#and mistakenly believed they were all in on it bc the idea of one of theirs being used made him that mad

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

OMG RAVEN YOU’RE INTO EVER AFTER HIGH? I love it but can’t talk about it bc none of my friends have seen it 😭 I wish it was talked about more, especially with how deep their lore runs. I love EAH’s dynamics with the complexities of destiny. If twst followed the same logic as eah’s world it would be so interesting. How would you feel if the worlds were to mesh together and how it would work? You can interpret that in any way you want; the characters meeting or twst being bound to the same rules and societal expectations of eah, or whatnot.

Also who’s your favorite eah character compared to your favorite twst character (Leona)?Jade, right?

And have you read the eah books? I haven’t, but I’m going to try to sometime!

Eah alt account when?

I'm still salty that the Monster High x Ever After High crossover movie never saw the light of day-- Part of the reason why I don't like Disney (I mean the faceless corpo, not all Disney products) is because they have such a strong association with fairy tales that it pushes other interpretations out of the market or it leads to people assuming Disney "owns" those fairy tales. Ever After High's lore and themes run so much deeper than most other fairy tale reimaginings I've seen (and I've seen a lot). It's such a shame it doesn't get the respect and recognition it deserves even though EAH is the one out here challenging the status quo whereas modern Disney is content with mediocrity that appeals to the masses.

I think EAH and TWST, at their cores, share similar ideas so combining them would work well. Friendship, self-identity, defining your own future, questioning what "good" and "evil" truly are... It's all there. I'd imagine that if Twisted Wonderland (or at least NRC) followed the same rules as EAH, then everyone would be descendants of their Disney counterparts. (This is actually a common misperception of what TWST was to new fans; people mistakenly believe the TWST characters are children of the classic Disney villains. This has never been canon.) Unfortunately, I'd have to take away the Disney villains being twisted to be "good" guys in Twisted Wonderland's world in order for this to work by EAH rules, so... There's that to consider. This, in turn, can result in the student body splitting into Royals (pro-following one's destiny) and Rebels (anti-following one's destiny). Perhaps RSA and NRC could be one school in this AU...? Just so we have a mix of "good" and "evil" descended children in the same vicinity as one another. A must-have are the constantly bickering Narrators!! It's only really when Yuu shows up that the majority opinion starts to shift. Maybe then Crowley becomes concerned with students rising up and fighting back against the system that relies on them being complacent to keep the cycle of stories going. I've seen some readings of EAH which theorize that Royals guaranteed a happy ending is a stand-in for privilege, and that interpretation leads into very interesting conflicts when we also consider that magic in Twisted Wonderland is a privilege afforded to few.

To cover just the dorm leaders (because covering all the TWST characters would make this post way longer), I definitely see Riddle, Kalim, Idia, and Malleus as Royals and Leona, Azul, and Vil as Rebels. Here's my thought process:

Riddle is pretty self-explanatory. He comes from a background where he's used to being told what to do by his mother and so he also heavily relies on her strict, unyielding teachings to play by the book when he goes out there in the real world. Riddle is inflexible and hesitant to go against the grain--and, more importantly, he fully believes that following the rules will lead to his happiness... that doing as his fairy tale ordains will lead to a happy ending. What happens to the Queen of Hearts is dubious in the end since it's framed as Alice's dream, so I think that vagueness gives Riddle hope that by behaving himself, he'll earn the happiness he desires.

Leona is a Rebel, and not just because that's the aesthetic of his dorm. Being that he is highly intelligent and demonstrates a lot of foresight, he'd be aware of what future is in store for him and aggressively fighting against that. It would make him more desperate than ever to prove his worth, because not only does everyone see his powers as terrifying, but they also see him as a future brother murderer and dictator that will bleed the land dry of resources. It'd make the situation with his family even more strained than it already is, not to mention the extra jealousy he must feel toward Cheka, who is still too young to understand what's going to happen later.

Azul is someone who acts like a Royal but is actually a Rebel. He acts polite and like he plays by the rules, but clearly he doesn't behind the scenes. I see Azul as the kind of Rebel akin to Duchess Swan... as in, he believes he can steal away someone else's destiny for himself. Azul would constantly be looking for loopholes to save himself. He's put way too much stock into becoming a better, stronger person and he'd want to defend this new life he has made for himself. His obsession with protecting his contracts could translate well here.

Kalim is a Royal because he's mega rich and has been sheltered from the concept of bad things that happen to normal people; he has nothing to worry about. It also helps that Kalim is twisted from a character that doesn't meet a bad ending. I think he'd be aware of Jami's doomed destiny, but Kalim is so ignorant that he thinks it'll just be fine and it'll work itself out. Part of his growth could be being forced to reckon with the reality that Jamil is suffering under the legacy assigned to him and accepting the role that he plays in that by not acting.

Idia is a Royal--or at least pre-book 6 Idia is. He's a very pessimistic guy and repeatedly expresses hopelessness about the future, bemoaning the curse he and his family have to bear. Idia doesn't want to try to fight his fate, he's already accepted that it will happen and so closes himself off from others to save himself that heartbreak. Post-book 6 Idia will have swapped over to the Rebel side thanks to Ortho reviving the hope in him.

Vil is a Rebel simply for the fact that he fights social conventions. He's already out here shattering gender roles, but finds it much harder to breach that expectation that villains are just villains and nothing more. Vil keeps getting rejected at every turn, told that it's impossible to rewrite his story, that his frustrations are the natural result of jealousy and an ugly heart that festers in side of him. He steels himself to prove that notion wrong, working himself to the bone to get up on that stage and stay on it, waiting to be lavished with praise that he truly is the fairest one of all. I feel this would be so fascinating for Vil's own arc about self acceptance; maybe he wears himself down emotionally because he HAS to basically be perfect due to his job but also denies himself normal feelings like anger and jealousy because confessing that you have such "ugly" feelings only validates that you're shallow just like the stories say you will be.

Malleus is a tough one, but I settled for Royal in the end. Maleficent is doomed to be slain by a sword, right? So am I saying that THE Malleus Draconia, who is infamously arrogant about his magical abilities, would lie down and take a stab like that? Of course not! However, I do think that Malleus is initially someone who values tradition and living up to noblesse oblige. As the future ruler of a nation, people's stories are relying on him to play his expected role out, which he'd be fully cognizant of. I also think Malleus would be afforded the luxury of not having to face his destiny as soon as his peers are due to his long life span. This is in part because the person destined to slay him doesn't come into his life for literally hundreds of years. Then when book 7 arrives, Malleus has to deal with his loved ones leaving and/or betraying him as well as the realization that this is his destiny: dying alone and unloved. That'd just break him.

ahdbiqwdbqwli I COULD TALK ABOUT THIS AU FOR FOREVER BUT I'LL CUT IT SHORT OR ELSE I'LL NEVER SHUT UP 😭

EAH has so many good characters and interesting storylines, it's hard for me to pick a favorite! I of course love Apple and Raven's dilemmas, but I feel like it's cheating to pick one of them as my favorite. The whole Wonderland gang is also fantastic... I'm a sucker for their aesthetic, but they're so fun and silly in general. Kitty, Lizzie, and especially Madeline are 👌

Mmm, when I think long and hard about it, I think my favorite EAH character has to be Briar Beauty, daughter of Sleeping Beauty. Firstly, I love all the pink, roses, and bramble in her design. Secondly, I love the layers to why she is the way she is. Briar's a party girl not because "lmao, wouldn't that be a funny haha subversion of Sleeping Beauty" but because she wants to live life up before she falls asleep for 100 years and literally loses all her friends and family to the natural passage of time. That's seriously so smart and such an inventive way to think about the trauma a descendant of Sleeping Beauty might have. Seeing Briar transition from one of Apple's besties and biggest supporters to an outright rebel is satisfying as heck. (Gotta take a moment to shout out this classic moment :3)

I don't know if I would compare Briar to Jade since they're entirely different characters. However, looking at the source material, I'm actually surprised I like Briar as much as I do since I have never cared for the story of Sleeping Beauty. A part of me finds this ironic since Malleus harbors a similar fear as Briar (losing loved ones) yet I see Malleus's desire as way more selfish and self-serving than Briar's. I believe that's because Briar doesn't have the same arrogance as Malleus, so I'm more forgiving with her. EAH's actual equivalent to Malleus is Faybelle, daughter of the Dark Fairy, but I don't like her as much as I do Briar (hence why I'm comparing Malleus and Briar, not Malleus and Faybelle).

I haven't read the EAH books but I want to one day! I'd prefer to borrow them since I don't have enough space in my room for more physical books, so as soon as I find copies at a library or something...

This blog has kind of become a place where I occasionally talk about my other interests, generally as it relates to TWST, my main interest. I'd like to keep it like this since managing multiple blogs can be so draining. It already takes quite a bit of time to regularly write responses to asks just on one blog!

[kind-of-a-shitty-wizard]

hiii i got a little insane over haskills characterization in the other elder scrolls games / material. teehee rambling abt these ^ quotes under the cut (long). also im not that serious abt any of this tbh im just glad haskill appeared in any other elder scrolls material at all LOL

OKAY. okay. about these quotes. idk why other TES media does this, but in these quotes from elder scrolls legends + the interview with haskill it seems like the writers are pushing to give the impression that haskill slightly resents or is even indifferent to his position / the isles / sheogorath ?? (unless haskill is being a little bit more flippant or hyperbolic than usual...?) which is characterization that is NOT what i got from playing oblivion at all skdskdjfn

like... when i played oblivion i thought it was very clear that haskill prefers to be in the isles, serving sheogorath, more than anywhere else. (<- i think this is actually the reason he's technically "mad" even tho he seems sane outwardly. if you enjoy being among madmen it probably means you're mad yourself ykwim). i think haskill does like the isles, his ass is just reserved abt it, like he is about everything... yknow just like jeeves, whose character he's been compared to lmao:)

i think unfortunately some writers take his annoyance with the player and his slight second thoughts about sheogorath's plan in oblivion, and mistakenly assume that he's just annoyed at his whole position. haskill does have his moments of exasperation, but the thing is it's usually only exasperation and it never verges into anger or bitterness or resentment like the top quotes seem to indicate. for example, haskill says this abt his idea of you mantling sheo / the clowns debacle:

^ This quote is a good reference point for haskill's view on sheo bc its pretty much the most critical-of-sheogorath quote from oblivion i can recall, and it tells us a lot of things. in this quote he expresses some exasperation about the clown idea (because he's a prissy bitch who doesn't want to get his outfit dirty /affectionate) and shows some apprehension about one of his lord's ideas (because it involves you, and haskill doesnt like you). but these 2 points he has beef with aren't really reflective of sheo himself but of other issues - ie he doesn't directly question sheogorath. and IN THE END Haskill defers to sheo's judgement because haskill trusts him and values sheo's ideas. in all of his oblivion dialogue, this is the most critical toward sheogorath he gets, and he never outright insults or shows resentment toward him or the isles like in the above quotes bc his loyalty to sheogorath eclipses it

on the contrary (and i dont know why the writers for non-oblivion elder scrolls content dont seem to see this??), theres so much evidence that haskill actually does, you know,,, enjoy being in the isles. here are just some snippets i can think of:

"the isles are hardly a place for anyone, really" <- i BEG to differ, Haskill likes it here, he likes listening to prisoners being tortured in xedillian, he likes wearing his ridiculous frilly high collar outfit emblematic of the fashions of the isles, he doesn't care about morality and it suits him just fine that it doesn't matter here!! (the end quote might be him being a little facetious about relmyna but to be honest i wouldn't be surprised if he thought decency and morality WERE provincial notions because he certainly has no problem killing people lmao). and again, to enjoy doing these things / being around madmen probably says something abt haskill being mad himself. lol

not to mention he likes a bit of joking around. which i imagine sheo does a whole lot. when YOU rib him a little he says this:

his derision in the first bit i think indicates, "i cant believe you would joke around at a time like this," and the upturning of the "very good" i think indicates, "it was a good joke / maybe they could mantle sheo after all". he's not all dour - he appreciates a good joke, especially from (someone who's about to become) his Lord!!

and going a little deeper into haskill actually liking the isles... haskill clearly holds what sheogorath and the isles represent (chaos, free will, individuality) very highly. a good example of this is when you ask him about dyus, and he gives this snarky reply:

