#honestly I don't know whether I ought to put this here or on the blog where I normally do mid-read commentary about books and things

[chiropteracupola]

I LOVE WHEN MAGIC SYSTEMS RECALL HUMORIC MEDICINE!!!!

[ohdeerfully]

Thank you so much for adding Sir Pentious to your blog 🥹🎩🐍 I’m new to fic requests, and either a drabble or HCs would be amazing no matter which you pick, so here goes…

Could I please request platonic Pentious with a hotel resident reader who’s new to hell and visibly going through a rough time? Between being dead, dealing with their new demon body, and facing another extermination after just surviving the last one, they’re clearly struggling despite putting on a brave face. And secret softie that he is, Pentious decides he ought to intervene, whether it’s drag them along on activities take their mind off of things, or just stick with them until they open up enough to vent to him?

Thank you very much again!

Signed 🪼 Anon

Hii 🪼! Thanks so much for requesting my very first Sir Pentious oneshot >:3 I hope i wrote him okay! I don't know his character super well, but he's super fun!!!

Do His Egg Bois Know He Eats Egg Sandwiches

Sir Pentious x Reader (platonic)(fluff) TW: reader is depressed ):

join my discord!

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You had been at the hotel for a year or so now, having been found by Charlie during your first night in Hell. Ever since then, even in the comfort of the hotel and surrounded by the kindness–and chaos–of Charlie and her friends, you still couldn’t really believe or cope with where you were. Thinking about it, and the fact this was eternity–it made you feel like shit. And that goddamn tail of yours that kept getting in the way of everything, and the pair of hypersensitive ears that forced you to listen to the “screams of the damned” all night. You wondered if you’d ever get used to the new limbs. 

You currently laid flat on your bed and staring at the ceiling, not really thinking about much in particular. Honestly, the boredom you currently felt was comforting; better than the depressive episodes you’ve been dealing with, at least. It has gotten worse lately because of the impending extermination, but you took care not to think about it too much, less you choke and breakdown in anxiety.

A neat rapping of knocks roused you from your mindless comfort, and you slunk your way to the door. Before opening it, you made sure that your appearance was as neat as possible. You heaved a breath, smiled, and opened the door.

Sir Pentious stood on the other side, his sharp fangs peeking under his lips in a bold smile. “Charlie hass asked me to…” You smiled slightly at that appropriately snake-like lisp of his. “...take you out in town! For some… fun,” His bold smile slowly quivered, becoming more and more uncertain and anxious as his invitation became quiet, nearly dying on his lips. His hands were nervously folded behind himself.

You quirked your brow at him, leaning softly on the doorframe. “Why would Charlie ask you to take me out?” You replied, not intentionally aggressive, “Wouldn’t she usually just… do it herself? Or at least tell me first?” You noticed the way Sir Pentious nervously flicked his tongue a few times as he considered your words.

“Well… I… er,” He struggled for a moment, until suddenly his eyes lit up with an idea. “Well, Charlie wass, and I wass going to take EVERYBODY out! But, eh, they’re all busy.” His head tucked slightly, sheepishly, and you watched as the hood on his neck seemed to squeeze closer to himself. He was so obvious.

You ran your hand through your hair, thinking for a moment. Sir Pentious stared at you expectantly, with a mix of anxiety and excitement in his narrow eyes.

You could either stay inside, locked in your room, waiting for nothing, melting in your own depressive thoughts and worries; or, you could just go out and try to have some fun with the snake standing in front of you. You haven’t been out in town much, despite being in Hell for a year–you were always too worried. You didn’t have the energy to go out in the first place, so the anxiety you felt made it all the more difficult to drag yourself out of bed to explore.

Ah, what the hell.

“Sure,” You accepted, albeit a bit apprehensively. His spine immediately straightened out as you accepted his offer, his eyes practically glowing with pride at himself. He gave you a curt nod, a grin, and turned to slither away.

“Meet me in the lobby in twenty minutess!” He called, before disappearing around a corner.

And, so, you did. You had quickly washed yourself, and scrounged around your dirty laundry to find a decently clean outfit, making note that you should get to work on washing everything when you got back. Hopefully this outing would give you a bit of energy to do some chores.

