#and even if I'm not technically right honestly it's such a neat reading of the way he reacts to things I'm gonna keep it

[martianbugsbunny]

"Can you wipe out that much red?" and "You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate, to have your own code. Something that makes up for the horrors. But they are a part of you, and they will never go away!" that kind of gives Loki talking about himself. In Dark World it seems like he feels there's no way he can possibly repair the relationships he's broken, so there's no point in trying or even showing that he's remorseful and willing to work to amend things. Maybe in Avengers he's already starting to realize that he's gone too far, starting to think there's no coming back from what he's done and he might as well just live in it because there's no chance of making things right. In the Battle of New York, when he's fighting close-quarters with Thor, he seems genuinely frightened of what's happening around him for a moment, but he says "It's too late" and then stabs Thor. It's too late to stop the fight, it's too late for him to switch sides, it's too late to make up for what he's done, it's too late to have a better relationship with his family.

[thebomb-thebird-andtheburntbitch]

This is technically a continuation of this post!!

-x-x-x-

prohero!bakugou who's been gone on an overseas mission for months with no contact to those who he left in Japan

any down time he's got he's at least reading through the texts he gets

a few from his mom, a couple from his dad, maybe a handful from his friends about all sorts of random shit he may or may not care about

then he's reading all of yours. He'll read all the new ones, then if he's really feeling his Emotions(TM) he'll start rereading everything

he'll also catch up on his voicemails, even if he doesn't have very many because most people know he won't listen to them or he'll go into his mailbox and just start mass deleting

but he does listen and keep all of yours

i mean, why wouldn't he? he asked you to do exactly what you've been doin everyday since he left

highlight of his days honestly

he's convinced that its the daily messages from you that help keep him off the next flight home- it sort of eases the urge to just go back home

but he does the mission from start to finish and when his date back is finally set he's itching to get back to familiar sights, soil, smells and the place where you are

but even when he knows when he'll be home, he still has no jurisdiction to tell you that

he'd have to wait until he's on the plane back home or even landed before he could whip out his phone and speed dial your phone

when he's packing his bag for his return trip, he's never been so disorganized in his life

when he packs for trips, he always prefers to separate everything. all his shirts are folded, his pants are rolled for optimum space, boxers are neat with his socks, toiletries are sealed in a waterproof bag and placed as flat as can be

now?

he's thrown all his shit inside the case and made it fit by force. squishing it all down and pinching the zipper together

he did not care if the zipper busted- he was ready to go the hell home

the entire flight home he was jittery. leg bouncing, finger tapping, arms crossed

he tried sleeping to pass the time, but he couldn't seem to calm down

most of the returning heroes who were coming home with him didn't even try and strike up conversation to make the flight go by quicker in fear of him snapping at them out of sheer impatience

when the plane finally lands, he's first off the plane and first to bag claim and first out the door onto the familiar streets of japan

"holy fuckin' shit," he's mutter, finally feeling relaxed before whipping out his phone and texting you

-wake up-

it was the middle of the afternoon and he didn't know if you were even home or asleep, but it was the only thing he could think to say strangely enough

-you can text!!-

he chuckles as he pulls his suitcase along with him against a wall. standing in the shade, he's attention is solely focused on his phone

he's glad you responded so quickly

it's been so long he couldn't remember your schedule anymore or if it had changed since he left

-i can do a lot more than that-

without much more prodding, your contact was flashing over his screen and he waits maybe a second (if we're being generous) to answer and push his phone to his ear

visibly exhaling when you start talking

"katsuki!"

"you don't need to shout, stupid"

"i'm excited, don't shout shame me. where are you? it's pretty loud over there. meeting? are you supposed to be on the phone right now"

he chuckles at your skeptical nature- like he'd break rules on a big time job in the first place

he's not that stupid

"i'm at the airport, i'm not gonna get my ass railed for being on my own damn phone"

despite his cursing, you laugh

then you register 'airport'

"you're coming home?!"

"nah, babe, i'm already here. come get me."

"what?!"

he barks at the sounds of your rushing around the house, probably scrambling to slip on the easiest pair of shoes you have and a jacket

"i'll be there in like 10 minutes. 20 is traffic is bad!"

"the traffic is always bad"

"i'm hanging up!"

he could hear your excitement before the line cuts and he's grinning before he's sending small texts to his friends signaling his return

when he sees your car pull up to the curb, he's pushing off the wall he's been resting against and you're jumping out of the car

he nearly has a heart attack since you didn't look at the road before rushing out and car were just whipping behind you

"moron! watch where you're going!" he's shouting at you as you run up to him

his grip abandons his suitcase handle to grab you as you ran straight into his chest, clinging to him as he took steps backwards from your crashing impact

his eyes almost rolled into his skull at the feel of you in his arms again after so long

he was positive he'd finally be able to have a good nights rest tonight, he can feel it in his exhausted bones

you pull away from him just enough to look into his eyes and he can see the shine of tears in yours, his hands resting on your hips just enough to sway you back and forth

"welcome home," you greet him

"yeah," he kisses your head "i'm home"

and he wasn't going anywhere else anytime fuckin' soon

[docilepillow]

MARCH 2024 MEDIA DIARY 2

I ran out of embed space on the first post i had slotted in for this!!! So i'm making two posts!!!!!!! They belong together!!!! Okay!!!!!!! PIZZA TOWER < this game is soggy goop >

Even though I cleared a good portion of this game nigh a year ago now, i still feel compelled to put it on my media diary now, as i've only just got around to finishing the game properly! I believe the point i dropped off the game before was at Pig City, which, i think , is kinda understandable given how big that level is, but, was probably a real bummer for the whole of my friend group who were super into the game when it was new and i probably missed out on talking about it alot with them... POOP!!!! just because this game is popular enough to actually warrant talking about it with my friends later, instead of saying stuff like how i enjoyed the silly cartoony art stlye and the games general charm, im just going to post a level tier list i made the second i beat the game at like near midnight kinda hazy-minded without thinking on it too hard without thinking too deeply in a way thatll be completely inflamitory bc im mostly satisfied with the experience i had and dont really feel the urge to P rank anything --

The stats are saying my total hours round up to 6 hours 50 and pepinno is pointing at me Aughh

My , , Errr, " CRITISISM " of this game is that the funny pizza man is a little, erm, STICKY? Kinda gross. a little weird. Partially my fault. I'm sowwy. I'm not very good at this game but i absolutely respect everyone's opinion on it . Go watch my friend @shoppncart's speedrun, by the way, it's cool :

Speedy! THE MARIO MOVIE < the bario boooby geheheheheheheh >

this is probably a tired opinion but since i was subjected to this movie for the fifth time in a voice call my take is thaat this is probably more enjoyablel then the safeass illumination film. like. yea. that films probably objectively better but. id rather watch something thats an actual adaptation. like this movie. where basically nothing mario happens outside names . Aw. i honestly think this movie has intrigue to it genuinely maybe im saying this bc its one of the movies ive actually watched repeatedly before, like roger rabbit, but i think the history behind this movie and the old anamocity turned-endearment are what make it worth watching. that and its a little goopy You Guys Wanna See Some MM2 Proggys? not a new piece of media technically but ive been playing a fuckton of MM2 recently still as of the end of the month and its absolutely dominating my time as of late, and i kinda wanna show off a small amount of the progress ive made on it, as much as the world map, at least --

It's a media diary. it exists to document MY gaming life. Deal. anyway in regards to it i'm almost finished with the world 4 castle, which is crazy, because before i hadn't even finished world 2, but now i got all of this creative energy in me... If i finish this soon enough, i'd be able to upload it on NSO, so keep your tumpler eyes peeled, mutrals :J I personally like it because theres a theme of aescending on the world map. The space theme in this looks the best, i think.. THE ALCHEMY OF US - HOW HUMANS AND MATTER TRANSFORMED ONE ANOTHER < what the fuck ????? a book ??????? >

yea thats right im reading books this ones actually pretty good apparently a 2020 bestseller though im not in the habit of reading those often so i'll just have to take their word for it on that aspect. i think lifes all about trying new things so around halfway through the month i picked up this cool book i found at my library and got a library card. After reading through it all, i think anecdotally that this book is a very neat read. theres a few sentences that're a little offputting to my young mind but overall the book is filled with alot of cool insight i reccomend checking out if youre the boooky type of person! i think its very good and im glad i picked it out :) i donnu how many of these will be going onto my media diary in the future or anything , but maybe i will if i end up reading more! I'll have to make it up to a friendd for waiting till now to put up something i read here first before that thing she likes. oops.

Volp. OUTSIDE of the traditional media format again, also, are things i largely started on this month but don't think i'll be making all too much more progress in, or if i'm unsure i'll finish what i was doing all in one month- CASTLEVANIA THE ADVENTURE- REBIRTH

POINT OF DROP OFF - STAGE 4 END BOSS REASON BEING - UMMM SORRY I GOT DISTRACTED AND DIED TOO MUCH

castlevania rebirth is a really really cool game. its really cool and im not typing this as fresh as everything else because it was something i picked up for one big sitting earlier in the month. i probably couldve finished it at any point during the week, but simply was too distracted and wanted to do other stuff. It's very cool though, i love the vector sprite art, and there ARE silly stock sound effects everywhere, which is always a big positive for me . I mostly just like how snug the wii classic controller is , and this is a cool game to play it with considering its one of the only non virtual console or old game collection style games available for wii in this exact style ( Not counting the good handful of games that choose to use the wiimote on its side instead. )

over all ill probably sit down and finish this someday soon i just gotta like find time for it whenever next my wii u is plugged in ( it fights for an hdmi slot with my switch and ps4 all the time...! ), and ill probably end up trying to play punch out wii at the same time, given one doesnt dominate my attention over the other. From my understanding they're both short, though, so it shouldnt be too big a deal or obstacle no matter how long i put this off. RANDOM TERRARIA PLAYTHROUGH terraria playthru 1million

ii just really want to see the new terraria update Waaaah... i stopped having fun because i self imposed myself to not use setbonus armor sets at the part of the game where that stops being acceptable anymore so im stopping i think i did get to make another terraria pet though that makes me happy POINT OF DROP OFF - the mechanical bosses

also the most recent thing is

i got too tense and needed to excuse myself after like an hour 30 i cant take too much tension in movies i was really uncomfortable and had to leave to take a breather bc the main character gets put in a really really shitty situation and it was getting hard to watch for my autistic ass

thats enough i think thanks for coming see you next month lol

[dirtyoldmanhole]

so i'm not like, sleepwalking through conquest, it's fun in a 'turn the brain off' sense after a few annoying work days that only FE gameplay can scratch the itch right? it's also neat catching on characterization i completely skipped over the first conquest run.

so i get past the 'elise needs medicine' chapter listen i might be kind of desperate for grandpa

and OMFG I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT THIS PART WHERE ELISE DREAMS ABOUT GUNTER??????? THE WAY I JUST LIT UP LIKE A CHRISTMAS TREE????? aaaaaa

so obviously it's a massive hint dangled that his arc, while extremely short in conquest, isn't over yet.

but DAMN do some of these lines hit so different once when you've romanced him properly/gone through the whole rev shebang T_____T

OW

(azura's pause is because she's been talking with him the whole time, in brief stints, but she can't tell corrin because of the curse that'll kill her if she mentions valla.)

corrin's little pause ... oof.

OW

MY FEELS..........................................................................................

t_ttttt

the lonely bit... ;_; man if elise noticed that... just damn.

I WAS NOT EXPECTING TO GET BRAINED BY A 2X4 OF FEELS OKAY

ngl i do love how corrin's lines are written here, even though gunter's ""death""" hasn't come up beforehand, you can hear that pretty vicious sense of trying to bury the grief hardcore, still, and remain poised.

honestly, corrin's one of the better self inserts of the FE series.

;_;

(and then the scene moves on after)

that's actually interesting that elise has a more than the usual interactions with him in conquest, if i remember right? (since there were the few post endgame that i've technically-read-but-never-actually-played-through where she calls him mean LMAO). genuinely thought she'd be too young to remember him well.

[theartisticintrovert]

Commission Me! (Regular | Furry)

Reference for Kyoku Mizutade from my Yugioh 5D's/Persona 5 crossover fic, Satellite Rising

Don't worry, this isn't an OC. It's actually my redesign for Aki! Honestly I didn't even really change her that much, I just made her like 10% more goth lmao. Anyway I spent way too long designing this outfit so [gently grabs viewer like a squeaky toy] I'm gonna talk about it.

Long rant under the cut, so if you don't wanna read it feel free to scoot lmao.

We all know Aki's outfit, right? Very Victorian-inspired, but with a short pencil skirt and garters. I wanted to keep that same vibe, since I'm a firm believer in letting people wear what they want without judgement. However, I also know that Aki was designed by someone, since she's a character in a story and thus has no actual agency over her own design. Also, she's canonically 16 in season 1, and I really don't like the trend in mid-00s anime to sexualize teenage girls. Hell, it's not like the trend has stopped either, it's still happening! [pointed glance at momo yaoyorozu]

So what I did instead was take a lot of inspiration from gothic lolita fashion, as well as steampunk. Since lolita was first created to be as far from the image of the "ideal woman" as possible, it felt like a good starting point for what I wanted. Same with the corset, I personally believe corsets aren't inherently sexual, so all I did there was give her some little sleeves and a neckline lmao. Beyond that, I just added makeup and piercings.

