#the way some of you talk about them like they're children who have no clue about anything i would be so offended lmao

[maddy-ferguson]

13 is old as hell i'm sorry the way some of you talk about the party you'd think they were 8

[dat1angel]

DP x DC

So we've all seen aus where Danny gets adopted by the Batfam because, let's be honest, he's a textbook case of a Bruce Wayne adoptee. But what if we took that, just slightly to the left? Instead of Batman adopting Danny, the Batkids do. Now, the reason why Danny is in Gotham can be whatever you want(I'm partial to reveal gone wrong or an accident happens so he leaves as to not become Dan) but one by one and completely coincidentally(or so they think, maybe Gotham helps push them together) Danny befriends each of the Batkids.

He meets Tim at a coffee shop(maybe he works there) and they bond over the insane amount of caffeine they like in their coffee.

He meets Daimian at some vegan place that Sam would just love if she were there and tho Damian refuses to say it there's something he finds endearing about this street kid who seems to have no clue who Damian is but smiles at him regardless and engages in some surprisingly pleasant conversation about places that serve vegan food or vegan options.

He and Duke have a class together in school and he meets Barbara while studying at the library. Or maybe Duke invites Danny to join a study group and that's how he meets Babs and maybe Cass and Steph too.

Maybe he meets Dick as Nightwing and they bond over their love of puns.

Jason can be met as either a civilian or as Red Hood, but the second they get within a certain range of each other, they get this feeling tugging them towards each other. Some 'I don't know why but I need to go this way' type feels. Jason calls it instincts, Danny can tell this feeling is coming directly from his core. They literally run into each other and immediately get this overwhelming feeling of 'same same like me'.

He ends up growing close with them all individually so when they eventually realize that 'hey, this new friend we've all been talking about is the same dude', well of course they have to keep him. So they all work together to sneak him into the manor(read: kidnap) and get him set up in one of the many unused rooms. And the fact the Bruce was off on a business trip when they did it made it wonders easier, they would definitively have got caught if he was around.

So now Danny is a stow away in this mansion that all his new friends apparently live in and he just kinda goes along with it cuz 'hey, they're nice and he gets somewhere to sleep rent free and the food is to die(again) for'. And yeah, they're the kids of the best detective in the world, they're gonna be good at hiding their tracks(they have to be or they would never get away with anything) but Alfred knows everything that goes on in the manor. He takes one look at this child and just accepts it. He allows the children to believe they are deceiving him but helps them out subtly by accidentally making extra food at meal times.

And if sometimes they want to hang out with Danny in the house they do his clothes and hair like whichever kid he resembles the most and so long as he doesn't talk nobody can tell the difference.

And maybe when Bruce comes back from his trip he figures it out immediately but he doesn't say anything because like hell he's gonna turn away a child in need. Instead he just silently fills out the adoption papers so he's ready when the kids eventually decide to reveal Danny's presence to him.

[animentality]

Wishing Gortash hadn’t massacred a room full of people couldn’t be me because the environmental storytelling of it is SO GOOD. You leave the great big coronation hall packed and lively, everyone cheering for their new archduke. You get back out into the city, track down Orin, get your hands on her netherstone. You return to the coronation hall, the room loads in, and wham. The entire hall strewn with blood and corpses. Dead silent. Cultists in full Banite regalia milling around openly, unconcerned. You realise that not a single one of those nobles left the hall after the coronation, after you did, because every single one is lying slaughtered where they were. And it is very very obvious that this is the work of the new archduke who you allied yourself with. For me, it was a moment of oh god, this guy is serious.

And like. You can find TONS and tons and tons of damning evidence for how horrible and corrupt and evil Gortash is all over the city, there is not a single corner of it untouched by him in some way. You have the families of an enslaved labour force imprisoned and tortured. You have that same enslaved labour force dressed up in shock collars! You have a scheme to distribute teddy bears stuffed with explosives, targeting refugee children, just for the sake of instilling more and more fear in the public. And you do get to understand pretty well that these things are all being done not by someone who just delights in violence and chaos the way Orin does, but as the utterly dispassionate, pragmatic ventures of a guy who genuinely does not see people as people (and rather as objects, tools, currency - shapes that might walk and talk but ultimately mean nothing).

But for me personally, even on top of ALL of that, no display of Gortash’s villainy made more of an impact than walking into that room as his ally.

Not because I give a shit about any of the actual nobles themselves, or think it’s technically worse than say giving explosive toys to refugee children, etc. But the slaughter of the patriars has such an impact for me because it’s not talked about. You can’t find a million clues about it or stop it from happening. Talk to any of the Banite guards and they simply tell you point blank what happened. It’s not abstract. It’s not preventable. It happens, and it’s a cold whack in the face for the unwitting player who may have earnestly allied with him. It’s the game saying “this is your ally, by the way, in case you weren’t aware. Even if you foiled his other little plots - found the undetonated teddy bears, freed the Gondians, etc - don’t think that was enough, because this is who he is.”

(And because we don’t SEE it happen, just the aftermath? You get to wonder. Did Gortash step out before this happened? Or did he stand back and watch? Did he find it messy, or did he smile as he watched his steel watchers rip people in half? Did it make him feel powerful? We can probably guess the answers to these questions.)

Anyway Gortash is SUCH a good character and I love him. And if Durge had all their faculties walking into that room and seeing all the murdered people would have brought a tear to their eye, they’d be so proud of him lol

OOOOOooooh absolutely brutally accurate description of Gortash, and YES.

That is the beauty of Gortash's evil. His pragmatism.

The way he tries to pretend he's different than you and Orin, but you can call him out, and say, you're just as bad as us.

And I would LOVE to know if he was there when he killed the patriars too.

He acts like he's so "above it all." Like he's not a Bhaalspawn, killing for pleasure...but sweetie, you are not any different just because you have a Steel Watcher crush a child rather than dissect one.

The people you try to save when you're at the Steel Watch Foundry? Those poor old people and children and families?

All of them are pretty fucking brutal. The Steel Watch are fucking awful. They're not benign robots. They are cruel and cold and emotionless, and they aren't there to protect, only subjugate.

And they're a lot like Gortash himself.

Frigid, with a black and white understanding of right and wrong, only it's flipped, and submitting to authority is the only "right" and any resistance is "wrong" and needs to be destroyed.

And just to go back to him believing he's so "above" the Chosens of Bhaal, or even everyone in general...even with Karlach, when she's enraged, and hurt, over being sold and enslaved, he says, well it was for your own good, my dear girl, let bygones be bygones - stop lying, Gort!

stop pretending you're so above everyone else, that you're this calm, logical man, whose endeavors are heroic, even noble.

They aren't.

You're getting back at a world that abandoned you.

Your entire life revolves around revenge, sadism, and wanton cruelty.

You are not saving anyone. You are dooming those who made you this way.

And that's why I like him.

He is just so...kickable. And evil.

And disgusting.

And I adore him.

He is built wrong, and I like it.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

How do I talk to a fourth grader about sex Ed? Are there books or an online resource for parents you recommend?

hi there, thank you for asking!

the book that I use to teach OWL classes is Robie Harris' It's Perfectly Normal; I strongly recommend getting ahold of the revised & updated edition from 2021, which is more inclusive and queer-friendly, but even the older edition is a pretty good starting place.

it can be a great way to start the conversation if the fourth grader in question hasn't approached you with their own questions about sex and bodies, which can be daunting for a lot of kids, especially if that hasn't historically been the vibe when you interact! they may not know a lot at that point, but most kids have definitely absorbed that sex is something that they're not supposed to talk about.

if they're feeling up to having a chat beyond the basics (anatomy, reproduction 101, changes that come with puberty, squiggly crush feelings, consent and no means no, etc), that's awesome! I find most kids in the 4th-6th grade range already have a lot more information about sex than most people expect; they just have it jumbled up and out of order and lack the tools to make sense of it. ie, I've had students who know about periods but are under the impression that they come out of the butt, understand that a baby grows inside of a person but have no clue how it gets out, and make jokes about someone getting ejaculated on because they know it's Inappropriate and therefore funny but don't actually have any idea what ejaculation actually is or why it happens.

so, you know. much to work on there!

honestly I think the #1 most important thing for any adult trying to be a good ally and educator to young people is to kill the urge to cringe literally ever at all about anything, because the second you make a kid feel weird for asking a question is the second they start hesitating to confide in you with their questions. I've had to poker face kids asking me why someone would ever put someone else's penis in their mouth, what a harem is, and kids very earnestly describing their first wet dreams without having any idea that they were describing wet dreams. there cannot be any "no," it's "yes, and" from here on it. "yes that sounds weird to you, and it's completely fine to do that with people you trust if and when you feel ready to have sex" has got to be the constant refrain. be as rigorously open-minded and non-judgmental as possible establishes that you are a safe person to talk to honestly, and encourages your kiddo to be similarly curious and accepting.

if you ever find yourself really flustered by a question, or you genuinely don't have an answer, it's okay to pull a "I don't know! let me find out more information and get back to you." (also great behavior to model for kids, btw.) if you're ever stumped trying to figure out how to break something down into 4th grader-sized chunks, I recommend Scarleteen as a starting place - it's a sex ed forum run by volunteers for teens, some of them pretty young, so the answers are written very accessibly.

easing into the topic by discussing things like feelings and puberty can be a great way to ease in. have they talked about puberty at school? are their friends having any bodily changes? how do people talk about bodies? do kids get made fun of for developing breasts or growing body hair? does anyone at school date? how does the kid you're talking with feel about all of that? I might just be blessed with unusually gossipy kids, but they LOVE dishing about how other kids act. I learn so so much about my students by asking them to tell me how their peers behave at school; they love to narc.

also: it can be a huge bummer if YOU were really ready to rumble being sex positive and a source of info, but sometimes kids just aren't ready to engage with that. I've know 4th graders who are extremely at eases talking about the ins and outs of vaginal anatomy and 6th graders who would rather run away than even acknowledge genitals exist; there's no predicting when anyone will be comfortable with this. to a certain degree you might need to encourage a kid through initial awkwardness, but if they're reaching a point of serious distress and discomfort we've got to let it go. unfortunately I've taught kids who reacted to their parents' enthusiasm for sex positivity by wilting in exactly the opposite direction, getting anxious and confrontational whenever the topic came up. the majority of kids will become curious in their own time, especially as puberty and sexuality becomes more pressing to them and their peers, and sometimes the best thing you can do is leave that door open for them to return to in their own time.

also, hey! if you're ever really really stuck, I'm here on tumblr dot com :) I'm by now means an expert, but I've taught a LOT of fourth graders what a condom is.

