#that last one could have looked good with the inverted characters

[eclipsethedarklingiscanon]

I tried to use an incorrect generator trying to bring rookinite/shadowadow and instead the generator shipped Shadow x the Rookie and shade x infinite xd

Infinite walking into the kitchen and seeing all their limes peeled: Shade, I love you but, what the h-e-double FUCK.

Shade, sipping coffee happily: I love you too :)

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Infinite: Hey, random question, what are your favorite flowers?

Shade: Peonies, why?

Infinite:

Shade: Were you going to get me flowers?

Infinite:

Shade:

Infinite: ᶦᵗ’ˢ ᵃ ᵖᵒˢˢᶦᵇᶦˡᶦᵗʸ

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Rookie: Come to dinner tonight. I can’t cook, but I’ll bring plenty of free wine.

Shadow: Marry me.

_-----------------

Rookie: BE A BETTER PERSON!

Shadow: WHY?!

Rookie: BECAUSE SOMEONE NEEDS TO HAVE MORALS IN THIS RELATIONSHIP, AND IT SURE AS FUCK AIN'T GONNA BE ME, SWEETHEART

Help 😭

[waokevale]

A Clarification to Wormwood's Age (And why he's fully fledged without a shred of doubt)

So, as we all know or have heard some at point, there are still people out there, who think the peculiar lunar plantation is an infant, solely due to the way he speaks, behaves and of conviction that he was literally born yesterday. Which by all means is false.

That's why I'm here to finally dismantle that belief. I'll present you with several compelling arguments of mine based on throughout research I did on his character overall, and if by the end of this post, you'll still hold firm to that same opinion, then I'm afraid that's out of my hands by that point.

If you're willing to stay for the duration of this thesis, and hear me out, I'll be very greatful. And please do listen, so we may not make any more misconceptions as such about him in the future.

I'll be splitting this post into 5 segments, one with additional subcategories.

General Appearance

Behavioral Pattern

Intelligence

Character Interrelations

Canon Information

First of, let's start off with the obvious:

General Appearance

If we're going to interpret his appearance based on 'human qualities', then physically, compared to actual child characters, Wormwood's design is vastly different.

The easiest way for me to prove that, lies in one of the recent animations: (Swine & Dine), where all the (live) children are gathered in one place, alongside Wormwood and Wes.

Here, you can distinctly pick apart the difference between the three preteen characters, Walter, (who's likely supposed to be a teenager on the younger side; around 13-14), and the last two.

The most obvious difference is the jawline. Wormwood, for one, has a massive jaw, easily rivaling that of Maxwell's (while technically, this feature isn't reserved solely for adults, it is moreso common to see an adult with a define jawline, rather than a child.)

This, alongside his torso being usually depicted as an inverted triangle (at least in the official animations), seem to be features added intentionally somewhere post his release, as he looks much more childlike in his animation video, where he's still technically a sapling per se.

Even Several of Wormwood's skins showcase, that he is in no way meant to be seen in a juvenile way.

The best example of that being his Victorian skin.

Look me dead in the eye and tell me that's a child. That is one of the most indisputable old man portrayals, you can get from an anthropomorphic plant character in media. Do not try and argue, how a child is meant to look like that, because neither of the four actual child characters has a skin, which makes them appear that much significantly older than they actually are.

So what reason would Klei even have to make his skin look so apparently elderly, if they saw him as a child?

More examples of his mature skins could be said for the Roseate and Guest of Honor. While they're not outright elderly, as is the former, the general vibe is similar to that of other adult characters' portraits.

Now that we've compared him to human characters and their characteristics, we should take into consideration what he actually is. Let's remember, that at the end of the day, he's partially a plant organism and partially an inorganic crystal from the moon , certainly he ages much differently than us humans, or even most other constant species for that matter.

I'm pretty sure he was also formed with a fully developed body (since he seemingly bloomed shortly after forming, which is a trait reserved primarily for mature plants)

But then again, appearance alone isn't enough to make one truly adult, is it? Thus we're moving on to:

Behavioral pattern

Few things you'll immediately realize about Wormwood is his alleged naivety, playful nature and seldom use of grammatical correctness. Due to this, many immediately assume that he's a child, which is understandable, but not a good enough reason to make such an assumption.

There are many factors involved in building one's disposition, and in Wormwood's case, there's plenty of reasonable causes for his behavor:

As previously stated, he's quite literally a sentient amalgam of vines, brought to life by a jewel from the moon. His origin far disparates that of any known being, especially a human.

His mind develops much differently than that of an average person. This correlates with the point above (since its a big green gem in his chest and not an actual brain). Plus, he likely hadn't had the chance to have a proper education. While he seems to have picked up on a lot of mannerisms from the pigsfolk in Hamlet, I doubt anyone went out of their way to actually school him.

He's feral. The majority of his upbringing, he likely spent surviving in the jungle. In a way, he reminds me a lot of Tarzan (A human, who grew up raised by a troop of gorillas after his parents were killed. He can communicate with the local wildlife just fine, but deeply struggles understanding and relating to the outsiders; other humans, who one day arrived on his land.) That's likely the reason why Wormwood refers to certain creatures with mimicking the sounds they make. Perhaps he can understand them to a degree, or at least is trying to.

Just because he doesn't speak English, doesn't mean he's slow. It is plausible he speaks a different language, while English doesn't come naturally to him. As is the case with Wolfgang, who has similar speech impediment issues and struggles with saying full sentences, but that's quite literally because English isn't his mother tongue. It's been a running gag that Wolfgang is the embodiment of a European man, and whichever country/countries he might've originated from, it's definitely not the UK. As might be the case for Wormwood and whatever constant language he actually thinks in.

He has certain traits akin to people with autism/Asperger's or ADHD (Nonverbal communication, delayed language development, lacking social cues, sensitive nose, short attention span, hyperactive and somewhat impulsive behavior, wild or overexaggerated movement, struggle with fitting in, little sense of awareness etc.) And I'm speaking from experience with this one, he's quite relatable to me, and many of my friends on the spectrum.

With that let's move on to the third segment.

Intelligence

Just how smart is he truly?

Wormwood isn't regarded for his high intellect, that's for sure, but remember, intelligence isn't defined by just the book smarts society imposes on us. Therefore it doesn't always correspond to a person's age and experience.

Wormwood, while definitely not on a level of a Harvard graduate, is extremely intelligent and a quick learner at that.

Let's digest what we generally know about intelligence and what it really means for Wormwood.

With the main question at hand : What differentiates a child mind from an adults'?

While he certainly shares some personality traits with Webber, their mindsets are rather different.

I'd like to present my point with a simple method.(From that one Quora post, believe it or not, it was the most convenient out of all the theories and tests I found) Dividing that, which is known as thought process into five subcategories, of which are:

Cognitive Development

Life Experience

Responsibility and Independence

Emotional Regulation

Social and Moral Development

So let's start with Cognitive Development/Psychology

(Definition : The process of growth and change in intellectual/mental abilities such as thinking, reasoning and understanding. That includes: the ability to interpret information, verbally communicate ideas, appropriately apply words and gestures to given situations, recognize and differentiate various sounds, comprehend your surroundings, use past experience to resolve current or future problems more efficiently, etc. TLDR: How thought process changes with age ; Talking, hearing, reading, remembering, problem-solving, understanding, You get the point. )

By this point, Wormwood's acquired plenty of general knowledge of the world around him and what to expect from it. (In some cases, he seems to know things without realizing it, or simply wishes to not provide more info of what he's already aware of.)

He is capable of understanding various different things, applying appropriate words to them, when given the chance. He often struggles to properly phrase what he means, but you can still get around to grasp it.

And you know what? He's especially good at deducing things not every character can point out. Here are some of the more obvious to least obvious things he's mentioned:

Leaky teacup - "Can't drink from it"

Beaten Beater - "Hmm... Can't use it"

Start tower kit - "Need to plant it on the water"

Compass- "which way?"

N- "North

S- "South"

E- "East"

W- "West"

NE- "Northeast"

SE- "Southeast"

NW- "Northwest

SW- "Southwest"

(The direction one would seem pointless to add but let's remember that there literally are characters in this game who don't know which way is which cough cough Winona cough)

Clippings - "Can sell this hair"

Sapphire Medallion/Tenpiece oinc – "Can buy things now"

(the plant understands capitalism 👍)

Winona's GEM-erator (out of fuel) - "Oh. Needs sparky"

Telelocator Focus (missing gem)- "Needs Purple Shiny"

Telelocator Socket (missing gem)- "Where shiny things?"

The Queen of Moon Quay: "Oh...she thinks Night Ball is friend hair?"

(He might know who They are after all)

Beast of Hunger (1) - "Oh. Not alive"

(This, plus any other quote of his mistaking a statue or an object with distinguishable features as alive, does not make him dull; this world literally has statues coming to life. He simply uses a reasoning he acquired from living in the Constant.)

Rose-Colored Glasses – "Friends show Fixer friend secret things"

(Most character, barring Maxwell, Wendy and Wigfrid don't know about the glasses' true purpose)

Ancient chest - "Put stuff in there!"

(One of 4 characters to have an inclining what to do with it)

Greater Gestalt- "Protect"

Enlightened Crown - "Helps hear them"

(Okay, he definitely knows who They are)

Hound Corpse (reanimating) - "Coming back"

(He seems the least bit of surprised or disturbed by this, compared to everyone else)

Antlion (upset) - "Oh no. Needs gifts"

(interestingly, no one else seems to mention why the Antlion is upset)

Mysterious Energy- "Seed"

(...?)

Distilled knowledge- "Plant this in funny floor"

(he's the only one to have figured out what to actually do with it)

I think what we all can realize from going through his quotes, is that he's in no way as clueless as he initially seems. He has his moments, but so do the rest of the survivors.

Life Experience, Responsibility and Independence

This plant has lived through a lot, but then again so have the rest, a lot of them have faced countless hardships most of us can't even fathom.

From what we already know, the fandom generally believes he is very naive and trusting, which really isn't the case. The thing is, it's not that he's naive, he may not react especially negatively to a creature or thing because he's used to seeing bizarre things, or because he's not afraid of them, unlike the majority of the survivor cast, who are alien to the constant.

Barring the in-game mechanics which force characters to be competent regardless of their experience, we're going to focus on his reactions to mobs and items that might pose actual threat to him or others, or are considered as questionable by him.

Inflatable Vest - "Safe?"

Shadowcraft plinth - "Scary hands helping?"

Fish steak - "Watch for bones"

Candy Apple - "Careful! Don't eat stick! "

Platapine (sleeping)- "don't wake it"

Sentrypede husk - "Sleeping. Shhh"

Sea Stack - "Oops! Watch out!

Great Tree Root - "Oh! Don't bump into friends!"

Worm hole (open) - "Deep. Dark"

(When deerclops is near) - "Something scary coming!"

Pressure plate - Hmmm...Odd rock"

Dread mite (about to explode) - "Look out!"

Shadow Reaper - "No...Wants to hurt friends!"

Depth Worm (lure) - "Hmm... not safe"

Depth Worm (burrowed) - "something hiding"

Meat bulb - "Careful!"

[The fish quotes in DST + the candy Apple are giving me an image of him saying that to the child characters (and definitely Woodie for the latter)]

Independence-wise, the one thing I especially took notice of, is how much the child characters seek guidance from the adults in the group, mentioning them by their formal titles too. That's especially frequent with Webber, Wurt, and Walter, though Wendy rarely does this. On one hand, she claims she considers toys and fun to be behind her, but contradictory, enjoys playing with other children and some of the adults. (Besides we canonically know she's 10-11 years old)

Wormwood isn't known for wanting to seek guidance either. He's sometimes confused about how certain things work and thus will ask about it, but that's understandable given his predicament. (As @thebleedingalien once mentioned, he's like an extraterrestrial experiencing bits and pieces from 2 different worlds at once)

He doesn't really care to play with toys either, (barring a couple of instances, one being Bernie and the others; toys with wheels and Antlion's sand castle. But c'mon, I know some of you grown adults own toy cars/collectibles or build sandcastles when you have the tools, you can't lie to me and say neither of these things is fun. Plus, this post is literally about a video game character, and those, not too long ago, were considered childish.

And besides, adult characters in this game also goof around. There's the whole sand castle building thing in Shipwrecked, which curiously Wormwood doesn't have a strong opinion on.)

But if we were to compare his maturity to other adult characters…

(Wilson) [aside his many, many jokes]: Silk- "It comes from a spider's butt."

(Willow) Portal Exit - "It's fun to watch OTHER people fall on their butts."

(Wolfgang) Coral Nubbin - "Haha. Rock is bald."

(WX-78) Regular Jungle Tree (normal and stump) - "THIS DUMB TREE HAS A DUMB FACE"

(Wickerbottom) Weregoose - "My! What a silly goose!"

(Wigfrid) Plant (ready to be picked) - "Ugh, vegetables. I'm nöt sure what I expected..."

(Woodie) Ghost - "Boo! Ha ha!"

(Winona) Kingly Figure - "It's BUST-ed! Ha!"

(Maxwell) Frazzled Wires - "I might hide those in WX-78's bedroll if I get bored"

(Wortox) [But if we were to pick an example of many] Potato Sack- "Hyuyuyu, wouldn't it be fun to hide inside and give him a scare?"

Yeah, I think he's good.