He was waiting by the bar, his fingers rapping against the countertop. He was obviously trying to be patient; you knew he had a temper. You appreciate him trying, though.

“So,” You began as you came near him. He whipped his head around when he heard your voice. “What’s your idea of… fun?”

“Follow me!” He declared boldly, ushering the both of you out of the hotel. You saw his airship was ready to go, a small ramp leading to the entrance. You nervously smiled at the sight, wondering what he had in store for you. You briefly wondered how Charlie would react knowing Sir Pentious was, very likely, up to no good.

Those eggs of his were already waiting inside, as you saw one peek around the frame of the door. It jumped at the sight of Sir Pentious ascending the ramp, skittering away before coming back with the others. They all watched from the doorway.

Your worries of Charlie were dispelled when Sir Pentious explained that he wanted to go to a strip of stores a few blocks away. You decided not to ask him why he chose to take his airship to just go a few blocks away; he seemed very excited to show off the interior to you, explaining what this button did, and oh, did you notice this lever? Just wait till you see what this knob does! You were genuinely surprised at how complex his build was. Sir Pentious was a lot smarter than everybody gave him credit for.

His eggs were always in your way, and you had to take extreme care not to stumble over or smash one. They were always getting up close to you in order to examine you, or touch your clothes. You were growing irritated at them, honestly, but clenched your jaw to ignore the growing frustration.

It had taken a short time to get to the street, and Sir Pentious ‘parked’ his airship in the air, hanging down a sturdy ladder for the two of you to descend onto the street. You stared down nervously, air whipping at your face.

“Sir Pentious… I don’t think…” You timidly looked down, and then back up to him. He stood there proudly, hands on his hips. He frowned at your apprehension.

“Nonsense!” And he shoved you, his toothy grin quickly disappearing from your vision as you staggered out of the opening below. 

“What the fuck!” You cried, tumbling for a brief moment in the air, your tail whipping wildly to try to straighten yourself out. You were able to grab a rung of the ladder, probably just a few seconds away from smacking into the road. Your heart was beating so hard you were worried it would give out.

“What. The fuck.” You said again, venom practically dripping from your words as you glared at Sir Pentious, who was easily using his two arms to make his way down, tail curled on the ladder for extra stability. If you could kill him with your eyes, you would. 

You continued the last few rungs, arms shaking so hard with adrenaline that you had to make a few attempts to grab the rope with every step.

“Now,” Sir Pentious began, looking around after you were both firmly on the ground. “I believe there iss… some sort of place for foodstuff. There!” And he quickly left you behind after eyeing the shop. You quickly followed when he paused to wave you forward.

It was a pretty standard lunch spot, with the standard Hell foods that you saw for sale in the hotel’s own cafeteria. You ignored the description of the food, knowing that if you thought too hard about what the meat was made out of you would be too sick to eat. Food was another thing in Hell that you just couldn’t get used to.

Sir Pentious ordered some sort of egg sandwich with a soda, and you opted for a salad of sorts with some mystery meat and a colorful array of toppings. You tucked yourself neatly into a chair, poking at the contents of your bowl for a minute before trying it. It really wasn’t that bad.

Sir Pentious was tentatively sipping at his soda, his tiny nostrils flaring at each intake of the carbonated drink. You saw the level of soda go down, up, down again, up again, as he tried desperately to keep the drink in his mouth.

“Do you… not like soda?” You asked behind a laugh. He put on a face of shock at you.

“Of coursse I do! Everybody drinks it! How weird it would be if I couldn’t!” He went back to daintily dragging at the straw. You saw the up and down of the drink continue. You rolled your eyes at his attempt to seem hip. It really wasn’t that serious.

You had ordered some tea, and you pushed the glass towards him.

“Wanna trade?” You asked, and his eyes lit up. “I like soda more than tea.”

“Yess!” He said, a bit too excited for his own taste, obviously, because he immediately lowered his voice. “Of course, only for you. I don’t care either way. But ssince you do,” He swiped at your glass, quickly replacing it with his soda. You honestly weren’t really interested in drinking it, knowing that a lot of it had already been in his mouth and spit back.

