#don't mess with fairies

[penndragyn37]

Remember when Shane jumped in that pile of leaves Lucille was playing in? Yeah... So did she.

Naturally, angering fairies often leads to an ill omen. Basically, a magical prank was inevitable.

Not quite satisfied with how this not quite inktober turned out, I think I got a bit ambitious. But still, the idea made me laugh. Hope it made you laugh, too!

Characters: Shane the dragon-person, from... My stuff! (Created and designed by a collaborator)

Lucille the punk fairy, from... My stuff!

#sketch #1hoursketch #ink #fantasy #fairy #dragonborn #oc #dndoc #punk #tiny #mini #prank #traditional #traditionalsketch #penndragyn37

[fountainpenguin]

Short Version: I don't even know how to begin explaining this, so take these 'fic doodles with no context.

Wish Fixers, my chronically unhelpful beloved...

Long Version (City Lights AU #ridspoilers beyond the above implication. Mentions of death and trauma; it gets pretty dark)

Nalooksthrough, I tag you below because I cited your co-dependent toxic friendship comic and said it was cool- If you don't want to click, that's all the tag was :)

So I started outlining my Dale backstory 'fic (Lemonade and Papercuts) since I am the most predictable person alive and of COURSE I can't resist 7 years of trauma and intimacy anxiety <3. But planning a 'fic like this requires many pieces and many questions.

First and most obvious- How did Vicky lure in Dale? From previous planning, I've already decided that since they're the same age (maybe one year off), they probably knew each other in school or activities.

Ex: Squirrely Scouts & Cream Puffs... Not unreasonable- Throughout the series, many kids participate and the organizations seem to have a big following in Dimmsdale. Vicky's sister Tootie is in the Cream Puffs and Vicky is seen bossing them around in the Season 0 episode "Scout's Honor" ("Oh Yeah! Cartoons"). There's a comic by the same name depicting Remy in Squirrely Scouts (after "Fairy Fairy Quite Contrary" but before he gets his memories back in "Remy Rides Again" and I always thought it was cute). I mean, look at him:

Pictures courtesy of the FOP Wiki

It's not unreasonable that Dale - who's also rich - might've gotten into that (especially since Doug is big on the cowboy theming and of all the rich parents, he's probably the one most okay with his son playing in dirt). Something scout-related could be an option even if Dale and Vicky went to different schools.

A friendship that gets increasingly toxic until it spirals into full-on abuse sounds really interesting (and @nalooksthrough portrayed this idea beautifully imo in THIS comic I can't stop thinking about).

Sounds fun to write, so let's go with that. What's next?

Hey, remember when 7 years ago, I headcanon'd H.P. as Dale's godfather because of this doodle in Da Rules that specifically refers to Pixie godparents and depicts a fluffy-haired kid in a purple shirt?

I recently found out I still had Dale listed as a godchild of H.P. on his full character profile on my fanfic sideblog. I was waffling over whether to retcon that (since I hadn't yet done anything with it), but I started brainstorming whether I COULD do anything with it.

I've always written Wish Fixers in 'fic [e.g. Origin of the Pixies] as a therapy business run by H.P.'s dad (which H.P. bought off him out of spite despite not being licensed for therapy) but, like...

Does Jorgen know H.P. isn't licensed? I can't see why he would... As far as he knows, H.P. owns and runs the place- especially given my lore that Wish Fixers has been in his family for many generations. Sounds qualified to me!

In "School's Out! The Musical" (episode that Da Rules screenshot is from), we learn Pixies are at the back of the line for godparent work, even under creatures like unicorns (Hence the Musical's plot requiring them to remove magical creatures from earth before they could assign themselves to Flappy Bob).

I said in a recent liveblog post that I'd always imagined this was a punishment given to them due to H.P. absolutely failing as godfather to Dale- Thus, the origin of the doodle on the page for that rule. But... I never decided what happened.

See, Dale SEEMS like a guy who would qualify for a fairy. He was probably pretty miserable under Vicky's 7 years of torture and he's still holding onto that trauma in his adulthood.

DID he have a fairy?

