#lots of useless info in here about The Boy

[invinciblerodent]

if you haven't already.... you should post that oc info for arvid 👀

Yay, an excuse, thank you! :D (Long ramblings under the cut!) (excuse the darkness of the screenshot, my laptop is currently angry with photoshop)

Arvid Trygg

Full Name: As above! Fun fact- "trygg" comes from the Old Norse "tryggr", and essentially means "faithful". It's my headcanon for the name children raised in the church get in that area if they don't have a last name of their own- a bit like the "John Snow" of Faerun. (His mom only told the monks to name him Arvid, but left no other information about herself or her desires for him, and was gone by the next morning. So for all intents and purposes, his full name is essentially "Bother Arvid", which as a warrior priest is what he was casually referred to as the most.)

Gender and Sexuality: Short answer, bisexual man. Long answer, if only he knew enough to figure it out. As of right now, he's... mostly confused? Because while he's fairly sure he's a man, having literally lived the past 35 years as a holy man, he didn't much think of sexuality in any context. He may have had some mild crushes here and there, but didn't really think further about any of them. Nowadays he's slowly realizing that actually, not only does his dick work (surprise of all surprises), he also doesn't much care about gender as much as personality, and is very attracted to earnestness and gentleness in people, even more if they don't try to hide it. (It's a lot of "baby's first attempts at flirting" with him.)

Pronouns: Most comfortable with he/him, but sees no reason to be bothered by they/them either. The beard mostly deters people from attempting she/her, so I don't think he has any feelings about that.

Ethnicity/Species: He was raised as- and thinks of himself as a gold dwarf, but technically, his dad was a duergar. His mother lived in a very conservative area and was very young when she had him, so she broke off any relationship with the father when she learned she was pregnant, and hid the pregnancy from everyone. She went to the nearest monastery to give birth, and when she saw the (then much more pronounced) blue hue of her son, she decided that the best thing she can do for him is to leave him there to be raised by the monks. That way he gets a roof that her father would deny them, a life away from people in the village pointing fingers at him, and she gets her life back. (Arvid doesn't blame her for any of this. He thinks it was unfortunate because he would have liked to know his parents, but it was nevertheless the right decision to make. His skin's greyish-blue has since faded into this slightly bluish, pale color.) (He blushes purple, you guys. Purple. So cute.)

Birthplace and Birthdate: About 1460 DR, in a Tempuran monastery near a small dwarven village in the Western Heartlands (quite a ways South from Baldur's Gate), making him roughly 35 at the events of the game.

Guilty Pleasures: I think even though he's not experienced with it, he just loves reading about romance. You know there's that unauthorized copy of that bawdy play ("A Pleasurable Deal") we can find in a certain area of the game? Yeah, he saved that book, AND the leaflet that's an interview with the author. That was the first piece of explicitly smutty literature he's ever had access to, and... yeah. While he doesn't announce that he likes romance, he definitely keeps the enjoyment of smut buried deep in the bottom of his pack.

Phobias: So far, I don't think he has any notable ones. I mean, he's definitely got a healthy aversion from a bunch of things and isn't the biggest fan of gross monsters, but few are. I've yet to find out his biggest fear, but so far I'm toying with something like... that dawning horror that you did something irreversible and irredeemably horrible out of misinformation? Though I don't know how to phrase that in a concise manner.

What They Would Be Famous For: This one remains to be seen, I'll update it once I'm actually done with the game lol.

What They Would Get Arrested For: Definitely trespassing. Maybe breaking and entering. Probably heard someone in distress and immediately went to them, the dingus.

OC You Ship Them With:

OC Most Likely To Murder Them: (these don't really apply I think)

Favorite Movie/Book Genre: After a lifetime of little besides holy texts, he's kind of a fan of anything that's... not that. But definitely a romantic at heart, and if they ever "accidentally" pick up a romance novel, it mysteriously evades the trash-pile for a few days at least.

Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: I'm gonna say it's the "it was all a dream, and not in the vision- or astral projection-way". He always prefers honesty and straightforwardness, it's always a bummer when he realizes someone wasn't entirely truthful about something. (He doesn't realize that often.)

Talents and/or Powers: Well, he's a rather talented soldier and cleric, but I'd say a talent specifically is how he can leverage that aura if necessary. Mechanically, he has proficiency in intimidation, but hardly ever uses it- I headcanon that he doesn't really like using threats to get his way and prefers to be nice and persuasive instead, but has this... way, of shifting his weight and voice that makes him seem like someone not to be trifled with. (Only uses it when the Vibes on he encounter are already Fetid.) He's also got a lot of domestic skills, from helping out around he monastery from a very young age. Remarkably good at peeling potatoes and chopping onions. Crochets cute scarves in the evenings. (He's... not SUPER great at that one, a long rectangle is about what he can make, but it's a really sweet gesture, they're warm, and they do look pretty darn cute.)

Why Someone Might Love Them: He's a very gentle soul that's very non-judgemental, and curious about everything- especially other people's faiths. To him, as long as you believe in something wholeheartedly and are willing to fight for it, it's an honorable belief, and an honorable fight. That's why he doesn't judge Shadowheart for her Shar-worship, why he understands Lae'zel's devotion to Vlaakith, why he was willing to try the ritual for Loviatar, and, yeah, why he feels for Gale so deeply on the whole Mystra-issue. (And, because he's definitely very much into Gale, just in general.)

Why Someone Might Hate Them: I feel like that honor is a double-edged sword in this way, in that because of it, he has a way of setting expectations very high for others, and feeling undue disappointment when they fall short of the expectations he imposed on them. As in, he's, on a deep level, very annoyed with Gale for just accepting that he's gonna have to blow up, because Arvid thinks of that as Gale having rolled over and just given up. One of the worst things one can do in Arvid's eyes is giving up without a fight. (Things were kind of tense between them for a few days after meeting Elminster. After the fussy attention Arvid showers everyone in as their healer, I think Gale definitely felt the slight chill in the air there.)

How They Change: It's still a bit in progress, but I think he'll grow to accept that there's a bit more to the world than fully right and fully wrong, even within the same action, and the same paradigm. The way he handled the githyanki egg is definitely a sign of that change- he balked at the request first, it seemed unthinkable that it could in any way be better for a young gith to be raised outside of their community, but... yeah, wiping out a crèche (leaving nobody left to take care of it) and finding a note that the egg was going to be destroyed changed his perspective on things. At small hours when he can't sleep, he still thinks about what's gonna happen to that githyanki (and when he handed it over, he did look at the others and say "I hope we're all in agreement that we're not going to tell Lae'zel about this.", which is... not a lie that leaves a good taste in his mouth.)

Why You Love Them: I mean, he's a good li'l upstanding lawful good cleric boy who thinks letting a vampire bite him is the same as providing healthcare, and makes his companions cute accessories to keep them nice and cozy. He's the dwarf dad(dy?) we all need, with a fantasy fanny pack full of fruit snacks. (Really, he does carry almost all their rations on the road. So technically, he does pass out the snacks. I imagine a short rest is pretty much a snack break.)

His mustache curving up like that also gives him a permanent little smile, which I think is adorable.

[snarky-art]

Thriving vs Survivng, am I right, lads?

Bloom and Stella eventually get married, Daphne and the woman with her, Nadia, an oc I made and have mentioned a few times, get married with Daphne to be next in line as Queen of Domino, and Aisha and Musa get married one day, but are currently in this pic going through some Shit that’s putting a huge damper on that.

More info on everyone and political drama stuff below the cut!

Bloom and Stella are thriving.

Polyamory is super duper normalized in a decent amount of places, and is considered a norm on Solaria. Stella is eventually married both to Brandon and Bloom. Both of Bloom’s sets of parents love Stella and are incredibly happy for her. After much talk and deliberation between Daphne, Bloom, Marion, and Oritel to see how Bloom and Daphne are feeling after Daphne is healed up and in a good place and has processed shit, it’s decided Daphne will continue as heir and shall be next in line for rulership. Bloom meanwhile shall continue her role as guardian fairy, Holder of The Flame, and eventually upon her marriage to Stella will be Queen Consort of Solaria. She has a lot more flexibility this way too to go where she feels most comfortable, between Earth and other areas in The Magical Realm. Oritel and Marion don’t want Bloom or Daphne to feel trapped or be stifled with immense pressure if they can help it, and Bloom is still most comfortable on Earth, so having the option to go back and forth is important and something Marion and Oritel want her to not feel cut off from it, a mistake they made early on when they first got brought back from their stasis.

Formal picture of Nadia finally! An oc from Earth I made who’s Daphne’s gf and eventual wife. I thought it would be nice for Daphne to not worry about contextualizing her grief and trauma with someone who already had preconceived notions of her from myths and legends over the last 1000+ years.

Nadia: so you’re Bloom’s sister! That’s so cool! Do you have magic too?

Daphne, who at this point while not the holder of the flame anymore is still an incredibly powerful fire elemental who retains her nymphix and could hand bloom’s ass to her and call upon The Dragon at will whenever she wants: uh, yeah, some I guess.

Bloom: glad to see being a useless lesbian is a universal trait instead of just earth specific

Daphne: exCUSE ME-

Royal balls be like “The Incarnation of God Itself, heir to The Great Pillar of all of Magic Domino, The Dragon Reborn, Supreme Nymph of Magix, Princess Daphne, and Nadia, Barista on Tuesday, Thursday, and Weekends, of the planet Earth”

Like, oh boy, THEE DAPHNE, and Nadia from Starbucks.

Also don’t worry it’s not actually a Starbucks. It’s a small local cafe and bakery spot that Bloom really likes. Daphne went with her once, saw Nadia, and went 👀. Daphne doesn’t even like coffee also she just goes there for Nadia and was too anxious to ask about any other drinks so she just gets what Bloom got, would makes Bloom, who is not at all rich on Earth, pay for it, and then didn’t actually drink it.

Also, Nadia is definitely wearing heels here.

She’s only around 5’9 or ~175cm, while as I’ve mentioned before, Daphne is 6’7 or ~200cm.

She like to wear different heels and go “ok NOW how close am I to being taller than you” or sometimes go “ok, I think I beat you this time” when she tries on a new pair

She’s never close obviously and they both know that because hehe funny joke, but Daphne will still go “oh, you just might’ve this time.”

Musa and Aisha meanwhile are Struggling. Not only is Musa someone who is already insanely anti-monarch in her governmental views, even one that operates more as a democracy, the government she’s working with can’t stand her.

I’ve mentioned in these posts how marriage works on Andros, and Musa is Not It. She’s not even a Land Androsian, which would’ve been considered a bit of a scandal because of how their government structure is set up. No it’s much worse, for oh no, she’s not an Androsian at all! Truly horrific (I say this sarcastically, but that’s genuinely what the nobles and a chunk of the population feel).

