#I stayed up for three hours

[muzetrigger]

In celebration of Nevermore S2, I feel the need to explain why I’m hoping for more Ada page time/development and why she’s my absolute favorite character, despite the series being absolutely stuffed with quality.

Oh and also why MorellAda is peak. I WILL TAKE NO ARGUMENTS ON THIS POINT.

So yeah, MAJOR SPOILERS Y’ALL

Okay, so when we’re first introduced Ada, she’s a minor antagonist, not just in the sense that she’s not the main villain, but that literally, she’s just kind of an annoyance to both Lenore and Prospero. That being said, shortly after the Labyrinth arc, we see her genuinely impressed with Lenore and trying to make amends.

Now at that point, there’s no real reason for us to believe that Ada is telling the truth. Yeah, she seems like she’s being genuine, but so far, we also know that she’s been playing some social games to get ahead.

That’s where we get this first piece of insight into her character (not actually the first piece but whatever):

Ada chooses caviar as her last meal, despite not liking it, or ever having had it before. She is the only student who doesn’t enjoy her final meal, and that tells us that one, Ada doesn’t know what’s good for her; two, that she probably comes from a lower class background that never would have had access to caviar; and three, that she aspires to that upper class position. She is exactly what Morella would call a “phony” but while her phoniness impacts her social behavior in the ways that Morella criticizes, she’s also lying to herself without even realizing it.

Okay, but that’s a bit of subtle character development, so Red and Flynn hit us with this:

(In case you didn’t hate Montressor already)

This moment is so critical to understanding Ada because it shows that she has absolutely no limits when it comes to proving her worth to other people. Why? Because Ada has no sense of self-worth. She is completely dependent on other people’s thoughts to feel adequate. That’s why she clings so hard to Prospero and Annabel Lee, which makes this preceding exchange even more brutal.

Ada reaches out to Annabel for support, and Annabel ignores her.

Annabel BETRAYS her, and this is going to become something of a running theme for Ada.

Now, of course, Annabel has problems, but this is COLD.

So cold even Prospero is surprised, and this sets up why Ada crumbles so easily, because the one person she thought was her friend at this school, literally her roommate (and we know what happens when you’re not on good terms with your roommate), the person who gave her (fake) love advice, just left her out in the rain.

No one is on her side, not Annabel who’s ignoring her, not Prospero (who is rightly) annoyed with her clinginess, not Will who is supporting Montresor, and certainly not Montresor who is verbally abusing her.

The only person by Ada’s side is Morella, partly because she’s being targeted too, but also because Morella is trying to protect Ada.

(Look at that hug. That is a small puppy trying to cheer up her depressed friend.)

Chapter 39-40 firmly cemented Ada as my favorite character because we get a deconstruction of this preppy, pompous, phony personality into someone with crippling self-worth issues, and I don’t know about anyone else, but I relate HARD to those feelings of inadequacy and needing external validation. Will might be the doppelgänger, but Ada is the one with Imposter Syndrome.

Anyway, now we’re going to have to skip a few chapters, because while the haunted house arc is great, it doesn’t really do much with Ada’s character. We do learn that Ada was almost definitely a servant in her past life because she’s able to navigate the house’s secret passages, and we learn that yes, she’s a romantic who clearly doesn’t understand TPO (time, place, and occasion).

Those details are important to understanding Ada, because they help contextualize why her confidence is so abysmal (servants aren’t to be seen or heard) and why she clings so strongly to ideas of ladyhood and romance (the women she served would certainly have appeared to be more comfortable than her, though I’m sure Lenore and Annabel would disagree).

We also get this feast for the MorellAda shippers:

At this point, it’s implied that Morella has stonewalled dozens of students into Prospero’s death trap, but she makes one exception that she will not stand for, and it’s Ada.

At first, I thought this was a little weird, because why wouldn’t Morella protect Lenore? I mean, she’s the protagonist and clearly treats Morella better, but looking back, it’s telling that Ada is the one who Morella chooses.

Morella’s whole deal is that she wants to protect people, and Lenore isn’t vulnerable, Ada is.

