#lilith (judy) clay

[annoyinglandmagazine]

You know that whole scene with Klaus reuniting with Punch and Judy/ Adam and Lilith? That already gives me so many emotions but I ended up accidentally making it worse with headcanons about their previous relationship that I hope at some point will make it into a fic:

Bill and Barry never really grasped the way constructs were treated outside of Mechanicsburg. They don’t really get the concept that something like that could matter so much to people, that they would actively view people as less than human for a few stitches or an extra limb. That the insanity of Mechanicsburg could actually be an improvement on the rest of the world that supposedly cared about morals in this one thing that they’d never even questioned before.

They try, they really do, they get righteously furious about it every other week, but they never really get it. They’re more confused than anything when Klaus and Judy tell them they should be the ones to ask for boarding while travelling anonymously because they’re less likely to be turned away.

They don’t notice that Punch and Judy take certain adventures more personally than the rest of them do, the way they went all still when hearing a monologue about constructs taken as ‘spare parts’ by Sparks that insist it doesn’t count because they’re not people anyway. Even worse the supposed ‘heroes’ they work with to take down rogue Sparks and then turn around and insist that the job isn’t finished until they purge the area of the Spark’s creations as well.

They’re complaining about their professors and Klaus explains why he dislikes one of them by casually bringing up that he had a pet theory of a ‘sliding scale of humanity’ and he once derailed a lecture by trying to place Klaus on it. They are horrified and murderous and Klaus becomes the first person to marvel at how sheltered someone was growing up in Mechanicsburg.

So there is always a certain connection between Punch, Judy and Klaus over this in particular because they know that Bill and Barry can’t possibly understand. Not like they do. And it’s important, to Punch and Judy entering an outside world for the first time and having it reject them even as it grows used to and even welcomes the Heterodynes but not them, never fully. Heterodynes can redeem themselves with enough determination but how can you redeem yourself when your only crime to begin with was existing?

It’s important to Klaus who knew relatives and friends who looked like they had to force themselves to say his name without flinching because they didn’t really believe it was him they were talking to. University was a fresh start but it took years for him to break the nervous habit of adjusting his cuffs and collar to cover his skin because it was just exhausting to watch the way people changed once they noticed.

Sometimes they talked about it but most of the time they’re just there for each other and that’s enough. Also they’re all way more willing to get into a fight on someone else’s behalf than their own so it gives them a nice opening to beat the shit out of bigots.

On an unrelated and slightly less angsty note I also think that Punch and Judy were sort of the mom friends of the Heterodyne adventures. They got into the habit of spending a considerable amount of their lives trying to make these insane twenty somethings get some rest every now again and the rest of it complaining (Punch naturally had a sign language that the Boys may have invented specifically for him but communicated perfectly adequately through Looks as well) the constant, stupid risks they took to their own lives.

When it became clear that they couldn’t have children Bill and Barry couldn’t feel more terrible about it, they spent ages trying to come up with a solution but couldn’t imagine one where there was an ironclad guarantee of no amnesia. Klaus suggested adoption since they were so good with the orphans they came across but, though it wasn’t ruled out, Judy half jokingly made comments about how she was busy enough with ‘her boys’ anyway so she didn’t need children for now.

Klaus finds it easiest to talk to Punch sometimes because he really listens and waits until he’s finished speaking to offer input when it’s wanted (it usually isn’t). He’s also exceptionally good at reading non verbal cues which is helpful because Klaus always had some kind of allergy to talking about anything personal.

Judy knows about Lucrezia and Klaus. She’s fairly certain Bill is the only one of them who doesn’t. She personally thinks both of them would be a lot better off with someone else, anyone else really. She distrusts something in Lucrezia’s eyes when she’s around them, calculating and almost predatory, but then both of them had unusual ideas of what constituted romance. She doesn’t like it but she doesn’t say anything. Years later she’ll wish she had.

When Punch and Judy hear that Klaus is back from the dead and annihilating all the warring nobility’s armies that cross his path they think ‘Well something else is clearly going on there but that does sound a little like what Klaus would do if he went off the deep end to be perfectly honest.’

They find out he’s conquering an empire and that sounds a lot less like Klaus. Then Barry returns in a complete panic, holding his niece like a lifeline and talking about how Klaus is working for the Other.