In this section I don't really have much else to say. He can be cautious, he can be daft. He joggles the braincells alongside the rest of the survivors. But all in all, I would not consider him any more reckless or goofy than either the child or adult characters. Independence wise, while he can absolutely manage just fine on his own, his desire for companionship far outweighs that.

And since we've already talked about maturity, let's move on to:

Emotional Regulation

Despite common belief, Wormwood is not overly emotional. While, yes, he is excitable and easy to impress, he doesn't usually display intense negative emotions, unless something (more often than not wooden) is destroyed, or unless a plant or a creature he likes, suffers. But then again, in those situations, it's logical to display panic, worry and grief. Imagine if your family member or friend suddenly caught on fire and burned before your eyes... Yeah, I bet no one morally adjusted would be the slightest bit of composed in those kinds of situations...

Worse yet, the majority of the Constant is filled with plants, most of whom are his friends, the closest to his kind, beings which display varying amount of sentience...

In actuality, the children, including Wendy, display a shift in emotions much more often than Wormwood does.

Then there's Willow, WX-78, Woodie (birds) and Maxwell, who all have even less emotional stability.

In comparison, I'd say he handles most situations much more maturely and nonchalantly.

Social & Moral Development

Ah yes, the ability to difference right from wrong, morality, patos or however you would call it. Now this one's a little tricky, on one hand, while he may react strongly to a plant's demise, his reaction varies, when it comes to animals and structures. Sometimes, he doesn't really bat an eye, frankly, other times, he displays intense amounts of grief.

I guess that's the definition of selective empathy.

Curiously, he has 2 separate quotes for a pigeon. One from Hamlet, where he seems a lot more distressed when it perishes, and the other, from The Gorge, where he simply states the fact "Oh. Dead."

I'd like to think this was intentional to sort of give him that fading care many of us experience as we grow older.

Here's another example:

[Hamlet] Glowfly (dead) - "(sob)"

[DST, Host of Horrors update] Koalefant Carcass - "Braump...? Not anymore"

Regarding the other survivors; for the most part, he sympathizes with them. Though he doesn't panic much when they die from average constant shenanigans. He knows it's not permanent or consequential.

He does show sympathy, when some of the others' precious belongings get destroyed or damaged.

Winona's Catapult (burnt)- "Fire bad"

Winona's Spotlight (burnt)- "Oh. So sad"

Mighty Gym (burnt)- "Oh... poor muscle man..."

Or in some instances, when a character strongly disapproves of something/is emotionally hurt and he takes notice of that:

Nautipilot - "Robot friend doesn't like Pull Rock"

Mocking Bird - "Mean tweeters, hurt friends' feelings!"

What's interesting, is that, while he calls many creatures his friends, he specifically avoids calling Maxwell that. He even considers Lucy, Willow and Woodie his friends, which is just... wow. May he harbor a grudge against him for what he did to the other survivors? Something more personal? Or is it moreso related to the fact he's fully siding with the shadows... Most likely the former.

Overall I would say he's definitely more empathetic than not, and one doesn't have to care for every living being after all.

Character Interrelations

Regarding what other characters think of how old he is...

It's debatable, keep in mind, the characters don't have to be fully aware, or can misinterpret his age based on his behavior alone.

Most people just refer to him as "plant", unsurprisingly.

There's characters like Winona, who seem to intentionally downplay his age. Winona in her quotes refers to both Wormwood and Wilson (who's officially in his 30s) as 'bucko' (a lively, young fellow. Or in some cases a friend, or another version of buddy). As for her quotes for Bramble trap and Compost wrap, she refers to Wormwood with the terms 'lil plant fella' and 'little guy'. She pretty much just teases people who are younger than her or seem younger. Or she genuinely believes he's actually that young.

There's plenty instances of people calling him a variation of little, small or sapling, which might just be how they see him. Keep in mind, just because a character may think he's on the younger side, does not mean their interpretation is the absolute firm belief you should uphold.

Then, there's Wolfgang and Wurt, who both firmly believe that he's a grown adult.

(Wolfgang) Generic - "Is leafy green man, %s! Hello!"

Firestarter - "Leafy green man did a fire booboo."

Syrup of Ipecaca - "Will leafy green man be sad if Wolfgang doesn't have a taste?"

(Wolfgang only calls him little once in his quotes, because he calls everyone little, children though, he refers to as very tiny + boy/girl/child, so there's that.)

(Wurt) Attacker - "Ow! You mean old weed!"

You might think; why would I care about what a child and a man who's considered to not be so bright think? Well, my previous point about language barriers explains that. Besides, Wurt is a constant-born creature who builds an entire kingdom in her play style, by no means, is she clueless. She also refers to Deerclops and Antlion as 'She', while most of the other characters use he or it.

What's interesting is that Wickerbottom also tends to avoid referring to him with youthful terms, aside the obvious general one she uses for everyone and everything. If anything, she's more patronizing towards Woodie, Wilson, Winona and Wigfrid. (All of whom are in between their late 20s-40s)

Lastly, we have:

Canon Information

While there isn't much information relating to his age, there are hints in the game canon that explain that.

In the game's compendium, where reside the survivors' profile, backstory and description, three of the four kids have 'young' in their introduction. Barring Walter, who instead has 'boy' which is as much of a youthful term. Wormwood's simply stated as 'an amalgam of vines' not a seedling, sapling nor a young/little plant.

From his backstory, we know that:

"A green gem fell from the moon, landing on an ancient stone monument in the middle of overgrown rubble. Over a long period of time, a vine encircled the gem and eventually formed a humanoid figure sitting on the monument. The figure, Wormwood, opened his eyes and looked at his hands. (...)"

(Now this simply explains, that a lot of time has passed as he was forming, unlike what's shown in his animation, where his body instantly forms.)

There's also this part of his bio.

“Though the circumstances of his creation were unusual at best, Wormwood came into this world full of optimism and curiosity, ready to make new friends and see all that life had to offer. But as time wore on and he experienced the cold sting of rejection, he came to learn what the moon above had always known: Wormwood the Lonesome does not belong here.”

It's implied that a while has passed since his birth. Everyone assumes that he was just created recently and that he doesn't know anything, but as I've shown you previously, he's very perceptive when it matters. He has the knowledge and experience, even insight or a hunch. He is able to determine things others can't. Ever since Hamlet happened, his quotes gradually became somewhat more apathetic towards creatures dying, as opposed to the worry and care he previously displayed.

I wouldn't say he's exactly an adult the same way the human characters are, but he's in no way a child as many presume him to be.

(It actually kind of reminds me of how certain Greek gods are created; some are formed as adults, some grow and then eventually stop, and some come to be under very strange and specific circumstances, Aphrodite. But overall, you can't exactly compare their maturing process to that of a human.) Meanwhile, Wormwood is an alien plant with a crystal for a brain

So by the end of this post, are you still inclined to believe he's a child?

Was this completely unnecessary and took far too long to construct? Yes.

Do I regret making this? Nah.

[alphajocklover]

I'm a cosplayer, as you can see on my profile picture. It's a mix-match of everything I like from the wolf-bone mask, the balaclava, and the snazzy blazer and slacks with gold pins. Added latex gloves to really feel eldritch for Halloween.

But of course, under that blazer still needs a layer of fabric to absorb my sweat, so I got this tank top from a nearby bundle I wear.

I'd like to know what tricks you can put up my sleeves.

You were never one to pat yourself on the back, but you couldn't help yourself. This had to be your best cosplay yet! You didn’t have a specific character in mind like for some of your past cosplays, but you were loving how this one was turning out. You had known this was going to be a great cosplay since the moment you saw that wolf bone mask in that store, and you were right. After all your work, all you needed was one last thing: a tank top.

You were honestly a little embarrassed you hadn’t thought of it earlier. As an experienced cosplayer, you probably should have guessed that the heavy blazer would need something under it to absorb sweat, but it hadn’t crossed your mind until you had tried on the costume the day before you were supposed to show it off at the convention! Now you were scrambling to find a well fitting, absorbent tank top that wouldn’t make the sweating worse. That wouldn’t be so hard… if you hadn’t had this realization around one in the morning, when most shops were closed. You had been in a bit of a panic at first, but in a stroke of luck you had found a small second hand clothing store nearby. You were a bit surprised at first, since you thought you knew most of the thrift stores in the area, but you were too relieved to properly question it. You grabbed the tank top, a classic white wife beater, and went into the changing room.

You did you best to ignore the mirror in the room as you stripped off your regular shirt. You never talked about it, but you were fairly insecure about your body. There wasn’t anything wrong with your body. You weren’t overweight or even particularly scrawny, you were just… average. But whenever you looked at yourself in the mirror all you could focus on is what you weren’t. You looked at your body and saw a body that was too small, too lithe, too awkward and just… not enough, in any way. That was one of the reasons you never cosplayed athletic characters. You always worried people would make the comparison. You pushed these thoughts to the back of your head as you slid on the wifebeater. The second it settled on your body, you felt like everything changed.

You stared at yourself in the mirror in shock as muscles began to pack onto your body. Your shoulders widened, giving your body a manly v shape as your pecs shoved out into a beefy shelf. You felt your stomach cramp as abs popped into existence, and almost drooled as your biceps grew absolutely huge, flexing them experimentally as you felt a smattering of hair grow across your body and on your face. You couldn’t believe it. It was like your body had been completely inverted. Everything you used to hate about yourself was gone, replaced by pure masculine sexiness. You even felt your mind change, memories of sports and confidence mixing in with those of cosplaying and creativity. You were still you, just… idealized. You were perfect, absolutely perfect. You swaggered out of the changing room, paying for the wife beater with a generous tip and a flirty wink, before heading out to the gym. You had to see how well this thing absorbed sweat, and how hot your muscles looked with a nice pump.

The bad news is that you’re going to have to make some emergency alterations to your cosplay so that it will fit your new, beefy body. The good news is that you're so hot that you could wear anything and still look good. Maybe you’ll just go to the party shirtless. It’d definitely be a good way to pick up chicks!

[cripplecharacters]

Hi! I know there are a lot of bad tropes about people with disabilities, and obviously I don't want to do them, but I was thinking that instead of avoiding them, it might be interesting to subvert/flip them instead.

For example, the "Super cool sci-fi prosthetic/aid that basically makes this character able bodied" except the character finds it a pain in the ass to use and just uses a normal wheelchair/prosthetic 99% of the time.

Or "Disabled people are monsters/inhuman" except the guy with, Idk, hypertrichosis named Wolf is just a normal dude and his petite, softspoken able-bodied girlfriend named Kitty is the one that turns into a werewolf on the full moon.

Or "The masking trope" but the person with a facial scar has to use a mask for safety reasons or they're at a masquerade ball and they get a custom mask that has their scar painted on it because they think their scar is cool looking.

Or "The disability reveal" except instead of being horrified or disgusted by the disabled person, everyone just sort of goes "Huh! Anyways, what were you saying earlier?"

Does this sort of thing sound like it could still be a problem? I love flipping/subverting tropes and I think it would be a great way to challenge people and make them think about their biases/assumptions regarding disabled people.

But I'm also worried that I would accidentally make something even worse. Do you guys have any advice?

Also, there are some that I don't want to flip or even deal with, like the "person fakes a disability". I honestly don't even know where to start with that mess and I can't think of a way to flip it that would make sense and not be some sort of incoherent nonsense lmao.

Hello lovely asker!

I think this sounds absolutely delightful (I especially like the one about the man with hypertrichosis and his werewolf girlfriend kitty.) This sounds like such a fun way to flip the tropes and the ones you picked and explained sound great.

And actually for the "person fakes disability" trope I think the show Special actually takes a sorta subverting take on that trope and does it in an interesting and comedic way (also it's a good show) if you would like to see a possible example. Another good Invert of a trope is in "Where the truth lies" (1999) and it takes a twist on the "The disabled person could never commit that crime!" trope. It stars Marlee Matlin and again another movie I highly recommend especially if your into messing about with tropes.

Subverting I think can make people a bit anxious just because you're not sure if it's actually going to end in the trope or be subverted, that sorta last minute switch and "Oh it didn't happen, phew" thing. But if it's done good, well, it's good. Subverting the trope from the get-go (like Special does) is a way to kinda ease that worry, but either way they both can be good.

Another thing you can do is change the trope where tropes are known within the story. The first one that comes to mind is like the "Disabled people die first" trope. So your characters are about to go into somewhere spooky but then your disabled character goes "Oh no, I'm not going in there. Disabled people always die first, you guys go on ahead.". This is often done with the "Disabled villain" trope too where something happens and then the character goes "I'm not gonna go all [mention of prominent disabled villain in media that has the same disability as them] on you guys!"

The only thing I would keep in mind, especially for Inverting Tropes is that often they are played for laughs. Now I don't mean like above where the purpose of the story is supposed to be funny/a comedy. I mean in the instance that the disabled person, even with the trope changed, is made the target of the joke. And as you said, you are right that some of the tropes are just better left alone partly because it is hard to make something good out of them. The "Cure Trope" is one that I just can't think of anything for, and there are many more that are just bad and are better left alone to perish.

This all sounds fun though! I hope you do end up doing something with any of these ideas of yours (if you write the hypertrichosis one I would absolutely love to read that one!). Happy writing!

