#I love g/t scenarios in general but the ones that are attached to an interesting story are the best

[coffehbeans]

"Aw it's so cute to be held by a giant, cuddled by a giant, taking care of you as a tiny, fearplay yadda yadda"

BORING! Give me give me, um, tiny lost in a giant world fighting for survival! Give me tinies seeing giants as threats! Running away! Having their life in danger! Give me epic fantasy adventures involving beings of different sizes! Give me futuristic settings with giant aliens who are enemies or allies, give me different cultures between the sizes, and tinies or giants adjusting to new worlds! Give me human-turned giants who feel out of touch with their humanity as they're regarded as freaks or monsters. Give me humans finding secret fairy villages, humans finding secret giants in the forests, or even accidental city rampage!

Give me drama, conflict, angst, but most of all, give me giant/tiny adventures!

[autisticmob]

HELLO everyone i am now ten days out from my tiddy surgery so i think while everything is still fresh-ish in my mind I should get a rough timeline of how things went for me, just so anyone having similar stuff done in the future can have it as reference?? 

so under the cut is how shit went down, warning we are gonna be tmi about it for Max Information Dissemination, i will be talking about IV placement, Needles, Bleeding, Bruising, Bathroom Stuff In General, etc. so like. Be Warned.

OKAY SO what did i have done and how did i get it:

- i got a bilateral breast reduction with a “T,” “keyhole,” or “anchor-shaped” incision. this procedure, unlike double-incision top surgery, does not detach your nipples at all, but it DOES leave a decent hunk of breast tissue behind to avoid the nip graft. this connecting tissue keeps your nip attached and supplied with enough blood to survive. that means with this one, theres basically a limit to how much they can take off, and it depends on how big you are to start off with. 

- i went with the T-incisions because as a NB person, I wanted to sidestep the “gender-confirming surgery” route with my insurance. technically, I believe it would have been covered if i had gone through the process of talking to a therapist and getting a note that the surgery WOULD help confirm my gender, but i suspect it would have taken much longer, and I was afraid that my doctor and community resources would not have ended up approving me FOR the surgery since I don’t exactly fit the typical trans narrative. and luckily for me i had Massive, Spine-Bending G Cup Tiddies to contend with. so every doc that took a look at me said “yeah, you need those taken care of for medical reasons.” so i thought hey, let’s see how far this will get me!

- i talked to my primary care doc about my back pain and mentioned i’d like to look into a breast reduction, and she referred me to a local surgeon who could do the procedure. at the time i was still entertaining the idea of double-incision, but as it turned out, this surgeon just didnt do that. but i knew for certain my insurance would cover him, his results were good, and he was local, so i said yes to the T-incisions, which he said would likely get me down from a G to at least a C. it wasnt my ideal scenario admittedly, but frankly the back pain was getting to be too much, and i needed it to be addressed sooner rather than later.

- i had a consultation with the surgeon in early december, and they took pictures and measurements to send to my insurance so they could confirm the tits WERE in fact Too Bomb To Live. Doc said that it varies between insurance companies, but most will have a minimum amount of tissue that needs to be taken off, in grams, from each breast. he was like, “your insurance needs at least 1000g total removed, which’ll leave you on the small side, is that cool?” and i was like “My Man, take AS MUCH as you possibly can, im sick of these” and he was like “cool, makes my job easy then.” 

- it took my insurance like 1.5 to 2 months to get back to me, but late january the surgery place called me and we set a date for february 5th, 2020!!

PRE-OP:

- before i went into surgery, the hospital made me go over my medical history with them over the phone, informed me of all the risks, and gave me a special scrub kit to shower with at home for the last 2 days before the surgery

- fun fact this soap will make your whole bathroom and body smell strongly and exactly like a hospital and it is gross as hell if you hate hospital smell

- i also had to go to my primary care doc to get the OK that i was healthy enough to go under general anesthesia, and also get some blood tests and a urinalysis done. i fucked up the urinalysis tho (which is a whole other story) so i had to redo that the morning of the surgery when i got to the hospital anyway. 

- when i scheduled my surgery they also gave me a list of things i had to NOT DO before i went in. this included stuff like avoiding herbal medications and non-prescription supplements and not drinking any alcohol for like 2 weeks prior to surgery, and not eating anything after midnight the night before surgery.

- then it was SURGERY DAY!!!

- i went in with uhhh a LOT of anxiety about what everything would entail, ngl. i knew i had to do it because staring down the barrel of life with tiddies forever was way scarier than surgery, but yknow whenever you go under general anesthesia they legally do have to let you know that you could die and thats just a lot to consider, PLUS the whole thing involves just, really mangling your torso so like. its a lot! its okay to be scared!

- both my parents went with me for moral support which i appreciated a lot, but i didnt actually see them much since they had to spend a lot of it in the waiting room.

- when i went back with the doc they had me Wash The Tiddy Off with some antiseptic and change into a gown. i got some grippy socks out of the deal which is probably not a universal experience, but this hospital did it so shoutout to them for the socks i guess

- then they asked me all my medical history stuff again and checked me for any like, rashes or open sores or anything. i had some Tit Zits but they did not seem to be worried about that.

