#it’s just such a neil thing to do

[rekikiri]

andrew wears a bunch of rings, and one of them is a fidget ring (like the ones that slide) and when Neil is bored he just reaches for Andrew’s hand and takes it from him as soon as Andrew says yes

[ninyard]

The foxes would do the craziestttt trauma dump candy salad tik tok

“My names Kevin and I brought sour worms?”

“Kev, you have to trauma dump. Say something traumatising.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s funny?”

“Trauma isn’t funny. I don’t understand why-“

Quick cut away from him to Matt who’s there like, “My names Matt and my dad was the first person to give me cocaine and I brought jolly ranchers!”

[feverdreamsandlucidnightmares]

I love that neil is pure of heart, dumb of ass, and also deeply fucked up

He’s just a little guy! All his friends love him and want him to take care of himself! He’ll totally kill that guy for you though. He protects his friends by mouthing off to horrifically dangerous people. He can’t tell that he’s being flirted with. He always respects his boyfriend’s boundaries and is hyper-vigilant about consent. He also got too distracted listening to his worstie scream in pain after his bf broke the guy’s arm to pay attention to his team checking on him despite the fact that the aforementioned bitch nearly killed him on national TV. He got his bf to agree to stop protecting him so that andrew wouldn’t feel responsible when he was inevitably killed. He comforted himself while being held by the FBI by replaying his father’s execution in his mind over and over. His only regret was that his mom didn’t live long to see his dad dead. But! He’s also so sorry that he upset his boyfriend by getting kidnapped. He put a hit out on a rapist over lunch. He insults the FBI. He challenged the yakuza and won and watched his enemy get executed and then was so giddy over it that his team wanted to know what was up and he lied to them. He’s a fucked up little guy. A Creature even. Morbid as hell. Deeply unserious. Protective as fuck with a mean, vindictive streak a mile wide. Would do anything up to and including killing someone for his found family. What a guy. Damn.

[chilledstrawberrysoda]

Kevin Day isn't actually a coward, Neil and Andrew just have very different ideas of what it means to be brave. Kevin is a survivor. He spent most of his formative years walking a middle ground of being useful but not so much that he showed riko up. He had every reason to be afraid of riko. He was the only one that truly understood what riko was capable of aside from Jean. Neil and Andrew are fighters, they are all or nothing types, they don't understand how someone could walk a middle ground just for something that resembles safety when they fought so hard to not give in to threats until it threatened someone they care about and almost killed themselves in the process. Kevin didn't even know he was ALLOWED to fight back because that was never an option. Leaving the only life he's ever known was so much braver than anyone gives him credit for. It isn't until he has something to fight for and is given permission (not just by the moriyama's and Neil but by himself) to be his own person for the first time that he is able to defy his abusers.

It's not cowardly to do what you can to stay safe. Not everyone has Andrew and Neil's blatant disregard for their own personal safety. Being afraid of pain and death is perfectly reasonable.

[the-inner-musings-of-a-worm]

i bet the aftg universe youtube videos of "neil josten and kevin day having the greatest exy friendship for 12 minutes" slapped severely

[crunchy-rocc]

not hugging or holding but a secret third thing

[swampthingking]

andrew’s definitely gotten in trouble with his pr manager for tweeting things along the lines of:

“no mania inducing medication will compare to the euphoria i will feel the day donald trump drops dead”

[fortheloveofexy]

it's a pet peeve of mine when ppl frame Andrew as hating Aaron and being needlessly cruel to him... bc while yes, their relationship is fractured and strained, Andrew genuinely cares about his brother and wants the best for him, he just doesn't know how to show that in a normal way.

like he might not know how to express it in a healthy manner but Andrew LOVES Aaron, like he truly just wants Aaron to be healthy and safe. It's like, his whole Thing. Aaron is one of the most important people in his life. Andrew wants him around. He'd do anything to protect him.

I guarantee Andrew wants to be emotionally close to Aaron too, he just doesn't have the tools to do that and the thought of letting someone in terrifies him. He also has no concept of what a healthy sibling relationship looks like, so he has no frame of reference to work from.

