#i've talked about this theory before but eh

[avelera]

Theory: There is Only One Johanna Constantine

My controversial Sandman (Netflix) opinion is that Johanna Constantine as seen in the modern era and in 1789 are the same person, not relatives.

Evidence:

The Sandman show did not get the rights to John Constantine, hence the "gender swap" with Johanna Constantine. But the 1789 Johanna Constantine is from the Sandman comics. So, perhaps it's not a gender swap at all, just making greater use of the Constantine they do have rights to.

We chronologically first meet Johanna Constantine "Sr." in 1789 when she is specifically searching for the key to immortality when she ambushes Hob and Dream.

Dream encountered her again and said she completed a task for him, admirably. Perhaps her reward for succeeding at this task in the show (if not the comic, where she receives a different reward) is immortality, if she hadn't already achieved it on her own through her continued search?

It's really weird that they didn't try to change Jenna Coleman's appearance at all to make a clearer distinction between past and present Johanna Constantine if they're relatives and not the same person. They didn't even give her a different name!

Lady Johanna circa 1789 is blonde in the comic (to match canonical John Constantine) but still, with 200+ years separating them, you'd think some changes could be made to hair color or adding a birth mark or something to make it clearer that they're different people, if indeed they are.

Caveats:

Johanna does not appear to recognize Dream. So, if she is the same person as the 1789 Johanna, she apparently has lost her memory of first encountering him in 1789, which is a pretty big point against this theory, especially if he's the one to give her immortality. That said, enough has happened in a supernatural exorcist's life that I could easily imagine a scenario in which her memory was wiped by Dream or at some point later.

Really, I just think it would be an interesting change from comic to show, one necessitated by the legalities of rights to John Constantine, but one that is entirely in keeping with the themes and magic seen in the show. We literally meet Johanna Constantine "Sr." in an episode about immortality. We know that Johanna Constantine Jr. is troubled by bad memories and encounters many hazards of being an exorcist in the supernatural world of Sandman.

Basically, it would be a nifty twist that I think would be plausible as a change for the show, and we already have some early "clues" (like the same actress for both eras with no attempt to make them look like different people).

[fluxweeed]

I want the DVD commentary for all 246 words of Fresh Eyes!

oh man i'm not sure how much i can say about 246 words i wrote 3 years ago!!

1) it was originally for the drarry discord server's drabble challenge, where each month they release a prompt phrase and a word count limit and ppl anonymously submit drabbles. the prompt for this one was "return". i think it took me like 3 days to think of the concept after the prompt was released? and maybe another couple of days of actually writing it? i am Slow

2) i really really like it when something reads differently the second time through – this was written at the same time as i wrote the four doors, which does a similar thing. (i also almost did this same thing for all i have to do, which i also wrote that year, but eventually decided the tension was higher for that fic if the reader knew from the beginning what was happening)

3) someone once said something like "how did you fit two whole lines of foreshadowing into 250 words?" – i just threw this into a doc and highlighted the bits i'd personally consider foreshadowing and by my count there are 10 😂 maybe more? even in fics where there's no "twist" i LOVE having lil easter eggs of the ending throughout. i do it with four doors, i do it with my silly texting fic, i do it with the even sillier "harry gets a vagina" fic (that u recently wonderfully podfic'd!!!). loooove that shit. yum yum.

4) "returning like a faithful Crup" – this is an example of something i do a lot which honestly is a little cringe and not original at all: but i also love wizardifying sayings or using wizardy references when writing from the perspective of a pureblood. like it's silly. it's harry potter ffs. but imagining how characters think / perceive the world is one of my favourite (if not my favourite) things about writing – another reason why my silly texting fic was so fun to do, bc i got to think way too much about how everyone would text!

shouldn't have doubted my ability to ramble on lmao, this is longer than the drabble itself. thank you sm for the ask, @lastontheboat!!! 😘😘

[queenburd]

The use of color in The Stanley Parable: HD and Ultra Deluxe (with honorable mentions to the Demo)

dedicated to @squuote who needs more TSP analysis to rotate

A little over a year ago, I (only somewhat jokingly) lay out the argument that while The Stanley Parable is notorious in its use of yellow, the color yellow is not actually associated to the Narrator. The color most associated with him, I argued, was red. [1, 2]

I've had plenty of thoughts regarding color and TSP in the interim and I want to go over those thoughts today in as much depth as I can manage. You know, for fun. None of this is to argue about creator intent, but it's a fun way to stretch the critical thinking and literary analysis portions of my brain. It's also super cool if you don't agree with my readings, since the point is to get you thinking about these things and studying them to interpret for yourself.

Anyway let's gooooooo

(note: all images are embedded with a link to the source page I pulled them from. For those on mobile, be careful with your scrolling and tapping!)

Yellow

Okay let's start with the “obvious” one. Yellow is seen as one of the main colors in the game, it's the color of the main office and the primary assets associated with the Parable. We see yellow PRIMARILY in the beginning of the office, before the two doors room. It lines the cubicles and the walls are often interpreted as yellow (eh, they're more of an off-white. They're actually absorbing color from the brown-yellow carpet, and they do the same in the lounge).

It's the color of the Line(TM), it's the color of the cargo lift in the warehouse, and, most strikingly, it's the color of the SKIP Button.

We'll get to you.

Okay, so yellow is a color with conflicting interpretations, which is par for the course for all of them, we're not going TOO insane on color theory and color psychology we will be here ALL DAY and I was an ART student. So let's just look at the most basic reading. Bright, oversaturated yellow is a color that can exhaust the eyes easily. It grabs our attention like a highlighter and burns our retinas.

It can be a color of excitement, but it can also be a color of sickness. I've been thinking about the short story The Yellow Wallpaper the past couple days. Or maybe I've been thinking about it for longer. It's just that I haven't reread it in actual years, but every time I saw someone talk about the wallpaper in TSP, I thought about the story. Here's some passing thoughts on the short story in comparison to TSP. [3]

Sickness, and madness, and beginnings, and infinity. In the end, yellow, to me, is the color of the Parable grabbing the player (and by extension the Narrator) by the nose and saying “let's get moving. We have a story to play. Play the game, and keep playing.” Notable to me is how the SKIP button is almost scathingly yellow in contrast to the room it's in, and as the room gets darker the glow gets more foreboding. The Parable did this. The Narrator might think he made it, but he doesn't control it. Yellow isn't his color, and it never was.

Red

“Stanley walked through the RED. DOOR.”

The use of red in TSP is probably the most interesting and fun to analyze for me. It's used extremely intentionally and it's commonly associated with power, anger, and passion. We see red in the Boss's Office, in the Countdown ending, as the door to the Starry Dome, and a TON in the TSP2 Expo. There's red doors and signs in the Escape Pod Bay.

So I've joked that the color red is the Narrator's color, and while it's still a fun interpretation, it's not one I'm married to. I think it's more accurate to say red symbolizes control. The Zending Door is you letting him control the story. The Countdown screens are him taking control from you. And TSP2 is the Narrator trying to exert control over what the developers have made. It's a response to New Content and to the SKIP button. I have a million trillion thoughts about the TSP2 Expo but I won't get into them here.

Anyway, red feels very obviously to me associated with the Narrator trying to take control, or things only being possible when he has control. I'm thinking about the signs in the Escape Pod Bay telling you that it won't work without him. (I'm thinking about how the same door asset for the Zending is used in the Escape Pod Bay. No. shhh. Staying on topic.) So I don't have much more to say on the matter because I feel like I've tread this ground before. Red is about control, and it is held in direct contrast with blue.

Blue

Oh, blue. Soothing blue, sweet relaxing lounge and ocean paintings and boss's bathroom and blue door that leads to broken textures and an irritable Voice.

If red is the color of control, then blue is the color of rebellion. Small rebellion, sure. Rebellion that means nothing in the scheme of things. Blue is the stepping stone to bigger deviations from the path. I mean, the lounge is only the first step to the right, and you can still get on the “correct” path. The blue door you have to go through repeatedly, you have to make the choice multiple times, for it to lead to the Games ending. The boss's bathroom doesn't GO anywhere until after the epilogue. These are “rebellious choices” in a game where you don't really have a choice, and it's the closest you get to defiance.

I like to make it Stanley's favorite color for obvious reasons.

(Hey, fandom, why you keep associating it with the Curator? The only blue in the Museum is in a couple assets on display.)

Green

I gotta admit, while there's definitely something to green and its use in TSP, a clear meaning for it is eluding me, and I've been thinking about it on and off for a couple days now. It's a fairly infrequent color in TSP as a whole, but it does make an appearance. Besides being the color of plants (such as the ever important fern, the potted plants scattered through the office and the ones in the TSP2 expo, and of course the growth in the SKIP button room), it's also the wallpaper in the Demo, and the same wallpaper is used in the Boss's Office in the Real Person Ending. Thinking further, it also appears in the small room before the stage in the Press Conference Ending, and it's the color of the carpet in the HL2 Office that is found under the Games ending. (It was also brought up by my pal glitch that green is the color of the cursor on Stanley's screen, the first thing you see before gameplay begins. Good catch!)

Thinking about it, it's hard to find a throughline. There's something familiar about the green. Not necessarily safe, but it usually comes before something much bigger. Maybe this is a bit of a stretch, though. Let's say for now green is associated with the familiar in the face of the unfamiliar.

(There's possibly a thesis here about green being associated with gifts and surprises. The Narrator makes the Press Conference ending something that teases but also praises Stanley, the Green Room in the Demo is the space where the Demo is meant to be revealed to you, and that alternate Boss's Office is supposed to, in the Narrator's mind, be the first step to a wonderful story made just for you.)

White

Most people, when they think of white in The Stanley Parable, immediately think of the Museum. And they're right to! It's one of the most prominent environments that uses white. With that in mind, we can't forget the other places it appears, since it's best to keep everything in mind when trying to formulate a meaning for it.

So, other places where white is prominent: We have the out-of-bounds ending, and the Art ending (aka play that Baby game for four hours). We also have a massive part of the TSP2 expo.

Honestly, there is a lot of white in the rest of the office, but it tends to be absorbing the colors of the environment in ways that make it less noticeable. White's really good at that, which means the times where it's by itself as the outstanding color are outliers and feel intentional. So what do these things have in common?

Well, they kind of show the seams of the game? Take this with a grain of salt, but the Museum is designed to show you some of the design process for the game, effectively taking you out of the setting to give you a top-down perspective (hehe, literally in the case of the diorama of the office up to the two doors), and the out-of-bounds ending is a joke about breaking the map, falling out of the world , which can break immersion in other games. The TSP2 Expo is the Narrator showing off all the features for his sequel idea, giving a “sneak peek” of what will be included.

