#and my relationship with my extended family is still very poor

[eenochian]

like 16 people have told me happy birthday and i’m ngl i’ve been tearing up over it

[fangirl-dot-com]

Chapter 19 - All Hail Prince Charles

As a Charles fan, the day he wins the Monaco Grand Prix will be the happiest day of my life (I will probably cry). also, weird that I legit forgot until now - is that I have not been doing fastest lap...and I completely forgot about sprint races. So, in this reality, there were no sprints or fastest points until now because I wanted Charles to have a grand slam!

So, please enjoy this fun chapter! much love to all!

like always comments, questions, concerns, reblogs, and likes are always appreciate!

TAG LIST IS CLOED

You stood next to the entrance to the paddock, phone out rapidly texting someone. With each sound of the turnstile, you thought it was the two brothers who you were waiting for. Well, them, their mother, and Max. 

Apparently, you had gotten the time wrong of when you needed to get to the paddock, and showed up almost two hours early. And, in pure introvert form (whenever you were around people you weren’t comfortable with), you just kept to yourself and waited right by the entrance. 

It was pretty busy in the paddock today. The color that stood out the most was the iconic red of the Tifosi, dressed to impress their favorite Monegasque driver. Even people who weren’t very fond of the sport came to support him. 

Charles was basically royalty. Which had you questioning if you and Max were “royalty” too, since you lived there. But, it didn’t extend as much as it does for Charles and his family. People practically kissed the ground he walked on. And maybe practically was an understatement as you had seen a guy do it one time. 

Your face was still buried in your phone, when someone suddenly bumped into you. You went to apologize before your eyes were set on your favorite pair of dimples. 

“Bonjour mon beau garcon,” you said softly, not to alert anyone in the surround area. You were still keeping the relationship on the down low, even if it had been almost two months. 

Arthur quickly hugged you, trying to make it not seem like a “romantic hug.” Besides, people had seen much hugs much more intimate than the ones you were now doing. Maybe you were toning it down a little too much. 

“Bonjour mon ange,” he whispered in your ear, making a blush cross your cheeks. Laughter was heard behind him and you peeked over his shoulder. 

Along with Max, Charles, and Pascale giving you smug looks, a certain German driver was also in the group. 

Not wasting anytime, you shoved your poor boyfriend to the side (completely missing his “kicked puppy dog eyes”), and jumped into the German’s arms. 

“Seb!” 

Now that got a lot of people’s attention. Suddenly camera clicks were heard from everywhere. You frantically pulled away. 

Oops. 

Sebastian looked a little shy in the limelight, or maybe it was just your imagination. But you were determined to get the cameras off of him. Your eyes darted to the red and white clad driver and suddenly you had an idea. The cameras weren’t focused on him, so it was perfect. 

You ran to the back of Charles and lightly put your hands of his back to push him out to the open. He gave you a questioning look. 

“Just do what you normally do Charlie.” 

Your eyes focused on an announcer with a megaphone. 

Perfect.

You raced over, said a few words to him, and came back to the group with megaphone in hand. 

“Kid, what are you doing?” Max asked, hands gripping his backpack. You ignored your older teammate and turned the thing on. 

With it almost kissing your lips, you started to yell hand outstretched in Charles’s direction. 

“All hail, Prince Charles Marc Herve, uh…” 

Arthur leaned over and whispered with a shit-eating grin on his face, “Perceval.” 

“Perceval – dude, how many middle names do you have – Leclerc!” 

Thankfully, your plan worked and now Charles was surrounded by multiple journalists and photographers. 

You ran back over to give the announcer the megaphone back. 

Looking back at Max, who was secretly recording Charles looking so lost in the crowd, you made your way to the group. 

“Shall we go Maximillian?” 

The Dutchman rolled his eyes. “That is not my name.” 

“Well if Charles has a lord-esque name, you can have one too! Thur, are you in our garage today or Ferrari?” 

He shot you a sad-ish smile. “I’m with Ferrari today. Seb and I are doing the thing.”

A look of clarity shone on your face. “Oooohhhh. Well then, you go do your thing. Wait, but you aren’t doing it with…” 

“Oui, but Sebastian is the guest and he wants me to be with him.” 

Your eyes playfully glared at the German, who held his hands up in mock-surrender. 

“I will return him in one piece kinde,” he promised. 

“Fine. Let’s go Maximilian.” 

“Geitje, once again, not my name.” 

“Then stop calling me a small goat. Well, I mean, I am a GOAT, in a sense.” 

“It’s cute!” 

Arthur watched as the two of you bickered, before going over to save his brother. It definitely didn’t help that Charles was on pole today, at his home race. Everyone was sweating and praying that this would be the year that he took his home race. Arthur was surprised that Max was in a playful mood, since he was starting a whopping P5 today and you were ahead of him at P4. 

He had wanted to ask you about it, but didn’t want to push for information that you might not have been comfortable to share.  

Starting Grid 

Charles Leclerc 

Carlos Sainz 

Lando Norris 

Y/n L/n 

Max Verstappen 

George Russell 

Lewis Hamilton 

Oscar Piastri 

Alex Albon

Logan Sargeant

Lance Stroll 

Yuki Tsunoda 

Fernando Alonso 

Pierre Gasly 

Daniel Ricciardo 

Valtteri Bottas 

Zhou Guanyu 

Esteban Ocon 

Kevin Magnussen 

Nico Hulkenberg 

Christian had asked you and Max to meet him quickly in one of the back rooms. You and Max were squished on one of the couches while your team principal comfortably sat on the opposite sofa. This felt like you and Max had been called to the principal’s office and you were about to get in trouble. 

Christian leaned forward. “Now, Max, we know that for some reason your tyres aren’t doing well in Monaco this year.” 

Max nodded, seeming to know where this was going. 

“But we wanted to ask you first if you’d be all right letting Y/n have the priority for this race. You are comfortably leading the championship as of right now. We would have liked to extend it by more points, but we can’t figure out what is wrong with the tyres this race.” 

Max sat for a moment and you winced. You knew he didn’t want to give up the giant gap that he had, especially since Charles won the last race as well. 

“It’s fine.” 

Your eyebrows raised as you looked at him. He met your eyes and gave you a smile that didn’t quite reach his. You knew he was mentally giving you the ok to go ahead, but it didn’t mean that you had to like it. Already knowing the race, Red Bull did not have the upper hand in Monaco. This race was for Ferrari and McLaren. 

The “meeting” didn’t go much longer, but the three of you did talk about new strategies so that the two of you could get the maximum points out of it. You both would be trying for fastest lap and as many positions gained as possible. 

Back in the garage, you whined as you were trying to clip the strap under your helmet. Normally, Arthur would be there to help, but no, he had to be in the enemy’s garage. You were silently cursing his and Seb’s management. 

Mitch thankfully saw your annoyance and came to help. 

“No help today?” she asked as she clipped the strap and then helped finagle your helmet to where it was supposed to go. 

“Nope,” you popped the ‘p,’ “he’s in enemy territory today.” 

“Ah.” 

You looked at her through the empty eye space. “Goodluck kiss?” You tried your best puppy eyes. 

The older woman rolled her eyes, but gave your helmet a kiss none-the-less. You grinned as you stepped into the car. 

It was definitely a sunny day in Monaco, that’s for sure. One of your mechanics held a small umbrella as you waited for the signal. 

“Radio check please Y/n.” 

“So Liam is in town, I saw him earlier. And we both know that this is thee Lightning McQueen circuit. Charles just keeps rolling his eyes. Also, Liam and his girlfriend invited me and Arthur for a double date to go to California for the summer break so that we can go see the Radiator Springs set up at Disneyland. Also!” 

“Ok, radio is working.” 

“Boooooo. You just don’t want to hear about my amazing plans. You could come too if you’d like!” 

“Kid, they gave the signal almost 5 seconds ago.” 

“Oh.” 

“And it’s lights out and away we go for the 2024 Monaco Grand Prix. Charles Leclerc has made a lightning start on his teammate. Did he switch out his car for another? Carlos Sainz is overtaken by Lando Norris on turn 1. Max Verstappen has made a position and is now in P5 ahead of his teammate. Now, Verstappen has complained about his tyre degradation all weekend long. We just need to see how long he can stay ahead of Y/n L/n as her tyres seem to last a bit longer than his.” 

“Mitch, I thought I was supposed to be ahead.” 

“Checking.”

What was Max doing? He had said that it was fine for you to have the priority, but was being kind of an ass right now. 

“This was not the strategy that we went over. He’s being an asshole right now.” 

“Seems like the Bulls are fighting as Y/n L/n is voicing her irritation. I do wonder what they went over prior to the race.”  

Arthur watched as your tried to get around your teammate. His heart sunk a bit as you were pushed off the track, but got right back on. Pascale stood right next to him and put a hand on his shoulder for comfort. He wished he could be in your garage right now, because this was the last race until Austria that he’d be able to attend.

Mitch was finally able to give you an answer. “Ok, you are going to box now.” 

You entered the pit lane and were fitted with mediums since you started on softs. This race was going to be a one-stop-wonder. 

Right as you were coming out of the pit lane, you saw two cars collide right with each other. 

“THE TWO MERCEDES ARE OUT! L/N IS OUT OF THE PITS AND IS IN THE MIDDLE OF IT! THE SMOKE IS THICK, DID SHE JOIN THE DEBRIS?” 

It was all in slow motion for you. One minute, you were in clear skies, the next you were covered in smoke. You had seen George try to go a bit wide, but you guessed he didn’t see Lewis. You frantically tried to remember where they seemed to stop as you continued through the smoke. 

Arthur had watched your car disappear behind the curtain of smoke. His heart sank even more than it had a few laps ago. He quickly stood up to look at the small tv a bit closer. He was joined by Sebastian and his mom. 

“Tu as dit que tu ferais attention,” he whispered. 

GP came over Max’s radio. “Red flag at the pit entrance, Max. Come in so they can clear the debris.” 

“The pits? Was it Y/n? I see smoke.” 

“It was the Mercedes.” 

“But she was right there?” 

Max quickly pulled in and all but jumped out of the car. 

Thankfully, you had expertly dodged the debris and flew out of the smoke. 

“Woo, that was a bit smoky. I’m guessing red flag?” you asked Mitch. 

“Yep, do your lap and then come in.” 

It took you a bit longer to get back, since you had just pitted, but you finally made it. What you weren’t expecting was a giant hug from Max who kept apologizing. 

“I’m sorry for the first move, I shouldn’t have done that.” 

You bumped him a bit. “No biggie. Just please don’t do that again. We don’t need a Brocedes 2.0. Time for a juice box.” 

The two of you thankfully found some juice boxes before you had to get back into the car. It would be another grid start, with how everyone was when they were out of the track. So you would have come out second, still behind Charles but in front of Lando. Max would be behind Carlos in P5. 

At the start, Charles still had a great get away, pulling way in front of you like Max had been able to do in 2023. You were able to keep your P2 ahead of Lando while Max gained Carlos’s position. 

Thankfully, the rest of the race was smooth going. Max had not been able to keep up with Lando and fell behind Carlos and ended the race in a pitiful P5.  

