a-chess-lesson - Tumblr blog

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HI SORRY IF I ACCIDENTALLY RB STUFF TO THIS BLOG TUMBLR SEEMS TO THINK IT'S MY MAIN BLOG NOW (IT'S NOT)

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She hitting it different now.. Changed her name to Amphidex. Gotten Silly with it during the transition. Good for her, Good for her.

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RB if you’re an MBS artist/fanfic creator. I’m tryna get a fandom creators’ headcount bc honestly I think there are like 15 of us total with only like 7 of y’all consistently creating but I’m curious...

(If you’re rb’ing to boost put that in the tags so I can count u out lol)

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soulmate au

I am thinking about The Mysterious Benedict Society as Soulmates.

I am thinking about a world where when you find your chosen few, they leave colour on your skin. A kind of permanent tattoo, a sign that sings, hey, hey, don't you know? We belong together.

There's something so lovely about it, in my mind. These characters who are all alone, and the way they find each other. 

I am thinking about Reynie Muldoon, who is this kid who grows up picked on and outcasted. This kid who fears being alone more than anything in the world. A soulmate is a promise of the opposite, right? It means that somebody out there is going to love you. I think Reynie thinks a lot about it, late at night before he meets the rest of the society. Hoping that he'll somehow mean enough to someone to leave a mark.

I'm thinking about Kate, with the palm of her left hand painted a faded grey. Once upon a time, it shone turquoise. Soulmates are just people, in the end. They can fall out of love just as easily as they fall into it, and Kate plays it blithe but it hurts. Of course it does. The colourless mark is just one more sign that her father left her behind.

(I am thinking about Milligan, who loved his baby girl so much. I am thinking about the first time they touched, with her small pudgy fist wrapped around his finger, and the colour that blossomed between them. I am thinking about Milligan looking at this one faded mark, and when Reynie asks him what keeps him going in the face of hopelessness, he still says duty, but he also says them, whoever left this-)

(When you are brainswept, you lose yourself, and you lose the people that help make you whole. Do you understand? All the helpers are swathed in grey.)

I am thinking of Sticky curling over himself to look at his back in the mirror in his childhood home, and realising with a slack sort of dread that his parent's marks are paling. I am thinking of Sticky staring too long in the courtyard at Kate's charcoal grey hand, and refusing to look at his back anymore because he doesn't want to see his own marks reflecting hers. He doesn’t want to face the fact that his parents fell out of love with him.

I am thinking about Constance, who bears no marks on her small frame and then collects a half dozen of them. I am thinking about the twins, about Nicholas Benedict, who is positively painted in soulmarks, and Curtain, who wears gloves and has only one singular mark that he hides and keeps secret.  I'm thinking about love and how vulnerable it is, to have it written on your skin.

(Not sure when or how, but I want Mr. Benedict to tell each of the children that soulmates are a choice. Always and always and always. You can always choose to hold onto someone and love them. Of course you can. Love is defined by what you make of it.)

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(spoilers)

can we just talk about how hardcore the second book is?

I mean, ALL the books are crazy, but it’s been four years since I last reread tmbs and I remember glazing over the second book, because usually in a series the second book is just like build up and filler for the third one (with the first book having all the magic a first book usually had)

but this series? I aged 58 years reading the second book, and I was disgustingly addicted to it the whole time I read it. I truly thought it was the end for our protagonists. Usually you can see how they might turn a bad situation around, but it just looked straight hopeless when everyone ran out to the beach in hopes that help had come and there was just nothing there. And then, when the Shortcut appeared from seemingly out of nowhere, I cried real tears of joy. I know it’s a kids series and sometimes kids series can be deep, but these kids have to be straight traumatized by their experience in that book. They were pushed to their absolute extremes physically, psychologically and emotionally. From being stuck on the ship in one small confined room while traveling across oceans to a place they had never been before, solving all the riddles, keeping watch during that dark night trying to stay awake with the fear of death and being captured hanging over them, being tied up in that giant room with the ten men ready to torture them, then being captured by Curtain and BEING tortured (shocked), then having to run and carry Mr. Benedict until their hands were bleeding and they were beyond their physical limits, and THEN after seeing their LAST CHANCE for making it off that hellish island not be there having their hopes let down….if I were them, I’d probably just go insane. Its shocking because the whole series is so breezy light, but the actual content, once you think about, isn’t so light at all.

