#but what about helen + dru

[margareturtle]

Thinking about the Blackthorn Siblings as one does

No but really

Just thinking about the Blackthorn sisters and how Helen is to Dru as Julian is to Tavvy.

Let me explain:

1) Same age difference (about 10 yrs between Julian+Tavvy, about 10 yrs between Helen+Dru)

2) Tavvy is Julian’s baby, just like I think Dru was Helens’. We know Helen was parentified at a young age as well. Dru was the baby of the family for almost 6 yrs till Tavvy was born. Of course for a while Eleanor was still alive, but being the oldest Helen still would’ve stepped up especially as Eleanor was getting sicker in the years before Tavvy was born and she died. (Although now that I’m thinking about it Mama Blackthorn couldn’t have been that sick if she was still able to have a full pregnancy with Tavvy right (?!)) (And who knows what Andrew was doing but not being a super present father and running the institute ig— tho his teen son was able to do both smh)

3) but anyways yes Helen and Dru. Helen was Dru’s go to for stories and comfort when she was little. Oftentimes little Dru wouldn’t be able to keep up when the twins + Jules+Emma went exploring, but she would stay back with Helen.

4) in addition Julian and Helen are both the main (or one of the main for helen’s case) parents in Tavvy + Dru’s lives during the same time in both their lives. Dru and Tavvy were both about 2-7/8 and Helen and Julian were both 12-17/18.

5) Which is what makes Helen’s exile and return and Dru’s reaction to it (though understandable) more tragic. Bc Dru was Helen’s baby, and at one point Helen was Dru’s main person. But now Helen is back, and while being Dru’s older sister/parent was such a big part of Helen’s identity for so long and she remembers it well, Dru’s memories of Helen are now more distant childhood memories :((

This parallels Julian + Tavvy’s relationship a bit as well (though they are not as extreme bc ofc Julian will check in often and come back to stay in LA a lot) but Julian will no longer be Tavvy’s main parent. And in time although being Tavvy’s parent was such a big part of Julian’s identity it will be more distant childhood memories for tavvy :((

6) the parallels!! Like how Dru is said to be the one who looks most like their mother but Dru barely knew her while Helen was the closest to their mom. (We learn most that we do about Eleanor from Helen’s pov) So Helen (+Emma) are the closest to maternal figures that Dru has ever gotten.

Similarly Julian is always compared to looking like Andrew, and he had to kill his own father (most of what we learn about Andrew as a parent is from Julian). But Tavvy doesn’t remember Andrew, and Julian is the best father figure he could have.

7. Finally, the way Julian + Helen switch off in their little siblings lives. Helen was one of Dru’s main parents till she was about 7/8, then Helen is exiled and Julian is Dru’s main parent from 8-13 (close to when Dru is ready to go to the academy). Where as Tavvy is the exact opposite since Julian was his main parent till he was about 7/8 and then Helen is taking over as Tavvy’s main parent from when Tavvy is 8 till presumably when he follows in Dru’s footsteps and goes to the Academy (15ish—till he’s sent back to LA bc of the pandemic lmao)

So Dru + Tavvy had the same parents just 6 yrs apart

The Blackthorn siblings as divided by who their parents were:

Helen + Mark: Eleanor + Andrew (+nerissa when they were babies but don’t rly remember)

Julian: 10 yrs Eleanor + Andrew, 2 yrs Helen + Mark + then himself :(

Livvy + Ty: 1/2 Eleanor + Andrew, 1/2 Helen + Julian

Dru + Tavvy: Helen + Julian

[helenofblackthorns]

tlkof chapter spoilers!!

ok this is my live reaction that I wrote yesterday but couldn't post because no one else had read the chapter! figured I could post it now tho!!

dru complaining about having to learn about faerie nobility... girl just call Kieran up Im sure he knows all about it 😭😭 also I wonder how Helen & Mark fit into that given their mom was a lady of the Seelie Court (will that come up in twp perhaps??)

dru is dying her hair black??? shut up

DRU'S 5'3???? WHAT wait I thought she was taller than Livvy & Cristina or something how short does that make them. why did Julian steal height Jesus 😭 whole inch on Clary is crazy damn

PAIGE???? girl leave

Jane Cartwright... is she related to Jon perhaps???

Dru & Thais are already iconic & I need Mason to leave immediately

Mason the first twp victim of the Blackthorn gene pool I see I see

Kit mention who cheered

Dru debating name dropping Mark lmao

ASH????? OH

Dru comparing the colour of Ash's eyes to "the sea glass Julian loved" is CRAZY

Ash doing magic??? omg

Ash recognising Dru 😁😁😁

him being surprised she forgot.... 💔

not him pissing her off already lmao

Dru clocking he's not fully fae because she knows so many half fae yeah I know that's right

giggling & twirling my hair I'm obsessed with them already

SHE FORGOT AGAIN????

THEYRE ALL HERE OMG

like 10 pages in & Dru's already given all her siblings a heart attack good job everyone

THREE DAYS

[dayque]

Although I love the Shadowhunter characters, I can't forget their social context. I don't expect them to be perfect parents, perfect couples or perfect characters just because I love them, I think they have strengths and weaknesses (like Alec, who learns quickly but has been raised in a colonial world and must learn day by day not to replicate that violence, Julian used to lying rather than trying to dialogue because that was his only solution as a child or Tessa, who escaped from her family because she wanted to avoid the pain of loss).

Idealizing characters in a book series, that is precisely about learning to grow and accepting our past mistakes to learn from them, is forgetting the entire meaning of the books.

I think Robert is the best example of this. When he was young he made a lot of mistakes, he married a woman even though he didn't love her, he was strict with his children and lost their trust, he insulted his best friend for something he couldn't change about himself and it was nothing wrong. But over time he learned, apologized, was a better father, got divorced and reconciled with his emotions for Michael.

Jace probably has to fight not to be a controlling father and Clary has trust issues with her children and friends, Alec doesn't know how to have a non-white family, much less one of Downwolders, and Izzy can't trust her own partner. Emma spent years following a murderer who sat at her table, Julian dangerously borders on sociopathy, Ty LITERALLY got into playing necromancer, and Dru and Helen feel like strangers in their own home.

But they will learn, because that's what shadowhunters is all about.

It's okay not to know everything today.

@cassandrajean draws

[wikitpowers]

Who is Julian/Emma/Mark/Helen more likely to walk in on making out, Dru & Ash or Kit & Ty?

julian -> kit and ty! he walks in on them kissing and just goes “oh! so sorry!” and closes the door gently, smiling to himself as he leaves them alone (he knows what it’s like being young and in love and he trusts kit enough to know that he won’t ever hurt ty) <3

emma -> i’m thinking kitty! she’d be out looking for people (victims) to train with and be like “hmmm where is kit??? he’s an easy target😈” naturally she assumes he’d be with ty so she burts into the library or something and they’re making out against the bookshelves so she screeches “OH MY GOD! YOU’RE KISSING!” and starts teasing them mercilessly while they just stand there beetroot red

mark -> BOTH! he’d accidentally walk in on kit and ty kissing, would hardcore panic and run away, scared that he’ll embarass his brother further if he stays for longer but is secretly like “HELL YES! YOU GO, TY!🏳️‍🌈” and so he bursts into dru’s room to gossip about what he just witnessed only to find her making out with ash and then he double screams :’)

helen -> feel like she’d always randomly enter the kiddo’s rooms to clean any mess and since ty’s is usually in order, i’m thinking she is definitely catching morgenthorn! i can just imagine her giving dru and ash the talk and threatening ash that if he hurts her sister he is gonna have her to go through

[starrieshq]

I've Loved You And You Haven't Known It

Hey guys! This is officially my 100th post here! As a little celebration, here's a Kit Herondale x Ty Blackthorn fanfic for you :)

Kit’s heart almost stopped when he saw the Shax demon poised over Ty’s limp body.

He distantly heard Dru’s screams as she ran over to him, Julian close behind her. Emma was yelling something to them, telling them to get Ty away from the fight, away from the demons-

“Kit?” He heard Ty whisper. “Kit, I-”

He choked back a sob as Ty’s voice faltered, and gripped the Herondale dagger tighter. Everything in him was telling him to run, to go to Ty, to help him. But he had to be strong now. For Ty. For everyone.