However, the crowds were roaring as Charles finally brought home the Monaco Grand Prix. 

“I can practically hear the celebrations starting. As he did in 2019, Charles Leclerc has won back-to-back races. And for the first time in 93 years, a Monegasque has crossed the checkered flag in P1. Charles Leclerc has done it and wins the 2024 Monaco Grand Prix. It is also a Grand Slam for the Ferrari driver as he had pole, P1, and fastest lap. 

“He is followed by Red Bull’s Y/n L/n and McLaren’s Lando Norris. Carlos Sainz finishes fourth with Max Verstappen finishing fifth.” 

Race Results 

Charles Leclerc + fastest lap – 26 points 

Y/n L/n – 18 points 

Lando Norris – 15 points 

Carlos Sainz – 12 points 

Max Verstappen – 11 points 

Oscar Piastri – 8 points 

Yuki Tsunoda – 6 points 

Logan Sargeant – 4 points 

Pierre Gasly – 2 points 

Daniel Ricciardo – 1 point  

Alex Albon

Lance Stroll 

Fernando Alonso 

Kevin Magnussen 

Zhou Guanyu 

Valtteri Bottas 

Esteban Ocon 

Nico Hulkenberg 

Lewis Hamilton – DNF 

George Russell – DNF 

Champions Standings 

Max Verstappen – 179 points 

Charles Leclerc – 146 points 

Y/n L/n – 98 points 

Lando Norris – 88 points 

Oscar Piastri – 61 points 

Lewis Hamilton – 60 points 

Carlos Sainz – 46 points 

George Russell – 35 points 

Alex Albon – 26 points 

Fernando Alonso – 23 points

Logan Sargeant – 23 points  

Daniel Ricciardo – 22 points

Yuki Tsunoda – 2 points 

Pierre Gasly – 1 point 

Lance Stroll 

Zhou Guanyu 

Kevin Magnussen 

Nico Hulkenberg 

Valtteri Bottas 

Esteban Ocon 

Constructors Standings  

Red Bull – 277 points 

Ferrari – 192 points 

McLaren – 149 points 

Mercedes – 95 points 

Williams – 49 points 

Racing Bulls – 24 points 

Aston Martin – 23 points 

Alpine – 1 point 

Haas 

Alpha Romeo 

It felt nice, to be up with Charles and Lando on the podium. It would be your first without Max. Thinking back to the last weekend in Imola, you felt proud. You honestly didn’t care if your parents were watching or not. You being on the podium without the three-time world champ felt like the biggest middle finger plus an extra “fuck them” for good measure. 

You looked down at the crowd and saw Arthur standing with Pascale, Max, Christian, and Sebastian. You tried to spray them to the best of your ability after having almost dumped everything on Charles, who may or may not have cried during the national anthem (it’s ok though because you were crying right along with him). 

You knew how much it meant for him, especially after Jules and his dad. 

And it was great to see Lando, since he hasn’t podiumed all season long. Thankfully, he didn’t break Charles’s trophy (because you think the Ferrari driver would have cried again). 

To celebrate, the Leclercs picked a nice restaurant to go to, instead of a night club. Max, who was also invited, brought Kelly and P as well. 

“So Charles, now that you won the Monaco Grand Prix, do you feel even more like Lightning McQueen now?” 

y/n.89 has posted

y.n89 if you told me that I would have podiumed with lightning mcqueen himself at his home race (and kind of mine as well), I would have laughed in your face. Sad my teammate couldn't join me, but this is for the people who thought I wasn't good enough. look at me now! kachow ⚡️⚡️

and I got to see my pretty boy as well!

tagged: charles_leclerc

liked by redbullracing, y/n_updates, liamlawson, and 67,204 others

y/n_on_top she cracks me up with each post, she did not tag Charles on lightning's picture

y/nxarthur hmmmm boyfriend maybe lives in Monaco, Arthur lives in Monaco, therefore - Arthur is the boyfriend

y/nxollie keep dreaming

charles_leclerc did you seriously post a picture of a cartoon character instead of me??

y/n.89 yes, because I asked you for pictures and you never responded 🤔 charles_leclerc we were at dinner?? maxverstappen1 and???? y/n.89 yeah, and?????????????

olliebearman MOM ON PODIUM

y/n_lives_inmyhead_rentfree see this is for the people literally shipping a mom and son y/n&co a single mom who works two jobs...

arthur_leclerc so so happy for you!

y/n'ssecretbf I feel bad for her boyfriend because her dad is literally Christian Horner, big brothers are Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc, and her best friend is Arthur Leclerc (no one is safe from the dimples)

liamlawson lightning mcqueen is the goat

maxverstappen1 no I am lewishamilton you're wrong there y/n.89 you are both wrong, who has 5 piston cups and who doesn't landonorris preach! 🙌🙌

y/n.nation that whole podium was chaos, glad lando didn't break the trophy

chachanation glad I wasn't the only one crying

rascalflatts guess we have to accept the invite to play at COTA

y/n.89 HELLO?????? BIG FAN liamlawson ME TOO maxverstappen1 oh no

charles_leclerc has posted

charles_leclerc I never would have thought that I'd win a race in 2024 or even back to back races. Thank you to the team. This is for everyone who thought I was done with...I hope I have proved you wrong. For Papa and Jules, I'm home! Forza Ferrari ❤️🏎️

liked by arthur_leclerc, pascale_leclerc, suderiaferrari, and 1,294,028 others

cha16 OUR BOY RIGHT THERE

leclerc_on_top YEAAHHHHHHHHHH

chuck_leclerck I was crying so much. was worried about the restart but he pushed through!

y/n.89 so so proud of you Charlie! Max will let you become WDC next year

maxverstappen1 when did I EVER agree to that?? y/n.89 just now :)

lestappenlove oh my gosh, first Monegasque in almost 100 years to win their home race! history maker right here!

max&Charlie sad that max wasn't there to celebrate with him :(

leclercbros apparently some people saw Max at dinner with the Leclerc family

y/n_best_rookie was y/n there as well? leclercbros yes she was! along with kelly and P

tifosi4ever now Carlos just needs to win the Spanish Grand Prix and then one of them needs to win Monza!

porsche.motorsport with arthur_leclerc and sebastianvettel has posted

porsche.motorsport we are happy to announce the signing of Arthur Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel to our team. They will be preparing for future endurance racing and will be brand ambassadors until then as well. Welcome to the team Arthur and Seb!

liked by y/n.89, leclercbros, endurancexf1, and 9,204 others

endur4nce I was not expecting this today....but I'm not complaining

thurthur I did not see this coming, even after seb was in the garage with Arthur in Monaco

leclercbros oh yeah, I saw that but didn't even suspect anything

y/n.89 and what do we say?? ☺️☺️

arthur_leclerc thank you y/n for setting this amazing opportunity up (not like I got signed because I was incompetent) sebastianvettel just the pretty face for us arthur_leclerc w o w

arthur-leclerc4ferrari I guess I need to change my user

arthur-leclerc4porsche that's better

y/nxarthur this is sad because I looked at the calendar and Arthur will miss the next two races along with the Vegas race

porsche welcome to the family!

y/n.89 when will I get added? I have my two Porsches and haven't bought any other cars porsche.motorsports just sign with us?? redbullracing stay back from our rookie 🤺 maxverstappen1 yeah 🤺 🤺

Vettel-with-leclerc the lineup I didn't know I needed

TAG LIST: @fionaschicken @glitterquadricorn @laura-naruto-fan1998 @treehouse-mouse @sam-is-lost @kagatinkita @fangirl125reader @megatrilss1885 @myxticmoon @angsthology @cmleitora @agent-curt-mega @graciewrote @ashy-kit @slutofmultifandom @aexitizen-ln4 @sugarvibez @vellicora @thatgirlthatreadswattpad @cashtons-wife @hoetel-manager @xcharlottemikaelsonx @jayda12 @ilove-tswizzle @justme2042 @itsjustkhaos @nikfigueiredo @stopeatread @cha-hot @sadg3 @iloveyou3000morgan @s4turnsl0ver @alessioayla @torchbearerkyle @leptitlu @awekbachira @shreks-sugar-daddy @v1naco @stan-josie @mellowarcadefun @badassturtle13 @beskardroids @callisposts @poppyalice2001 @juniper-july19

[tgmsunmontue]

Season to Taste - 2/? WIP

Explicit Hangster - Celebrity Chef Bradley and Naval Aviator Jake Seresin who have a relationship spanning the globe before they realize how tightly bound they are to one another. Heading into this little world.

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

                “What is your name?”

                “Bradley Bradshaw.”

                Leandro blinks at him and he’s not sure if it’s the name or if they simply sound too similar to one another.

                “Hmm. I will call you Lee… like Leonardo. You like pizza too much. And you are American like turtles…”

                “Do you want me to wear an orange bandana while I’m at it?” Bradley jokes.

                Leandro laughs and pats his face.

                “Silly boy. Leonardo wears blue. Michaelangelo wears orange.”

…            …            …

2016

                Filming has wrapped for the morning and he finally gets to walk around without a crew trailing his every step. They’re still taking shots, but they’re not filming him, which he is supremely grateful for because he wants to go back and actually do some proper shopping, not just the stuff for cooking later, but items he saw in passing and knew he wanted to go back and get. He has time. It’s a proper farmers market, there are even livestock for sale off to the side, although he’s been told that’s not every week, more like once a month. He walks without any direction, there are different avenues set up, some with raw produce, meats, baking, candles, soaps, art works and carved pieces of wood. Another with preserves and pickles, little wafers to the side so people can taste them. He takes his time and tries everything he can, loves places like this, everything so fresh and everyone so friendly. Even if they know who he is.

                He’d never imagined that his life would take this many twists any turns, that he’s now a celebrity chef, one everyone considers self-taught, despite the fact he insists that Leandro and Silvia taught him, along with the whole extended Gallo family and their friends. He’s got fifteen years of experience now, the last seven though being the wildest. He’d been spotted in the background of the show with the British celebrity. Sought out and asked if he’d do a little cooking segment, then they’d found out he could do it in multiple languages. He’d been popular. More popular than anyone had anticipated and then he’d been asked to do a longer running show.

                In amongst it all he’d ended up with an agent and a manager. Leandro and Silvia had sat him down and made him plan things out, made him call Ice and tell him. He still hasn’t spoken to Mav, and he knows he’s maybe being immature and holding a grudge but Mav hasn’t ever reached out himself, or apologized or, even better, explained. So, it is radio silence there and he knows that Ice is likely keeping Mav updated with his goings-on, but he is okay with that as long as Ice doesn’t push him to forgive him.

                He’s stepping back from a stall, thanking them when he bumps into someone, apology already on his lips when the other person is also apologizing.

                “No, my fault. Sorry.”

                “Both our faults then,” the man says, and he’s tilting a cowboy hat back and he’s got a fucking toothpick sticking out from the corner of his mouth. He’s also wearing a sinfully tight white t-shirt and tight jeans, which are either old and worn, or just doing a poor job at containing some very nice-looking thighs. Bradley licks his lips. There are other appetites he hasn’t indulged in a while either.

