#and like I think that is extremely plausible given EVERYTHING that has happened in that series jfjdjdjddjdj

[lesbiansanemi]

GOD I want attack on titan scrubbed from existence

[wingspiked]

hsr spoilers AND SLIGHT LEAKS ment / - on the aftermath and a certain theory.

after jenna sent me a particular twitter thread - have since gone feral.

i know we are all wondering what happened to sunday after the events of the trailblaze quest. i encourage you all to play through the epilogue (go back to the hallway of the grand theater and you will receive a text from robin) - it essentially confirms that he is not dead, but he is injured and very, very lonely and sad. but what happened to him? robin tells us when she awakens that he is no longer there - nowhere to be found. the implication being that he was either taken away - or more than likely absconded himself in misery to lick his wounds.

i think sunday is having a difficult time facing robin - because while ultimately his goals were not... 'wrong' they were just fundamentally flawed. the intentions were good - the underlying value understandable, but everything else surrounding it not so much. unfortunately - sunday was raised in a cult, raised literally to be this person - he is the charmony dove that was rescued and fell to it's death, but that's to be touched on another day.

anyways - again, what happened to sunday? there is a very plausible theory - that after the events of penacony, sunday is picked up by elio - and becomes a stellaron hunter.

'SAFF WHERE TF DID YOU GET THAT CRACKPOT THEORY FROM?' i'm glad you asked let me tell you!

in dreamflux rift - south of the bygoneville space anchor, there is a trash can in a tiny alcove. next to the trash can - is a poem titled 'death of the crow.'

the fact that it is listed as a mysterious invitation - is extremely important, but we'll circle back to that. the poem reads as follows:

now obviously this is very much an offshoot of edgar allan poe's 'the raven.' this is especially telling for a number of a reasons - as robin is riddled with emily dickinson motif's, and it would make sense that sunday (who is shown to have black wings wrapped around his waist similar to how robin has white) would be related to poe. additionally - while the birds that follow sunday around could've very well been his familiars - it's also possible that they are instead the dreammaster constantly keeping watch on sunday. regardless - he is surrounded by raven / crow and even dove motifs, where robin is very much little white or pure blue birds.

lets break it down bit by bit -

the first two stanzas set up the mention of the 'dying baby dove' - which is a direct correlation to the charmony dove that robin and sunday rescued as children, which lets us know that yes - this poem is almost MOST CERTAINLY about him. that dove obviously had a PROFOUND effect on sunday - who watched it die the second robin left to travel, despite their best efforts.

the third stanza is a bit more interesting. it begins to allude to sunday's warping vision of the world - likely after he became bronze melodia, and he started to see injustice and cruelty and had to make decisions on the behalf of harmony that were not conducive to his ideals. ADDITIONALLY, this stanza brings up "a flame-bathed raven, it's voice rasp that sings" which is MORE THAN LIKELY gopher wood given the following two stanzas.

these are more telling in different ways - because sunday was very much RAISED IN A CULT. he was fed immeasurable propaganda by the dreammaster (who is a halovian with black wings, by the way, when he did possess a form). while sunday is guilty of his actions - i want to circle back to that. this is the man that raised him. he was basically made for this. it's all he knows. anyways.

this line here is a direct representation of sunday switching from xipe's tune to ena - lest we forget that xipe DID absorb ena, so therefore to the halovian siblings, it is simply a different tune, is it not?

there is also the theory that the "flame-bathed raven" could be a direct reference to firefly - who's theme is 'nevermore' and she is incapable of dreaming, but it is more likely the poem is referencing gopher wood.

the next two stanzas mention 'scrying the world's pain' is very much a reference to sunday's overwhelming and misguided compassion - for how can he sit by and do nothing when he witnesses so much of it everyday. his heart 'grew resolute' in the wake of it - and thus he made the choice. sunday would then "ascend the stage" and "strive for divinity" - he draws back the curtain to his "utopia of absolute bliss" - HOWEVER....

" the dream is over, brother. "

the next stanza goes onto describe sunday losing the god's favor - casting him into darkness, and him likely being ready to fall and to die. BUT WHAT I WROTE ALL OF THIS FOR - WHAT I WANT EVERY TO FOCUS ON. IS THE LAST STANZA which i very much believe to be written by destiny's slave himself: elio.

once again - this is described as an invitation. this poem is elio inviting sunday to join the stellaron hunters "here lie the truest dreams, where infinite possibilities lope" "here all your ambitions shall be fulfilled and set aflame" - where else could sunday fulfill his desire for an elimination of worldly strife? where else could he turn but to the stellaron hunter's - who are all immensely powerful beings, with various goals that only elio's future can assist them in fulfilling? he is a PERFECT fit for the stellaron hunters, and a lethal one at that - with immeasurable power that he has barely demonstrated by his own hand.

there is another hint towards this as well - the poem / invitation is written by 'cecil simmes' by this twitter user:

SMALL LEAKS AHEAD!!!!

there is a light cone coming out that features sunday on it, in front of a gramophone. what other stellaron hunter has such a lightcone? well...

it has been suggested that elio utilized these for communication - which leads me to my next point, the description of this leaked light cone:

this lc description could be very well based on sunday heading to join the hunters after receiving the invitation (POTENTIALLY also via gramophone).

also, elio writing the penacony script? yeah.

one more thing to touch base on - we don't really actually know what happens to firefly at the very end. assumedly she's fine (they won't kill a stellaron hunter permanently - at least not yet). with sunday disappearing - i genuinely think it's VERY possible she picked him up and he could be with the hunters, as we speak, or at least healing somewhere since we know he was injured.

anyways! i genuinely, actually, 100% think this to be a VERY possible theory. HSR is known for scattering lore tidbits in the most skewed of places - leaving breadcrumbs for their players to find. i think it's even more possible because sunday's playability is not really in sight anywhere, and it's very likely he will be getting an outfit change for this etc, so we might end up with a unique model in comparison. i am sincerely glad he is alive though, and that we will likely be seeing him in the future. i do think this would be the correct path to take his character - as the stellaron hunters - while morally grey - are not without what could be deemed 'a good cause,' one that - i think - sunday fits in well to. so here is hoping we are right, and his next appearance will be as stellaron hunter: sunday.

credits -

big shout out to @defiedlife for letting me brainrot at you and assisting me with this, and i encourage everyone to read THIS twitter thread, and THIS reddit thread - which are a touch more cohesive than my excited rambling.

[pumpkinpartynoelle]

Update. Update! UPDATE!

I figure as long as Toby is putting out another newsletter, I might as well give a more thorough update of my own.

I've done a quick read of the newsletter, and skimmed through the Sans and Papyrus dialogue. Nothing seems all that revealing as far as Variable Angel Theory and its branch theories go, so it shouldn't affect all that much on my end, other than making it clear that I do, in fact, have plenty of time to finish this theory at my own pace.

That pace has recently picked up. I think I'm about 70% done with what I want to include now, though the sections I still have to work on, most especially Spamton and the Spamton Sweepstakes, might be some of my longest. Then again, given how many sections have spawned from my stumbling into random lore bits that recontextualize other parts of the theory, it's possible I'm overestimating my progress and I'll end up with a few entirely new sections of content that are too relevant to skip out on. Much like Deltarune itself, I've no idea what will come up, so I'm not going to promise any sort of release date, not that I imagine there are huge swaths of people waiting with bated breath or anything.

Good news though, the vast majority of VAT part 1 continues to hold up. There are a few bits that make things seem shaky, but there's not a single one that can't be very plausibly explained away by either more thought given to the information we have, or simply missing a piece or two given how small a proportion of the game I'm working with. As far as actual major contradictions go, I've found absolutely none, and I have been looking. I've no intention of presenting a theory I don't believe in, even if part 2 will admittedly involve a fair bit more guesswork and assumptions than part 1 did.

I may push some of the deeper Gaster stuff into its own theory post, if I decide to look into it. So far, I'm much more familiar with the in-game content than anything outside of it. That's why I didn't really reference the newsletters much in the first part of VAT, nor the Spamton Sweepstakes, and, to be totally honest, tracking down all the Gaster stuff that isn't in-game in some capacity sounds like a nightmare, which is a shame because it seems like there's a fair amount of out-of-game Gaster content, maybe even more than in-game.

As such, the Gaster content I'll be including in Part 2 of VAT is almost entirely the stuff that's in Deltarune itself (and in Undertale, of course, to whatever extent I see relevance), plus occasional bits and pieces from elsewhere if I happen to know about them. Don't expect an extremely thorough analysis of everything Gaster-related, that's well out of my purview, at least for now.

To be clear though, the section on Gaster is still fairly long, and there are, of course, bits of his involvement that are very relevant to Variable Angel Theory, like the DT extractor, and I think Gaster may even be at least partially responsible for The Roaring. However, if you're looking for something truly Gaster-centric, VAT2 isn't going to give that to you. The best person for that job that I know of, theorizing closest to my style, is of course Jaru, whenever he finishes putting his Gaster theory together.

VAT1, as I'm sure many people noticed, wasn't particularly focused and streamlined on specifically the bits most relevant to the theory's namesake, i.e. the Angel's identity, abilities, most significant roles, and creation processes. That was intentional. Everything in Deltarune is so interconnected, it'd be hard to isolate everything, and to be honest, I don't want to. Lots of things are useful context for lots of other things. As such, VAT2, while its primary focus will still be on Variable Angel Theory, will include even more branch theories and bonus bits. Directly related or not, the pictures you can paint with enough thousands of words can be a lot more revealing if you expand your canvas.

Here's what's (probably) done so far in broad strokes:

All instances of "Holy"

All instances of "Sin"

More info on Soul Power

How Kris’s soul works

The vessel's purpose

Nearly all of the Gaster stuff

Rouxls Kaard analysis

Miscellaneous branch theories and bonus bits

Here's what I have left to finish up:

About half of the Jevil section

One or two Gaster subsections

The Spamton and Spamton Sweepstakes sections

Analysis of "Heaven" and "Hell" (part of which will already be touched on in the Jevil and Spamton sections)

Brief reevaluations of VAT1's main 4 angel candidates with the new info in mind

That's about all I have left, and I think it'll be less work than it sounds. Well, not the Spamton section, there's a good chance that'll take a while, but the other parts I expect to be fairly straightforward. None of these important keywords that I'm giving full analysis to are nearly as strict and precise in their use as "angel", and to a lesser extent, "demon", were.

I've also reposted, and slightly reformatted, VAT1 on our system's AO3, so hopefully that gets more of a discussion going on all this. Once VAT2 is done, it'll go up on AO3 as well as on Tumblr.

That's about it!

[skania]

Hey so this is about the GPS thingy in ch 98. I have come up with a theory on what happened exactly because I think the whole GPS situation was pretty messy. My theory goes like-

Aqua was actually using the GPS all this time! The one year that they dated fr, I think all through this time he has been using it. A person like aqua who can go to lengths to protect the people around him- ignoring kana for a whole year, preventing ruby from becoming an idol...

I don't think it's really out of his character to check on Akane's location from time to time. If she's reached where she was to safely or no. We know they talked to each other every night and aqua knew everything about akane's schedule- where she's supposed to be, at what time etc.

On one hand while I think he was guilty for using it, on the other he couldn't help but use it because, really, what's stopping him from just taking a quick peek? He has already placed it, there is no going back either way. I don't think aqua would suddenly start looking into Akane's location after a whole year of dating. How would he know that she's going to find some lead on the killer at this exact time?

