#inconsistent i capitalization

[pink-wysteria]

I feel like I'm non stop posting about Riptide but it's consumed my mind body and soul rn so forgive me but also

out of the main dynamics in the show - chip and jay's siblings, chip and gillion's gay lovers, and the albatrio as a whole, I think the friendship between gillion and jay feels somehow like the purest form of friendship. they're not siblings, they're not romantic, they're just two people who love and trust each other wholeheartedly enough to know that they can lean on each other when they're at their lowest and have no expectations from the other apart from their unconditional support. like, I love the dynamics that each of the trio has with the other, but it's so heartening to see just a wonderful, encouraging friendship that's just a /friendship/, you know? like, there's no 'she's like a sister to me', there's no jokes about them getting together, they just are two incredible friends and I love that. I love that they don't feel the need to explicitly state that it's platonic because of course it is because people are allowed to be friends without having to quantify that they feel no romantic interest in each other.

we've watched them become best friends over the course of like a hundred episodes and so when gillion tells her he will fight for what she wants or when jay tells him that he is exactly who he needs to be, it just feels so much more rewarding because it's just so earned from their characters

idk man i just love all the characters on this show I don't know any other better way to express it T.T

[foxwmulder]

just found the fake MSR texts I made a million years ago. it's the green messages for me

[harpyface]

My thoughts on the volta do mar

In-game, the Volta do Mar method was created to travel through the pale, being first used in the first successful voyage into the pale. Apparently it took years to develop the method, a "strict psychological regimen imitating the creation process of poetry."

In real life, the volta do mar is a Portuguese (volta do mar is Portuguese for 'Return from the Sea') sailing practice of, in simple words, sailing further out into the sea to avoid sailing directly against the wind and then catching winds that then move in the correct direction (useful since portugal is slightly north of the equator, blah blah wind directions)

While watching a playthrough, Joyce's description of Lely's tattoos reminded me of this 'return from the sea' business. Lely's tattoos are a history of his service, but originally the tattoo was a custom of sailors "mark[ing] their bodies to map their travels." "The sailor's soul would use it to fly back home if they should die abroad. This is a sort of… contraption. To be reeled back in by." If a sailor died, their soul would 'return from the sea'(😮).

The pale is likened to the ocean many times in Disco Elysium, so these tattoos and the volta mantras are very similar. They are linked even more when we see that the tattoo custom was begun "right after the discovery of Insulinde," so the creation of voltas and the creation of this tradition kind of bookend the eighth expedition. Likening the irl volta do mar practice and this in game example got me thinking about how exactly in-game voltas are used and created.

(Interesting note, Joyce describes these tattoos as "the silver cord" linking the soul and home, whereas irl, the concept of the silver cord is supposed to link the soul and the body.)

Personally, the concept that is pale was hard enough for me to grasp (even with it being an established fictional concept with, like, words to describe it.) It's "the opposite of reality," it's a property that suspends other properties, and it can damage human minds. According to Joyce, dialectical materialists argue that "pale somehow *consists* of past information, that's degrading. That it's rarefied past, not rarefied matter."

"They call it the *blend-over of the self*. The pale does not only suspend the laws of physics, but also the laws of psychology, maybe History, even… The human mind becomes over-radiated by past."

We can assume that this 'blend-over of the self' is true because of the Paledriver, who is observably pale-radiated and lost in worlds in lives that her body hasn't lived.

Operating on this theory, the pale is made of information, and I would also like to argue that pale is made of not only past information, but also future information, and information about alternate timelines.

In the moralist vision quest, we hear entroponetic crosstalk of Kim from the future *and* arguably an alternate timeline if he ends up in the hospital and doesn't end up at the islet. So pale is basically all information and possibilities.

The only explicit example of a Volta do Mar is from the Insulindian Miracle thought, and it's song lyrics from What If by Teho Teardo & Blixa Bargeld. This thought establishes that voltas are 1) Taught in schools and 2) Repeated like mantras while travelling. The voltas aren't mentioned in Sacred and Terrible Air, by name at least. Zigi does sing Helvetti, by Kauko Röyhkä & Riku Mattila, in pale, but that's explicitly a song and not a poem, and obviously he doesn't need to resist the effects of the pale (and if fact doesn't want to drive away the pale, based on his reaction to Nilsen's 'Communism is white' speech when it started to ward off the surrounding pale.)

When Joyce says that the method is a "strict psychological regimen imitating the creation process of poetry," my thinking was that it can't be as simple as reciting poetry while travelling through the pale. It might be, but wouldn't the process *be* the process of creating poetry and not 'imitating' it? Of course, it could just be referencing the research it took for the explorers to be able to safely traverse the pale, but I wasn't satisfied with that.

(I'll admit, when I first began building this theory, I didn't know that we had an explicit example of a volta, and it stumped me for a bit, but I think it works still.)

I've seen interpretations in which the poetic nonsense of voltas force the person to focus on reality/on their own mind, to focus on the next word in the sequence. But using the real world volta do mar technique as a base, I started building my own theory by considering that the voltas mirror the technique of the irl volta do mar. Voltas would be  performed by a person going deeper into the pale (whether mentally or physically) in order to somehow escape the effects more easily.

Having already established that the pale is information, it makes sense that the way to manoeuvre it would be via words and concepts. Prior to remembering The Insulindian Miracle thought, my theory was that, instead of pilots being *taught* previously written mantras, they were taught to create poetry while immersed in the pale. The pilot's mind would then grasp the floating information that is pale to string the words together into a distinct phrase/poem, intentionally going deeper into the pale to get enough material to work with. With the resulting phrase, it would be grounding enough to bring the pilot back to reality.

