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kydrogendragon · 3 years ago

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Do you have any random headcanons about the brothers? Unexpected hobbies, preferred subjects, favorite animal beyond their familiars, or something more obscure?

Oooooo, yes! Yes I do!! Lucifer, Mammon, and Satan are my faves, so I have more hc's for those three, but I do still have some for the others as well. There's some lengthy-ish world hc's at the bottom of Satan's section as well since it related to him the most.

Thanks for the ask btw! Sorry that this took a bit to answer, I had lots of ideas.

Characters: The Brothers

TW: None, necessarily, but some are a bit angsty and there are some references to more violent kinda acts, but nothing crazy.

Various HC's of the Brothers

Lucifer has terrible bedhead, I will not take criticism. It's a fact. Boy crawls out of bed after getting rest for the first time in 36+ hours and looks like the girl from The Ring.

I also believe this man insisted on an en-suite bathroom because there's no way in Hell is he gonna let his brothers or anyone else see him in that state.

The first time MC stays the night with him, he absolutely slips out of bed to fix his hair and appearance before MC wakes up. He absolutely does this every time he has to share a room with Diavolo as well.

Levi gave him a fidget spinner once, mostly as a joke. Man uses it on the daily in his office.

Lucifer loves being a little shit to his brothers in his own way. Like speed reading over Satan's shoulder in the audio drama. He mostly messes with Satan, Belphie, and Mammon. He's tried messing with Beel and Asmo in the past, but Asmo just ends up enjoying the attention and Beel is usually just confused.

Boy got his ears pierced back in the Celestial realm when he was a lot younger in his attempt of being "rebellious". He took them out a month later after getting annoyed with Michael's half-serious teasing about getting a matching set with him. If you look closely, you can see the faint indents where they used to be.

Mammon actually got his ears pierced back in the Celestial realm when he heard Lucifer used to have them done and wanted to be like him. The next day after Mammon showed them off to Lucifer, he had re-pierced them because he knew Mammon would be ecstatic. That was the last time he wore earrings.

Genuinely enjoyed his Potions and Hexes classes. Of all the classes at R.A.D, it's definitely his favorite. Seductive Speech is probably his least favorite as he finds it a bit of a chore.

Whenever Satan hexes different things or tries to slip Lucifer some sort of potion, he's annoyed, sure, but does somewhat enjoy it as it's the closest he can get to sharing his enjoyment of potions and hexes with him.

Satan knows this, at least to a degree, and also knows Lucifer is exceptionally skilled at neutralizing hexes and potions, which is why he mostly uses these methods. He knows that Lucifer can most likely fix anything that goes wrong. Plus it becomes a challenge for him if he manages to get him with one.

Lucifer is very much a dog person, cause Cerberus, but also has a fondness for poison dart frogs. He just thinks they're neat and likes the different colors that they come in. He has a good sized vivarium for them in his bedroom. He enjoys waking up in the mornings and misting their enclosure before getting ready for the day.

His bangs get in the way while he's working a lot. If it's particularly bugging him that day, he'll lock his door and pin his hair up with hair clips that Asmo gave him.

Lucifer is also incredibly picky about his sleeping arrangements (which is partly why this man never gets much sleep). His room must be the optimal level of cool that his comforter isn't a burden, but a comfort, and the room must be pitch black as well. He used to only be able to sleep with the room dead quiet as well, but after they fell, he'd struggle with the silence as his mind would get the better of him, so now he can only sleep with either a fan on (which helps with temperature) or the sound of rain.

This man doesn't have much time for other hobbies with all the work he has to get through, but on the rare occasion he does have some down time, he enjoys drawing. He keeps a small sketchbook in his desk and will pull it out when he needs a small break. He likes being able to keep his hands and mind focused on something and he finds it helps his perceptiveness as well as he's often focused on looking at things exactly as they are.

His sketching is part of the reason he's so good at knowing if anyone was in his office as well as he's got the entire layout precisely memorized.

Mammon loves money as we all know, but he loves collecting currency too from all over. He'll pick up different coins and bills from the human world when he's up there (if he hasn't spent it, that is.)

Levi actually helped him build a system to display all the coins and bills (man definitely knows how to display collections, just look at this room after all.) Mammon's got all the Celestial currency complete, all the Devildom currency complete as well, although he tends to "borrow" cash from that part of his collection a lot, but always tries to replace it. Human world currency is harder cause there's so many versions. He's got most of the British currency since that's where the Witches live and he's collected most of the US currency too (he's still trying to find the $2 bill which he's beginning to believe was a myth), and an assortment of currency from other countries.

His money collection is the reason he actually knows countries in the human world. He wouldn't care to learn otherwise. Mammon couldn't tell you much about all the different countries, but he could tell you exactly what the currency there looks like and which ones he still needs.

Mammon absolutely had ADHD and you cannot tell me otherwise.

Every couple of months or so, he gets the needs to redecorate or organize his room. This usually devolves in him having tossed all his belongings on the floor with him sitting in the middle of it, playing with some random thing he bought centuries ago.

Belphie will usually crash on his bed and point to places that stuff could or should go to help Mammon have room on his floor again. The extra body there helps him stay focused. Sometimes Beel will be that extra body too.

This man is super photogenic and it drives Asmo up the wall cause he can never get a bad photo of him, even when Mammon is sleeping.

Speaking of sleeping, I never see this talked about (other than the part of him sleeping nude) but in the early chapters when Levi said he snuck in his room to wake him up, he said that Mammon flipped out of bed and pinned Levi to the ground (something like that, anyways), so I totally see Mammon as a light sleeper. The moment anyone comes in his room when he's asleep, he's half-awake at least. And if you touch him or get too close and he's still in that half-asleep mode, he will absolutely pin you to the ground or the bed or something on defensive instinct.

Mammon definitely isn't a school person. He doesn't have many classes he actually enjoys, but he's actually decent in math as long as it's more story-problems or rephrased in a way that he cares about. Just straight equations? Hell no, he couldn't care less. Story problem that deals with figuring out how to maximize profits? Man has the answer in seconds.

I totally feel like Mamms had a photography streak for a bit. He bought the fanciest camera, lots of gear to go with it, and always carried it with him for a few years. Eventually, he got bored with it and moved on to something else. Totally tried to sell some of the pics on occasion, but secretly has a stash of photos over the years in a box in his closet. He used some of them to make a small photo album for Lucifer for his birthday one year. The two never talk about it, but sometimes Mammon will see Lucifer flipping through the pages late at night.

Mammon still uses the camera for events or celebrations that people want pics of, like birthdays or holidays. Asmo tends to ask bribe Mammon to help him with pics for his Devilgram at times too.

He loves his crows, but he also loves Dragons. He's never seen one, and to be honest, not sure if they really exist anymore, but loves them nonetheless. I also see him loving wolves. He will 100% deny that dogs are basically wolves and he will fight you on this. He has before and he will do it again.

Also, on the dragon note, when he finds out the human world has things called Komodo Dragons and Bearded Dragons, he's determined to own one. When, not if, but when he gets a bearded dragon, Levi helps him get a vivarium set up for it. Mammon walks around the house with him on his shoulder and absolutely named him Grimm. He starts eating more than just Cup Noodles when he's making food for himself cause he'll cut up veggies and fruit for Grimm for the day and make himself something with the same ingredients.

Totally didn't buy a set of black bat wings to put on Grimm at all, nope. Also totally didn't take a pic of him in his demon form with Grimm on his shoulder and send MC a pic of the two with the caption "Me and Mini-Me!" either.

Levi has absolutely written fanfics of his favorite series. He consumes even more fanfic too. Boy is incredibly literate in AO3 (or the Devildom equivalent) tags and gets super peeved when fics aren't properly tagged. Leaves a comment on every fic he reads too.

I could also see this boy buying as well as creating his own Doujinshi for certain series. His first was a TSL one that focused more on The Lord of Shadows and Henry's day-to-day lives. He never ended up selling it, but if he and MC are really close, he might slip a copy under their door.

When he's bored and can't find a good anime to watch or game to play, he'll curl up in his tub and watch those aquascaping or vivarium building videos cause he finds them soothing. They also give him good ideas on how to redecorate Henry 2.0's fish tank or a future Henry 3.0's vivarium. (You can't tell me man doesn't plan on getting another snake again after knowing Henry 1.0 is doing plenty fine in the labyrinth below the castle.)

Has definitely learned to pick locks with the tip of his tail. Mammon has definitely tried to use this to his advantage. He has yet to be successful.

You cannot tell me this man doesn't nap in his aquarium from time to time, especially when he's feeling lonely or just having a particularly bad day. This goes hand-in-hand with my belief that Levi can breathe underwater.

When they first fell and before HoL looked as it does today, Levi would either hole up in his room to be alone, but sometimes the chaos in the house was too much and his sin was too much and everything was just too much, so he'd make his way to the closest lake (which idk if there's one close to HoL or not, but I like to believe there is back in the forest by them) and he'd sink to the bottom and stay there for hours on end, just existing in the still waters.

He has his aquarium now, which works great, but sometimes he still goes out to that lake if he needs to get away.

Man loves lots of creatures, but mostly reptiles, amphibians, and other aquatic creatures. He loves snakes and his goldfish the most, of course, but if he had to chose another, it'd be a toss up between eels or axolotls, but leaning towards axolotls since their gills remind him of his horns in his demon form.

He was super excited when axolotls got popular in the human realm. Pls buy this man the Build-a-Bear axolotl plush

Levi thought he'd enjoy the literature classes at R.A.D but soon found out that manga or light novels didn't count in the curriculum, much to his dismay. The following year, however, he got to take the Human World studies class and loved it as he got to focus on Japan for his course project.

He and Mammon have bi-weekly gaming sessions on Thursday nights. The games rotate, but if they can't decide, Devil Kart or Super Smash Devils are their go-to games. They try to keep it to just the two of them. Neither would admit it to each other, but they really look forward to those nights.

Levi bought a murder mystery VR game, partly because it had good reviews, but mostly because he knew Satan would absolutely love it. The day it arrived, he loaded it up and played it with Satan until 4 in the morning. The two were lucky it was a Friday night.

Levi has gotten a little too drunk during karaoke with Mammon, Asmo, and Satan and ended up getting gauges that night. He freaked out the next morning and stayed in his room for a solid week and a half afterwards. He doesn't usually wear them anymore, but on occasion, he'll put them back in. They've kinda grown on him. That same night, Satan got his tongue pierced to annoy Lucifer. He still has it and quite enjoys it.

Satan has considered writing his own book one day, but always struggled with coming up with an acceptable plot that he approved of. He does write poetry, however, and would murder everyone on site if anyone found his notebook.

Has hundreds of different bookmarks of varying styles and colors, all of which are stuck in his mountains of books. He's only ever bought 2 bookmarks for himself in his life: one being cut out in the shape of a dangling cat, and another that was signed by one of his favorite authors. The rest are gifts from his brothers and a few from his friends/acquaintances.

His oldest bookmark was one he drew himself when he was a child. It's stuffed lovingly in the first book he was ever given: the Devildom version of "The Cat in the Hat" that Mammon bought for him. He keeps it close to his bed.

Man has a terrible habit of trying to psychoanalyze everyone he meets. You'd never know this unless you became a close friend of his in which he'd tell you what he's deduced and asks you how correct he was so he can further improve.

Multiple demons are freaked out by this but wouldn't dare to say it to the Avatar of Wrath's face. Not unless they had a death wish.

Satan loves learning potions and hexes, just like Lucifer. If anyone mentions this, he'll toss them a look that could kill (and depending on who it was, he may just kill). He's well aware of this, but much to his dismay, all other subjects, while are also quite interesting, aren't as good as potions and hexes. They just hold a special place in his heart and mind.

King of yoga. He started doing it to help control his anger, which it did help. Now he and Asmo do yoga together weekly (or more, depending on the week).

I headcanon Satan being Ace, but not opposed to such ~activities~.

When he was younger, not necessarily a child, but more teenage years, and his sin was terrible to try and control, he'd have to stay down in a section of the underground tomb a lot as to not destroy or burn down the house. Mammon would stay down there with him most of the time to keep him company and try to help him get his wrath out to calm down. It often lead to Satan attacking him blindly. Mammon would take it and any damage Satan inflicted. Some days were worse than others, but it wasn't anything he couldn't handle.

Mammon never let Satan see the damage either, refusing to let his younger brother feel guilty over something he couldn't yet control.

Whenever Mammon's injured from either Lucifer's punishments or from getting in trouble elsewhere, Satan is the first to make him healing salves or the like. Not only because he's the best at it, but also as a way to say thank you and repay him for all Mammon did when he was younger.

So, this relates more with some of my Devildom HC's, but I imagine that as the Avatars of Sin, they each rule over their sins and the sinners that are apart of it. With that comes rolling out the punishments, most of which can be taken care of by the Little D's, but not always. I feel like Satan, out of all of them, has the easiest time with this task. He's a born demon and the Avatar of Wrath at that, so that part of the job doesn't faze him much. If anything, he finds it a good way to help keep his wrath in check as he can use this time to get it out of his system.

In contrast, the rest of his brothers I feel struggle more with this to different degrees. Punishing the souls stuck in their sins tends to amplify their own sin in themselves. Beel gets exceptionally ravenous, often devouring some of the souls in his domain. Belphie often times has to be awoken by one of his brothers as he'll end up asleep for days at a time in his realm, surrounded by the withering souls of his domain who slowly erode into the landscape. Asmo's realm can be both emotionally and physically taxing as the souls here can only do one thing for eternity only to eventually wither away from exhaustion. Asmo often finds himself in a haze-like state for a few days after being there and tends to need lots of help grounding himself. It's not unusual to hear him near silent during this time. Levi's domain brings out the worst in himself as he fuels the envy in the souls of his area. The souls themselves tend to either tear each other down or tear themselves down. Levi has to relax in the lake or his aquarium for quite a while after being there. Mammon finds his greed amplified to the point where he'll hoard anything in sight. Should another demon or even one of his brothers come to his realm after he's been there for a while, he'll try to hoard them and their belongings as well. Lesser demons might find their own souls in his clutches. He's another one that will need dragging back as his desire to own will keep him from leaving. Lucifer is the only one who can bring him back without worrying about losing the inevitable fight that occurs. In Lucifer's domain, it may seem oddly calm in comparison to the others, but that calm only lasts so long. Pride come before the fall, after all, and the souls in his realm aren't any exceptions. They'll find what little pride or hold on some semblance of reality or stability ripped from them because they were too proud to seek help from the other souls nearby. Lucifer may seem the least affected by his realm, however it tends to maintain his level of pride higher than what it could have been, which in turn keeps him from accepting assistance from his brothers or any others.

Long bullet point aside, when the brothers have to return to their domains for some time, if Satan notices that his brother(s) are already looking worse for wear or if they'd been there recently, he'll often offer to go in their stead for some time, knowing that the effect of their domains aren't quite as taxing to him as they could be. He finds himself doing this often with Asmo or Mammon as both easily lose themselves in their sin to drastic lengths.

Asmo has definitely created his own skincare line. He does use other products occasionally, especially to review them and figure out changes he could make to his own line.

He's also got his own makeup like as well, but it's still growing as he's very critical of his products. If they're going to be from him, they have to be the absolute best on the market after all!

Has absolutely made mini-pallets based on him and his brothers and absolutely gifted them each their own pallet. Is offended if they use products that aren't his.

Debates making an OnlyFans. He goes back and forth on this daily.

You cannot tell me he doesn't have a collection of super high-quality, fancy wigs for the days he wants a drastic hair style change but doesn't want to affect his current hair.

He got recommended an organizational Deviltube video once and he's been hooked ever since. There was a period of time that his Akuzon shopping was as bad as Levi's as he bought every recommended organizational item on his favorite Deviltubers rec list. He's still super organized. Everything's labels, color coordinated, and has a place in his room.

Loves cheesy reality television with a passion and doesn't bother hiding it. The more drama, the better. He and Satan have a few shows they always watch together, despite Satan's critiques.

Seductive Speechcraft is his favorite class as it comes easy to him, but really enjoyed an accounting class they all had to take, much to his own surprise.

He thinks sunflowers are just the cutest flowers in all the three realms. Has a silk sunflower scarf he wears as often as he can in the summertime.

Made the mistake of telling Satan his one-sleeve-off look wasn't terrible and now it's all he ever does. It drives Asmo crazy and he knows that's probably why Satan continues to do it. (Note: that's exactly the reason)

Listens to daily mantras in the morning, reminding him of his worth, his beauty, and the depth of his personality. It helps him, especially on days when he feels a little too much like a walking piece of art. Not that he minds that at times, but he is still a living, breathing person after all, and he feels like the world forgets that at times.

Keeps a small trophy he got in the human world for a hot dog eating contest he accidentally joined. Boy ate all his hot dogs and some of the competitors' hot dogs as well.

Movie nights with everyone are his favorite as he likes to be in the center, surrounded by his family. It helps remind himself that everyone is safe and happy.

He'd make the best taste tester anyone could ask for. He could identify almost (if not all) ingredients in any dish he tastes. Barbatos appreciates his refined pallet when he's working on a new dish or the like. Beel is guaranteed to give good advice or comments.

