#priest gets it he really does

[rillette]

Would you mind telling me about Carol? I am only in the mid 70s, and feel like i haven't hit the heights of her yet, and might not for a while, so I challenge you to make me love her now, instead of later

omg okay so <3 i love carol saur much she is my problematic wife!! Putting this under a cut because umm there are five paragraphs and im not done yet teehee. this is more about carol's personality than comic plot since i dont want to spoil anything for you ^_^

She has some really great moments in the 80s with Wolfman's run and in Wein's run in the late 80s! Like with Hal, Carol's characterization gets bounced around depending on the author. imo, Carol's very best characterization is in the third Sleepers book, which, unfortunately, isn't as accessible as the comics are. DC hire me to illustrate it challenge.

ANYWAYS!! Carol is foil to Hal in a lot of ways. She's a product of her environment; her dad was a misogynist and she learnt to protect herself by putting herself first. Carol can be cruel, she can be calculating and manipulative to get what she wants and none of that is from being Star Sapphire, it's all her. This ruthlessness is part of what makes her such a good businesswoman.

Carol is also under an enormous amount of pressure and expectations. She's expected to be perfect, to follow in her father's footsteps and to run Ferris successfully. Part of Carol's obsession with GL is because he's everything she's expected to want; someone who can protect and care for her. Her romance with Hal is similar, Hal is someone that her dad can approve of because hal is the world's biggest boy scout. Carol promptly freaked the fuck out, shut down, and iced Hal out when he got the DUI because Hal was no longer the safe, squeaky-clean, boy-next-door her dad would approve of.

The other half of Carol's obsession with GL is because he's everything that she wants to be. Carol is desperate for the power and the freedom that comes with being GL. This is reflected later on, during the Predator arc. Idk if you've seen me post about that yet so I won't go into that in depth bc I don't want to spoil the arc for you if you haven't! I say that but it's a very confusing and not really well tied up arc anyways lol.

Anyways i want to talk about carol in the sleepers book now because she's fantastic in it and i need more people to read this fucking book. Carol is so. well characterized in it. She's cold and cruel and everything about her personality is layers and layers of built up defense mechanisms. She does not give two shits about other people, casually using them to lash out at hal.

She hates answering phones because her dad made her answer the phone growing up because he felt it was beneath him. She is so so painfully bored with normal life now that she's had a taste of the power that comes with being Super. She's desperate for excitement and adventure but she can't let herself become Star Sapphire. She is soooo <3

[art-o-gant]

what the fuck is the janissary motif doing in the new puppetshades. genuinely i. i've not stopped thinking about this. can anybody hear me

[unexpectedbrickattack]

You know, a bonus to designing the oc is that other people will drawn them in the scenarios you share! I know your lore really made me excited to see your little fella ^^) it's so nice to encounter someone eho likes SDV in the wild and your world building makes me want to boot up my computer and deal with the lag to see everyone again. I do have to wonder though, what's your take on how the valley feels about JojaMart? It seems like it replaces extensions on the Vally's magic if you fund it.

TRUE…U ARE SO RIGHT!!! Luckily I have a small little ref sheet for him already made heehee. But ill post it on my sdv blog (when i make it). I can put it here too but ill do that under a readmore 😌

Also. U are so sweet 😭 I am so sorry ur game is too laggy to play but i am touched that my little bit of lore is enough for u to want to brave through that mess anyway LMAO

FIRST OF ALL….here is my boy….

