#w/ elspeth

[quinweisz]

It was a lot harder to be accommodating when you were sober, Quintana realized. If not for the hits of nicotine unfurling in her chest, she might say something really nasty-- some clever twist on 'when you assume you make an ass out of you and me'-- but Quin left it in favor of another unnecessarily long puff. "Yeah," she sympathized, feeling a pang of remorse for the stranger. Addiction was ugly no matter where you saw it or experienced it. Quin would bet money that she and the stranger had seen a lot of the same shit-- if she wouldn't get addicted to gambling that way. "One thing at a time was my sponsor's advice," she offered, taking a final puff and stomping the cigarette out beneath her shoe. "Did the cold turkey thing. Not trying to do that again." Quin cleared her throat, the mention of those early days of withdrawal almost making her sweat, "You got a name, or should I call ya DARE?"

elspeth didn’t know whether to thank the other or step back and cut their losses. instead, they stood quiet, staring back at the stranger, watching plumes of smoke puff from their mouth like an old-timey chimney breast. it wasn’t that they wanted to anger the stranger, although maybe the ship had already sailed—they had wanted to warn, to protect. they seemed to be somebody that threw themself straight into the fire rather than passing a single finger through to test the flame. “that’s—” a small sigh, a breath she hadn’t realised she had been holding, “smoking is a lot better, you’re right. the things i’ve seen . . . ” purple arms, bloodshot eyes. the sobbing relatives, inconsolable. it wasn’t her place, elspeth knew it, but when every night was filled with broken sleep, dead eyes, haunting faces in the darkness, they felt it was their duty to protect the people she could. the harsh reality was that elspeth couldn't save anybody. “i really hope you don’t end up in that situation. either situation.”

[lavellane]

once again finding myself completely unable to finalize my datv oc not bc i have no ideas but bc i cant settle on a good name

this is why i dont have that many ocs btw

[emiett]

Some Vi and Martha backstory doodles. Martha used to date a trash low level mobster named Everett who Vi eventually tried to kill

[elspeth-tirel]

you know if you think about it the multiverse would be doomed if it weren't for ashiok's gay little crush

[toss-a-coin-to-your-stan-account]

thinks about how maybe there might have been just enough time for aziraphale to save morag if he got straight to healing her immediately but he spent so much time trying to justify it to crowley (who didn't even oppose it at all) because his religious trauma runs so deep that he felt like he had to explain why saving an innocent young woman's life was worth using a miracle that it ended up being too late. thinks about it again. thinks about it again. thinks ab

[intercomkris]

loaded back into the Scott fam to check up on the kids & the parents + the kids & parents all aged up, so Eryx and Kila are working on their university application 🤎

[thereisnosp00n]

Me, immediately upon seeing the trailer for Tales of the Empire: "Okay no but like REALLY if this isn't one of the ~SUPER SECRET~ projects that the *LITERAL VOICE OF THE DARK SIDE* is working on then WHAT ARE WE EVEN DOING"

[mars-ipan]

i love how crowley both saves a girl’s life by preventing her suicide and tells an archangel to kill himself. in the same season no less

[eclvpses]

Hearing that Elspeth was from Tennessee of all states made Leo’s eyebrows fly to their forehead, pressing the side of their fist to an increasingly widening smile. If there was something Leo adored, it was the element of surprise. He was generally keeping people on their toes, a pension for doing the least expected thing and turning it as chaotic as possible, so it was pleasant when someone flipped his script on its head and gave him the same treatment. “Tennessee.” He repeated, nodding slowly and giving Elspeth a thorough up and down glance over, mulling over her words. “Bit gothic for Tennessee. I would’ve guessed…” Transylvania, really, but that wasn’t a state. “New Orleans, maybe. They’ve got that whole - witchy situation going on, don’t they? You stick out like a sore thumb back home, or what?” If there was anything Leo wasn’t, it was nuanced. Blunt and too nosy for his own good, Leo crowded into Elsepth’s metaphorical space as they began to concoct more questions, curiosity snowballing dangerously.

“You paid for it?!” He hollered, voice booming above the music as it turned over to a new song. Leo always enjoyed playing up his dramatics, but he wanted to see how Elspeth would react to them. They were a mystery to Leo, so his actions turned into a show for them to react to for Leo’s entertainment. “Well, not all of us can be high-class citizens, Elsie. I’m trying my best here but my heart yearns for destruction.” Hearing that she had her eyes on the dancefloor made Leo cackle with delight. A genuine, excited noise, mixed with some disbelief - he couldn’t imagine what they would look like out there, and weren’t about to pass up their invitation to join in. He could actually physically feel himself fighting back the urge to grab them by the waist and sweep them off their feet in that exact moment. “That’s all you want? I was expecting you to propose I give you an eyeball or something. These peepers are staying inside my head, mama!”