[booksinmythorax]

So you're an adult who wants to start reading for fun, but you don't know where to start

I'm a librarian, and I hear at least once a week from people who sheepishly tell me that they'd love to start reading for fun (for the first time or after a long break). Here's my best advice broken down into bullet points, but start here: there is no shame in being a beginner.

-Think about what you do enjoy and start from there. So you're not a book person. Do you like movies? Television? Podcasts? Music? Tabletop games? Video games? What other media do you like and what does it have in common? Make a little list and Venn diagram that shit.

Maybe you're into stories about fucked-up families (Sharp Objects, Succession) or found families (lots of realplay TTRPG podcasts, Leverage, Avatar: The Last Airbender) or fucked-up found families (various Batman media, Steven Universe, The Good Place). Maybe you mainly watch or listen to stuff for the romance (Taylor Swift music, The Best Man, Heartstopper) or the sci-fi horror (The Magnus Archives, M3gan, Nope) or the romantic sci-fi horror (Welcome to Night Vale). And hey, maybe you're not a fictional media person at all. What do you like? What do you want to know about? World history? True crime? Home improvement? Birdwatching? Gardening? Various animals and their behavior? Human psychology? Cooking? If it's a thing, there are books about it. Start there.

Think about why you started to dislike reading. Did an adult snatch a book you thought looked cool out of your hands and say "Don't read that, it's below your reading level/above your reading level/a comic, not a real book"? Did school give you an endless parade of miserable, bleak books and tell you they were universal stories about the human condition? Or did it maybe only give you stories with saccharine, unearned happy endings, or only show you stories about straight cis wealthy abled white kids, or keep you from reading entire books at all in favor of endlessly dissecting tiny passages out of context? (For some vindication, check out "How Teachers Make Children Hate Reading" by John Holt.) Did you have an older sibling or a friend who was better at reading? Did adults put you in competition with that other kid and make you feel like shit about it? Were you in a situation where you were good at reading in one language, or even more than one, but required to read in another that you were still learning? Did this make you feel like you were "behind schedule" or like you shouldn't read at all? Or was reading just harder for you than it seemed for other people? Did reading give you headaches? Did the letters or numbers seem to float around on the page? Was it hard for you to focus for long enough to get through a whole book? Did you need to learn to read differently than the kids around you could? Did adults punish you for this instead of helping you? (Look, I'm not a doctor, but if any of these apply to you, consider going to an optometrist, a psychologist, and/or a psychiatrist to talk about these things if they're persistent and interfere with your life.) Or maybe you're burned out on reading. Maybe you did an advanced degree in literature or writing or history or some other reading-heavy discipline and you're just tired. Maybe your professors or classmates got snobby about what constituted "literary" works and their good opinion didn't line up with what you actually enjoy. You get to be sad and angry about these things, if they happened to you. They're also clues to how to move forward if you'd like to read more, or enjoy reading more.

Give yourself permission to read whatever you want, in whatever way you want. Wanna start with young adult books? Middle grade books? Awesome. Many of them have stories that are sophisticated and complex. Starting with re-reading the first books you enjoyed reading could help jog your memory about why you initially found it fun. Hell, even picture books are a good start. Have you read a picture book lately? Those things are getting cooler every day. Comics and graphic novels? Those count as reading. Many of them are published for adults, though again, the ones published for a middle-grade or young adult audience are often complex and moving. If you're an anime fan, give manga a shot. The source material for many anime go deeper into the characters and stories, especially now that anime seasons are often truncated to 12 episodes for entire series. (The right-to-left thing is easier to get used to than you think, too.) Romance novels and mystery thrillers and science fiction and fantasy? Those count as reading. Many of the things you might have liked about the books you read as a child or a teenager are present in adult "genre" fiction, and many of the things you might despise about adult "literary" fiction (god, I hate that word, but that's another post) may be absent from those titles. E-books and audiobooks definitely count as reading, and they're often more accessible than paper books for some people. Anybody who tries to genre- or format-shame you is a dick and not worth talking to.

Go to your local library. All right, shameless self-promotion here, I'll admit it. But I promise you, if you walk into a library and say "I'm an adult, I stopped reading a while ago, and I'd like to start back up again but I need suggestions," you will make someone's day. I get asked for my opinion about books approximately once a month. I get asked how to use the printer approximately eighty-five times a day. I love helping with the printer and I'm saying that unironically, but my colleagues and I absolutely adore "readers' advisory" questions. If you come with the answers to the above questions about your preferred genres, formats, and reasons you'd like to read, it'll help the process, but most of us are trained to ask follow-up questions to get you the best possible book match. Do not apologize. You are not bothering us. It is literally part of our job. We want people to know that reading is fun, and you are a people.

[max-nico]

Sonic World Building Headcanons

For the soul

Any fic of mine that you read uses all or almost all of these Headcanons btw

Covering your hands and feet is the equivalent of covering yourself for decency. It's taboo to talk about what someone's hands look like if you've seen them before

Fingerless gloves give the same vibe as micro skirts and sheer tops with nothing underneath

All (or at least most) Mobians/anthropomorphic animals start off showing a lot more animalistic traits. For example, young children might sniff each other in greeting or get territorial over their bedroom or house

Children who go to school get taught to use their "grown up instincts" and essentially get trained to be "normal"

There are Mobians who are outliers of course, Knuckles for example grew up secluded on a floating island. Over the years he's learned how to fit in better with the general populace but he still comes off as very naive, or not mentally developed (I probably should just say what autistic look like to neurotypicals huh)

Shadow would be an even more extreme example since he's literally an alien

Because of this, kids aren't allowed to move up a grade if they're smart enough to test out, like Tails. If they did that, they would miss crucial developmental skills specifically targeted toward their instincts

Different types of Mobians need different types of diets. For example, spider Mobians can't have mint period. Whether artificial or real. Unless they had been fed little bits of mint at a young age to build up the immunity by the time they reach adulthood

In the comforts of their own home most Mobians fall back on their animalistic traits. Like cat types purring in the sunlight or bird types preening their feathers

It's rude to refer to people as their species. Not like, super offensive, just rude. (Ex. Shadow refers to Sonic as "hedgehog")

Most Mobians aren't one type of animal, most are mixed between two or more. For example, someone mixed with a jackal and a raccoon. Which one they get referred to depends first on appearance, so sometimes children don't get classified until three or four. If they truly look like a 50/50 split between the two species then they get DNA testing done and are referred to as whichever one is higher

The village Tails comes from is a small village completely comprised of Mobians from the canidae family, small villages being completely one animal family is regular, but cities being this way is unheard-of

Sonic is a famous hero and does have a heavily filled bank account. Not because he asked of course, but because of public outrage when he off handedly mentioned he doesn't get paid for saving the world

Off topic, but Tails manages the bank account because he uses the most of the money. Inventions aren't cheap. Any bills they have are on auto pay so they don't worry about them.

Most Mobians are left handed

Okay, I don't really like humans in the Sonic world. If I had my way the Robotniks would be robins, Maria would be a mixture of hedgehog and bird in a way that's off putting to Mobians but we would think looks cool, that being said she'd be classified as a hedgehog

Anyway, this is not the case and humans do exist. In my head there're three different planets, one with humans, one with Mobians, and one with humans + Mobians

That being said, I think space travel isn't a super regular thing for Mobians to do but it's not unheard of. It's probably just super expensive if anything

Aliens are still fucking crazy to them tho

Some companies/governments (like GUN) span across two or more planets

There's generally a lot of animosity between Mobians and humans but in like a modern day racism (specism??) way and it is not the Mobians fault

Money also works differently Mobians (don't ask me how it works tho I got no fucking clue man), and a lot of the time Mobians just exchange favors for favors

Character Headcanons pertaining to world building

Reiterating: Sonic is famous and gets money transferred to his(read Tails') bank account. Tails village is full of dingos, foxes, jackals, wolves, coyotes, even some dogs.

Most of Sonic's friends are pretty loaded tbh. Obviously team rose, team dark, and team Sonic make the most money, but you know.. details

Very few things tip people off to Shadow being an alien. Like yeah he has canines but he might just be mixed species? He's right handed but some people just are so that's normal. Yeah he might hiss in public but you don't know his life. Maybe he can't control it.

I headcanon Amy as a hedgehog/echidna mix, but she simply looks more like a hedgehog in the face and body, but her quills are what really give her mixed heritage away (I am projecting)

Depending on which continuity you're looking at, Sonic was taught to control his instincts either from an orphanage, his uncle, his mom, or some secret 4 thing I'm forgetting.

