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Just thinking of how Emma was ready to die saving that little girl at Gracefield and how Isabella died saving her little girl.

From the escape arc, Isabella has said that Emma was naive if not downright suicidal - for wanting to protect everyone, for trying to escape when she had the choice of living the rest of her life as a Mother for the farm systems. And now, years later, her daughter comes back home older and smarter and — she still tries to shield someone who can’t be saved? What does human flesh have in the way of a demon’s claws? What would possess her to do something so foolish? And Isabella can’t really figure it out because she’s already thrown herself between all of them. Because Isabella might not have ever understood Emma’s optimism that things can be better, but she certainly wasn’t going to let anyone punish her daughter for that.

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For Your Eyes Only: intended to be seen by a particular person only; confidential.

A tpn fic based off of one of my favorite movies. Ray and Norman are both photographers (not by Norman’s choice). Emma’s encouraging and Gilda couldn’t care less.

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These three:

But as them:

Idk is this crazy, the age gap between Ginny and Austin would gave to be so much closer for it to work but Isabella as Georgia?? If anyone draws this Netflix owes you a job.

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Of Newton and White Horses

Newton’s 3rd Law: If you spare a country of demons, be prepared to lose your everything.

“Were we religious?”

It takes him a moment to realize she is serious. “I mean - the giving thanks before meals, did it all mean anything?”

Looking back, Norman thinks it’s absurd. A farmer instructing cattle to pray for fodder in a cage without a shrine. How it doesn’t stop him from giving thanks anyway, because a cattle who knows reason can’t forget rhyme so easily.

(And Emma is living proof of that.)

“It meant something to someone else,” Norman answers, “Not anything to us.”

Emma regards him with doubt, “And to you?”

“There is a higher power,” he says, not because he believes in it, but because a fact is a fact no matter what Norman’s personal feelings towards it are, “But I don’t follow it’s religion.”

She frowns as if trying to piece this together, and a sharp stab of guilt claws at his throat. Reconfiguring lost memories must be hard enough without his half-lies.

“I believe in punishment,” he says instead as placation, “That there’s something in the universe that doesn’t allow for an action without consequences.”

Emma winces.

“That’s an awful way to put it,” she says, and the commiserating look in her eyes is so achingly-familiar it stings, “Newton’s Third Law can’t be your spirituality. If there is a higher power, don’t you think it can do any good?”

(He thinks of a girl standing between the Heavens and the Earth to give him the world in her bloodied palms.)

“I believe in both,” he says lightly, “Punishment - it’s order. It’s revenge is justice, it’s forgiveness is mercy, and it’s sacrifice is atonement. It’s a way to right every wrong in the world.”

“Well, who is anyone to decide what’s right?” Emma shrugs, tugging her hood against the onslaught of the wind, “Sacrifice, revenge, forgiveness - everything you’ve said, it’s just human.”

“You don’t believe in God,” Norman says, and it’s a statement, not a question.

“I believe in life,” she answers, and in other worlds, he thinks they may have been, the two of them - Creator and Destroyer, Beginning and End, Orpheus and Eurydice. “I believe in honoring what you’ve been given.”

“Given implies it isn’t yours.”

Years of faith have taught him to dread the very look that she now fixes him with. The greenish-gold gaze - piercing, even without a lifetime of memories behind it - laying his very soul bare.

“Given means I don’t know where it came from,” Emma tells him reproachfully. “My life, yours, anyone else’s - but I’ll value it all the same. No judgement.”

“To value what’s been given,” Norman muses, brushing a stray snowflake out of his hair, “Is that what prayer is?”

Emma blinks. “I don’t know,” she admits, breaking his gaze. “Do you believe in prayer?”

He considers this carefully, his eyes tracing the strands of hair clinging to her cheek. With a single, gloved thumb, he sweeps it away, and she leans into his touch. This much, at least, is familiar.

“I believe in devotion,” he says at last, pulling away, “I believe in a force beyond nature defining what is and isn’t possible.”

Emma’s intuition - razor-like, even in the shards amnesia reduces it to - catches his contradiction easily, and she directs a half-smile his way.

“Meaning?”

Norman thinks of spools of thin wire bridging chasms between two paper cups. He thinks of what it means to be the wire, straining to hold taut to an axis that just keeps moving, as a satellite would hold to gravity. To be in eternal orbit, damned if it follows, damned if it doesn’t.