His name is June and ive since tweaked some stuff about him. You dont need to know much about him, just that hes a bit of a cryptid among the town for almost two years before townspeople start interacting w him on their own volition. His best friends are Marnie, Kent, and Caroline, and he is really cool w Willy, Linus, and Marlon (old men gang rise up). Also romances Shane which is funny to Me bc whenever shane gets a male farmer to romance i am constantly rotating this image of vincent getting upset and saying ‘gee jas how come YOU get two cool godfathers’

To answer ur question about Jojamart; i feel like it truly wouldnt mess with the balance of magic in the valley. Magic is powerful BUT. It is adaptive. The Junimos harness the magic of the valley to fix things in the broken down community center, but if someone else came along and fixed it for them, well thats one less thing the magic of the valley is used for. Theres plenty of talented people in the valley that dont need magic to get things done 😉 (Robin my beloved)

But i do think jojamart is a big indicator that something is amiss with the town. I think it is a common idea to believe that jojamart is like. Evil. And like. Its totally a soulless corporation, but i think its filling a very specific Need of this town. Pelican town has some very skilled laborers that sell their work and services to help provide not just for themselves, but FOR pelican town; if that still leaves people unable to pay rent/mortgage or groceries, then people will absolutely swoop in and offer ‘solutions’.

I have more Thots but basically……magic is powerful, but it cant do anything on its own. Its utilized by magical beings to make tangible change in the world. But humans are capable of making real and tangible change without the use of magic. Jojamart says ‘here, give me money and time and ill fix this stuff 😉’ and that is not anymore different than Robin, Clint, the junimos, etc saying ‘give me some money and time and i can do this thing for u 😉’. Jojamart is like. Bad. But bad in the same way Pierre owning the only grocery store in town wo employing anyone is bad, and how Lewis is okay with all of this Mess. Its indicative of a bigger problem in the valley that magic cant really fix

[electricsynthesis]

lance cries at their wedding and keith says he looks stupid and is an annoying crybaby as he reverently wipes the tears from his cheeks. Do you understand what I’m trying to say.

[wolves-in-the-world]

tags on krakenartificer's post about a leverage au where nate enters the priesthood but ends up running cons for people who come to him for help anyway:

#now i need a crossover episode of catholic priest nate who's still running leverage style shenanigans #with father brown [via @trivalentlinks]

thank you for making me stare at the wall in fascination and horror about this crossover

they'd be occasional allies occasional confidantes they'd go behind each other's backs once or twice and only kinda regret it. This nate hasn't gone through the same loss as in canon, but that wouldn't make him a whole lot softer, so he'd be fundamentally irritated with father brown - his tested and unshakeable belief and his optimism about the human condition - and father brown would be generally concerned about everyone on nate's end, and nate not the least of it. They'd play chess together and be fairly well-matched. They'd visit each other's confessionals to check in.

we'd get some interesting acknowledgement of father brown's "I'm nice and simple and harmless" grift (which I could also call power negativity) which is only kind of a grift because he really is that nice and harmless beneath, except that he uses it to get information from people.

flambeau would be utterly thrilled and (playfully?) insulted not to be father brown's only criminal associate.

the leverage crew would be correctly suspicious of flambeau, I think, but sophie would greet him by name - possibly with a kiss to the cheek, possibly eyeing him like he's a viper in their midst - and reference some very improbable occasion when they were after the same prize. He mentions she was using a different name then; he doesn't say what it was. Bonus points if he also had his eye on the dagger in the Rashomon Job but had the flu / was unexpectedly in prison / had to attend a grandmother's funeral at the time.

I have this certainty in my mind that the leverage crew would be largely dismissive of sid's abilities and he'd kind of snort and roll his eyes about it - he's at worst a common criminal and very lower class, so he's used to being understimated - and surprise them with his connections or lock-picking or holding his own in a brawl or fixing an elderly car in the quickest dirtiest way imaginable. (Parker would decide she likes him then; the others would be reassured after seeing how gentle he is when talking with her.) He'd also nope out of leverage's business at a sensible time, because father brown's rubbed off on him and he doesn't actually want that kind of danger - unless the con's personal.

(I'm not sure whether to set this in leverage time or drag it back to father brown's 1950s so I'm settling for mashing the two together and pretending it's not an issue. See also: geography.)

… father brown would have I think one harrowing conversation with eliot where they mention their time in the military, the marks that killing people and losing people leaves on a person - father brown already does this in canon, tells someone it's unfair that they're mired in trauma and alcoholism when he found his faith through trauma instead, it floored me - and after brushing on repentance and god here, he wouldn't bring it up with eliot again. (I think father brown varies on this in canon, frankly, but he often respects that kind of boundary, and I think he'd recognise a wound so sore it should be left to heal however it can.)