The makeup was inspired by both corpse paint and visual kei makeup, as well as CV Dazzle, which is the act of using makeup to trick facial recognition. However, CVD is actually deprecated now, since the algorithm it was designed to trick has been improved. Also, I just think it's neat lmao.

I didn't put this in the info since technically in the story we don't know this is Aki yet, but did you know her canonical weight is 43 kilograms? Even at 163 cm, that's very underweight. The healthy weight for a person of that height is between about 44.6 kg and 65.4 kg. That's 94.8 pounds at 5'4 for my American readers, with the healthy weight between 98.3 and 144.2 lbs. For reference, I put Yusei, who's supposed to be malnourished and visibly underweight, at 58 kg for 175 cm (or 128 lbs at 5'7). So uh......I put some meat on her bones lmao. My AU, my rules. She's 54.2 kg now, or 119.5 lbs. A much healthier weight!

[loregoddess]

3, 11, 13 and 14 for the Fire Emblem ask game?

3. What titles have you played? So far I've only been able to play the newest titles, Awakening, Fates, Echoes, Three Houses (and it's Warriors spinoff), and Engage, although I've technically played the DS Shadow Dragon remake via an emulator bc my DS copy got sold but I just uh, got bored and have never finished it. Also playing FE on a computer emulator's a...really weird experience and I prefer using a console, so I've had a hard time getting into the older games (although I did read the entire script for Path of Radiance and part of Radiant Dawn, and one of these days I'll watch playthroughs of both games if IntSys doesn't remake them or port them to a system I actually have).

11. A character that deserved better? Oh where to start. I feel like a lot of the Fates cast suffered in the characterization department bc there were so many characters and the writing team got stretched way thin, and so there's a lot of playable characters that get ignored by both IntSys and the fandom who I think are a delight if people would just look past their joke trait for five seconds, but for unplayable characters I think Lilith could have benefited from more attention bc she's very cool but there's so much going on in Fates that she's kinda...sidelined too. (Also I have a Lot of thoughts about Ikona as a character despite her being very dead, never getting a design, and barely having any story significance, but that's probably more a me thing).

For Echoes definitely Faye (rip) bc damn if the writers and fans didn't do her dirty. Like Fates, we'd be here all day if I listed every grievance I had about every 3H character, but my guy Cyril deserves the world and not the treatment he got from the writers (mostly for the spinoff) and especially not from fans. For Engage, which I am fairly happy with overall, well...Marni, you would have loved Alear's giant friend-family-group if only the writers loved you as much as I (and a few other fans) do.

13. What do you like most about Fire Emblem? Oooh, there's a lot, I mean I keep coming back to the series for a reason, right? I really enjoy the overall gameplay but especially some of the weird mechanics that make it so I can do wild things every playthrough despite usually sticking to similar strategies overall. Narratively I love, love, love the characters and especially the supports, there's always such a wide variety. It's also really neat to see the art style change every few games bc it means there's never really one "look" to FE (even if I'm way biased bc Hidari has been my favorite lead illustrator so far; I really do enjoy seeing all the different art styles, it's so fun). Also the music is always excellent, and I've actually quite enjoyed the full voice acting the past few games

14. Something you really don't like about this series? The fandom. I mean, okay, yes there's lots of things I could complain about for the games themselves (I'm not fond of the loli dragons as a visual design trope, I think a lot of the fantasy racism is handled in poor taste, I'm not a huge fan of the split-routes as a gameplay or story mechanic, the gender-locked classes are so stupid to me, etc. etc.), but like? Honestly more so over the past few years than when I first got into FE, the fandom's been a really exhausting experience bc any problematic tropes that get used in the narrative are nothing compared to the actual issues I've come across in the fandom (i.e. some fans are racist--and specifically antisemetic--towards other fans over these fictional characters, and honestly I think real live people getting harassed over some fiction media is way scarier than the issues of race being handled poorly by the writers).

Like, yes I still haunt the FE tag bc I have half the fandom here blocked, but it's exhausting to have to keep updating my blocklist after so many years. Anytime I talk to someone in-person about FE I always add the "but listen the online fandom sucks, so maybe avoid it". Like, sure the fandom's not as toxic as what I've heard about some other games, but damn.

Not to say the fandom's all bad--I never would have found your blog if not for FE, and there are so many fans who are chill and fun, and I love seeing all the fanart and headcanons and theories and other fun things, and I do enjoy reading a good critical analysis when I can find one too as well as just general analyses like when people look at the Buddhist themes in the games or the recurring narrative themes (brings me back to reading research papers in college if they're written a certain way), and I still love making my own art stuff for FE and coming up with my own silly headcanons and theories and analyses. Because despite everything my experiences with the negative side of the fandom have somehow, miraculously, not withered my deep love of the characters and series overall. So like, there is a lot of good here too, and I try not to focus so much on the negative aspects of things I enjoy bc it doesn't do anything for me. But sometimes I am Very Tired, y'know?

[inthemelancholymoonlight]

Chapter 209 Breakdown (obviously, major spoilers ahead, please read the chapter first, I'm begging you)

SO! Welcome to the first chapter of Claire's narration. :) I wasn't planning on introducing her as a narrator until after the Battle of Hogwarts, but honestly? I wanted to write about her more. And I introduced Ginny as a narrator in Chapter 201, so I figured I should introduce Claire too. We finally have an even distribution of male and female narrators, too! This decision was relatively spontaneous (as in it was planned weeks in advance instead of months or years in advance) but I sincerely hope you enjoy getting to hear Claire's voice and learn more about her even before Lucy gets the chance. Yes, she's Lucy's sister and that automatically makes her cool, but she's her own person too and she's cool just as she is. :) Anyway, this has been a long enough introduction! Let's dive into the chapter itself!

Whatever nightmare I had been having dispersed the second my alarm jarred me awake at 5 AM.

Right off the bat, we learn that Claire a) has nightmares and b) wakes up at an ungodly hour. Nightmares about what? So far unspecified. This does, however, explain the later search for Tenderheart Bear. She must have been moving a lot in her sleep. Anyway, a little food for thought, a discussion for another time.

A cloudy day. No, not just any day, a cloudy Monday.

The decision to start her chapter here, on a Monday morning, was in part influenced by the fact that Lucy's chapter ended when she woke up on a Monday morning. These chapters don't intersect, technically, because time zones exist, but I thought it was a neat little link between the sisters regardless. Furthermore, the next paragraph begins with the phrase I groaned because it's a cloudy day and a cloudy Monday. Why does she hate cloudy days so much? We will find out later in the chapter!

It wasn't often that Tenderheart Bear managed to escape my arms in the middle of the night, but it broke me every time it happened. Sometimes I woke up as soon as he tumbled to the floor, and I'd shoot out of bed and scoop him up, still warm. Sometimes, like that morning, his fur was cold, meaning I had lost him and not even noticed. Those were the times that my arms trembled as I curled around the stuffed bear and rocked back and forth, the sting of loss so profound it didn't even matter that he wasn't truly gone. 

Tenderheart Bear was her bear.

Funshine Bear was my bear. 

Tenderheart Bear had slept with me every night for almost eleven years.

Funshine Bear had been shoved into my suitcase when we left London, and then she had been moved to the highest shelf in my bedroom, and she had remained there, untouched and neglected, for almost eleven years. 

Sorry for such a massive chunk of text, but there's so much to unpack here. First of all, the fact that losing the stuffed animal in the night causes panic no matter how soon she realizes suggests that there's something more important about this bear beyond just the fact that Claire sleeps with it. The quote the sting of loss so profound it didn't even matter that he wasn't truly gone followed by Tenderheart Bear was her bear was intended to be a bit of an "aha" moment for you, the readers. Even though Claire can't bring herself to say Lucy's name in that moment, context clues were (I hope) enough for people to stitch these ideas together. Tenderheart Bear was Lucy's bear and therefore represents Lucy. Funshine Bear was Claire's bear and therefore represents Claire. Claire clings to the idea of Lucy even to the point of neglecting herself. We see here, too, the first use of "almost eleven years" to signify just how long it's been that Lucy's been gone. This phrase is used again repeatedly throughout the chapter.

I thought long and hard about which Care Bears really represented Lucy and Claire. And it had to be Care Bears for me, because of Lucy's patronus and, I mean, come on, Claire Bear is a fun little nickname. And it foreshadows a future nickname Harry has for Lucy, but shhh, that's a secret. Here are the descriptions of each bear from the official website, I hope you can understand why I chose Tenderheart Bear for Lucy and Funshine Bear for Claire:

"Tenderheart Bear’s job is to help people share their good feelings for each other. He’s very affectionate and is not afraid to display his affection openly. By helping people show they care, Tenderheart Bear helps spread love and makes it grow."

"Funshine Bear shares her enthusiasm for life and all its possibilities with everyone. A Bear of boundless energy, she puts all her efforts into making sure that people have a good time—no matter what they are doing."

These bears really did match their personalities as kids especially, and they will continue to do so moving forward as well.

Anyway, back to the actual incident of Tenderheart Bear falling out of Claire's bed the night before. The fact that it happened during a nightmare was no accident on my part. The specific incident itself was inspired by my own real-life experiences. I sleep with an object that reminds me of someone I loved who passed away when I was a kid, and I always panic when I lose it in the middle of the night. Maybe it's too niche of an experience for most people to find relatable, but I have a habit of pouring my heart and soul into this story and Claire is the character who shares this experience with me. (Sorry, Claire.) I hope this explanation has helped you all make a little more sense of the underlying symbolism of this moment!

The perfect Claire Everlin didn't cry when other people might see her or hear her.

Could you hear ME crying as I wrote this? The whole "The perfect Claire Everlin never [insert perfectly normal human trait of occurrence]" or "The perfect Claire Everlin always [insert superhuman trait or occurrence]" will unfortunately be a common thread throughout Claire's early chapters. Someone please give this poor girl a hug and tell her it's okay to be human and that she doesn't have to be perfect to be enough because she is enough exactly as she is.

Ten minutes after my rather rude awakening, I smiled as I bounced into the kitchen, ponytail swinging behind me. "Morning, Dad!"

DANNY EVERLIN LIVED, EVERYONE! HE'S ALIVE! Poor Lucy doesn't know that yet and will not learn this wonderful piece of information for quite a long time, but YOU ALL GET TO KNOW THAT HE'S ALIVE! How did he survive Greyback, exactly? That's another conversation for another time, BUT. HE'S ALIVE AND THAT'S GREAT!

"Morning, Claire Bear!" he replied, reaching forward to envelop me in one of his famous bear hugs for a long moment.

"Claire Bear." Danny Everlin's "famous bear hugs." Are you sensing the bear trend here? Good.

The perfect Claire Everlin worked too hard to lose.

Did I add this mostly because I wanted to establish early on that Claire Everlin is a Hufflepuff? Perhaps. But also the unfortunate other thing, the "perfect Claire Everlin always [insert superhuman trait or occurrence]," is a factor as well.

The perfect Claire Everlin worked too hard to lose, but unfortunately, I knew better than to lie to myself. 

I had lost Lucy. That would always and forever be the most painful loss of all.

She said Lucy's name for the first time in her narration, but AT WHAT COST? Obviously Claire knows that losing a soccer game is not at all comparable to losing her sister, but in her head loss = bad no matter how severe the loss is, so this poor girl gives her all in everything so she never has to lose anything or anyone else. I love her. My heart breaks for her. She deserves the world.

(I'm not going to put a quote here but I just want to tell you all that Claire's AP Lit teacher is going to be a very important character.)

I didn't realize just how hard it would be to think of something important to me that didn't have Lucy attached to it somehow.

We were inseparable, before, before. I was always dragging her along as much as I could, wanting to do everything, everything, together. We weren't Older Sister Claire and Younger Sister Lucy, we were Irish Twins Claire and Lucy. We were far from identical twins for more reasons than just our ages, but we were two halves of a whole. No matter how many times I tried to change myself, no matter how hard I tried to be enough on my own, I had been missing my other half for almost eleven years and I would just keep on yearning for her until we were together again.

Because despite everything, despite everything, I still held out hope for her, for us. 

This hurt me to write. I just wanted to point out that Claire often repeats herself twice ("everything" and "no matter how..." and "despite everything" and "for ___") because Part 2 of Moonlight was defined by Lucy learning about the Everlins and Claire is inherently tied to that part of her story and, in a sense, stuck there, unable to move on even though Lucy's on Part 5 of the story.

The year where Lindsay and I had been the only freshmen on varsity while Nneka was still trapped in junior high school was one of the most miserable of our lives, and Nneka never missed an opportunity to complain about the fact that we'd be graduating in June and leaving her all alone again.

I just wanted to let you know that yes, Nneka and Lucy were friends, before everything. I'm sure I'll get into that later on in the story, but I'm sure many of you were wondering about that, and the answer is yes.

