#paralleles

[horrq]

Jules Houplain as Victor Deslandes in Parallels (2022)

[darkacademiaarchivist]

something about Aziraphale hyping himself up to ask Crowley to dance after watching Maggie and Nina dance and Nick kissing Charlie after seeing Tara and Darcy kiss. Emotional support lesbians. Who also need emotional support but that's not the point

[hyperfixation-or-death]

13 for the writing ask !

ooh, okay, so-!

song 13 on the playlist was Six Hundred Strike from Epic the Musical! so. the lyric i chose was:

look what you turned me into / look what we've become

and, taking it completely out of context, the lyric inspired angsty post-canon Deslandes brothers introspection from Sam's perspective, vaguely resembling a character study. <3

(currently undecided on whether this oneshot actually matches my view of the characters, but. y'know what? headcanons are fluid and ever-changing, characterization is relative, writing style is ever-evolving, and also the two cakes metaphor especially applies to this fandom because we are very hungry. so i'm probably fine. <3)

Victor is lying on Sam's bed, arms wrapped around the pillow that his chin is resting on. Their parents are asleep, and Sam would also probably be asleep, except apparently Victor is a lot more open to sincere conversation when he's half-awake, and Sam hadn't been about to pass on the opportunity to actually talk about what the other timeline had been like.

A lot of what Victor is saying, though, he had already known. Or guessed.

They all knew those four years had been awful for Victor and Romane; the details Victor could remember only solidified that.

There's a lull in the conversation as Victor starts running out of things to say.  Sam's mind starts wandering.

He thinks about Victor leaning into every hug and affectionate nudge some days, like he's still trying to stave off the lingering remnants of loneliness. Like it's a chill that never left him, leaving Sam to watch his little brother cling to any warmth he can get his hands on. And it hurts to notice, but it's still so much better than the days when Victor shies away from touch altogether, pulling back from the others and shrugging someone's hand off his shoulder quickly enough to vaguely resemble a flinch. When he's all visible tension and unspoken anxiety and that barely hidden mistrust of his own hands that Sam knows he can't be the one to point out if they ever want Victor to actually talk about it.

And he thinks that maybe he understands a little bit of it. The wanting something so badly you feel like you're freezing to death when you don't get it. It's physical contact for Victor, and it's verbal affection for Sam. And he knows that wishing his parents would tell him he was doing good outside of when they were using it against Victor wasn't the same as the four years of grief and isolation that his brother went through; he would never try and say that. It just…feels more unfair some days than others.

And knowing how much you could hurt people if you don't do everything right. He thinks he might understand some of that, too. Because, yeah, Victor had the powers. Victor had the tangible risk of losing control. Victor had the dead older brother in a universe that wasn't theirs and never would be.

And Sam had Victor. Sam had their parents. Sam had the careful line to walk and walk well, because messing up meant that no one would be making sure their parents were being fair to Victor. And then everything would get worse, and Victor might slip out of his reach again, wrapped up in the hurt and resentment and every single ugly feeling that only his family ever really seemed to bring out of him. And just the thought of that made him feel sick to his stomach with guilt and anxiety and a little bit of frustration.

Sometimes - a lot of times, he wondered if their parents even liked Victor. They loved them both, he was sure, but- that was a completely different thing, wasn't it?

Victor nudges his shoulder, breaking him out of his thoughts. "You know what sucks?"

"What?"

"They don't know. They don't know what they did to me, or what I almost did to you, or- any of it. They can't be sorry if it never…never happened. Y'know?"

Slowly, Sam nods. "Yeah. Do you think-" He falters, because what he wants to say is Do you think it'd fix anything if they were sorry? And he's pretty sure that's pushing too far even for the quiet openness that's somehow settled between them tonight. So, instead, he asks, "Do you think they'd be sorry if they knew?"

Victor shrugs, the movement harsh and immediate. "I don’t know. I don't think I care anymore."

Sam hums in acknowledgement, and thinks about how the last time he cried was a few days ago, after smoothing down the starts of an argument over Victor's grades during dinner. (His grades were fine now; their parents had clearly been about to accuse him of cheating before Sam interjected.) He thinks about ducking away to his room and locking the door, about shaking from the tension of all the anxiety building up inside him. He thinks about burying his face in a pillow until the burning tears stopped trying to escape.

And he wonders how much of Victor not caring anymore is him just being tired of caring, and how much is him feeling like he can't care about it after everything that happened. Wonders if Victor might be scared of his own head as much as he's scared of his powers, and if it's really all the same kind of fear.

