#like how tf you still standing here if you were poisoned

[emperor-nasch]

also are we gonna talk about the fact that jaune clearly survived being poisoned, like...

wtf was that about

[imkazz]

akaza’s backstory

heyo so i decided to do live notes on me reading this guys backstory. my mom says she literally cried when she read a year before me, and that its really sad so i wanted to keep my live reactions bcs this isnt my first time screaming at the plot twists in demon slayer. i start the live notes in the beginnings of chapter 154 and im also reading the manga in japanese so i might have mistranslated/misunderstood some things lol

SPOILERS BELOW THIS IS YOUR WARNING

initial thoughts on akaza: idk hes pretty fruity like the mugen train arc “oni ni nare, kyoujurou” in japanese was omg just. so fucking fruity. and he said the same freaking thing to giyuu omgs- also he hates douma and wants to kill kokushibo but idk what to really feel about him. anyways ive seen the little hints at the girl holding his hand and he tried to punch it, and his head grew back bc he said he had to get stronger???

live notes start here (just jot notes):

- damn she pulling out the existential crisis on akaza

- oh his dads sick boo hoo

- woah wait is he a pickpocket?

- oh my fucking wait is that why he looks like a basketball???

- holy shit is this where he becomes a basketball?

- like every time he gets caught stealing he gets a mark as punishment

- damn how many times did u get caught bruh

- welp idk how hed steal without his hands

- oof he just got called a demon child well hes a demon moon now

- oh wait my mom specified for me it means a kid who was born with teeth

- HOLY SHIT NAME DROP DUDE THATS A NICE NAME

- OMG HIS DAD KILLED HIMSELF JUST LIKE ZENITSUS TEACHER

- dude this suicide letter like ‘i cant take medicine bought by stolen money sorry for making myself a bother for you live a good life’

- oh hes mourning by hurting himself fighting people

- “even if it took 100 years for my dad to heal” and he kept half of that promise

- damn akazas backstory is just him getting beat up by everyone he meets

- and hes just like taking the beatings bc he wanted his dad to get medicine

- well fuck medicine for special diseases does cost a lot poor akaza

- and his dad just killed himself anyway

- still dont know who the girl is

- damn i wouldnt be able to stand getting whipped and bones broken for my parents

- huh he beat the living shit out of seven adults

- and he didnt get a scratch and hes also a kid

- who tf is that guy it seems akaza also has the same question

- oh is this guy who applauded akaza some sort of sensei i mean he has a dojo

- why does akazas personality sort of remind me of inosukes ‘fight me bitch’ type thing

- oh shit theyre gonna fight

- that wasnt so much of a fight than a man slapping a kid silly

- nother name drop keizou

- OOF AKAZAS FACE LOL

- oh akaza is gonna take care of a girl?

- HOLY SHIT ITS THAT GIRL I THINK WAIT HER NAME IS KOYUKI

- I SMELL BUDDING TEEN ROMANCE HERE JUST SAYING

- OMG ITS SO AWKWARD AND CUTE

- and akaza has someone to take care of again!

- aww cute moment between them

- also fireworks! yay! hes saying he can piggyback ride her there that so sweet

- oh shit shes crying

- oh thats so cute that their only purposes are to protect those they love

- omgs and akaza on his little training arc with keizou like how tanjirou did with urokodaki and both are taking care of a younger girl who is bedridden- the parallels

- holy shit three year time skip

- oh ok koyuki is better now

- OMG THEY DO LIKE EACH OTHER AAAAAAAAA THEYRE SO SWEET AND SHES SO NERVOUS AND HES SO NERVOUS

- OH HES GONNA SAY YES TO THE MARRIAGE PROPOSAL

- HES GONNA FOLLOW HIS DADS SUICIDE NOTE AND LIVE A GOOD LIFE

- HE EVEN VISITED THE GRAVE HELP

- WAIT SHIT NO HES A DEMON SOMETHING GOES WRONG

- NONONONONO WAIT SHIT I WAS ACTUALLY SORT OF STARTING TO LIKE THESE TWO 

- OMG HES ADMITTING THAT THEYRE HIS TWO FAVOURITE PEOPLE

- wait whats this abt poison

- WAIT WHAT POISON

- THIS IS TURNING VERY FAST WHAT THE FUCK

- WHAT THEY WERE BOTH POISONED AND FUCKING DIED WHAT

- BECAUSE OF THE FREAKING DOJO WTFFFFFF

- I- I NEED TO THINK ABOUT THIS

- ok were back and ready to react

- wait what promise

- CALLBACK TO THE FIREWORKS

- ohh shes saying she wants to watch the fireworks with akaza next year and the year after too... oh shit she died.

- damn so both their parents killed themselves bc of their kids

- ohhh this is so sweet but sad knowing she just died

- AND HE PROMISED TO PROTECT HER BUT OH NOOOOOO

- OH SHIT HES KILLING THEM ALL WITH HIS BARE HANDS

- DAMN THATS BRUTAL AND TWISTED OF AKAZA

- BUT DAMN THIS IS HIS WAY OF MOURNING HOLY FUCK

- EVERY SINGLE STUDENT OF THE RIVAL DOJO?!?!?!?!!??!

- HOLY SHIT ITS MUZAN JACKSON

- DO THE MOONWALK PLS

- OH SHIT THIS IS WHEN MUZAN WAS THINKING ABOUT MAKING THE TWELVE KIZUKI

- OH SHIT AKAZA RLY SAID MOVE BITCH TO MUZAN

- HE PUNCHED AKAZA I REPEAT HE PUNCHED THROUGH AKAZAS SKULL

- i feel like this is sad because it wasnt even muzans fault that the two of them died it was just poison

- he even admits it out loud himself that his own story is sad help

- hes even completely ok with the fact he wont go to the same place as the three most important people in the world to him

- and giyuu is just standing there

- lmao tanjiro is just always yelling for demons to stop

- wait what tanjiro ur sword-???

- oh shit it slipped from his grip

- sorry i snorted at the fact that tanjiro decked akaza in the face instead

- i think im gonna stop there the backstory is over

- i feel horribly empty inside after finishing that chapter

- think i might just go cry

current thoughts on akaza: damn i understand why ppl are so sad about this, holy shit this is so sad like i have no words im probably gonna have to come back to this post tomorrow to give my thoughts after thinking about this all night

[random-ask-anon]

sO

Tam Lin is the story of a noblewoman named Janet. She goes to a forest her father gave to her, Carterhaugh (sounds like carterhaw), and plucks a rose, and then appears the faerie knight Tam Lin.

So the legend goes, he takes a price from every maid to pass through Carterhaugh.

(he and Janet umm do the do)

She winds up pregnant, and in my favorite so far version of the song, her father goes "alas my daughter I fear you are with child. And is it to a man of might, or to a man of means? For who among my gentlemen shall give the babe his name?"

Janet goes "There's none among your gentlemen that I would treat so well" and then off to Carterhaugh she goes again, to pick a "poison rose" to induce abortion, because she is not gonna have a kid when the father isn't in the picture. She says as much when Tam Lin asks what tf she's doing, she tells him that if the baby's father were a gentleman and not a "wild shade" she'd be happy to have and care for the little one. But not as things stand.

So Tam Lin tells her that he wasn't born an elf, the faerie queen stole him away. And Fairyland's magic comes with a price: at the end of each seventh year they must pay a tithe to Hell. This year, Tam Lin is the sacrifice.

Tam Lin does not want to be the sacrifice.

So he tells Janet how to free him from the queen. She has to come when the elves ride to sacrifice him, pull him off his horse, then hold him fast no matter what the queen changes him into. (I've seen wolf, lion, bear, eagle, snake, and red-hot iron.) After all the shapes run their course, he turns back into a man and gets to stay with Janet. Yay!

Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight is less well known but still gorgeous. Lady Isabel is sewing one day when she hears/sees an elf knight blowing his horn nearby. She thinks aloud about how hot she thinks he is and how she'd like for him to love her, and next thing she knows he's broken in her window and gone "hey" [weird waggly eyebrow thing] "want to go ride down to the greenwood together?"

She says yes, so they go riding, and then deep in the woods he tells her it's time to get off her horse because he is going to kill her now (and he's killed seven other princesses here already).

She says "hae mercy please" and suggests that he lay his head on her knee and rest awhile. He does this.

Then she says "you murderer, hold still if you know what's good for you" and kills him. With his own blade. Or his hair, in one version.

(There's a slightly different version where he comes courting her and when he gets her to ride off with him he's going to drown her except he tells her to undress so he can save her pretty clothes and sell them. She says "turn around, it's not right for you to look at me naked" and then when he does she throws him into the ocean!)

Also, there's Merida. Conclusion: Scottish women are awesome and very good at dealing with the fae. Thank you for coming to my TED talk

HI do you know the song Tam Lin at all? (related: Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight. my friend sent me a link to a Lady Isabel cover and now I'm deep down the Scottish women triumphing over faeries rabbit hole) -Random @random-ask-anon

I do not, tell me more

[taylors-fourth-cat-meow]

Acowar Chp: 44 - The High Lords Meeting.

Okay this is from the chp tamlin enters because tbh I am not interested in anything before that lol

If u don't like Tamlin and love ic and feyre kindly leave now you have been forewarned.

Absolute silence. Absolute stillness.

Yeah baby that’s how you honour my king

I tried to school mine into the cold caution with which Nesta regarded him, or the vague distaste on Mor’s. I tried—and failed utterly.

Is there anything this loser doesn’t fail?

I knew his moods, his temper

What moods??!?!?! What FUCKING TEMPER BITCH??!!! See, this how tamlin is being viewed for having ugly trauma. Feyre brings up his trauma constantly. She throws tantrums and spits out rubbish without thinking how it might affect him. And when it ultimately does?? hE HaS mOoDS.

Here was the High Lord who had shredded those naga into bloody ribbons; here was the High Lord who had impaled Amarantha on Lucien’s sword and ripped out her throat with his teeth.

KING 🤌🏼🤌🏼🥵🧎🏽‍♀️

I didn’t know what to say. What to do with my body, my breathing.

Don’t worry babe you’re feminist king mate will tell you soon enough. 🙄

No more masks, no more lies and deceptions. The truth, now sprawled bare and open before him. What I’d done in my rage, the lies I’d fed him. The people and land I’d laid vulnerable to Hybern. And now that I’d returned to my family, my mate …

What in the? See? See? THIS BITCH FUCKING KNEW WHAT SHE WAS DOING??? PEOPLE I LAID VULNERABLE TO HYBERN. I. SEE THAT BITCHES?? Feyre herself is taking accountability for it? Maas herself is admitting Feyrug comitted a war crime only Feyrug is a Girlboss™️ for it. Djdjdjnsksla

Not as Tamlin surveyed the hand Rhys had resting on my sparkling knee.

How does your knee sparkle bitch? Like- are u Barbie? No what body wash are u using? Tell me don't be shy.

No, Amarantha hadn’t really known me—her loathing had been superficial, driven from a personal history that poisoned everything. Tamlin … Tamlin knew me. And now hated every inch of what I was.

SO WHY TF IS HE STILL NOT OVER THIS VANILLA COAT RACK IN THE NOVELLA?!?

“I’m not in the business of discussing our plans with enemies.”

Helion, across the reflection pool, grinned like a lion.

“No,” Tamlin said with equal ease, “you’re just in the business of fucking them.”

HOW- LIKE HOW CAN U NOT STAN THIS SAVAGE KING?!?

But whether Tamlin noticed or cared that three of the deadliest people in this room were currently contemplating his demise, he didn’t let on.

Deadliest? Bitch u kidding right? Tamlin is a high lord he cud kill your pet bats in a sec if he wanted too? And miss ma'am is sitting in a room full all the high lords and two bats who wear colourful stones and a lie dectector are the most deadliest? Like damn sjm how do u even fit all that bat dick in your throat?

Rhys shrugged, smiling faintly. “Seems a far less destructive alternative to war.”

So he can apologise to Kallias for not doing anything while children in his court were killed but can't apologise to tamlin for standing by and actually helping to put his ppl in concentration camps and torture them?!

I said quietly, “The sun was shining when I left you.”

Those green eyes slid to me, glazed and foreign. He let out a low snort, then looked away again.

Dismissal.

HOW IS HE SOOOO HAWT?!?!???????!!!!

Like idk feyre is trying to make it seem Girlboss that miss ma'am left tamlin with the guy who assualted her, who slaughtered Tamlins family and can control minds and hates tamlin, and thought to say goodbye via a letter? A letter written by an illiterate? Miss girl trying to be poetic and badass. Uk what is actually badass? "DISMISSAL" 🤌🏼🤌🏼🥵🥵🧎🏽‍♀️🤰

 “I bartered access to my lands to get back the woman I love from a sadist who plays with minds as if they are toys. I meant to fight Hybern—to find a way around the bargain I made with the king once she was back. Only Rhysand and his cabal had turned her into one of them. And she delighted in ripping open my territory for Hybern to invade. All for a petty grudge—either her own or her … master’s.”

OOFFF POP OFF MY LOVE!! YASSS "all for a petty grudge" YESS CALL OUT THAT BITCH!!

“You don’t get to rewrite the narrative,” I breathed. “You don’t get to spin this to your advantage.”

Okay this is so fcking ironic cause this statement is basically acomaf in a nutshell. I feel like one her editors told sjm this and she just used it as a 'fck u to them' lol.

“They peddle tales of defending our land and peace. And yet she came to my lands and laid them bare for Hybern. She took my High Priestess and warped her mind—after she shattered her bones for spite. And if you are asking yourself what happened to that human girl who went Under the Mountain to save us … Look to the male sitting beside her. Ask what he stands to gain—what they stand to gain from this war, or lack of it. Would we fight Hybern, only to find ourselves with a Queen and King of Prythian? She’s proved her ambition—and you saw how he was more than happy to serve Amarantha to remain unscathed.”

YES BABY!! He is legit the only character that calls these ppl out on their bs? Istg Tamlin is the most sensible person in this series. Like my man's talking business. He is literally the only one smart enough to notice Rhysie Gaslighting? He's is literally pointing out on a silver platter that RHYSAND IS FCKING MANIPULATING FEYRE and yet she doesn't understand lmao

Rhys let out a dark laugh. “Well played, Tamlin. You’re learning.”

See? This what they do? The second tamlin brings out valid points and starts calling them out they start condescending him? Exactly how women have faced this all these years. The second they take a stand they are labelled crazy.

Kallias’s eyes flared like blue flame. “You stood beside her throne while the order was given.”

I watched, stomach twisting, as Rhys’s golden skin paled. “I tried to stop it.”

So we are just going to go ahead and forget that fact in Acotar it was Rhysie the who killed the kids? Really?

Rhys’s mouth tightened. “There is not one day that passes when I don’t remember it,” he said to Kallias, to Viviane. To their companions. “Not one day.”

Says the guy who wanted to fck his mate in safe place of SA survivors.

Not … what he might have been forced to witness, too. Forced to endure, bound and trapped.

And standing by, leashed to Amarantha, while she ordered the murder of those children—

Okay u have no fcking idea how MAD this makes me!! Two dozen children died? Their parents lost their children?! And somehow the man who stood by and did nothing is the victim? What like what?!?!??!

“I believe you.”

“Says the woman,” Beron countered, “who gave an innocent girl’s name in her stead—for Amarantha to butcher as well.”

Yes old creepy guy call her out! See the ppl who actually do call her out and just deemed irredeemable villians who just talk shit about Feyrug just cause they are evil.

I blocked out the words, the memory of Clare.

I- what that's it? That's it?!?? Beron just rightfully called her out on causing Clare's death and she just "blocks out the memory" wtf?!

“Who knew,” Beron mused, “that a cock could be so persuasive?”

Pls 💀

“Stories and words,” Tamlin said, lounging in his chair. “Is there any proof?”

YES ANSWER HIM U LITTLE BITCH

“No,” Rhys cut in as Mor blocked Cassian with an arm, forcing him to sit. Rhys added to Kallias, “But I swear it—upon my mate’s life.” His hand at last rested atop mine.

Not good enough for me bitch

Tamlin rolled his eyes

I literally loosing my shit like how is this "your hair is...clean" man literally roasting these bitches. My man really said break up = glow up 🤌🏼🤌🏼🥵

“I once told you I would fight against tyranny, against that sort of evil. Did you think you were enough to turn me from that?” His teeth shone white as bone. “It was so easy for you to call me a monster, despite all I did for you, for your family.” A sneer toward Nesta, who was frowning with distaste. 

YES YES YES DRAG HER BABE!! Like he is do right!!! Tamlin did do A LOT for those two ungrateful idiots. They were starving and poor even when feyre was hunting. What tamlin did WAS NOT THE BARE FUCKING MINIMUM. Uk what wud be bare minimum? Giving them a piece of meat and bread every two weeks because that was literally what feyre was providing them. Idk I kinda hate Nesta here. Distaste? Girl u shud thanking him on your knees.

“Yet you witnessed all that he did Under the Mountain, and still spread your legs for him. Fitting, I suppose. He whored for Amarantha for decades. Why shouldn’t you be his whore in return?”