He doesn't teach Tails about the whole instincts thing, but Tails has always been in a rush to grow up. He's smart and observant, he's the king of repressing them instead of learning at a slow and more natural pace that won't hurt him in the long run

Cream and Amy are the most socially competent by a longshot. Rouge could be if she, first of all, didn't spend so much time with Shadow and Omega, and also didn't find it funny to act like she does.

Okay, that's it for now. If I think of more I'll reblog the post with another headcanon, otherwise please add your own. I love headcanons, please let me add them to my arsenal. You're welcome to message me or go to my asks box as well as long as your nicest to me <3

I'm eventually going to do a post detailing what I think social media is like in the Sonic world.

If you have any headcanons put them in the tags, reply, or my ask box ! Any character you want me to focus on ? Message me, or hit my ask box ! Suggestions are always welcome .

[cbrownjc]

I love the way you write about writing, so I have a writing question.

How do you think the inclusion of Armand in the interview itself will affect the narrative? In the book, part of the devastation was that neither Louis nor the reader saw the betrayal coming, since Armand is all mysterious and shit (until you realize he's basically an Unseelie faerie). Having Armand's side of things be relatively open, even if he's still hiding a lot, could take away some of the impact of that reveal that he was behind "the thing." It's not an absolutely necessary reveal, but Louis being the POV character who gives us facts as they come means that if they're open about Armand's plotting from the start, the audience can get frustrated with Louis for not seeing it coming. But there will be at least some clarity provided by Armand, if he's willing to talk about his Children of Darkness days in such a way where he looks positively feral (/pos) in the promo pics.

How do you think they can pull this off?

Hi! Sorry for the short delay in replying but, as I said, I wanted to think about this for a bit before I answered.

Warning -- Spoilers for the books and possibly Season 2 below:

So, of course, the key here will be how they structure when the reveal of not only "the thing" (and I'm assuming you mean the Claudia thing) happens. But also the reveal of Armand's backstory, especially the Children of Darkness stuff.

I can only speak for myself, but the way I think/suspect they will do it is to have the first few episodes play out exactly like the book does, with the majority of it being from Louis' POV; adding in Claudia's POV (via her diaries), and with the added bonus of Armand's POV sprinkled in as well, mostly being when he's interacting with Louis -- and with Claudia when she's with Louis. No indication there is anything amiss with the way he's acting toward either of them. (Claudia's diaries, of course, are missing more pages during this time.)

If done this way, then you'd only see of Armand what mostly Armand wants Daniel (and via Daniel, the audience) to see and perceive of him, mainly through his and Louis' POVs.

And all we, the audience, see of Lestat during this time is via Louis' hallucinations of him for the first few episodes.

Then, when Louis and Armand start telling the tale of Claudia's fate, play it so that THAT is the first time real!Lestat shows up, at the trial. However, there'll be something very off in what Louis and Armand (mostly Armand) are telling Daniel about this moment.

And that is when Daniel pounces and calls them out on trying to BS him again. (Bonus points if it's a memory from during the Devil's Minion Era that helps to give Daniel a clue that they are BS'ing him.)

And it's after this that the show starts showing the flashbacks, not only to Armand's Children of Darkness days but specifically his interactions with Lestat during then.

It's at this point where it is also revealed that Lestat made it to Paris from New Orleans before Louis and Claudia did (which is what happened in the book) and that Armand has kept him locked up in a dungeon the whole time, manipulating him to testify at the trial and all that.

And, of course, then we get the real flashback of the trial and Armand's orchestration of "the thing" (including the major reveal of the head thing he did to her).

If you structure and set things up this way, not only do you keep the reveal that Armand was behind "the thing" the whole time up until it happens, but you reveal the context as to why Armand is the way he is when you do so at the same time.

I could be wrong, but I think the show might very well structure things this way in Season 2. Doing the story this way not only explains Armand's line at the end of Season 1 ("When you hear it you'll be ashamed of yourself, ashamed of what you say to him now!") but also what we know about the show revisiting things from Season 1 again.

Doing things this way has you do all the revisiting/truth/twist revealing during the last 3-4 episodes or so of the season, after what amounts to a misdirect during the first 3-4 episodes of it.

Because I don't think Armand, at the moment Season 2 starts, will have any desire to tell the full truth to Daniel about all of these things at the start. I think he is very much in the mode of protecting Louis (in his eyes) from the truth of what happened in any way he can still think of. So he'll obfuscate as much as he can after Daniel broke through the narrative Rolin Jones said Louis came up with and told himself via what Armand has told him.

I said before I think Armand knows very well what Louis would/will attempt to do -- i.e. what he does toward the end of the book Merrick -- if he remembers everything and how it actually happened, particularly wrt Claudia. Which is why these false narratives exist in Louis' head the first place. And now, with the confirmation after TCA24 that Louis wants to remember the truth, (and wants Daniel to help him do it), I think that is what it's going to take for Armand to finally stop obfuscating things (along with Daniel calling him out as well IMO).

After that is when I think Claudia's missing/cut out diary pages will finally be produced, and we'll get the things that were only glossed over before from them (mainly her feeling for Louis matching up with what they were revealed to be in Merrick). Along with this being when Armand's full Children of Darkness backstory is revealed, as well as the full reveal that he was behind "the thing" concurrent with that.

So yeah, I think a misdirect right up until the trial wrt the narrative, and then a full revisit of the narrative -- with Armand's cult background fully revealed then -- is how you can structure things without giving away Armand being behind "the thing."

That isn't to say that we wouldn't/won't see anything about Armand's Children of Darkness days before that but, if we do, I think it would be presented way more sympathetically at first -- leaving out things like what Armand and the cult did to Nicki, which is what made Lestat come in there and bust Armand's cult up in the first place. If it goes like this, then Nicki actually being there would be revealed later, during a revisiting of that moment during the second half of the season.

I think this would be the way to pull it all off and could be easily done so in the eight episodes we have for Season 2.

[hardcandycigarette]

Long Way Down Part Four

Word Count 3.5K

Okay kids, here's Part Four. In Part Five we conclude our story. I can tell you this story has two endings. I will probably post both endings but in separate posts.

This part has a little mystery, a small bit of dad!rry and some angst.

Warnings: Language and implications of death

“But I don’t want to, Dad.” Archer swings his legs over the edge of the bed.

“Le’ me see, Arch.” Harry lifts the boy’s foot, while he examines it.

Harry notices that Archer's foot is swollen and not moving properly, which leads him to conclude that the boy needs a doctor. "Well, lil' man, we need to go to the doctor."

Archer starts to cry.

Harry leans down to look the boy directly in the eye. “Told ya you were gonna get hurt, and here we are brother.” Harry clears his throat and lowers his son's foot. “I know you don't want to, but we have to. Auntie Gemma’s comin’ and we’re all goin’ to the doctor. Mr. Liam’s goin with us too. It's going to be okay, son," Harry says as he sets his son's foot down. "It's nothing a little bit of care won't fix." Harry smiles at Archer. "We'll get you fixed up in no time. It's gonna be alright."

Harry walks to the closet and pulls down a hoodie and some jeans. He hands the items to his son. “I need ya to get dressed, I’ll get ya sister ready, and we’ll go. Once you two are taken care of, we can finally enjoy that ice cream I promised you."

Harry exits the room and heads next door to Lola’s room. Harry sees Gemma talking to the baby in a gentle, soothing manner and he smiles, feeling a warmth in his chest. He watches as Gemma carefully dresses the baby and he notices a deep bond between them.

“Arch is gettin’ dressed. When he's ready we’ll take off. Poppy's taken care of already. She’s in there with Liam reading. Can’t get caught up with the police and looking for Y/N until I get the kids to the doctor. Won’t be able to take care of it once the police get here.”

Gemma looks up. “Told you I could take them.”

“Parents are the only people who can authorize treatment. Maybe if we consulted with our regular doctor, they would work with us, but we have to go to the after-hours clinic. Let’s just head out and do what we need to do.”

Gemma sighs and shakes her head. “Need to change that at some point.”

“I know, but today that’s how it is. Jeff and Liam have already spoken to the clinic so they're expecting us."

   ###

“It's like a broken record, innit? The same questions bein' brought up over and over again with no resolution. How many more times are you gonna have to ask me these questions?” Harry asks as he pushes his hair away from his forehead.

The investigator doesn't look up as he continues to write, but says, "Sir, we need to be certain we're not missing anything. Let's see, we've established she withdrew $4,000.00 from her private bank account prior to her disappearance. Does that seem like a normal amount for her?"

Harry shrugs. "Dunno. It's her private account. I have a certain amount transferred to her every month for her to spend as she wishes. I've never asked if or what she spends it on. Don't even know what she has in there. We have a household account and credit cards for anything she might need for the house or the children. Of course, it goes without saying that she can call if I’m gone and ask for anything, and she’ll have it.”

"Right, and her phone was found, as you know just a few blocks from the Baby Gym. Are you sure she doesn't have another phone?"

"No, no other phone that I know of." Harry walks around, eyes looking at the floor. "I told ya everythin'. I told ya 'bout her tattoos, her moles, her scars. Ya talked to everyone she knows. Ya spoke to m' family, m' friends, and m' work colleagues. Dunno what to say."

The investigator watches Harry’s movements, as he searches for some clue. He's done all the necessary checks – interviewing people who know her, scouring social media, bank accounts, credit cards, tracking her phone. Although, just as before, nothing about Harry suggests that he is lying or hiding a misdeed. “And there is no place you can think of where she might’ve ended up. Maybe the holiday she wanted to take?”

"No." Harry shakes his head and tugs at the corner of his bottom lip, looking up at the ceiling. “I admit, yes, she was unhappy when she left, and yes, her mood was out of character for her, but there is nowhere she would want to be without her kids."