It’s a struggle to even contemplate it, the same Other that killed Bill’s infant son and most likely Bill as well, the Other that destroyed the Wulfenbach barony and massacred its people, including Klaus’ own parents, the Other that ravaged Europa sending it into a state of utter chaos. They know Klaus. They’ve known him since he was reckless eighteen year old who just wanted to make the world a better place. They know him.

But…… A few months ago they would have said the thought of subjugating the continent would never cross Klaus’ mind, that he’d never do something like that. He wasn’t that kind of Spark. On their bad days the boys used to talk about what would happen if either of them ever crossed ‘the line’ and though they’d all reassured them that they never would Klaus had promised in complete sincerity that he wouldn’t let them.

No one had ever thought that Klaus might need to have a line. He never even properly lost control of a fugue, he didn’t forget morals in the heat of the moment, every decision he made he’d stand by years later as the right one. He took things further than the boys sometimes but that was because he’d concluded it was for the best and he didn’t need a strict code the way they, still wrestling and redirecting those Heterodyne urges inside them, did.

They also knew Barry and he wouldn’t ever be able to believe something like that if there’d been any other explanation. Barry had known Klaus too.

Basically I’m never going to get over the tragedy that is this group of people because they were friends! They were probably the first real friends any of them had had! They were so young and optimistic and they decided they were going to start fixing things because no one else would. They thought the world could get better and people deserved second chances and for a while it actually worked and it meant something and then it blew up in their faces.

Everything falls apart worse than it was when they started, they lose everyone close to them and they wonder if the world was ever really going to change at all. When the era of the Heterodyne Boys comes to an end they don’t face it together the way they always thought they would if they failed. It ends with all of them are separated and so disillusioned that they’ll believe that even their closest friends would betray them and humanity in the worst way possible.

[leletha-jann]

Headcanon to no particular purpose: Barry Heterodyne was ace as all get-out.

Just wasn't interested. Never was, was never going to be. Barry wanted to have adventures and build contraptions and constructs. He wanted to see the world. He wanted to not be his father. He wanted to maybe keep his brother from hurling himself off every cliff once in a while. He wanted to meet people who didn't automatically hate him for the bloodline he came out of. He did not want to have sex with any of them. Ever.

The world was very big, and Barry had so many other things to do anyway.

When they were teenagers, Bill hit the realization "hey...people can be cute" like a battering ram besieging a citadel. Barry got lost on the way to the siege and was too busy enjoying the scenery to notice or care. He thought his big brother was out of his head for years until he'd checked with enough people to confirm that no, that was the expected behavior, actually. And then he thought everyone was out of their heads. (Not an unreasonable assumption, in Europa.)

One of the first times he met Lucrezia, she made a pass at him out of pure reflex, and he just straight-up did not notice. Missed him by a mile. Lucrezia took it personally, like an insult. She never got over it.

...actually, Bill and Barry went up against a fair few number of Sparks who thought flirting with them might distract them from whatever crusade they were on this time. Barry was always the one to go: "Nope. Trap. Of course it's a trap, Bill. I was right about the last seven times, and I'm right about this one too."

Maybe five people ever knew this, and one of them was Barry himself, and two of the others were Adam and Lilith. (I always think that Adam/Punch was built to be their bodyguard, and Lilith/Judy to be their babysitter. Lilith was world-wise enough to say "no, you're absolutely not" when Barry confessed to her that if Bill was normal, maybe he was broken.) When Barry turned up at their door in Beetleburg with Agatha, part of their shock included "why do you have a kid? there's no way that's your kid unless you built her from scratch."

This is also why the traveling Heterodyne shows keep writing the stock character of the interchangeable High Priestess who falls in love with Barry Heterodyne. They had to resort to just flat-out making someone up.

[phoenixyfriend]

A weird ongoing symbolism I have in my head for Agatha that presumably nobody else uses is that I associate her with ribs and rib cages.

This association is due to... [drumroll]

Punch and Judy!

Their undercover names were Adam and Lilith Clay, references to the old testament. Adam and Lilith from the Bible. Adam was made of clay. Eve, eventually, was made of his rib.

While Agatha wasn't made of Adam, he was the one to raise her, so he was a part of her creation as such anyway.

