#every time Celia shows up in Old Canon I go Celia!!!!

[void-botanist]

🌞☁️🌼

🌞 favourite character from current wip If I had to pick just one from Nicea (how could you do this they're a crew, they're a family, they're an ensemble pov), probably Celia. She's everything: witty, kind but shameless, always ready to charm and/or smack someone for you, and above all, horny. She lights up every room <3

☁️ wip you want to write but haven't started yet Along with Drowning in the Stars, Sheri. I've goofed around with Sheri and his love interest a bit, and I've pretty much determined that their personalities in Triad were right, but the plot just hasn't aligned itself. I feel like I need a little bit more to go on before I can really start writing (and it's pretty low on my priority list but sometimes I spontaneously figure stuff out and become obsessed). I just wanna watch Sheri be the most awkward gay because he has no idea what he's doing but he is extremely sincere and persistent.

🌼 least favourite writing genre Mystery, maybe? I like the idea of writing it but I don't have the patience to plot it out. Or any genre that relies heavily on violence because while I enjoy reading it I don't really like writing it.

[alien2835]

My thoughts on TMAGP 27 - Driven

These points are recorded in order as I was listening to the episode for the first time. I actually pulled up the transcript this time, since last episode I completed misinterpreted that sex scene.

Huge spoilers ahead, obviously.

- I am 80% sure this statement was given by Jonah Magnus: “If such were not the case, the Institute would not have been founded, nor would my fellows have selected me for its leadership, much less its name.”

- It also happens to be voiced by Augustus—who we believe to be Jonah, trapped inside of FREDDI.

- This coach seems to be a manifestation of the stranger, or tmagp’s equivalent of such. This incident seems to map surprisingly well into the fears we know from TMA.

- This subject seems to be quite similar to Gertrude Robinson, he does What Has To Be Done, without remorse. He sent an assistant into the “Growler” despite knowing that it would be fatal.

- HE SAID IT, HE SAID “vital to the Magnus Institute’s work.” Which means that this is most certainly a Magnus, most likely Jonah.

- “…may yet prove as important as any transmutation taking place within an alembic.” An alembic is an old type of flask used in chemical experiments. These bitches are doing actual alchemy.

- Sex is officially canon now. This episode is the TMAGP equivalent of TMA’s Worm Sex Statement.

- The Hilltop Center was mentioned by Celia. This is the only time it’s been mentioned (that I recall) other than the related statement in TMAGP 7 - Give and Take. We now know the location: “just off Cowley Road.” It was built in the 80s, after the Magnus Institute burned down. But, I cannot stress the importance of this enough, the Magnus Institute owned the Hilltop Center. And, they still own it. I think it goes without saying that this is connected to Hilltop Road. Pure speculation here, but maybe every reality has its own crack that connects it to the other worlds. If so, I’d reckon this is the crack in this world.

- Alice says “I swear, if I hear one more word about Trevor-bloody-Herbert MP I am going to blow up parliament.” Firstly, based. Secondly, another name drop? Really Jonny? So Trevor the Tramp is an MP now. And not just any MP, but the one inspecting the OIAR. I firmly believe that every name drop is going to be important, but I struggle to see how this will connect to TMA. The minister is definitely important in some way though, or the show wouldn’t be hyping him up for so many episodes.

- Alice explicitly says that the room she and Sam messed up in the institute ruins was labeled “Archivist.” This seems to concern Celia.

- Celia does not seem to think the name “Hilltop Center” is particularly relevant, or she would have made a big deal about it. I don’t think Jon, Martin, or Basira ever actually told Celia about Hilltop Road. Although she might have heard the name Annabelle Cane from Jon or Martin. I’d have to check. (Please let Annabelle Cane make an appearance, I love her so much. Jonny please I will do anything.)

That’s everything, do tell me if I missed anything obvious or misinterpreted something again.

[askullinajar]

Fifty Shades Dicked

The time has come for the third instalment of Fifty Shades of Ectoplasm

This is entirely the fault of the heathens over on the discord, namely @ironsilversaltandtea for posting the photo that led to it all, @achillesangst for making some interesting art of it, and @stormwalkers and @wolfjawswriter for just general shenanigans and egging on.

Warning: Any accuracies, historically, scientifically, or to canon, are completely accidental. This is pure crack. No actual hanky-panky - as I am but a totally innocent asexual - but a whole lot of inappropriate jokes. You have been warned.

Fic info: Post teg. Rating: Mature, clearly. Pairings: Implied locklyle. Word count: 1626

Summary: The gang stumble across a certain something previously owned by Mr and Mrs Lockwood. Shenanigans ensue.

It was a mild spring morning the day we managed to scar Lockwood for life.

The company was going through a lull in cases - something about warmer weather and extended daylight made ghosts not want to show themselves - and we were using that time to do a spot of spring cleaning. The fact that Holly had threatened to quit if she found another of George’s rotting ‘experiments’ stuffed in a random cupboard had absolutely nothing to do with it.

Holly was out with her flatmate on what she insisted was ‘definitely not a date, stop being nosy’ and had appointed Quill to keep an eye on us. His only purpose seemed to be nabbing whatever alcohol we found buried in cupboards from the days when Lockwood’s parents were still around and lounging in a chair complaining about this and that. I wasn’t really paying attention, to be honest; I was too busy trying to get Skully to stop dripping ectoplasm all over the newly-cleaned surfaces as he hovered above us making increasingly rude comments. 

“You could help you know!” I snapped at him, interrupting Quill’s ranting about the extortionate prices of laundry detergent.

“Moi?” said Skully, swooning dramatically in midair. “I am but a simple street urchin, I know nothing about this so-called ‘cleaning’ thing.” He waved a hand and sent half the kitchen appliances skidding across the counter and crashing to the floor. “Whoopsie!” he said, though his sadistic grin was far from apologetic. 

I picked up the salt shaker and threw it at him. It passed right through, of course, and collided with the wall, but a few grains of salt came loose and hissed as they came into contact with his ectoplasm. 

“Ow!”

I ignored his complaints and went to put the appliances back with Lockwood and George’s help. When the boys hefted up the microwave, I noticed the floorboard beneath it had come loose. I knelt by it and dug my fingers in to prise it up.

“There’s a box under here,” I informed them, brushing dust away from the wilted cardboard.

George kneeled next to me and adjusted his glasses to peer at it. “Interesting. Reckon it contains anything of paranormal significance?”

“Or anything valuable?” said Quill, kneeling on my other side.

“It’s probably just stuff my parents hid when authorities came to call,” shrugged Lockwood, turning away with his bright pink feather duster to clean the higher shelves. “They weren’t exactly supposed to bring possible Sources into the country.”

Whatever it was, investigating it seemed more fun than cleaning, so I prised up the floorboards either side of the gap and wiggled the box free. 

The box was filled to the brim with packing foam, but when I dug it out and managed a first glimpse at what it was hiding, I nearly choked.

“What is it?” said Lockwood, whirling back around at the noise. “Are you alright, Lucy?”

My face pulled taut in a gallant effort not to laugh, I dug my hands into the box and pulled out its contents: a finely crafted china teapot, in the shape of a dick and balls.

Immediately, my hearing filled with spectral laughter as Skully burst into loud cackling above me, gripping his stomach and gasping for nonexistent breath. Quill and George weren’t far from joining in.

“Oh my god,” Quill gasped, wheezing as tears of mirth filled his eyes. “Tony, what exactly were your parents into?”

Lockwood’s face had gone a brilliant shade of red as he stammered for words. “It- It can’t be theirs- they- it must have belonged to the last people who owned the house…”

George took the teapot off me, which I was very grateful for as I was dangerously close to dropping it with my hands shaking from laughter. He cleaned his glasses on his shirt, placed them back on his head, then took the lid of the phallic pot and peered inside.

“Oh,” he said, the laughter immediately wiped from his face. “Oh, this definitely belonged to your parents, Lockwood.”

“What?” said Lockwood, eying the teapot from a distance as though weary it would blow up any minute. “What is it?”

George silently handed the teapot over to Quill before standing, going over to the sink, and dunking his head in the basin of what was now very cold water. 

Quill reached into the teapot and pulled out a stack of old photographs. I leaned over his shoulder curiously as he flicked through them and immediately started choking for real. I recognised Celia and Donald Lockwood from the few photos Lockwood had scattered around the house. I was not prepared for the positions they were in.

“What is it?” Lockwood insisted. “What’s on them?” He moved to reach for them but Quill jerked them out of his reach. Unfortunately, this put them right into Skully’s line of sight and the ghost started cackling even harder than before.

“Holy shit, those are some saucy parents he has. Come on, Luce, show the boy how he was probably conceived!”

“Nope!” I blurted, snatching the photos from Quill’s hand and lurching to my feet to make a beeline for the living room and - more importantly - the fireplace. “Lockwood, trust me, you do not want to see these.”

“If they’re photos of my parents, I want to see!” cried Lockwood, chasing after me.

It was then that the umbrella stand in the hallway fell into my path - entirely on its own, Skully would insist later - and my feet collided with it causing me to crash down to the floor, my grip coming loose from the photo stack and resulting in a whirlwind of erotic snapshots to fall down around me.

“Oh no.” Lockwood’s voice seemed very cracked and distant, and when I pushed myself up and turned to him, the poor boy had his hands clamped tight over his eyes, his face and ears tomato red. “George, please tear out my eyes!”

“Only if you tear out mine too,” George said, coming into the hallway with his hair dripping wet. “God, this is almost as bad as when I walked in on my mum-”

“Do not finish that sentence!”