"In relation to the trip she talked about, what do you think about it?”

A long breath escapes his lips as he looks at the ceiling. “Ya lit'rly just asked that. Ya talked to the people she was gonna go with. Ya called the hotel they were plannin’ on stayin’ at. So, with all due respect, that seems ridiculous."

“Does it?”

“Yeah, yeah it does. M’ wife is missin’ and to keep askin’ me questions ya already know the answers to is asinine.”

“We are just asking.”

Hands on hips, Harry turns to the detective. “Well, I’d ‘ppreciate ya goin’ ‘bout ya day and lookin’ fer her.”

As the detective stands, he gathers his papers, and gestures towards the door. "I think that's it for the time being, Mr. Styles. We are sorry you and your family have to go through such a delicate and challenging situation. Please be assured that we will do everything in our power to find Mrs. Styles.” He leads Harry to the door.

“Y/N. Her name is Y/N. She's much more than Mrs. Styles.” Harry opens the door and enters the hallway, The muted gray walls, the fluorescent lights, and the scuffed white floors make him feel uncomfortable somehow. He never expected hot pink walls and colored lights, but it's awful, like a hospital.

When he passes through the office his heart rate picks up a notch, and his chest tightens as he hears murmurs. Harry holds his head down to avoid additional unwanted attention. The officer takes Harry to the front door of the station. “Sir, we will find your wife. Would you like an escort to get you home?”

He shakes his head. "No." He places his sunglasses on his face. His half-dried hair tumbles over his forehead as he walks outside into the cloudy day, despite the sun trying to peek out from behind the clouds. He’s aware paps and fans are taking photos, but he continues to walk to his vehicle. The wind feels cool against his warm skin, as he looks at his phone to see if he has received a call. No missed calls. Sarah sent a text.

Sarah

How’s it going?

Harry

It’s not. Useless fucking wankers.

                                                                              ###

Inside a large conference room in an empty office building friends and family have gathered. This is a location no one had heard of yet, so they were using the space as a kind of headquarters to gather people and information. It was advisable to keep the paps away from the actual investigation for as long as possible. They were out to exploit Y/N's disappearance. He's already given a press conference. He has nothing else to say right now.

Harry steps into the room. Several people wander around-friends, family, colleagues.

Nick Grimshaw is near the door when Harry enters. He grabs Harry as soon as he steps in. "So sorry Harry. Just wanted you to know I’m here. We’re talking about it everywhere. We’ll find her.”

Harry holds Nick tight. “I love her so much. Can’ be without her. Where is she?”

Tears fill Nick’s eyes. He shakes his head. “Dunno, mate. We all love her and you and the kids.” He releases his hold on Harry. “I also want you to know I won’t share anything about this location or anything the investigators tell me.”

Harry wipes the tears from his own face. “I know. Give me a minute, alright?”

“Of course,” Nick replies. He hugs Harry once more before he walks away.

There are people from his security team, a detective, as well as the private investigator he’s hired.

The room buzzes and hums with activity. Maps hang from the walls, empty paper cups of cold coffee are scattered around, and crumpled napkins litter the tables. There is a sweet scent in the air, maybe that of pastries or donuts. Harry is unable to identify it. And someone's vape emits a puff of smoke.

A few feet away Harry sees Joe Alwyn walking toward him. Once Joe is in front of Harry, he shakes his hand and pats his shoulder. “We both wanted to be here, but Taylor is back in the States. Jeff said it would be okay. I know we aren't close mates, but I wanted to help. Hope I am not out of place.”

“Course not. We can use all the familiar faces, and friends that want to help.”

“Look, anything Taylor or I can do for you just say the word. She mentioned it at the show last night.”

Harry gives a half-smirk. “So that’s an extra 12 million people who know.”

“Maybe a few less than 12 million.” Joe follows Harry’s lead with a small smile of his own. Joe turns to walk away. “I’ll let you get on with it, but I’ve got the day to help in whatever way you need.”

Harry nods. “Thanks. Thank you so much. It’s really kind of you to come. Tell Taylor thank you as well.”

“I will,” he replies, then walks away.

A short, bald detective approaches Harry. "I'm glad you're back. Do you mind if I ask a few questions?" he asks.

The man opens a pad of paper to reveal a fresh sheet of pale green, lined paper. “So, is there anyone you can think of anyone at all who might know where Mrs. Styles could be?” He looks up from the pad of paper, his gaze intense as he waits for an answer.

"Didn't I just answer this question with that Reeves fella at the station? And her name is Y/N. Stop calling her Mrs. Styles, and no, you dumbass, I don’t know of anyone else!” The roar that comes from Harry’s reddened face shakes the entire room. Harry throws his arms into the air and shouts, “Stop asking me that fuckin' question! All the resources that ya have at yer disposal, all the money that ya can spend, but ya continue to ask the same God damned questions.” His hands hit his hip. "Swear to God, I'll knock yer block off if ya' ask me that again."

“C’mon, let’s go over here, my man.” Pauli steps in with a firm but friendly request.

Harry pushes Pauli away. “Get ya hands off me.” Harry's tone of voice is stern. It’s clear that he means what he says.

Pauli steps away.

Harry turns to face the room and marches into the group of people. His voice booms through the space as he says, "Every one of ya's here tryin' to help ya don't know." He charges toward a trash bin and snatches up the dirty cups and napkins, tossing them into the trash can. “Why are you treatin’ this room like none of ya ever been indoors? Throwin’ yer napkins and cups all around.” He throws the bin across the room, and it crashes into the wall, its contents spilling onto the floor. His voice echoes across the room as he roars, "None of ya have any idea," Harry shouts. He stands in the middle as everyone slowly forms a circle around him. “None of ya’ know. Ya’ don’t know what she smells like fresh outta the shower, or the way her nose crinkles when she laughs at certain jokes. Ya’ don’t know what she looked like when she gave birth to my babies, the glow on her face. Ya’ don’t know. You think ya' know Y/N, but she’s mine!" Harry drops to his knees, his deep pink face floods with tears. “Mine!” He beats his fists on the floor and sobs, unable to stop himself.

As Jeff approaches Harry, Glenne quickly follows. He wraps his arms around Harry's neck and rests his head next to Harry's. "Let's get some air, man."

"Harry, we love you sweetheart," Glenne says in a hushed tone.

Jeff and Glenne guide Harry to stand. As he clutches the couple, he is shaky on his feet. The two escort him to the door with his arms around them. Harry takes a few tentative steps out of the room, knowing he's in safe hands.

###

"Oh no dear I'm sure it's her. It's the lady in the papers," the old woman says.

The officer asks, "And when did she arrive?"

"Sunday. Early Sunday morning. I know because I left the key for her to let herself in while I was at church. I usually arrive back by 9AM, and she was here when I got back."

"Did she give you a name?"

"Yes, Laura Lash," she says.

"How did she pay you?"

As she stammers, the woman replies, "You see that's the odd thing. She contacted me and said she knew it was against Airbnb rules but could I trust her and let her pay cash and reserve the room privately offline. Said she was traveling to visit a sick relative, maybe her mother? I can't recall. Anyway, and that she had lost her credit and debit cards. She told me she just needed to decompress. The phrase "decompress" was repeated several times, so I remembered it."

"Right, ma'am. And is she still there?"

"Yes, and she has only been out of her room for the shower, and toilet, maybe the kitchen a few times. The day she arrived, she contacted the market up the street. She offered to pay extra if she could pay in cash, and the market delivered her food. Since some of it is missing from the fridge, I assume she ate it, but I haven't seen her much. I've heard her cry many times. I thought she might be upset about her mother, but I didn't pry, though I did make her a cup of tea this afternoon. She came to the door of the room, said thank you, took the tea and closed the door."

"Ma'am this might sound like a strange question, but have you noticed if she's pumping breast milk?"

"Oh no, dear I wouldn't know. As I said she's only been around me a few times, but I'm certain it's her. We've had a few brief chats, and I do mean brief, less than a minute or two each time. She always keeps her head down. She's very odd."

"And how did she arrive?"

"I'm not sure. She was here when I came back from church as I said, but I can tell you there's no car here."

"Ma'am thank you for the information. Can you give me your address?"

The woman provides her address. “Okay ma'am we are going to send an officer who will call you when they are a few minutes from you. We'll have them meet you somewhere so that if it is her, she won't be scared off."

"That's fine dear. I will be here waiting. But hurry because who knows when she might decide to just leave."

One hour later no one has arrived. As minutes pass, the woman gets more and more anxious, constantly looking at the door expecting someone to arrive. She checks her phone repeatedly in case she's somehow missed the call.

She decides to knock on the guest room door. There is no answer. She knocks again, still no answer. She announces her presence before she opens the door. Y/N appears to be asleep, but she calls her name. "Laura. Laura.” She does not wake up. She shakes her a bit while continuing to call her name. She decides to check for any signs of life, like a pulse in case Laura has fainted or has any medical condition. She also checks to see if there are any other signs of distress in the room, such something to indicate an accident. Less than a minute later she is on the line asking for an ambulance.

                                                                        ###

Harry looks down at his youngest child and rubs her back. "I know it's beyond her bedtime, Mum, but I just want to hold her for a while," he says to Anne.

"It's OK," Anne replies with a tender smile. "It's moments like these that you need right now."

Harry knows that these moments are fleeting, and that his daughter will grow up before he knows it. He wants to make sure he cherishes every moment he can with her while she's still so young and innocent.

"Harry, you know how they are. One day they're ill, the next they're playing like nothing's happened. She'll be alright. Wasn't as fussy today. It's Archer and Poppy you need to worry about."