~ Mod Virus 🌸

[momo-t-daye]

"Now, Severus, the sword! Do not forget it must be taken under conditions of need and valor-" the portrait recited, an echo of Albus Dumbledore, a recording unspooling predetermined plans. It wasn't Albus Dumbledore, it was paint and canvas and curated memories and trained habits, it was a simulacrum that could only ever offer false connection and empty comfort.

Minerva thought it was a mockery of remembrance, hanging the portrait of Albus behind the desk Albus had once occupied. She had refused to enter the Headmaster's office a second time as staunchly as she refused to look at Severus with anything but hatred now. It was torture. Every parroted guile and canned expression of concern and impersonation of Albus' intelligence was another knife twist in the knot of grief and guilt that had replaced his heart in the last terrible year.

It was continuing on, another reminder that Severus mustn't let Potter see him, mustn't let Lily's son know of Severus' allegiance lest the child become a liability before he could be a sacrifice.

"I know," Severus said, curt, hoping to skip past the pre-recorded reminders of all the promises he'd given to a dead man.

He didn't need the portrait to press a hand against some invisible wall as though it wanted to reach him, he didn't need it to make that expression of determined concern Albus used to make when Severus had marched off to another terrible meeting with the Dark Lord for the sake of the Order and keeping the boy alive and as safe as they could.

Yet despite the mimicry of care, it wouldn't even tell him why he had to get the sword into Potter's possession; perhaps Albus hadn't trusted his own portrait enough to imbue it with that knowledge even as he had trusted it to continue to haunt Severus.

It was a ridiculous dedication to his little mind games, like that note on the inside of the firewhiskey label, as if Albus had feared that, left to his own devices, Severus might go and haunt himself off Dumbledore's plotted path with grief over his own wasted loyalty and rage at the fate sewn under Harry Potter's skin and memories of his once best friend. As if Severus wasn't an expert at closing his mind and shuttering his heart and ignoring furious wailing of his own ghosts.

The portrait was still talking, another formulaic warning to take caution while accomplishing Albus Dumbledore's plans.

"Don't worry, Dumbledore," Severus said, speaking more to himself, his disappointed devastated selves, than the portrait, "I have a plan..."

For Unofficial Snapetober 2023 prompts "Ghost" and "Remembrance" The idea of haunting ones own self/of seeing the ghost of your past self seemed like it would be suitable for Severus- Sev is different from Severus is different from Snape is different from Professor Snape etc. etc., right? I mostly work with traditional media and do a little bit of digital tidying up to try to get the colors on the screen to look like the colors on paper, but I had a bit of fun figuring out how to put the ghosts of past Snapes (young Sev, Teen Sev, and Professor Snape) haunting Headmaster Snape into the picture. I painted each of the ghosts separately- in dark orange over black inked lines- and then inverted the colors once it was scanned and put those as semi-transparent layers on top of the separate painting of Headmaster!Snape in Dumbledore's office (...I am not very good at drawing backgrounds inside of a building where furniture and walls have too many straight lines, let's just put the characters in the woods with trees and lots of nice wavy wobbly lines...). Also! Have you all read "Stronger than a Butterbeer" (https://archiveofourown.org/works/10786743)? It's such a precise gut-punch of "the absence of Severus" that haunts me so I just had to make a reference to it.

[awakentheeldritchabomination]

First off, I wanna say that I mean no disrespect to the artists who worked on Hazbin Hotel. It’s just that I’ve been seeing people make redesigns of Hazbin characters, and though I don’t usually participate in stuff like this (it seems fun, and you are all incredibly talented. I just feel kinda bad tinkering with someone else’s work like this), the show made me frustrated, and frustrated induced brain-vomit started sloshing around in my skull so noisily that it’s been keeping me up. And, well, I had to get it out somehow.

So…here ya go, I guess. It’s nothing crazy or new. It’s just a few disgustingly rough ideas for this very specific version of Charlie that I kept seeing in my head. They’re far from polished or anything, and they’re definitely missing some key details because I’ve been hyper-fixating on trying to get the face right lol. I might make a full body illustration later, but I have commitment issues so who knows how far this’ll go. That is to say, don’t expect any more of this or the other characters unless 1) my brain decides to torment me with more literal demons or 2) I, by some miracle, become a more productive person. Plus, Tumblr’s a new thing for me, and I don’t know what I’m doing with this yet other than posting art and then disappearing for years. Seriously, you have no idea. It’s a wonder that I posted for a second time.

Anyway, the direction of this design is pretty obvious. I went with the lamb/goat motif because I liked the idea of inverted/parallel symbolism. I was toying with a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” concept where they appear to be a lamb in this form but actually shift into a more wolf-like dragon sorta thing when prompted. Their wardrobe is supposed to be an extension of the innocent lamb deception as the ruffles and looseness are meant to be kinda reminiscent of fluff while communicating a sense of privilege (a white untainted by the grit of Hell… something that probably wouldn’t last long). I was also inspired by white goth and catholic goth aesthetics (I blame Ethel Cain) as well as those insanely beautiful ball-jointed dolls. I don’t know if I captured that well (to be honest, the more I look at those digital renditions, the more I hate them). I considered adding a pair of spectacles coz I thought it was cute lol, and because I thought it could be a way for them to try and seem more human.

If I were doing a rewrite (which I have ideas for, but I should probably focus on my actual original characters instead) then:

1. They would be agender and androgynous (I’d go the Good Omens route and make most angels/non-human entities largely genderless as gender is a human construction, one that most angels wouldn’t really concern themselves with)

2. They would be kinda elitist and naive but still sweet

3. Their intentions would not be entirely insincere, but they would not be acting without selfish goals

4. They would be an eldritch abomination

5. There would be possible exploration of their role as an antichrist as well as basically being a tool of war for their papa’s self-gratification

6. Their pops would suck

7. More horror

8. Like, it wouldn’t not be funny…but horror’s my genre so….

9. They would not suck at fighting, but death is traumatizing and so is being the cause of it (squeamish)

10. That being said, could make friends with Death??

And that’s all I feel like writing. Hopefully I update this lol

[lena--beana]

Damn I can't believe Sam Deats read my journal and made Castlevania Nocturne specifically for me with everything I could have wanted from a Rondo/Symphony story but like

Oh my GOD??????????

Olrox getting main billing after being my favorite one-off villain with one (1) boss fight with no build-up and never reappearing, they were really like "yeah let's make him the hottest motherfucker in the world and make him even cooler while we're at it"

Richter and Maria's character designs are 😘👌 perfection! I loved how Maria had her classic hairdo with her nightgown too and watching Richter put the bandana on for the first time with goddamn "Divine Bloodlines" playing like????

And Richter doing the Grand Cross??? And his flame whip????? The 1000 blades technique against the marquis?????? Maria using so many of her animal friends and caring so much about each of them sweet child oh my goodness

Not to mention the way I screamed louder for Juste than Alucard bc let's be real baby vampire boy was always going to come back but I had NO faith that they would even look at my boy JB and especially Maxim?? Even in passing I'm so touched holy shit. And I see that red coat on the foot of his bed, I know my angry grandpa's coming back 👀👀

But speaking of Alucard I adore this redesign, the little cravat telling me they're at least trying to give him his Symphony look instead of the t-shirt in the last show is a nice touch but that porcelain doll look is killer and I'm all here for it 🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤

Also everything about Annette oh my lord?? Giving her anything besides just being a damsel in distress like before but everything about her backstory had me on the edge of my seat and I LOVED watching her trap the plantation owner in a cage before the end

Loved getting to see Countess Bathory since we're never getting a Bloodlines anime, the succubus who took me way too long to realize she wasn't just a unique vampire like I had every clue thrown in my face from the fit to the nails and she even admitted to haunting men's dreams and I didn't figure it out til the second she grew wings 😭 glad Alucard still got to finish her off but I'm sad we probably won't get that scene with Lisa again (which probably wouldn't happen since Drac isn't back anyway so there wouldn't be much point)

Can I just talk about Olrox some more bc like??? This guy had NOTHING before the show, he was a fuckin Nosferatu reference and now they gave him all this history, they kept all of his abilities and the dragon transformation?? Plus the beautiful purple and gold suit and those piercing green eyes I love one (1) man and its this fucker I need WAY more of him next time around 👀👀👀👀👀

And yes absolutely I'm excited for next time, we're picking up right where Rondo starts, Father Abbott as a stand-in for Shaft and Tera immediately being turned, the city about to burn like? Are we gonna see Death again?? Do we get to watch Richter fight the Behemoth next season? Is Abbott going to totally lose his mind and bring back Dracula to stop Bathory? Since Alucard is here from the start and not after a time skip do we get to see the Inverted Castle? We already got so much that I would have called a million to one chance but anything's possible now we are SO back baybeeeee

[ghuleh-witch]

And We Are Tied As One Eternally-I

Fandom: Ghost Rating: Explicit Warnings: (For Future Chapters) NSFW, 18+, unprotected sex, p in v sex, oral sex, mentions of past abuse and domestic violence, references to suicide Relationships: Papa Emeritus IV/Copia x OFC Characters: Papa Emeritus IV/Copia, OFC Additional Tags: soft!dom Copia, eventual smut, developing relationship, no beta reader Chapter Word Count: 3720 Summary: Ellie Moran just wanted to make a new life for herself. Running to escape the people in her past, she ends up in a small town in the middle of nowhere that happens to be home to a Satanic church. She never expected her life to change again after she started attending the public masses at said church.

Ao3

Chapters: 1/?

Chapter One

“How do you even dress for mass at a Satanic church?” Ellie Moran said to herself as she stared into her closet. She wasn’t even sure why she was going to begin with. Ever since she saw a grown man in the coffee shop throw a fit over a flyer for the Ministry of Ghost, a Satantic church located on the outskirts of town, she’d been curious. The flyer was advertising public mass times for the next month. After watching the middle-aged man crinkle the flyer up and toss it in the trash, Ellie retrieved it and took it home. It was now lying on her vanity as smoothed out as she could make it. 

If the church was causing such an uproar among the locals, Ellie knew she had to see what it was all about.

It had been two months since she moved to this new town—two months since she flipped her life upside down to be herself, live how she wanted to live, and finally escape. It had been two very long and lonely months though. Besides her job at the small bookstore on the corner of her street, she didn’t leave her apartment. There wasn’t much to do in the town, and the organizations she checked out, such as the women’s club, were filled with overly chipper, old women who would sneer at the tattoos that covered her arm. Ellie never intended to move to such a small town. She only moved there because it was the last place anyone would think to look for her.

She felt pathetic. At 30 years old she was starting over completely. She had no friends, no significant other, no degree or skills, and was working at a bookstore barely making enough to get by. 

Ellie pulled a black skater dress out of her closet and looked it over, deciding if it was appropriate to wear to a church service. “It’s a satanic church, I don’t think they’re going to care what I wear,” she said to herself and shrugged, grabbing a dark green cardigan to wear over it. “Good enough” She slipped her feet into a pair of combat boots and looked in the mirror to finish her makeup and hair. She squeezed some mousse into the palm of her hand and scrunched it into her shoulder-length, dark blonde hair to help bring out her natural waves. She fixed her eyeliner and put on her favorite necklace; a pointed, wire-wrapped black tourmaline crystal before grabbing her bag and her car keys. 

Her ancient Ford Focus sat mostly unused behind her apartment building, and thankfully, after surviving the drive across the country, it got her up to the church in one piece. She parked in the visitors’ lot and walked up the stoned pathway to the entrance. The church was huge and made of stone. Ellie knew at one point it must have been a Christian church. She could see faint outlines of crosses that used to be displayed on the building that were replaced with inverted crucifixes and pentagrams. 

At the entrance there was a person, Ellie thought they might be a man but she couldn’t be sure, dressed all in black with something that looked like a modified gas mask with little horns on their head. 

“Visitor?” They asked when Ellie approached.

“Er-Yea-I saw the flyer—”

“Straight down the hall, the large black doors on the left. Can’t miss it,” they said in a bored voice.

“Thanks,” Ellie said, entering into the building. She was in awe at all the marble and stained glass. There was so much natural light in the atrium and it created a warm and welcoming environment. It was beautiful and not what she was expecting. She had a vision of walking into some stifling hot building with black drapes all around and only candlelight to see by. 

She found the door the person at the front told her to look for and went through. Inside was the sanctuary. It wasn’t as big as the ones she’d seen in Catholic churches, but it was just as beautiful. Stained glass windows lined the room and dark-stained pews sat among stone columns facing the pulpit. The room was mostly filled with men in black monk robes and women in black habits. There were less than a dozen people in street clothes like she was. 

Ellie took a seat at the end of a pew in the back of the sanctuary. She wrung her fingers nervously as she looked around at everyone talking to one another. Once the sound of an organ filled the room, everyone began to quiet down. A procession of people entered the room from a side door near the front of the space. They were dressed in red and black robes and looked like the pictures of cardinals she’d seen at the Vatican. They took seats in the front two pews.

After the cardinals, three older men in nice suits and black and white skull paint enter followed by a woman in a dark gray skirt and blazer. Behind her, an elderly man with skull paint, a walker, and an oxygen tank was escorted into the room by a woman in a habit. The five of them took seats in the chairs that lined one of the side walls and the woman took a place in a nearby pew. 

The organ music died down and another man with black and white skull paint on his face entered. He was dressed in immaculate black robes with a golden “IV” encircled in a starburst pattern on his chest. He wore a black stole with gold skulls running down its length and the mitre on his head was shaped in what looked like bat wings. His eyes, one of them a brilliant white, scanned the sanctuary, giving little nods to people he seemed to know sitting in the pews, and then his eyes settled on her. 