The Art ending doesn't fit with this thesis, but it does involve the... revelation, I suppose, of the “character” of the Essence of Divine Art. What I'm trying to get to is that white is a color of revelation and display.

Gray

Gray is not a color that tends to stand on its own merit in The Stanley Parable, and that in itself is intentional. Gray is used as a texture of “unfinished” things, things the Narrator doesn't want you to look closely at, and would prefer you move past Right Now Right This Second Please.

It's the walls of the Broom Closet, as well as the walls of the maintenance room. It's also the walls of the room right outside the Starry Dome—the hall that leads right to the stairs. (Honorable mention, @chirpbudgie brought up that the desks in the office are gray, which is also an implication of the way Stanley's coworkers seemed to disappear with work unfinished. There is a sense of “wrongness” in how they've all vanished. Nice eye, bud.)

You're not supposed to dwell in these places. Go back to the story, please!

Black

“Blackness, and a rising chill of uncertainty. Was it over?”

Last and least is black, less used as a color in its own right and more a use of shadow. It really stars primarily in the Mind Control Facility, dark rooms with a sense of foreboding. Honestly, what is there to say about black?

Only, I tell a lie. You see quite a lot of black in this game, don't you? After all:

It's the Loading screen.

Blackness is uncertainty, and mystery, like the game tells us, because anything could be hiding in the darkness, and anything could happen when that screen is finished loading. It's white's opposite not just in value but in meaning. You don't know what's going on, you just have to wait and see. Any time you might have an answer, or an ending, here comes that loading screen to wipe the slate clean and say “hey, what haven't you found yet? What haven't you tried? What tricks does this game still have up its sleeve?”

(And now I'm thinking about the Figurines ending, and how the Narrator shouts to stop the loading screen, to go back and stay in the familiar please!! Because the fellow hates uncertainty, really he does. But that's a thesis for another day.)

(We also can't forget that Ultra Deluxe's Setting the Time is also set on a black background, and there's always, to me, a sense of foreboding and uncertainty there too. What happens after this is the game, right? Is this for something? Is this doing anything? Is it changing anything?)

Silver

It's a bucket :)

Okay that's the end of this post. There's probably plenty more to say about this subject, this isn't exhaustive by any means. Color is an incredible tool, and visual storytelling and color interpretation is not in any way a science. As I posted bits of this in my server for extra feedback and examples of color, other folks brought up an entirely different interpretation of the color green. And I didn't even bring up Mariella being dressed in full green!

Anyway I didn't bring up orange because there's only a couple instances of it in the game but its always about unfinished things/assets (Baby game, just a lot of Games ending things) but it also shows up in the TSP2 Expo (Button That Says The Name of the Player Playing The Game (Jim)) for features that uuuuuh. Aren't done. So that's funny.

Like I said, there's almost certainly more to say about color theory and the game, but this thing is hitting 4 pages long and that's not including images oops.

I hope this was a fun read! Some of this stuff has been percolating in my brain for a while and it's good to finally get it on the page. Talk to me about TSP I love this game.

[xf-cases-solved]

i've been doing my xfiles rewatch, but i've also been watching twin peaks for the first time with my partner (v weird that i haven't seen it before bc it's very much My Type of show, but w/e), and silence of the lambs was already my favorite movie. so since my personal aesthetic is apparently very specifically honed in on creepy and weird early 90s entertainment centered around fbi agents, here's a collection of random crossover thoughts i've had while watching these things, in no particular order:

-twin peaks, xfiles, silence of the lambs, except all the characters are shifted one plot to the left, so you have mulder and scully trying to figure out the death of laura palmer, clarice assigned to the xfiles division, and dale cooper having to make a rapport with dr. hannibal lecter

-separate thought: if mulder and scully met dale cooper, mulder would be absolutely delighted, and scully would want to put his head on a slab. this would just make mulder more delighted

cooper would be very pleasant to them both, but would find mulder's lack of self-care unsettling. mulder would be trying to talk about the case when cooper would interrupt him to tell him to try the mulberry pie and take a moment to savor it

he would also be able to follow scully's reasonings and would know all the references to scientific studies she makes, and would be like, "very clever! you're very intelligent!" not in a facetious way, he'd mean it genuinely, but then he'd still insist that his dream will lead them to the killer and she'd want to rip her hair out

-cooper to m&s, apropos of nothing: so how long have the two of you been in love?

-scully would not enjoy twin peaks. too rustic, too weird, too many affairs to keep track of

-mulder would love it for all the reasons she hates it

-if clarice and scully met they would get to know each other carnally, obviously. msr can still exist, but mulder has to be ok with being cuckolded by special agent clarice starling

he can watch sometimes, if wants ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

-agent crawford would have one (1) conversation with mulder and would immediately write him off as insane and never talk to him again

-crawford and scully would get along fine

-clarice and cooper would be buds, bc even tho cooper is fucking weird, he would be very enthusiastic about how clever she is, and would talk her up constantly, and clarice would appreciate the validation and kindness (besides, she's pseudo friends with hannibal lecter, cooper's idiosyncrasies are nothing in comparison)

-hannibal lecter wouldn't be able to manipulate mulder, but he wouldn't be that impressed by him either. it would be a mutual disdain. they could potentially have a hannibal/will graham-esque relationship but eh

-as badly as a "quid pro quo" scene between scully and hannibal would slap, i can't imagine scully giving hannibal anything to work with. she wouldn't stick around to play games; she doesn't have time for it and would never be able to regard him as anything besides a monster

mulder would agree to take on the puzzles, and hannibal might give them to him, but he'd taunt him and send him on wild goose chases more than he does with clarice, bc mulder doesn't have anything he particularly wants, but he is vaguely curious to see if he can figure it out. (mulder WOULD figure it out, but only with the addition of scully's analysis and theories, not hannibal's direction alone)

-hannibal would not talk to cooper lol. cooper would figure out who buffalo bill is anyway, tho

-nobody at the fbi in the xfiles universe would know how to handle dale cooper. skinner especially would be very -squints- about it, bc he'd get results, but would just be so fucking Weird™️ about it, but in such a different way than mulder is weird

-the lone gunmen would be very sweet and protective over clarice. they would be very confused and vaguely unsettled by cooper

-clarice would be skinner's dream agent bc she would listen to him and value his input and rarely punch him in the face or hold him at gunpoint

-while i can picture clarice getting the hang of the xfiles, i have trouble picturing her in twin peaks (tho, do note that i haven't seen all of it so mb that would change)

-this isn't a headcanon so much as a v obvious observation, but they are all so fucking hot, what the fuck??

-final thought: dale cooper, clarice starling, dana scully, and fox mulder = dream blunt rotation

anyway those are some of the things i think about in my spare time

the end

[batsplat]

Do you have any thought on the podcast that vale just did with Mig. I had never come across someone that had the Marc fell on purpose in Sepang narrative but I’m just wondering how much of what he’s saying now aligns with what he’s said over the years and is anything new information that’s he’s never bought up before? I also saw that he mentioned Casey and Dani apparently but I haven’t seen that bit yet.

I'd say it more or less aligns with the stuff he's said previously, but he's expanded on some points. him kinda implying there was something fishy about marc's fall itself was a pretty popular theory at the time, enough to be referred to by journalists, though as far as I can recall valentino has stayed clear of it (always getting handlebars caught up in inconvenient places in controversial racing incidents, eh). as for the other stuff:

argentina: valentino hasn't spoken much about pre-sepang incidents in general, at most referring to them with half a line (including races that usually aren't integrated into the timeline of the 2015 collapse, like silverstone and misano). I've talked about it here, but valentino's line about marc's riding there should be read in context of another past comment - that valentino was told marc believed vale had cost him the title, which you would assume to be a reference to argentina (more on that in a moment). while it was obviously deemed a racing incident, it should come as no surprise that narratives accusing one or the other of ill intent were discourse points at the time (see here). both valentino and jorge seem to think that marc felt valentino deliberately crashed him out (here). if they are to be believed, it leaves you with a version of argentina where both parties thought the other was deliberately attempting to make them crash. this version positions argentina 2015 less as a precursor of things to come and more as a breaking point neither party ever moved on from

assen: valentino has spoken about this as a turning point before, saying back in 2016: "at assen I realised he was only my friend when he beats me"; plus in october 2015 saying more broadly that marc was "angry about assen". he hasn't spoken about a direct conversation between the two of them before, though the words he attributes to marc do broadly align with what we have footage of marc saying in the actual press conference (for instance, marc feeling he had won the race, see here). so yes, the stances they both take according to valentino basically match up with the stances we know they publicly took at the time, but again: this is the first time he's talked about this conversation, and we have no evidence for it occurring (certainly not in parc fermé - my best guess is that this would have happened when they were at race direction). all of this is in line with reading assen as essentially the point of no return as far as that relationship was concerned - from then on, the collapse is locked in

alzamora: his involvement is something I've been wondering about for ages now (here, here and here). as is discussed in those posts, valentino said way back in october 2015 that alzamora had told him after sepang that marc "behaved as he did because I caused him to lose the world title". this had always felt bizarre to me, because the description made it difficult to judge the tone of the encounter - surely, you would have to have good reason to harm your charge by running your mouth like that. valentino's version presented in the podcast, which now explicitly attributes active malice to alzamora, does make more sense than alzamora just... randomly approaching valentino to worsen the conflict. the notion that alzamora spoke openly in the paddock about damning valentino's championship bid, as well as this getting back to valentino via spanish friends, is also new. alzamora did have a troubled reputation of his own, as a lot of these managers tend to, not least as a result of the honda in-fighting he was involved in (see here). he has at times been seen as... overeager in getting mixed up in his charges' business - see also how he dealt with reporters and photographers. reporting of valentino's alzamora claim in the immediate aftermath of sepang 2015 mention "yet another disagreement between crew chief santi hernandez and alzamora", the "questionable" role played by alzamora, and alzamora's "very different priorities than honda" (see here and here). alzamora's alleged insistence on being at the meeting, even when valentino thought it was not his place to interfere, does seem to gel with his general conduct. to my eye, there are no obvious inconsistencies between how alzamora's influence was discussed at the time and what valentino is saying now, though the detail of this confrontation including a verbal fight at race direction is also new

at race direction: the details of the look exchanged between marc and alzamora are new too. valentino has spoken about a conversation between himself and marc where marc stared blankly at him, and just based on my own conjecture I did think race direction was the logical place for this conversation to take place. this is in large part on the basis of two media scrum answers marc gave in late 2015 that make explicit reference to this conversation, which I should probably get around to uploading (and valentino likewise spoke about it at the time) (so we can be reasonably confident that it happened and that marc was not best pleased by what valentino said). but the smile is new, yes

that was all I saw in terms of additions! other stuff like uccio's involvement and how valentino describes marc as a rider are basically what he's been saying for years. the most interesting bits to me personally were the alzamora comments because, again, that element of the story was odd enough that I was kinda hoping someone would eventually expand on it. much obliged