He thinks of a marbled white horse on a checkered board, shielding the heart of its King to lunge for the Queen’s head. Of the King, who will sidestep its Knight anyway, to confront a Bishop. He thinks of how the game still ends, for what good is a Knight to an empty castle?

He thinks of hair brighter than flame and eyes fuller than flora, shackling him to life. Of being granted an eternity, and still feeling like he’s left everything behind, because the Laws of Conservation are the same across dimensions.

He thinks of his head bowed to interlaced hands, of what it means to be a priest kneeling before an altar. Of a mortality that doesn’t disrupt a lifetime of faith, because an object in motion will stay in motion, and no outside force has ever come close enough to intervene.

“It means the universe is finite.”

Emma laughs, the way she did - does - when he says something that is so plainly the right answer, but still only half the truth. “And devotion?” she prompts.

He traps himself again in that inscrutable gaze, careful to hold it tight when he answers:

“Undefined.”

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So I’m reading the lunar chronicles and, as of most of the way through cress, I gotta say I love the men.

It’s just like

Jacin - hot asshole who will probably be important next book but this book has just existed. He hasn’t even made friends. Literally no one here likes him.

Thorne - wannabe Byronic hero but he hasn’t actually done anything selfish or bad boy. He’s just unfailingly patient and acts like some sort of team mom.

Wolf - the most Tortured Boy (tm) you can be, wavering between mindless violence and catatonic meltdown. Edward Cullen wishes he was this guy.

Kai - damsel in distress. That’s it. He’s had 3 books, and he hasn’t managed to play an active role in his own life yet, he’s basically a virgin sacrifice waiting to be rescued from a dragon.

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The blaring sirens and the flashing lights faded into the background. Those sticky, sticky eyes were all Norman could feel, boring into his skin and crawling over him, leaving trails of slime like a bloated slug. Norman needed those eyes to stop watching him.

For once his body moved faster than his mind.

---

Escaping the Lambda compound doesn't come without a price.

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Found this snippet from a fic I never managed to finish writing:

“Because when Ray sees Emma and Norman, he sees fire. He sees warmth and light and everything in between, and he sees himself too - burning with the need to protect it.”

Shirai really created the perfect trio and then proceeded to separate them at every turn :,)

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I have now painted 100 dolls! 🎉

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“But if you win -” and here, Bayon’s voice goes practically breathless with the sensationalism off it all, the maddened glint in his eye brighter than the ludicrous, golden horns the he sports - “If you win, surely, surely she must want you, right?”

Norman’s smile is stiff on his lips when he answers, “I’m afraid that won’t work out so well in my case.”

“But why not?” Bayon frowns, turning to the audience as if to share his befuddlement.

“Because -“ he hesitates for the briefest fraction of a second.

But then, out of the crowd, he picks out Yuugo - miraculously sober - inclining his head ever so slightly.

It is his mentor’s approval that forces any fantasies of flame-like hair and gold-flecked eyes out of his mind, and he steels himself to continue.

He lifts his eyes to the Tribute’s podium, ensuring that his gaze does not waver off of her when he speaks:

“Because she came here with me.”

In the wake of his confession, the audience erupts into a thousand gasps but all he sees is the way Emma’s jaw drops, the way her eyes alight with recognition.

Somewhere back home, perhaps hunched over some dubious concoction at the Hob, he is sure Ray is howling with laughter.

But here, with nothing more than a flimsy plastic barrier to separate them, there is no hint of a smile playing on Emma’s lips so Norman keeps his expression placid.

One of them had to, at the very least.

It is only when the curtains are drawn, does he allow his frown to settle.

The rolling meadow dotted with specks of vida, just beyond the fence, was how he would have liked to confess.

But he has been on a tight schedule as of late, so he supposes this would have to do.

He expects she is furious, not so much at him but at this conspiring, this plan he had so painstakingly crafted without her knowledge.

Perhaps years later, after she has won the games, he hopes she will manage to think of him as an ally at worst.

That she will find it in herself to forgive him, for all that he was about to do.

I’ve been putting off watching the hunger games for years cuz I didn’t know it was good and now I finally got around to watching the first 2 movies and… I’m loosing my fucking shit over Katniss and Peeta I love them so much holy fuck

But most importantly… they remind me of…

EMMA AND NORMAN

HOW HAVE I NEVER SEEN A TPN HUNGER GAMES AU???? PLS TELL ME IM NOT INSANE THE SIMILARITIES ARE THERE. I would sell my soul to anyone who makes fanart, fanfiction, ANYTHING of this concept pls and thank you

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Okay but a Lunar Chronicles AU of TPN would be so. good.