However, all of that is irrelevant when you consider the volta that Harry was taught.

Or is it?

The Insulindian Miracle solution says that "you were taught it at school. It is one of the Volta do Mar mantras repeated on the voyage that lead to the discovery of the Insulindian isola." I could interpret it as saying that voltas are written in advance, or that *historical* voltas are taught in grade school, just like we're taught historical documents or literature. Maybe children of Revachol are taught about the voltas that the discoverers of their isola used simply for academic knowledge. 

And as Joyce says, the Volta do Mar is also used by "other troubled souls even to this day." Ordinary people may not have access to the bank of information that is the pale, but they do have their own troubling thoughts that they can pick words and concepts from to still go through the same process that I've described in order to calm themselves or relieve stress.

I do want to analyse Kim's Volta do Mar skill at a later time using all of this, but right now this is what I have to offer :)

(An excellent post that I was inspired by is about the connection between water and memories by @/57sfinest, which I would like to briefly reference at the end of all this analysis. Imagine it as a triangle, one point is the ocean that the sailor's souls would have to return from (or the irl ocean that the volta do mar was used for, if you like), the second point is the past and memories, and the third point is the pale, the "rarefied past." It's all connected.)

[gillipopmoji]

if you follow my non-emoji blog you might've predicted this but wee hyperfixation go brr have some trafficmojis

[bitchyblkqueer]

As someone who follows Jeremy Adams' press, it's clear that he was bothered and upset by the number of people saying Hal was being a creepy weirdo to Carol in the first few issues of GL 2023. even the older white male fans were like, "this is uncomfortable".

it's one of Many Many things that's made me doubt the competency of DC editorial (understatement of the century i know). Someone should have clocked this in the scripting phase. and I'm disappointed with the overall storyline in the comic. it looks like they're leaving behind the "Hal adjusting to life on earth" idea AND the psychology of Hal creating kilowog with his ring. DC has also famously fired more than half of their editors in the last 5-6 years.

but back to Adams - it must be difficult for him to receive that feedback, especially since he's said he behaved similarly with women he's dated. no one likes being misunderstood, and they definitely don't want to hear that they've acted like a creepy weirdo.

which explains the OOC Barry dialogue in GL 2023 #4. it's a sorry sight.

as readers, we're supposed to think, "If Barry Allen is saying it, of course it's okay!!"

fwiw i am all for a "you're single until you're married" mentality, but Barry definitely would not be lmao. and i cant even get into how gross this is towards Carol. what about what she wants?? barry is a lot of things, but he's consistently not misogynistic.

sidenote - you are not writing hal & barry well if they're not coming off as more than a little in love with each other. hal needs to randomly say the most romantic thing you've ever read or else it's not a successful team-up. and adams co-wrote that lego flash movie where barry keeps a photo of him and hal on his nightstand. so now we all know to thank the other guy i guess

i would have been all for adams bringing back a more silver age hal, which i thought was the intention. but leave the sexism where it's at. bring back more silly scifi plots or hal getting knocked out or ITTY!

and if for some reason you intended for hal to act like a misogynist, it could have been interesting to watch him deal with the changing social customs since he's been off-world for so many years. but i doubt anyone working on the comic would be able to give that storyline the depth it deserves. anyway

[riacte]

Hermitgals Pretty Cure AU transformation phrases + items

Tentatively drafted these up today! I am having so much fun with this AU :D

˖⁺‧₊˚​​  ✿ ♦︎ 𖦹 ☾ ☘︎ ˚₊‧⁺˖

Stress: "The joy of creation and the love for our everyday life! Cure Allium!"

Transformation item: Perfume bottle. Self explanatory (she loves flowers). Heartcatch style, she sprays it over herself and she transforms.

Weapon item: Her gloves with like knuckle protectors? Her bare fists? She sprays her perfume over her gloves and they become big and shiny and she basically punches her way through her troubles <3

˖⁺‧₊˚​​  ✿ ♦︎ 𖦹 ☾ ☘︎ ˚₊‧⁺˖

False: "The flexibility of creation and the ever-changing flow of ideas! Cure Diamond!"

Transformation item: A mirror. It shatters and the pieces become like, intangible and she's able to pass through them like she's becoming her stronger reflection. And yes this is a reference to symmetry, or more accurately, asymmetry.

Weapon item: Bow and arrows. Her mirror shatters - the handle of it turns into her bow, the shattered pieces become the arrows. She's also able to shift her arrows into other forms, specifically water and ice.

˖⁺‧₊˚​​  ✿ ♦︎ 𖦹 ☾ ☘︎ ˚₊‧⁺˖

Cleo: "The connectivity of creation and the diverse threads of our lives! Cure Blaze!"

Transformation item: A watch. Joe made it <3 and it broke and froze at the time when Joe died </3 but it got fixed with Jhost's lime green magic filling in the cracks <3 It's like Yes 5's transformation.

Weapon item: Ribbons! They burst out from her watch, something about turning back time, something about the hands of her watch extending to form multiple ribbons.

˖⁺‧₊˚​​  ✿ ♦︎ 𖦹 ☾ ☘︎ ˚₊‧⁺˖

Pearl: "The chaos of creation and the clash between shadow and colour! Cure Moon!"