Yes. I said this before too? Tamlin is LITERALLY the only one to point out that their relationship is based on SA!??! And uk... Like idk what I said before. But this isn't slut shaming to me. Nope it isn't. Srry. He is harsh and he gets to be that after what Feyrug did to him but he's rightfully pointing out the truth.

“Watch your mouth,” Mor snapped. I was having difficulty swallowing—breathing.

Tamlin ignored her wholly and waved a hand toward Rhysand’s wings. “I sometimes forget—what you are. Have the masks come off now, or is this another ploy?”

How- how do u hate a person like this? Like can I just say if tamlin was a female in this relationship and Feyrug the male let's see how many not call feyrug abusive and cheer tamlin on.

“You’d be all too happy for war, considering how well you made out in the last one.”

(Tamlin to Helion)

Wait a damn minute. Which war is this? Is he talking about the humans war? DOES HE KNOW ABOUT THE AFFAIR???! like what is the fcking context?! Djdjdjsksksm

Okayyy this is all for now. There's more about Tamlin nd hybern but I made a seperate post altogether about it so no point in discussing. The rest of the chp is boring and too much...even for me. Hope u liked it!!

[gronjon44]

Ok so I just finished Jurrasic Park: Camp Cretacious and honestly? So freaking rad.

Some mini highlights (without spoilers)

Yaz and Sammy are the best (I kept seeing stuff about the LGBT community in the CC fandom and like... idk what that'd about but if I had to genuinely ship anyone in this despite their being children it'd be Yaz and Sammy THEYRE SO CUTE

Kenji had an ACTUAL ARC (my boy got to do so much more this time around THANK YOU FOR LETTING HIM BE IN CHARGE)

Ben is STILL ANNOYING but for genuinely heartfelt reasons (also I was REALLY EXPECTING a big battle between Bumpy and the S-Rex)

Brooklynn and Darius are both awesome as always and the way the finally brought back his dad's love of the Gallimimus was really cute and IT MADE ME KINDA SAD

Now, bumping into spoiler territory here so you've been spoiler warned;

Wu making an actual appearance in S3 was something i genuinely wasn't expecting and seeing more interactions with him snd Brooklynn was really fun actually (Hawke and the mercenaries were generic mercenaries so there they've been honorably mentioned)

I'm not gonna lie S3 did what I wanted Fallen Kingdom to do with the horror element (the way it actually had MORE DEATH felt more like Jurrasic Park, the constant worry about the S-Rex and the utter chaos of the Islands shift in balance was super rad)

This is minor but WHEN WILL WE GET THE SPINOSAURUS BACK YOU ALMOST DID IT WITH THE OURONASURUS YOURE ALMOST THERE

There's more but I don't wanna make this unbearably long so click the read more

Every new dinosaur inclusion was rad, both in refference to other media and just Dinosaurs in general, but I wanna dedicate a moment to talk about the Scorpius Rex (oh look I remembered the name)

Scorpius Rex is everything I wanted the Indoraptor to be. Whereas the Indoraptor felt like a B-Grade version of the I-Rex whereas the Scorpius Rex felt more like an actual character.

Scorpius felt like a genuine threat that no one knew about and then the reveal that *SPOILER* there are 2 S-Rexs *insert Ian Malcolm quote here* was actually a really awesome twist (also the constant threat of Sammy almost dying was a nice touch cause THANK YOU JURRASIC PARK UNIVERSE FOR NOT BEING AFRAID TO ALMOST KILL KIDS)

But there's one thing about the Scorpius I wanna talk about that just sticks with me.

The Scorpius is stated to be the first hybrid before the Indoninous Rex but was kept hidden due to it being unstable, though we're never shown why outside of it being much more aggressive.

Wu goes on record stating it's unstable behavior and appearance are part of why it was kept hidden and like, you can't blame him with the appearance of it at least the I-Rex LOOKS like a semi plausible Dinosaur.

But then I got thinking, what about tbis hybrid could make it so unstable? What DNA was used to make it that could've turned it into a Savage monster?

Well if its a predecessor to the I-Rex we can assume they're mostly similar in DNA Makeup (the official Indominus Rex DNA Makeup consists of Abelisaurus, Carnotaurus, Majungasaurus, Rugops, Giganotosaurus, and Velociraptor DNA)

We also know the I-Rex has other DNA in it such as Cuttlefish , Tree frog, Pit Viper, and Chameleon DNA.

The Scorpius Rex likely had all the same base DNA as the I-Rex (T-Rex, Carnotaurus, Giganotosaurus, and Velociraptor, as well as some unnamed ones we might not be aware of Wu states that it gets its name and poisonous nature from the Scorpion Fish)

And we can see it has some similar traits to the I-Rex such as the Pit Viper and Tree Frog DNA.

But something about just doesn't seem... right. Something about it it seems more unnatural, almost more like a different animal entirely...

I'm almost 100% sure that the Scorpius Rex has Human DNA mixed within that melting pot of a monstrosity.

There's actually a bit of evidence that points to this I think (bare with me)

Look at how it stands and acts.

It doesn't quite stand like a natural dinosaur. You can argue that it stands like hunched over Tyrannosaurus or even a really fucked up Therizinosauria (which is stated to the JP Wiki to be mixed in with the Indominus Rex's DNA)

But even then it still doesn't stand naturally, and if you watch it run/walk it runs almost like a person when they try to run on all fours, it's forearms stretching out further then what most natural Dinosaurs do.

Now consider its intelligence.

This thing is MUCH more intelligent then most of the other Dinosaurs (bordering close to human as is) but that could be excused as the Raptor DNA like with the I-Rex, but it borders closer to human then you'd think it would (I don't have much to say for this one as it can be excused as Raptor DNA)

It's physical appearance

Now it's appearance can be attriebuted to mutplie factors (the shorter face could be a feature inherited from the Giganotosaurus or even the Carnotaurus since they have shorter faces); it's arms could be attributes inherited from anything (Raptor arms, T-Rex arms etc) but what gets me is the fact that it borders on having actual hands (its claws are much longer then any of the species it shares DNA with) and its arms are much longer then a T-Rex or a Velociraptor)n

Now this is a big one for me, but the scream

Alot of animals tend to have borderline human screams/howls and when you hear it in the wild and just think "Who tf is getting murdered rn?" Yeah the Scorpius is like that but worse; every dinosaur in the franchise has been shown to have either a natural sounding roar or even just some really loud growls and or howls. None of them have been shown to really scream or howl. Then the Scorpius just shows up and makes the Deer scream sound weak in comparison; Hell even Kenji makes a comment about it and th3 visible discomfort everyone feels when it screams shows that none of them would have even come close to being prepared for something of that scale.

Finally THIS CONCEPT ART

Anyone who's anyone remembers this concept art, and the idea that accompanied this where they did at one point consider human/dinosaur hybrids. And look me dead in the eye and try telling me there isn't SOME similarity between the S-Rex and this old art.

Thats about the gist of it so I'd like to end this off by saying this:

The Indoraptor is a bitch and the Scorpius Rex is the villain we deserved for Jurrasic World: Fallen Kingdom.

[moonlightchild-otome]

the real story of amélie from arthur’s route

hey hey! it’s been a long time! i have been quite busy these past weeks with finals and the summer break.

i also want to start writing hcs, so if you have any requests don’t hesitate to send them to me!

today i wanted to write about a story that i read not too long ago that really coincides with the evil character of amelie in arthur’s route.

a lot of people might have actually already heard of it, she is known as history’s most cruel murderer.

the person we are going to talk about lived in the period of victorian england and was sometimes suspected to have a link with jack the ripper, the serial killer who terrorized the inhabitants of whitechapel.

in other words, she is called the ogress of reading or the victorian ogress and the trial of these murders has been the subject of much attention, especially because she preyed on very young children. Let me tell you the terrifying story of a monster who disguised herself as a warm and loving mother figure

the story of the infamous amelia elisabeth dyer

an ordinary family

our story begins in 1836 in the port city of bristol in england. the hobley family welcomes the arrival of a fifth child, a lovely little girl called amelia elisabeth. the little amelia is very lucky, in a time when poverty reigns in the united kingdom she knows a respectable education, learns to read and to love poetry. however the luck ends quickly as amelia’ mother caught typhus, an illness that showed her a lot of psychological problems. amelia had to take care of her mother until she passes away from her illness. after her mother’s death, the girl loses contact with most of her family members. meanwhile, amelia starts seeing george thomas, a 59 year old man, much older than her, who was only 25 at the time (long live the sugar daddies!). they planned to get married and to avoid gossip, they both lied about their date of birth on the day of the ceremony. (amelia pretended that she was 32 and george 48)

during her marriage, amelia learned to be a nurse but she doesn't have time to forge a real career as her husband dies leaving her alone with their children who are still very young. it's already not easy to raise a child alone nowadays but imagine what it was like at that time when england was in the middle of the victorian period, the industrial revolution changed the shape of the cities and saw the emergence of new social classes. in london and other major british cities, poverty has invaded the neighborhoods and the poor have few options to get by. some live in workhouses which reduce them more or less in slavery for a mouthful of bread while others choose criminality to support themselves.

however, amelia remembers ellen dane, a midwife in her building with whom she got along quite. she had told her that to earn more money she had become a baby farmer.

it is a profession which does not exist any more today but was rather widespread in the 19th century. now, it should not be forgotten that this england inherited puritanism and considered that to have a child out of marriage was a horrible sin. if that came to be known, the young women concerned risked big and could lose their reputation and their work. especially that, at that time, one did not consider that the father had a role to play in the event of unwanted pregnancy. also, it was obviously out of question to abort except clandestinely which was at the same time illegal and very dangerous. all that to say that when an unwanted child came to the world most women preferred to give it up rather than risk public humiliation. but abandonment was also illegal, and none of them wanted to risk the death penalty if their actions came public. this is precisely where the baby farmers intervene. when a woman fell pregnant and did not want to keep the child, she had to put an ad in the newspapers and leave her child to a farmer.the baby would be taken care of and fed until the farm finds a new family. it was a sort of clandestine human trafficking, and sometimes the farmers even housed the mothers in their homes during their pregnancy in order to hide their big bellies.

the birth of the monster

soon, the ogress settles in reading close to london and publishes advertisements where she presents herself as a respectable woman to marry, capable of providing a healthy environment and filled with affection to the children that she intends to collect like the other farmers. she asks for money to be able to look after them. amelia quickly realizes that it is much more profitable to keep the money rather than to use it for feeding and educating the children. and so little by little the treatments that she inflicts on the children become more and more dire (spoiler: she doesn’t take care of them anymore). and even worse, she even drugs the children to prevent them from crying because of hunger. the kids often die of malnutrition and infantile diseases. it is absolutely terrible and yet it is far from being unusual, in fact orphans were very often victims of abuse and many of the baby farmers were far from being trustworthy people. a lot took advantage of the distress of the mothers ready to do anything to keep their secret and these so-called “baby farmers” would leave the children to die in order to pocket the money without any effort. when the mothers asked for news of their children, they often got no answer and when a family wanted to get a child back, the farmer gave them another one instead.

amelia very quickly became addicted to the drugs she used on the children as she couldn’t stand the crying and the presence of the orphans anymore. she decides to move on to a more radical option: directly eliminating the children she is entrusted with.

at first, she will choose to poison them and claim an infantile disease, but the doctor who came to attest the death of the infants shows himself a little suspicious (at the same time, she gives him a case every week or so :/). in short, the guy warned the authorities so that they could investigate on amelia. but no luck, she manages to get away with negligence with a simple sentence of forced labor. and moreover, she decided to opt for a more brutal method for her future murders. that is to say, she was going to strangle them as soon as she was allowed to keep them, pocket the money and look for a new child to start all over again. and this will go on for years, sometimes at the rate of six babies a day, no need to declare the deaths, she got rid of them herself, wrapping them in cloth or old clothes, and then she left to burn them in an isolated place to hide them or throw them in the thames. and when she felt that the authorities could trace the dead children back to her, she simulates a nervous breakdown and suicidal desires and runs off to a psychiatric hospital. she even tried to kill herself once by overdosing to escape an overly suspicious mother who was asking for her child. except that by consuming opiates she had become hyper resistant and the dose that she took was not enough to kill her. she then moved often and took on different identities to prevent the police from finding her and understanding who she really was and this little merry-go-round worked for a long time, a very long time, even, but not indefinitely...

ambush and arrest

in january 1896, a waitress named evelyna marmon gave birth to an illegitimate daughter named doris. she was looking for someone to take care of her and very soon she came across the ad of a certain mrs. harding who wrote "married couple, without children, want to adopt a child in good health in a beautiful country house, price: 10£”. necessarily for this young mother, it is a godsend and the two women contact each other. and here is what mrs. harding replied, "I would be happy to have a dear little girl, one that I will be able to raise like my own. we are a united couple of fairly good conditions. I do not want a child for the lure of gain but to accompany the comfort of the house. my husband and I love children but we do not have any. with me, this child will have a good house as well as all the love of a mother". at this stage you can guess that mrs. harding is in fact amelia dyer who took a false name and who continued with her macabre activities. doris gets taken from the waitress by “mrs. harding” who confirms by letter that the child is doing well, after that she doesn’t give any more news. spoiler: the child did not have more than a few hours to live. once the crime is committed, because yes, it’s done already. amelia covers the body of doris with another child in fabric and travels to the edge of the thames to throw them under the eyes of a man who seemed to observe her but who didn’t address a word to her.

in this kind of case, one wonders “where tf is the police??” well they were on the point of starting a very interesting investigation... on march 30th 1896, the police force finds the lifeless body of helena fry, a baby of hardly 15 months who floated on the waters of the river wrapped in a brown cloth. for the authorities, it is obviously a murder since the child was strangled. they later found on the cloth, a half erased writing which resembles an address. this address is amélia’s, who is now 58 years old; the police then trace her and set up a trap.

basically what they did was to use a young woman as a cover, she pretended to need a farmer to look after her child and as expected it was amelia who answered her directly. so that's how the police organized an ambush at the murderer's house. what first shocked the policemen was especially the unbearable smell which reigned in the house because of the decomposition of certain corpses, they also found meters of edging tape which she used to strangle her victims, and also telegrams testifying of all the adoptions made as well as letters of mothers who asked for news of their children. so yes, there is a lot of evidence to charge her for, especially as they found at least seven more bodies by dredging the thames after her arrest. the bodies clearly had a white mark around their neck probably because of the tape she used to kill the children with. we also know that about twenty children under her care at that time were missing but for the rest it's impossible to know the exact number of amelia's victims. in fact, it is estimated that in 20 years she would have killed between 200 and 400 newborn babies, that's why she is said to be the most prolific serial killer in history.

her sentence and death

in spite of this very important number of victims amelia will be accused for only one crime, the one of the little doris. except that she very quickly confessed a quantity of other murders and tried to commit suicide twice while she was incarcerated. the defense pleaded madness and because she had spent time in asylum the doctors that she had managed to manipulate were able to confirm that was unstable. she herself said that the children she had killed died peacefully; that they were called back by God who was someone who could love them more than anyone on this earth, she said that she had simply made angels and that one day she would sit beside the Lord Almighty. her breakdowns of madness always coincided strangely with the moment when the police approached, so we can think that it was more of simulation and calculation than true dementia. the jury took hardly five minutes to return its verdict, the crimes were so horrible that her mental state could not do much anyways.

amelia was thus condemned to the death penalty. on june 10th 1896, amelia dyer walks towards the scaffold, she decided not to appeal by hearing her verdict and wrote herself five notebooks of confession before her execution that she entrusted to a priest. she tells inside them to have taken pleasure in seeing her victims dying. before her execution, one asked her if she had any last words to pronounce but she answered that she did not have anything to add. at 9 o’clock sharp, the woman who was called the ogresse of reading was hanged. following these tragic events the controls of the adoptions and the activities of the baby farmers were reinforced, new laws were also put in place to protect the children and the mothers and the advertisements in the newspapers were supervised. that said, it still took a certain number of years before child trafficking was seriously supervised…

that’s all for the story! it is a very horrific case and i can’t even imagine what the children must have gone through. i also think we can all agree with the similarities with the character of amélie in arthur’s route.

[lilacyennefer]

Burning Desire

@oldstuffnewstuff​ asked: from the NSFW prompts - let's try #4 Are you trying to turn me on right now? Because it’s working.” #15 “Forget the bed. Let’s fuck right here.” #16 “Fuck, I love the sounds you make.” with either Will from TF or Ray from the Gentlemen. Thank you 💖💖💖💖

A/N: I had so much fun with this, holy shit. I choose Will because there isn't much single story with him. I hope you like it! Also, since gifs make your post disappear in the tags I use some of the edits I made for my Charlie fan account on instagram.

TW: SMUT, it’s literally pure filth 

It was Will’s idea to go to a dinner with Benny and his new girlfriend so he can check her. Will was always worried when Benny had a new girlfriend, knowing his little brother gave his heart and soul to the person who he was in love with, ending up with a broken heart more than once. So, this is why Will started to invite Benny and his new girlfriends to dinner, sometimes to your place where he cooked, sometimes to restaurants when he didn’t feel like cooking, but wanted to check the girl anyway. With Will’s skill sets, he could read every single person like an open book, sometimes it was good, sometimes not so much. 