[givehimthemedicine]

🛁💧 Moms, bathtubs and fear of water

today I'd like to dig into some support for the Virginia/Henry/bathtub theory, most notably a Will/Henry parallel I've not seen discussed before, and some thoughts on the rabies thing.

for those just tuning in, we have hints that something awful happened involving Virginia, Henry, and a bathtub of hot water. (that idea is aemiron-main's, you can read the original here)

where there's a tub, there's a mom

let me start by seeing how many ST bathtubs can be tied to mothers. (much of this will have been pointed out before, but I have a couple observations I think are new)

starting at the top: Virginia's vision (turning on the hot water tap and spiders fill the tub instead of water):

Karen soaking in a hot bath listening to "Memories" before milfing it up with Billy, a minor, a boy her daughter's age. check

Will and Joyce "he likes it cold" you better believe that's a paddlin

we saw the Byers' tub before. when El saw it in the mirror (lol) and went to tell Joyce (Will's Mother) about her water tank idea. ok she was addressing the group but Joyce is the one who actually engages. I'm counting it. ps when they do set up the bath for El, Lucas uses a thermometer to make sure the water is the right temperature

this is a tiny one, but Nancy goes to sit on the tub and cry after excusing herself from Barb's mom at the KFC dinner.

that scene where El and Max find Billy's tub with ice bags?

darn, nothing immediately motherly in this scene. but what if we check the last dialogue in the prior scene? or the first dialogue in the following scene?

both hits! mom/age-inappropriate-sexual-knowledge + mother/son combo.💀

next up, FOR WHAT REASON was I made to see Murray get naked and get into a tub full of ice while on the phone with Joyce in 4x01?

let's also toss in a shot of Joyce being weird in her front yard, prompting a neighbor child to dispense a line of dialogue involving mothers.

but seriously. after all the flayed/ice tub imagery throughout s3, why kick off s4 with Murray in an ice bath? no, I'm really asking.

we've got a dash of sexual inappropriateness, or so Joyce thinks - Murray happens to plop into the ice at the exact moment that she observes the Russian doll has nipples, which makes her think his reaction is about that:

the only tub scene I'm struggling to tie super directly to mothers is Heather. you could say it's that Joyce appears in the next scene, but that's weak. or that Flayed Heather later drugs/kidnaps her mom. eh.

as em pointed out, the tub Heather's in here is extremely similar to Virginia Creel's. is that sufficient?

so anyway, some of those are def stronger than others, but they all provide some combination of: mothers, bathtubs (esp with attention drawn to water temperature), and fear/ sorrow / discomfort / sexual inappropriateness.

am I forgetting any other bathtubs?

now let's talk more about fear

what started me on this post was how possessed-Will's reaction to the bathtub is so explicitly labeled as fear - NOT by Will, but by Mr. Clarke's voiceover:

yet what sparked One's strength was a memory that made him "sad, but also angry" - which, if the implied tub incident indeed happened, would totally fit the bill.

sad and angry. not afraid. I guess it makes sense that fear isn't one of the emotions he would draw power from later upon recalling this event, but he undoubtedly would've been afraid in the moment. he didn't say that though.

not in that scene.

now, idk if he's referring to The Incident here, or his early lab life or what, but. oh I'm at my image limit. ok well his lines leading up to this are (close up of dead kids) "why do you cry for them, Eleven? after everything they did to you? you think you need them, but you don't. you don't."

why exactly would El "need" the other lab kids? according to NINA, they treated her poorly. tbh kinda sounds more like a projected reaction to the death of an abusive mother.

anyway. apart from that "I was scared once" reference to some past turning point, man will not say he is or was scared. he'll imply and project but he won't say it:

you know who else won't say they're scared? Will.

Will has never said once on the entire show that he's afraid. ever. throughout all the utterly HORRIFYING situations he's been in. he undoubtedly has been scared, and other characters say that about him many times, but Will has never said, in his own words, as far as I can find, that he's afraid.

he dances around it and veils it and teeters on the edge of it, but he will not actually say I Am Afraid.

"how did you feel?" "it felt like when you're scared" boy what.

but Will has not always been fearless!

wanna know what the very first mention of fear on the whole show is? Will assuring Joyce he won't have nightmares from seeing Poltergeist because:

is it not giving "I was scared once too" ?

now here comes my favorite part:

Joyce replies with the "my witch" thing, and she doesn't actually finish the sentence, but I think that last word can be guessed pretty accurately:

cook him up in your what?

your cauldron? cauldron, kôl′drən, noun: 1. A large vessel used for boiling?

so like... have I got this straight? our earliest flashback of Will involves his mother playing an evil character who's gonna put him in a large vessel of hot liquid?

I ask you again: is it not giving "I was scared once too"?

I'm tacking my red conspiracy yarn in at "Henry was five years old."

now, just wondering, what was the turning point that made Will stop having nightmares from movies and "getting scared like that"? Bob_one_day_the_nightmares_suddenly_stopped.wav

now let's talk about rabies

Robin proceeds to list some rabies symptoms and what's funny about that (besides the fact they're standing in a mysteriously dry lakebed) is she left out possibly the best-known symptom: fear of water.

in fact, rabies used to be called hydrophobia ("fear of water").

hydrophobia in rabies stems from paralysis of throat muscles making it difficult or impossible to swallow, and so sufferers will panic at the prospect of drinking or even the mere sight of water. excessive salivation + inability to swallow it leads to the other pop culture rabies symptom, the appearance of "foaming at the mouth".

pretend here I put in screenshots of El and Barb spitting up water when they wake up in the UD and that unnecessary shot of Billy drooling when El is levitating him

Robin's isn't the only reference to rabies on ST. it's come up in two other seasons:

so every time rabies comes up, it's in reference to demodogs, demobats, and flayed rats. all critters that are part of the hive.

ostensibly controlled by one guy, who is afraid of water.

misc honorable mentions:

what do you wanna bet Dart not only doesn't need water, but would hate water like he hates heat?

Dart grew up to be a demodog, and demodogs dug those tunnels - the ones Bob figured out were a map of Hawkins because the "roads" outlined recognizable bodies of water instead of crossing over them.

when Bob said that, he didn't know the "roads" were underground, and therefore it wouldn't be crossing over water but rather crossing through water. if your tunnel breached a lake or river, it would flood. the demodogs were avoiding water.

also: no one in the water, you say?

speaking of Hawkins Pool, there's also the thing I've mentioned before, how it seems incredibly relevant that One chose Billy as his s3 host - a lifeguard whose one possession-busting happy memory involved his mother warning him not to drown.

also: Hopper saying that jumping into the quarry would result in the water "breaking every damn bone in your body"

and Jason asks Patrick, right before Vecna breaks every damn bone in his body in Lovers Lake:

I'm going to think of more as soon as I hit post but that's all I have for you today.

I want real answers on the Murray ice thing btw

[rapha-reads]

Things from Interview With The Vampire s02e04 (ep11) I noticed:

[Edit 1: Actually this turned into a live-commenting, sorry]

[Edit 2: Keep in mind, I haven't read the books, so all of these observations are born from the show itself and the few (lots of) spoilers and narrative plot points I've gleaned here and there.]

Both Claudia and Louis are so bored with the coven. Or maybe bored isn't the word, but... Done? Frustrated and annoyed? Restless? Louis because he never intended to join and so cares not all for all their internal affairs. Claudia because she thought she'd finally have the life she wanted and instead is being forced to relive the tragedy of her life day after day.

And Armand rejoices in drawing them further apart, scolding and punishing Claudia while begging scraps from Louis.

And he's soooo jealous. The face he makes when Louis starts explaining what Dreamstat feels like is priceless.

Also, personal theory: either Louis is indeed suffering psychotic breaks after psychotic breaks, or just manifesting his own version of Lestat because he doesn't want to let go. Or Lestat can astral project and has been stalking Louis from the moment they left New Orleans.

The coven is tearing itself apart. And normally I'd add "and Armand isn't even seeing it/taking it seriously yet" but given that the whole of them are unreliable narrators and that Armand is a shady ass bitch whose only agenda is himself, I'd say he's well aware and purposefully making it worse.

I can't make sense of Santiago yet, though. Is he jealous? Ambitious? Is he fond of Claudia? Does he hate her? He definitely hates Louis, but is it just jealousy or real antipathy? Oh, but Louis is still my precious special kitten and that speech about Paris, art and modernity, as a contemporary culture student, made me vibrate a little out of my chair, and Santiago clowning him makes me want to claw his face. We get it, you hate him and you think he's pretentious, now can you shut up and let us talk a bit more about the art scene in Paris post-WW2 and why Louis is absolutely right, Picasso isn't all that impressive in the end? Thanks. Bacon tho, Bacon is interesting. My contemporary art teacher last year was excruciatingly boring, but he had a boner for both Louise Bourgeois and Bacon and we spent several hours on them (and not nearly enough about Mapplethorne, alas). Anyway. I feel ya, Lou. I have been called pretentious too for simply getting excited about art, culture and folkore.

I'm rooting for Louis and Claudia to kill them all off and run away to Italy. I know it won't happen, but one can dream, eh.

Is Armand messing up with both Daniel by getting into his mind and Louis by switching the photos? Interesting. Two people who have a shitton of issues stuck with a sadistic, insecure and bitter control freak who's been pulling the threads since way before anyone realises. And Louis is so lost in his trauma and grief and anger, he trusts Armand and doesn't see what's happening and been happening to him for 70 years, while Daniel is just a sad, sick old man who thinks he knows his life and what his future entails. Armand is definitely having fun.

"Je n'aime pas fenêtre quand fermée" is NOT FRENCH, MY EARS. I will be picky, I don't care for artistic licence. Correct sentence would be "je n'aime pas les fenêtres quand elles sont fermées". Admittedly, if it goes into a song, you'd have to respect the length of the line and all those musical measures. But still. You could shorten the numbers of syllables by dropping the language register: "j'aime pas les f'nêtres quand elles sont fermées" ; from 12 or 13 to 9, the original line being 8 or 9. Depending on whether you say "je-n'ai-me-pas" or "je-n'aim-pas" and "fe-nê-tres" or "fe-nêtres". Anyway. I'm sure the writers had those discussions (I hope; hey, AMC, hire me, I'm a good proofreader and I speak 5 languages).