As Emma and Mark attacked a nearby Vetis, Kit scoped out the Shax that had injured Ty. Dru had held it back while Julian had carried Ty to safety, but now that they were both gone, the Shax was getting dangerously close to Cristina, who was wildly fending off another demon.

‘Oh no, it won’t.’ Kit thought. ‘Not another.’

He stowed the Herondale dagger and unsheathed a longsword, and despite being very limited in his sword work, he took in a deep breath.

“Kit!” Helen called, wielding a crossbow.

“Helen!” Kit rasped. “Ty was hurt, he-”

She grasped his arm. “Go to the Institute. Go to Ty.”

He frowned and gestured to the fray. “But-”

“Go,” She said. “This fight can be ended easily. But Ty needs you now.” She gave him a determined smile. “The Watson to his Sherlock, right?”

Kit gave her a stunned look.

“Yeah.” He said.

Helen shook her head as she loaded her crossbow. “Go!”

She didn’t need to tell him twice. Kit sheathed his sword and took off running towards the car.

By the time he arrived at the Institute, the adrenaline of the battle had worn off, and all Kit could do was worry.

He dashed inside and ran to the Infirmary, where Julian was tending to Ty and Dru was nowhere to be seen.

“Is he alright?” Kit immediately asked, panic evident in his voice.

“Dru’s trying to fire message Magnus and Alec.” Julian responded, sounding worried. “They’ll know how to help him. There’s nothing I can do as of right now.”

Kit did not take that as a good sign.

“Do…do you think he’ll be okay?” He asked.

Julian remained silent for a moment. “He’s resilient. He’ll make it through.” He raked a hand through his brown curls. “But there’s actually been something I’ve been wanting to ask you.”

Kit immediately ran through all the possible outcomes of what he could ask. What if he knew about Livvy? What if he knew the real reason Kit had gone to Cirenworth? What-

“What’s going on between you and my brother?”

Kit halted, unsure of what to say.

“What do you mean?” He decided to say.

Julian raised an eyebrow. “You know. You and Ty. Sneaking off together, always being secretive? What’s going on?”

Kit internally let out a breath of relief. Not about Livvy.

“Nothing, really. We just-”

At that moment, Ty began to stir, quietly groaning as he shifted. Julian and Kit immediately lapsed into silence and watched Ty.

After a moment, Julian gestured to the hallway. “You stay with him. I’m going to go find Dru.” He said. “I think he’ll be in good hands.”

Kit nodded as Julian slipped out of the infirmary.

An hour later, after Magnus had come and worked his magic, Ty was still asleep.

Kit was stretched out a cot next to Ty’s, and was absentmindedly fiddling with the headphone cord that stretched between their beds.

He looked over at Ty, whose hair stood stark against the paleness of the bedsheets. His chest rose and fell, and his cheeks had a pink tint that Kit knew was usually only present when he had said something funny and Ty laughed almost uncontrollably.

Kit was about to go to sleep when Ty finally woke up.

“Kit ?” He rasped out. “Kit, where are you?”

He shot up immediately and got up. “Ty, I’m right here.” He said, perching at the edge of Ty’s bed.

His eyes scanned Kit, looking relieved. “What happened?” He asked, trying to sit up and wincing.

Kit grabbed onto his torso and gently helped pull him upright. “A Shax demon got you. Julian got Magnus to help heal you.” He said. “You’re in the infirmary right now.”

Ty looked around, taking in the rows of cots, the moonlight streaming through the wall of glass windows, and the disheveled and rumpled bed next to him.

“You…stayed with me?” He asked surprised.

“Of course,” Kit replied, “Why would I leave you?”

The corners of Ty’s lips tugged upwards. “Thank you, Watson.” He said. Then, he tugged the covers down.

“Where did it get me?” He asked quietly. “I can’t really feel any pain right now.”

“Yeah,” Kit cleared his throat. “Magnus gave you a lot of painkillers. So you wouldn’t be in agony.”

He walked over to the other side of the bed.

He motioned towards Ty’s shirt. “Can I-”

Ty nodded, and a slight tint crept into Kit’s face. He gently pulled up the side of Ty’s shirt, exposing an angry red slash that ran from the top of his hip bone and across his chest.

Ty took in the wound. “It’s going to leave a scar.” He remarked.

Kit nodded. After a moment, he pulled Ty’s shirt down.

“I should probably go tell Julian that you’re up.” He said awkwardly. “I’ll-”

“Stay.”

Kit’s gaze snapped to Ty.

“Are you sure?”

Ty nodded. “Please.”

Kit’s throat went dry as Ty scooted over to the other side of the small bed and gestured for him to join him.

“C’mon.”

Kit hesitantly settled into the space next to Ty. Their bodies were squished on the small mattress with absolutely no wiggle room, but they managed to shift around. Kit’s arm was awkwardly positioned above Ty’s head, Ty’s legs were tangled with Kit’s. They settled into their positions.

After several minutes, Kit couldn’t stand the silence. “Ty?”

No response. Kit propped himself up on his arm and scanned Ty. He had fallen asleep again. Great.

Kit stared at him, his calm face, his dark hair, his lithe and pale body pressed against his tanned one.

He took in Ty’s calm expression, a mask of peace blanketing his face.

After a moment of deliberation, Kit finally decided to go to sleep.

By the time Kit woke up, sunlight was streaming in through the windows. He could smell the distant whiff of a frittata, probably Aline’s doing.

He was about to get up, but froze when he looked down.

Somehow, during the night, both Kit and Ty had shifted in a way where Ty was half on top of Kit, using his chest as a pillow. Their legs were still tangled together, and one of Kit’s arms was wrapped around Ty’s waist.

He flushed, but before he could do anything, Ty began to stir.

Kit froze, unsure of what to do. What if when Ty woke up, he saw what had happened during the night and was mortified?

Kit was snapped out of his reverie when Ty yawned and opened his eyes.

“How long have you been watching me sleep?” He asked.

Kit flushed an even deeper shade of pink. “I just woke up. I was about to get out of bed when you started to wake up.”

Ty yawned again. He glanced at Kit, his eyebrows furrowing. “Your hair is a mess.”

Self consciously, Kit raised his hand to try and fix it.

Ty watched Kit struggle for a moment.

“Let me do it.”

He hesitated as Ty reached up and began fixing Kit’s hair, his slim fingers raking through his blonde curls. The tips of Kit’s ears slowly turned red as Ty scooted closer to him.

He could feel Ty’s steady breath against his neck as he said, “Okay, I think it looks fine.”

“Thanks.” Kit said abruptly, his cheeks deepening in color. This, of course, did not go unnoticed by Ty.

“Kit? You’re turning pink.” He noted.

He turned pinker. “Yeah. I know.”

Ty sat up next to Kit, so close that their noses were almost touching. Kit could feel his heart speeding up. “People usually blush when they’re embarrassed, but I don’t think it’s that. Is it?” He asked.

“No.”

Ty looked confused. “Then what is it?”

“You.”

Ty’s eyes widened slightly. “Did I do something wrong?”

Kit shook his head. “No, no. It’s not that. It’s just-”

He cut himself off, refusing to finish the sentence.

“Kit?”

“It’s just that…I really want to kiss you right now.” He said truthfully, his face burning. “But I can’t.”

“And why can’t you do that?”

Kit avoided Ty’s gaze. “Because you don’t want that.”

“Kit.” Ty said. “How do you know what I do and don’t want?”

His eyes flickered in Ty’s direction.

“The truth is, you don’t know what other people think.” Ty continued. “You don’t know if Tavvy is as lonely as he appears. You don’t know if Julian really has everything under control all the time.” His gray eyes pierced through Kit. “And the only way to really know how someone feels is through their actions.”

Kit’s heart sped up faster.

“So how do you know that that’s not what I want?”

Kit’s eyes found Ty’s. “I don’t.”

Ty’s eyes flickered.

“Can I kiss you?”

Kit gave a small nod.

Ty hesitantly leaned forward and gently pressed their lips together.

Kit gave a small gasp, his arms automatically wrapping around Ty’s waist. Ty gently raked a hand through his hair, his curls tickling his palm.

