#also please don't add Virgil

[hahanamegobrrrr]

For the ask prompts: 21 with Virgil and Roman?

21. “Oh but you’re not going anywhere.”

Lee!Roman, Ler!Virgil, 810 words. Warnings: none I can think of, I'll add any if someone points something out!

This was written as platonic, but you can read it as a ship if you want, I don't care LOL

I did Lee!Roman and Ler!Virgil, because as much as Lee!Virgil is my whole world, he needs to be a ler more too HSDJFK

___

Virgil and Roman had just finished watching The Lion King together in the common room. They were sitting next to each other on the couch. Roman had been fidgety throughout the movie. He was also wearing a tank top, despite the fact that it was fairly cool in the mind palace today, which left much of his top ribs and his armpits exposed. Virgil mentally noted all of this, suspecting what was going on.

Now, something shifted in Virgil’s peripheral vision, and he glanced over to see Roman stretching. He held his arms high above his head for several seconds with an exaggerated yawn. He arched his back, letting his tank top ride up slightly and exposing a sliver of the skin on his stomach. Virgil felt something swoop through his stomach, and his fingers suddenly felt itchy. Clearly, Roman knew what he was doing, since he shot Virgil a teasing grin as he stood up from the couch.

“Well, it seems that it is time I take my leave,” Roman declared, giving Virgil a bow and a wink. He didn’t even get to walk a single step away before Virgil dragged him back down onto the couch. Roman let out a quick yelp of surprise, fake-struggling for a moment before Virgil grabbed both of his hands and pinned them against his chest. He was now sitting up against the back of the couch with Virgil sitting on his legs.

“Oh, but you’re not going anywhere. Not after that stunt you just pulled,” Virgil retorted, a gleam in his eyes. “Showing off your armpits? Really? You must want this really badly, huh?” A slight flush was already spreading across Roman’s face.

“Yes, well, I’m a man who knows what he wants,” Roman replied, trying to keep his grandeur. He wasn’t going to get flustered that easily (or, at least, he wasn’t going to show it).

Virgil didn’t reply immediately. Instead, he moved Roman’s hands down so that they were pinned beneath his knees, the cushion of the couch keeping it comfortable for both of them. The warmth of Virgil’s breath caused a shiver to run down Roman’s spine as Virgil leaned in close to his ear.

“Well, tell me when you want to stop, then,” Virgil murmured, low and gravelly. A beat passed, then Roman’s breath hitched as he felt light tracing around his upper ribs. Then, without warning, Virgil instead leaned back and reached down to pinch at Roman’s thighs. A shocked and strangled noise came out of Roman’s throat, immediately followed by laughter.

“Aww, there it is, Princey,” Virgil crooned, smirking. “Since you know what you want so well, care to answer a question for me?” Virgil ceased pinching, gingerly walking his fingers up Roman’s thighs, hips, and arms.

“Do you want me to be gentle, or…” His hands came to a rest right below Roman’s underarms. “Do you want to scream?” Roman completely short-circuited, blinking for a second before clearing his throat.

“Uhmhm, the second option, please,” Roman replied, flushing a bit more. The moment the words left his mouth, Virgil’s fingers sprung into action. He wriggled one hand into each of Roman’s armpits, using his thumbs to knead into the muscle. This sent Roman into deep belly laughter, and he tried his best not to squirm away from the almost unbearable (but so, so craved) sensations.

“Aww, you’re so cute, Princey,” Virgil smirked, moving and adding his other fingers into the mix so that he was now scritching the tops of Roman’s exposed ribs. He reveled in the adorable faces and sounds that Roman was making. While his ribs weren’t as bad as his underarms, they made Roman much more squirmy. He leaned forward, burying his head into Virgil’s chest as he laughed. He wiggled so much that he eventually freed his hands from under Virgil’s knees, using them to grip onto Virgil’s arms. But still, he did nothing to stop Virgil from tickling him, instead simply holding on for dear life as Virgil spoke into his ear once more.

“As soon as you try to stop me, that’s when it’ll stop. So make sure you’re done before that happens,” Roman flushed and broke out into deep laughter once more as Virgil moved back to his armpits. Then, Virgil stopped and shot his head up as he heard footsteps from upstairs. No one came down into the common room, but Virgil knew that he and Roman both preferred to be alone any time they were partaking in any sort of tickly activities. It was just far too embarrassing for both of them to have anyone witness them.

“Do you want to move this to your room?” Virgil asked, getting up from the couch and offering Roman a hand.

“Yes, please,” Roman replied, giggling a little from the anticipation of how this would continue once they relocated.

[riallasheng]

Hello!!! Thank you for answering my ask about the boys' achievements, it's so cool to see how much info about them!! It's amazing! And I'd love love love to know about TinTin, Brains, and the rest too if you dont mind ^⁠_⁠^

Hello again my lovely returning anon! ^^

I'm quite glad to have answered your question, and I'm so happy that you enjoyed my answer! ^^

I'll answer these as best I'm able, although in warning there simply is not as much information on these characters as there is on the Tracy brothers, and it tends to be a bit more contradictory (esp with Brains. Oh my heavens Brains' stuff tends to be ALL OVER the place)

Despite there not being as much, it is still several people, so readmore deployed yet again!!

I also added in Grant Tracy (Grandma Tracy's husband) and Valentina Tracy (my name for Jeff's wife... I know Fleetway and now TaG have adopted the fanon name of Lucille for her, but I don't use it for my TOS fanworks)

Going from oldest to youngest again, which - given I'm a fan of the 'Brains is only Alan's age' - means Brains is last. Brains has like... four... official / canon age brackets. He bounces between 'roughly Jeff's age', to 'roughly Scott's age', to 'roughly the age of the 'middle' sibling (John or Virgil as ye please), to 'roughly Alan's age'. To me, his puppet LOOKS young, as does most of his art in the multiple canon comics, and he is referred to as a 'young man' and Scott thinks of him as 'the younger man' a few times in the novels and comics (plus Scott overall treats him like he is both younger than Scott himself AND much as he does his brothers - and his brothers treat Brains as if he were their age / one of the brothers in the novels and Brains treats THEM as if they're off the same age with Scott as the 'older sibling' in the novels too. Seriously there is SO MUCH SIBLING-LIKE BANTER AND TEASING it's wonderful XD ) So if nothing else in the NOVELS and pretty much all the comics I'd say Brains must be either in the 'middle sibling' or 'Alan' age bracket. (In a few comic stories, but most notably Atlantic Tunnel, Alan treats Brains as if THEY are roughly the same age, which is why I default to Brains being about Alan's age for my fanworks. Most official bios put Brains at ~25 though and thus 'middle sibling' age)

A quick note unrelated to this but in relation your other ask that is just a 'I forgot to add this': Gordon apparently does not have his astronaut wings, and seemingly doesn't have a astropilot license, not even a provisional / limited one. We actually only ever see him in space / on TB3 a very small handful of times and most of them are in Fleetway or Countdown.

Grant Tracy:

We somehow know both even less and even more about Grant than we do about Grandma Tracy. XD

We actually know his canon given name, and we know his profession (farmer) where we don't know what Grandma's profession was, and we know he was killed in the same avalanche that Jeff's wife was killed in

We know basically NOTHING ELSE about the man XD

I made him 3-4 years older than Grandma Tracy, and being VERY similar to Gordon in personality, to give someone for Gordon to have been really close to when the poor lad didn't quite fit in with the rest of the family. (which funnily enough gives him my baby brother's birth year)

I also had it where Grant graduated high school, but did not go for college as he wouldn't need it for his career (plus there honestly is nothing wrong with NOT going to college). I could absolutely see him going for a Trade school though

Given he seemingly was driving the car that he and the Tracys' mom was in when it was hit by the avalanche (Fleetway puts it as the house was hit so there's that too), he obviously would have had a Class-D (standard driver's) license. We know there was a lot of heavy farming equipment on the farm as Virgil's bios state he loved tinkering on and working with it, so he absolutely would have had a Class-B (farming vehicle) license. Outside of that, we don't really know what he might have had license wise

Grandma Tracy:

Not a part of her canon education or accomplishments, but my name for her in my fanworks is: Ruth Rosemary Joan Tracy (with a maiden name of Hughes). While the name of Ruth was popularized in the TOS fandom by the amazing Boomercat, I actually had come up with the name separately, naming her in honor of a VERY dear friend and 'great aunt' of mine who was VERY similar to Grandma Tracy in personality -especially the calm, down to earth, grounding and driving force that she is in the novels - and cooking skills (and in size. oh my lord my great aunt Ruth wasn't even 5 feet tall, which was always a bit amusing when she and I got to talk in person -she lived in Cairo, Egypt and I am American - as I'm 6 foot even) Her middle name of Rosemary actually was originally Eowyn, but I changed it in 2017 as my way of tributing Boomercat (Rosemary "Rosie" Alcott) when she passed away Her confirmation name (as I have her as Catholic, again in honor of the real-life Ruth for whom I named her) is Joan in tribute to Joan Hughes - an amazing woman in her own right who was actually the pilot of the real-life Tigermoth in Thunderbird 6!! Her maiden name of Hughes is a double duty tribute: both to Joan Hughes and to Howard Hughes!

There really is not much known about Grandma in canon. We aren't certain of her education. In the 2060s timeline, she would have been born in the late 80s (1987) and thus would be a millennial. Some of her bios imply that she would have been born in western Colorado (as that is where the Tracys were when the tragic avalanche happens and she and her husband Grant had moved to Aspen, Colorado after giving the TRACY family farm to Jeff and his new wife). So her education would be that of an early millennial / late gen Xer.