Me: oh, Louis isn't even bothering now, he's directly talking to... Wait, is Lestat eating that photo? If it's Dreamstat: the hell is going on in your head, Louis? If it's Astral Lestat: that is certainly a choice, my friend.

"Barely Balthasar", LMAO, Lestat I fucking love you. Poor Balthasar always gets forgotten in adaptations. Nope, we're not here to talk R&J, moving on.

Armand: "this is my tragic backstory. Feel pity for me. I'm the good guy." Me: yeaaah, how much of this is actually real? And, uh, no, like Lestat said: ha! You're a storyteller and a conman, Armand. You weave your story to pluck at the heart's threads of your audience, modulating it to their sensibilities to better serve your own interests and your plans. What are those interests, these plans? Hell if I know. But I absolutely do not trust you at all.

HANDS OFF CLAUDIA OR I'LL BITE

"The wilderness that is our daughter" have I said lately how much I love Lestat.

Oh, hello, the Loustat scene on the bench just broke my heart, which is funny if you consider that that's just Louis breaking up with himself. Also, do we consider Louis knew about the initials in the pocket, and Dreamstat is saying what Louis wants him to say, or is it another unreliable narrator Louis, or is it Lestat himself...?

Aw, going from the Loumand scene on the bench to "toxic gay divorce with body count" sure is a tonal shift. Lmao. You're losing your touch, Armand. Louis' awakening. Daniel's awakening... San Francisco next, that will be fun. Excited to see how they've changed that part, knowing it's the red thread of the first book.

...

Oooh, that got long. Apologies. I really need to sit and read those books.

[lowkeyrobin]

Hello I was wondering if you’d be able to write a Genloss Ranboo x Gender neutral reader, where the reader dies, and how Ranboo would react to that? :) (also would I be able to be 💠 anon please?)

ah yes of course!! ; and welcome to the family !!! hope you enjoy our very full and chaotic household

GENLOSS! RANBOO ; sun killer

summary ; your death

warnings ; death, language, talk about Ranboo pulling on the mask/kinda gore but not really, influence by spiritbox bc I love them

track ; sun killer ; spiritbox

word count ; 1.6k

masterlist

[I also recommend this song bc I love Linkin Park and I hold this and she couldn't dear to my heart]

You'd been trapped on the SAW carousel of death, alike many of the others you'd come to know a bit better, having been trapped for hours and hours here. You were surrounded by a large gate, trapped by a man who thought he was attractive, joined by two human sized rats who could speak English. Somehow, his wasn't the weirdest situation you'd ever gotten into.

Finally, Ranboo, your savior, enters the room.

He gets the carousel up and running, deciding to get a little imput on who to bring with him on his adventure, which would include lots of puzzles and thinking. Both of which you weren't good at.

You sit next to Niki, whom could apparently sob for hours on end. She wears a bright red outfit, paired with a bucket hat. It contrasted her split dyed hair, which looked very nice on her.

You were the next to try and convince Ranboo on why they should take you with them.

"Uh, hello, I'm Y/n. I'm not great at puzzles, but uhm... I'm good at being funny! And I think really deeply about things, and I mean, if there's a deeper meaning to things, then I can definitely solve your puzzles! I-I just wanna go home, I'm gonna be honest. I miss my family and my pets, and I wanna live. I really wanna live, I've barely gotten to experience life yet, please"

Ranboo looks at you solemly, looking over at the man in charge. He looked at you like he knew you, but you'd never seen the masked boy before. It was so weird, but you felt like something deep inside of you recognized them too. You just didn't know from where. It was like the scent of something familiar, but you couldn't put your finger on it.

You're left tied to the carousel once they leave with Nikki and Sneeg. You, Austin, Ethan, Vinny, and Frank sit in silence, pondering of when the three sticks of dynamite wrapped around your necks would explode. Frank would be the only survivor, but he's also a rotting corpse, so I mean... Eh.

But, they never exploded, surprisingly. Vinny was actually the next one to be able to leave, somehow. You strike a conversation with the New Jersian surfer bro Charlie, laying on a stretcher a few feet away.

"So, like, why were you eating non-edibles, and how'd you even shove them down your throat?"

"They just slid down, man. Like that one scene from Stand By Me, I ate a bunch of raw eggs right before that" He answers with a nod, "My eyeballs hurt"

You nod and mumble a "Same"

Austin and Ethan are next to be untied, traveling through some Coraline door tunnels, leaving you, Frank, and Charlie alone in the carousel room. You sit silently, hoping you'd be able to escape.

Maybe that's what the game was, a puzzle game to freedom.

Your hopes for freedom shot through the roof as you sit in silence, begging and pleading in your head for the rats to come back for you. Charlie seemed to be pretty dead at this point, considering all the... blood. Everywhere.

But, alas, came your time to shine. You were never the bright one of the group. You just kind of looked at things and reached way too far into it. I dunno, maybe being instructed to solve puzzles with dynamite around your neck wasn't the most chill environment where you'd be thinking level-headedly.

But, you powered through, trying to get your way out of the final door.

You were with Austin, Ran, and Sneeg, with no sign of Ethan, Vinny, or Niki. There was a target on one wall, a button with a large sign that read to not push the button, a TV covered by static, and random trinkets and games lining the shelves.

The first thing you all thought about was the target, considering apparently Jerma said that the challenge would be hard. Hitting the one hundred on the tiny target would've been hard, so he and Ranboo try their best to do it with no luck. At one point, Austin decides to just mimic the suction cup arrow hitting the one hundred, which did nothing, either because he cheated or it just wasn't the way out.

You and Sneeg look around while you try to think that maybe certain items had to be in certain places, leading to you frantically organizing all the trinkets and games. Ranboo looks at you with worry, seeing your face full of fear. It was like they almost knew what was coming next but didn't know how to help you.

Ranboo turns around and stares at the button while Austin and Sneeg almost discourage him, considering a couple sticks of dynamite lay right under it. It wouldn't make sense to use reverse psychology, but it also wouldn't make sense to put it there solely to kill whoever was near and damage the room.

The boy with the mask quickly presses the button, waiting for the explosion that never came. You turn to see the door opening across from you, and you look back at the tall boy with a light smile and thumbs up. You place the board game you were carrying across the room down, seeing that you didn't need it anymore.

A voice (The Puzzler) speaks over the loudspeaker, informing you only one could fit through the hole, which was just a lie? But only one of you was supposed to progress.

Austin tries to fight for the exit and Sneeg pulls him back while the floor slowly moves him through the hole. The lights turned off, and you didn't remember anything after that.

Or even before that.

You woke up a new person, streaming in your room until Ranboo, who you didn't even see for a solid minute, interrupts you by pulling your headphones off.

"Holy shit! Dude, I'm streaming" You speak, jumping out of your skin.

"We need to go, come on!" He exclaims, "You can get back to it later, but we need to go, now!"

You look around, seeing you were inside one of the malls food court shops behind the counter. Your setup was nearly the same, but behind you was a bunch of posters and meal menus. You quickly stand up, trusting the boy you called a friend, hopping over the counter.

"What the hell is going on?" You ask him and Charlie.

Charlie shrugs while Ranboo turns around.

"Do-Do you not remember the cabin thing? Th-The warehouse? It's all just been a show, I mean-"

He's cut off by silence as you approach a funeral/grave inside one of the shops nearby, the headstone reading 'RIP THE PUZZLER'.

"Okay, Ran, what's going on? What do you mean it's been a show? Who the fuck is The Puzzler?" You ask them, trying to make sense of your confusion.

"Wait, no, we aren't the only ones, are we?" Charlie asks, his hands on his head, "There's-There's Sneeg and- shit! There's Niki and Ethan, and, uhm, fuck! We- We have to find them! We need to help them!"

Ranboo tries their best to calm him down, but has to resort to the last option.

"There is no saving them! We have to go, now. We just have to get out of here, maybe we can find help, I dont know!"

The three of you try to progress towards the stairs but slowly back away after seeing some... person (?) standing in front of the doors, back faced towards you.

"What are those?"

"I-I don't know, back up"

"Please explain what those fucking things are"

"I-I've been told that they're human, I think! It's some type of facility, I don't know what's going on"

"What if we find one of those map things?" You suggest, "To find where we are and to find another exit."

"Good idea"

Ran quickly leads you two to a mall map, where Charlie finds the 'you are here' dot. The two try and find an exit while you do a little exploring into the dark, and notice some feet down to your right.

You slowly look down, being greeted by one of those guys from earlier, head banged into the back of the directory, blood dripping down the screen. You slowly progress forward, seeing a silhouette in the distance.

The two quickly notice your disappearance and see the dead guy, calling for you as they see whatever thing in the distance stand up and growl. You don't listen, like you couldn't hear them, and progress onwards.

"Y/n! Come on, we're leaving!" Charlie shouts as you fade into the darkness in silence.

You're thrown back by a compelling force, being thrown all the way back to the escalator past Ranboo and Charlie, hitting your head to knock you out. The two run to your aid, your eyes closed.

Ran quickly notices that most of your midsection was torn away, revealing your ribcage. He's only able to stare as Charlie quickly pulls him away, seeing the creature that hurt you was gaining on them.

They run as fast as they could.

👁️⃤▓👁️⃤▓👁️⃤▓👁️⃤▓👁️⃤▓👁️⃤▓👁️⃤▓👁️⃤

Ranboo pulls at their mask, just wanting out.

He sits on his knees, pulling and pulling, feeling the wires pulling inside them.

"Get off of me!"

They cry, feeling their eyes roll back into their skull as they pull the mask further and further away from their face. Their hands grip at the top of the mask, trying to rip the back off of their neck.

They'd cut themselves over and over again on the metal, their hands bloody, staining the contraption that controlled them.

They didn't want to live. They wanted to die. Why didn't they let him die? Why did he have to live? He didn't want to be like this. He didn't want to do this! He didn't want to live like this!

They scream in agony, making one final pull on the mask before they drop to the floor. Wires tangle in their throat, the final backing piece of the mask snapping in two.

They lay on the cold, hard, floor, blood pouring out of any extremity possible. Wires hang about, halfway pulled out of their body.

