#canon extrapolation

[splendidissimus]

2001ish - Cycle

((Content warning: none))

Genre: general

Romance level: minor

Angst level: 2/5

Draco's headspace: reflective

((words: ~1100))

------------------------------------

Draco looked up when Theo entered the room. He had papers and books spread out in front of him on the table, sofa, and chairs, taking over the entire parlour in research materials. "My grandfather was a Death Eater," he announced.

"Okay," Theo said as he sat down with the beer the house elf silently provided. "The first Minister was a Hufflepuff." 

Draco shook his head sharply. This was huge, he just wasn't explaining himself properly. "No, I mean, my father's father was a Death Eater. Look at these dates." He pushed a paper up on the table.

Theo groaned as he levered himself back up and came to sit on the arm of Draco's chair so he could see. "What am I looking at?" Draco had made some sort of complicated chart that he didn't feel like deciphering, with a bunch of bars starting and ending at random across the page and labelled lines crossing various sets of them. 

"This is the important part." He folded the paper to isolate a section around the second third where he had drawn a line straight down through all the other bars. "1970, when Voldemort returned to the country and started his campaign, my father was sixteen or seventeen — I don't have an exact date. His father was a very influential man who had already been secretly embarked on an anti-Muggleborn agenda," he briefly pointed out a line crossing one of the upper bars on the page, marked 1968, which Theo dredged from his memory had something to do with the first Muggleborn Minister for Magic. Ousted from office or something. "These people," he tapped the 1968 mark, "that's where he already had a base of support, organised enough to carry out their own conspiracy, just waiting to be tapped into. You get your message into the school to recruit soldiers and high-spirited lackeys who aren't going to think too hard about it when you tell them to go sow chaos, but for actual support, for a network of influence and control? You recruit these people." 

It all made a lot of sense, but Theo shrugged a little bit. "Well, congratulations, I guess? You successfully proved that a twentieth-century Malfoy was most likely a Death Eater?" 

"Not just a Death Eater. One of the originals, one of the forces behind his reign of terror." 

He clapped Draco on the shoulder, firmly enough to rock him a little bit. "Welcome to the club." Considering his own father had been one of Voldemort's old school mates… "Which you were already a member of, because you already knew your father was basically his right hand, so…"

"By the end of the war — after his father had already died. At the beginning, he was just a student with too much pride and a family with too many wrong ideas, who got this," he turned his left arm, "when he was seventeen or eighteen because his father was in with Voldemort. You see? It's a cycle. The same thing just keeps happening over again." 

"I think that's a stretch."

"It isn't."

"There is a pretty big difference between you," Theo pointed out, draping his arm over Draco's shoulders. "You didn't want to be there."

"You are giving me leagues more credit than I deserve," Draco said flatly. "Firstly, it took me almost two months to 'not want to be there', or at least admit it. You saw me at the beginning of that term, I was…" He shook his head. "Secondly, how long have you known me? You know I'm not exactly a wizard of naturally strong moral fibre. If Voldemort had been only infinitesimally less evil — if he had never threatened my mother and made me live in fear, even if he treated my father exactly the same — I would have actually been one. I might never have been the most enthusiastic killer, but I would have felt very powerful and important telling Crabbe and Goyle to do it. As long as the terror never turned against me, I would have made myself a nice little niche perpetuating it with, oh, probably the Imperius, and gotten progressively better at not thinking about any of it." 

"After everything you know, do you really think that's true?"

"I know it." Draco leaned back, trapping Theo's arm in the seat, and summoned his glass of wine to hand. "I've had a taste of being truly feared. It's… intoxicating. Especially after you've felt helpless." He paused pensively, looking at nothing as he considered the old memory of people fleeing from him as he cursed Blaise after suffering too many bouts of detention at his hand. Now it had a little patina of shame over it, but at the time… "But it's not sustainable. I would have known the first and not the second, and ridden that to my inevitably pathetic death." 

"Thank Merlin Voldemort was so evil, then." 

"And that's a new record for most awkward thing I've ever heard someone say. Do you practise?" 

"Yes, every night before I go to sleep." He ran his fingers through Draco's hair. 

Draco looked distantly toward the table with his research on it, twirling his wine more than drinking it, for several minutes. "Why are we trapped in these cycles?" he finally murmured. 

"We aren't. You became a halfway decent person. If my family had a theme, I guess it would be proud poverty and sycophantry, and I'm not living that."

"Not of our own accord." He glanced at Theo. "Well, you're you, so you probably didn't need any help. But it seems like people who are more normal can't get out of these roles without extreme outside interference. It's like we're doomed." 

Theo ran his fingers back through Draco's hair again. "How long has it been since you slept?" 