It felt as if they were speaking a language that only they knew. Kit lost himself in the push and pull of the gravity between them, the wordless dialogue tearing down the walls he had spent years building between him, between Ty.

When they broke apart, Ty’s face was flushed pink, his lips slightly swollen.

“Oh.” Kit said.

After taking a hot shower, Kit was still not one hundred percent sure that he hadn’t hallucinated the last hour.

His face told him otherwise. His lips felt slightly tingly, he had a permanent blush fixated across his cheeks and ears, and felt like he drank 20 cups of coffee.

After shrugging on a plain black shirt and his signature jacket, he headed down for breakfast in hopes that he could avoid the rest of the Blackthorns.

To his slight dismay, Tavvy and Dru were in the kitchen, eating frittata and laughing.

He quietly poured himself a bowl of cereal as they chatted.

“Julian said that Diana’s coming today.” Tavvy announced.

“Really?” Dru asked. “Isn’t she somewhere off with Gwyn or something?”

“I dunno.” Tavvy said after a moment of consideration. “I miss Diana.”

“I do, too.”

Kit choked on his cereal as Ty walked into the kitchen, wearing a black sweater and jeans.

Ty, upon seeing Kit, froze.

“Do you feel better, Ty?” Asked Tavvy.

Ty cleared his throat, a slight blush creeping into his cheeks. “Yeah, I’m doing better, thanks.”

Dru raised an eyebrow at Kit, who flushed and looked away.

“Ooookay,” Dru said, nodding. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing.” Kit and Ty immediately said.

“Uh huh.” She said, putting her plate in the sink and heading out of the kitchen. “See you later.”

“Wait up, ‘Silla!” Tavvy called, hopping out of his chair and running after her, leaving Ty and Kit alone in awkward silence.

After a moment of silence, Ty motioned towards the door.

“Well, I guess I’ll-”

“Stay. Please.”

Ty looked surprised.

“Kit…”

Kit took a step forward.

“Ty…I have liked you. For a long time. Probably since you held that knife against my throat in my dad’s basement.”

His face was bright pink, but he continued.

“And to tell you the truth…that night before the Cohort’s parley, the night you- I mean we, tried to raise Livvy? I meant it. Every word. I love you, Ty. I’ve loved you and you haven’t known it.”

[perpetualprocrastinationisme]

You know what I want? To know more about Eleanor Blackthorn because she sounds like an amazing woman. Like, her husband's kids from another relationship that happened from his traumatic days in Faerie suddenly appear at their house? She loves them wholeheartedly and makes she sure they know that (which is obvious when Helen talks about her).

She also had two huge art studios for photography and painting which seems odd for a shadowhunter since they tend to shy away from things that may seem too mundane. So, was she a rebel? How did she fall in love with Andrew? Did Julian get his hardcore belief in Lex Malla Lex Nulla from her? Is she why Dru likes horror movies so much and Ty likes Sherlock Holmes? I wonder if Eleanor’s ghost might ever come to comfort Livvy now?

There’s just SO much I want to know about her!

[toast-idk]

Ty sat by the shore next to his shoes, his socks tucked into the toes.

The tide had only just come in, meaning the still damp sand wouldn’t get into his clothes and shoes, instead it clumped around rocks and shifted into little rivulets that reminded Ty of a network of fast flowing rapids.

He’d made a point, since leaving to the scholomance, of not visiting the beaches when he returned to Los Angeles. But the institute was empty now, Helen and Aline on holiday and the rest of the Blackthorns scattered.

Alone, the past seemed more bearable to Ty. The memories less painful.

It was strange to Ty, and sometimes a little unnerving, how different his family was now: since the cohort had taken Idris.

No more pancakes in the morning or movie nights with Dru or reading stories to Tavvy.

There was still Livvy though. There would always be Livvy.

She sat beside him now, or as close to sitting as a ghost could get, her pale form shifting and shivering in the tentative morning light. It almost looked as if she were cold.

The water brushed his toes and he smiled at the icy wash, looking to Livvy, forgetting, for a moment, that she wouldn’t be able to feel it.

Ty had family. Ty had friends- a friend, anyway, Anush. He had Livvy.

He knew, rationally, that he shouldn’t feel so lonely, that was for the isolated, the missing. He knew Mark had sometimes felt terribly lonely in the hunt.

As he thought, his fingers found- as they always did- the graceful swoop of a herons wings around his neck, the chain icy in the frigid morning air.

At first the gift had sickened him, not the usual kind of illness but a twisting in his stomach and a dizziness so intense he’d had to sit down. He was sure there were a million words for what he’d felt holding the necklace. Regret, sorrow, perhaps even heartbreak, but only one thought had really struck Ty in that moment. He was lonely.

He missed Kit.

He could remember with unfortunate clarity the moment he had raised Livvy. The desperation and the heat of the fire and Kit beside him, somehow burning his skin more than even the flames could.

Hearing “I love you” shouted like a plea and Livvy, not quite there but close enough.

He had thought, foolishly it had turned out, that Kit would want Livvy back as much as he did. He had seen them kissing that day, and knew that they understood each other perhaps better than he could either of them.

“To never being parted” Kit had said across a campfire. Ty knew it wasn’t right to label him a liar but he’d left without even saying goodbye.

Livvy shifted beside him.

“What are you thinking about?” She asked him, her voice more quiet, more introspective than it had been when she was alive.

He never lied to Livvy.

“Kit.”

She didn’t reply, but moved a shimmering hand over his.

“I miss him.”

And he did, he could feel Kits absence under his ribs, a sort of hungry ache.

“I’m sure he misses you.”

Ty closed his eyes and lay back on the sand. He could hear the rustle of Livvy joining him.

The waves were loud in the silence between them, thunderous and unrelenting.

“I loved him.” He whispered, half hoping Livvy wouldn’t hear.

He knew that really, at 15, he had been too young for love, to understand the complexity of his own thoughts and emotions, too surrounded by loss to let himself think too hard about them.

It was a very sad thought that if he and Kit met today, if they had between them what had been there 3 years ago, Ty would know.

Perhaps now he would have told Kit that he loved him too. That he didn’t know how relationships and romance should go but that he would learn for him, with him.

But more likely, the two of them would barely speak at all, the desperation and fear that had driven them together missing. The bond broken before, in this alternate world, it had formed.

[bananacakepie]

Jealousy.

Helen is jealous of Livvy's hair, so nice and straight, and gently curling as she groans through dealing with her curls, and a secret voice inside whispers that it's not the texture she longs for, it's the color. 

Livvy is jealous of Julian. Out of all the Blackthorns, the two of them have the most from her father, look the most "stereotypically" Blackthorn. Of course she's jealous of Ty, whose bloodline is unknown when he walks in, and Dru, who people only identify after they see her eyes. But she's the most jealous of Julian, because he looks like their dad more than she ever did and ever will. If there was a contest for who looks the most Blackthorn-y, Livvy would be second place. Admirable, but always second to, "you look so much like your father" and "blonde hair and blue eyes! What a gorgeous combination" and "you must look so much like your mother" (and that was unfair half the time because Ty didn't even look that much like her, people just noticed the similarities because they didn't see his father's features). She didn't mind most of them, but the first hurt the most.

Julian is jealous of Dru taking after their mom. He looks so much like his dad, and it's all anyone mentions when they see him. He's spent hours in the bathroom, staring in the mirror, trying to find something of his soft, loving mother. Dru never needed to look, not when her nose, her hair, her silhouette, were all such reminders, and sometimes when Julian was tired, he would think he was seeing his mom. And in her personality Dru was like their mom: warm and loving. Maybe there was something other than looks that Julian sought after in those mirrors. 

Dru is jealous of Ty's weight. She shouldn't be jealous of this. She feels shame over it. After Livvy saw how thin their mother had been at the end of her life, how the cancer had weakened her, she burst out in tears whenever she looked too thin. But Livvy's weight fluctuates - some days thin, some days bloating. Ty never had bloating. He was always so thin, so thin that he was nearly underweight, and Dru felt guilty, but dammit, she wanted it!

Ty is jealous of Mark because Mark is so different, but fits in so well. There are stories of odd babies and odd children who were described to be different. Different like Ty was different. Only these babies weren’t babies at all, but were changelings, fae swapped with human babies. Fae like Mark was fae. The fae was swapped to replace the real child. Mark and Ty are both different, but only Mark has the family eyes. It’s almost funny. In a different world, Ty would be accused of being a fae, and be the one who was taken away. But something in the pit of his stomach reminds him that it’s not funny at all.