I'm just saying, we know from S4's "Wish Fixers" that H.P. is legally(?) allowed to make contracts that swap a fairy godparent with a pixie one if godkids choose to sign of their own free will... Hmm... I'm connecting dots I don't think I like... (I am lying).

I mean?? Dale clearly did not get out of the pit due to magical interference. If I'm committing to the doodle being Dale and reflecting an actual godfather-godson dynamic between him and H.P., then something sure went wrong there. I can't NOT make Dale suffer...

What on earth could've made Dale sign a contract for something a fairy couldn't give him? We know from "Nectar of the Odds" canon that he wished to see his dad, and thanks to previous liveblogs, I DO already have a headcanon of Dale being extremely desperate for his dad's love... Hmm... I can work with that.

I went down a rabbit hole trying to answer the question of how Vicky secured lemons for 7 years for Dale (and other kids) to work with. Here are some lemon tree facts:

- Lemon trees bear fruit after only a few years - They can bear fruit multiple times a year (depending on variety) - A single lemon tree can produce 1,500 lemons in one growing season - Dimmsdale is in California - a state known for lemon orchards.

That feels likely... An orchard of even a few trees can keep you going for a while.

But lemonade doesn't sell for much compared to other things Vicky could've set a kidnapped child up to do (Ex: In "Microphony," she has kids doing a bunch of other tasks like answering phones for her babysitting service, painting houses, and washing cars).

So... WHY lemonade? What is going on that makes this the thing Vicky has Dale do for 7 years?

And who owns the orchard? I need Vicky to obtain lemons without being stopped for 7 years.

Is it a Dimmadome orchard? Maybe, but several episodes imply Vicky's not familiar with the Dimmadomes - and she probably would have turned Dale in for cash reward if given the chance - so those are two things I need to keep in mind.

Does the orchard belong to her family? That's a possibility- Vicky is shown drinking lemonade after "Nectar of the Odds." She definitely could've bought it - It can't be too expensive unless prices were jacked up after she lost her cheap labor - but it's a drink she's seen with in multiple episodes. She definitely likes it.

And we know from "Timmy's 2D House of Horror" that Vicky's parents are terrified of her. It's not likely they'd stop her from taking lemons from the family orchard.

One problem... If Dale goes missing when he's about 9 (Closer to 7 or 8 in my planned timeline), Vicky is also 9 or younger. Are her parents scared of her when she's that small and inexperienced in the ways of the world?

In "The Switch Glitch," she's 5 and seems mild and sweet until 10-year-old Timmy mistreats her- She clearly didn't have memories of Timmy, implying she totally regressed to how she acted when she really was 5. Worth pointing out she goes off the deep end and chains up Cosmo and Wanda, so... she IS mean even at age 5. But also, she's 5. She wears the same purple hair bow in "Switch Glitch" (at 5) that she does when Timmy drains the meanness out of her in "Vicky Loses Her Icky," which is interesting.

So that begs the question... Can I turn my Dale backstory 'fic into a double story of Dale abuse AND Vicky going from a pretty innocent child to Totally Messed Up? Keeping in mind that according to Vicky in A New Wish, Vicky IS the one responsible for abusing him and he "spent 7 years' worth of Saturdays in a factory underneath a lemonade stand."

If that's the way I want to play it... Something happened to send Dale and Vicky down the dual victim-and-abuser path, destinies intertwined. And for some reason, Vicky stuck with the lemonade theme.

Dale just says he spent his Saturdays "in a factory underneath a lemonade stand." It's not out of the question he and Vicky made more lemon products than just lemonade, especially given Vicky's love for money (and those 600 lbs of lemons one tree can produce in a year). We can assume they changed locations a few times or someone would've found the trapdoor on Timmy's lawn. Plus when Dale started his abuse, Vicky hadn't started babysitting Timmy, whom she only met when he was 8.

So, I've set Dale up to be lured in by Vicky because they were friends. I like the idea of things gradually getting worse as Vicky slowly morphs from a friend into a very cruel person. If Vicky was bullying him, what stopped him from just... leaving?

