#no. actually. i dare you. name one

[inolienkiki]

I'm being very vague about plot points and character names here in the faint hope that it may entice some of you to watch this show.

on my... 4th? 5th? rewatch of DARK I'm paying a lot more attention to the character arcs, to figuring out how everyone got to the point they did. For a while the extent of my Adam takes was "haha stupid idiot man point and laugh, you can't even kys correctly" but recently I saw a post that made me stop and think and actually try to empathize with this character. This was immeasurably depressing (which is probably why I hadn't been considering it before).

The material extent of my take hasn't changed- I still think Adam is a truly stoopid person and by far the dumbest out of the three main characters in this show- but the context I have for this has changed a lot. See, each one of these characters is a planner who develops strategies for years down the line and uses all the information at their disposal to make those plans- but the way they get that information, and therefore how much they're able to do with it, is VERY different.

Adam remembers information. Everything he knows he got from his younger self; he functions almost entirely on memory. When he does stuff, like sending his younger self to summer 2019, or sending his sister to the apocalypse, or even attempting to build the God Particle machine in 1888, he's doing it because he remembers how all this stuff happened, and thus needs to keep it that way. Adam never actually seeks out new information, because every time he has in the past, it's absolutely demolished his life. He was investigating at the very beginning of the show- going into the caves, talking to his family members to figure out how much they knew- but at some point, he stops. He's lost that. He no longer views the knot as something to discover or manipulate, he thinks of it as something to escape from, and often completely fails to take others' plans or ideas into account. For 33 years he was sitting on the information that alt-Martha said she knew him, and not once did it occur to him to figure out why she said that or what bearing it might have on his plan. Seriously! If he'd investigated that, he could have altered his plan so it actually worked! And I don't blame him.

Eva generates information. Everything she knows she got from her older selves. Because she has almost absolute control over her own domain, and because she's been working in harmony for almost her whole life, she essentially bootstraps the information back to herself. You could call this working on memory, too, but I think it's a clear enough distinction, since she's actually honest to her younger self once they start working together. We don't have much on Eva, unfortunately, but we do know that her son was responsible for the notebook, and somehow I doubt he went and measured the "megahertz values" of all the cave time travel when they could've just used Adam's notebook and copied them over. (I don't buy that he actually killed Eva, but that's a different story.) Eva's son also works with his younger selves just like she does. Noah and Egon seem to as well, working with her. It's smart, it's thorough, and it totally would have worked, if it hadn't completely backfired.

The White Devil researches information. Out of all the main characters, she seems to do the most research. First off, she's actually a scientist, so naturally it's in her background. Even before she finds out about time travel, she's looking into the incident at the power plant, questioning Bernd about it, and being weird with Tronte. The very first thing she does when she gets access to time travel is go 30 years forward and look herself up. When she can't find her future self again, she realizes she's going to have to do this on her own, and proceeds to do so for the rest of her life. When Eva presents her the opportunity to work with another version of herself, she decides she wants more information, shoots her in the fucking head, and thereby goes and gets it. I'm confident that out of all the characters in this entire show (apart from origin HGT) this character is the only one who has any idea how time travel works or what to do with it. I love her for it.

So, I guess... trust the numbers, not yourself?

[corsairspade]

Halenthir scenario where they get married for tax benefits (in a platonic good friends sort of way) and fall in love long distance via sending each other letters with ideas on how to best leverage their marriage for tax evasion.

[twilight-good-yall-dumb]

This is my formal plea to literally everyone that you STOP going out and buying tickets to Disney remakes and sequels. As someone who holds that studio very close to my heart for the magic they used to create, it genuinely blows my mind how they're still finding immense financial success with shitty reincarnations of their preexisting IP. Do people not understand? Hate alone will do nothing! The top people at Disney are suffocating their artists with corporate greed! The executives and the shareholders do not give a SHIT if people on letterboxd hate their movie. If it's making money in the box office, they will continue making garbage because it WORKS! Please get a fucking grip and support other animation studios or literally any new IP that Disney actually decides to take a chance on, because money speaks, and it's the only language these current money hungry cowards at Disney seem to understand! I know for a damn FACT Walt has been turning in his grave for the past ten to fifteen years and it makes the prior Disney obsessed child in me SICK!!!