Mark is jealous of Tavvy because if Helen was the other side of his coin, and Julian is what he could have been, Tavvy is what he was. Both Tavvy and Mark were their mother’s youngest, and they both grew up without any memories of her because they were so young when she died. But feels that while Tavvy got help and got to be young, Mark had to learn to be an older brother - he has bruises from working, and hardened hands, and he wishes his hands were soft like Tavvy’s.

Tavvy is jealous of Helen. His long-lost sister. But she wasn’t really lost, just kept away. Somthing about her makes her so unique, more than Blackthorn - not her hair, her eyes, her weight, but in her love, in her smile, in her laugh, how can she go through that hell and deal? How is she so strong? How could she endure that horrible change and come back? Why can’t he be that strong?

[witchlingcirce]

I have a very particular head canon that all the blackthorns are tall, they all just give tall energy. I should also quickly note this is mostly based on like, how tall they’ll be once they stop growing 😭😭

Helen: Idk how her height is described in the books but she has always seemed tall to me, like around 5’10 AT LEAST.

Julian: IK Cassie has some bias against making any of the guys in her book above 5:11 (shout out James, Shout out Thomas u made it out of the trenches) But I imagine Julian being 6’2 6’3… something about him….

Mark: Falling back onto Cassie’s curse I can see him being a reasonable 5’10-6’. He’s meant to be around the same height as Julian IK that but idk… he gives 5’10 energy, him and Simon need to unite as 5’10 bros

Livvy: okay I don’t really imagine as THAT tall, I can see 5’7, I feel like that’s tall but not tooooo tall. She gives off 5’7 vibes.

Ty: he has to be freakishly tall like Jules, he gives off tall and lanky vibes. He’s defffff 6’ and above!!!

Dru: She has to be somewhere between 5’7-5’9. She’s always described as tall, so personally I can imagine her being tall.

Emma: I saw someone do some weird maths calculations about the respective heights of the TDA characters, and they said Emma would have been 5’6 which honestly is what I see. I can also see 5’7, I feel like she wouldn’t be short but I don’t imagine her being very tall!!!

BTW this is fun and probably doesn’t correlate with canon, but I just imagine there all tall freaks and they tower over everyone !!!

[thechangeling]

Drusilla: Summer

I've decided to write seasonal fanfictions based on the art of Dru, Ty, Kit, and Ash reading in different seasons. I decided to headcannon that those are the seasons each character was born in, and also do their birth charts because I'm low key obsessed with astrology now.

XXXX

Drusila loved the summer.

She knew it wasn’t exactly an original opinion to have, but she didn’t care. 

Summer was objectively the best season. 

And it wasn’t like she only felt this way because it was the season her birthday took place in. That would be the obvious reason. Ok, sure that was part of it, how could it not be? Who didn’t love their birthday? 

But Dru also loved the feeling of the warm sand in her toes as she lazed around reading on the beach. She loved the feeling of the sun beaming down on her back, even though it was murder for her pale complexion, and she would burn long before she tanned, even with gallons of sunscreen. Thaís loved to mock her for it. 

She loved being in the season that her hometown was clearly meant for. Her memories were full of ice cream and hotdogs and the Santa Monica pier, swimming in the ocean with her family, and having bonfires outside at night. 

Dru’s heart ached a little at the image of her sister embedded throughout all of these. That would change now. Livvy would never be able to ride the ferris wheel with her again, or challenge her to handstand contests in the water, because she was dead. 

And now Dru had to accept that her new memories, however amazing they might be, wouldn’t include Livvy. 

She shook her head slightly and refocused her attention on the book she was reading. Today wasn’t supposed to be about grief. It was supposed to be fun. 

Emma, Julian and Tavvy were playing what was probably supposed to be volleyball, but they had no net. So the result was more along the lines of passing the ball back and forth and attempting to keep it in the air. 

Helen and Aline were sitting together on a towel of their own, a few feet away. They were being disgustingly cute and couple-y, so as much as it did make Dru smile to see her sister so happy and in love, she gave them a wide berth. There was really only so much of the two women feeding each other strawberries and gazing into each other’s eyes that she could take.

And then there was Ty. Home for the holidays like Dru was, and absolutely miserable in the heat. Ty despised the summer with a hateful vitriol she had rarely seen him possess for anything else. She sympathized with him, she knew he couldn’t handle the sensory experience of intense heat very well, and the summers were only getting hotter and hotter thanks to good old global warming. 

But despite it all, it still made her a little sad to see him sulk. He was curled up under the only real bit of shade, their umbrella, and he had placed the ice packs from the cooler across his chest to lower his temperature. He only stopped scowling a few times when something on his phone had made him perk up a little and smile. 

Dru was curious about what it was, but she didn’t want to disturb him right now given how touchy he could be when he was overheating. 

Not for the first time this summer, Dru wished she could have Thaís with her. She had invited her to come back to LA with her after exams, but Thais said she needed to go home for a bit. She knew Thaís must have been pretty homesick, being in an entirely different country for the first time without any of her family. No matter how much fun they had been having together.

But they still kept in touch through text and the occasional phone call. She and Thaís had started reading romance novels together and sharing their live reactions over text, almost like an unofficial book club. 

It had started as a way to chase boredom when Luke had taken their phones as punishment for the latest prank she had roped Thaís into, and they had some time to kill before their next class. But it had blossomed into a surprisingly fun ritual. 

Thaís occasionally read the book translated into Portuguese so they could compare and contrast it with the English version to see if there were any slight changes the translation had caused. Sometimes putting something into a different language would change the meaning or context of the words in a scene slightly. 

She also had steadily started requesting that they read more and more sapphic romance novels, which Dru was having a lot of fun with. Oftentimes they were leagues better written than straight romance novels, although sometimes the badly written ones could be fun to hate read. 

Dru had never really thought about her sexuality in depth before, beyond the fact that she liked boys, but given the family she was born into, it probably warranted some closer thought. 

There was a certain kind of familiarity and longing she experienced when reading some of these stories, but she wasn’t sure if it was something she seriously wanted.

 Thaís on the other hand, she had her suspicions about. She never showed any interest in boys, or even talked about them really, but she could wax poetic about girls. Dru wasn’t going to press the issue though. Thais could come out when she was ready. 

Dru’s musings were interrupted by the sound of her phone buzzing. The screen lit up with a text. 

Kit: idk if I'm gonna make it Dru 😔

Dru sighed. Typical. She had been worried that Kit would try and bail on her party if he knew Ty was going to be there. She hadn’t even brought up the possibility of Kit making an appearance with Ty yet, a conversation that was no doubt going to suck as much as this one did. 

Dru: Plssssss if I get my brother on board with u being there will u come?

Kit: Maybe

Kit: I really don’t wanna cause problems Dru

Dru rolled her eyes. Between the two of them, she was ready to bash her brains out against the wall in frustration. Why couldn’t they just talk to each other? 

She paid her brother another glance tentatively. Ty seemed fine, but with him it could be hard to tell. He was dribbling small droplets of water from his plastic water bottle covered in stickers of various bugs and animals and a more recently added rainbow infinity symbol, all over his face before taking a long swig. 

“You know if you’re hot, you should just go for a swim,” Dru pointed out. “I mean that is kind of why we came out here.”

Ty frowned. “I thought you were reading?” He gestured to her forgotten book.

Dru slid her bookmark back into place before closing it. “I was but I can’t focus,” she stated with a shrug. “I actually wanted to ask you something, but if you wanna take a dip first, that’s cool.” 

Ty paused for a moment, seemingly having no reaction to her words. She would have been worried he didn’t even hear her if it wasn’t for the way he bit his lip in contemplation.

“No I don’t like swimming in the ocean,” his gaze turned to the lazy blue waves. 

Emma and Julian had come closer inland and were sitting on their towels, drying off while Helen and Aline had abandoned their large towel and now empty cooler, in favor of doing handstands and somersaults with Tavvy in the water. 

“I don’t like the way it feels,” Ty continued. “It’s too salty, and seaweed always brushes up against my legs.” 