- then the surgeon came in and drew lines on me for the incisions. bro when i saw how high up my nips were gonna be i was losing my damn mind. this is one of the really exciting parts, because you finally get to really visualize what your end size is gonna be!! 

- once he was satisfied with how everything looked, they started really Prepping Me For Surgery.

- they hooked me up to a blood pressure cuff, a heart monitor, and some compression leg thingies that would inflate and deflate intermittently around my calves to help me not get blood clots. this felt weird but tbh also like kind of a nice massage

- then the iv placement. bro im not lying when i tell you this is the worst part. the nurse numbed me with some lidocaine before placing the needle and let me tell you that shit HURTED. lidocaine Stings and Burns when it hits and this was arguably the most painful part. but the good news about that is it means nothing else after that is all that bad. and i got THREE lidocaine shots because these two nurses could NOT find my blood anywhere. they finally called in their ringer (an EMT named kirk, s/o to kirk) who got that sucker in my arm with NO numbing and NO pain in like, 2 fucking seconds. i pray you all have a kirk. kirk knows where your fucking blood is and hes not gonna fuck around getting to it because he JUST wrestled a drunk dude into an ambulance like an hour ago and compared to that this is nothing. kirk had sleeveless scrubs. im obsessed. anyway.

- then they put a plastic, inflatable, heated blanket over me? it was between two regular blankets so it wasnt as uncomfortable as you might imagine, but it was strange. warm tho so that was nice.

- THEN they wheeled my bed down to surgery. i was having so much anxiety at this point it was like... dreamlike. getting wheeled into the OR was just surreal. i was like, no thoughts head empty, just taking everything in.

- once i got there the surgical team was very cool about keeping me calm tho. they were playing their like, pump-up music and one of the guys was like “hey fyi about halfway thru the surgery we will be turning the lights off and having a rave, just in the interest of full disclosure. promise not to leave any glowsticks in there tho” and i was like what no i would LOVE glowstick tiddies

- i had to kinda roll from my bed onto the operating table, which was significantly harder and smaller. that kinda made things feel real, so i got a little more anxious at that point.

- to help me calm down they had me breathe in some straightup oxygen thru a mask while they hooked my iv to the fluids and such, and the guy was like “WHOA you got some lungs on you dude” and i was like yeah thanks im recovering from hyperventilating

- then they let the anesthesia into the iv, letting me know the whole time what was happening, talking to me until i was just OUT, which was not a lot of conversation time because i was out in like 5 seconds or less. they didnt make me count down or anything, but i promise you it was nigh instantaneous.

POST OP

- it really was instantaneous. i know everyone says that but it really is the truth, it feels like the whole thing takes seconds. like one moment youre laying there in the OR feeling the drugs Hit, and the next youre waking up in the little wake-up room feelin kinda groggy with a nurse talking to you, and youre still druggy so youre just rambling to her about how fucked your voice sounds right now and as soon as shes contented that youre basically lucid they start wheeling you to your room where youll ACTUALLY stay while you recover.

- THE THING I WAS THE LEAST PREPARED FOR WAS MY THROAT

- your throat will Hurt afterwards, but even more than that, you will be producing So Much Mucus. my surgery took about 2 hours and during that time, all my muscles were paralyzed by the anesthesia, including my lungs, so i was on a breathing tube. my throat, understandably, hated this, and started producing Gallons Of Fucking Mucus to protect itself. it then continued to do this for the next two days or so. the nurses were encouraging me to breathe deep and cough Hard to combat this, and avoid getting pneumonia, so i did. but THAT hurt the tiddies. it was really a vicious cycle. but its necessary because god if i had to have pneumonia on top of all the other recovery shit?? god. 0/10 wouldnt recommend. so it might hurt but dont worry your tiddies wont bust open or anything.

- i spent basically the rest of the day still hooked up to all the machines i listed earlier, PLUS a thing that would beep at me if my heart rate went too high, which it did a lot because i have anxiety, but luckily the nurses didnt seem too concerned. it really kept my breathing on track though because if i didnt breathe deep enough my heart would shoot up super fast and it’d beep and god that was just annoying and im pretty sure that was The Point. you kinda have to get used to breathing again, and the beeping trained me.

- they gave me like a bunch of crackers and a huge mug of water to work on at my leisure. i actually had lunch pretty quick after waking up? i know a lot of people have nausea issues from anesthesia but i didnt experience any of that. i DID move like a fucking sloth while i was eating tho. the pain meds and general grogginess of recovery slowed my whole body down sooooo much. my mom was actually like “are you okay??? like neurologically??????” and i was, totally, i was just. on slo-mo.