This brings me to "I can guess the killer from Akane's movements". I don't believe her movement monitoring is all he did. I'm pretty sure the moment he realised that akane is going to places and doing things behind his back, he was surely suspicious. Akane never lied to him, why all of a sudden? Again, knowing aqua, he probably went out to stalk her in person. And seeing the people she's talking to (kindaichi, himekawa, some other lala Lai members etc) he probably:

1- understands she's doing research on some person who's probably Aqua's father because there is no other reason why she'll hide anything from him (flashback to ch 72 when she left in a hurry and the only time she hid anything from him)

2- does his own research and narrows it down to hikaru (most evidence should point to him). Aqua understands akane extremely well and probably knew that she'll draw a similar conclusion as well.

This brings me to ch 97. Aqua asks if akane is upto something. Obviously, again, to catch her lying. She tells him nothing much. Later she walks out of her house at night (why would she need to go out at a weird time? She was also not upto something, right? Yet she went out immediately after the call ended).

Seeing her head out of the house, aqua probably went out to stalk her again. When hiding, and observing akane from a safe distance, he noticed:

1- a man in black hoodie covering his face(just like Ryuske), was approaching her from the back, and his spider sense went crazy.

2- "akane is carrying a bouquet of white flowers like she's going out to meet someone important, but why now? She wasn't upto something, right? These white flowers, aren't these the same that Ai's killer carried? Is she going to..."

I think it was at this moment aqua realised that akane was going to kill hikaru and not before that. Also the fact that she was going to kill this person straight up gives him the confirmation that the person he is suspecting, is actually the killer, because akane has taken this massive move.

Idk if this is convincing at all

Hi anon, thanks for sharing your theory with me! I think you've given this a lot of thought and it shows. In fact, I think your theory explains some things way better than the actual canon does 😂 in particular, I've always felt that Aqua figuring out Kamiki's identity simply because of Akane's "movements" makes no sense.

I do agree that it wouldn't be out of character for Aqua to check on Akane using the GPS, so unless Aka shoots this down later, your theory will always be plausible! Regardless of when he starts to use the GPS, personally, for now I'm still assuming that Aqua realized Akane likely found his dad (and that she was planning to do something about it without telling him about it) at this moment:

Regardless, that’s just my personal theory and I could definitely be wrong!

Later she walks out of her house at night (why would she need to go out at a weird time? She was also not upto something, right? Yet she went out immediately after the call ended).

Really? I've always assumed Akane goes out the day after her phone-call with Aqua! In Chapter 97, Akane looks about ready to go to bed and Aqua is sitting by his bed too, so I've always assumed their phone call takes place at night. The clouds outside look pretty dark too.

But in Chapter 98, Akane mentions that Aqua should be on his way home from school, so the scene seems to take place during the afternoon.

Another reason why I've always assumed it takes place the following day is because I thought Akane was on her way to Kamiki's office, which wouldn't be open late at night.

Now you've got me wishing these chapters were colored so we could see what color the sky is supposed to be 😂

[nebulousjoy]

Sonikal: In this essay I will-

This'll be my deep dive into the rare-pair Sonikal - Sonic the Hedgehog/Tikal the Echidna - that I'll refer to if/whenever people ask me why I ship it and how it even works.

If this ends up getting reblogged, please note that I'll probably refine the text here, making corrections n' whatnot, as time goes on! So be sure to check the original post if you want the most up to date version. Also, do remember that everything in this post is of my own opinions. You can agree or disagree with them, makes no difference to me.

If such a lengthy post for something like a ship seems weird to you, that's fine. I just like talking about said ship, in this instance.

—

Why do I ship Sonikal?

I believe a functionally healthy relationship between them could and would work, with both of their characters remaining as true to their canon depictions (however sparse in terms of Tikal) as possible. Mind you, since Sonic hasn't officially had a romantic interest and has demonstrated an aversion to Amy's affections, one has to use deductive reasoning and context clues within Sonic's character to surmise how he would behave if he were to form romantic affections for someone. With Tikal, the same goes, though doubly so as more effort is necessary due to she hardly being present enough in SA1 for her full personality "range" to be hinted at. Headcanons for bridging gaps / filling in holes are unavoidable.

(I'm aware an element like this is unnecessary in the eyes of many of fandom's typical shippers, but I'm the kind of person who NEEDS plausibility in ships for me to care about them. So, this is important.)

I think their dynamic would be extremely cute and wholesome, for reasons I'll get into when I describe how they would interact with each other.

The gamecanon versions of Sonic and Tikal are the primary focuses here. I don't know enough nor care about the comic versions of either to consider them.

How does Sonikal work?

The pairing is only remotely possible if we choose to deviate from canon, and allow Tikal to exist naturally. In SA1, it's unclear what exactly happens to her or Chaos after the story ends, but it's obvious that they aren't actively around in the world's setting.

There's a few paths one can go to expand upon Tikal's new life, but I like to go with something a little contrived but not theoretically impossible: Tikal gets given her physical body back from the M.E., as Chaos' wrath being quelled means the seal on him has no reason to stay active. It's implied in SA1 that Tikal's physical body is no more as she roams as an orb of light, so with the seal now being void, why wouldn't she get her body back?

This is turn draws the questions of "where would she live?" and "what would she do?". My answers for both of these are...Chao Gardens! Taking care of Chao! It's obvious Tikal grew fond of them in the past, and I don't see any reason why that would fade in modern time. Since the city of her clan has been mostly swallowed up by the earth, crumbling to ruin, she doesn't have a stable place to live. I feel she would turn to Chao Gardens to be her new homes, where she can live peacefully alongside Chao and take care of them.

(It also makes sense for her to live on Angel Island with Knuckles, but to keep things simple, let's go with the Chao Garden idea.)

This scenario is satisfactory to me enough, as where Sonic and his friends themselves live are normally kept vague in the series anyway. Amy and Tails apparently have their own houses in the games, but it's never been explained how they obtained them or if they still have them, so *shrugs*. Suspension of disbelief is basically required for the Sonic world.

SONIC

Being devoted to maintaining and enjoying his freedom is a core aspect of his character. He just simply isn't Sonic if he lacks this trait. This getting sacrificed to make a ship involving him work is a BIG no-no to me. Additionally, the character isn't Sonic if he lacks his canon benevolence and intolerance towards injustice. He cares for the people around him and helps those in need if he comes across them, which has been demonstrated many times in the games at this point.

However, Sonic does not come across as the physically affectionate type in canon. That actually doesn't impact the depth a relationship can have though, as there's MANY ways someone can express affection without kissing and cuddling being predominant. Intimacy has multiple layers with multiple manifestations, and none are greater than the other.

It's always possible to have a relationship work for him where his needs still get met - *without* his partner's needs getting unfulfilled in the process. If Sonic somehow realized this, and met the *right* person, romance isn't out of the realm of possibility for him generally speaking.

TIKAL

It was clearly depicted in SA1 that Tikal is very compassionate. She was very gentle and caring towards the Emerald Shrine's Chao. She tried many times to dissuade her father from his power-hungry, warmongering ways. She stood firm against him when he stormed the Emerald Shrine with a group of warriors, up until she was knocked aside. The societal hierarchies of the Knuckles Clan have never been revealed iirc, but as Pachacamac was the leader of the clan (and had shown he cared about getting what he wanted even at others' expenses), defying him like that most likely had severe consequences. That didn't stop her from trying.

This implies Tikal has a strong will and sense of bravery. She hates injustice and does what she can to stop it. She cares so much about doing what's right, and protecting the world itself, that she choose to seal the rampaging Perfect Chaos away in the M.E. - using her physical body to pay the price. Since chaos energy "turns one's thoughts into power", I see that act as proving Tikal also has a strong sense of conviction, going hand-in-hand with possessing a strong will.

Lastly, from her talks to her father of how greed leads one down a path where they will mindlessly consume more until they likely meet an end of self-destruction, Tikal too has a sense of wisdom. Or, emotional intelligence. However you want to describe it.

Other aspects of her character have to be assembled using headcanons, but frankly, these traits alone hold enough water for the next section.

SONIC & TIKAL TOGETHER

They've interacted canonically, in the tail end of Sonic's story and the last story in SA1. Their moments were fairly standard and naturally revolved around the story, but still! It's neat that they have.

One interesting moment is after Chaos floods Station Square. Tikal beseeches to him that Chaos needs to be sealed again, but Sonic being as intuitive as he is shoots that down, knowing it wouldn't solve the problem of Chaos' anger in the end. This highlights Tikal's desperation in the moment, but also hints at a trait of she tunnel-visioning whenever her composure is lost. Maybe it was just in that moment, maybe it's a habit she has; who can say for sure?

But me bringing up them having met in canon goes into how they could interact if they were to meet up again. Sonic, being the caring guy that he is, would definitely be very keen on speaking to her more in-depth compared to before - seeing how she's been doing and all that.

I also think Sonic would feel genuine curiosity about her. He got glimpses of her life, rather the bad moments in it leading up to her clan's extinction, so I can see him wanting to get to know her better as a friend. Because, Sonic for sure would view her as a friend. He so easily befriends others that it makes sense.

Tikal would respond in kind. She must've formed a strong enough amount of faith in his abilities to have shown him those flashbacks, and it's natural that she would want to know him better too. They'd form a carefree friendship, both sides being cordial with one another.

Their Chemistry

It's their friendship that allows more to develop between them. Assuming Sonic takes a break from his usual globe-trotting to hang out with Tikal in a Chao Garden every now and then, they would spend a fair amount of time talking and relaxing together.

The kicker here is that they do have a notable amount of personality traits in common, and they're the ones most apparent; arguably important. They're both benevolent, dislike injustice, and stay true to what they believe in. Sonic of course harbors a love of life itself, and I do think the same applies to Tikal, as her sacrifice proves she cares deeply about the world and the life in it. She not only opposed her father to protect the emeralds, but to protect the Chao as well.

We've seen Sonic's playful and sassy side plenty, and while Tikal hasn't exactly shown the same sides in canon nor has anything signaled it, I doubt she wouldn't mesh well with it. I can even see Tikal being like Sonic's "hype girl" funnily enough, laughing at his jokes or having a "Oh you're so silly <3" reaction to them. It's even better if Tikal bounced off of Sonic's antics with her own secret playful side, and who knows, maybe she does have one (I like to think so personally). It wouldn't be out of place if she did.

In general, there's nothing about either of them that makes it implausible they'd form chemistry. They could bond over many things.

Their Feelings

I'm not sure who would catch feelings first, and it honestly doesn't matter. Both of them would form an attraction to one another without either realizing it at first, but I do have the hunch that Tikal would more quickly identify that she feels a certain type of way about Sonic, to where calling him a mere friend doesn't feel quite right. She'd hone in on this, while I can see Sonic just going with the flow in regards to his own feelings, not noticing the change in how he feels about her until it gets outright brought up in some manner.

Namely, Tikal could voice her thoughts just to get them into the air; off her chest. Speaking on how much Sonic means a lot to her, and she feels closer to him than she has with anyone else. Whatever time they do spend together fills her with joy. It's reasonable for Sonic to not catch onto the implications and be pleased that she does like being around him, or...his intuition kicks in and he starts to suspect something is there. What exactly, he doesn't know. But still.

That could be the first domino to fall, leading into a chain reaction. Maybe he starts to look at Tikal in a way different from before. Maybe he pays closer attention to how she behaves around him, and whenever Tikal can interact with his other friends, especially see how she is with them. Sonic is smarter than a lot of people give him credit for, and when he gets interested enough in something to pay close attention to it, he'll perceive a lot of things. Maybe Tikal notices this change, and she too starts to subtly "study" him to see what's up.