Learned to knit so he could make Belphie a blanket. He's made sweaters for Asmo, a plush cat for Satan, mittens for Lucifer, a scarf for Levi, and a hat for Mammon so far.

Will make a cup of tea for Lucifer when he's getting a midnight snack and notices that he's still awake. It's often accompanies by a concerned look and a comment on how he should go to bed.

Beel loves bears, especially grizzly bears. No specific reason, he just think they're cool and strong. He wants to see one someday. (Please take him to the zoo to see one)

Satan taught Beel how to lucid dream when Belphie was in the attic after realizing that Belphie couldn't help with the nightmares. It doesn't always work, but it helps about half the time.

While they were all adjusting to their sins, Beel would try his hardest to eat average amounts of food, but it was incredibly hard and painful to do. It felt like his stomach was going to eat him from the inside out if he didn't pacify it with food. For a while, he'd cry himself to sleep over the aching pit in his stomach on top of all the other guilt and trauma and loss that they were dealing with. After a few weeks of this, part of him gave up and gave in to his newly gained hunger. It's less common nowadays, but there were many days that he's hate himself and what he'd become. He'd hate the never-ending hunger and the trouble it caused.

He loves clovers and dandelions. He thinks they're adorable and wishes the Devildom had some.

Belphie has a designated sleeping spot (and accompanying pillow in case he didn't have his own) in each of his brothers' rooms.

Does genuinely enjoy nature. If he's not somewhere lounging in the house, often times he can be found in the forest behind the HoL, either napping in a tree or a bed of soft grass, watching the sky or the leaves above.

Sometimes when he's out there, he can close his eyes and almost feel like he's back in the Celestial realm.

Of all the brothers, I feel like Belphie misses the Celestial realm the most. Not necessarily because of anything there itself, and not really because he misses the people there, but he does miss the memories. He misses how he felt, how everything felt when they were back there. He'd never say any of this out loud. If you were to ask him, he'd say "fuck the Celestial realm" and he would mean that, to a degree. But some of his best dreams are just the memories playing on loop of his time there.

When he went back to the human realm with MC and his brothers, it was the first time he'd seen the sun in ages that wasn't tainted by his hatred of humans. He sat outside, just lying in its warmth for the whole day when they first got there, smiling, as he basked in the nostalgia it brought.

Enjoys Devildom History the most because it's always lectures and he can nap through it without worrying about being called on or having to present anything most of the time.

You'd think this man would like sloths considering he's the Avatar of Sloth, but no. In fact, he lowkey hates them. He'll never say why, exactly, but he does. He does, however, really like fireflies. He thinks they're some of the coolest creatures in the human realm. Lucifer wanted to get him a jar of them for his birthday, but couldn't get them to stay alive for very long. Instead, he charmed a jar with imitation fireflies and set the jar on Belphie's bed next to his sleeping figure, wordlessly. Belphie still keeps the jar next to his bed.

I'm still learning Belphie's character cause he's only recently started growing on me, so he has the fewest hc's. Sorry Belphie!!

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kraiyan · 3 years ago

Text

i made my own little headcannons to fit in if michael and jeremy were dating and a bunch of other stuff that i don’t want to spoil so take my headcannons and please don’t pay attention to my overuse of the words ‘so’ and ‘like’

i wrote this headcannons for me in my notes so there are mentions of panic/anxiety attacks, light mentions of an eating disorder, nightmares, and self harm but i’ll just put a trigger warning for when those parts show up and if i missed anything that is triggering please let me know

- michael is trans and gay and jeremy is bisexual

- i think they would’ve been friends since kindergarten so they grew up telling each other EVERYTHING

- i feel like michael was really girly as a kid but in like 6th grade he just completely switched to like tomboy but he didn’t do on purpose it just happened

- then in seventh grade michael told jeremy he wanted to be a boy then after that with help from jeremy he came out to his moms

- michael had a crush in jeremy since 7th grade but i don’t think jeremy was his first crush

- i think since michael was straight when he was a girl he just assumed he was straight as a boy and his sexual awakening was captain sparklez

- michael has two moms and jeremys mom would’ve died in a car accident so it’s just him and his dad

- i imagine they confessed to each other in their second year of high school

- (TW: mentions of abuse) jeremy realized he liked michael in freshman year and it was really bad he could not stop thinking about him so when he got squip squip l would not stop punishing him for it

- so jeremy definitely has some problems with his bisexuality

- after years of pining for each other when they finally kissed jeremy could not stop panicking about it

- like they went to sleep fine but he was internally panicking and he tried to keep it together but the next day he absolutely broke just started sobbing saying over and over again “is this okay, are we okay”

- michael is the type to listen to a vulgar music to help his dysphoria

- so him and jeremy are in his car michael plugs in his phone and just starts singings “hoes want to be seen with me and i like their big thick titties”

- and jeremy can do nothing else but be like michael what the fuck

- they decided to keep their relationship a secret and not tell anyone bc of jeremy still coming to terms with himself and he didn’t think his dad would understand

- but i feel like michael moms had already pieced together that they were dating and jeremy didn’t mind that they knew bc they’re literally lesbians but every time jeremy came over from that point forward they had to keep their door open

-(TW: mention of an eating disorder) in a different angstier au jeremy would struggle with eating as a control thing after squip

- (TW: mention of an eating disorder) in an angstier au michael would have an eating disorder cause dysphoria

- i feel like once he realized he was trans he had really bad dysphoria but like with therapy and stuff he got over it

- so i think michael really liked afycso and had it on a vinyl and now jeremy knows all the words

- they don’t do anything at school because jeremy is still uncomfortable so they just pursuit their relationship between closed doors and michaels car in an empty parking lot

- i feel like they both got really excited when michael got referred to as sir for the first time

- jeremy and michael grew up together but ironically when puberty hit michael started to wear baggy clothes than he wore a binder than he wore super baggy clothes to hide his tits after coming out but during squip he had time to self reflect and work on his dysphoria so when jeremy saw michael outside of school he kinda said TITS and was so caught off guard by them

-(TW: mentions of self harm scars) i think michael has sh scars due to losing his childhood best friend and the whole panic attack in the bathroom thing and jeremys seen them but didn’t bring it up to michael because they’re fading so he obviously doesn’t do it anymore but it was a huge shock for jeremy to find out

- they never brought it up tho and it was never discussed bc who cares it was in the past

- michael pants his nails black and i think on some very rare occasion jeremy would paint his nails too (like the way karl paint his) and michael has lots of nail polish cuz on the rare occasion he paints his nails different colors and he repainted his nails every two weeks

- no matter how many times michael has changed in the same room as jeremy even let jeremy help take off his binder jeremy will never not get shy when he changes and will always ask to go into another room

- jeremy is a coffee person but not hot coffe because he always drinks it too early and burns his tongue

- he originally bought his hoodie™️ in really huge size to battle dysphoria but that just made the hoodie last for years

- jeremys name in michaels phone is something very gay and lovey and shit and michaels name on jeremys phone is just michael :)

- jeremy would come home all suspicious and and red faced after him and michael came from an empty parking lot that his dad would not stop begging him to meet this girlfriend of his

- i don’t think jeremy told his dad him and michael were playing a game or something and they kiss jeremys dad comes in and is like what 😦

-and his dad is shocked that he has been pushing girlfriend but he has a boyfriend and is just soooooo awkward about it and never sees michael the same but never makes any rules about them bc he doesn’t want to be homophobic 😭

- i don’t think he was really not supportive but it took him a bit to get used to it but it was so new to him and he was just so phased he just kinda talked to jeremy about his sexuality then left it at that

- they are like gendebend bubbline (marshal lee and the other one yk)

- michael has a queen vinyl the listen to a lot

- so i think michael would still smoke a bit and one time he convinced jeremy to do it with him and jeremy mainly coughed a lot then they just made out the rest of the time but they didn’t tell their parents they would be staying out after school and they both got in trouble

- michael gets blue raspberry and jeremy gets cherry but he also gets coke sometimes too (slushy flavors)

- at the beginning of their relationship they had to take it really slow so that jeremy would feel coqmfortable

- (TW: mentions of panic attacks) so jeremy has nightmares of squip and he wakes up having panic attacks and it’s really tiring bc he only gets 2 hours of sleep if he has these nightmares

- (TW: mentions of panic attacks) i feel like along with his nightmares he also had panic attacks that squip would punish him for pursuing a relationship with a guy let alone michael

- so after he got over his nightmares he just struggled with sleeping and nighttime in general like just fear around going to sleep

- so he often stayed up alll night to avoid sleeping and would like go to bed at 6 or on a good day 4 or 5

- so i think to get over his fear he had to make a routine first he would make some sort of hot drink or just water (mostly sleepy time tea) then he would text michael that he was going to sleep he also wears the same pajamas every time he goes to sleep just to make sure the routine really works then lastly he reads a comic book then he goes to bed

- i think the reason jeremy couldn’t sleep well after getting over the nightmares is because even if squip doesn’t haunt him enough to show up in his dreams anymore it still haunts him enough to stress him out constantly so he doesn’t sleep well

- to conclude the nightmare and sleeping saga jeremy basically has a night routine and sleeps with a night light

- i feel like they both go to therapy but we’re to scared to tell each other (and they both started going to therapy before they started dating)

- so fast forward they’re dating and are trying to plan a date and jeremys like i’m busy on monday at 1 and my dad needs me to help him with something on tuesday so how about wednesday at 3 and michaels like i have somewhere to be like at 3:30 and jeremys like where do you have to be and michaels like where do YOU have to be and so they count to three and say where they’re going to be and they both say therapy and then they’re like you go to therapy i think that would be so cute

- so michael has really thick glasses like his vision is awful so if jeremy is mad at michael he would wake up early and move his glasses over so michael would have to struggle to get out of bed and look for them with his poor ass vision

- he can see things right in front of his face but as soon as it moves a bit too far it’s blurry

- and speaking of his galsses if they’re really kissing along the way jeremy would take of his glasses so they could get closer to each other’s faces (like how elle and tao do in heartstopper )

- michael and jeremy have been friends way too long to not have practiced kissing with each other

- i think christine was a long time crush for jeremy so he definitely practiced kissing michael a lot since they were in 6th grade and michael was just soaking that shit up

- he’d be like what if she wants to make out we should practice that and jeremys like oh yeah you’re right and michael would be so freaking happy

- but they definitely got caught by jeremys dad and he laughed it off cause what else are you meant to when your 11 year old son and his 12 year old best friend are kissing each other

- they didn’t do it anymore after that cause they were soooooooooo embarrassed

- so i don’t talk about the rest of the characters but i’m about to make a headcannon including them so i’m gonna say my headcannons

- so chole is demisexual and panromantic

- brooke is a lesbian

- rich is bisexual and trans

- jake is pan

- jenna is questioning or straight

- and christine is aro/ace

- so i think jeremy and christine dated for a bit then christine broke up with him cause she was all like i can see the way you look at michael and also because she realized she was feeling intense platonic attraction not romantic

- and also i think they’re all friends so they have a group chat where they send homework answers and stuff

- so i think one time jeremy is doing his nighttime routine but this particular night he’s really tired so he texts michael goodnight bby <3 love u then skips the comic book reading and goes to bed but he sent it to their group chat so as soon as he got situated into bed all he hears is his phone going off so he has to check and it’s just everyone freaking out

- so he like fully sits up is looking at his phone in complete shock then realizes he never said a name so they are like who’s this mystery girl

- so he calls michael tells him about the situation then decides he’s ready to come out

- so the next day they’re more handsy then usual like jeremy wiped something off his face michael saw that he was cold and pulled him real close and their friends are like okayyyyy

- but mind you christine knew that jeremy liked michael so she knew exactly what was happening

- so at the end of the day their friend group is making plans to hang out but everyone was busy so jeremy goes well i’ll see you guys tomorrow waves at everyone kisses michael then starts walking to his house then michaels like yea i’m gonna head home to and like drives away and from that day forward their friends would not stop teasing them and were impressed they could keep there secret for so long

- so i feel like michaels moms both have jobs that run late so mom #1 is an er nurse and mom #2 is an account so this leaves michael a lot of time of being alone in his house so naturally you need to take advantage

- so one time mom #2 gets home and walks in just to see jeremy fully on the counter making out with her son

- i don’t think they got in trouble but his mom was like please not on the counter

- and then there was another time where mom #1 came home on her break cause she doesn’t live far from the er so she like yells to michael that she’s home

- and so naturally you come down to hug your mom so he comes down to greet his mom with a red faced jeremy behind him and his mom thought this was so fucking funny but as soon as she’s done laughing she immediately goes anytime jeremys over the doors open and that was the end of it

- everyone has this one thing that someone does that make them all blushy and stuff

- for jeremy it’s when michael wears fitting clothes cause michael is known to wear hoodies or just baggy clothes in general so when michael does get hot and needs to like put something on he puts on one of those body fitting v necks and jeremy losses his shit like he’s fully blushing and avoiding eye contact and since michael changed cause he was hot he’s sure that jeremy is so hot that his face is turning red and he’s embarrassed to say to take off his cardigan so the entire time jeremy is being full homo for his boyfriend michael is thinking he’s about to pass out from a heat stroke

- so i think jeremy enjoys this so much that for the first week of spring michael will only wear fitted clothes because jeremy loves it

- for michael it’s when he’s kissing jeremys neck and jeremy runs his hand thru his hair and pulls it a little when this happens michael loses all common sense one because jeremys enjoying himself so much that he has to kinda tug on michaels hair and two he’s enjoying it so much he doesn’t have time to think that squip is going to punish him and that makes michael just lose his mind so by the time they’ve pulled apart jeremy as sooooo many hickies and they both look at each other like what the fuck did we just do

- moving right along i feel like when jeremy wakes up at night and is terrified to go back to sleep if him and michael are sleeping together he will like hug him until he gets back to sleep and it works every time

- when they were like 7 jeremy got really sick with the flu and michael was so scared that he was going to die so he kissed him while he was sleeping because if his best friend was gonna die so was he and the next day he got really sick with the flu and jeremy would not stop crying because he thought that since michael refused to leave his side he got him sick…they’re idiots

- jeremy is the type to go to school with the worst fever ever he could throw up in the middle of the school day and still not go to the nurse and if he got sick during junior year forget it you had to strap him down to his bed if you wanted him to take a day off like michael had to sedecue him into staying in bed and taking medication so that he could feel better

#be more chill #boyf riends #bmc #bmc headcanons #bmc michael #bmc jeremy

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lunannex · 4 years ago

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Character Design of Latinos

by a Latina who is tired of y'all not doing your research.

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First of all, please keep in mind that I don't speak for anyone but myself. You should never stop at just one source of information, and I would honestly really advise you to listen to other Latinos —especially other Latinos of color— to hear their thoughts and perspectives as well. And second, please remember that Latino is not a race! I can't believe I even have to say this, but the term refers to anyone who is from Latin American or who has Latin American heritage or descent and should never be referenced as a race. Alright, now that that's out of the way, let's dive right into it!

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People don't seem to realize that Latinos can come in all shapes, colors and sizes. People like Sofia Vergara and Michael Peña shouldn't be your only source of reference when trying to figure out what you want your character to look like. As I mentioned here, Latinos are diverse not just in our cultures but also in our appearances and, contrary to popular belief, we're not a monolith of people that all look alike. Latin Americans, just like every other ethnic group, have an incredible amount of genetic diversity.

Don't believe me? Just look at all these people:

Now, what do they have in common? They're all Latinos. See how they all have different skin tones, facial structures, hair textures and body types? Yeah, they don't look the same to me.

A character's design can reflect their personality and give the audience a good idea of who they are as people. And just as whatever languages a Latino does or doesn't know shouldn't invalidate their identity, neither should their appearance.

The thing about character design when it comes to marginalized groups is that it goes hand-in-hand with all the stereotypes that are constantly perpetuated.

Why are Afro-Latinos only portrayed as maids, nannies or drug dealers? Why are the Latinos that look like Michael Peña portrayed as violent or lazy? Why are they always the comedic relief, immigrants or people with a lower-class status? Why are the Latinas that look like Sofia Vergara and JLo portrayed as spicy and exotic mistresses? I mean, we obviously know why, but I'm just saying, if that's what you think all Latinos are like then you are in desperate need of a wake up call.

There's this huge misunderstanding of the Latino identity. The misconception that we all have the same tanned skin tone, the same facial structures, body types, hair textures, personalities, etc. when that's...really not the case. Society has taught a lot of people that if our appearances don't fit in with this unrealistic ideal they have of us, our identities are therefore invalidated. And this misconception causes Black, Indigenous and Mixed Latinos to be underrepresented or entirely dismissed in media and society in general more often than not.

I want to add that while white Latinos' identities do get invalidated from time to time as well —I say this because one of my best friends is a white Latino but since he's, well, white, some people don't seem to believe him and just seem to think that he's joking—, it's not nearly to the same extent as the types of Latinos that I mentioned beforehand do. White Latinos still hold a lot of privilege in society despite this.

Also just an important note that you should keep in mind and take into consideration: just because a Latino is white doesn't mean that they don't or can't have features that are more frequently associated with their ethnicity.

It's alright to portray light-skinned Latinos. Like I said, we're very diverse. But you have to question your reason for making the character have that skin color. Remember, you are the creator. You're the one in control of all these decisions and if all of your characters are portrayed as light-skinned people then you really have to take a step back and reevaluate your decisions because that right there sounds a lot like colorism.