Musa is doing what she can to appease Androsian court.

Gold is a big fucking no no on Andros, but she doesn’t want to give that up since it’s a really important part of her culture.

Aisha is standing with her on that, but it doesn’t make it easier to deal with the assholes in court.

She’s even muted her reds to lean more towards purples and blues.

Muting the reds was a huge olive branch of sorts and she’s pissed about it and doesn’t like doing it (but she did it, and it wasn’t even appreciated, but WHATEVER), but she refuses to get rid of the golds (good for her).

Aisha has gold nail polish here also. She’s doing what she can, and eventually is just gonna say fuck it and start wearing straight up gold with her silvers and tell Musa to get back in the bright red or so help me-

Stella let’s Aisha borrow her stash specifically when she first start and immediately commissions some custom ones done for Aisha’s measurements.

[a-bucket-of-trash]

Kelvin “military analysis” - Sons of the Forest

First rant: Everyone talk about how sad is that Kelvin is not entering to a cave with us, but dude... there is a good reason. He is DEAF, right? So his main way to avoid dangers is by SIGHT. Hell, he point the damn mutants way easier than us.

How in hell he will do anything inside a cave if WE BARELY CAN SEE SHIT? Half of the times inside caves, we have to HEAR the mutants because is dark af. Now, if the main Kelvin’s sense is his eyes, he, in a cave, will be not only full useless but also dangerous for him and to us.

Kelvin inside a cave is like he being deaf AND blind. Go and play in a cave with mutants, deaf and blind, without weapons, and see how long you will last.

He stay outside because is the logic action. He is not enough braindead to enter in a cave.

But now, what matters: what kind of soldier is Kelvin?

Someone point that in the opening, Fisheye and us are looking the info in the pc as Kelvin is chilling listening to music.

My theory is: Squads tend to have different “specialities” with different skills, which come extremely handy in a situation like in the game.  

Fisheye have part of his face covered. Usually, members of the Infantry would cover their faces to protect their identity in front of strangers. He is covered inside the helicopter can maybe be a hint of he being a “stranger” with any other member of the team (just like others members are covered too).

We don’t know if we are covered or not, but our skills on combat and weapons could be a hint that we are also Infantry. Plus, that both, as Infantry, be learning about the mission in the flight, at minutes to “deploy” is just a way to say “We are just muscles and guns, as soon we know how the subjects look, the rest don’t matter. We are here to shoot, kill and leave to our respective previous squads”. We are basic fight dogs.

Also, very high chances their (and our) names (Fisheye and Kelvin) are not real names, but codenames (Military call signs) based in the NATO phonetic alphabet (Each codename of each member start with a different letter to make it easier. F is Fisher, K is Kelvin, which it can be used in the trackers, so we can spot more easily the different members of the squad in the island).

Interesting fact, in some places, like the United Kingdom military, these letters also can tell what specialities they have. Fisheye use the F of Foxtrot/ Foxhound, this last one used to sign Infantry.

As also internet says about Kelvin: “His true name is speculated to be Robert, as he often appears in the game files as Rob or Robbie and in the game console as Robby.”

But our boy “Kelvin” is uncovered and chilling. That mean 2 basic things:

1 - Uncovered units are the ones who had to interact face to face with civilians. High chances he is one in charge of mediate with the Pufftons.

2 - He is not paying attention to the info in the pc, neither to the audible orders. The only reason to him to don’t pay attention is the fact that HE KNOWS the info. We are a militar squad rescuing a rich family, they will get the best of the best, so they will not get a lazy random Kelvin in the team. He is useful to the mision. He chills because he know the Pufftons already, knows the map (since he is not looking at it), and he knows the orders. Is not a civilian, or he wouldn’t have militar clothes, neither the previous info, neither will using the K Tag.

Now let’s add the fact that he doesn’t fight in the game, at all. He aims, run, hide, but don’t fight. But he do gather a lot, run fast, fish where is no fishes (lol) and find sticks in the nowhere.  

Putting his highly possible brain injury a little aside (which not only made him temporarily deaf and mute, but also could reduce a lot his capabilities), we can now speculate that his specialty is not in combat, is not from the Infantry because he don’t fight (not even as a instinct, many soldiers keep their fight reflex even after years out the field).

His skills in gather and build, carring logs for hours, even with his brain damage, can be a hint that his basic training was as Quartermaster. Hear this definition: The Quartermaster Corps officer plans and directs the activities of Army units and organizations engaged in the acquisition, receipt, storage, preservation, and issue of equipment, repair parts, fortification/construction material, subsistence, petroleum products, water, and other general supplies.

And his “chilling instead watch the info” can be a hint that he is now from some branch related to Intelligence or Logistics.

So, my theory is: Robert ak Kelvin - Logistics Quartermaster Officer with a Degree in Brain Injury.

And I love him.

[mayisgoingnuts]

ALRIGHT SO since I edited those earlier I decided to talk a little more about him already!!

Ignacio in JJD's cult!

Taglist: @merwynsartblog @clownazon @jonesy-squish

Click here to read the AU thing hehe 👇

Already clarifying: Yes, he WAS in Skiddad's cult just like in canon, or else events like John's house being burned down wouldn't happen.

Since Ignacio is JJD's favorite, she'd obviously want him to make part of her silly little cult. It was just the beginning so they weren't a threat, Skiddad wasn't aware of what Joy or JJD wanted to do and neither did she began to be an absolute shit to him, and saw this like a kid wanting to play with his dolls or something. But despite all that, he wouldn't just make a favor to a traitor. It'd have to benefit him somehow or be entertaining atleast, and of course a psychopath understands another just perfectly—

Skiddad allowed her to try and convince Ignacio to join them SPONTANEOUSLY, no kidnapping, no lies, just what they have, because he wanted to see her being pathetic while trying to get a member. Well, it DID happened, he laughed a lot, but consequently Ignacio did got convinced and wanted to join her. Skiddad definitely wouldn't miss him, only demanding the info he got from John before leaving, but aside from that, he felt like Ignacio was slowly being more and more useless and stupid to him.

JJD managed to convince him with manipulation, of course, but also temporary help. Ignacio didn't even wanted to be in that damn cult to begin with, and once he was there, he couldn't leave and had to risk his life for a guy who pretends to care but would totally drop him like nothing (which just happened), not to mention how much of a damn joke he is. And his house. And everything else that is going down. Too many things NOT collaborating.

She promised him respect from her members, although NOT from herself considering that he'd still be "his top 1 on the list", and happiness. He found this last part absolutely stupid until she gave him their amulet once, and OH boy, HE DIDN'T FELT THIS JOYFUL AND CALM IN SO LONG. He knew it wasn't for real but still felt so good to smile like that, Ignacio couldn't help but like it. So, he may not be there for the cult itself or their own plan for "world domination", MUCH LESS for JJD, but to feel just a little less miserable. Still, sometimes he takes a break from the amulet since he's feeling like that thing is definitely changing him more than it should, starting with the fact that now even without the amulet he's not able to be so harsh with kids like before. The idea of turning into an ACTUAL happy-go-lucky person is not pleasing at all to him.

[whumpbug]

new ocs!!!

hi gang!!!!!!!!!!!! i've been hinting at more characters for a bit and HERE THEY ARE!!! i might try to use the whumperless event to intro them a bit more, but if anyone has any drabble requests until then feel free to send em in! and if you have any clarifying questions, PLEASE ask them!!!

as you can tell, i love westerns. i love cowboys. i NEEDED a cowboy/wild west setting to whump in so i made these guys (yes i am aware their color palletes are just simon and archie in a different font. i am a one trick pony.)

sidenote: rdr2 fans, you're gonna love this (these two are practically rdr2 ocs) (′ꈍᴗꈍ‵)

onto the boys (men?? we'll go with men.) this post is embarassingly long. strap in guys.

picrew here (though i couldn't find one that captured their looks the way i envisioned.... sigh i need to start drawing again. anyways, i included some outfits to go along with them!

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eugene (gene) delaney

age: 28

height: 6'2

occupation: deputy sherriff (his town is called Whiteridge)

description: gene is. well, for lack of better words, he has a stick up his ass. that is to say that he is very particular about things, namely the safety of his town and the activities that go down in it. he cares very much about keeping the streets safe from gangs and criminals because his mother was killed by a gang when he was just a child and he knows the dangers of having bad people run around unrestrained. also, the sherriff he works under is crooked and useless, so gene is left with a lot of responsibility in terms of managing Whiteridge. he's strong-willed and intelligent, but very morally conflicted about many things. he wants whats best for his people, but is controlling everything with an iron grip really the best way to go about it?

here is his outfit that you'll usually see him in!

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cassidy "silver" mccoy

age: 27

height: 6'0

occupation: outlaw/one of "montana's boys"

description: cassidy gets his nickname "silver" from his silver tongue. he's been known to talk his way out of death more times than he can count. he runs with a gang lead by a man named welles montana, and he is one of montana's most respected men. he was taken in by montana when he was very young, and believes he owes him his life. he trusts him blindly and is convinced evetything he does is for a good cause, even if sometimes it's questionable. he greatly enjoys his job and loves seeing the fruits of his labor in the form of hungry kids getting to eat for the first time in weeks, or single mothers able to afford a new dress. he did not grow up wealthy, so what he does is very personal. despite wanting to appear smooth and charismatic, he is a deeply feeling person that sort of lets his emotions rule him.

here is his typical outfit!

a bit about montana's gang: they lead robin hood-esque type heists where they exclusively take from the wealthy to give to the poor, but their methods are often violent and destructive. also, montana himself is not a very good man but cassidy doesn't necessarily know that. montana is sort of leading a double life where he spends part of his time with his gang and the other part with the wealthy assholes they're trying to take down. none of his gang know he is getting the best of both worlds and betraying them all. he's very manipulative and acts as a whumper in this story. cassidy is at his beck and call, and follows orders often without question.

also, there is a rival gang lead by a man named o'malley. they are your typical old western gang with no strict morals, sort of just trying to get the most money they can. members of o'malley's gang act mostly as whumpers as they are much more harmful and destructive than montana's boys, and have it out for cassidy specifically.

