and any of Dirk's robots, whic includes Lil Hal, despite being a copy of his brain,) is that when it comes to the most prominent "proposed" canon pairings, Dirkjake, Janejake, Dirkroxy, it just seems they only exist because those four are each others only options romantically. Jane likes Jake, so Roxy feels like Dirk is the only option. Dirk, though unlabelled, only has a canon interest in men, so Jake appears to be the only option. Jane seems to like Jake to a degree, but I think that primarily stems from the fact that Jake is extremely kind and caring to all his friends, so she really does see him as HER only option as well. Again, I do think some of the base alpha kids pairings are alright, but that mostly relies on things AFTER the trickster mode section completely explodes all over everyone and the conflicts reach a boiling point. Dirk and Jane make up, and I do think there's something good that could be said about some form of moiraillegiance between the two, because even despite their issues with each other prior to the Dirkjake breakup, they still do care about each other. I also like Jakeroxy as a pairing option, though mostly in a queerplatonic sense, because when Roxy took a step back from any form of romantic interest in Jake because of Jane and later Dirk, Roxy is more capable of having some form of bond with Jake that wouldn't automatically feel like a necessarily romantic thing, and I think their shared caring for their friends and each other could make them closer. The thing about the base proposed pairings between the alpha kids is that, at least in the case of Dirkjake, it's overglorified by the fandom, even if there are ""nuanced"" readings of them. 

This isn't to say that you can't interpret the text however you want, but when it comes to the bare minimum in canon Dirkjake doesn't really work at all. Not as a fluffy pairing, and not as a strange, codependent teenage relationship where they're mutually obsessed with each other and tearing each other apart. Jake has no romantic interest in Dirk. Jake also has a completely reasonable extra reason why, even if he DID have feelings for Dirk, which, according to canon, he doesn't really, they still wouldn't be good together. I definitely understand the value in exploring negative relationships via fictional means, but when it comes to Dirkjake, their conflict isn't complicated, or nuanced, or even really that complex to understand. Dirk didn't know how to properly go through with his feelings for Jake, so he did fucked up shit, and Lil Hal did fucked up shit, and it very easily came crashing down on him. Even without every strange and fucked up thing Dirk and Lil Hal did towards Jake in order to express those feelings, the biggest point of conflict, the decapitated head kiss in front of the volcano, was definitely enough to state that there's nothing really all that great between them, and there's nothing to take from it that really requires or calls for an exploration of the fucked up side of their relationship, because every way I've seen that handled, it's just as full of mischaracterization as fluffy Dirkjake is. I can understand the excitement at "canon gay representation," but at the end of the day, all Dirkjake really is is a one sided relationship between Dirk and a guy who doesn't have any feelings for him outside of platonic ones, a guy who felt an obligation to be with Dirk just because Dirk was his friend. Could that be explored in an interesting and angsty way? Definitely, but that is a Dirkjake interpretation I've seen the least of, if any at all, and that's literally what's set up canonically! 

"But Ro, what about postcanon?" There's a lot to be said about postcanon, and a variety of things that make any form of romantic feelings on Jake's end completely unbelievable to me. For starters, Ult Dirk is in control of postcanon, Alt Calliope is also, to some degree, but anything that may or may not ""confirm"" romantic feelings on Jake's end is being told to us by two unreliable narrators. But also, postcanon is stupid, existed to get Hussie out of debt, and overall was a piece of garbage that didn't do anything for canon whatsoever. So I don't consider it canon. At all. But if you do, the unreliable narrator argument above is for you. 

[makwandis]

could you explain why you think gil is old prussia please? and maybe how that translates into his personality and stuff not really being entirely culturally germanic? I so deeply want to settle on something but havent arrived at a conclusion. Im curious about your take :) Thank you!!!!

yes totally! so i have...many many reasons

the first reason that really made me go with this idea is that i do not like the idea of giving like. "nation status" or legitimacy to uhhh insanely violent colonizing religious orders that happen to violently acquire land. like... it just doesn't make sense and i think is quite sinister? the teutonic order wasn't a culture, it wasn't an ethnicity, it wasn't a country. it was a military order that managed to dispossess people from their land and only existed on that land for a fairly brief period of time. it was an incredibly diverse order actually, in that their forces were varied and came from across europe. i also think- okay, we give one extremist militant religious group who dispossesses people from their land a nation, what then? do the groups that are similar to that that exist in recent times then get one too? i find that pretty fucky not gonna lie. it just doesnt add up, and if it does add up it means a lot of fucked up things haha. i just ask that people apply that logic to other violent religious groups....