Transformation item: A camera. It takes different snapshots of her, and every time it takes a photo, that part of her transforms. Something about Pearl wanting to capture the joy of creation but was unable to do so in her villain era. Something about becoming her new self with flashes of light. The camera doesn't record her old life, it creates her new life.

Weapon item: A paintbrush and a palette! Colours get extracted from the iridescent lens. She's able to create illusions and attacks.

˖⁺‧₊˚​​  ✿ ♦︎ 𖦹 ☾ ☘︎ ˚₊‧⁺˖

Gem: "The bravery of creation and the delight of dreaming! Cure Birch!"

Transformation item: A charm bracelet. It represents the wishes of all the people from the Hermit Kingdom. Some charms on the bracelet are wooden (representing home and nature), some are gemstones (representing Gem herself), some are metal (representing strength and battle), etc etc.

Weapon item: A sword! One of the gemstone charms in her bracelet becomes the gem embedded in her big sword. She also has the cool effect of stretching out her hand and letting the sword materialise from her bracelet.

˖⁺‧₊˚​​  ✿ ♦︎ 𖦹 ☾ ☘︎ ˚₊‧⁺˖

If you're interested, you can read more on the #precure au tag on my blog :) there's a whole outline and lore and everything

[coldresolve]

i keep gettin questions about some basic demographics for the main players of mm, so im gonna add a link to this post on the masterlist for the curious. if theres sth i forgot to add feel free to ask

the ± is where davin is vague and ambiguous. its a character trait

updated to include howard

[manchasama]

Okay so this is completely raw train of thought that I refuse to be embarrassed over.  It also may jump around because it was written on two different days, since I had more Ideas(tm) about it.

Also, Emmet in the distortion world is absolutely influenced by @that1nkyone‘s Distortion Guide AU, tho not lifting anything from where they are taking that story.  Just that their idea of Emmet being in the distortion world definitely inspired my brain to go this way.

This is in my (god damnit I need a title) anti-mob AU

--

How Ingo Disappears

Ingo and Emmet get overwhelmed by some group.  Possibly make it Team Plasma, set during B&W 2 or something.  Or just some splinter group trying to rekindle things.  (Actually maybe when I think this AU out I could figure out how to make team Plasma the mob group.  Hmmmm....)  Either way, and for whatever reason, Ingo and Emmet are tied up while the group tries to do their thing. 

(I imagine it's a desperate fight, so the grunts don't have a lot of time to restrain the bros once they got the upper hand.  Just tied their arms behind them (tight, so tight, but not stripping the coats bc again no time).  Normally this would be to their detriment because the twins would get free and wreck shit again.  This time, there wasn't enough time to get free.  Also possibly they were overwhelmed bc they let their guard down/were out of practice, having lived relatively peaceful lives since they became subway masters.  I'll have to see where the story is at the time.)

Whatever the group is doing, Ingo gets his feet under him to try and stop them, and is walloped upside the head in retaliation, concussing and stunning him.  (Emmet is Furious.  Retribution will be had, once he can find out if Ingo is okay.)  So Ingo isn't able to respond to things around them.  And it's tragic that, because all the group wanted was to keep the subway masters out of the way.  They weren't the goal or target of this, just collateral damage.  No, they were summoning (Giratina probably) and just needed enough time to finish that.

And they do.  But Giratina is not subservient to them.  It does not care or agree with their goals.  (What happens with Giratina will be for Emmet to witness.  Whether Giratina harms or kills, or does something else.)  Still, even that isn't the focus.

No, the focus is that as the hole in reality widens, as Giratina forces its way through, Ingo is lying too close to the center.  The hole widens, and Ingo tips, and falls.  (The last thing he sees with his blurry vision is Emmet and Chandelure (figure out a way).  That is why later, all he remembers is the figure in white and the purple flames.)

-

I think in addition to that, Emmet goes after Ingo.  Rather than be left behind, I mean.  He's tied up a ways away, hands bound behind his back, pokemon trapped in their balls in the hands of their captors.  Help won't make it in time ofc.  Emmet sees Ingo fall, helpless to save him, but he can in his anger free himself from whoever is pinning him, and throw himself into the void after Ingo.  

(As Ingo vanishes, disappears from this world, as Emmet's soul follows suit, one of the trapped pokeballs /explodes/, destroyed as the pokemon inside frees itself the only way it can.  Chandelure follows Emmet, catching and guiding him in the buffeting void.  Neither see where Ingo went.)

So, I'm thinking the twins were cuffed, just for the idea that Chandelure can help Emmet break the chain between them, but they can't get the metal cuffs off his wrists without hurting him (would hurt his skin trying to melt it off, not strong or precise enough to smash them off, etc).  So Emmet is in the distortion world, searching desperately for Ingo.  Chandelure can barely sense Emmet in the twisting world who is right next to her, let alone find Ingo.

Since there is no day, no night, Emmet searches until he passes out, wakes up and repeats it.  Time is basically meaningless and blends together.  Chandelure guides him to food and makes him eat, but is also searching for Ingo with that desperation of shared souls.  

Eventually, Emmet's strength is giving out, despite chandelure trying her best, and his despair is too great.  He lies there, unwilling to move, and begs her to eat his soul, replenish herself and escape.  He's done.  (As when they were kids, pushed so far that death was welcome).

Chandelure not only refuses, but instead tries to feed emmet's soul instead (as when they were kids and they'd rescued her, so did she want them to live).  Emmet knows that if she continues in her weakened state she will die keeping him alive, and he knows if he stays here she will keep trying.  So he does the hardest thing; he gets back up and continues on (without Ingo at his side).