“At least you don’t have to look your parents in the eyes after this,” George muttered, folding his arms over his chest. “Took me three months to get over that.”

“I’m going to have nightmares,” moaned Lockwood. “Lucy, please tell me you’ve picked them all up by now.”

Quill and I were systematically gathering them up and tossing them in the fireplace. Only when Quill had lit the fire did we give Lockwood the all-clear.

“I am never cleaning the house again!” Lockwood declared, collapsing against me with his face buried into my shoulder. I patted his back sympathetically.

“At least we got a new teapot out of it,” said George. “Tea, anyone?”

“There is no way I am drinking tea out of that thing,” said Lockwood. “Can we please get rid of it?”

“Or...” I said, spying the blackened skull perched on a shelf in the kitchen. “I have another idea.”

*

Holly returned to find us all - minus George, who was making sure there were no loose photos lying around - sheepishly sitting around the kitchen table sipping tea. The kitchen was clean, at least, but Holly didn’t even seem to notice, her eyes going straight to the teapot on the table.

“What. On earth. Is that?”

“Our new teapot,” I said matter-of-factly. “Like it?”

“That is the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen,” said Holly, her nose wrinkling. “I have never understood the appeal of these things.”

“You wouldn’t understand,” said Quill, sipping his tea casually.

“I’m throwing it out,” said Holly, picking it up with the tips of her fingers like it was contaminated, which it probably was.

It was then that Skully decided to make his presence known by forming directly out of the ‘spout’, his ectoplasm contorted grotesquely into the happy farmhand.

Holly, to no one’s surprise, shrieked and hurled the teapot all the way down the hall where a loud thump and yelp ensued.

“Oh my gosh, George, I’m so sorry!” Holly cried, rushing down the hall with the rest of us at her heels to find George curled up on the floor, the shattered remains of the teapot as well as the skull surrounding him. “Are you alright?!”

George groaned and pushed himself upright to reveal his glasses askew and a bright red mark on his face in the perfect silhouette of a dick and balls. I tried to stop myself laughing and only half managed.

“I think I have a concussion,” George slurred.

“Hospital,” said Holly, helping George up and bustling him to the door. “Hospital, now.”

*

The nurse looked from the penis permanently etched onto George’s face, to the haunted look in Lockwood’s eyes, to me and Quill who were still snickering, before finally turning to Holly who she seemed to deem as the most sensible one of the group. She wasn’t exactly wrong. Perhaps she remembered us from the time George got a condom stuck over his head and nearly suffocated.

“How?”

“Dick teapot,” I blurted, trying not to look at Goerge’s face because if I did I would most certainly die of laughter. Unfortunately, this made me picture it again and I snorted anyway.

The nurse heaved a great sigh as if this was just the same old bullshit she had to deal with every day.

“Just once,” she said, “why can’t it just be ghost-touch.”

George rubbed at the imprint on his face, then seemed to realise it looked like he was wanking the dick off and stopped. “You know,” he said, ignoring me and Quill wheezing next to him, “I’m actually with you on that one, ma’am.”

[rosalind-of-arden]

Sword and Pen Reread, chapter 20 (continued) and epilogue

This is it. The last chapter. The end. Done. Wow.

This totally should have been in yesterday’s post, but it occurs to me that the Oxford baby incident very much foreshadowed Wolfe’s response to Morgan’s sacrifice. Both times, he’s told a child has to be sacrificed for the Library, whether it’s the Library’s treaties or the Archives. Both times, he just can’t go along with it. He was more torn in Oxford, with his students’ and Nic’s lives on the line. He might have left the baby there if a third option hadn’t presented itself, who knows. He seemed paralyzed by the choice. In the Archives, though, it’s just Morgan or the books. And he picks Morgan. Even after Khalila gives the order, Wolfe picks Morgan over the books.

An unspecified number of days and three doses of the antidote for Jess between him passing out in the Archives and waking up again.

If I wanted to do a Morgan Lives AU, the way this is written, it would be relatively easy to rewrite this scene to have Jess wake up and see Morgan sleeping in a bed next to him or something like that.

Wolfe-Jess parallel. Jess learning for sure that Morgan is dead: “His eyes burned, but it felt angry, not sad.” Almost the exact same language used to describe Wolfe’s reaction to being named Archivist.

Thomas, apparently, as already 100% adapted to calling Khalila the Archivist within a matter of days. I’m reading this as a display of support - there will be people who challenge and disrespect Khalila, so Thomas will be very sure to always call her by her title.

Khalila is wearing all black. We haven’t seen her in black since the beginning of Ink and Bone, where she had a black hijab, I think. Interesting way to come full circle - there it might have been in deference to her conservative-seeming uncle. Here, it’s mourning for Morgan.

No gold Archivist’s robe for Khalila. Just a crown, which seems like a fairly plain one (I’d imagine the old Archivist had much fancier ones).

Talking to Jess, Thomas and Khalila both emphasize that it was Morgan’s choice to sacrifice herself. I do think they’re right. But in Khalila’s case, is that a little guilt I sense? She’s going out of her way to make sure Morgan is honored. Name on the Scholar Steps, being treated as a hero, freedom for the Obscurists (really, Khalila, wouldn’t you have done that anyway?), mini-Serapeum tomb.

Every book is a gift from Morgan *cries*

Morgan had no family other than her father, according to Jess. I don’t think that’s actually been confirmed before. Well, confirmed to the extent that we can trust Jess to know what he’s talking about and Morgan to have told him the truth. (Obscurist-talented Hault family members in hiding who Morgan didn’t want to talk about with even Jess, anyone?)

Morgan’s tomb as a site of ancestor worship/some kind of religious movement post-canon, perhaps?

Khalila’s dress has pockets, and I continue to be envious of this alternate reality in which dresses with pockets are a normal thing.

“I’ve already got Anit; you don’t need to adopt me, too.” Jess. Baby. Accept that you have a family and they love you, omg.

Liberius. New Curia position for publishing. Thomas’s idea, which apparently Khalila is pushing through. Wonder what the rest of the Curia thinks of this.

Fuck Callum Brightwell. That just needs saying again.

Celia says there was a hill on the castle grounds where Brendan liked to “read and watch the sea.” Brendan didn’t like reading. The whole family can’t have even spent that much time in the castle - they got it after Jess left for the Library (no idea exactly when, somewhere after Jess left London and before the pack got to England in Ash and Quill). So... either Brendan took up reading when he moved to the castle with his parents or Celia is remembering something Brendan did while he was pretending to be Jess. Or Celia is taking Callum’s word for his choice of burial spots. Shows how little Celia understands her own children. Of course, also, London got invaded by the Welsh, so any potential burial spots there might have been destroyed.

Celia standing up to Callum makes me happy, but I also share Jess’s incredulity at the moment. It took losing two of her three children to get her to this point. Another factor, though, might be that they’re on Library turf now. In England, Callum held more power. He had henchmen around to enforce compliance. In Alexandria, Callum is just a criminal, and he has no backup. For the first time, Celia can confront him on equal footing.

Wolfe! Waiting just outside the door. Dad Wolfe does not trust Callum Brightwell. Dad Wolfe was just waiting for the excuse to do this, I suspect.

“Scholar Wolfe stood over him, smoldering like the coals in a barely covered fire.” “You’re lucky you’re not in chains, but I promise you, it can still happen.” Peak Wolfe right here.

“I’m more his son than I ever was yours.” Jess adopts Wolfe. Yesss!

Wolfe. Kissing Celia’s hand. Prickly as he is, Wolfe is capable of being very charming. This fits into a larger pattern: we repeatedly see him being nice to people who are stressed and/or vulnerable. Izumi. Naomi. Glain and Jess’s squadmate. His fellow prisoners.

But, ok, also, yes, @thegreatlibraryfangirl, give me Wolfe/Celia

Celia doesn’t feel she’s been “properly” introduced to Wolfe. We didn’t really see introductions between the Brightwells and the pack in Ash and Quill; guessing things were rather tense there.

“Wolfe and Santi, standing together with clasped hands.” Dads being a couple in public! This makes me happy. It’s also a sign of how much safer they both feel under the new regime. Their love isn’t being turned against them to manipulate them anymore.

They’re all a family now and I just have so many feelings. I particularly adore that every single one of them, in their own way, tells Jess that they know he needs support and they’re offering it. Yes, even Dario. We all know what you really mean with that teasing, Dario.

Thomas gives Jess a job, but seems unsure about whether it’s a paid position. Is this because of how Library contracts work (Jess is still under High Garda contact when Thomas says this)? Thomas already knows Khalila and Santi have arranged for Jess to get lifetime pay? A sign that the new publishing division hasn’t gotten the respect and resources it needs yet? Thomas leaving this job open to be on Jess’s terms, whether that means it’s a paid full-time job or a fun side thing?

Christopher “I’m fine, really” Wolfe saying to Jess “of course I’m ok” Brightwell, basically, “Look, we both know we’re dumbasses who deny when we need help, but you’ve seen me when I was a mess so you don’t have to be embarrassed about asking me for help.” It’s so sweet and so specific to who they both are.

A hug. From Santi. And “You’re not just Wolfe’s son, you know. I love you, too.” Reluctant dad has officially adopted the kid.

I still don’t feel like the Smoke and Iron strangulation incident is fully resolved between Santi and Jess, though. Santi did apologize when it happened, but that’s not the kind of thing that’s easily swept away, especially not for a kid who’s been abused. Jess might be inclined to dismiss it - Santi hurting him only once is better than Callum abusing him regularly, after all. But Santi owes Jess more than that.

