#pixie in trebleland

[pixie-in-trebleland]

I'm stating now that there is a possibility this tangent may have spoilers for the series so, do read at your own caution? I guess? I'm only halfway through the second book, so anything that happens up until now is fair game.

---------

All right, we are back on another "Blood and Ash" rant...thing. I'm currently reading the second book of the series ("A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire") and have choice words about one of the characters. Theories. I have theories about Alastir in particular.

So, Vikter dies towards the end of the first book. Vikter, throughout the entire first book, "From Blood and Ash", serves as a father figure to Poppy, along with being her personal guard. Described to be somewhere in his 40s, golden hair and blue eyes, this man screams dad vibes the second the dynamic between him and Poppy is explored. It's almost instant that you can't help but trust Vikter. This is also why his death at the end of the first book is fucking heart-wrenching. There's no easy way to say that, especially since Armentrout does such a stellar job of putting the reader in Poppy's shoes. We feel her grief when Vikter is fatally wounded and dies in her arms, when he apologises. It isn't long after his passing (like, literally no more than a few seconds or minutes) that Hawke and the Duchess whisk her out of the room. Poppy doesn't get to say goodbye or prepare for a funeral like she did when Rylan was killed early on. She doesn't get to properly grieve the way that anyone deserves.. it's just go go go and it sucks because Vikter was, like I said before, more of a father figure to her than anything.

It's explained early on in the second book that Poppy doesn't...remember Leo, her birth father, all that well. In her nightmares, he's nothing more than a blur or muddled in appearance, and his voice is never quite right. And sure, one could argue that it's a dream /nightmare, but that isn't..a just argument. She remembers her mother with vivid detail, down to her dress and her voice and just little tiny details that can be discussed in a whole other micro essay.

Enter Alastir ..Last name. I don't remember his last name, but! He's a Wolven. He's the right hand man to the Da'Neer family and serves as an advisor to them. He's close with Prince Casteel and his bestie Kieran, which makes him seem cool and trustworthy. It cannot just be coincidence that his description is eerily similar to that of Vikter's.

Yes yes, blonde and blue eyes is common, but in this circumstance, I think it's intentional. Poppy comments when she first meets him that Alastir reminds her a fair bit of Vikter, and that she can't help but trust him. The repetition of this statement is...odd, to me. We get it, you trust him, but...why would it need to be repeated unless there's something else?

Alastir is guarded, but compassionate. Casteel makes a remark that Alastir can't keep his mouth shut, which only leads me to believe that...maybe Alastir has his own plan? Maybe this once, he has a completely different motive than the royal family. He's quick to offer Poppy a way out if she doesn't want to marry Casteel. If he was as loyal to the family as everyone is letting on, then why would he help a young woman who has been a key tool in creating those that have decimated his own people. If he was as sweet as they say, why does he speak to Poppy alone? Every interaction between Poppy and Alastir has been a father-daughter bond...behind closed doors. Never in front of Casteel, who is like a son to him, and Kieran.

NOT TO MENTION THE GUY HAD A THING FOR CASTEEL'S MOTHER. So, you know.

In summary? I don't trust Alastir and he's written so well that it's all up in the air..

[my-brothers-corrupted]

Hey Red! What's got you distracted?

He shrugs and gives a small smile, though it’s equal parts sad and happy.

“Don’t know,” he says. “I space out sometimes when I’m overwhelmed and stuff. But this isn’t that. I used to be able to focus pretty clearly on right now. But now it’s like... I don’t know. I just keep thinking about different things. I guess I’m thinking more about the future. And not just about making sure everybody’s going to have enough to eat. I can just... imagine things, now, I guess. That I didn’t before. I imagine a different future than I did before.”

He scratches Noodle’s tummy, letting out a low sigh. “But it’s just dreaming.”

The door to his room swings open and he turns to smile at Blue, but it isn’t Blue there.

Trick holds his backpack to his stomach nervously, staring at Red.

“What?”

“Um. Anti told me to stay in here tonight.”

Red straightens up, blinking. “What? In here?”

“Yeah.”

“What, like, share the bed with me? Where’s Blue? And Dok?”

“I don’t know, staying in that bed, I guess,” says Trick, looking stressed.

“Anti wants you and me to stay together?”

“That’s what I said!”

They stare at each other, seeing each other’s discomfort mirrored.

“Anti’s not... taking us away from Blue and Dok, right?”

Trick shrugs, chewing on his lip. “I just got him back,” he mumbles.

[seaswalllow]

SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE NEW CHARACTERS?

