#I think tsc is scarred of his powers

[turimoalin]

[mania-sama]

Same anon here, I'm glad you loved TGR so far! I definitely enjoyed it way more than TSC

I'd love to know more of your opinions on the series but I don't wanna bombard you with tons of questions, so i'll just stick to one xD

Who are your top 3 fav AFTG characters? Up to you if you want to explain or talk more about each of them :3

You can bombard me if you want to. I love to talk and share my opinions on things like it's a serious debate on national television lmao.

Yes I'll tell you my top 3 and YES I will talk about them in depth. In this order:

Kevin Day - KEVIN FUCKING DAY. I think my biggest draw to him is the complexity in his character/personality. When we're introduced to him, through Neil's eyes, we see a hardass, daunting, almost unattainable figure. He's telling Neil that he's terrible at the game, but in the same breath, telling Neil that he's going to join, with no room for debate. Their exact dialogue is this:

"I won't play with Kevin." "You will," Kevin said." Wymack shrugged at Neil. "Maybe you haven't noticed, but we're not leaving here until you say yes. Kevin says we have to have you, and he's right." "We should have thrown away your coach's letter the second we opened it," Kevin said. "Your file is deplorable and I don't want someone with your inexperience on our court. It goes against everything we're trying to do with the Foxes this year. Fortunately for you, your coach knew better than to send you in action instead. You play like you have everything to lose." [...] "That's why," Neil said quietly. "That's the only kind of striker worth playing with."

All the while, Neil is having a panic attack because he's under the assumption that this absolute celebrity is going to recognize and expose him for being Nathaniel. Neil is terrified, and Kevin's dialogue and actions reinforce and justify his fear that he is someone who can screw over Neil's life in a variety of ways, Nathaniel being just one of them. Already, he grabbed my attention, but I think the best part of his character is the fact that he is scared.

We don't notice it immediately, but he is a man who is constantly living from one mental breakdown to the next. He's just really good at not showing it (and drowning it out with alcohol). It's shown right at the beginning, though we would not yet know what it meant until much later in the books. Kevin always travels and pairs with Andrew. It's not because they are in love with each other; it's because Kevin literally cannot be alone, or he will actually lose his mind. He is petrified of Riko, and it's an absolute testament to his strength and willingness to change that, in book 3, he steps onto the court and gives a display of power (switching his racket to his mangled hand) on the day that they play against the Ravens. He claims that "being straight" is easier than being gay, clearly scared to be someone more than what the media expects him to be.

But that's what's cool about him. He's a celebrity who knows how to act like it, and his vulnerability comes in rare, shooting bursts that wreck him down to his soul. And then, throughout the series, he shows the most character growth, second only to Neil Josten himself. He grows into someone who can share his pain with his teammates, into someone who can ask for help and tell people that he cares about them. HE CHANGED HIS TATTOO. HE CHANGED HIS TATTOO. It's not that his scars aren't there or that his fear has subsided; it's that he can work in spite of them. He is brave. Very, very brave.

He is truly what it means to be "all for the game". He's sacrificed everything to keep playing. He kept playing even when he wasn't supposed to anymore because of his hand. He kept playing in the face of Riko's wrath. He kept playing because he loves the game, not because of any specific trauma or duty to someone else. Even though he was technically forced to play, he just. Loves the game and wants to keep playing until the day he dies. This love also comes out in the way he coaches the team with his father, the way he takes Neil to the court every night. He wants to get better, but he's not a solo player. He is selfish and prideful, but his selfishness and pride are not harmful. He's careful in all the ways that he's not, and he's obsessive and loud in all the ways that he's limited and quiet.

I could honestly keep going, but I think I'll stop here. Needless to say, I am VERY. VERY excited about his new duology. I love him. Kevin "let Riko be the king" Day, you will always be special to me.

2. Neil Josten - What is there not to like about him?, is the real question. We all read the same book series. We all know what this brat has to offer and why any given person may like him. I almost feel like I don't need to say anything, but alas, here goes a very simplified answer:

I love a character who shoots off at the mouth. I am a very honest person myself, mainly because I never find an occasion to lie. At most, I'll obscure a truth, and that's about it. For Neil, it's in his very nature to lie and obscure and cover his tracks in the mud with leaves and sticks. But when he is honest, it's pretty much always at the expense of someone else. My favorite, FAVORITE quote in the series is from Neil. Yes, you know the one. He tells Riko that he and Kevin talk about his intricate and endless daddy issues all the time:

"You know, I get it," Neil said. "Being raised as a superstar must be really, really difficult for you. Always a commodity, never a human being, not a single person in your family thinking you're worth a damn off the court--yeah, sounds rough. Kevin and I talk about your intricate and endless daddy issues all the time." "Neil," Kevin said, low and frantic. Neil ignored him. "I know it’s not entirely your fault that you are mentally unbalanced and infected with these delusions of grandeur, and I know you’re physically incapable of holding a decent conversation with anyone like every other normal human being can, but I don’t think any of us should have to put up with this much of your bullshit. Pity only gets you so many concessions, and you used yours up about six insults ago. So please, please, just shut the fuck up and leave us alone.”

What a crazy thing to say, Neil.

The really good part about this character trait, though, is that it's not just "quirky"; it lands him and others in a lot of trouble. People get hurt and killed because he cannot shut his trap. But he can't stop, because it becomes to integral to him and his personality. He can't tell the truth about himself? Okay, he'll tell the truth about everyone else. And yes, this causes a lot of trouble and a lot of issues, but it's got the flip side where his yapping does a whole lot of good. This can be most clearly seen in Kevin.

If it weren't for Neil, Kevin would not have stood up to Riko. That's what I love both about the previous passage from The Raven King, and then the Kathy Show scene from The Foxhole Court. In that scene, there are three major things going on: Neil shooting off to defend Kevin (however unwanted it was), Kevin having a literal panic attack at both Riko being in front of him and Neil insulting Riko in a way that he knows there will be dire consequences, and Riko fuming because he is being insulted heavily and personally on live television. The result of this scene is Seth's murder.

But.

This is the first moment that Kevin realized that Riko is just a guy. He can be insulted and mocked just like anyone else. And then, Neil does it again. And again. And he keeps doing it, and it rubs off on every single person on the team, most of all Kevin. Kevin lifted his head and looked Riko in the eye because Neil called Riko useless and a commodity. Neil cares so much about the team and everyone around him, despite trying so hard not to, and he does everything in his power to protect them, that Kevin now feels that he's able to tell Wymack that he's his son and that he loves him.

Neil cares because it's in his very bone marrow to care. He lies and steals and runs, but what ties him down is not just the game, but the family he's made with the Foxes. Neil is "all for the game", because he associates the Foxes with Exy. Without the Foxes, there isn't Exy. That's why he ran from Edgar Allan. Hell, that's why he went to Edgar Allan, to protect Andrew from Neil's earlier actions (that being the... "intricate and endless daddy issues"....). He sacrifices everything for the game and the people around him that it brings the team together and makes them stronger.

His growth in the series is almost unmatched. And that's what I like in a character the most; one who can change and grow and be different by the end of the story. Neil does that. He's unrecognizable by the end. Not to mention all of the identity crises over Nathaniel and his father, the suffering he's endured, and how he uses it to become a better version of himself. I also love the symbolism of running and the inextricable ties it has with his character. I'm not going to get into it, but running scenes are some of my favorites in the entire world across all media, so. Obviously, I like Neil a lot because of that.

3. Jean Moreau - I liked him from the moment he was introduced, though I really started to love him during Neil's time in the Nest. Again, it's a result of his complexity that I've come to really enjoy his character. His first and general claim of his friendship with Neil is that they were "meant to be". They were meant to be partners because Raven bullshit idk, and Jean takes that and runs with it.

The reality is that Jean just wanted a friend. He had been alone and miserable for so long since Kevin left that he pretty much leaped at the opportunity to speak to someone in his native language. Despite everything, he was very quick to have someone stand in Kevin's place. Neil was that person. He will never admit it, though, either at fault of his conditioning or that he genuinely believes that he and Neil weren't friends (and therefor doesn't understand why he was so quick to take falls for Neil).

His entire being is shrouded and covered in a thick overlay of the trauma he's endured. He can be summed up very nicely with his own quote that he says to himself over and over again:

My name is Jean Moreau. My place is at Evermore. I belong to the Moriyamas. I will endure.

He has spent years convincing himself of his reality in order to survive. His thought process was clear to me from the moment Neil stepped foot onto Edgar Allan's campus. Survival is one of my favorite things to write and consume, mainly because it can be interpreted and shown in a variety of ways. Survival by "manipulation of self perception" is what's demonstrated through Jean's character. He survives because he gives himself up. He locks his love, thoughts, and emotions behind an eightfold fence and doesn't let anyone through.

He doesn't let anyone through because in the times that he has, he has been beaten and betrayed and burned. I have enjoyed immensely seeing the way that he interacts and swallows his ongoing and perpetual trauma. Abuse isn't easy. Abuse isn't easy if it's been happening for a day or if it's been happening you're entire life. He takes it all in and bears it on his skin and heart, and he doesn't let anyone see that he just wants to see a rainbow in the sky, feel the wind on his face, or have a genuine friend or two.

I was very excited when Sokavic announced Jean's trilogy. I had already written a fanfic one-shot detailing a nightmare and how Jean may be recuperating with the Trojans. I've imagined and loved his recovery from before it was even written. What makes this recovery the most complex is that he is both suicidal and convinced that he needs to live (in order to serve). Wanting to die, having to live; wanting to be free, having to stay caged. There is only one way to endure that, and that is to convince yourself you are meant to endure it.

As long as he plays Exy, Jean will not be happy. Interestingly, I don't think we've seen Jean actually. You know. Enjoy playing Exy, except when he was young. In a perfect, happy world, Jean will quit Exy after college and go on to do something nice in the quiet countryside with a golden retriever and Jeremy Knox at his side. But this is All For The Game, and Jean is owned by the mafia. I don't want to see him become happy with Exy, but I would like to see him become happy with all that surrounds it; Jeremy, Cat, Laila; ice cream, open roads, wind, and adrenaline; Kevin, Neil, and the ones who don't want to leave him behind.