We don't know if she had any college education in canon. As I decided to make use of her apparently highly skilled cooking, I had her go to trade school / vocational school as cooking / baking is considered a trade

She refers to her cooking (and her cooking is referred TO) as famous, so I like to give her the accomplishment of running a bakery that won her awards and was well known but it isn't a canon accomplishment

Similarly, while it IS canon that Grandma traveled the world and is very worldly / knowledgeable about many places... we don't know anything more than that. I went with giving her Joan Hughes general backstory: A stunt pilot since the age of 15, one of the first people accepted into the newly formed World Air Force in the 2010s (one of the first women accepted into the britsh air force for Joan Hughes), served as a ferry pilot and ferried / flew aircraft all over the world - fighter craft, scout craft, bombers, you name it., then went on to be a stunt pilot after the war for a while. This means that in my fanworks, the Tiger Moth is RUTH's and used to be her stunt plane and she gave it to Jeff, and then Alan when she got too old to safely fly it. As a further result of this, Ruth was given the World Government equivalents of Joan's awards / medals in my ficverse (That would be the MBE and Pike Trophy- the pike being for outstanding contribution to civil flying instruction)

Grandma is strongly implied to have been a pretty good marksman in her past, so I gave her that skillset as well in my fanworks. Granted a LOT of farmers / people in rural areas in the US tend to be decent marksman as it's actually a fairly required / necessary skill set, esp on farms.

We never see Grandma driving in canon, BUT as someone with many kith and kin in rural areas in the USA... let's just say she would ***100%*** have a Class-D (standard driver's) license. Like seriously, public transportation is NOT an option outside of urban / suburban areas. I'd assume she also would have a Class-B (farmer's) license. My version of the character has a pilot's license as I used Joan Hughes' backstory to explain Grandma Tracys' 'world travelling' and 'exciting' past. She might have a helicopter license, though I strongly doubt she'd have a helijet license. She might have a CBL (or class A, B, and C commerical vehicles) license if we go with her having a Bakery that was big enough and /or to transport planes around via transport trucks. She seemingly has a commercial boating license, and the show kinda implies that she knows HOW to scuba, so we'll assume she has a diving license. Grandma is old enough (78 in 2065) that she likely has not renewed some - if not all - of these licenses. It depends on her health and opinions and needs

Parker:

Yes, yes, I know that in canon Parker is ~5 years Jeff's junior, but gosh darn it that always felt WRONG to me, Parker consistently looks and ACTS older than Jeff so I decided to age him up so that he was 5 or so years Jeff's SENIOR (Basically, it's the same age gap we see in the 04 film. Bill Paxton was born in 1955, Ron Cook was born in 1948)

I pull MUCH more heavily off the novels and comics for Parker and Penny than I do the TV series (esp the Lady Penelope novels) as Parker is MUCH less of a comedic and bumbling figure there, portrayed as far more competent and capable, and there is legit respect and friendship (if not a family-like bond) between Parker and Penelope in the novels and comics. Oddly enough, the 04 film really captured novel/comics Parker in a way the TV show never really did for me.

Parker hails from a long line of retainers for the English aristocracy 'for centuries', going back to at least the time of Queen Victoria and most likely longer than that. Parker was actually born into a decently well to do family, as his father was head butler, and his mother head housekeeper to an Earl.

Parker went to school and excelled at thermo-technical dynamics and engineering - at 13 years of age he converted an ex-army hovercraft into an all-terrian car/library for the Earl (from what I can figure, he basically gutted the hovercraft and installed shelving and a desk in the now empty interior, removed the partition wall between the cabin and main body of the hovercraft, and likely added a ramp of some kind to the rear for access. The hovercraft seems to have been about the size of a short-bus from context clues. So impressive, but not impossible for a 13 year old.

It's heavily implied that Parker continued to go to school and into higher education, still with a focus on thermo-technical dynamics and engineering, and continued to excel at it

The Earl died with Parker was 20. The Earl's family cut off Parker's allowance, his parents paychecks, kicked the Parker family out of the house / off the grounds, gave them no recommendations and from the sounds of it 'took back' a LOT of the money they'd been saving / left the family basically penniless.

The Parkers moved to London. It's HEAVILY implied that his parents died very shortly after this, and Parker fell in with bad company, quickly using his education to become the finest / best safe-cracker in the world, and an equally skilled cat-burglar. No violent crime at all, in fact it seems the only violence he has was self defense or while resisting arrest / escaping custody, and even that seems limited to 'only what is needed to get away and won't do any lasting harm'. At the very least, Parker seems to have no counts of murder, manslaughter, battery, or assault. He indeed was only at Parkwood due to his reputation for being to escape 'any nick'

He was eventually caught and ended up in Parkwood Scrubs Prison and spent some time there, where he shared a cell with light-fingered Fred and the two became great friends.

Parker was released from Prison and given passing refences to his having served in 'the war' I tend to think that he might have had something similar to his Real-Life INSPIRATION occur: Johnny Ramensky was a career burglar and safe-cracker. During WWII he was released after agreeing to enlist in the military and put his skills to 'good use'. Parker having this past explains why he was released after only one to three years, the mentions of him having served / having military contacts and friends, and is a nice tie-in to his primary inspiration! There's at least one mention in the comics and I thiiiiiink one of the bios that he has a decorated service record.

Parker, like Jeff, is old enough that he likely was involved in SEVERAL of the 'world conflicts' that happen in TOS comic and show canon -The Global Conflict of the 2010s: In canon Parker wouldn't have been born yet, and in my aged up fanon he, like Jeff, would have only been a preteen. So not involved. -The Global Atomic War of the 2030s: Parker would have been in his early 30s for this, too young for what we see in the 'time in Parkwood' flashback, and likely joined this war of his own free will and likely is when he was a 'radio-man' and could even be where he got a lot of his driving training / skills as the way it is described in the novels is VERY 'military' in style. (Jeff was in this war too btw, as a pilot although it is heavily implied he was flying medical aid and not a combat pilot). Great Britian, Russia, Turkey, and I think Brazil become Military Dictatorships during this war and remain so until the 2040s. -In the 2040s, the World Goverment uses the Universal Secret Service (basically WIN from Joe 90, but the Agent 21 stories predate Joe 90 and the 'name' WIN by over 5ish years) to kill the Dictators in command of the various dictatorships, toppling said goverments and bringing them into the world goverment. These events were referred to as Civil Wars . We see Agent 21 being sent to the British Dictatorship to do this / take part in the British Civil War in his comic strips, set in 2046. Parker likely would have been living in England, likely even in London, during this time frame as he mentions he's only ever lived in England. Parker could have been a Loyalist, part of the rebellion, or even just 'I don't care', we really have no way of knowing. All factors considered, I lean towards Parker simply didn't care all that much and was still engaging in burglary and the like during this time frame. He would have been in his mid 40s. -Some time in the 2050s (I lean towards late 2050s given the ages of various characters involved) there SEEMS to have been another War. This is the one that Scott, Gordon, Troy, Phones, Scarlet, and many others MUST have been involved in. Parker would have been in his early 50s and THAT matches up with the age we see in the Parkwood flashbacks. Thus Parker likely was captured and held at Parkwood sometime in the late 2040s to early 2050s, and when the War started, was offered freedom in exchange for his skills.

After the war, Parker's bio says that he tried to go straight and narrow, taking odd jobs, but nothing worked out and by the time late 2063 / earl 2064 rolled around, he was back to burglary and safe-cracking... which is when / how Lady Penelope ended up meeting and hiring him. It's a FUN story, btw, and the first comic of Lady Penelope's comic strip stories. Parker goes to break into the safe of an American Oil Tycoon... only to find Lady Penelope already in the room, chilling. She basically half forces / half tricks Parker into agreeing to work for her.

Parker is an AMAZING driver, an excellent mechanic, and there's ONE comic (in Fleetway, which came out in the 90s) where we see him flying a plane so he at some point got his pilots license, but that MIGHT actually be a trainers / limited pilots license. Penny does canonically have a pilots license and thus so long as she is in the craft, Parker could fly with a limited license, and that might be only for jet craft, not propeller craft - ABSOLUTELY not for bi-planes XD. He absolutely does not have a helicopter or helijet license. He seems to have a civilian AND Commerical boating license, and might have a civilian submarine craft license. We see him diving, so he has a diving license. The man suffers from vertigo and shows no control over his parachute(s) when he uses them, so he doesn't have a skydiving or paragliding license. He might have a CBL (Class A, B, and C commerical vehicle) license, in fact I'd lean heavily towards it.

Jeff's Wife / Tracy Brothers' Mom:

She might be British? I think one of the bios says something along those lines, but all other canon material implies she was, like Jeff, American so it's sort of a *shrug emoji*. I like the idea of her being British myself, but it's a VERY grey area so choose as ye please

Yes, I made Jeff's wife older than him (only a year or so though XD ) I actually did it so that Alan and TinTin mirror the relationship, as Alan actually mirrors Jeff in a LOT of ways

I also go with a non-canon name. Valentina Lucille Tracey (maiden name Baumgartner) In my defense, Lucille was just a very popular fanon name starting in the mid 80s and then in the 90s, Fleetway comics made it canon, THAT happened only because the creative team at Fleetway mistakenly thought Lucille WAS canon / were persuaded to use it because of how popular it was. Both Gerry and Sylvia said they 'never would have named' the character Lucille so by the time Fleetway made it canon in the 90s, and then when TaG made it canon in the Teens... I already had a name for the character. I used the name of the first female Astronaught for her given name, and I gave her the surname of the first female test pilot. Then as a tip of the hat to fanon (and now canon) her middle name is Lucille.

Rather like Grant, we really don't know much about this woman, we don't even TECHNICALLY know her canon name in TOS, as Fleetway didn't come out till the 90s... although it is considered 'part', or at least one of, the canon continuities that make up TOS

We do know from bios that Virgil is the one that took the most after her - in appearance, in personality, and in his artistic and musical talents. Virgil's bio also flat-out states that she was musically focused, rather than Virgil's heavier art focus. She had a promising career as a concert pianist. She either retired from it to be a full time mom or 'retired' when she passed away. That means that the White Baby Grand is almost certainly HER piano.

Small fun fact, the 'died giving birth to Alan' might actually be ascended-fanon as well. Gerry and Sylvia never said or implied it themselves, and the sources that use it generally didn't get the info from them. officially, she died in a tragic accident when Alan was 'quite young' and Alan was then raised by his father and eldest brother and was as a result 'rather spoilt'. The avalanche I think first shows up in Fleetway, but I'm not sure.