Epilogue time! In a parallel with the prologue of Ink and Bone, it’s a father-son scene. The series both opens and closes with moments between a father and son, but neither deals with the central father-son relationship between Wolfe and Jess. Instead, we opened with Jess and Callum and close with Wolfe and Eskander.

More parallels. We have a father giving his son something valuable without explaining exactly what it is. The son experiences something surprising and gains greater understanding of himself. The son rejects the path his father has taken in life.

Now, differences. Callum’s abuse of Jess compared to Eskander’s awkward welcome. Wolfe and Eskander barely know each other, but they’re so much more comfortable around each other than Jess was with Callum. In the prologue, we saw the relationship between Jess and Callum breaking. In the epilogue, we see the relationship between Wolfe and Eskander mending.

Both the prologue and the epilogue also feature another family relationship along with the father-son one. Jess and Brendan in the prologue, Wolfe and Morgan in the epilogue.

We don’t know how long after chapter 20 this is, but I’m assuming not long. The Iron Tower still has burn marks on the floor.

On Alexandria changing: “Nic thought that would be a very good thing [...] Wolfe reserved his judgment.” Oh, you prickly bastard, let yourself be happy for fuck’s sake.

Wolfe, worrying about his sanity because he’s sensing Morgan, chooses to go to Eskander before talking to Nic. A sign things aren’t fully right between Wolfe and Santi after everything, perhaps. Wolfe is still worried about how Santi will react to a sign of declining mental health. Or maybe this is back to normal for them: Wolfe is handling this on his own, going to someone who can potentially diagnose the problem, and he’ll talk to Santi about it once he actually knows what’s going on.

“You never had talent.” “Thanks.” “Obscurist talent, Christopher.” These two are fun.

I don’t think Eskander quite understands how real of a concern it is for Wolfe that he might be imagining Morgan. Wolfe has struggled with hallucinations. They’re both a coping strategy in bad situations and a PTSD symptom for him. It’s entirely plausible that he could be hallucinating after everything that’s just happened.

Eskander, still pressing people to put on the ring without explaining it. You really need to learn about the concept of informed consent, Eskander.

Morgan in the ring seems to have gotten herself the Library-verse equivalent of a nice, big sandbox-type video game, and she’s having a great time with it. Actually, Morgan’s experience with Apeiron seems an awful lot like having access to the current internet: lots of stuff to play with! Tools to invade people’s privacy! The ability to see and know all of the things! Compare that with everyone else, who are stuck with the Codex, which is basically 1990s tech with email, ebooks, and instant messaging. There’s something very cyberpunk about Morgan’s situation, really.

Wolfe: oh fuck no I am not telling Jess about the talking ring with his dead girlfriend in it. Really, though, I wonder if Wolfe would eventually tell Jess. I can see Jess finding it comforting, especially once he’s had time to process things and move on.

“If he didn’t know storms were coming, it was easier to enjoy the sunshine.” I do like When Wolfe gets all emotional and his language gets more figurative. Anyway, here he is for the first time in the epilogue tempted to ask for something that isn’t really good for him, but having the restraint not to.

Having Obscurist powers switched on is a very physical experience for Wolfe. He’s not just seeing the world differently, he’s feeling it. Morgan doesn’t seem to quite grasp how big of a change this is for Wolfe. To her, it’s like flipping a switch. To him, it’s a complete change in how he perceives the world around him.

Here’s Wolfe’s childhood trauma coming back to him. Another parallel with the prologue, he and Jess both having a formative experience at 10. Wolfe and Jess both felt like they disappointed their parents. And Wolfe, like Jess, turns down the chance to be what his parents wanted him to be.

Wolfe’s reaction to being offered Obscurist power is a lot like Wolfe’s reaction to being offered the position of Archivist. Both things he thought he wanted in the past. But he’s not the kid who wanted to be like his parents or the ambitious young man climbing the Library ranks anymore. He knows who he is and who he wants to be, and he rejects these offers to become something “better” that isn’t him. Being himself is better than having power.

Eskander listening in on the conversation is both irritating and comforting. Prickly, prickly Wolfe.

Morgan sees watching over the Library as something she’s supposed to do that will keep her out of trouble. Wonder how she’s reaching these decisions. Gargi’s influence?

Morgan is watching over the Library, but she’s trying to stay out of her family’s lives. She offers Wolfe his Obscurist power, but at the end of the conversation, she tells him they won’t talk again. She agrees Jess doesn’t need to know about her. She doesn’t want to hold them back now that she isn’t part of their lives anymore.

“Be kinder to yourself. And to Commander Santi, too. I loved you both, and in here, I always will.” Awwwww. *cries* Hmm, but also, she’s telling Wolfe to be nicer to Santi. Probably, she’s referring to Wolfe’s usual prickles. “Stop being cranky and hug each other more, dad.”

But add this to Wolfe not telling Santi he was going to ask Eskander about sensing Morgan, and it’s possible to conclude they’re going through some relationship problems (fallout from, well, all of fucking canon, perhaps?)

Wolfe glaring at Eskander and being all “wtf did you do that for” after giving the ring back is just glorious. That, right there, is the proper response to being given a magic ring without informed consent.

Eskander and Wolfe, two people have been terribly hurt by the Library, are now scheming together to protect it. We don’t see whether Khalila invites Wolfe to be involved in shaping the new Library, but Eskander is making sure Wolfe gets a say in things.

Having Wolfe working with Eskander is potentially interesting post-canon. He’s possibly stepping into a role of helping to undo the oppression of the Obscurists and move the Library toward a sustainable future that doesn’t depend on alchemy. And that, right there, is what Wolfe really wanted. It’s why he invented his press in the first place. Wolfe’s been offered two old dreams that aren’t right for him anymore, and he’s rejected them. Now he gets back the dream that was taken from him, and that one is right for his current self.

Tea and plotting. Good way to end the series, really.

[queeruma]

Okay, so an anon sent me this ask:

Can I ask if canon materials say anything about Uma and Ursula’s relationship? Do you have hcs about it? I never read the third Descendant book so I don’t know much about her

and I wrote up this post, posted it, immediately realised that tumblr had fucked up all the formatting, deleted it, and then realised that by deleting it I’d also deleted the ask. I’m sorry anon, my brain is not functioning properly, but here’s my answer, hopefully formatted correctly this time:

Hi anon! So I thought I could answer this in like 10 minutes, and then it turned out that I have a Lot of thoughts about Uma and Ursula’s relationship, and here we are almost two days later (this post kind of just turns into Uma hcs at the end sorry about that)

Yes, between the movie, Rise, and Uma's Wicked Book, there's actually quite a lot of information about Uma and her mother.

Under a cut because this got long:

Within the actual text: Uma's relationship with her mother is… complicated, to say the least.

On the one hand, Ursula is about as far from a loving, caring mother as one can get. She has been forcing Uma to work for her, without pay, since Uma was 'so little she could barely see about the counter'. She is verbally abusive, berating Uma and humiliating her over her losses to Mal, and we see in the film that she's not above harming Uma physically either. And Uma seems certain when she's speaking to Ben that her mother does not care for her at all.

"All those days spent working at Ma’s restaurant, serving up gruel and scrubbing the floors, and I’ve never gotten paid a coin.” - UWB “Uma had worked at the Fish and Chips Shoppe her entire life, from when she was so little she could barely see above the counter, until she was old enough to wear an apron, carry a tray, and take an order.” - ROTIOTL “Uma was glad to have the place to herself. If Ursula were around, she would only be raging and complaining about how she had been saddled with such an ungrateful and useless daughter. Ursula never ceased to remind Uma how often she’d lost to Mal. When she’d learned Mal had been chosen to go to Auradon, Ursula flipped her tentacles. Uma never heard the end of it.” - ROTIOTL “Things I wouldn’t miss about the Isle: (...) Ma yelling at me” - UWB “My mom doesn’t care about me either. Well, not unless she needs someone for the night shift.” - D2

On the other hand, we see a certain level of respect between the two of them. Uma seems to be proud of her mother's strength, and is very comfortable showing her heritage as 'daughter of the sea witch'. Despite her mother's treatment of her, we never see Uma being afraid of her mother (contrast with the core four in the first movie, who definitely are). Uma remembers her mother taking her to Hook's inlet to watch the crocodile wrestling, and (repeatedly) telling her the story of her defeat at Eric and Ariel's hands. She states that her mother taught her about the importance of negotiation. Ursula, lamenting over her loss in her final battle, tells Uma that they would be 'Queens of the Seas' if she'd won. Given that unlike most of the villains, Ursula doesn't seem to be trying to manipulate Uma into anything in particular, I take this to mean that Ursula would have given her daughter what she felt was her due.

And, most importantly, Ursula has one single piece of her nautilus necklace left when she's on the Isle, and she gives it to Uma when Uma is a small child. Uma likes to hold it when she's feeling anxious. There's clearly more than just antagonism between them.