With an excited twist of his feet, Leo compromised his desired contact with Elspeth by merely reaching for their free hand - probably still a bit much, but a saintlike move on his part. Leo was used to offering his body before he did his name, but something told him that wasn’t the way to garner his new dancing partner’s attention. Resting his stolen bottle of tequila on the edge of the dancefloor, Leo freed up both of his hands to give Elspeth a sudden spin, pulling them in slightly closer afterwards so he could announce in their ear; “To clarify, you’re a special case. I think you’re the coolest person here.” Promptly, Leo finally dropped their hand, before breaking into dance moves that resembled a more haphazard version of Kirk from Gilmore Girls. He could be surprisingly smooth while dancing if he really wanted to be, capable of turning up flirtations despite his gangly frame, but they weren’t really interested in being suave here. Mostly, they wanted to make Elspeth laugh, slowing down their moves so they could catch a glimpse of how they were moving. They must’ve looked like a rather concerning pair.

“you’re . . . what?” her eyes blew wide. elspeth had heard some ridiculous things in her time, but she was more used to stories about racoons in the mortuary late at night, about bodies that exploded in the cremation chamber. not strange, unfamiliar strangers, blonde and straggly like a scarecrow gaining sentience. they knew that, back home, some of the girls would meet a rancher and post an engagement ring on instagram a week later. less than a month in, and a pregnancy announcement. maybe this was how all love stories started; she hadn’t ever had her own, elspeth wasn’t certain. they had seen their fair share of leos. boys that were lost, untethered—and that ended up on a cold slab all the same. dark eyes moved up and down the other, as if she could stare through their flesh and what was inside, to locate what on earth pushed him to be in a bar late at night, stealing bottles, confessing their love. “i’m from tennessee. i have more whiskey in me than i have blood. tequila, though . . . ” their lips scrunched again. “it’s like gasoline.” there were worst things, back in the state she had called home for so long, that stole lives away.  rodeos and bar fights. guns, bust-ups, boys that thought they were invincible. an epidemic of substance misuse and mistakes. elspeth took another sip of whiskey as if to prove a point. “it’s jack daniels, so it’s smooth like butter and goes down just as easy. and i paid for it.” fair and square, with money that she had earned, although earning it was the same reason they were in that bar that evening, trying to blow off some steam, ignoring the soft and distant buzz of a phone in her back pocket. “do you make a habit of going up to strangers in bars and confessing your love, or am i some sort of special case? because i'd really like to get back to the dancefloor.” she would likely dance like wednesday addams, slightly strange and as though they were tied to marionette strings. it didn't deter them much. it was one night where they could fully let their hair down, release the breath she had been holding, relax entirely. for a few hours, at least. elspeth glanced down at her glass, pondering, snatching the drink away. “i'll share it if you dance with me.”

[lavellane]

IVE NEVER GOT THIS HOWE DIALOGUE. THROWING UPPPPPPPPPPPP

[assiraphales]

pour one out for the humans aziraphale and crowley have accidently fucked with over the centuries. little graverobber elspeth knew them for one week and her fresh corpse got turned to goo, her best friend got killed, she tried to kill herself, and the angry one turned into a giant before forcing the one w a superiority complex to give her all his money. who knows who else’s lives they’ve messed w in those 6000 years

[thanflowers]

“you have always wanted to caress every monster” type energy 

[seasonallyappropriategoth]

"i'm a vampire" this "i'm a vampire that"

aside from the whole period sex and drinking her blood, let's talk about how oliver quick really was a vampire throughout saltburn. am i really going to do this? maybe. it might not be long, i do feel like death. maybe i'll even touch on the catton family being vampires.

alright. from the start we see oliver taking resources from felix under the guise of being poor. the cost of the drinks, the time, the emotional space. he leeches on, yearning for love. later we see that all of this has been set up by oliver himself to manufacture these circumstances. but that's only the beginning and one of the least viceral instances of him 'bleeding the life' from the family.

where we really see this begin is after he comes to saltburn. i'll go through it briefly for now but here we see oliver dividing and conquering, making quick work of the family. as he is yet to succeed in tangebly seducing felix, the true source of his psychosexual obsession/infatuation, he begins this work on the rest of the family. he starts w the mother and when that fails, he changes tact and sinks his teeth in emotionally. he lets her tell him of her worries and assures her that she is a good person. he charms the father by displaying interest in what is important to the family.

he then uses knowledge gained through her mother to get literal blood in his mouth when he romances her in the night. he uses his knowledge of her eating disorder and her family's inability to see her to fully lure her in and to once again sink his teeth in emotionally, as well as physically, drinking her blood while he dominates her.