Jeff Tracy

Canonically one of the first men on the moon... which... really, REALLY, REALLY doesn't work. Even with the 2020s timeline, Jeff was born in the 1970s which is AFTER the Space Race, and even Fleetway has it where there is the beginnings of a Lunar Colony in 2000 / 2001 when Jeff goes to the Moon. That's likely why so many fans make it where Jeff was the first man on MARS. Even with the 2060s timeline, that would have taken place in the 2020s to 2030s and thus predates pretty much any instance of humans on Mars... eeeeexcept in TV21 - which had Mars colonized sometime in that 2010s time frame. =_= ...honestly, there's a reason in my fanworks I moved the Martian Capital City of Kahra from Mars and the Martian Colony to Venus / have it where Agent 21 operates from / was born on Venus and Mars is NOT yet colonized but instead Venus was XD

We know he graduated High School in the top of his class (don't know if he skipped grades) and had a higher education at an Ivy League school... likely Yale or Harvard, BUT if he went to school at Oxford, that could be how he met his wife, as she apparently was British!! He easily could have had something similar to Scott where he got his Masters at Yale, then 'finished' his schooling at Oxford to get a PhD or a second Masters.

He served in the Air Force (World or US) and served 'in a war' which almost certainly would have been the Global Atomic Conflict of the 2030s when he was in his mid to late 20s. He met and befriended Casey at this time. Both he and Casey achieved the rank of Colonel during their time in the war. There's a refence in the comics (and I think bios) that Jeff was the youngest colonel on record 'until Scott claimed that record' which is likely where the reference to Scott being a Colonel comes from.

Jeff was a pilot, but it seems like he avoided direct combat / was not a FIGHTER pilot and certainly there are no mentions of him being an Ace. He might have been flying aid missions and the like. There's a passing mention of his being involved in a mutiny, but it's in the sense that HE wasn't part of the mutiny OR the target of it, but more he had the bad luck of being on a ship when the mutiny occurred.

In what would have to be before the War (so in the 2020s) Jeff received training to become an Astronaut. He also seemingly started founding his company around this time / in his early 20s. (Seriously, that company has SO MANY DIFFERNT NAMES IN CANON.) By his mid-20s Jeff's company had gotten started and was already bringing in millions, and Jeff was running it alongside his astronaut / pilot duties and seemingly was managing to keep it going (likely by hiring skilled CEOs) even during the was in the 2030s. The company is BIG. Big enough that funding IR can be hidden in the shuffle big. That means forget millionaire. possibly forget billionaire. Jeff might be a trillionaire. and he is 100% a self-made man, as both of his parents (and their parents and going back generations) were middle-class - at best - generational farmers.

oh also, in TV21, at some point in the 2030s, there was a rebellion at the Jupiter Colony and the leader of said rebellion went to Earth to try and claim control of the moon / lunar colony. He is stopped and captured by Jeff and the jovian invasion force surrenders and returns to Jupiter. the leader, Kranol will be held in a high security prison until sometime in the late 2060s.

Has a Class-D (standard driver's) license. ABSOLUTELY has a pilot's and astropilot's license / has his astronaut wings. Pretty much certainly has a Class-B (farmer's) license. Likely has a CBL (Commercial Class A, B, and C) license. Has a civilian boating license and likely has a commercial boating license. I can't think of any time we see him diving, so might not have that.

Kyrano

There isn't really much known about Kyrano's education. He must have HAD it, because he is listed as working at both Kew and Kennedy Space Center as... well, quite a few things. one mention is that he was a professional cook, but ALL other mentions put him as a botanist. Either Expert Botanist in general and was in charge of many plants and layouts and landscaping... or plants to recycle air for space travel/stations... etc. Botany is the career things keep returning to, so that like is what he majored in and to get a job at the places he did, he must have a degree and most likely a Masters or the equivalent there of.

The Hood is his younger half-brother and somehow stole Kyrano's inheritance from him, leaving Kyrano penniless. Kyrano's family owned a massive jungle 'estates' with a variety of things reported and having rubber plantations and mines of some kind.

Kyrano and TinTin and how they met Jeff / came to live with the Tracys is... really a hodge podge, although the only MAJOR outlier is Fleetway. All the other canon continuities have it where Jeff and Kyrano have been friends for YEARS, meeting before his wife died. TinTin to all appearances came to live with the Tracys while she was fairly young AND seemingly before her father came to live with the Tracys (possibly Kyrano trying to get TinTin away from the Hood and the danger he presented?) as TinTin seemingly finished up her High School in America and ABSOLUTELY was living with the Tracys for her entire higher education period, as Jeff paid for it. Kyrano has been living with the Tracys and acting as the housekeeper / butler for a few years to several years by the time of the pilot. Fleetway has it where Jeff doesn't meet Kyrano and TinTin until two or three years prior to the pilot episode which... doesn't fit with anything we see / are told in teh show, novels, or any other comics.

He has a Class-D (standard driver's) license. Has a pilot's license. Seems to have a helijet but not a helicopter license. Doesn't seem to have any other licenses that we're aware of

Lady Penelope

Penny started her schooling at Hightower School, starting when she was 11 and graduating somewhere around 12-13 years of age. She was top of her class, Head Girl, and top athlete. (so it'd be Lower School, if I recall correctly, and seemingly skipped a grade or two)

After Hightower, she went to Rowden Boarding School - a highly exclusive and well respected school. We don't know what she majored in, only that she was again top of her class, Head Girl, and top athlete and graduated at 14-15. (Upper School if I, again, am recalling correctly. She seemingly doesn't skip grades here, but she is a year or two younger than everyone else due to graduating early from Hightower)

In quick explanation we find out in the 'Penny as a Young Girl / Penny as a Teen' comics that Penny's father is actually a retired spy, and Penny decides right around as she is set to graduate from Rowden that she wants to be a spy as well. UNFORTUNATLY the comics don't follow up on this. Instead the 'Penelope as a Young Woman' comics are set in the mid 1960s instead of 2045 -2050s, Penny wasn't going to school but instead going to live in the city, there was no indication she was rich, they never went into her spy career... she just... suddenly was a middle class girl trying to get by in the big city. Which probably wouldn't have bugged me if it hadn't been PENELOPE right when she was supposed to be starting her spy training!! To make it even worse, Penny's bios and bits and bobs we get from her comics, novels, etc all tell us that she DIDN'T have these adventures, but instead went to a Swiss 'Finishing School' that was actually a cover for a SPY SCHOOL and became an independent Secret Agent by 19 years of age!! (It actually matches up almost perfectly with what we see in Class 6 Sternoff', a subline comic in the Lady Penelope Comic Magazine, and one of the leads is VERY similar to Penny in personality... which makes me think that Class 6 was originally the 'Penny as a Young Adult' and the stories set in the 1960s were supposed to be the subline with an original character.) As a result of all this, I freely admit that I generally ignore the 'Young Adult' comics and treat Class 6 as the 'official' Young Adult Penelope comics.

Upon graduating, Penny became an independent spy / free agent. She has been indicated to have worked for the USS (Universal Secret Service - the TV21 equivalent of WIN), to have worked for WIN (World Intelligence Network, introduced in Joe 90), to have either worked FOR or FOUNDED or became the leader of FAB (Federal Agents Bureau)... the problem with all of those is that the TV show, comics and novels all make it VERY clear that Penny doesn't work for anyone. She's an independent agent that a few other spies / higher ups in agencies know (and many of them have no idea who she REALLY is, only knowing her as Agent L). Rhapsody's bio claims that Lady Penelope was the founder and leader of FAB and that Penelope trained Rhapsody... but the thing is EVERYTHING but Fleetway's Complete TB Story puts Lady Penelope very VERY solidly in the 2060s - like flat out stated multiple times solidly... and that means Penny and Rhapsody are the same age, only a year or two of difference.

There is a VERY weird refence that Jeff met Penny / she was an old friend from his 'Agency Days' and that becasue of the 'delicate nature of some of his missions, he met Lady Penelope' which... this is literally the only time it's implied that Jeff was a secret Agent (something DIRECTLY contradicted by everything else we know of his history) and it also directly contradicts every other instance we have of how the two met... which is always something along the lines of 'close to the time IR gets started, Jeff is informed by SOMEONE of Penny's status as a super spy, meets and usually tests her in some way, and then has her become the first IR agent / head of the IR agents.

Penny is involved in a lot of charities, and has a cover of a 'aspiring journalist' that she maintains to explain her travels and questioning of people in her line of work when 'I am rich and was bored' will not work. She is famously as generous as she is polite.

Lady Penelope has gotten up to QUITE a few adventures as a spy, many of which have had World Politics level impact (the woman has dealt with Generals, Heads of Secret Police, ARMYS, and more)

She speaks several languages with native level fluency; known examples include Italian, French, German, Spanish and Berezniki

There is a passing reference that Scott and Penny met 'while in school / met a few years ago' that is just... what. WHEN. But not in the 'this directly contradicts EVERYTHING we're told way' that the 'during Jeff's Agency days' bit does Of all the characters they are the ones MOST LIKELY to have met prior to the mid 2060s, since the rest of the Tracys (including Jeff) basically stayed in America (and/or outer space) with Jeff's time outside of America mostly being in the 2030s... which would have been before Penny was born in late december 2039. Scott was in England for Oxford in ~2055 which would be around the time Penny was in Rowden Boarding School. He also was in / around Europe during 'the War' when Penny would have been finishing up her Spy Schooling / just starting her spy career. TinTin went to school (multiple) SOMEWHERE(s) in Europe as she finished up her education, but those are canonically all engineering and technical universities and I don't think the timelines match up as well. Brains MIGHT have gone to school in Paris, but so far as we know Penny did not spend much time in Paris and wouldn't have been going to an engineering school there... also Brain's time in Paris is VERY QUESTIONABLE as far as canon goes If the two did meet - esp during the time that Penny was preparing to be a spy (last year of Rowden), training to be a spy (the swiss school) or starting her spy career (late 2050s-early 2060s), that actually does answer the old fandom question of "who told Jeff about Penny and how she was a spy when even the commanders of MI5, WIN, the USS and every other spy organization (except FAB, which Jeff wouldn't have a connection to) doesn't know?" Scott, possibly.

one point of note here... Penny likely doesn't have many (if any) of these licenses as 'Lady Penelope', but instead has gotten the training and has fake licenses / licenses under false IDs Lady Penelope has a Class-D (standard driver's) license... yes, really. There is only one instance where Penny apparently 'doesn't know how to drive' and it's when she's playing the 'socialite' AND trying to delay returning to London. There's another episode where we see Penny driving in the show and she has NO issue with it. She has multiple instances of driving herself around in the comics and novels. She is the only character stated FLAT OUT to be able to drive a motorcycle (and a rocket motorcycle at that!), so she absolutely has a motorcyle license. While it's said (I think in the show? but it's absolutely said in TB6) that Penny doesn't have a pilot's license, she is actually seen / mentioned flying a plane in the comics and novels, so I'm going to go with 'Penny not having a pilot license is a lie', most likely said because Penny felt someone she didn't want to know the truth was in ear shot / she was worried there might be a recording device nearby. She has flown a helijet and a helicopter, so likely has a license for both. She seems to have a civilian submarine craft license. She has both a civilian and commercial boating license (although she goes through the Seabird Yachts like CRAZY. Seriously she starts her comics with Seabird I and was on Seabird VI by the time her comics ended). She has a diving license. She has a paragliding and skydiving license. She doesn't have a astopilot license or astronaut wings and canonically she doesn't know how to drive commercial vehicles or construction vehicles.