As he closes his eyes and nods, he says, "I get it, but I'm not sure how else to explain it to them without scaring them." Y/N has been gone for days now. He knows she's out there somewhere, but he has no way to know if she's okay. He worries about his children, who don't understand what's going on. He's overwhelmed by the responsibility of protecting his family, and knows he has to find the right words to ensure they feel safe and loved.

Anne reaches out for Lola. "Oh, let me take her dear." Harry hesitates to give the baby over. "They don't know why the police keep coming and going," Anne says. Anne pulls the baby close to her, and sways. “I think you should call your therapist. She’ll know how to talk to them, and you need someone to talk to also. No matter what the outcome Harry, even if she walks in the door tonight, your family will need someone, a professional."

He sighs. "I know, guess I just thought I'd figure it out."

"It's OK if you don't have all the answers," she says. Anne touches his shoulder. "You're a wonderful man, but you can't do this alone."

  ####

"Thanks, we'll be there as soon as we can." Investigator Reeves disconnects the call. Determined to resolve this issue quickly, he calls his partner, John. He needs to get to Y/N as soon as possible. He knows the longer it takes, the more complicated the situation will become.

"John, think we found Y/N Styles. Care for a trip to Old Holland?" Reeves asks.

"Scotland?"

"Yep."

"How the fuck did she wind up in Scotland? She must have had a good reason for going there, but what could it have been?" John asks.

"Don't know, guess we'll find out."

"It must have been something really important for her to make that journey, and to put so many people under this kind of stress."

"Alright, meet you at the station."

Before they leave the station the men agree not to contact Harry or the family. They must know it's Y/N and they must know what happened before they speak to anyone. They can't rule anything out until they learn more.

[changelingirl]

Summer Schoolmistress (a fallen london lore post)

This is the result of me and @mayli-song throwing things back and forth as soon as she got released. The Summer Schoolmistress is a Whitsun special and costs Fate so everything is below the cut, but LETS TALK ABOUT TREES!

First: some of the Fun Clues that tip you off to, and then outright state, what she is physically! This part isn't really up for debate. She's a tree. She'll tell you outright. (Why a tree looks like a person is another question. Gijinka headcanons real question mark.)

She rests her fingers in a bowl of black liquid on a side table, and lets them drink like the roots of a tree. Her flesh goes taut and strained, and she shudders.

Once you've watched her kids a few times, you can ask her what she is and actually get a response; funny enough, she starts off with the weird esoteric stuff and then becomes more understandable. From "asking about her nature":

She picks up a teacup. The cup is miniscule in her palm. "I was not born in the usual way. It was a subtractive process: all acts of consumption have their byproducts. Accidents. Waste. I am the remnant of one such consumption." The teacup rattles the saucer as she sets it down without taking a sip.

From asking her why she cares for all the Whitsun babies:

"I know a little of parental duty. Of how it feels when it is not upheld. I will not permit such failings while I am able to prevent them."

(Given that she outright states that the Bazaar is her parent, and the Whitsun children, at least some of them, are also sentient and aware of their parentage--from the Tracklayer city plotline--I put my first speculation here, regarding her motive; she lives outside the city, but still near it, and watches the children. She both resents the Bazaar and yet refers to the Sun in a derogatory way for not coming back to it. Very eldest-daughter-who-had-to-raise-her-siblings energy, complete with the very complicated feelings about your parent that it can instill if you're aware of whatever they're going through and yet still had to raise your siblings.)

When you can finally ask her about the Bazaar;

..."Four catastrophes in, and not a one has seen it yet – the Bazaar is a saprotroph, and drains his cities dry." Are you imagining it, or is there now less tea in her cup? "One thing would sustain him truly." She looks to a painting of the Sun, hung above the mantle, and closes her eyes. "But he is too immature and craven to return."

A saprotroph is a fungus, or another organism that feeds on dead bodies. I think this is probably more metaphorical than anything. She speaks in plant metaphors a LOT.

This is also the part where she's rude to the Sun.

Eventually, she'll tell you about her mother.

"In some ways, I am my mother. In many others, I am not." Her voice is soft; her gaze distant. "She was the oldest tree in London when it fell. Her roots are my roots." A long pause. "We all grow where we may, and accept any kindnesses we can. You, I think, have been kind."

And returning to the first thing she said;

"My birth was a process of subtraction. All that remembered the Sun was wrung from my parent like water from a sponge, to satisfy his unrequited pining."

So; the oldest tree in London. The Bazaar took the part of the tree that remembered the sun, and she is what's left. (Not sure yet whether this is more of a graft/cutting situation or if she is literally the same tree in a Rose Quartz/Steven Universe kinda deal. It honestly sounds more like the latter with how she describes it, but she talks in a very roundabout metaphorical way pretty constantly.)

Anyway the oldest tree in London is called the Totteridge Yew;

Now technically, this tree is located outside of London city, in the suburb of Totteridge. I briefly toyed with trying to figure out whether it would've been taken in the Fall before Mayli put me on the right path once again, via Mutton Island's trees. At one point when bringing back supplies, Summer brings back a withered apple; one of the only places in London where apple trees are still growing, however badly, is Mutton Island.

Mutton Island was stated to previously have been a suburb of London; the word resembles Totteridge in the kind of loose way that a lot of Fallen London's location names resemble their surface counterparts. And more importantly, Totteridge is located in Barnet--and Low Barnet is located right underneath Mutton Island.

Conclusion: I think I can pretty safely say that the Summer Schoolmistress's mother is the Totteridge Yew. Also, RIP to all those suburbs in between central London and Totteridge that presumably just kinda fell into the Zee.

[greenthena]

Unreliable Narrators

If you've watched Good Omens, there's a reasonably good chance you've got several conspiracy boards tucked somewhere in your brainspace. And what's great about a show like Good Omens is that we've been encouraged by the creators to poke our noses in deep and examine our theories. Even the show itself subtly tells us, "things are not what they seem." For evidence, might I call upon the book, The Crow Road, which appears several times throughout Season 2--notably when Jimbriel is alphabetizing books in his own special way and again when Muriel shows the Metabitch what they're reading. The Crow Road is a very specific *CLUE* because the book is written non-linearly and the reader must piece the story together. Sound familiar? You betcha.

Now I know a lot of us, myself included, are pretty invested in the time layers/time skips that may explain some of the incongruities of Season 2. (Crowley, I spent 90 minutes cataloging your ding dang sideburn length, sunglass style, shirt selection, and sigil placement. Short or long, dude! Sideburns don't grow down your face in the time it takes to walk outside.) But right now, I'm much more focused on the theory of the unreliable narrator.

So let's begin not at the Beginning, but in a graveyard in Edinburgh. Spooky. (I like spooky.) Let's talk about the uncanny Gabriel statue.

Crowley and Aziraphale are surprised by its accuracy.  It's surprising enough that Crowley actually invites Aziraphale to come up to Edinburgh to see something that might amuse him.  This suggests that MOST depictions of Gabriel that they've seen are not accurate.  The essence of Gabriel is rarely manifest in the art created about him. What does this say about sculptors?  Artists?  About writers?  About people who set out to tell a story and show a truth?  That they're unreliable at best, only being able to show the version of events or subjects that they've seen, and furthermore only able to demonstrate these events or subjects to the best of their ability. 

In other words, all art is unreliable narration.

Let's take a detour to another flashback to an earlier time. 2500 BC to be precise. We find ourselves in a memory of the story of Job, and in the recollection we meet a luxuriously goateed Crowley with a mane of flowing auburn hair. But this set of memories gets really screwy upon closer inspection, when you realize that Crowley's hair is markedly different at different points in the flashback. There are two distinct hairstyles, and it's up to us to figure out why!

Now, there's only one scene in which only one of our dynamic duo appears, the scene in which Sitis identifies Crowley as Bildad the Shuhite. In this scene, which we have to assume is from Crowley's memory, Crowley's hair is shoulder length and wavy. Going forward, this hairstyle will denote Crowley's perspective, and it is the hair style that Crow-dad (Crow-daddy? Grazie, lo detesto) wears for the majority of the Job flashbacks. So despite the fact that we enter these flashbacks through Aziraphale's musings in the bookshop, I have to argue that they're mostly from Crowley's perspective. However, when we get the giant camera shift from the Crow-dad/Sitis scene to the scenes that take place with Job's children, we also get a new hairstyle for Crowley. In this block of memories, Crowley's hair becomes significantly longer and also distinctly curly.

This is a different set of memories, and I think we have to assume that we're now seeing these memories from Aziraphale's perspective. This makes sense, because these memories are dealing with Aziraphale discovering more about who Crowley is (a demon who would disguise goats as crows to save them from God's gamble) and about who he (Aziraphale) is going to become (an angel who goes along with Heaven as far as he can.)

What this all tells us is that the narrative will be different depending on who is relating it. Crowley remembers his hair looking one way, Aziraphale remembers it looking another. We're all pretty unreliable narrators, since we can only express what we have seen or experienced from our own limited perspective and to the best of our ability. Everything we experience is filtered through the lens of our understanding. Even something as objective as an un-retouched photo frames the "truth" as the photographer sees it.

So for me, rather than seeing the indulgent use of clocks as a motif for dysregulated time, I'm choosing (for like this week, at least) to see time as a guardian. The use of clocks does more than demonstrate inconsistencies in time, it also gives us an objective framework from which to hang our unreliable narrations. Because Crowley's sideburns can't grow that quickly! But if we untangle time to reveal a linear flow, I think we'll see that it's the perspective or the narration that's shifted rather than the timestamp. I think that when all is revealed, it will be clear that our belief about what is true can be in direct opposition to another person's equally unreliable narration. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

[jagged--dust-jacket-analysis]

The lack of Media Literacy people have these day's is actually so sad and kind of frustrating.

