#hornet is the only one actually trying to be a leader but shes still working though her problems

[overgrownmoon]

i went really hard on hornet so i really didnt feel like cleaning up the other two, maybe ill come back later

ghost will forever be the Short Sibling - Hornet is taller than it and Hallow is the tallest. it became a nailmaster after training with sly and mato. they dislike being perceived as king; they want to be equals with the people of hallownest, completely opposite their father

hallow's light helps it navigate and feel safe; they dont like bright light but are afraid of being left in the dark alone again. i gave it green robes bc i think it would really like plants and nature after being freed and after a life spent in the palace

[hubristicassholefight]

Swordswoman Showdown Quarterfinals

Fa Mulan (Disney's Mulan) vs Hornet (Hollow Knight)

(Better here in a "preferred character" sense, not "who would win in a fight")

Propaganda below cut

Fa Mulan

stole her father's sword to take his place in the imperial army. defeated the invading leader and stole HIS sword too.

Soldier who saved all of china; She’s one of the ogs, man, her movie is a banger

i know she's a problematic fave but i still love her :(

Hornet

Technically its not a sword but she wields a needle in a setting where swords do not exist and she wields it in an exceedingly swordlike fashion so. She counts; Girlboss demigoddess spider lady. She's been protecting an entire kingdom for longer than many of the other characters have been alive. She systematically kills her siblings for being too weak. She's simply the best.

#im pretty sure hornet can beat like. anyone in a fight.#have you ever fought hornet#its so fucking hard getting past her every time i play hk i go literally insane.

#i remember getting stuck on the first hornet fight on mt first play through and bring likr#''omg the boss fights in this are so hard!!!''#like what. you're not even half way through what are you talking about#you can't even DASH honey. you don't know what's diffcult or not in this game.

So, SPOILERS

but I feel like the "she systematically kills her siblings" part needs a little clarification. See, one of her siblings was used as a living prison for an angry god and that uh. Didn't work out for the sibling in question or anyone else.

This account is itself heavily abbreviated but it's likely that any other sibling Hornet encounters will be trying to take over as the god's new prison. She appears to challenge any sibling she sees to battle, in order to test their resolve against herself and her needle - would they actually have a chance against that god?

We never actually see her kill any siblings, but she does quite pointedly tell one of them that (to paraphrase) "My needle is lethal and I would feel no sadness in a weakling's demise."

Feels like a relevant quote. In any case, if they can't beat Hornet, it seems like her needle would be a far more merciful end than what the god would grant.

Anyway, a bit of additional material for @swordswomanshowdown :

As is the case for any cool swordswoman, it's not just her sword that's lethal, it's her with it. And Hornet's needle was custom made for her - the creators have said that, while other needles exist, hers was made specifically for her to wield, and its construction allows her to use her spider silk better in combat.

And another thing that I think makes her a good swordswoman: she's actually pretty thoughtful about how she uses it. There's a least one instance where she tries to warn someone off before fighting them! At the same time, when she does fight, she seems to enjoy it - during her boss battles, you can hear her laugh sometimes, as if exhiliarated. She's really got it all, as a swordswoman!!!

#HORNET SWEEP CMON PLEEEEEEASE#shes gay. shes the only sibling with a gender. shes a spider named HORNET. look like croissant. whats not to like

[puppyluver256]

[Image Description: A human interpretation of the Hollow Knight, the titular character of the game of the same name. They have very pale scarred skin, long white hair in a ponytail, black and orange eyes, and a missing left arm. They are wearing a grey tank top, green lounge pants, and a silver hair clip shaped like the horns their original appearance has. They appear to be looking into a bathroom mirror that is out of frame, presumably mounted over a bathroom sink that they are standing in front of. They have a finger up to their mouth and are examining the strangely empty space inside, as their tongue has been mostly removed. The background is the pale blue bathroom wall, an open wooden door, and a view into the hallway with a beige wall and green fluffy carpet. End ID.]

-----

Hello and welcome to How To Make The Asshole Responsible For Mostly Everything In Canon Somehow Even Worse In Your AU 101! (: Step right up, it's gonna be a long-un.

So yeah, I still don't have all the details hammered out quite yet, but I do have significant points roughly accounted for. Even after they've been out from under his metaphorical wing for like four or five years, PK has of course still left considerable marks on all his kids. In this human AU, PK (who I'm tentatively calling Paul King until I find something that's not so perfectly fitting even if it's a bit bland for a character like him) is a fairly influential religious leader whose faith involved some principles akin to the quiverful movement, along with strict control over his progeny and a belief that children--or at least his children--only serve as accessories to their parents and something to be seen and not heard. This led to a lot of neglect for the kids under King's roof, thankfully only three full-timers this time instead of the likely hundreds of thousands just due to the differences of how mammal reproduction works compared to insects (or wyrm + tree I guess lol), and that neglect led to a Lot of Crap.

In fact, only two of the things that happened to any of the three kids were the result of direct action on King's part, and sadly both of those things happened to Hollow. One was the event that was the catalyst for getting the kids out (again I'm still trying to nail this down, but it does end in the house blowing up), and the other (: was the one time (: Hollow had the courage (: to talk back (: and King decided (: to make sure that never happened again (: and the man has medical training (: he was a doctor at one point (: so the glossectomy was professionally done by him personally (': ('': (''':

Anyway, yeah, that little detail is part of how I'm carrying over the "no voice to cry suffering" part of the Vessels, though in AU Hollow's case it's less "no voice to cry suffering" and more "no tongue to give that voice clarity and also they basically just stop trying shortly after". The other two don't vocalize for different reasons, Ghost is just the bog-standard neurodivergent flavor of nonverbal for the most part (they could probably speak if they tried under the right circumstances, they just don't), and BV's silence is due to neurological damage as they had a seizure that affected a nerve controlling speech, and that combined with them falling down the stairs shortly after certainly didn't do them any favors. ...though the black sclera for all three, that's another thing entirely, let's just say that their old house was similarly close to the source of a certain substance like the White Palace is in the game... As to why Hornet's not physically affected by any of this? Her mom's alive in this AU, obvs she lived with her. And even though she visited as per custody agreement, and also her wanting to be with her half-siblings to give them some actual human contact that wasn't just the bare minimum to keep them alive, if anything had happened to Hornet while in that house Herrah woulda gotten more than a little aggro (: Thankfully the siblings are in a much better living situation now!

.......also since voidy stuff is in this AU and they've got some and they can do this:

[Image Description: The same image as above, cropped to Hollow's face. Four black tendrils have been added coming out of their mouth, with black handwriting reading "void tendrils" and an arrow pointing to the addition.]

Yup. At least eating's not as hard for them as it seems to be for most actual willing glossectomy patients??? ^^;

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~Likes are appreciated, but reblogs are preferred as they let more people see my artwork! If you have something to say, feel free to give feedback in tags/comments/replies as well!~

The Hollow Knight and other Hollow Knight concepts © Team Cherry Human AU design and artwork © PuppyLuver Studios

[feralphoenix]

a thing that i really love about hollow knight is that part of its incredibly strict Show Don’t Tell policy means it works a lot in juxtapositions. comparisons and parallels.

like, rather than Telling us what makes for a good and responsible ruler, we get to know about various different heads of state in the various nations of the crater, and we can observe how they handled international relations, public policy, etc and the consequences/effects of their choices, and draw conclusions by ourselves.

there are lots of different parent-child relationships, and sibling relationships, so that we have many examples to compare ghost and their family to.

there are also a number of higher beings around and you can compare them to each other to understand their different approaches to godhood, how they handled being the center of a culture & the responsibilities that entails (radi, unn, tpk) or the ways they sidestepped those roles (white lady, grimm). in addition to forming our opinions of these characters this also contextualizes what ghost does when they attain godhood in the godseeker endings & after the delicate flower variant, in godseeker mode.

like you can use these points of reference for a lot of different analysis topics!!! but one of the things that always Gets Me In My Emotions is the direct juxtaposition between herrah, radiance, and tpk and how differently these three characters handle the cost of fighting Existential Crisis.

the pale king’s policy is officially No Cost Too Great, but just like the hunter says in hollow’s bestiary entry, for tpk “cost” was a thing for other people to pay, and he was not willing to risk any sort of harm to his own person. his plan to deal with the infection involved sacrificing the dreamers & the hollow knight, and his plan to create a hollow knight involved birthing hundreds of thousands of children who were designed to be expendable - they were there so he could experiment on them, select a candidate, cull the failures, and then sacrifice said candidate.

the worst tpk might have experienced through all this is emotional turmoil, and it’s left ambiguous in-game whether he was actually conflicted about the child sacrifice/felt attachment to hollow or whether his personal low point throughout all this was being butthurt about his wife walking out rather than birth a second batch of vessels for the slaughter. (he must’ve been pretty darn butthurt to have lied to the kingdom that the white lady was dead.)

as soon as his plan failed and he had no other recourse, tpk fled rather than expose himself to any potential harm. he was willing to - perhaps desperate enough to - expend any number of chess pieces if it would save hallownest, but his own life and safety was NEVER on the table.

just like tpk, radiance is trying to protect herself and her people. just like tpk and herrah, she too is willing to go to any lengths necessary to get the settlers to fucking step off, give her children back, and leave her alone.

for her this entails being willing to bend her own principles - i’ve talked about this in depth before so you can find all that in my essay tag if you’re interested, but in-game evidence points to radiance having been a pacifist like the rest of her tribe pre-hallownest. and the infection is a curse that’s only sometimes fatal, but it causes extreme amounts of harm and fear and chaos to inflicted parties. and this level of harm is something she’s willing to do just to threaten/pressure tpk into backing down.

her method also causes a large amount of collateral damage (including lateral harm to other indigenous bugs!), suggesting that she either doesn’t have the emotional wherewithal to worry about who might get hurt, or just plain doesn’t care. if you squint, it’s possible to make the argument that radiance might have warned unn before her counterattack against hallownest, but even then forewarning was the only mitigation she was able and willing to provide. if this is what it takes to protect herself and her tribe, then so be it.

so, compared to tpk, who chose to actively sacrifice the lives of individuals to protect the institution of hallownest, and radiance, who doesn’t care about splash damage to bystanders as long as she can save her tribe... what i find extraordinary about herrah is that when she determined that sacrifice was necessary to protect deepnest, she took all that sacrifice upon herself.

most obviously herrah accepts the role of dreamer in hopes of ending the plague, sacrificing her life. in order to keep tpk from taking advantage of that to conquer deepnest, she also negotiates that he has to provide her with an heir, thus ensuring deepnest’s sovereignty... but this means she has to have sex with the very creature who has been trying to commit genocide against the spiders for generations. she has to let her lifelong worst enemy who she’s been fighting alone since the death of her husband impregnate her. this decision had to have come with some form of emotional distress for her, and yet herrah shoulders it and soldiers through it.

and then even through this, it’s implied in the white lady and midwife’s dialogue (+ posed in the dev notes/style guide) that tpk snatched up hornet when she was a child to raise her in the white palace. it’s unclear whether he did this to keep hornet as a hostage to make sure herrah couldn’t renege on their treaty now she’d got what she wanted out of the bargain, to ensure his offspring would be raised in the culture he created rather than in deepnest, which he clearly believed to be barbaric and uncivilized, or both.

yet instead of calling bullshit and flouncing on the deal or trying to steal hornet back, thereby exposing deepnest to the threat of both the infection And aggression from hallownest once more, herrah stuck with it. midwife says that herrah paid dearly for her involvement with this plan, but herrah valued deepnest’s survival over her own individual life, and saw it through to the end no matter how tpk’s plan caused her to suffer or hurt her dignity.

there’s an incredible amount of nobility and integrity herrah shows here. she refuses to let any harm come to her country, and insists that any and all sacrifice required of her as a leader be her sole responsibility. her courage, her political intelligence, and her strength of character as a leader are all nothing short of awe-inspiring.

at the same time, there is still a downside to herrah’s spirit of self-sacrifice. as anyone who’s ever watched steven universe can tell you, self-sacrifice is actually kind of a shitty solution to one’s problems because self-destruction hurts the people who love you.

we get glimpses of hornet’s intense emotional torment over her mother’s fate and her understanding that it’s necessary to let ghost murder herrah to change the status quo; similarly we can understand the crushing amount of personal responsibility hornet feels towards the whole crater comes from knowing the cost of her own birth, and having front row seats to her parents’ political power struggle.

we hear from herrah herself that everything she does is done for hornet, so hornet’s pain is probably the last thing herrah would have wanted, but ironically what hornet goes through in hollow knight is a direct consequence of herrah choosing to martyr herself.

anyway all of this speaks SO much for herrah and radi and tpk’s individual priorities and problem-solving strategies and also their blind spots... plus, there’s a lot about herrah’s character that goes underappreciated and this is one of those unsung aspects. fandom... fandom blease be SAD about SPIDER MAMA with me

[smhalltheurlsaretaken]

So this is less kicking a hornet's nest and more flinging a dynamite stick to it, but... The Baby Ludi case from the Star Wars EU is fascinating.

And not fascinating in the story itself (earthquake destroys town, mom is presumed dead, baby is found and adopted by the Jedi, mom wasn't dead, battle for custody ensues because the baby's mind has already been opened to the Force), but actually fascinating with how effective it is, and how it perfectly exemplifies how polarizing issues work.

It was specifically written to show how the divided the Galaxy was, especially over the Jedi, just as the Clone Wars were about to break out:

Pablo Hidalgo wrote it, though idk if Lucas approved it - or even knew about it at all - since it was promotional material for AotC but still was never featured or hinted at in any capacity in the main canon.

The only thing we have on Baby Ludi are 9 holonet articles (available on archive.org, see the wookiepedia page for a list of all of them) with absolutely no indications of how objective they're even supposed to be. They are media pieces. They make us feel emotions - they sensationalize, they stir up outrage, they make us completely irrational. Just look at what's under the first holo-report:

It's just so meta - so clearly reflecting on itself as it presents us with a certain (incomplete) narrative while simultaneously exploring how incomplete narratives make people react.

I used to see people (admittedly a while ago) brandishing this one obscure-ish story that only appears in one piece of EU media as the end-all, definite proof that the Jedi were meant to be understood as kidnappers - but in doing so, those people were actually playing into the story's very purpose: showing how manipulation is done. Showing how media and news outlets work.

If the story's goal was to end the debate on whether or not the Jedi are baby thieves, then it wouldn't have been given to us in the most vague, subjective way. There are no reliable sources in the articles, only second hand retellings of nebulous events.

The people who like the Jedi (like me) will probably jump on the information that Ludi's mother was too busy reviewing the script of an upcoming movie relating her tragedy to comment on people trying to storm the Temple on her child's behalf, and later being too busy with the movie's casting to comment on Ludi being transferred to an off-planet Temple. Or that Thrynka Padaunete, the leader of a Jedi 'watchgroup' who first protested the situation, then went on to be Jovana's agent in a production that was expected to be very profitable.

The people who don't like the Jedi will focus on them moving Ludi off Coruscant, or Plo turning an entire crowd of protestors away with a powerful mind trick (by the way, not something that's actually been shown to be possible in canon, but that's not the point).

At first I tried to analyze the story like I usually approach things, by trying to understand the perspective of each party involved. While I personally couldn't see the Jedi from Lucas' story keeping the child after only one month of training (since there even is EU precedent for Mace giving a kid back to the parents because they'd changed their mind), that wasn't what this story said, so I tried to understand. Maybe it really was too dangerous. Maybe they would have let Ludi see her Mom again if not for one particular reason we weren't aware of. Maybe they knew something that I wasn't being told.

And then I flipped my perspective, and I tried to put myself in the mother's shoes, and it was really horrifying. It was gut-wrenching, and there had to be more to her than making money off a tragedy. Maybe her conspiracist agent manipulated her, playing on her grief. Maybe her saying she wanted the money to go to charity was genuine. Maybe she was actually too distraught to keep fighting, because she felt the battle was already lost, hence why she stopped commenting on the developments.

And that's when it hit me. I was trying - when I was missing basically all of the information and all of the context - to pick a side to see who felt more right.

But we don't know. We can't know. We don't have any first hand account, any actual interview of any party involved given to us. There really is next to nothing more to the story than the summary I gave. Technically - since the story is entirely fictional - the 'right' answer doesn't even exist - there is no objective truth to base an opinion on. We don't see the reasoning behind each decision, who could have influenced who and why, what could have been political and what was in good faith.