You were okay with this, seemingly Benny was too, and you never minded spending the night with great food, a glass of wine, and most importantly, with Will. 

But today, today was a bad day for this, knowing you barely will have time to do anything when you get home from work before the two of you leave for the restaurant, and you needed some alone time with Will really badly. 

It all started with the dream you had, a very sexy and exciting dream that made you wake up all hot and bothered, and you couldn’t help this throbbing sensation in the morning since you overslept and had very little time to get ready and go to work. 

The whole day, all you could think about is getting home and do all the dirty things you dreamed about with Will, so he can finally save you from this sensation. 

Your excitement died down quickly when Will called you, telling you that the two of you are going to have a dinner with Benny and his new girlfriend. 

So, when you finally got home from work, Will was sitting on the couch, reading that new book he bought a few days ago, and he looked so fucking good in his reading glasses, all relaxed and lost in the book, it took you everything to not walk up to him and take the book away from him, and ride him until you finally feel the knot what has been tightening inside of you since the morning snap, and you’re no longer bothered. 

But you couldn’t, because you had a goddamn dinner reservation to attend, and Will hates being late from anywhere, even if you know that Benny will be late, because he’s late from everywhere. 

So you start getting ready, you quickly take a cold shower, hoping it will cool your burning body down, and again, it took you so much self control to not touch yourself, just a little bit until you finally can focus on anything else than that throbbing hotness between your legs. 

But you stopped yourself, you wanted Will, no, you needed Will and not your fingers. 

After getting out of the shower, you quickly dried yourself, put on a white lingerie and chose a red dress. You were standing in only your lingerie, doing your makeup when Will joined you in the bedroom, stepping up to you from behind and wrapping his strong arms around you, pulling you closer to his body as he hid his face in the crook of your neck, kissing the soft skin gently. 

You felt like you got struck by lightning, your whole body tensed from Will’s touch, so you quickly pulled away, pushing him away a little bit before you do something what would make the two of you late. 

“Is something wrong?” Will immediately asks you, confusion is written all over his face.

“No, I’m just—“ you sigh. There’s no point hiding this from him, knowing he can read you like an open book, and maybe, if you have to sit through this dinner all horny, you can tease him a little bit too. 

“Ever since I woke up this morning, I’m so unbearably horny I feel like I could explode any time. So you, kissing my neck, knowing what effect it has on me, is not helping.” You blurt out.

Will is looking at you with a smirk, and he slowly looks you up and down. 

That’s it, you decide. If you have to suffer, so does he.

“Do you know what made me so horny?” You ask in your most seductive voice as you take a step closer to Will. “I had a dream last night where you did all kinds of dirty, unspeakable things to me.” You whisper, and you see Will take a sharp breath and swallow hard. 

“Do you know what you did to me?” You asked as you put your hand on his chest, slowly dragging it lower.

“You tied me up to the bed, and I let you tease me for hours. I know how much you love that, seeing me tied up, completely at your mercy, begging you to touch me, to let me cum.” With each word, you dragged your hand lower on his body until you reached his hardening bulge, cupping it in your hand by the time you finished. 

Will really did love to tie you up time to time. It wasn’t anything extreme, it was more about the trust you had for each other. He mostly used scarfs or old ties, once you tried ropes, but it left an ugly mark on the skin of your sensitive wrists, and Will was feeling bad about it for weeks, so you agreed to stay with softer materials. 

The view of you tied up, being completely at his mercy, turned Will on more than ANYTHING in the world, seeing your complete trust in him was better than anything else. And Will loved to tease you, every time when you were together, you could be goddamn sure that he will tease you. Once you asked why he loves it so much, and his answer was simple: he loved how soaking wet you got from it, he loved to hear you beg, and edging your orgasm makes it more intense when you finally come. 

“Are you trying to turn me on right now? Because it’s working.” Will’s voice was already deeper than usual.

“Me?” You try to play the innocent “I was just telling you about my dream, love.” You try to hide the fact that you’re satisfied now that you’re not the only one who’s turned on. You take a step back and pull your hand away from Will before you say:

“C’mon, we can't be late!”

Will just lets out a loud groan.

“You’re gonna pay for this, Y/N.” He warns you before he starts getting ready.

“I can’t wait!” Is all you say as you put on your dress. 

Will finished getting ready really early, so he went back downstairs to wait for you. When you’re finally ready, you head downstairs, only to see Will leaning against the back of the couch, his glasses is sitting on the bridge of his nose, and his book back in his hands. 

And he looks so fucking good. 

He wears a white shirt and a black jacket, with a simple black jeans, but he’s Will, your Will, who looks good in anything, and you’re so horny, you had enough. 

“Are you fucking kidding me?” You ask frustrated, making Will look up from his book.

“Is something wrong?” Will repeats his words from earlier.

“Yes! You!” You walk closer to him “I can’t fucking wait any longer.” You take his book away from him and throw it on the ground, not bothering how it landed, and you grabbed Will’s face in your hands and pulled him down for a heated, passionate kiss. 

“We will—“ Will mutters when you pull away from him.

“We are not going.” You announce to Will’s surprise. 

“Give me your phone!” You reach your hand out, and without any comment, he gives you his phone.

You quickly search Benny’s name in his contacts and send him a text saying ‘Y/N got food poisoning, we can’t go. The bill is on me.’ You give Will his phone back and he puts it in the pocket of his jacket. 

“Now, take me to bed, William.” 

Will shakes his head with a sly smile, and he grabs your hips to pull you closer.

“Forget the bed. Let’s fuck right here.” He growls, and you could feel yourself getting even wetter, if that's possible. 

You didn’t wait for Will to take the other step, without any warning you jumped into his neck, wrapping your legs around his hips, kissing him. With Will’s reflex, his hand was already on your bottom, holding you up as he bypassed the couch and sat down on it, with you on his lap, his mouth never leaving yours. 

You’re sitting in Will’s lap and you can already feel his growing bulge underneath you, so you start rocking your hips against his, soaking through your panties. 

Will groans deeply into the kiss, allowing you to slip your tongue into his mouth, making him moan again. 

“I want you so much.” You murmur against Will’s mouth, lips still touching. 

“You have me, darling, you have me.” 

You kiss Will again, needing, like he was air and you were suffocating, like he was the water and you were at the edge of dying from dehydration. 

You needed Will, not just sexually, but in every way. He was your soulmate, your best friend, your compass pointing due north, and without him, you were nothing. But with him, you were everything, and more. 

Your lips are still pressed together, tongues exploring each other’s mouth, and your hand travels down to Will’s crotch, unbuttoning his pants, freeing his throbbing erection.

William lets out another loud groan as the cold skin hits his heated skin, and you smirk lightly before you run your thumb over his leaking tip, making him jump a little and throw his head back with a curse. 

You sit straight up, watching his reactions as your hand moves around him lightly. You take your hand away from him and you spit in your palm before you wrap your fingers around him again, moving your hand around him, up and down, twisting. 

Will suddenly sits up and literally rips your dress off of you, but you don’t care right now as his hands find their way to your soaked core, his fingers easily slipping through your folds. 

“Please.” you whine, and Will nods before, again, he rips your panties off.

“You need to stop ripping my clothes.” You scold him playfully.

“I’ll buy you all the clothes you want, darling.” He mutters into your neck before he gently nips the skin, making you so weak. 

You slip your hand into Will’s golden locks, giving yourself completely into the feeling of his velvet tongue on the sensitive skin of your neck, and his silken hair around your fingers as every part of you completely focuses on Will, and only him. 

With your brain being completely fogged by the pleasure, you try to move your hips a little bit so you can finally feel Will inside of you. Will is sensing what you’re doing and he helps you raise yourself a little bit before you take his cock into your hand and place it to your opening, and slowly you sink down on him. 

You let out the filthiest moan when Will finally filled you completely, stretching you out, making your toes curl. 

Your eyes are closed, and Will’s lips are still on your neck and chest kissing, and nipping your skin, then licking where he just bit you. You don’t wait for yourself to adjust to his size, you start rocking your hips against his, riding him. With every move of your hips, your sensitive clit is rubbing against his stomach, intensifying your pleasure, and making your toes curl. 

The whole room is filled with your moans and Will’s groans as you move in sync, with Will’s large hands still on your ass, guiding your movements.

“This is what you wanted all day?” Will asks you in a deep, husky voice “My cock buried deep inside of your sweet little pussy?” 

You feel yourself clench from his words, turning you on even more, earning more and more filthier moans from you. 

“Fuck, I love the sounds you make.” He groans.

“Will, please!” You whine. 

“You want to come? Then keep riding me, babe, let me see you enjoying my cock.” 

One of Will’s hands move from your ass to your bouncing tits, taking one in your hand and really gently massaging it, then pinching your nipple, making you yelp. 

You feel like it’s getting harder and harder to keep riding Will as pleasure takes over your every sense until the only thing you felt was Will and the fire growing inside of you. 

You suddenly stop moving and lay your sweaty forehead against Will’s equally sweaty shoulder, trying to catch your breath. 

“Please.” Is all you can whisper. Will cups your cheek tenderly and kisses you softly on the mouth.

“I got you, okay? I got you.” He assures you as he carefully lifts you off of himself, laying you down on the couch and he stands up. 

“Come here.” You move and sit in front of him “No, no. You want me to properly fuck you?” You nod “Then ass up, and grab the back of the couch.” You do as Will told you, you turn around and push your ass out to him, he puts his hands on your hips and pulls you closer as you grab the back of the couch. Will grab a his cock in his hands and runs them over your wet folds several times, stopping at your clit every time and tapping its head to you, making you jump. 

“Stop fucking teasing me!” You tell Will, and he just chuckles, but finally slips himself back inside you. 

“Aahhhhh.” You throw your head back with a loud moan, and Will grabs a fistful of your hair, pulling your head back before he starts fucking you hard. 

“Yes!” You scream as you feel Will playfully spank you a few times.

Shakily, you move your hand from the couch and show it between your legs to touch your clit, wanting to finally come. Your legs started to tremble as you started moving your fingers around your sensitive nub, your wetness coating your fingers, making it easier for you to rub yourself.

Will let out the most animalistic growl you ever heard from him, it was barely a human sound.

“I can feel you touching yourself, you dirty girl.” he husked, his dirty talk in the deep voice of his made you clench around him, and you know Will could feel it, he confirms your thought when he speaks again.

“You like this don’t you? Getting fucked hard, huh? I can feel your pussy constantly clench around me. Begging for more and more.”

“Yes.” you sobbed, before you choke “Will, I’m so close.” out. You didn’t think Will could move faster and harder than he already does, but he speed up from your words, and he’s fucking you even harder than before. You’re sure that he will leave marks on you, but you don’t care because this is the best fucking thing you ever felt as Will’s long, thick cock is slamming inside of you, hard, and with every trust his head is rubbing against that one spot inside of you what makes your toes curl and vision fade black, and how his hands land on your ass, slapping it, not hard, but it’s enough to make you jump a little and make your cheeks red, and the way how he’s pulling your hair, keeping you in place, and oh, your hand, the way how your fingers are so easily sliping over your fleshy pink skin, so soaked from your wetness you physically feel it dripping from you, down to your thighs. 

As your things shake even more than before, you finally feel all the tension leave your body as you dissolve into pleasure, falling, screaming, shattering. 

Overwhelmed, you collapse on the couch, chest rising and falling rapidly as you try to catch your breath, and your heart pounds so hard and fast, Will can see it under your skin. 

Your eyes are still closed as you just lay on the couch, in total bliss, when you feel Will’s lips on your cheek, giving you soft kisses. 

“You’re so beautiful like this. All flushed, and relaxed from the pleasure.” he whispers, his lips touching your face. 

You turn your head to kiss him, it’s gentle and loving, and you both need a soft moment like this. When you break the kiss, you open your eyes to see Will is still fully erect and he didn’t cum yet. You sit up, and Will stands up too so his throbbing erection is right in front of your face, standing proudly. 

You look up at Will, making sure you keep eye contact with him as you slowly run your tongue over your bottom lips before you lean forward and take him in your mouth. Will throws his head back with a loud groan, you know he’s close to coming from fucking you, and now your mouth around him, so you put all the effort into sucking him just like he did with fucking you, wanting to make him feel just as good as he made you feel. 

You grab his muscular thigh to support yourself as you start bobbing your head around him, swirling your tongue around him, running your tongue over his veins and head, making sure you suck hard when you reach his tip. 

“Just like that, yes.” Will moans as he grabs the back of your head, pushing his hips forwards to meet with your moves, fucking your mouth just like he did with your pussy moments before. You gag around him a few times when he’s pushing his cock down in your throat as far as he can, and you make sure you swallow around him every time his cock is deep in your throat, to intensify his pleasure, until his whole body trembles and his cock is pulsating in your mouth, filling it with his cum, making you swallow every drop he gave you. 

You let Will’s cock go with a loud ‘pop’, saliva dripping from your mouth what Will wipes with his thumb. 

Exhausted, but satisfied, both of you lay down on the couch as you enjoy your pure bliss. 

“We need to do this again.” you breathe.

“Give me 20 minutes and we can repeat this in bed.”

“Deal.” you turn to Will to cuddle him.

“But just to know, we are going to shopping tomorrow.” you warn him.

“If you’ll try on some lingerie for me, then I’m in.” 

“Anything you want.” you reply, and kiss him sweetly.

Tags: @innerpaperexpertcloud​ @lady-evans​ @agirllovespasta​ @claudiahxrdy​ @keithseabrook27​ @alexa-rae-dreamz​ @minnicelli​ @woahitslucyylu​ @de-profundis-ad-astra​ @mylifeliterally​ @happyhenners​

[hankwritten]

TFComics Rewrite

I am currently plotting an outline for a TFComics, and I want to get my thoughts about fixes to canon and possibly get feedback. Since this is a rewrite there’s really no *spoilers* or anything, so I’m willing to answer all questions about what I plan to do. Also some characters I’m not so sure about how I want to retool them, so if your have ideas for your fav let me know!

Disclaimer:

This rewrite is intended to critique the content/choices made in the construction and telling of the Team Fortress 2 comic series. It is not a personal attack on the artists/writers/directors or any of the creatives that made contributions to this series, nor is it meant to substitute or replace the official release. This work is transformative in nature, and relies on an understanding of the source material to be understood. TF2 and its characters belong to Valve.

TFCR is working on the assumption that the audience has read the original comic, and as such will skip over scenes and plot points that are unchanged from the original. I don’t think it needs to be said, but this fanfiction will not make sense if you are not familiar with the source.

I also recognize that there are strengths within the comic’s writing and weaknesses within my own. Namely, that Valve writers are gods in the realm of comedy, and I’d rather not try to match them in the regard. As such, I will state up front that these will not be as funny as the TFComics. That is not to say there won’t be jokes (either ones transplanted from the source or some of my own) or that the tone of this will be terribly grimdark, only that my focus will be on improving story structure and character development as those are what appeal to me.

 The Broad Strokes

The goal of TFCR is to give a more engaging story for all the mercenaries we know and love, as--let’s face it--the TF2 mercs are side characters in their own damn story. These are some of the planned improvements.

There will be reason for each of the mercs to actually be there. As it stands, the motivations for almost every character besides Pauling and Saxton Hale are vague and unsatisfying. We’d usually say something along the lines of “money” for hired killers, but clearly Scout doesn’t even know if they’re getting paid, and some of the other characters are even worse. The hunt for the Australium is, therefore, boring. MacGuffins usually are, but at the very least the characters should care about the item even if the audience doesn’t. This work aims to give each of the nine mercs a motive and a reason to be in the story instead of just replaceable joke dispensers.

Explain what “Team Fortress” means, and how it relates to RED and BLU. Long and short: the nine mercenaries we see on the team are not from either RED or BLU but rotate between the two, and were the individuals selected to fight the robots. That means all things do happen to all characters. As Valve pretty much goes with “whatever is funniest at the time”, it’s very hard to make a cohesive theory about “where the hell is BLU team?”, but I’ll do my damndest. We’ll also examine Team Fortress’s relationship with the other capital T Teams, and why they’re considered the “rejects” of the bunch.

Comics 1 & 2 will be removed from the timeline as they serve no purpose, only taking what needs to be known about the plot’s setup and jumping straight to A Cold Day in Hell.

We will introduce the Classic Mercs right away so they can generate threat and play against the TF mercs when they do actually meet head to head.

We will not be killing off Gray Mann. (Not preemptively anyway.) In fact, there will be more focus on him and Olivia as villains facing off against the Admin, providing her foil as the TF2 and TFC mercs provide foils for each other.

I considered waiting until the final comic was out to begin working on this, but that may never happen. Jay Pinkerton said he may reveal what plot they had in store eventually, but considering it took Half Life over a decade to get the “I was once a Valve writer but my NDA has expired and now I can go buck wild” treatment, I’m not holding my breath. The main reason I wanted to do this is that the Administrator’s motivations are not interestingly foreshadowed, to the point where there aren’t even any good fan theories out there. That said, WritingDispenser and Riddle of the Sphinx helped come up with a pretty fun one, which was actually the inspiration for me to get off my butt and start plotting this.