Later when he recounting some of this to Ingo, he does admit that it was the hardest thing in his life.  To get up and move on without Ingo.  (Not giving up on him, just having to go through that without Ingo.  They've been through the toughest times together, and that time they were not).

Not sure on the timing of this, might redo some of arceus so that red sky and volo happen at the same time.  Because like, imagining ingo's troubles…  So the idea is that he's realized Volo is dangerous and going to attack akari, and he's desperate to get to her.  Perhaps he knows they will not be match for him with a god pokemon on his side, perhaps he just can't see victory in a head on confrontation, perhaps he is torn between his duties to his wardenship and his love of akari.  For whatever reason, he's heading to a battle he doesn't know how to win.  If akari will even believe him.  If volo hasn't already attacked her.  Etc etc.

The reason I want the red sky, is it makes a good time for emmet to escape the distortion world.  The veil is weakest, can come through a rift, chandelure senses his soul or emmet catches a glimpse and just throws himself at it, whatever.  But also the red sky would make it so he hasn't even realized he's left the distortion world, at least not entirely.  Because there is still no day, no night, and everything is odd.  (Just has more gravity lol).  

Maybe Volo attacked Ingo, leaving him trapped where a distortion was to appear, expecting him to perish there.  Might work.

Regardless, when Emmet and chandelure find Ingo, it's not the tearful reunion either were hoping for.  However Emmet was filled with so much relief, so much joy at finding his brother, that he can put some of his wants on hold because he can tell that Ingo Needs To Do Something.  It's the look they have when they are focused on saving or improving people's lives, as their shadow selves.  They've always put the world in front of their own needs, and this is no exception.

Additionally, emmet is temp mute at this point.  No point in talking, plus going mute due to high emotions.  It take a while for him to start talking again.  (After everything settles, when it's just the two of them, Ingo's memories still muddled but he /knows/ that emmet isn't fine.  Emmet doesn't have to hide from ingo.  They talk through a lot of things, etc.)

Ingo doesn't know what to say either, how to articulate what he's feeling, what he needs.  This was obviously the man in white, and he wanted nothing more than to cling to him, to cry and laugh until all his emotions are drained and peace is left behind.  But…akari.  He /needs/ to help her, to save her from volo's plans.  All he can do is ask for help.

Emmet can sign even if he can't speak, and despite the lack of memories between them, their instincts guide them true.  Thus, Ingo goes to confront Volo head on, and Emmet hides in the shadows ready to take advantage.

-

(Oh man did I never write this down?  Okay, let's see what I remember.)

So I've had the idea that Emmet makes it to Hisui for a while, even if I didn't know how why or when.  I thought I wrote more about it so if this IS duplicate, suffer lol.  Because I wanted to lean into their past of being the "ghost" or whatever I end up calling it, that haunted the mob into destruction.  I don't know for sure if they ever found out there were two people behind the persona.  Either way, Ingo and Emmet have always been able to play that part.

So the confrontation with Volo (Yes he is a true villain this fic), the idea is that Ingo is keeping Volo's attention, while Emmet hides waiting for a chance to strike.  Because that was the mistake so many had made, that Volo made; thinking Ingo was alone.  Sort of line. 

...Nope, I don’t remember specifics right now.  Dang.  If I do, I’ll write them down this time.

-

(Ingo has some scars from hisui.  Emmet has scars on his wrists from where the manacles rubbed endlessly.  Chandelure I think has crackled glass now, after pushing so hard trying to save emmet and find ingo.  It's not always obvious, but sometimes.)

(Part of why Ingo is so messed up in hisui is the lack of memory and running on instincts means he keeps crossing his subway master persona with his ghost persona, but he doesn't realize they are two different sides he usually didn't let cross over.  So when his reactions mix, he instinctually know something is very wrong with it.  Sometimes it distracts him, sometimes he disassociates trying to remember, sometimes it frustrates him trying to remember.)

-

Oh idea.  Ingo gets stabbed.  :p  No but seriously, let's say the collection of the plates happens at the same time.  Ingo plays a more active role in assisting akari, always there (frustrating volo who wanted to be the support model, but ingo is there /more/).  Volo needs to get his hands on the plates.  Perhaps Ingo is keeping them safe, but that doesn't jive with Volo getting the drop on him.  Because lets say Volo manages to convince akari he will keep the plates safe.  Maybe she leaves Ingo to "guard" volo or something, or maybe volo goes after ingo to make sure he is out of the way when volo goes to confront akari (weakened after she subdues the second god pokemon).

Either way, volo has command of all the plates, which gives him influence over all pokemon.  He can force wild pokemon to fight for him, can prevent ingo's pokemon from fighting properly (they can only resist so much), and basically volo takes down ingo via cheating.  Ingo is a good enough trainer, and friends with enough wild pokemon that it is close tho.  So close that volo gets close enough to ingo to stab him and take him out that way (somehow just go with it.  Maybe uses a pokemon to do it).

Volo goes off to get akari, who is trying to clear the red sky.  He thinks if he takes her out, arceus will have to listen to his call.  Because he'd have all the plates, have taken out arceus' chosen, would be able to have command over the other two god pokemon to have all three, etc.

Then Emmet and Chandelure come to ingo's rescue.  Chandelure pulling what she can from emmet to give to ingo to heal him, etc.  

