#they can't be terrible

[softquietsteadylove]

some more jack and thenamesh? jacks grandparents, bens parents, come to visit as a surprise but jack is home alone with thena and gil because phastos and ben are on a date and jacks grandparents are a bit worried and confused because they don't know these people but jack is happy to say: this is my aunt thena and my uncle gil

"Jack?"

"Jaddi! Jaddati!" he smiled, rushing over to them as they closed the front door behind them.

"Hello," his grandmother leaned down, patting her grandson's head while her eyes were occupied with the strangers at the top of the stairs. "Jack, wh-who is here with you?"

Jack looked up the stairs as Aunt Thena stood first, always the most on guard when it came to meeting new people. Uncle Gil moved to stand beside her, watching things quietly. He grasped his grandmother's hand. "Jaddati, this is Aunt Thena and Uncle Gil. They're from Dad's side of the family."

Their eyes bulged, never having thought they would meet Phastos' mysterious family. They looked between themselves before trying to smile somewhat naturally. "H-How nice to meet you."

Aunt Thena watched as they ascended the stairs with Jack leading them. She took a few steps back to make room for them. But he had seen Aunt Thena meet new people before, and this was pretty normal for her.

"Aunt Thena, Uncle Gil," Jack moved between the two couples, trying to introduce them properly, like a grownup. "This is my Jaddi and Jaddati. They're Baba's parents."

Aunt Thena tilted her head at them, speaking slowly, "hello."

"Uh," Uncle Gil tried more to smile at them, "h-hi. Ben's family--we've heard about you!"

"Really?"

Jack twisted his lips as the events unfolded. They weren't being unfriendly, but there was something not quite right, either. He looked between both sets of people in his life. "Aunt Thena and Uncle Gil helped Dad save the world!"

His Jaddati smiled, clearing her throat and toying with the edge of her hijab. "Jack has such a wonderful imagination."

Thena just barely got her mouth open before Gil wrapped his arm around her waist. "Kids are great for that."

"Phastos has such a, uh," his Jaddi floundered, touching his hands to his jeans, "broad family tree. Where have you come from?"

"We are visiting from Australia," Aunt Thena finally spoke up. "Phastos and Ben were kind enough to open their home to us during our stay."

"Ah, yes," Jaddati smiled at them, the edges of it still shaky. "A-And how long are you staying?"

Uncle Gil and Aunt Thena just looked at each other. As far as Jack knew, they were staying until they had to go back to Australia for some reason or another. Maybe to do house stuff? Jaddi and Jaddati spend half the year back east, maybe his aunt and uncle would do the same with their home back in Australia.

"Until we have outstayed our welcome."

Jack eyed his grandparents. He could understand why they were nervous around his other relatives. Dad said everyone from their family just...had that effect on people (humans).

His grandmother straightened her shoulders and moved closer to the other woman present, both of them tall and statuesque when eye to eye. "Thena, was it?"

"It was."

She continued despite the peculiar woman naming herself Jack's aunt. "We have had the pleasure of knowing Phastos for a very long time now, and having him as a son for some of that has been a blessing."

Jack watched Aunt Thena closely. She had little things about her that could tell him a lot about how she was feeling. He caught the way her shoulders lowered faintly and her hands became less tightly clasped closed.

"I understand that there was a time when you were all," Jaddati searched for the right word, "separated."

Uncle Gil's hand slid over Aunt Thena's, moving their fingers together.

"But Phastos is a good man, and my son married the right person for him." Jaddati straightened her shoulders more, matching Aunt Thena's rigid posture. "And it is through them both we were given Jack. So I am thankful to your brother, and that he was brought into our lives."

Gil raised his eyebrows. Thena smiled at the human woman.

"Family of Phastos'," his grandmother held out her hands to Thena, "is family of ours."

Thena observed the hands for just a second before slowly holding her own to mirror the position. Her pale ones slipped against the hands of Jack's grandmother's. She blinked. "You have aged remarkably well."

"Thena!" Uncle Gil pinched her side, making her make a face at him. He chuckled, smiling at Jack's grandmother especially, "s-sorry. We, uh, don't get out much."

But Jaddati smiled, the same way Baba smiled at Aunt Thena when they were getting along so well. "It was a compliment, was it not?"

"It was."