To hurry along and keep this already long post from getting even longer: eventually a boiling point would be reached. I do like the idea of Sonic being the first to properly touch upon their bond going to a different level. He'd need to have a more serious conversation over it, but once he sees that Tikal is on board, the ship sails.

Their Relationship

Tikal is very understanding. By the point they each learn of the other's feelings, she would know fully well that Sonic does not want to be changed. She would not want him to change anyway. His happiness would be extremely important to her, and he keeping to his love of traveling the planet is what she would want - first and foremost.

Sonic would recognize and greatly appreciate this consideration. A relationship to him had always symbolized he being anchored down and his freedom compromised (Amy and her habits of chasing him and wanting them to get married pinned that in his mind), but Tikal making it clear that's not what she wants would bring him immense relief. And would in turn make him feel like she does truly get him.

In a similar fashion, Tikal would remain committed to her role of nurturing Chao. She has overall less responsibilities to the world compared to Sonic and less of a perpetual wanderlust, but she does not want anything to come between her and what she wants to do. Not that Sonic would DO such a thing, he'll never boss anyone around, but still. They'd be on the same page. None of what they hold dear need to be given up to make things work, and the other's happiness is just as important as their own.

Above all else, they each would want one another to be a permanent part of their world. Nothing more, nothing less. That would remain set in stone, no matter how often they're far apart physically. Because, in the times they are together, it makes them that much more special.

Besides, Sonic would ABSOLUTELY bring Tikal with him during some of his travels. She's been out of commission for the last 3,000+ years after all, she's missed out on a lot! Sonic would be thrilled to help her experience new things in this modern era, be it sightseeing in countries or taking her to scenic places he loves. The girl would be pumped to see the world, and create new memories with Sonic that she can enjoy for the years to come.

This isn't even acknowledging some fanon theories about Tikal being immortal if she were to ever actually return & hang around in modern times, but that can be discussed in a different post.

TLDR: Sonikal works because both Sonic and Tikal can reasonably make the relationship work without sacrificing important parts of their characters, and their relationship would have a nice flair of true significance on top of that. They would have the kind of romance that's not over the top or even that conventional, but still very intimate.

So...yeah. My intentions for writing this weren't to "convince" other people to ship them too, just to shed some light on why I do. Thanks for reading all of this, if you did! 👋🏾

[baddingtonbitch]

watching the new zac efron movie and i don't think i'll ever get used to the new face. i always thought that the "socks on a slippery floor made him fall and break his jaw" story was very hard to buy since his chin, cheeks and lips all looked suddenly augmented too. i just googled it again and i never realised that he claimed the injury happened in 2013(?!) and that him getting an entirely new face a couple of years ago was because he stopped doing certain jaw exercises. jaw exercises that supposedly kept this whole new face at bay for many years until he got lax about them on vacation. so i'm like ten times more flabbergasted that anyone agreed to accept that story. i know that admitting to getting bad work done is like a mortal sin to celebrities but from the way he spoke about the literal eating disorder he was programmed into for certain roles and the resulting mental health struggles, i think it's totally plausible that he tried to get something "subtle" done out of mounting insecurity and whoever operated on him didn't understand what that even meant and just gave him the stock looksmaxxing package.

and yeah i'm sure that feels horrible and lying about feels like a necessary evil and the whole thing is a mental and emotional prison and that's very hard, but there are so many actresses that went through the exact same thing and didn't get even one percent of the grace he did and were not given the benefit of any doubt when they tried to deny their surgeries. it's just sad that countless women get called liars and "plastic surgery disasters" when they get pressured into risky procedures trying to become some unattainable feminine ideal and treated like vain monsters when it doesn't go as planned, but efron can debut a new face that looks like a meme drawn by an incel, give an extremely implausible excuse and people suddenly think anything is possible and multiple outlets will repeat and legitimise that story as if it adequately explains everything. case closed, no further questions, he just looks like this now and any raised eyebrows are attacks against a FALL SURVIVOR

like one of the most famous prettyboys secretly had this massive life threatening facial injury that required emergency hospitalisation, reconstructive surgery, and a decade of physical therapy somewhere in the narrow gaps between some of the biggest movies of his career and not a single soul knew about it until now and it had absolutely zero outward effects on his appearance until the better part of a decade later when it just happened to manifest as a constellation of simultaneous physical changes that coincidentally mimic the most common masculinising cosmetic surgeries men get when they feel insecure. all at once. permanently. but he says that's what happened so it has to be true, and famous men never ever get plastic surgery and he can't possibly have EVER been vain, insecure, or dishonest.

imagine meg ryan trying to get the public to swallow a story like that and tell me she wouldn't have been crucified for it.

meanwhile it literally gets written into his movies as a cheeky little joke.

[crazyexdirkfriend]

hi tony. it's me borzoi. how's the fic going? btw i poured sand outside your door i hope you dont mind. anyways can you tell me all the reasons you like jake. i need to shoot soemoene down with appreciation for him.

hello hello today I wrote 500 words and then spent 2 hours researching Jung's theory of collective unconsciousness again for a throwaway line. So, productive! (sand encroaches further) I love Jake because he's my specialist boy and if everyone doesn't hype him up I'll burn this site to the ground

Nonexhaustive (bc I'm exhausted) Jake bits that I love: -He's a bitch. He's very smart at making everyone believe he's a little stupid. And usually this is so he has plausible deniability if anything is expected of him (because that's stressful and makes people hate him if he fails) but it's also so he has plausible deniability about being a bitch.

-His kooky vernacular. I despise Jake being reduced to "Britishisms" when he is oscillating wildly between modern slang, sounding like a 1930s socialite, on thesaurus dot com looking at synonyms, or just making stuff up. Sometimes his quirky phrasings are just little metaphors all in their own little bizarre way. His caboose is laughed straight off the tracks! Many have died in this tragic derailment.

-His whole fucked up fairytale gender fuckery princess archetype narrative shenanigans. I could say a lot about this but I spent so long in my thesis trying to put it into words and then Rads said dirk/jake was Shrek and everything just. Clicked. Yeah. They're Shrek. Enough said really

-He's so weird. His pile of guns. His slobberd on Neytiri poster. The fact that he would have most certainly kept Dirk's head and made a skull collection given half a chance.

-He's just genuinely trying but sometimes trying is so hard. It's very hard to get up and try to be the best version of yourself every day when the best version of yourself is the one that isn't you, the one that exists in someone else's fantasy. Dirk would know all about that.

-Jake's level of anxiety and specific derangements are so fun to investigate. Why is he like that. I love finding out. Kid burned his grandmother in the woods like.

-I also just find Jake's arc fascinating on a meta level. I'm not sure I necessarily agree at this moment in time that Jake's arc is played off as a joke or that Hussie hates Jake. He's just the narrative anti-darling. Reading Jake's parts can be extremely difficult, especially coming into the epilogues, but I think that's always what was building. Maybe it's not an old joke that's no longer funny, it's a scene that's meant to be narrated dismissively enough to make you uncomfortable.

(Side. My original thesis proposal (2017-2018) on Homestuck was about narrative manipulation and investigating whether Hussie's framing of Jake's arc is deliberate, not because he has a vendetta against a character he made up in the first place but because it's a metanarrative- audience participation. How horrific do the acts happening to Jake have to be before everyone stops laughing? How far can Jake be cosmically punished by a narrative before the audience stops thinking it's justified, penance for being "an asshole." (Answer: pretty far. Just take many reactions to the Derse Prison Scene, and a few more to boot about the epilogues) )

Rambling a little. But to reiterate my top point

-Jake is a bitch. Jake held a poll to name the tv show "Rumble in da Pumpkin Patch...or whatever stupid name Dirk would have come up with." And I love him dearly for it.

[isfjmel-phleg]

I recently acquired a collection of the Reign of the Superman arc, and there were some concept sketches in the back, including Kon's design, which features some interesting notes from artist/co-creator Tom Grummett.

Mike: This design is an amalgam of what I thought were the best elements of those 'napkin sketches' we talked about. Any comments or suggestions are welcome & appreciated. Personally, I think this looks great! In addition, an independent poll (mine) of 10-16 year olds I know rated this outfit as 'cool.' --Tom

I love that Grummett ran the design past young people to verify if it was indeed sufficiently cool. This ensemble is 100% certified 90s youth-approved.

Some of the ideas for the earring include 1) a small 'hoop' ring 2) a 'stud' type earring 3) a 'Superman' symbol (although we'll only see it in extreme close-ups)

Note that at this stage there is no mention of the earring's being a replacement for a tag, which would first appear at the end of Kon's arc before his solo. The hoop was a suitable option, I think. Generic enough for him to acquired for himself easily but with more interest than a stud. I can't see Cadmus equipping him with a special S earring.

Superboy will 'layer over' his basic uniform with 'accessories' like the jacket, sunglasses[,] ripped jeans, et al. For two reasons 1) to satisfy his own sense of 'style.' 2) to hide out from Cadmus search teams. These outer layers will tend to get shredded or busted away in heavy combat.

The jacket and sunglasses became part of the iconic look, but ripped jeans were never a thing, not even when he's in civilian clothes. Hiding from Cadmus never happened either; in the final version, they track him down the first day but chose not to take him back quite yet. Everything was still in development at this point, and it's interesting to get a glimpse of what other directions the creators could have gone.

Note to Karl/Mike: If we assume Superboy generates the same aura that his adult counterpart did, his Cadmus-made Superboy outfit will be indestructible. However this property would not extend to his leather jacket, which, like Superman's cape, will tend to show some wear and tear. I visualize a scene where Superboy survives a massive explosion in an attack. And savagely retaliates to avenge his jacket! ("You goons ruined my jacket! I'm gonna kill ya!") Since Ma Kent isn't likely to be sewing leather jackets in any quantity (if at all) they'll be harder to come by than Supes' capes ever were. --Tom

Grummett's visualized scene got incorporated into the final story! And became a running gag. Kon ends up getting a seemingly endless supply of replacement jackets from the news station that's using him, at first. But it's rough having no mother with sewing skills to keep one supplied with clothing!

Some thoughts about 'Project Superboy'... If we run into a timeline problem with a Superboy running around within a week or two of Supes['] funeral (and having Pa Kent's life hanging by a thread for too long a period of time), we may have a way to get around it.

Suppose we say that 'Project Superboy' was begun when Supes was apprehended by the Hounds and brought to Cadmus for study[.] (This was in one of Jurgens' issues, I'm not sure which number) An analysis was done on Supes that formed the basis for the 'Superboy' experiment, which was, by the time of Supes['] death, already underway, with a Superboy in progress. When Cadmus later took Supes['] body after the funeral, a further, more detailed analysis was done. The results of which were used to enhance the Superboy subject, and further accelerated his development.

This suggestion was not used. In the final timeline, Kon was developed to adolescence in under a week after twelve previous attempts failed. However, it's clear that Grummett has given this a lot of thought, and his suggestion for justifying the seemingly too rapid timeline fits plausibly into established information. This is a collaborative process, with writer and artist jointly building character and story.

[hierarchyproblem]

Brief comments on the other books I read in July:

The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks. Frank is such a fucked up little guy! He thinks and acts in a believably teenage way, too, which many authors struggle with. And turns out Banks was let's say interested in gender right from the get go! Some interesting context for a lot of what he does in the Culture novels, anyway.

Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor. This is a far more considered and purposeful post-apocalypse than most. There's a sort of thing in the storytelling that's like in A Wizard of Earthsea where like, the moment-to-moment of events isn't described, rather events are kind of montaged over? Earthsea does this more, but it felt similar. Actually I just realised Le Guin was probably echoing a biblical register with that. Anyway Who Fears Death was great!