^ he says this with such VITRIOL its so funny :p and the amount of disdain in this line indicates (to me) a real conviction in his belief in the free will, chaos etc that sheogorath represents.

this is why i dont think this quote makes sense. "i cant remember why i put up with [sheogorath]" <- haskill wouldnt say this bc he understands fully why he puts up w sheogorath, and his own convictions in sheo that lead him to keep doing it, and even if this quote is him being hyperbolic, i dont think he'd joke about his faith in sheogorath like that because, yk, one of his characteristics is that he's extremely loyal, and moreover he never said anything to this effect in oblivion sdkjskdjs

him having a strong belief in what sheogorath / the isles represent is also evidenced by the language haskill uses when talking about sheo. whenever haskill mentions him, there is an element of poetry and respect to his words that shows that haskill thinks about him highly at the very least:

^ haskill constantly stresses sheogorath's intrinsic unknowableness and power and unique wisdom in a way that feels very respectful. saying "to attempt to fathom [sheogorath's will] is a foolish endeavor" shows that he knows there are unexplainable aspects to sheogorath that he takes note of, respects, and knowingly keeps his distance from... he gets sheogorath and reveres him (at least more than most others or the HoK). in these quotes especially, it feels a bit like hes trying to illustrate how impressive sheogorath is to the HoK, hyping up his boyfriend if you would. who said that. and combined with this respect is (i believe!!!!) a deep care. he is invested in the isles and sheo and wants to help them out of more than just duty. he gets fearful and even loses his composure at some points in the story when sheo/the isles are threatened which i think indicates that he deeply cares for them both!!:

i think this is a care that, combined with the respect he has for sheo, makes it really unlikely for him to get more than exasperated with his behavior and verge into resentfulness. i dont think anyone truly understands sheogorath, not even haskill, but haskill respects sheo as a god, and also gets him in a more familiar/personal way i think - like the way that a cat owner loves their cat but gets exasperated with it when it gets its head stuck in a tissue box. he doesn't angry or anything because he understands that it's the cat's nature to get stuck in the tissue box / sheo's nature to be wild and unpredictable and messy. (the difference being that sheogorath is an all-powerful god cat..... do u see my vision???)

anyway this got crazy long JHDSHFSD... to finish i wanted to look at this extra bit of characterization i found that was wild to me:

^ like. i truly dont get where they got THIS characterization LMAO sheo constantly calls haskill faithful and smart and knowledgeable in oblivion, he practically begs you to summon haskill for help, hyping up his boyfriend so to speak, they care for each other your honor so of COURSE sheo trusts haskill to do his job. what are the legends writers doing in there!!

ANYWAY dear god this got long im going to bed <3

[apollos-boyfriend]

icarus pretty pls explain as much as u can of jaidens pov (and roiers if u can) i have no time at all and i wanna feel ur emoceans

YES i am late to answer but here is the gist of what happened (under the cut because OH BOY this got long):

jaiden spent the first hour-ish of stream out with bobby trying to find onions bc she needed them to make him roast chicken and complete the task of feeding the egg a food that starts with r. because of this, she and bobby were somewhat far away from the main area when things started going to shit

when she heard what was going on, she ran back home, both to have a bunker to hunker down in, and because tilin was still in their home due to having stayed over the night prior for a sleepover

tilin's still asleep when she gets back. bad drops by and further explains some of the situation. jaiden is Extremely panicked, but is reassured by roier messaging that he'll be logging on soon

tilin wakes up as bad drops by again. bad explains that he's going to go out and try to talk some sense into charlie, leaving dapper with jaiden for his safety. jaiden is now alone with three eggs and a madman on the loose.

one of the eggs asks what's going on. she cautiously explains that there was an accident with juanaflippa, and that her father is dealing with it in a less-than-ideal way. she herds the three down into the basement (behind a locked door for safety), distracting them by giving them seeds to plant and trying to not let her anxieties show for the sake of the kids

roier logs on. jaiden instantly runs out to greet him (attempts to, at the least, as he doesn't spawn in their house), hurriedly explaining the situation and the state of things. roier nearly instantly calms most of her worries, assuring her that they'll be alright. the eggs can defend themselves. charlie is just one man desperate for love and family. he's more dangerous to himself than he is to them.

bad and fit return to the house. there are now four eggs within.

charlie arrives. he's kind of instantly taken down by everyone in the house, rendered down to half a heart as they take him outside to talk him down. he places down a landmine that jaiden accidentally steps on, luckily only killing him. they remove all mines and weapons from his body in case he returns for them

everyone somewhat disperses. tilin stays with roier, jaiden, and bobby, not fully sure where their dad is (and not fully sure if they want to get back to him). the four of them sit around the campfire as roier tells the kids stories, which eventually turns into the two adults discussing tilin's current situation.

roier and jaiden end up coming to the conclusion of adopting tilin in a sort of co-parenting way. they're not taking them away from quackity, but also naming themselves as their caretakers and welcoming them into their family

bobby does not like this. bobby is very happy with being an only child. he starts a fight with tilin, one that he ends up winning, leading to tilin's death message appearing in chat. jaiden and roier quickly revive them, calming the two eggs down. roier chides bobby, saying he's plenty loved by both of them, and them taking in tilin doesn't mean they'll love him any less. there's no reason to be jealous.

quackity reaches out to jaiden, basically announcing a war against her and roier. because of charlie messaging him earlier, he mistakenly believes that she and roier have kidnapped tilin and are torturing them (further pushed by their death message in chat). jaiden tries to explain the situation, but quackity won't hear it

they return to the group, questioning quackity's rage. charlie admits to having given q the idea while in his rage, and the group sets out to find q so charlie can explain the situation (my memory gets a bit hazy on the sequence of events from here on out, so i apologize as things may be out of order)

they find q and explain the situation. he no longer wants to kill roier and jaiden, but the tension is still there.

the group discusses the prospect of bringing juanaflippa back through a trial. jaiden breaks off at points to hang around tilin, who reveals their fears that their dad doesn't love them, and how they only want a family in the sense that bobby, roier, and jaiden have. jaiden attempts to assure them that that's not the case, that quackity does love them (he was SO worried when he thought they were kidnapped), but tilin doesn't feel fully convinced.

after asking like, everyone else and being turned down, charlie asks if jaiden will be his lawyer for the trial on wednesday. she agrees, despite having no knowledge of the law. she wants to help charlie in any way she can, and vows to do her best.

as everyone once again split up to go their separate ways, roier and jaiden talk. most importantly, jaiden questions why spreen is allowed into their basement, when she wasn't given permissions until the night prior. roier explains the full situation, from starting it as a community house to spreen killing his dog, and how he vows to get his revenge. jaiden listens intently, assuring him that she's on his side and will be there to back him up and support him when he needs it. they name themselves as the only normal family of the server.

returning to quackity, jaiden finds him and charlie drinking. quackity semi-snaps at tilin, stating that he's trying his best, he's just busy, okay? jaiden semi-snaps back, bringing up that tilin doesn't even think he loves them, and that when tilin jumped off the wall earlier, he didn't even go to revive them--she and charlie did. fit breaks the tense atmosphere by yelling "OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" in the background

jaiden walks a drunk charlie home, tucking him into bed. the two recite a bedtime story together (a decade in blue by eiffel 65) until the sun rises.

[dinoburger]

I think I remember you saying at some point it'd be fun if the tfc mercs were fun rivals to the tf2 ones- do you have any further ideas for that :o? It sounds interesting n the tfc crew were done so dirty in the comics

oh yeah absolutely, I think the best way I can put it is maybe like, shit, it's been a while since I read it but the Romans vs. the Gauls in Asterix and Obelix - one side is dead set on thwarting the other through meticulous plans that always fail, due to the sheer chaos and unpredictability of the other, and a lot of the fun comes from watching them flail and fall over themselves as the plan unravels and they go to ridiculous lengths to try to course correct.

like, if they were gonna do a bit where the Classics take themselves too seriously, they could really ham up Cheavy being a headstrong self-appointed leader who ends up leading them to make stupid mistakes because of his ego. Fred as his goofy try-hard henchman. Any jokes about them being like, elderly - other mercs keep mistakenly thinking Virgil has fallen asleep at his post bc he's so old and his hat is either over his eyes or they're shut, maybe the Spy accidentally gives himself away because his old joints crack at an inopportune moment, stuff like that.

I think in my ideal they'd be more like equal and opposites, they'd be actively doing more to try to push back against the TF2 mercs throughout instead of just hanging back in the shadows until, idk, the last 2 or 3 comics I think. We'd have the opportunity to see how they'd handle different situations, maybe actually spend time with some of them and get to know them.

I like to think both teams would eventually have to work together, either reaching a stalemate or being forced, against a greater villain - most likely Gray or the Administrator, even something paranormal if we're going completely off course from what the comics seem to be doing (...come to think of it, I believe there's a fic about that? I haven't read it but I know there's one where the TFCs and TF2s unite against some paranormal foe). Maybe they all get split up along the way with the TF2 and TFC mercs get jumbled together. Something like that!

but also like, it could be fun to actually have dynamics between the old and new mercs beyond just trying to kill each other, be given the opportunity to learn something from one another, have some kind of fun, competitive spirit between them that could lead to something more complex and interesting as they learn each other's differences and similarities...

I don't really know like, what exactly I'd do but that's the kind of vibe I think'd be cool

[zeawesomebirdie]

for the fic ask game :D 🙌 🥘 🦗

[for this ask game here]

Thanks for the ask J!!

🙌What's a line or paragraph of yours that you're proud of? I'm giving you two paragraphs, one from a posted fic and one from a wip >:)

From Distractions, Distractions [brudick, rated E, underage]

Bruce Wayne was not the kind of man who hid from others, particularly not when he had something he needed to discuss with them, regardless of what Alfred might say to the contrary. Yet he had spent the majority of his day in the Manor rather than in the Cave, even though Dick had the day off from school and had announced at breakfast that Bruce was welcome to come down with him. No, he was not the kind of man who hid, but at the same time, he was also not the kind of man who could picture himself walking down to where his partner was likely turning cartwheels, nor could he see himself telling Dick just why his costume needed changing.

(yes that is the very first paragraph shhhh I've never been more proud of an opening before 😌)

And from a brudick wip I'm writing for @ful-crum in which Dick and Bruce fuck in the Cave and Dick mistakenly believes that they'll be able to be together now, only for Bruce to ghost him for two months straight

That was the crux of it, in the end, the grit of sand that irritated his heart into submission: that night of The Incident had been a one-off, and it was obvious that Bruce had meant nothing by it, no matter what Dick thought would come of it. And that was fine, or it would have to be; after all, Dick had had a few one night stands before, and while it wasn’t his preference, he could understand the appeal of such things to people like Bruce. Dick was just going to have to take the L, then, because otherwise he was going to mope his sorry ass into nothingness, and then what would become of him? It would have to be fine, there was no other choice, even if he was going to remember that night forever as one of the rare moments he and Bruce were truly a team again.

🥘What wip are you most excited about? Um, well, does all of them count?? Because I really don't think I could choose just one to be most excited about, honestly. The closest to actually being finished is another little insomniac!coldflash one shot for Stories I Tell Myself When I Can't Sleep, after that, the aforementioned brudick fic for @ful-crum is the most complete, and I've got half of a 5+1 Dick fucks Bruce to distract himself from his emotions written, and for the brubarry Old West!AU I've got all of Bruce's arc plotted and half of Barry's arc at least planned. And then beyond that, there's a dickjay gameboy fic and a 5+1 times Riddler saves Robin!Dick in the works, both of which I'm also excited for (and don't even get me started on the three wips I have for Bad Things Happen Bingo, one of which is for MASH, one for Star Wars: Legends, and one for Gunsmoke). Which one I'm most excited about depends on my mood and my energy, I suppose (yeah that's a non-answer, sorry!)

🦗Do you write in sequence or jump around? Mostly in sequence, but I keep a notes doc for every longfic so that I can jot down scene ideas whenever they occur to me!! Though with the insomniac!coldflash one shots, those I'm writing out of order bc they really weren't meant to be more than a one-off thing, and I'm still plotting the whole longfic that'll eventually give context to the one shots; that's just not normally how I do things, normally I write pretty sequentially ^.^

[voidify333]

Got a lot of OFMD vibes from Good Omens s2???