‘Uma was special: she was the sea witch’s daughter, a force to be reckoned with!’ - ROTIOTL 'The gold was warm against her skin, and she felt a faint echo of its former power. It had the sense and shape of her mother's wrath.' - ROTIOTL “No, last I saw her was on the news when she was blasting you with her magic!” Ursula laughed. “Good for her!” - EFTIOTL “That’s my mom! At least Maleficent recognised her power.” - MSB ‘“Mama was really something, wasn’t she? Back then?” said Uma.’ - ROTIOTL “Ma used to take me down to Hook’s Inlet when I was a kid, and we’d bet on the crocodile-wrestling matches there.” - UWB 'She recalled her mother telling her about that final battle (…) Prince Eric had taken the wheel and rammed his ship right into her heart (…) Uma always held her breath at that part of the story, wondering how it was that her mother had survived such a battle. Because even though she'd lost, she'd survived. Prince Eric hadn't destroyed her completely.' - ROTIOTL ‘Her mother had taught her about the power of negotiation, or as she’d described it, talking someone out of their greatest treasures and giving nothing of value in return.’ - ROTIOTL 'Queens of the seas, Ursula would lament. We would be queens of the seas if not for that awful Triton and that terrible Beast.' - ROTIOTL ‘(...) the locket she wore around her neck. Inside was a tiny piece of junk that her mother had given her as a child. “It’s all I have left,” Ursula had said at the time. Uma never understood why a sliver of metal mattered so much, but she liked holding it when she was anxious.’ - ROTIOTL

I think Uma's outfits also say a lot about her relationship with her mother. The core four pretty much exclusively wear their parent's colours, even after they've rejected them. We already know that colour means a lot in these movies, considering the thought they put into the shades of purple in Mal's hair and clothes in D1. Every VK either wears their parent's colours - Harry, Celia and the core four - or they don't resemble their families at all - Gil and Dizzy.

Uma's purple undertone, her hair and skirt resembling octopus arms, and the mesh undershirt with holes that mimics octopus suckers are all there to reflect her status as Ursula's daughter. She's proud of her heritage - but there's probably a practical reason as well: there's an element of protection in reminding people of her mother.

However, I think it's telling that her main aesthetic and colour are all her own. The pirate hat, the tough leather jacket complete with epaulets, the chunky belts, her sword, and the overall teal theme, all make it very clear that Uma is her own person, and no one who looks at her is going to forget it. She's not going to ride by on her mother's reputation all her life - people will know her name, not just her parentage.

Her symbol also demonstrates this mix of nature and nurture. Mal, Evie, Carlos, Jay, Harry, and Gil all have symbols that refer directly to their parents (Gil signs off UWB with a bow and arrow, presumably a reference to his father's skill at hunting). In contrast, the skull and crossbones - crossbones in this case being a trident and sword - with a wave in one cheek, an eyepatch, and octopus arms below it is 'the unofficial symbol of Uma, daughter of Ursula - pirate queen'.

--

As far as headcanons are concerned, I can’t really list them? I just have a kind of general ‘this is how Ursula affected the way Uma’s life went’ hc:

I think all of Uma’s better memories of her mother are from her very early childhood. By the time Uma and Mal stop being friends, Ursula has already pretty much checked out of everything; I don’t think she ever tries to manipulate Uma in the way Maleficent and the other villains do their children. She leaves the work in the shoppe to Uma and retreats into her Auradon soap operas. Uma is used to seeing other parents on the Isle put effort into their relationships with their children (that is never actually a Good Thing but baby Uma doesn’t know what decent parenting is) and she wonders if Ursula’s lack of manipulation is her mother neglecting her because she sees her as worthless.

So Uma kind of decides that she’s going to be as independent as possible, because if she makes her distance from her mother her choice, she doesn’t have to confront the possibility that Ursula is neglecting her because Uma isn’t good enough for her. And because I loathe the canon Uma and Mal backstory with the passion of an anti-vax parent for essential oils, here’s my take on it (credit for the idea that Maleficent encouraged Mal to end their friendship goes to @edream93 in her wonderful fic ‘We’ll Light the Fuse’ - it partly inspired this hc):

Uma and Mal were good friends from a very young age, and there was some genuine affection and trust between them, which Maleficent obviously did not approve of at all.

She allowed it for a while because they did get into a lot of trouble together, but as Uma drifted further away from her mother, she became concerned about Uma’s influence on Mal.

See, Uma might have started out distancing herself from her mother to protect her own feelings, but she also actually began to care less about her mother’s opinion of her.

Maleficent, who wanted Mal firmly under her control, knew that if the two girls stayed friends, Uma might encourage Mal to question her mother’s authority.

And if there’s one person on the Isle talented at subtlety and manipulation, it’s Maleficent. Mal and Uma’s friendship was doomed to end the second Maleficent decided she wanted it to.

I also think Ursula’s F- parenting plays into Uma’s feelings about Auradon. Uma is genuinely right about the Isle - it is unfair and morally abhorrent that the children of villains are fated to live in a ‘fate worse than death’ for the crime of being born to the wrong people. She and the other descendants of villains unquestionably do not deserve to be there.

But Uma’s desire for freedom and revenge isn’t just based on her rational disapproval of the Isle. It comes from a huge amount of anger and pain, and it’s admirable that she manages to use those negative feelings (along with her love for and loyalty to her crew) to motivate herself. She is equally furious and terrified - Auradon abandoned her, Mal abandoned her, her own MOTHER abandoned her - and either she didn’t deserve it, in which case she has to be angry at basically the whole world, or she did, in which case...

yeah, she tries not to think about that.

Luckily, between her friendship with Harry and Gil and the loyalty and respect she gets from her crew, more often than not she’s able to believe that she deserved better she deserves so much better she deserves the whole fuCKING WORLD.

Ultimately, Uma is a very practical person, and any feelings she has about her mother, positive or negative, will not stop her from getting off the Isle and going after what she wants - whatever that ends up being. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the octopus-inspired elements and purple undertones of her D2 look are gone in D3.

[anachronistic-falsehood]

OKAY so I finally got around to watching Descendants 3, I’m watching it right now and I have some stuff to say

opening music number? fuckin bitchin, we STAN whoever writes these villain songs. I do like the ones from the first two movies better, but it does show more of how the Isle of the Lost has changed since the first four went to Auradon (idk if that’s how it’s spelled don’t judge me)

SMEE HAS TWINS

I’ve only known facilier’s daughter for three and a half minutes but if anything happened to her i would kill everyone in this room and then myself

aight, so Hades is definitely going to play a big part in this movie, whether he’s a villain or a bad guy gone good. He’s gonna be important, and it’s a little random because he wasn’t even mentioned for the last two movies

THE P R O P O S A L. I’M CRYING Y’ALL. I LOVE THEM

Seeing Cameron being a goofball as Carlos makes me want to cry. I love him and I wish more than anything that he was still here.

anyway, sad stuff aside, Audrey is obviously going to be some sort of villain just based on her whole rant about the proposal. not the best choice for a villain, considering she wasn’t that memorable from the first movie and her motive is a little cliche, but whatever

ooooOOOOOHHHH SHE’S GOT A VILLAIN SONG

OH NO SHE’S HOT!! AUDREY KILL ME PLEASE!!!

Mal wanting to close the barrier for good is a little out of character in my opinion

Audrey showing up when she did is also a little random, not sure why that was necessary. She just turned Mal into an old lady and left???? 

The pacing of the whole movie is a little weird so far, but every movie seems like that to me at first and it seems better the second time I watch it so it could totally just be me

AUDREY SINGING HAPPY BIRTHDAY. OH GOD IM IN LOVE HER VOICE IS BEAUTIFUL

I CHANGED MY MIND I LOVE AUDREY AS A VILLAIN

and now Mal is back to normal?? what was the point of audrey cursing her in the first place?

the actor for Dr. Facilier could NOT be better!!! I love him, and I LOVE that he has an arcade kinda thing going on in the Isle. just,,,,, UGH he is incredible

OHHHHH IT’S THE PIRATE BOYS

k so we visiting Hades now and idk why theyre on this minecart/bike sorta thing? they could literally walk faster than that but you know what the sequence was cool so imma let it slide

HE SLEEPS TO FUCKING DOG SOUNDS I LOVE HADES

he’s wearing shades while he sleeps the absolute madlad

oh god he’s hotter up close

hOLD ON DID SHE JUST SAY D A D

WHAT THE FUCK HADES IS HER DAD

that sassy scarf flip?? im lov he

OHHHHHHH HE’S SINGING NOW

god this kind of song totally fits his aesthetic. All the songs are absolutely incredible so far and so is the choreography, just like the other two movies

THE TAMBOURINE. WHAT A FUCKIN DRAMA QUEEN, I LOVE HADES

he radiates chaotic bi energy i love this man

i LOVE audrey!! her motives may be cliche, sure, but she is incredible

PIRATE BOYS GOT OUT AND OH NO UMA’S PRETTY

uma and mal have such a good dynamic 

“i can feel you lurking...” “good” could harry and jay get any gayer

ANOTHER SONG FUCK YEAH

I love Evie playing mediator between Mal and Uma, and the two of them working together in this fight scene??? NICE

Have I mentioned how much I love the choreography?