Tell Me I'm Worthless by Alison Rumfitt. This was horrible, I loved it. I think a lot of the horror qua horror was a little goofy but the horror of like, living in England and having a gender was extremely well-articulated. Caveat emptor with this one - the transphobia and sexual violence stuff is depicted particularly unflinchingly - but if you're up for a hard read it's well worth it.

The Northern Caves by Nostalgebraist. Fascinating stuff. The story is told through forum chatlogs, book excerpts, and one guy's post-mortem report on the climactic event - a framing device I adored. I dont feel that the revelation of "what happened on Spelunk 04!" quite lives up to the build-up but otherwise everything about this was thoroughly absorbing. Salby's weirdo philosophy is at least as compelling as it is offputting; much to chew on.

The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi. This one's just sheer good fun. Jean is such a bastard, which is a delightful characteristic in a protagonist. The action sequences rested on the worldbuilding in a very satisfying way. The "dead souls" being referred to as "gogols" is a very nice wink to classic Russian literature of all things - I expect I'll say more on this once I've finished Nikolai Gogol's Dead Souls.

The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers. The first few stories, especially The Repairer of Reputations, are the best in my opinion, and they're the ones that deliver on the reputation the book has. The last three stories are just straight-up romantic vignettes in regular Paris! They're well-written, sure, but I was here to find the Yellow Sign, y'know? Unfortunately I started reading Act 2 and I'm insane now.

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler. This was actually the first Butler I've read and she sure lives up to her reputation! I don't think this is quite as plausible a future as it might've seemed at the time but it's still far more grounded than most. It's mostly sufficiently non-didactic in its discussion of Lauren's Earthseed stuff to be stomachable, which is easier said that done.

Among Others by Jo Walton. I have a few gripes with this one ("magic works exactly the way people who think magic is real think magic works" is a real turn-off; "acupuncture is real and works by magic" is stupid; the ending is quite rushed and you're not really given to expect any of that stuff is even possible with the way magic's worked in the rest of the book) but the sheer love of old-school SFF shines through the whole way, which is tremendously endearing. But why would you write this as a British boarding school story! That's not one of the things worth salvaging from Harry Potter! Like, I read plenty of Jennings and Billy Bunter and so on as a kid, 'cause they were on the bookshelves from my dad's childhood and at that age I'd just read fucking anything, and let me tell you we can leave the whole damn thing behind as a genre. Seriously.

[meanderingstar]

Hi, I was wondering what you thought of Priory of the Orange Tree and if you're planning on reading the upcoming prequel?

I gave it 2.5-rounded-to-3 stars

honestly, I think the book was very mediocre. It took me a while to acknowledge that to myself because I wanted to like it very badly and was caught up in my own anticipation and hype, but I was very dissatisfied during my reread months ago. Please keep in mind, though, that these are purely my opinions; if I criticize something and someone else is able to overlook/enjoy it, it's fine.

Ultimately, I think the crux of my issue with the book is that a collection of interesting (albeit staple) ideas and in-depth research does not automatically translate to good storytelling.

Its pacing was abysmal - it was too long, it started too slowly and ended too fast, and it's genuinely bizarre that in a book with multiple kingdoms and a looming draconic apocalypse, we spend more than half the story following a single nation's daily court life + political intrigues that ultimately has no literal or thematic connection to the overarching plot and felt very disjointed and aimless as a result. It also wastes too much time on incessant filler descriptions about irrelevant details + scenarios that don't matter. When the grand finale against the Nameless One finally arrives, it lasts for less than a chapter and is resolved with embarrassing ease; I recently saw an ask that compared it to the final battle of Blood of Olympus, and that's a hilariously apt comparison. The book could and should have been trimmed down, because it could have been easily concluded in just half the page length.

It had an incredibly uneven and unbalanced focus: The West is given immensely more attention and pagetime than the East, which results in the latter seeming reactive, unimportant and vague in comparison. Many people have commented that dragons, despite being used to hype up the book pre-release, were minimally present in the story. The Pri/ory of the Or/ange Tree, despite giving the book its name, also plays an extremely negligible role in the story and barely receives any pagetime; it's also extremely ridiculous that a society of magic-wielding women whose entire purpose resolves around the Nameless One doesn't even fight in the final battle against him. Ead (I'll get to her in a bit, I have a lot to say) is the only one who gets a role. This is explained from an in-universe perspective, yes, but from a writer's perspective, my question is: what's the point of glorifying the Priory, of emphasizing the truth of Cleolind's history, if her legacy doesn't even matter to the plot beyond the actions of one member? I don't know if this is a criticism or a skeptical observation; take your pick.

The book also felt very flat, which was the most irritating aspect to me personally because I'm drawn to books based on their sheerness and the emotions they invoke, and while the language of this story was descriptive, the tone was dry, lifeless and monotonous. It had no sense of stakes and failed to invoke plausible surprise, tension or dread - characters having arguments is written with the exact same intensity as a world-ending apocalyptic battle. The Nameless One is an utterly lackluster villain: despite being told that he is terrifying, we don't feel it because the pov character (Ead) has a negligible emotional reaction; and he's defeated in less than a chapter with barely any difficulty.

Everything also felt far too convenient. The plot is full of ridiculous coincidences where characters just happen to stumble upon objects they need to find or people they need to meet - and so there's no actual sense of anticipation or active engagement. To give you some examples: Loth has to infect himself with a life-threatening, lethal plague to escape? No worries, it's just temporary, there's an easy cure that a group of people have vigorously hidden for 1000 years but he's given explicit directions to find. This results in a global, terminal plague seeming like nothing more than an aesthetical backdrop with no direct relevance to the story. A legendary sword has been missing for centuries, has been hunted for several queens to no avail, and is crucial to defeating the big bad dragon? No matter, it's conveniently connected to two characters despite no prior indication of such a relation, its vague location is almost instantly predicted and its precise location is directly fed to another character via a riddle that took her about two seconds to crack. Multiple nations with rivalries, cold wars, and deadly feuds are meant to ally together for an apocalyptic threat with no concrete evidence except for a random letter written by a woman who is regarded as a myth in one continent and almost completely unknown in another? It hardly matters because all of nations - I kid you not, ALL OF THEM - agree to ally with barely any conflict and without the traditionally established (as per our world and their own) pact of marriage. It's fine if these things happen once or twice; coincidences can be fun. But the plot of Pri/ory is not just laden with them, it's dependent on them. It would crumble without them.

Oh, and hardly anyone dies. A lethal plague, feuding kingdoms, fire-breathing dragons, a (poorly written) grand battle on the sea, and hardly anyone dies except for a few negligible side characters. Lmao.

The characters are stiff and abstract with little to no emotional resonance, at least not for me, which is a symptom of her descriptive but dry, overly formal tone, but also because 1) the author relied too heavily on broader concepts, aesthetics and superficial personalities to define and differentiate them, and 2) wrote a book with an incredibly uneven chapter focus between her povs. Her characters also had very similar internal voices: the vocabulary used and the way scenes/scenarios are described, for instance, are exactly the same in all their povs except certain instances with Niclays, despite their vastly different backgrounds and backstories.

I was very bored/dissatisfied with the pov characters in particular. Loth and Niclays were barely relevant to the plot and could easily be scrapped with little to no change to the overall story. Tane had the most potential: the combination of relentless ambition and haunting fear, the brief moment of greatness before the inevitable fall, and the grieving climb back to the sky was fascinating as a concept, although the dryness of the book obstructed its resonance. But she's constantly given the short end of the stick: she's barely present in the middle of the book and her relationships with people from the East are barely explored (eg: Susa's death, despite its importance to Tane's story, was utterly unimpactful to me because we barely knew Susa at all beyond what we are told about her relation to Tane). Even worse, although she's supposed to be one of the two main characters as a wielder of a jewel, her connection to the overarching story feels purely coincidental and disjointed. She had no arc of discovering the threat on her own the way characters from the West were afforded; instead, it's only due to her link to them that she becomes involved in the main plot at all. Loth tells her about the Nameless One, she and her dragon are used to heal Ead, and Ead explains the full situation and decides their course of action during the final battle. It's a massively uneven balance of narrative attention and respect, especially considering she's our only Eastern pov. This is repeated in the final battle, where she loses the sword which is retrieved by Ead; where she's unable to bear the Nameless One's voice even though Ead somehow knows how to respond to him. Tane's only able to properly succeed with Ead by her side; she's allowed no discovery or victory on her own.

Ead is probably the most irritating to me because 1) blatant authorial favoritism drives me bonkers, and 2) despite dominating this book's pagetime and clearly intended to be its main protagonist, she has no concrete personality to show for it. I loved her chapters the most and her pov the least: she, more than anyone else, is primarily defined by an Aesthetic because her narrative voice is incredibly flat and her characterization is vague and all over the place. The events that occur in her chapters are interesting in theory (although the writing remains deeply dry and unengaging) and she's the only character who's given the chance to Do Things, but that is even more aggravating because 1) she's simply not resonant or characterized enough to stand on her own and is therefore subsumed by her own story, and 2) several other characters get sidelined and disregarded to enhance her importance. She also had an incredibly static arc, imo: while her situation has changed by the end of the story (she is Prioress, in love with Sabran, saved the world, etc), her individual character has changed very little. And that's because her motivations are entirely external rather than internal: she reacts to the plot, but she's never actually affected by it. She has no journey of discovery and risk like Truyde (who was framed very weirdly by the book), arc of acceptance like Loth, or story of ambition, downfall and reclamation like Tane. I'm not saying any of these were written well, but the concepts were there and they could work for Ead as well. But she was, ultimately, stagnant. There's very little introspection, internal conflict or overarching goal for her as an individual; it's always in relation to the current plot, which arranges itself to accommodate her (eg: the moment there's a spark of tension between her love for Sabran and loyalty to the Pri/ory, it's revealed that the current Prioress wants to send her to Ungulus and murdered her mother. There's no tension or actual choice: leaving the Pri/ory to aid Virtudom is her only option, and it's conveniently the only moral one with no room for complexity or ambiguity. The isolationist plotline was also very arbitrary - we do not see Ead actually contemplating this policy in Inys, so her disagreement with Mita falls entirely flat; we don't see her contemplating it after she leaves the Pri/ory either, and so her proposal that she'll be able to "shape the future of the Pri/ory" to "ensure the stability of the new world" feels utterly random. Similarly, Ead becoming the Prioress at the end had no satisfaction or catharsis because 1) the Pri/ory barely played a role in the story, and 2) we only learn that Ead has always wanted to become a Red Damsel 150+ pages into the book. Nor does she consider becoming the Prioress/conducting a coup against Kalyba to save the Pri/ory until the queen of Lasia explicitly tells her that she'll be offered the position after they win. Compare it to Tane's overarching goal of becoming a dragonrider that drives so much of her arc, despite how flatly it's written; Ead is extremely scattered and lacking in comparison). Since she has the most pagetime and is clearly meant to be the protagonist, my irritation with her is more than the others.