                “You from around here?”

                “Uh. No. Just here for work…” Bradley says, and he can see the guy trying to place him, figure out why he recognizes him. It’s happening more and more often now, people recognizing him in the street and out of context.

                “What’s your name?”

                “Um. Bradley Bradshaw.”

                He’s waiting for the flare of recognition at the name, but there’s nothing and it’s kind of a relief. He’s not quite that famous, not a household name quite yet although the marketing team are definitely working their hardest. He looks at the guys face again does a double take, there’s something about him though which is casting him back nearly a decade, he looks so familiar and the way he’s smiling…

                “And your name?”

                “Jake. Jake Seresin.”

                That is a hell of a coincidence. For him to also be called Jake. And Texan. He remembers the accent. Bradley imagines him nearly ten years younger, a buzz cut and baby faced…

                “You remind me of someone. You ever been to Italy?”

                It’s Jake’s turn to pull back, eyebrow raised and the toothpick does a little twist in and out of his mouth with his tongue and it’s kind of distracting but there is a slow roaming of his face, like he’s looking at Bradley the same way.

                “Yeah. I have. Why?”

                “2008?”

                Jake is frowning now, clearly trying to remember what year it was, but Bradley is more and more sure the longer he looks his fill. This is his Cinderella… the one he’d always jokingly said had got away even though he hadn’t expected anything else that night.

                “Yeah… my first time there…”

…            …            …

                Jake steps back, raises his hand to cover the bottom half of the other man’s face, because the guy didn’t have a moustache, and there’s only one guy, one man, that could be asking. The night in question is seared in his mind, his first taste of freedom, his first kiss with a guy and also the overwhelming fear of doing anything more than kiss. And apparently, he’s grown a moustache and changed his name. Only one way to find out.

                “Leo?”

                “Yeah. Hi.”

                “Holy shit… Oh. You grew up good.”

                “So did you,” Leo (or is it Bradley?) replies, and his eyes show he’s clearly appreciative of how Jake looks. He’d liked Jake plenty all those years ago too. He also looks good, firm muscle and nice looking forearms and they’re both clearly checking each other out and there’s a little thrill fizzing through him because there isn’t any second-guessing his interest, no fear of getting punched for looking at him the wrong way.

                “This is a coincidence and a half. You here looking for me?” Jake asks, knows it’s unlikely but he’s still going to ask. Like he’s worth being hunted down across the world. Leo-Bradley throws back his head and laughs, looks at him and gives him another once over and Jake tries not to preen too much.

                “No. Not unhappy that I bumped into you though.”

                “Hmm,” Jake hums, lips and teeth continuing to play with the toothpick and Bradley’s eyes track the movement. “Neither am I. Although, can I ask why you’re using a fake name?” Leo-Bradley blinks, maybe confused and Jake isn’t an idiot. “Bradley Bradshaw? Really? Trying to sound more American?”

                “Well, you can call me Leo, but I am American and Bradley Bradshaw is the name on my birth certificate.”

                “No shit. Really?”

                “Yeah. Really.”

                “American. Huh. You had me fooled…” Jake murmurs, because he may have been trying to learn Italian for the last few years because of this man. Maybe.

                “I did live there for nearly a decade if it’s any consolation. Just travel quite a bit now. What are you doing here? Work?”

                “Yeah, my sisters are working me into the ground even though I’m on leave. But it’s nice being out in the wide-open space.”

                “I bet. What are you on leave from?”

                “I’m a naval aviator. What do you do?”

                Leo’s mouth drops open, but Jake has gotten used to telling the difference between someone being impressed and someone just being surprised. Leo is definitely more surprised than impressed though, his head shaking but he’s still standing close enough that Jake can feel the heat of his body.

                “What’s that look for? You got something against naval aviators all of a sudden?”

                The laugh that Leo lets out is pitched a little too high and Jake quirks an eyebrow up.

                “I don’t have a problem with it. I just… Shit. Small world I guess. My dad was a RIO in the Navy.”

                “Yeah? What does he do now?”

                “Uh. He died. When I was a kid.”

                “Oh shit. Sorry. Didn’t mean to put my foot in it,” Jake says, pulling a face.

                “It’s okay. You didn’t know. But just a heads up that my mom is dead too, so, maybe don’t ask about her either.”

                “Well. Thanks for the heads up. What is a safe topic of conversation?” Leo smirks and Jake lets out a bright laugh, the message received loud and clear, if the body language wasn’t all telling him the same thing. “So… What do you do for a job then?”

                Leo blinks at him, like he’s not used to such a run of the mill question.

                “I’m a chef.”

                “Cool. Then I look forward to you feeding me…”

                “Oh yeah, I think I can definitely manage that.”

                “Think you can manage a lot more than that.”

                “I’d like to give it a try…”

                “Hmm. Me too.”

THREE

[violet-moonstone]

highlights from "searching for oswald...and chicken"

wow I loved this episode...I feel like I say that every time but I REALLY REALLY enjoyed this one

first of all its a Dagur episode, which automatically makes it great...most of the screenshots I took are of him. Honestly all of his dialogue is very quotable, especially since so many of the jokes they give him are thinly veiled adult humour

also the B plot with chicken was certainly something (and makes me think the writers were thinking about the end of the hidden world while writing it?)

ok so the beginning of the episode was already tugging at my heartstrings. I love seeing Dagur and Heather's sibling relationship, whether hey're arguing or getting along.

Well that's deeply upsetting! and the fact that he said "most of his life" makes me wonder how much of the confidence Dagur displayed as a teenager was a cover for whatever he was dealing with internally.

The part where Dagur hugs Heather and she looks happy but almost surprised was very bittersweet. It seems like she's still getting used to having a family, and affection catches her off guard.

Excuse me while I go cry

Call me deranged but I think Dagur slamming Snotlout against a cage was hot

As always, Hiccup is adorable. Literally looks like a cat

This is funny but also very upsetting! Snotlout and Dagur really make a habit of using humourous line delivery to cope with being deeply unwell:

*clears throat* uh yeah Dagur, I'm sure you do love a good "fruit bath," from time to time if you know what I mean...

Come on, the writers, animators and voice actor HAVE to have known that line came across as suggestive. Like the way he sounds? His facial expression? They may not have intended it to specifically imply he was talking about getting in a sauna with some twinks, but it certainly sounded like something sensual was going on.

Also I didn't get a shot of this but when Dagur starts listing adjectives to describe Heather's reckless behaviour, Hiccup says "Sentinel" while looking at Oswald's journal. Dagur says something like "that's not quite the word I'd use," which makes me think Dagur was going to call her a not so PG word...

Snotlout staring directly at the camera while narrating Tuffnut's emotional breakdown in the style of a pun-loving mystery novelist:

What an asshole (I love him). there's something really funny about Tuff leaning against the tree with a hand on his hip. Poor guy. Astrid and Stormfly were clearly less amused than I was.

Ok let's talk about Hiccup motivating Dagur to open the door to Oswald's shelter. My little Dagcup heart was really soaring here. And look at the lighting!

LOOK AT HIM! LOOK AT HIS FACE!

Oooohh man, Dagur expressing guilt about his past and Hiccup trying to help him through it also really got to me.

Dagur: I was a villain!

Hiccup: No, you were a kid

Me: *crying*

Because yeah, Dagur in Riders of Berk/Defenders of Berk did horrible things, but he was also enabled by all the adults in his life who could have stepped up after Oswald left. I've already written (both in posts and in one of my Dagcup fics) about how being thrown into a dungeon as a kid only made Dagur a worse person (no one in the show talks about the scars on his face that weren't there before...). And There is clearly an opportunity for restorative justice when it comes to characters like Alvin and Eret that wasn't extended to Dagur despite the fact that they had already overpowered him and could have at least given him a choice between punishment and trying to make up for his actions. Anyway...let me not rant about that anymore.

Ok what's next...oh yeah! Astrid doing this:

Hilarious.

Um...ok so...I needed to screenshot this for uh...reasons. It's the um...the composition and the...the lighting and...yeah. All that stuff.

THE DRAWING OSWALD DID OF DAGUR AND HEATHER AS KIDS

oooooohhh my heart!

Look. At. My. Boy. He looks so happy and at peace after reading his father's letter.

Ok so again...the writers making very interesting decisions for Dagur's lines.

Dagur being funny and a little concerning again

I liked the colour scheme for this Gronckle

More Dagur appreciation.

Before the episode where Fishlegs helps Dagur fly Shattermaster, I would have assumed Dagur would make fun of Fishlegs for being a nerd -- but instead he appreciates it. I think their friendship is super adorable, and I wish we got to see more of it.

Fishie! He calls him Fishie! (I ship them a little sometimes tbh) I can see Dagur having a thing for nerds.

hehehe

and uh, let's close off with hiccup being hot and windswept

[65thgames]

Okay now that we've sorted THAT here are some of my actual harvey headcanons (some loosely based on my fanfic that's in the works)

-I think when he was younger, I'd say 18-early twenties, he had a bit of a rebellious phase. Not necessarily as wild as most people's, but for him it was massive. He had internalised a lot of his insecurities and issues from his failed dreams and just general stress. So he became a bit untamed to try and fit in with the others, as he wasn't sure where he belonged. Certainly not in aviation (he's known this for a while), and he feels like an imposter within the medical field . So where else does he fit in?

-As expected this did not work. Someone tell him pushing away and bottling his issues isn't good for him bc he sure as hell won't tell himself. He was never able to feel like he fully fit in with the rest, like everyone else was speaking a sort of language that he was never given the dictionary for (yes I hc him as autistic).

-His relationship with his family now that he's older is more business-like than it is familial. He'll visit for major holidays, maybe stop by when he's near, but even in childhood he was always closer to his extended family. I don't think his parents were cruel, but I think that they were very strict, no nonsense people. They didn't support his inital dreams. Not because they didn't care for him, but rather because they thought they were unrealistic. Why be a pilot (when he's got bad vision anyways) when he can be a lawyer just like his father? Why be a pilot when he can become a doctor, like his brother? As a result I think he unconsciously associates his pain from his failed dreams with his parents.

-A lot of the food he "dislikes" in game don't actually come from not liking the taste. Instead he's conditioned himself into not liking overtly "unhealthy" foods to try and maintain his image of a good doctor. He already feels like an imposter in his profession, so he uses tactics such as these to try and lessen the feeling. Who needs therapy am I right?

-But despite this, he is a huge hypocrite. He is aware of this. He preaches health but then eats microwave meals in his secluded apartment where he doesn't need to keep up his mask. If any of you are familiar with Goffman's dramaturgical analogy, it's exactly like that in my eyes. His "backstage" is his home. But the main stage is Pelican Town. And he uses props moreso in the form of abstract things to build his mask of a good doctor, believing he cannot be effective if he's "just Harvey."

-Random but he's an olive AND marmite person. Not together, obviously. But trust that man has a jar of marmite in his cupboard, and one of these for his olives. His sister gifted to him over a decade ago. He's surprised it hasn't broken yet.

