idoodlestuffsometimes

[idoodlestuffsometimes]

What would the relationship between Luz and Caleb be like?

How about I share this comic I drew ages ago to emotionally damage some friends :) Not sure this exact scenario will actually have the chance to happen, but this is the gist of it.

In other words: Normal! No daddy issues at all.

[Image ID under the cut]

[IMAGE ID: A black and white comic. PANEL 1: "So now that you're out of the castle you're not going to be so sick anymore?" Luz asks. Caleb responds. "No, in fact I should be better than I've been in centuries."

The two of them sit on the front steps of Luz's house in the Human Realm. Caleb is dressed in Luz's dad's old clothes. PANEL 2: "Then you're not going to... leave Hunter?" Luz asks. She speaks to him without quite turning to face him, her face drawn and her shoulders hunched. PANEL 3: "He's not going to lose his papi?" She turns away, tearing up, and wipes at her face. PANEL 4: Caleb turns towards her, concerned, as Luz sniffles. Her eyes have squeezed shut, and she scrubs at her face with the back of her hand. PANEL 5: A close-up of a picture frame sitting on a desk. In the picture, Luz's dad carries a younger Luz, both of them smiling into the camera. PANEL 6: Caleb holds Luz reassuringly as she leans against his side. "Of course not." PANEL 7: Caleb's face is no longer in view as Luz lies her head in his lap. Her face screws up with hiccupping, childlike grief. Caleb's hand rests comfortingly on her back. "I'll be here as long as he needs me," he says. His words overlap this panel and- PANEL 8: A silent close-up on Luz, now fully giving into her grief. Caleb's other hand rests gently on her head as she buries her face into his hip and, with tears running down her face, openly sobs. /END ID]

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Hope you're doing okay!

I'm fine! I'm sorry if my silence lately has worried anyone. I've just had a lot going on.

I also reached a point in the story where I can't really move forward until I've pinned things down that were never really decided on, so like. I have to do *~story development~* But I don't actually have TIME to do story development!

And I didn't want to get anyone's hopes up or let my blog turn into an ask blog where the only thing I do is answer asks and never share any art, so. I've just kinda. Stopped saying anything.

Maybe not the best tactic, but then this sort of thing has never been my strong point. 🤷‍♀️

[idoodlestuffsometimes]

Hey! A question! How would you describe Matthias and Obed characters? Like, their personalities!!

And, if those boys would get a happy ending (aka, they would have lived), what would they decide to do with their lives?

I've been playing coy with these guys because I like people to learn info as the story reveals it, but at the rate I'm going tbh I might as well just go ahead and say stuff! 😩 So!

Matthias definitely has confused kicked puppy energy. He's the first grimwalker. He was brought into a world where no one had heard of Belos or the Golden Guard, and Caleb was still intent on escape. He had an especially rough time of things because he’s the one who was used to teach Caleb the consequences of defiance.

He was also created old enough that he was being handed responsibilities shortly after being born, even though he had no idea what was going on. He has no context for anything. Everyone else is expected to evangelize for a cult people are suspicious of too, right? Nobody else has childhood memories, right? It's normal for your dad to live in a cage, right? Dads are always trying to run away and arguing with uncles, right? Abuse is normal, right?

No? Hmm.

I think this was early enough that if he’d lived and they’d escaped, Caleb would have taken him back home to Evelyn, and Matthias would’ve become part of their family. He would’ve been BOTH the older AND younger brother of Caleb and Evelyn’s kid, heh. As for what Matthias himself would do, I think he’d be most interested in simply learning how regular people live and exploring the world around him? His experiences were really limited and by this point he’d be painfully aware of how not-normal his life was. He wants to know what’s out there. He wants to know what’s true and what was a lie.

Obed, on the other hand, is much more confident. He's tough. He's sure of himself. He’s good at what he does. He's had a long and successful career as the Golden Guard in an era where everyone knows what that is. People looked up to him and Belos approved of him.