"Just kill me already, damnit"

[melonteee]

Sanji is honestly one of the most queer/transfem-coded characters I've ever seen and what makes it so funny is that it's mostly just unintentional asfhhjjkk like my jaw DROPPED at the Kamabakka filler with Caroline (I know its not canon but it hasn't left my mind since asfhhh)

What brings me to my actual question: do you personally see Sanji as more of a woman than a man? I know he's a man in canon (for now lmao) but I'm always tempted to use they/them or she/her when referring to Sanji, but I feel like a lot of the fandom wouldn't take it well 😅 I've already seen some ppl complaining that he's being "misgendered" when called babygirl and he wouldn't like it because he's a MAN and it's just *deep sigh*

I mean Sanji calls himself a he/him and everyone calls Sanji a he/him so eh, like yeah they're not real but going by in world preferences makes it all easier you know? Doesn't stop hcs and theories though lmao like go for it if that's the case.

In saying that I genuinely think Sanji hates being a man and hates how he feels as a man and thinks it's a universal thing that men don't like being men. Like imagine Sanji talking to Yamato like "but why do you want to be a MAN isn't being a woman better? aren't women just nicer?" and before Yamato can explain this is not his own choice Sanji is just rambling about how much better being a woman is and Yamato's like "holy fuck...I know something about him that he doesn't" LMAOOO

also babygirl/girlfriend/wife are all universal don't let them fool you

[pianostarinwonderland]

Chapter 7 Update Thoughts

There’s a lot to say really 😅 but I guess right now, as someone who’s seen a lot of the big theories, I’m so happy to see those that are coming true while at the same time seeing new things that Twst is introducing

Spoilers underneath the cut! I may update this post as I hear more tls, so look forward to more things about this chapter that will appear 👀 just a note that I'm getting pretty much everything I know from Discord and Twitter lmao

So this update focuses on 4 characters: Idia, Yuu + Grim, Ortho, and Silver

So contrary to popular belief, Malleus’ spell did in fact reach Ignihyde and now Idia’s asleep

I find it neat that when Idia’s phone vibrates, ours does too. Love the immersion

SO IDIA DREAM WILD AS FUCK BECAUSE ORTHO’S ALIVE 😭😭😭😭 AND HE’S IN ROYAL SWORD ACADEMY broooooo Ortho’s teenage voice hurts my heart,,,,,, the things that could have been,,,

They just talk about,, from the very little context that I could get, it’s about the first day, like how oh Idia’s the dorm leader of Ignihyde and such

Then after that, Idia chats with Muscle Red

AND THEN IDIA GOES OUTSIDE??? IN HIS ROBES???? Holy shit you gotta like sit down and think here. So this is the first day, so entrance ceremony, right? In the robe stories of Idia and Ortho, Idia would only be going out because Ortho pushed him to, but eventually Idia ended up just being in his room and brought his tablet 😭 but here he’s going outside on his own volition,,,, the mans is happier wtf

Speaking of robe stories ! They actually kinda follow Robe Idia’s story in that Idia encounters Malleus! AND THEY TALK ABOUT GAOGAO DRAGON BECAUSE MALLEUS’ TAMAGOCHI WENT OFF 😭😭😭 it’s the way they bonded with that small thing

Just realized as I’m typing this, Malleus is actually in his robes 👀 so here, he’s actually prepared for the entrance ceremony vs in the real story, where he didn’t know about it.

At some point in the conversation, Idia's like "I've seen this somewhere before" and Malleus is like "something wrong Shroud?"

Then Lilia actually arrives and finds Malleus and calls both dorm leaders to the ceremony

And hooo boy this part really got me because it’s the prologue 😭😭😭 Riddle, Leona, and Azul were talking and introducing themselves and GODDDD I GOT CHILLS JUST HAVING THIS PART OF THE PROLOGUE AGAIN

Malleus actually introduces himself! And as expected everyone’s pretty nervous and all that

The entrance ceremony went without a hitch and Idia’s back in his room where he’s talking with Ortho. Ortho mentions his roommates and that’s all I could figure out

Throughout the entire dream, Idia’s like something feels wrong………. Eh, it’s nothing

Then shift to Yuu and Grim!

AND THEY ARE IN MICKEY’S ROOM FROM THRU THE MIRROR

Ok so Yuu remembers what happened, and I find it interesting that there’s no voice when they’re remembering Malleus going berserk and shit.

Anyway, they wake Grim up and they’re just admiring the room all like yo is this Ramshackle??? But also no, it isn’t Ramshackle……

And then they see some of the objects coming alive like the ottoman and the trump cards and that was so cool

AND you know that by seeing that room in Yuu’s dream,!you would figure out that we’re about to see someone important B)

IT’S HIM IT’S THE RAT IN THE FLESH !!!! 🫵🫵🫵🫵

Yuu and Mickey did a high five 🥹🥹🥹🥹 it’s so cute oml, and Grim finally got to see Mickey in the flesh.

They do talk and Mickey tells them that he could only reach this room when he's asleep but eventually Yuu and Grim tell Mickey about their predicament

But then something rings and Mickey fades away 😭

And THEN the dream starts to collapse on them. And well actually what I mean by that is that a gloop of ink drops onto them

GRIM 😭😭 HE TRIED TO FIGHT IT WITH ALL HIS POWER but he was getting tired and everything seemed hopeless

UNTIL SILVER COMES IN

yooo ngl when Silver shouted “KANTOKUSEI” my heart went boom 😳😳😳😳 I loved the way he came in and saved us

AND AND THE N TANND AND THEN AND THEN AND THEN

SILVER UM SILVER UM SILVER UM

It’s called Meet in a Dream. The kanji literally says ‘let’s see the same dream’ which is whoa. Silver explains what his UM does but it’s explained much later and I want to get through this chronologically so this part gets cut off and we switch to Ortho’s <3

Ortho ends up in the cyberspace and he was able to log his memories to a backup file. So yea he’s pretty alarmed and then he goes to check up on Idia

Idia is asleep and Ortho tries to wake him up but fails to. He goes around Ignihyde to see if anyone’s awake but then nope everyone’s also asleep

Ortho sees Main Street and pretty much the entire Sage Island and well shit ! Everything’s covered up in thorns!

So Ortho is like what do I do and then he sees Idia’s tablet and it says 21:18, which is the time that he also saw when he was in the cyberspace. And he's like oh shit time stopped

Anyway meanwhile in Styx, everyone’s noticing the energy field surrounding Sage Island. And we get to see the Shroud parents!

why they out here looking like power rangers

damn, Ortho really takes after them

So anyway Ortho eventually arrives and then explains to them about the situation with Malleus, and everyone's like damn

Shroud parents will contact Briar Valley for info on how to stop Malleus, and then meanwhile they created the Cerberus gear for Ortho so that he could enter the energy field

what's funny is that they actually had to go through Idia's computer HKSDFJHHDSKFS to be able to make the gear, they needed some of the files that Idia has for Ortho so that they could even make the gear in the first place. Mama Shroud was like "pls don't tell your brother" and Ortho's like "oh my god how did you get past my brother's ultra mega tight security" well it's ok, mama shroud didn't check Idia's hidden encrypted folder...........

Can I just say, I absolutely love Mama Shroud’s voice LIKE!!! She is so cute, AND SHE CALLS IDIA AND ORTHO IDI-KUN AND ORU-KUN UEUEUEUUEUE SO CUUUUUTE

ANYWAY CERBERUS ORTHO IN THE FLESH !!!

And then it switches back to Yuu, Grim, and Silver B)) so they end up in a really dreamy sky at first...... and then they start falling.

idk about you but it lowkey reminded me of The Incredibles where Dash, Violet, and their mom fell from the airplane. Probably because the sky colors are similar

But also man, that sunset really such a pretty color

anyway, they end up in Diasomnia, and Silver tells them that it's Diasomnia dorm in a dream

He explains to them how Meet in a Dream works: basically he can enter someone's dream, but he can't choose whose dream he enters. He won't know till he sees this glowing blue bird around a person and only he can see it. He also can only enter the dreams of people he has some sort of bond with. So it weirds him out that he saw Mickey at one point when he doesn't know him. Also, he can only use it when he’s at least aware that he’s dreaming, which makes sense.

He also explains to them that that inky darkness they encountered?? It might still be lurking around and he's encountered it before apparently. It pulls you into a deeper sleep

well shit.

Silver says that they need to get to Lilia’s dream to find a way to stop Malleus, but yea because he can’t choose which dream to enter to, it’s not gonna be the easiest

Then they encounter Sebek, and Silver sees that blue bird and oh it's Sebek's dream!

Sebek's like HEY IT'S A HAPPY DAY MALLEUS AND LILIA ARE HAVING A CELEBRATION TO GO OUT TO THEIR INTERNSHIP IN THEIR FOURTH YEAR

But yeah when they're there, SILVER FUCKING SNAPS. because Lilia was saying "after the internships are done, we can settle back into our cottage and be together forever". And Silver's like the real Lilia wouldn't live long enough

Malleus gets really fucking pissed, and he's like how dare you're awake and you ruined this happy dream. And his OB form shows up, and oh shit! Time to battle him again!

Lookie lookie we see his phantom! It really is Maleficent’s dragon form!

Andddddd that HP is horrible again, we’re meant to lose again

So anyway Malleus was gonna send them all to a really deep sleep when Silver's amulet that Lilia gave him earlier on starts glowing an aurora colored light, and then Silver's able to use Meet in a Dream, and then bam they end up in a forest that is exactly like the forest from Sleeping Beauty !!!

And then suddenly oh shit a bunch of soldiers come in and their garb looks like Maleficent’s minions from the movie

Sebek can understand them!

And then ..!!!

Guys it’s general Lilia.

See that long hair??? It’s r e d

They really said no face reveal Lilia yet 😭 just that hint of hair which is honestly more than enough

As if it’s not anymore obvious, the blue bird shines on Lilia, and so yeah this Is Lilia’s dream.

And Twst is so funny that they ended it right there 💀 we’re really gonna have to wait for the Lilia lore.

