#but considering that it was towards Kremy

[luna-the-cretar]

*Gricko (and Frost? Maybe?? Don’t remember) getting the love curse throughout the carnival* haha, what a funny situation! :)

*Kremy getting the love curse during episode 15* wow, that’s oddly convenient

*Gideon getting the love curse during episode 26* …there’s no fucking way this is a coincidence anymore

[vaguely-concerned]

god but gideon really is just malcolm graves if graves met tf for the first time after he came out of prison so there wasn't the whole feeling of intense betrayal and psychosexually charged rage along with the homoerotic under/overtones huh

[opheliajupiter99]

Taxidermy

Gricko awoke with a start, eyes wide and darting around in a panic. Where was he? What was happening? His head pounded, and his thoughts were a swirling blur of pain and terror. He knew something horrible had happened, but he couldn't remember what, as desperately as he strained to.

He slowly sat up, his vision clearing well enough to recognize he was in some kind of parlor, sat upon an old, worn couch, eaten away by moss, water damage, and general age, that creaked with each movement he made. There was no one else in the room with him...well, no one -living- anyway.

The bookshelves were littered with taxidermized pixies, fairies, and brownies, in various poses and outfits, their faces fixed into permeant smiles, and gazes locked eternally forward, frozen in expressions that betrayed the horrific state they'd been forced into. He let out only a small breath of relief at seeing that Twig wasn't among those on display.

As that thought came to him though, his eyes darted around in a reignited burst of panic, hopping up off the couch and looking up the stairs. The others...oh Gods, where the others?! He was fine, at least as far he could tell, but...why was he here? If they were captured, or drugged, or whatever the hell had happened, then why was he downstairs in the living area instead of a cell, or just plain dead?

His mind raced with questions, but he buried most of them for now, in favor of finding his friends. He was in too much of a panic, combined with his head pounding, to think much about running into the hag herself, though he also didn't hear any creaks of the floorboards, so perhaps she was out? Why the hell would she be out though, when she had captives? Questions upon questions - but no, no, not the time for that, he HAD to find them.

He headed up the worn staircase, beginning to look through the various rooms, attempting to find any sign of the others, flinging door after door open, and found little beyond more foul odors and mismatched corpses. He thought, for a fleeting moment at least, that perhaps they had managed to escape; gone through one of the mirrors and escaped this horrid fate. He truly hoped that was the case; even if that essentially meant he was damned, trapped in not only the Feywild, but the home of a dollmaker hag that would likely kill him and preserve his corpse as soon as she came home. In some weird way, he didn't even care if they abandoned him on purpose or not; hell, he'd hope they'd rather condemn him to death than his daughter if it came down to it, so if they'd escaped, he knew Kremy and Gideon would raise Hootsie well.

He had almost accepted this fate as the answer, until he got to the last room. He flung the door open, the room adorned with the most makeshift horrors and foul scents of rot he'd seen thus far, and that was really saying something all things considered, beasts and humanoids alike mismatched and disjointed, clad in patchwork clothing made from scraps from previous victims, all heaped upon pile after pile of feverishly crafted slop. But that barely registered in the goblin's mind compared to what he saw front and center.

Even though the room's illumination was faint, as the candles were as poorly tended to as the room itself, he could instantly recognize the silhouette of his dearest friend in this life or the next, beyond Hootsie of course, Morning Frost. He rushed towards him without thinking "Fros-" He began, until he abruptly smacked into something. He blinked, squinting his eyes, unable to see it at first, until his eyes began to adjust to the dark. And when they did...his eyes widened, tears already coming to the corners of them.

Frosty...was in a glass case.

No...

His robe had been torn in several places, and hastily restitched. His skin was restitched in a few places as well, most notably across his upper jaw just under his nose, and a deep scar that began at his collarbone and stretched downward, presumably down his chest and stomach.

Nononononono...

His gaze stared onward, his expression the quiet contemplation he so often wore in life. Silent. Thoughtful. And now, eternal.

His mind reeled, desperately trying to deny what he was seeing, shaking his head as tears streamed down his cheeks. "Nononononono." He repeated to himself. "No...no...nonononono." He said, quickly growing breathless as he fell to his knees, bursts of sobs running down his face and onto the already soaked through wooden floorboards of the filthy room.

He sat there and sobbed for what could've been minutes, hours, he was hardly in a state to tell. Eventually, he steadied his mind long enough to peer at the room again, his breath still hitching as his reddened eyes did their best to stand it. It was hard to tell one thing from another amongst the hoarded carnage, but he saw a glint of purple, haphazardly tossed upon a pile of entrails.