I liked Sabran, though! Rulers burdened by their weight of their crowns, legacies built on dust and lies, selfhood devoured and finally reclaimed. However, when her arc reaches its pinnacle and she has to confront the truth of her family and her name ... the book falls flat. It seems like Sabran is barely affected by the reveal beyond "it will take time for me to come to terms with this". She argues for a few lines, and that's it. We're told that she's grappling with it, but we're not actually shown anything and it seems like she just moves on. And at the end, her proposal regarding abdication and succession change came from literally nowhere - she surprises Ead by saying "I have something to tell you" and surprises the reader as well because the last I checked, she was still struggling to accept the lies of her ancestry, and she led her people into war as their queen. Abdicating and removing the monarchial structure altogether is a huge decision that requires a lot of internal conflict and development that we're simply not shown; instead, we're merely informed of it once she's already made up her mind. It also feels extremely uncomfortable that the overhaul of an entire political system is limited to Sabran's own personal experience rather than, yk, an external exploration of how it affects the people who are being ruled. I also think the book would have also benefitted from her pov, at least for some specific scenes/a few specific chapters. Ead's perspective and observation has its own merit, yes, but I think it does Sabran a disservice to view her from a purely outside perspective and it lessens the impact of her arc. God knows she's more relevant to the actual story than Loth and Niclays.

One of the most potentially interesting concepts of the book to me was the intersection of history and mythmaking. However, I personally think it was executed quite shabbily? There is no proper build up or gradual uncovering or startling revelation: we are matter-of-factly informed of the truth right alongside the myth within the first 50 pages of the story. From an in-universe perspective, as mentioned before, Sabran, the descendant of Galian who staunchly believed in this lie all her life, is barely affected by the reveal. Nor is this publicly revealed to the nation as a whole; all we have is Sabran's promise that she'll eventually do it once the story is finished, so there's no proper collective impact, either. And to be really honest, how does this origin myth actually matter? I don't dispute the injustice that was inflicted on Cleolind's legacy on a personal level (although her true story is remembered and revered in the South) but how does this traditional gender dichotomy actually shape and impact the Bereth/net dynasty and Inysh society? Because as far as I can tell, it does not. Inys is a matrilineal queendom with no concept of gendered roles or customs with Cleolind as the sole, inconsistent exception. And frankly, in a world where gender is largely irrelevant, where misogyny doesn't exist, how does Cleolind get cast into such a traditionally gendered role (a "swooping waif" as Ead calls her) in the first place? I think Sh/annon wanted to explore patriarchal reconstructions of myths but also wanted a patriarchy-free society, and imo, those two ideas are pretty contradictory. Or maybe they're not, and it simply wasn't executed very well here. Either way, it ultimately felt scattered and illogical.

Religion and its differences across cultures is another major theme in the story, but I found its portrayal very surface-level. I'm agnostic, so take this with a grain of salt, but again, it feels as though Sh/annon mainly relied on aesthetics rather than exploring how it shaped her characters? Two instances where this was prominent pertained to Ead and Sabran. Sabran, by all accounts, is an extremely devout follower of her Faith and a devoted believer in the myth of Galian and Cleolind. Yet, like I mentioned, when she's actually confronted with the haunting reality of the truth, that her entire religion was a lie ... apart from a few lines here and there, she accepts it and moves on with mind-boggling ease. Another instance was Ead and her feelings for Sabran. Because honestly ... Sabran isn't just a queen of Virtudom, she is Virtudom. She is the descendant and the embodiment of a lie which she subscribes to entirely and which is the direct antithesis of the Pri/ory. Ead had to convert to remain at her court, she has called Ead's people and her beloved mentor "heretics" to her face, she commanded Ead to stop recounting the southern version of the story in favor of the Inysh version instead. The fact that Ead, a passionate follower of the Mother who holds the Inysh myth in contempt, falls so quickly for Sabran is simply bizarre. I might be forgetting, but I don't remember any guilt or anguish or fear or crisis of faith. Her love for Sabran seems entirely disconnected from virtually everything she is and everything she believes in. It could be an interesting dynamic, but the book didn't really explore or emphasize that. Maybe it's a personal issue for me, though.

That being said, I'm definitely reading ADO/FN. Despite Pri/ory's many flaws and lack of engagement, it was readable with some interesting (if staple) ideas and some genuinely beautiful lines/paragraphs; and I'm aware that it was Sh/annon's first book in the series and the genre of high fantasy. I'm also very partial to prequels, and from what I've seen regarding the world and characters of this one, it seems a lot more interesting and fairly promising. At the very least, I enjoyed her worldbuilding posts. Let's see.

Ik you sent me this weeks ago, sorry for answering so late! I'm planning on starting ADO/FN soon (probably tomorrow), so I figured I should probably write down my thoughts before I begin. Again, these are just my personal opinions and nobody has to necessarily agree or disagree!

[wingsyliveblogs]

Amity's aloof and detached attitude in the episode's beginning not only serves as a contrast to luz and willow genuinely hanging out and going dumb goofy friend stuff together even when they're ridiculed for it, but also makes sense with the reveal that she's been forced to hang out in a certain social group from a young age. Even when she's 'got' to be friends with them in case it reflects badly on her parents and family name, amity can't lie or force herself to genuinely enjoy being with them when she used to be happier with a genuine friendship. Since they'd be able to tell if she was faking liking the same things they do, amity instead keeps up a cool and detached attitude that prevents anybody getting too close to her, and thus exposing her real 'imperfect' self. Willow was not the only person suppressing things about herself this episode, and it's interesting how both willow and amity wound up forcing the other to show how they really felt on the inside.

1. Yeah, I think it's pretty cool that "Understanding Willow" also leads us to understanding more about Amity as well! Their pasts are so deeply connected by their former friendship and by that one incident in particular that we get to learn a lot about both of them in this episode, even if it's just Willow's mind that we're looking into.

And that's a very good point about the contrast between Amity with her "friends" compared to Willow with Luz. Amity shares the same space as Boscha and the others, but never makes much effort to engage with them. Contrast that with the friendship trio - or even with Amity when she does get to hang out with people whose company she actually enjoys! For example, she seems to make an attempt to retain her detached persona around Luz in Episode 12, but it doesn't last.

(Is this an excuse to post this screencap again because I think it's a very cute Amity moment? Possibly.)

2. I've recently rewatched Episode 3, and it's very interesting to examine Amity's actions in that episode with the added context of everything we've learned about her since. Her lines in her introduction scene definitely feel a bit like an awkward attempt at a Boscha impression in retrospect, as does the cupcake-squashing in Episode 5.

I do think that it's a very plausible read that she was genuinely trying to encourage Willow at first, while also trying not to act in a way that could be interpreted as friendly towards her (because they weren't friends and they couldn't be friends) - and the combination of these factors came out as "extreme condescension" and just added to Willow's already building frustration with the class as a whole.

It certainly seems consistent with one major element of Episode 15, which is that everything that Amity has done to Willow in an attempt to protect her has really only hurt her more, and that Amity didn't truly understand the full extent of that hurt until Inner Willow spelled it out for her.

3. The birthday party photo is very interesting to me, because it's the only one that doesn't seem to represent what the actual memory is about. As far as we saw, every other photo was directly related to what happened in the attached memory, but we never even get to see Amity and Willow being happy together before Amity's parents intervene. The photo itself is deceptively cheery - covering up the truth, just as Amity was doing and just as Willow herself wanted to.

4-5. These are some interesting points! I didn't really consider the possibility that Amity was avoiding Willow specifically because she'd given up on making things right and felt that Willow would be better off without her. It's not quite how I read her actions throughout the episodes so far (it seemed more as though she was still trying to keep herself separate from Willow due to what her parents said, and that she wasn't quite taking Willow's own feelings into the equation until Willow threw them in her face) but it's a reasonable interpretation and could very well be what she was thinking!

I'm still not quite sure if Amity knew the full extent of what erasing herself from the photo could do... because what she was trying to accomplish really depends on how much she understood what she was doing. Was she trying to erase herself from Willow's mind (just like Inner Willow herself?) Was it just a panicked attempt at destroying the evidence of her old friendship with Willow that was out in full view for anyone at Hexside to see?

Both answers seem plausible... though as you say in one of the messages below, it's quite likely that Amity never took the photography class at all, and thus would have had limited knowledge of how the memories and photos worked. I don't think she'd ever have risked setting Willow's entire mind on fire if she knew that was a possibility, so it's reasonable to assume that she didn't know about the connection between the photos and memories at all.

6-7. Ooh, this is certainly a fun topic to speculate on! Willow's mindscape has a very solid theme because plants are very much her thing, so it's actually a bit tricky to imagine what some of the other characters' mindscapes may look like when their own interests may not translate so easily to a clearly defined space inside their mind. I like to think that a healthy mindscape would represent what someone would personally want to have in their mind, in addition to reflecting their personal interests.

For example, Luz is very much into fantasy stories, but I'm not sure if she'd have a library as her mindscape? She proved to be a bit of a troublemaker in the library environment in Episode 7, after all, so I'm not sure how well it really suits her. But based on her comment about Amity's secret hideaway and her excitement over the hidden area in Episode 13, I think that her mindscape might have a lot of hidden doors and passages - not because she's trying to hide anything, necessarily, but because she thinks they're cool.

I think that her mindscape might also incorporate physical manifestations of elements from stories she likes, sort of like that fake quest from Episode 2? Basically, I don't think she'd have the books themselves inside her mind; I think she'd want to bring those books to life inside her mind instead, if that makes sense.

Similarly, I think Gus's mindscape would probably incorporate his skill with illusions and flair for the dramatic, in addition to his obsession with the human world.

I'm honestly not sure what Amity's mindscape would be like? Your idea seems quite plausible - alternately, she might be the one with the library mindscape, since Episode 7 indicates that she sees the real-world library as a relatively safe space compared to basically everywhere else. It's where she hides the things she doesn't want anyone else to see.

I would honestly love to see what Eda's mindscape is like, because she definitely has a pretty consistent owl theme going on, and I'm curious about what that would look like in her mind, but also I'm starting to wonder if her curse might have an effect on her inner world and if so, how would that manifest?? Sadly, since Eda is the only person we know who can cast the mind projection spell, she's probably the last person whose mind we'd ever get to see inside...

meanwhile, I'm not entirely sure I want to know what goes on in Hooty's mind

[acourtofthought]

The easiest way to get to know Elain is for Elain to receive a book.

It's honestly that simple.

We can't learn about her through Feyre. Feyre only thinks of her as a pleasant companion.

We can't learn about her through Nesta. On a bad day, Nesta considers her to be a dog, loyal to a master who keeps her in comfort and thinks she'd faint to hear Nesta's dirty thoughts. On a good day Nesta wants to hold her back from doing anything she deems dangerous.

We're definitely not learning about her in a Gwyn or Az book.

In SF certain characters tried to hold back her growth while others pointed out how she should not be underestimated, how maybe she's been worried about disappointing them but that they might not have seen all she has to offer, that gardening results in something pretty but often involves getting one hands dirty along the way.

In SF, regardless of which side the characters fell on, we have everyone speaking about Elain, speaking for Elain, deciding what she's allowed to want, what she thinks, what she feels.

Isn't the natural next step for Elain to have a POV? Where we're no longer hearing everyone talk about her but hearing her own thoughts and opinions?

This is where the next argument comes in, that Elain has not had a bonus chapter, therefore she's not ready for a book.

Did Feyre not receive an entire trilogy without a bonus chapter?

Did Bryce's book not begin without a Bonus Chapter?

Did Yrene not receive a main POV without a Bonus Chapter?

SJM uses Bonus Chapters to add details, to maybe hint at what is to come but it is not a requirement (we already know she's got a mate so there's no need to allude to it in a bonus and not when both bonuses dealt with Elain and her bond to some degree).

Especially for Elain , "I think she's got the Night Court's spymaster beat for secret keeping" Archeron.

SJM gave Mor a POV in ACOFAS but no one is arguing she's getting the next book, right? So why didn't Elain get a POV in ACOFAS?