By giving Volo command over other pokemon via the plates as well as influence over partner pokemon, that makes his threat and the fight way more difficult, rather than a wash it would normally be.  Gives a reason why emmet has to get to volo, to separate him from the plates, in secret.

(A thought, have to see if it fits.  Chandelure and emmet have to get close enough that she can drain volo, while remaining unnoticed.  Emmet strikes when volo goes down on a knee, wondering why his energy is so low.  Slow process, and Ingo (and akari) need to keep volo distracted to not notice.  Volo's partner pokemon still have free will, so they need to keep those engaged to not let him know either.)

[luluwquidprocrow]

sometimes a family is three orphans, their adopted daughter, one not-so-sad writer, and two triplets

frank, beatrice the second, the baudelaires, lemony, ernest, implied ernest/lemony

gen

3,598 words

In the grand tradition of all parents, the extended baudelaire family find themselves trying to pull a fast one. 

for @asouefanworkevent's woevember day 4, the hotel denouement! some rambling headcanon nonsense half-fic about post-canon family that i had great fun doing. my favorite thing in the whole world is post-canon babybea interacting with her absurd enormous family. i love them all so much.

okay. so bear with me here 

so i think most parents/guardians are at one point or another faced with Pulling The Ultimate Fast One on their children. this is related to Your Beloved Pet Died But We’re Telling You We Sent Them To Live On The Farm, but this version, in particular, is infinitely easier and harder. this one is The Switch. The Replacement. The Double. when the intrepid parent or guardian, under the cover of night, goes to the pet store to purchase The Exact Same Animal because the first animal had an untimely death. i will admit, this is the easiest with like, a goldfish, or something else small where you can usually get one that looks very similar. 

now, for babybea, it’s a pumpkin. 

so babybea (who is twelve at the time this story takes place), at the very end of september, carves a pumpkin, and she goes in with a VISION. she spends a couple hours on this pumpkin, carving an owl. It’s not, yknow, a realistic owl, but she adds a lot of tiny details, lots of lines for the feathers, and she carves a little mouse on the side too, and even gets the side of a tree in there, and the pumpkin carving kit the baudelaires purchased that year came with these little stick lights, to put in the owl eyes after carving, so it has orange eyes!! this is!!!! The neatest thing babybea has ever seen, and she is so thrilled with the results and very proud of this pumpkin. (for the record – violet carves a few pumpkins into a starry night with a moon, klaus carves monstera leaves, and. let’s be real. sunny bites a series of turnips into jack-o-lanterns.) (and then she stabs a couple white pumpkins into bigger jack-o-lanterns, for variety. all of them get different expressions!

sunny, arranging her carved vegetation on the baudelaire porch in order of emotion: perfect.) (no, i don’t know what order of emotion means. But sunny does.)

Then they all pile into violet’s car – pumpkin included!! – and drive almost an hour out of the city to the bildungsroman bed and breakfast. (frank and ernest decided, at this point in their lives, if they were going to commit to anything, it may as well be The Bit.) (it has a local reputation as a place with solid wifi, stellar bread, and great mattresses. The owners are considered minorly eccentric, mostly for the portrait they have in the lobby, of, just one of them. 

some impassioned yelp review: okay so the stay was great big recommend PLEASE try the bread but i cannot figure out the story behind the portrait in the lobby????? it's just one one of the owners?????? but I don't understand why bc they're twins and it's just ONE of them?????? and he's wearing this frog-patterned tie in the painting and when you see them like in person. neither of them wear the tie. what's the deal here 

the locals are sure it's not an ego thing, bc the owners don't seem to be self-centered or anything like that. In fact, if asked about the painting, both of them will say, “oh, that's a painting of my brother.” 

an additional yelp comment: I think. there's THREE of them  a third yelp comment: don't be silly, they're definitely twins.) 

frank and ernest have a very elaborate series of outdoor autumn decorations, with lots of pumpkins and mini gourds and hay bales over the front steps and corn stalks on all the porch posts, and babybea wants to not only show her uncles her hard work, but also put the pumpkin on their steps where everyone can see it!! 

(her uncles also include lemony, of course – I think he did live with the baudelaires for some time after reuniting babybea with them, but has recently moved into ernest's side of the private apartment at the back of the hotel. this was mildly distressing to babybea, who likes everyone she loves under the same roof, but she can't deny that lemony is very happy. and so is ernest. and now she can see all her uncles in the same place whenever she wants!! so the baudelaires tend to spend weekends at the bed and breakfast, because they also miss lemony. and they get to know frank and ernest better, which is very important to them, as people who are important to babybea, and to lemony, and, to the baudelaire's past.) (not to like, detract from the sentiment here, but i do need everyone to know that i imagine ernest spends like, 80% of his working hours just making out with lemony.) (okay maybe not 80%. ernest does legitimately get work done, it’s his hotel too. ………but like, a lot of time.) 

AND SO. the baudelaires arrive at the bed and breakfast, and frank and ernest and lemony are very proud of their niece's pumpkin. they take a lot of pictures. (re: my previous post-canon thoughts, frank has actually acquired a phone now, and does text. it is a flip phone.) babybea places it, very gently, on the third front step, and is so pleased. sunny steals two mini gourds while looking ernest dead in the eye. ernest approves. 