Evie making them do team bonding sksksksksksksk

is gil flirting with jay

jAY’S FLIRTING BACK

is gil asking him out???

i want harry to stab me with his hook

i would literally die for celia, she’s such a precious kid

okay so Mal wanting to close the barrier is more relevant now that Celia thinks they’re letting all the kids out of the Isle, I take back what I said earlier

OH EVIE’S SINGING, WHAT A DRAMA QUEEN I LOVE HER

god they are so cute together im crying

OHHHHH BEN’S A BEAST!!!!

im literally going to cry i love carlos and cameron

does ben just??? have a beard now??? is that permanent?? god i hope so it’s rly cute

I LOVE HARRY, HOLY FUCK, PLEASE DATE ME

harry radiates disaster bi energy and he’s sTILL FLIRTING WITH JAY, HE LITERALLY JUST CALLED HIM GORGEOUS I’M-

if they don’t end up together at the end i’m gonna RIOT

mal and uma?? working together??? i love them

BEN’S GOT LIDDLE FANGS HE’S SO CUTE

can i just take a moment to comment on harry’s eyeliner??? ugh he’s hot

i would die for chad

hey uhhhh have i mentioned how pretty jane is??? i love her so much

“mal promised to let all the kids off the isle” ohhhhh DRAMA

oH NO UMA IS SAD

SO IS HARRY

CELIA’S GONNA CRY NO

ok this is a good fucking scene, evie’s gonna cry and mal- oH GOD OH FUCK THEY’RE ALL STATUES

ohhhhhh a SONG

showing clips from all the movies show her character development is just,,,, UGH i LOVE it! it’s such a powerful moment for her and i love how she’s changed through the series

OH FIGHT SCENE

AUDREY’S GOT CELIA FUCK

UMA’S HELPING I’M IN LOVE

audrey does such a good evil laugh why was she not a villain sooner

audrey’s been defeated but there are still twenty minutes left??? what’s happening is audrey dead or sumn

i’m sorry but WHERE THE FUCK IS BEN’S BEARD. GIVE IT BACK TO HIM PLEASE IT’S CUTE

ngl i would be ok if uma and harry ended up together theyre kinda cute

again,,,,, i would die for celia

IT’S THE CHAOTIC BI HIMSELF

FUCKIN HADES BABEY!!!!!

“When you guys try to destroy the world, it’s an error in judgement. But when it’s one of us? Lock ‘em up, throw away the key. Right, Beast?” i,,,, love this man. seriously could hades possibly have been more perfect

hades growling at the beast is,,,, ngl kinda hot

god i love audrey, she was such a good villain, and her apology??? nice

THAT WAS SUCH A GOOD FATHER/DAUGHTER MOMENT, I LOVE HADES AND MAL AND OH NO SHE’S CRYING FUCK

“speech, oh fancy one!” i love jay so much

mal’s speech??? im crying, look at how much she’s grown

THEY’RE OPENING THE BARRIER!!!!

UMA’S HAPPY LIL TWIRL???? SHE’S BABEY!!!

it’s a bop!! fuck yeah!!!

the choreography of the last dance number is just?? phenomenal??? 

ok harry and audrey are gonna be a cute couple but can i just say right now that gil and jay are canonically together in my opinion and you can’t change my mind

that last shot of the four of them running across the bridge??? poetic cinema

IS CHINA ANNE MCCLAIN SINGING DIG A LITTLE DEEPER???? HOLY FUCK

this movie was such a good ending to the series, i loved how every character developed, the music and choreography was incredible, 11/10 would watch again

[auroriaroyal]

Pre-descendants 3

Audrey has been struggling for a long time with how things happened. She hasn’t gotten an apology from mal or ben & she has lost many of her friends. The only friend she truly feels have been there for her is Chad & he has always been loyal to her, especially after what happened with Ben. 

She has also started to struggle with her feelings about not being good enough & her bulimia started to slowly come into her life again. This resulted in her shielding herself of even more from the friends she had & she started to excessive exercise. 

What’s important to note here is that Audrey & Ben has since they where kids basically been told they are supposed to marry each other. Audrey has grown up knowing her destiny was to be with Ben & she wholeheartedly believed that they were each other's, true love. She has also felt a lot of pressure from her family to uphold everything when it started to crumble & with the 13th /14th-century values it’s not strange that the family has been sort of betrothed them.

The proposal scene 

Most of the things here will stay the same, Audrey thought that she should have known that Ben would propose to Mal so she could prepare herself for it. She, however, doesn’t turn to the others in the crowd to speak ill about Mal, she’s not that kind of person & has never been that way in my portrayal.

The Leah & Audrey talk shouldn’t be looked down on. If you’re not going to judge mal & ben for what they are thinking of doing to the isle, you’re not allowed to judge Leah in this. Leah was born in the 13 century & even if she has adapted to the ways of Auradon a lot of the old thinking & values remains. The union of the sleeping beauty family & the beast family has been planned out for years, of course, she’s going to be upset. 

She speaks to Mal & she is angry. She’s jealous & her words are cruel but as many knows, sadness & jealousy can turn the most wonderful people to do bad things, ( Don’t believe me? see the maleficent movie ). She wants to hurt Mal, she wants to hurt Ben because like it or not, they’ve hurt her. 

Queen of mean

Like I explained in my canon divergence post, she’s under a sort of trance. Being the daughter of Aurora means that the curse from Maleficent sort of transferred into her bloodstream. When the scepter starts to feel the hurt & anger she carries, it recognizes it & basically by itself performs the spell Maleficent cast on Aurora to lure her to prick her finger. 

The scepter is looking for a new ‘owner’ of sort & why not use the girl who’s so heartbroken she doesn’t know what to do with herself. She isn’t there originally to take the crown but as the time go on & the scepter lure her closer & closer within it’s grasp she just gets so blinded by the darkness that she, much like aurora, can’t resist in touching it & when she does, everything goes black for her & everything nasty inside of her comes out to play. 

The scene outside of evie’s place with mal 

‘Auradon turned it’s back on me’ & you can’t deny that the people did just that. Her friends, the people she has known since she was a kid has laughed in her face & spoken behind her back. Of course, she’s upset that everyone she has ever loved turned their back on her. The scepter gives her anger so much strength & every insecurity & bad thought is out. It’s not Audrey standing there, it’s a version of herself that’s just cruel & bad. 

Jane’s birthday party

Let’s be real here, they wanted to do the whole ‘oh, I wasn’t invited’ maleficent thing. Which was kinda weird writing I suppose. However, I want to make it known that Audrey loves Jane with her entire soul & she’d never have ruined her birthday party like that, not if she wasn’t influenced by the scepter.

When it comes to Chad, in the back of her head, the ‘real’ Audrey is practically screaming that she can’t hurt him. Chad has been there through it all, he’s been loyal & kind towards her. That’s the only time she manages to fight this darkness to get some will forward. To spare him, her best friend. 

Then there is the sleeping curse & that’s her worst fear. It’s why she uses it on everyone else because she can’t imagine something more terrifying than to be asleep for years? Not knowing what happens as you lay there. 

Ben’s office

‘Just one’ she wants her life back, she wants the life that they had planned together. That they have been speaking about since they officially started to date. She’s so angry at Ben? & she doesn’t understand why he hasn’t sat down & spoken about all of this. She feels betrayed that she has been lead on for years only for him to go & fall in love with Mal. 

The moment he’s touching her hand you can see in her face that she weakens then it shields back up again. It’s Audrey fighting with her ‘evil side’. She never wants to hurt Ben & the moment he asks if she’s been spelled it’s just darkness clouding her head. 

“Just tell me who it is and i’l-” “you’ll what? marry them?” oh the pure irony. I can’t say anything about this other than ‘call him out, baby’ because let’s be real here, ben & mal are toxic & has been from the start. 

‘I’ll forgive you’ that’s the worst thing he could have said to her? He has NEVER given her an ‘i’m sorry’ about what happened & now he wants to forgive her? She’s craving an apology? She’s waited years to forgive him but Ben hasn’t cared enough to give her that? Instead, he has shown of Mal as his true love & rubbed it in her face. Ben should have pleaded, said that he was sorry, instead he villainized her more like it was her fault that he fell in love with mal because she wasn’t good enough. 

The fairy cottage

Personally, I feel like there are some deleted scenes in these settings because it low-key doesn’t make sense to me why Chad would know what Mal & the gang was up to & If he has been there while Audrey was off spelling Ben, why would he know? So when it comes to the cottage, the canon I’m keeping is that she spelled the amour ( & mal didn’t ruin that spell with some ridiculous dance? ). 

& When it comes to Chad I just think the scepter & evil! audrey just had enough of his blabber & kinda showed him in there to keep him away. Also, the hair pat when Chad acted like a dog didn’t happen. 

The last fight

Here I know some Mal’s will differ from what I’m writing & I can work with other’s canons but to me, Mal knew exactly what the ember would do. She herself felt the effect of it? Draining her powers & she should have known it would not only drain ‘audrey’s magic’ ( she has no magic it’s the scepter that has the magic ) but she should have known it would go after her life too. Hades is the god of the underworld & death, why wouldn’t his ember not be able to take someone's life? Mal should have been slightly more careful until she properly understands the powers of her. 

She used Celia as a life bait & when all of this is over, she apologizes to her full-heartedly. She never meant to hurt or scare her, it was her ‘evil’ side that took over & she couldn’t control it.  

Audrey’s bedroom

She’s dying & she’s feeling the effects on it but she can’t do anything? She’s slipping away without being able to do anything, say anything & she wants to scream how sorry she is. However, she’s almost completely dead when Hades gets to her. 

When she wakes up, she apologizes, of course, she does because she never meant it & she knows they won��t truly believe that she couldn’t control anything but she really couldn’t. She didn’t think she’d get an apology from ben & mal, one she has been waiting for ( even if it was half-assed & sucked, i said what i said ). She was also completely sure that they’d send her to the isle, like she just knew it in her heart that they’d take her away & when they didn’t because ‘she was one of their own’ she realized how unfair everything was & started to find out more about the isle & what she could do to help. 

Hades goes out the door & when Mal is done with the hugs, she runs after & thanks him. Even gives him a large hug because he saved her life. She has never been more grateful for anything in her life. ( & to mention it @deadlcrd is her fairy godfather because of it )

Post-descendants 3

Audrey learns & she moves on. She never wants to be in that dark place again but she still tries to stay away from Mal & Ben for as much as she can. It doesn’t feel right being around them even if they are on ‘friendly terms’ after everything. 