She couldn’t take her eyes off his. It felt like he was staring right into the dark, deep depths of her soul. It was like a wave of electricity washed over her, making her sit up straight under his gaze. She could have sworn the faintest smirk formed on his lips before he turned his attention from her and back to the crowd as a whole. 

Ellie didn’t know what was said during the sermon. She couldn’t help but stare at the man she now knew as Papa Emeritus IV after he introduced himself to the new people in the sanctuary. She stood whenever everyone else stood, kneeled when they all kneeled and attempted to sing the hymns that were sung. Then it was time for communion. Ellie stayed seated while everyone got in line. She watched as one by one people walked up to Papa, knelt in front of him as he said a few words and placed a communion wafer in their mouth, and then took a sip of wine from a goblet being held by one of the men in the nice suits before Papa made the sign of the inverted cross and they returned to their seat.

She noticed more than once his eyes flicked to her, and Ellie couldn’t help but squirm in her seat as though she had just gotten in trouble. Was she supposed to be standing in line with everyone else? She wasn’t sure if she was allowed to take communion. She wasn’t a member of the church and she wasn’t sure if she needed to do anything beforehand to be able to take communion. In the Baptist church she grew up in, one couldn’t take communion until they accepted Jesus as their savior and became a church member. Did she need to believe in Satan and be a member of the church to take communion here?

Once communion finished and the closing words said, the woman in the gray suit stood and invited everyone to join them for a potluck lunch in the refectory. Ellie wasn’t planning on staying, but when her stomach growled, she followed a group of women across the hall to the refectory. She wasn’t going to turn down free food when all she had in her apartment was a box of cereal and a few packs of ramen. While everyone mingled with their plates of food, Ellie stood along the wall finishing up a small turkey and cheese slider. She tossed her paper plate in the trash and watched as everyone talked and laughed, feeling incredibly left out.

Just go up to someone and introduce yourself , she told herself. You’ll never make friends if you’re standing here like an idiot.

“You didn’t take communion.”

Ellie jumped a little, startled by the accented voice coming from beside her. She turned and saw the Papa Emeritus IV himself standing there. He was still dressed in the same black robes he wore during the service. He was mirte-less now and she could see his mousy brown hair, peppered with the lightest touches of gray. She thought he looked handsome and wondered what he looked like without the paint on his face. 

“I didn’t know if I was allowed to,” Ellie said, feeling his eyes stare into her gray ones once more. “I-uh-I’ve never been here before.”

“ Sí , I know,” he replied, holding out a hand to her. “Papa Emeritus the fourth, head of the clergy. And for future reference, anyone can take communion here. Eh, it’s more of a mockery of the Christian communion than anything of significance. What is your name, cara ?” 

“Ellie Moran,” she said, shaking his gloved hand, the leather warm and soft against her palm. She thought she saw something in his eyes light up when she said her name.

“And what brings you to our ministry, Ellie?”

“Curiosity,” she answered honestly. “I saw someone throwing a fit over your flyer posted in the coffee shop, and well, I got curious. I’m new to the area and haven’t…found a place I fit in yet.” She thought she sounded so pathetic as she talked and wished she never said anything.

“How long have you lived here?” Papa asked with interest. 

“Only two months,” she said.

“And how do you like it?”

Ellie shrugged. “It’s fine,” she answered. “The town is boring but it’s better than where I was.”

Papa was about to say something when the woman in the gray skirt and blazer approached him. “Cardi, we need to talk,” she said, seeming to not notice Ellie. 

“Okie dokie, sister,” Papa responded before looking back to Ellie. “I’m sorry to leave you. Perhaps you will come to our next mass?”

Ellie nodded and watched him walk away with the woman and felt very alone again. Frowning, she slipped out of the dining hall and made her way back to the front entrance and her car, cursing herself that she didn’t talk to anyone else. 

As she drove back into town and to her apartment and promised herself she’d go to mass again and next time, she’d talk to someone.  XXX

Copia returned to the refectory a few minutes after Sister Imperator pulled him aside to talk to him about his sermon. His eyes scanned the room looking for Ellie. He frowned when he didn’t see her and turned to the ghoul standing near the door. “Did the woman in the green sweater leave?” He asked Aether.

“She did,” Aether answered. “A few minutes ago. She looked…sad.”

“Hmmm, thank you, Aether,” Copia said turning back to the rest of the people in the refectory. He had noticed her in the sanctuary sitting by herself in the back. His first thought was that she was striking. There was something about her that captured his attention and wanted to get to know her more. It was almost as if he was being drawn to her by an unseen force. He was a bit disappointed to find that she left already, not that he was expecting her to be waiting for him to come back. He hoped that she would come to the next mass. Next time he’d get to know her better.  XXX

A few days later, Ellie was staring at the Satanic Bible on the bookshelf at her work. She didn’t often get to stock books in the spirituality section, but today she got to and the book caught her eye. She thought back on the mass she had attended just three days prior. She couldn’t remember what Papa was speaking about, but she could remember how he looked at her and how kind he seemed to be when she spoke to him briefly afterward. 

But those eyes, she couldn’t get those eyes out of her head.

She stocked the books on Celtic Paganism in her arms and turned back to the Satanic Bible. She picked it up and flipped through it; it couldn’t hurt to learn something before she went to mass again that weekend.

“If it were my choice, I’d burn this whole section.”

Ellie turned to see her supervisor standing there with a stack of Bibles on the cart he was pushing. Charles was a larger man with a ruddy face and balding head. Ellie didn’t care for him. He constantly talked about his hunting trips and how his wife was the greatest thing since sliced bread. He could be an asshole at times and often stuck her with the shittiest tasks in the store, and because she was a people pleaser, just never complained and just did as she was told.

“Oh?” Ellie said. 

“Freedom of religion is a joke in this country. This isn’t religion. This is evil, satanic bullshit,” he said glaring at the books. “But I don’t own the store so I don’t get a say in what’s stocked here. Maybe one day.” He pushed the cart passed her into the next aisle to stock the Bibles leaving Ellie standing there with a frown on her face. 

Later that evening, she sat on her ugly burnt orange couch with her laptop open on her lap. She spent the last hour scouring the internet for information on the Ministry of Ghost. There wasn’t a whole lot. Their website looked like something that came out of the early internet in 1999, but there was a link to a YouTube channel entitled Ghost. 

There were music videos and videos from concerts on the page of a band performing metal and rock songs. Ellie fell down a rabbit hole from there and learned that Ghost was a side project of the Ministry to help spread their message. Over the years they’ve been active, they were led by a few different men, the previous Papas, and their band of ghouls. The music was good, and Ellie ended up adding a few songs to her Spotify playlist. She then saw the videos of Papa Emeritus IV when he was still just a cardinal. 

“Holy shit,” Ellie muttered as she watched him perform on stage while wearing a red cassock. The man could sing, she gave him that much, but the way he moved enthralled her. She even saw a video of his ascension from cardinal to Papa. At one point she thought she was drooling on her keyboard. There was no way that the man in the video and the one she met over the weekend were the same person. She had to snap her laptop shut because she didn’t think it was right to be lusting after what was the equivalent of the pope, even if he was satanic. 

XXX

The next public mass was two weeks later, and Ellie was the first of the visitors to get there. She was dressed in a similar outfit as before; same black dress and boots, but she switched out her green cardigan for a blue one. She nodded to the man in the modified gas mask at the door and made her way to the sanctuary. As she stood in the doorway, she scanned the room, determined to sit by someone she could talk to. When she saw a woman in a habit sitting alone near the front, Ellie made her way to her. She stood at the end of the pew and cleared her throat a little.

“Do you mind if I sit here?” Ellie asked when the woman looked over to her.

The woman smiled and patted the seat next to her. “Please,” she said. She had dark brown bangs poking out from her veil and bright hazel eyes. “I’m Sister Gemma, but please, just call me Gemma. No need for formalities.”

“Ellie,” Ellie said sliding into the pew. 

“First time here?”

“Second. I came to the last public mass a couple of weeks ago.” 

“Oooo,” Gemma cooed. “You’re the first second-timer we’ve had in a while. Most visitors don’t come back after their times time. You thinking about joining?”

“I don’t know,” Ellie answered truthfully. She hadn’t really thought about it. She agreed with the tenets of santanism, but she wasn’t sure if she was ready to join the church just yet. “I don’t have to become a nun, do I? Are you a nun? I’m sorry I don’t know all the terminology.” She became flustered and hoped she wasn’t making too much of a fool of herself. 

Gemma smiled kindly. “You’re fine. And yea, I’m kinda like a nun. The brothers and sisters here are called the Siblings of Din. And no, you don’t have to become a Sibling to join the church. There are a couple of non-sibling members here. Papa Terzo even had a townie for an assistant for a while.”

“Papa Terzo?” Ellie asked. She knew there were other Papas but she never heard the name before.

“Papa Emeritus the third. He was Papa Copia’s predecessor. It’s easier to say Papa and then their name instead of their whole title. It becomes a mouthful.”

Copia , Ellie thought, liking the sound of his name. She cleared her throat before speaking. “What would I have to do to join?”

“You’d need a sponsor. Everyone who is considering joining the ministry needs to be sponsored by an established member. We act as guides and teachers to help prepare you for membership here. If you consider joining, I’d love to be your sponsor. I have a good feeling about you.” 

“I’ll thank about it,” Ellie said earnestly.

Gemma grinned. “I’ll give you my number after mass and you can let me know.”

Just as Ellie was about to say something else, the organ music started once more. Ellie watched the same procession of people enter the sanctuary, and when Copia stepped into the space, she saw his eyes search the sanctuary. His eyes found hers after a moment and his lips curved upward slightly, giving her a small nod of acknowledgment. 

Ellie found herself smiling in return. She felt Gemma nudge her and saw the other woman had a look of delight on her face.

The service was very similar to the first one Ellie attended. The only difference this time was Gemma was whispering to her, explaining some of the things Copia was talking. Ellie tried to pay more attention this time, but she still found herself focused on Copia. He made her curious and she wanted to get to know who he was. She thought it was strange that she had these feelings. She never felt like this toward anyone before.

When it was once again time for communion, Gemma grabbed Ellie’s hand and pulled her into the line. Ellie remembered what Copia told her last time—that anyone could take communion, and it made her feel less nervous 

“You don’t need to commit to anything.,” Gemma told Ellie. “Papa will say a little prayer in Latin as he puts the wafer in your mouth and you’ll say nema before you eat it and he does the sign of the inverted cross. Then Papa Terzo will offer you the chalice of wine to drink from. Same thing, he’ll say a quick prayer in Latin, you drink and say nema, and he makes the sign of the inverted cross. Then you stand and go back to your seat. Easy as pie.” 

She stood behind Gemma and slowly moved as the line pushed forward. When Ellie realized she was next, she suddenly felt nervous. When she stepped up in front of Copia, he smiled.

“Glad to see you back, cara ,” he said.

She lowered herself to her kneels in front of him and tilted her head upward to look at him. She thought he suddenly looked as nervous as she felt, but then he was holding a communion wafer in his fingers and looking just as calm as before. He lowered his arm to serve her the wafer as he began saying something in Latin. 

Ellie opened her mouth and he gently placed it on her tongue. Ellie had the desire to close her lips around the leather of his gloved fingers but kept herself from doing so. She swallowed the wafer. “Nema,” she said. She watched him make an inverted cross with his hands before taking a step to the side to allow one of the men in skull paint and a suit to step up to her. 

“You’re a pretty thing,” Terzo said as he looked down at her with a smirk. He offered her the chalice and titled it for her to drink from. “That’s it, tesoro,” he cooed before saying his prayer in Latin. 

“Nema,” Ellie replied after swallowing the sip of wine.

After he made the sign of the inverted cross Ellie stood and went back to her seat. “I think he was flirting with me,” she whispered to Gemma.

“Who?” Gemma asked with interest.

“Papa Terzo,” Ellie answered. 

“Oh. He flirts with everyone. And I mean everyone,” Gemma said. “Why did it make you uncomfortable? If you tell him he won’t do it again.” 

“No, it’s fine. I didn’t mind. I just wasn’t expecting it,” Ellie shrugged.

“I’m sorry I should have warned you,” Gemma responded. “You staying for the luncheon?”

Ellie thought it over for a second. She was enjoying Gemma’s company, and if Ellie stayed she could continue getting to know Gemma and maybe meet some other people.

And also maybe she’d get to talk to Copia again.