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their relationship/more background info:

cassidy and gene have a bit of a cat and mouse thing going on. cassidy often pulls heists with his boys in plain sight and since gene is the deputy, he's the one sent to bring him into custody. the two spend quite a bit of time together because of it. (cassidy is an escape artist. he is never locked up for more than a few days. gene hates this.) to gene, cassidy is infuriating. he believes you can't fight fire with fire and that cassidy is just causing more problems with his violent approach to "helping others"

cassidy on the other hand, loves to tease and provoke gene. when they first meet, it's while cassidy is locked up in a jail cell. he clocks how "stuck up" gene is, and sees it as a challege to try and piss of gene as much as he can and get away with it. he knows and he and gene actually have very similar goals: protect the people that can't protect themselves, but gene's approach feels too slow and ineffective to cassidy. still, he respects his dedication and never actively wants to cause him harm. regardless, cassidy's loyalty to montana is stronger than any respect he has for gene (AT FIRST), so the two have an enemies-to-friends-to-lovers type thing going on

as for a silly detail, even though the two men are less than fond of eachother, their horses are infatuated with eachother. they seriously have the biggest crushes on eachother, and make it known that they are upset when they have to be seperated.

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BONUS here are their respective horses:

this is calliope, gene's mare. she is sweet as sweet can be, very gentle and extremely, totally spoiled by gene.

this is scotch, cassidy's gelding. he is opinionated and stubborn and only answers to cassidy (and even then, it's only about half the time)

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thank you so much for listening to be ramble! i plan to have at least one fic of these guys during the event, maybe more, but i'm honestly so excited for them. i've been wanting to make ocs like them for a LONG time and here they finally are!! i hope you all enjoy!

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[mask131]

Can you someday do a post about a very important question that always deeply fascinated me: How technologically advanced is Oz?

Wicked as a stage show puzzles me because it implies Oz has electricity, a broadcast radio system, and trains.

How much tech is present in Oz in the books?

Oh boy that's one COMPLICATED question... Now, before I start saying anything, I will point out that I am not an Oz expert by any means. I have not read all of the Oz books. However I do know an Oz expert that tackled the subject! He is here on Tumblr somewhere, but I know his Oz analysis and lore-exploration by his blogs. He started doing them more than a dozen year ago on vovat.livejournal.com ; and then he continued his Oz posts to vovatia.wordpress.com ; I know they have very, VERY helpful when it comes to my own knowledge of Oz, and he tackled several times the topic of technology in Oz and Baum's work, with quite fascinating analyses! So go check out these blogs, you might find some interesting info!

That being said, what can I tell you?

Since I haven't read all the Oz books I will stick to Baum's novels only - but before doing that I want to point out something... It is something I said in my previous Oz post (So you want to know about Oz 5), but the Wicked stage musical is part of a pretty big wave of 2000s-onward Oz adaptations that decided Oz was a steampunk world. I know you entertained yourself a pretty similar project of a Gilded Age Oz, if I recall correctly? And when you look at Oz adaptations, you have this wave of SyFy's Tin Man, and the Amazon series "Lost in Oz", and the graphic novel/animated movie "The Steam Engines of Oz", and more recently the show "Emerald City". Even "Dorothy and the Witches of Oz" had a steampunk-vibe to their Oz. It is kind of the modern direction to go.

Now back to traditional Baum's Oz... Does it have electricity? I don't think so. The Oz created by Baum is... it is something between a fantasy version of the late 19th century American countryside, and your archetypal fantasy land. The Land of Oz is mostly a huge countryside to be honest. Its lots of forests with woodsmen and wild animals ; it is lot of fields and orchards because most of Oz's economy relies apparently on farming ; the only other big industry seems to be metal-working (Winkies, the guy who made the Tin Man) and stone/gem-working (due to the huge presence of precious stones, though no mine or miner is ever descrbed in the Oz books) ; it is a lot of small villages scattered around the one big city that is Emerald City (or around big castles like the Tin Man/Wicked Witch castle) ; this all gives it a very medieval/feudal feel in structure... Though Baum really tried to give Oz originally a "fairytale feel" and thus you have the same historical madness typical fairytales have. For example, just like your typical Renaissance fairytales (a la Charles Perrault), you have mirrors and candies and porcelaine in Oz ; and yet, just like your also typical 19th century fairytales (a la brothers Grimm) you also have guns in Oz! Mind you the guns are rare and rarely used, they seem mostly to belong to the military cast (they are always wielded by soldiers or royalty bodyguards), and they are usually useless against the monsters and magical threats... But they do exist! But Oz seems to lack things like electricity of petrol or even steam machinery. At least in the beginning!

(In fact I had a chat with @artmakerproductions recently about fireworks in Oz. He wondered if the Oz The Great and Powerful idea of using fireworks as something non-existent in Oz could work with Baum's canon, and indeed, while the presence of guns implies gunpowder is a thing in Oz, there are to my memory no mention of fireworks anywhere in Oz... Maybe they appear at one of Ozma's birthday parties, but I couldn't find which one. Fireworks are evoked in his non-Oz/Oz-crossovered work "The Magical Monarch of Mo" but only as a comparison to how lightning appears in this country...)

Is there radio in Oz? Actually there is! In the opening of book 7, to get out of how he had written his way out of Oz in book 6, Baum explained his return to the series by "Oh yeah, Ozians got hold of the radio and now they send me radio messages about what is going on in Oz". So Oz DOES have some sort of radio equivalent. How, since there's no electricity or batteries in Oz? That's beyond me, but here's why it is difficult to say for certain what Oz's technology level is: Baum, as I said, started not giving a fuck anymore about continuity. As I explained the first two-three books are kind of solid in terms of continuity because they were designed as their own closed novels, but book 4 onward Baum just gave up any concrete effort at "solid" worldbuilding and went the "Fuck it, I'll add whatever I want" road. As such, don't expect any serious effort at making a cohesive technological system - Baum isn't Tolkien. He's the anti-Tolkien. That being said, another very interesting point when it comes to Baum's work is that, as you go through his fourteen Oz books, you realize how modern technology slowly creeps onto Oz. Baum was writing Oz book between 1900 and 1920 - and the technological evolution of these two decades quite influenced Baum. The addition of the radio element was one case of Oz "evolving"; in later Oz books there are also magical equivalents of television popping up. But if you want to see a concrete comparison, you can compare the first Oz book, "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", with the last Oz book Baum wrote, "Glinda of Oz". The first shows an Oz so technology-lacking people are easily fooled by stage tricks ; while the last book is heavy on technology, with for example evocations of submarines, but it is a technology presented as a form of magic. Which leads me to my last point...

Does Oz have trains? Not by the time Baum wrote them ; though modern day adaptations and authors did add a handful of them to the Oz world (and you can also find things such as ray guns or time-travelling machines in modern Oz books so you know, it evolves with its time). But Baum did wrote about a carriage that did the entire tour of Oz for touristic purpose: that's one of the subplots of "The Emerald City of Oz", and how Dorothy shows her aunt and uncle all about the fantasy land. It is not a train, but you have already here the idea/potential for a train-like system here (even though it is rather a carriage/wagon drawn by a wooden horse that can never tire and doesn't eat). And here's my point: the reason technology is so weird in Oz, and why it is also lacking in many way, is due to Oz being filled with magic.

Most Ozian equivalent to our world's technology is, in Baum, powered by magic. There is no camera or surveillance system, but there are the Magic Picture or Glinda's big magical "spy on everyone" book. There are no lie detectors, but there is Glinda's pearl. The magic eye of the Wicked Witch of the West was explicitely compared to a telescope. Etc etc. Magic replaces most advanced technology around the Land. Advanced technology and mechanism do exist, and Baum was very fond of the idea of the... "magical mechanic" if I can say so. What he does is basically take an actual real-world technology, but take it to fantasy extremes - which notably is why the Oz books are considered early sci-fi. There's how the Tin Man came to be: Baum took the workings of actual real-life prosthetics for missing limbs, but pushed it to the extremes by making a "vintage android". There is how the Woggle-Bug came to be: a great scholar used a machine to project an enlarged image of a small bug on the wall. Quite ordinary right? But turns out the machine literaly enlarged the bug to a greater size - which is a very common sci-fi tropes (all those rays that shrink or enlarge things or objects). And while it is not an Oz example per say, Baum gave us the most blatant example of "magical technology" with the realm of Ev, where lived Smith and Tinker, the inventors of many fantastical automatons, first of which being Tik-Tok, a sentient automat that is considered one of the first robots of modern literature!

So... On one side, Baum tried to show a land that would not advance technologically because magic was there and much more powerful. It is the line by the Good Witch of the North, about how Oz still has magic because it is not "civilized", and one of the traits of "civilization" is advanced technology. Take how guns are treated in Oz: they exist but they are not made a big deal out of, and in fact prove quite useless among the many magical items and beings. And yet, on the other side, Baum's Oz is the literal proof of the law "Any advanced technology is magic" ; or rather a whacky incarnation of this principle, because indeed, the most advanced form of technology in Ozian lands work by fantasy and extravagant sci-fi rules (Tin Man, Tik-Tok), while most of the great spells and magic items of Oz are fantasy equivalents to our real-world technology (the Magic Picture, or even the Gump which works as a fantasy equivalent of flying machines).

[habitsbf]

UPDATED INTRODUCTION POST

( i highly suggest ya read this post before interacting w me )

HELLO, HELLO! WELCOME TO MY BLOG :D

┄─ my 𝗇𝖺𝗆e is sai, 𝖻𝗎𝗍 i also go by ev or evan, ben, and sailoo! want to learn more about me & my blog? yes? no? well, theres more info about all that good shit down below if youre curious ↓

MAIN INFO ABOUT THE BLOG OWNER:

im a legal adult | 19 years old

i use he / they / it pronouns

transmasculine agender freakazoid. some sort of boy creature thing. not sure, but im definitely something 🏳️‍⚧️

achillean / gay | im a masc freak who digs other masc freaks. thats the gist of it.

HABIT fanatic & slenderverse enthusiast

autistic + some other things

fictionkin | HABIT, evan myers, BEN drowned, & benrey. cringe, i know!

the ; 🐇 ⦻ tag is my personal tag, other tags with different emojis are for my friends.

- i love @pagodazz a lot /p 🐍

INFORMATION ABOUT THIS BLOG:

┄─ this blog mainly exists so i have a place to yap about my main interest, slenderverse! to be more specific, mainly the series EverymanHYBRID & the characters HABIT & evan myers. i post random thoughts i have, headcanons, memes, i like to reply to asks about slenderverse, etc. i also often reblog things related to OTHER interests of mine, which i will get into down here ↓ (+ other info)

INTERESTS BESIDES SLENDERVERSE:

creepypasta | mix of canon & fanon

hlvrai / half life vr but the ai is self-aware 🫧

a few movies & shows | spree, planet terror, death proof, the scream franchise (older movies only), x-files, twin peaks, etc. i like horror & thriller films in general.

all sorts of music but mainly rock & metal

zombies 🧟 i love everything zombie related

video games such as postal, HATRED, loz, resident evil, currently attempting to get into fallout & bioshock, mortal kombat, etc.

roblox myths | i really enjoyed roblox myths when i was younger, so i still have a soft spot for some of them (mainly G0Z the clown & the grocery gang) 🎪

weapons | knives, machetes, hatchets & axes, chainsaws, guns, you name it 🪓

wolves, foxes, bunnies & rabbits

THE DREADED DNI LIST + BOUNDARIES:

( i mainly block freely without warning )

┄─ i know dni lists are pretty much useless, but i figured i might as well put one so people know what i dont support 🐾

blah blah blah basic dni criteria blah blah

adam rosner & jeffery koval (actor) supporters | dont know what they did? google is free, please use it.