I HAVE SO MANY OF THEM 

I’M NOT MAKING MORE THERE’S ALREADY SO MANY 

but also i kin assign youuuuuuuu (/j) rhea, the partially mechanical-bird member of the wasteland pack. definitely older sibling friend vibes, but like gentler with less of the confrontation. lots of fun when you want to be! and when it comes down to it you’ll fight! but also good to just Chill.

send me an ask and i’ll assign you a character from the apparently infinite list of characters

[beerecordings]

AJDHDHSHAJSJ BEE I WOULD LIKE MY HEARTSTRINGS BACKISH, PLEASE!

I have said this many times in regards to my writing but have literally never meant it more: AW FUcK I’M SORRY

[astraltrain]

AHHH YOU GOT INTO COLLEGE! That's amazing! Congrats, bean!

TI :stress: TYSM AAAA

[immabethehero]

JSE Community Renaissance Appreciation Post

I just learned about this yesterday uhhhh here goes! If you don’t want to be tagged let me know! You guys have been very nice to me, sorry I haven’t been here much but know that I appreciate you!

@florenceisfalling, @jaeyleo, @crystalninjaphoenix, @septic-dr-schneep, @milo-kno, @beerecordings, @bupine, @seagullsausage, @pxppet, @the-pastel-kitsune, @10th-no-name-person, @asherranceoftheheart, @geekyfox2, @roesavalonsigma, @pixelpixie-pix, @uhhbeans, @spicydanhowell

Y’all have some pretty epic stories of up your sleeves and I love to read them! I don’t know how many of your are still in the community but your stories are always so fun to read!

@leobashi, @flowers-zombie-rob,  @inspiredrawaw, @turquoisemagpie, @glass-trash-bab, @anneliis18, @greydoesthearts, @spiccykels, @parrythefloof, @dmnfox, @oblivioussempai, @opera25

Your art is so awesome to look at and have been real inspirations to my writing! Once again, even if you have left, you still have cool arts to see!

@oh-itskitkat, I love looking at your pretty edits and you’re always very nice to me!

@huffletrax I love how positive and kind you are to everyone!

@graysun, @kfjack, @spudmcloughlin, @lirusstories, @off-brand-scalpel-man, @pixie-in-trebleland, @shadowtigress2, @anon-jameson, @obsidiancreates, @randowaffle, @shy-3po you guys are all very nice and pleasant people!

@jacksinsanity, @youtubersarelife23, @jacksoopticboop, you guys have such cool content and are always very sweet and positive to everyone!

If I missed someone, I’m so sorry, but know I still appreciate you!

Thanks to @rogue-of-broken-time for organizing this!

[turquoisemagpie]

“Nothing is saving him!... Nothing!” 

(Commissioned piece for @pixie-in-trebleland. Thanks for commissioning me.)

[my-brothers-corrupted]

So what's the plan for now, Marvin? Keep Trick happy and safe? Maybe get him away from Anti? He can't track you guys, realistically...

Blue laughs wearily, rubbing at Trick’s back as they walk. With no other way to look after him, his protectiveness manifests in constant touching and a constant eye on him. Trick’s weary and he keeps leaning back in to Blue’s touch, looking up at him like he’s expecting him to catch him when he falls.

“I don’t know,” says Blue. “I think he could find a way to track just about anyone, no matter how off the grid you try to be.”

“He found you once,” pipes up Trick, swinging their hands as they walk. “When you were still the old master’s. We hunted you for months, Blue.”

“Right... well. I don’t know. Maybe it will be easier when I have the others here, to see what needs to be done. I really, really been missing Red.”

Trick squeezes his palm sympathetically. Blue glances up to see the house in front of them.

“At least someone got rid of that weird cloth,” says Blue. “It was freaking me out, lying across the hummingbird feeder. It looked like a person in the dark.”

“What cloth?”

“This big swath of colorful fabric just hanging over the bird feeder. Someone must have forgotten and then remembered it.”

“I didn’t see it.”

“I was surprised Anti didn’t do anything about it. He can be kind of territorial.”

“Maybe he didn’t see it either. He hasn’t been leaving the house. Should I tell him about it?”

“I don’t know. It’s gone now, isn’t it?”

[my-brothers-corrupted]

Dap, honey, what are you doing?

Hypnosis, Henrik advised you, always causes a dam break eventually.

Anti can soothe the water back into place again and again. He can build the walls higher and higher. He can lie, manipulate, deceive, and ignore.

But at some point, no matter what he did, Henrik knew there would be a moment where Trick wound up distressed and confused and terrified in his eyes, sobbing about all the ways in which he can feel that his head has changed, that his thoughts have changed, that his very person, at Anti’s behest, has changed.

Two weeks of heavy influencing. Some months of lighter work before that. And Trick feels like the world is ending. Trick feels like the person he was before was killed in front of him. Through it all, he still loves Anti.