He took a few shaky deep breaths, and slowly stood to his feet, his legs wobbling as he came closer, steeling himself even as the scent started to make him lightheaded.

...It was Kremy's cane. He blinked once, then twice, tears starting to form all over again as he stared. He took another quick glance around, trying to find any other sign of him, but he only saw viscera. Perhaps...perhaps he simply left his cane behind when the others fled? Though, he thought gravely, that the Gatorfolk probably wouldn't look that different from any other mangled corpse when he was all apart.

He swallowed dryly, reaching up a hand to rub at his reddened eyes as he hitched another breath. He hadn't seen any other evidence of the others, not a corpse, or a trinket, only these things...so, maybe the others really had made it out. The thought of that managed to calm him a bit at least, and he managed a sad smile at the fact that he'd seen no sign of his daughter, that she was safe somewhere.

He kept his sad smile as he turned to his friend, stood tall and looking past him with that forever neutral expression. He walked up to the case, putting his hand to the glass.

"Guess this is...huh Frosty?" He said, a humorless chuckle briefly escaping him. He shrugged. "Eh...there's worse ways, I guess. Least we're still together, yeah?" He said, looking up at Frost's face, though quickly turned away from him; even with how often monotone his friend was, seeing his face that....lifeless. He just couldn't stand it.

He stood there for a few moments longer...before he sighed, and just simply sat next to his friend's case, staring forward at the wide-open door, just...waiting. He couldn't leave anyway, at least in no way he could imagine, and the hag would surely be back any minute, so there wasn't much point in fighting this fate.

He sat there in silence for some time, zoning out as his already numb mind grew number, until he heard the faint sound of a door creaking, followed by the sounds of wet, heavy footsteps upon the floorboards that grew ever closer. He still just sat there, even as the dreadful form of the toad-like hag loomed in the doorway, her long, thinning blonde hair dangling down over part of her face.

"There you are, my little darling! I was worried where you'd run off." She said, beaming a sweet, nurturing smile despite the clotted blood that clung tightly to her patchwork dress. He didn't respond, just lowering his defeated gaze to the floor. "Oh, don't look so glum, dearest. You're not alone, is he, Frost?" She said, her dementedly cheerful gaze turning towards Frost, staring at him in silence for a moment as if hearing an answer, then chuckling, looking back down to Gricko.

"See? Nothing to be sad about." Gricko took a few shallow shaking breaths, gaze still fixed to the floor as he struggled to find words. "...W..W-What...h-happened?" He said, his voice so hoarse and soft it was barely audible. Bavlorna chuckled. "Oh, yes! How rude of me. Well, your friend Gideon got a bit overexcited, I think, and started a bit of a tussle with me. The others joined in, of course, and I'm afraid you lost consciousness quite early on. I was stronger than they expected, I think, and they had to retreat. Though, they didn't leave without some parting gifts." She chuckles once more.

"...I-Is it...j-just me...a-and Frosty?" He said, finally raising his gaze up to look at her. She hummed sweetly. "Yes, darling, it's just you two. Don't worry about the cane; little Kremy was in such a fright that he dropped the silly thing, but he made it out with the others. And yes, sweetling, your daughter is safe as well."

Of course, realistically, he hadn't much reason to trust the wretched hag...though, he -had- checked, and found nothing...but again, the dark thought returned that his friends would be near indistinguishable from the rest of the gore that littered this place. But it was a comfort, and he felt the need to cling to it, slowly and shakily nodding, a half sad, half mad smile coming to his lips. "Okay..."

He looked up to her, then to Frosty, his gaze lingering upon him for a moment before it looked back down to the ground. "...I'm ready." He said softly, widening the already Cheshire grin on the hag's face. "Splendid! Come along with mummy, little darling." She said, cheerfully moving towards him and wrapped her long, slimy fingers tightly across one of his hands, pulling him upwards and onto his feet. It was...revolting; not simply her touch, but how sweet and motherly she was, even when leading one to the slaughter. It was hard to tell if she did it to further torment her victim's mind or if she truly believed these horrors to be fun and games.

Either way, she led the broken little goblin out of the room, who took a somber glance over his shoulder towards what remained of his friend, before the door closed, leaving the remnants of Morning Frost once more in near total darkness.

[luna-the-cretar]

Im gonna be honest here, the only OUAW ship I WANT to be canon is Coalecroux

And it’s not just because I ship Coalecroux. If that was the case, then id also want Frostbek to be canon, when I don’t want it to be (not bc I dislike Frostbek—I fucking adore it—but because I personally don’t think any romance would help Frost or Torbek’s characters or character arcs—same with Gricko and Grimmorning for the same reason)

No, I want Coalecroux for be canon because I’m 99% sure that Gideon and Kremy’s character arcs are kinda BANKING on Coalecroux becoming canon.