[saints-who-never-existed]

JCR's Unnamed Scottish Translator, you will always be famous. <3

[sysig]

Coming in to play! (Patreon)

[spiderman2-99]

🍾

What's your preferred alcohol? Can you list them from liked most to liked least?

Most liked? Ever? Don Julio, Patron, Angels Envy, Copal I

Great, now I'll sit here thinking abs out why autocorrect got MOST OF THOSE right.

Drank a lot of. Beer in college, still do on occasion, but can't name brands right now. Light beer ad seltzers are insults to alcohol. You couldn't Pau me to touch a White Claw.

Blanking on preferred wines. Probably because I haven't had any in a long time.

[itshomobirb]

2 memories i feel like sharing, & some backstory context: so my ass has been spayed, and healthy people take 6-8 weeks to fully recover from getting spayed. i, chronically ill, took longer. as with any abdominal surgery, they told me "no lifting over 10lb u could tear ur stitches." and for reference, my cats are 12 lb wonders.

so im chilling in bed. ~4 weeks after surgery. and my mother starts SCREAMING my name. like "OH MY GOD BORB COME IN HERE NOW QUICK QUICK HURRY OH GOD." so i do, albeit slowly because, you know, still recovering from major surgery. she's freaking out about one of my cats, who looks entirely normal. oh but he ~suddenly stopped~ and ~twisted his body~ i don't know if he's going to be ok. one mother panic attack and one emergency vet visit later (with my mother's help bc i couldn't lift my cat due to lifting restrictions) : he had flea dirt on his hind legs. he was twisting around to lick around his arse. cool 👍 (ofc my mother, on the ride back from the vet, tried to tell me NOT to give the kids flea meds, she doesn't know what kind of ~health ramifications~ flea meds can have if *gasp* the kids don't actually have fleas)

around the same time period, i get woken up by my mother screaming "HELP HELP HELP!!" the first day it happens, she stops within ~15 seconds, and i hear my parents talking before i fall back asleep. find out later the mechanism for moving the window panels up & down in the bathroom broke, so the top panel had trapped her fingers a la guillotine style. my parents joke "well borb if you hear your mother screaming... her fingers are probably trapped 😂." can you guess what happens next. my father was gone the next day, and guess who got her fingers trapped AGAIN by the bathroom window. so i get woken up by her screaming, and i have to help dislodge the window around her bare naked ass. and sure, i have sympathy because i bet it was really painful. but like. are you fucking stupid. my father had to literally childproof the window by installing a screw so the guillotine panel would catch against the other panel so fingers wouldn't get trapped. just so my mother wouldn't get her fingers trapped again. we all knew that if it wasn't there, she would 1000% get her fingers trapped again. but *im* supposedly the incompetent fuck up that NEEDS to be told exactly what to do just in case i, idk, have an independent thought.

[namazunomegami]

Lord of the Flies, Gluttonous Queen, Prince of Filth, Prince of Decay, Goddess of Ekron, Lord of Slander, Queen of Pestilence and Famine, The Rotting One

I Solomon said unto him: “Beelzeboul what is thy employment?” And (s)he answered me: “I destroy kings. I ally myself with foreign tyrants. And my own demons I set on to men, in order that the latter may believe in them and be lost. And the chosen servants of God, priests, and faithful men, I excite unto desires for wicked sins, and evil heresies, and lawless deeds; and they obey me, and I bear them on to destruction. And I inspire men with envy, and desire for murder, and for wars, and sodomy, and other evil things. And I will destroy the world.” - The Testament of Solomon

[silentauthor96]

#NotMyOliverQueen

(Source)

[bartholomewillustrated]

Does Auger prefer to eat meat or vegetables? Is Auger violent or passive? What about... sugarcube?...

For those creations by Lazarus which eat (if they do) meat, are they capable of consuming "Carne Nullis" or would it cause them to become mutated due to contact with his blood? (Or does it have to be fresh blood from his blood stream)?