Being involved in fandom a lot has allowed me to observe a large amount of people and their abilities to take in and comprehend pieces of media. And most people involved in fandom actually lack these skills. It's as if they didn't finish taking a high school English class.

Obviously I understand that some people may not have access to these things, or children who have not yet gained comprehension skills. And I'm not necessarily talking about these people.

But there are people out there who talk like they know a whole lot, but have no clue what they're talking about. They don't have the media literacy skills necessary to have informed or complex discussions but still attempt to partake in them.

This is why fandom is such a double edged sword. Because on one hand, it is a free way to have engaging conversations with people around the world for a source of media you enjoy.

On the other hand it is a way to have open conversations. Meaning everyone who is a fan of the topic of discussion can and may be involved in what you're talking about. Meaning you're going to get a lot of takes that are not only flat and one dimensional, but also plain wrong at times.

There are many examples of different fandom controversies I could give you, but all of them are hyper specific and I want to keep this post general (Maybe a Future post?) But again, there are several examples I could give so if you wanna look into it yourself, these are just a few things to look into (like fandom's, terms, etc.):

Bsd (Bungou Stray Dogs. Specifically the "Nurse Scene Debate" but a lot of fandom discussion can further prove my point).

Tmf (The Music Freaks. This is a smaller fandom, but there's just lot of conversation surrounding characters. Take your pick and theres bound to be 'controversy,' of some sort).

Winx Club (Conversation surrounding Bloom, the Mary Sue debate in specifically).

Mary Sue (This is not a fandom, but this word in general is grossly overused and misused).

Queer Baiting (Again, not a fandom but the debates about this terms meaning lends itself nicely to this conversation of media literacy).

Any Modern movie with remote social commentary (Just look into discussions surround these movies. A lot of times there will be lacking takes to either explain a love or hate for these movies. Almost always do these fall into a logical fallacy).

Mha (My Hero Academia. Oh gOD- so much for this fandom... so much...)

There are many more examples, but you get the idea. I find animated works are guilty of having this issue. But this can be traced back to the fact that animated television draws in younger audiences. People who might not have the experiences and skills to partake in educated conversations on specific topics. So it does make sense. And just because it is most prominent in animated works, doesn't mean it doesn't occur in other types of artistic works.

I do see a lot of people discredit the media literacy conversation. Saying that telling people they're media illiterate is just the new way to not let people have opinions. Or that it's mainly a talking point of conservatives to discount genuine social critiques of movies and modern television.

And while this is sometimes the case, because people do abuse the argument of media literacy a lot. I think a majority of the time people are just lacking the analytical skills necessary to have conversations and don't like being told they're wrong.

Media Literacy is genuinely an issue in today's society. It is a travesty that a lot of people lack the skills to analyze any form of media ranging from Movies to Books to Television. And don't be mistaken, this doesn't just impact how we interact with media as a society, but also how we interact with each other.

Because the basic skills we use to analyze movies and books, correlate with the skills we need to understand people and their perspectives. It's how we understand arguments we present to each other about anything and everything.

The lack of media literacy is just the start and warning signs of larger issues to come. And outside of that, it's just plain sad. The education system has failed people and some people with the resources to learn have chosen to fail themselves.

[n7punk]

i know this is a long shot because i remember little and i'm pretty sure i've asked before and no one knew what book i was talking about but does anyone know a book that:

came out 10+ years ago

aimed at SOMEWHERE in the 8-15yo range (i realize this is a big range, but i don't remember when i read it, just that it was in the childrens section).

is a werewolf book but there's very little werewolf in it (do you know how hard it is to find a specific, non-popular childrens/pre-teen barely-werewolf book. google does not like it)

the setting is vaguely medieval/generic fantasy although i dont remember there being much fantasy outside of werewolves. maybe some alchemy? i really dont think magic obviously existed for much of the story

the main character is a girl (Also in the 8-15 range i would guess) who is living with a family that isn't her exact birth family (stepmom, grandparents, orphan taken in, i dont remember but it was something like that) and it isn't Great but mostly because they're poor and she's the weak link i think

for some reason she gets taken to a quarry and i remember it being her family's fault. like they didn't protect her from the working draft, did it to pay off their debts, etc. she's forced to work but makes friends with the other workers and i think she ends up seeming unusual in some way (strength to work when grown men cant, healing and recovering, etc. a plague sweeps through and she's fine and it's suspicious) there.

somehow she ends going from there to the palace. i remember her having some tie with the royal family but i think she also might have just befriended their daughter or something.

she was on the run either on the way to the palace or afterwards. she hid in a barn or under a trapdoor or something

here's the distinct part: that book ends with her in the woods, discovering she's a werewolf with the help of other wolf(ves). she has an injury at the base of her neck where the hair has grown back pure white (a sign of werewolfism???)

i feel like it was setting up for a sequel but have no idea if that ever happened. a few Extremely sparse details of this book have been burned in the back of my mind for like fifteen years and i have no clue what the fuck it was. any parts of this could be incorrect/missing because ive remembered this so many times off and on over the years that idk what parts are real or my brain filling in the gaps. i might be combining two books honestly but i dont think i am.

like i feel like her birth parent(s) (maybe just one) were wolves in the woods that she didnt know were werewolves, she started showing signs of being supernatural in the quarry, someone (rasputin-ish) kind of recognized that in her and had her brought to the palace to more carefully study (unbeknownst to her, to a certain degree), she became really good friends with a noble lady there her age, discovered her family might have ties to the royal one, but was still essentially a prisoner. one night she tried to sneak out and the princess(?) caught her but then ended up covering her ass so she could climb the wall and went on the run. she hid in a barn at one point, was discovered by a family and hid from the same kind of patrol that took her to the quarry. somehow she ended up injured, limping into the woods, where she discovered she was a werewolf. and then the book ended. but that sounds so inexplicable i feel like half of it has to be wrong! so i really want to find this book again but i cant figure out what to even google to find this weird fucking story again and i would feel like a lunatic going back to my childhood library 15 years later or whatever and trying to describe this fever dream to them.

[tenebraevesper]

Analyzer - Félix & Emotion, Part 3 (Miraculous Ladybug)

So, yeah... We have reached the final two episodes of Félix being relevant in Miraculous Ladybug, and I'm not counting Episode 26: Re-creation (The Last Day - Part 2), mainly because it was just a cameo. So, Part 3 would only cover Episode 19: Pretension and Episode 24: Representation, fulfilling two roles: Kagami's Love Interest and Exposition Fairy.

For this, I will do a quick recap of the events that occur in these two episodes, as well add what I would've written instead.

So, let's finish this!

Episode 19: Pretension starts off... sometime after the events of Emotion and apparently, Maribug and Adrichat are not interested in pursuing Félix, who is currently spying on Kagami. Kagami in turn is trying to convince her mother to not see her and Adrien as a couple (why am I getting flashbacks to all those secret eugenics cult theories?), with Tomoe scolding her for being "a slave to her emotions". Have I mentioned that I hate this woman?

Argos gets pissed off by seeing Kagami being treated like that, breaks the roof of the car and kidnaps Kagami. I suppose that's one way of escaping a toxic parent. Once they're gone, Tomoe quickly calls Gabriel to recover the Miraculous of the Peacock, because apparently, Gabriel still has no clue where Félix is hiding (hint: his own house in London), so I suppose he was keeping an eye out for him. In classic villain speech, Monarch claims how Félix is a monster who was the one endangering their children - you got no right speaking, you terrorist - and Tomoe gets akumatized and goes after Argos and Kagami.

Speaking of the two, they're at the top of the Eiffel Tower, and Kagami's first instinct is to go for the chair.

You go girl!

Argos quickly de-transforms to show her he's harmless, and as Félix, tells her he's not his enemy, and that he just wants to talk to her. Kagami is still on guard, wondering what he wants to tell her, and then we get this conversation:

Kagami: What is it you want to tell me?! Félix: I... I don't know. But ever since I saw you, I haven't been able to stop thinking about you. I've felt that... you and I... were the same. (Kagami looks surprised.) Félix: We have so much in common, and yet, you're also so different. I've never met someone like you. Kagami: We don't even know each other! Félix: I know you. I've been following you non-stop. Kagami: Even better! You follow me, you spy on me and now you've kidnapped me to get to know me?! Félix: Uh... yes? Kagami: You are utterly incompetent at social relations. (Sighs.) You can't take someone away against their will! Félix: Sorry, I won't do it again, I... just wanted to protect you from your mother. She can't talk to you like that. (Kagami stares at him in awe and confusion.)

Yeah, this is the moment where the Féligami ship starts sailing. I will talk about it, but I gotta admire how Félix went from cunning to awkward the moment he opened his mouth to talk to Kagami.

Let's hope those puppy dog eyes will win her over.

To address the ship itself, I honestly have nothing against it, and it is a cute ship (especially when Féligami fans get their hands on it), but it's not my favorite (that one still goes to Brilix/Cursed Charm). However, I will address some of the obvious issues the writing itself created.

First of all, we do know Kagami's type being someone who is a rebel and who has the will to stand up for themselves, and Félix's penchant for mischief fits. I suppose it also helps that he looks like Adrien, whom Kagami still has feelings for... which, uh... okay, it really feels awkward, because out of context (and maybe even in context) it makes it appear as if Kagami just replaced Adrien with Félix. They look the same, and this one actually has a spine.