When you say you want more Latino representation, you should be referring to all kinds of Latinos. You shouldn't just mean the ones that you and the rest of society consider acceptable. And no, it's not exactly your responsibility to create diverse characters, but if you're preaching about diversity and sitting on your high horse then I sure do hope that you're willing to actually do something about it. Performative activism is harmful and, at the end of the day, does absolutely nothing if you're not willing to put the work into it.

Additionally, don't be afraid of implementing aspects of their culture into their design. Let them be proud of their culture, let them engage in it. However! Please don't take this as an excuse to center their entire personality around their culture. You may think you're doing something when, really, you aren't. You're just feeding into all the harmful stereotypes and not making any actual effort to add real depth to your character (looking at all the people that make celebrating Día de los Muertos, eating tacos, and liking "Gasolina" and "Despacito" their character's only defining personality traits).

Personally, I would love to see more of the following:

• A thin-lipped and curly-haired Latina.

• A Latino with freckles. This one may seem strange but most of the time I just see Latinos with moles, not that there's anything wrong with that (I have a lot of them myself), but it'd be nice to see some variation.

• For a Latina to be considered beautiful without being fetishized and objectified.

• A Latino who doesn't fit the "sexy macho" stereotype to be considered desirable.

• More LGBTQ+ Latinos, especially ones who are POC.

• Black, Indigenous, Asian and Mixed Latinos.

• Disabled Latinos.

• Jewish Latinos.

• Muslim Latinos.

• Latinos with different body types.

• Soft-spoken Latinos.

• Successful Latinos who are well-off.

• Latinos who are allowed to be emotionally vulnerable.

• Latinos with complex storylines and realistic flaws.

• Latinos at the center of the story instead of just existing in the background for the sake of "diversity".

• Just more positive and diverse representation overall.

There's not enough positive portrayals out there of us, and it's exhausting having to sit back and watch as my people get portrayed so negatively. Am I saying that there's no good representation out there for us? No, there absolutely is good representation (ex. In The Heights, On My Block, One Day at a Time, Coco, Miles Morales, Luz Noceda from The Owl House, the Molina family from Julie and the Phantoms, etc.), but that doesn't take away from the fact that a lot of the representation that we have throughout all types of media is, for a lack of better word, bad.

And you can't just say, "Oh, but at least you have representation, can't you be at least a little grateful? Why are you complaining so much?" because you don't get to decide what people are and aren't allowed to be upset about. Despite the positive representation that exists out there, it tends to be overshadowed seeing as a lot of people still view us through this negative lense that they've consistently been told to believe is true when it's really not.

All types of Latinos deserve to be represented in a positive light. So make sure the character you're portraying feels like an actual person as opposed to an offensive one-dimensional caricature because sometimes having bad representation is worse than having no representation at all.

#other latinos are free to add additional info btw!#i'm always a little hesitant to post these types of things but i really do feel like they're things that need to be said #anyway remember to drink your respect latinos juice please and thank you😌🔪💕#luna talks #latino #latine #latino representation #long post #diversity #character advice #writing advice #writing tips #important #also there's a reason as to why i don't personally use the term latinx but that's a topic for another day #i hope this ends up being helpful for some people and that i worded it all correctly lol #writing resources

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lokiondisneyplus · 3 years ago

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Loki is the latest Marvel Studios TV series in the long-running franchise and it’s currently ongoing with five episodes so far available to stream on Disney+ Hotstar Malaysia. For previous breakdowns of Loki episodes, check out Episode 1 here, Episode 2 here, Episode 3 here, Episode 4 here and Episode 5 here.

If you want a non-spoiler guide to Loki, you can head on over here.

Courtesy of Disney+ Hotstar Malaysia, we were lucky enough to be the only Malaysian media to participate in a roundtable interview with Loki Costume Designer Christine Wada and Loki Production Designer Kasra Farahani.

This interview with Loki Production Designer Kasra Farahani has been edited for clarity.

Keep in mind that we’ll be discussing some elements from all five episodes of Loki so far, so there will be spoilers below:

Q: You’ve previously worked on Black Panther and other MCU movies. How different was the experience of working on a TV set instead of a movie’s? Were there limitations?

Yes, I’ve worked on several Marvel projects. For me, this is the most fun one, maybe because I’m in a different position than I was on the other ones. But also, just because this project is unique in a couple of ways.

Number one; it’s literally in its own timeline from the rest of the MCU. It’s separate from the stories we’ve all enjoyed and seen in the MCU so far. The other thing that this one has that’s really great is the amount of visual and narrative variety. We have this kind of base in the TVA that we spend a lot of time in but also we have all these exciting different places in the world that the story takes us to. These were great worlds to design and to imagine.

In our case, there was no difference. The thing about the Marvel series is that it’s pretty much like Marvel movies; in terms of their creative ambition, in terms of the way they’re scheduled, the fact that we have one director.

There was not much about it (Loki) that resembled an episodic project, except for the fact that it was six hours of content that we were trying to make, so it’s a very long project.

In terms of resources, I didn’t ever feel that we were unduly stretched. Always, when you get a creative brief like this, there’s always a period at the beginning of every project where you’re reconciling the creative brief and the resources that you have. That has been the case for every project that I’ve ever worked on regardless of the size. There’s this beginning phase where that’s the case and oftentimes, it’s in that process where you come up with some very great creative solutions that are a direct result of some of the limitations, actually.

Yeah, I wouldn’t say that we had some extraordinary limitations in this case (for Loki), but that’s generally true for all projects, in my experience.

Q: What were you inspired by when making designing the sets of the TVA with its retro-futuristic and anachronistic aesthetics?

In the source material, the TVA had a lot of different things going on, but one of the strong themes also was this armada of desks, which is kind of typical of a post-war era bureaucracy look. There was a grain of that in the source material but a lot of it also came from the show’s creator and writer, Michael Waldron, who described in the original document I read before interviewing for this job.

He described the TVA as a kind of mix of Mad Men meets Blade Runner. Part of these two strong visual references for us. On top of that, me and director Kate Herron, even before we met and spoken to each other, were inspired by Terry Gilliam’s Brazil also as a strong influence because of the anachronisms that that story had and also because of the clear presence of this strong monolithic bureaucracy, which is something that we have in the TVA also.

For the TVA, we were looking a lot at wanting to create a world that had a paradoxical feeling, being an imposing monolithic architectural space that has brutalist elements in them and had almost Soviet modernist elements to them. The colour palette and the materials and the whimsical patterning were much more like American style modernism.

The result was hopefully when you’re in an environment like this, you don’t know whether to feel terrified or invited. Hopefully, it creates that feeling in both the characters and the audience; this kind of cognitive dissonance in not knowing whether they can trust the TVA or not. That’s the narrative objective.

The writers came up with these ideas and the idea with that was to kind of create the bubble gum wrapper in the Renaissance era (Loki Episode 2) and the futuristic shovel in the early 20th-century farm field (Loki Episode 1). These ideas were placed there to create a trail of clues for the TVA to follow before they have clarity on Sylvie’s identity. But for the anachronisms generally, that was something we tried to do throughout the TVA to have all kinds of strange things from different timelines and different worlds popping up in terms of props, like the Infinity Stones in the mail cart and stuff like that.

Q: What was it like working with Tom Hiddleston, who is a producer on Loki?

It was very exciting to have this opportunity to take the character and his storyline in a different direction. It became all the more exciting when I read the scripts and I saw the type of journey they were going to take the character on.

Tom is a professor of Loki, basically. After all, ten years or so of playing the character; he knows it better than anybody and he has an in-depth understanding of the character and his backstory; the character’s family relationships and he was really helpful in giving a little talk to all the department heads about the background of his character, which was very informative.

Q: Recently, Loki series director Kate Herron said that 90 percent of production sets were physical. Does this include the world of The Void, and can you tell us more about how you brought it to life?

That’s true. That was what was unique about this show, because of my own design approach, and my goal in creating this large monolithic brutalist environment, I felt strongly that the sets needed to be built kinda wholly and that they needed to have the ceilings in-tact. This was also supported by Loki cinematographer Autumn, in that the way of her own style of photography is very wide and low-angled photography, which is why for both of our creative goals, it made a lot of sense to build these sets like completed and 360-degree environments.

For the TVA, that was almost always the case, with the exception of when you saw outside a window. With the Void (in Loki Episode 5), a lot of that was built practically as well. What I can tell you is that we build a large piece of this landscape on a soundstage, which was about 150 feet by 200 feet of undulating wilderness terrain. In that, we would bring in these different scenery elements on different days to make it feel like different places within the Void.

For example, one day there was the bus stop terrain where we meet Loki. One day it was the giant head. One day it was the drive-in movie theatre where we find Sylvie. All of these things were brought in and we shot there over the course of seven days. The terrain was designed in such a way that depending on what angle you shot, it felt like a very different place. Backgrounds were put in during post-production in visual effects. The Loki palace, where the Loki variants kind of hang out, the bowling alley, all of that was also a 360-degree built set as well.

Q: What was the most challenging set of the entire Loki series that you had to work on?

We had a lot of very ambitious sets but I think the city of Sharoo at the end of Loki Episode 3: Lamentis was a very technical set. The goal was to create this virtual one-in, that appears as a single shot. This was a very involved and elaborate process of choreography, basically.

All the different departments were involved to make this happen because as we watch the sequence, we see tons of actors running around, there are explosions happening, the camera’s panning up to see the planet above crumbling and asteroids pelting the surface.

There was a lot of planning that went through at the very beginning. We brought the paper models of this to Autumn, our cinematographer and creative director, to use to plan some of their shots. One day, we had some more information that fed back to the art department where we developed more involved and elaborate drawings and models which again, fed back to them. In this way, we had kind of an iterative conversation to arrive at what the design was.

So, as we start to build the set, many of the department heads came to visit and check the progress. We rehearsed what the shot was going to be, so we could exactly fine-tune the set to meet the needs of this shot and see where the edits needed to be. In order to do this, we needed to adjust the exact width of the roads or move a piece of scenery here and then figure out exactly, okay, there’s going to be an explosion coming out of the ground here and another explosion coming out of the building here and this is when the camera looks up to the sky and sees the planet explode. This is where the window breaks and this is where the guy jumps out and grabs him and there’s a fight.

There are many, many people involved; Monique Garderton, our stunt coordinator, Kate Herron, the director, and also the special effects team, and of course, visual effects, deeply involved, and Richard Graves, who is kind of our AD (Assistant Director), the circus leader of all of it, organizing everybody to kind of work on this thing altogether. It’s the sort of thing that involves so many different departments that it can only really be discovered when working in a big group together.

I would say that was maybe the most challenging technically because there were so many logistical parameters and so many moving parts.

Q: What are your thoughts on diversity in the production of the creative industry?

I think that it is critically important. As somebody who is myself an immigrant, I was born in Iran and my family moved here when I was quite young. I’m super happy to see the direction that the industry is going in. I think Marvel has been particularly excellent in providing leadership in this way and I honestly have to give a lot of credit to Kate Herron, our director.

Almost more than any other project I’ve been on, she prioritised inclusivity and diversity. I mean, lots of people, don’t get me wrong, it’s on every project and on everyone’s mind, but I think Kate went above and beyond because it’s so fundamental to her worldview and she’s such a sensitive soul in this way. One of the many ways in that it was such a joy to work with Kate and I’m very proud of the many different ethnicities we’re representing, and how many women we’ve had. In our art department, we had close to fifty men and women.

It’s important and leads to better creative results that are more fully realized and more representative of what the fans really want.

#Kasra Farahani #production design #Loki #interview

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featherquillpen · 4 years ago

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Reclist: Eldritch/Inhuman Castiel

My interest in Supernatural, such as it is, begins and ends with Castiel, a gay angel who is portrayed by known human being Misha Collins, but is shown by visual storytelling (shattering glass, fallen trees, dramatic lightning flashes) and in dialogue ("I am a multidimensional wavelength of celestial intent", "my true body is the size of the Chrysler Building") to be an incorporeal nightmare monster who just so happens to have possessed a suburban dad. I am a monsterfucker who absolutely wanted to read about a terrifying eldritch gay angel, but I discovered to my great disappointment that most SPN fanwork portrays him as a quirky human man lightly dusted with halo spice.

However, I have managed to find some fanwork that gave me the many-eyed, mind-breaking, dorky gay possession spirit that I crave, and I thought I would share my finds with all my fellow alienfuckers. Also, for those alienfuckers who are not in this fandom (excellent life choice, by the way) I have marked with an asterisk (*) those fanworks that I think work well without any knowledge of SPN.

Fanart

Contra's trueform!Cas art

Contra's take on Cas's trueform is inspired and incredibly cute. I love how he draws Cas as his usual nearly expressionless human vessel, but then has a very expressive trueform expanding like a giant cloud of wings and eyes around him.

Carolina's trueform!Cas art

Carolina's take on Cas's trueform is very abstract and intriguing. In the example I linked, the blue and tan and white of Jimmy Novak's iconic outfit spill out in a chaos of triangles and wings and animal heads from Jimmy's body as Cas possesses him, as well as the red burn of Cas's handprint on Dean.

Friendly Pigeon's Giant Castiel series*

Friendly Pigeon heard Castiel say that his true form was the size of the Chrysler Building and decided to take that to its logical fanart conclusion. This art beautifully communicates the awe-inspiring scale of a cosmic being like Cas.

angel-derangement's trueform!Cas art*

This fanartist draws Cas so different every time, and so WEIRD that I am honestly inspired. These trueforms are inspired by everything from the lighting aisle at a hardware store to Lisa Frank. Feast your eyes.

Long Fanfic (>50k)

Cruel Angels* by orphan (107k)

The ultimate in eldritch!Cas. This author delivered to me everything I wanted: Cas walking the earth in a giant, freaky, many-headed form that sends everybody but Dean screaming for the hills. The sheer power, scale, and alienness of Castiel in this fic is unparalleled, and yet he always tries so hard to do the right thing, in his endearing way.

Cinderwings* by bendingsignpost (182k)

The Cas in this Cinderella-ish AU is technically not as alien as in most of the fics on this list, in that he is a corporeal humanoid being who just happens to have ginormous wings, but the fic does a great job of portraying Cas and angels in general as very culturally distinct from humans - a lot of the drama of this fic comes from Cas operating from totally different first principles than humans do.

So Says the Sword* by komodobits (85k)

An AU(-ish? it's complicated) where Dean says yes to being Michael's vessel, and Castiel is assigned to guard him. Castiel and Dean are basically locked in a holodeck together, under terrible circumstances, and bond with each other while they wait for the apocalypse. The Castiel POV is beautiful, his true form scene is awe-inspiring, and the fic is so poetically written in general.

Medium Fanfic (10 - 50k)

Broadway Musical* by Griftings

An exceedingly silly AU that includes references to Jewish angel lore, angels having three animal heads as per the Book of Revelation, and Cas having previously possessed a dinosaur as a vessel. I love that Cas has an internal conversation going with Jimmy throughout the fic, a stream of petty arguments and useful tips for playing human, which emphasizes how Cas is not his vessel.

closer (isn't close enough) by fleeceframe

A finale fix-it in which Cas is now an archangel. While Cas is roughly humanoid in this fic, you still get the immensity and power of his true nature. In this fic, he heals trauma damage directly from Dean and Sam's brains, and designs a heaven for bees, which is just... such wholesome weird angel content.

Autrement, Danger - or, The Account of an Exceedingly Long Day by awed_frog (31k)

The description of Cas's true form in this story was so poetic and beautiful I actually cried. This fic captures the concept of the sublime: the feeling you get in prayer or in contemplation of nature that you are very small and the universe is vast and frightening and breathtaking.

Short Fanfic (<10k)

Fata morgana. by orange_crushed (7k)

Castiel in hell, searching for Dean, from demon!Bela's point of view. I love how Bela's demon senses can see Cas's Grace fading and warping in hell. Cas is also just so hopelessly sweet amidst the bleakness of this story.

diamond star halo by jad (5k)

Castiel possessing Dean, from Sam POV. I love fic where Cas possesses other vessels than Jimmy, because it emphasizes that Cas is not his vessel - he is an incorporeal entity who needs help from humans to interact in the human world. Castiel!Dean in this story is just so weird and I love it.

Everyone is Trying to Get to the Bar by Balder12 (8k)

A very weird eldritch Cas made of blade-feathers and spinning wheels and tentacles, AND it's hurt/comfort! I'm such a sucker for fic where a monstrous/alien character is hurt and receives comfort, because monsters deserve love and care, too.

#supernatural #castiel #fic recs #monsterfuckery

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resinatingbeauty · 4 years ago

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I’ve had a lot of requests from various people at different times who are just learning how to use resin to create with and wanted some tips and tricks. I have wanted to make this post for a while, but I wanted to acquire more experience myself before giving others help. This first post is just going to go over some really basic tips and tricks and subsequent posts (if they’re found helpful) will elaborate. This is for all of you who are like me and get the least amount of benefit from watching Youtube tutorials these days because EVERYONE has one, and half the time they’re drawn out for ad revenue so an hour long video will only contain 20 mins worth of information with the kicker being you can’t even fast forward through what you know or rewind through ads to get back to where you need to be. So, for those of you who hate that like me, this text post is for you.