He was Golden Guard before Hunter and was one of—if not THE—longest lived grimwalkers. Much like Hunter, he was created a baby and groomed into the perfect Golden Guard, and then he matured into a fully-grown, savvy, competent adult. He’s sort of the ideal that Hunter is expected to emulate. Everything Philip wanted. The shadow Hunter lives under.

BUT, in the end he was too smart for his own good…

If Obed had lived, he would’ve been the leader of the rebels. He had the know-how. He had the leadership skills. He had the connections. And he would’ve been hell-bent on taking Belos down himself.

[idoodlestuffsometimes]

Emerging briefly from story development and life responsibilities hell to complain that I keep accidentally calling the Day of Unity "The Promised Day" in my notes.

All these years and I'm still not beating the Full Metal Alchemist nerd allegations

Maybe Philip should have thought of doing something original with his doomsday plan huh? Huh? Stop reading Father's notes!!

[idoodlestuffsometimes]

In all seriousness though I admit I’ve been dragging my feet the last many months. Partially bc there’s just been a lot to do irl, but also partially bc I’ve gotten to a point in the story where I feel like I can’t move forward without being very sure of how I’m getting to where I’m going. I’ve been stepping back to spend more time with the script but. Again. Lots going on irl.

Hi there, I’ve been thinking about your au again recently. Have you been working any au stuff lately?

Does this doodle count

[idoodlestuffsometimes]

Hi there, I’ve been thinking about your au again recently. Have you been working any au stuff lately?

Does this doodle count

[idoodlestuffsometimes]

Does caleb choose to have his hair long at this time, or is it a case of apathy over cutting it? Or does Philip prefer him with long hair, and he has no say in his hair length?

Philip prefers it long because it was long before Caleb was "bewitched." He is the curator of how Caleb is Supposed to be.

[idoodlestuffsometimes]

May I please give caleb a comb and some loreal for his hair? I love his long locks, but they're so unkempt!

He is often a bit busy being zooted out of his mind to reliably comb his hair, I'm afraid.

Actually, I use the state of his hair and (when in his room) his clothes as an indicator of his state of mind in any given scene. If his hair is messy, it's because he's not all there at the moment. If it's combed, he is sane. When left to his own devices, he puts it in a ponytail, or a bun if he's actively sculpting or potting.

If his hair is taken care of and he's fully dressed, he is feeling well that day, and probably has had a mental good streak. If his hair is taken care of but he's in his bed clothes, he is sane but only recently. He's still recovering and might be suffering after effects, so he doesn't have the energy to dress.

[idoodlestuffsometimes]

Since the grimwalkers can be created at any age, does that mean that philip initially started creating them as kids, but then realized it would be far easier to indoctrinate them by starting them as infants, as well as making it far easier to keep caleb under his thumb if he's taking care of (and getting far more time to get attached) to them from infancy?

Yes 🙃

The grimwalker born oldest was the first one, while Hunter was born a baby. It may not have been a steady decrease in age each time, but overall he found younger more effective as it went forward

[idoodlestuffsometimes]

So about what you said in one of your recents asks, can you further explain?

I understand that Puritans emigrated to North America in family units in order to escape England religious persecution, but I realize I haven’t taken the time to research what happened to orphans during that time period. So if you please, I would be very interested in learning what you know. :)

Ok! So! I started trying to write an essay with like. Sources and stuff. But I'm forced to admit to myself that I do not currently have the time to write an essay with sources and stuff. I might come back to this in like. 2 weeks.

Instead, for now, I will simply point out that the Wittebanes are from THE VERY BEGINNING of Conneticut's colonial history - a time period where the population of English colony settlements was so low and their need for labor so high that they wouldn't have been able to afford losing any member of their population. And yet it's also unlikely they could afford the upkeep of anything like an orphanage/almshouse/poor house/whatever equivalent existed at the time.

I recommend looking up the practice of "binding out." I'm not saying that's definitely what would have happened to Philip and Caleb, but I DO think it's a compelling and probable option! At least it's what I like to go with in my head.

It's sort of like if you crossed the foster system with indentured servitude. Parent/child and master/servant and/or master/apprentice relationships get mixed together in real interesting ways that totally doesn't have any bearing on the way Belos treats Hunter or on Caleb and Philip's relationship to Doing What Was Expected, nope definitely not!