It's not a clean parallel or anything, but it's one of those things that I've just sort of... accepted is a thing for me? Agatha is symbolically associated with ribs and ribcages now.

It's also the kind of metaphor that can be extended to themes of being trapped and becoming the monster, e.g. feeling caged vs having the cage within you type stuff.

A cage as something that keeps you trapped (how she feels at the start) vs something that keeps you safe (what the ribcage actually does for the heart and other vital organs)

[ggbackgrounds]

Let’s take a moment to talk about names.

Adam and Lilith, rings a bell? It would be probably easier to spot if she would use Eve as her alias, but if you know a thing about the Bible then you’ve probably heard about Lilith. She was the wife of Adam before Eve. Adam and Lilith were basically the first humans.

The surname, Clay, can be associated with a golem - a being made out of clay (= a construct).

And what about their real names, Punch and Judy? Again, these are puppets.

It seems that both names and surnames are rather ironic reference to the fact that they are first, imperfect constructs, created by the Heterodyne Boys.

They are constructs, but not just constructs - Barry trusted them enough to leave Agatha under their care.

[stories-me]

Agatha Heterodyne, Girl Genius: 

What she’s from: “Girl Genius”. 

What she might be in: “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen”. 

Premise: 

Agatha Heterodyne is the main character of the comic and eponymous “Girl Genius”. She’s a strong Spark (read: “Mad Scientist”) and the last known member of the famous Heterodyne family. 

Background: 

As the main character of her story, a summary of EVERY event in which the protagonist is involved would be… well, IMPOSSIBLY long. 

Thus, we only have room for some things, as well as how she might appear in a fan fiction of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. 

Raised by Adam and Lilith Clay (alias “Punch” and “Judy”, a pair of famous constructs who were allies of the Heterodynes), her Spark ability was suppressed until she was 18 years old, when the locket that suppressed it was taken by Omar von Zinzer. 

To be frank, a LOT happened after that. Especially when she emerged from the “Timeskip.” Among other things, Baron Wulfenbach’s Pax Transylvania became no more, the infamous yet mysterious Other (a.k.a. Agatha’s mother, Lucrezia Heterodyne nee Mongfish) went loose in the land, and the Long War returned with a vengeance. An obsessed Gilgamesh “Gil” Wulfenbach (the son of Baron Wulfenbach, and one of the folks who is an ally, and, some would argue, the boyfriend, of Agatha) was watching Mechanicsburg. 

Now, to MY ideas: She’s come to the Grand Exhibition in New York (or Chicago), where a sinister individual (one Baron Maurice du Momf, who is, essentially, Count Olaf from “A Series of Unfortunate Events” as a deranged stage magician, instead of a deranged actor) working for the mysterious Zachary Hale Comstock (a.k.a. “The Prophet”) of Columbia plans on kidnapping her! 

She is an excellent mechanical engineer, who wants to help others and make their lives easier. 

How she is like me: 

We both are loyal to our friends, we are both smart, and we both want to help others (for example, she wants to help the people of Mechanicsburg, who are currently trapped in a time bubble). Basically, I want to help others, ESPECIALLY folks with autism. I intend on helping them with their existence with things on tumblr, like, say, this. 

Quote: “I have a LOT of things to do. If I drop everything to make a GIRLY FUSS over him, we could ALL wind up DEAD.” 

[camthewizard]

Klaus recognizing the Clays (if that is their real name) is interesting. It doesn’t really help the Von Pinn is Agatha’s mother theory, but if the theory were true, Lilith/Judy being a part of these guys makes it make sense that she would know it. 

I’m still convinced. 

[annoyinglandmagazine]

It’s kind of interesting to me that Bill, Barry and Klaus seemed to all undergo a dramatic change from being fairly lighthearted adventurers having the time of their lives and helping people to terrifyingly controlled killing machines over the same space of time even if it’s through different circumstances.

Klaus definitely seems to think that the Heterodyne Boys would never approve of what he’s doing and that they’d find another way if they were there. And they probably wouldn’t be immediately on board but I think what Klaus is forgetting is that Bill and Barry changed too.

He seems so shocked that Barry didn’t trust him enough to come to him and the thing is, while Barry was probably shown some fairly compelling evidence, the chances are that after everything he went through and the revelation that Lucrezia betrayed them he was in a headspace where he could be made to doubt anybody.