I knew how it always went, with people who knew me, us, before. They looked at me and saw her absence when they just wanted to see her. I couldn't blame anyone for that — I looked at me and saw her absence when I just wanted to see her. I couldn't blame anyone, but that didn't mean it didn't bother me. It was a scab that hadn't healed in almost eleven years. I picked at it, everyone picked at it, and even if it was ever allowed to heal, it would leave a scar. 

I have nothing to add, other than this poor girl deserves so much better.

It was the same routine as always. Mom worked on the crossword while she waited for school or practice or whatever it was to end, and she'd always save one that I could inevitably answer, and I'd accuse her of knowing the answer whether she actually did or not, and she'd always insist she needed my help, and we'd both smile as if it was new even though it had been happening for a little less than almost eleven years. 

ABBY EVERLIN IS A SUPPORTIVE MOTHER AND DANNY EVERLIN IS A SUPPORTIVE FATHER! Everyone's just doing their best. I just wanted to show you all that Lucy's going to be so very loved when she comes back, and that Claire has been so very loved in the meantime. Claire may have neglected herself, but her parents never did.

Then I pressed play on my CD player and let myself get lost in my work.

If you were wondering, the CD was Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Morissette (the original album, not the musical). I wanted to include this detail, but it interrupted the flow of the paragraph. But now you know!

Dragons weren't real, after all.

I giggled as I wrote this, not gonna lie. Claire's in for a treat later, huh folks?

Danny Everlin could always be counted on to show affection however he could, even when he was covered in sawdust or dirt or sweat or paint or, notably, the contents of a septic tank, after that one incident a couple years back.

I love Danny Everlin so much, you have no idea. DANNY EVERLIN IS A GOOD FATHER.

"I can do those by myself, though, go take a break for a couple minutes before dinner."

And I love Abby Everlin so much, you have no idea. ABBY EVERLIN IS A GOOD MOTHER.

Everyone knew about poor little perfect Claire Everlin with the missing-probably-kidnapped-maybe-dead sister. And even if they didn't know, it felt wrong trying to tell my story without mentioning Lucy. Even if she wasn't in any of the moments I was willing to share, her role in my life deserved to be known anyway.

Before I could lose my courage, I got up out of bed and fished out my notebook and turned my lamp on and began to write.

And I ended on this note because the next chapter will include what exactly she wrote, in order to tie the two chapters together since they will be separated by a lot of talk of magic and war and whatnot in all of the other chapters in between! Someone give Claire Everlin a hug, please.

And lastly, the song for this chapter is "London" by Cody Fry. It was one of the first songs I ever added to Claire's playlist. It's a beautiful song by a wonderful musician and I highly recommend listening to it if you get the chance! It really captures the wistful tone I tried to establish in this chapter.

If you got this far into my ramble, thank you for reading! I sincerely hope you enjoyed this chapter. I had the time of my life writing it, and I can't wait to share more of Claire's story with you all in the 2_9 chapters!

[violetren]

RWBY Wonder Egg Au episode 12

NOW THEY CAN DO THE OPENING CREDITS AS UNOBTRUSIVE TEXT OVER THE STORY AS THEY JUMP RIGHT IN!?

Where the hell was this when they were trying to cram all the info and epic battles into the main plot?

I have questions about why Weiss and Ruby's end of year letters home sound like they mostly contain info relevant to their first week (or maybe month in Weiss's case) at Beacon.

Why are we getting Shion power explanations now? Just so the charaters learn that auras/semblances can change over time? I suppose that's neat for confirming a few fan theories and giving credence to a few others, the main implications seem to be towards Jaune, Blake and Weiss. In the main show Jaune's was probably unlocking his semblance at all, Weiss's was unlocking her summoning powers, and so I guess keep an eye on Blake in Volume 9???

Ok. I will admit the use of the cog shadows in Ozpin's office when the conversations were having serious moments was a fucking baller move. Very cool.

I have read multiple monochrome fanfics with some of these near exact lines. And the visuals with the swords together? There is confirming that everything has been worked out and Weiss and Blake are friends and then there is whatever gay as fuck shit this is. And then they're out there doing all the bumbleby signalling to be in line with where the main shows canon seems to be headed. There isn't as much White Rose in this episode but previous ones have definitely had some over tones.

Honestly this is a great show to watch for any of your Weiss x Teammate(s) needs.

Also some of your bi Sun needs, dude straight up tells team RWBY his hottie friends should be joining him soon. Weiss responds kinda disdainfully as is Weiss's fashion and I think it was meant to feel like a "nudge nudge wink wink" joke for people who have watched RWBY to be like "oh hoho she'll change her tune when Neptune arrives" but with how supremely gay they've made Weiss's vibes it lands more as exasperated lesbian which tbh I am here for.

It was very cute getting the cliffnotes of the food fight and I'm laughing at how in this version Ozpin was walking along with Glynda and they just kinda watched for a bit as the kids had fun.

The way they put Salem and Ozpin's "maybe it's in a smaller more honest soul" convo from the start over the food fight for the closing scene was one hell of a choice. Kinda had the same grounding effect as Ozpin's "They are children, let them play the part while they can" line from v2e01 of the main show but allowed for a more hopeful note at the end, especially when paired with the stills of the team laughing together.

This was a fun, and odd little side series, that slots neatly into a gap between volume 1 and 2. It definitely feels like a lot of heart went into it even if there were definitely ways it could have ended up more polished on a technical level, though I'm willing to blame most of those things on industry crunch and budgeting, it definitely had the emotional stuff down though.

[theminecraftbee]

You dont have to do this, but you have teased a game of truth and dare for a while and i would really like to read it. You can make a lot of things very funny and a bit of laughs would be great before the next mental breakdown! Not that i mind the breakdown and the creeping sense of dread that has been slowly taking over boatem

"Alright," Grian says. "If we're doing this - and unfortunately I think we've finally reached the point we're doing this - we need to set rules. We may be playing Truth or Dare like schoolchildren, but we aren't animals."

There's a long, very loud pause as everyone takes that in.

"Technically," Pearl starts.

"We aren't animals," Grian says very definitively.

"I mean, he is right," Mumbo says. "If we're being technical, I'm pretty sure that whatever we are probably isn't an animal, in the strictest sense of that word. So he is right. Probably."

The five members of Boatem float through the void, or are one with the void. Eh, details. There's Truth or Dare to be played! Scar watches them argue, fascinated. He looks over at Grian and then looks back to Mumbo and Pearl. "You know, I'm beginning to get the sense I know why we have never managed to get to the part where we actually play yet," he says. "And like, guys, it's definitely been weeks, at least. Or months."

"Possibly years," Grian says.

"If it's been more than a year, I think I'm legally allowed to kill all of you the moment that won't make me start crying," Mumbo says.

"Oh god, we're doomed. Killing things makes him laugh, not cry," Pearl says.

"RULES," Grian says, somehow managing to emphasize the word as though it has three syllables instead of one. "How is it that I keep on being the voice of reason? The only reason I was agreeing to play this is because I want to make Scar do something really stupid!"

"Hey!"

"Would you pick truth?"

"No, that's the coward option, but -"

"My point stands."

Scar huffs, but doesn't argue.

"Alright then! Rules!" repeats Grian. "They're simple! If you can't do a dare, you can take the truth, or vis versa, but then you have to do whatever you're given. After your turn, you give whoever you want the next truth and/or dare, but you can't just retaliate against whoever made you do something, that's boring. If you lie, Mumbo gets to kill you, and if you chicken out, Mumbo also gets to kill you. Any questions?"

"Yeah. How do we lose?" Impulse asks.

"That's the neat part: the game never ends," Grian says.

"Oh, fun," Impulse says.

"I like this idea," Mumbo says darkly.

"Er, not that I don't want to play infinite truth or dare, that does sound delightful," Pearl says, "but what if, uh, after you've done at least three rounds yourself, you can choose to end the game instead of asking another question?"

Scar feels such relief as he shakily nods. Yes. Good rule. Pearl is his new favorite. Pearl is definitely his new favorite.

"Fine," Grian says, pouting. "But that means we can't target someone! They'll just end the game!"

"It's a good rule we're keeping it alright how do we decide who goes first?" Scar says, very quickly, determined to prevent Grian from talking anyone out of changing that rule before he could presumably make Scar's life hell. Why him, huh? Mumbo's right there! Mumbo's even got a funnier name, and reacts all silly to pranks! He's like, just as fun to mess with as Scar is!

Honestly, Grian, bullying behavior.

"I'll go first!" Impulse says cheerfully.

"Why do you get to go first?" Mumbo asks suspiciously.

"I mean, were you going to dare me?"

"...no."

"Was anyone else?"

"You honestly just feel like a bad first -"

"There we go!" Impulse says, smiling. "Any objections?"

It seems, for a moment, that Grian may try to object. However, it seems that even Grian finally wants to actually play. Technically, this isn't the first time they've had this rules conversation. It isn't even the second. Heck, it isn't even the third. It's, uh, more like the fifth? The first time they'd tried to play truth or dare was way back before they even realized anything was more wrong than the apocalypse, in fact! Man. Those had been wild times. They'd just normally descended into in-fighting before this point, or descended into pointless arguments about what a "valid dare" would be, given that none of them could easily do anything back then. But now all of them can move! So...

"Alright then. Scar. Truth or dare?"

"Oh come on!" Scar says loudly.

"Well?" Impulse says. "This is one more round Grian can't get you, you know."

"Fine. Dare."

"Lick Grian," Impulse says promptly.

Everyone stares for a moment. Pearl is the first one to speak. "Is that... the best you can...?"

"I mean, yeah," Impulse says. "What did you think I was going to say? We're in the void, I can't do half of my fun ideas! Unless you want me to dare him to lick Pancake instead?"

"That's worse, that's worse, just come lick me," Grian says.

Scar stares at Grian, shrugs, approaches him, and licks his face in a long stripe. It tastes like face. Actually, like weird face. Like the platonic ideal of a face, more than a real face. Not that Scar's licked that many faces, that's not a thing he goes around doing, he licks diamonds! Not faces! Those are different, and man, is he glad he's not talking out loud right now.

Grian rubs furiously at where Scar licked him. "You know, technically you didn't lick me."

"I know! So you don't have to worry about it," Scar says, as Grian continues to furiously wipe his face.

"Ugh," Grian says.

"Anyway! Truth or dare, Grian!"

"Oh, come on, now I can't go for you!"

"It's your rules."

"Truth."

Scar blinks several times. He looks at Grian sideways. "Who are you and what have you done with Grian?"

"You're going to dare me something really stupid so I'm choosing truth to head it off at the pass," Grian explains.

"Still. Anyway. Uhhhh. What kind of bird are you?"

"Don't know. Scar, I've told you I don't know. Also, wait, if we were being technical earlier, am I even a bird anymore?" Grian clearly stops to think about it. His wings flutter uselessly behind him, as though some subconscious thought in Grian requires he move them whenever he's thinking about them. This, of course, had been Scar's real goal. Grian literally always does that when talking about his wings. Scar's just got to get him talking a little more.... "I mean, I still think of myself as a bird. Or, a bird-person, at least."

"A birson," Scar says. 'Yes, we're aware."

"I... a... yeah, okay, sure. But, like, we've established our current general non-person-ness." Grian flutters his wings a little more. Mumbo hasn't noticed yet. Just a little more. "So, you know, my wings here, they're probably just -"

He stretches his wings. They smack Mumbo in the face.

"GRIAN!" Mumbo says.

"...SCAR," Grian says in turn.

"I didn't do anything," Scar says, lying entirely, as Grian, now flustered, tries to get his wings back in control. It really is fascinating, Scar thinks - technically, he knows, if they all squint, Grian doesn't have wings! Or, he has wings? Or, uh, he has the void-y perception of wings? The point is that, technically, Grian isn't Grian-shaped anymore. And yet, even his most annoying instincts are still all right there, ripe for Scar to use against him! It's hilarious!

Grian, meanwhile, is clearly fed up. "Fine then. Mumbo. Truth or Dare, if you're so annoyed!"

"Why, I think I'll take dare!"

"I dare you to shut up about my wings!"

"That's stupid. Why are we only coming up with stupid dares?"

"Well? Are you gonna?"

"I'd rather lick them."

"No one else is licking me!"

The two of them begin to argue about the dare. Scar turns to Impulse. "Hey, Impulse, do you think that counts as Mumbo refusing the dare? You know, if Mumbo cheats, does that mean Mumbo has to kill Mumbo? Since Grian said Mumbo's doing the killing in our rules."

"I really don't know," Impulse says, as Grian very purposefully smacks Mumbo with another wing as Mumbo lunges at him. "I think Mumbo's doing his best to kill Grian, though."

"Maybe we should stop him," says Pearl, sounding entirely disinterested.

"Nah, they'll get over it," Impulse advises. "They haven't actually killed each other yet."

"No, I mean, so we can keep playing. I don't care if Mumbo manages to succeed in, uh. Pulling enough feathers to never complain again? It was unclear. But I want to keep playing, I haven't had a turn yet! We'd barely gotten going!"

"Ohhh. Yeah, you have a point," Scar says. "Empty threats, or even completely full threats, are totally fine. So are fights. But we've barely gotten anywhere in this game yet, have we?"