It was written that Hieronymous is 'unstable' and is 'always in need of repair'. Does that mean Hieronymous is unstable mentally, or physically? I noticed in the drawing that Hieronymous looks sickly with no fur of Hieronymous' own, but Shelley had bits of Shelley's own fur growing and looked strong and vibrant. What causes Hieronymous, in your canon, to be unstable versus Shelley being strongly stable? Is it related to the Cadou, Lazarus' powers, or something else entirely?

Is Hieronymous' nature of being able to like or dislike people even though Hieronymous is very aggressive relative to Hieronymous' instability, or just a quirk of Hieronymous' personality? Are the Wear-Wolves positive/less aggressive to those with a Cadou vs those without, or it doesn't matter? Is it possible for them to have a passive or friendly interaction with a mere stranger, say, if that stranger were to offer them a snack?

Do Wear-Wolves only eat fresh meat, or can they eat cooked, rendered meats? Is there something a Wear-Wolf really cannot have, like chocolate or raisins, or do they forego the typical drawbacks of actual canines?

Ooooo hoohohoho!! I Love this! What excellent thought provoking questions!! Thank you so much!!

under a cut for obvious Length reasons v-v

Does Auger prefer to eat meat or vegetables?

Auger was made specifically with the idea in mind that he can, and would, consume Anything. You could feed that lad a Tree Branch if you wanted to. He doesn't really have organs the same way a regular horse would, or even the same way the Worn Wolves do. He's got what is essentially a large grinder for an abdomen, in which any consumed material gets ground into nothing. As such he doesn't really express much of a preference. He'll eat whatever he's fed. He does get to graze in the summer on nice fresh grass cause there is a horse brain In There, Kinda. but when fresh foliage is short in the winter he eats a lotta old hay or bark and such. (Lazarus's creations don't have the same nutritional needs as a normal animal/person? per say? Even a human augmented by cadou/megamycete still needs to eat a balanced diet, but because Lazarus's creations are all hodge-podged together and ambulated exclusively via Mold Magic they just kinda need.. Something in the tank to give them energy, and even then.. Laz is Dubious that that's really the case.)

Is Auger violent or passive? What about... sugarcube?...

I wouldn't say Auger is actively Aggressive, but he's.. like... Fight is his first response to anything he doesn't like. He's cool with Lazarus (most of the time) but everyone else is pretty iffy (In the imaginary version of the game in that exists in my head that has Laz in it Auger is actually a mini boss Ethan fights before getting knocked tf out) Even Karl he's pretty ehhhh with.. So sugar cube? You could try, But Watch Out!

For those creations by Lazarus which eat (if they do) meat, are they capable of consuming "Carne Nullis" or would it cause them to become mutated due to contact with his blood? (Or does it have to be fresh blood from his blood stream)?

SO! This was an interesting one and I really had to ponder on it because I somehow had not at all thought about someone (except maybe Lazarus himself because he's a Freak) trying to eat Carne Nullis.. let alone Laz feeding it to his creations... I think it Is Technically edible. BUT If you are a person who is not predisposed to have a favourable reaction to Cadou/megamycete it will cause you Harm. Because it's really like a weird mixture of actual meat and The Mold, in a similar way to how Ethan is both a Meat Boy and a Mold Boy. But if you're reaction to Cadou/megamycete is stable it's just like a really mid and kinda musty cut of whatever meat it was generated from initially.

Because, then, his creations are dependent on Cadou to live, they can eat Carne Nullis just fine. They don't usually, because Lazarus kinda needs his blood, but they Could. (To answer a sorta sub-question I see nestled in there as well; Once Lazarus's blood has like.. fully formed and become Carne Nullis it no longer holds its mutative growth property. Only when it's still liquid can it grow or mold the extra flesh)

It was written that Hieronymous is 'unstable' and is 'always in need of repair'. Does that mean Hieronymous is unstable mentally, or physically?

Physically, poor thing is always in need of replacement parts or restitching, and Lazarus has just given up at trying to figure out how to get eyes to not immediately rot out of his head..

I noticed in the drawing that Hieronymous looks sickly with no fur of Hieronymous' own, but Shelley had bits of Shelley's own fur growing and looked strong and vibrant. What causes Hieronymous, in your canon, to be unstable versus Shelley being strongly stable? Is it related to the Cadou, Lazarus' powers, or something else entirely?