TinTin

What's in a name? ...a lot of confusion apparently XD Multiple canon sources say that TinTin's name means 'sweet', but there is no Malaysian word that is similar to TinTin that means such... buuuuuuut there is a MANDARIN word that means Sweet Tián If you go with a non-canon surname (Tin - catonese spelling of the mandarin surname Tian - meaning field) you end up with the name Tián Tin which to many people would sound like 'Tin Tin' ...the fact that this is the name of one my RL friends is just coincidence and maybe kinda sorta inspiration for this XD the fact that said friend is a HUGE Adventures of Tin-Tin fan and gleefully claimed 'Tin-Tin' as a nickname that she STILL uses to this day... well... XD As for why she uses 'Kyrano' as a surname once or twice in the show... it could just be an false surname for security purposes, or even just a mix-up in paperwork (I did get called 'Ms J Leonard' at a job once, as a mix-up had them thinking my dad's given name was my surname somehow, so it CAN be a thing that happens)

TinTin apparently comes to America to live with the Tracys while fairly young (and before her father does) as she at minimum finishes her high school (equivalent) education in America before moving onto a higher education. She also apparently skips grades as she SEEMS to graduate at ~16.

She goes to college in America for a period of time, and then goes to Europe to finish her higher education. What these schools are is unknown / never said unfortunately. A bunch of countries are mentioned / considered canon by the fandom, but nothing is said or even really hinted at in canon. I honestly have her following in Scott's 'footsteps', going first to Yale for ~2 years (in 2060 & 2061) and getting a Masters in Electrical/Mechanical Engineering and possibly Higher Mathematics. I have her take a 2 year gap to get job experience - working at Tracy Industries, also in part because this falls during the apparent 'War' that happened. After the war, TinTin went to Oxford for ~2 years (in 2063 & 2064) and gets a Masters in Advanced Technical Theory and if she didn't get the Higher Mathematics before, she got it here. She graduates in June of 2064.

She is canonically an electronics expert, a mathematical mind, and engineer. (Fun fact, she is the only character we see doing maintenance in the TV show when she's shown doing maintenance on TB1 in Martian Invasion.) She is also said to be an engineer / head engineer in the Lady Penelope audio adventure 'Introducing Thunderbirds' which for some reason was cut from the Anniversary Episode

She acts as Jeff's secretary as a 'cover', but seemingly actually HAS had secretary training and sometimes does secretary / dictation work to help Jeff out when not helping Brains in the Lab / doing engineering work

TinTin has a Class-D (standard driver's) license, and might have a motorcycle license. She's apparently an expert level diver, almost as good - if not as good - as Gordon is and thus would have a divers license. She has a civilian boating license and apparently is very skilled. She has a civilian submarine craft license. She has a pilots license for both jet and propeller craft and apparently can pilot a biplane and stunt plane. She has her astronaut wings and an astropilot license (although it MIGHT be a provisional / limited license as we never see her pilot solo). Likely has a paraglider and sky diving license. Has a CBL (Commercial Class A, B, and C) license.

Brains

hooo boy here we go

What's in a name? Well to start, it IS NOT Hiram K Hackenbacker. Even if you totally ignore the fact that the episode where the name is introduced flat out states it's an alias that Brains fails to react to... there are other instances where it's stated to be an alias in the audio for this ep. It also isn't Horatio Hackenbacker, despite what the 1966 Spring Extra says ^^;; Whatever his name is, it's not this ^^

Born in Michigan (some things say 'Chicago, Michigan' which... well Chicago is NEAR Michigan, but the Windy City is actually in Illinois) and while preteen his parents were killed when a.... hurricane... struck... their... Michigan home I i literally do not have enough words to explain why that is impossible in this... maybe in a separate post like the 'Y'all don't get America dudes' one or something

After the death of his parents, Brains was adopted by a retired Camridge professor who had been a friend of his parents. Said adoptive father apparently passes away before Brains is a mid-teen / early teen btw. Poor kid.

Brains skips LOTS OF GRADES. I personally headcanon that he was homeschooled by his adoptive father as Brains likely would have been bored by normal schools and likely heavily bullied. He starts college as a young teen, and must have been taking tests (like CLEP or DANTES) to get as many classes out of the way as possible while he was 'still in high school' since he's got his first Doctorate as a mid teen.

What school(s) he went to is uncertain. There's a single reference to him going to university in Paris, where he gave a lecture that Jeff heard and made Jeff realize the young man was the perfect person to make IR a reality... the issue with that is that Jeff unlikely would have been in Paris sitting in on a random lecture. All other schools Brains could have gone to were in America, so I tend to assume that Brains had an American education. He's had MIT, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, University of Chicago, Caltech and... Fleetway puts him at Tracy University - which while it was a space focused school, it was also one of the best tech universities in the world. As a result, I tend to have it where Brains went to Tracy U. That means he would have ABSOLUTELY run into at least one of the Tracy brothers, who then could have easily brought Brains to Jeff's attention.

While still a teenager (probably in 2061 or 2062), Jeff listened to a lecture Brains gave at his college, approached Brains and Brains was soon part of IR.

Brains has SEVERAL Doctorates by the time of the pilot episode. I remember at least one refence to him having ~12, and I know he's got at least 5 mentioned a few times

Brains was involved in the designing of all the Thunderbirds and pod vehicles. Jeff, Scott, John, Virgil, and Gordon seemingly were also involved to various degrees in the craft (Alan seemingly was not, and TinTin is debatable - though she WAS involved in the construction)

What his many doctorates are in, we do not know, though we can assume it's various tech, math, engineering and so on

His 'hobbies' include trigonometry, thermodynamics, and advanced robotics / programming, and seemingly is trying to create an AI / android as shown in Braman.

[annaraebananawriter]

"Phil knew something had gone wrong when Techno still wasn’t home as the clock neared five in the morning. No matter what they argued about before, he was always back before five.

The reason why he wouldn’t be is that something happened to him."

On the other side of the city, Techno is thrown in the back of a car. He won't wake up until they get to the building. And Phil won't learn what exactly happened to him until dawn breaks and they go and search for him—finding only a singular bloodstained emerald earring hanging on a tree. A sign left for them and only them.

Thing is, Phil wasn't the head of the largest mafia in the city for nothing. He won't rest until he gets his boy back.

Heaven help those who try and stop him.

///

Hello, hello! I definitely didn't finish this fic 7 hours before the deadline hahaha, that's crazy. Now, let's all just look the other way as I post the first 3 chapters of this fic and lets all pretend we're a good three days in the past, okay? Don't mind the clock. Things are okay. This was the plan all along. I am definitely not stressing myself out as I edit and post this hahahahaha.

Jokes aside, I'm so excited for you to read this! It was written for the MCYTBLR AU Fest Summer 2023 (@mcytblraufest). It's also an idea I've had permission to write since July of last year, and this event seemed like the perfect time to do just that. It's not mine originally, but I did make some tweaks here and there, so now it's a mash-up of my friend's idea and my own thoughts. I hope you all like it just as much as I do!

Special thanks to my beta reader, Virgil, for keeping me motivated and organized through this event. Well...at least tried to. I cannot thank you enough.

And be sure to check out the art for this fic! @kestrius, a very talented artist, drew TWO WHOLE PIECES for this fic, so please go give her some love. One of them is for the first chapter and the other is for Chapter 5. I'll link that one again once that chapter comes out. But go show her some love!

Now, I don't think I have anything else to add, so...happy reading!

[thebestworstidea]

"Hey Virge."

Virgil looked up from what he was doing. Normally, he wouldn't stop working to talk to anyone when he was on the clock- he took his work seriously.

But he was writing a pop-song, and it was driving him nuts.

He'd been given a phrase and a feeling and was trying to turn it into something worth hearing, while adhering to the bubbly pop psudo punk the client was going for.

Also it was Thomas, and the ghost had been a bit drifty lately, making conversation less frequent.

"Sup." He answered.

"I was wondering." Thomas did that thing he did where he wans't fully visible, but gave the impression he was perching on something- in this case, the edge of Virgil's dresser. "You're an excellent musician, and I've seen you writing all sorts of songs, and mixing music and everything."

"Thanks." Virgil said a little awkwardly. He knew he was pretty good, but it was still weird to hear it, even though that's mostly where he made his money.

"And you said you played in bands back when you lived in the city when someone bugged out."

"Played with this one band almost a year before they found a bassist that didn't suck. I was on their debut album." he agreed.

"How come you never had a band of your own?"

Virgil snorted, but suppressed actual laughter.

"Well first off- I am not front-man material. In the least."

"I suppose that you don't really like being stared at."

"Yes, that too. But that's not why."

Thomas tipped his head (just a bit too far making him look more like a cartoon of a person than a person) and raised his eyebrows. Virgil smiled without thinking, even if it was a little weird. Thomas had started doing things like that shortly after he started manifesting visually. Logan thought it had something to do with how he thought of himself, and one of the first things they'd learned about Thomas was that he really loved cartoons. So if he pictured himself as a cartoon version of himself, his visible form would reflect that.