There will be no queerbaiting. This refers both to HeavyMedic (which has been simultaneously used as wink wink nudge nudge joke many times and as encouragement for fans to play their stupid hat game) as well as lesbian Pauling (since femme lesbians are the preferred method for front facing LGBT representation across almost all media, but video games especially). If you need to understand why lesbian Pauling is an issue, Sarah Z coined the term “queercatching” in order to describe word of god confirmations on characters sexualities that are not followed up on in the text. I recommend the full video on it.

Due to the importance of immortality in the theming of the comics, respawn will not be a thing. Deaths we think should have happened previously will be explained as close calls, or that Medic can heal a short time after death. Medic and Scout’s deaths will be cut in the story itself, as after Sniper died and came back, them doing the same thing kinda lost their punch.

Scout

There will be no ScoutPauling hints. It doesn’t make sense to give screentime to this relationship because Valve obviously doesn’t think it’s going to go anywhere so why make Scout turn down advances from other hot women? I mean I get Expiration Date was a Thing but it feels like Scout’s whole motivation shouldn’t be reduced down to chasing a girl who doesn’t like him back.

He’s here because he lost his life’s savings in bad investments and needs the money. That’s it. Which is still somehow more than his canon motive which is question mark question mark question mark

He, Soldier, Spy, Demo, and Pyro all start the adventure with Miss Pauling.

Engages with Heavy on a genuine level when they go to collect him, Heavy doesn’t blow him off when he tries to level about dead dads.

There will be no DadSpy reveal. The way Spy treats Scout has never been “deadbeat dad feels bad about abandoning his kid” but more “this is someone I would kill without a second thought if I felt like it” which makes his reveal in comic 5 feel very disingenuous. I don’t think Valve even had this plotline in mind until comic 3, as #2 still has Spy seeming only to care about Scout’s Ma and not Scout himself. It also makes “seduce me!” retroactively weird.

Uhhh hooks up with Zhanna. This one isn’t critical I just think it’s funny.

Soldier

Soldier is going to be the Ur example of the Admin not treating her people well, as we’re going to lean into the whole “Soldier was only mildly messed up until the whole lead poisoning” thing.

He’s here because he’s blindingly loyal to the cause. He’s actually going to very little from canon because of this actually.

Might be the reason Team Fortress has a reputation of being the lower tiers of the Teams, but that doesn’t mean he’s damn good at his job. Fatal flaw is that he’s unstable, and even though the courthouse plotline won’t be in this fic, it should be noted that he actually does cause problems for the other protagonists due to his short temper. He’s a risky asset, but still essential.

There will be a minor explanation for the WAR! Comic, but I think that’s better saved for Demo’s analysis.

Pyro

Pyro is the character you could cut entirely from the comics and have the least change. Now, they’re going to be Pauling’s right hand. Let me explain.

Engineer and Pyro are implied to live together, and Pyro doesn’t have anything better to do than go with Engie after Team Fortress is disbanded. Rather than having a reveal, we will see some of what is going on with the Admin and friends early on, and see what leads up to her sending Miss P the note that kicks off the whole plot. However, while Engie needs to stay and look after her, Pyro’s skills aren’t useful here, and they are sent as a direct messenger to help Pauling.

They’re loyal, and unlike Soldier rarely mess up orders. They’re also partially mute, making them ideal for handling sensitive info. Pauling trusts them to handle the burning of “Elizabeth’s” paper trail.

Will be using they/them in the narrative voice, but other characters will refer to them as he/him. I considered going with it/its because that’s bubbled up in popularity again, but ultimately I decided against it.

We’ll get glimpses to their train of thought, but like the comics they will remain virtually silent.

Demo

Demo’s role in the cast is going to be very similar to Spy’s. The events of WAR! involved him nearly dying and Soldier taking the win, and he’s very bitter that after all those events *apparently* mercs can just be switched around teams willy nilly and don’t have to kill each other anymore. (As the audience, we know this is because the Admin found out the “make them so angry they won’t ask questions” wasn’t a long-term viable solution, and instead brought TFI forward as a neutral third party that was pretending to mediate the gravel wars.) But Demo’s suspicious, and is only along because he really has been miserable since he lost his job.

This conflict will eventually come to a head, more on that in the Sniper section.

Is fairly forgiving with his teammates. Doesn’t like Sniper but I’m willing to drop a little angst during that submarine scene. Is glad to see Medic actually. Here to be some glue to hold this merry band together.

The Eyelander will not be forgotten after 2 comics because I love this character concept and I think it was underutilized.

Drunk jokes will be kept to a minimum. What I liked about WAR! and Bombinomicon was that it took Demo and showed that they knew how to make him funny without making him one note, which they sort of did in the early TFComics but stopped in the later ones in favor of him….being asleep for the whole plot. I promise 100% awake Demo in my rewrite.

Demo likes Pauling on a personal level, but has trouble reconciling her with his feelings on TFI.

Doesn’t get knocked out by moonshine because. Seriously? Poisoning the Demoman with alcohol? In what world does that work.

Heavy

Not too much to change. Scout doesn’t accompany him when he goes to look for the secret Australium cache, and he engages with Mags and Saxton (which will be when the audience finds out what they’ve been up to) and actually cares about what’s going on with them. He thinks Darling is up to something. Which he is, he’s attempting to unseat both Gray and Helen due to long family history.

Will at least mention Medic. Their reunion falls a little flat since it mostly relies on Meet the Medic for context, as they don’t really interact in the comic. There can be a bit of a flashback to what it was like as all these mercs broke up.

I know uhhh Valve seems to think found family is really dumb, and that these murderers could ever like each other is silly or something, but the mercs do? Like each other? For the most part anyways. 

Bronislava and Yana come alone for adventures, not just Zhanna. Again, no real reason, but sometimes I get to have tacky fanfic stuff in my own fanfic because I Wanna.

Engineer

Engie ruminates on his family history of allowing all this bullshit to happen and just kind of shrugging. Basically Moss’s analysis of the Conagher themes.

Has put a lot of time, sweat, and tears into BLU and now TFI, isn’t willing to let it fall now, even if Admin is basically living on borrowed time. He’s doing this because of the ‘ole sunk cost fallacy.

Also we get to see more of Pauling and Admin’s relationship through his eyes.

Medic

Congrats on being the one merc with an actual arc, Medic! As a reward, you will not be changed much.

I’m actually going to use Medic’s section to say that the Classic mercs will be referred to by their first names in order to differentiate them, and we’ll get little previews of what they’re like from Medic’s perspective before we actually see them fight Team fortress. The battle at the submarine will be more of a fight in this sense, working it out so it seems like surrender is the only option after Sniper is killed.

Final fight with Cheavy will be...not blocked so awkwardly. I mean this is now a textual medium so my work is already halfway done, but still the pacing is so weird. Shudder.

Sniper

These are the big guns. Most changes, even more than Demo. He’s been actually hunting for New Zealand/the Australium cache on his own, and doesn’t want Pauling interfering, saying for a he knows she could have been the ones to kill his adoptive parents.

(She hasn’t, but the Admin did actually order them killed in an attempt to stop Sniper because she thought she could prevent the exact thing that is going on right now which is that Sniper is considering trying to get at it.)

Sniper doesn’t know this, but Pauling, Demo, and Spy eventually convince him to share his findings and help them get to New Zealand.

Spy

Similar to Demo but is less conflicted about it. He knows just because he likes someone doesn’t mean he won’t have to kill them later. 

Spy knows about who killed Sniper’s parents, and tells Demo, sort of as a test to see where his loyalties lie. He also knows that Pyro is Pauling’s confidant for certain things.

Demo questions him about what he’s doing here, whose side he’s really on. But you know. Spy is Spy and he was never really on anyone’s side but his own. When it comes down to it, it might be exactly as Scout thinks: that he’s ditched them all and run off when he had the opportunity. But, big damn hero, comes back in the end.

He’s here mainly to “keep an eye on things.” Also maybe because his gf asked him to keep an eye on her son :)

[twdmusicboxmystery]

FTWD 6x15: U.S.S. Pennsylvania - Analysis

How did everyone like this episode? I liked it a lot, and basically what happened is what we’ve been predicting for several weeks, now.

 ***As always, spoilers abound for 6x15 below. Don’t read until you’ve watched!***

I said that they would probably set off one of the nukes, but not all of them. Clearly, it wasn’t going to be a nuclear holocaust or anything, because the TWD storyline is 6 years in the future compared to Fear, and we haven’t seen anything like that.

But in the end, they launched 1 missile that has 10 warheads on it. And Teddy specifically said it might be heading toward water. So we’re right on track with the idea of them poisoning the water this way.

Okay, let's get into details. We start with the wind blowing, and showing the church doors waving back and forth, and a rusted, decrepit merry-go-round. All of these things are foreshadows of what is going to happen. The events in this episode will probably play a huge role in the end of the world. Not just the zombie apocalypse, but potentially killing of humanity for good. Obviously, I don't think that's going happen. But I think all the people in TWD universal will be grappling with that moving forward.

We saw quite a few round wheels divided into three sections while aboard the submarine. Now, I get that this is just what submarines look like. They often use doors and hatches that make use of these wheels to open them. But we saw something like this in the background of almost every scene of the entire episode, and the camera focused on them lot. They really wanted us to notice it. They look a lot like one of the poison/hazard signs we often see. Again, not a big deal, but a foreshadow that what happens on the sub is going end up poisoning the water.

Side note: I looked up what these wheels on submarines that open, close and seal doors are called. They’re called DOGS. No lie. So we basically have tons of Sirius symbolism throughout this episode and especially all over the submarine. Just saying. :D

The basic gist of what happens here is that Morgan's group goes in and tries to stop the missiles from being launched. As I said, only one gets launched, which is better than all 23, but they don't entirely succeed because that one with the 10 warheads does go off. Some people wait outside, and others have gone to some sort of base or bunker to get schematics so that they can talk Morgan's group through where to go once inside the enormous submarine.

We learned that Riley was an officer on the boat, which is how he knows about all of this. Morgan goes down first, but Grace quickly follows. She stays near the hatch to use the radio and communicate between the group going deeper into the sub, because the communications will be cut off, and the people outside. They also learned that there might be as many as 150 walkers in the submarine because that's how many crew were in there and for all they know, the entire crew died in the sub.

I don't have any massive theories about this number but hundred and 50 is a 10x multiple of 15. And that just goes back to Gimple saying he has through season 15 of the show planned out.

I think it's interesting that the interior of the submarine is bright yellow. Again, this might be common for subs—I really don't know—but it's interesting that the outside of the sub is bright red in the inside is bright yellow.

Once they’re in, they start speaking to Teddy via the comm system. I thought it was interesting that once he realized it was John Dorie, Sr speaking to him, he got very agitated.

Strand and Morgan end up in one of the deeper rooms together, trying to find a way to where Teddy is. They learn that the radiation in the path they’re trying to take is very high and will more than likely kill them. Strand wants to find another way. Morgan doesn't. Finally, Morgan relents and goes with Strand, but they soon find themselves trapped with no way through.

Then Strand does something interesting. He basically throws Morgan to the wolves by kicking him towards walkers and leaving him there so Strand himself can escape.

On the surface, this definitely feels like a Shane moment. Strand sacrificed Morgan (just as Shane did Otis in S2) so he could escape himself. But later on, when Morgan makes it out okay, Strand says the reason he did it was because he knew if he pushed Morgan to the point where he had to survive and was on the verge of death, he’d find a way to do it, and Morgan did. So, he makes it sound like this was his plan all along.

It’s basically the, "it went the way it had to; the way it was always going to” theme. Even though no one actually says that, so there’s no dialogue parallel, that's basically what Strand is arguing here. But why would they put that theme here?

Let me explain. Understand, I'm really not suggesting that this is okay or that we should trust Strand in anything. He’s clearly okay with throwing people under the bus so that he can survive, which is not cool. I also do think that this is a massive theme and there’s symbolism going on here.

Morgan was thrown to a group of walkers who then surrounded and piled on top of him. That's pretty much with what we think happened with Beth except she was in the car and had that for protection.

And how did Morgan escape? They don't show us. We don't know. Very similar to when Rick got stuck in the RV in 6x03 and somehow miraculously escaped. I'm not saying all these instances are terribly realistic, but there’s a theme about being surrounded by walkers and that, for all intents and purposes, the character should have died, but somehow, they make it out alive.

So this is a very Beth-ish theme. In the episode, Dakota even says over the radio that Strand killed Morgan, which makes Grace cry. But then he shows up again. So, this is a very tiny death, fake out, and resurrection.

But there’s a more practical product of Strand’s actions here as well. Morgan manages to steal a bunch of key cards (yes, the “keys”) to the room Teddy is in. That would not have happened if Strand had not sacrificed Morgan and left him behind. They would have simply been locked outside the room and all 23 of the missiles would have been launched, more than likely resulting in some kind of nuclear winter. The ONLY reason they were able to prevent as much as they did is because Strand left Morgan behind.

See where I’m going with this? Much as with Beth, according to Father Gabriel was “sacrificed” and left behind, Morgan was, too. And he returned with the keys that saved everyone.

I really do think the same will be true Beth. It will be one of these things where only because she was left behind and knows what she knows about the CRM will team family have any hope of winning the war or surviving in the long term. That's the whole function of her arc of being left behind. It’s why we saw the keys at Grady in Coda. Because what happened there will be the key to saving everyone much farther down the line.

From a Christian symbolism perspective, let’s just appreciate that there were plenty of his followers who mourned him and thought him dead for good because they didn’t understand the resurrection angle. They were shocked when he suddenly stood before him again. Happy, but shocked.

That’s basically the effect tptb are trying to create here with both TF and the audience. That’s why all the misdirection and evasion. That’s why the death fake out. It’s a long game, but it’s really kind of genius.

Anyway, that’s why we saw this whole Strand/Morgan sequence in this episode. It’s a template for what happened with Beth.

Every time we see something like this, it also puts me in mind of what happened with Sasha. We don’t know exactly what it is, yet, but Father Gabriel, in 5x16, accused her of sacrificing one of their own. You could take FG’s entire speech from that episode and apply it to this smaller situation with Morgan and Strand and it would work across the board. So, whatever happened during those missing 17 days, Sasha is in Strand’s position in the template and did something to “sacrifice” Beth.

But I digress…

While standing in front of the door, Strand and Morgan also see a woman who looks like a civilian. Strand says she's probably one of Teddy's people because she's not wearing any kind of Navy uniform. She's wearing almost entirely blue with specs of yellow on her shirt.

The other symbol we saw a lot of here is walkers handcuffed to various places in the submarine. Some of them are handcuffed in their bunks. Others to the stations that were manning when they died. It reminds me of the random handcuffed Daryl found in S8.

In that case, there was no one in it, which suggests escape from captivity (*coughs Beth*). Here, the people are all still in handcuffs and they clearly died and became walkers. So, it's sort of a death while in captivity sort of theme. And I'm not sure how to relate it to Beth, exactly, except that it's an anti-parallel. But I'm absolutely certain it's intentional and we should take note of it.

It took two keys, which is important (2 Theory) to launch the first missile.

Teddy says that one is enough to get them started, and he doesn’t say exactly where it's going or what places he’s targeted, but he says they will be hard to miss. I’m hoping they tell us what the targets were in 6x16 next week. Since they’re in Texas, the targets may play heavily into Texas and Eugene themes. But we’ll just have to wait and see.

Then Teddy literally says this of where the missiles might be going:

"Maybe toward the water—oh." He goes on to say more. The “oh” is a realization of something. But it caught my eye that we had the water mention and the “oh” in the same sentence.

Morgan basically lets John and Riley go. This is the only super unrealistic thing I noticed in this episode. Why would you let them go so they can continue their evil plan? But clearly their time in the story isn’t up and the writers need them to be around for whatever will happen next.

Two more symbols to take note of before I end.

Morgan's ax is broken. I really think this is probably a symbol of the world he’s been trying to create being over. Remember that he put the ax outside the community as a symbol of solidarity and peace. Now it's broken, which means that peace is broken. And no matter what happens, they will probably never have the community Grace saw in her dream. It doesn't surprise me because I figured at some point, the characters from Fear will cross back over to the main show or else to the spinoff. This is just a symbol that the wonderful, peaceful world that Morgan was trying to create pretty much ended when this missile was launched.

Going back to the beginning of the episode when it showed the wind blowing through the church doors and the defunct merry-go-round (which represents his and Grace's relationship), this is why the symbols are so potent. It foreshadows that all the good things that they built up so far are about to end.

Finally, they started with 23 missiles in the submarine. They launched one. Which means there are 22 left. Check out @frangipanilove’s 22 theory for why that's so important.

How did everyone else like the episode? Did you see anything I missed?

[frenchie-sottises]

Skelebros Headcannons.

No one asked for these, but whatever. Also, there may be some triggers, so be aware. (It’s mainly trauma stuff.)