-His first big buy for himself was a turntable. It was his pride and joy and he'd polish it often. He still has it. Obviously we know he likes Jazz, but I feel like his dirty secret is that he listens to country on the down low. Shh don't tell anyone.

-He's gotten into only a few physical fights in his life. Most were when he was in school. But one was an alleyway fight he got into whilst defending his sister from a creep. Trust me, poor Harvey got his fair share of a beating. But that's the day he learned he can throw a punch if he wants to. However since them he's gotten a bit more out of shape. He could still punch someone, but he's a gentle giant so give him a second to stretch and practice his breathing techniques he gets anxious okay. (unless its for someone else. If someone he loves is in danger he'll go in, ham stretches be damned. He'll pay for it in the morning though.)

-On the note of gentle giant, I think Harvey was a surprisingly short kid. He shot up around age 13, though, and didn't stop for a while. He was asked to be on the basketball team, and he did try out whilst he was still trying to find himself. That dream ended quickly when he got a basketball to his face and it broke his glasses in half.

-On the topic of sports, I think he's a pretty fast runner but he does have limitations. When he was a kid/preteen, he had asthma. He's grown out of it mostly, but he still gets attacks from time to time. Now that he's older, it's because his body has started catching up to him. Sure he'll run a few laps for a charity run, but give him an icepack for his bad knees okay.

-He started greying fairly young. He's very insecure of it, because as he was growing up one of his most prominent features was his hair.

-Since we're talking about appearance, I know that man has good cheekbones.

-His eyes are hazel but he just calls them brown.

-The most he's ever let someone in was Elliott, but even then he keeps him at a firm arm's length. He's not good at letting down his guard at all until the farmer.

-He's had a few relationships and a few hookups, but they've never really stuck. He doesn't like hookup culture so he no longer participates in it. I think Harvey doesn't fall for people often because he's so guarded, but when he does it's hard and fast and usually soul destroying.

-Cries at the lion king

-He's neither a cat or a dog person. He has no preference, he loves both for different reasons. Cats are laid back, independent and (usually) quieter. Dogs are floppy and silly. If the farmer has a pet/multiple, he usually has to be attacked with a lint roller before leaving for work every day. I'm talking airport security pat down core.

-This man is TERRIBLE with technology. He definitely does the millennial pause god forbid he ever has to send a video to someone. He's not very well versed with the new meanings people have assigned to emojis and slang. So never text him "HELPPP 😭" unless you want your house barged into at 3am by Harvey with a medical bag.

That's all I've got for now

[clovermine13]

It's been awhile since an IF has managed to completely take over my brain in awhile so I decided to get a drawing of my @infamous-if MC Delilah Rose, commissioned from @inorheona, who always does a fantastic job.

OC Fun Facts below

Pansexual

100% has a praise kink, she wants to explore that more but the kind of sex she has doesn't usually leave much room for conversing.

Has been wildin' in the club since she broke up with Seven, like a lot, probably to much, maybe needs therapy. Definitely needs therapy

has a very particular Pen Preference and while she will use whatever is available, she might complain. Also, prefers to write in one of her many notebooks over her notes app.

She does drink, she does do drugs (Coke or Oxy depending on her mood) but tries to stay sober and makes sure her friends get home. Also, she sleeps around and would rather do that as sober as possible.

Has definitely written lyrics on the back of a one night stand. In sharpie, she was very sorry. She always dedicates that song to that poor women.

Would kill to play a rain show. She has a thing with rain storms.

Loves to read romance novels. especially fantasy ones, ESPECIALLY spicy ones. Its trash but she loves it.

Is she still actively in love with her ex, probably, is she planning on avoiding that with every fiber of her being, absolutely.

I like to think she is part of a VERY casual FWB situation with the lead singer of another band where they meet up when they are in the same place and send each other memes. For two rockstars, its pretty wholesome.

Would absolutely love to be in a committed relationship, monogamous or otherwise but is too afraid to even try.

Wants a big family, is looking forward to being an aunt, is convinced she is going to be a horrible mother, which isn't true but she doesn't think highly of herself, also she doesn't know how to balance her music and the relationships she has that aren't directly tied to her music and having a baby scares her. (She is very careful)

Is okay with the idea of being married but doesn't think it's necessary, catch her with her lover initial around her neck, or initials tattooed on her wrist.

Is super committed and very touchy in a relationship, really enjoys PDA but wants to keep as much of her relationship private as she can, just for them.

Will eventually write love songs but hasn't written one in a long time.

Is completely unaware of how she affects people, not is a mean way, she just doesn't think she is that important outside of her music. She is sweet, just sad and a bit oblivious. She is a sweetheart she just doesn't believe you really like her.

Says she is indifferent about her parents, that's kind of true, she still wishes they liked her (Head canon wise, I think her Dad does and wants to reconnect but at this point he doesn't know how and her Mom resents Delilah, she never wanted kids and D is aware of this. )

She is Chinese on her Dads side and Portuguese on her Moms. She is First Gen American and doesn't really know he extended family.

I think friends would call her D if nicknames ever become a thing.

Would love to have pets, maybe a bird or some bunnies. But she is literally never home.

Love language is a tie between Physical Touch/ Words of Affirmation

Loves pet names.

A pacifist unless she needs to fight then she can.

I like to think she has a lot of half baked talents like her parents put her in a ton of activities to keep her busy and supervised when she was young so she can sew, tie fancy knots, put up a tent, build a fire, has basic tap/ballet, karate and can raise goats and ride a horse.

Is an absolutely mid cook. She tries but generally hates cooking.

Has everyone's things in her apartment. Like she has a spare room and in that spare room is two dressers and a closet full of the bands stuff and they can sleep there whenever.

Has a top secret email that Fans can use to get in touch with her and there is a higher chance of getting a reply. Sometimes people use it as free therapy (She is not someone who should be giving advice) or different artistic pursuits, fanart, short stories. I think she has written songs based on short stories sent to her email, she gives them credit and dedicates those songs to the author. Has she received fanfic to this email.... Yes.

Is artistic and tends to work on other projects while idle. Right now she is crocheting a baby blanket.

Has so many belts.

Favourite Colour- Green

Favourite Show- Black Mirror

Favourite Movie- The Princess Bride.

I only create one MC per game. I am not a multiple MC girlie. So she will romance everyone but as an angsty, second chance romance girl, Seven is probably gonna be her main. (Although G is a close second.)

[halfagone]

Heya Halfa!

I'm watch Hercules for the first time in a while and something about it made me think about your WonderBat dcdp fic, and gave me an idea to share with you for a fic with Diana being Danny's bio mom, could be WonderBat or not, idk, I'm still very much on a Danny/Jason kick so if it's not WonderBat that's open.

But essentially Danny was adopted by the Fenton's and maybe a checkup with Frostbite has Danny realizing there's more to his powers than being a halfa, but he doesn't know what exactly? So, I'm thinking he just tells the Fentons he wants to find his bio parents, not being out as Phantom, but Idk, and i trust your thoughts.

Basically, just Hercules as inspiration, not trying to stick to its plot, tho doing Dead on Main and Jason as Meg ajfjkshda it would be quite funny

Idk, just had to share this with you, hope it brings you some of the joy the thought brought me!!

Also have a pic of my roomie's bunny

GOSH I love Disney's Hercules! Hades is an entire mood, and I love him for it. Definitely one of my fave villains ever. But now that you mention the idea...

If we did base it off on bloodlines, where Danny is taken as a child (and like Hercules was taken from his parents in the movie), then we could always make this a Super-Wonder... Wonder-Super? Superman and Wonder Woman ship, but their relationship was very brief. This was before he and Lois had gotten together and got married. And they do canonically date sometimes, and even had a child together in at least one universe, so it wouldn't be super weird.

So basically, Danny grows up a quasi-god (quarter-god? Ugh, that's confusing-) and half-Kryptonian. Except due to his life style and exposure to ectoplasm, his Kryptonian powers don't kick in like a normal half-Kryptonians would. But he does have a measure of super hearing- which gets diagnosed as another symptom of his ADHD later. And he does have freeze-breath! Which is why people aren't super surprised if they catch some cold mist coming out of his mouth when he becomes a halfa, they're pretty sure he's just always been like that?

But for one reason or another, Danny leaves Amity Park for an extended amount of time. Oh! His family takes a vacation to a beach, somewhere nice and sunny. And then Danny gets irritated about something, or maybe there's just a fly bothering him and he glares at it from a distance only to shoot red laser eyes at it and promptly freaks the fuck out. His ectoplasm has never been red before!

He runs off to Frostbite and the Far Frozen as soon as he can, begging for the yeti to help him because there must be something wrong with him! Frostbite is awfully confused at first, and then he asks Danny if he showed any other habits or behaviors before he'd become a halfa. And so Danny explains how he could hear things most people couldn't, but he'd been diagnosed as neurodivergent, and that wasn't exactly uncommon, and then he explained how technology always worked a little funny around him even before his accident and that's why his parents never thought anything was off when their inventions were wonky around him now (he doesn't realize he has lightning manipulation from his bio!mom's side, thus accidentally zapping devices every once in a while), and a handful of other things and it all culminates into this:

Frostbite is pretty sure Danny has never been fully human.

Which would thus lead Danny onto a journey of self-discovery and self-fulfillment and oh yeah, there's a ghost Minotaur that wants to rip his head off his body and they've got a hostage to go along with them. In Danny's opinion, Red Hood makes for a very poor hostage, but he's not about to tell them that either.

I could probably go on eventually, but I adore this idea, so thank you very much for sharing it! :D <3<3<3

[walnutcookie]

Infodump on your AUs where Langue has multiple siblings, NOW!