She starts to talk with the isle kids that come over, gets to know harry, gil & uma & she loves them, completely adores them & she & uma can relate to each other more than they imagined when they had their first conversation. 

When it comes to her family, it’s kind of icy between them all. Audrey is so angry at Aurora & Philip for not showing up when she was dying. Her relationship with Leah is also kind of strained until they’ve properly talked things out & she hates it because Leah is the most important person in Audrey’s world. 

She becomes a queen in her own time, Auroria trusts her to protect them & she does. She’s also joining Evie with her work with the kids & now the parents too. She knows how fast people can change in a flick of a wrist & she just wants everything to work out fine for everyone. Most importantly, she grows in herself & finds her happily ever after in her own time. 

She’s also struggling with ptsd, panic attacks & death anxiety from what happened. She’s doing her best to cope with it all & for the most part she succeeds but sometimes she just has to lean on the people beside her to help her with everything surrounding it. 

[fictitioussouls]

NPCs/Request Only characters on this blog

So I decided that instead of making a separate page for the NPCs/Request Only muses on the blog, I went ahead and just put them on the regular muses page and tagged them as such with the filter option. 

I’m gonna do a little mini info drop about them below the cut, since I don’t wanna work on their pages rn. These are mostly going to cover their FALL.OUT verses, since that’s considered their ‘canon’. Some things can vary in different verses, but I’ll cover that more when I actually get their pages and stuff up.  

Pierce: 

His real name is Adrian Pierce and he’s Jax’s abusive ex-boyfriend and the one who introduced Jax to the raider lifestyle. In his canon Fall.out verse, he was born in a Vault that ran like a religious cult, with his step-father, Gideon, leading it. It was a very controlling and abusive environment for Pierce and his younger brother, Adam. He ran away at 15 after his childhood crush and later boyfriend, Jacob, was killed by Gideon. He lived on his own for several years, surviving however he could until he met another man named Andre, who he married and adopted a son named Nicky. Unfortunately, due to a series of bad decisions on Pierce’s part, Nicky was killed and his relationship with Andre fell apart. This is when he went out on his own again and became a raider, where he eventually met Jax (then going by Jason) and brought him into the gang. They were together for five years, until Jason grew tired of the abuse at the hands of Pierce and killed him. 

Pierce is almost always involved in Jax’s backstory to some degree, though it’s only in Fall.out where he typically dies. 

The only current exception to a verse where Pierce isn’t involved in Jax’s backstory is his (Pierce’s) FC5 verse and the FC5 au I have with @longthoughtlost , where Celia is the deputy and Jax is a part of her group. 

Sara: 

Jax’s girlfriend after Pierce. She was born to a wealthy family living near the New Vegas Strip, where she began working as a waitress at one of the casinos. She meets Jason there a year after he killed Pierce. The two entered a passionate relationship that lasted two years, ending when Jason, falling back into old habits with chems and alcohol and self-loathing, left her without warning. At the time of their breakup, Sara had just recently learned she was pregnant with twins, who she gave birth to and named Mason and Madison. She never told Jax about their existence due to his dangerous lifestyle, until years later when she became terminally ill with cancer and soon passed away. Mason went to live with Jax in Boston, while Madison stayed behind to live with Sara’s then-girlfriend, Catherine. 

Sara is always involved in Jax’s backstory and they will always have the twins together unless a thread/verse takes place before they meet, which is typically when Jax is much younger. 

She always gets cancer and, as of now, doesn’t have a verse where she survives it. 

Mason and Madison: 

Mason and Madison are, as mentioned above, the children of Jax and Sara. They were born in the Mojave after their parents’ breakup and Sara, along with her girlfriend, raised them together until Sara died. Mason went to live with Jax in Boston, wanting to know who his father is. Madison stayed in the Mojave with Catherine, not wanting anything to do with her father, believing that he had abandoned them. 

These two are always involved in Jax’s backstory when Sara is involved, but Jax doesn’t know about their existence 99.9% of the time unless discussed otherwise, or in a thread where Mason is living with him (or obviously after he’s adopted them, like how he does in his modern verse). 

Braden: 

Braden is the adopted son of Savannah and, in every current verse, Cisco (though it would be possible in some threads for her to adopt him even if she isn’t with Cisco). He is in orphaned Brotherhood scribe living with the chapter in Boston aboard the Prydwen. He was born in the Capital Wasteland and his father was a Brotherhood solider and his mother was a settler. The two shared a brief relationship and, after Braden was born, they parted ways and Braden was given to his father to raise due to the fact that being with the Brotherhood was believed to the best option for him. His father died when Braden was seven and he was raised by the Brotherhood, travelling with them when they moved to Boston. He met Savannah shortly after she joined the ranks and Braden won her over almost immediately. However, it takes a couple years for them to build up enough of a relationship and for Savannah to get into a good enough spot to finally adopt him. However, it is possible for her to adopt him sooner in the instance of the Brotherhood being destroyed by the Sole Survivor. 

It is possible for Braden to be mentioned in threads and even show up, but this will probably not happen unless discussed between muns simply because he’s not crucial to Savannah’s backstory and development like the other NPCs on here. 

Due to Savannah’s complicated relationship with Jax, (which I really need to make a post over at some point), she tends to keep Braden away from him in most cases, so Jax’s relationship with Braden is almost nonexistent until later when Braden is older and Jax calms down a bit from his raider lifestyle. Braden, however, is close to his cousin, Mason, due to Savannah frequently being his babysitter, and the two share a sibling like relationship. 

[grimelords]

My September playlist is here, 37 songs from opera to bossa nova to a song about marrying Tom Collins to thank him for the sips. I’m hopeful there’ll be at least one thing in here you’ll enjoy

Been Drinkin’ Water Out Of Hollow Log - Mississippi Fred McDowell: I love this song because every other version I’ve ever heard sings it as ‘I’ve been drinking muddy water, sleeping in a hollow log’, but straight up drinking out of the log sounds so much better. Also I just found out that this version I’ve loved for years was the original Alan Lomax recording and not a later one like I’d assumed, which is nice!

Tom Collins - The Sloppy Boys: I have not been able to get this song out of my head since I heard it. “I sent an edible arrangement to my travel agent because they had free booze on the carnival cruise” is a masterpiece of rhyme and the way he screams “hold him in my grips!” is just perfect.

What Means Of Witchery - Gospel: This is a perfect song. I think it’s criminal that Gospel aren’t more widely known and I think I’ve decided to make it my life mission to spread the word. The gospel of Gospel if you will. You don’t have to. I had a long daydream a little while ago about transcribing the drums in this song, which feels like an unresolved brain problem but exemplifies just how much I love it.

A Saint Among Madmen - Helen Of Troy: This is the band the drummer from Gospel was in before Gospel and they’re really really good. This sort of spoken word song is hard to pull off without sounding totally corny and I think him being so low in the mix really helps. It reminds me of some early At The Drive-In instrumental wise. The way it finally kicks off, and the sort of yelping desperate tone to the screams in the second half is just so satisfying.

shimripl casual - Autechre: Another cut I enjoyed from Autechre’s immense new album as I work on comprehending it. I like this song because it sounds like a field recording of a prototype mechanical swamp.

New Rules - Dua Lipa: This song feels like it deserves a marching band. There's just so much going on rhythmically, the dancehall rhythm at the centre of it is constantly augmented by all sorts of other percussion, the great snare work throughout, the perfectly formed tiny fill that introduces the chorus, it's just an absolute feast. I only found out the other day that the guy who produced this, Ian Kirkpatrick, also did Bad Liar - what a year for Ian!

My Girls - Tears For Fears: Hey Tears For Fears did a cover of My Girls by Animal Collective and this might be controversial but I think it's better than the original. It tightens up the structure and differentiates the sections a bit, so that it changes from a slow building jam into an odd pop song. They also draw out the harmonies more so that you really notice how funny it is to sing 'my father's graaave' over and over in a big bass under everything.

Crosses - Zero 7 and Jose Gonzales: Sia's career from before she was world-famous Sia is so interesting because she had like a full 15 years of being notable around the world in a bunch of different ways before it all coalesced into Big Sia. She was a backing vocalist in Jamiraquai's band for god's sake. She also was the de facto vocalist of this downtempo band Zero 7 for three albums, but she's not on this song but Jose Gonzales also sang on about half the songs on this album is! This is a remix/cover of his solo song Crosses but this version really shows the song in a whole different light to the original.

Napoleon Solo - At The Drive-In: Years ago in high school one of about 5 videos I had on my iPod was this version of Napoleon Solo from 2001 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Nlfmqsx1r0 and I would watch it over and over and over. It's also a good example of why Cedric's lyrics are like they are. He just talks like that. He says things like 'they had the acme weight dropped on them' to describe his friends who died in a car crash and you just have to go along with it.

Act Three: No. 27 - A Real Slow Drag - Scott Joplin: Did you know Scott Joplin, the man behind everyone's favourite song The Entertainer, wrote TWO operas?? Because I didn't. One of them is unfairly lost to history but the other, Treemonisha, was written in 1911 but not properly performed until the Joplin renaissance in 1972. This is the big finale and it's partly because of the performance but partly because of the way he wrote it but it feels a lot more modern than any other operas I've heard from the era. Even though it is mostly a march, it feels like melodically and structurally he's drawing on pre-blues and gospel music in a way that presages rock and roll and the influence it's had on all music since - it feels more like a musical than an opera.

Celia - Cults: Cults have a new EP and it's an entirely different sound for them. Pounding, dark, Ochestral Manouveurs In The Dark type synths under their best lyrics in a long time.