Virgil wondered if, given time, Thomas might start looking entirely like a cartoon, as he forgot more about himself as a living person.

"One second." He sent a text out. He was pretty sure that Logan and Roman had gone to a museum to be snarky about an exhibit, but Patton was probably in the house. "Alright, if you really want to know, I can show you."

"Please, you have more musical talent in one tooth than I had in my whole body, and I did a lot of singing."

"Uh-huh." Virgil looked at the ghost skeptically. He went over to the door, opened it and called down stairs. "Hey Patton, I'm going to sing."

There was a faint strained whine and then a faint

"Have fun!" followed by a door closing.

"You can do it!" Roman called, a little closer. "I believe in you."

"Oh fuck off." Virgil retorted, and Roman laughed.

Thomas snorted, shifting in place and folding his arms.

"Now you're just being theatrical."

Virgil smiled sarcastically and hummed under his breath. Then he started singing

For a few moments Thomas felt justified. But then- it was wrong. He couldn't put his finger on why but it was wrong. Technically the melody and the tune were there, and he was hitting the notes. But it echoed and it warped and it just sounded wrong, like someone was purposefully playing with sliders on a mixing board.

Outside, Patton started howling, sounding a little hurt himself. Virgil stopped, coughed, and put his hand over his mouth looking a bit embarrassed. There were a few more baying howls, and then an apologetic sounding bark.

"It used to be I just was a little flat, you know? I know how music works." His voice sounded rough. "but not really vocalist quality. But then uh." He looked even more embarrassed. "Something happened, and now my voice does that when I sing. I don't mind that-" Virgil hastened to add. "Since I don't have to sing to play instruments or even write or mix music. But it sounds worse recorded, believe it or not."

"Well." Thomas flickered a bit, and gave a lop sided smile. "There's always death metal."

"A favorite of ghosts everywhere." Virgil agreed, and Thomas laughed himself invisible.

[grandhotelabyss]

In an old interview with Tyler Cowen, Knausgaard called Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius the greatest story ever written—a sentiment with which Cowen agreed. (Cowen seems to read everything, but there's something about an economist—an orthodox heterodox economist, no less!—making pronouncements on literature that makes me suspicious of the claim. Then again, he once wrote, "Shakespeare is very likely the deepest thinker the human race has produced." No argument there.)

Personally, I might bestow the honour on The Dead, but it's really more of a novella, and I'm admittedly quite the Deadhead. (To be clear, in the high arts a "Deadhead" is the moniker we attribute to readers obsessed with the poetic intensities of swift cessations: Death in Venice, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, the deaths of Sula, Septimus, Billy Budd, and Pierce Inverarity, etc. Indeed, poetic intensities and swift cessations may simply be the novella tout court. On the subject of jam bands—and cheese—I remain mysteriously silent.)

Might Joyce have authored the greatest story, the greatest novel, and the greatest love letters? (Forgive me, sweet Jane, for such futile superlatives against your soul-stirring pen. I am half agony, half cope.) I suppose Borges is more Beethovenian in his revolutionizing of the form, whereas Joyce aimed for a Bach-like perfection as it existed at the time.

Of course, one mustn't forget the dozen or so contenders from Poe, Kafka, and Chekhov, not to mention The Lottery and A Good Man is Hard to Find. What do you think? As always, thank you for your splendid insights! And to the anonymous hundreds reading this, or, at this point in my unsolicited soliloquy, the anonymous dozen skimming, please subscribe to John's serialized novel!

Thank you, David! Yes, I find Cowen dispiritingly, exhaustingly, demoralizingly well-read. Someone I admire on Substack recently gave a list of 10 pieces of advice for undergraduates, and I liked nine of them, but I didn't like the first: everything, he said, is interesting. But everything is not interesting. The undergraduate, the veritable ephebe, is right to be bored by some things. If I found everything interesting, who would I be? I almost cultivate my non-interests. With so many books I do want to read in the world, it's a relief to know there are also many books (books about economics, for example) that I do not want to read. Really, only obsessions matter. The personality, to be a personality, must have its limits, as must the work of art, even if as a novelist, I do aspire in my own way to the "everything and nothing" Borges imputed to Shakespeare, or to the Homeric as against the Virgilian in Mark Van Doren's line that Virgil is a style, Homer a world. Only Borges could be Homeric in a short story, though; for the rest of us—yes, even for Joyce—it takes a novel. A fellow Deadhead, I agree with you that that is a novella in the death-obsessed ranks of the great novellas. I add Heart of Darkness, The Metamorphosis, and Nella Larsen's Quicksand to your fine catalogue.

(Incidentally, when I was in college, a friend dragged me to see a jam band called The String Cheese Incident. They played a theater on the ground floor of Soldiers and Sailors Hall on the University of Pittsburgh campus, upstairs of which the great Gothic scene of Lecter's escape in Silence of the Lambs had been filmed a little less than a decade before. Jam bands don't do it for me; I was heavy bored at that concert, I have to tell you; Chesterton's neglected cheese be damned, poets have their right to silence on some subjects—because, again, everything is not interesting.)

Now to your question. When I think of great short stories, I do not, like George Saunders, think of 19th-century Russians. (19th-century Russians are better at length, when they go on and on and on—even, if you ask me, Chekhov, as I said earlier this year in praise of his novella, The Duel, a great novella not quite belonging to your catalogue inasmuch as it defeats death, more or less.) No, I think of 19th-century Americans. I think of "Ligeia" and "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "The Man of the Crowd," and I think of "Bartleby, the Scrivener" and "The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids" and "Benito Cereno," and I think of "The Author of Beltraffio" and "The Middle Years" and "The Figure in the Carpet." Above all, I think of Hawthorne, of "Young Goodman Brown" and "The Minister's Black Veil" and "Ethan Brand" and "Wakefield" and "The May-Pole of Merry Mount" and "The Artist of the Beautiful" and "The Birth-Mark" and (my favorite) "Rappaccini's Daughter." A great deal of Borges is already in those stories, these tales or parables or half-allegories—I do agree with both Knausgaard and Cowen that Borges's "Tlön," or maybe "The Aleph," must be the paradigm of the modern story—and a great deal of Kafka, Jackson, and O'Connor, too.

Honorable mention: I am not an expert on the 19th-century French, but "The Unknown Masterpiece" by Balzac is a new favorite, which I read for the first time just this year. A good tale in its own right, but to have anticipated, almost to the point of clairvoyance, the whole future course of art in one short story from the 1830s—!

Caveat: "Rappaccini's Daughter" has 3000 fewer words than The Dead; and "Benito Cereno" is double the length of "Rappaccini's Daughter." Why type some titles in italics and some in quotation marks? The distinction between novella and story must be qualitative rather than quantitative, with the distinction not quite only about death, since all three narratives at least include if they do not dwell upon swift cessations. "Rappaccini's Daughter" and "Benito Cereno" seem to me to be stories because they are about one thing, as opposed to The Dead, which, like The Scarlet Letter, is about several things—and as opposed, of course, to Moby-Dick and to Ulysses, which are, Aleph-wise, about absolutely everything ("[A]ny man unaccustomed to such sights, to have looked over her side that night, would have almost thought the whole round sea was one huge cheese, and those sharks the maggots in it"; "Cheese digests all but itself. Mity cheese"), and make everything as interesting as ever everything can be.

[nonbinarytheatrekid07]

Hello RTC enjoyers, I am giving you my assorted thoughts on the McCarter version. I have only ever seen the off-broadway version and I really want to see what this one is like so away we go!

Karnak is not a puppet or a suit this time, but he has a cool hat

this karnak feels rage

Virgil is a lady and she is shredding the bass

oh my god they made a covid joke

I am afraid of this karnak

ricky has a tambourine and stickers on his wheelchair and is very unenthusiastic I love him

props to this karnak for being an animatronic very well

He didn't grab his crotch and i don't know if im happy about it or not

Ricky is filled with sass, i love it

this jane adds more emotion and acts/sounds a lot more like a kid and it hurts my heart

WHy does everyone have so much more sass in this production

I like that ocean and constance(and everyone really) are actually being friends here

ocean's actress is so expressive it's great

the SASS

I love her

I was expecting borthday, I did not get borthday

"no one's making out with tambourine guy"

everyone is pissed at ocean and rightfully so

I would give Jane a hug

HE TURNED TO THE AUDIENCE AND DID THE GAY HAND OH MY GOD I LOVE HIM

he has earrings you guys Noel has earrings have you seen Noel with earrings you need to see Noel with earrings

I stand by my previous statement that Noel would like 'Chicago'

I wouldn't say that the voices are particularly better or worse. I have gotten used to the off Broadway and recorded casts. So this is different, but they're doing an amazing job.

Ricky, I am going to take away your squeeze keys privileges. Stop memeing

Noel please to not moan

Constance and Mischa did a little handshake

Ocean keeps kicking Karnak before her songs

Constance and ocean did a little handshake

Fun fact: mischa slaps less asses in this version

talia is such a beautiful song you guys

TALIA AND MISCHA GET TO DANCE TOGETHER IN THE FAST PART ON THE PROJECTION

ok so noel went over to comfort mischa after the song ended and he just sort of grabbed him and hugged him and it was the sweetest thing

"what if people cant handle what I have to say" well we can't but I am looking forward to it so go ahead

I don't know how they managed it but they hypersexualised SABM

(ok so they changed it to "mysteriously stopped talking" which i think i prefer because that means that he is now choosing to speak, rather than now able to. Selective mutism? I also like how the second he gets to the afterlife he isn't just free of the chair or cane, he keeps them.)

I love Ricky so much you guys

He has an electric guitar

also he didn't concede, i don't know why

Jane seems genuinely sad and afraid

it continues to baffle me that these women can hit the notes

I love Jane

I know I have said this a lot but I love them all so much my little dead children

Constance's monologue always makes me cry

I haven't cried at sugar cloud like this since the first time I watched rtc

ok im sorry if this is an unpopular opinion but I like how she does sugar cloud more than the cast recording

Karnak you bitch

*don't cry don't cry don't cry don't cry don't cry don't cry don't cry don't cry*

karnak's death was a lot more chaotic

*don'tcrydontcrydontcrydontcry*

[elmatadorisgay]

❤️‍🩹 virgsson for the heart emoji drabble

Don't have anything specific, it's up to you, but something like Virgil comforting Ali with the goalie's hamstring injury knocking him out of some games

Oh yay I've been waiting for another one of these. They're fun to do and good writing practice.