I do like that Kagami actually calls Félix out on how they don't know each other, and how he stalked her and kidnapped her. Now, that's a realistic reaction! However, I will address Kagami's point of them not knowing each other, and I don't blame Félix for this one, but the writing staff for thinking they can speedrun Féligami and no one will notice.

Like said, I'm cool with Féligami happening, but goddamnit, couldn't the writers have put more effort into having Kagami and Félix interact (aside from their glare in Season 4?). For example, have Kagami talk to Félix way earlier and have her realize that, while appearance-wise he and Adrien are look the same, personality-wise, they're completely different and have her question which one's she's falling for - the guy whom her mother and Gabriel set her up with, or the one who actually has the qualities she likes. Hell, that could be part of her own rebellion against her mother and the reason she breaks up with Adrien.

But yeah, this is Miraculous Ladybug we're talking about. Good character writing is almost non-existent.

As for Félix...

I'll just use the words my friend used to describe him - he's a S.I.M.P.

It's clear that he deeply admires Kagami and is so socially awkward that he thought it would be a good idea to learn more about her by stalking her and kidnapping her. *sigh* Félix, you're a lovable idiot. However, the moment he realizes that he really messed up, he apologizes, telling her how he just wanted to protect her from her mother.

Okay, before I continue, I will address that there is one glaring issues I had with this confession, and spoilers, it's not the kidnapping.

Anyways, before the conversation can continue, Matagi Gozen finds them, alongside Maribug and Adrichat, and everyone wants to save Kagami. Félix quickly transforms into Argos, dragging Kagami along for the ride and is chased by Matagi Gozen, Maribug and Adrichat, leading to a fight between the three. Kagami wants to reveal her hideout to calm down her mother, arguing with Argos how she can set herself free.

Matagi Gozen finds them, shooting an arrow at Kagami, with Argos saving her. Kagami is stunned her mother would hurt her, with Argos responding how his own father was much worse. He then breaks his fan, telling Kagami how her safety is his priority, showing once again his cunning side by spreading out the pieces of the fan to confuse Matagi Gozen. Nice job, Argos!

He and Kagami enter the sewers, with Argos de-transforming and having another conversation with her:

Kagami: I don't understand. You have the Miraculous of the peacock, why don't you create a Sentimonster to get us out of here? Félix: First of all, don't call them that. (Throws his cufflink into the sewage.) I refuse to create a being to manipulate them, control them, abuse them, and end up destroying them. (Kagami looks surprised at him) Cat Noir:(through his earpiece) I found Kagami and Félix. Félix transformed back. Now's the time. Félix: When you bring a living being into this world, you have a responsibility towards them. Your duty is to protect them, love them, help them discover the true meaning of their existence. To deprive them of that... is monstrous. Kagami: Are you talking about... yourself? Félix: I'm talking about... us. Ladybug: Félix, set Kagami free! Cat Noir: And this time, you're giving us back the Miraculous of the peacock! Kagami:(puts her arm in front of Félix, defending him) I am nobody's prisoner! Félix is not your enemy! He's like me! He doesn't know how to express himself. Everyone is wrong about him! Including me. (They smile at each other)

Okay, have you followed this conversation so far? Good, because here's my take on it.

We know now that Félix is a Sentimonster, and given how he described his own father as thousand times worse, it's clear that he suffered a lot. He hates being controlled, and after seeing someone else who is controlled just as him, he lashes out in a misguided attempt to protect Kagami. He does all the wrong things for the right reasons. It really shows just how much depth his character is.

However, remember the issue I mentioned? Yeah, the fact that Félix is suddenly in love with Kagami, AFTER discovering she's also a Sentimonster? It's a huge "yikes" moment. Like I said before, the writers decided to clearly speedrun Féligami while making a lot of unfortunate implications. I will say, it is not the worst writing I saw, but seriously, did no one think about this?

Matagi Gozen attacks them, with Félix transforming into Argos again and trusting Maribug and Adrichat to keep Kagami safe as he escapes. He later appears at Sorbonne, giving Kagami the real ring back after she gave her mother a fake one, telling her how she's now free to make her own choices. Yep, the amok is in the family ring, and from the shot of them holding hands together, they're a couple.

So, before I move on to Episode 24: Representation, I have one more observation to make. I said it before and I'll say it again, Féligami was really the writers' attempt at a speedrun and, as cute as they are together, it feels rushed, especially on Félix's end. Kagami was a complete stranger to him, but the moment he finds out she's also a Sentimonster, he obsesses over her? Yeah, Houston, we got a problem.

It appears that they're getting along quite well, though, with Kagami laughing when Argos draws a heart on her window.

I guess they spent a lot of time together off screen. Anyways, remember how I mentioned Félix also taking the role of the Exposition Fairy?

Welcome to the actual highlight of this episode! Félix and Kagami have learned that Marinette is Ladybug and decide to ask for her help. Félix cosplays as Adrien to lure her away from the party.

Honestly, I don't really think that's wonderful, because what they did is mainly breaking Marinette's heart by making her think Adrien is still around. Félix transforms into Argos again, and actually creates a Sentimonster, despite his earlier rant about how he'd never do anything like that.

Did... did the writers just sleep on that episode? Or did they decide "eh, character depth is overrated, we'll do whatever we want for the plot".

Admittedly, the Sentimonster is a tripod camera, so there is a question how "sentient" that thing is.

I'll just quickly go over the next part, which is basically Félix and Kagami doing a play in regards to all the Graham de Vanily/Agreste history.

Skipping my complaints about this being an exposition dump that could've been done during the show's early Seasons and not in one episode in Season 5, I do love how Marinette is really into the play.

We learn how Amelie married some rich heartless cowboy dude (or maybe that was just a visual to show that he was American? *shrugs*), and after her sister got pregnant (with the visual of peacock feathers in the background), her husband got pissed off.

So, after some convincing from Emilie, Gabriel gave the Amelie's husband, Colt Fathom, the Peacock Miraculous, and Félix was created out of jealousy, with the amok being placed in Félix's ring. Félix's father then falls ill, aware this was the price he was paying for Félix's existence, and sees him as a monster.

Félix himself explains how he didn't understand why his father didn't love him and why he felt obligated to do whatever Colt demanded, no matter how unfair they were. If he became fond of someone who displeased his father, Colt would tear them away from him, or rather, order Félix to end things. Eventually, he realized that his life was connected to the ring when it cracked and almost destroyed him, and he could only recover it after his father died, along with his freedom.

That's when he understood that the Miraculous gave him life and it could take it away, so he made it his mission to recover it, even saying how he went to Gabriel to retrieve it and describe the events of Season 4 and Season 5.

Honestly, it's genuinely tragic and sad just through how much stuff Félix had to go through, day by day fearing for his own life, being hated by his own father and learning not to trust anyone until he met Kagami. It explains his behavior in the past Seasons, even why he only took one ring from Gabriel, because apparently, Adrien's amok was in both of the rings, something Félix wouldn't know.

Anyways, we leave these two lovebirds doing what they want, and myself with my final thoughts.

In my personal opinion, Félix is a really solid character, who does undergo character development, even if it's rushed. He's also a tragic character, who was doing the wrong thing for the right reasons and messed up in execution. He's also a deeply traumatized teenager who had to deal with an identity crisis on his own and the fact that he might cease to exist with a snap of a finger. He's intelligent and cunning, but also socially awkward and has a sweet and theatric side, and he also moves the plot forward every time he appears.

SO WHY THE HELL ISN'T HE THE MAIN CHARACTER?!

*sighs*

I went over how bad the Miraculous Ladybug writing is several times, and I'm not gonna repeat myself here. I will add my own version of how I would've written the events Post-Emotion.

For starters, after Félix learns that he can trust Maribug and Adrichat, he seeks them out to talk to them in private, revealing that Gabriel Agreste is Monarch. Hell, he could even pull another switcheroo to infiltrate the Agreste mansion as Adrien to gather more information. Even if Gabriel is more alert, he'd still be fooled by that. Instead of making it a battle royale where the heroes react to Gabriel's attack, have it be them the ones who go confront Monarch head on. At least, that way, Adrichat would participate in the final battle.

Anyways, these were my thoughts on Félix, and if you want to see how I'd write his character... well, his PV Ladybug self, then check out my story Up Ladybug and leave a comment.

Until next time!

Links:

#Analyzer - Félix & Emotion, Part 2 (Miraculous Ladybug)

#Up Ladybug (Masterlist)

[teecupangel]

Tee, I'm adding another fandom to our Isekai Protagonist Desmond bunny bank. I finally got around to playing Rune Factory 5 (after being distracted by a bevy of other games) and was hit by the idea that Desmond would find eating BREAD to gain new crafting recipes to be really fucking wild. Like. How in the hell?! And that, to separate them from normal bread- they're. They're just. They're just called [Insert Craft] Bread and that's it.

For example! You want to make a potion? Gonna have to scarf down some Chemistry Bread! A new battle-axe with added poison damage? Weapon Bread! Wanna learn how to make some, I dunno, soup dumplings to woo the local wolfman himbo? (Or himbo wolfman, either way he's pure of heart and dumb of ass.) Well, you might need to level up your cooking skill but once you've gotten a level (or three or ten), then you might get lucky after chowing down three or four Cooking Breads but when you don't get any sudden bursts of enlightenment after that then you're gonna need to level up again!

All of it might have Desmond questioning reality some more but at least he's got some eye-candy to make up for it all! (And we could even make some of the potential husbands local expies of his usual AC partners. And yes, you can choose to romance and marry your own gender now in RF and it's non-fantasy sibling game Story of Seasons.)