Draco raised two fingers without taking his attention off of his musings. 

"I thought so; you're getting broody. Sleep tonight, all right?"

He nodded without commentary, and Theo kissed the side of his head. 

He knew that Theo wasn't really the right audience for this; he genuinely had no appreciation for history, society, family… any of these things. It wasn't meaningful to him. But Draco couldn't get it out of his head, and Theo at least indulged him by listening, even if he didn't appreciate it. It was nice of him.

He'd write it out, he decided. Use Theo as a sounding board as much as he let him, and get his thoughts together on paper. Maybe it was the lack-of-sleep high talking, but it felt like an important truth.

[beebfreeb]

Against my will, this freak is fun to draw.

[horreurscopes]

this is my brother and i need a shovel to love him (prints)

[khaotunq]

shitty Sand appreciation

[pseudonymphomania]

“The first time I met you, you were simply so divine, so awe-inspiring that you took my breath away. I couldn’t believe such a beautiful, magnificent angel actually existed.” -Diavolo (OG 7-10)

[Base from emtfira on Twitter: Source]

[starry-bi-sky]

"Stillborn? No, still born" Danyal au -- VLAD MASTERS THE BITCH HIMSELF

*Points at Vlad* THIS MFER GOT SOME TEEFS TO HIM. !! Okay okay, Vlad Masters in the stillborn au is different compared to most of my other aus in the fact that I am far more heavily leaning into his original ambitions of wanting a family and being desperately lonely. Because you know what wanting a family implies? Wanting to be a parent.

Fucked up father figure that could've been Vlad. Complicated love-hate relationship between the only two halfas in existence.

Danny hates Vlad, but he hates even more that he's genuinely considered his offers of mentorship. Vlad is the only halfa around, and they both have fire cores. Danny has these powers he doesn't understand, can barely comprehend some days, and can't control. But Vlad does. Vlad can. And Vlad wants to help him. He's the only other person who can get close whenever Danny runs too hot. Whenever his igneous hair cracks, splits, and spits back out into magma and his friends can't get close, Vlad can.

His hair is made of magma, which runs so hot that people need specialized suits in order to get near it. He physically cannot get close to the living as a ghost unless he's calm enough for his hair to cool into igneous rock. Which isn't as often as he would like. And sometimes he's too hot for other ghosts to get near unless they have fire cores -- which Vlad has.

There have been many times when Danny's having a meltdown (literally) and gone somewhere to be alone, to let his anger and hurt and loneliness overflow and spill out, that when he's come back to, Vlad's right there with him as an anchor. It's desperately frustrating, it's the only time they can get along. They don't say anything, Danny just turns and clings onto the only person he can touch as a ghost.

Its not fair. Vlad wants to kill his foster dad, and Danny can't let him do that. But he wants to be trained by the man, he wants his help and wants what he can offer. But Vlad can't step away from his revenge long enough to let him. It's just not fair. He thinks for a moment that maybe it could work, and then Vlad does something to remind him that no, it can't.

Vlad Masters sees too much of himself in Daniel Brown -- from the way he holds himself, to the defenses he puts up, his quiet anger that builds and builds and builds until it explodes. That simmers beneath his skin. All the way down to the fact that they have matching cores. This boy is cut from the same cloth as him, and by god does he want to help him. He's always wanted to be a father, and Daniel Brown is too much like him for him to ignore. He genuinely, truly cares about Danny and his wellbeing.

He wants to help him, child just let him help you. Let him kill your foster dad so he can adopt you himself and help with these powers that terrify and intrigue you -- he knows what that's like to have something that you can't control, to have a heat that you can't cool down from. "We're in the same boat you and I, let him help you please."

But his methods are all wrong, and Danny is too much like him -- stubbornness and all -- for him to agree when they oppose each other so greatly. But again, Danny is much like him -- which means that Vlad is equally stubborn, and in every single one of their fights he's parental. He's annoyingly parental. He drops his interest in Maddie to focus his efforts in trying to coax Danny onto his side. It's like trying to get a traumatized cat to trust you, and on some levels it works. It's like he makes some progress, and then moves too quickly and the cat immediately runs off and you have to start back from square one.

TL:DR; Vlad and Danny both want to find family in each other but they're too different to get along and ultimately they are doomed by the narrative to be at constant odds with one another unless one of them is changes, and it doesn't matter who.

[fumifooms]

Helki compilation

Helki is a prisoner-turned-servant. He’s a criminal canary and was implicitly one of Milsiril’s charges, and now that she’s retired he’s become her servant.