next, he continues his conquering by driving a rift between felix and his cousin, alienating the family member who is not entranced by his lies. this is before he does physically charm him. all of this is before any killing starts. now that he's got his teeth in, let's talk about how he drains his victims.

for cousin dearest, oliver makes quick work of framing him for crimes against the family. when he comes back after being cast out, oliver then frames felix for an ultimate, unforgivable crime: killing the golden son. felix is left w no financial resources and no familial support but his impoverished mother. he gets off relatively lightly.

now onto literally sucking life. once his cover is blown and felix asks him to leave, oliver gives him a poisoned bottle. this is obviously w the intention of at least felix drinking it and succumbing. which he does. felix's death leaves the family unstable and vulnerable, first used to get rid of the cousin who sees through him and to continue to latch onto the mother as a surrogate son in a now joyless and lifeless house.

the sister sees through him and what does oliver do? assist in her suicide after her speech about how he is eating away at her family. specifically in the bathroom which oliver first physically consumed felix for the first time.

what does this leave? an even more desperate vacuum for now two stand in children. perhaps three if we are to count the cousin. Elspeth clings on to him and oliver sinks his teeth in tighter. so tightly, in fact, that mr catton pays oliver off to leave.

finally, when mr. catton is dead, oliver manufactures a reunion w elspeth and reaps the rewards of his former work. he is once again living off the catton family until the time comes for him to drain the life from it's last surviving member.

he is eventually left alone in their mansion, with all their resources, and their ghosts.

[ragesharkbritain]

the last scene w/oliver & elspeth is so good bc it had me fully convinced he was going to bang her comatose corpse but instead he rips the ventilator out phallic style & the camera shot pans to show that there was a sex swing In Her Medical Room so yeah he no longer has to fuck her to get the house bc he got the house! he WON!

[homosexualmorelikehomiesexual]

godddddddd sorry its like 3am but i cannot get this shit out of my head. the way elspeth is obsessed w other ppls trauma as a form of gossip and entertainment but still frames it as motherly concern. and how growing up w that caused felix to be the same way, obsessed with playing white knight to people so long as it can make him look good, and how he pressured Oliver into making up that sob story from the start. was it awful? i bet it was awful. that must be awful. fuck em. i just gave you what you wanted.

idk idk. something about how oliver desparately wanted to be with felix, to be felix, to be rescued, to take his place, to have something to be rescued from. but also bow felix desparately projects his own family dysfunction onto oliver, how he desparately wanted to see that part of himself in oliver, to pity him, to rescue him, to take him into the fold of his own fucked up family that he cannot see the flaws in but simultaneously desparately wants a distraction from. the desire to live vicariously through another, the hope they will rescue you from your circumstance, the desire to bury yourself in their skin, a layer of protection against reality as you acknowledge the dysfunction in your own life only through the others eyes. and then the way you gag them, show them but never let them acknowledge it. come with me, to saltburn. if you get sick of us, you can leave.

the way elspeth frames her kicking out pamela as something that pamela really wants, so she doesnt have to acknowledge how boring she finds her. the way felix unconsciously pressures oliver into making up a tragic backstory to be rescued from, so felix doesnt have to acknowledge how badly he wants to be rescued from his own family.

and!!!! the way that all oliver really does is play along. but he plays too well. they make it so, so fucking easy. the assumed narrative is that theyre the ones preying on him, but its turned on its head. he just gives them what they want, so he doesnt have to acknowledge how badly *he* wants it. he pretends he wanted saltburn all along, so he doesnt have to acknowledge how badly he wanted felix

this fucking movie, man

[laineycaldwell]

"Hey, that's not a bad idea," Lainey replied with a smile, studying the punch card for any fine print. "Narrow profit margin to make it worth buying, but if you do it enough, it'll at least pay for your coffees," she shrugged, tapping the card against the display case. She wasn't one to ramble often, but when Lainey was hopped up on pre-workout and a long run, she got chatty. "You order the same thing every time?" she asked, before answering the other's question. "Not often. I kind of go back and forth on the whole coffee versus tea thing," she admitted. Lainey dropped her voice for a moment, confessing, "And I think paying damn near ten dollars for a cup of coffee--craft or not-- is highway robbery."

for elspeth, it didn’t matter where she went so long as she was dealt with that vital hit of caffeine. without it, they navigated life like a ghost—bleary, confused, distant. it was likely a placebo, but that didn’t stop the first entry on her to-do list each day being dropped by the coffee shop or making her own disappointing replica with a cafetière. “i should really sell them,” the mortician spoke, with an increasing brightness in their tone at the promise of coffee, “make a business out of loyalty cards. i'm surprised they don't start making my order the moment i walk through the door. are you here often?” they didn't recognize lainey, yet it was rare for elspeth not to be lost in some sort of stupor.