Red and Flynn do a lot of excellent foil work in Nevermore, most prominently with Lenore and Annabel, but the contrast between Ada’s dependence on what other people think of her and Morella’s dependence on what she can do for other people is just another reason why I think MorellAda is so good.

But the real interesting events happen post-house.

Prospero has had it.

Now, was Ada being clingy? Yes.

Was she being totally oblivious to all of Prospero’s signals? Yes.

Did she deserve to be told directly that Prospero was just not that into her? Hell. Yes.

But did she deserve THAT much of a verbal beat down? Probably not, especially keeping in mind that Annabel told her this:

So now that I’ve thrown Annabel under the bus for her hand in this disaster, I want to look at one line from Prospero in particular:

“Nothing you say will make you good enough.”

It’s not the final line of Prospero’s diatribe, but it’s definitely the one that hits the hardest for Ada. She is trying SO hard to play the part of a lady in order to be loved, and she is being told that at a fundamental level, she is inadequate.

And she takes that about as well as someone who’s had this happen to them could:

A hatchet to the stomach’s going to ruin anyone’s day, but we can reasonably infer that the person who axe’d Ada was probably the young master she was serving and was having an affair with, and that he aimed for her stomach to abort any kind of child she might have carried.

Again, we see this theme of betrayal and rejection. Ada might not have been able to be a lady, but in an affair, she might been able to pretend that she genuinely had her master’s affection, even though she was just there at his convenience.

This was foreshadowed all the way back with Ada’s first confrontation with Montressor and it’s a great example of how thoroughly planned Red and Flynn’s writing is (Annabel Lee’s panic attack at Lenore’s death in the Labyrinth and the House Fire is another amazing example).

But, it’s also super traumatic which means we finally get Ada’s Spectre!

First, let me gush about how AMAZING this design is. Just aesthetically, it’s great. But it’s also amazing because of how it showcases so much of Ada’s identity. If you look at the spectre’s skirt, you’ll notice it has two distinct parts, a larger back that mimics a lady’s hoop skirt, and a pleated miniskirt, which wouldn’t be out of place in a skimpy maid costume. In her spectre form, we can clearly see Ada attempting to match a lady’s silhouette but upon closer inspection, we can also see the part of Ada that might have sparked her fatal affair, this symbol of risqué servantile behavior.

It’s also worth mentioning what ISN’T in the Banshee’s design, her abdomen. Obviously, this might be a reference to the fact that she was killed by a hatchet to the gut, but if we get dark with it (and it’s Nevermore, we can’t not get dark with it), what men traditionally (and unfortunately still do if the 2024 US elections are anything to go by…) value in a woman, her reproductive ability, is absent.

Ada, who places so much importance on what others think of her, is literally is worthless to them. (I want to clarify, I DON’T personally believe that, but from a 19th-20th century male perspective, that tracks.)

We could also read her abdomen’s absence as another attempt for Ada to play into feminine expectations. Because she’s missing her stomach, she has a tight hourglass figure. I don’t personally believe Ada has an eating disorder, but as the last dinner scene clearly indicates, she has a complicated relationship with food and what stigmas are attached to specific cuisines, and unfortunately many people do metaphorically throw away their stomachs to pursue beauty goals like Ada’s spectre does literally.

Stepping away from design, I also love how Ada acts immediately after getting the slightest bit of power.

She is PETTY.

She taunts Prospero (and let’s face it, you cheered. Don’t lie to me!), which I find so interesting because suddenly, Ada is the one giving opinions.

Ada is finally allowed to express herself.

Here, she takes it out on Annabel, which makes total sense. Annabel abandoned her and is the embodiment of what Ada craves outwardly. But Ada also recognizes that she herself is a servant who was forced to serve people like Annabel and denied their comforts because of her status. If Ada hadn’t been a maid, if maybe she had been a noble or a “true lady”, maybe should would have been allowed a romance or allowed to keep her child or at least allowed to live.