- anyway i didnt have to get catheterized for this procedure thankfully but they DID make me measure my pee every time i went to the bathroom. like i had to pee in a little bucket attached to the toilet and the nurse had to come check it every time and i felt really weird about that. so idk just be prepared for that i guess lmao

- also idk if it was the pain meds or the anesthesia itself but post-op, i couldnt shit for like a week. the constipation is real so get u some fucking laxatives asap when you get home, this is not a joke lmao

- they also had me put on a belt every time i got up so the nurse could hold onto me in case i decided to fucking biff it. they got me up a couple times throughout the day/night to walk up and down the hallway outside and get my body used to being upright again

- oh speaking of i never got to lie down completely flat, they had my bed locked at like a 30 degree angle minimum to help with... something. im not quite sure what, but im not gonna question it

- when i got up the next morning they had a couple nurses come in and help me un-bandage so i could shower and finally look at what the tiddies looked like for the first time!! and it was exciting but i didnt cry like i expected lmao i think i was too drained and too distracted by the bleeding

- the bleeding wasnt too bad actually, just little beads kinda coming out of parts of the incisions between the stitches. but once i got in the shower obviously stuff started getting diluted in the water and it looked like a lot more than there actually was, so dont be alarmed by that! 

- SHOWERING: its a little complicated. youre not supposed to soak the incisions, and youre not supposed to apply direct water pressure or actually touch them at this point. so what i had to do was get a washcloth wet and soapy (with antibacterial soap, i think it was hand soap honestly. hand soap’s what ive been using at home so........) and then just kinda. squeeze it at your collarbone and let it drip down over everything kinda minimally. its kind of a process but it works fine. washing your hair and like, tbh literally everything else is gonna be hard. reaching over your head is hard and scary at this point. i will admit my hair care Suffered the first week. 

- then i got bandaged back up and they got me back into my own clothes and ready to go home! they also put a bra on me over the bandages in my new size. i was only there for about 24 hours total, since i didnt really have any complications. 

- on the ride home i had to make sure the cross-chest part of the seat belt was NOT touching me. if whoevers driving you hits a pothole, your soul WILL exit your body tits-first for a moment. im sorry if you live somewhere like here in nebraska where the roads are garbage but its not gonna be fun.

ONCE YOU’RE HOME!!

- i live at home with my mom and sister and if you live alone, id try to have a friend basically move in for the first week. you will need Help with things. basic things. you’ll mostly want to sleep because of the pain meds but those made me pretty dizzy so it was cool having my mom around in case i like. fell on the way to the bathroom and died or anything like that.

- changing bandages is really kind of a 2-person affair too, and youll have to do it at least once a day post-shower, so keep that in mind. 

- the bleeding is like, not that bad after that first day honestly. i never had to change the bandages more than just the once per day. 

- basically from here the procedure is just to take it easy, get up every few hours and walk around a little to keep the blood clots at bay, and enjoy yr new silhouette basically

- worst thing about recovery honestly? im a stomach/side sleeper, and i cant manage anything other than laying flat on my back with my arms at my sides right now, and thats just like.... idk i really cant sleep like that. its not comfy. ive had to set up kind of a pillow fort around me to keep me from rolling over in my sleep bc im afraid i might hurt myself accidentally like that, but idk how well-founded that fear is.

- i will say as someone who did have back problems before this, the difference is IMMEDIATE. i literally had better posture like Day 1. im still a little hunched over because the stitches create a bit of tension in your chest, but like literally it was instantaneous. god. once i got healed to a point that i could like, kinda relax and not be so fucking tense all the time? back pain has basically just been GONE. 

- other fun things to notice: i had some pretty significant stretch marks before, and now they are running in a completely different direction. i crossed my arms over my chest the other day and they actually touched my torso for the first time in like, well over a decade. if i close my eyes and try to grab my tiddy from muscle memory, i stop like a full 3 inches from where my tit actually starts now. the size i am now, just like, freeballing it? this is how i looked when i wore a binder before. if i wore a binder now i imagine id be completely flat, and honestly if i layer up at this point you cant really tell that i have anything more than the average chubby dude’s moobs, which as a kinda chubby person is totally fine. 

its a trip relearning what i look like and what im supposed to feel like but its just. such a fucking improvement over where i was. absolutely no regrets, regardless of how hard recovery has felt at times. anyway i hope this information is at least interesting and maybe helpful to anybody considering anything similar!!

[monkeymindscream]

For the fandom + ships thing—SRMTHFG? The question didn’t specify but I’m interested in both your romantic + platonic/familial ships!

God bless you my dude you rock. :D 

True to form I rambled way more than Ineeded to here, and… I’m sorry for that. I love ships, what can I say?

PLATONIC

The entire Hyperforce as a whole, obvs, but I’ll throw outsome faves for the sake of specificity:

Sprx & Gibson – I’m a sucker for pals who’ll rib on eachother endlessly but who unfailingly have each other’s backs.

Nova & Otto – Because they’re fuckin’ CUTIES.

Gibson & Otto – Their friendship probably has the bestdevelopment out of any in the series fight me.

Chiro & Sprx – The protective older bro dynamic Sprx haswith this kid more like TAKE MY LIFE.

Sprx & Nova – I ship them to heaven and back, AND THEIRFRIENDSHIP IS A BIG REASON WHY.

And of course, Chiro & Antauri – If I have to sayanything here you clearly haven’t watched the show.

I also adore any and all platonic/familial relations betweenthe monkeys and Mandarin (to no one’s surprise) whether it be past-tense or anAU. Antauri & Mandarin in particular, but I talk about those two a lot as it is.