Grian is now saying something incomprehensible about Mumbo and legs. Scar has no idea what they're talking about, but Mumbo seems deathly offended. Scar is briefly touched by the age of Mumbo and Grian's friendship. They clearly don't only have inside jokes by now, but inside insults. Only the absolute closest of friends can collect things like that.

"It really was a lame dare to end on," Scar says. "And a super lame dare to be fighting about. Those two are horribly irresponsible, really. Uh. Who's going to break them up?"

"Not it," Impulse and Pearl say simultaneously.

"Dangit! I should have said not it," Scar says. He turns to Grian and Mumbo, who have taken advantage of their full range of movement to -

- to -

Scar. Scar isn't sure what they're doing. This isn't just because Grian and Mumbo fights are incomprehensible. It's because they're - so, okay. Scar knows where they are. Scar knows, in general, the outline of their shapes, the way the vague impression of great, terrible, black wings must be Grian, and the way the thing seemingly coiled out of vines, or perhaps wires, must be Mumbo, except they also aren't there? It's like with them arguing like this, whatever perception filter they had on simply had decided to stop working, and had left them...

Well.

Scar thinks the horrors from beyond must get in a lot of fights, is all he's saying.

It's not that he doesn't know, intellectually, that they're all like that. It's more that this is the first time in a while that, instead of joking about it, or accidentally looking at it for themselves, Grian and Mumbo seem to have just. Well. Scar presumes they don't know, that they've given up pretending mortality. It's the sort of thing that both of them had been panicking about earlier. And Scar presumes they don't know, because it's terrifying, skirting on that edge where he has to actually think about the fact that they're all -

- that -

- what do you call an absence of space -

- the void had always felt like a thing that dissolved -

- focus. He shudders. Okay. Have Pearl and Impulse noticed? Probably? Impulse was... and Pearl had been the first to mostly... okay. Okay! He can do this. He just -

- he's -

- he's not a thing that's alive. Okay. Cool. Or, is it that the void is a thing that's alive, but he's only a piece of it? Or. No. Doesn't matter. How is he going to break them up? How? Grian and Mumbo, when they play-fight like this (and it is, for all of its current viciousness, still play-fighting), are the worst to try to get between, because neither of them have moderation. Scar knows! He got his beautiful custom tree blown up for his troubles, because Grian and Mumbo don't know moderation! And that had been silly early-game things, back when the season was bright and normal and they weren't all, you know, well.

"Scar," Impulse says, behind the distant roaring in Scar's ears. "Scar, are you - oh. Oh."

Luckily, Scar doesn't know moderation either.

BOYS, BOYS, YOU'RE BOTH BEAUTIFUL HORRIFIC ABOMINATIONS FROM THE DEPTHS OF HELL! THERE'S NO NEED TO FIGHT ABOUT IT, he says, and for the first time it registers that he does not hear his voice but he hears his voice but his voice is simply present. He supposes it makes sense. There is no air for their voices to travel in. But now, now it is obvious, because Scar does not move his lips, and does not shout, and yet his voice sticks to the forefront of the world, heard in perfect clarity, not heard, no clarity, just known.

Huh.

They turn not turn they are looking at him, Scar knows suddenly, and he would feel hunted, but suddenly he knows he is nothing-void-predator as well, and isn't that... interesting. For a moment - just one - Scar stops bothering with pretense and lets himself feel that, and...

He knows the others are afraid, perhaps. In that moment, Scar decides he is not. He is still afraid of many things. Of never going home. Of finding no one there. Of the fact this is all his fault. But of this? This is... something else.

He is being looked at. He is being perceived by emptiness. But Scar's used to being the center of attention, so he simply perceives them right back. He can feel the moment Grian realizes what's happening, and he can feel the dread in Mumbo, and, hm. That's not quite what he was going for. But it did break them up, and that was the goal.

WE'RE SO CLOSE TO ACTUALLY FINISHING A GAME OF TRUTH OR DARE. OR, WELL, NOT PARTICULARLY CLOSE, I GUESS, BUT WE'VE STARTED FOR ONCE! THIS IS A SILLY REASON TO GIVE UP ON IT.

"Scar," says Grian, and, huh. Okay, Scar's the only one who has the voice thing down. Well, now he just feels rude. "Scar, given - is now the time to be worried about -"

ABSOLUTELY, Scar says.

Mumbo laughs, a little high and hysterical, and its halfway to being the thing Scar has done with his voice. Scar shakes it off.

"Besides," Scar says, "I think you're scaring yourselves? And that wasn't even the dare! I mean, this isn't talking about Grian's wings, I guess, but -"

"Okay," says Grian, and he's managed to go back to pretending to be Grian again, or thinking of himself as Grian, or however that works. "Cool. That was weird. I hate that. It's your turn, Mumbo."

"Right," says Mumbo, who has gone back to being Mumbo shaped. Scar sits back, pleased with himself. "In that case. Scar."

"What!" Scar says. "After that!"

"Come on," Pearl says, "Impulse and I haven't gone yet!"

"Told you that I could go first," Impulse says cheerfully. "I give it even odds the game ends before I get to go, because everyone here knows I have no shame."

"I won't allow that," Pearl says.

"...was that a threat?" Impulse asks.

"Absolutely," Pearl says.

"...huh," Impulse says. "Neat."

"I'm still going for Scar," Mumbo says. "Truth or dare."

"I regret being the reason this game continued," Scar complains. "You all are playing to gang up on me!"

"Yeah. Gang up on me instead," Pearl says.

"I wonder about everyone's priorities," Grian says, and Scar agrees, even though he gets the sense they are talking about two very different kinds of priorities.

The game continues.

[mobblespsycho100]

Thank u for showing interest in this guys /gen @agendercryptidlev @doublebubbletriplethreat @evilsciencedotcom

ok its a little. long so i'll put it in a read more

Evidence #1: The series literally starts off with him mocking a romantic couple and not taking them that seriously as his clients and also he was constantly just making fun of their aesthetic appeal (their. their looks). It's clear that he doesn't see their relationship seriously.

Evidence #2: Although not all aromantic people are aplatonic, Reigen seems to be aplatonic in a way that he doesn't actively seek for platonic relationships and bonds with others out of genuine "wanting to know someone else more and be friends with them" and instead is more focused on his own work. Even his mentor-student relationship with Mob started out with Mob being the one to actively seek someone to help him with controlling his powers better. Reigen doesn't go around looking for people to befriend, but instead he just kind of knows Mob's friends Through Mob. Even Serizawa who he recruited was mainly cuz Serizawa protected him first. This is literally a big part of the Seperation Arc, Reigen was always way too focused on becoming someone great that he rarely paid attention to other people as potential friends unless the relationship has some kind of potential benefit for him. This doesn't mean he doesn't care about his relationships with others of course, he /really/ does, but his genuine kindness is usually still at least partially motivated by wanting to be somebody (who can help and inspire others).

Tl;dr: I don't think he's a loser for all his friends technically being middle schoolers it's just easier to have some kind of friendship with others if you have a mutual close friend to help it all work out ( a.k.a Mob) Also like its. Okay to not have friends. Sometimes you just wanna vibe with all these teenagers that you can be a mentor figure/good adult figure for them. Just some weird bastard uncle or older sibling / dad whatever

Evidence #3: His lack of experience in navigating romantic relationships. He's pretty sure the last time he dated was like, way back in high school or something right? (im not sure on this either tbh) And he really didn't seem interested when his mom talked abt setting him up with someone (which is not always a sign that someone is aromantic but really I don't think Reigen has thought about marriage, like, ever. Unless it's for tax benefits.)

Evidence #4: His go to relationship/confessing advice being something simple like "just communicate your feelings well" or "play hard to get" like he's not even trying to sound like an expert 😭😭 also when Mob was asking his advice on this matter he literally just read off of google and if that isn't one of the biggest aro moods I don't know what is.

Evidence #5: He has never been shown really "flirting" with anyone. If he has to play up his charisma when talking to clients well then so be it. He's really casual and professional about it too (by it I'm saying sensual massages or whatever the fuck he does....)

Evidence #6: Too busy thinking about how to get money to think about spending them all on dates with women or men or something

Evidence #7: This one is also what started the ace Reigen headcanons but the line "Is having a crush always related to sex? I don't really wanna talk to you about it." (Based Reigen btw)

Evidence #8: Honestly most of these "evidence" is just my own read of him and like. my own interpretation of course but. theres just something so Aro about a generally popular guy in his 30s not having a partner or a romantic relationship and he seems fulfilled and like, satisfied with that. I'm sure he really doesn't care about getting married. He's got Mob, Serizawa, Dimple, Tome, Teru, Ritsu (albeit reluctantly), he's got his emotional support friends/co-workers/people who genuinely care about him and look up to him because of his genuine kindness and pretty solid advice. He's got it all. Just some normal guy surrounded by espers and one evil spirit and also someone very similar to him personality wise (as some kind of daughter figure). It's neat.

Also I thought abt Ekuserirei QPR but at the same time I have a hard time visualizing Reigen in like. an Actual committed relationship with other people. I'm just kinda here man. But also Ekuserirei is genuinely such a fun dynamic so. yeah

Anyway thats my big brain thoughts on Reigen Aromanticism. all hcs are valid and if you disagree with me you can just, do whatever you want just not argue on my post thats just basic human decency ok thats all <3 💚💚 thank u for reading this far and have a good day everyone!! :]

[hatboyproject]

Finally, all 57 spoken lines of dialogue are in place for this scene, complete with branching paths that both set & check for the presence of different variables & only unlock once both paths have been heard.

This ensures the player only gets the more emotional stuff the more they talk with him during this conversation, & if they don't want all that, they don't even need to know it's there.

Because I embrace pain, I have been working on a 4K body texture for Jeff to bring him more in line visually with his surroundings & with Shepard, because up until now he's been using an AI upscaled 1024 X 1024 image, which sucks and is noticeable.

So I've been taking the opportunity to paint in a bunch of details by hand, starting by changing the skin tone to match his. I've gotten rid of the existing freckles on the body & given him ones in different locations. I've given him a lot more body hair, including arm & leg hair, because I see Jeff as kinda a fluffy boy in contrast to Kaidan's waxed look. I've also given Jeff a ton of big, long scars on his legs of varying ages, based off of bone graft & Ilizarov cage pin site scars. His legs aren't "pretty." I mean, they are, because they're his legs & also scars are neat. I have a bunch myself! But you know what I mean. They aren't pretty in the stereotypical sense.

Right now the challenge is mostly in matching the skin tone & disguising seams, because for long & boring technical reasons what you see on the texture is not what you get in game, colour-wise. Also I don't like to be needlessly mean about someone else's work, but the way this model was originally UVd (prepared for texturing) by whoever at Bioware was... Not excellent. Decidedly un-good. Its seam placement is garish & baffling & honestly for the Legendary Edition of this mod I may very well make good on my threats to re-UV it despite having to then also re-weight it for the skeleton & of course create an entirely new hand-painted texture. As opposed to what I'm doing now, which is fairly extensive editing.

For example the elbow has been painted in the wrong location and I'm needing to move that as well as calm down a lot of this strange contouring in the arms that makes them look like pulled beef. I'm trying not to be mean here but... I've never seen forearms that look like what this texture seems to think they look like, and it's taking a lot of work to fix.

On top of this I need to edit the Normal map, because the pectoral muscles on it have been sculpted to look like sharp cut glass & need to be toned down.

I'm doing all of this though, and in terms of the original Kaidan body texture, have done all of it non-destructively... That is to say, the corrections I'm making to Joker's unique texture that would also be nice to have on Kaidan's (such as the moved elbow & better forearms & normals) exist on their own & I'll make those assets available once they're finished, so that other people can use them.

"If I've already done the work, no one else should have to," is my motto. "Give me coffee & pizza, I'm hungry," is also my motto, but it isn't as catchy, & no one listens to it anyway.

Excuse the blue hue, that was an error that has since been corrected, but it shows what I mean about the weird forearms & misplaced & kinda overwrought elbow skin.

I have no idea how to do a Read More thing on mobile so forgive me, but in the interests of showing the texture, this shows some of the changes I've made (not the moved elbow just yet, that's still how it is in vanilla.) But I've calmed down a lot of the overdone stuff. That weird beef jerky thing is still visible slightly because it's there on the Normal map.

"Homf"

So yeah. Been tweaking animations in the conversation as I've been going along, too.

Most of the dialogue in this scene is going to be more or less raw synth output and that's because... I want to try to use the lip-sync generator prototype for this, but that depends on the files from xVASynth, for the timing & placement of sounds. So if I mess with it everything will be wildly out of sync with no way to easily correct it. So I'm going to have to take the hit there & forego editing dialogue in post.

Because... honestly, if I have to animate 57 lines of FaceFX completely by hand, key by key, shape by shape... I will probably go fully and actually bonkers.

I think I've done around 80 or 90 for the entire mod up to this point. 57 in one scene is an achievement I am going to give myself a medal for because look, modesty & all, but GOD DAMN.

[pbandjesse]

It got really cold tonight! Last night was cold to but it's like very windy right now. I woke up a few times cold last night, I hope I am cozier tonight.

Today was not a bad day at all. I got a lot more accomplished. It wasn't perfect. But it was something.

I didn't sleep great. I was up to late and it just wasn't great sleep. But I felt alright when I got up.