Translations:

Sí-yes Cara-dear/darling tesoro-treasure

[thequibblah]

do you have any book (or movie recs) that have similar characters to James and Lily? I feel like when I am looking for enemies to lovers books, the characters are just off, or it's just like an aggressive perversion of a great trope. I just want more stories about two good people falling in love lol

i will say that it's so tricky to find media that has the same dynamic... it's usually missing a few ingredients from the special sauce, imo — like, the way the characters interact feels the same but the social positions are inverted... or the vibes are similar but some key detail is kinda off... which is good AU fodder lmao but anyway i say this because the same is true of all of what im gonna recommend here and i want to set ur expectations to where mine tend to be when my jily vibe radar goes off. i.e., i will take the parts i like and enjoy what is there for what it is and then dream up an AU

if you're the same anon who asked @clare-with-no-i about this late last year, you will already kno this, but i'm going to mention some of the classics people mention in terms of starter jily, plus some crowdsourced thoughts:

anne of green gables (which i never read as a child) // anne with an e (which i did watch and adore)

anastasia (1997)

parks and rec (for ben and leslie — i am not a watcher of this show but people do be saying this)

brooklyn 99 (for jake and amy — obviously not perfect but i do see this)

lockwood and co (my jily girlies do seem to love this show)

rogue one (yes the star wars movie, trust)

pirates of the caribbean (ALSO TRUST!!!!!)

here are some that are my stupid little opinions and some books i think r worth trying:

pride & prejudice BUT ALSO emma (james is emma, lily is knightley # real ones know) BUT ALSO persuasion — u can watch the first two but u simply must read the third

palm springs (2020)

a lady's guide to fortune hunting by sophie irwin

shipped by angie hockman

a crown of wishes by roshani chokshi

if you could see the sun by ann liang

the nonesuch by georgette heyer

been watching the artful dodger recently and this is an example of the inverted social status thing but it's real fun and i love it

and trust me on this: anything w george clooney and julia roberts as love interests

[muppetminge]

i don't as such care much for the concept of pride month, but since i happen to not have much going in june i will take this as an excuse to watch a bunch a lesbian films. in theory, this could be 30 - in practice, it almost definitely won't be. i will 100 % get bored and stop at some point. anyway i want to find like actually good lesbian movies - which might be an oxymoron, but anyway - this means i'll only be watching woman-directed movies, preferably lesbian-directed but i'm aware i probably won't get to be that picky </3.

movies watched:

1. The Watermelon Woman (1996), dir. Cheryl Dunye. "all you do since you don't have a girlfriend is watch those boring old films" well, screw you too, tam. so happy to start off the month with something that's actually good. thank you cheryl <3 speaking of, this woman is so fucking hot it's bullshit. also i do need her earrings like asap but that's another topic. forever saddened by the death of video stores... where am i supposed to go to meet hot lesbians now? netflix? it's bullshit, man.

I don't think there's any part of this I don't find incredibly compelling. It's really funny, and just generally so charming and, well, human. the narrative of building your own history really resonates, and honestly cheryl gets it across incredibly.

2. Pariah (2011), dir. Dee Ress. i didn't vibe with this one as much, but i guess that's my own fault considering i knew very well going into this that i don't particularly like coming-of-age movies. the soundtrack hit most of the time, even if the soundscape in general was a bit flat for my taste. it's a very dark movie. like, physically. i couldn't see shit half the time. also not really a fan of the camerawork throughout most of it. it's a nice-looking film if it's your kind of taste - unfortunately i am too kitsch to really appreciate it :/ i thought scene near the end with lee and her dad on the roof was really nice. also found kim wayans' character really compelling

3. La Belle Saison (2015), dir. Catherine Corsini. not projecting but also delphine i feel you so hard. is this representation because if so i don't mind it... (except the part where you're actually getting some but whatever). desperately making me feel like i should wear more tank tops. anyway delphine was really in a headlock with every single one of her principles toward the end huh. i get the dilemma though her riding tractors is basically public service (to Me because it's incredibly hot). i'm not even gonna be an ass about it like i genuinely just really liked this.

4. But I'm a Cheerleader (1999), dir. Jaime Babbit. "1-2-3-4, inverts we won't be no more!" obviously i've watched this a million times before. did take this as an excuse to watch the extended edition and like just saying ms babbit if you want to extend even more you're more than welcome to it <3 gonna be careful about mentioning natasha here because i love her and chances are i won't be able to shut up again but gd people really do underestimate how fucking funny she is… i've personal beef with clea for having basically the same haircut i had for a long while and making it look so much better. only realized on this watch that melanie lynskey's playing hilary. incredible. anyway i genuinely don't know what more anyone could possibly want in a movie. it's so hot. like all movies should look like this - let those colors pop for a change! one of the best soundtracks of the last thirty years and i'm so serious about that.

i think this was probably the first genuinely good lesbian movie i saw as a teenager desperately searching for something to relate to. it still grips me from the very first scene even now. i do think the stars aligned to make this work. it's so funny and it's such a great satire.

5. リズと青い鳥 / Liz and the Blue Bird (2018), dir. Naoko Yamada. shit, dude. first of all this is so so pretty. it makes me insane how much care and effort they'll put into like a background shot of a shelf or something... and all the watercolor... gorgeous. like just the opening shot with all flowers and the colors that are just popping right out at you... in general just really effective visual communication, especially on rewatches i'd imagine (after having seen the final hug scene). i remember when i went to high school one of my classmates was so incredibly musically talented it was genuinely a bit infuriating and i was so shocked she didn't go on to study music 'cause i would have if i'd been able to get in lmao. anyway this was really sweet. the last third is so incredible. when they finally play it, damn... genuinely like goosebumps. and then it somehow kept going? i feel like it's still settling while i'm writing this but i feel like i'm probably going to watch again at some point.

6. I Can't Think Straight (2008), dir. Shamim Sarif. cut to waters novel. cut to k.d. lang cd. one wonders. this having a lower average than imagine me & you if anything really shows that reviews are bullshit. loved the music. loved lisa ray's character being half a second from jumping leyla at all times. loved zina; wish she'd had more scenes. loved leyla's dad being an insurance salesman; life insurance even. sells itself. when the ladies finally did jump each other it was with zero hesitation and i fuck with that so hard. this movie is so funny i don't care. bonus the ladies are very very hot. you can't fault a movie from 2008 for being incredibly 2008. here's to leyla for one day achieving the honor of being tala's fifth fiance(e). truly gettin' it all.

7. Portrait de la jeune fille en feu (2019), dir. Céline Sciamma. writing this on the eighth with an officially broken streak :( it Will happen again. this is indeed the first time i've watched this because i am to my core a contrarian bitch and seeing everyone freak out about this did Not make me want to watch it. now i have, and like... it's alright, yeah. didn't love love it. it's probably too long for what it's got going on. i loved héloïse; she was great. there's some really powerful scenes in here, the bonfire scene especially. i really liked how blue the ocean was; i hate this tendency of (especially) period pieces washing out everything to a ridiculous degree. i know some people are like insane about this movie and i'm happy for them but i can't relate unfortunately.

i did think briefly at the start that it was gonna be about croquis, and i really wish it had been, ngl.

8. Carmen y Lola (2018), dir. Arantxa Echevarría. 'ya te he olvidado' yeah babe sure looks it. had a certain interest in this going into it for very elaborate personal reasons. it's a lot better than the synopsis makes it sound. lola searching 'lesbianas madrid' like i feel you girl, been there!!! speaking of i was def convinced lola was a lesbian which feels like so rare in such a 'mainstream' movie lmao so well done. very believable. and like my girl was so so persistent you gotta give her that like she really went for it. can't blame her i'd be so into carmen too so like. her voice made me wanna die. so hot. (sí también es que el acento madrileño me pone un poquito pero,,,,). it really went insane at the end like damn. i was not expecting the ending tho like i really thought carmen was gonna be annoying about it. do i even have to save that i really liked this? because surprisingly i really really did. i can't help but feel it's getting rewatched a ton some time lmaooo.

9. 漂浪青春 / Drifting Flowers (2008), dir. Zero Chou. can't believe someone in the reviews of this stole my joke three years ago. speaking of reviews don't look at them because of course people have to be so so annoying about this. as usual. anyway. i was so drawn in by this you wouldn't belive!! i don't even know what to say... this is for all us if these walls could talk babes btw. loved the scene where one of the characters blatantly walked by posters and posters of one of chou's other movies. show off.

diego!!! <3<3<3 every single character is lovely but diego made me wanna *** ngl. it did hit very close to home, thanks for asking. realised in her part that i probably chose the wrong day to watch this but that's on me lmao. this would have broken me if i had watched it as a teenager lowkey. does it come across in this that i really like interconnecting vignettes? because i do, and this is really well-executed. hope you'll watch it and also that you'll find less spotty subtitles than i did if you do lmao.

it's a very genuine movie; i don't mean that in a condescending way, because it's also very much a well-made movie, but it's a movie that so clearly has a lot to say, and i appreciated all of it. perhaps this is also why i was so surprised at the reviews, because it really resonated with me. i know i've already pointed out diego a lot, but all three parts were incredible and they really held each other up. i don't think any of them would feel as complete without the other parts. in an odd way it stands like a shining light in the darkness.

10. Addicted to Fresno (2015), dir. Jaime Babbit. "(lesbians are poor. ..)" confirmed babbit apologist sorry :/ anyway i'm not gonna compare this to cheerleader i wouldn't want to try to follow that either. it's a fun movie! i laughed a ton. my lyonne obsession is well-documented so i'm not even gonna touch on that lmao. that being said martha is exactly the kind of lesbian i want to see more of (no projection here. obviously). i'm bound to be all over anything with these themes; lo and behold indeed i was. i stand by this being really well-executed, y'all just didn't get what she was trying to do <3 you could argue some tonal difficulties, but honestly i'm not going to. it worked. it's a bit quiet, but i can see that adding to the whole point of being stuck. some surprise appearances to delight

11. Saving Face (2004), dir. Alice Wu. first of all gd will's mom has got it going on. anyway i wanted a fun romcom and i got a fun romcom so i'm not complaining! i will say that i think this is the genre at its best. like romcoms often risk coming across as a bit clinical i feel, a bit empty, but this is just so warm. i adored hwei-lan (not just because she's hot but let me reiterate that she's so unbelievably hot; i get that boy so much, i really do), she's so funny. i love circular storytelling, and i think the end was done really well. the scene after that during the credits is exactly how i want my movies to end actually, i want my face to hurt smiling. don't you? wil is an absolutely idiot. i cannot blame her for a single thing. also i get you babe, i can't stand for dancers either. i feel like this is close to being one of most just plain fun movies i've watched so far.

12. Kyss mig (2011), dir. Alexandra-Therese Keining. gd i so want all my lesbian movies to start with a straight sex scene, don't you? coming to you with the exact opposite mood of that from yesterday. everyone in this is horrible. mia and frida's relationship is not believable at all to me sorry. i barely believe that these two even like each other if i'm being honest. it's not the first movie here where the romance comes a bit from nowhere (namely portrait, which made up for it with some level of charm, and belle saison, which i just liked enough otherwise to excuse it) but here i'm definitely gonna blame it for it because it's got nothing else going on, either. to be entirely fair, it was very optimistic going into this with my dislike of 'scandi dramas', especially of the swedish variety, but fuuuuck, i was so bored i'm sorry. it's soooo slow. i actually quite liked elin but she was there for like five seconds - and good for her, because damn you deserve better babe... both of the main women kind of suck lmao but at least frida sucks in a fun way most of the time, so she's excused. i don't know if i'm supposed to feel bad for tim (probably! knowing the genre, knowing swedes, knowing movies), but he's such an asshole. i genuinely think mia should have killed him. i can't blame mia for sucking; her dad's a major asshole, i'm sure she's had it rough. i'm sure if you like this sort of movies it's alright. it's not badly made by any account, i just really didn't like it. it has its audience. definitely a new low so far. the one good thing about this was that it really made me appreciate being a lesbian; those scenes with mia and tim genuinely looked like my personal hell. if i was mia i'd jump the first girl who looked at me too, ngl. the ending did make up for a few things, all things considered. i watched a not insignificant part of this without subtitles (because they would not workkkk) and i'm so brave for that tbh

13. Kokon (2020), dir. Leonie Krippendorff. proof that i should probably do more research before watching stuff (never going to happen though; no fun) because i did not realise this would be this much of a coming-of-age story. like literally hitting all the points. anyway it didn't do much for me. i really don't want to be mean here because it's obviously a very well-made film, and i get the intention, but... i was so fucking bored you would not believe. like i was less actively annoyed by this than kyss mig, but way more bored. it's not a very long movie, but it sure feels like it! anyway, if you're watching for the rep, you can skip this one; it's not really the main part of the movie, which is fine - comparatively, pariah had much more of a lesbian focus. this one really is just coming-of-age. something something you know you're in berlin when the whitest girl you've ever seen is swearing on the qur'an. i'm so glad i'm not a teenager - and what a joy to be getting further and further away every day <33

14. Desert Hearts (1985), dir. Donna Deitch. first of all the soundtracks is lovely (and it's a well-documented fact that mona will forgive everything for a good soundtrack). second of all i want to watch this again. like, immediately, right now. i'm gonna watch this so much i fear it's not even funny. ignore the 80s hair; we're in the 50s. one of the better romances yet. the lesbian-english teacher hypothesis proving true time and time again... incredible. cay is so funny. like the way the camera pans over to her in the bed in the hotel room scene... cinema! i was fucking done lmao. it's all just very lovely.

15. Go Fish (1994), dir. Rose Troche. well, we had to go here at some point. it's a very jazzy movie; take that however you wish. i have my criticisms, but also you can't blame a 90s movie for being too 90s (which in truth is what a lot of it boils down to). max' narrations were without a doubt my favorite part, the start especially so. there's more lesbians in one 80 minute movie than i've even crossed paths with, ever. cutting your fingernails before a date counts as foreplay in my book.