TCC / true crime community | if you simply have an interest in true crime or like zero day, youre fine. if you "stan" real murderers or have edits, memes, or fanart of them on your profile, please kindly fuck off.

i dislike accounts that write smut fics about HABIT or post sexual fanart of him. i often block the accounts that do. dont take it personally or anything, it just makes me uncomfortable & i dont want to see it. i dont block every single account that posts that type of stuff though, especially if they dont post it often & add proper warnings.

idrc if NSFW accounts interact, but if youre into weird shit like detrans please dni.

[saltyr3mix]

wiatt nicholson head canons plz

ok. Wiatt is very similar to Damien to me. In the sense of oh boy, I hate writing this character so much. It's a quartet of Damien, Norman, lewis and Wiatt. Hate all of them/j they each have their ups and downs. Mainly downs but like- Lewis is by far the easiest of the group but still so far behind the others in terms of effort to write. Especially when paired with Wiatt. TGE ONLY TIME IVE EVER WRITTEN WIGHLIGHT AND WAS SATISFIED WITH IT WAS THAT ONE LIKE 10 LINE SCENE IN FEBRUARY 4TH WHERE THEY APOLOGIZE TO EACH OTHER. IT IS MY GREATEST FLAW. I CANT WRITE WILIGHT AND IT HAUNTS ME-

but this isn't about them! Just Wiatt! So let's get started on it!

To learn from the tragedies: he's do stressed. Let's this guy be. He just wants to help his boyfriend but also doesn't have a clue what's going on. He thinks he knows everything. He doesnt. At all. He's sort of the main focus of book one but is a lot more background in book 2, which focuses more on Sara. Both of them are technically going through the same thing but because Sara was the villain is treated a lot differently. I sometimes think about what would have happened if lewis hadn't explained things to Waitt. And instead he and Sara teamed up to get answers and everything would have been fine. But no, lewis is far too dramatic for that.

Shattered dreams: he dies. womp womp. Does become Guide! (Gaslight. Useless. Idiot. Dead. Employee) But I think I'll talk about him more in the Oc au because I think despite it being nearly the same situation he's more interesting there.

One shots/you'll live until I die: I thinkkkkk her appears like once in yluid and it's like- the least relevant scene in the fic i was just trying to even out the perspectives. But in that and other one shots he's sort of just a mechanic. Almost never more apparent than that. Try to keep it close to cannon, he likes helping people but tends to mess it up a lot but never enough to be fully blamed for it.

I will make them create my world: don't. Don't talk me. I- I'll figure it out! (Has over 10k of scrapped shit THAT US JUST HIM. The reason there hasn't been a new chapter since February is Because of that man and how hard he is to write and plan)

Buried masks: I think I've made a few post on him but he stays outside the basement because Sara doesn't like him. He helps Damien with his investigation and is highly suspicious of Sara. Eventually he does get more involved for a big event! But that is major spoilers :3

Swap au/skating in silence: he plays Norman here! Which I find very interesting. Not interesting enough to have concrete ideas for it but enough that if given the chance i could see myself exploring. Wiatts like main thing is he feels worth through helping others. And by directly helping Lewis he'd really enjoy the job. If lewis was different from Sara and still have him praise and carted about him it would honestly create a more toxic relationship than canon because Wiatt would be left clinging for Lewis's validation and willing to go very, very far for it.

Superhero au: he's chill. Doesn't have any powers. Is a reporter and a hero stan. Untilllll things start happening and lewis is sobbing in his apartment because he's having to deal with some very traumatized kids, and half their trauma may have accidentally been his fault and he knows the heros are all a massive lie and starts giving wiatt info about some of the more horrible things the organization has done and wiatt starts a character arc of now speaking against the hero system and trying to in mask it for what it is! Mostly he just appears in the background, he's sort of the symbol of the general public, being powerless and living a mostly normal life.

Steven universe au: he lives in his car as a photographer. He enjoys life and specifically lifes mysteries and the unnatural. He fines this fenced of beach that has been rumered to be haunted after a man died mysteriously several years ago. Wiatt never followed the rules and climbs over because the view from that clean of a beach must be stunning!

And bam! Rock Aliens. They all scare each other but wiatt has a camera and the aliens don't know what that is and they think it's a weapon. They explain they didn't mean to bother and humans and Wiatts like oh wait their really sweet. And he's friends with them now!!! He gives everyone their more human names and let's them experience life. So far he's the only human that doesn't get experimented on so that's good for him. He is a little overwhelmed by dating a space dictator that fake killed himself but it's ok, he'll figure it out.

Maze au: he's human. Don't know how he got in the maze. I can imagine him playing a role similar to Kyle in the sense of like, he's here to help and try his best not to get into anything but is not going to sit around. He's probably a runner. Not a very good one. Maybe he stays in the back and makes maps. He and Oliver team up to make most of the clearings.... Everything. They make weapons and tools and supplies and help build housing and food they are the progressives. They make sure the clearing is constantly improving.

Oc au: he dies! Not to litho though cause we accidentally took him out. Instead he dies to jot! In a....messy scene. Both because there was a lot of blood and two it was written late at night and neither of us really knew where we wanted it to go only that wiatt needed to be dead by the end of it. So mans got straight up beat. Joy crushed this dude with her bare hands. The virus actually took out two....well killed two people by technicality it knock loli out for a good while but she's fine now! Yeah, we made it slightly more deadly just for fun. And now Wiatt is a tour guide with amnesia! He loves the company and works mostly in the lobby with Dot. Star also had his memories erased in this au.

Instead the whole what about love speech, was joy about carly. Which Winnie being already connected to Carly made it a lot easier and so roller gays are doing fantastic and wighlight is struggling.

We have yet for star and guide to interact but I'm looking for to when they do!

that should be ittttttt. He plays a background character in most of the aus. So not a ton to say.

Thank you for the ask!!

[14th-century-verona-queer]

Sokka HC’s (trauma edition)

just some stuff that I think is true abt Sokka idk

I haven’t watched ATLA in literal years so please correct me if some of my info is wrong

Some of these are probably obvious but I just wanted to give my take on them lol

Ever since the night of the fire nation raid, he’s terrified of fire and even more scared of the smell of bodies burning and the sight of ash. Because although fire is what took his mother and a lot of the tribe members away, the smell of bodies burning and the sight of ash reminds him of the sight he saw that night, and how he was useless to do anything about it, that now burns forever in his memory. Because while Katara is traumatized at seeing the death of Kya, Sokka is traumatized of seeing his tribe members killed and burned in front of him. He’s the kind of guy to break down after the fact of whatever just happened, so he can still fight fire nation soldiers and everything. But the minute he gets off of the battlefield and the adrenaline wears off and hes alone? He makes some excuse about “needing to plan where they’re going next in the peace and quiet because fucking toph and aang make it hard to focus with their earthbending lessons” he breaks down, sobs racking his body and an inevitable panic attack coming as he relives the worst night of his life over and over again for hours, acrid smoke and burning flesh all he’s able to smell, screams of pain and heartbreak all he’s able to hear. (when Zuko comes along it gets a little bit better because he can remind himself the Zuko is a fire bender and hes safe and warm and would never do anything to hurt me. So he just kind of melts into his best friend’s boyfriends arms and it becomes a routine for them. More on that on the zukka post i will get to writing..eventually)

He has abandonment issues because of how unexpectedly Kya died and left him to take care of Katara while she was grieving, and then Hakoda left him to take care of the entire tribe by himself. This is probably why in that one episode (i dont remember which one and im too lazy to find it) Sokka was so adamant about refusing to let Katara go and try to save Haru and his dad, because he was scared that she wouldn’t leave until she got everyone off of the ship, eventually get captured, and spend the rest of her days there, leaving him behind.

(This ones cannon I think but here’s my take on it) He has self-worth issues because of his constant expectations that have been set on him, by himself and by other people. A lot of people reading this are gonna be like well yea he had to take care of the entire tribe by himself! Which, true! Not exactly the best move Hakoda, but what’re you gonna do i guess. But i think his self-worth issues stem more from his need to be the perfect “chief”. What i mean by that is that if he’s doesn’t catch enough fish for the tribe (even if they probably have enough to survive because always working too hard) he hates himself because he isn’t doing enough and they look so skinny and its all my fault because i just can’t catch enough fish. And if the people are cold, or if they’re sick, they expect him to take care of them, but they dont see that he’s a 16 (or younger, he was acting as chief for a couple years before Aang came along i think) year old boy trying to do everything himself with no help. Every day he hears the same thing: “Sokka, we don’t have enough ______! Can you please get more?” So he never ever thinks he’s good enough no matter what he does because there’s just never enough. even if he catches 100 fish for the whole village to eat, he’ll still beat himself up about it because sure they were able to eat today, but they’re not eating enough and he still needs to get more furs for everyone because the winter is only getting colder and they’re getting sicker and they’re all going to die because he’s so useless and can’t do anything right

because of him having to do everything himself, he absolutely hates being offered help. He refuses it practically every single time, because he’s so used to people younger than him counting on him to do something, and if they’re counting on him that means that he cannot fail, and asking for help (to him) is one way of failing. If he asks for help that means he couldn’t do the one thing Hakoda asked him too. It’s super simple Sokka, just take care of the village of like 15 people. And he can’t even do that.

He’s an absolute control freak and micromanages everything, and Katara (the hypocrite, smh) hates it. He needs to be in control of everything because that means that nothing can go wrong unless he makes a mistake. (Which he knows he will make a mistake but at least its his fault and he can find a way to fix it) If he relies on other people that means they’ll make mistakes which means something that needed to get done won’t and he’ll fuck up again and he’ll be worthless, because planning and fixing and engineering and fighting is all he has, all he thinks hes good for. He would rather be solely blamed for not being good enough and screwing up than letting someone like Zuko or Katara or Aang be told that. He was never in control of the war or his mother’s death of Hakoda leaving or anything, so he find some kind of solace or coping mechanism in being able to at least control the village and having some semblance of control (idk how else to explain this! Im so sorry!)