This was such a yummy update 😩 as someone who’s been here a while, seeing so many big theories that came true and so many things that threw off fans fills my heart with so much joy 😭😭😭 this was so good. I actually can’t wait for more

[creeky-cricket]

ok, so the orange side...

so, I've been seeing quite a bit of discussion on the topic of what the orange side could represent/what their name will be. so I thought I'd share my thoughts. personally, I feel as if the orange side would represent anger. or, more specifically rage. most of the encounters we've ever had with the side have been related to some standard or linked back to the thought of anger. Some examples of this would be, obviously when logan lost his cool while trying to explain to Remus why he felt as if his actions were unfair and then shouted. then later on when Logan became frustrated and Remus tried to push saying 'It kinda makes you wanna scream, huh.' I have also seen quite a few theories saying that this new side could represent repressed thoughts, while this is a good theory, I don't think so. if it was, then they would have appeared in the episodes with Patton talking about his repressed thoughts and also in dealing with intrusive thoughts when they got onto the topic of repression. now onto the name. as we can see, there are a lot of patterns with the names given to the sides. one of the first being the fact that all of the names have only two syllables. the second being that, both Janus and Remus' names are of Greek origins Janus' meaning two faces or doorways and Remus' literally means twin. and the last pattern with the names of the characters is the endings, (log-an, rom-an, patt-on. and rem-us and jan-us) Virgil being the outlier of this because as Thomas had depicted before he's like a grey side, sitting in the middle of the black and the white me and my friend actually discussed this a while ago, trying to keep all of these patterns in mind, two of the most likely ones that we found were either Marius/Marcus or Sirius. Marius as a name means dedicated to Mars, the Roman god of war, while it's not a Greek name, the definition goes along with the idea that the orange side is supposed to depict rage. Also, to be shortened down could go to Marcus, which means the same thing only with two syllables going along with the first pattern. and obviously, Marius ends with the same syllables as Remus and Janus. The second name, Sirius is another good option in my opinion. the definition of Sirius as a name is burning/glowing which also contributes to the idea of anger or rage. 'burning rage' etc. the origins of the name Sirius are also Greek, meaning that it would go along with the other dark sides along with eh fact it ends with '-us'. (also doesn't support anything at all I just think it would be cool cause Sirius is actually a star and it would be funny that he'd be related to Logan a lot.) the only thing wrong with this name is that it has three syllables instead of 2.

[sunnydayroleplay]

Hi! How are you feeling?I know you're taking a break, but I couldn't get this off my mind. And I would kill to have it written. You can ignore this if you need, but I'm gonna put it down regardless. What is your take on Joseph's childhood? Did he runaway? Why did he? How did his parents treat him if he did indeed have parents? Why is he the way he is now? How much of Jack is truly in Joseph? Or better yet, how much of Joseph is left in Jack?

Hi! I'm okay, I'm doing much better! Thank you for asking. I've thought about this idea before, and I was reminded of a few posts I've seen. So this post might be slightly influenced ehe. I'll edit links when I find them!! Until then, let's write it! Contents Inside: Child Neglect, Marital Problems, Abuse, Alcoholism, Drug Use, Murder.

This is all pure speculation and theory! Don't mistake it for true lore :3 ______________________________________________________________

Before we go into what Joseph's childhood was like before he ran away, let's begin to what is was before. Now when it comes to this, I have two ideas. Before it all went downhill, Joseph was a normal child. His parents still madly in love since the day they met and wedded; treating him well, and wonderful. His school-life normal, good grades, a decent amount of peers. He had hobbies, likes and dislikes. It was alright, and "just alright" was perfect for him. Unfortunately, in the worst case scenarios, perfect doesn't last forever. Now, with this, we could go a series of ways. The parents begin to struggle financially. Possibly someone got laid off from work, possible infidelity. There's so much we could go on about. But I'll leave your opinions to you. For now, we'll say that the marriage started getting rocky, jobs gotten and lost. His parents couldn't afford to have a kid anymore. So they started neglecting him. Putting him up for adoption was a no-go. What would their parents think. Or all their peers the next time they got a job and suddenly everything went alright? They'd be right back to where they once were. They began to neglect Joseph once he was at the age where he could talk decently somewhat, express his needs, and know basic life necessities. We're talking 10-12 years old here. Joseph began struggling both mentally and physically, due to the constant fighting going around between his parents. Berating from his own mother every time he walked into the door. His dad reaching for and grabbing anything within his reach to beat Joseph black and blue when he didn't do something in record breaking time. Whenever he walked out of his room, he's walking on thin ice because he doesn't know if it'll be a literal slap on the wrist, or being locked out for days. With the constant shitty home life, his school life was affected enormously. His grades went down, and he just got around with the wrong people. He was like any "out of place" child. All he truly wanted was attention and some sort of leverage to lean against. Someone to just listen because he's used to being ignored. By the time he was in high-school, he got into some worse shit. We can only assume that he got into drugs, underage drinking, and a smoking addiction that followed him into adulthood. Hence the line: “You’ve changed. You’re clean now. You can be whatever you wanna be.” Coming from Jack in the ‘Bad Yogurt’ Ending. I mean, someone doesn’t change their entire identity without a reason. Now, as it was mentioned in the tapes (In the official game itself), in an “interview” with the the *other* Joseph asks “Mr.Haberdae” about his tattoos. He mentions how Haberdae most likely went through a troublesome childhood, wanted to lash out, stand out from everyone else, and Haberdae more or less agrees.

But before we get into his adulthood-death part, lets go back to ‘running away’. I believe he ran away around 15-16. The reason I don’t think he ran way any younger was because of pure fear. Being 10-12, you don’t know any better really. You’re scared to leave because you know you have no where else to go. Because of the environment you grew up in, who would want to take a “dumb, useless child”? No one. He didn’t run away that young, because he was scared that he was going to go through so much worse. But now? Hes a teenager, he knows sure of a lot more, he has more opinions and more knowledge of the outside world. “No one cares, not even your parents.”

The sun is getting ready to set, the sky is just a beautiful orange sunsetty color. The clouds wispy, and the air freshly crisp. In the middle of it all, the sun hiding behind him, Joseph walking down his neighborhood sidewalk thinking to himself. His hands in his pockets, looking around side to side as if he’s just waiting for his parents to rush out the door and chase him down, knowing full well they won’t. His school backpack now filled with clothes instead of stationary. Two water bottles stuck at the sides, with about 5.78 in change. He didn’t have much, but it was enough to catch a bus, maybe hitchhike a ride. Didn’t matter where, but he just had to go. His mind raced with an array of thoughts and emotion, but he had to do it. He wanted to get as far away as possible from this wretched town.

He knows can’t live on 5 dollars for the rest of his (unknowingly short lived) life. He’s gotta do something. And he’s got a few options. Go door to door where asking if someone needs help with anything for some pocket change, try and get a job that’ll take him, pickpocket. And he has tried. Door to door didn’t work well unless it was a widowed old lady, Joseph gave up trying to find a job real quick, but pick pocketing was a surprising success. As soon as Joseph turned 18, finding leverage and begging for forgiveness if he was caught wouldn't be so easy. Joseph would need to find out how to get off of the streets and into his own sheets. Without a way to get a job, at least a good paying one, he had to do something. It's possible he could've traded sexual favors for either some food in his mouth, a bed to sleep in for the rest of the night, and/or once again some quick cash. Anything he could do to get by, right? We don't know when he auditioned for the role of Sunny Day Jack, or how old he was when he was accepted. Let alone when the show was even created. So who knows how long he was passing his body for a couple dollars. I mean, depending on how long, he most likely desensitized to the idea of sex somewhat, mainly because he's the one initiating it for some cash once again. (That's not to say he's not desensitized to being the one asked about having sex. ) But it's still a sensible topic considering he only did it because he needed to get by, not because he wanted to have fun. In the interview, live on air! He's asked an array of questions depicting of his body, and why he chose to be a host of a kids show. He was generally asked question that were probably very uncomfortable because they not only dug through those sensible topics, but because he's supposed to be in character for a kids show! Kids all around the world tuning in to hear their favorite character. But we're getting off track here. The moral of the story is that Joseph was a "bad" person, who just wanted to change for the better. For his own sake. When it comes to the question, "How much of Joseph is in Jack?" I think that it's about 50/50. Or Joseph is still Jack. Jack is a character. He's this wholesome, perfect person in which everyone looks up too. He's the leader of the Sunny Time Crew. Never makes a mistake. He's a helper, he's just perfect in any way. In the game, you think that someone like Jack would think about murdering anyone in his way? Let alone murder? Have sex with you? Of course not! He works with kids for crying out loud! All this NSFW content is not even a thing in the Sunny Time Universe. Joseph is the man who plays the character. He's any normal person, he makes mistakes, he's not the person who you'd think that would never even make it through the door of the studio that produces this show. Joseph could kill if he wanted too, he has had sex, NSFW experiences were definitely a thing for him. The Jack we know is a basic fusion in a way. All the good traits of Jack, his wholesomeness, his ability to never make mistakes, to be perfect. That's all Jack. But the other side, the killing, the ability to hurt, to be physically passionate. That's all Joseph. The Jack we know wouldn't be the same without Joseph. That love we get from him wouldn't be the same. It would be empty in a way. Jack love everybody! But Joseph loves you. Joseph loves specifically you. He chose to give and fill you with all the love he ever could. Without Joseph “ in “ Jack personality wise, the Jack in the game we all love wouldn’t be the same. That love wouldn’t be as personalized.

In the end they’re the same person, but without the other, differences will be made.

[himluv]

DA Review Series – The Calling by David Gaider

<<< Previous Review: The Stolen Throne

At last, my media tie-in tour of all things Dragon Age continues! You can find the previous review linked at the top of each post and I will probably make a master list once all is said and done. But, let's talk about the next thing!

Title: The Calling Author: David Gaider Publication Year: 2009 In-World Year: ~9:10 Dragon (possibly 9:11 Dragon) Verdict: ... eh? There's much more to like here, particularly lore, but it's long and feels longer. If you're determined, give it a shot, otherwise maybe just read the wiki?

The Calling is the direct follow up to The Stolen Throne, but still a prequel to Dragon Age: Origins. In this book we meet Duncan just months after he has joined the Wardens, and they have travelled to Ferelden to ask King Maric for a favor.

The favor? Oh, you know, nothing much... just if he would lead them through the Deep Roads and back to Ortan Thaig so they can find their missing Commander who *should* be dead. So, you know. Typical Warden shenanigans.

And, as one might expect from a dummy like Maric, he agrees. Now, I am being a little hyper-critical. I actually found Maric to be much more likable this time around – he's grown up quite a bit, and he's grieving Rowan's death and a life he never had. He's got some complexities showing through in this book and it looks good on him.

I also really enjoyed the other Wardens we get to meet. Especially Kell, an Avvar, and his hound Hafter, as well as Orlesian battle couple Julien and Nicolas. We also meet quite a few important folks in this book! Obviously we have Duncan, and he is a delight, but we also meet Fiona, Utha, and of course, The Architect.