Even when we do have those things, like with the actual movies, it's still possible to endlessly debate intentions, responsibility and failings. Here, we don't have any context, any ground to build upon. So to try to create that context based on our assumptions, whether they are more favorable to one group or the other is - in a very meta way - playing into the media's polarizing effect as though we were citizens of the Republic blind to the looming war, and trying to pass judgment on issues we're badly informed on.

That's the point of the Ludi story, not whether or not the Jedi are right or wrong, or whether the mom is actually opportunistic or simply heartbroken and human.

The point of that story (which is only 'canon' because it's referenced in the current continuity's book on propaganda) is to show how people jump to assumptions, and then try to create context around this kind of stories because they're either trying to support said assumptions, or because they're aware they can't pass judgment with so little to go on from, but since they want to pass judgment they have to give themselves something to work with.

And you know why I didn't include that much info on the story itself? (Apart from the fact that making this into a proper, impeccable meta would be a hassle and this is me already procrastinating on my homework?) Because many people who read this probably had their opinion on the case set by the time they were done with the second paragraph. Because I didn't give you any context, but it hardly mattered - just like it hardly matters to us that we often read a headline and think we've got it figured out.

So again, the Ludi story is fascinating, and super effective. I was ready to make a big fool of myself by trying to analyze the facts, when I didn't have them, when they didn't even exist.

Damn, that's the kind of reflection on perspectives and narratives and politics that Star Wars can do right!

ps: Lucas' Jedi were not child thieves in the movies or TCW, that's a hill I will die on. Here though? It is not the point. If anyone tries to use this post to argue that the Jedi were child kidnappers OR that they were right in the Ludi case - you missed the point.

[lexpressobean]

Headcanon: The Aburame Clan is Actually just as Bad as The Hyuuga Clan, but Aburame Branches act like Special Tributaries, not Condemmed Slaves

I just love the Aburame clan peeps okay? I love Shino, and Shibi, and Torune, and Muta, and Bug Ninjas are just so up my fucking alley, y'all don't even know. But as I expand my version of Aburame Clan Lore for my own enjoyment, I had a thought. Am I fully invested in this headcanon? Naw, I just thought it might be an interesting take but it's also partially fanfic too. I decided to share it anyways because why not?

Edit: oops I thought I had added a read more line.

••

Despite the obvious consanguinous marriage going on in the NartVerse, Shibi married Kiyo Hibiki (oc #1), a strong and accomplished kunoichi in her own right, but essentially a "village girl" with no historical prestige about her name. This was a rare instance of a complete outsider marrying into the clan, and even rarer, it was out of love. Because of this, Shibi refused to marry his predetermined fiance, which was his 4th cousin (oc #2) named Sarin. Sarin was the older sister of Yasushi (oc #3), who was also the last Formal Master of Kochu and Yoji Aburame's mother.

The main purpose of the coupling was simply a pattern that had developed over the clan's history to keep up the Main Familial line's pedigree in check and favorable. Unlike Dojutsu wielding clans, where Potency of the single Dojutsu is coveted, The Aburame clan has multiple branch families that specialize in certain traits and characteristics that are helpful to an Insect Weilding Shinobi, and many families specialize in specific Insect Usage for generations indefinitely. The Aburame clan is actually HUGE as a result. However, Kikaichu are the most coveted as they live off of and manipulate Chakra. Kikaichu Tolerance is a must for Clanhead Descendants.

Example: Lady Kakine (Shino's Pat. Grandmother/oc #4) was the daughter of the Aburame Clanhead and a Rinkaichu Master of that generation. Lady Kakine had a younger brother named Kachio (oc #5) who became the father of Shikuro Aburame.

Shibi and Shikuro were first cousins, and Shibi has evey ability to tolerate Rinkaichu as well. But like Kakine herself, who was the first "renewal" of that specific trait in a while, he was dismissed from Rinkaichu and was made to focus on Mastery of Kikaichu, the bread and butter of the clan.

The only exceptions to the rule made were if a coupling helped bring prestige to the clan, as with Lady Kakine and Lord Taibi Aburame (oc #6) a non-hive individual (*bad trait*), yet a member who built rapport with the Third Hokage as an accomplished ANBU operative with a special Hanekakushi Summoning (*compensation and benefit* **These were the leaders first bestowed Noble Status too, after defeating the Kamizuru Clan in defense of Konoha**)

***This is why Shibi was the one who took Torune in after Shikuro died. I REFUSE to believe Torune was left a touch starved orphan, LET SHIBI HUG TORUNE***

Because Shibi broke family tradition (not that Sarin minded, she and Shikuro HAD been a thing and also maybe most definitely encouraged Shibi to follow his heart because they were happy for him???) Shino was born with a muddled pedigree that definitely ruined a good amount of the Main Familial Line's poison resistance for one thing (Rinkaichu venom included). However, Kikaichu Tolerance IS what makes the Aburame clan, and has been so heavily emphasized that Shino showed no immediate or latent signs of intolerance. Shino also sparred heavily with other members as a child to test such things, especially with a non-hive member named Chiaki (oc #7), 3 years his senior and a Yellow Hornet/Apoidea specialist. Shino got stung a LOT. But at least he was able to tough it out lmao. That's all the clan elders cared about. Chiaki hated causing Shino pain, but also didn't want to lose more of his own insects to those monstrous Kikaichu than he had too.

Shino is currently recognized as Shibi's heir, but Shino had to WORK SO DAMN HARD to earn that fucking recognition. This is partially why Shino was so... asocial even as a young child, and so full of self doubt and anxiety when it came to simply being able to be CONFIDENT in himself and his abilities. He wasn't hated by his own clan, but older clan members were NOT the most approving of him. But they better have kept their opinions to themselves, because Shibi was an absolute horror to deal with when provoked. Younger clan members absolutely LOVE/D Kiyo and by association, couldn't bring themselves to ever see Shino in a negative light. So his mom was a commoner, what of it!?

Traditionally, Aburame couples with Specializations will have two children when that specific trait/characteristic is chosen to be the next add-on to the Main Familial Line. One child would be offered as a tribute and the other would continue that specific family's legacy. And as it was a pattern among many known and unknown traits of the Aburame clan, members could usually predict when a specific trait/characteristic would be in demand. It is considered an honor to be a Tribute, yet it is also an extremely tense time for the family of the tribute to the say the very least. Not to mention dehumanizing. But that's what makes Shino so special, he was made out of Love <3.

Bonus Headcanons for sticking around this long lol:

•Shibi passed Fire Release to Shino while Kiyo, passed Earth Release to Shino

•Shibi has deep viridian green eyes, Kiyo has bright golden brown eyes, so Shino has shimmering hazel green eyes, or the more flowery version, Shino has Central Heterochromia with outer green and inner brown and brown specks too!

•Shino is quite a literal mix of his parents in general <3

•Shino has a predetermined fiance of his own, but is TRYING to put that shit off for as long as possible. His fiance, Moya (oc #8) highly respects Shino but is in mutual agreement. Her trait is Venom resistance via Exposure, and as an adult works specifically as Konoha Hospital's Resident Toxicologist under Eirou Nara (oc #9), a lead Pharmacist within the Hospital. Shino and Moya have a good, but awkward relationship. If Torune were still alive, he'd ABSOLUTELY tease Shino AND Moya about it.

• I just like creating drama, man, it's kinda fun in it's own way.

So yeah, food for thought. Because as fun as it is play around with Kekkei Genkai in theory, all and all, being part of a clan must totally suck.

[dragonologist-phd]

⭐Broken Crown

thank you!

Broken Crown

Piper thinks she's done a rather good job of leading the Crusade. But that's not really what this is about, is it?

Commentary below:

First off, this fic ended up a bit more popular than I expected! Which maybe I shouldn't be surprised of, because it's based around an intense scene with Galfrey that I realize now a lot of players have strong feelings about!

Anyway, I wanted to look more at Piper's specific reaction to that scene, and took opportunity of the 'leadership' prompt for OwlCatober to mix that in with her thoughts on leading the Crusade in general and whether she was more offended or relieved at getting fired from a job she never wanted.

On to this fic!

Piper knew this would happen.

She barely hears the queen’s words, the reasons for her sudden interrogation. She doesn’t need to. It really all comes down to one thing, the same thing it always comes down to- we don’t trust you.

The funniest part is, this time around Piper has done nothing to warrant suspicion. In fact, she’d go so far as to say she’s vastly exceeded all expectations with the command she was given. She may not have hundreds of years of experience in war, but she’s managed to retake Drezen and turn it into a force to be reckoned with. She’s inspired her armies with speech and song. She’s actually helped people for once. For all of her faults- and yes, she has many, she has never denied that- she has been a damned good leader.

Has all that work been for nothing?

Obviously, the scene plays out the same with every Commander. But for Piper's part, as a tiefling and occasional criminal, she took Galfrey's lack of trust as another instance of people assuming the worst of her, which in turn brings out her worst tendencies and stirs up a lot bitterness that she was trying to move on from.

Piper does not bother offering any arguments, only a stoic glare as Galfrey outlines her judgements. Eventually, however, the queen’s attention shifts away from Piper to land on Arueshalae. Under that heavy gaze, Arueshalae flinches back, her eyes turned towards the ground as she attempts to shrink into herself, and that is what finally sends Piper’s resignation boiling over to a burning anger.

And this is just me being soft for protective couples <3

“Enough.”

Piper steps defensively between Galfrey and Arueshalae, steadfast and defiant as she stares down the queen. Galfrey looks surprised but does not back down, and Piper only wishes the butterflies circling her head could turn to hornets.

I'm fond of that description- Piper may be an Azata, but she's still got a vindictive streak.

“Inviting a succubus-”

“Arueshalae has done nothing but help us.” Piper’s words come out like daggers, sharp and hard and aimed straight for the throat. “Unlike much of the ‘help’ that you have sent my way. Or are you not the one who told me to rely on Nurah? The one who drove Staunton into the demons’ arms? You have lost any right to question me on my choice of allies.”

Like I said...vindictive streak. Up until now, Piper has spent the game playing nice with the queen, but she won't hesitate to throw those mistakes back in her face if needed.

Galfrey’s only answer is stony silence, and Piper suddenly understands that her successes are not actually points in her favor but rather the nails in her coffin. Because how dare a common, untrained tiefling plucked off the street by fate and circumstance succeed in all the places where the Queen, the icon of the Crusades, has failed for so many years?

But of course the queen cannot state this so openly. Whether she knows this entire ‘judgement’ is a farce or she believes her own petty reasoning, Piper cannot say.

Honestly, I kind of hate how open Galfrey is later on about this decision being all about jealousy. Because yeah, Piper hates her for it, but objectively I can understand Galfrey's concerns- a random person shows up out of nowhere with an unpredictable, unheard of power and now the fate of the world is in their hands? There are a lot of ways that can be dangerous, and she does seem like she partially regrets but believes it's for the best at the time. I even like the idea that jealousy does play a small part, or that she unconscious feelings of envy that she won't admit to.

But then later on she's like 'yeah i'm totally aware that it was all about me being jealous' and it feels like such a weird cop-out on character complexity :/

But her words do appear to have struck a nerve, and Galfrey seems to be using every last bit of her restraint as she gathers herself enough to speak once more. Finally, in a cold voice, the queen says, “I am not attempting to deny my own faults. But even discounting this matter, there are many other serious concerns.”

Piper scoffs and turns away, the words once again falling on deaf ears. At this point it doesn’t matter what she does or what she says. People like her- people with horns and demonic blood and shady pasts- will never be good enough for righteous people like Galfrey. And the idea that she may be even more than 'good enough'- that she may actually be better? That is an idea that simply cannot stand.

Again- the scene may play out the same for any Commander, but it really hits different with a tiefling who's already spent their life trying to get people not to see them demons

Instead, Piper looks to Arueshalae, and offers a quiet nod of support. It takes a moment for Arueshalae to respond, but she does, giving a small, shaky smile in return. Good- the last thing Arueshalae needs is to be made to doubt herself by the very woman about to throw her into the Abyss.

Again, I just love Piper/Aru <3

And they are being thrown into the Abyss, that much is clear. Piper has been stripped of her command and her title alike. That’s fine, she tells herself; she never asked for any of it, anyway. And now, she no longer owes the queen any cordiality.

Piper turns to the portal without another word, motioning for the others to come with her. Arueshalae follows, a soft and silent and comforting presence at Piper’s side. Seelah pauses, and stares hard at the queen, as if she’s seeing her for the first time, before finally tearing her gaze away and following suit. Daeran’s jaw and fists are both clenched as he glares in dark silence at his cousin, while Woljif throws out indignant shouts about the injustice and underhandedness of it all. Piper simply strides past them both, pausing only long enough to tell them, “Let’s not waste any more time here. She’s made up her mind.”

(If any of her companions had asked to stay behind, Piper would have let them. She will not force anyone to march to their death. But they don’t, and even in the midst of her anger, she hopes they know that she loves them for it.)

I love how the companions reach to this scene, too- obviously, Daeran and Woljif's reactions stuck out to me the most. But the whole literal concept of 'following their friend to hell and back' is just wonderful

The last thing Piper sees of Golarion is Galfrey, her face a mask of hard resolve. Piper does not allow herself to feel disappointment, or regret. Once, she may have hoped that they could understand each other- two people, flung in the middle of a conflict bigger than either of them, from incredibly different places yet united in their goals. But that hope was never truly real.

Fun fact- Piper flirted with Galfrey a lot and almost romanced her in a delightfully ridiculous 'opposite attract' kind of romance. Once Aru entered the game I was instantly sold on Piper/Aru romance instead. It made sense in-game partially because she and Aru had way more instances to bond, and partially because after this scene Piper just couldn't forgive Galfrey or trust her again.

Piper knows who she is, and she always knew this would happen.

And there's that bitterness again, which sets Piper up for a really fun time in the Abyss thanks XD

Thanks for the ask, this was a really fun fic to revisit!

[mrslittletall]

Title: Off Balance (Chapter 7) Fandom: Hollow Knight Characters: The Pale King, The Pure Vessel, Herrah, Hornet Word Count: 10.962 AO3-Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21805333/chapters/58496248 Previous chapter: https://mrslittletall.tumblr.com/post/616114517764685824/title-off-balance-chapter-6-fandom-hollow

Summary: The Pale King and Hollow venture into Deepnest to meet up with Herrah, so that Hollow can meet their sister. Not everything goes smoothly.

(Author's note: Long chapter is long!

I would have liked to cut this chapter in two, but it feels like it has to be this long, it would feel wrong to cut it in half and publish as two chapters. There was so much I wanted to put into this chapter and I am satisfied I managed, I am just amazed that I managed to break the 10k word mark. That is the longest chapter I have ever written.

Once again, I need to thank all of you who commented on this piece, your support is what keeps me going.

I also need to thank @catanutella, who draw some art inspired by my fic which you can find here and @ruthlesslistener which latest Hollow Knight oneshot inspired me to add a tiny scene at the end.

Also, I shit you not, I dreamed up a scene for this chapter! Ask me which it was if you want or try to find it our yourself ^^)

“We will take the tram from the Basin to Deepnest.”, the Pale King said to Hollow as they walked away from the palace. “Once we are there, we have to walk the rest by foot.” The Pale King had preferred to take the tram that would lead more closely to Herrah's den, but even though construction works had gone on for a while now, it just never seemed to get finished. Maybe he should use the opportunity and see what the problem was, when he was already there.

“Tram?”, Hollow asked, quickly signing each individual letter, not knowing a sign for the word they just had learned.

“It's a vehicle that moves on rails.”, the Pale King explained. “It can move rather fast and get you from one point of Hallownest to another in a short amount of time, but it is fixed on one layer. The tram we are going to take will get us to the lower levels of Deepnest and then we need to climb up to meet Herrah at her den.”

“Understood.”, Hollow signed, silently following the Pale King, only the foot steps of their void feet, mixing with the clacking of the Pale King's claws, were heard. If one didn't knew they were there, it was easy to forget about their presence. The familiar guilty pang bloomed in the Pale King's chest, his teachings of not to feel anything had made them that way, that was the only reason they were so good at being silent, at acting as if they wouldn't exist.

It was only a short walk to the tram station, Hollow didn't even need any help, their balance had improved vastly over the last week, they mostly still had trouble with balance while trying to fight and when teleporting, they just wouldn't be able to stand straight after it, they always would get pulled down by their horns, having a few painful impacts with the floor whenever the Pale King hadn't managed to catch them in time. It had gone so far that they had to transfer the training near a soul statue, so that they could deal with the constant cracks in their shell. For how much the Pale King encouraged Hollow to make their own decision, training until they were so dry of Soul they could barely stand wasn't one he approved of, they could be surprisingly stubborn about their training. He just wondered from who Hollow had inherited that train, or not, he exactly knew from who they had inherited it.