AH !!!!! SALUTES. SIR YES SIR !! (TYSM FOR THIS ASK ANON AUUUAEUAUUEUEUEHEE<33 I WASNT EXPECTING ANYONE TO ASK ME ABT THIS /POS ...)

okay so. i shall go au by au

Bredele de Cassonade AU

This one is,, not really an au of mine?? I guess just my friends fanon FHSDKFDK for context bredele de cassonade (or just dele for short) is langue de chats sibling who is owned by @/localhypnofruit!!! zey were originally created and designed by me for an au where langue wasnt born (name will not be mentioned for Reasons) though we loved the goober a bit too much X] Socks has taken ownership and developed deles personality and such, while i adore them i prefer to keep langue as an only child in my own headcanon universe because i feel like it works really well for their character. ALTHOUGH me and socks still enjoy discussing the two,, In short dele looks up to langue since they appear very intelligent and confident and strong but in reality langue is a jealous little fuck who just sees dele as competition and just lies to his face because they can and it makes them feel like theyre better than zem. Langue is a lawyer while dele is a doctor (stereotypical Big Boy jobs) and they are disgusted by deles entire career because they have a weak stomach and cant stand gore of any kind and again they feel like they need to out-perform dele and be better than zem in every way HFSDJF

I dont think that the original Dele au really counts so i wont give it a section but its worth an honorable mention!! They technically arent siblings since langue was never born and thus dele basically replaced them (which of course comes with a LOOT of bitter feelings and EXTREME jealousy) and not even their parents know who they are,, so. Technically siblings but not exactly

Xylitol Langue AU

This was another au me and socks talked about :] well. it was more of a Concept actually we didnt do much with it HFSDJHFSDKJ in short (from my memory) Langue is an alien from planet xylitol who gets sent to earthbread to learn more about it and ends up being adopted by deles family aka their canonical parents. Struggles to adapt and is very homesick but i think they grow very close with dele.? i dont remember and i dont feel like checking so um. hi army if youre reading this sorry if i got it wrong HELP

BNB AU

This is. You guessed it. another au with langue and dele YAAAY!!! thats actually 90% of these aus but they all have very different relationships which is why im still listing them HFJSDHJF in this one langue trains and studies as hard as they can to become a magical (magical girl gender neutral) and then becomes a kingdom-wide celebrity and completely forgets about their family because they are so blinded by their stardom. Sad ! dele misses them dearly </3

Molasses AU

Another langue and dele au <3 in this one their parents ended up dying when they were Very young so they were adopted by one of their parents siblings named molasses,, who is very neglectful. Literally does not care one ounce about these kids and yet still gets pity from the rest of their extended family because he took in the poor little orphan siblings. Langue and dele become very VERY close, literally inseparable and as self-reliant as they can be. langue is confident and Loud enough to speak up for both of them "excuse me they asked for NO pickles" while dele is more emotional and physical support :] since dele is quite quiet and langue sucks at comfort and care. Basically the second they can they get out of molasses' house and move in with each other and langue sues his ass the SECOND they can FHDFHDS the two of them still end up struggling a lot though </3 Langue is still very tough on dele but more in a caring way than just an Im Better Than You way

Choco Family AU

this is SHOCKINGLY not a dele au!! This one is about langue being adopted into the Choco B family (choco bar, choco ball, my oc choco bass and @/vnillatree's oc choco bark :]) Theyre the one Chill One and then their siblings are energetic and athletic and very VERY rough they keep ending up in wrestling matches when they never wanted to wrestle in the first place. Torture langue simulator. Family of annoying athletes and their one nerdy sibling

TYSM AGAIN FOR THIS ASK <333 I appreciate it so much i love being asked things randomly.. The best...... I have more aus but this is all ill list for now hehehe

[deluxewhump]

Erik's Journals pt 2 (2011-2013)

Content Warning for entire series: institutionalized slavery of a minor (11-18), emotional abuse and manipulation, dubious comfort, pet whump, disordered eating, violence, guns, mutilation (off screen, no main characters), corporal punishment, sexual content/dubcon ( character is 18+), broken bones, death of a parent, unreliable narrator

2: What the Fates Allow

December 2011

Feelings toward my new pet that are paternal in nature have been growing for some time, but last night I felt them so acutely I feel compelled to record the instance.

I had just come home from a week’s absence. (I was in Stockholm with Mathilde and our cousin Karl, settling some family business and enjoying an extended visit.)

I was exhausted from jetlag, and I’d spent all that afternoon until it was dark with Keith in the warehouse going over the minutiae of that side of the business. Though I needed to catch up on emails for O&H, I found myself absentmindedly watching a movie with Carlo.

Besides the TV, the only light in the room was the warm yellow glow of the Christmas tree in the corner. Its thousand tiny bulbs reflected against the black panes of the bay window like Van Gogh stars. Carlo was on the opposite end of the sofa, wrapped in a beige quilted blanket.

It was pleasant to share the room with another person, even a quiet pet. Poor thing. He’d been alone all week but for visits from his tutors and the maid.

It’s not just any pet you could leave alone for a week and not worry about. I called him a few times, to say hello. He always gave polite, perfunctory answers to my questions, though they were meant to be conversational. To a warm “how are you?” he’d answer “well, Sir, and you?” My gently exasperated laughter did nothing but push him into longer, more uncomfortable silences. I could picture him standing in my study, the cordless receiver to his ear, tracing patterns on the sun faded oriental rug with his toe in the socks I’d bought him.

I was an uncomfortable business call to him. He gave me the same stilted, self conscious reports as when I called one of my lower management team unexpectedly. “Did Anna make you your Italian wedding soup yet? I put your favorites on the menu for the week.” “Yes, Sir. Thank you.”

Eventually I would put him out of his misery and let him go. He is still adjusting. Despite my measured efforts to reassure him, he is so acutely aware our relationship to one another, my status as his master and head of the household that has become his fishbowl-world. I know he will grow more comfortable with me over time. 

More importantly, I had no doubt he’d be here when I got back, lessons done and house clean, no trouble. His behavior so far has been exemplary, and I try to remember to praise him on it. 

The movie took a sad turn (to ramp the ethos of the genre up to ten). The aging matriarch of the family was hiding a medical diagnosis, probably cancer, from her adult children so as not to put a damper on Christmas, and they had all just found out. I happened to glance over at my pet. In the soft light from the tree, I could see he was crying. 

“Carlo,” I said without thinking, my voice infused with nearly amused concern.

He turned his head away from me.

"Oh, hey now." I patted the spot next to me. I regretted the tone my voice may have taken when I said his name. “It’s alright. Do you want to come over here?”

Without looking at me, he did as I suggested, curling up fairly close. He didn’t touch the tears on his cheeks, as if acknowledging them would be worse than ignoring them. 

To preserve what he clearly considered as his dignity I said nothing further, but I wondered if it was just the tear-jerking tactics of the film with the doomed mother, or a mother-shaped ache of his own that had gotten him to cry.

I very much doubted if his mother hadn’t died that any of this would have ever become of him. As you can imagine, the trade is filled with orphans, runaways, drifters, and those with similarly tenuous ties to society. And even then, the state rarely offers up one so young as this one- still only a child. I put my arm around him.

“Things always work out in these types of movies,” I said. “Don’t you worry.”

He must’ve felt the affection in the weight of my arm, for he was bold enough to lay temple against me. The movie was coming to a relatively happy close a few minutes later, and I pulled back just enough to look down into his face.

“Are you okay?”

He nodded unconvincingly.

“You miss her, don’t you?”

This brought fresh tears, and he turned away again to hide his face from me, muffling a choked sob as he did. He said something that was lost in the tear-tight back of his throat, but what I think was an apology. 

That unfamiliar, deeply personal ache, what I can only describe as something akin to paternal affection slipped painfully as a knife between my ribs. Gently, I turned him back towards me by his shoulders and held out my arms in an offer to hold him. He accepted, placing his cheek against my chest and letting me wrap my arms around him. 

“Of course you do,” I soothed, rubbing my hand between his shoulder blades. “It’s not fair, is it? I know it isn’t. It’s okay to miss her. You’re home, you can feel however you need to feel.”

I shushed him rhythmically and repeated any comforting nonsense I could think of until the tears subsided and he sat up sniffing, wiping his face like someone who’s just tripped in public hurries to brush themself off, afraid to look and see if everyone is watching.

“You’re my pet, Carlo Holstrom. I know you know that, but do you know what it means?”

He managed a wobbly, obligatory answer, keeping his chin and eyes down. No, Sir.

”It means it’s my job to look after you. Just like I’ve shown you your jobs, I have one too. It’s to take care of you. Always. You’re not alone, and you’re never going back to a state home, or with anyone else but me. I know I have to go on trips sometimes, but I’ll always come back.”

”It’s like family, then?” he glanced up cautiously. His eyelashes were wet, his nose red. “I know the difference,” he hurried to add. “But, kind of?”

”Oh yes,” I agreed seriously, and with fondness smoothed down a stray curl of his hair. “It is just as binding.”

Jet-lagged, compelled by his innocence and my own apparent sappiness, I made a promise. “I can’t bring your mother or anyone else back, Carlo. But I promise you that as long as I’m living, you’ll always have someone in your corner.”

-

That night I pulled an extra quilt from a linen closet to drape over his bed on account of the cold temperatures the weather channel had called for. When he thanked me for it, he said thank you, Papa, from his pillow, already half asleep.

I turned out his light and walked down the dark hallway with a feeling like a physical weight in my chest. This boy was only here because of misfortune and the banal ugliness of the world compounding one onto another sure as misery loves company. And of course, because of my own casual participation in a thing as tainted and archaic as the pet trade. One day he would understand my participation for what it was. I was complicit in all the ubiquitous systems of the world that put him on that block for sale or slaughter. 

Tonight I had shown him an ounce of human kindness, mostly because I have been pleased with his good behavior, and he had responded with generosity and trust tenfold. I know the difference, he’d said, assuring me he knew his place in the world. Papa, he had called his master, his captor. Half asleep. Like a lullaby. 

I had forgotten how beauty is sometimes made, crushed under the oppressive weight of the ragged world like a diamond. How it can persist not because of, but in spite of. I had forgotten how painful it could be to witness. 

3: Classically Trained

January 2013

In addition to English and math, I hired a piano tutor for Carlo, an old acquaintance who came recommended to me by a friend.

I know a little of the piano myself, just enough to substitute when Claude can’t make it, until Carlo advances beyond me. 

Yesterday was one such day. Claude canceled late, citing a toothache. I sat down at the piano bench with Carlo after dinner in the music room, a shoe-polish black baby grand surrounded by the seeking branches of potted plants striving hopefully towards the windows. Outside, the nighttime sky was bright with a corona of blue-grey light, heavy with unfallen snow.

“Show me where you left off last time.”

He flipped forward in his scorebook to Schubert’s Der Tod und das Mädchen, everything about his manner careful and stiff. I thought at first he might be nervous to play in front of me, which was alright.

“Show me your placement,” I said gently, and he did.

“Whenever you’re ready.”

He began to play, slowly at first like the first laborious push of a bicycle pedal, a timid touch gaining momentum on the mournful opening notes of the Leid.

At a transition, his thumb missed its intended note. Discord barked where the other notes sang, a dropped set of car keys among wind chimes. He froze. At this point I still assumed his behavior was just shyness of me, and his usual sensitivity to criticism. 

“Pick back up from here,” I said, pointing to the last half note. “Slow down over that transition to C. Piano, not pianissimo. You’re doing well.”

He seemed not even to breathe, fingers still poised over the keys where he’d made his mistake like it was the scene of an accident. I noticed not for the first time he had been biting his nails, some of them down to the tender quick, leaving pink half moons on his fingertips. Momentarily, he did as I asked, tread slowly past the note where he’d faltered before. It seemed it was his relief and pleasure that made him lose his concentration next. He faltered again when he picked back up to speed, his small back as straight as an ironing board next to me.

This time I reached over to lay my hand on his, guide him over how the movement would have felt if he’d mastered it. He flinched from my touch. I pulled back.

“Are you alright?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said automatically. Eyes on his fingers, fingers on the mute keys. He glanced up towards his sheet music, then away as if shocked by static electricity.

I followed his gaze carefully. How had I not seen it before? Tucked behind the sheet music on the music rack was a long black switch like an antenna, metal alloy tapering to an end as thin as a pencil. At first I thought it must be a pointer, like a conductor's wand. After a slow moment of understanding it occurred to me it might just as well be an instrument of discipline and punishment. Like a nuns right-hand ruler, it was perfectly made for inflicting pain.

“What’s this?” I asked, drawing it out by the tip. I held it flat in my palm like a carrot.