Also, this is like, super fucking long. I included quite a few versions.

Papyrus:

- Is over 7′9 without the boots. He’s 7′11 with them. - Smarter than he looks. (I might as well say that this is confirmed cause he apparently knows of Sans’s ability to prank people across time and space.) - Isn’t the best cook when it comes to dishes other than spaghetti, but that doesn’t mean he can’t learn. Excellent baker though! - He didn’t jump out of the window because he forgot the door exists. It’s his way of being comedic. (And it worked.) - He loves Sans’s puns, but he only gets so salty because he feels like the timing could be better. - Almost burned down the house once when he tried to make spaghetti the way Undyne did it, so he learned to tone tf down. He only gets rambunctious when he cooks with Undyne cause, come on, it’s fun to go nuts every now and again. - Isn’t afraid to curse, but he doesn’t do it cause it’s rude.

Sans:

- Is over 5′2 and is literally big boned. (All the Sanses are, really.) - Doesn’t actually know that Papyrus loves his puns. - The jacket he wears is something he made, so this means he’s good at sewing. - He went outside without a shirt once, so when he made the joke about the cold going through him, he opened his jacket as the wind went through. He got sick like a dumbass hours later. - Speaking of dumbasses, he managed to get Papyrus to call him one for getting sick. He’s managed to get Papyrus to cuss also. (They still love each other dearly, don’t worry.) - He totally doesn’t have PTSD. Nope, not at all. It’s definitely not from the genocide routes and seeing his brother get killed multiple times. - Because of his trauma and not having the proper resources to help it, he suffers a form of CFS. (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.)

Edge:

- Is over 7′10 without the boots. Is 8′2 with them. - No one knows how he can wear heels in the snow. (He runs in them for crying out loud.) - Can be easily flustered when it comes to flirting, but when he’s in the mood to be saucy? Oh boy. - Is practically a professional chef and baker. Undyne’s lessons made him realize that he has to teach himself if he wants to provide decent meals. - Is rough with his brother, but he isn’t straight up mean. It’s more along the lines of him struggling to be kind and gentle out in public. - Half of his encounters usually don’t involve him doing anything. He’s just that intimidating. - People mostly know him for being loud and angry 24/7, but this isn’t always the case. He can control his volume when he needs to, and is actually pretty damn tame. It’s pretty rare to see him genuinely angry.

Red:

- Is the shortest Sans in this list standing at 5′0. - His sweating mostly comes from him trying not to piss off his brother despite the fact that said brother’s made it clear that he would never be angry at him. - He has PTSD, but due to the environment, his symptoms tend to be worse. - He’s resorted to cutting himself several times. His brother has no clue though. - Struggles with his moral code more than his brother. He’s torn between following his own path and suffering possible consequences from the king, and being loyal to the king at all costs to avoid his wrath. - His shoes are always untied, so it’s not uncommon to see him on the ground face down. - If given the chance to take his mind off of things, he will take it. Drugs are off-hands though. You can thank Edge for that.

Stretch:

- Is over 7′6 when he’s not slouching. - The cig’s gonna be lit, but he doesn’t smoke. He only does it cause it makes him look cool. - He actually doesn’t use any drugs, but he did get himself high one time via weed brownies for pure shits and giggles. Boy, was he high off his ass. - Unlike the classic Sans, his jokes have better timing. He’s made Blueberry laugh several times. - “I can make every dirty joke in existence... AND NO ONE CAN STOP ME!” - Stretch at one point in time. - Has an endless supply of hoodies and it confuses his brother to this day. - He’s learned to give mercy while making you wish you were dead. (I may or may not have watched Rising of the Shield Hero.)

Blueberry:

- Is over 5′6 with the boots. Is only 5′5 without them. - Has a bod that screams the power to wrestle BEARS. - Someone teach him how to cook. He keeps overcooking the fucking TACO MEAT- - He has the body of a himbo, the personality of a himbo, and the mind of a himbo- okay, maybe the last one is a little inaccurate. He can be pretty smart. - May or may not be a bit of a perv. - His smile is so bright that it lightens up just about everyone’s moods. - Is a fantastic artist and no one can tell him otherwise.

Pup (Swapfell):

- Is over 7′3 when he’s not slouching. - Does actually smoke. - His blind eye was given from his brother playing far too rough. - He likes to rob people, but will learn to stop if the victim is shown to be far too powerful for him to handle. - Despite his not-so-welcomed attitude, when he’s put in a place where there is no threat of his brother, he can be quite friendly. - Has tried to feel people up in the past, but constantly keeps having his ass handed to him. - Makes only dirty jokes.

Blackberry (Swapfell):

- Is over 5′7 with the boots. Is only 5′4 without them. - Really needs his ass handed to him. - He can say he loves his brother all he wants. Doesn’t excuse why he treats him like shit. - He tends to poison his food when it comes to others. It could possibly contribute to why his brother steals other’s money. (And by “poison”, I mean he’s not a good cook. At all.) - Although he fights a lot, his body doesn’t quite match up to par, and he hates it. - Is easily jealous and possessive. - Surprisingly doesn’t actually swear when he swears.

Slim (Fellswap Red):

- Is over 7′3, and he doesn’t slouch. - Has the fluffiest jacket in existence and wears a lot of the bigger collars. - Is an absolute sweetheart when his brother’s not around. (More so than Red.) - Although he often drinks hot sauce, he’d rather prefer BBQ sauce. - Actually handles his PTSD better than his other lazy counterparts. - Has a bad habit of falling in love too easily. - Is very reserved and quiet for the most part.

Bloodberry (Fellswap Red):

- Is over 5′9 with the boots. Is only 5′6 without them. - Has a bad tendency to be saucy with someone he likes. - Is a decent cook when it comes down to it. - Also struggles with being kind in public. - Has taken a liking to archery. He’s even become good at it. - He hates the queen, but mainly because she’s always cruel to her subjects. He hopes to overthrow her for the betterment of the kingdom. - Unlike Blackberry, he does care for his brother.

Wine (Fellswap Gold):

- Is over 7′4, and he doesn’t slouch. - Since he mostly writes, he’s become a very good writer and artist. - Whenever he’s given a compliment, he sits in silence. He usually doesn’t receive them, so when he does, he kind of just.. breaks. - Like his blacklist, he has a list of names of those who have been extremely kind to him. - Tries not to become someone who has to depend on someone else. - He has days where the braces on his canines hurt like all hell, so he’ll wind up with tears in his eyes. - The constant oppression gets to him sometimes. He isn’t violent, but he will continuously cry and whimper.

Coffee (Fellswap Gold):

- Is over 6′0 with the boots. Is only 5′10 without them. - Wants to try and fix the kingdom so its people aren’t so oppressed. - Will be there for his brother within seconds. - Learned to be a decent cook for his brother. - The oppression gets to him also, but it’s mainly from the people. - A lot of the clothes he and his brother wear are from his own hands. - Has taught his brother some military fighting to protect himself as he is related to someone who the people hate.

Axe (Horrortale):

- Is the biggest Sans on this list standing at 6′7. - Is also the strongest in terms of physical strength. - Really needs to stop seeing human flesh and regular food as the same thing. - To those he cares for, he becomes almost like a guard dog but 10x scarier. - None of the Sanses and Papyruses aside from his own brother mess with him. - If someone is not scared of him for whatever reason, he has some respect for that. He just doesn’t really show it. - Gets easily spooked by really loud noises.

Everest (Horrortale):

- The tallest Papyrus standing at 9′2 with the boots. He’s only 9′0 without them. This also assumes he isn’t slouching, but he always is. - After being without food for so long, he struggles to not eat human flesh. - His kindness challenges classic Papyrus’s. - He hit a growth spurt far too early, and it’s why he’s slouching. (It’s kind of like he suffered Gigantism, but he stopped growing eventually.) - Compared to the other active counterparts, he’s the weakest. - Because of him being so thin, he tends to freeze far more easily. - When he’s pushed in a corner, he will fight back, but it’s best if his brother is with him.

And that ends that. I had these ideas going for a while, so I decided to spill them here. Hope y’all like these.

[shadow--writer]

I Got a Feelin' I Might Have Lit the Very Fuse

hmmm it’s a writing weekend. And the start of what’s going to be an awful week haha. So expect more of me peddling my brainworms (halp I have fallen back in love with these two to the point where friends have started sending me prompts for them)

title (it’s slowed bc WHY TF NOT)

Maeve x Lucas. Second meetings might go better than firsts 3k

TW: none!

@dela-png

A week had passed, and it was slow. Her regulars, of course, had been popping in and out keeping things from being boring. As much as she appreciated that...she was going to kill them. 

How on Earth someone could anger a squirrel that badly she would never know. 

But today was calm. Calm and yes sure the ‘q’ word. 

She refused to even think of the ‘q’ word. Knowing her luck the moment she thought it, seven people would be flooding into her clinic. 

With food poisoning.  

She let out a low groan. Slow days were nice and all, but usually she had company. It was eerily silent when she was alone. 

And she was bored. 

Maeve pushed herself off the counter. She could stand to reorganize her herbs and medicine cabinet. She needed to relabel some of the bottles and jars anyways, with the amount she pulled them off the shelves she smudged her script.

She started moving the jars off the shelves, muttering to herself as she looked at the labels and did her best to decipher the smeared ink.

She had only pulled the herbs off the shelves and onto the counter when the bell above her door rang sweetly into the silence. She stopped her humming, pushing the fraying edges of her handkerchief away from her eyes. 

Oh yeah sure so now someone came in. 

Forcing a smile and a fake cheery tone to her voice, she turned around. “I’ll be with you in a moment!” she called. She couldn’t see the door over the stack of herb jars on her counter. Some were pretty empty, she’d need to stop at the market again or go foraging. 

Ugh foraging. 

It wasn’t that she disliked foraging. But it was time consuming. 

And she usually got lost.

But she didn’t like to talk about that part. 

“Thumbelina!”

She froze. She knew that nickname. She knew that voice. 

The smile climbing onto her face became real. 

“Giant!” she said, moving out from behind the counter. He looked better today. Not as bloody. In his arms he cradled the little boy from the dock. “Oh! You must be Will!” she said, dusting off her skirt. 

The boy looked much better than he had. Colour had returned to his face, and he didn’t seem to be in as much pain. That was good. She knew the bite must ache but it was good seeing him up and about.  

She stepped forward, offering her hand to shake. He shook it once, swinging their arms up violently before slamming them back down. 

Whoa there.

She laughed in her surprise. “Firm handshake you’ve got there!” she said, drawing her hand back to her side. “So what brings you to my corner of the world? Need more pain meds? The stitches okay?”

Lucas blinked at the questions, she directed her attention to the boy in his arms (who looked so tiny compared to Giant, she noted with a giggle). 

Will smiled, he was missing one of his front teeth. “Nope! Lucas brought me over to say hello! And bring you somethin!” Will ducked his head closer to her, mock whispering. Or whispering at the volume a seven year old thought was a whisper.

Aka not at all. 

“He also said he wanted to see ya again!”

Her eyes flicked back up to the man in question. His cheeks had been flooded with pink. The blush climbed all the way up to his ears. This was why she never told seven year olds anything. They had no filter, it was cute, but embarrassing. 

Though the way Lucas blushed was adorable.

She pressed her fingers to her lips as she chuckled. “Well, I’m glad you came by. It’s nice to see you again,” she said. “Would you care for something to drink? I have tea in the back.”

Lucas’ head snapped up. “We don’t want to bother you! To- W-Will here just brought a gift over to thank you.”

“Thank me?”

“You...saved his life.”

Oh yeah right she did do that. “And you’re just the messenger?” 

Will tugged on Lucas’ sleeve, the man gently setting the boy down on the ground. He was walking, that was great!

“The others n I made you somethin! Sylvie mentioned yer cloth head thing.”

She touched the ratty thing on her head. It was falling apart at the seams but she didn’t have time to make another.

Will held a deep green fabric up to her. She blinked, reaching down to grab it. It was made from a soft cotton, and it smelled nice. Like cinnamon and other spices. “So we made you a new one!”

She pulled the one in her hair out, shaking out her bangs. They were a gnarled mess, but soft against her cheeks. “Thank you,” she whispered, pulling the new handkerchief into her curls. She tied it under her ponytail, bringing her hand down as she smiled down at the little boy. “It’s beautiful.”

“Lucas also wanted ta help!” the boy chattered on. He reached over to Lucas, tugging on his hand. Lucas shuffled forward, looking a little embarrassed. “We couldn’t afford any fancy fabric so Lucas gave us one of his old shirts!” The boy beamed up at her, his hand so tiny in Lucas’. “Sylvie did the little flowers!”

Oh! She didn’t even notice the messy embroidery. She ran a hand against them, it was bumpy beneath her fingers. 

She loved it. 

She squatted down, it made it easier to be at eye level with him. “Well tell her I said thank you and that her flowers are beautiful.”

“She said they were bellflowers. Those are Lucas’ favourite flowers! They’re the only ones she knows how ta make though...”

She looked back up at Lucas. He looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there in that moment. She giggled. “Bellflowers are beautiful, Lucas has good taste.”

“Do ya like it?” He stood on his toes, eyes all lit up. 

She smiled, closing her eyes as she tilted her head. “Oh I love it! I’ve been needing something new to pull my hair back for a while now. It was very kind of you to make something for me.”

“I uh, also brought you lunch,” Giant said, bringing her attention back up. Squatting down to be at eye level with the seven year old boy was a smart idea. 

Until she realized how much more he would tower over her. 

Goodness gracious.  

She froze, teetering on her toes. “What?”

He held up a little cloth bundle tied with a string. A nervous smile worked its way across his lips. “It’s some extra stew I made to bring with me. A...thank you from me.”

“You didn’t have to do that. I’m fine eating out.”

“But a home cooked meal is much better than eating out, wouldn’t you think?”

She pressed her palms to her knees as she got to her feet. “Well...yes, but I don’t have time to make a home cooked meal. Let alone a good one. I am an awful cook,” she joked. 

“Oh I’m sure you aren’t that bad.”

She cringed. He was so very wrong. “...oh no I am that bad. ‘Permanent ban from the kitchen back home’ bad. And that’s when I even eat something- oh.”

He was glaring at her. 

She did not like him glaring at her. 

“What?” she asked, drawing out the syllables.

“‘Even eat something’? Thumbelina you’ve got to eat. You’re tiny enough already.”

“Well I don’t have time! Dumba- dumb people don’t wait.” She caught herself. No swearing in front of the kid. 

“You should still find time to eat something. Were you even planning to get something to eat today?”

“Well y-yes!”

He raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. 

“Okay, no, but I usually get something to snack on during slow days. What’s got your goat in a twist anyways? It’s not like we know one another well.”

Her words struck a chord. He looked away from her, rubbing the back of his neck. “I...I cook,” he admitted. “So I’ve started paying attention to people’s eating habits. Yours are atrocious by the way.”

“Atrocious? You only know my lunch eating habits!” She sulked, placing a hand to her chest. “You wound me.”

“It’s true. Worse than the kids at the dock. At least they come to bother me when they’re hungry. Like stray cats.”

“Hey! We aren’t stray kitties!” Will whined. 

Lucas affectionately rubbed his knuckles into the crown of Will’s head. He swatted at the taller man to no avail. “Well to me you sure look like cats.”

“Yer just blind then!” Will huffed, trying to smooth down his hair. 

Giant turned back to her, handing her the cloth bundle. She took it, her lips twisting. “I brought you lunch out of the goodness of my heart, so I expect you to eat it at a reasonable time.” His tone was teasing but she knew his words had weight. 

“How will you know if I don’t?” she asked, her voice taking a sing-song tone.

He was still not as impressed. Ugh he was no fun. “I’ll come back to check on it.”

“...you wouldn’t.”

“I would.”

“You have work!”

“I can take breaks. I work hard, the least they could give me.”

She sighed, cradling the meal he made her to her chest. “Fine! I give, I give! I’ll eat your lunch.”

He smiled. “Good.” His eyes kept moving to her hair. She touched the handkerchief, his cheeks darkened a little. 

Wait...if this was made out of his shirt…

She felt her cheeks warm. 

Oh. 

Oh.

The spices she was smelling was him.

They locked eyes, before they both turned away. She swore she was blushing down to her toes. And she never really blushed. 

Damn you Giant. 

He coughed, looking back at Will who was watching them very amused. “We’d better go little man,” Lucas said.

“Awww but I wanna stay a little longer!” He had wandered off to look at her herbs before exploring the clinic’s many tables. Currently he was looking at the deep grooves on the table. 

Lucas caught her eye again. His eyes were still a vibrant blue. Reminded her of the water when it reflected the sky. “We don’t want to bother her anymore than we have,” he said with a low chuckle. “She’s very busy.”

“Not today I’m not!” she blurted out. She hated to admit it, but she enjoyed his company. Teasing or not it was nice to be able to talk to someone. 

Lucas paused, she bit her lower lip as she smiled nervously. “If you’d like, you can stay for tea. No one’s come in today, and so it’s been very...eerie. I’d appreciate the company.”