After you had both finished, a bit of casual small talk between bites, Sir Pentious paid, to which you thanked him multiple times for, and he simply stuck his nose up and dismissed you, saying it was his responsibility for being the one to offer to take you out.

You actually enjoyed your time with him, which surprised you, because you never thought you’d enjoy the company of the temperamental snake. But, you could tell he tried his best to remain level-headed with you. You wondered if he knew how shitty you’ve been feeling.

When you arrived back at the hotel, you were incredibly thrilled that Sir Pentious was able to park his airship on the ground. No more getting shoved out of tiny holes from the sky. You saw Charlie carefully eyeing the two of you as you came inside, her focus mostly on a conversation with Vaggie. She was likely trying to see if there were any signs of “bad behavior” coming back into her hotel.

Sir Pentious  leads you back to your room, rambling about some invention of his, his words dripping with pride. You were only half listening while you fumbled for the keys to your room.

His words stopped for a moment when you opened the door, and you could tell he was looking at the terrible disarray your room had come to during your periods of doing nothing during depressive episodes. You let out a nervous laugh, closing the door just enough for you to block his line of sight as you leaned against the door.

“Hey, thanks for taking me to get some food,” You smiled at him, and he returned your smile with his own. You could tell there was a softness in his expression, and you kind of hated it, knowing that it was probably coming from a place of pity after seeing the state of your room.

“You know, if you ever need somebody to talk to, I conssider myself a great listener,” He began, and you felt weird hearing the softness and genuineness of his voice. Though you weren’t to sure about the ‘great listener’ part. “Of course I offer my earss to everybody here!” He quickly added, trying to prevent himself from sounding too touchy-feely. You grinned at him and shot him a quick thumbs up.

“Thanks, Pentious,” You backed up into your room, giving him a short wave. “I’ll talk to you later.”

He waved back at you, giving you that fanged grin of his, before you shut the door. You turned on your heel, and stared at the mess you called a room.

Time to do some cleaning, I guess.

[tothedarkdarkseas]

!! just want to reassure you that if i ever took inspo i absolutely wouldn't lift anything directly from your writing, i feel exactly the same wrt being very personally attached to everything i create. even silly gorillaz fics are like a little piece of myself put out into the world lol... and i would be sure to credit you for inspiration and send it your way! while i really hope you find a renewed interest in gorillaz as a whole (both for selfish "immense enjoyment of your writing" reasons as well as completely understanding how it feels to become disillusioned with something you were passionate about,) my faith in the direction they're taking is... rocky at best lol. but it is what it is!

Ah, thank you! I'm sorry if that answer was presumptuous in any way, I just wasn't entirely positive the extent to which you were asking! I know some fandom writers are so... generous, or detached, or whichever flattering or unflattering way it comes across to you, and it's not unheard of for someone to just hand off stories to new writers who care more about finishing it. Honestly, observing other writers in general is such an enlightening yet isolating experience, as it assures me time and again that something is very broken inside of me, hahaha! No, but I understand that feeling entirely. It's shameful to think the things that have meant so much to me, projects which have felt incredibly personal and reflect something I can't otherwise voice are... silly gay Gorillaz fics. With hole. So just-- not things you'll ever share. (I've tried to do personal writing, er, something for more of a "literary magazine crowd" but struggled with getting my footing enough to move the ideas into words. Recently, very recently, I've been scratching out short thoughts on a specific aspect of my life... I've felt conflicted about sharing it here or not, as I think the only people who have any interest at all in my writing would be on this blog, but the subject matter is very much the opposite of toxic-masculine Studoc.)