Like Ray would probably be Cinder with his affinity for machines, computer-like memory, near-burnt-to-death experience, unresolved guilt over the death of a younger sister, and mommy issues.

Norman could be Wolf? (Taken from his childhood home at age 12 and genetically modified to serve the Evil Queen). But I’m leaning towards Emperor Kai for Norman (thrust into the role of a ruler at a relatively young age, literally the Queen’s favorite “toy”, king of diplomacy (read: manipulation), self-sacrificing, etc.)

For Emma I’m split between Scarlet and Winter. Scarlet would be a natural choice (red hair, GUNS, over-protective to a fault) but Winter seems to be a better representation of her personality (giving up something precious to her at the cost of her sanity for someone else’s happiness? ✅ unresolved guilt over someone else’s death? ✅ experiencing harm at one point at the hands of her only mother-figure? ✅ mutilating her own face as an act of defiance against said mother-figure? ✅ running away from her childhood home? ✅ but also the core of Winter’s character was that no matter how brutal her kingdom was, she refused to let the cruelty taint her kindness and stayed true to herself and her morals. Ultimately, though other characters called her naive and too trusting, her straightforwardness made her well-liked by both Lunars and Earthens alike, just like how Emma earned the trust of both the demons and humans in her story because she refused to deviate from her moral compass even when it seemed natural to favor brutality.

Levana would be Legravalima (the names? The Evil Queen? Obsessed with her beauty? Obsessed with getting control over (1) teenage boy?)

For Anna I’m split between Iko (who is technically the healer in the story, at least for Cinder’s cyber kinetics) and Cress (escapes her mother-figure and cuts off her hair? ✅ really wants to play dress up? ✅ crazy smart? ✅)

Anyway I love Emma and I love Winter and this post was maybe an excuse to talk about mainly them but nevertheless!

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Norman and Ray should have been teachers in the human world and not CEO/Vice CEOs.

I know one of the reasons they started the company was for an independent source of income but… if they wanted an immediate, steady income (which is a lot more ideal for raising a family of small children + funding Emma’s search), a job that they could get certified for quickly would make the most sense so even logistically, the CEO thing doesn’t make the most sense.

Especially because being a teacher would put Norman’s quote to Emma about “we’re all working to make the world a better place” into much better perspective - its easy to image both Norman and Ray being excellent teachers and de-facto older brother figures for the students they come across, considering the people they were raised by. They would both be in the best positions to know just what to do and what not to do when taking on the role of a mentor/teacher in a child’s life (Peter probably was the entire list of what not to do).

Even if the reason they needed a stable income in the first place wasn’t for a happy reason, both of them deserve to find fulfillment in the human world - as CEOs, I can’t really see them feeling fulfilled or motivated enough to keep proper perspective of their goals in the new world.

Besides, I think it would have made the old Emma (and probably the new one too) happy to see them both changing the world in a way that is entirely true to themselves.

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Meet the Robinsons AU except it’s Spy x Family

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Emma: At least I can carry Alicia without falling over!

Norman, on the verge of tears: At least I can reach the top shelf!

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Oh my goodness I love this thank you!! Loid’s expression is wonderful

Loid: I’ve been dropping subtle hints here and there about how I feel about Yor.

Franky: He yelled “I love Yor Briar!” into a fucking megaphone.

Loid: It hasn’t been working.

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I can’t believe this panel is canon because I can’t ever remember Phil being so snarky “So basically you have nothing better to do??” (also Don pretending to be Ray?? So good)

(Volume 1, Chapter 6)

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Loid: I’ve been dropping subtle hints here and there about how I feel about Yor.

Franky: He yelled “I love Yor Briar!” into a fucking megaphone.

Loid: It hasn’t been working.

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For the mission? For a cover? For world peace? SPY X FAMILY is my jam and I could not hang on until the season was over, I had to draw something for it now! I'm really enjoying the anime, haven't looked into the manga yet but am tempted (tho I did grab one character who hasn't appeared yet because I've seen them in enough beautiful fanwork to know I would be remiss to leave them out.) This piece will be a print going forward at conventions and in future full stock shop openings!