He avoided my eyes.

“I asked you a question.”

He drew his hands into his lap, his shoulders losing some of their rigidity. “It’s a switch,” he offered, in case I was just stupid.

“Is this your tutor’s?”

A reluctant nod.

“What is this for?”

No answer.

“Carlo,” I said in low warning.

“To correct, Sir. Only when I make a mistake. Or don’t sit up right.”

“Where does he hit you with it?”

“My hands. Fingers.”

I sighed. I almost told him that he should have told me, but he probably assumed I knew about Claude’s methods, since I’d hired him. Communication requires trust. I am still working on that with him. 

Claude is a decent pianist, but a twit. Julliard trained about a hundred years ago, which everyone knew by virtue of him letting everyone know. Roman Catholic, though no longer practicing. He fancied himself an outcast of the Church now, prone to Marxist commentary and mystical in ways he was sure they found threatening and lately sporting a bristly fundamentalist beard. Rasputin minus the charisma. Still, the sin and corporal punishment crowd often struggle to forget their roots.

But to presume to touch— let alone hit— my pet without asking my explicit permission? I’d given his manners too much credit. I would not soon forgive his overstep, making my own pet flinch from my touch in learned fear. I hoped his toothache pained him fiercely.

“That particular tutor won’t be invited back here,” I said, and tucked the switch into my jacket pocket. “He’s not fit to teach you.”

For the first time since I’d sat down beside him he dared turn his head to look at me. “What about when I make a mistake?”

“You try again, until you are making better mistakes on harder pieces. Mistakes and disobedience are not the same thing. And pain is excellent kindling for art, but not the kind inflicted on children with a switch. You understand the difference?”

“Mistakes are not the same as disobedience.”

I nodded at him to ready his hands at the keys again.

“From the beginning,” I told him. “Take a deep breath. Lower your shoulders.”

Next

[gamesception]

Sception Reads Cass Cain #9

Robin #73 story by Chuck Dixon, pencils by Steven Harris

Right up front, I'm not a big fan how Cass is depicted in this one. Like, it's not the complete train wreck that I felt it was on initial read, and I've gone back to tone down some of the excessive negativity in my initial write up. I still don't like how Harris draws Cass/Batgirl here, and I still think this issue is just a completely missed opportunity by Chuck Dixon to start building a relationship - working, family or otherwise - between Tim Drake and this new member of the Bat Clan. But it's not like, uniquely bad. Just frustrating.

The basic set up here is that Tim's dad, who left with his family before No Mans Land, and who I don't think knows that Tim is Robin? Though I'm not sure of that? has realized that Tim has returned to Gotham somehow. Afraid for his son's safety, has made a big stink with the press.

The American news media, who were big supporters of the 'nobody enters nobody leaves' No Mans Land policy when the people trapped in Gotham were poors and minorities and criminals, are suddenly screaming about the inhumanity of the policy now that they have an upper class white father afraid for the safety of his upper class white child. Tim feels guilty about more public concern being expressed by the national media over just him than over literally every other human being trapped in Gotham put together, but Bruce sees an opportunity to leverage the media circus to move political landscape towards ending No Mans Land altogether.

Meanwhile the government wants the story over as quickly as possible, so a one time exception is made to the NML policy for Tim and federal marshals meet with his dad to contact Tim and arrange a rescue by helicopter. I'm left wondering how there's still working cell reception almost a full year into No Man's Land - that's not just a Cinema Sins ding, the difficulty of getting communications and accurate reporting out of Gotham is a fundamental part of the set up, but whatever.

There's not really any safe places to carry out a helicopter rescue, and Tim won't be able to fight off threats as Robin while being rescued as Tim Drake, so he'll need a chaperone. That's where our girl comes in, looking cool and spooky in the window.

Once again we have Cass as the silent shadow / batman's enforcer, creepy and unknowable even to her allies. Cass is supposed to be like 16 in No Mans Land? And in her own stories she's very much a kid - giddy at the high of being a superhero, overconfident in her abilities, insecure in her place in the Bat Clan, desperate to please Batman. I don't object to Tim not knowing what to think of Cass to start, but It should not be difficult for a writer to find some level on which Tim can begin to relate to Cass, some way for them to begin to empathize with each other and move on from that starting point as strangers to start building a rapport between them.

So the next day they head over to the agreed on site, and... what's going on with Cass's proportions here? Ok ok, there's clearly supposed to be some foreshortening going on in this panel, lets cut Harris some slack and move on...

... no, no I'm sorry, there's no foreshortening here. Cass is 16. She's a kid. Who is that giant lady in the background?

Like... this isn't great. Not great art happens, so I'm not going to harp on for an extended paragraph of pure complaints, and definitely didn't write and delete such a paragraph. It's not worth getting hung up over.

A convenient breeze picks up to move Batgirl's cape for one pane. Because you gotta get that butt shot in there somehow, full length cape or no.

So anyway Tim gets changed and the marshals show up in their helicopter, and as expected a nearby gang notices and attacks.

Cass shows up to fight off the gang, and Tim stops the marshals from shooting while they might hit her. I mean, they said they were using rubber bullets, but are you really going to take their word for it.

The helicopter lifts off from the park with Tim and Cass as more reinforcements for the gang arrive, but the Marshals say they're only authorized to take Tim out of Gotham. Not that Batgirl would have left anyway, but she drops back down into the city, and Tim gets to leave - and make rounds on the news talking about how the real heroes are the ones still in Gotham.

A fine enough wrap up to Tim's participation in No Mans Land, and it gets him out of Gotham so his book doesn't have to involve the darker Joker threatening babies / killing Gordon's wife note the crossover ends on.

As a Cass fan though, this is a super frustrating issue, because for all that Batgirl features in the story, it doesn't really feel like Cass is here at all. The giant lady in the Batgirl suit doesn't look like Cass, but it's not just the art, she's not there in the writing or either. This book was an opportunity to start building a connection between Cass, this all new member of the Bat Family, and Tim, one of the key existing members. There were pages enough that we could have had a nice quiet moment between them, maybe with her mask off so we could see her face, where they connect on some level, establish the beginnings of some sort of friendship or at least working relationship. Like, Cass could maybe use drawings or pantomime to ask if Tim were Bruce's son, or he could notice how hard she's working to impress Batman and feel some sympathy for how difficult that is. Something. Anything.

To the extent that what we all like most about the Bat Family is the found family aspect, we want to see these two starting to build some sort of sibling relationship. Instead there's just nothing at all. They don't even feel like acquaintances or co-workers here. And it's hard not to read that as an implicit statement from Dixon that as far as he's concerned Cass isn't a real member of the bat family at all.

[hearttohaato]

Encanto OC Event Week 2

Part 2: Tomás Herrera & Others

(Part 1 Here)

The second half of my OC relationship info post - this'll include some info about Tomás's bonds with my other OCs, as well as those background OCs' relationships with each other and canon characters.

@encanto-extended-edition

Tomás in regards to his natal family:

Tomás is the youngest in a family of four, born to Lucía and Horacio Herrera.

Lucía was a schoolteacher and volunteer in the town library, who passed away when Tomás was still a child. Tomás loved and admired his mother, considering her to have been a saint in life. The memories he has of her are fond ones, recalling her as being a kind woman without a bad word to say about anyone. He thinks highly of her optimism and humility, and her ability to make anyone feel understood and listened to.

Lucía as well as Tomás's older brother, Mateo, are both canonically deceased as per the events of the story the Herrera family is introduced in. This leaves Tomás and his father as the last living of their family within the Encanto.

Horacio used to be a mason, having to retire early due to weakness in his legs. Between this and the loss of his parents, his wife, and eventually his oldest son, Horacio sometimes thinks he's cursed - but his one silver lining is his remaining son, Tomás. Horacio has zero qualms about being openly affectionate with Tomás both physically and verbally, and though he's a little oblivious at times, he only wants the best for his boy. Tomás in turn is a loyal and protective son to Horacio, willing to put up with a little embarrassment if it makes his father happy. It doesn't matter how old Tomás gets, he'll always be his papá's conejito.

Art by cringecanto (right)

It's a bit self-indulgent of me, but I'm of the mind that when Tomás marries into the family, Casita springs up a small in-law suite for Horacio so he won't have to spend his days in an empty house. I also am of the mind that in their youth Horacio and Bruno were quite friendly with each other, due to both more or less being underdogs with not a lot of friends between them.

Horacio likely approached Bruno before his wife's passing, just on the off chance he saw her make a miraculous recovery. That isn't what he saw, of course. But though devastated, Horacio accepted the result with as much grace as he could and didn't blame Bruno or his visions for the bad news.

They ended up losing touch when Bruno became more withdrawn and eventually "left", but upon Bruno's return to society their friendship ends up picking right back up where it left off. When Tomás marries into the family and Horacio tags along, he and Bruno spend a good amount of their time having tea and playing cards as old men tend to do.

The rest under the cut to spare the poor dashboards out there!

The Patch:

The Patch, or El Parche, is the group name I use to refer to Camilo's small group of older friends, including Tomás (as introduced in the previous post). They're childhood friends; as a unit and individually they're all well-liked young men within their peers and the community as a whole, decently popular in different ways. They initially were meant to be unnamed background characters whose designs were pulled from random Encantownies, but I accidentally got attached to them and now they all have proper designs and development. Such is my life.--

Cristián Vargas, Rafael Molina, Santiago Torres, Tomás Herrera

Santiago (22) is the oldest not only of the friend group but of his own siblings, of which he's got 6 younger sisters and brothers. He's the designated 'mom friend' by nature, easily slotting into leadership positions and able to keep a handle on multiple goings-on at once. That said he very much is a mother hen type, a bit fussy and prone to scolding his siblings and friends (usually Rafael) whenever they start steering towards bad decisions.

Tomás and Santi are usually on the same page when it comes to caution and forethought, contrasting with Rafa and Cris's more go-with-the-flow attitudes. Santi's compassionate nature makes it easy for him to pick up on what Tomás is feeling without him voicing it, taking it upon himself to either make decisions based on what Tomás would most prefer or urging the others to do so instead. Tomás appreciates Santi looking out for him, feeling it alleviates pressure off of his own shoulders when he's unsure of what to do.

Rafael (21) is the most boisterous of all of them, the beacon of activity and extroversion to balance out his more subdued companions. He's a risk-taker and extremely liberal-minded about topics that usually wouldn't be openly bragged out, often leading to Santi urging him to keep it down (which will inevitably be ignored or expanded upon specifically to make Santi flustered).

His loud and brash personality clashes with Tomás's reserved ways, but the two have a unique bond despite the expected incompatibility; Rafael is not at all discouraged by Tomás's quietness and Tomás isn't put off by Rafael's brazenness. They both think the other is easy to communicate with - Tomás never has to guess what Rafa's feelings are and Rafa likes Tomás's predilection for being a listening ear.