Uncle Gil sighed. He often said he wanted Aunt Thena to meet and get along with more humans. Well, Jack thought this was a perfect opportunity! "Hey!"

Thena and Jaddati both looked at him sharply.

"Uh," he lost some nerve but tried to stay strong, clasping his hands in front of him (if he acted cute, maybe they would agree). "W-We should all do something together."

"Like what?" Uncle Gil chuckled, the way he did when he was humouring him.

"The..." Jack eyed his collective family, looking at him expectantly. "Movies?"

"I do believe your fathers have said that your screen time is too much this week already."

Jaddati looked at Thena, clearly pleased with her input. She put her hands on her hips, "you should listen to your aunt, Jack."

He sighed, looking down at his feet, "yes, Jaddati."

"What about this?" his grandfather held his hands out, eager to salvage the bonding moment. "We were going to take Ben and Phastos and Jack out to dinner when we arrived. We can call them and meet them in the city--all five of us!"

"That's a great idea!" Gil joined in, especially eager to bond over food, even more especially with their new extended family. He looked at Thena, "c'mon, baby, please?"

Jack and Jaddati both looked at Thena, who visibly squirmed, trying to look away from Gil's big puppy dog eyes. Jack made the same expression, pressing his hands together, "pretty please, Aunt Thena?"

All three humans - plus her husband - witnessed the second her resolve melted in the face of her nephew. "Very well."

"Yes! It's gonna be great, I promise!"

Jack's grandparents traded a look as he skipped and wrapped his arms around his aunt's torso. She didn't seem entirely natural about the physical affection, but her hand could not have been gentler as she laid it atop Jack's head.

"Wash your hands and wear something warm," she directed.

"Okay!" he agreed readily in his excitement. He took Jaddi and Jaddati's hands again. "You should bring your stuff in here. And you can sit next to me at dinner! Aunt Thena sits next to me too, because she doesn't always like food that's not Uncle Gil's, but she'll go halvesies with me no matter what I get."

[creepedfinnart]

i mean i think she would've had the time

[jayrockin]

I finally (got help) slapping Wordpress into shape and Runaway to the Stars is now releasing as a public webcomic! Thank you so much for your support over the years, and sticking with me while I'm slowly chewing my way through this book. I'm very excited to share this story! It'll be updating every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday thanks to the massive Patreon backlog. Patreon will continue to update as I finish pages, which happens on a sporadic non-schedule.

If you experience bugs with the site report them to me. Some things may occasionally break, as coding problems tend to be a very "whack-a-mole" affair; and I'm still getting used to the interface.

[brokencapillaries]

puking and sobbing and sobbing and puking

[knifearo]

being aromantic is like. hey btw you're going to live a life that is the culmination of most of society's worst nightmares. sorry lol ✌️ but then you turn around and take a really good hard look at it and it turns out that living in that nightmare is fucking awesome and you get to wake up every day and take that fear that other people have and laugh and hold it close until it's a great joy for you instead. and being happy is a radical act that you define instead of someone else. and you're sexy as fuck that's just a fact of life i don't make the rules on that one

[infernal-lamb]

some rushed doodles of our new goat darling........I have so many plans for them

[ruporas]

vw sketches (id in alt)

[balimaria]

one day, I will set this right

[alsoika]

Astarion asking Gale for money all the time is now canon in my heart.

[majubengel]

Parents and children~

extra:

[rhetorical-conscience]

how am i meant to explain to someone what i did tonight?

was it a therapy session? a rave? a confessional, a drag show, a youtuber boxing match?

yes. yes, it was all of those things.

[infinitelystrangemachinex]

Jayce and the fallacy of the butterfly effect in Arcane's narrative

If Jayce's symbol is the butterfly, then my theory is that we're going into a full "butterfly effect" narrative in Act 2. Either we'll watch it happen, or we'll only see Jayce come out the other side of it changed by the experience, knowing - or more importantly, THINKING he knows - what to do to change the future. Literally, to "defend tomorrow."

tl;dr: Jayce will encounter the butterfly effect in season 2. Viktor and Mel both foreshadowed this in season 1. I think Jayce will fixate on Viktor and will believe that stopping or changing Viktor either in the past or the present - most likely the present - will mean he can save the future. I believe this will lead to an even worse tragedy and may have the same effect as a self-fulfilling prophecy. Ekko's approach to changing the future by sticking closer to the present - considering only tiny increments of time to alter more immediate future outcomes - will be the superior approach. I also think that Jayce attempting to change the future will create the conditions that push Viktor to become the Machine Herald.