[bondunlocked]

Where's the petition for Neil Gaiman to include Tom Sturridge and Ferdinand Kingsley as non speaking extras in Good Omens Season 2?

Just a small scene where Aziraphale and Crowley are talking in a pub and those two are in the background, at their own table. A teacher and a goth. No dialogue, no acknowledgement from any of them.

Just two seperate fandoms silently losing their minds.

[fyoht]

season 2 + nods to 'crowley was raphael' truthers

[felix-lupin]

In Coraline, there’s a recurring theme with names and identity, and I personally don't think it's talked about enough. 

(As a note, this is dealing largely with the book, not the movie, although there are some hints of this theme in the movie as well)

Coraline’s neighbors constantly get her name wrong, calling her “Caroline” and not “Coraline”, to which she persistently corrects them. Despite her attempts, they never get it right, until chapter 10, in which Mr Bobo (Mr Bobinsky) finally gets it right.

"It's Coraline, Mister Bobo," said Coraline. "Not Caroline. Coraline." "Coraline," said Mr Bobo, repeating her name to himself with wonderment and respect. "Very good, Coraline."

It should be noted that, until this chapter, Coraline did not know Mr Bobo’s name either. In fact, it had never even occurred to her that he had a name. Up until then, she had just been thinking of him as “the crazy old man upstairs”, not as a person with a name. This moment, with her learning his name and him getting her name right, is a moment of genuine understanding and connection between the two, humanizing them both to each other.

Coraline’s other neighbors get her name wrong, which is representative of them not listening when she says anything, really, such as her telling Miss Spink and Forcible that her parents are missing and them literally not even acknowledging it at all??

"How are your dear mother and father?" asked Miss Spink. "Missing," said Coraline. "I haven't seen either of them since yesterday. I'm on my own. I think I've probably become a single child family." "Tell your mother that we found the Glasgow Empire press clippings we were telling her about. She seemed very interested when Miriam mentioned them to her." "She's vanished under mysterious circumstances," said Coraline, "and I believe my father has as well." "I'm afraid we'll be out all day tomorrow, Caroline lovely," said Miss Forcible. "We'll be staying with April's niece in Royal Tunbridge Wells."

Mr Bobo gets her name right after being corrected (only after being corrected alongside her using his name, mind you, showcasing her making an effort to listen to and understand him as well), which is representative of him actually making an attempt to listen and understand her. This point is further illustrated by a conversation Coraline had with the Other Mr Bobo in chapter 10.

As Coraline entered he began to talk. "Nothing's changed, little girl," he said, his voice sounding like the noise dry leaves make as they rustle across a pavement. "And what if you do everything you swore you would? What then? Nothing's changed. You'll go home. You'll be bored. You'll be ignored. No one will listen to you, not really listen to you. You're too clever and too quiet for them to understand. They don't even get your name right."

He equates those in the real world not getting Coraline’s name right with them not listening to her, and fundamentally not understanding who she is. So, somebody getting her name right, then, shows them actually listening to her, and being willing to understand who she is.

The mice in the real world know more than they should be able to know, and they also get Coraline’s name right.

"The message is this. Don't go through the door." He paused. "Does that mean anything to you?" "No," said Coraline. The old man shrugged. "They are funny, the mice. They get things wrong. They got your name wrong, you know. They kept saying Coraline. Not Caroline. Not Caroline at all."

They seem to know about the other world, somehow, on some level, and the dangers it presents. Them getting her name right represents them knowing more than they should know, more than they are told. Animals in general seem to have this type of quality in Coraline, actually.

The cat does not have a name. It says so in chapter 4, that cats do not need names. It says that this is because cats know who they are. But humans need names, because they do not.

"Please. What's your name?" Coraline asked the cat. "Look, I'm Coraline. OK?" The cat yawned softly, carefully, revealing a mouth and tongue of astounding pinkness. "Cats don't have names," it said. "No?" said Coraline. "No," said the cat. "Now, you people have names. That's because you don't know who you are. We know who we are, so we don't need names."