Moving away from the Team (and into some definitely non-canon, AU-ish waters):

Chiro & Mandarin – If anyone could get this jerk tochill it’d be this kid. And I’m not just referring to the original here. This kid is also the only one who has even the tiniest hope of looking at Mandy and the team’s situation with eventhe smallest amount of objectiveness (I mean obviously he’d start with some biasin his friends favor, but I trust this kid’s ability to go “waaaait a sec” andcall out both parties if necessary, I believe in him).

Valina & Nova – This is mostly just because neither ofthem have very good anger management, and honestly I think they’re interactionswould be to die for. Valina would be an absolutely appalling influence, but mayhaps we could also flip it and say thatNova would be a good influence?

Sakko & Jin May – We don’t see all that much of Sakko,but I’ve always imagined him as a vessel of limitless cynicism and bitternesswhen he’s not intentionally trying to be cutesy. Pair that up with Jin May and you’ve got instant hilarity.Also their loose history means there’s already tooth to gain traction on whenimagining scenarios.

Valina & Skelemandarin – Look I know, I know that literally all these two didwhenever they shared a screen together was spew venom at each other. I know. And I kind of wouldn’t changethat, to be honest, because I kind of love that about their relationship. The.They verbal sniping, anyway. The physical stuff Valina does could. Y’know. Stop, maybe. At the same time I can’timagine either of them ever actually had a healthy, friendly relationshipwith anyone (actually, I don’t imagine Valinaever had a healthy friendly relationship; I know Mandy II hasn’t, since he’s a clone and all). And… what’s the quote? “Necessity breedsingenuity”? Kinda like that, but maybe more like “desperation to have asingular sorry outlet of affection or even stable interaction in general breedstolerance and with luck and a bit of pixie dust, eventual companionship.” Plus I getthe feeling they would gossip/talk shit about other people to eachother endlessly if they ever actuallystarted getting along, which is almost kind of cute, in my opinion.

And then for the last platonic before I move on, SK/Alchemist& the monkeys + Cap’n Shuggazoom. The fam that started it all.

ROMANTIC

There’s a lot of overlap between my platonic and romanticships, so I’ll try not to repeat myself too much:

Sprx/Nova – The classic. I love these guys. Good banter withlots of cute moments to show they care in between. Good chemistry.

Gibson/Otto – They balance eachother out, but not necessarily in the ways that would be expected. It’s not “Gibson’s smart and Otto’s dumb” or “Gibson’s Serious and Otto isSilly.” They both have their moments of seriousness and silliness, and theformer is just blatantly wrong. To me it’s more like “Gibson thinks with hishead and Otto thinks with his heart, and together they help each other fill inthe spaces between.”

Mandarin/Antauri – You bet your whole entire ASS I ship thisromantically as well as platonically!! Mix in everything that’s good about thembeing friends with them being awkward and nervous because “how do romance??what???” Because oi Xan was a douchenozzle, look me in the eye and tell me you can’tpicture him going “romantic attachment bars the path totrue enlightenment, you’ll never become true masters of the Power Primate byindulging in such. Also if you so much as THINK about kissing you’ll probably catchan STD and then die. ABSTINENCE,” to two smol impressionable monkey students. Mandarin goes and files any kind of affection under the heading of “waste of time” andAntauri tries to detach himself from everyone. For this to work they’d have to first acknowledge how lonely this thinking leaves them and then work through these issues  t o g e t h e r  aaaahh. Also. Either after everything goes to shit or before theyget to the cute awkward parts: foe-yay. Mother of God, foe-yay. I have literallypicked up a book series (which was kind of crap, honestly) and LOVED it solelybecause it gave me my fix of foe-yay. Mix that in to something I already loveand I’m weak I’M WEAK.

Valina/Skelemandarin – Same as above, combine everything I said Iloved about them being friends, and mix it in with some cute shit. I know this onecomes with some hurdles (Valina kinda has the hots for their boss and is thenkinda dead, their relationship ishorribly toxic, they’re completely different species, etc.) but lord knows I’vebeen running this course so long I could jump ‘em blindfolded: Obviously thisis a ship for an AU of sorts, either one where Valina manages to stick aroundto pester Mandy after her death or one where she never died in the first place.Next, half the fun of ships (for meanyway) is looking at how the one person could trigger development in theother, and then the journey they go on together to bring about that developmentand grow closer (i.e. give me enough time in a fic and I can drainthe toxicity out of this bitch of a ship). Finally… Valina’s a witch, and this is a cartoon.Bullshit some magic or shapeshift the desired party into a species to match theother one. There you go. Hurdles cleared.

These are all I can think of for now. These are all of the BIGones, at least. If anyone shares any of these and wants to bullshit about themfor a while hit me up.

[beatrixacs]

F, G, I, R and V for the asks 🌷 I love love love your NCIS stuff! Practically read every one of them haha keep it up with the great work :)))

Thank you very much, @indestinatus! :)

Here are my answers:

F) Share a snippet from one of your favourite dialogue scenes you've written and explain why you're proud of it.