(yes I'm playing with fictional priests like barbie dolls but no I'm not comfortable with the conversion aspects, so apologies and bear with me while I skate on past that.)

(he'd describe eliot as a good person, once, or as someone working very hard at it. Eliot would be on edge about that for the entire con, finding a little too much uneasy satisfaction in getting to knock people out and play the bad guy - play at the simpler stuff he used to do. Sophie might catch father brown for a word about it; father brown wouldn't be that clumsy again.)

I think father brown and nate would both talk bunty out of getting involved in a joint kembleford-leverage operation except in the most innocent way possible. The problem is she actually would make a good getaway driver, and she's thrilled with the idea, but she's already had some run-ins with the press and the law and can't risk another; luckily she's better used as a distraction elsewhere.

and I'm sorry to do this, but I think lady felicia's husband would be a mark or potential mark at one point. It would be fraught.

(the main reason I haven't recommended father brown's heist episode (s7e10), aside from not having a background on the politics in it, is that it shows lady felicia as a victim and pulls the heist on her behalf. The show largely convinced me to ignore the messy reality of her and her husband's inherited wealth, but that episode made me kinda uncomfortable - which is a shame, because seeing these characters pull a heist was fucking great.)

mrs mccarthy would be used against her will or knowledge as a distraction while someone's pockets are picked. She isn't told until afterwards, and then only half by accident. She is, of course, horrified. Father brown was absolutely the one to suggest it in planning, but flambeau slips in mid-apology to smoothly take the blame.

I could in fact go on and this is in fact a problem.

—

editing to continue:

I'm actually thinking that father brown might approach eliot from an ex-military angle and not a Religious Authority angle at all - eliot was raised protestant, after all, and it's an entirely different vibe. And I have to think eliot's guarded around father brown for the very fact that he's a priest and seems to mean it in a way that nate, I feel, wouldn't. So they may avoid the topic entirely, or as close to it as they can when brushing on, well, eliot's entire moral injury situation. Which is good news for me.

bunty would admire parker for being different and capable and getting up to exciting things, though would probably fail at any attempts at friendship until she thinks to ask what parker likes doing and ends up learning to pick pockets that evening. The second those two are around buildings tall enough to rappel down she's in danger. (The second parker can slip away at night she's giving the church a go; father brown gives her a look the night before and quietly warns her about the dodgy roof.)

mrs mccarthy decides fairly quickly that hardison is a very nice young man (his nana instincts are online and functional) even if he spends far too much time on the wretched computer. She's determined to feed him and half the time he's determined to find ways to politely refuse, though the strawberry scones are actually pretty good.

she's appalled by eliot's job, and fiercely territorial of her kitchen when he offers help, even just cleaning up, but once she's seen him get in the way of trouble she's absolutely catching his arm and half hiding behind him in any crisis real or perceived. (She still doesn't approve of him.)

lady felicia sees hardison and eliot as two very different kinds of novelties and does some talking to hardison about tech (mostly listening and marveling) and some quietly ogling both of them, and especially eliot once she's seen him fighting. (Eliot unfortunately turned on his charm when he realised she sort of expected it. She doesn't get to chat with charming southern gents all that often - it's very shallow, and she's not serious about it.)

thank goodness bunty's too young for eliot so I don't have to go there. He has to tuck her out of sight in a barn at some point when trouble's headed their way; when the mess is almost cleaned up and she's grabbed a rifle from somewhere to tell the the remaining goon to clear off, with every appearance of competence, eliot takes it from her and disarms it with a smear of blood under his nose and a slightly betrayed expression.

hardison and sid get along, aside from a little initial insecurity on the parker front, and get to bitch a bit about flambeau, who hardison mistrusts from the start.

flambeau... he admires parker, from a distance - professionally and not very effusively - but after he watches her work for a while he seems to realise who she was trained by, and tells her as much. He says he was too, for a very short time, and it's unclear if he'd gain anything from making it up. Says that he and archie had a difference of opinion - and has a way of saying it that implies there might have been fire involved.