If you’re just starting, choosing which resin you want to purchase is intimidating. Craft stores like Michael’s and Hobby Lobby rarely offer more than one or two brands, typically over priced due to the fact that they’re labeled “art resins”.

Epoxy resin is by far the easiest to start with for beginners. It is the most forgiving, has the most consistent results, most brands use the same 1:1 ratio and the overall technique is the same. I am not affiliated with these brands/companies in any way other than I have used their products and have written reviews for several on Amazon.

Start with small packages (4oz-8oz kits / 8oz & 16oz hardener + resin). A quick Amazon search for epoxy resin will give you many results. This is one of those cases where you really don’t get what you pay for- boat, tabletop, etc. epoxy will yield the same results at more reasonable prices per fluid ounce than art resins. I recommend going with brands like FanAut, Puduo, Let’s Resin, Craft Daddy, etc. which often offer kits with gloves, craft sticks / stir sticks, measuring cups, and even additives at reasonable prices. All these items are things you’ll need to start off, so any extras are appreciated. I recommend Puduo, as it is relatively inexpensive compared to similar brands, yields consistent , crystal clear results, and has a somewhat faster curing time than other epoxy resins for the price. If none of these brands ring your bell, here are the qualifiers for a “good” epoxy resin:

Self Degassing- This is pretty much the standard expectation of epoxy resin and one of the reasons it is considered forgiving for beginners. When resin and hardener are combined, gases are trapped and form air bubbles which have a tendency to multiply as you stir your mixture and the combination heats up. But it shouldn’t be taken for granted that all epoxy resin does this, so try to look for “self degassing” in the item description / label.

Self Leveling vs. Doming : Doming resin is great for the magnified look on pendants and other flat projects, but self leveling resin is where you should be starting as doming requires the build up of surface tension to achieve. While “doming “ resin may achieve this easier than others without this feature, it is pretty irrelevant if you don’t know to dome resin in the first place.

Art Resin vs Other Epoxy: Art resins make claims of being ideal or a better choice for arts & crafts, but the reality is that you can achieve the same effects from table top or boat resins such as Mas- are just as capable of casting, coating, doming etc. as art resins especially if you’re looking to take on a larger project you will pay less and get more with these brands than smaller quantities of art resins. Make sure they are crystal clear, hard type, self degassing, and self leveling. Keep in mind that cure time relates to the size of your project and the ambient temperature of the environment, so don’t waste money on products that charge more for touting faster curing time.

What about 2 part epoxy in syringes? (Ice Resin, Gorilla Glue) Personally, these pre prepared epoxy resins are more complicated than they look. You can’t save combined resin and hardener, so once you mix the two or pop the seals to both you have to use the lot of it in one shot. Ice Resin in particular is quite expensive and doesn’t offer the clear, glossy results I expected it to when I used it, so I would avoid these if you are just starting out.

Additives & Extras- Don’t waste a lot of money at the start funding your would be creations until you have at least seen one entire project through from start to finish. I made the mistake of investing in silicone molds, glitters, additives like rhinestones, craft papers, transparency films etc before I really found my niche and what I was really using epoxy for the most. There are some great deals for 100+ piece silicone mold kits that include gloves, stir sticks, silicone measuring cups, and the like available cheaply for those looking to make smaller things like jewelry, keychains, figurines etc. the one I have just linked to even includes the epoxy for under $20. These kits are offered by Amazon and even Etsy and are a great place to start as they provide you with everything you would need to create at least one full project. They are also a great activity to do with your kids (ages 10+ would probably be ideal) as you can add pretty much anything that isn’t silicone, wax, unsealed paper, alcohol, or water based into resin, which opens up a world of possibilities!

Tips & Tricks That Will Save You $

If you’re itching for purchasing pigments to add color to your resin projects, try purchasing or reusing some old or cheap mineral eye shadows. Not sure if your eye shadow is mineral based? I’m willing to bet it is, though some colors may not look the same when mixed in resin as they do on the pallets, they will color it nonetheless, just pick a small amount up on a popsicle stick or toothpick and stir it into a small batch of resin to see how it turns out. Dollar Tree eye shadows will work just as well as expensive pigments, so consider this before investing in expensive mica pigment sets!

While silicone molds are probably the easiest and are reusable, you can also use plastic molds, carve your resin block with carpentry tools or by hand-or even make your own molds! There are simple recipes utilizing dish soap and corn starch out there, or you can use silicone or even hot glue! Flexible silicone molds won’t require a mold release, but plastic and other molds will or you may end up cutting your project out. You don’t have to purchase a mold release product for this, either- olive or vegetable oil spray on a paper towel will suffice, just remember to let your mold sit for a few hours to demoisturize.

Can’t find gloves because of COVID19 hype? Finger cots are even better than gloves as they allow for more dexterity even when they get sticky, are cheaper, and readily available in bulk online!

Pretty much anything compatible with homemade “slime” can be mixed into or embedded in resin, so there is that. However, be careful how much glitter, pigment, etc you add as you can throw off the chemical balance that allows your project to cure properly. Refer to the directions included with your specific resin kit as most will tell you what ratios must be maintained for proper curing.

Everyone that works with resin knows the arch nemesis that is the bubbles. There are times where it seems like, no matter what you do, your perfect clear cast of a dandelion goes to shit because of some stray air bubbles. There are a few tricks to avoid this from the start:

Use a separate cup to measure resin and hardener. Pour the combined mixture into a fourth cup after the first 3-4 mins of stirring (half time) scraping the sides and bottom. This helps what was on the bottom get integrated into what was mixed on top. Always make sure to pour resin first when mixing and mix slowly, scraping the sides and bottom, for the time listed on your instructions. You want your mixture to be almost water consistency, clear, fluid, with little viscosity, and no streaks visible. Allow it to sit for a few minutes to natural degas and get rid of the bubbles.

Use a torch or grill lighter to pop surface bubbles. You can also do each one individually (as the grill lighter suggestion may not always be a good idea- be careful using this on large projects and molds that may ignite) with a tooth pick. Using a blow dryer or heat gun will also help bubbles rise to the surface to be popped.

Make sure that you keep contact with the bottom of your mixing cup with your stir stick-try not to lift it too much as this can introduce air into the mixture (“whipping the resin”) this can also occur if you are stirring too quickly. If you notice a lot of bubbles, let your mixture sit for a few minutes and resume stirring at a slower pace.

Make sure you start your project at a temperature of 74 degrees +, if your bottles are cold to touch, place them in a plastic bag and let them sit in hot water to warm up. You can also roll them (slowly) on a counter top.

You know, if all else fails you could always make ocean or nautical themed projects :)

That’s all for now- let me know if this helped you or someone you know working with resin or experimenting. Feel free to comment with any questions you would like answered in my next post! I also recommend the Resin Obssesion blog- they have a lot of useful information and tutorials with photos that were really helpful for me starting out!

Xo Samantha

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infernwetrust · 4 years ago

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It’s The Little Things [Duncan Shepherd x Jim Mason]

Summary: Just a little domestic fun between Duncan and Jim through the art of food. Guest starring you and Michael.

Warnings: mentions of drug use, just fluff really, swearing

WC: 1.5k

A/N: This was long fucking over due as are many other things that I’m currently working on. I need to work more on my soft side lol. Part of my little Duncan x Jim series that can be found on my master list, here. Thank you for reading! -Juno

GIF by witch

"Don't you fucking do it, Michael." Jim said, gripping the Nintendo switch controller with force. But Michael was already doing it. He threw the infamous blue shell Jim's way, it quickly catching up to him in first place, Michael trailing behind in 2nd. Poor fool, however, too close to Jim, is affected by the blast too, giving you the 1st place advantage and win.

"Fucking idiots." you stated, simply.

"Bullshit." Michael said, reaching for the last bacon-wrapped jalapeño popper off the plate in front of them, but Jim had also reached for it too. It was routine. You and Michael would come over every other Sunday for dinner, usually Jim's cleaning day. And while either Duncan or Jim cooked, games were played, drinks made.

"Let it go." Jim said, challenging Michael with his eyes. "You literally just ate one."

"And you ate the more than half of the plate." he said back. "So you let go."

"I grabbed it first." Jim began to pull it towards him, not caring if his fingers were getting messy.

"Oh fuck off." Michael pulled it back towards him and now the boys were pulling with a force, but not too much, not wanting to snap it in half. Could you blame them for their childishness though? At first glance, Duncan didn't seem like the type to be the master in the kitchen, but he sure was. Wanting to give Jim a break because he's literally been cleaning all day, Duncan offered to cook. Jim's favorite was Duncan's grilled cheese. 7 different types of cheese, turkey, ham, lettuce, and a killer salsa for a fresh taste, it was basically a heart attack on bread, but Jim fucking loved it.

The two were snapped out of their intense gaze when you walked over, snatching it from between their fingers and popping it in your mouth before plopping back down on the couch adjacent to the one Michael and Jim sat on. You returned to whatever you were doing on your phone as if nothing happened, running your tongue over your top set of teeth.

"Problem solved now, yes boys?" you questioned, not pulling your eyes away from your phone. "Maybe you should see if chef Shepherd will give up some more." Michael reached for the plate, but Jim snatched it away from his hand, wanting to be the one that goes into the kitchen to bother Duncan.

In the kitchen, stood Duncan in one of Jim's t-shirts and a pair of sweatpants that hung a little bit off his waist. He scanned quickly over his cookbook, one that he put together himself to save all of his favorite recipes. Really, it was Jim who brought out the inner chef in Duncan. He cooked for Duncan nonstop. By the time Duncan had his eyes open for work at 7:00AM, his breakfast was already on the table with his morning coffee. Jim more than had the opportunity to sleep in considering he didn't have to be at work until noon, enjoyed cooking for his boyfriend anyways.

He made sure Duncan always had something to take with him to work for lunch. There was always dinner when he got home, whether Jim cooked it or ordered takeout. Duncan wanted to return the favor and slowly he began cooking too, starting with his grilled cheese. Soon enough food was something the two found themselves bonding even closer over.

*** "Hey what are you-," Duncan began. "Jim no! Those are for the office party today!"

"Huh?" Jim said, his mouth full of chocolate chip muffin. He had eaten about 2 of them and they were pretty decent in size. Duncan stayed up late the previous night to make them, waiting until Jim fell asleep for this exact reason. If he wasn't stuffing his face with one of Duncan's grilled cheeses, it was his chocolate chip muffins. Melt in your mouth, they were to DIE for.

"You knew that my office party was today. I made just enough for everyone because I didn't want to be up super late."

"So that's why I was alone in the bed until midnight. M' sorry, Dunc. Should of told me."

"Told you?! These are your favorite, would it have mattered?"

"Probably not." Jim chuckled, licking the remaining melted chocolate chip off his finger. "I'll make it up to you though."

He walked over to Duncan, using one of his hands to hold the back of his neck. He glided his thumb slowly in circles over the exposed skin, Duncan shivering in response.

"How so?" He stepped closer, pushing Jim back against the counter, but shoving his hands in his pocket to maintain his dominance.

"I'll make those cookies that you like so much. Y'know? The butter crunch ones with the-,"

"Chocolate chips and almond pieces." Duncan finished his sentence with a heavy exhale, excited to hear those words.

"And I'll make 3 batches. 2 for you and 1 for your people, yeah?"

*** "Ocean eyes we're not going to have any brownies, pot or regular if you keep sticking your finger in the batter." Duncan sighed, high out of his mind trying to move around their kitchen. Jim was pretty high too, with a bad case of the munchies, having smoked again a few hours after they had dinner. He had already finished the party sized bag of cool ranch Doritos, and now he was craving something sweet.

Jim had decided that he not only wanted to make regular brownies, but he also wanted to make edibles as well. A friend of his had invited them to a pool party and what better way to spice it up than with some special treats?

"Okay, just one more." Jim said, going in for another scoop.

"Share though." Duncan said, only now realizing just how hungry he actually was. Sure, the actual brownies would have been a lot more filling, but they were too far gone now.

"Nuh Uh. You said we have to stop." Jim turned his back to Duncan, bowl clenched against his chest. "So we're stopping."

"Jim if you don't set that damn bowl down on the counter so we can finish it together."

*** Plenty of good memories came from the kitchen. There were many days and nights of whipped and butter cream filled kisses. One too many glasses of wine or one too many shots. On the nights that the boys did bake together, they found themselves often covered in flour or sugar as one of the two had gotten too frisky, leading to an intense make out session on one of the empty counters or the kitchen island.

There were plenty of jokes told, plenty deep conversations had, and a lot of heart to hearts. If Jim wasn't making Duncan laugh until he either drooled on himself or whatever he was drinking shot out of his nose, the two were complimenting and praising each other. They were always curious to know how each other's day went. Whatever the other wanted to talk about, the other was excited to hear about it. Dinner was never dull between the two, even the times they had fought.

*** "Here try this." Duncan said, sliding his plate over to Jim who peered down at his phone. Jim, hungry, gave it no second thoughts, immediately taking a bite.

"Wow this is a fucking, nut." Jim said as the sandwich basically melted in his mouth. "You like comfort food, huh?"

"College will do that to you." Duncan replied, chuckling at Jim's response. "But I'm guessing you like it?"

"Like it? Dunc, this is genius."

"Well, you're always cooking for me and I wanted to return the favor. It isn't much but..."

"I wish you'd stop doing that. Y'know? Like you always tell me. Own it, scruffy." Duncan gave Jim a closed eye smile at the nickname, referring to his facial hair. "You made this. It was your idea and I love it. Stop always trying to down play yourself, right?"

"So you do listen when I talk?" Duncan joked.

"Mmmph." was all Jim got out, his mouth full of grilled cheese.

"Let me cook for you, then." Duncan suddenly said. "Tonight. Take the night off. Let me spoil you?"

"The more you talk, the more I get like this, raging hard on."

Duncan nearly choked on his drink, laughing at what Jim said. Jim was all like that since the very beginning and it only showed more once they finally moved in together. He was always so playful and immature, but he knew when he needed to be serious. More like, he knew when Duncan was serious. Because face it, Jim could play and make jokes all day. However, it brought Duncan peace and higher sense of humor, something that laid dormant in him while he lived in DC.

*** "Can I kiss the chef?" Jim asked as he approached Duncan from behind, gently setting the plate on the island behind him. He licked the remaining cream cheese off of his fingers from his brief struggle with Michael.

"Depends." Duncan answered, looking at Jim over his shoulder. "Are you actually here to kiss the chef or are you here for something else?"

"Both." Jim answered honestly, wrapping his arms around him.

"Well you can only have one thing and it isn't more poppers."

Taglist: @jimmason @angelicmichael @whatcodysaid @9layerdevilfoodcake @xavierplympton @mikhalxngdon @fernfiction @theneverendinghunger

#cody fern #cody fern imagine #jim mason #jim mason imagine #the tribes of palos verdes #duncan shepherd #duncan shepherd imagine #duncan shepherd x Jim mason #house of cards #duncan x jim

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amphtaminedreams · 4 years ago

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Spring/Summer & Haute Couture Week 2021: Whoops, I’ve Missed a Loooot (Part 2)

Hey to anyone reading,

I’m so sorry for the gap between the last fashion week review post and this one! Argh. I had no idea I posted it as long ago as the beginning of March but I think we can all agree that lockdown has fucked with our perceptions of time completely. I wish I could say the delay in posting was as simple as me being busy but I’ve also started to reflect on whether or not I want to carry on this format of posts for the time being; on the scale of problems, this one is wayyy down there in the very lower quartile of the first world region, but my motivation to carry on this kind of content in the form of long-winded text posts is...meh...not so much there anymore. At first I was thinking the issue was that working on these was my last priority on my daily to-do lists but as I’ve got back into writing fiction, it’s kind of occurred to me that the fact I was putting these posts on my to-do lists in the first place along with things like doing the ironing and contacting student finance speaks volumes. When I’m back from work or winding down, opening up Tumblr and coming back to this draft isn’t something that I think of as a fun stress reliever in the way drafting stories is. It doesn’t feel like I’m using my imagination or my creativity or expressing myself in any way and it’s not much of an escape from day to day life in the way that writing dialogue or exploring characters is. Maybe it’s because I’ve done quite a few of these posts now but I just tend to feel like I’m repeating myself, you know kinda like when you’re writing an essay and trying to fill up a word count; of course there are collections that I do have a lot of opinions on but by and large, sometimes it boils down to THESE CLOTHES ARE JUST FUCKING PRETTY, OKAY?! There’s only so many things you can say about a tulle skirt or an exaggerated collar before you want to strangle yourself with said tulle. I used to think iF VoGUe RuNwaY wRitErs CaN dO iT WhAT's MY exCusE until I realised that 1). Vogue Runway writers actually get paid and 2). for the most part all they do is explain the designer's intentions behind the collections verbatim without giving a critical opinion anyway.