But october turns out to be unseasonably warm, and babybea’s pumpkin, while lovingly carved but now lacking the support an uncarved pumpkin has to keep itself A Pumpkin, does not take kindly to the weather, and babybea actually becomes very distressed at the smallest signs of rot beginning to form in her pumpkin, when it is only the second week of october. She doesn’t TELL anybody, because there’s not really much you can do about a pumpkin doing what a pumpkin does in warm weather, but she’s very upset. (almost uncharacteristically so. usually she’d say, oh, well that’s how it happens, and rather pleasantly move on, but lately, she’s been kind of. quieter than usual.) And frank, who spends a great deal of time at the front desk, closest to the pumpkins, becomes Concerned. 

now, in general, babybea’s family is like, pretty good at being realistic with her. She is of course an optimist, but still Aware of a great deal of the ways of the world, given her family, her upbringing, lemony’s books, her own adventures, everything. You can’t really shield this twelve year old from the ways of the world, even if that way of the world is, a rotting vegetable. All things have their time, and it cannot be stopped. Including seasons, and in-season foods. 

However. She put SO MUCH WORK into that pumpkin, and as the week goes by and the pumpkin starts to shrink in on itself, turning all of babybea’s work black from the inside out, those charming little glowstick eyes CAVING IN, and the baudelaire’s weekly weekend visit grows closer and closer, frank has been imagining her devastated reaction when she sees the pumpkin, and decides, He Must Pull The Fast One. he will re-carve the pumpkin, exactly as babybea carved it, replace the pumpkin, and no one will be the wiser. They get a little more time with the pumpkin, presumably at least until halloween, and his niece gets to see her beautiful handiwork as much as she likes. Maybe, you know, there is a little magic in the world after all, to make a pumpkin look so nice. 

(also, i think frank has. A shaky relationship with babybea, from his end. She loves him, as much as she loves everyone else in her family, and babybea herself would NEVER rank her uncles in order of how well she knows or admires them, but i, lulu vandelay, putting this together, have no qualms in saying she knows lemony the best, bc she has spent the most time with him, between trying to find him and both of them trying to find the baudelaires and all of them having lived together, and she’s rather deeply attached to him – ernest is very personable, and funny, so he’s easy to get along with – and she and frank both like tiny detail work, so they have things in common, but frank always seems very awkward around her. And he is. It’s bc he’s very nervous around her. Frank doesn’t think he’s good with kids. And he is usually acutely aware that in an ideal world, he isn’t the one she’d be spending her time with, that dewey would be so much better at all of this than he is. A better parent, a better brother, a better everything. Because dewey always was, to frank. but, dewey would probably want frank to do as much as he could for her, and would believe him absolutely capable of doing it, without a doubt. So he wants to be a proper uncle to her and THIS is his opportunity, he thinks. He so desperately wants to do something kind and considerate and important for her, like family is supposed to do for each other.) 

the thing about pumpkins, though, is that, for some reason, mid-october, THEY ALL DISAPPEAR. I’m serious, you ever try and find a good pumpkin even like a little over halfway through october? It can be hard. 

frank: i need your assistance. ernest: i’ve killed my quota for the month. frank: i – ernest, please.  ernest: alright, my apologies. What do you need?  frank: a pumpkin. lemony, from the kitchen: jarrahdale or red warty?  frank: no, i mean a carving pumpkin. 

The three of them take a good, long look at babybea’s pumpkin. Uncle Instincts Have Activated. They, very solemnly, bury the pumpkin in the back garden (lemony is the one who takes one for the team and removes the glowstick eyes from the depths of sad, sad pumpkin). And then embark on a mission. Please imagine the three of them packed into a mint green 1960 chevy corvette. Sunglasses optional. Who’s driving? That is up to you, my friend. Oh, google informs me it is cascade green. Imagine accordingly. (yes, no corvette has ever been made with more than two seats, but isn’t that just funnier? They really are packed in there. Lemony sits in the middle.) 

The hunt for the right pumpkin is long. Grueling! Kinda chilly! This is october!! Much comparison is made between potential pumpkins and the pictures they took of babybea’s pumpkin. Snacks are purchased. (lemony, who has recently been introduced to instagram, posts a picture of his pretzel. [ernest is out of focus in the corner, eating a chocolate ice cream cone.] [#pretzel.] 

sunbad: what is that lemonysnicket: I have purchased a pretzel sunbad: without me sunbad: you’re dead to me.) 

(it was actually not sunny who introduced lemony to instagram, although she was his first follower. It was klaus.) (klaus uses instagram mainly to never post anything ever, just to follow his favorite authors, so he wanted lemony to have an instagram, especially since he just moved out.) (klaus……..my heart………..) (oh, frank bought chex mix. he likes those gross rye bread pieces.) 

(don’t get me started on lemony with an instagram……….I think this is a hilarious but also heartwarming thought – this man who has avoided being photographed for years and years and years and YEARS (yes that much repetition was in fact necessary) is at a point in his life here he is not only comfortable of taking pictures of his life, but he is capable of doing it, he’s allowed!! It’s still probably mostly food and it’s so good!!!!!!!! and think of the amount of pictures he keeps just in his phone gallery, too!!! violet’s inventions and klaus’ library displays and sunny’s baking and babybea’s school projects and ernest’s record collection and frank’s breakfast spreads, and nature shots with lemony’s thumb in the corner, AAAAAAAAAAAA) (uh, anyway, these men are on a mission. back to the mission.) 

Eventually, they do find a comparable replacement pumpkin! Does it fit in the car? Lemony, by virtue of sitting in the middle, holds the pumpkin. 