SJM gave Az and Feyre a Bonus in SF. She could have easily given Az and Elain the two Bonus Chapters (or added a third, clearly she's got no limits when you look at HOFAS) and STILL given Az the next book but she purposely chose not to give Elain one. Why is that?

Is it not plausible that SJM wants to leave Elain's true thoughts a big secret? What she really thinks about the NC? What she really thinks about Lucien? What she really thinks about Az?

Elain, like Lucien, has the most open ended questions surrounding her character right now. What is going on with her visions? What does she plan to do about her mating bond? Why did she draw away from Lucien after the war? Is she truly over Graysen and her lost humanity? How is she really processing her fathers death? Was her time in the Cauldron as traumatic an experience for her as it was for Nesta? Where will she end up? The NC? Spring? Day? How does she really feel about how her sisters treat her? About how many view her? Does she struggle with her mother thinking she was only a pretty face?

She's already had so much growth. She offered to search for the Trove when Nesta was to afraid to. She went to the Hewn City despite it's cruelty bothering her. She found her voice in SF and fought back against someone trying to protect her and shelter her. She's helping the fae citizens without prompting when she was once extremely fearful of their kind. Really, there's not much more someone can expect from her character before she's even had her arc. It makes sense that she would start her book with something to still overcome.

SJM has laid out everything necessary for Elain to have her own book, there's nothing more that needs to happen except for her to...............................have a book. Especially when you combine her story with all the open ended questions and plots that Lucien has as well, they've got enough going on for multiple books at this point.

I've been thinking about a comment I've seen thrown around in the great "whose book is next?" debate, which is "we don't know enough about Elain yet."

I wouldn't say I'm confused as to why people say this. I know it's because for many people, Elain is easily forgotten and purposely ignored because of her character archetype. Especially in fantasy, female characters who are more soft spoken, traditionally feminine, and have a penchant for following social norms or being generally agreeable as a way to get by in the world are often pushed to the side. You see it not only in how other characters act towards them but also how readers value them. We specifically see Rhys and Feyre actively choose to put Nesta's needs (and ultimately her story) before Elain's by focusing on "one sister at a time" which is explained by Nesta being the squeakier wheel.

But let's take a moment to understand what we have seen of Elain's journey so far.

We have seen Elain: live in poverty, witness her sister's kidnapping, mentally manipulated by fae magic to forget, see her family return to riches, have to navigate high society again, find a fiance and become betrothed, host queens in her home to help her Fae sister which she hides from her betrothed, kidnapped, made into a Fae against her will, have a mating bond snap with someone who isn't her fiance, grapple with becoming fae, learning the nature of her new powers, mourn the separation with her love, processing that she has a mating bond to another, receive visions of a powerful death god, try to get back her fiance and is horribly dumped, kidnapped again, present in a battle, killing the King of Hybern to protect her sister, losijg her father,process some more her trauma of losing her human life and grieving her father, trying to fit in with her new family and her new life, insisting she wants to help the NC and to learn more about her powers, pursue a crush and be rejected... Again, grapple with the codependent relationship she has with Nesta both in setting boundaries and trying to heal, reconnect with her sister Feyre, and witness her sister die and be resurrected in childbirth.

To me, that spells out quite a character journey of experiencing trauma of many types, overcoming adversity, and trying to find her identity and place in the world.

What is most important is on all three of those counts we have seen the start of this process but we haven't delved deep or had any resolution. And more specifically, because these are romances, we haven't seen how Elain will grow and make sense of her mating bond that she feels a lot of reluctance towards. I point all of this out because there is a lot of tension in Elain's narrative. There are several unresolved plots and actions that have happened to her character that we are sitting and wondering what she is going to do and what she thinks of all of these things.

I just don't think the statement that "we don't know enough about Elain yet" for her to have the next book is a valid argument to make when you actually sit down and take the energy to see Elain. To focus on what her specific experience has been so far in the books.

Her story is geared up and ready to go. Specifically her story with Lucien. And this is leaving out how connected she is to the overall fantasy plots because the bigger point I wanted to make is that as a character, Elain already has a lot to her story and even more to explore. She is more than geared up to be a FMC.

I know especially with the ship war it's easy to get caught up in rooting for what we want to see happen. But at the end of the day, this is a character we've known since the first novel, who has been integral to many parts of the story and directly affected by what has happened in the story. So the entire attitude that it's preposterous to think Elain is ready for her own book is really just doing what everyone else in her life does to her - underestimate her. And I can't wait for people to see how much they have misjudged and ignored her.

[littlespoonevan]

Sending this to you bc I know you don't 100% believe in canon buddie. I don't really agree when people say that buddie has to happen any minute now. Is it just me or are they not very romantically coded at all? I struggle to find anything between them that isn't platonic. The guardianship thing? To me it seems normal for close bffs to do that. The extremely sexually charged kitchen scene? That was 3 seasons ago and hasn't happened again. Of course we can speculate based on those moments and say they'd be perfect for setting up buddie. But what do we actually have, without speculation? Maybe one or two looks exchanged between them, like during the couch metaphor convo? Also, atp neither of them is even canonically attracted to men. I say all of this as a buddie shipper, I want them to be together and I enjoy the speculations. But then I actually watch a new episode and I don't really see anything in the text that seems to lead up to it. Of course I'm hoping that'll change in future episodes but yeah. Idk, what do you think? Am I being too sober?

hey anon! i’m going to apologise in advance for how longwinded this answer is going to get but i wanna make sure i address all your points!! 

so one thing i went into the fandom believing (and something i still stand by) is that in s2 and 3 there is very little outside of buck and eddie’s dynamic with chris that implies anything romantic between them. i think the same can be argued in part for s4 and 5 (though i do believe something has shifted but i’ll get to that later!). and i know chris is so intrinsically tied to their dynamic it’s like, well what’s the point of removing him from the equation? but the thing is, for me, it’s about needing to see romantic attraction.

like, yes they’re a family, yes buck acts as a co-parent to chris, yes they’re partners and confidants and everything in between and yes they love each other. all of that is canon and none of it is extrapolation on our part. but all of it exists in this murky realm of plausible deniability. it could be romantic but it could also conveniently just be a very strong platonic bond if the show chooses to keep it that way. it’s Schrodinger's love story.

because, as we’ve all discussed before, the show very pointedly doesn’t define their relationship. except for the "you’re badass under pressure, brother” and the “you said it, brother” comments in s2 and buck calling eddie his best friend in 3x03, it’s never said out loud what they are to each other - particularly in these later seasons when their bond has only gotten stronger. and i think that’s absolutely deliberate. 

so if i were to describe my own views on everything right now i would say i’m cautiously optimistic. 

i believe there are writers and directors on the show who would make buddie canon in a heartbeat if given the green light, i believe the actors would be all for it and i believe the door has been left open for it to happen but i’m also not 100% convinced it will yet 

(especially because this is uncharted territory, like when has a network show Ever let two of their male leads fall in love and be together based on what was originally a fan theory????).

because as much as there are these underlying metaphors about hearts and the universe that we’re picking up on (and again, i believe they’re on purpose), i wouldn’t think the general audience is picking up on that. likewise, even though the fandom believes something like the eddieana breakup is queer coded (and i agree!!!) idk to what extent the general audience would make that leap??? like you said, as far as canon is concerned right now nothing has been confirmed to say either of them are attracted to men. my mom watches this show and i Know if buck and eddie suddenly got together in the morning she would be extremely confused. 

at this point what it would take to convince me is very simple. all i need is one close up shot on one of their faces while they look at the other person with the right music in the background and the right look on their face and i’m sold. that’s it. that’s all they’d have to do. they’ve already laid the groundwork. just give me one five second scene that would allude to something more as far as their feelings for each other are concerned

because right now, if i take off my shipper goggles and try to be objective my list of buddie scenes that made me sit up and go ‘wait this could be something more’ only consists of:

the kitchen scene in 3x09 (more so for the conversation before the flirting actually lmao)

buck’s reaction to the well collapse in 3x15

carla commenting on eddie’s relationship with ana in 4x13 (simply because the fandom had been predicting it for WEEKS before it happened)

how the shooting scene was filmed

the will reveal (more so for the “because evan. you act like you’re expendable but you’re wrong” part and eddie keeping the whole a secret for reasons unknown)

their dynamic in 5x14

buck’s description of love in 5x18 (actually probably the most explicit reference to buddie i feel they’ve done, especially when combined with ravi’s “a partner should have your back” comment)

the dinner scene in 6x01

those are the scenes i can’t explain. those are the scenes that feel romantically coded for me. those are the scenes that make me think there’s a chance at something. and like i mentioned earlier, i do believe something has shifted since the end of s4. so whether that means the writers have fully committed to bringing their relationship to fruition remains to be seen but they’ve definitely upped the ante.

i guess ultimately, to answer your question, i don’t think there’s anything wrong with reserving judgement right now or not being 100% convinced. i know sometimes there can be assumptions about why people feel like that but i think that can sort of feel a bit dismissive??? like, i don’t think the show is homophobic, i don’t think the show is queerbaiting, i’m absolutely nOT an ex-destiel shipper who believes this is a supernatural do-over (i have blessedly never seen a single ep of that show). i’m just waiting for a very clear and explicit indication that buck and/or eddie like each other and intend to do something about it.

i think what it comes down to is if that negatively impacts your view of the show?? like will i be disappointed if buddie doesn’t happen? of course. but will it ruin the show for me? absolutely not. i love speculating, i love reading theories, i love feeling unhinged about all the metaphors surrounding their relationship, i love every teeny tiny morsel of a scene we get between them and 100% believe they are the kind of person each other deserve at this point. but also that’s enough for me??? hell, it’s more than some canon ships have given me before lmao. and i feel like even if they don’t end up together, i still trust the writers to give them an ending that’s satisfying or, at the very least, is open to interpretation, y’know????

so yeah, i don’t know if any of this is helpful, anon, but i think if you’re still able to enjoy the ride and take their scenes for what they are then you don’t need to worry about what’s coming down the line 💛

[dodo-begone]

Fear for my Lover

Pairing: DSMP!Quackity x Reader

Word count: 2.9k

Warning: Blood, stitches, bruises, injuries, cursing, frontier first aid (sorry if i missed something)

Summary: Life had been busy lately. Very busy. The night was peaceful and you were more than happy to take advantage of the quiet. Even with Quackity there with you. Fate had other plans though and absolutely ruined what would've been an amazing night.

A/n: i,,, this was meant to be SHORT but also- haha i got 2-3 more parts planned brrrrrr. Also used a dialogue prompt thingy for this- you'll see them in there. They're highlighted.

You thought nothing of it when Quackity said that he was going out. Beforehand he told you that he might have to stay late to do some work. You weren’t sure if he had finished or not, but his departure only confirmed the thought that no, he had not finished business.

With a sigh, you walk over to the couch and flop onto it. The exhaustion from the many months of constant work was catching up. You missed how life was before. Even when you were stuck under Schlatt’s rule on Manberg. Yes, it was quite tedious and annoying, but you weren’t completely rebuilding a nation from the ground up along with its citizens.

The physical work of building was tiresome, but something relaxation and a few nights of rest could easily reverse the effects. Though the mental strain was a completely different story. All of the paperwork was tedious and could keep you up at night just because you need to get one more paper done before dawn. Or just knowing that you aren’t able to help everyone in the new L’manberg. So many had given up hope, were tired of the vicious cycle that they had been caught in. It may not have been going on long, but it still had its effect on everyone all the same.

So much work and so little recreational time. There was little time to care for oneself with so much work on their plate. Let alone spend time with your loved ones. Even if they lived in the same house as you. It felt alienating when you weren’t able to even have a small conversation with your significant other.