That might be the most torturous part - to see him clearly for what he’s done, to know that the reason he wants to protect him is because of the hooks buried in his brain, and to still know he wants to protect him anyway, to make him feel okay, to be there for him.

Two weeks and some months. It’s nothing to laugh at. His pain has been high for a long time and all of them suffer different.

But Dapper -

Dapper and the dam that Anti built high, high, high -

Dapper has been under Anti’s influence for most of his life.

Years and years and years.

The seams of his world are falling apart. In moments of clarity, you have heard him whisper truths too terrible to believe - he made me do things I didn’t want to do. He made me happy to do them. I was a happy and loving person learning to find my place in the world and he took that person and made me kill him with my own two hands.

Now, he not only knows them but feels them. Feels the truth of them. They burn like white fire in his chest and he wishes that he could scream.

This isn’t what I wanted! This isn’t who I am! Where did I go? What did you do to me? How many times have I fought and fought and fought! Why can I never, ever get free!

This is the quiet, violent undercurrent of his agony, tearing his feet out from under here. The riptide of his despair. And the rest?

You feel Dapper’s hands signing rapidly, desperately, incoherently, his breaths coming in short, horrified wheezing, small jolts running through him every now and then as his hallucinations prod and snap at him, disorientation making him dazed and unresponsive on the ledge of that path overlooking the ocean, paranoia pounding against his skull in a hateful rhythm, terror of Anti returning mixes with terror of being without him and Dapper is - Dapper is -

Your camera crashes to the pavement behind the ledge, so you can see his body shaking up, his hands signing nonsense to himself, his face twitching.

Dapper is not able to deal with this alone.

[my-brothers-corrupted]

Hen, Max and Jackie split up. Anti's tracking their phone.

“Shit,” hisses Henrik. “Is Jackie in danger?”

And on your other screen, at the exact same time, with the thumping of the cane:

“Would you fuckers stop trying to thwart me? Bastards. Red! Red, come here! I see you, big brother! Come on, we can be nice about this...”

[my-brothers-corrupted]

Red, you need to move faster. Ditch your phone! Anti is tracking you guys. BOTH OF YOU DITCH YOUR PHONES AND RUN LIKE HELL

They ditched the camera, but Anti can hear them, Anti can hear them through the phone. He digs into the frequency and it buzzes onto your screens, showing you the darkness of the inside of Max’s pocket. Luckily for them, Max has been hiding from Anti for a long time. They already realized the problem.

“Give me the phone,” Ro is panting. “Go to the airport. I know you got tickets. Go back to England. I should never have let you come back with us. I just didn’t want to admit what he was. I didn’t want to admit that my little brother would hurt you.”

“I’m not leaving you. Not losing you again.”

“You heard the messages,” whispers back Red. “My brothers and I - we have to be together to get free of him. We have to work together and we’re not ready. Trick is completely in his head, Dapper can’t convince himself, and Blue is possessed and sick and hurting. We have to do this alone.”

“That’s stupid,” spits Max, and you can hear the brush of their clothes together. “That’s stupid. Let me help.”

“He’ll just kill you. I know the way Dapper thinks, at least in regards to reversals. He’s protecting us and you have to run. Max.”

“No... no. I can’t... I love you. I finally found you again.”

Air between them. Breathing between them. They are holding on to each other. Max will not let go of him. He can’t.

“Yeah, you can,” says Red. “You can and trust that I’ll come back to you.”

“You’ll forget me again.”

“No. No. Never.”

He can’t. He can’t. Can he? He can’t.

[my-brothers-corrupted]

WAIT! SUNBIRD DUDE, MAGICO! Those two had nothing to do with it! One was in the hospital!!

“We were in the hospital!” cries Blue, desperate now. “I was ill and he was with me! We had nothing to do with it!”

“You live with a monster,” growls the sunbird. “You should have killed it when you were given the chance. I watched you last night, little lapwing. Sleeping sound. You’re not a fighter. You’re not a prisoner. Don’t try to trick me.”

Sudden fury lights up in Blue’s blood. He grits his teeth hard, his eyes watering.

“You don’t know anything about me,” he hisses. “About the things I’ve had to do to survive. I’ve been fighting every day for months now. Sleeping is a victory. That I’m alive is a victory. Don’t you dare pretend I’m something evil just because I’ve survived evil things. At least I haven’t let them turn me into something as hateful and violent as you.”

[my-brothers-corrupted]

What is your life then, Dap??

His fingers drum along the paper of his book.

“When I was born, I was stolen.”

He runs the pads of his thumb along the image of a boy in chains.

“I didn’t know anything but Anti. I was unhappy. But then I settled in. And it wasn’t so bad.”

Flips to a sketch of Ro, smiling at him.