Arrived at the tram station, the Pale King breathed out a short sigh of relief at how empty it was. This particular station was mostly occupied by bugs coming from and going to Deepnest, which wasn't a common occurrence. The main reason why the Pale King didn't want to ride the stag ways, even though he had ordered to build them, wasn't only that the stags weren't too fond at his decision to build the trams, but rather that they were riddled with bugs, bugs who would stare at him, bow to him and do nothing but praise him, a thing that was fine when they were far away, but felt extremely awkward when he was in the middle of it. He would feel like wanting to run away screaming, but would be forced to stay and act regal, he was their king after all, a higher being. It would only make him incredible cramped and would give him a desire to stay in the palace for a whole year, he wouldn't be a good role model for Hollow as well. They had picked up on his anxiety anyway already, no need to display it in front of them any more.

The Pale King pulled out the tram pass he had organized before they left and inserted it in the slot at the station, only a short while later the tram arrived. Hollow stared at it and if they would have been able to make an expression, the Pale King could swear their eyeholes would have gone larger.

“That is the tram.”, the Pale King said and moved closer to the door. “Let us enter.”

The both of them entered and the tram was as empty as the station in front of them, which was much to the Pale King's preference. That was the good thing about having a bad relationship with Deepnest, nobody ever wanted to go there. The Pale King sat down and gestured for Hollow to sit down next to him. As the tram rumbled and started moving, the Pale King noticed that Hollow fidgeted with their fingers.

“Are you nervous?”, he asked them.

“Yes.”, Hollow signed and the Pale King laid his claws on their shoulder. One of the advices in Monomon's letter, make your child feel safe and understood when they are unsure. Physical affection always seemed to help with Hollow.

There were a few minutes of silence before Hollow signed: “What is Deepnest like?”

“It's a dark place.”, the Pale King replied. “Actually, while we have to wait to arrive at our destination this is a good opportunity to tell you about a few rules.”

Hollow turned their head at the Pale King and cocked it lightly, showing that they were listening.

“Like I said, it is a dark place.”, the Pale King said. “Quite literally. When the White Palace is a place full of light, then Deepnest is a place devoid of light. I, naturally, glow in the dark, so I would like for you to stick close to me.” Hollow nodded as the Pale King got something out of his robes, a tiny glass ball filled with a few glowing flies. “But if we ever get separated, I need you to have this. It is a lumafly lantern. It will grant you light in a dark place.”

Hollow accepted the lantern and stared at it, stroking it with their fingers, observing it from all angles, obviously being fascinated by it. “Of course it would be better if we don't get separated.”, the Pale King said, leaving Hollow a few minutes to observe the lantern until they were satisfied.

“Next, Deepnest isn't a part of the kingdom.”, the Pale King said. “It consists mostly of predators and they could attack us, especially if they are infected.” The Pale King shuddered a bit, the infection was still a problem with no solution. He needed to find one, soon, at least before Hollow would offer to be the Vessel again. He still got an icy feeling in his stomach when he even thought about that scene.

“Herrah is kind of the leader of Deepnest, we don't want to anger her, so don't kill anyone that isn't infected.”, the Pale King said. “It would be better if you use your nail only in an emergency situation, let me handle any predators, I know enough spells to incapacitate them.”

Hollow nodded, but still clutched their nail. The Pale King remembered, that while Hollow had trained with a nail since they hatched, they never actually had gotten send out to fight the infected with the five great knights. They truly were a skilled warrior, but they lacked proper experience.

“So, in short, stay close to me, only use your nail when absolutely necessary. Do you understand?”, the Pale King asked and they confirmed with a nod.

A few more moments of silence and then Hollow signed another question: “Why is sister at Deepnest?” The Pale King noticed that they used the signs for dark and nest for the last word, practically calling it Darknest, but he got it just fine.

“It's because Hornet is watched over by Herrah.”, the Pale King said. “She... was part of the bargain to convince Herrah to be a dreamer. It's.. complicated.”

While the Pale King would have liked to tell Hollow exactly just how Hornet had come into existence, he felt it was a bit too much to unload on them that he practically had engaged in a dalliance with Herrah and Hornet could be considered his bastard child. His Root never had been mad at him for it though and she even seemed fond of Hornet, often talking about her whenever she met up with Herrah. The Pale King assumed that it was kind of a coping mechanism for his Root at the loss of her biological children.

Hollow didn't ask further. Why should they, he had let through that he was uncomfortable talking about this topic and they surely wouldn't pry further. The rest of the ride was spent in silence until the tram came to a screeching halt and Hollow nearly fell over at the sudden loss of balance, being supported by the Pale King who had grabbed the end of their robe.

“We are here.”, he said. “Stay close to me, Hollow.”

Hollow nodded and the both of them exited the tram. Around the station, there was still light, but it was barely possible to see two metres into the dark. Now the daunting task to navigate Deepnest and actually reach Herrah's den was in front of them. The Pale King pulled out a map of the place and planned a route while Hollow was looking at every direction, taking in the sight, or more the darkness, there wasn't much to see.

Once the Pale King had mapped out the route and saved it in his mind, he looked at Hollow who clearly had waited for his attention, because they signed: “Place is dark.” They looked around another time. “Not even birthplace was that dark.”

“Can... can we not talk about this place, please?”, the Pale King said, having a sinking feeling in his stomach, the sinking feeling of several thousand dead children locked in this place.

“Sorry.”, Hollow signed and they looked down, almost toppling over. Whenever they even shifted their horns downwards, their balance would be off at once.

“It's quite alright, Hollow.”, the Pale King said. “I am just... not ready facing that place again.�� Or more, he had vowed to himself that he would never return to it. What was the point? Hollow had been the only survivor. All other vessels had been stillborn, cracked shortly after birth or had fell on the way to the top. It had been a cruel thing to watch and he had been a cruel father to let it happen, the guilt gnawing at him even months later.

However, enough about being lost in thoughts. They were on their way to something more bright. At least for Hollow it should be, the Pale King only felt incredibly awkward around Herrah, especially after the had... He shook his head and started to put one foot in front of the other. The sooner they managed to cross Deepnest, the better.

“Follow me and stay close.”, the Pale King said and Hollow nodded, starting to follow him. His natural light illuminated the caves around them, so that there wasn't a need for a light source, like he had explained to Hollow earlier. Most of Deepnest's inhabitants were quite sensitive to light, so he hoped that this would be enough to keep them at bay, even the infected ones. He had overheard some of the Royal Retainers once and some of them had admitted that it downright hurt looking at him, so bright could his light be.

The Pale King looked back to make sure that Hollow was following him. Despite their void nature, they weren't bothered by his light at all and if, they were excellent in hiding it. He saw that they had drawn their nail, despite him telling them earlier to only use it in an emergency situation, but he also knew that Hollow viewed their nail as emotional comfort. They probably only were holding it, with both hands, he realized, one at the handle and one at the tip, to calm themselves down from any fears they felt.

“Hollow, if anything is bothering you, tell me.”, the Pale King said, but Hollow shook their head and continued to follow him. They either were fine with the situation or tried to be brave and the Pale King suspected the latter was the case. However, because he tried to encourage them to be their own person, he didn't want to to make them feel that they couldn't make their own decisions. If he would tell them that they didn't have to be brave, they would only take this as cue to fall completely back into their dependency on him. Getting this mindset out of them was still a work in progress.

The walk was silent, well asides from the noises that Deepnest would make, the constant crawling and chittering of the bugs in the darkness and generally noises that made anyone feel unwelcome here. In the outer parts of Deepnest there lived mostly Dirtcarvers, a predator that would burrow underground and strike when their prey least expected it. Luckily, most of them still seemed to have their wits about them and didn't emerge, probably knowing that even with the bad relationship Hallownest and Deepnest had with each other, that it wouldn't be wise to attack the literal king and whichever bug was following him. On the rare occasions of an infected Dirtcarver emerging, the Pale King summoned a few spears and would incapacitate them in place, still hoping that they could find a cure for the infection and wouldn't have to take down every bug which displayed symptoms. At least the infection didn't seem to have spread too much to Deepnest, for most of the time, their walk was rather peaceful, in lack of better descriptions for Deepnest.

A bit further in, the Pale King spotted the first Deephunters glaring at him, quickly running away once him and Hollow approached, either being bothered by the light or fearing that this prey could be too big for them, not wanting to waste their venom. Of course their venom would be hardly deadly for a Higher Being, but it would still hurt and in too high concentration could start to get deadly, so the Pale King was rather satisfied that he didn't had to fend them back.

Occasionally the Pale King turned around to check on Hollow, once again regretting that he hadn't given them a voice, because without them making a single sound, it was hard to interpret just how they felt. They looked around and took in the surroundings, bravely following him step by step, sometimes needing help climbing a ledge by the Pale King, because jumping still caused them balance troubles and their wings weren't useful for flight, never commenting on the situation, probably because their hands were busy holding their nail and they didn't want to let go to sign or write in their journal.

“Are you feeling fine, Hollow?”, the Pale King asked after they had approximately reached the halfway point to Herrah's Den. Hollow just nodded and seemed to clutch their nail harder.

“Alright then.”, the Pale King said and started walking again. The ground of that tunnel felt kind of off, he thought. It felt like it could burst anytime and just as he realized that the weight of two bugs may be too much for the already fragile ground, it crumbled. In the spur of the moment the Pale King spread his wings to lift himself up, turning around having kind of suspected that Hollow had either jumped or teleported when they felt the ground giving in, but his child was nowhere to be seen.

“Hollow?!”, the Pale King asked, panic blooming in his chest. “Hollow, where are you?!”

Of course they didn't answer, couldn't answer, how could they without a voice. He had to find them and quick. That they weren't anywhere at the edge of the newly formed gap meant, that they probably had fallen down and what if they had gotten hurt and couldn't move and not even cry for help down there? The Pale King got a sinking feeling in his stomach.

“Wait.”, he told himself, in an attempt to calm himself down. “If they have gotten hurt, then they must still be down there.” He flew the gap down, which thankfully wasn't that deep, but still deep enough for a bug to break their shell if they landed wrong and Hollow had the tendency to land on their head when they fell.

They weren't down there. At least that meant they hadn't gotten hurt enough so that they couldn't move or that they were able to heal any injuries with soul, but that was the only comfort the Pale King had. He actually had preferred to found them down there, where he easily would have been able to fix them up with his own soul, them not being there meant that they now were wandering through Deepnest, alone and scared and maybe out of enough soul to heal any injuries they could suffer.

“Hollow?”, the Pale King shouted again. “If you can hear me, make some noise.”

There wasn't anything and the earlier panic manifested back in the Pale King. What if he would never find Hollow again? What if he would only find their shell? What if their shade would get unleashed, lashing out at him for all the suffering he had inflicted on them? What should he tell his Root, that he lost their last living child? He sunk to the ground, heavily breathing, as the panic took completely over. The last time he had felt this hopeless had been when the Radiance nearly had killed him and he needed to channel every last amount of Soul to heal the life threatening injury. At least, that had only been about himself, now, he had lost the very one being he was responsible for, he had started to care so much about and he didn't want to lose for anything in the entirety of Hallownest.

The frantic beating of his heart in his chest slowed down as he made a decision. He wouldn't let Deepnest take his child. The Pale King got up and considered how he should start the search. Sadly, he had neglected to tell Hollow what to do when they got separated, it would be best for them to stay put, but judging how scared they seemed to be off Deepnest, they probably panicked once they got separated and ran away.

The Pale King noticed something on the ground which didn't reflect his light. Only one thing in Hallownest was able to swallow his light and that was... void. Indeed, there were traces of void on the floor, which implied that Hollow indeed had gotten hurt by their fall, but not hurt enough that they couldn't move anymore. If the Pale King would follow the trail, he would find them.

He hadn't followed the trail for long when he caught the glimpse of something white and black hushing along the tunnels, with two very big horns. “Oh, Hollow, there you are.”, the Pale King said, following their figure, not questioning why they didn't stop when they heard his voice or just why they could move so gracefully quick, even though they usually would fall over every few steps at this pace.

“Hollow, wait.”, the Pale King said, “Where are you heading? I am right here. Look, I am sorry that I left you hanging earlier. Aren't you hurt? Let's take a look at your wound.”

Hollow didn't answer, of course, but they also didn't sign or did... anything to show that they heard the Pale King. Sometimes they would stop and wait for the Pale King to catch up before hurrying into the tunnels again. “Have you discovered something and want to show it to me?”, the Pale King asked, getting more and more confused about Hollow's behaviour, a feeling that something was wrong with them grew inside of him, maybe they really had hit their head and now couldn't think straight or some parasite of Deepnest had taken over them. Either way, for the Pale King to help them, he needed to come closer and they always would run away again, when he was close enough to finally reach them.

“Hollow, stop this.”, the Pale King said “This isn't funny anymore.” They had arrived at a rather spacious tunnel and just now the Pale King noticed that there were two things wrong with Hollow.

The first one was, that they weren't carrying the Lumafly Lantern he had given them earlier. Judging from their earlier remark, they couldn't see in the dark.

The second, and that was the more alarming one, was that they weren't carrying their nail they had hold on so conscientiously earlier. Even when they had lost the nail, the Pale King knew that they would go search it before doing anything else. That was probably why they hadn't been there, they had let go of their nail and went to search it in a panic as their comfort item vanished from their grasp.

The suspicions of the Pale King about having faced an imposter became true when the “Hollow” in front of him started to transform and their body turned into one of a big black and orange predator (an infected one), hissing and bubbling at him. Of course it would attack, of all the bugs in Hallownest, he was the one the Radiance wanted to be dead the most.

“Hmph, don't underestimate me.”, the Pale King said, flicking his wrist to summon several projectiles, dictating them to fly at the predator and impale it. He knew he couldn't just incapacitate this one, but judging from the fury the creature had for him, its mind had been completely took over by the will and orders of the Radiance, getting it out of its misery could be considered an act of mercy.

The creature started to charge against him and the Pale King ordered his projectiles to target its head, but shortly before they could impact, he hesitated.

That was still Hollow's face the creature was wearing and even though the Pale King knew that he was unreasonable, after all he did to Hollow, he couldn't bring himself to hurt this face, even if it was clearly an imposter in front of him.

His hesitation was enough that he predator could pin him under its claws, roaring at him. He could practically hear the Radiance's excitement at finally having a chance to strike her arch enemy down, with the help of a powerful predator she had managed to overtake. The Pale King knew that he needed to attack, defend himself, but his gaze was still on the face of Hollow that the imposter was wearing and there was it, that crushing guilt. There was the picture inside of his mind of Hollow cowering in fear when he had made several projectiles fly at them, wanting to test their new balance, still thinking that they were nothing but an empty being, realizing how hard they had tried to pretend and it made him unable to move, even when the claw drove into his flesh, a hot pain searing through his shoulder and blood seeping out of the wound.

The pain briefly brought him back to the severity of the situation, if he wouldn't do something, anything, the predator would cut him down and the Radiance would get her will. Though, why she didn't order the predator to kill him right away... she probably wanted him to suffer, kill him slowly and painfully. He could use this to his advantage. He forced himself to conjure another projectile and hurled it between him and the claw, rolling away when the predator shrieked in protest at the sudden obstacle, struggling to get to his feet. He couldn't fight the creature, not as long as it was wearing Hollow's face and making him incapable of hurting it because of his own guilt, but at least he could flee and find the real Hollow, who hopefully hadn't become a victim of this predator.

That thought, together with the wound, was enough for the Pale King to struggle and fall over, the impact jostling the injury and making him incapable of getting up because of the pain.

“Focus...”, he murmured to himself, trying to conjure soul to heal himself, but it was too late. The predator had already caught up to him and he closed his eyes awaiting the impact of its razor sharp claws in his back, but it never happened. Instead, he heard the sound of metal clashing against claws.

As he opened his eyes and turned his head, he saw Hollow, the real Hollow, standing between him and the predator, their nail fighting against the force of their strike. They were shaking and the Pale King couldn't say if it was from effort or rage. He only knew that he was more than glad to see them, alive and well, though they did get pushed backwards one by one.

Enough of lying around., the Pale King thought to himself and though it would have been more wise to heal his injury first, seeing his child in danger made him lose any reasonable thoughts and so he jumped up and conjured several projectiles, ignoring the pain flaring up from his wound.

“Leave our child alone.”, he hissed, throwing the projectiles at the predator, now that his real child was here, that mind trick wouldn't work on him anymore.