Vicky's transformation was probably subtle if he stayed for so long..... I also pointed out in a recent post that Doug's underground milk empire where he uses hypnotized people for labor bears a striking amount of similarities with Vicky's lemonade stand, even down to the general vibes of "trapdoor entrance" (although it's implied there's another entrance in small building).

And if we want to be technical about things... We don't know if Doug and Dale pressed charges against Vicky. She clearly continues to babysit Timmy and other kids after "Nectar of the Odds" (Season 2).

In Season 4 ("Channel Chasers"), Doug remarks that Timmy's parents should've guessed Vicky was evil because of the Chip Skylark song "Icky Vicky," but he doesn't mention Vicky kidnapping his son. That's.... sus. He even offers to buy a car from her in Season 3's "Engine Blocked" (after Dale's escape).

Why would such a powerful guy let all of that slide? Did they just not have enough proof? Did Vicky wipe the place clean? Did Dale "not want to make a big deal about it" because he was so exhausted and grateful, he just didn't want to think about it or struggle with the legal system? Was he covering for her?? Was he scared to speak up?

... Did Dale not tell his dad the whole truth about where he was?

What if Dale was - in some vague and early concept way - in on the lemonade scheme from the beginning, back when he and Vicky were friends and she wasn't so cruel? Maybe she turned on him and sentenced him to the pit before long?

Why the underground-ness of it? Why the lemonade, which probably doesn't turn much profit... as lemonade. Unless you have unrestrained access to tons of lemons that you can turn into multiple products - Dale DID call it a factory - and no one is stopping you from accessing them...

... but how do you set up a situation where kids have access to a whole lemon orchard - presumably carefully maintained - and the adults don't take it away from them (Because... surely they would've found Dale and multiple other kids if they strayed close).

And Dale didn't leave. He does in "Nectar of the Odds" - apparently of his own volition - but not before. Was he kept there mentally as well as physically?

We KNOW Vicky can't be monitoring him 24/7 because "Nectar of the Odds" is the only episode depicting her paying attention to him, while others show her doing many other things in many other places (though it's worth noting Dale says in that episode that "Vicky's kept him locked up for so long").

Did he stay so long because it was the perceived better fate up until he miraculously crossed paths with his dad (via fairy magic) and took the risk? Would he have gone back in?

Maybe it wasn't supposed to get this out of hand. Dale and Vicky were young when this started... Somewhere between 7 and 9 (given that Dale was kept there for 7 years and Vicky is 16 when he escaped and he tells 9-year-old Dev this happened when he was Dev's age).

Maybe there was an accident. Something not just Vicky, but even Dale felt the need to cover up, especially in regards to the orchard and the fact that it needs to be Vicky's consistent source of lemons (and not something she lost out on before Dale's escape... an illusion of ownership maintained. Kids can't own the orchard, but what if they fooled people into believing it wasn't owned by kids?)

Hmm... some kind of accident that got two mostly innocent kids into huge trouble, thus setting up a horribly intertwined fate where if one of these toxic co-dependent friends backs out and squeals, even the squealer might suffer worse compared to trucking along on the cruel existing path.

tl;dr - if Vicky and Dale accidentally killed the orchard owner but they were kids and terrified to tell an adult lest they go to jail for life so they hid the body in the basement (or like ?? threw it to the coyotes or hyenas that inexplicably lurk on the fringes of Dimmsdale??) and are trying desperately to wipe their hands of this by pretending the lemon orchard is still operational so no one investigates until they can figure out a plan, and then Vicky hardens herself as a trauma response and manipulates Dale into believing it was solely his fault and she'll pin him with murder charges if he gets cold feet and turns her in, and he's miserable and gets a fairy (then loses his fairy via Pixie contract through Wish Fixers, presumably in an attempt to negotiate a way to protect himself from Vicky and somehow not gaining the ire of his father) and then H.P. (lawyer and unlicensed yet de facto therapist pulled two ways) is suddenly Dale's godfather and trying to comprehend what the flip is going on between misery and manslaughter while he's also juggling Gary, Betty, and Flappy Bob at the same time in preparation for the Musical because we know he spent 37 years on that plan...