I read fanfiction that contains traumatic events in order to read about the recovery. I like the aftermath and growth better than I like the event itself. I want to see Jean claw his way up until he finally realizes he can grab someone's hand. I want him to let go and realize that hands are already holding him and dragging him out of the grave he's been tossed in. I want to see Jean play Exy and go home to a family who makes him smile. I want to see him recover and realize that he can take medicine, doesn't have to listen to authority all of the time, and do things that make him personally happy. I want to see him recover.

That is why I like Jean. I like all that he has to offer in terms of a narrative not about running and learning how to stay, but learning how to find contentment and love even when you don't feel like you deserve it.

thank you for letting me ramble i love AFTG and I really need to read TGR lmao

[tiredandoptimistic]

don't know if you're still in the mood to answer asks but if you are, can you tell us about your least favorite characters?

Oh I'll totally still take asks!

Least favorite characters are tricky, because I generally like most of CC's writing. I don't think there are TSC characters that I flat out hate, though there are several who I find underwhelming for various reasons.

First off, Lucie and Jesse from TLH. I really like these two on principle, but it's always bothered me that Jesse got to come back to life at the end of TLH. Lucie feels a lot younger and more immature than the other characters, and I really wish that she'd been forced to face some serious consequences for her impulsive actions. I think it would have worked really well for her arc if she'd blazed ahead in her mission to resurrect Jesse and eventually reached a point where she found the limits of her powers, because Lucie very much thinks that she can make anything happen if she puts her mind to it. That's not a bad trait in any way, but it's interesting to see it applied to something like necromancy that really shouldn't be possible. I would have loved to see her realize that she can't just bend reality to her will, kinda like how Malcolm had to deal with the consequences of his attempts to bring back Annabel. It just felt weird in ChoT how all the other characters are dealing with serious life-altering crises and Ghostwriter are in the corner making out. Jesse is also just not particularly interesting to me. I wouldn't mind seeing him permadead for the angst.

I don't think it's fair to say that I dislike Jordan, because I actually find him fascinating as a character (guy who knows he was an abuser and commits himself to making sure young people don't cause the hurt that he did), I just hate that he got back together with Maia. It makes sense that he'd want some sort of closure with her, since he clearly regrets how he treated her, but I frankly wish that he hadn't got it. I would have loved to see Maia accept that he's a better person but refuse to forgive him on a personal level, because there are some scars you can't erase. I think it would have shown great development for Jordan to keep on doing good with the Praetor Lupus without any hope of redeeming himself in Maia's eyes, because his positive growth shouldn't be built around a relationship with someone he abused. (That's why I like that James never forgives Grace, because you shouldn't need validation from your victims to motivate you into being a better person).

I've talked before about my issues with Sebastian as a villain; and basically it bothers me that in a series all about how people are not defined by the crimes of their parents, we have a character who is ontologically evil because of his blood. I wish we could have gotten some sort of story about how Jocelyn and Valentine treating him as irredeemable from birth turned him into the monster they feared, but instead he's just fundamentally inhuman from the start. It feels out of place in a series that spends so much time focused on how Downworlders (and James and Lucie) can be part demon and still fully human for Sebastian's demonic heritage to actually just make him evil. (Yes I know that it's because he was given demon blood unnaturally rather than being born with it like a warlock, but I don't really like that explanation).

Shinyun Jung is a character who I really want to like, but I feel like she never got enough focus or sympathy from the narrative. Her identity as a cult survivor is really interesting, and I wish we got more about how that affected her.

Okay. I am entering the controversy zone here, but by far my least favorite TSC character is Julian Blackthorn. In fact, most TSC characters I dislike are TDA characters, because I do not like TDA. I don't have a lot to say on that front because I have only read the series once and it was seven years ago, so my memories are honestly pretty fuzzy. I don't think any of my judgements would be particularly fair or nuanced, because I'm mostly going off of half-remembered vibes. I'm planning on revisiting TDA during the reread I'm currently doing, so we'll see what my opinions are now that I'm older and wiser. Maybe I'll like the series more, and maybe I'll build up some coherent evidence for why I dislike it.

Before ending this post, I wanna make it clear that everyone is free to disagree with me! If you love any of these characters then that's a-okay and you're completely welcome on my blog. As long as we can all be chill and respectful, we don't need to agree about everything (and at the end of the day these are just fictional characters anyways).

Thanks for the ask! I usually try to stay pretty positive on here because I don't want to harsh anyone's vibe, but I think it's really interesting to dig into what makes stories fall flat.

[carelessflower]

lucifer helped alec survive the svefnthorn - a theory

story time! i was ranting to @dustandducks about how i can't believe alec survive being stabbed by the svefnthorn (he stabbed himself but same sentiment) which was attuned to sammael at the time. sammael who, you know, is a literal prince of hell, with power only second to lucifer himself. and to add more onto this.

it is stated that only a warlock can survive being stabbed by the svefnthorn and nothing can reverse its effects. no other magical creatures in the shadoworld stand a chance against the svefnthron, except the warlock. pretty terrifying right? but this happened

alec survived being stabbed by the svefnthorn. not only did he survive, not only did there was no blood or injury or visible scar from the stabbing, but he was also able to call the thorn's power to him and used that power to help magnus. but why? how could that happen? we already established the power of the svefnthorn, and it was clear alec was not meant to survive it. i love alec, i would absolutely do something that ends me up on national news if it would make him happy, but i know his ability. he doesn't have extra angel blood or any blessing from the angels, or any secret gift that makes him exceptionally powerful, he's just your normal level shadowhunter

even alec himself was surprised when he realized he was not burnt to a crisp due to his 300 IQ decision-making skills. and i know we have the explanation about the alliance rune smoothing the thorn's demonic magic and alec's angelic magic to work together, but once again, how? we don't have a clear exposition for this, even from characters in the story

alec didn't know it would work, magnus didn't know why it worked. everybody's best guess were fate taking it easy on them. and for sammael-

he just...left, like how corporate taking down their pride flags the second pride month is over. no rage, no murder, nada, just disappeared into space. he also seemingly non fazed by the fact that alec survive a thorn with clearly anti non-warlock embedded to its manual.

@dustandducks raised a really good point, what if someone else, some higher power meant for alec to survive. the usual, and maybe logical answer would be angel looking out for their descendants, cause alec need to fulfill a greater destiny in the future. im going to play the devil’s advocate here and suggest that lucifer popped up and gave alec a little demonic magical assistance. this conspiracy somewhat tied up the loose ends in the lost book of the white and built some interesting story beat for the wicked power and the black volume of the dead

the twist fitting to what we already known from tlbotw

maybe the reason why sammael didn’t snatch alec up and put him in some demonic science lab in his realm is because he sensed lucifer’s presence and decided not to mess with anything lucifer was cooking up. (as lucifer is more powerful than him, which is also stated before the stabbing scene in tlbotw) it can also tied in sammael’s motive of gathering other princes of hell to talk about lucifer in the epilogue. tlbotw was setting up the grounds for tbvotd, magnus escaped becoming a greater demon’s minion leading to alec becoming the minion of a greater greater demon

how the twist affect the future events in the tsc universe

one might be thinking, why would lucifer saved alec, he just a normal shadowhunter, why would the literal mega ultimate OG devil care about him? as much as i would like to say it’s because everything revolve around alec and everyone love him (as they should), i know it’s not the case.

many have speculated that in the final series, there will be a showdown between demons and the shadoworld. and what if lucifer wanted to infiltrate the enemy’s side, wreck them slowly from the inside and make them suffer at the hands of their kind. his spy should held high position, a major voice among the children of the angels and has a connection to the downworlders, and someone who wouldn’t pose as potential suspect easily.

enter alec who fit all these criteria and more. who would think their consul is under the control of lucifer and is working against them? if alec under the influence of lucifer wreaked havoc from the shadow, it could create more base for the cohort to claim that they were right and the clave in exile would suffer under an incompetent lead, causing animosity and conflicts in the already tense political situation. and when the truth comes out? chaos everywhere. lucifer didn’t even have to lift a finger to see the shadowhunters crash and burn

tag list (tell me if you wanna be removed or added):  @magnus-the-maqnificent​ @literallytypogod​ @ukisteria​  @wildegremlin @steven--with-a-v @sociallyineptbibliophile​ @queenlilith43​ @khaleesiofalicante​ @wandererbyheart​  @raziyekroos  @onetimetwotimesthreetimess @alexandergideonslightwood @awecwightwood @noah-herondale-lightwood​​ @elettralightwood​ @dustandducks​ @deliciousdetectivestranger​ @delightfullyterrible​ @letsgofortacos​ @kita-no​ @xxsunset-seasonxx  @thelightofthebane​ @secrettryst @pocketoffeels @cityofdownwardspirals @coriia @i-have-not-slept @rinadragomir

[tricerapor12]

OKEY HERE WE GO!

Heres my design for them along with my headcanons. I thought about making it into two parts because for part 2 i wanted to explain my heacanon about the whole sticfigure thing like:

How different born sticks are, do they have a lifespan, by nameing a regular stick with a unique name will have powers etc.. But i just eneded up making it into one sooooo here it is.

Designs.

Clothes

Tsc: is mostly okey with it, but they only would wear a hoodie and thats it.

Red: is not that intrested in clothes but he loves wearing his scarf and later on the yellow bandana .

Yellow: probably the one who is not that fond of clothes but she some times (which is so rare) will wear some really long clothes just for a few hours than never touch it again for who know how long.

Blue: is the one who likes it the most, one of their favourite is the farmer clothes because its helps her not get dirty that much while gardening, but also she wears it because its hepls them cover the burn mark on their body.

Green: is kinda like SC about clothes, he dont mind it but doesnt like it eather. A hoodie is enough for him.

Purple: loves all of it, he would look trough all of his colletcted clothes thinking what types are still missing from his collection. But even tho he has so many he just cant bring himself to wear any of it, the clothes makes his skin feel itchy and wearin one leavs him feel uncomfortable. He doesnt have a problem using his elytra tho.

Tco and Tdl: flammable clothes and flames dont really mix well.

Ko/Mt: Not a fan. But if you see him wearing cloths it would be out of spite or hes plotting something that no one will going to like.

(bonus for the elytra)

The original color of the item is grayish and cant really be used to fly with it if u dont have a eyes of ender to power it. But when powered the elytra will color it self and can shape into any wing types depending on the one who using it.