Lucas’ brows crinkled. She wanted to smooth out the lines. “Is...that okay?”

“Of course! I’m offering.”

Will grinned, grabbing her hand. “Well if she says we can stay it’s only polite! That’s what ya taught us, right Lucas?”

Lucas sighed, rubbing his eyes. “Sometimes I wonder if you guys listen to me and then you pull this crap.”

She chuckled. “As the little eel survivor says, it’s only polite.”

“Fine. We can stay for tea.”

She smiled broadly, leading them to her small backroom. There she kept a few extra aprons, gloves and her more powerful medicines (magic pills and all that) locked up tight. 

She grabbed her kettle, settling on the fruity green tea she’d found in the market a while back but hadn’t had the chance to try. She hummed as she put it over her small stove. 

Will was chatting with Lucas about the magic items she had strewn about. Lucas looked at her, pleading for help. 

She laughed, answering the plea. “You like my charms?” she asked. “I had help making them.”

“You can do magic?” Will asked, eyes lighting up. 

She was a little taken aback, but to a little kid, of course magic was...well, magic. She smiled. “Oh yes! I can do all sorts of things. Takes a bit out of me, but I can do some illusions, I know some healing. Herbal magic is fun. And palm reading was just something my sisters and one of my cousins picked up on.”

“Palm reading?” Giant asked as the kettle started to sing. 

She moved, putting some of the tea leaves in her infuser, letting it seep in the hot water for a bit. 

“Yes, palm reading. It’s quite easy actually.” She brought the tea over to the table. She could bring glasses and the ice when the tea was steeped enough. “I can do a reading if you’d like,” she offered. 

Will bounced up and down. “Can I help? Can I? Can I?”

Giant laughed. “Calm down little man, let’s let the fairy doctor do her thing first.”

She winked at Will. “I can teach you after I do his reading.”

Will grinned, sitting back. He wiggled in his seat. He was very energetic. It was refreshing. 

Lucas held out his right hand, she reached forward, their fingertips brushing. “Your hands are cold,” he said, his hand jerking back a little. 

She held firm as she laughed. “I’m aware.”

His palms were calloused. Rough under her touch. Scarred from hard labor. She traced the lines and creases on his hand. She felt his pulse jump under her fingertips as she brushed his wrist.  

“Fire hands,” she said, meeting his eyes. 

“Fire hands? What does that mean?”

“The type of hands you have. Our hands represent one of the four elements, just like astrology. Earth, air, fire, water. You can tell a lot about a person based on their hands.” 

She looked back down at his palm. She traced the length of his palm, and then her fingers danced over his own. “Fire hands show people to be passionate, confident, and industrious. Driven by desires and on a bad day you may lack tactfulness and empathy.”

“And what about your hands?” His voice was soft. 

She looked at her hand, her fingers freezing over his own. “Mine are...water hands. In tune with my emotions, intuition, and psychic ability. Fueled by compassion and imagination, often creative. Also extremely sensitive and my feelings are easily hurt, causing undesirable interpersonal stress.” 

He chuckled. 

She brushed the edge of his hand by his pinky. “Marriage line.” Her fingers moved down to the long line below the marriage line, it curved up between his middle and index finger. “Love line.” Below that was a small curve starting at the flesh of his thumb meeting his palm. “Wisdom.” Two more lines, starting at the bottom of his palm. One curved to match the wisdom line, the other straight up to the middle of his middle and ring finger. “Career and life lines.” Small sun line. 

She searched his palm for his health line. “What are you-” he cut himself off as she traced the broken up health line.

“Health.”

He paused at her touch, she could feel his heart beat race under her touch. “Well Thumbelina? What does my palm say?” 

She breathed in, letting the air out with a sigh. “Love and marriage,” she started, tracing his love line again. His hand jerked under hers. “Line is long and curved. A happy long lasting love. But it’s all in your hands. Communication is key with this love.” 

His eyes widened. “How can you tell?”

She winked. “I just can.” She brushed her thumb along his career line. “Career and business. You’re ambitious and have strong self-confidence. If you have a dream in your heart and you’ll work hard to see it come true.”

She bent closer to his hand. “Health. You’re easily tired. You exercise a lot but don’t take the breaks you need. Short breaks will keep you refreshed and healthy. Don’t forget to exercise even if it’s hard. Don’t forget to rest and take care of your body.”

He chuckled. “I think my work is all the exercise I need.”

“But you still work out?”

“...sometimes.”

“And do you rest?”

“...”

“Thought so.”

She smiled, looking at the last lines on his palm. “Your personality and mental state. Connected to life and health. You know your mind well, you adapt easily. With your adaptability people look to you to lead them. Though reading other people and their feelings is a challenge for you.”

She looked up at him to see his face. 

But his face was close to hers. 

And he looked back at her at the same time.

So their foreheads slammed together. 

Hissing a yelp, she fell back, palm pressed to her forehead. He did the same, Will laughing at them both so hard he fell over. 

“Well now we have matching bruises,” she said with a groan, making sure they didn’t break skin. No blood. Just a bruise. Goddess of the unholy stars did that hurt. 

“My bad,” he wheezed, pressing a finger to the reddening skin. “You’ve got quite a noggin.”

She got to her feet, smiling a little. “Could say the same about yours.”

He watched her move back. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking about as she turned away from him. His forehead where they bonked heads was starting to turn red.

She got to her feet to go get ice and cups. She set three glasses down, pouring the tea over the ice. The ice cracked under the heat. She slid the glasses to the boy. Giant was still looking over his palm. Her fingers tingled from the small use of magic. 

She handed his cup to him. He grabbed the cup from her hand, their fingertips brushing again. 

There was a small spark of magic at the touch, making her jump. 

He didn’t seem to feel it. Or was able to hide the fact he could. She wondered if he had magic, it was like a surge of something strong coming from deep within her. It was unfamiliar. 

It had to be his. 

Waving her thoughts off and ignoring the weird flutter in her stomach, she turned to Will, who was gulping down the tea like a dog to water. 

She chuckled, holding out her hand. Her eyes were alight with the challenge and excitement she felt when she got to teach something. Her voice was low in pitch, but her tone was filled with lithe amusement. “So, wanna learn how to read palms?”

[natsumiheart]

I just wanna say how tired I am with some oumota shippers and their argument that oumasai is a bad ship cause apparently Shuichi never cared about kokichi and is annoyed with him and that oumota is better cause kokichi "opened up" to kaito like what they both were dying and kokichi had to convince kaito to work with him so he had to tell the truth that he wasn't the mastermind or else they'll die a meaningless death.I just really wanted to say this cause its driving me insane

Anonymous said:

Btw i was the anon that sent that ask ranting about oumota shippers saying oumota is better than oumasai and I just wanna clarify that I don't hate oumota shippers cause I know its their opinion and everyone can ship what they want but i feel like I really needed to tell someone about it cause it has been messing with my head and I don't have any irl friends that like DR and this blog felt the safest to vent to

Oh my goodness I’m so sorry you’re dealing with those people! I have a friend who is actually suffering from the same exact thing. Constant harassment from Ou**ta shippers saying Oumasai is toxic. I’m happy you feel like this is the safest blog to vent to ;; And just to make you feel better, here are a bunch of reasons why YOU’RE 100% RIGHT! and you shouldn’t be attacked or ashamed of how you feel towards that ship and all that hate towards yours. If anyone says Shuichi hated Kokichi and never cared for him just read this post! https://natsumiheart.tumblr.com/post/177427505177/hewwo-what-are-your-opinions-on-the-people-who

Warning: If you like Kaito x Kokichi I recommend you don’t read what’s under the cut, I don’t want to diss anyone’s ship in front of their face. That’s just insensitive, and the last thing I want is to ruin someone’s day. Unless you really want to know why others don’t feel the same as you, then don’t check out this post. Thank you!

Note that while I mention the bunch of reasons why this ship just straight up wouldn’t work out, I’m going to ignore the fact that Kaito acts very homophobic and transphobic in the japanese version of the game. I’ve mentioned it in this blog a bunch of times before, and it’s pretty obvious that everyone ignores his Homophobia so I’m just going to pretend as if he’s not homophobic and break down why exactly this ship wouldn’t work out even without him being homophobic in the first place. But I’m definitely not going to exclude how he acts towards guys in general.

> Kaito treats most guys he meets like trash, unless he respects them. Whenever Kaito finds a guy acting “Weak” he literally looks down on them, even gets frustrated with them. Huge proof is how he treated Shuichi for crying over Kaede, and then later punching Kokichi because he was acting “Weird”. Kaito was a huge fan of Ryoma, but when he saw what he has become, someone who has given up on his future, he started treating him badly, and after Ryoma was dead he even talked badly on him calling him “Weak.” and a “Sissy.” Not being able to understand the pain Ryoma was going through or how things were for him. He also got creeped out by Korekiyo for acting like a girl before he even revealed that he was “posessed” by his sister. Aren’t all those moments in the game enough proof that Kaito just straight up doesn’t like guys at all in that way? Then how could he *love* a guy, and Kokichi of all people. Heck, Gonta x Kaito make more sense than Kaito x Kokichi, even though he yelled at Gonta once for crying and being too weak for a man.

It’s shown multiple times in the game that Kaito treats guys like trash, and he treats Kokichi the worst of all.

Note: I do think Kaito can change the way he acts towards guys, but I don’t he will ever love one romantically.

> I think we can all agree that Kokichi is really hard to deal with sometimes. He distances himself so much from everyone as much as he could, and he won’t back down that easily even if it meant hurting others’ feelings. He keeps lying constantly so no one can figure him out or get close to him. We don’t exactly know the reason why, but he has major trust issues and it shows.That is the reason why for us, seeing Shuichi listed under “Trustworthy” was a big deal. (But I’m not going to dive deep into that since I already did multiple times in this blog.) My point here is that Kokichi needs someone with patience, someone who could understand him a bit and why he does what he does. Someone to decipher his actions and break down his walls, but isn’t afraid to sometimes step his foot down and tell him that his actions are wrong and he’s harming others as well as himself. Kaito on the other hand grows frustrated with guys so quickly, he doesn’t listen to their reasoning before heading in for physical violence. THAT is exactly the opposite of what Kokichi needs! And I still don’t understand how others can’t see it! When Kaito punched Kokichi in chapter 4, he was already in so much despair over seeing the secret of the outside world and that punch made it worse. To the point he stayed silent then locked himself in his room. How in the world do people actually see this ship as better than oumasai? I don’t get it.

Kokichi shouldn’t be with someone that will treat him like trash, and physically (if not also emotionally) harm him for how he’s acting.

> Opposites sometimes attract, but POLAR opposites do not. and I’m talking from personal experience here, two people who are different in so many ways (ESPECIALLY THEIR WAY OF THINKING) will end up fighting 24/7. It was shown again and again in the game that Kokichi and Kaito do not get along thanks to how different their approach is to things and their seemingly different upbringings. Ships between two characters who fight a lot just make me so uncomfortable and disturbed, because I know how these relationships actually end up in real life. Fights do happen in relationships sometimes, it’s even needed to strengthen the relationship, to realise that no matter what happens you STILL love your partner, but when you fight every single time you talk? That’s a bad sign! 

Fighting is NOT romantic and it never will be! And when it has physical violence mixed in? My god. Please do yourself a favor and break up with your partner if they keep hitting you.

> Kaito doesn’t ever side with Kokichi:

He literally said in chapter 4 “I don’t wanna survive it means I have to stoop to your level!” and Kokichi said “Then die in a hole for all I care! WE wanna LIVE, so stop getting in our way!”. Kaito will never be on Kokichi’s side, Even if it meant his death and the deaths of all his friends.

When Kaito realised that maybe watching all the motive videos together would’ve prevented a murder from happening Shuichi is the one that points out that it was what Kokichi was trying to do. But then Kaito is like “Huh, really?” Then brushes it off. Because of course, of course Kokichi wants murders to continue. Right?

Even after Kokichi spilled everything to him because he was literally about to die and really wanted Kaito to go along with his plan and believe him. Kaito still stated that he still thought he only thought of himself. Even after Kokichi sacrificed himself to save HIM from the poison and MAKI from being his murderer. He still hated him and didn’t believe him. The only reason Kaito went along with his plan was because he was about to die anyway, he was running out of time and he needed to get out even if it meant following Kokichi’s plan and killing him in the process.

When two people actually love each other they have each others backs. But with these two, they never will.

> I don’t believe Kokichi hated Kaito. But he literally thinks he is stupid and is a bad influence on everyone. These two have a relationship of two siblings that can’t stand each other. I always see myself and my brother in them, which is another reason why their ship makes me beyond uncomfortable. My brother puts his trust in people way too easily, and believes whatever tf his brain comes up with because y’know it’s him and “he’s always right”. He would never take a second to think that maybe he’s wrong, just like Kaito and his hunch. I on the other hand find him incredibly stupid, we argue a lot because our way of thinking and our beliefs are very different, we even used to hit each other a lot. We never really got along. And the way Kokichi and Kaito act around each other really reminded me of it, but you don’t know me and you don’t know my brother so why should you take my word for it? An example I like to use when trying to explain this point to others is the relationship between Stanley and Stanford in Gravity Falls, those two fought a lot in the show but in the last episode they had to work together on a plan despite their differences. Doesn’t it remind you of a certain story that happened in the game? Kokichi and Kaito’s relationship resembles theirs so much it’s insane. 

I feel like the game tried to show us how these two are more like siblings but on bad terms, even giving them similar hair and eye colors. But that flew straight over every rivalry shipper’s head.

These are some of the reasons why Ou**ta wouldn’t work out and can’t even be a thing in the first place, I said it before and I’ll say it again: I could write a book about this topic. But I’m kinda busy today and I have to leave the house soon- I hope you’re convinced that you are actually right. (I’ve been told countless times that I’m wrong leading me to question myself, so I wanted to help out by reassuring you that your feelings are valid and you’re not wrong in this situation at all) Saying Oumasai is toxic for one line Shuichi said while he was angry and defending his friend, while shipping Ou**ta and ignoring all this stuff is like the most hypocritical thing anyone can say. 

And yeah, people should ship whatever they want. Lots of people ignore characters’ feelings and ship the crackiest of ships, making very OOC art and fanfiction. And they can do that! But they can’t go around dissing people for their ship while supporting an obviously flawed one. Honestly you shouldn’t attack people for their ships in the first place, no matter what YOU ship. Just stay in your own bubble and stay away from the ships you dislike. It’s not that hard!

If you’re an Ou**ta fan reading this, I just want to say thank you for reading this far, and I’m really not saying you should stop supporting your ship. I’m just explaining why we feel this way towards it and the evidence we have behind it. If you’re one of the people who go around attacking shippers while boasting your ship. Please stop? Seriously, stop giving a shit about other people’s opinions and life will suddenly become much easier.

I’d like to clarify: If anyone responds to this post telling me I’m wrong, I’m not responding. My blog is for me to post art, sometimes funny stuff to make people’s days, interact with my followers and draw their requests, or ranting about topics I’m passionate about (Mostly DR). I do not want it to be a place for ship discourse, so if I get disagreeing replies or asks I’m going to ignore them like I always do whenever I post these rant type blogs. I hope you understand.

[in-tua-deep]

I have seen some fics of Five going to high school (and often falling in love with a 13 y/o oc girl which icks me tf out bc that’s an old man, guys) to socialize which gave me the idea of Five befriending old people who are also physically old. For example, Hannah, the German lady in her 80s who poisoned nazis when she was a child. Then there’s Joan who spent his life fighting to achieve his goals despite having to deal with near-constant racism. Just. Five getting along with all these old ppl

you’re RIGHT and consider: Klaus decides it’s a good idea to take Five along to his weekly ladies over fifty stitch ‘n bitch and is surprised and delighted to find that Five actually genuinely gets along with all of them

there is, of course, Hannah who poisoned Nazis and her and five trade poisoning methods the way other people might trade coveted family recipes. Hannah declares Five to be a “nice young man” and the fact that she is in her 80s or 90s means that she is absolutely allowed to get away with it

Fiona is a 60something butch lesbian who proudly displays her mugshots along the walls of her house for everyone to gaze upon in awe when it’s her turn to host. Her wife, Mandy, always makes snickerdoodle cookies and fondly talks about the time her and “Fee” got arrested because Fee kicked a cop in the balls or something. 

Doris was an army nurse during her youth and can curse well enough to make a sailor blush and has the bawdiest sense of humor to match. She spends most of her time knitting baby socks and hats to donate and volunteers at a community center where she sneaks food to any hungry teens who have all adopted her as their odd aunt.