Sharp Dressed Man - Xiu Xiu: Xiu Xiu did this ZZ Top cover for The AV club and I absolutely love it. It sounds like Queens Of The Stone Age if Josh Homme’s charisma stat overflowed and reset back to 0. This recording they did later is is great but the original video is even better https://youtu.be/0SG6yDSbtxULazy 

Nina - Greg Phillinganes: This was a recommendation from my friend and yours @megapope and thank god he did because I've had it stuck in my head all month. Written by Donald Fagen from Steely Dan for Michael Jackson's keyboard player's solo album, a true behind-the-scenes hit.

Gobbledigook - Sigur Ros: I was thinking about how after Takk Sigur Ros got so big and famous and rich off advertising money for their beautiful music and then made the best move possible and pivoted abruptly away from ethereal graceful floating melodies hung from the moon by a gossamer string to good old fashioned stompers made of wood. This is another in my very short playlist of songs like this and The Dodos first album where the driving rhythm plus acoustic guitars are the centre of it all. A little genre that I think has a lot left in it to explore.

Betty Dreams Of Green Men - Guerilla Toss: This feels like the energy drink version of Aqua by Eurythmics from last month's playlist. This sounds like BATS to me and I'm excited because there's not enough music like this around. Extremely energetic power music about some kind of 1950s alien invasion.

#NeverUseTheInternetAgain - Homeboy Sandman and Edan: I love this song. It starts out with a sentiment everyone can agree on (facebook sucks, the internet is bad) and quickly veers into 50 year old man gripes (GPS has ruined everyone's sense of direction? you should order pizza over the phone? match.com??) but it's got such conviction in the hook that I'm sold anyway and have pledged to #neverusetheinternetagain.

Vanishing Hour - Helen Of Troy: This is another Helen Of Troy song but it basically sounds like an unheard Gospel song, which is incredible new for me; the guy who will never stop tracking down every cassette and live recording they ever did. I don't know how the membership of Helen Of Troy went beyond sharing a drummer but the vocalist of Gospel is unmistakably in the mix here and it sounds fantastic.

Canon x Love S.O.S. - Justice: Another great cut from Justice's new sort of live album. This whole album has really made me appreciate Love S.O.S. a lot more. It comes back two or three times and I'm grateful every time. It's a perfect glam rock sentiment. Sending a love ambulance because there's a love emergency happening.

Mariners Apartment Complex - Lana Del Rey: I feel like we don't deserve new Lana yet. I'm so grateful but I'm still getting over Lust For Life and she's going to do this to me? Amazing.

I Got Cash - Brooklyn Funk Essentials: Another @megapope find. Perhaps the most powerful song I've ever heard, in the sense that I feel like I'm being personally admonished throughout. The power structures at play here are towering and the beat.. it's funky.

Pray - Jungle: Jungle flat out released five (5) singles before their album came out and they were all so amazing that I was worried they wouldn't have anything left for the actual album but guess what: the whole thing is absolutely gold, and especially this last song Pray. The feeling I get from the hook into the big drop feels like being dropped bodily into a big tub of honey, if there was a way that that could feel good instead of terrifying. It’s just luscious.

Sad Rude Future Dude - Ball Park Music: I googled “haven’t had a friend in years” trying to remember what this song was called and became instantly suicidal at the sheer amount of reddit threads that phrase returned. Which is I suppose exactly what this song’s about: posting on reddit about how the internet has ruined my relationships and brain, but in a very upbeat, singalong way. This song is a good example of how a dynamic drummer can completely elevate a song to another level.

Knuck If You Buck - Crime Mobb: Knuckle up if you're buck wild it's Crime Mobb. The best named crew since Ruff Sqwad. The two women in this (Princess and Diamond) absolutely carry the whole song. Everyone else has got such a mopey boring flow but they both come in so lively and so aggressive you cannot get away from it. Is there a more powerful opener than "I come in the club, shaking my dreads, throwing these bows and busting these heads"? Is there a better line in general than "Crime Mob, it ain't no stopping, it be like Saddam Hussein, Hitler and Osama Bin Laden"?

Deixa - Toquinho: I'm quickly becoming one of these 'the end is near' sandwich board guys grabbing people on the street and yelling at them except about bossa nova. It is criminal how much this whole genre has been reduced to funny elevator music or The Girl From Ipanema as ironic intermission music when it has stuff like this to offer us. I really recommend this whole album, I've been obsessed with it over the last couple weeks and it's just breathtaking start to finish.

The Way - Friends: This band's spotify page is good because it's full of absolutely no-name recordings of Blank And Friends that have fucked up their tagging. Anyway I have never heard a song like this, and I didn't think it was possible to use big 80s pinch harmonic guitars like this but they pulled it off in an absolutely beautiful way.

Mass Grave - Health and Soccer Mommy: Corrin Roddick of Purity Ring produced this new Health song which brings the degrees of separation between Health and Katy Perry down to a thrilling 1 since Purity Ring did two songs on her new album. This really does sound like Health covering a Purity Ring song and that's excellent news in my book. I don't know much about Soccer Mommy but this song has definitely inspired me to check her out so I'll undoubtedly report back on that next month.

(two circles) - Boredoms: I only just made the connection that Yamantaka Eye from Boredoms is the same Eye from from Hanatarash who famously drove a bulldozer through the back wall of a venue as part of a performance. Which I mention only because it really exemplifies just how much of a change of direction Vision Creation Newsun is from all that, just ten years later he's in a totally different direction of building something beautiful instead of tearing music (and buildings) apart at the seams. Nobody knows how to describe this album, it's space rock it's post rock it's experimental but it has something that a lot of that music doesn't - positivity. This whole album is a sun-worshipping positive fever without ever feeling lost or meandering.

Centreline - Ava Luna: I'm mad at this song. At about 1:15 they do an extremely satisfying thing sing the 'line' in 'centre line' in a deep bass and it sounds great. Then every other time that section comes around they either don't sing it or there's something else going on that obscures it and it blueballs you for the whole rest of the song. Other than that it's good, but i'm at war with this song.

Venice Bitch - Lana Del Rey: I am so excited that Lana Del Rey is finally embracing the most often ignored part of americana and facilitating a jam band. This is the last thing I would expect from Jack Antonoff but he did amazingly. It sounds closer to Ultraviolence era than anything else she's done and I'm just plain excited to see what the album is going to be like if this is any indication.

Act 1 Scene 4: This Is Monstrous, Wozzeck! - Alban Berg: I found an english version of Wozzeck and it's one of the best opera recordings I've ever heard. It's just plain mixed and recorded well, which is a rarity when a lot of opera recordings seem like they just hung a single mic somewhere at the back of the theatre and pressed the button. Anyway here's the good bit from Wozzeck where Wozzeck goes to the doctor and the doctor yells at him for "Pissing! Pissing there on the pavement!" See, opera’s fun!

Pop Roll Flow - Clypso: I heard this song on Unearthed when they had Nick Littlemore from Pnau guest programming and I love it. It feels brand new and very familiar at the same time, every sound in it is in absolute hypercolour, and the verse vocal sounds like a cool insect is singing at me. What's not to love!

I Might Survive - Architecture In Helsinki: I always feel like Arcitechture In Helsinki are poised to make like Portugal The Man and have an international superhit off their seventh album. They have been consistently reinventing their brain of weirdo-pop every single album for 15 years now and it feels like they've still got so much more to give. This song especially deserved to be a hit in my opinion, it's pop perfection and I've come around from hating to completely loving the little 'than alive baby!' adlib near the end.

Angels - The xx: My two best friends got married to each other this month and it was beautiful. What's more, she picked the perfect song to walk down the aisle to. I'm so happy to see two of the people I love the most in love with each other, and also when I drove them to their suite after the reception my phone accidentally started playing Merzbow's new album which was good.

Jesus Was A Cross Maker - Judee Sill: I'm so glad I found out about this album. Judee Sill had a crazy life, and her wiki page is a ride but unlike a lot of musicians with a back story her music stand alone - unique, rich and beautiful. Tightly structured and thoughtfully composed for such hippy-dippy christian mythology themes, and melodically beautiful even when her voice isn't quite up to the task. It really does feel like the spirit was moving through her. This song in particular is amazing I have been straight up listening to it on repeat. The phrasing is insane, the self-harmonised vocals sound like they're phasing in a very cool way, the violins break into a Bach figure halfway through - it's just amazing. I cannot stop listening. I've also started a playlist of this, Jesus Is A Dying Bedmaker by John Fahey and Jesus Came To My Brithday Party by The Middle East so I'm absolutely 'on one' as the kids say.

Rappers Convention - Harlem World Crew: another thanks to @megapope for bringing this incredible moment to my attention. A very early rap song that was recorded in the middle of the Iranian hostage crisis and helpfully gives a complete breakdown of the situation in the opening verse before getting back to basics and detailing how much they love partying for the remaining 5 minutes. Music is truly incredible. 

I Need A Lover - John Mellencamp: I'm learning a lot about John Mellencamp this week. Apparently this song was originally on the album 'A Biography' in 78 that didn't get a release in the US because his first album did so badly, but I Need A Lover was a top ten hit here in Australia and was thusly included on his next album a year later and blew up in the US. The other surprising thing is the album version, this version, has a fully two minute long intro before it gets to the song.