“Picky picky Ty” Dru teased with a smile. “Do you wanna just go back inside?” 

“No, I want this heat to go away,” Ty groaned. 

Dru felt a little bad for him. Ty had always been sensitive in that way, sensitive to sounds, sights, smells, and especially sensations against his skin. 

“Unfortunately that’s something I can’t help you with.” She gave him an apologetic smile. There was a beat of silence where she considered going back to her book. Ty was pressing his forehead against his knees as he rested his head. 

She wiggled her toes in the sand for a minute, basking in the soothing heat, and letting the sound and smell of the waves wash through her. It broke her heart that Ty couldn’t appreciate this. 

And yet he was out here, away from the comfort of his room and his books. He was here to suffer through his least favorite season, out in the thick of it with her. For her. 

Summer was all about Ty doing Drusilla favors. Was it really fair of her to ask him for one more? 

But maybe this was good for him too? Even if he couldn’t see it yet? 

She cleared her throat. “Hey Ty?” 

Ty groaned in response. 

“I really want to invite Kit to my birthday party.”

With Ty it was better to just be direct.

He didn’t respond for a moment. Dru wasn’t actually sure that he had heard her until he lifted his head and stared at her eyebrows. 

“It’s your birthday. You can do what you want,” he said flatly. 

Maybe a person less familiar with her brother's mannerisms would have interpreted his response with disinterest, but Dru couldn't miss the telltale clench of his jaw, or the tapping of his fingers. 

Dru sighed. “Ty I know you care. Don't pretend you don't. 

Ty scowled at her, “I don't!” 

Emma and Julian were starting to pick up on the conflict brewing from their spot. Pretty soon Jules would be coming over in worried mother hen mode, trying to fix whatever was wrong. 

And that would only make Ty double down even harder. He was probably the most stubborn person she had ever known. 

So naturally Dru resorted to begging and emotional manipulation. Classic younger sibling tactics. 

“Ty please?” Dru deliberately softened her voice. “Please talk to me? I just wanna help.” 

Ty squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head. “Just leave me alone Dru.” 

Drusilla thought about pushing him, but Ty famously did not respond well to being pushed or pressured. And he was already in a bad mood because of the heat. 

Fine. 

If being left alone was what he wanted, then she would leave him be. Dru removed the sunglasses perched atop her head and placed them on her book. 

“I'm going for a swim,” she announced, pulling herself to her feet. Not that she thought Ty was listening. He was back on his phone, with his headphones over his ears. 

Whatever. She wasn't going to let Kit or Ty ruin summer for her. She raced across the beach towards the water, her feet kicking up sand as she went. as she got closer to the ocean Helen and Aline spotted her and let out cheers of excitement. 

Dru wasn't prepared for the shock of the cold water as she raced in as deep as she could before she had to drop forward and swim. She let out a shriek that was probably pretty pathetic coming from a shadowhunter. But even as Tavvy laughed at her, she couldn't find it in her to be embarrassed. 

XXXXX

Drusilla Blackthorn: Born on July 8th 1999, at 12am in Los Angeles, California, United States . Cancer Sun, Aries Rising, Taurus Moon. 

“Cancer, just like the moon, you shine in times of darkness.” - CW

Tagging: @lavender-s  @littlx-songbxrd @petalsofaflower-shutupthomas @amchara @wagner-fell @sandersgrey @the-bee-graveyard @spooky-drusilla @arangiajoan

[secretly-a-catamount]

A collection of all current Malcabel fics that have been written by me, because i’m insane about them (positive) and have been debating which one I should work on next

Currently Untitled | Finished Beach Fic

  It was all Catarina Loss’s fault really.

  “Honestly, Malcolm,” the sky blue warlock had told Annabel’s husband when he’d called her positively panicking about being in charge of her (many times removed) nieces and nephews for a day, “why don’t you and Annabel just take the kids to the beach?”

  Trusting his friend’s judgment more than his own had been a rather terrible idea, Annabel thought amusingly as she watched the blond warlock race down the shoreline, waving his arms like a mad man, shouting that under no circumstances were the children to poke at that beached jellyfish with a stick, yes, Tiberius, even if it was already dead.

  After some whining (the children) and some poorly concealed begging (Malcom), the Blackthorn kids dispersed into the water and across the sand.

  Malcolm trudged back up the beach, and stood at the edge of the shade thrown by the umbrella stabbed into the ground.

  Annabel looked up from her drawing pad, her black brows furrowing in irritation at the shadow abruptly cast over her sketchbook. “You’re blocking my light.”

  His pale skin flushed a delicious raspberry red as he stammered out an “Oh, right, sorry” and moved to sit beside her on the blanket, smiling sheepishly. After a moment of comfortable silence, Malcolm absentmindedly ran his hand down her arm, stopping only to trace the black lines, curves, and whorls of her Runes. His touch was soft and light as a feather. “What are you drawing?”

  “You obviously.”

  “Obviously.” A pastel sketch of Malcolm in his striped black-and-white bathing suit, looking tall and thin and almost frail, with a softness to his frame and features that matched his disposition. A faint salmon-pink sunburn covered his face and shoulders, and his lips were cracked (Annabel would solve that one way or another, either by gifting him the tube of chapstick she’d squirreled away in her purse or by kissing him until he couldn’t breathe).

  “The kids.” Ty and Livvy and some golden-haired Mundane boy that Annabel didn’t know chasing a seagull. Mark and Helen teaching Tavvy how to build a sandcastle. Dru, Julian, and a different golden-haired child that Annabel didn’t know, this one a Shadowhunter girl with a spill of bright curls and a practice training sword, diving into the ocean and swimming around in the shallows.

  “Church.” The fat, blue feline crouched down in the dunes, fluffy tail held erect, eyes focused on a mouse in front of him, mere seconds away from a pounce that Annabel knew would end in failure.

  “The L.A. Institute.” An imposing building that Annabel didn’t think could ever have the ability to look homely.

  “Home.” A snapshot of their living room, a Polaroid pinned with a paper-clip for reference, Malcolm’s latest draft of the Codex — her illustrations not yet accompanying his neat, meticulous writing — spilling off the end table onto the soft, red couch, one of Annabel’s favorite mugs (which would always be filled with tea, Annabel and Malcolm both hating the taste of coffee) filled with paint-streaked paint brushes and colored pencils.

  “And my first love, the sea.” Cerulean and cobalt-blue waves crashing to the shore.

  “Should I be jealous?” Malcolm had moved from her arm to her hand, gently interlacing their fingers together.

  “Oh, immensely. I’m definitely leaving you for the ocean.”

  Malcolm’s laughter was interrupted by a shriek of pain.

  With a quickness that could belong only to a Shadowhunter, Annabel leapt to her feet. Heart hammering, she scanned the beachfront with frenzied eyes, her fingers itching to pull the wickedly-sharp daggers from the sheath she wore on her ankle . . .

  There — there was no danger present other than one of the children perhaps twisting their ankle. It hadn’t been a scream of pain, but a shriek of childish delight as Dru and Julian teamed up to toss the golden-haired girl — Annabel wanted to say her name was Emily? — into the shallow waves with a mighty splash of saltwater.

  Collapsing to the ground as quickly as she’d risen, Annabel scrubbed at her face, her eyes starting to sting with tears. This was how it always was whenever she and Malcolm left home, whenever they left Cornwall. She would be fine, and then she wouldn’t be. She would be fine, and then she would have a breakdown. Blood splattered against her lips and — blood?

  She wasn’t bleeding, her ruined hands barring no scraps or marks (although plenty of Marks), but she had a sinking suspicion of who was.

  “Ouch,” Malcolm said, “I think you grabbed my hand just a little too hard.” He smiled — why the hell was he smiling, she’d gouged her nails into his skin until he bled, she’d hurt him, she’d hurt him — moving to sit beside her on the blanket once again. His purple eyes darkened from the pale petals of violets to polished chips of amethyst with worry.

  “Are you hurt?” He took her hands in his own, turning them over gently and examining them, his head bent. Shadows and sunlight caught on the strands of his white hair.

  “No. But you are.” She yanked her hands out of his grasp and ground her teeth together, telling herself that she was not going to cry in front of the children (who were not remotely paying attention).