I got dressed and would have preferred a sweater but the shirt James picked was still nice and I still felt cute.

We got to the museum early. I hung out in the back room eating breakfast. Stanley came and hung out with me for a bit. And he pointed out that the group I was with only had 5 kids?? Super weird. We thought maybe it was a special needs group. But we were prepared for anything.

It was nice though because it was 3 programs and the 3 of us were tag teaming them. I was technically in charge but we each out take point and be in charge of a different one and I would just jump in when needed.

When the school got there it turned out they were a robotics club! Neat! But it was weird we were doing like a little kids program with them. But honestly it was fine and we just took them on a longer tour. It was fun. They were good kids.

One little girl became my best friend after having a little break down during our assembly line project. She was sweet but got flustered easy. But we would end up having a good day. Even if three programs was tough! Like just on the body and mind. I think two programs and a tour is a little better but it was still fun.

We even did a scavenger hunt and I got to give the flustered girl a prize of a torn pokemon card, a pin, and a marble. It was very silly and good.

At the end of the day there werent a ton of supplies to do. So I ended up joining my coworkers up in the cannery and just hanging out with them while they glued cans. We talked about how wild some theaters and museums are and how we gossip and complain and absolutely love our jobs. Also how me and James got together. And just general slutty behavior. It was a lot of fun and very goofy.

I was very glad to go home though. I was determined not to be to sleep. I had to accomplish stuff!!

I got home and ran into Kim and Nick. They invited me to come for an acupuncture thing tonight but I ended up falling into a project and wasn't able to make it work. But maybe next week. It was still really nice to chat with them.

I would do some cleaning. And dye my hair. And did my knitting. And then James was home!

I just did some hanging out. I washed the dye out of my hair. I opened the mail. And was disappointed in one thing because the size was wrong. But I decided I want to try to change it up. I don't know if this is going to look good but I'm excited to try.

I did not do the sewing part but I cut the fabric and did all the pinning. Maybe tomorrow I will sew. I also did some water color. And decided to start another print playing with more open shapes. It was nice to carve something.

I took a bath and put on my jumpsuit and did a lot of reading. I have been having a really nice night honestly.

Tomorrow is a different schedule then planned and I get to go in a little later then normal. So I can just have a chill morning and then it's just tours and it will be good I think. I hope it's a lovely day for all of you. Sleep well my friends. Good night!

[partywithponies]

hi! i've only ever seen the bbc version of father brown and i've never read the books (i know, i'm so sorry), but i'm super curious about the different versions of father brown and you seem like an expert on each adaptation, so i was wondering if you'd be willing to give me a rundown of sorts on each version/series? i know it's a lot to ask and i may be opening the floodgates here, but there's not a ton of info online elsewhere and i'd love to learn more! thanks either way. ciao!

OH BOY YOU’VE COME TO THE RIGHT PLACE ANON

OKAY SO

As briefly as possible:

The books:

Proof people who complain about the BBC show being “too political” don’t actually know the books at all

Father Brown straight up calls capitalism “evil” and “heresy”

Chesterton says that millionaires dying isn’t a tragedy

Inspector Valentin betrayed us and broke my heart, ACAB I guess

Since every police officer he befriends lets him down in some way, Father Brown’s only real friend is Flambeau, who he goes absolutely everywhere with. They only go on holiday with each other. They’ve been all over the world with each other. I love they

Book Father Brown pretty much never does his goddamn job. We literally never in all the books see him giving mass or taking confession. The closest we get is when he gives an impromptu sermon after seemingly coming back from the dead, where he literally only says "You silly, silly people. God bless you all and give you more sense." then runs away to send a telegram. Useless priest. I love him. 

Book Flambeau is. Incredible. Amazing. Iconic. None of the adaptations have been able to fully capture book Flambeau’s true energy, for he is a walking contradiction who contains multitudes. If all the onscreen Flambeaus fused into one being, THEN you’d have something vaguely resembling book Flambeau.

Book Flambeau is MASSIVE. He’s at least 6′4, he’s broad shouldered, has huge hands, and his super buff. He can just. Pick people up and throw them. He can knock people unconscious with one punch. He fills doorways when he stands in them. He terrifies most people just by drawing himself up to his full height. He also has a very short temper and a very short patience. 

He’s very agile and athletic and can move silently, despite his size. He’s also a master of disguise, somehow. (Explain, Chesterton. Explain. Is everyone in this universe apart from Father Brown, Flambeau, and arguably Valentin massively stupid? Actually don’t answer that I’ve read these books)

Book Flambeau has a habit of flinging people full-bodily down flights of stairs when they anger him or threaten him or Father Brown. Book Flambeau also carries a walking cane with him literally everywhere that has a sword concealed in the handle, plus book Flambeau insists on taking pistols on holiday with him, even when he was just going for a peaceful fishing holiday in the Norfolk Broads. King. 

(Which all makes it so iconic that Father Brown, described as tiny and meek and sensitive, saw this man when he was still a hardened criminal on top of all this and said “THIS ONE I LIKE THIS ONE. I JUST THINK HE’S NEAT” and went off on a jolly through London with him.)

Flambeau’s past is extremely mysterious. We no nothing about his family or his childhood or where he’s from or why he turned to crime. We know he used to be a soldier, and a part of him misses it. We know he used to fight duels semi-regularly, and liked them to be fought the very next morning after they were organised. We know he always used to make sure to visit the dentist on time, even when he was a hardened criminal. (King of good teeth.)  We know he was in a gang at some point. We know he was a student at some point. We don’t know what he studied, but we know he knew Leonard Quinton in “wild student days in Paris”  ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°). This is literally all we know about his past before he met Father Brown. The man is a riddle wrapped in an enigma. (That’s why Flambeau is so big. He’s full of secrets)

(Fun fact: in the book universe Flambeau is famous and popular in America, so you could say that in universe Flambeau is America’s Favourite Fighting Frenchman.)

Flambeau also loves cats and children, believes in fairies, likes pointing out rocks that look like dragons, and likes giggling and mucking about on the beach with Father Brown.  A baby.

One time Father Brown called Flambeau “full of good and pure thoughts”, but I don’t think that’s quite true, Father. I think Father Brown just has endless faith in Flambeau.

Another thing I think is really neat is that it would’ve been so easy to have Father Brown be the genius and Flambeau his dumb muscle sidekick but that’s not the case at all! They’re both geniuses and they’re both each other’s sidekick, and in fact it’s Flambeau who’s the famous professional private detective, Father Brown is just an amateur. Father Brown is often defined by his connection to Flambeau rather than vice versa, both in the text (the text will frequently refer to them as something along the lines of “Flambeau and his friend the priest”, and on two separate occasions a long list of Flambeau’s possessions is ended with “and a priest”), and in universe (Father Brown himself is massively famous in America in universe largely because of “his long connection to Flambeau). I don’t know I just think it’s neat. 

One time a man threatened Father Brown with a gun and Flambeau just beat him unconscious and then Father Brown and Flambeau just drove away and left him unconscious on the path. It was awesome.

(I’m sorry I rambled about Flambeau for so many words I just. Really really like Flambeau you guys. Father Brown and Flambeau are like two separate crime drama character tropes, the hard boiled cynical P.I. and the cosy eccentric amateur detective, but together as a double act, and I just think that’s really cool.)

Father Brown himself is if anything even more mysterious. He’s just “Father J. Brown, formerly of Cobhole in Essex, currently London”, and he’s “Flambeau’s friend”, and that’s all. That’s all he needs to be.

I also really really love Father Brown himself. I love that he’s allowed to be cheerful and optimistic and childish without any of this making him less clever, and in fact he’s shown time and time again to be cleverer than grumpy cynics who are scornful of childish things. Like, the whole giggling childlike thing isn’t even some kind of act, he’s a genius who understands true human nature, and he also really really likes puppet shows and building sandcastles who telling fairy stories, he really does get a “childish pleasure” from seeing Flambeau swing his sword-stick, and he really does have “strong personal interest in tomfoolery”. I love him.

I must share my favourite book quote about Father Brown himself: “But neither of them is very like the real Father Brown, who is not broken at all; but goes stumping with his stout umbrella through life, liking most of the people in it; accepting the world as his companion, but never as his judge.” uwu uwu uwu I’m cry.

Chesterton just subverts all the expectations character wise, the cheerful bumbling priest is a genius, the violent criminal is a true hero, the noble police officer is a corrupt self-serving murderer. It’s great. We stan. 10000000/10

(I’m not very good at being brief, am I?)

Father Brown, Detective (1934):

The first movie! It’s completely ridiculous. I love it a lot.

It was released just at the start of Hays Code, which, among other things, stated that crime and immorality should not be glorified or glamourised, and all crime and immorality must be seen to be punished by the end of the film. In practice in the case of this film, this means two things:

Paul Lukas!Flambeau is the only Flambeau to actually go to prison (and stay there).

He’s by far the Flambeau who deserves it the least. Lukas!Flambeau never hurt a soul. He just wanted to be loved. #FreeMyBoyHercule

Okay but in all seriousness. There’s a reason I call Paul Lukas!Flambeau “Himbo Flambeau”. Where other Flambeaus are violent or dangerous or geniuses, Lukas!Flambeau is just a big dumb idiot who respects women and has a great sense of humour and writes all his letters in the third person like Elmo for some reason. I would die for him.

At one point Flambeau in disguise is talking to the police, and when the police criticise Flambeau, disguised Flambeau says “Oh but I assure! I have read many things about this Flambeau! He is a fearless, handsome fellow!” The absolute idiot. I adore him with my whole heart.

The film is set in London, like the books, but an idealised Hollywood version of London, i.e., almost entirely unlike London.

Walter Connolly!Father Brown is also entirely lacking in braincells. Look at these two idiot men:

I love them.

Oh oh! And the most important thing, the thing that carries over into most other adaptations? NEW ORIGINAL CHARACTERS!!

This movie invents a few characters that weren’t in the books, but the most important ones are Mrs Boggs:

She doesn’t really add much to the plot but she’s funny and I love her so I’ll forgive it. 

She’s Father Brown’s housekeeper, she’s basically just the fussing maternal female character archetype who fusses around in the background, but she does it well and plays it with charm so I’ll allow it.

(Honestly this whole film is just. Not *technically* good or original, but just so charming and with so much heart that I unironically adore it.)

She tries to make Father Brown drink his milk because it’s good for him even though he doesn’t like it, and keeps checking back in on him to make sure he’s drunk it, it’s literally like a mother and her small child.

She objects to policemen in the presbytery because of their “big muddy boots on the carpet” but is fine with just letting Flambeau in whenever despite the prevailing rumour in London being that Flambeau killed a man. We stan a queen of having priorities. 

When Inspector Valentine summons Father Brown to the station, Mrs Boggs pops up in the background, assumes Father Brown’s being arrested, and says “Oh dear, I knew it!” and it makes me giggle like an idiot every time.

The other, more important original character invented for this movie is my girl Evelyn Fischer:

I love her, I would die for her, she’s flawless.

She’s basically your typical bored and rebellious young aristocrat, but she has a chaotic streak that I adore.

She sneaks out of her family’s mansion to go to a seedy underground club/illegal gambling ring in Soho (I mean I assume it’s Soho, a seedy part of London in that general vicinity, at least. I’m not about to get bogged down trying to understand the geography of London according to Hollywood), flirts with a bunch of strangers for fun, then when the police raid the place and everyone else is panicking she stands stock still, cheerfully says “Oh goody, I shall probably get my name in the papers!” and has to be physically dragged out of the building by Flambeau.

Later on Flambeau breaks into her bedroom in the middle of the night and she’s just very calmly like “What are you doing?”, and even when she finds out it’s Flambeau, a man widely believed to be dangerous and violent, instead of being scared, she calls him an idiot right to his face.

She forms the third part of the main trio of the movie with Father Brown and Flambeau (RIP to Valentine, demoted to tertiary character in a loose adaptation of the one (1) story where he was the main character lol) and together the three of them share a single braincell and have to take turns with it, while Mrs Boggs fusses in the background at the trio’s increasingly bonkers decisions. 

The movie ends with Father Brown and Evelyn sharing an emotional farewell with Flambeau through the window of a police car and promising to look after each other until Flambeau’s released, wow poly rights.

The Adventures of Father Brown (1945):

The adaptation there’s the least amount of information about, but I’ve done my best to find everything I can find on it.

An American radio show made towards the end of wartime, it’s a bit of an odd one, and believe me Father Brown adaptations have gone some odd places.

Only two episodes survive, or at least if more do survive then whoever has them is being very selfish and hoarding them to themselves because only two episodes are publicly available anywhere, and the audio quality of those is a bit dodge. (Though that is to be expected, they do appear to be home recordings, from 1945. Honestly we should be grateful to even have two full episodes.)