Nada immigrated in her teens with her parents and has had to deal with Islamophobia her entire life. She wears a khimār that she knitted herself and laughs when Five genuinely offers to kill any assholes who harass her. Instead, she starts teaching him Arabic since her own grandchildren unfortunately do not speak it

Edith was trans before anybody even knew what that meant and she teaches Five patterns for interesting dresses and fancy sweaters since Five expresses some interest in diversifying his wardrobe (Five personally stands by the fact that skirts and dresses are the best because!! if you lift up front you have INSTANT POCKET/BAG which was very useful in the apocalypse!! of course now his family protest about him flashing underwear or whatever. Edith just introduces him to wearing leggings under and calls it a day)

Kathy killed her first husband and everyone knows it even if she was never convicted. She spends her days volunteering at centers for domestic violence and working with abused women and children. She tells Klaus and Five quite plainly that if Reginald were still alive she would kill him, and they laugh but they absolutely believe her. Five sincerely tells her he would kill her husband if he were still alive as well, and Kathy grins and winks and says she beat him to that one

and all the others. Sally who worked customer service her whole life and lived to tell the tale. Ruby who was widowed young and raised four kids by herself. Alice who is deaf and signs slowly because her parents thought she needed speech therapy to appear normal more than she needed an actual way to communicate. Becca was a teen during the civil rights movement and witnessed schools being desegregated, and is quick to remind everyone that it wasn’t as long ago as they think - she remembers the white kids jeering and the protests like it was yesterday. Susan’s husband died in the Vietnam war and she is very quiet when she finds out that he was in Klaus’s unit. 

A rotating cast of women with vibrant and brilliant and unique lives who parade through. Some are fixtures, some come when they’re able which isn’t often, some only pop in on the rare occasion when the planets align.

“Go get the salsa dip, Five.” Kathy orders.

“Why do I always have to fetch everything.” Five complains, even as he stands up.

“Because you can teleport.” Kathy says with a shrug, “If I could teleport then it would be me going to get the salsa, wouldn’t it?”

Five goes and gets the damn salsa.

One time a new woman is very confused and asks about Klaus and Five’s presence at the Women’s 50 and over knitting club (“It’s the stitch ‘n bitch,” Klaus mutters under his breath and is ignored) and everyone just kind of shrugs. 

“Women and nonbinary old person support and knitting group?” Edith suggests but everyone agrees that that’s a bit of a mouthful.

“But they’re too young?” The new woman asks again, helplessly.

“Actually Klaus fought with my husband in the Vietnam war.” Susan interjects cheerfully before Klaus can start his theatrics, passing the oatmeal raisin cookies to Hannah who is cackling delightedly, “And Five assassinated President Kennedy, I think.”

“Allegedly assassinated President Kennedy.” Five corrects with a flourish of his knitting needles as Kathy nods in approval. 

“Oh.” The new woman says, faintly. “Oh, I think I need to sit down.”

“Don’t worry, dear.” Sally comforts, “It’s only that family which doesn’t make sense. You can probably count on the rest of the world to be at least a little bit sensible.”

“I find it offensive that no one here thinks I’m not too young to be here.” Becca interjects and that sets everyone off laughing and falling over themselves to assure her that she’s as pretty as a picture and fresh as a daisy

i’m having a lot of fun with this as you might be able to tell. Just. Five and Klaus joining in old people things because Five IS old and Klaus fought in the vietnam war so you bet your ass he is demanding the senior citizen discount at restaurants

i feel like Agnes should join the group after her romantic tour of bird sanctuaries with Hazel. Hazel himself is not sure how to feel about Klaus and Five being in the same knitting club as his girlfriend but Agnes is clearly having fun and she makes homemade doughnuts for meetings which means the club isn’t letting go of her voluntarily anyway

AND THEN YEAH i always loved the concept of Klaus meeting up with some of the guys from his old unit and all of them just being kind of like “ah klaus you fucker i never actually took you seriously about the time travel shit i just thought you were on some serious drugs” and immediately just adopt klaus back into the fold

and i mean five is also a soldier in a low of ways so i feel like he would also really fit in with their gallows humor and serious knowledge of weapons. Of course, both Klaus and Five also look young enough to be their grandchildren so they also highkey just straight up adopt them and are fully willing to loom ominously at anyone who bothers them

the hargreeves go to pride and Klaus is like “oh I’m meeting up with some friends as well :)” and the others assume they’re like. party friends he made or ex boyfriends or something and then this big gang of old war vets materialize from the crowd decked out in rainbows bc they do this every year - originally in honor of Klaus and Dave but now klaus is again so Time To Party B)

Five “volunteers” in a nursing home and all the staff think he’s adorable and precocious but actually he complains about technology and reminisces about the great depression and beats the occupants at checkers as he and his opponent trade stories about which joint and bones they can feel storms coming in

just AGE APPROPRIATE FRIENDS

[whataboutdisney]

i am absolutely stressed as fuck. i'm always really negative on here but this is the only place i can say what i really want to say and nobody bats an eye. i'm still on my corona job as i call it. it's absolute shit. you know at first it was alright giving out samples but after a month they told us well woops corona really is shit isn't it you can't be standing in the store giving out samples anymore. why we're not allowed god fucking knows but ok. so then they told me to go wash the shopping carts. which was way too kich work for 1 person and my anxiety went trough the roof every workday but at least i was moving around doing something. and i don't take breaks cause i don't want to eat so i just told myself alright i wanna die but at least i wont gain weight today. but at the end of november the bought a "carwash" (no it's not funny) and now people have to clean their own carts in that thing if they want to and i just have to stand there 5 hours at the time to explain people how it works.. cause humans really really are just too fucking stupig to even shit sometimes... and tell people to wear their masks. sure i make money but tbh no. fuck that shit. and i dont even make enough money to do the little things i enjoy so why tf am i doing this. i'll tell you why, it's because lots of people are going on holiday on planes, boats and trains and everything is fine. but being in a theatre is seen as a crime. so theatres are closed and i haven't worked at my "real" job for almost a year now.

and i keep applying for jobs but nobody wants me.

but today i got called. for a job interview. holy shit. for a extreme burger place. i mean i thought it looked cool and since nobody wants me i though well shit lets apply. but i didn't think they would call back.

anyone else would have been really happy with that probably bit i'm shitting myself.

because:

1. i never worked in a restaurant before

2. job interviews are aweful anyway

3.i already have a job and you canvt just leave, they have a month where you still have to deal with them after you quit.

4. i need to go to the dentist next week and what if i can work there, then i have to tell them like yo cool but i cant on that day.

5. i have a tattoo appointment on the 20th (if the shops open againg cause lockdown..) same thing as the dentist.

6. i have a tattoo appoinment on the 17th of februari(i made these appointments when i was still earning proper money..) same thing

7. i'm scared and axious about new things and people

so yeah that's nice

and my dad has this disgusting cough for almost a year now and he doesn't want to go to the doctor. i think it's something bad and i think my dad thinks so too so thats why he doesn't go to the doctors. which is pretty fucking selfish. fuck him too if he doesnvt even want to go for me he doesnvt give a fuck about anyone else anyway. if he dies i'm alone but he once kinda said that's not his problem so cheers to that.

then my cats were ill a few months ago. then one of my cats got allergic for some stupid reason and because of that he scratched a huge hole in his head which i had to deal with.

and now they both have diarea and i am fucking done with this shit. can't they just get a grip on themselves for once. i have enough shit going on i don't need this. and the vet is expensive as fuck. they havr to eat special food now, almost €40! ridiculous.

so yeah and i have to go to the dentist which give me sleepless nights for weeks now. also nice.

i'm trying to get my stomach fat to go but i hate to work out. it's not working as well. i hate my body, i hate my face god how i hate that stupid fucking ugly shitspot of a face, i hate my voice, everything and shit is not making it better.

i can still live with myself but i don't know how long i can still stand my job situation. i swear i'm gonna freak out anyday soon.

i just read that if you eat around 20 applecores the poison in there can kill you and i swear don't challenge me.

[rainymeadows]

I rewatched Eternal Diva and this time I took notes as I went through

Dive under the cut if you dare to experience my mad in-the-moment ramblings (warning for spoilers for pretty much the entire prequel trilogy)

-          Don Paolo’s voice sounds like what Papyrus’s voice probably should

-          Winter Layton is precious in that giant coat

-          Janice is so pretty omg an angel

-          Layton geeking out over the Detrogan is goddamn adorable

-          I love how everything is greyed out in Janice’s flashback

-          Suuuuuuuuper subtle indication that maybe “Janice” seeing how young this little girl was is what prompted her to find a way to put an end to this whole thing

-          Whether it’s a moped or the Laytonmobile, Emmy drives like crazy XD

-          Bitch you ain’t on Top Gear

-          God her big sister relationship with Luke is adorable tho

-          Aaaaaaaaaaaah Layton smiling at their banter dad’s so happy for his son

-          They did such a good job reusing the game’s music for this movie

-          The opera house looks so cool but so precarious – my first thought upon seeing it was “when is this thing going to sink”

-          I MEAN IT’S ON A CLIFF

-          Janice’s voice is so pretty TToTT

-          I like that they kept the Japanese vocals for her singing

-          SONG OF THE SEA-SHADOWING

-          I hate that Layton and Luke were the ONLY people to honestly applaud the performance. Everyone else is a DICK

-          First time I saw this dude, I thought “that’s a puppet, no ordinary person moves like that even in animation”

-          Once again, Layton putting a polite and gentlemanly spin on “fucked if I know, my dude”

-          Lol I love that even the people who didn’t applaud and thus apparently knew what they were in for weren’t down for dying

-          Fuking cowards

-          Layton is always DTF (down to fight)

-          GROSKY OF THE YARD

-          FUCK YES

-          This dude’s manliness is infectious

-          “Gee, I wonder who’s behind this-“ *Descole’s theme starts playing* “-oh well never mind”

-          Honestly who else but Descole would be this fucking extra tho

-          Gotta admit I love the twist of the opera house being a ship, I was totally expecting it to just go plunging into the ocean at a moment’s notice

-          Aaaaah the CG in this movie is really well done

-          Layton’s angry face is kinda ridiculous but I love it

-          I love that it’s pointed out like “where tf did all these sharks come from”

-          I prefer Cartoon Saloon’s Song of the Sea, but this one’s pretty too

-          Lol as if a MAN-EATING SHARK could keep down GROSKY OF THE YARD

-          I’m surprised he can see over the top of his chest hair

-          God, the detrogan is such a cool instrument and I really wish something like it existed irl

-          Ah, it’s only like fifteen sharks, Grosky will be fine

-          I love the air of mystery surrounding Oswald Whistler

-          Layton’s hat is made of 100% pure uncut husband material

-          AAAAAAAAAAAAAH I LOVE HOW PUZZLES ARE USED IN THIS MOVIE IT’S SO GOOOOOOOD

-          I’m so glad they didn’t scrap it entirely coz I mean they’re so integral not only to the Layton games, but Layton himself

-          This music box tune kinda gives me Gravity Falls vibes tbh

-          I think the backing melody sounds pretty identical to the tune’s intro

-          I love that this movie actually lets us see inside Layton’s head and his thought process, it’s so much better than just having him put everything together seemingly offscreen

-          Tbh any puzzle where “the night sky” is the solution is bound to be a good puzzle

-          I just fucking love the implied MASSACRES in this movie

-          God Luke is so goddamn precious

-          Pffft pumpkin dude is so subtly duplicitous

-          Okay I have ot pause for a bit to rant about layton’s design because it’s SO GOOD. Warm colours make him seem welcoming and kinda comfy and the simple facial features, while a bit Ditto-esque, do combine nicely with his overall shape to scream “friend”. Professor Layton is friend shaped. And of course there’s the popped collar to show that he’s cool, the high collared shirt gives a scholarly vibe, his shoes which I stg are plimsolls show a practical side and of course the quintessential top hat shows that he’s a Gentleman first and foremost. Add the amazing voice to that and BOI I DIE

-          Although I can’t help imagining that gif with the teddy bear slapping eyebrows onto its face to look angry whenever he gets mad

-          Luke is not friend shaped. Luke is son shaped.

-          Precious bab shaped

-          Wpw a sea captain I would never have guessed other than the “sailor” accent and the fact that you’re wearing a sailor’s uniform

-          Ugh I love these quiet moments where things can sink in and characters can just talk to each other, I really wish more movieswould do this

-          I love that even if you don’t have a literal look at his thought processes, you can still see Layton THINKINg

-          Agh Amelia is SO CUTe this series is so good at designing beautiful women and cute girls while also making them look DISTINCT

-          I like that they hinted at her intelligence by having her solve the puzzles by herself

-          One advantage a film has over the games is that the visual novel format kinda limits the dialogue, coz it’s hard to convey one charafter talking over another

-          I really like the side characters. They’re simple, yes, but they don’t really need to be complex

-          I will admit that the limits of Layton’s simple facial features means it can be hard to tell who/what he’s looking at sometimes…

-          “that man” asked me to write an opera, huh

-          WHY DOES NOBODY ASK WHO

-          Fuck descole’s theme is SO GOOD

-          WHERE DOES HE GET THE FUNDING FOR ALL OF THIS THOUGH

-          And Grosky boards the ship just in time for it to blow up XD I love this dude

-          I can only imagine his gigantic pecs act as a flotation device

-          Layton preventing Luke from looking at the exploding ship THIS MAN IS SUCH A DAD HE’S SO GOOD

-          I love this scene with Emmy investigating because these parent’s appearances are just enough to make it ambiguous whether they’re Nina or Amelia’s parents

-          Seeing them all wrapped up in blankets is kinda cute tbh

-          LET. THEM. SLEEP.

-          I wonder what Layton uses to keep his hat on?

-          Lol Emmy pushing a fossil aside to look at the map

-          I can only assume, given that they set off from the White Cliffs of Dover, that this island is SOMEWHERE off the coast of mainland Europe in about the same region as Spain

-          Ugh I LOVE Emmy’s uppercrust accent, the fact that she sounds like such a refined lady is such a fun contrast to her literal arse-kicking

-          Also this is totally BBC news lol

-          I love the detail of the historian’s scrapbook being kinda hodgepodge with bits falling out

-          And I love the Ambrosia Seal being super detailed but the subtle incorporation of a sheet music design

-          Gotta admit I totally thought this little banquet was poisoned on my first watch

-          Lol I love that pumpkin guy just KEEPS POURING THE WINE

-          Ugh that beach looks SO PRETTY, I want to go there

-          Janice is totally crushing on Layton, pass it on

-          D’awwwwww luke trying to befriend ‘melina’ is SO CUTE this boy must be protected at all costs

-          Layton how did you hear what she was humming from all the way over there

-          Why do so many anime characters have inexplicable super senses

-          Those wolves’ eyeliner is on point lol

-          “I’m not built for running” lol mood

-          FUCKING HELL DESCOLE WHO IS FUNDING ALL YOUR SHIT

-          HOW MUCH DISPOSABLE INCOME DO YOU FUCKING HAVE

-          Admittedly on my first watch I wasn’t as familiar with descole’s theme, but I saw that castle and I just thought “it’s descole, only he can be that extra”

-          The twist of using the cages for personal protection rather than to trap the walls is simple, but so clever

-          I love that Mr Whistler was one of those accidentally trapped outside. Keeps suspicion off

-          And I love Layton saying “well that solved PART of our problem”

-          YOU SHUT UP LADY THE PROFESSOR IS AMAZING

-          And then he trips and falls lol that’s what you get for wearing old man shoes

-          “Even a good gentleman needs to get some exercise!” pfft

-          Oh hey, they found the starter house that Descole was using while he was building that castle. I wonder what texture pack he’s using?

-          And here Layton puts MacGuyver to shame in the most Ghibli way possible

-          I’d love to see someone try to build this thing XD someone call the Mythbusters

-          Bjut I adore how even LAYTON isn’t sure how this fucking thing works

-          Fucking NERD

-          Yeah, these filmmakers were TOTALLY influenced by Ghibli

-          This is so Castle In The Sky, it hurts

-          “Hang on tight! NOT TO THE PILOT!” – best line in the movie

-          You can’t escape it, Layton. You is a dad

-          DID YOU GUYS NOT SEE LAYTON LAPUTA-ING HIS WAY IN

-          It’s great how all those puzzles seem like they could be ripped straight out of the Layton games, complete with outside-the-box bizarre thinking required to solve em

-          I’m so proud of Luke for solving it!!!!! Such a good boy

-          RUDE

-          Yeah, just stand in the middle of the suspiciously empty room, I’m sure nothing will go wrong

-          That’s what you get for shoving Layton aside, bitches

-          Lol I guess luke could just step through the bars if his head was a bit smaller

-          DESCOLE HOLY FUCK YOU ARE THE KING OF EXTRA

-          “humble scientist” GOOD GRIEF WHAT A LOAD OF SHIT YOU DRAMA QUEEN

-          I love that Emmy can FLY A PLANE

-          Holy shit grosky there are better ways to signal for help

-          And LESS GROSS WAYS TO DRY YOURSELF OFF IN A PLANE

-          Yeah, see, you lost your knickers

-          Ugh, god. I adore this scene with Layton in Melina’s room. It’s so quiet, the soft evening lighting… aaaaaaaaaaah so peaceful, but you can still feel the tension in the air, especially after Melina comes in

-          Oh my god, Layton plays like an angel *swoon*

-          The lack of background music in this scene is what makes it so perfect, the tension is so REAL

-          Lol I love the historian just standing there like ‘welp there they go’

-          NOOOOOOOOO LUKE DON’T CRY

-          BIG SIS IS HERE

-          Oh fuck yes

-          EMMY I LOVE YOU

-          God she and grosky are so fantastic XD

-          WHERE DID YOU LEARN TO FIGHT LIKE THAT EMMY

-          Somehow emmy gives me Michelle of the Resistance vibes

-          God, I kinda love it when you can tell Layton’s already put it all together and is just biding his time

-          AAAAAAAAAAH I love the subtle resemblance between Layton and what you can see of Descole’s face

-          In hindsight, that… stole? Is that what it is? The fur thing isprobably to hide his face shape because it most likely ups his resemblance to Layton

-          But he’s totally wearing black converse like the extra hipster nerd he is

-          God, I can’t even imagine the nightmare of having your memories overridden and personality suppressed

-          Aaaaaaaaaaaand here’s the summation. I love this part in pretty much every Layton thing

-          “Assisting you was the scientist, Jean Descole!” Descole: lol hi

-          LAYTON YOU ARE SUCH A DAD I LOVE YOU

-          Him being gentle with kids is so sweet

-          Also damn this backstory is a lot. I can’t imagine the pain of losing a loved one, but I’m not surprised a father would do anything he could to keep his daughter alive

-          “When did you realise I was involved” “ur an extra bitch who lives for drama, who else could it be”

-          That brief bit of Luke without his hat just makes him look even more BABY BOI MUST PROTECC

-          Okay real talk when did Janice get hold of the key

-          I’m guessing it was in the commotion when Mr Whistler grabbed Luke

-          SUCH A GOOD TWIST I LOVE IT

-          My heeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaart goddammit

-��         In hindsight, the hint of Janice wearing Melina’s pendant was really subtle and clever

-          GODDAMMIT DESCOLE CAN YOU STOP BEING EXTRA FOR LIKE TEN SECONDS

-          It’s kinda cool that he’s an archaeologist too though. It really does run in the family.