i should note here i do nooooot give a fuck what himaruya says or anything about canon at all. who cares! not me haha

now a lot of people usually go with the idea of gil is born as the teutonic order and he kills old prussia and the teutonic order takes over. like. sure. however it's not historically accurate. the old prussians, while they suffered a genocide, were not all killed off by the teutonic order. they in fact made up a bulk of the teutonic's military force after the prussian rebellions in the late 1200s. this is a very complex aspect of the order and it's relations with prussians and other baltic groups who also fought with the order. this, and the fact that the old prussians themselves lived on. the language did not officially die out until the 1700s due to a series of plagues that ravaged east prussia, and while a lot of people did flee the territory many remained and were just exploited peasantry- while the prussian nobles converted and took up positions within the order. there were speared "barbarian" units of old prussians within the order! this and the order itself due to such a heavy baltic influence in fact was criticized and almost condemned a few times there due to pagan influence rising in their ranks (there were reports that the order began soothsaying, doing animal sacrifices before battle and even cremating their dead- all sins in the eyes of the christians). so, the teutonic order didnt just kill all the old prussians in one day. it was a lengthy assimilation process that was more or less complete loooong after the teutonic order no longer existed in prussia. and even despite the death of the old prussian language, old prussian culture heavily influenced the culture of east prussia- the dialect itself continued to have many words from old prussian.

i'm indigenous, so for me i think this whole killing off of whole nations thing in the process of colonialism to be a pretty problematic way of addressing colonialism in this universe.... my tribe has a similar story to the old prussians, many of our nobility ended up joining with colonial powers while the peasants remained peasants labouring under colonial powers. if someone were to depict this as spain or another spaniard having murdered off my tribe and then becoming mexico or something, i think that would be insaaaanely fucked. it was 500 years give or take a few of german occupation and settlement in prussia before the language officially died out- and its been over 500 years since 1492 and indigenous people are very very much still around. tribes exist without even having their language anymore, or just barely. one thing, i think old prussian culture lived on still and maybe even to this day- just quietly. under colonial occupation, colonized people usually keep their culture very very quiet haha. i'd add another few generations on to the point where the culture is officially said to have died out, but that's just me lol. so, i just don't think its an accurate nor necessary way of depicting that history and totally glosses over the complexities of the region and gives credence to unsavoury ideas regarding the relationship between colonizing powers and colonized people, i think

SO what about gil!

well in the way i see it. he would have had to adapt to german culture. this wouldn't have even happened really during the time of the teutonic order, considering how many old prussians were in their ranks towards the end there especially. i think it definitely would have been a horrific, traumatic process for him, but over time i imagine the order would have relaxed a little with him- if they were practicing pagan practices, why would they be punishing him for it in the end there? i think the way hes treated varies from grandmaster to grandmaster lol. some were willing to work with pagans, others were completely against it. depends greatly. so, i think his prussian culture would be a very large influence on him. i dont think he'd have had reason to leave east prussia/original prussian territories for a long time either. in my universe, i have him as being pretty fucking old (around 2000), and he's an adult actually by the time of the teutonic order (i don't age him down because like, why would he be little? the heyday of the prussians began long before the order arrived in their territory.). so he remembers a lot, and continues to spend a lot of time in his original territory. i think he ends up going down to berlin to join the hohenzollerns in the mid to late 17th century, when brandenburg prussia begins the process of becoming a kingdom and actually like doing stuff lol. so then by 1701, he's in berlin, but he's very east prussian. he's very baltic i think! so it's really only.... 300, 350 years that he has been in berlin? as opposed to a 500 year period of teutonic existence and then if he has lived before (as i think he has), however long he has been alive before then. so, i think he'd remember a lot and his original culture would have a big presence in his life and the way he is

thus, while i think he can adapt to germans and the way they are, balts to my understanding are certainly not germans. east prussians were a mix of those cultures. i am not european, so i could be totally wrong about that, but i think for the sake of an immortal non human dude i can also kinda do what i want a little haha. he adapts to germans but is he ever really a german? does he consider himself that? maybe publicly, so people don't bug him about things (like my point about colonized people keep their true cultures pretty quiet), but i think its really a matter of:

you can take the man out of the baltics but you can't take the baltics out of the man.

hope that explained, i'm open to any questions haha i have MANY THOUGHTS!!! i love researching pre christian baltic culture, its super interesting, and i HIGHLY reccomend the book the northern crusades by eric christiansen, i learnt a lot from it.

also want to say, if you go with the teutonic order is gil's origin story thing, there's no shame. this is just a silly fandom. you don't have to go in depth as exploring it as me, i am just insane. this is how it's fun for me, do what is fun for you. but i think we should also remember, these are real stories, and the way we depict things can reflect our current world a lot. sensitivity is still useful i think. but. its just a dumb fuckin anime we are all taking ideas from and changing as they want. have fun kids lol