If the actors I’ve found are the right people, this show featured by far the youngest Father Brown and Flambeau, at the start of the show the actor playing Father Brown was only 36 and the actor playing Flambeau was only 27. They’re BABIES. (Honestly I’d like to see more age variation in Father Brown adaptations, as I have extensively rambled about before, the characters have literally no canon ages in the books, I think people ought to be a little more imaginative instead of always building on the adaptations that came before, even if it is really cool to see traces of all the previous adaptations in each new one that comes along. It’s something I haven’t noticed as much in adaptations of other golden age detective novels, but the Father Brown adaptations do seem to be stuck in some kind of game of “yes, AND” with each other. I would REALLY like to see an adaptation where Flambeau is older than Father Brown though, it's just something we've never had before despite there being literally nothing in the books to suggest this can't be the case, and I just think it'd be neat.)

This show is really really painfully American, in a real old fashioned "golly gee whizz mister" kind of way, to the point it almost feels like a parody, and I honestly find it kind of endearing.

Even Flambeau frequently slips into a very American accent to the point that my affectionate nickname for him is "The All-American Flambeau", and it's great. He's great.

Honestly I could accept the accents and the slang, for some reason the only thing that really threw me was Father Brown referring to money in cents and nickels.

Needless to say, this adaptation is not set in London. It is instead set in Generic Unspecified Smalltown USA. It's fine. This is fine. I already have so many films and shows set in London, I can swallow my London pride and let America have this.

It's hard to get a real grasp on characters from just two episodes, but I like this Father Brown and Flambeau, even if they are a little overly serious, and even if Flambeau doesn't really do much. He may be a bit serious and a bit useless but All-American Flambeau stays up late anxiously waiting for Father Brown to get home safely and it's very sweet. What a good boy.

All-American Flambeau also carries handcuffs around with him for some reason? But no weapons? Why is All-American Flambeau one of the few Flambeaus not to have a gun? Oh well, he's still sweet.

The 1945 radio show also gives us some original characters, but they're very much side characters and not part of the main plot and it's very hard to get a good grasp on a character from just a few minutes of audio from just two episodes but here's what I could gather:

Nora is another fussing housekeeper! She seems younger and less maternal than Mrs Boggs, but I don't know if that's just because the whole cast was on the younger side. (Could the radio station not find anyone over the age of 40? Were they in short supply in 1945 or something? Ah well.) She seems dedicated to helping Father Brown get some peace and quiet that he never goddamn gets because someone always goes and gets themselves murdered. In both surviving episodes a knock at the door disturbs Father Brown’s rest, Nora opens it professionally, sees it's Flambeau, and immediately drops the professionalism and is immediately like "oh it's only you", so I can only assume every episode started this way. I do hope so.

Father Peter is a junior priest who answers to Father Brown and takes over his duties on his days off. He's implied by the dialogue to be considerably younger than Father Brown, Nora, and Flambeau, but if their actors are anything to go by then they're not that old themselves, and though Father Brown seems to talk to Father Peter like he's a literal child, he is still a priest so I very much doubt that's the case. He seems sweet and harmless, but he's only in one of the surviving episodes and only in that towards the end and mentioned briefly at the start, so it's hard to judge completely. It's highly unlikely that the reason he's not even mentioned in the later surviving episode is because he turned out to secretly be an evil murderer, but, this being a Father Brown adaptation, not entirely unfounded. (But no, he's probably just a sweet boy who exists to have exposition delivered to him.)

Father Brown/The Detective (1954):

The Alec Guinness movie! The one haters of any of the other adaptations complain that adaptation isn't more like, but in my humble opinion, actually the worst adaptation.

Like, I don't hate it! The cast is mostly stellar actors and if I just saw it as a movie on its own, it'd probably be fine. But as a Father Brown adaptation watched in context of the books and the other adaptations, it has a few issues imo.

Most glaringly it has Tone Issues. This film cannot decide if it's a comedy or not. The original posters certainly marketed it as one (see above) and half the cast are noted comic actors who were famous at the time for comedy, goddamn SID JAMES is in it, but the entire third act is played painfully straight, half the cast is mugging for the camera and trying way too hard to be funny while the other cast is giving extremely serious and subtle performances, like. I have no problem with a Father Brown adaptation being played for laughs, and I have no problem with a Father Brown adaptation being played for drama, both can work beautifully, but just PICK ONE, PLEASE

All of my other gripes with the film are very petty and nitpicky, this film calls Father Brown and Flambeau "Ignatius Brown" and "Gustav Flambeau" even though Father Brown has the canon first initial "J" and Flambeau has the canon first name "Hercule", and I hate it a lot. "Ignatius and Gustav" is the second worst thing any Father Brown adaptation has ever done to me.

My other petty nitpick with the movie is that it makes Flambeau literal nobility. The man is a duke. In my opinion Flambeau should always either have a completely mysterious past or be a nobody who came from nothing, someone who grew up with land and title and many servants and a family coat of arms, living in a whole entire castle with his family name and coat of arms engraved into the side of it, growing up and stealing from people, is a whole lot less sympathetic in my opinion. Like to be fair his parents are dead which is sad I guess and his castle has seen better days, but dude. You still own a castle. People who live in castles do not get to lecture other people about materialism.

THAT SAID, Peter Finch is still the best thing about the movie. I love all Flambeaus dearly, even the ones that are little bitches. He’s a bit of an emo “oh woe is me” sadboy, but he’s very charming, and actually good at disguises and being undercover, get dunked on Lukas!Flambeau.

Guinness!Brown likes to feed ducks and Flambeau calls him “the angel with the flaming umbrella”, which makes my inner Good Omens fan who loves finding parallels between Aziraphale & Crowley and Father Brown & Flambeau go 👀

There is one really good scene, in the Paris Catacombs. And by “good” I mean “really really bafflingly gay”:

I truly, truly do not understand how this scene was written, directed, acted, filmed, and edited without ANYONE saying “hey lads does this seem a bit gay to you?”

Father Brown, literally lying on top of Flambeau and pinning him to the ground, whispering: “I would like to set you free.” Flambeau, softly, gently smiling while his face is literal inches away from Father Brown, who is still pinning him to the ground: “Ah, now I begin to understand what you are.”

What the fuck, you guys. What the entire fuck. This scene keeps me up at night.

ANYWAY

This film is also not set in London. It is instead mostly set in a rural English village, and partially in Paris and partially in rural France. Paris is fun but I miss London.

This film also has some original characters. I should probably talk about them. 

This is Lady Warren:

She’s Father Brown’s friend, and she’s a Lady, and that’s all I can really tell you.

She’s very well-mannered and dignified and sophisticated.

She gives me the vibe that she exists solely because the writers decided they needed a female character but then remembered at the last minute they had no idea how to write women, so as a result she is almost entirely irrelevant to the plot. I don’t want to say I don’t like her, because she’s done nothing wrong and it’s not her fault, but like. Why is she here? Poor thing, she deserved to be plot-relevant, really.

She lives in a big mansion and owns some very nice things, and she gets annoyed when she invites Father Brown to lunch but he just stares blankly into space thinking about Flambeau the whole time. (Mood honestly FB. Me too.) 

She flirts a bit with Flambeau in one very pointless scene that came the hell out of nowhere, went nowhere, and was never mentioned again. It was like the writers realised how gay the previous Flambeau scene was and suddenly tried to convince me this man is a hetero. Nice try, writers. You can’t fool me that easily.

The other main original character is Bert:

Alright, own up, whose bright idea was it to put Sid James in a Father Brown movie?

Bert is a smalltime criminal who’s a friend of Father Brown, who Father Brown protects from the police, but tries to convince to get on the straight and narrow by getting him as a job as Lady Warren’s chauffer. 

This is would be fine, were it not for the fact he’s played by Sid James, who only knows how to play Sid James, and is just Sid Jamesing it up in every scene. I don’t have anything against Sid James. I like my fair share of Carry On films. But Sid James does not belong in Father Brown and I want to fight whoever decided he did.

Father Brown (1974):

LADS LADS LADS! It’s time for the first TV show, and it’s time for my favourite boys:

Oh! OH! How I love Kenneth More!Brown and Dennis Burgess!Flambeau. They’re just. So cute. My two special boys.

Not only that, but LADS! We’re finally back in London!

A gritty, dirty, London in the 1930s no less, with cool London buses and political unrest and grimy pubs and the constant threat of world war. Alexa this is so cool play London Calling.

In one episode Flambeau gets verbally abused by an anti-immigration right-wing zealot. :( My poor boy. :( 

(But it’s okay, shortly after Father Brown witnesses this, the racist shows up dead in exactly the place Father Brown earlier said would be a good place to commit a murder. Now I’m not accusing Father Brown of murder, BUT)

This show made the bold but valid decision to skip Flambeau’s redemption arc and start the show when Flambeau is already a seasoned and respected private detective who’s lived in London and been Father Brown’s closest friend for many years. As a result this Father Brown and Flambeau are ridiculously domestic with each other. Look at this peak Old Married Couple energy:

Oh! I just love them.

I would love to know how Burgess!Flambeau’s redemption went down though, because Burgess!Flambeau is BY FAR the least repentant of all the reformed Flambeaus. He proudly boasts about his crimes, he still believes he “deserved to succeed”, he still proudly talks about how “daring and outrageous” he was, which begs the question of why did he stop at all? Literally the only explanation I can think of is that he’s literally only doing this for Father Brown’s sake, which. uwu

Oh GOD I love Burgess!Flambeau. Obviously I love all Flambeaus a lot, and choosing a favourite feels like choosing a favourite child, but let’s just say: if the Flambeaus WERE my children, Burgess!Flambeau would be quite spoilt. My ~ Daring And Outrageous ~ boy.

More!Brown and Burgess!Flambeau are both really really socially awkward, uncomfortable in crowds, and nervously say “oh dear” a lot. They really are ridiculously cute.

They also only giggle and joke and act silly when they’re together, when they’re apart they’re both sort of sad and quiet and withdrawn. (This makes episodes Flambeau isn’t in a bit harder to watch because Father Brown is just kind of lost and lonely without his emotional support Frenchman, with three notable exceptions: that time Father Brown infodumped about the mating habits of whales at the Father Superior for a solid minute, that time Father Brown met a dog and reacted with unrestrained delight, and that time someone mentioned former criminals in passing and Father Brown’s whole face lit up and he started gushing about how Flambeau was living in London now and doing very well as a private detective, completely unprompted.)

This show also brought back book!Brown and Flambeau’s habit of always going on holiday together! Wonderful! We love to see it!

This show is also the first time in the entire Father Brown franchise where gay people are overtly acknowledged to exist! And Father Brown is non-judgemental! A roman catholic priest written in the 1970s and living in the 1930s who canonically isn’t homophobic! I have no choice but to stan forever!

You remember what I said about liking to point out Good Omens parallels? WELL

Kenneth More!Father Brown and Dennis Burgess!Flambeau both live in London

Burgess!Flambeau lives in a brightly lit, pale walled, airy and spacious, modern (for the time) London apartment, while More!Brown prefers gothic architecture and lives in an old, grey, cramped, stone building absolutely full floor to ceiling with books

They go out for intimate candlelit dinners for two at very fancy London restaurants 

Desperate people come to Flambeau because he “knows the game on both sides of the fence”

Father Brown responds with a quiet and miserable “oh dear” when asked to actually do his job instead of just watching plays and drinking wine

Father Brown calls Flambeau “my dear” at times and it personally kills me

I mean. I’m just saying.  👀

Now, isn’t there a third important character in the books? 

Oh yes of course:

HIM! THE BASTARD MAN! INSPECTOR VALENTIN HIMSELF!

(Nobody understands him! IT’S NOT! EVIL!)

This show is the literally only adaptation to include the Valentin betrayal and I’m not gonna lie. It’s a very difficult episode to sit through, it’s far darker and grimmer and more depressing than you would ever expect from Father Brown, but my god it’s done so well. Especially considering the teeny tiny budget they clearly had, only four sets are used the entire episode and the whole thing takes place inside Valentin’s house, but even that adds a certain claustrophobic atmosphere and just. It’s done so well.

I think the entire budget went on gore effects because the decapitated heads in this episode are disturbingly realistic for the time the show was made and genuinely grim to look at. Not to mention the intense downer ending.  Not to mention this was THE FINAL EPISODE OF THE SHOW

THE INTENSE DOWNER ENDING OF THIS EPISODE IS HOW THE WHOLE SHOW ENDED

God it hurts so much but I lowkey love it. 

Father Brown Stories (1984):

The second radio series, and the first BBC adaptation! 

Thrilling times for fans of actors being the right nationality for their characters, because after previously being played by a Hungarian, an American, an Englishman, and a Welshman, Flambeau is finally being played by a Frenchman, Olivier Pierre!

Father Brown himself is played by Andrew Sachs, Manuel himself. 

Not gonna lie. It’s kind of hard to figure out how to explain the radio show.

We’re? Maybe back in London? Honestly it’s really unclear.

Pierre!Flambeau is kind of adorable. He’s described as looking like book!Flambeau physically, huge and buff and terrifying, but he has literally none of the temper or predisposition to violence. 

Pierre!Flambeau doesn’t speak very good English at all, and oftentimes will react with “...What?” when he hears a strange English idiom or turn of phrase.

One time he says “Perhaps we should.. push on? SEE HOW I AM MASTERING YOUR ENGLISH IDIOMS” and it’s the cutest thing that’s ever happened.

To try and get better at understanding both the English language and the English people, Flambeau starts obsessively reading Alice in Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass, massive giant adorable boy.