The Banshee is such a perfect moment, because until this scene, Ada has bottled up her insecurities and played the part of a loyal lackey and been this “phony”. As a servant, her entire livelihood would have revolved around keeping up appearances (or disappearances) around her masters, but as a ghost, Ada is more genuine than she has ever been.

And that’s so wonderfully displayed by how Annabel defuses the situation:

To the very end, we see Ada being vulnerable. Annabel takes advantage of her insecurities, and as the Banshee, Ada doesn’t try to hide the fact that it devastates her.

If the Montressor moment didn’t guarantee a place in my heart for Ada, Episode 71 definitely did. I’m not going to argue that characters in Nevermore haven’t experienced worse, but I will argue that no character in season one ever gets close to how pathetic and distraught Ada is here.

And what’s so heart-wrenching about this for me is that Ada is aware of how pathetic she is. She knows she’s been acting like an idiot and throwing a tantrum like a child, which is a surprising amount of insight and maturity for someone we have been led to believe is quite frankly an idiot. And yeah, I relate to those feelings of self-loathing and not knowing what to do or even where to start triaging a disaster I made myself.

Now, Montressor takes advantage of this like the abuser he is by swooping in and wooing Ada, but before that, I’m going to rewind like the shipper I am to replay this:

Again, we see Morella trying to help Ada! And obviously, that’s not what Ada needs at that moment, but it’s worth keeping in mind that out of everyone in the lecture hall then, Morella is the first and really only one to reach out to Ada. (Montressor is a manipulator. He doesn’t count.)

Last time skip, I promise!

The end of the Wall arc doesn’t quite reach the highs (or is it lows?) of Ada’s character development, but I’m so excited for what it sets up in season two.

So, Lenore and the gang find where Montressor has Cask of Amantillado’d Duke and they dig their favorite French man out while beating the shit out of our cowboy(?). There’s a ton of great moments (hell yeah, Pluto! Get him!) but the battle really swings in the misfits’ favor when Duke hypnotizes Ada to traumatize Montresor.

One, this is just an amazing display of Duke’s spectre, two, it shows that Montressor has reasons (maybe not great reasons but at least they’re reasons) for being such an asshole, and three, it shows us that mental spectre powers are straight up busted.

We already knew from Prospero that Ada’s fear factor could trap a person inside a vision of their own trauma so realistic they can feel the physical effects of it, but she can also send a man with a broken Fibula into a full blown frenzy, AND Duke’s hypnosis is something even he can’t dispel.

(Does this look like the face of a man who has things under control?)

It also sets up this exchange:

Morella is able to break through Duke’s hypnosis, and she does it without attacking Ada’s insecurities like Annabel did. Now, I’m a hopeless MorellAda shipper, so of course I reading into this, but even then, it showcases how important Morella is to Ada. After all, Morella is basically the only person who has stuck by Ada’s side this whole time.

…At least until this happens:

Morella has had enough of Ada’s excuses, and just like Prospero basically tells her to shove off.

But the painfully ironic part about this is, Ada is telling the truth. This ONE time, it really isn’t her fault. It’s Duke’s.

But Morella won’t let her get a word in and I love how Flynn drew Ada’s face. It’s a different kind of fear than when Ada was groveling in front of Montresor or reeling from Prospero’s rejection. Here, she isn’t afraid of being abandoned by Morella; she’s afraid of losing Morella.

I know that difference might sound REALLY contrived to some people, but in this case, Ada has a way to keep Morella in her life that doesn’t involve debasing herself and believes that Morella will listen to her. For the first time ever, Ada thinks she has a little control over the situation together with a friend, not an enemy. They can talk things out, and that really shows how close her connection with Morella is and how that connection can be the catalyst for Ada to start developing some self-respect.

Except Morella totally shuts her down.

Of course, I’m disappointed that there’s this “divorce arc” but it makes sense in context and it’s healthier for Morella to make a clean break from the posh crew (even though Ada clearly needs her wife more than ever, like come on, don’t leave her in Monstresor’s clutches!)