BIG spoilers for both GO S2 and OFMD S1 under the cut

Like, this isn’t a situation for the copied homework meme format, I believe it’s just same braincell on a really juicy story beat to create drama in a high concept romance, but I find the similarities fascinating so I’m gonna post about them. (What’s funny is that the thing that actually got me to watch OFMD in the first place is the promise of Stede being like aziraphale and blackbonnet being like A/C…)

The main thing is how the ending of ep 6 reminded me of OFMD ep 9.

The central pair kiss for the first time— letting any remaining oblivious audience members know this isn’t just a bromance, and alienating any homophobes in the audience who weren’t already alienated by the queer supporting characters. (That last bit is actually the biggest other “ofmd vibes” thing I picked up— how the very queer supporting roster served both to let homophobes know the show isn’t for them, and to reassure the queer audience that they’re allowed to hope for the main pair being Outright Canon)

But they also enter their divorce era— specifically, what happens is this:

The sunshine bookworm has a scene with a character the audience recognises as antagonistic (completely different scenes though— Stede’s traumatic experience with the bully in the woods vs Az being emotionally manipulated by metatron into thinking coming back to heaven is a good idea)

This scene, combined with his existing insecurities, causes him to return to a life that he won’t even find fulfilling (we know this bc he stepped away from it in the first place!) but he’s been convinced that it’s The Thing He Has To Do

In the process, he abandons his black-clad true love and breaks his heart

But here (in addition to all the obvious differences in context and execution), the season cliffhanger cuts away BEFORE “episode 10” as it were.

And… I don’t think “episode 10” is going to happen immediately for Aziraphale when lights go up on s3. Like, the “love epiphany” part may come in an early episode (we saw the way he touched his lip), but he’s certainly not getting the “plan to leave” part until some time further into s3, because the life he’s mistakenly gone back to isn’t with a Mary figure who cares about him but wants him elsewhere as much as he secretly wants to be elsewhere— instead, it’s with Heaven, an abusive cult that is planning to use him to destroy Earth, and has the power to destroy him on a whim.

Aziraphale’s key insecurity is his need for authoritative reassurance that he is Doing The Right Thing. This is what allowed metatron to use the offer of heaven to manipulate Az into hurting Crowley’s feelings and then abandoning Crowley. The tone demands an eventual happy ending (my faith in this is why the ending of e6 didn’t even make me mad), but Az is going to have to work through those issues before the happy ending can take place— Nina basically spelled this out.

The next place this comparison led me was to the thought “can I connect a red string on my cork board between post s2 crowley and ep10 Ed?”

There is an important difference between them, and it’s in kind of the opposite direction as the difference between Az-when-we-cut-away and Stede-when-we-cut-away

Ed has closed himself off to vulnerability completely after his heartbreak, and lashes out horribly, and we all know the reunion in s2e1 is not going to go smoothly

Meanwhile, although Crowley is heartbroken and mad… he is ultimately like Maggie on the “I hope she’ll be there when I’m ready but there’s no guarantee—” “there is” front. Aziraphale needs to work through his issues, and the plot needs to get to a place where The Real Big One is foiled and neither of them are in imminent danger of destruction, and once Az stops being an idiot he will need to do a great many “you were wrong” dances, but once all those prerequisites are fulfilled, we’re getting our second kiss (and I’m fanning myself just thinking about that hypothetical scene hoooooboy)

Maybe there will be a period of “angel I can’t forgive you. not yet”, that would be juicy drama, but the tone of the story demands that any such moment will be temporary

However, I do have a vivid mental image now, inspired by e10 Ed, of post s2 crowley standing in the bookshop and saying to himself out loud “oh, nothing lasts forever, is that right, angel?” and then going on a bender of destroying or giving away books (I lean towards giving away as it would leave less permanent fallout for later, and also be funnier, while still being just as potent a gesture of spite in the moment)

Anyway when OFMD S2 comes out and we get a better look at the blackbonnet divorce arc I’m going to try to use it as a divination tool to predict the events of the A/C divorce arc

[marbles-for-breakfast]

Listen, as far as systems that didn’t choose to form go (which is all I can really speak on bc that’s me), the concept of being endogenic is all about what the system attributes its origin to. We can’t and probably never will be able to actually prove why our brains formed this way, so we might as well be able to choose to believe the narrative that makes the most sense to us as a system, right? I think a lot of endos that have childhood trauma simply believe they would have been this way regardless of it. That’s what feels the most true to them, and no one can really prove otherwise. You may think that’s a stupid or confusing distinction. Tbh, I don’t really get it either. But what's really wrong with that?

I suspect that I have some sort of childhood trauma. Possibly just from being a very sensitive autistic child, but possibly from other events I do not remember. (Speculating about what might have caused me to be like this was really bad for my mental health, if you would believe it.) But, because I do not remember any specific traumas (and because assuming that I was abused and just don’t remember it fucked me up real bad emotionally), I choose to not identify as traumagenic. It would flatly feel like a lie. But I also just think origin labels are a little pointless when it comes to systems that were not intentionally created. I'm not against other people using them, but I really think we focus too much on them a lot of the time. Like, WAY too much.

But ultimately, I think that if I never heard about the concept of endogenics, I would still be legitimately traumatizing myself with speculation about what could have possibly happened to me. I would still be looking at every adult in my life with suspicion. Because I would still think that I couldn't accept the reality of what I was experiencing until I found the last missing piece of the puzzle — the trauma. But knowing that some people don't attribute trauma as the sole cause of their plurality helped me step back and realize that I needed to meet myself where I was at instead of trying to fit into the box I thought I was supposed to. I'm not saying believing in endogenisis is necessary to come to this realization, but it was what brought me there. And that was a very important place for me to get to. I guess this is just an example of the positives that can come from not assuming trauma to be the only thing that can form systems.

I don't care if I end up attributing all this to some sort of hidden trauma later. I don't care if you think this is "blissful ignorance" and all plurality is caused by trauma. If some people need to believe this in order to get by, then exactly what problem do you have with that? Obviously, "the truth" is important, but people who mistakenly believe they have no serious childhood trauma usually do discover that truth when building connections within their system. We will not stay "blissfully ignorant" forever. But we might need to be that way now. Isn't that literally the reason you think we exist?

Idk, man. You seem somewhat reasonable, so I'm trying to get through to you. I don't know if I'm doing a good job though. I guess I don’t understand what your point here was? Like, I’m sure you’re not advocating for people like me to be confronted with all our trauma and forced to deal with that all of a sudden. But I honestly don’t know what your point is if it’s not that either. Idk. I just thought my experience as one of the people you seem to be talking to (even though I don’t really identify as endo) might be valuable or informative.

I do hate this discourse though. I’m still not fully sure why I engage with it so much. It’s probably the fact that I have an instinctual defensive reaction to people who don’t understand me. And I do feel like anti-endo posts are targeted at me bc I’m not definitively traumagenic. But since I’m also quite different from other endos (and very different from that idea of endos that most anti-endo people have in their mind) I feel a need to force people to acknowledge me. Fit me into your narratives. Where do I go? If you find that you don’t hate me, will you be more understanding of other endos? Will my expertly crafted arguments and unique experience finally make everyone understand? I guess I come here to feel seen. And then I feel invisible. After all, they couldn’t possibly be taking me into account. Because if they saw me and how smart and reasonable I am, they’d understand! The hatred would melt from them as they basked in the warm rays of nuance emanating from me.

Anyway, I guess that last weird paragraph is also an example of how many of us are actually very introspective. I wouldn’t have discovered I had OSDD if I wasn’t at least a little introspective, after all. (But seriously, you can ignore that part. It was really just me working through shit.)

"Endos" do you know why you're hated?

Because there are GROWN ADULTS who get put through horrific trauma and have no idea for years and years. Most people don't accurately remembers their childhood as it is. So what makes your lack of knowledge of any trauma despite being plural so fucking special?

If you insist it's a coincidence then "professionals" whose real profession is HARMING CHILDREN FOR PROFIT will use your testimony against victims everywhere.

Stay blissfully ignorant if you want but shut the fuck up about your lack of desire to understand your own mind. Make up all the words you want, it changes nothing. Plurality is a defense against trauma amd that defense is AMNESISA-BASED. THE AMNESIA IS INHERENT. IT'S HOW YOU'RE SEPARATE FROM YOURSELVES TO BEGIN WITH

So yeah starting to understand why the community is so obsessed with hating on you peoplw. Personally I feel bad for you; no one can ask you to explain or even remember your trauma to be "valid." The trauma is a given; stop preaching false hope to everyone in denial.

[kingshield]

"I know you mean well." Mila to Duma >)

shitty horoscopes | accepting. ( @of-invisible-ties )

"— then why do you try to stop me?!"

rarely does he let his heart take hold of his tongue. he steps back from her as soon as he hears the rage laced in his voice, a product of inaction, of frustration, of vague fear. he knows she is only trying to help, to stem his want to act rashly on this matter, and this matter alone. he knows. he knows.

they are far from prying eyes and ears here, deep within the divine dragon paradise, and it is here they argue once more over what to do. he swears he's heard the same words leave his mouth in previous debates, and each time, he had given in to his sister's plea to not do anything without naga's permission. he had pushed back each time, though knew full well as her elder brother, he could simply ignore any and all appeal to his sensibility.

he couldn't, however hard he tried. such is the conceding love of an older sibling to their younger, to fold under the weight of making her happy, at least for the moment.

( making her happy would not even be a thought later, when the two come to blows upon a distant continent. in the beginning throes of what he would later realize was his own madness, there was an underlying, permeating need to make her give in this time, to force her to listen to him. )

the kingshield is not a man of rashness. he values careful calculation, and is a deliberate and fastidious commander. it was the very reason naga had ascended him to his position. perhaps he was losing his touch, with how he wanted to throw caution to the wind and level the city, consequences be damned.

"our king cares for them far too much to intervene. she will not approve this campaign, but there is something down there that reeks of unholiness. it smells of divine dragon blood, but is not one of us, and i know you sense it as well, mila!"

just speaking of it makes an indescribable anger well in the back of his throat, and draws a snarl from his lips, fangs bared. there had been no mistaking it, when he'd left their paradise and gone down to the city. something had tugged him down there, an aching of sorrow that didn't cease— and he was now both glad and troubled that it had.

you must sense it too, his eyes plead to her in a rare moment where his guard is down. tell me i am not wrong here. tell me that you know something is unjust in how we stand idly by.

"... you know i care for them as well, and you know i would not be so resolute in my actions were there a shred of doubt for the sins they enact in my heart. but i am not so blind in my love that i forget to reprimand them. naga is. they defile the lost and use the blood of one of our brethren, with no punishment. we give them our grace, and teach them how to prosper and build their city, and desecration is how they repay us."

he has already made up his mind. there is nothing mila, naga, or any other divine dragon can do to stop him.

"these humans trifle with things they never should have touched, sister, and grow too strong in their boldness. i will not go to naga and petition a useless argument against her— i will raze thabes myself."

[signetxego]

Okay so. I was thinking about things. Things being the flintseol dorm story. And idk now i’m Dying To Talk About It so here is a very detailed crash course on the Boys PLEASE talk to me abt it im begging you hit up my dms i’ll marry you

Under the cut for obscenely long post for smth with no actual writing.

When Ace loses his alchemy homework, Epel advices he goes to his classmate Blaise for help, who can find anything if he gets a good description of it. Ace, Epel, Deuce, Yuu and Grim find Blaise, who uses his unique magic to locate the lost homework.

Deuce is really impressed, and tells Blaise that a magic like that is super valuable, but Blaise becomes downcast and explains that he can’t find things unless he has a clear idea of what he’s looking for in his minds eye, so it only really helps him retrieve small things that he’s already seen. It never works for the thinks he’s looking for.

Blaise goes on to say that the dorm he is in, Flintseol, has a long-standing legend, one that has puzzled students since the founding of the dorm. The first dorm leader, before he left the school, hid a stash of treasure somewhere on the grounds, and a trail of clues to locate it. Over the years, nobody has been able to solve the puzzles and locate the treasure.