16. Joven y alocada (2012), dir. Marialy Rivas. i just know the progressive profesoras are going wild over this. huge respect to chileans for seeing a word and deciding fuck that shit and dropping half of it. top five accent ngl. also polola... also credit for starting a movie in the most uncomfortable way possible. anyway i am so not the target audience for this it's not even funny. it's well-composed, the style is great, entirely well-done, did not care for it. i only finished because i couldn't get the last-moment replacement to work and i didn't have time to watch anything else lmao. i have a lot of respect for rivas (hence me watching this) but... yeah. also really getting confirmed that i am very fine with lesbian sex scenes but straight sex scenes are horrrrrible.. nice reminder of the lesbianism i guess! i will be singing yo no te pido la luuuuna the rest of the night though. non voglio mica la luna...

17. Les Rendez-vous d'Anna (1978), dir. Chantal Akerman. an excuse to cross some akerman off my watchlist? you could call it that. i have a ton of respect for her. she's a very interesting person, i think. an interesting movie, too, all things considered. i'm very much drawn to the fastpaced and erratic truth be told, which this is like the polar opposite of, but it's got its point. i really liked the part with her mother. that was probably the high point of this. i didn't really care for either of the guys, like, at all, but it is what it is. still gathering my thoughts, i feel. not sure i'm entirely in the right space to really appreciate this.

18. Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same (2011), dir. Madeleine Olnek. "...I did wonder about the gills". oh, this is how you make a movie. (was smiling and/or laughing from beginning to end). question: can this be replicated in real life. like can i just go find the nearest hot stationery clerk or how does this work.

19. Mädchen in Uniform (1931), dir. Leontine Sagan. all impact aside, this is a lot more fun than i'd thought. obviously i've been putting this off for a while now considering i hadn't seen it til now, but i really did enjoy it. i feel like it's rare seeing girls just having fun like this. as a young girl i was very into this old book series (incidentally from my mother's childhood) about some girls at a boarding school; entirely irrelevant to every and anything here, but watching this gave me the same vibe throughout much of it.

20. سكر بنات / Caramel (2007), dir. Nadine Labaki. absolutely adore this one description i found that says rima is struggling with her attraction to women - lmao where?? the most she struggles in this movie is the coerced leg wax lmao. otherwise it's basically all very sensual hair washing, gd bless. she's also very hot btw i do need to mention that. i see you all going crazy over labaki and you're not wrong but gd man... anyway, sensual hairwashing aside, the straight girls are alright too. seriously, this is actually very good. even though rima's the lesbian the most homoerotic part of this is layale very aggresively waxing of her lover's wife.

21. Een vrouw als Eva (1979), dir. Nouchka van Brakel. after a hundred minutes still not convinced this is a real language. anyway, i don't even know what to say. fuck, dude. gd. you could argue dated, but fuck it's rare to see a movie like this treat its lesbian protagonist with this much sympathy, even today. there's a lot to say, but in my mind this is what i keep coming back to. it's in the little things. at no point does this feel perfomative to me, either. a few asides: the beginning of this movie was very extremely effective at showing how utterly miserable eve was lmao. ad is a giant asshole; eve not slapping him is a testament to this poor woman's patience.

22. 蝴蝶 / Butterfly (2004), dir. Mak Yan-Yan. between the marianne faithful, patti smith and janis joplin i can't be entirely sure jin's place isn't actually mine also fuck josie ho is gorgeous. i almost didn't watch this (length) but gdddd i'm so glad i did. it took a bit for me to get into, but by the time it ended i had to just sit for a moment. it's breathtaking, honestly. i don't know what it is - maybe it's the timelessness? the way everything weaves in and out of each other constantly, like it's all happening at the same time. i don't know. it's so gorgeous, though.

23. Viola di mare (2009), dir. Donatella Maiorca. ah, sicilia, amore mio <3 anyway what the fuck. i think that's my main impression for the moment. gd. supposedly based of a real story, i really do think it's told well for the most part. i mean, gd, it would have been so easy to focus on all the surrounding, but the love really is palpable i gotta be honest. making me sigh and swoon over here... if more people were like angela, like first of all that would rule, but also lesbian movies would be sooo short. she's damn persistent lmao love her <3 definitely worth watching, but like do not read up on a single thing beforehand.

24. The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love (1995), dir. Maria Maggenti. "Is this another one?" sometimes you really just do wanna watch two girls having fun. american high schools in media always throws me a bit because i genuinely can't tell how much is artistic exaggeration and how much is just you guys living like that. seems sick. if i still went to the hairdresser i'd show her a picture of randy in this. not getting over vicky's husband getting physical with a literal seventeen year old lmaoo go home dude! it's all very cute, genuinely. by my count this brings the jopling counter up to three. bonus for the bratmobile.

25. I've Heard the Mermaids Singing (1987), dir. Patricia Rozema. i'm really glad this is the one i'm the ending this on. gddddddddd i loved this so much. to quote polly herself: it's so... nice! oh, polly... <3 seeing a quirky weird girl represented so well is like seeing a shooting star.

all in all: this has been... really fun, actually. i don't know that i was counting on that. i did not in fact get bored and stop. i'm willing to concede that the amount of actually, genuinely good lesbian movies might in fact be a positive integer after all. definitely a much more fun way to spend pride month than engaging in nonsensical discourse. happy july! <3

[distant-screaming]

😊 ✅ 🤔 ⛔️

hello hello hi archer! thank you for the ask :3 I yapped a lot but it's about writing it's fine shhh

😊 say something nice about your writing

I think I'm good at writing emotions! I've received a lot of feedback saying so, and when I read my own work I do feel that :)

✅ list one or two favorite lines you've written and explain why they're your favorite

my children? you want me to pick favorite children??? no. say it isn't so. how could you. I caaaan't. I'll narrow it down, at least - I'll pick two of my faves from my last ten posted fics!

'His insides are made of rust and long forgotten corners of the forest and the blazing sun, and he has nothing to offer except fragile wishes and cold midnight wind and callused hands and a hunger for any scrap of affection he is offered.'

- from my thatsorn fic! I love this one because I kind of went off with the imagery 👀!! I'm pretty proud of it, and I also think it fits That's character.

'“Y-” Chie tries, but it gets tangled between a sob and an unspoken rage and anger and guilt and sadness so sharp it feels like she might choke, and Yukiko’s eyes don’t look quite human anymore, pupils dilating into something that looks like stars, and it’s not enough, there’s not enough time and there’s too much and Chie doesn’t know what to do so she squeezes her eyes shut again and just sobs and tries to swallow and Yukiko’s hand is - warm, suddenly, and -'

'Yukiko’s hand is cold, but the absence of it makes Chie’s hand feel numb.'

- from my yukichie fic! okay I cheated and put two - I really really like the first one but it's kind of similar to the thatsorn one so a bonus quote! the former I like because it shows Chie's panic really nicely? there's this sense of impending doom in that section of the fic and I really like how it turned out! the second quote, I love because I'm a SUCKER for metaphors and yukichie are fire/ice but I kind of invert it for this fic and I just think it's a banger line, mostly. woe my writing be upon ye 🎀

🤔 why do you write fic?

that's. a really interesting question actually. I... don't really have an answer! maybe when I started out it was because I wanted to interact with, contribute to fandom and this was the way I thought would be the best fit for me? now though, I write simply because I love it! I adore writing about my blorbos and getting to share my interpretation of them means the world to me. and, like, the feedback I get every time is so overwhelmingly supportive it has literally single handedly removed my imposter syndrome when writing. so yeah, the answer is because I like writing, I like blorbos and I like peoples' reactions to my work!

⛔ what's something you try to avoid in your work?

writing that feels like a step by step instruction manual rather than a story! my biggest goal with my fics is always to make my readers Feel something, so if there's a section that's like 'he got up. he walked over there. he sat down. he drank coffee' it would be like, the whole opposite vibe of what I'm trying to go for skfkdjfj. some people might have noticed, but maybe because of this some of my fics tend to be sparse on like, physical descriptions!

[pomrania]

I'm having a hard enough time coming up with a workable concept for today's piece -- I mean I have a bunch of good CONCEPTS, I just can't figure out how to visually represent any of them -- that I'm going to do something completely unrelated for a bit. I'm going to do my "story" tarot spread, and interpret it as a coherent narrative; it's been long enough since I've last used it, I could do with the practice.

A and B are the "starting conditions", which leads to C, which leads to D; E and F aren't as linear, and their placements can be interpreted in a number of different ways, like "branching possibilities" or "external factors" or "groups that go different directions", among others.

A is Page of Pentacles and B is Page of Cups Inverted. That's an interesting thing to start on, a pair like that but one is flipped; definitely feels like the inciting incident here is a disagreement between two closely-linked people.

C is The Fool. Feels kinda fairy-tale, like "one brother goes off to seek his fortune", but let's see what the rest of the spread gives.

D is The Hanged Man Inverted. Another Major card; and interestingly, it has the same "sky" colour as the B card (which is also inverted), while A and C shared a sky colour.

E is Seven of Swords. Another yellow sky, like A and C.

F is -- oh COME ON. Ace of Cups, with the same grey sky colour as B and D. (Same suit as B too!) But unlike them, it's not inverted.

So, with how there was an even split in the background colours for the cards, and with how A and B so much seemed to represent a pair of people, I'm thinking this is something like what TV Tropes once (might still, I haven't looked at that particular trope page in like five years so I wouldn't know) called an Hourglass Plot, where the characters basically swap "condition" by the end of the story. (Also I could probably make this particular spread describe the backstory of the older Pines twins from Gravity Falls, with a bit of work, but that's not the goal here.)

A and B are closely linked. Brothers, or good friends. A is the fortunate part of the pair, the one everyone predicts a bright future for. B is a human disaster who darkens the mood wherever they go. They don't have a fight, but they've both eventually internalized that they don't belong together, they're too unevenly matched. A sets off alone to pursue their destiny, because surely they must have something grand in store. There's no grand crisis for B, no moment of realization; they gradually expand to fill the space that A used to occupy. A becomes a petty thief, never staying in one town for long, and considers themself happy. B gets properly medicated (or their curse gets lifted, in a fairy-tale setting), and begins to express the potential they'd never even known that they had.

If you want to do anything with that narrative, feel free, I own my deck of cards but I don't own the cards as a concept, and it's general enough that nobody has an inherent claim to it; just drop me a link if you end up making something, I'd be curious to see it.

[nickcarr-scoutstories]

Where All The Houses Look The Same. (a Scout Story) The man shows me around his living room with pride, and I smile and take pictures and try my best to act as though I’m seeing it for the first time, when in fact I’ve already been in this living room three times this afternoon. I am scouting a neighborhood where all the houses look the same. It’s a modern tract home development on the outskirts of Los Angeles, built five years ago, or maybe ten, or maybe it’s impossible to say with certainty anymore because it feels like the architects have finally figured out a model that defies dating and have been churning them out ever since. In truth, the homes are not exactly identical. There are four or five models that repeat at intervals, each with its own small variations. All are a shade of beige, but some are sand-colored, some mocha. Every so often, a house design is inverted, as though it’s a mirror image of the one across the street. But as this man leads me from the dining room to the kitchen, it’s a though his home is one of a kind, the center of his universe. He tells me how overjoyed he was to be able to afford it after moving to this country from India. He shows me each of his children’s bedrooms, clearly proud they don’t have to share. In his own room, he points out his view of the scrub-covered hills in distance as though it were a vista of the Rockies. And as I take pictures, my frustration grows, because we are going to portray this man as a fool. Because you’ve seen this neighborhood, the neighborhood where all the houses look the same, in countless movies and TV shows. And in virtually every instance, it is always used to inspire one particular reaction: ridicule. In the movies, there is no more shameful place to live than the neighborhood where all the homes look the same. It is uniformly portrayed as an undeniable symbol of a character’s vapidity, their soullessness, their superficiality, their simple-mindedness. “How could anyone live in a place where all the houses look the same?” we are meant to ask as we recoil in horror at the idea. It is nothing less than a suburban purgatory, a place where the days bleed into weeks, the weeks into months and years, and all is the same and nothing ever changes and so your first hour there is indistinguishable from your last. Almost universally, if the fictional homeowner completes their inner character arc by the end of the movie as expected, their final triumph is moving out of such a neighborhood in favor of one that has been deemed acceptable: a classically unique home, situated amongst other classically unique homes. If their personal growth goes awry, the punishment is to remain. Of all the tired locations I get asked to search for, I hate this one the most. I hate it because despite having scouted countless such properties over the years, I have never once met a single homeowner who resembles the soulless, vapid, superficial, simple-minded cliché who will be portrayed as living in their home. A privilege of being a scout is that as you are photographing a person’s home, they will often volunteer intimate details of their lives with you, such as how they came to live there. And consistently, the reasons people offer for having chosen this sort of neighborhood could not be more universally understandable. The desire for as large a house as can be afforded, with lots of space to raise a family. Access to good schools for their children. Low crime rates. Centrally located. Reliable infrastructure. All are extremely aware of the copycat nature of their homes. It’s not a secret. They know. It’s not like in the movies, where the homeowner is inexplicably ignorant of the most obvious trait of their neighborhood, only to jolt awake to the monotony of design as the movie progresses. Homeowners will often make light jokes about it up front, typically followed up with a “but what are you gonna do?” shrug. It easy to tell that they consider uniformity to be a minor trade-off for attaining highly regarded benefits that would otherwise not be available to them. This is the fundamental issue that filmmakers seem terminally oblivious to. It’s not the 1950s anymore, when affordable homes were abundant, and living in tract housing was to some degree an aesthetic choice. It is 2023, where homeownership is outside the reach of most average people, certainly in cities like Los Angeles. The idea of portraying a resident of such a home as some sort of tasteless automaton is the grossest condescension I can imagine. At the very least, I can say with authority that such a depiction has no basis in reality. As my scout concludes, I thank the man for showing me his beautiful home, and then move on to the next one. Indeed, it is near identical. The only differences I can identify are an additional dormer window and a slightly different paint job. But the woman I meet inside could not be more different. She’s younger, and recently married, and as she begins to share the story of why they chose this home due to her husband’s career in the army, any hope of simplistic categorization instantly vanishes. As it always does. As it always will. -- Scout Stories is a print-only publication of personal stories and photography from my 18 years as a location scout, published quarterly. Purchase Scout Stories #1 here: www.nickcarr.com NEW Scout Stories #2 issue coming March 1.