He must have gotten into Milsiril’s good graces, wether through attachment or convenience, which is a feat considering Milsiril’s a socially anxious recluse. Interesting since it’s not like he seems like the agreeable type, shifty upbeat delinquent style… We really don’t know much about him, not even what crimes he did, so there’s a lot of space for speculation on all grounds.

Edit: Shanghai QnA with Kui gave us a new juicy morsel of info!

Interesting… The original answer in japanese is: パッタドルと同じような杖を使っていました。今も同じものを支給されているのですが、すぐになくすのでもはや携帯していないようです。 That it’s written in japanese seems to say that there isn’t the same double translation issue there was last QnA, so if someone wants to look at the original phrasing and word choices it can be done. Perhaps Helki-Milsiril has a more protégé dynamic undertone than previously thought… "For various reasons", meaning circumstances that made it so the squad had to choose between saving him and saving their own skin, or like, "man this guy’s personality sucks we don’t really like him"? Likely to be a mix of several things, since ‘for various reasons’ implies the situation was either complex or they had multiple reasonings. In either case, the phrasing is very much that Milsiril couldn’t abandon him herself, and so a relationship sprung out of that. Another instance of outcasts seeking out and sticking with other outcasts in Dungeon Meshi. This could mean that it’s a bit less out of personal attachment and more out of a sense of duty on Milsiril’s side as well though.

Still edit: So then maybe him staying with Rin in that comic isn’t that much because of work ethics or that he cares for kids (or maybe he does because he feels kinship to them, alone and mistreated), but because he didn’t want to join the other canaries in that room chatting and laughing… Maybe the isolation was exacerbated because he became Milsiril’s favorite, teacher’s pet style, but I’d also be careful about assuming the others disproportionately dislike him, it could be that they just don’t really care for him. Why? Could be because of his personality, because he’s seen as shifty or unreliable or annoying, if an event, who knows who knows, but I like to think because of the Rin comic that he generally just tends to be a loner, that he’s "weird" in a neurodivergent vibe, he doesn’t conform to proper social behavior which in elven society seems especially alienating. He’s the only one with Rin to think of her sake, not only worth observing/caring for but also asks her to eat, but he does this with an offputting stare, not really emoting, and then well, the infamous alone with her staring munching covered in blood panel. He stands out. I’m a fan of the theory that it was a "Helki? Not that I dislike the guy but I’m not risking my skin for him" situation… Ok end edit back to older observations.

He seemed to be acting out of his own initiative in the Rin comic, he doesn’t look thrilled to be there in many post-canary comics but he also seems content enough. He restrains Milsiril in the Mithrun cleaning comic which is interesting to think of for their relationship.

It’s fun to notice how he’s the only one that didn’t get bored of looking after Rin, and then reports back about her condition… I’d say he was getting used to taking care of kids which would come with the job of serving Milsiril, but then, not enough for him to clean the blood off himself hah. In this way it’s interesting to think about his relationship to the idea of parenthood, he’s probably the closest thing to a father figure/male role model Kabru had growing up, without mentioning the other kids. I feel like he’d consider himself an older brother, cousin or uncle figure sooo much sooner than a father, but even then I do think it’s just his job and he’s not really invested or forming real relationships with any of them much.

It’s curious to note that he’s dressed in canary uniform presumably after having been pardoned and living with Milsiril? Which you can tell by the armor bits (the yellow strips of spider silk). In the Kabru training montage and the Rin comic specifically. It seems very implausible for him to have still been a canary while being a retired Milsiril’s servant and being with her all the time, and the cleaning with Mithrun comic (where he’s not in uniform) happens after Utaya so it could happen after Kabru was taken in but around the time of the Rin comic. So why uniform? It could be one of the best outfits he has, so it’d make sense to wear it around especially if you’re sparring or getting… Blood on you? Could just be because that's how Milsiril wants him to dress. But yeah we don't know when exactly Helki becoming Milsiril’s servant happened. We do see Mithrun’s charge Cithis be tasked with taking care of him, so a charge being given a servant-caretaker role doesn’t seem all that out of the ordinary, sometimes even prior to retiring.

Imo, if he doesn't work for Milsiril he goes back to jail/the canaries/has to try and get a job instead of just tending to her, so Helki is staying with Milsiril because she's the best option for him. He’s her milsiril's personal servant and does mostly dull tasks involved in that. He’s not particularly suited to the role but they’ve gotten used to each other to him so she took him with her, and he does prefer it to canary work so it works out decent for him. I think he’s used to reading her and managing her moods and he’s one of the rare social connection she has.