Speaking of which, I’m much more disappointed with how Ada immediately crawls back to Montresor and Annabel after being chastised. If there’s one thing I have on my season two checklist, it’s Ada learning to have some confidence in herself (and maybe tossing Montresor to the Hunt).

And I really want an apology from Morella and Duke to Ada. Now THAT’S delusional, and I might be the only one who thinks Ada deserves those apologies, because let’s face it, Ada is a wreck, but it would be nice, especially if she gives out the several dozen apologies she owes the misfit crew too, so that she can hang with them and spend more time with her wife Morella.

Anyway, yeah.

I really like Nevermore.

And I really like Ada. I think she’s severely underrated.

Of course I love Lenore and Annabel, and Morella is a precious and badass cinnamon roll, and Duke is so SO cool, and Pluto is cute as hell, and Eulalie is basically manga-Orihime (which is amazing), but there’s something so HUMAN about Ada.

I empathize with her in ways that I just can’t with the rest of the cast because… they’re just too awesome. I have difficulty believing Lenore or Annabel will ever feel something as fundamentally devastating as Ada has. At their core, they’re just stronger people. Ada is someone who needs more support and it’s nice to see those weaker characters treated with the same amount of care as a protagonist who we typically see stumble a lot but ultimately succeed. With side characters, there’s a genuine chance that they fail permanently and that adds so much to Ada’s stakes.

And honestly? I’ll say it. I think a lot of the students had alright lives or even good lives, they just happened to be cut short traumatically. Exceptions for Lenore (obviously) and Pluto (baby, you deserved so much better than your deadbeat dad), possibly Eulalie for having to live through WWII, but you’re not going to tell me that Montresor didn’t have a good run being awful, Duke didn’t have a successful performance career, and Prospero wasn’t a wealthy bastard. But who knows? We haven’t delved too much into the others’ backstories, so I could be very wrong.

Anyway, I guess this was just a very long-winded way of me saying I love Ada because I’m a total girl-failure and also I’m super excited for season two.

[numberonetacostan]

do you have any floorphone headcanons? :3

Hi there!!^^ Welcome, and thank you for sending in an your request!! :]

The Floor wouldn't really have a way of knowing this, but Mephone was actually planning to keep him on as an assistant rather than a contestant, even after all the trouble he'd had with his prior two assistants. Mephone wanted to keep Floory by his side, even if he's had trouble with that in the past (and even though a lot of said trouble was his own fault).

I like to think the Floor keeps tabs on Mephone post s2 finale. Don't get me wrong, I very much think they'll stay friends, more than just Floory keeping an eye on him. But I think in the time when they're not speaking, right after Mephone leaves and the contestants start constructing the mansion and living their lives and such, the Floor is still, how to word this... feeling around? For Mephone's presence. His footsteps and such. Just in case.

Floory's favourite little date to have with Mephone is a picnic date. Let them be their fat slob selves together <3 Also, Mephone is an incredibly messy eater, so a lot of what he tries to eat ends up on, you guessed it, the Floor! It's like sharing with fewer steps.

It's a bit hard to cuddle with the Floor being the ground and all, so the usual way they go about it has Mephone scooping up whatever clump of dirt that Floory is currently occupying, and plopping him down on Mephone's screen while he lays down. They have some of their best chats this way :)

[scripted-delusion]

It’s been five days since Sunday. Agatha has had a hectic week, and all she wants is to fall asleep in Rio’s arms.

Join Agatha and Rio on their journey as they discover new things about each other, share unexplored experiences, and create memories together.

I saw evgar’s recent piece, and it stirred so many soft feelings in me that I needed to channel that energy somewhere.

This story is part two of my Udonverse aka Personal Chef AU.

Read it here.

[the-real-couchrat]

A new chapter of ‘Transdimensional Arc!! Alcor Finds a Ford’ (by @random-dragons-interest-hoarde) came out recently, and I just had to draw the delphinidae dimension residents!