Now who does that sound like? Someone becoming paranoid as fuck of everyone around them due to general trauma plus trust issues caused by Lucrezia and the world in general that they thought they’d helped only for it to then turn back to tearing itself apart as soon as they’re gone.

The paranoia heightened exponentially by the need to protect the child that is the only good left in their life while being convinced (not entirely incorrectly) that everyone is out to take them from them and maybe they could afford to go about things differently if it was only their life at stake but they aren’t taking any risks with the child’s.

Klaus is so certain that he’s compromising on morals because someone has to and that because Bill and Barry were perfect heroes who’d never hurt anybody they didn’t absolutely have to if they were around they’d insist on a more gentle approach but this wasn’t Klaus’ approach the last time he saw them.

Klaus himself changed no matter how much he seems to have rationalised that this was always ‘his way’ but he seems unable to understand, based on his reaction to Adam and Lilith, that his friends aren’t the same people he left behind either, they’re mistrusting, they jump straight to conflict and they will do absolutely anything to protect Agatha the same way he’d do absolutely anything to protect Gil.

(I don’t think Adam and Lilith were in the wrong in any way, they were just operating on extremely incorrect crucial information and acting accordingly, exactly like Klaus is for the entirety comic! There is a very important parallel to be had there!)

I’m not entirely sure that Bill and Barry wouldn’t do the kind of things Klaus does if it was for Agatha’s safety (*cough* locket/overlay parallel *cough*) but to Klaus believing that would actually be worse.

He knows he’s effective but he doesn’t think he’s a good person and it would disrupt something very fundamental for him if he couldn’t say definitively that Bill and Barry were completely good in all the ways he isn’t.

To him Bill and Barry are the same optimistic young men he knew before everything went south who’d always look for a solution to spare as many lives as possible just like he can’t afford to, who’d obviously come to him if they were there because they look for the best in people just like he doesn’t know how to anymore.

And when Barry heard that Klaus was back I bet that he needed to believe that Klaus at least had stayed the same. Except he didn’t and Barry didn’t, none of them did.

[annoyinglandmagazine]

Bill: I can’t believe that worked! That was the dumbest plan we’ve ever had!

Klaus: *incredulous look*

Bill: Well now that I think about it there was that time- alright, second dumbest.

Judy: *crosses her arms*

Bill: Yes, fine, point taken, it makes the top five.

Punch: *raises eyebrows*

Bill: *throws hands up in the air* Look it’s up there!

[annoyinglandmagazine]

So I made a playlist about Bill and Barry’s journey so I thought I’d post it here. It’s meant to be chronological so the way I had in mind when I was ordering it is that the attack on Castle Wulfenbach happens at around A Sadness Runs Through Him and that it switches to Klaus, Adam and Lilith’s perspectives after I Lied.

[phoenixyfriend]

Sparks at the Heart of Voltron

Chapter 1: Stolen Locket

A few universes away, Team Voltron's story took a very, very different shape, one that mostly just screamed "Mad genius, run!" and then bolted in fear.

Nobody else was doing it, so clearly I had to.

This chapter features:

Pidge as Agatha Clay/Heterodyne Keith as Gilgamesh Wulfenbach Kolivan as Baron Klaus Wulfenbach Antok as Boris Dolokhov Commander Iverson as Dr. Beetle Haxus as Dr. Merlot Sam Holt as Adam Clay (Punch) Colleen Holt as Lilith Clay (Judy) Hunk as Moloch Von Zinzer

Notes under the cut.

The story's going to diverge more and more as it progresses. The early chapters, particularly this one, are going to be a much closer parallel to GG canon than the later ones, so if you're dreading a word-for-word replay of GG with Voltron characters, I can assure you that there's going to be some interesting fun in the future. I'll include a list of parallels at the bottom of each chapter when someone new is introduced.

I've got most of my parallels chosen so far. There's really only three characters from GG that I don't have a parallel for so far, but they're all from late enough in the GG plot that I can wait for a new Voltron season to introduce some possible characters.

Not every character with get a parallel, mostly because there's such a discrepancy in terms of cast size. GG's cast is absolutely massive, while Voltron's is... well, it's growing, but it's not quite there yet.