It has four different wing classes: hide (which has two types the pterosaur wing type and the bat wing type), feathered (yeah all of the flying bird wing types), and the bug (which conteins the butterfly/moth wing type, the fly wing type, the dragonfly wing type and the beetle wing type), and the mix class (meaning more than one wing type can be fused togethere creating a more unique elytra).

Even if the elytra is powered by the eyes of ender the only thing that can make it fly is the metalic spine like attachment that comes with the regular elytra. The spine will attach it self on the users back and the little wires that stand out on both side will connect to the user nervus system making it able to feel trough the elytra and also controling it as if it was a body part. It comes in handy in fights some times. But since it is a huge down side that the back is not protected (expect the beetle type), so thats why there are sensors connected to the spine. Those sensor are work like a cat whiskers

The balanced thing about the elytra is that if you damage the eyes of ender it will power down and cant be used, but if you damage the spine than you wont be able to fly.

Scars

The CG have remaining scras from Tdl.

Tsc: has the scar on both on their back and chest with little slash marks on their face, arm and legg.

Green: has the scar on their chest.

Yellow: scar from Tdl is starts from her chest trough the troath and ends at their mouth. They also has a scar on their forehead where the light was when she was possessd by the lucky block.

Blue: scar from the Tdl is on her back. Half of their body is covered by the burn mark from the lava.

Red: had the scars from Tdl but it fused with the scars that Herobrine left. Since Herobrine was forcefully got pulled out from Red two times, Red now has two huge scars on his back and chest. (Also white eyes, he can still see)

Tco: has scras on their chest where Tdl stabbed him with the spikes(?), and slash marks on their body from fights.

Tdl: has a burn mark on their chest from Tsc. Some visible srcars while fighting Tco.

Purple: has a burn mark mixed with a scar what is starts from his face trough the right eye (purple half blind because of it) and neck and ends at their chest. (Also has lighter colored scars from fighting againts whatever the f was Mt blasting him with.)

Mt: burn marks on both arms from the staf, has jaw problems (thank you Red), and lighter scars by being consumed by the void.

Eyes

Height

Created sticks with names, created sticks with just color name, born sticks, and baby sticks headcanons.

Created stick with name

The created sticks with names are most likely get powers, some are weak some are powerfull and the inbetween. Not just holow head sticks can have powers when named. This class is the highest but also the rarest. Cant be killed (even if there is a more powerfull stick there to combat them they cant kill eachother) they are basically immortal, the only one who can eliminate them are the one who created them.

Created sticks with just color names

Probably the most comon one. They dont have powers but they arent effected by age eather, meaning age cant kill them but like being stabbed or shot (only if its not in game), and sicknes can kill them. This class is the middle.

Born sticks

Unlike the other two class this is the low class but not because they cant fight but because they are born. Dont worry they are not treated any lass by the stick community, they still can do what other created sticks with color names can do, they just short lived. While created sticks in anly class cant grow, born sticks actually can and they can be quiet big when adults.

The lifespan of the born stick is debends on the parents.

If both parent were born, then their child will have a the same short lifespan like their parents, around 150 years.

If one parent was created but the other was born their child have a bit longer lifespan, around 450 years.

If both parent was created their child would able to live for 1000 year.

Baby stick

Since sticks are nothing like any living creature on earth (they are sticksfigures in the digital word like comon) they are genderless (but they still go by he/him, she/her, they/them etc...). In short they have to share codes with eachother for them to have a kid.

Bonus

Created sticks can be different height but unable to grow taller.

And thats about it.

I will post aboud Gold, Orhid, RB and Victim to, i didnt forget about them.

[purplebass]

TLH Parenting Style Analysis: Blackthorn Family

This is the first essay about the parenting style of the TID characters in TLH. I wanted to write a post with all of the main TSC families, but I realized it would have been super long, so I decided to make a post per family. I will do this in alphabetical order, which means that the first family I’ll cover will be the Blackthorns. The next post will be about the Carstairs family.

Carstairs Family 

TW: mentions of death, mentions of abuse/assault, mentions of trauma

Blackthorn Family: Authoritarian Parenting

This is a single-parent family with Tatiana Blackthorn as the “authority”. Benedict Lightwood, Tatiana’s father, ate her husband Rupert Blackthorn. When she married Rupert, Tatiana was 16-17, while he was 23. From what we know from Clockwork Princess (Tatiana’s first appearance), it was not a love marriage, but a convenience marriage. Tatiana might have liked her husband, but from what we can gather based on her scenes, she agreed to marry so she could make her father happy and proud. Sadly, her husband died young, and she has been a single mom from the start. The only connection she still has to her husband is her son Jesse, although that connection is weak because he is dead and we don’t know if he will be revived. Then there is Grace, whom we know she adopted because her parents died when she was rather young. She raised her children away from the other shadowhunters, thus they grew up without knowing the world nor interacting with other children their age but themselves. 

Both Jesse and Grace have been emotionally manipulated by Tatiana. She likely brainwashed them in order to keep them in line. We can clearly see that Grace is not the heartless girl she may appear. She acts like this because Tatiana probably used a warlock or another powerful person to force Grace to do whatever she wanted. Grace herself said that she was Tatiana's blade Tatiana. She is compelled to act the way she does both because of subjugation and of a sick loyalty (no wonder the Cartwright’s motto is: Loyalty binds me). This “loyalty” I’m talking about is not loyalty in the proper sense. People who have been emotionally manipulated by their parents tend to indulge in their parents’ manipulation because they believe that their parents would stop loving them if they don’t do what they say. Tatiana adopted Grace after her parents died. Without counting the possible spell she might be under, Grace may feel like she has to do what Tatiana asks of her in order to show her that she is grateful that she was taken in. Grace is just a means to an end to Tatiana, and we see that she is trying to disentangle herself from her.  

We don’t know the extent to Jesse’s manipulation. Tatiana has surely sheltered him from the world and told him how awful (according to her) the other shadowhunters are. So Jesse has grown to dislike them, because he couldn’t see for himself if his mother was right or not. In the seven years Jesse has been dead, supposing that his ghost!self is like his alive!self, he has had more time to be free and “check” if his mother told him the truth. We’ve had a few occasions in which Jesse was surprised that Will was a caring father or that Lucie knew about the worm story. During these seven years, he might have recovered a little from his years of manipulation, like Gideon and Gabriel (sort of) did. Unless his ghost self doesn’t remember about the manipulation or the way he behaves with Lucie is itself a form of manipulation. His mother ordered him to deceive Lucie? He has snark, but he’s also a submissive type. Jesse’s emotions may also be muted in his ghost!self, since he’s living half a “life”. Emotional manipulation is something that takes time to fade away, even when the person/people who manipulated us have died. 

Tatiana is an authoritarian parent. She is strict, gives rules that her children must follow. She may also punish them if they don’t comply. For all we know, she might have mistreated Grace and Jesse and used violence, and Jesse might have died because of something Tatiana did. Like I said above, Grace may also be a tool to use to hurt the ones who killed Benedict. The authoritarian parent never explains why the child has to do that. Tatiana’s agenda stems from revenge. She is using her children as tools for her own revenge. This doesn’t mean Tatiana doesn’t love Grace and Jesse, but she had several issues that she transmitted to them. It’s a twisted kind of parental love. She may be thinking she’s doing only what’s best for their future, not realizing that she’s harming them, especially their mental health. The children of authoritarian parents may have low self-esteem. Tatiana was the daughter of an authoritarian parent as well.

Tatiana has PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). She saw her father and husband die, and she couldn’t grieve because she had a child a few months later. But it’s not just that. Tatiana was already scarred because of her mother’s premature death, and she was left in the care of a father who didn’t care about her in the sense that he didn’t show her love the way she expected him to. He cared for her in the prospects that she may marry into a powerful family and make a strong alliance. Tatiana, as we recall, did not have proper training, which means her father was also a misogynist who believed the only good his daughter could do to him was linking his family to another with equal (if not strong) power. Benedict has always regarded his sons on a different scale than Tatiana.

Her brothers were the ones who ultimately raised Tatiana and Gabriel especially, was very paternal and protective with her. The trauma of losing her mother made Tatiana seek validation from her father Benedict, and her marriage to Rupert Blackthorn was one of the several things she did in order to achieve that. She wanted her father to tell her: “you did well, I’m proud of you. You made the Lightwood name great,” but she never could, because Benedict had already turned into something else. That complicated Tatiana’s daddy issues even more, but to her, it also damaged the respectable Lightwood name in the shadow world. Her father made her believe that appearances were more important than truths, but when we see the way she’s lived until now, I guess she doesn’t care about appearances anymore. She cares more about keeping the appearances look the same way they did when Benedict and Rupert died. She’s been wearing the same blood stained dress for over twenty years. Chiswick is also rotting because no one is looking after it. 

Tatiana is still stuck in 1878, and so is her parenting style.

See you soon with the analysis on the parenting style of the Carstairs Family.

[erinptah]

The Secret Commonwealth review: It was...pretty underwhelming, mostly

Finally got the audiobook of The Secret Commonwealth checked out from my local library!

(Here’s my review of its predecessor, La Belle Sauvage, if you want to start there.)

It’s 20 hours long. Whoof.

As for the contents…look, it was well-written prose. I didn’t get bored while listening. (Rereading that last review, I realized I’d written the same thing about the previous book, too.) But in retrospect, there sure was not a lot that happened in those 20 hours. Some notable action bits, in between a lot of padding.

And my reactions mostly consist of…complaints. Not “this is hideous, time to ragequit the series, this is an unqualified anti-rec” complaints, more a low-level churn of frustration.

(There’s one scene I know has made someone else outright refuse to read it, though, and I think it’s totally reasonable. More on that later.)

So I’m gonna try to unpack a bunch of it here. Hopefully in enough detail that, if you haven’t read it yet (and don’t mind spoilers), it can help you make an informed decision about whether it’s worth spending 20 hours of your life on.

Spoilers start here!

The Story

We open with Lyra as a 20-year-old student at St. Sophia’s, a women’s college in Oxford. She’s made some kinda-friends, including former booty calls that she’s still on good terms with, but she’s badly estranged from Pantalaimon.