Which brings me to the point of this book. The Architect has concocted a plan to infect the whole world with the Darkspawn Taint in hopes that the survivors will achieve some sort of middle ground like Grey Wardens do in the advanced stages of their Calling. Ghoulish and horrible, but still retaining their minds.

Except... do they retain their minds? The evidence suggests that the further the Taint spreads, and the more corrupted one becomes, the angrier and more hateful they become. Which is interesting, because I don't know if that's really come up elsewhere in DA. It definitely makes me consider Red Lyrium a little differently, that's for sure.

Of course, if you've played DA: Awakening, then you know that The Architect and Utha escape and do continue... refining(?) their plans to bring a "lasting peace" to Thedas (read my tin hat theory here).

Also important to the series, Maric and Fiona do the nasty in the Deep Roads which results in the birth of one adorable wee baby Alistair. We also get some context about Duncan's promise to Maric to watch out for the boy, so we know his recruitment was hardly coincidence.

There's one more thing I really want to mention before I wind this down. I've been pretty critical of Gaider's writing in these reviews so far, and while I still think the writing isn't great in The Calling, it is GREATLY improved. It's obvious to me that he learned a lot and grew over the course of writing these books. But, there's one moment that I think really shines, where I actually got the sense that Gaider was writing something that mattered to him.

When the party is trapped in the Fade, Maric finds Nicolas in his dream with the recently deceased Julien. It's a poignant and tragic scene, where Nicolas knows he's dreaming, that Julien truly is dead, but chooses to stay anyway. It's beautifully done and made my chest ache with the weight of Nicolas's pain. It also made me think about when it was written, how it was "revealed" so far into the book that these two very buff warrior bros were actually devoted lovers. And how the gaming landscape in 2009 might not have looked upon that with the most kindness and empathy.

I'm glad it's there. To me, it was the best part of the book.

Overall, The Calling is a decent addition to the Dragon Age series. It struggles with pacing a bit, feeling like the pacing of a quest in Origins (which also struggles with pacing imho), but there is quite a bit of lore and extra context for characters we see later in the series.

So, while it took me a little while to get through, I am glad I read it again!

[mysteryshoptls]

SSR Trey Clover Outdoor Wear Personal Story: Part 1

"Something a little tastier"

Part 1 (Part 2) (Part 3)

[Dwarfs' Mine – Campsite]

Trey: Are you ready? We'll be heading out to do the mining task soon.

Science Club Member A: I need you guys to wait just a bit. I thought I had put in my mining research kit in my bag, but I can't find it at all!

Trey: Got it. Hurry and find it, will you?

Trey: Seriously… He's really going to put his own research before our tasks? There are way too many guys in the Science Club that just go at their own pace.

Trey: I guess I'll sort through my things while I wait. …Hm? That looks like…

Idia: Rule 1. Small fires require small logs. Rule 2. Don't crowd the fire, leave a moderate amount of space.

Idia: Rule 3. Once the flames grow higher, feed it branches with High Attack power… Whew.

Idia: Fuheehee, I've totally memorized Premo's 3 principles of making a bonfire.

Idia: Might be obvious steps, but their word choice makes it easier to remember.

Idia: I need to complete the wood gathering missions so I can mimic what they did in their video, too.

Trey: Idia, you seem pretty fired up.

Idia: Eek!? T-T-T-Trey-shi!? You scared me… Don't just come up from behind and start talking…

Trey: Haha, sorry, sorry. I was just surprised that you're getting into the groove of camping. Didn't mean to startle you.

Idia: Getting in what groove? If I could go home ASAP, I would…

Idia: B-But, I know I can’t… S-So I thought at least I could watch the stream my faves made on bonfires…

Trey: Neat, so there are things that even you want to do while camping, huh.

Trey: There's a guy in my club too, who's all excited to do some research in the mines since we're all here for camping, anyway.

Trey: He's usually always doing research on geology and mineralogy. I remember that his reports are always pretty fascinating.

Trey: That reminds me, that guy did say something interesting before.

Idia: …Something interesting?

Trey: He said that there's a theory that this whole area around the mine used to be underwater many, many years ago.

Trey: Although, this area isn't anywhere near the sea, so we really can't tell if that's true or not.

Idia: …Don't think it's that impossible. Mines like this with magical gemstones are more prone to form in areas that have high volcanic activity…

Trey: You really know your stuff.

Idia: Eep… N-No, no, no, anyone would know that kind of thing. It was just taught in class, so…

Trey: Was it? Well, sorry. I didn't mean to talk about something you weren't interested in.

Idia: Ah, I mean, it's not like I'm not interested… And originally, I was looking to join the Science Club…

Trey: Eh, really?

Idia: Y-Yeah… I thought it'd be time-efficient if I could research my interests as part of my club activities…

Trey: Yeah, I get that. A bunch of us in the club had the same sort of idea as you. You should have joined us.

Idia: Wh-When I went to check the club out, there was a lot more people than I thought, so there was no way…

Trey: A lot of people…? True, I guess we have one of the larger culture clubs.

Trey: Ah, but what a pity. If you had joined our club, I might have picked up a thing or two in new fields.

Idia: Hah!? A pity!? T-Trey-shi, what are you scheming…!?

Trey: Scheming…? Are you that shocked I'd say something like that? There's no one out there more knowledgeable about digital engineering or technomancy.

Trey: That's why I thought if you had joined the Science Club, you would have found a different way to do your research than the others in the club.

Idia: I-I only want to do the things I like to do… I'd rather not have to deal with presenting results, or other people's expectations…

Science Club Member A: Trey, I'm ready now. Sorry I made you wait.

Trey: Gotcha, let's go, then.

Trey: Thanks for chatting with me. Good luck on your tasks, Idia.

Idia: Ah, y-yeah…

Idia: …HAAAAAAAAAAAAH～～～～～ THAT WIPED ME OUT!

Idia: I heard that the guys in the Science Club just do their own research on whatever they want, but in the end, they still rove in packs!

Idia: They seriously go and do their thing in large groups like that? No way, no way, I'd never be able to do that!

Idia: He's not as intense as those other happy-go-lucky guys, but even Trey-shi'll just keep the conversation going like that…

Idia: I can't deal with that kind of thing. It's the worst. I hope he never talks to me again…

Part 1 (Part 2) (Part 3)

Requested by Anonymous.

[void-sand-cat]

Assuming that Michael is the player for Fnaf 1/2/3/5/6 (I have no idea what's going on w/4), I doubt there is any way that the spirits (including afton kids & William here btw) knew who they were trying kill was.

So, the animatronics are old and kinda crappy right? So the missing kids wouldn't have the best vision, and (if I recall correctly) Michael looks a lot like William. Plus, we know they attacked anyone with a security uniform (rip phone guy), so they definitely didn't know. I subscribe to the headcanon that they were affected by possible murder machine programming in the animatronics from William, increasing the likelihood that they had 0 idea what they were doing, but I don't know any proof for this, so disregard it, this theory doesn't need it.

Aftons are tricker. Based on how Elizabeth talks about William, I don't think her or CC knew about how fucked up William was.

Next CC. First off, "It's me." Which works if you think he knows Michael is Michael, but it works just as well if CC thinks Michael is William. Again, I have my doubts he knew how messed up William was, but he definitely knew how much Michael was - at least Michael as Foxy bro. I do believe CC said, "It's me" with no ill intent. Whether or not it was meant for Michael depends on how forgiving you think CC is. Irregardless of how forgiving CC is, he is still affected by bad robot eyes and falls into the same hole as the missing kids.

Before moving on to William, I want to touch on Michael. I don't think he knows that Elizabeth, CC, & the missing kids think he's William. From what I understand of SL, Elizabeth does talk like she knows the player. As mentioned above, SL is not a game I have learned a lot about, nor have I learned about Eilzabeth. I said I didn't think "It's me" was said with anger/hatred, but I do believe Michael interpreted it that way. He had been fending off murderous animatronics all night, and another one just showed up in his office. What else is he gonna think? I don't know if Michael knew that CC was haunting the Golden Freddy costume, but if he did, why would he think his brother would forgive the person who killed him? As for the missing kids, he knew they were attacking security guards (at least after a point), I doubt he thought they knew how he was.

I wanted to touch on Michael before William because this is a special case. I still doubt that William knew the security guard was Michael. His eyes have to be total crap, and (if I recall correctly) he can talk, so why wouldn't he talk to his son? Why would he be trying to kill him? Instead of trying to control him, find out what's happened since he was gone, etc. That's the same. However, I think Michael knows William doesn't know who he is. And wants it like that. Michael likely figured out that William is treating him as a rando. It's not hard to put together, but why wouldn't Michael say anything? Counterpoint, WHY THE FUCK WOULD HE? He knows what William has done, and he's there to burn everything down with William inside.

I am technically in my 2nd fnaf phase, but I've only really ever seen gameplay of SB & Ruin, and that's from speedrunners. I got this far bc of game theory binge watching. Fnaf 4s lore is too confusing for me to touch, I think it doesn't matter, maybe as motivation? Eh, no idea. 6 is more of the same, up till Henry's speech everyone assumes Mike's (oh fuck. Mike has a nickname. I'm a dumbass, forgive me) some rando, Henry speech alerts them their wrong, but they burn before figuring it out.

Edit: According to AO3 tags, I misspelled Mike's name. Guess I should fix that quickly. (I can't fix the misspelling in the tags here, though.) I also fixed a mistake with Elizabeth's name at one point. Elizabeth was a typo, I have no idea how I ended up spelling Mike's name wrong. (I'm American seriously, how did I do that?)

[twoidiotwriters1]

The Curse of Oenone (Leo Valdez xFem!Oc)

A/N: Friends who help you plan your untimely death are the best kind of friends -Danny Words: 2,088 Series' Masterlist Previous Chapter // Next Chapter Listen to: 'Just Fucking Let Me Love You' -by Lowen

XLVIII: Self Care? Never Heard of Her!

Apollo was helping Percy, Grover and the hunters get to San Francisco in less than a day, and Percy couldn't call him an ass for not wanting to anger Zeus, but the boy was getting pretty annoyed at him and his fake beard, and all this guy wanted to do was talk about his sister.

"Is there anything at all that you do know?" Percy asks grumpily after the god keeps giving him vague answers.

Apollo curls his dirty fake beard around a finger as he speaks. "You don't get what the deal is right now, but you will, very soon."

"What are you talking about? You're gonna enlighten me, or are you going to speak in riddles forever?" Percy snaps at him.

Apollo's voice echoes like the Oracle's. Percy almost expects to see green mist coming out of his mouth.

