#uncork

[oceansand-tides]

TW: SMOKING.

*When Tide showed up to whirlwind cell, he would find whirlwind leaned up against the wall his face staring upwards as he blew a puff of smoke out of his mouth, controlling the air to warp the smoke around to make diffrent designs. Not yet realizing Tide had shown up.*

-🌪

(Deep breath in, deep breath out. This would be fine Tide. It has to be. Right?)

(He stands in front of the cell for a second, unsure of exactly what to say this time. It is his brother, and it's not their first rodeo, but there's something here that makes this feel...different.)

Hey Smokey, let's go.

[topicaltropic]

oops! all wips

[kingedmundsroyalmurder]

Blue Castle Book Club 2.0 - Chapter 6

I still don’t love the utter contrivance of Dr. Trent receiving the phone call about his son the very moment he is about to tell Valancy his diagnosis. I know these things happen, and it is on such conveniences that plots are born, but it feels forced.

But we’re working a theme, and that theme is Nobody Cares About Valancy. As we’ll start to see, only some of that is actually true in objective reality. Valancy has been so trained by her family and her own unhappiness that she has started to see deliberate slights where none may actually exist. I’ve seen fans speculate that her heart condition is actually panic attacks, and she definitely seems to be displaying something reminiscent of social anxiety with how she assumes that everyone in the world is scrutinizing and judging her at all times.

But of course, in Valancy’s case it’s made worse by the fact that people are scrutinizing and judging her at all times, and it does make sense that she would expand what she knows of how her family treats her onto everyone else she meets. So she assumes Dr. Trent has forgotten her because she’s so insignificant as to not be worth remembering, rather than assuming that whatever news he got must have been dreadful indeed.

And it turns out that it was, actually, dreadful news that distracted him, rather than anything to do with her at all.

Valancy goes home via lover’s lane, because of course she does. I am lightly shocked that Deerwood allows canoodling of any kind in public, although my assumption is that “canoodling” in this context is closer to making out than it is to actual sex acts. Presumably if there was actual sex happening then the young girls in pairs would not be allowed anywhere near the place.

Valancy, of course, runs into both a pair of friends and a romantic couple, just to hammer home what she herself is missing so badly. Once again, she is positive that everyone is talking about her. Even in her Blue Castle everyone is always talking about her, even if there everything they have to say is positive.

Of course Lover’s Lane “debouches” onto the street. Nothing so pedestrian as “ends” or “gives way” or even “emerges”. No, for Lover’s Lane we must be French and lightly suggestive. Even our verb choices serve to remind us of what Valancy so desires and has never had.

And, of course, upon whom do we debouche? Why upon Barney Snaith! I see you, Lusty Mind Montgomery.

Barney Snaith, who gets a properly excited introduction. Barney Snaith, who gets a proper physical description and a rundown of all the worst gossip that Valancy can’t quite bring herself to believe. Barney Snaith, who is the first person we have met thus far whom Valancy never once assumes is thinking of her. Everyone else is smiling because they must be laughing at her; Barney is smiling and all Valancy can think is how much she envies him for his freedom.

But Valancy doesn’t get freedom, not yet. Valancy has to go home to her dreadful house and listen to her dreadful relatives. We know that there is change coming for her, because the story has told us so, but she doesn’t know that. And so, as Maud tells us:

Valancy’s day of destiny had come and gone. She ended it as she had begun it, in tears.

Colors mentioned:

Pink organdy dresses

Premature grey

Tawny hair dashed with red

Dark-brown eyes

Black with grease

Black pipe

Black stockings

And not a color, but honorable mention to Valancy feeling “colorless” as she walks down lover’s lane, which I am taking as communication to me directly from Lucy Maud beyond the grave confirming that I have successful picked up on a deliberate writing choice. (I mean, I knew I had, but I appreciate it just the same!)

Anyway, Barney gets a couple colors, but nothing very exciting yet. Later, his eyes will be purple. For now, they're still just brown.

[juniorjules]

“Life is pain, and we have to scrape the joy out of it every chance we get.” - Rod Kimble, Stuntman Forever

[ahollowgrave]

-- you'll never get to heaven if you're always backing down.

[epicdogymoment]

idk. the thing i hate about every single "you should jump to l in u x!" posts is that. [uncharitably annoyed + unchecked tone incoming. this expression of my annoyance is not representative of my opinions about this mentioned os or the people who choose to use it] without fail. without fail. ESPECIALLY the "unintimidating, beginner friendly" ones. they say "well even if you want to do [thing that just runs with no setup, nothing to even think about in your os of choice], you can JUST set up [blah blah] do [blah blah blah]. its EASY!" -_-

[fadetouchedsilk]

i'm also slowly remembering that isen was like. lowkey a bit mean actually fdsghjgfh

not in a way where i think she would be mean to rook or anything but those letters are definitely not like. idk they're way too warm for her especially to someone she 1. doesn't know and 2. isn't trying to involve in some kind of political play. rook is just Some Guy to her who happens to be closer to the issue than she is. & as mad as she is about getting fucked over by solas she would also be the most comfortable trying to take control of the situation back home (like been there done that already yeah?)

i don't actually think there's a final confrontation she could have with him that she would actually find satisfactory no matter what happened. forgiveness is off the table & with the type of relationship they had i honestly don't even think he would ask her for it. they were fully capable of being friendly back in the day & she liked talking shop with him because he knew his shit, but then inevitable he would make some comment that she would chafe against and because she is the way she is, she would be physically incapable of not biting back. things would eventually be civil again, rinse & repeat until trespasser. she's not immune to her own pride or believing she's the smartest person in that room, they were never gonna be close lmao.

he's honestly lucky it was a third party who confronted him and not her, the odds of her engaging with him even with tentative good faith were basically 0. it's almost a personal insult to her? that the veil issues were never presented even remotely truthfully? because in her mind she's got a vested interest in saving the world tm, she might not get along with him more times than not but she's capable of putting that to the side for a common goal. bitch cannot stand being talked down to or having people assume her reactions, you can probably see the conflict of interest here.

(sentiments will probably shift once his Actual Goal becomes known but that comes later)

anyway she doesn't feel bad for him, thinks that if he had just taken 10 seconds to pull his head out of his ass so much of this could have been prevented, & absolutely refuses to carry any guilt for choices she had to make that stemmed from any of his deliberate actions.

she's also mad as hell that the blight coming back fucked up her new house before the renovations were even done so. there is that.

[mechahero]

EVIL BOOPS! EVIL BOOPS FOR ALL!

[oceansand-tides]

1 R3M3MB3R U!! U KN3W H0W 2 P@RTY 1YKW1M!! :D

- @theghostofpartycity

Who are you?

[keithfloydno1fan]

Keith fucking hates him you can tell

[samuelroukin]

...can we ask questions about the band AU, or is too distracting from the current project? 👀

you can ask but i have absolutely nothing but vibes due to the aforementioned current project </3

[absmare]

Twitter put me in jail this is homophobic LET ME TWEET AND LIKE MY FRIENDS' TWEETS YOU SAD LITTLE RAT MAN

[mielcite]

finished my basebal presentation

[bam-stroker]

*shaking the bars of my cage over my bug fairy twink*

[corvid-stan-account]

Oh my god guys they put pingus in hole....