Their rift is exacerbated by a couple of books she’s read that are popular with young intellectuals lately. One is a philosophy book, one is a novel, both of them seem broadly Ayn Randian in the sense that “teens/college kids get really into these books and decide it’s smart and fashionable to adopt their moral framework, ignoring both the logical failures and the ways in which this turns you into a horrible person.”

She’s been staying at Jordan between semesters, but political drama forces her to move, and that’s when Oakley Street swoops in to make contact. They’re the secret Magisterum-thwarting spy organization that Hannah Relf worked for in La Belle Sauvage. Employees now include Alice Lonsdale and Malcolm Polstead, who fill Lyra in on the events of the previous book.

Lyra crashes at Malcolm’s parents’ inn for a bit, but her fighting with Pan gets so bad that he takes off, leaving a note. He’s going to confront one of the authors of the fashionable/terrible books — who lives in Germany, so this could take a while.

Since Lyra can’t just hang around and go through the motions of a normal life while her daemon is visibly missing, she takes off too. First on a detour to the Gyptians, then on a sorta meandering cross-continental journey of her own.

Along the way, both Lyra and Pan keep uncovering new details about this ongoing side plot:

It turns out there’s a place, I think somewhere in the Middle East, where daemons can’t go — same as the area in the North that witches use for separation ordeals. If a human crosses that area, they arrive at the growing-place of a type of rose that won’t grow properly anywhere else, whose oil has the same effect as the seed-pod sap used by Mary Malone in the mulefa world — you can use it to make a Dust-viewing lens.

This rose oil can also be used to make all kinds of super-cool products, like the World’s Best Perfume and the World’s Best Rosewater, so it’s valuable for lots of reasons. But a few researchers have caught on to the Dust-viewing power, and the Magisterium has caught on that some dangerous research is happening with roses, so they’ve started destroying every rosebush they can find in the general region — wreaking havoc with the global economy in the process.

(They’re also trying to convince the general population that God Says Roses Are Immoral now. If this book had come out 5 years ago, I could’ve made some great connections with “there’s widespread successful Magisterium propaganda about how nobody should like or respect the work of botanists.”)

And there’s a related plot where Lyra’s uncle (she actually has one! Mrs. Coulter had a brother!) is playing a long game to re-consolidate as much Magisterium power as possible under a single individual. It gets us some good dramatic sequences…which I feel no need to break down here, because they’re exactly the ones you would imagine, with exactly the outcome you’re already expecting.

One of Uncle Wannabe-Pope’s employees is Bonneville Junior, the son of the miniboss from La Belle Sauvage. He’s a trained alethiometrist, but is more interested in his personal vendetta against Lyra than his actual job. Takes after Dad in that he’s not very deep or complex, just a straightforward fun-to-hate villain.

Pan eventually makes his way to the Terrible Author’s home, where he discovers that things are weird and creepy, but not very specific. Doesn’t achieve anything in particular, either. Disheartened, he sets off for the Region of the Weird Roses, with the idea he’ll meet Lyra there.

Lyra, meanwhile, has a notebook they recovered from an explorer who went to the Region of the Weird Roses. It includes a list of other (non-witch) people across the world who’ve been separated, because apparently they’re more common than you’d think, and have a secret support network. So she visits a few of these people along her trip, with an endgame goal of Weird Roseville.

Malcolm also makes his own journey toward Weird Roseville. I think it was part of an Oakley Street investigation into “what does the Magisterium have against roses these days?” In the middle of it, Bonneville Junior confronts him (Junior is having trouble finding Lyra, but has a secondary vendetta against Malcolm for killing his dad, so this is almost as good). Malcolm talks him down.

At last Lyra, Pan, and Junior all hit the same “creepy deserted town in the general area of Weird Roseville.” But none of them manage to interact before the book ends.

…In my LBS review, I said it had serious middle-of-the-trilogy syndrome, a whole lot of setup for no payoff. TSC spends very little time following up on any of it. To be fair, the Original Trilogy has happened in the meantime and this book also tries to address some of the events from that, but the vast bulk of it is even more setup for no payoff.

Complaints, Broadly Organized By Theme, In Loosely Chronological Order

Lyra at St. Sophia’s:

I really like how the opening sequence involves Lyra noticing a friend is in distress and helping her out! (Friend’s dad is in the rose-using business, and his company is going under.) And then…that’s the last we see of any connections with female friends her own age. In the entire book.

One of the Terrible Rationalist Books is spreading the idea that “daemons are a collective hallucination.” This is not a “rational” idea in this world! It would be like saying that faces are a collective hallucination!

And Lyra is the least likely person in this world to buy into it, because she’s visited a world without visible daemons, and got empirical proof (via Will’s and John Parry’s separation ordeals) that even under those conditions, they still exist!

I can appreciate the idea of Lyra and Pan being traumatized and scarred and having trouble, but this, specifically, is a nonsensical thing for them to argue over.

The book also gestures (not very hard, thankfully) toward the idea that Lyra is doubting the existence of magic in general. Which, again, is the equivalent of someone from our world deciding it’s rational to doubt the existence of weather.

Also, it seems like Lyra/Pan haven’t had any contact with witch society through these years. Why not? If anyone’s going to have sympathy and understanding and support groups for their separation-related trauma, it’s the culture where every single member formally goes through the same thing! And I’m sure Serafina would be delighted to see them! But they don’t even consider the idea.

Lyra and Malcolm:

Yes, they’re being telegraphed as a future couple, and yes, it’s just as creepy and unappealing as the internet has been saying.

And, look, I’m not going to say “20-year-old Lyra is too young to date anyone she wants.” Not after we got through all of Original Flavor HDM without saying “12-year-old Lyra is too young to go on an interdimensional journey with no adult supervision and save the multiverse.”

But he was one of her teachers when she was 16, and his POV includes remembering how he had to actively shut down sexual interest in her then, and here in the present Lyra still thinks of him as kind of a distant authority figure, and that’s weird, okay?

They only have a couple days’ worth of actual interaction before being apart for the rest of the book. That’s not enough time to believably develop their dynamic into something believably-potentially-romantic. So the narrative doesn’t try.

…but it still has multiple people ask Malcolm if he’s in love with Lyra afterward.

The foreshadowing on Lyra’s side is all in how she keeps thinking about how similar he is to Will. (Cat daemon, killed someone when he was a tween, etc.) Because that’s what we all want for Lyra’s romantic future, a knockoff Will-substitute, amirite?

Separately: Malcolm and friends tell Lyra the whole backstory about the magical boat trip from La Belle Sauvage, but it doesn’t seem like she tells them anything about “that time I went on an interdimensional journey, built a group of allies from multiple worlds and species including literal angels, killed God, and permanently rewrote the nature of death.” I feel like that should’ve come up!

General daemon stuff:

There’s a moment in the early chapters when Pan, wandering alone at night, considers eating some small critter (the kind that an ordinary pine marten would eat). It’s not like he’s going through a species-identity crisis, either. It’s just written as…a thing a daemon might do. So that’s weird.

In the original series, daemon separation is a major, improbable ordeal. Under normal circumstances, a human and a daemon being dragged apart past their distance limit will just kill them. At Bolvangar they figured out a severance method that would leave you physically functional, but dead inside. Witch-style separation only happens at this special daemon-repelling place in the North (you don’t have to be a witch to use it, see John Parry, but they usually don’t tell non-witches it exists), or on the shores of the World of the Dead. So far, so good.

In this series, we find out that there’s another place on this Earth with the same daemon-repelling properties. It’s also remote and isolated and associated with Cool Weird Stuff (the cities in the Northern Lights vs. the Dust-revealing roses). Again, so far, so good.

…And then we find out that random people can just kinda do a separation ordeal anywhere. Okay, it already happened to Malcolm in La Belle Sauvage, but now it’s all over the place. Lyra keeps spotting people on the street without daemons! Pan teams up with a kid who got dragged apart from her daemon in a shipwreck, and it didn’t kill them! It’s too easy. It’s unsatisfying. It undercuts so much of the monumental feeling separation had in the original trilogy.

It also makes it even weirder that nobody was able to hook Lyra and Pan up with a support group. Oakley Street couldn’t suss it out? Her friends among the Gyptians couldn’t catch an underground rumor and pass it on?

Related: when we saw daemonless kids in The Golden Compass, they were treated like horror-movie monsters. Like zombies, ghosts, bodies walking around without heads. But when people clock Lyra as being daemonless here, they treat it like it’s something immoral. Like she’s walking around topless and needs to cover it up.

There’s just a general pattern of rewriting HDM’s established rules about daemons, and not for the better.

And speaking of rewriting established rules…general alethiometer stuff:

There is a New Method for reading the alethiometer. It involves pointing all three hands at the same symbol, which already seems like a gimmick, not a useful way to frame a question.

And somehow, that gets you the answers in the form of…magic visions. No intuition or interpretation needed! The sights and sounds just get funneled directly into your brain!

The reason this isn’t a Plot-Breaking Hack is because it makes the user super-queasy. You can only use it when you’re in a position to be sick afterward, and people would rather not use it at all.

Lyra spends most of the story with the alethiometer, and without all the symbology books that go with it. She avoids using the New Method because of the nausea, but she also avoids using the Classic Method, on the grounds that it apparently can’t get her anything without the books.

She’s been studying these books for years now! Couldn’t she at least try to read it, and make her best guess at the interpretation? Maybe sometimes she gets it right, maybe sometimes she’s wrong and things go sideways and she realizes in hindsight which of the symbols she misread, maybe sometimes she gives up and gets depressed and puts it away without drawing a conclusion at all…but nope, she just flat-out doesn’t interact with it.

Midway through the book, Lyra gets a tipoff about a kind of truth-reading cards. That’s fine; we know there are other methods of truth-reading in the multiverse, including the I Ching and Mary Malone’s computer. Makes sense as a new tidbit of worldbuilding.

But towards the end of the story, someone helpfully gifts Lyra a deck of the cards. And she spends some time trying to infer answers from how the pretty pictures on the cards fit together. More time than she spends trying to infer answers from how the pretty pictures on the alethiometer fit together.

The alethiometer didn’t need a New Method or a total replacement in the narrative…but apparently it’s getting them.

And what was the point of Lyra dedicating herself to studying those symbols, for years, if she can get better and more-accurate data from a set of symbols she’d never seen before until this week?