Under spoiler is stage 2 interpretation stuff, bigger speculation, in a reblog I’ll make soon I’ll go over my thoughts for stage 3 interpretation lol. Helsiril I’m coming for you

Translation of the canary hierachy chart used is by Thatsmimi, here

[the-meme-monarch]

hi unravel i love you unravel

hot girl summer joke is from my sibling @/cherrydrawz :]

[yardsards]

i personally think marcille is bisexual but in the "i am attracted the Occasional anime twink and also every woman who has ever walked the earth" way. like a solid 5 on the kinsey scale, y'know?

[floertoer]

[splendidissimus]

Character Questions cont.

[master list]

38. Have they ever had to hurt someone else, physically or mentally, to save themselves or another person? Were they the same after the incident, or did it change them?

Theo:

Having to perform the Cruciatus curse in Dark Arts class on students who'd earned detentions. At first he didn't participate, but being too obvious about not trying earned corporal punishment, and he had a black eye from it for a while. The first person he successfully cast it on was Draco, who spent a solid chunk of the year in Detention; he'd been angry with him for something outside of class and he accidentally (or, he wonders, was it actually an accident?) actually did it. He did feel guilty about it, especially how vindicating it felt for a second.

Theo considers himself an observer, a habitual bystander, not someone who gets involved and certainly not someone who takes a stand on things. That convinced him that he really wasn't going to take part in that anymore, though, and by the end of the year he was drawing unwanted attention for his "inability" (unwillingness) to perform a proper curse.

Draco:

Tasked with assassination, under implied pain of death for himself and his family. There was never any good outcome for him. If he'd done it, it would have messed him up. However, the fact that he couldn't bring himself to do it when he had the chance also fucked him up. It's a source of shame for years afterward. Not that he wants to be a murderer, but his takeaway is that he's too weak and useless to even do what needs to be done protect people he loves.

Then he was forced to torture other Death Eaters for their failures, with the threat of suffering worse torture himself. He learned that it's possible to fuel a Cruciatus off of sheer fear and self-preservation, which is not a proud feeling, and cements his view of himself as a coward. But there was another dimension to it that he was socially adept enough to be painfully aware of - it wasn't just the torture that was the punishment, but that the torture was coming from him. He's so pathetic and useless that being tortured by him was especially demeaning, used as a way to humiliate people. It also drove home that he didn't have (wasn't allowed) any pride, because he'd do that just because he was told to, even knowing what it said about him.

The Muggle hunt he was made to participate in is also relevant. His father got him drunk first so he could handle it and he managed to not have to actually do anything ((subject to change when I actually write it)), but being there made him feel evil. He found out that there's a lot of space between mindlessly parroting rhetoric and actually taking action.

Bluntly, when he was 17 his entire sense of self-worth was destroyed, largely (though not entirely) by this, and it tore him down to just shame, so he could only see himself as useless and powerless and unworthy. He wouldn't really stand up for himself again for years, and continues to not really trust his own abilities. (It also damaged his relationship with his father, about the only one he felt equal with, in that they were both trash, though even then he knows his father is stronger than he is.)

Overall, not good.

[wh00psramblings]

yall ever have headcanons for the bad kids that youve fabricated from thin air???

bc ive convinced myself that fabian paints (like specifically realism) and/or plays the violin (rich kid shit)

fabian, riz and adaine have all started a mini bookclub where they each choose a book like every month to read (fabien usually chooses horrific romances, riz picks mysteries and adaine probably picks the widest range but sticks to (what would be for them) historical fiction)

gorgugs house is designated hang out place, digby and wilma dont mind them being there and its bigger than rizs apartment, less busy than mordrid manor and as much as fabians house is the biggest its less homey/cosy

kristen has started mandating 'mental check in nights' once a month, they play games, get takeaway and talk just to kinda check in yk (this mainly came around from all of them being absolutely terrible at telling/asking each other stuff whether mental health related or not)

idk how i got here but oh well

[pilkypills]

Interesting detail in the riverbank scene in DOS: Fili ignores Thorin’s assertion that they need to keep moving and is already in the process of binding Kili’s wound by the time Thorin gives him two minutes to do it. An incorrect placement of lines and mise-en-scene? Maybe. Will I interpret this as early signs of Fili thinking something is very wrong with Thorin? Oh yes. Yes I will.

[sovonight]

It is time to rest, I see. I wish to say goodbyes, for it is possible neither of us will survive the night. Be it the hordes of the Underdark, or the legions of undead, they will creep upon us in the dark, pierce our unseeing eyes, and this reverie will turn out to be the last.

*sigh* Not again!

giving xan’s romance the art i wanted to give it years ago ♡

[sandflakedraws]

god i need to draw more (dreamworks) trolls. please ask me to draw more trolls

it is insANE the kind of traction these movies are giving my brain rn

[the-force-awakens]

Poe Dameron, Leia's most daring pilot.