The cat shook its head. "No," it said. "I'm not the other anything. I'm me." It tipped its head on one side; green eyes glinted. "You people are spread all over the place. Cats, on the other hand, keep ourselves together. If you see what I mean."

This shows that, in humans, names are connected to our identities and who we are. Names are used to individualize and distinguish ourselves from each other. But cats do not need names to recognize each other, or be recognized.

"Oh. It's you," she said to the black cat. "See?" said the cat. "It wasn't so hard recognising me, was it? Even without names."

With or without names, it is still the same cat.

During the Other Miss Spink and Forcible’s performance, in chapter 4, they begin quoting Shakespeare. The specific quotes that they use are interesting to me when looked at under this lens of the importance of names, especially Miss Forcible’s.

"What's in a name?" asked Miss Forcible. "That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

"I know not how to tell thee who I am," said Miss Spink to Miss Forcible.

Now, of course, this is just them quoting Shakespeare. But. Why these quotes specifically? They’re at the very least notable when discussing Coraline’s recurring theme of names. Especially the quote about the rose. It makes me think of what the cat said earlier, about how cats are sure of who they are so they don’t need names, about how Coraline didn’t need the cat’s name to be able to recognize it for who/what it was.

But, of course, this does not apply for humans. We need our names to be able to know ourselves, to be able to tell others who they are.

In chapter 6, Coraline wakes up and is disoriented. This disorientation is compared to the feeling one might experience upon being suddenly pulled out of a daydream. In this comparison, forgetting one’s name is equated with forgetting who one is and where one is.

Sometimes Coraline would forget who she was while she was daydreaming that she was exploring the Arctic, or the Amazon rainforest, or darkest Africa, and it was not until someone tapped her on the shoulder or said her name that Coraline would come back from a million miles away with a start, and all in the fraction of a second have to remember who she was, and what her name was, and that she was even there at all. Now there was the sun on her face, and she was Coraline Jones. Yes.

The ghost children have also forgotten their names, and with it most of who they were. In chapter 7, when Coraline is locked behind the mirror in the Other World, one of the ghost children says that names are the first things that one forgets after death.

"Who are you?" whispered Coraline. "Names, names, names," said another voice, all faraway and lost. "The names are the first thing to go, after the breath has gone, and the beating of the heart. We keep our memories longer than our names. I still keep pictures in my mind of my governess on some May morning, carrying my hoop and stick, and the morning sun behind her, and all the tulips bobbing in the breeze. But I have forgotten the name of my governess, and of the tulips too." "I don't think tulips have names," said Coraline. "They're just tulips." "Perhaps," said the voice sadly. "But I have always thought that these tulips must have had names. They were red, and orange-and-red, and red-and-orange-and-yellow, like the embers in the nursery fire of a winter's evening. I remember them."

The ghost children may have their memories, but they have largely forgotten who they were. They may remember their tulips, and certain strong memories, but there is very, very little left of them, and they have forgotten who they once were, they have forgotten their names.

"That is why we could not leave here, when we died. She kept us, and she fed on us, until now we're nothing left of ourselves, only snakeskins and spider-husks. Find our secret hearts, young mistress."

"She will take your life and all you are and all you care'st for, and she will leave you with nothing but mist and fog. She'll take your joy. And one day you'll awake and your heart and soul will have gone. A husk you'll be, a wisp you'll be, and a thing no more than a dream on waking, or a memory of something forgotten."

The Other Mother stole their hearts and their souls and their selves. She stole who they were away from them, their identities and names and the names of those they loved, leaving nothing in her wake.

The same ghost that talked about the tulips and the names of the tulips struggles to answer when Coraline asks their gender, as well, and when they do eventually give an answer they seem somewhat unsure of it, as shown by the word choice of “perhaps” and “I believe”

"A boy, perhaps, then," continued the one whose hand she was holding. "I believe I was once a boy." And it glowed a little more brightly in the darkness of the room behind the mirror.