Also because he doesn’t trust anyone else to do it right lol. He’s been taking care of the whole village for such a long time that there’s a very specific way you supposed to do this Katara! It took him such a long time to finally get a rhythm going, get used to how to take care of 15+ people at a time, so any little change to his routine pisses him off and makes him panic because he’s lost the control of the situation and now he’s in an unknown territory where he doesn’t know how to do anything which makes him a liability.

(I’ll probably continue to update this post because im probably not done, and/or make a pt 2 if y’all wanna see that. Won’t be restricted to just trauma next time!)

[littlestarlost]

You're Probably Taking Yellowjackets too literally, and there's still time to stop.

So there's like two months until the second season premiere of Yellowjackets, and as someone who was watching the show literally from the night of the pilot premiere, I have some Thoughts about how the fandom reacted to a lot of the show's mysteries at the time of airing, how a rewatch of the full first season feels after getting all that info piecemeal week after week, and how, in my humble opinion, people are simply misunderstanding a MASSIVE part of the show's conceit. So here's that rant, because I just rewatched season 1, and very few shows make me want to write full-blown essays like this one. You should absolutely watch the show if you haven't yet, ESPECIALLY if you are AFAB or femme or were raised and socialized female. Because hooooooo boy.

One: What is Yellowjackets?

Yellowjackets is a television show that made its debut in the last few weeks of 2021. It stars Melanie Lynskey, Tawny Cypress, Christina Ricci, and Juliette Lewis as four women who, as teenagers, survived a harrowing plane crash with their high school soccer team which left them stranded in the Canadian wilderness for a year and a half. The series opens with a scene that really heavily implies that the girls resorted to cannibalism to survive during their ordeal, but we still do not know the specifics of how that came to be.

The show flips between following the adult survivors in the year 2021 and flashing back to the accident in 1996. The four main survivors--Shauna (Lynskey as an adult, Sophie Nélisse as a teen), Tai (Cypress as an adult, Jasmin Savoy Brown as a teen), Misty (Ricci as an adult, Sammi Hanratty as a teen) and Natalie (Lewis as an adult, Sophie Thatcher as a teen)--are all shown suffering from various levels and types of post-traumatic stress disorder, as you might imagine one would deal with if one had survived a fucking plane crash and cannibalism as teenagers. Without going deep into spoiler territory, let's just say that some shit goes down, and the first season concludes without a single piece of eaten flesh.

Two: Why is Yellowjackets Good?

These things are obviously subjective, but in my opinion Yellowjackets is one of the best pieces of fiction ever made about female trauma, specifically. When we meet the four adult survivors, none of them are doing well: Shauna chafes against her role as a stay at home wife and mom, seeking out an affair with a mysterious younger man because her world feels far too small; Taissa is running for state senate, but the stress of the election is causing the breakdown of her marriage and massive stress to her son; Natalie is in and out of rehab, actively suicidal and incapable of self-care; and Misty is a nurse who uses her role as a caretaker to manipulate and control everyone around her. Their various issues all stem not just from the plane crash, but also from the traumas that have been sprinkled throughout their lives up to the crash as well; Misty was a bullied social outcast, Natalie came from an abusive home, Shauna was constantly in her best friend Jackie's shadow, and Tai is a gay Black woman, with more than enough generational trauma to go around.

As a high school soccer team, all of these characters had their place in the hierarchy; but the crash upends that hierarchy. The queen bee is utterly useless out in the woods; the off-putting weirdo is suddenly the closest thing they have to a medical professional (she took babysitting training twice). Being in the closet no longer matters when you have to know how to hunt and clean a deer if you don't want to starve. Being the golden girl's best friend no longer carries the leverage it once did if you're more useful to the group than the golden girl. One person's hidden mental illness becomes a massive problem because she only took enough meds to cover the few days they were supposed to be away; another girls' religiosity becomes a lifeline in a mire of confusion and fear. The adults in the room are gone, and the already complex social structures of teenage girlhood become even more confusing when lives are literally on the line.

Three: What's Wrong With the Response to the Show?

The thing about Yellowjackets is that it has the misfortune of existing in the world that JJ Abrams has made, and JJ Abrams fucking destroyed the concept of mystery for an entire generation. For this, he will never be allowed to enter the kingdom of Heaven. May God have mercy on his soul.

Yellowjackets purposefully doesn't give us all the answers we want when we want them, and the setup of its many mysteries--how did the girls get rescued? Who gets eaten and when? What's with the weird symbol carved on the trees near the crash site?--includes allusions to possible--POSSIBLE--supernatural explanations. And as a result of JJ Abrams being one of the most irresponsible storytellers on the planet, I watched the media and fan response to Yellowjackets spiral into the same kind of mystery-box-solving, "MOVIE ENDING EXPLAINED IN 10 MINUTES" youtube video type of bullshit. It's dismaying because, at least in my opinion, it demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of what the showrunners are actually trying to explore, which is the fact that trauma does not resolve itself when given a tidy answer, and tidy answers simply do not exist anyway.

There are flashbacks inside flashbacks, pieces of the characters' childhoods that help to develop their backstories. One excellent example is the Man With No Eyes, a spectre first introduced in a flashback with Taissa as she watches her beloved grandmother die.

She sees The Man With No Eyes again in the woods, and then again as an adult spiraling into a psychotic episode. More intriguingly, Tai's son Sammy seems to imply knowledge of the Man With No Eyes too, despite the fact that Taissa has never told him about it. So, the fans wondered--how could he know? What could it mean? Is the Man a ghost? Is Sammy telepathic?

No.

The Man With No Eyes is a visual representation of generational trauma, and a really great one at that. Taissa does not come up with him; she learns of him from her grandmother, who sees him in her last terrified moments on this earth; it is a fear that is passed onto her children and grandchildren, despite having no explanation or origin. And generational trauma passes down to your kids, even when you don't vocalize it; that's what makes it generational trauma. Sammy inherits his mother's trauma, and in the absence of an answer he grasps for his own explanations for the spectre haunting him.

Another issue I take is with people trying to red-string-and-pushpin their way into a full explanation of the events we see. The crash survivors find a lake with an abandoned cabin nearby, where they can take more permanent shelter; why was there a mummified corpse in the attic? Why wasn't there a road from the cabin that they could follow to civilization? How far into the Canadian wilderness could they really be, to not be found for nineteen months?

It doesn't matter. If you're asking those questions, then you're not paying attention. You're missing the forest for the trees.

Four: Yellowjackets is a Show About Trauma

The thing about trauma is that it impacts every part of you. Nothing is ever the same, and the great agony of recovery is having to reconcile that painful truth. Another thing about trauma is that it defies logic and reason; there is no reason for why this happened to you and not to someone else. There is no tidy answer for every loose end. A lack of knowledge in the moment leads to actions which have consequences, and all the hindsight in the world can't change those decisions you made.

But one of the keenest and sharpest observations that Yellowjackets makes about trauma is the rather hilarious fact that we are all somehow supposed to just......go on living after it. Without getting help, without rending ourselves to ash and dust to be remade, without shrieking our anguish to the sky until we spit blood--we're just supposed to move on, to compartmentalize and keep going, to show up at work or school every single fucking day and just pretend that we're fine. And that doesn't just apply to major traumas like a fucking plane crash, but to all the tiny little traumas that come along with being a girl in society: the bullying, the ostracizing, the family issues, the generational trauma, the friendship breakups and emotional schisms. Yellowjackets is a show that demonstrates the absurdity of this expectation that we place on everyone in society, but especially on AFABs, to recover and continue and pretend that we aren't being eaten up from the inside. It's a show that takes great pains to reveal that nothing happens in a vacuum; every survivor of the plane crash arrived there with her own traumas already strapped to her back. It's a show that is willing to talk about how surviving something horrible will make you paranoid and anxious and insecure, even 25 years later, because trauma is continuous and healing is not linear. It's a show about reconciling the fact that answers simply aren't going to help, even if you get them someday.

Conclusion: How to Read Yellowjackets

I can't recommend Yellowjackets enough. It's a phenomenal show, especially if you are Gen X or millennial and grew up with these actresses as a major part of your adolescence. It's also a show that is proving itself to be whip-smart, far smarter than JJ Abrams ever was. It's a show that reminds us how cannibalistic teenage girlhood can be on its own, never mind the stresses of a real survival situation. It's a show that talks, openly and honestly, about how many of us simply are not okay, and shouldn't be considered okay, and probably should not be operating heavy machinery. It's a show that is willing to confront the way we need to cannibalize ourselves, consume our own trauma like Saturn devouring his son, in order to return to the world waiting impatiently for the version of us who will never exist again. It's a show not only about MILF rights, but also about MILF wrongs.

[thecinematicwriter]

High School Pricks

Jack Hughes x Plus size,chubby!reader

Summary: You were at the restaurant with your fiancé, Jack, when some dumb boys from your high school decided to make you feel bad. Jack wouldn't let it pass though.

Sneek peak: "Yes. If you got a problem with that, leave and let me enjoy my food. And If you don't have a problem with that, do the same thing because I am on a date, like I said before, and we are trying to enjoy a peaceful dining. Thank you."

A/N: Hey y'all! I hope you guys are staying hydrated! I will write on a lot of people, but "sports dudes" are my soft spot so I hope you guys are ready! Also I will write for plus size and chubby readers from time to time (like right now). If you do not fall into this category: I'll post more soon don't worry!

⚠️This might be triggering for you if you have been bullied for your weight before.( I am truly sorry if you were, there are no reason nor excuses for this behavior from other useless people who bully for stupid reasons.)

The dress you were wearing was one of the cutest Jack had ever seen. And, at the same time the sexiest one too. He couldn't describe how he was feeling about it, but he knew that he was the luckiest man alive in his books. "Wow, baby! You look so good. Hell... I might explode right here. How do you think I will look next to you... For real?! I am a Rat next to you tonight."

The thing that made you smile was how genuine you knew every word coming out of his mouth were. He always said he was the luckiest to have found you, but he didn't know how you felt. Only you could know, because it was undescribable. "None sense. You look so handsome in that outfit. I didn't know you had an eye for fashion, babe. Where was it all this time?" You said mockingly. "It's barely fashion. I just put on a black suit." He came closer to you and took your jaw in his palm after chuckling at your statement. "Shall we go my Lady?" He asked you while looking directly in your eyes. "I guess we should. Or we'll be late..." You answered him, hypnotized by his beautiful eyes. "We can't have that, now can we?" He said with a smile. You simply hummed no and he kissed you deeply.