Grim and Ace her excited at the prospect of treasure, and ask Blaise if they can help him look for it, and split it between them, however Blaise gets annoyed and says that a true pirate doesn’t accept help, and he can do it by himself. He storms off, but Ace isn’t willing to give up on a legendary stash of treasure hidden, and suggests that they try and find it without Blaise’s help.

After school, they go to the library, to do some research and see if they can find any hints on where the first clue is. As they talk, they are overheard by a strange boy with a mechanical eye, who joins their conversation, and tells them it’s been years since students from another dorm have tried to find Flintseol’s hidden treasure vault. Yuu mentions that it’s odd, since surely students from other dorms, like Azul or Ruggie, would want to get their hands on something so valuable. The cyborg laughs, and tells them that the first clue is hidden in the Flintseol dorms, and it’s protected fiercely. An unseemly fate awaited all students who tried to break in and steal it, and so eventually they all gave up.

He says that over years, clues have been found and lost, their whereabouts gone forever. Pirates can’t be expected to work together, especially when treasure is involved. He encourages them to do their best finding the treasure, but once he leaves Yuu decides he sounded quite patronising.

The next day, the gang decide to sneak into the Flintseol dormitory, having stolen some uniforms from Vil’s stash in the pomefiore dorm. However, as soon as they set foot inside they find that it’s nothing like any other dorm, and they struggle to find their way around the complicated layout without disrupting any students. They’re saved from a run-in with some delinquents by Blaise, who pulls them aside after a time limit fight and asks them what they’re doing at his dormitory.

Blaise tries to convince them to leave, but Ace and Grim are determined to find the clue for the treasure. Blaise is torn, but eventually decides to sneak them up to the port, an area at the top of the dorm where most of the ships are docked. At the end of the largest of the rope bridges, is a single mirror carved into the floor, the first clue.

After looking around the mirrors on campus, Blaise thinks they should sneak into the dorm leaders room, since a mirror hangs in there. Blaise picks the lock and he and Yuu sneak in whilst the others stand guard.

They find nothing around the mirror, but Blaise’s attention is drawn to a folder slightly open. Going through it, he and Yuu find some old photos, moving back into sketches and portraits from the past at NRC. it seems to be the dorm leaders personal investigations into the treasure stash. They go from very old to very recent, and there are some of the current flintseol students.

Meanwhile, outside, Deuce and Epel are spotted by Inigo, who they mistakenly believe to be the dorm leader due to his strict way of speaking to them. They try to stall him, but he quickly realises they’re not members of his dorm, and drags them by the ears down the corridor, where he sees Blaise and Yuu leave Finnian’s room. He says that as much as he can’t stand finnian, he has to turn them in for breaking the key rule of the dorm, respect the captain above all else.

Inigo drags the group into the common room, and loudly announces that there are intruders in the dorm, and the dorm leader needs to deal with them. The commotion draws a huge crowd, and inigo uses his unique magic to trap the perpetrators in front of a portrait of a pirate holding out his hand, after Grim tries to make a runner.

Finnian appears, and Yuu is like ‘oh i thought i recognised u st the library it’s bc ur the dorm leader and were at the entrance ceremony. He laughs and seems pleased to see Yuu and the idiot gang, he gives them a lecture abt going through his stuff, although blaise retorts that he shouldn’t have left it lying around so carelessly. Importantly, he tells them that trying to follow the trail of clues will be pointless, since over the years students have taken clues for themselves and hidden them.

This angers a lot of the spectators, saying that the treasure must exist somewhere and they can definitely find it. Finnian laughs at their optimism, and tells them that their mindless enthusiasm is worthless without the drive to use your brain. It’s why none of them have overthrown him as dorm leader. At least Blaise was able to find the best hint there is left in the school.

He touches the threads binding them, and they shimmer and melt. He then tells them to start running, and not to drop the picture folder. Theres a rhythmic thingy where the idiots run away from the rest of the dorm, chasing them to try and get the folder for themselves.

They get split up as they run, and Yuu ends up with Grim and Blaise. After settling down, Yuu contemplates on how Finnian seemed totally different to when they met him in the library yesterday. Blaise says that his mood is pretty unpredictable, and he doesn’t take anything seriously. Grim asks what finnian meant when he said ‘none of you have managed to replace me as dorm leader’ and Blaise explains unique way Flintseol dork choses it’s leader. Apparently, the treasure hidden in the dorm was the puzzle set by the first dorm leader, so technically it’s the ultimate test to be ‘worthy’ of the dorm, but nobody really cares abt that, they just want that sweet gold.

Grim agrees that he just wants the gold, and prompts the other two to go through the folder from finnian’s room, to see if they can find out what he meant by ‘the biggest clue’ being hidden in there. They find an annotated excerpt from a diary, written by the first leader of the dorm. What catches their attention most is the annotation ‘surrender your physical riches to the spirit of adventure’.

At this point, Inigo finds them, and tells Blaise he always hides in this cupboard when he wants to get out of chores. Since they’re not technically breaking rules anymore, since Finnian let them go, he’s not going to fight them. Blaise shows him the excerpt from inside the folder, and explains that he’s not going to give up, and that he doesn’t think finding the treasure is impossible at all. If the dorm leader thinks that, then he’s not fit to uphold the spirit of this dorm at all.

Inigo starts to say something, but bites his tongue, and sighs, saying it’s not really any of his business as long as the day to day life of the dorm is ticking over smoothly. He explains the meaning behind the ‘adventurous spirit’ that Flintseol is founded on. The one-eyed cyborg who they follow the example of was a legendary pirate who followed a treasure map to the greatest stash of treasure in the galaxy, but in the end he gave it up to save a young shipmate who was travelling with him. Afterwards, he stopped seeking treasure, and traveled the universe alone, not bound by materialistic possessions, and instead basking in the wonders of the galaxy. Contrary to the popular image they portray, Flintseol aren’t pirates, they’re supposed to be explorers. Although, that ideal has been lost over time, as the dorms obsession with finding the rumoured stash of treasure has shown.

Blaise finds it upsetting that Inigo is so disillusioned with the other students in the dorm, and says that he never thought Finnian would turn out to be that type of person.

Inigo tells Blaise that Finnian isn’t someone he should look up to, he’s someone who can be pretty terrifying and toys with people to get what he wants from them. He’s clever, and Inigo gets the feeling he intended to leave that folder lying on his bed for someone to find, but he’s not sure why. Knowing Finnian, if there was a clue in there, he’d be able to crack it himself.

Suddenly, there’s a huge commotion outside, and the four rush over to the nearest window to see the rest of the idiots getting into a fight outside. Inigo rolls his eyes and says that they’re totally on track to getting killed, and instructs Blaise, Yuu and Grim to stay put whilst he goes and gets them.

Once he leaves, Blaise notices how quiet it is inside. It seems the commotion caused is so large that almost all of the Flintseol students have gone to watch. Yuu thinks it’s unnerving how bloodthirsty they are, and Blaise admits that things can be a bit rowdy at times. He looks down at the folder again, and reiterates how determined he is to find the treasure, and explains to Yuu why he was so eager to join Flintseol after Finnian overthrew his older brother as dorm leader. He wants more than anything to prove his worth, and puts his determination into his unique magic to locate ‘the spirit of adventure’ mentioned in the journal. To his shock, a green thread does appear at the end of his finger.

He and the ramshackle duo follow it to the main lounge where they had spoken to Finnian earlier, where it connects to the outstretched hand of the pirate in the portrait they had seen earlier. Blaise realises this pirate isn’t actually a pirate, he’s supposed to be the young shiphand who the cyborg gave up the stash of treasure to protect.

After thinking it over, Blaise solves the puzzle. As the cyborg achieved happiness through surrendering his ‘treasure’ to this boy, they must do the same to find the hidden treasure.

But what constitutes a treasure? Blaise admits that even though he is very wealthy, he doesn’t have anything that could be considered treasure. He tries handing money to the portrait, but nothing happens. Yuu suggests that maybe you need to give up a personal treasure, something that it hurts to part with. Blaise thinks of what it might hurt him to part with, and finally settles on an old, rusty compass. He explains that it was a gift from his grandfather, and was supposed to always point him back home, so he could explore to his hearts content without worrying about getting lost. He places it in the portraits hand, and the portrait moves to grip the compass. Blaise jumps away and the portrait stretches and turns into a huge door on the wall.

Going through the door and down some steps, they find a huge chamber filled to the brim with gold and jewels. Truly, a legendary stash of treasure. They take a moment to be happy, until the rest of the idiots come down the stairs and O.O at the treasure as well.

Grim asks why they went and got in such a huge fight, and Ace explains that it wasn’t their fault. They ran right into that creepy robotic dorm leader, who used wind magic exactly like his to attack some nearby students, and vanished as soon as the fighting started.

As if on cue, Finnian comes down the stairs behind the idiots, waving happily. He congratulated Blaise on solving the puzzle, even if he did need an awful lot of help from his dear dorm leader. Finnian says that he had discovered the secret to finding the treasure at the end of last year, and had debated over his to get a hold of it. The last puzzle was really unfair. The point of the trail of puzzles was to hammer in the belief that experiences are worth far more than material possessions. To achieve the ‘spirit of adventure’ and uncover the most sacred mystery of the dorm, you’d have to give up something physically important to you.

Of course, it was probably stupid of the first dorm leader to expect a pirate to change their ways. He didn’t care about the experience of a treasure hunt, or the reputation it would give him, he wanted the treasure! He wasn’t going to play along with the puzzle, and give something up, so he tricked Blaise into doing it for him. From telling Yuu and the others where to find the first clue, to leaving his folder out and hinting at the clues hidden inside, and finally to clearing out the dorm by starting a fight, so that when Blaise opened up the treasure vault, nobody else would be around to intrude as he snuck in after him.

Blaise is understandably quite angry, and says that was a horrible thing to give up his compass for. Besides, what does Finnian hope to achieve with this treasure? If everyone knows that he wasn’t the one that found it, what does he get from it?

Finnian doesn’t answer, as a loud rumbling sound behind in the background. Shouts can be heard above them. Finnian guesses that the first lot of students got bored of Inigo’s lectures and returned to the lounge, to see the newfound door. Sadly for them, they can’t get in, since his unique magic is holding the door shut. However, Blaise notes that a few students couldn’t be making such a noise by themselves, and when rocks start clattering down from the ceiling he realises the treasure room must be about to collapse down. They try to get through the door, but it’s been turned into a wall of silver. Blaise shouts through, and manages to communicate to Inigo on the other side what’s happening. Inigo tells them that if they break Finnian’s concentration, his unique magic will reverse.

They fight Finnian and get the door back to normal, and Inigo and the rest of Flintseol pour in. Finnian is trying to gather the treasure, and Inigo urges him to leave because theres no way he can take all the treasure before the room collapses. Finnian uses his unique magic to turn the walls of the chamber to silver, and try to forcibly keep it upright. As he expands his magic, the silver begins to cover the floor and grow up some students feet, pinning them in place. After exerting all this magical power and arguing with Inigo, Finnian overblots, and the squad have to fight him before he runs out of magic and the chamber fully collapses.

After the overblot we unlock Finnian’s Tragic Backstory TM, which starts with him as a tiny little kid helping his father care for his ailing mother, in a very run down, poor area of the city. His father promises that even though things are hard, as long as they all stay together, things will be okay, and gives Finnian a tiny, hand-knitted teddy bear to accompany him as he cares for his mother. Later, his mother dies, and as Finnian sits with her in her last moments, his father gets up and walks away. Finnian tries to run after him, but can’t find him, and when he returns his mother has passed away. He decides that whatever his father said was false, clearly ‘staying together’ and ‘family’ were not all that mattered. He left because they were not enough for him, and because all humans are selfish and want material goods to prove themselves. Finnian took to growing up on the streets, amassing as much wealth as he could through gambling and stealing, getting richer and richer every time he betrayed someone’s trust and took what they had for his own. The only way to be happy had to be through selfishness, right? But still, he didn’t feel any happier than he had when his mother was alive. So, he must be doing something wrong. He obviously didn’t have enough yet. Not enough money, not enough possessions. Not enough rare trinkets collected from across the land. He must not have been selfish enough yet, for simply no amount of treasure in the world could make him feel any happier.