His aim was a bit shaky, but most of the projectiles hit their mark, well, would, if the predator wouldn't have jumped backwards, dodging a majority of them in the last second. At least it gave Hollow some breathing room. The Pale King turned his head to check on them, only to see they were face first on the ground. Of course, they had tried with all their might to push back their foe and when suddenly the force pushing them back vanished, they would lose their balance and with them being still off balance, they wouldn't be able to keep themselves up.

With the nail in their right hand, they struggled to get up. The predator took this as a chance and their claw was about to strike down. The Pale King, while not being fond of it, it would cost him large amounts of soul, teleported between the claw and his child, summoning a barrage of projectiles to protect the both of them, but he wasn't quick enough, the claw managed to rip another wound, this time in his arm, he gasped as the pain hit him.

If he would have been in his wyrm form, that predator would have just been an easy meal, swallowed in one gulp, but he wasn't in his wyrm form anymore, he had changed himself to a form that was more akin to the bugs of this kingdom and with that came disadvantages. As he summoned another barrage of projectiles to not let the next strike hit them, especially not his child, he noticed that Hollow had managed to get up again and also noticed that they weren't waiting behind him, instead, they jumped up and drove their nail into one eye of the predator, which shrieked in pain, orange goop leaked out of it.

“Hollow, what are you doing?! Stay behind me!”, the Pale King yelled, unaware that he had been on the defense all this time and Hollow just wanted to give him an opening, he could only watch when after the attack they failed their landing and the impact with the ground sounded rather painful.

The Pale King dropped any projectiles he still controlled and hurried over to his child, summoning new projectiles on the way, intending to string them between the predator and his child, but pain, blood loss and exhaustion from all the soul he had used caught up to him and made him unable to spread his wings, instead, he scurried over the ground, having to see how the claws of the predator bolted down on a helpless Hollow, which stared, simply stared and shortly before the claw could hit them, they didn't use their nail in an attempt to block it, but instead looked away and flicked their left hand, spear pillars emerging from the ground, impaling the predator on them.

The Pale King watched with wide eyes as the death cry of the creature sounded and even Hollow managed to direct their gaze back, crawling a bit backwards when they saw what had happened. Copious amounts of the infection regorged on the ground, staining Hollow, and the shell of the predator soon fell lifeless on the ground once the pillars vanished.

Hollow started shaking and soon tears ran down their face. The Pale King was at their side in an instant to pull them into a hug.

“Father.”, they signed. “Scared.”

“I know.”, the Pale King said. “I was scared too.” Scared of losing you. “I am so sorry that I lost you earlier.” He hugged them tighter, their shaking still not ceasing. They must have been terrified and still, they had saved him. Without their interference, he would have let himself strike down by the predator, simply because he couldn't get the image out of his mind of a Hollow that had cowered in fear of him.

Hollow reciprocated the hug, but withdrew their hand and stared at the white liquid on it. His blood.

“Father, you are hurt.”, they signed. “You saved me. Now you are hurt.” They then proceeded to sign the word sorry in quick succession until the Pale King took their hands in his claws, not without wincing, that arm and shoulder of his hurt, preventing them from signing the word out once more.

“The opposite is the case, Hollow. If you wouldn't have come, I would have let myself struck down. It was you who made me able to move again and it was you who took down the predator.”, he said, slowly releasing their hands.

“I did?”, they asked. “Not you?”

Clearly they were confused and seemed to think that the last attack had come from the Pale King, not from them, no wonder, they never had used this attack before. The Pale King was once again astonished about their tight control over soul, even though they had done it in a panic, they had managed to copy a complex spell that he may have shown them once or twice when they still had been a grub.

“No, that was all you, Hollow.”, the Pale King said and then scanned their body. “Are you hurt? Are you in pain?”

Hollow first shook their head and then nodded, contradicting themselves.

“Well, yes or no?”, the Pale King asked.

They raised shaky hands to sign: “Cut my foot earlier. Is not bad. Healed my shell with soul.”

That meant, they had gotten hurt earlier by their fall and, like the Pale King had anticipated, fell face first, though that didn't explain how they managed to cut their foot. Which also was void and so couldn't be healed with soul, which only would heal the shell.

“Can you explain how it happened?”, the Pale King said.

Hollow was silent for a while and then signed: “Fell. Felt a panic. Teleported. Foot got caught in something sharp. Fell over again. Hit my head. Healed it with Soul. Then couldn't see you anymore. Went to search.”

Alright, that explained just how it had come to all of the events that led to this moment. The Pale King should have never let Hollow fall down into that pit, they didn't knew what they should do and had tried to find their only source of comfort and the person they depended on: Him.

“Let me see your wound.”, the Pale King said.

“Father, your own wounds...”, they signed, but he shook his head and said: “I can heal myself in a second, let's take care of you first.” The relief of his child being safe was enough to make him forget that there still was blood seeping out of his own cuts, staining his robes and the ground around him.

Hollow shyly presented him their left food, which indeed had a nasty cut in it which leaked void blood.

“I can't heal void with soul.”, he said. “But we can make sure that it doesn't bleed anymore.” He conjured a bit more soul and formed it into the form of strap, which wrapped itself around Hollow's feet, securing the wound tightly and keeping it from leaking. “There, now you should be able to strain it without trouble.”

Hollow got up and took a few shaky steps, nodding, then stared expectant at him.

“I know, I know, I will heal myself now.”, the Pale King said and conjured up soul to guide into his injuries, but he had to realize that there wasn't any soul left to guide anywhere.

“I … seem to be out of soul.”, he said and along with the realization and the relief about Hollow being fine, the severity of his injuries came toppling down on him and he could feel himself slip into unconsciousness.

When the Pale King awoke, he still noticed a dull pain in his arm and shoulder, but they felt much more manageable. He was propped up against a wall and when he investigated his wounds, he saw that they were wrapped tightly, not with soul, but with what looked suspiciously like Hollow's robe. He turned his head to search for them and found them in the middle of the cave, where the predator had hung it's prey from the ceiling, working on getting a Dirtcarver down with their nail. There were several more dead bugs hanging from the ceiling, clearly victim of Deepnest's philosophy of “eat or get eaten”. One of them looked kinda like a Vessel. The Pale King blinked and then shook his head, was his mind still playing tricks on him? Asides from Hollow, no other Vessel survived.

Once Hollow managed to cut down the Dirtcarver, they took the prey in both hands and brought it over to the Pale King, cutting pieces out of it with their nail.

“What are you doing?”, the Pale King asked, startling them. They turned their head to them, laid their nail down and signed: “Father, you are awake.”

“Yes, indeed.”, the Pale King said. “So, what are you doing?”

“Food.”, they signed. “Tried to heal you. Failed. Only healed myself. Patched up your wounds.”

Indeed, their robe was in poor shape and they obviously had cut off one sleeve to use it as bandages for his injuries and now they tried to feed him, probably hoping that his soul would be able to get replenished by eating.

“Soul doesn't get replenished by eating.”, he said. “Only by resting or directly absorbing it from a source. That is why we have the soul statues in the palace.”, he said.

They stopped cutting up the Dirtcarver and looked at the Pale King. He didn't need words to know what they wanted to say. “Eating surely won't hurt.”, he said. Even though in his current form he had started to cherish food that had been prepared, he had just ate everything raw once. It wouldn't kill him to devour one Dirtcarver, especially when it would make his child happy. “But I want you to eat too.”, he said. Hollow was still a growing grub and would need large amounts of energy once their second transformation hit. He wouldn't let them go hungry.

Hollow nodded and soon they were biting down on the Dirtcarver, which soft shell luckily was easy to break through. By tasting the raw meat, the Pale King even could feel some of his old instincts coming back, the desire to hunt and taste fresh blood on his tongue. He couldn't believe how primitive and brutal he once had been. Hollow ate in silence next to him, in their own unique way, which pretty much just looked like their void body absorbed the food. That was probably what they were doing. He needed to finally ask them just how they were eating, but that was a question for another day.

After they were finished, the Pale King got up and took a look at Hollow, their cut robes and the orange stains of infection on their shel as well as his own torn robes, his bandages shimmering through. “We are pretty worn up.”, he said and took out the map, until he found the landmark of the lair of the predator, studying it to find the route back to Herrah. Even though he would have preferred to get Hollow home that instant, they seemed to have calmed down and he could only imagine how mad Herrah would get if he wouldn't show up.

“Oh, there is a hot spring on the way.”, the Pale King said. “We should stop there, to get cleaned up and heal our injuries. Hot springs are a natural source of soul.”

Hollow nodded and the Pale King took a step forwards only to get dizzy and almost fall over. He had lost too much blood. Hollow tried to catch him, but only fell over with him.

“My apologies.”, the Pale King said. “I seem to be a bit weaker than I thought...”

Hollow got up, straightened themselves, put their nail into the ground and then lifted him up with a strength he didn't even know they possessed, using their left arm to support him and their nail to prop themselves up, giving him a stare that the Pale King only could interpret as: “Lead the way.”

A gladly uneventful, but rather painful journey later, the both of them had arrived at the hot spring. “Finally.”, the Pale King said, as Hollow released their grip on them. He opened his robe and let it fall on the ground before stepping into the hot water, already feeling how the natural soul in it seeped into his body and closed the cuts on his arm and his shoulder. As he was in the process to remove the bandages, he saw Hollow joining him.

“I don't know if the hot spring can heal your void body, so better don't take off the bandage around your foot, just in case.”, the Pale King said. Hollow nodded and in the natural light of the hot spring, he could see a lot better just how dirty their shell was.

“Hollow, come here.”, he said, gesturing for them to come closer, which they did, their empty eyeholes staring at him. “Turn around, I am going to wash your horns.”

Hollow did so without hesitating, even sinking a bit deeper into the water, giving the Pale King easier access to their horns. The Pale King started to gently clean their horns with the hot water of the spring, scrubbing off the dirt and especially the chunks of infection that had gotten stuck in the jagged parts. Hollow of course didn't say anything, didn't even move while he worked, but he had the feeling that their former tense posture seemed to relax under his care.

Once he was done, he laid his hands on Hollow's shoulder and said: “There, now you look presentable again.”

Hollow nodded and then watched as the Pale King proceeded to wash his own body, mostly making sure that his body would absorb all the soul it could. As he carefully cleaned the area around the King's Brand, not wanting to damage the charm, he noticed that Hollow stared on it or more, at a area slightly beneath it.

“What is it, Hollow?”, the Pale King asked, stopping to wash himself and waiting for them to explain. They raised their hands, or stubs, upon their relaxation they seemed to have released the shapeshift. After a few seconds of forcing the void to form fingers again, they signed: “Scar? How?”

The Pale King's face fell a bit upon their question. He had preferred for that question to be asked another time.

“...It was the Radiance.”, he murmured, staring down into the hazy water. “I grossly underestimated her and her willingness to attack when I was still a young and clueless wyrm and just had arrived at this kingdom.”

He raised a hand and laid it over the scar. He could still feel the pain, shock and panic from back then. “Trying to negotiate, she didn't want to listen and hit me with one heavy blast. I could heal myself with soul, but I used up all of it to heal up the deadly wound. It was the day that I learned that I wouldn't win a direct fight against her.”

He removed the hand from his chest and looked at Hollow, which, from the outside, pretty much looked like always, but their stance implied shock. It maybe had been too much for them, he was pretty much their whole world and knowing that he almost died to the enemy they had been supposed to seal...

“F..forget about this.”, the Pale King said, noticing that while he had told that tale, he had unintentionally flared his wings. “That hasn't anything to do with you.”

Hollow just shook their head and also didn't raise their hands to sign. Instead, they got up, staggering for a tiny moment before catching their balance and then moved behind the Pale King. The Pale King just assumed that they had enough of bathing and wanted to shook the water off, when he felt the icy sensation of their fingers at his wings and winced in surprise.

“What are you doing, Hollow?”, he asked. “Be careful, these things are sensitive.”

Hollow stopped and tapped his shoulder to get his attention. As he turned around, they signed: “Will wash wings of Father. Father complained about them not easy to wash.”

“You remembered that?”, the Pale King said, kind of amazed. He had indeed said something to them, shortly after they hatched and he had brought them in the palace, giving them their first bath and having talking to them as if they were a real hatchling and not a mindless construct to seal the Radiance. Well, now he knew they had been a real hatchling. That meant, they must have felt emotions since they had been very young.

Hollow nodded and the Pale King had the feeling they would have said more things, but their hands was busy gently grooming his wings, their icy touch combined with the hot water of the spring a completely new sensation, but not an unpleasant one. So far, he had only allowed his Root to touch his wings. Thinking about it, Hollow's touch was not unlike the one of his Root, proving once more that they were indeed his and his wife's child.

Once they were done and retreated, the Pale King felt not only clean, but also relaxed and bursting with soul. He stood up and shook the water off, walking over to his robes, because he didn't intend to stand in front of Herrah's door naked, even though she had already seen him like that, he didn't want to send the wrong message. To his disdain, his robe was not only torn, but also stained with his blood.

And Hollow's robe didn't look much better, mostly stained with orange infection blotches and that one sleeve completely cut off, having formed his earlier bandages, which were now laying next to the hot spring, soaked and stained with his blood.

“...Let's at least wash them.”, the Pale King said and used the water of the hot spring to clean the robes out, removing any stains and then using his soul to dry them, at least enough that they could be worn comfortably again.

He handed Hollow their robe and slipped into his own. “We can't do anything against the cuts.”, he sighed. “And I am afraid we have to get a new robe for you.” As Hollow let their head hang, he quickly added: “Oh no, don't worry, you did the right thing.” Hollow's head perked up again and the Pale King finished his thought: “However, it's better than to stand to stand in front of Herrah's door step naked. She will have to live with our clothes being torn.”

After all, it had been a predator in her territory that they owed their current state. Herrah could be glad that it had been infected, had the creature been lucid, it would have seriously worsened the relationship between Deepnest and Hallownest.

As the Pale King studied the map and planned out the route, Hollow stepped next to him and he saw the soul bandage around their foot, a stab of guilt in his chest. That had only happened because he hadn't paid enough attention. Once the Pale King folded the map and put it away, his hand found the one of Hollow and closed around it.

“I won't let go of your hand.”, he said and he could feel them squeeze his hand, telling him that they understood.

The rest of the way they didn't get attacked by an infected powerful predator anymore, but Deepnest showed beautifully just why it was so feared by almost all bugs, with Weavers scampering around, appearing from seemingly nowhere, Stalking Devouts demonstrating just how they chopped up their prey as well as the creature known as Corpse Creeper waiting in seemingly harmless husks, that had became prey for another bug, and bursting out when last expected, as well as the ground constantly crumbling and while the Pale King didn't lose Hollow anymore, the moment the ground vanished under them again, Hollow got a good scare.

Now they were finally in front of Herrah's Den and Hollow couldn't help it anymore, they were shaking, finally giving in their fear and nestling against the Pale King, who did his best to calm them down, by rubbing soothing circles in their back.

“There you are.”, the voice of Herrah sounded, appearing out of the shadows. “You certainly took your time.”

“There is a reason for our delay.”, the Pale King said, slipping in his monarch personality, but Herrah's gaze was entirely fixated on Hollow.

“What's wrong with them?”, the asked.

“...Deepnest was a bit much...”, the Pale King murmured and Herrah scoffed.

“Of course Deepnest would be too much for a child that you treated like a thing until you finally realized how dumb this was. Why did you even make them walk through the entirety of Deepnest when there is a stag station right there? Let me guess, because you didn't want to be seen by anyone in public.”

The Pale King shrunk down under her words more and more, each of her words was driving the nail deeper into the coffin.

“Come here, child.”, Herrah said, her voice taking on a rather motherly tone. “Let's get you a hot drink and some food to calm you down.” The Pale King saw how she gently guided Hollow inside, who turned their head to look at him, with that cocking of their head that portrayed concern.

After a good while had passed, the Pale King managed to get himself together and followed Herrah and Hollow inside, where he found them sitting at a table, Hollow having a steaming cup of ...whatever in front of them as well as something that looked like cookies, but probably was made out of meat. Either way, they didn't seem to care, because their shaking had stopped and they were devouring the “cookies” without a second thought.

“Ah, there you are, wyrm.”, Herrah said as she spotted him. “You said there was a reason for your delay. Is it the same reason why the robes of your child are torn?” She gave him another glance and he was sure she narrowed all of her eight eyes under that mask. “Your own don't look much better. How unusual for you to come into another's territory in such an unkempt state.”