Virgil Van Dijk/Alisson hurt/comfort

"Ali?!" Virgil shouts into the house as he enters. The tall Dutchman pushes his leg against the door, shutting it with a soft thud. A pair of keys is wrapped around his fingers in one hand as his other cradles a to go box, containing food. The container still feels quite hot against his arm. Silence rings through the house as only the sound of Virgil's large steps echo through the hall. He makes his way into the living room. There he finds Alisson laying on his back on the couch. His injured leg is raised onto some pillows as it's sheathed in a compression cast. Along with that a pair of crutches sits propped against one side of the couch. Virgil smiles slightly as he sees the man still where he left him. He approaches quietly as Alisson turns to face him, eyes opening slowly. Virgil sets the box of food down onto the coffee table before the couch. He leans down to give Alisson a hug, gently squeezing his waist. "How are you feeling?" He asks softly. Alisson leans into him, nuzzling against his neck soft and sleepily. "I'm still in pain but it feels better. I have been really missing everyone and being able to work." He admits drearily. Virgil gives him a sympathetic frown and pats his shoulder gently. "We all get like that. The team misses you too." The Dutchman nods to his Brazilian counterpart. He leans in and kisses Alisson's cheek softly. His pale fingers come up to Virgil's dark, luscious curls, pulling at the bun they're secured in. His nimble hands make quick work of releasing the elastic holding the curls in place. Virgil doesn't try to move away as his hair falls out to just barely brush the tops of his shoulders. Alisson's fingers run through the tight coils of Virgil's black hair, getting caught by them slightly. The Dutchman lets out a soft hum at the touch as he allows the Brazilian's fingers through his hair for a moment. Virgil soon pulls back, turning away slightly to the coffee table. He picks the to-go box up and brings it over to Alisson. The man shifts slowly to sit up.

"Anyway I brought some food back for you." Virgil adds. He made sure to text Alisson while the team was out for dinner today. Virgil brings the box over, setting it on Alisson's lap. "I got the Salmon dinner for you. I think you'll like it." His hands come to the lid of the box, opening it up with a styrofoam creaking. The scent of the dish is warm and fishy with a slight lemon aroma. Inside the box is a filet of salmon sat atop a bed of rice along with a few lemon slices as garnish.

"Thank you, amorzinho." Alisson smiles greatfully at him. He grabs the fork from inside the box, taking it into his hand. Virgil nods, standing up straight once more. He turns slightly to leave the room and get himself cleaned up until Alisson stops him. "Could you also get me a glass of water please?" He requests softly. Virgil turns back towards him at the question. His soft blue-green eyes look up at Virgil almost as if they have hearts in them.

"Of course sweetheart." Virgil smiles with his pearly whites. He makes his way into the kitchen. Virgil opens the glass cabinet, pulling one out before closing the medium toned wooden door. He brings it over to the fridge and places the glass under the tap in the fridge. The filtered water pours into the glass. Virgil waits until its almost completely full, only stopping it when there's a few inches of air in the glass. He ambles back into the living room, where he hears metal scraping against the styrofoam quietly along with Alisson's chewing of the fish meat. "Here you are. I hope you weren't too lonely while I was gone." He remarks with a smile as he hands the glass to Alisson. The Brazilian's pale hand curls around the glass, their hands coming in contact gently.

"To be honest, it is a little bit. Especially with how quiet it is here." Alisson admits. He pauses to take a sip of water from the glass. "Thank you, though. It makes things better to know you and the others are looking out for me." He adds with a sweet fondness in his voice.

Also if you want the original post for this heart emoji drabbles see my post here:

[wolves-etc]

notes from a convo with @darkfinch that we both got carried away with:

— the actor's terrible wig is also Anton's wig (picture him taking it off post-episode in a moment of emotional exhaustion and vulnerability and only having something between stubble and short scruffy curls beneath, it's touching, right)

— Anton is shorter than Clayne Crawford (there's a bizarrely contradictory arrest record with a typo in it that I'll add below the cut)

AND, BEST WORST OF ALL,

— Virgil (evil bf) likes his lovers to wear fingerless gloves. I'd add picture evidence (the nameless woman who slips out at the beginnning of the awful confrontation scene) but tumblr might well bonk it so please just enjoy glovéd Anton all over again.

and the promised arrest record:

notable points: — wallet name is indeed Jeremy Parks — he's listed as 5'9" despite the mugshot clearly showing him over 6' — hair colour listed as R, presumably red; curly brown(?) hair in the mugshot — no tattoos in the identifying marks section despite the one visible in the mugshot (I actually don't blame them for that, CC's tattoos are a lot to square away with his characters) — DATE OF OFFESNSE

[ghostslimu]

introduction 2.0 the updated edition

UPDATE: art account wooo!! @ghostslimu-art hi! this used to be a system blog but turns out we have a lot more to say! cw a lot of text. like, a wall of text. sorry formatting not my hobby

(scroll a little for DNI)

about me ("host" or rather, most frequent fronter): - i go by virgil (or mika), he/him - 18 (body's age) - in a lot of (pretty mainstream, sorry) fandoms but will probably never talk about them here - transmasc (mostly binary, just some guy) bi and on the aroace spectrum!! - in an (outer system) poly relationship with 2 dudes who have no idea this blog exists - formally diagnosed with a lot of stuff but that's none of your business - i write! very rarely also draw - i like horror and romance and sometimes fantasy!!

about the whole system: - we don't have a system name sadly sorry - a lot of alters, even more fragments (50+) - traumatized, putting the dissociative and disorder in DID. being a system is, generally for us, not all that fun - no collective stance on syscourse, so don't ask us about it. each alter is entitled to their own opinion, and most of us just don't care enough to have one, sorry - all information on introjects and littles will be kept off this blog for our own safety, unless they want to participate in posting in the future! - we want to reblog more but are often too shy to interact with other people #socialanxiety, so this blog is mostly just a collection of our stream of consciousness, sorry about that. this is less of a social media profile and more of an archive - all posts are rebloggable and can be reblogged by anyone no need to even ask

strict DNI: - basic criteria. racists, antisemites, homophobes, maps, terfs, etc. - believe in "narcissistic abuse" or "borderline abuse" or any other "disorder + abuse" format - fakeclaimers - porn blogs

loose DNI (aka "it depends"): - proshipper, the term is so broad it can mean whatever so to make it clear: if you fetishize and glamorize incest or pedophilia, that's gross. if you just want to ship problematic (consenting) couples, that's fine!! if you write or read about heavy disturbing topics with critical thought, that's also fine - aesthetic blogs, if you're just here to reblog our vents. our suffering isn't pretty - strong opinions on syscourse, because we won't be able to collectively agree with you. if you only follow strictly pro or anti blogs, then this one might not be for you!! - young people. generally, there won't be anything explicitly 18+ on here, but please beware and follow at your own risk!! also, if you're too young to be on this site, you're also too young to follow. we feel most comfortable with people/systems who are (bodily) 18+ - ed blogs. i get it, i've been formally diagnosed. if you relate to a mental health post, you relate to it. feel free to reblog, just don't add any triggering commentary to any of our posts, thank u system members (here's where there used to be picrews but our appearances fluctuate so frequently, there's not much sense to that): kurt - caretaker/manager/fronting gatekeeper - 27 - he/him salem - former persecutor/now protector - 16 - she/they griffin - protector - 16 - he/they mici - headspace gatekeeper/archivist - ageless - they/he/she meta (formerly bunny) - former little - ageless - they/them svi - persecutor - 17 - he/they freddie - protector - 20-something - he/him the rest won't use this blog/are kept private for safety reasons!! please do not ask about them unless we're friends!! also keep in mind that we don't sign off as we're often blurry and it's just too much work!

[angrycloudcrown]

~ PINNED POST ~

yeah idk how pinned posts work go easy on me

Fandoms

★ The Music Freaks (All time fav!!)

★ The Disastrous Life of Saiki K (2nd Fav)

(Please talk about TMF or TDLOSK to me. Or honestly just talk about them in general. I'M BEGGING AAAAHHHH)

★ Heathers: The Musical (songs are all BANGERS)

★ Ride The Cyclone (sugar cloud solos!! <3)

★ Sanders Sides (virgil kinnie...)

★ Doki Doki Literature Club (just monika.)

★ Amanda the Adventurer (horror enjoyer at times)

★ Mia's World (webcomic by Mogry331)

★ Cuphead (both game and show)

★ Andy's Apple Farm (horror enjoyer at times part 2)

★ Don't Hug Me I'm Scared (there's 3 of us—)

★ Undertale (sans and papyrus best duo)

★ Be More Chill (do i really have to explain this one?)

★ The Amazing Digital Circus

★ I'm In Love With The Villianess

★ Five Nights At Freddy's (ive been a fan for years how have i never put this in my fandom section. anyway horror enjoyer at times part 3)

★ Kindergarten 1 and 2 Games (DanTDM'S playthroughs got me, great game)

★ Riddle School

★ Baldi's Basics In Education And Learning

★ Nerdy Prudes Must Die

★ My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (not in the weird way. just. just the normal pony show way)

★ Hazbin Hotel (im a bit disappointed for caving and watching the show, but oh well)

★ Pokémon (more specifically the anime, but I am in love with the games too)

★ Steven Universe (the 2018 fandoms never leave, they simply linger)

★ Avatar: The Last Airbender

★ Parappa the Rapper

★ Stardew Valley

★ Ramshackle

★ There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension

★ Friday Night Funkin'

★ The Amazing World of Gumball

★ Bistro Huddy

★ Night At The Museum

Goddamn my fandom section is getting long

(more to be added can't remember them all off the top of my head but these are the main ones I like and interact with)

Basic Info

you can just call me "ash"

use she/her may change, idk???

my gender and sexuality is a mystery beyond mankind! i dont know, and you also dont know. (i identify myself as unlabeled/queer)

if you interact and i see anything on your blog relating to you being racist, homophobic, transphobic, sexist, pedophilic, proship/comship, or literally just anything related to being a bigot, im not arguing with you, i will block you without hesitation (blogs with excessive genuine kink/sexual content will also be blocked, not cause theyre problematic tho, its just one of things im personally uncomfy with)

i don't mind being tagged in posts, but i might not respond immediately :')

i stand in favor of palestine. 🇵🇸

Sideblogs

uhm

@speedydestinydream - my sideblog for the gacha series "The Music Freaks" by Rosyclozy

@tdlosk-confessions - my sideblog for confessions about the fandom or series of "The Disasterous Life of Saiki K" (both manga and anime obv lol. only one moderator and it is me)

that's it!!!