The orca (named Graham) was described as having lots of scars, but I don’t actually know how or where his humanoid self got them, so I just gave him rake marks. (Rake marks are just a fancy name for the scars orcas get from each other)

I Drew some Dolphin!Alcor as well, even though he probably doesn’t exist in this dimension, because I love him and we got his canonical dolphin species confirmed by Stan (who’s name I changed a bit to be more dolphin-y)

Closeups and notes below

I tried to replicate Graham’s wing(?) pattern things on his fins, and his horns(?) on his eye markings, but I’m not so sure how well it turned out. I also tried to replicate Liam’s tattoos from ‘Once Again, Again’ (by @vallis-cineris---wanderer) because I have many theories of how he exists in that world (this will be a separate post once I get my thoughts together). Funnily enough, this is the first fanart of Liam I’ve ever made.

Also some closeups of Fiddleford McBucket, because despite saying I wouldn’t draw him, I did and love how it turned out!

Quick tangent but I’d like to give a thank you/shoutout to Dragon’s Hoard for writing dolphins in a positive light. Recently, dolphins have been getting a terrible rep, and it’s gotten old. There’s duality in anything intelligent, and dolphins s are some of the most intelligent creatures around. Even then, they’re just animals acting on instinct, and we shouldn’t hold them to the same standards we hold humans to.

[perfectmanisperfect]

thank god no one watches andor with me i cannot be calm. CASSIAN UR GONNA DIE

i’ve consumed such an ungodly amount of rebelcaptain fics since 2016 i cannot be chill about this one.

this isn’t even about jyn erso and i can’t be calm. cassian i know ur fate i cannot. anyways ok still a week behind but don’t worry i am fully spoiled for yesterdays episodes

honestly sometimes it feel like rogue one cassian and andor cassian are two different people and i’m failing to see when they feel like the same person. but that’s a discussion for another time. let me catch up first

[couch-house]

full page comet comic i got to play with + make mistakes on over break. made sure to save the b&w bc markers SCARY

[notbecauseofvictories]

The people who go to the grocery store at 8:30am on Sunday are My People. We are kin, they and I. The rest of the world goes to bed late the night before because they're "hanging out with friends" or "having interesting experiences past 6pm"---meanwhile, the early supermarket contingent has already called it a day. We're in bed, we're ready. That bag of slightly wilted lettuce is ours for the taking.

[oh-no-its-bird]

As with all of my blogs on tumblr I found you via Fugaku.

<3

The way god intended !!!

[casquecest]

C'mon, Nic, you've got to get up and make chili for the Super Bowl party!!! Stop lying in bed admiring the fresh blanket of snow!!! It needs to sit and simmer and then have time to cool so you can transport it to your friends' house!!

[invinciblerodent]

Do love (and by that I mean fucking loathe) living in a climate where sweltering 38°C heat, and window-cracking, sideways-raining, torrential hail can just kind of happen within roughly 12 hours of each other

[mikeru6]

[stopmyhearts]

no. I cannot be getting tired yet. I want to finish this fic today

[asiandra-dash]

Throws Akikasa at you

[coquelicoq]

i have this unfortunate thing where i love cats and know several people with cats who ask me to catsit for them on the other side of town but if i am away from home for more than a few days i get so homesick that i start crying and can't stop. and then i feel incredibly stupid about the fact that i'm a grown adult - and still in my own city even! - but here i am not being able to handle being away from home for less than a week. i think it is indicative of some larger problem that i am not engaging with but man i just wanna go home. i want to be in my own space with my own bed and all my books and where i know how to work the tv and can change my clothes if i want to without being stressed that i'm going to run out. i want to be at home which i have tailored to my own sensory preferences and where i can walk around without stepping on cat litter and sit down without having to check every other minute to make sure i'm not covered in ants. i probably would not feel like such a baby about it because those all sound like really nice normal things to want and value but i feel like everyone i know loves travel and i just don't get it, i just want to go home. i like it there. i like stability. i would like to stop crying about it though.

[spocksgotemotions]

i gotta move out of this fuckin house

[nevertheless-i-went-forth]

it’s sunday im in sucks <- experiencing the horrors, none of which are actually connected to church