They return to the bed and breakfast. Between the three of them, many different knives, and all of their photos, frank and ernest and lemony painstakingly recreate babybea’s pumpkin, down to the last, smallest detail. Including the little mouse and the side of the tree and the feathers and everything. (frank does do most of the work, because ernest and lemony very much see that this is important to him, but he doesn’t mind them helping, because, yknow. This is about family, and babybea is their family too.) (frank feels like he owes lemony a lot. for trying to set the record straight about their past. or as straight as one could try and set it, with what all of them did. for their niece. for making ernest happy.) (ernest deserves to be happy, with everything they put each other through. ernest thinks the same for frank, too.) 

(ugggggg if you told the three of them when they were so much younger that one day they’d stay up late recreating their niece’s perfect pumpkin masterpiece so she’s not upset about the passage of time………..) 

(who’s in charge of the bed and breakfast while all of this is happening?? 

ernest: mallory, you’re in charge. mallory, a twenty-two year old with a major in hotel management who runs the front desk when ernest and frank can’t: sounds like a plan. 

mallory has a deep respect for the denouements. meanwhile – 

mallory: so you’re lemony snicket. lemony: i am, yes. mallory: you don’t look like your photo. lemony: that’s my legal representative. he has a stamp.) 

meanwhile meanwhile – it is not necessarily about the pumpkin. 

For babybea’s part, she already firmly believes that there is some sort of magic in the world. Even at twelve. Especially at twelve!! Look, she knows it wasn’t magic that reunited her with her family, that it was her and lemony’s hard work, but she wound up with SO much more family than she expected, when she first contacted lemony. And like, that is what there’s magic in. this whole group of people who care about her and love her and want to spend time with her. Babybea thinks she has the best family in the whole entire world. (AND SHE’S RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!) 

But that is also babybea’s problem right now. She loves her family so much, and she loves having them, and it’s been a couple months but she is still not entirely comfortable with people she loves being so far away from her. Not now! Not when they’re all supposed to be in the same space, like they’re supposed to be!! And some kids at school have teased her, not so much about her puzzle-piece family but that she talks about her uncles so much. She’s just proud of her family and she loves them!! But middle schoolers are like, rude as fuck sometimes, okay. And they don’t even think they’re saying anything wrong, just offhand comments about how much she talks about them. They don’t even know anything about her parents, not really, but babybea starts to feel like, it’s the unspoken throughline in what they’re saying, why doesn’t she ever talk about them? Why only her uncles, her guardians? They’re her family, but – 

she feels almost guilty, that she goes through periods where she doesn’t even think of her parents at all, and periods where she can’t stop thinking about what they would look like and what they would be like, and that makes her feel like she doesn’t value the family she DOES have. So it’s not necessarily about the pumpkin starting to rot, what’s making her upset. It’s that, the pumpkin is another thing in a line of things babybea is Thinking about, things that aren’t Going the way she thought they were supposed to go. Her uncle moving out, missing somebody who was supposed to be there, her pumpkin not staying like it’s supposed to, she’s SUPPOSED to love her family but is she loving them right? Is she loving the right people right? Can you miss people you didn’t even know? And babybea has it very set in her head, the things she knows and is supposed to do – this is something she hasn’t quite worked on, but she’ll get to it eventually, she is still twelve – and they keep not happening like that. And now. Something else she worked really, really, really hard on, that isn’t going right either. 

So she spends the week a little gloomy about her pumpkin, and worrying the whole ride friday afternoon after school to the bildungsroman bed and breakfast. Violet and klaus and sunny are very aware of babybea’s mood, and try to cheer her up by asking her about what she’ll be for halloween, but babybea’s heart is not super into this conversation. (she has ideas about a big group costume where they’re all different local birds, but now she’s not even sure about that.) 

And then! She sees her pumpkin!! Glowy eyes and all!!!!! And, mysteriously, those little spots of rot she’d noticed the week before are gone, and, in fact, it looks a little sharper than it had before? And she didn’t think she’d cut the lid quite like that, but! That’s her pumpkin, exactly where it’s supposed to be!!! And it makes her feel just a little better. That’s good. That’s right. But she still can’t, entirely shake off all her previous feelings, about family. But. right now. Her pumpkin still looks very special. 

Later, babybea can’t sleep. So she sneaks out of bed and goes down to the lobby, and sits down on the floor in front of the front desk, and looks at the big painting on the wall, that ernest did of her father. 

This, of course, is where frank finds her. (because frank has never been very good at sleeping consistently, even when there’s nothing to worry about now, and he likes to walk through the hotel to make sure it’s secure.) 

(ernest would say something very clever, like, aha, with a raised eyebrow, but all frank says is – )

frank: hello, beatrice.  beatrice: oh!  beatrice: hello, uncle frank.  frank: may i sit down?  beatrice: yes, please. 

They spend a little while looking at the portrait.

beatrice: um –  beatrice: does it – 

What she wants to ask is, does it look very much like my father, which she then realizes is such a STUPID question if her father was a TRIPLET and she has a mirror image of him right in front of her, who acts like she thinks a father is supposed to act, so, but, it’s not like that doesn’t mean dewey didn’t look like dewey. Just because dewey looked like frank doesn’t mean he only looked like frank. And beatrice forgets, sometimes, that he would’ve just looked just like her uncles. But still! 

beatrice: i mean – the painting, is it – 

But she thinks it’s such a terrible thing to ask!! But frank knows EXACTLY what she means. 