“We were attacked by an infected predator.”, the Pale King said. “It lured is into its lair. Hollow managed to take it out.”

“Let me guess. Big, black, with long legs and showed you something you care about to lure you in?”, Herrah said. The Pale King nodded and Hollow added by doodling a picture of how the predator looked on their journal, which they apparently had used to converse with Herrah, judging by the few words written in it.

“Nosk, as I was thinking. One of the predators that could rival me, but never dared to attack my den. It always would hunt far away from it.”

The Pale King shuddered a bit, how casually Herrah was talking about territorial behaviour, it reminded him once again of the wyrm tribe, only that he had decided to take a much more civilized approach. The reason that Deepnest didn't get along with Hallownest was mainly because they still held on to their instincts, even with a mind to think.

“You must be quite a fighter to have taken it down.”, Herrah said, her gaze on Hollow, as opposed as when she was staring the Pale King down, it very much softened once they talked to Hollow.

They just shook their head and wrote something in their journal. Herrah looked at it and said: “What, that wyrm that just sits in his palace and tinkers in his workshop all the time? Unbelievable.”

“We can hear everything you say, Herrah...”, the Pale King said, not having enough energy to start a full-fledged argument. Herrah always seemed to be able to just put him into her pocket. He kind of found it unbelievable that he really had shared a night with her.

Herrah gave him that glance that looked like she wanted to say “Do I look like I care?” and he could hundred percent believe that this sentence was on the tip of her tongue.

“Whatever.”, she said. “You came here for a reason, mainly for the reason that Hollow had the chance to meet their sister.”

Hollow nodded and almost fell with their head on the table, balancing themselves with their hands just in time and then signed two words. Herrah looked at the Pale King and he knew that she silently prompted him to translate.

“They want to know where there sister is now.”, the Pale King said. In truth Hollow had only signed the words for “sister” and “where”, but he decided to embellish their words a bit more.

“Just in the back room.”, Herrah said and stood up from the table. “But before we go there, just a minute.” Herrah made a sound as if she had clicked her fingers, which felt impossible, because she didn't even had fingers, she was a spider after all, and shortly after, a weaver appeared. “Fix the robes of the king and the child.”, she said and the weaver got to work right away, soon the robes of the Pale King had been patched up with spider silk and Hollow's robe even got a whole new sleeve from the same silk. They tugged and prodded at it with interest.

“All your clothes should be made by spider silk.”, Herrah said. “You won't find a more sturdy material in the whole of Deepnest.”

It's not like Deepnest would ever offer their silk to us., the Pale King thought, but didn't enunciate. For now, he decided to stay polite. It was for Hollow's sake after all.

“We thank you very much for your assistance, Herrah.”, he said and even gave her a polite bow, which only earned him another one of those Herrah-glances.

“Now, let's get you to meet your sister.”, Herrah said, attention at Hollow, who stopped investigating their fixed up robe and looked from Herrah to the Pale King.

“Go.”, he just said and saw how one of Herrah's legs gently laid down on Hollow's shoulders and guided them through the room. He himself followed them at a certain distance, fearing a bit that his natural light would upset the child, that had been born in Deepnest and certainly was more used to the darkness, though Herrah's Den wasn't as dark as the rest of Deepnest. For once, he cherished Hollow's void body, that didn't reflect light. They certainly wouldn't upset their little sister with being too bright.

It surely was only a short walk, but for the Pale King it felt unbearable long. He hadn't seen his daughter since she had hatched, wanting to wait for her to grow until inviting her in the White Palace, hoping that Herrah would agree for her to come over and, he had to admit, there had been a part in him that hoped that she would allow him to raise her once she turned dreamer, but he had buried this part deep under his sense of duty. He hadn't even raised the child of himself and his Root right, how should he be able to raise his bastard daughter?

Finally arrived (though it probably only had been a minute or so), Herrah stopped and gestured to a red bundle sitting on the floor, a bright white face with black eyes and two horns starting to grow from the top, similar to Herrah's. She was busy stacking blocks on each other (the Pale King didn't want to know from which bug husk they had been fabricated) and giggled once the whole structure crumpled and fell.

“There, this is my sweet, little Hornet.”, Herrah said, nothing but love and devotion in her voice. Hollow just stood there and stared and then raised both hands to their face. The Pale King had never seen them done this before, but he could only assume that they tried to express just how adorable Hornet was for them. “Why don't you go over to her?”

Hollow once again looked back to the Pale King, who gave them a gesture to just go. Now that any danger was averted, they seemed to be full back on their dependency for him, though this was a new situation for them, so he could hardly blame them.

Hollow took a few shaky steps towards Hornet, fidgeting with their hands, then seemed to take a deep breath and took the last few steps to their sister with much more confidence, carefully sitting down next to her. Hornet stopped her game of block stacking to look at the new bug beside her. Hollow raised their hand to wave. Hornet waved back with one of her little spider arms, it was kind of adorable and then she took Hollow's hand and invited them to join her in her game.

“This went better than expected.”, the Pale King sighed out, not aware that he had said this out aloud.

“Oh? Did you expect for your child to attack their sister, wyrm?”, Herrah said.

“What?! No, of course not.”, the Pale King said, wondering how Herrah even could come to that conclusion and remembering that maybe after their union he had rambled about how it was common for wyrm hatchlings to eat their siblings and that Herrah maybe should keep her half wyrm hatchling fed as well as possible. “We were... worried about other stuff.”

“I noticed.”, Herrah said, crossing her two upper front legs. “All that glancing back to you, being unsure what to say or how to act, waiting for someone, anyone to command them.” The Pale King already flinched under her words, feeling that he knew what would come next. “When I took them in, I had to tell them to sit down, had to tell them that it was fine to take from the offered refreshments and had to ask them if they had a way to communicate, because they would literally not move on their own.” She gave him another sideway glance. “Wyrm, you have done your best to raise this child into an obedient little knight.”

“We know...”, the Pale King said, looking at the ground. “We are working on reversing it. It's... a work in progress.”

“Good luck trying to get this behaviour out of them.”, Herrah said. “Children need love, care and devotion and not being told that they are a mindless construct only there to act as a vessel.”

These words hit the Pale King so hard, that he could physically feel them. “We know we haven't been the best father to them...”, he started in a weak attempt to defend himself.

“Not the best? Wyrm, that is the understatement of the century. Or the millennia, to put it in a time span that your race understands.”, Herrah said and managed to drown out any arguments the Pale King had in stock for the moment.

After a few minutes, he regained his composure and said: “...You were fine with the plan.”

“To keep my people... and her..”, she gestured at Hornet who was currently clapping at how high Hollow was able to stack the blocks, “safe. I never was fine with your 'methods', wyrm.”

“We realized that our methods were wrong.”, the Pale King said, trying to put his attention on Hollow and Hornet. This whole conversation was making him feel sick.

“Better late than never.”, Herrah said. “However, be aware, that husks in your closet will come to haunt you.”

They already do., the Pale King thought to himself, not a single day passed where he regretted what had happened in the Abyss. Desperately trying to change the subject, he said: “Hornet has grown quite a bit since we last saw her.”

At once, Herrah's tone softened, it was more than clear that Hornet was her world, her everything and that she would do everything for her. Even becoming a dreamer. “Yes, she did had her last molt just recently. I still have her old exoskeleton.”

“Herrah, what?”, the Pale King said, feeling a tiny bit grossed out. He didn't remember that his parents had collected his molt, but wyrm society was a lot different than bug society. Also, he probably had eaten his molts as a hatchling, anything edible just wasn't safe around wyrm hatchlings. He silently thanked himself that his transformation into bug physiologically had succeeded that far, that at least his children hadn't tried to eat each other. Not that this would have helped them anyhow, they still were very dead in the abyss... He seriously needed to stop thinking about this. He blamed the shape similar to a Vessel he believed to have seen in Nosk's lair.

“Hmph, of course you haven't kept anything personal of your child, being too busy to convince them to be, you know, the Vessel.”

Ah, there they were again. The Pale King had to admit, he never had cleaned out the void chrysalis that Hollow had hatched from into their current adolescent form. Back then he had just convinced himself that he didn't had time for it, but nowadays he knew that he had grown attached and wanted to keep that sign of their development. He didn't try to engage into another conversation with Herrah and instead watched Hollow and Hornet.

Hornet had lost interest in her block stacking game and had became far more engrossed by Hollow, or more, their horns. They had lowered their head for her to take a better look and she examined especially the jagged parts, seeming to be fascinated by them. It made sense for the Pale King, she only knew her own horns and that of her mother, which were smooth, how Hollow's horn jagged at three places was something completely new for the little spiderling.

“They seem to like each other.”, Herrah said. “I haven't seen Hornet that fascinated since a while.”

The Pale King just nodded, not taking his gaze of his children. Looking at Hornet like this, still a tiny grub, not even able to talk properly yet, just reminded him how hard he had tried to convince himself that Hollow was nothing but an empty vessel, damaging them and their relationship in the process. He had never allowed them to be a child, raised them for a purpose and only realized how wrong he had acted when they already had reached their adolescence. The Pale King suddenly understood just why Quirrel had advised against letting them visit a school, they were emotionally certainly not ready for it, not only because of their dependency, but also because he had never allowed them to be a normal child and now that he allowed it, they had trouble getting the concept and it was his fault alone.

After Hornet had enough of Hollow's horn and they raised again (not with almost falling over the other way, which made Hornet giggle), she tugged on their robes. Hollow looked at the Pale King and Herrah and the Pale King knew this gaze, they were asking for advice, or more, asking how to act.

“She wants you to pick her up.”, Herrah said and as Hollow cocked their head at her, she added: “It's fine, she is a sturdy little grub. Just yesterday she climbed the cupboard and didn't had a single scratch when she fell down.”

Now the Pale King gave Herrah a side glance and that after she had lectured him about bad parenting, but then he remembered that Herrah was half spider and spiders just never seemed to get hurt when they fell down. Also, he doubted that Herrah would have let Hornet done something she deemed dangerous.

Hollow carefully extended their arms and searched for a way to pick Hornet up. Once they managed, the grub flinching a bit, surely because of the sudden coldness, they gently sat her down on their lap. Hornet looked up at them for a brief moment and then cuddled their face in their robes.

It was more than adorable and the Pale King averted his gaze, feeling his face blush, as all these feelings about his children, both of them, threatened to spill over, but was pushed forwards by Herrah.

“Why are you standing there, wyrm? These are your children, you should join them.”

He took a few shaky steps towards them, realizing just how much he acted liked Hollow earlier when he caught himself fidgeting with his claws, almost falling over his own tail when it wrapped around his legs. Then, he followed Hollow's example and took a deep breath, covering the last few steps with a newfound confidence, sitting down to both of his children.

“Hollow, do you like your sister?”, the Pale King asked, knowing that Hornet was still a bit too young to answer any questions. They nodded and if they had been able to smile, the Pale King was sure they would have done it. Hornet stared at him with wide eyes, that eyes that only grubs could have and Hollow picked her up from their lap and offered for him to take her.

“Um..”, the Pale King said, being ready to jump up and hide behind Herrah, “What if she gets fuzzy...”

“You are her father, wyrm.”, Herrah sighed. “Just hold her.”

So, the Pale King complied and gently took Hornet into his arms, she was a lot warmer than he anticipated and tugged at his robes, clearly being interested in them. Hollow sat next to the Pale King, their gaze on their sister and he could feel Herrah's watchful gaze on him, but mostly he was amazed. How this little grub, that came from an union between him and the queen of Deepnest, could feel so comfortable in his arms. He decided to just cherish this moment, for once not thinking about anything he would regret, thinking about that Hornet would be able to grow up with her mother and maybe, when she was older, even visit the White Palace, and if only to play with Hollow.

After a while Hornet had enough from getting cuddled and demanded to be sat down by rather loud chirping, which the Pale King did. The little spiderling dashed with an awesome speed to her mother which picked her up and said: “Well, I think that was enough excitement for her. I should try and lay her down for a nap.”

Herrah then excused herself and left the room, leaving the Pale King and Hollow alone.

“Father.”, Hollow signed. “I don't understand one thing.”

“What is it you don't understand?”, the Pale King asked.

Hollow signed a few words and then shook their head, clearly unsatisfied with how they formed the sentence and instead flipped their journal out.

“Herrah said she is Hornet's mother, but she is my sister, so why isn't my mother also Hornet's mother?”

“Um.”, the Pale King said, having preferred to explain it to them at another date. “It is true that Hornet is the daughter of Herrah. The daughter of Herrah and... me. We could say, the two of you are... half siblings, you share one parent.”

Hollow stared at the Pale King and then wrote another sentence: “Does that mean Herrah is a homewrecker?”

The Pale King had a bit of trouble believing his own eyes as he stared down at their journal: “Who even taught you this word?!” (Author's note: A big thanks to @dreamlikequality who inspired me to add the scene with Nosk. A thing about Hollow is, that I really enjoy the challenge of writing them as mute and not being able to form any expressions, so that I need to think about several factors when they want to talk. Their sign language improved in this chapter, but their sentences are still easy and simple. However, I am not perfect, so if you want to add anything to how to write a mute character and how to handle sign language, feel free to tell me. Hornet is still young in this chapter, young enough to not being able to talk yet, I would say as a human child she would be around one year old. It was my first time writing Herrah and as one of the characters we don't know much about, a lot of it is headcanon based, but I hope you enjoy my interpretation of her. Please tell me your thoughts and favourite parts of that chapter in the comments down below. Thank you very much.) Chapter 8

[fly-sky-high-bug-games]

Hi! I saw you answer an ask about your OC Alyssum and I was instantly pulled in. I went to your list of muses to go read some stuff on her but the link isn't working for some reason. Care to share? 😁 also what other hcs do you have about her (optional w/mugo) 👀

I THINK THAT’S MY FAULT, I keep tagging her as available muse but she’s technically listed as “npc” on the muse post because I didn’t want to introduce her yet (so far story wise, she only appears through dialog and hasn’t popped out yet, hard since she’s at Highgrove and setting is in Hallownest). However, her muse has been... oddly strong lately, I keep drawing and doing tiny rp scenes with her with few friends just to test the waters with her and BOY IT’S KIND OF... INTERESTING.

She might be “oopsie haha murder” kind of character but she’s also playing the nobility part quite well. She’s “polite”, invites bugs for a tea, a little chatter (maybe even a friendly one, she’s capable of it), possibly propositions, no refusal, nice job offers~ or death. One always gets to choose, acting like they have an option but forcefully narrows it to few and plays on mental and emotional state at such circumstances. Tricky~

I have yet to develop the details of her faction and who’s in it but very few people will be. Wasps I already covered, I just have to work around clan leader that’s in contact with Alyssum. Others would be black market dealers (lead merchant), underground snail-mail (postal snail), one of the weavers who’s good with seals and couple of others~ I need to brainstorm on this still. :0

Damn, I already rambled about this and didn’t talk about her much, hold on *throws Alyss tidbits under read more if tumblr allows it to work...*

She was looked after by Magnolia and basically raised by her, some time after she turned to be a queen. Fun tidbits about Magnolia family as a whole, they are not related to one another (mostly) but consider themselves a big family because they took down the previous queen and king of Highgrove while raising from poverty. However, Magnolia and her followers were never kind and forgiving, but with promises that there will be change in balance of the hierarchy, they got a lot of followers and supporters from commoners to usurp the royalty and did so successfully.

Alyssum was young when this happened so while she was somewhat birthed under poverty, she was fully raised as a noble. I don’t have much of her childhood worked out but there isn’t much to say aside from that she was raised and thought under the cruel but rich conditions of the kingdom.

The binding seal on her wings she earned not long before she met Mugo, almost like a sign for maturity and set under higher position in the family and not just as a student. The seals are powerful magic that uses soul, sewed in with magic by the weaver and afterwards trained to use it. It manifests through the shape of petals: swirling, cutting, chipping, slashing or severing, depending on the number of petals created, used, how fast, how they’re choreographed... It’s all soul but she can use regular flower petals that make less damage but not much soul required. Alyss can also use the wings as a shield since the binding is right on them and actually getting through them with anything is worse than trying to cut the metal open. (like, I imagined in game moves, if you know how THK blocks twice then slashes, she does similar things with wings, where she blocks two times but then bursts open the wings to blow the opponent back to the other side of the screen)

But you know, she’s a lady~ Of course she won’t get her hands dirty. :3c She has others to do that for her~

As for her and Mugo... (OH BOY HERE WE GOOOO~!)