Pan’s international voyage:

This all started when Pan got the idea that Terrible Author had “put a spell on Lyra and stolen her imagination.” Which sounds like a figure of speech at first, but no, apparently Pan thinks this guy is literally magic.

And yet, somehow, not magic enough to be dangerous, even for a single lone daemon whose only plan is “confront him directly and demand that he fix it”?

Most of the trip is uneventful, since it’s a long string of Pan successfully keeping out-of-sight.

There’s one clever part where, once he’s in Terrible Author’s hometown, he finds a school for the blind to ask for information. That way he can say “my girl is totally standing right over there, don’t worry about it, now, any chance you know where Terrible Author lives?”

…of course, the first person he asks has exactly the right answer and is happy to share. Convenient, that.

As mentioned, Terrible Author’s setup is suitably creepy and off-putting, but Pan doesn’t figure out anything about why. Doesn’t investigate. Didn’t come up with any kind of plan beforehand about how to coax Terrible Author into undoing his evil spell. Pan just confronts him, demands he fix Lyra, realizes this hasn’t fixed Lyra, and leaves.

There’s a bombshell much later on when Lyra finds out that Terrible Author is separated! And, although there’s a daemon who hangs around with him, they don’t actually belong to each other! This is fascinating and disturbing and would’ve been so much more satisfying if, you know, Pan had figured this out and was actively trying to bring the information to Lyra. Or, heck, if anything had been done with it at all.

Shortly afterward, Pan runs into this girl who just happens to be separated from her daemon, and is available and happy to team up with Pan, so they can head off to Weird Roseville together. Convenient. Again.

Lyra’s Bogus Journey:

Lyra has a much harder time staying out of sight than Pan, so she gets a lot more interaction along her trip.

Most of it is a long string of the same convenient “running into people who are helpful and friendly and have exactly the information she needs to move the plot along.” (More details on that below.)

When this happened in the original trilogy, it was the alethiometer deus-ex-machining her in the right direction, which worked! But here it seems to keep happening by accident. (She brings the alethiometer, but, as mentioned, she doesn’t use it.)

The Conveniently Helpful People also keep telling her (with minimal prompting, and what seems like total honesty?) whole backstories. All of which are more interesting than the actual narrative she’s going through.

They also occasionally mention God/the Authority, and Lyra doesn’t have much of a reaction. I wish, just once, she had snapped “it doesn’t matter what the Authority thinks! Or rather, what he used to think, since my boyfriend and I killed him when we were 12!”

The convenience also could’ve worked if Oakley Street agents were being cool and clever and actively tracking her journey in order to help. She does run into a few of them, but that seems to be by accident too.

And it could’ve worked if there was other magic steering her along — she keeps dropping the phrase “the secret commonwealth,” meaning the world’s hidden population of faeries and other supernatural creatures — but as of the end of the book, none of Lyra’s friendly helpers have been revealed to be anything other than human. (Some are modified in exotic ways, but they were human to start with, at least.)

Even farther towards the end of the book, after this long string of people being Conveniently Helpful For No Reason, she ends up in a train car with…and I wish I was making this up…a bunch of soldiers who are Inconveniently Attempted Rapists For No Reason.

That record-scratch moment your brain just did? That’s how it feels in the book, too. The attack comes out of nowhere, there’s suddenly a big action sequence with Lyra fighting back, their CO shows up and makes them let her go, and then she leaves the train and heads almost directly to the next bunch of Conveniently Helpful People.

If anyone wants more detailed spoilers, either to be prepared before reaching the scene or to decide whether you’ll read it at all, let me know.

To be blunt about one thing: from the in-scene descriptions I would’ve said none of these guys actually managed to get their dicks out, but a few days later we get the book’s first and only reference to Lyra having periods. And she doesn’t think “oh, thank republic-of-heavens, I’m not pregnant,” which suggests she knew it wasn’t a risk, but the whole Narrative Reason you write that in after an assault scene is because someone is afraid it’s a risk, so, what are you even doing, Pullman??

Okay, switching tracks.

Some of the people Lyra encounters, usually with personal stories that are way more interesting, and I wish they’d been [part of] the actual main plot:

A guy who meets her at a train station, says he has a friend who needs her help, leads her out into a maze of city streets where she explicitly thinks about how risky this is because she’s totally lost…but she does the mission and it’s fine and he leads her right back to the train station afterward.

The friend is a human who’s been modified by “a magician” to be some kind of fire-elemental person, and wants Lyra to help find his daemon, who was modified into a water-elemental form — a mermaid! This is cool and fascinating and scary and raises so many questions —

— and they get killed immediately after Lyra reunites them, and we never find out anything more about it.

The killer is the magician, who had been holding the water-sprite daemon captive. (And is possibly also the guy’s father? Finally, someone who can beat Marisa and Asriel in a “Bad Parenting Juice” drinking contest.) Which, again, is fascinating and evocative — how do you become a magician? Or are they born, like the witches? How many are there? What kinds of things are they doing in the world? —

— yeah, we don’t find out anything about that either.

Murderous Magician Dad just gives Lyra some helpful plot information, then sends her and the train-station guy off on their way.

A couple of guys who intervene when Lyra is being harassed at a bar.

They steer her outside, she’s prepared for a fight, but they hold up their hands and say they’re friendly, and also, they noticed someone steal the alethiometer bag off her earlier, so here, would she like it back?

They give her some helpful rumors, too. Don’t remember which specific ones, but they lead her to the next plot point.

A rich elderly princess who’s on the Daemonless International Support Group list, because her daemon fell in love (!) with another woman (!!) and eventually ran off with her (!!!).

Lyra thinks to herself that she’s seen other situations where a daemon and their human have different feelings about a romance. Just thinks it in passing, and then it’s gone. I want to see these situations! I want on-page exploration of multiple ways they can work! How do they correspond to the feelings of people in worlds where all the daemons are internal?

As for the princess, I already knew it was going to be a big scandal — two human women in that day and age could never be a couple, at least not in public, and A Literal Princess is a very public figure —

but then, in spite of the scandal, the princess moves in with the woman! And they travel together, they work together, they share a bed, she explains to Lyra that she played the role so thoroughly she made herself fall in love with the woman!

…and then it falls apart for some reason, and the princess leaves, but her daemon insists on staying. So that’s how they get separated. Deliberately walking away from each other.

There’s a brief reference to the idea of him wishing he was the other woman’s daemon, instead of the princess’s. How does that work? How do you get so disconnected from yourself, and in such a skewed partial-match with someone else, that you end up with that kind of yearning?

In case you can’t tell, I want to read this novel. I would trade the entirety of The Secret Commonwealth for this novel. No question, hands down.

Instead: Princess says “if you run into my daemon, tell him I’d like to see him again before we die?” Lyra says “sure, can do, thanks for the brunch.” And then, you guessed it, that whole scene is over and done with and we never get any follow-up on it again.

A pair of agents from Oakley Street, who say “hey, Lyra, have you considered using some basic disguise techniques, like dyeing your hair and wearing glasses?”

And then they give her a lovely haircut and a dye job and a spare pair of fake glasses.

This isn’t anywhere near the beginning of Lyra’s journey, by the way! This is more than 80% of the way through the book. There’s no special reason she needs it more after this point.

It’s like Pullman suddenly realized a disguise might help, wrote the scene at the point he had reached, and then never went back and edited to put it in a more meaningful location.

The stranger on a train who shows Lyra the deck of “exactly the same as an alethiometer” cards, gives her a demonstration of how to use them, and then leaves the whole deck behind for her to keep.

A married couple who don’t share any languages in common with Lyra, and don’t seem to have a lot of money…but feed her and let her stay at their house overnight, for free, even daemonless as she is. They also give her a free niqab so she can move around less conspicuously (she’s still injured from the fight with the soldiers).

A priest who invites her into his church, isn’t bothered when she takes off the niqab, helps treat her injuries, and gives her a motherlode of useful details about highly-illegal dealings he’s not even supposed to know about, but will unveil to this total stranger who just wandered in, because she needs them for the next plot point.

This when Lyra finds out that someone in this region has resurrected the Bolvangar method. But this time they aren’t kidnapping random children for it. No, they’re paying for it. If you’re poor enough, and desperate enough, and can’t spare any more kidneys, these people will buy your daemon to sell on the black market.

The city has a whole secret underclass of illegally-severed people working in the sewers.

Meanwhile, rich people who’ve been deserted by their daemons can purchase a stand-in. This is what Terrible Author did. Of course, it’s not a true replacement, but the dealers boast about their ability to make an excellent match.

There are also people who buy separated daemons for other scientific/experimental purposes. Details left to our imaginations.

This is a horrifying sinister mindblowing discovery, as much of a bombshell as the original Bolvangar was. I mean, it would’ve hit harder if Lyra had uncovered it by spying, or tricking someone into revealing the information, or anything more elaborate than “asking straightforward sorta-related questions and getting this whole sordid story infodumped by the first guy she asked,” but it’s still big.

So it’s gonna shake things up something fierce, right? Maybe Lyra won’t go full-on “calling in the cavalry to tear the place down” until Book 3, but this would be her new “stepping through the doorway into the sky” moment — where the horror of what she’s learned galvanizes her into making a pivotal decision, where she starts laying the groundwork for the revolution —

— no, of course not, this is where she starts going around to the hideouts of various undercover daemon-sellers and asking if they can help her find Pan.

Come on.

And this brings us to the end of the book. One of the black-market daemon-sellers guides Lyra to the creepy abandoned town where the final scene takes place.

In these last moments, the audience (but not Lyra) finds out that this guy has ulterior motives. Which would make it the first time in the whole book when “Lyra or Pan takes a Conveniently Helpful Person at face value with total credulity” turns out to be a bad idea.

(And, I mean, he’s a black-market daemon-seller. If anyone on that list was obviously an unethical scumball who shouldn’t be counted on….!)

Finally, a few things that don’t fit into any neat lists, but annoyed me enough to mention:

1) People curse in this book. Which is notable because they didn’t in HDM, and it wasn’t just the adults watching their mouths around tween Lyra — we got plenty of scenes that only had people like Mrs. Coulter and Lord Asriel in them. Those two would definitely be dropping f-bombs if it was a routine part of their world’s language, and this book reveals that it is.