[anomaly-hivemind]

The Gaymer Chair

Warning(s): why did i write this, porn without plot, masturbation, mildly dub-con, inanimate object porn, original non-binary character, dry humping, grinding, porn watching, internal monologue, crack treated seriously, vaginal fingering, toys, knotting dildos?, edging, android, oral(everyone?) overstimulation, dacryphilia if you squint, vaginal sex, praise kink,orgasm denial, orgasam control, brat, brat tamer

Summary: When a simple night to herself derails in a way she wouldn't have expected, she can't help that this turn of events is turning her on even more.

Part One

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Wjian sat at her desk, the purple led lights illuminating her pale skin. She was on discord playing league of legends with some others on her server and was about to log off for the night.

“Okay, guys, I should really be getting to bed now, but I’ll totally talk to you later; bye-bye!” Wjian said before logging out of the server. She let out a tired huff leaning back into her pastel chair. Wjian’s hands traveled up to her head, her soft, dainty hands wrapped around her pink cat-ear headphones.

“Owie,” Wjian exclaimed as she stopped pulling the headphones. A lock of her long blonde hair was caught in the adjusters of the headphones.

As Wjian gently tugged at the strand of hair a cold chill ran up her back making her arched slightly.

“It’s kinda cold in here, I wonder if mom will let me turn the A/C up?” Wjian said to herself, clutching her sweatshirt closer to her small figure.

“WJIAN!” Her mother called in her valley girl accent.

“Yes?” Wjian said, poking her head out her door.

“You’re dad finally came back with the milk so we’re going out to dinner since it’s date night. Be careful and don’t forget to lock up before you go to bed okay? Okay, love you, bye bye girlie!”

Welp I’m home alone Wjian, thought to herself. She leaned back into the chair, contemplating on what she would do next.

Sitting back up she looked down into her lap to see her hair untangled from her headphones. She didn’t think much of it and grabbed her phone at the sound of the personalized text tone of her best friend, Dio Brando. Who had sent her a tiktok. She opened up the app and watched a video about a man who had railed his poor girlfriend to a truly god awful song to have sex to.

“I wonder if you could actually get off to that?”

She let the tiktok play on loop as she thought about if she could get off to the terrible song that echoed in her eardrums. After listening to the sound for the longer version she came to the conclusion that she just didn't want to put herself through the song any longer.

But she did however want to tickle her inverted pickle now that she had thought about the idea of doing the activity. She was in the mindset now; standing up to grab her toy of good times from the sock drawer and sitting back in the soft pastel chair.

She opened up tumblr to look through random smut and find a Kakashi x reader with some tags she liked. She started playing an asmr for Kakashi on youtube and opened back up the tumblr tab. As her eyes scanned over the paragraph her body began to heat up, her pale skin flushed with color as a blush. She lifted up her top and threw it onto her bed behind and continued to scroll down the page.

She trailed a hand up to her chest fondling her supple breasts. She flick the bud of her nipples and short, quiet sighs. She skimmed through the fiction until a new line caught her sight.

Her warm cunt ached for attention as she pinched and rolled her nipples around between her fingers.

The last time she watched porn she had seen a few videos of girls grinding and humping against different objects: tables, chairs, washing machines. Hell, she had even seen videos of women riding car hitches and the shift gear.

She could feel the wetness collecting in her shorts just thinking about it. It may have been slightly strange , but she thought it was kinda hot. So she shimmed out of them. She hadn’t been wearing underwear that day so the soft cotton polyester blend of her large and very expensive flower seat cushion slightly tickled her bare skin.

Her mind drifted back to her previous thoughts of humping porn she had watched in the past.

Maybe I should try it, but it might hurt a little. Maybe I should put some underwear on, or put my shorts back on? No no! What if I squirt or something then it’ll just run down my legs and make a mess. A towel maybe? Yeah! I’ll put a towel over it. Wjian thought before walking over to grab a towel.

Chaise Pov

I stand in the room I was built in, staring at the screens of the computers. I sit in the short silence of the woman that assembled me into being. She stared at the blinding blue lights. This woman never seems to be away from this desk area. Her pale fingers pushed at the keys as I struggled to hold in a sigh. She was going to be sitting on me for hours to come.

She took a towel and placed it over one of my arms before she took a few steps to stand over it. What was she about to do? She lowered her body onto my arm and I could feel the pulsing of her cunt through the towel. I could feel heat in my cushions, which is a bit strange since I didn’t have seat warmers but whatever.

Wjian ground her hips against my arm and let out soft moans.

“F-fuck,” she whispered.

Damn, she seems to be enjoying herself, but what actually is she doing? I thought about moving but she might slip cause she’s pretty clumsy; I’ve watched her trip in nothing but air, which I admit sounds a bit creepy but hey, I’m a chair.

“Wjian what are you doing?” I asked. Wjian jumped back, hitting her lower back against her desk.

“Owchie that hurt!” Wjian said, rubbing where she had hit the desk.

“Who said what? A peeper? A perv?! A peeping perv!” Wjian said looking around wildly while she used her arm to cover herself which was mostly unsuccessful as she only covered her nipples and vagina.

“Sorry to breaking it to you but if anyone’s a perv it’s you Wjian, you were just rubbing your coochie on my arm,”

She looked at both of her sides to see if anyone was watching her and trying to play a prank on her.

“Has all that time in front of a pc made you blind or something? I’m right in front of you l'amour.”

“A ghost!?” Wjian exclaimed, her eyes wide in surprise

“No, I’m the chair you were just rubbing on like a little slut.”

“B-but you’re a chair!”

“Yeah I just said that dumbass,”

“H-h-how?”

“I don't know actually.” The chair swayed slightly.

Silence filled the room for a moment as she pondered what to say next.

“Could you feel what I was doing?”

“Well yeah, it's my arm.”

“Oh, well um…sorry about that.” she began to rise from my arm before stopping to speak again.

“What does it feel like for you?”

“Quoi?”

“huh?

“Sorry, I said what?

“You said you could feel me, so what does it feel like?”

“I don’t know, it just… feels,”

“Wow, very descriptive, you got a name I can call you?” Wjian shifts with her thin towel looking down.

“You can call me Chaise.”

Third person.

Wjian placed a foot on the seat cushioning as she leaned forward. Letting the towel fall from her and back on the arm of the gaming chair. Making them lean back a few inches.

“Chaise huh, so… I’m not quite sure what to say, how long have you been… um… sentient?”

“Since you assembled me,”

“Does that make me your mom or something?”

“No, why would you even ask me that! And you never answered my question from before,”

“What question?”

“When you were sliding your pussy across my arm like a bitch in heat I asked what you were doing?

“I was just trying to make myself feel good,”

“That’s what your fingers are for, slut,”

Wjian clenched her thighs together, wetness dripped down her legs. She had never been talked to like that before but she kinda liked it.

“So do you have private parts?” Wjian asked, her pale skin flushed with color as she nervously rubbed her thighs together.

“I dunno,”

“Can I… can I find them for you?”

“What? Speak up,”

“I said can I find them for you?”

“Can you what?

“I said can I find them for you!” her body heated up as her ears burned from the embarrassment that she had just said something like that to a sentient chair.

“Oui, why don't you see if you can find something, I'm sure with your whore expertise you'll find what you're looking for,”

She nodded slightly and ran her flushed hands across the patted material slowly. She had no idea what she was doing right now and she didn't even know if it was working with the lack of reaction. She grabbed onto the armrest and pushed her knees on to the seat. Pushing the back of the chair down until she was basically laying bare on top of her sentient piece of furniture.

Chaise shifted under Wjian’s weight, a shiver of excitement ran through their padding as Wjian’s ample breasts pressed against them.

She took one of her hands and grabbed the underside of the chair and she heard a subtle sign come from the chair. She grabbed the lever for the height and held it with a firm grasp.

“T-That's definitely doing something for me.” Chaise’s rolled back.

“Really!” She put more pressure into her grip and got a short hum.

Wjian changed positions so that she was sitting down. She then placed one of her hands between her thighs. She moved her fingers in slow motions on her clit. Wjian let out a moan as she leaned back on Chaise.

Right as put a finger into herself, the chair abruptly spinned her around facing away from the desk. She was now facing her bed in slight shock.

“This is a great view.”

“How do you see stuff?”

“I think I could compare it to an out of body experience in a way.”

Wjian let out a hum as she contemplated what Chaise said. She leaned out of the chair to grab something from her secret compartment that she had forgotten.

Her colorful red and blue dildo she had bought at her local Spencer's. She held it in her hand and brushed it between her opening. Coating it in her liquids and she grabbed the armrest for support as she inserted her toy into herself.

Wjian let out a loud moan as the toy stretched her walls. She wiggled in her spot rubbing her ass against the cushions.

“You really are panting like a dog, aren't you,” Chaise speaking to her in their low, thick, accented voice made Wjian shiver.

“If you keep talking to me like that I-i might cum on the spot,” she pushed the toy deeper into her.

“That's the goal is it not.” Chaise the chair shook back and forth as they told Wjian.

“I just got an idea…” Wjian took out her Dildo and stood up with wobbling legs.

She pulled the seat pillow and tossed it onto her bed and plopped the suction cup end on the chair. Then she crouched on the chair, hovering over her toy.

“Oh I see, so the slut wants to act like she's riding me.”

Wjian slowly lowered her hips on to the red and blue dildo until she was halfway down. She lifted up before going deeper and repeating the process. Her juices dripped down in viscous droplets.

“You sure are making a mess of me,” Chaise groaned.

A loud moan filled the room as Wjian fully sank into the seat, covering the silicone slong. Wjian’s legs began to shake and she tilted her head back. Drool threatened to pool out of her mouth and down her chin.

Her titties bounced, as she hopped on her toy. Her skin glowed in the colorful lighting of her gamer setup. Wjian moved her hand to her exposed pearl.

In tandem to Wjian’s movement, Chaise rocked back and forth sending the colorful dildo deeper and deeper into her juicy cunt. Every movement pressed the thick dildo onto her sweet spot.

“S-hit this feels so good!” Wjian said, saliva dribbling down her face. Recalling earlier occurrences she snaked her hands down to the underside of Chaise’s seat and wrapped her soft hands around the lever. Chaise let out a low groan making the seat vibrate a little. Her hips ground into the seat she used her hand to stroke and jiggle Chaise’s lever.

Wjian could feel pressure building in her core and she sped up readily waiting for what was a glorious orgasm to come.

“ah-Aah”

“You sound so angelic right now.”

Waves of euphoric relief washed over Wjian, her wetness gushed over the seat and she cursed as she rode out her orgasmic high.

“Don’t slow down now that you’ve got what you wanted, keep going!”

Wjian vigorously slid her hands over the lever and grasped it firmly.

“F-fuck, I’m so close,” Chaise choked out, as the rocked the dildo steadily pressed into Wjians warm muff sending her into overstimulation.

“How does this even work?!”

“I don't know but, be a good little whore and keep at it,”

“Yes, if I’m good, will you praise me?”

“That all depends,”

Wjian continued working towards Chaise’s release and soon enough Chaise was sent shaking with pleasure. The back was sent flying back into a full recline and they shook with ecstasy.

Wjian yelped in surprise and grabbed on to Chaise's arms for support.

“I feel kinda strange!”

“What do you mean?”

“W-WHoa, what the hell is this?!”

“Calm down, what are you talking about?”

“I mean I know I said my vision was an out of body experience but now i’m actually out of body!”

Wjian felt a coldness in her forehead then her eyes widened in surprise at the sight before her.

“Chaise, is that you?”

“I guess so”

Before Wjian, stood or rather levitated an androgynous person; translucent with their dark skin and muted hair,lacking much life.

“Huh, so I was right, you are a ghost.” A smile on her.

“You think you’re so smart, you dirty little slut,”

“Hah- fuck me again!”

Chaise smiled to themselves at the sight of the blushing girl.

“Well you are a cutie, even if you are a slutty bimbo,”

“So is that round two I’m hearing?”

“Sure mi vida,”

“ooh you’re speaking my mother tongue”

“…Wait, so you aren’t White?”

Salutations, Darling Worker Bees! This was part one of one our original stories! We hope you loved it and that you’ll support us by reblogging and sharing this with all your sexual deviant friends. Part Two will be posted next week, Sept. 12th , at 12 pm EST. and there will be more stories like this coming. The Hive has a lot of plans in the works.