-          The way Descole and Whistler’s schemes intertwined was really cool

-          Yeah, it just wouldn’t be Descole if there wasn’t some over-the-top machinery

-          YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS MAGIC MUSIC THIS IS MY SHIT

-          When escaping from a crumbling castle, do be sure to grab your boy.

-          AAAAAAAAAGH THE SCENERY IN THIS MOVIE IS SO FUCKING GOOD

-          Good lord, there it is. Descole just can’t function unless he has some ridiculous Humongous Mecha at his command

-          This thing looks especially monstrous and I love it

-          I don’t think I’ve seen ANY faults in this movie’s animation, jesus Christ

-          Descole, did you learn nothing from the attempted excavation of Troy? It’s very possible that your efforts to unearth Ambrosia will be what destroys it!

-          Aaaaaaaagh this flying scene is intense as FUCK

-          Layton and Luke are SUCH A GOOD TEAM

-          WHAT IS THIS MUSIC I LOVE IT

-          Luke you are SUCH A GOOD BOY

-          Sorry but you’ll never be mob tho

-          Mob is perfection

-          JESUS CHRIST DESCOLE ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL A CHILD

-          I was about to ask where that explosion came from but then I realised it was probably a petrol-powered chainsaw

-          Layton who told you that you could look this goddamn epic

-          But I love that he’s taking on the sword-armed Descole with a PIPE

-          That footwork tho

-          Layton must be an amazing dancer

-          So cool that he’s patiently explaining why Descole was wrong

-          Sun, stars and sea. I feel like that’s a Dothraki term of endearment meant for oceanfairing

-          MORE MAGIC MUSIC I AM BLESSED

-          AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH I LOVE THIS SO MUCH THIS IS THE FUCKING COOLEST

-          I’M SUCH A SLUT FOR MAGIC MUSIC GODDAMMIT AND THIS IS DOUBLE TEAMING ME WITH SINGING AND PIANO

-          I do enjoy that despite its emergence, Ambrosia is still partially submerged. Some movies would’ve had it rise from the sea completely

-          Lol at Descole losing his shit because SOMEONE ELSE found the answer

-          Yeah, bad idea attacking someone right on top of your humongous mecha’s control panel

-          “DESCOLE!” dude he’s fine you really think he’d die

-          I was going to ask why Emmy didn’t use her plane but she probably couldn’t get to it in time

-          Yeah, this is SO Ghibli. The gigantic industrialised machine self-destructing on the ruins of an ancient civilisation lost to nature

-          Noooooooooo don’t do this to me movie, nothing kills me like sad flashbacks

-          Ow my heart

-          This hurts

-          “I’m sorry, Father. I’ve only ever brought you grief and sadness, haven’t I” as someone who’s struggled with depression this is a whole-ass mood

-          NO THIS HURTS STOP IT

-          Also the lil detail of Whistler’s waistcoat being the same shade of purple as Melina/Janice’s dress

-          NOOO DON’T MAKE LUKE SAD

-          “I’m so glad all of you were my very last memory.” Damn that line hits hard

-          GIVE THE GIRL A HUG, LAYTON

-          I said a hug, not a hand on the shoulder, she needs a HUG

-          Seeing the destroyed detrogan really hammers it home, huh

-          It’s very kind of Grosky to let Whistler play one last time in memory of his daughter

-          When I got into the Layton series, I was no expecting to be hit so hard with the FEELS

-          “Do you know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken?”

-          GNU Ambrosia, I guess

-          Ugh it’s so PRETTY tho

-          Fucking sparkles and shit

-          D’awwwww, I love the image of Luke patching up the wolves, he’s so sweet

-          Knowing the truth about Emmy and seeing her being so happy with Layton and Luke makes it really painful :’(

-          The world needs more of Layton with a big, happy smile

-          Awww, Author Lady and Pumpkin Dude kept in touch

-          GROSKY GOT HIS UNDIES BACK

-          Ugh seeing Layton and Luke peacefully listening to that music is SO CUTE and SOFT

[twdmusicboxmystery]

TWD 10x05: What It Always Is - First Thoughts

I originally started writing a ginormous post and the realized that I would need to break it into two: first thoughts and details. The bigger one, of course, will be Details, and I’ll post that on Tuesday. Today, I’m just going to give a few thoughts on broader arcs and, of course, the Donnie stuff.

***As always, spoilers abound below for 10x05. Don’t read until you’ve watched!!!***

There were five major sections here: the opening sequence with Kelly, Negan/Brandon, Aaron/Gamma/Alpha, Ezekiel, and Magna/Connie/Daryl.

Kelly/Opening Sequence:

The opening sequence with Kelly definitely has some TD symbolism in it, which I’ll get into more tomorrow. I was right that Kelly didn’t die here, but I do think this foreshadows something bigger down the road.

There’s all the Beth-ish symbolism, which suggests it may foreshadow something to do with Beth, or be a parallel to Beth in some way. But there’s also missing stuff that we didn’t see. I had to watch it more than once to catch this, but in the opening sequence, we see Kelly sit down against a boulder, and a walker reaches out for her.

When Daryl, Magna, and Connie find her, she’s sitting against a tree, and we don’t know what actually happened with that walker. The assumption is that she fought it off and kept running, falling down by the tree a little ways away. But still, there’s stuff there we didn’t actually witness, which I think is significant. I still think the walker reaching for her foreshadows her being taken by the Whisperers in some form.

Negan/Brandon:

So in terms of the arc, this definitely leads to Negan going to the Whisperers camp. That follows the CBs, and we figured this would happen. As I’ve said many times, I’m glad to see this because I think something about Negan’s arc here will lead to Beth.

The first thing we saw was Negan near some water. Brandon obviously idolizes Negan and keeps trying to be the perfect Savior to impress him. I think at least part of this, where Negan is concerned, had to do with him realizing he doesn’t want that way of life anymore. He likes TF’s way of life better. In the CBs, he goes to the Whisperers camp to prove his loyalty to Rick, and it seems to me like they’re doing something similar in the show. After Brandon kills Milo—who I think reminded Negan of Carl—he decides he wants to go back, but knows he won’t be welcome unless he proves his loyalty. So he’s off to the Whisperer camp.

And how about the school bus? It’s mostly GREEN with red and blue stripes on it.

They honestly focused way more on the kid, Milo, than on the Mom, Amelia. I had to sit and think about the bus symbol for a bit, though. I kind of realized that I don’t have a specific meaning for the bus. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve done several theories on school buses (X) and I know it’s related to Beth’s arc, or at least the death fake out arcs. But what does it specifically stand for? I’m not sure. Looking at how it’s functioned, this is what I came up with.

I thought it might stand for something that SHOULD have saved people, but didn’t. In 4a, lots of people left the prison on the bus when it went down. It was their escape plan. But they all died anyway. Similarly, in 5x05, Abraham and co were on the short bus, which should have carried them a ways safely, but it crashed.

You could also argue that someone who was SUPPOSED to die on the bus, didn’t. In S4, that would have been Glenn. Maggie left him on the bus and thought he was on it, but he got off and she didn’t realize. Similarly, as bad as the crash in 5x05 was, it’s kind of amazing no one died or even sustained serious injuries.

So what about this scene with Negan? I’m not sure. He saved Amelia and Milo, which means they should have lived. But Brandon killed them, and they died. So if anything, it’s kind of the opposite of what we’ve seen elsewhere. So I’m not entirely sure what to make of this yet. I know I say this a lot, but it will probably make more sense when we understand more of where Negan’s arc is going.

I’m wondering if he’ll somehow rescue Beth or some other kids from some kind of situation represented by the bus. He also made a big deal about how he would never kill a kid. That was partly to make him a foil to Brandon, who was obviously mildly homicidal. But I also think that’s a foreshadowing that we’ll see him protecting kids at some point in the future. We’ve already seen him save/protect Judith. I’ll we’ll see it again with either her or others So, I’ll keep an eye on this moving forward.

Aaron/Gamma/Alpha:

This actually starts with Aaron. He’s practicing his weaponry on a bridge, which is kind of interesting. He doesn’t fall off of it, so it’s not exactly foreshadowing a death fake out for him. But I think he’ll be taken from the community (represented by the bridge) in some way. At this part, we also saw a spiders web near him. (Yes, I know this pic is super blurry. I couldn’t get a decent shot of the spiders web. It went by too fast. The blur at the top left is the spider.)

I think I mentioned this before, but the spider is symbol for Alpha. Siddiq hallucinated a spider synonymously with reliving the be-headings in 10x01. He saw the spider and then saw Alpha in the barn with the machete. Since then, I’ve noticed spiders or spider’s webs several times just before something happened with the Whisperers.

So here, I would have said that Aaron would end up with the Whisperers at some point. Like, maybe this represented that they’d take him from his community. Well, we got confirmation before the end of the episode that at least Alpha wants to do this. She tells Gamma that Aaron might be useful. So I’ve said that I think some people will be taken captive and/or taken somewhere by Alpha. I’m mostly focused on Connie for that, which I’ll talk more about in a minute, but I’ve toyed with the idea of Aaron being involved. Mostly because Rick gave him Gracie in S8, which I think a foreshadow of something else.

Yeah, I think it’s safe to say he’ll be involved somehow. But I think all the associations are important here. Let’s talk about Gamma poisoning the water.

I said that the satellite falling represented Wormwood, which poisons all the water. So after it fell, the water would start being poisoned. And what do you know? Only a few episodes later, Gamma is trying to poison the water.

I honestly don’t know if this is the endgame for the “bad water” symbolism. Maybe, but it seems like kind of small potatoes, so it may only be one small portion of the symbolism. Or it may foreshadow something much bigger down the road.

But in terms of associations, we had Aaron seeing the poisoning happening, and then approach Gamma when she got hurt. That feels like a foreshadow of a much bigger arc for him that has to do with the poisoned water and the Whisperers.

Also, despite what she says, Gamma seems to be having some trouble processing her sister’s death. She’s having an almost Siddiq-like PTSD reaction to it now, which is how she hurt her hand to begin with.

In the Whisperer camp, we learn that they’re damning up the creek and trying to poison the water in order to crush TF. Again, I’m not convinced this is the endgame of the bad water stuff, but it’s interesting, and will definitely play into it.

Ezekiel:

Yeah, he has thyroid cancer. So all the theories about him being sick were true. But so was what we said: if he has cancer, maybe it can be treated with radiation. Guess what, guys? There’s basically not an easier cancer to treat than thyroid cancer. As they said in the episode, it has a 98% survival rate in our world. And that’s important. If they were just going to do a tragic death for him, because TF no longer has the medical resources in the apocalypse that they would have had in the old world, they wouldn’t be so heavily emphasizing that this type of cancer used to be survivable.

There are two major treatments for this type of cancer. Removal of the lump, and radiation. That’s pretty much it. And I’m sure most of you saw the spoilers this past week that TWD was filming in downtown Atlanta again, including filming people with white lab coats that looked a lot like doctors and even walkers wearing police uniforms. (Grady anyone?) So whether it’s actually Grady or just something very similar to them, I think our theories about Zeke’s cancer being treated with radiation are right on track.

Daryl/Connie/Magna:

Yeah, Magna is definitely spiraling. They had an interesting conversation between her and Yumiko. It sounds like Magna was in prison for killing someone who killed her cousin. Yumiko thought she didn’t actually do it, but Magna admitted that she did. Yeah, that’s kind of a problem. I’m sure the guy who killed her cousin deserved it, but it also shows that she’s willing to go vigilante if she feels she’s being treated unfairly, as also evidenced by her stealing supplies. So it will be interesting to see how this progresses, but I have a feeling we’re headed for catastrophe.

Next, on the Donnie stuff (or lack thereof). I’ve already addressed this somewhat, but I’ll say what I’ve already told my group and my fellow theorists.

I’m usually prepared for what small potatoes the Donnie or Caryl stuff is compared to what a big deal the shippers make about it. But this seemed more ridiculous to me than most other instances. Like, there was really, REALLY nothing there.

The scene everyone freaked out about where he told her the Merle story and clasped her hand? The thing I didn’t connect is that they weren’t even alone at that point. Magna was out with them, which the spoilers mentioned, but I just didn’t internalize it. So while Daryl is telling Connie that story, Magna is standing like ten feet away. She’s just not in the shot. (Okay, probably more than ten feet, but you get my meaning.)

There was definitely some Beth symbolism in there, which I’ll go over tomorrow. But I think something this clip is trying to show is how much more effectively Daryl interacts with people now. I noticed this and started thinking about it last week with Lydia. He’s been more touchy with everyone—Lydia, Michonne, Carol, of course—and obviously he’s not in love with all of them (which shows, by extension, that he’s not in love with any of them). While there’s obviously some huge symbolism and Beth vibes in this scene, I also feel like there are literal/plot take always here. Beth taught Daryl how to interact with people. Not only through touch but through sharing personal stories. There is a moment in this scene where Connie is upset and blaming herself and you see Daryl think about it for a minute before following her and launching into his story. I feel like he might have been thinking about Beth in that moment and how him telling her a story about Merle not only helped them connect but helped her feel better about her situation and stop blaming herself, so he did the same with Connie. And it worked. I also think it hearkens back to what Norman and the writers always say about Daryl’s feelings for Beth: that he didn’t understand them. By extension, he wouldn’t have had the first idea how to express them. I think this is the way they’re showing his emotional growth. So when Beth returns, he WILL recognize his own feelings and WILL be able to express them.

One more thing? Remember that every long term, soul mate couple we’ve seen on the show has done the intertwined fingers. The camera focused on him clasping Connie’s hand and they specifically DIDN’T intertwine their fingers. That’s as big and purposeful a statement as anything. This was their chance to foreshadow romance, and they very purposefully didn’t do it.

This is becoming a very close friendship, and I thought this scene was very sweet. It’s a healthy relationship—much like the one he has with Michonne, and far healthier than the one he has with Carol—but this scene specifically told us that’s it’s not heading in the romance direction. If it were, we would have seen a different kind of hand hold.

Then there’s the end scene. Connie apologizes to Daryl for asking him to lie for Magna (about her stealing the supplies). He shrugs it off and says, “Family, right?” She smiles and then points to him and then herself (You and me) and makes the sign for family as well. Then Daryl smiles. 

So it’s cute and sweet. But I think it’s important because, now that she’s said that, I think we all know Daryl would do anything for her. Just like Carol or Michonne or Aaron or anyone else, if something happens to her, or to anyone she cares about (such as Magna’s group) you know he’ll be right there to help. So they’re setting this up pretty much exactly as I thought they would.

(Notice that she doesn’t say, you and me, lovers! 😆) Also, Daryl leaves at the end. So once again he’ll be at Alexandria and she’ll be at Hilltop. Yeah, that’s what people who are in love and want to spend their lives together act. Okay, I’ll stop with the sarcasm.

My point is that this puts them squarely in the friend zone. This is what I mentioned the other day when I said the writers pretty much confirm this to be a familial, rather than romantic bond. I still think it’s possible that Connie harbors some feelings for Daryl, but this, combined with the lack of entwined fingers, means it will never be more than friendship.

I also want to point out that this entire conversation happened right next to Daryl’s motorcycle, which might be a foreshadow of something.  😉 (My theory about him and Carol leaving together on the motorcycle to find Connie.)

Okay, I’ll stop there for today. Details tomorrow!