So every time it happens it breaks your immersion, pointedly reminding you “this isn’t a real world, it’s a fake story where the author can switch the profanity-filter on and off at will.” Does it enhance the narrative in a way that’s worth the tradeoff? I don’t think so.

2) Before I read the book, I’d heard vague spoilers about “a character with a mermaid daemon,” and figured it was someone from a cool magical species — hopefully more expansion/exploration on the fairy from La Belle Sauvage whose daemon appeared to be “a whole flock of butterflies.”

But no, it’s a magically-modified human. His situation doesn’t get explored that deeply before he dies, or connect with anything else in the story. The fairy, meanwhile, does get mentioned when Malcolm tells Lyra about meeting her, but she doesn’t reappear or get any kind of follow-up.

In spite of the title, the only explicit appearance of any members of the “secret commonwealth” is some little glowing spirits, basically wights, that Lyra watches over the side of a gyptian boat one time.

3) There’s a scene where a bunch of people gather in a meeting hall to protest the Magisterium sabotaging their various rose-related livelihoods. A couple Magisterium reps are there. Malcolm is also there, and his POV basically goes “huh, looks like all the exits have gotten the doors shut. And barred. And suddenly they each have an armed Magisterium agent standing in front of them. That’s weird. Gonna keep quietly observing to find out what happens next.”

This guy is supposed to be a cool experienced anti-Magisterium spy! This is basically a giant neon sign flashing COMING UP NEXT: MASSACRE! (It is not a misdirect, either.)

And Malcolm sees it, but doesn’t read it, or take any action to try to subvert it, or even move to defend himself — it’s just like any cheesy horror movie where the audience is shouting LOOK BEHIND YOU at the unwitting character who’s about to get murdered.

Wrap-Up Thoughts

Whatever happens in the final volume of this trilogy, it might reveal things that redeem some of the problems in this book. But I’ll be honest, I’m not holding my breath.

And when I think about reveals that would address these problems, everything I come up with is stuff that should’ve just been in this book.

For example: let’s say the Fair Folk are directly involved after all, intervening to steer Lyra and Pan down the most convenient paths. In particular, the guy on the train who only appears long enough to give Lyra a set of alethiometry cards + a tutorial on how to use them — I really want him to be Fae. It’s so contrived and random if he’s not.

But the readers should know about it! Back in HDM, we would get scenes about the plans and activities of all the other factions at work. It might take a while to discover the exact details of (for example) the witches’ ultimate goal that Lyra was part of, but we knew they had a goal, and were supporting her in service of it. If the Secret Commonwealth is actively involved in the plot, we should’ve gotten that by now.

Semi-related: I feel like, if the rest of the book was better, then I’d have no trouble explaining a lot of the Lyra-specific issues as “she’s super-depressed, not in a place to make great choices or take a lot of decisive action.”

But it’s not like she’s drifting around in a trauma fog that hampers her ability to get things done. Her journey, while not perfect or threat-free, still comes together with improbable smoothness — as if the writing hasn’t noticed that she’s not being proactive and prescient and well-coordinated and overall super-competent about it. Meanwhile, other characters are underwhelming in the same way. (Looking at you, Malcolm “I Can’t Believe It’s Now a Bloodbath” Polstead.)

So it doesn’t seem like a conscious narrative choice to write Lyra this way. It just seems consistent with the complaints I have about everything else in the writing.

…let’s be honest, I’m almost certainly gonna read the third book anyway. I’m enough of a completist that it’ll bother me not to, I don’t have a lot of hard-stop dealbreakers that would make me bow out anyway, and, well, I do a lot of work that requires time-passing listening material. The Secret Commonwealth is nowhere near the most-frustrating audio I’ve used to fill that time.

But it hasn’t left me excited or optimistic or Shivering With Anticipation, either.

Mostly I just anticipate getting some useful stuff done while I listen, and then having a final set of reactions to work through in another one of these posts.

[writing-in-verse]

Remembrance of A Dead Boy

So I’ve had this rattling around in my head for a little bit thanks to @ti-bae-rius chatting incessantly about TSC (Love ya boo). I was always a little curious about how Simon dealt with his memories after the Ascension, and while we never really got an answer I decided to write my take on it. So, here it is, I hope you like it.

Remembrance of A Dead Boy

 The mouth of a cave, a blue-eyed boy stumbling back into the darkness within, an endless desert stretching to the horizon. Staring up at the sun, momentary blindness followed by an even brighter light given immense form, wings framing the human shape. Light turns to darkness, eyes adjust to a room, a group of weary fighters poised opposite a towering figure with coal-black eyes and a wicked grin. The image begins to fade, the room breaking down, until only the boy with the blue eyes remains, supporting a slim man, cat eyes filled with sorrow, grief, and something else entirely.

 Simon shuddered awake, sweat sticking his hair to his head, and stared around the room, anchoring himself to reality. At least, his current reality, which felt equally as real as the other one. He looked over to his right, at Isabelle Lightwood, sleeping soundly beside him in a Star Wars shirt and not much else, and Simon wondered for a long moment what it was like to see him and his life in one continuous stream. He sometimes joked, a way to make the reality of the ordeal more manageable, that he was The Boy Who Lived Three Times, but Simon would have guessed even Harry Potter didn’t have to deal with two separate sets of memories battling away in his head.

He got up, slipped into some comfy pants, and left Isabelle’s room and headed to the kitchen. The rest of the residents of the New York Institute were either fast asleep, not around, or out on some mission or other, not that there were many of them. Alec Lightwood, Shadowhunter Downworlder relations founder and Isabelle’s brother, was at the loft of the High Warlock of Brooklyn, both because it was a good place for conducting his work and he was Magnus Bane’s better half. Or what it the other way around? Simon could never tell; they were what would be described as a Power Couple, as much as Alec found the term baffling, and they brought the Shadow World one step closer to being truly civilised in more ways than one.

Then there was Clary and Jace, the Wunderkind of the Shadowhunters and two of Simon’s closest friends. Clary was his childhood friend; they’d grown up together both in and out of the Shadow World, although Simon could also remember a childhood without her ever being a part of it. Jace was her boyfriend and, over the years, someone Simon respected and trusted as much as Clary. These two were inseparable, both because they were politically a powerhouse and, well, in combat they were even more deadly. They were off on yet another assignment and were expected to be gone for the next few days, not because that’s how long the assignment would take for them, but because they would use all the time the Clave gave them to its fullest.

Simon mused on all the Institutes inhabitants as he reached the kitchen, took some water from the fridge, and stared out of the window at the City’s skyline. He sometimes forgot just how large this building was until he looked out the window and realised it easily dwarfed more of the buildings in the area, only being challenged by the high-rise buildings that New York was known for. He stared out, watching the city’s inhabitants living their lives, most of them blissfully unaware of the world just beyond their periphery, until he noticed the dark brown eyes staring back him. These eyes had been worn by many people, all sharing the same face, laying witness to all their lives, being the only constant between them. The reflection flashed between nerdy band player, heroic Daylighter, and semi-refined Shadowhunter. Even through his training, his Ascension, and the weeks that followed Simon had never grown out too much; he became stronger, certainly, but he still resembled the wiry boy digging himself out of his own grave, his fangs piercing his bottom lip, as the first day of his immortality stirred into un-life.

Looking still at his reflection, Simon looked at the man he was now; the scars he’d already received from training, the Marks that labelled him a Shadowhunter curving around his form. He felt a calm and reassuring hand on his back as Isabelle came into view beside his reflection, completing the image of his current life. He loved using her full name; most people called her Izzy, but Simon would call her Isabelle Lightwood and she would counter with Simon Lovelace, his Shadowhunter name, the name he’d chosen to remember his friend who had failed the Ascension process. All a part of this new life that was all his, filled with those he loved.

“You want to talk about it?” Isabelle asked, her voice soft and full of concern. She loved Simon, had seen him grow and change into the man she now had the pleasure of sharing her life with, and was the only one of two people who was allowed inside his head.

Simon stared for another moment at the window, “I keep seeing my life as a vampire. I keep dreaming about it in parts, as it wrestles with the other memories, the ones where I was a mundane all those years.” He sighed, turning away from the window and taking a few steps. “It’s just” he began, turning. “It’s just I know all that time I remember being a mundane, growing up without Clary and starting a band called The Mortal Instruments, I know those aren’t real. Yet they feel real, and they keep fighting with the other memories, the memories of a life with Clary, the life of a vampire, of you.

“They keep coming in parts, trying to stitch themselves together form a complete timeline, but they can’t.” He looked at Isabelle with fear in his eyes, struggling to keep himself together. “It’s been two weeks, and it’s better than it was the first few nights but every few days my head starts to struggle against itself and it’s exhausting. I wonder if this is the lasting impact of Asmodeus that I’ll never get away from.”

Isabelle looked at Simon with those dark brown eyes, often mistaken for black, with all the love and affection of the world and, wrapping her arms around him, kissed him lightly. “I can’t begin to understand what you’re contending with in that mind of yours, and I don’t think anyone really can. However, you’re safe here, Asmodeus cannot hurt you.” She gave him a quick grin. “I won’t let him.”

She kissed him again, a long gesture filled with the sentiment words cannot possess and the promise of safety Simon was familiarly aware of. “I know this is hard, but I’ve seen you face angels, stare down Asmodeus, and take on Lilith. If anyone can get through this, it’s you, and this time I’ll be here through every sleepless night and haunted dream. I love you Simon Lovelace.”

Simon smiled, and took in every ounce of her from her piercing eyes to her midnight black hair that reached the hem of the Star Wars shirt she was wearing as if she could take on a Greater Demon in that alone. He brought her in close, returned the kiss that held so much meaning with as much meaning of his own, pulling back just slightly to take in her beautiful face.

“I love you too, Isabelle Lightwood.”

[ti-bae-rius]

My friend - who hasn’t read TSC - reviews characters:

Preface this with the fact he’s one of my very best friends. He loves the diversity in the books and wants to make that known. Okay...on with the descriptions:

Clary (aka Clair-why) confused bimbo who needs to sort out her name and call herself Claire and stop boning her could-be brother and do something useful

Alec (aka chiselled rainbow) the hot gay one who is boning Mr Magic

Magnus (Mr Magic) super powerful because his dad is literally Satan. Queer as shit and fucking Chiselled Rainbow. He has two little shits as pets (aka his children) who are under constant threat of getting kidnapped

Isabelle (aka Isabella/aka legs) only there for readable boobs and has a cool snake bracelet (Chiselled Rainbow’s sister)

Jace (aka Jason aka Mr Incest) man’s too busy banging his sister when he should be banging Chiselled Rainbow because that would’ve been more interesting.