Your thoughts were deafeningly loud. Sometimes even covering each other when they brought up memories of anxieties of the past and future. That’s why it was rather surprising when the entire L’manberg cabinet ran through your front door in a frenzy. Jumping off of the couch, you try to survey the situation. What in Pime’s name could be going on?

Their hysterical cacophony of voices were all that reached your ears. You didn’t even need to hear their words when you saw Quackity’s limp body in Fundy’s arms.

Without a second thought, you push your way over to Fundy and Quackity, quickly searching him for injuries. Well, the injuries part was pretty obvious with all of the blood. But the extent of the injuries were another story. What could be going on? How bad was it? Oh Prime, why was there so much blood?

In the frenzy you must’ve said something because something happened. One moment you are near the entrance with your beloved in the arms of his co-worker and the next you’re tending to his wounds in your shared bed. Nobody else was in the room. It was just you and Quackity. Your Quackity. And a bowl of water and a small stack of wash clothes and towels.

Your hands quacked from both worry and the sobs you were desperately holding back. Something was stabbing the interior of your throat as it closed from the overwhelming emotions that filled your body.

What terrified you was that Quackity wasn’t completely unconscious. He definitely wasn’t completely there but he was still awake and babbling. More muttering because of how frail and faint his voice was, but it was still a bunch of nonsense. How you wished to know what he was saying, what he was thinking. Now wasn’t the time, but you feared that if you didn’t know now that he’d never tell you. Shit hit the fan and he came back like this. Either his pride or his desire to “protect” you would keep him from spilling the tea. This was your only chance.

All you were able to do was open your mouth before Quackity was making this harder. He was extremely weak from the blood loss and you were in a race against time to stop the river of blood that just seemed to flow freely from his wounds. You had been holding his bigger wounds tightly, trying to put as much pressure as you could to slow the blood loss or stop it completely. Each attempt to settle Quackity only leads to him resisting more, weakly fighting you to get up. Soon his behavior had gone on for too long, in your humble opinion, and he was still as stubborn as he was in the beginning.

With what little common sense you had left in your nearly hysterical state, you tried to reason with him. “Quackity,” you pleaded, still trying to gently push him back onto the bed so he was laying. “Please lay down, Duckie. It’s for your own good. Just let me bandage you up and I’ll leave you alone. Okay?”

From an outsider’s perspective, the attempt was silly. It really wouldn’t have gotten much of a reaction from your confused lover. And yet you still tried anyway, hoping that anything would help at this point. You were desperate.

His silence spoke volumes. In some stroke of luck, Quackity heard your words. That or he became too tired to fight and “speak”. Either way, you were taking what you could get. It was a victory and your goal was reached. Without much, if any fight at all, you managed to get Quackity back into bed and went back to patching up his wounds.

They were much worse than you hoped. Your wish that it was a smaller wound with a ton of blood oozing out was swiftly dashed when you started to clean up the blood from its source. Well, more accurately from anywhere and cleaning until you found the source. Although a bad idea, you had patched up his smaller, easy to access wounds. Though you couldn’t dodge the challenge that stood before you, glaring at you from Quackity’s face.

Petechiae, scratches, and bruises also decorated his face in a hideous manner. The centerpiece of it all was a large scar that traveled from his lip to his eye, all on the left side, was the most obvious wound. The others could heal on their own, but that cut, could you even call it a cut, was in dire need of assistance. It was probably already infected and trying to heal itself. But it was too big, too wide to heal naturally. Intervention was needed and it was needed stat!

Blankly you stare at his face, mind running a mile a minute trying to think of remedies and solutions. Sadly there weren’t many options available. Ponk was too far away to call for his medical expertise, not even considering how late it was. Would he even still be awake? Let alone awake enough to do stitches? You could wait till morning but who knows what condition Quackity would be in at dawn. Something had to be done and it had to be done now. Only one plausible solution remained and it definitely wasn’t pleasant.

Swiftly you leave Quackity, moving out of the room as quickly as you could. Quackity tried to reach out to you but just missed your sleeve. Though you didn’t notice or know. You had things to get done and to get them done you needed equipment. Desperately you search around the house, pulling out anything you’d need. More clean towels, a bowl of clean water since the one you had been using was more than dirtied and the towels absolutely soiled. Placing them half-hazardly on a flat surface, you scurried around to find the other necessary equipment. After having to catch your sewing tin and lighter from falling a few times, you grab everything you previously gathered and make your treacherous journey back to Quackity.

When you return, he’s once again sitting up in bed. Weakly, mind you, as he fell back onto the mattress at the sight of you. You wished to scold him for going against what you asked of him, but it didn’t matter now. With no time to waste, you dump your supplies onto the nightstand and fumble around, trying to get everything prepared.

As nimbly as your shaky hands could spare, you set up your thread and needle as if you were going to start sewing a gorgeous design into a quilt. You stared at the bowl of water you had, debating whether or not to use your sad little lighter to heat up that big ole bowl… it’s better if you didn’t. Other than being faster, how much better would it be for sanitizing the needle? It’d take ages to get the water boiling and even then it might not be enough. A flame straight out of a lighter? Seemed better. It got the job done quicker and would be warmer than the boiling water so it was going to kill more bacteria and germ than the boiling water. That’s what you hoped, at least. This is why you aren’t a medic.

Shakily, you ignite the lighter and hold the needle to the flame, slowly rotating it to equally distribute the heat. As tedious and anxiety inducing as it was, it would be worth it in the end. The stitch is only temporary until you can get Ponk to come over, hopefully by early tomorrow. Or later today? What time even was it- Snap out of it! This isn’t the time to be doing this!

You didn’t know how hot the needle had to be to be considered “sanitized” but you had waited long enough. At least that’s what it felt like. Plus the part of the needle you’re holding is getting pretty hot.

When you go in for the first suture, the hiss of pain before you even punctured the skin was a good indicator to you. Not that he was awake enough to still be actively feeling things, but to be able to vocally express his pain and that the needle was hot enough to probably kill most bacteria and germs if it hurt to touch. Hesitation is making you its bitch, holding you still and making you contemplate if what you’re doing is right. Of course what you’re doing is right. It has to be. It’s one of the best and only options you have.

Before you did anything else, you grabbed one of the towels and rolled it up. Gently you pried his mouth open and placed it in like a gag. He wasn’t going to be able to grip much and he’d be grinding his teeth together from pain. Previous experience with stitches and similar frontier medical procedures has taught you one thing; having a gag to bite on helps every part. The patient gets a way to release their pain and the “doctor” is less likely to be hurt by the patient since the patient will have something else to focus on hurting. It doesn’t work entirely but it’s better than hearing the unmuffled screams of agony and feels better to have something to grip onto as hard as you can.

After getting him situated, you position yourself again. With a deep breath, you start off the first suture. Quackity’s muffled scream was heartbreaking yet shocking. Even with you expecting it, it still spooked you a bit. But everything was okay. This was for the best. And then you continued on. Slowly you added stitch after stitch after stitch until you thought you did enough. Really it was a combination of “this is adequate” and “i’m too anxious to keep going because what if i mess up”. Without anesthetics, it was just horrific for both parties to go through with this endeavor. He was moving around so much, trying to twist and turn away from the pain being done to him. His movements were so often and large enough to make you nervous about going near his eyes. What if you poked it out? Or made him blind?

Looking back at the stitches and what they held together, it was obvious that his eyesight was going to be impaired from now on. His eyes were looking completely different from each other now. The regular on the right and the horrific product of whatever he did on his left. A white film covered his eyes like a snow blanket. He was now blind in that eye or going blind.

Realistically, he was going blind but you still held out for the unrealistic hope that he’d be almost entirely okay afterwards. You knew it was unrealistic, but you still hoped.

You Quackity didn’t deserve this.

Once you have cleaned up the mess you made, you start to pack everything up. Needle in the bowl to be cleaned, remaining threat back into the tin, bowls moved away from where they’d get bumped and dumped. Slowly and methodically you finish your tasks. The adrenaline of the night is slowly leaving your body and exhaustion is once again taking hold of you. Oh how you hated that. Absolutely despised the feeling.

After everything was to your liking, you go to check on Quackity again before you leave to give and get some silent rest for the two of you. It’s the least you could do for him after all of this.

He seemed comfortable after everything, peaceful in fact. It was such a calming sight and it eased your guilt of hurting him. Everything you did was for the greater good, you mentally remind yourself. It was to help prevent further infection and it was only temporary. Until you could get proper help for him.

Without much thought, you sit by the bed and lay your head upon it. So much blood got onto the blankets and the sheets. You’d need to clean that quickly. After Quackity gets help and is moved or can be moved, that is. Which would hopefully be tomorrow. Slowly you start to doze off. Or was it zoning out? Either or you were slowly calming down further. To the point where you almost fell asleep.

Jolting awake, you begrudgingly haul yourself off the floor and start your long and tiring journey to the living room. The couch was comfier than the floor, after all. No matter how much you wanted to sleep by Quackity.

Your dawdling is stopped by something on your sleeve. At first you think your sleeve got caught on something so you tug in hopes of being untangled from said object. Nothing happens so you just tug harder. But still nothing happens. Eventually your little tug of war becomes too annoying and has been prolonged enough. You whirl around to see what in Prime’s name you could be caught on.

Low and behold it was the man of the hour, surprisingly. Quackity had grabbed onto your sleeve and just held you there. Confused, you walk back to the bed and sit, holding his face and inspecting for any new signs of pain. Anything that would show that he was feeling something different, something worse. You hoped that he wasn’t feeling like that, but it was a naive hope. Wounds were not an unfamiliar concept to you and yet you’d always hope for such fantastical things to the point where it was odd.

In return for you holding his face, he went to gently hold yours. A soft smile makes an appearance upon your face after the action.

“How’re you feeling, Ducking,” you whisper. Silence once again makes its presence known and it’s very loud and obnoxious about it. “Sorry. I know you’re in a lot of pain. That was stupid of me to ask.”

Quackity chuckles at your slip up and you’re more than happy to join him. Slowly your chuckling drowned out by the silence that had obnoxiously told you how wrong you were to ask your beloved if he was in pain when it was more than obvious that he was, indeed, in pain. You take a deep breath and release a sigh.

“You need to sleep. It’ll help with the healing and hopefully with the pain until tomorrow. I plan on calling Ponk to do some actual doctor shit on you because Prime knows how amazing my skills are.” Once again you attempt to leave Quackity to sleep, but stopped by his grip on your sleeve.

“Please,” he rasped. God his voice was so hoarse after everything. You felt terrible as you were part of the cause and yet you couldn’t do anything nor bring yourself to feel too bad. It was all for the greater good, after all. For his health.

“Please what?”

“Please stay with me,” he begged, looking straight into your eyes with his only working one. The sight was pitiful. Such a prideful man who could do so much left in such a weakened state. You hated seeing him like this. Nobody liked seeing their loved ones in a position like that. And how could you deny him that request, especially with what he went through tonight. You still didn’t know what it was but the aftermath was horrific enough to give a small clue as to what happened.

“Of course,” you reply, smiling warmly and climbing into bed with him. The moment you’re under the blankets and sheets, he gently pulls you into a hug. For his or your sake, you’re unsure. You hope that it’s his though. “Anything for my Duckie.”

[inviberu]

mirror

An old mirror dirty enough to the point you can’t see your reflection anymore. Faust decided to take a better look at it. He never expected it to turn out as a lost relic from a once prosperous city.

“Oh dear me!” Snow gasped, putting his hand over his mouth to appear more shocked than he actually is. A thoughtful smile suddenly took over his expression not long after as he put his hands on his hips. “I would’ve never thought I’d see this again in this day and age.”