Every character was developed so deliciously. Reynie went from being smart and good at riddles, to being a conniving plotter, who could be a supervillain in his own right. Kate almost bombed a ship full of her worst enemies (willingly), but then found some insane inner strength and decided NOT to. Sticky went through an ego-struggle arc and then, after being the group scaredy cat, suddenly became THE MAN in their darkest hour when they all had to carry that stretcher down the mountain and had nothing left to give (and it almost broke my heart when Reynie narrated it saying smt like “maybe we’re all gonna die but at least I get to witness Sticky in his prime 😌). And Constance? Well. She’s Constance, but her mind reading is sick, and I like the relationship dynamic that grew between her and Reynie in this book.

there was so much inner turmoil from Reynie, and the whole “there’s no good-hearted people in this world” belief he struggled with, resulting him question which Benedict twin he himself was more like, was just so scrumptious. He’s the perfect person to narrate the series, and that becomes clear during this book. Finger lickingly good stuff. And we can’t forget Sticky knocking Constance off the watch tower when a ten-man appeared from the darkness. That made me chortle. Or Kate regurgitating McCracken’s key so they could all escape. She’s just so different.

There are just so many good moments in that book. It’s really truly quite the adventure.

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Also, hi! It's been a while!

hey Queenie!!! sorry i've been gone, i've been vvvery caught up in artfight and pikmin. but I am still thinking about mbs almost every day!! it's like Undertale to me; i can get hyperfixated on other stuff, but I never quite fall out of it entirely.

it's great to hear from you, though! how are you doing?

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I'd like to think that everything is the same except LIVE is a nursing home that the kids have to work at. Mr. Curtain isn't mad, just senile.

Poor kids have to humor him just to get him to take his meds...

(Mr. Benedict is not senile, though.)

HAHAHAHHAHA THAT'S SO REAL!!!! the kiddos are interns there because Mr. benedict was all like "oh nooo the old guy is evil" but he secretly just needed help taking care of his senile brother

curtain: grrrrrr muldoon when I get you muldoon.....

reynie, an overworked teenaged intern: ok sir we can roleplay after you take your meds

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I was talking to my sister about mbs today and she said that I should make a nursing home au. what does this mean. is the entire series just an elaborate roleplay made by senior citizens. is constance the youngest at like 57 and everyone treats her like a baby. what

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it is physically impossible to take them seriously

attention ‼️‼️

Them. They’re just cartoon characters.

These are the only two moments I remembered to snap a picture of, but the whole dang series is just littered with this absolute tomfoolery. At least once, in every chapter, they are tripping over each other, or glueing themselves together at the slightest mention of danger.

So unserious about saving the world, these two.

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i probably have many many more but this is all I have on hand

Blasts an air horn

Everybody reblog with the weirdest pictures you have.

This is not a drill.

I repeat, this is not a drill.

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happy pride mbs fandom

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live reynie reaction

based on this incorrect quote.

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........guys is there a fandom for extraordinary education of nicholas benedict

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and they did

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Quick pride HC:

Both of the boys are bi, Kate is pan, Constance is aroace

YES! YES YES YES ANON!!!!

i soooo agree with you on all counts; mind if i add a few hcs of my own?

no. 2: transfem queen I think. she was in the process of transitioning when she met mr. benedict and he helped her a lot <2 she is also demiromantic

rhonda: bi bi bi!!! her husband is bi too

mr benedict and Mr curtain are both aroace but in opposite ways: Mr benedict is aroace in the way that he doesn't feel the need to have a romantic partner and only really wants platonic and familial connections; Mr curtain hates the idea of romance and will hiss at any poor soul that dares try to flirt (idk who'd be flirting with HIM, but mr curtain stops the flirtin' ig)

sq is asexual and greyromantic! I think he gets a qpp when he gets a bit older who he is extremely close with. he's also bi for the 10% of romantic attraction he ever feels

jackson and jillison are transmasc gay and transfem lesbian respectively. end post

milligan is a bi dad ok NONE OF THESE LOSERS ARE STRAIGHT /aff

uhhh did I miss anyone? feel free to add your own hcs in the tags, everyone!!

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in addendum

nono, it's CONSTANCE screaming at an animal KATE brought home that it better not have rabies, while Sticky is too scared to get near it

Kaynie stays the same though lol

anon you are so right....

[a-chess-lesson]

nono, it's CONSTANCE screaming at an animal KATE brought home that it better not have rabies, while Sticky is too scared to get near it

Kaynie stays the same though lol

anon you are so right....