Oh wow, this one is pretty hard. I mean, I have written so many - in my humble opinion - good dialogue scenes I am proud of... It's really hard to choose just ONE, especially in the amount of stuff I have ever written. But well, considering I have recently read through one fic I wrote some time ago, I actually did a double-take and was like ‘damn, that’s good’ :D It’s from ‘There’s Still Time To Change Your Mind’ TIVA fic:

She realized her mistake of undervaluing him being ready for the commitment. Until now, she hadn't pondered the fact that he might want to commit to one person only and that was why he treated most of dates the way he did. They weren't her. He did like them but he had never formed any kind of emotional attachment to them and he had never been actually interested in doing so. Because there was only one woman in his heart worth the trouble and the risk.

"Yes, I did have a reason for accepting his marriage proposal. And it was a wrong reason, I know that now." She confessed with a thick accent that had always forced its way into the tone of her voice whenever she was moved beyond description. "I thought I couldn't have you."

He reached his hand into her hair, raking his fingers through the gorgeous wild curls he loved so much. Things had taken quite an interesting turn and their level of misunderstanding was apparently colossal, so he wanted to take his time to mull his next words over before he would let them out. Eventually, he figured that to question whether his signals hadn't been enough and she had just ignored to see them or how had it been even possible that they sucked so much in reading each other, was trivial.

"You can have me anytime." He said in a whisper softly. It wasn't anything soulful but he just wanted to assure her that he was always here for her for as long as she wanted him to be. "The whole package is at your disposal."

And why I am proud of it? One of my struggles with TIVA has always been the way Ziva just seemed to be available for anyone else but Tony when it came to commitment and I really, really, really hated the whole thing with Ray when she was so out of character. By this, I finally was in peace because I fixed it – gave her the reason why she was so stupid to accept Ray’s proposal for marriage but showing that all Tony did was just wait and wait and wait and she needed to see it, not to close her eyes before it.

G) Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order?

Always from start to finish. When I have an idea for a scene out of order, I write down the basic outlines (dialogue, feelings of the characters) because I know it may take months before I get down to writing that. But always from start to finish, I don’t jump because writing has taught me that it’s unpredictable and while I did have something in mind earlier, the plot can take a little bit different course and the scene is then unusable or needs to be reworked.

I) Do you have a guilty pleasure in fic (reading or writing)?

Hm... A guilty pleasure? Not sure if it’s a guilty pleasure but basically both in reading and writing, I always go for M or E rating. I’m sorry for all those K, K+, T and other ratings but I spend like 99 % of my time in M and E rated section. It’s also very rare for me to write anything but that because my mind simply creates a scenario in my head immediately. Hope this won’t paint me like some horny weirdo but especially when it comes to solely shipping fic, I just don’t see a reason why not to get the juicy scenes as well.

R) Are there any writers (fanfic or otherwise) you consider an influence?

Interesting question... Probably not any fanfic author because my first writing works date back before I even knew that fanfiction exists so... I once put one of my stories into a generator and it told me that I write like Agatha Christie (despite not writing crime novels) and I think that kinda fits because I love Hercule Poirot since I was a kid.

I’d say that a great influence is those dumb TV show and movie writers who keep screwing things up so I get to fix endlessly their mess. When you get angry enough, I think you can write anything.

And then I have to give a shoutout to all the Caskett (Castle x Beckett) writers (unfortunately, don’t remember their names at the moment) in M rated section on Fanfiction.net. Those guys have taught me A LOT about how to write smut. Eternally grateful to them for that.

 V) If you could write the sequel (or prequel) to any fic out there not written by yourself, which would you choose?

Hm... I don’t actually think I would even want to do that. You see, I see fanfiction as something also very personal to the writer and taking their setting and their story and create either sequel or prequel to that seems like... Sacrilege? :D (Though I do know examples like that in normal fiction and I don’t have problems with that) I always think that the fics are perfect and while I can have my own ideas, I rather come out with my own story to apply them. Maybe I have never been simply inspired to do something like this – perhaps when I run out of ideas one day (which doesn’t seem to be the case).

Thank you very much for the question, I love to see how other people think in comparison with me :)

[cerealmonster15]

ddadds kids....

i like thinking about them as one big extended cul-de-sac family... [headcanons and stuff!]

imagine all the families spending the holidays together! i’m sure some celebrate things that the rest dont but theyd probs have one big generic get together during The Holiday Season

all of the kids are crammed together on one big “kid’s table” even tho like half of them are teenagers and there are more offspring than parents

someone always ends up starting a food fight,, usually ernest and lucien, or the twins [either pair. both pairs?? christie and christian vs hazel and briar??]

this was referenced in game once so amanda probs ends up babysitting a lot when she’s home from college for breaks+ during that short time shes still around before she leaves! she’d be  a cool fun babysitter, but tough enough to keep some of the more rambunctious kids in check ;p

[ernest voice] dad i dont NEED a babysitter!!! [hugo voice] son i want to know that i can be away for the weekend and come home to a house that isn’t on fire

ernest is probs really snarky to amanda when she babysits like “youre not the boss of me” and going out of his way to cause trouble, but amanda is Cool and probs gives him a run for his money with snark and idk shenanigans ensue and he probs secretly admires her and thinks she’s awesome but would rather die than let anyone ever find out

lucien looks like he might be fairly close to amanda’s age? they probs dont have all that much in common, but damien’s date revealed that lucien listens to mcr, and amanda made her dad listen to black parade, so I bet they could bond over some music tastes here and there