... Would that be one messed-up yet hyperspecifically canon-compliant 'fic or what?

These thoughts have been haunting me all weekend and I HAD to get my "I'm not that kind of lawyer or therapist" joke out of my system, so there's your context. #Sorry. Is this the direction the actual 'fic will go? ... It's not the direction I really had in mind, but ?? It's off the wall and therefore I must shake it in my teeth. I can't not write Dale backstory this horrific. what. hey.

[arrimorr-otgw-spam-blog]

I'm so sorry

[desultory-novice]

Since Adeleine likes fairies, did she believe in the tooth fairy when she was little? I bet the poor girl had her first existential crisis after finding out she wasn't real.

“I asked dad about the 'tooth fairy' once and he was appalled to hear she took kids' teeth in the middle of the night! He said he's never heard of ANY species of fairy that does that!"

"He wondered if she could be a shape-shifter trying to damage the reputation fairies had on Earth and if so, who she was working for?! Or if she was a fairy that had been corrupted by the forces of darkness! That could be dangerous for everyone everywhere!"

"I didn't know all that but I told him it was okay, that she left treats for the kids and didn't hurt anyone and he seemed relieved! Then he told me cavities are ALSO dangerous for everyone everywhere and to always remember to brush my teeth!"

-

“Now, Noir thought she was a 'myth to give little kids trust issues toward their parents' and that I shouldn't believe in her but that's silly because dad's the reason I believe in fairies in the first place!"

"...I kinda wish he believed too but I know he doesn't like to talk about mom and dad that much so I didn't bring it up a whole lot."

"Still, I wish he at least got the chance to meet Ribbon and Her Majesty the Queen... Ripple Star was such a nice place once we chased Dark Matter off! I like it just as much as Popstar, to be honest! It's like a second...or third (?) home to me!"

-

Noir's Field Trip Masterpost

@kirbyoctournament

[ofyorkshire]

I am extremely soft about how BJ hunches forward to shield Clare and shushes her. It's not a thing that's brought up in the films, but she's in her early 20s here and BJ had just turned 16 a month ago, yet he consistently and unquestioningly takes the caretaker role. He protects her and keeps her calm enough to escape the Karachi Social Club shooting, he does his best to keep her morale up while they're hiding out, tends to her through her quickly crumbling mental health, and actively tries to find ways to get them out of their bleak situation. All before he's even 18 years old. And he keeps fighting to 25, when things finally end and he can finally rest.

Particularly, though, I can't look at that third screencap and not see shades of who BJ was implied to be when he was still under Rev. Laws' roof. Again, the films don't touch on it, but the novels suggest that while BJ did not have close or even very good relationships with the other abused neighborhood boys, he still was willing to take punishment for their disobedience. So I don't think that it's a huge leap to say that he probably looked after and comforted them as well, and... doesn't that body language kind of look like someone consoling a frightened child? Maybe. I could be looking too deeply at small gestures--there are only so many ways to shush someone, after all--but the thought still twists at my heart.

BJ cares so much for so many people. It's a shame that his compassion was what usually ended up getting him hurt.

[sskk-manifesto]

Ep 5!!!

[my-current-obsession]

My hyper-specific type when it comes to otome guys:

- Absolutely pathetic - Cannot speak to a girl normally to save his life - Tries to be calm/aloof, but turns tsundere when flustered enough - A good and pure man at heart, yet does some questionable things - ...Little Red Riding Hood???

[variskonna]

Winxs ocs wings, tbh I haven't really drawn like half of these gals lol

however I did draw Lumi and Tori "ref sheets" (they're really not proper ref sheets to be honest lol) but yeah I think I'll try to finish designing the other three and also I'm planing to change Tori's design because her current one just doesn't suit her atleast color wise hence her wings being a different color now.

[overlyimmersed]

Maybe this one's dumb, but...

There's something that just...bugs me. I think about it way too much.

Why exactly did Harlequin kill Helbram? The first time I mean.

That was his best friend for centuries, maybe their whole lives, and he...did even try to help him... He didn't try to talk him down, he didn't do anything. He didn't say anything. He just listened to Helbram scream for like a minute and then chose...violence... He didn't even seem to hesitate.