'When the dove touches the smith,

Almighty raises her myth

And the curse of love releases

By tearing earth into pieces.'

The god returns to his easy-going nature. 

"Now, that's a riddle," he winks. "Good luck! And be good to your sister, eh? I don't like it when others mistreat my fans."

Percy doesn't like the sharing-is-caring moment in which his sister tells them she's a spawn of the arai and her job is to get Leo Valdez killed.

What he hates the most is that he's been nagging her about sharing what was bothering her, and he already knew because she told him years ago about her regressions! Worse yet, Apollo himself had given him Ara's prophecy ages ago.

"What?" Leo asks, invested in Percy's story. "Why would Apollo give you Ara's prophecy?"

Ara's tone is full of irritation. "Percy demanded one when Annabeth went missing and he got it. Apollo granted him a glimpse of my fate knowing he wouldn't know what it meant."

Her brother pouts. "I didn't know he was talking about you. If I had..."

"You had no way of knowing, I didn't have Almighty then," Ara shakes her head. "Apollo revealed information to you before time, even for the god of prophecies, that's not right. Maybe he jumpstarted it without knowing."

"But wait," Jason blinks. "Okay, we know for sure that this is Ara's prophecy—Why does it have to do with Leo, though?"

"It's his chance to break the loop," Ara explains. "The constant self-destructive behavior Leo has had in all his lifetimes."

"I prefer to call it 'Tormented genius behavior'," Leo replies, eating a chocolate cupcake. "It would've been stupid to say no to you all those times, doll. It's you. I'm willing to take the punches."

"Call it whatever you want, it's still not a good thing," Ara scowls. 

"As much as I appreciate you being a good boyfriend to my sister, Leo, I agree with Ara, this doesn't sound good," Percy frowns. "Now I feel guilty for all the times I gave you two a hard time..."

"Well, now you know why I've been acting weird," Ara sighs, plucking out grass leaves. "That's where we're at. I still have no idea of what to do."

Leo mumbles, suddenly acting shy. "I've got one."

"What?"

"Are you ready to talk about our elephant in the room?"

"Ah, yes..." Ara turns to her brother tensely. "Mr. Ladiesman was sent to Ogygia."

"...And then the raft showed up." Leo shrugs. "I was telling Calypso that I had Odysseus's astrolabe and all I needed was a crystal from her island, and..."

"She fell in love with you," Ara says matter-of-factly.

"No."

The girl rolls her eyes. "Leo, she—"

"She looked me straight in the eye, just as confused, and said 'I'm not in love.' Why would she lie? Is not that embarrassing to be in love with me, is it?"

"It's a little bit embarrassing," Reyna raises a brow.

"We put everything in the raft and wired it up," Leo ignores the girl. "But she kept telling me it had to be a mistake."

"How?" Hazel asks just as intrigued as the rest.

Leo looks away blushing. "We had a theory... but she isn't sure her curse works that way."

"Works how?" Ara presses.

"Friendship," Leo replies, more flustered than before. "That summoned the raft."

"It could be," Annabeth thinks about it. "The curse is about her loving people and being forced to part ways, right? We assumed that meant romantically but if Leo's company was as good as any other, he could leave just like everyone else."

"She loves you as a friend," Ara wants to believe him, but Leo is hiding something. Hephaestus told her that things didn't end there. "Did you promise you would get her out?"

"She didn't want to hear about it," he glances at Percy with embarrassment. "She said I was the first boy on that island that didn't break her heart. Cal insisted that was more than enough and..."

"And you couldn't let it go," Ara's heart picks up its pace. "Did you promise on the Styx?"

He gulps. "She reminded me so much of you..."

Her eyes darken with frustration. "Your father wanted you to do this—you are his way of fulfilling the promise the gods made to Percy!" Ara pinches the bridge of her nose and tries not to freak out. "This is bad, Leo!"

"It's not!"

"An oath to keep with a final breath!" She recites looking around impatiently. "Anyone?"

Frank clears his throat. "So Leo will die if we don't help him fulfill that oath?"

Leo brushes it off. "Hey, guys, don't worry! If I'm the one who kills Gaea—"

"Prophecies are impossible to control," Percy interrupts gravely. "I tried to do that once, and you know how it went."

"It went pretty darn well considering you're still here," Leo points out with irritation.

"I don't want my sister to suffer another loss—"

"Let's not fight," Piper intervenes, though she sounds just as upset. "Ara has a prophecy we can work with, and Leo is part of another, this doubles their chances, right? More paths to choose from. We can't take back his oath, so..."

"We put our heads together and think of something," Annabeth agrees. "Ara, is there a part of your prophecy you think has been fulfilled by now? Just to see if we can scratch something out."

"The first line might refer to Leo and I getting together," she answers. "Almighty's line is fuzzy, I don't know what to make of it."

"I think that's you becoming a daughter of Olympus," Percy says. "You've been thinking about stuff that happened after you heard the prophecy, but I heard it before you, and you got Almighty a few months after that."

"But it doesn't make sense," Ara frowns. "Why is that mentioned after and not before the line where Leo and I meet?"

"Prophecies rarely have an order," Annabeth reminds her. "The last line of the big prophecy was about Percy and me closing the Doors of Death, and we still don't know if the world will fall to storm or fire."

"Okay, so it's Leo and Ara falling in love," Hazel recounts, drawing an imaginary line in her napkin. "Ara becoming the daughter of Olympus..."

"And the curse of love releases— By tearing earth into pieces..." Jason ponders. "The curse breaks when you kill Gaea, maybe?"

"Why would that be the answer? Gaea didn't curse us, it was a nymph."

"Well, she's Mother Earth, all nymphs are part of her, aren't they?" Leo replies. "I destroy Gaea with fire—POOF! I'm blasted back to Ogygia."

"No demigod has ever found Ogygia twice," Ara argues.

"Because none of them were trying to. Odysseus was, and he nearly got it done."

"You don't know if his astrolabe will work, you could die trying—"

"I'm dying anyway!" He exclaims, losing his patience.

Reyna, who's been hearing the exchange intently, finally speaks. "I don't know a lot about prophecies, but I know the most important part of any quest is picking a good team. You sound in sync, and Valdez has the foundations of a plan, focus on making it fault-proof."

"With what time?" Ara scowls. "A war is approaching!"

"Ara," Frank leans forward, adopting a serious expression. "This is a way to get our mission done while helping you. Two birds with one stone, and all that. We want to help."

There is a choir of agreement. Ara feels like a huge baby for enjoying it, her resolve isn't as strong when looking at all the wised-up faces of her crew. She can't help but trust them. "If you promise to prioritize your mission, I'm willing to try."

Leo kisses her cheek. "Lighten up, sunshine. We'll figure it out."

"Yeah, Birdy," Percy says encouragingly. "You're not alone."

"I know that," she replies defeatedly. "Thank you."

At sundown, Percy approaches Ara and Nico while the girl helps him get a harness on.

"Thank you," Percy says.

"What for?" Nico glances at him.

"You promised to lead the others to the House of Hades. You did it."

"You got me out of that bronze jar in Rome. Saved my life yet again. It was the least I could do."

"What about me? I nursed you back to health!" Ara teases him.

Nico tightens the ropes around the statue. "You owed me that much. And you still owe me like a hundred favors once you're done here."

"Talking about favors," Ara turns to Percy. "Bob was with you. What was that about?"

Surprisingly, Percy starts talking about his journey. "Only because Nico kept visiting Bob... You convinced him that I could be trusted, even though I never visited him. I never gave him a second thought. You probably saved our lives by being nice to him."

"Yeah, well, not giving people a second thought... that can be dangerous," he says bitterly.

"Dude, I'm trying to say thank you."

Nico laughs dryly. "I'm trying to say you don't need to. Now I need to finish this, if you could give me some space?"

"Yeah. Yeah, okay." 

Percy glances at Ara as if saying 'Seriously, what is up with this guy?' and usually, Ara would return the look, maybe tease Nico a little (about something else so she could deviate from the subject). She doesn't want to do that now.

"Di Angelo doesn't need a reason to be helpful, ain't that right, Ghost King?" She pats his back harshly. "He's not fishing for compliments, don't undermine his bravery and commitment to the cause."

"Too much," Nico mutters, his back turned to them while securing the statue.

"Shut up," she whispers back.

Percy stares at them in confusion, completely unused to their new dynamic that has almost zero of the hostility of old times. Ara grins knowingly. "Nico was there when Eros forced me to talk about my curse—after that, he took on the role of my substitute older brother."

"That's not true," he scowls. "And I'm a year younger than you."

"He took it very seriously. There was verbal abuse involved."

"Mostly from you."

"See? He can't stop."

Her brother grins. "Well, I'm glad you had each other during such a crappy month..." Percy's face drops. "Gods, Ara, your birthday..."

Annabeth gets to them before Ara can reply to that. She holds Percy's hand and then turns to them. "Good luck, Nico."

"Yeah," he replies without looking back, tilting his head to respond. "You too."

Reyna and Hedge show up then. Reyna hugs Annabeth and Ara can't help feeling jealous, Reyna is always overly formal with her because of their ranks, and the girl wishes she would treat her like when they were children.

"We will succeed," the praetor promises.

"I know you will," Annabeth smiles.

"Yeah, don't worry," Hedge nudges his way through. "I'm going to get to camp and see my baby! Uh, I mean I'm going to get this baby to camp!"

Ara chuckles and hugs him. "You've been the best guardian we could've asked for, Coach. Thank you—and say hi to Clarisse and Mellie for me."

The satyr pats her back. "'Course, cupcake. Make me proud."

"I won't go on a killing spree, Coach."

"Why not?" He demands grumpily.

"All right," Nico points at each side of him. "Grab the ropes, please. Here we go."

Reyna stands before Ara, looking eye-to-eye. "Strategus."

Ara sighs, accepting that she'll never get a hug from this girl. "Praetor. Take care of that statue, she's cranky. And my brigadier, he's cranky too but if you feed him at his hours he won't bite."

Reyna shakes her hand. "We'll see each other again, General."

"Definitely."

The girl goes to wrap the rope around her, and Ara goes to Nico. Once again the boy is about to embark on an extremely draining quest, like nothing he's ever done before, and perhaps just as destructive as his journey through Tartarus. She no longer sees Nico as a little boy, but the worry persists.

"Well, there's no denying we still make a great team," she reaches out to shake his hand. "Don't die, Lily is waiting for you at home."

Nico takes her hand, shaking it firmly. "I'll tell her you say hi."

"Don't," Ara responds. "I'll tell her myself."

Next Chapter –>

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