I'll add more later lollllll

[beeceit]

Thomas: It's Furby Time!

Logan, holding a furby boom: This is Madame Razz

Patton, holding a 2005 furby: This is Throckmorton!

Janus, holding a furby connect: This is raspberry sherbert

Remus, holding a diy furby: THIS IS BONGWATER!

Roman, holding a plushified classic furby: And this is Plague Baby Slut Boi

[sure-i-exist]

Things i want Before Sanders Sides Ends:

• Logan says a sentence purely made out of slang and someone (I'm vibing with Virgil or Janus) needs to translate.

• Remus and Janus interacting in canon, no angst. Just Remus making fun of Janus and Janus laughing and just generally being the only one who's cool with Remus.

• A song between the "dark" sides altogether, mostly angst between Janus and Virgil but Remus is constantly interrupting them with random not-so-fun facts.

As you can see, I have a bias when talking about characters. But anyway! Imma tag peeps because I wanna hear them continue this post: @thefingergunsgirl @five-falseh00ds-ph0nated @kawaiikat54 @ninathepancake @sanderssstuff @wasinotwantedatthisexactsecond and whoever I forgot. Y'all are cool and hopefully can have conprehendable thoughts

[poggersmoment]

baking headcanons for the sides other than patton, because i all too often see patton associated with baking and needed a bit of variety

logan

• tends to stick to tried and true, "we know this gets favorable reception" recipes

• tries his hardest to get the measurements exactly right, no more or no less than what the recipe calls for

• even though he knows most of his usual recipes by heart he still digs them out, just in case

• despite the meticulousness of it, logan really enjoys baking, and if he thinks no one is paying attention, he'll often crack a smile or hum under his breath while he bakes

• he loves seeing the others enjoy his baking, and even so much as a "this is good, logan!" will make his day

roman

• attempts really hard / complicated recipes, like the kind you'd see contestants in baking shows make

• although sometimes his creations don't come out looking the best, they're undoubtedly good

• never makes the same thing twice - if he's making something he's made before, there's a good chance he's either done something new with it, or he's stuck in a creative rut and needs some helping out

• he loves to experiment, whether it's a bit more or less of a certain ingredient, a new ingredient entirely, or something like food coloring

• thrives with positive feedback and constructive criticism, and loves to share the things he makes with the others

virgil

• tends to get late night cravings for something sweet, so he can often be found in a dimly lit kitchen at 3am, with a simple recipe pulled up through google and music blaring through his headphones

• "simple" usually means cookies, whether it be sugar, or chocolate chip, or the occasional snickerdoodle

• knows the things he bakes aren't particularly special, but doesn't really care. as long as he can get that something sweet he needs, he's content

• usually ends up baking more than he needs or could ever eat on his own, so virgil leaves notes for the others telling them the cookies are free reign until it becomes an unspoken thing that if a plate of cookies is sitting on the kitchen counter in the morning, to make sure you get as much as you want before they run out

• acts like he doesn't care if the others eat his cookies, but internally gets very happy every time he sees logan grabbing one with his morning coffee, or remus and roman ransacking the kitchen and running out with half the batch, or janus casually sneaking one or two with a glass of milk every once in a while

janus

• is the kind of person to never use a recipe off the internet in his life, all the ones he uses are ones he knows by heart and would only share with people he really trusts

• basically, he's the grandma who only passes on her recipes to one of the grandkids, and swears them to secrecy until they have a grandkid of their own they can pass it on to

• said recipes almost always have some unorthodox step that you have to do and do right otherwise it won't taste right

• doesn't bake all that often, really, but when he does, you have to make sure you get your cut quickly otherwise it disappears and it disappears very fast

• is flattered by the fact everyone equally seems to enjoy his baking, because despite the fact he's been told it's good multiple times, he still doubts himself

remus

• likes to make things that look gross, but taste fantasic, in a "trick the senses" kind of way

• with smaller projects, he often has troubles sitting out the baking times and ends up just eating the batter, which, maybe unsurprisingly, has never gotten him sick

• remus's creations tend to last longer than the other's, but not because they don't like them, but more because remus likes to bake in bigger quantities than the others do

• his recipes are surprisingly meticulous and hard to pull off correctly, and sometimes he has to call in someone to help him out. it's always worth it, though

• just like roman, he thrives with compliments and constructive criticism, but also loves to hear ideas from the others about what the next thing he bakes should look like and often takes them into account

[thefreakinthemirror]

i come bearing my thoughts/theories about the new sanders sides episode, so spoiler warning for that!! 1. thomas's little quip at the beginning about all his interactions with the sides basically being a dream/hallucination has had me fucked up all night. he had no right throwing that joke at me because i did not take it as one /lh 2. logan comments about how they've only had a little over 9 hours of screen time together, not counting the "interactions that are not considered canonical to the core series." to me, this hints at the sides not spending significant amounts of time personified with thomas unless he's in a dilemma, which would make sense when thought about. the sides do spend time together in the mind palace though, which is referenced later. 3. ROMAN IS A CONFIRMED GEMINI (HE SAYS SO HIMSELF!!!) WHICH MEANS REMUS IS ALSO A GEMINI. (this isn't really important canonically but it's fucking funny okay.) 4. JANUS'S FIRST NICKNAME GIVEN IS "BANANACONDA" IS NO ONE GOING TO TALK ABOUT THIS??? (also probably not important but also equally hilarious.) 5. "nothing compared to what's coming up" REMUS PLEASE THIS IS THE SECOND TIME IN THE SPAN OF TWO VIDEOS BACK TO BACK THAT YOU'VE TRIED AND FAILED TO VAGUELY REFERENCE FUTURE LORE AND IF YOU'RE TRYING TO KILL ME IT'S WORKING. 6. logan talks about their "day-to-day interactions" and how they're getting better at communicating and acting better toward each other. he also, however, hints at the other sides continuing to not listen to him. the poor baby please he's trying his best. 7. remus brings up the mind palace!! i almost forgot that place existed tbh. 8. remus and janus hang out together!!! they even go to what i assume is the sides' general place in thomas's mind (mind palace probably???) when the lights aren't around. 9. which, brings up another point. that means that remus and janus don't hang around the others (which is almost a given), but it also hints at the light sides and the dark sides having different places of residence. 10. janus and virgil apparently wrote a song together??? which means they had shared hobbies and bonded to an extent when virgil was a dark side. (snatching that for new headcannons.) 11. when roman talks about a "new addition to the cast" (talking about nico) thomas panics for half a second, and looks so relieved once he specifies. ah, thomathy. so clueless, yet so aware. 12. LOVE HOW LOGAN REFERENCES THE BLOOPERS WITH VETAL MIKING 13. when asked "what do you think is next?" logan, roman, and patton all respond positively with their hopes and goals. virgil is virgil and remus is remus, as always, but janus intrigued me: "Oh, who's to say? Heartbreak, betrayal. You won't be bored, I can tell you that." he says it with such a soft, almost caring tone. and his expression at the end is almost melancholy, in a way?? it may just be me, but, ughh. he knows something is going on, and to me it seems like he's almost sorry about it. after all, he does just want what's best for thomas. he's said so himself, and that might just be one of the only times he didn't lie. 14. THE ORANGE AT THE END??? REALLY THOMAS??? REALLY YOU BASTARD??? and don't get me started about the trailer for the new series because that's a whole other can of worms that will drive me crazy if i open it. but, anyway, yeah, there are my thoughts. feel free to add.

[wholesome-lee-trash]

Maybe a story with Lee!Virgil and Ler!Logan where Logan's all cold and sciencey cuz it's one of his "experiments" but you know he actually does care

Fandom: Sanders Sides

Characters: Lee!Virgil, Ler!Logan

Ships: Analogical/none

Word count: 782

Warnings: None that I can think of, tell me if I need to add!

A/N: I think I took the "sciencey" aspect of this prompt a little far, but also it's really sweet so... I hope you like it!

Run a Gel

Virgil had offered to help Logan with his experiments. It's like what they say. You never really know a guy until you run a... well, whatever, with him.

"Virgil, please hand me the .5 to 10 microliter pipette." He says, nodding to the array of random objects in front of him.

"Uh..." He guessed at which was the right one, and picked up the 20 to 200 one instead. "This?"

"Yes." Logan grabs the pipette, and notices it's the large one. "Actually, I need the smaller one." Virgil's internal monolog shamed him for grabbing the wrong tool. How dare he mess up?

"Sorry."

"It's perfectly fine, Virgil. I don't expect you to know everything I do." He pulled some DNA into the tube, and loaded the already prepared well. He looked over at Virgil. "Would you like to try?"

"Oh, uh, no, no thanks." Logan sighs, knowing that Virgil is anxious. He poked him in the side, and watched as he jumped.

"You're fine, Virgil. It's perfectly alright to mess up, everyone does." He ejects the contaminated tip into the bio-hazard bag and gets another tip. "So, would you like to try?"

"I don't even know how, Logan. Maybe you should do it." Logan rolls his eyes and hands him the pipette, standing behind him. Logan rests one hand on his side and the other over Virgil's, guiding him. "Feel this? It's the first stop." He pushes the thumb down to the first stop. "And the second stop." He pushes it down further, and lifts their thumbs up. "Now you want to push it down to the first stop." He starts wiggling his fingers into Virgil's side, causing him to almost drop the pipette.

"Ah! Logan!"

"What? Oh, you're really excited to learn, aren't you? Well, now stick the tip into the DNA here." Logan guides Virgil's hand, while pressing a tiny bit harder into Virgil's side.