“You know what this is?” Faust’s eyes widened as he examined the mirror in his hands once more, its golden rim giving off a shiny gleam after recovering it from the ruins during their last expedition to the Eastern country. It managed to pique the hermit’s interest after seeing it lay bare on the ground in such a terrible state, wanting to recover it to its former beauty. In some way, it reminded him of himself.

“But of course! This was awfully revered back in the day by both humans and wizards alike. It’s a good thing that my weary self was able to remember it.” Snow chirped, taking a closer look at the mirror. “A relic from a once-famous city—a mirror that is said to have the ability to show you the future. After their downfall, no one had any idea about where the relic laid rest. Ohoho! You’ve come across an exquisite item indeed.”

“The ability to show me the future? That’s ridiculous. I just picked it up from the ground, there’s no way a mirror like this is a lost relic.” Despite the sureness from his words, his voice held a certain kind of doubt that believed Snow. There was no reason for someone like Snow to lie to him after all, there was simply no merit in doing so and Snow wasn’t one to lie about this sort of stuff just for his own amusement.

“You think I jest? I see, then why don’t you try it out for yourself?” Snow’s expression held a smug smile before he remembered something and he let out a small gasp. “I heard it was very moody and picky though, so it might not work on your first try.”

“A moody mirror? The more I hear about this mirror the more I think that it’s a joke.” Faust shook his head.

“Ohoho! Try saying ‘please and thank you’ to the mirror when you try.” What Snow said sounded like a tease but Faust knew well that he was being serious. He didn’t know which one was worse—he could only let out a sigh as he inspected the mirror again. Could a mirror truly tell him of the future? Such an item is far too dangerous to be left out in the open.

“Woah, so you’re telling me this mirror can show you the future?” You wandered inside Faust’s room back and forth but your eyes remained fixated on the mirror placed on his desk, its intricate golden design never failed to catch your interest. It was hard to believe such a thing was capable of showing you the future when all sorts of magic relating to that were either forbidden or extremely hard unless you were gifted with the gift of prophecy like the twins from the North.

Faust let out a sigh, he couldn't bring himself to believe it either but there were a lot of strange things in this world—this was just one of them. "Apparently," he pushed up his glasses as he took the mirror in his hands and looked at his reflection. "Do you want to give it a try?"

"Me?" You asked curiously, wondering why Faust would ask you such a thing but you weren't against the idea of the mirror showing you your possible future. Though you can't help but feel a little bit scared when you thought about the possibilities—there was nothing more terrifying than the unknown future, after all. Faust handed you the mirror and you stared at it blankly. With much hesitance, you nodded.

"I'll try… how does this even work in the first place?" You tried tapping the glass, wondering if it was some sort of touch screen mirror but you were met with disappointment when it did nothing.

"Snow said to try saying 'please and thank you' to the mirror, I don't know if that'll work though. He said it was moody." Faust let out a dry chuckle, the thought still ridiculous to him but never crossed it out as impossible. If the mirror would truly respond to something like that, it only proved the strangeness of this magical world. You shot him a strange look, a moody mirror? But you pushed back the doubt to the back of your head and put your trust in him instead.

"Mirror, can you show me the future? Pretty please?" You cooed, feeling a bit stupid for pleading to a mirror like this. You waited a few moments for a reaction while looking at the object expectantly, only to be met with utter disappointment when it did absolutely nothing. Faust was silent along with you until he let out a small laugh, did you look stupid when you were doing that? You questioned if Snow was just pulling both of your legs, that mischievous old man!

"As expected, it won't work just because we asked it to."

"Geez, Faust! Do you really think a shabby thing like this can show us the future?" Shabby was the last word you would use to describe the mirror had it not been for your rage towards its defect. It looked elegant and regal, as if it didn't spend centuries lying beneath some rubble—it was a miracle the glass wasn't broken by such heavy fragments lying atop of it. You shook your head and gave Faust the mirror, giving up on it after you added: "How about you try it? It might listen to you because you're the one that picked it up."

He shot you a hesitant look, he had a feeling this wasn't going to end well yet he pushed that feeling into the back of his mind and stared at his reflection—he caught a small glimpse of your face in it while you were looking away and he couldn't help but break into a small smile. At that moment, something changed.

The hand mirror shook slightly in his grasp. Faust, alarmed, tried to make it sit still by gripping it tighter but it proved to be futile when it flew from his grasp and a blinding light filled the room—eliciting gasps of shock from the both of you as Faust grabbed to shield you from whatever was emerging in his room. When the light disappeared, it took him a while to get adjusted to the sudden change but once he did, he saw the hand mirror transformed into a full-body one sitting in the middle of his room.

"What in the world…" Faust left your side to carefully inspect the area, making sure there were no more risks in the area before taking your hand while telling you it was safe—aside from the now huge mirror residing smack middle in his room, its golden glow giving off an intimidating aura. You felt your initial shock turn into excitement.

"Isn't this great? It responded to you! What did you say?" You asked him, curious. You weren't paying attention to him at that time, perhaps you missed something.

"Nothing, actually. It just started vibrating and this happened." Faust tipped his hat slightly, closing his eyes and let out another sigh. One strange thing after another, he was bound to be drained at the end of the day, wasn't he?

"That's strange, you didn't say anything and yet it responded to you… curious." You stroked your chin. Faust stepped into the mirror's view and nothing was out of the ordinary, it showed him nothing of the future, only his reflection. He paused, was it broken after being left there for so many centuries? It was a plausible explanation. It was just like a normal mirror now, it was a shame such a relic has lost its true value—eroded along with the years that passed.

That is, until you stepped into the view.

The moment you stepped into the view, everything that the mirror showed suddenly changed as it emitted a faint white glow. You closed your eyes for a second and you could hear the faint sounds of… bells? You opened your eyes slightly to look at the mirror only for Faust to slap his hand over your eyes to obstruct your vision before you could get a small glimpse of what changed.

A bunch of incomprehensible sounds fell from Faust's lips and you tried to remove his hand from your eyes but that just made his actions more frantic. He grabbed your wrist and dragged you away from the mirror to outside of his room. You tried asking him what his problem was but you were left unheard as he left you outside and shut the door to his room aggressively. By the time you tried making sense of the scenario, you were already staring at his door from outside—did he just kick you out?

Your mouth was wide open when the realization dawned on you—what was his problem!? You crossed your arms grumpily, a part of you wanted to knock on his door again to demand an explanation but another part wanted you to storm off without saying anything to him. You pouted, or was he trying to protect you from something dangerous? Magical items could be dangerous if not handled correctly, after all.

In the end, you didn't know what to do and rested your forehead against his door frame with a clenched fist ready to knock at any given time and a defeated look.

To say Faust panicked back there was an understatement, he felt as if his soul was about to leave his body right then and there when he saw the scene the mirror showed him. He could only breathe a sigh of relief, he was glad he acted quickly before you caught a glimpse of it—that would've made things worse and he wouldn't know what to do. He slumped against the door, feeling a bit light-headed and fuzzy, the heat refusing to leave his face. He was embarrassed.

The sight wasn't something particularly scary or tragic. In fact, it was the complete opposite—though that made it all the more confusing as to why Faust would stop you from looking at it. It was a scene that he saw in one of his many dreams, something that flustered him to no end and wished it would leave him alone.

The bells that rang in the background, the happy couple dressed in white as they looked at each other lovingly, a perfect wedding scene straight from the dreams Faust doesn't tell anyone. A perfect wedding scene of you and him in the distant future—together.

To think your fate was intertwined like this… Faust could only hope that it's a future that's bound to happen. But, right now, he can't let you find out about this lest he wants to live the rest of his life inside the forest hiding from you. He would simply pass away from sheer embarrassment, oh how would he even face you? His cheeks burned red at the thought of a wedding with you once again.

[flockoff]

Okay I have been home alone for the past couple days with a anxious cat and I need to talk about this thing because I accidentally fell down a rabbit hole, and I now have more questions than answers. So, read more if any of ya'll want to see that.

The Stormy JubJub Wig is part of a set. The Stormy JubJub Set.

Take all these items and slap them onto a Jubjub and the guy will look like this.

I am the JubJub thats Approaaaaching.

Beyond just the hair and the entire set being called Stormy, the choice to have the Stormy contacts be Silver (Pre DMCV, Dante, Vergil and Nero typically are portrayed with Silver eyes, they did turn a bit more bluish/greenish in DMCV, though Vergil's eyes have remained pretty silver-y all in all, which is probably due to-well everything that happened to Vergil but that is not important right now we are talking neopets).

And arguably-- though hard to see considering its being worn by an orb and the item's Icon is extremely small, what we see of the Stormy Dress has design elements similar to Vergil's Coat/Vest combo, specifically in terms of collar and the lapels (I don't know why its called the Stormy Dress, could be that its just referring to a dress as an outfit, could be that JubJubs being how they are shaped can't wear pants, I do not know). The shoe's aren't really anything special. The biggest thing of note is that they are a dark-blueish gray which is accentuated by the choice of outline color which is kind of similar to DMCV's Vergil boot cover color.

Shoutout to Discord for accidentally making these images HUGE. Genuinely helpful-Wait why does the coat have sleeves

All things considered, it feels like it could plausibly be a silly Vergil reference.

OH god but which one is the real Vergil????

Except I did one mistake and that was I looked up when the item set was released. It was released on JubJub Day, June 7th, 2018.

3 Days before the Devil May Cry 5 Announcement trailer is shown at E3. And this--this is where I'm having problems because now I am curious. Not curious in the "Oh my god Neopets had a inside man that knew about DMCV Vergil" way, because as great a story as that would be--I don't think so. But curious in the "Who was the person who worked on/designed that outfit. People knew that DMCV was in the works, did that person also know and just took one HELL of a shot with it? Did they choose a Jubjub because that was the one with a day right before E3? Did they choose a black coat/boots to reference the DmC Remake Vergil?" Or perhaps funniest of all--What if this set was not actually a reference to Vergil at all. What if this set is just one major coincidence.

And that is the thing that gets me. I can't tell. I went combing through the item descriptions to see if there was anything that said "THIS IS A DEVIL MAY CRY REFERENCE"

Wig Description- "A healthy mop of silver-white hair." Contact Lens Description- "White lenses perfect for accessorizing any ensemble." Dress Description- "Original black with a trailing cape always spells class." Shoe Description- "Sturdy footwear with the right mix of comfort and style." There isn't anything that is like... Screaming Devil May Cry or Vergil. Like--Sure, silver-white hair but-that's just a descriptor. Style??? I mean. Its clothes. But luckily Neopets archives the all of their old news-so maybe there is something on the day it was released?

MAYBE? They DID Choose a Blue JubJub for their example JubJub. And given Dante and Vergil referring to the Temen Ni Gru incident as a Party throughout Devil May Cry 3 that could-that could be something? But--its ultimately all circumstantial.

Like admittedly--I was not around the fan spaces around Devil May Cry 3 or 4 even. And though I know Devil May Cry 3 is the originator of the "A storm approaching" line, was that line notorious enough to name the whole JubJub outfit after it? Or if the JubJub outfit is a reference to a Remake Vergil--Was there a storm in the Remake??? I just-would love to be able to talk to the person who designed this outfit because--its fun, its funny and cute, and MAN they had good timing. So that's where I'm at.

Anyway, I need to see if there is a corresponding Dante outfit in Neopets. That is all.

Oh also if anyone has a answer about any of those questions please hit me up.

I AM THE STORM THAT IS APPROACHING