[idoodlestuffsometimes]

Two nickels

[idoodlestuffsometimes]

I'm curious to know where you stand on what happened when Caleb left to go to the boiling isles. Do you believe that he left his brother behind by accident, willingly left, or something else happened entirely? Also depending on how you view what happened, does it factor into potential guilt that caleb may have over how philip turned out.

In canon, of course, it’s impossible to really say. He did whatever works best for your own interpretation or whatever fic you’re writing lol.

Personally though, the part of the Wittebane story that compels me is the implication of two brothers starting out with the same societal pressures towards bigotry and fitting in who ultimately make opposite choices. Caleb was able to have a peaceful, happy life (however briefly) because he quite literally left all that behind him and chose to be different, while Philip clung to it and descended into monstrosity and madness.

For that reason, I like to think that Caleb CHOSE to leave, but also that he didn’t just up and carelessly abandon his kid brother while he was a child, as I’ve seen some people suggest. I don’t like to rob Philip of having made horrible hate-fuelled decisions by giving him the excuse that Caleb truly wronged him.

So if I was writing it (and I am in this AU lol):

While the decision to leave was intentional, not bringing Philip was either an accident or a decision Philip himself made to some degree. I'm leaning towards the second. I think he was happy where he was and wouldn't have wanted to go to the Boiling Isles (although the degree to which the two of them openly communicated about this is an opening for all sorts of possibilities and drama. Did Philip turn down the chance to go with him or did Caleb just read the room?)

Either Philip was already an adult or he was an older teenager and Caleb was not his caretaker. (I do think it's unlikely he raised his brother all by himself. Even the early colonists weren't just leaving child orphans to fend for themselves. In fact, the history of what the Brits WERE doing with orphans in this time period is very interesting and has a lot of potential for how it could have shaped the Wittebanes. )

In this AU at least Caleb feels some responsibility and a great deal of regret for how Philip turned out, but it's guilt from his role as an older brother and wondering what he could have done differently to influence different behaviors rather than guilt for abandoning him.

[idoodlestuffsometimes]

Not sure if this is a spoiler-y question: I noticed in the first comic Caleb's wound is on his lower side, as opposed to canon where it's clear that Philip stabbed him fatally in his chest.

Is this an indicator that what may have caused caleb to be spared is that in this version philip is either a lousy aim, or he willing chose not to hit a vital spot this time around?

A good question! The doylist answer for why Caleb's injury doesn't match canon is actually just that the first comic was drawn before Caleb's ghost appeared in the show, so I didn't know where he got stabbed.

The watsonian answer, I think, is that Philip didn't really want to kill Caleb. He either aimed somewhere non-fatal on purpose, or he did it subconsciously in the heat of the moment.

So yes, he avoided vital areas, I'm just not sure how much it was a conscious decision. I suspect it was in the heat of the moment.

[idoodlestuffsometimes]

Fanart of chapter 4 from What Love Is by TheTypingWalrus. If you like Hohenheim you should go read this story it's great.

[idoodlestuffsometimes]

I need to share how the IT guy at work greeted my department on CrowdStrike Blue Screen Friday. Never have I seen a man so shocked by the sight of perfectly functional computers

(They were off during the update)

[idoodlestuffsometimes]

Missed them 🥺👉👈

[idoodlestuffsometimes]

Just finished binging your whole story, was a fun/sad/creepy/interesting ride.

It's interesting theorizing during Philip and Caleb's confrontation if there was a single word or action that caused this au to even happen. Was it something caleb said or did differently here that convinced philip not to kill him, was it some realization from philip, or did evelyn say or do something different that played a part in getting caleb spared here.

Either way it's a rollercoaster of emotions and I absolutely loved it!

Thank you!

And it's an interesting thought, isn't it? Perhaps someone said something different that led Philip to try a different approach. Or maybe this time Caleb just managed to live long enough for Philip to rethink what he did.

I never planned anything in particular for what led to the difference. Maybe one day it'll be addressed, but until then: could've been anything!