Let me explain;

(Spoilers and VERY long explanation/rambling below)

Gideon’s character arc—now that I took a moment to actually think about it after rewatching episode 18, and thinking more about Gideon’s conversation with Mrs Snake-Snake—involves him learning to allow himself to feel sadness and letting himself love, romantically and platonically.

“But Gideon already clearly loves and feels sadness” I hear you say. Well…yes and no? Gideon very clearly loves his friends, that much is obvious. But I don’t think he himself has actually acknowledged the fact that he does love his friends, or that he loves them as much as he does. Kremy and Twig in particular. Based on Gideon’s reaction to his portraits, I think he was either expecting his Pa to appear in one of them (considering Gricko and Frost’s portraits), or was expecting the entire party to show up in the portraits (like Torbek’s). But it was just Kremy and Twig—the two he loves the most, but refuses to admit it to himself.

Or how about the fact that Gideon hasn’t really let himself feel sadness (or fear, for that matter)? He has clearly felt upset, don’t get me wrong, but he also usually masked it with anger. Like when Kremy revealed that Gideon was the one marrying the pixies. Gideon was upset and (rightfully) mad at Kremy, but he was very clearly scared (if his tone, body language, and the fact that he was doing how many shots of fireball to calm himself was any indication). And that fear showed itself even further when Kremy calmed Gideon down. Or with Twig’s death. Gideon was angry at Bavlorna, sure, but he was also genuinely sad, hiding behind (or maybe being overshadowed by) his anger.

Even when he was stuck as a kempestri and couldn’t move very well (since he traded away his ability to dance), and ended up trading some of his fire to help them find the pixie camp, he was as dejected as he was frustrated (probably at himself, the situation, and just…everything, really. Poor guy had a ROUGH day tbh)

I could keep going on about Gideon specifically, but I still want to talk about Kremy and this is long enough, so…Kremy.

Kremy, Kremy, Kremy. Where do I even begin with Mr Kremy Lecroux? For one, let’s start with his character arc, which is another one I didn’t catch until late into the season (with a specific conversation with Pincushion), but upon a rewatch of the early episodes, has made me realize this was a thing as early as episode 6? 7? Whatever, it’s the lying thing. Though…it’s not JUST the lying thing, because it’s similar to Gideon’s, just…different. Because Kremy KNOWS about his feelings (towards a variety of things and people), but refuses to acknowledge them, and just outright lie about said feelings.

And it’s not just his feelings towards Gideon—tho it’s primarily what I’ll be focusing on—but also his feelings towards a variety of things. Like, for example, the unicorn thing (until he decided to finally embrace his love for unicorns once they really started getting settled into the Feywild).

Anyway, Kremy’s character arc—from my understanding—is not only about him letting himself feel comfortable in enjoying the things he does and feeling the things he feels, but also just…not relying on the lies he hides behind as much.

I mean, look at how Kremy acted at the Witchlight Carnival, the moment his ability to lie was taken away. He immediately became nervous, jumpy, trying to spin his words into half-truths, or just outright not saying anything—almost as if in fear that he might reveal something he definitely doesn’t want to be revealed (not now, at least). Or how about that one episode (don’t remember which one) where he had his outburst and called Gideon his husband (“You will not talk to my husband that way”)? The entire episode—before it was revealed he couldn’t lie—Kremy was quieter than usual, aside from planning.

Or, better yet, how about his fight with Pincushion when they first met? Kremy was trying to lie and bully his way into getting Pincushion to do what they want, and it wasn’t working. In fact, Torbek was the one who got Pincushion to listen to them, by doing the exact opposite of what Kremy was doing. And iirc, Pincushion even told Kremy that lying and bullying won’t just make people listen and do whatever he wanted—especially not in the Feywild.

And obviously, I can’t say for certain how Season 2 is gonna go (if we even GET a season 2 at this point ffs), but also…I DO know that Gideon and Kremy are so emotionally constipated and refuse to acknowledge their own feelings for anyone and anything. And I also get a feeling that, somehow, either Coalecroux becoming canon would either help end their respective arcs, or help begin the end of said arcs (if that makes sense?)

Idk, this is really long and probably doesn’t make any sense, so apologies for that

[luna-the-cretar]

Considering the whole memory scene (where the feelings towards a fond memory are changed), and how Kremy verbally reacted to it, and how Gideon reacted to Kremy’s reaction, followed by Gideon’s memory having a sour connotation now, I have a feeling that their friendship is going to get worse before it gets better, huh