Max (aka Cream Cake) draws hunger runes and fire runes - he must love food as much as he loves arson

Simon - (weirdly attractive nerdy best friend who doesn’t sparkle) - that’s it, that’s all his character. Oh and he wants to bang Claire-why because he has no self esteem. He even gets a daylighter ring and still doesn’t sparkle (I think he got missed up with Vampire Diaries here)

Raphael (aka Romeo aka idk smth Italian) All sucking, no sex. Granddaddy is Satan, Daddy is magic man. Loves God so much he scarred a cross on his chest. Asexual/Aro god.

Camille (aka Asian vampire who I think used to bang magic man) That’s it.

Luke (aka Good Boy) why wasn’t he black in the book? Wanted to bang Claire-why’s mum. He gets his period and turns into a monster.

Max and Rafael (aka Smth Italian Jr and Cream Cake jr) constant fear of being kidnapped

Now with bonus TDA characters:

Ty (aka Ty-day Friday) autistic gay. He has lots of siblings. His twin died. That’s a thing.*

(*if you don’t know, Tidy Friday is a private school British phrase we use for when someone grabs your tie and yanks on it so it tightens into a tight knot and you can’t undo it. We generally do it on a Friday at the end of the day in last period.)

Diana (aka the ultimate) great facial tattoos #respect (he likes Diana)

Emma (aka Friendzone’s mascot) the main character in the chronicles of Ty-day Friday. She really wants to fuck her best friend and it’s making the world explode. Probs got crabs from having sex on the beach.

Dru (aka actual cinnamon roll) Can kick ass and have curves

Mark (half fey half gay) In a three way relationship with a shadow hunter and a faerie. I think he was in the wild hunt which sounds like a gay bar.

[whatwewrotepodcast]

Character Profile - Ithuriel

Basic Statistics  

Name: Ithuriel Age: 6 months or eternity, depends how you look at it Nationality: Currently American, formally Divine Socioeconomic Level as a child: N/A Socioeconomic Level as an adult: Low Hometown: Heaven Current Residence: Brooklyn, New York Occupation: Enforcer for Raif Income: N/A Talents/Skills: Proficient with a range of hand guns, good aim, also competent in hand-to-hand fighting, and the use of a spear in both ranged and hand-to-hand combat.   Salary: N/A Birth order: 3rd of 7 Siblings (describe relationship): Technically the other 6 Arc Angels are his brothers and sisters. Previously a good relationship with most of them, though he was closest to Gabriel, Amitiel and Raphael, however his relationship with Gabriel suffered after his fall.   Spouse (describe relationship): N/A Children (describe relationship): N/A Grandparents (describe relationship): N/A Grandchildren (describe relationship): N/A Significant Others (describe relationship): N/A at commencement of TSC Relationship skills: Ithuriel’s relationship skills are not the best. He has a tendency to be prickly and overreactive, and often blows things out of proportion. He can be shy and reserved and hard to get to know. He makes up for these deficits by being a genuinely kind, warm person who never intends to hurt anyone, and generally feels guilty when his actions adversely affect those he cares about.  

More beneath the cut

Physical Characteristics:  Height: 6’2” Weight: 110kg Race: Caucasian   Eye Colour: Golden Hair Colour: Dirty/Dark blonde Glasses or contact lenses? No Skin colour: Fair, but with a bit of a golden hint, tans easily Shape of Face: Sharp, strong jawline, high cheekbones, long, straight nose. Overall impression of hard, clean lines, very little softness.   Distinguishing features: Two large, nasty scars down his back, from shoulders to hips. A pair of stylised Angel wings tattooed on the inside of his left wrist and a tattoo of an ornate spearhead on the inside of his right forearm.   How does he/she dress? Jeans, usually fairly loose cut, blue. Black or grey long-sleeved shirts or t-shirts. Black trench coat, military style boots, a scarf if it’s cold. Always muted tones though, never wears colour, always black/white/grey.   Mannerisms: Often runs his fingers through his hair when he’s troubled. Pinches the bridge of his nose when he’s thinking hard or when things are driving him to frustration.   Habits: (smoking, drinking etc.) Has a fondness for chocolate, but nothing that really counts as a habit per se.   Health: About as good as can be. More than human. Doesn’t suffer from most human illnesses or diseases, has improved healing from injury and is able to survive with less food, water and rest than the average human.   Hobbies: Currently doesn’t really have hobbies, though he does like to people watch. Favourite Sayings: N/A Speech patterns: Tends towards overly formal language, doesn’t use a lot of contractions, does have a New York accent but it’s towards the more upper class end of the scale, and sometimes veers into a very generic, hard to locate sort of American accent.   Disabilities: N/A   Style (Elegant, shabby etc.): Professionally broody chic. Tends towards the shabby side though.   Greatest flaw: His short temper. He had a propensity to explode over minor issues, has a very short fuse, and often says things in fits of anger that he later regrets.   Best quality: A genuine kindness and love for humanity.   Intellectual/Mental/Personality Attributes and Attitudes  Educational Background: None Intelligence Level: Technically very high – he’s an Angel and so has divine intelligence, but his lack of experience in the world means most of the time that intelligence is of very little use to him as it hasn’t got anything to back it up.   Any Mental Illnesses? Technically no, though it could be argued he has a bit of PTSD about his Fall.   Learning Experiences: Everything is a learning experience for Ith. He’s been living on earth for just over 6 months and so everything, from learning how to safely cross the road to making toast are learning experiences of him.   Character's short-term goals in life: Work off his debt to Raif and be able to live his life free of debt and restrictions.   Character's long-term goals in life: Get back to Heaven.   How does Character see himself/herself? Ithuriel has a pretty complicated relationship with himself. On the one hand, he’s quite proud. He was an arc, and as such had quite a high opinion of himself. He was very powerful, there were few who could tell him what to do or how to do it. He was convinced of his own righteousness. However, since his Fall, his sense of worth took a bit of a hit. He still sees himself as ‘better’ than most humans, more moral, more ethical, but he also fell, and that took some of the wind out of his sails. He is now conflicted about who he is and what his existence means, and where he stands in the world.   How does Character believe he/she is perceived by others? Ithuriel doesn’t think much of how other people see him, especially at the start of the story. He doesn’t think much about other people’s internal worlds. However, as he develops, he does start to worry that people think of him as a bit stuffy, a bit uncool, and a bit overly righteous.   How self-confident is the character? Initially very, but he lost a lot of faith in himself and his ability to make the right decisions when he Fell.   Does the character seem ruled by emotion or logic or some combination thereof? Definitely ruled by emotion – probably one of his greatest flaws is letting his feelings get in the way of making the sensible, logical decision.   What would most embarrass this character? Any reference towards sexuality or sexual activity, especially towards the start of the story.   Emotional Characteristics Introvert or Extrovert? Introvert How does the character deal with anger? Very, very badly. Mostly by letting it explode all over the place. He has a short fuse.   With sadness? He lets himself feel it, but only within himself. He doesn’t tend towards being demonstrative about his emotions.   With conflict? Again, not well. He tends to shout first and think later.   With change? He’s gone through a lot of changes recently and considering the magnitude of them, he coped remarkably well. That said, he did struggle a lot with readjusting to his new role in life.   With loss? By suppressing it until it bursts out of him in explosions of jealousy towards those who have that which he has lost.   What does the character want out of life? At the moment, he’s just trying to do with best with what he has.   What would the character like to change in his/her life? He would go back to Heaven and get his wings back.   What motivates this character? Partially the desire to get back to Heaven, though he rarely admits it to himself. Mostly a deeply in-ground sense of what is right and what is wrong and the desire to correct the wrongs and do the right thing.   What frightens this character? The idea of dying alone, in a strange world, and going to Hell. The thought of becoming corrupted and evil and losing the parts of him he sees as ‘good’.   What makes this character happy? Simple things such as chocolate, watching people who are happy, the feeling that he has made the right decisions, Merry.   Is the character judgmental of others? Oh boy yes. Incredibly judgemental, though often he feels a bit bad about his original impressions once he gets to know people.   Is the character generous or stingy? Generous.   Is the character generally polite or rude? He likes to think he’s polite, but often he can be a bit rude, in part because he doesn’t understand social cues very well and in part because he’s just a bit brusque and too self important to worry about the ‘niceties’.   Spiritual Characteristics Does the character believe in God? God literally created him and he knows Him personally, so yah he does.   What are the character's spiritual beliefs? He doesn’t have beliefs, he has knowledge.   Is religion or spirituality a part of this character's life? Not really, because Ith doesn’t need to ‘believe’ in things. He knows and understands the truth of the world and the Heavens so it’s not a spiritual experience for him, it’s just his reality.   If so, what role does it play? N/A How the Character is Involved in the Story  Character's role in the novel (main character? hero? heroine? Romantic interest? etc.): Hero/Romantic interest   Scene where character first appears:  

Ithuriel shifted his weight, pins and needles tingling down his legs. He sighed, a brief allowance of impatience.  He was crouching uncomfortably on the edge of a low building, his gaze fixed on the dark street below. It was nearing dawn and the streets were empty with the early morning hush. A biting breeze was whistling around the edges of the stout brick buildings, its prying fingers reaching under coats, lifting hats, and chilling blood. He turned the collar of his heavy trench coat up against the cold, but didn’t dare shift his position. In the quiet, even the slightest of sounds would carry. He’d been hunched on the exposed rooftop for hours now, and he was damned if he was going to risk startling his quarry for the sake of a moment’s release.    

Relationships with other characters: 1. Merry -- (Describe relationship with this character and changes to relationship over the course of the novel).

Ithuriel initially sees Merry as a bit of a helpless human in need of rescuing, though it doesn’t take long before he begins to see her as more of an important tool to use against Moloch. He’s bemused by her and the often flippant attitude she takes towards life. She’s the first human he’s had prolonged contact with and she forces him to re-evaluate the way in which he perceives humans and accept them as individuals rather than one sort of mass that he can judge all together. As they get to know each other better, Ithuriel starts to respect Merry’s independent nature and her bravery in the face of a world that’s much bigger than anything she ever knew before. This respect soon turns to friendship before developing into something deeper.  