One time Father Brown gets complimented of being academically minded and well read, and then asked if Flambeau is also a keen reader, and when Flambeau tries to say no, Father Brown interrupts and proudly and earnestly says “Oh yes! Monsieur Flambeau is one of our top Lewis Carroll scholars!”, it’s honestly adorable.

This adaptation finally uses “John” as Father Brown’s first name, as it should always have been! I love it!

This series said FUCK Father Brown having a mysterious past and no former friends or relatives! Now he has siblings, and friends who knew him before he was a priest who still call him “John”!

Father Brown himself speaks in a very sweet and soft and wavering way that makes my heart melt.

Sadly and unfortunately, I have to acknowledge the final episode of the show, which is the top worst thing any Father Brown adaptation has ever done to me.

It’s. It’s a crossover. With Sherlock Holmes. Actual goddamn Sherlock Holmes is in it. I hate it. I hate it so much. “Elementary, my dear Flambeau” shut the hell up, if this Flambeau won’t fling you down a flight of stairs then I will.

I deliberately avoided all Holmes-related media for THREE YEARS only for the awful man to spring up on me in Father Brown?? How could you do this to me???

I’m going to yeet myself into the sun, bye everyone.

(On the plus side, the Sherlock Holmes episode does have one of Father Brown’s parishioners recognise Flambeau as “a close friend of Father Brown and a frequent visitor to his room”  ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°), so that’s nice I suppose. I’ll still never forgive the writers of this show for putting me through this.)

Father Brown (2013):

YOU ARE HERE.

I kind of see the current TV series as a culmination of all the adaptations that’ve come before? I can definitely see echoes of all of them in it.

And it’s great! I really really love it. I love it a lot. 

I think about it daily.

My one and only complaint I would have is that Flambeau isn’t in it enough. Not just because he’s my favourite, though I’d obviously not be fooling anyone who’s read all this if I said he isn’t.

And it’s not that I don’t love the show as it is, and find the one Flambeau episode a series always something really special, so I don’t know what I’d have the writers do, exactly. 

But it’s just. In literally every other version of Father Brown, Flambeau is the second most important character and the second main protagonist, and to have him in this show so little that some fans or reviewers call him a “minor character” and others call him a “recurring villain”, though I myself don’t see him either of those ways of course because he’s still Flambeau, it’s just kinda sad and painful, y’know?

I don’t know. Maybe I’m just being silly.

Hopefully he’s a regular in at least the final season of the show. If I don’t get my favourite partners in crime solving I’m rioting. 

Anyway that’s my “””brief””” rundown on all the main versions of Father Brown!! I hope you liked it!!

[ghoulishhusband]

I just realized I can actually talk here. Like this is my account fuck u

Fucking uhhhhhh, hi ig lemme ramble abt my God ocs yea?

Ignore this part if you don't wanna hear (likely) unedited rambles lol it doesn't matter

CW: neglect/abuse, assholery/narcissism, manipulation, tread lightly!

read the under cut owo

Also don't steal my art I'll fucking?? Fight you????

So

I have three main gods that I wanna talk abt especially bc they've been on my mind lately.. Less get it, side notes are in (parentheses) and are bolded cause I have perception issues whoo I don't want it to jumble together is my point lol

First up is my asshole,

Giodine

they/them (preferred)

god/godself (i like pronouns that fit my characters, so I'm giving a bunch away for one night only at--)

ID : Giodine is colored with gold-ish yellow skin and ginger hair. Their eyes are a muted purple and they have tiny eyebrows. Their lips are a muted brown and are full looking, their nose is sharp and points down. They have wings for ears and is wearing a blazer with a long-sleeved, collared shirt underneath it. The background is beige with a yellow square and a dark purple square partially encompassing it. It is signed GH (for ghoulish husband), Spork, 21.

(lemme know if that helps at all! I'm sure I can do better so lemme know!)

If they look weird here it's bc I accidentally made their face too long but believe it or not this is in fact just a doodle Ik I'm so fuckin talented babes.

Anyways, they're basically the first God to ever exist on my version of earth (though even that is fickle rn, world-building is hard unless I hyper-focus on it, and haha Guess What I Haven't Been Thinking About) and they're very egotistical and selfish. As I'll probably yap about later is how they're manipulative as well, especially to another God I'll mention, and very neglectful to the other... other one.

Their partner(professionally), or fiend as they call him, is sam who for the first few eons was, unsurprisingly, absolutely terrible to him. A few tender moments are few and far in between in what could only be described as a completely rancid relationship. I'll describe giodine's side and in sam's lil ramble, I'll describe his :]

I have to explain this because it's a big part of the lore and how they can't work together, even when one of them is very much near The Void (technical death for gods) BUT basically, with Sam, giodine created purgatory. The issue here is that they basically seduced sam into doing it. Well, even if they hadn't, sam was in lesbians(happy pride month lmao) with giodine and would've done it anyway. But the ISSUE is that with the creation of purgatory came complications. See, my gods have to take time to develop into their power, and considering giodine was first and sam was around 666th.. you see the issue. Sam wasn't into his complete power yet and thus lost a giant part of it that went into purg.

See, giodine saw no problem with this (until much later, they do get a VERY SLOW BURN redemption arc cause this ain't even the worst of it), they got what they were aching for out of them and thusly had no need for..sam. They laid him in the spot where she was made (fwi it isn't inherently sexual, it can be, but literally, they just merged together-- taking bits and pieces of each other (which sam did not have enough of) and earth and light yadda, yadda I'll post the story I wrote for that later if I'm up to it) and left him there in the grass.

Again, they saw no problem with that, the deed was done, they didn't care anymore. A common issue in their qualms, sam and Giodine. They did find an issue in Sam finding an issue in the lack of aftercare, which resorted to any message going to or coming from sam going straight to his assistant and going back through them for a couple of thousand years. They found that infuriating-- how could he not face them over something so small! and for years?! it was ridiculous. After forcing a face-to-face meeting, a heated proclaim of hurt from sam, and a bitter agreement to meet up every now and again, they got what they wanted from him. Again. It was a business after all, there was no point in making it harder than it needed to be. 

Giodine doesn't necessarily like boundaries and tends to overstep sam's frequently. They also don't like his reaction to his boundaries being long jumped over, which thusly ends up in disgruntled messages being sent back and forth between them and his assistant for a month or three. It slowly gets through to them, but they tend to say some stupid shit and if they want sam to stay, they have to try and avoid mentioning how "overly sensitive" he is to something that happened eons ago.

(quick mention, there isn't like. time. here. so in all honesty, giodine probably counted earth days instead of Heaven 'days' to get that) Soon into their arrangements to meet, they seem to get on at least tolerable terms, obviously, a few meetings where neither of them feels like going apeshit and taking proper shapeless (or in sams case, he's got a newfound form for ANGER OO just for giodine 🤗) forms isn't going to fix a grudge that has yet to be apologized for by the way. But it's a start to a very long process down the road. Tolerance.

Giodine as an entity is very fickle and rude and demanding. They tend to have a short temper that no one else is allowed to have or comment on-- They were the first therefore they were the most important!

This is very obviously an issue. But it's mostly directed to purgatory. Almost all of their seething rage is pointed towards the poor entity, she's barely been alive yet and they already seem to hate her for things she doesn't know how to do. Honestly, I don't think Purg will ever fully forgive them for the unnecessary abuse of her character, but just as Sam and Giodine get on better terms, they had barely just begun fixing the hole in their relationship. As of now, Sam/Giodine don't have any minor plot points with purgatory other than the major one so I don't have a lot to say about their relationship right now. Maybe one day.

I'd go into details, seriously, but I just wanna ramble about their relationships with each other and their impact on each other's existence. Hope you don't mind a few secrets 😉

But, now, it's time for a new God, one I think most people take a liking to...

Sam (Samuel)

He/him

ID: Sam is surrounded by clouds in the light blue, fading to a darker blue sky and the yellow sun. His horns are a darker beige, which is being highlighted by the sun shining down on him, he also has pointed ears. His skin is red which is very prominent in the sun. His eyes are completely yellow, his hair, beard and mustache are also black. He has an orange scar crawling up to his Adams apple. His wings are a darker grey which is also being highlighted by the sun. His nails are painted black and his hand is holding up the black fabric barely covering his shoulders. Around the painting is a gold and red shaded frame with swirls complimenting each side and a crystal at the bottom of it. It is lightly signed GH, for ghoulish husband.

Sam, Sam, Samuel.

If you don't realize right away, Sam is basically Satan, he's the ruler of hell

Like how giodine was the first to appear on earth, as mentioned before sam was 666th for funnie reasons. Sam was made from bugs, dried blood, and sunlight which sounds pretty gross, but he's far from it. He's a silly, yet neat, guy. He wears Hawaiian shirts and khakis (not around giodine lmao) for cryin' out loud! how bad of a person can he be? Apparently to giodine (for a while obviously) he was the most retched entity to exist. This very much hurt him considering the amount of fake care they showed him before. With a mixture of confusing feelings (which wasn't supposed to be a thing but Univerce went "lmao you'll be fine" and left... short explanation, Univerce is the Universe and is the entity who simply builds these planets and gods that'll appear there and leave them to their own devices, xyr not extremely important in this story. Nor would they care.) and feeling used, he decided that no he wasn't going to take that.

If there is one thing Sam knows how to do is to self preserve himself, even if that means getting passive-aggressive notes sent to him every once in a while. While this period, Sam was surprisingly the least productive (unfortunately giodine knew this and eventually mentioned it in one of their meetings which made him hide away cause like hell giodine was going to be critical of /him/) but he managed. It wasn't terrible, but unfortunately, Sam being able to talk it out with someone who does practically the same work as he does and gets newer, more helpful ideas was better in the long run.

Unsurprisingly, Sam was the first to initiate the healing of his and giodine's relationship but it wasn't reciprocated. Who would've figured, aye? Giodine kept pushing it back onto him and ignoring any progress that could've been made before. Which was frustrating.

The painting above was 'painted' by giodine, which is sorta where their relationship gets somewhat on an understanding of each other. Giodine gets to take a deep long look into who Sam is and tries to express it but it never fit him, it makes them realize that they never really-- truly got to know him. And all it does for Sam is make him even more confused about his place in giodine’s mind. He figured it's another fluke to get him to do something, so he ends up distancing himself when they start actually reciprocating his friendship advancements.

Suddenly, like a flash, Sam was forced to stay with giodine which is where the majority. I'll explain.

Sam...isn't actually the ruler of hell. Anymore, anyways depending on the timeline. His and purgatory's relationship has always been complicated, she always avoided him, and when they talked she always seemed scared of him. So in the end, they've never been close. Distant. Sam always wanted to talk to her, he made her, but if she didn't want to talk to him he wouldn't force it. But imagine his surprise as Purg singlehandedly took over hell in a hazed frenzy.

And not only that, had a personal vendetta against him!

Well, that would be the only explanation to Sam considering how he ended up broken and barely 'alive' at the hands of her. Horns broken and in tatters, pain and almost obliterated it felt like a hate crime. He didn't know what to do when he made it to the office, Purgatory was creating chaos outside his door and barely being able to breathe he felt like it was the end. So he called giodine. 

Purgatory

She/her

ID: Purgatory is surrounded by flowers that are dark grey and white. The light fades down into a dark green. The light shines down on top of her straight, white hair that has yellow flowers tucked into it.  Her skin is a dark brown and has a orange-ish yellow scar on her shoulder trailing up to her neck. Her skin is also highlighted by the sun. In one of her eyes, her sclera is black with an orangey, glowing iris. As for the other eye it it has a white sclera and the same, glowing orange iris. She has wings for ears, one dark grey and one white along with beige horns. She has a white fabric covering her chest. The frame is gold with white accents, but also has vines and moss crawling up the side. 

(may have goofed a bit and forgot to color the sclera of her other eye white but ignore that pls)

Purgatory was made by Sam and Giodine, but to her it felt like a mistake. Why make someone that you’re going to be terrible to, she believed. Giodine seemed to hate her and eventually made her section almost obsolete because she simply wasn’t able to keep up with the backlog that she wasn’t taught to deal with. Not only that, she didn’t have any help with any of it, it was almost like she was expected to just do it on her own. Until Death came along to help, but that’s not what we’re going to be talking about right now. 

And also, Purgatory is Purgatory yadda, yadda, I wont insult your intelligence.

Giodine’s thought process (other than wanting to be Real Close to Sam and once that thought filtered out, promptly ignored it) was that all the extras that don’t fit in either category of their thought of good and evil they’d go to her. (doesn’t matter cause in Sam's system it filters through ‘levels of assholery’ and depending on how bad you are you either just vibe in the upper city under rule of capitalism and possibly many under paying jobs or being actually tortured for his amusement if you’re just evil. Morally grey. Anyway, it could work p well in heaven if giodine wasn’t such a damn stickler.) But in the end, every day, less and less people ended up in purgatory, leaving her with barely any people and more verbal abuse from giodine who ‘HAS to take them or they would be more dead than they already are’. You see the pain she has to go through, right? 