I have to say, their relationship and love was rather genuine, it kind of makes me sad it ended up the way it did... With Magnolia, Alyss (and even Zeeke and his family) still visiting Hallownest some time before Pure Vessel was sealed and before infection went crazy (I canonize, by human years, that that was 20ish years before current events, since Hornet seems 15-18ish years old but who knows with bugs~ I just needed approximate idea for the setting). They were at City of tears but Mugo met her somewhere close to it, as she was hiding away from the nobles to explore the outside on her own and spotted Mugo.

Sure, Mugo crushed on her first but when she tested him by giving away her symbol necklace and pedant of White Magnolia for him to sell at black market and get good money, he refused because it was a memento from someone dear to him. It still is... he didn’t take it off because this is when their love was true and pure... Alyss never forget that either. It was very touching to her.

Their relationship was fine, both shared nothing in common but that was such a fun time for both because of it. They were clicking because they were like two different puzzles pieces that do fit together... but sadly, the pieces didn’t give the right picture when one by the other. (don’t you hate when this happens when you’re trying to puzzle grass or sky together?? *shot*) 

Alyssum explained to Mugo how Magnolia works. He didn’t like it one bit, as he ran away from Highgrove partially because they usurped the old rulers and rendered his family’s status almost homeless. Meanwhile, Alyss didn’t like that Mugo kept throwing himself in danger for his job, even if it’s a hobby that means a lot to him, all for sake of survival and geo.

They dated for some time, had fun, but slowly things started kind of... falling apart. The closer Alyss was to heading back to Highgrove the more she pressured Mugo to come with, become part of the family and live with her under riches the Magnolia offers. His counter proposal was, if they’re really in love and she is aware of Magnolia’s wrongdoings, that she would leave them instead and live with him while making the adventures she loved hearing about from him, together. Basically, Mugo put his love for her over riches or anything but Alyss wanted him for herself under the comfort and safety of Magnolia. She couldn’t throw that away, not after building the status and becoming a favorite to Magnolia herself. She thought this was selfish of Mugo but Mugo tried to explain it was for her changing a new leaf and starting over as something good, not ruled by fear and power.

So they started to disagree... argue... and finally physically fight. Of course, Alyss won. Mugo isn’t a fighter. At that moment, it was either she has him or no one does. For Mugo, he could only bark threats. So he did, angered, throwing words he couldn’t even imagine himself doing. When she lighted up her wings, he threatened he will cut them off. So in retribution, she cut him, scaring his face. He saw something or someone completely different then. Mugo ran for his life, leaving Alyss alone.

That was the last time they saw each other, 20ish years ago. Mugo hid away at the lake of Unn and suffered depression and withdrawal for a very long time. As for Alyss... she pulled off something she shouldn’t and Mugo didn’t know about...

He only got one last letter from her, to met her one more time at the Crossroads before she leaves for Highgrove, saying she wants to try one more time and... that she had a surprise for him. He didn’t respond. She waited for him there then left when he never showed...

That was that. :U Until now, at least~ :3 She got to hear about her ex thanks to Zeeke’s shenanigans at the Colosseum~ Oh, what are the odds of the noble meeting and having issues specifically with a certain, scruffy moth~

20 years is quite a bit of time for someone with a heartbreak and power to grow... kind of crazy. Of course she never let go of it. And now she knows he’s still alive too~ Wonder what Alyss will do. :3c

[firelxdykatara]

For the ask meme, Keith?

ooooh keith. full disclosure, while i know a lot of spoilers for things via cultural osmosis, in my full watch of the show i’m only in the first couple eps of s5 so idk about how things play out later

favorite thing about them: I love his passion, and his anger, and the potential he had in an arc about learning to channel his emotions healthily and productively, and learning to work with others as part of a team rather than... not learning to do that and being a leader who winds up leading his team because he hares off to do his own thing and they have no choice but to follow. (granted, it’s possible that he does actually learn these things, I still don’t know how the whole kuron thing is gonna play out so We’ll See)

least favorite thing about them: How much his Lone Wolf thing gets played up, despite his arc ostensibly being about him learning....not to be a lone wolf anymore. Like idk there were a lot of times in the first three seasons I thought he was learning this and then he Didn’t and i just. -fist clench- por que

favorite line: I don’t have any off-hand, the show hasn’t had any quotes that really Stuck Out to me (no iconic lines that I could quote after just seeing them once), and this is my first watch so I haven’t committed any to memory. I do remember liking his speech to Lance encouraging him to keep the Red Lion after Shiro came back, though, even if I never did like the whole changing of the guard thing. (Allura should’ve been the Black Paladin dammit.)

brOTP: I really enjoy his bond with Shiro (while I don’t ship it romantically, it has nothing to do with their ages, I just don’t really have an investment in romantic ships in this show that don’t have to do with Allura bc she’s the primary point of my investment in the series), and their friendship and the hints I’ve seen at their past mentorship bond.

OTP: I will say right now that it’s not exactly ‘otp’ level for me, but like I said above the only ships I’m really invested in are Allura-centric, and I deeply love the potential that Kallura had before it was evidently discarded (interestingly enough, Keith/Allura was the main ship of the original Voltron, where Allura was pale-skinned and also didn’t die at the end, but you know that’s just very interesting to me) in favor of kataang-light, now with somehow Even Less Agency, but whatever this isn’t about that. At any rate, Keith’s galra heritage makes their potential relationship very interesting, both from a standpoint of Allura having to move past her inherent dislike/distrust of him due to his blood (and like, the fact that he didn’t even know he had Galra blood should really have mitigated this somewhat, but that’s another story), and anyway, they had a lot of really sweet moments and I’m very sad none of that potential was explored later on.

nOTP: This is mostly because of the fandom, but I just have this kneejerk dislike of Klance. I don’t like the way the fandom acts like they were baited (I’m over four seasons in, yall, and I’m not seeing anything that could even reasonably be read as romantic development, and like people can ship what they want I don’t care, but this is the ship everyone was acting like it was In the Stars from the very beginning? i realize I’m probably kicking a hornet’s nest with this, but yeesh, i’d ship sheith romantically before i’d ever ship this), and I hate how they seem to think they were entitled to an endgame and a romance that was never so much as hinted at in the show itself.

random headcanon: Mmmm I haven’t spent enough time thinking abt him to really develop one. I will say that he strikes me as someone who says he loves spicy food, but actually can’t handle spice for shit, so he’ll sit there shoveling jalapenos in his mouth while crying and adamantly pretending he’s Fine.

unpopular opinion: I don’t remember enough about the vld fandom to know what exactly constitutes unpopular, but I thought since I heard about it (and now, having seen it in s3/4, i stand by this opinion), Keith should not have been the Black Paladin. It should’ve been Allura. And I think it was monumentally stupid of the Black Lion to ‘choose’ someone who had all the leadership skills of a drunk pomeranian (I say with love), who then proceeds to nearly get the entire team killed because he’s Not A Leader and trying to force him to be one did more harm than good, especially early on. (and Black Paladin Allura is the hill I will pitch my tent and die upon, thank you and good night)

song i associate with them: hit me with your best shot by pat benatar

favorite picture of them: tumblr is being a bitch and not letting me upload, but -insert pic of keith in the black t-shirt from his training outfit here- something about tight black muscle-t’s just does it for me ok

send me a character and i’ll list things!

[asherlockstudy]

I get that interview was HBO forced but it sounds insane when last season, he was saying Jaime needed to get away from her for good. I mean no nice post about Gwen after the last ep. I dont believe it was about not wanting to stir the hornet's nest if him and B didnt get together as he posted a huge loving one about Lena and that was a very controversial part of the plot. If hed know posted a gwen one saying"sorry JB didnt get a happy ending but here's me and Gwen in happier times" i dont get it

I think it’s very weird too…Imma analyze it. Not that I’m gonna reach any solid conclusion but I will just lay out all my thoughts.

Whatever the reason Nik doesn’t post or reply publicly to Gwen is, it has nothing to do with his personal preference for Braime or Jaime x Cersei. Even if we make the insane assumption that Nik appreciated that Jaime dumped Brienne to return to murderous Cersei and die with her without serving any purpose in the main plot (what lead actor of 8+ years would ever like being unimportant in the ending plot) and saw “pOeTRy” in it, it still doesn’t explain why he should prefer posting about Lena over Gwen. We would be naive to think he made a post about Lena and not Gwen because he prefers Cersei to Brienne. So, we still have no clear evidence of what Nik’s private thoughts and feelings are for his character after the ending. 

Here’s what we have: 

We have two interviews: one with HBO rofl and one with that journalist who collaborates with HBO and was an insider (I’m not gonna search his name) in which he stans Jaime’s choices, his love for Cersei and the tragic poetry in it all. Then we have him promoting the episodes and the documentary in his instagram and twitter, however he is entirely emotionally detached from his character and his fate. I would say he lowkey looks entertained in his weird af episode promo videos and secretly amused while filming the “thank you” video after the last episode where he says “Come on, it was great” and suggests a petition for an Arya (huh?) sequel.

We have two videos uploaded on yt with him: one is a video of a stalker in which Nik looks uncomfortable and passes the question to the random guy next to him who apparently happens to be a GOT fan, have an elaborate opinion on the last season, hate D&D and think they threw away Jaime’s beautiful character arc. What are the odds…The second is a skit in Jimmy Kimmel in which Nik drags his own character by making him stupid and clumsy, a sad little being because of his maiming and, most importantly, an unrepentant sister fucker. All of Jaime’s worst qualities displayed for laughs, plus that he’s actually a likeable but very stupid person. The skit ends with a dragon randomly burning him and his family alive and those credits

So, we have straightforward criticism towards D&D by Kimmel and NCW actually participates in it. This is what this skit means - that this level of writing, this kind of lame character and that ludicrous death is something that only Benioff and Weiss would like to produce. And, well, the Olsen sisters (although I think they’re cleverer than that). 

So, we have two videos where NCW’s intentions are dubious AT BEST. 

Then we have all the promos. When left to speak on his own, Nikolaj would say how the ending was beautiful and made sense and he once mentioned he sent a letter to thank them for this genius plot…Right. But then when asked or caught off guard (1:04): 

Nobody tries to sugarcoat it, look at the title of the video: … NCW is ‘happy’.  Then of course we have our Lady and Saviour Gwen who tries not to laugh as Nik struggles to find what to say and not just stand up and flee.

Also, this one. The best one: 

I could make a thousand gifs for this but just watch again the entire video:

0:07 - Gwen’s face when Nik says he thought the script was fantastic

1:13 - “N-no..NO!!!” when asked if he would change something in the ending and Gwen’s reaction to that. Then, our leader Gwen proceeds to mock him: “So, it’s an immaculate- It’s immaculate?” to which Nik impulsively replies: “NO!” and goes on “do you ever read a book and think you want to rewrite this?” which implies, that yes he would want to rewrite it but knows he can’t. 

(3:03 - 3:06) - VERY IMPORTANT ONE. When Gwen wondered who was closer to predicting the actual ending, Nik says “I was, yeah” and OMG look at Gwen’s face. It’s very subtle but she’s trying to communicate with her eyes a “WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT” to him without being seen by the interviewer. It’s kind of a wife done with her husband’s shit look tbh, that level of subtlety. And Nik answers back with his eyes in equal subtlety and it’s like he says a “What? I truly was right lol….”. To me, this seems to mean that Nik always knew or feared that D&D would eventually destroy all his work and was eventually proven right. Unless this all is about Dany being killed by Jon but I doubt at this point Nik and Gwen cared enough to go all cryptic and eye communicating for this. No, it was about them. 

3:09 - Nik is surprised and then clearly amused at the information by the interviewer that Kit was the one who came closer with his prediction. He can’t hide his smile and says an ironic “good for him” while looking knowingly at Gwen who then says this must be a lie. This shows that it is known amongst the actors that most of them are disappointed and Kit was one of them. Both Nik and Gwen apparently knew Kit hated his ending too and would never expect this to be how the show would wrap up. BTW that writing and that backlash really got to Kit, I hope he recovers soon. But think about this, Kit went into rehab for stress and alcohol, Emilia was devastated and gave a somewhat concerning interview and Nik’s public behaviour regarding GOT is inconsistent and unpredictable. I am thus assuming the writing of the final season and the backlash fucked them up way more than they let on. 

This interview is a gem but here’s the most important part, perhaps the core of what baffles us: 

1:32 - After all the miserable no-nos poor Nik mumbles, Gwen tells Nik what we all think: “I think it’s just a question, you know? Maybe you want to answer it?”

Of course he’s in a total loss for words. Literally, he doesn’t make any sense. Some incoherent sounds come out of his mouth and that’s it. This can mean two things: either he truly thinks the ending is perfect or the ending made him such a mess that he can’t even process it verbally two years later. 

Either Gwen is much braver and Nik is extemely paranoid or Nik actually has many more restrictions in what he is allowed to say. I believe Gwen wanted Nikolaj to be as open as her about it and she still tries to make him open up but he doesn’t. In all the promos without exception, Gwen looks as if she knows Nik is full of shit and secretly agrees with her. If Gwen knows that for a fact, then we can’t argue and it’s actually what makes sense anyway. Nikolaj agrees with Gwen but is not eager to discuss it openly yet, or ever. This could be because he is very professional or because he doesn’t want to get a bad name as a “backstabber” of his projects or it might be a situation of a more sensitive nature. 

If those rumours that the S8 script was changed are true, then Nik and Lena might have had a serious breakdown with D&D and a negotiation might have taken place. For instance, Nik and Lena were really unnecessary in E6, Nik’s scene in E1 could have been eliminated as well and Lena does not appear in E3. Yes, they are big actors but paying them 1,2 million for every episode seems a tad excessive when Emilia and Kit are now famous too and have like 300% times more screentime. All this is wild speculation but maybe they stretched their appearance in the episodes as much as possible and gave them a good amount of money to agree on the butchering of their characters and their importance as former lead actors. I mean, especially Lena was downgraded to a secondary character in this season. Lena had to really fight to see her salary rise in the previous seasons. And now it’s a million for every episode? Wow. How many minutes was she staring out of the window in S8? Maybe they were silenced and payed a shitload of money to stop complaining and promote the show and praise the writing as what it was supposed to be. Maybe they payed them in order to promote Peter, Kit and Emilia for the Emmys instead, who knows. When so much money is involved, things can get frustrating in ways we don’t even fathom. This is wild and rough speculation but all I’m saying is there may be reasons Nik avoids talking freely about his character that we can’t know. 

Besides, it’s not just a Gwen problem. It is not a Gwen problem. Gwen revealed she sent a “Jaime is a fuckboi” meme to Nik privately and he answered playfully as ever (but again as if he’s in denial). They posted a story together a couple of weeks ago. Nik did not just ignore Gwen’s instagram post. Daniel Portman posted the photo and tagged Nikolaj too. Nik ignored him as well. Bryan Cogman, who Nik and Gwen owe a lot to, commented under the photo in a very sweet and emotional way. Guess what, Nik ignored him too! It’s ridiculous to think Nikolaj has stopped communicating and caring about Gwen AND Daniel AND Bryan just because his character returned to Cersei. Furthermore, the fact that they all keep tagging him shows they don’t think their relationships with him have become tense. 

That’s not it. It’s not about Gwen. The only way that Gwen is involved in all this is that she wants Nikolaj to open up so that he would give a little acknowledgement to her character and the relationship with Jaime because she feels very much for Brienne. I’m sad to say, however, that it seems to me that Nik did not take that blow more lightly than Gwen. In fact, his behaviour is more inconsistent and troubling whereas Gwen’s openness about it made her confront that sore subject more healthily after all. I start believing Nik was actually way more devastated than Gwen. At least Brienne remained a decent character, ever faithful to her ideals, ever innerly strong. Jaime was entirely trashed, let alone that he was supposed to be a main character. If Nik can’t even handle a photo that reminds him of his destroyed character arc, I wouldn’t be surprised. Maybe Gwen wants Nik to open up so much for his benefit as well - he keeps it bottled up and she might know first hand how that affects him.

Long story short, the reasons Nik doesn’t post anything about his feelings for Jaime’s character arc, his relationship with Brienne and his collaboration with Gwen probably are both professional, after begrudging deals and agreements and restrictions from HBO, and very personal, inner and private, as he’s still trying to cope with a disappointment that crushed down on him from what used to be his dream job and a role he hoped would be a (or the) peak of his career. I bet all these years Nik was hopeful Jaime would be extremely important and fully redeemed in the end but also extremely scared and anxious that the writers won’t give him what he hoped for and what made sense. Would I exaggerate if I said this should be the biggest professional disappointment he ever experienced, provided that he didn’t like the character’s ending? 