(Just in case anyone is wondering, Story of Seasons is the real Harvest Moon sequels, not whatever ‘Harvest Moon’ game Natsume Inc is publishing. If you’re wondering if it’s a real ‘Harvest Moon’, any Harvest Moon released in the US by 2014 named ‘Harvest Moon’ are not part of the real series under Marvelous/Xseed)

Okay, so let’s talk about Desmond waking up in some weird place he has no idea ever existed in his own world. People assumed he has amnesia because he ‘forgot’ so many things about their world but Desmond is pretty sure he’s been transported to a different world.

Exhibit A: monsters.

Exhibit B: the logic behind these… ‘specialized’ breads.

So Desmond is left with no choice but to… well… go with the flow.

He has no idea why they gave him a farm though but… it was nice.

There was something nice about how everyone was helpful. It made Desmond feel like he was truly part of Rigbarth. SEED sounded fishy as hell though so he didn’t agree to joining them (also, he didn’t want to join any organization right now).

Overall…

Desmond liked to think of this as his retirement.

And it was fun trying to figure out how this world works. There was a lot to do for the farm but, even though that was true, Desmond had never felt more relaxed.

There were also a lot of kind people who didn’t mind joining him in exploring what lies beyond Rigbarth.

Hell, he even got a monster ranch going on in one part of his farm.

And then…

A man with amnesia going by the name Lucas arrived in town and…

He believes he knows Desmond.

He doesn’t seemed to remember when or how though but it was a clue. A clue to why Desmond had been sent here…

But the real question is…

If he finds the answer to his questions… would he be able to return to his old world?

Did… did he even want to?

Unorganized Notes:

I kinda like the idea that the bachelors and bachelorettes remain who they are and this will be a case of Desmond finding love in the ‘strangest’ of places.

His children though… the game gives 3 (1 older and twins) so that means we can have Desmond’s children be reincarnations of Altaïr, Ezio and Ratonhnhaké:ton (called Connor in this one). The twist can be hidden at the beginning on and Desmond learns they’re really his ancestors later on. This does mean that you’re free to choose who Desmond falls in love with (or make it a vote idk).

Considering Lucas’ true identity in the game, this might end up being one of those “eternal love” setup where Lucas used to be an Isu who created the world Desmond is sent in as some kind of simulated universe and placed his conscious there to escape the Solar Flare millenias ago. Minerva’s last ditch effort to save Desmond pushed him into the Grey and Lucas noticed that Juno was trying to take him so he grabbed Desmond and yanked him to his ‘safe world’. Lucas lost his memories because Desmond isn’t part of his world so Desmond’s sudden appearance caused a chain reaction that ended with Lucas’ amnesia (as he’s being repaired). His children being ‘reborn’ is actually his Bleeds gaining their own bodies.

Will Desmond make his own Brotherhood in this one? Probably not. At most, he’d teach his children Assassin-like tricks to help them be safe but not train him the way Bill did. That’s why it took a while for Desmond to realize his children are his ‘ancestors’. Ezio was the one who realized something fishy was going on at the start because (1) his older brother is named Altaïr and (2) one of his parents is named Desmond. The monster and fantasy-esque setting of the world he was reborn in offkiltered him a bit though XD

Up to you if you want to have an actual ‘oh the world is in danger… sorta’ plot as well or you just push it in the background with Lucas and Radea and let Desmond have his retirement.

[chidoroki]

182 Days of TPN - Day 173

Chapter 173: "Prisoners"

My immense dislike towards Peter often leads me to making fun of him, but he ain't a cute kid. I dunno any child his age (however old he is here) to look that happy with wearing a full suit. Normal children would complain.

I know Norman isn't related to the James at all, but I still enjoy how so many people joke or theorize about it solely based on how he took on the WM persona and how similar they look at a first glance. Not just by the hair and outfit either, but even their actions, like you can't look at this panel and not be reminded of that one panel of Norman from ch126. It's so memorable that I don't even have to place it here to compare the two because of how identical it is to James here.

Imagine if James never found that old document. The world would continue on suffering under the farm system rules forever and we wouldn't even have our story. Maybe. Ray would probably still question his existence and the world whether or not James hides clues in the books in the GF library. It would certainly be more difficult for the kids to survive outside the farm though without using the pen for guidance, if they could manage the escape in the first place.

Peter, for once in your life, can you please just act like a normal child? Who hears of someone sacrificing others for their own gain and thinks, "oh, they're brilliant! I wanna be just like them!" I really hate how Julius pushing aside his personal feelings in order to change the world and stop the fighting sounds so similar to what Emma did with making the new promise, but our girl would certainly never betray her family and friends to achieve that better world!

This poor man. It's as if his entire purpose in life is crashing down around him.

As heartbreaking as this scene of James' death is, I can't feel sorry for Peter in this moment. The dude labeled James as a traitor and gave the order to the other Ratri men to go kill him, so I can't imagine why the boy is wailing so hard for something he caused to happen. He could've at least tried to talk to James about the situation, maybe find some common ground that the two of them could agree upon that would apply to both their ideals on how to run the clan and farm systems, but nope. Death be upon ye. The fact that Peter gets up and walks away shortly after rubs me the wrong way too. If he was truly upset about his brother's death, surely he would've taken his body somewhere else to do a proper burial instead of just leave him there. Peter mentions at the start of this chapter that he respected James more than anyone, but this sure as hell ain't the proper way to show it.

Local fool having an existential crisis. Sure the Ratri clan was bound to play the part as the mediators between both worlds, but one couldn't honestly believe that was the correct way to do things. It's surprising the promise lasted a thousand years before someone had the nerve to stand up and say, ya know, living this way just ain't right.

Peter isn't wrong, unfortunately. Humans can really be so terrible. The world we're personally living in is far from perfect.

One of the rare deaths when the corners of my mouth are tugged upwards. It's fine. No one really wanted Peter to join the kids in the human world anyway.

Favorite panel/moment:

James' smile. That's all.

[hiemaldesirae]

Swap AU:

Vox's Goetia does join the Hazbin hotel. He takes what was Husk's canon job, as Husk has a casino to run and his parents think it's a good thing for their son to work for the Princess. (Even if they don't believe in her redemption plan. And he is the spare's spare, so it's not like they have any idea what to do with him. Having his and his children's souls permanently bound to the media overlord might do him some good. (Vox stipulated that into his contract. So he'll eventually have numerous goetia souls bound to him.)

Since Alastor was up to his antics during the overlord meeting and sir Pentious has been on his best behavior (after Charlie asked Vox to talk to Pentious about things, and Vox talked to him about building stuff in the lab outside the hotel he never got the Eggbois taken away) the hotel crew doesn't know how to hurt angels/heavenborn. They know Carmilla killed the Angel--Husk caught her reaction to Him bringing out the head, after all. (He also caught Alastor's reaction to Zestial saying that they'd probably go after the Hotel first--not that he'd tell Vox. But he'd seen how furious and fearful the stag had looked at those words.) So they're debating on who to send over to the carmine/Zestial mansion. It's dangerous ground over there, after all.

Angel Dust steals more of Vox's clothes (and doesn't get caught) to make up for the set Charlie destroyed. He also gets away with one of Vox's shark plushies, which irritates Vox as it's the one with heating pad function in it that he uses for his cramps/neck pain/back pain. (Alastor rubs his scent all over the plush, before he returns it that night laying it beside Vox.)

Vox writes an entire speech for Charlie and Vaggie for their meeting up in Heaven. He's listened to Vaggie (and Lucifer's) descriptions of Adam and Lute and has given his best advice to the two for them. Unfortunately the meeting pretty much goes the same way, except that Charlie managed to get Adam pissed at Vox? So that's cool. Nothing like having the first man wanting you dead, right?

Vox drinks himself into a stupor that night. While, yes he's afraid of Alastor--the MAIN THING he is desperately, desperately trying to avoid is permanently dying. He doesn't want to die. At all. That's why he too the deal with Lucifer. Now he's gotta figure out more ways to help Charlie so he can gain more power so he can fight off Adam himself? Or at least beat him back enough so that Lucifer can arrive to kill him or Charlie can kill him or something. He doesn't know. Vox collapses into his bed that night, and passes out not noticing the radio demon stepping out of the shadows and joining him in the bed and curling around him.

swap nonny i may have to rename you to sadist nonny at this point. Why are you like this /affectionate

the stuff with the goetia is sooo silly. love that little bird thing even though ive no clue what the hell he would look like or even do at all honestly! hope he has fun trying to bartend (and hoo boy thatd probably be a big scandal, wouldnt it, having a goetian prince bartend at princess charlie's hotel...) for a bunch of idiot sinners lmao

al overhearing carmilla and zestial talking about the newly pushed forward extermination and immediately jumping to think about vox... he cant lose him AGAIN so soon after hes found him once more so after that his shadow sticks even closer to vox, and vox finds that sometimes when he passes out from working too much without taking a break that he wakes up in the morning with a fluffy blanket and food placed in front of him. he assumes its husk but when he asks, the other overlord denies it

LMFAOOO i can imagine angel sweating when vox storms downstairs in a frenzy going 'where the FUCK is my shark'. husk turns to look at him very slowly and just raises a singular eyebrow at him and angel shrugs very slowly. alastor returning the plush with his scent all over.... orugh. vox probably cant even smell it really, but for some reason his processors ingest the scent easily and he falls asleep better than ever for the first time in seven years.... </3 AUgh my heart...

and seriously. alastor you are SUCH a freak what the FUCK are you doing.... going to have to tag noncon cuddling at one point on madmans vice istg :sob:. i love them so much ugrh. swap radiostatic save me swap radiostatic