Thank you, I really do appreciate you saying that. This is melodramatic, and the sort of fatalistic thinking I've been trying to be more mindful of, but at times my unhealthy relationship toward creating made me think of the quote about every person dying twice: for the first time when your body dies, and for the second time when someone stops saying your name. There's just always been something unbearably sad about the idea that you could love with your whole heart for 1, 5, 10, 20 years, and yet one day it just stops forever. It stops existing in anyone's mind, it stops mattering, it is one of a thousand-billion sparks from the beginning of human storytelling that died for the last time ages ago. I don't think that's a good way to think, for the record, haha. But it's nice to me to think someone out there cares if I ever write again, someone would want to share that world with me. Whether I ought to indulge it, it is a lovely thought. I'm glad we could know and care for one another in whatever capacity we were able to.

Anyway! I'm sorry, we're returning to true peak tothedarkdarkseas form here, which entails me using asks as therapy sessions. I would love to see anything you create, even if you ended up moving on outside of Gorillaz! I am so grateful for you reaching out, it really does this rickety old heart good. Sadly I do share your reservations about where we'll go from here, but I think some time away from the burning core of it has done me some favors in... numbing me a bit to the disappointment, haha. (Nice way to think of something, right?) As you said, it is what it is! C'est la vie!

[ofdeliverancedane]

well, i finally gave in and watched secrets of dumbledore.

i wasn't sure if i was going to. as anyone who still follows this blog probably noticed, i don't really participate in hp fandom in any capacity at this point, for the same reason that a lot of other people jumped ship. but a combination of morbid curiosity and undying affection for albus dumbledore eventually won out, and here is my conclusion:

the movie is bad.

my first and probably largest objection is how the leader of the ICW is chosen. the guy who allows grindelwald to stand for office defends it by saying that the voters have to choose, implying that there is, you know, an actual vote. but then it becomes clear that grindelwald wants this deer-thing so he can make it bow to him, and he'll win. okay, i thought, they see who the deer bows to and then people vote, and obviously a lot of people will vote for the person who's just been shown to be pure of heart. it still falls apart if you think about it too hard (how likely is it that any career politician is going to be exceptionally loyal and honest, really?) but in theory it makes sense.

but then the dead deer bows to grindelwald and that would've been it except newt reveals the twin? and even after the real one bows to santos, there's no indication that a vote takes place - people just immediately start shooting her colors in celebration.

so the ICW isn't a democracy, i guess. and even that would be okay (other than rendering the logic behind letting grindelwald participate nonsensical, but whatever.) lots of people live under dumb and bad systems of governance, and the wizarding world has never been shown as immune to that sort of thing.

BUT! no one points out that "strange women lying in ponds distributing swords magical scale-y deer things bowing at people is no basis for a system of government." even after this system has just been shown to be fallible! the "right person" (i'm assuming from the musical cues, since we know literally nothing about santos or her policies) won and that's all that matters, apparently.

and you know, even that would be forgivable if this were just a kids' action movie, because only an idiot would look for a coherent political message in one of those. but jkr herself has compared to rise of grindelwald in these movies to the current destabilization of global democracies, which makes it completely unacceptable that apparently no one decided whether the ICW is a democracy, let alone whether or not it ought to be.

my other major objection is how this movie handled queenie.

lots of people were not happy with her joining grindelwald in cog. now, i actually liked that decision, as i wrote at the time. i thought it made her character much more interesting, created a lot of narrative potential by means of putting her and tina on opposite sides of the war, and most crucially, showed that movements like grindelwald's don't only attract clearly evil people.

but this movie squanders all of that potential. we don't get any additional insight as to why queenie joined him. we don't really get any indication for what caused her to regret that. (i mean, she sees him kill the deer-thing, but am i honestly meant to believe that queenie didn't realize grindelwald was capable of violence before?) jacob, and seemingly everyone else, welcomes her back with open arms! we don't even see her and tina reuniting! the whole thing is completely and bafflingly forgiven, without any discussion.

and that's especially jarring given that this movie introduces aberforth. albus and aberforth never fully reconciled from albus's early partnership with grindelwald. i fully expected tina and queenie's relationship to be a clear parallel (i even wrote a fic with that idea), but instead we got nothing.

it would be interesting, in an academic sort of way, to know how much of those issues (and various smaller ones) come from jkr vs kloves vs yates, but ultimately it doesn't matter. this is a bad movie and wb should just put the franchise out of its misery at this point.