Cristián (20) is far old enough now to have an identity and social circle separate to those of his twin brother César, but when he was a young child he used to be very shy and hesitant to leave his brother's side. When Santi and Rafa became his friends it was the first time he felt comfortable with something (or someone) that was more or less his own - so when his new friends started chatting with Tomás he felt a little threatened. Fears of abandonment were unfounded though, as not only did his friends not dump him in favor of the New Kid, but he very quickly realized why they liked Tomás and ended up getting attached to him too.

As adults they have similar mellow temperaments and get along quite nicely, though Cris's vastly improved self-assurance has made him a lot more laidback and unflappable than the more organized and prim Tomás. Tomás admires Cris's ability to be both steadfast and considerate, unwavering in what he believes in but knowing when to handle situations with delicateness and care.

When Camilo entered the picture and turned the Patch into a five-man-band, all four of the older members collectively decided that he was more or less their joint little brother. Santiago attempts to provide Camilo with proper advice and look out for him in ways an older brother should, which often means trying to make sure Rafael keeps his crude language in check around him. Rafael usually does not, taking a completely different approach to being and older brother and totally enabling Camilo's mischievous nature. Cristián is somewhere in the middle, oftentimes siding with Santi or Rafa purely based on what he think would have the most entertaining result.

Beyond this though Cris is a unique source of understanding for Camilo, as Cris is the only other person he knows who doesn't experience romantic attraction for anyone and has no interest in dating. He could have asked Bruno, of course, but solidarity feels a little better coming from someone close to his own age rather than his quirky hermit uncle.--

Cris, Santi and Rafa are the older brothers to Cecilia, Alejandra and Juancho (the town kids) respectively.

Other relationships to Encantownies include:

Santi and Alejandra have five other siblings, and José (the tall fellow Camilo shifts into near the start of the movie) is their tío. Osvaldo is a tío to Rafael and Juancho, as well as their teenaged sister. Cris's parents are seen bringing Cecilia into Casita before Antonio's ceremony, and his twin brother César is the young man who asks Luisa to help upright his leaning house.

Other OCs:

Claudia Reyes (19) is the young lady with the drum seen during The Family Madrigal, whose family owns the music shop they're playing in front of. Beside her are her brother-in-law on the left and her father on the right.

She's Rafael's long-time girlfriend, on his same wavelength of open-mindedness and free spirit. They've been in a strange will-they-won't-they situation since they were teenagers, with Rafael playing it off like they're not all that serious and just messing around. Everyone knows Rafa's totally full of it and is head over heels for her though, including Claudia who's more or less just waiting for him to finally get around to proposing. They're going to have at least 4 kids together.

She knows the rest of the Patch more or less as her boyfriend's friends, but there's still rapport between them and Claudia's more than welcome to hang with the boys whenever she wants. On top of that, she's also Luisa's good friend who oftentimes will suggest Luisa try out outrageous things in an effort to push her out of her comfort zone.

The town librarian, usually referred to as the Maestro, is an enigmatic yet helpful figure in town whose mission in life is the sharing of knowledge. They can be considered everyone's friend, though like Horacio they have a kinship with Bruno that goes back quite a few years. All perfectly platonic, mind you! Additionally, given Lucía's history of volunteering in the library, the Maestro also is on good terms with the Herrera family and still keeps in touch with Horacio pretty regularly.

And I think those are the most notable relationships to get into for now! Up next will be the AU posts, and... boy, do I have a lot of those. 🫠

[spotsupstuff]

Detail appreciation ask

Those eyes on Sparrow

LOOK AT HIM!! SO HAPPY!!!! HE CALLS HER MA!!!!!! AHHH!!!!

Must protect

Haboob, I love you. I love her gushing over Sparrow! I love how Notos is just with the hand extended all the while waiting for Haboob to free Sparrow and arghHhaahj

EVERY time i draw little tiny pupils on Sparrows i'm like "nooooooo that isn't my girl noooooooooooooooooooooooo she looks so scary ffffffffffffffffffrhghrhg she's supposed to be SWEET and SILLY AUGH" and then i fight through the need to make 'em big again </3

like this

both hurt like hell to draw but also oh Heavens thank fuck her pupils are the correct size GJDSLCMKLDSLK

HE DOOOOOOOOOOOES CALL HER MAMA!!!!!!!!! fuckin. after Euros n Sparru come clean bout their relationship to Inkling she's like "alright, well... now you *have to* call me mom, Caper. you are part of the family." he's all confused, "we aren't even married!!!" and then Inkling whips out the fact that no matter how their romantic relationship will go she can tell they will always be very close friends and with Sparrows of all people that means he Will stick around n that's enough to warrant on-spot adoption GJLSDCML

it at first feels strange to call someone like that but then he gets into the swing of things n like idk... it feels nice to have a special caretaker like that. he likes getting headpats from her and since he is cheek-pinch-proof Inkling sometimes gently pulls on his antenna n he goes all dramatic about it

gods. i love Inkling. OH- fun fact!!!!! these lil beads

she has in total 13 of them in her hair like this and each stands for one of her kids!!! so with Euros gettin adopted into the family in the off string ancient times au, she adds a bigger bead to the set that has only three lil beads. when Sparrows explains to Euros this deal and that it's a way for parents to always remember their kids he has a lil breakdown about it

GJSKLGDSMKL Notos and Haboob are such wonderful duo i fuckin love them so much. somebody comes in to ask a question bout smth and Notos turns around still in the same pose n everything, possibly slapping the poor incomer directly in the mouth. it don't give a shit!!!! JGKLJKGLDKSL oh gods if it'd be Orion of all people, poor chocolate boy endures violence once more

Euros told Haboob that Sparrows is part of the family n after asking if she's okay with physical contact (to which Sparrows replied "as long as it's not a punch..." cuz she's never been this stressed in her life, everything is Danger) Haboob decides it's time to go out to town on Sparrows appreciation n stars is she right to decide that

[umbra-vulpes]

Some Background for My Alegraves' Headcanon Life

*This is just some bg hcs for the following alegraves daily life hcs I am gonna post. Might write a short fic according to this later. I love some good old classic cheesy cliché dramas so try to bare with me.

*Please forgive my poor English.and Enjoy!

-Graves did betray the 141 and Vaqueros, however, he is not in the tank during the fight, he went underground for a while and keep trying to hunt down Shepherd and members of Konni secretly with some of his most trusted shadows and sometimes picked up some private jobs to keep the company running.

-He saw Kate and Price during one of the lead-chasing missions in Russia and decided to start giving them useful hints or information anonymously or get them out of trouble a few times secretly.

-He generally feels bad about betraying them but it was a choice that he decided and he didn’t regret it at all. After all, it was for his company and his men. He is sure if the the 141 or Vaqueros were in the same situation, they would have done the same thing he did. but he still wants to do something to make it up to them. Kate later figured out whom he is but decided to keep it silent. Price and Ghost are suspicious but not fully figured out it was Graves.

-However, the first person he actually met again after Las Almas was Rodolfo. During a mission in Mexico, He saves Rudy from an undercover mission that goes wrong and brings him back to the Vaqueros’ base. Which almost led to a bloodbath as Rudy was in very bad shape and Alejandro was blinded by anger seeing him like that and thought that Graves did that to Rudy. Luckily Rudy managed to explain everything before he passed out but it still ended up with Graves having a broken nose and fainting due to his also being injured during the escape.

-When both Rudy and Graves finally got better, Graves and the shadows offered a co-op to Alejandro. Alejandro was very opposed to it at first but Rudy managed to persuade him and he eventually agreed but with a bunch of security policy under it.

-The co-op was a great success with no betrayal and tons of fun. And they decided to extend their partnership longer and work together from time to time. That’s when they started to build trust, respect, and relationships with each other.

-Graves realized his feelings for Alejandro pretty quickly but decided to hide it due to their past history and he also has commitment issues, he really believes that Alejandro was not into him. (Rudy: smh in silence)

-Rudy and Graves became good friends during their time escaping from the Mexican drug lord and recovering in the med bay. Both always joked about how they literally tried to kill each other at first but end up saving each other ass. They seems very close together, It got to the point that Alejandro was feeling jealous of it. But it also made Alejandro realize his feelings for Graves because he didn’t know he was jealous of Graves or Rudy.

-When Alejandro finally cleared his mind and feelings for Graves, He did try to plan on a romantic date so that they could be alone together and talk about the whole thing between them and courting him seriously. But he ended up just kissing Graves in the office one night as they are together privately, talking about mission statuses and plans, and Graves was scheduled to leave for 4 months the next morning. He can’t refuse the rush of kissing Graves when the man is so close to him. And the kiss seemed to seal the deal as Graves keeps in touch with him daily during his leave and when 4 months later, Graves was back in Las Almas, they started dating officially and later on moved together and get married.

-They have a ranch together at a secret location only their most closest family and friends know. They will frequently hosting parties and dinners to celebrate successful missions.

-Graves was finally introduced back to the 141 as Alejandro’s husband four years after the betrayal, during that timeframe, The Vaqueros did work with the 141 serval times but Graves was either on his own missions , on holidays, or purposefully avoiding the 141.

-However, the 141 did know that Alejandro have a husband as they sometimes can hear Alejandro talking with his partner on the phone and Alejandro himself did mention his partner few times during some causal conversations, and he also hinted that they met his partner before. Which leads to the 141 though that Alejandro’s husband is either Rudy or someone else in the Vaqueros. And it was a jaw dropping moment for most of the 141 (except Alex who haven’t met Graves before) when Graves showed up as their emergency exfil and Alejandro just kissed and hugged him hungrily in front of them.

[savior-of-humanity]

(I'm curious to hear about your TTRPG characters 👀)

YESSSSS... HAHAHAH.... YESSSSSSSS

I'm gonna be putting this under a read-more because this might get long (and there's also pictures) but anyways!! (also pinging @hymns-across-the-stars and @cursedfortune since they also expressed interest for me yapping about my emotional punching bags)

SILAS W. RODRIGUES & CAILEAN EVANGELION UNIT-07

I've been fucking DYING to play an Adeptus Evangelion campaign ever since I found out it existed, and I'm still really happy that I found a game at all because the subreddit for AdEVA is dead (though you can find a link to an active-ish AdEVA discord server in there if you dig deep enough). ANYWAYS!!!

Silas isn't really a sopping wet poor little meow meow like some of my other muses (i.e Shinji) but he is definitely just as fucked up. Basic TL;DR of his backstory is that he lived w/ his extended family in Brazil as a baby, with his older brother Cailean largely being the one to raise him, while his parents were off doing shit related to the Katsuragi Expedition that would eventually lead to Second Impact. Given that Second Impact is a global apocalypse, obviously his country gets fucked over and a lot of his immediate family either dies or gets lost among the chaos of that and the immediately ensuing Impact Wars.

Fast forward about a decade, and his older brother goes off to work for NERV after managing to get some good higher education. All's well since Cailean's largely giving what he makes back to his family to help support them, until he suddenly and unexpectedly dies in some kind of accident. The reality is that Cailean actually signed up for a Contact Experiment w/ an EVA in exchange for a large bump in pay, which resulted in his soul becoming assimilated into the EVA. Silas, obviously, doesn't know this, and is incredibly distraught as he and Cailean had a very close sibling relationship.