It's all in the material really. Lazarus sources a few different things for the flesh that makes up his creations, the Worn Wolves in particular are comprised primarily of actual wolf/dog parts, a little bit of human, and Lycan meat/skin (with little filler bits from other animals where necessary).

Lycans are tricky in terms of quality, as they're already proven unstable against the cadou so getting the right combination of A Strong(er) Lycan, a Good Amount of stable material from other sources, and balancing it all to react well to the Cadou can be Finicky. Once all the parts are together and Lazarus is satisfied with the result they are injected with partial little chunks of Cadou which brings them to "life". So Laz's powers really don't factor into the stability too much, once the sculpting is finished the end result is really in the hands of the flesh's reaction to the Cadou, which is something that's really hard to predict with 100% certainty.

Heironymous isn't the Only unstable worn wolf, he's just the Most unstable. (and has become the Little Baby of the pack because of it.) He was one of the earlier experiments and Lazarus hadn't got the formula exact yet, where Shelley was formed later in the pack, but her relative strength made her the Leader.

Is Hieronymous' nature of being able to like or dislike people even though Hieronymous is very aggressive relative to Hieronymous' instability, or just a quirk of Hieronymous' personality?

Just his personality. The worn wolves are probably Lazarus's most successful venture. His most Complete Works, in terms of overall functionality and... Lively-ness (Auger being a close second, and a creation I've yet to reveal that he collaborated with Karl on that is leagues beyond anything either of them made alone >:3c) So each of them is actually pretty Dog-Like in that they have determinable personalities and are capable of like.. Being Clever (where something like Auger is mostly reactionary) or being Calm, or learning to trust other people etc.. But Heironymous's particular docility is also probably in part because he is so often Babied, by the other wolves and by Lazarus.

There all very aggressive innately but they are also, for lack of a better word, Well Trained. Are the Wear-Wolves positive/less aggressive to those with a Cadou vs those without, or it doesn't matter?

That doesn't particularly matter, they're aggressive at whoever Lazarus directs them to be aggressive at.

Is it possible for them to have a passive or friendly interaction with a mere stranger, say, if that stranger were to offer them a snack?

It Is! In fact! there is a very important Character in FaHI I have yet to introduce; Johanna, Lazarus's young assistant, who does exactly this!

Do Wear-Wolves only eat fresh meat, or can they eat cooked, rendered meats?

They could eat cooked meat, but they wouldn't enjoy it nearly as much.

Is there something a Wear-Wolf really cannot have, like chocolate or raisins, or do they forego the typical drawbacks of actual canines?

Though they share a large amount of their material body with like.. actual dogs, I think the added human/lycan parts of their composition and the fact they are puppeted by weird Mold Magic moots any foods ill effects.. they aren't Quite Auger, you couldn't feed them Sticks, but like.. they could eat some raisins.

This was so much fun!!! thank you so much for sending this!!! I take a very "I don't have to explain myself to you as long as it all Seems internally logically consistent" approach to story telling so a few of these really made me think!

[airenyah]

yesterday on the phone my mom told me that taemin's new thing had come out and i was like "yeah. i couldn't tell from all the posts @newyearknwwme was putting on my dash. i was close to blacklisting taemin."

my mother then gasped dramatically and said i could blacklist whatever kpop star i wanted but not taemin, just not taemin. i am forbidden from blacklisting taemin

[purple-beans]

I can't sleep again

[spawnfog]

can we please discourage kids from being the heros in internet drama..??? idk pitting kids against each other to try and fix situations involving incredibly serious topics when they themselves cant even fully grasp such concepts just doesnt sound very healthy. i dont think that type of peer pressure, stress, or responsibility is good for a kids development

[sureuncertainty]

earlier we took a horrible uquiz that was like 'what kind of straight person are you" like whatever funny joke but I'm STILL UPSET because one of the questions fucking ASSUMED THAT AVERY IS A CISHET NAME, OP I AM GOING TO STRANGLE YOU WITH MY BARE HANDS

[longagoitwastuesday]

The self-conscious to arrogant pipeline in Blade's story... heathcliffean

[normaltothemax]

sometimes I think about changing my url or my penname but then I think "no, I could never. that's my brand. my entire identity. everything I am as a person" and I keep it the same