When he wakes up, Blaise, Inigo and the idiots have dragged him out of the chamber, which has completely collapsed. Inigo scolds him for being so stupid and losing control, when he’s supposed to be the one who always has *everything* under control. Finnian comments that on retrospect, he should’ve predicted the chamber being set to self destruct. Why would a quest about giving up material possessions give you a huge hoard of treasure at the end?

He apologises to Blaise for losing his compass, and admits that the real reason he didn’t open the portrait himself was because he doesn’t have anything of value to give away, nothing he’s tried has worked. Blaise thinks back to when he was in Finnian’s room, and remembers seeing an old, knitted bear lying by the bed, and asks why he didn’t try something like that. Finnian says he only kept the bear to remind him not to get too comfortable around people, but realises that the real reason he hung onto it was because it reminded him of the happy times when he had a family, and all this time, it had really been his most valued possession. It’s enough to make him laugh, which causes him to fall backwards again, and get dragged off by Inigo to the infirmary.

As Blaise goes to follow, he catches a glint of gold in the corner of the room. The portrait on the floor is broken, and behind the frame sits his compass, untouched, and with a note behind it, old and worn, reading ‘congratulations for solving the puzzle. continue to search for adventure and happiness in the skies, and stay true to yourself.’ he pockets the message, and decides to show it to Finnian once he’s better.

A few days later, the idiots are invited back to Flintseol by Finnian, who has made a full recovery, and is as lively as ever before. Grim grumbles about how he’s hardly changed following his overblot, and is still a bit of a weirdo, and Inigo sighs and says that’s just his personality. Finnian invites them out, and the group fly on their brooms/hoverboard to the top of a huge cliff, where the view of the starts is completely beautiful, and Inigo informs them that hopefully they’ll be able to come and visit the dorm more often now that students have no need to protect the clues to the treasure. Although, he decides, looking over at Finnian, that whilst someone so unpredictable is dorm leader, they and he as well would probably be safer keeping themselves at arms length.

And tadaaah everything is fixed and the mystery has been solved!!!

[mekatrio]

my thoughts on! phoenix wright ace attorney! (very rambly)

WHAT A GOOD GAME!!!! i really liked it!! the art was soo nice and the music was so cute, characters were charming and quirky and the court cases were ehdbfnsjcnsjxnskkd those were very good too. the first two cases were fine, the third case threw me for a loop especially towards the end (i still dont completely get how we deducted + proved that jack hammer was trying to kill the producer and like did hammer kill that guy 5 years ago by accident or what and WHY if it was an accident it had to be covered up I DONT KNOWWW whatever whatever ive made peace with that trial), and the fourth case Owhhh that was so dramatic... and GOOD.... von karma being a MURDERER was surprising and not something im like super awesomely on board with, not cuz its not well-written or whatever but kinda just like.. how do i say it. like 'wow really???' almost convenient in the sense like wow the prosecutor getting on our nerves Actually Is a bad guy but also it brings a lot of nuance to the story?? which is very interesting?!

ill circle back to this idea of nuance but like looking at phoenix's backstory with the lunch money, i really liked how disarming it was bc it initially seemed like something thats very trivial etc etc but when it explained itself more, it ended up really effectively illustrating how devastating it is to be accused of something you didnt do, how your livelihood and reputation can be ruined and whatnot, and why proof is so important, and why mia's ideology of 'believe in your client' is so important.. but then back to the fourth case, we then learn that edgeworth had essentially accused yanni yogi of something he didnt do without definitive proof, thus ruining his whole life (obvs the blame isnt entirely on him but still), and how throughout the entire game phoenix is pinning the blame on other suspects until he hits the mark, which is morally dubious.. i like it! theres so much nuance and moral greyness, which is so interesting; like with all these bizarre characters and the comedy and everything, this game does feel like a deliberate mockery of the legal system, with how EVERY SINGLE witness commits perjury and a less than competent gumshoe and a judge that biases towards the prosecutors, and how that gets ramped all the way up to 11 in the final case; as i finished the fourth case and was mistakenly thinking that this was the end of the game, i was thinking 'oh, in the newer titles i hope the court gets put under more scrutinity cuz there were many hints of corruption throughout the game with grossberg's bribery and that crazy purple man and Von Karma', then BAM case 5 smacks my face with all of that.

hoo boy case 5... i searched it up and it was as i thought, this was the one case that was actually designed for the ds while the first four were made for an older system (gba). cuz i was like woah 3d models... okkkk. i cant say i have the clearest judgement of case 5 cuz i have a detriment called Playing A Game For 12 Hours Straight, which is what i did as i wrapped up this case which really fried my brain.. but anyways yes wowww that case was tough. it was at this point i turned on an 'infinite objections' cheats cuz yeah no way was i figuring this out under 5 penalties, and saving and reloading was a pain in the ass to do. also was not a fan of the SHEER AMOUNT of evidence i had in that case like jesusssss dude.. no cuz in the last trial shit was really difficult cuz there were so many possible things i could say, i hope in future games evidence is organized better + theres a case summary tab of sorts cuz wow that was a Long Case and part of why i played this case for 12 straight hours was bc i might end up forgetting a detail thats not in the court record but i would need to know in order to progress the case (like fucking case 3 t-bone bullshit..... the plate in my court record is a completely different plate why am i just meant to remember that the plate in studio 2 was completely empty u motherfuckaaaa). but yeah it was super super cool to see the vulnerabilities of the court come under the fire, all the behind the scenes corruption coming into light and it was awesome having wright and edgeworth be ultra epic yaoi warriors unveiling the truth together. very awesome. i really like this line:

its a lot to think about, especially in regards to the capabilities of the court and whether the truth and justice and the law are compatible, with how the last two cases were heavily involved with former cases which had rulings that didnt uncover the entire truth, and how these suppressed truths came back with a vengeance. im soooo super excited to read about the real world inspiration behind this franchise and the various criticisms against the japanese legal system and just the various weaknesses of legal systems in general.

and i like ema!!!!! she was so sweet and thank fucking god we finally have forensics, even if its ds gimmicks forensics at least its something. it was very neat how even though she played the same role as maya, she stood out as her own different character, not just by being an 'opposite' of maya with the science spiritual contrast, but ema was a lot more ditzy and like.. both maya and ema were genki girls who were wright's emotional support teenage girls, but maya was slightly more level-headed, ema was more 'logical' but more 'panicked' in a sense. idk how to describe it well but the two had differences beyond their capabilities and circumstances, and it was really neat bc it demonstrated how fleshed out the various characters are, theres many characters who are similar to one another in a way (larry and gumshoe, edgeworth and von karma, etc), yet theres just enough to meaningfully set them apart beyond their character designs and functions. the character writing is just so neat! despite the characters' bizarreness there was still so much depth and genuinely striking emotions which kept the entire game very captivating.

MAYA!!! i love maya a lot. im so happy she got to be her own character and had her own doubts and struggles, i think her leaving at the 'end' of the game was the best thing ever for her character, very touching and i loved how i had to tell her HOLD IT! before she left, very sweet.... it was great to see both her and wright grow out of mia's shadow, i liked how her spiritual capabilities werent treated disrespectfully at any point cuz the supernatural is real af #GhostBeliever but yes she was a very awesome character 🥰 i cant wait to see her again and i BETTER fucking see her again and SOON..

also ive made several jokes already abt edgeworth wright yaoi bla bla bla but genuinely OMGGG bro... their setup is genuinely so good shit has me gushing like WOAH!!!! it is so DRAMATIC it is so ROMANTIC it is so GOOD!!!! becoming an attorney to be with your childhood friend except they end up being a PROSECUTOR and you guys are OPPONENTS and like WORUHSHJFK!!!! they were your defense attorney as a child so now youre their defense as an adult and fucking "Edgeworth… I'll be waiting for you in court" LIKE BITCH!!!! not to mention edgeworth is a Professional tsundere like he does this shit PROFESSIONALLY like HOLY SHIT!!!! it feels like its been so long since ive had such like straight cut romantic drama like this tension is so palpable and dramatic i am just SOOO excited to see where this relationship goes cuz this shit is sooo crazy. this setup is crazy good and nuts and like wow.. WOWWW i like this a lot. i <3 ROMANTIC DRAMA. and i really like the tension building up to the 4th case where this really blows over like we just gets tidbits and hints of how the two knew each other throughout the game and then everything fits into place so satisfyingly like thats awesome i love this

general gameplay speaking i have some issues which is to be expected cuz this is an old af game from 2005, wish i could skip text ive already seen and look at previous text boxes etc etc etc, im hopeful that these get fixed up in future titles cuz game devs strive for perfection so i #Trust future titles will be better in that regard, but that aside ive said this already but the mic function is literally sooo funny to me 😭 i played most of this game lying in my bed and there were many times where im too lazy to touch the screen w my left hand so id just press the y button and mumble speak into the mic which is a hilarious option to have 😭 i hope this isnt just a onetime gimmick and i get to do this in other games, cuz yelling out OBJECTION at the very end of the game was soooo so funny

also one last thing. in the last trial of the last case edgeworth just brought up a completely random case from the past and the judge just let him do that SMHHHH cuz god forbid i say anything off topic or i get fucking kicked out 🙄🙄🙄 bitch!!

anyways I FINISHED THE GAME YAYYYY!!!

[ofthedirewolves]

First Guy Wins - A Queliot Meta

I was rewatching The Magicians and was struck by a realization. Eliot and Queliot fit the “First Girl Wins” romantic trope. Yes, in this case, Eliot is a guy, not a girl but the trope still works.

Credit where credit is due, this is based by @scullylikesscience​ ‘s “First Girl Wins” meta.

When I first realized that Queliot definitely seemed to be the road the writers were going I was a bit cynical. I have quite a lot of experience and have been betrayed by many a showrunner.

I thought the writers had just seen that Queliot was more popular and course-corrected. Then I started my rewatch and realized that as much as the showrunners love claiming they’re winging it, this might have been planned after all. 

It could still be a happy coincidence so I’m not going to give them too much credit. For the likes of this meta let’s focus on the facts and the characters.

We’re going to analyze Quentin and Eliot’s relationship through the lens of “First Girl Wins”

In romantic works, the first girl person introduced — either overall or as a potential Love Interest — has a very good chance of ending up with the protagonist (especially if the protagonist is male).

There are all sorts of explanations as to why this is. Things ending up the same place they started is a very old narrative technique.

From a Doylist point of view, the Law of Conservation of Detail suggests introducing the Love Interest early. An early introduction allows you to get the audience interested in her and rooting for her, gives you space for Character Development, and give her relationship with her (eventual) partner the most time to develop organically.

Eliot gets introduced pretty early, has a lot of character development outside of his relationship with Quentin and Queliot definitely has developed organically.

Is it the first girl the protagonist meets according to In-Universe chronology, even if we first see her halfway through the show's run? The first one to show romantic feelings? The first new girl the protagonist meets?

Eliot isn’t the first possible love interest that gets introduced, that’s actually Julia, then it’s Eliot, followed by Alice in the last place. It is in their introductions though that tells us that it’s actually Eliot that gets the title of First Girl™.   

If you're suspecting some girl is supposed to be the First Girl™, a good idea would be to take a look at how the writer has played her up.

Is he a major character?

Eliot Waugh is one of the show’s leading characters  ✔

Is the "first" interaction led up to, emphasized, treated as a big deal?

We first see him in the background as Quentin walks towards Brakebills. The camera shot is an Extreme Long Shot.

The camera focuses on him smoking for a bit (Wide Shot) until we see Quentin actually approach.

The camera closes on him with a medium shot as he talks to Quentin, then it’s a Medium Close Up as he gets down and introduces himself.

We see Quentin lose his cool and then he follows after Eliot. Asking if he’s hallucinating. Eliot and Quentin are in the same frame until they get to the exam which is where Eliot’s introduction ends.

This connects Eliot to Brakebills/Magic.  So yes it’s definitely a big deal ✔

All other things being equal, is he a strong contender for being the protagonist's Love Interest?

Quentin and Eliot spend a lot of the first episodes together. The first person Quentin truly opens up to is Eliot (and Eliot opens up in return.) Eliot tells him one of his darkest secrets, while Quentin tells him about the hospital. The person he talks to about his worries re: getting expelled is Eliot.