"L-Lohohogahan! Dohohon't!"

"And lift your thumb." He ignores the anxious side. "Good. Now take out the pipette." He guides his hand to over the well. "Virgil?" He moves the hand tickling his side up to his ribs, where he clawed over them.

"Lohoho! Ihihi cahahan't dohoho ihihit! You- you're tihihickling mehehe!"

"Am I?" He asks, vibrating his fingers in the spaces, making it so much worse for poor Virgil.

"Yehehe- Lohohohogahan, plehease!"

"Alright, fine." Logan stops his tickling hand, resting it on his side. "Press it to the second stop." So he guides Virgil's thumb to do just that, bring it out, and eject the tip.

"Only 6 more times. Now that you know how to do it, I want you to try by yourself."

"But-"

"It doesn't matter if you mess up. Ok?"

"Ok." Virgil picks up the pipette and gets a new tip. He gets some DNA, but before he can try to get it into the well, Logan starts tickling his sides again.

"Wahait! Logan, I cahan't- you're gonna make mehe mess uhup!"

"You're doing great, Virgil. Just expell the DNA into the well." Logan whispers into his ear.

"Nohohoahaha!" He tries to push it to the second stop, but he was shaking too much from all the laughing.

"It's ok if you don't get it in the well. Just, try to get it in the general area?" Logan asks, moving his hands up to skitter around in his armpits.

"Ah! Logahahan!" His arms go down on instinct.

"Come on, Virgil. Gotta get it, at least close to the well!"

"Sohohomewhehere ehehelse!"

"Ok." Logan responds, moving his hands down to his sides again. Virgil giggles, lifting his hands to try to get the DNA in the well again.

This happened 5 more times, and Logan finally stopped when he was done.

"Oho, Lohohahagahan." Virgil collapsed backwards into his arms.

"There's still one more thing." Logan turned on the power supply for the gel electrophoresis tank. He watched it, making sure it was working. "There." He wrapped both arms around Virgil, who was still laid against him.

"Ihi'm tihired, Lohogan."

"Yeah, I bet. You did really well, considering. Probably better than I would've done."

"Really?"

"Really."

A few more minutes pass, and Logan takes the gel out of the tank. He puts it over the ultraviolet light and turns it on.

The farther over it got, the more smudged it looked.

"It's not horrible, considering I was tickling you the whole time." He says, pointing to the better rows.

"But it's smudged, it's not supposed to be-"

"No, but you did really well, Virgil. I'm proud of you."

"Well- uh... thanks."

"No, thank you for helping me." And if Virgil decided to help him more often? Well, it was between him and Logan.

[beauty-and-passion]

Silly fun challenge prompt: what languages do you associate with the Sides/what would be the 2nd language each Side learn?

For example I am a big fan of Hispanic (Spanish speaking) Creativitwins fanon. And c! Thomas too could've learnt Spanish in high school and the fact his love interest is hispanic too just makes perfect sense-

And in contrast to Hispanic twins I headcanon Janus as a francophone (French speaking) for two reasons: 1) it was still lingua franca around Victorian era, his aesthetic inspiration and 2) dividing American high school by Spanish class vs. French class is like causing Civil War (I was and still am a language nerd, so I learnt both languages, which was a mistake but the kind of mistake that was worth it when you think about it later)

German suites Logan since lots of famous philosophers are German. I associate Japanese or Korean with Virgil since those two are really dominant in the current subculture world (and maybe our emo could've been inspired and turn into E-boy - wow that sounds terrifying)

I don't have strong preference on Patton's but Italian sounds nice, since all those music and dessert and anything sweet are often from Italy. And maybe 'Orange' can be some language that sounds harsh like Russian, so he can murmur in that in sleep and scares everyone else

I know you're in Europe: 1) you use GMT and 2) Americans wouldn't care about Eurovision. So I wonder how you would think based on your European experience!

Oooh, I like this! As European Who Studied Languages, I definitely approve this and I'll gladly add my two cents about which languages the sides should learn.

_________

Roman: He canonically knows Spanish and that's perfect like that. Spanish is a romantic language, someone speaks Spanish and you can't help but swoon. It’s a great choice for the Side responsible for romance and passion.

_________

Remus: Remus isn't just intrusive thoughts, but there’s a very high chance he’s also responsible for Thomas' sexual urges. So, what is the language made for sex? You’re right, it’s French. French is sexy. You can say anything in French and bam, ✨sexy ✨.

"Je sors la poubelle." Sexy, isn't it? Well, I just said "I'm taking out the trash". See? Very sexy.

(French people, please confirm my words. We all know it’s true)

_________

Janus: Your points are incredibly valid and I love them. But if we should choose among all languages, I would love Janus to be one of the very few (extremely few) people in the world who can speak Latin.

I know Latin is a dead language, but it would be great - and not just because of the connection with his name.

Let’s consider that the other Romance languages, despite evolving from Latin, cannot entirely understand it, because they all changed a lot through the centuries after mixing with the Germanic ones. On the other hand, the Germanic languages (English, German, Swedish and so on) are part of a completely different group, only slightly influenced by Latin, so they cannot understand it.

In other words, Janus would speak a language that only sounds familiar - and maybe you can grasp a couple words here and there if you know a romance language, but the true meaning is hidden. What is he actually saying? Who knows. Is he actually cursing someone? Who knows. After all, do you understand Latin? Yeah, me neither.

If I have to pick a language that is still spoken today instead, I think I'll join you with French. Your points are valid and French is a very elegant language, fitting for Janus’ whole aesthetic. So yes, French could work.

_________

Logan: German is a great choice and you are absolutely right with your point about the philosophers. Also German is a language of harsh sounds and strict grammar rules - for example:

declensions that should be used accordingly for articles, adjectives and nouns

specific verbs for specific meanings

words made by putting together shorter words (like Haustürschlüssel.  Haustür means “front door”, Schlüssel means “key” -> this word means “front door’s key”)

sentences that should follow a specific construction, with parts of the compound verb after the noun and part at the end of the sentence. And secondary phrases also have a specific syntax and should always be introduced by a comma

In other words, it's a very organized language and I think it would fit Logan.

But also, considering that almost all words related to science and philosophy come from Greek, I think Logan should at least understand some Greek. As a treat.

(Also because Greek is another incredibly complicated language, so if someone has the patience to learn it, it’s definitely Logan.)

_________

Virgil: oh my gosh, I never thought about an eastern language for Virgil. In a way, it would be a very peculiar choice and I kinda like it. Japanese and Korean are extremely complicated languages, they have a very specific alphabet (I'm especially thinking about the Japanese one, that even asks for a specific direction to write words) and require a lot of work (and memory) to learn them.

But Virgil is also a poet and when I think of poets and sonnets my first connection is with the french ennui, le mal du vivre and especially Baudelaire and his works. Virgil would appreciate Baudelaire a lot. So French, again.

But hey, there’s too much French now. So I’ll pick the other european literature full of sadness: the russian one.

Russian is supposed to be a big scary language and its alphabet is weird and omg what if they're cursing us? But if you learn it a little bit, you’ll find out that Russian has a lot of soft/open sounds (due to a good use of vowels) and it's very poetic.

So the language itself is a bit like Virgil: he seems scary and evil at a first glance, but if you learn about him, he's actually kinder than he looks.

But never underestimate Russian, because just like Anxiety, fear is just behind the corner: you start learning it and wow, there is just one present tense, one past tense and one future tense? This is great, what a wonderful language!

And then, before you’ll realize it, you will find out that each verb has a “doppelganger” used for entirely different purposes AND there a gazillion verbs of motion and you will end up crying on the floor, because there are just too many verbs - and look, there are also one trillion particles you can put before these verbs and they give them EVEN MORE MEANINGS.

No, this isn't entirely based on my personal experience, what makes you think that.

_________

Patton: I have never thought about Patton learning another language, because English just fits him too well.

But when you proposed Italian... well, my heart just wiped out everything else. There is nothing here, only Patton speaking Italian.

So yes, Patton's second language should be Italian. No, it must be Italian. Because French is the language of sex, Spanish is the language of love, but if you want to declare your eternal love to someone, you use Italian. Do you want to marry someone? Italian. Do you want to tell your significant other how much you adore them? Italian. Italian has one million ways to express love and Patton should use them all with his kiddos.

And yes, Italian is also associated with warm people, warm places and good food, all things Patton deserves and should enjoy. So Italian is a big yes.

_________

Orange: since Orange is a mystery, I am a bit torn between these two languages:

1) Esperanto: This language is amazing, because it isn’t a natural language, born like all others, but it has been built by a man, who wanted to create an universal language in order to foster world peace and international understanding.

So this language has been created to be as simple as possible, with a very regular grammar (unlike all other natural languages) and its words all have references to other language groups (romance, germanic, slavic, indo-europeans, finno-ugric languages and so on).

And if you actually listen to it (especially if you know some latin languages) you will find it weirdly understandable. I found this video in particular and I was impressed by how strangely familiar esperanto sounds.

And... that’s it, I just think it would be kinda poetic that the last side knows a language that all others can use and understand.

2) A Greenlandic language. Why? Because they are insanely polysynthetic.

What does that mean? If in German you can make words by putting together other two/three words (like in the example I used before), in the Greenlandic languages you can build an entire sentence by putting together nouns, verbs, articles and everything else. All together in one single word, whose meaning can be translated with an entire sentence in another language.

Do you want an example? Here is an example from Wikipedia: tuntussuqatarniksaitengqiggtuq.

Yes, this is a word.

This word is from the Yupik language and means "He had not yet said again that he was going to hunt reindeer.". And this word is made of:

tuntu- (= reindeer)

ssur-  (= hunt)

qatar- (future tense)

ni- (= say)

ksaite- (negative)

ngqiggte- (= again)

uq  (3rd.sing.IND)

Is this insane? This is fucking insane. Do you want to be scared? This is real fear. What the heck. How. Why.

You know what? This is perfect for Orange, I’ll leave Esperanto to Thomas. Orange deserves to be this scary. I can already see the other sides quiver before him.

_________

And so, here are my guesses! If someone has other ideas, feel free to add yours and tell us why, so we can all have a nice discussion :D