After some loving affection, you both were on you're way to your date night location. When you entered the restaurant, you were mesmerized by the big statement art hanging all around. Jack knew you loved admiring art and he smiled at your lovestruck face, feeling acomplished by this restaurant choice. When you two went to the host desk, it only took one minute to be seated and the ambiance was perfect. "Oh my god, Jack! This restaurant, it's..." You looked around with a huge smile. "Amazing, perfect... wow." You looked at him and showed him your satisfaction. "I knew you would love it here, baby. I found this place because Quinn visited it earlier in the month and thought of you so he gave me the info." He took your hand on the table and rubbed your thumb with his. "Then, I'll make sure to thank him for it-"

Before you could continue your usual date ramble, a group of men about your age came forward. "Yo! Jack!" Jack turned around to see who was interupting you and when he saw the three men walking towards you two, he figured there were fans. "Hey... How can I be of help?" He asked politely while making a sorry face to you. It happened quite a lot when you were on date nights. You didn't mind though, you loved seeing Jack so pationate about his job. "We just wanted to tell you how good your last game was. Honestly, we've been fans for a while now and you keep getting better and better." They cheered your fiancé on. "That means so much, man. Thank you!-" Before Jack could continue interacting with them, one of the boys looked at you and you smiled at him. "Oh. My. God. Boys... it's Y/N Y/L/N. Damn!" The three of them looked at you and you didn't know why they knew you. Yes, I mean, you were public with Jack, but they seemed to know you from somewhere else. "Jack, are you on a date with her?" The middle blond guy asked him. "Well, of course. She's my fiancé." Jack smiled at you lovingly while saying the last part. The boys started laughing. These laughs...

Now, you remembered. They were from your high school days. The ones who were always making fun of you for your weight. They never stopped. Even if you were reading in class peacefully, they would always taunt you for the way you looked.

"What's wrong? The idea of me having a fiancé is making you laugh?" Jack didn't like their laughs. They sounded mean and unnecessary. "Nah, man. Just... her? Of all the girls you could have?!" They looked at him like he had lost his mind and you reclined in your seat which didn't go unoticed by Jack. "Yes. If you got a problem with that, leave and let me enjoy my food. And If you don't have a problem with that, do the same thing because I am on a date, like I said before, and we are trying to enjoy a peaceful dining. Thank you." You were shocked at how rude Jack was being. You had never seen him like this with any fan. He looked at you and gave you a smile to reassure you. "Chill... all this for a fat girl." That was the last straw for your soon to be husband. He stood up from his chair and looked at them dead in the eyes. "You better leave right now. I am not listening to any other stupid comment leaving your mouth. What if she's bigger than others? She still won my heart because she is amazingly pretty and so is her body. You're a pathetic excuse of a man." Jack spat right into their faces while you wiped your small tears away. "We're just saying... you could probably score a perfect thin girl who is head over heels for you. Instead, you chose... this." While saying the last word, he looked at you in disgust. "Just shut up! I am happy! More than you, I might bet. So please... leave us alone and bring your nagativity with you. These comments don't affect me anymore." You lashed out. Jack was prouder than ever. You wouldn't let some stupid highschool A athlete wanna be ruin your perfect restaurant get out with your fiancé. "We're sorry I guess. We'll leave." All the men looked at you shocked and left you two alone.

You sat down and looked in space still in shock. "You did good baby. I love you." Jack tried to get you back on earth while placing his hands on yours. "I love you too. I am just tired of pathetic men thinking they are better than everyone." You said looking at Jack, still frustrated by this encounter. "So these pricks were at your highschool?" You nodded with a sad smile. "I'm so sorry, baby." "It's okay, babe. I just want to eat at this amazing restaurant with the most handsome man and the best hockey player in my heart." You exclaimed, gaining your cheeriness back. "Atta girl." He clasped his hands together and opened his menu.

The rest of the night was perfect. The food had one of the best presentation ever (following the decorations' path). It helped that the taste was also to die for. You paid and then Jack brought you to a park late at night and surprised you with a sweet bottle of bubbles. You kissed under the stars and all of the bad parts of the night faded away. Even most of the bad memories from your high scool faded with them. Because that's what Jack did; He kept you safe and protected.

[nebulacollege]

hello!! I love yalls twst stuff and I'm rlly excited to see/learn more about these ocs!! would you be able to give maybe a rundown on which characters are in which house and why? or maybe a general explanation on how the houses work in this college :0

Thank you very much for liking our twst stuff and for your interest in these boys! <3 And thank you very much for reading the info post about them! Fighting with tumblr to make it work was exhausting, and it’s still not going to work in the app after all orz I’ll add some of these facts to the info page later, but for this reply I can write much more than what I’m going to say there.

Now to your question. Each of the characters are were made to “represent” their corresponding house, to somewhat be the embodiment of the animal, so they go like this:

Niall is in the Unicorn house;

Ned is in the Dragon house;

Edmund is in the Raven house,

Liam is in the Snake house.

The houses group boys based on their personal qualities, but, ofc, there are no strict rules as which factors will definitely put you in one of the houses.

The Unicorn house is known for its dazzling, charismatic students with a strong tendency for leadership. They are determined, strong-willed, and often arrogant to an extent. They’re good at dealing with social issues, people in general, and can manipulate both people and the information they have as well. Still, despite being natural leaders, they have to have a sense of community and know how to form alliances.

They have good manners, good style, and overall have a high-society aura around them. Members of the royal families usually end up in this house. Because of that, it is considered the most prestigious (and rich lol) of the houses.

The Dragon house is the next in line in terms of being prestigious. Students there are loud, impulsive, have a very big “presence” whenever they’re around, while still being surprisingly responsible and well-behaved. They’re good and strategy and tactics, and have the best results in sports out of the bunch because of their good organizing abilities and discipline. They have their own order inside the house and dormitory, so they tend to work on the “survival of the fittest” principle. Just like Unicorn students, they are very proud, so they’re not ready to listen to just everyone, so they sometimes have conflicts inside their house in spite of their strong sense of unity. You have to deserve their respect to be... well, respected. On the negative side, they are quite greedy, loud, as I’ve said, and slow.

The Raven house is both the opposite of the Unicorn house, yet at the same time they’re the ones they cooperate with the most. Students of the Raven house are quiet and just don’t seem all that remarkable. They’re the first to react to different events, but the most “useless” in terms of solving things. The least ambitious of the bunch, they are rather perceptive, know a lot of rumors and information, good at making suggestions and predicting future outcomes, but at the same time secretive and not very talkative with other houses. Nobody really knows what they think, so they’re the creepy ones and the “freaks”, although not in such a harsh manner as one might think. They’re here to just do their job silently, or to complain a lot and still do their job lol If the Unicorn house can be considered the facade of the society, these students are the underground part of it. Metaphorically, that is.

The Snake students are also quiet, but their presence is much more prominent than that of the Raven students. They’re perfect on the surface level, but are ready to take any means necessary to achieve their goals without being caught. They seem perfect from the outside, but students from this house have the strongest sense of individuality. They’re cautious and ready to give way to others just to be safe and sure, they’re not the ones to rush anywhere without thinking. They’re careful, and a little bit slow in order to process events around them accordingly and to take the best possible route.

Phew, I think so far that’s enough lol

[mareenavee]

Sea of Storms

I challenged @paraparadigm and @archangelsunited to a duel wherein we write about Pirates within the context of TES.

Our judge for this duel is @elfinismsarts -- oh boy. What have you signed up for? LOL <3

See the info card for The Rules. :>

Shoutout to @changelingsandothernonsense, @polypolymorph and of course @thana-topsy for general awesomeness and enthusiasm for the shenanigans. <3

~*~

Sea of Storms

Waves crashed against the hull of the Azura’s Revenge, rain battering the crew as they scrambled to account for the tempest that had blown in. Jury was still out if it was real at all, or something conjured. They’d said the Pirate King, if that’s what he really was, could cause madness with the mere presence of his ship. Well, it was madness to be here in the Sea of Ghosts. It was a bit far from the Abecean, where his lot belonged. 

Athis clasped his hands behind his back, water flooding over his tricorne hat and running under the salt-soaked collar of his heavy captain’s jacket. Miserable. But they wouldn’t lose. He’d sailed these waters for twenty years now, evaded every iceberg, sank every East Empire Galleon he chose to target. Dremora or not, Velehk Sain wouldn’t stand a chance. Perhaps especially not now that he was allied to the damnable Blood Horkers out of Japhet’s Folly.

The ship tossed over the next high wave and shouting erupted from the crew as they lost their footing, sliding across the deck in the deluge. Athis gripped the railing, rings glinting in the flash of lighting. He was deafened momentarily by the thunder. He turned to his helmsman, whose claw-mark warpaint ran down her face as she struggled to steer the ship toward the nightmare ahead of them. Sodden red hair hung in her eyes and she grit her teeth, struggling with all her strength to prevent the wheel from spinning out of her grasp. She managed, barely. And better still, the Blood on the Water loomed close, its black sails still open, as if unaffected by the winds.

Maybe it was a conjuration after all. And here they were, supposed to be intimated. Athis grinned. A strong enough mind could end this torment, break the illusion. Where was Farengar? Foolish wizard was likely still hiding below decks, attempting to wait out the conflict. Coward. Fine, for now they’d fight in the storm. It wouldn’t be the first time, and wouldn’t be the last.

He took the stairs down from the quarterdeck two at a time, steady despite the choppy water beneath. Thunder crashed again, lightning blinding, but still he pressed on. The Maormer twins had already begun to harness the storm, channeling its power through themselves and redirecting it with double the force. It was the best they could do – the rain had made slowmatches useless. Likely that had been the intent all along.

The helmsman had, as directed, aimed right for Velehk Sain’s ship, twisted as it was, looking like something constructed of scraps scrounged from the Deadlands. They were close enough to Windhelm that repairs could be done in no time at all. They’d long since abandoned caution in this fight, especially once the grapeshot ran out and the downpour began. 

Athis was bellowing now, voice lost to the scream of the wind and the loud crack of thunder across the sky above them. But the crew knew the plan – they had all along. They braced for impact. Athis flattened against the mast as the Azura’s Revenge crashed into the Blood on the Water’s broadside. -> Read the rest on AO3

[linagram]

[ meet the prisoners! (t2 edition) ] prisoner 001: miyagawa akio

it's time for everyone's t2 profiles!

i just wanna mention that since these profiles are made for their t2 versions, they won't have things like age, occupation, height, etc, for obvious reasons. they also won't have mv descriptions this time and their mvs will be described in their voice dramas.

but you can read about their t2 relationship dynamics here! not all of them will be described, but only the important ones, but you can also ask me about other dynamics.

okay, time to talk about how the first prisoner is doing! (not well. he's doing terrible actually.)

(Warnings for description of Akio's injuries, mentions of his suicide attempt and him still wanting to die, implications of self-harm and mentions of choking)

General info.