LET LUCIEN GIVE AMANDA A COOL GOTH MAKEOVER

amanda: pleeeeeaaaaassseeeeeee ;D??? lucien: no way. the goth lifestyle isnt for posers i think with enough pestering she’d get him to cave. he’d take great time and care while painting her nails to make sure he does it Right

amanda probs comments on how careful and skilled he does it like “wow you really take this stuff seriously” “uh obviously??”

once he finishes, amanda takes a pic, and then all the other neighbors see her and are bothering lucien to make them look cool too. he pretends to hate it but actually has a lot of fun and is secretly really happy that they think he’s good at what he does

amanda convinces lucien to do like, cool goth makeup videos and put them on youtube/instagram. she helps him with filming and doing photography of final looks and together they get a lot of followers. sometimes she’ll guest star in his videos if he needs a face model other than his own

amanda’s kinda freaked out by christie and christian at first but over time gets used to and sees past their “creepy twin shtick” and, much like her dad [in the joseph brownie date] learns to use it to mess with them and possibly other people

at first chris probably doesnt talk to amanda a lot and keeps to himself when she’s over, but maybe over time she’d adapt to him and learn a few things hes interested in and express gentle interest in those things to kind of help him open up to her more

chris gets quietly attached to her like shes an older sister

everyone in the cul de sac does. they love amanda

AND EACH OTHER

i want daisy to be involved with the carmensita and amanda girl band thing mentioned briefly during one of mat’s dates. that’d be adorable

you know what else would be adorable? allllll the cul de sac kids coming to briar and hazel’s softball games to support them. 

the kids going to each others’ anything to support them!! when theyre in clubs and activities that put on shows or performances or other sports games, as many of the neighbors that can make it are there

when they get older, they try to be more and more obnoxious to embarrass their neighbors in front of everyone, like making huge support signs and banners with glitter with a stupid yet supportive pun that one of their dads helped come up with, or printing their neighbor’s face on a tshirt or a giant cutout on a popsicle stick, shouting as loud as possible 

they def went to amanda’s actual graduation and PROBABLY ALL CRIED

a lot of this has amanda centric bc i Love Her, but also,,

maybe hugo and craig start going to wrestling matches together [+dadsona] so ernest sees a lot of the cahn kids. if amanda’s in town, she’s with them and in charge. if not, ernest is technically in charge, but secretly [not so secretly probably] the dads are counting on briar and hazel [briar, mostly] to keep things from falling to disaster for the few hours theyre out

they all like to take turns riding on the Giant Dog that ernest got in damien’s route [duchess something i think?] [a good component that should be canon in all universes]

“lets put river on him” “no she’ll fall off” “wheres the duct tape” “n o”

if enough disaster happens leaving these kids alone together, they probably get dropped off at another dad’s house to be looked after for a while. joseph volunteers to look after them but since he and mary are already looking after 4 and KEEP LOSING CRISH, they tend to try and ask literally anyone else

[not that theyre bad parents lmao but it’d be easier for all the other parents that just have One Kid]

i bet christian and christie love robert’s wild spooky stories. he probably makes up so much bullshit to fuck with any kid that’s listening

they’d carpool if they could fit enough kids in one car. it’s probably a 2-3 car carpool depending on who’s driving what size car and who needs to go where at what time

there are probably so many inside jokes[CUL DE SAC MEMES......] that are born at every cul de sac gathering. 

when amanda’s home from college, all the kids wanna be the first to tell her all about the SHENANIGANS she’s missed out on

river and crish are bffs once theyre old enough for human interaction. they Have To Be.

pranking each other in the school hallways plz, or just all around chaos. god help the teachers that somehow end up with 2+ of the cul de sac kids in the same class

ernest definitely sends his dog to poop on damien’s lawn outside lucien’s bedroom window / probably does the flaming bag of dog poop ding dong ditch when he knows lucien’s home alone and will be the one to answer the door

christie and chris like when briar and hazel pretend to be each other, so they get their hands on a pair of scissors and chris gives christie a terrible haircut. possibly briar and hazel try and help with the scheme and things just get Worse and joseph has to take his daughter to a Professional [or maybe one of the dads is really good with hair/has had their child do the same thing and is good with fixing a bad haircut ;p]

carmensita goes through a goth phase after she goes over to lucien’s to be babysat one day. mat does not know how to Deal bc this isnt the type of music hes used to playing but he loves and supports his daughter regardless and likes to hear her singing all kinds of music to broaden her horizons and strengthen her talent

G R O U P  T E X T between all the kids old enough to have phones

there are lots of memes. lots. of memes.