I think a lot of the pressure I feel to justify what are in reality quite simple observations and opinions goes back to some of the feelings I explained in my first ever fashion week review where people who know more about fashion and have a formal education in the subject tend to be kind of gatekeep-y and elitist. It can never be that you appreciate different things about a collection but rather than one of you has taste and the other doesn’t and if it wasn’t obvious, the taste level assigned to you by the powers that be tend to positively correlate with the amount of money you have available to spend on a degree that has a reputation for failing to provide a steady income, which for most makes it an unrealistic avenue to pursue. I know, I know, the pressure is totally self-inflicted and wholly imagined seeing as I have under 500 followers on here and those who do interact with these posts most likely do so for the pictures but I still feel it, and given that I’m going to have enough external pressure to write essays when I return to uni in September, why on earth am I wasting time putting it on myself? When just posting photosets of my favourite looks is not only actually enjoyable for me but is also what other people WANT to see too? Nobody wants to read a self-indulgent paragraph like this when they’re here for the clothes and to be honest, for the most part I don’t want to write them anyway unless it’s something I have strong feelings about or if a collection can only be properly appreciated with analysis. I think I’ve made pretty clear which designers I’m a fan of, do you really need to hear me raving about Gucci or Zimmerman or Miu Miu or Balenciaga again? Is there gonna be anything revolutionary in yet another rant about Maria Grazia? Course not. I mean, if you are reading, you might have to witness those things one last time because I do intend to finish off this season’s review in this format for consistency purposes and because I’ve already got all the notes now but on the whole, I doubt anyone will miss my rambles.

So, with all that in mind, I think after I finish my S/S21 posts I am gonna start just uploading these posts without the written part. I mean, for one, the simplicity of doing this means I’m much less likely to procrastinate making them which in turn means I’ll be able to get them out right after the shows as a kind of summary as opposed to months later when they’re no longer as relevant. This will also give me more time to work on the writing I actually enjoy. Right now I’m going through and editing my 17 year old self’s “grown-up” take on the Pretty Little Liars blackmail murder mystery style plot line which I wrote back when I was completely and utterly obsessed with the show and bitterly disappointed by the last couple of seasons. The writing is pretty mediocre and often hugely cringey to read back now but I am still a fan of the basic plot and I’m genuinely motivated to see if I can make it something actually worth reading, and to get onto that ASAP; this feels especially important right now given that the HBO version of the series’ apparent upcoming release has sent that ever-present writer’s fear of seeing-your-same-storyline-done-better-by-somebody-else-thus-forever-relegating-your-version-to-being-the-poor-imitation-so-you-gotta-get-there-first into overdrive (or maybe that’s just me and my neuroses). Again, it’s a totally unfounded fear based on the fact that the HBO show will probs get millions of viewers whilst I will be doing little more than shouting into the void but anybody who’s used Turnitin to submit an essay that ultimately counts for little more than like 1% of your grade or degree will know that no matter how irrelevant your work is, the concept of failing a plagiarism check, be it via a computer algorithm or one random stranger on the internet’s assessment, is enough to conjure visions of the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse galloping towards you screaming “START THE WHOLE THING AGAIN” before releasing a hoarde of 2015 Chanel vs. Walmart style comparison memes.

Now, speaking of Chanel, I should probably get back into the reviewing.

So for the last time for a little while, here’s Christian Siriano:

Siriano’s designs are a great example of work I feel guilty enjoying. I know that when it comes to quality, the high fashion community have a lot of (negative) things to say and I really can’t speak to that because quite honestly, I know very little about textile manufacturing. Solely from my own point of view though, I do like his work a lot. I wouldn’t claim for a minute that he’s a pioneer in terms of his creations but I would 100% love to wear them and I DO hugely admire his commitment to putting women of all sizes on the runway and designing pieces that don’t simply cater to straight up and down types which is more than can be said for most brands. I get that his collections are pretty formulaic, taking what has worked for the likes of Chanel and Alessandra Rich, De La Renta and Carolina Herrera, Michael Kors too (who is kind of guilty of the same thing himself), but that’s not to say his work is bad. Let’s be real, we’ve been on this planet thousands of years, we’re all taking inspiration from someone, and maybe figures like Kors and Siriano could wait a *little* longer before taking said inspiration but their aim at the end of the day is to sell clothes, not break barriers, a task which although often left to the big name brands, they too often fail at. I’m not going to lie, I’m feeling this whimsical mid-century tea party vibe, it’s elegant and it’s cutesy and My Fair Lady-esque, and you bet your arse I would be absolutely thrilled to wear one of these looks on a summer red carpet. I just can’t say no to anything tulle-maybe it’s that I was on Toddlers & Tiaras in a past life or maybe it’s that I watched too many Barbie Princess films growing up, but I like pretty much everything going on here, especially Siriano is giving us matching fedoras too. Plus, can we take a moment to praise Siriano for his COVID relief efforts? Near the beginning of the pandemic, he turned his studio into a mask manufacturing factory in order to send them out as donations, and I think that is very cool.

Then there’s Christopher Kane who once again came through with the most insanely gorgeous prints:

I mean, paint splattering is hardly a new technique but I haven’t seen it done as a print so tastefully before-it eats the Moschino biro scribble print (which apparently was copied too speaking of the tendencies of designers to “borrow” inspiration) for breakfast. It’s shit because there weren’t many looks in this collection and they weren’t really shot in a way that does them any justice but I thought I’d include the few I saved.

Comme Des Garcons is a fave of the high fashion community and one I look forward to seeing at fashion week but can never quite get behind. I appreciate the what-the-fuckery of it all with this show totally being able to pass as a run-through of some kind of nuclear waste themed scare house at one of Thorpe Park’s fright nights. I assume given that and the plastic Mickey Mouse print it’s supposed to be some kind of reference to the part late-stage capitalism has played in the hellish landscape we find ourselves in today? Or something all intellectual? In which case I made my interpretation with farrrr too much confidence. But Anyway! Who knows! I’ll leave the analysis to the fashion students, and give it one word: trippy.

Onto Dion Lee, a brand I truly do get excited to talk about because it’s rare that I don’t LOVE his work.

Without fail, Lee manages to be confidently ahead of the curve without going out of his way to announce it and his genius to everyone with flamboyant shows and exaggerated designs and extortionate prices. He is very much an underdog in the fashion world in terms of big names but you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone who doesn’t love his collections. His S/S21 collection is one of my favourites of the bunch. I love seeing something I’ve never seen before and the palm leaf breast plate is so odd but so cool and so perfectly Dion Lee at the same time; we’ve seen jungle/tropical inspired collections sooo many times *cough cough D&G cough cough* and THIS is how you make them fresh and unique. I mean, never in a million years did I think I’d get behind the resurgence of the gladiator sandal trend but Lee has me changing my mind. This is one of the very rare times you will ever see me using this meme to praise a man but:

I mean, he has Fernanda Ly modelling for him, that the man has taste goes without saying.

Now for a bit of a full circle moment, given that I did actually praise Dior’s haute couture collection in my first ever post; Maria Grazia did GOOD. Well, with haute couture at least.

She’s always pretty hamfisted with her references, there’s no denying, with that Grecian Goddess style RTW collection typifying that statement completely, but luckily she struck gold this time round; as someone who studied the Tudors for A-level history, seeing a modern take on the exaggeratedly feminine renaissance silhouettes with the baroque prints and the deep jewell tones got me super excited especially when you throw in the dreamy tarot theming and the nods to the mystical and arcane. Seeing as the Heavenly Bodies Met Gala (I know, I know, I need to move on) was some time ago now and Cersei Lannister’s *SPOILER* been crushed by a rock (could also be seen as a metaphor for the irrelevancy David Benioff and D.B Wise condemned GoT to when they aired that shitty ending tehe) and so probably won’t be getting a collection based on her costumes any time soon, this is the only fashion take on this kind of period dress I’m going to get…and you know what? I’m okay with that. Thanks Maria, I guess?

Her RTW collection wasn’t absolutely awful either, and slightly better than the past few collections at least. Put a monkey in a room with a typewriter (or show it enough similar well-received collections) and it will eventually write something that makes sense, don’t they say? I like the nomadic feel of a lot of the looks and there’s beautiful layering going on but the aura of exotic opulence unsurprisingly didn’t stick around for long and I found that there was a decline in quality in the midsection of the show that landed a lot of the outfits in either awkward mother of the bride at a beach wedding or The Only Way is Essex Ocean Beach PLT sponsored poolside party territory. The looks picked back up a bit towards the end stretch of the show but I wasn’t a fan of the Gucci style oversized glasses which were so out of place with the rest of the theming that if anything they seemed like a cheap grab at relevancy. So yeah, a middling, subpar Etro-esque collection which is better than usual for Dior I suppose.

Next, Elie Saab, whose S/S21 collection was kinda disappointing, tbh. Oh how the turns have tabled given that positive Dior review and my usual love of Saab’s collections.

I know his dresses lose some of their appeal when we can’t see them in motion but even ON the runway I can’t see myself being dazzled by any of these pieces the way I usually am. They’re lacking the level of detail and craftsmanship I associate with the brand seemingly in favour of block colours and suits and the issue is that the whole Disney Princess fantasy has always been the appeal for me because the silhouettes aren’t interesting enough on their own. They’re not ugly pieces, they’re nice, but does nice really have a place in high fashion when the pieces are so basic in both their design and presentation that the shots could pass as ripped from a catalogue? The strongest parts of the collection were when it did go down the more delicate route with the muted blue suits and the white feather trimmed dresses, the small, ornamental gold details reminding me of a very toned down nod to Schiaparelli’s hardware, but with regards to the bright coloured pieces, I can’t lie-they did look like something you could find in the M&S Per Una holiday section. Then you’ve got the weakest parts, which were just flat out ugly: sheer giraffe print, sweat band style elasticated waits, and long chiffon shirts that I hate to admit read as frumpy. There are times where I’ve not been particularly excited by an Elie Saab collection in the past, but I do think this is the first time I’ve actively disliked parts of it.

Conversely, Erdem’s S/S21 collection was super strong, and solidified the brand’s place in my mind as a dependable source of kooky maximalism, this time round giving us Anya Taylor Joy’s Emma wardrobe on speed. You could tell me Erdem Moralıoğlu had just raided the Bridgerton set’s fitting rooms and put it on a runway and I would 100% believe you and I mean that in a positive way because to give my unpopular opinion, the clothes were the only good thing about that show. The endearingly florid details of exaggerated bows and clashing florals were still there but this time in a way that felt more subtle and self-assured, as if the calming influence of the wooded set’d had a direct hand in the designs, giving the rugged, ethereal feel to the collection I associate with brands like Brock and Simone Rocha, all whilst keeping the parts of Erdem I’m so fond of.

Is it really much of a shock that I included pretty much every look from the Etro S/S21 show? Like, you know that Christian idea of God, like, (the voice in my head is very much taking on the dumb valley girl voice that anybody who reads this is most probably getting too) knowing our souls? I think Veronica Etro knows mine. So no, no surprise. Though there were a few unconventional touches thrown into these looks (the campier prints and nautical theming we see with the 80s beach towel print, for example, reminded me a bit of Versace) the mystical bohemian it girl that Etro designs for would still be highly satisfied. Sure, it might be a wardrobe fit for a holiday less adventurous than backpacking but if she wanted a tropical poolside holiday, this collection is the one, the paisley print chiffon mini and maxi dresses especially. I’m just gonna pretend I don’t see the monstrosity that is leggings worn as trousers-it’s a fashion rule I refuse to abandon-because they are the only stain on an otherwise expectedly gorgeous collection.

Next, an unusually reserved RTW collection from Fendi:

More in line with the wardrobe of a European fashion editor than the glamorous trophy wife (who let’s say uses that facade as a guise to ruthlessly run her husband’s whole business empire from behind the scenes because in this house we do complex female characters only), these pieces are lot “smarter” and more professional looking than Fendi’s typical offerings; where I feel Fendi usually designs for the society girl who wouldn’t mind a front page scandal, these are the kind of outfits a young member of Monaco’s royal family would wear for a positively received but business-as-usual press tour. I know, Fendi is an Italian brand, but this is more Southern France to me. We’re talking some 2nd page shots of a Kate Middleton type on a yacht on the Riviera smiling and waving as her PR team’s ideal scenario. Still, whilst fewer exaggerated silhouettes, animal prints and overtly luxurious fabrics (real leathers, silks and furs for example) mean that the drama’s a little toned down, it’s all still very expensive looking and combines the classically feminine glamour of the past and the minimalism of modernity in the artful manner that we’re used to. Maybe it’s me being a basic bitch but I always love seeing Ashley Graham on the runway too, even if brands to tend to use her as their single token plus size model.

Kim Jones’ debut haute couture collection for Fendi, however, wasn’t a very well received one. I don’t hate it personally but I can see where the criticisms are coming from. Whilst it’s closer to the version of Fendi I’ve come to expect and there were some stunning pieces which completely encapsulated that distinctive aura of luxe and glamour, there were quite a few lazy pieces which could’ve been from any designer. I also felt the collection was a bit upstaged by what seemed to be a who’s who of the modelling world; having Bella, Cara, Kate and Naomi ALL walk in one show was a bit distracting and took the focus off the clothes completely.

Giambattista Valli’s RTW collection was gorgeous as ever; the man has undeniably mastered the art of delivering classic, objective elegance, the kind of designs I feel would make you light on your feet and smell like strawberries and cream the minute you put one on. Whilst as a brand his RTW shows are rarely trendsetting, they reliably produce a plethora of unfailingly graceful and demure pieces, as appealing to your mum and your grandma as they are to young women and little girls, and this collection is another victory lap for Valli when it comes to upholding his signature tea party and artisan cupcake making and rose garden strolling and bottomless rosé brunch appropriate aesthetic. There were a lot of outfits that were bordering on overly juvenile, with structures a little too basic to justify the amount of sequins thrown on, but when it’s good, it’s so sweet that regardless of how to formula it is, I can’t help but fall in love.

Valli’s haute couture collection was stunning too and for sure a more exciting offering than the RTW. There was of course a lot of the signature tulle but it was head-turning, over the top in a way that leant far more towards the experimental than I expected. The photos themselves are 100% believable as a some kind of Vogue behind the scenes editorial shoot on the set of live action Disney princess movie (in between takes of the climactic ball scene if you wanna get specific with the vision); if you are looking for a prettier alternative to the primary colours and disruptive shapes of a Molly Goddard collection, this is the one. It’s giving the themes of excess and abundance I associate with that of the Hunger Games Capitol but through the softer lens of a Sofia Coppola movie, and being the typical cinema loving white girl I am, I’m obviously on board with that vibe.

I did SUCH a 180 on Givency’s S/S21 collection from when I first saw it to writing a review. My initial reaction was one of disappointment, I guess simply because Givenchy has given us so many bold pieces and presentations over the last few years whereas this is more low-key. After properly considering it though as I would any other brand, I came to the conclusion that I do actually really like it. It’s still got the strange, androgynous silhouettes popping up throughout and the futuristic space-age details but with a more down-to-earth, streetwear feel, albeit a very slick, glossy spin on the trends of the rabble (that’s us guys) of course before we go believing it’s achievable. On the one hand, the devil horn accents are a touch Claire’s accessories halloween range but at the same time, done with confidence they’re kind of cool and bring something new and fun to the table in line with the dark theatre of Givenchy’s last few shows.

Now for Gucci, which for the first time I have to say, if I'm attempting objectivity, is not a standout.

Like, can I just start by saying though the format it’s presented in is cute, it’s not ideal as a way of actually showing the collection. I get that the vintage shop bin vibe is a huge part of Gucci’s brand but polaroids make it SO hard to actually see the clothes, and that’s what we’re here for right? I don’t want to give the impression that I don’t like what I see here-the clothes are gorgeous, an idyllic ode to the off-duty wardrobes of Studio 54-ers, bohemian style icons like Charlotte Rampling and young Olivia Newton-John, psychedelic rock guitarists and the inhabitants of San Fransisco’s Haight during the late 60s and early 70s, Alessandro Michele’s favourite period of reference. I can’t pretend otherwise, or act like I wouldn’t want to wear the shit out of this collection. Buut, for Gucci? It’s a little underwhelming. These are the kind of filler looks we get in a typical Gucci show to go alongside the more statement pieces, which this collection is lacking. It’s just that these are designs which usually gets people talking and these pieces don’t do that. It sucks because for most other brands this would be a stand out collection, an immersive, luscious vignette of what people tend to think of as a cultural golden era, but when you’ve had a show that involved models carrying replicas of their own decapitated heads down the runway in the last 5 years, of course something more toned down like this is gonna generate a lot of “is that it?”s.

I owe Hermes an apology. Looking back, I have disliked all their previous collections for the same reason that I now really like this one; maybe it’s in part down to the frustration of still having to whack out the winter coat on occasion in May (fuck British weather and climate change), but suddenly I really appreciate the value of some good quality, versatile outerwear. Hermes is giving us that in spades here and for that, I bow down to them. The pieces on offer are clearly well-made and genuinely practical, and through the minimalist approach manage to retain both an air of timeless sophistication whilst also being youthful and on trend. The leather tactical vest co-ord I can easily see edged up and taking centre stage on one of those insane Seoul street style slow-mo TikToks that were big a couple of months ago and there are several pieces that could tie together a grunge influenced k-style look just as well as they could exist for years on end as the wardrobe staple of a high-powered businesswoman. Designer Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski’s strengths really come through with the simpler looks and it’s the patterned pieces that drag down an otherwise flawless collection; I guess because the aesthetic is very minimalist, the patterns can’t be anything overly decorative but unfortunately this has a bit of a dowdy effect when you pair it with such modest silhouettes. Disregarding those elements of the collection though, it was super good.