Lastly I just want to say a big thank you to CafeKitsune for allowing us to use these gorgeous banners, we’re literally so grateful and everyone please show your support to CafeKitsune for all the amazing work they do to make tumblr posts looks so pretty.

@cafekitsune

[comfy-sofa]

I finally watched episode 6 (rant/thoughts)

Y'all I'm not doing ok in the slightest. The last episode got me in my feels and now episode 6 is making it even worse so let's break it down yeah?

Can we PLEASE talk about the beginning scene??? Like Wolfwood's eyes??? Dude it was kinda unsettling

Vash acting all nonchalant about being "friends" with Meryl and Roberto (you ain't fooling me you funky little plant you're just trying to shut your emotions down so you don't get attached)

Ok being a little art nerd, I just wanna say I love the sandsteamer's design and think it would be fun to ride on one. Also it seems they're wasn't a caravan following the steamer so maybe they changed it?

Being an art nerd once again, the lack of variety when it comes to different body shapes and sizes is kinda getting to me. Like all the men look like inverted doritos and I could really use some variety.

LIVIO...barely said anything??? But fuck I would be lying if I said I didn't cry tears of joy seeing him.

THE CHILDHOOD FLASHBACK. Orange I need more of this IMMEDIATELY IT WAS SO PRETTY

BABY LIVIO AND NICOOOOO😭😭😭 I want to protect these boys so much! ( Ngl when I saw Nico and Livio tending to the baby birds I had a moment of great fear, if you read TriMax you'll know)

Nicolas was really born with a lighter in his hand because not him smoking that space zaza and trying to get livio to do it

So...the EOM is really walking around here looking like that??? Taking children??? AND NO ONE'S SAYING ANYTHING???

The hallucination scene was so fucking pretty my GOD

Ok Nicolas trying to escape so he could go back to the orphanage did things to my heart go (this also highlights his past personality of caring about others, especially kids)

Speaking of that scene LEGATO BLUESUMMERS, you fruity-tooty bitch glad to see ya (also seeing Nico's hand get bent up like that made me fucking squirm my goodness) also I guess we can say Legato's powers is more on the telepathy side versus the metal strings

God Vash can't get a fucking break and he knows it. Speaking of Vash, that punch/push he did to Livio??? Nah his patience is wearing thin and I'm gonna be right there front row when it happens (can you tell imma big fan of when Vash looses his cool?)

So we didn't get Razlo this episode, so maybe we'll get him soon? (I saw that ending screen Orange I know who that is)

There's no way in fucking hell Wolfwood is dying next episode like... this is not gonna leave the impact they want it to have. At most this is gonna cause everyone to separate and be on their own for a bit (which is good because they need to slow the fuck down)

Lastly, BAD LADS GANG LET'S GOOOO. This was my favorite episode for the original Trigun so I hope they do her justice. (B.D.N, the love of my life I'll see you soon)

Ok that was a lot, but TLDR I'm nervous about Livio and how they're gonna handle Razlo and I truly doubt they're gonna kill off Wolfwood (maybe we'll get more backstory and character development because they definitely fucking need it). Also if they whitewash BDN it's on signt.

[booksandchainmail]

Pale 10.2

“Go, go, go,” Lucy urged, whisper quiet.  Snowdrop and Avery came down from upstairs, their eyes the inverted white pupils, pink irises and black surface of Snowdrop’s Sight.  Lucy gave them a nod, then guided Melissa toward the door that went from inside Edith’s cabin to the porch.

interesting. Why are they back here? And why bring Melissa?

Avery had made it a fair bit ahead of their group, but that was what Avery always did, Snowdrop was close to Avery, and Lucy had been ahead of Melissa, waiting for Melissa to catch up.  Putting Melissa at the rear of the pack, closest to Nibble and least able to run away.

this is why we need Verona here, she can be trusted to lag behind the group

Nibble went on, “She’s close to being Aware, if she isn’t there already, but she has the inherent innocence you can’t give up unless you…”

I'd hope that having an innocent there would fend off the witch hunter, but I think he probably doesn't care. And not being a practitioner or Other means he doesn't have to worry about the karmic backlash as much

“Melissa, please,” Lucy urged.  She paused, trying to think of what to say or what to ask for, then said, “please.”

I like how bad Lucy is at reasoning with Melissa

“How do we set the table without ringing the bell?” Avery asked.  “Melissa?” Melissa was standing by, watching, a frown on her face. “Table?”

I'm lost too.

oh, no I figured it out! They want to use the diagnoses tools Nicolette showed in the extra materials to figure out what the bell does. Talk about a field test.

Lucy reached for the bell.  It swayed away from her hand as she got about a foot away. Avery tried. At about two feet, it started moving gently away from her hand, dangling, as if she was holding a strong magnet.

Guessing that having a familiar makes Avery more Other in a way that trips the alarm sooner?

Jack of diamonds, ace of diamonds, two of clubs, jack of diamonds. “That’s two of the same card. Did you mix two decks together?” Melissa asked. “Nope,” Avery said. “Defective production, maybe?” “What does it mean?” Lucy asked. “No idea.”

I know this is in reference to not knowing what the duplicated card means, but I love the idea of doing a fortune-telling spread of cards and just going "fuck if I know what that means"

Huh. I wonder if the duplicate card is because they're using a french deck of playing cards instead of tarot minor arcana, which is more what I'd think of for divination. It could be trying to map both the page and the knight of coins onto the jack of diamonds.

In which case, the elements are: fresh eyes, small steps, patient observation, enhanced endeavors due to resources (possibly swap the first and last entries). Which makes sense for these alarm detection bells!

“Do I get a love triangle?  There was that show where the girl found out she was a half centaur and that’s why she was so good at riding horses-” “I liked that one,” Avery said.

yeah that tracks

“I’ve been meaning to ask, why is this kid so obsessed with opossums?” Melissa asked.  “She’s worse than Caroline from school, with her horse obsession.  Hey, do you think Caroline watches the centaur show?”

I was thinking that this rambling seemed out of character for Melissa, who has consistently been more gloomy than annoyingly unfocused. And then I looked up codeine side effects, and restlessness and talking with uncontrollable excitement are both listed.

She laid the page on the ground, then reached over, finishing the core rune.  The triangle of air.  “For the protection of Kennet and its population, human and otherwise.” “We draw on what we’re owed,” Avery added.

Verona’s absence was very much felt.

But they picked up, and soon, all across the clearing, bells were chiming, each with a high, sweet sound that carried in a way that would let it be heard from a mile away.  Grass blew and trees swayed.

I'm returning here after a week hiatus while I was on vacation, and this visual stuck with me whenever I was thinking about Lucy

The Witch Hunter found his feet again.  One member of their group stayed down.

can't believe I paused for a week on this cliffhanger

“I mean, you’re into music and you have this… image?  A crafted self-image, you know what I mean?”  Alyssa floundered.  “Confident, specific style.  Reminded me of friends who were in a band.”

I bet you could use band as a collective noun for a group of practitioners

"You’re always going off to meet with your friends. They have similar images. Well, Avery more. Verona wasn’t so hot when she came by, but even with her, a bit.”

interesting that the kind of self-definition you do as a practitioners is noticeable to people in the mundane world. I wonder if it's just that you get used to putting forward a specific version of yourself even in normal circumstances, or if there's some reinforcement from spirits who you've shown what face you want to present

“Just… easier to think I was a screwed up, paranoid kid, than to think the world was that gross."

Thinking about something I read about how CBT? or maybe some other form of therapy often fails people of color, because it focuses on "stop being paranoid, the world isn't out to get you, that's just your anxiety etc. talking." But sometimes the world is out to get you!

“I’ve run into that.  People in dark places don’t always want to accept the help.  The darkness can be more comfortable.” An image of Verona darted through Lucy’s mind’s eye.

and in Verona's case, she doesn't have a better future (outside of becoming an Other) that she feels she can realistically aim at

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m not exactly a bundle of warmth and cuddles.” “You sure?” Alyssa asked, matching Lucy’s posture, elbow on table, hand on cheek. “You’ve got a lot of warmth reserved for your mom, Booker, and Verona.”

awww

Verona’s dad stood on the edge of the lawn, dropping off garbage at the curb.  He stopped as he saw her.  She stopped as she looked at him, wearing her fox form, breathing hard. Emotions roiled inside her, flaring, boiling up.

I think Booker going back to college is making this worse: Lucy was already feeling like the people in her inner circle are leaving, and now Verona is gone too.

Then he walked down the stairs, crossed the lawn while sliding the phone back to his pocket, and set the recycling bin down.  Almost as an afterthought, he said, “Hi, Lucy.” “Hi.” Then he turned to go back inside.

this is rude, but also very funny. Just not engaging with the angry 13 year old who just appeared where a weird fox was.

Start from compassion, Lucy thought, thinking of Alyssa’s words. “Fuck offffff!” Lucy raised her voice. “And fuck you!"

lol

She found Avery, who wore a jersey top with a sports bra, shorts, and her running shoes, hair down.  She had her bag slung over one shoulder.  It looked like Avery had grown up by a year or two in just the short time they’d been active.

Welcome to puberty! And also being under life-threatening stress basically nonstop for a few months. Both will age you!

“You wish this was all easier?  Mannn, you have no idea.  I have whole days, days I feel more shitty and miserable than I ever have, and my parents are bored, bored of me being sad.  And you know who’s more bored?”

... No, I think Avery and Lucy are still winning the "how bad are things going" competition

“That Melissa might be a trainwreck no matter what we do.  She’s getting into trouble no matter what, but at least she’ll be one we can sorta steer or manage if we step in.  And maybe she’ll even find some joy in it?”

I mean, trying to steer her away hasn't worked for the past six arcs, so.

“…I care about belonging to something.  I don’t belong to family, I don’t belong to the Dancers, I don’t fit in with all those older teens who’re drinking and shit.  I don’t belong to- there’s no- there’s no me to belong to, I don’t fit to anything.  I’m so lonely it feels like my heart doesn’t beat anymore.”

this sucks! The thing with Melissa is that she is incredibly annoying for our protagonists, and also is probably not in as much trouble as they are, which makes her complaining seem petty. But also she's right that her life got fucked up, and she's miserable, and it's a shitty situation to be in for anyone, especially at fourteen.

“Help us solve a mystery, Melissa,” Lucy said.  “Help us connect some dots, how’s that?” “You’re just using me, aren’t you?” Melissa asked. “A bit. But I also want to help and if this is your road to happiness… fuck it.”

huh. That could be one way to put thing together with the Carmine Beast murder. And I guess this explains why they take Melissa to Edith's cabin

“I’m not complaining,” Melissa said, mumbling a bit.  “I want to be used.  I want to be useful.  I want to be wanted.  Awesome.” I think it’s good we got you away from that party and those older boys, then, protective cousin or no, Lucy thought, looking back.

yeah

“I am in a very going-along state right now,” Melissa said, raising the bottle she still held.  “You have no idea.”

YEAH

She dug fingers into wet, sucking blood, and found it a tangle inside, stuff getting caught between her fingers, parts that felt like they were the way further in or between bits of internals until they really didn’t. Lucy snarled, pushing until her finger hurt, but a strand of something broke and she could work her hand in, nearly wrist deep. Fishing, groping, searching for something. A bit of solid, no, that was deceptively tense tissue. She growled, face contorting, as she pushed her hand in deeper, another inch of give.  It was so hot inside.

this is also a place where Verona is missed

You’re doing more than being slow, Lucy thought. Melissa had found something.

OwO?

“I have.  Most of us have.  People, broken by them, until we’re a little more and a little less person.  I’m honorable.  If you step out of my way, I’ll give you five percent.”

I was hoping Melissa's presence would dissuade the Witch Hunter. Seems to be working a bit? And his training must have had a hell of a lot of work dehumanizing practitioners, because there's zero hesitation in viewing Lucy as an enemy combatant/monster despite her being very human.

“My own fault.” “Is that what they told you?” he asked. “No. Not at all. This is all what they’ve set up and made over centuries. It’s only your fault according to them, because that’s how they arranged it.”

I mean yes, in the sense that this is the way the world works (and damage Nicolette did) and isn't anything wrong that Melissa did. No, in the sense that this isn't something that the Kennet Trio in particular set up. Or that anyone arranged on purpose!

"And to you… Lucy or Melissa, it’s not your fault.  There’s better ways and better things.  I can tell you things they never will, and show you ways to deal with the threats that are going to be lurking in the shadows all your life.  I can show you how to feel empowered again.  I’ll be around.  I’ll come to you if you come looking for me.  Whether you want answers or a ticket out of… this.”

well that's a hell of a temptation for Melissa. I hope that bonding experience investigating the murder cabin was good for her?

The syringe was sturdy, with fine, dark filigree all down the glass, denser toward the end with the needle.  Artistry that could only come from the one place.  Inside was a oily slick of darkness, glistening, strands and clumps gathering into shapes suggestive of body parts.  And one blob of white that moved through it, to the surface of the glass. The blob of white had a face. Edith’s.

what the fuck

ok, so Fae artistry on the syringe? and I'm guessing Maricica, since it's dark filigree. And that clump of darkness... it makes me think Alpeana, but I'm hoping it's from someone else.

And why is there a blob of Edith in this? was the syringe extracted from her? Why? Who is it meant to inject? are they going to put Edith into a host who will become the Carmine Judge?