“Eventually, someone saved me, and stole me. And I was unhappy. But then I settled in. And I was happy, for a little while. And things were good, and kind to me. But I still hurt. I was still haunted. And then he stole me again.”

Dozens of drawings of Anti. Again and again. You know it is him without knowing how you know it is him. Dapper, loving, traces his image.

“I was scared. Someone came to save me. They failed. We tried to run. We failed. Red forgot. He was unhappy for a while. But then he settled in. Trick and Dok tried to stay away. Anti caught them. Blue tried to run. He didn’t get away. He was unhappy, then happy, then unhappy. He’ll be happy again at some point. He’ll settle back in. Because you know something?”

He tears a picture of Anti out of his sketchbook and lets it flutter to the floor.

“Everyone else gets to forget. Everyone else does it once, fights, forgets. But Anti washes my brain out again - and again - and again - ”

He tears pictures of himself from his notebook. Pictures of his brothers. Pictures of Anti.

“And I never, ever get to forget. Not really. Not fully. Every day I’m disoriented, struggling with the memory loss and the psychosis and the time travel and the abuse. And every day, I wake up unhappy, and then - I settle.”

He puts his head down against the glass.

Crying soft and silent.

“Cause that’s what life is. It’s not happy. It’s settling. It’s getting caught again - and again - and again - and again...”

[my-brothers-corrupted]

Anti. Back off. Let the guy die in peace. What's done is done.

“He should pay,” hisses Anti. “For hurting you - ”

“He has,” sobs Trick, holding him. “He did. I don’t want him to hurt. I just want you. And Blue. Please. I’m scared.”

Anti rises back onto his feet, bringing Trick with him. He takes his hand and pulls him into Trick’s bedroom, and all three of them collapse onto the bed.

Noodle leaps on top of them and curls his shaking body in between theirs.

[my-brothers-corrupted]

Since when do you call him Amata, Anti? Isn't that Blue's thing?

Anti smiles coldly at you.

“I like it. Is that so wrong? Sorry, does Blue have a monopoly on ‘sweetheart’ and ‘love,’ too? I think it’s funny. Blue can hear me.”

He smiles over at Trick, picking out snacks in an airport store.

“But I’ll have to turn you off before we go through security. See you soon, amatae. On the other side of the world.”

[my-brothers-corrupted]

Oooh gosh...wake trick up! Maybe Noodle will respond to his voice if you guys look and call for him!

“Trick,” mumbles Anti, shaking him gently. “Trick.”

He stirs with a groan, his eyes still shut.

Anti leans down and summons his power.

“Trick,” he whispers. “Obey me, wake up.”

Trick shocks awake, gasping, and grabs Anti’s shirt in alarm, staring up at him for a second. And then -

“Asshole!” he screams, swinging for Blue’s face.

Anti intercepts him, shoving his fist down. “Trick, it’s me, Anti,” he snaps. “See?”

He lets his right eye change to green. Trick looks up at him, shell-shocked.

“Anti... you’re okay. I tried to - ”

“I know you did,” whispers Anti, putting their foreheads together. “No matter what anyone else told you. You did well. Trick... I’m glad you’re alive.”

Trick throws his arms around him, hugging him to his chest. Anti allows it, feeling his hands shake as they embrace him.

“Don’t be scared, Anti,” says Trick, very soft. “I got you.”

“I love you,” mumbles Anti, knocking their heads together. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“Come on. We have to go.”

“What? Where?”

“I’ll hack tickets for us at the airport. I think we better get out of this country.”

“Wasn’t there someone you wanted to kill?”

“Too much hassle now. Besides, I know you’re mine.”

Trick smiles at him, the light coming back to his eyes.

“We’re going to go find Dok, huh?” he asks.

“Yes,” promises Anti, helping him to his feet. “Let’s go get the rest of our brothers back.”

“I should get my stuff. I just need - ”

The realization hits Trick too late. His head whips over to stare at the house as it burns.

All his things going up in flames. His clothes, his Switch, Noodle’s toys. More importantly, Dok’s things, Dok’s gifts to him - his music box. His - oh, no. He’s wearing his polar bear sweatshirt, at least, and his crinkle paper is in his pocket. But that’s it. He stares up at Anti in terror, but his brother just stares softly back at him, his eyes apologizing.

“All our stuff,” manages Trick weakly.

“I’ll get you new things,” answers Anti softly, wiping water from his little brother’s face and taking Blue’s cane in his hand. “It’ll be okay. Come on. We have to go.”

They get to their feet and hurry away together, ignoring the worried calls of the neighbors afterwards. They need to be gone before the firemen come.

Anti casts one look back at Caleb.

The Sunbird Prince stares at him. Eyes like dying stars.

Anti shakes his head and takes Trick’s hand, moving down the pavement beside him.

It’s time to put things back in order.