One of the most common reactions even the casual viewer had to Arcane season 1 was this: "If [character] had just done this one small thing a little differently, [tragic event] wouldn't have happened!"

Arcane has been called a Greek tragedy for the main reason that because of how well built up the characters' personalities and reasonings are, there's no other way season 1 could have gone. There was no stopping the multiple tragedies that occurred, because with one event leading to another, the chain of seemingly inevitable events goes too far back to identify what one singular event caused everything, what one character made what one decision to put our characters on the terrible paths they walked.

Arcane is about to investigate this idea in its own narrative, and I think that Jayce will be the character to stumble into the flawed idea that you can change one event, or stop one character, and change the future for the better. This is because Jayce struggles with a few very interesting character flaws, one of them being that he believes himself to be the main character, and it is therefore his responsibility to intervene, be a hero, and fix things.

Viktor and Mel both foreshadow Jayce's future encounter with the butterfly effect.

Recall that Viktor said: "There is always a choice."

Jayce sees choices in black and white, believes that he has no other options but to go along with what he's persuaded and pushed into, and acts too boldly with too much power multiple times.

Recall that Mel said: "We can't change what fate has in store for us, but we don't have to face it alone."

Jayce tries to solve big problems on his own, and though he delegates to Enforcers and the like, Jayce relies on his reasoning and his alone to make important decisions if he doesn't simply become persuaded - usually through strong emotions like fear - by other characters. In addition, since Mel is specifically talking about Viktor's plight here, it's worth mentioning that while Jayce did say that he would help Viktor in acts 2 and 3 of season 1, Jayce does wind up leaving Viktor to face his fate alone. When Jayce tries to change that fate in s2 ep1, ep2 shows that only tragedy can come of this as well.

Viktor and Mel's statements here are not contradictory. Viktor makes the point that you can always make a choice. In context, he's literally referring to the classic "secret third option," because given a choice between aggression and passivity, war and surrender, Viktor chooses to defuse the bomb instead. Mel, interestingly, seems to believe that destiny is fixed in a broad sense, and she operates as a politician and diplomat and investor who navigates that line of destiny in the most optimal way possible. In reality, in context, she is referring to the fact that Viktor can't change the way he was born and so he has no way to change his fate and therefore must face it, which is true - she's only missing the information that Viktor actually does have the means to change his illness and his body. Her wisdom still applies however, because he'll have to accept the hand that fate deals him after he makes that choice. Will he face it alone, or not?

There is always a choice, there's even secret third options, because having a fate doesn't mean that you are doomed to make only one possible series of choices. What it does mean is that each choice comes with a hand that fate deals you. It is impossible to know what all of these branching choices and consequences are in advance, and it is just as impossible in hindsight - the branches are too complex and the end outcomes are all equally meaningful, just different. If Arcane season 2 is to be a tragedy, it may show us that each possible outcome is still tragic if you fall for the fallacy of the butterfly effect.

Jayce is counseled by some of the wisest, cleverest characters with the deepest life experiences in Arcane, but he hardly ever takes that counsel to heart. If he does, he still acts on that counsel in flawed ways that have unintended consequences. This will come to a head in season 2.

Viktor and Jayce both have a butterfly following them around in season 1. The butterfly effect refers to one small seemingly insignificant event changing the course of history, and changing that event therefore changes history. Viktor bled over the railing of a Hexgate in season 1:

And Heimerdinger sees what we can only assume is Viktor's blood contaminating (?) the Hexgate in s2 ep3:

This might be the seemingly unimportant "inciting incident" that Jayce (and Heimerdinger and Ekko) settle on as something that should be avoided or erased by changing the past (if they time-travel with Ekko, for example).

I doubt that, if this is what this crew chooses to fixate on, it will be the only event that is considered as something to change. But let's take this and run with it for the sake of discussion.

As silly as it sounds, how do you stop Viktor from allowing his blood to come into contact with the arcane? Stop Viktor's involvement with the Academy entirely? Don't invent Hextech at all? But what if someone else invents Hextech besides Jayce? What if future tragedy befalls Piltover because it didn't invent Hextech?