(I personally take this quote, specifically it "glow[ing] a little more brightly" after coming to this conclusion, to mean either that the ghost is happy at realizing that he was once a boy, or even to mean that he has become somewhat more tangible upon this realization; upon remembering something about his self, and his identity.)

As an aside, it's noteworthy to me that we never learn the Other Mother’s true name. She is simply “The Other Mother” and “The Beldam.” Never is an actual name applied to her, only titles. We do not truly know who, or what, she is. Beings without names are shrouded in mystery (or should i say mist-ery). The ghost children are benevolent mysterious beings, the cat is an ambivalent-leaning-helpful mysterious being, and the other mother is a distinctly malevolent mysterious being.

"Who are you?" asked Coraline. "I'm your other mother," said the woman.

"She?" "The one who says she's your other mother," said the cat. "What is she?" asked Coraline. The cat did not answer, just padded through the pale mist beside Coraline.

But in conclusion, names in Coraline are extremely important. I’m sure there’s probably more that I'm missing, and feel free to add onto this, but basically—

People need names to know and remember who they are, and forgetting one’s name is the first step to losing the rest of who one is. Names humanize a person; with a name, they are less shrouded in mystery, more clear.

Knowing somebody's name helps one connect to and better understand that person; it is the first step in getting to know them and see them as a full person, the transition from “the crazy man upstairs” to “Mr Bobo”. Names, to people at least, are one of the fundamental building blocks of who we are.

[andrew-dramaqueen-minyard]

25 year old Andrew to his younger self: we’re in love with a man, we have cats together, you have a twin brother, we go to therapy weekly but we made it. We are alive.

14 year old Andrew, who thought he wouldn’t make it to 18, was in denial about his sexuality, hated every therapist he’d ever met, and had no idea aaron existed yet: what.

6 year old Andrew: we’re in love? We have a brother?! 🥺

25 year old Neil to his younger self: you play exy professionally now, and you’re no longer on the run, you have a partner named Andrew. You love him with everything you have. You’re safe.

14 year old Neil, tired, who very much thought he’d be dead by now: we’re not running? It’s over?

6 year old Neil: WE GET TO PLAY EXY?!

[shuploc]

Would it be silly to draw a portrait of "live-action" Astarion? (as in, Neil in an Astarion cosplay lmao)

[essektheylyss]

Here's the thing with Cassida: skill issue. Sorry babygirl but you've got the vibe of a bright but otherwise simplistic scientist who's an atheist purely because you cannot possibly conceive of portions of the universe beyond your ken. Just because a god knows no mercy that a mortal can comprehend doesn't mean that mercy means nothing. I am not the center of the universe and I do not presume that my existence is the end-all be-all of divine intent, nor that it should be. So yet again: skill issue.

[emry-stars-art]

I am very much enjoying putting together summer packages for my patreon peeps (and I'd like to do moreeeee so if you want pride cats + other goodies in your mailbox.. you can sign up anytime before July starts over here in PST)

[ninyard]

Sharing my AFTG thought of the day:

I feel like when Andrew & Neil go grocery shopping Andrew sits criss cross apple sauce in the trolley and points at what they need as Neil slowly pushes him around the store.

("What they need" is like five tubs of ice cream and a bottle of whiskey, their freezer is full of Andrew's treats and they have like two things in their fridge).

Blurry photos of Neil pushing a very short person in a hoodie around the grocery store do the news outlet rounds like 'NEIL JOSTEN'S SECRET CHILD?'

Nobody in the store says anything bc five foot tall, in the trolley, silently demanding ice cream, hood covering their face. Obviously that's just a kid?

this cracks me up, it’s like one of those media scandals that literally nobody cares about in the real world or that matters at ALL. some glossy magazine or TMZ videos of Neil Josten Grocery Shopping with Secret Child?

funniest thing would be imagining the speculation as to who the mother is. Allison Reynolds Neil Josten SECRET LOVE CHILD? hilarious