1x02

In 1x03 Eliot goes to Quentin for help in finding the missing book. Thanks to this Quentin is introduced to the Hedge Witches, not only that but to the fact that Julia is one of them. Which means Eliot is there for Quentin and Julia’s big argument.  This means Eliot has seen both sides of Q’s life (before Brakebills and after).

In 1x04 when Quentin gets stuck in Marina and Julia’s spell, Eliot is not only in the spell but visibly worried about Q outside of the spell.

Not only that but we actually see Eliot getting defensive with Julia.

When Quentin breaks out of it, the first person we see go to him is Eliot. Throughout the next couple of episodes, it seems there’s always a scene with the two of them together. The only time they don’t share screentime is in 1x07 (bc Q is with Mayakovsky and we’ll get to that later).  

In 1x11 they literally have sex. Yes they’re high on emotions and it’s a threesome with Margo but it happened. If you hadn’t guessed by this point that Eliot is a valid romantic choice this made it more clear.

There’s no Straight Guy™ Freakout. Quentin was never written as a straight character. From his first interaction with Eliot, we see that Quentin is attracted to him. The only negative connotation the scene has it that it’s cheating because Quentin was in a relationship at the time.

Throughout Season 1 a lot of the major moments for Quentin himself happen with Eliot or around Eliot. Quentin might get expelled? Eliot is there. Confrontation with Julia? Eliot is there. His dad has cancer? Eliot and Margo help him out. Quentin gets separated from the group? Eliot sends a paper airplane to tell them where they are. This season establishes that Eliot is an important person in Quentin’s life.

In 2x01 we get the crowning scene between Eliot and Quentin and not only does it have very romantic vibes but the camera shots tell us a lot about these two characters. We get a Full Shot of the whole group before it becomes a lot more intimate.

The speech that Quentin gives Eliot is the longest of all the Coronation speeches. From Eliot’s side, we get Close-Ups. Close Ups show us what the character is feeling at this moment. We see an Eliot with tears in his eyes looking up at Quentin with so much love.

On his side, Quentin has a Medium Close Up all we see in his eyes is pride. Despite the fact that they haven’t had the best relationship recently Quentin still deeply cares.

Both of them look at each other. The camera focuses on both of them until the moment is over and the camera turns to Penny and the scene continues.

So is he a strong contender for being the protagonist's Love Interest? Considering this is only a smidge of their interactions? I would say definitely ✔.

(I could talk about all their interactions, especially “A Life in a Day” but then we’d be here all year and I wanted to focus on their earlier establishing scenes) 

The First Girl will rarely be the first one to confess her feelings, admit them,

Pretty much all the romantic interactions between them have been initiated by Quentin rather than Eliot.

Back in 3x05, we see that Quentin is the one that first kisses Eliot. They live their life together and raise a family.

In 4x05 it’s revealed that after they got their memories back Quentin put himself out there. We see a Quentin who is sure that he loves Eliot “who gets that kind of proof of concept”. It doesn’t go well for him but he did it.

In fact, he's much likelier to be the one who does it last

We don’t get the full realization of Eliot’s feelings until 4x05. I think Eliot has known for a while that he loves Quentin, but it's just been implied (few people can heart eye as Hale can). But the reason I mention it is that this is where Eliot realizes he has to do something about it. The ball is in his court.

With his small window of opportunity, he tries to convey his feelings to Quentin while also giving him a reason to fight “Peaches and plums motherfucker, I’m alive in here”.

Complications will abound, Romantic False Leads will show up,

Most of Season 1’s romantic subplot is Quentin/Alice and later Eliot/Mike. The interesting thing is that both of the Romantic False Leads appear in the same episode (1x07). Alice has been there from the first episode but 1x07 is the episode where she and Quentin hook up. Coincidentally the same when Eliot and Mike hook up.

Quentin falls in love with Alice while Eliot is very deeply into Mike. Of course, both relationships end in tragedy. Eliot has to kill Mike to protect the rest and Alice dies defeating the beast. The pain of his actions makes Eliot turn towards substance abuse which leads to him going to Fillory with the rest. It sets him on a path that deviates from Quentin’s.

Quentin’s plot is about bringing Alice back from being a Niffin. Yet when he does she hates him for it. So their relationship fizzles out and never truly recovers.

In Eliot’s case, we also get Idri as a false romantic lead as they did technically get engaged and were clearly attracted to each other.

misunderstandings will arise between them, pride and denial will keep them apart.

The biggest misunderstanding between the two comes from the same scene in 4x05. Eliot believes that Quentin wouldn’t choose him if they had a choice. He gets scared and so he pushes Quentin away. Eliot mistakenly believes Q is straight so that’s probably the biggest misunderstanding between them. Quentin interprets it as Eliot not choosing him if he had a choice.

The misunderstanding gets worse when we remember 3x06 had Eliot rejecting Quentin’s idea of going on a quest. He has a perfectly valid reason but Quentin probably sees it as another rejection from the man he is in love with.

They’re both in love with each other but neither believes the other would choose him. Miscommunication is a large part of romantic tropes.

A more subtle tactic is to get the First Girl "off the radar" somehow —

Ironically enough Queliot fits this criterion as well. Eliot is married to Fen (and later engaged to Idri) while stuck in Fillory being High King the majority of seasons 2 and 3. While Quentin is dealing with Niffin!Alice and helping Julia in Season 2, and largely involved in the Key Quest in Season 3.

That doesn’t mean they don’t see each other because they do. They just can go periods of time without sharing meaningful screentime (especially in regards to show-time as time in the show passes differently than how we see it episode by episode).

You can expect an in-universe justification for how these two people met so early and took so long to figure out they belong together.

In Queliot’s case, it’s misunderstandings, romantic false leads, magical quests, their own stupidity, false identities and of course the fact that one of them is possessed by a monster.

The fact of the matter is that Eliot fits pretty much all the criteria for being the First Girl (or in this case First Guy). So whether it was on purpose or just a happy accident it still counts.

Eliot Waugh is the First Guy™ which leads me to believe great things are on the way for Queliot. We just have to sit back and enjoy the ride.

(Remember to pack tissues, as I have a feeling the writers aren’t done torturing us yet)

[madrut16]

July Fanfic Challenge Day 3: Closure - Part 1

Author’s Note: Another new pairing! I finished playing this book back in October for Halloween and ILB (which I haven’t really played bc I want a good ending and I cannot afford the diamonds to get it) and I loved it! This is the first book where I haven’t really been drawn to any of the canon LIs so, of course, I had to come up with this! I can’t wait to write more with them and explore these characters post It Lives. 

Pairing/Book: ILITW (Dan x MC)

Rating: PG-13

Summary: There’s one last thing Raina needs to do before she and some of the gang leave for the start of a new chapter of their lives in Seattle. 

The doorbell rang as I scrambled to finish packing my suitcase, and I cursed out loud when I checked the time on my phone. I knew I should’ve gotten up an hour earlier but I was never a morning person and it took forever to go to sleep last night. Sighing, I stared at the two plastic bins left in my room before running downstairs to the front door.

“I’m coming!” I shouted as I reached the entryway. 

I took a second to smooth down the stray hairs that had appeared in the reflection of the old grandfather clock attached to the wall. It was a silly thing to do since he wouldn’t care what I looked like this early in the morning. But, then again years old crushes made you do a lot of trivial things. 

With a satisfied nod, I finally opened the door. “Hey! Come in.”

“Took you long enough,” Dan commented as I let him inside. 

I gave him one of my signature eye rolls. “Sorry, I was packing.”

“Still?”

“I know, usually I’m much more organized but, I’ve been doing most of this by myself so it’s taken a while,” I explained as I led him back up the stairs. “I swear I’m almost done though, it’s mainly just my suitcase for the road trip I have left.”

Catching my gaze, his lips turned up into a smile. “Good, cause the others are gonna be here in about 15 minutes.”

“I could use some help then,” I replied as we reached my room where I quickly added, “And don’t worry, my underwear is already in there so you don’t have to touch any of that.”

This caused him to chuckle, although I thought I saw his cheeks turn a little red. Or maybe it was just all my imagination, hoping it was true. “Wasn’t even concerned about it. I’m happy to help if it means we actually get to leave on time for a pit stop for coffee and donuts.”

“At Diane’s?” 

“Of course, is there really any other option?” He answered with a smirk. 

After waking up from the coma and dealing with all of the repressed trauma from Mr. Red and Jane and Noah, it made me happy to see him finally starting to return to his normal self over the past several months. 

Packing the pile of sweaters I folded late last night, I responded, “Not in Westchester there isn’t. We’ll have to find someplace like it in Seattle.”

“Oh, I’m sure it won’t be that hard, it’s practically dripping in coffee shops,” he said, handing me the last stack of clothes on my bed. “What are we doing with those?” he asked, gesturing to the closet behind me. 

“Already have that covered,” I disclosed, walking over and opening the door to reveal several hangers wrapped in trash bags. 

Looking over my handiwork, an impressed expression appeared. “You...really planned this out.”

“Actually this time it was my mom’s idea. Once I get to the apartment, I can just hang them back up and take the bags off. Easy peasy.” I started collecting them from the closet and setting them in the one bin that was left unfilled. 

There was a brief pause and I could tell he was deep in thought, almost as if he wanted to say something but wasn’t sure if he should. He always got quiet when he did this but, so did I. That’s how I knew he had slipped into his own head. Well, that and the fact that we’ve been best friends off and on for over a decade now. 

“Dan?”

“Hmm?” he snapped out of his reflective daze. 

“Penny for your thoughts? You got quiet there for a minute.”

Meeting my gaze, he shrugged. “Nothing, I just...it must be hard, not having your parents with you to help move in.”

A small wave of sadness came over me. For almost four years now it’s been like this, them having to miss important milestones and events of my life. They barely made it back in time for my graduation over a year ago. 

“My Nana’s...health problems definitely don’t have a convenient schedule,” I sighed. “Especially now that they’re getting worse. Who knows how long they’ll have to be over there this time. They are helping pay my portion of the rent so...I can’t really complain. They're doing the best they can and that’s what matters.”

“Yeah.”

I managed another smile, not wanting to think about it any longer. “Plus, your family will be over there this weekend before classes start, and they’re always there for me when mine can’t be,” I added. 

“They do adore you,” Dan agreed with a laugh. 

As we finished up the last of my packing, we continued our normal banter until it was complete. Right after that my phone chimed and I saw a new message from Andy in the group chat. 

Andy: I’m here with Ava.

Ava: Can confirm. 

Stacy: I’m on my way, be there shortly. 

Smiling, I sent a thumbs up back. 

“Well, we timed that perfectly,” I told Dan who was reading the messages on his phone. 

This earned me a boyish grin, and I bit my lip as it stirred up a wave of butterflies. “What can I say? We make a great team. Almost perfect even.”

Was he flirting? God, I scrutinized everything between us these days. 

“We really do, don’t we?” I raised an eyebrow teasingly as we headed back downstairs, bringing the bins and my suitcase with us. We set them with the others in the kitchen before letting our friends inside. 

“Hey, Raina, Dan,” Andy said, the morning not hurting his energy one bit.

“Hey, guys!” I exclaimed giving him a hug. 

I attempted to do the same with Ava but she dodged me and I settled for a hive five instead. “Nice try Raina but, it’s not happening.”

“Oh, I’ll get you to let me one of these days.”

She scoffed in response. “Hah, doubtful. It is fun to see you try though.”

I rolled my eyes as Stacy walked through the door. 

“Sorry, I didn’t knock,” she panted out of breath. “But the door was open so I assumed it was fine.”

“Of course it is Stace,” I told her before taking in her haphazard appearance. “Running late?”

She nodded. “I couldn’t decide what to bring! It took me an hour to finally sort everything out. Plus, my mother was delaying me. I don’t think she wants to be by herself.” She frowned momentarily.

“I’m sure she’ll be fine,” Dan chimed in, trying to reassure her. At this point, it was almost second nature. “She just needs some time to adjust.”

“Yeah, I know,” she replied, exhaling the pent up stress she carried. “Doesn’t make it easier. At least Conner is there so, she’ll have some peace of mind.” She rubbed her forehead before painting on a smile. 

Andy cleared his throat to relieve the sudden tension in the room. Everyone knew why Mrs. Green was paranoid. 