Eventually Silas gets approached by NERV with the offer to become an EVA Pilot in exchange for training, housing, and payment - and seeing how lucrative the money is, Silas accepts.

For the actual campaign in particular, the basic plot premise is pretty simple; What if Shinji never got in the EVA when Zeruel attacked the Geofront?

A simple question like this, apparently, has some pretty significant answers. To put it simply; with no Unit-01 to stop it, Zeruel managed to reach Terminal Dogma, (presumably) fuse with Lilith, and basically become a god-like being through which it would initiate Third Impact. I'm not sure what the full effects of Third Impact upon the world are yet, but I'm assuming it resulted in a lot of global damage, on top of Zeruel now starting to spawn its own Angels (Zerulim) to target and destroy humanity.

A bunch of canon characters are dead as well; Asuka is presumed KIA (there's some stuff in the plot that implies she could be alive but We Don't Know Yet™), Rei II is dead (though another (adult) clone of her now acts as the Commander of what remains of NERV, now known as WILLE), as well as Mari, Toji, and a lot of other characters such as Gendo and Misato. Shinji's fate is unknown but he was offered as a playable character so I'm guessing he's alive, just not (currently) relevant to the plot.

Anyways. Silas.

He has some pretty complicated feelings about his fellow pilots, because he's personally watched two of them die in incredibly horrific and traumatizing ways. He's afraid of forming friendships and similar meaningful relationships with other people, because he's afraid of going through that feeling of loss; something that's heavily impacted him ever since Cailean "died". And yet paradoxically he won't hesitate to put himself in harm's way so that they don't have to suffer as much. I'm really hoping to flesh him out as a character as the campaign progresses since I've been thinking of implementing him and Cailean/his EVA as muses (though there's like. only one other person I know of on Tumblr that actually has Evangelion muses he could interact with 😭)

KHARIAS (also cw for mentions of child death)

So, Kharias is basically just my fursona that I adapted for a homebrew Lancer campaign hosted by a friend of mine. I don't remember the full details of the story because it's been a while since the campaign's on a hiatus atm but basically, she's a Wildkin (furry race) who had a very rough childhood.

She was raised by her father Perristona, who I believe was a former general of the Wildkin army. Perristona is Not A Good Person. Like. Not even in the emotionally complicated way that makes you even sorta sympathetic but in the way that makes you go "what the fuck, is this guy insane?" And for good reason!!

Because when Kharias and her brother were about 6 years old, he made them fight each other to the death. With axes. It was as horrific, violent, and traumatizing as you can imagine.

And then years later he made a clone army of her dead brother for the sake of basically helping some very misguided people cause a global apocalypse that may or may not involve firing the in-universe equivalent of a Halo ring.

Fun stuff! Basically she's a big shark lady who kicks ass and pilots a fucking badass magical mech. I might bring her around again for another campaign my friend is planning on doing, though I have some other more appealing character ideas since, to be honest, a lot of her backstory in the Lancer campaign was actually cooked up by the GM, so I'm not really sure how to apply her without just going through the same backstory stuff.

[phoenix-flamed]

hi i always love your interpretation of elwin, is it okay to ask if you think canon elwin would be selfish enough to pursue an affair whether emotionally or physically (can be with anyone such as rodney or hanna or both)? or do you think he just really puts the loveless/arranged marriage and tries to make do with anabella?

OKAY, SO. First off, thank you so much, both for the compliment and for the question! I'll try to answer as best I can. (And it is absolutely 100% okay to ask things like this, so never be shy!)

Canonically, the problem with Anabella and Elwin's relationship is that we have very little information to go off of as to how they felt towards one-another. We know they were arranged to marry, and now with the Ultimania book, we know what age they each were at that time. We know Clive was born around two years after they were wed. We know these random trivia facts that, as far as their emotional relationship goes, tell us absolutely nothing. Did they hate each-other? Were they neutral? Did they like one-another? Did they start out on amicable terms, and things went south between them? We just don't know.

All of that being said, I'll base my reply primarily on what we saw of them in the demo portion of the game, as well as Anabella's final confrontation with Clive way later on.

The only time we actually see Anabella and Elwin interacting -- as far as I can remember, at least -- is when they're in their bedroom, the night before Elwin and co. leave for Phoenix Gate. Anabella is trying to dissuade him from taking Joshua, because Joshua is still just a kid, on top of the poor little guy being so sickly. The biggest thing that sticks out to me about their exchange is that neither of them seems hostile towards the other. Elwin seems exasperated at first, and Anabella seems desperate to convince him to rethink his plan, but neither of them raise their voice or resort to insults. They're actually pretty chill, overall, at least until Anabella starts shittalking Clive.

But even at that point, though they disagree with each-other, they don't, again, get overly hostile. They don't yell, they don't insult. When Elwin tries to reassure her that Joshua will be protected by Clive, Anabella gives him a very skeptical look, to which he continues attempting to reassure her that Clive is skilled enough to handle it and that everything will be fine.

And when it comes to Elwin pointing out to her that just like Clive, he too is just an ordinary guy rather than a Dominant, Anabella is quick and gentle with reassuring him that that doesn't matter, he's the Archduke, he was his dad's firstborn, he belongs on the throne. Everything is in its right place. Unlike Clive, Elwin has done nothing to disgrace the Rosfield family in her eyes.

Yes, Elwin gets defensive of Clive, and he gets defensive of the rest of the ducal army as well, bluntly reminding her that if it weren't for these lowly folks who protect Rosaria as soldiers, she(and the rest of the aristocracy) would be dead. But again, he sounds annoyed and exasperated, not hostile. And don't even get me started on the fact that Anabella tried to get in his pants -- which I'm guessing he denied her because he was annoyed from their conversation.

Based on his personality overall, the way he regards his family, and that singular time we see him with Anabella, I don't personally think he was unhappy with her, per se. I don't personally think it was a case of him just tolerating her, and while I can't say that I think he necessarily loved her, I think he at the very least respected and liked her in the sense that they, arranged or not, were husband and wife. Not just that, but they were husband and wife for a very specific reason -- because they stood the best chance of together conceiving the next Dominant of Phoenix. Even if they are bound by this shared duty, he seems the sort to take his duties very seriously, and I believe that same courtesy would extend to his wife as well. Meaning that tl;dr, I do personally think that canonically Elwin wouldn't have an affair, but instead would take his marriage to Anabella quite seriously, no matter their personal feelings towards each-other.

Now, for Anabella's part, we find out later that she was not happy in her relationship with Elwin. She disliked him, she disliked everything he stood for, disliked how he chose to run Rosaria and his plans for Rosaria's future, disliked his views on the people(especially the commoners and Bearers). She hated the fact that the other nobles kept stirring shit with rumors that Clive was a bastard child of Elwin's, and that's why he was rejected by the Phoenix.

I think the fact that she not only used her husband's insistence of Clive's capabilities as a soldier as a means of spitting on his corpse when ordering Clive to be Branded and forced into the Imperial army, but also later went on to specifically call her personal army in Rosaria the Black Shields as another "fuck you" to Elwin and the duchy, is also pretty clear indication of how much she disliked the guy. Not to mention she went out of her way to have her Black Shields kill anyone who might be loyal to Elwin and the duchy still, and even went so far as to use the slaughter of innocent people as a way to send a message to those who were still loyal to him.

But there's nothing to really suggest that these things were because of how they treated the other in their personal relationship, if that makes sense? And when it comes to the bastard child rumors, something else that I feel is worth noting is the fact that the aristocracy hated Elwin because of his siding with the lower class citizens, and because of his ambitions for equality for the Bearers and easing of the nation's reliance upon magic. With this context, why wouldn't they try and sabotage his marriage? Why wouldn't they theoretically try and turn Anabella even more against him by striking at a potential weak spot in their relationship -- not on his side, but on hers? He was a threat to their rule, to their power; of course they'd take issue with him, and he himself acknowledges in the Where There's A Will sidequest that he had enemies in the court.

(But that's speculation based on various hints in the game, not actual proven fact, so take it with a grain of salt.)

But the fact that he never implied in any way, shape, or form that he suspected Anabella to be among those enemies is very telling to me. It tells me, personally, that he trusted her, despite their differing opinions on so many things -- and he wouldn't trust her if he disliked her or was unhappy with her, or if he knew that she was unhappy with him.

I uh, don't even know if I actually answered your question, but. There you go! I have ... way too many thoughts about this stuff.

[alarrytale]

By 'fake baby' are you saying that his son is a hired child actor? I came across larry recently and I can see why its so believed in. It does seem like harry and louis were close in the band and potentially in a relationship but I don't get the insistence that louis's child is not real. What if larry just broke up in the early days and then later on louis got that girl pregnant? He could be bi instead of gay and larry could have just been a casual thing that got blown out of proportion by the fans into this forever soulmates idea? It just feels odd to declare that his kid was hired from birth and is still working (which is against some child labour laws at the least) as his fake child. At what point will this poor kid be let go from his job? Never?

I don't want this to seem like an attack, I just want to wrap my brain around the concept of a fake baby. Would you stop supporting Louis if you knew that his child was real? Do you think larries in general would still support Louis if they had the evidence they needed that that child is really his?

Hi, anon!

I'm happy to answer all your questions, but i hope you understand that to a larrie who's been here for 12 years and seen everything in real time, you sound like a first grader asking a uni student if they've considered that 2+2 might be 5 and not 4...

When you come in late to a fandom like this, you are missing a huge chunk of context. You are seeing every incident as isolated incidences, instead of creating a timeline, understanding the context it happened in, and seeing the full picture. When you do that it leaves you with no doubt.

Louis is not the biological father of F, but F exists. It's not illegal to believe you're the biological father to a kid, when there is no DNA proving otherwise, and you provide for that kid. It's just incredibly naive. There are no laws against being naive. There are also no law against making a deal between a label and a opportunistic family where payments for hiring the family and the kid is paid through child support money. Is it ethical? No. Illegal? No. If you can’t prove that harm has come to the kid through this deal (he's gotten rich as fuck and works two days a year) then you don’t have a case. I assume the deal is going to last until F is 18 years old (if Louis can’t get out of it until then), but F might want to continue to benefit from this deal after he's 18 years old, and extend the contract. So it will probably last until Louis can get out of it.

If Louis said he did a DNA test and that the result shows he's the biological father of F, then i'd assume that he either wants to be closeted for life, or that he really is the father. Either way, i would not be a fan of Louis anymore, no. Either he's willingly taking advantage of a kid without agency of their own to closet himself or he's a deadbeat dad. Neither is very appealing to me. I don't think it's very appealing to other larries either. Good thing he isn't a father and wants bg to end.

I know bg is hard to understand and wrap your head around. It seems so unneccessary and cruel. There is a reason why 1D hate Simo* Cowel* with the passion of a thousand suns.

To quickly answer your other questions;

Louis is gay (afraid of girl cooties kind of gay). He struggles to pretend to be into women, hence bg and no relationship with women for well over a year now. Larry is not in a casual relationship and they've never broken up. Check the timelines and ask yourself if you'd get half a sleeve of complimentary tattoos with a "casual" partner, or talk about your struggles together in the closet through rainbow bondage bears.