From everything Gwen has said about him, I have surmised that Nik is very emotional and anxious but with a very blasé and superficially amiable attitude. He avoids expessing emotion in real life which is why he might be dissociating a lot lately. He tries to distance himself from that part of Jaime’s character that involved Bryan and Gwen because this is the part that he loved and lost. Honestly, I can’t think of any other logical reason he ignored Gwen, Dan and Bryan one after the other and never made a post about his own character specifically or his good times with Gwen. It’s obviously not that he suddenly hates all of them to the point of not even replying. Even if HBO restricts him on what he can say in interviews for a while, there is no other explanation for this other than that D&D’s genius writing fucked him up emotionally as much as Emilia and Kit and he does not want to deal with it even though Gwen probably thinks it would be for the best if he did. 

Now after I wrote all this, imagine if Nikolaj actually doesn’t give a shit and is just happy going on with his life while I am here wasting time. But… I don’t think so. I will never not believe Nik didn’t love Jaime to pieces. He had big dreams for this role, I am sure of it. 

[rebclwithoutacause]

oh hi there, welcome to holiday, JACKSON-DELANEY “DEAN” DAWSON. oh wait, you’ve been here. has anyone ever told you that you look like XAVIER SERRANO? you’re MALE and use HE/HIM? just checking. and you’ve been here for ALL YOUR LIFE? you’re TWENTY-TWO too, right? just curious. you work over at BIG ED’S CAR REPAIRS still? you know people say you’re LOYAL & COURAGEOUS, but STUBBORN & IMPULSIVE so i guess take that with a grain of salt. well, at least i do know you’re excited for HALLOWEEN. bye now!

& BASICS.

FULL NAME: Jackson-Delaney Alfred Dawson NICKNAME(S): Dean DOB: May 4th, 1997 AGE: twenty-two FROM: Holiday, Maine OCCUPATION: mechanic ORIENTATION: bisexual actually gay but he don’t wanna admit that SOCIAL STATUS: lower/working class NOW PLAYING: Summertime Blues by Eddie Cochran

& BIOGRAPHY.

Dean’s parents must have had it in for him from the start, giving him the first name “Jackson-Delaney” & insisting he be addressed in full. It was important to their family history, they said. “Jackson” for his father and “Delaney” for some long-dead ancestor that frankly, had probably amounted to little else other than breeding. Dean always hated it, even when he was young. His name made him stick out like a sore thumb — made him the primary target for local bullies.

It didn’t help that they were poor as all hell, either. Dean spent the majority of his formative years in a cramped little trailer. His father was a chain smoker and a raging alcoholic, who squandered away what little money they had. Dean’s easiest memories are of smoke filled lungs and the smell of cheap whiskey.

His mother was the gentle sort, who loved him dearly. Unfortunately she was stuck in an abusive marriage with Jackson Dawson — who’s drunken mind would more often then not create conflicts between the two of them, which he would resolve with his fists. Dean was seven when his father started targeting him, too.

Everyone at school knew he had a rough upbringing. The teachers gave him that look. He was trouble even before trouble began. Most of the other kids pushed him away. But in fourth grade, at the age of nine, he was accepted into a group of fellow rag-tag delinquents. He was given the handle “Dean” and somehow, it just stuck.

They understood one another in a way no one else did, accepted and loved one another despite their many flaws. As they approached high school they formed a “gang” of sorts, complete with matching leather jackets. “The Hornets” they called themselves. They were all leather and grease, bloody knuckles and scraped knees. But a family, nonetheless. The Hornets are what got Dean through the hardest points in his life — providing him with support and companionship. They always tried to help him, giving him a place to stay or some extra food when things got bad at home. their efforts veiled by cheap excuses like “my mom hates you, so come piss her off” or “we gotta beef you up, Dean-y boy,” He appreciated that.

Dean was fourteen when his father passed. The cause of death, a car accident that not only took his old man’s life, but also severely disabled his mother. Now unable to walk, Dean was tasked with caring for them both. His father was gone but the damage had been done. Dean was hardened to the world in a way no child ever should be. Finding peace in only his music and the tiny slivers of teen rebellion that the Hornets provided him.

Dean flunked out of high school in his final year.  Moving on to get a job as a mechanic at thd local garage. It’s been four years, but the hornets are still together. Stuck in that phase of teen rebellion that so preoccupies the troubled youth.

Dean wants to go back to school — his dream is to become a fireman. He wants to save people, rather than watch them fade away like he had his mother. However, he fears he’s not smart enough to do so, and even worse, what if the gang broke up? Dean couldn’t live with that. They’re the only family he has left.

HEADCANONS/MISC.

I know…he seems like a piece of shit…and he is but at least he knows it. & he’s trying…very hard to become a better person. Honestly, he probably needs some hardcore therapy but talking about your feelings is for pussies.

Will absolutely deck you if you DARE try and call him Jackson/Jack/Delaney/any derivative of his actual name

Dean’s BEST BUDDY is the leader of the hornets! They’ve been thick as thieves since they met. They’re also secretly crushing on one another? They kissed one night at a party in ninth grade. They were both heckin drunk, so they assume the other one doesn’t remember, and they never talked about it. Ever since then tho? There’s been some sexual tension in the gang.

Dean moved in with his best buddy when his mom died and now they share a shitty little apartment.

The hornets aren’t as tough as they think…sure they can crack a few skulls but honestly? they really care about one another and they’re all secretly a little soft.

And yeah, they’re all Greasers. It’s pretty extra.

All Dean listens to is Rock N’ Roll. The guy pomps his hair every day and carries a fucking comb in his back pocket.

#BringTheHornets

[freestrangerfury]

Eight Reasons to Be Thankful for the Shit-Storm That is 2020

No large gatherings means no family drama. Plus, you’ll never run out of white meat.

2020 was clearly the worst year in history. A global pandemic, racial injustice, political upheaval, wildfires, murder hornets. Fortunately, advertising execs are masters at burying the negative and promoting the positive.  Thanks to ad people, generations of children ate bowls of sugar cereals, filled with high fructose corn syrup and we said it was, “Part of this nutritious breakfast.” Not the nutritious part. But who cares. See, positivity!

It’s in this spirit that this San Francisco ad agency has agreed to re-brand the worst year in history as the “New and Improved Roaring Twenties.” So let’s put all this nonsense about the apocalypse behind us. Because there are, in fact, plenty of reasons to be thankful for the shit-show that is 2020.

 2020 is the year a 107-year-old lady cheated certain COVID death and celebrated with a Bud Light. Worst year ever? Hell no.

Reason #1

You Can Blame Your Failures on External Forces

In 2020, it was easy to blame world events for your own stupidity. If, for example, you were laid off for gross incompetence, or stealing office supplies, or just being lousy at your job, it was easy to pass yourself off as another victim of the economic collapse. No one had to know you were actually laid off because the company considered you an insurance risk. And because you were laid off, that pending HR investigation into your behavior at the office holiday party became a moot point. (Innocent until proven guilty, right?) That makes 2020 a great year to be a thoroughly ineffectual boob.

Reason # 2

A Family-Free Holiday Season

For Americans that believe in science, this is the one year when you’re actually not supposed to spend the holidays with extended family. How great is that? No passive-aggressive conflicts with your mother-in-law. No creepy great uncle that’s overly affectionate with your teenage daughters. And no heated debates with your redneck cousin who still insists the election was rigged. It’s also a boon for broken families. No need to attend a 4 pm Thanksgiving meal at your mother’s suburban townhouse and then slink out, drive downtown, and sit for a second dinner at your dad’s pied-à-terre, which he currently shares with his 28-year-old girlfriend.  

Reason #3

Less Keeping Up with the Jones’

No need to spend money on luxuries you can’t afford. This is 2020. You didn’t go anywhere! No large gatherings meant zero dollars spent on fancy dresses you can only wear once. Ditto for shoes, handbags, and even soap. (Well, maybe, that last one is just me.)  No money spent on new work clothes since no one ever saw what was going on below the waist (unless you’re Jeffrey Toobin). Sure you spent a little bit more having drugs and alcohol delivered, but that’s so much cheaper than dinners out with your pompous friends who insist on ordering the most expensive bottle of wine when, in actuality, they couldn’t tell a bottle of Screaming Eagle from Boone’s Farm. Truth be told, if you didn’t lose your job, you probably saved more money than ever before.

 Reason #4

The Pandemic Saved Our Democracy

Joe Biden will soon be president. But his victory was no landslide. It’s safe to assume that had the Trump Administration not thoroughly mishandled the Corona Virus he may well have been re-elected. So while our hearts hurt for the many families who lost loved ones to this horrible disease, we hope there’s some comfort from knowing their death was not in vain. With a new president about to take office, and a vaccine set to be distributed by year’s end, this pandemic may have actually saved the republic.

Reason #5

Fewer School Shootings

It sucked not having our kids in school and online learning is a pain. But, on the bright side, there have been far fewer school shootings since this insanity began. In 2019, there were around 130 incidents of gunfire on school grounds. In 2020, there were only 62! (Even for ad people, it’s tough to make 62 school shootings into a positive, especially with 98 percent of schools closed from March until September, but we’re trying.) But there’s more good news: With all the kids stuck learning at home, bulletproof backpacks no longer top the Christmas wishlist. Yeah, 2020.

Reason #6

A 103-year-old woman beat COVID-19 and celebrated with a Bud Light.  

This one would be even better if Anheuser-Busch was our client. But, nonetheless, you can’t argue with a comeback story about a blind nursing home resident stricken by COVID. The family said their final goodbyes to the great-great-grandmother. When asked if she was ready to go to heaven, the feisty centurion replied, "Hell, yes."  But, as it turned out, heaven wasn’t ready for her.  The blind, bed-ridden woman survived, and once out the woods asked to toast her recovery with her favorite beverage, an ice-cold Bud Light. It was a great year for Division of Labor head of security, Mort Denberg, pictured here with the guy who picks up his crap.

Reason #7

There’s No Better Time to be a Dog

2020 has been heaven for dogs. They love this COVID thing. Masks and PPE shortages be damned. Everybody stuck in the house, wearing the same clothes day after day, smelling like a wet sweater that’s been wrapped around a dead trout. Our dogs haven’t been left alone since lockdown started. Prior to 2020, dogs were left in the house for hours while we drove to an office to sit in a cubicle and not talk to 90% of the people there. These days our dogs rule the world. They’re always lighting up our Zoom calls and they’re gonna hate this vaccine more than vacuum cleaners.

Reason #8

Endless Fodder for Saturday Night Live

SNL, one of the longest-running TV series in broadcast history, has gone thru many iterations. Some seasons epic, others epic fails. But with all that’s gone wrong in 2020, coming up with crowd-pleasing comedy sketches is like shooting fish in a barrel. We will miss Alec Baldwin as Donald Trump, and Kate McKinnon as Rudy Giuliani. But we look forward to more Jim Carey cameos as our lovable, albeit doddering and slightly demented, leader of the free world.  

Alec Baldwin as the Big Orange Machine and Kate McKinnon as Rudy G. 2020 at its best.

Well, that’s all. Wishing all advertising agency insiders and anyone else who got sucked into reading this blog post a very happy Thanksgiving. Stay safe. Stay healthy and let the holiday merriment commence.

[comic-movieheroesranked]

Cinematic Comic Characters Ranked! (Year 2011) Final Part

This year I think has the most characters ranked so far, and all from movies introducing brand new characters. X-Men franchise gets a reboot with X-Men: First Class; The MCU welcomes the additions of Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger; DC Comics introduces Green Lantern, and we also get The Adventures of Tintin, Cowboys & Aliens, The Green Hornet, and Priest. Here’s the TOP 20!

*SPOILER ALERT FOR THE HIGHLIGHTED MOVIES MENTIONED ABOVE*

20. Kato (The Green Hornet)

"Go be a journalist. I'll kick ass."

If anyone should have been the Green Hornet, it should have be Kato. His fighting skills are great, his driving skills are even better, and his abilities with machinery have not only created the best cars for fighting crime, but also the best coffee machines. Instead he chooses to be Britt's sidekick and even though he kicks the other dude's ass on several occasions, Kato still decides to put up with him for reasons no one will understand. Oh and he can't swim, which is random, but yeah.

19. Heimdall (Thor)

"I need no longer to obey you!"

Heimdall is the seer of all things and protects the portal outside of Asgard. When the Frost Giants break into Asgard he suspects someone has figured out how to fool his abilities, and what a greater suspect than the master of illusion himself, Loki. He suspicion for the male increases when Loki becomes King and he not only sends Thor's friends to retrieve him from Earth but he also tries to attack Loki himself. Loki freezes him but his will to protect Asgard gives him the strength to break free and bring Thor and his friends back home.

18. Captain Haddock (The Adventures of Tintin)

"You hit a wall, you push through it."

He might be drunk, but you can't take away Haddock's passion towards life and the seas. It's in his blood to be a true adventure seeker in the ocean and his biggest adventure comes when Tintin reveals his ancestor, Sir Francis, has hidden away treasure. The pair work brilliantly together and in the end, Haddock takes down his biggest rival while restoring honor back to his family's name.

17. Priestess (Priest)

"We've all sacrificed. Some more than others."

When the church sends Priestess to hunt down Priest for breaking his vow, she decides to join him in his quest instead. She's a huge gain to the cause, she seems to have the same skills as Priest and is also to help him almost instantly when he needs it, which is most of the time. In fact, during the last stand, Priestess not only takes out all the familiars, but she distracts Black Hat from killing Priest and also blows up the train full of vampires that would have otherwise destroyed their city. It's hinted she has feelings for Priest but she puts them aside to recruit the rest of the priests to help them on their future missions.

16. Jane Foster (Thor)

"Magic's just science we don't understand yet."

Jane's passion for science goes beyond the facts in front of her. She constantly tries to push the limit so that she can discover something truly amazing. It comes of the form of Thor, the god of thunder and someone she manages to hit with her car. Twice. She may not fully believe his stories at first, his unique charm really helps the chemistry between them and she does what she can to help him retrieve his mighty hammer, even if technically she only did it so she could get her research back from SHIELD. When Thor returns to Asgard she isn't sure whether or not she'll see him again, so instead of waiting to find out, she's back in the lab, trying to figure out how to reach him on her own.

15. Jake Lonergan (Cowboys & Aliens)

"I'm a wanted man."

Even though he lost his memory, Jake at least was able to kick into his natural instincts from the get go. With his fancy little alien gun he becomes the leader of the human resistance against the aliens. Turns out he managed to escape the alien captivity after his wife is killed and he slash's an alien's eye to escape. He casually handles every obstacle that gets into his way until he ends up actually getting caught by said alien but manages to kill him with the help of Dolarhyde. With the town in his debt, Jake is announced a free man and is no longer at risk of rotting in a jail cell.

14. Peggy Carter/Agent Carter (Captain America: The First Avenger)

"I can do more than that."

Yo, Peggy was a freaking force of nature. She literally did everything the soldiers around her did but in heels! It was her training that showed everyone that Steve was ready for the super soldier serum and she even got to show how sick she is with a gun when Red Skull's assassin snuck into their headquarters. It sucks that Steve had to die just shortly after their relationship was starting to go to the next level, but I'm pretty sure Agent Carter goes on to be the best agent this country has seen.

13. Sebastian Shaw (X-Men: First Class)

"We are the future of the human race."

One always wonders what kinds of horrors Magento must've have went through in the concentration camps that caused his hatred for humans, and most of the horrors were because of Sebastian Shaw. Wanting to learn more about mutant abilities, Shaw tortures Erik and even kills his mother to get his research. He seems unfazed by the kid's growing hatred and power and it's probably because he's not only the leader of the Hellfire Club, an organization of powerful mutants, he's also a powerful mutant himself. He can direct every type of bullet/energy into destruction for his enemies. His main goal is to create WWIII, a nuclear war that would kill the human race and leave him to rule the mutant survivors. He has the charisma to get away with it, but with Magneto as an enemy, he stood no chance. Killed by the very quarter he used in Erik's lessons, Shaw's dreams do actually end up living on through Magneto.

12. Hicks (Priest)

"Point A? Meet Point fucking B."

I thought Hicks was going to be that guy who always gets in the way but that wasn't the case at all. He really handled himself for someone who has never gone up against vampires, his skills easily proving why he was the sheriff despite his young age. Even though he wouldn't have lasted nearly as long as he had without Priest and Priestess, he was a great supporting character who even saved Priest towards the end. Of course his main goal is to save his girlfriend, Lucy, and he's able to do just that.