“Ready to leave?” he asked, the keys dangling from his hand. 

“I think so,” Dan replied, his analytical gaze wandering around the first floor. “Right Raina?”

I’m about to reply when I remember something. There was one last goodbye I needed to say. However, it meant letting them in on the secret that I’ve been keeping from them. But, I wasn’t one to break a promise and I wasn’t going to do it now. 

“Actually, there is one thing that I need to do,” I responded, a nervous knot forming in my stomach. “It should take ten minutes, fifteen at most.”

I was met with four confused stares. 

“What do you mean?” Dan asked me. 

My gaze drifted to the window where the woods could be seen outside. “I need to visit...Noah.”

The name lingered, slowly sinking into each of my friends’ minds. 

“Wait...you’ve been...seeing him?!” Stacy exclaimed first. 

I had told them about what had happened between us and what he’d become right after that night but not much else. 

I reluctantly nodded. I was tired, exhausted of carrying this burden on my own. 

“For several months now. I know, he’s not exactly my favorite person either, and I definitely think him taking Jane’s place was the right thing to do,” I started to explain. “But, I don’t know, I guess he still deserves some mercy, some compassion still. I don’t want to leave him alone out there. So, I sometimes visit him every week or two, just so he has company.”

They all looked at each other and I closed my eyes, bracing for a confrontation. Yet, that’s not what I received.”

“We’re not mad,” Andy said after a minute. “Well, at least I’m not. I will admit that I’m not really that pissed at the guy anymore. And I’m the one whose leg got busted.”

Stacy and Ava still looked hesitant and I couldn’t blame them. Dan was quiet and deep in thought again but other than that, I had no idea how he felt and that scared me to death. 

“I’m not completely over him trying to kill us...but I will admit I am tired of holding a grudge,” Ava mumbled, her arms folded tightly across her chest. 

After a beat, Stacy sighed reluctantly, a guilt-ridden expression on her face. “Ugh, I can’t believe I’m saying this but...me too. That whole mess brought us back together when we never should’ve separated in the first place.”

That left one person. The person I needed to hear from the most. I willed myself to look at him. 

“Dan? Say something,” I begged. 

Please. 

He shrugged a smile appearing. “You were actually worried Raina?” he commented, and I released the air I had been holding in. 

“A little,” I admitted sheepishly. I should’ve known that he’d be the one I’d have to convince the least. 

“I never really faulted the guy,” he said. “I mean yeah he betrayed us, but it was for a good reason. He wanted Jane back, his twin. And he mistakenly thought that was the only way he could do it. So, I’m definitely fine with you doing this. I just wish you would’ve felt like you could tell us. Me.”

I physically felt the weight lift off my shoulders. “Thank you, for not hating me. I just...we weren’t there for Jane when she was like this and look what happened. I don’t want the same thing to happen with Noah. I promised I’d say goodbye before we left.”

“Then let’s do it,” he replied. 

I was taken a bit back as the others nodded in agreement. “You guys don’t have to come if you don’t want to. Just because this is what I need to find peace doesn’t mean it’s what you do.”

His response was immediate. “We’re a team, Raina. All of us. We got into this mess together so we should end it that way too. I think this could be good for all fo us. Well besides Lucas and Lily who aren’t here.”

“They can come with us when we’re here in December if they want to,” Andy said. 

A touched smile appeared on my face. I was so grateful to have them so entrenched in my life again. 

“Then let’s go into the woods.”

[mairzymarzipan]

Night of the Full Moon Character Reviews: The Big Bosses(Minus Werewolf)

Hello again

I know I said I’d be talking about the Hunter, Old Mage, Fallen Priest and so on today, but I realized that those characters were actually more interesting in the context of other characters, so I put them off for later.  I decided instead to talk about the main bosses of the game, as it so happens, are the closest people to Red Riding Hood.  Because this game wants to be an ironicy soap opera/anime that way.

When I say Big Bosses, I mean that you always fight one of these characters at the end of the game.  Unless you’re like me and you start all over at the end because you’re bored and tired of all four of them playwise.

Werewolf

Wait, no, never mind.  This is another one of those characters who’s more interesting in the context of different, non-Red Riding Hood Characters.  We’re saving this boi for later.  But, you shouldn’t too surprised, if you read the title.  Instead, I’ll just use this space to talk about a mechanic.

Throughout the game, you can get ‘courage’ and ‘reputation’ points by talking to characters.  Very very generally speaking, you get courage points by doing brave things, and you get reputation points for doing nice things.  You also can get courage points when a character talks shit about the werewolf, and reputation points when a character talks shit about the witch.  So naturally, if you have more courage in the end, you get to fight the wolf, and if you have more reputation, you get to fight the witch.  I guess what they’re going for is only a meanie would fight this doggo?  And the witch is who any empathetic person would hate???

I feel like the latter is not the case, but more on that later.

Witch

“Only your Hope family can lift the dark magic curse.  This is what the priest is most afraid of.  That’s why monsters run wild on full moon nights. First they made your grandmother disappear and then they drew you into the forest...but they never anticipated that you would make it this far.”

By the way, you’re part of a prophecy.  Only someone in your family can lift the curse on the forest.  jsyk

Yeah so, as you see, the Witch’s description does not really tell us much about the witch herself.  This description also pretty unique in that none of the other character descriptions go into the second person like this.  The description also kind of hints that Red dies in the timeline where she fights the witch, so that’s depressing.

Nah, to figure out what the witch is about, you have to delve into the fragments around her. 

So, you actually do encounter the witch earlier in the game.  In the third or sometimes second chapter, she will recruit to find some magic apples she lost.  She makes a mention about suspecting a queen of stealing them.  The apples, I guess, are just lying around on the forest floor, and you bite into each of them bc you’re a dumb lkid.  Each apple changes your stats by a few points and the witch does not at all seem upset that you hand her a bunch of bitten fruit at the end.  In fact, she offers you the choice of two random buffs, so that’s fun.

You’re likely to hear about her way before that, though, depending on who you talk to.  Generally anyone who’s been cursed feels like it’s the witch’s fault.  

But if you choose to fight her(or you might not get a choice in the matter) she accuses you of stealing said apples.  She’ll also talk to you throughout the battle until you defeat her- a trait that only the big bosses and a few of the newer ones have.  Her lines...make her sound pretty unhinged.  She’s speaks of disbelief that you would do such a horrible thing, and threatens you with with her magic, and talks about how misunderstood she is.

When you defeat her, she’s got a really interesting line, tho.

“No!  I don’t want to fight you!  I can’t!”

Huh.

Before I move on, let me talk about this other witch character.

Yep.  That sure is the art style this game is going with.

So this is one of the shopkeepers.  There are four different shops you can find along the way, only two of which have characters you can see in them.  This character is known as the Witch Apothecary...but you can only see that on the outside of her store.  Otherwise she’s just called “Witch”.

The thing is, along the way, characters will talk about the Witch and, they don’t specify that it’s not the one with the white hair.  They just talk about The Witch like she’s the only witch that matters.  So is this woman not really a witch?  A witch wannabe?  Nah, we already have one of those characters.  Could it me that the shopkeepers don’t actually exist in the story of the game?  That would bum me out, bc there’s this lesbian owl I want to be real.

But...I think they’re the same person using shapeshifting.  Or if you want a really wild theory, maybe there are time travel hijinks and she’s the Magic Apprentice grown up.  But I’m going to go ahead with the former.

Anyhoo.  I like the witch.  I’m gonna give her 🍎🍎🍎🍎 four apples

Priest

“They mistakenly thought that on the full moon night they could help the monsters quietly eliminate Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother.  Once the Hope family was wiped out, the legend of lifting the curse on the Dark Forest would disappear completely.  However, they didn’t expect they would have to go personally and pay such a high price to fight their enemy. When the priest fell, the cursed monsters reverted to their human forms and the Dark Forest was no longer covered by snow all year round, but the church’s blind greed still remains.”

Again, not much is said about the priest himself.  The most interesting thing here is that he apparently is the keystone holding the curse together.  Interesting, because he seems to be letting the witch do all the work for him.  Usually in these stories, you have to kill the person who casts the spell to break the spell, not just their friend.  Is it because he, himself, is a stone?  That is to say, he turns into a statue sometimes.

Why the heck is he having her turn all his enemies into cartoon monsters instead of killing them, anyway?  Don’t tell it’s to make the game family friendly, bc in one of these timelines a child kills another child.  

Honestly, the priest/church just doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.  His big plan is selling everybody from his town as slaves.  Gross.  And the way he accomplishes this is by...making it snow all the time, and turning people into vampires and fire bears?  What?

He is.  A delight to fight.  I’m being sarcastic.  He’s a religious edgelord who likes to go on about how humans are sinners and everyone deserves to be punished.  Also she cheats by turning into stone.  Eh.  

It feels like someone just spun a wheel for of evil traits and just stuck them together haphazardly.  His evil plan is...human trafficking!  His personality is...self righteous!  His means is...tf!  His super power is...turning into a statue!  

He’s the biggest of bads but also not that thought out.  He’s super important to the over-arching plot and yet I have no idea why this guy does what he does.  I’m gonna give him 🗽🗽 two statues.

Mystery Men

idek why this person is called “Mystery Men”.  I’m guessing it’s supposed to be mystery man?  Or mysterious person or something?  I know I haven’t talked about the art much but, I do appreciate how much their face looks like a dog snout and her hood looks like dog ears.  It’s a neat touch.

This description was actually changed.  The new text is longer and more awkwardly worded.  I don’t like it!  And I don’t get why it happened.

But, yeah.  The very last enemy of the game- who you can only reach by playing through at least four times and defeating all three others- is your Grandmother!  Le gasp!

So what exactly went wrong with her?  Oh, nothing, she just has a big wolf growing out of her back(told you the concept was backed up by canon)

Is this her daemon or patronus or something?  I have no idea.  I’ve been calling her a werewolf sometimes, tho, bc she’s better at being a werewolf than the titular werewolf.  Which is to say she can revive instead of just healing.  Her buffs and deck change throughout the fight.  She’s a long battle, fun, except for her ear piercing voice.  She sounds a bit possessed.

I’ll give her 👁️👁️👁️ three big eyes.  She’s a fun battle, but I always mute it.  Also not real big on how the text got changed for the worse.  But she does add some good details to the story.

In Conclusion... 

Grandma’s text tells us a few things.  

1. Not only is the Hope family connected to this prophecy, but family members actually have the power to control the curse.  That leads me to believe that the person who got the curse started was a Hope themself.  

2. The church came along long after the curse was in full swing.  So the priest is not responsible for it.  Whether he’s a Hope himself is not relevant.

We also know these things:

1. The witch is still the one casting all the tf spells, which is part of the curse.

2. There are two timelines were Red has a natural gift for magic

3. In the Little Witch timeline, the Witch is teaching Red magic.  On top of that she’s v patient, which is surprising, for some reason.

4. The Witch seems a little out of touch with reality.  She sends you to find apples, and then yells at you for stealing them.  Almost like she thinks you’re another person.

5. The witch verbally expresses her desire not to fight you when she realizes who you are.

I have to conclude that the Witch is a Hope.  A Hope who’s close enough to have a fondness for Little Red Riding Hood, and is invested in her well being/education.  And yanno, is turns her enemies into pig people because she can.  

She helps you on your quest by giving you one of her own.  But earlier on, she takes on the form of the other witch offer you potions and the like.  She even gives you the first one in each chapter for free.

“My potions can change your appearance!”

Of course she can’t get too close to you.  She can’t reveal that she’s helping you.  Hence putting on a new face when she’s a ‘good’ witch.  One wonders if she’s trying to hide her identity from you, or the people she’s allied with.

Hey can we look at her description again?

Red doesn’t get addressed in the second person in any of the other descriptions.  There is a character who talks about his life in the first person, and we’ll get to him.  But this is odd to me.

What if Red isn’t being addressed here?  What if it’s someone else?  What if it’s the Witch?

What if the Witch was captured and ensnared in the priest’s plot?  What if he messed with her memory?  So then who is she?  Red’s sister?  It seems like she’s been working with the church a lot longer than Grandma’s been missing.  Also Grandma went into the woods on her own accord.  You could say that the grief the church caused her *made* her go out, but it seems weak.