It goes without saying that Iris Van Herpen’s haute couture collection was breathtaking; if the fashion community can agree on anything, it’s that this woman’s work is consistently awe-inspiring. She captures the wonder of the universe, the biological structures and kaleidoscopic colours we don’t even register, through fashion in a way that others can only imitate, to mesmerising, truly transcendent effect; I can only assume Van Herpen has mother nature whispering into her ear because how the hell else do you explain her ability to take the kind of microscopic organisms they show you images of in an outdated GCSE science powerpoint and make a dress that resembles one so stunning? Care to explain, Iris? Because if there is some kind of line of communication between the two of you can you please tell the bitch I’m over this weather and that I have cute summer outfits I’m waiting to wear so can she pack this torrential rain shit in? K, thanks xoxo

See it seems shady as fuck to go from IVH to Isabel Marant like this because we are talking 2 designers with totallyyyy different approaches to fashion; Iris Van Herpen is haute couture for starters whereas Marant is commercial, and that’s her thing, but unfair comparisons aside this collection is still a bit of a let down. This is considering I do usually really like Isabel Marant collections based on whether or not I’d wear the pieces, which seems a more appropriate barometer to use to come to a quality verdict. Whilst there were a few of the elegant bohemian pieces my mind goes to when it comes to her brand, the steps outside of that comfort zone didn’t pay off; graffiti print (can be cool if done with some subtlety which apart from a few exceptions was not the case here), cheap looking reflective fabric, and MC Hammer style dungarees, it seems to be an attempt to merge 80s trends with modern urban culture, and an attempt that at times verged on the disastrous. It’s good for a brand to experiment, of course, and appeal to a wider client base than usual, but when it’s bad the unfortunate take away is that the design team don’t have the chops to pull off straying from familiar territory; designers wouldn’t be showing at fashion week if this was truly the case because disregarding the influence of nepotism, fashion is an area you need real talent, perseverance and business smarts to excel in, and so it doesn’t do a team justice when they do fail.

J.W Anderson, on the other hand, really put his best foot forward this season and presented this work in a really cool way too which only added to the positives; whilst the way the shots were edited was funky af, it didn’t detract from the actual outfits, and if we are to see the same limitations when it comes to the F/W collections being released, this is something a lot of designers and editing teams should take note of. The idiosyncratic exaggerated shapes that we see as a recurring feature of Anderon’s collections were still on show but this time round with added femininity, billowing skirts and trailing jewellery that channel the stage looks of Stevie Nicks in a way that’s modern and functional and maybe even fit for the office if you were to work in a more creative industry with a chill boss. Could also work for a coven of witches who practice meditation by bonfires in the moonlight and burn the letters of men who wronged them in some Arizonian desert, so like I said, functional! Who doesn’t like versatility? The only thing I’m not too keen on is the shoes but they’re not so bad that it affects my opinion of the collection and they look comfy I guess.

Lastly, we’ve got to talk about Jacquemus, one of the most influential names in fashion at the moment. And yes, this time round, I’m doing it: I’m buying into the hype.

This collection is gorgeousss! I can see already that a lot of the recurring elements of the show are going to be big summer trends for this year (the cut outs and strappy details on the blouses are everywhere already) even though it isn’t hot enough to have collectively decided the time to start dressing for heat is upon us yet, and that’s always a good indicator of how successful the designer was in their vision and attempts to assess the needs and wants of fashion enthusiasts; whether I’m as big a fan of his work as everyone else seems to be, there’s no denying Simon Porte Jacquemus has always excelled at this practice if the buzz around him is anything to go by. It makes sense given the last year of us all being stuck in and suppressed that a lot of us are already romanticising the summer ahead, anticipating picnics and beach days and general Theresa May running through wheat fields type shenanigans galore, in spite of how dubious an assumption it is to make that British weather will allow for this; Porte Jacquemus has very much catered to this wishful thinking and the popularity of the whole escapist “cottage core” aesthetic, sexing it up a little bit with pieces that hug the body in ways only Mugler knows how whilst being lightweight and relaxed enough to look good with windswept, sandy hair and a little dose of sunburn. I’m talking enough to give you some cutesy freckles and rosy cheeks not PSA on the importance of suncream territory, guys, what is it with those of us on the gen Z/millennial cusp not taking sun damage seriously!? Why do I have to beg so many of my friends to wear it!? Does nobody else remember those photos they’d show you in PSHE in English primary schools of burnt people’s skin under UV lights? Or is that just me being weird and only having such a vivid memory of the images because teachers told us we had to wait until year 6 to see them due they to their “graphic” nature only for my gore-loving self to be extremely underwhelmed when we finally did get that lesson? They showed us a woman giving birth in year 4 for fuck’s sake. THAT was traumatising.

Back to the actual point anyway, with just a couple of negatives, the first of which being that the pieces are very similar to those feminine looks we saw dotted about the Jacquemus menswear collection from last year that were all over fashion Twitter. In Simon Porte Jacquemus’ defence though, it makes sense that those tones and silhouettes would be revisited in a full womenswear collection for that very reason; considering they went down so well and that lockdown gave us a bit of a half-baked summer in 2020, expanding on those elements enough for a whole new collection makes good business sense. We did get some cool additions too, mainly in the form of accessories, with the hardware details on the belts similar to those included in the Givenchy collection and the abstract hair slides being standouts for me. It was all exquisite-the shoes, the jewellery, the styling, everything 10/10. My other nitpick, and I say nitpick not because it’s not important but because it’s an issue that’s hardly restricted to Jacquemus (this casting team are far from the worst offenders, Saint Laurent I’m looking at you), is that I WISH we’d see more diversity with the models. Despite what my body dysmorphia yells at me, I am small, and yet seeing all those fucking minuscule waists made me die a little inside; it’s crazy to me that in 2020 the lack of variety in body types on the runway is still such a problem.

I must have said this a million times but I don’t want to end on a negative note so let me reiterate: this collection was STUN. NING. Plus there were some others I’ve talked about in this post that I’m sure will make it into my top 20 in the final part, Jacquemus, Dion Lee and Etro for sure; we even got some gorgeous pieces from Maria Grazia which I thought was a sentence I’d never type out. Have I said enough to not leave a bad taste in the mouth of anyone who read to the end of this post? I hope so, lol! TBH, it’s impressive given everything that’s going on that the majority of designers did roll out collections in September as usual so serious respect to them and their design teams for that.

In the next post, I’ll fingers crossed be able to include everything from Kim Shui (exciting!) through to at least Off-White (actually pretty good this time?!) and make this whole thing a 4 parter before getting straight on top of the photo posts I’m thinking about doing for the time being for the F/W21 shows. So as usual, if you did read to the end thank you so much and I respect the perseverance you must have to get through all my rambling, lmao. Hope everyone is well and coping okay and again, my inbox is always open for any post suggestions, constructive criticism, or just a chat for anyone who needs a listening ear.

Big love and thank you again!

Lauren x

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ollieofthebeholder · 4 years ago

Text

leaves too high to touch (roots too strong to fall): a TMA fanfic

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] Also on AO3

Chapter 9: Jon

“Sit down, boss,” Tim says insistently.

“Jon, please,” Martin—the real Martin—says, his voice soft. “We’ll explain, just...sit down. Please.”

Jon doesn’t want to sit down. He wants to stay standing, to put himself between this—this thing wearing his assistant’s face, his skin—and the three people he’s already nearly lost tonight. But he responds to the please and sits, slowly, never taking his eyes off the creature claiming to be Martin Blackwood from the future.

It’s a good likeness, he has to admit. The...creature or whatever it is looks almost identical to his—the real Martin, down to the odd twist in one set of cables on his sweater (not that Jon’s spent a lot of time staring at Martin or his sweater, of course, only that it’s not quite even and the oddity catches his attention) and that one errant curl that never seems to do what he wants it to. But this creature is also...muted is the best way Jon can think of to describe it. As if someone has turned down the saturation on a picture, or coated the whole thing in a grey wash.

“How long were you waiting for us?” Tim asks the other Martin. It seems safer to think of him that way.

“Not long,” Other-Martin answers. “Maybe a minute.”

“Really? It took you that long to get here? Must’ve been a hell of a complicated route.”

Other-Martin gives a soft snort of laughter without a lot of humor in it. “Time in those corridors doesn’t follow the same rules. As far as I could tell, I was only in there five, ten minutes, tops.”

“Tim, you invited this here?” Jon exclaims.

Tim shrugs. “It seemed safer than leaving him in the tunnels under the Institute. You know, what with the worms and the police and everything. Hard enough to explain to us what’s going on, but someone who doesn’t deal with this every day?”

Other-Martin tilts his head slightly, but his gaze is directed at Jon. It makes him feel uneasy, for reasons he can’t quite explain. He tries to bring his chin up defiantly, but he’s aware of the fact that he’s terrified and wonders if this creature can smell fear. “And you expect us to just...believe you. That you’re—that you’re Martin come back from the future. There is no scientific explanation for time travel—”

“There probably is, actually, but that’s got nothing to do with how I came back,” Other-Martin interrupts. “And no. I don’t expect you to just...believe me. Not like that. I mean, especially not right now. I know you well enough to know you’re pushing the skeptic thing as hard as you are because you know it’s real and you’re afraid. You can feel something watching you when you’re recording the statements, the real ones, the ones that you have to do on the tape, yeah? That’s what you told me. So you believe in the supernatural and the paranormal and all that, but that doesn’t mean you want to. And it sure doesn’t mean you’re going to believe I am who I say I am without some kind of proof.”

For just a moment, Jon is speechless. He’s never told anyone about that persistent feeling, or his belief that the “difficult” statements are actually true encounters. He certainly wouldn’t have told Martin, although if he’s being honest, Martin is probably the only one he would have trusted with that knowledge. To hear it pour out of someone else’s mouth is startling, to say the least. It’s not really proof, of course, but it’s certainly enough to crack the shell of skepticism Jon hides behind.

“Wait,” Sasha interrupts. “You’re saying those statements...the ones that won’t go on the laptop...they’re real? Like, they actually happened?”

“They did, yeah. I know they’re hard to verify, but, well, that’s the thing about the paranormal. Ghosts don’t leave a lot of physical evidence. And...well, people see what they want to see, and they rationalize out a lot of things they don’t.” Other-Martin sighs. “It used to drive Basira nuts.”

“Basira?” Tim asks.

“Ah—you haven’t met her yet, I don’t think. Unless you...no, she was one of the officers on the scene when all this happened in my timeline, but honestly, I had a hard time concentrating on who I talked to that night and who I talked to later. I was too busy worrying about—” Other-Martin snaps off the sentence. “She’s a cop. One of the officers assigned to the investigation at the Institute. In our timeline, she...eventually got hired to work in the Archives. It’s—”

“A long story?” Martin says, sounding tired.

Other-Martin holds up his hands. “I know, I know. I promise, we’ll explain everything as soon as—”

“We?” Jon and Sasha say in unison.

“I didn’t come back alone. Well, I mean—we came back separately, but I’m not the only one who came back. We were warned we’d probably end up in different places, though.”

Tim lifts an eyebrow and grins. “Ooh, did you arrange a rendezvous at a secret meeting point? Send one another coded messages?”

“Tim,” Sasha hisses, elbowing him.

Other-Martin smiles, a little wistfully. “I wouldn’t say that, but...the plan we worked out before we came back involved us being at the Archives, so we were going to meet there. I have no doubt they’re on their way there.”

“And when they get there?” Martin asks quietly. “When they show up and see...everything that’s happening? What then? Did you have a—a backup plan?”

“Not really. But my guess? They’ll come looking for me. Or at least for you all.”

Jon tenses. “Looking for us? Why?”

“We were always planning to bring you all into it, after we...took care of Jane Prentiss. This wasn’t...exactly how we planned to do that, it got a bit out of hand, but I had to improvise, and I didn’t do it well.” Other-Martin gives another soft huff of not-all-that-amused laughter. “I’m quite literally lost without them. But I don’t doubt for a minute that if they can’t find me, they’ll come to you all.”

Jon is torn. On the one hand, he wants to shout at this creature, demand to know what its game actually is, chase it from the building, and keep it from coming anywhere near his assistants ever again. On the other hand...the more he talks, the easier it is to believe what he’s saying. Also, this isn’t Jon’s house and it’s not exactly his place to deny access to it.

“How did you get in here, anyway?” Jon decides a change of subject might clear his mind.

“Michael,” Other-Martin answers.

“That thing that attacked Sasha?” Jon exclaims. “You’re friends with it?”

“Oh, God, no,” Other-Martin says with another laugh that has no humor in it. “Michael hates anything to do with the Archives. Not necessarily without reason. I just managed to talk him into a temporary truce. Mostly I told him I knew what would happen to him and if he didn’t want to be utterly destroyed, he’d best help me out. I think that’s the only favor I’m actually going to get out of him, though.”

Sasha rubs her temples with her fingers. “Wait, wait. If he hates us so much, why would he tell me how to save everyone?”

Other-Martin hesitates. Beside Jon, Martin sighs deeply. “Is this another ‘telling you might be dangerous until someone who can protect you shows up’ thing?” In response to the startled look Jon shoots his way, Martin gestures at his doppelganger. “That’s what he keeps saying when I push too hard.”

“Look, I know it’s frustrating, but it’s also serious. You might be okay tonight, but...I’m just reluctant to risk it until—”

A firm rapping sound interrupts him. Sasha glances at Tim. “Somebody’s knocking at your door.”

Martin hums something under his breath, which brings that sad, wistful smile to Other-Martin’s face for a second. Tim gets up. “I’ll be right back. Try not to kill Martin Prime while I’m gone.”

“Really, Tim? Star Trek reference?” Sasha snorts.

“How about you? You understood that,” Tim shoots back at her before disappearing down the hallway.

Jon wonders whether to demand an explanation or not when a yelp comes from the direction of the doorway. He’s on his feet before he can think about it, nerves thrumming with adrenaline, not sure if he wants to launch himself down the hall to drag Tim to safety or stay where he is to protect Martin and Sasha. Sasha and...their guest rise from their seats, too, all of them tense for a moment. There’s the sound of voices, too low to be distinguishable, and then, unmistakably, Tim’s laughter, and Jon relaxes a little bit. Not hurt, at least. Then Tim comes back into the room, bringing with him a person who takes the breath from Jon’s lungs.

It’s him.

Or at least, the tiny part of his brain that insists on remaining skeptical says, it’s someone who looks like him—albeit a bit less like him than the other Martin looks like his—their Martin. His hair is longer than Jon is wearing his right now—more like the length he wore it in uni, if he’s being honest—pulled back into a sort of half-ponytail and far more liberally streaked with grey. His face and hands are dotted with round scars, and Jon’s stomach lurches as he realizes they’re probably from the worms. There are probably more scars, but they’re impossible to see, as he’s draped in a dark green sweater several sizes too big for him. He looks weary, like he’s carrying far greater a burden than one would reasonably expect to fit in the pack on his back, but he’s also smiling a little. It’s Jon’s smile, that’s for sure, just...sadder, somehow.

He stops dead just inside the room. All the tension seems to drain from him. “Martin,” he gasps.

The other Martin’s face lights up. “Jon?”

Jon swears he doesn’t see his counterpart move. One moment he’s standing just inside the doorway and the next he’s in front of the sofa, and the two of them are embracing tightly. The other Jon’s bag slips to the floor with a soft thud, but neither of them seem to notice it.

“Oh, thank God,” Other-Jon chokes out. The words tumble out in a semipanicked, breathless rush. “I couldn’t find you, I tried to use the—to Know where you were, but it was—I c-couldn’t see you and I was worried, I tried to tell myself you would be fine, but I—I didn’t think about—I should have realized whatever hid you from the Eye would mean I wouldn’t be able to see you either, but I thought since it was you I’d—”

“Jon, it’s okay, it’s okay,” Other-Martin says, his voice barely above a whisper.

“Are you all right? You’re not hurt?” Other-Jon pulls back enough that he can look up into Other-Martin’s face, but doesn’t let go of him. If anything, his grip seems to tighten just a little.

“I’m fine,” Other-Martin assures him. “I’m okay. Are you all right?”

“I am now.” Other-Jon pulls him into another tight hug.

Jon feels a bit like he’s watching something he shouldn’t be privy to, but at the same time, he can’t look away. Partly because the reunion is so compelling, partly due to what feels like the same thing that grips him when he’s reading those statements, but mostly because he does not want to see the look on Tim’s face right now, thank you very much. And he’s not sure he can look at Martin without making a fool of himself.

Whatever else happens in the future, he finds himself thinking, at least he loosens up enough that he can express how he actually feels instead of trying to hide behind a professional facade. Because this is pretty much how he wanted to react when he saw Martin emerge from the quarantine tent—to wrap him up in a hug, to tell him how glad he was that he was safe, to reassure himself Martin was alive and whole. It’s why he was so quick to help him walk. He almost envies his future self this freedom, the ability to just wrap his arms around Martin and know he’s all right. Whatever else they’ve gone through—and from their appearances, they’ve been through a lot—at least he has this.