~Idea section, this is probably not canon anyways so dont take it serious~ 

My thought is that another oc (BA, you may have heard of him idk) takes over simply because Purg took multiple hims from alternative timelines (which isn’t allowed but what’re they gonna do, undead a dead clown? multiple times from multiple timelines???)) because she adored him and they figured ‘well we gotta redo purgatory may as well do it like this’ and make him a demi-dead-god. i think thats a cool idea right? anyhoo

~Idea section over uwu~

Purgatory overall is a fairly timid character, she doesn’t like conflict, is easily overwhelmed, and generally keeps to herself. She doesn’t see the point in being in any drama if she’s just going to be yelled at and scolded even if it’s not about her. The only way i could describe her taking over hell is this: 

She was tired. She was angry and after feeling like nothing was in control or in her hands, she snapped. Why doesn’t she get anything or get to be ‘all powerful’ but they do? She knew if she took on Giodine she’d likely get thrown to the void, but sam? He felt fair game. Considering her fear of both of these gods, she planned and got her courage up to take him over. She had considered negotiations but in the end, she ended up going into a haze and ruining everything in sight. She was more powerful than she thought and once she started, she didn't stop until Death restrained her and Sam was already in pieces at God’s doorstep. 

The aftermath was fuzzy for her and for everyone really. Godine was planning a take back hell while actually worrying for sam, sam was planning for a retirement, and she was being consoled while trying to get in contact with sam to apologize. Giodine wouldn’t dare let her talk to him, until she just showed up in their office. She didn’t have a problem with Sam, honest, she just was going to take shit over, but it got out of control. 

Spoiler, Sam took her apology and they actually became.. somewhat closer after reaching an understanding. 

I wanna say that giodine took them being okay and sam retiring as good as sam did about purg running hell, but they didn’t. Giodine and purgatory actually barely got along in the first place, and only begun ‘working’ on their bitterness toward each other because they both had sam to encourage it. I can’t say for certain if they’ll get better, as theyre both undying and have time, but I’ll just say for now its uncertain. 

Also, Death is Purgatory’s girlfriend after all of that lmao.

And.. yeah, i hope this makes sense and that you like my drawings and ramblings about my lil story in my head, i guess this is my way to develop it without just keeping it to myself cause god forbid i keep things to myself hshsh. If you made it to the end, thank you for taking the time to read and attempting to process everything, and even if you didnt read and just looked to look at my art thank you to!!

I may post some art over on @ghoulishhusbandart cause.. it was my art account before i completely forgot about it but i might reboot it! But if you wan art NEOWWW follow me on insta (ik cringe lmaoo) by the same name as this account @ghoulishhusband​ or just click that insta link! also ignore the fact that giodine is the only one without a portrait, maybe I’ll replace it the next time i draw but im graduating on monday and my dad’s coming TOMORROW?? so i won’t have too much time to do it... but i hope you like my art anyways :]

ok!! ty!! ily!!

[enderwalk-updates]

So you know how lethe has been revealed to be the code name?

Do you think it has a intentional deeper meaning?

Because for one there are myths about Lethe with it being a river and what not, which by the way? There are five rivers in the underworld of Greece. And I am guessing here that the other members are going to have code names following with that theme unless I missed something where technoblade decided to give himself the code name of "Wawa Medium Sized Coffee".

If that's the case though, wouldn't they be missing a river? I'm like 90% I remember all the members of the syndicate, being Technoblade, Philiza, Nikachu, and Ranboo. So possiblely another member in the future? Wouldn't be surprised if it were Wilbur or Schlatt, considering I'm pretty sure both of them are still fused together as ghosts unless I messed something? When dream does bring back Wilbur he's gonna accidentally drag Schlatt out too.

I accidentally rambled off there, going back to what I came to originally say, could ranboo be trying to also connect the fact Lethe has opposites?

The main opposite would be Mnemosyne, the straight up embodiment of memories and remembrance. She had a fountain which would counteract the effects of the river lethe, so instead of wiping your memories it would bring them back. Also apparently she gave birth to muses which I did not know until recently so thats neat.

And there is technically another opposite, who would be Alethia. She's the embodiment of Truth. Her name literally straight up means "Un-connealment" and "Un-forgetfullness". Although her possibly being connected is less solid since the main thing I could find was her name literally just being the opposite of Lethe. Her actual determined opposites would be Dolos, god of Trickery, Apate the godess of deception, and Pseudologoi, the gods of lies.

Also apparently Apollo is a god of truth but that is only being brought because that is apparently one of his designations. I don't see any connections or remember any stories connecting him to the underworld or the rivers. The only possible myth would be his son who went down there to get his girlfriend after she died. But that's literally his son, not Apollo himself. SO REMOVED AS A CONNECTION.

But the reason why I am squinting suspiciously at ranboo like a elderly person trying to read and understand the description of a product that's on sale for 25% because the the man is literally made up of opposite colors.

COULD THE CODENAME JUST BE A FUN LITTLE NOD TO THE FACT HIS CHARACTER HAS A MEMORY WORSE THEN A GOLDFISH AND NOT A POSSIBLE CLUE FOR FUTURE LORE?

MOST LIKELY BUT I DONT TRUST LIKE THAT

ALSO SORRY FOR THE RAMBLING

NEVER TRUST LIKE THAT!!!

That being said, I don’t think there’s that deep of a meaning to it? Not yet, anyway. I think it’s just meant as a nod to the fact that c!Ranboo has the memory of a goldfish and the backbone of a chocolate eclair.

It’s worth noting that he did point out the definition of “Lethe” without referring to the river/goddess: “oblivion, forgetfulness, concealment” (courtesy of wikipedia). He told us to remember that. So!

We know Ranboo is forgetful. We know he keeps secrets. And oblivion is tied to forgetting, in reference to the River Lethe. I just wonder what else is being concealed!

And YES you bring up a great point about Alethia (truth) being so tied to Lethe! I don’t know if this duality/opposites was intentional on Ranboo’s part, but it is a very cool detail that fits very nicely with the Voice claiming it knows the truth and knows everything he’s trying to conceal.

As for everyone else’s nicknames, it would be SO cool if they were all rivers, but alas, Phil + Techno (and an unidentified member) have already chosen their names. I’ve seen people point out that they all relate to death/the underworld in some way, with less consensus on Harpocrates, due to the fact that we don’t know if we’re looking at the original Egyptian god or the Greek version. I imagine this has to do with the, you know, MASSIVE amounts of death and destruction Phil + Techno leave in their wake.

Right now, Niki is the only one without a name. I’ve seen people suggest Persephone, but honestly, if anyone is going to get the “Persephone” moniker it should be Hannah. (Flower nymph trying to “bring spring to the server” trapped in the underground by a much more powerful entity that seems to be inextricably linked to her? Come on, now.) I like the people who’ve said “Nemesis” (vengeance) for Niki, and I think “Nyx” (darkness) would be very cool. Even though “Eurydice” didn’t make it out of the Underworld, it would also fit with c!Niki’s theme of feeling abandoned (specifically by a bard) and how cc!Niki has said that the Syndicate might be a place for the character to heal from her hurt.

[well-shit-im-a-morosexual-now]

Time to talk about Lillith :)

So her being MC's ancestor in the story was... A bad choice, in my opinion.

And I don't hate that she was the one who revived MC, quite the opposite, that was a fine move. I like to think that it was to show that MC had a connection to all the siblings, dead or alive, hate or love. It's just...

Why are they (technically) related? What was the purpose?

That could sound mean, but if some of your playbase could call incest and (possibly) have a leg to stand on, it's a bit... Much, let's say. But, either way, there is an alternative that I like. (And one I made up, but that's besides the point.)

I like the idea that Diavolo lied to the brothers to keep the peace. To me, it makes sense, because:

He needs to keep the peace between the three realms, and y'know, one of the humans dying kind of prevents that. So, why not lie to them to make sure this never happens again?

It would also get to a quick resolution for the brothers, since I'm pretty sure that Belph was about to kill MC... Again.

Sadly, I only have two reasons, but you're smart, you can probably expand upon this.

Anyway, this might be a bit sloppy, but I hope you can understand what I'm trying to say.

Your Anonymous Color Coder,

Lesson 42 Anon

(P.S. I have issues with Lesson 16, 17, and 18. I say this just in case I want to rant about it. :)

So initially I wasn't the biggest fan of them being related, though when they first started hinting at a connection between Lilith and MC I had a "OH GOD. OH DAMN. PLEASE DON'T BE LILITH'S REINCARNATION" moment so finding out MC was just a distant relative was a relief but not one I was necessarily happy with? Because of all the "Is this technically incest!?" feelings I had at the time.

But it did grow on me? I think all the human au's I had roaming free in my head helped me get over it? When writing or thinking up human Aus I try to make them as close to the Canon situation as possible so it'd be:

The brothers and Lilith all living in a foster home with only Lucifer and Satan being blood related, but they all see each other as a found family. MC would be a distant (and I mean distant enough it equals to the thousands of years that separate Canon MC and Lilith) cousin who they don't even find out is related to Lilith until much later (after Lilith either leaves and joins a more permanent family or....well dies I guess).

The way I see it, it'd be the same as a group of "we're so close we see each other as siblings" friends wanting to date the distant/estranged relative of one of the group members.

So yeah, now I see the whole Lilith, MC, brothers thing as "Incest if I'm willing to reach so far my arm tears straight outta my socket" so yeah.

Though obviously it's completely valid if people are still uncomfortable with it.

ANXUSJWMNZRATQVX8 Belphie would have totally murdered MC if they didn't bring up the whole Lilith thing! And I'm so upset they all just get over it? Like damn I love Belphie no lie, but are we just gonna gloss over the fact that he was 110% okay with the genocide of the entire human race???????

I also have this headcanon that MC has chronic pain that flares up on and off after Belphie murdered them, cause remember how the ghost of the fortune teller,Gisella (?), on the train said you never forget the feeling of dying and MC had a pretty violent death so.....

I also HC that there are days, specially when the pain is bad, where they can't stand to be near Belphie and that while he was initially upset by this and was persistent about still being with them by around mid S2 or S3 he's learnt to identify those days and understand why MC can't even look at him then and he makes himself scarce and sleeps away the day in an out of the way dark, corner probably with Beel around for emotional support because honestly those days would hurt him as much as MC.

I like that in the Canon storyline that none of the brothers were 100% okay with Belphie right after Lesson 16 and how they went out of their way, more so than usual, to make sure MC wasn't alone with him? I maybe reading into that too much but I liked it..

And I mean generally MC's a very calm, collected, headstrong and stubborn character so as frustrating as it is I understand why they would want to help Belphie get along with the others again. "I died for this shit, so I might as well see it through" kinda mentality

I didn't initially like the two timelines cause it made me really sad imagining the one MC left behind and to ease that angst I always imagined since MC changed the past their original timeline -the future timeline- got erased with a new future unfolding. but someone on tumblr posted a headcanon with evidence on why they thought Barbatos joined the two timelines together so that they live with the extra day of memories and experiences that came from the original timeline AND I JUMPED THE HELL ON THAT BOAT & actually recently wrote something about it. Here have the link and some shameless self promotion cause I'm an attention whore:

Deadlines

"When Mammon meets his soulmate he's going to punch them in the face. It doesn't matter if he'll only find out who exactly his soulmate is when one of them is on their deathbed. He's still going to punch them."

Um anyway that's all my thoughts on 16, 17 & 18 (I think. There might be more that I can't remember at the moment tbh) and since I rambled to you about it you are now contractually obligated to rant to me about yours. Sorry, those are the rules🤷🏽

About the thing you said about Diavolo and his reasons I honestly have nothing else to add, I mean the reasons you gave make total sense and I'm okay with just what the canon gave too so

It wasn't sloppy at all! My rambles are always too long and all over the place!

Edit: I forgot! As to why they were related, yeah I don't think it was completely necessary but still I can see reasons behind it?

1. As a way to make MC other. A devilgram and a little line in S3 makes it seem like MC is neither angel, demon OR human. I HC that Lilith died right as she was changing from angel to demon making her one of a kind and that pure "Fallen Angel" magic came with her when she was reincarnated and then was passed down to MC.

2. How lilith's known as the mother of monsters in some myths and how MC is related to them... I just think it's neat. Plus MC has an insane amount of raw power - truly a monster in their own right

3. It's closure for the brothers. They never got to see Lililth as a human, never got to see her grow up, fall in love, start her own family. The last they saw her she was in pain and dying. They don't get to see if she was happy. MC's the closest proof they have to that. That she found love and had a family and was happy

4. It's closure for lilith. Just the fact that her spirit passed down from descendent to descendent along with her magic till she could see her brothers again just to see if they were happy and to tell them she had lived a long happy life. I don't know I'm really happy she was able to do that

5. The brothers find similarities between Lilith and MC but they're rare and 6 of the 7 brothers already liked MC before they found out about MC being her descendent. And even Belohie starts to like them as their own person. Just I always worry that they like MC just because of the connection between them and Lilith and that they see MC as a replacement but then U remember their Canon interactions and it feels like the brothers actually forget about that connection. MC is Lilith's legacy, they're living proof that you can be born in one world but find your true home in another, but they're not defined by Lilith. They're their own person. Even their magic is their own considering Lilith used the last of hers when she helped them in Lesson 15/16