T1 Verdict: Akio was voted guilty and was punished by Eiji as a result. His punishment was mostly physical, but he was left with a psychological kind of trauma after that as well. He was the first guilty prisoner to be punished and Eiji says that he got a little bit excited because of that and that's why Akio's injuries ended up being worse than Eiji has planned. He got a head injury after his punishment and he also has a lot of cuts and bruises on his arms and there's some of them on his legs as well. Eiji and Miki don't know how serious his injury actually is and Miki is afraid that Akio's life will either become much harder because of it or he might actually end up dying because of it if he doesn't get any professional help. It's definitely harder for him to do a lot of things now, like walking, reading, talking, etc, and he often needs help with those things, but according to Eiji, he can talk just fine when he has to talk to the guards. However, Akio still ends up getting tired after talking for some time and if someone forces him to keep talking, his words stop making any sense because of how tired he is and he starts saying completely random things that don't have anything to do with what's going on around him.

T2 Personality: Akio is more quiet now and for understandable reasons. His eyes look more empty, his hair is more messy and he has noticeable dark circles since it's too hard for him to fall asleep now because of all the pain.. and also something else. After Riku basically told him to go and kill himself, Akio has completely stopped talking to him, not because he doesn't want to talk to Riku anymore, but because Aimi is too worried about him and doesn't want Riku to hurt him again. Aimi is the only prisoner Akio can be seen with now and other prisoners don't really try to help him, though Naomi offers to take care of him if Aimi can't do that for some reason. He often feels like his head is spinning because of his injury and he mentioned his vision becoming more and more blurry because of that, so now he has to ask Aimi to read his books out loud for him. Because of the incident that was mentioned earlier, Akio sometimes thinks that it's better for him to just die already than continue to live like this, though he refuses to talk about it. Well, maybe Miki is right and his injury actually is serious and he will die soon anyway, haha.. People also never hear him say anything "smart" anymore because even thinking can be too painful for him sometimes. But now they can often hear him quietly repeating something to himself to calm himself down when he's too anxious and Aimi swears she heard Akio say someone's name when he had one of those moments. He's also not so self-confident anymore and he actually thinks he's useless now, though Aimi is the only person who knows about how much he hates himself now. Looks like this boy has always thought that his intelligence was his only good quality and now that even talking or reading requires way too much energy.. he doesn't want to keep living like this. 

T2 Relationship dynamics:

As you can tell, Akio and Aimi are much closer now and people see them together all the time. Aimi claims she's genuinely worried about Akio and wants to help him and Akio doesn't push her away anymore. When it's too hard for him to talk, Aimi still understands him perfectly and never forces him to say anything if he doesn't want to or just can't do that at the moment. Whenever she hears Akio say something bad about himself, she quickly makes him take his words back and says that he's still smart and talented, it's just that he needs some time to recover and everything will be okay again. At least she hopes so. Akio is also surprisingly protective of Aimi now and whenever he hears Eiji say something like "We should have voted her guilty", he gets really mad at him and reminds Eiji that Akio is still alive only because of Aimi. Losing a prisoner so early probably wouldn't be good for Eiji's job, would it?

Naomi is still nice to the younger prisoners (not counting Asahi), so if Aimi needs help with taking care of Akio, she agrees to spend time with him. Akio doesn't like her as much as he likes Aimi, but he's secretly glad that there's at least one more person who cares about him or at least good at making him feel like she cares about him. When Aimi asked her what she thinks about Akio's injury as the oldest prisoner here, she said that she doesn't know how serious it actually is, but she thinks Akio is strong enough to survive at least until the end of the third trial.. unless he gets punished again.

Asahi's relationship with Akio is even worse now, during his T1 interrogation Akio has said that he finds Asahi one of the most annoying prisoners here and he still thinks so. When nobody else is around, Asahi likes to make fun of Akio's condition and says it's funny to watch his self-esteem go down when it was so high in the past. Akio claims that he doesn't care what Asahi thinks since he's just a kid, but deep down.. of course he cares. Of course Asahi is making his situation even worse.

Yeah, Riku and Akio's relationship is not good now. Both of them try their best to avoid each other and when they have no choice but to spend time together or talk to each other, their conversations always end up being really awkward. Like, how are you supposed to talk to the guy who has almost killed himself because of you/the guy who told you to go and die after you asked him for help? Every time Akio hears Riku say that it wasn't his fault, he starts feeling both extremely angry and extremely sad at the same time. Of course he wants him to shut up and admit that it was his fault, but.. he also can't deny that Riku is nothing but a replacement of his accomplice to him. Of course Riku wouldn't be happy to hear that. His reaction was understandable.

Akio hates both guards with passion and whenever they talk to him, he always calls them out for what they both did to him. Yes, he thinks it's Miki's fault too. Sure, maybe he's not dead because she stopped Eiji before he could kill him, but did she try to change his mind? Akio still ended up being punished and Miki didn't even try to stop Eiji from doing that (at least that's what Akio thinks). And if Akio had a chance, he would've killed Eiji a long time ago. 

Music info.

Milgram cover: Listen. I might be wrong. Maybe it actually won't fit him at all. But don't you think it would be cool to hear him cover The Purge March. Yes, it's not even out yet. I don't care, I still want him to cover it. Like, even from the song preview I can feel those Akio vibes, LIKE THE LYRICS DESCRIBE HIS CRIME SO WELL TOO.. 

DECO*27 cover: (Not) A Devil. I feel like I don't even have to explain anything. Like come on, the religious theme, denying that "you're the Devil", LIKE COME ON. Also I can imagine him singing the Devil parts with his T1 voice, like, sounding more confident and proud and singing the Angel parts with his T2 voice, sounding more tired, but soft at the same time.

Different Vocaloid producer cover: I had to fight the urge to give him three religion-themed covers because it's actually a different prisoner who will get a MV with some religious imagery this time so I decided to go with Egoist by Paseri Onuma. Listen, listen, it makes sense to me. First of all, lots of orange there which is Akio's second image color and also Riku's main image color. Second of all, the lyrics and the song in general have really strong T2 Akio vibes, like yes, GO CRAZY SHOW HOW ANGRY (and sad) YOU ARE YOU GOT HURT BY BOTH EIJI AND RIKU!! And also there's something about Akio, who was the "smartest student of his class" and now can't do anything "cool" and "smart" because of his condition, saying things like "Let me go home early" and "Let me withdraw from school" is. It breaks my heart, yeah.

His T2 Trailer Voicelines:

".. I-it's you two.. D-don't even look at me. Leave me alone. Both of you.. Both of you are insane. One of you did all of this to me and the other one just ignored it and pretended not to see it!.. H-how can you two be the guards of this place??.. W-would I be a better guard than you two?.. I-I'm not so sure anymore."

".. W-why? Why did it go wrong? You told me that everything will be fine, everything will be under your control, but- I DIDN'T WANT THIS, YOU IDIOT!"

His T2 Song Trailer Voiceline:

"I just wanted to be loved by my classmates, is that too much to ask for?"

Trivia:

Of course, he still wants to be voted innocent, and not only because he still believes his crime wasn't his fault and his victim deserved it, but because he doesn't want to die.

The reason why he has bandages on his neck as well is because he says that he keeps seeing.. someone in his cell every night and that someone tries to choke him and doesn't let him fall asleep. And the thing is that the marks and scratches on his neck actually make it seem like someone has really tried to choke him. Eiji thinks Akio is actually doing all of this to himself, but thinks it's someone else's fault either because of his condition, him losing his sanity or.. maybe this place knows a different way to punish its prisoners. 

Yes, his second image color being almost the same as Riku's main color was done on purpose.

[valictini]

There’s this zelda AU that’s been cooking in my mind for years now that I’ve rewritten and reworked so many times that at this point, idk if I’ll ever have a definitive version of it… but since it’s a creation myth featuring old forgotten gods At The Beginning Of Time, I recently started to consider all the versions ‘canon’ in the sense that they all exist in-universe in one form or another, leading to many changes from version to version, but with the overall plot and characters staying the same. The myth would be VERY niche too, as in no one really considers it an actual myth and more like an interesting work of fiction inspired by the golden goddesses creation myth.

So now I imagine these different versions as like, one is an educational children’s book loosely inspired by the original myth, one is a well meaning but ultimately erroneous transcription of the myth, one is the oral retelling of said transcription that somehow gets closer to the truth thanks to one bard’s wild imagination, one is the closest they have to the actual sequence of events but is so vague that it’s ultimately useless, one is the extrapolation of one gruesome event that serves as a piece of propaganda for an obscure cult…. and of course I’m always working on the actual sequence of event but now I feel more free knowing that any unsatisfactory draft can go into the pile lmao

Anyway here’s the most recent version of my boy Dawn which isn’t even up to date anymore since he shouldn’t technically have this sword

(More details about the AU concept under the cut if anyone’s interested)

For anyone interested the basic infos of this au (or at least, the current version) is that at the beginning of the zelda universe, after the golden goddesses departed, there were four deities ruling over the world: Dawn (later transformed into the spirit of the hero, “first hylian”), Day (later known as Hylia), Dusk ( the reason this au even exists, complicated to explain in one sentence. “first sheikah”) and Night (later known as Demise)

You could say they’re the embodiment of four parts of a same cycle. They’re the different times of the day, as their names suggest, but they’re also the four seasons, the stages of life etc. Basically, they’re Beginning, Apogee, Decline and End, succeeding eachother forever.

Day and Night, the deities of pure light and pure darkness, constantly fought over the land, trying to overpower the other in any way possible. Dawn and Dusk, both constituted with equal amounts of light and darkness, basically played peacemaker and did their best to make the transition between day and night more smooth. To do their job and prevent any conflict from escalating, each had in his possession a unique power to dominate one of the deities: Dawn could overpower Night, and Dusk could overpower Day.

Time passes and Night was eaten inside by evil machinations instilled by his own desire of conquest and encouraged by malice (cosmic chaos, “wants” the world of the golden goddesses to stop existing and go back to the void) and eventually backstabbed Dusk, stole his power, renamed himself Demise, and went to launch an attack on Hylia with the combined power of two gods and the chill of none.

Dawn, who was supposed to be a neutral force in the conflict, is forced to join Hylia’s side to keep things as balanced as they can be in such a situation. He eventually gave his dark-sealing power to Hylia, who forged it into a sword, and then sacrificed his entire being to the hands of destiny in order to create the “spirit of the hero”, a fail safe to prevent Hylia from falling and the world from collapsing on itself. Meanwhile, Hylia has to figure out a way to fix things before malice overtakes everything, which eventually leads to the games and the story were told in SS.