2. Belial: -- (Describe relationship with this character and changes to relationship over the course of the novel).

Ithuriel’s relationship with Belial is initially antagonistic. Ithuriel fears becoming what he sees in Belial and as a result tries to push Belial to be better to assuage his own fears of losing himself without hope of return. It quickly becomes important to Ithuriel that Belial choose the right side though this is primarily a reflection of his insecurities. Belial becomes a proxy through which he tries to convince himself that he can still be saved. Over time, this attitude shifts towards a genuine desire to see Belial save himself, and an appreciation for who Belial is as a person.   How character is different at the end of the novel from when the novel began: 

Ithuriel’s arc is one of coming to accept his new existence and appreciate the grey areas that make life so interesting. He begins to see the value in people and the ways in which they can be good and worthwhile without having to adhere to a strict sense of morality. By the end, he has come to realise that humanity is worth saving because of the intrinsic value of life, and all the beauty and wonder that humanity has created.  

[saltyirishpotato2002]

TSC: Chapter 4 - "No Remorse"

((A/N: Minor violence and blood mentioned! If you're sensitive to that, I suggest you don't read this part! Edits will be made once I'm able to get on my desktop!)) ----------------------- "You don't understand how long I have been waiting to do this, DeMoris! Now quit crying already you pathetic bastard, you did this to yourself!" A deafening snap permeated through the dusky, cold room, and Vincent only winced at the agonized, muffled whimper that followed in reply. Vision blurred with tears, Vincent clenched his eyes shut as tightly as he could muster, knees beginning to grow weak. He never wanted this to happen.. He mentally cursed himself for leading them both into this kind of danger, it had been his fault.. "Oh, and I nearly forgot about you! Van, move your hand-" Something suddenly plunged at Vincent's chest with a furious force, his eyes were forced to fly open as a inhuman noise emitted from his throat in immediate reaction. A searing, hot pain sent the boy in a hysterical sobbing fit, his body twitching and spamming as tears once again- began to blur his useless vision. It was too long before the pain finally began to subdue, the vigorous rattling of chains in the background doing nothing to bring Vincent back to reality- and Wyott stood back to admire his work, a branding iron clenched in his fist with a grotesque, devious smirk. "There's a price you gotta pay when you trespass our territory- and I think that scar will remind you two of that." "F-fuck you.." Vincent spat, chest still heaving sharply with every strained breath he took. Wyott chuckled with leisure, hand shooting out to tightly clench Vincent's jaw, ignoring the dried tears that pathed down his pale cheeks. "You better watch that mouth of yours, kiddo. Unless you want to end up like your friend over there, I hope you take my advice-" With a whir of sudden adrenaline, Vincent's leg swung in a unnoticed upwards motion- sending the man who had mocked him in great agony. The sharp blade that was pressed against Vincent's throat sunk deeper, a thick crimson liquid dripping from the new wound as angered, startled protests arose around him. "D-Damn brat!-" "Boss! We can't hurt the kid any further, we already made the deal," The boy with the raven hair spoke up once again, frowning. "We already caused enough damage- you know what will happen.." Wyott's eyes tilted in a displeased response, turning before he discreetly stepped towards the already damaged brunette. Vick, though still in great torment, yanked and thrashed against the sharp iron bindings that incarcerated him. His dark, ebony eyes were exposed from the sunglasses that shrouded them from sight, his golden pupils dilated and clouded with compelling hatred and wrath. "Bind him to the chair- Let's give him full view of our little show, shall we~?" Wyott snickered as he took hold of the sharp metallic whip, his eyes narrowing down at the chained brunette. Vick returned the sickening glare, arms bound behind his back- and knees tucked under him in an rather uncomfortable position. His own brand was scorched upon his chest, blistered and bright red- though the sloppy lettering was still very distinct. "It amuses me how you think you can just waltz onto our territory, without permission mind you- after what you did to me, DeMoris!" the sickening crack of the barbwire whip came down once again, "Where's your damn remorse?! You should be suffering for life in that jail cell, but your dumbass father didn't like that idea, huh?!" The infuriated screams and protests continued for what seemed like enturnity, the striking of the whip becoming more violent and powerful as time slowly passed. Wyott then halted suddenly, his dusky emerald eyes glued to the very floor he stood upon. His thumb glided against his cheek, rubbing away the tears that trickled down them. He crouched down, making sure he was eye-level to the trembling brunette before him, the end of his whip levitating Vick's tear-stained face up to his own, forcing both of their eyes to directly lock together. "I'm going to make you burn in hell for what you've done." The blonde snarled lowly, retracting his arm back before his fist collided swiftly into Vick's cheek-bone. Vick was slammed back into the moldy brick wall at the unexpected force, grunting in agony behind the soiled cloth gag as the other's knee jabbed harshly into his abdomen. The restraint was soon tore from Vick's mouth as the relentless beatings continued, the brunette doubled over in agony as he violently coughed and dry-heaved- though nothing but blood trickled from his mouth. Wyott was becoming hysterical now, fresh tears gushing from his glistening eyes as all the rage towards the guardian was beginning to release- though this was soon halted as Wyott was arrested back from causing anymore damage he had already inflicted. Vincent could only scrutinize in absolute horror, his eyes bulbous and coated with misty tears, chest heaving sharply as his lungs ached at the lack of proper oxygen. He didn't want this to resume any further- nor did he want to witness all of this either. His cries were only muted by a mere cloth.. "Boss, stop! You're going to kill him!" A panicked voice called out, holding Wyott's arms back before he could strike once again. The blonde went limp in their hold, still deeply staring at the broken brunette. No.. There was still so much more he could do.. He wasn't satisfied. "W-wait...I have one more thing I'd like to do to our dear Victor.." He hissed, an eerie grin raising his cracked lips. He held up the whip beyond his head, adrenaline soaring through him like a deadly poison. "Hey DeMoris! Look me in the eyes when I'm speaking to you!" And he did. Then whip lashed down. --------------------- "Victor! P-please wake up- please! ..O-oh Cladex.." A soft, shaky voice soon awoken his weakened mind, eyes gradually fluttering open at the pressure against his still horribly aching abdomen. An almost inaudible grunted slur arose from his raw throat, the pressure lifting from him almost immediately in reaction. "V-Vick.." A fit of faint, broken sobs caused the guardian to weakly glance up, though he could only open one eye- the other dark and sightless. "..V-Vinny..? What- Ack!" "Don't try to m-move yet! You're too i-injured!" Vincent cried out, clutching at the guardian's clammy hand within his own, struggling to keep the other from moving- in fear of Vick only hurting himself even further. "O-oh my Cladex.. Y-your eye.." That's when the memories all soared back into the core of his mind- all the agony he had previously endured hitting him like a wave of iron bullets. A dark, crimson fluid trickled down his cheek, an aching, throbbing pain in his brain forcing him to emit a strained, quelled whimper. The little energy he possessed had already left his body, and he struggled to surpress the tears pricking at the very corner his eye. "...V-Vin, are you h-hurt..? W-where's the c-compass...?" Vick choked, his breathing becoming a faint rattle of breaths as he struggled to intake oxygen. Vincent hesitantly held up the rusted gold capsule, which was decorated with cracks and filth from its previous encounter with Wyott- the needle wildly spinning in all known directions from inside its glass barrier. Vick felt his heart drop, a deep frown gracing his lips as guilt churned inside his core like a bundle of weighted stones. "...They t-took all of our money too.. " Vincent continued, his eyes stuck to the floor as his back arched forward- giving Vick a saddened smile. "...I-I'm so.. I'm so s-sorry.." A congested sniffle caught the younger's attention, his misty pink orbs shifting over to Victor- his own heart throbbing painfully against it's boney chamber. Fresh tears swelled in Vick's eyes, though they were clenched tightly shut before any could fall. "This is all m-my fault- I'm n-not suppose to let this happen!" "..Oh Vick.." Vincent sighed inaudibly, heart aching tenderly at the guardian. He gently levitated the other's head onto his lap, brushing away the stray tears that stained Vick's cheek. "H-hey, calm down- everything's alright.. " "...I w-wish I could believe you, V-Vinny.." Vick's voice slowly started to trail off to nothing, struggling to keep his eyes from fluttering back close as drowzyness overtook his body. "I'm too t-tired to argue.." He mumbled, whimpering lowly as his whole body was numb with the agonizing throbs of unrelenting pain. His back and belly were decorated with deep, scaring scratches and bruises, his face showing to be no better as his nose was possibly broken- darkened bruises marking his cheekbones as well. "Hey, don't fall asleep on me, Victor! Your wounds need to be treated- who know w-when those objects have been properly cleaned.." "Uuugh.. " Moaned Vick lowly, eyes creaking open slightly as Vincent levitated his head gently so he could shakily stand back up, still unconsciously wearing the guardian's over-sized jacket from before the incident. Vick desperately tried to sit up as well- though trembling greatly from lack of energy, his attempts were fortunately successful. The graveled, stone ground was quite painful to lay on, especially when those hideous blood-coated scratches covered his entire backside. "...The-they locked us I-in here, d-didn't they..?" "Y-yeah.. But unfortunately for them- I have a key!" Vincent held up a wired bobby-pin between his fingers, a proud grin raising upon his pale cheeks. Vick couldn't help but return the weakened smile, leaning against nearby wall as he silently observed the younger boy. Moments gradually ticked by as the albino fiddled with the lock. But, slowly and surely, it eventually clicked open, earning a relieved gasp from Vincent in a immediate reaction. "Ahh- finally! D-did you see that- V-Vick!" Vincent cried out before stumbling over to his guardian in a fit of panic- who had collapsed back to the ground, unconscious. Taking notice of the shallow, rattling breaths the brunette struggled to make, Vincent knew he had no time to waste. He immediately gathered up all of his belongings- as well as Victor's cracked sunglasses. "I hope I can find an emergency healer s-somewhere.. " He whimpered, his whole body forced in a fit of tremors as he desperately struggled to lift up his unconscious friend. "If I'm lucky enough, that is.."