The possibilities and what-ifs could branch on forever. But because Jayce is who he is, and because his tragedy with Viktor is still raw and recent and frightening, I think Jayce's butterfly effect experience will have to do with Viktor.

My personal prediction is that the timeskip between s2 ep3 and ep4 will be Jayce experiencing a timeline where Viktor, taken over by the Hexcore, brings about an apocalyptic event similar to what Heimerdinger experienced in his past. Either Jayce and co. can't go into the past to change the present, or Heimerdinger and/or Ekko advise strongly against it to avoid a paradox. This will lead to them re-entering the canon Arcane timeline before this apocalypse, but still after the timeskip. Jayce, believing that destroying Viktor and his cult will save the future, and believing that resurrecting Viktor was Jayce's mistake to fix, attacks him. But the consequences don't unfold the way he hopes, because trying to change fate once the cards have already been dealt has led to tragedy before.

The butterfly is a symbol of something other than just the butterfly effect - change, evolution, and rebirth. If the butterfly symbolizes the butterfly effect for Jayce, then I think it has a different meaning for Viktor - the change and rebirth meaning.

I've always found it very interesting that we see a similar-looking butterfly on Progress Day... but made of metal.

Every time Viktor's situation changes, he adapts and evolves. If Jayce attacks him, if his cult is destroyed, if the Hexcore is causing Viktor to decay, if all of these things happen at once - he'll just evolve again, and I think the Machine Herald is the next step. And the Machine Herald will be a triumph for Viktor, but Jayce will believe that he's created something even worse. The resulting feud will be a personal nightmare for both of them.

I think this still allows Viktor to use his own agency to choose to become the Machine Herald (the MH will probably be the "secret third option" that saves Viktor, or there will be a secret third option that ends the feud) while still allowing Jayce to be offended and horrified at whatever the Machine Herald represents or is trying to do in the undercity. Introducing the element of time travel allows Arcane to explore the meta concept of tragedy and fate that season 1 was built on while showing that you can't "solve" a tragedy, because there are other terrible possibilities lurking behind alternate choices. Especially if what you're trying to change is singular people or events and not systems of power.

This is why Ekko's approach with his Z-drive will be superior to Jayce's sweeping attempt at changing the future. Ekko's goal has always been societal change. He creates his own punk society in the undercity, more progressive and successful than anything Vander or Silco ever created, and a better bastion of safety, hope, and progress than what Heimerdinger founded in Piltover. Trying to change systems by going back in time is most likely futile. But taking what Ekko has already built in the Firelights, curing his tree, and fighting for the Firelights' survival bit by bit by optimizing the present with the Z-drive shows that:

It's more worth it to focus on becoming wise (Ekko's mask is an owl) and making choices you won't regret

It's best if you don't face your fate alone (act as a collective and take care of each other)

Consider every option, not just the obvious black and white choices

Maintain and fix what you've already built instead of abandoning it once things get difficult

Adapt as needed if the choices you made lead to dark consequences, and once again, stick together and take care of each other when the bad times do come

That's my Act 2 but, ultimately, my season 2 prediction based on the butterfly symbolism we've already seen. Ekko's involvement is what will give the series the at least partial happy ending that the creators have referred to. I personally don't think that the Viktor/Jayce feud will end quite so well, but maybe, they will still survive.

[mocking-the-bird]

Jason: No, I don't care if no one can look after Replacemet except me. Just drop him near some dumpster, he'll be alright.

Jason 3 seconds later: Welp, I guess this is my kid now. Batman can find himself another, he's quite talented in this.

[spocks-kaathyra]

experimenting w making little trek dolls for the STLV craft swap :))

[demaparbat-hp]

Thinking about @stygiovictoria's Roleswap AU.

[knifearo]

this year my challenge for everyone is to unlearn the association between love and morality. love is not something that is inherently morally good, and the absence of love is not something that is inherently bad. sex without love isn't morally bankrupt, it's just an action. people without love aren't less kind or less good, they're just people. when we can get past this false (and often unnoticed) dichotomy of good love/evil lovelessness then i think we are going to be able to take leaps and bounds in sex positivity, aro advocacy, certain discussions of mental health...