  “It’s fine, darling, really.” A flash, a spark, and pale light wove between Malcolm’s fingers until it looked like he held a burning star in his cupped hands. The scent of his magic — burning cinnamon and crisp snow and freshly spilled ink — reached her nostrils just in time for his flesh to knit back together.

  Drawing her knees to her chest, Annabel buried her face in her hands, squeezing her eyes shut so hard her skull hurt. I hurt him, I hurt him, I hurt him, I hurt him, I—

  Annabel barely heard as Malcolm got to his feet and shouted to the children that they needed to leave. She could barely hear anything over the dim in her head, the memories threatening to drown her. The clashing of wolves’s teeth, her father carving off her fingers, her sister crumpling dead to the ground from the blow she dealt to her temple with a fire-poker. She could still taste her husband’s blood in her mouth, she could still smell her sister’s blood, she could still feel her blood flowing from wounds made by her father’s knife.

  A wave curling around her ankle, Annabel was being dragged out to sea by a hated, if familiar, riptide. She was treading water, but she was so tired of fighting to live, of fighting for the right to live. She stopped for a moment to rest her too-tight skin and weary bones, and then she was drowning.

  She was drowning.

Currently Untitled | Unfinished Canon Divergent AU

  Her hair black, her skin white, her eyes blue and green and gray and all the colors of the ocean that swallowed men whole with little regard to their flimsy, mortal lives: Annabel Blackthorn was dead.

  Wearing angelic brands, the barred teeth of a wolf, laughter, complacency, and lies, drawn tight around her like a cloak, like a shield, like a funeral shroud: Annabel Blackthorn was dead.

  White hair and purple eyes and a whisper of her name as the last words on his lips, she had died months ago when they had looped a noose around Malcolm’s neck.

  She had died, but her body still wasn’t where it was supposed to be. She had died, but her body did not rot in the grave, did not decompose under the crust of the earth. She had died, but she had not swung — they would not let her. Her family had been ruined from when she had tried to flee with her beloved, a suicide would be inconsolable to their reputation.

  So they had arranged for her to be married to her cousin and shut away in one of their houses far away from Cornwall, far away from even Idris, as if she were mad, as if she was dangerous, as if she was deadly.

  They were right, of course, one of the few things they were ever right about. And they didn’t even know that they were right, they underestimated her, they always had, that would get them all killed.

  She was the mad girl — and she was a girl, barely past eighteen — who shattered a looking glass with her coiled fists and used the jagged-edged shards to cut lines and whorls into her skin. They took away everything sharp after that — or, at least, away from her, a Shadowhunter family never being able to not have weapons on hand.

  She was the dangerous girl who mixed rat poison in her sister’s wine. This sister, youthful and kind as she was, had been the one to sell out Malcolm and Annabel to their parents, had been the one to release the wolves who tracked them down, had been the one to physically restrain her when they executed Malcolm. They fired the rat catcher after that — wrongly thinking he had committed the killing as a product of jealousy from being born a Mundane.

  She was the deadly girl who, when the party was over, when the sky was as black-and-blue as the the bruises her cousin left on her thighs and hips and arms, straddled her husband, fitted her hands to the curve of his throat, his pulse beating beneath her fingertips, and squeezed, a Strength Rune etched on the deceptively delicate-looking wrist hidden underneath one of her billowing sleeves. She did not know what they would do when they found out — she did not intend to live that long.

  Thrashing like a netted fish, he clawed at her fingers, her hands, and her arms. Crimson blood splattering into his mouth and eyes, drowning and blinding him as he died. His cries for help were silenced into choking, wheezing gasps.

  He fought. Annabel fought harder.

  She lingered for a moment before slipping to the floor.

Currently Untitled | Unfinished Soulmate AU

  The First Mark, as they were called, carried from birth on the skin, where a gift from the Angel. A way to lead his children along their path to their soulmate, a way to bred better Shadowhunters, birth better warriors.

  And as everyone knew, decrees from the Angel could not be challenged.

  They were Law.

As the World Burns | Unfinished AU

  “So, that’s it than? We’re all fucked?” Annabel Blackthorn stood at the counter, shoulders set, taking her anger out on the wilting tomatoes spread across a dented cutting board, her posture as perfect as a taunt piano wire. Outside the window the sky was black as pitch and completely starless, almost as it knew what was coming, almost as if it mourned for the thousands of lives that were going to be lost. Innocents, slaughtered by his hands, his magic, his inventions.

  “I don’t — I can’t . . . I’m so sorry, Annabel. So, so sorry.” Malcolm nearly collapsed to the floor but managed to catch himself on the edge of the counter at the last possible moment. His briefcase clattered to the stone tile, emptied of everything that had made it important just hours earlier.

 She softened, as she always did when he spoke, and abandoned their last dinner, pulling him into a soft embrace. Malcolm stilled under her touch, his breathing slowly evening out. He wasn’t safe here, he wasn’t safe anywhere, not anymore, not in so, so long, but he was safe with her.

  Together they collapsed to the floor.

Currently Untitled | Unfinished Vampire!Annabel AU

  “No, please!” the woman said fearfully, “Don’t hurt me!” Her dark eyes desperately tried to find something in the swallowing darkness.

  “Now, now, my svelte beauty,” purred the creature as it slipped out of the shadows, “no need to make a fuss.”

  It was a man, with sharp, inhuman teeth, pupil-less eyes, and unnaturally pale skin. He wore a black cloak with a high collar and a blood-red gemstone clasp. He spoke with a foreign accent.

  The woman screamed as the monster grabbed her by the shoulders and sunk his fangs into her throat. Blood splattered against her white dress as she struggled, shrieking for mercy, then suddenly, with a burst of strength, the woman—

  “Don’t worry, kid, there’s not enough blood in your veins for any one of us to want to do that to you.”

  Kit jumped. Heart skipping a beat at the abrupt appearance of a girl — who looked around nineteen, and quite obviously a vampire, which was weird because he thought vampires weren’t allowed in the Institute thanks to the Shadowhunters’ magical racism — he spat out a string of profanities, and then said, “God, you scared me.”

  “Nothing to do with God here. Creature of the Dammed and all that.”

  He blinked, not sure what to make of her joke, and then decided to focus on the more pressing matter. “Who the hell are you? How the hell are you here?” He tightened his grip on the dagger he’d liberated from the Blackthorn’s weapons-room.

  “Now that’s more in my wheelhouse.”

  The girl neatly sat herself down on the couch beside him. Her movements weren’t particularly inhuman, but the sword that hung from her hip certainly was. The blade was sleek, long, and almost delicate-looking. Seemingly made from the same material that the Shadowhunters’ special knifes were made from — some sort of crystal-metal alloy that belonged exclusively to the Shadowhunters, because they’re just so good at sharing, Kit thought bitterly — the sword shone subtlety, while the black runes inset into the blade.

  “I’m Annabel Fade, the Head of the L.A. vampire clan.  As for why I’m here, I need to talk to Emma and Julian. Do you know where they are?”

  “They went on a patrol.” Kit answered, turning the dagger in his hand over and over as he talked, a mindless, repetitive motion that brought him comfort. “But how are you here, like, in the Institute? I thought—“

  “Auntie Annabel!” A shrike, a blur, and Annabel was engulfed in the littlest Blackthorn’s embrace.

“You came! You told me she wouldn’t, but she came.” Tavvy clung to Annabel’s black leather biker jacket like a determined octopus as she moved to give Livvy — who’d just come into the room with a ridiculously giant tub of popcorn in her hands — a one-armed hug. Standing next to Livvy, who wasn’t by any means particularly tall, Kit realized that Annabel was actually kind of short.

  Livvy accepted the hug, stuck her tongue out at Tavvy, and said, “I didn’t say she wouldn’t come, I just said it would be hard for her to. ‘cuz of the warding.”

[margareturtle]

Thinking about Helen Penhallow Blackthorn as one does

Thinking about how I’m sure she wanted to be reunited with her family and would do anything to maintain that after being able to return from Wrangel Island

But also thinking about how maybe she didn’t really want to start running an institute as soon as she was free or maybe she did but she didn’t have much freedom to explore the world and what she wanted to do in between starting her travel year at 18 and then being sent to Wrangel Island later that same year

Thinking about how Helen must feel incredible guilt after finding out that her little brother she left when he was 12 and playing with wax was holding the family together and running the institute by himself

Thinking about how Helen and Mark were only two years apart and the closest to each other growing up but after what they both went through and now that they’re living on different coasts as well their relationship will never be what it was. Thinking about how now Mark is closer with Julian and Emma now.