[tommygettingwrittenoff]

no, no, because imagine. we get a shot of eddie looking at himself in the bathroom mirror. he touches his mustache and sighs. the next shot is someone knocking on the door of the loft. buck opens it, and it's eddie on the other side, freshly shaven and finally ready to acknowledge what buck means to him

[theboost]

None of the Highlander sequels were good but I was entertained by all of them in their own way

[fantomette22]

Okay, but you HAVE to assign Laurence a boyfriend, whether you like it or not and regardless of how short or doomed this ship is gfgjfjhh So who will it be?

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

You know I'm bad at choices + Laurence's romantic life is super complex and confusing in my headcanon and even for myself 💀

I think he's been really close to severals persons but at differents moments in his life. Idk it's complicated.

But hm... I guess Ludwig or hm Caryll? If Caryll count as a boyfriend but let's say they do. Because you know I hc Caryll as non binary but YOU already know that. And sorry but Laurence students era crush on gehrman don't count in that case.

So yeah I have a few ideas concerning mr holy blade. Because well it's Ludwig of course but I do have even more very specifics ideas with Caryll (during research hall era) + also thanks to like 1-2, maybe 3 persons who do ship them. SO yep... spoilers it is really sad and drama 😭 and short. Ok I guess I might have more ideas on Caryll in the end but idk.

When it don't concern my big otps or ships I'm not that much involve in it. I'm not like "oh omg I need to choose a boyfriend for Laurence!" It is not my top priority 😅 but Laurence being close to other characters and what it did to them & him, and how that made them evolve is more important to me.

Well I guess I could share my Caryll headcanons really... it's not like I'm gonna write about it any time sooner anyway. I guess I could share the tragedy to everyone 🥲

(ok lil sneak peak for today : I hc that the eye pendant originally belong to Caryll. Then Laurence got it. And as you can imagined he really care about it and wear it really often...even in the nightmare he got it after all...)

[sovonight]

.

[stellarish]

Some Tai Sui doodles feat. the goodest lad and the hottest doctor

I had a lot of trouble figuring out a hairstyle for Wen Fei, so shoutout to @pippuns’s very good design for him inspiring the addition of the little braid.

[worstloki]

how does sigyn fit in with tesseroki?

Tengen Uzui 🤝 Loki

(has three wives and literally no one else is happy to learn this)

[quietwingsinthesky]

The tags on your rb about it being hard for a Sam/Nick/Lucifer shipper is edging me

😔 trust me I am also suffering. I outlined it back in October, wrote about 40%, and then got distracted. If it makes you feel better, it’s nothing special, just some self-indulgent smutty worship.

I have a snippet? Just set the scene with Sam!Lucifer and Nick in a grand old church with some pretty stained glass windows picturing the Apocalypse that Lucifer is putting together.

There are a few more windows. No more battles, no more death. The flourishing of nature, the beginning of the reclaim of cities by wildlife, and always Lucifer alone in them. Alone. With Sam. Sam can fill the abandoned parts of her grace better than Nick could.

“What do you think?” She asks when he has seen them all. 

“It’s beautiful,” he answers, honestly. He looks out at the empty pews that lead up to where they stand. “But who is it for?” He can’t imagine She would build something like this for demons to sit and worship Her in, not when She despised them so heavily. But a church must have a congregation. A God must have a devotee. Lucifer steps up behind him.

“For you,” She whispers in his ear. “For us.”

[capaldiera]

i gradually abandoned my young mulcahy secret relationship concept a while back bc the whole ends badly when they get found out thing was like.. no that's too much trauma for what im aiming for. like im not trying to give him life-changing ptsd from this he's got enough of that happening. but if it's a triple dog dare fast car twin sized mattress situation then that works

[castielmacleod]

The demon curing “ritual” in spn is honestly so abysmally boring. That was really the best most interesting and creative way to cure a demon they could come up with. Go Andrew give us nothing

[marsupials-of-mars]

It's funny how often Bill is described as a master manipulator, he's so smart that he knows what everyone is thinking and how to push their buttons.