He realizes the direction his thoughts are trending and clenches his teeth, mentally grasping the last bit of skepticism in his mind with both hands. He still can’t be completely sure these two are really them from the future. Yes, they look a lot like him and Martin, sound like them, but...what was it his cousin used to say? Correlation does not imply causation. There could be a perfectly normal explanation for this—a non-supernatural one, one that doesn’t involve time travel or the end of the world or anything like that. He’s just got to figure out what that explanation is.

Tim, naturally, is the one to break the silence. “So!” he says, settling onto the sofa and stretching out his arms along the back. “Should we be expecting Tim Prime and Sasha Prime to come along any minute now?”

“No,” Other-Jon says quietly, drawing back from Other-Martin with visible reluctance. “No, it’s only us.”

He turns to look at Tim and Sasha, and Jon finds himself torn between the desire to shift and stand between them and the fear of leaving Martin exposed if he does so. He takes a small step forward and speaks up, drawing the attention back to himself. “How do we know you’re really from the future? What proof is there that you’re really who you say you are?”

“Well, we believe them,” Tim says. “Or at least we believe him.” He waves at Other-Martin.

“Not good enough, I’m afraid,” Other-Jon says before Jon can. There’s a faint hint of amusement in his tone. “You’re all rather too credulous. It’s easy to convince you. He’s far less ready to believe on flimsy evidence. Proof, that’s what’s needed.”

Tim tilts his head sideways, as if considering that. “He’s certainly got you pegged, Boss.”

Jon narrows his eyes. He rather suspects he’s being mocked, and he doesn’t like it in the slightest. “If that’s the best you can come up with—” he begins.

“A Guest for Mister Spider,” Other-Martin interrupts.

Jon’s entire body goes still with horror as the memories come rushing in, not that they’re ever far from his mind. He fights very hard to keep it from showing on his face, however, and says as evenly as he can, “I beg your pardon?”

“Your grandmother bought it in the bargain bin a charity shop when you were about eight.” Other-Martin’s eyes seem to stare right through Jon, as if they’re seeing him all those years ago, walking down the streets unknowingly with his nose buried in a book. “It was your first encounter with the supernatural. Your first encounter with the name Jurgen Leitner. It’s why you came to work at the Institute in the first place.”

The words are as gentle and as inexorable as falling snow, and just as chilling. Jon’s very soul seems to freeze. He stares at the other Martin without really seeing him, without really seeing anything except the darkness within that door, the boy whose name he can’t remember vanishing in its depths, the growing smears of red on black and white drawings...

“Jon? Jon, are you all right?” Martin sounds worried, but he also sounds very far away.

Other-Martin looks slightly embarrassed as he turns to look at Other-Jon. “Too far?”

“No—no, I-I think that was...just about right.” Other-Jon reaches out and presses two fingers to Jon’s shoulder, pushing him downward. “Sit down and breathe, Archivist.”

It’s the word Archivist that pushes through the fog in Jon’s brain, oddly enough. It at least serves to remind him that he’s not actually eight years old anymore. He draws in a deep, shuddering gasp of air and sits down rather heavily, jostling both Sasha and Tim.

Other-Martin and Other-Jon sit down as well. Jon notices, with the part of his brain not currently paging through the Owner’s Manual to the Human Body for the instructions on breathing, that Other-Jon rests his hand on top of Other-Martin’s. Other-Martin strokes Other-Jon’s thumb with his own in slow, careful strokes. It’s a gesture that speaks of intimacy and tenderness, and a jealousy curls in his stomach that he has no idea what to do with. Other-Jon’s free hand taps on his thigh as his eyes flutter closed, and for a moment, Jon assumes it’s an idle fidget until his brain latches onto the regularity of it and realizes what it is. He’s counting out the seconds to regulate his own breathing.

All the fight goes out of Jon in that instant. He knows when he’s beaten. This other who bears his face is him, not some stranger or monster or evil being. Which means the other must be Martin. They are from the future. They’re telling the truth.

He’s not going to admit that out loud, not just yet, but they slide from being Others to being Primes, as Tim called them, in his mind.

After a moment, Jon Prime squeezes Martin Prime’s fingers briefly, exhales, and opens his eyes. “I...I suppose you have more than a few questions.”

“You could say that,” Tim agrees.

“So where do we start?” Sasha asks, the last word nearly being swallowed in a yawn.

Jon is burning with curiosity, but he also recognizes that Sasha is tired, and likely Tim as well. And Martin...Martin must be absolutely wiped out. His own energy, the adrenaline that’s been driving him since he saw the emergency lights at the Institute, is starting to flag. It’s late.

“As much as I’d like to know what the hell is going on here, I think most of it can wait until tomorrow, when we’re all fresh,” he says, putting as much authority into his words as he can. “I need to get your statements before you start forgetting the details.”

“I don’t know if that’s possible,” Sasha says, not quite under her breath.

Martin Prime snorts. “It’s not. Best to get your statements done now, though. Trust me.”

Tim raises an eyebrow. “I think Martin should go first.”

Jon turns to look fully at Martin. He’s visibly exhausted, but he nods, eyes fixed unwaveringly on Jon.

Jon exhales. “All right, then.”

#tma #the magnus archives #leaves too high to touch (roots too strong to fall)#jonmartin #IT'S THE REUNION SCENE BITCHES #ollie writes fanfic

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therestlesswitch · 5 years ago

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✨🌱Stinging Nettle🌱✨

✨Botanical Latin: Urtica dioica

✨Habitat: Waste spaces, moist soil

✨Growth Habit: Perennial, 6'+ tall at maturity. Flowers in mid-late summer

✨Parts Used: Leaves and tops most often. Roots and seeds can be used as well.

✨Harvesting: Always wear thick gloves and cover your skin! Young leaves and tops - harvest before the plant flowers. See 'cautions' below. Roots - in the fall, after most of the energy has returned to the root from the plant. This plant is abundant, but as it’s a perennial, remember to leave at least 75% of the plants to repopulate the area.

✨Energetics and Taste: Cool, dry, salty

Physical and Medicinal

✨Biochemical Constituents: chlorophyll, insoles (histamine, serotonin,) acetylcholine, silicic acid, vitamins C, B and A, silicon, calcium, magnesium, potassium, protein, fiber, iron.

✨Actions:

All parts - Alterative, whole body and liver tonic, (fresh leaves) anti-histamine, slightly diuretic, astringent, hemostatic, galactogogue, expectorant, nutrative.

Root - Anti-lithic, diuretic

✨Indications:

Leaves & Tops - arthritis, rheumatism, asthma, eczema, other skin eruptions, bleeding, low energy, stopped urine, urinary gravel, kidney and bladder infections, edema, enlarged prostate, benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH)

Freeze dried leaves: sinus infection. Proven effective, but must be freeze dried.

Seed: prostate and kidney disorders

Root: Prostate issues, urinary tract gravel/stones, stopped urination

✨Contraindications: Use in more restricted amounts when pregnant or breastfeeding, but it doesn't have to be avoided all together. Don’t use with children under 2 years old. Use caution with children and the elderly. *

✨Medicinal Uses:

- One of the most popular herbs for nourishing herbal infusions. Rotate between nettles, oat straw, and linden for a good variety of nutrients.

- Good for the voice (folk-medicine, song of the sea)

- Relieve the sting by rubbing the juice of dock (rumex crispus) leaves on the sting. See folk traditions below.

- To aid in circulation and inflammation/joint issues like arthritis, sting the area (lightly) occasionally with nettles and let it sting, without using dock to relieve it.

- It's popular in soups and as a potherb/cooked green. Once it's cooked or dried, it loses its sting. I like to use it in any dish that I'd use spinach in.

- It has been used to slow postpartum bleeding.

✨Preparations and Dosage:

- Nourishing Herbal Infusion - One quart boiled water to one ounce of dried leaves/tops (or a little more by weight if using fresh leaves.) Steep in a mason jar with the lid on for at least 20 minutes, up to overnight. Strain and enjoy within 3-4 days of making it. Drink up to 1 quart/day but rotate between a few different herbs to get a variety of nutrients.

- Dry plant material by weight - 9-30g

- Capsules - 2 "00" size filled with powdered herb, 3 times a day

- Tincture - 10-60 drops, 1-4 times a day

✨Cautions: Do not ingest the leaves or tops after the plant has flowered or else risk causing a UTI.

Magical and Traditional

✨Elements: Primary - 🔥Fire -- Secondary - 🌱Earth

✨Planet: Mars, secondary Mercury

✨Other Correspondences:

-All Parts: protections, warding, voice, communication, bind a spell, bring courage, prevent being struck by lightning, notice the things that often go unseen, mindfulness.

-Roots: banishing, curse breaking, relieving pain

-The leaves and tops after the plant has flowered: causing pain, sending a curse back, banishing, make someone’s oversight/willful ignorance come back to bite them

✨Folk Traditions:

- To soothe the sting, find some dock which usually grows nearby (rumex crispus,) grab a handful and squeeze some juice out. As you rub the juice onto the nettle sting, recite:

Nettle out, Dock in // Dock remove the nettle sting Nettle, nettle, come out // Dock, go in!

✨Specific Uses:

- The infusion is grounding and very earth centred. I feel like It may be connected to my Mother Goddess of the lake lands in Ontario.

- Use fresh tops (either before or after flowering depending on your need) to sprinkle cleansing or banishing or curse breaking (etc) water or to waft smoke. Make sure to wear gloves, of course.

- Use the dried or cooked leaves/tops to ’take the sting’ out of something or someone.

*This page is by no means exhaustive or conclusive in any information, and is intended for educational purposes only. Always consult and herbalist and/or your healthcare professional before trying /any/ herb that is new to you.

✨✨✨These herbal monographs take hours of research and quite a few dollars worth of books and resources. Please help support me by contributing to any of these avenues: 🌱Patreon 🌱Request a Tarot Reading 🌱Buy me a coffee 🌱Donate to my education

More Posts in this Herbal Study Series: Calendula Marshmallow Cannabis Yarrow

References:

Healing with the Herbs of Life - Lesley Tierra Rosemary Gladstar's Herbal Recipes for Vibrant Health -Rosemary Gladstar Peterson's Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs, of Eastern and Central North America, Third Edition - Steven Foster and James A. Duke Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs, expanded and revised edition - Scott Cunningham The Witches' Almanac 2018, Issue 37, The Magic of Plants - Article by Morven Westfield Planting for the Future - Rosemary Gladstar and Pamela Hirsch The Illustrated Herbiary - Maia Toll The Healing Herbs, The Ultimate Guide to the Curative Powers of Nature's Medicines - Michael Castleman Alchemy of Herbs - Rosalee de la Forêt The Herbal Medicine Maker’s Handbook, A Home Manual - James Green

Images 1, 2, 3, 4

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adobe-outdesign · 5 years ago

Video

youtube

Little something for everyone while y’all are in quarantine. Part 2 coming whenever.

Transcript under the cut:

Five Nights at Freddy’s. Where do we even start with this one? FNAF is probably one of the most confusing games out there when it comes to trying to figure out what the hell happened in it. Everyone has their own opinions and interpretations, so I figured I’d provide my own.

Do keep in mind that I’m not going to cover every single part of the lore, as some of it’s fairly self-explanatory. Instead, I’m going to focus mostly on FNAF 4, as that’s where this Gordian Knot of confusion really stems from.

Be warned, this video’s going to contain something truly scary: OPINIONS. [scream effect] Yes, my views on the lore are much different than everyone else’s, so don’t get your springlocks set off just because my theories don’t align with yours. Because for starters…

[Why I don’t think Michael is the brother]

[Mob noises]

Okay, okay, hear me out. Basically, there are two main family in FNAF: There’s the Aftons, comprised of William, Elizabeth and Michael. Then there’s the - is this really their name? Really? okay - Emilys, comprised of Henry and Charlie.

However, in the books Charlie had a brother named Sammy. So the question is, is Sammy canon? And the answer is yes: During Stage 01, we see one of the kids disappear when left alone with Spring Bonnie, which parallels Sammy slash Charlie’s kidnapping in Fredbear’s by William.

This raises another question though: Who is Sammy in canon, then? And I’ll jut outright say it: He’s the Bitten Child. Yeah, I’m kind of amazed more people don’t realize this. The Fredbear Plush is implied to be possessed by Charlie, as its talk about putting the Bitten Child back together parallels the Puppet giving cake in Happiest Day, and the empty girl’s room indicates that the Bitten Child has a dead sister - her being the Plush explains why the Fredbear Plush cares so much about the welfare of this random kid.

Likewise, Charlie and Sammy were twins. The Bitten Child and Charlie have the same blocky sprites, and they both have brown hair and brown eyes.

Most importantly, the Bitten Child is spirited to look exactly like the Puppet. Given that he isn’t the one possessing it, the only way this makes sense if the two were related.

Finally, the Bitten Child freaks the hell out when approached by an employee in a Fredbear suit, and the Fredbear plush says that he’ll “know what happens if he catches you”. Many people believe this means the Bitten Child witnessed the children being murdered, but it’s too early in the timeline for that - Phone Guy says in 2 that the Freddy’s where the murders occurred was shut down and left to rot afterward. The restaurant in 4 is still open, meaning the murders haven’t occurred yet - given some other context, it’s likely they died in 1985.

The only other incident the Bitten Child could be reacting to… would be the kidnapping back in Fredbear’s, where William stole one of the twins while in a Spring Bonnie suit. And the only way he would know about it is if he was there during the kidnapping - which is enough for me to say with confidence that the Bitten Child is indeed Sammy.

Also, Sister Location has a lot of kidnapping references. [I kidnapped you.]

Especially in the Immortal and the Restless. Vlad represents William throughout the games - not dong much in FNAF 1, working the night shift in 2, being in the burning building in 3, and the hidden scene representing Baby not killing Michael who she thinks is William. And what is said every episode?

[The baby isn’t mine]

The baby isn’t his because Sammy literally isn’t William’s child; he’s Henry’s.

However, if the Bitten Child is Sammy, then that means this [Older Brother footage] cannot be Michael.

Now, I know all of you smart people out there are already thinking the obvious: The books are an AU. Couldn’t Sammy be the one kidnapped in canon, thus allowing Michael to still be the Brother? And to that I say: …Yeah. If you want to work with Michael being the Brother, then this is the best way to do it, and it’s entirely possible this is the correct answer. …But with that said, I’m not entirely convinced.

[Why Charlie was kidnapped and not Sammy]

For starters, there’s the simple question of motivation. Why would WIlliam be raising Henry’s kid? Killing kids is kind of his M.O.. Even in the books, he killed the child he kidnapped. The idea of him kidnapping and raising a kid is even brought up in the Fourth Closet… then dismissed because it would be out of character for him, which would be strange if he did exactly that in canon.

As established earlier, Sammy also remembers the kidnapping, which would make it weird if he was the one kidnapped and yet is just allowed to freely wander the neighborhood. What’s to stop him from telling someone else, or even just running away?

Moving on to actual evidence, the map in SL’s breaker room lists the FNAF 4 house and the minigame house as two separate observation areas. This could be to differentiate the two for the player, but I don’t know why they’d be separated in-universe unless they were two separate houses. This would also explain why the living rooms don’t look the same and why the grandfather clock is in two different locations.

Likewise, the Fredbear Plush has either a camera or a walkie-talkie in it to spy on Sammy. However, the private room also reveals that William has the FNAF 4 gameplay house bugged. He shouldn’t need to use the Fredbear Plush to spy on Sammy, given that he can watch him both through the house cameras and the (presumable) cameras in Fredbear’s - unless Sammy is still in Henry’s house, which would force William to slip a camera into the place discreetly.

Speaking of the minigame house, there are a few parallels between it and Henry’s house in the books. The house was connected to an underground location in the Twisted Ones, just like it’s connected to the Sister Location in canon. And one of the rooms contains a tiny toy animatronic - just like the ones Henry built for Charlie in the Silver Eyes.

Continuing on that train of thought, let’s look at that tiny Toy Mangle. Assuming the Toy Chica principle is in place here - that being that the literal toys in this game look the same as the Toy Animatronics - the Mangle here looks like the FNAF 2 version of Mangle, not like William’s Funtime Foxy, pointing to it being Henry’s creation and not William’s. The SL extras even reveal that Funfox was supposed to be purple at first, which doesn’t make sense if it was supposed to match the tiny toy version.

But perhaps one of the biggest pieces of evidence regarding this toy is in Mangle’s Quest. While walking, you can encounter a huge silhouette of the Puppet… which makes Mangle look toy-sized in comparison. This only makes sense if this room was Charlie’s, and the Mangle toy was hers.

This also makes sense considering that Sister Location didn’t exist at the time of 4′s release. Scott claimed you could solve the lore back then using only the first four games, and if this was Charlie’s room, you could do it by combining the knowledge of the Fredbear Plush with Sammy’s missing sister and Charlie from the novels. If this is Elizabeth’s room, the only way that could be would be if it was retconned into place behind the scenes.

Additionally, I don’t think Elizabeth’s death is the correct date for this room to be empty in 1983. Handunit says that CBEAR didn’t open until after Freddy’s closed, as it gave them the opportunity to move into the entertainment space without competition. I’d assume this also applies to the original Circus Baby’s Pizza World, which indicates Elizabeth didn’t die until after FNAF 1. Given that Michael still has eyes in FNAF 1, SL in general had to have taken place after it - it’s unlikely William waited 10+ years to finally send Michael to save her, so her death being after FNAF 1 makes more sense timeline-wise.