they take candid shitty photos of each other all the time and send them in the chat, and particularly amusing ones end up reused as reaction photos

lucien: [sends photo of ernest having just spilled cereal on himself with duchess in the background making off with a piece of pizza] ernest: fuck u carmensita: mood daisy: why are you having pizza and cereal for breakfast? ernest: dont tell me how to live my life amanda: lol tag urself i’m duchess

this is just something i like to do w/ my friends but they’d probs also stealthily take pictures  of each other when theyre out and about and send them to each other in secret like amanda’s out with her dad at the grocery store and spots lucien and damien in the dairy isle and is like FUCK,, she hides behind a stand of donuts or w/e and takes a pic of them and sends it to lucien w/ no context or like “lol hey” 

it becomes a war of sending pics of each other to each other/the group without getting caught. lucien and ernest probably act like they think it’s stupid but get so competitive about it

they all keep score and it probably also would extend to taking stealthy pics of cul de sac dads too Just Because

the dads find out about the competition somehow and like,,, secretly are so into who’s winning. especially brian and dadsona. sometimes they’ll try and serve as a distraction for their child to get a sneaky pic so they can win, but usually the kids prefer the solo missions

val comes and visits sometimes with cool stories. sometimes she brings her girlfriend, and amanda especially looks up to them like two cool older sisters [i dont remember if it was jacket pins or photography that val said her gf is into, but whatever it is i’m sure amanda would geek out about it with her]

christie and christian eventually grow out of their “creepy twin” thing but still have a more unique brand of humor/personality. the cul de sac kids are used to them by then, and will THROW DOWN with anyone that bullies them/ calls them freaks or anything like that, or anyone that picks on chis [and eventually crish] by association or for any other reason

THESE KIDS MAY ARGUE AND FIGHT AND STUFF SOMETIMES BUT THEY’LL STICK UP FOR EACH OTHER IF ANYONE OUTSIDE THE CUL DE SAC TRIES TO START SOMETHING W/ ONE OF THEIR OWN

i could go on forever making up headcanons or scenarios for these kids bc i love them and constantly crave more content about them but imma stop here bc it’s been over an hour and this is Long but anyway plz talk to me about these kids + the cul de sac as a whole. share ur headcanons,,,,, i l o v e the m ,,

[clockworkopera]

FURTHER LORD OF SHADOWS THEORIES: (Part 4)

Disclaimer: My theories are built not just on the Dark Artifices, but from all the previous books as a whole, and will contain SPOILERS if you haven’t read them. These ideas are based solely on book canon.

(edit: This was written before LoS was released. Some ideas might be a little outdated, but still interesting! Especially on the Nature of Parabatai Magic--we still don’t have an explanation for that)

On the Nature of Parabatai Magic – Mirror Magic (This is in some ways a continuation of Part 1)

Will in TID: “You were the mirror of my soul. I saw the good in me in you. In your eyes alone I found grace.”

Theory: The reason their bond so powerful because they mirror back to each other’s angelic power through love. The stronger the love, the more power is reflected. This is good to an extent. Philia and agape are both good loves and that love allows for the magnification of rune power. That’s why runes on parabatai are ten times stronger, or the reason they can wear runes normal Shadowhunters can’t. But, drop the barriers of Eros and then it becomes exponentially greater. Ten to the tenth.

When Emma and Julian are on the beach: (LM pg422) “they were kissing as if they were trying to tear down the bars that held them inside a prison.” (LM pg424) “Fire raced up and down Emma’s veins as the barriers between the vanished;”

Passion, or a magical upgrade? Afterwards, they slept through Malcolm’s presence. Julian dressed her in sandy jeans and she still didn’t wake. Did a new power settling through them render them temporarily unconscious and they thought it was sleep? (LM pg425) “Emma slept, by the side of the ocean. And she had no nightmares.”

Fear drops the barriers too. When Emma saved Julian’s life with a rune, (LM pg272) “Something in her chest seemed to split and crack; she marveled that it wasn’t audible. Energy raced along her veins and the stele moved in her hand…” and “they’d been children in the dark together once but now they were something else, something intimate and powerful, something Emma felt she was touching only the very edge of as she finished the rune and the stele fell from her fingers.” This followed by Emma: (LM pg275) “I feel dizzy.” And: “Her skin felt supersensitized too, as if she would jump or scream the moment someone touched her. She nearly did scream when the waitress returned to get their orders. She just stared until Julian ordered…looking at her worriedly. A-R-E-Y-O-U-A-L-L-R-G-H-T?”

I’m still not sold that this will lead to madness, although the seeds of possibility are there.

(LM pg659) Jem: “It was not long after the ritual had been in use for some generations,” Jem said, lowering his voice, “that it was discovered that if the bond was too close, if it tipped into romantic love—then it would begin to warp.”

***But, doesn’t this mean that everything was also fine for a few generations? So, how could it go so wrong?

Cassandra Clare answering a Parabatai question on Tumblr: “Yes, Valentine came to hate Luke and even wanted him dead, while they were still Parabatai. Parabatai who are bitter enemies are an interesting phenomenon, since it inverts the purpose of the ritual and turns something angelic into something borderline demonic.”

But, what if they mirrored back mutual negative attributes?

For example, if Luke wasn’t the kind of person he was, and he and Valentine loved each other with a passion no barriers could hold? How powerful would Valentine have been then? Would even the Angel, Raziel, have been able to stop him in that case?

Every person and every couple has a range of good and bad in them. Love tempers hate, but even Emma and Julian aren’t wholly immune:

(COHF pg143) “I hope they catch him alive, (Sebastian)” said Emma, her eyes on Julian’s. “I hope they kill him in Angel Square so we can all watch him die, and I hope it’s slow.”