Thinking about how when Helen finally is able to return to her family they are all splitting off in different directions— Mark to the east coast/faerie, Julian with Emma on their travel year, and Ty to the scholomance.

Thinking about how Helen was never really able to explore or her faerie heritage

Thinking about how Helen still can’t fully be Dru’s sister as she is her sister and mother

Yeah just thinking about Helen Penhallow Blackthorn

[helenofblackthorns]

thinking about when Mark encounters Simon in Faerie & tells him all about his siblings, and how he says that Julian will not be able to help Helen, that he will try but he's too young. of course the obvious tragedy of this is the reality: Julian has been caring for their siblings essentially alone and Helen is not there at all but there's another level to it too.

because Julian's 14 when this happens. yes Mark is unaware of how much time has passed since he was taken, but he's not completely oblivious to the abstract of it. right before this he's talking about how Tavvy won't remember their parents and him, how Dru might not either, and he's saying all this to someone who shouldn't have changed but did anyway. the significance of this is when Mark was 14, that was when Eleanor died and Andrew checked out. a 16 year old Helen would become the primary caregiver for Tavvy but what about their other four younger siblings? who was looking after them? (Mark. the answer is Mark)

and I imagine it started well before Eleanor died, because before that she was sick. before that pregnant. parents of 6 who are also in charge of running a major Institute. when Helen was ten and just starting her training, Dru was just born. caring for newborns is crazy without having five older children (2. 2. 4. 8. 10) who do you think took on the responsibility of watching the others when everyone else was to be busy?

Mark says Julian will not be able to Helen because he is too young, but how old was Mark? even at 12, Julian is older than he probably was. does Mark see that he too was too young?

combined this with how Mark legitimately considers rejoining the hunt despite wanting nothing more than to be with his siblings. because before, his relationship with all his younger siblings was founded on looking after & caring for them - something he cannot do anymore. without that what place is there for him? yeah it makes me a little be crazy.

[livvyofthelake]

shadowhunter chronicles characters and whether i think they would be swifties, a post: (obviously i am excluding all characters who are from the past and died before taylor swift even existed because frankly i don't care to debate whether mattew fairchild would be a swiftie. he's dead <3 peace and love)

clary- not at all. she listens to freak weirdo music. also she stopped keeping tabs on pop culture in 2008 so what would she even know about taylor swift unless one of her shadowhunter friends makes her listen to her. i think it's possible that in like 2014 she heard a 1989 song and loved it but didn't find out it was taylor swift until 6 months later when simon had to inform her

simon- again, weirdo freak music. he'd be the guy who only starts liking her because of folklore but unfortunately cassanda's timeline only goes to like, 2013 rn and will only go to 2015 for twp so. we'll never see that. i think he has nothing against her music because he is a Music Appreciator but he is probably a huge asshole about her as a person becuase he has a haters soul <3

jace- well i don't think jace listens to modern music <3 however i think in his post 2008 life he has more appreciation for human world art and he would eventually come across a vinyl of red or something (he's totally the type of annoying to have a record player do not dispute me on this) and i think from there he would like her, this is how clary is introduced to her music btw

alec- i literally don't think alec listens to music. other people listen to music around him, and he does NOT have a haters soul so he is NOT an asshole about any of said music.

izzy- yeah <3 and i think her and simon have had fights about it <3 it's not that deep to her though she only fights with him about taylor swift for fun and then they have crazy sex

magnus- well yeah. of course. he would love how swifties behave like a cult he would think that's soooo funny... he would love the glamour he would love her showmanship he would go to all her tours and have the time of his life. duh.

emma- yeah why not... she's a girls girl and she has an obsession with being just like jace. she is listening to taylor swift...

jules- he is listening to taylor swift with his beautiful girlfriend...

dru- dru is crucially a weirdo freak emo girl, i just know that when she puts on music it is an assult on the ears and no one likes it and ty wants to kill her about it. and also at the same time emma is functionally her big sister she looks up to and therefore she must appreciate taylor on emma's behalf

cristina- no because she's not american she doesn't have to give a shit about taylor swift

mark- if you asked mark blackthorn what his favorite song was he'd say some bullshit like "the sound of the river flowing at sunrise when the birds are chirping" so. like yeah he'd mostly be saying that just to fuck with you but goddamn that is annoying. anyway

helen- she's a gaylor. to ME

aline- the wife of a gaylor. but she thinks shake it off is the most annoying fucking song she has ever heard in her life <3

livvy- much like dru, she has to defer to emma with this, so yes she likes taylor swift, however i know in my heart of hearts that livvy is a pop music girlie and the fact that taylor was mostly country pre-livvy dying would piss her off soooo bad. she'd have to find put about 1989 from kit it would be a whole thing she'd make ty play it for her because she's a ghost who only has two friends it's terrible...

ty- it's complex. no. but also yes. but also crucially no. but yes. don't worry about it.

tessa- tessa would love ipods i know she does... girl from the victorian era living to the invention of the ipod touch.... dude. do i think she's listening to taylor on her ipod? maybe a little. but i think magnus probably made her a playlist of all the greatest songs from the last several decades that she missed while in the spiral labyrinth and she is just trying to catch up in her free time... obviously all too well is on that playlist though.

jem- man i just think he's thrilled to be alive. i think that guy likes everything, especially if tessa likes it. guy who is constantly overcome with the beauty of life fr

kit- i think he would make fun of jace for liking red so much and then he'd go home and listen to it and cry. he pretends to have the haters soul for clout but he doesn't and he never will and it makes him look fucking pathetic <3

[faithfromanewperspective]

Okay so I'm about to be real annoying about autism and biology(specifically genetics) real quick-

So first off, just because Ty has autism doesn't necessarily mean that Livvy does. Yes they are twins but they are fraternal twins, ie two eggs and two sperm, which means they only share about 50% of their DNA like regular siblings. Because that's what they are canonically, regular siblings who just so happened to both be conceived in a roughly 2 week window of each other and born at the same time.

Same with Mark and Helen. Only they share about 25% of their DNA with the other Blackthorn siblings.

Now autism is genetic, this is scientifically proven to be true, and as of 2023 1 out of 100 children has autism. Those chances increase if a sibling or a parent has autism because they share genes, and if one person has the gene then it's likely to assume that someone else in the family does as well.

Take my family as an example: my grandfather is autistic, so was his brother, and his sister's daughters(identical twins) were both autistic(because they share 100% DNA so if one is autistic likely the other is too), and so were their kids. So even though my great aunt is NOT autistic, both her brothers are, which meant she carried the gene for it, and it passed down to her kids and grandkids. Now none of my grandfather's kids got the gene, but all of us grandkids did. Because even though our moms weren't autistic, they carried the gene.

Now, there's not too much proven scientific evidence for how autism works genetically other than it is passed down and can even skip a generation or two. But because of how society is, especially how afab people are raised in society, there could genuinely be a significant amount of people who just haven't realized that they are autistic, not to mention the over a million people who aren't able to get a diagnosis. So please take what I've said above with a grain of salt.

NOW onto my personal headcanons with the Blackthorns-

I truly believe that Lucie Herondale is autistic and I will die on this hill. Which means that the gene could carry all the way down the Blackthorn line, all the way to present day. And since we know almost nothing about Andrew and Eleanor, we don't know if either one of them had the traits or if they just carried the gene.

Let's start with the oldest(s) and work our way down, shall we:

Mark: the nature audhd, he loves everything plants earth related and spend almost too much times researching flowers and berries that can be grown in California. He much prefers a date to the botanical gardens rather than to a movie theater(too loud) or a library(too quiet). But he loves concerts(jumping up and down bass boosted music).

Helen: the coffee autistic, she loves everything in the world of coffee, and if she wasn't so debilitated by her enhanced hearing making her uneasy out in public she would open her own coffee shop just so she could make coffees all day everyday. Aline gifts her different coffee scented candles for anniversaries, birthdays, and holidays.