Meanwhile, Charlie died in the very first Freddy’s location, before the other murders. HW confirms the FNAF 4 location was this first Freddy’s, meaning that she died in 1983. This not only lines up with her death date in the Fourth Closet, but also explains why the room in 4 hasn’t been cleaned out; she only died recently.

This would also explain why Henry claims that no-one was there to save Charlie. It’s his restaurant; wouldn’t he have, like, been there and been watching her if he was the one who brought her in?

And finally, I do have one massive piece of evidence that I feel proves the idea that Charlie is the one who was kidnapped.

[Chica School Days opening]

I know, I know, stay with me. Each of Toy Chica’s husbandos in these cutscenes represent one of William’s victims and how he killed them, as proven by her talking about running over a dog which aligns with Susie’s death in both Fruity Maze and the novels. There are a total of six people she targets.

However, that’s the thing - there are six victims, one for each of the original five - and the Puppet. That means Charlie’s death has to be included in here. And yet, none of the deaths line up with what we see in the minigames… unless you assume Charlie was the one kidnapped. In which case, there is one that fits…

[Toy Chica talking about kidnapping]

There are six deaths, so Charlie must be included. If the only thing that lines up with her death is the kidnapping scene, then Charlie must have been the one who was kidnapped, not Sammy.

But that brings us back to the original problem: If Charlie was the one who was kidnapped, Sammy is still living in Henry’s house. Which means Michael is not the Brother.

[Why do people think Michael is the Brother?]

Let’s move on to explaining away some of the evidence for Michael being the Brother.

The first and most obvious piece is that we play as the Brother in FNAF 4. Michael lives in the FNAF 4 house, so he must be the Brother. Which is a fair piece of evidence. However, I do think there’s something that explains this: Midnight Motorist.

Yes, the reason this minigame has perplexed so many fans might be because they’ve been looking at the entirety of FNAF 4 wrong. Let’s start with the Yellow Guy, who’s likely Henry. Why? Well, he’s driving William’s purple car and yet isn’t purple himself, so he can’t be William yet must have a connection to him. Henry and William were friends and business partners, so the idea of this being a company car or one of them just borrowing it for the weekend makes sense.

Likewise, every minigame and cutscene in FNAF 6 pertains to one of the main characters. The Puppet minigame for, well, the Puppet; Fruity Maze for William slash Scraptrap; and Candy Cadet’s stories for Scrap Baby and Molten Freddy. Henry is the only main character who wouldn’t have something in-game pertaining to him unless this sprite is him.

Moving on, we see him interact with a green sprite. I’d wager this is Clay Burke, for no other reason other than the sprite is presumably color-coded because we know the character, and because Clay is a cop and therefore could easily kick Henry out a bar.

Out a bit from Henry’s house, we see a grave, and around the back of the house there’s a smashed window and an animatronic footprint. In the books, the Twisted animatronics specifically targeted Henry’s family, kidnapped people through aggressive means, and buried themselves during the day. Given that the Twisteds are just AU Nightmare animatronics, it’s likely one of William’s robots was trying to kidnap another one of Henry’s kids.

However, the kid being targeted doesn’t seem to be Sammy or Charlie. Henry’s wife is still present and this is a different house than the one in FNAF 4, suggesting this is early on in the timeline, as Henry got a divorce and moved shortly after the kidnapping. The kid that was targeted here was old enough to lock himself in his room and make a run for it, suggesting it wasn’t one of the two babies but rather the Brother from 4, who’s certainly enough of an Angsty Teen to lock himself in his room several times.

As we can see by the footprints and Henry’s blase attitude, it looks like the Brother escaped from the animatronic… this time. It’s likely William kept trying to kidnap him until he succeeded, locking him into his house once he was successfully captured after the Bite. The dialogue from the FNAF 4 trailer might actually apply to William; he brought home the Brother, he think he sees a ghost haunting him which is why he’s observing him in the first place, and he treats this whole thing like a sick game.

So with the FNAF 4 house out of the way, there’s only a few other pieces of evidence. The logbook shows Michael having drawn N. Fredbear… but given that the Nightmare animatronics were still in his house, it’s likely he would have seen then at some point during the night.

The logbook also indicates that Michael is Mike Schmidt from FNAF 1, with his pseudonym being a combo of his own first name and “Eggs Benedict”. FNAF 4 plays like FNAF 1 does, and you can hear one of Phone Guy’s calls in the background, meaning the Brother must have worked in the FNAF 1 location and heard Phone Guy’s messages. And while Michael does fit these requirements… there is one other character who fits them even better.

[Continued in Part 2]

#five nights at freddy's #fnaf #fnaf 4 #five nights at freddy's 4 #older brother #michael afton #outdesign posts things #the black box #now I'm going to hide from the angry mob that is inevitably going to form because I dared to suggest michael is just michael

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mscalifornication · 4 years ago

Text

@holyshit thank you for tagging me, this looks fun 💖

[you have to click on each pic to see it in full bc of the different sizes]

PICREW

✨ screenshots

my lockscreen is: a lake in the mountains (I think?)

the last song i listened to: Waterparks - I Felt Younger When We Met

last photo saved: a screenshot of lyrics i found kinda funny [Bilderbuch - Nahuel Huapi] rough translation: me in you, only mother earth is watching us / high waist jeans and exotic restaurants are the things that are important to you

🎶 four songs i’ve heard today:

Waterparks - Numb

Nina Nesbitt - Selfies

Kraftklub - Schöner Tag

One Direction - What A Feeling

🎬 seven comfort films:

I don’t think I have seven but i’ll try...I rarely ever watch movies for comfort tbh

Spider Man: Homecoming

Spider Man: Far From Home

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Notting Hill

Jurassic Park

The Proposal

Mean Girls

🖐 get to know me:

name/nickname: Jessica / Jess, Jessi

star sign: pisces

favourite bands/groups: impossible to mention them all but All Time Low, The Maine, Waterparks, Normandie, Hot Milk, Grayscale, Broadside, Stand Atlantic, Billy Talent, The Faim, The Band CAMINO, girlfriends, 5sos, 1d...

favourite solo artists: solo 1d boys (keeping your answer), Dua Lipa, Nina Nesbitt, Yungblud, Julia Michaels

song stuck in my head: The Maine - Sticky (🎶 sticky just like the song in my head 🎶) but also Niall - Dear Patience cause i’m currently listening to it

last movie: a 1 hour long Natascha Kampusch documentary (I think her case is pretty popular worldwide?)

last show: Criminal Minds

when did i create this blog: 2014 I think

what do i post about: tv shows i’m watching, movies, actors, random stuff, sometimes music related stuff

last thing i googled: I think it was “difference between thin and fine hair” haha i’ve been watching lots of brad mondo videos lately

other blogs: my most active sideblogs are the ones in my bio: aes blog @minblomsterkrans & 1d blog @blue-eyes-tattoos I also have a Waterparks sideblog, a pretty much inactive one with just photos and gifs of h&l looking at each other lmao and a pretty much inactive language blog for resources and some more, mostly urls i’ll never use but i’m too lazy to delete :/

do i get asks: on average maybe once a month if i’m lucky

why did i choose this url: it’s a red hot chili peppers reference, I’ve used variations of it for multiple websites etc

following: ~1500 and i’m pretty sure half of those are dead

followers: a few hundred but i’m also pretty sure at least half of those are dead

average hours of sleep: 6-8

lucky number: don’t really have one, if i had to choose one i’d go with 25 because birthday lmao

instruments: I do have an acoustic guitar and a ukulele but i sadly can’t really play them 😔

what am i wearing: a black waterparks hoodie with three hand grenades on it, grey adidas joggers and black socks with burgers and fries on them <3

dream job: none. the thought of working any job is kinda unappealing to me at the moment 🥴 sorry i wish i had a better answer

dream trip: british columbia/western canada (just the thought almost made me tear up just now why am i like this god), australia, scotland ...

favourite food: anything potato, pizza, bibimbap, the vegan chili sin carne i made tonight haha it was pretty good

nationality: german

favorite song: I don’t have THE ONE fave song but the first one I automatically thought of is Miss You by Blink-182, an all time fave for sure

last book i read: Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall, god I wish I could delete it from my brain and read it for the first time again!!

three fictional universes you’d like to live in: oof this is hard, I rarely watch things that take place in fictional universes. idk maybe The Flash? most fictional universes don’t look like they’re nice to live in sgsgshhs

I have no idea who to tag so...

#this took me almost exactly one hour to do! love it #(no sarcasm)#thank youuuu #<3 #tagging #mutuals

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haberdashing · 4 years ago

Text

Biting Your Own Neck (2/?)

Mid-season 2, Jon’s life is abruptly upended by the intrusion of two unexpected and eerily familiar visitors.

on AO3

Chapter 1 / Chapter 2

Jon was half-tempted to slam his office door behind him, closing it and keeping the strange doppelgangers of himself and Martin stuck in his office for at least a moment longer, but... but that would only prevent the inevitable at this point, wouldn’t it? And besides, the lack of a regular door hadn’t stopped them from appearing in the first place... that might just invite further intrusion from Michael on top of everything else, and Jon could swear he felt his stab wound pang at just the thought of it.

Instead, Jon walked outside the door and a few steps towards Sasha’s desk before thinking better of it and standing still. Either these strange new intruders knew where things were already or they didn’t, but he didn’t want to make it any easier for them to infiltrate his Archives if he could avoid it.

As it turns out, both already knew exactly what they were looking for, as both the Not-Jon and Not-Martin passed by Jon, only stopping when they were both within arm’s reach of Sasha’s desk already.

“Sasha?”

The Not-Jon’s voice really did sound like his own, so it wasn’t much of a surprise that Sasha set down the file she was working on immediately, her head snapping up to face Not-Jon; the tone was loud and urgent enough that both Martin and Tim looked the same way, too.

Good. That was good, wasn’t it? Having more witnesses? Unless it meant they were all getting silenced for having seen whatever was about to happen to Sasha...

Jon took a few brisk steps forward, saying nothing but putting himself clearly within view of the others. If there was going to be a doppelganger of himself running around, they might as well know it as soon as possible, especially since Martin had his own doppelganger to consider as well.

“Jon?” Sasha didn’t seem especially agitated, but then, her voice always had seemed awfully calm. It fit her. Unruffled Sasha, always keeping her head in a crisis, rational and unemotional in a way Jon could never quite reach no matter how much he tried...

The Not-Jon bared its teeth again in another smile that was not quite a smile. “Yes and no.”

There was a long moment in which nothing was said, but all three assistants looked from Not-Jon to Jon and back, silently sizing up the situation. Tim glanced at Martin and Not-Martin as well, while Sasha, after a brief glance at Jon, remained fixed on his impostor.

Tim, surprisingly, was the one to break the silence. “What the hell is going on here?”

Not-Martin shook its head and sighed slightly.

Not-Jon leaned over, doing its best to loom over Sasha’s desk while restricted to Jon’s small frame, and smiled wider. “I’ll answer that question after I get an answer to this one: What happened to the real Sasha James?”

Sasha’s face paled, and her mouth set into a slight frown. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“But that is Sasha.” Martin said.

“I wish it were, Martin.” Not-Jon’s dark eyes looked filled with... sorrow? Pity? Some emotion the thing probably couldn’t even really feel, at any rate. “Now... tell me what the real Sasha James looked like.”

Not-Jon punctuated his demand by slamming his hand down on Sasha’s desk, and Jon initially thought that Sasha’s strange twitching was in response to that, except that a few seconds passed and it only got worse over time...

“Fine.” Sasha spat the word out as her body finally stilled. “Fine. You want to know what she was like? She was nothing like me. Taller than any of you lot, with long black curls, round hot pink glasses... and she was so, so weak when it really mattered. Taking her place was a cinch.”

Not-Jon’s smile widened, while Not-Martin looked up at it, an expression of concern on its face.

Martin looked like he was going to be sick, his face pale and his eyes slightly unfocused, a white-knuckled hand gripping the corner of his desk as if holding on for dear life.

Tim stood up in an instant. “Sasha, what are you talking about?”

“That isn’t Sasha.” Not-Jon said. “It hasn’t really been her for months now, not since Prentiss attacked.”

Tim considered this for a moment before sitting back down, his arms shaking and his sitting position somewhat askew. “Seriously? ...Christ.”

Sasha (was that Sasha?) and Not-Jon stared at each other for a long moment.

“You knew.” she said eventually.

“I did.” Not-Jon responded, its tone even and near-emotionless.

“I should have known, really, trying to hide in the Eye’s domain would fail one way or another...” Sasha (or, no, that wasn’t right, was it...) let out a bitter laugh; Jon couldn’t remember hearing anything like it before, didn’t think he’d heard her laugh much at all, let alone one quite like that. “But what are you going to do about it?”

“I’d like to make a suggestion.”

Jon turned to Not-Martin, and saw as he did that his weren’t the only eyes that turned to face Martin’s doppelganger as it rooted around in its bag before retrieving a very large, very sharp knife.

Sasha’s face--or, or Not-Sasha’s face--went pale at the sight of it, as did Martin’s, and Tim stood up again, but before he could do anything more than stand Not-Jon shook his head.

“No, I don’t think so. We can do this another way.”

Jon cleared his throat before speaking. “A way that doesn’t get blood all over the Archives and doesn’t involve slaughtering one of my assistants?”

“That thing was never really your assistant, and what would be spilled if we killed it wouldn’t be blood.”

Jon opened his mouth to speak, though he could feel bile climbing up his throat, but Not-Jon continued before Jon could think of the right words to voice.

“But yes, we can do this without violence. Martin, you can put the knife away, I’ve got this under control.”

Not-Martin put the knife away and a bit of the tension in the room ebbed away as it went out of sight, though Jon for one wasn’t going to forget easily that Not-Martin both had that knife on him and seemed awfully keen to use it.

“Before you do... whatever it is you’re going to do, can you explain what all of this is about in the first place?” Jon asked.

Not-Jon tilted its head slightly to one side. “You heard her admit it herself. That’s not the real Sasha James. When she took Sasha’s place, your memories changed so you only remember the impostor.”

Jon considered this for a minute. On the one hand, if Not-Jon was telling the truth, that meant Jon’s own memories had been altered without him knowing it--and if he didn’t remember his own archival assistant correctly, someone he’d worked with for over a year now, what else might he be misremembering without knowing it? On the other hand, the person he’d assumed until now was Sasha had said herself she was an impostor, so if Not-Jon was lying, so was she... unless Not-Jon had some way of getting people to tell lies, and that was why she’d hesitated and struggled before speaking up?

Impostor versus impostor... Jon wasn’t sure what to believe, but one way or another, it seemed that all his worst fears were being validated.

“I’m sure I could get Not-Sasha here to tell you more, if you’d like.” Not-Jon added.

Not-Sasha. The same term Jon had just begun to use for her, the same way he had mentally referred to Not-Jon and Not-Martin since their appearance. Coincidence, proof of mental similarity, some sort of mind reading...? Jon couldn’t say for sure.

“Of course. You want my story, don’t you? You want a statement.” Something in Not-Sasha’s voice was cold and harsh, and that more than anything was what impressed upon Jon that this wasn’t the person he’d thought she was.

“That much hasn’t changed.” Not-Jon said with a hint of a laugh in its voice. “Now... tell me your story, Not-Sasha.”

The moment Not-Jon spoke its command, something felt different in the air--an electric hum, like rubbing your hands on a television monitor, and something in the background that sounded like... tape recorder static? Microphone feedback? Both at once? Not a natural sound, that much was for sure.

Not-Sasha froze in place. “What are you doing?”

Not-Jon’s gaze remained fixed on Not-Sasha, and it didn’t look to be blinking. “Tell me.”

Not-Sasha didn’t move, exactly, but Jon could swear he saw part of her (its?) body shift, fingers elongating, legs lengthening, every bit of her stretching ever so slightly. “Wh- no! Stop it!”

“No.”

The word echoed through the room for a long moment before being interrupted by a scream from Not-Sasha, Jon turning to watch just in time to see her implode out of existence altogether.

Not-Jon breathed heavily for a moment, taking several deep breaths before turning to Not-Martin. “I need a pen and paper. I’ve got to record this before it fades.”

“Right.” Not-Martin rummaged around in its bag, and for a brief, terrible moment Jon was convinced he was going to get out the knife again, but no, what he retrieved instead was a moleskin notebook and a nice-looking pen. “In your office?”

“Why not.”

And then the two of them went into Jon’s office, and by the time Jon thought to be outraged by it--that was his office, damn it, not anybody else’s--they had closed the door behind them, and Jon heard the click of the lock being set.

Jon’s own set of keys were still inside said office.

Jon let out a long sigh and walked over to join Tim and Martin, taking a seat at Sasha’s desk, which felt wrong but, well, the seat was available now...

“What just happened?” Tim asked. “If that wasn’t Sasha, what was it?”

“And why’s there people that look like us just walking around? What’s their deal?” Martin added.

Jon massaged his forehead with his hands, though it did little to stop the headache quickly building there. “I don’t know, but I don’t think I like it.”

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