High (feat. Elton John) - Young Thug: The Lil' Nutsack song that makes Dewey Cox famous again in Walk Hard is real now and it's good as fuck.​

listen here

[thecloserkin]

Short Story Review: “A Love Match” by Sylvia Townsend Warner

Genre: Literary-ish

Is it the main pairing: Yes

Is it canon: Yes

Is it explicit: No

Is it endgame: Yes

Is it shippable: Eminently so

Bottom line: Read it and thank me later

Praise be, it’s a published story about a pair of happily married siblings! Not legally married yet it’s a nonetheless a successful decades-long relationship with its ups and downs. And they ain’t even fresh young things experimenting with their sexuality! They stay together through midlife crises and menopause and eventually die in each other’s arms.

Celia and Justin Tizzard live openly as brother and sister and privately as husband and wife. It started back when he was on leave from the front lines during WWI and his PTSD was so bad that he woke up screaming in her bed— she flew into the room to comfort him and they “rushed into the escape of love like winter-starved cattle rushing into a spring pasture.” She had just lost her fiancé, you see. Justin notes that the welcome she prepares for him — the drawn bath, the hot supper, the real bed — was all meant for the fiancé who was blown to smithereens in the killing fields of France. By the end of his furlough, of course, Justin has slipped seamlessly from the role of “brother” into the role of “lover.” It’s cute because people in London see a conscription-age young man accompanied by a young woman and assume, quite reasonably, that they are sweethearts:

many people glanced at them with kindness and sentimentality, and an old woman patted Celia’s back saying, ‘God bless you, dearie! Isn’t it lovely to have him home?’

But Justin doesn’t have a sweetheart, and Celia’s is dead, and with their mother having remarried they are now the most important person in each other’s lives, and that’s who you want to spend your leave with, right? When the incest happens they don’t even make a big fuss about it:

‘Now we’ve done it,’ he said; and hearing the new note in his voice she replied, ‘A good thing, don’t you think?’ … They were mated for life, that was all … At the end of his leave they parted in exaltation, he convinced that he was going off to be killed, she that she would bear his child, to which she would devote the remainder of her existence.

Well he doesn’t perish in the war, and she’s not pregnant. The story opens with Celia and Justin moving to a sleepy little village where they proceed to settle comfortably into boring, unremarkable routines and tread “hand in hand down the thornless path to fogydom”:

Never again did Justin see Celia quivering with beauty as she had done on the day she came to him in hospital. But he went on thinking she had a charming face and the most entertaining eyebrows in the world. Loving each other criminally and sincerely, they took pains to live together happily and to safeguard their happiness from injuries of their own infliction or from outside. It would have been difficult for them to be anything but inconspicuous, or to be taken for anything but a brother and sister—the kind of brother and sister of whom one says, ‘It will be rather hard for her when he marries’. Their relationship, so conveniently obvious to the public eye, was equally convenient in private life, for it made them unusually intuitive about each other’s feelings. Brought up to the same standard of behaviour, using the same vocabulary, they felt no need to impress each other and were not likely to be taken aback by each other’s likes and dislikes.

This is such a perfect paragraph that I had to quote the whole thing. It features one of my favorite aspects of incest-shipping — they know each other’s foibles inside-out. Also, there’s a difference between developing feelings and making a relationship work and it’s great we get to see Justin and Celia doing the latter. The hospital visit Justin refers to is when he was sent home with a wounded leg that festered into gangrene:

I shall be a peg leg, he thought. It’s not decent for a peg leg to make love; even to his sister. He was ravaged with fret and behaving with perfect decorum when Celia was shown in—dressed all in leaf green, walking like an empress, smelling delicious. For a moment the leaf-green Celia was almost as much a stranger as the Celia all in black had been.  When she kissed him, he discovered that she was shaking from head to foot. ‘There, there,’ he said, patting her. Still holding his hand, she addressed herself to charming Nurse Painter. Nurse Painter was in favour of sisters. They weren’t so much trouble, didn’t upset a patient, as sweethearts or wives did—and you didn’t have to be hanging round all the time, ready to shoo them off.

Two things: First, bystanders taking pains to draw a distinction between mere sisterly affection and romantic attachment is a running gag in this story, even as the narrative clearly demonstrates that Celia loves him because she’s his sister, not in spite of it; it’s just that society at large has this wrongheaded idea about what love looks like. Second, I want you to conjure up the leaf green dress Celia showed up in, the dress that took Justin’s breath away and laid his gnawing self-doubt to rest. I’m thinking Keira Knightley in Atonement - not because it was green, because it was i c o n i c. No, of course Celia would not have worn anything nearly as revealing, but the feeling you get from seeing her in it for the first time? That is what must have come over Justin.

There are a few hiccups as they settle into village life. Their decision not to hire a live-in servant—from whom their sleeping arrangements could hardly be kept secret—is met by general consternation until Justin hits upon the brilliant tactic of pleading straitened circumstances. Poverty is an ungenteel subject and well-bred people give it a wide berth. That takes care of one line of potentially damaging inquiry, but the imperative to behave inconspicuously remains uppermost in their minds:

Celia grew alarmed; if you make no friends, you become odd. She decided that they must occasionally go to church, though not too often or too enthusiastically, as it would then become odd that they did not take the Sacrament. No doubt a great many vicious church attenders took the Sacrament, and the rubric only forbids it to ‘open and notorious evil-livers’, which they had every intention of not being; but she could see a scruple of honour at work in Justin, so she did not labour this argument.

Is that not the sweetest thing! Celia knows Justin would feel weird about taking the Sacrament, what with the two of them living in sin, thus she is careful to calibrate their church attendance such that they fall within the category of “casual” churchgoers. And it pays off! At church they are recruited into a weekly whist club, and pretty soon the Tizzards are throwing dinner parties. Everyone finds them “agreeable, if slightly boring.”

Returning from their sober junketings Justin and Celia, safe within their brick wall, cast off their weeds of middle age, laughed, chattered and kissed with an intensified delight in their scandalous immunity from blame. They were a model couple, the most respectable couple in Hallowby.

That’s definitely part of the thrill of it, pulling the wool over their neighbors. Both the ones who pity him for being under her thumb, and the ones who pity her because it’ll be hard on her when he marries: they’re all projecting their own preconceptions onto this couple. Well, maybe there’s a grain of truth to it — Celia is three years older and she has always taken the lead when it comes to most matters, and Justin has been happy to leave them in her capable hands. Then comes a series of nasty, insinuating, anonymous letters, calling Celia a “hag” and accusing her of “keeping such a tight hold on him.” At this point she and Justin have been living in Hallowby for over a decade. The most upsetting aspect of the letters is how vague they are in their denunciations. There are no open threats or demands for hush money, just a list of people in the community who “know all about your loathsome performances.” The letter-writer “taunted Celia with being ugly, ageing and sexually ridiculous … ripped through her self-control and made her cry with mortification.” Guys, this is awful. It’s the worst thing that could happen to them, to be exposed and have the life they’ve built together burnt to the ground. Celia stoically determines to keep the matter from Justin, which is a mistake because one glance and he tells her exactly who sent them:

‘Justin! Have you been carrying on with Mary Semple?’

‘No, I wouldn’t say that. She’s got white eyelashes. But ever since she came home Mary Semple has been doing all she could to carry on with me.’

So this girl half Justin’s age carried on a one-sided flirtation until it got on his nerves. She was soundly rebuffed, and decided to deal with her rejection by sending Celia hate mail. It doesn’t matter if she thought the rumors of incest were true; the point was to hurt Celia and through her, Justin. That’s the kind of threat the Tizzards will always be vulnerable to, unfortunately.

Whatever danger might lie ahead, it was the thought of the danger escaped that made her tremble. If she had gone on concealing those letters—and she had considered it her right and duty to do so—a wedge would have been driven between her and Justin, bruising the tissue of their love, invisibly fissuring them, as a wedge of ice does in the living tree. And thus a scandal about their incest would have found them without any spontaneity of reaction and distracted by the discovery of how long she had been arrogating to herself a thing that concerned them both. ‘Here and now,’ she exclaimed, ‘I give up being an elder sister who knows best.’ Justin, on his way to the Semples’, was muttering to himself, ‘Damn and blast it, why couldn’t she have told me sooner? If she had it would all be over by now.’ It did not occur to him to blame himself for a lack of openness. This did not occur to Celia, either. It was Justin’s constancy that mattered, not his fidelity.

I know I’ve quoted at length from what is really not a very long story but I felt justified in doing so because it is objectively such a well-constructed story, all about finding happiness where you can and accepting love as it is, in whatever guise it comes to you. Celia could have thrown a jealous fit over the Mary Semple incident—or any number of other incidents, Justin’s considered quite a catch by the single ladies—but she chooses not to. It’s not like their relationship is all smooth sailing; the regretful decision to forego children is a painful one for both of them. The Tizzards just truck along into middle/old age, and keep on loving each other, and once in awhile there may be a big shift like the above where Celia decides to cast off the mantle of Big Sister Who Knows Best, but these are merely different seasons of love (like the night they first became lovers) and they’ve successfully weathered them together. I want to end by quoting a line from near the beginning, where Justin returns to England on leave from his regiment and Celia meets him at the station:

a strange woman in black came up to him, touched his shoulder, and said, ‘Justin!’ It was as though Celia were claiming a piece of lost luggage, he thought.

Celia is both a stranger and as familiar as a long-lost personal possession. This right here is what I love about incest shipping. Part of what makes her “strange” is being dressed in full mourning, but now that the fiance is out of the way she belongs to Justin again — except he’s forced to view her as someone’s potential romantic partner, and seeing her in a new light his eyes are opened. There shouldn’t, in the normal course of things, be anything particularly romantic about reclaiming lost luggage, but for the two of them it’s such a relief to fall back into the familiar rapport of two people who’ve known each other all their lives, it really is exactly what they need. They are exactly what the other needs.