Something was seriously wrong with a very important person to him, something that made no sense, and he barely even asked for an explanation! I just...

I don't get it...

I don't get how he had the heart to act like that. I don't get why he didn't even try... I don't get it. And it bothers me deeply...

All the times I've seen that episode, all the times I've tried to reconcile the facts and I just... come up empty... Harlequin's choices that entire day make no sense to me.

He did the same thing to Diane right after. Not the same degree obviously, but he just chose to erase himself from her life on impulse. And he clearly didn't actually grasp the consequences of that decision either, all it really did was confuse her. She remembered everything that mattered, all he managed to erase was his identity in her memory, not the occurrences themselves.

Why was he so impulsive with the lives of the people who meant most to him? Why didn't he stop to think about what was actually best for either of them? Why...didn't he even try to come up with literally anything else?

He came upon situations he didn't know how to handle and his only answer was simply to make them disappear...

We're never really going to have answers to these questions. And I don't know how much I actually care to have answers, really. Like I don't think knowing why will make me feel any better about any of it. And, sure, there are plenty of ways we can try to defend him or at least be sympathetic. Give him the benefit of the doubt, or simply try to explain these things for the sake of peace of mind... But I don't think there's any true justification.

And sure, maybe there was no way to save Helbram. Maybe they would always have ended up in an altercation, maybe there really was no way around that conclusion. That's not what bothers me. What bothers me is simply that it was Harlequin's first answer. His best. friend. and he didn't even try anything else before going nuclear. If he has tried to talk Helbram out of his rampage, if he'd tried to actually help, I'd feel differently. I just... can't sit with amicicide being the go-to.

[softgrungeprophet]

how many fairytale retellings have i done...

i did a beauty and the beast one back in the day for spn

did the peterflash 17th century genderbending cinderella one

did a spideytorch glass coffin fic

did the peterflash beauty and the beast/eros and psyche 1920s time-traveling (sort of) one

[fairy-grotto]

hey so why the fuck did no one tell me that you hit a certain age and then cyclically want children? Like monthly?

[kyuponstories]

Guess who came up w/ yet another story idea instead of working on my current wips?

🤡👈🏾

[virbank-vibing]

fairy type specialist trainers have such a powerful energy

fairies are often known to be tricksters. how the furret did you get not just one but SIX to do what you want, or even just listen to you

[emile-hides]

Fucked up little Meow Meow

[yvlin-art]

FT out of context #3

[queen-susans-revenge]

Hi there, if you have time, could you please point me to the folktales where the elves are revolted by the English language?

So @hashkivenu , good question. In truth I was told that, by an Irish storyteller, and I also have a vague memory of reading something that backed it up...but I've been looking through my reference books and I can't seem to find the story I remember. (It was like a variant of "The Legend of Knockgrafton," except instead of being offended that the second singer sang the wrong days of the week, the fairies were offended that the second singer sang in English.)

I'm still going through my written sources trying to find this...I swear I remember it! But the more I comb through my reference material, the more I have to admit that my original claim was overstated, and incorrect in a few particulars.

Firstly, they aren't really elves, or fairies either. They're the people of the mounds, the Aes Sídhe, and to believers it's not actually considered safe to talk much about them at all: naming them may draw their attention, which is dangerous. So they are generally referred to with euphemisms, like the "good neighbors," the "other crowd," or simply them.

Belief in the other crowd continues in some parts of Ireland to this day, although it is dying out, but as recently as 2003 Eddie Lenihan—a folklorist and a believer who has launched successful campaigns to preserve places sacred to Them from highways and other urban expansion—was able to collect (with Carolyn Eve Green) a book's worth of material titled Meeting the Other Crowd: The Fairy Stories of Hidden Ireland. Some of these are stories handed down through the oral tradition, and some are first-hand accounts. It's the most modern work I know on what's sometimes called "the fairy faith".