So maybe a Hope in another generation, who lost her grandmother to- either the church or monsters?  Was it this other Grandmother who *started* the curse?

Dude, what if she’s your Mom?

What if instead of killing her the priest did...something...scared her enough to get her to work for him.  And messed with her memory so she couldn’t conceive a way out?  And sort of had her transfer the power of the curse to him so that people had to kill him to break it?

What if he had the Church Doctor scoop her brain out and put it in another lady’s head?  Who knows.

I’m not certain about the witch being your mom.  I think I would like that to be the case because it’s fun, but I’m not quite convinced yet.  I AM certain, tho, that the Witch is a Hope, and she cares about you.  She’s not just this cackling meanie turning people into flowers.  She’s...complicated.  And she needs help just as much as all the trapped monsters.

[hashtagsarinotsari]

olivia jay delilah monteith

bc i cannot believe weasel got me already obsessing about a character who may or may not even become anything

nickname: ollie, olive, whatever amara calls her

faceclaim: piper curda

loves amara olsen with her whole ass heart

has a tendency of going along with anything her best friend suggests

bit of a people pleaser; she hates the idea that anyone dislikes her and makes her self-confidence go down pretty quickly

afraid of horses. had a bad accident when she was younger leaving her terrified of the creatures

loves baking. often bakes for her best friend’s exes as little gifts of “sorry she broke up with you” - it’s like a softening blow. kinda. 

very much a hopeless romantic. like she cannot get enough of the idea

can speak korean and english fluently. but she hates getting asked “where are you from? no, i mean, where are you from?” she knows what it means, and it’s always upset her

wears a gold pendant with an “o” in the center at all times. it was gifted to her from her mother

despite her “fluffy” demeanor, she blares hardcore rap in her car with a chipper smile on her face

she has trouble focusing at times. gets distracted quickly and often needs someone to focus her on her thoughts

avid pinterest fan - she categorizes her life into pinterest boards; it’s also where she gets most of her recipes for baking from

lives between florida and connecticut / massachusetts (?) ; half the time lives with her grandma while the other half is spent with her father / mother

doesn’t talk much about her family - it’s not that she has a sad childhood or anything, but she prefers not to discuss her status

feels like a strong part of her life is tied up with amara and justin - she’s not sure she could really handle life without either of them

instantly became friends with amara - she admired the girl from the start. the confidence, how cool her older siblings were, just everything about her made her want to be friends. she’s always felt that amara was a little too cool for her, a little out her league in terms of friendship 

met justin when he dropped by amara’s place. ollie mistakenly thought he was one of amara’s exes and apologized for his “dumping” and gave him cupcakes for what she believed occurred. she was oblivious that she already met the boy in school and actually shared classes ( and was lab partners ) with him. 

she thinks highly of justin but has never thought of him in a romantic sense. maybe it’s because he makes everything so easy. she doesn’t think anything much of holding his hand or leaning on his shoulder because he’s so warm and familiar. they rarely have tension that she’s unaware when he’s in the midst of practically revealing his feelings towards her. 

[pepperdee]

This post just reminded me of an old WIP idea that I never spent time on because there were a lot of plot holes and ALSO i didn’t know how I wanted it to end. For simplicity’s sake, I’m going to make up names for these characters, because they didn’t have names or genders either.

I present to the... The Fake Artist Wip

Sam and Alex were really good friends as kids, but kind of drifted apart. They always joked that “if you were on the run I’d help hide you.” Well, Sam is accused of murdering a new person, and Sam really doesn’t like the idea of being in prison. So, Sam goes to Alex’s house.

Alex is like “what the hell dude you’re wanted for murder” and Sam is like “1. i did not kill him and 2. you promised.” Alex believes Sam for some reason and decides, “you know what? fine. I have a secret bunker because my dad was really paranoid when he built this house. You can hide in there.”

The secret bunker is more like a mancave, with a good TV, internet, movies, a bathroom, etc. so it’s WAY better than prison. Sam takes up shop there. They’re a huge nerd, and Alex has all of these streaming services they can binge their faves on while they wait for the cops to catch the actual killer.

Alex and Sam slowly rekindle their friendship, but Alex has a big boy job and isn’t there all the time, and Sam has insomnia and can only rewatch their faves so many times. So, Sam asks Alex to buy them some how to draw books, also looking up tutorials, asking Alex to get them a sketchbook. Alex also gives them a tablet or something.

putting the rest under the cut because it’s long

Sam gets pretty decent at drawing and starts posting them online. They’re all pencil and paper, but once they start using colored pencil, people really like them. Sam grows in popularity rapidly and opens commissions. You know, to help Alex with all the electricity bills Sam has no doubt doubled. The commissions come pouring in once Alex buys them a stylus and a drawing application on the tablet.

Eventually, Sam saves enough money to buy a pretty decent drawing tablet and a laptop. Sam starts doing this great art and hosting livestreams, but now people are asking questions and begging for a face or a voice reveal. Obviously, they can’t do that.

However, there’s going to be a con in town soon, and Sam knows that artists at cons do pretty well. Especially since Sam does a bunch of fanart for popular TV shows. Alex offers to make prints of the art and sell them in Sam’s place. Sam agrees because hello money.

Anyway, at the con, people mistakenly think that Alex is Sam (which makes sense, since Sam uses a nickname online). Alex panics and goes along with it bc they’re kinda a disaster.

So now Sam’s surplus of fans think Sam is this person named Alex and people took selfies with Alex and Alex gave them permission to share them. Sam is like “OH SHIT.”

Cue a bunch of identity-swap hijinks.

The fans say Sam can do live Q and A’s and video livestreams now. So Alex and Same jerryrig this setup where it’s Sam drawing on one camera and Alex pretending to draw on another while talking to the fans. Alex has always been very charismatic, anyway.

Alex keeps doing cons, going all over. People ask Alex to make them little sketches at the booths, they’ll pay for them, and Sam has to teach Alex their style so he can mimic it.

Of course, theories go around that Alex and The Artist are not the same person, but people are like “nah ur crazy” while Sam sweats very profusely in the background.

Eventually, though, the police catch the right person, and Sam no longer has to hide in Alex’s basement. Their friends and family are really worried about them--but now this also means that Sam can reclaim their identity online! Except, everyone might be pissed, and they’ll lose their following! But they can’t keep this ruse up forever! and what happens if someone finds out on their own that Alex and Sam are different people? And, weirdly, Alex doesn’t want to give up being a famous artist online, but they’re not good enough at art to take over and let Sam start from scratch. Plus, those are Sam’s followers, not Alex’s!

I didn’t know the answer which is why I gave the wip up.

Also, no, it’s not a romance.

[lanceville]

How do i survive first day of school (can you distract me pls and talk about platonic klunk or something else?)

yeesh first day of school is the toughest… but they’re not always bad… here are some klunk headcanons that might make it a better day for you buddy:

lance made hunk watch all six of his favorite movies at least twice and memorize all of his favorite lines from them

hunk and lance let off the loudest and longest of offended gasps when keith asked them what starwars is. like seriously keith?!?? SERIOUSLY?!!? WERE YOU LIVING IN AN ISOLATED UNCIVILIZED SHACK IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DESER- oh wait you were buT THAT DOESN’T EXCUSE YO-

lance: “bro i can fit my entire world into my hands” hunk: “how bro” lance: *cups hunk’s face* hunk: *is touched* bro……

whenever keith or lance have a nightmare or just trouble sleeping, they go to hunk. boi aren’t hunk’s bed cuddles the warmest and best ever…. they sleep soundly like just-fed infants. sleeping with him has become their favorite thing ever that it’s become a daily routine. keith and lance take turns because the bed won’t fit all three or else they’ll suffocate lmao

when lance was a kid he called his beloved fluffy teddy bear hunk because it reminded him of his best friend

hunk reminds keith of hippos. CUTE AND DEADLY

lance: “oh my favorite hobby? teasing keith 24/7″

sometimes keith gets jealous of how close lance and hunk are and wants to be part of whatever the two are doing together. he doesn’t voice that, but hunk and lance notice it. they invite him to join their little chats and mini adventures whenever they catch him looking at them, and they just love the beaming look on keith’s face as he walks towards them excitedly like they’ve invited him to a mcr concert

*keith knocking lance’s room door at 2am* so do you really not remember the bonding moment bish

lance and keith spit in each other’s food when the other turns his head around but neither of them has caught the other doing that. the others just ignore them because this isn’t the worst they’ve seen them doing smh

hunk is big and strong and can fend off 10 galra soldiers by himself but keith and lance still feel the need to Defend Him At All Costs. anything that gets as close to hunk as 5 meters gets sliced to shreds and shot to ashes within 0.5 seconds

lance: “your mullet is no bueno for the ladies” keith: “who said i even fucking care”

lance loves playing with keith’s hair and braiding it tho

just compliment keith’s knife collection one (1) time and he’ll offer you his heart and love you 5ever

hunk sometimes tries to make the food he makes from alien ingredients taste like lance’s mother’s dishes as much as possible to ease his friend’s homesickness. (hunk frequently stayed for dinner at lance’s place back on earth. he loved lance’s mother’s cooking and asked her to teach him how to cook several meals)

keith was once eating a purple alien fruit. the moment hunk saw a stain of purple juice on keith’s chin he yelled his lungs out: “OH MY GOD GUYS IT’S HAPPENING KEITH IS TURNING PURPLE I REPEAT KEITH IS TURNING PURPLE KEITH’S GALRA SIDE IS FINALLY EMERGING” keith: ”it’s just from the fruit i wa-” “SHH DON’T BE SCARED KEITH PURPLE IS NOT A BAD COLOR IT’LL JUST MAKE YOU LOOK LIKE A LOVELY, FRESHLY PICKED EGGPLANT. i love eggplants btw” “wtf”

lance: “anyway- i can’t believe keith’s dad is a fucking furry”

whenever there’s a fart smell they all look at lance. he swears it’s not him but no one believes him it’s pidge but no one ever finds out

keith likes when lance overtalks. he’s not talkative himself- he’s more of the listening type, and lance has a cute, attractive way of talking, even tho he doesn’t understand what he’s talking about 75% of the time

keith is VERY possessive of his knife collection and doesn’t allow anyone, not even shiro, to lay a finger on it, but he willingly lends his blades to hunk to cut food with. keith is awed by hunk’s chopping skills and how smoothly he cuts stuff with his muscular arms- it’s his favorite thing to watch

lance and hunk call each other by pet names so casually “hey babe did you see where my jacket is” “no sweetheart have you checked the training room” “oh not yet thanks chocolate muffin”

lance once mistakenly called keith “baby” bc he’s so used to calling hunk as such and like they’re bros and all now right? he had the toughest fricking time in his life trying to explain to him that no, keith, it’s not an insult, keith, i’m not looking down or ridiculing you, keith, no that’s not what i meant, keith, just why are you like this, keith,

keith whenever he doesn’t understands something: *looks at lance for explanation* lance: i have no fucking idea either buddy

person: do you believe in angels? lance and keith: not until i met hunk garrett

keith’s secretly the best at puns and jokes on the team. this is why he always makes fun of lance’s because HAHAHA what an amateur he needs 10000 light years to reach my level. he very rarely puts his skill into good use tho so what’s the point

hunk believes whatever lance says and never doubts its credibility. if lance says this hairstyle is ugly? then it IS. if lance says that guy is annoying? never met him before but wtv he definitely IS. if lance says unicorns exist? they fucking chased a mermaid together so of coURSE HE’S RIGHT

their Boys Night Together is just gossiping about their classmates at the garrison, painting each other’s nails while listening to mcr, and breakdancing with mouths stuffed with cookies

keith: “the fastest way to a girl’s heart is through the riB S “dude cHILL”

hunk: “i get scared easily :(” also hunk: if you as much as touch a fingernail of my friends’ i’ll fucking murder you and feed you to the hounds”

those three are an invincible combination. like red, blue, and yellow aka the primary colors? a sword, gun/rifle, and cannon that cover short, medium, and far ranged combat?? white, brown, and black races??? fire, water, and earth elements???? keith, lance, and hunk????? how the hell would anyone win against the death trio

klunk more like Handsome Wooden Spear amiright AMIRIGHT ;)