11. Hank McCoy/Beast (X-Men: First Class)

"Don't mock me!"

Hank is a sweet boy who, like Mystique, wants to hide the more uglier effects of his mutation. In his case it's his feet even though his skills when he uses them is what attracts Raven to him in the first place. Still, his feelings for her aren't enough to keep him from taking the serum he created but it only makes matters worse and turns him into the blue Beast we all recognize today. He accepts his mutant self after this, but its clear that whatever he had with Mystique is over as she decides to join Magneto's Brotherhood and he stays with Charles.

10. Odin (Thor)

"Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor!"

Odin is an honorable King of Asgard, who truly makes every decision for a specific reason. But even he has trouble raising his two sons. On one hand he has Thor, who isn't quite ready to rule as he's too hot headed to truly make decisions with the kingdom's interest at heart. It must've been so hard for Odin to banish him, but it's what needed to be done for him to truly understands what it means to rule unselfishly. Then on the other hand he has Loki, who has been plotting to take over since the very beginning and gets even more fuel when he finds out he's adopted. All of it is too much and Odin ends up slipping into a cosmic coma until the very end of the film, where he acknowledges the growth in Thor now that he's saved Asgard.

9. Priest (Priest)

"Then I go against God."

Most of the priests and priestess are recruited into the church when they are young, but for some reason Priest joins when he's an adult. You'd think this would make him weaker than the rest but it seems he's not only the strongest, but also their leader. When the vampires are defeated, he goes into hiding until his old ally-turned-vampire kidnaps his daughter, Lucy, who thinks she's his niece because his brother agreed to raise her when he was taken away. With the help of Priestess and Hicks, Priest defeats Black Hat and rescues Lucy, but that's just the beginning of their problems. Priest discovers the vampire queen is still alive and goes after her, completing ignoring the church's protests once again.

8. Tintin and Snowy (The Adventures of Tintin)

"Snowy, look at this!"

At just the ripe age of seventeen, Tintin has traveled the world and solved some of it's biggest mysteries for his newspaper. The kid even carries a gun around, which does end up coming in handing when he gets wrapped up in solving the mystery of the Unicorn. He's not alone though as most of his discoveries come from the help and guidance of his trusy companion, Snowy. The two end up helping a captain named Haddock in finding his ancestor's last treasure, while also dealing with an enemy that is hellbent on revenge. Still, this adventure is nothing new for Tintin and Snowy and they're able to piece together the remaining pieces of the puzzle and find Sir Francis's lost treasure.

7. Hal Jordan/Green Lantern (Green Lantern)

"Let me go fight for my world and I'll show you that will is stronger than fear."

Hal's a likable guy, despite having a bit of an ego that comes along with it. Yes, he's extremely reckless at times, but he's got that spunk that allows him to think outside of the box, which is another reason why he was chosen to be the next Green Lantern after Abin Sur dies. Throughout the film we keep seeing everyone doubt him because he does have fear in his heart, a lot of it having to due with his father's death, but it's at the end he shows everyone that it's ok to be afraid, it's how you overcome it that matters. With this discovery he's able to defeat Parralax, a task some of the strongest Lanterns died trying to do, and finally earns his spot among the Corps.

6. Raven Darkholme/Mystique (X-Men: First Class)

"Mutant and proud."

It was so interesting to see Mystique in this light. In the previous films we had this hard, deadly assassin that was one of Magneto's biggest threats against the humans and now we got to see how that came to be. Before she was the intimidating mutant we know, Raven was just a scared girl who Charles adopted as a sister and who was ashamed by how she looks. But then she's around other mutants and she slowly starts to accept herself and even comes up with everyone's codenames, but then there's little things that set her back. One, Charles is a bit of a jerk to her and keeps holding her to expectations that I don't think are necessary when he doesn't try to understand what it's like to be in her shoes. Then there's Hank who does know what it's like to have to hide, and who Raven definitely likes, but isn't secure with his own looks and even encourages her to continue to hide who she is. But with all of this, Erik stays as a constant reminder that she is perfect the way she is and that anyone else would be lucky to have her gifts. After that, it's not hard to understand why she chooses him at the end of the movie.

5. Loki (Thor)

"I never wanted the throne, I only ever wanted to be your equal!"

I'm quite familiar with Norse mythology even before I really got into comics so I knew right away that Loki was not this concerned brother he was set out to be at the beginning of the film. It was surprising to find out that not only had he constructed literally everything that happened in order to take the throne for himself (except for Odin going in a coma, that was just luck) but he's also adopted and really belongs to the King of the Frost Giants. He tries to take out Thor and use the Frost Giants to kill his father but when Thor returns he tries to save himself by attempting to destroy the Frost Giant's world as a way to appease his father. Thor stops him, however, and Loki freefalls out of Asgard but somehow manages to take control of a human on Earth just as that human meets with Nick Fury to discuss a very powerful artifact.

4. Thor (Thor)

"For the first time in my life, I have no idea what I'm supposed to do."

The introduction of Thor. We don't see him become the great hero he already is and how he got to control the mighty hammer, but we do see he still has a lot of growing to do before he's fit to rule Asgard. His growth in character comes with the help of some humans on Earth, specifically Jane, who shows him that there are different ways to handle situations instead of brute force. His growth couldn't have come at a better time as he has to face off against his brother, Loki, who practically manipulated everything leading to Thor's banishment. His moment finally comes during his final fight with Loki, when he destroys the bridge that would allow him to see Jane again. He gives her up for the kingdom's safety, truly learning how a king rules with his kingdom's interest at heart. He loses the chances of seeing Jane and also loses his brother, but he's able to reconcile with his father and the support of his friends gives hope that one day, him and Jane will reunite.

3. Charles Xavier/Professor X (X-Men: First Class)

"You're not alone."

Who knew that Porfessor X, the father figure of many future mutant students and X-Men, was such a Casanova when he was younger. I see the appeal, who wouldn't like a guy who knows exactly what to say, in the most charming way possible? Still, despite all the wild nights he has, Charles is quick to get serious when the opportunity comes to meet other mutants like himself. After meeting Erik and the others, Charles tries to bring them in on his vision of peace and working together with the humans. Of course Shaw ends up causing a big flaw in his plan and despite becoming like a brother to Erik, he ends up losing the other to his hatred of humans. He loses more than that when Erik accidentally forces a bullet into his spine, leaving him unable to walk. Understanding their views can never be the same, they separate and Charles opens up his school to all mutants for sanctuary.

2. Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto (X-Men: First Class)

"Peace was never an option."

The best origin story of the X-Men, is how their greatest enemy came to be. We watch as Magneto suffers at the hands of Shaw and the Nazis for his powers and then uses said powers to hunt them down one by one. When he fails to kill Shaw, he meets Charles Xavier and the two begin a friendship as they use their two ideologies to meet other mutants like themselves. One thing I liked about Erik is his ability to learn fast. After Emma Frost bests him during their first one, he's quick to understand her threat and quickly handles her during their next confrontation in Russia. When training he allows Charles to open up his mind to advance his skills, and he also opens up Mystique's mind to her appearance. At the last possible second, Erik shuts Charles out when he confronts Shaw, killing him with the same quarter that lead to his mother's death. He needs to work on his accountability a little though, as it was him who deflected the bullet into Charles that handicaps him. Still, it doesn't stop him from starting the Brotherhood and becoming the villain we all know...Magneto.

1. Steve Rogers/Captain America (Captain America: The First Avenger)

"I could do this all day."

Captain America is the ultimate triumphant tale of the underdog. Steve Rogers was a weak tiny man who seemed to have so many illnesses that I thought he belonged in a plastic bubble. But the kid had heart and a true sense of doing the right thing, which is why he was perfect to become Captain America. And while his transformation was a HUGE success, and I'm not just talking about his physical appearance, it took awhile for him to really see some action. Throughout the film we see that even though he's got all of these enhanced abilities, he's still just a kid from Brooklyn. He's still dorky when he's around Peggy, he still mourned heavily after Bucky's death, and he still never backed down from a fight. Despite all the terrible things Red Skull committed, Steve never even batted an eyelash when it came to taking him down, or even sacrificing himself to save millions of lives. He's a true hero for the little guy, wonder how he'll do now that he's woken up more than seventy years into the future.

[njawaidofficial]

This New Film Is Resurrecting Ted Kennedy’s Darkest Scandal

https://styleveryday.com/2018/04/07/this-new-film-is-resurrecting-ted-kennedys-darkest-scandal/

This New Film Is Resurrecting Ted Kennedy’s Darkest Scandal

Andria Blackman and Jason Clarke in Chappaquiddick.

Claire Folger

On the night of July 18, 1969, Sen. Ted Kennedy — the last surviving son of the powerful Kennedy political dynasty — drove his car off of a small, wooden bridge on Chappaquiddick, a sandy speck of an island off the coast of Massachusetts. He somehow escaped, but even though his 28-year-old passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, was still trapped in the partially submerged car, Kennedy did not report the accident for another 10 hours. Kopechne died, sparking a media frenzy, and the incident effectively ended Kennedy’s hopes of ever ascending to the presidency. For a time, the word “Chappaquiddick” rivaled “Watergate” as a metaphor for catastrophic political scandal.

Kennedy’s career, however, not only didn’t end — it thrived for 40 more years until his death in 2009. “There was no other senator in my lifetime that achieved more than him,” said director John Curran (Tracks, The Painted Veil), whose new film Chappaquiddick, opening today, re-creates the events surrounding the scandal. Curran was 9 years old when Kennedy and Kopechne’s faces shared the front pages with the Apollo 11 moon landing, and his family and the Kopechnes lived in neighboring towns in New Jersey. But as it was for so many others, the incident ultimately faded for Curran into a fuzzy footnote in Kennedy’s storied career as one of the country’s most successful and respected senators.

“As an admirer of Ted Kennedy, I recognize that [Chappaquiddick] was a blind spot that I didn’t really think about,” said Curran. “I conveniently dismissed it.”

Then in 2015, Curran read a screenplay about the event by rookie writers Taylor Allen and Andrew Logan that made the year’s Black List, the annual survey of the best unproduced screenplays in Hollywood. The filmmaker realized just how little he actually knew about even the basic details of the incident. “I was surprised,” he said. “I would never have put it on the same weekend as the moon landing, for instance.” (Indeed, putting the first person on the moon may have been the only event that could have possibly distracted the American public’s attention from the Chappaquiddick scandal.)

The real Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, as he leaves the Dukes County Courthouse in Edgartown, Massachusetts, on July 25, 1969, after pleading guilty to leaving the scene of a fatal auto accident on Chappaquiddick Island.

Ted Dully/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

More to the point, Curran recognized just how central Chappaquiddick really was to Kennedy’s life, and how vital to understanding the impact he had on the American political landscape.

“However it’s been managed over the years, ultimately history’s going to own Ted Kennedy’s legacy, and I’d like to be a part of at least being honest about this chapter that really defines him,” he said.

Curran said that the production declined to approach the Kennedy family about the film, with the expectation that no one would comment directly anyway. “We got some contact through people that represented them to voice their displeasure in it,” he said. “But there was no dark conspiracy about trying to shut down the film or anything like that.” (When reached by BuzzFeed News, a spokesperson for the Edward M. Kennedy Institute declined to comment.)

And although Kennedy’s cousin and aide Joe Gargan (Ed Helms) ends up becoming the moral center of the film, Curran and Helms also decided against reaching out to him. “I didn’t see the value in kicking that hornet’s nest,” Curran said. (Gargan died in 2017.)

“There’s no way you’re going to come up with a version of it that absolves Ted of responsibility.”

That could be because the film takes an unsparing look at both Kennedy (played by Mudbound‘s Jason Clarke) and the political machine that rallies around him at the behest of his father, Joe (Bruce Dern), leveraging the power of the Kennedy family legacy to obfuscate the truth and protect his political future. At nearly every moment, just about everyone makes the politically expedient choice rather than the obvious moral one, starting with Kennedy’s maddening decision to huddle with Gargan and a friend, US Attorney Paul Markham (Jim Gaffigan), instead of immediately calling the police and reporting the incident. The film makes it devastatingly clear that Kopechne (Kate Mara) likely did not drown, and died instead of suffocation after breathing all the usable air left trapped in the car. Had authorities been alerted much earlier, there was a chance she could have survived the crash.

“It is a damning portrait because there’s no other way to tell it,” said Curran. “There’s no way you’re going to come up with a version of it that absolves Ted of responsibility.”

The filmmakers were also acutely aware from the start that a major feature film showcasing the worst moments of one of the foremost liberal leaders of the last 40 years could be wielded as a right-wing partisan weapon.

“Of course it will be,” said Curran. “There will be glee from right-leaning people who didn’t like Teddy Kennedy. But that doesn’t discount that it happened. … I would hope that the film is stronger than that, and it is seen as a more nuanced portrait.” The film does explore how the reputations of Kennedy’s late brothers John (a president) and Bobby (a senator and nearly a president) were a crushing burden for Ted at the time, especially just a year after Bobby’s assassination. (Kopechne had worked as a secretary on Bobby’s 1968 presidential campaign.) But it also portrays a Democratic establishment that was so deeply invested in Ted Kennedy’s political career that the fixers brought in to save it are furious with Kennedy for not being smarter about saving himself at the expense of the truth.

Director John Curran (center) on the set of Chappaquiddick.

Claire Folger

And it’s that depiction of how a powerful, national politician and his allies scramble to hold onto political power in the wake of a self-evidently ruinous personal failure that Curran believes is especially relevant for our currently fraught political climate. The film was shot in the fall of 2016, largely in and around Chappaquiddick Island, and the similarities between the heated political divisions of the late 1960s and the bitter rancor kicked up in the final months of the 2016 presidential campaign — including a national candidate winning the White House despite bragging on tape about sexually assaulting women — were impossible to miss.

“There’s that primal thing that, whether you’re left-leaning or right-leaning, you have this sort of in-built allegiance to your team,” he said. “Times when I felt conflicted about this story and Ted, I had to remind myself that I’m screaming for the other side of the aisle to look just as hard at their own candidate.”

He paused. “I don’t know if it will work that way, but how else can you approach this stuff?”

Despite the cynicism inherent in Chappaquiddick — the idea that a powerful enough politician can literally walk away from an accident that ultimately killed a young woman — making the film also left Curran with a slightly less bleak outlook on our current political moment.

“If this accident happened now, Teddy would not have a second chapter,” he said. “It would be over.”

[youthvoicesblog]

The bugs!

By Felicia

The weather is changing so fast here in Durban. Sometimes it is even hard to predict the weather and the forecast is not always right. The days are only getting hotter and insects are everywhere. Flying ants, humongous hornets, some kind of black beetle that flies around our garden. It’s like the only place that has no weird bugs to chill is at the school or the mall. 

Beginning of the week, I cried because I was stuck outside while Tonya was locked in her room. This huge hornet came flying into our flat. I had never seen anything with a stinger that huge. It was the size of my palm, the sounds of it flying was horrifying. You could hear it echo in our tiny place. I scream to Tonya that there was some kind of ugly thing flying around our place, so she quickly closed the room door. Because she panicked while the humongous hornet was flying towards her, she couldn’t get the door to close the first time as there was a door stopper from keeping the door slamming shut.

Elva, our hostess was wondering why we were running around screaming. When she found out why we were terrified, she was not impressed with our reaction. Just because those kinds of insects are normal to her. So I cried. I am not used to anything types of insects. My body was meant for the harsh winter weathers and adapting to the extreme hot weathers of South Africa. But my brain still tries to get used to the different types of species. We try to look cool and normal as if the bugs do not bother us but as soon as it comes close to us, we have a reaction that make us look silly. 

The other day, I went to do my usual morning routine, after I eat my breakfast and if there is nothing that I finish, I feed it to Elva’s guinea pigs. Her pets are outside her place in a large cage. Recently, her pets made a litter, so I open the side where the baby guinea pigs are. Soon as I open the covers to open the cage, I seen this HUGE snake ready to slither away! I quickly slam the cage close then run away with a busted up knee. The snake seemed so big and dark with dark red eyes. Elva is one of the strongest and bravest person I’ve ever met. She ran towards a fearful creature and tries to make sure her pets are in good hands. Turns out the snake I saw was “just a house snake”.  I still can’t believe that all these creatures do not bother her when it freaks me out. 

Middle of the week after all that chaos simmer down, we practice our presentation for the seminar next week. Our South Africa leader gave us awesome feedback to help us better our actual presentation.  She teaches us how to make our presentation into emotion plus she teaches us to take pride in our work.