              “Emma,” said Helen, sounding shocked, but Julian’s blue-green eyes echoed Emma’s own fierceness back to her without a hint of disapproval. Emma had never loved him so much as she did in that moment, for reflecting back to her even the darkest feelings in the depths of her own heart. ***

There are additional dangers as well: Fast forward to LM when they are going to the Lottery:

(LM pg327) Emma pushed the passenger-side door open and whistled. “Mark. You look amazing.”

              Mark glanced down at himself, surprised. A surge of prickly heat ran up the insides of Julian’s wrists.

--And when it was time to rune up… (LM pg330): He started on the second rune, and Emma felt a slight biting sting as the stele moved. She frowned. Usually, though runes could sting or burn when applied, runes placed on you parabatai didn’t hurt. In fact, they were almost pleasant—it was like being wrapped in the protection of friendship, the sense that someone else had sealed their dedication to you onto your skin. Strange for it to hurt.

How easy is it to twist? Emma is telling Julian lies and that will invoke guilt. Julian is jealous, but also betrayed. They both need to hide their feeling from everyone they love in addition to the Clave. They aren’t going to have an easy time navigating this and the exponential mirror of those feelings could easily warp what could have been a purer love.

The seeds are absolutely there, both for love and for destruction. Julian and Emma will need to decide what to nurture and what to weed out.

Alt Theory: The reflected magic becomes too strong for either of them to control and if they are caught in a feedback loop of ever increasing power that will eventually destroy them. If not caught early enough and separated their only choice is to go to the Silent Brothers and Iron Sisters, where their runes work as magical circuit breakers and the excess power is bled off to power the Shadowhunters weapons.

Alt Theory: It is just as Jem said and they have no choice but to go mad. But, the Blackthorns study the Greeks: “The greatest blessings granted to mankind come by way of madness, which is a divine gift” (Socrates).

Alt Theory: One could become a downworlder. No one considers this idea because to be a Shadowhunter means everything to Emma, while being able to stay with his family means everything to Julian. But, Julian could die to become a vampire and that could be one of CC’s deaths

POSSIBLE HISTORICAL SCENARIO:

DISCLAIMER: Cassandra Clare warns of becoming too attached to any one theory; that we can’t enjoy the reality when it comes. I’m guilty here because in my head I can’t let go of a link with the Silent Brothers and Iron Sisters so I came up with a possible historical scenario. If you like that kind of stuff continue reading: but it reads more like an outline for fanfic. Further down the crackpot road we go…

Jonathan Shadowhunter and David were the first Parabatai. And the words of the oath reflect more of marriage vows. They were in love and able to do great things and create the first version of Shadowhunter society with that power. Much of the early Shadowhunter’s magical history is in the care of the Silent Brothers and the Codex is very vague as to where their magic came from. They did not keep this blessing to themselves though and offered it to others in the form of the Parabatai ceremony.

Things were fine for a few generations.

Then a pair went bad. It would have been devastating to their society. A lot of people probably died trying to stop them, much in the way a lot of people died trying to stop Valentine and Sebastian. At that point, were they even too powerful to be killed?

The remaining matched Parabatai sacrificed themselves in order to contain the rogue pair and the best solution they could think of was prisons beneath the City of Bones. (Codex pg214) “The prisons of the Silent City can hold the living, the undead, and the dead; they are designed to constrain all creatures, however magical.” The Clave couldn’t take the risk of another potential disaster and made the law banning Eros love between parabatai.

In a combination of 1) We need wardens strong enough to hold the prisons sealed and 2) what do we do with all these other matched pairs: The Clave created the Silent Brothers and Iron Sisters.

David, a leading by example sort, became the first Silent Brother—maybe sending Jonathan Shadowhunter out to find an alternative solution. (Abigail also became the first Iron Sister, so it makes me wonder if they were in a triumvirate) Up till now, none has been found. And if Julian and Emma want to remain together and be Shadowhunters they will be the ones who must figure it out.

The magically upgraded Parabatai power of the Silent Brothers and Iron Sisters are still essential to Shadowhunters. They make the steles for marks, the seraph blades, the wards, witchlights. What would happen if they weren’t there to make those things for the Shadowhunters?

(Codex pg194) For the Silent Brothers: “In exchange for their special abilities, they have given up some of their humanity…”

If a piece of their humanity is amputated from them; they’ve been permanently separated from their parabatai; they’ve lived long enough by centuries to watch all their family die; all the while searching for an alternative that never materialized. How long can hope survive?

All these factors twist something that may have started as noble into something else. Their physical appearance is mutilated and monstrous (especially to Downworlders and Mundanes who have not been indoctrinated to think any differently), but does the outside appearance reflect of what’s going on the inside?

(Codex pg216) For the Iron Sisters: “In the floor is a black circle in which is carved the sigil of the Iron Sisters: a heart pierced by a blade.”

***I’m grappling with Emma and Julian (and presumably the rest of the Blackthorns) forgetting Jem and Tessa’s wedding for Part 5. I have vague thoughts of my own, but would like to hear what other people think.

Thanks.