And in Lenihan's work, the Good People are not automatically hostile to English speakers. He still notes in multiple places that their native language is Irish, for instance on pages 64 and 299 ("In the second story above, note that the changeling speaks Irish. This was commonly believed of the fairies, that Irish was—and is—their native language.") For an older attestation to the idea that fairies only speak Irish, see Lady Augusta Gregory (1920) in the second series of her Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland:

As to the book she told me of that had come from the unseen and was written in Irish, I think of Mrs. Sheridan's answer when I asked in what language the strange unearthly people she had been among had talked: "Irish of course—what else would they talk?"

But it would seem that there has been a softening in the fairy tradition, and they are no longer believed to react to English speech with hostility or outright violence.

But you have to understand that language was a real battleground in Ireland. The Irish language was brutally repressed by the English. During the Penal Laws it was completely outlawed. Irish manuscripts were burned. Children in school had to wear a stick on a piece of string around their necks: each time they used Irish during the day, a notch would be cut into the stick. And at the end of the day they would be beaten as many times as there were notches on the stick.

So the language itself was a locus of resistance, and the legends of the Fair Folk, being deeply tied to the language and the land, were part of that resistance.

Because like I said in the earlier post, Irish is a magic language. The satirists of legend were known to place terrible curses on their enemies. There were seven grades of poets (the bards, so familiar to us now from D&D, were actually a lower order of entertainer) and the filí at the top outranked even druids in social hierarchy and magical power according to some sources (e.g. the Uraichech Becc). These elite poet-storyteller-magicians were believed to be able to prophesy the future or even speak a new reality into being.

There is a sense in which mythic Irish history begins with an act of magical speech: The Song of Amergin. There are figures that come before Amergin in various histories (and about them more in just a second), but he is the one who named Ériu/Ireland and invoked its spirit with a powerful incantation that quelled storms and established his right to sovereignty over the land:

Am gaeth i m-muir, Am tond trethan, Am fuaim mara, Am dam secht ndirend Am séig i n-aill Am dér gréne, Am cain lubai, Am torc ar gail, Am he i l-lind, Am loch i m-maig, Am brí a ndai, Am bri danae, Am bri i fodb fras feochtu, Am dé delbas do chind codnu, Coiche nod gleith clochur slébe Cia on co tagair aesa éscai Cia du i l-laig fuiniud gréne

I am the wind on the sea; I am the wave of the sea; I am the bull of seven battles; I am the eagle on the rock I am a flash from the sun; I am the most beautiful of plants; I am a strong wild boar; I am a salmon in the water; I am a lake in the plain; I am the word of knowledge; I am the head of the spear in battle; I am the god that puts fire in the head; Who spreads light in the gathering on the hills Who can tell the ages of the moon Who can tell the place where the sun rests

So. With "the word of knowledge," with the blessing of "the god that puts fire in the head"—with speech, with poetry, with language—Amergin and his people took possession of Ireland. (When exactly this was supposed to have happened is hard to say. There's different versions of the Song of Amergin in different medieval texts, but it's obviously from an older, possibly much older, oral tradition.)

And who, according to the stories, did Amergin and his people claim the land from? From the Tuatha Dé Danann, the folk of the goddess Danu. And partly with their consent: three kings of the Tuatha Dé Danann had to be defeated in single combat, but three queens gave Amergin their permission.

And it is possible to draw a direct line from the Tuatha Dé Danann to the Aes Sídhe. Because after they lost the right to rule Ireland, they were said to retreat under the hills and to the Otherworld. So from the beginning the Fair Folk represented a kind of dispossessed grandeur, a lost heritage...an undying legacy. And a dual nature, some of them hostile and some benevolent.

I think it makes sense that They have softened toward English speakers as the English have stepped back from their oppression of the Irish. Children obviously no longer need to wear the bata scoir, the tally stick, in school. (In fact now they tend to complain about being forced to study Irish, rather than being disallowed from speaking it!)

I personally am not a believer in the fairy faith, but I try to be respectful. To the best of my understanding, should you ever meet one of the Aes Sidhe, it is not really respectful to speak to them in English. And to be perfectly clear, it is not safe to speak to Them, or even of them, under any circumstances, whatever language you choose. We are testing our luck right now, dear Reader, you and I together.