He turns all of it around in his head for a few long moments. Then he decides that if Victor wants to be cautious about letting himself be angry now that he has destructive time-acceleration powers directly linked to his emotions, that's fine. Sam can be the one to hold onto the anger for a while.

And maybe it would fix things if their parents knew what had happened, if they were sorry. But, then again- they've looked at him and Victor since they got their memories back. Straight at them, and they didn’t see anything worth being concerned over.

He wishes they would, though. Wishes they would look at them and see everything that had happened to their sons. Everything they had become while their parents weren't looking.

Sam lets his head fall back onto the pillow with a quiet sigh.

Neither of them say anything else that night.

(anyways Sam being 14 years old and pushed into having a really unhealthy level of influence over his parent's decisions concerning Victor was Not good for Sam's emotional well-being post-canon. and that's the hill i'll die on. well, actually, since no one really cares enough to disagree with me on this, it's the hill that i'll stay alive on forever. i cannot be killed.)

thanks so much for the ask!! hope you have a great day!! :)

[aka-ar]

Maybe Victor could deage himself when they did the Group Hug because he was happy, since he can age stuff when unhappy, and his power works both ways?

that means that ever since he got his powers he was never truly happy and was always sad or angry or scared, just good at hiding it

[windwenn]

‘You were my new dream’ or however the fuck that scene went

[archi-pelago]

maybe never forgive. but things are different now. so we'll use maybe.

[jay-wasstuff]

Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)

[mejkosmos]

whichever madman pointed out that the new rift on bill's body in the theraprism is meant to parallel ford's cracked glasses after he emerges out of the portal,,,, MY SOUL IS YOURS TO TAKE ANYDAY MY GOSH

--------------------------------------------------

bonus !!

ford about bill:

bill about ford:

[jemmalynette]

Maybe all the things you thought made you you aren’t really…you. Barbie (2023) / Fight Club (1999)

[mioakem]

the imagery in this part of the ep was actually insane like this is genuinely beautiful

[brightdeadthing]

love as recognition

anna gavalda / friedrich nietzsche / clarice lispector / jandy nelson / rebecca perry / mhairi mcfarlane

[logray]

THE SHINING (1980) HANNIBAL (2013-15) THE SUBSTANCE (2024)

[bi-for-vi]

I don’t see anybody talking about this, but it hurt my heart

[hyperfixation-or-death]

Favorite Parallels episode, GO!

ooh, okay, so i was going to say episode 6 out of instinct, because i love episode 6.

the intensity. the emotions. the catharsis. romane freezing time. the romane & victor friendship flashbacks!! the group hug.... <3 the time travel! the way everything that follows just feels so light, because the kids don't know! sam intervening in the boarding school conversation... (the implications of that scene for the deslandes family dynamic are Not Great, but i love thinking about complex dysfunctional families. also i have a soft spot for protective siblings.)

it was just such a good finale, and i absolutely love it.

however. i thought about it for another second. and, y'know what?

i'm actually going with episode 4 as my favorite. parallels episode 4 my absolute beloved. <3

romane and victor finding out their families are all alive in this timeline! honestly, their friendship in the first few scenes of this episode alone is just the softest thing ever. look at them!

they're so happy..... <3

then we get the contrast between alice's interaction with sam versus her interaction with victor, and that hurts. it does a really good job at building the tension and emotional conflict, and then the flashback explaining the pre-canon fire......it's all really good.

but. the reunion scene???? yeah. highlight of the episode, makes me want to sob on the ground for a thousand years. i'm so obsessed with that scene. i love it so much. do you want gifs? i have gifs. here:

they all love each other so much and now they all have each other again!! ohhhh all of the emotion in the scene is so good. sam immediately moving to hug victor? the way both of their expressions are so soft and relieved? sam tightening the hug before he lets go of victor? romane looking at sam with all that affection? before her face falls, because she knows it won't be like before? victor and bilal doing their handshake? bilal absolutely beaming as he hugs victor?

yeah.............i have a lot of emotions about that scene. <3

also victor and romane discovering their powers! i really like their powers. :)

but yeah, this episode's the most fun for me to rewatch. episode 6 is a close second, but i have to be more emotionally prepared for all the tension and emotions in that one, y'know?

thank you so much for the ask!! i'm very glad i got to talk about parallels today. <3

[aka-ar]

Okay but doesn't Older Victor constantly look like that one meme about the camera angle when an anime character goes insane?

Like. His character is great, but. yeah-