Because he is SO BAD at manipulation!

The only reason he ever gets what he wants is because he can literally read and control minds. And historically, he is pretty shit at using what he learns in a productive way.

Every time he has a human partner, it's because they are obviously desperate for something he can provide. All he does is use the fact that he's a seemingly omniscient otherworldly being to gain ethos, and then tell them he can get them the thing they want.

These are not complicated concepts. Anyone with those inherent advantages could do that. And, historically, when the actual negotiations are up to him and he hasn't backed someone into a corner, he pretty immediately fumbles the bag.

Think of when he possessed that priest: he pitched his plans outright with zero tact and everyone in the room immediately refused and dedicated themselves to making sure he never got his way.

The pharoh DISPISED him, found him annoying and tried to banish him. The shaman caught wise pretty quick. Xgqrthx never even planned on helping him at any point. Every plan failed because of Bills own ineptitude, when all the cards were stacked in his favor!

The way he talked to Ford was disturbing and direct and entirely Bill-like. Ford was just a sponge for any flattery and happened to be into the way Bill spoke and left him rats and suggested murder because he is also abnormal.

Bill is bad at making friends, which is why he has just a few henchmaniacs he's gathered over billions of years.

People DO NOT LIKE HIM.

And he's in denial about that to an extent. He always thinks they'll be on his side once he reveals his true intentions. He always thinks they'll go for the promise of infinite power and destruction because who wouldn't?

Basically, for an immortal god who's had an unfathomably long time to practice social skills and can LITERALLY ENTER MINDS TO KNOW EXACTLY WHAT TO SAY... he's really, really bad at manipulation. And really, any sort of person to person connection.

[oldbookist]

I was working on a history paper today and found a book from 1826 that seemed promising (though dull) for my topic, on an English Catholic family’s experience moving to France.

And it ended up not really being suitable for my purposes, as it goes. But part of the book is actually devoted to Kenelm, the author’s oldest son…and man, his dad loved him.

Kenelm seems to have had a fairly typical upbringing for a young English gentleman, although he is a bit slow to read. At twelve he’s sent to board at Stoneyhurst College—often the big step towards independence in a boy’s life, as he’ll most likely only see his parents sporadically from now on, and then leave for university.

When he’s sixteen, however, his father moves the whole family to France, so Kenelm gets pulled out of school to be with them again. Shortly after the move, his dad notices that he seems depressed. Kenelm confides in him that he’s been suffering from “scruples” for the last eighteen months—most likely what we’d now call an anxiety disorder.

And his dad is pissed—at the school, because apparently Kenelm had been seeking help there and received none, despite obviously struggling with mental health issues. So his dad takes it seriously. He sets him up to be counseled by a priest—there were no therapists back then—and doesn’t send him away to be boarded again, instead teaching him at home himself.

And his mental health does improve. His dad describes him as well-liked, gentle, pious, kind and eager to please others; at twenty he’s thinking about a career in diplomacy or going into the military—which his dad thinks he is not particularly suited for, considering his favorite pastimes are drawing and reading. He’s excited about his family’s upcoming move to Italy, and he’s been busy learning Italian and teaching it to his siblings.

Henry Kenelm Beste dies of typhus at twenty years, four months, and twenty-five days. That’s how his dad records it. That’s why his dad is telling this story. It’s not an extraordinary story—Kenelm’s story struck me because he sounds so…ordinary, like so many kids today. And he was so, so loved. His dad tried hard to help him compassionately with his mental health at a time where our current knowledge and support systems didn’t exist. You can feel how badly he wanted his son to be remembered and loved, to impress how dearly beloved he was to the people who knew him in life.

I hope he’d be glad to know someone is still thinking of Kenelm over 200 years later.

Anyway, that’s why I’m crying today.