(some time ago, when the hotel had just opened and ernest had just painted the portrait of dewey – 

ernest: i wanted it to look like him. And, it’s not like i, don’t know what he looks like. Looked like. I mean – that could just be me or you up there, couldn’t it. It doesn’t look like it’s him.  frank: no, it does.  frank, knowing exactly what he means and feeling like, he needs to make ernest Not look so abjectly miserable: you don’t look nearly as happy.  ernest, in tears, very amused and touched and still terribly upset: wow! 

The point being, god of course it looks like dewey. It couldn’t be anybody but dewey, even if dewey looks like other people. Dewey looks like himself, he looks like his family, he looks like beatrice, around the eyes. And family means lots of things. It means your guardians raising you, and your uncles raising you, and your father’s portrait on the wall and never knowing him at all, and loving so many people and being loved back by them, whether or not it’s Supposed to be a specific way, and sometimes it means missing somebody, sometimes it means missing different people, sometimes it means being sad for something you’re not sure if you should or could miss, sometimes it means not missing anyone at all, sometimes it means your uncle going to live with his definitely boyfriend even if they won’t say the words out loud who’s also your uncle just on the other side of your family and that doesn’t mean anyone’s going anywhere. Sometimes it means your pumpkin rotting, because things change. uh, does this make sense.) (admittedly, i put a lot of things in this.)

frank: yes, it looks very much like him.  frank: i think about him a lot.  beatrice: ......would he like my pumpkin? frank, without hesitation: absolutely. beatrice: do you like it? frank: i do.

of course babybea already knew that, but it's nice to hear. it's just. nice. it's not, like, everything? just like before. but beatrice is loved by a lot of people, and she loves them, too, and. she feels loved, right here, like she's supposed to, and that's what's Supposed to happen.

beatrice hugs him, and it's not the first time she's hugged frank, but it means more? frank hugs her back.

beatrice: thanks for fixing my pumpkin.  frank: i’m sure i don’t know what you mean, beatrice. 

beatrice hugs him again, and then goes back upstairs. frank looks a little longer at the portrait, and then goes to bed himself, and doesn't get back up until his alarm goes off.

[glittergroovy]

19 - Pencey Prep

[parasitoidism]

the reason i specifically try to avoid any and all persona related leaks is because if I hear anything about a persona 1 2 or 4 remake it's going to pre-emptively kill off a substantial number of my braincells. different reasons for each game

[acotars]

possibly an unpopular opinion but i feel like sjm’s writing/plotting have gone downhill, which is disappointing bc i enjoyed tog so much. i actually did like the first 4 acotar books and hoeab, but her most recent work feels like she’s trying to do too much with the maasverse and it’s not well thought out (i had so many issues with the larger world plot elements of acosf and the regression on bryce’s character arc in hosab…). it feels like as she’s gotten more and more popular, whoever her current editor is doesn’t do a good job at making her ideas work best for the overall story. i’m disappointed bc the premises have so much potential but haven’t lived up to it to me :/

send me your unpopular opinions and i’ll either let you in or not

[wundrousarts]

do you have a completely out there theory or headcanon about silverborn. just for fun

Hmm. Not sure, because at this point everything feels out there lol. Yesterday I was theorizing that the surname in the [redacted] snippet could be "Swan," and that could be Mog's mom's maiden name. That might be the latest craziest theory. The latest more serious (but still out there at this point) Silverborn theory might be the most recent edition to my masterpost, where I mention that "silverborn" could be another term for "born on Eventide," perhaps in connection with the Celestials. It also maybe could refer to being born in the Silver District, born in the Republic..... idk. I'm probably being too literal and in a year we'll find out the actual term means something totally unexpected, lol.

Some other random theories / headcanons about the series:

Squall is from ye olde Jackalfax

Hawthorne will lose a limb and Jupiter will lose his knack

The Weaving and Ruination Divinities are met together, with one unweaving what the other one is weaving

Regarding Arts and Sub-Arts, plus the theories of Knacks being derived from Arts: Murgatroyd breathes ice. Inferno is heavily associated with breathing. What if ice powers are like….. a total negative / reverse of Inferno ?

Mildmay and Ravi were like one Unit apart. Did they know eachother? How did people who grew up knowing Mildmay react to his betrayal, what are their perspectives, etc? And is this a new shi-- [is knocked out and dragged away before I can finish]

And if you want a silly headcanon: some characters have glasses to me and I literally can't imagine them without them. Lam has large round fake ones, Holliday has a collection of stylish cat-eye frames, and Rook has a pair of somewhat fancy, yet antiquated-looking half-moon glasses, where she can peer intimidatingly over them (this is just her normal expression, but it spooks some of the Basement Nerds all the same). I don't think that the Scholar Mistresses change clothes at all, but as much as I love canon, I eagerly ignore that bit <3

[nightmareelmst]

I think mumbo Jumbo is gonna come through the rift

The loadstone and button definitely came through the rift, if their wasn’t lore around it Grian would have just pressed it. It coming after Grumbot said Make Mumbo Mayor and the Grumbot saying press the button makes me think that maybe Mayor Mumbo is gonna come through and Mumbo’s return will be full of lore. It would also time nicely with the inevitable downfall of the King

[tenmillionhoppip]

Oh no what's up with Craisin :<

Oh also I love hoppip :>

you did get the emoticons right

[florenceisfalling]

for no particular reason i put an ungodly amount of effort into this while listening to lectures!! basically my irisona just starts out as a grumpy little man and this is when things start to go awry. because anti finds this very handy :) turns out if you take a desperate young college student and offer them success and being taken seriously you can get them to do some really bad shit!!