Julian: the art autistic, he loves the feeling of paint on his fingers, and has spent an hour rubbing a new and soft brush over his palms and face(much to Emma's amusement). His go-to stimming behavior is sketching something either on scrap paper or with his fingers on the table or on his thigh. He loves drawing over his arms and hands with pen, and he also loves drawing all over his families' hands and arms as well.

(Ty is canon, so I'll skip him)

Livvy: the theater audhd kid, she loves reading Shakespeare and obscure off-Broadway plays. Once a week she puts on a one woman show for her siblings(mostly Dru and Tavvy) entertainment. She collects playbills, cds, records, merch, and autographs from shows she sees(she goes with Jocelyn or Tessa at least once a week) and covers her room with them.

Dru: the thriller audhd, she loves everything that gives her a fright and makes her adrenaline and blood pressure skyrocket. Her favorite "dates" are amusement parks with Thaís and Jaime, she makes them go on every terrifying ride. She, Livvy, and Emma have movie nights where they binge vintage horror movies and play indie horror games. She went bungee jumping for her 18th birthday.

Tavvy: the music autistic, he loves everything in the music realm: instruments, songs on the radio, Broadway musicals, and Julian humming while he cooks. He learns to play over 16 different instruments and uses each one to stim depending on what environment he's in(if he's at Cirenworth then it's violin or piano, but if he's at the NYC Institute then it's drums or guitar, his favorite is playing the pan flute on the LA Institute rooftop with Mark and Kieran).

I also hc that Livvy is trans that her and Ty ARE actually identical but apparently it's weird to say that😒

Sorry if this doesn't make any sense I just woke up from a nap😅-

dude. this is such a detailed ask. shaking screaming silently in excitement that i get to answer this!! all of this detail for me!! this is such a fascination of mine! anyway ANYWAY SO

I love your hc's about the blackthorns especially tavvy, idk why i see him as a musician as well but it just FITS. and hey, they are in LA right?? he def spends his teens sneaking out to see live music and he def gets SUPER into like a handful of artists and spends hours just playing around with their songs, remixing them or whatever (do i do this? am i talking from experience? do i have a sideblog dedicated to it?) and dru is absolutely that kind of adrenaline junkie. so am i! i say she gets really into lead climbing (rock climbing, but the rope is below you instead of above and when you fall it's TERRIFYING) and it helps her get really comfortable with her body esp when she goes with mundanes and downworlders and shadowhunters all mixed up. and i love theatre livvy, i really do, but her canon thing is computers and maths isn't it? maybe she's both. i can see that, different sides of her personality: she's into STEM a lot as a kid but realises she also likes to act when she's a bit older. you're dead right with julian, tbh what he was going through in the tda era makes it hard for me to see his neurodivergence clearly but yeah i can see it, and he's a cassandra clare male protagonist after all, he's gonna remind me of a bunch of people i know irl who are--slowly realising their neurodivergence, shall i say. mark and helen are dead right too. i see it. never did they come across as neurotypical to me.

and i do know, genetics of fraternal twins--if you're referring to the 'twin thing' or whatever i said i was meaning the bond between them and how they communicate so naturally! which is in part due to their proximity being together since the womb, but also because they are naturally so similar and also complimentary and actually, the fact that they both 'adopt' kit into their group is just another neurodivergents unite moment. like, it just works. so naturally.

and i 100% agree with you that yeah, sure maybe they're not ALL autistic in the family but with underdiagnosis and stuff and genetics it does make sense. Also irl i do think that 1% is a MASSIVE understatement (idk what the actual number could be, but the way i go out in public and in community with people i've known for years even when we're not brought together by things in common, and i just get the vibe of people, i'm pretty sure a lot more than 1% are autistic). now, with lucie. i never was quite sure with her, she's very much a could-never-have-been-neurotypical-herondale but the more I think about it the more it makes sense. it's really interesting to see her and james interact as siblings bc they're SO different but there's this common thread of likely being autistic, in fact a specific genre of autistic that clearly runs in their family (and i could say the same of anna and christopher, but that's for another post). anyway. just for fun. I reckon we can trace it back up both sides of their family to Linette Owens on the Herondale side and to Aloysius Starkweather on Tessa's side. and cassie invented genetics again.

but seriously, i fondly summarise tlh as 'bunch of neurodivergents adopt biracial traveller who doesn't fit in anywhere'. like SO MUCH of the cast is autistic coded, trust cassie to do that, there's also a heap of rep of adhd and cptsd and bipolar in the mix and then. there's cordelia

I also have to say I do love your trans livvy hc!! the more i think about it the more i'm like, oh, that could make sense. in the way she presents her femininity (which trans women don't have to!! I know!) and imagine her bonding with diana over it! anyway that's all i have to say. slightly differently coloured features to ty--that's just a technicality right? no, this could definitely work.

[tetsunabouquet]

Heir To The Lands Chapter 53

Of Tearful Goodbyes Masterpost

Using the emergency line Aline had set up, Dru managed to get through to her family. She quickly explained what happened and that they needed to break into Idris as fast as possible which in return would require the L.A Institute to house Jem, Mina, an unconscious Ty and Gwyneth. Helen agreed to it on the phone and that they could portal them to L.A immediately and she made sure to alert everyone of what was happening. Dru felt the conversation get heavy and heard Helen's breath shake. "Promise me you don't get killed either. I cannot stand losing my only sister left." Dru thought she could hear Helen's voice break a little at the end and she felt bad but she needed to go through with it. "I won't, by the Angel, I swear I won't die." Dru hung up the phone, her heart was breaking and she tried to control her breathing as she felt this close to breaking out in a panic attack at the thought of who she was going to lose this time. Then she felt hands on her shoulder and she looked over it to see Thais looking at her with a reassured expression. "You got this Dru. We got this." She breathed out and hugged her best friend tight. "You're coming out of this alive too." She told her friend, who chuckled against her hair. "Of course I will." "We all will." Tomas' voice was firm and Thais smiled lovingly at her boyfriend, relishing in what could be one of their final moments together. Dru tried not to think about it.

Kit rushed from the stairs after grabbing hold of James Herondale's gun. Whilst having such a unique weapon was far from his favorite thing and neither was the reason why it worked for him, but he figured that such a powerful weapon was best to have at his side, just in case. However, he did not wish to be too late to say goodbye to Jem and Mina. Tessa was setting up the portal, Jem was holding an upset and confused Mina whose dark eyes were just taking everything in teary eyed. He rushed to her side and stroked her cheek. "Hey hey Mina, don't cry. We'll all be back home together again soon." She pouted at him and said, "Unfair." Kit's smile faltered a little. "I know you want to help, and you are. You'll be looking after baby Eleanor. She has no older siblings or whatsoever to protect her. Isn't that sad?" Kit quickly invented the lie, knowing far too well little kids just want to feel useful. Mina's gullible face was clearly considering the idea and Kit thanked the Angel for having adjusted so quickly. Never had Kit understood his father's many lies and secrets the way he had now, looking into Mina's sweet eyes. But he felt like perhaps he was beginning to see where his father could have been coming from. It was better to have an illusion to comfort you, at times, then to know your family could be brutally torn apart at any second. Sometimes, the truth was just too cruel. Tessa finished up the Portal, her own eyes shiny with unspilled tears as well. "Take good care of each other, alright?" She asked Jem who kissed her lovingly and Kit just had to look away, disturbed by the prospect of seeing his foster parents intimate. Tessa went on to pepper Mina's cheeks with kisses. "Now onto you, - you will be a good little lady, won't you?" She asked Mina, who nodded bravely. "I will pwotect baby!" She proclaimed and Tessa smiled bittersweet. "We will be reunited again my love, I have faith." Jem said as he walked forward towards the Portal, Mina waving to them in his arms. Every second was agony as Jem got closer and Kit practically felt relief for the mild distraction of Gwyneth- who has been keeping her distance to allow the family to say their goodbyes to each other, bumping into Kit as she rushed forward towards the Portal. The group of three stood in front of the Portal, Gwyneth deciding to hold onto the fabric of Jem's pants. "Goodbye," He said and Mina continued to wave enthusiastically as they disappeared into the swirl of the Portal, Gwyneth saluting to Kit as she disappeared too and Kit held Tessa as their hearts ached.