There’s a lot more, so much more, but it’s late and I need to stop typing rn

[ephemeralgalaxies]

Shadow and Bone s2 spoilers

also some Six of Crows spoilers, so if you've watched s2 but still don't wanna know anything more yet about the crows than what the show has already given us, beware cause this will involve (probable) future spoilers

(once again, Wylan edition (and a lil jesper. but mostly wylan). but this time it's about the soundtrack that plays during a certain scene in episode 4 iykyk) (most of my meta posts will probably be about him. he's a cool character. and he's me but that's beside the point) (me as in ND with tics, sass, and way to much random fact info than is for his own good but sometimes actually proves very useful but not in the way you'd expect. usually in a quite disturbing and confuzzling way)

last warning for spoilers under the cut bc I am absolutely picking apart as many frames as I can

OK OK YES THIS IS ABOUT THE KISS SCENE BUT SPECIFICALLY THE MUSIC THAT PLAYS BEFORE/DURING. Bear with me here, this is gonna be quite the trainwreck as I am running on adrenaline from sleep deprivation and also like two oreos.

To start off, the song for this scene is The Night We Met composed by Joseph Trapanese (spotify link).

Alright, first, the way this song just blends so nicely from the scene with Pekka Rollins in the cemetery to this one just *chef's kiss* (ofc we get quite the gap in soundtrack between the end of that scene and once this song starts playing, but they still arch together pretty well) In fact, I almost thought they were the same, or at least same motif (it tries to be a major key song with lots of accidentals/minor-falls/glissandos to make it more angsty dramatic). Which, shouldn't mean that much from a distance... but oh boi does it make my mind stir.

That song (labeled by Netflix CC as "dramatic music" lmao) surfaces when Pekka Rollins and his crew are scouring the Black Veil Cemetery in search of his son, Alby Rollins. Ofc, he finds him safe and well just as the police(?) take Rollins under arrest for the murders he's just admitted to (holy shit, Kaz works fast). Like, with the beginning of The Night We Met, these are the same songs in different fonts. Which,,, may not be on purpose but is absolutely brilliant anyways bc of how much Alby and his father mirror Wylan and his father (if that mirror had shattered into a web design and had been left to collect dust and mold for decades).

(summary context just in case we do have some ppl reading this that don't know about Wylan's family and want to: his father is Jan Van Eck, a very wealthy merchant from Ketterdam. Like, Pekka Rollins "rules" the Barrel, but Van Eck (and capitalist co) run the country. But he's a shit person and an even more shit father, disowning Wylan on the basis of him not being able to read and therefore "useless as an heir" so,,, Wylan ran away ofc)

So right before this very emotional scene for Wylan, we get Pekka Rollins, absolute dumpster fire trash of a man, be a good father. aND EVEN HAVING THE MUSIC DO A HARSH FADE FROM WHEN ROLLINS NON LONGER CAN SEE HIS SON TO WYLAN ASKING JESPER WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE FREE?

im screaming so much it was perfect

So with that in context, we lead into the scene in Wylan's workshop. It's quiet now, hopeful even. You're already forgetting about abandoned sons and desperate fathers. The world is "full of possibilities." There's no music anymore, just the fizzling and clanging (Wylan, wtf do u have clanging in your workshop???). And the silence stays as Jesper talks about what he'd like to do now that he can roam the Barrel free again. How he'd like to do that... with Wylan.

But Wylan's acting weird. He should be in his element here; laid out, an open book. But he's hiding. No literally, he ducks under the table. And even after he's explained that he's feeling strange bc he was so sure Jesper wouldn't want anything more with him, there's silence. It's only when Jesper starts to back away, when he seems hurt by the idea that Wylan doesn't think Jesper would like him, that the music picks up. And I love this so much because throughout this entire scene, Wylan is interacting with the music. As if he can hear it. Jesper floats along it, fitting everything so perfect within pauses, but Wylan actually feels it. Like each little violin arco pull or harp chord is another thought in his head.

So here: the music starts. Just gentle harp for now (I think that's a harp. Or something of the variety. I'm gonna be so embarrased if it's just like an acoustic guitar or smth). And Jesper backs up, hurt, and Wylan realizes oh shit wait this actually means something to him, I've just hurt him, I have to fix this. I need to clarify. Let him know it's not like I wanted to leave, but "better to cut my losses." (and my god I love Jack Wolfe's little "I... huuuuuh" that he gives like I love it so much it's so awkward and accurate like Wylan has so much he wants to say but can't figure out how to actually get it out right).

And we keep with this pattern, just gentle (almost melancholic) harp chords of one two three four pause... one two three four pause... BUT IT'S A SORT OF ARPEGIO. BC once Jesper says "my reputation isn't entirely unfounded," the camera pans back to Wylan for the next set of notes that reach a little higher, a little different, little more noticeable. And with this frame, we get a nod and a small smile (not reaching his eyes, ofc, Wylan seems to smile as a signal a lot more than in genuine) -- this feels like confirmation to him. He's correct, his assumptions from that night are valid. Someone like Jesper wouldn't want anything more (from someone like him).

Then we stay on Jesper again, how he likes "the gamble of Barrel life" (sobbing for Wylan thinking that Jesper won't like him anymore when he finds out that Wylan isn't "Barrel life" (not really, he thinks. Not like the rest of them). We even get the more overt and dramatic lil "yeah there you go, ofc, I get that" hand motion with another nod and smile before he avoids Jesper's gaze (and the camera) again by walking off to the end of the table. He's put more distance despite being more accessible now; they're not looking across from each other anymore. Jesper has to move to keep engaging.

And he doesn't at first. He lets his eyes follow Wylan, but then drops them again shortly as he thinks on it all. He's losing Wylan here, he knows it. He needs to change this pattern up before Wylan disappears into that quite chord progression entirely. "I may very well have left you first..." Wylan looks up again, smiles and nods, still tinkering away. He's trying to engage the conversation but only as little as possible. He wants this over with, he's got his confirmation. It's all up to Jesper now.

AND OH BOI DOES JESPER TAKE THAT CHANCE.

He starts walking towards him. "But that..."

Wylan stills, looks back at him, shakes his head and looks back down. Like for a moment it was maybe maybe maybe then pushing that hope back down bc that can't be what this is.

"...was before I got to know you." THE "what wtf hold on" ON WYLAN'S FACE IM SCREAMING. THE HARP IS STILL ALONE, HE'S STILL NOT TRUSTING IT. HE'S LISTENING BUT WON'T DARE ENGAGE YET. HE NEEDS MORE.

"I can't make you any promises." VIOLIN!!!!

"Or predict what might happen between us" VIOLINNNN!!!

"But I can tell you that..." quieter violin as Jesper hesitates

Wylan realizing oh shit oh shit oh shit right along with that muddled lower violin arco note mixed with the harp chord. It's not clean like the others. The harp is catching up to the violin.

"I'd like to find out." Another weird chord (forgive me im tired and can't tell if it's an accidental or just a deviation entirely into another key but it sounds like a different key for a sec) with the harp and a beat of silence. Then the violin follows it...

AND WYLAN SMIRKS. LIKE I SWEAR TO GOD THIS WHOLE POST STARTED BC WHEN I FIRST WATCHED THIS SCENE ALL I COULD THINK OF WAS HOW IT LOOKED LIKE WYLAN REACTS TO THAT VIOLIN NOTE AFTER JESPER SAYS HE WANTS TO TRY SOMETHING MORE WITH HIM. He hides his face from Jesper, and it hits him with the arco note. The guy he likes actually likes him back. This incredible, cool, gunslinger that has his back and doesn't care or judge him for his quirks also actually likes him. more than friendship, more than sex, there's another shared thing here. Wylan can be more. But the harp here slows down, a ritardando only it actually feels the effects of bc the violin has already done its job. Jesper is worried now, he's said what he said and all he can do is hand control over to Wylan.

and then ofc my favorite "hey bro pls respond" like after that arco note that seems to be just for Wylan, like it's his own lil secret realization music, Jesper sits in silence (literally, there's only ambient background, no more actual notes) and when Wylan realizes he hasn't actually responded, that Jesper also needs confirmation, dear god he's gonna give it to him.

But the music doesn't start up again once Wylan begins to walk (run. Like he's sprinting into this kiss) to Jesper, it starts again when Jesper realizes what Wylan's doing. That he's responding. And he's responding very positively.

Now the violin is confident, steady, forceful. There's no more of that careful sliding on the bow, this is borderline staccato. And it's joining the harp. THEY'RE PLAYING TOGETHER NOW!!! THEY'VE CAUGHT UP!!!!!!! Like they've literally caught up, the two characters and instruments melting together in a new melody of the same key but with energy and passion and giddy joy. IT'S LIKE FIREWORKS, LIKE A GUNSHOT.

Then the roaring ocean, violin switching from a long-short combo to straight 16th notes fast and ready and dear god I love it. There's still that whisper of the more hesitant violin in the background, but the faster one is taking control of the piece now. It knows what it wants, has a clear direction. And saints, if that doesn't perfectly mirror Wylan in this scene. This music piece is a beautiful conversation not just between the two characters (and respective separate instruments) but also with that haunting past Wylan carries with his confidence. He knows his worth, knows he's useful. He just can't think that others would recognize this as well. A violin is not a gentle instrument (I'm sorry, but there's a reason I chose the cello). It's higher pitches are harsher, sharper. It can be beautiful, yes, but it can never have that subtlety of a cello or viola (at least lower strings of a viola). The violin is the 1st chair, the main melody carrier, the gem of the orchestra. Sure you need the others, but everyone knows the violin. Wylan knows his worth to a sharp, unsubtle point. But he hangs back like a 2nd violin position -- letting someone else take the reigns until he finally has the space (the safety) of exploding (hehe) into sound. He trusts Jesper now. Wylan's gonna play with the force of his bombs now.

At least until Jesper learns about his history. Which, I think might be another reason why we still have that 2nd violin position sound even at the end. He's encouraged, but he knows there's something he's still gotta hide. And it won't be pretty when it all spills out.

TLDR: the music nerd obsesses over the fictional music nerd way more than anyone asked for (which is at all. no one asked for this. why do I keep doing music-based metas. because I love them and can't sleep until I do them that's why). Wylan is a violin apparently but he can't decide whether he's playing along with the cellos/violas or if he's taking the reigns and filling that conductor's right-hand man spot (is it the right side? hold on. wait shit no it's the conductor's left side. whatever. that 1st chair violin thing that's really special but idc bc Im a cellist and my director switches our section arrangements all the time to play with sound). Also apparently Jesper is a harp which does kinda make sense considering it's a pizzicato sound and Jesper is very ticky ticky like most of the soundtrack songs he's in the scenes of have some kind of ticking. so,,,,,,,